Topic: Blood in the Inkwell (All Gender Pairings) (Long-Term) (Plot-Driven)

[Erythrite]

Blood in the Inkwell - Erythrite's Ideas

Status: Not actively looking, tentatively open to discussion.

Currently, I am only storing ideas here that I have very high levels of inspiration on.  I have some wonderful stories and writing partners already, and sometimes I don't post for them as often as I'd like, so when it comes to starting anything new, I am likely to be very picky.  That's not to say I am ONLY open to writing the ideas I have listed here, just that they're probably the best bet to tempt me at the moment.

Layout of this Thread
- Introduction (You are here) -
- The Bloody Countess (alt history) -
- We Never Close (sci fi noir) -
- Breaking Point (modern noir) -
- Have a Heart (modern noir) -

Hello. And thank you for stopping by my search thread.  If you want to contact me, please do so through PMs and do not post here so I can keep things neat and tidy.  I have attempted to outline my likes and dislikes as best I can in my O/O page , so please take a look at it to see if we would be compatible.  You can also find links to all of my stories on E in my O/Os to get an idea of my writing style across various genres, as well as the expectations I have of partners.  Here are a few of the basics to give you an idea of whether you are interested in delving deeper:

Story.  I am looking for long-term, plot-based stories.  We don't need to hash out the whole plot right away and I like plotting to be an ongoing give-and-take between partners that can evolve, grow, and change as we go.  However, I do expect the plot to be a major focus throughout.

Medium Posting Rate.  At the moment, fair warning, my post rate is often slower than I would like.  There are, however, times when I might manage more than a post a day, but this isn't consistent and probably won't be the norm.  If burst-and-pause posting is a problem for you, we probably won't be compatible.  However, I will almost never drop a game if my partner has to take a hiatus, and you don't have to worry about me losing interest unless I explicitly tell you I have.  If I was interested in the first place, I'll likely still be interested when it's time to pick it up again.

Detailed and Grammatical Posts.  I'm looking for partners who are not afraid of details and have a good understanding of English spelling and grammar.  I do believe in quality over quantity, and in some scenes there just isn't a lot to say, but if you're consistently giving me far less than I'm giving you, we're going to have a problem.  I won't fuss over small mistakes, but too many mistakes to the point that I have trouble understanding your post and I'm going to lose interest.

Complex Characters. My idea of a good character is one with both strengths and weaknesses, good and bad sides, and a character who certainly is not perfect or all-powerful; defined as much, if not more, by their flaws than their skills.  The character should be believable for the setting and have an at least partially thought-out background and personality before the start of the story.

Forums.  I'm not interested in playing by messenger, PM, or email.

Pairings. I write both male and female characters, and will do M/M, F/F, or M/F romantic pairings.  I will also do nonromantic pairings, nonsexual pairings, and play characters pretty much anywhere on the demi/pan/bi/asexual spectrum.  I don't care about what gender my writing partners are or what gender they write.  I'm willing to write multiple characters per story and often prefer this.  Though I have had plenty of characters with non-traditional gender identifications, I have never written as/opposite a physically trans or ambiguously sexed character, but I would be willing to do so provided the issue was dealt with tastefully and not used purely for the sake of sexual exploitation.  For the right story I am open to three-or-moresomes.

I am picky as hell.  I have people already who I love writing with and have a fantastic creative connection with.  This means that when it comes to new stories, I am not really willing to settle for anything less.  My time is limited, and I only want to start stories that I will actually want to see through to the end.  I assess potential partners for compatibility, so please do not be offended if I decide not to write with you; it's nothing personal, nor is it likely to be a reflection of your skill, but rather because I simply think we wouldn't be compatible, and I've learned that it's better not to try to force it with writers I'm not very compatible with.

Regarding Tone.  I am currently more interested in stories with a darker focus.  For clarification of what I mean when I say 'a darker focus', please see my O/Os, in particular my 'note on extreme content' in the first post.

But what about sex?  I am not opposed to including sex in a story.  However, I am not interested in forcing it or rushing to it.  If the possibility of going hundreds of posts without a sex scene upsets you, then I am likely not the partner for you.

