Day 14, Part 1

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

-Winston Churchill

~~~~~

When Spellbound woke up the next morning in a shabby room of the Leaky Cauldron that had lost its appeal when she realized how gloomy and low quality it was, she thought the world was grey.

I will assure you, her eyes worked just fine; she could see the colorful sights out of the window, her hazel-eyed reflection in a dusty mirror. It's just that if she could capture the atmosphere around her and put it in a bottle, she thought it would all just become a dull, lifeless grey.

She took a deep breath, shook her head. This wasn't dull, this wasn't lifeless. This was rebirth! And besides... they were living on Diagon Alley. If everything else ended up being miserable, she could always remind herself that Neville Longbottom had walked these same streets.

She walked down the stairs, ready to fill her metaphorical jar with color. Lucky for her, color wasn't that far away; in the common area, Bean was playing an Averno song on her guitar, and Quill and a few others were singing. Grinning, she joined in.

"The night sky serves as a window to your soul

So tell me, Addie, how much of your home to you hold?

Cause you'll never look back again"

And so the staff, woken by the sound of their chorus, started their day by being greeted with an off-pitch yet sincere chorus of "ohh"s. And when you're fresh off of a crazy failure and trying your best to have hope, such a thing is just what you need.

Once everyone was downstairs, they made a breakfast our of random things, some of them magical- when Dallas tried to sneak a chocolate frog onto his plate, it jumped into Abcde's water glass and caused a minor food fight. When everyone was finished, they looked to Sam. They weren't expecting them to say what they did.

"We should wander around Diagon Alley," they decided. "We do need to take this seriously, but I doubt we'll come up with many ideas just sitting here staring at the walls. Let's move around, do something fun to get the ideas going!"

So that's how Qwinn ended up riding a Firebolt over Gringott's while Faith ate earwax Bertie Botts and a group of them got real wands in their quest to answer questions about the Mystery.

"We need some kind of starting place to figure out what the Force is," Sam declared as they ate a Cauldron Cake. "What do we know about it so far?"

"Scary," Kali piped up, licking a knute.

"She isn't wrong," Firefly said.

"It's coming after the Mystery," Bakerloo said. "So we have to think about what kinds of things would attack the thing that keeps a bunch of very specific murder mysteries alive and functioning."

"The Force does seems to have some oddly specific motives when you put it that way," Feli said.

"So... the Force is something that has it out for the Mystery..." Honeybee said slowly. "What about the Mystery makes the Force want to destroy it?"

"I think the Mystery is more powerful than we're giving it credit for," Elle / Nox / SNS said quietly. "Just think. Something that's existed for years, been working in the background of it all, only started to fail a little while ago- when something else started working against it. We all know everyone wants power."

"Not everyone," Starlight whispered.

"But there are plenty of other places it could get power, if that's what it's after," Bean pointed out.

"Yeah... the Mystery is powerful, but like... if the Force really wanted power, I don't know if it would go right to this random thing that keeps together ski lodges. It's just so specific," dreamii pointed out.

Nobody could come up with anything else to say, so they continued walking down the road. 

"Eeylop's Owl Emporium!" Spellbound shouted. She rushed ahead to see the shop. And in doing so, she set off the trap that sealed her fate. 

Day 14, part 2

The trap Spellbound set off was a tripwire that electrocuted her. I won't be describing anything in detail for obvious reasons, but it of course caused lots of panic and sadness as horrible death often does. Suffice to say that the group did not go in the direction of Eeylop's Owl Emporium and instead silently agreed to go back to the Leaky Cauldron.

"I'd forgotten about the traps," Leafy said eventually.

Abcde bit her lip. She hadn't forgotten.

~~~~~

I have realized that I've fallen into old habits. This is sad! This is worded in a morbidly fancy way searching for humor in all available places! I do not accept what is happening here!

