Lucky_Ladybug (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladybug_archive) wrote2008-12-01 08:51 pm
ladybug_archive) wrote2008-12-01 08:51 pm
Entry tags:
Blurbie scene thingie
The first scene of my Carmen Sandiego Christmas fic. I'm putting it up here while I tinker with how the rest of the fic will go.
Fictional TV show Rockapella only, loves! No real person fic here!
And the little girl getting things mixed up at the beginning is inspired by a real-life event. LOL.
While ACME Crimenet could not cease their operations over the holidays, many of the detectives got into a very festive mood as the Christmas season drew near. Garlands and boughs of holly began to decorate the offices and corridors. A small tree found a home on Greg's desk, while another was perched on the Chief's desk. A much larger tree adorned the cozy lounge, where agents went in-between cases or when they needed a chance to just sit back and think during one.
The alley was being spruced up too, with a wreath on the door and lighted garland on the wall. Mrs. Pumpkinclanger complained about all the extra noise, of course---as well as the lights shining right into her bedroom window. But her cat and her bird both seemed fascinated by the assorted colors. They sat in the window at all hours to watch the soft, twinkling glows.
Rockapella were reclined in the alley on one cold day during December, planning out their musical clue for the day's case. They had decided to sing a parody of O Christmas Tree to tell about the lead they had received concerning Eartha Brute's whereabouts with the Christmas tree from the Rockefella Center. As they were harmonizing the finished version, a neighborhood child approached. She listened in awe before clapping in delight . . . and promptly startling all four of the guys.
"Oh hey, Cindy," Sean grinned then. "We didn't even hear you come up."
Five-year-old Cindy smiled. "I'm going to go Christmas shopping today," she announced. "I already know what I want to get!"
"Which is more than can be said for half of the crazy shoppers out there," Sean smirked.
"What are you going to get your mother?" Scott asked, knowing that it was a problem she had been wondering about for a while.
"Frankenstein," she proudly declared.
Scott raised an eyebrow. ". . . Excuse me?" he said. He could see Sean was tempted to make some comment about Halloween being over a month ago.
But Cindy gave a sage nod. "Frankenstein was one of the gifts the Three Wise Men brought Jesus, so he must be a good present!"
Sean was now fighting to keep a straight face. Being Jewish, he did not celebrate the more religious aspects of the Christmas holiday, but he was still familiar with the basic Christmas story---and he was quite sure that was not how it went!
". . . What else did the Wise Men bring?" he asked instead.
"Gold," the child said after a bit of thought. Elliott nodded, thinking that at least she had part of it right.
"And mud!" Cindy finished in triumph.
". . . Mud," Sean repeated.
Cindy nodded. "Maybe I could make a mud pie," she said hopefully.
"Maybe," Scott agreed in a noncommittal tone. He exchanged a look with the other guys. They needed to find a way to set her straight before her Christmas shopping became a huge disappointment---not to mention a horror for her mother. Sean, Elliott, and Barry nodded, receiving the silent message.
Sean stepped forward. "Cindy, you're in luck," he said in a grand tone. "We were just about to . . . act out the Christmas story. We'll even give you a starring role!"
She stared up at him, her eyes wide. "Really?" she exclaimed. To perform with the guys, whom she had idolized ever since she had first met them singing in the alley . . . could her day get any better?
"Sure!" Sean replied. "You can play . . . uh . . . Mary. Yeah."
"And can I ride on a donkey?" Cindy wanted to know.
"One donkey, coming up!" Sean looked to Barry, his braids whipping around his neck. "Barry, you can play the donkey," he said. Barry gave him a Look, but then obliged, kneeling down on the ground. He could think of it as giving Cindy a quick piggyback ride, instead of considering that his dignity was being destroyed.
Sean grinned, enjoying his role as group leader right now. "El, you can be Joseph," he directed. Elliott glanced to him, but then walked over to Barry. Cindy was already climbing on his back in delight.
Scott raised an eyebrow. "And what does this make me?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"The innkeeper, a shepherd, various assorted roles," Sean said. "Barry can play a shepherd after he's done with the donkey's part. And I'm the director-narrator person."
"I think Greg should be the innkeeper," Cindy said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Sean blinked. "Why's that?"
