Amorous Goods

[Ruffus_Goodman]

1. That's been done to an extent earlier in this thread. 'Vikki' has a basic outline, but is deliberately generalized to allow author flexibility ... to an extent.

2. Dylan has also been generalized. The others really haven't as I was hoping others would jump in and agree on something. There are a couple of thoughts posted on who they should be.

3. Not sure how to respond to that.

So, Vikki, Dylan are "canon". Nice, I reviewed they're descriptions, I think they fit in pretty well in their cameos.

I'll try and look for help on reviewer's board about 3.

I see AG store is drifting towards a sex shop with a hidden black market behind counter going on. I gotta admit I planned around a mansion, but I can adjust it just fine.

Just curious, will be an introductory story to AG store, like a "pilot" story of some sort? Or a closing story for that matter telling Vikki's own story arc?

Literally just curious, I'm eager to read the whole series once October's over..

 

[Lovecraft_Lore]

In looking for ideas for this writing event I came across a wiki called the SCP Foundation wiki. Basically an open source strange stories collection in the same style as this or warehouse 13.

Does anyone know if the open source legal writ for that site is compatible so that a story post to lit erotica could also be /submitted/posted there or a "spooky" concept from there could be used in a story here?

It appears the answer is yes with a note referencing the SCP foundation wiki. Just wondering what others experiences are.

The wiki has lots of interesting terminology for strange events.

 

[Ringil]

Cannon and basic framework seems to be getting, ...

.... a bit restricted. I thought jaF0's original intent was to provide a rudimentary framework that was only tied together by the concept of cursed items and that this was not so much about the specific details of the store itself, but rather the hunting down of the objects and trying to recover them to be stored in a safe place. The real meat of things being the objects and how they impact the people they come in contact with. Whether it is/was a brothel, on a main street or alley, doesn't seem to be germane to that core premise.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

.... a bit restricted. I thought jaF0's original intent was to provide a rudimentary framework that was only tied together by the concept of cursed items and that this was not so much about the specific details of the store itself, but rather the hunting down of the objects and trying to recover them to be stored in a safe place. The real meat of things being the objects and how they impact the people they come in contact with. Whether it is/was a brothel, on a main street or alley, doesn't seem to be germane to that core premise.

Yeah but the employees are laid out with personalities to play with. I think what the place is, should also be some structure as to make the stories somewhat cannonical, the place and people there are the anchors to each story written, even if there is simply a mention of the place, like;

"Where did you get such a vintage such and such?"

"Oh, that store Amorous Goods."

"What is that?"

"That lil consignment/thrift store looking place on the edge of downtown(or edge of the market distric)."

A little bit of concreteness to what it is, who works there. Hell; it could be like Danny The Street or Constitines house of mystery; going where it goes, city to city, as long as it is a store or mansion to help keep stories connected, even if it isn't really in the story outside of being named.

 

[zoolicious]

Vikki's career

What job/career did Vikki have to put on hold to run this store?

 

[HarryHill]

She was a prophylactic fitter at the bordello
.

 

[jaF0]

What job/career did Vikki have to put on hold to run this store?

Not really defined, but consider something that would foster being inquisitive about older things and where they came from. Maybe Archaeology?

 

[Ruffus_Goodman]

Not really defined, but consider something that would foster being inquisitive about older things and where they came from. Maybe Archaeology?

I thought about featuring a Bay of Bengal's old Kama Sutra artifact that was perverted by a dark religious hindi group.


Not spoiling much of the fun, but I halted until I could depict Amorous Goods right.

I'm willing even to review the AM store and Vikki's passages with you guys, if you're interested

 

[Small_Island]

Deleting an accidental double posting.

 

[Small_Island]

Avoiding original characters and rights issues

No. In fact we probably couldn't due to rights issues. I only showed them for the concept, but we could create new characters based on them.

Hi, my first time trying to participate in a forum and navigate the system. So, if answers to my questions/comments already exist in some other thread, please just let me know. ;-)

Your idea caught my eye and I hope I can jump on board. Just to summarize and make sure I'm understanding properly.
We would be borrowing the premise of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th:_The_Series
BUT, not using the actual same characters and location to avoid copyright issues?
So, the store is no longer Curious Goods, but Amorous Goods.
The original devil-dealing proprietor should not be called Lewis Vendredi.
The inheriting niece is Vikki instead of Micki Foster.
The new co-owner is Dylan instead of Ryan Dallion.
If a Jack Marshak-type character is involved, he/she will also need a different name.

