You know the drill, we can read and cringe together! This story continues to get more and more ridiculous. But it's still fun to read it and I hope you are having fun listening to it! And yes, I know my wording choice for many things is... super special. Let's forget about it, okay? I was a stupid 13 year old when I wrote this. If you'd like to read along while you listen, check out the text below the video! Chapter 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTUM9KCZv90&t=99s Chapter 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp5A-ySIpUY Chapter 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foSc0cvhfDU Chapter 4: Coming Together
The M.T.M was coming together beautifully. The machine was being hidden by Grandpa’s outhouse to keep prying eyes out of the children’s business. The only problem was that Grandpa wanted to use his outhouse. James convinced him to use the “nice indoor plumbing system” until the kids had finished remodeling it. And so they worked. Rosie helped James with the building and operation of the machine. Jeff helped by telling the two what they needed to do to take them into fairytales, because, you see, that is where they are trying to go, into a book. Abby collected costumes that matched the descriptions Jeff gave her. They had two tunics for the boys and two gowns for the girls. As soon as Abby brought the costumes over Rosie squealed with delight. She actually squealed. The costumes were exquisite. The boys didn’t really like their costumes, Jeff and James thought that they were too manly to wear those girly clothes. But the girls enjoyed swishing about the yard in their gowns. Abby’s was gold and white with long sleeves and full skirt. Rosie’s dress was the same shape but was blue and silver. Every day after school the kids came over to James’ house to work on M.T.M. They loved spending all their free time working on the machine. I certainly wouldn’t do that. I probably would just watch TV. But this isn’t about me, it’s about the M.T.T. THAT is what the four youths started to call themselves. M.T.T. stood for: Magic (even though it’s not magic) Transport Team. Not the catchiest name I’ve heard before, but then again, it does cover the basics. They ARE a team. The machine DOES transport them. And it IS magical, sort of… not really. So they kept the title of M.T.T. even if they might get made fun of if they ever told anyone. As I have stated before, I know nothing of science. I just don’t! Some people don’t know a thing about math, or geography, I just am one of those people but with science. So now that the machine is finished, I couldn’t begin to tell you how it works. The Magical (even though it’s not magic) Transport Machine was really finished. It took forever, but it was finished. Well, it didn’t really take “forever”; otherwise you would be too dead to read about it. So it actually took a really, really, REALLY long time to finish the M.T.M. (Like, five days.) I COULD tell you how to USE the machine, but I think I’ll let James. “I will show you how to use it.” James said melodramatically, “First you enter the outhouse, or what appears to be an outhouse.” The rest of the kids groaned, they knew that already! “Then, you place a book, any book, into the box over on this back wall.” James said, pointing, “The book’s title will appear on the screen to the left of the box. If it appears on the box to the right, then we have a problem. It will mean that this book has either been used too many times, or that it has reached the end and you need to open it to the beginning. If the book comes to the end while someone is in the book, they’ll be stuck in that world forever or until I can figure how to get them out.” The others stared at James, no one wanted to be stuck in a book for the rest of their life. Don’t worry people, nothing too bad happens to ANYONE, not even the villain. Oops I forgot that you don’t know who the villain is yet. Never fear readers, I will introduce her soon enough, because she is dying to meet you. I’ll let James continue now, “Don’t worry; I won’t let anyone get stuck in there. I can assure you that won’t happen. Want to know why? Because I added a time limit to how long you can be in. You can adjust that on this dial.” James said smugly as he pointed to what looked like an oven timer attached to the wall. “Moving on; the screen underneath the box with the book is where you select the chapter that you would like to enter into.” The screen had a blue frame and looked as if it had come off some sort of hand held gaming system. “After that you put on your costume and unlock this glass box that has the start button underneath.” To the left of the bottom screen there was a glass box with a key hole on it. Under the box