iTunes Ficlet Meme
From my new Alice fandom - hopefully soon to contaminate my SPN fandom.
1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.
2. Turn your music player on and turn it on random/shuffle.
3. Write a drabblet/ficlet related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterward! No matter how whacked out your drabble is.
4. Do ten of these, then post them.
I didn't do that, exactly. Mostly cause I haven't written fic on a regular basis in AGES and can't type fast. So I tweaked 3. I listened to the song, figured out how it fit into Alice and then typed the scene as fast as I could. I then started on whatever song was then playing.
1. Waking Up In Vegas - Katy Perry
Rating: PG13
Characters: Hatter/Alice
Hatter's head was killing him but that didn't stop him from reacting to the Jabberwock's roar. He was instantly awake and on his feet.
He almost immediately regretted it.
The Jabberwock turned out to be Alice's cell phone. Hatter picked it up instinctively. What was wrong with his head? He felt as if he'd had consumed an entire Hearts Casino Sample Pack. He looked around the bedroom.
It wasn't either his or Alice's - but that was definitely Alice passed out in a satisfactory state of undress on the bed. Hatter himself was clad in his boxers, hat and one sock. The room itself was luxurious to the point of oppressing. It reminded Hatter of the Heart's Casino and it's overdone guest suites.
"ANSWER ME!" demanded Carol's disembodied voice stridently. Hatter looked in surprise at the phone in his hand. He must have answered it when he'd picked it up. Carol certainly didn't sound like there was anything wrong with her head.
He gingerly held it a good five inches from his ear and offered a very hoarse, "Hello?"
"DAVID! DAVID! IS THAT YOU?! OH THANK GOD! WHERETHEHELLAREYOUTWO?ISALICETHERE?SHE'DDAMNWELL BETTER - "
Hatter loved Alice with his entire soul, but there were some things he simply would not do for her. He sat down on the rumpled bed and reached over and placed the phone on Alice's ear.
The effect would have been highly entertaining if her flailing arms hadn't struck him in tender places.
While he lay curled up and gasping for air, he heard Alice frantically trying to explain to her mother. They'd gone to a city called "Vegas". Oh, thought Hatter, that's right. That lovely "Event Coordinator" Hatter had struck up a conversation with had brought them here. He'd loved the "concept" of a Tea Shop selling emotions and had flown them to meet some owner group. Alice had been full of laughter and Hatter would have done anything to make that last.
Then there was a multi-colored memory of things called "Shooters" and then nothing.
No wait. There was something else.
Hatter looked over to the night stand and picked up the paper lying on it.
"Alice, love?" Hatter interrupted. "What's 'Elvis Chapel of Love, Certificate of Union' mean?"
2. All I Ever Wanted - Shinedown
Rating: PG
Characters: Hatter
Because all I ever wanted was a place to call my home
To shelter me when I am there and to miss me when I'm gone
Hatter adapts and lands on his feet. In that regard, the Other Side isn't any different than Wonderland. For the most part, he prefers the Other Side and misses little of Wonderland.
The few things he does miss are cured with music. Oh, if the disposed Queen had only ever learned of the Other Side's music, so much pain and suffering could have been avoided. All the emotions the Oysters feel are channeled by these singers and fed to the masses. Alice look startled at his reaction the first time she puts on the radio.
He tries to explain that it's like swimming in emotion. And then she smiles and puts on someone named Barry White, gets him completely drunk from the music and has her way with him. He certainly doesn't complain.
Carol warms up to him when he begins singing her favorite songs. Hatter's happier than he's ever been when she buys him an iPod, even though he feels a little like a tea-head kept drugged most of the day.
He discovers the song from a co-worker who'd laughed and loaded new songs for him at lunch. It hits him as Alice opens the door and Carol smiles from the sofa.
He's safe here. He's home.
3. Wrong - Depeche Mode
Rating: PG13
Characters: Mad March
March woke up screaming, not surprising given his method of execution. He only stopped to ask why his screams sounded so odd. His voice was worse. Opening his eyes was a revelation of hell. The Carpenter sat him up and attempted to explain. When he realized he couldn't possibly, he simply given March a mirror.
The never changing expression of the white hare stared at him. It stopped March's screams. It stopped everything before and left only the unmarred white porcelain walls of his new hell.
March was beyond it now. He was beyond rationalization, caring, sanity and even death. In this new hell of reality there was no more "good" or "bad" or "orders". No more planning for the non-existant future.
All that was left was the momentum, the action, the tracking - The Hunt. The Kill.
