And here. We. Go.

-----

12/31/2022
Mendocino, California
Part 1

The group of CBers stood outside the large, grand-looking house. There was a nip in the air; sea breeze came from the edge of the cliff. The buses that had brought them there were parked on a strip of gravel in the yard, which consisted of grass and trees. A couple of them shivered.
Suddenly the doors opened as if of their own accord. Luna Silvermoon was the first to go into the house; the others followed. Inside, sitting at a small, decorative table, was a person. She had long auburn hair and was wearing a gray dress with shoes between silver and clear. There was a pleasant expression on her face and she was holding a leather-covered book emblazoned with the number 23.
"Hello, my CBers," she said. "I'm Ella Leith, and I'll be your host for this overnight. There is a dining hall, game room, library, music room, and sociability room on this floor; on the second floor are your rooms, which you can pick. If you can please just come up to me and see if the form in the book matches you, then that would be magnificent and I'll let you loose. I'll say your names out loud for identification purposes, but not the rest of the form. First?" Amarillis stepped up to the table and nodded at the first page of the book. Artemis noticed the way Ella Leith rubbed a specific spot on the table when each CBer looked up and how there was a bellpull, of all things, hanging down from the ceiling. Meanwhile, Ella Leith was reciting all the names: "Amarillis, Poinsettia, WiLdSoNg, Lazuli, Artemis, Luna Silvermoon, and Reuby Moonnight." The CBers wandered past the large staircase that doubtlessly led to the second floor and into the dining hall. It was as if it had been transplanted straight from a medieval castle: The windows were tall and curved, the floor was checkered black and white, and there was one table with seven place settings in the middle. Other doors led off of the hall. They started eating their food, which was somehow each their favorite thing to eat. Everyone was silent. Then, one by one, they pushed their plates back and watched as desserts rose from the very table itself.There were certainly tricks in this place, thought WiLdSoNg. Certainly tricks indeed. 

After the meal, Poinsettia and Luna Silvermoon started talking, and one by one they all went off into the other rooms. One of the doors was locked and wouldn't open; the others led to the game room, the music room, the library, and the "sociability room", which turned out to be a lot of furniture engineered for sitting and some houseplants. Artemis wandered off to the library, where there were huge floor-to-ceiling bookshelves full of books, both fiction and nonfiction, organized by author's last name. She pulled the huge brass ladder to get a copy of her favorite and had climbed all the way up when suddenly she realized that there were multiple copies of each book. In fact, no book was alone--there was more to here than was on the surface, that was very much something. 

At ten PM, they were told to go to their rooms by Ella Leith. They went up the stairs and found rooms that they liked, all taking the ones with the sea view. The end of the year is a time wherein tomorrow, next year, and on this
occasion next week, blend together so that time, the most substantial
thing, is a whirlwind. As they fell asleep, each one was wondering what would happen the next day.

1/1/2023
Mendocino, California
Part 2

"Rise and shine!"
This was the first thing that Reuby Moonnight heard in the morning. She had just woken up and was contemplating going back to bed.
"It's seven AM," she said, looking at the bedside clock. She sat up.
"Exactly, and breakfast is on the table, and Ella Leith wants us to be outside on the clifftop at 7:30 so she can make a speech about New Year's." The speaker was Amarillis, talking in an extremely cheery voice. "So hurry!"
"Why are you so happy?" Reuby could not imagine the answer.
"Why are you not?" Amarillis turned on her heel, and Reuby got dressed. She and her pet wolf left the room for the dining hall, where breakfast was set out. She helped herself to a croissant. Pointsettia and Luna Silvermoon were talking again, and so were WiLdSoNg and Artemis. Amarillis had turned the cold shoulder, so Reuby did not make small talk and threw a piece of bacon to her wolf.
After they had eaten, the CBers lingered in the entrance hall, not knowing how to get outside. Then Artemis murmured something and pulled on the rope hanging down from the ceiling. The doors opened. They filed outside and then sat down on benches facing the sea, which was a brilliant color at the meeting of blue and green. Reuby's wolf went off and scratched one of the redwood trees. Ella Leith came out, dressed in another dress, this one brown. Once again, all neutrals, Lazuli thought. Then Ella Leith said,
"For the new year, we will each make an intention. Mine is to be more efficient with my work. You will write it on a piece of paper, whose contents you can share if you want, and then pick up a rock and wrap the paper around the rock. Keep the rock and think about it, and maybe achieve it. Go!"
She passed around a tray of pieces of paper, which they all took. They wrote down their intentions and found pebbles to wrap them around while Ella Leith talked about New Year's.
"The passage of time is more than it seems. Minutes and meters are the ways we try to bridle the universe, the ways us humans attempt to establish control. Will we ever? No. But can we try? Yes. Must we coexist with the earth, animals, and plants? Definitely."
Then a woman in a labcoat with grease stains all over it came over. She tucked a pair of glasses into the pocket and said,
"Ella, we may have the teensiest little problem."

