Benjamin Franklin's Big Assignment

"Iiiiiiin west Philadelphia, born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days. Aaaand that's all I know."

Tara hummed the tune to herself a few more times before giving up. It wasn't like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air was set in Philadelphia anyway. Nor did the song really apply to her (thank goodness). The City of Brotherly Love was a wonderful place to visit, but no place for a Montana girl to make a home. Though Philly of the 18th century did have a certain charm to it that the modern metropolis did not. It could be the smaller size, the simple technology (no computers!), the rustic (to her) style of the buildings, or the fact that Independence Hall (sorry...the state house) actually looked like it belonged in this setting. It even had the bell in its tower. Tara couldn't recall whether the famous Liberty Bell had been cast by this point. Unfortunately, she lacked internet at the moment to look that bit of trivia up. The 1770s had terrible phone service and no wifi. But hey, the whole point of this journey was research for her stories. Her cages of plot bunnies were filled to bursting back home, and they were spawning practically by the hour. She'd have to start culling the warren soon if she didn't find an ideal place to release individual bunnies. This particular research trip would provide material to feed the plot bunnies of three different fandoms, plus the ones in the original story idea cage.

But first she had to figure out exactly which year she was in.

Best place to do that was to look at a newspaper. And what better place to find a newspaper than the Pennsylvania Gazette?

Tara's only memory of the Pennsylvania Gazette was an animated version, which was convenient as she didn't have to switch worlds (that took a great deal of focus). She asked a nearby shopkeeper for directions and made her way to Benjamin Franklin's print shop. When she arrived, she paused long enough to be needlessly annoyed by the old fashioned 'ʄ' that was used in place of the more familiar 's' in "Pennsylvania." If they had to show a long 's' by using a flourish, why couldn't they have left off that stupid cross stroke that made it look like an 'f?' Especially in print form. Half a cross stroke is still a cross stroke.

The "Open" sign was displayed, so Tara let herself into the shop. This being the world of a cartoon on the Revolutionary War, she fully expected to find the fictional characters who inhabited this shop hard at work, writing and printing. But the shop seemed empty. The journalists were probably out getting a story. Tara allowed herself to look around and take in the smells of the print shop for a moment. She liked the wood smell. Cedar seemed to be a popular building material. The metallic ink smell she could do without.

Suddenly, she heard the distinctive voice of Walter Cronkite calling, "I'm in the study!"

Tara followed the voice around the corner and into a room that had multiple gadgets on display. She smiled fondly at each of them before setting eyes on an older man with loose, gray hair brushing his shoulders. His back was to her, and he was hunched over his desk. Tara shivered with excitement and tried to command the butterflies in her stomach to calm down. She hadn't expected Ben Franklin himself to be in! The rotund, jolly, witty founding father was among her all time favorites, as he had a personality that lit up any room or history tome he happened to be in. All of the other founders were much more serious. Only Franklin seemed to truly know how to cut loose when needed. A strength of someone whose dominant function was extroverted Sensing.

Tara internally scolded herself. Greet him first, psychoanalyze him later.

As Franklin turned to face her, Tara opened her mouth to give a nervous hello. But the elderly inventor spoke first.

"Ah, yes, I've been expecting folks like you to arrive soon. As you probably know, my name is Ben Franklin. Forgive me for not rising to greet you. My gout is flaring up."

"Cherries are supposed to be good for gout," Tara spit out automatically. Augh! No, you dingbat! You don't greet founding fathers with random trivia!

Franklin chuckled. "Really? I shall have to try that. But right now, I have a request to make of you."

Tara's eyes widened. "A request? For me, a perfect stranger?"

"Well, nobody's perfect," Franklin said, nodding at Tara's outfit. "But certainly few people are stranger than you."

Tara glanced down at her dress, which was basically live-action Belle. The blue one that she wore in town. "Yeah, sorry. I guess my mind's wardrobe isn't as expansive as the Doctor's."

