What a whimsical world
Jumbled's Request Thread
My name is Jumbled, you should be able to see all of my relevant information on the sidebar under my name. I have been on the fence for a few months now about potentially writing a male main character and figured I’d finally dip my toes into the water. Or, maybe just cannonball myself into the water, it’s basically summer and it’s hot! I’ve written for male characters before, it’s not necessarily a new thing to me, I simply tend to write females.
I'm keeping it simple here, if you want to see my info on erotica, I have a section in my female request that you can sort of reverse role ideas for well enough.
What I'm offering
I’ll write a main male character to pair with a female, and will likely have side characters, too. My posts stay in third person, past tense and are formatted with margins on either side to make the passages neater, like the page of a book. I’m hoping to maintain the momentum of at least a post a week, or roughly close to that, and might even do a same-day post if possible. I only have 2 active stories going, and if I find a partner from this RT, I’ll probably cut myself off at 3 so that I don’t get overwhelmed.
I focus on character-driven plots. My post lengths are longer when there’s not a lot of dialogue happening; something like 800+ words where I'll add elements to setting, new plot devices, as well as a look into my character’s private thoughts and feelings. You can find my most recent work ( here ) and ( here ) to get a better sense of post styling and lengths with a scroll of the page.
I love romantic themes! We’ll likely write more of a slow-burn story together, full of action and adventure, with softer moments sprinkled in there. I don’t aim for my male lead to have overly toxic traits, instead having his own internal struggles he’s working through which may factor into his behavior at times.
I want to write fantasy that might border closer to the supernatural. It can be whimsical with a dark setting, modern or not. Plots will be more focused on "trying times," magical or divine elements at play, and characters that are navigating the world, trying to discover more about it and themselves. Expect to see stars when you read my plots—no, literally!
I’m not looking for something heavy in politics or dry world-building. No fandoms, no furries.
What I'm seeking in a partner
If you are someone that wants to write a narrative, not seeking an instant gratification romance or some shallow fantasy fulfillment, then we might be a match. I’d prefer someone that will post frequently, like close to once a week or so, and write erotica if the story calls for it (not fade-to-black), keeping sexual descriptions steamy without needing to describe every intimate smell, squishy sound, tangling tongue saliva, or minute details that act as distractions from the feeling of a romantic or lustful encounter.
I’m hoping for a partner that can match post lengths within reason, that contributes to the plotting and world-building voluntarily, and has good OOC communication. If there is a setting that is more tied to your character’s origin, you should take the lead on how things work (but I’ll still offer ideas and thoughts).
It’s important to me that before you submit a post, you proofread your writing. A quick once-over before you hit submit can make all the difference in a post. If you write, but you’re tired and aren’t sure if it's your best work, sleep on it! Reread it when you’re awake and have the time, then post it with confidence! It’s not about typos, they happen. I’ll make them, too. It’s about the flow and readability, ensuring your post is moving in the right direction when it comes to our plotting.
If you reach out to me, please don't say "I'm interested in this plot" with out telling me more. I want a reason behind it, an idea for how you might change or add to it, why you're excited, and any other thoughts it has inspired. Show me from the start that you're prepared to work with me and have a voice you aren't afraid to use.
A list of plots
The Starlight Path
Thoughts on Setting:
- There is a village settled along the edge of a dangerous forest. They have many customs, traditions and beliefs, with expectations for anyone living there to follow. Doing so ensures the survival of the village, the safety of its people, maybe even things like a bountiful harvest
- There is a mysterious and dangerous forest that shifts and changes where paths lead to
- There is a city with giant walls and large, protective wards in place
- A cottage
Plot Points:
- The Lie: Every ten years, a virgin woman, age 20, is raised in the village specifically for an arranged marriage to a nobleman in the walled off city. In return for this bride, the city leaves behind a magical token that they offer to the forest, granting the village another ten years of peace and protection. The girl and the guard that escorts her are to remain in the city, as per the agreement.
- The Truth: The village chooses a girl that is suitable for a sacrifice from childhood, raises her as a saint, and sends her off, a virgin at age 20. She and the guard meant to escort her to the meeting point for the marriage will never return to the village. Either the forest, a guardian of it, or monsters in it, kill/devour them. The sacrifice every decade keeps whatever lurks away from the village. The lie keeps people back home from questioning the disappearances.
Characters:
- Female Perspective (You): She was raised in the village as a guard. She wasn’t supposed to go with the girl originally, but something happened that caused a change in the guard—maybe she was besties with the girl and wanted to go, maybe she was tired of the village, it’s your character, you tell me.
