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The Issue
Chatterbox: Down to Earth
The Issue
The Issue
A girl steps up. She quietly sees a package, lying on the ground, wrapped in a dead AE's hand.
It was one of the lost CBer's CAPTCHAEs. She recognizes it and tears fall down her cheeks, but freeze and stay there.
She gently took it. Small, wrapped in newspaper. The headline was a headline begging peace. She had known the newsie who sold these papes...and prayed that the newsie was still alive.
A thought came to her mind, and she quietly picked up the box, removing layers of newspaper that had been wound around it, getting into a layer of lined paper wound around it, and then to what the box really was.
She gasped. A soapbox. Held together by Leeli's tape, and Abi's kindness. Mei's bravery, Ronan's wit, Owlgirl and Riddler's Hamilton music.
It was the original. Crushed, but held together just barely.
She bit her lip. This would hurt. She sat down, in the middle of a wasteland of dirt and rocks, and remembered she had no Word Processor. She found a pen in the dead CAPTCHAE's pocket, bit her lip, and wrote.
"On the Issue." She wrote, using pen to write on the soapbox itself, choosing something more indestructible and symbolic than printer paper.
"I am like the icy storm around us. When I anger, the storm turns wicked, cold, frostbite roaming the world like a beast in the woods." She wrote, biting her lip.
"When I'm happy, it transforms into a snow day. Children build snowmen, and everyone is happy, and Christmas is about."
She took a deep breath. "Frostbite is here, roaming like a monster." She wrote on the soapbox.
"Even when the soapbox broke, strife wouldn't end. Now it's a clock to tell when something is wrong." The girl wrote frantically.
"When a clock says '10 AM', it's 10 AM. It is our way of telling time. So it is with the soapbox and danger." The girl whispered, writing more quickly now, hearing cannons and gunshots, and the clashing of steel and iron, the cracks of whips.
"When it's broken, we have peace. It comes alive when we need it the most." The girl wrote, hearing the violence creeping closer to her.
"Right now I'm gazing at the soapbox in a trench, surrounded by barbed wire, rough pebbles, gravel, and stone, and the weapons of war." She wrote.
"Something that's used to predict and prevent war should not be in such a horrible place, like gold among filthy rags, nets, and dirt." She heard the noises of war get closer, and wrote more quickly.
"You're all beautiful, like this soapbox. So, please, just....STOP! I know you feel insecure. So do I! But, let's DROP IT! We could just...coexist. Try our hardest. Move on," the girl whispered.
"We can just accept that we don't agree with each other," the girl wrote.
The girl felt a snowflake fall from the sky.
"Please don't leave on us. If you need a break, that's okay...." It's best if we just end the argument on a good note, with peaceful threads and thoughts." The tear froze as she surveyed her work, writing in ink on the soapbox.
"As much as I would like to remain anonymous, you may have my signature," she wrote, whispering softly as she wrote.
"Icy," she wrote. Snowflakes tumbled from the sky, and for once it wasn't an evil blizzard. "Let's have a snow day," she whispered as she left through the blizzard to join her fellow doves.
Her ice could be used to destroy or to heal. And even if she didn't want to stay because of her broken heart and mind, that would destroy. Even if she wanted to leave, she had to stay to help. To heal.
Her hands were on the soapbox, with it's front covered in writing. It was time to stand for her doves.
submitted by A girl, age Grieving, My name is revealed later
(December 19, 2016 - 10:43 am)
(December 19, 2016 - 10:43 am)
Cho knew she had to leave when she saw the ashes of her home on Inkwell. She had tried to fight. And she had almost died from it.
She wanted to stay, to help her homeland. But it was burnt beyond the repair she could do with her own hands. She would be found again elsewhere.
And she would have to fight again. But she would let her AEs live as long as they could, untarnished by war. They were her sons and daughters.
Would she let them die so that she could live for a few days longer? No. She watched sadly as Thorn swept Ms. Elton away to a new life.
As Elsa died a week later of a broken heart. But Pinkie was here, now. She was the last. Sloth had disappeared at the first hints of war.
And now it was just Pinkie and Cho. Cho and Pinkie. That's the way it was.
Words had so much meaning. Cho shook her head and clung to Pinkie. Then the gunshots rang out.
