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Finkleberries
Finkleberries
I created the Finkleberries in my Backstories thread. Then I figured maybe the Finkleberries were big enough to deserve their own thread. To get us started, here are reproductions of the three comments I wrote about them.
Comment 1, dated March 9, 2013 - 11:43 am:
Okay, everyone, here I go! I'm going to make up a new character, for us to write backstories for.
Name: Harry Finkleberry
Occupation: Comic book enthusiast
Home: An RV, in which they travel a lot so he's homeschooled, but that's on hold while he tries to figure out how to get out of the comic book he somehow got sucked into
Pet: A lizard named Apocalypse
Relatives: His mom and dad and an older brother named Jerry
Age: 14 and a half
Let's begin writing a backstory for him, everyone! 
Comment 2, dated March 9, 2013 - 8:45 pm:
Okay, no one seems interested in Harry's backstory, so I'll do a backstory for him myself.
Here's my story:
Harry was born to Mary and Gary Finkleberry. He already had a brother named Jerry, who was three years older than him.
Not much interesting happened in Harry's early years, except for him choking on LEGOs when he was three. And that time he jumped out a four-story window into the trampoline in his backyard when he was six. And that time when he went to the aqaurium and fell into the stingray tank.
Yeah, his life was pretty uneventful. Years later, he was 14 and a half. It was his 14th half-birthday party, and he was reading a comic book called Looped End. It was a sci-fi thriller about a man from the present-day era named Dexter Ash stuck in a time loop in a post-apocalyptic future. It was a really good read.
So he was sitting on his bed, reading his comic book, when something strange happened. The comic book starting glowing. "What-" he muttered, then realized that the comic book was HOT! "Ah! Burns, burns, burns! Yeoww!!" he screamed. Then, the comic book, with its weird green glow, turned inside out and became a hole, into another world. And it sucked everything in Harry's room - his bed, his dresser drawer, his collecter's edition poster-sized covers - into the void.
Now, have you ever heard of petrified materials? They are materials that got really old and dissolved, and minerals took their place, creating a replica shaped exactly like the original material. This was similar because the portal sucked in all of Harry's things, and then sent out a bunch of atoms. The atoms flew into place, creating EXACT replicas of all Harry's things. The only thing not reproduced was Harry and the comic book that had turned into a portal. Why all that happened I truly have no idea. (Or maybe I do. I'm not telling you, cause that would be spoiling the story.)
So, then, after all that occurred, the portal disappeared. Then, Mary Finkleberry, Harry's mother, entered the room. "Harry?"
No response.
"Hmm, well, I'll check on you later. Don't get into any mischief!" And Mary left the room, also leaving Harry trapped with Dexter Ash in a time-loop in a post-apocalyptic future.
Like I said, Harry Finkleberry's life was pretty uneventful.
Okay, that's my story. It's not so much of a backstory, but it's a nice read, isn't it? Comments please!
Comment 3, dated March 10, 2013 - 6:55 pm:
I have a better backstory to write about one of Harry's relatives. Here I go...
Finn "Scary" Finkleberry was Harry's uncle. His brothers were Larry, Mary, and Perry Finkleberry. All those names rhymed with "berry". But his name didn't. When he was six, he asked his mother why.
"We were going to have six kids," she said impatiently, flipping the pancakes she was preparing for breakfast on the griddle. "Your father was going to name three of them, and he preferred names that rhymed. Along came you, the fourth, and it was my turn. I named you Finn." While flipping a pancake, she flung it behind her and it landed on the framed photo of her dad, Finn's grandfather, that was hanging on the wall. She went to get it off.
Wiping batter off her dad's face, she continued, "So then, we were going to have two more, but I told your father, 'You know what? Four is more than enough. Let's just stick with what we've got.' And so we did."
Finn didn't like his name. He wanted a rhyming name like everyone else. So he conceived the nickname "Scary".
But every nickname has to come with a reason, something as to why the nickname is asocciated with the person. So Finn, or "Scary", as you may now think of him, declared, "Call me Scary Finkleberry, cause I'm gonna have the scariest costume Halloween night!" This was the middle of March, and everyone laughed. Finn was the center of several mean jokes for months, but he lived up to his words, spending months preparing his costume for Halloween night.
And the months later, Finn/Scary seemed to have given up his phase, and everyone had forgotten about it. So they all just prepared their costumes like normal. If he had made the announcement, say, a week, ahead of time, everyone would probably be trying to beat whatever he might have up his sleeve.
And so Scary came out of his house, and he had the SCARIEST costume of all! You wanna know what it was?
Well, I'm not going to tell you!
And so, Scary Finkleberry is still known among the family by his nickname, and every year, he always has the SCARIEST costume of all!
