mechanimated
VP of the Questionable Ethics Committee
'Ello. So I thought I'd put out a whole bunch of plot options and see if I got any takers. If you see something you like but wanna add to it/change it, let me know. I'm not so married to these ideas that they MUST be EXACTLY as I described. Hell, if you just have a plot I didn't even list but just wanna throw it my way, go ahead and do that too! By the way, even the more mundane plots are written with the potential for some fantasy or sci-fi flavor, if we're in the mood.
Just 3 things:
1. I go to school full time. I can't respond multiple times a day, every day. I'll rarely disappear for more than a day or two at a time. If I have to leave for a while I'll let you know.
2. Please give me something to work with. I don't need a novel, and I don't want you to force yourself to write more than you feel you need to, but make stuff happen. Empty fluff responses are the death of RPs. If you feel things are getting boring, make something explode. Have a mugger show up. Do something. This is fiction, after all. Might as well make it more interesting than our boring normal lives.
3. I like gore and violence? Just, expect mature themes. If you don't like that sort of thing, you've been warned.
Now for the plottus. (I imagined most of these as being both male characters? But I don't really care, write what you want.)
Silks and Perfumes
A Mismatched Pair
The Wrong Cloth
The Golden Rule
Just 3 things:
1. I go to school full time. I can't respond multiple times a day, every day. I'll rarely disappear for more than a day or two at a time. If I have to leave for a while I'll let you know.
2. Please give me something to work with. I don't need a novel, and I don't want you to force yourself to write more than you feel you need to, but make stuff happen. Empty fluff responses are the death of RPs. If you feel things are getting boring, make something explode. Have a mugger show up. Do something. This is fiction, after all. Might as well make it more interesting than our boring normal lives.
3. I like gore and violence? Just, expect mature themes. If you don't like that sort of thing, you've been warned.
Now for the plottus. (I imagined most of these as being both male characters? But I don't really care, write what you want.)
Silks and Perfumes
A and B are both concubines of some rich and powerful ruler. It isn't a bad gig - the food is amazing, the clothes are exquisite, the music is delightful. It's a life of carefree luxury most would kill for. Sure, there's the occasional would-be assassin trying to infiltrate their ranks, or some courtly stress and drama that spills over into their harem, but overall it's pretty much grand.
The only problem is the ruler is a jealous and petty individual. Outside relationships of any kind are strictly forbidden for the concubines, and any caught associating with others in a physical or romantic way are cruelly punished. Even having friends is disallowed. The concubines have only each other, and even then, the ruler sometimes beats those he feels have gotten too close in fits of possessive rage. A and B have grown tired of it, and now seek to escape this life in order to be free of the domineering influence of the ruler.
The only problem is the ruler is a jealous and petty individual. Outside relationships of any kind are strictly forbidden for the concubines, and any caught associating with others in a physical or romantic way are cruelly punished. Even having friends is disallowed. The concubines have only each other, and even then, the ruler sometimes beats those he feels have gotten too close in fits of possessive rage. A and B have grown tired of it, and now seek to escape this life in order to be free of the domineering influence of the ruler.
The Ederwood University is a high class institute, akin to a grad school, attended by only the most talented students of the richest aristocrats. Buying your way in was unbelievably difficult, so the academy had a reputation for being full of actually gifted students. Many centuries ago, in an effort to keep out the filthy poor, a rule was instated that one could only apply to Ederwood if they had a legacy - that is, if one of their family members had attended in the past. Naturally, this immediately put the vast majority of the population out of the running. It was justified with some hand-waving about "ensuring students came from an environment that emphasized learning of the quality we provide here at yadda yadda" and so on. No one bought it, but what could anyone do?
In recent years, with society modernizing (and inter-class strife on the rise) the ruling council made the decision to open Ederwood's doors and eradicate the legacy law. Now anyone, providing they had enough skill, could get in. The acceptance rate for non-aristocrats was abysmal, the bar set that much higher, and the evaluation committee cruelly biased. Even so, a handful of undesirables managed to scrape by every year. Usually, the segregation is pretty strictly enforced. It would be "bad for the students" to be put "too far out of their typical environment". Too stressful. So the poor roomed with the poor and the rich roomed with the rich.
However, one year, there are just too many students. The number of applicants had been going steadily up semester after semester, and new housing arrangements just weren't being built fast enough. A and B are victims of this misfortune, a wealthy socialite and a put-upon peasant. Two students from two different worlds, forced to rub elbows - after all, for freshmen, your roommate was also your schedule partner. The idea was to have a familiar face in all your base classes while you got used to life at Ederwood. The reality was turning out...less charming.
In recent years, with society modernizing (and inter-class strife on the rise) the ruling council made the decision to open Ederwood's doors and eradicate the legacy law. Now anyone, providing they had enough skill, could get in. The acceptance rate for non-aristocrats was abysmal, the bar set that much higher, and the evaluation committee cruelly biased. Even so, a handful of undesirables managed to scrape by every year. Usually, the segregation is pretty strictly enforced. It would be "bad for the students" to be put "too far out of their typical environment". Too stressful. So the poor roomed with the poor and the rich roomed with the rich.
However, one year, there are just too many students. The number of applicants had been going steadily up semester after semester, and new housing arrangements just weren't being built fast enough. A and B are victims of this misfortune, a wealthy socialite and a put-upon peasant. Two students from two different worlds, forced to rub elbows - after all, for freshmen, your roommate was also your schedule partner. The idea was to have a familiar face in all your base classes while you got used to life at Ederwood. The reality was turning out...less charming.
