You enter the realm of Chaos Incarnate. A place where naught but the most perverse and deviant find release and satisfaction. A place where hearts swell to burst, and sighs of longing become grunts of passion.
Welcome traveller. The Chaos King expects great things from you.
"Below lies my challenge, but if any brave and devious soul wishes to CHALLENGE me with machinations of their own design—in the same twisted flavors, let them step forward, and present their case boldly."
"No expense has been spared by the Turbulent One in gracing your eyes with every detail possible for the depraved journey ahead. Prepare to use said eyes to absorb the terms of the challenges presented."
"The Twisted One is not without consideration for thrill seekers. Below each spoiler, ye shall find small guides detailing the themes of each quest. Do well to peruse them, and use them to gauge your compatibility and lust for the challenges as they are posed."
_Chaos King Damage of the Inner Sanctum.
PLOTS
"Welcome to The Mire, contestants. It matters not how you arrived here. How, and if you will leave—however, are all that matter."
We've all heard of competitions, sport, entertainment. More often than not, these events feature willing contestants that have their sights set on a beneficial or enriching prize. There are times however, that the competitors in these events want to do anything but participate; the prize too, could be something as absurd as their inalienable right to draw breath. Now, imagine a sick and twisted experience that thrill-seeekers could willingly enter. One that it's organizers aren't afraid of feeding aloof and unwilling contestants into, as well.
That is The Mire
THE MIRE
In one sentence, it is the place where decency and normalcy go to die, all for the sick thrills of those who would pay to relish the sights of the unfortunate souls within it, as they struggle to keep themselves sane and alive.
The scale of The Mire itself is not fixed, nor are the varieties of challenges, horrors, sensuous delights and adventures, that are possible within it. Those details are for you and I to craft together till the point where we have an original creation fit for our tastes. Whether it's a sick gauntlet of events organized in a fantasy medieval environment, one that could rival—even put the ancient Gladiator Games of the Roman Empire to shame, or a planet of wonders manged by powerful organizers in a futuristic world with a thriving intergalactic community of intelligent beings; The Mire can be crafted anyway we see fit.
The constants of it are the themes of willing or forced participation, public entertainment of deviant souls through recorded transmissions, open and direct viewing of events, or a combination of these to match whatever setting and era we choose, too. The competitive nature of the environment is also a constant. Our contestants would find themselves in a world that closely mimics the wild that beasts call home, only, in this case, it would be engineered for the sentient and intelligent beings that they are. From it's comforts and rewards, to it's challenges and it's seductive traps. Even the psychological strains and the tough decisions, the emotional and relationship management too. Every aspect of it would be designed to push our contestants to their very limits.
Only the most wilful will survive long enough to begin to make sense of the place, and of those, only the most driven would be able to meet whatever parameters are stipulated to earn their rewards.
The souls in The Mire, I envisioned to be as diverse as possible. From the unfortunate victims who find themselves swept into it's depths for one reason or the other (prison sentence waiver, opportunity to regain their status as free men, outrightly 'harvested' from their peaceful and sensible lives then dumped into The Mire as fodder), to the arrogant thrill-seeekers that could rival the Yautja of the Predator franchise; beings who prepare hard for the travails of The Mire, and willingly enter it as a rite of passage, or in the pursuit of excitement, thrills, and of course, worthy prey.
For scale, like I said earlier, it could be something large enough to be a whole planet, and the events themselves spanning the entire life of our competitors for the duration of their stay; their wins, losses, relationships and growth, demise as well. Of course, it could also be something of a more robust 'Gladiator Games'; featuring captive slaves and willing professionals, and or thrill-seeekers seeking a tasty monetary and fame reward. It could be legal—sanctioned by the powers that be, or something that happens away from their reach—like underground fight and racing clubs.
Well, I think the concept should be clear now. Of course, I'm open to any questions if that isn't the case.
PERMUTATIONS
To Fame or Ruin: It's a medieval setting with the 'Expanded Gladiator Games' trope. It could feature fantasy elements to whatever degree, or not have it at all. The competitors here would be composed chiefly of captives and slaves, but of course, like the games of old, there could be one or four seasoned champions that have even become free men and professionals in it. Plus, there's always an opportunity for hungry journeymen and women on the path to glory and fame. The games held in The Mire are very public, and are sanctioned by the powers that be.
For sensitive reasons, the games have been established to distract the masses. What from? That could be anything. From the stifling straits of oppressive rule, to the fact that the powers that be are gradually thinning in influence and capacity. Of course, the games would have to 'go on' to be effective, as well as continue to remain exciting with higher stakes and fresh content. More woes for our contestants.
We could play any of the moving parts in this scenario. From the overstressed tyrants in power—who have the unsavoury task of keeping a revolt at bay by curating potent distractions in the form of the games, to competitors who have their own motivations and circumstances of arrival in The Mire.
Unusual for me, but I'll drop a few potential pairings for this flavour below:
Famous Contestant X Enamoured Noble/Despot: Pretty self-explanatory. There are a few ways we could play this that I can think of right now, and I'm sure that there are even more flavours than that possible. Whether it's the trophy wife of a mad despot with both mystic and feudal powers picking an interest in a very interesting contestant, or it's the mad despot himself that takes a fancy to one unyielding fireball in The Mire. Either way works fine for me.
Gamesmaster X Despot/Noble: With the threat of incursion and collapse becoming more apparent everyday, the ruler realizes that to hold on to power, the games would need to be good enough to keep the people happy, and the royal coffers filled—even in hardening times. Naturally, this would push the ruler to take an interest in the show-runner's work. How well the latter performs, would have damning power over the stability of the ruler's fragile rule. What kind of relationship would evolve here though; considering that the gamesmaster would have plenty of their own headaches to deal with? Would it be authoritative? Frictional? Plus, how about the contestants, the games itself, and the stressors threatening the fragile balance of power?
Contestant X Contestant: Yep. Through fair means or foul, both our mains find themselves in The Mire. How would they coexist? Would they develop a mutually beneficial partnership, or would they grow to become fierce rivals—whose passionate rivalry drives the excitement of the games to a fever pitch?
Bring your own!
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Life in The Mire: This setting would be much broader in scope. This time, the games in The Mire are continuous, and the entertainment factor of it is the life of the contestants IN The Mire.
The Mire itself would span a very wide area. It could be a designated planet if we're going with the futuristic/sci-fi flow, or a designated alternate dimension/realm—id we want to keep the fantasy angle.
Like the previous setting, our choices of characters are broad, this time, I would even say broader. We could play contestants, organizers, and the whole backdrop of the world away from The Mire. The political landscape and all of that. I'm not going to drop pairings here, because they would honestly be ridiculous in the face of the sheer vastness of the possibilities.
Things to Expect: Fantasy, Politics, Statecraft, Action, Adventure, Horror, Violence, Competition, Sci-fi, World-building, Survival, Romance, Tension, Futuristic, Medieval, Power Struggles, Slavery, Narrative Bigotry.
Remark: "A challenge worthy of the Twisted one's burning gaze. Step forward and accept it, you might just feel that igniting gaze cast upon your soul."
"There is no greater tragedy, than for the hunter to become the hunted."
Humans have always been fickle creatures, and through the ages, this enduring blemish on human character looks poised to remain. If you ask what remains of the Stygian League's Harbingers, none was more guilty of that ugly trait, than the Stygian League itself.
This is the tale behind it.
In a medieval world where humans have to coexist with the astonishing reality of magic and exotic beings, the human communities often find themselves in a skewed competition. While the humans were not without magical adepts and scholars of their own, said people tended to keep to themselves, if they weren't as oppressive to their fellow humans, as much as the mystics.
That was not to say that humans were languishing at the bottom of the food chain. After all, the human territories occupy most of the land, and the sheer number of human souls available, is a testament to the fact that humans were thriving inspite of the odds. The thing though, was that these highlighted facts created a juicy outlook for those who saw humans as prey, livestock; chief offenders being the vampires who crave their lifeblood.
Over the years, struggles and skirmishes would ensue, shifting the balance of power one way, or the other. However, the constant remained that the humans lost more people compared to their foes. While it only took a decade or five for people to replenish those numbers with new life, the ones lost were still people. People with dreams, ambitions, and loved ones who sometimes never recovered from the shock of losing them. This provided ample fuel for the humans to keep pushing, to continue developing and working on reducing the disparity on the plains of battle.
Before long, the strides they made became noticeable to the other races. While the vampires and other predatory races faced the brunt of their wrath, the other races, even the aloof ones soon took notice of the rising humans and their seething determination to resist maltreatment. Naturally, the battered exotic races registered urgent rousing calls to the other ones. The playthings were getting tired of being pushed around, and not only were they fighting back now, they were getting pretty good at it too. How long before their blossoming crusade spread to encapsulate anyone who wasn't them?
The responses were divided. Outside the bluffs and rebukes, no mystic race could deny that humans were no longer the semi-placid creatures that they once were; however, since they made clear efforts to limit their scattered offensive campaigns to their overreaching neighbors, the unaffected mystics were not eager to rally behind their suffering comrades. After all, they knew the risks when they decided to be banal enough to mentally reduce highly intelligent creatures, to the status of livestock. Now that the consequences were coming, they should face it with the same bravado that they provoked them with.
In short, responses to the rallying cry were minimal and lukewarm at best. Everything seemed set for the resisting human settlements to complete a strong and definitive victory over their bullies. That was until the infamous Day of the Thundering. It was a bleak day for the humans. A day when they saw the entire mystic community unite against them, with the intent of decimation. It was the day that birthed the seeds of the Stygian League, and the day that the humans resolved that coexistence was no longer an option. It was them against the world.
In reality, a great vampire sorcerer had woven a powerful mind-control spell, to forcefully puppet the participants from neutral races; but the stunned humans were neither aware, nor sympathetic to that in the face of their staggering losses. Recognizing the need for a united front, the Stygian League was formed. The humans shut themselves off from any outside communication, thus, thwarting the worried attempts of the victimized puppets to offer condolences and declare their innocence.
The League, swollen with indignation and a strong sense of community—fostered by the will to survive, rallied the broken remains of the struck human settlements. Hearing of the League's formation, bereaved and terrified humans fled into it's compact and venomously protected territory of Stygia. Even the ambitious vampires thought twice about testing it's borders. The effectiveness of the Thundering relied on the element of surprise, as well as the fact that humans were feudal and scattered. Now, with a united front and an indignant guard, it would be unwise to test them.
