Chatterbox: Pudding's Place

Dropping your backpack to the floor with a shockingly loud thud, you kick off your shoes and groan. What a day! You shudder at the thought at all the homework sitting in your backpack, probably plotting ways to become more difficult…

“Why does everything hate me?!” You cry very dramatically. You flop down on the couch as though one more second standing would have killed you.

Ouch! The sharp edge of something wedged into the couch cushions pokes your rear end. Huffing, you turn and grab it. It’s an envelope… Addressed to you. How curious… You take a closer look.  The envelope itself is a handsome olive, but there’s no stamp, address, or return address. Most peculiar. Gently, you unseal the flap and remove two pieces of paper. The first one says:

To whoever’s couch cushion this was wedged in,

You and thirteen others have been detected to have elemental magic. To harness these powers within you and learn how to control this magic, you have been invited to Magicae Palace, a place where magic abounds. There are five elements you and your companions may be taught- fire, water, air, earth, and on that is not truly considered an element but I believe is truly essential- life. You AE(s) and CAPTCHA/CAPTCHAE have been detected to have magic as well, so they are encouraged to come. Vacation will last two weeks. The popcorn is free.

Best wishes,

Your hostess,

Simul Stoicheio (sigh-mull Stee-HE-oh)

P.S it is required that you fill out the second sheet.

You hastily stuff the first sheet away and proceed to the second-

Name:

Pronouns:

CBer, AE, CAPTCHA, or CAPTCHAE?:

Packing list:

Which is your favorite: Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Lord of the Rings, Hunger Games, or all/a mixture/none/different?:

Other:

Your instinct tells you that this is some kind of scam. Magic? But a voice inside of you knows that going is the right thing to do. How? You don’t know. You can just feel it.

~~~~~~~~~

You guessed it- ski lodge!

Spots are open for fourteen CBers and however many companions they may bring. Feel free to guess me.


submitted by Simul Stoicheio, age Mystical, Magicae Palace
(November 19, 2018 - 7:00 pm)

Day Three Part Eight~

Nihil's wounds were bad, but with the help of Vita, they required nothing more than a few bandages, which Nihil, once more an AE, hid under her hoodie. She stubbornly kept her distance from Artimerrx and Leafy, who politely pestered her with questions as well they could.

"Where is Rogue?" She demanded over and over. Leafy looked at Artimerrx, then stepped forward. Nihil tensed, ready to spring away.

"Nihil, Rogue has been killed." Nihil's eyes went cold. Her face scrunched up. Then, suddenly, she wasn't there anymore. Artimerrx shouted into a walkie-talkie while Leafy rolled her eyes.

"We need to find her. She has important information!" Leafy eyed her comrade. His words were ominous, but before she could ask anything, he swept out of the room. Leafy was left alone, with nothing but a slowly growing smile on her lips.

~

Darkking screeched as Nihil materialized next to Rogue's body. He'd been mourning his friend since he found out.

"Nihil - I'm sorry for your loss." He choked out once he recovered himself. Nihil just stared blankly at the body. After a minute of silence, she looked up at him.

"It's fine." She stood. Now it was Darkking's turn to stare.

"What?"

"It's fine." Nihil walked placidly to the nearest exit. As she walked out of the room, Darkking heard her say, "They'll come back."

~

"NOOOOOO!" Levana shouted, laughing with Reese as Princess Peach's Kart zoomed past Mario's at the last second, stealing first place. "UGH I can never win in Mariokart!" She cried jokingly. Reese poked her in the ribs.

"Yeah, well, practise!" Her face fell suddenly as Catsclaw slunk in, grabbing a controller. He rubbed his face tiredly as he flopped into a beanbag.

"What're we playin'?"

"Mariokart. You okay?" Reese replied.

"No. Somehow, I can't just get over these deaths."

Somewhere, the murderer was thinking the same thing as Catsclaw. They scared themself. They didn't actually mean to kill Rogue, it was an accident that time! An accident...! They couldn't do this anymore!

But they couldn't shake the murderous power that held them.

~~

No deaths for now, maybe soon. @Simul your turn. 

submitted by Silent Shadow Walker
(August 23, 2019 - 10:27 pm)

I WANT TO AVENGE ROGUE BUT I'M NOT IN THIS SKI LODGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

submitted by qwertyuiop
(August 10, 2019 - 1:21 pm)

Top! To the top! Tip-top! TOP!

Wow, vowels in the CAPTCHA--I've been having trouble typing these five-letter ones in. Let's see...e! o! f! u! c! 

submitted by LeafyTOP!, age Tip top!, The TOP of the forest
(August 21, 2019 - 9:08 am)

Top! To the top! Tip-top! TOP!

Wow, vowels in the CAPTCHA--I've been having trouble typing these five-letter ones in. Let's see...e! o! f! u! c! 

submitted by LeafyTOP!, age Tip top!, The TOP of the forest
(August 21, 2019 - 9:08 am)
submitted by TOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPP, age !!!!!!!!!!, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(August 21, 2019 - 1:49 pm)

Literally just caught up on this. Great job Luna!

submitted by Jwyn, age 14
(August 22, 2019 - 1:29 pm)
submitted by Topping Topking!, Homework has buried me
(August 23, 2019 - 2:32 pm)

*Smiles* Thank you, SSW, for those ominous teaser posts. However, dear readers, those past two parts are more attention-grabbers- and I see they worked well.

Now, for the next part.

Day three, part seven

The murderer instantly regretted not joining the team working against them. They could easily set up traps and safety precautions that they would fall victim to if they didn’t know what the group had decided to do.

This problem, however, was easily solved. As Dewy stood up to go to the meeting, they pushed their plate away from them and left the table too, following her out casually. Once the door to the dining room was closed and they were a good distance away from all of the other guests, they put the device behind their ear, looked around quickly, then pounced on Dewy, one hand around her eyes and one on her mouth. They dragged her behind a tapestry. They could feel her terror under their hands.

“You will go to the meeting and listen carefully,” the murderer growled in a voice much lower than usual, “You will remember everything that was said. Then, when I come for you, you will tell me everything. Understand?”

Dewy nodded fearfully. The murderer felt tears under their right hand. They released her.

Dewy spun around, trying to see who the murderer was. But they had already vanished.

