I started the podcast Malevolent and it features a cursed book and you guys know I'm a sucker for cursed books right???? you knew that. you were not surprised. ANYWAY.
This is a group of characters who are living with curses. These curses might have come from anywhere, but the affected character either currently believes or at one point believed they had come from a book they read. Their investigation of said cursed book put them in contact with London bookseller Ned Flourish (of Flourish & Blott's) who, as a major book nerd, found this extremely cool. Sorry about your curse and all but also he's geeking out about it.
I want Ned to serve as the centerpoint for getting these people in touch with each other both for ongoing investigations into how to break their various curses, but also just solidarity and ideas for how to continue living with them — half occult book club, half support group. It'll be quirky and fun and perhaps heartwarming but with a dark twist. Existing characters or new characters are cool for this. If you're using an existing character, you can retcon this curse into some amount of their past (I'm willing to do past threads where they start to get involved with Ned if you want!) or it can be a thing that presently impacts them, or it can be something that develops in the future (Ned can sell you a cursed book and you can figure it out later!) .
HERE ARE THE CURSES. Details are malleable and whatnot but I tried to brainstorm ones that would be fun to play - not pleasant but also not so dark as to prevent you from having lighthearted threads while you're afflicted, and with some fun potential for interesting open threads / plot developments related to the curses. WITHOUT FURTHER ADO:
— Curse of Foresight — Timothy Ainsworth — this one definitely came from a book, specifically a book that purportedly trained the reader to be a Seer. It seemed like it worked! But actually, your character isn't seeing the future — they're just experiencing their own life out of order, which leads to that feeling of deja vu / "I foresaw this" quite frequently. Practically: your character can't remember their entire past. Intermittently throughout their day they'll experience one of their own memories but won't realize it's a memory and will think it's happening in real time. They will spend most of the time confused and will have difficulty maintaining relationships with people.
— Curse of Strangers — Anthea Selwyn — your character develops total face blindness. They don't recognize anyone unless there are context clues to help them — names exchanged, familiar accessories worn, etc. Is that your husband or a complete stranger addressing you so familiarly? This is a nightmare, have fun.
— Curse of Wakefulness — Ivy Sandow — your character does not sleep. I mean, their body does — but every time their physical body is asleep they end up jumping into the body of someone else and 'steering' for several hours. They are mentally exhausted. They are privy to information and experiences they logically should have no way to know. They miss dreaming.
— Curse of Trust — Aldous Crouch — your character will believe anything so long as it is said directly to their face and someone is looking them in the eye when it's said. Gullible to the extreme. Fine if no one knows to take advantage of it, right? So let's hope no one finds out...
— Curse of Extra Fingers — your character is clumsy to the extreme. They can do physical tasks if they're focusing on them, but the minute they start to multitask something is going to go wrong. Someone said something to you while you were carrying something? Yeah, hope that wasn't fragile...
— Curse of Animals — Thaddeus Flint — all animals and beasts, magical and mundane, have an extreme aversion to your character. Horses pulling your carriage will buck or bolt; dogs will snarl at you; birds will poo on your shoulder. You get the idea. No amount of treats will persuade them to your side.
Set by Lady ♡
This is a group of characters who are living with curses. These curses might have come from anywhere, but the affected character either currently believes or at one point believed they had come from a book they read. Their investigation of said cursed book put them in contact with London bookseller Ned Flourish (of Flourish & Blott's) who, as a major book nerd, found this extremely cool. Sorry about your curse and all but also he's geeking out about it.
I want Ned to serve as the centerpoint for getting these people in touch with each other both for ongoing investigations into how to break their various curses, but also just solidarity and ideas for how to continue living with them — half occult book club, half support group. It'll be quirky and fun and perhaps heartwarming but with a dark twist. Existing characters or new characters are cool for this. If you're using an existing character, you can retcon this curse into some amount of their past (I'm willing to do past threads where they start to get involved with Ned if you want!) or it can be a thing that presently impacts them, or it can be something that develops in the future (Ned can sell you a cursed book and you can figure it out later!) .
HERE ARE THE CURSES. Details are malleable and whatnot but I tried to brainstorm ones that would be fun to play - not pleasant but also not so dark as to prevent you from having lighthearted threads while you're afflicted, and with some fun potential for interesting open threads / plot developments related to the curses. WITHOUT FURTHER ADO:
— Curse of Foresight — Timothy Ainsworth — this one definitely came from a book, specifically a book that purportedly trained the reader to be a Seer. It seemed like it worked! But actually, your character isn't seeing the future — they're just experiencing their own life out of order, which leads to that feeling of deja vu / "I foresaw this" quite frequently. Practically: your character can't remember their entire past. Intermittently throughout their day they'll experience one of their own memories but won't realize it's a memory and will think it's happening in real time. They will spend most of the time confused and will have difficulty maintaining relationships with people.
— Curse of Strangers — Anthea Selwyn — your character develops total face blindness. They don't recognize anyone unless there are context clues to help them — names exchanged, familiar accessories worn, etc. Is that your husband or a complete stranger addressing you so familiarly? This is a nightmare, have fun.
— Curse of Wakefulness — Ivy Sandow — your character does not sleep. I mean, their body does — but every time their physical body is asleep they end up jumping into the body of someone else and 'steering' for several hours. They are mentally exhausted. They are privy to information and experiences they logically should have no way to know. They miss dreaming.
— Curse of Trust — Aldous Crouch — your character will believe anything so long as it is said directly to their face and someone is looking them in the eye when it's said. Gullible to the extreme. Fine if no one knows to take advantage of it, right? So let's hope no one finds out...
— Curse of Extra Fingers — your character is clumsy to the extreme. They can do physical tasks if they're focusing on them, but the minute they start to multitask something is going to go wrong. Someone said something to you while you were carrying something? Yeah, hope that wasn't fragile...
— Curse of Animals — Thaddeus Flint — all animals and beasts, magical and mundane, have an extreme aversion to your character. Horses pulling your carriage will buck or bolt; dogs will snarl at you; birds will poo on your shoulder. You get the idea. No amount of treats will persuade them to your side.
The following 4 users Like Edward Flourish's post:
Aldous Crouch, Barnabas Beck, Caroline Weasley, Ida Chang
Aldous Crouch, Barnabas Beck, Caroline Weasley, Ida Chang
Set by Lady ♡
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