Once upon a

Chatterbox: Pudding's Place

Once upon a

Once upon a time, there was a brilliant young person. They were blessed with many attributes of perfection, the greatest among these being their incredible intellectual aptitude. It is, on this fragile planet Earth, nearly impossible to find a human with a mind that can truly be classified as a genius, but this particular person was among the lucky few possessed with this rare trait. They had the power to do nearly anything, even bring about world peace, and only one thing was stopping them.

This thing is commonly known as the adult who takes care that most wonderful of humans.

That adult would often say  to their brilliant child, "You know I love you, but you still need to..." This sentence could continue in many different ways, from "go to school" to "eat broccoli." The genius did not wish to do those things, but was forced to, against their better judgement. This stopped them from saving the world. Then, one day, a fairy godhuman swooped in...
Sighing, you put down your pen. You are no genius, and no fairy godhuman is going to come save you from anything. You're an ordinary person, going through all of the things that are so common among people your age. You are not in a fairy tale, and, tomorrow, you are going to have to be shipped off to boarding school. Because, apparently, your perfectly adequate schooling situation is not adequate at your age, learning ability, and during widespread virtual learning. And the rest of your family has to take care of a sick distant cousin from Alaska.
So boarding school it is. If you lived in a fairy tale, you would be saved just about now. But, as it is...
A miniature flying horse is at your window. No, wait. Somehow it used its hooves to open your window. A tiny pegasus is in your bedroom. Now it transformed into a letter? You are so confused that the only viable options seem to be screaming and reading the letter, and you decide that the latter would be less embarrassing to look back on once you wake up from what has to be a dream. So, you read.
My dear friend (or, perhaps, despised enemy),

How are you? I'm doing well, thank you for asking, although I have recently been diagnosed with an incurable and deadly allergy to small talk, so it's probably best to move on from this stage. It's best to get right to the point.

I am a fairy. You are in distress. I pick up on distress signals, and I want to save your life, so would you like to come to a ball? I live in palace. I can use my stunning actual magic powers to make you royalty, give you fancy clothes, maybe even some sort of magic power of your own (nothing big, though, that's far too draining.)

So, please. Join me in Lilac Palace for a ball and formal dinner.

But remember.

The magic ends at midnight.

Larom Ross
***
Yes. This is a ski lodge, obviously. Apologies for throwing another one at Pudding's Place, I know it's overflowing, but I've been thinking about this one for months, and I think maybe it's time to start. Apologies part two for the below-average introduction to the story, it's late and I just did ten pages of math homework, but I want to get this done so I can start on May 1st. I do promise that my writing is at least a bit better than this. Form is below. I will accept about 10-15 people, hopefully enough apply before May, and if not, we'll just make do with what we have.

Name:

Age: 

Gender/pronouns:

Preferred Royal Title:

Appearance:

Ballroom garb:

Preferred magical powers (nothing major, please):

Favorite food:

Other:
submitted by Your Fairy Godhuman, age Ski Lodge!, Yes, another one
(April 26, 2021 - 12:43 am)

back to the Pudding's Place

Name: Morning

Age: 14

Gender/pronouns: Female, she/her

Preferred Royal Title: (Like Quill said, I don't know precisely what you mean by title, so I'll do everything) The Queen of Procrastionation (or just Queen if you don't want something so specific, or Lady if Queen is too OP), Her Majesty

Appearance: Tallish, pale, brown hair a bit past my shoulders that's kind of annyoing and gets super messy five minutes after brushing. Grey-blue-green eyes, with a mole beneath one of them. I usually have my nails painted.

Ballroom garb: A floaty green dress that reaches almost to the tips of my silk dancing slippers (yes, I'm terrible at dancing, but who cares), a high waistband, and, best of all, the sleeves, which are sort of floaty things that are almost as long as the skirt.

Preferred magical powers (nothing major, please): I can talk to the sky

Favorite food: Chocolate truffles and goat cheese! I don't think I can choose

Other: I'm vegetarian. And cats are the best species.

submitted by Morning, yonder
(April 28, 2021 - 7:20 pm)

Personality: I'm painfully shy around people I don't know, and quiet and energetic by turns around my friends, depending on my mood and tiredness. I can obsess crazily over things I love (books, musicals, and food being very important in the list of things to love way too much.) I love writing and other forms of creativity, but writing is the only one I'm actually good at and care enough for to work hard on.

submitted by Morning , yonder
(May 2, 2021 - 8:12 pm)

I believe there's still space left? If not then sorry and ignore this!

