-
.......Our Next Fixation...With October gone, the cold of the PNW ahead and the warmth of Hawaii behind me, I find myself in need of a new fixation. Writing and reading alone can do the trick, of course, but it’s always more fun with another.Stories are richer, worlds deeper, and romance all the sweeter with another set of eyes on the same page. I like having another omnipotent voice in the clouds while our characters wander and fumble through the worlds we devise.Here you’ll find a bit about me, some offerings to your muse, and some cravings of my own. Only ‘Me & Thee’ is set in stone. Bring your ideas, mush and smudge whatever you find here, and let’s make something we can both spend the winter fawning over.─ ❦ ─
-
..
-
.....MeI’ve spent years in this hobby, and a few in the professional writing world. Classical literature and history were my major and my obsession; of course, I only seem to get mileage out of that degree here. Romance, worldbuilding, and good erotica all call to me. But I find this hobby at its best when we’re yapping about our characters, worlds, and arcs until sunup.• Currently on HST, soon to be PST.• M×F for this search.• Third person, past tense, with a fondness for wry narration.• Two replies a week, though a good story has been known to get the better of my time.• 400–3,000 words per reply; a starter can reach 5,000 when I’m enjoying myself.• Daily OOC, depending on the week and the latest round of jet lag.Aside from all this, trashy novels, comfy games, and questionable detours through unfamiliar lands take up the rest of my time.About meAll comms stay on site.─ ❧ ─A little about how I write, and what I’m hoping we’ll enjoy together.
-
.....Thee...• At least two replies a month, with OOC contact at least as often.• 300 words or more per reply.• Decent prose, grammar & spelling.• A few ideas to throw into the brainstorm, and an appetite for seeing what we make of them.It’s not a rule, but it’s a comfort to know a little about my writer when we’re brainstorming. What you tend to write, what keeps you engaged, what you want to see down the line.And of course, what mains you like to play. What makes you curious about ‘Her’, where’s your heart at? What’s the special ingredient you want to put in your next one? And what makes you want to keep writing someone? Why is ‘She’ still stuck in your mind after so long?My batch of character hooks for my mains is coming up in the next tab. Hopefully ‘Thee’ and ‘She’ will both find something they like in ‘He’.A little about the partner I’m hoping to find, and what we might make together.
-
-
.......HeThe man in commandHe is accustomed to making decisions and seeing them carried out. Wealth, rank, or sheer ability gives him the means. He expects to be obeyed.The dangerous manHis reputation is well earned, and he has few reservations about using it. His interest in her is deliberate, possessive, and difficult to discourage.─ ❖ ─The honourable manHe keeps his word, including when it costs him. She can rely on his courage and his care; persuading him to abandon a principle will take rather more work.The rakeHe knows how to make an evening memorable and a promise sound sincere. His past offers plenty of reasons to doubt him, which he considers an unfortunate disadvantage.─ ❖ ─The broken boyHe expects to be abandoned, and has learned to hide how badly he wants to be loved. With her, the defences start to slip. He is tender, fiercely attached, and frightened by how much she matters.The brilliant manHe has an absorbing profession and the sort of mind that makes conversation run late. Once something interests him, he gives it a rather inconvenient amount of attention.─ ❖ ─The golden boyHe makes his interest plain and thoroughly enjoys the business of courtship. He is good company, generous with affection, and quite capable of getting them both into trouble.The man under her commandShe has command of a man most people would be afraid to cross. He obeys with evident reluctance, and takes every liberty her instructions leave him.─ ❖ ─These are a few starting points. There’s plenty more I enjoy writing, and we can develop one of these men or come up with someone else entirely.
-
..