When the two arrive in the center of the forest where the elders tell them to go, down a path that only opens during the time of ceremony, there is no one from the city waiting there to greet them. She senses it's a trap, but she doesn't understand that they're sacrifices. There's no reason for her to think that way. Before anything happens, your character is strong enough (mentally/magically) to detect that something isn’t right and tells the girl to run off into the direction of the city, wherever that is, reassuring her that she’d be right behind her. As the girl starts to run, a battle begins. The 20 year old seems to get away, and your character is left standing... maybe.
After the battle, your character is focused on tracking down the other girl. There’s no sign of her in the surrounding forest, her tracks seem to vanish after a point before she has to give up on hear current search due to exhaustion or a wound, maybe. Naturally she wants to travel to the city to go find her, and join her new household like she was supposed to do. There's also the matter of ensuring the city delivers the token they owe the forest for the protection of her people.
She wouldn't realize the lie until reaching the city and speaking to several people.
Imagine her being told something her whole life and believing it with everything she is, only to learn that no one in the city has ever heard of her village. That there’s never been a record of any arranged marriages between noble houses and girls from there. Most importantly, there is no token to ward off whatever is in the forest. World shattering. What would she do after learning that? - Male Perspective (Me): He lives somewhere outside of the same forest in a small cottage. The area is dangerous and he’s made it his mission to map the forest, finding that the pathways seem to change depending on the visible constellations each night. His own relationship with the stars is a magical one. He can capture starlight, using lanterns he places in the forest to keep the shadows that lurk away from his home. That’s not all he can do with starlight, though.
As the battle ensues, he happens to be out recording and confirming the open pathways. The sound of shouts or screams leads him into the action, and he helps the woman fight back whatever is attacking her. He brings her back to his cottage, explains how she can’t go into the forest in the day or she’ll be lost to it. If she wants to get to the city, he’ll help her get there, but they have to wait for the pathways to open again.
He doesn't mention his ties to the city, or how unfamiliar he is with her story of arranged marriage. Something like that would generate gossip, and a token for safety was even more of a stretch. The city used starlight to ward itself from the darkness, not trinkets. He should know, he was partially responsible for the protective barrier in the first place.
World-building/Plotting elements we work on together:
- Possibly finding or making a map for reference.
- Definitely names for the village, city and forest.
- Thoughts on enemies, monsters, etc. Searching images/mood boards.
- Is the girl still alive?
- Creating a unique zodiac to work within the setting, to determine how people are chosen for roles.
- Consider your character’s relations and the people she’s left behind. What direction do we take this?
- Character powers and strengthen/modify their backgrounds better.
- Constellations names and where the paths may lead.
The Celestial Apothecary
Thoughts on Setting:
- An apothecary shop
- Another realm where starlight can be harvested
- A house of some sort- It has a magic door (a little like Howl's?)
Plot Points:
- There is a unique business where the proprietor sells distilled starlight as potions that can alter emotions, heal wounds, and can even be used as a glowing paint if one wanted to make art to evoke a specific feeling when viewing it.
- Harvesting the starlight isn’t exactly an easy task, however. The apothecary must travel to another realm through a magical door. In this realm where the stars can be accessed, he must bargain with the creatures that hunt and collect the embers in the first place. As they crave warmth, they seek out odd things. The bargains might look like taking the ability to see a specific color for a period of time. A jar of laughter. A night of body heat, leaving a person near death while not allowing them to actually die (magic, yo). Sometimes it’s also letting go of a joyful memory. Bargaining is welcomed but certain starlight is more valuable than others.
Characters:
- Female Perspective (You): She wanders into this apothecary seeking something. While certain regular customers know how to find this shop, it is entirely magical and not advertised or found on a map. Sometimes it appears when the need is great enough. Which one is it for her? But during this visit, she has a very clumsy, unfortunate accident and breaks a rare jar, binding their shadows together.
- Male Perspective (Me): He is inconvenienced, perhaps, by the loss of such an expensive spell and this sudden bond that will force them to stay near one another, but he tends to think everything happens in his shop for a reason. They were meant to be stuck together, and he knows as much because that jar is never out in the open, always locked in a glass case. Without answers, or a reversal spell for it on hand, he’ll need to travel to the starlit realm to bargain for the right ingredients to free them both, and she's coming with him.
World-building/Plotting elements we work on together:
- I will want to find a blueprint of the shop & his home.
- We can find images for moods and shadow creatures.
- Probably use real constellations, or we could make up new ones, or both.