"Who is easily the strangest person I've ever met, wardrobe and all," Franklin said with a grin. "Last time we met, he told me of a group of, er...fans—which he said he believed was short for fanatics—that had formed a sort of club intended to pursue him. LiNDA, or some feminine name, was their group's name. He told me that the odds of running into anachronistic 'fans' of my own were small, but the chance still exists. I determined years ago to put such individuals to good use should I meet them. He also gave me a rather dire warning about a particularly passionate group obsessed with a musical based on the life of someone named Hamilton."

So he hasn't met Hamilton yet. That puts me before 1787, which means he probably hasn't gone to France yet.

Tara tried to keep a rein on her racing thoughts, nodding as she listened. "So...what's this assignment you have for me?"

Franklin reached behind him and grabbed a paper off his desk. "My young journalists, James, Sarah and Henri, are currently in the field on assignment for the Gazette. They were just in Massachusetts, covering the conflicts at Lexington and Concord. But they are young, and can only cover so much of the war at once. I need you to cover what they cannot. Sometimes your paths will cross, but most of the time you'll be on your own. Your assignment is to round up all of your fellow members of this particular...fandom, I believe it's called, and distribute assignments to each of them. You'll have to do without your 21st century technology, however. You'll be relying on your wits and what you remember of our war for independence. Because you'll be stuck in this era until the assignment is complete."

"Stuck? In..." Tara paused to calculate the year based on the hints Franklin had given her. She recalled that he'd mentioned Lexington and Concord. "In 1775? For eight years?"

"My word, is that how long we are to struggle?" Franklin asked in shock, adjusting his glasses that slipped down his nose as his eyebrows went up. "At any rate, yes."

"I can't stay here for eight years! What will my family say when I show up inexplicably noticeably older?"

"Not to worry, you won't age while you're here. You are a character within this world now, my dear. Age has no effect on you unless the show writers want it to."

"With all due respect, sir, you're aging."

"Yes, but I'm a historical domain character. I have to age. I belong here, as I'm in the history books. You do not. You are a newcomer."

"Well, that explains how Henri can still be eight years old in 1784."

"Indeed."

"But what about my medication? If I don't take it daily, my health will be jeopardized within weeks."

"No aging means no need to sustain yourself beyond your normal daily needs; food, water, sleep, voiding and the like. Not taking a certain medication that maintains a bodily function over time will not have any adverse effect. It may if you need that medication to function from day to day, but I should hope that in that case, you have it with you. Trust me, it will last. Though you are still susceptible to the illnesses and injuries of this era, so I would exercise caution if I were you."

"And how do you know all this?"

Franklin smiled. "My dear, you are not the only one with the innate ability to see beyond what you call the fourth wall."

"Okay, that's creepy."

Franklin only laughed at that before asking, "So, will you take the assignment?" He held out the paper that gave the details of the assignment.

Tara hesitated only for a moment before grabbing the paper. "I call dibs on the Laurens-Lee duel!"

"That's the spirit. Now, go, find your fellow fanfiction authors, and bring back the full scoop on the American Revolution."

"Yes, sir!" With that, Tara turned and dashed out of the print shop. She had no idea where or when—or even if—she would run into other fanfiction authors. But for her part, she would do her darnedest to bring back the stories missing from the Liberty's Kids archives. As she started making her way down the street, she read the flyer Franklin had given her.

Dear fanfiction writer,

You are a known writer and fan of the children's animated series "Liberty's Kids," which covers the American Revolutionary War and the events thereafter. As informational as this series was, it was not exhaustive. I would like, for my archives, a complete account of the Revolution. That's where you come in. This assignment will give you the opportunity to meet and follow a wide variety of figures involved in the Revolution—some of whom may even be your own ancestors. What I need you to do is find and follow a Revolutionary story that was not covered in the animated series. Do your research; leave no stone unturned. Use every resource at your disposal. Deliver me a fantastic tale of real heroes and villains, and their struggles, that you believe were neglected when you first learned about them through this series.

