Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Okay, now run that by me again . . . because I don't know what you are, but I know you're NOT supposed to be here."

"Who do you think you're-!" The strange feline creature remarks before catching herself, her medusa heads reeling back in shock. You glance down to see a book in her upper hands that matches the ribbons all over her body, and you notice she seems to be guarding it. "I know I don't look like your kind, but that's no reason to be rude about it. That's why I'm in here. You didn't notice this wasn't your typical bookstore when you came in?"

"Okay, fine, but I'm still confused..."

"Step a little further inside the bookstore, and I'll explain." She takes your hand in one of her lower ones, and leads you in towards a human sitting at the cashier's desk. The human waves at you, but gestures to let the odd feline talk. "This girl here is my Writer and Focus. She has managed to bring me to your world, and through her, she intends to bring more of my kind to your world as well."

"Your kind, meaning . . ."

"Desires, of course." The cat purrs, and holds out her book for you to see better. "I and my brethren exist as mere emotions in the realm of the intangible. Through the use of tomes like mine, whose pages are treated with special ethers to enhance the ability of summoning certain types of Desires, people like you can become Writers and help bring more like me into this world. We can appear as all sorts of things, from robots to animals to plants to various swathes of color and light, but we can only appear with your help."

The types of desires are varied and verbose, and eventually fall to you, the Writer, to determine what sort of Desire you will create. Upon a review of your first draft, we will impregnate your tome with special ethers designed to help you better cultivate your chosen Desire's type.

You are welcome to specify which type of Desire you want. However, the final decision of which tome you receive falls to us, as we will use the ethers specific to the type we feel is best suited to your work. For example, someone who feels strongly about saving sex for marriage (because their Church tells them to) could end up with a tome designed for Wrath, even though they may have wanted Abstinence.

If this is your first Desire, please do not debate endlessly if you feel the book type is incorrect — partly because we may have picked up on a category you would be better suited to, and partly because if you argue TOO much we may change it out for another type entirely based on your whining. Feel free to discuss with us about our decision once you receive your tome, as we will often happily why we assigned a certain type to you, and perhaps give you tips on how to frame your particular type (especially if it wasn't what you had in mind.)

If a change in type is necessary, please bring these concerns up before your Desire develops so we may attempt to air out the book and Re-Etherize it in time. If your book's gold edging is already starting to warp, it is too late to alter the ethers.


Common Desires fall into the following categories, based on the Seven Deadly Sins:

Wrath - The spookiest of the Desires, often with blood on its teeth and blades in its hands, these desires are hard to control and bring to fruition. Writers will have to be careful in their cultivation of these Desires, as they have a tendency to go unfinished as they will often attack before they are complete (and thus cause all sorts of legal trouble for the Writer) Wrathful beings are obsessed with inflicting harm and violence.

Gluttony - Often Pudgy, Obese, or perhaps a little overly curvaceous, Gluttonous Desires can't resist the food of their focus. Easy to raise, but once one is a full-fledged Phenom, there may be problems with where to house them due to their size and impressive appetite. Some Gluttonous Desires can be incredibly skinny, though, especially if their focus somehow manages not to be food. Gluttonous beings are obsessed with consumption of various items and media.

Sloth - Looking for a Desire that'll take care of itself? Well, too bad, because these things don't write themselves. Your lazy Desire will be glad when you do finish, though, because they're just waiting to come over where they can chill out and hang with their Writer in their world. The friendliest of the Desires, Sloth loves to do whatever you like to, as long as it doesn't involve hard work. Often seen sleeping, sitting around, or idly doodling on whatever pages you've not finished. Slothful beings are obsessed with avoiding effort.

Lust - This Desire loves you! They may love you a little too much, perhaps; these Desires have a deep sense of belonging to their Writers, along with whatever their Writers focus on. They have a bad habit of stealing the underwear (or other intimate posessions) of their Writer's Focuses. Some lustful entities can even be driven to take over as their Writer's Focus, creating a potentially dangerous cycle of being 'In Lust with Lust'. Lustful beings are obsessed with objects they have strong emotions to.

