seanan_mcguire @ 2009-06-26T08:27:00

2009-06-26T15:27:54Z

So—for a variety of reasons—I've had the song "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves" stuck in my head for roughly a week now. This has started to drive me insane. Consequentially, I spent a good chunk of yesterday composing new verses, just so I'd be singing something different. I found this so entertaining that I've decided to make it a party game (yes, this is now officially a party). Give me a girl from folklore, myth, literature, or hell, modern media, and if I have a clue of who she is, I'll write a verse.

A few rules:

1. Fictional people only. Real people go in the bridge, and I already re-write that every time we do the song live.
2. One girl per customer.
3. Jean Grey is not eligible.
4. Don't make me come over there.

Game on!...and now, game off. I already have more than I can handle, and I can't handle no more. Thanks for all the great suggestions, and please don't provide any additional girls for consideration in today's admissions.

***

Britomart.

Britomart yielded her heart to a mirror's reflection,
A maiden untouched and unstained seeking only affection,
She fought for her honor, she fought for her lord,
And she proved that there's grace in the sharpest of swords,
She was chastity's champion, and she won her place on her own,
And they'll try to reduce her, but somehow, she'll always be known.

Beauty.

They said she was odd, but forgave her, for she was a beauty,
And they told her to give up her dreams, and to marry for duty.
But Belle said she knew life could be something more,
And she ran to the woods, and she opened the door
On a world where the beastly was more than she'd ever believed...
'Til her Beast chose to live as a man, leaving Beauty deceived.

Atalanta.

Sweet Atalanta was fast, but the winter was faster,
And the love and the warmth of a she-bear kept her from disaster,
She grew into grace and a woman's estate,
And they say she was grand, and they say she was great,
But they call her a Princess and pampered when they tell her tale...
She's been edited down like a zephyr that once was a gale.

Glinda and Elphaba.

Glinda and Elphie were victims of pure nomenclature—
So many believe that your name is the whole of your nature—
They named one as "wicked," they named one as "good,"
And left them both lonely and misunderstood,
Wishing only to turn back the clock and go back to their youth
When innocent eyes looked on emerald lies as the truth.

Medea.

Medea believed in a man, and she swore she would aid him,
And she did what she could, yet the legends now claim she betrayed him,
For she trusted his words, and believed in his lies,
And now Jason's a legend whose fame never dies
While they call her a villain and blame her for being misled...
She shouldn't have listened to all of the things Jason said.

October.

October believed she could be more than what she was given,
A little girl lost in the woods, so determined and driven,
But she traded her past for a hope and a prayer,
And she didn't remember that life isn't fair,
Now she's lost in the fog, and she knows that she'll never be free,
And there's no one who's won when they bet on the grace of the Sidhe.

Cassie Hack.

Cassie is all too aware blood is thicker than water,
And the blood on her hands makes her fear that she's her mother's daughter,
For she's hacked and she's slashed and she's fought and she's bled
In the war against monsters that never stay dead,
But she knows in her heart that some evil will always survive...
And she prays in the night when she loses, that she won't revive.

Morgana le Fey.

Morgana le Fey did no wrong beyond being undaunted
By fences constructed between her and all that she wanted...
Her bastard half-brother was handed it all
By those who believed that he never could fall
But she would not lie down and behave as they told her do.
Now they say she's a villain and no one knows whether that's true.

Beverly Marsh.

Beverly played with the boys, only Lost Girl in Derry,
And she knew well enough to be wise, and she knew to be wary.
Oh, the monsters she faced and the things that she did,
She was brave, she was bold...she was only a kid,
And the cost of surviving was more than they ever had planned...
But it still couldn't sunder the circle they made with their hands.

Candy Smith-Foster.

Candy survived when the rest of the world started dying,
And she never encountered a challenge that wasn't worth trying,
She was barely eleven, a slip of a girl,
Set to challenge and change a post-hominim world,
Though she knew things could never go back to the way that they were...
When the moment of truth was at hand, the world counted on her.

Pamela Dean's Janet.

Janet was looking for purpose and seeking for knowledge,
A modern-day girl on the road to adulthood and college,
But the story she found was too strange to be true,
And it led her away from the life that she knew,
'Til the world was reduced to a choice on that dark Halloween...
If you want to play fairly, don't play with the cold Faerie Queen.

Sarah.

You shouldn't make wishes you don't really want to be granted.
So Sarah was taught on the night that the world was enchanted.
Now she's racing the labyrinth and racing the clock,
While the goblins around her all gossip and mock,
But the truth of the matter is Jareth just did as she asked...
Who's the monster when all of the players are truly unmasked?

Veronica Mars.

Veronica never requested to star in this story,
A lily maid happy to stand in the shadows of glory,
But her Camelot fell, and her Dame of Shallot
Was cut down in her prime—though so many forgot,
Still Veronica knew that her duty outweighed her despair,
And she wept for a Lily who died...life has never been fair.

Ace.

Dorothy just wanted something that she could believe in,
She was angry and lost and alone, and too bitter for grieving,
But she played her cards close to her chest and her hand,
With an ace in the hole, seeking somewhere to stand,
And when she met her savior, she asked him, "Is anything true?"
He said, "Roses sing, skies burn, come on Ace, we've got work to do."

Kitty "Shadowcat" Pryde.

Katherine Pryde was a good girl who tried to be better,
A slip of a thing with a spirit that no man could fetter,
And she slipped through the walls that were put in her way,
And it seemed in the end, she was too good to stay,
But they say that she saved the whole world, and they say she was brave...
It's a shame that the brave ones are always the first to the grave.

Talia.

