Fwd: Case of the Lost Footprint

A story in which Private Detective Henrietta Hammer (almost) solves the mystery of the Lost Footprint...

I spun around madly, my eyes searching the snow.

But it was gone.

The footprint that I had spent so much time thinking about, wondering about, had simply vanished.

When I spotted it the previous day, I'd left a stone beside to mark the position. And the stone was the only thing left, sitting down on the snow in the forest.

The witness.

Now, if stones could talk, I'd have had this one in my office by now, asking it some serious questions.

See? My office was going to waste. I'd lost the footprint. And the stone was blandly sitting there, not giving up any of its secrets, just like a hardened criminal.

I really didn't like days like these.

---

You may be wondering: what will Henrietta Hammer do now?

I really had no idea myself.

So, like all the days I have no idea what to do, I waddled along to the Coffee Shop.

The waitress that always served me was there, and I sent her a nod of my fedora to tell her I was having the usual. Then I sat down on one of the red sofas and picked up the newspaper.

But it wasn't there. It was being read by a penguin on the other sofa.

I could tell she was EPF just by the type of pony tail she wore. High, out of the way, without a single hair misplaced. Of course, the headset she wore was also a clue.

She would be perfect to help me with the lost footprint.

I hopped along the sofa. "Hello, have you heard of abominable snowmen?"

"Yes," she said, not even sparing me a glance.

Tsk. Typical.

"Well I think I've found one. Or a footprint of one, at least."

This caught her attention. "Oh, really? Where is it?"

"Um. I've kind of lost it."

She frowned. "How?"

"Well I put a stone next to it to remind me where it was, but by morning it was gone."

"The stone?"

"No," I said. "The footprint."

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry, then." She turned back to the newspaper. "I can't help you there."

And so, without ever being able to read the newspaper, I drank my hot chocolate and left the Coffee Shop to go to my office.

It was a fairly plain igloo, just a couple of floors, with a reception desk on the lower floor along with a few uncomfortable chairs, a table and a fake potted plant. Up some steps was my armchair behind my mahogany desk, surrounded by pictures on the wall and a few more fake potted plants.

All in all, you get the feeling it was empty and bland. No receptionist, no clients. Just me.

Which was what I was trying to change.

With a dramatic sigh, I walked up the steps, to my desk, and sat down on the armchair. The only good thing about my office was that my armchair was much better than those in the reception.

And the window. I had a lovely window with a lovely view of the thick, snowy forest and mountains in the distance. It was lovely. If I haven't said that enough. But it was.

I stayed for a while by the window, mulling over my current case, admiring the view and so on. It was calming, sort of.

If you ignored the great big white creature walking past my igloo.

The moment I saw it, I thought: aha! My abominable snowman! The launch-pad of my career!

Then my second thoughts were: oh, no. Do abominable snowmen eat penguins?

What I would've done, in a different scenario, would be to head to the library that one of my great-aunts owned to start researching. But for this scenario?

There was no time.

What was I going to do?

Before I could head outside or say something, a group of three EPF penguins ran past, chasing the abominable snowman.

I could tell by their hairstyles.

Deciding it was a little safer, I pushed open the window and hopped out into the snow. One of them turned around and recognized me: she was the agent from the Coffee Shop. After shooting me an incredulous look, she ran off after the others.

In a few seconds, though, they headed back.

"He's... gone," panted one of the agents.

Another snapped at him. "Well, of course he's gone! I could see that for myself!"

"Why didn't you see the snow trekker, then?"

"Because! Duh! It was behind a tree!"

"How can you hide a snow trekker behind a tree? It was bright yellow! If you're supposed to be our team leader, shouldn't you take responsibility for not seeing it?"

"Oh, puh-leese!" said the agent from the Coffee Shop. "Is it possible for you two to not argue during the day?"

The second agent shot a venomous look at the first. "Well, if he'd stop going on at me-"

"I was not going on at you! You started the argument!"

"Hey! I said stop it!"

"Yeah? You're the team leader now? Nobody told me?"

I decided to step in before this got out of hand. "Hey, I'm Detective Henrietta Hammer. What's going on? Where's my abominable snowman?"

