Love Between Monster Hunters (M for F, Romance) (Closed)

[Cold Heritage]

Edit 16/06/2014: This is re-opened and I am looking for a partner. Another member of elliquiy expressed interest, but the status of writing with that individual is at the moment uncertain. I have also added some mild world-building elements.

Hello fellow Elliquiyan. Thank you for taking the time to click on this thread, and for any time you devote to reading it. It is appreciated that you do, and I hope your day finds you well. If you do feel inclined to contact me about this idea, PMs are ideal, but I am not averse to a response here - the thread will be bookmarked so I will see any responses made.

The Cliff's Notes Edition:

This idea is a rip-off of stuff like Buffy, Angel, Supernatural, the World of Darkness, and all kinds of stuff like that. It is about a group of monster hunters who live in a hotel, train there, and go out to fight monsters. I'm promising five different kinds of vampire! The hope is that the character I play and the character someone else plays get romantic with each other. So, yeah. Kisses and punching vampires in the face. Other monsters too.

We would start with the crew all formed with a handful of adventures under their belt. I guess you could say we would start in the middle of a 'Season 1' to put it in television terms. Dynamics still to be established and world-building still to be done.

My Role:

I play a big, muscular dude who is 'the big guy' in a crew of twenty-something monster hunters who live out of a hotel. He's not the main dude - that role goes to an NPC named Carter. This guy's thing is that he's the son of a Russian witch, and if not for the friendship of the crew is a hockey mask and a chainsaw away from being a monster that kills teenagers at summer camps.

The Role I Want Someone To Play:

I would like someone to play a female member of the crew. I would also strongly like for the picture used for the character to be one of Amy Acker or Sarah Carter, but it is not required. Prefer that the writer be a Lady or a Liege; some bad experiences in the past have made me - perhaps unduly - leery of writing with a Lord in this context.

Otherwise, the specifics of the character is up to you. I have nothing against your character being a good vampire who fights against evil, or a normal person who just got the memo that monsters be real, yo. I am confident that a working dynamic with the crew can be established for most characters.

O/Os at a glance:

Basically, pretty vanilla heterosexual consensual sex. My character would be well-endowed in terms of genitals. Maybe anal? Not really looking to get to the sexual elements quickly, though. I am more interested in playing out the plot stuff and getting the characters to a point where they can see each other as romantic partners and then what it takes to get to the point where they may have sex.

Post Rate/Size/Etc.

I would like, ideally, to have a partner who can reply more than once per week. Two or three times would be nice. In terms of post size . . . well, context matters. If we are playing out a conversation with back and forth chatter, I do not expect a novella from each post. But I would like something a little meaty. I do admit to sometimes having trouble producing useful volume - that is, substance that a partner can react to. But I am doing my level best to improve there.

Unrelenting Wall of Text Edition:

This idea draws strong inspiration from the urban fantasy genre, owing an obvious debt to television programs such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Forever Knight, and Supernatural. The writing of Laurell K. Hamilton and the World of Darkness pen and paper roleplaying games in their various iterations are also strong influences on me and this idea.

This idea is more about the plot content than sexual content. I would like any sexual content that might take place to do so in the context of a romantic relationship between our characters and to be consensual in nature. So it would likely go in a category like Light: Human Solos or Light: Exotic Solos. My spelling is strong and grammar is fair. I am able to post multiple times per week, but seldom post multiple times per day. In terms of length I will strive for two hundred or so words, but may post more in posts that set the scene or see me controlling multiple characters. Scenes of dialog between our two characters may see shorter posts, though I will strive to provide length and quality so that there is something to work off of and reply to that is of substance. But I do find that such scenes are something of a challenge to produce substance in, though I am trying to improve in that regard.

In the most basic terms, this idea would be about our characters as part of a small group of monster hunters. Perhaps, say, a half dozen or so individuals who have come together with the common goal of fighting back against supernatural elements that prey upon those who cannot protect themselves.

The world would be - as is fairly standard for urban/paranormal fantasy - one where, by and large, humans are ignorant of the supernatural or are convinced that it is the remnants of old superstitions. But, obviously, this is not the case: vampires, werewolves, leprechauns and other creatures live integrated within human society, to varying degrees of proximity to the human norm. The night crew at a 24/7 diner might very well be vampires who have no interest in the baroque politicking of the ancients and just want to earn an honest dollar so they can buy the newest iphone. And at the same time, a prominent biker gang involved in the trade of illicit narcotics and firearms could be a werewolf pack, defending their turf against other werewolf packs and more mundane groups of organized criminals who want a slice of the profits. A slick dealer at one of the local casinos owned by vampires that the house breaks out to ruin a player's hot streak who professes the luck of the Irish is behind his cardsharp ways is, in fact, a leprechaun, kept in thrall because the vampires have his pot of gold locked up in their vault. Secret societies also operate throughout the world, using hidden methods and knowledge to manipulate the course of over and underworld politics in ways that would vindicate even the most extreme conspiracy theorist.

