Breaking Back In

[Java]

Chapter 4 part 1

It was a true muppet reunion. Noise and chaos ruled as Robin was engulfed by Kermit and then Sweetums. Everyone was talking at once as Robin shouted the updates from the swamp to Kermit and Robin was filled in by the rest of the gang as to how they had been since they last saw each other.

Amber was swept along with the group, eager to show her their acts. Her eyes widened in amazement. These were the things that her mother had whispered to her in the night - songs and acrobatics and unusual art. It truly did exist.

"Quuuuiiiieeeetttt!!!!" Kermit called out, fearing they were about to loose Amber in a faint.

It didn't help. While the group did give her breathing room, they still fought for her attention. Fifty years with no one new is a long time.

Again Kermit called out to the group, loosing his patience and panting as he starred each one of them down.

"Now then," Kermit started, "I think we all have a lot of questions. You all have been very patient waiting for Amber to join us but I know from what Carrie has told me that Amber' questions are more important."

"But Kermie," Miss Piggy started, the first to protest the order of the day, "There is so much moi needs to know. What are the latest fashions in Paris? What colors are in for the summer..."

"Piggy! We can get to all of that later."

"I don't know where to begin," Amber whispered.

Robin hopped over to her and sat straight in front of her. "You had a lot of questions you wanted to ask me. My Uncle Kermit is a much better person to answer them for you."

"Robin, I don't even know what you are? I mean, I know you're a frog, but why have you managed to stay so little and young. That footage that I just saw, I mean... there has been nothing like what any of you all are showing me you can do for over fifty years. You just don't understand what it's like out there."

"You mean," Fozzie started with a tear in his eye, "there are no more jokes? There are no more hecklers?"

"No more notes to infuse upon our savage spirits for calming?" Dr. Teeth was whining at this thought.

"More importantly, you state, is that there is no one to watch for the safety of our fine and upstanding American culture?"

"Yes," Amber stated simply.

"Drums?" Animal called out, trying to grasp the severity.

"Kermit," Scooter stated, "seeing as Amber is unfamiliar with our acts, with who we are, I think we need you to tell our story first."

"And I think," Carrie startled the group as she stepped from the last stair, "That we would all be more comfortable in the kitchen. There's no need to hide anymore, at least from those of us on this property, and it's going to be a long story to tell on both of our parts."

 

[The Count]

Interesting... They're all together and coming to grips with what's happened in both of their worlds. Rully want to see how this develops.

 

[crazed gonzo fa]

Thanks Java!

 

[christyb]

Wow, I just had a chance to catch up. I am so glad you decided to post this! It's great. I can't wait to read more.

 

[Java]

Okay, after this next part of Chapter 4 is posted I should be able to start writing more muppet like chapters. This is the short version of the explanation you've all been waiting for. Now that it's out of the way the muppets can return (well, not without at least a little bit of difficulty)!

 

[Java]

Chapter 4 part 2

"We've been here for fifty years, Amber. But our story starts long before that. My friend Jim Henson discovered me in the swamp and asked me to help him get into television. I enjoyed it more than the current ensemble we were with so Jim and I went on to try more things with television."

Kermit paused for a moment in his telling, taking a sip of water.

"Amber, hon," Carrie chimed in. "Kermit first started with Jim in the 1950's and the muppets slowly evolved with the help of Jim and his crew. They gained huge popularity in the 1970's up through the 1990's when due to the loss of many friends, they were stalled for a little bit. The end of America's prime started to come into sight."

The rest of the muppets sat quietly around listening intently. There were no better people to tell the story and they felt they had to make Amber understand that they were needed so much more now than then. After all, Amber had never heard a song before today. They wanted to share their gifts with her and everyone.

"Oh, don't gloss over it so much Carrie. The nineties weren't so much the end, but your forgetting everything in between. We did our own variety show." Kermit paused looking at the confusion on Ambers face.

"We did a show where we had a variety of acts. Fozzie told jokes, Gonzo performed his, uhh, art, people sung, they danced, we made light of other shows and performances. Despite all the pitfalls at doing it, we had fun."

"Yea," whispered Fozzie, "I even miss Statler and Waldorf."

"There were the two hecklers who would come to every show, sometimes the dress rehearsals too, and call out insults to Fozzie and the rest of us."

"The have movies, Amber. Things your mother has given you stories about." Carrie turned and looked at Kermit. "She doesn't realize it, but she knows your history. I took the archives with me. I've transcribed them within reason. Amber has been read or read about everything you have done in some form."

"The packages!" Ambers eyes widened with surprise. "But not all of the names are the same, Grandma. Not even all of the words are the same."

