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title: good intentions

genre: speculative horror fantasy

settting: fantasy greece x industrial revolution

features: split past/present narrative, state-funded codependency, fantasy 1880s version of a road trip, that toxic formative homoerotic girlfriendship that leaves you worse off for life, low empathy love interest, anger as a form of healing/catharsis, body & identity horror, complicated grief, emotional (+ some physical) incest, nd & lgbt characters

draft: fighting through the 1st

summary:

As a Core, Espera 'Hess' Kalinou has made a home in being hated. She's learned her lines by heart: she's unpredictable, dangerous, with too much power coursing through her veins and no control over when or how it rises to the surface. Raised in the Aggelenes, a new country currently unique in its possession of magic, she has firsthand born the brunt of how that 'uniqueness' is received, and has spent sixteen years fashioning the world's fear of her as a guide on who to be. So when the world suddenly decides it has plans for her and all other Cores, aiming to use their magic as potential sources of energy (as well as as investment opportunities for neighbouring wealthier countries)– well, Hess knows she needs to do something, and quick. Before her hard-earned identity gets erased, and she's turned into some rich brat's power supply for good. As a Conduit, Juve Mizra would love to see what ‘something’ looks like. Finding herself enrolled at the first-of-its-kind Synergetic Institute, with the aim of harnessing Cores’ raw power as an artificially created class of magic-user entitled a 'Conduit', Juve should be delighted– both at ushering in the first era of magical relations, and at living her dream of leaving her stifling hometown in the Centerlands to go abroad. But this dream isn't technically hers to live, and Juve finds her own interests a lot more caught on the angry Core girl she's been partnered with: the one who refuses to hand over her magic, and will do anything to bolt for the door.

Attuned, it's push and pull– can pride be put aside long enough to accept help? Can it be called 'help', if it hides another face? And how do you know you've gone too far, when you want someone to hate you?

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