A Mixed Bag of Possibilities

[Geraint]

A Mixed Bag of Possibilities

Within are some of my story ideas that have not had a lot of exposure.

If you have interest in an idea I post here, or have questions, please PM me.

Please also look at the first three posts of my O/Os and a few posts of my writing first.

And as a courtesy please do not post on this thread.

In all cases I will write only on forum here, and my character will be a heterosexual male.

In all cases, I shall be looking for a Lady or Dame of compatible style, detail orientation, O/Os and interests to play a female character or characters.  For romance or sexual stories, I am not a rainbow writer.

My posts tend to be three to eight detailed paragraphs complete with setting, character backgrounds and emotions.  My response time is currently 1-4 days, and not likely to drift above 1-7 days unless I am drawn away by real life.  In that case I shall notify partners in my signature, or by PM if it gets as long as two weeks.  My writing status will always be shown in my signature (I do not have an A/A thread).  I’m flexible on partner response time and length, though I may well start to lose interest if posts are consistently short, lacking in detail or take more that three weeks for response. 

Any story idea I post here is flexible and quite open to different interpretations by potential partners.  As long as the overall story idea is maintained, I am quite open to negotiations on all else.  While the picture included is always the source of the idea, my partners are welcome to use photographs of their own choosing.




The Return of the Prodigal Daughter (Available)

(PBP, Light, Human Solo M/F, Freeform, Historical Fantasy)

The seasonal holidays are the traditional time to return home, even for the wayward and prodigal.

Sometimes the runaway Princess doesn't find true love.

Nor does she become a hostage,

She doesn't marry someone she doesn't want to,

Or get rescued by a hero.

Sometimes she just comes home.

And that's when the fun and drama start.



The School Marm (available)
(PBP, Light, Human Solo M/F, Freeform, Historical, U.S. West)

The woman who gets off of the stage coach is not particularly young.  Perhaps she is a spinster or a widow woman, but she is stern of demeanor as is befitting her station.  She's endured the uncomfortable journey all the way from the east coast for but a single reason.  She is here to bring civilization to the wild west, in the form of education.

The newly built schoolhouse is all waiting for her and there is a room for her at the boarding house until a more suitable dwelling may be found or built.  The town, led by the prominent local women and pillars of the community and church, is serious about bringing up civilized young ladies and gentlemen, having had quite enough of ruffians tearing up the town every time they got liquored up.  So if the men will not be civilized, then it is up to them to grow their own.  The town is growing fast, after all.

The school marm, as she is called by the uneducated, is a dedicated women, who has no time for men, especially the ruffians of the west, nor any need of them.  She'd outgrown  those kind of ideas long ago.  But then again, she's never met a real western man, and perhaps she's not too old to do a bit of learning herself.  She's a fine looking woman, after all … other than the frown.

This is, of course, intended to be a romance, even if the school marm doesn't know it yet.  It would be fun if it were with someone unlikely, like maybe a blacksmith or a bandit, though a sheriff would be OK as well, really anyone who wouldn't remotely fit her definition of a gentleman.  I am quite open to suggestion from a lady of similar style and interests who thinks this might be fun.



USO Girl (available)
(PBP, Light, Human Solo M/F, Freeform, Historical, WWII)

She's a talented young singer with her career on the rise, a beautiful voice, and the looks and warmth of personality of the girl next door.  She's sung with a couple of the minor dance orchestra's.  But just as she catches her first big break, the war (WWII) breaks out, and the world becomes a different place.  The guys are marching off to war, and the gals are finding ways to chip in on the home front while their fellas are risking their lives, and the entertainment business, especially that of the big bands, is starting to sag.

So what's a patriotic gal to do as her part?  She doesn't know a wrench from a screwdriver and she wouldn't dare try to drive a bus, knowing what happened the last time she tried to drive a car.  She's not afraid of hard work of course, but her real skill is entertaining people and seeing that they have a good time.  So when she comes across the USO recruiter looking to set up casts for "camp shows", she's all ears.  After all, she'd be doing her part and entertaining the troops, who she knows will need the lift of their spirits.  And she'll get to see a bit of the world outside of the U.S., and get some exposure for her talent as well.  She has no real strings tying her to home, though she knows her family will worry.  So she could hardly wait to sign up.

