Day 5 part 4

Faith blinked. "So you mean, all of this is stuff that was mentioned in TON's ski lodges?"

"Yep," Sam said proudly as Faith looked around in awe. There were several things that caught her eye. Around the floor and on miscellaneous tables and shelves, she saw SFP sunscreen, a sign that informed her "Springheel Jack was here", a javelin, a camera and stapler that were both named Maggie, a lightsaber, some glitter, a dog collar with the name Samus, a menu from an Italian bistro that seemed to be called Carl, a membership card to "The Society of the Order of the Guild of Females Everywhere" or "TSOGFE", and- was that a headless Barbie?! There were also various pilfered cannons and a refrigerator.

"Can I look in the fridge?" Faith asked, unaware that Sam had been talking to her the whole time. Nevertheless, Sam laughed and told her to go ahead. When she did, she saw a lot of Coca-Cola, some baked fish, a brioche, waffles, whipped cream, and some leftover pot roast.

"Take a look in the freezer," Sam told her. She did- and laughed. Despite being rather small, the freezer was packed with hundreds of tubs of blue moon ice cream. Faith's laughter died as she closed the freezer and turned back towards Sam. Faith wasn't the best at social interaction, but she got the feeling that Sam had some important things to say.

"Faith, I know you want to know about what's behind those other doors," Sam started. "And I have to say that there are some things that I can't tell you about quite yet. But you know about this room. The objects from TON's stories are here. And in the room to our left, you can find portraits of the original ski lodge staff, some fun characters that made some appearances, and a final portrait of TON himself. Sitting beneath that picture is a book. There are four lists, one for each ski lodge TON did. They've got the names of the guests and the murderers written in red. Past those pages with the lists is the very first ski lodge itself, its story written on those pages."

Sam paused for a moment and let this sink in. "I can't say what's behind those other two doors. I'm sorry about that. And, Faith?"

Faith looked Sam in their impossibly bright blue eyes. "Yeah?"

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't come up here anymore." Sam's tone was kind enough to coax a smile from Faith's lips. "One more request for you. Please tell Azalea and whoever else that was in on this- tell them everything I just told you."

"Okay," Faith agreed quietly. But a thought struck her. "Did Zach's sword come from this room?"

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, it did. But don't let him know that I told you that. Now beat it, crazy lady. You've spent enough time up here."

Sam waited for Faith's footsteps to dissolve before turning cautiously to enter the room on the far right. Of the two doors Sam couldn't speak of, this one was far more important. They eased the creaking door open and coughed when they inhaled dust. Sitting on the floor among the grime like a forgotten memory was arguably the most important object within the walls of the cabin.

A book.

~~~~~

Sterling watched Azalea and Faith out of the corner of her eye, glancing at them occasionally over her sketchbook. She finished her drawing as Sam Crickett hurried down the staircase. Sterling closed her sketchbook and tossed midnight-blue hair away from her face, gazing out at the quiet crowd within the living room. Their almost silent atmosphere was ruined by the sound of Jem Louise Margaret tripping and stabbing herself, followed by Zach's shout of "It was Hazel the broken ruler again!" Sterling couldn't help but smirk at Firefly's eye roll. Zach's shout did kill the mood, though, or at least made it far more uncomfortable. She didn't notice Aza and Faith whispering to Morning and leading her out into the empty foyer. But Sterling did notice that Quill and Honeybee were attempting to start a game of Monopoly, and she was all too eager to join in. Grace and Kali decided to join as well. Feline Fantasy, Firefly, and Tumble spectated while Nightfall volunteered to be the banker. They played for hours, with no conclusion or winner- though Sterling had a considerable lead.

Morning was irritated at first that Faith would continue with her plans to go to the second floors even when they had decided to drop it, but she was very interested in what Sam had shared with Faith. The three agreed to wait until tomorrow to share with Bakerloo.

They had pizza for dinner. It was quieter than usual, of course, but the guests’ knowledge of the Mystery kept any misery at bay. The murderer was feeling thoughtful. Their mind kept wandering back to the poisoned plant that two had fallen victim to without any of their own foresight. Obviously Lake Lelillo had been a ski lodge too… were those plants naturally occurring? Or had that murderer placed them there, and the plants somehow remained there? The murderer was wondering how this should concern them. Should they be concerned that other ski loges might have similar traps? Or should they take as a sign of what they should be doing?

The guests went to bed with restless minds.