Well then, I suppose I should cut over to the other staff members. They were making cakes of appreciation for Jem Louise Margaret, ignorant to the fact that she is dead and has once again been stabbed by Hazel, the legendary ruler of stabbing. They were making said cakes because they each wanted to impress her and convince her to join their band in the grand fight. Zach felt very confident because he had his own personal lemming assistant to help him make the cake. Zach didn't know that the lemming was just putting chocolate frogs into the batter by the dozen and doing nothing that was even remotely helpful.

Abie was creating a strawberry shortcake; she thought she had once heard that JLM liked strawberry, and winning her favor was the big goal here. Unfortunately, she had no recipe and no experience. And she mistook the salt for sugar, so her batter was barely edible.

Remi, as per usual, actually knew what she was doing, but was surrounded by people who didn't. She would often be distracted by Abie putting a gallon of food coloring in her cake batter, or Zach allowing his lemming friend to put cumin in his cake. After fifty minutes, she had barely started to make anything.

It finally came time to bake the cakes. Luckily, Tom the owner was a man who owned five ovens. Unluckily, Zach decided to bake his in the bowl he'd mixed it in. The hotel smelled like melted plastic for the rest of the day.

When they did eventually find that JLM was dead once again and their work was all for nothing, they did the only thing they could. The three threw their cakes (or, "cakes") in each other's faces. 

And that is how the CBers came back to the hotel to find the three staff members with half-baked, half-real cake in their faces.

~~~~~

After Spellbound's death in Diagon Alley by a trap they had mostly forgotten might have been there, the group decided to go back to the hotel to theorize. They had decided to focus on what power the Mystery contained that made the Force want to go after it, which could lead them to what the Force was itself. But it didn't take them look to run out of good ideas. 

Sam sighed and drummed their fingers on the table. "Why don't we just... think about where we know the Mystery from? Regular ski lodges, or ski lodges where the Mystery got messed up. What patterns do you see?"

So the guests thought about the famous ski lodges of the past; those that they had been a part of; Lake Lelillo, The Farm Story, Magicae Palace, and others where the Mystery had been upended. They thought about the memories they had and the best jokes and clues they'd read. They thought about their shared structure and tropes, and how the Mystery supported and connected them all. But in the end, they came up empty. They had no solutions.

Sam tried to make the best of it. "We can try again tomorrow," they said. "Maybe we just need a good rest. A new location wouldn't hurt either. I believe in you guys, I know we can work this out. Okay?"

So the guests went their own ways, feeling defeated; and it just didn't seem to be their day, because when the murderer encountered Faith all alone, she wound up with a stab wound and she didn't leave the room.

So most of them went to bed with heavy hearts and less-than-good attitudes... but they also still had some bit of hope in them. There was a rainbow somewhere in the grey.

~~~~~

Dead: 12. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed. Moondrop and Lucinda, poisoned by plant. Orson, stabbed. Azalea, grenade. Nerd, stabbed. Grace, shot with a bow and arrow. Morning, crushed. Spellbound, electrocuted. Faith, stabbed.

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 15.

Suspects: Sterling, dreamii

References this day: nothing new (though I have given the link to Kitten and Summer's Diagon Alley ski lodge and I highly recommend you read it!)

Top! 

Day 15, part 1

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live."

