AutumnRain's List of Half-baked Ideas: Characters, Plots, and More

Started by AutumnRain, September 12, 2015, 08:24:51 AM

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AutumnRain

Welcome to my half-baked ideas. They are intentionally half-baked, because I would like to finish baking them with my partner. Minor details such as location, professions, gender, may be changed when not essential to the story. I keep the ideas here minimal to allow flexibility in brainstorming/writing later. So any other details or characters may be added. Even when a story appears one-on-one, I'm most likely happy to add players and characters.

If you see something you like: please message me and let me know what thoughts you have for it and we can start brainstorming. Please read my Preferences Page and my Ons/Offs first and please please please Do Not Post On This Thread. It gets really inconvenient and confusing.

I can easily get wrapped up in Elliquiy and I'm trying to maintain more balance in my life. I can guarantee a post once a week at least (and if something comes up, I guarantee to tell you) and hopefully multiple times per week. But I can do this by keeping my stories burden low and unstressful, so please do not be offended if I turn down your story ideas or say that I can't start a new story yet.

Current* Availability: Cautiously Considering New Stories

Current* Cravings: playing a submissive character and/or lots of clothing/costume play.

*last updated: September 24, 2015. NB: Cravings can be very fluid and are never strong. So don't get too hung up on them.

Now, onto the ideas:

AutumnRain

Characters:
These are mostly personality types or characters from other stories that can fit into a wide variety of stories and settings.













Lady Vagabond: Lady Vagabond, as she is called professionally, is young, rich, beautiful, charming, and, above all, bored. She has the unique ability to teleport to any specific location (can be sci-fi, fantasy, even real-world, just replace teleport with "really really good at in/out of places". She's been a liar, a thief, a spy, an assassin. It pays extremely well, and she is uniquely able, and with her ability, she can easily escape any consequence of any action. She can be anywhere she wants to be, and won't be anywhere she doesn't want to be. She can and will disappear the moment things become tough, which makes any risk, any challenge, any relationship, impossible. And so she's bored, lonely, and without purpose or fulfillment.
Faith: Faith is her cause. She has one priority, one focus, and a single-minded pursuit of that purpose. She will ramble on about it if you get her started, she will lose interest in anything unrelated, and she will do whatever she can for her cause. The particular cause can be anything (a rebellion, animal rights, caring for a relative, whatever) but will probably not be something self-focused (wealth, knowedge, artistic self-expression, etc.). She's been meaning to have a life outside of her pet-project, hobbies maybe, or friends, but she hasn't had the time yet.
Catherine Belle: Catherine is a reporter/jounalist (some variation thereof depending on setting). She's curious, resourceful, clever, and often reckless. She lives for adventure and the adrenaline rush. She's famous for getting the stories and interviews nobody else can, and for her image, which she cultivates meticulously. She knows she has to be beautiful, charming, and intelligent, and she's always on, building that air of desirability and unattainability. She isn't afraid to make enemies with her work, knowing it will only add to her legend, and add to the thrill. (First Appearance: Playing God with Oberon)
Duchess of Forgotten Dreams: Her name is always on the tip of your tongue. She looks, well, she reminds you of the second crush you had, the one you'd forgotten from when you were young, even though she looks nothing like her. The Duchess reigns over a dreamworld of magic and mists, and visiting will completely change your life, for a little while at least, until one day you can't be sure you didn't imagine it, and your not entirely certain it even happened. All you remember is you loved her, or you hated her, or she completely understood you like a best friend, or you had furious arguments followed by passionate love making, or... you don't remember what happened, but she had this musical giggle...
Delilah: Achingly beautiful, the kind of beauty that maddens and inspires. She can sing, play most musical instruments, discuss politics, history, and science, pla a mean game of cards, and when she dances... If you're lucky, Delilah is a prostitute, but only as her cover. You might call her a spy, or an informant. She selects her clients carefully, learns what they like and, more importantly, their secrets. Stories can be almost any setting, involving clients, her spy master, or any other character you might like.
Tara: Tara is a young dryad in an old forest, grew up in isolation. Yet having a dryad in the forest has done wonders for its health. Just her presence brings bounty and life to the thriving forest. Feral and wild, Tara is completely at home in her forest, shy but curious towards outsiders, and petrified of the world beyond the woods. She is quick, nimble, with excellent senses and a playful temperament. Stories can be in any time-period/setting, but obviously need to involve her forest as the location.
Talia Grace (who goes only by 'Grace') is a blossoming actress. What she lacks in skill she makes up for in dedication and zeal, and it's generally accepted that she has the talent, looks, and drive to be quite successful. She prefers theater, but as the number of agents proposing TV and film grows, she is starting to consider branching out. Outside of work, she's withdrawn, awkward and shy, keeping to herself and struggling socially. Obviously designed for a more modern setting, including modern fantasy or scifi, but can be modified for others as desired.
Sara Bellerose: Sara wasn't anything noteworthy. She was lovely, certainly. She went to a decent university, but not a prestigious one. She was reserved, had a few good friends. Her life was stable, pleasant, but all together ordinary. Until her sister married the most eligible bachelor in the western world, the beautiful younger sister is instantly a hit at the extravagant wedding, talked about on every TV talk-show and magazine cover. Sara is suddenly launched into the media spotlight, receiving more attention, good and bad, than she'd ever had before. Opportunities open up, from TV shows to board of director seats to multimillion dollar porn contracts. Sara's life has completely changed, through no fault of her own. (somewhat obviously inspired by Pippa Middleton, but not interested in following that past the basics already here.)