Has Literotica offered any guidance on just how far we have to stay away from the TV show elements to avoid rights issues? I thought parodying would provide some protection?

To establish the connection I thought the Devil would certainly offer the same plan to different people. Vendredi dealt in general antiques at "Curious Goods". Perhaps Ludwig Freitag had a semi-respectable sex history museum and takes the Devil's offer to make it successful by adding a sex shop (sex show?) (sex service?) in the back. Creating another outlet for Satan to send cursed items out into the world.
When Vikki inherits this sordid undertaking, her (pervert?) cousin by marriage, Dylan, convinces her to keep it going (maybe she really needs the money). Looking through her dead uncle's correspondence leads her to Lewis Vendredi and thus to Micki Foster.
Here's where she learns about the curses and she and Dylan are sucked into the world of Friday the 13th and recovering the cursed objects.

Well, it sounds like fun and I have an idea for an object to write a story around. If there is a comprehensive character profile being built, other than the suggested snippets I've seen in this forum, please point me there.
One key point for me that I have yet to decide on, is whether Vikki and/or Dylan will also come under the amorous sway of the the cursed object and get into some serious fucking themselves. Hey, this is an erotica site, right? ;-)

 

[Small_Island]

The challenge announcement on the Admin thread current says:

challenge date: stories submitted & posted October 1-31st, final anthology list posted on November 1st​

That was done to coincide with the Halloween contest if authors wanted to enter.

I thinking of having that restriction removed so some can start submitting stories as soon as they wish, but only stories submitted during October would be eligible for the Halloween contest.

Thoughts?

I agree with removing the time restrictions; I have an idea I might be able to put together faster than October and I think your (very good) idea will thrive better with a quick infusion of life. As you said, if a writer has an episode that could compete for Halloween honors, then they're free to publish then.

 

[Small_Island]

Not really defined, but consider something that would foster being inquisitive about older things and where they came from. Maybe Archaeology?

I'm thinking an archivist. She recently completed an interesting project on an old politician, but it was on a grant, so now she's out of work again, which explains her need for money. Now she's not only the archivist on an esoteric collection, but also the curator for the related museum (which takes up the ground floor of the mansion), and its owner. Her professional colleagues would be very impressed; if only it wasn't an archive of the history of sex in the USA, a related sex museum, and a sex shop the dead uncle added on to bring in money. Oh, and if many of the items sold in the shop or liquidated from the museum/archive weren't cursed.

 

[Small_Island]

admin note on forum

Amorous Forum mates,
I've just found myself logged out twice after typing longer messages to you. I guess the system has a very short time limit where just typing doesn't keep you active, you must post.
So, I'm going to type my message up in my word processor and then copy it over here after.
Just a heads up that you may want to use the same method if you have a longer note to write so you don't lose your work. grr!

 

[Small_Island]

Opening Gambit

jaF0 and Forum,
I have written the opening of a possible episode for Amorous Goods and offer it for your feedback.
I’ve tried to incorporate character and location elements from this thread. They naturally become more concrete when put into use, but I’ve also tried to follow jaF0’s lead and leave things as open and flexible as possible. I have given Vikki a bit of backstory and also introduced her own sexuality. I hope my Amorous Goods fits in with the growing canon and can serve as a place to host or launch your own stories.

The premise (won’t be included with the story):
Vikki Friday is an archivist working on some papers inherited from her distant uncle Ludwig Freitag. Ludwig’s branch of the family kept the old country name when it emigrated to the USA, while Vikki’s branch Americanized it to Friday.
Ludwig was a collector of erotica in all its forms: written, visual, and physical. He housed his collection in a massive old mansion and called it a museum. The museum of course had a gift shop (which others called a porn shop). To supplement the museum’s income, Ludwig rented out rooms on the upper floors to lodgers and for social club parties (high-end prostitutes and swinger club orgies claimed local legend).
Not wanting to be a porn purveyor and quasi-Madame, Vikki had begun liquidating the collection with the help of her cousin and co-inheritor, Dylan.
What the cousins hadn’t realized was that the surprising success of Amorous Goods had been because many of the items in the museum, shop, and rented rooms were enchanted in ways that enhanced sexuality.
But for good or evil? That was the difficult question posed by their strange new colleague, Morgana Delacroix, who had come on the scene when she discovered they were liquidating the Freitag collection without understanding what they were unleashing.
Once she showed them the potential dangers, the cousins had halted the liquidation and joined with Morgana in trying to track and recover the mysterious items.


