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It's night. You'r
Chatterbox: Pudding's Place
It's night. You'r
It's night. You're sitting in your bed, staring out the window, searching for something lost. But you can't remember what it is, or was. All you know is that it's out there...it's important...and it was once yours.
Perhaps you never used it, perhaps you did--once, maybe twice. Or more. But for some strange reason, you can't remember if you did or didn't. Or what effect it had on you. Or...where it is now.
As you awoke from a particularly bland and boring dream, the memory that you were missing this...thing slid into your head. As you sat in a haze between asleep and awake, you stared outside, scouring the landscape that, for one fleeting moment, was no longer the familiar world you saw every day.
So here you are, staring outside, searching.
And then you finish waking up.
And here you are, trying to remember what you were just doing.
Hm, you think, smacking your dry lips. The covers rustle as you reach for your water glass, which sits by your lamp on your nightstand like it does every night. That's really wierd...I can't remember my dream. It seemed important--almost real. Your hand meets cold glass and you close your fingers around it. You bring it to your lips for a satisfying sip, but you realize that it's empty.
"Darn," you whisper. You'll have to get out of bed to fill it up--but it's really cold, and you don't have socks on.
Eh, it's no big deal. You'll fill it up.
Throwing the covers to the side, you haul yourself out of bed. With every footstep towards the kitchen all memory of strange dreams and searches leaves you, and by the time you return to your comfy nest of blankets with your full cup of water, the night seems almost normal. That is, until you glance outside the window.
Something moves across the front of the moon, which is full and shines right through the middle of your window, lighting up your comforter. What could it have been? It seemed familiar...And perhaps it's the fact that you're still half asleep, half awake that you can sense it, but a powerful force beats from it. Calling you. Presenting opportunities that you absolutely cannot miss.
Without any hesitation you get back out of bed, but before you can even leave your bedroom you notice a puddle of water near your nightstand.
So that's where all my water went, you realize. I must've knocked it over. Upon closer inspection you realize that there's writing on the carpet, glowing faintly yellow from under the patch of wetness.
The writing is so interesting you don't even realize how strange it is that the puddle isn't soaking into the carpet, or wonder how the words got there. In fact, the words don't even seem scary to you, despite their suspicious nature.
Hello, person! You are one of the lucky few CBers to be chosen to go on a nice, relaxing, beautiful vacation over Lake Lelillo! (Lay-LIH-loh) If you do indeed come, and we absolutely hope you do decide to, you will be given a free getaway from work, school, and empty water glasses! Here at Lake Lelillo, you will have all-day access to the lake itself, the fun attractions, the ice cream stands, the hot dog stands, the hamburger stands, the steak stands, the spagghetti stands, and any other stand marked with a silver star. (Which is all of them, so please don't forget!) Your rooms will be huge and most of them will even overlook the lake! They will of course be inside our one and only Luxury Lake House, which you will live in until your stay comes to a close. Remember this is all completely free, free free! Please pack your things, bring an AE and/or CAPTCHA if you'd like, and wait with them by the nearest stream at sunrise tomorrow morning. As we always say: All inlets lead to Lelillo!
~Your Soon-to-be Chaperones,
Cassy and Lily of Lake Lelillo
How you read all that small print was beyond you. Will you go? It certainly seems relaxing enough. The choice is yours to make.
-------------------------
I'll tell you all when the spots are closed, so join while you still can!
Please note that this is my second ski lodge, and it's kind of linked to my first. In a sense, it's the next part. I don't know if I should call it a part two, or what, but some things might reference the first ski lodge. Don't worry--I'm not going to make things super confusing. I'll explain things as I go--and I really need new CBers to join in. But I also need some CBers from my previous ski lodge to come. ('Course, they don't have to join if they don't want to; I'll understand.)
Here's another clue (if you didn't catch the others...) for the CBers who were in my first ski lodge, or read it, and wanted to be in this one:
What do you get when you cross a scorpion and a sloth?
Hehe, my alias isn't going to last the day. :D
submitted by Your Chaperones, Cassy and Lily
(January 1, 2017 - 11:51 am)
(January 1, 2017 - 11:51 am)
Toptop!!
(September 28, 2018 - 7:39 pm)
(September 28, 2018 - 7:56 pm)
(September 28, 2018 - 9:07 pm)
(October 3, 2018 - 9:04 am)
Top
(October 9, 2018 - 12:39 pm)
Toppity top top top!!!
Please keep going-I love reading what you come up with!!!