Pride - These desires are the absolute BEST in the world, to hear it from themselves. Whatever they're dressed in, they feel that they look perfect. Whatever they're doing, they're incredible at it. Whatever you're up to, they're right behind you, 100%, and damn what everyone else says. They are your best friend, but they'll become your worst critic when the tide turns against you. Prideful beings are obsessed with themselves and their own creations.

Envy - They want you to write better. The cover should be prettier. SHE'S much further along; why can't you get me over to your world faster? These Desires are the most critical, but they're also the most likely to drive their writers to do things to get what they want. Impulsive, Anxious, and most importantly, hard to satisfy. Envious beings are obsessed with the objects of others that they desire for themselves.

Avarice - Whatever it is they want, they want it BAD. They're looking for the best apparel, the finest foods, the sexiest flesh, and they're not about to let common sense stop them. Often the best dressed (with Pride being second best), greedy Desires don't care to what lengths they have to go to amass and horde to their content. Once their hands are manifest, they'll jealously guard their own tomes. Greedy beings are obsessed with gaining more (and better) items than they necessarily need.

In order to make sure that we attract dedicated writers, we've set the initial bar for summoning quite high: 20,000 Gold will cover all of the costs for standard etherization. This includes one Tome, one Ether treatment, and assistance with your summoning process at least until the Desire is fully summoned. This price may be raised in the future, so consider it an Early Adopter's Bonus.

If for whatever reason you decide that you are unable to handle the responsibility, we will refund you based on your current progress - 4,000 Gold for each stage you have failed to progress to, that is. (Yes, that means there is a nonrefundable fee of 4,000 Gold if you stop once we've given you a tome. We don't want to encourage you to drop out once we've already made our own efforts, after all.)

Once you Recieve a Tome, set up a roleplay thread for yourself and make sure I recieve the link. This will be your Tome's Print Archive for Gaia, and it's this thread I'll be looking at during the course of your summoning in order to draw for your character's personality. You'll probably want to set up the first 15 posts of your roleplay thread to make the first page for informational purposes, and then start the actual writing past that point. For reasons why, check out the 'Advice' section further down.

A guild has already been created for roleplay purposes, as well as a nifty place to set up your Tome:


Once you've set up enough of your thread that you think I'll get the general gist, send me a PM stating that you're ready for Etherization so I can verify your progress and begin treatment. I can't say how much is enough — some books are big, others are small. If you're long-winded, you'll need to write more than a succinct Writer needs in order to get across the same details. A good suggestion is to take your second page of the Thread you've started, and fill it up however you see fit with your statements and rantings. The 'Advice' section offers some good starter topics you can use if you need them.

After your Tome's been etherized, things start getting interesting. Keep Writing. You don't have to do it daily, but if I notice that you're falling behind, I'll note it on your records as a sign that your Desire might become feral later. Keep ranting, but feel free to note some of the 'stranger' details that are starting to occur now that you're starting to reach out into the Desires' Realm.

From time to time, I (or the staff mule) will start throwing in random details you may find useful; for example, that your book is beginning to show signs that the transfer is going well.

The remaining steps of progress depend on my consideration into your Tomes, although you should PM me as a reminder if I haven't acted by the time you hit your 5th, 10th, and 15th pages (or more) into your Tome Threads, to make sure that I note and check on your progress. There are no hard and fast points when more of your creatures appear, but if you're just writing one-line posts to fluff out your work, it's going to show.

Above all, remember that you get out of these Desires what you put into them. If you don't take care of your summoning, your Desire can become feral. If you don't pay attention to detail, your Desire might seem overly bland. Whatever your Desire becomes, the only person to 'truly' blame for how it turns out will, in the end, be yourself.

While the most influential force on any Desire will be its Writer, there are general details which this bookstore can include to help further shape your Desire.

These pages include additional phrases and materials used to help alter your Desire's formation in our world. It's best to get these pages inserted before your Desire begins to arrive, but they can be installed at any point.

