Minisode 3

When the staff members found Jem Louise Margaret stabbed once again by Hazel the Broken Ruler of Stabbing, they decided it was high time to discover what made the ruler so special that it killed JLM so often.

Abie, Zach, and Remi thought it would be a good idea to interrogate Hazel, which they did in a broom closet.

Zach: When was your first stabbing?

Hazel: ...

Remi: Where are you from?

Hazel: ...

Abie: How can you close off your feelings so you don't get crippled by the moral ambiguity of your violent actions?

Hazel: ...

Remi: Not very talkative, I see. We will get answers... eventually.

Abie: uh

Zach: Remi, are you ruthless enough to make that happen?

Abie: well, maybe

Remi: I'm not gonna torture her or anything! Is that what you thought I meant?!

Abie: guys

Zach: Well then, what ARE you going to do.

Abie: I'm not sure if

Remi: If we convince her to like us, she'll be okay with talking to us. I was going to have some nice conversation, maybe bake a cake.

Abie: How would she eat a cake. She is a RULER. And how could you have a conversation with her?!

Remi: Didn't you ask her about suppressing emotions like 30 seconds ago?

Abie: It was a joke! I thought this all was!

Zach: You... you thought we weren't serious about this.

Remi: Really, Abie, do you know us at all?

Abie: I just- oh my Claaws, Hazel is gone!

Remi: Whatever you're trying to do, it won't- GAH! HAZEL! WHERE DID SHE GO?!

Abie: WHAT, YOU THOUGHT I LIED TO YOU?!

Zach: EVERYONE STOP SCREAMING!!! WE HAVE TO GO FIND HER!!!

So the three staff members ran, but they could not find the legendary ruler anywhere, and she only reappeared when she came back to stab Jem Louise Margaret once again. And so the ruler remained as elusive and stabby as ever.

Heads up, I'll be gone all this week at summer camp!

Day 17, part 1

"Sometimes the best way to come up with an idea is to think about chickens on motorcycles. Or something."

