Places to Chat
My dear humans,
Chatterbox: Pudding's Place
My dear humans,
My dear humans,
You, no doubt, are reading this on one of your newfangled electronic devices, on the website called the Chatterbox. You're probably also a once or current recipient of Cricket magazine, which is, so far as I can gather, a periodical for children who like to read books and draw pictures. Cricket is, at its heart, a few stories stapled together with a nice picture on the front. Like all stories, it's a bit of other people's dreams caught in paper and ink; an idea incarnate.
It's a remarkable thing. You read stories, no? And those stories are, at their hearts, just a few little black marks that tell you something, and somehow that something can make you smile or shudder or laugh or cry -- it's something you can't touch, something invisible and intangible but definitely, definitely true. You do have souls, you impossible, magical humans, and so do your stories. To quote one of your own unknown geniuses, you look at symbols etched in dead wood and hallucinate. It's a singular talent.
Perhaps you're a teller of stories yourself, stringing words together to mean something pretty or funny or true or brave. You scribble away in the margins of your science notes, struck by an idea for a character or scrap of dialogue. You wake up in the middle of the night, inspired by your dreams, and reach for your No. 2 pencil to write them down.
Or your keyboard, I suppose, but it's so much more romantic to write in spiral-bound notebooks or leather journals or the backs of one's failed English assignments than it is to click away in the soulless glow of a computer. But I'm old-fashioned. Or just old.
You're probably wondering where I'm going with this rambling on about dreams and storytellers and suchlike. --Well, as it happens, this is a story. A story written by a human child, much like yourself, at night, when they really ought to have been asleep. Perhaps they wrote it somewhere far away, or perhaps very close -- in the house across the way, or the coffeehouse you pass on the way to school. It's a mysteriously murderous sort of story, about you and me and some other storytellers, and a big house by a lake somewhere that doesn't exist. I hear you call it a ski lodge.
But let's not spoil the magic, shall we?
My name is Calloway, and I'm the Master of the Castle by the Lake. I take many forms and faces, and I'm not entirely trustworthy. I'd like to invite you to a party at my grand, ancient, occasionally cantankerous, very large house. There will be popcorn. There will be magic. There will be murder.
If you've no objections to any of the above, fill out (*cough cough* fill in, I meant of course -- I may be a shapeshifter of questionable origin, but I'm still a Brit--) the brief form below:
Name and/or nicknames:
CBer or AE:
Pronouns:
Appearance:
Personality in exactly seven words:
What would you wear to a party? (Anything goes. Wear an Elizabethan gown. Wear a tux. Wear overall shorts and flip-flops and your hair in rainbow pigtails. Just be prepared to eat popcorn, dance, and die in it):
Other:
My sister, Pix, will be along to pick you up on December eighteenth. Watch for the flying Ford.
Be brave, stay strong, and sharpen your pencils and uncap your pens and put your magic fingers on your unromantic keyboards, and perhaps you'll survive this peculiar story of mine. I wish you the best of luck, my sweet summer children.
Most sincerely,
Calloway, Master of the Castle by the Lake
submitted by Calloway, the House by the Lake
(December 12, 2022 - 12:25 am)
(December 12, 2022 - 12:25 am)
I already love this Ski Lodge.
Name and/or nicknames: Echo Hallowswift. Echo. Hallowswift. People can call me both--I don't really mind. (@Admins, this is not my real last name.)
CBer or AE: CBer. Sadly, I don't have any cool powers. I'm strictly human!
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers.
Appearance: A slim girl with long blonde hair usually in a pony-tail, shining grey eyes with long lashes, camoflauge t-shirt, light blue jean-shorts/overalls, black combat boots.
Personality in exactly seven words: A fierce girl with passion for art.
What would you wear to a party? (Anything goes. Wear an Elizabethan gown. Wear a tux. Wear overall shorts and flip-flops and your hair in rainbow pigtails. Just be prepared to eat popcorn, dance, and die in it): Probably a camoflauge tunic with brown leggings and black boots. Slim, brown belt.
Other: I don't really do shipping--but if I am shipped, I'm straight.
(December 12, 2022 - 11:19 am)
My thanks, Echo Hallowswift. (That's such a name. Echo Hallowswift. Magicalish, with a hint of creepy, abandoned splendor. My favorite flavor.)
Fortunately, you've no shipping to worry about. Ski lodges don't generally come with shipping, so far as I have seen, and this one is no exception. Ta!
(December 12, 2022 - 6:50 pm)
Why, thank you, Calloway! I thought that there was no shipping, but I wasn't 100% sure.
I like your name too.
(December 13, 2022 - 12:15 pm)
Name and/or nicknames: Lyra. Just Lyra.
CBer or AE: AE, and proud of it.
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers.
Appearance: A fourteen year old girl with long blue hair in a braid. White longsleeve shirt and blue shorts. Blue eyes. Long lashes. Light blue beret.
Personality in exactly seven words: Quiet and kind, usually painting or reading.
What would you wear to a party? (Anything goes. Wear an Elizabethan gown. Wear a tux. Wear overall shorts and flip-flops and your hair in rainbow pigtails. Just be prepared to eat popcorn, dance, and die in it): Well, if I'm to die in it, my everyday clothes.