the kids could clearly see a big red button. “Why is it red?” Rosie inquired skeptically. “Uh, I, it’s because… I don’t really know why it’s red. I suppose it’s because in every movie I’ve seen the important buttons are always red.” James laughed, scratching his head. “So why is it locked?” Rosie questioned. “So that no other human being can use it except us.” James responded, puffed up with pride, pride that soon got deflated. “You forgot one thing, ‘Einstein’. We don’t have keys.” Abby put into the conversation rudely. James’ eyes popped open in surprise. “I forgot keys! Oh no! How will we work it?! I am such an idiot!” Cried the teen while burying his head in his hands. Jeff coughed. “Uh, James, we didn’t forget the keys. The six keys we had made are in your back pocket. I saw them when you bent over.” James turned around and tried to nab the keys from his own pocket, he kept spinning around and finally keeled over. The keys flew into the air and landed in the toilet that James and Rosie had removed from the outhouse. “Yuck!” The four kids shrieked. They went over to the lavatory and bent to look into it. Now before I write any more about the kids I must explain something. Outhouses are usually just a hole in the ground with walls surrounding it. This outhouse was not; otherwise they certainly couldn’t have taken the toilet out. When Grandpa had ordered this outhouse it was the latest in outhouse deals. This baby had a toilet inside that was very deep, I won’t go into these disgusting details for sake of your stomach. I will tell you that the kids definitely did not want to reach a hand into the “deep toilet”. This is not abnormal of them, I wouldn’t want to either. So instead of plunging their nice clean hands into the wet, slimy filth, they got Freddy to do it. I know, I know: who is Freddy? Alfred is his real name and he is James’ younger brother. Freddy was more than willing to stick his hand in the gunk when James said that Alfred would get paid a buck for finding the keys and washing them off. Freddy probably would have done it without getting paid; he was just one of those nasty little boys who love to get dirty. I say “yuck” to them. As soon as Freddy had produced the keys, his mother called him inside for a snack. “Sorry Jamie, I need a snack.” The six year old said, dropping the keys back into the toilet. The four older kids gasped and stared, for everyone knew that Freddy had nap time right after snack and would not be back to help for hours. They would have to retrieve the keys themselves. When they all realized this, the girls instantly took a step back. “We can’t do it, we’re ladies!” Abby squealed while pinching her nose. So the boys played rock-paper-scissors to decide who had to do this nauseating task. Jeff won and James had to find the keys. I definitely will NOT describe the details of poor James’ experience. In the end they retrieved the keys and cleaned them off with the yard hose. The smell would stick with James for the rest of his life. Since they had the six keys and the M.T.M. the kids wanted to go on an adventure. Wouldn’t you? If you had the power to go into any book you wanted, wouldn’t you want to try it out? The four teens sure did. The teens all wanted to try it out, BUT there was one problem, they couldn’t decide what book to use. Jeff wanted to use Robin Hood, James wanted to use a comic book, Abby wanted to use an advice book called Let’s Talk, and Rosie thought they should go into Cinderella. They spent hours arguing over what book they should use. “How would it look inside an advice book? Not interesting, that’s how!” Was Rosie’s argument. “Oh, and Cinderella would be interesting? It’s a baby story!” Abby challenged. “I think we should use the machine for its intended purpose, going into fairytales, I would prefer Robin Hood, but Cinderella would be okay too.” Jeff pointed out. “You just want to do what Rosie says because you have a crush on her!” Abby screeched angrily. “No way, I’m just pointing out that Rosie has an excellent book choice.” Jeff screeched back. “Guys, I’m telling you, Captain Tough Guy is the best choice for our first experience in the M.T.M.” James put in. “Hey James, can we get killed in a book?” Jeff asked. “Yeah… I forgot to mention that.” James said, his face turning red. “That’s what I thought. So we should probably test it on a book that we can’t get killed in, so the girls’ choices are our only safe options.” The girls then started arguing with each other about whose idea was best. Rosie’s idea won out in the end because no one wanted to go into a boring old advice book. So they all went into the small outhouse and realized that they didn’t have the book. “Oops, I didn’t think of that.” Rosie said after they all