AutumnRain

Stories:
These are flexible, bare-bones ideas for plot/premises that can be molded to different settings/characters.

Language Barrier: A young lady is traveling on vacation, a trip across Europe with friends perhaps. She meets a man in a club and the chemistry is undeniable before they even say a word. In fact she can't even quite make out what he is saying at the club, but they spend the rest of the evening at the club together, and she leaves with only his name, and an address and time written on a napkin for their next meeting. She could be falling in love with him, the only problem: they don't speak the same language. notes: this one is tricky, admittedly, I don't know if it would work, but I love the idea of being in a country where I don't speak the language and falling for someone there, despite that.

She Moved Through the Fair: Originally posted in non-adult while I was awaiting approval, it could go adult as easily as non-adult, so I'm including it here. Well, linking to it.

Demon's Talisman: A young man/lady is given/finds/purchases a beautiful necklace. It seems entirely ordinary, if exceedingly lovely. It is, however, also linked to a Demon in some way, and that Demon want's it back. However, the necklace gives its wearer some power over or immunity from the demon. Though of course, the young lady knows nothing of this. note: I imagine this in medieval/renaissance time frame, but could be any really

Witch Lessons: This is a simple idea of an experience witch taking on an apprentice. Beyond that, its pretty flexible, whether the apprentice is willing or what her reasons are, etc. My preference is to play the apprentice.

Remember me?: not much here to go on, but had the idea of a character who is forgotten as soon as one turns away. Thus every meeting is a first meeting, ever impression is a first impression. This can be my character or yours. Paired against a character who, for whatever reason, can remember him/her.

Lightning in a Bottle: This is, so far, a very bare sketch of an idea. Some supernatural being of great power (God, demon, titan, even a witch or a wizard) is trapped somewhere, long since alone, but finally discovered by someone(s). Think Prospero on his island, or an ancient god who cannot leave his ruined temple, or a siren on an island, genie in a bottle, etc. This could easily be made into a group RP. Don't have a firm idea or preference on which character to play (but may later, if an idea begins to develop).

Dream a Little Dream of Me: One character discovers the ability to dreamwalk, enter other people's dreams while they're dreaming. maybe he doesn't even realize he's in someone else's dream, just thinks its his. Maybe he can pick whose dreams, maybe not. Maybe he can control them, maybe just enter, maybe just observe. All up for discussion. One way or another, he enters the dream of someone he knows, not well, but has met multiple times: a neighbor, a classmate, a coworker, the barista at the cafe, whatever. Genders flexible, which character I play is flexible, setting is flexible, etc.

Masquerade Ball Outside of Time: There are a couple variations on this, but the premise is the same: A masquerade ball (historical or fantasy) perpetually looping in time. Every morning it resets, the place is spotless, the food fresh, everyone as they were at the very beginning of the party (sober, excellent outfits, etc.) every sunrise looks exactly the same, although everyone remembers the previous iterations of the ball, and they're going through it for eternity. Everyone knew this going in, and chose to join in for an immortal party (at least the host, main guests, maybe some of the guests didn't know, or the help). The characters are what I hadn't thought of: they can be people at the party (host/guest/servants) or someone from today who somehow stumbled in unknowingly. This one can easily support multiple characters, and I'd be interested in turning it into a larger group RP if anyone would be interested.

