Title and Blurb Game

Writers' Corner
309

Thieves for [name_u]Blue[/name_u] Blood

There’s a lot of Nosarocan royal children, really. Twelve, to be precise. And whilst tenth in line [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] will likely never sit on the throne, there’s a thousand things to worry about anyway. After all, when your blood’s blue, responsibility is the dye.

But when his older siblings start to disappear, or worse, it’s terrifying. Between the suddenly suffocating pressure placed upon the remaining children and the realisation that it’s all a countdown, [name_u]Alex[/name_u] finds himself stuck in a horrific cycle of fear. The only respite, investigating the mystery of the latest governess.

Who is she, and what ties does she have to the scary goings-on in Stormdell Castle? And most importantly, can [name_u]Alex[/name_u] work out who the kidnappers are, or will his own blood be the next to be split?

Next: Girls/Boys, [name_f]Fairy[/name_f] Princes/Princesses and Other Side Effects of Being Sixteen

1 Like
310

Boys, [name_f]Fairy[/name_f] Princesses and Other Side Effects of Being Sixteen

Quill’s sixteenth birthday is plagued by all sorts of misfortune, but since when was that new? What is new are his developing feelings for classmate [name_u]Theo[/name_u] Greenwich, and more concerningly a strange mark appearing on his arm.

Being sixteen, he’s finally reached the age where his parents can admit a lot of the truth about their eldest child. He’s not really their ‘little writer’ at all – he’s a changeling, and as such has a choice to make. Does he go home to the world of the fairies, or does he stick around in the human world?

Simple choice, right? Stay where he’s always lived, learn how to cover weird magic tattoos with foundation, and maybe have a chance with [name_u]Theo[/name_u].

[name_m]Add[/name_m] in a literal fairy princess angry that her ‘promised prince’ isn’t coming to meet her, and things grow a tiny bit more difficult (especially when said ‘prince’ is, well, gay). [name_m]Just[/name_m] a little bit, with no, say… missing students – oh, wait.

I don’t even know what this was meant to be.
Next: A [name_m]Nation[/name_m] of Stars and Disaster

2 Likes
311

A [name_m]Nation[/name_m] of Stars and Disaster

When a star shines bright, it’s only because it will soon be gone. What’s fleeting is beautiful, but it’s also dangerous, because who can save us from its grasp?
Eleven-year-old [name_f]Vera[/name_f] [name_m]Greene[/name_m] is - as some say - different. Maybe it’s the thick-lensed glasses that she wears all the time. Maybe it’s the disheveled appearance. Maybe it’s the fact that she is always trying to do the right thing. Whatever the reason, [name_f]Vera[/name_f] does her best to brush off the mean words and ruthless teasing. She knows she is a good person with a good heart. This is only middle school, and there are lots of opportunities just waiting at the door for the right time to knock.
Vera’s sister, [name_u]Bellamy[/name_u], is sixteen.
Sixteen and beautiful, with long blonde hair falling in ringlets down her back, and beautiful green eyes that always seem to be winking at some lucky boy. Sometimes, [name_f]Vera[/name_f] can’t help but wish that she were as pretty as [name_u]Bell[/name_u]. That she was as popular as [name_u]Bell[/name_u]. That she had the chance to experience the fun that [name_u]Bellamy[/name_u] is having. Because right now, Bellamy’s life seems so wonderful, and Vera’s is anything but.
So [name_f]Vera[/name_f] decides to shine like one of the brightest stars at night. What she’s forgetting is that when a star shines bright, it’s only because it soon will be gone.

this was terrible, sorry! i tried haha

next: Aftermath

2 Likes
312

Aftermath

[name_f]Every[/name_f] story that [name_u]Ellis[/name_u] has ever read always ends with a happily ever after. The hero and their friends go on an adventure, defeat the evil that has been plaguing the people, and then they all live happily ever after.

That’s what he thought would happen when he and his friends set off to go defeat the Order of Vengeance (name and goal self explanatory). And for the most part it all goes according to plan.