Already she's done some domestic USO club show gigs that had been met with great enthusiasm, and been part of camp shows for the trainees at Great Lakes and Quantico.  Now she's on an airplane on her way overseas to be part of the effort to bring home to the servicemen who "can't go back till it's over , over there".  She's traveling with a great bunch of guys and gals, and she knows she is going into danger and bad conditions.  But she'll be doing her part.  And she knows she's going to meet some amazing people.  She's always had an eye for handsome guys in uniform after all.

I'm looking for a female player of compatible O/Os to play the part of the singer (or even more than one female part) for the story of what our heroine finds over there, and who she meets, both the ones she sees every day and the ones she'll only see once.  Of those, I shall gladly play all the males.  There will be good times and bad, heartbreak and joy, the lives that she touches and touch hers, as she does her best to make the war a little easier for the guys on the lines … singing and in other ways.



The Farmer's Sister (available)
(PBP, Light, Human Solo M/F, Freeform, 20th Century, Country)

She is the farmer's sister or cousin or maybe the sister or cousin of the farmer's wife.  Maybe she's a widow, or divorcee, or even a spinster.  It's just her, with no children.  She'd been away for a long time, quite possibly living in the city, or maybe she was always in the city.  But she needed to get away from where she was, to someplace simpler and more nurturing.

She's not a spring chicken fresh out of college and sizzling all over.  She's a good looking woman, likely in her mid to late thirties.  Maybe she has a biological clock ticking in her ear, maybe not. But she needs a new life, a geographic fix.  So she's (back) on the farm and looking to stay.  She'll be welcome there as long as she wants.  What family doesn't need a resident auntie to form a mutual admiration society with the kids?  She isn't necessarily looking for a man, or maybe she is.  But she meets one. 

It could be that he's an older man, or younger, or just her age.  Maybe he works on the farm, or he's a neighboring farmer.  Or perhaps he runs the grocery store or drugstore in the nearest small town.  He's likely a lonely man, single for one reason or another, but also old enough to appreciate a woman still in the prime of her life. 

Maybe it's a slow burn romance, or maybe it's a bonfire.  There's no telling how loudly the clock is ticking or if she's even listening.  And maybe that changes when they meet, or maybe it doesn't.

OR

Deep Roots (available)
(PBP, Light, Human Solo M/F, Freeform, Contemporary Rural)

She'd been a long time gone from the prairie and the gently rolling hills of home.  There'd been nothing here for her but home and family, and she had a way to make on her own, a place for to find for herself in the wide world.  So she'd gone, and been wished well, even if she was missed.  She left it all behind, but there really wasn't all that much to leave after all … was there?

She'd been in Europe when her Mom died, tying up the loose strings on a major deal.  And when her Dad passed on, she was half way around the world in Australia, in a place that reminded her eerily of home. But then that was the life she'd picked and wanted, and her way in the world, even if there was a price to be paid.  She had no strings to tie her down, especially now.

So why was she back in the prairie, to a town whose high school had closed down ten years ago, and a Main Street that only had a single block occupied any more?  Why now?  Because she had time for regret?  It was just a sentimental journey, wasn't it, to visit her parents' graves? But she could remember how the wind blew through the grass on a summer's day, with a hint of the aroma of alfalfa and sweet clover carried along.  It was just a tiny rural cemetery for a land so vast that it went on for hours even viewed from the air. 

How many times had she flown over this very spot, or one just like it, looking down only by chance?  Fly-over country they called it now, as if it weren't the heartland of the country … and maybe her own heartland as well.  But there was no going back, no reclaiming a lost past … was there?

