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In a corner by the lamp, hiding beneath a little checkered blanket, sat someone. They had not spoken, they just sat. And sobbed. Two, three, four times, she scanned the crowd. Each time, the result was the same. Where was when? Why had she faded so far into the unknown, then come back, then… Faded again. Never to be seen. She was never one of the CBers who people remembered so very much… But the girl in the corner did. And the one gone had remembered her too. The girl in the corner sobbed, and traced on the cover of a well-read book "Abigail A… The Phoenix…" She hadn't noticed that she was saying the words out loud. At that very second, all the attention snapped to her. She gasped, then… Broke into tears.
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A girl with boy-short, mostly brown hair was sitting in an armchair wrapped in a blanket. No one really knew when she had arrived, or who had given her the blanket. She had just appeared. However, almost all of them knew her by one name or another, but the primary name on their minds was this: Arin. Some of the older members, like Ruby, knew her history of mental illness. She didn't know how the younger, newer kids viewed her, though, and right then she didn't care. She had pretended not to notice when Red walked in, but she knew it was inevitable that she either try to talk to him or be ignored by him forever.
After a while, she lost interest in her book. She didn't have her headphones with her, so she was incapable of drowning out the background noise of excited CBers buzzing over finally meeting each other. A boy with brown hair and green eyes walked over to her.
"Arin?"
"Huh? Oh…"
He grimaced. "Yeah… It's me. I know I said I wasn't going to talk to you anymore, but this seems to be a reunion of sorts. If you like, we could go talk to Red together; I saw how you started when he walked in."
She grinned. "That would be lovely. Thank you, Ruby. Have you seen–wait, no, of course you have. I was about to ask if you had seen The Force Awakens, but of course, you being Mr. Star Wars or whatever, you've seen it."
He grinned back, shyly. "I feel horrid for talking to you, because I don't want to hurt you, but like I said, this is a reunion. Let's go fill Red in on what's happened since he left now, yeah?"
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I glance at everyone, unkowing what to say. I am new, and I don't know the older CBers' history. I don't know what they're like. But at that moment, I don't care. "Tell us. Tell what happened. The wars, the incidents. Anyone…"
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I nod. "I'll tell you as much as I can from my own memory. I joined shortly before the Nostalgia war. It all started with Danie. She was the St. Owl then. I adored her and her writing. Then, she said she was leaving. (see fig 1.) Most of us were okay with that, but others … were horrified. I didn't realize how amazing she was then, but …
Then twelve days later, Maple declared she was leaving. She said she wasn't leaving forever, but I believe it set off a lot of things. (see fig 2)
Danie posted a thread called Depression … Air renounced the cb, An unidentified Cber made I'm depressed …, Sav kinda/sorta/didn't leave, Somebody made an encouraging speech, HAB threatened to leave three times, and another unidentified cber made a thread of encouragment and complaining …
It was hectic. When it was finished, we were all very careful with cb improvment, non cluttering, etc, etc.
And I'm afraid. I'm afraid it'll happeen again. But looking through these old threads, I find my own feelings written all over the place.
Let us pray it never happens again."
Fig 1: http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/downtoearth/node/187116
Fig 2: http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/downtoearth/node/188445
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I joined during the Nostalgia War, but I wasn't active, so I still don't know much about it. From what I did see, though, it looked like a lot more people than just those two had left.
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So, The Wisher revealed herself.
Ashamed of hiding under a nom de plume for one of the first times, she threw off her cloak and walked over to who had inquired.
"Let me tell you," said St.Owl, "the stories of the wars."
She sat down on a stool that had conveniently appeared, hoping and wishing that Somebody would approach, but not ready to reach a god-modding hand in yet. Instead, she focused on her tellings, which would be long and detailed as she could possibly make it, as much as she could possibly remember, so that there was no confusion.
"The first one was the AE war.
"It was devastating.
"It started with some of the CBers who did not own AEs complaining that they were too rambuctious. Too loud, too everywhere. The CBers who owned AEs dissagreed. It became an arguement, but it escalated, and then I think most even forgot why we were arguing in the first place. The DtE and CaC became wastelands of sorry, heartbroken threads. Somebody threatened to leave, multiple times, but we all shouted at her and clutched at her cloak and begged her to stay and so she did.
"There was a roleplay about it. That's when, as far as I know, the statues were created. The god-modded me in the first post here was incorrect. The AEs were not angry that they did not have statues. I know because Devil Owl and Saint Owl were in the thick of it, and I was in the thick of it, and I did not know about the statues.
