Name: Shy Peacock 

CBer, AE, Captcha, or Captchae: CBer

Appearance: I'm fairly short, and I know it, I always wear my hair in a long dark braid, so long I can sit in it. I have big honey-colored eyes, and a spray of freckles around my nose and cheeks. I like wearing jeans, cloaks, and galaxy print. I wear a pendant with an ornate compass on it. I have rainbow braces.

Personality: Shy (shocker), thoughtful, curious, loyal, mellow, eloquent, a good listener, a huge bookworm, genuinely likes to make everyone feel better, quiet. I am the defenition of a nerd. THE DEFENITION.

Strengths: I'm knowledgeable, encouraging, comforting, and observant. 

Weaknesses: I sometimes scare easily, and it takes a bit of coaxing fro me to say something when it worries me.

Reason for attending: I want to do another Ski Lodge, and it seemed interesting.

Luggage: A stack of books, a bubble wand and bubbles, some journals and pencils, my collection of Japanese erasers, some of them half worn away from use, pouches of something mysterious, and necessities.

Reaction to an unexpected shower of cherry blossom petals: Well it could go one of two ways. I could locate the source tree, climb it, and shower more petals on everybody. Or, much more likely, I would just stand around sneezing randomly.

Password: Lily.

Other: My compass doesn't always point towards north. Sometimes it points towards... other important things. Also, I'd like to reserve a spot for my AE.

For the information of the public, I do not take up a slot.

Name: Sukāretto

CBer, AE, Captcha, or Captchae: Not applicable.

Appearence:  It does not matter. You will never see me.

Personality: Not applicable.

Strengths: I am good at hiding. I am good at being creepy. I can make a very delicious macaron.

Weaknesses: There are plenty, but you do not need to know them.

Reasons for attending: Not applicable.

Luggage: My belongings are in my secret room. Keep out or suffer the consequences.

Reaction to an unexpected shower of cherry blossom petals: *Walks away in alarm*

Password: Lily.

Other: Did I mention that you must stay out of my room

Name: Cockleburr

CBer, AE, Captcha, or Captchae: CBer

Appearance: Short and athletic with wavy light brown hair, small brown eyes, and large black glasses. Usually wears rolled up overalls and shabby converse. 

Personality: A friendly person, if a bit shy around those she doesn't know. Creative and smart, particularly with science. Can be somewhat awkward if she doesn't feel completely comfortable in a situation, but very confindant when surrounded by those she knows and trusts and in a situation she understands.

Strengths: Nice to people, a hard worker, creative, good with children, imaginative, adventurous.

Weaknesses: Awkward around new people, overthinks social things, trusts her own luck too much with physical adventures, can be a bit of a show-off. 

Reason for attending: DRAGONS.

Luggage: A backpack filled with a sketch book, pencils, one good eraser, a book to read, her sword, spare hair ties, one stuffed turtle, a notebook.

Reaction to an unexpected shower of cherry blossom petals: Probably to start twirling in them.

Password: Lily

Other: This will be great!

Name: Blue Moon

CBer

Appearance:  Naturally russet hair(which you can see, there’s not that much dye) dyed with various colors and streaks, which are mostly at the tips. Hazel eyes, which are green and amber shaded with hints of gray. Weirdly clear gaze that doesn’t go with her personality. Medium toned skin (Asian Indian). Long (and I mean long) fingers and toes. Lots of little cuts from various animals stepping on her. Usually wears a thin kurta and jeans, and bare feet. Has large, multicolored bird’s wings.

Personality:  Loose and happy, the type of person who would chase butterflies and doze in the sun on a moment’s notice. Doesn’t think before she speaks, and talks fast.

Strengths: Kind, fast, can climb things, can rhyme well at a moment’s notice, a good cook, flies less with her wings and more as a mutal agreement between her and gravity. Stealthy, but not all ninja-ish, more like knowing that people are unobservant and exploiting it.

Weaknesses: Doesn’t think before doing things, overconfident, eats plants randomly(don’t know if this one is a strength or a weakness- and yes, I do randomly pick plants and eat them, doesn’t everyone?) can’t do a decent push-up to save her life

Reason for attending: Bored, and also I saw what you wrote on “the Spring Queen” and spied on your planning, and I feel this is going to be a pretty good ski lodge.

Luggage: Pirate cutlass, changes of clothes, a thermos full of rajma, doughnuts from Angel’s, book on Japanese, the whole Wings Of Fire series, an Artemis Fowl book, and my tablet.  

