I've already re-published this story at my Portfolio, and the Twine format is easier to read in a wider format, so I recommend you read the story at my Google Site Portfolio. You will also find the author's notes there. If you want to just stay here at the blog, though, I also embedded the Twine story at the bottom of this blog post. You can indeed have Twine in a blog post; it just involves more up-and-down scrolling because of the narrow width.
So, here's the shortest version of the story, and down below you can choose-your-own-mouse-bride-adventure. Have fun, and choose wisely!
THE MOUSE-BRIDE
You have been born as a mouse. A tiny girl-mouse. Your mouse-mother takes good care of you. You are growing up, getting bigger and bigger every day. Now it is time for you to go outside on your own. You scurry through the grass. Times goes by. Oh no! You are lost! You scurry left... And you scurry right... You go around and around. But you cannot find your way home. And then, just when you are about to give up hope... A kindly woman finds you. She has no children of her own. So, she decides to take you home. The woman and her husband adopt you, and they raise you as their own child.
The time comes to find you a husband.
"She should marry a mouse," says your mother.
"No," says your father. "She should marry a man."
So, your father brings home a man for you to marry. And your mother has found a very nice mouse. You are not sure what to do.
On the one hand, this human husband seems very nice. And very strong.
On the other hand, you are a mouse. And this mouse husband seems very nice. But is he strong? Would a mouse be strong enough to take care of you?
But wait... maybe there is another option.
Maybe there is a husband who would be strongest of all! Stronger than a mouse! Stronger than a human!
You think about your options:
Will you marry the human husband?
Or will you marry the mouse husband?
Or will you seek the strongest husband of all?
You choose: the mouse.
You go find the mouse your mother had chosen for you.
"O Mouse," you say, "will you marry me?"
"I will," says the mouse.
So now it is time to plan your wedding.
You are definitely going to invite all your mouse friends, plus the other animals too. You make a long list of all the animals you want to invite. But what about the cat?
On the one hand, if you invite the cat, well, he might come. And the cat is dangerous.
On the other hand, if you do not invite the cat, he might come anyway, and he might be angry because you didn't invite him.
So, will you invite the cat to the wedding or leave him off the guest list?
You leave him off the guest list!
Congratulations! The cat just sleeps through the wedding. You and all your friends have a wonderful time. And then you and your mouse-husband live happily ever after.
In your next lifetimes, you are both reborn as students at the University of Oklahoma. Maybe you will meet there again...
~ ~ ~
Image credit: USDA mouse. You can see the Twine story here, but the Google Sites version is easier to read.
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job of telling this story using Twine. My first time through, my character was immediately killed (never invite a cat to a mouse wedding I guess), but I was pleasantly surprised when that wasn't the end! I liked how I didn't have to completely restart the story after making a decision that didn't work out. This was fun to read and has inspired me to maybe use Twine in my own Storybook project.
Hey Laura, I can not believe how many different turns you included into that story to make us feel as if we really were in charge of how it would end. While some may be annoyed by the same words being used repeatedly in a story ("I am very strong but there is someone stronger than I am: _____", I like using that kind of repetition in my stories and actually used a similar tool in my story called "The Man in the Sun". I feel as if using repetitive phrases to show how the story evolves with each similar but different encounter that the character has allows the readers to focus on the important parts of their exchanges and the grand scheme of the story. I could not think of a better way that you could have done this Twine!
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