-Joan Didion

~~~~~

The murderer was thinking about Faith when they woke up that morning. She'd never get to know what was behind the other two doors on the second floor. True, the murderer only knew what one of them contained, but Faith had just been a curious AE. She deserved to know- but it was too late now. Why did a stash of weapons for the murderer have to be such a big secret anyways?

Nevermind, it was best to move on anyways. The murderer ate a breakfast of pancakes, hash browns and eggs with the rest of the guests. There, Sam announced that they'd be relocating to Relaxation Suites Hotel.

"We'll see something new, maybe have a fresh perspective," they explained. "I'll try everything under the sun until something works for us. Plus, there are lots of fun activities you can do there!"

So everyone packed up their stuff and walked through forests, fields, gardens and grounds of prior and present ski lodges on their way to the beach side hotel. Abcde complained the whole way about how her hair was getting frizzy, so Nox lectured her about how pain is a part of life and she would have to live with it, then Bakerloo pointed out that frizzy hair wasn't really pain and maybe Abcde was just being a bit petty, which made both of them get mad at him.

Most of the guests thought that the day would go just as well as the previous one based on how it had started... luckily for them, they were in for a pleasant surprise.

First, Sam was right about the hotel having lots of activities. There were endless rooms dedicated to certain things- libraries, craft rooms, movie theaters, arcades, even an indoor amusement park. They split off into groups, chatting with each other while they had their fun, exploring thoughts of the Mystery and its power while they made crafts and played games. The strange thing was that it didn't take long for all of the individual groups to come to the same topic: their ski lodge memories.

"Quill! Remember that time at Magicae Palace when I made that anti-murderer league?" Leafy shouted.

"Only from the perspective of a reader. I died pretty early on, remember?" Quill reminded her.

"Oh... what were you there for?"

"Not much... there was a food fight? I don't even think I was able to start learning magic."

"Hmm... what other ones have we been to together? There's got to be more..."

"What about the Disorienting Express? Were we both there?"

"Ooh, maybe we were!"

Meanwhile, Feli was listening to Nox talk about Ellingham Manor and Camp Juniper. "We played this game of Harry Potter chess. I tried to teach my team strategy, since I've played chess since I was little and I'm really good at it, but nobody would listen to me," they sighed. "But I suppose it doesn't matter who won... an AE died in the middle of it, which is of course more important than the outcome of a game. It's strange- yet at the same time, completely understandable- how tragedy pauses our lives..."

As Nox continued their talk about death and tragedy and moving on with things, dreamii tried to recall every ski lodge she'd been in to make a mental list. Each one brought both a smile to her face and a shiver down her spine as she remembered having fun with other CBers, but also the shock and sadness of each death.

When they came back to the common area for dinner (which JLM had prepared and then promptly died after making) and to tell Sam what they'd found, they all just seemed to present their memories and their stories. It wasn't what Sam had expect or even really hoped, but they tried to use it positively all the same.

"It's interesting how everyone's minds gravitated towards their memories," Sam said. "That couldn't be a coincidence!"

"It was fun to take that trip down memory lane," Sterling said. "It made me think of Solo Writes and stuff too..." It wasn't long before everyone was recalling their favorite CB stories. Stories are what brought them all together in the first place anyways- they've always been there, making up a big part of their lives and even their lives themselves. They came to the CB to enjoy, share and create stories, after all.

So all of them, excepting the murderer and one other, went to bed with their minds full of memories. This other guest was approached by the murderer, who said they had something they wanted them to see. The murderer brought the guest to the roof of the hotel, where there was a pool and view of a sunset over the beach. 

"Ittss beati ffull," Kali said, gazing at the pink and orange sky.

"I'm glad you think so," the murderer replied, "Because it'll be the last thing you see." 

They pushed the CAPTCHA over the edge.

~~~~~

Dead: 13. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed. Moondrop and Lucinda, poisoned by plant. Orson, stabbed. Azalea, grenade. Nerd, stabbed. Grace, shot with a bow and arrow. Morning, crushed. Spellbound, electrocuted. Faith, stabbed. Kali, pushed from a building.

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 16.

Suspects: Sterling, dreamii

References this day: the hotel they're staying at is from my first ski lodge. It's not very good, but if you are interested the link is somewhere on this thread.

Day 16, part 1- Destruction & Discovery

"Stories are the most powerful things, because they make up everything."