The Vampire Despot figured that he would leave them to cool off. Humans were fickle, they forgot things. All it would take was a century or two, a sneeze for he and others of his kind. Besides, after his stunt with the Thundering, it was safe to say that neutral races were no longer neutral. Sure, they weren't allies of the humans—simply because he ensured to engineer enough loss and chaos, that the humans would lump all mystics into one disgusting category. However, they were certainly no allies of the mystic aggressors which he led, either.
The way he saw it, it was only a matter of time before the humans made their move. They had such short lives, after all. After that, it would be a matter showing the rest that it really was the mystics against the humans. Necessity would force the rest, and he would have his new allies and reinforcements, like he originally planned to get with the failed rousing calls. All he had to do was fend off his angry mystic neighbors before that happened, which shouldn't be too hard. He would lose a few people, but he was bound to gain a lot more when his schemes fell into place.
The League certainly took it's time, and at some point, the Despot thought that cooler heads were prevailing. Perhaps, the humans would not retaliate after all. Maybe they would simply cut their losses, and learn from their mistake of posing a scattered and weak resistance before. No matter, another attack would easily force their hand. It would be costly, but it would be worth it in the end. He just had to pick his time and spot carefully.
What he and the other mystics didn't know, however, was that the League had spent the last two and half decades preparing it's revenge; crafting the ultimate tools of retaliation. The Harbingers.
THE HARBINGERS
Conceived for the very purpose of war, these warriors have been prepared, fortified, augmented, and trained from birth in the various ways of war. With a confluence of the once scattered human settlements—came a large repository of knowledge. It was no longer a situation where a settlement most used to, and adept at resisting were-beings, would be surprised by a horde of vampires. Now, with the league's formation, the best techniques employed against every kind of mystic were gathered, refined, and ingrained into the fibres of every Harbinger.
They varied in skill and stature, but the one thing common to them all, is the fact that they were bred to be the ultimate weapons of humanity against the mystic bullies. They had witches in their ranks, hunters too, even were-beings and augmented hybrids of desirable quality. Their objective; destroy the mystic hegemony completely. No, infact, it was safe to say that this directive was more than their assignment. It was the very definition of their life.
The day the League struck, they caught the mystics by surprise. The League's warriors were better trained, better armed. The Harbingers weren't the only military achievements that a united human front produced. Now, threatened by the harsh horrors of the Thundering, the once aloof or prosecuted human communities of magic, eagerly joined the others in the fight. The League stunned the Mystics with an assault of unprecedented scale. It was the Thundering again, only this time, it was the mystics that found themselves routed and harried.
The one difference between the Thundering and the League's retaliation, however, was the Harbingers. While the League's main forces occupied the scattered and ill-prepared mystic resistance, the Harbingers went right for their heads. Generals, monarchs, rulers and their ilk. The most influential and powerful mystics found themselves facing an onslaught of a new breed of humans that simply began to overwhelm them.
As the battles stretched into months, the relentless press of the League's advances began to yield very visible signs. With mystic dignitaries dropping dead at the hands of a faceless and terrifying new human force, the opposing mystics soon realized that they've overreached for the last time. In horror, they turned to diplomacy, but were met with the same indignant wave of annihilation at the hands of the League's forces.
Capitulating the mystic opposition, was the disappearance and reported demise of the Vampire Despot who started this madness. That his demise only seemed to fuel the League's determined efforts instead of quell them, told the mystics that nothing short of extinction or unconditional surrender, would pacify the seething League.
It was over.
The unfortunate mystics who were once neutral, and roped into the mess by the now absent despot, put it upon themselves to negotiate an end to the slaughter. They didn't want war with the humans before, they still didn't want war with the humans now. They managed to secure a parley— where they offered a simple solution to the conflict; the neutral band of mystics understood the breach of trust that the humans felt. They would hold no grudge—inspite of their own losses, but instead, work towards showing humans that coexistence was possible. That, or at the very least, amicability.
The neutral mystics offered to relocate any neutral mystics that didn't want to be subjugated under humans, to another realm; one that would take a lot of work to convert to something similar to what they would lose. Those who wanted to stay behind could do so; to either work to show humans that not all mystics were uncivilized trash, or to continue to rally in favour of a long lost war against the ascending League.
The League accepted these terms, and a few exoduses later, the war was basically over; human ascension and dominance secured. The scattered pockets of resistance were nothing that the League's main forces couldn't handle. As for the remaining neutral mystics, they planned to work hard to repair human trust and bonds, and the League planned to watch them closely—an arrangement that worked for both parties.
What about the Harbingers though? The heroes of retribution returning back home to Stygia, after their campaign? Well, turns out that the League figured that it was best for everyone if they were disposed of. In their reasoning, the Harbingers, were more tools than people. While they were heroes to the Stygian populace, they would struggle to adapt to society, and a life without the purpose for which they were created. Like all devastating tools of war, the smartest thing to do, was to dispose of them as soon as they have served their purpose; and if there comes a time after, when the Harbingers were needed again, the League's specialized unit could always produced fresh ones.
The truth? The League didn't want to think of a situation where the slaughterer of their bullies would turn against them.
The League couldn't outrightly pronounce decommissioning the Harbingers though. To do that to heroes would spark public outcry. The League infact, had to champion the cause of welcoming and rewarding these weary heroes, who—in reality, have been fighting the good fight since their first breath. With secret 'failsafe' sigils embedded in every Harbinger, bringing them down was not necessarily that hard for the League's agents. It was just a matter of activating the 'self-destruct' spell, and all of the target Harbingers' energies, would be turned against them. However, the League couldn't be seen lining up heroes, and activating said sigils.
So how do they go about it?
They decided to test their new and desperate mystic allies. With public hate for mystics still rank, nobody knew who the good ones were, or believed that they were any. As far as they were concerned, they were all the same damned bunch. The League could use that to it's advantage. They charged their mystic allies with the task of disposing of the Harbingers. It would be a move beneficial for all. After all, the Harbingers were designed to eliminate the best of mystics.
The plan was set into motion. The Harbingers would be part of the last to withdraw from the front. It was all designed to give the agents enough cover for the move. When the move came into play, it caught the Harbingers off guard. They found themselves falling prey to some weird new magic that their assailants used to nullify what should have been an overwhelming disadvantage. It took the decimation of their ranks for the magically adept amongst the Harbingers to figure it out.
The League had betrayed them. It was glad to send them out to war against powerful opposition, and now that they were victorious, it deemed the Harbingers too powerful to tolerate. Retreat was the only option. The sigils were activated by contact, so while not the easiest thing to do, it was quite feasible, and it took many of the small number of Harbingers falling for that to become obvious.
And so it begins.
If you read all of that, I love you already!
Let's get down to permutations.
PERMUTATIONS
Death to all Tyrants!: It is in the very nature of the Harbingers to sniff out and quell oppression. This makes them the bane of tyrants. When the newest tyrants turn out to be their patron League itself, the remnants of the Harbingers refuse to balk. After evading, then hunting down, and eliminating the tools of their destruction, the Harbingers set their sights on the League's heads themselves. Perhaps, they were no better than the mystic bullies.
Here, we could play traumatized and betrayed Harbingers, a band of them, or any of the wide range of options available in the tense landscape that the sudden unexplained demise (according to the League's authority) of the heroes, would create.
Shattered: Here, one or both of us play a Harbinger faced with the grim reality of their situation. Instead of acting on their vengeful impulses, they decide to fade into a quiet life amongst the populace. Do they succeed? If so, how do they hold up to the cryptic changes that have rocked their very being? Would the hounding exterminating agents of the League catch up to them?
Dark Resurrection: The Vampire Despot returns. Either from hiding, or revived through great sacrifices from the jaws of hell itself. Returning along with him is an incalculable rage and thirst, as well as the cunning to systematically tear the League apart in retaliation. How would the League react to this revelation—knowing that Harbingers take a lot of time and dedication to make? Would it resolve to hunt down the rest of the seething and betrayed Harbingers for reconciliation and aid? Would it bite it's fingers in horror at it's terrible miscalculation, fearing that the Harbingers would now join the Despot's crusade against the League, and even if they don't officially band together, their combination might be the League's death knell?
Bring your own!
Things to Expect: Medieval, Fantasy, Betrayal, Warfare, Action, Adventure, Violence, Power Struggles, Narrative Bigotry, Complex Characters, Statecraft, World-building, Romance, Vengeance, Occultism, Magic.
Remark: "Who?! Who is the brave soul that would accept this challenge with charming resolve?"
"On the ladder of success, there are three main ways to get to the top; you can either grit your teeth and take on each rung at your own pace, hitch a ride on a climber's back, or, you can cheat! Get a grappling hook, take aim at a "higher-up", pull yourself up in no time at all, and even knock them down in getting there, to replace them."
In a time when humans have made the dreams of majority of their ancestors a reality; In a world where equality, peace and responsibility for one and all, has gone from being mere fantasy concepts to stark reality; where the prosperity of society is paramount and it's many vices are weeded and extinguished with the vigor of the blazing sun; a radical revolution is at hand!
Utopia, the world in question, is a community that mankind has been craving for as long as social and awareness had become a "thing". Following arduous years of hardwork, revolutions, deals, entreaties and legislation; Utopia has not only become a reality in the fundamental state that the unfortunate men and women who had lived in a fractal world during their time— and yearned for it, had imagined it; it has even manage to become an all consuming singularity, that has long since surpassed the expectations of those people.
Accountability is something that no individual is immune to. The laws of the land are sacrosanct in the hearts of it's inhabitants after generations of exhorting their benefits, and enforcing them with an iron fist and without prejudice. Advancement in technology and social "structure", has reached a point that most "sci-fi" movies of the not overly distant past depicted. All in all, it seemed an el-dorado! However, it happens not to be the only surviving human community left on an earth that is now much "different" to the one that comes to mind. There is a community out there for the "rejected".....the ones who have rejected Utopia and it's ideals either directly; by flat out doing so, or practically, by breaking it's sacred laws (of which the slightest breach will result in unconditional exile at the very least).
