Day 4 part 4

"The Woodlock Mansion and Summer Excursion Hotel," Zach said proudly as he presented the group with a lavish mansion. Upon entering, they found that everything was ornate, intricate, and occasionally decked in shimmering gems.

"Hey, maybe you guys can meet my friend Ms. Tobin!" Remi said.

"Who's she?" Feline Fantasy asked.

"A holographic librarian," Remi replied casually. "Do you want a snozzberry macaroon?"

Through some exploring, the group found a grand library, a huge mudslide, and a weird-looking river. (They did not, however, find Ms. Tobin.) Abcde and Dallas argued about the quality of the mudslide; Dallas thought it was awesome and he went down it a couple of times just to prove it, but Abcde thought it was disgusting, ugly, and smelly- just like Dallas himself. Nerd and Morning had to break it up when Dallas threw a bit of mud onto Abcde's red dress, making her shriek so loudly Morning feared someone's ears would fall off. 

After they located Kali (she was exploring some finely decorated guests rooms), Remi took them to see a tall blue manor. As they waded through the tall grass, Zach told stories about tiny old ladies and crying robots.

"How in the world do robots cry?" Honeybee asked incredulously.

"I could go into a very long explanation about how that's physically possible, but I doubt you'd want to hear all of it..." Remi said.

"Bakerloo, what are you laughing about?" Spellbound asked.

"Nothing," Bakerloo responded. "Nothing at all." Nightfall cocked their head suspiciously and smirked.

Remi showed them inside into a second library ("And hey, this one has a balcony!") and a secret staircase before shooing everyone out to go see a third attraction: a farm.

"What's so cool about a farm?" Dallas complained.

"Um, are all farms inhabited by slorpions- a sloth crossed with a scorpion- awesome dragons, weird snails, and literal hoards of other animals? Not to mention magic?" Remi asked.

"Nnoo," Qwinn replied. Dallas shushed him, but not before Remi could smirk at him.

The two staff members shoved the rusty gates open, and the guests felt a sudden urge to make a mad dash for the farm. So that's what they did!

"YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT THE BACKYARD OF THE HOUSE!" Zach shouted to the stampede of guests. "IT'S PRETTY COOL!"

The ski lodgers found that the backyard was, indeed, 'pretty cool'. There was an ice cream stand which, as far as Sterling could tell, was free; a pool with three waterslides which Dallas decided to try despite being fully clothed; and a strange device that almost looked like-

"It's made for flinging people," Zach explained as he and Remi caught up with the guests.

Moondrop laughed. "Oh my gosh! Really? Can I go?"

Remi cracked a smile. "Sure thing. It's designed so you'll land at a beach. Keep your arms crossed over your chest and don't wiggle around too much."

Moondrop, grinning broadly, hopped into the device and squeezed her eyes shut. She was launched into the air with an ear-piercing scream.

"That's actually save?" dreamii asked anxiously.

"Absolutely! If it wasn't, we probably wouldn't get to keep out jobs. Who else wants to go? No CAPTCHAs, sorry..."

Dallas, who was jumping up and down obnoxiously, went next. He landed next to Moondrop, who seemed to be in a state of shock.

"AHAHAHAAAA! THAT WAS AMAZING!" Dallas shouted. Then he looked around. "Is that a giant water park?!" He wasted no time in finding out. 

Moondrop got up slowly and looked around. "That... was... awesome," she breathed. Her eyes widened as she looked around. She'd never seen a beach that was quite as awesome. The enormous water slides Dallas was dashing towards looked incredible, and... were those food stands dotted here and there around the lake? To her left Moondrop saw a half-sunken pirate ship- a sort of beach-side jungle gym, except way cooler. And she didn't even know about the underground tunnels!

Some of the others started landing next to her, equally impressed with what the beach had to offer. Eventually, Zach and Remi came along with the guests who didn't want to go on the people-flinging machine. After Remi got Dallas away from the waterslides, she promised they could come back when they were more prepared for a day of fun at the lake. 

By then, the sky was getting dark and Remi decided they should start heading back to the cabin. The group came back to find the rest of the guests were playing Monopoly. They had a dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread and went to bed happily.

~~~~~

Dead: 3. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed.

Suspects: ?

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 5

References this day:

Woodlock Mansion

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/325300

Ellingham Manor

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/454338

The Farm Story

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/192112

Thank you, Quill & anonymous topper! This next part is a little longer and a whole lot weirder than everything else so far... I wouldn't recommend reading in class.

Day 5 part 1

"My curiosity and my common sense are arguing again! I don't think this is gonna end well."

~someone on Pinterest

~~~~~

Faith woke up early, feeling giddy. She looked over at Morning, her roommate, thinking about how much she disapprove of Faith's plans. But it's not like Morning could stop her. Faith was determined to continue with her adventures to the second floor. There was plenty more to explore up there! Who knew what kind of secrets Sam and the other staff members could be hiding!