4. Old Friends - Simon and Garfunkel
Rating: G
Characters: Carol
Carol watches him sing to Alice with a lump in her throat. This sweet and caring man that adores her daughter and makes her world bright with smiles cannot carry a tune, but tries anyway.
Can you imagine us years from today,
sharing a parkbench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventy
They dance in each other's arms, circling the apartment in laughter and song. Carol watches until the tears begin to well - until all Carol sees is herself and Robert. This was their song, their pledge, their vows. She hasn't thought of the song in years.
She watches them dance and the pain fades into warmth. It feels right. It feels like closure. She gets up and joins in the dance.
5. My Bloody Valentine - Good Charlotte
Rating: R for homicidal mania
Characters: Hatter
Oh, my love
Please don't cry
I'll wash my bloody hands and
We'll start a new life
Hatters and Chesires were always good at going mad on their own terms. It was a Hatter tradition after all. When Wonderland did it's deadly best to break you, madness was the only true escape.
The Tweedle Torturers respected the name. They even respected the man when he beat the Truth Room. No childhood memories, no twisted torment versions of Alice, no images at all would Hatter allow to appear. Just nebulous floating madness.
Yes, the mad twins respected true madness when they found it. The race to see if Hatter could lose the information about the rebellion and the Library before they could extract it began.
By the time the Mad March showed up, there was only the madness of death left.
Hatter was standing over the body of the Mad March staring at his hands when the twins returned. Blood and madness filled Hatter's mind and the twins screams filled his ears.
Hatter was never quite certain how he'd reached the casino, or what he had planned on doing there.
Then Alice was in his arms.
And for once, a Hatter gave up madness and tea for sanity and love.
Oh, that feels good.
6. The Spell of the Yukon - Buckwheat (OK, I have some very very random things on my computer. Don't Judge Me!)
Rating:PG
Characters: Carpenter
You come to get rich (damned good reason)
You feel like an exile at first
You hate it like hell for a season
And then you are worse than the worst.
It grips you like some kinds of sinning
It twists you from foe to a friend
It seems it's been since the beginning.
It seems it will be to the end.
The Carpenter looked at his wrist. There was something missing. Something he was supposed to have on his wrist. He wondered what it was.
A little girl with innocent wide eyes and a woman with a warm smile briefly floated in his mind. He wondered why.
But then his friend, the Walrus, came over and he shook free of the distraction. He was onto something. The harvesting need not be done by hand by the emotion mixers. He could replicate the process in mass production. It would revolutionize the economy. It would make him rich and powerful - and invaluable to the Queen.
Those things were important to him when he had come here to start his research. He wondered why.
7. Cathedrals - Jump Little Children
Rating: G
Characters: Charlie and Hatter
When Charlie was finally convinced that traveling through the Looking Glass wouldn't turn him into a toad - a belief held due to a mistranslation and his impossible-to-the-Other-Side age - he came fairly regularly to visit Alice. By unspoken consent by all parties, he was never left alone with Carol and never left unattended whatsoever.
Which is how Hatter and Charlie came to be wandering the streets of Manhattan on a Sunday afternoon.
Hatter did not have much use for the churches and temples of the Other Side. He didn't understand the deity system but as the deities in question seemed content to leave him be, Hatter had no problems with them.
Charlie, on the other hand, was positively fascinated with the church on 5th Avenue. He spent hours praising the "spires piercing the veil" and randomly singing in its "perfect acoustic dome of heavenly embodiment". Heads definitely turned, but the only significant result was that Charlie was now a member of the choir.
Hatter wasn't looking forward to explaining it all to Alice.
8. Bitch - Merideth Brooks
Rating: PG
Characters: Queen of Hearts
Come closer, the old voice said and Mary, Queen of Hearts did.
She couldn't really remember how she'd ended up in this cave, or why she felt the need to help the huddled figure in front of her. She wondered idly if she'd sipped too much of that Clear Conscious and had actually cleared something she should not have.
Suddenly the huddled figure spun and grabbed her. An intense green light filled the cave and a pressure formed in Mary's mind. Give in. Do as I say and we'll have everything we've ever wanted. Everything we've ever deserved.
That did sound like just the thing, didn't it?
The light began pulsating and Mary had the oddest sensation of being trapped in her own mind. She instinctively pushed back but the green light persisted. Give in, the voice cackled. Or fight, if you wish. It is of no consequence. I am the Witch. You are merely a vessel. A nothing. A weak -
Mary stood up and clapped her hands together. The sound was like a thunderbolt in the small cavern and the light disappeared instantly. The withered creature in front of her cowered in astonishment.
