Right, this is my attempt at the iPod shuffle challenge. And when I say "attempt", I mean "attempt".
See, while attempting to do this, I discovered two things. First, I have a very difficult time writing while listening to music. I get confused and start typing out the lyrics instead of what I want to say.
Second, I also find it impossible to write in a time limit. Knowing I only have the three minutes the song takes to finish my thought makes my brain freeze up.
So, I kind of had to adapt. What I ended up doing was listening to the songs, then replaying them with one earphone in, so I could hear where it ended, but so I wasn't really listening to it. Then I would write, and after I finished, I went back and changed almost all of them in some way or another. I still kept the same main idea I got from the song, though, and tried to change them as little as possible. Sorry, but I'm a perfectionist, I can't stand leaving something as it is when I know I can make it better.
As if I hadn't had enough problems, I also had a few mess-ups with the actual shuffling of the songs. So, I admit that these aren't all the same shuffle. (Wow, was there a rule I didn't bend?)
Anyways… my apologies, and thanks to Ryuko DragonHalf for telling me how to do this. Even with all the technical difficulties, it was still fun. And also, I know I did more than ten. It was an accident. I got carried away.
And of course, I don't own WALL-E or any of these songs. Duh.
Angel, Sarah McLachlan
For countless years, the robots of the repair ward had been trapped. Confined to their small pens, denied their freedom, all they had to look forward to was day after day of being restrained by energy bands, reprimanded by the orderly arms, and taken in for round after round of fruitless diagnostic checks. In the beginning, they had hoped that maybe, just maybe, they would someday be freed. But as the weeks turned into months, and the months turned into years, their hopes faded, and then vanished completely.
Then, one day, a strange new patient came into their ward. They watched in amazement as he escaped the orderly arms, broke out of his pen, and burst into the diagnostic room. Then something happen that amazed them even further. Their pens vanished. The arms deactivated. He had shut down the repair ward.
They were free. They turned to him, delighted.
He was their hero.
Life is a Highway, Rascal Flatts
(Hmm, Pixar movie meets song from another Pixar movie, how interesting)
Looking back at those few days in which their both their worlds had been completed, WALL-E and EVE were endlessly grateful.
So much had happened in the hundreds of years since they'd brought the humans back to Earth, and yet, nothing had changed. They were still blissfully happy. They were still deeply in love. Life had gone on, in its beautiful golden way. And they wouldn't have it different for anything.
Each sunrise was a blessing. Each new day was more time to enjoy. They could look back and see the days stretch out behind them, in a beautiful, joyful line. And they could look forwards and see them stretch out before them, just waiting to be lived.
Fields of Gold, Sting
Fall was WALL-E's favorite time of year. The way the world changed from lush green to golden yellow never failed to intrigue him. The scenery added a new level of beauty to everything around it.
He loved to walk with EVE out into the forests. They would stand together, hand in hand, surrounded by the golden glow of the falling leaves and drying grass and gentle sun. Surrounded by so much beauty. And then their eyes would meet, and suddenly everything would become a hundred times more beautiful.
Viva la Vida, Coldplay
Auto glided across the dust-covered cabin. The grate of his own base moving along the ceiling in its track was the only sound in the empty Axiom.
He cast his crimson gaze on the old control panels. He could remember a time when they'd been lit up and humming. He glanced out the window that overlooked the Lido deck, now deserted and in disrepair. He could remember a time when the giant dome over it had been lit up, in the pattern of his choosing.
At one time, all of this had been his. He had had complete control over everything. He had controlled the world.
And now, he was forgotten.
No Such Thing, John Mayer
This one turned out rather well, I think.
M-O had never left his line before. Of course he hadn't. Leaving one's line is forbidden. It's just something you don't do. Leaving a line is wrong. It could not be done.
But, part of him realized, he'd just done it. He'd hopped off. Just like that.
He was shocked.
All his life, he'd known that leaving the line was wrong. It was terrible, awful thing to do. It just wasn't done.
Yet, he'd just done it. And here he was, perfectly fine.
What the heck was going on? Had something malfunctioned? This couldn't be true. It just couldn't!
Then suddenly, he came to a realization.
It wasn't what had happened that wasn't true. It was what he had always thought that was a lie.
The rules meant nothing. He could do anything.