Part 3
San Francisco, California
1/1/2023

"Oh gosh Charlie, what now?" Ella Leith said.
"Well, most of the buses are down so we'll only have one," said Charlie, completely calmly.
"Okay." Ella Leith stared at the sea for a second and then looked back at the CBers. "This is what we'll do. I'll drive you as far as the San Francisco ferry building, because I can't stand the traffic that getting to the airport will take. From there there are myriad transit opportunities to get you back to where you started. I can get a couple of the brochures and some money for you and then we'll be off, so grab your bags." The CBers went back inside the house and got their stuff, then stood in front of the gravel parking lot. Seven tall black buses were there. Ella Leith then came with a small sack.
"Ok. Lazuli, if you don't mind, I'll designate you as the leader of the effort, which won't be much but still. In here are a couple of transit brochures and the Emergency Visa Card, which you cannot use for frivolous purposes otherwise I'll call your parents and complain. Is that OK?" she said.
"Um." Lazuli peered into the sack. There was a manila envelope, a wallet, and a package of trail mix inside. "It is." 

The drive took about four hours, mostly a long stretch along US 101, with beautiful scenery and not-so-beautiful traffic jams along the way. The CBers enjoyed the bus, which was very comfortable and had stacks of books on the luggage racks. Then they arrived and Ella Leith ushered them out and towards the ferry building. There was a sort of plaza in the middle of the road, where they sat on benches. Lazuli looked in the envelope and found a map.
"Okay, it says that here if we go this way--" she pointed in a sort of offhand direction along Market Street--"we'll get to the train stop, which we can use to go to the airport."
"How are we going to get flights?" WiLdSoNg asked.
"Maybe we'll get them for tomorrow and stay the night somewhere," said Lazuli, who was hoping not to have to come up with a solution to every problem.
"Still--train?" Poinsettia offered. They walked down the Embarcadero and turned corners where the map indicated so, and then arrived at the escalators to the train station. It was a modest, underground thing, with a metro on one level and the Bay Area Rail Transit, which was the thing they were supposed to take, on another. Lazuli pointed to the map.
"See, from here we get on the Yellow or Red lines and go off to the SFO stop, wherever that is," she said, trying to be confident.
"Okay," said Poinsettia. Then someone got off the escalators and started running towards the trains. Lazuli had seen her face before; she was tall, with long auburn hair up in a ponytail, wearing a gray long-sleeved t-shirt, a black skirt, and light-brown leggings--all neutrals. The person was actually running towards the Antioch platform, and somehow a letter dropped out of her bag.
"Um? You dropped something?" Amarillis said, picking up the letter, but the person didn't hear. A train pulled up like a ten-car beast and the person disappeared onto it.
"Okay," said Amarillis. The envelope wasn't sealed and she thought that maybe she could open it. She did. Inside were printouts of seven Bay Area Rail Transit tickets to Richmond, and then seven more for Capitol Corridor to Sacramento.
"Seven," said WiLdSoNg. "There are seven of us, too--maybe the person dropped it on purpose." To everyone else's surprise, Lazuli nodded.
"Yeah," she said. "I think that the person was Ella Leith." 

