[Story Idea] The Affairs of Justin and Juliette

Tagline:  Outward perfection indicates a multitude of masks and makeup.

Justin and Juliette are the perfect couple.  This is a story of their darkest secrets and the desires that bind them to each other. 
Juliette is a hedonistic woman who freely indulges in the things she desires.  She is attractive, intelligent, and manipulative.  She has a longstanding affair with a friend, which has yet to become physical.  She reiterates that she will not allow herself to succumb to that one desire because she loves Justin more than she loves sex.  She appears the libertine as her ideals are logical and bordering blasphemous.  She frowns upon the vilifying of pleasure.

Justin, on the other hand, is a very upright man who resists temptations as much as he can.  As he is attractive, he receives attentions from numerous women.  He had a one-night stand which he regrets, but cannot let go of.  He feels guilt that he succumbed to that because he loves Juliette and hates that he was unfaithful to her.  He appears the virtuous man as his ideals are based on what is considered culturally moral.  He raises an eyebrow at Juliette's ideologies.

Juliette's relaxed morals enables her to not condemn Justin's affair while Justin's virtues prevents Juliette from giving in to the temptation of her lover.  The story climaxes as Justin breaks up with Juliette out of feelings of inadequacy.  Juliette, out of habit, is unable to go to her lover, who is already willing to take Justin's place.  Justin, on the other hand, is unable to allow himself another relationship.  When the two are about to meet again to start anew, Justin is killed by a freak accident and the grief-stricken Juliette is finally received by her lover.


Inspired by Marquis de Sade's books "Justine" and "Juliette".

[Story Idea] Dear John D.

Tagline: Who is the real John D.?

Investigative journalist John Dumaguina is assigned to cover a meme that has been spreading like wildfire over the past few months.  The meme is a love letter addressed to a "John D." and written by a "Kit" and is being passed on to fulfill the writer's wish that the letter eventually reaches the correct John D.  The letter does not drop many hints about the identities of the sender and the addressee, making John believe that it is just a misinterpreted literary composition and that "John D." stands for "John Doe".  But still, the interest remains and the network John works for, seeing a potential marketing strategy in the story, decides to publicize the search for the real Kit.

During his search, John and his assistant, Mia Glenn, come across the many people who forwarded or reposted the letter.  They hear stories about love lost, love regained, and love found; themes echoed by Kit's letter.   John, on the other hand, slowly begins to hope that the love letter is real as he lives his own fantasies about a love he once lost: Lorraine. Finally, they reach the first person who blogged the meme, an anime fan named NaruNaru2_6.  NaruNaru2_6 explains that she was not the one who wrote the letter, but instead saw it on one of the anime message boards.   The message board had closed down years prior, but John recognizes its name to be one that Lorraine frequented when they were younger.  Mia retrieves the username and email of the poster and John search ends when he realizes that the letter was written, indeed, by Lorraine. 

John confronts Lorraine only to find that she is married and with child.  Lorraine admits to being Kit.  She also admits that John D. is John, himself.  She says that her husband is already aware of the story of John D. and that he has her permission to run the story if "that is what John D. deems appropriate."  John realizes that there is no happy ending and decides to hire actors to play John and Kit so he and Lorraine would be left at peace and the story would have its happy ending.

Summary

Tatu, whose family has just gotten past a crisis and found new life in a small religious community, is trying to decide for himself whether or not he would convert from his life of Catholicism or not. A born scientist, he has a natural tendency to investigate and search for the truth in text and in reflection. During his research, he bumps into Anneliese, whose father was excluded from the list of heirs of the vast fortune of the landed Alonso family. Anneliese is from a strictly Catholic family whose greatest shame is in the memory of Anneliese's great grandmother, Isabel.

Anneliese and Tatu--using a brief note written behind Donya Isabel's sketched portrait--come across a diary written by one Father Danilo. The diary details the many sins the then young priest encountered in his small town. Father Danilo wrote about secret pagan rituals with magical charms, theft, murder, plots of revolution, and even an exorcism. But, the most striking about the diary was its story of the love and lust that was shared by the priest and the already betrothed Isabel. This is also where Anneliese finds out that her grandfather was, most probably, the son of a priest. This is also the turning point in Tatu's research: the point where he discovers the difference between what is traditional and what is truly religious.

In the end, Tatu finds that his true conflict no longer lies in what he believes to be the right belief system for him, but whether he can give up what he believes in for love of a woman.

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Teaser: They weren't supposed to meet. They weren't supposed to fall in love. Over a century ago, they may have made the very same mistakes.