when your thoughts turn sour make them sweet instead

[sentree]

[ That was...positively horrible? Ugh. After a few hours, notes are slipped under each person's door. They read, in a neat handwriting: ]

Banquet in Vanellope's honor in the dining room.

- Reyna, Sally and Thalia

[ You may not know what to expect when they say banquet, but it...really is one, isn't it? Thalia's main dish is cheeseburgers, so there are so many of those, but the table's positively covered in an arrangement of fruit and vegetables and all kinds of bread. Looks like they've gone all out.

What's really the cream of it all, though, are the desserts. Not a lot that's special, but there's a wide collection of cookies and cupcakes, and enough hot chocolate to feed an army. Maybe literally. There is a section that's particularly fancy, and that's the many candy apples, definitely courtesy of Sally. Along with a cute amount of peppermint bark. It seems like the food is unending, too, since there's the delicatible smell of baking cookies and simmering candy from the kitchen. Thalia and Sally are keeping you stocked, don't worry. ]

Comments

[theduck]

[Donald is sort of regretting not actually having anything to drink at the bar. He can't say he's... upset about Preston dying, but Preston as a person was just upsetting in general. That plus the fact that a kid died this week. It's kind of just now catching up to him, now that they're out of the trial and the high tensions have mostly dissipated.

He's not actually hanging around the party. He's a weird mixture of morose and frustrated right now and doesn't want to snap at anybody or drag everyone else down just because he feels shitty. If you do manage to find him, he's wandering between rooms aimlessly because he knows how to cope with his emotions in a healthy manner. Obviously.]

[tadaishi]

[Tadashi and Donald have never really talked (and didn't really, at the trial), so he has no idea what to say to him, but when he finds the duck wandering the floor, he's going to try to talk to him nonetheless.]

You doing okay?

[theduck]

Yep. Just peachy.

[people are dying, he doesn't think anyone is doing okay]

Just grateful they gave us a bar up there.

[...Even if he didn't actually get around to using it.]

[tadaishi]

[Donald hasn't gone insane from the deaths so far, so he's doing fairly well.]

Good to hear.

[But yeah, no one's really completely okay.]

Too bad the timing sucked.

[theduck]

Yeah, would’ve appreciated it more under better circumstances. But I’ll be alright as long as this doesn’t happen again.

[Preston was basically a walking pile of garbage. He would be the only one to stoop so low.]

[tadaishi]

I'm hoping! But I have a bad feeling that it may anyway.

[Even if it's an accident.]

[theduck]

Well, now it will, since you just jinxed us!

[He is not a very superstitious duck, but he knows better than to test his luck like that.]

[goofy_er]

[Goofy's completely emotionally drained after that trial.... Jiminy Cricket... How could Preston kill an innocent child like that?

Though, before he can continue dwelling on those awful thoughts, he spots Donald and runs over to him.]

DONALD!!

[theduck]

[.....Goofy they literally just saw each other.

He'd probably be a lot more alarmed at the yelling if he hadn't seen Goofy running over immediately after- everyone else, it means something terrible has happened. With Goofy, it seems to just be a lack of volume control.]

Yes? Can I help you?

[goofy_er]

[Goofy's memory is shit.]

I was wonderin' if you were doin' alright after... Y'know, that whole trial thing.

[theduck]

Yeah, actually, I'm better than I was yesterday. I'm just glad we caught that guy... he was a real dirtbag. I wasn't sad to see him go.

What about you? I noticed you got, uh, a little worked up back there...

[goofy_er]

Dirtbag doesn't even begin to cover someone like that.

[As a parent, he's REALLY sensitive to the whole.... death of a kid thing. It was a huge shock for him. God, poor Vanellope....]

I THINK I'm alright though. I'm tryin' to stay positive! Though, I'm pretty sure I owe a dollar to the swear jar back home.

[He did say "fuck" after all during the trial]

[theduck]

Positive is good. It's better than I've been managing to do.

You still keep a swear jar? Aren't you... forty...?