got their costumes on. But before the four had time to become downtrodden, Freddy came into the outhouse and inserted his own book. The six year old then pressed the start button that had been left open. Then there was a swirling around the small room and the five children were sucked from our world. The next thing the kids knew was that they were face to face with Elmo of Sesame Street. “Hello, Elmo loves you!” I bet you can guess who said that. “Aaaah!” All of our favorite characters screamed. Why was Elmo here? More importantly, where was here?! The four teens looked angrily at the six year old that had accompanied them. “Freddy, what book did you put in our machine?” James asked crossly. “Um, we’re in Elmo’s Day Out.” Freddy said sheepishly. The teenagers groaned collectively. You are probably wondering what self-respecting six year old would read Elmo’s Day Out? Yeah, Freddy isn’t too happy that his mother makes him read baby books, but Mother didn’t want Freddy to read anything with romance, fighting, bad language, or bad people. Freddy had scarcely convinced his mom to let him read Elmo’s Day Out. It was Freddy’s favorite book since there was more than just rhymes in it, and when he heard that his big brother talking about going into books he wanted to visit Elmo and tell him how grateful he was for the book that saved Freddy from the horrors of Baby Blue Counts to Two. THAT is how all the teens and Freddy got to the world of Sesame Street. Elmo waited for the older kids to finish yelling at Freddy and then said, “When you fight, it makes Elmo sad.” “Well Abby no care what makes Elmo sad! Abby need to ask James how in the world we are going to get home!” Abby said turning her head towards James. “Uh, I don’t think you should encourage the baby talk, Abby.” James said. Abby snarled. “Anyway, about getting home, it depends on how long Rosie set the timer for.” James and everyone else turned to Rosie. “Yeah, about that… I thought we were going into Cinderella and I set the timer for one hour.” The other kids stood with their mouths open. An hour in Sesame Street?! How horrible! I can guarantee that is what everyone but Freddy was thinking. “What are we going to do?” Jeff asked unhappily, “We’ll be here for an hour!” “Elmo thinks that you should come shopping with him.” Elmo said. The girls looked at Elmo with intrigue. “Shopping did you say?” Abby queried enthusiastically. So the teenagers and Freddy went to the mall with Elmo. The girls looked for something more comfortable than their costumes, but all they found were dresses that looked like they were from the eighties. After shopping Elmo took them to Hooper’s store. If you, unlike me, didn’t spend the early years of your childhood watching Sesame Street, I will fill you in. Hooper’s store is a store in Sesame Street where the monsters and Big Bird sometimes hang out. And no, I will not answer the question of who Big Bird is, his name is self-explanatory. At the store the teens all asked for soda but were refused that privilege, being told that it was too sweet for them, and that it might give them cavities. When Freddy told the guy running the store that they would all like milk, a cow walked in and gave it to them. As the hour came to an end the teenagers rejoiced. No more Elmo! The hour finished and the kids heard Rosie’s recorded voice saying, “Your time is up and you will now be removed from the story you are in-- Abby, stop playing with that!” Before the kids could comprehend what was going on they felt a sucking feeling coming from the sky and they were extracted from Elmo’s Day Out. What a weird feeling it was to be “extracted” right out of a world. At home the five children noticed that it was actually an hour later in their time from when they’d left. “I was expecting the time not to change here, like in Narnia.” Jeff said casually, as he climbed out of the outhouse. “Me two; it was supposed to make it seem to our parents that we weren’t gone for very long, but I guess I didn’t hook it up right or something.” James said in the form of an explanation. The girls nodded. “Well I imagine that it’s about supper time, we should all head home.” Rosie reckoned. So they did, James walked them to his front gate and then headed inside for a hotdog. Abby went to her mother’s restaurant and had venison. Rosie went to her family carwash and her dad took her to Fast Delivery Frank’s. And Jeff had a lovely dinner on a TV tray. It was a satisfactory evening for all. The next day, Saturday, provided a chance for the young people we have come to love to go to James’ house yet again. This time, to avoid confusion, Jeff brought over a collection of his fairytale books. The list included titles such as: Robin Hood, Snow White, Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Peter Pan. The rest of the kids brought over some fairytales as well like: Thumbelina, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, The Three Little Pigs, The Princess and the Pea, and The Emperor’s New Clothes. Oh yeah, James threw Captain Tough Guy in the pile too. Also, Freddy hid Cat in the Hat in the heap. The quartet took the books into the M.T.M and set them in a stack next to the pile of costumes. This took them the equivalent of five minutes. After they had packed the books into the machine they all sat on the lawn to hold the first meeting of the M.T.T. “As leader of the M.T.T., I now call this meeting to order.” James said. They appointed James as the leader because he had come up with the idea for their science fair project. Jeff was commander of books and facts. Rosie was Captain of mechanics, and Abby was in charge of club fashion. “First we have a report on the book status from Jeff.” Jeff stood on cue and announced that they now had their books in order and they would never again be tricked into going to Sesame Street. They all cheered merrily. Next was Rosie’s mechanical report of how the machine was holding up extremely well, mostly because they had only used it once. “Abby is next with her report on the costume position.” James said as Abby cleared her throat. “Eh hem, I have an exciting announcement to make,” Abby announced. “So make it!” Freddy jeered. “As I was saying… I got us some new costumes so that we won’t have to wear the same ones over again. I have cowboy outfits in case we go into a western. I found some pirate costumes for when we go into Peter Pan. And finally, I got a couple accessories for the costumes we already have.” So they put the new outfits and such into the costume pile. Then, of course, they all wanted to go in a story. I’ll save you the trouble of reading the quarreling that went on after that and skip to what book they finally decided on. The name may sound familiar to you, either from earlier in this story or from reading the book yourself. The title they chose was Rumplestiltskin. Now the title of this chapter may confuse you. You probably thought it was about the machine “coming together”, but really it is about some people who come together. So the M.T.T. went into the M.T.M. (not Freddy) and inserted the book they had chosen. I must explain something to you fairytale fanatics. When Abby had received this book for her birthday a couple of years ago, she hadn’t bothered to check why the book appeared to be twice as thick as it really was. The reason, reader, is that there was actually another story hidden under the cover of the book. You’ll see why this story matters soon enough. The four teens crowded into the outhouse and put their original costumes on over their clothing. Jeff inserted the book and unlocked the glass box. He paused-- for effect-- and then hit the big, red start button. Again came the swirling and the thirteen year old children were, again, sucked from our world. That very same day Felix was locked in his room. The last time we saw Felix he was riding to the castle with Stiltskin riding on a noble steed. We also knew that he was going to have a tough time explaining the situation he was in to his parents. Well, when he explained the position of Rumplestiltskin to his parents, they locked him in his room with his crown tied to his head. Stiltskin was thrown in the dungeon for questioning later. Now Felix was sitting on his bed being inspected by the royal wizard. Felix was being examined because his parents thought that the only way Felix would help such a vicious villain as Rumplestiltskin would be because Felix was under a spell, which isn’t true at all. That is just what the King and Queen thought. “I believe that you have a common spell set upon you Your Highness. It is called the ‘Do-what-I-want spell’.” The old wizard stated. Felix rolled his eyes. “For the last time Reggie, I don’t have any sort of spell laid upon me. I was telling the truth when I told Mother and Father about Rumplestiltskin being innocent.” The wizard, Reggie, groaned. “Your Highness, I know Stiltskin personally, he is not a nice fellow. He also happens to be an expert at spell construction. It is entirely possible that you are being controlled by him right now.” Felix rolled his eyes again. What an annoying fellow Reggie was. The wizard continued to inspect the prince. Soon the old man went away to tell the King and Queen about the “spell” that had been placed on Felix. The prince tried to go out the window like he did when he was a young boy. He was too big. That or the window had been shrunken, which, in that world, was entirely possible. That afternoon Felix had to be let out of his