-
.....WorldsThe Free CitiesMerchant republics where a guild seal carries more weight than a family crest. Workshops guard their secrets; their owners are more forthcoming over dinner. Between the markets, bathhouses and festivals, a newcomer can find work, company, and a way into respectable society.The Privateer CoastAn island coast of rival flags and respectable fortunes made from captured cargo. Crews own shares in their ships. Captains recruit in the harbour taverns, where their former crews are usually available to offer an opinion.─ ✥ ─The City After MidnightTheatres and supper clubs keep the district awake. Upstairs, musicians share thin walls with actors waiting to be paid. A good opening can make a name; a review can undo it. Everyone meets at the same tables after the show.The Unquiet CollegeA remote university where lectures continue after their professors have died. The living share its libraries and dining halls with generations of former scholars. Some come for an education; others are sent by families willing to pay for a prolonged absence.─ ✥ ─The Leased SkyA city assembled from ageing space stations, where gravity is expensive and citizenship comes separately from a work permit. Engineers keep obsolete machinery alive. Brokers can arrange a better address, although the company may still own the hand that signs the contract.Above the WaterlineDecades after the flood, the capital lives in its upper floors. Children go to school by boat; markets spread across the walkways. Beneath them lie the old streets, workshops and family vaults, with ownership still very much in dispute.─ ✥ ─The Alpine SeasonA contemporary Alpine resort where private chalets overlook the flats rented by seasonal staff. Instructors, chefs and guides see the same guests return each year. After the lifts close, everyone ends up in the same few bars.Everybody KnowsA contemporary town where old classmates run the businesses and family names still open doors. There are weddings to attend, houses to restore and former lovers to avoid. News travels quickly, especially when someone comes home.─ ✥ ─Somewhere for them to live, work, and get into trouble.
-
.....ComplicationsA Promise Called InThey’ve promised a guest protection. An old patron demands they hand the guest over to settle an enforceable debt. The guest admits the offence; refusing would put their own standing at risk.The Price of a CureThey’ve found a cure for a curse that steals memories: pass it to someone else. Whoever profits from the original bargain is hiding another answer, while the patient begins forgetting them.─ ※ ─A Prize Worth WinningThe prize is the only charter for a promising enterprise. Winning means demonstrating their work under rules their rivals know how to exploit. Sponsors want a say; someone well connected wants their best idea.An Order to EvacuateThey have transport, but the evacuation order comes late and a route is already gone. Officials are requisitioning vehicles. Word spreads about their spare seats; they still need somewhere safe to go.─ ※ ─The Miracle Was a FraudThey staged a miracle for a fee. Now pilgrims bring their savings and a priest wants a repeat performance. They could confess, but a great many people have paid for this to be true.An Inheritance with ConditionsA property comes with a condition: keep it open another year. Staff have been promised their jobs, but the accounts suggest otherwise. A buyer keeps improving the offer for the land.─ ※ ─Somebody Is TalkingPrivate letters, accounts or recordings are being released in instalments. Some embarrass; others could ruin people. Whoever is responsible knows which secrets they most want kept, and still has more to publish.The Wrong Side of the DoorAn ordinary door opens into an inhabited place whose occupants have been expecting visitors. Someone has already crossed over. Keeping it secret becomes difficult when things start coming the other way.─ ※ ─An Offer ElsewhereOne is offered the work they’ve wanted for years, far away. Leaving would put the other in a difficult position; staying means deciding what they are staying for. The offer cannot wait.Trouble to start a story, or interrupt one already underway.
-
.....Chemistry.❦PairingsProtector × ProtectedRuler × RebelMercenary × ClericMaster × ServantOutlaw × InnocentHunter × HuntedSceptic × MediumPirate × StowawayActor × ScriptwriterBoss × EmployeeCelebrity × PublicistGuide × VisitorLocal × Newcomer❧DynamicsCorruption & temptationCaretakingBlackmail & leverageAn idol up closeUnder one roofDifferent worldsA personal rivalryIntellectual intimacyRoles and relationships. M×F for this search; no preference for which role is his or hers.
