The Grouchy Friends/The Girl Who Never Fell Asleep (feat. Jeff Hiller and Hannah Solow)

We also have two amazing special guests on one of today's new stories, the fantastic and hilarious Jeff Hiller, and the return of the wonderful and talented Hannah Solo. And of course we've got more story love with Lee and Peter, and it's all coming up after a few words for the grown-ups. My grown-ups Lee here, Sea Story Pirate's Live, our amazing touring cast including Eric,

will be visiting some East Coast cities this spring to perform some of your favorite songs from the podcast. And they'll take suggestions from kids in the audience to create a brand new story that will only be seen once. Best of all, all of our upcoming shows are on weekend, so no need to worry about school nights

or bedtime routines. We'll see you soon in Munhall, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Ohio, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Medford, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, and Richfield, Connecticut. Take it to all of the shows around sale now at storybuyards.com/live.

Wow, I can't believe that in all my travels I've never come across a gas station like

Lucky's. Have you ever seen anything like it, Nimony? No, Rachel, it's incredible!

“They have something for everyone, and then a bunch of stuff that's like who's that for?”

Oh, they're so much merch, and you know I love merch. I love their mascot, even though I can't really tell what it is. It's a newtria. Megan, what's a newtria? Well, it's a semi-quatic rodent with large front teeth, like the cross between an

order and a beaver. I know, because I had a newtria co-star in a pilot that never aired or was made. Do we have time to go to the Lucky's water park that's next to the Lucky's dog park? Sorry Nimony, we gotta get a move on. Let's get a photo with this Lucky statue and we'll head out.

Everyone, get it for a selfie. Where's Peter? I haven't seen him since we got here any ranch straight to that sweet and savory pastry section. We were all supposed to meet here at the statue when we were ready to go.

He ate too much and told me he was going to go take a nap under his coat in the car. I'll photocrop him in the picture later. Smile, y'all! Jeez!

“Aww, cute pig, you can tell we're having so much fun.”

This is exactly the kind of place that the evil robot story pirates could never appreciate.

It's just too resumant. Right! Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah! Speaking of which, we need to get a move on.

Come on, let's head over to the ship at Fuel Pump 326. Yeah, I guess we better get the road. What I love it here. This giant gas station is terrible. If I could feel evotions, this would give me yuck.

Do you agree? Robot Nimony? I agree. Evil Robot Rachel. At first, you think it's efficient, but then it turns out it's not efficient at all.

Right? Evil Robot Megan? Exactly. Having over 100 fuel pumps at a gas station, efficient.

“But selling slippers that look like nutrients at a gas station?”

In the efficient, lean in the evil robot story pirates.

Let us get a photo with the lucky statue to remember to never come back to this place.

But Lee, where is Robot Peter? His system got overwhelmed and he had to go recharge in the RV. How do a lot of evil robots and look like you're having fun? More fun? More fun?

Okay. Cheese! Let us away to Fuel Pump 17. I have a gun. I have a gun.

I have 17. I have a gun. I have a gun. I have a gun. Boom.

Guys, I'm here. Right where we said to meet up. Outside near the lucky statue. I said I was going to go take an app in the car. But I got distracted by the fudge buffet.

Guys, I'm here. I know I said I was going to recharge in the trunk of the RV. But it turns out they have charging stations at lucky's. Guys? Guys?

Guys? Oh my gosh. It's evil. I can't believe it. It just filled me up with joy.

My mom loves the jokes. Yo, yo, magic. It's maybe very proud of my fighting.

I definitely think I can be more creative now.

I'm the champion. The solid pilots.

“Welcome back to the story Pirate's podcast, everyone.”

Where we take stories written by kids and turn them into sketch comedy and songs. Where are the rest of the story pirates? Regular human story pirate, Peter? I don't know. They thought I was in the car, so they might have left me here.

Where are the other evil robot story pirates? It looks as if I, too, have been left behind. Well, at least we're stuck in a place that has all these snacks. Ah, yes, snacks. That's kind of your whole thing, isn't it?

Ah, no. I also like full meals. As you know, I do not consume food, so I find it hard to understand you. Ah, that's okay.

I find it hard to understand most things.

You want some fudge? Hard pass. I need to find a way to get back in touch with the other evil robot story pirates. I saw an old payphone inside at the other end of Lackies. Want to scope it out?

