Gothic Romance Meme

[marlowe_tops]

Gothic Romance Meme

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…


The story goes like this: There is a house. It may be haunted. The house has a resident, or two, who has some secrets. They may be charming, or brooding, often both. Someone may have been murdered. A newcomer arrives, either as bride, governess, or journalist, and they begin to unravel all the secrets and lies lurking within the house of Usher.

Locations may be in any country, in any era, but there must be a gloomy and opulent old mansion, and some sort of dark and terrible secret to be uncovered (or just ghosts. ghosts are always an option.)

The Newcomer
1. The new bride or groom. Your new spouse is charming and attractive, but do you really know all their secrets?
2. Tutor or governess to the estate children. They seem like such innocent children.
3. Companion—perhaps as a chaperone, perhaps merely as company, but you’ve been hired to come to some remote old house to keep an unknown stranger company. Probably just reading to them, or listening to them chatter on whenever travel is required.
4. Hired hand. You’ve been hired up from the local village—or perhaps the city—as a footman or a maid. Just an ordinary job. Nice house, though.
5. Distant relation. Thanks to your circumstances, you’re reduced to accepting hospitality from some remote relations of yours. They may never turn up to family gatherings, and you’ve never heard much about them, but they’re probably just reclusive.
6. Journalist. You’ve heard some interesting rumours about this old mansion in the middle of nowhere.
7. The neighbour. You know that things are not quite right in that old house on the hill. Perhaps you feel it’s your duty to interfere. Perhaps you’re just curious. Perhaps you are childhood friends with the house’s resident.

The Resident
1. Past transgressions. Perhaps a mad wife in the attic? Someone buried in the cellar?
2. The unquiet dead. Look, you just live here. You’re not responsible for the ghosts. Even if they do all seem to be related to you.
3. The monster. You are the thing in the house to be feared. Actual monsters or monster AUs totally an option here! Vampires, werewolves, beasts and horrors all possible. Perhaps put an ordinary face on when you receive your new guest.
4. Wildcard. Choose your own deep dark secret: maybe your character naturally comes with one.

Comments

Moira MacTaggert | X-Men (Comics) | OTA

[scottish_moira]

[Governess or journalist if newcomer. Past transgressions if resident.]

Abel | Starfighter (Comic) | M/M

[reliantnav]

[Newcomer, probably new groom or companion, could also be journalist. Very open to cross-canon and AUs!]

Ashley Raventon | Lost Souls

[raventonbeauty]

[If newcomer, he's either groom or companion, beautiful and a little too trusting. If resident, he's half-mad with loneliness and despair and living in his family's ruined mansion, with the corpses of his family upstairs in a room he never enters.]

nuada silverlance | hellboy

[tuathach]

[ resident; monster or wildcard. m/f for shipping. ]

[royalgrace]

{Interested?}

Aric Dominija [Death] | The Arcana Chronicles

[deathstouch]

[The resident, could be the monster but past transgressions could also be a factor for him.]

mina harker ➞ dracula ➞ ota

[stenography]

[ Preferably the newcomer; a tutor, companion, or maybe a bride? ]

[2tailedbakeneko]

[How does a companion situation sound? Yugito's family hired Mina to "drop in" on Yugito and generally be friendly, while Yugito herself transforms into a monster every night and needs her to leave by a certain time?]

Nancy | Oliver Twist ( Modern AU )

[stauncherhearted]

Sansa Stark | A Song of Ice and Fire | OTA

[fromporcelain]

[Alayne Stone available, as well]

Mai | ATLA | OTA

[maipokerface]

[Preference for new bride, distant relation or neighbor if newcomer. Open to any option as the resident.]

[attractedtodarkness]

((I can play Violet as either too. She's canonically a ghost though so we might be able to play with Violet actively trying to scare Mai out of the house?))

Charles Xavier - X Men - M/M

[charlesofx]

[The resident, likely held on house arrest due to his mutation. It's his family home, that has perhaps fallen to ruin since he was isolated from the rest of society.]

[ruthless_hunter]

((Interested in a mercenary hired to possibly make sure the resident stays under house arrest? Human AU, of course, what with how Lockdown's canon self is too big to even fit in the door))

Enjolras | Les Miserables | M/M

[goldprince]

[Tutor or journalist. Traveling through trying to spread news of his cause.]

Scarecrow | Batman Arkham Knight | ota

[doctor_terror]

[Resident. Either the monster or hiding the dark secret that he conducts fear experiments in the basement.]

[restlesspuppy]

((open to a cheerful soldier who tries to see the good in everything being brought in for fear experiments?))

The Nogitsune | Teen Wolf | ota gen, m/m else

[mygame]

[The monster hiding out at the bottom of this gothic story that is slowly sapping all the energy out of the rest of family/staff. May or may not have a long list twin brother.]

