It's not the end of the ski lodge day yet, but so much has happened that I want to record my notes and suspicions now. This is absolutely beautiful, Luna, and extremely photosynthesis.

People who are not the murderer

1) Still Nightfall

2) The murderer was popped out of a trance by me yelling at Abcde, then looked away from Abcde, therefore both of us are out of the running.

3) Spellbound, Grace, and Honeybee both arrived at Nerd's body after the murderer, so they are free of suspicion. 

4) It's not a CAPTCHA, there was no mention of that CAPTCHA-speaking-device, and if they had used it, people would have noticed. 

Random thoughts, ideas, and suspicions

1) Moondrop would have lived if she hadn't lost her faith. There is an AE named Faith. Could be a coincidence, but there do not ignore the quote "coincidence? I think not!" So... maybe? It's just crazy enough to be plausible. 

2) 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.  

3) Random humor injected into scenes of death is the best part of ski lodges.

4) Of all the AEs I had first suspected as being ego-centric enough to become the murderer, Dallas is the only one still alive and able to be the murderer.

A wrap-up of my listing

1) Nightfall, Abcde, me, Spellbound, Grace, and Honeybee are not the murderer.

2) Arya, Cherry, Olive, Moondrop, Lucinda, Orson, Azlea, and Nerd are dead.

4) CAPTCHAs are exempt. 

5) This leaves Olive, Bakerloo, Arya, Quill, dreamii, Dallas, Firefly, Bean, Moondrop, Starlight, Sterling, Faith, Feli, Grace, and Leafy as possible suspects.

6) Out of these, I suspect Dallas, Faith, and Sterling. 

--WARNING--INCOMING THOUGHT DUMP--SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY--

I can't be the murderer, since the murderer was looking at me during Orson/Lucinda's memorial service, and we were outside, so there were no mirrors.

We need a t-shirt that says "PHOTOSYNTHESIS TO THE MAX" or something equally cheesy.

The Ellingham Manor references made me inordinately happy -- thank you again, Lun-I mean, Sam. 

Our mission... I have no clue what it'll be, but I'm so excited to find out!!

Thank you to everybody who commented! You all made my day. However, I would like to make a PSA. The photosynthesis joke is a reference to a Funny Things my Friends Have Said quote by Abigail. This is the link to it (the quote is on the first page):

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/chirpatcricket/node/407895

So while I'm very glad you all enjoyed it, the quote is not mine. XD Sorry. 

Excellent detective work, Morning! My suspect list will be revised.

Top! :)

Day 8 part 3

Two CBers were dead, the entire morning had completely flown by, Capture the Flag had been canceled... and all Abcde could think of was that she was not in Red Team. 

She wasn't trying to be insensitive. In fact, part of her indignation was on behalf of the red team itself- didn't a team represented by the most beautiful color in the world deserve the most beautiful AE in the world?- but alas, no. The red team was tragically soldiering on without Abcde on their side. She tried to reason that this meant she was a blessing upon the sad, sorry blue team, and that she should do her best to courageously steer them towards the victory that would be impossible for them to gain without her. She sighed tragically. She was being selfish. Yes, it was a shame that she should be separated from her beloved red, but the blue team was in dire need of help.

Also, Nerd and Azalea were dead. That factored into Abcde's thoughts. She knew that Morning would be sad without Nerd- sure, it was a ski lodge and all, but still- for the rest of their stay, Morning's friend would be gone. Abcde was very selfless, and she decided that she would nobly sacrifice some of her own free time to try and cheer up her CBer following this incident. 

Just as this matter was settled in her mind, someone shouted "FOUND YOU!" from behind her as they roughly shook her shoulder. Abcde screamed and jumped away from the red team member in disgust.

"Dallas!" she shouted indignantly. "Ugh. I won't even begin to imagine the number of germs you just got on my shoulder."

"You should have seen your face!" Dallas wheezed, bent double with laughter. "You looked like someone just told you that I'm the best AE and not you! Which is the truth," he added.

Abcde laughed in a way that was both graceful and merciless. "Tell me, Dallas. Would the best AE brush off the death of their CBer like it was nothing at all and simply carry on with terrorizing innocent AEs?"

The moment the words came out of her mouth, Abcde knew she had taken it too far. She watched, small flames of guilt burning in her stomach, as Dallas's blue eyes widened with surprise and hurt, then narrowed with anger.

"Just you wait," Dallas warned, pointing at Abcde accusingly. "I'll show you who's best." He stormed off, Abcde watching him and wondering what to do next.

