Day 2, part 1

"And so it begins…"

~Théoden, The Two Towers

~~~~~

Jem Louise Margaret once again made breakfast after being stabbed the previous night, but that wasn't the only disconcerting thing about her cooking for them. One of her own pancakes was poisoned; would today's doughnuts be hiding something sinister?

Dallas, unconcerned by the threat, took a doughnut and ate it in less than 30 seconds, then burped noisily. "Wow, that was good. I'll need twenty more of those."

Quill cautiously took a doughnut of her own and nibbled at it. "I think they're fine," she declared.

By the end of breakfast, nobody was poisoned, but everyone was thinking about where they knew a murder mystery in the past. Even the AEs agreed, after some thought, that the situation was familiar. But they also generally agreed they could sort it out later; right now, they wanted to explore more.

Since every single one of them agreed to go out exploring, Zach, Abie and Remi were all going to be chaperoning them, with Jem Louise Margaret staying behind in the cabin. Sam announced that they would unfortunately be busy that day, and any questions should go to one of the other staff members.

As everyone was preparing for the day, the murderer casually entered the room that belonged to NerdFace and Cherry. Nerd was in the bathroom at the time.

"Oh, hey!" Cherry said cheerfully. "Do you need something?"

"Yes, I do," the murderer replied, closing the door behind them. "If you could give it to me quietly, I would appreciate it."

Cherry's confusion turned to horror as she realized, too late, that the murderer was holding a knife.

The murderer made short work of her, concealed their weapon, and quickly darted back out into the fray of scrambling guests. Nerd discovered her just a few minutes later and screamed to alert everyone. They all halted their preparations and held a quick ceremony where they had held Arya's last night. Sterling cried softly, but she experienced the same disconcerting feeling Spellbound had the previous day- like she had somehow known this would happen.

Their day beyond Cherry's death started slowly, now with less people in the mood to go exploring. dreamii was surprised to hear that Faith would stay behind with her and the rest of her crew, but questions were brewing in Faith's mind.

She wasn't alone with her new- or maybe not new, but more prominent- questions. Many CBers weren't focused on their tour of various things surrounding the cabin. They were wondering about why their situation was familiar; why the roller coaster over there was so horrifyingly tall; what Sam was busy with that they couldn't even be bothered with questions;  and what the deal was with Jem Louise Margaret was anyways. (Maybe not in that particular order.)

Abie had stayed behind in the cabin- Jem Louise Margaret was there, but since she could be stabbed at any moment, it would be better for someone else to stay behind as well to take care of the guests in her stead. Zach and Remi split the explorers into two groups. Zach was showing Abcde, Liddy, Nerd, Moondrop, and Kali a beautiful golden palace with a miraculously clear and sparkling pond in the surrounding area. Remi was with Leafy, Quill, Dallas, Qwinn, Feline Fantasy, and Tumble in a path winding through a wooded area that came out to the base of a hill. On top of it was a large stone castle.

"Whooa!" Tumble squealed.

Remi grinned. "This is a pretty mysterious castle. No-one knows how many rooms are in it, not even the person who built it. It does include a dungeon, a popcorn room…"

As she rambled on, Remi led the ski lodgers up the steep hill and into a grand entrance hall. Dallas and Qwinn started playing with a suit of armor, Tumble pawed at the elaborate rug, and Feli admired a painting on the wall. Quill and Leafy stood in the middle of the room.

"This seems oddly familiar," Quill commented.

"I was totally thinking the same thing!" Leafy agreed.

And as they continued to look around, they wondered why it was so familiar to them… almost like how the murder of two AEs was familiar to them… and it clicked for both of the CBers at the same moment.

They had been here before. They had dealt with murders before. And those two things had happened at the same time.

~~~~~

RIP, Cherry, rest in peace. (There's nothing funny to do here, and besides, I think she deserves it.)