Playing God: The idea for this one came from the movie Pandorum (not highly recommended, but an interesting premise). Its basically the same background premise: a spaceship is sent to colonize a new planet. The colonists are put into deep sleep, while a small crew runs the ship. One of the crew members goes crazy, and kills the others. He wakes up one or a few colonists at a time to play with them. They wake up knowing only that the ship has obviously not landed on the planet and something must be wrong. He uses that ignorance and control of the system to play with the colonists he wakes before discarding them. I would like to play a colonist, you can play another colonist or the loony or someone from a rescue party or whatever you can come up with (I'm ok sharing in handling the loony as a minor character but not as my main). This one could also lend itself really well to a group if someone is interested.

Fancy Meeting You Here: This one is less a plot and more of a structure I'd like to try. Two Characters repeatedly cross paths while travelling. They know nothing of each other beyond what they're told (and maybe you're not completely honest with a perfect stranger while traveling). It could be over different locations (maybe they both travel a lot for work and the locations occasionally overlap) or one location (maybe they both have a favorite vacation spot?). The idea here is short term, episodic interactions, and then extended separation (during which time who knows what happens to the characters). I thought it might be a fun structure for playing with character and writing style.

Divine Meddling: This is an idea that I think would be very hard to pull off, but if you can think of how to do it, I'm game (it may require four people to do well). The story is this two gods or similar decide to play a game, they each pick a mortal and bet on that mortal (probably some objective like whichever one gets their dream job first, or whoever is happier at the end of a month or whatever). There are rules on how they're allowed to help their particular mortal (either not at all, or maybe only in minor ways, or maybe you can help yours but not hinder the other, whatever) but of course they'll try to cheat and try to get away with it (there can be some consequences for cheating too maybe). The story revolves around the mortals, but there would also be room to play the gods, reactions, trash talking each other, their meddling, etc. I am skeptical this can work but if you (or you and two friends) think you have an idea to make it work, sell me on it.

Neighbors: Two characters are new next door neighbors (could be apartments, houses, even hotel rooms or dorm rooms). To one character's surprise, the other is a famous celebrity of some sort. What is it like living next door? Can you still go next door to borrow a cup of sugar? Do you trip over paparazzi when you leave your apartment? There are a lot of different ways this can go, and I'm fine playing either character, but I probably don't want to do the "groupie" story, that one is a bit too obvious.

Road/Camping Trip: I haven't figured out a good background for the premise, but maybe you can think of something. For whatever reason (something at least plausible) the characters are on a road trip or camping trip. I would like characters who don't know each other well, but could be acquainted. This is pretty simple and straight forward, so feel free to add whatever embellishments or content you might like, I am mostly interested in the 'two people who don't know each other well in prolonged close proximity' element or character interaction and development.

Power behind the throne: This is a spin off of Demon's talisman or lightning in a bottle. A powerful, yet generally decent and benevolent, person (king/queen, CEO, whatever, depending on time period) who got there without actually having to earn it. Instead s/he has a demonic slave that is the source of all his/her success. There are a lot of angles to play with this one: guilt/self-doubt, trying to be good with the temptation of power, power struggle, trying to keep such a big secret, etc.

Fantastic Roommate: A blending of modern and fantasy. Somehow (can be random happenstance, or an accident, or TBD plot device) a regular, run-of-the-mill person ends up with a portal opening up in his apartment (or house/dorm/workplace/etc.) through which a fairy falls before it closes again (like every other detail, can be some other mythological/supernatural creature). I kind of picture this as a humorous, reverse Alice in Wonderland, but I can easily see it going in other directions too, depending on the writing partner.

Bad Influence: Any setting. A normal, mundane girl, boring and bored, meets someone exciting, wild and dangerous, who lures her into a series of adventures, each one more reckless and intense than the last. Can be a partners-in-crime story, sex drugs and rock and roll, or whatever. I want this story to be very heavy on character development and progression with slow escalation not just a "two people meet, immediately rob a bank and engage in kinky sex." Right now, I'm in the mood to play the influenced, rather than the influencer, but I'm happy to listen to ideas for either, and honestly I'd imagine they'd feed off each other to a degree anyway.