Rules for Contacting Me.  If you would like to contact me, please do so through PM only.  I typically don't use offsite means to communicate with RP partners unless we already know each other very well.  Please don't nag me if I don't reply to your PM right away.  I'll get to it.  It's a personal rule that I never leave people hanging, even if it's only to say 'I'm not interested.'

[Erythrite]

The Bloody Countess

Mastering oneself will always be the greater challenge than mastering others.

~ Moral Ambiguity ~ Mental Illness ~ Brutality of Power ~ War, Disease, Famine ~
~ Alternate History (1500s - 1600s Central or Eastern Europe) ~
~ M/F or F/F ~
~ Extreme ~

Variant 1: A long winter of famine and disease have left their lands devastated.  The late countess has barely been laid to rest; dead in childbirth along with her stillborn son.  The count, once a man of power and might, has been relegated to his bedchamber; his power retained in name only.  The only legitimate heir he has produced that still lives is a young woman; past the earliest age suitable for marriage, but still unwed; sickly herself, but the rumors claim that it is not just sickness of the body from which she suffers, but also of the mind.  With the territory severely weakened, the emperor's rivals have turned their eyes towards it with ambitions to widen their borders.  With an unwell girl at the helm, many consider it a land already lost, but they underestimate her determination.

- Variant 1.1 Supported at least in spirit by the emperor, a distant male relative arrives to assume leadership of the territory and clashes with the young heiress.  Will her ill father support her claim, or will he agree that she is unfit?

- Variant 1.2 An older adviser or mentor seeks to guide the young woman on her path to power.  Will they temper her fire, or only stoke it?

- Variant 1.3 Every day is a fight from every side, but the young countess takes comfort in the company of her favorite servant - a young woman who is both more intelligent and politically-minded than most would give her credit for.

Variant 2: Her father's only legitimate heir, she was married off at the first possible opportunity to a man many years her senior with significant holdings, making them, combined, one of the most powerful families in the region.  Though rumors of her instability have long persisted, she has always stood beside her husband rather than behind him, and none gave any serious question to her position - until her husband is killed suddenly in a border skirmish.

- Variant 2.1 Suitors come rushing to court her based purely on her material wealth, but she makes it clear that if she is to marry again, it is not to be a seduction, but a negotiation, and she drives a rather hard bargain.

- Variant 2.2 She's had little time for her children, entrusting them instead to the care of the best tutors she can secure for them.  But perhaps the tutor for her eldest - worldly, academic, forward-thinking - would be more suited to the position of adviser for her.

- Variant 2.3 A foreign agent - a scout - is captured at her border.  Amidst her growing paranoia that her people seek to depose her now that her husband is gone, she finds that her mysterious prisoner may have much to teach her - but what agenda does (s)he have in mind?

Relevant Information:

- I have it in mind to write 'The Countess', but would be open to versions where I write another main character, or a cast of characters.
- I intend to portray her as someone suffering from mental illness, which, in the setting, would not have been understood or adequately treated, if it were treated at all.  In spite of this, I do not see her as a weak character in need of saving, and will not write her (or agree to allow someone else to write her) as helpless or useless.
- This story is meant to be dark, gritty, and morally ambiguous.  Characters are not meant to be all good, but shouldn't be all bad, either.
- I'm flexible on how historically accurate we want to go with it, but I'm not really looking for fantasy for this one.  The places, names, etc. can all be completely alternate and we can leave the exact timeframe somewhat vague, but I'd rather not have magic or modern technology involved.

[Erythrite]

We Never Close

You knew exactly what you were signing up for.