"Dystopia" is what the immaculate figures of Utopia call it. However, the inhabitants of this other world refer to it as the "Badlands". The Badlands is the exact opposite of Utopia. For the detailed to the letter structure of Utopia, there's the "disorganized to the grain" feel for the Badlands. Equality is a laughable concept there, as the rules of "Natural Selection" or more recognizably "Survival of the fittest" are still very much at play. All in all, the Badlands is everything that Utopia is not....and certain denizens of it are getting restless. They want the goodies, the cool tech and the ridiculous resources of Utopia. However, they don't care much for the structure that makes it possible and maintains it - and going by their rules, they're ready and willing to TAKE those things for themselves!
Alright, that oughta give you the basics for the world I have in mind, but if that intro isn't robust enough for you, I've got you covered. I'll recommend reading this to get a clearer picture of the worlds, but I understand that some people can get impatient when excited.
I don't set anything in stone, nor do I like to play by a script. However, since the delivery system I find myself using these days involves an introduction of the "settings" mostly, I feel the need to add some possible uses for the settings I've painted out so vigorously. Again, they're not the only possible ones, and are not set in stone. I don't wanna see any PMs alluding to any of those two things above, so please!
Okay? We're good? Let's go:
The wolf and the sheep with fangs: One of our primary characters is a Dystopian, and belongs to a sect existing there, that's hellbent on TAKING the goodies from their Utopian counterparts, by fair means or foul. Personally, I dig playing a Dystopian male for this flavor, but am very open to playing a Utopian as an adventurous foray. (in the original story that this setting was conceived for, I played the Dystopian male in it.)
The other character, is a Utopian who's on the fringes. There are tons of possibilities on how they meet, what their interactions would be and what impact it would have on the plot. Of course, my PMs are open, so discussions to hash out those particulars are welcome.
Two rights can make a crook: Both our primary characters are Utopians, perhaps both, but at least one of them is on the fringes. One of them seeks an exit from Utopia and it's overbearing self, and directly or indirectly, drags the other along. For this flavor, it can be that one of our characters gets themselves banished - intentionally or otherwise, and the other finds themselves reluctantly following suit, for reasons that can range from love to a bunch of other shit.
Two crooks can make an even bigger crook: An alternate version of the flavor above. Both of our primary characters are Dystopians, one or both of them belonging to the rebellious sect. They could both be hungry, badass revolutionary wannabes, that are intent on transforming the potential energy of; loathing the Utopian council, lusting after Utopia's resources, and the fantasies of having those resources in their grasp that come with them, into action aimed at making these fantasies become a reality. (It doesn't hurt too, that they can become legendary pioneers in the eyes of their Dystopian brethren, by doing so.)
Again, it could be just one of the pair being involved with the rebellion, with the other one being connected in a way. The non-involved individual could be an active supporter of the rebellion, a passive supporter, or an unphased neutral party. Again, they could be against the "folly" of the whole thing, and even hellbent on getting the involved character out, before they incur the wrath of the all powerful Utopian council.
The original flavor: The loose idea behind the original story that birthed this plot, had my character (a Dystopian male who's a member of the rebellion) plot along with his buddies on how to hit the Utopian council where it would hurt the most. After much deliberation, they arrived at the decision to kidnap the Chancellor's daughter! How they would achieve that feat, even they couldn't agree upon or figure out, as the Chancellor and his family amongst that of other council members, are under number one guard.
Unable to forge ahead with their plot due to the resulting indecision and division, they would remain quiet with the plan. That was until MC catches a lucky break and decided to go solo on the mission. Turns out that the Chancellor's daughter is one of the "fringe" Utopians. Since the structure of Utopia and the sorry decay of social interactions between it's inhabitants on a realistic and intimate level has become apparent, it was only natural for the council to introduce a "dating app" to ease the process of securing viable mates through a medium the Utopians are more comfortable with. (The average Utopian might not be able to even deal with the stress of conversing freely with another one that they don't have any crisp messages to pass across to in person, at work. Even that too, is a rarity. To think of asking such people to engage in physical, romantic endeavors with people they barely know in person).
The app itself worked quite well for the Utopians, and ensured that they had a trickling but viable birth rate through natural, biological means. However, the bland, characterless men that filled it and Utopia as a whole, were sickening to the Chancellor's daughter. She was irritated and desperate for a breath of fresh air. The last straw that would've made living in Utopia tolerable to her flailing spirit, would've been to connect with a like-minded person....not being able to do that was.... frustrating, dangerously so, to the point that it began filling her head with ideas; equally dangerous ones.
From here, there are a variety of ways she can make the connection with the wrong man. There's the fact that she could just hack the app (under the nose of the council's regulations for an amount of time) to extend her search to Dystopian and "sub-Dystopian" men as well. In the original plot, MC and her were actually playmates. He's Utopian by birth, but had to flee at a very young age when the council saw it fit to "off" his parents to keep their mouths shut on a secret. The particulars of which would be made known to you during the story should we take this route.
Anyways, with this in mind, it could be MC who actively seeks out her profile on the app, hacks it, contacts her under a Utopian alias, and begins the process of getting her smitten with his false image, (which shouldn't be too hard to do since she's already quivering for someone with flair and identity) perhaps adding in bits of what he could recall of her childhood likes and using it to estimate what her adult preferences would be. Either way, it would end up with a mutually planned visit to her residence (she'll take care of the security systems) from him....only that the first meeting in person between them wouldn't end like she anticipated.
I'm thinking, she has no idea who he is as Dystopia has wrought it's air of spirituality and reckless freedom on him. She would ultimately get kidnapped, and it would serve as the real starting point of the story and their journey. There would be heavy themes here, other than the kidnapping, there's her introduction to the Badlands with people who HATE her guts for what she is....then, there's the fact that MC is absolutely no longer the sweet, mischievous boy he used to be. Expect some serious corruption and exploitation of the mental and physical variety here. I don't see this one going vanilla anytime quick, if at all really.
And oh, the Utopians would not take it lying down at all, so, guess I've done enough there.
In a time when humans have made the dreams of majority of their ancestors a reality; In a world where equality, peace and responsibility for one and all, has gone from being mere fantasy concepts to stark reality; where the prosperity of society is paramount and it's many vices are weeded and extinguished with the vigor of the blazing sun; a radical revolution is at hand!
Utopia, the world in question, is a community that mankind has been craving for as long as social and awareness had become a "thing". Following arduous years of hardwork, revolutions, deals, entreaties and legislation; Utopia has not only become a reality in the fundamental state that the unfortunate men and women who had lived in a fractal world during their time— and yearned for it, had imagined it; it has even manage to become an all consuming singularity, that has long since surpassed the expectations of those people.
Accountability is something that no individual is immune to. The laws of the land are sacrosanct in the hearts of it's inhabitants after generations of exhorting their benefits, and enforcing them with an iron fist and without prejudice. Advancement in technology and social "structure", has reached a point that most "sci-fi" movies of the not overly distant past depicted. All in all, it seemed an el-dorado! However, it happens not to be the only surviving human community left on an earth that is now much "different" to the one that comes to mind. There is a community out there for the "rejected".....the ones who have rejected Utopia and it's ideals either directly; by flat out doing so, or practically, by breaking it's sacred laws (of which the slightest breach will result in unconditional exile at the very least).
"Dystopia" is what the immaculate figures of Utopia call it. However, the inhabitants of this other world refer to it as the "Badlands". The Badlands is the exact opposite of Utopia. For the detailed to the letter structure of Utopia, there's the "disorganized to the grain" feel for the Badlands. Equality is a laughable concept there, as the rules of "Natural Selection" or more recognizably "Survival of the fittest" are still very much at play. All in all, the Badlands is everything that Utopia is not....and certain denizens of it are getting restless. They want the goodies, the cool tech and the ridiculous resources of Utopia. However, they don't care much for the structure that makes it possible and maintains it - and going by their rules, they're ready and willing to TAKE those things for themselves!
Alright, that oughta give you the basics for the world I have in mind, but if that intro isn't robust enough for you, I've got you covered. I'll recommend reading this to get a clearer picture of the worlds, but I understand that some people can get impatient when excited.
UTOPIA: for all it's glamour and glitz, has made concessions to basic human nature, in order to ensure that "everyone" gets the best life possible. Yes, they have the unreal resources, the breathtaking buildings and technology too. However, they also have their absolute "laws" and "structure". Not to mention their plethora or "regulations" and "vice-checks", that have reduced it's inhabitants to virtually spiritless men and women, with no sense of identity, and the social skills of an awkward ten year old! Hedonism of any sort is strongly frowned upon, and almost every material (including babies or... err, the fluids and chemicals that, err, produce them or facilitate their abundant production) are intensely controlled.
The control of some of these resources, is public knowledge. Others however, are restricted to the knowledge and discretion of the council and it's trusted associates. Of course, due to the fragility of mind that comes with living in a cocoon of rules and regulations, practically all the inhabitants are very happy to follow them without question, translating in their thoughts, to living "abundant" and well "regulated" lives. (They can't imagine a life without rules, structure and certainty, since they were born into one with them. Consequently, the very idea of leaving Utopia, scares the Jesus out of em.)
However, there are those in Utopia, who are living on the fringes. Some who can't stand the fragility of mind, lack of identity, and suppression of spirit and freedom. Sometimes, they end up in Dystopia, other times? Well, they hang on there, and in some cases, they simply vanish! (Turns out that the council are not the total angels that they appear; hey! Social engineering is hard, okay? Sometimes, it gets very messy with ugly decisions to be made, like eliminating cancerous outgrowths and... oops! Said too much already.)
DYSTOPIA: is caught up in the gloom of dealing with a world suffering from mother Earth's fury, in addition to its own decadent and lopsided structure. Turns out that Utopia has been mining so much from mother Earth to fuel their own prosperity, that her wounds have finally roused her to retaliation. Toxic clouds, acid rains, sudden powerful storms and radiation bursts are just a few of the surprises that depict the wails of mother Earth's agony. However, it would appear that the Badlands and it's inhabitants, are infact, the ones paying for it! (How smart of Utopians to put a "Halo" over their sprawling metropolis. A tasteful forcefield that protects the land and it's "refined" air from the worst of mother Earth's fury.)
I'm sure I don't need to say it that the denizens of the Badlands, the Utopian council, and think of it's "pussy" citizens as subhuman and artificial.