But no story ever tells of what happens after. The stories warned him of danger and death, but not about the nightmares and the faces of those he lost appearing every time he closes his eyes. The stories tells him of victory and excitement, but never about the feeling of being lost, the aimlessness, and the guilt. With that, [name_u]Ellis[/name_u] realizes that not every story has a happy ending.

(i kinda forgot where i was going with this :sweat_smile:)

Next: Three Halves of a Whole

3 Likes
313

Three Halves of a Whole

There has always been one Wielder.
The legendary sword of Tibaia has guided the rulers of Ethrendia for centuries, advised by its Wielder. On the day of every Wielder’s death, a new one is born, and the cycle continues.
The last Wielder used the sword for war, when a dark power rose, seeking the destruction of Ethrendia. The last Wielder saved the world.
But on the day of her death, one new Wielder was not born.
There were three.
Adrienne is the illegitimate daughter of Ethrendia’s Ambassador and an asset for his political rise.
Lucius is the son of an estranged carpenter with ties to the rebels who wished to see the dark power succeed. Unaware of who he is, he lives out his days thieving and trying desperately to keep the family business afloat.
Kora came from nothing, but as the designated Wielder, found before the discovery of Adrienne’s power, she has lived a life of luxury, guided by her kindhearted family.
When Lucius is discovered by Ethrendian officials, everything changes. The battle with the dark threat is over, but its consequences live on in Adrienne, Lucius, and Kora. All three parts of the legendary Wielder must come to terms with their unique existence and what it means for their futures and the future of Ethrendia.
Because the Sword is whispering in each one’s ear, and there isn’t much time before they start to listen.

(I don’t know what that was :joy:—“dark power” is quite the vague title, but I didn’t want to specify)

Next: An Avalanche of Stars

1 Like
314

[name_u]An[/name_u] Avalanche of Stars

Living up to your name can mean a lot of things. For the characters in Cherith’s favourite book series, it means being brilliant detectives, and continuing the legacy of great-great-great-grandparents.
For [name_f]Cherith[/name_f] herself, it means a much more magical mystery.
When reading a book gets surprisingly dangerous, she’s pulled into a world where the stars power everything, from magic to crop growth. Not the sun, no – it’s always an [name_f]Earth[/name_f] nighttime in Quasareia – but the sheer amount of stars in the sky make it seem like the middle of the day.
But when the stars begin to fall, chaos erupts.
With those around her believing she’s the cause of this strange avalanche, [name_f]Cherith[/name_f] has a decision to make. Should she skip to the end of the story (risking who knows what in the process), or does she try and fix everything?

(I don’t even know.)
Next: The Winter’s [name_m]Crown[/name_m]

1 Like
315

The Winter’s [name_m]Crown[/name_m]

[name_m]Ding[/name_m]!
[name_m]Ding[/name_m]!
[name_m]Ding[/name_m]!

First, [name_u]Ennis[/name_u] only dreams of the sound. A girl that looks suspiciously like the Serbian ballerina he went out with last week rings the bell in his mind. It’s just a dream.

[name_m]Ding[/name_m]!
[name_m]Ding[/name_m]!
[name_m]Ding[/name_m]!

Soon, he begins to hear it in waking, the sound startling him out of his days, beckoning him toward the bell. [name_u]Ennis[/name_u] is haunted by the bell, haunted by the spectre of sound echoing through a tortured mind.

Then, [name_u]Ennis[/name_u] has a new dream, one of glittering ballrooms and trembling snowflakes. At the center of it all?

[name_m]Ding[/name_m]!
[name_m]Ding[/name_m]!
[name_m]Ding[/name_m]!

The bell, the ghost, and the Winter’s [name_m]Crown[/name_m].

Next: Monarch, [name_f]Princess[/name_f]

2 Likes
316

Monarch, [name_f]Princess[/name_f]

“So the royal hierarchy here is about as fluid as the Anglo-Saxon social ladder, do I have that right?”

“… what’s an Anglo-Saxon?”

“Oh no…”

During a fairly typical night-before ‘revision session’, focusing on the [name_m]Norman[/name_m] Conquest, best friends [name_f]Matilda[/name_f], [name_u]Oliver[/name_u], [name_f]Rose[/name_f] and [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] manage to do the unthinkable – throw themselves into a fantasy world, rather than simply accidentally-on-purpose travelling back in time to investigate the time period themselves (dangerous enough to begin with, but they get good grades on their tests because of it, so…).