Day 2, part 2

"It's so interesting. When poets and writers talk about discoveries, usually they talk about the greatest discovery being that of yourself, or that of love. So what about when you discover how you will be able to fight and overcome a certain darkness? Or when a scientist discovers how to cure a disease? These kind of discoveries get left behind in the wake of what is "truly" great, but when your findings change your life, they aren't to be forgotten."

– – –

~~~~~

Sam cursed loudly, and they were grateful none of the guests were around to hear them do so. It's only day two and they're already remembered being in Magicae Palace? This was looking far more dangerous, and Sam was running out of time already. They paced around and whispered aloud to themselves, hoping it would inspire some great idea that would magically fix all their problems.

They sighed and decided they should go back to the cabin. Maybe they could find a solution if they locked themselves in their room for several hours…

Meanwhile, Remi was steering her group away from Magicae Palace, but it was no good; the damage was done, and all of the CBers- not just Leafy and Quill- were starting to remember the places around them. And she couldn't very well drag them all back to the cabin without arousing suspicion…

Oh well. What was done was done, and it was bound to happen anyways. By letting the guests explore all the sites of the ski lodges- which they would inevitably want to do anyways- was like baiting a 3-year-old with candy and expecting them not to eat it. The obvious had been waiting for the CBers, and they'd snatched it up quickly. Remi did find some time to catch a breath and readjust as her group entered Diagon Alley- they were disappointed to find that there wasn't anybody to run the shops, but they still enjoyed looking around at everything.

Zach and Remi's groups converged at the base of the hill, both staff members glancing around uncomfortably. They entered the cabin to find that Jem Louise Margaret had been stabbed by a broken ruler and Firefly and Bean had made cookies for everyone. Bakerloo was trying to watch Monty Python while Spellbound sketched in a corner, Lucinda played with Honeybee, and Kali loudly tried to fly around the room (she kept crashing into things, namely Bakerloo). Almost everyone else was in their rooms reading, doing art, pondering human existence, or being fiercely angsty. Except for Faith. She was plotting some very important things. (Well, not plotting. She liked to think it was, but it was more just scribbling things between making odd sounds with her mouth.)

The day felt transitional, but nobody knew what they could be transitioning to. It felt a bit murky, a bit disjointed; Sam in the floor above, fingers in their hair, searching for the solution; Zach, Remi, and Abie whispering at a table in the library; Faith curious about something that was beyond everything she knew then; and the CBers chatting nervously about places like Camp Juniper, the Zeravinca Hotel, and The Cosmic Pioneer. Short, long, uneasy- the day was all those things with a heavy dose of mystery, and its end wasn't anything special- a blend of hours, dull and thoughtful, with… {you know what? This sentence is way too long and I'm bored with writing this day. It's over. It was boring. Thoughts were thunk'd. Let's move on and pretend this didn't happen.}

…And the next day was sure to bring more suspense.

~~~~~

Dead: 2. Arya, Poisoned; Cherry, stabbed.

Suspects: ?

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 3

References in this day:

Magicae Palace

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/389370

Golden Palace Hotel

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/431629

Camp Juniper

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/458929

Zeravinca Hotel (don't know if it has any other name?)

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/448462

Cosmic Pioneer

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/450605

Diagon Alley ski lodge

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/406047

I obviously can't pretend I had any idea how to end this day. XD I'm sorry I haven't gotten around to mentioning anyone a whole lot, it's still pretty early on.

Day 3, part 1

"We must have pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of pie."

