Four Story Stud

Being a voracious reader and verbose, if intermittent, writer, this task seemed particularly promising. It was a lonely Saturday evening, so I headed out to the local coffee shop to break some writers block. What to write seemed ancillary to the task, so I was hoping the caffeine might suggest a medium.

The coffee shop gave me something cold, and I set immediately idling. I reached for my deck of playing cards to busy my hands until I came up with a bad idea. But the bad idea was already in my grasp.

But I couldn't just write a story on the cards; it would become completely disjointed once the deck was shuffled. Then I realized that the shuffling might produce completely new, unrealized stories if I structured my writing properly.

So I decided that there would be four proper stories, one for each suit if in proper order (2-A). Each card would hold a short sentence, just vague enough to work many contexts. Further, I attempted to make each original story related to its suit. The Diamonds story concerns great wealth; Hearts is a romance; Spades describes a city; and Clubs I did last, so it tells briefly the fall of a kingdom. None of these are particularly deep, but they provide some base for the shuffle to work upon.

Here's the actual text of the proper stories:

Diamonds
2 - Her eyes glittered like gems.
3 - They mirrored the treasure.
4 - Many had sought it.
5 - Only she would have it.
6 - But it would not stay.
7 - Elusive, the prize tumbled away.
8 - Tears did not help.
9 - Fortune is a cruel master.
10 - But his whims are law.
J - A mercenary appeared.
Q - She immediately used him.
K - The price was high, the reward royal.
A - Poverty. His name was Fortune.

Hearts
2 - They were always a pair.
3 - Warriors, Friends, Brothers...
4 - The first loved her.
5 - The second loathed her.
6 - They set their conflict aside.
7 - War was imminent.
8 - Each earned honor.
9 - The lover fell.
10 - The loather lived.
J - Soldiers were no longer needed.
Q - She mourned.
K - He ascended.
A - To be a lover.

Spade
2 - A magnificent city
3 - The towers touched the sky.
4 - Defying their burdens.
5 - A pungent city.
6 - Grave and defiled.
7 - Buried by woe.
8 - Born of one.
9 - One atop the other.
10 - Built only to decay.
J - No decorum.
Q - Mother and Daughter.
K - Prince and Pauper.
A - Could not come alone.

Clubs
2 - The end was far.
3 - Prosperity threatened.
4 - Good men found no adventures.
5 - There would be no trials.
6 - It was settled.
7 - But not happily ever after.
8 - No great evil spawned.
9 - They lacked inspiration.
10 - Merit was wanting.
J - There was no challenger.
Q - Evil did not need to wake.
K - They succumbed to themselves.
A - The end was near.

Shuffling the deck can produce some interesting results. I wish that I had made at least one of the stories more cheerful to balance the dark tone, but they're etched in permanent marker now. But here's one sample shuffle story, allowing some punctuation and grammar adjustments:

She mourned, Grave and Defiled. Defying their burdens and elusive, the prize tumbled away to a magnificent city. No challenger's merit was wanting. But not happily ever after, as no great evil spawned.

I doubt this deck will produce Shakespeare anytime soon, but 1000 decks with 1000 monkeys...