A Desire with no upgrades will look like any other humanoid creature - One head, two arms, two legs, and possibly a tail. If you wish to deviate from this norm, you will need to procure at least one of the following upgrades.

Single Pages cost 3,000 Gold.
Chapters cost 7,500 Gold
Books cost 15,000 Gold.



Pages of Tongues: These pages affect the number of 'Medusae' that will sprout off of your Desire's head. These Medusae are often on the lower side of sentience, but can serve as anything from your Desire's shoulder-consciences to their entourage. A more Feral Desire may have their Medusae appear as tentacles instead. The more pages, the more Medusae appear.

Page of Tongues: Two Medusae, reasonable head of hair.
Chapter of Tongues: 4-6 Medusae, more sparse hair.
Book of Tongues: Full Head of Medusae, no other hair OR a Two-Headed Desire.

Pages of Craft: Your Desire's arms will be affected. Perfect for those who seek a hindu influence or otherwise like the idea of being able to work on more than they're currently able to.

Page of Craft: Extra set of Arms (4 Arms Total) OR Double-Thumbed Hands
Chapter of Craft: Two Extra Sets of Arms (6 Total) OR One Extra set, all hands double-thumbed.
Book of Craft: 6 Arms, all double-thumbed, OR 4 'Elongated' arms.

Pages of Journey: For the travelling Desire, extra feet (or even specialized ones) can come in very handy...

Page of Journey: One pair of 'grasping feet' (such as talons or monkey feet).
Chapter of Journey: Same as Page of Journey, plus a prehensile tail capable of supporting the Desire's Weight, whether hanging, bouncing, etc.
Book of Journey: Centaur-style body, with the front feet able to grasp.

Genre: A Bookstore Named Desire is a Science Fantasy roleplay involving the Writers, their Desires, and the general adaptation of these new and drastically different creatures to the world around them.

The city the bookstore is located in is a permeable location; while the store keeps tabs on all Tomes currently in existence, it is entirely possible for a Writer to be shipped their Tome and to stay inside their rooms as they develop their Desire. This doesn't help the community at large, though, so interaction with new people and the Desires they bring in is recommend in order to improve development.

About the Realm of Desire:

The Realm of Desire is an intangible location — you won't see it, you can't touch it, and even your Desires will not be able to return at will. Current speculation about the realm is that the realm itself is not an 'alternate dimension', but merely drawing out of the air the emotions that already exist in this world. Of course, this doesn't explain very well why none of the creatures themselves are human if they are truly 'human' emotions.

Desires tend to talk about their lives prior to summoning in vague terms, having little sense of time —even more so than they lack even after they've been summoned. Within the realm, Desires are and have always been immortal beings, and None of the Desires have emerged out of the Realm long enough to determine if this immortality carries over into this world. Most desires will still consider themselves immortal, and may even be nonchalant about the day-to-day goings on of the world.

This skewed sense of time can be overcome, but Desires are notorious for thinking things happened 'yesterday' when the incident in question was over a month ago. When it comes to describing what they did in their realm, however, they speak mostly in terms of general drama and conflict with other emotions; their pasts are intense, but rarely tragic due to their intangibility and immortality.

Most desires have a hard time coming to grips with the concepts of pain and death — even Wrathful desires seek the misery that they cause, rather than seeking death itself. What this means is that while most Desires will understand war in the sense of conflict, they will have difficulty understanding many of the ideas related to war, such as torture. It also means that whenever your Desire first experiences physical pain, the Desire may panic.

Notes about The Bookstore:

The Bookstore Named Desire is a converted building from the city's older days, and has been extensively renovated (most notably to accommodate the extra ventilation the ether lab requires). There are three floors of the Bookstore, though only two of them are accessible to the public.

The First Floor is the Storefront, where the Cashier/Proprietor (Veled) and her Desire (Melody) work and are often to be found. Behind Veled's desk are some weapons kept under lock and key, and meant more for her own defense against dangerous and/or feral desires rather than as protection for the store. Many 'ordinary' books, journals, and other assorted bookstore knickknacks are here, as well as untreated Tomes.

