Chana had decided. Now they just had to address the crowd. Something creepy, preferably. They felt a cold tingle, that had started when they began the Ski Lodge. Chaan knew by now it meant the aloofness and eerie feeling that made the normally loose CBer become a fairly scary Ski Lodge Propieter. They looked through the screen and boomed to the crowd through hidden microphones, "Namaste aur aapka svaagat seva mere Vikshtbageechq Maut." they intoned, then grinned to themself. Pretty good for my first Ski Lodge. Then they saw the blank stares. Crud. Chaan couldn't believe it. They'd left the translator on after they wrote the Hindi words in the intro! They took a deep breath, then tried again. Cold creepiness, help me out here! "Hello and welcome to the Treehouse Maut. Your rooms are on the second floor. I hope you didn't forget anything, because you may not go home. If you know Hindi, you know what will happen. Have a nice day!"

This time, it achieved the desired effect. CBers milled about, uneasily checking Google Translate and looking around nervously. Chaan sent a whisper into one CBer's ear. After much considering, they had decided. Hello, Gende Ka Phool. I suppose you know what this is about. This is a Ski Lodge. You are to be the murderer.

Chaan Aakash lay back, summoned a glass of chai, and smiled.

A rough translation: Hello, and welcome to the Treehouse of Death. I am at your service.

Marigold

And there you go. I take it none of us besided her actually heard the whisper? 

~A rather long reply to HAB and Viola? about nothing in particular, really~

       Chaan winced as they heard the comment. They checked back over the Ski Lodge post. Yup, it was in their perspective. This was going to make it hard to keep things secret. And worse, they’d revealed it was Hindi, so the encoding didn’t work anymore. They peeked back at their computer screen with the Pages doc, confirming that it was writing their thoughts right now. Besides, chai isn’t gross. Well, maybe Pip’s Doughnuts Smoky Robinson is, but have you tried their chai called Heart of Gold? And then my nanima makes the best milk chai... Chaan stopped, though they could have gone on, but honestly, they didn’t want to fill up the whole post with chai, even though chai was good enough for a whole thread. Was that a run-on sentence? It didn’t matter, anyway. And yes, no one but Marigold was supposed to have heard the whisper. Stupid public internet.

Day 1

       The CBers had gotten settled in their rooms, and spent the first night at the Treehouse. Now it was eleven am, and the CBers and AEs had eaten their alu prantas and pancakes, and were running about on the first and third level, enjoying the Ski Lodge, for now. One CBer has found the underwater library, and someone was climbing a tree. Hot Air Balloon and Spyro whizzed down the slide, laughing. It was Day One. Time for the first murder. 

Chaan smiled as they watched the CBer and their purple dragon AE zoom towards the hidden panel. Somewhere, they knew, the murderer had their finger on a red button to make the spikes shoot out of the water ride. HAB and Spyro drew closer, and Chaan grinned, though they weren’t sure if this was speeding it up too much. Some part of them knew that being this happy about the first murder was wrong, but another part, the cold creepy part, wanted to keep on doing it, hurting more and more people. Chaan tried not to think about it too much.

They reached the panel, and... nothing happened. Chaan blinked several times, trying to make sure they had seen it right. The tall, moon-white haired CBer and the short purple dragon barreled off with a splash, not knowing you   how close HAB had come to dying. This isn’t how Ski Lodges are supposed to go! Chaan stared at the happy pair, befuddled. I need to talk to Marigold. 

Somewhere else in the Treehouse, at a similar time, a hand touched a CBer’s neck and poked her hard with their fingernails. The other hand covered their mouth. A voice whispered “Guess the reference,” as Viola looked around, choked, tried to yell, felt the poison, and fell. 

Marigold stood nervously in front of Chaan, her golden curls falling into her face. 

“I don’t know what happened!” she pleaded. “Really, I don’t! I can’t remember anything!”