I guess so. He did his good thing rather hot out here by the statue. Wow. I thought I was at press the first time I saw Lackies, but it's just as impressive the second time you walk through those automatic doors.

“Hey, while I take you to the payphone, should we do our first story?”

A story by a kid? Haha, us evil robot story pirates aren't supposed to like those, but I suppose one wouldn't hurt. Proceed. Uh, okay.

Okay, listeners, this first story comes from a student in one of our story quest classrooms in New York. Story quest is our completely digital creative writing program for schools.

And here's something really amazing.

Dylan, that's the author's name. Dylan uses a very special device to speak, which you'll hear right now as he introduces his story. Hello. My name is Dylan.

I am six years old. I live in New York. This is my story, "The Ground See Friends." Oh, the sun is shining. The birds are chirping and there's not about a single cloud, but warning clouds.

It's a beautiful morning for me, man. Except, hello, bear. My name or horse is just too loud. Oh, what a wonderful morning, isn't it, bear? It reminds me of an old anecdote.

“My uncle's spare years former college roommate used to tell her, "You should I say”

former Union flatmates," since it was when he was doing that semester of Ron and Charlie I was dying. And horse, I want to be nice, but you're talking much too much, and much too loud for the morning. Oh, well, I gotta tell you, bear, hearing that makes me a little grouchy.

Oh, I'm making you grouchy. You're making me grouchy. You're making me grouchy. You're making me grouchy. You're making me grouchy.

I'm making me grouchy. Horse bear. Horse bear. Horse bear. Horse bear.

Yeah. Brouchy friends, we're just a pair of grouchy friends. I'm a horse. I'm a bear. I have lots to say.

And I just don't care. Brouchy friends, we're just a pair of grouchy friends, and we'll be neighbors. What do you call silly ends? You know what horse? Let me apologize.

I'm not a morning bear and I'm still opening my eyes. Closer I understand, morning noise can be jarring. So from the bottom of my heart, let me say I'm very, very accepting of your apology. Oh, let's wrong. I just thought you were going to say you're sorry.

Sorry for what? For being too noisy. I'm not being too noisy. I'm being too noisy for you, which makes it a you problem. Horse.

You make a me grouchy. You make a me grouchy. You make a me grouchy. You make a me grouchy. Horse bear.

Horse bear. Horse bear. Horse bear. Horse bear. Horse bear.

Rouchy friends, we're just a pair of grouchy friends. You know there are 400,000 blood types for horses. You know that I just don't care. Of course it's. Rouchy friends, we're such a pair of grouchy friends.

And we'll be neighbors. Funny. Pows to the end. That's great. You know horse doesn't have a substitute.

Jump up. Up. Jump. Stop. Tap.

Dancing. You got four hooves. That's for too many. Yeah. Rouchy friends.

We're just a pair of grouchy friends. Horse. Point down a bit. What do you say? Oh, very no it's coming.

Don't do it. Hey. Drouchy friends. We're such a pair of grouchy friends. And we'll be neighbors.

Funny. Pows to the end.

“Now some might ask why the two of us are friends.”

Well it's simple.

You'll always be there on that I can't even.

Yes. You've got to know a thing nature. But I guess that's just part of you. So let me say horse, that I truly do love you. What's going on?

I'm building a shed. Why are you building a shed? Oh, where else am I going to store all my fireworks, Jackhammers and my collection of vintage cars with busted mufflers? Horse.

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I drew you two on the water slides since you were just talking about it. I guess you're right, evil robot me. We gotta try that water slide. I mean look how much fun we're having on this t-shirt. Let's go.

What nice boys. I am so very excited, Peter.

I've had such an amazing time today and it's all thanks to you.

I've had so much fun too. You know, I found almost every kind of snack at Lucky's. But the best thing I found here today wasn't fudge or nuggets. Though the nuggets were really good.

Really good.

“The best thing I found at Lucky's wasn't a snack.”

It's friendship. Heck, it feels weird to call you evil robot me when we've become such good friends. Can I call you something else? How about you call me nugget?

Since it was those nutrient nuggets that began our friendship. Sounds good nugget. I've had such a wonderful day. It's made me realize.

The efficiency is overrated. nugget. Do you mean that? You and this huge gas station have shown me something very important.