Talia woke in a world that was strange beyond measure,
A princess turned into a toy for a lesser man's pleasure,
But she made her escape in her shame and her shock,
Though there's no weapon forged that can turn back the clock,
And she'll never go home, for her home is some many years gone...
And the true curse of slumber is this: she alone soldiers on.

River Tam.

River was damned for no crime she had ever committed,
A prisoner claimed without trial, who could not be acquitted,
For they needed the tools that she held in her mind,
And they left all she used to be tangled and twined
Into spiral-shard shatters and fragments of what used to be...
Now she runs like a river, but River can never be free.

Wendy Watson.

Wendy had never aspired to glory or greatness,
An artist more truly defined by her casual lateness,
But she chose the wrong job, landed in the wrong place,
And was faced with a choice that most won't have to face:
Would she go save the world, would she be more than she'd ever been?
Would she stand by the Middleman's side...and could they ever win?

Snow White and Rose Red (Fables).

Snow White decided that she would no more play the flower,
The wilting girl destined to swoon in some bold Prince's bower,
And her sister, Rose Red, she cast off to the side,
One more piece of a past that was better denied,
But the two sisters knew that they'd never be free of their past...
Now through wolves, winds, and wars, they have stolen their stories at last.

Virginia.

Virginia lived in a room at the edge of the forest,
In a Kingdom of riches she eked out a place with the poorest,
But the mirror's reflection demanded she go
Where a Wolf in disguise could be beast, prince, and beau,
Where a Kingdom depended on someone to finish the tale...
She was never the fairest of all, but she knows she can't fail.

Delirium.

Delight saw the world through a veil made of roses and wonder,
Adrift on a sea made of light...'til the day she went under.
Now they say that she's crazy, they say that she's strange,
And she never explains why her eyes had to change,
What she saw in her rainbow that brought her so coldly to heel...
Delirium's secret is one she will never reveal.

Jo Lupo.

Jo has a whole lot of guns, and she knows how to use them,
Knows all the rules and the laws and just how to abuse them,
But she's never once earned a gold star of her own,
And she knows that her bravery's coming on loan,
And she's not just sure who she'll be when that last bill comes due...
Jo knows how to shoot what she sees, but some bullets pass through.

September.

September was bored and alone and forgot to be wary
Of the Green Wind that blows little girls who complain into Faerie,
There are stories you live, there are stories you seek,
There are stories that have no regard for the meek,
So she spread our her skirts when there was neither captain nor sail...
She had further to go than she knew when she fell to this tale.

Sorrow.

Sorrow and stardust and stories and spindles surround her,
The girl in the garden caught fast in the words that have bound her,
And she's starved and she's shivered alone in the cold,
For you can't break a story that's not yet been told.
She's been praying for solace, for something to name as her own,
And the girl in the garden is lonely, and ever alone.

Casimira.

Sweet Casimira requests neither penance nor pity,
A priestess of pleasures enshrined in the shape of a city.
The tourists arrive through the strangest of doors
Seeking something they've lost as they cleave to their fours,
And she gathers them close, shows them heaven, then sends them away...
For as she cannot leave, Casimira won't ask you to stay.

Anthy.

Anthy just cared for her brother; how can she be faulted?
For he was a prince of a man, and was rightly exalted...
She's the sheath of a sword that obsession has made,
And her love can be bought with a stroke of the blade,
Yet she yearns for salvation, in her tower of roses and lies...
She prays for a prince who can see through her pauper's disguise.

Dr. Temperance Brennan.

Temperance Brennan was brilliant, and so they forgave her
For the alien light in her eyes and her icy behavior.
She's a changeling child traded by loss and neglect
For the human-born girl who knew how to connect
With the people around her, and now she can't understand why
They tell her she's broken because she forgot how to lie.

Gerda.

Gerda was foolish and faithful, designed for disaster,
A scarlet-shod girl in a world made of cold alabaster,
And she followed a boy who was frozen and cold
In the hope he'd remember he'd loved her of old,
And she walked to the wastes praying only that he'd take her hand...
Love and mercy are things that the winter cannot understand.

Lucy Saxon.

Lucy was lucky...or so she believed when he claimed her,
The wild rose of England, and Saxon the man who would tame her,
And he built her a prison, a modern day Troy,
And he made her his wife, and he made her his toy,
And a thousand ships sailed in her honor, a war to end wars...
And he called her Companion while other men called her a whore.

Persephone.

Persephone lived with her mother in summer unending,
A rose in the shade of an oak, virtuoso of bending,
But she made her decision, she made her own choice,
So when winter comes down, wicked girls should rejoice,
For she chose to be wed to the darkness and make her own way...
She was born to the summer, but winter's where she chose to stay.

Megan.

Megan was never a girl prone to fanciful wishes;
She tended the farm, folded laundry, and put away dishes.
Then the pink pony tumbled down out of the sky
Whisking Megan away before she could ask "why,"
And she'll never go back to the farm-girl that she was before...
And she misses so much, but she can't be that girl anymore.

Alisin Worthington.

Poor little rich girl who starved for a little attention,
Trying so hard to be more than her parent's invention,
So Alisin made herself over to be
The sort of a girl who could claim to be free,
Though she knew she was dying, she said that she'd live in the now...
Now they say that she's going to live, but she's not certain how.

Faith.

Faith had no faith in the world, and the world hadn't earned it.
They say that she's cynical, well, how'd you think that she learned it?
"There can be only one" and it should have been her,
But it's clear that the golden girl's who they prefer,
So she turned to the dark—what's a wicked stepsister to do?
Faith had no faith in their stories; they never came true.

Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls

seanan_mcguire @ 2009-06-26T08:27:00