One Episode:
Vikki Friday pulled a box off one of the floor-to-ceiling shelves that ran along the basement wall and carried it over to a large oak table. She took off the lid and was hit with the comfortably familiar scent of old paper and organic inks. There was also a dusty odor, which was likewise, always expected in an old archive like this. But unlike the paper and ink, this dusty odor was not familiar and comfortable…it was spicy or smokey or flowery – she could never decide, because it always seemed to be shifting. Sometimes she wished she could bottle it as a perfume (or an aphrodisiac!), because it was so heady. Other times she immediately wanted to put the lid back on the box because the scent was more frightening than arousing (brimstone!).

Her newest partner in the bizarre venture she found herself wrapped up in, Morgana Delacroix, said the odors were a byproduct of their bewitchment or curse. Vikki had naturally scoffed at such ideas at first and jokingly called the older woman Morgan Le Fay for her witchy beliefs. But ever since the time Vikki had found herself apparently overcome by the odor and succumbing to its influence, she’d had to temper her usual scientist’s skepticism.

Vikki felt a warm feeling creep through her now as she remembered that episode. She’d been here alone in this very room, like now. She’d opened one of the older specimen cases and found it held a collection of antique dildoes. The scent that had blossomed out when she removed the lid had hit her like walking into an Amsterdam coffee shop. An Amsterdam coffee and florist shop, she amended. (A French whore’s bedroom inside an Amsterdam coffee and flower shop! Her inner voice declared.)

By the time the ventilation system had cleared enough of the odor away to allow Vikki to begin to regain her senses, she’d found herself laying on this very table. Her skirt was up around her waist, her panties were hanging from one ankle, and she had two of the antique sex toys inside her, moving slowly as she came down from one of the most intense orgasms she’d ever experienced just from masturbation.

The ventilation fan in the ceiling kicked in just then, bringing Vikki out of her reverie. (The weak, old ventilation fan. You know it didn’t save you from the fumes.) No, each time she’d thought about that episode, she’d become more certain that while the intoxicating odor had made her head swim and made her want to touch the dildoes, (and their touch had led to the rest), it was only her orgasm itself that had finally broken the spell.

Vikki literally shook her head and looked into the open box on the table. Just papers here, no ebony or ivory penises to entice an unattached archivist. Pulling on white cotton gloves, she brought out the first item and prepared to enter it into the growing index of Amorous Goods items on her laptop. She needed this; a good old-fashioned session of appraising and cataloging. Something mundane and pedestrian to help her re-center her mind after their most recent artefact recovery mission.

--- Dylan shows up and they talk about the inventory list she’s reading
--- Morgana arrives and explains what the “Unknown” category means compared to “Cursed” and “Clear”
--- The story departs Amorous Goods and catches up with one of the items on the Unknown list that should really be on the Cursed list

 

[Small_Island]

You say she awoke at the 'small inn'? Do you see the Amorous Inn as physically separate from the Amorous Goods? Because she had strangely influenced dreams, I pictured her picking up the vibes of the cursed/bewitched/enchanted/magic objects collected at Amorous Goods (AG).
My idea of the AG mansion is 3 or 4 stories tall. Old and grand, like a railroad tycoon, as first mentioned. (Think of the mansions and ultimate bordello in "Boardwalk Empire".
The ground floor (and second floor if 4 stories), houses the AG museum and gift shop, where the dead uncle (Ludwig Freitag) displayed his wares.
Above the museum on second floor (or 3rd if 4 stories) are regular bedrooms, most with private baths. These form the first level of the Amorous Inn and I can see Vikki waking up in one of these rooms in your offering. These are rooms that Ludwig let out to high-end call girls who wanted established places to bring their johns.
The top floor also has a few bedrooms, perhaps a master suite on each end for the really high rollers. The main area, however, is open in salons and a swingers' big fuck room. This is the floor the swing clubs would rent from Ludwig for their get-togethers. After the party in the main room, couples could break off into the private rooms on the 3rd floor.
This way the AG is all self-contained. For this reason, I also picture the mansion as being on the edge of town, but not in a really rundown area - well off people still need to feel comfortable, and private, enough to come here for swing parties.
Don't know how evil you want to go (Curious Goods was stocked by the Devil, wasn't it?), but with either Satan or just sexual magic abounding, the AG should have been pretty successful under Ludwig's ownership.
This potential for success is what traps Vikki and Dylan. When they find they can't sell it off quickly piece by piece because the pieces are too dangerous to be floating around without control, then the cousins need the AG to still generate some sort of income to keep it in their hands as they scramble to retrieve the cursed objects they unknowingly unleashed before learning the truth about their powers.