Kyle Murchison Booth | The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth | OTA

[curatorrid]

[Newcomer. Booth is a rare books archivist for a museum, so he's best suited to companion (if sent by museum to try to acquire something by getting chummy), hired hand (if hired to catalogue the resident's book collection), or journalist (if investigating some sort of history for the museum). OTA for anything, but if sexual M/M please since he's canonically gay--though he's, um, likely to be resistant to sexual advances regardless.]

Fumikage Tokoyami | My Hero Academia

[unfortunatechemistry]

[The monster or the unquiet dead if resident. New groom or companion if newcomer. m/m for shipping.]

Violet Harmon | American Horror Story: Murder House | OTA

[attractedtodarkness]

((Definitely resident ghost/monster. Can play as the newcomer, maybe distant relation.))

Princess Nuala | Hellboy II

[royalgrace]

{New bride/Governess or Wildcard.}

Stiles Stilinski | Teen Wolf

[untangle]

[Most likely scenarios, Newcomer: 1,2,5,7. Resident: 2 ]

OOC

[firstchimera]

((Would you prefer to be the resident or the newcomer?))

Elijah Mikaelson | The Vampire Diaries/Originals

[internalizing]

[ Tutor or 2 or 3 under Resident are most likely. Open to discussing others. ]

Cullen Rutherford | Dragon Age | OTA

[ex_skyhound628]

( A resident the blood of mages and abominations on his hands. And some of the bodies in the walls, maybe. )

Vanessa Ives | Penny Dreadful

[arrepticia]

[ Resident or "hired hand", of sorts, by canon. But I'm sure she'd make someone a lovely new bride/governess/companion in an AU. ]

Kuro | Servamp - OTA

[neetingnya]

[Resident! Could be the oldest son or a sorts-of maybe priest who's just a permanent guest in the house (or was sent to meet you and help getting you 'settled in'.) As for scenarios, I can offer a mysteriously missing family members, a couple of undead issues in the vicinity or the question of Kuro's nocturnal habits and overly prominent canines - or you can hit me up with a scenario of your own! :) ]

Lily Ivory |The Witchcraft Mysteries

[vintage_magic]

[Canonically, a witch with a love of vintage things and a troubled past. Could be either the resident or newcomer. OTA for gen but I prefer not to ship without previous CR.]

[withonerope]

[Keiichi is pretty sure as he walks up the long, winding path to what was rumored to be a witch's house that there must have been some kind of mistake. Maybe his friends at the newspaper had deliberately given him the short straw. Maybe this was all some kind of elaborate hoax for hazing newbies. (Not that he was a newbie anymore, given that the four of them had started this paper together. At the same time.) He heaves a long-suffering, over-dramatic sigh, tucking his pocket notebook and his pen more securely in his pocket as he makes his way to the front steps and knocks.

Once, twice, three times....the knocks echo and he pouts, looking put-upon and annoyed. Weren't all witches suuuuper old? Besides, who even believed dumb legends like witches with familiars anyway? Not him.]

Hello?

[A pause and then he knocks again.]

Is there anyone here? If this is a prank, Natsu, I'm going to punish you afterwards, you know? Might as well just give yourselves up now?

Count D | Petshop of Horrors

[loveanddreams]

[Definitely the resident and most likely with many dangerous pets lurking in the maze of rooms that is the house. Replies might be slow because it's been a while since I've played him and I'm a bit rusty.]

Shoichi Irie - Katekyo Hitman Reborn - ota

[fioridimorti]

[Can be newcomer or resident, willing to roll with whichever!]

How does journalist Shoichi sound for this

[technical_difficulties]

[Everyone in town knows the house on the hill is haunted.

The mansion is an absolutely singular fixture, when it comes to hauntings. It's not somewhere kids dare each other to spend the night. It's not a place teens like to vandalize in passing. It's not a house where the adults insist that kids' imaginations are just acting up. It's not someone's cousin's brother's friend who saw a ghostly woman beckoning him into the house, head tucked under her arm. No one doubts the place is haunted anymore. In fact, it's not even run down; its spookiness lies in its reputation and its architecture, not in any sort of dilapidated state. (The fact that it still looks decently maintained, after seven solid years of no one being able to approach the place, is another part of its mystery.)

It's been haunted too long, now, for there to be any skepticism left to it. The credulous who go in don't simply come out; they're thrown out, or run out screaming. No one who goes in fails to be driven out by something terrifying. Ghost hunters have been driven away. People actually being injured by the ghosts - or 'creatures', as those who actually catch glimpses tend to describe them - is rare, but it has happened. With so much consistent evidence, the mansion's status as haunted is an accepted, even immutable fact. The entire town is scared stiff of the place.

Still, it draws in people who refuse to believe the stories and have to have it proven for themselves. And, truthfully, the mansion and the land it's on belong to an out-of-town business, so it couldn't be removed if people wanted it to be. It just sits there, alarming in its existence.

The gates aren't locked. No one bothers. Anyone determined enough to go into the mansion, despite everything, isn't going to let themselves be deterred by a locked gate.]