"There were compromises to be made. I just read a thread, a sad thread, a horrible thread, but the thread that also compromised and explained and decided things. It was the production thread.
"It was the thread by Somebody, my best friend.
"I banished Saint Owl during the AE war. I thought of Feather later, much later. I kept Dev. Agent Nightcat and DNA were banished too, and Shifting Sands and Volcano became beings.
"The AE war was horrible. It was a long time ago, so long that most of it has vanished to the depths of my mind. I remember heartbreak. I remember making my own thread, a thread that couldn't possibly put into words the feelings that were raging not inside just me but all of us.
"And I remember the Tears are such thread.
"The Nostalgia War was terrible. Yes, yes it was. But the AE war was a different kind of terrible. It made me hurt with every bone in my body and made me throw myself into the thick of all of it. Not even the Inkwell was a refuge anymore.
"Please.
"Take a taste."
http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/inkwell/node/162360"And then there was the Nostalgia War.
"I was not a big part of this like I was in the AE War. I was worried, yes I was worried. But I was not injured so much that I had to pour out all of my grief to the world. I had learned. I stood back and watched as the people who had not already survived a war feel the pain we already knew.
"I will be honest.
"I felt the nostalgia.
"I missed my old friends and the long RP posts and the non-dying friends and the grammar and Saint Owl and oh, I missed Somebody more than anything. I still do, I think I always will. But I did not say this. I did not say this because I also agreed with the new ones. The CB will change. It has, and it always shall. There's nothing we can do to stop it. We can miss it, we can't prevent it.
"The Nostalgia War, I believe, was a bit more anticipated, at least to me. There had been a lot of minor threads about it. To be honest, I made two of them. After the AE War, Cayke fixed up a whole crew of people to 'restore the CB.' There was minor protesting then, and we compromised, as we always have.
"So many people left, and afterwards most came back. I cannot give an emotional account like I could for the AE War. Oh, I could rant about the AE War for years if I wanted to. But I don't. And I can't explain the effect that the Nostalgia War had on some because it had a different effect on me.
"I'm being blunt.
"I'm being honest.
"I'm done now. Thank you for listening. Goodbye."
The Wisher donned her cloak again, hiding her shimmering wings, the white dress, the blond hair. She sat on a sill, any sill, and stared out into the blackness of the night.
She wished she could cry.
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The grammar? Grammar on Cricket is better than grammar on any other website I have seen! There are, like, less than five people on here who forget punctuation, spelling, etc. Less than five!
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Oh. Wow. I just read through the thread on the link you posted. Wow.
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So what happens now?
When the labels of new and old vanish?
The "wars" and conflicts end?
After our friends, fellow readers, writers, thespians, nerds, geeks, fangirls, comedians, roleplayers, gamers, storytellers, singers, artists, athletes and CBers leave?
And come back again?
When our favorite RP or Ski Lodge dies?
After your 1st CB anniversary? (I wouldn't know, I haven't had mine yet)
When you realize that the CB is
a hideaway for the intellectuals,
a safe haven from the world's problems,
and a place to voice them,
a place to be utterly and completely you.
I guess we keep RPing, Ski lodging, voicing our opinons, and making threads to commemorate the awesomeness of non-conformity.
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I think that the labels will never fade. I hate to say it, but …
We can only hope another war won't start for a long time, but sometimes, it's all that can be done.
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I stare at her, shocked. I had no idea what happened with the CB. At first I thought it was the one place where something like that would never happen. I should realize now, there is no such thing.
"I'm sorry," I said. "If I made you upset again."
I scan the area again. "We must'nt let the events happen again."
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What I don't understand is why St. Owl said, "Let's not get a war on our hands", as if it weren't already a war, but then name my quarrel with Cho Chang a war. Something seems wrong here.
Sorry, but hypocrisy is one of my pet peeves of mine. I need consistency! I live for constance. That's why I complain a lot about hypocrisy and inconsistency.
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Esthelle trembled. "Thank you, Scylla. Cho. St. Owl. All of you. And now, I think I have something to say."
She slipped off the window-sill and stood before the CBers. She was petrified. She didn't think she should be saying anything, as she was still rather new to the CB, and she was terrified of sounding pretentious. But she had already began, and she knew she'd have to finish it. A quote from her beloved "The Hobbit" flashed into her mind– "Bilbo, you were a fool; you walked right in and put your foot in it." She almost laughed– and stopped herself. She cleared her throat, clenched and unclenched her fists, and began:
"St. Owl's accounts have been enlightening in many ways, but their primary purpose is, I think, as a warning. Not a warning against having AEs or even a warning against leaving CB.