-David Mamet

~~~~~

Breakfast was pie.

Yes. All the pies. Infinite amounts of pies in all flavors and variations. Chocolate pies. Pies that are customary for unicorn aliens to have at religious ceremonies. Gluten-free watermelon pies. The most gorgeous banana cream pie dear Abie Bailey had ever seen in her life. There were pies with pineapple and pies with tofu and pies with popcorn. Pies smothered in fruit cream and pies that looked like castles. Several of the CBers didn't know what certain pies were, and the cook (Jem Louise Margaret) tended to be mystified as well. 

Obviously such an array of pies was begging for a pie fight, which quickly ensued.

It was unclear who started it; what did that matter, anyways? Everybody was dying to chuck a pie at someone else's face. Starlight was terrified and whimpered when she got whipped cream in her hair, Orson was disgusted by how unprofessional such a thing as a pie fight was, Olive was too emo to have fun, and Grace insisted on apologizing to everyone she threw something at, but the CBers, CAPTCHAs, and the rest of the AEs were delighted. Abcde was at first horrified by the prospect of getting pie on her clothes, but then she reasoned that she was so beautiful she could look stunning with pie crust as an accessory; besides, she had to prove she was superior to Dallas at pie fighting. Nerd was able to throw pies with skill and nailed several people in the face. Spellbound and Leafy were both laughing so hard their sides started to hurt. Nightfall went with a stealthy strategy and liked to sneak up on people and dump pies on top of their heads. Azalea was at first worried about wasting so much food, but she decided to get revenge on Moondrop who nailed her in the back. Sterling had a wicked grin and surprised everyone with her skill.

Just when Firefly thought it might be done, people started taking sides. Abcde and Dallas were waging their own separate war while everyone else decided to organize their chaos. Many of the more shy AEs took the opportunity to slip out and go take a shower. That left all of the CBers, CAPTCHAs, and Faith, Bean, and Grace to be split up into teams.

It was a battle of epic proportions. Leafy lead one side with chaos as the main strategy; her teammates were Faith, Nerd, Quill, Moondrop, Feline Fantasy, and all of the CAPTCHAs. Bakerloo found himself leading the opposite team with Morning, Azalea, Nightfall, Spellbound, dreamii, Bean, Sterling, Grace, and Honeybee. Firefly, Starlight, Orson, and Olive where the odd AEs out. Both team leaders aroused their companions with beautiful, albeit ridiculous speeches. (Both of them insisted on quoting random things and wielding kitchen knives and foil pie pans as swords and shields, respectively.)

Both teams huddled up in a circle, Bakerloo creating plans with his teammates and Leafy spouting nonsense. This gave everyone courage except dreamii and Grace, who began to wonder if the whole thing was a terrible idea. The battle ensued not long after the team meeting, but not before Leafy got the chance to stand on a chair, still holding her kitchen knife sword and pie pan shield, and say this:

"Children of the Chatterbox, of bookworms, my siblings, I see in your pie-smeared faces the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the stupidity of pie-throwers fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of dessert preference, but it is not this day. An hour of cleaning the kitchen and ruined clothing, when the age of ski lodgers comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we throw pies! By all that you hold dear in this good cabin, I bid you stand, Pie-throwers of the West!!!!!" And she concluded by yeeting a banana cream pie at Sterling's face. Her teammates cheered and followed suit.

"Plan A!" Bakerloo shouted, a pecan pie at the ready.

"We have a plan A? Do we have a plan B too?" Honeybee shouted back in confusion.

"Just do what we talked about!" Bakerloo's pecan pie made a very satisfying splat sound as it hit Feli in the back. 

Nightfall, Spellbound, Sterling, and Morning darted around the crowd and tried to edge their way along the walls and sneak up on people, but it soon became clear that the plan was futile; the small kitchen was too cramped to pull anything elaborate. Nightfall stuck with their sneak-up-on-people strategy, but otherwise Bakerloo's masterfully designed plans collapsed and complete chaos ensued. Very few weren't pleased with that development, however.

The war lasted almost half an hour. Both sides had dealt a great deal of damage, but that also meant they both received quite a bit. Abcde and Dallas were still waging a separate war that would probably never end for their entire stay at the cabin. When it was over, there was no winner. In fact, the CBers had no idea how they would have ever determined a winner, since they were both completely smothered in pie. So everyone simply decided to go take showers and remember the amazing battle for the rest of their days.

However, there were still four hungry AEs in the living room, pointing out that they didn't have any breakfast. That issue was amended by Sam and Jem Louise Margaret, who got granola bars and cereal from the pantry. The guests slowly trickled back into the miraculously clean kitchen. Once everybody had arrived, Sam had an announcement.

"Today you're all going on a field trip around the cabin! Abie, Zach, and Remi have compiled a list of cool places and things they're going to take you all to see. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to stay behind and do boring things, but I hope you all have lots of fun!"

Two days in a row that Sam would have to stay behind in the cabin and work? Many people were skeptical. What kind of work needed to be done?

They uneasily accepted their host's tale, but it wouldn't be long before the CBers would start questioning… and Faith already was.