I do not really want to go into too many specifics about the 'rules' of the supernaturals that inhabit the world. I want to leave it flexible so that we have room to play around and introduce new elements without closing too many doors. For example, let us say that in this game world there are many different types of vampires. Some of them could be hideous as a rule, having a bestial and twisted appearance at all times and the same set of supernatural abilities, whereas other offshoots could resemble vampires as depicted in popular culture: attractive, nigh-indistinguishable from humans, and with abilities that vary based upon their bloodline, and the only common factors being a nocturnal existence and deriving sustenance through human blood. This is not an excuse for me to play "gotcha!" with you, either.

But back to our characters. My thought is that the group would have coalesced around a central figure - a chosen one, perhaps, like Buffy, say - whose adventures brought all of our characters together. I would not play this central figure, except in terms of controlling them as an NPC. Let's call this character Carter. He has a purity of heart that is ill-suited to the world and his ability to see the good in others means that he is too often disappointed when the bad in them wins out. There is a genuine belief in Carter that, although he cannot personally save the world, he can save individuals. It is difficult for him, but he perseveres. Carter is trained in martial arts and monster lore and has a mentor figure named Walter. Walter is an older man, who is a member of a scholarly secret society known as the Heirs of Cheiron, and is genial, personable, and knows a lot about magic and has powerful exposition-fu. The pair reside in Le Jolli Chateaux, a hotel run by an immortal who goes by the name Clarice. These three and the Chateaux would be the basic nucleus of the roleplay, and stories would branch off from things involving them or that location. Our characters would be part of Carter's group of monster hunters.

The character I wish to play would be named Arkady. He would be the brawn of the group. When Carter's investigation of three missing human youths turned up an underground pit-fighting tournament that pitted humans and supernaturals together, Carter found himself captured and forced to compete. He met Arkady there, and Carter's hopefulness and charisma touched something in Arkady, who felt cynical and soulless. The two fought their way to the top of the rankings and defeated the champion, El Toro, and learned that the tournament was organized by a cult of mystics known as the Cretians. With the tournament disrupted and the Cretians forced back into the shadows, Carter convinced Arkady to join up with him and fight the good fight. Even if Arkady did not believe in doing good, it would give him a purpose and it was very likely that Arkady would have ample opportunity to punch monsters in the face.

Arkady looks normal on the surface, but he comes from the secret world. His mother, Akilina, is a witch, and he does not know who his father was - and does not care. Arkady and his mother are not very close, although they do care for one another. Akilina is somewhat overprotective of her son, and when he was young she put considerable time and effort into removing his heart from his chest, and then she hid it in a marble (don't ask about the physics), which was hidden in a tin can, that was hidden inside an old Soviet television set, that was lost in a landfill. Because of this, Arkady cannot die. He is very resistant to harm and possesses superhuman strength, but that is because he is the sort of person that becomes a masked, chainsaw-wielding killer. Without his heart, though, he cannot become a masked slayer of horny teenagers. Of course he may still be harmed and experience pain, but none of it is permanent. The impulse to be a serial killer remains, however, muted and resistible. With friends, and a goal, he can make good on the chance his mother gave him.

Mostly, though, Arkady lumbers along at the back of the crew, protecting the rear and cracking skulls when occasion calls for it. He is pretty happy with the arrangement, and he lives in room 317 in the Chateaux.

