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

[audentiae]

Yes. Passage across the River Styx into the Underworld. It really is where everyone goes when they die.

[ Unless you die in Egypt or a valkyrie notices you, but she doesn't know that! ]

[fairlypushy]

Everyone? [This is slightly blowing her mind, actually.] So there's no Heaven or Hell, everyone is just . . . hanging out with Hades? Or, well. He's probably really busy, huh?

[audentiae]

Pluto - or Hades, in his Greek form - oversees the land of the dead, but he doesn't... judge and torture souls himself.

[fairlypushy]

So he just watches over everyone? [???? You're blowing her mind here.] Who judges when if Plu -

[Yeah, no. She can't. She can't say that. Pluto the dog isn't the Underworld God.]

- Hades doesn't?

[audentiae]

[ Pluto is not a dog's name!!!! Gosh. ]

There's a council of heroic spirits that does that. They decide if souls go to the Fields of Punishment, the Fields of Asphodel, or Elysium. Hades [ if we MUST use the greek- ] is more like a king, and his subjects handle punishing or rewarding souls. Or... nothing happens to them, in Asphodel.

[fairlypushy]

So there's people down there that are actually from the Underworld, then? Do you - if I made a memorial, for Vanellope, would that be weird?

[She doesn't want to be offensive or anything.]

[audentiae]

Not at all. We do our best not to forget our dead just like anyone else.

[fairlypushy]

Okay. I just wanted to check that wouldn't, like, I dunno. Ruin her chances at a good judging. [It's better to check all the boxes than accidentally offend someone!!] I'll have to check if there's any candles later.

[audentiae]

I got a candle from the machine the first week here, there are some in there.

[fairlypushy]

If I can't find any, I guess I'll have to put all my coins in there.

[She's . . . unclear how a penny press dispenses prizes, but that's not the weirdest thing she's ever encountered.]

. . . And hope I don't get anything weird, I guess.

[audentiae]

I got a pig mask of some kind, but other than that the things I got looked fine.

[fairlypushy]

I mean. I'd like to believe that everything in there is only as weird as a pig mask, but also I'm pretty sure the guy running this place stocked it and, well.

[He's a jerk.]

[audentiae]

Indeed. I got a bathrobe too, though, which is... surprisingly nice, considering.

[fairlypushy]

. . . Thalia got my sister's journal, so there's things from our homes too. [Which, in fairness, could be bad.] I don't know if that's supposed to encourage us or not.