-
-
.......Current FixationsThe Two Most Wanted People in the RoomSpy × Spy · ContemporaryThey’ve spent years foiling each other’s assignments and poisoning each other’s relationships with useful contacts. It’s even come to blows once or twice, and the two certainly have enough dirt on each other to fill a fresh graveyard. Their last encounter nearly left them both in it.This latest bout looks set to end much like the last: one clocks the other casing a hotel, and it turns out they’re both trying to protect the same target. They clash again in the lobby and elevator, each accusing the other of trying to poach a contract. Only to find their employer dead in the room they were heading for.The cops arrive too fast, and the exits are too well guarded. It’s clear they’ve been set up, burned, and marked for the graves they so readily threatened each other with. Now they’ve only got each other, and a world to travel before they can clear their names.─ ✧ ─The Duchess’s Worst AllyYounger noble × Duchess · Court dramaShe’s a duchess disgraced at court, suspected of involvement in the late Duke’s death. She hasn’t been exiled and retains her lands, but she lacks the support of the people and her fellow courtiers. It’s a position she can’t survive for long. She’s drowning in the silence. Business grows harder to conduct, and wolves nip away at her estate. Certainly, the Duke’s family is no help.He is the black sheep of one of the most prominent houses in the land, young as they come and a hit with the people. And, rumor has it, he’s pissed his fortune away in a matter of months. The ideal man for her to catch and use to regain her place at court. She envisions a nice winter of courting him, followed by a spring of renewal and a fall spent stabbing all those backstabbers in the gut. She might even iron out some of his rough edges.What she isn’t prepared for is who he is outside the ballroom: volatile, violent, and distressingly distracting in the bedroom.But he’s her only chance back into noble life, and she’s his only way out of debt. Their romance will be gossip fodder for all of Europe.─ ✧ ─The Enforcer and the DetectiveEnforcer × Detective · Pinkerton era / 1960sHe’s a heavy for one of the largest gangs in the New World. A violent man with no family or ties to the area, and seemingly next to nothing to lose. Practically the worst type of man to press into service as an informant. But she, one of the first women in the department, thinks she’s found an in.She’s gotten close enough to see that dead look behind his eyes. The same gaze she sees in the mirror each morning. He’s hurting, maybe even vulnerable enough to fall for her act and spill something important. But when lines get crossed and things start being left out of her reports, no one can really tell who is leading whom down that dark road.─ ✧ ─An Expedition in Bad CompanyCaptain × Guide · Arctic, 1901He’s hired to recover a missing Arctic expedition, and she’s the noblewoman whose criticism almost cost him his commission. She also happens to be the very best guide to the region, with enough connections to leave the crew wondering who’s running the show.But when fresh tracks lead inland, the mission becomes a rescue rather than a recovery. For once, they agree to press on. They’ll face the harsh winter and another eight months on the ice, without the warmth of their ship or even the certainty of their own survival.─ ✧ ─The King’s Unusual RewardPrisoner × Knight · Political fantasyShe’s a farmer’s daughter who earned her knighthood, an estate, and a place at court. Her campaigning days are over; now come silk gowns, dinner parties, and a house of her own. The king has even supplied her with a well-seasoned man to make the introductions and teach her to dance.But he’s a disgraced rake, barely tolerated in the drawing rooms he once charmed. He still knows everyone she needs to impress, and enough about them to remain dangerous. The king has put his visits and correspondence in her hands, and made it clear that helping her is no longer a matter of preference.Whether she’ll carry the knightly standard into the ballroom and come back out unscathed isn’t clear. But they’ve both got no choice but to try.─ ✧ ─A Refuge for the DefeatedGeneral × Doctor · Russia, 1923She’s a doctor who supported the Reds and now tends to a quiet Cossack village. A woman who cheered for the revolution until they began killing the daughters of old kings and untold numbers of young men fighting for the Whites. He’s a wounded White general, poorly disguised, who’s just stumbled into town.While tending to him, she confirms his identity and, at needle and syringe point, makes him a deal: help her rebuild the ailing town and surrounding countryside, and she’ll keep his true identity to herself. Together they’ll see what sins of the past and the future they can forget or forgive, and figure out how to carve out a future for themselves.─ ✧ ─Twelve Years LateCaptain × Pilot · Science fictionShe was presumed dead twelve years ago, after her freighter vanished into a nebula. He was her favorite engineer at her home port, a little station on the edge of known space. Now her transponder has been picked up as she emerges from a pocket of uncharted space. To her, it’s been only a few weeks.It’s his voice that greets her with a warning hail from a small fleet of barely functioning ships. When they see one another on the viewscreen, they both get a shock. He sees the woman he’s dreamed of these last twelve years, untouched and unchanged. She sees the grizzled, scarred face of a soldier who, just a few weeks ago, looked too innocent and pure for this sector.Ask for details; I’ve plenty of directions I could see this one going.─ ✧ ─The stories I’m most keen to write. Tell me which catches your eye, and what you’d enjoy bringing to it.