-----

~~~~~

Sam never understood what people meant when they said "This is everything." "You are everything", "Power is everything", "This is everything to me"- there would always be other things, though sometimes people were blind to things outside of their obsessions. But that didn't make them everything. 

Early that morning, Sam found themselves transported into a world that was necessary for all, but explored by few. It was Story.

It was a place that wasn't a place; something ancient yet ever evolving, something that, while much of it was crafted by words, was ironically too incredible and sprawling to describe with them. Not only could Story change, destroy, or save the world, the world was built upon Story itself. That unending power that Story alone could harness was being shown to Sam right then; they could see words- words that meandered through the veins of the leaves; words that looked down from the lazy clouds; words that danced in the shafts of light shining through the windows. For everything that comes and goes from the Earth, every event that does or doesn't take place, every emotion felt and acted upon, there is a story behind it.

That thing about people saying that one certain thing was "everything"... Sam understood now. Story was everything.

Before Sam could catch more than a tiny glimpse at what Story was and what it could do, they were lead away from the place they were viewing, and into a tiny corner of Story's unending universe. Sam could immediately tell that something was wrong here. The words were still flowing, stories still being woven and told, but something was damaging them. Like it didn't want the world to hear what these stories were about. It wasn't able to destroy the words and their significance, but it was able to shroud them in darkness and hide the story from the rest of the world. Looking around, Sam realized that this evil, this darkness, hadn't just swept this particular story over with darkness; dozens of others were scattered around, like beacons that had been smothered. Sam knew that this is what was attacking the Mystery, and they were so close to understanding what it was; they could feel it...

And just then, in the moment they were so close, they were brought back to their own world.

~~~~~

Day 16, part 2

Sam was back in their room at Relaxation Suites Hotel. It was dark outside, probably early morning. They felt like they'd just read a huge cliffhanger in a good book, but they knew this was more than that. The clues had been laid out right before their eyes. They just had to piece them together.

They saw the Force targeting other stories- not just the Mystery. It put them in darkness, never eliminating them, but making sure the world forgot about them.

Sam thought about books that had been banned from libraries and pieces of history that had been buried out of fear or hate. Nothing could reverse those stories, but something could make them almost invisible. And that something was the Force.

So that was it... the thing that was attacking the Mystery was the same thing that had taken books off of school library shelves, sections out of history books, and knowledge away from people's minds.

The guests' mission was to save the Mystery... though hadn't Sam told them they would destroy the Force? Now they knew it would be impossible to do so. The Force was powerful, old as Story itself, and something the guests could not reach as they were. While they were in the ski lodge, they could only protect the Mystery, not the rest of the world.

And aside from that, there still remained the question of how they would destroy it. Sam knew what the guests were up against now, but how would they defeat it- or more accurately, banish it from the Mystery?