"Because sometimes he's in a bad mood," Cindy said, still in a tone as if to say the answer was obvious.
Sean tried not to laugh. "Greg has a lot on his mind," he said, "including the fact that right now Eartha Brute's stolen a big Christmas tree."
Cindy frowned. "Why did she want to do that?"
Sean shrugged. "V.I.L.E. agents steal anything," he said. "Anyway! Okay, so Mary and Joseph are off to Bethlehem for the census . . ."
"What's a cen-sus?" Cindy interrupted.
"It's where someone comes and counts up how many people are in your house," Scott volunteered as he relocated to the steps.
Cindy scrunched up her face in confusion. "Why do they want to do that?" she wondered.
"So they can tax everybody," Elliott said.
"Oh, I know about tax!" Cindy exclaimed. "Daddy gets out all these papers and a calculator and makes his hair messy and goes around talking to himself!"
Barry allowed a smirk. "Yeah, that's about the size of it," he said.
"You're the donkey!" Cindy said, looking down at him. "Donkeys don't talk!"
Barry gave Sean another pained glare. Sean just looked back innocently.
"She's right, you know," he said.
"Actually, there is a story in the Bible about a talking donkey," Elliott smirked.
Sean threw up his hands in mock defeat. "Well, the donkey in this story doesn't talk," he said. "So they're going to Bethlehem and Mary's going to have her baby. . . ."
"Giddyup, donkey!" Cindy giggled.
Barry sighed but moved forward while Elliott pretended to lead him. They made their way to the steps of ACME Crimenet, where Scott was waiting.
"And they couldn't find any inns with room for them to stay the night," Sean said. Scott pantomimed showing the lack of room by shaking his head and indicating they would have to move on. Elliott acted out a protest, which fell on deaf ears.
"Why didn't they go to Holiday Inn?" Cindy asked in all innocence. "There's always room there!"
Elliott tried not to grin. "They didn't have Holiday Inns back then," he said. "Just places owned by innkeepers."
"Oh," Cindy nodded. She looked at him with wide eyes. "What did Mary and Joseph do?!"
"Well, somehow they ended up out at a stable," Elliott said, "leading" Barry on until they came to the other end of the alley. Cindy hopped down, looking around the pretend stable.
"There's no animals," she objected.
"You're right!" Sean said. "We need animals!" He went over to a trunk by the side of the steps, where they stored all manner of assorted odds and ends. Lifting the lid, he searched through and found three plushies---a sheep, a pig, and an elephant.
Scott leaned over the railing in amusement. "They didn't have elephants in stables," he objected.
Sean shrugged. "We'll pretend it's a horse," he said. Crossing the alley, he bent down and arranged the plushies in the "stable."
"And we need a manger!" Cindy said. "And the baby Jesus!"
Scott was pushing over the trunk. "There's an old doll in here," he said. "And we can use the trunk for the manger." He gave Sean a Look, beginning to wonder where in the world all these random things had been collected. Sean could only gave him a helpless glance in response. He honestly had no idea, only that he tossed in whatever he thought they might need sometime as props.
Cindy dug into the trunk with delight, taking out the doll and pretending to gently rock it before laying it in the "manger." Then she looked up at the guys. "So Mary had baby Jesus in the stable and people came to see Him!" she chirped.
Sean nodded. "So now everybody comes over here and plays shepherds," he said, walking to the newsstand. "And bring the plushies. They can be the flock."
"There's only one sheep," Cindy protested.
"The others can just pretend to be sheep," Sean said.
"Can I be the angel?" Cindy asked in excitement.
"Sure," Sean said as the others came over and sat around the newsstand with the pretend flock. "So the shepherds were out watching the sheep late at night when the angel came. . . ."
Cindy hopped up and stood in front of Scott, Elliott, and Barry with outstretched arms. They pantomimed being startled and afraid as they fell back.
"And the angel told them not to be scared," Cindy said, "and that there were good tid- . . ." She trailed off in the face of the unfamiliar word.
"Tidings," Scott supplied.
Cindy nodded. "Good . . . what you said . . . of great joy!" She beamed. "And there'd be peace and good . . . will?" She frowned. "What's good will?"
"It's when you want to do nice things for other people," Elliott said.
"Okay!" Cindy clapped her hands. "And then all these angels came out and sang and the shepherds went to see Jesus! And they found Him because there was a big pretty star!"
