6th July 2013 Saturday
Day 187
Thank you all so much for the positive reviews. I thought this was going to come up, but I'm glad it didn't; I know Zap's eyes glow yellow when he's a bug, but, well we all know the story to Beauty and the Beast, hence his eyes kind of play a vital role, so I kept them his original eyes.
Disclaimer: I'll make a list and show you one day.
From behind a shrub of trees, Buzz and Tyrone gaze upon Jenny's cottage, bathing in the summer glow.
"Heh! Oh boy! Jenny's going to get the surprise of her life, huh Buzz?" Tyrone exclaims, elbowing his friend in the ribs. Buzz, who is dressed in a more formal version of his yellow and purple uniform, smiles brightly.
"Yep. This is her lucky day!" he boasts, letting the branch in his grasp go and hit his companion in the jaw. Buzz turns to the group of townspeople behind them, setting up the altar and buffet tables for a surprise wedding. With his hands on his hips, he clears his throat.
"I'd like to thank you all for coming to my wedding," he says in a regal voice. "But first, I better go in there and... propose to the girl!" A group of people laugh, with the exception of Buzz's female fans who are wiping away their tears.
"Now, you Tyrone," he whispers, leaning over to condescendingly address his friend. "When Jenny and I come out that door-"
"Oh I know, I know!" he interrupts, turning with excitement to a band. Waving his baton around, the small orchestra begins to play a speedy version of "Here Comes the Bride", but Buzz is quick to shove a baritone over his companion's head.
"Not yet!" he growls in anger.
From inside the instrument, Tyrone mouths a quick apology, his lips protruding out the mouthpiece.
Inside the warm cottage, Jenny sits at the coffee table, looking over her new modelling kit. A knock is heard at the door. Strolling over, she pulls down a pair of binoculars she had invented herself to allow someone to see who is on the other side. A view of Buzz flashing a bright row of teeth and moving so his eye is staring directly at her comes to Jenny. She groans as she pulls the device away, begrudgingly opening the door for him.
"Buzz, what a pleasant...surprise," she mumbles, her voice heavy with sarcasm. This goes unnoticed to Buzz however, as he pushes past the small girl and strides in to her home.
"Isn't it though? I'm just full of surprises," he brags. "You know, Jenny, there's not a girl in town who wouldn't love to be in your shoes. This is the day..." he is distracted for a moment when he is met with a mirror. In a rehearsed act, he quickly flashes another smile, using his tongue to polish his teeth. "This is the day your dreams come true."
Jenny scoffs, standing behind the coffee table where she was working. She places her hands down, as though in a challenging way. "And what do you know about my dreams, Buzz?"
"Plenty. Here, picture this," he begins, taking the seat that Jenny was in moments ago. He placed his muddy feet up on the table, managing to place them right on the kit once again. He begins to kick off his boots and wiggle his toes through his hole-y socks. "A rustic hunting lodge, my latest kill roasting on the fire, and my little wife, massaging my feet, while the little ones play with the dogs."
Jenny tries not to look disgusted, but she can't help but contort her face. Buzz stands tall, moving closer to the girl.
"We'll have six or seven," he continues, his face pressing closer to hers.
"Dogs?" Jenny questions, almost in a pleading manner.
"No, Jenny! Strapping boys, like me!" he slaps his stomach, standing up straight once again and pointing his nose skyward.
"Imagine that," Jenny mumbles sarcastically, returning the lid on her kit and putting it up on a high shelf.
"And do you know who that wife will be?" he questions expectantly, ignorant to the faces that Jenny is pulling.
She sighs dramatically, pretending to look thoughtful. "Let me think..."
By this point Buzz has cornered Jenny, looming over her in his great big form. "You, Jenny!"
Jenny skilfully ducks under Buzz's arm, resting her back against the door. "I'm speechless. I really don't know what to say."
The hunter, a little aggravated with playing her game, pushes all things and objects out of the way until he traps her against the door. "Say you'll marry me."
Noticing his situation, Jenny gingerly reaches for the doorknob. "I'm very sorry, Buzz, but I just don't deserve you-" the door is pushed open, and Buzz falls outside into a near mud puddle. The girl manages to escape, closing the door to her home and shielding her from outside. The tune of "Here Comes the Bride" begins to play as Jenny throws Buzz's shows outside, slamming the door shut. Tyrone, who was distracted whilst conducting, turns around to see Buzz's legs sticking out from the mud, and a pig placed where his head would be. Buzz surfaces, pulling the pig off him while Tyrone cuts the orchestra.
"So, how'd it go?" Tyrone questions eagerly and stupidly.
With a gruff hand, Buzz pulls Tyrone by his collar. "I'll have Jenny for my wife, make no mistake about that!" he declares, before dropping his friend in the mud with the pig.
"Touchy," he whispers to the animal, to which the pig agrees in a few short grunts.