(October 10, 2018 - 2:15 pm)
tOPToPTOptOPToPTOp
Words that can be made with t, o, p, and s:
tops
top
pots
pot
opts
opt
spot
stop
(October 11, 2018 - 1:07 pm)
(October 13, 2018 - 8:39 am)
(October 18, 2018 - 1:39 pm)
NudgeTopTopTipTopnudgenudgeTOP!
Elli says webb
Yes, we're on the web
(October 19, 2018 - 3:09 pm)
Day Twelve: Part One
It was a bright, hot, sunny, scorching, humid, stagnant, summery, boiling, burning, sizzling, baking, clear, cloudless morning on that twelfth day of the CBers’ stay. It would be a day to remember.
All the CBers awoke feeling slightly bleary. They’d slept well last night—save for Winter Lilac—and needed a while to perk up. For a long time before breakfast no one really spoke to each other. They were feeling strangely reserved today. Maybe it’s because they were all caught up in their own thoughts.
Moonfrost wasn’t sure if she wanted to continue keeping the Mystery a secret anymore.
Booksy was *this* close to telling Moonfrost what she knew.
Brooklyn Newsie was trying to figure out if Booksy also knew about the Mystery.
Joan was trying to make sure everyone stayed away from the mystery of the Mystery.
Jayfeather was watching everything with an unworried eye.
Winter Lilac was content to keep to herself.
The murderer was doing what it normally did in the mornings—drink coffee and eat breakfast.
Naturally, this disjointed river of thoughts could not lead anywhere but trouble...
It all started after breakfast, when the CBers were feeling more awake. They joined up in the sitting room next to the dining room and were having quiet conversations with one another when Booksy sat down next to Moonfrost, who was helping herself to another doughnut.
“Hey,” Booksy said.
“Hey,” replied Moonfrost. “What’s up?”
Booksy looked nervous. “Oh, um, not much.” She opened her mouth, closed it promptly thereafter, nodded awkwardly, and left. Moonfrost shrugged and turned hesitantly back to her doughnut.
The day wore on and the CBers decided to help Lily and Pierre clean the house—it was high time for some vacuuming and sweeping. This enormous task gave the CBers the chance to continue mulling over their thoughts in relative peace and quiet.
By lunchtime, the CBers were thoroughly worn out and ready to eat. They dined on leftovers...and then decided to take a break in a cozy carpeted living room with an electric fireplace, plush couches, paintings on the walls, and a coffee table.
Moonfrost finished her lunch first and entered the living room. She turned on the fake fireplace and some lamps for calm lighting and plopped down on a sofa, crouched in a deeply thoughtful position.
Should she tell everyone about the Mystery? They had a right to know. It was the reason Shadow and Holly and everyone else was dead. Moon didn’t want to keep holding this secret inside anymore.
Moonfrost felt the sofa shift and suddenly, there was Booksy Owly sitting next to her.
“Hey. What was that about earlier?” Moon demanded. “You’ve been acting weird all day.”
“Oh. It’s because...I have to tell you something.” Booksy looked over her shoulder. Seeing no one, she lowered her voice and declared without preamble, “You’re not the only one who knows about the Mystery.”
Moonfrost didn’t move. She told Booksy stiffly, “We’ve all heard of the Mystery. We just don’t know what it is.”
“No. We do. You and me. I’ve talked to Cassy too,” Booksy told Moon quietly.
Now Moonfrost tensed in surprise. “Really?” She turned to Booksy, mouth agape. “You have? She told you? You know?!”
Booksy nodded.
“Did Cassy tell you I know? How--”
Booksy nodded. “She did. I just didn’t know if I should tell you or not—Cassy said to keep it a complete secret.”
“The murderer will...um, you know, if they figure out what we know,” Moonfrost reminded her. “That’s the only reason I haven’t blurted it out by now. But I don’t want to keep keeping this a secret.”
It felt so good to talk to someone about the Mystery. Moon’s insides were being eaten up having to bear this knowledge solo.
“I was just wanting to talk to you about the same thing!” Booksy exclaimed. “Cassy said the Mystery will break if we talk about it, but...I mean, why do we really want it in the first place?”
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly. So do you think we’re the only ones who--”
Moonfrost broke off with a sharp intake of breath as the footfalls of another CBer entered the room.
“Hey,” came the voice of Brooklyn Newsie. “Booksy, is that you?”
“Yeah,” Booksy replied. “And Moonfrost.”
“Hey, you two,” said Brooklyn softly, plopping down next to Booksy. “I was just coming in to talk about the thing you know the thing about Cassy. You don't know it, but I know about what you know about.”