~~~~~

Thanks, lovelies! You better believe I had fun writing that part. 🙂

(don't you worry, dreamii. I'm finishing this even if it takes me all of high school. :D) 

Getting a new part out in a reasonable amount of time? Inconeivable!

Day 3 part 2

When everyone started to prepare for the day, Faith approached Sam with a question.

"What's in the second floor?"

A harmless question? Of course not! Nothing around here is harmless, but obviously Sam couldn't respond in such a way. So their reply was something to the effect of "nothing much".  

Such a reply conformed Faith's suspicion; though really, just about any kind of response would have. But now that she had been brave enough to ask Sam the actual question, she would have to do the incredibly courageous act of talking to a small group of trustworthy CBers who would be willing to sneak up to the second floor. Faith had complete faith that the first three CBers she came across were the very best candidates for the job. These three happened to be Bakerloo, Morning, and Azalea. They were talking quietly together at the back of the group, and as it turns out, they would actually be great at the job; when Faith did approach them, the CBers' whispered conversation concerned Sam's odd behavior and the growing sense that something was up- or there was something they weren't being told.

Faith took Remi snapping at Lucinda for burying herself dangerously deep in the snow as the perfect opportunity to approach her chosen few. "Hey guys," she called in a loud whisper. The three turned, perplexed. "So uh, I just asked Sam about something, and I don't think they- okay, so, I was wondering about what's in the second floor, and Sam said there wasn't anything. But I don't believe them! And I thought maybe you guys… would sorta agree…"

Her presentation was going downhill- not that it had climbed much of a summit to begin with. She shoved her hands in her pockets and stared at the snow while Morning tried to form a response.

"So are you… erm… asking our opinion? Or is there something concerning the second floor you'd like our help with?"

"Yes! Er, second one. That's the thing. I want you help sneaking up to the second floor," Faith confirmed.

"Faith… are you really sure about this?" Azalea asked uncomfortably. "And are you sure you want, or even need us to come?" (By "us", she of course meant herself.) 

"Aza, we were just talking about how odd everything around here is… we never did think of the second floor, but it could definitely have something unexpected, or at least some clues. I think I'm in. But we'll need to make some solid plans first," Morning decided.

"What better way to spend your vacation than to investigate your weird staff by exploring the dusty upper floor?" Bakerloo joked. Faith took it to mean he was in.

"Azalea?" Faith asked excitedly.

The CBer looked at her brightly-colored shoes, thinking. "Okay, I'm in," she caved. "But I don't want to do anything Sam told us not to…"

"They didn't ban us from the second floor," Morning reminded her. "They just said there wasn't much in it."

Faith clapped and bounced, her flip-flops flailing awkwardly amidst the jumping and the snow. With the matter settled, the group started to listen to what Abie, Remi and Zach were saying. The group was being shown a pretty forest outside of the cabin. Zach was telling wild stories about it while Remi rolled her eyes and Abie begged him not to scare the guests.

"Here's where someone was abducted by the alien unicorns, and here's where someone was killed by giant evil rabbits, and here's where we found some lemmings plotting murder-"

"Many corrections for you," Remi said severely, "None of those things happened in the spots where you're indicating. There are plenty of lemmings, but we didn't find any murderous ones. It was only one rabbit who killed that person, and we passed that spot up a long time ago. And there were multiple alien abductions, none of them being here."