The agent from the Coffee Shop stared at me. "You're police?"

"I'm a private detective, actually."

"Oh, well isn't that marvellous?" said the second agent. "Look what you've done now."

"I'm searching for an abominable snowman."

The first agent rolled his eyes. "An abominable snowman? You mean Her-"

"SHH!"

"-bert?"

I tilted my head. "Who's Herbert?"

The second agent and the Coffee Shop agent looked at me as if I were a ticking time bomb.

"Uh, um, well, he's nobody."

"Nobody?"

"Yeah, nobody. Just an annoying herbert. That's all."

"But who's the annoying herbert? My abominable snowman?"

"There's no abominable snowman," said the Coffee Shop agent. "It's just-"

"He's Herbert. A polar bear," said the first agent. When confronted with glares from his colleagues, he shrugged. "She's a detective. We might need her on the case."

"But she goes around searching for abominable snowmen as a job!"

"So?"

"There's no such thing as abominable snowmen!"

"Well, sure, you can say that." He turned to me. "Are you gonna help?"

I nodded, and held out my flipper. "Private Detective Henrietta Hammer, at your service." After introducing myself, I headed into the forest. "Now let's go find my abominable snowman."

"He's called Herbert!" came a far-off cry. "And there's no such thing as abominable snowmen!"

The Friend Request (dun dunn dunnn...)

My day started off...

Uh. *cough, cough*

You see, being the generally socially awkward person I am, it took a great deal of self control not to freak out when this happened...

Okay. So I'd just logged in, blah blah blah, and was on my third-favourite spaceship in the world (probably fourth, actually. The first three ones I made up in my head over the span of my life... and they rock!). Then, suddenly, I saw a scary bubble pop up by the friend button. You know? A friend request?

The actual penguin who'd asked me was waddling about the Millennium Falcon happily, probably quite confident and not at all freaking out like I was.

What was I supposed to do?

For a moment I thought about actually saying yes, but decided that it might be better to pretend that I was still loading until the penguin went away.

Thankfully they did, and eventually the friend request disappeared.

My awkward moment was over.

After that, I headed to infiltrate the Death Star, which was pretty awesome. Although I have to say I prefer the graphics on my Star Wars game (and that's just the DS Complete Saga game... on which the graphics aren't brilliant... the Clone Wars 3DS graphics however are to die for).

Anyway. The puzzle thing I found way too easy. On my Professor Layton DS game (yeah, I'm going into girl gamer mode) there are games like that one, but which are SO hard. This, however? Well, CP is for a range of ages I suppose. Even though, of course, I'm sure a lot of people much younger than me would've found the puzzles deadly too.

After infiltrating the Death Star, which barely took five minutes, I headed to Darth Herbert's room, took a pic...



... and then went to my igloo.

As per usual, I clicked the "Like" button in the corner of the screen, and then walked to my puffle and said "Hey, Azurite, I've got another Like!"

Being the generally socially awkward penguin I am.

Did you know, of the grand 18 Likes I've got, 18 of them are actually from myself?

Ikr? Im, like, RLY popular on CP. Like, EVryone <3's my iggy!

In case you were wondering, I was being sarcastic.

So, while I was writing this, eventually my CP screen timed out. Which it does a lot. The screen came up as I was writing the Death Star bit, and when I logged back on again, I had to scribble down this...

"OH MY GOD!

That penguin's request came up again. Just then! As I was logging in!

Holy. Hungarian. Hairballs.

Okay. Well. I just ran to my igloo, since it's my sort of safe-place, but the request followed me. I thought about declining... however, the friend request bubble disappeared. Just as I was about to press the button."

... so, yeah. I'm afraid to leave my igloo now, in case I get bombarded with that same, terrifying friend request.

Seriously. I'm not overreacting or dramatizing this whole thing. It really is kind of scary for me. I don't know what to do when faced with a friend request. Imagine a random stranger walking up to you in the street and saying, "Hey there! Wanna be my friend?"

Except it's a little different. CP friends can look at your profile on CP, any day, every day, go to your igloo... etc. It's really quite terrifying.

Especially, I guess, for a paranoid penguin like me.