The murderer observed from behind a tree, a knife in their hand and a new idea in their head.

~~~~~

Nobody died in Hide and Seek. In fact, it was very much an average game. I do suppose my definition of average includes that moment when a lemming recited poetry to Leafy. Or when a rubber ducky from a different dimension hit Starlight on the shoulder, making her squeak with fright, revealing her hiding space to Quill. Or when Firefly and Bean, who were hiding in a clump of bushes together, found a love letter from a Miss Dandyfluttle to the "splendiferously sweet and seasick Sandy Smitherbloopy". And, okay, I'll admit the moment where dreamii passed through 12 septillion alternate dimensions in .0000001 seconds is pushing the "average" standard, even for me. But as far as the events of the game itself and how it played about, nothing was all that notable. Blue team was the winner in the end. Sam frantically tried to come up with some small third game that could break a tie if red team won the next game. Their plans had been royally screwed when Capture the Flag had been quite appropriately canceled.

Nevermind all that right now, though. I'm getting ahead of myself. Hide and Seek was done. The ski lodgers took a small break, then gathered back up to hear Sam tell them about the next game.

"The third or second or whatever game is a scavenger hunt. Your teams will start on opposite sides of the forest, equidistant from the object you'll be looking for. You'll have different clues, but the same number of them, and you'll both be looking for the same thing. Whichever teams finds it first wins. Blue team, follow Zach; Red team, follow Remi. Good luck."

The teams trekked confidently to opposite sides of the Moonlight Forest, prepared to win awesomely. Who would emerge victorious? I guess we'll both have to find out. 

Top, dear thread of mine!

Day 8 part 4

Quill excitedly unrolled the clue to find that it was a piece of paper with a large puzzle piece tucked inside. Kali, who was perched on Quill's shoulder, attempted to chew on the puzzle piece before Nightfall / NightSky snatched it out of her hand.

"You are looking for a certain tree. Here's how you can identify it.

-Rice

-Eggs

-Danish

-Fritters

-Lettuce

-Apples

-Grain"

"Grocery list trees. My favorite," Bakerloo said cheerfully.

"It's got to be some kind of code," Spellbound insisted.

"Looky!" Tumble squealed, pointing at the first letters of each word.

"They spell something out!" Quill announced. "R-E-D F-L-A-G. Everyone look for a tree with a red flag!"

"I'll race you!" Dallas shouted, scooping Qwinn up in his arms. Nobody decided to take him up on the offer. He did find the tree with a red flag tied around one of its branches before anyone else did, though, which he was sure to mention several times. At said tree, the red team found a piece of paper with a drawing of an arrow and another puzzle piece taped to the trunk of the tree. The arrow was pointing diagonally up and to the right.

dreamii spotted something nested in the branches of the tree that the arrow was pointing at. "Hey, um... do you guys think we might have to climb that tree?"

Her voice was so quiet she feared no-one would have heard it, but Night had caught on. They gave dreamii a nod and wordlessly began to climb the tree.

"Night! Whatt doing?" Liddy chirped.

"They're getting the next clue!" Quill said with a grin.

Meanwhile, the blue team was also at the base of a tree with two puzzle pieces in their hands and an arrow pointing vaguely at a second tree. Sterling was climbing the tree in search of their next clue. 

"I've got it!" she called, sliding off the tree branch. In her hand was a crude map.

"Is that supposed to be of the forest?" Honeybee asked.

"I guess," Sterling shrugged.

"Look, that's us!" Bean exclaimed, pointing to a red dot on the small map. She dragged her finger across a dotted line to a black x. "So that's where we've got to go."

"A treasure map! That's awesome!" Faith exclaimed.

"Ooh! Can I see?" Leafy exclaimed. "Okay, great, so we are goinnnnnnnnggg... this way!" she pointed dramatically towards her right. 

Feli giggled. "Lead the way!"

When they arrived at the place they had been directed to, however, the blue team found... nothing.

"Maybe... we're in the wrong spot?" Firefly suggested carefully.

"No, we're not!" Leafy insisted, the map half an inch from her nose. "I'm one hundred percent sure we're in the right spot! Well, maybe only like eighty-seven percent or something..."

