A/N: Well, I just found out that Club Penguin Island is closing, and... I'm shook. When it opened, I was too busy to get into it, and never really did until June 2018. After that, I highly anticipated so much, from puffles, to the next All Access Event, the staff bringing Protobot into the game... What brought me back to CPI was Herbert and the Island Codex, and then I stayed for the plot and the community.
But it's closing now, and I'm heartbroken. So have a fanfic.
Aunt Arctic stares at the letter she had just received, unable to fully process its contents.
She remembers that fateful day, back in 2014, when she had been able to move to this island, to create a community. She had to enlist the help of Disney, and she had to agree to specific terms, but she thought they were worth it. Deal with the devil , her family told her.
She wishes she had listened.
If she had listened, maybe this wouldn't be happening. Maybe she could have moved here, but with everything fine. Maybe she wouldn't be staring at the letter, wondering what had happened to lead to this.
The complete shutdown of the island.
She wonders what she did wrong. She did her best to keep everything running smoothly. She kept the parties coming. Sure, the Medieval Party was a bit late, but that was due to circumstances beyond her control. She agreed to all the terms that were given to allow her to move to the island, and fulfilled them all. She even opened up two Disney Stores, just to ensure the terms were fulfilled.
She did everything just right.
So, she wonders, what went wrong?
Was it the amount of people moving in? Rockhopper had said that there were some issues finding people to move here. Was that it, a small community?
No, it couldn't be. There was a large community, and they were highly active. That couldn't be it, then.
There were a few… incidents… lately, such as the raid. Was that enough? Was that what caused the shutdown?
But that was a relatively small thing in the long run, calmed by the community. That didn't make sense, and it certainly wasn't destructive enough to cause a shutdown.
What was it?
She doesn't know.
Nor does she know how to break the news to the community that they all have to leave. She knows that the news will not go over well, and that many tears would be shed. She knows that people will wrongly blame her, and she's okay with that. She has to be.
She thinks of all she's done over the years. She thinks of the Lighthouse, and seeing a spirited young penguin fix it. She thinks of Cadence's concerts, and how she drew the community together. She thinks of the Island Codex, and all she's learned about the Penglantians from it. She thinks of the threat of Herbert, and of the Elite Penguin Force. They'll all have to go their separate ways because of this.
At least she doesn't need to worry about Herbert getting what he wants. She has a theory about what happened to Penglantis, pieced together from what she could translate of the Island Codex. She knows that there's a way to cause a culture to vanish, and she knows that after everyone leaves, she'll have to use it. Best keep the secrets safe, until someone else comes along, makes a deal with the devil, and suffers what she has.
Everything hits her at once. The island will be gone . The community, scattered. The friends she's made, perhaps she'll never see again. Everything she's come to love will be taken away from her.
A tear rolls down her cheek as she begins to whisper a song.
"We are the penguins, we are the penguins. We can run this island…"
She drops the letter on her desk and pushes against it, trying to keep herself standing. It's so hard, knowing what will happen.
"We are the penguins. We may be different. Everyone can call it home…"
She fails to keep herself standing. She lets herself fall to the ground and cry. She knows it's not her fault, it's Disney's, but she can't stop the feelings of self-blame from coming in.
"Home…"
She failed the community.
"Home…"
A/N: I will be writing more CP and CPI fanfics (though I'm still not sure if I'm continuing Power Problems), so this isn't the end of my story. But until next time...
Waddle on.