"Actually, it doesn't say whether the shepherds followed the star," Scott mused. "But the Wise Men did."
Cindy gave an enthusiastic nod. "And they brought gifts!" she said.
Sean hurried to take control of the story again. "Now you're the Wise Men," he said to Scott, Elliott, and Barry.
"But I'm Joseph," Elliott objected, as Cindy hurried back to the "stable" with the plushies.
Sean shrugged. "Okay, I'm one of the Wise Men," he said. "You're still Joseph."
Elliott went back to the stable, raising an eyebrow as he saw Sean grab three magazines from the newsstand.
Sean looked to him. "What?" he said. "We make do with what we've got!"
Cindy frowned. "But the Wise Men didn't bring magazines," she said. "Jesus couldn't read yet!"
"We'll just pretend the magazines are something else," Sean said, handing one each to Scott and Barry. "So the Wise Men came and brought their gifts---gold . . ." Barry went forward and laid a magazine with a shiny gold cover in front of the trunk. "Frankincense . . ." Sean laid a magazine down as well. "And myrrh!" Scott set down the remaining magazine.
Cindy scrunched up her face as she tried to process the new words. "What's that?" she said.
Sean tried to think of the best way to explain. "Well, frankincense is like . . . um . . . air fresheners!" he said in triumph. "It makes your house smell good. Myrrh is kind of like that, too."
Cindy hopped up, her confusion forgotten. "So I can get Mommy a nice candle!" she decided. "She likes all these candles with nice smells."
"There you go," Sean grinned, hoping that they had averted a crisis.
At that moment a woman with long, dark hair appeared at the entrance to the alley. "I had a feeling I'd find you here, Cindy," she said with an amused expression. "It's time to go!"
"Yay!" Cindy hurried over to her mother. "Mommy, I've been having so much fun with the guys!" she squealed. "We played the Christmas story and I got to be Mary and the angel! And they taught me that the Wise Men didn't bring Frankenstein and mud!"
The woman raised an eyebrow, giving Sean and the others a questioning look.
Sean shrugged. "Kids," he said by way of explanation.
Amused, she took hold of Cindy's hand. "Thank you for entertaining her," she said. "She's always talking about you and the others at home."
"Oh, we look forward to her visits," Scott said. "She always makes things interesting."
As they said their goodbyes and Cindy hurried off with her mother, Mrs. Pumpkinclanger suddenly pushed up her window. "What is all the infernal racket out here?!" she cried.
Unruffled, Sean turned to look up at her. "We were just teaching a little girl the Christmas story, Mrs. Pumpkinclanger," he said. "Surely not even you can object to that!"
"Hmph! You probably turned it on its ear!" she retorted. "You're all ruffians!" With that the window slammed again.
"You'd almost think she knew us when we really were punks," Scott said, wincing at the noise.
"Ooh, I'd hate to think what she'd say if she found out about that," Sean smirked.
"Probably that she knew we were no good," Elliott supplied.
Barry stayed silent. There were many reasons why he had never let Mrs. Pumpkinclanger know that they were related, and that was one of them.
Fictional TV show Rockapella only, loves! No real person fic here!
And the little girl getting things mixed up at the beginning is inspired by a real-life event. LOL.
While ACME Crimenet could not cease their operations over the holidays, many of the detectives got into a very festive mood as the Christmas season drew near. Garlands and boughs of holly began to decorate the offices and corridors. A small tree found a home on Greg's desk, while another was perched on the Chief's desk. A much larger tree adorned the cozy lounge, where agents went in-between cases or when they needed a chance to just sit back and think during one.
The alley was being spruced up too, with a wreath on the door and lighted garland on the wall. Mrs. Pumpkinclanger complained about all the extra noise, of course---as well as the lights shining right into her bedroom window. But her cat and her bird both seemed fascinated by the assorted colors. They sat in the window at all hours to watch the soft, twinkling glows.
Rockapella were reclined in the alley on one cold day during December, planning out their musical clue for the day's case. They had decided to sing a parody of O Christmas Tree to tell about the lead they had received concerning Eartha Brute's whereabouts with the Christmas tree from the Rockefella Center. As they were harmonizing the finished version, a neighborhood child approached. She listened in awe before clapping in delight . . . and promptly startling all four of the guys.