"Lovely, lovely little forest," Abie squeaked. Grace, who was right behind Zach, looked around nervously and started fearing for her companions.

"Seems a wonderful idea to bring a bunch of kids to a forest full of aliens and killer rabbits," Nerd commented. She couldn't decide if such a place made her nervous or exited. It was a lot of both, really.

"Nothing is going to happen to you," Remi said firmly. "Any of you."

"Hey, look at this!" Sterling said, pointing at a small clearing ahead. There were several large, smooth stones, and there wasn't any snow on the ground around them. Sterling knelt down to read them.

"They have names on them," she informed everyone. "And this fourth one says something… 'In memory of dear friends / Who came upon strange adventures / And were not afraid to deal with the darkness. / In memory and honor of heroes lying here, / Requiescat in peace.'"

Moondrop hesitantly came forward for a better look. "Requiescat in peace," she whispered. "I… it's so… sad." Moondrop had never seen such a thing…

But for Leafy and Quill, who had yesterday's trip to the palace in mind, such a thing was hauntingly familiar. 

~~~~~ 

Thank you, Quill! I'm obsessed with the pie fight scene too XD

Day 3 part 3

"Hello there," Sam breathed. The Mystery didn't reply. Sam hadn't expected it to. 

They accepted its silence and got to work, or at least tried to. The truth is that Sam was completely stumped, but they knew there was no time to be confused. A solution was necessary if the mission was to go on. So Sam paced, observed, mumbled, and daydreamed for hours. The Mystery wasn't great company, but it did make for some pretty good inspiration.

~~~~~

For a moment, I would like to step away from everything and solidify this picture in your mind.

There is a tall, snowy hill. You could wander in the knee-deep powder in shorts and never be cold.

Trekking on one side of this hill is a large group of people. They're being lead by a redhead with a thing about his plastic sword, a seemingly innocent young woman who might hurt you to get some banana cream pie, and the embodiment of Wikipedia wearing purple glasses.

Trailing behind these three irresponsible young adults is a large group of adolescents. Said group has just found a large stone with an inscription to honor some people who died in a forest that houses a colony of Monty Python-adjacent killer rabbits. At least a few of them are highly suspicious of everything around them, and it's widely known there is a killer in their midst and somehow that's not a strange occurrence.

In the back of that group is four tweens/teens of varying degrees of intelligence who have decided to sneak into the second floor of their own vacation home to do something perfectly within their given guidelines but completely outside of anything that their host would prefer them to do.

Said host is an ageless and genderless person who, based on their appearance, is a huge "cool kid" wannabe. They are, at this point in the story, underneath the cabin. They decided it would be sensible to talk to a volatile and somewhat fractured force that was driving ensuring the cabin's existence.

If you look at all of this and think of it as a very serious and perplexing thing, I would like you to stop that immediately.

The thing about this situation is that it is ridiculous, and should be viewed and treated as such.

Before you start worrying, I can ensure that mysteries and adventures will come. They will just come in the midst of some zany hijinks.

Thank you.

Now, I believe I've taken quite enough of your time. My bad. Let me summarize some things following where we left off:

~Our trusty ski lodge staff lead the group away to go visit a theater company known as "The Dramatics"; "The second-largest theater in the unknown world," Remi informed them proudly. ("Should I ask what she means by 'unknown world?'" Feli whispered. "I don't think so," replied Honeybee.)

~Back in the cabin, Jem Louise Margaret tripped and was stabbed.