room to take care of the unicorns. He went into the stable yard and turned. Felix realized that he was being followed by the two men who had taken him to the throne room the other day. “Hey you two, leave me alone! The unicorns can get skittish and gore people. How would you like to explain that to my Father?” The two men understood and left the royal to his unicorns. In the pen Felix saw a bright flash of light right in front of him. “What is that?!” he asked to no one in particular. Then four kids Felix’s age stepped forth. Okay, so the book that the M.T.T. put in the machine was thicker than it appeared. I explained that before. The second part of the book that was hidden was all about Felix because the real Rumplestiltskin story was explained by the Queen earlier. So when the book opened to the second story that is where the kids went. They arrived right as Felix was going into the unicorn pen. Now you see why I needed to explain that the book was thicker. So… you want to go get lunch? Oh, right! The story! As the kids stepped out of our world and into the book of Rumplestiltskin, they noticed a stable boy standing in front of them. “Hey Jeff, who is this in the story? Is it Rumplestiltskin?” Abby whispered, leaning into Jeff. “I don’t think THIS is Rumplestiltskin, but let me ask.” Jeff paused and turned to the stable boy, or who they THOUGHT was a stable boy, “Um, do you happen to have the talent to spin straw into gold sir?” The other boy backed up uneasily. “Who might you be?” “I am Jeffrey Roberts and these are my friends: James Kingston, Abby Gail, and Rosetta Stone. You are probably freaked out because we just appeared out of thin air and all, but don’t worry, we won’t hurt you.” Jeff explained. The other kid’s face held an expression that could have defined shock. “Are you wizards? But no! You’re too young. What about wizard’s apprentices? Show me your wands and explain what spell you used to get here! I can have you imprisoned, so you better get speaking.” The boy said in a sort of befuddled way. “We aren’t wizards; we didn’t even know they existed! We’re just four normal kids, like you.” Abby said confidently. The boy’s mouth opened and he yelled one word, “Guards!” The next thing the M.T.T knew was that they were being surrounded by giant, muscular men. Felix called for the guards after the four wizards in training had tried to explain who they were. The guardsmen came in hurriedly when they heard the heir to the throne calling for help. The four other children put up quite a fight, but the thing was, they only seemed to be able to fight with their mouths. The guards easily over powered them. Felix was confused. Why hadn’t they used magic? He told the guards to make the captives hand over anything that they had with them. The four put their hands into pockets on their garments and produced these items: An odd box came from one of the boys, the one called James, a bottle of red paint that you put on your lips from one of the girls, a pair of tinted spectacles from the other girl, and a small stuffed bear from the other boy. “What are these items? Show me how they work!” Felix asked commandingly. The one called James stepped forwards and picked up his box. “You turn it on by flipping this switch,” everyone from Rumplestiltskin’s world gasped as the box showed little men trapped inside, beating up other little men. “Then to play, you just move this guy to kill off the other ones.” The fellow said rather happily. Felix was horrified. “Why do you kill the other little men?!” he screeched. “Um, it’s part of the game dude.” Then Felix and James had a long discussion about why is it a game to kill people. In the end Felix got a headache and Abby was asked to show what her potion of red paint did. “Um, it’s make-up. What else is there to know?” The girl shrugged. Felix nodded in understanding; his mother sometimes wore stuff such as that. Then was the girl with the tinted spectacles. “These are sun-glasses; they keep you from hurting your eyes on a sunny day. Although I can’t really wear them over my normal glasses.” Felix tested them out. This was a marvelous invention! Finally, the boy with the stuffed bear. “This is my teddy-bear, uh, I like to take him with me because I get scared sometimes and he comforts me.” Jeffery’s face turned red with embarrassment. Felix nodded. “They have no magic on them. You may release them.” After this other kid, who was definitely more important than a stable boy, made them show him all the stuff in their pockets, the M.T.T. was released. Abby leaned towards Jeff and asked how long the timer had been set for. “I set it for two hours.” Jeff replied casually. Abby nodded. “Let’s hope that it’s more worth-while than Sesame Street.” The other