She thought back to the clip she had seen playing with Robin. Now it started to seem familiar because of all the word games her mother would slip to her in their marked packages.

"Robin, I know your song as a poem. My words for it are much different though. What was it you were singing about problems?"

"Well," Robin said scrunching his face up as he thought of the part of the song they had watched earlier, "Where trouble melts like lemon drops, is the line that we started watching at."

"Mom always read it to me as 'the location in which your dilemmas disperse.'"

Sam the Eagle was appalled, "You mean, your mother has changed our great American classics. Is nothing sacred?!"

"Sam," Kermit looked at him sternly, "It started before we went into hiding and you know it. Carrie and Jennifer, Amber's mother, have worked hard to keep our works together in some form. We have the basic outlines, we'll be able to change the words back."

"Amber," Carrie began, "I was the last person hired into the Henson company to work on building their Muppets and keeping them in shape. It was just before the revolution officially started. Americans were concerned with being politically correct and not offending anyone. Art was becoming scary, there were so many ways to interpret it, you couldn't control how you would react to it."

"They told us they didn't want us. After spending so many years spreading Jim's message of peace and having fun, our own country turned on us. We encouraged people to think, not just about what made us the same, but about what made us individuals."

Amber let out a sigh, "But we are not supposed to worry about being an individual. That's what I've been taught for all of my thirteen years in school. Even now that the laws have changed they still teach that."

"The government changed the laws restricting freedoms that America had been founded on. That's why Kermit took you into hiding. It was best not to drag you that far down but to continue performing with me in secret." Carrie said.

The Electric Mayhem were the closest to Sam and kept him from hitting the floor.

Carrie continued, despite the commotion of reviving Sam. "I took what Muppets I could and stole away to the home my parents had left me, here in the upstate of New York. I had a lot of property and the house was secluded enough that they wouldn't have to be completly silent."

"There are more?"

"There are so many more of us," Kermit spoke up. "And Carrie passed the ways of keeping us in shape on to your mother. She's supposed to be getting the rest of us ready for our reunion."

"And my daughter is doing that Kermit. Amber I want you to tell them what we've been protecting them from."

"Well, from all of my classes, I know that the laws to make us a group continued to be more severe. There were to be no personal demonstrations of feelings. What the government said goes. Being an individual is dangerous, you must fit in. But to my understanding, there were secret groups of people that didn't like this and they lead the counter-revolution."

"Good," Kermit started, "our spirit remains in some people."

"Yes, Kermit, I know some of my friends were determined not to become part of the collective whole."

"But they only suceeded in changing the laws five years ago." Amber spoke, starting to understand that the Muppets wanted to be out in the world again. "No one will watch anything like what you all do. It won't work!"

The air crackled as the Muppets started to fight what they were being told. Fozzie spoke to Amber next, "We've done it before. Against so many odds. No one thought the Muppet show would make it but after our friends came on the show, like Lena Horne, and Rita Morene, it worked."

"Yea, man" called out Dr. Teeth as he started singing:

Whenever there's a dream worth a-dreaming (dreaming!)
And you wanna see that dream come true (dream come true!)
There'll be plenty people talking
"Forget all about it"
Say "it isn't worth the trouble--
All the trouble that you're going through!" (it ain't worth it-NO!)
Well, what can you do?

You can't take no for an answer! (you can't take no)
You can't take no for an answer! (no no no no)
You can't take no for an answer!
No, no, no.

The Muppets burst into dance as the rest of the Electric Mayhem joined in the song. Amber's eyes widened, still unbelieving that any group could be this energetic and unafraid of the consequences.

"Lets call them all together." Kermit said quietly to Carrie as he let the group carry on around him. "Have Jennifer send all of our friends here so we can plan what to do next."

 

[The Count]

Awesome that you included a song from TMTM. A bit scratchy at parts, but the general storyline proceeds... And it's good, hope for more as soon as you get a chance. Can't wait to see who else pops in.

 

[Java]

Yea, it is a bit scratchy at parts but I couldn't get my head to wrap around better ways. Hopefully the next parts will be able to come after rest this weekend.

Thanks for all your feedback. You really make me feel welcome and that I'm doing a good job.

Anyway off to prepare for work!

 

[Fragglemuppet]

And the mystery unravels...
The EM preforming in the kitchen? Well I'll tell you, even if they're not afraid, I am! I can't wait to see what happens next! Does this mean you won't be updating 'til at least Monday! Oh well, I'm sure we'll all find plenty of other things to do...

 

[crazed gonzo fa]

Okay, everything is clear to me now. Thanks again Java!