While slums dominate Dystopia, it has its own fair share of ritz and glamor. Sprawling skyscrapers or estates that exhort hedonism. Places mostly owned and controlled by the "Big Dogs" who have "obtained" them, most likely through illegal means. Businessmen and women and also, remorseless predators who seek to squeeze every measly penny out of the Dystopians in their "territory" (who they practically view as property) through their; often unreasonable taxes (that never seem to improve the "hoods"), and the provision and synthesis of a variety of sweet poisons drugs, drinks, name it! All these in addition to providing convenient opportunities and apparatus, for the practicing individuals of the "flesh arts" and their greedy customers.
It's practically the custom of Dystopians to play hard and long into the night, to try to forget their ambient and choking gloom for at least the quarter of a day. Infact, hedonism isn't just a cultural drive in the Badlands, it's a fucking necessity to most as a coping mechanism.
The control of some of these resources, is public knowledge. Others however, are restricted to the knowledge and discretion of the council and it's trusted associates. Of course, due to the fragility of mind that comes with living in a cocoon of rules and regulations, practically all the inhabitants are very happy to follow them without question, translating in their thoughts, to living "abundant" and well "regulated" lives. (They can't imagine a life without rules, structure and certainty, since they were born into one with them. Consequently, the very idea of leaving Utopia, scares the Jesus out of em.)
However, there are those in Utopia, who are living on the fringes. Some who can't stand the fragility of mind, lack of identity, and suppression of spirit and freedom. Sometimes, they end up in Dystopia, other times? Well, they hang on there, and in some cases, they simply vanish! (Turns out that the council are not the total angels that they appear; hey! Social engineering is hard, okay? Sometimes, it gets very messy with ugly decisions to be made, like eliminating cancerous outgrowths and... oops! Said too much already.)
DYSTOPIA: is caught up in the gloom of dealing with a world suffering from mother Earth's fury, in addition to its own decadent and lopsided structure. Turns out that Utopia has been mining so much from mother Earth to fuel their own prosperity, that her wounds have finally roused her to retaliation. Toxic clouds, acid rains, sudden powerful storms and radiation bursts are just a few of the surprises that depict the wails of mother Earth's agony. However, it would appear that the Badlands and it's inhabitants, are infact, the ones paying for it! (How smart of Utopians to put a "Halo" over their sprawling metropolis. A tasteful forcefield that protects the land and it's "refined" air from the worst of mother Earth's fury.)
I'm sure I don't need to say it that the denizens of the Badlands, the Utopian council, and think of it's "pussy" citizens as subhuman and artificial.
While slums dominate Dystopia, it has its own fair share of ritz and glamor. Sprawling skyscrapers or estates that exhort hedonism. Places mostly owned and controlled by the "Big Dogs" who have "obtained" them, most likely through illegal means. Businessmen and women and also, remorseless predators who seek to squeeze every measly penny out of the Dystopians in their "territory" (who they practically view as property) through their; often unreasonable taxes (that never seem to improve the "hoods"), and the provision and synthesis of a variety of sweet poisons drugs, drinks, name it! All these in addition to providing convenient opportunities and apparatus, for the practicing individuals of the "flesh arts" and their greedy customers.
It's practically the custom of Dystopians to play hard and long into the night, to try to forget their ambient and choking gloom for at least the quarter of a day. Infact, hedonism isn't just a cultural drive in the Badlands, it's a fucking necessity to most as a coping mechanism.
PERMUTATIONS
I don't set anything in stone, nor do I like to play by a script. However, since the delivery system I find myself using these days involves an introduction of the "settings" mostly, I feel the need to add some possible uses for the settings I've painted out so vigorously. Again, they're not the only possible ones, and are not set in stone. I don't wanna see any PMs alluding to any of those two things above, so please!
Okay? We're good? Let's go:
The wolf and the sheep with fangs: One of our primary characters is a Dystopian, and belongs to a sect existing there, that's hellbent on TAKING the goodies from their Utopian counterparts, by fair means or foul. Personally, I dig playing a Dystopian male for this flavor, but am very open to playing a Utopian as an adventurous foray. (in the original story that this setting was conceived for, I played the Dystopian male in it.)
The other character, is a Utopian who's on the fringes. There are tons of possibilities on how they meet, what their interactions would be and what impact it would have on the plot. Of course, my PMs are open, so discussions to hash out those particulars are welcome.
Two rights can make a crook: Both our primary characters are Utopians, perhaps both, but at least one of them is on the fringes. One of them seeks an exit from Utopia and it's overbearing self, and directly or indirectly, drags the other along. For this flavor, it can be that one of our characters gets themselves banished - intentionally or otherwise, and the other finds themselves reluctantly following suit, for reasons that can range from love to a bunch of other shit.
Two crooks can make an even bigger crook: An alternate version of the flavor above. Both of our primary characters are Dystopians, one or both of them belonging to the rebellious sect. They could both be hungry, badass revolutionary wannabes, that are intent on transforming the potential energy of; loathing the Utopian council, lusting after Utopia's resources, and the fantasies of having those resources in their grasp that come with them, into action aimed at making these fantasies become a reality. (It doesn't hurt too, that they can become legendary pioneers in the eyes of their Dystopian brethren, by doing so.)
Again, it could be just one of the pair being involved with the rebellion, with the other one being connected in a way. The non-involved individual could be an active supporter of the rebellion, a passive supporter, or an unphased neutral party. Again, they could be against the "folly" of the whole thing, and even hellbent on getting the involved character out, before they incur the wrath of the all powerful Utopian council.
The original flavor: The loose idea behind the original story that birthed this plot, had my character (a Dystopian male who's a member of the rebellion) plot along with his buddies on how to hit the Utopian council where it would hurt the most. After much deliberation, they arrived at the decision to kidnap the Chancellor's daughter! How they would achieve that feat, even they couldn't agree upon or figure out, as the Chancellor and his family amongst that of other council members, are under number one guard.
Unable to forge ahead with their plot due to the resulting indecision and division, they would remain quiet with the plan. That was until MC catches a lucky break and decided to go solo on the mission. Turns out that the Chancellor's daughter is one of the "fringe" Utopians. Since the structure of Utopia and the sorry decay of social interactions between it's inhabitants on a realistic and intimate level has become apparent, it was only natural for the council to introduce a "dating app" to ease the process of securing viable mates through a medium the Utopians are more comfortable with. (The average Utopian might not be able to even deal with the stress of conversing freely with another one that they don't have any crisp messages to pass across to in person, at work. Even that too, is a rarity. To think of asking such people to engage in physical, romantic endeavors with people they barely know in person).
The app itself worked quite well for the Utopians, and ensured that they had a trickling but viable birth rate through natural, biological means. However, the bland, characterless men that filled it and Utopia as a whole, were sickening to the Chancellor's daughter. She was irritated and desperate for a breath of fresh air. The last straw that would've made living in Utopia tolerable to her flailing spirit, would've been to connect with a like-minded person....not being able to do that was.... frustrating, dangerously so, to the point that it began filling her head with ideas; equally dangerous ones.
From here, there are a variety of ways she can make the connection with the wrong man. There's the fact that she could just hack the app (under the nose of the council's regulations for an amount of time) to extend her search to Dystopian and "sub-Dystopian" men as well. In the original plot, MC and her were actually playmates. He's Utopian by birth, but had to flee at a very young age when the council saw it fit to "off" his parents to keep their mouths shut on a secret. The particulars of which would be made known to you during the story should we take this route.
Anyways, with this in mind, it could be MC who actively seeks out her profile on the app, hacks it, contacts her under a Utopian alias, and begins the process of getting her smitten with his false image, (which shouldn't be too hard to do since she's already quivering for someone with flair and identity) perhaps adding in bits of what he could recall of her childhood likes and using it to estimate what her adult preferences would be. Either way, it would end up with a mutually planned visit to her residence (she'll take care of the security systems) from him....only that the first meeting in person between them wouldn't end like she anticipated.
I'm thinking, she has no idea who he is as Dystopia has wrought it's air of spirituality and reckless freedom on him. She would ultimately get kidnapped, and it would serve as the real starting point of the story and their journey. There would be heavy themes here, other than the kidnapping, there's her introduction to the Badlands with people who HATE her guts for what she is....then, there's the fact that MC is absolutely no longer the sweet, mischievous boy he used to be. Expect some serious corruption and exploitation of the mental and physical variety here. I don't see this one going vanilla anytime quick, if at all really.
And oh, the Utopians would not take it lying down at all, so, guess I've done enough there.
Things to expect: Sci-fi, Post-apocalyptic, Cyberpunk, Corruption, Degradation, Hedonism, World-building, Dysfunctional Relationships, Master/Slave dynamics, Kidnapping, Combat, Warfare, Romance, Power Struggles.
Remark: "A favoured soul currently engages the Twisted One in this challenge. However, there is room for probably one more with a new take as opposed to what is already established with said soul."
"See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil, do no evil. If evil is all you SEE however, may the gods be with you."
The Serpent's Tail; a guild of some of the most powerful magic users and manipulators that the world has ever known. It's been a group shrouded by the thick cloak of secrecy and mystery through the ages. At different points in history though, they seem to pop right out of blue, forsaking the shadows to perform mysterious, elaborate rituals that make no sense to the non-initiate. During these times, their anonymity becomes a bit of a farce. Their resurgence is usually announced to the world by a rash of occult practices and unbridled witchcraft. Flying masses of figures on the nights of a full moon, sacrificed victims ceremoniously placed in public places with bone-chilling carved symbols and or inscriptions on the dump-sites.
Over the decades of their on and off flirtations with infamy and prominence, the two recurring themes that appear in the evidences of their rash occultic sprees, are the words "The Serpent's Tail" usually closely followed by the second one, a carved image of a serpentine head with jaws wide apart and fangs bared. Many have opposed this cult over the ages, not much is known about their them or their objectives, and just when it seems that the opposition are learning about them, they vanish; leaving the world to moan about their rampage for a year or two before forgetting about them once again.
It's been fifty or so years since the commencement of yet another one of their hiatuses, with this one happening to be the longest one yet, in recent history at least. Not many alive today, know even fleeting details about their dangerous escapades, and the few who may know might've forgotten or aged so much that it no longer means anything to them.
The landscape has changed for sure, but the cult remained the same.....the time is ripe now, ripe for their ultimate goal. There will be no fuss, no errors and most importantly, no outside interference.
