(no subject)

[maderr]

I have got to stop letting the weekends fuck up my sleeping habits.

Anyway. I am awake, should be asleep, so you peeps get to listen to me ramble.

Want to do a fairytale. Would like to do several. Have not done them in awhile, so to write at least one would be nice, before I throw myself back into Robin Hood, Midnight, and Weathermage.

The one predominantly on my mind at the moment are:

• The Emperor's New Clothes
  
  Certain elements of this one would be fun, certain aspects would be annoying as bloody fuck. This fairytale is a good one for toying with the 'what happens after' concept. In the tradition tale, it is a child who points out that the emperor is, in fact, naked. What might have become of that child?
  
  
• Little Red Riding Hood
  
  This one would be pretty simple. The most frequent way to retell this one, at least in my experience, is to make RRH male instead of female, up the age to legal, and give him either the hunter or the wolf. Yes, much like Emperor, I think the true fun might be with the 'what comes after'. Who is the hunter, and what else does he get up to, and what happens after he helps grandma and the dumbass granddaughter?
  
  
• The Little Mermaid
  
  I tried to start this one tonight, but mermaids make no fucking sense, and trying and failing to work out a handful of details succeeded only in annoying the fuck out of me. But, again, the after the main story is what interests me. A running theme tonight, hmm. But, still. In the original version of the tale, the little mermaid dies (and can't go to heaven b/c, not being human, she doesn't have a soul, and so must earn one by doing good deeds as a spirit and then maybe god will let her have one *rolls eyes*). I thought somewhere b/t Hans Christian Anderson and Disney might be more fun, with the little mermaid simply going missing, and someone sent to find her. Then the story pisssed me off, so it's not getting written anytime soon. I hadn't figure out the LI anyway.
  
  
• The Pied Piper
  
  I would love to figure out a suitable way to retell this one. Sadly, no idea has yet sprung to mind. I'm sort of sick of the Piper being some sort of uber broken character who has zomg powers and whatnot. And the townspeople always kinda irked me too - no reason was ever given for their mass stupidity. I mean, people can be dumb and cruel and shit, but it seems to me a town that plagued by rats would gladly hand over the money in the end. I dunno, there's something there, but I haven't yet been smart enough to see what it is.
  
  
• Cinderall-type
  
  I can't help it. I love masques, sekkret identities, pining from afar, all of it. I could write a million such stories and never grow bored. Sadly, that doesn't mean everyone wants to read it a million times, and it's already been done to death by myself and two million other people. So, I will probably keep the ideas just in my head, but they're always there.

And I do believe that is enough torture for one night, and I am going to try once more to go sleepy.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The Pied Piper, to me at least, has always been a dark kind of story; not disturbing, but with a certain aftertaste, y'know? (Then again, I read it when I was a wee child and barely remember it. :B )

I read an HP fic that was a twist on The Little Mermaid, and Little Red Riding Hood is kind of a generic story that's been as overdone as Cinderella— but I'd love to see you try it. [: If anyone can pull it off, it's you (Main Gauche, anyone? ♥).

I'm rooting for The Emperor's New Clothes, in case you can't tell. ;D

[aqua-eyes.livejournal.com]

As far as the pied piper goes I have always liked the 'Maurice and his educated rodents' take. ^^

[rykaine.livejournal.com]

The Emperor's New Clothes
Maybe after he realizes he's naked as a jay bird, someone could bring him a robe. Or the handsome knight from a foreign land could over his cloak to cover him until the king finds more suitable atire?

Little Red Riding Hood
Maybe Red has a much older brother or cousin who would like to thank the hunter in his own way? ^_~

The Little Mermaid
Take it from the angle of the human prince?

The Pied Piper
Maybe the original story can be the history that taught him his lesson? To sorta define him and how he does his business now?

Or maybe the rats could have a say in how the story really played out. /shrug

Cinderella-esque
If you like it, write it? If others are sick of it, they don't have to read it.

Do you remember that story in those books we had about the three horses or unicorns or whatever who were racing for... something. The one was really pretty and fast, the second one was prettier and even faster, and the third one kept stopping to help people do stuff.

I always thought it would be fun to play around with that one, myself. (Not technically a fairy tale, Iknow, but still).

[(Anonymous)]

Just had a thought about the emperor's new clothes. Perhaps, instead of it just not wanting to be embarressed by not being able to see how fine something is, the Emperor is in fact blind but doesn't want anyone to know it (or is just used to having clothes that are so loose they don't feel like they are there.