"It is a warning against an evil of a far deeper and greater kind.
"It is a warning against one of the most primary elements of Human Nature.
"Selfishness. That is the evil that has, I think, been tearing apart this CB for time out of present memory. People who are bitter that they are not as recognized on CB as they think they should be. People who grudge those who are recognized. People who are so absorbed with 'being themselves' that they injure their fellow CBers much more deeply than one would think. People who are offended at any little thing. People who concern themselves with everyone's buisness. People who feel as though the CB is so important that they have outbursts of fury on those who choose to leave it.
"We are these people. Every single one of us– myself not the least of these."
Esthelle felt the mood in the room change. The CBers were looking on her with unfriendly, even hostile, eyes. She did not grudge them their outrage. After all, who was she who dared to speak to this gathering of people from all over the world, from the depths of Time Remembered?
But she wasn't finished. "As this evil is one that lurks within us all, we must all of us battle it within ourselves.
"We must remember that this CB, though one of the most wonderful things I have ever seen on the shifting universe we call the Interweb, is after all, only an online site. It is not the real world. People who leave it have not broken any promises or betrayed those who choose to stay.
"But I believe that those who, like myself, love and cherish this CB should take it upon themselves to make this place they adore a thriving and fertile soil for newcomers and veterans alike.
"CB is not Facebook. Or Twitter. It is not a place for little feuds and empty words.
"It was created with the purpose of allowing young writers, artists, thinkers, dreamers, planners, leaders, followers, the shy and the bold, the lonely and the rejected, to enjoy a healthy fellowship, inspiring and encouraging one another.
"We come here to write. To talk. To speak on those things that we love, and to find others who share those loves.
"But we should not, I think, publish all our feelings, all our troubles, all our personal lives.
"I do not mean that we should disconnect ourselves from our fellow CBers. No, we should share with them our joys and triumphs and dreams. But we should look to the people we know in the real world, our families and in-the-flesh friends, in our times of need. If we are unhappy, we might alert our closest CBers of that fact, and maybe explain to them why. But we must not pour our anger and misery out into the CB.
"This sounds cruel and pretentious and bustling. I know. But remember that it is not only the Veterans who visit CB. There are young children, and people who did not come here to hear and bear all of our own troubles. They came here to delight in a safe, free society, to find a place where they can share their writing skills with the world. We, the seniors and veterans, as those who know the CB, must not take that experience from them by domineering with our emotions and woes. That is the lesson we must learn– selflessness. To sacrifice for the good of others."
Esthelle stopped abruptly. Her knees shook. Her heart pounded. She stood for a moment frozen in the middle of the floor, and then staggered back to her window-sill.
She considered fleeing the room until everything had settled. Hiding her face in her hands, she waited.
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It was supposed to be "mustn't."
Well, that goes for good grammar.
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I came after the AE War.
Did it mostly happen on one big thread? Or was it lots of little "battles"?
If you want, you can answer my question within your writing. Though I'm not sure I have the right to be in it- is it okay that I hadn't arrived then?
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Aquina sat on the floor, Wingnut in her lap. She looked worried. She had never heard of these things in such terms before. The AE War. The Nostalgia War. The whispers had been there, but she didn't remember it being so vividly discussed before.
And Somebody….
Great Kraken, she missed Somebody.
She had heard the names before. Pete the Trollslayer, MapleSyrup, Danie, Brookeria, Ton, Red, Winter. So many whispers. Memories of all the 'oldies' that had come- and gone- and left the CB a better place.
But she rrealized, this was a community that accepted. That helped. That talked. That played.
And she hoped that would never change.
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Who is Ton? I've heard of everyone else, but not them.
Do you mean TON, The Omnipotent Narrator? A Chatterboxer of the past.
Admin
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OHHHHH, The Omnipotent Narrator? Haha, I know him well! Because that's me, and I'm still here, whoever made this post. I don't want to do any more ski lodges because of some personal reasons, but besides that, I'm still present and accounted for.
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Is Somebody gone? I haven't seen her on here forever and I know she's thought about leaving before… I just hoped she wasn't really gone. Somebody was awesome.
I haven't seen anything from Somebody come in for a long time.
Admin
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She hasn't posted since January
…
sigh.
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