It was like they'd told themselves moments ago... the clues were all there, laid out before them. It was their job to piece it all together.

~~~~~

Nox and Tumble were the only guests that witnessed Sam bursting into the common area with a hairbrush tucked between their shoulder and their cheek and bunny slippers on during the early morning of Day 16. Nox was there due to their insomnia, and Tumble had had a nightmare and Spellbound wasn't there to comfort him. So the two found eachother at the lobby early that morning, their conversation over some mini muffins interrupted by their host, looking like a hot mess, yet they had a triumphant look on their face. Nox assumed that could only mean good things for their fight against the Force.

Sam got their life together as the other staff members and CBers trickled downstairs for breakfast and an amazing announcement. After settling down Dallas, who had decided to try and pour orange juice on the beach volleyball court outside and see what would happen, Sam explained what they had learned- and how.

"The only problem is that we still don't know what we're going to fight with," Sam reminded everyone. "So that's your job for today- brainstorm every possible solution you can, ask me any questions you have, maybe have some fun in the meantime." 

The entire group headed out to the beach- as they pondered, they played volleyball, made sandcastles, looked at tide pools, and swam around.

"If the Force is what drives censorship and all that, why would it be coming for the Mystery?" Bakerloo questioned. "I don't remember anything about people wanting ski lodges to be stopped or anything."

"Maybe this is a warning that it would happen in the future, and we're creating some cautionary tale about it and saying why it doesn't and shouldn't have to be a problem," Sterling suggested.

"Or maybe it's because stuff like this can effect pretty much any story, for its content or topics or statements," Quill theorized. "So it's some kind of symbol?"

"It's so weird for me to think about something like this being involved with the Mystery. Like, ski lodges have always existed in our little corner of the internet. I can't imagine something so real and hurtful and stuff messing with our own little niche subgenre," Leafy said.

"I guess we're thinking that might be part of the point," Firefly said. "To remind people that no story is ever completely safe."

Abcde, laying gracefully on a beach chair with her perfect toes placed delicately upon the sand, was pondering why the Force wasn't actually just jealous of her beauty and coming for the Mystery as revenge when Dallas unburied himself from the pile of sand he and Qwinn had covered his body with. Though he wasn't actually invading Abcde's space, she felt that the way he had displaced the sand had disturbed her perfect little oasis of beauty. Sighing dramatically, she rose from her ever-so-comfortable position to give that annoying AE a talking-to when she heard something behind her. She heard someone coughing and gasping, followed by the shouts of other guests and the word "poison". The murderer had struck again.

People who are not the murderer 

1) Still not Nightfall, Abcde, Honeybee, or Bakerloo.

2) Arya, Cherry, Olive, Moondrop, Lucinda, Orson, Azalea, Nerd, Grace, Morning, Spellbound, Faith, and Kali, are dead.

3) I'm pretty sure CAPTCHAs are exempt.

4) Dallas is obviously not the killer because of all the fancy interactions. 

Reasons I think Sterling is the murderer (some copy/pasted from my past deductions)

1) A large point was made that when Orson left his room for a snack HE DID NOT LOOK OVER AT HIS ROOMATE. Roomate being Sterling, who I am already somewhat suspicious of.

2) She was Colonal Mustard in Clue, and he is a suspicious sort of man. Plus, Zach screamed odd stuff at her after learning who she was in Clue, and it is true that the Mystery does make the murdering people thing not exactly your fault. But I don't think Zack would just withhold such important information, so it was probably about something else.

3) She is unable to "get over defeat," which is a murderer-y trait. 

4) She beat Feli crazy well at light saber duels --- remember this if someone is stabbed by a lightsaber. If there is a failed lightsaber murder, I would strongly suspect Feli. 

5) Like Quill said, Sterling had a pocketknife with her, and the murderer stabbed Orson with "their handy pocketknife" which indicates that it was easy to obtain, therefore probably not stolen. And a lot of people have been stabbed.

6) The murderer went to Pheonixe Place and Sterling was also one of the people who went, so she is not exempt. 

Other

1) The title of this book could be important. It has a fancy name about how you see yourself. And if it's not important... well, at least it's cool. Never Imagine Yourself Not to be Otherwise than What it Might Appear to Others that What you Were or Might Have Been was not Otherwise Than What you were or Might Have Been was not Otherwise Than What you Had Been Would Have Appeared to Them to be Otherwise.

2) Zach said, "Gone? But that- oh no, I knew this would come. I knew Jem Louise was secretly the most devious one of all. We have to act quickly or she might walk away with her soul in one of our bodies. I should interrogate everyone, see if old JLM held a grudge against any of them." And, yes, you can't really trust anything that Zach says. But JLM is probably important to the murderer in a non happy-rainbows-and-unicorns way.

3) Leafy tried to bring people to an active volcano? I don't really know, but that seems murderery? Maybe I'm grasping at loose straws. 