"It'll be close by," Morning assured them. "Let's look around here..."

Abcde muttered something about how she wouldn't be in this situation if she was on the red team, while Bean and Firefly chatted and wondered how accurate a map that small could be, Starlight trotting along silently behind them. Grace, unsure of herself, stuck around at the spot Leafy was so certain contained their clue. She didn't want to have to make awkward conversation with the nearby CBers, so she stared at her toes. She was standing on a patch of ground clear of grass.  As she shifted the dirt around with her shoe, Grace thought about her teammates... the clues...the treasure map... wait a second. Could the answer really be that easy?

Grace crouched down and started to dig. Soon enough, she uncovered a folded piece of paper and a third puzzle piece. "You guys!" she called. "I found it!"

"Really? Awesome!" Feli exclaimed, running over to Grace's side. Soon the whole blue team was surrounding her as she nervously read the next clue. "'To find the last piece of the puzzle, find the twin trees. Your solution will lie on common ground.'"

"Well isn't that just maddeningly unhelpful," Leafy said.

"I'd disagree... let's find two trees that look identical!" Bean suggested.

The epic finale of the scavenger hunt and the color war will be coming sometime soon! 

Day 8 part 5

Starlight, to her silent joy, was the one who found the identical trees. The team found their clue on "common ground"- nestled in a spot where the two trees' roots intertwined. It was a fourth puzzle piece and nothing else.

"That's all there is?" Honeybee questioned.

"We don't need anything else- look!" Bean said, gathering the puzzle pieces together. "These four make a tiny puzzle by themselves!"

"Oh sweet!" Leafy said. "Is it, like, a picture of what we need to find?"

"I think so," Sterling said, crouched over the puzzle that was clumsily being formed on the ground. "It's a picture of a pie tin tangled in some bush..."

"Well, if anything, we won't miss it when we see it," Firefly muttered. Bean grinned.

The blue team spent many minutes wandering around in search of the pie tin- and when they did find it, to their dismay, the red team had made it there before them. The blue team had lost.

"How'd you do it?" Sterling asked. 

"There was a clue written on the back of the puzzle!" Spellbound exclaimed. There was a collective groan from the blue team.

"Why didn't I think of that?" grumbled Sterling, who couldn't get over the defeat.

"It's not like it was super obvious or anything," Morning consoled. "And we still won hide and seek, didn't we?"

The group soon packed everything up and headed back to the cabin. They had a noisy and enjoyable dinner of pasta with garlic bread. After that, Sam announced a makeup third game to round out the color wars and determine a true winner: another pie fight. The guests were overjoyed. They split up once again into their red and blue teams, bringing back the pie tin shields and kitchen knife swords from last time. The blue team encouraged Leafy to make a parody of some other pre-battle speech, but she couldn't come up with one, so she simply stated, "I am not infallible, but pies, pies are." And a beautifully chaotic battle ensued.

I'm not sure what to tell you about the pie fight. I'm sure you can imagine the glorious messiness, the satisfying splat of a pie colliding with someone's face, and the hilariousness of hearing shouts such as "HA! I got her right in the stomach with a lemon meringue!" and "NO! IT'S ON MY BEAUTIFUL RED DRESS!" (I'm sure you can guess who said that.) By the time all the pies were gone, the walls and guests alike were caked with whipped cream.

The staff members judged the winner based one which team collectively had less pie on them. Blue team was the winner and the champion of the color war. Their reward was an oatmeal cream pie each and bragging rights. They finished off the awesome day by watching The Hobbit. Or as Abie called it, "The Wobbit." Or as Zach called it, "The Lemmingbit." 

This is not, however, when the murderer's night ended. Over the course of dinner, the pie fight, and the movie, they had been planning something... it would be a tricky thing to carry out, but the idea was too good to ignore. The shock and intensity that would ensue would be a perfect way to reinvigorate the story...