Name:  clementine

Age: 13

Gender/pronouns: she/her: female

Preferred Royal title: Uhm... royal goddess? does that work? :P

Appearance: Red hair that goes down a little past my shoulders. Freckles and hazel eyes. Short, around 5'2".

Ballroom garb:  A flowy floral dress, with... flowers. People are so good at giving details about their clothing but I never have anything to say about mine! XD

Preferred magical powers (nothing major please): the animal whisperer

Favorite food: Macaroni and cheese.

Other: Can't wait! 

 

submitted by Clementine, age 13
(April 28, 2021 - 7:40 pm)

Notes:

1) @clementine: Yes, there are spots left. As long as the group is under 20ish and submits their sheets before May 1st, I'm accepting anyone.

2) @Everyone: I forgot to add a personality section to the sheet, please comment with that. 

3) @Joan: Please submit your sheet within the next two days! Thanks! This may also apply to Nerd, who has a comment that hasn't shown up yet, and may or may not be a charrie sheet.

4) @Quill, Morning, and actually just everyone: When I said title, I did mean stuff like Queen or Lord, but now that it has been pointed out, stuff like Her Majesty is important too, so please supply both types of titles, please and thank you. Everyone else, if you do not, your title will be Royal 1 and your announcement thing with be *insert applicable pronoun here* Existence. Thank you, and apologies for the unclearness.

I think that's everything! Can't wait to start, and thank you so much for joining.

submitted by Your Fairy Godhuman, Lilac Palace
(April 29, 2021 - 9:40 am)
Name: Joan B. of Arc

Age: 18, almost 19

Gender/pronouns: She/her

Preferred Royal Title: Princess, but also prefers 'knight'

Appearance: Short(er) thick brown hair with caramel highlights brown leggings with brown boots, DARK blue/grey eyes with slight gold flecks, but often when I'm thoughtful my eyes turn to a very light brown, or a lighter blue, white shirt, maroon scarf/hankerchief around my neck, brown leather jacket with short sleeve. Smallish scar on my left cheek. 5' 1" Ring that can turn into a shield. Keeps a dagger or two in her boots. 
Personality: Kind of gruff, but also very very kind if you get on her/my good side. (AKA huge softie) Loyal to a t, but a (teeny) bit gullible. Jumps into things way to fast. Kind. Hates calling names. A little bit of a temper, which she often cools off by practicing with her sword.

Ballroom garb: A magical dress that was given to her by a friend, it changes color from maroon with gold flecks to dark blue (that matches her eyes) with teeny silver or gold stars. Changes color due to what she feels. Both dresses have long sleeves, and short skirt that goes to her knees. Although she says she hates the dress, she secretly likes it when she gets to show off her natural beauty by wearing the dress. 

Preferred magical powers (nothing major, please): If she loses her weapons, she has the power to find them, (or find another weapon that will work best) and the ability to shrink her weapons to pocket size and back to regular. 

Favorite food: Corn on the Cob and watermelon. Loves any kind of edible fruit. :) 

Other: Often says weird things, like 'huckleberries' for dang it. Also speaks French fluently, and knows a ton of battle strategies. Although she acts very gruff sometimes, she is actually very timid and honestly just wants a hug sometimes when she's scared. She needs friends to survive. Extremely fast. Doesn't adapt to change that well. Loves to practice with her weapons if she gets too mad to cool off. Knowledgable of herbal medicines. Secretly a little bit of a girly girl and has a cute squeal. 
submitted by Joan B. of Arc, age 18, Camelot
(April 29, 2021 - 10:47 pm)

Personality: Optimist, easygoing.

Royal Title: Viscount of ___.( Insert kingdom name) Or refer to me as 'sir'. 

submitted by Zealatom, age ^-^, meh
(May 1, 2021 - 7:00 am)

Zealatom, would you be able to include the entire sheet? Until you do, I might mention you every so often, but I do need to have more information before I can really incorporate you into the story. Thank you!