Faith only needed one other person for this next part of her mission, and it would be Azalea- she made for the perfect guard the previous day, after all. Azalea's roommate was Olive, and while the thought was morbid, that meant Faith could wake Aza up without having to worry about disturbing her roommate.

Just as Faith was about to get and wake up Azalea, she realized that the staff members were still asleep in their rooms. Going now would be a pretty bad idea if she didn't want to get caught. Faith sighed deeply and flopped back down on her bed. Now what? She was wide awake, but she wouldn't be able to carry out her plans!

Maybe I could find some of that free popcorn they mentioned in the letter, she thought. I haven't seen any of it yet...

Nodding to herself, Faith got out of her bed and opened her door. The first thing she noticed was the gigantic advertisement for Tin Couture. She also noticed that a ghost of a penguin was trying to sell her Tin Couture products. "Hello! My name is Roderigo! Please excuse my secretaries and buy my products!"

"Bah! Secretaries, my foot!" cried an old lady. "The ladies of MURDEROUS can't be troubled with those trivial kinds of jobs. Put down your knitting, Margaret, we're leaving!"

Faith watched as Margaret, the woman who had spoken, and two other old ladies shuffled down the hall. "Don't open that door! You don't know what you'll be letting in!" Roderigo exclaimed- but it was too late. As the four ladies of MURDEROUS left, a tidal wave of extremely strange objects and people flooded the hallway. As all of this crowded into the hallway, all of the other guests started banging their doors open and coming out to see what was going on. Here is some of the chaos that ensued:

Aldo: Hello there, innocent child! Would you like one of my original fortune-lemony-crepes? Inside of the crepe is a slice of lemon with a fortune on it!

Sterling: that doesn't sound suspicious at all!

Sterling took a crepe and read the kernel of wisdom inscribed on her lemon slice.

Sterling: "As the duck with his eyelids, so he with his nose, trims his belt and his buttons and turns out his toes."

Quill: How poetic, Sterling.

Moondrop: Hey guys, can you help me deal with this lawyer? She says she's from LAPCAT- Lawyers Against Pork Chops And Teenagers- and she's been pilfering all of my cannons.

Orson, meanwhile, was trying to film Cthulhu, whom he had dressed in one of his berets. To Orson's amazement, Cthulhu had begun to sing. "Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yer..." A mashed potato muffin fell from the sky and knocked Cthulhu's beret off, but he didn't seem to care.

In another corner of the chaos, Honeybee gasped excitedly.

Honeybee: OHMYGOODNESS! I found a doggy in this bush shaped like an obese weiner dog!

Spellbound: wait, you found an obese weiner dog?!

Honeybee: No, I found a doggy inside of a bush shaped like an obese weiner dog.

Just then, a Globulous Bubblefish appeared in a black hole and stole Honeybee's doggy. It retreated when it saw Cthulhu ("The wonderful telephøne system..."), and disappeared so quickly that Honeybee couldn't snatch her dog back.

Leafy: AAAAAHHH! HELP ME!!! I'M BEING ATTACKED BY ALLIGATORS!!!

Bakerloo: What alligators?!

Leafy: Well, they're smaller than fleas, but- look out!

Bakerloo and Leafy ducked as a ghost with disturbingly large eyes (whose name was Melissa) flew overhead in epic battle with a popcorn-devouring goat monster. The two CBers watched as Faith chased after it in the hopes that she could get her free popcorn from the monster, and as dreamii, Firefly, and Starlight chased after Faith. All four members of dreamii's crew jumped when a salad called them soggy croutons and threw a copy of the Daily Punctuation at Firefly's head.

Starlight: How rude! We should sue that salad!

Dumbledore: there will be no suing.

Kali: Dumble doore?!

Tumble started to chew at the hem of Dumbledore's robes. Dumbledore sighed and picked Tumble up by the scruff of the neck and kicked him. Grace, with Spellbound still busy comforting Honeybee over the lost puppy by offering her a lemming in its stead (which was eaten by a demon before Honeybee could reply), saw this and hastily caught the hedgehog CAPTCHA with much wincing- though it was a good thing she did, because otherwise Tumble would have collided with a snowmobile named Rocinante that was being driven by a morose pegasus holding a pinecone trophy and muttering about the Sardine Incident. The pegasus was attacked by a mechanical boa constrictor as it struck from a statue with a plaque that read "Julius the Geezer, born now, died in the future".

Azalea: Oh no! The poor pegasus!

The pinecone trophy fell at Azalea's feet. She picked it up, tears forming in her eyes.

Nerd: Let us drink lemonade to honor it. 

Nerd gave lemonade to Azalea, Quill, and Bean, the latter two discussing the awesomeness of climbable rainbows as they went to see "A League of Their Own" in a tool shed that was haunted by the ghost of a deer with glowing eyes. Meanwhile, Morning observed Cthulhu singing "Including the majestic møøse, A Møøse once bit my sister…” and stopping suddenly to sob uncontrollably. She shook her head and went back to her book about the history of the Olympic sport of Collective Gasping.