"Oh hey, Cindy," Sean grinned then. "We didn't even hear you come up."
Five-year-old Cindy smiled. "I'm going to go Christmas shopping today," she announced. "I already know what I want to get!"
"Which is more than can be said for half of the crazy shoppers out there," Sean smirked.
"What are you going to get your mother?" Scott asked, knowing that it was a problem she had been wondering about for a while.
"Frankenstein," she proudly declared.
Scott raised an eyebrow. ". . . Excuse me?" he said. He could see Sean was tempted to make some comment about Halloween being over a month ago.
But Cindy gave a sage nod. "Frankenstein was one of the gifts the Three Wise Men brought Jesus, so he must be a good present!"
Sean was now fighting to keep a straight face. Being Jewish, he did not celebrate the more religious aspects of the Christmas holiday, but he was still familiar with the basic Christmas story---and he was quite sure that was not how it went!
". . . What else did the Wise Men bring?" he asked instead.
"Gold," the child said after a bit of thought. Elliott nodded, thinking that at least she had part of it right.
"And mud!" Cindy finished in triumph.
". . . Mud," Sean repeated.
Cindy nodded. "Maybe I could make a mud pie," she said hopefully.
"Maybe," Scott agreed in a noncommittal tone. He exchanged a look with the other guys. They needed to find a way to set her straight before her Christmas shopping became a huge disappointment---not to mention a horror for her mother. Sean, Elliott, and Barry nodded, receiving the silent message.
Sean stepped forward. "Cindy, you're in luck," he said in a grand tone. "We were just about to . . . act out the Christmas story. We'll even give you a starring role!"
She stared up at him, her eyes wide. "Really?" she exclaimed. To perform with the guys, whom she had idolized ever since she had first met them singing in the alley . . . could her day get any better?
"Sure!" Sean replied. "You can play . . . uh . . . Mary. Yeah."
"And can I ride on a donkey?" Cindy wanted to know.
"One donkey, coming up!" Sean looked to Barry, his braids whipping around his neck. "Barry, you can play the donkey," he said. Barry gave him a Look, but then obliged, kneeling down on the ground. He could think of it as giving Cindy a quick piggyback ride, instead of considering that his dignity was being destroyed.
Sean grinned, enjoying his role as group leader right now. "El, you can be Joseph," he directed. Elliott glanced to him, but then walked over to Barry. Cindy was already climbing on his back in delight.
Scott raised an eyebrow. "And what does this make me?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"The innkeeper, a shepherd, various assorted roles," Sean said. "Barry can play a shepherd after he's done with the donkey's part. And I'm the director-narrator person."
"I think Greg should be the innkeeper," Cindy said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Sean blinked. "Why's that?"
"Because sometimes he's in a bad mood," Cindy said, still in a tone as if to say the answer was obvious.
Sean tried not to laugh. "Greg has a lot on his mind," he said, "including the fact that right now Eartha Brute's stolen a big Christmas tree."
Cindy frowned. "Why did she want to do that?"
Sean shrugged. "V.I.L.E. agents steal anything," he said. "Anyway! Okay, so Mary and Joseph are off to Bethlehem for the census . . ."
"What's a cen-sus?" Cindy interrupted.
"It's where someone comes and counts up how many people are in your house," Scott volunteered as he relocated to the steps.
Cindy scrunched up her face in confusion. "Why do they want to do that?" she wondered.
"So they can tax everybody," Elliott said.
"Oh, I know about tax!" Cindy exclaimed. "Daddy gets out all these papers and a calculator and makes his hair messy and goes around talking to himself!"
Barry allowed a smirk. "Yeah, that's about the size of it," he said.
"You're the donkey!" Cindy said, looking down at him. "Donkeys don't talk!"
Barry gave Sean another pained glare. Sean just looked back innocently.
"She's right, you know," he said.
"Actually, there is a story in the Bible about a talking donkey," Elliott smirked.
Sean threw up his hands in mock defeat. "Well, the donkey in this story doesn't talk," he said. "So they're going to Bethlehem and Mary's going to have her baby. . . ."
"Giddyup, donkey!" Cindy giggled.
Barry sighed but moved forward while Elliott pretended to lead him. They made their way to the steps of ACME Crimenet, where Scott was waiting.
