Young Writers Society

OH YES, YWS. Twas the first week of StoMo and all through the site, new badges were rearing to hug us all tight. The Carnival setup was taken with care (in hopes that @LadyBird soon would be there.) The kids were so happy, the teens on their phones; though @Rydia scolded them: "You'll end up alone!"

But I, in my t-shirt, my shorts, and my chucks, gave not a worry of a ride getting stuck. (Because I personally oversaw their construction, you see...)

*ahem*

This is the tale of the SBs' great month, and how misadventure came knocking a-rough.



"I don't like heights," Lumi demanded. "I don't like them, I don't like the idea of falling from Such Great Heights, and I didn't like that scene in the American Death Note where the Ferris Wheel broke. It was devastating."

"If you would just calm yourself," said @Omnom, "and enjoy the breeze up here, you may forget that we've been stuck on this ride for three hours."

Duly, the sun was beaming down on the duo, and sweat pooled on their foreheads. "Who do they even have fixing this ride? And why is it taking so long?" He fearfully peered over the side of the gondola and saw @shaniac beating the control panel with a spanner, @TheSilverFox roasting marshmallows over a part that had caught on fire, as well as @Saen and @soundofmind playing cards as a roleplay across the street.

"Where even is @BrumalHunter?"

"We're also missing @Elinor and @FalconerGal9086..."

"INCOMING DINNER!" shouted someone from below. Suddenly, the two men were covered in shrimp, grits, and sweet tea.

"We're going to die here, aren't we?"

"Probably," Omnom said with a shrimp in his mouth.

Why was shaniac dealing with the machinery? She didn't have any knowledge of how it worked and now, she spent her time hitting it with a spanner. Shaniac guessed she was in part of this fixing because her summer was boring and the carnival caught her attention. @TheSilverFox was making marshmallows, which caused shaniac's stomach to growl hungrily. She hadn't eaten yet and figured it would be nice to have a quick snack.

Shaniac hit the control panel one more time and finally, the gondola came alive. She stepped back, resting the spanner against her hip. Nice work, she told herself. Now, for the marshmallows. Shaniac threw the spanner somewhere and headed over. @scribbleinks and @Sonder were also present, now munching on some smores. Shaniac grabbed a sticky marshmallow and put it between two graham crackers. Taking a bite, she thought about how peaceful the carnival might be and hoped, since it was her first time, that maybe things would be brilliant.

Suddenly, the gondola whined once more and stopped halfway. Shaniac was confused but heard something sizzling. Sure enough, the control panel had been smashed to smithereens and the circuits were sparking.

shrimp, grits, and sweet tea? Omnom thought as he spat out a whole shrimp that somehow managed to fall directly in. He was allergic to shrimp, didn't everyone know? Maybe this was a huge plot to eliminate him from the equation; maybe this was a revenge scenario, but that had to mean that Omnom did something to someone. Ah well, he probably did in his seven years of being here.

But yeah, shrimps, grits, and sweet tea? That sounded like someone from the sotuh if Omnom had to give his most exceptional guess. He glanced up again, but couldn't see the person who had showered them with glorious southern delicacies. He thought it might be @LadyBird but this was a mystery for another day and another post.

@Lumi elbowed him in the side. "The wheel's moving again! Seems like us hiring @shaniac was a good idea. We'll have to promote her to carnival manager sometime soon."

The wheel chugged along until they were on the ground, and they both hopped off, Lumi sipping some sweet tea he managed to capture in a mug. Lumi was the type of man who always had a mug around in case someone dropped some sweet tea on him. Omnom was the type of man to complain about being sticky by sweet tea being dropped on him.

@BlueAfrica stopped them as they were on their way to the staff cabins. "GUYS. DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS COOL NEW EVENT THAT SOME PEOPLE HAVE BEEN PLANNING FOR THE CIRCUS." She coughed. "Sorry, caps lock was still on. It's called Last Man Standing and I want everyone to join?"

"Oh, that sounds cool!" @ScribbleInks waltzed up to them. "What is it about?"

"Yeah, is it like, a writing contest where people write a thousand words a week until there's only one person left standing?" @ShadowVyper muttered from a corner. Everyone jumped at the mention of her talking, thinking it was actually a Storybook Skeleton (we leave a lot of those lying around) but nope, it was actually Shady! She winked at the camera.

"No, not at all? That's such a weird concept for a carnival," BlueAfrica said.

"I didn't even know we had the budget for a camera..." Omnom pouted. "I want to use a camera!"

"We'll get you one for your anniversary," Lumi consoled him.

"Didn't we use all our gift budget for Yewis' anniversary?" ScribbleInks asked but stopped after Lumi shushed her silently. "SOOOO, Blue, what's this Last Man Standing about?"

"Well," Blue began, and all the lights vanished except for a flashlight that Omnom didn't even know she had, "It's a fight... to the death! But it's also a race, and a mystery adventure. We couldn't decide on one genre this year, so we just settled on mashing them all together in a manic hysteria! That'll for sure bring in all the money."

"She's got my vote," @ThundahGuy shouted from the marshmellow pit.