Morning: A bunch of sheep, Nightfall, I tell you.

Nightfall: Huh? My bad, it's just that in my insomniac brain went and lost its frontal lobe.

Morning chose to ignore this and instead watched Abcde, Liddy, Dallas and Qwinn doing much ear squinting as Feline Fantasy had a whispered conversation with four men named Larry. Both AEs were trying to prove they were the better ear squinter (with the help of their own trusty CAPTCHA), and while all four were under the illusion that Feli was discussing vampire mice with the four men, she was actually in a deep conversation about the art of transforming a human being into a pumpkin.

Suddenly, everyone forgot everything they had previously been doing and started a popcorn strike. They marched towards a door labeled "Complaints About Popcorn, AKA CAP. Our Motto: Put a cap on it! We don't care about your stupid popcorn!" chanting for justice.

"OH MY SALAMI!" Nightfall screamed as the door to the Complaints About Popcorn office exploded open as a man without a nose drove a bus through it. He was serenely eating a pie cookie, a fish skeleton dangling from his rearview mirror. He was twitching his eyebrows so much Lucinda thought he would sprain them for sure. His bus suddenly imploded and became a hoard of Book-O-Matics ™ which sang "What Does the Fox Say". dreamii sighed.

dreamii: Shame that he had to implode along with the bus. Aren't men without noses the greatest things?