"You, pathetic fool," Mary sneered. "I am the Queen of Hearts. Ruler of Wonderland! Do you truly think you can just impose your will over mine?!"
Her laughter made the old Witch flinch. Mary looked around the chamber one last time. There was nothing here that would aid her. She could reclaim her power without indebting her soul.
She turned and left.
9. Gods of War - Def Leppard
Rating: PG13
Characters: Hatter
Everywhere they went, people spoke of the latest attack in hushed tones and furtive whispers. Cultural context like September 11th and World Trade held no meaning for Hatter, but he was able to follow the conversations well enough. He was given odd allowances for being a "foreigner".
This made no sense to him, as the perceived enemy were nothing but foreigners to Alice's people.
It wasn't until he was back in the apartment, waiting with Carol for Alice to get home, that he understood the Oyster concept of War. Carol had the news on and there, Hatter saw.
Tens of thousands of Oyster soldiers. Thousands of "war machines". Hundreds dying in mechanized ways.
Victory measured in blood.
And for the first time, Hatter understood that the ultimate rule of Oyster harvesting - Do not attract attention. Do not expose Wonderland to Oyster scrutiny.
It was fear.
10. The Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
Rating: Crack. G Rated CRACK
Characters: Hatter, Alice and Carol
Hatter dove under cover with Carol. In urgent whispers, he told the wide eyed woman that they would make a break for it as Alice attempted to take out the enemy with missiles.
Carol simply gaped at him.
"David - " she began.
"There no time to argue Carol! I know this is confusing, but it's war. When I tell you, you need to run for the door!"
Alice ducked into the make-shift shelter. "Mom? Are you okay?"
Carol glared at her. "No. No, Alice. I am not 'okay'. I am very, very far from ok. When I said we needed to teach him more of our traditions - "
She stopped as a plate went flying by the table they were huddled underneath.
"- I did not mean to start a food fight in a Picadilly Cafeteria!!!"
Fin.
Notes: Due to the nature of the meme, this is un-beta'd so please let me know if there's something to be tweaked. [INSERT BLURB ABOUT HOW I DON'T HAVE THE COPYRIGHT HERE.]
For my f-listers who are lost but still reading this just cause it's here. I love you. - here's some notes to help you figure out who's who.
1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.
2. Turn your music player on and turn it on random/shuffle.
3. Write a drabblet/ficlet related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterward! No matter how whacked out your drabble is.
4. Do ten of these, then post them.
I didn't do that, exactly. Mostly cause I haven't written fic on a regular basis in AGES and can't type fast. So I tweaked 3. I listened to the song, figured out how it fit into Alice and then typed the scene as fast as I could. I then started on whatever song was then playing.
1. Waking Up In Vegas - Katy Perry
Rating: PG13
Characters: Hatter/Alice
Hatter's head was killing him but that didn't stop him from reacting to the Jabberwock's roar. He was instantly awake and on his feet.
He almost immediately regretted it.
The Jabberwock turned out to be Alice's cell phone. Hatter picked it up instinctively. What was wrong with his head? He felt as if he'd had consumed an entire Hearts Casino Sample Pack. He looked around the bedroom.
It wasn't either his or Alice's - but that was definitely Alice passed out in a satisfactory state of undress on the bed. Hatter himself was clad in his boxers, hat and one sock. The room itself was luxurious to the point of oppressing. It reminded Hatter of the Heart's Casino and it's overdone guest suites.
"ANSWER ME!" demanded Carol's disembodied voice stridently. Hatter looked in surprise at the phone in his hand. He must have answered it when he'd picked it up. Carol certainly didn't sound like there was anything wrong with her head.
He gingerly held it a good five inches from his ear and offered a very hoarse, "Hello?"
"DAVID! DAVID! IS THAT YOU?! OH THANK GOD! WHERETHEHELLAREYOUTWO?ISALICETHERE?SHE'DDAMNWELL BETTER - "
Hatter loved Alice with his entire soul, but there were some things he simply would not do for her. He sat down on the rumpled bed and reached over and placed the phone on Alice's ear.
The effect would have been highly entertaining if her flailing arms hadn't struck him in tender places.
While he lay curled up and gasping for air, he heard Alice frantically trying to explain to her mother. They'd gone to a city called "Vegas". Oh, thought Hatter, that's right. That lovely "Event Coordinator" Hatter had struck up a conversation with had brought them here. He'd loved the "concept" of a Tea Shop selling emotions and had flown them to meet some owner group. Alice had been full of laughter and Hatter would have done anything to make that last.