~~~~~

Dead: 5. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed. Lucinda and Moondrop, poisoned.

Suspects: Spellbound, Nerd, Bean (any others?)

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 6

References this day

RMS Tiny

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/inkwell/node/145605

Peculium

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/467280

Relaxation Suites Hotel (don’t recommend you read it, this was my first ski lodge)

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/371004

Shallow Creek Woods Treehouse (my second, not much better than the first)

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/376231

And you have all these links already, but in the dream scene I referenced the Galaxy ski lodge, Diagon Alley ski lodge, Disorienting Express, Quendor Express, Lake Lelillo, The Farm Story, the Ryokan Suzuran, Island Paradise Resort, Hotel Le’Faye 2, Ellingham Manor, Woodlock Mansion, Golden Palace Hotel, and all four TON ski lodges. 

MINISODE 1

*perky piano music* Today’s minisode is brought to you by Tatooine Incorporated! You too can experience the joys of drinking blue milk and staring wistfully at the double suns for the small fee of a golden snitch, some Lembas bread, and a slice of pie-flavored pie!

Today I will be interviewing your friendly staff so you can get to know more about them! Unfortunately, Jem Louise Margaret will be unable to attend due to being stabbed (with, as Zach is insisting I inform you, Hazel the broken ruler). Sam Crickett, Abie Bailey, Zach Lamborghini, and Remi Mazí are here with me in an unspecified place at an unspecified time.

Hello and welcome to your interview! How is everyone?

Sam: I'm good! How are you, narrator- excuse me, interviewer?

Just dandy, Sam, just dandy. Let's start off with our first (technically second, since I asked how you were) question: what color is the sky?

Zach: yellow with purple polka dots.

Remi: typically blue. Unless Zach is around. He and the sky had a bit of a feud.

Abie: am I supposed to answer poetically?

Excellent answers! Moving on, will you please give your detailed opinion on the beautiful and ingenious song "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard"?

Sam:  *intense Shire music* THEY'RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD! (BUM! BA-DA BUM BUM!)

Zach: not as good as 40s heavy metal.

Abie: not as good as Disdainful Cat.

Remi: please move on before something explodes.

Alrighty then! Next question: why are toasters so cool?

Zach: because they're inter-dimensional portals in disguise. When you put your bread or waffle or least favorite school assignment inside of it, they go through many dimensions before they pop back up.

Sam: well, I have no idea how to follow up after that.

Neither do I! The next question I have for you is an extremely important one: why are Cheerios so good?

Sam: alien unicorns.

Remi: care to elaborate, Sam dear?

Sam: alien unicorns. I'm not legally allowed to say anything else.

Abie: Skipping past the alien unicorns, I always thought it was the love imbued into them by my mom when she would make me breakfast when I was little.

Remi: Aww, how sweet!

Zach: alien unicorns abducted my mother when I was six.

Abie: …

Remi: …

Sam: …

Narrator (hey, that's me!): …

Narrator: so, how about that Germany?

Remi: GERMANY. Yes. Germany is a very nifty country, full of wonderful composers and trains that are always on time.

Abie (whispering): and the blinkenlights. Never forget the blinkenlights, my lovelies.

And my last question for you: What are your thoughts on rubber chickens?

Zach: my one true love after 40s heavy metal and plastic swords.

Sam: they're that kind of random that's just really fun.

Remi: They're not something that crosses my mind very frequently, believe it or not.

Abie: I… *gazes off stoically and intensely into the distance*

Zach: where did that dramatic action movie music come from?