And it was at this point that Faith woke up from her dream.

~~~~~

***Side affects of reading this scene can include: confusion, headaches, loss of brain cells, a sudden urge to make a face of bewilderment or disgust, malfunctionalis brainius, knowledge of German curse words, development of an allergy to ridiculousness, and pies. If you develop any of these symptoms, go read something wholesome and give me money. Thank you for your cooperation. Take a free lemming.*** 

AAAAAH I just read this whole thing IT'S AMAZING! And hilarious I kept randomly making snorting noises to try and keep the laughter in which kinda failed XD and thanks for letting me in! This is SO good!

Well, I'm dead. That's nice.

Great job, Luna! This ski lodge is truly a gift to the cb and the entire universe. 

Yeeep. Truly a gift *rolls eyes*

TOP!! I'm very glad you appreciated the dream scene. I have never had quite as much fun writing a scene in my life. XD Also, I apologize that when I threw logic out the window, I also chucked your personalities along with it. For the sake of being insane, accurate representations were shooed away.

Everything that happened in that scene was a reference. Everything. 21 ski lodges referenced total. I freaking love my job XXXD 

This is so good, Luna! The dream was confusing and bewildering and absolutely beautiful. I agree with Quill about the book/guest log/red writing being murderer's names. 

After printing this out and annotating within an inch of its life, I have come to a few conclusions. I'm terrible at suspicions, but I have used brilliant eductive reasoning to find two anti-suspects and random ideas to find a few actual suspects.

1) Nightfall cannot be the murderer because they do not have a roomate and the murderer does.

2) Nerd cannot be the murderer because she was in the bathroom when the murderer entered her bedroom.

3) I wouldn't put it past Abcde, Dallas, or Orson to become murderers just to satisfy their egos. This, of course, is rather debunked given that the Mystery chooses the murderer, but they're still kind of suspicious.

4) I was reading Agatha Christie for research. Could be killing people research? The next murder to take place was a stabbing, which Agatha Christie wrote about in plenty, although I don't think any of them quite follows this pattern it's possible that I had taken some ideas. (Never said which books/stories I was reading.)

5) There has to be a reason there are so many helper people. a) Because Luna had a bunch of ideas and couldn't decide on one. b) Because it makes everything even more beautifully confusing or c) Maybe one of them is the murderer? It's completely untraditional, but that's kind of the point of this entire ski lodge, so maybe???  

*gasp* Liddy says bodyw. Will one of the bodies be found in the shape of a W? 

@Morning, you're thinking a little too hard. XD The reason there's so many staff members is solely because I felt like it. I knew I wanted more than just Sam and Jem Louise Margaret, because of comedic relief and because I really wanted to name more than one person- since I knew all of the names would be references. So I think the beautiful confusion theory fits best. Your suspicions are lovely, but as for the body in the shape of a W... XD

Anyways! All of you are lovely! Take a new part!

Day 5 part 2

Faith blinked at the ceiling many, many, many times before she could even begin to process everything that had just happened in her brain. Even then, standing up took some encouragement from Morning.

I guess I just wasn't "wide awake" after all, Faith told herself firmly. She followed Morning cautiously into the hallway. No advertisements or penguin ghosts in sight. Phew.

Breakfast included doughnuts, croissants, breakfast sandwiches, and muffins (which were not made out of mashed potatoes, thankfully). Here Zach and Remi announced that they would be taking a group to the lake they had visited yesterday, as long as they were wearing something they'd be willing to get wet. This was exciting news for the majority of the guests, but it put Faith in a difficult spot. She really wanted to have fun at that beach, and who knew what or if she'd get another chance? But the matter of the second floor was also very important. But, she reasoned with herself, Azalea would probably want to go to the beach too. Obviously Faith couldn't just surprise Aza with her plans and expect her to sacrifice her time at the beach for it.

Faith didn't need much more convincing. The awesomeness the lake provided was too much to ignore. She joined the stampede of guests going to choose their least favorite outfits. Since skiing had been the expected activity, nobody had their swimsuit with them, but there weren't many who cared. Nobody ended up staying behind; even those who weren't in the mood for swimming or going to the water slides figured they could relax or read or sample things from the food stands. That meant all of the staff members (except Jem Louise Margaret) came along too, though Abie and Zach still had to stay at a safe distance; the Disdainful Cat >^< vs. 40s heavy metal argument could get very heated very quickly.

Moondrop was a little bit disappointed to discover they wouldn't be going the person-flinger route that day, but the letdown was quickly forgotten as she ran for the half-sunken pirate ship alongside Nerd. The two talked and explored the ship for a few minutes before they were joined by Spellbound, Bean, and Lucinda.

"Hey, guys," Bean said cheerily. 

"Hi," Moondrop replied. "This place is so cool, isn't it?" She looked around with a grin, pushing silver hair away from her face.

"Yeahh!" Lucinda squeaked, making Spellbound giggle.

"It makes me want to be a pirate for a little while," Nerd said.

"Hey, maybe we could be!" Bean suggested eagerly.

"That sounds awesome!" Spellbound agreed. "We should come up with pirate names and stuff. And maybe we could make up the captain, so then we'd all be even. Like, none of us would be in charge."

They agreed on the name "Captain Jack Fishface" for their imaginary boss, who assumed the personality of the captain he had gotten his first name from. That meant the group of pirates often repeated crazy "orders" from their captain to ridiculous results.

Starlight, Firefly, Morning, dreamii, Grace and Orson were all lounging on the beach, most of them reading or admiring their surroundings. (Except Orson, who was envisioning how the lake would make a beautiful setting for a film, then realizing that he wouldn't be able to film it and mourning his loss.) The rest of them had rushed to the water slides. They were, as Honeybee observed with growing nervousness, gigantic. She took a deep breath and started climbing the massive stairs with an inner tube under her arm. Most people were already at the top, but she was glad to be joined by Feline Fantasy on her journey up. They made jokes about how weird it felt to be in a water park with no swimsuit to ease their nerves, but all too soon, the pair arrived at the top behind Nightfall, who was silently examining the most intimidating slide as though they were trying to intimidate it.

"Why don't we start with that one?" Feli suggested, nodding towards a yellow slide that didn't look quite as extreme as the others.

"Yeah," Honeybee agreed. "That one looks... friendlier." Feli giggled nervously as she approached it.

*****Cue exciting beach fun montage*****

During this montage we see Feline Fantasy zooming down a friendly yellow slide, followed by Honeybee, both laughing and having a lovely time. Dallas goes down the biggest, least friendly slide without an inner tube, which gives Feli a heart attack and Abcde a challenge. Azalea joins the group dotted along the beach after the plummet of the green slide stole her intestines and will to take another turn. Bakerloo, Quill and Leafy took three different slides and raced to see who would get to the pool fastest. (Leafy, having taken the unfriendly red slide, won this. Faith insisted on giving her a pinecone trophy for the victory.) Sterling tried to convince Nightfall to compete in such a challenge, but she was refused. Instead, she raced a group of CAPTCHAs, who squished together in a single inner tube. They got one round in (Sterling won) before Remi caught sight of the CAPTCHAs' dangerous tactics and shut them down. Along the beach, dreamii, Firefly and Starlight decided to take a short walk around the beach- it was lined with flawless gardens and beautiful views of the forest. Grace wondered if she should say something comforting to Orson, who was muttering feverishly to himself about how misunderstood and underestimated he was. Morning serenely read The Hobbit, admiring the lake and trying her best not to think about what kinds of things Abcde and Liddy might have gotten themselves into. And in the pirate ship, Spellbound, Moondrop, Bean, Lucinda, and Nerd came up with spontaneous and wacky adventures, experimenting with fake eye patches made from the leaves of nearby plants and creating memories to last the whole vacation.

Their lunch was from the food stands the beach boasted, which all miraculously contained fresh food, despite having been abandoned for over a year. After taking a short break to eat and chat, the group got back to their fun. When Quill discovered the tubes snaking under the sand and lake, many of the CBers eagerly joined them in exploring. dreamii gasped in delight when she found that her chosen tunnel came out under the lake, and since the sides of the tunnel were see-through, she could watch the life of the lake from inside of it. Trying not to think about what would happen if the tunnel was unstable, dreamii kept her eyes on a bright green fish as she pointed out the discovery to Moondrop, who was behind her.

"Y-yeah," Moondrop said with a wince. dreamii looked at Moondrop with sudden, gut-wrenching fear. That's not good. That's VERY not good.

"Moondrop? Are you okay?" dreamii squeaked.

"No," Moondrop moaned. "dreamii, I think the leaves we used as eye patches were poisonous...." Moondrop's hands were an angry red, and so was the area surrounding her left eye. Moondrop started to sob. "Lucinda had one too... she's so tiny, I don't think she could survive it..."

dreamii tried her best to work through her overwhelming panic and suggested, her voice trembling, that they turn and get to Sam and the rest of the staff as quickly as possible. Moondrop agreed, though she didn't have half the urgency that dreamii did. Almost like she had already given up hope that she would make it back to the beach.

In a cruel twist of fate, it was true that Moondrop would have made it... if she hadn't lost her faith. 

Day 5, part 3

It was still sunny, but Azalea was shivering. They had held an impromptu funeral for Lucinda, who was too small to be carried back to the cabin without getting the poison from the plant onto whomever was carrying her. The staff had decided that a service for Moondrop would be held once everyone who had come in contact with the two had showered and gotten rid of their clothes- anything that could spread the poison would have to go. Currently the quiet group was weaving its way through a sparse forest on its way to the cabin, the tall building perched on top of the snowy hill in clear sight. The weight of two deaths at once was heavy on the ski lodgers' shoulders, and Azalea could tell it was making everyone- including her- uneasy.

She looked sadly over at the isolated group that had been close to Moondrop and Lucinda- Bean, Nerd, Spellbound (fellow crewmates on their pirate ship), dreamii (in the tunnels with Moondrop), Leafy, and Bakerloo (who had lunch with Lucinda). They trooped along in a miserable clump about a yard away from the rest of them. Leafy caught Azalea looking at them, and she quickly averted her eyes. As blush crept up her cheeks and she turned her head towards the left, she saw Faith approaching her. Faith? Is she still going on about the-

"Second floor," Faith whispered loudly once she had come to be uncomfortably close to Azalea, who flinched a little at the whisper. "I'm going up there alone. I need you to be lookout."

"What? Why?" Azalea asked. 

"Because we only went through one door yesterday, and there were tons! Think about what we could discover! We- we could... we could help everyone by, uh, finding stuff!"

"Or we could hurt everyone," Aza pointed out. "Faith, what is so important to you? We're going to find out about the mission... eventually..." she trailed off guiltily. When would Sam tell them all what exactly the "mission" was and what it would entail? Was there a reason they were still keeping it from everyone?

She sighed. "Okay, I guess I see your point. But if you find something important, you have to promise to share it with Morning and Bakerloo too."

Faith cheered silently and bounced away. Azalea sighed. This couldn't actually be a good idea, could it?