Then there was a multi-colored memory of things called "Shooters" and then nothing.
No wait. There was something else.
Hatter looked over to the night stand and picked up the paper lying on it.
"Alice, love?" Hatter interrupted. "What's 'Elvis Chapel of Love, Certificate of Union' mean?"
2. All I Ever Wanted - Shinedown
Rating: PG
Characters: Hatter
Because all I ever wanted was a place to call my home
To shelter me when I am there and to miss me when I'm gone
Hatter adapts and lands on his feet. In that regard, the Other Side isn't any different than Wonderland. For the most part, he prefers the Other Side and misses little of Wonderland.
The few things he does miss are cured with music. Oh, if the disposed Queen had only ever learned of the Other Side's music, so much pain and suffering could have been avoided. All the emotions the Oysters feel are channeled by these singers and fed to the masses. Alice look startled at his reaction the first time she puts on the radio.
He tries to explain that it's like swimming in emotion. And then she smiles and puts on someone named Barry White, gets him completely drunk from the music and has her way with him. He certainly doesn't complain.
Carol warms up to him when he begins singing her favorite songs. Hatter's happier than he's ever been when she buys him an iPod, even though he feels a little like a tea-head kept drugged most of the day.
He discovers the song from a co-worker who'd laughed and loaded new songs for him at lunch. It hits him as Alice opens the door and Carol smiles from the sofa.
He's safe here. He's home.
3. Wrong - Depeche Mode
Rating: PG13
Characters: Mad March
March woke up screaming, not surprising given his method of execution. He only stopped to ask why his screams sounded so odd. His voice was worse. Opening his eyes was a revelation of hell. The Carpenter sat him up and attempted to explain. When he realized he couldn't possibly, he simply given March a mirror.
The never changing expression of the white hare stared at him. It stopped March's screams. It stopped everything before and left only the unmarred white porcelain walls of his new hell.
March was beyond it now. He was beyond rationalization, caring, sanity and even death. In this new hell of reality there was no more "good" or "bad" or "orders". No more planning for the non-existant future.
All that was left was the momentum, the action, the tracking - The Hunt. The Kill.
4. Old Friends - Simon and Garfunkel
Rating: G
Characters: Carol
Carol watches him sing to Alice with a lump in her throat. This sweet and caring man that adores her daughter and makes her world bright with smiles cannot carry a tune, but tries anyway.
Can you imagine us years from today,
sharing a parkbench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventy
They dance in each other's arms, circling the apartment in laughter and song. Carol watches until the tears begin to well - until all Carol sees is herself and Robert. This was their song, their pledge, their vows. She hasn't thought of the song in years.
She watches them dance and the pain fades into warmth. It feels right. It feels like closure. She gets up and joins in the dance.
5. My Bloody Valentine - Good Charlotte
Rating: R for homicidal mania
Characters: Hatter
Oh, my love
Please don't cry
I'll wash my bloody hands and
We'll start a new life
Hatters and Chesires were always good at going mad on their own terms. It was a Hatter tradition after all. When Wonderland did it's deadly best to break you, madness was the only true escape.
The Tweedle Torturers respected the name. They even respected the man when he beat the Truth Room. No childhood memories, no twisted torment versions of Alice, no images at all would Hatter allow to appear. Just nebulous floating madness.
Yes, the mad twins respected true madness when they found it. The race to see if Hatter could lose the information about the rebellion and the Library before they could extract it began.
By the time the Mad March showed up, there was only the madness of death left.
Hatter was standing over the body of the Mad March staring at his hands when the twins returned. Blood and madness filled Hatter's mind and the twins screams filled his ears.
Hatter was never quite certain how he'd reached the casino, or what he had planned on doing there.
Then Alice was in his arms.
And for once, a Hatter gave up madness and tea for sanity and love.
Oh, that feels good.
6. The Spell of the Yukon - Buckwheat (OK, I have some very very random things on my computer. Don't Judge Me!)
Rating:PG
Characters: Carpenter
You come to get rich (damned good reason)
You feel like an exile at first
You hate it like hell for a season
And then you are worse than the worst.
It grips you like some kinds of sinning
It twists you from foe to a friend
It seems it's been since the beginning.
It seems it will be to the end.
The Carpenter looked at his wrist. There was something missing. Something he was supposed to have on his wrist. He wondered what it was.
A little girl with innocent wide eyes and a woman with a warm smile briefly floated in his mind. He wondered why.