To everyone else, I have the first part in the works, and it should be out sometime this evening. Thanks so much for joining! 

submitted by Your Fairy Godhuman
(May 1, 2021 - 6:33 pm)

Wait, never mind. That was just the stuff I wanted you to add, thank you so much, and apologies for the misunderstanding.

submitted by Your Fairy Godhuman
(May 1, 2021 - 7:45 pm)
11:00 am
Clementine didn't know when she would be leaving for the Lilac Palace. She didn't know whether everything that had happened with the pegasus-turning-into-a-letter was even anything more than a dream. She didn't know what was going on.
What she did know was that she couldn't wait for it to start. She, Honeybee, a perfectly ordinary human (well, extraordinary, but still a human) was going to be a part of a real live fairy tale. She would be a Royal Majesty, with a ballgown and a floaty skirt. Was she deserving of this magical role? Was she the kind of person who could be a princess? She didn't quite know, so she decided to try and find a squirrel or something. Royalty often has a cute animal sidekick, and not just in animated Disney movies. But the moment she opened her window to sing an aria, her letter turned back into a pegasus. Which was kind of terrifying, but the worst part was that it was no longer a tiny one that could easily fit into her hand. More like an actual horse, except bigger. And bluer. And the star on its forehead actually gave off light. Which was super cool. Clementine went to pet it, when it scooped her up on its back. And flew.
Out the window.
Yes, a full-grown horse flew out of the actual window, with a not-quite-full-grown-but-almost human on its back. It was the best thing that had ever happened to Clementine in her entire life.
Then they weren't outside of Clementine's house, looking at her neighbor with the annoying dog. They were in a pastelly world with a bunch of unicorns and flowers. And a shimmery light thing that kept flying around and messing up Clementine's hair. It looked, she decided, rather like a garden, with ornate hedges and enormous, crazily beautiful flowers. Around her, other CBers were swooping in. There were more? It wasn't just her? Clementine couldn't decide whether that made her feel better or worse about this odd experience. Or, she didn't until someone who must have been Rainbow Riot (no one else could have hair in such a bright shade of rainbow, and absolutely no one else in the world could have a smile that was both so excited and so loud at the same time.)
"Clem! You're here! You're, like, at least three seconds later than everyone else. Was something wrong with your horse?"
"No," Clementine said, rather too overwhelmed to point out that it was a pegasus, not a horse. One of the light things, which looked rather like what she had imagined a will o' the wisp might be, was not as shy as she was.
"That is not a horse, my beloved and ignorant guest. It is a pegasus, and there are more differences than the wings, both physical and mentally. A pegasus is much more intelligent, as well as larger, more beautiful, and with a far more interesting range of colors." The will o' the wisp's voice was different from what might be expected from such a tiny thing. It was loud and deep and rang out through the entire garden. Even though the little light thing didn't have a mouth, it was still able to run through a rather formidable lecture. "And please," it said, "do not refer to anything in this world as 'it.' I know that most of you called your pegasi by that vulgar and thoughtless pronoun, but it will not be tolerated as a method to refer to living things, be they human, non-human animal, plant, or something else. 'It' is a filthy word, and it is the gravest of all insults to call a living thing." The light thing quivered its little body, and Clementine saw that it did, after all, from a certain angle, seem to have a semi-humanoid body. "By the way," it continued, "this applies to you as well, my dear narrator. Just because you're not a character..." the little light thing scanned the crowd, "or are at least pretending not to be, that doesn't mean you get to be rude. I am not an IT. I am a HE, and I am not a little light thing, I am a will o' the wisp named Caramel, and I would like to be referred to as such." All of the CBers looked slightly confused. Except for one, who seemed to be merely rather guilty.