Reaction to an unexpected shower of cherry blossoms: Tries to be suspicious and look for the place the cherry blossoms are coming from, but is distracted about every half a second by trying to catch the petals while they’re still in the air.

Password: Lily 

Wasn't planning to join this since I'm already in quite a few ski lodges, but whatever's going on in This Month has me intrigued, so I'd like to reserve two spots. PW - Lily. I'll be in a car pretty much all day tomorrow with no internet, but I should be able to fill out the form Saturday. If I forget to do it, well then I look forward to being eaten alive.

Attention all enemy spies:

From this point forth, you must stop reading immediately. Most (if not all) discussion from this point forth will be about who will be *ahem* eliminated on what day, who the killer is, and other majorly important spoilors which you have not been authorized to read about. Thank you for your cooperation, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

For those who have no idea what I am talking about, I have only one thing to say:

Curiosity killed the cat. 

Have a nice day :)

We are starting tomorrow. There are still fourteen spots remaining, so sign up any aes you wish.

@Hotairballon, Jwyn, and Agent Winter: Your sheet/your AE's sheets have not yet been posted. Summer wishes me to give you a fair warning, but I would not mind if you were ea-

Write your sheets with haste!

Fingers crossed that this goes through!

Name: Hotairballoon

CBer, AE, Captcha, or Captchae: CBer

Appearance: Tall male teenager, pale skin, dressed usually in casual clothes (jeans/t-shirt), hair dyed a shade of white or light grey

Personality: Pretty shy/introverted, likes being alone but tries to be friendly with (most) everyone and doesn't mind doing things in or with a group. Dry sense of humor, cracks a lot of jokes.

Strengths: Funny, fairly intelligent?

Weaknesses: Kinda socially awkward, struggles to keep calm under pressure

Reason for attending: I quite enjoy being murdered

Luggage: A couple changes of clothes, some books, cellphone, swimtrunks just in case, a didgeridoo, several rotten papayas... the usual.

Reaction to an unexpected shower of cherry blossom petals: Surprise, obviously, then probably an attempt to find the source of the petals 

Password: Lily

Other: What do you call a 200-year-old buffalo? A bison-tennial!

This is a little late, so sorry, please let Celeste in!

Name: Celeste

CBer, AE, Captcha, or Captchae: AE

Appearance: She's tall, and has red hair almost to the backs of her knees. She has eyes the color of the sky on a summer day out in the country: intense radiant blue. She has lots of freckles, and likes to wear clothes with quotes on them, or vibrant colors.

Personality: Thoughtful, tends to look for metaphors in everything she does, optimistic, kinda likes writing songs, curious, enthusiastic, imaginitive, impractical, emotional, easily stressed, overthinks stuff, creative, talkative- but more in a thinking-out-loud way but is still a good communicator, and loves music (especially musicals).

Strengths: She's outgoing, optimistic, and is good with people. Celeste is also a good singer.

Weaknesses: She is impractical, can be absentminded, and sometimes doesn't know where to draw the line.

Reason for attending: I heard there were dragons! I have a dragon friend! I can speak every language, so communication won't be a problem. I wonder what mine's name will be.... Oh, and also, Shy Peacock got lonely at her last Ski Lodge, so she wanted to bring me along.

Luggage: iPod of endless charge and seemingly endless music. She seems to always forget to plug the headphones in, so the music always seems to be blasting out at top volume... with her singing along....

Reaction to an unexpected shower of cherry blossom petals:  Dance around with everyone else, than make and sing a parody about cherry petals

Password: Lily

Other:  Like I said, she can speak all languages, including that of animals.

Laylanie says yytt. Are you watching youtube? 

Day 1

I stood outside the ryokan and watched the CBers fly in. Thirty-two bluegreen ribbons rippled through the afternoon sky, twenty-six of them carrying CBers, AEs, Captchas and luggage. A worrying six returned unladen. I frowned. We would have to alter our plans.

Sukāretto swept past me and greeted the guests. I trailed her like a shadow, but did not speak.

Fireburst, Aspen, Celeste, Cockleburr and Claaws arrived elated and were reluctant to see me send their dragons away. Rose Bud and Jwyn were in tears from the loss of their AEs. Pooki P and Agent Winter ran up and shouted at Sukāretto and I about their AE and Captcha. A few of the dragons seemed awkward about riding other dragons. Sukāretto waved all of the guests inside, leading them to their rooms, while I addressed their transports and checked their luggage for weapons and popcorn. Some of the dragons reported no luggage at all.

