...you're going to need it.

I'm looking to put together a few one on one's and I'd just like to preface this by trying to explain just the kind of atmosphere I like in my stories. I like struggle, I mean struggle against impossible odds, I have killed more of my characters in mad acts of defiance and desperate last stands than I've had actually reach their final destination. And when they do make it to the end of story they are almost always a little broken. I adore stories about the power of the human spirit, I personally am stubborn to a fault and my characters will often reflect that trait to varying degrees of bullheaded. I am fascinated by the way characters can develop in the face of diversity whether they break or grow stronger, I want to watch them fall or grow, I don't want to see a character do a bad thing and suddenly become a bad guy. Go ahead and expect to see stories of people against difficult odds, characters that will be weak compared to the forces arrayed against them. Stories where the characters will likely be dragged through the mud, some might give up, but many will still keep crawling through simply because they have too. Stories that could, in a few circumstances, have two completely different characters by the time they're 'done'. Stories in which I can only promise the characters will have a simple camaraderie, like that of soldiers and survivors, but may still very well not like the other. 

Anyways I've likely failed to explain anything, if someone has a few words that would better describe my madness let me know. And now that I've run off half the folk who were reading, here's some plots.


[hider=World of Darkness]
[i]The life you lead is a Lie. Your darkest fears aren't make-believe. They're real.

We live our days completely ignorant of the true terrors lurking around us. Only rarely do our experiences draw back the veil of shadows and reveal the horror in our midst. These glimpses into the supernatural can cause us to retreat into comforting lies, “There are no such things as monsters” but once you've glimpsed this world of darkness there's no place to hide. 

You can't live in the same world as everyone else then, God how you'll want to, but it won't be possible anymore. Something will stir a morbid curiosity, a need to know, a need to find the truth. But you will never find the truth. There are no answers to the questions you'll have, only more questions. The best you can hope for is to gain some sense of how much you don't know. Each mystery will only lead to more mysteries. It's an endless labyrinth with no exit, and by the time you realize that the door you entered through will be gone.

Each shadow only hides more shadows.[/i]

These first few are centered around the World of Darkness, a setting that is designed to our world through a dark looking glass. The idea that we're alone, that we're at the top, that monster aren't really out there is all one big lie we tell ourselves. And when that lie is reveled you're forced to ask yourself if you're really seeing monsters or if you're just mad? And if they're are monsters where did they come from, what do they want, what can you do, can you do anything. It's a slippery slope into madness and death. Like I said some stories will have different characters and depending on how long a WoD game goes at least one character is going to die, one won't be entirely human anymore. WoD is one of the few games I know that keeps track of a characters Morality, because it's going to be called into question. After all what is a Monster really? The boy cursed with a terrible power that feeds on the nightmares he instills in others, or the man who puts a gun to that boys head believing the nightmares have gone to far? I like horror that makes me think, makes me ask questions, it's why many of the monsters and villains I create will have tragic elements to them. Not always, sometimes evil is just plain evil, but sometimes it's just doomed.

Anyways as to actual plots I don't have any synopsis for this setting, mostly because it's a very flexible setting. What I can say is that I've got a tendency to play male characters and generally they are of a similar vain (I apply to the 'write who you are' school of logic) and am looking for someone with female characters in this mad world. I want to create a story with a pair of characters who are, at the start, normal people. People who have been through something that changed their world. It won't have been pleasant or peaceful, it will ostracize them from friends and family, it will make them questions their own sanity. And most importantly it will drive them to ask questions, questions that will lead them to each other. They'll watch, study, learn, maybe even fight (my characters will almost always fight, it's a natural aggressiveness), and try to make sense of things going on around them.

From there the characters will develop. Eventually, and I want to stress eventually, they will fall, or rise depending on the situation. The might awaken to the forces of magic, one might be pulled away to the halls of the Fae only to returned Changed, one might decide to dedicate themselves to hunting monsters and protecting his city block or track of woods. One might even be the monster being hunted, or doing the hunting themselves.

I can also say that my mind is the country these days, I do a lot of camping in the summer and rural setting are always interesting places for me to start. As a former partner of mine said it's a natural direction for characters unsure of their sanity, or not sure if they saw something, or if they can even trust anyone. Whether both characters are travelers in a small town, hikers at the same campground, or what have you it's just an easy place for characters to stumble into one another without outside authority immediately getting involved. That said if you like the idea of WoD but hate the idea of a rural setting shoot me a PM and let me know I'm always willing to work with partners, after all it's as much my story as yours.
[/hider]


[hider=Apocalyptic]
So this one is actually a specific plot I cam up with a while back, and honestly I think it would work great as a group RP but I'm not sure I'd have time to run it and still want to see the story unfold. So hey if someone reads this and thinks "Hey it would make a good group Rp and I'd like to help GM it." let me know and I just might be convinced to give it a shot. Otherwise I'm happy to leave it a one on one.

