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It's night. You'r
Chatterbox: Pudding's Place
It's night. You'r
It's night. You're sitting in your bed, staring out the window, searching for something lost. But you can't remember what it is, or was. All you know is that it's out there...it's important...and it was once yours.
Perhaps you never used it, perhaps you did--once, maybe twice. Or more. But for some strange reason, you can't remember if you did or didn't. Or what effect it had on you. Or...where it is now.
As you awoke from a particularly bland and boring dream, the memory that you were missing this...thing slid into your head. As you sat in a haze between asleep and awake, you stared outside, scouring the landscape that, for one fleeting moment, was no longer the familiar world you saw every day.
So here you are, staring outside, searching.
And then you finish waking up.
And here you are, trying to remember what you were just doing.
Hm, you think, smacking your dry lips. The covers rustle as you reach for your water glass, which sits by your lamp on your nightstand like it does every night. That's really wierd...I can't remember my dream. It seemed important--almost real. Your hand meets cold glass and you close your fingers around it. You bring it to your lips for a satisfying sip, but you realize that it's empty.
"Darn," you whisper. You'll have to get out of bed to fill it up--but it's really cold, and you don't have socks on.
Eh, it's no big deal. You'll fill it up.
Throwing the covers to the side, you haul yourself out of bed. With every footstep towards the kitchen all memory of strange dreams and searches leaves you, and by the time you return to your comfy nest of blankets with your full cup of water, the night seems almost normal. That is, until you glance outside the window.
Something moves across the front of the moon, which is full and shines right through the middle of your window, lighting up your comforter. What could it have been? It seemed familiar...And perhaps it's the fact that you're still half asleep, half awake that you can sense it, but a powerful force beats from it. Calling you. Presenting opportunities that you absolutely cannot miss.
Without any hesitation you get back out of bed, but before you can even leave your bedroom you notice a puddle of water near your nightstand.
So that's where all my water went, you realize. I must've knocked it over. Upon closer inspection you realize that there's writing on the carpet, glowing faintly yellow from under the patch of wetness.
The writing is so interesting you don't even realize how strange it is that the puddle isn't soaking into the carpet, or wonder how the words got there. In fact, the words don't even seem scary to you, despite their suspicious nature.
Hello, person! You are one of the lucky few CBers to be chosen to go on a nice, relaxing, beautiful vacation over Lake Lelillo! (Lay-LIH-loh) If you do indeed come, and we absolutely hope you do decide to, you will be given a free getaway from work, school, and empty water glasses! Here at Lake Lelillo, you will have all-day access to the lake itself, the fun attractions, the ice cream stands, the hot dog stands, the hamburger stands, the steak stands, the spagghetti stands, and any other stand marked with a silver star. (Which is all of them, so please don't forget!) Your rooms will be huge and most of them will even overlook the lake! They will of course be inside our one and only Luxury Lake House, which you will live in until your stay comes to a close. Remember this is all completely free, free free! Please pack your things, bring an AE and/or CAPTCHA if you'd like, and wait with them by the nearest stream at sunrise tomorrow morning. As we always say: All inlets lead to Lelillo!
~Your Soon-to-be Chaperones,
Cassy and Lily of Lake Lelillo
How you read all that small print was beyond you. Will you go? It certainly seems relaxing enough. The choice is yours to make.
-------------------------
I'll tell you all when the spots are closed, so join while you still can!
Please note that this is my second ski lodge, and it's kind of linked to my first. In a sense, it's the next part. I don't know if I should call it a part two, or what, but some things might reference the first ski lodge. Don't worry--I'm not going to make things super confusing. I'll explain things as I go--and I really need new CBers to join in. But I also need some CBers from my previous ski lodge to come. ('Course, they don't have to join if they don't want to; I'll understand.)
Here's another clue (if you didn't catch the others...) for the CBers who were in my first ski lodge, or read it, and wanted to be in this one:
What do you get when you cross a scorpion and a sloth?
Hehe, my alias isn't going to last the day. :D
submitted by Your Chaperones, Cassy and Lily
(January 1, 2017 - 11:51 am)
(January 1, 2017 - 11:51 am)
Aw, thanks Wolfy! Fan theories are super fun :D I can't wait for the next part! :)
Luna says "ifun". So you're fun, are you? I bet Nico agrees XD
*SHUT. UP.*
XD XD XD
*STOP. SERIOUSLY.*
Me- *sprinkles pink confetti on boat*
(March 31, 2017 - 5:23 pm)
Making theories is a lot of fun! Awwwwww so cute! *Puts a little paper heart on boat* there we go.
Nico says "bavd"
Bad? Are you a bad boy? Hmmm I wonder who you are trying to impress. *Points to Luna and elbows Nico*
*OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS STOP THAT RIGHT NOW.*
*Laughs* you didn't say you weren't trying to impress her!