Only Poison had brought popcorn, which I replaced with a few dozen crow's feathers and a box of Tic Tacs, but both Cockleburr and Blue Moon had packed swords, and Jwyn and Shy Peacock's things included mysterious objects I confiscated just in case. I debated over Claaws' stick, but left it, considering that sticks were everywhere and this one bore no magic.

The guests quickly settled in. Rose Bud and Jwyn wept together in their shared room, while HAB and Spyro argued in theirs. Viola? met Claaws and Noon while exploring, Poison flew up to the roof for some time alone, and Aspen, Blue Moon, Celeste, Allie and MJ went to visit the hot springs while Tuxedo Kitten, Kate-the-Great, Fireburst, MJ, Secret and Ann left for a hike. Byann, Agent Winter and Pooki P went looking for the secret room, Sam tagging along to make sure Agent Winter didn't hurt herself. I checked on the room a couple of times. It remained undisturbed. Sukāretto set up an automatic water jet in a broom closet as a diversion anyway. Shy Peacock and Cockleburr looked around together, and the remaining AEs and Captchas amused themselves in the game room.

The hikers came back and took a turn in the hot springs. Pooki P and Byann fell prey to Sukāretto's trap, although Sam managed to keep Agent Winter from the same fate. Sukāretto told them off. Poison came down from the roof. Several CBers wandered into the courtyard and game room. I watched the guests take their evening meal, observed as they went to bed, saw when the first life was lost.

That night, the ryokan awoke to the sound of Rose Bud screaming bloody murder. 

Darkfeather and Secret arrived first, having the room next door, with Aspen and Blue Moon close behind from the other side. Secret shoved open the sliding door and rushed in, only to collide with Rose Bud as she tried to run out. I listened to the shouting.

"Aah!"

"Ow..."

"Are you okay? Why were you screaming?"

"What's going on?"

"I don't know!"

"Jwyn is dead!"

"What?!"

Sam, Claaws, and Kate tried to keep everyone calm, quiet and orderly as people piled in, trying to find out what was going on. The room sat quietly beyond the barrier they formed, one light casting its warm glow over an empty bed and a full one. It was Claaws who gave the great shout that silenced them all. I did not hear exactly what she said, but I heard what followed.

Claaws turned to a near-hysterical Rose Bud and asked, "So just what in the heck is going on?"

A few of the more boisterous guests began to stir up again, but were quickly hushed as Rose Bud spoke.

"I--Jwyn, I--I woke up and she made a weird noise, so I--she was--"

"What? What happened?" Kate prompted.

"I looked over and turned on the light 'cause she wasn't saying anything and she was--" Rose Bud collapsed in a convulsive shudder as Ann, one of the few who had seen inside the room, offered "Like that?"

Rose Bud nodded tearfully, her face buried in her hands. Shy Peacock crouched beside her and patted her shoulder. Viola? managed to look in before being shoved back and explained to those stuck in the hallway, "Her head is at a weird angle. I think her neck might be broken."

Another, smaller uproar ensued. This time, however, it was Sukāretto who silenced the guests. She sashayed through the crowded hallway and into the room amid the cries, knelt by Jwyn for a moment and tried her best not to look delighted.

"Calm down, everyone. It seems there's been a murder. I ask you to remain calm and return to your rooms. We'll sort this out, don't worry." I appeared out of the shadows by the door and helped to escort the more troublesome guests away. Sukāretto turned to Rose Bud. "Would you like another room, dear?" 

Rose Bud agreed, and Sukāretto led her off to one that would have belonged to someone's AEs had they not been eaten. She and I closed off the room, but did not yet disturb it. We left that until morning, giving Claaws, Aspen, Poison, Secret and Blue Moon all the time they needed to sneak their way in and have a look around. Sukāretto thwarted a few clumsier investigation attempts. I was left with the task of cleanup.

Rose Bud's bed was undisturbed save where she had gotten up. The lamp we left on, illuminating the body of Jwyn, glassy-eyed and twisted at an unnatural angle with finger marks on her neck. She lay on her back with her head, shoulders and hands exposed, as though she had woken and tried to defend herself. Her skin was pale and turning blue. Her lips were stained with blood. She was still warm when the first stealthy visitor arrived, but decidedly chill by the time of the last.

~End of Day 1. Death toll: 7. Jwyn by a broken neck, Inkling, Eliana, Hibiki Starlight, Rose Bud's Sam, Wildflower, Leeli and Viri by dragon.