-----

~~~~~

Remi felt like doing something stupid.

This was an unfamiliar feeling to her. She was the smart one, the mature one. Her decent amount of common sense wasn't enough to make up for everyone else's complete lack of it, but she at least kept the chaos at a reasonable level, which was somewhere in-between "Making an elaborate scheme to sabotage the Canadian government using lemmings and probably pies" and "We cannot be caught by the FBI because we are the FBI, and the FBI is a chicken with a duck head who likes to yodel." Yet she found herself looking at a bottle of water and having the urge to pour it out over someone's head.

Luckily for Remi, the day would shape up to be wacky and full of antics, though not wholly unproductive. What isn't productive about melting Leafy's candy canes and her M&M's in a bowl and then chanting as Dallas chugged the whole thing? I will tell you what's not productive about that: nothing. Such activities are of the utmost importance.

Sam decided to move their home base once again, this time to a very cool treehouse. By this point everyone was a bit tired with the constant moving, though they got more on board when they heard that this treehouse had an underwater library.

"Welcome to Treehouse Maut!" Sam announced. "This one was really interesting- it was treated as a game of Mafia. One person was the detective and another was the doctor... when the detective accused someone, that person had to post an alibi, and everyone voted to decided if they were guilty or not." Not many people stuck around to hear Sam's whole explanation, though, since they were marveling at how the treehouse was built over a lagoon with mangrove branches twisting through the structure, forming pillars. Quill quickly discovered diving boards and a twirly slide up on the third floor, and Bean, Firefly and Starlight took turns on a swing hanging out over the water.

Within the awesome treehouse was where most of the chaos I mentioned before took place. Honeybee actually had been around to hear Sam talk about Treehouse Maut's past, so she suggested a game of Mafia, which quickly descended into a roleplay-type chaos game of the CBers' own invention. Leafy narrated energetically as Bakerloo interrogated Sterling and Honeybee tried desperately to revive dreamii. Meanwhile Abcde and Liddy were making bows out of some red ribbon they found, and Feli and Tumble were getting chased by acid-spitting poodles and robot kangaroos. They were rescued by Zach, who chased the weird creatures away with a Very Big Sword.

Quill: Is anyone else confused about why we discovered the thing that's been attacking the Mystery and has been an integral plot point to several ski lodges of the past, whether directly or indirectly, and even though we're aware that we need to figure out how to destroy that thing once and for all, we end up moving from ski lodge to ski lodge and somehow find ourselves in a weird but cool treehouse playing Mafia and getting chased by oddly specific creatures that were used for random jokes in obscure ski lodges that nobody will understand the references of?

Bakerloo: Oh, I'm more confused than Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way is at the idea of proper grammar, but this seems like the right situation to just go with it. Besides, I got to put on this Sherlock costume and question Sterling about rubber chickens, so I don't think I can complain. Speaking of which, where is Sterling?

Sterling: I'm right here- and I came here to tell you that Firefly drowned.

Dallas: Well, that just sucks, doesn't it.

Quill: I'm also confused about our responses to tragedy...

Feli: I think that makes sense, actually- we're completely aware of how this is a ski lodge and that nobody's dead and they'll all come back once it's all over. So we have funerals, pay whatever respects are appropriate, but we never feel that sad.

Leafy: My question is how we completely glossed over the fact that the thing that's been attacking the Mystery and has been an integral plot point to several ski lodges of the past, whether directly or indirectly, can't be destroyed by us like we always thought. We're all just cool with that? The thing that drives censorship and that crap is coming for the Mystery and we're just gonna drive it away and let it mess with everything else? That's all just cooliosis with us?

And since they didn't know how to answer Leafy, everyone decided to go ahead and have a funeral for Firefly, during which they mulled over her words and started to feel something that was previously nonexistent in The Ski Lodge Story- despair. 

Day 17, part 2

Now the guests were stumped. They wanted the weirdness and fun that had become a staple of the Ski Lodge Story, but it was important for them to focus on figuring out what they'd be fighting the Force with- and now it was weighing on them that they wouldn't be able to destroy the Force, no matter what their weapon ended up being.

It wasn't long before Sam realized the sudden changes and asked what was bothering them. Upon hearing what it was, they were worried they wouldn't be able to give good advice, since they were worried about the same thing.

"I guess this is something we'll all have to come to terms with together," Sam admitted, deciding to be honest. "But it's not like what we're doing is less important because it's not what we thought it would be. You know? Saving the Mystery is still the thing we've been preparing to do, and now that we know what the Force is, it would be unreasonable to expect that we could destroy it. We're going to save what we're able to save. That's still something important! And when The Ski Lodge Story is over, you'll still be able to help destroy the Force for real."

"Should I clap? I feel like this is a clapping moment," Zach whispered loudly.

"Thanks, Sam," Honeybee said.

"Yeah, thank you. I think we were just a little mad at ourselves for glossing over this fact so quickly," Quill said.

"I still can't believe we did," dreamii said quietly.

"Well, we're here now," Bean stated. "And thanks to Sam's words, I think we can start to feel a bit better about ourselves."

"What should we do now?" Bakerloo asked. "I doubt we could go back to messing around."

"If we're going to go back to brainstorming, we have to find a way that's efficient," Feli said. "What worked for us last time?"

"We didn't do much. It was all Sam," Bakerloo pointed out.

"Not true! There's no way I would've been able to see Story if you guys hadn't talked about your memories and all the old ski lodges like you did," Sam objected.

"But we didn't know that was the answer," Quill said. "We were just talking, not thinking about what we were supposed to be doing."

"So let's try that again!" Dallas shouted. "It isn't too hard to talk about random things."

And thus, the guests went from playing crazy games to feeling guilty about playing crazy games to talking about crazy things. They talked about Solo Writes and Roleplays and characters that they'd liked. They talked about SIs and Caption Contests and the Regular Poetry Thread and the MCUs. They talked about the Random Thoughts thread and Hay Wars and the returns of SSW. They talked about the Art Thread and Poetry Contest and Last to Post. They talked about Writing Contests, the Ultimate Guide, Photography Contests, Inktober, Nano, Kyngdom, and anything they could think of.

In the end they came to no conclusions. That was okay, though. They were getting closer to something; it wouldn't be long.

And then JLM was stabbed, and then dreamii was pushed into the water by the murderer, and thus she joined her AE and I ran out of things to say.

~~~~~

Dead: 16. 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. Spellbound, electrocuted. Faith, stabbed. Kali, pushed from a building. Nox, poisoned. Firefly and dreamii, drowned.