At the cottage, Jenny pokes her head out the back door, addressing the chickens frolicking around.
Is he gone? Can you imagine, he asked me to marry him!
Me, the wife of that boorish, brainless...
Madame Buzz can't you just see it
Madame Buzz, his little wife
Not me, no sir, I guarantee it
I want much more than this provincial life...
Jenny walks into the pen and feeds the animals, then runs off singing into an open field overlooking the beautiful valley she calls home.
I want adventure in the great wide somewhere
I want it more than I can tell
And for once it might be grand
To have someone understand
I want so much more than they've got planned
A gust of wind rushes forward, and Habi returns from the trees, panting for breath. Jenny stumbles to her feet, pulling on his reigns as she searches for her father.
"Habi! What are you doing here? Where's Papa? Where is he, Habi?" she questions distraughtly, watching as the horse continues to look back towards the forest. "What happened? Oh, we have to find him, you have to take me to him!" she says before unhitching his wagon and saddling up.
"What is this place?" Jenny questions rhetorically as her eyes skim the metal gates before her. Habi snorts loudly, bucking a little out of discomfort. Jenny dismounts from her pet, giving him a reassuring stroke on the nose. "Habi, please, steady."
Carefully, she walks forward and pries open the gates. Upon spying her father's hat, she collapses to the ground, whispering her father's name once again with worry and fear.
Inside the castle, Dex and Tung are arguing amongst themselves about the recent events.
"Couldn't keep you're trap shut, could we?" the latter says in a sarcastic tone. "Just had to invite him to stay, didn't we? Serve him tea; sit in Zap's chair, pet the pooch."
"I was trying to be hospitable," he says calmly, both objects ignorant as the doors to the castle fly open and Jenny runs inside.
"Hello? Is anyone here? Hello? Papa? Papa, are you here?"
She wonders up the grand staircase in search of her father, unknown of the many different personalities watching her.
In the kitchen of the castle, Audrey the teapot is busying herself in the tub, getting it ready for her son Henry to take his bath. Henry hops in, a giggle on his lips.
"Mom, there's a girl in the castle," he says proudly, causing his mother to pout her lips in thought.
"Now, Henry, I won't have you making up such wild stories," she murmurs, her lid flipping as she speaks.
"But really, mom, I saw her."
Her expression turns in to one of disgust. "Not another word. Into the tub," she lifts up her son, and he falls in to the tub full of soapy water. From behind them, an attractive feather duster emerges from the shadows.
"A girl! I saw a girl in the castle!" she speaks quickly, before retreating back to continue watching herself.
Henry pokes his head out of his bath, his smile evident once again. "See, I toooooold ya!"
"Irresponsible, devil-may-care, waxy eared, slack-jawed-" Tung continues to catalogue Dex's flaws, but he ceases once Jenny runs past their door, continuing to call out for her father.
"Did you see that?" Dex says quickly, jumping off from the table and bouncing over to the door, poking his head around. Tung joins him. "It's a girl!"
"I know it's a girl," Tung snaps, tired of people thinking that he's ignorant.
"Don't you see? She's the one," Dex continues, hardly listening to what Tung has to say. "The girl we have been waiting for. She has come to break the spell!" before Tung can retaliate, Dex has gone hopping down the corridor in search of the girl.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" he shouts, following his companion as fast as he can.
Jenny advances down a narrow hallway. Tung and Dex sneak up behind her and open the door that leads to the tower where George is being kept. The door creaks open and Jenny hears the sound, a hopeful gasp on her lips.
"Papa? Papa?" at her words, Tung takes refuge behind the door, and Dex moves away out of sight. "Hello? Is someone here? Wait! I'm looking for my father!" she moves up the stairs, unaware that she is being watched by the candelabra.
"That's funny, I'm sure there was someone..." she begins, hearing a sound that sends a shiver running up and down her spine. "I-I-Is there anyone here?" another sound is emitted, and Jenny deciphers that it is from a cell close by.
"Jenny?" George questions in to the darkness. His daughter races up to the cell, grasping his outstretched hand.
"Oh, Papa!" she comforts, gripping his hand tighter.
"How did you find me?"
"Oh, your hands are like ice," she ignores his question, her voice evident with worry. "We have to get you out of here."
"Jenny, I want you to leave this place," he warns, bringing his face towards the small grate.
"Who's done this to you?" she questions, continuing to ignore his protests and pleas.
"No time to explain," he looks around wearily. "You must go...now!"
"I won't leave you!" she says with strength, but her words are silenced as a claw grabs Jenny's shoulder, whipping her around. Startled, her lantern falls to a puddle with a splash, extinguishing all light except for a small sliver of light from overhead.
"What are you doing here?" the monster roars in his threatening voice.
"Run, Jenny!" George warns, ushering his hands for her to move.