My main character for this plot is an assassin that belongs to another shadowy sect known as "The Order of Crows". He's pretty much your standard-issue self-serving, lightning-witted and dangerous assassin. The Crows have their own fair share of history and mysticism, but seeing as they're "professional first", they're not nearly as "flashy" as the Serpent's Tail, and are therefore, practically non-existent to anyone outside their circle.
After attaining independence from the "nest" and becoming a "Solo Crow" that can now keep his earnings and build a reputation for himself barely two years ago, things were looking up for MC. The pay was good, the jobs were good and HE was good. He was also building a reputation too... fast. Life could only get better, right? Well, he thought so too, until he was introduced to "VISIONS". "Ludicrous dreams" he called them, "side effects" of killing for a living, he concluded.
For three weeks, he was plagued by a variety of three visions, one for each week; of a nude woman (also one for each week) sprawled artfully on different dump-sites. Each one had inscriptions and occult symbols and mumbo-jumbo written in her own blood! At first, he didn't take the visions seriously (he's a afterall), but by the fifth week, when the vision of the fifth woman seemed to plague him every other minute to the point of insanity, he was frustrated beyond belief.
An attempt to clear his mind with a long ride on his bike, would lead him to the biggest surprise yet. Two hours and zero stress lifted into the ride, he mysteriously found himself at the site where the fifth woman in his vision was dumped; it was no fanciful vision afterall. Confused and irritated, he decided to study the inscriptions. He came to the conclusion that there was one last ritual to be done, the final one too, that would unleash whatever menace this "Serpent's Tail" plans to unleash upon the world. Like he fucking cares if some dowdy cult wants to party!
He turned away in disgust and bam! Another vision, a different one, and it's not even the sixth week yet. But wait! The woman he saw in the latest vision was still alive, and for some reason he couldn't explain, the vision stung a lot more urgency to his bones than all the last ones combined.
It didn't take a genius to figure it out, whatever was gracing him with these visions, was showing him the cult's final target, and would not give him any respite until he found her. What would he do when he finds her though? Should he put her in a hammerlock? Interrogate her abrasively on pain of having her life snuffed with relish if she doesn't cooperate? Prevent her from becoming victim number six?
WHAT?!
So, obviously, the visions are coming to try to make MC prevent YC from becoming victim number six. Although, being the self-centered bastard that he is, despite knowing in his gut that it's for this reason, he just might go ahead and execute all the other thoughts that popped into his head on finding her. Even if just to spite the visions he's been plagued with for unknown reasons.
YC is a blank slate for you to fill, however, here are some pointers on who she could be and some tropes we could involve, with their effects on the plot. We can cherry pick any of these, then mix and match em together, or with something we conceive on our own during OOC discussions if we please.
Regular, but not regular: She looks, behaves like and actually believes that she's your regular chick. However, unfortunately for her, she has some properties that would make her the cult's most important target. She's unaware of course.
I see their relationship being one with a lot of friction; she most likely won't believe him at all, and he sure as hell will make her see hell for it. Overtime though, the cult rears its ugly head, and maybe her hidden properties blossom too. Either way, they both learn the hard way the the cult isn't messing around.
I can do it myself!: YC's special qualities are known to her and she's far from being the damsel in distress. Again, more of that delicious frictional dynamic to explore here. They both might even agree that she doesn't need his help, only to learn the hard way that the cult and the visions are not to be taken for granted.
Tit for tat: MC approaches it with a business-like flair (nevermind that relief from the visions should be payment enough) and makes YC offer him something in return for his help. The object of the transaction is entirely up to us; money, sex, help with the obviously abnormal visions that are a symptom of a far greater anomaly in MC himself, all or a mixture of the above? Something else? Let's get wild here!
I think the initial friction between them is bound to happen no matter what she is and how their relationship evolves, so.... definitely more of that here too.
We're in the same fucking boat!: In this flavor, YC is aware of the changes bound to seize MC as his visions are a result of him possessing "The eyes of Sangra", the visions are merely the beginnings of his manifestation of power. (Haha! Guess he's not as footloose as he thought)
Turns out that the eyes are both a blessing and a curse. They grant their bearers certain powers and a state of existence that surpasses plain humanity, however, all these at certain costs to them, one of which is the vulnerability to losing control occasionally. One thing with assassin's though, control is EVERYTHING! MC can't stand the idea of randomly going berserk because of a potential power in his eyes. It's not too hard to believe YC because, well, the visions, and the visions are already driving him nuts!
Hey! For us, it's for better or worse: This one is a little something I thought up to possibly spice things up. It can be used in conjunction with any of the flavors above, or any other one we think up on our own. It's simple really, our characters are soulmates, bound together with a bond so powerful, it transcends the concepts of realms, space and time.
The consequence of this is that they end up feeling attraction towards each other, no matter how much they hate each other's guts or how they can't stand the other. It might explain the urgency in MC's bones to reach her before the cult as well.
One of them might be aware of this fact, perhaps they're reincarnated in some way or other....meh, there's too many branches to type down with this shit lol.
The Serpent's Tail; a guild of some of the most powerful magic users and manipulators that the world has ever known. It's been a group shrouded by the thick cloak of secrecy and mystery through the ages. At different points in history though, they seem to pop right out of blue, forsaking the shadows to perform mysterious, elaborate rituals that make no sense to the non-initiate. During these times, their anonymity becomes a bit of a farce. Their resurgence is usually announced to the world by a rash of occult practices and unbridled witchcraft. Flying masses of figures on the nights of a full moon, sacrificed victims ceremoniously placed in public places with bone-chilling carved symbols and or inscriptions on the dump-sites.
Over the decades of their on and off flirtations with infamy and prominence, the two recurring themes that appear in the evidences of their rash occultic sprees, are the words "The Serpent's Tail" usually closely followed by the second one, a carved image of a serpentine head with jaws wide apart and fangs bared. Many have opposed this cult over the ages, not much is known about their them or their objectives, and just when it seems that the opposition are learning about them, they vanish; leaving the world to moan about their rampage for a year or two before forgetting about them once again.
It's been fifty or so years since the commencement of yet another one of their hiatuses, with this one happening to be the longest one yet, in recent history at least. Not many alive today, know even fleeting details about their dangerous escapades, and the few who may know might've forgotten or aged so much that it no longer means anything to them.
The landscape has changed for sure, but the cult remained the same.....the time is ripe now, ripe for their ultimate goal. There will be no fuss, no errors and most importantly, no outside interference.
My main character for this plot is an assassin that belongs to another shadowy sect known as "The Order of Crows". He's pretty much your standard-issue self-serving, lightning-witted and dangerous assassin. The Crows have their own fair share of history and mysticism, but seeing as they're "professional first", they're not nearly as "flashy" as the Serpent's Tail, and are therefore, practically non-existent to anyone outside their circle.
After attaining independence from the "nest" and becoming a "Solo Crow" that can now keep his earnings and build a reputation for himself barely two years ago, things were looking up for MC. The pay was good, the jobs were good and HE was good. He was also building a reputation too... fast. Life could only get better, right? Well, he thought so too, until he was introduced to "VISIONS". "Ludicrous dreams" he called them, "side effects" of killing for a living, he concluded.
For three weeks, he was plagued by a variety of three visions, one for each week; of a nude woman (also one for each week) sprawled artfully on different dump-sites. Each one had inscriptions and occult symbols and mumbo-jumbo written in her own blood! At first, he didn't take the visions seriously (he's a afterall), but by the fifth week, when the vision of the fifth woman seemed to plague him every other minute to the point of insanity, he was frustrated beyond belief.
An attempt to clear his mind with a long ride on his bike, would lead him to the biggest surprise yet. Two hours and zero stress lifted into the ride, he mysteriously found himself at the site where the fifth woman in his vision was dumped; it was no fanciful vision afterall. Confused and irritated, he decided to study the inscriptions. He came to the conclusion that there was one last ritual to be done, the final one too, that would unleash whatever menace this "Serpent's Tail" plans to unleash upon the world. Like he fucking cares if some dowdy cult wants to party!
He turned away in disgust and bam! Another vision, a different one, and it's not even the sixth week yet. But wait! The woman he saw in the latest vision was still alive, and for some reason he couldn't explain, the vision stung a lot more urgency to his bones than all the last ones combined.
It didn't take a genius to figure it out, whatever was gracing him with these visions, was showing him the cult's final target, and would not give him any respite until he found her. What would he do when he finds her though? Should he put her in a hammerlock? Interrogate her abrasively on pain of having her life snuffed with relish if she doesn't cooperate? Prevent her from becoming victim number six?
WHAT?!
PERMUTATIONS
So, obviously, the visions are coming to try to make MC prevent YC from becoming victim number six. Although, being the self-centered bastard that he is, despite knowing in his gut that it's for this reason, he just might go ahead and execute all the other thoughts that popped into his head on finding her. Even if just to spite the visions he's been plagued with for unknown reasons.
YC is a blank slate for you to fill, however, here are some pointers on who she could be and some tropes we could involve, with their effects on the plot. We can cherry pick any of these, then mix and match em together, or with something we conceive on our own during OOC discussions if we please.
Regular, but not regular: She looks, behaves like and actually believes that she's your regular chick. However, unfortunately for her, she has some properties that would make her the cult's most important target. She's unaware of course.
I see their relationship being one with a lot of friction; she most likely won't believe him at all, and he sure as hell will make her see hell for it. Overtime though, the cult rears its ugly head, and maybe her hidden properties blossom too. Either way, they both learn the hard way the the cult isn't messing around.
I can do it myself!: YC's special qualities are known to her and she's far from being the damsel in distress. Again, more of that delicious frictional dynamic to explore here. They both might even agree that she doesn't need his help, only to learn the hard way that the cult and the visions are not to be taken for granted.
Tit for tat: MC approaches it with a business-like flair (nevermind that relief from the visions should be payment enough) and makes YC offer him something in return for his help. The object of the transaction is entirely up to us; money, sex, help with the obviously abnormal visions that are a symptom of a far greater anomaly in MC himself, all or a mixture of the above? Something else? Let's get wild here!
I think the initial friction between them is bound to happen no matter what she is and how their relationship evolves, so.... definitely more of that here too.