Luckily for them, it seems like the royal hierarchy is somewhat like the Anglo-Saxon social ladder, in how the princess was recently demoted from the monarch title due to some powerful duke or something like that. And it’s medieval-ish, they suppose, wherever they are, so surely this’ll help.

Unluckily for them all, it’s not quite as simple as they hoped. One, they’re visible, which has never happened before, and two, everyone seems to believe that they hold the key to what’s about to happen – something playing out scarily like the very Conquest they’re supposed to be revising.

[name_m]Can[/name_m] the friends find their way out of this strange kingdom without messing up an unknown timeline, or will they be struck down just like history suggests?

(Uh… don’t ask what this even is, it’s… a mess)

Next: The [name_m]Gates[/name_m] of [name_u]Light[/name_u] and Death

317

The [name_m]Gates[/name_m] of [name_u]Light[/name_u] and Death

The streets of Rilikya are hardly the safest place to be. For young mage [name_u]Carmen[/name_u] [name_u]Mallory[/name_u], they’re a little safer than most, but that doesn’t exactly mean she’s immune to danger entirely. And for equally young, equally… mage… [name_u]Kiran[/name_u] [name_u]Ventura[/name_u], everything’s somehow even more dangerous than for the average person, but there’s gotta be a balance somewhere, right?

When the two meet, you would expect Carmen’s luck to balance out Kiran’s sheer lack of it, but nothing ever quite goes the way you expect in Rilikya, and the pair find their lives on the line very quickly.

Faced the infamous [name_m]Gates[/name_m], where one path leads to a generally quick death and the other a far more treacherous, almost as deadly race to survival, will good luck be their saviour or bad luck their curse?

Next: A House of [name_u]Frost[/name_u] and [name_u]Ash[/name_u]

1 Like
318

A House of [name_u]Frost[/name_u] and [name_u]Ash[/name_u]

[name_m]Luke[/name_m] [name_m]Morrison[/name_m] had hated every minute of growing up in [name_u]North[/name_u] [name_f]Canada[/name_f], and is anything but thrilled about going back there. When he inherits his great-uncles house in the middle of the arctic winter, all he wants to do is to find an investor, sell and forget about it. However, the inheritance comes with a secret. In the north, the line between fiction and reality becomes blurry, as [name_m]Luke[/name_m] soon has to learn from the giant lizard-like footprints around the house and the snow that looks suspiciously like ash sometimes. There are powers at play in this house he never would have dared to dream of and that are best left alone, but having started to learn things humans aren’t supposed to know, he’s not sure if They’ll let him leave.

next: The [name_u]Copper[/name_u] Necklace

1 Like
319

The [name_u]Copper[/name_u] Necklace

Everyone wants jewellery of gold, silver, diamonds… well, so does [name_f]Sophie[/name_f], in fairness. Who would want a necklace made of copper? Especially considering that’s gonna be on your skin, and who knows how long for?

But clearly, somebody wanted this copper necklace badly. So badly, they just killed someone for it.

[name_f]Sophie[/name_f] [name_m]Gold[/name_m] is hardly the first child in town to suddenly have the catalyst of a murder sitting just rooms away from them, but she’s hoping she’ll be the first to survive the reaction.