~~~~~

Sam Crickett looked at NerdFace, Bean, Spellbound, dreamii, Bakerloo, and Leafy and tried to stay calm. There was technically a risk that any of them could die from the poison, but they had tried their best to reassure the group that everything would be fine. As long as they didn't touch anything, including each other and themselves. Sam Crickett was not a great liar when they were stressed.

The group had been shooed into the empty bedroom closest to the bathrooms. Sam was ushering them into the showers one at a time in between relaying messages to the rest of the staff via walkie-talkie and taking mental notes of everything the group members were coming in contact with. It took quite a while, but eventually Sam was satisfied that the poison wouldn't spread, and the group held a ceremony for Moondrop as well as Lucinda. For a bunch of people who knew what a death really meant in their position, stress was running particularly high. Brewing within the murderer, however, was more confusion than stress. They hadn't placed that poisonous plant there at all. They made the mistake of glancing at Bakerloo- the look on his face was hard to stomach. The murderer knew guilt wasn't an option.

Faith and Azalea, meanwhile, were both getting antsy about the second floor. Azalea felt bad not including Morning and Bakerloo. In fact, she felt bad about agreeing to it at all. Sure, maybe Faith would find something cool up there, but everything about it was starting to feel wrong.

Nevertheless, Aza found herself positioned casually in the living room after Moondrop's ceremony. With the guests and the staff feeling downcast, Faith figured none of them would care where she was. Aza was starting to feel a little sick. How could she let Faith do this? She bounced her knee nervously and stared at the bricks surrounding the fireplace.