And then as Rykaine suggested, when the little boy notes that the emperor is naked, a loyal knight (or equivilent) takes action and throws a cloak around him, or perhaps cut out the boy, perhaps the knight arrives late to the procession and sees that the emperor is naked and people are laughing/shocked/whatever and throws his cloak around the emperor.

Catherine.

[droaerion.livejournal.com]

I'd want to read a different Cinderella story a million times. And besides, so many times it's from the eyes of the peasant. What if it's reversed, and the Prince is going to some 'dirty common festival' because he's sick of palace stuffiness and is mistaken as a worker or something? that'd be new, and hey, it came the second I wrote 'million times'.

[suzume-tori.livejournal.com]

Cinderall-type is not bad. You could rewrite it in a million ways, and it would still be brilliant. Let's face it: you're a genius. If that is where the plotbunnies want to take you, GO WITH IT :D (I would certainly enjoy reading it.)

The pied piper would be cool if you could pull it off, but if you have no ideas on that front, it's not like you should force yourself to do it 0__0 you certainly have many awesome stories out and in-your-brain-percolating, so setting this on the back-burner for a while is cool, too.

The original Little Mermaid depressed me.

Er, if you are ever bored, you could check out more oldschool grimm fairytales. (Random googling came up with this site: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/ )

And I have books and books and books of folktales that I would be more than happy to type out and send to you if you wanted them (I collected them as a kid -- I would have to dig them up, but I'm sure I could find some pretty easily. One culture -- I can't remember which exactly -- loved for the third and youngest son to win at everything. And he would always be named Boots. Seriously.)

Uhm. So. Yeah. **waggity tail** If you want to do more fairytales, that would be totally awesome to read. I *love* fairytales, and yours always have a certain element of charm that -- yeah. <3

[maderr.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I'd go with genius, but thanks ^__^

The original little mermaid depressed me too, esp. since she was so fucking mistreated start to finish. I hate most of Anderson's stuff, he was bloody depressing.

Aha, I own a volume of Grimm's. I also have three volumes of Russian fairytales and a slew of other such books. But thanks ^__^

[escagirluk.livejournal.com]

Pied Piper - evil-demon-mind-controlled village? (would explain the gigantor rats, too, mind=controlling rat demon?)

[vettithoughts1.livejournal.com]

To continue escagirluk's idea,

Pied Piper could be a powerful wizard/mage (Not necessarily poor), rescuing demon controlled town. When the vain king refuses payment (Not money, probably something powerful from the palace/town which the king in arrogance refuses...blah blah
...and the pied piper takes away the king's only son/heir...leaving the town heir less....

:)
VT

[broken-moons.livejournal.com]

... Every time you bring out your fairytales I remember that I have a bunch of fairytale books that I'd like to re-do stuff out of, someday. Someday being somewhere after the point where I pick them up from my parents'.

Anyway. I'd be curious to see what you do with all of the above (except maybe the Little Mermaid, for some reason), and I like this 'what happens next?' vibe you've got. Or turn them completely around (I like droaerion's idea).

I just read a nice Pied Piper story on Shousestu BangBang, actually. Still very much with the awesomeness on the Piper's part (though a bit creepy, too), but yeah. How about the Piper still being in training and accidentally luring the kids instead of rats and then maybe having to do some sort of punishment to make up for it?

I don't know. Just writing down what comes to me.

Maybe I should go work on my Beauty and the Beast thing again. Somehow, non-slash stories are so much harder, and they shouldn't be.

*shuts up*

[blackstarart.livejournal.com]

I love your fairytales <3

If I was any good at writing, I would love to do a really twisted version of Cinderella... expect set in space, with aliens. Male!Cinderella is actually a pirate, who works for a very cruel organization known as 'The Family'. He was sold to them at a young age, and can only gain his freedom by stealing a famous, priceless royal jewel.
It just so happens that the royals who own said jewel are throwing a ball, to celebrate their youngest sons coming of age (also hoping to snag him a bride). Male!Cinderella dress up as a noble women (or just goes as himself?) in order to steal the jewel, but ends up having a fun night with the Prince himself.
He feels guilty, but he knows his only chance at freedom is to steal the jewel, so he does it. Only to find he can't betray the Prince, so brings it back to him and begs for forgiveness :3

I hope that helps to inspire you!