He was free.
Eleanor Rigby, The Beatles
Earth was an awfully large place to be alone on.
And seven hundred years was an awfully long time.
Every time WALL-E rolled through the trash heap covered with the wrecked remains of his brethren, he was reminded of how alone he was. How he was the last one. How there was nobody else.
Even the dead WALL-Es were not as alone. They were together in their deactivation.
He was alone in his activation. Alone, alone, alone.
Miles and miles of wasteland, and only one small robot.
What About Now, Daughtry
This was it. This was his moment.
He was going to do it. He was going to do it right now. This was the perfect opportunity. He was not going to pass it up. She was too precious. She was too good to lose. She was worth the risk.
He was going to do it now. What good would waiting do? If he didn't do it now, he might regret it for the rest of his life. They'd come so far from when they'd first met. They'd gone from her trying to blow him up to joyfully flying together around the Axiom. That had to mean something.
It was time to show her just how much she meant to him. It was a perfect opportunity. He wouldn't let the chance slip away.
WALL-E pressed his play button.
He slid his metal hands together.
"Ee-vah?"
Stand, REM
Despite the fact that they'd just been dumped on the floor and nearly crushed to death, the passengers of the Axiom were delighted.
They'd just made a discovery.
There was this cool thing they could do, something they'd seen their captain do a moment ago. They'd never thought about it before, or known they could do it… but heck, they were doing it.
It was called "standing."
They put their feet on the ground and… stood. It was a strange sensation. It took more effort than sitting in their hoverchairs, and yet… it felt better, more right.
And another discovery- before, their hoverchairs had dictated their every movement, their every change of direction. And now… they could do it themselves! They could use their own brains to conrol their own feet, and move exactly how they wanted to!
How cool was this?
Bigger Than My Body, John Mayer
WALL-E stared, mesmerized, at the patch of space he could see peeking through the clouds.
It was so big, space was. Even seeing this little portion of it made him feel tiny. It reminded him of what he really was, a tiny trash-compactor, so insignificant in this huge universe. What he did mattered so little in the scheme of the world. Every day, he stacked a few more cubes. In his time, he'd built several giant towers. But, all in all, his existence barely mattered at all.
Someday, maybe, he'd grow. Not in size- he was a robot, of course he couldn't grow like that. But grown in another sense… grow in significance, grow in importance. Maybe, someday, he would be bigger, bigger than this tiny metal shell that he called himself.
You and Me, Lifehouse
The moment he first saw her lasted forever.
He was filled with so much wonder at how beautiful she was. How delicately she floated. How sunlight gleamed off her smooth, white metal. How her blue eyes glowed so beautifully against the black of her screen.
She tilted her head. It was a beautiful movement.
He couldn't take his eyes off her.
The moment lasted another seven hundred years.
Every Breath You Take, The Police
She couldn't go anywhere without him following.
Wherever she was, she knew that all she'd have to do was glance around and there he'd be, a strange, rusted cube, several yards away, staring at her from some ridiculously inadequate hiding spot. Each time she saw him, her right fin itched to morph into the ion cannon. But she contained herself. He was of little importance to her. She had more important things to bother about.
He watched her continuously. Day and night. He had ignored his trash-compacting duties for several days now, but he didn't care. He didn't even know why he followed her, but he did. Every time she moved, he saw. Every time she was frustrated, he knew. Everywhere she went, he watched.
How to Save a Life, The Fray
This is the only one I typed completely while listening to the song. I didn't change it at all afterwards. Also, it didn't come last in the shuffle, but as I feel it's the best one, I decided to put it last.
EVE stared in horror at the blank optics of the robot in front of her.
WALL-E.
No.
WALL-E.
She felt like someone had taken a giant bar of metal and rammed it straight through the door of her bio-stasis chamber. Where was he? Where had he gone?
She forced her hand into his.
"WALL-E?" Please hear me. Please. Please.
He stared blankly back.
What had she done wrong? Where she messed up? She had tried to save his life, and failed. All she had done was build a new WALL-E unit. Her WALL-E was gone.
Gone.
If only she'd done something different. If only she had known what to do. If only she could've saved him.
She rested her head against his blank optics.
I'm sorry, WALL-E. I couldn't do it.
She kissed him.
Then she turned away.
Good-bye.