"Azalea? Are you doing okay?"

~~~~~

Faith looked at the array of doors with a wide grin on her face, rubbing her hands together. There were five of them- the one she had gone through yesterday, the door to the staff rooms, and three mysterious doors waiting to be opened. She started with the one to the right of the one she had already explored. Looking around, she was very disappointed to find that it looked like a plain old storage room. Then with a gasp, she saw something that made her do a double-take- it was Rocinante the snowmobile from her dream that morning! Why in the world was it there?!

She was so dumbfounded, she didn't noticed Sam Crickett until they were asking her what she was doing.

A strangled noise between a yelp and a gasp escaped Faith's lips, the result sounding similar to a dying duck. "Sam- what are you- did Azalea seriously rat me out?!"

Sam plastered a look of mild surprise onto their face. "No, I was just going to get something from my room and I heard you in here. Though I did see her looking pretty concerned when I was walking up the stairs." Sam was bluffing. They had noticed Aza's anxiety and asked her what was up. She told them everything.

Sam gently folded their arms across their chest. "So I see you've found the storage room."

"That snowmobile was in this weird dream I had last night," Faith blurted out. Sam laughed.

"Rocinante? Did you see any lemmings too?" Sam chuckled, then sighed a little as they looked around. There was no reason not to explain this to Faith. But first, they wanted Faith's honesty before they gave her theirs. "Faith, what are you doing?" They asked a second time.

"I..." Faith stared at her bright green flip-flops. "I guess I'm not totally sure. I just got it in my head that something important would be up here and I should explore, and after that I guess it just... spiraled. I'm sorry, Sam."

"You're just fine, Faith. You never did do anything wrong. I never told you that this floor is off-limits. Though, maybe I should have." Faith looked at Sam with surprise. "Oh, not because of this room. This really is just a storage room. But it's full of memories, let me tell you." Sam looked around themselves with a smile. "Faith, all of this stuff is from the vacationers who came here before you..."

Day 5 part 4

Faith blinked. "So you mean, all of this is stuff that was mentioned in TON's ski lodges?"

"Yep," Sam said proudly as Faith looked around in awe. There were several things that caught her eye. Around the floor and on miscellaneous tables and shelves, she saw SFP sunscreen, a sign that informed her "Springheel Jack was here", a javelin, a camera and stapler that were both named Maggie, a lightsaber, some glitter, a dog collar with the name Samus, a menu from an Italian bistro that seemed to be called Carl, a membership card to "The Society of the Order of the Guild of Females Everywhere" or "TSOGFE", and- was that a headless Barbie?! There were also various pilfered cannons and a refrigerator.

"Can I look in the fridge?" Faith asked, unaware that Sam had been talking to her the whole time. Nevertheless, Sam laughed and told her to go ahead. When she did, she saw a lot of Coca-Cola, some baked fish, a brioche, waffles, whipped cream, and some leftover pot roast.

"Take a look in the freezer," Sam told her. She did- and laughed. Despite being rather small, the freezer was packed with hundreds of tubs of blue moon ice cream. Faith's laughter died as she closed the freezer and turned back towards Sam. Faith wasn't the best at social interaction, but she got the feeling that Sam had some important things to say.

"Faith, I know you want to know about what's behind those other doors," Sam started. "And I have to say that there are some things that I can't tell you about quite yet. But you know about this room. The objects from TON's stories are here. And in the room to our left, you can find portraits of the original ski lodge staff, some fun characters that made some appearances, and a final portrait of TON himself. Sitting beneath that picture is a book. There are four lists, one for each ski lodge TON did. They've got the names of the guests and the murderers written in red. Past those pages with the lists is the very first ski lodge itself, its story written on those pages."

Sam paused for a moment and let this sink in. "I can't say what's behind those other two doors. I'm sorry about that. And, Faith?"

Faith looked Sam in their impossibly bright blue eyes. "Yeah?"

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't come up here anymore." Sam's tone was kind enough to coax a smile from Faith's lips. "One more request for you. Please tell Azalea and whoever else that was in on this- tell them everything I just told you."

"Okay," Faith agreed quietly. But a thought struck her. "Did Zach's sword come from this room?"

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, it did. But don't let him know that I told you that. Now beat it, crazy lady. You've spent enough time up here."

Sam waited for Faith's footsteps to dissolve before turning cautiously to enter the room on the far right. Of the two doors Sam couldn't speak of, this one was far more important. They eased the creaking door open and coughed when they inhaled dust. Sitting on the floor among the grime like a forgotten memory was arguably the most important object within the walls of the cabin.

A book.

~~~~~

Sterling watched Azalea and Faith out of the corner of her eye, glancing at them occasionally over her sketchbook. She finished her drawing as Sam Crickett hurried down the staircase. Sterling closed her sketchbook and tossed midnight-blue hair away from her face, gazing out at the quiet crowd within the living room. Their almost silent atmosphere was ruined by the sound of Jem Louise Margaret tripping and stabbing herself, followed by Zach's shout of "It was Hazel the broken ruler again!" Sterling couldn't help but smirk at Firefly's eye roll. Zach's shout did kill the mood, though, or at least made it far more uncomfortable. She didn't notice Aza and Faith whispering to Morning and leading her out into the empty foyer. But Sterling did notice that Quill and Honeybee were attempting to start a game of Monopoly, and she was all too eager to join in. Grace and Kali decided to join as well. Feline Fantasy, Firefly, and Tumble spectated while Nightfall volunteered to be the banker. They played for hours, with no conclusion or winner- though Sterling had a considerable lead.