New Pet: This is a variation on Bad Influence, same initial premise, but instead of one character being lured on a whirlwind of exciting adventures, she's seduced into a new life of submission. like Bad Influence, I don't want this to just be "vanilla girl becomes a sub" story, I would like a lot of focus on the characters, emotional progression, the seduction with a slow introduction into the world of submission, the effects on the girl's regular life, friends, family, work, etc. If your idea is closer to the plot of a porno flick than something involving realistic, reasonable people, I'm not going to be interested. This is a highly character focused idea, and I'm going to be very picky about it, so be warned.

A Party Like No Other: This one I want to focus strongly on the setting/premise. I'm imagining a very unconventional, multi-day gathering/party/festival thing. I'm thinking Burning Man or maybe Woodstock, but I don't know a ton about either, so just in the sense of "very unique, with its own establish subculture, rules, etc. separated from the world" sort of thing. I want to come up with a fun sort of event and associated subculture, and then throw two characters in it and see what happens. Alternatively, if you have a fully formed idea for the party/culture, I'm happy to play the "tag'along every-man" character for your character to introduce to the party.

Seeking Date for Wedding: an idea I had after reading funny Craigslist posts. Someone for whatever reason posts a "need a date for a wedding" ad (I can think of a dozen potential reasons). Someone else replies. I'm imagining they get together before hand to meet, maybe one person is in the wedding party, so there's also a rehearsal. Maybe they come up with a fake cover story for how they met, inventing their relationship on the fly, etc. But I would like to start with the CL post and emails or texts back and forth. Also open to any other ideas relating to weddings and/or funny craigslist posts.

Mysterious Invitation:This one is little more than a fragment. A young woman receives a tempting yet mysterious invitation. Could be anything from "Invitation to the exclusive ambiguously named party, X date, X address, just enough details provided to be tempting and make you curious enough to go" to "reservations for two at very tempting venue for date with unidentified person (or alternatively, identified person, unidentified date)" to "here's free tickets to some mysterious/exclusive event". Details, setting, etc. obviously up for discussion. I may write up a character and turn this into an 'experimental' idea later.

AutumnRain

Fragments:
Mostly just little thoughts of story elements I've had that could go in any story or plot, which I thought would be fun. Or they may inspire a small story of their own.

Reality TV show: Something unorthodox or unusual, not just plain "dancing with the stars" or whatever.

Bargain/Wager: Some sort of deal or bet, both sides trying to win or find a loophole

Chase Me: Someone showed me this video, kinda loved it: Batman - Chase Me. Doesn't need to be batman, just that tone/theme.

Halloween Party/Masquerade Ball: Two people who know each other, but don't recognize each other under the masks/costumes

Figment of your Imagination: Inspired by "Dream a Little Dream" above. In this case, a character exists 100% in the dreams of another. Whether she can move from one person's dream to another, whether she can control those dreams, what happens when the dreamer awakens, etc.

wilderness/outdoors: a story taking place mostly outside, can be as simple as camping, or something more elaborate

pdiddle: an game I'd forgotten existed, when driving in a car and passing a car with only one headlight on, everyone shouts "pdiddle" and touches the roof of the car. The last one to do so removes an item of clothing. no idea how, but thought it might be fun to work into a story.

Prank war: between college roommates, co-workers, friends, whatever

"Haunted" House: can be anything from a bunch of friends staying at an old abandoned house for the thrill, or one person dared to spend the night there alone. Can be actually haunted or just rumored. Whatever. Just a fun idea.

Craigslist Ad: Nothing specific in mind, but I've seen some funny ones, would be fun to work in. Could be an apartment, job, party, missed connection, even a sale.

Laundromat: Chance meeting in a laundromat, or the laundry room in a college dorm/apartment building. Mostly because I like the options for clothing play.

Isolated vacation: Some sort of vacation in an isolated setting: going sailing, camping in the wilderness, cabin in the mountains, tropical bungalow. Either two people or a small group. Bonus points if you can think of a reasonable excuse for two people who don't know each other well to go on vacation together. 


AutumnRain

Experiments:
These are a work in progress. and may be trashed if they don't seem to work out. They're usually focused on a different style of story creation or character experimentation, etc. or opportunities for fun but low pressure writing. If you have any thoughts, I'd love input.