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 18.

Suspects: Sterling, Leafy

References this day: Treehouse Maut

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/365065

Thank you, Quill and Bakey :)

Day 18, part 1

"He who has never made a mistake, has never made a discovery."

-Samuel Smiles

~~~~~

The best thing to do at three am is pretend to rob a bank with your CAPTCHA, Dallas found out on Day 18. Abcde, who was woken up by the racket, didn't agree with him; the best thing to do at three am, according to her, was to get an annoying, loud, uncoordinated, rude, inferior rival of an AE into trouble with one of the staff members. In finding out her favorite three am activity, Abcde discovered that Abie's favorite thing to do at three am was sit around, stare at the moon, and think extraordinarily existential thoughts. Which was a fairly awkward thing to find a staff member doing, but at least Abcde could tattle on Dallas without having to wake anybody up. Unfortunately for Abcde, Abie didn't care much about Dallas pretending to be a criminal at three am, and told Abcde it wasn't something to punish him for.

Dallas thought this all was hilarious. "I don't think perfect people tattle on others for doing harmless things," he said. "Also, you, uh.... you have a nasty face."

Abcde turned to face Dallas, hands on her hips. "Do you remember how the murderer forced us both to make traps for them and threatened the lives of our CAPTCHAs, putting us in a situation of very weird shared experiences in which we had the same guilt for the deaths of not only each other's CBers but also several other guests at this ski lodge, resulting in some silent agreement to be nicer to each other?"

"I thought we also agreed not to talk about it..."

"Not to random people, dummy! My point is that I thought we decided to not be so mean to each other. What happened to that? Are we just so insecure that we can't keep a promise to not be constantly at each other's throats?"

Dallas didn't have any response for her, but it was because he didn't know how to say "I'm sorry" without sounding like a loser.

~~~~~

The CAPTCHAs- Liddy, Qwinn, and Tumble- became very fascinated with blueberries at breakfast. I am not exactly sure why. All I know is that they decided it would be more fun to dissect, mash, play with, and throw blueberries than to eat them. 

That was the wildest thing that happened at breakfast, but not that morning and certainly not that day. After eating, the guests took turns shouting speculations as they went down the slides from the upper floor of the treehouse. Starlight considered going out onto the swing over the lagoon, since it was such a quaint spot, but then she remembered that's where she, Bean and Firefly had been yesterday before Firefly's death, and she got scared off. She found Honeybee, Feli, Bean, Tumble, and Sterling in the underwater library, looking at books and trying to get inspired.

"I feel like we need to stop thinking of random CB things and just hoping they'll be the answer," Sterling said as she played Solitaire. 

"I agree, but what else should we think of?" Honeybee replied.

"I dunno... I mean, Story is like, some higher power, right? It's not just things we write, it's the whole world and pretty much everything in it. So we can't be thinking of all this stuff we do in our little corner of the world, we need to focus on things that are big and powerful," Feli decided.

The group started to think on that and come up with things they thought fit the bill. Meanwhile, Starlight was thinking about Feli's words and wondering if they were true. Oftentimes, Story showed its power through smaller voices and allowed people to step up and use their own power. They'd discovered Story and they were trying to protect it; they were preserving the words of ski lodges past and allowing the writers of the future to do whatever they pleased with their own stories. It made no sense that some big, prominent force would be protecting ski lodges and Story. In fact, it made the most sense that the weapon would be-