Other characters to round out the crew include Declan, a young homeless male who helped Carter to hunt down and clear out a nest of vampires that preyed on homeless people. Declan was the first of the crew to get signed up and Carter trusts him the most. At first Carter rebuffed Declan, who was the one who actually wanted to team up with Carter. Declan's sincerity and persistence won out, and Carter and Walter have begun teaching Declan to be a monster hunter in his own right. A smartass at times, Declan is trustworthy and likes his new family, even if he hates to admit it. And the group is basically a family to Declan: he is a younger brother to Carter, Arkady, and Lucy, and Walter looks at Declan like a well-liked nephew. Declan's in room 201 of the Chateaux. There is also Lucy, who only recently learned about all of the strange, weird things that go on in the world. She is a computer science major who attends classes at the local university, and she helps out by doing "computer stuff" - all of the boys are, much to her bemusement, basically helpless when it comes to technology. Declan knows how to text and stuff, but otherwise . . . they are hopelessly out of their depth. She joined Carter's crew slightly before Arkady - Carter met her investigating the missing youths who signed up for the pit-fighting tournament. Lucy was able to help Carter deduce that a recruiter for the Cretians was one of the university students who headed an MMA club, and she sort of got sucked into things. With her eyes opened, Lucy could not just sit back and return to her old life. Of course, she wants to have a normal life someday, but for now she helps when she can. Lucy lives in campus housing and uses the bus to get around generally, but sometimes Carter or Declan pick her up using Walter's car.

Your character would complete the crew. I have no particular preference about what sort of expertise the character brings to the table, and the fiction is absolutely mutable to fit any concept. For example, your character might have joined before Declan. Or maybe your character is good at computer stuff and Lucy gets bumped into doing something else. Though, I would like for the character to be humanoid and largely human - my tastes do not run towards exotic body types and what can be achieved on a television make-up budget for a weekly show is about as wild as I would like it to go if a prospective partner wished to play a character with an obviously non-human appearance. If suggestions for playbys are desired, I put forward Amy Acker or Sarah Carter. They would be welcome choices, but I of course do not presume to dictate to a prospective partner and they are suggestions only. I wish to play on the forums, and would enjoy a posting rate of more than once per week. I am okay with doing most of the heavy lifting in terms of world-building and NPC controlling, too.

My initial thought would be to start the game shortly after all of the characters are part of Carter's little band. Maybe then we could play out a 'monster of the week' sort of scenario just to find our plot-legs and do a character shake-down to get into their heads properly. As a rough outline, I envision our characters are not engaged in a case when the scenario opens, and they are gathered at the hotel and eating Chinese food. They socialize for a bit, and the hook gets dropped that there are a lot of municipal workers suffering injuries at an underground water treatment facility and adjoining steam tunnels (either because one of the NPCs find it out, or it's on the news, or even that your character was following up on that and brings it to the group as something she thinks merits investigation). The group ends up going in, and they find some Creature From The Black Lagoon style mer-people have set up a lair. The crew clean house in a fun, low stakes action scene, and we move on. What we figure out there could build into a longer-term plot and set the tone for character interactions. My intention is not to have this progress in the quickest, most linear fashion from point a to point smutty-times (which is not to denigrate that style of play - sometimes I want that, myself, but not in this particular instance), so it is perfectly fine if we start our characters off in a position where there are issues that need to be overcome before they can see each other as romantic prospects, whether real or imagined.

A particular angle that holds appeal for me despite knowing how much of an angst-riddled cliche it is at this point is to have Arkady fail to follow through on attraction he feels towards the other character because of anxieties over what he is and what he has done. It might even be fueled by a scene where the other character is somehow threatened by an antagonist and my character reacts with completely disproportionate brutality that causes the other character to recoil. She has the impression that that is how he is, and he comes to think so too, convincing himself that the context of his actions being a result of her being threatened was just an excuse after the fact. Or maybe something causes a falling out between Carter and Arkady, prompting the latter to leave the group and strike out on his own, and is the other character that mends fences and motivates the group to come to Arkady's rescue when he goes off and gets himself in over his head.

Well I have certainly rambled on enough. I hope that what has been presented is sufficient to communicate what I am after. Something has likely slipped through the cracks that I should have addressed, but hopefully that will not be held against me and I can clear it up with whoever is kind enough to bring it up. Thanks again, and cheers!

[Cold Heritage]

This post serves no purpose other than a bump. More than a month has passed. I wish I had something substantive to add, but unfortunately I do not. The elliquiyan who initially contacted me to participate in this idea unfortunately did not maintain contact and the idea progressed no further than a first post and a few private messages. I still wish to attempt to write this story.

The first post I wrote may be found here: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=206222.0

My initial idea was that we would begin with a scene of mild banter and then move along to some scenes investigating the disappearance of municipal workers in the sewers, culminating in a battle scene where our characters fought against expies of the Creature From The Black Lagoon. The main purpose of beginning this way was to work to establish tone and get a sense of the voice of the NPCs (which I intended to control - I imagined doing the writing for the lion's share of NPCs). The specifics of the idea may be discarded and another direction pursued if something else would work better for a prospective partner.

Thank you for your time.