Things don't have to be efficient. To be good. It's fun to be weird and unexpected. It makes me so happy to hear you say that. I cannot wait to tell the other evil robot story

virus when I've learned today. I know they'll change their minds. I see the value of things unique and uncommon. And then they'll want to become friends too. And then we can all hang out together on the ship.

Yay.

But first, let us go down this slide.

For what will be the first of many times, I'm sure. Here we go. Weee! That was awesome. Wanna go again?

Yes, again. Again. Again. Again. Again.

Again. Again. Again. Again. Again.

Again. No! Speak to me. What recent two factory settings? Ah.

That's probably not a bad thing, right? We'll be right back after a few words for the grown-up. Hey grown-ups. A well-built wardrobe is about pieces that work together and hold up over time.

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“Honestly, I consider it my nice scarf that I wear when I want to impress someone or look”

professional in some way, but it's sturdy enough that it holds up even when I'm not looking nice, which is a lot of the time. I love it. Refresh your wardrobe with Quince. Go to Quince.com/storypirates for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns.

Now available in Canada, too. That's QU-I-N-C-E.com/storypirates. Free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com/storypirates. Hey grown-ups, Lee here.

See story pirates live.

Our amazing touring cast including Eric will be visiting some East Coast cities this spring to perform some of your favorite songs from the podcast.

And they'll take suggestions from kids in the audience to create a brand new story that will only be seen once.

We'll see you soon in Munhall, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh.

Cincinnati, Ohio, Port Smith, New Hampshire, Metford, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston and Richfield, Connecticut. Take it to all the shows are on sale now at storypirates.com/live. We set two factory settings, we set two factory settings. Oh no, that gets we were having such a fun day. And then you went down the water slide and this happened.

Well, to be specific, this didn't happen until we got down the slide and landed in the splash zone. Free set two factory settings. Here, let's get you over to the sun and lucky's topiary garden to dry you off. Oh no, I didn't think to purchase a lucky's brand towel. I guess I'll just use our airbrush t-shirt.

There you are. It's evil robot Lee. And the rest of the evil robot story pirates. We've been looking everywhere for you. Me, why would you be looking everywhere for me?

“Do you have a secret you need to tell me?”

Not you. We've been looking for evil robot Peter. Oh, yeah, that makes more sense. Free set two factory settings. Free set two factory settings.

What have you done to evil robot story pirate Peter?

First of all, his name is Nugget.

And second of all, all I did was show him the best days ever had in his entire life. We saw everything there was to see it lucky's and we had snacks. But he's not supposed to have snacks. Well, Nugget tried them and he loved them. Why do you keep calling him Nugget?

Look, evil robot Peter is powering up again. Then he can tell you why he goes by Nugget himself. Evil robot Peter, how are you feeling? I am well. Where are we? Nugget, we're at Lucky's. Don't you remember? Nugget?

Who's lucky? What's Nugget? Don't you want to snack? Here, it's a ham salad sandwich. It's ham salad.

“But human story pirate Peter, don't you know?”

Robots, do not eat snacks. No! Why? Wait, I gotta try one last thing. Look, look at the t-shirt and tell me what you see. I see a bunch of drippy lines and swirls.

What? It just looks like a bunch of splatters of paint. All the colors are melting into one another. Oh, no. Well, water. The airbrush paint must not have been set yet.

It's ruined! ruined! Nugget! Come, evil robots. We'd better get going if we're going to get to storytelling on an efficient manner. Let's go.

Sorry, guys. I don't know what that was all about. Nugget, my best friend. I will like ever get over this. Oh, hey, there's half a muffin in my bathing suit. All right.

Hmm. Much very wet. Peter, there you are. We've been looking everywhere for you. Oh, don't worry.

Wet muffin and I are both here. Peter, we all thought you were asleep under your coat in the car. Turns out your coat was just laying on top of your picture. Which is Peter, shaped. How did you figure out I wasn't there?

Megan asked if anybody wanted the rest of her lucky surf and turf platter and you didn't speak up. I knew something was off. You love lobster tail. We doubled back and thank goodness you're here. We're sorry we left without you, pal.

It wasn't very thoughtful to leave you and lucky's all by yourself. Oh, I wasn't alone. You were it? Well, who was here with you? I'll have to tell you another time, Rachel. Because that's all you're gunna get from me today.