"And they couldn't find any inns with room for them to stay the night," Sean said. Scott pantomimed showing the lack of room by shaking his head and indicating they would have to move on. Elliott acted out a protest, which fell on deaf ears.
"Why didn't they go to Holiday Inn?" Cindy asked in all innocence. "There's always room there!"
Elliott tried not to grin. "They didn't have Holiday Inns back then," he said. "Just places owned by innkeepers."
"Oh," Cindy nodded. She looked at him with wide eyes. "What did Mary and Joseph do?!"
"Well, somehow they ended up out at a stable," Elliott said, "leading" Barry on until they came to the other end of the alley. Cindy hopped down, looking around the pretend stable.
"There's no animals," she objected.
"You're right!" Sean said. "We need animals!" He went over to a trunk by the side of the steps, where they stored all manner of assorted odds and ends. Lifting the lid, he searched through and found three plushies---a sheep, a pig, and an elephant.
Scott leaned over the railing in amusement. "They didn't have elephants in stables," he objected.
Sean shrugged. "We'll pretend it's a horse," he said. Crossing the alley, he bent down and arranged the plushies in the "stable."
"And we need a manger!" Cindy said. "And the baby Jesus!"
Scott was pushing over the trunk. "There's an old doll in here," he said. "And we can use the trunk for the manger." He gave Sean a Look, beginning to wonder where in the world all these random things had been collected. Sean could only gave him a helpless glance in response. He honestly had no idea, only that he tossed in whatever he thought they might need sometime as props.
Cindy dug into the trunk with delight, taking out the doll and pretending to gently rock it before laying it in the "manger." Then she looked up at the guys. "So Mary had baby Jesus in the stable and people came to see Him!" she chirped.
Sean nodded. "So now everybody comes over here and plays shepherds," he said, walking to the newsstand. "And bring the plushies. They can be the flock."
"There's only one sheep," Cindy protested.
"The others can just pretend to be sheep," Sean said.
"Can I be the angel?" Cindy asked in excitement.
"Sure," Sean said as the others came over and sat around the newsstand with the pretend flock. "So the shepherds were out watching the sheep late at night when the angel came. . . ."
Cindy hopped up and stood in front of Scott, Elliott, and Barry with outstretched arms. They pantomimed being startled and afraid as they fell back.
"And the angel told them not to be scared," Cindy said, "and that there were good tid- . . ." She trailed off in the face of the unfamiliar word.
"Tidings," Scott supplied.
Cindy nodded. "Good . . . what you said . . . of great joy!" She beamed. "And there'd be peace and good . . . will?" She frowned. "What's good will?"
"It's when you want to do nice things for other people," Elliott said.
"Okay!" Cindy clapped her hands. "And then all these angels came out and sang and the shepherds went to see Jesus! And they found Him because there was a big pretty star!"
"Actually, it doesn't say whether the shepherds followed the star," Scott mused. "But the Wise Men did."
Cindy gave an enthusiastic nod. "And they brought gifts!" she said.
Sean hurried to take control of the story again. "Now you're the Wise Men," he said to Scott, Elliott, and Barry.
"But I'm Joseph," Elliott objected, as Cindy hurried back to the "stable" with the plushies.
Sean shrugged. "Okay, I'm one of the Wise Men," he said. "You're still Joseph."
Elliott went back to the stable, raising an eyebrow as he saw Sean grab three magazines from the newsstand.
Sean looked to him. "What?" he said. "We make do with what we've got!"
Cindy frowned. "But the Wise Men didn't bring magazines," she said. "Jesus couldn't read yet!"
"We'll just pretend the magazines are something else," Sean said, handing one each to Scott and Barry. "So the Wise Men came and brought their gifts---gold . . ." Barry went forward and laid a magazine with a shiny gold cover in front of the trunk. "Frankincense . . ." Sean laid a magazine down as well. "And myrrh!" Scott set down the remaining magazine.
Cindy scrunched up her face as she tried to process the new words. "What's that?" she said.
Sean tried to think of the best way to explain. "Well, frankincense is like . . . um . . . air fresheners!" he said in triumph. "It makes your house smell good. Myrrh is kind of like that, too."
Cindy hopped up, her confusion forgotten. "So I can get Mommy a nice candle!" she decided. "She likes all these candles with nice smells."