The general idea was inspired by the fact that most apocalypse focus on everyone being mad, criminal, and out right depraved. Instead of circumstances where diversity often brings people together. The actual nature of the apocalypse won't be nuclear, viral, supernatural, extraterrestrial, or what have you. It will have been instability. It will be a collection of events mostly unrelated and isolated that collectively bring down the world order we know. In this madness I imagine many would try to gather with friends and family, they would move to hold out together in strong places to protect each other only to be struck down by new conditions. Famine breaks out at the same time as a new infection is raging the coast, one person decides to go home and help his family bringing that contagion with him, that sort of thing. But some simply wouldn't have anywhere to go, maybe they're family was claimed in the first wave, maybe they couldn't comprehend the danger and couldn't get out before it was to late, maybe they're simply stuck. Either way the story I imagined revolved around a single apartment complex, most of it would have emptied in the chaos but a few individuals, mostly unaware of the others existence have remained behind. From there they would band together, trying to survive this new mad world. 

Sure they're will be dangerous people they'll have to deal with but it won't be the largest problems. The real struggle will be asking themselves what they are willing to do to get through all of this. Things won't fix themselves and not everyone can always be saved or satisfied. So what do you sacrifice and what hope do you cling to when everything just keeps crumbling slowly.

Turns out I lied about it being a specific plot, but hey, I do that. Like I said before it's all about the struggle for me. Now I should mention that this idea doesn't require all characters be from the same apartment, perhaps your character is simply travelling through town when something happens and come to reside in the place I don't know and I'm not terribly particular. I just think it's an interesting setting to explore.
[/hider]


[hider=Fantasy.]
I did actually come up with a few Fantasy ideas the other day, most are partially inspired by Norse culture, music, poetry. This section of the interest check will be the shortest, but also the most tertiary in personal preference for starting.

The first idea is that of an old warrior, a man who struggled his entire life to earn his place beside the gods. All until his daughter was killed and the seers told him she wouldn't earn a place in Valhalla. Knowing her to be a warrior in her own right he forsook the battle field and instead traveled the world in search of a way to earn her a place in those halls. Until he was granted a vision from Hel who promised to barter his own place in Valhalla for his daughter to become one of the Valkyries. A bitter deal, but one he willingly signed in blood. So he returned to his life, robbed of his warrior spirit and spending his days toiling at the field and the forge until his age caught up with him. So when he died his spirit was taken into darkness and his daughter was made a Valkyrie, and though her former life was disjointed images she eventually comes to remember, at least in part her father, and when she can't find him among the fallen she eventually looks elsewhere until she finds him broken in darkest pit of hell. Breaking her oaths and forgoing her place she rides to free him, unaware of the doom it will bring to world. 

The two will battle against the world, she committed to freeing him, him to defend her from the hosts she angered in his defiance. How far would that bind carry them? Even when Ragnarok itself is waged due to their efforts would they still remain stalwart at one another's back? Would they remain loyal when the world burns?

I'll admit this is the most 'Feel good' story I have in mind, but goddammit sometimes I can be sentimental. Also before anyone gets pissed I know I've taken liberties with Norse culture, and I intend to take even more inside the story, but that's just to make everything flow a little better. 

I've got other ideas in this vein but I think my hand is starting to cramp so I'll add them later if I need to try and strum up some sxtra interest.
[/hider]

I should probably include all the requirement stuff here as well. I consider myself to be somewhere between the advanced and casual level by which I mean I like to think I'm a decent writer, but I won't pretend that I'm some master of grammar. Look over what I've written here and think of it as a template for my style, long-winded, a little disjointed, likely riddled with odd grammar issues, but full of ideas. I take my time on posts, usually 1 or 2 a week, and only hold my partners to the standards I set for myself. It's just an annoyance when I put several hours into a 5 paragraph post only to get a few lines back. I'm interested in the development of characters and so it's a rare thing when I'm not interested to know what they're thinking. Obviously I'm down with adult themes, I've no qualms with blood, violence, language, the works so long as it applies to the characters and the situation, I won't add things just because I want the story to be 'adult' I use writing to ask questions not sate some desire for pointless romance or smut. The characters will see horrible things, they'll do horrible things, but they'll also do good things, they'll laugh, they'll cry, they'll be people. Beyond that I can't think of anything pressing and I think I've done a thorough job of running folks off with a lack of clear point by point ideas. It's a talent really.

And frankly if none of this makes any sense to you but you think "Huh, this guy seems like he could be good to spin a story with." Just shoot me a PM and we'll see what we can do, even if it's outside what I've put down here. Honestly I couldn't even begin to write down my ideas, unless I just don't go to work. For like a month.