Morning was irritated at first that Faith would continue with her plans to go to the second floors even when they had decided to drop it, but she was very interested in what Sam had shared with Faith. The three agreed to wait until tomorrow to share with Bakerloo.

They had pizza for dinner. It was quieter than usual, of course, but the guests’ knowledge of the Mystery kept any misery at bay. The murderer was feeling thoughtful. Their mind kept wandering back to the poisoned plant that two had fallen victim to without any of their own foresight. Obviously Lake Lelillo had been a ski lodge too… were those plants naturally occurring? Or had that murderer placed them there, and the plants somehow remained there? The murderer was wondering how this should concern them. Should they be concerned that other ski loges might have similar traps? Or should they take as a sign of what they should be doing?

The guests went to bed with restless minds.

~~~~~

Dead: 5. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed. Lucinda and Moondrop, poisoned.

Suspects: Spellbound, Nerd, Bean (any others?)

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 6

References this day

RMS Tiny

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/inkwell/node/145605

Peculium

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/467280

Relaxation Suites Hotel (don’t recommend you read it, this was my first ski lodge)

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/371004

Shallow Creek Woods Treehouse (my second, not much better than the first)

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/376231

And you have all these links already, but in the dream scene I referenced the Galaxy ski lodge, Diagon Alley ski lodge, Disorienting Express, Quendor Express, Lake Lelillo, The Farm Story, the Ryokan Suzuran, Island Paradise Resort, Hotel Le’Faye 2, Ellingham Manor, Woodlock Mansion, Golden Palace Hotel, and all four TON ski lodges. 

MINISODE 1

*perky piano music* Today’s minisode is brought to you by Tatooine Incorporated! You too can experience the joys of drinking blue milk and staring wistfully at the double suns for the small fee of a golden snitch, some Lembas bread, and a slice of pie-flavored pie!

Today I will be interviewing your friendly staff so you can get to know more about them! Unfortunately, Jem Louise Margaret will be unable to attend due to being stabbed (with, as Zach is insisting I inform you, Hazel the broken ruler). Sam Crickett, Abie Bailey, Zach Lamborghini, and Remi Mazí are here with me in an unspecified place at an unspecified time.

Hello and welcome to your interview! How is everyone?

Sam: I'm good! How are you, narrator- excuse me, interviewer?

Just dandy, Sam, just dandy. Let's start off with our first (technically second, since I asked how you were) question: what color is the sky?

Zach: yellow with purple polka dots.

Remi: typically blue. Unless Zach is around. He and the sky had a bit of a feud.

Abie: am I supposed to answer poetically?

Excellent answers! Moving on, will you please give your detailed opinion on the beautiful and ingenious song "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard"?

Sam:  *intense Shire music* THEY'RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD! (BUM! BA-DA BUM BUM!)

Zach: not as good as 40s heavy metal.

Abie: not as good as Disdainful Cat.

Remi: please move on before something explodes.

Alrighty then! Next question: why are toasters so cool?

Zach: because they're inter-dimensional portals in disguise. When you put your bread or waffle or least favorite school assignment inside of it, they go through many dimensions before they pop back up.

Sam: well, I have no idea how to follow up after that.

Neither do I! The next question I have for you is an extremely important one: why are Cheerios so good?

Sam: alien unicorns.

Remi: care to elaborate, Sam dear?

Sam: alien unicorns. I'm not legally allowed to say anything else.

Abie: Skipping past the alien unicorns, I always thought it was the love imbued into them by my mom when she would make me breakfast when I was little.

Remi: Aww, how sweet!

Zach: alien unicorns abducted my mother when I was six.

Abie: ...

Remi: ...

Sam: ...

Narrator (hey, that's me!): ...

Narrator: so, how about that Germany?

Remi: GERMANY. Yes. Germany is a very nifty country, full of wonderful composers and trains that are always on time.

Abie (whispering): and the blinkenlights. Never forget the blinkenlights, my lovelies.

And my last question for you: What are your thoughts on rubber chickens?

Zach: my one true love after 40s heavy metal and plastic swords.

Sam: they're that kind of random that's just really fun.

Remi: They're not something that crosses my mind very frequently, believe it or not.

Abie: I... *gazes off stoically and intensely into the distance*

Zach: where did that dramatic action movie music come from?

Remi: Abie? Are you okay?

Abie: I... *looks around, breathing heavily* the rubber chickens... there was... an accident... *shakes head and takes a deep breath* I'm more than my past, and I'm learning to put it behind me... but I made mistakes that I would be ignorant and cruel to forget. 

*dramatic action movie music intensifies*

Well then... looks like the innocent and sweet member of the ski lodge staff has some dark secrets.

Well kids, that's all for today. I hope you learned something, because education is nice. I also advise you not to worry about your safety now that you know exactly what kind of people your staff members are- I assure you that this will all be just fine! Please support Tatooine Incorporated because they want your money! And remember, don't tip the driver.

~Fin

Day 6, part 1

"So what if curiosity killed the cat? I'm not a cat. And if I weren't curious, I wouldn't be much of anything at all."

---

~~~~~

Orson believed that if he did not go and film something, he would explode.