Illicit - In Play

Illicit (under discussion)
(PBP, Light-BON, Human Solo, M/F, Contemporary)

The illicit is not my usual playground, but this picture all but reached out and grabbed me.  I don't know who she is, model or character.  But is is pretty clearly the middle of the day.  Shes not wearing much if anything at all.  She's nervously covering her breasts, but her eyes are telling a different story and she's not backing away.  She is going to end up in bed with the guy she is looking at, assuming that they make it to the bed.

Maybe she was just ready to step  into the shower when the doorbell rang and it was the next door the neighbor man. She is pretty sure he keeps a watch on her bedroom window, which she occasionally rewards with an 'innocent' good look.  She never lets on that she knows he's peeping.

Then again it might be the appliance repair man arriving early, or a college friend of her husbands who is staying with them for a couple of days.  Maybe she is actually making the first move.

And perhaps this is not the first occurrence.  Hubby has been less than attentive and she suspects that those long hours at work aren't all work.  Or maybe it is something else entirely.  The possibilities are endless, and an interested Lady may have a raft of ideas of her own.   

As for me, I'm not picky; I just want to see what she's up to. O:) ... and maybe offer a guy if she needs help.

Beachcomber (available)
(PBP, Light – BON Human Solo M/F, Freeform, Contemporary)

It was a modest cottage on a beach generally deserted,if one could call the patches of sand between rocks a beach at all.  The only sounds were the crashing of the waves on the shore and the cries of seagulls overhead. 

A writer might have called it splendid isolation … or perhaps far from the madding crowd.  Being a contrarian by nature, he called it noisy tranquility, or more simply white noise.   He was an artist and photographer, and very visual by nature.  He captured the sea and the waves, the crabs scuttling on the beach, and the seabirds.  His world changed a bit every day, at least to his eyes.  And every once in a while a visual treat came his way.

She was a beachcomber, a collector of sea shells, and starfish and the flotsam and jetsam that washed ashore.  She was free spirited, perhaps a flower child born two generations too late.  He was of the impression that she made handicrafts from her collection.  She was never wearing very much, but then he only saw her on the beach.  And he rather thought that that she wore even less once she noticed him watching her.

She would wave to him in passing and perhaps call out a greeting, and he would wave and call a greeting in return, as a good neighbor should.   He took pictures of her some times and she noticed but didn't seem to mind.  She would even pose a bit from a distance when she was in the mood.  Whether or not she realized he was also doing a painting of her was unclear … at least until the day she got caught in a fast moving torrential downpour.  He waved at her, beckoning her to take shelter, and she readily accepted the invitation.

He made her soup, hot chocolate and a sandwich; she took a warm shower and hung up her meager clothing to dry.  And they found ways to while away the time.



The Edge of Desire (available)
(PBP, Light-BON, Human Solo M/F, Freeform, Historical, Highland)

It was a forbidden romance from the start; their clans had been feuding for multiple decades.  But feuds in the Highlands were hardly unusual, given the competition for sparse resources.  The allure of the forbidden ran very strong all through the Highlands but especially along the borders between competing clans.

In truth, he cared little for feuds for all that he was a warrior.  But for the green eyed lass with the shining hair the color of sunset and desire that he chance upon in the heather one day when the air was full of spring, youth and the stirrings of renewal everywhere, he cared the world.  Certainly he cared enough to defy prohibitions and meet clandestinely, again and again, if not nearly as often as they wanted.

But life was never carefree in the Highlands, and youth never left fallow for long.  Their families had plans for them both.  So it was that one fine moonless summer night, when he clan staged a cattle raid across the border, he staged a small raid of his own at the ancestral home of his beloved, and he carried her away ...

Their eyes were full of each other, and she held his sword so lovingly, as he held her to him, that even the priest they awoke in the middle of the night to marry them thought they made a bonny couple.

And they lived in interesting times henceforth ...



Hired Hand (available)
(PBP, Light – BON Human Solo M/F, Freeform, Historical)

The sun had not yet risen when he began his work.  The milk cows were still lowing at the pasture gate to be let into the barn by the time he had filled their feed trough by lantern light, and by the time they were slatted into their milking stalls for the milkmaid, the sun was peeking over the horizon.  From there he was off to slop the hogs, and tend to the bull, a surly dangerous brute who required a corral all of his own with a reinforced fence and rows of barbed wire to keep him contained.  It was all part of a day's work, and only the start of it.