Other: I'm Echo's AE.
(December 12, 2022 - 11:22 am)
Name and/or nicknames: Hex
CBer or AE: CBer
Pronouns: she/her
Appearance: short shaggy black hair, tall, green eyes, probably glaring at you
Personality in exactly seven words: why? introverted, nerdy, morbid, argumentative, crazy
What would you wear to a party? (Anything goes. Wear an Elizabethan gown. Wear a tux. Wear overall shorts and flip-flops and your hair in rainbow pigtails. Just be prepared to eat popcorn, dance, and die in it): black shorts, gray t-shirt, navy sweatshirt, sneakers.
Other: Yes, my personality was only six words. I can count (sometimes anyway—not usually on a tuesday or a thursday, which is when I have math class). Are you Darkling?
(December 12, 2022 - 11:24 am)
Well, it's seven because that has always seemed to me like the best of the numbers, if that's what you're asking. It's odd, prime, and common in fairy tales. But I shall disapprovingly accept your six-word personality. It would be unseemly to refuse a CBer entry to a ski lodge, however carelessly that CBer makes use of the all-important entry form.
Also, I am not Darkling. Continue guessing, if you have such a will to do so.
(December 12, 2022 - 7:08 pm)
(December 12, 2022 - 6:19 pm)
Reserving for myself and an AE!
(December 12, 2022 - 6:23 pm)
Name and/or nicknames: ^Amethyst, Ame for short!^
CBer or AE: ^AE^
Pronouns: ^they/them^
Appearance: ^Short and lanky, with dark brown skin and wide yellow eyes. Their hair is jet black with purple streaks, usually worn in braids, and they have a black cat tail and ears^
Personality: ^Enthusiastic, spontaneous, friendly, arrogant, easily bored, approval-craving (it's one word because it's hyphenated!)^
What would you wear to a party?: ^A royal purple tunic with gold sequins, black pants, sandals, and gold star earrings!^
(December 12, 2022 - 7:25 pm)
(December 12, 2022 - 7:49 pm)
Name and/or nicknames: WiLdSoNg. If you come up with a nickname that I approve of, I'll use that too.
CBer or AE: CBer
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Appearance: Silvery hair down to waist, athletic, pointy ears, one gold eye, one silver eye, freckles, olive skin, dark patterny lines for tattoos all over.
Personality in exactly seven words: Opinionated. Clever. Observant. Thoughtful. Smart. Kind. Guarded.
What would you wear to a party? (Anything goes. Wear an Elizabethan gown. Wear a tux. Wear overall shorts and flip-flops and your hair in rainbow pigtails. Just be prepared to eat popcorn, dance, and die in it): Black sparkly long dress.
Other: This is very cool!
(December 12, 2022 - 8:19 pm)
Name and/or nicknames: Artemis
CBer or AE: CBer
Pronouns: she/her
Appearance: tall & kinda skinny, with light tan skin, slightly pointed ears, a dark brown pixie cut and brown eyes. glasses, too.
Personality in exactly seven words: quiet and anxious, bookish, artistic, sometimes sarcastic.
What would you wear to a party? (Anything goes. Wear an Elizabethan gown. Wear a tux. Wear overall shorts and flip-flops and your hair in rainbow pigtails. Just be prepared to eat popcorn, dance, and die in it): mmm. let's go with my boot-cut jeans, black button-up, and my signature dramatically-flourishing gray cloak. and doc martens.
Other: can't wait for this to start! :D
(December 12, 2022 - 8:20 pm)
Name and/or nicknames: Sapphire
CBer or AE: AE
Pronouns: She/her
Appearance: Dark brown, wavy hair, sapphire blue eyes, tall for her age, pretty
Personality in exactly seven words: Rebellious, charismatic, slighly conceited without showing it
What would you wear to a party? (Anything goes. Wear an Elizabethan
gown. Wear a tux. Wear overall shorts and flip-flops and your hair in
rainbow pigtails. Just be prepared to eat popcorn, dance, and die in
it): Probably a formal, sapphire blue dress, long enough to reach the ground
Other: n/a
@Calloway, are you Darkling?
(December 12, 2022 - 8:23 pm)
@Calloway, I read your comments after I posted Sapphire's form, and I saw that you're not Darkling. In which case, are you Artemis?
Whoever you are, this looks like a great ski-lodge. :)
(December 12, 2022 - 8:35 pm)
Name and/or nicknames: Darkvine Nightshade. only my enemies and closest friends call me Darky.
CBer or AE: CBer.
Pronouns: she/her
Appearance: midnight-black hair with neon green streaks. my eyes are catlike and glow with an unnatural green light. my feet are scaly, green, and have shiny black claws. (I have vowed not to kick anyone who isn't asking for it.) I'm also rather short.
Personality in exactly seven words: sarcastic. sassy. introverted. complicated. distant. friendly. meme.
What would you wear to a party?: Wings of Fire hoodie and tie-dye sweatpants. no shoes.
Other: I have an extensive mental library of clean insults.
(December 12, 2022 - 8:45 pm)