So. What will I do now? I'm thinking about just wandering around CP with Azurite... soaking up the grey skies and fervently ignoring people. Especially friend requests.

Ta ta, Tatooineans!

Love, Blue and Azurite, the overly-paranoid penguin and her hard-done-by puffle.

More About The Star Wars Takeover - 23/07/2013

I feel sad.

I feel sad because I don't think I'm going to get all out of the Star Wars Takeover that I'd like. Because of membership.

What makes me miserable is that Star Wars, to me, has always been open. Someone who is less affluent can be just as involved, if not more, in the Star Wars universe, if they put their heart into it, than the more affluent. There's no division. I'll bet the person who loves Star Wars the most in the entire world isn't rich, nor do they have to be. It all comes down to their love of of that world.

But, this? Disney is teasing me here. Since I am not a member, I can't participate as fully in the Takeover as I'd like.

I. Just. Can't.

I don't know about all of this. It feels... wrong. Like Star Wars is being monetized. I mean, of course, it's a movie. A series of movies. And books and merchandise and so on. But it's like taking a friend away and saying that you can't see or talk to them unless you pay some people money. It feels wrong.

For some things, I don't care if they're monetized. But taking away a world cherished in my memory? I'm not sure.

I know. I know. CP is doing all these graphics, and the people have to be paid. They have families. They have meals needing to be bought.

But, PLEASE. Don't ruin Star Wars. Don't make it into some kind of cheesed-up thing where the love is taken away and in its place is a fake smiley sign saying, "This requires membership."

Now that I've had my moment, I'd better move onto the news.

I'll just give you links to the latest news. There's a new video about the Star Wars Takeover. A new Penguin of the Day. I'm busy on my stupid unimportant emotional rollercoaster right now to copy and paste the whole post:

VID: http://www.clubpenguin.com/blog/2013/07/video-game-star-wars-takeover

PotD: http://www.clubpenguin.com/blog/2013/07/penguin-day-walkervaner

-Blue

Nothing New! - 21/07/2013

Can you believe it? There's nothing new on Club Penguin!

Still, this is a daily blog. I owe it to you invisible penguins to write something interesting every day. And so, I have taken a deep breath and ignored my fears and... I'm logging on to a busy server!

Adventures of a Telephonophobic Hermit Called Blue

I love that title.

Uhh... no. The loading is taking for EVER!

So. If CP is going to be like that, I'll have to have a fictional Adventures of a Telephonophobic Hermit Called Blue.

Yeah. CP is going to be like that.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

In a freezing cold igloo on Club Penguin island, there sat a penguin.

Of course.

This penguin was a telephonophobic hermit called Blue. She loved staying away from people and setting telephones on fire in her backyard, which often caught the attention of her neighbours.

But, of course, she tried to avoid having neighbours at all. Which meant that Blue most often went on the quietest servers there were.

This morning, Blue was feeding her puffle Azurite some extremely healthy cake and pizza when a phone rang.

She froze. Her heart beat sped up. Her mind raced. She tried to suppress the instinct to jump in her non-existent wardrobe to get away from the threat.

If only that invisible force called Disney would let her buy a wardrobe.

Thankfully, after about ten spine-tinglingly scary rings, the phone switched off.

"Well!" Blue said at last, coming out from behind her sofa. "It looks like there'll be another bonfire in the garden today, Azurite!"

Her puffle silently groaned and went back to eating the cake and pizza.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

There! How was that? I've just advertised for unhealthy eating, burning phones in backyards and also for Disney to give telephonophobic non-members the chance to buy a get-away wardrobe!

Great, better and brilliant.

-Blue

900 Words! - 20/07/2013

Today you will not believe how much writing I've done.

900 words! Actually, 897, but that's pretty close.

I know, I know, I've written much more than that on my good days, but seeing that today wasn't a specific good day, I think I've done quite well.

Now if you're wondering why I'm blabbering on about this stuff, I'll give you the good news. Did I tell you yesterday? I don't know.