~Sam Crickett had a very important epiphany. More on that coming soon. But first some zany antics with our favorite CBers.

~~~~~

Our lovely band of ragtag soon-to-be heroes was currently exploring a vast and confusing hotel that Zach guaranteed was the strangest hotel in the world. Their indicator to Zach's statement being fact was when Olive wandered towards an odd-looking iron door and momentarily forgot who they were, and the fact that almost everyone except Nightfall and Dallas seemed to be falling asleep standing up.

"Even this weird hotel can't cure my insomnia," Nightfall grumbled.

"Who needs sleep when you have caffeine?" Dallas shouted. Then an orange hit him on the head. "How normal," he observed.

Nerd woke up from her stupor. "Did Dallas say he had caffeine? Man, I'm a terrible AE parent."

"Eh, I've heard of worse," Remi shrugged.

When everybody was starting to get annoyed with all that falling-asleep-standing-up business the entrance hall induced, they  stumbled through a hallway that lead to all of the guest accommodations. What everybody immediately noticed about the hallway was that it was lined with portraits of oranges. For some reason, this strange thing struck with Orson.

"Bakerloo, just look at the genius! It's a work of art!" Orson cried, his eyes fixed on a picture of an orange.

The CBer blinked. "Um… Orson… are you okay? I mean, it's just an orange."

Orson huffed. "You're so oblivious to genius. Of me and this orange."

Just then, a horrible noise filled the massively long hallway. It sent Grace and Starlight cowering in the corners, and everybody with a bit of sense slapped their hands over their ears.

"WHAT IS THAT THING??" Moondrop shouted.

"I CAN'T BE GETTING MY EARS DAMAGED ON THIS TRIP! I WON'T STAND FOR IT!" Abcde shrieked.

"NOBODY MOVE!" Abie screamed. She dashed through the hallway in search of the noise's source. After a short struggle, the "music" stopped.

"Aww," mumbled Zach, "40s heavy metal is my favorite!"

"'40s heavy metal'? That's a thing?" Honeybee asked in bewilderment.

"Apparently it is. And it sounds just like tons of metal grinding and roaring as it’s tossed about," Nightfall said. That made Honeybee jump, since she hadn't noticed Night was there.

dreamii and Spellbound coaxed their AEs out of hiding. After Honeybee made sure Olive had her memory back and Bakerloo assured himself that Orson was back to his normal, weird self, the group decided it would be best to leave the weirdest hotel in the world- especially since Abie assured them what they saw was barely anything compared to what 41 guests had seen four years ago.

~~~~~

Ahahaha…. now you see exactly what weirdness you've gotten yourselves into XD There's going to be one more part for Day 3. 

If you can believe it (which, I can't), I'm posting TWO whole parts today!

Day 3 part 4

After their (ahem, very normal) visit to Hotel Le'Faye, the ski lodgers were rather content to call it a day and head back to the cabin. Nerd, Moondrop, Lucinda, and Bean decided to go skiing and Leafy went snowboarding, but everyone else was content to stick around in the cabin. As you might have guessed, Faith took the opportunity to assemble her troops and get a plan for going to the second floor. As it turns out, there wasn't much to plan, but they did it all the same and decided to start tomorrow.

Somewhere around mid-afternoon, Sam Crickett came back to the cabin with a notebook  full of messy scribbles under their arm. They hurried up to their room and flipped furiously through the notes they had taken and the ones they already had. Now the key was to match them up, and…

Sam came down and greeted the guests with a proud smile. They even offered to make dinner, which they did surprisingly well considering the fact that they had once almost set the cabin on fire when they put a waffle in the toaster. Everybody had a good time until somebody had to go and murder an AE. This AE happened to be Olive, who happened to be going to their room and happened to see a noticeably shady guest who did not happen to be their roommate. This shady guest happened to have stolen Arya's possessions after they killed her and happened to hit Olive very very hard on the side of the head with Arya's phone, and happened to stab Olive in the stomach for good measure.