I'm sorry, I (your beloved narrator) think at Caramel. I will never call you "it" again, my dear Caramel.
"Thank you," Caramel said, then turned what seemed to be his head toward the CBers. "I'm very sorry about that interruption, it must have been confusing, please don't think too hard about it."
"Yes SIR!" NerdFace shouted. She didn't much like the idea of thinking while she was living in a fairy tale, lest she remember all the things she hated about the genre. Like the discrimination, the countless stereotypes, the fact that everyone was either straight, blond royalty, ugly and evil, or magic, the endless morals, the sweet sugaryness., and... pretty much everything else.
"Good," Caramel said. "Now, before we enter and give you your magic, titles, and clothing... which some of you desperately need..." he glared hard at Joan's jacket, and she hugged around herself protectively... "we need to discuss a few very minor misconceptions. First, Larom — whom you will refer to as Your Honorable Wonderfulness — is not your fairy godhuman. Fae is not anywhere close to being human. Nor am I, or anything else in this place. To tell the truth, I don't know if any of you are anymore. You must have had some sort of anti-human magic done on you, because the palace is allergic to your entire species." NiteSkiies repressed the urge to cry. Humans were annoying sometimes, but she didn't feel like going through a species transformation. Especially not without even knowing that it was happening. "Second, no use of the word 'it' unless you are entirely certain that you are referring to a truly inanimate object. Like your filthy toenails. You all need a good bath. None of that trashy 'water' stuff you like so much. We will use rose juice and get you actually clean. Which leads into rule three. You many not speak to anyone besides yourselves and me unless you have express permission from me, or have gone through an extremely thorough bath and cleansing routine in the past half hour. Which you have not. So don't talk you the pegasi anymore. And especially not in that awful baby tone. They are highly intelligent beings. Much smarter than any of you." Lightning Girl jolted guiltily and turned away.
"Now please. Follow me."
"I don't know if I much like Caramel," Leo whispered to Honeybee.
"Really? I think he's rather sweet. So protective of everything. He must be very loyal."
"Yes," Caramel replied, his voice sharp. "I am. So if you cross anyone on the premises, you have me to deal with."
The CBers shivered as one, and followed the shiny light thing — or, I'm sorry, will o' the wisp — through the garden and into a palace, a thing of beauty or a monstrosity, your choice, made completely from amethysts. As they walked by an enormous, deep purple clock, Kitty Cat noticed the time. 11:30 now.
Twelve and a half hours until midnight.
Glossary and Notes
One of my irl friends was kind enough to proofread this, and there were various things which they were unclear on. So, here is the dictionary and notes.
1) Aria (n)
From my dear friends Merriam and Webster — Synonyms: air, melody, tune. Definition: an accompanied, elaborate melody sung (as in an opera) by a single voice.
From me — An aria is a long monologue-like song that is usually in an opera, but I have also stumbled across many fairy tale princesses singing one. It’s a joke. And sarcasm. And making fun of the genre (which I do love, but is certainly flawed.)
2) Will o’ the wisp (n)
From Merriam and Webster — The will-o'-the-wisp is a flame-like phosphorescence caused by gases from decaying plants in marshy areas. In olden days, it was personified as "Will with the wisp," a sprite who carried a fleeting "wisp" of light. Foolish travelers were said to try to follow the light and were then led astray into the marsh. (An 18th-century fairy tale described Will as one "who bears the wispy fire to trail the swains among the mire.") 
From me — A will o' the wisp is a sprite that has been used in many fairy tales and folklore, especially (I think?) Irish and Scottish stories. If you've ever watched Brave, they are important in that, although Caramel is much more outspoken than those.
submitted by First Part Out!
(May 1, 2021 - 9:47 pm)

It's okay! Misunderstandings happen! I'm so exited for this to start!

submitted by Zealatom, age ^-^, meh
(May 2, 2021 - 6:28 am)

Ummmmmm... Just to make sure, will I still be mentioned?Laughing

submitted by @Your Fairy Godhuman, age ^-^, Zealatom
(May 2, 2021 - 6:47 am)

Yes! I just made a mistake, you certainly will be. I am not able to work all the people into each part, and that's why you weren't included in this one, especially since I mostly just plugged in random humans to talk and make the exposition work during yesterday's part.