Chaan had heard about the other murder, and didn’t know what to do. This isn’t dying, but it’s not like a perfect Ski Lodge, like the Disorentating Express, either. Viola was supposed to live! What is going on here?

Then they felt the cold tingle again. Without really realizing what they were doing, they summoned basilisk-venomed swords and pointed them all at Marigold. “Fix this,” they commanded. “Or you’ll be the next one murdered.” Marigold ran out of the room, desperately  trying to think of a plan. Chaan flopped on their desk, beginning to come back to themselves.

Poor Marigold. Why did I do that? If I can’t find out what’s going on, they certainly can’t. 

The shivering Propieter began to type frantically, trying to piece back together their Ski Lodge that was all too quickly falling apart.

There are times when I really hate this site. Had a whole dialogue written up, tabbed out for not even five seconds to check something, come back and it's all gone. Ah well.

(I'm assuming we haven't yet found Viola's body, so nobody knows she's dead.)

Mr. Spooky Hindi Guy wants me to write a diary, and so it shall be! All hail Spooky Hindi Guy!

Are you okay?

Well, of course not. Okay first, that waterslide was great! Except it was really boring and way too short and I had to literally push H.A.B. off the top because he's a giant baby.

Boring?! Too short?! You're insane. 

Yes, I think we went over that in the form already.

Well I, for one, am thoroughly creeped out (and also rather damp from that unsolicited push). Chaan is a creepy guy and this is a creepy place. It's not even been a whole day yet and I'm already regretting coming.

Hey, you were the one who dragged me here, not the other way around. If you're spooked, go poke Chaan with a stick until he gives you some of that pizza he promised you in the note. Pizza fixes everything, as does poking people with sticks.

Whoa. This is weird. And incredible. I'm guessing the poison was chloroform or something else that can be inhaled? Chloroform's not the worst way to go.

Nymph doesn't make references, plus she doesn't read a lot of novels. She could obviously shapeshift to have notable fingernails and an appearance that would make me scream, but I would probably realize it was her and just be confused. In short, I'm not sure she killed me. But I'm also not sure she didn't. But I'm going to go ahead and let her know I'm gone.

Nymph~

I'm writing in Viola's diary because the host guy... person... is telling us to, and because Viola? is dead. Poisoned.

I don't know what she expected. This is a ski lodge. She joins a lot of those, but she's never died in one before. 

I didn't bring my own diary. Maybe I should've? I don't have one, but Viola? had spare notebooks. Are they still hers now that she's gone? 

Don't know how to end this, so I'm just going to go now. The treehouse is... emptier now.

Mexi says topa! 

Day 1, Part 2: Events

****

"Race you to the collage room!" Catsclaw called out as he ran ahead.  

I raced to catch up to him, my turquoise dreadlocks flying out behind me. "It's not actually a room, you know," I tell them. The collage area is an open-air space filled with glue, scissors, and canvas, and is also the entrance to the underground library. I've caught up when Catsclaw stops short.       "No..." he whispers. "It can't be..." I follow his gaze and gasped. Viola? was on the floor, five little slits in her neck. I felt a chill go down my spine. The first murder of the Ski Lodge.

****

Spyro flew leisurely through the second floor, looking for something. Finally, after going through what seemed to him miles and miles of bedrooms, he found it. A waterslide tunnel led down to a large room, where Nymph and Poison were racing around. On a huge table in the center, there it was. Spyro opened the box and breathed in the smell of cheese pizza. He stuffed the whole thing into his mouth and grinned. Now all I need is some of that gross tea.

****

Viola was dead. Nymph wasn't suprised. It was a ski lodge, after all. She'd come back, anyways. It wasn't like this was real. Nymph had turned into a golden feathered owl, because she didn't think it was possible for owls to cry. It was just a ski lodge. Nothing more.

****

On the first floor, a ways away from the collage area, a girl woke up without any recollection of what she'd done... but a freezing chill in her bones.