Comments?
submitted by Joe Dosie Doe, age 13, Shady Oaks Asylum
(March 11, 2013 - 7:45 pm)
(March 11, 2013 - 7:45 pm)
So, continuing my story, in the real world now...
Mary and Gary Finkleberry realized something the next day. "Have you seen Harry?" Mary asked Gary. "Come to think of it..." said Gary, "Not since yesterday afternoon! Where could he be?" "Hmm, I don't know," said Mary, "but we forgot to get him a present for his half-birthday party. What do you say we go to the comic store and get him something?" Gary thought of this. "Yeah, that sounds great. I've got some time." So they went to the comic store.
When they got to the store, they found three interesting things. There was a cool poster featuring Harry's favorite comic character, the Ghostmaster, from the graphic novel series The Ghostmaster. It was a collector's item, really old, and really vintage. They bought it, cause it was the only one Harry didn't have and they knew he'd love it. Then they threw in the latest installment of The Ghostmaster.
Next, they went to the register, where they found the second interesting thing.
The clerk said hello.
Usually, the clerk didn't say hello. He usually wasn't very nice to them. But he appeared to have a mood swing in him. "Good day, folks!" he said happily. "Just this one poster? Or would you like anything else?"
Gary began to speak. "Neh-" But then he spied a cover. The cover read as follows:
LOOPED END
FEATURING
DEXTER ASH
THE MAN FROM ANOTHER AGE
Which wasn't out of the ordinary. Gary had seen that part many times at the store before. What surprised him was this addition:
AND HARRY FINKLEBERRY
THE BOY FROM ANOTHER REALITY
"Yes, yes, we'd also like this." he said, picking up the comic book and hurling it onto the counter. "But Harry already had that one!" said Mary. Gary pointed at Harry's face on the cover. "Mary, take a look."
Mary stared, then shakily said, "Yes, yes, we'd also like this one..."
"What makes you think this?" Seargant Chase asked again. He had just heard a cock-and-bull story, in his opinion. These crazy people were saying that their son had been kidnapped by a comic book publisher to be forced to be a model for a character in their series. It was ridiculous.
Or so he thought until the man (Gary Finkleberry, had he said his name was?) plunked down a comic book onto the table. He stared, then looked up again.
"Do you have a recent photo of your boy?"
The Finkleberry fellow handed over a photo. The Seargant compared the resembalance, and then...
The next morning...
Mr. Hogsmith, the head editor at Kinkle Komiks, woke up to a bright day. Hopefully, it would be full of artists turning in their work and not news of crackpot characters who had gotten in without his approval. He went and showered, then put on a bathrobe and brushed his teeth.
A moment later, there was a bunch of sirens, then a man speaking through a megaphone, "Come out with your hands in the air!"
Mr. Hogsmith put down his toothbrush and rushed outside with his hands in the air, still wearing his bathrobe, to greet the police. "All right, what is the meaning of this?"
"Mr. Hogsmith, you have the right to remain silent," said an officer, as he handcuffed him and escorted him into a police car. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."
"You're arresting me? I haven't done anything! I'm just a publications editor! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!"
At which point the impatient officer tasered Mr. Hogsmith and shoved him in the car. They drove him to jail to await his trial on suspicion of kidnapping.
What will happen next?
(March 13, 2013 - 4:37 pm)
I've got more questions. Sorry!
How could Harry's parents not know he was missing earlier, especially if they last saw him in the afternoon with dinner and such?
I really like how Mr. Hogsmith was arrested for allegedly kidnapping Harry. Although, wouldn't the police need more evidence, or did they already have enough evidence?
This is my favorite segment so far. When will you continue?
(March 14, 2013 - 4:42 pm)
I've got more questions. Sorry!
How could Harry's parents not know he was missing earlier, especially if they last saw him in the afternoon with dinner and such?
I really like how Mr. Hogsmith was arrested for allegedly kidnapping Harry. Although, wouldn't the police need more evidence, or did they already have enough evidence?
This is my favorite segment so far. When will you continue?
(March 14, 2013 - 4:43 pm)
Okay, it actually is a better story now that I'm reading it and not having my EAR CHEWED OFF in person. Just kind of unrealistic that he would be tasered in this circumstance.
My captcha says yvud. Yummy Videophones with Ugly Dancing
(March 16, 2013 - 3:09 pm)
BOLD RED STUFF.
copy some of the
BOLD RED STUFF
then paste it.
(March 16, 2013 - 6:59 pm)
I was just wondering if all of Harry's stuff went with him how did his mom, Mary, not notice anything was missing?
Then, when he entered that world was his stuff still with him when the guard asked for his ID? If so, wouldn't that be a bit, well, weird to have all your stuff surrounding you in a city?