Azalea, Olive's roommate, happened to find Olive just as somebody happened to get very tired of typing the word "happened". The guests held a service for Olive. (technically, it was something they happened to do, but you probably figured that out by now.) Many minds began to wander to the stones in the forest, with the names and respects to those who had fallen. 

~~~~~

Back to Sam Crickett now. While the guests were downstairs wasting their time that afternoon, Sam was putting together some pieces of a vast puzzle. This newly-completed section of said puzzle was one that would ensure the guests' mission would be able to happen. In an unnoticed shift of things that took place very late on the night of the third day, the knowledge of the Mystery and its workings was placed blissfully into the minds of all the ski lodgers. Normally, this would be a very dangerous thing to happen. But Sam had worked out a plan.

The thing about the Mystery is that it allows ski lodges and everything that comes through and from them to exist. So in every action the guests took, in every place the ski lodges happened at, in every murder that was committed, the Mystery was already there. So, Sam thought, why not transfer some of the Mystery's actual power from the force it was to something that can also physically live in all the guests? Sam concluded there was no reason why not to do such a thing. So they did it.

Now all that would come would be the mission itself. Which meant Sam had to prepare their guests for the fight that could result in the ultimate victory- or ultimate failure- for the future of all ski lodges.

How lovely, Sam thought.

~~~~~

RIP, Olive, Rest in Phones.

Dead: 3. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed.

Suspects: ?

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 4

References this day:

TON's second ski lodge:

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/116974

TON's third ski lodge:

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/124954

TON's fourth ski lodge:

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/135509

The Dramatics Theater:

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/254570

And of course Hotel Le'Faye, but I already gave you that link. 

Day 4, part 1

"Talking about music is like dancing about architecture."