~ Violence ~ Moral Ambiguity ~ Hunter vs. Hunted ~ Medical and Cybernetic Augmentation ~
~ Sci-Fi Noir ~
~ M/F, F/F, M/M ~
~ Extreme ~

The world population has exceeded 20 billion.  True natural resources are a thing of the past.  What's left of Earth's flora and fauna now exist in private zoos and collections, or vertical farms and massive biodomes, all controlled by the richest 1%; humans whose wealth have made them practically immortal; expensive medical treatments allowing them to live long beyond their natural life spans.  Social mobility is a thing of the past as well, with the majority of humanity suffering from starvation, exposure, and disease in the expansive slums that cover the majority of the planet.  There is one way out of this living nightmare for those who are born into it; become a donor.  Registered donors are ensured medical care, clean water, good food, and are often spared the grueling work that others must endure simply to survive.  The catch is that when one of their body parts is needed to save the life of one of the 1%, it is simply taken...sometimes leaving them dead, other times maimed, weak, in pain, but still 'viable' for future harvests.  The collectors are the ones who do the grisly work; once considered failed experiments from the era of the cybernetic revolution, the unlucky few whose extreme modifications have left them to be seen as something less than human have been kept around to do the dirty work that no self-respecting 'human' would do.  A single conglomerate has arisen to manage the collectors; the only company licensed internationally to carry out legal murder.  They are reliable and ruthless, but when one collector decides to help their target rather than harvest them, it quickly becomes a situation that threatens the entire system.

Relevant Information:

- Open to a variety of different roles and story directions.
- Writing multiple characters probably required.
- There will be a lot of action scenes and graphic depictions of violence in this one, consider yourself warned.

[Erythrite]

Breaking Point

Tell me how you really feel.

~ Psychiatry ~ Moral Ambiguity ~ Mind Games ~ Mental Illness ~
~ Modern Noir ~
~ M/F, F/F, M/M ~
~ Extreme ~

He is by all accounts successful.  From the outside looking in, anyone would think he has his life together.  What most people don't see, however, are his progressively violent fantasies; thoughts that terrify him to the point that he conceeds to seeing a psychiatrist, in spite of his aversion to letting someone poke around in his head, and his fear that word of his 'psychosis' could get out.  But what he wasn't expecting was to be told that suppressing his urges isn't the answer - he just needs to learn to channel them productively.

Relevant Information:

- Seems like this story could go in an abusive, heavily D/s, or misogynistic direction.  It won't.
- The idea is to get around to some sort of vigilantism eventually.  I have it in mind that neither character is exactly what they seem. Further details to be discussed.
- I put in 'he' as a placeholder, but either character could be either gender.
- Unlikely as it may seem, I don't want the relationship here to be exploitative or abusive.

[Erythrite]

Have a Heart

Never meet your heroes.

~ Criminal Underworld ~ Moral Ambiguity ~ Black Market Organ Harvesting ~ Revenge and Obsession ~
~ Modern Noir ~
~ M/F or M/M ~
~ Extreme ~

Malpractice.  A stain on a doctor's reputation so dark that some never recover from it.  Particularly if it's a stain they earn early on in their career.  Five years ago, a young doctor was faced with such a tragedy...even though he hadn't done anything wrong.  The mistake was made by his mentor; an older, established, respected medical professional who was effortlessly able to pass the mistake off on their young protege.  Now a medical examiner, the former MD has never forgotten how he was wronged; a wound made even worse by the close relationship he'd developed with his mentor.  So close, in fact, that one day he recognizes their work on a John Doe that comes through the morgue, which leads him down the unexpected rabbit hole of the criminal underworld.

His mentor is selling organs on the black market, and armed with information for blackmail, he demands a cut of the dirty money as reparation for the untimely end of his medical career.  Unfortunately, the black-market dealing wasn't exactly being done of his mentor's own free will, and now he's definitely involved too...whether he likes it or not.

Relevant Information:

- I'm imagining a weird dynamic between the two.  They snark, they snap, they claim to hate each other, they clearly don't.  I want the mentor to have had complex reasons for the betrayal and to regret it deeply, while the protege struggles with anger and the desire for revenge, but can't bring himself to truly dislike his former mentor.
- I have it in mind that the person blackmailing the mentor into organ harvesting is a relative; that there are familial crime ties there, which could have something to do with the malpractice issue as well.
- Could be M/M or M/F, as I imagine the younger of the pair/the protege as male, but the other could be either.  Open to both roles.