~~~~~

Marigold watched as Artimerrx sat down next to Mor and waved at her cheerily. She turned to her right, looking at Leafy, who had evidently seen that the table had been filled. Marigold folded her hands in her lap as Leafy stood up and cleared her throat. What chatter was still hanging in the air vanished as everyone directed their attention to Leafy.

“Okay, everyone. I have a list of things we need to do in this meeting. First, we need a President, a Vice President, and a Secretary.”

“I vote for you as president!” shouted Leeli. 

“Me too!” added Artimerrx. There was a general murmur of agreement. Leafy blushed ever so slightly, smiled, and continued, “Okay, thanks. Who wants to be Vice President?” Leeli raised her hand beside her. She looked around, paused for a few seconds, then asked, “Does anybody else want to?” Leafy was answered with silence. “Okay then, Leeli is Vice President. Who wants to be Secretary?”

Seconds passed. Leafy opened her mouth to ask again when Wren inched an uncertain hand into the air, fingers curled halfway down to her palm. “Okay then, Wren’s Secretary.” Wren’s eyes widened with shock. Leafy sat back down.

“First, I think we need a name, something that says what we want to do.”

“Um… The We Don’t Want to Die Association?” Artimerrx suggested. Mor laughed lightly.

“Or maybe The League of Murder Preventers,” chimed in Marigold.

“Or, I, um, I was thinking the- The Anti-Murder Protection Squad?” Dewy suggested nervously.

“Why don’t we have a vote. Anyone for The We Don’t Want to Die Association?” Leafy asked authoritatively. No-one raised their hand. Leafy did the same for the next two, and The Anti-Murder Protection Squad (soon to be known as TAMPS) won. 