-Steve Martin

~~~~~

Abie was tired of Zach's 40s heavy metal. She knew there was a superior music form, one of lyrics like silken poetry and instruments like the clash of a thunderstorm and calming scent of petrichor afterwards, embodied perfectly in the punk band known as Disdainful Cat. In the early hours of the morning, Abie woke up to the sound of said heavy metal, a problem that needed fixing. She stormed out of her room and over to Zach's record player. Carefully, she removed Zach's record and replaced it with her own. She smirked to herself, knowing what Zach thought of the first song "The Ballad of Sonny". It wasn't long before Zach came out of his room too, looking very displeased.

"What is this disgrace and what has it done with my 40s heavy metal?" he demanded in a loud whisper. 

"This is the genius song known as "The Ballad of Sonny". Aren't you familiar with that name, Zach Lamborghini?" Abie asked smugly. Zach's eyes widened in horror and flashed with painful, long-forgotten memories.

"Don't do this to me," he whispered. Zach lunged for the record player.

"Don't you dare break the record!" Abie threatened. "This was expensive! It's one of my most prized possessions!"

"Both of you stop before you wake everybody up!" Remi hissed. She was standing behind the two, barefoot and in her pajamas. She didn't look happy. "There's an easy solution here, and it's to go without playing vinyl records at 2:30 in the morning. I wouldn't be surprised if you woke up half of the guests. And look, here's Sam and JLM now…"

Sam and Jem Louise Margaret appeared, also looking rather displeased. Remi finished her rant with a few choice phrases not to be repeated, then turned on her heel and went back to bed.

This debacle set up the mood of the staff for the rest of the day. Abie and Zach brought their heavy metal vs. Disdainful Cat argument to the breakfast table, where eggs, bacon and toast were being served. The general response from the ski lodgers was that the two had very strange music tastes.

"Maybe we could make this into some kind of competition to last the whole vacation," Sterling suggested.

"Oh yeah, that sounds hilarious!" exclaimed Moondrop. "Hey, Jem Loui- aaaand she's dead. Looks like it's that broken ruler again."

"I'm going to name that ruler Hazel after the queen of 40s heavy metal," Zach announced.

"Um… alright… moving on- if we're going to have some kind of competition about this, shouldn't we at least hear a bit of music from both sides?" Grace suggested timidly.

"Wonderful idea!" Abie exploded. She flew up the stairs to the second floor, faster than Abcde lunging for a hairbrush. It took Zach a few seconds to catch on, and by then, he was too late. Abie lugged the small record player and her Disdainful Cat record down the stairs.

And thus the children were subjected to "The Ballad of Sonny".

How?! How do these instalments get better and better every time? The pie fight… sneaking upstairs… broken rulers… Luna, this is genius, and I love it, and I am honored to be a part of this ski lodge. Thank you so, so much.

Thank you so much, everyone! I'm glad you're enjoying my weird humor. 

I get them out quickly because every month I set a goal for 15,00 words, and having that goal is pretty motivating for me to get to work! It's a pretty good system for me, I bet I could get the whole thing done before the calendar year ends this time. 🙂

Day 4 part 2

After several pairs of innocent ears were murdered by the screechy sound of Disdainful Cat, it was decided that it was a great day to ski. It was necessary that Zach and Abie should be separated, so while Sam and Abie were going to supervise the skiers, Zach and Remi stayed behind in the cabin.

Faith was excited by the chance to go upstairs, but Morning pointed out that it would be easier to avoid suspicion if everybody was in the cabin. "With two staff members watching over four kids, they would definitely notice three of them going to the second floor," she explained. Faith begrudgingly agreed and went skiing with everyone for the morning.

Apparently everyone was a fast learner, because within a half hour everyone who hadn't known how to ski upon arrival was racing down the hill with the rest of them. Two of the CAPTCHAs, Lucinda in particular, were upset to find out they wouldn't be able to ski because they didn't have a human form taller than 2 feet. That meant Tumble and Lucinda would have to stay with Sam at the top of the hill. The rest of them had fun all that morning, none but the murderer having a care in the world. 

The murderer- already having killed three and witnessed the trouble the Mystery had been causing- was surprised to find how little everyone was talking about the new knowledge they had. They knew that this was obviously Sam's doing- how they practically disappeared for a few days, then came downstairs last night with a grin and a desire to make dinner. And in the morning, the Mystery's secrets were known.

Usually such a discovery caused a lot of excitement, the murderer knew, and they were wondering why it wasn't the case now- but, they reasoned, the realization of the Mystery didn't come slowly, and the guests weren't piecing it together or searching for its secrets. The knowledge just fell into their brains, like pineapples falling on their heads, except that it was nothing like that in the least. It was more like if a pineapple was actually a bunch of knowledge nobody asked for, and instead of concussing someone and bouncing off of their head, the pineapple miraculously dissolved into this person's brain. You know, that kind of pineapple.

Speaking of pineapples, they were falling from the sky.

The first pineapple landed right in front of Starlight. She shrieked and frantically tried to stop or swerve or something. The next one landed further down the hill, to the left of Nightfall. They did their best to stay calm in the midst of… whatever this was, and shouted to everyone around them, "Look out for the… uh… pineapples!"

"Pineapples? What in the- ack!" A pineapple landed just in front of Feli's right-hand ski, showering her coat with snow.

"This is the weirdest and scariest thing I've ever seen!" Spellbound shouted. "…I can't decide if I love it, or if I should be intimidated or something…"

"Everybody close to the bottom, get down here quickly!" Abie called. "We'll wait under the trees for the, um, pineapples to stop." Abie grabbed her walkie-talkie, and after some quick correspondence with Sam, it was established that the guests were split into two groups- one with Sam, who ran to take shelter in the cabin, and one with Abie, who hid in the forest and decided to wait it out.

"I'm hungry," Dallas complained.

"Shut up, Dallas. Just go and eat a pineapple," Nerd snapped. A few second after the sentence was out of her mouth, Nerd started to giggle uncontrollably. Soon enough, everybody had joined in.

"Back to our weather report: we're predicting heavy showers of pineapples from eleven to twelve!" Quill announced, holding an imaginary microphone and gesturing dramatically at the sky.

"Very interesting prediction we have, Quill. Any reason behind the sudden change in our weather patterns?" Nerd asked.

"An excellent question, NerdFace! There is absolutely no reason to this whatsoever. My good friend Reality recently left the face of the Earth, in fact!"

Spellbound exploded with laughter, and even Abie had to smile.