Well, I'll be writing four different stories, one a week, to post on here. The first is about two penguins who are secretly superheroes, the second is about a private detective who has some quirky cases, the third is about three ninjas who basically have to save the world, and the fourth is about an EPF agent. The cool thing about these four stories is that they're kind of connected. The characters star in each others stories, whether they're just minor characters or not. For instance, the main character of the second story talks to the main character of the fourth story. So, in the first chapters of both stories, they'll have the same scene, but altered so that it isn't boring.

The other thing is that these aren't really stories. Well, they are, but each chapter is a new short story. I mean, they have links. They have to be read in order. But I'm much better at doing a lot of short stories than a lot of chapters. It's just the way my head works. I get greater satisfaction from saying to myself, "Look, I wrote a story!" than "Look, I wrote a chapter. One down, heaps to go."

Anyway. This is boring even me now.

So, onwards.



Blue's News, Ooo's, Reviews and Interviews!


News Time!

Penguin of the Day:
http://www.clubpenguin.com/blog/2013/07/penguin-day-agenco

New Waddle On video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dvL5Zkxy0eQ

Vote on the new poll (which is your favourite part of the CP Times?):
http://www.clubpenguin.com/fun-stuff


Ooo!

If you look through the telescope at the Beacon, you can see a little red dot on the horizon (you know, ignoring the great big Death Star and other ships). Is this dot the Rebels?


Review Time!

Review? Review? What's there to review?


Interview Time!

Summit is a gorgeous server. It's perfect for a hermit like me, but terrible for interviews. So, I'm going to make that my pathetic excuse to not do an interview today.


See you next time... and may the force be with you!

Do I need to put the copyright symbol after that line? The CP blog did... uhh ... I don't know. Imagine it's there!

-Blue

Long Time, No Post

I know, penguins. You must have lost faith in your favourite telephonophobic.

But I'm back! That means something, right?

Okay. It doesn't, I get it. However, I promise that I will update in future.

And that's a promise.

Now, in the time that I've been gone, I managed to get a cool Tie-Fighter Outfit (code: BARONFEL), totally abandoned my poor puffle Azurite, and ran around excitedly like the galactic geek I am thanks to the upcoming Star Wars Takeover party.

I get that people hate the ad parties. But, really, why? I mean, sure. They're ad parties. But if they're fun ad parties, then I don't care. I'm not going to sacrifice my enjoyment just to rant on at CP about ad parties.

However, I AM going to rant on at CP about the University.

Really, I don't have a problem with it. What I DO have a problem with is that it has replaced the Recycling Plant, and the University stuff outside the Mine has covered the vegetable gardens.

CP, what's got into your heads? If you're going to replace a building, don't replace the Recycling Plant. If you're going to put a volleyball field of all things anywhere, don't put it on a vegetable garden.

But they did.

Anyway. I won't rant for long or you'll probably end up ranting at me. So... invisible people out there... What do you think of the Star Wars Takeover party?

All comments accepted. Even rants. So long as you replace any swear words with these words:

Fluffy

Fairy-like

Happy, happy, happy!

Joyful

(Anything else along these lines... smiley faces are good too)

Sarcasm welcomed.

-Blue

The Marvel Super Hero Takeover is On Now! - 27/4/2013

New post from the CP blog... they're actually a day late... it started yesterday!

The Marvel Super Hero Takeover is On Now!

Greetings, Heroes!

The moment has finally arrived! It's time for the Marvel Super Hero Takeover on Club Penguin! We've already seen tons of Super Heroes and Super Villains battling it out around the island. We love seeing all the epic creativity out there...

Check out this video from our friends at Disney Channel and Disney XD:

(Blue: see it at http://www.clubpenguin.com/blog/2013/04/marvel-super-hero-takeover-now)
 

So now that you've had a chance to experience all the new costumes and areas at this year's Marvel Super Hero Takeover... what do you think? What's your favorite thing about the party so far? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

Until then... Waddle On!
-Club Penguin Team

Aren't they discriminating a bit? They said "Greetings, Heroes!" not "Greetings, Heroes and Villains!". Oh well.
I haven't checked out the video (well I have, but I don't have volume and I'm not a great lip reader yet) so I have no idea what the person on it is actually saying. But it shows what you can do in this party quite well.
-Blue