Moon and Booksy looked at one another. “The...Mystery?” Booksy whispered.
Brooklyn’s eyes widened and then she grinned. “Yes. So you know?”
Booksy’s eyebrows knitted. “Yes, but how did you know?”
“I figured you out in the interrogation, Booksy. Moonfrost, I got you a little after.”
Moonfrost’s eyes were wide. “So...three of us know?” This was bizarre. Had she been keeping quiet for nothing all this time? Did everyone know?
“Apparently,” Brooklyn Newsie answered. “But now that we’re all here, why don’t we talk about it.”
“Yes,” Moon blurted out. “Yes, let’s please do. So on the assumption that we all know what the Mystery is, how do you feel about keeping it a secret?”
“Not too great,” Booksy answered. “At the beginning I was all for it based on what Cassy told me, but now that I’ve been able to think about it on my own…”
Moon nodded. “I think we all should know.”
Brooklyn frowned. “But the ski lodge will break if we don’t go along with it. How would you like to be stuck in a broken ski lodge?”
“How would you like to be stuck in a ski lodge in general, like we are right now?” Moonfrost shot back.
“Fair enough,” Brooklyn Newsie said.
They sat in quiet for a little while. It was still hard to talk about the Mystery after all those days of keeping their mouths shut.
“But we can’t just tell everyone, or we’ll be targeted by the murderer,” Booksy reasoned.
Brooklyn Newsie held up a finger. “Ah, about that. I’ve been thinking, and if we all know, the playing board will be even. They’d be targeting all of us, which is what’s already happening.”
Moon’s eyes brightened. “Too true! So we could definitely tell everyone!”
“Or we could wait...” Brooklyn Newsie suggested. She still wasn’t up for breaking Cassy’s trust--or the Mystery.
“Why?”
Unfortunately they had to stop their conversation there due to the entry of the other CBers. Frustrated, the three fell silent as the room slowly filled.
~ ~ ~
And so the Mystery was drawing ever closer to its breaking point. Similarly, the CBers who carried its secret were about to burst. The only problem: No one knew when the explosion would happen.
Lily, now free from the Mystery’s grasp, was able to once more take her rightful position in this ski lodge. She, like Cassy, could again perceive the weaknesses in the Mystery, but unfortunately, they came in the form of dizziness and exhaustion.
Today she was feeling extra exhausted (meaning that deciding to clean the house today was probably not a good decision). She guessed that whichever CBers Cassy had told about the Mystery were thinking VERY HARD about it, all at the same time. It wasn’t something she could control, however, so she didn’t let it worry her too much.
To perk herself up, she continued to clean the house while the CBers ate lunch. When they left the dining room to relax, she busied herself cleaning that.
Now that all the CBers were in the living room, Cinderpelt piped up. “Hey, while we’re taking a break do you guys want to talk about clues again? I brought my notebook.”
“Sure!” Elvina replied. “Mine’s still in the room...Oh well, it doesn’t matter.”
There was a rustle as the CBers who’d brought their notebooks pulled them out of their bags or pockets.
“What exactly did you want to talk about?” Joan asked Cinderpelt curiously, reclining casually in an armchair.
“Oh, I mean, nothing in particular, but it’s just that we haven’t really made much progress lately.”
Jayfeather propped his feet up an ottoman. He’d claimed a chair all for himself, and he lounged in it comfortably. “What about the Mystery?” he asked nonchalantly. “We haven’t talked about that in a while.”
Booksy, Brooklyn, and Moonfrost all glanced at one another.
“Oh yeah,” Autumn sighed. “That. Didn’t we decide we were going to drop that?”
Jayfeather looked around with a gleam in his blue eyes. “I guess so…”
The room was suddenly very silent.
“What do you know?” Cinderpelt blurted abruptly. “I recognize that look.”
Another expression of alarm was shared between Booksy, Brooklyn, and Moonfrost, this one more frantic as if to say, ‘What do we do?’
The Chatterboxers leaned in and Jayfeather soaked up their rapturous attention.
“Well you know, while I was up in that room, I got to thinking about all our questions about the Mystery. And the answer was actually very obvious.”
“Jayfeather…” Moonfrost started, trailing off.
The Alter Ego didn’t hear her. “So, I just have some extra clues to offer. First off, Cassy knew about the Chatterbox. Second, there was something Icy left out in her journal, because it was too dangerous to mention. Third, the...tunnels down underground. Fourth, Lily and Cassy’s secrecy. Fifth, Cassy working with the murderer. Sixth, what Cassy said at the interview. It all adds up, don’t you think?”