boy, whose name, they learned, was Felix, told them to stop whispering. So Felix led the procession into the throne room to show the King, Queen, and Reggie, the wizard, what had been found in the stables. The M.T.T. was pushed along behind Felix and the guards were the pushers behind them. “Um, Felix, right? I was wondering why you are so important, are you like a knight protecting the new prince or princess?” Jeff questioned. “What new prince or princess? I’m the only prince there is.” Jeff was confused; the Rumplestiltskin story didn’t say anything about an older prince! Felix stared at Jeff, “What new prince or princess?” He asked again. “Uh, I thought that there was a new baby around, you know, the one Rumplestiltskin wants?” Felix looked even more confused. “I was that baby! What are you talking about?” Jeff started to talk, but then stopped; he’d figure it out later. When they arrived at the throne room the guards opened the massive double doors. Inside the King and Queen sat upon high, golden thrones. “Who have you brought to us Felix?” The Queen asked lovingly. “These odd four appeared in the stables while I was feeding and grooming the unicorns.” Felix said. Rosie tried to suppress a giggle, it just didn’t sound right for a boy of this age to be saying “unicorn”. “You think something is amusing? The fact that you trespassed into the royal stables is not something I’d find humorous!” The King roared. Rosie quickly stopped giggling. “Sorry, um, Your Majesty, nothing is funny, nothing at all.” “You speak when spoken to, no other time.” Rosie hastily decided that this was not the best time to point out that the King had, indeed, spoken to her. Felix’s parents discussed something with Reggie and quickly declared that the children should undergo a whole magical check-up, to see if they had any invisible wands or any stray spells lingering at their fingertips. Reggie came over to them and asked them to float. The teens stared at the strange old man in disbelief. “We can’t float! We can’t do any magic at all!” Jeff spoke up, “We built a device that allows us to go into different worlds than ours and we came into yours!” Jeff would have said more but the wizard, Reggie, cut them off. “What kind of device? Is it a magical item or something more under the study of science?” “Definitely more scientific, it is for a school project.” James replied. Reggie looked intrigued. “And what is the power source?” “It uses solar power that means it runs on the sun’s rays.” Rosie answered. Reggie would have continued, but the King interrupted. “So do they have any magic or not? I don’t pay you to talk to people Reginald.” Reggie went up to the King. “I’m sorry to contradict you, Highness, but I got them to talk long enough for me to test if they have magic. It is a very complex deception, when a wizard is distracted they don’t think to suspect if their magic is being tested and can’t stop my scanning.” The King rolled his eyes. “So do they have magic on them or what?” Reggie slid his glasses into place, they fell right back down. “They have not a spec of magic anywhere upon them.” The King looked satisfied for once. “Good. So now the question is, why did you four children go trespassing into my unicorn pens?” Rosie giggled again; it was so funny to see a grown man say “unicorn”. “It was purely an accident and we are terribly sorry if we upset the unicorns.” Abby said diplomatically. And that is how things “came together”.
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I've been buying waaaay too many books lately and have not been reading any of them... but I've been writing so that counts, right? Anyway, during a lapse in judgement I ordered both the July and August Owlcrate boxes so hopefully I'll be filming another one of these unboxings at the end of August. In the meantime, enjoy watching me ramble on senselessly (when am I not though?) about some awesome goodies! This has to be one of my favorite boxes of all time. Such fun stuff and it all sort of matches in color! Spoilers for this box: ᪥ Howl's Moving Castle inspired reusable shopping bag designed by @annguyenart ᪥Spinning Silver Treasured Tomes pin designed by @no0nedesigns ᪥Fairy tale highlighters inspired by Six Crimson Cranes, To Kill a Kingdom, and The Wrath and the Dawn designed by @the.pearledreader ᪥Violet Made of Thorns inspired sun catcher designed by Teresa Chen (@divineliterary) ᪥Invisible Life of Addie LaRue journal designed by Lichen and Limestone ᪥Book: Garden of the Cursed by Katy Rose Pool, with a exclusive cover designed by Franziska Stern, reversible jacket art designed by Nicole Deal, foil designs by Teresa Chen, exclusive end pages designed by @lasq.draws |
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