The Time the Muppets Beat Time

theprawncracker

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Alright, I, Ryan, theprawncracker, being of solemn vow, and one brain (I think) had an idea back in November. The idea was, for Lisa and I to write a fan-fiction...TOGETHER!! And what was Lisa's reply to all of this? Well, I'll let you tell her in her next post, but anyway, she said yes, and I was thrilled! So over the course of the month, we brainstormed (both of our rooms got wet) and we've come up with a basic outline for a story!! And as of Thursday, we had a title! "The Time the Muppets Beat Time" exciting no?

So, via MSN Messenger, we are beginning to write this insanity as we speak. So, I promised Lisa I'd link her to this as soon as I posted it and then she was gonna say something and then one of us will post the first chapter!

Sooooo, now without further ado, I give you, the award winning writer of "Destination Home," "Chasing Robin," "Summer in the Theater," and of course, "Swamp Call," here is, the one and only, very fabulous, very succesful, TogetherAgain!!! Yay!!!
 

TogetherAgain

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Gosh, that's a lot of compliments! Thank you, prawnie! Hey, welcome to the thread, folks!

So when Prawnie asked me to do this, he did so saying that if we could write a fanfic together, the result could be "potent." My response was something along the lines of, "Potent? It could be lethal! Let's do it!" And, well, here we are. Get ready for something lethal, folks... let's get going!
 

theprawncracker

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Alright, so, we finished the first chapter, finally!! We've been working on it forever...:smirk:

But, when we finished, we had to figure out who would post the next chapter, and so we decided by adding up the chapters of all of our fan-fics, so from my stories; Muppet High, The Revenge of Elmo, Sometimes It's Better to Go, We Know That It's Probably Magic, Where It All Began, It Feels Like Christmas, A Moppet Family Halloween, and Gone But Not Forgotten I had exactly 100 chapters.

And from Lisa's stories; Destination Home, Chasing Robin, Summer in the Theater, Swamp Call, and A Gift, she had exactly 101!! :excited: So, by 1 chapter, Lisa will be posting the first chapter!

Oh I am so excited!! :zany:
 

TogetherAgain

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From my own point of view, I can only tell you what has worked for me-find something you really enjoy doing, and pursue it. For me it was artwork. Since other subjects came to me with more difficulty, I tried to combine art with them. So, for example in history, I would often provide drawings depicting a particular period or situation-bringing together both cultural and historical elements. It did not necessarily bring up my history grade, but it did keep my mind open to history as it related to something I loved.
--Jim Henson​

Chapter One

"It was a true example of courage, bravery, and the American spirit!" Sam the American Eagle said. He was perched on his podium atop the Muppet Theater stage peering down at some of the other Muppets.

"Yeah but Sam," Kermit the Frog said from the front row of seats in the empty audience. "If that was the beginning of the Revolutionary War, weren't they still considered British back then?"

"I was British once," Beauregard said. He scratched his head. "...I think."

Sam ignored him and tried to answer Kermit. "Well, uh, technically, uh, they were British at the time, of course, but... they BECAME... American!"

"Whatever," Miss Piggy said as she returned to reading her fashion magazine.

Gonzo popped up from the seat behind her. "You called?" he said.

Rizzo the Rat looked at Kermit. "Yo frog, did you call for that pizza yet?" he asked him.

Fozzie Bear shot up. "Oh! That reminds me of a hillarious joke!" he stood in front of everyone. "Ok, what do you call a cow with no legs?" he looked at everyone. "Give up? Ground beef! Wocka wocka!"

Rowlf shook his head. "The only calling I'd like to do is for a cab," he said.

Pepe nodded. "Si, I wouldn't mind dat," he said. "But jou know what else I wouldn't mind, is a call from a sexy lady, hokay?"

"Man, my Janice is the only lady I need," Floyd Pepper said from the back of the theater where he sat with the rest of the Electric Mayhem band.