Lastly, what was the the scary costume???? I want to know!!!
Overall, I really liked the story. Keep writing!
(March 14, 2013 - 4:27 pm)
As I explained in the story, the portal sent out atoms which created reproductions of Harry's belongings.
And then what the portal sucked up, yeah, it was there with him. I haven't decided what happened to it after he abadoned it running off with Dexter Ash.
I can't tell you what the costume was. I refused to tell readers because I couldn't think up a costume scary enough.
(March 15, 2013 - 3:53 pm)
And now to continue my story. But first, I shall answer the rest of Teresa's questions.
The police had additional evidence I did not mention. It was a video taken with the security cam near the location of the Finkleberries' RV, which showed a man who looked a lot like Mr. Hogsmith trying to break in to the RV. It occured around the time Harry got sucked into the comic book.
The Finkleberries did not notice Harry was missing because they almost NEVER have their priorities straight, plus Harry spends a lot of time in his room, and the family prefers not to disturb him.
So, now I return to Harry and Dexter Ash...
Harry and Dexter ran and ran through a deep forest. Then, Dexter stopped, so naturally, Harry stopped too. "Let's set up camp," said Dexter. "I think those bucket-of-bolt guards are off our trail."
So Dexter reached in his bag, pulled out a rather worn bag, and unzipped it. Immediately a ton of cloth expanded out of it and formed a large tent.
"Wow," said Harry. "The comics never quite gave me a sense of how big that tent was." Dexter looked over at him. Harry had been talking about how they were in a comic all day, but Dexter didn't quite understand it. "Will you explain to me more about the comic book thing?"
Harry launched into an explanation of what Dexter was in his world. It was a very, very long explanation. Several times, Dexter asked him to stop and be a bit more explicit.
"So, as far as they're concerned," Harry finally finished, "You're not real. You're nothing but a picture, a fictional personality, a source of amusement to the readers."
Dexter sat for a long time, thinking. He thought and he thought. Finally, he said, "Why?"
"Because," said Harry, "They don't think of you as a person. They don't feel sadness for you. They feel nothing but a sense of amusement. They enjoy the book's accounts of your troubles."
"They ENJOY it?" said Dexter, furious. "All of this time, I've been stuck here, trying to get away, running for my life, and yearning for revenge against the scumbag who sent me here, and they ENJOY it?"
Both were silent for a long time. Finally, Harry said, "Let's go to bed," so they did.
Harry and Dexter awoke with their wrists shackled together in a dark chamber. Three robot guards were around, patrolling the place. "How did we get here?" they both said in unision.
The guards did not answer. They did not do anything for quite a while. Then, after about three hours, one of them said, "It is time for the trial. Please step up and follow us to the Royal Court." A stone door creaked open.
Harry and Dexter had no choice but to follow.
When they arrived at the Royal Court - another dark chamber, though much bigger - a man was waiting. He was wearing a black leather suit and a shiny iron collar.
"Please be silent while the King delivers the details," said the robot guards and left.
There were a few people around, about thirty. They all looked frightened and unwilling to lend their presence.
The King began to talk. "You two, trespassers of Numanzia, shall be executed on behalf on going rogue. Bring the ton!"
A loud noise occured. Harry and Dexter looked up. A huge stone block attached to the ceiling began to come down slowly. They realized that, soon, the thousand-pound block would come down and crush them to death.
And nothing could save them now.
OR CAN IT?
I have to end on a cliffhanger becuase we're having someone over and we're about to eat. Before I go, here is some artwork. Harry gets sucked into the portal to the world of Looped End:
(March 16, 2013 - 4:00 pm)
I've never thought about how a character from a book would react if they found out people read about them for entertainment. I like that perspective.
(March 16, 2013 - 5:12 pm)
And now to pick it up! When we last saw our heroes, they were in imminent danger. (Commonly known as a cliffhanger.) But what imminent danger were they in? Well, if you read the last parts first, you'd already know that!
Harry was freaking out. He had very little time to either somehow make a quick and preferably spectacular escape, or get crushed by a giant stone slab and die. It looked like he was headed for the latter. He had absolutely no tools that could save him and Dexter now. The stone came down further, now about ten feet or so from Dexter and Harry.
Then he heard a whiz, and an electric blue boomerang flew between Dexter and Harry and cut through the chains that shackled together their wrists. It flew by again, and sliced through the other sets of chains shackling together their legs.
Harry looked up to see the boomerang in the hands of a pretty blonde girl, about seventeen years old. She wore a pretty blue skintight suit and a necklace with three green charms. She grinned at them. She was none other than leader of the rogues, Tanya Slicepit!