We're in the same fucking boat!: In this flavor, YC is aware of the changes bound to seize MC as his visions are a result of him possessing "The eyes of Sangra", the visions are merely the beginnings of his manifestation of power. (Haha! Guess he's not as footloose as he thought)
Turns out that the eyes are both a blessing and a curse. They grant their bearers certain powers and a state of existence that surpasses plain humanity, however, all these at certain costs to them, one of which is the vulnerability to losing control occasionally. One thing with assassin's though, control is EVERYTHING! MC can't stand the idea of randomly going berserk because of a potential power in his eyes. It's not too hard to believe YC because, well, the visions, and the visions are already driving him nuts!
Hey! For us, it's for better or worse: This one is a little something I thought up to possibly spice things up. It can be used in conjunction with any of the flavors above, or any other one we think up on our own. It's simple really, our characters are soulmates, bound together with a bond so powerful, it transcends the concepts of realms, space and time.
The consequence of this is that they end up feeling attraction towards each other, no matter how much they hate each other's guts or how they can't stand the other. It might explain the urgency in MC's bones to reach her before the cult as well.
One of them might be aware of this fact, perhaps they're reincarnated in some way or other....meh, there's too many branches to type down with this shit lol.
Things to Expect: Occultism, Magic, Kidnapping, Dub-con, Exploitation, Mutualism, Violence, Horror, Gore, Power Struggles, Adventure, Action, Dark-fantasy, Dysfunctional relationships, Combat, Soulmates, Romance.
Remark: "Another challenge with a current taker. Fear not though, the Twisted One would take another request for it."
"We all have them, we all want them, and with a nudge in the right direction, we all will succumb, to the weaknesses of the flesh."
No one saw it coming, and no one could've even conjured up the scenes of madness that now fill the earth in their varied states and numbers. Humans, like other organic life-forms, are governed by "drives". Needs, wants, and aspirations that decide where and how they spend their energy, consciously or unconsciously.
It's simple really; the concept of action and reward. Living organisms grow, derive nourishment and energy, and in some cases, are able to maintain body heat - IF they eat the right things regularly and I the right amounts. Continuity of life is ensured when living organisms reproduce, dominant individuals with respect to physical and mental attributes, control the resources of the environment and utilize th to their maximum benefit. So many things along that line.
The more complex an organism is, the more "varied" and equally complex their drives become. Sitting at the bottom of the ladder are the unicellular organisms - by far, the easiest to satisfy. On top of the ladder though, the species that dominate the earth, sit proudly, humans. Intelligence breeds complexity, and the stress if confirming to social and moral standards, puts incredible strain on people. Everyone knows the "right" things to do in their communities in some capacity. However, sometimes, the "right" things to do aren't always what an individual wants to do.
They try their hardest to conform anyway, for various reasons ranging from scorn to punishment....all in all, civilization prevails. What happens however, when all the inhibitors that regulate men and keep them from obliging their deepest desires are obliterated? What then?
An extraterrestrial alien population embeds itself into a small asteroid headed for earth. Not all of the sojourning party survive the entry into earth's atmosphere, however, the most important member did; their queen!
Landing in a remote location did the aliens a lot of good, that their asteroid vessel was relatively inconspicuous, did them even more good. The humans though, were no better for those two things. Why are the aliens here? What do they want? Well, if there were any answers to those questions, they were not to be supplied by the oblivious human population, in a world that could've gone on, unchanged and unscathed.
Unfortunately, that wasn't meant to be. It started with a rash of outbursts of unbridled hedonism in hedonistic centers. People losing it and partying WAY harder than usual. Religious leaders frowned at the spike in the population of youths "going astray", governments and communities shifted uncomfortably, when the numbers of kept rising, and the parties became a lot more frequent.
"It's the devil! He's here!" - "It's the media! They're killing our future!" - "Shut down those nightclubs and fleshpots already!" - "Crackdown on the gangs and cartels!" - "Regulate all weapons!"
The cries and opinions of the of the older heads were as incessant as they were varied. The youths were demonized, and could only find solace in the one thing that ruined their reputation; the unexplainable urges to be "wild!" "Out there!" "free from all constraints." It wasn't long though, for the older heads who once berated them, and the much younger ones who were unconcerned with the whole buzz, began to get the same "vibes", and fall victim to the same malady that has befallen the vibrant youths. What began as just the urge to be merry and party, was soon to spiral into a mass orgy of recklessness and selfish destruction wrought on flesh, emotions, property and lives to name a few casualties.
By the time the scientific community caught on to what was happening, four out of every ten individuals, were infected with "alien looking pathogens that do not match any known life-forms on earth, and do not respond to any chemical concoctions they could muster." Further tests on these lawless individuals revealed that "the aliens are intelligent, and the rate of mental and moral deterioration of their hosts, varies with the hosts' mental strength, and the evolutionary state of the pathogens themselves."
Of course, many found their findings hard to believe (perhaps, because the aliens didn't come in glorious battleships and brandished superior tech). Others wanted more from the braniacs. Ultimately, however, the political jitterbugs and social indecision, capitulated in a full blown apocalypse of the highly contagious condition dubbed HCHS (Highly Contagious Hedonistic Syndrome), propagated by standard virus transmission means.
Governments are universally known to be shady. Keeping the public in the dark most often than not, when "sensitive" matters are involved. It was bo different in this case. A highly classified global coalition was formed in the aftermath of the first wave of the invasion. The "Winback" coalition it was called. Turns out that the intensely working scientists, have found out a lot more about the aliens than they were letting on.
Like how the species have a hive mentality, and derive nourishment and a strangely magnified pool of power, from the endorphins that they mine from their infected hosts' bloodstreams. They also know that the aliens evolve very quickly - too quick to design a lasting vaccine for. The aliens are also known to be able to flood the minds of their hosts, with primal impulses to seek pleasure and gratification without restraint....to facilitate their mining operations of course. That explains the ugly scenes of people fucking each other like wild beasts, bashing heads in, or just commiting wanton vandalism and the likes without any restraint, and with little rest, till they expire from the strain of their exertions.
The best bit of information that they were able to pry however, is that the aliens appear to be linked by some sort of telepathic or psychic connection, to each other and to a much larger entity. This larger entity, they dubbed the queen. From that point onwards, it appeared to be really straightforward. All they had to do, was to find this "queen" and eliminate it before every single person on earth, is reduced to a fodderized version of themselves. That's how the Winback Corps came to being.
The mission looked simple enough at first, however, due to the highly contagious nature of the disease, and the fact that mental conditioning appeared to be the only thing that worked well against the aliens (they die pretty quickly and horribly once in a host - if they don't get what they came for; something that won't happen if a host actively or passively resists their evil entreaties to madness).
The corps took five years to train and innoculate it's members and operatives with a concoction of experimental vaccines. Mental training and in some cases, reprogramming was also in order. All that effort was directed at helping the agents resist the disease; how wrong to think that it'll all that it takes to get to the queen.
The human-sized entity with a psychic and telepathic bandwidth that would make NASA cringe. She waits patiently in the burrow she made underground. From there, she directs traffic and orchestrates the proceedings and escalation of the invasion and fodderization of the human race.
Operations have been put in place to locate and destroy her. However, her psychic and telepathic abilities constantly put her nothing less than two steps ahead of her pursuers. Her pursuers have managed so far, to stay clear of her parasitic and potent spores, but they're thinning in number, year after year, day after day.
She has plans for them though, the survivors, but not just them, the unfortunate ones who have fallen prey to her spores and were yet to expire too.
It's a blank slate for both of us to fill up however we please. The choices are quite robust here for us, our characters can be anything from an infected person struggling with the disease, to a member of the corps that's hellbent on saving the human race. Hell, they could even be a warlord taking advantage of the broken societal and moral landscape, or even a vigilante out for justice.
I strongly suggest that we play multiple characters here though, not just with side characters, but at least "sub-mains" if you catch my drift. I feel that we'd be able to really maximize the potential of this setting that way, especially since we'd be viewing the twisted landscape through the eyes and minds of different people.
No one saw it coming, and no one could've even conjured up the scenes of madness that now fill the earth in their varied states and numbers. Humans, like other organic life-forms, are governed by "drives". Needs, wants, and aspirations that decide where and how they spend their energy, consciously or unconsciously.
It's simple really; the concept of action and reward. Living organisms grow, derive nourishment and energy, and in some cases, are able to maintain body heat - IF they eat the right things regularly and I the right amounts. Continuity of life is ensured when living organisms reproduce, dominant individuals with respect to physical and mental attributes, control the resources of the environment and utilize th to their maximum benefit. So many things along that line.
The more complex an organism is, the more "varied" and equally complex their drives become. Sitting at the bottom of the ladder are the unicellular organisms - by far, the easiest to satisfy. On top of the ladder though, the species that dominate the earth, sit proudly, humans. Intelligence breeds complexity, and the stress if confirming to social and moral standards, puts incredible strain on people. Everyone knows the "right" things to do in their communities in some capacity. However, sometimes, the "right" things to do aren't always what an individual wants to do.
They try their hardest to conform anyway, for various reasons ranging from scorn to punishment....all in all, civilization prevails. What happens however, when all the inhibitors that regulate men and keep them from obliging their deepest desires are obliterated? What then?
HCHS
An extraterrestrial alien population embeds itself into a small asteroid headed for earth. Not all of the sojourning party survive the entry into earth's atmosphere, however, the most important member did; their queen!
Landing in a remote location did the aliens a lot of good, that their asteroid vessel was relatively inconspicuous, did them even more good. The humans though, were no better for those two things. Why are the aliens here? What do they want? Well, if there were any answers to those questions, they were not to be supplied by the oblivious human population, in a world that could've gone on, unchanged and unscathed.
Unfortunately, that wasn't meant to be. It started with a rash of outbursts of unbridled hedonism in hedonistic centers. People losing it and partying WAY harder than usual. Religious leaders frowned at the spike in the population of youths "going astray", governments and communities shifted uncomfortably, when the numbers of kept rising, and the parties became a lot more frequent.
"It's the devil! He's here!" - "It's the media! They're killing our future!" - "Shut down those nightclubs and fleshpots already!" - "Crackdown on the gangs and cartels!" - "Regulate all weapons!"