~~~~~

Dead: 8. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed. Moondrop and Lucinda, poisoned by plant. Orson, stabbed. Azalea, grenade. Nerd, stabbed.

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 9.

Suspects: Faith, Dallas, Sterling

References this day:

Hotel Le'Faye #1:

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/178689

Moonlight Forest:

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/465720

"A fun blend of plot and absolute chaos." Quill, not only did you summarize Day 8, but also the entire ski lodge. XD

Day 9 part 1

"Once I commit a crime, I forget about it. I go from crime to crime."

-Henry Lee Lucas

~~~~~

The murderer had kidnapped Liddy and Qwinn the previous night.

This was discovered first thing in the morning. Abcde and Dallas were both panicked, just as the murderer knew they would be. Most of the day consisted of Abcde and Dallas worrying about their beloved CAPTCHAs, Sam worrying about the Mystery and how they should be working on solutions to their problems, the rest of the guests pitching in to help find the missing CAPTCHAs, and Grace encountering the murderer alone and being rewarded with an arrow to the heart, plus her funeral and the less-than-good  mood that put the guests in.

It was a gloomy day. It wasn't remarkable, nor was it- to my dismay- remotely funny. But really, it shouldn't have been, because it was spent in search of two missing guests and in mourning of one fallen one. In fact, I'm quite morbid for combing this situation to find decent jokes. Except that I've been doing so since the very beginning, meaning I could be considered quite a twisted person. And now I'm having an existential crisis in front of all of you like the ridiculous person I am. But then again, this whole thing is completely ridiculous, and you are ridiculous for reading it. So there.

(Ha! I did find a good joke. Look at me. I'm so smart.)

Well, anyways. I'll be skipping on ahead to some unspecified time late in the night, when the most important events of the days took place. The murderer, following though with the next step of their plan, met up with Abcde. They put a paper bag over their head so as not to be identified.

Abcde: Where is Liddy? If I came and met with the slimy, horrid person who captured my beloved CAPTCHA only to not be told where she is, I will-

????: Take a breath, dear. Just keep in mind that I know where Liddy is and you do not. Imagine what might happen to her if you decided not to listen to me...

Abcde was, for a change, silent. 

????: Good. Now, listen very closely. I need your help, Abcde. I need you to set up traps for me.

Abcde: absolutely not.

????: It's the only way to save the CAPTCHAs.

Abcde: ...

????: as I thought. Take all of these materials and go to the ski lodges on this list. Set up a trap at each of them.

As the murderer handed Abcde the supplies they had gathered and their list of ski lodges, Abcde started thinking. She had to save Liddy, but she also didn't want to be responsible for the death of any of her fellow guests... she was struck with inspiration as the murderer dumped piles of ropes, wood planks, pulleys and the like into her arms.

A few hours later, Abcde's work was done. The murderer thanked her and informed her that the CAPTCHAs would be released in the morning. Then, the murderer proceeded to meet up with Dallas and do almost the exact same thing, giving him his own stack of supplies and a list of different ski lodges. Dallas, fighting in a similar fashion to Abcde before giving in, did as he was told- though he did not form a plan like Abcde had. When they had witnessed the fight between the two AEs, the murderer saw opposition and guilt, and they decided it would be a wonderful thing to use to their advantage. The murderer knew that amidst all of their other motives, their adoration and loyalty for their CAPTCHAs being the most prominent, the two AEs still desired to prove themselves to the other. The murderer had planted the seed in both of their minds of what a good look it would be if they saved not only their beloved CAPTCHA, but also the CAPTCHA of their rival.

The murderer was also aware that they very well could have done it all themselves, but what would be the fun in that?

Also, Jem Louise Margaret was stabbed. That is all.

~~~~~

Dead: 9. 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.

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 9.

Suspects: Sterling

References this day: none 

TOP!

Day 10 part 1

"Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences."

-Norman Cousins

~~~~~

The murderer did as they promised and released the two CAPTCHAs the following morning. (Where had they been? In the same place that the murderer had gone on the night of Day zero...) 

They also left a note on the kitchen table saying that Abcde and Dallas had found them. This confused the AEs, since they both believed that the murderer had only approached them, but their questions were soon forgotten. Their CAPTCHAs were back!

Many of the other guests were rather skeptical of the CAPTCHAs' release, especially how neither of the AEs could give straight answers when asked where the murderer had held the CAPTCHAs captive. 

There was no time for suspicion, though. Sam Crickett needed all of the guests out of the cabin so they could do some more research on the Mystery and how to save it. Remi, Abie, and Zach would be showing the guests some of the ski lodges they had yet to explore. 

The first stop was in the Cryptic Caverns- the beautiful and mysterious caves that Quill had most certainly been in before. They were lead through a tiny cave encrusted with jewels, a long and winding path with the same crystals, and came to a giant understand hall, decked in so many glowing crystals that it looked like a palace.

"Zach, are you crying?" Remi asked in bewilderment.

"It's so beautiful," he sobbed. "Usually tears like this are only inspired by 40s heavy metal..."

"But we've been down here before!" Abie pointed out. "You know what it looks like."

"No, I wasn't here. I was too busy fighting Cerberus in a desert."

"Let's move on to the Rainbow Pools," Remi chided loudly.

The guests were shepherded to a low-ceilinged cave, dimly lit and full of black pools with stalagmites sticking out of them and bridges arching over them.

"I'm not sure Remi knows what a rainbow is," Dallas muttered to Qwinn. Morning shushed him, but the others were similarly disappointed. 

"We know what it looks like," Abie assured the uncertain guests. "But there is a reason why they're called the Rainbow Pools. You'll see..."

And as if on cue, the crystals embedded into all the nooks and crannies of the cave were illuminated. The water lit up in a dazzling spectrum of color. dreamii gasped as she adjusted to the new brightness around her. It was beautiful, and familiar. She'd been here too.

"I think I want to drink it," Faith whispered.

"Don't," Firefly replied.

"Now I want to even more."

"Faith, don't do that," dreamii said. She picked up some pebbles from the cave floor. "Here. Try skipping these across the water."

As Faith begrudgingly accepted the pebbles, Leafy slowly poked her finger at the water to find that, when she withdrew them, her fingers were covered with the colorful liquid.

"Is this stuff poisonous?" she asked loudly.

"I hope not," Honeybee said worriedly, looking at her rainbow-colored hands.

"Not unless you eat it, no," Remi answered pleasantly, watching Quill as they knelt down over one of the bridges for a good look at the pool.

"There you have it, Faith..."

Before Faith could reply to Firefly, the sound of a scream rang through the air.

"MRNIN!" Liddy shouted.

But alas, it was too late for her CBer. She had set off a tripwire that caused rocks to fall on her head and crush her.

"Morning! No! But... but this is impossible..." Abcde rushed to her CBer, but there was no helping her. Burning within Abcde along with her sadness was an anxious confusion.

She hadn't set traps in the Cryptic Caves.