*JUST SHUT YOUR MOUTH OR ILL SHUT IT FOR YOU.*
Nico. It's *I'll not ill. You need to work on your spelling.
*GRRRRR!*
(April 1, 2017 - 9:29 am)
Sorry I haven't been on here. Anyway, good theories, Autumn Leaves!
(March 31, 2017 - 7:09 pm)
Whoever the murderer is isn't usually serious.
(April 4, 2017 - 11:15 am)
Plese continue writing!!!
(April 4, 2017 - 3:41 pm)
Oh, this is sooooo goood! Unfortunately, I haven't had time to write and post theories, but I love every minute of your stories! Please continue!
(April 4, 2017 - 5:12 pm)
I would like to raise some points of interest:
1. Why would Joan have cough drops if she wasn't sick, and nobody else was either?
2. Whoever wrote "sorry Icy" must have been friends with her, otherwise they probably wouldn't have apologized.
OK, I'm out. ✌️
(April 8, 2017 - 11:35 am)
(April 9, 2017 - 12:19 pm)
Whoops, sorry for not posting for like two weeks! I've got a lot of writing projects going on right now; it's hard to keep track of them all.
AWESOME theories, everyone! I can't tell you if you're right or not, of course, but still, I love them.
Here's the next part! I forgot which number this is, but LilyPad was just about to read the writing on the rocks. It's kind of long...
--------------------------------------
([/ErR/]6^--+rTTlbrb=`1!{}_UR)__Mystery GDLFANA SRTYO FRMR CAPA__...{/"Watch..." [she] snarled,"as ...[he]...suffers his well-deserved fate!(34//post:3)"/} {"You are..." "You were..." "It's night..." "Come back..." "It is..." You wake..." "GiiRTTGnnd...//"{}]}=TTYLBRBGTG DTHEA.................
LilyPad grew more and more confused as she read on. The individual WORDS she could understand, but their actual reason to exist? Her happiness evaporated; there was no secret message after all.
Perhaps it was her disappointment or frustration, but LilyPad didn't bother to try and memorize the message. She sighed and jumped upwards, heaving herself out of the rock pit and scraping her arms on its rough edge.
She scrambled to her feet and, sweeping the bits of dirt and sand off of her arms and legs, began to climb down to the ground.
When LilyPad returned to her group, they were just crowning Seaweedman emperor of Sandland. Thankfully, no one had noticed she'd left--or so she thought...
"Where's Moonfrost?" she asked, noticing the CBette's absence.
"She went back to the house, remember? She had to use the bathroom," Joan said. "She told us not to wait for her."
"Ready to head on?" HAB asked after sticking Seaweedman onto the top of his new castle.
Everyone nodded--they would reach the tip of the lake if it was the LAST thing they ever did!
...For some of them, it basically would be.
--------------------------------------
Back at the house, the Chatterboxers were boxing up the Monopoly board. Moonfrost had just gotten back to the house and had decided not to try and catch up with the others, who were likely almost to the tip of the lake at that point.
She had returned just in time to watch the epic finish of the Monopoly game--Dragonrider and Booksy Owly were the last two CBers left who weren't bankrupt, and Booksy had just bought a hotel for the Boardwalk when Dragonrider rolled that fateful seven...And landed on Boardwalk. The game had ended with much cheering and moaning and pats on backs.
"Hey, what're you doing with that box?!" Dragonrider asked Puck in alarm. The AE was taking it towards the window, twitching.
"Heh. Heh. Um, nowhere."
Puck tossed the game onto a chair and stared at it reproachfully. She had decided that she wasn't very good at Monopoly, after going bankrupt five minutes into every game.
"What are we going to do now?" Autumn Leaves asked.
"Meh. I dunno," Ice Wolf said.
"Uh oh, the thimble fell on the ground," Moonfrost said, referring to Puck's Monopoly gamepiece. It had rolled across the room, over to the door of the Lavender DeRoma bedroom. When Moonfrost bent over to pick it up, she noticed something at the bottom of the door that she hadn't noticed before--real words.
She crouched down lower and squinted at the letters. This is what they said:
{Secret:/__CBer--)Moonfrost)} The Mystery is strongest in its original environment. The window in the Rose sitting room overlooks this mountain.
Moonfrost continued onto the next door.
Here they keep its secret; they watch from close and far. Those who know more can read more, for those who do not know cannot yet understand.
Moonfrost decided she didn't quite understand yet.
Magic does exist? but no one knows it does because they've always had it.
That was pretty random...And the last door made no sense at all.
DTHEA...--__(table)//SI\|/+WREN..SD-)(DR--CL/A--ICY--IW--AL/MS/SM--PS--MN--CC--CtD--etc)
Moonfrost rose from the ground. "Huh. What's the Mystery?"
"What's the what?" asked Owlgirl.