"Us," Starlight breathed.

~~~~~

Dallas couldn't wrap his mind around it. One moment, he and Qwinn were running around with Nerf guns, waging war on unsuspecting CBers, and the next his beloved CAPTCHA is caught in a trap set by his sworn enemy. He felt dumbfounded. If he kept reminding himself that Qwinn would be back soon, very soon, he could keep the sadness away; he was just angry. Abcde did this! She was so mean, so awful, so inferior to him and his perfectness-

Are we just so insecure that we can't keep a promise to not be constantly at each other's throats?

Before he could think about it much more, the group from the library came storming upstairs, talking a mile a minute about Starlight's idea.They stopped in their tracks when they saw Qwinn had fallen through the floor due to a trap, and they had the sense to comfort Dallas and gather the rest of the guests for a funeral rather than an announcement.

When it was over, Starlight whispered something in Sam's ear. "Hey, everyone!" Sam called. "Group meeting in the common area in five seconds. We've got an announcement!" 

Here is everyone left alive! I might have missed someone. Assuming I didn't, I should have done this before this part so it would be the last 10 remaining.

Dallas

ABCDE

Liddy

Tumble

Starlight

Bean

Honeybee

Feline Fantasy

Sterling 

Day 18, part 2

"We're supposed to be the weapons? But... when we went to try and stop the Force for the first time, we were used as vessels and it didn't work at all," Bakerloo said.

"Ah, but there's a big difference between being a vessel and being a weapon. Before, you were just the battleground, the means by which a fight could take place. Now, we know that you're the ones who have to do the fighting," Sam explained. They were giddy with excitement and a little embarrassed that they hadn't thought of this before. Of course it hadn't worked the first time- the guests had come to save the Mystery, and they would do that using their own strength and power!

"How could we fight the Force? What kind of power do we have?" Sterling asked.

"Not only are you the guests of the ski lodges, the characters that make the story able to happen, you're also the writers- the ones who make it possible because you invent the story and weave it together. You're the defenders of the Mystery because the Mystery exists thanks to you!"

"So how will we fight it? I can't imagine us trying to punch the Force with our awesome Mystery powers," Leafy said.

"With your words!" Sam exclaimed as if it were obvious. "You're defending the thing that glues together hundreds of written stories from something that restricts how ideas and tales are shared and told. There is no better way- no other way, really- than to fight the Force with words.

"This is awesome, you guys. I'm so proud of all of you. We'll prepare ourselves to fight tomorrow, and beat the Force for real the day after. Today you all can take it easy. You deserve it."

Abcde, though excited by the news, had barely been able to focus on Sam's words. She was responsible for Qwinn's death, and both she and Dallas knew it. But when she met eyes with him, he didn't seem angry with her at all. In fact, he shrugged and gave her a slight smile. She thought about what she had said early that morning. Was she being forgiven? It seemed so.

As Abcde and Dallas were having their silent reconciliation, the murderer was planning to strike. This ski lodge was unusual- in every respect, of course, but specifically in that there had to be plenty of guests still left on the final day to face the Force. Still, there was a huge lack of dramatic murder plots and such. There hadn't even been a red herring who was locked away in their room by the host and killed soon after their accusation or a hostage situation. Even a dramatic and sinister conversation with a victim hadn't taken place.

In the middle of their scheming, however, the murderer was bonked on the face with a rubber chicken, and they remembered that everyone else was having fun and celebrating. So they decided to join them. The devious plans could wait.

They all decided to get together and make a play. They wrote the script by playing a game where someone would write one sentence, then give it to the next person who wrote one sentence, and so on. The final product ended up like this:

"Once upon a time, there was a fairy who dreamed of seeing the human world. Unfortunately for the fairy, going to the human world would be nearly impossible since they had committed many crimes and they couldn't get a passport. So they decided to go find someone who could sneak them into the human world illegally. Doing such a thing would be morally ambiguous, so the fairy took some time to think about it. Then they remembered their crimes which they had no regrets about and decided to do it, and after a bit of bribery and an instance where they had to pretend to be a potted plant, the fairy's dream came true. Yaayy! Now the fairy would be able to commit crimes in the human world! Crime isbad thouh. But the fairy was a bad fairy and they didn't give a flying fart. The fairy found other fairy criminals hidden in the human world and formed a gang with them. Thenn thhee fairyy wwass happy. Until they were shot and killed by a human who was jealous of the fairy's wealth and success as an outlaw."

When Bakerloo read this out loud, he realized there was no possible way to turn it into a play, and suggested that they just continue playing the game. Everyone agreed, and that's what they did until it was time for dinner. They ended up with stories about a toad who liked to sing and starred in a production of The Sound of Music, two lesbians saving the world by giving some magic soup to a llama, and a dragon rebellion against tyrannical goblins.

At their dinner of hot pockets and salad, the murderer's plan started kicking into gear. They sat next to Tumble and made some cheery conversation with him, asking what his favorite ski lodge location was and if he was excited for the adventure to come. Then, they asked if he wanted to join them in a few board games. He said yes. They walked back to one of the guest rooms, chatting casually. When they arrived, the murderer locked the door. They went through the steps in their head; ease the conversation from casual to unsettling. Then grab an unsuspecting weapon. And after an undoubtedly evil and sinister monologue, kill the CAPTCHA.

In the end the murderer did none of those steps except for the last one by smothering him with a pillow. When they were fully aware of the Mystery and their own actions, it was so much harder to carry out something so devious.

The murderer went to bed soon after and, like the rest of the CBers, thought about the battle to come.