[mechante-fille.livejournal.com]

All of the above, please! ^_^ Or, you know, whichever one pulls you when you sit to write. If you have a bunch more ways to write Cinderfella, by all means, write them. I'd be more than happy to read them all.

Also, I just barely missed seeing this when you posted it... and was cursing myself for once again screwing with my sleep. *sigh*

[sunandshadow.livejournal.com]

Pied Piper and Emperor's New Clothes are actually structurally quite similar, so you could even combine them if that gave you more material for you to build something coherent out of. They both deal with the problem of a society where everyone is so concerned about appearances that they ignore real problems which aren't dignified, and people of low rank even when they have solutions to said problems. Then the main characters manipulate the situation to make the problem so blatant no one can ignore it and they realize how ridiculous they are.

Personally I would freaking love to see you do a version of Dr. Seuss's The Sneetches though. ^_^ Or I could suggest half a dozen more if you want, Fairytales and folktales are a hobby of mine too. :)

[moonkitsune.livejournal.com]

Which Pied Piper version are you going for. For the villagers, it could be that they were too poor to pay and seeing that the rats were gone, decided that without money, they would just have to flat out refuse. (1 person against a whole town. Seems logical, especially in desperate times. Maybe the rats were ruining the crops and making people sick.) So, the pier, inraged, decided to take the children. You can either have it were a boy is either deaf or lame and is left behind to tell the villagers and the piper, wanting all the children, comes to take him personally. OR, you can have it were the villagers offer to give him a child as payment and, seeing as they have no money and not really wanting all the children, complied but really doesn't know what to do with the boy (of legal age of course.) Maybe even the limp boy that helped the villagers out but not wanting to give a healthy child, turns around and gives him the child instead. So both people, not really wanted, comes together. That and the pier has someone to socialize with instead of his rats and the boy has someone to take care of him and teach him a thing or two.

Damn, you make me want to drabble myself.

[spy-c.livejournal.com]

The Emperor's New Clothes could be set after the whole thing happened. Maybe years after. You could make him really young and naive when he took the thrown and the whole naked thing happened. The Emperor has been throughly humiliated and has lost much of his respect. Then, the child whose all grown up shows up?

The Little Red Riding Hood one could maybe be between the wolf and the hunter. The hunter can either "save" them from the wolf, when really it's this kinda weird game that the two play with stray strangers. Or, the little brat could have taken something from the wolf that he wants back, and when she sends the hunter after him, the hunter realizes this.

The Pied Piper could be a young man in the village that is just very good at playing the pipes and has been isolated for some reason. Maybe a family incident? And, he somehow figures out a way to get rid of the rats for the price of being let back into the village fold...which works or doesn't work?

As for Cinderall-type, you could write a billion and one and I would still read them. I LOVE masques and that whole pining from afar. Just love them.

[(Anonymous)]

I was thinking something along those lines for the Little Red Riding hood, that the wolf is a victim in this somehow, perhaps just of circumstance (he happened to be there for some other reason when somehting happened that the Grandmother and Little Red Riding hood accused him of) or GM and LRRH are setting him up for some reason and when the hunter comes to rescue them, he realizes something isn't adding up.

For the Pied Piper, about the whole village not wanting to pay, I saw a version of the Pied Piper where it wasn't the village, but rather the Mayor of the village that didn't pay, the people were just manipulated by their mayor (which happens all the time unfortunatly). As for the angle, perhaps instead of the lame boy or even a child (aged up of course) the Pied Piper takes the children with no intention of returning them, but one young man, seeing how devastated his family and the rest are because the children are gone, offers himself in their place.

As for cinderella, that has been done oodles of times, but it is still good (when slashed of course :D) Perhaps do one from the fairy godfather's (not mother's ;)) point of view and how he is looking for a way to get HIS prince to notice HIM and so he goes around helping others get together. And perhaps the real cinderella (yes female) finds out and since she was helped, she decides to help her fairy godfather.

Catherine.

[camden-rehab.livejournal.com]

I like the first two, if only because I've never read slash versions of those before.
I saw a pretty good version of the pied piper a while back. Can't remember the author, but the gist of the town's stupidity was that they didn't really have the money in the first place and the mayor was a dick. I always felt sorry for the lame child. It would be awesome if instead of the original story you did a sequel where the lame kid is all grown up and goes off to find the Piper to try and get the children back and ends up smexing it with the Piper as a result.