"See, the words make sense now. Try and read them."
Owlgirl looked confused, but she tried to read the words anyway. "Um...It says 'Mystery' and...that's all I can read. The rest is gibberish."
Moonfrost cocked her head. "Oh."
Just then, the door swung open, and Jayfeather walked in, his hands in his pockets and his head down. He glanced around as the room fell silent, but said nothing. He went straight into his bedroom.
"I'll be right back," Cinderpelt said, following her AE into the Tabitha Tucker room.
A few moments later, Lily entered the room.
"Hi," she said, looking around. "Where's everybody else?"
"Out by the lake," Owlgirl replied.
Lily nodded, half grinning. "That's what I thought. I just got an angry message from Pierre. Do you guys want to do something other than sit around in your room?"
The Chatterboxers shrugged--there was a lot on their mind.
"Maybe later," answered Moonfrost.
"Okay," Lily said, and she left.
Moonfrost sighed and sat back down on an armchair. If I don't tell them what happened, they might never know. Then again, if the murderer has been blackmailing Cassy, telling everyone what Pepper and I heard could do more harm than good.
She had made up her mind. She would speak to Cassy again.
Moonfrost rose from her seat and announced that she'd be right back.
"Where are you going?" asked Brooklyn Newsie.
"For a walk around the house," Moonfrost replied simply.
The hallways of the mansion were silent, but every once and a while Moonfrost would pass a staff member carrying a load of laundry in their arms. Moonfrost wondered why so many sheets needed to be changed throughout the house.
Moonfrost wandered around for a bit without any progress. Finally she gave up and asked what appeared to be a lump of moving laundry where Cassy was.
"You'll have to go outside," came the muffled reply. There was someone buried among all those sheets! "She's overseeing the spring cleaning of the employee quarters. Hold on, let me set this load down..."
The pile of white cloth teetered, then fell forwards, spreading out across the floor. A curly-haired woman wearing glasses was then revealed.
"I like to get it all in one trip," she explained, indicating her scattered load and sighing. "Anyway, if you go outside, to the back, there's a little path on the other side of the cove with the waterslides in it. Follow that path through the woods and you'll find our cabins."
"Thanks!" Moonfrost said. She would've offered to help the woman, but she was in a hurry and didn't want Cassy to move to another location while she was distracted carrying dirty laundry.
Moonfrost ran through the halls and finally emerged from the maze into the rennovated reception room. She pushed through the double-doors and ran past a trio of laundry-ladden workers, making a beeline for the backyard.
Moonfrost wondered why none of them had used the waterslide playground in the backyard. It towered almost twenty feet high, and was complete with water guns, jungle gyms, waterfalls, and epic-looking waterslides. There were also four giant floaty rafts floating around it like planets to a sun.
Moonfrost ran past the structure in all its fun, new, amazing watery glory and stopped at the edge of the forest. This one was very well kept--unlike the forest on the other side of the lake, which was full of weeds and undergrowth--not to mention snakes. Each tree was carefully pruned--a great feat, considering this was an entire forest. There were oaks, sycamores, hickory trees, maples, and, if Moonfrost squinted, a grouping of birches far off in the distance, all sprouting bright green leaves that swayed in the gentle breeze, causing the shadows on the forest floor to merge and shudder like light through water.
The CBette glanced around for a path. She soon found one; it was freshly mulched and also covered in footprints.
Moonfrost traveled along the path, hearing more and more voices as she covered more ground. Finally, with a jolt of anticipation, she came across the staff bunkers.
It was like stepping on an anthill! There were employees everywhere, all scurrying around the twelve or so wooden cabins, carrying brooms and mops and spray bottles (and a baby raccoon?) to various locations. Cassy was treating the whole affair like a military procedure, shouting orders from a tall stump and not really doing any of the actual work.
"Backsmith! WHAT are you doing with that baby raccoon?" she shouted.
"Um..." Backsmith held the tiny animal in front of him and observed it. "Carrying it?" he suggested.
"Okay, then, back to work!" she said, clapping her hands together.
"Hey, somebody dropped some paper towels over there! I want a team on that right away!"
"Yes ma'am!" came a chorus of replies. Soon the offending paper towels were detained and carted off.
"Cabins one and three are clean, Cassy!" shouted someone.
"Hey, what happened to number two?" Cassy asked.
"Someone discovered a nest of dust bunnies underneath the floorboards, ma'am, so it's still under decontamination."
"Oh, okay, then. We all know how many diseases dust bunnies carry." Cassy turned to a group of employees wearing pink rubber gloves and pushing a wheelbarrow around a large wooden cabin. "Have the lamps been cleaned and given new batteries?" Cassy asked them.
"Yes," they said. "We're working on the removal of leaves from the gutters now."
"Uh...I didn't know we had gutters. But okay!"