At 28, Rupert Clyde was not exactly the typical farm hand.  True enough he'd been farm born and bred, and knew farming like the back of his hand.  But by the age of 16 he'd lost his parents to disaster, and their farm to the accumulated debt of several bad years.  So with no resources to mention to his name and paying work scarce, he'd taken the Queen's shilling (so to speak) and gone off to join the army.  Twelve years later, nine of them in active service spanning two wars, he was back to farming, albeit on someone else's farm. 

He'd spent the last three years exploring the possibilities of farming alone, and tenant farming and found neither to his liking though they renewed his farming skills.  So he was grateful to find the opportunity to work for a successful farming operation, even if he had to start at the bottom again.  He was not a proud man, but rather a practical one, and farming ran deep in his blood.  And in his first week here, he's found decent work in a friendly environment, though he was still learning his way around.

[Geraint]

Gone Native (available)
(PBP, Light-BON, Human Solo, M/F, Historical fiction 19th Century)

It was the ever present danger for colonial officials, missionaries, adventurers, and the like, it was said.   Really anyone traipsing off to the colonies to make their mark on the world was subject to close scrutiny after returning from such a posting or adventure for any signs of taking on the manner or dress, or attitudes of the culture they were sent to "civilize." 

Lord Selsington was no exception, even though he had taken along his family with him, which was (despite the recognized dangers) widely considered to discourage any tendencies to go native.  Still his Lordship came back unsullied by native thoughts or aspirations, as anyone who interacted with him could tell, and his wife seemed prim and properly British as well. 

So that not many met the Selsington's daughter, and that she was never really introduced to society, went largely unnoticed.  And if there were occasional reports of strange sightings in the forest of their estate, well it was part of a very ancient woodland, about which there were a multitude of legends, especially about Dryads. 

Nobody paid much attention to the tales of such fleeting encounters with a shy and skittish lass with flaming hair and blue eyes, who wasn't wearing much clothing.  And it came as a significant surprise to the adventurous young man who tripped and tumbled in the woods, injuring his leg ... when he found himself rescued by just such a creature of legend, who happened so speak the King's English rather well ... in addition to some other words that didn't sound like English at all.

And as might be expected on this thread ... a story ensued ..



The New Housekeeper (available)
(PBP, Light to BON, Human Solo M/F, Freeform, Historical, Long Term)

For several moments the Baron stood at the Library Door, observing the new applicant for the Housekeeper position.  He did so without any anticipation of a satisfactory conclusion.  None of the previous incumbents had lasted long, not since his Lady's death. 

It had never occurred to him that there would be a kind of snobbery among agencies providing servants, and the servants themselves, every bit as ingrained as it is among his peers.  But apparently unmarried Lords are considered unsuitable employers for all but the most ancient of female servants.  So the agency had sent and he had suffered a series of autocratic women who didn’t care for either the amount of physical labor the job involved, or the lack of younger more eager servants to supervise, not to mention having a man speak to them them about how to run his household.  And the ones who hadn’t left on their own, he sent packing himself. 

He'd had all of them wait in the library, of course, if only to see if any had the slightest interest in literature or learning.  It would have been nice, after all, to have a servant who could engage in learned conversation, though he realized that was quite a lot to expect.  His Butler and Cook were a lovely older couple, but their conversation tended to turnips and horses, the local harvests and fairs, and the mundane details of life.  How quickly his world had changed in the years since the death of his wife. 

This new applicant, was different though, at least to the eyes.  A woman of stern demeanor, dressed in black, she was nonetheless decades younger than the others.  She had a face that might well be beautiful if she smiled, with green eyes that seemed to see into one's soul.  And then there was her hair … 

He had to wonder if she was sent to him by mistake as a potential governess … in a home with no children.

Well, there was only one way to find out.