That's fine. I'm sure you're tired after spending all day. Even robot Peter and I hung out and we became lifelong friends and eight snacks and went down the water slide together. And even got a teacher together. But he had some wiring problems and totally forgot all about it once he powered up again.

“I think someone's had a little too much fun.”

How about we get you some water, buddy? Ooh, I love water. And maybe we can do another story while we walk to Lucky's Water section. Yeah! And here's the author to introduce it.

Hi, I'm Wilder. I am nine years old, and I live in New York.

This is my story, the girl who never fell asleep.

That was the kidcat trio with Grisant French toast and a side of beans. Groovy. And what a great beat to help me brush my teeth. Ah! Amy?

Yeah, Mom? It's almost nine o'clock. Are you ready for bed? Yeah, my teeth are brushed. My pajamas are on and they're already playing my wine-down hour on my favorite radio station.

It's coming up on the night of clock hour, so we're going to switch to something a little slower.

The radio?

“Honey, if you really want to fall asleep, everybody knows you should weave a basket with an order.”

Mom? No.

You're not going to do what you always do, which has come up with these outrageous solutions

to everyday problems. Amy, what are you saying? I never do that. Mom, that's kind of your whole thing. A whole thing.

Amy, I don't have a whole thing. Listen to you. No, enough of this. It's time for bed. Good night, Mom.

Good night, Amy. Ah, okay, tucked into bed. Let me just adjust my radio. It's 9.15 pm. We're continuing our wine-down hour with some soothing night music.

Here's a little tater task with restless. Guess I have nothing left to do, but fall asleep. Here I go. In 3, 2, 1. All right.

That didn't seem to work. Here I go. Off to bed, bye. In 3, 2, 1. Still awake.

I hope all you sleepless Susie's and Steve's out there are enjoying this music.

I'm not a sleepless Susie.

Amy, you still awake in here? Yeah, Mom.

“I'm just not falling asleep like I usually do.”

Did you try doing more scode with lightning bugs? More scode with lightning bugs? Yes. Let's open your curtains to see if they're out tonight. Mom, that's wild.

You have to acknowledge that's wild. I don't have to do any such thing. Try it. No thanks. I have my own methods.

Okay. Good night dear. Time to try one of my old methods. Reading a boring book. Let's see what we have in the old boring book pile.

A history of long roads. 1,000 ways to say beige. Ah, here we are. Humphrey's complete list of lists. Now that's the ticket.

I'm sure I'll read this and be asleep in no time. I've read through all the lists in the book, including the long list of acknowledgments,

which where was your editor on that one Humphrey?

But it's no use. I'm still awake. It's 9.50 and we're getting into our line-down hour with another slow tempo song. Here's dream captain in the night stars with

that just can't sleep. The titles of these songs. So this goes out to all you awake Adams and Amy's out there. I am an awake Amy. To help you fall asleep.

Alright. Amy, still awake? Yeah mom. Did you try knitting? I could see that with some spiders.

Mom, knitting fine. Knitting with spiders. That's wild. Please acknowledge that's wild. Okay, fine.

But sometimes wild works. Mom, no. I have another idea. One that's short of work. Okay.

Alright. Reading a boring book, didn't work. Let me try. Cuddling with my favorite stuffy. Mr. reindeer.

Hmm. It's 10pm and our wide-down hour continues with need a no sleep and her head. Watching the clock, because falling asleep feels impossible right now.

Here, that Mr. reindeer, just listen to that soothing music to let us sleep. Hope this song is hitting all the right notes for those restless Mr. reindeer and their anxious Amy owners out there.

Okay. You heard that, Mr. reindeer, right? Still awake in here. Mom. I can't fall asleep.

And you entering every few minutes isn't helping either. Oh, Amy. I know you didn't want to try any of my suggestions.

“But have you tried snuggling your favorite stuffy, Mr. reindeer?”

Yes. Okay. What about reading a book? I read a boring book. Which one?

Paint drives by Nelson Nod, a history of blinks by snooze and duke, or sheep and how to count them by winking and blinking. I read Humphrey's complete list of lists. Oh, that's a good one.

But it didn't work. What should I do? And don't say something wild. Got it. Okay.

Okay. How about? Calling a owl. What? Calling a owl.

Come again? Calling an owl. Mom. I know. I know.

It sounds wild. But what could it hurt to try at this point? Okay, Mom. Fine. Let's call an owl.