 

[Small_Island]

I'd like somebody to create the character of the older relative who helps Vikki and Dylan.

The Wiki portrays the original character as:

Jack Marshak is a former stage magician and an expert in the occult. He has travelled all over the world and he has diverse skills including bartending , picking locks, ornamental metalwork, and forgery. He has a great many peculiar old friends. In so far as the trio has a leader, he is it; the cousins often try to work without him but have to turn to him for aid and moral support.

Our name would be something like Marcus or Marshall or maybe something unusual or mystical. Age should be 50s or 60s to allow for life experiences and implied wisdom.

Also note that I haven't done physical descriptions, height, weight, hair color, eye color, measurements, race, etc. I like to leave that open for the reader to interpret.

Vikki is obviously female and Dylan male, but this third, older, wiser character could be female, maybe even with a Wiccan type feeling to pick up on the Occultist flavor of the male character in the series.

I posted this in the Authors' Hangout (I think), but thought I'd post it here as well since it's directly connected to jaF0's post.
Here is my suggestion for the older mentor character.
Morgana Delacroix (a play on the Arthurian witch Morgan le Fay and a Satan hunter (Delacroix means, of the Cross). She's like Catherine Zeta-Jones. You know she has to be in her 40s or 50s but you can't really tell and you'd fuck her in a heart beat regardless. I see her as having gained some of her insights into the world of enchanted erotica from personal experience.
Dylan is besotted with her and Vikki is coming to respect her, although Vikki's scientific outlook is in direct conflict with the mystical world that Morgana says exists all around them.

 

[jaF0]

Looks like you have a fair handle on the concept. The 'store' really isn't an adult store though, more of an antique store. The items don't need to be what anyone would recognize as adult items. It could be a chair, settee, a hairbrush, mirror or any other item you might find in an antique store on main street America.

 

[Small_Island]

Originally Posted by jaF0
07-10-2020, 07:35 AM #7 in story thread
The three primary characters would carry over into each story, just as they did in each episode of the series.
In this case, perhaps the business is a former bordello that catered to fantasies (think Red Shoes Diaries). The relative may have been a Madame, or maybe a Dungeon Master who made the evil deal. Say the new owners closed it down and began auctioning off the artifacts before they realized some of them were cursed, or enchanted as the case may be.
Their mission then becomes tracking them down and buying them back. In the TV series, they became involved in the events as they would be here, but in more adult ways.

Here’s how I’m running with your idea from above.
The dead proprietor of Amorous Goods, Vikki Friday’s distant uncle Ludwig Freitag, did indeed rent out the upper floors and rooms of the AG mansion to prostitutes and swinger clubs. I don’t necessarily see him as the high-priced call girls’ pimp or madame as much as just their landlord, although this is certainly open for exploration. However, when he hosted gatherings by any of the lifestyle clubs in the wider area, he would play host. The special aspect of that was providing some of the enchanted AG items for the party’s use to enhance their sexual adventures. I use this angle to flashback on how a magical item was used at an AG party and then see how it’s being used now on the outside, without Ludwig to control things.
Now, Ludwig was also known to take part in these events at time, because he was a horny old dog who had a few charmed items of his own to help him keep performing even into his 70s when he died. (age is negotiable).
The question you’ve raised and I’ve left unresolved is, was Ludwig evil?
Did he make a deal with the Devil in order to get all these wonderful items and put them to use in corrupting the lives and souls of others for the Devil’s ultimate benefit?
Or was he just a perverse collector who found these items through his own research and collecting?
I remember you saying that you were hoping for a fairly light-hearted, but spicy angle to the anthology as opposed to deep horror. Once you really introduce Satan, especially if Ludwig made the deal and lost his soul, it becomes dark and corrupted to my mind.
If, however, the Devil is hinted at, but not confirmed or central, then the AG items don’t have to be evil. They may just be dangerous in the wrong hands (like the charmed corset that makes the wearer want to act like a whore.)
Hoping to hear feedback from you or any forum members on if these ideas will work for the broader AG canon.