Remi: Abie? Are you okay?

Abie: I… *looks around, breathing heavily* the rubber chickens… there was… an accident… *shakes head and takes a deep breath* I'm more than my past, and I'm learning to put it behind me… but I made mistakes that I would be ignorant and cruel to forget. 

*dramatic action movie music intensifies*

Well then… looks like the innocent and sweet member of the ski lodge staff has some dark secrets.

Well kids, that's all for today. I hope you learned something, because education is nice. I also advise you not to worry about your safety now that you know exactly what kind of people your staff members are- I assure you that this will all be just fine! Please support Tatooine Incorporated because they want your money! And remember, don't tip the driver.

~Fin

Day 6, part 1

"So what if curiosity killed the cat? I'm not a cat. And if I weren't curious, I wouldn't be much of anything at all."

—

~~~~~

Orson believed that if he did not go and film something, he would explode.

This was the seventh day at the cabin. It was quite obvious to him that every moment was wasted from the moment in Day 0 when he found out that his talent would be put aside for who knows how long. 

In fact, the lack of productivity had withered his pride. It was with great disgust that Orson realized that he would indeed stoop to the level of a promotional video if it meant he could hold a camera and direct a couple of idiots. He shook his head vigorously. He needed to get some fresh air. It was, as it always seems to be, 3 am. Unlike Faith, he didn't bother to look towards his roommate before twisting the handle of the door open. And unlike Faith, he was not in a dream. He decided that a late-night snack sounded nice and headed to the kitchen. When he arrived, Orson was surprise to find someone sitting at the table already.

Orson: what are you doing here?

???: couldn't sleep. And you?

Orson: can't stand to be underestimated anymore. My ideas are so obviously ingenious that I just don't understand the lack of praise. Talent like mine shouldn't be bottled up like this.

The murderer nodded sympathetically. Poor Bakerloo, they thought. His CAPTCHA yesterday, his AE today…

???: do you want some pie? I found it in the fridge, and it doesn't seem like they'll ever run out of it.

Orson: I suppose.

Before you jump to any conclusions, I want you to know that the pie wasn't poisoned. There was no logical way that the murderer could have dug the vile of poison from their sock, inconspicuously added it to Orson's slice of pie, and managed to keep him from running to the staff with an intense new suspicion. It would be much easier, the murderer figured, to stab him with their handy pocketknife. So that's what they did, leaving themselves with one less job to do and me with zero ideas of how to transition into the next part. Cue tildes!

~~~~~

Grace had been sitting in her bed for the past half hour. For some reason, she was extremely worried that any kind of noise she made would wake up the sleeping Leafy across the room. She'd tried to reach for her laptop, but the creaking springs of her bed made her cringe. So she had been gazing at the room ever since, knees to her chin, body swallowed by an oversized pajama t-shirt and her untamed, curly hair. At the forty minute mark, however, Grace's boredom overtook her. With a small sigh, she tiptoed to the door and prayed that it wouldn't make noise. She was relieved to find it didn't and turned towards the hallway- and almost screamed.

"Sterling," she whispered, relieved. "You scared me…"

"Sorry," Sterling replied hurriedly. Grace noticed that she seemed anxious. "Orson's not in our room."

"What?" Grace asked. "Do you… do you think the murderer…?"

"We should look for him," Sterling replied firmly. Grace swallowed her fear and walked after Sterling.

I'm sure you understand what happened once the CBer and AE made it to the kitchen. For the sake of the flow of the story and my word count, we'll skip to breakfast, which came after Orson's funeral. Rather than being subdued like last night's dinner, it was almost completely silent around the table that morning. And I mean silent; silence is what comes after the loudest of things, and it's far from soundless. Nobody was talking, but their brains were hard at work. Maybe it was the length of time that had passed without many of their questions being answered; maybe it was the fact that Lucinda, Moondrop, and Orson's deaths came one after another; and maybe it was just time for everyone's curiosity to awaken; but a majority of the ski lodgers were thinking about their mission. There was a reason why they were all here, and Sam had promised to elaborate soon enough- but it was day 6 and they hadn't heard a thing, and something was starting to change. A brief summary of the events that followed:

~Bakerloo was informed of everything Sam had told Faith the other day.