How do we do that anyway? Do you have an owl's number or something? Now, I do. Right here. What?

Do you want to tell me how you got this? Not really. Okay. How's that going to help? Prost me.

What? Trost me. What was that now? Trost me. Okay.

Fine. You. What do I say? I believe it's customary to say hello. Mom.

Amy, you're tired. Just give it a try. Here's the phone. Here goes nothing. Hello?

What did they say? Well, Mom. What they said was. Which is look at that. Mom was right.

The end. Huh? Mom? Oh, sorry. The end.

And now, Lee speaks with the author.

Wilder, you wrote the girl who never fell asleep.

Yes.

“Can you tell me how you came up with the idea for that story?”

So, my friends were writing stories at school, and I was like, "Well, I guess I'll write my own." And I was just like, "Girl, sleep." It was a girl who never fell asleep. And just like whatever popped into my mind, I just found a way to add it into the story.

Oh, that's so cool. Were you sleepy at the time? Is that why you were thinking about sleep? Yeah. That's so funny.

The parting your story with the owl made me laugh out loud when I got to it. Yeah, I was just like, "Hmm." Like, I just thought an owl, big bird. I don't know. I was just thinking about birds and I was like, "How old?"

What did the mom think was going to happen when you called the owl, and like, why did it work so fast? I guess the owl has sleeping powers. Do you ever have trouble falling asleep yourself? Yes, a lot of it.

Do you have any routines or anything that you try to help you fall asleep? So we have this like, snowing fork sort of, and it's really calming because it's like, you bang it against your hand or your thigh, and then it causes a vibration and you put it up to your head,

and it's really calming. Wow. And yeah. That's amazing.

I've never heard about that before.

What does it feel like? I don't know. Like, sort of like a bee on your head, but it doesn't hurt. Like a nice bee.

Yes. Like a bee who wishes they were an owl.

“Do you have like a stuffed animal that you sleep with,”

like Amy does? No. I've tried it, but I always end up losing my stuffies, because I'm very weird when I sleep. Sometimes I talk and say,

like, the weirdest things ever. Really? Like, I walked my dad for a, I just said, "Give me that." With my ass close and I, yeah, and it gave me a pillow,

and then I just threw it on the floor. And I went to my mom. We need to save the monkey, and she's like, "Okay, we can save the monkey." But no.

There are two. Do you remember that at all? No. Do you ever get out of bed while you're asleep, or do you just talk?

I used to sometimes wake up and get a snack, but now I don't do that. I don't really wake up in the night anymore. And did you save the monkeys? Did you end up saving both of them?

I don't know. Oh, no. Well, you got to get back into that dream tonight, so we can find out. Yeah.

Well, while there, it was really fun to chat with you. Thank you so much for letting us perform your story, and I have a feeling I'm going to fall right to sleep tonight. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

And Peter and I will be back to talk about more stories written by kids after a few words for the grown-ups. Welcome back to Story Love, where we take stories written by kids,

and we read them, and talk about them. Hello, Peter. Hello, Lee.

I'm going to go ahead and read our first story.

If that's okay with you. I can't wait. Wow. All right. Sorry.

This story was written by a six-year-old from Washington named Sammy, and Sammy's story is called The Five Cars. Five cars were out the start line. Their names were called Rusty Radar.

Mm-hmm. Cracker in her. Cracker Rourer. Cracker Rourer. Yes.

Cracker Rourer. Cracker Rourer. Cracker Rourer. Boss house. Super slinker.

Cracker Rourer. And dunkers on her. And then super slinker skid it off the side with Rusty Radar. Was in first.

Until he broke his radar. Uh-oh. Oh.

“That's why you can't let your radar get rusted.”

Yeah. Maintenance. He stopped. Then Cracker Rourer. Cracker Rourer.

Cracker Rourer. Cracker Rourer. Mom to die here. And that he got repaired. And skid it into dunkers on her.

And boss house. One the race. Impressive.

I love. Instead of the end, there's no the end. It's just impressive. Impressive.

And case you're wondering.

I love this story. It's like so cinematic. I can see all the cars. Mm-hmm. Racing.

It's I love a race story. Yeah. Uh-oh. I mean obviously the names. Cracker Rourer.

Cracker Rourer. Cracker Rourer. Cracker Rourer. Cracker Rourer. Boss house.