"There you go," Sean grinned, hoping that they had averted a crisis.
At that moment a woman with long, dark hair appeared at the entrance to the alley. "I had a feeling I'd find you here, Cindy," she said with an amused expression. "It's time to go!"
"Yay!" Cindy hurried over to her mother. "Mommy, I've been having so much fun with the guys!" she squealed. "We played the Christmas story and I got to be Mary and the angel! And they taught me that the Wise Men didn't bring Frankenstein and mud!"
The woman raised an eyebrow, giving Sean and the others a questioning look.
Sean shrugged. "Kids," he said by way of explanation.
Amused, she took hold of Cindy's hand. "Thank you for entertaining her," she said. "She's always talking about you and the others at home."
"Oh, we look forward to her visits," Scott said. "She always makes things interesting."
As they said their goodbyes and Cindy hurried off with her mother, Mrs. Pumpkinclanger suddenly pushed up her window. "What is all the infernal racket out here?!" she cried.
Unruffled, Sean turned to look up at her. "We were just teaching a little girl the Christmas story, Mrs. Pumpkinclanger," he said. "Surely not even you can object to that!"
"Hmph! You probably turned it on its ear!" she retorted. "You're all ruffians!" With that the window slammed again.
"You'd almost think she knew us when we really were punks," Scott said, wincing at the noise.
"Ooh, I'd hate to think what she'd say if she found out about that," Sean smirked.
"Probably that she knew we were no good," Elliott supplied.
Barry stayed silent. There were many reasons why he had never let Mrs. Pumpkinclanger know that they were related, and that was one of them.
no subject
I love the thought of ACME Crimenet being decorated for the holidays. X3
Yay cat! Oh, she has a pet bird, too...? XD
And awww... Cindy is adorable! X3 **LOL at Frankenstein and mud**
LOOOOOOOL at the donkey. XD **Literally LOL'd at that!**
And the boys trying to explain the Christmas story to Cindy is too adorable. X3 LOL at Holiday Inn! XD
Plushies = win! XD LOL at Scott and Sean not knowing where the random stuff came from! XD
**snerks at Mrs. Pumpkinclanger** XD
no subject
Yeah, in one episode she mentions her pet bird has a headache. XD
Cindy was so fun to write for!
**snerks @ the donkey bit.** I had too much fun writing that whole scene. **got it down pretty much in one sitting.**
Mrs. P. will play some role in the fic later on. X3 They'll end up inviting her to the Christmas party.
no subject
Yay for it getting written in one sitting!
Oh, and I forgot-- the magazines thing was priceless, as was the "Bring the plushies!" quote! X3
Inviting Mrs. P... LOLOLOLOL... oh, Goodness! XD That'll be interesting!
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X3
Buwahaha!
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I like the image of Mrs. P's bird and cat watching the lights. ^^
LOLOL. When I first read it, I totally thought it said Rockapella Center and was all like, "They stole Rockapella's Christmas tree!? How evil could they get??" XD
Awww, Cindy's so cute! ^^ I love how she's a fan of the guys.
**snickers @ Frankenstein and mud.** XD
LOL. Poor Barry. And LOL @ Cindy saying that Greg's in a bad mood! That was priceless.
**snickers @ Holiday Inn and the elephant.** I'm wondering where they got everything too! XD
I'm totally imagining them doing the quick costume changes like in the show. LOL.
**amused at frankincense and myrrh being compared to air fresheners.** XD
Such a fun story! ^^
no subject
Yeah, I wonder how Mrs. P.'s cat and bird get along. LOL. After those adorable stories of cats befriending chickens, I decided maybe they get along alright.
**snerk.** I wondered about putting Rockefella Center, thinking it could be confusing, but I figured that's probably one of the most well-known trees in America. XD (Plus, maybe it's good fodder for in-jokes.)
Writing Cindy and the screwed-up play was so fun. LOL. And good ol' Sean and the air fresheners.... **snerk.**
no subject
LOL. Hey, maybe Eartha Brute would have gotten confused herself and made off with Rockapella's tree at first. XD **imagines Carmen's reaction.**
no subject
LOL!
"No, not Rockapella! Rockefella!"
"... Rockapella?"
"Why do I bother?"
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