~Jem Louise Margaret was stabbed.

~the staff detected a change in the guests when they opted to pass up a trip to the Wintertide Palace and its promise of a spectacular ballroom and lovely snowfall.

~most of the day consisted of the guests lounging all together in the living room, doing a random mix of fun things (watching TV, reading, drawing, poking Abcde to see how she would react- Not well, Dallas and Qwinn concluded) and more important things- or rather, a more important thing, which was discussing the mission and their lack of information about it.

~NerdFace, Nightfall, Quill, and Morning were the brave souls who approached Sam with their question. The four came back with Sam's response: "I'll tell everyone exactly what's happening tomorrow. I promise."

~the ski lodgers celebrated this by singing Phineas and Ferb songs and going on a hunt for the free popcorn, which they found in an unused bedroom. Then they stayed up late to watch a show called Mystery Science Theater 3000, which they all found very awesome because I said so. The end.

~~~~~

Dead: 6. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed. Lucinda and Moondrop, poisoned by plant. Orson, stabbed.

Suspects: Spellbound, Nerd, Bean (any others?)

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 7

References this day

Wintertide Palace:

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/464813

Day 7 part 1

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."

-Anonymous

~~~~~

All of the guests were sitting in the living room, staring at Sam.

Well, technically, a few things happened before that. Like when Bean sang an asdfmovie song. Or when Abcde freaked out at Starlight for spilling a drop of milk onto her pajama pants, causing Starlight to burst into tears and Firefly to escort her sister from the kitchen. Or when Leafy shouted "CWUH-SOOOOO" about seventeen times because they had croissants for breakfast. But the most relevant thing that happened that morning was Sam's explanation, so I'll spare you any more rambling from now on.

Sam rubbed their hands together nervously and examined the guests. They took a deep breath. There was no point in delaying any longer. They'd made everyone wait for this long already.

"I'm going to start by saying that this all has to do with the Mystery." Sam waited for the murmurs to die down before continuing. "You probably didn't realize it, but almost everything about the Mystery is in your head. You have all that knowledge now. And you'll need it."

The narrator has now decided it would be best to deliver Sam's speech in a single, unbroken paragraph without pauses to describe their movements or the expressions on the guests' faces. Info dump, GO!!

"You know that ski lodges can only exist because of the Mystery, and that means it has to be protected. You're here to save the Mystery. Back at the Farm, something happened that caused it to start breaking. It's been fractured ever since, and in Lake Lelillo, it was discovered that something- some force outside of the Mystery- is acting upon the Mystery to try and get it to break. Whatever this force is, you all have been tasked with destroying it. The problems we have now are that we're not sure what exactly this thing is or how we're supposed to fight it. But we know that only you, the Chatterboxers, will be able to stop it."

Sam started to answer the questions that followed, and at this point the narrator has decided that formatting can go die.

~Azalea: "How can we figure out what this thing is?" Sam: "You leave that up to me. We know that this thing is working from the outside, and you all won't be able to leave the ski lodge and the control of the Mystery like I can."

~Honeybee: "Will you also figure out how we're supposed to fight it, once you know what it is?" Sam: "Pretty much, yeah. Once I know what we're up against, I can start to build a strategy."

~Nerd: "What if we helped to form that strategy?" Sam: "…actually, I really like that idea. Once I know what we're up against, we can all plan together about how to approach it."

~Feli: "How soon do you think you'll be able to figure everything out?" Sam: "Excellent question. I don't have an answer, unfortunately. But I'll do my best to work quickly."