The cries and opinions of the of the older heads were as incessant as they were varied. The youths were demonized, and could only find solace in the one thing that ruined their reputation; the unexplainable urges to be "wild!" "Out there!" "free from all constraints." It wasn't long though, for the older heads who once berated them, and the much younger ones who were unconcerned with the whole buzz, began to get the same "vibes", and fall victim to the same malady that has befallen the vibrant youths. What began as just the urge to be merry and party, was soon to spiral into a mass orgy of recklessness and selfish destruction wrought on flesh, emotions, property and lives to name a few casualties.
By the time the scientific community caught on to what was happening, four out of every ten individuals, were infected with "alien looking pathogens that do not match any known life-forms on earth, and do not respond to any chemical concoctions they could muster." Further tests on these lawless individuals revealed that "the aliens are intelligent, and the rate of mental and moral deterioration of their hosts, varies with the hosts' mental strength, and the evolutionary state of the pathogens themselves."
Of course, many found their findings hard to believe (perhaps, because the aliens didn't come in glorious battleships and brandished superior tech). Others wanted more from the braniacs. Ultimately, however, the political jitterbugs and social indecision, capitulated in a full blown apocalypse of the highly contagious condition dubbed HCHS (Highly Contagious Hedonistic Syndrome), propagated by standard virus transmission means.
THE WINBACK CORPS
Governments are universally known to be shady. Keeping the public in the dark most often than not, when "sensitive" matters are involved. It was bo different in this case. A highly classified global coalition was formed in the aftermath of the first wave of the invasion. The "Winback" coalition it was called. Turns out that the intensely working scientists, have found out a lot more about the aliens than they were letting on.
Like how the species have a hive mentality, and derive nourishment and a strangely magnified pool of power, from the endorphins that they mine from their infected hosts' bloodstreams. They also know that the aliens evolve very quickly - too quick to design a lasting vaccine for. The aliens are also known to be able to flood the minds of their hosts, with primal impulses to seek pleasure and gratification without restraint....to facilitate their mining operations of course. That explains the ugly scenes of people fucking each other like wild beasts, bashing heads in, or just commiting wanton vandalism and the likes without any restraint, and with little rest, till they expire from the strain of their exertions.
The best bit of information that they were able to pry however, is that the aliens appear to be linked by some sort of telepathic or psychic connection, to each other and to a much larger entity. This larger entity, they dubbed the queen. From that point onwards, it appeared to be really straightforward. All they had to do, was to find this "queen" and eliminate it before every single person on earth, is reduced to a fodderized version of themselves. That's how the Winback Corps came to being.
The mission looked simple enough at first, however, due to the highly contagious nature of the disease, and the fact that mental conditioning appeared to be the only thing that worked well against the aliens (they die pretty quickly and horribly once in a host - if they don't get what they came for; something that won't happen if a host actively or passively resists their evil entreaties to madness).
The corps took five years to train and innoculate it's members and operatives with a concoction of experimental vaccines. Mental training and in some cases, reprogramming was also in order. All that effort was directed at helping the agents resist the disease; how wrong to think that it'll all that it takes to get to the queen.
THE QUEEN
The human-sized entity with a psychic and telepathic bandwidth that would make NASA cringe. She waits patiently in the burrow she made underground. From there, she directs traffic and orchestrates the proceedings and escalation of the invasion and fodderization of the human race.
Operations have been put in place to locate and destroy her. However, her psychic and telepathic abilities constantly put her nothing less than two steps ahead of her pursuers. Her pursuers have managed so far, to stay clear of her parasitic and potent spores, but they're thinning in number, year after year, day after day.
She has plans for them though, the survivors, but not just them, the unfortunate ones who have fallen prey to her spores and were yet to expire too.
CHARACTERS
It's a blank slate for both of us to fill up however we please. The choices are quite robust here for us, our characters can be anything from an infected person struggling with the disease, to a member of the corps that's hellbent on saving the human race. Hell, they could even be a warlord taking advantage of the broken societal and moral landscape, or even a vigilante out for justice.
I strongly suggest that we play multiple characters here though, not just with side characters, but at least "sub-mains" if you catch my drift. I feel that we'd be able to really maximize the potential of this setting that way, especially since we'd be viewing the twisted landscape through the eyes and minds of different people.
Things to Expect: Contagion, Sci-fi, Apocalypse, Violence, Mind Control, Horror, Survival-Horror, Heavy Corruption, Adventure, Action, Combat, Heat/Rut, Aliens, Unrestrained Hedonism, Romance.
Remark: "A challenge unattempted. The Dark One wonders when that would change."
"The choices we make, make us who we are..."
Imagine a man, young and vibrant, brave and shortsighted, flushed with the prime of youth, and intoxicated with the power of footloose freedom. The freedom to play, to work; to be or not to be. Imagine that same man, by virtue of his adventures, finding himself in a situation far graver than his wildest fantasies could ever conjure. But wait, you deserve to know something of that story.
They say men are made by their choices, and it's no secret that most often than not, the choices we make often come back to haunt us. It's something that had crossed the mind of the man in question, several times in the past. Even as he ignored his father's wise counsels, his mother's tears, and the entreaties of his handful of siblings. The thought that the decision to level them and the comfort of his family's palatial estate and property, that too to become an adventurer. He always knew deep down that his choice would come back to haunt him one day.
"Stay, my son! Even if it is your desire to eat solely by the sweat of your brow, I can furnish that to prosperous ease for you," his father had beseeched him.
"Why has that which I nursed within me so intimately for a period, decided to tear the very tenderness that nursed him apart?!" - his mother had demanded amidst tears of anguish. Their words and the handful of others from friends and family who had learned of his decision, wrenched him; but he hardened; steeled himself to pursue his fantasies, so that he could bury his conscience with ease.
Enough of that part though. Yes, he ignored the entreaties from his hearth and kin, and did so too with the comfort he was born into. He toured the lands in a neverending quest for adventure. The first two years of his voyage was full of ups and downs, but he had never felt more fulfilled in life up till that point. He learned many things, and did even many more things - many of which would put his family to intense shame if they knew of them. He met many like-minded people too, and it wasn't long before his push for MORE, put him into a fix.
Treasure is the bane of most adventurers. When he learned that a ship was setting sail for a mysterious island where there is a cave said to bear a great treasure on the outset of his third year away, he resolved at once to join it's party, .and he was successful. So was the ship's arrival at the mystic island rumored to host what it's greedy party came for.
Maybe if he had more sense in those moments, he should've followed his guts and stayed behind to see if the ship's first voyage would be fruitful. Maybe he should have; but every adventurer knows too well, the pull of gold.
The cave itself was a labyrinth; other than that, nothing spectacular; no gold, yet, all the party encountered at first, were discarded weapons and dusty remains. It was an omen, but the greed coursing through the veins of each man in the party, made them blind to it's original message. Instead of a deterrent, they found encouragement. Shortly after this was when their lucks ran out.
One by one, they fell; rapidly too. They knew not what attacked them, but their weapons were utterly useless against them. Sounds of shattering bones and blades mixed with the howls of agony, terror, and pure shock. Our hero kept shattering blades, but none of his bones yet, in his panicked attempts to ward off the assault. When all the blades he was carrying, along with the few he could find on the floor were spent, he switched to the forlorn boomsticks on the ground. But alas! Most were spent too; useless to him, and even the few shots he could get off had no noticeable effects on the ravenous assailants.
Failed by fight, he switched to fight. Closely behind him, the trail of indescribable howls and grunts of pure malice kept him honest in his dire flight. The alternating darkness and semi-darkness of the moldy, damp cave, coupled with the hot haste he was moving with, rendered him as naught but a blind runner; one with not even the faintest idea of where his steps were leading him. In a cave filled with unspeakable horrors though, it was only a matter of time before he ran out of luck like his fallen comrades.
He would've continued in that very state till his legs failed him, had he not run into a dead end in the labyrinthine cave. With death behind him, his heart sank, then died as he resolved to go down fighting. As he backed away at the onslaught of bone-chilling howls and grunts heralding the arrival of the unknown assailants in the darkness, his boots struck something in the partial darkness behind him. Just as he was making the petty wish to have one of the burning torches the party had brought along in that moment. At least, to see the face of that which would end him.
He didn't know it then, but his boots had just brushed against the objects that would change his life forever. Gauntlets, they were; unremarkable to him in his panic. Thankful to at least have something to bolster whatever meagre offense he could muster, he hurriedly clasped them on and resigned to his unassailable fate. His last stand.
If only he knew that it was only the first step in the journey that awaited him.
If you read through all that, you're a champ! Well, now that you're here, there are a few things you should know about the gauntlets. First thing to know is that they're powerful! Like, very powerful. Enough to grant it's wearers godlike abilities in addition to being virtually indestructible; but! They're also cursed, terribly so. Turns out that they and their wearers are bound to an even more powerful entity in another realm (I'm thinking, demon or something).
This entity feeds on the chaos generated by the gauntlet weilders. In addition, the entity tends to tie them into servitude; it uses them as it's personal bounty hunters or more precisely "errand boys and girls"—IF they accept to serve it. Defiance of course is not only possible, but it seems very plausible too. At least until the curse rears its ugly head. (Gauntlets of Doom, remember?).
Failure to serve the entity or execute it's wishes, will result in uncontrollable thirsts for chaos and destruction. Ultimately, this often capitulates into wild outbursts from such defiant wielders. The worst part of the whole thing is that the gauntlets can never come off! They can vanish when not in use and return when desired or at the outset of another outburst, but that's it.
Ultimately, the entity is bound to benefit from the wielders one way or another. Only the entity can unbind a wearer from the gauntlets, and it would only do so, once it perceives that a wearer has "satisfied" it.
I think they're quite numerous, but I will state the ones that I can think up. Note that although MC originates from the medieval ages and transformed then, the gauntlets have rendered him immortal. So we could base our story on practically any setting and time period.
Fetch me a bride!: The entity's male, and has ordered MC to fetch him a particular woman to be his bride, or offering in a more practical sense (like, how many "brides" has he got in the past?). Of course, MC has the choice of simply refusing the assignment, but it's on pain of suffering and bringing that suffering to others.
So many ways this flavor could go. Of course, YC is a blank slate for you to fill. She could be a goddess in her own realm, she could be your average woman on the streets; whatever you please. So, with the tough choices that MC is faced with, he's most likely bound to be forced to satisfy the entity sooner or later; unless of course, YC gives him a good reason not to. What reason? Oh well, that's what OOC planning is for.