This was the seventh day at the cabin. It was quite obvious to him that every moment was wasted from the moment in Day 0 when he found out that his talent would be put aside for who knows how long. 

In fact, the lack of productivity had withered his pride. It was with great disgust that Orson realized that he would indeed stoop to the level of a promotional video if it meant he could hold a camera and direct a couple of idiots. He shook his head vigorously. He needed to get some fresh air. It was, as it always seems to be, 3 am. Unlike Faith, he didn't bother to look towards his roommate before twisting the handle of the door open. And unlike Faith, he was not in a dream. He decided that a late-night snack sounded nice and headed to the kitchen. When he arrived, Orson was surprise to find someone sitting at the table already.

Orson: what are you doing here?

???: couldn't sleep. And you?

Orson: can't stand to be underestimated anymore. My ideas are so obviously ingenious that I just don't understand the lack of praise. Talent like mine shouldn't be bottled up like this.

The murderer nodded sympathetically. Poor Bakerloo, they thought. His CAPTCHA yesterday, his AE today...

???: do you want some pie? I found it in the fridge, and it doesn't seem like they'll ever run out of it.

Orson: I suppose.

Before you jump to any conclusions, I want you to know that the pie wasn't poisoned. There was no logical way that the murderer could have dug the vile of poison from their sock, inconspicuously added it to Orson's slice of pie, and managed to keep him from running to the staff with an intense new suspicion. It would be much easier, the murderer figured, to stab him with their handy pocketknife. So that's what they did, leaving themselves with one less job to do and me with zero ideas of how to transition into the next part. Cue tildes!

~~~~~

Grace had been sitting in her bed for the past half hour. For some reason, she was extremely worried that any kind of noise she made would wake up the sleeping Leafy across the room. She'd tried to reach for her laptop, but the creaking springs of her bed made her cringe. So she had been gazing at the room ever since, knees to her chin, body swallowed by an oversized pajama t-shirt and her untamed, curly hair. At the forty minute mark, however, Grace's boredom overtook her. With a small sigh, she tiptoed to the door and prayed that it wouldn't make noise. She was relieved to find it didn't and turned towards the hallway- and almost screamed.

"Sterling," she whispered, relieved. "You scared me..."

"Sorry," Sterling replied hurriedly. Grace noticed that she seemed anxious. "Orson's not in our room."

"What?" Grace asked. "Do you... do you think the murderer...?"

"We should look for him," Sterling replied firmly. Grace swallowed her fear and walked after Sterling.

I'm sure you understand what happened once the CBer and AE made it to the kitchen. For the sake of the flow of the story and my word count, we'll skip to breakfast, which came after Orson's funeral. Rather than being subdued like last night's dinner, it was almost completely silent around the table that morning. And I mean silent; silence is what comes after the loudest of things, and it's far from soundless. Nobody was talking, but their brains were hard at work. Maybe it was the length of time that had passed without many of their questions being answered; maybe it was the fact that Lucinda, Moondrop, and Orson's deaths came one after another; and maybe it was just time for everyone's curiosity to awaken; but a majority of the ski lodgers were thinking about their mission. There was a reason why they were all here, and Sam had promised to elaborate soon enough- but it was day 6 and they hadn't heard a thing, and something was starting to change. A brief summary of the events that followed:

~Bakerloo was informed of everything Sam had told Faith the other day.

~Jem Louise Margaret was stabbed.

~the staff detected a change in the guests when they opted to pass up a trip to the Wintertide Palace and its promise of a spectacular ballroom and lovely snowfall.

~most of the day consisted of the guests lounging all together in the living room, doing a random mix of fun things (watching TV, reading, drawing, poking Abcde to see how she would react- Not well, Dallas and Qwinn concluded) and more important things- or rather, a more important thing, which was discussing the mission and their lack of information about it.

~NerdFace, Nightfall, Quill, and Morning were the brave souls who approached Sam with their question. The four came back with Sam's response: "I'll tell everyone exactly what's happening tomorrow. I promise."

~the ski lodgers celebrated this by singing Phineas and Ferb songs and going on a hunt for the free popcorn, which they found in an unused bedroom. Then they stayed up late to watch a show called Mystery Science Theater 3000, which they all found very awesome because I said so. The end.

~~~~~

Dead: 6. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed. Lucinda and Moondrop, poisoned by plant. Orson, stabbed.

Suspects: Spellbound, Nerd, Bean (any others?)

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 7

References this day

Wintertide Palace:

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/464813