EesomeBeastie's SRP Ideas Thread

[EesomeBeastie]

This thread exists to bring together links to my active SRP threads in one place, along with a brief summary of them, and also to let me air my ideas for new SRPs.

A bit about me first, though. I'm a Scot, currently living and working in England. I love cycling, history, reading and writing. On the SRP front, I love stories that are based in history, though I do sometimes try contemporary and sci-fi. Not that into fantasy, though I could possibly be persuaded by the right co-writer! I also tend to do two or three person threads. I find large group threads hard to keep track of.

CURRENT SRP THREADS
Last updated 22 Feb 2010

In the Camp of the Vikings
England, AD 865. The invading Viking Great Army has settled into winter quarters. Thorhall, a young Viking warrior, has just been given command of his own warband for saving the life of his chief in a skirmish. Amoungst the other gifts lavished on him, he is given Elwyn, a Saxon girl taken in a raid, to be his slave, housekeeper and bedmate. Struggling to overcome the language differences, a rapport is built between them when he fights to keep her from being taken by his rival, a fight he wins, though not without injury. Tending to his wounds, Elwyn finds herself more and more attracted to the warrior Thorhall.

Wooing the Lady of the Manor
England, AD 1142. The country breathes a sigh of relief at the lull in the civil war between the Empress Maude and King Stephen. Sir John de Cauville, a knight in King Stephen's retinue takes the opportunity to move into the new manor of Eastham the king has granted him in return for his loyal service. He decides to visit the neighbouring manor held by the Lady Alanna, a young widow who is also of the king's party and under his protection. Smitten on first sight, he starts to pay court to the beautiful lady.

Captured by the Wolf
England, AD 1144. John "The Wolf" is an outlaw - an unemployed mercenary forced to live on his wits in the woods and hills of Shropshire. One morning, at dawn, he spies a girl fleeing a village on horseback. He ambushes her, to steal her pack and with the idea of raping her then killing her. He drags her into the woods, but takes shelter from a sudden rainstorm. His curiosity getting the better of him, he talks to her and finds out she is fleeing an arranged marriage, trying to get to a nunnery for sanctuary. Now knowing her name and something of her, John finds he hasn't the heart to go through with his original plan. Instead he strikes a bargain with her: he will escort her safely to the nunnery if she will be his woman for the duration of the trip.

The Inheritance (on hold)
Roman Britain, 3rd century AD. Marcus, son of a powerful Corinium magistrate, has just inherited his late uncle's villa and estate. Suddenly having to manage a large estate and household, Marcus finds himself relying on Damona, the beautiful head slave of his new household. Although resentful of him for replacing her old master and lover and also for her not being freed in his will, she is attracted to him, an attraction that turns to physical love in a chance encounter in the bath house. But Marcus also falls in lust with Briallen, a kitchen slave, whom he seduces on a trip into town. Can he reconcile his feelings for the two women in his life?

Taken to Rome
Rome, AD 106 (in the reign of the emperor Trajan). Lucius Tadius Aelianus is a minor magistrate in Rome, son of a senator. He's house-sitting for a friend who has taken an imperial post in Spain, rather than live with his parents who are nagging him to marry. Visiting the slave market in Ostia, he is drawn to a sickly looking girl slave with unusual green and blue eyes, and buys her. She's been taken captive in the Emperor's recent campaigns in Dacia. How will she react to becoming a slave? Will Aelianus' interest turn to something deeper as he sees the girl nursed back to health?

The Shipment
Mid 26th century. Stavan Grant is a major blackmarket dealer, known for his paranoia and sadistic streak. Raven MacAllister is a smuggler's daughter who tries to pass herself off (in her spacesuit) as her father to deliver a shipment to Stavan, a desperate gamble to raise the cash for her father's life-saving operation. Stavan uncovers the ruse and traps her in his personal torture chamber, forcing her to make a bargain: her submission as his sex plaything for three days in return for the money and the kidney that will save her father's life.