Tanya had a sad backstory involving a mother who abandoned her after her father died. At age 13, she ran away from the King's camps and had her ID number sizzled off. She became what was commonly known as a rogue of Numanzia, a citizen who defied the King and became part of the elite plot to overthrow the Numanzian government. She had a twenty-thousand Kindlits price on her head, the most wanted of all the fugitives.
At one point, Dexter had met her (in Looped End #12) and developed feelings for her. but then she had been caught by the King, and, as assumed by most readers, dead. But she had apparently either escaped or found a way to cheat death, because here she was, in all her beautiful blonde glory!
"The camp is three miles west," she told them. "The King has an ally - the likes of which we have never seen. We must prepare ourselves for a fight." And then she ran.
"Tanya!" called Dexter, but she was gone. Harry looked up. The stone was only five feet from their death. He ran over to a control panel, pulled a forgotten stick of gum out of his pocket, and used it to jam the mechanisms. The stone stopped, then began to rumble.
"Dexter," Harry called, "you might want to MOVE!" Dexter looked, immediately realized the danger, and then rolled out of the way as the stone crashed to the ground, causing quite a bit of expensive damage. Then Dexter got up and the two of them ran to the door.
"Stop the trespassers!" shouted the King. A number of robots climbed down from their quarters and chased Harry and Dexter.
Dexter ran to a large garage and hopped into a motorcycle. He indicated the sidecar. "Get in!" he yelled at Harry. Harry jumped in, and away they rode, off to the camp of the rogues.
Meanwhile, back in the real world...
Mr. Hogsmith slammed a copy of Looped End #38 onto the table with his good arm. The cover still advertised Harry Finkleberry as a hero of the story. "You all are on your way to unemployment!" he yelled at the writers and story artists.
Yesterday, he had been arrested for something he didn't do, bailed himself out of jail with his wife's credit card, and gone to work. No one had been there, however, because the police considered the entire staff of Kinkle Komiks suspects in the "kidnapping plot", all of them suggested by many snippets of evidence, all of which were misleading.
He had called up everyone and told them to bail themsieves out of jail or hand in their resignation. By the end of the day, half his staff had been fired. He then furiously made calls to the papers to advertise for new staff, then approved Looped End #38 for publication, and got hit by a car on the way home. He resultantly broke his arm and spent the entire night in the hospital.
Then, on top of that, the next day, Harry Finkleberry, despite the fact that the version Mr. Hogsmith read before had him crushed in an execution by the King while Dexter Ash escaped, had cheated death and returned again, along with another character Mr. Hogsmith had specifically told the writers not to bring back - Tanya Slicepit! (She had not been getting good reviews.)
"You all are good workers. You have made some good books. I would like for that to continue!" said Mr. Hogsmith. "But you cannot keep it up very well if I have to fire you, now can you? So kill off Harry Finkleberry! If I see he has "slipped through" one more time, YOU CAN ALL CLEAN OUT YOUR DESKS! Do I make myself clear?!"
The makers of the comic all nodded and left.
TO BE CONTINUED SOME MORE...
(March 19, 2013 - 8:35 pm)
TOP TOP
GOOP GOOP
POKE POKE!
(March 19, 2013 - 8:36 pm)
TOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TOP TOP!
grr
TOP TOP TOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(March 20, 2013 - 2:49 pm)
Goop
(March 20, 2013 - 4:53 pm)
Okay, I'm going to talk about what happened before this with our other hero, Scary Finkleberry!
As Scary got older, he became very interested in science. When he was about 15 he created a cool robot that could understand your commands. He showed it off an electronics con.
But no one wanted to look at it. They always passed by his table, ignoring every word he said about his creation as they passed by. All they did was laugh at him, if they did anything at all. It was something that happened to his work always from that point on. No one ever seemed to believe in it enough to pay it a glance.
He showed off his stuff at science fairs, cons, expos, sometimes, when he was desperate, nursing homes. No one ever seemed interested. And the old folks at the nursing home never seemed to pay enough attention. Maybe they had all gone deaf.
One night, when he was 19 years old, he felt that he'd made a breakthrough. He looked at his work - a prototype time machine the size of a novelty sno-cone maker. he had studied so much of time and physics that he felt he thorughly understood it, and he was confident he could conquer it. He put a rock in the machine and hit the button.
The machine disappeared. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, out of nowhere, the machine, with the rock inside, sizzled into existence.
He smiled at it. Tomorrow he planned for a thing that had never been done: to stay in bed all day while not being late for school. He got to work on a bigger version that would be able to send a person back and forth through time.
He knew he was destined for great things. Now all it took was to get the world to listen.
But that was going to take a while.
(March 21, 2013 - 2:48 pm)
Goop and Top and Poke and Goop and Top and Poke all rolled into one
(March 21, 2013 - 3:00 pm)