“We should write every suspect down and see if anyone has any clues pointing towards them,” Leeli said. Wren hastily extracted a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and started writing down the names of everybody in Magicae Palace. 

“Twenty-seven guests, one host, five magic instructors,” confirmed Marigold. 

“Think back to the murders,” Leafy urged. “There’s got to be someone we can eliminate.” 

“How about when Hazel was killed? She wasn’t there before the funeral, but then when we came back, she was there,” Leeli reminded them.

“Does that mean Aqua isn’t a suspect?” inquired Wren. “I- I mean, he was drying us all off, wasn’t he? So- so it doesn’t make sense that he would have the time.” She gripped her pencil tightly.

“Yeah, that wold make snse,” Mor agreed. Wren looked surprised at the murmur of agreement around the table. She almost forgot to cross him off the list.

“And the instructors are never at meals,” Marigold chimed in.

“Hmm, true…”

“Wait, guys. Autumn Artist and Quill died from poisoning, right? And Simul makes the food. She could have easily poisoned one of the dishes!” Leeli cried.

“True, but someone else could also have poisoned something when no-one was looking,” Leafy pointed out. Leeli looked disappointed.

“Wait, Leafy and Leeli, you guys weren’t there during lunch when Quill and Autumn Artist got poisoned, right?” Artimerrx asked.

“Oohh yeah!” cried Mor.

“So… um, safe to say that you guys aren’t- you know, the- the murderer?” Dewy piped up hesitantly, her statement coming up as a question.

“I- I think so,” agreed Wren, crossing the two off the list. Leafy and Leeli exchanged looks of relief. 

The meeting continued in a similar fashion. By the time Leafy announced that it was over, they group had decided on several things- one, that they should interrogate Simul to see what she knew and how suspicious she was, two, that they should patroll their element corridor at night and keep this a secret from the rest of the guests so they could catch the murderer at night, and that they should search the dormitories for all of the weapons that the murderer gathered (and keep this a secret too). At the end, Dewy had a sick feeling in her stomach, hating herself for what she was about to do and wondering where to find the murderer- but she didn’t need to find them. She was the last one out, as the murderer had suspected she would be, and they leapt out of the darkness and covered her eyes once more. Dewy let out a stifled cry, so scared she could hardly breathe.

“You’re allowed a breather,” the murderer growled, “But I’ll have you know that my patience only stretches so far.” Dewy whimpered. She gasped and took several deep breaths.

“I… I… we’re… there’s…. We- there’s- we’re going to patrol the corridors at night,” she wheezed, “And- and search everyone’s stuff- for the weapons- the weapons we brought, that- that you have. And we’re… we’re interrogating Simul.”

The murderer considered this. It seemed informative enough, and they knew Dewy was not one to lie. And even though something crude and evil was compelling them to do that act, a part of their mind was just dying to let her go, not wanting any part of what they were doing.

They started to let her go, then hesitated. “Do you know who I am?” Dewy shook her head wildly.

They let her go, darting away before she could glimpse at them. 

submitted by Day three part seven
(August 27, 2019 - 4:51 pm)

So... wait. I'm not dead, and Nihil is fine?

Also, yeah, SSW's sections were REALLY GOOD at grabbing my attention. And I mean REALLY. GOOD. *-u- 

submitted by Rogue Wildling
(August 27, 2019 - 9:06 pm)

Yes and yes. And definitely yes.

submitted by LS@Rogue
(August 29, 2019 - 7:12 am)

Oooooooh.

submitted by Leafy, age No, not a cat
(September 1, 2019 - 9:06 am)
submitted by TOOOOOOOOOPPPP!!!!!!
(September 4, 2019 - 1:34 pm)
submitted by toppie
(September 4, 2019 - 1:35 pm)
submitted by Topperstix!
(September 4, 2019 - 2:53 pm)

Top!

submitted by LeafyTOP!, age Top! Top! , The TOP! of the forest
(September 8, 2019 - 9:37 am)