A staircase upstairs leads to the Second Floor, which houses the Book Club and Coffee Shop. Every now and then (whenever Veled or Melody is actually watching the counter) the coffee is good, but otherwise it comes in two flavors; burnt and weak. Since Desires come from a place that lacks any sense of taste to begin with, they tend to be the ones who buy the coffee the most (except for the Gluttons, who are significantly more selective about their food.) This is the main socializing point for Desires and Writers alike, and also a place where feral or otherwise hard-to-manage Desires can be left in the company of their own kind.

On the Third Floor is the Ether Lab, which is barred and limited to staff only. Only Veled and Melody are able to come up here in order to perform the titration, plating, and other chemical techniques necessary to Etherize the Tomes. This is easily the most valuable part of the entire operation, and so it's kept under lock and key.

About the Development of your Tomes:

For the first sections of your Tome, you'll probably want to lay down some good emotion at the start as a way to help define your book and give it structure for later on. Don't be afraid to 'spoil' whatever point it is you think your book will get to in terms of the actual ranting; The idea is to get the flavor of the writing at the start so selecting the right ethers goes smoother.

If it helps you to focus, you may decide you want to try to influence what sorts of desires are attracted to your book. We recommend not making actual demands ("I want a blue bunny that looks like Edward Elric!"), but going with what matches your personality best. ("Dragons are so cool. I could spend all day stitting atop a pile of gold like that.")

The book is as much about you and your emotions that go into it as it is about your Desire and the interactions you have with it. If you want to spend the rest book going on about you and your Desire once it begins to arrive, go with it! Most books will be all about you and the desire within for the first bit, and gradually morph into the Desire's wishes by the second half. From desire to Desire, in other words.

Potential Topics to Consider:

Legal issues aside, there are several ethical considerations about bringing in a Desire. Is it a person? Is it right for you to bring someone into a world completely foreign (and mostly likely a total shock) to their previous existence? What are you going to do if your Desire resents you? Most importantly, do you expect your Desire to owe you some kind of debt?

Your Desire is only one of your many emotions, and we don't know just what kind of ulterior motive you have in cultivating one . . . whether you want to claim you have a virtuous soul by gaining a Virtuous Desire, or whether you think that by creating a lustful Desire that you can trick them into becoming your sex slave, you probably already have an idea in mind of what you want a Desire for. The problem is, if you have some kind of duplicitous agenda in mind for your Desire, be careful; they might start developing one for you, too . . .

Possible Events:

You (probably) don't stay in your room all day: Do you really think your Desire will want to? Just taking these things out for a walk can be enough to get some odd stares, let alone if you try to take them to the mall . . .

. . . on the other hand, bring these Desires to your average anime convention, and check out all the eye candy that'll come straight to you and compliment your friend's incredible "costume"! Even as weird as these Desires can get, there's plenty of ways you can cover yourself and keep the disturbance down to a minimum.

Start getting your friends involved in your newfound summon, and find out if they get along. If nothing else, it'll be the highlight of the local fraternity's next big Halloween bash!

Desires react to food differently than most humans do. Could they be addicted to certain foods and drunk on others? Do they even need to eat at all? And where does that food go if their stomach isn't even in this world yet?

We cautioned earlier against seeking out religious help with these Desires. It's inevitable that some conflict will happen . . . can you (or your Desire) bluff your way out of trouble, or is danger afoot?

When it comes to helping people stick around the bookstore, Melody decided that it was time to give people a way to get a little something for nothing . . .

So a few nights back, she got her hands on an old sewing machine and went to work on these brand new Plushie Ponies!


Melody says she put in a few 'special ingredients'. There's a few drops of ether in the stuffing — just enough to bring in a tiny little train of thought to bring these ponies to life!

Getting one is easy: Just bump 100 times in the shop thread, and then PM Veled so she can have the pony assembled for you. These Ponies come with their own certificate, just like Desires, and your Desires can keep them as pets too!



So go ahead! Even if you can't afford a Desire yet, you can still take a little bit of the supernatural home . . .