 

[Small_Island]

Looks like you have a fair handle on the concept. The 'store' really isn't an adult store though, more of an antique store. The items don't need to be what anyone would recognize as adult items. It could be a chair, settee, a hairbrush, mirror or any other item you might find in an antique store on main street America.

Hmm, your response makes for big changes in my approach. "The 'store' really isn't an adult store, though, more of an antique store."
I thought that Uncle's collection focused on items of love and sex, thus the name Amorous Goods.
Are you saying he collected all kinds of antiques and the store name just means, 'Things You Will Love?'
I kind of pictured Amorous Goods as a counterpart to the original Curious Goods. CG was the place for regular antiques, while AG focused on romantic and sexual antiques. So, CG and AG might both have a settee or hairbrush, as you mentioned, but the one's in AG would have come from a famous bordello.
Your response seems to indicate that someone buying something from the AG store wouldn't have any sexual thoughts in mind when they selected it; it would be just random that the antique hand mirror you bought for your wife made her see herself in wild sexual situations when she looked into it?

The idea that there was a recognized love/romance/sex angle to the things that Uncle collected is why I turned the main attraction at the AG mansion into a love museum. Yes, my gift shop was more of a porn shop, but I could tone that down to simply being an antique store outlet for the excess items that weren't suited for display in the museum.
And of course, the whole museum idea could be scrapped and the ground floor of the mansion could just be the AG antique shop. I think it would still be good to have the store's focus on love/romance/sex be part of its persona.

 

[Small_Island]

I like this story idea. It would be worthwhile to flesh out the concept of the store, and probably to detach it from the TV show explicitly.

It ties in with something I've been working on because I've been working on a magic item/mind control story concept involving a psychotherapist who begins using an object on his patients to enable hypnosis for the purpose of treating them for sexual disorders and hangups, but of course unexpected consequences ensue and the therapist crosses the line ethically. He could buy the object from the store.

SimonDoom, I like your scenario and it sparked this idea for me that I offer for your use, inspiration, or ignoring.
How unethical is your psychotherapist before he gets the magic couch?
1. Not unethical. He buys the couch without knowing its powers and discovers them by accident when patients become suddenly much more honest and revealing about their issues when they sit on the unique antique couch he bought from Amorous Goods.
2. Dr. I.M. Creepy. He knew or suspected the couch’s power and may actually have tried to buy it previously from the old AG owner, who said no. But now he’s dead and the Dr. hears his heir is liquidating things from the store (and even the rest of the mansion). Dr. makes an offer, niece accepts, and now the couch has arrived at the Dr.’s office, awaiting its first patient.
The couch’s back story (in my AG mansion ) : The old robber baron’s mansion had been turned into a fancy bordello after the original builder had lost his fortune. Now, the current owner, Ludwig Freitag had built on that theme and converted the ground floor to an antiques store specializing in items of a “romantic” nature or background, that he called Amorous Goods. Hand-painted Japanese screens from the rooms of Geishas. Impressionist oils of 19th century Parisian courtesans. The vanity and accoutrements from a wild west bordello.
The upper floors of the mansion had also been decorated in such themes and rooms could be rented out for romantic getaways or bawdy role play weekends.
Rumor had it that various lifestyle (swinger) groups would rent out the entire top floor for their parties. For some reason, their events always seemed to end up being wilder and more successful when held at the AG. Maybe it was the atmosphere, or the smooth direction of the aristocratic Ludwig, (or the fact that many of the items scattered throughout the rooms were enchanted in ways that enhanced love, romance, and sexuality?).
One common and always-enjoyed event was Ludwig interviewing a Newbie on an antique white leather sofa. On this couch Ludwig would ask what had drawn the Newbie to look into the Lifestyle and with little reluctance or delay, she’d end up revealing her most private fantasies and many times would act them out right there on the couch in front of the other party goers. Of course, the real secret to getting people to open up so indiscreetly was that the sofa had an erotic honesty charm on it.
Now, if the Doctor was a bit shady already, then he might have seen the couch in action during one of his own visits to the AG. Of course, he was only there as part of his professional research, being a member of various lifestyle clubs just to better understand his patients. And if he took part in the party activities, it was only to fit in and keep being invited back, along with his always interesting companions (usually patients he’d convinced would benefit from some extra-special “therapy”).
At first, he thought old Ludwig was just incredibly smooth and disarming. But then he saw other interviewers getting the same result. What finally clinched it for him, that it was actually the couch itself, was when one would-be porn stud had tried to get his still-reluctant companion to open up a bit by having her join him for a little conversation. But the guy made the mistake of sitting down first and instead of the woman revealing her fantasy and her body, the lothario found himself admitting that what he’d really like was for her to sit on his face with another man’s creampie for him to eat. Dr. Creepy had never seen this kind of thing from this macho man before and knew the couch had gotten him to reveal fantasies that the man himself may not have realized he had.
The couch would be perfect for the doctor’s office. He wouldn’t even have to really hypnotize a patient, which could be difficult. But he could pretend he was and if the patient was surprised, he/she had given up such deep, dark secrets, they could lay it off on the doctor’s powerful hypnosis.