[anasty]

[ Ursula knows her presence is probably not a welcome one at the afterparty, so after being there just long enough to put in an appearance, she heads back to her room in anticipation of sharing the news with Flotsam. With all the ample drinking she's done, she's a little more oozy than usual making her way along.

She's also a lot less aware of her surroundings, which means a lot of lurching momentum swinging around corners. Hopefully Donald's a little more agile? ]

[theduck]

[Fortunately, Donald didn't actually end up really using the bar, as tempting as it was at the time. Goofy kind of interrupted his attempt at taking his mind off of the trial. And he's naturally pretty light on his feet, between being a) an adventurer and b) someone who is very used to running for his life in terror.

Which is just about what he does when Ursula seemingly slides around the corner out of nowhere, although it's less of a 'running for his life' and more of a 'screaming and slamming against the opposite wall very clumsily'.

She's fortunately pretty easy to identify, so he isn't as panicked as he would be otherwise. He'll just let her go-]

Hey!! Watch where you're going!!

[-but not without letting his grievance be known first.]

[anasty]

[ Normally this level of insolence might have put Ursula right up in the face of the perpetrator, to see if she couldn't squash the bug self-righteousness with the fear of her tentacles. After tonight's spectacle and her time at the bar, however, she's in a rare mood.

Which isn't to say it's a completely friendly one. ]

That's it?

[ She wonders, canting her head curiously at the feathered fellow. ]

That's all you've to admonish me for tonight?

[theduck]

[Honestly, yeah, that's about what he was expecting to happen after his brain caught up to his mouth. He's a little surprised when it doesn't.]

I- ugh.

[He closes his eyes and rubs his temples. He's trying to keep a rational head after witnessing all that mess of a trial but it's... really tempting to just yell.]

Listen, as much as I hate to admit it, you threatening to pluck me is the least of my concerns after all of that. You... you were just trying to look at every possible angle. I guess.

...But that doesn't mean I appreciated it at all.

[anasty]

[ She arches her brows delicately; he must have surprised her in turn. ]

That's... magnanimous of you.

[ Even though she sees any attempt at a more physical act of retribution being laughable, she wasn't sure that thought had occurred to him. ]

You're right that it wasn't anything personal. But then, perhaps if I'd paid more attention to that aspect, I wouldn't have made the accusation in the first place.

I was mistaken. How fortunate it was that you had friends there to make that clear.

[theduck]

If stuff like this is going to keep happening, we shouldn't be at each other's throats all the time. We're going to have to learn to... overlook... certain things, for the sake of working together.

[aka he's Still Not Happy and wants everyone to know it]

I'm... not sure I'd call them my friends, but, uh, yeah, I did appreciate it, I guess.

[They're kind of still just people he's trapped in a crazy murder hotel with? He's not even sure if that pushes them up to 'acquaintance' status.]

[stenchus_rodentus]

[Well if there's one person who particularly deserves it, here he is now. Ratigan looks particularly quite buzzed and a bit too mellow considering what happened during the trial.

That doesn't stop him from running into Donald on the way to his own room and quirking his brow.]

I wouldn't be so morose if I were you...

[Boy he cannot shut his mouth.]

[theduck]

[One of them is too sober to deal with this right now.]

I had no idea you were so concerned about my mood. I'll try and keep in mind how much you care.

[stenchus_rodentus]

[Guffaaaaaaaws.]

I'm merely surprised you didn't turn out to be a culprit!

But you're standing here alive so clearly you must have a rice grain of wit about you.

[theduck]

E-excuse me?! If anyone's likely to be a culprit here, it's-!

[...DEEP BREATHS. He's above this. He's not going to start yelling at a drunk rat.]

Look. This situation is going to be a whole lot worse if we're just fighting all the time! We only got through that trial by working together!

[stenchus_rodentus]

Mooooi? How scandal.

Don't be hasty in crediting teamwork...I believe the free bar had a hand.

[theduck]

Maybe for you it did, but everybody else was busy trying to piece together the evidence. Or were you too busy to notice?