The ferris wheel sputtered to death again, and shaniac let out a large groan.

"She would make a wonderful carnival manager," Lumi whispered.

@ladybird was nowhere near the festival taking place fifty miles from her office. And she probably wouldn't be there anytime soon, as she was currently asleep on her desk.

Then there came the rapping at the window by the Raven, the series of gunshots and cannon fire, and @Kale kicking in the office door.
"GOOD MORNING. READY FOR COFFEE?"
"Um, I guess. What time is it?"
"It's not after 4 because you're wearing overly modest clothing."
"A reworded Gone with the Wind quote?"
"Yep. Now let's get downstairs to your car because @Lumi mentioned you in the entrance post, so something is happening."

Lizz walked slowly down the corridor, losing certain pieces of fashion and picking up her windbreaker and cowboy hat on the way.
"Where are my boots?"
She whistled and the raccoon came toting a pair of black boots.

The walk out to the car was easy, almost everyone was cleared out of the castle and at the carnival across town. Already in the car was the possum, the alligator and the coon hound. Lizz strapped the raccoon into its carseat, which was not the weirdest thing she had done in the line of duty in a tagbook.

The roads were bare.
All the roads.
Not just the back roads that they usually took.

Aside from the wildlife scarfing down tortilla chips in the back seat, nothing happened. In the car that was.

Once they arrived at the carnival site, some tents were aflame and a few giant living marshmallows were running around the park. Then there was the chanting to make @blueafrica and @shaniac gods and land piranhas searching for shrimp.
So about the same as usual.

Lizz and Kale took the fire extinguishers out of trunk of the car, put on their helmets, and waltzed in to deal with the mess.

Saen was in the middle of a very heated game of UNO with @soundofmind when a bird suddenly went zooming past their table. Both gave startled cries of alarm and covered their heads, because that was always the best reaction when there was the possibility of a bird getting poop in your hair. But the bird did not poop on them, and they both lowered their hands with loud sighs of relief.

Saen was in the middle of picking up her deck again when someone suddenly slammed their hands down on the table. For the second time in the past five minutes, both Saen and sound cried out in surprise. "I've lost him!" @FalconerGal9086 shouted, slamming her hands down on the table a second time for emphasis.

"Lost who?" sound cautiously asked.

"Him!" Falc said, waving her hands wildly about. "I knew he wanted to go, but not that much!"

"Go where?" Saen tentatively questioned.

"Here!" Cue Falc once again waving her hands wildly about, gesturing all around them as she tried to get her point across.

"You're not making any sense!" sound and Saen said in unison.

Falc sighed and plopped into the chair next to them. In the process, she knocked their deck of cards off the table. But the game was soon forgotten as she told them what exactly had happened. "I was telling my newest bird about the carnival, and he decided to come on his own! I had said we'd go together, but he's just too impatient! He snuck out when I was in the middle of writing for LMS, and now he keeps flying away from me every time I get close."

sound and Saen looked at each other.

"We'll help!" sound eagerly said, grabbing onto Falc's hand and giving it a tight squeeze. "With the three of us, it should be easy to catch him!"

Saen hopped to her feet. "Not only that, but we've got a whole crew of roleplayers at our disposal! I'll call up @RaidenCheese, @shaniac, @corvidconvalescence, @SirenCymbaline and @TheSilverFox to see if they can help us out!"

Siren was already at the carnival, hanging out inside a broken popcorn machine and scoffing up the contents.
@Chase7 the security guard yelled ''You will vacate that popcorn machine in the name of the law! National Health and Safety law 53.57633242 clearly states that popcorn machines may not have fish people in them!''

That was when her phone rang. She hopped out of the machine and put a finger over @Chase7's mouth. ''I have to take this.'' she said. Then she hopped away.

An hour later Siren was stuck at the top of the bad CG ride from Spy Kids 2, holding a bird in her clammy webbed hands.
''GET ME UNSTUCK, @RaidenCheese and @soundofmind and @TheSilverFox and @izanami AND WHOEVER ELSE MIGHT BE HANGING AROUND!'' she yelled.
''AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS ISN'T THE RIGHT BIRD, @FalconerGal9086?''

Chase didn't even know where he was. How could in all the mist? Distant sounds of laughing clowns echoed in the night. Damn he hated the carnival. Who could've guessed that a date at a restaurant would end up in a carnival?

"Are you lost kid?" Monty asked.

He appeared from behind the Fantastic Ride machine. As pale as ghost. Everyone thought he was.

"No, i was just looking for my friend Saen but i guess he left," I lied.

Damn i was a bad liar. The old man walked lifelessly closer to me then took a deep breath.

"I know where he is," he uttered with a sinister smile.

I slowly backed up but accidentally ended up hitting the cotton candy machine. By the time i looked back at the old man he was gone. But five clowns remained in the mists. And their haunting laughs.

"I MEAN YOU'RE HOLDING A PIGEON AND WE'RE LOOKING FOR THE FALCON OVER THERE!" Feather yelled back up. "THE BLACKISH BLUEISH ONE THAT'S SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN YOUR PIGEON!"