Hats off again to jaF0; there are so many interesting possibilities at the AG.

 

[subliminalmassage]

Any chance you'd consider retitling this 'the old bi-curiousity shop'? Just because i've had that pun stuck in my head 4 months now with nowhere to stick it

 

[jaF0]

Your response seems to indicate that someone buying something from the AG store wouldn't have any sexual thoughts in mind when they selected it; it would be just random that the antique hand mirror you bought for your wife made her see herself in wild sexual situations when she looked into it?

There ya go.

 

[Ringil]

This is looking like jaF0 could spend the rest of her/his time ...

... between now and October arbitrating different visions of individuals with different concepts providing snippets of how each wants the foundation to match their own storyline.

Suggest no further definition nor guidance. I could enjoy stories about the basic premise of cursed items whether Vikki has different last names in each or different planned career paths or anything in common more than has been currently laid down. I think most Lit readers would as well.

I am at the point that I want to make specific use of the “Marshak” character and am willing to stipulate the “Zeta-Jones” concept and “Morgana”name, but don’t want to be hampered by specific skills or a lack thereof set by another author in a subsequent posting here. Same for Vikki and the cursed item.

Much more specificity and the entire framework could be detailed by one author and specific “goods” would need to be assigned to other authors - not much fun that way.

If a wide variety of paths comes out of the “less is more” guidance framework as I suggest, then great! Creativity is the objective. If a set of the stories winds up selected by jaF0 to become a published book and he/she wants the selected authors to tailor their stories to be much more cohesive, I think most would gladly do that.

Shall we all just get to work...? It’s barely a month till October,...

 

[Small_Island]

I concur with Ringil. I want to reflect the AG canon as much as I can, and so was eager to discuss. But I also very much embrace the Marvel/DC alternate timeline/parallel universe flexibility so everyone can build AG as they see it.
Of course, if anyone likes anything I've offered in the forum or include in a story, please feel free to use it. I'll also be looking for your touches that I like and will weave them into anything new that I do.
See you in the funny papers. ;-)

 

[OldHideki]

I have now finished an Amorous Goods Story, and am in the process of editing it. I came up with a somewhat unique idea about Vikki. My setting is a small town in Louisiana. Vikki is the shop owner, who is occasionally possessed by the Voodoo goddess Erzulie, a goddess of love. Erzulie could have several shops throughout the world, and enters the shop owner’s body when she feels like it. To make it easier on herself, she has every shop owner use the name Vikki. This gives a Cajun Voodoo mystic to the stories.

This idea came to me after listening to the Beatles song Rocky Raccoon:

“Her name was Magill, and she called herself Lil,
But everyone knew her as Nancy.”

Does this work?