"Oh rully?" Janice said. "Well, there was that one call I got..."

"CALL! CALL!" Animal chanted.

Zoot suddenly woke up. "Did somebody call me?" he asked.

Robin turned and looked at Kermit, who he was sitting next to. "Uncle Kermit?" he said. "Do you think Dad will call today?"

"I just wish someone would call us out of this lecture," Dr. Teeth sighed from the back of the theater with the rest of the band, who all agreed by nodding.

Sam gasped. "But, listening to this lecture is your call to duty!" he said.

"Yes sir Mr. Eagle!" Dr. Bunsen Honeydew said as he and his assistant Beaker rolled in a machine shaped strangely like a grandfater clock. "Just as it is our call to duty to deliver you the newest technology from Muppet Labs: Where the Future is Being Made Today!"

Beaker pointed at the machine. "Mee mee mo," he said.

Sam Eagle slapped his head. "It is totally Un-American to be bumbling scientists like yourself!" he said to the Bunsen and Beaker

"I thought most American's were stupid," Gonzo whispered to Beauregard.

"Oh no, that's silly," Beauregard said. "Most Americans are American!"

"Oh but Mr. Eagle," Bunsen protested. "Most of the founding fathers were scientists! Benjamin Franklin invented the incandesent bulb, bifocals, the fire department-"

Rowlf poked his head over Kermit's shoulder. "You have him to thank for the fire department, Kermit," he said.

Kermit nodded. "Yeah, if it weren't for that, we would've been gone a long time ago," he said.

"Now, if I may," Bunsen continued. "I'd like to demonstrate my newest invention, the Muppet Labs: Time Machine! Now Beakie if you will," he motioned to Beaker. "Step into the center of the time machine and I'll whisk you away into the distant past!"

"Mee me mo memee," Beaker sighed quietly as he marched in front of the machine. "Mee me!"

"Now," Bunsen said as he walked around to the controls of the machine. "Unfourtunately, my machine cannot transport into the future yet, technology does have its downsides here and there," he pressed a button the machine and the face of the clock lit up. "Ah! It does appear to be working!" he clapped as he watched the machine.

From the center of the clock face, there came a pure, white, cone-shaped ray of light. It covered Beaker from head to foot, and very little else. The Muppets watched as he became fainter and fainter, and finally appeared to be sucked into the clockface with the fading light.

The Muppets all were taken aback, that is, all of them except Miss Piggy. "What? What's so great about that? He just got sucked up by some stupid light," she said.

"Yeah, but he didn't meep at all," Rizzo said, amazed.

Meanwhile, up in the rafters above the others, Uncle Deadly regained his balance after he saw Beaker dissapear. These fools had sudennly peaked his interest.

Bunsen walked around to the front of the machine. "It worked!" he cried. "Oh wonderful! And Beaker seems to be missing no limbs or vital organs, that's a good thing," he looked around. "Well, I suppose the test run is complete! Now I'll simply press the button again, and Beakie will be back in our time and can tell us all about his journey!" Bunsen exclaimed returning to the back of the machine.

Janice sighed. "Like we'll be able to understand the freak anyway," she said. The other bandmembers nodded.

"Yes, well..." Bunsen scratched his head. "Anyway, now just by pushing this button, Beaker shall be back in our midst!" Bunsen spun his hand around and pressed the button.

The white light emerged from the clock face once more, this time casting a much wider ray. It touched everything in front of it, from the open stage curtains to the rafters, and the entire seating area. Almost the entire room was illuminated by this pure, bright light.

Robin stood up in his seat to reach over the arm rest and hold onto his uncle's arm. "Uncle Kermit?" he said. "What is that light?"

Kermit wrapped his arm around his nephew and gulped. "It's the past Robin," he said.

"How cool is this?!" Gonzo shouted as he began to dematerialize into the light.

Fozzie wrung his hat in his hands as he began to dematerialize as well. "Not cool at all," he said. "I want my mommy!"