[camden-rehab.livejournal.com]

Ooh, and I love the idea of a Cinderfella who goes off with his fairy godfather after he realises the Princess is a selfish git.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Eh. I've seen variations like that. It's too easy a route to go, to my mind.

[camden-rehab.livejournal.com]

Well, I have no doubt that whatever you post will be cool. ^^

[bitchypixii.livejournal.com]

*comes from the shadows of semi-lurk-dom*

More fairy tales, yay!

As far as the 'mermaids make no sense' thing, would this be biologically? Because there was a long discussion on a dA poll recently that covered the probable (possible?) biology of fantastical creatures, and I'd be glad to copy-paste the mermaid parts for you, if you'd like. Of course, watch me be totally off the mark with this.

Personally, my vote is either for Emperor's New Clothes or Mermaid, but I'll most definitely be happy with whatever.

[alina-gaki.livejournal.com]

My vote is for Emperor's New Clothes, just because I've never seen a new versoin of it. It is always the same line, and never much afterwards. It would be verah verah interesting to see what you could do with it. ^_^

[cobecat.livejournal.com]

Could the Piper maybe have come from the town in the first place? Giving him some kind of history with the people makes their interactions more interesting, to my mind...could even be the mayor's kid.

[sixpence1323.livejournal.com]

PIED PIPER PLEASE!

[jolena.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see the Little Mermaid fic if you ever get it worked out. (Maybe Urusla isn't ZOMG EVIL! just that person no one wants to admit they know but they all go to for their occult needs. And maybe she has a thing for the little mermaid, so while she was willing to give Ariel her chance to win her prince she wasn't going to make it easy. Then, when Ariel didn't get her prince she was too embarrased/ashamed/upset to tell Urusla so she just runs away. Then Ursual assumes she's happy and doesn't look for her until a customer mentions she's missing....?)That's probably a silly idea, but maybe it'll spark something for you. ^_^

Now, since that one is on the shelf for now, I really think it would be fun to read what happened after The Emperor's New Clothes. I always kinda wondered what happened to the people that tricked him and all the villagers that played along with it and stuff.

[empresstria.livejournal.com]

I'm fond of the Emperor idea... You could go with the Emperor and the man who "gives" him the "clothes." Lots of potential drama in that pairing. Or the invisible-clothing-seller can eventually end up with grown-up-child.

...can you guess my favorite character?

[amasugiru.livejournal.com]

This demonstrates my ignorance but if you did one for the musicians of Bremen I would love your forever and ever... not like I don't already.

[gossymer.livejournal.com]

For the emperor's new clothes, I always felt the new clothes were a metaphor for something generally scandalous and the youth points in out and oh, crap - things don't go all too well. Maybe the emperor is cursed or something? *shrugs* But yeah, a story through the POV of the youth would be incredibly awesome.

The ending of the Little Mermaid (original) kills me and it hurts so horribly. The rhought of her dying and the prince never knowing, or worse, never caring and also assuming that someone else was responsible for saving him when it was her. Oh GOD. If it ended well, it would have been hands down my favorite fairytale because it's ultimate hurt/comfort then - but without it, its just a tragedy ;_;

Pied Piper always felt like a lesson in morality etc. where reneging on a deal leads to losses far greater than material possesions. And I wondered about those kids - were they brainwashed? Were they better off after they were out of the village? If they were returned was it just a lesson learnt? Did any kids want to stay with the pied piper? Was it Stockholm syndrome? Yeah, this particular story didn't really work for me :(

Maybe the Pied Piper just happens to be a halfling (half human, half magical creature) with a gift for music and helps a village, gets snubbed, leaves - but managed to charm one or two kids who follow him when he leaves. The village thinks its a kidnapping. That's all I could come up with really.

[gossymer.livejournal.com]

And by charm, I mean, the two guys think he's a great guy and decide to leave the village with him because they hated how things went down.

mermaids

[(Anonymous)]

you know I'm thinking about mermaids and recall getting one of the lore books somewhere that mentioned they are beautiful and treacherous type things really shifty :P I wonder, maybe a rewrite of the little mermaid fairytale where it's the human that gets tricked?

Of course... you might have to come up with a reason as to why the maid or man would even care :)

Re: mermaids

[adonelos.livejournal.com]

and once again I forget to log in.