~~~~~ 

@Morning, Aza and Nerd, your official haunting zone is over there. There's a foosball table, a (free) popcorn machine, a bookshelf with limitless books, bean bag chairs, and a TV with limitless movies, shows and video games. The walls are decorated with posters that have ghost puns. All ghosts are welcome to haunt. :D

TOP! 

Day 10 part 2

Sam's work trying to understand what was happening to the Mystery was interrupted by the sound of the guests arriving back from their trip quite early. Sam could only assume what had happened- and they assumed correctly. They lead a service for Morning in the backyard. Jem Louise Margaret made them a lunch of soup and sandwiches. She was promptly stabbed once all of her work was done.

The day was again wasted with the guests feeling sad and discombobulated and Sam feeling like a shameful procrastinator. Though I suppose there were some highlights- Feli did a bit of storytime with the CAPTCHAs and a group of lemmings, telling them all about the adventures of Ally the Cat (a character she made up on the spot and would continue to make jokes about for the rest of the ski lodge); Spellbound and NightSky found a bloodstained recipe for an oat farl; Starlight got pranked by Dallas, who sneaked up on her while she was reading and was so startled she burst into tears; Bean played a goofy song about croissants on her guitar; and Bakerloo found a cabinet full of old movies. He, joined by Leafy, Honeybee, Tumble, and Sterling, watched many black and white films. 

I suppose I should also mention how Abcde approached Dallas sometime that evening with the note the murderer had left on the kitchen table and the knowledge of how her CBer died. 

Abcde: Morning died by trap. The murderer gave us both credit for saving the CAPTCHAs. Part of being perfect is being smart, Dallas- the murderer made you set up traps too, didn't they?

Dallas: Well, I... okay yeah. They did. And I know what you're going to say-

Abcde: We're both to blame.

Dallas: go ahead and rub it in my face, I kill Mor- I mean, uh, yeah, I'm not the only guilty one by a long shot.

Abcde: If you want to be good at deception- which I don't recommend, but I'm just saying- you should probably get better at lying. Anyways, I wasn't only thinking about what happened today. Yesterday morning I got in that argument with Nerd at breakfast, and then after she died, I went and pinned it on you. I, being a kind, honest, responsible, perfect person, have decided to acknowledge my fault in this. What I'm saying is... I apologize.

Dallas: I. Uh. Yeah. You messed up pretty bad, Abcde, shame on you... but since we've both set up traps for the murderer, and we both have some guilt about the death of each others' CBers, let's just say I accept your apology and we never speak of this to anyone else. Deal?

Abcde: Deal.

The two rival AEs shook hands, and they were considerably nicer to each other from then on.

Sam had a dilemma. They needed to keep the guests occupied for a chance to continue observing the Mystery in the hopes of understanding how it could be saved, but they couldn't very well send all of the guests out to visit other ski lodges when they knew there were traps everywhere. Soon enough they came up with a compromise... one that promised a very interesting Day 11...

~~~~~

Dead: 10. 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.

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 10.

Suspects: Sterling (anyone else?)

References this day

Cryptic Caves:

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/468623