No. It's BAS. House. Boss house. Super slinker.

And dunkers on her. Yeah. What's your favorite of those? Oh, dunkers on her. Really?

Oh, yeah. I'm a cracker Rourer. I mean. Two very different reasons. Yeah.

That's true. It's great because of how hard it is to say. Dunkers on her is great because of how easy it is to say. That's true. That's very, very fun.

Mm-hmm. Now what is impressive? What do you think? No. I just like.

Impressive. Impressive. Uh-huh. Super slinker.

“Now what do you see when you hear the word "super slinker"?”

A slinky. On wheels. Or just like it moves like a slinky. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like a slinky that's on both ends. And as it revs up, it just jiggles. And then it backs up a little bit. Amazing.

What an image. Mm-hmm. I mean, now that we've opened the door to these not being necessarily cars, do you think what do you think cracker Rourer is? Uh, it's somebody who's trying to talk while eating a lot of crackers.

Okay. Okay. Okay. And all teams. And zonger dunker.

Uh, dunker zonger. Sorry. Dunker zonger. I picture a donkey dressed as a clown. Just going.

Oh. Interesting. Sammy. Thank you so much for giving us the us the word cracker Rourer. Mm-hmm.

And for writing this incredible story. Peter, would you read the next one?

“I would love to leave this next story comes to us from a nine year old from California”

named Ellen. The thing I lost. Once there was a man named Bobby.

He almost never loses things.

One day, he lost his cat. Bobby searched everywhere, but couldn't find his cat. So he finally decided to retrace his steps. Smart. But he had to get his cat back in 30 minutes.

Four minutes later. Hmm. Bobby was on the beach. He walked for a while and then bumped into a very sunburned man. Bobby said, have you seen my cat?

The man said, no, have you seen my sunscreen? No. Sorry, said, Bobby and walked away six minutes later. Then Bobby was in France. He climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower and met a woman.

Hi, have you seen my cat? No, have you seen my sunglasses? Asked the woman? No, sorry, Bobby said back. Then climbed back down the Eiffel Tower.

Ten minutes later. Bobby was in a random place in Texas. How did their human set a random cowboy? Hi, said Bobby back. Are you looking for, are you looking for your cat?

Said the random cowboy? Yeah, how did you know, ass, Bobby? I can read minds. Anyways, check in your pocket. Said the random cowboy.

Okay, said Bobby. He checked his pocket. Ha ha, yelled, Bobby. Here it is. My camera arm toaster.

I still have ten minutes left so I better get going. Thanks, random cowboy. Seven minutes later. Then Bobby was home. He could finally set up his camera arm toaster.

The end. This story has one of the greatest reveals I've ever seen in a story. There's like no idea it's coming. But for those of you who couldn't figure it out, cat stands for CAT camera arm toaster. I didn't get it.

You didn't get that. That's cat.

I thought the joke was, is that he always forgets things.

He never loses things, but in the end he's forgetful. He forgets what he's looking for. No, he's looking for his camera arm toaster, his cat. Alan, you're so much smarter than I am. It's genius.

“Is there significance to the fact that everybody, like thematically, the fact that everybody he needs is also missing something?”

Do we all move through the world sort of missing something? There seems to be also a theme of the sun. At least for through the first person of sunburn, the second person needs their sunglasses. And although the cowboy, they ride into the sunset. Cowboys, do you do that?

Yeah. Yeah. There is a lot of sun in Texas. And so I don't know if this was intended, but I was like, what does that mean? What does that theme?

I don't know.

You're very welcome. Thank you very much. I'm great at that.

Ellen, fantastic story, my friend.

Thank you so much for sending it in. Okay.

“Here's our final story from Henry, a six year old in Rhode Island.”

Here is popcorn, robot egg. This is so good. One morning, a farmer checks on his chicken eggs. He finds that one of them is a robot egg. The egg opens and inside is a diamond crystal.

The egg shell transforms around at the diamond and becomes a human robot. And the diamond becomes his heart. Wow. The robot man shoots golden tickets out of himself because he's also a ticket making factory. People start to find the tickets on the ground.

They show them to the news and learn the ticket gets them a free trip to Las Vegas. But the tickets are magic and turn the people who found them into robots too. Uh-oh. Once they get to Las Vegas, they start covering the city in popcorn. The human light bulb, who got his powers in a lightning storm created by another superhero lightning strike.