(no subtlety with names here)
Next: Until The Last Step

320

Until the Last Step

Everyone thinks as life as a long journey, and death as the end of it. In reality, death is a long journey too—a long pathway toward the true Ending, a dark, empty dimension completely comprised of nothing. There, a soul can choose its own fate: to begin a new life, to observe the world, to advance their soul to another universe. The souls that are pure are selected to travel to The Ending, while those that are not must stay in death forever, forced to wander the path aimlessly, pondering their wrongdoings for all eternity.
During their life, [name_u]Alma[/name_u] experienced something unusual: they found their soul removed from the body they’d lived in without a single sin and placed in the body of a criminal. Now, in death, they are blamed for their body’s mistakes, and barred from The Ending. Soon, they hear of an opportunity: impure souls can prove their worth by binding themselves to a random pure one on their way to The Ending. They tutor their soul on what The Ending comprises of and how to make their final choice. They must be their companion, their servant, their soulmate— remaining by their side until their last step. Only then may they ever reach The Ending.
Desperate for a a chance, [name_u]Alma[/name_u] leaps at the opportunity, only to find themself bound to the criminal that ruined their life and their afterlife. [name_u]Alma[/name_u] is furious with [name_m]Malachi[/name_m] for everything he did to them, and is struggling to stay bound to him—until they discover not everything is as it seems with him, and everything begins to change. They’re going to stay bound to him until the last step, so why not make the best of it?

Next: The Code of the [name_u]Galaxy[/name_u]

1 Like
321

The Code of the [name_u]Galaxy[/name_u]

Either all civilizations die out before they reach a level high enough to simulate whole universes. [name_u]Or[/name_u] the world we live in is likely not real.
[name_u]Ever[/name_u] since Ness first heard of this Simulation Argument, the idea that we’re all living inside a computer simulation hasn’t left her alone. If it was possible to simulate a universe, why wouldn’t you do it? And if it’s possible to make one, it’s certainly easy to make others, which means there might be millions, if not billions of fake universes but only one real one. It’s simply probable that all we ever knew and thought was real is really no more than a bunch of codelines on an uninteresting computer in the “real” world.
Ness doesn’t like this idea one bit. As she witnesses both the world at large and her personal life slowly falling apart, the other possibility - that all societies are doomed to destroy themselves before they reach that level - begins to look more and more likely, but she doesn’t like that one either. She’d like to be an optimist. The world just seems determined to prove her wrong.
But just when she is ready to give up on humanity, she is confronted with proof that we do live in a simulation, when the being - the person? the god? - running this simulation contacts her, and more than that, she learns that their world, the real world, doesn’t look so different from hers after all.

next: How to be Indecisive

2 Likes
322

How To Be Indecisive

[name_m]Cas[/name_m] [name_m]Elika[/name_m] is probably supposed to be a little better at quick decision-making, considering his position as Head Boy at the Lefonia Institute for the Arcane, but he’s quite blatantly not. And while that wouldn’t be a problem, since Head [name_f]Girl[/name_f] [name_f]Larisa[/name_f] Alizac is certainly good enough at making decisions for the good of Lefonia… things rarely go to plan.

With half the school – including [name_f]Larisa[/name_f] – disappearing in the middle of the night, and the staff way too busy trying to solve said disappearances, [name_m]Cas[/name_m] is left to deal with the fallout himself. [name_m]Can[/name_m] the infamously indecisive boy handle everything crashing down around him and his fellow students, or is that going to be what sends Lefonia to its knees once and for all?

Uh… yeah, let’s go with that.

Next: [name_f]Autumn[/name_f] of the Twins

2 Likes
323

[name_f]Autumn[/name_f] of the Twins

[name_f]Magnolia[/name_f] Springs, Alabama-- [name_u]September[/name_u] 1987

It was an unusually hot [name_u]September[/name_u], all the locals agreed. After what happened, that was about all that anyone could agree on. In fact, the heat may have been a perpetrator. It was the kind of oppressive, all-consuming heat that drives people mad, the kind of sickening, parasitic humidity that claws through everything and worms its way directly into the molten core of a small town like [name_f]Magnolia[/name_f] Springs, the kind of heat that makes good people do terrible things.

It was a poor time for [name_m]Hugh[/name_m] and [name_m]Winston[/name_m] Pillarmeau to move into [name_f]Magnolia[/name_f] Springs. Really, any time was a poor time to move into a town of 8,000, but such a restless, dying place as [name_f]Magnolia[/name_f] Springs was in the autumn of 1987 was really no place for two men so young, so new, so alive as the Pillarmeau twins.

So what happens when a dead place takes in two handsome newcomers in a stifling [name_u]September[/name_u] heat?

The answer is forever sealed within the [name_f]Magnolia[/name_f] Springs town limits in the fall of 1987, a season that would forever be known as the [name_f]Autumn[/name_f] of the Twins.