~~~~~

Dead: 18. 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. Spellbound, electrocuted. Faith, stabbed. Kali, pushed from a building. Nox, poisoned. Firefly and dreamii, drowned. Qwinn, falling. Tumble, smothered.

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 19.

Suspects: Sterling, Leafy, Bean

References this day: none

Day 19 part 1

"Spectacular achievement is always proceeded by unspectacular preparation."

-Robert H. Schuller

~~~~~

Day 19 was heavy with suspense. You could feel it in the air; in the conversations being had; in the blood flowing through the guests' veins. Nobody really felt like doing something ridiculous or making insane jokes or even having a pie fight. This is what it had all come down to; the work of a few authors and dozens of CBers building stories about the Mystery and what had happened to it had been, and still were leading to their confrontation. They didn't want to mess up. They didn't want the Force to win.

Sam decided to move them one last time- to Magicae Palace. There was plenty of space outside, plenty of castle to explore, and plenty of memories to relive. Sam coached them though what to do and reminded them about what they knew of the Force, the Mystery, and Story, and how they all factored into this battle.

"Remember: the Force is everything that has ever threatened or damaged Story. It succeeded in hiding certain events or ideas or topics, but it can never destroy. That's something to use against it; ultimately the Force can never do what it wants to. And people always have the power to reverse the damage it is able to cause."

"I'm still so confused why it ever came after the Mystery," Feli says. "Has anyone or anything ever actually tried to stop ski lodges from being a thing? Or erase a certain ski lodge or ski lodge scene from existence?"

"No. At least, not that I know of. What we're doing is stopping the Force from ever hurting the Mystery. We're preventing it from happening, not trying to fix a problem we've already had. This is like a warning- that the Force could come after any kind of story for virtually any reason."

"So are we literally going to just... talk at a void about how it doesn't have power over us or whatever?" Leafy asks.

"Basically," Sam says. "Remember your first time? Where it sort of looked like a cave, and you couldn't see the Force, but you could feel it? It's be like that, but this time, you're the ones defending the Mystery, instead of just allowing it to try and fight for itself."

"About what happened last time... how did that happen, exactly? That we just stood there?" Bean questioned.

"I didn't understand that you guys were supposed to be the defenders, and when the Mystery wasn't being protected, it had to protect itself."

Dallas played with the visor of a suit of armor absent-mindedly. He didn't notice Abcde glaring at him with disapproval, nor did he hear Sam telling the guests more arguments and ideas and facts to use against the Force. Fortunately, he was the only one not giving Sam their attention... and unfortunately for him, it wouldn't matter anyways. After the meeting was over and the guests went to have lunch (Quill and Leafy excited to see the Magicae Palace dining hall, telling stories about loud games and food fights), the murderer slipped a bit of poison into Dallas's food. Before it could reach his heart and stop its beating, Dallas managed to start one last food fight- with a key lime pie, no less. He spent his last moments in The Ski Lodge Story throwing food at his friends. There was no better way for him to go.

They held a funeral for Dallas (during which Abcde admitted to herself that he had some aspects that brought him a little closer to her level of perfection than she originally thought), and afterwards, Sam asked themself what else they should tell the guests, what else needed to happen before tomorrow came. And the only answer they came up with was, "nothing". The CBers were ready; now they could enjoy these last moments before the battle. And Sam had something they thought the guests would enjoy.

"You guys are good to go have fun," Sam announced. "And I have something for you." They presented the group with a large book- the same one they had saved from the attic of TON's cabin when they left after the earthquake. "This book contains every ski lodge of the past. Even if they never started- even if they went on for years and years with long breaks- every chapter, every location, every letter... they're all right here."

The CBers flipped through the pages, finding the very first ski lodges and the most recent; the ones they'd been to and the ones they'd written; the ones that were legendary and the ones they'd never heard of. They read about CBers who pretended to be headless chickens and crafted soliloquies about Target notebooks; about a steampunk castle with popcorn that wasn't free; about the many stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret (while JLM was once again being stabbed by Hazel); about a Manor with grand halls and masquerades at dinnertime; about skiers who suffered from Convenient Amnesia (Latin for "plot device"); about two sisters whose mother's punishment for dying at a ski lodge was death; about two CBers hiding from a scary robot in a dumbwaiter; about CBers witnessing an arm wrestling match between a woman dressed in silks and a man with a prosthetic arm; about a murderer mixing honey and gasoline then telling dragons to set it on fire; about Gollum, the famous maker of pot roasts; about old ladies calling 911 to bid on police helicopters. And so, so much more.

They stayed up late reading through all of the stories. At some point Quill pointed out that they should go to bed and get some rest before the next day. The only eventful thing to happen after that was Bean's death; she had the misfortune of meeting the murderer alone in a hallway. They had a knife hidden in their shoe.

All that was left to do was wait.