~Quill: "Can you tell us why you didn't give us this information right away?" Sam: "Yeah, I can. When you first came here, you knew nothing about the Mystery, like in most ski lodges- or at least, you were supposed to. You and Leafy remembered Magicae Palace when you went and visited it. I knew I had to come up with a solution for how you all could be able to know almost everything about the Mystery without breaking it. Long story short, you have that knowledge now, which means I can talk to you about the Mystery without breaking any rules."

~Spellbound: "Can we hear that long story not made short?" Sam: "Um… sure, I don't see why not. I thought about how the guests are connected to and controlled by the Mystery, and how that means some of the Mystery's power is within each of you. So I transferred some more of that power to all of you, giving you all of that knowledge and the power to unlock and understand the Mystery without killing it."

~Nightfall: "How do you have the power to do something like that?" Sam: "I'm a host. That in itself gives me a little power concerning the Mystery, but as you know, hosts can also have some other special powers. Mine has to do with the Mystery."

~Bakerloo: "So how does that… make sense? That you can have additional powers over the Mystery?" Sam: "Don't think about it too hard."

~Leafy: "What about the other staff members?" Sam: "They know everything. Though I wouldn't have put it past Zach to have forgotten everything."

And that was about it for their meeting. The guests were finally up to date, and now they were wrapping their mind around just how much depended on them- and how they didn't even know what they were going to be facing.

Day 7 part 2

The narrator began a quest for good jokes.

You must understand that following a very important plot point, events and actions of the characters usually don't yield good opportunities for gags. The narrator started to search through the cabin and see what the usual suspects- Dallas, Faith, Bakerloo, the CAPTCHAs, some others- were up to. Then the narrator realized that they should already know what their own characters were doing, which filled them with guilt. So they decided to go with their favorite trick- pull some random thing out of left field. And thus a pack of lemmings exploded from a random closet.

Something you must know is that lemmings are very small. However, these lemmings had been trained to conquer Canada and become the object of many jokes throughout TON's ski lodges. So their instincts were a little mixed. Do we attack the ski lodgers and take over the cabin? Or should we do something wacky for a good joke?

The lemmings pondered this for many moments. Then they started to take a vote on it, with two lemmings campaigning for each of the different options. Then when they went to actually vote on the matter, the subject of an electoral college was put in question, and just as that debate started to get heated, Abcde rounded the corner and promptly screamed.

The lemmings looked at one another and then began to chase after her.

Quill, Bean, dreamii, and Firefly heard Abcde's screams from their rooms, as well as her attempts to fight them off. (She was doing a brilliant job of throwing random things at the lemmings as sacrifices for the "greater good"- aka her shoes and perfect hair- but there were just too many of them.) The four emerged from their own rooms and were promptly filled with confusion. All of this was amounting to more noise, alerting more people, and… you get the idea. Soon enough, everyone was crowded into the hallway, staring at the lemmings.

Zach was thrilled by the lemmings. "I am going to name them all after 40s heavy metal legends," he declared.

"We haven't figured out what we'll be doing with them yet, Zach," Abie reminded him. "Don't count your lemmings until they're yours."

"I thought the saying was 'Don't count your Melodies before they die'," Zach said, puzzled.

"Hush, lovelies. Let's solve the problem first," Sam said coolly, as though herding lemmings and irresponsible staff members was something they did daily. (Which, come to think of it, might be.) Sam stared down at the pack of cute rodents. "Well, Chatterboxers, what are your thoughts?"

At some point in the discussion, people began to realize that things really didn't have to make sense any more. As Nightfall put it, looking very intense and emo as they leaned on the wall with black hair partially covering one grey eye, "There's nothing normal around here, and there's no going back. So let's embrace it." And their statement was followed by the sound of Jem Louise Margaret being stabbed.

It was ultimately decided that they should let the lemmings go, and if any of them decided to stay for whatever reason, they could. The lemmings that had wanted to attack the guests decided that consistent motives were for losers and sprinted out into the forest. The others that wanted to serve as comic relief were more committed to their original plans. And thus, a colony of lemmings began to live amongst the ski lodgers. Zach was very pleased and began to name as many as he could. Abcde, however, was not quite so pleased, and she insisted on putting up a good fight.