But then his friend, the Walrus, came over and he shook free of the distraction. He was onto something. The harvesting need not be done by hand by the emotion mixers. He could replicate the process in mass production. It would revolutionize the economy. It would make him rich and powerful - and invaluable to the Queen.
Those things were important to him when he had come here to start his research. He wondered why.
7. Cathedrals - Jump Little Children
Rating: G
Characters: Charlie and Hatter
When Charlie was finally convinced that traveling through the Looking Glass wouldn't turn him into a toad - a belief held due to a mistranslation and his impossible-to-the-Other-Side age - he came fairly regularly to visit Alice. By unspoken consent by all parties, he was never left alone with Carol and never left unattended whatsoever.
Which is how Hatter and Charlie came to be wandering the streets of Manhattan on a Sunday afternoon.
Hatter did not have much use for the churches and temples of the Other Side. He didn't understand the deity system but as the deities in question seemed content to leave him be, Hatter had no problems with them.
Charlie, on the other hand, was positively fascinated with the church on 5th Avenue. He spent hours praising the "spires piercing the veil" and randomly singing in its "perfect acoustic dome of heavenly embodiment". Heads definitely turned, but the only significant result was that Charlie was now a member of the choir.
Hatter wasn't looking forward to explaining it all to Alice.
8. Bitch - Merideth Brooks
Rating: PG
Characters: Queen of Hearts
Come closer, the old voice said and Mary, Queen of Hearts did.
She couldn't really remember how she'd ended up in this cave, or why she felt the need to help the huddled figure in front of her. She wondered idly if she'd sipped too much of that Clear Conscious and had actually cleared something she should not have.
Suddenly the huddled figure spun and grabbed her. An intense green light filled the cave and a pressure formed in Mary's mind. Give in. Do as I say and we'll have everything we've ever wanted. Everything we've ever deserved.
That did sound like just the thing, didn't it?
The light began pulsating and Mary had the oddest sensation of being trapped in her own mind. She instinctively pushed back but the green light persisted. Give in, the voice cackled. Or fight, if you wish. It is of no consequence. I am the Witch. You are merely a vessel. A nothing. A weak -
Mary stood up and clapped her hands together. The sound was like a thunderbolt in the small cavern and the light disappeared instantly. The withered creature in front of her cowered in astonishment.
"You, pathetic fool," Mary sneered. "I am the Queen of Hearts. Ruler of Wonderland! Do you truly think you can just impose your will over mine?!"
Her laughter made the old Witch flinch. Mary looked around the chamber one last time. There was nothing here that would aid her. She could reclaim her power without indebting her soul.
She turned and left.
9. Gods of War - Def Leppard
Rating: PG13
Characters: Hatter
Everywhere they went, people spoke of the latest attack in hushed tones and furtive whispers. Cultural context like September 11th and World Trade held no meaning for Hatter, but he was able to follow the conversations well enough. He was given odd allowances for being a "foreigner".
This made no sense to him, as the perceived enemy were nothing but foreigners to Alice's people.
It wasn't until he was back in the apartment, waiting with Carol for Alice to get home, that he understood the Oyster concept of War. Carol had the news on and there, Hatter saw.
Tens of thousands of Oyster soldiers. Thousands of "war machines". Hundreds dying in mechanized ways.
Victory measured in blood.
And for the first time, Hatter understood that the ultimate rule of Oyster harvesting - Do not attract attention. Do not expose Wonderland to Oyster scrutiny.
It was fear.
10. The Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
Rating: Crack. G Rated CRACK
Characters: Hatter, Alice and Carol
Hatter dove under cover with Carol. In urgent whispers, he told the wide eyed woman that they would make a break for it as Alice attempted to take out the enemy with missiles.
Carol simply gaped at him.
"David - " she began.
"There no time to argue Carol! I know this is confusing, but it's war. When I tell you, you need to run for the door!"
Alice ducked into the make-shift shelter. "Mom? Are you okay?"
Carol glared at her. "No. No, Alice. I am not 'okay'. I am very, very far from ok. When I said we needed to teach him more of our traditions - "
She stopped as a plate went flying by the table they were huddled underneath.
"- I did not mean to start a food fight in a Picadilly Cafeteria!!!"
Fin.
Notes: Due to the nature of the meme, this is un-beta'd so please let me know if there's something to be tweaked. [INSERT BLURB ABOUT HOW I DON'T HAVE THE COPYRIGHT HERE.]
For my f-listers who are lost but still reading this just cause it's here. I love you. - here's some notes to help you figure out who's who.