 

[EesomeBeastie]

SRP idea: something set in ancient Egypt

Inspired by my recent holiday to Luxor (ancient Thebes, Karnak Temple and with the Valley of the Kings just across the Nile) I'd love to write a story set in ancient Egypt. Haven't really thought up a plot yet, and I have enough on my plate with current threads to be thinking of starting this one soon, but it's a setting I'd love to play when I have the time.

 

[EesomeBeastie]

An idea and initial post.

Again, I don't think I can commit to starting this right now, but I want to get the idea down in writing.

* * * * *

The Message

Rome, 45 BC

Eburonix paused for a moment to take in the scene. Looking back along the steep street he had just struggled up, he had an excellent view down off the Palatine Hill, around the Capitoline and over the walls to the Fields of Mars and the Tiber beyond, a vista quite rare in crowded Rome. Ahead of him the street opened out into a small square with an olive tree in the centre, almost deserted at this, the hottest time of a sweltering summer afternoon. But of course slaves like him didn’t get to choose the time to run the errands they were entrusted with, and their comfort wasn’t a major consideration for their owners.

He took a swig from the leather water bottle that hung on a strap from his shoulder. He scanned the gates piercing the walls that surrounded the square, looking for the one that matched the description he’d been given. There it was: dull red, with a knocker in the shape of a lion’s head. There was a tiny window cut in the lime-washed wall beside it, from which the doorkeeper could peer out from his cubby-hole. There were no windows of the main house visible from the street; like his own mistress’ residence, and that of most other rich city-dwellers, this one would be built around a shady internal courtyard, all the room facing onto it, cutting itself off from the noise and bustle of the city.

He rehearsed the message he had been sent to deliver, making sure he had it word perfect. My mistress, Claudia Caecina, wishes to invite the lady of the house to dinner tomorrow, to dine with her cousin who has just come up from Naples. I am instructed to deliver this message and, if it is to your convenience, to return with your reply. The formality of the message belied that his mistress was close friends with Augusta Metella, the lady of this household.

He’d heard the slaves’ gossip about the lady Augusta. In her early twenties, beautiful, the only child of a minor senator, she’d been married off to a much older widower, a very rich merchant who was seeking to gain political standing. He had no children by his late wife and looked to the lady Augusta to provide him with an heir. So far, she had disappointed, and the normally grouchy old man was said to be getting less pleasant still by the day. Eburonix hoped he wouldn’t be in. No chance of a tip from that skinflint!

For a moment he fantasised that the lady might be looking for a distraction from an abusive husband. A lover. Maybe even someone to discretely help her provide the sought-for heir. But no, that only happened in cheap fiction, and certainly never to a Gallic slave like him, taken in Caesar’s wars and sold in the slave markets of Rome.

He restoppered his water bottle and strode up to the door, knocking on the ornate door knocker. A voice called out from the doorkeeper’s window. “Yeh?” the bored voice drawled, “What’cha want?”

“I have a message for the lady of the house, from my mistress Claudia Caecina,” he replied.

He heard the bolt being drawn back and the door opened to admit him. The doorkeeper escorted him through a small but neatly kept courtyard garden, past some rather nice Greek statues and to the foot of some steps that led up to a porch. At the top, a beautiful lady sat in the shade on a stone bench, looking out over the garden. She wore a sky blue stola, or dress, with a darker blue palla shawl, her brown hair knotted up ornately in the fashionable style. The lady of the house, no doubt.

He paused, coughed politely to get her attention, then delivered his message.

 

[EesomeBeastie]

P.S. if you're following any of my current SRP stories and are enjoying it, then please feel free to PM and let me know what you think, what you like or dislike about them. Likewise if you like the ideas I've presented or have ideas you think would appeal to me.

 

[EesomeBeastie]

Taken to Rome

New SRP thread launched with JewelSkye: Taken To Rome, about a Dacian girl slaved by the legions who finds herself, weakened and ill from the voyage to Rome, up for sale in the Ostia slave markets. She's purchased by Aelianus, who sees something unusual in her and on the spur of the moment decides to buy her and nurse her back to health.