"Those lemmings chased me down a hallway," she argued, "And they weren't just appreciating my beauty. They could hurt us! And ruin our things! Like my mirror, or fan club pins!" Alas, her valiant efforts were in vain. The narrator was far too determined to have lemmings running around the cabin to let something trivial like common sense get in her way.

The murderer tagged along with a group that was going to Phoenixe Place because they wanted to escape the new lemming situation, though the murderer's intent was to clear their head. They couldn't help but feel that there was something else that they should be doing. Usually the murderer had much more power in a ski lodge. They created fear, they masterminded traps and games, they undermined all other occurrences. They were front and center. But that didn't seem to be the case for the murderer of Magicae Palace's sequel. It was true, the murderer reasoned, that their endeavors weren't the main focus in this case. There was something greater than themselves taking place. But they had a duty to fulfill. Following this was the bigger question: what could the murderer do about it?

Before they could answer themselves, the murderer was startled back into reality by Morning snapping loudly at Abcde. "Quit complaining!" she shouted. "This is going to be what it is! People around you are being murdered and all you can think of is how the lemmings are going to pee on your shoes!"

The murderer guiltily looked away as Abcde replied sourly, "We know they aren't actually being murdered. And what do you have against me wanting my shoes to look nice?"

"Okay, everyone!" Abie called from the front of the group. "Welcome to the Edge of the World!"

"Hey, I've been here!" Bakerloo realized, then shivered. "I wasn't very fond of it, though…"

"So have I!" Morning said, eagerly dropping her conversation with Abcde to join the group as they observed a trio of waterfalls fading out into nothing. "Sterling, weren't you here too?"

"Wh- Oh, yeah!" Sterling realized. "So was Nightfall. And dreamii. And Moondrop…"

"Which ski lodge was this?" Feli inquired. "This is my first one…"

After a moment to appreciate the waterfalls, the group meandered down a misty path lined with flowers. The scene frightened Starlight- she couldn't see where they were going through the mist- but the flowers and serenity that surrounded her made her feel right at home. Maybe because she had been there before too.

They toured the grand library and the large glass room that stood over the Edge of the World, watching phoenixes swoop in and out of view. This was a moment, for guests both at Phoenixe Place and in the cabin, to catch a breath. Between learning all about their mission and adopting a pack of lemmings, their day had been a little too hectic to pause and take everything in. The murderer was doing just that, watching the phoenixes blazing trails of orange and gold behind them as they flew by. When Abie came and told them that it was time to go, the murderer had formed a plan.

~~~~~

Dead: 6. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed. Moondrop and Lucinda, poisoned by plant. Orson, stabbed.

Suspects: Bean, Spellbound, Nerd (any others?)

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 8

References this day:

Phoenixe Place

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/455735

Day 8, part 1

"Life is more fun if you play games."

-Roald Dahl

~~~~~

When the murderer was plotting yesterday, so was Sam.

Their ponderings did concern the Mystery and the mission, though not in the way you might think. Sam Crickett was well aware of the responsibility on their shoulders and the numerous problems they had been tasked with solving. But they were just about ready for a break from all that, and they figured that the guests deserved a day of fun before the hard work of saving the Mystery really began.

Sam tried their very best not to become guilty. Planning a day of relaxation for the guests could very well seem to be procrastination to avoid the more important issues of the Mystery. In fact, Sam had nearly convinced themselves that they weren't doing this for the ski lodgers at all, but rather for themselves. But the truth was that the idea had been inspired when Sam observed Azalea gazing off into space with a notebook in her lap. When Bean approached her and asked what she was writing about, Aza replied, "The Mystery. I'm so worried about it. Like, what if we can't save it? What'll happen then?"

Hearing that hit Sam hard. They hadn't considered how hard it would be for the CBers to hear that the fate of all ski lodges was resting upon their shoulders. The thought of a day off before everything really began was conceived when Sam witnessed the stress they had put on their guests.