The light slowly dissapeared after it engulfed all of the Muppets in the theater, except Bunsen, who stuck his head around the back of the machine. "Alright Beaker, do tell us how your trip went!" he said expecting to see his assistant but didn't. "Beaker?" he scratched his bald head. "Now where did he and the others get off to?" he asked himself. "Oh well, I'll just return to my machine," he said, returning to fiddling with the time machine.
 

redBoobergurl

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Cool! I'm excited the two of you are writing together! This is a fun story so far! I love the typical Muppet lines (Miss Piggy "Whatever", Gonzo "You called") and it sounds like it's going to be very exciting! Time travel! Woo-hoo! Bring on more!
 

BEAR

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This one is starting off great so far. I'm excited to keep reading. I promise I will try to keep up this time! What is your process in colaborating like this online?
The writing is great. You both really seem to capture these character's personalities well and I feel like I am reading a real script or something. It is so easy to visualize what is happening. My one problem is Janice's line where she calls Beaker a "freak". Seemed a little too harsh for her to say that in my opinion. Sounds more appropriate for Miss Piggy to say, but oh well...it's your story and I still like it. Look forward to more!!

P.S. Ryan, thanks for "looking after" Bird and Snuffy in the dorms last week.
 

theprawncracker

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BEAR said:
What is your process in colaborating like this online?
Well, first off, it ain't easy...

As I said in my first post, we started collaborating ideas back in November, and we got the idea of a time travel story. So, we kept going back and forth with ideas for the story, and then we started thinking, "How the hey are we going to do this?!" So at first, we thought, "Meh, we'll just post back and forth," and then, Beau and I decided that it was vital for Lisa to get MSN Messenger, so we both PMed her (on the same day...:halo: ) and told her how to download it and set up an account, so, she did! Yay!

So, she finished Swamp Call, finally!! :wink: And we began thinking again "How the hey are we going to do this?!" So, I had the idea of opening two windows on MSN and writing the story in one window and making comments in the other. So, we came up with lines up to the end of the "call" scene, and then we started writing in the other window with the Henson quote. Well, that worked up through Sam's first line, and then it got kinda crazy, Lisa couldn't get her part in the right window, so I had to copy and paste it into the other, so that was a little hectic, but we pulled it off.

Then it was time to decide who would post first, so we had to use logic, well, I started the thread, but Lisa posted last, so then we tried to play MSN tic-tac-toe, well it wouldn't load on Lisa's end, so we had to think again...So I thought "Well, when we were thinking of the title, I counted how many replies each of our other fan-fics had...So...Why don't we count chapters this time!" So, we did, and as you can see above, Lisa won, by one chapter! So she posted, the first chapter, and I'll post the second, and so on and so on.

So there you have it, it's not easy, but it sure is fun! And...er...I don't know whether you can expect more story tonight, after all both Lisa and I do have school tomorrow...:smirk:
 

TogetherAgain

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theprawncracker said:
Well, that worked up through Sam's first line, and then it got kinda crazy, Lisa couldn't get her part in the right window, so I had to copy and paste it into the other, so that was a little hectic, but we pulled it off.
Oh, sure, make it sound like it was MY fault! :wink: I've told you about twenty times now, it was the right window on my computer! It just showed up in the wrong window on yours! And, to be fair, some of your comments were in the story window on my computer... crazy internet... But it all worked out, as can be seen above. And it was INSANELY fun! Except for maybe the fact that it took a while... probably longer than if we were writing individually... but, looking at all the great jokes up there that I NEVER would have thought of, it's definitely more than worth it!
 

Fragglemuppet

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I love it! The two of you are awesome writers, so it is perfect that you should be colaberating! I wonder ware exactly they are in time...
Only one question, do you anticipate the rest of the chapters taking a long time, since you are writing them together? I don't mean to seem impatient; I was just currious.
 
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