Hidden Sanctuary: A semi-magical pool, hidden in the woods, fed by a stream coming down out of the mountains (looking for a good picture, if you know of one, let me know). You might stumble across it once, and be unable to find it ever again. The pool is the sanctuary of (water spirits/fairies/muses/nymphs/something else, currently undecided; maybe just one, maybe a handful to allow me to select different personality types). This is meant for quick stories, character experimentation, something fun for people who want to write but want a low pressure story (of course, could turn into a longer one if your character is one of the lucky few to get multiple visits, or maybe two characters meet here and it launches another story, lots of interesting options).

Doll: This is the experiment most likely to fail so far, and I'm very hesitant. I'm stealing the idea from Dollhouse, but expect no canon or anything beyond the basic premise. Somehow there are certain people whose personalities and memories even their thought processes can be altered. This one is prime for scenario exploration and/or character challenges. I'm sure I will pick an image for the doll eventually, but you would give me personality requirements, memories, mental triggers, whatever, and I will try and play a character based on that. This may be a fun challenge, or it may blow up in my face, so this item may disappear in a week, who knows? You can give me the scenario or not, up to you (but either way, I reserve the right to throw in a monkey wrench or a curve ball. If you decided the character and the exact way the plot went though, you might as well just write it yourself after all, and this is for experimentation)

Duchess of Forgotten Dreams: "I don't quite remember what she looked like," he said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before he continued, "She was...pretty... achingly beautiful... sometimes she reminded me of this girl I saw at a party when I was young, but never had the courage to talk to, other times... you know when you see a movie and you recognize an actress but can't figure out what you saw her in? It was like that. I don't know, man, she was something... Anyway, we talked for a while, and she just took my hand and led me out... I don't remember where we went, I must've been pretty drunk or something, but we talked for a while about... me? I guess? Her laugh was amazing though, god it was... anyway, so we get to this place, and she must be one of those... I don't know whats. Everyone was in costume or something, but really good ones, the waiter had a donkey's head, and the hostess...and this girl, at some point she put on wings or something, like a butterfly? or a bird? I forget. But the food was fantastic, and they must've gotten the chef from the old cake shop, or his son or his recipes or something because you remember those amazing cookies and cupcakes and everything? They had them for dessert. We kissed. I don't remember her name, and I must've forgotten to get her number, or I forgot it, or I don't know. I'm going back tonight, I'll just keep going back until I run into her again." - I wanted to put the duchess in Experiments as well as Characters, and thought that might be more effective than just a description, and it was fun to write. Make up a character, as much details as you'd like, and we'll pick a place for your character to meet the Duchess.

Unknown Sender: I'm a bit uncertain of this one: A normal girl in an everyday life, until she starts getting strange text messages, phone calls, and even packages from someone who knows her, better than she knows herself. I want this to play out with the caller being completely unknown, at least unidentified, so the character interactions would be an interesting challenge. Maybe she can call back, maybe the number is blocked. The story would continue through her regular life, so NPCs will also be a big element in this one. There is an element of supernatural/unrealism/whatever as the caller knows everything about her life and maybe can interfere at will, I want it to be all within the realm of "technically possible"

AutumnRain

The Bucket:
These are ideas that were once in one of the posts above, but now I don't love them any more, so I make them sit in the corner where they can watch me play with all the good children. But if you see something that inspires you, I could be convinced to feed them.

Rome and Egypt: Historical fiction, based off Caesar/Marc Antony & Cleopatra. A young, beautiful woman sits on the throne of egypt as Pharaoh, when a Roman Senator/Consul/General/Emperor comes visiting, either on a diplomatic mission, or to assist with troubles against barbarians, or to settle issues in an unruly Egypt. 

Under Covers: A High-end prostitute who has a side business selling information on her clients. Can be in any time period/setting that would be acceptable and common for powerful people to be cavorting with prostitutes, Ancient Rome, Historical Paris, Modern Washington DC, whatever. Can be watered down to a minor noble/staff member just being very outgoing and flirty to elicit information. I don't want this to turn into another "I've discovered you and now you will be punished by being put into an indistinguishable bdsm story". I'm more interested in something subtle. Maybe there's suspicion, maybe the target knows, cat-and-mouse and reversal, see how far she'll push to get information, whatever. Doesn't even need to be conflict based tension, could be a romantic entanglement with a target, or trying to balance work life and personal or romantic life.