He scanned the expressions of the crowd. Jayfeather could tell they were thinking. Some of them, however, were recoiled in absolute shock.
“See it now?” he asked them, mistaking their horror for surprise. “The Mystery is just a description of this ski lodge! Nothing here is…”
Don’t say it, thought the murderer. Please no, please don’t say it…
“...real.”
There was at that moment a horrible wrenching feeling inside the murderer’s gut--like a tiny crack in a glass that you know will only grow larger at the slightest pressure.
Autumn Leaves cocked her head. “Hold up--you’re saying that the Mystery..." Her face fell. "I don’t get it.”
“Lily and Cassy hid the Mystery because it’s not real?” Elvina wondered confusedly.
Jayfeather’s mouth closed and his excitement fell away; he wondered why it wasn’t as clear to them as it was to him.
“No, I mean...the Mystery is just...Think of it as a word. A word to describe how ski lodges work. There’s a murderer. There’s a mystery. There’s us, and then there’s vacation. It’s all staged--it’s not real! And we aren’t really dead if we die!”
The room fell silent. This silence was deeper than anything that had gone on in the mansion before; it sank below even the quiet of a room at night. It was a quiet of tension, of thoughts; it was the calm before the coming storm.
Joan sprang to her feet. “Jayfeather, that’s enough! The thing about the Mystery is that nobody is supposed to know! We have to keep it a secret!”
One raindrop.
“Joan?! YOU know too?” Moonfrost blurted, unable to hold back anymore.
A couple more spatters of rain.
“Moonfrost!” Brooklyn Newsie admonished, but instantly regretted speaking out.
Drop, drop.
Booksy looked around. “Who else knows?” she asked in a low, serious voice.
A pause. And then…
WHOOSH.
Jayfeather stared at them, mouth agape.
“What’s going on?” Autumn Leaves demanded to know.
“Have you been hiding things from us?!” Panda exclaimed.
The fire let out a crackle, growing brighter. Nobody noticed Lily, all cleaning forgotten, standing outside the door frame, listening with a sinking heart.
“Yes,” Moonfrost declared, standing. The golden firelight illuminated her eerily, outlining only half of her body. “I’m sorry to say we have. But I’m tired of keeping secrets. Can we tell them?” Moonfrost looked to Booksy and Brooklyn.
“I think we should,” Booksy Owly said. Brooklyn was more hesitant, but she nodded; it seemed like everyone already knew anyway.
“Wait, but you can’t!” Joan countered, her voice pitched with worry.
“Agreed,” Winter Lilac put in.
“No, tell us!” Elvina begged.
“Yeah--you can’t just say that and then leave us hanging,” Briar agreed.
“Well I mean they technically could,” Hotairballoon pointed out sourly.
“But they won’t...right? It’s important that we don’t hide things from each other. That’s how disasters happen,” Cinderpelt said.
“I’m with Cinderpelt all the way,” Moonfrost said, and with that, she began. “It all started when we began to suspect Cassy of working with the murderer. You asked Pepper Star/Evergreen and I to go talk to her...but we said we couldn’t find her. Well, that was a lie. We did find her, and we were told she was working with the murderer.
“And then came the words. You know the gibberish carvings on the bottom of our bedroom doors? The ones that have been mysteriously painted over? The ones that Icy pointed out? After talking to Cassy I could understand them. Now I realize that they were referencing the Mystery. They’re the same words LilyPad was talking about, before she died.
“After Pepper Star/Evergreen’s death I had to know if Cassy was responsible. So I went to find her, and that was when she told me what she knew about the Mystery.
“She told me that the Mystery is a force that governs ski lodges. Yes, that’s where we are, and yes, it’s why we’re here. Everything that happens here is dictated by the rules of the Mystery. And there are a lot of rules, one of the most important ones being that Chatterboxers aren’t aware that the Mystery exists.
“The Mystery draws us into ski lodges, creates the murderer, and weaves the events. We’re just--I mean, basically we’re like characters in a story, metaphorically speaking,” Moonfrost concluded. “Controlled.”
“And,” Brooklyn Newsie stepped in, standing as Moon sat, “this mansion didn’t really belong to Tom Noodle. Tom Noodle didn’t ever even exist. Lily and Cassy are here to--well, to evaluate the Mystery. It’s breaking for some reason, but they don’t know why. Tom’s full name is Tom Orville Noodle, whose initials are T.O.N.--the same as The Omnipotent Narrator, the creator of the ski lodge.”
