Turbo Pudding
Lullalotl is a calm pond game for one finger. You tap the water, the ripple wakes a sleepy friend, and the friend sings and ripples on. Ten ponds lead up the brook to the Moon, each with somebody new to wake. Here is everyone Lulla meets on the way.
Lulla, who can’t sing
Lulla is a tiny pink axolotl from Moonlit Hollow. When the valley went quiet and gray, she was the only one who stayed pink, because she had no song to lose. She tried to sing and got a “blub.” Then her tail went plip, and a sleepy friend woke up singing.
She sits on a flat stone at the edge of every pond and never says a word. When Glim cheers at the end of a pond, Lulla answers with a little picture in a bubble: a heart, a question mark, a star. Her gills fan out like a crown, and every pond she finishes lights one more tiny light on it.
Glim, the Hush and the Moon
Glim is an old firefly granny who keeps the glow jar by the pond. She wears round glasses and a striped pink and lavender scarf, and hovers in a slow figure eight. She has a tip for every pond (“Stones stop ripples. Go around them, dear.”) and a word of cheer when it is done.
The Hush is a big, soft cloud of fog with heavy, half-closed eyes. Every night the Moon sang a lullaby and the valley drifted off, but the Hush had never slept, not even once. So it wished for quiet, and the songs sank. You never fight it. Halfway up the brook it peeks out, and the game says it plainly: “It’s not mean. It’s just… tired.”
The Moon has lost her lullaby. Every pond you finish sends one note home, and in the last pond, Moon Mirror, her reflection lies in the water and sings whenever a wave reaches it.
The first five singers
Some friends are already asleep on a lily pad, others hatch from the lotus bud. Each has a rule of its own and a line for the end of its pond.
Pip, a green frog-bunny with a leaf for a hat, is the simplest friend: touch it with a ripple and it sings and ripples back. “I can SING again! Again! Again!”
Bloop is a round blue whale calf with a little spout. Its voice is big, so its ripples reach much further. Glim hears it first: “Someone big is snoring under the bubbles.”
Leap is part flying squirrel, part tree frog, and wears a leaf cape. When a wave reaches it, Leap hops away along the wave and ripples from wherever it lands. “Wheee! I hopped all the way to the Moon! Almost.”
Twinkle is a shy firefly-mouse with two glowing antennae. Every friend after Twinkle in a chain sings sweeter, so it pays to put Twinkle early. “I… I made the dark a little lighter? Oh my.”
Echo is lavender, with cat ears and a small snail shell on its back. It answers twice: one ripple now, a second a moment later. “Song? …Song! Song!”
Five more
Dozy is a kitten wrapped in a checked blanket, with a nightcap on. After five ripples it gives one huge yawn, and the yawn is a giant wave. Then Dozy asks, “Yaaawn… did I miss anything?”
Puff is a chick crossed with a dandelion. Every sneeze sends three seeds off to start three new ripples. “Ah-choo! Sorry! Happy ah-choo!”
Prism, a fox kit with dragonfly wings, sends a rainbow ripple, and every friend it touches sings triple. Prism also checks the outfits: “Pink, gold and blue. Everything matches!”
Tik & Tok are duckling-mouse twins who share one pad and do everything together. Their ripple splits into two arcs, left and right, so the pair can turn a wave. Tik says “Left!”, Tok says “Right!”, both say “Together!”
Bun is a bear cub who is also a bun: the valley baker, in an apron, with a mooncake in its paws. A chain that ends on Bun becomes a feast. “Song’s done. Mooncakes for everyone!”
What the friends dream about
Leave the pond for an hour or more, and when you come back a friend you have met may have had a dream. Glim tells you about it, and the dream goes into the Dream Book as a little painted postcard. Every friend has two dreams, plus three special ones, and you get three a day at most. They don’t change the game. They are just for keeping.
Bloop sang to a whale-shaped cloud, and the cloud sang back.
Dozy counted fluffy Puffs hopping over a fence: one, two, zzz.
And Bun baked a mooncake as big as a house. With a door!
Come and meet them
The first two ponds are free at lullalotl.com, with Pip and Bloop waiting in them. The full game is $4.99, paid once, and plays in any browser. More on the Lullalotl page.