Jenny squints in the darkness. "Who's there? Who are you?"
"The master of this castle," he addresses simply in his rough voice.
"I've come for my father. Please let him out! Can't you see he's sick?"
"Then he shouldn't have trespassed here," Zap roars in a matter-of-fact tone. The girl begins to plead with him, still somewhat unable to see her conversationalist.
"But he could die. Please, I'll do anything!"
"There's nothing you can do," he says, moving towards an adjacent door. "He's my prisoner."
"Oh, there must be some way I can_" she silences her voice as thoughts and ideas swim around her head. "Wait! Take me, instead!"
"You?" he says incredulously. "You would take his place?"
"Jenny! No!" George shouts from his cell near their feet. "You don't know what you're doing!"
"If I did, would you let him go?" she questions with courage in her voice.
"Yes, but you must promise to stay here forever," he debates, causing the girl to consider the situation. Her eyes search for the voice again, before she clears her throat.
"Come into the light," Jenny demands. Slowly, a claw protrudes itself out of the shadows, then another, then a fang, until his whole giant form is in her view. Jenny's eyes grow wider at the sight, before she pulls her face away from his sight and collapses back down to her father.
He takes her hand gingerly. "No, Jenny. I won't let you do this!"
After seeing her father in his condition once again, she regains her composure, standing up tall and back in to the light, pulling a brave face. "You have my word."
"Done!" Zap agrees quickly, moving past the girl to unlock the cell. Jenny collapses down to the floor once again, cradling her head in her hands.
George rushes over to his daughter. "No, Jenny. Listen to me. I'm old; I've lived my life-"
Before he can continue, the beast grabs his old prisoner by the cape and begins pulling him down the stairs.
"Wait!" she screams, holding her hands out as though to grab her father.
"Jenny!" her father calls back, trying but failing to fight off the monster.
"Wait!" she calls once again, but it's too late. The master has taken his freed prisoner outside in the darkness.
"No, please spare my daughter!" he continues to plead, but is ignored by the insect.
"She's no longer your concern," he argues, throwing him in to a run-down old carriage. "Take him to the village," he orders, causing the wooden carriage to break the ivy holding it in to place and walking on its wooden legs away from the castle, Zap ignores the pleas of "please, let me out, please!"
Jenny remains in the castle, watching from a window as her father walks away from her. She begins to cry, unable to hold her emotions in any longer. The beast is walking up the castle stairs, passing Dex as the latter illuminates the stairwell.
"Zap?" he questions kindly, only to receive a roar in his face.
"What?" Zap snaps angrily.
"Since the sheila is going to be with us for quite some time, I was thinking that you might want to offer her a more comfortable room," he suggests, only to be answered once again with a gruff and loud roar. "Then again, maybe not."
Zap finds his new captive in the cell, the girl still crying over her lost father.
"You didn't even let me say goodbye," she stutters, unaware of Zap's huge green face drooping slightly in guilt. "I'll never see him again. I didn't get to say goodbye."
Feeling awkward and at fault, Zap decides to change the subject. "I'll show you to your room."
"My room?" she questions, with surprise. She looks around at the straw covered concrete floor of the cell. "But I thought-"
"You wanna, you wanna stay in the tower?" he asks ignorantly, gesturing out with his claws.
"No," she answers quite quickly, standing to her feet.
"Then follow me," he says in a more gentle voice that Jenny has ever heard from him.
As Zap leads Jenny to her room, the distraught guest lags behind. She looks at the hideous sculptures on the walls and the light casting shadows on them. Frightened, she gasps and runs to catch up with Zap, who is carrying Dex as a light source. Zap looks back at Jenny, and sees a tear form at the corner of her eye.
"Say something to her," Dex whispers from his position in Zap's claw. Zap stutters a bit before speaking.
"I...um...hope you like it here," he says shakily. He looks back at Dex for approval, who only motions for Zap to continue.
"The castle is your home now, so you can go anywhere you wish, except the West Wing."
"What's in the West Wing?" she questions, intrigued. Zap stops immediately, shouting his response in anger.
"It's forbidden!" he growls, and continues to walk forward once he believes the message has been heard. The door to Jenny's new room opens, revealing a dark bedroom with a notable rose carving at the foot of her bed.
"Now, if there's anything you need, my servants will attend you," he says with tenderness in his voice. The candlestick whispers in his ear once again.
"Dinner-invite her to dinner."
"You...will join me for dinner," he growls angrily, standing tall. "That's not a request!"
Zap slams the door behind him. Terrified, Jenny runs over to the bed and flings herself onto it, finally breaking down and crying as a light snow outside turns heavy and cold.
Really, REALLY long, but I had to do a lot because seriously, this isn't even HALF of the movie. I'm hoping to finish this set by the 16th (Habi's chapter) so fingers crossed. Although, I really do like how this is going. R&R!