submitted by Your Fairy Godhuman
(May 2, 2021 - 8:57 am)
11:30 am
Caramel led the CBers through the Lilac Palace slowly. Apparently, being nothing more than a blob of light with hardly any mass and no legs to speak of made it difficult to move quickly, which made many of the more energetic guests feel like what they wanted more than anything was to turn into a helium balloon and float away into the sky. When Leo mentioned that fact, though (very quietly and discreetly, of course, there was no yelling involved whatsoever), Caramel whirled around, his little bluish body glowing in a rather reddish and very angry way.
"You do not insult anyone here, my dear," he shrieked. 
His deep, sonorous voice squeaked and cracked, raising to a high frequency that made the hairs on the CBers arms rise and do a little, frightened dance. It wasn't a delightful sensation to have your arm-hairs attempt to do a pirouette, and Leo, who was feeling rather guilty for having caused this sudden transformation, jumped in. Figuratively.
"Um. Can you. Like. Get the stuff out to us? So we can... bathe? And be. Clean?"
Caramel sighed. Stuttering was on his list of least favorite things, along with the word 'it,' insults, and blue cheese. But Leo did have a point, because until the guests were blessed with magic, titles, and non-disgusting clothing, nothing interesting would happen, which would mean wasting time. And that was the thing he hated most. So, standing in an enormous purple hallway, a little blue spirit chanted a bunch of fancy words. Morning was reminded of the song "No Good Deed" from Wicked. Which wasn't very comforting, given that the person whom the spell was cast on was turned into a scarecrow. She had already changed from human to... something else once that day, if Caramel was to be believed. Another change would be rather unsettling. When the chanting was over, though, there were no scarecrows in the group, only a collection of startled young people wearing crowns and holding fancy clothing. And with newfound magical powers, as was demonstrated by Zealatom teleporting from where he had been standing quite happily and stably into the room next door. Then to another room. Then to the garden, where he landed in a pond and vowed to learn how to control his magic before it killed him.
Once the party favors, at Caramel called them, had been distributed, the guests were lined up and shoved into bedrooms. Or suites, more like it, where they stumbled into baths full of rose juice, which was, actually, quite cleansing.
After the murderer bathed, they wondered about blood. There would probably to be a bit of blood in this endeavor, if they weren't careful. Killing all of these people before midnight would be a difficult business, and rather messy. So how were they to go about making sure that they stayed clean? Caramel was certain to notice any specks of filth, no matter how microscopic. And that included blood. So if the murderer wanted to get this done, they would have to be careful to only use clean methods. Methods which would not incriminate them through uncleanliness.
For a moment, the murderer wondered if it was coldblooded to be quite so methodical about this business. It didn't occur to them once that the killing itself would be coldblooded, because it was essential if they wanted to get done what must be done. But this careful planning? The examination of every possible flaw, the infinite number of ways that this could go wrong? That simply sat wrong. Which is why, as the killer donned their ballroom garb, they promised themself one thing.
"I will do this, all of this, without thinking, remembering, or any sort of messy mental activity."
Because, as NerdFace had thought so cleverly before, thinking was rather a dangerous occupation in a fairy tale.
***
"Lunch, my friends," boomed a voice, entering rudely into each room of the palace. Or, at least each of the rooms that held a CBer. They couldn't attest to anything else, and, since I am merely telling their story and no one else's, I do not know either. There are many things that might have been happening in Lilac Palace at that moment, including the head cook burning a souffle, which finally made them question their career choices and run away to be a politician and marry and actor. But, since this is not the story I am telling, I cannot disclose the many juicy details. All I can say is that Quill, who had been playing solitaire at the time of the announcement, was surprised, and not in a good way. The shock of a random voice booming through their room made them jump onto the desk. Which messed up the game of solitaire. 
Joan B. of Arc, however, was not surprised at the announcement. In fact, she was standing beside Caramel as he spoke and amplified his voice to enter all of the rooms of the palace. She had been hungry, because riding a pegasus is hard work sometimes, and so she had requested an early lunch. So, lunch it was, and the CBers gathered together in the dining room to eat souffle. A rather mediocre one, since a new head cook had been hired only a few minutes ago, and only had the time to magic the meal into being, rather than cooking it with her own hands. But it was food, and it was better than nothing.
The murderer had to work very hard to keep their jam from falling from their shaking hands onto their fancy clothing. Filth is a terrible thing, and so is loss of time. Time was flying, flying, and the murderer looked at the clock.
12:00 am.
Twelve hours to kill the eleven people that stood in their way. And they hadn't even met one fairy yet.
submitted by New Part Out!
(May 3, 2021 - 12:05 am)

Here’s my completed form! 

Appearance: Long flowing hair which is usually lavender, but changes color depending on my mood. Same with my eyes (which are pastel blue rn), but they only change with VERY a strong emotions, or if I want them to. I am short, but not too short. I sometimes wear circular glasses (fake, just for looks.), but usually wear a pastel-colored hoodie and shorts. Sometimes, if it’s cold, I wear knee socks in pastel colors with cute animals on them, but I never wear shoes. (And I can float, so don’t worry about my socks getting dirty/wet/absolutely disgusting). Also I have stars for freckles, and wear makeup sometimes. My skin in pale, but not VERY pale.

Ballroom clothes: I wear my hair up in French braids which come up into twin space buns. (or make it appear short). I still don’t wear any shoes, or my glasses or socks. I wear beautiful dainty white flowers in my hair, and a beautiful dress: It’s a space-colored dress, whitish and shimmery. It’s off the shoulder, and the arms/sleeves are long (covering my hands) and flowing. The dress part goes past my feet and is made of soft, flowing fabric (so long as it is NOT velvet. I hate the feeling of velvet.

Personality: Straightforward, sarcastic, fun-loving, artist, in my own world half the time. 

submitted by NiteSkiies
(May 3, 2021 - 7:10 am)
submitted by top
(May 3, 2021 - 9:01 pm)
« first‹ previous123next ›last »