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

[sentree]

...It's usually not fair, when something like this happens. We...just have to hope nothing like it happens again.

[coulombslaw]

You really think nothing like this will happen again?

[He had hoped it wouldn't ever happen, but...yeah, you see how that went]

[sentree]

[ ... ]

I said hope it won't, Virgil. Not...that I think it won't. [ The timer goes off for the cookies. Check them, if you please? They...should look okay. ]

[coulombslaw]

...yeah. I think the same.

[Hoping it won't but knowing it's possible it will. Virgil opens the oven, looking inside. They seem to be okay, yep. Virgil looks around for oven mitts, finding some and putting them on]

I feel there's something I should do. Letting it happen again and doing nothing about it...I can't just sit back and do nothing.

[sentree]

...That's how I felt most of that stupid trial. I could barely follow anything that when it started being easier to tell, it was almost...a relief.

[ There's something worried in her voice. ]

Thank you. For, uh...telling me not to. I know it ended up okay, but...I don't know. I think I might've needed someone to stop me, if it hadn't been him.

[coulombslaw]

Trust me, I wanted to punch him too. I'm kind of glad you actually did it.

[sentree]

I just got so angry, I... [ She sighs. ] I'm glad I did too, still. Wish I could've actually broken his nose.

[coulombslaw]

[Virgil puts the tray of cookies on the counter. Man, if only Vanellope was here to have some of those...]

You know, I have seen a lot of stuff, but I had never met someone as awful as him -- and I have fought a lot of villains. It's scary, how someone as bad as him was just some random person you could see in the street.

[sentree]

...I haven't seen a mortal that bad in years. Many years. It's all mostly monsters or gods, or other demigods. But among those...he was pretty par for the course.

[coulombslaw]

Really? I dunno much about mythology, and I do have heard gods aren't good rolemodels or anything like that, but if you say they can be as bad as Preston then that's scary.

[sentree]

A lot of them are self-centered, backwards, and... Well...the gods aren't as bad as some of the other immortals I've met. I wouldn't fight for them if they were...all-around evil. Some of the Titans, though... Di immortales, does Preston remind me of a jerk by the name of Atlas.

[coulombslaw]

[Virgil puts the oven mitts aside]

Atlas sounds kinda familiar. Wasn't that the guy who was holding the world or something?

[sentree]

That's the one. He's...the guy's not a good person. Or parent. If he wasn't busy with his punishment, he would've been worse throughout the years, but...he ended up being absolutely terrible, anyway.

[ She sighs and starts putting her current batch of cookie dough on a tray. ]

She died by his own hand.