Back to today. Sam stayed up rather late to put something enjoyable together for the guests. They didn't consider what the murderer might want to do with that opportunity. Sure, Sam knew that sabotage was common in normal ski lodges during a fun group activity, but they had never thought of their ski lodge as anything normal. So when the murderer heard the announcement on the morning of day 8, the opportunity seemed perfect. And the truth is that it was.

Sam announced their plan, unwittingly inspiring the murderer, during a breakfast of waffles and fruit. "We're going to have a color war starting in a few hours," they stated proudly, bending to pick up a lemming from the floor. "I've split you into two groups- red and blue- that will be your teams for the rest of the day. We'll play one game, have lunch, then play the next two. I'll explain more once we get there. I'll leave you to do what you want for now, but I want everyone to meet me and the rest of the staff at the Moonlight Forest at ten am!"

And as Sam skipped happily away with a lemming in their arms, the murderer's mind started to work. Exactly how many weapons could they hide on their person and still be able to participate in the games?

"EEEEEEEEK!" Abcde shrieked. "THERE'S A LEMMING SNIFFING MY SHOE!!!"

"Get over yourself," Morning grumbled as Liddy faithfully climbed out of her seat to shoo the lemming away from Abcde. Nerd giggled from across the table. "Come on, I can't be the only one who finds this funny." Nerd herself had a lemming in her lap.

Abcde glared at Nerd. "Are you making fun of me?" she demanded.

"Um," Azalea piped up nervously. "I don't want to have an argument…"

"I'm not arguing," Abcde fumed. "I'm asking an honest question. Is she making fun of me, despite the fact that I am perfect in every way and have no plausible reason as to why someone would mock me?"

"Abcde," Morning said firmly. "Sit down."

As the dust started to settle in the wake of Nerd and Abcde's dispute, people started to get excited about the Color War and what games they might be playing. They eagerly began to get ready, and no-one was late for Sam's ten o'clock deadline. Abie escorted them, Remi and Zach already being near the forest with Sam. Jem Louise Margaret wasn't attending, seeing as she had been stabbed very early on that day, the incident happening just after breakfast.

Sam beamed. "Welcome to the Color War! I hope you aren't afraid to get a little dirty. For our first game, we'll be playing Capture the Flag. Remi will tell you which team you're on while Abie or Zach will hand you your team flag. The flag is in the color of your team and you're required to wear it somewhere on your body, weather that be your waist, head, elbow, nostrils, whatever."

The Red team was made up of Azalea, Tumble, Liddy, Bakerloo, Spellbound, Kali, Dallas, Quill, dreamii, Qwinn, and Nightfall.

The blue team was made up of Abcde, Nerd, Firefly, Bean, Starlight, Sterling, Morning, Faith, Honeybee, Feli, Grace, and Leafy.

The murderer accepted their ribbon with a smile, tying it around their head. Everything was just a game… games of strategy, games of competition… they were good at that…

A few minutes later, Feli was looking at her teammates with a determined smile on her lips. It slipped ever so slightly when she saw that Abcde was still giving NerdFace a look of distrust. Feli didn't like the thought of two teammates- and two ski lodge companions- being at odds. The last thing they needed at this point was a divide between them. It was going to be down to them to save the Mystery.

Feli shook her head a little bit. She should get her mind off of that for now. Morning, Honeybee, and Leafy were forming strategies. The task at hand was a game of Capture the Flag- Feli could worry about some of the group's more pressing problems later.

"Is everybody ready?" Sam shouted, looking from the red team on their left side to the blue team on their right.

"YEAH!" everyone screamed back. Their territories were outlined. Their plans were made. Their flags were hidden.

"On your marks! Get set! GO!"

I suspect Sterling.

Other than that, this is INCREDIBLE and I will have more random/slightly logical theories at the end of the ski-lodge-day. Thank you, Luna! And I am so sorry for forgetting about this for the 7 millionth time. I have memory-and-commitment issues.