Two hundred years ago. Wow. Showed up.

“He created Thunder Cloud that zapped the robots bearing the city and turned them back into humans.”

He zapped the popcorn to clean the city. He also zapped the robot man that came from the egg who fell apart. His diamond crystal heart was put in the museum and the parts of the robot were used to make new robots. The new robots, along with a farmer, helped repair the city and protect it from then on. Everyone lived happily ever after the end.

Whoa. Lady, just the image, the imagery, at the very beginning, when a farmer's like, "Good morning chickens. There's suddenly an egg." And it goes, "Yee!" Diamond.

And then it goes, "Reforms into a person with the, I imagine the diamond heart still sort of sparkling through its chest." Is beautiful. Really, really well done by Henry. The descriptive language that Henry's using is so good.

You know, this is like one of these stories that we get where there's like a million crazy details.

“And sometimes those stories don't always hang together.”

But somehow this one is so skillfully written by Henry that I managed to, like the details don't feel superfluous at all. Yes. It feels really cohesive, really justified the backstory of the human light bulb. Feels like I really understand where this superhero came from.

There's a history of superheroes in this world. Right. The origin of the Las Vegas disaster. I was like, perfectly, we get there. It's not just like Las Vegas was covered in popcorn.

It's like, here we're going to start at the beginning. And it's super efficient in the way that they give all these back stories to the event, to the characters. It's just beautifully done. And it feels right that a diamond-hearted evil robot would go to Las Vegas.

And so the robot is like, I shall use the media to get the word out. And make a spectacle of it. And then take it to the most spectacular city in the country, Las Vegas. My diamond heart demands. And I show the most spectacular location for my things.

And I will be very you in the most spectacular treat. There is popcorn. Incredible. Really fantastic story Henry. Thank you for sending it in to read all of today's Story Love Stories.

Just head to storypyrids.com. And guess what, grownups, you can find an even longer version of today's Story Love on YouTube. And grownup, Story Love isn't just the name of a segment on our show.

It's also the name of our incredible corporate volunteer program to find out more about Story Love.

Our digital creative writing program Story Quest. Or our non-profit arm storypyrids change makers. Check out the show notes for links. That's it for today's episode. Thanks to today's authors, Dylan and Wilder, and guess what, it is not too late to send us your stories.

We respond to every single story we receive. grownups, your link to submit stories is in the show notes for today's episode. We'll be back next week with another brand new episode until then, stay creative and stay kind. Bye!

The Storypyrids podcast is a production of Storypyrids Studios.

This episode was produced by Isabella Ricchio, Sam Bear, Peter McNerny,

“Andrew Miller, Lee Overtrey, and Brittany Stahl.”

Recording sound design and mixing by Sam Bear at the relic room in New York City. Additional production by Brett Tuben, theme song by Bobby Lord, musical scoring by Ericerson and Jack Mitchell. Our head writer is Peter McNerny. Staff writers are megnoneal and Alexis Simpson and contributing writing by Lee Overtrey.

Episode Artwork by Camilla Franklin.

Special guest, Jeff Hiller and Annesolow. This episode features performances by Chris Ferry, Ericerson, Peter McNerny,

“Joshua Nasser, Megnoneal, Lee Overtrey, Sasha Reckler, Rachel Winitsky,”

and Niminy Ware. The Grouchy Friends was written and produced by Ericerson. Dear nugget, hi, it's Peter, how are you? I'm fine.

Things on the ship have been pretty much the same lately.

Rolo did invent a new kind of bean. No one is willing to try it yet. Set me, though. I think it tastes like a normal bean. I don't get what the big deal is.

Well, that's it, I guess. I miss you, nugget. I hope you're doing well.

“Even though you're back to being a regular, evil, robot story pirate.”

Your friend. Peter. Oh, hey, Peter. Oh. Hey, Lee.

Whatcha, whatcha doing? Just writing a letter to a friend. Cool. I'm about to head to the ship post office. Want me to mail it for you?

No, that's okay. I'll just put it in this pile with the others. Well, that's a huge pile of unmailed letters. It sure is. Um, hey, I found some old beef jerky under one of the car seats.

You want it? Do I want old beef jerky? Yes, I do. This is the best I ever. Oh, it's really old.

What was I doing?