Destroy my adversaries!: I feel that this one could be employed no matter what route we decide to go with the plot. The premise behind it is simple. The entity sends MC after it's enemies. The enemies could be a plethora of things; superheroes, demonologists, a "holy" order, a rival cult/entity; the list goes on.
From here, there are ways we could could go about it. YC could be one of his targets who's sworn to take him down. Lustful tension, romantic tension, a dysfunctional love-hate relationship fueled by their inclinations to destroy the other. These are juicy bits we could add. Another offshoot with this trope would have YC being on MC's side of tent. She could be a trusted (and perhaps jealous) herald for the entity, she could be it's bored daughter who's excited by the prospect of smashing their enemies, alongside a now immortal man under her parents' (and consequently, her) thumb in her opinion. Hell, she could still be anything else you fancy.
Be mine!: The entity's female, and since the "Destroy my adversaries" trope would most likely than not, end up in the story one way or another, she's become impressed with MC's diligence and efficiency. Although, she knows that he's only being loyal to her, in order to rid himself of the gauntlets and the curse it bears.
Letting him off the hook however, is the last thing on her mind. Instead of rewarding his efforts with freedom, she sets her mind upon the opposite;to keep him for herself at all costs. Standard techniques apply. In planning to inform him of her upgraded interest in him, and her desire to upgrade their relationship, (she has a plethora of "upgrades" to choose from; marriage is one of em) she's prepared to face every resistance that he's bound to offer to her desires. She has absolutely no plans of giving him up, regardless of the costs, and what actions she must take under whatever circumstances to get him to yield to her desires.
A twist to this would have the entity's daughter being the one to express her interest in MC. The entity in this case, would of course, be unprepared to be turned down, or to sample the opinion of the man in question (MC). That it's daughter would be playing her part wouldn't hurt as well.
Again, this flavor could still be merged with any central idea we conceive, or one or more of the ones I've outlined.[/center]
Imagine a man, young and vibrant, brave and shortsighted, flushed with the prime of youth, and intoxicated with the power of footloose freedom. The freedom to play, to work; to be or not to be. Imagine that same man, by virtue of his adventures, finding himself in a situation far graver than his wildest fantasies could ever conjure. But wait, you deserve to know something of that story.
They say men are made by their choices, and it's no secret that most often than not, the choices we make often come back to haunt us. It's something that had crossed the mind of the man in question, several times in the past. Even as he ignored his father's wise counsels, his mother's tears, and the entreaties of his handful of siblings. The thought that the decision to level them and the comfort of his family's palatial estate and property, that too to become an adventurer. He always knew deep down that his choice would come back to haunt him one day.
"Stay, my son! Even if it is your desire to eat solely by the sweat of your brow, I can furnish that to prosperous ease for you," his father had beseeched him.
"Why has that which I nursed within me so intimately for a period, decided to tear the very tenderness that nursed him apart?!" - his mother had demanded amidst tears of anguish. Their words and the handful of others from friends and family who had learned of his decision, wrenched him; but he hardened; steeled himself to pursue his fantasies, so that he could bury his conscience with ease.
Enough of that part though. Yes, he ignored the entreaties from his hearth and kin, and did so too with the comfort he was born into. He toured the lands in a neverending quest for adventure. The first two years of his voyage was full of ups and downs, but he had never felt more fulfilled in life up till that point. He learned many things, and did even many more things - many of which would put his family to intense shame if they knew of them. He met many like-minded people too, and it wasn't long before his push for MORE, put him into a fix.
Treasure is the bane of most adventurers. When he learned that a ship was setting sail for a mysterious island where there is a cave said to bear a great treasure on the outset of his third year away, he resolved at once to join it's party, .and he was successful. So was the ship's arrival at the mystic island rumored to host what it's greedy party came for.
Maybe if he had more sense in those moments, he should've followed his guts and stayed behind to see if the ship's first voyage would be fruitful. Maybe he should have; but every adventurer knows too well, the pull of gold.
The cave itself was a labyrinth; other than that, nothing spectacular; no gold, yet, all the party encountered at first, were discarded weapons and dusty remains. It was an omen, but the greed coursing through the veins of each man in the party, made them blind to it's original message. Instead of a deterrent, they found encouragement. Shortly after this was when their lucks ran out.
One by one, they fell; rapidly too. They knew not what attacked them, but their weapons were utterly useless against them. Sounds of shattering bones and blades mixed with the howls of agony, terror, and pure shock. Our hero kept shattering blades, but none of his bones yet, in his panicked attempts to ward off the assault. When all the blades he was carrying, along with the few he could find on the floor were spent, he switched to the forlorn boomsticks on the ground. But alas! Most were spent too; useless to him, and even the few shots he could get off had no noticeable effects on the ravenous assailants.
Failed by fight, he switched to fight. Closely behind him, the trail of indescribable howls and grunts of pure malice kept him honest in his dire flight. The alternating darkness and semi-darkness of the moldy, damp cave, coupled with the hot haste he was moving with, rendered him as naught but a blind runner; one with not even the faintest idea of where his steps were leading him. In a cave filled with unspeakable horrors though, it was only a matter of time before he ran out of luck like his fallen comrades.
He would've continued in that very state till his legs failed him, had he not run into a dead end in the labyrinthine cave. With death behind him, his heart sank, then died as he resolved to go down fighting. As he backed away at the onslaught of bone-chilling howls and grunts heralding the arrival of the unknown assailants in the darkness, his boots struck something in the partial darkness behind him. Just as he was making the petty wish to have one of the burning torches the party had brought along in that moment. At least, to see the face of that which would end him.
He didn't know it then, but his boots had just brushed against the objects that would change his life forever. Gauntlets, they were; unremarkable to him in his panic. Thankful to at least have something to bolster whatever meagre offense he could muster, he hurriedly clasped them on and resigned to his unassailable fate. His last stand.
If only he knew that it was only the first step in the journey that awaited him.
If you read through all that, you're a champ! Well, now that you're here, there are a few things you should know about the gauntlets. First thing to know is that they're powerful! Like, very powerful. Enough to grant it's wearers godlike abilities in addition to being virtually indestructible; but! They're also cursed, terribly so. Turns out that they and their wearers are bound to an even more powerful entity in another realm (I'm thinking, demon or something).
This entity feeds on the chaos generated by the gauntlet weilders. In addition, the entity tends to tie them into servitude; it uses them as it's personal bounty hunters or more precisely "errand boys and girls"—IF they accept to serve it. Defiance of course is not only possible, but it seems very plausible too. At least until the curse rears its ugly head. (Gauntlets of Doom, remember?).
Failure to serve the entity or execute it's wishes, will result in uncontrollable thirsts for chaos and destruction. Ultimately, this often capitulates into wild outbursts from such defiant wielders. The worst part of the whole thing is that the gauntlets can never come off! They can vanish when not in use and return when desired or at the outset of another outburst, but that's it.
Ultimately, the entity is bound to benefit from the wielders one way or another. Only the entity can unbind a wearer from the gauntlets, and it would only do so, once it perceives that a wearer has "satisfied" it.
PERMUTATIONS
I think they're quite numerous, but I will state the ones that I can think up. Note that although MC originates from the medieval ages and transformed then, the gauntlets have rendered him immortal. So we could base our story on practically any setting and time period.
Fetch me a bride!: The entity's male, and has ordered MC to fetch him a particular woman to be his bride, or offering in a more practical sense (like, how many "brides" has he got in the past?). Of course, MC has the choice of simply refusing the assignment, but it's on pain of suffering and bringing that suffering to others.
So many ways this flavor could go. Of course, YC is a blank slate for you to fill. She could be a goddess in her own realm, she could be your average woman on the streets; whatever you please. So, with the tough choices that MC is faced with, he's most likely bound to be forced to satisfy the entity sooner or later; unless of course, YC gives him a good reason not to. What reason? Oh well, that's what OOC planning is for.
Destroy my adversaries!: I feel that this one could be employed no matter what route we decide to go with the plot. The premise behind it is simple. The entity sends MC after it's enemies. The enemies could be a plethora of things; superheroes, demonologists, a "holy" order, a rival cult/entity; the list goes on.
From here, there are ways we could could go about it. YC could be one of his targets who's sworn to take him down. Lustful tension, romantic tension, a dysfunctional love-hate relationship fueled by their inclinations to destroy the other. These are juicy bits we could add. Another offshoot with this trope would have YC being on MC's side of tent. She could be a trusted (and perhaps jealous) herald for the entity, she could be it's bored daughter who's excited by the prospect of smashing their enemies, alongside a now immortal man under her parents' (and consequently, her) thumb in her opinion. Hell, she could still be anything else you fancy.
Be mine!: The entity's female, and since the "Destroy my adversaries" trope would most likely than not, end up in the story one way or another, she's become impressed with MC's diligence and efficiency. Although, she knows that he's only being loyal to her, in order to rid himself of the gauntlets and the curse it bears.
Letting him off the hook however, is the last thing on her mind. Instead of rewarding his efforts with freedom, she sets her mind upon the opposite;to keep him for herself at all costs. Standard techniques apply. In planning to inform him of her upgraded interest in him, and her desire to upgrade their relationship, (she has a plethora of "upgrades" to choose from; marriage is one of em) she's prepared to face every resistance that he's bound to offer to her desires. She has absolutely no plans of giving him up, regardless of the costs, and what actions she must take under whatever circumstances to get him to yield to her desires.
A twist to this would have the entity's daughter being the one to express her interest in MC. The entity in this case, would of course, be unprepared to be turned down, or to sample the opinion of the man in question (MC). That it's daughter would be playing her part wouldn't hurt as well.
Again, this flavor could still be merged with any central idea we conceive, or one or more of the ones I've outlined.[/center]
Things To Expect: Dark-Fantasy, Magic, Action, Adventure, Bonds: Spiritual/Magical, Demons, Combat, Violence, Possessiveness, Obsession, War, Lust, Romance, Dysfunctional relationships, Seduction, Dub-con, Hero/Villain tropes, Power-Struggles, Master/Slave dynamics.
Remark: "A fair few attempts have been made here. Do you think you can take it?"
"The list draws to a close here. What conclusions have you reached? The Dark One eagerly awaits you on his Throne of Despair."
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