To aid you on your quest, you will be given payment and a horse. You will find a sufficient amount of money and goods at my print shop to take you to the location of your first story. You will remain in this time period until you complete your assignment. While you are here, you will not age, and you will find that any degenerative medical concerns you have are halted, so that you need only to fulfill your day to day needs. However, you are not invincible. Bullets can still pierce you. 18th century illnesses can still render you uncomfortable. You could fall off a horse or turn an ankle. You will not find your skills magically enhanced by being here. You must learn, just as the rest of us do. This assignment is for your benefit as much as for everyone else's.

Godspeed to you, dear ma'am or sir. And please, for the sake of the historical figures, try not to do one of your "fangirl squees" when you meet them.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,

Dr. B. Franklin.

"Aw, I can't sing that ending," Tara muttered to herself. Oh well. Not everything could go according to her imagination. Though that was probably for the best.

Tara folded the paper in half and smiled to herself as she strode briskly down the street. She was now a journalist for the Pennsylvania Gazette! How lucky could a humble fan get?

Suddenly her smile disappeared as she remembered one important detail. "Ah, crud!" she muttered as she turned around and headed back to the print shop.

She wouldn't get very far on foot and without money and a travel pack.

The Beginning.

AN: This is a collaborative story. If you wish to contribute chapters, please log in and indicate your desire to participate in the reviews. I will introduce your characters by your author name and the nickname you choose to use throughout the story. After your character is introduced and sent off on their chosen assignment, you must write your chapter and send it to me via DocX. I will edit for spelling and clarity and post each chapter as it comes. Your chapters MUST be in chronological order from the date your character enters the story. So if your character shows up in August of 1776, you cannot then write a story about what the rest of the founding fathers were doing while Thomas Jefferson was writing the Declaration of Independence.

You CAN write a chapter where you are interacting with Sarah, James, Henri and Moses. But please do not make yourself their stalker or "best friend." You are a journalist on assignment. Please maintain that professionalism (that doesn't mean you can't enjoy one another's company). You CANNOT change the historical timeline (sorry, but Nathan Hale MUST hang, and Benedict Arnold MUST become a turncoat), but you CAN relocate the fictional characters if you really need to. But it must be your character changing the show's canon timeline or events. You cannot simply decide Sarah was actually there for the battle of Brooklyn Heights without explaining how she got there.

If you introduce a historical domain character that was not included in the show (which I fully encourage you to do), you may, if you wish, assign a voice actor to that person (living or dead). For example, if you write about Martha Washington and you think she would best be voiced by Carrie Fisher, you can do that, so long as you find a natural, clever way to indicate to your readers that that's the voice you hear in your head when you read that character's dialogue. You can even reassign a VA. If you think Anthony Ramos would be a better voice for John Laurens than the stock actor they used in the show, you can mention that he sounds like Anthony to you.

You are free to reference any anachronistic media or fact that you know, but do not expect the show characters to understand what you're talking about. The only one who won't give you a completely blank stare when you make these references is Ben Franklin. Even then, he will not understand most anachronistic references, and he will tell you as much. As the primary author of this story, I will invoke editor's privilege to maintain this rule if I must. Avoid giving characters historical spoilers. If you do let a spoiler slip, you must write a natural reaction from that character (for example, if you mention to Hamilton that Laurens doesn't survive the Revolution, I don't want to see him simply shrug it off and say, "Well, we all have to go sometime"). As for Franklin, he will act as a sort of unseen fairy godfather, supplying you with certain little things that you need over the course of your journey—at my discretion. If for some reason you need to talk to Franklin directly while he's in France, you will need to cross the ocean. You cannot be in two places at once, so don't try to cover a battle in America while you are in France.

And Franklin already laid out the rest of the rules in the flyer he provided. So consider joining this crack team of Revolutionary journalists! And above all, have fun!