Part 4

1/1/2023

Various places, California

At first, no one agreed with Lazuli.
"The clothes and the hair, sure," said Amarillis. "But there are a bunch of people who look like her."
"Yeah, I know," said Lazuli. "Still, like, the..."
"Manner?" Artemis suggested. "The way she ran seemed more scripted than urgent."
"Look," said Reuby. "Even if it was Ella Leith, why should we trust the train tickets?"
"Can I see them?" WiLdSoNg asked. Lazuli handed them over and WiLdSoNg looked through them. "It was probably meant for us," she said. "Look--all fourteen are made out for Youth and not a single one says Adult."
This changed everyone's mind.
"Anyway, let's go," said Amarillis, and so they did. It took ages to get to Richmond and even longer to get to Sacramento--by the time they got there it was lunchtime. They ate at a deli in the station, courtesy of the emergency Visa card, and then realized they had come to an end.
"We don't know what's going on," said Lazuli. "Even if there is a trail."
"Okay," said Poinsettia. "Should we try to find the airport or something? Maybe the airport here has better prices and that's why Ella Leith wants us here because she's the owner of the emergency Visa card."
"True," said Lazuli, stuffing the wallet into her pocket. "Let's see if there's a bus or something to the airport." They got up and went outside. The myriad of bus signs started to confuse them, and then someone ran up and grabbed the wallet that Ella Leith had given Lazuli.
"Hey!" she yelled. "Stop, thief!" They all chased the pickpocket, who was running into the station. They cornered the person, who was tallish and wearing jeans, by the tracks and then the person, oddly, gave over the wallet.
"Thanks," said Poinsettia, who opened it. "There's a business card here--" She took it out. It was turquoise with writing in gold: 

Rides
401.5 Chinatown Mall
Sacramento, California
Low fares to get a ride to the stunning California coast of Mendocino County.

"Huh," said Amarillis. "Mendocino County? That could be--"
"Turquoise Point!" they all finished.

----------------

In case anyone would like to guess who I actually am, here's a hint leading to my CB name: 

I can breathe fire but swim in the sea, can fly through the air or walk between trees.

Part 5
Sacramento, California
1/1/2023

The first obstacle was finding 401.5 Chinatown Mall. 401 alone was the train station, but as for 401 and a half, there were no posted signs or anything helpful. 
"There's a car here with a Rides bumper sticker," Artemis suggested.
"Okay," said Lazuli. "Let's get in." They went over to the driver's side window of the car, which was an Oddysey van and had seven seats available. The eighth seat, the one they came up to, had a driver in it.
"Hi," said Lazuli. "Are you with Rides?" She showed the driver the business card.
"Yep," said the driver, who was a middle-aged man sitting in the car eating noodles from a container. "Do you want to go? One route only."
"Uh-huh," said Lazuli. "Here's the credit card." Lazuli handed him the emergency Visa card.
"Free," said the driver. "I'll open the back for you." Maybe Lazuli was imagining it, but had he lingered a little on the ELLA LEITH printed on the card?

Lazuli got into the front beside the driver. Amarillis, Reuby Moonnight, and WiLdSoNg were in the back row of three seats, and then Poinsettia, Luna Silvermoon, and Artemis got in the front row of seats behind Lazuli and the person driving the car.
Reuby was in the middle of the back row and had to dig around in the seats to find her buckle.
"Stop elbowing me!" Amarillis complained.
"Stop screaming at me!" Reuby copied, grabbing the buckle and putting her seatbelt in.
"Like you're just whispering quietly in my ear," Amarillis shot back sarcastically.
"Um, people," said WiLdSoNg. "Is there some sort of 'battle of the snarks' going on here?"
"Not scheduled," said Reuby.
"How long have you disliked each other?" WiLdSoNg questioned.
"Since she woke me up this morning," said Reuby.
"Okay, now shush, because it's not very fun hearing people snip at each other," said WiLdSoNg. The drive got very long and dull, and to be even more annoying it was now dark, so that no one could look at the scenery. Finally the driver pulled up at their destination and let them out. A bonfire was burning somewhere and there was a gravel driveway, plus it was a grand-looking house on a cliff--could it be Turquoise Point? They all got out of the van, taking their stuff from the back. Artemis looked back to see that the driver had not gone back to Sacramento or wherever, but was actually getting out of the car...Then her attention was taken up by something else: Ella Leith in front of the firepit.
"Okay, yes, you're going to blame me for the wild-goose-chase," she said, holding up her hands. "But I'll give a brief explanation: Turquoise Point is the home of the Winged Book Society, which brings books across the world to people who need them. It's a very good mission, but there are only three people with it. Please meet my coworkers, Charlotte Dagget and Wilmington Blake." The woman in the labcoat, who was sitting by the firepit, raised a hand, and the driver of the car suddenly came to the firepit.
"Charlie," said Charlotte Dagget, "and Will. Oh, and in case you're wondering, he was the one who pickpocketed you as well, and Ella did drop the tickets in that train station."
"Anyways," said Ella Leith, "the question is, will you join us?"
---------------
It's up to you now--post as soon as you can with you/your character's answer and I'll post in the finish on New Year's Eve.

For those who haven't responded, please do! I tried to post the question early, but I guess it wasn't early enough.