Moonfrost grinned despite herself, shaking her head. She wove through a throng of men beating carpets out on trees and siddled up next to Cassy.
"PSSST!" Moonfrost hissed, staring straight ahead.
Cassy looked around to find the source of the whisper and nearly jumped off her tree stump when she finally saw Moonfrost.
"Ah! You scared me," Cassy whispered, crouching down to Moonfrost's level but not making eye contact, as if she and Moonfrost were spies.
"Sorry. Can we talk?" Moonfrost asked out of the side of her mouth.
"Ummmmmmmmmm..."
"I don't think they'll miss you if you disappear for a few minutes."
Cassy shrugged. "Okay. Let's go into cabin twenty."
Moonfrost followed Cassy around the clearing and into a cabin in the very back, where the leaves lay three feet deep, blanketing everything like snow. There were thin trails meandering through the piles which the employees must've used to get in and out of their cabins. Moonfrost suspected that spring cleaning was simply the cleaning. Everyone probably spent so much time working on the rest of the lake's landscape that they had no time to clean their own houses.
The interior of the cabin wasn't too messy, but it wasn't clean, either. There were six beds inside, three to a wall, and one grimy window that shed little light into the room. In the middle of the cabin there was a threadbare rug and an old rocking chair.
"What's up?" Cassy asked, starting to lean against the rocking chair but thinking better of it.
Moonfrost raised her eyebrows and looked at Cassy. "I want to know why Pepper died."
Cassy winced ever so slightly.
"Did you give us away?"
Cassy went over to the door and locked it. The room was deathly silent. "No."
"Tell me what's going on, Cassy," Moonfrost pleaded.
Cassy shook her head as if to clear it. Suddenly her walkie talkie began emitting static. An unrecognizable voice came through the speakers.
"CASSY," it said angrily. "WHO TAUGHT YOU HOW TO RIG AN ELECTRIC FENCE?! DO I HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT EVERY TIME?"
Cassy blanched so badly Moonfrost could see her white face even in the cabin's dim lighting.
The chaperone stared at her walkie talkie as if it were a bomb.
Tick...tick...tick...the voice exploded again. "WE CAN'T AFFORD ANOTHER FAILURE! IT'S BAD ENOUGH SAPHIRA SAW ME LAST NIGHT!"
Moonfrost gasped, also staring at Cassy's walkie talkie as if it were a bomb. "You--them--it--it--it..." she stammered, trailing off.
Cassy put a shaking hand over her radio's speaker, so the next sentence sounded like nothing but static.
"...WHERE ARE YOU," roared the murderer loud enough for its voice to penetrate Cassy's hand.
Cassy held a finger up to Moonfrost, then unclipped her walkie talkie and pressed a button on its side. "You don't have to yell," she said quietly.
Moonfrost's eyes kept widening. "Who is it?" she whispered.
Cassy didn't answer, for the murderer began to speak again. Its voice sent chills down Moonfrost's spine. She couldn't understand what it was saying, now that it had quieted down, but Cassy, who was trained in the language of walkie talkie-anese, seemed to understand.
"I heard you. Okay. Just...lecture me later; I--I'm busy."
Then came another crackling message. "Fzzzzzzt zzzzt chchchchchchhhhhchhh bvrchhht?"
Cassy glanced at Moonfrost, then at her radio. "No."
More words.
"No. Nobody is here."
Cassy clipped her walkie talkie back onto her belt. "You caught me," she said, her hands up in surrender. "I guess I owe you an explanation...I never could keep a secret, even if keeping a secret was my job."
-------------------------------------
And one by one the secrets shall be revealed to the CBers...one by one they will learn...
Chip says, "Zabe!" *hisses* Chip, be quiet, don't give them spoilers!!!
*Chip gasps and looks offended*
Just kidding, Chip, I know exactly what you mean.
(April 10, 2017 - 5:20 pm)
I caught my name in some of the gibberish! That's scary, it probably says something like
Icy will never eat eggs again
Eggs are supposed to give life, but this time they gave death. R.I.P Icy.
...Yeah, I still haven't gotten over it.
About the gibberish, it could be written in CAPTCHA! Maybe Luna and Nico could read it. Together. With a few people with cameras hiding in the bushes.
(April 11, 2017 - 8:40 am)
(April 11, 2017 - 6:54 am)
(April 11, 2017 - 8:31 am)
Wow Lily. Your French accent must be awful because I SPEAK FRENCH.
I KNOW WHO DUNNIT. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Please don't kill me murderer I'll keep my mouth shut I promise just please please don't kill me.
(April 13, 2017 - 1:36 pm)
Poor Jayfeather. He seems to have lost his will to live.
(June 22, 2017 - 9:40 pm)
Yay! The Ski Lodge is back! It's back! Hurrah!
(April 11, 2017 - 3:40 pm)