"GET ME DOWN!" Siren yelled, releasing the pigeon. "I'M STUCK!"

Feather shook her head. "Uhhh I love ya Siren but you do know I'm afraid of heights, right?"

"ACK SOMEONE HELP!" Siren yelled.

Exactly seven and three-quarters minutes later Siren was being helped down by @RaidenCheese who, upon his arrival, had given everyone watching from down below a slight electric shock with their handshake and was very close to turning ON the ride to prank Siren but decided that that was just too mean, so he didn't.

Siren thanked her good buddies for helping her down, then realised that @izanami and @kat13254 had been security gaurds the whole time!
She quickly put on a fake moustache so that they would not recognise her as the popcorn-machine culprit.

'Right. Righty-ho. Onward, then.' Siren said, as though she knew what she was doing.

They went to look in the haunted house, and it was full of DEAD MEMES. Siren had to hold @Saen's hand for support.

Then poor @RaidenCheese went wild and turned into a dabbing, nae-naeing, gangnam styling, PPAP-ing, Harlem Shaking, carmelldansening were-echidna!

Raiden abruptly stopped the dead meme-ing. He took up a military stance and saluted an imaginary general.
"Jokes on you, sucker," he said, turning to @SirenCymbaline, "I was an undercover security guard. Time to take you in for the popcorn biz. Put your webbed hands up and don't try anything funny." His voice had suddenly become raspy as he slowly reached into his back pocket for something. Siren's eyes widened, as @Saen whispered something along the lines of "He must be joking."

Everyone stopped. Nobody dared breathe as Raiden brought out a square shaped object from his back pocket.

It was an Uno card.

@soundofmind gasped, as she was standing behind Raiden and could see what it was. An evil smile crawled onto Raiden's features, Sound slowly shaking her head at Sae and @FalconerGal9086.
Siren's moustache fell off.
The ride that had stopped jerked slightly.
The pigeons pooped somewhere in the distance.
An ice-cream hit the ground.
Raiden slowly turned the card around.

+4

Siren gulped.

Siren stopped dead. @RaidenCheese had pulled out the most strategically brilliant UNO card that he possibly could have chosen.
And her moustache had fallen.

'YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE! SMOKE BOMB!' she screamed, and began to run in a direction, forgetting entirely about the falcon quest.

In the dreaded Durr Plant section of the haunted house, she bumped into @shaniac and @Payne. 'I've been framed, cover for me.'' Siren whispered loudly.

You know that feeling of being between a rock and a hard place? That's exactly what shaniac was feeling when, after dealing with the smashed bits of the gondola and the chaos that developed afterward, now had to deal with @SirenCymbaline's quick dash. She didn't know how to respond because in her mind, this was just another instance of choosing between right and wrong.

She then had a bright idea. "I have a picture frame, will that help?" Shaniac suggested, grabbing a frame that had maybe magically appeared in front of her.

Siren nodded and grabbed the picture frame, running off again.

Having spent most of the night at the carnival's beer tent, Payne wobbled dangerously when @SirenCymbaline bumped into her. "Whaaat? Framed? Why is there smoke coming off of you?"

Payne reached out to @shaniac for stability, having already bounced off of @ChieRynn like a pinball. The scariest parts of the haunted house were the uneven flooring and the narrow hallways. Also the lack of beer.

Siren left a smell of popcorn as she ran off with the apparently magical picture frame.

Elinor was, rather typically, stuck in traffic. She tried to call @Lumi to let him know that she'd be running late, but he didn't pick up his phone, and neither did @Rydia, so she would just have to explain once she got there. There's no place worse than LA traffic. Everything they say about it is absolutely true. It was a hot day too, and she looked forward to having big cup of sweet tea that Lumi had promised would be provided. Well, there would be sweet tea, shrimp and grits, but she couldn't stand the taste of shrimp, and it was far too hot for grits.

Still, she had the AC on and was blasting the Beatles greatest hits on shuffle, so she tried to enjoy the drive. She finally got there and she pulled in she saw @LadyBird and @Kale getting fire extinguishers out of a car. She decided not to ask.

Inside was chaos too, but many had already arrived and looked like they were having fun. She waved to @scribbleinks and @TheBlueCat eating smores while they talked to @BlueAfrica about LMS. She'd decided she was more in the mood for a milkshake than sweet tea, so she made her way to the ice cream stand which @snowmonkey9 was running.

When she finally approached @Lumi, he and @Omnom were covered in shrimp, grits and sweet tea.

"Um," she said, "hello! Sorry I'm late."

Siren put the picture frame on her head like a hat as a disguise, and left the haunted house. Then she found @Hattable by a cotton candy machine that was in a dark little corner for some reason. She dashed into that corner.

She had narrowly evaded the security gaurds @Sree and @killeham, who were patrolling the area in a pink golf cart.

''Hats, I'm a fugitive! Please let me hang out with you, and don't rat me out.''
She took the maybe magical picture frame from off her head and gave it to her friend. ''Here! Take this bribe! Now hide me!''
Siren dived behind the cotton candy machine. A clammy webbed hand stretched up to grab some cotton candy, and then sank back down into the shadows again.