everaftersfree | [6] is this a story that you know?

The Seanan McGuire-Inspired Random Scenario Meme!

Instructions
1. Comment with your character!
2. Go the RNG when you respond and roll a number between 1 and 14.
3. Tag with the corresponding random scenario inspired by a Seanan McGuire song.
4. Thread away!
5. Triggery material and/or sex may show up in threads, though none of the options require either one. Warning are appreciated if they do.

01. Children of Midnight
The chimes rang at midnight
And all of the stones of the city
Had stories to share
The bells rang at midnight
And all of their passion and pity
Hung bright in the air
At midnight each stone is a poet, they claim
And the city will answer to some secret name...

It's a bit late to be out wandering, isn't it? Maybe it's not usually late for you, but where you've found yourself, you shouldn't be out after midnight. Strange things happen in the night. Or maybe you're one of the people (or creatures) that hang out after midnight in this city, and you've stumbled onto someone who doesn't realize where they are.

02. Courting Gifts
I hear other girls get sweetly romanced
By their anxious beaus who want their causes advanced,
So they put on their pearls and get their assets enhanced...
That's not the situation with me.
I don't ever get imported champagne
Or expensive gifts I'll have to try to explain,
And yet 'you shouldn't have' is still my favorite refrain...
My situation's special, you see.

Someone's interested. Someone's very interested, and they feel the need to display it. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, they -- or maybe you -- have an... interesting way of showing how they feel.

03. Downhome Aphrodite
She was a down-home Aphrodite and the world was in her smile
And the minute that I saw her, lord, I knew I’d stay a while
And I said ‘Darling...will you be my shining star?
Because I’ll die for you, just set the task
I’ll do whatever deeds you ask
Just tell me I’m allowed to stay right where you are.’

You love them. Maybe you just met them, maybe you've been married fifty years -- it doesn't matter how long or how well you know them, but you love them. You love them like an obsession, and you need to tell them, you need to be allowed to worship them, right now.

04. Fox Hunt
It's catch and release
It's a door with no locks
And you won't find no peace
When you're chasing the fox
Now who's hunting who?
Which one sits back and mocks?
I'm promising you
That you won't catch the fox

You're on the run. Or maybe you're chasing someone on the run. Either way, you'd better stay quick.

05. Jack's Place
It's Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, and Jack who brought us here,
A place for what endures when simple answers disappear.
He says he knows the fugitives by something in their eyes;
While he just might tell you stories, he won't ever tell you lies...
It's a very different sort of once upon a time
You know that happy hour's over at three;
And the songs that Cinderella sings are so sublime
They say the happy is expensive but the ever after's free.
Come on down to Jack's Place and see.

You're here to get a drink. Or you're here to listen to the show. Or because you needed to duck out of the rain. Or because life's too hard and you needed somewhere to go. Whatever brought you here -- welcome to Jack's Place. It's a special kind of bar for a special clientele, someplace dark, someplace to rest for a while.

06. Labyrinths
We are all wandering
Lost in these mazes,
Trapped in our solitude,
Drained in our dazes,
Seeking the exit
That lets us out into the light.
We are all penitents,
We are all sinners,
We are all teachers, yet
Rankest beginners,
Seeking the answer
Of what marks the wrong from the right...

You've found yourself in a labyrinth, and no matter how much you search, you only seem to fall deeper in. And the deeper into the maze you go, the deeper you seem to be going inside yourself, too. Whether you're discovering something new or just realizing that that person you're searching with, or that you're running into, needs to know something you've been keeping from them, you might be surprised by the things that are revealed to you while lost in the labyrinth.

07. Mixed With Honey
Knowledge is poison and knowledge is pain
And knowledge is brambles and briars.
Knowledge is standing alone in the rain
And cursing all princes for liars.
Knowledge is blood mixed with honey, my dear;
Remember that well, if you can.
Knowledge is purchased through freedom and fear.
The story won't go as you plan.

You wanted to know. Just remind yourself that when you find out what you've been searching for, or bugging this person for. Remind them of it, when they realize just what it is they've ferretted out. Because the truth isn't pleasant, this time around.

08. Paper Moon
Paper moons and tinsel stars
Light your way no matter where you are.
I can fly forever, never go too far...
If a man don’t reach, then what’s a heaven for?
I don’t want to live so afraid to die
I never leave the ground, I never take a chance.
So you can find me out there in that endless sky;
Some people run away, but I prefer to dance.

You're off, you're out. You're not running away, exactly, but you're leaving. You're off to explore, to enjoy, or maybe just to get to a specific destionation -- either way, it's time to enjoy the journey.

09. Pretty Little Dead Girl
‘Bout three years later the stories started;
They say she’s out there on the hill.
They say she’s looking for a prom date.
So long dead and she’s sixteen still.
She never grew up and she never will.
Some people say that she’s just a legend;
Some people say that she’s something more.
Here’s what I know: when Rose gets restless,
She still puts the pedal through the floor

Ghosts are out tonight. Ghosts are loud and mingling with the living. Whether you're a dead one or a live one, you're in for an interesting night.

10. She Just Knows
Some fellas like their secrets, it's true,
But I've got a girl who always knows what to do!
That's 'cause my baby is a telepath.
I wouldn't want her any other way.

Suddenly you're hearing people's thoughts! Or maybe your significant other can suddenly hear people's thoughts. Or maybe a complete stranger is reading your thoughts! Whoever's suddenly a telepath, it should be an interesting experience for everyone.

11. Take Advantage of Me
It’s a kind of happy ending; it’s the midway of the moon,
It’s where broken stories gather in our shadow-play saloon.
And it's burning where she kissed you, but the scars will heal soon,
You can’t reach ‘ever after’ if you don’t know the tune.
Now, can you pay the ferryman’s fee?
Won’t you take advantage of me?

You want to be used. By someone specific, or by anyone at all -- you want to be used, to be owned, to be taken advantage of. Hopefully someone's willing to indulge you in your desires.

12. The Black Death
Now, a droplet-based transmission means I sneeze and then you die,
It's a fairly common vector and we think that's largely why
The quarantine developed to protect us from diseases
And to help and keep your family from dying of my sneezes.

A plauge has hit! Whether you're in the past or something's hit right now, people are dying left and right. You might be sick. You might be lucky enough to not be -- yet, anyway. But the world isn't a great place to be right now.

13. The Girls Next Door
There are no monsters underneath your bed,
Because we’ve killed them all.
No vampires hover overhead --
All things that fly have got to fall,
And the werewolf in the stormy night
Is tucked into a shallow grave.
So hushaby, my dear, sleep tight.
You’re all I have to save.

Maybe they realize it, maybe they don't -- all you know is, it's a big, scary world out there, and they need somebody looking after them. And that somebody is going to be you. Whether they want you to or not.

14. The Villians Get the Very Best Songs
I used to be a princess, found in perils dark and dire,
But I somehow kept my hair in place for princes to admire...
I realized my goals weren't leading where I'd been intending,
Because I'd need a lot of Prozac to survive their 'happy ending'.
So yeah, I guess that there's a chance I maybe played along,
But I'm certain I can deviate, it won't take very long.
And I've heard it's so...
The villains get the very best songs.

Being good just doesn't seem worth it anymore, does it? It's time to cut loose and see how they live on the other side of the fight.