4) The murderer's pockets are mentioned a lot. 

People who could be the murderer 

1) Quill, dreamii, Firefly, Bean, Starlight, Sterling, Feli, and Leafy could be the killer. We're really narrowing down the list!

2) Out of those, I suspect Sterling and Leafy. Also maybe Jem Louise Margaret. 

Things I just love in general about this story, and it's not really detecting but who cares? 

1) Bean sang Dawn! I cried happy tears.

2) Camp Juniper was mentioned and I cried more happy tears

3) The mobid humor and crazy-awesome figurative lauguage are obviously top highlights 

4) The way that you depict Abcde and Dallas but really everyone in general is so spot on, funny, and wonderful

5) Destruction and Discovery was so BEAUTIFUL, especially the part where banned books and missing history was compared to the ruin of the Mystery. 

6) I'm pretty sure Spellbound is your sister, right Luna? What was it like writing her death? Did she tell you anything about how she wanted or didn't want to die? 

I love your sleuthing, Morning! I will say that Zach's ramblings about JLM and Sterling being Colonel Mustard are all references to Who Killed Markiplier. Yeah, I was aware few people would catch on and it would only cause confusion, but it fit way too well for the situation. And the mysterious book title is from a ski lodge. I forget which, but probably a TON ski lodge or the RMS Tiny by the sound of it.

Spellbound is my sister! She actually hasn't been reading this, so I decided to write her death however I pleased. And for Magicae Palace, I wrote my own death and the deaths of my AEs, so I guess it didn't phase me very much.

Day 16, part 3

It didn't take long for Abcde to discover that Nox had been poisoned, and nothing could be done to save them.

They held a semi-proper funeral for Nox and Kali out on the beach. After that, Sam decided it was time to move locations again.

"I think it's good to see a bit of everything," they announced. "Keep everyone's brains going, see some different locations and learn about different ski lodges." 

Their new destination was a mansion run by a duo known only as "Director 1" and "Director 2".

"There was supposed to be a force field that prevented murders, but it was never correctly put up," Sam explained.

"I'm sad this one didn't last very long, it actually had a very cool mystery aspect going on," Remi commented.

They entered the mansion, Sam telling them about the theater and the giant library, and the uniquely named guest rooms- Fun One, Moo Two, Lore Four, and Dive Five.

"No room three?" dreamii questioned.

"Nope," Abie replied. "That was part of the mystery Remi was talking about- the number three was treated like it didn't exist. And we never got to learn why..."

They decided to gather in the theater and quietly play a classic movie while they brainstormed and ate snacks.

They dreamed up plenty of possibilities of what their weapon could be- past ski lodges? Stories lost to time by the Force? The Mystery itself?- but in the end none of them seemed to fit right. Eventually, everyone stopped thinking and started paying attention to the movie. That lasted about two seconds, until Dallas got bored and some of the CBers started chatting quietly and some of the CAPTCHAs buried themselves in buckets of popcorn and the staff members dueled with foams swords until everyone was impersonating the Knights of the Round Table and throwing Junior Mints at each other's heads. The only one who wasn't participating was Abcde, since Dallas got gum stuck in her hair and she ran off, sobbing dramatically. Technically Starlight wasn't doing much either, since she was hiding under a seat, but she did toss some popcorn and giggle at the others' antics on occasion.

The real focus of the night ended up being on Leafy and Honeybee as they had a foam sword fight that lasted for an hour and a half. They both chose silly, punny names (Leafy was Sir Lances-A-Lot and Honeybee was Monty the Venomous Python) and the other CBers chose sides. Sterling even made a "Go Leafy!" sign out of part of a popcorn bucket and a Sharpie. All in all, they had a very fun night- maybe not super productive in the department of understanding what they'd being going up against the Force with, but they knew what the Force was and had confidence in themselves to figure out the rest. Plus a lemming showed up and stabbed Jem Louise Margaret, so it couldn't have been a complete waste of a day.

~~~~~

Dead: 14. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed. Moondrop and Lucinda, poisoned by plant. Orson, stabbed. Azalea, grenade. Nerd, stabbed. Grace, shot with a bow and arrow. Morning, crushed. Spellbound, electrocuted. Faith, stabbed. Kali, pushed from a building. Nox, poisoned.

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 17.

Suspects: Sterling, dreamii, Leafy

References this day: Paradise Mansion

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/416067

Luna! I love all of this so much! I'm sorry I have been such a terrible reader, and I haven't commented in a while, but I think your writing style is amazing and I am so glad to have been a part of this, and I'm glad Dallas and Qwinn are still in there. I'd like to echo what Morning said about the Abcde and Dallas interactions, you really have gotten his personality great. You are an icon and I'm happy to be able to not only read your writing but to actually have myself, and characters—

Hey! I'm not a character. I am a person. With feelings.

|| metoo ||

...I mean my AEs in your ski lodge. I can't wait to figure out who the murderer is, but then again, I don't want this to end.

<33