Magic is a cooperative effort. A work of unity, a blending of power. There are the Looms and the Weavers. A Loom is an individual who can reach through the veil between the mundane and mystic and pull energy through along with them. Capable of communicating with spirits, seeing visions of the future, reading magical energies, and imbuing objects with raw magical energy, Looms often work as oracles, intermediaries, appraisers, and so on. One of their most important skills, the ability to 'store' energy they draw in an object, is vital to Weavers. Weavers can use magical energy to affect the world - to actually enchant objects and cast spells. Weavers can find employment anywhere, creating magical artifacts, protecting the homes of the wealthy with defensive spells, curing magical ailments, and anything else that requires a magic touch.
Weavers without Looms are forced to buy vessels, usually elements of exceptional clarity (the purer, the better at retaining magical energy), in order to cast. Looms without Weavers cannot actually affect the physical world with their reserves of magic.
But sometimes...Sometimes a Loom and a Weaver are compatible in a way that removes the need for intermediary objects, for weeks of preparation siphoning off magical energy to store. In rare, happy instances, a Loom can feed magical energy directly to a Weaver. Such a pair can access far more power at once than either can separately, and are highly sought after by the wealthiest patrons. Such pairs make healers, battlemages, and enchanters of the highest caliber.
A is a Loom and B a Weaver. They've grown up in the same town, and never much liked each other. In fact, just using the word 'like' in a sentence with the two of them would probably be disingenuous. They had never spent more than the bare minimum of time around each other, until one unfortunate evening. The town was beset by vicious beasts, driven out of the mountains by an unusually fierce storm raging at the highest passes. The creatures savaged townspeople and livestock, and things were turning grim. In a moment of desperation, the Loom throws out a thread of magic to the Weaver, who is out of magical reservoirs. It works. The two are compatible. At the moment, it was a blessing. After the assault, though...Both of them were far too intelligent and dedicated to their craft to let dislike get in the way of such a momentous opportunity, but working together proves to be even more difficult than they ever imagined.
Weavers without Looms are forced to buy vessels, usually elements of exceptional clarity (the purer, the better at retaining magical energy), in order to cast. Looms without Weavers cannot actually affect the physical world with their reserves of magic.
But sometimes...Sometimes a Loom and a Weaver are compatible in a way that removes the need for intermediary objects, for weeks of preparation siphoning off magical energy to store. In rare, happy instances, a Loom can feed magical energy directly to a Weaver. Such a pair can access far more power at once than either can separately, and are highly sought after by the wealthiest patrons. Such pairs make healers, battlemages, and enchanters of the highest caliber.
A is a Loom and B a Weaver. They've grown up in the same town, and never much liked each other. In fact, just using the word 'like' in a sentence with the two of them would probably be disingenuous. They had never spent more than the bare minimum of time around each other, until one unfortunate evening. The town was beset by vicious beasts, driven out of the mountains by an unusually fierce storm raging at the highest passes. The creatures savaged townspeople and livestock, and things were turning grim. In a moment of desperation, the Loom throws out a thread of magic to the Weaver, who is out of magical reservoirs. It works. The two are compatible. At the moment, it was a blessing. After the assault, though...Both of them were far too intelligent and dedicated to their craft to let dislike get in the way of such a momentous opportunity, but working together proves to be even more difficult than they ever imagined.
A and B are scavengers, living on the fringes of society. They've seen each other once or twice, sleeping under heaps of rubble, digging through refuse for scraps. Just another grimy face blending in with the rest of the grey and filthy masses. Life is about waking up and then surviving long enough to get the chance to sleep at the end of the day.
Until one day, A discovers B in bad shape. Beaten, bleeding, raw. Rats had already gotten brave enough to come lap blood from the wounds, and if A didn't help, they would soon eat the poor bastard alive. It happened frequently enough to the drug addicts and starvation victims who let themselves pass out on the streets. Now, the world is savage and cruel. A considered putting B out of their misery and getting the meat for themselves, fresh, instead of leaving it to the vermin. Whatever it took to make it to nightfall...
Instead, something makes A drag B to his ramshackle little corner of the world. Patching B up, A watches and waits. When B comes to, the reason for the injuries comes out. B is in more trouble than A could have ever realized - indebted to some very dangerous people. Now A has been implicated. A good deed never goes unpunished, after all. Fuming and afraid, A goes on the lam with B, and the two have to somehow stop bickering long enough to escape certain death together.
Until one day, A discovers B in bad shape. Beaten, bleeding, raw. Rats had already gotten brave enough to come lap blood from the wounds, and if A didn't help, they would soon eat the poor bastard alive. It happened frequently enough to the drug addicts and starvation victims who let themselves pass out on the streets. Now, the world is savage and cruel. A considered putting B out of their misery and getting the meat for themselves, fresh, instead of leaving it to the vermin. Whatever it took to make it to nightfall...
Instead, something makes A drag B to his ramshackle little corner of the world. Patching B up, A watches and waits. When B comes to, the reason for the injuries comes out. B is in more trouble than A could have ever realized - indebted to some very dangerous people. Now A has been implicated. A good deed never goes unpunished, after all. Fuming and afraid, A goes on the lam with B, and the two have to somehow stop bickering long enough to escape certain death together.
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