~~~~~

Dead: 20. 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. Spellbound, electrocuted. Faith, stabbed. Kali, pushed from a building. Nox, poisoned. Firefly and dreamii, drowned. Qwinn, falling. Tumble, smothered. Dallas, poisoned. Bean, stabbed.

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 20.

Suspects: Sterling, Leafy

References this day: 

steampunk castle

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/304324

Candelabra Manor

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/380766

Day 20, part 1 (FINAL DAY)

"The world isn't made of atoms. It’s made of stories."

~The Teller of Tales, aka Shadow Dragon

~~~~~

The day was here.

I don't need to tell you how nervous the guests were feeling. Or how stressed Sam and the other staff members were. Or how important that day was, and what it had taken to get there, or how much it meant for ski lodges as a whole.

I don't need to tell you. You've been here all along, reading along, joining the stories, making theories, allowing yourselves to become a part of the journey in an important way. And this wouldn't even be possible without you.

No, I have no need to tell you. You already know.

The guests who were left walked back to the cabin in a rare silence. They passed by the ski lodges they'd visited- during their stay, in what they had read in Sam's book last night, or when they attended or wrote them.

Bakerloo, Abcde, Liddy, Quill, Leafy, Starlight, Honeybee, Sterling, and Feline Fantasy arrived at the foot of the hill. After one last reminder of what to say and what they had to do, Sam realized they didn't have to tell the guests what it meant either. There was nothing left to do, no other ways to prepare. So Sam sent the guests on their way to save the Mystery.

~~~~~

They were back. It was the same darkness as before, the same sensation of being in a place that wasn't a place, and the same looming presence of the Force- but now the Force felt stronger, and so did they. The CBers, confident in their power, were about to speak up with Sam's information and their own words- but the Force did something unexpected. It spoke.

It didn't make a sound, used no mouth and hardly any words, but it got a message into the minds of the nine guests: it knew who they were and what they intended to do. But it would be impossible for the CBers to hurt it; it was ancient, sprawling, and had survived as long as Story had. There was no way to destroy it.

"We're not here to destroy you," Sterling said, hesitating slightly. 

"But we're not going to let you hurt the Mystery," Leafy told it.

The Force begged to know how they'd do such a thing.

"Beating you at your own game," Bakerloo replied. "You manipulate words and stories and try to make people hate them or forget about them."

"But you can't erase anything," Starlight whispered.

"No matter what you do, you can't destroy anything. That's how strong Story is," Abcde said.

"So we'll use our words. You can try to bend them, twist their meaning, block them out..." Quill told it...

"But they'll always be the truth," Feli finished.

"We're the Chatterboxers. We're defending the Mystery now, and we're the same people who created it. We write the ski lodges, become characters in them, make them possible," Honeybee said.

"andwe wwill ssave iittt!" Liddy chimed.

"Story has survived everything you've tried to do to it..."

"People have always stood up to you..."

"You can never stop us from making our ski lodges..."

"We're continuing what TON started..."

"Even when you were hurting the Mystery, the ski lodges continued..."

With every word, the guests added soldiers to an army that grew to a size the Force couldn't rival. And as the strength of their words grew, the Force began to retreat; the CBers could feel the power of it receding from their minds until there was nothing left of it at all.

The Force was gone. The Mystery was safe.

They won.