And all was silent in her former home.
(December 19, 2016 - 6:32 pm)
Icy, this is beautiful! I agree. Let's make this a snow day. :-) O h my goodness! Nugget says roar! His second word today! He roars in agreement. ;-)
(December 19, 2016 - 6:33 pm)
(December 20, 2016 - 8:58 am)
Pepper Star felt like crying. Her newfound friends were all flying away like the geese that often flew past her town. Feelings and Threads had turned cold like the to snowdays she had already gotten. But in her heart, she new it was not her time to leave. Not yet. She would help rebuild. And together, the remaining members of the CB would move on. They would stack themselves stronger than before. For nothing, nothing, could ever compare to what she would leave behind. Or the CBer's hope.
And so, the CBers began to move on. The used Hamilton quotes, Superglue, bravery, and art to make a small and tedious fortress of milk cartons, old Cricket magazines, hope, new threads, dreams and tissue boxes. And soon, with a little hope, their fortress grew. New people came and went. But most of all, they remembered,
There will always be light at the end of the tunnel, if you only have the courage to look for it.
(December 20, 2016 - 4:22 pm)
Inktail stood in the ruins and rubble of Chatterbox City. She couldn't understand the destruction and loss she had missed. Other survivors roamed the ruins, but Inktail bade them no mind. The tears began to roll down her cheeks, slowly coursing a path down the sea of gray. The heavens opened up as the snow began to fall, catching in the cats fur and tears. Inktail sniffed and began to whisper quietly.
"Please, let us all live in harmony from now on. Don't leave-you, you're all like a big family to me...it hurts me, deep down when you leave. I try so hard to be supportive of your descion, but it cuts me further and further everytime." The cat smiled sadly.
"And now, I've been cleaved in two. I can't take it anymore. Please, stop..." Inktail sat down, curling her tail around her. Nothing moved.
(December 20, 2016 - 4:38 pm)
In the ruined penthouse in Inkwell, the entire, unaltered, Gared Co. celebrated a victory. It was absolute victory, with no incursions on the freedoms of CBers.
(December 20, 2016 - 8:57 pm)
Admins, isn't this rude to some people's beliefs?!
No. We don't see a difference between Gared's addition to this narrative and the original narrative. ~Admin
(December 21, 2016 - 9:40 am)
A girl looked around at the ruins, and wiped a tear from her eye. She had to be strong, had to act like she was fine, when really, her world was falling apart.
Her AEs, her two beautiful creations, unique, and hers, could no longer remain. Ms. Elton at least, could be happy. But Ruby, feisty, annoying Ruby, who never had a crush in her to short life, would have to go.
As the girl gathered her thoughts, her AE ran to her, sword drawn, clothes torn, ready to fight, and to die. Mirax turned carefully to face her, drew her phasor, and fired one blast. Her weapon had been set on stun, but it still felt like she was betraying a sacred trust.
She carried Ruby to a small, blue shed, battered but intact, even amidst the war. She thought carefully of the room she wanted, and drew an ornate silver key from her pocket. She turned it, and carried her stunned AE inside. Three stasis chambers, and a deactivated R2 unit were in a corner of the large room she entered. One chamber was already occupied, an orange haired girl in patchwork clothing resting inside. Two were empty, and she gently laid Ruby into one of them. Mirax fixed her AEs red hair so it framed her face, and folded Ruby's hands. Then she stepped back, activated the stasis pod, and sent her AE into a long dreamless sleep.
"Goodbye Ruby. I hardly knew thee." The girl sank to the floor, leaning her back against the stasis chamber, and cried. Maybe someday the time would be right for Rubes to return to the CB, but for the time being, her AE would have to sleep.
(December 21, 2016 - 1:38 pm)
Rubyyyyyyy!!! Get rid of me, Pepper Star.
Jammira.....
But.... we lost Ruby
Jammira.
Ruby... Won't Jammi understand?
Yeah, but also no. You aren't dying.
I hate you Pepper Star. Leave me alone! Let me go on myself. I'll write to Jammi..
Fine. Stay safe, Cilantro.
*Turns, crying, clothes covered in ashes mixed with a tiny bit of Ruby's blood*
Cilantro!!
*Walks off, deep into the forest*
(December 21, 2016 - 3:58 pm)