- What did your character need/was there a problem she was trying to solve? If so, is the problem only getting worse now?
- Determine what powers these characters may or may not have.
- Since this is a forced-proximity romance plot, the antidote will have to be something of a big deal: One trip into the realm just to learn what he needs for a potion. Request for payments that are strange. Time to collect ingredients, etc. So Ideas about their journey/timeline to start off with.
Bleeding Constellations
Thoughts on setting:
- A large Gothic Manor and surrounding woods
- A town or two
Plot Points:
- There will be a need for multiple characters, but our mains would be the two older characters (late 30s woman, 40s man).
- There is a gothic manor that sits far away from any town or city, secluded and surrounded by forest, with a long driveway, a pond, gardens and wildlife. In the house lives a family, a young man in his 20s and his father in his 40s. However, the young man spends most of the year in the city, living in another estate. His mother died just after giving birth to him, and cursed his father with her dying breath.
- There is a young woman, an 18 year old with an older sister in her early 30s. Their mother died, and their father is a drunk with a gambling problem. The older sister was married once, but her husband passed away. Fortunately she was able to keep her house, and managed to take control of what little finances her father had left to keep her family off of the streets. Her sister has written her a note saying she’s found a man she is going to marry and asks her to come meet his family at his father’s Gothic Manor.
- It is rumored that creatures live in the woods. They’re dark, shadowy things that I’ll call wraiths for the time being. They hunt in the darkness and are incredibly attracted to the manor after dark. In reality, they are manifestations of the late wife's rage, attacking the home and the husband.
- The son doesn't always enjoy the manor, but his father refuses to leave. He's had bad luck with magic inside of the home and the wraiths have attacked him aggressively while outside at night.
Characters:
- Female Perspective (You): She’s got some choice words to say to her sister about this sudden marriage to a boy she’s only just met. But her sister’s note implied she was invited to stay for the summer, and she asked her to come along to meet the young man and his father, hoping for her approval, as well as to coax some sort of dowry from her, which was traditional. Their relationship is a good one, and it will be difficult to break it to her sister that there isn't enough money for that. If she can find reasons for them to not be together, she can get by longer without having to tell her younger sister that they're far too poor for a proper marriage. Unfortunately, either way ends with her sister having a broken heart.
She goes to this manor, finding it dark and haunting at a glance, but otherwise fine. The interior is tired, but rich. It’s clear the family has financial security, her initial thoughts supposing it’s a trick being played on her sister, followed by some glimmer of hope that it's genuine. She considers dragging her sister back, kicking and screaming all the way home. But the younger man seems genuinely interested and good-natured.
Perhaps if she got to know the boy’s father better, she could see if he shared the same skepticism she did about this sudden, blossoming relationship. Surely when she told him she’d have no real dowry to offer, she could blame the collapse of her sister's hopes and dreams of a better life on him, and they could all part ways before things got any deeper than they already were. - Male Perspective (Me): He lives each day cursed, a portion of his heart ripped out and replaced with a section of the night sky. Instead of a red and healthy heart, his left atrium (a part of his heart) is a swirl of dark blues, nebula dust, and twinkling stars. Within his manor, the atrium (a room) is filled with plants, fountains and lush grass, but instead of a glass ceiling, it’s ripped open, exposing what appears to be a gorgeous nebula.
The expanse of sky where there should be a ceiling is like staring into that piece of his cursed heart; it’s beautiful. The manor has been protected with enchanted metal and runes, but the longer he lives, the harder it is to contain the curse that ties him and the house together somehow. Rogue stardust bleeds out above the building and the wraiths swarm, trying to find their way inside. He manipulates starlight to force them back. (Think of large amounts of direct starlight to a wraith like sunlight is to a vampire... yes I know the sun is also a star) No one, not even his son, understands that the spectacle in the atrium is the equivalent of staring straight into his father’s heart. In fact, his son has no idea his mother cursed his father at all!
His son was coming home for the summer, and sent word of inviting guests. He wasn't particularly keen on hosting strangers while the manor was slowly cracking apart. It was likely the curse would take him within a year if he couldn't find a way to change his fate. Not wanting to upset his son with what little time he had left, he didn't object to the visits, hoping to see his son happy and perhaps married to a sweet girl, definitely not a witch like his mother, before he dies. He'll support their union so long as his son is happy, no dowry required.
World-building/Plotting elements we work on together:
- I'll want to make some blueprints for the manor
- Location names
- Characters, names, potential magical abilities?
- Ways to break this curse. I do have a rough idea about what's going on and what we need, I think.