Booksy joined in. “Cassy couldn’t tell us anything at the interrogation because giving away those answers isn’t allowed at a ski lodge. If we knew who the murderer was, the point of this would be gone. Lily, Cassy, and the murderer are trying to keep the Mystery intact.”
Joan pursed her lips and decided to give away her tidbit of knowledge. “Remember the caves Lily and Cassy didn’t want us to go in?” Her quiet voice demanded the attention of everyone in the room. “The ones Cassy helped to rig traps in?”
The CBers nodded.
“They didn’t get all of them. I found a cave, once, while we were out looking for Cassy.” Joan felt chills, as if she were back in that dank passage this very moment. “It went pretty deep. And it was really creepy. All over the walls were gibberish words--kind of like the words you were talking about, Moonfrost. But the creepiest part is that my name was on the wall. And your names, too. Once I saw my name I could read all the other names...and when I got to the end of the passage, there was a door leading into the house. I didn’t go in because...well, because Lily was inside.”
Her words left a stunning impact on the CBers--and on Lily, who still listened from the shadows.
“There were words on the door as well. They talked about the Mystery. That’s how I figured it out. But this whole property is obviously linked to the Mystery. I think it might have something to do with how Tom Noodle isn’t real!”
Winter Lilac waited until she was sure Joan was done, and jumped in before the other Chatterboxers did.
“You do realize how many rules you’re already breaking? This moment has never happened ever before in any ski lodge ever, to this date. NO Chatterboxer group has EVER discovered the truth about the Mystery up until now. This is only serving to worsen its condition. We were supposed to stay quiet!”
“I couldn’t anymore,” Moonfrost said.
The murderer wanted to say a lot of things, but couldn’t, because the glass was chipping and chipping away and it hurt and if they could just take a few deep breaths…Gradually the murderer mastered the pain, pushing it away until it was just a minor headache.
The room was quiet for a little longer...and then it exploded in discussion.
“I can’t believe this. We finally figured it out!” Autumn Leaves exclaimed.
“I need a minute to process,” Nighthawk said numbly.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?!” Panda exclaimed.
“So what does this mean?” Briar wondered.
“How did you find a passage I didn’t know about?!” Puck asked Joan.
“Jayfeather, how did you figure it out on your own?” Booksy Owly gasped.
“Where’s the secret cave you found?” Hotairballoon wanted to know.
“Well how did you guys get Cassy to tell you and not me?” Elvina demanded.
“It’s all starting to come together…,” Cinderpelt murmured.
“Shhhh!” Winter Lilac exclaimed. “We don’t want Lily to hear!”
Abruptly the lights flicked on, and the dramatic scene dissipated. The atmosphere of intense firelit detective work faded as quickly as the CBers’ confidence. Lily stepped into the room, eyebrows high, lips drawn down in a frown.
“Oh, I already heard,” she declared.
(October 29, 2018 - 7:43 pm)
*is totally freaking out right now with my mouth wide open and I'm internally screaming/squealing at the same time, even though that internally screaming wants to let itself out*
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OHMYGOSH-THIS IS SO GOOD!!!! I can't even DESCRIBE how good it is-I love your writing Micearenice, and I'm always so amazed at what you come up with!!! I could never write a mystery like this-you are so creative!!!
You make our character personalitys (probably spelled that wrong...) so REAL-I can actually feel myself in the story!!!!
And Puck loves it too! She's hanging onto every word that is written-and she's super excited to know what happens next!!!
Puck: I'm still a little angry that Joan didn't tell me about that secret passage. Hmph. Oh well. There's one thing Joan and I are agreed on though, WE WOULD LIKE TO READ SOME MORE!!!! Please! We're so excited to see what happens next!!!
(October 30, 2018 - 10:14 am)
Ahhh, thank you so much Joan! You made my whole week!! It's awesome that you can feel yourself in the story!!! I was worried I wasn't giving people enough personality.
(November 6, 2018 - 8:39 pm)
TEACH. ME.
PLEASE.
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My main suspect is Autumn Leaves, just by her attitude/process of elimination. Keep up the fabulous writing!
(October 30, 2018 - 4:34 pm)
"Art is a liiieee, NOTHING IS REAL!!"
I'm glad Jay is still alive to drop these truth bombs on us and tear apart the fabric of the Chatterbox as we know it. Thanks a lot, blind cat dude.
(I certainly can't compete with Joan's very enthusiastic praise, but I can see why there was a month's gap between parts now - this is crazy well written, Mice!)
(October 30, 2018 - 8:14 pm)