Next: Impossible to Find

3 Likes
324

Impossible to Find

[name_f]Elenyi[/name_f] Scarrow can disappear so effectively that half of the people in her town think she’s able to turn invisible. And with the ability to stand right in front of people and not be noticed comes a skill in getting information that most people don’t want you to know.

Knowing information that people don’t want you to know tends to lead to problems. Particularly when you have a habit of vanishing into thin air from time to time.

So [name_f]Elenyi[/name_f] disappears. Fairly normal, until she doesn’t reappear. Most believe that she’s just on a longer ‘adventure’ than normal, but not everyone. A few people want to see the girl back in town, because there are reasons why nobody ever reprimands her for her eavesdropping.

Is it possible to find a girl who seems to be invisible? [name_u]Or[/name_u] will their discovery lead to secrets nobody wanted to learn?

Next: The Curse of Storms and [name_f]Starlight[/name_f]

2 Likes
325

The Curse of Storms and [name_f]Starlight[/name_f]

The lighthouse in [name_f]Gladiola[/name_f], Massachusetts is beautiful. A pearly gray with it’s yellow light swiveling like a jaundiced eye. Most everyone is grateful for no more ships dashed across the rocks, no more passengers drowned. Most, because the Sirens are not happy. A family of women and girls by day, and creatures of irresistible song by night, the Sirens are cursed to transform every sunset. Youngest sister [name_f]Eglantine[/name_f] is resigned to her fate - until she meets the Harrisons, the family who run the lighthouse. They are vibrant and hardworking and very, very human. Slowly, Eglantine’s resolve cracks. With hardly any clues and a big bird-lady heart, she sets out to break the curse.

Next: Camarie [name_m]Stone[/name_m] is Not Lonely

1 Like
326

Camarie [name_m]Stone[/name_m] is Not Lonely

It has been 7 years, 3 months and 21 days since [name_f]Lydia[/name_f] has seen or spoke to another human being. Not since the Last War ended. But it hasn’t been too bad, people don’t realize how much company the dead actually are. She shudders to think of her first months spent alone on Camarie [name_m]Stone[/name_m], when she was terrified, or worse, thought she was going crazy. Now, it’s just another day, what with the wights and the wraiths, the ghosts and the spirits, the zombies and the ghouls. In fact, Camarie [name_m]Stone[/name_m] is not lonely at all! Lydia’s social life has never been better and her life here “alone” has been positively delightful. But today isn’t just another day. Today, Camarie [name_m]Stone[/name_m] will be “discovered” by more human survivors of the Last War. Today is the day her peace with the dead will end.

Next: The Seventh [name_m]Son[/name_m]

327

[name_m]Septimus[/name_m] Belier is no one. Raised on a remote isle near the Southernmost tip of Nyder Empire by a herdsman and his family, he doesn’t think much of his future.
Until a disgruntled member of the Empress’s guard shows up to find Septimus—and reveal his familial ties to the royal family. [name_m]Sep[/name_m] is the seventh son of the [name_f]Empress[/name_f], sent away as a toddler without her knowledge.
And now she wants him home.
[name_m]Sep[/name_m] is swept away from the family and the life that were never kind to him, and on the threshold of the royal palace, he has no desire to look back. But being the seventh son grants few privileges. No one believes him capable of much, but [name_m]Sep[/name_m] knows he is destined for greatness. And as the years go by, he can’t keep himself from scheming, forging alliances…and picking off his brothers one by one.

(Not exactly subtle with the name lol…I feel like I kinda had to call him Septimus)

Next: The Temple’s Curse

2 Likes
328

The Temple’s Curse

Lani’s belief in gods of all kinds is essentially non-existent, but her aunt and uncle still think dragging her off to find the lost temple of Aeria is a brilliant idea.

Is it really any wonder that the non-belief of one girl turns out to be the thing that makes this eons-old temple collapse?

And, more importantly, how hard is it to make someone see the good in a goddess who very few people really want to talk about as a benevolent being when all you’ve seen of said goddess is darkness?

Next: Colourless (or Colorless if that’s how you spell it)