foolishmortals | all that glitters is gold [AFTERPARTY]

[It's been a very long, and very upsetting morning, and honestly, Ford is feeling goddamn drained. All the events of the day have hit him like a ton of bricks. And as much as he wants nothing more than to sleep for about a week...well. There's work to do.

After talking it over with Fiddleford, his first mission is hitting the kitchen and scraping together all the eggs, potatoes, and onions he can find. It takes him a good few hours, but eventually he's got five big casserole dishes full of kugel, steaming hot, fresh out of the oven. He stacks up a big pile of plates, forks, and serving utensils and carries it all into the lounge in trips.

Next is the business of the still. Between the two of them, the two Fords manage to get it into the lounge and set it up on a table where it's easy to access. Ford also pilfers a big glass jug of apple juice for the kids and puts it nearby. All the adults are free to partake of a cup of Fiddleford's sugar shine. They'll be needing it, tonight.

Lastly, are the notes. Ford writes them all out in his neat, block lettering, and slips one under each door—pausing at the doors of the deceased with a sad frown each time.

The lounge is quiet while they wait for everyone to arrive, save for the sounds of banjo music....

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Do you, um... want some ice? For your head?

[Avoiding the topic? Elsa? Yeah, just a bit. She doesn't really want to tell Lefou about everything that happened, both because she doesn't want to overwhelm him and because she just... doesn't want to relive all of that so soon.]

Oh? What is it?

...I would love that, actually, uh.

[His nose is fine. The worst pain is the goose egg on the back of his head from where he smashed into the floor.]

...Come in?

Of course. After you.

[As they head into his room, Elsa will wave her hands, summoning a few chunks of ice and weaving a large handkerchief out of thin air. She wraps the ice up in the cloth, ties the top off to make sure it doesn't fall, and hands it to him.]

I hope this is good enough.

[When she hands him the ice pack, he takes it gratefully, holding it gingerly to the back of his head with a pained hiss. He sits down on the side of his bed with minimum stumbling, and bends forward to let the cool soak into his head and through his thick hair.]

Ugh, it's heavenly. God, I forgot how hard floors are.

[But after a moment of recovery he looks up again, still holding the ice pack.]

...I wanted to ask you- Well, to, uh. Tell you. Something.

[She can't help but wince in sympathy, both at his words and how he acts when he presses the compress to his head. She knows what it's like to smack your head that badly on the ground - she can still remember the way her head almost cracked against the floor of her ice palace when that chandelier had almost dropped on her - so she can only imagine the relief he must be feeling now.]

Y-Yes? What is it?

[He's smiling but, well, also blushing a little.]

Didier.

[DEED-ye]

...My name. My, uh, first name.

Didier.

[It's a bit easier to say than his last name, so it flows a bit better when she says it. And... that actually gets a shadow of a smile to cross her face.]

I'm so glad you told me.

[He scratches his cheek in embarrassment, but his expression softens when he manages to get a smile out of her.]

...I heard you. When I was, um. Out of it.

... Oh.

[Ah yeah, it's her turn to get embarrassed now...]

I... I hope that was okay. I know you told me your name in confidence, but I wasn't exactly... thinking clearly.

[Translation: the terror of losing another friend was overwhelming damn near every one of her senses]

[oh lord no don't be upset]

It's fine! It's fine, I promise.

[If it wasn't, he wouldn't have told you his first name.]

...I'm sorry that I worried you.

[She just shakes her head.]

You don't have to be sorry. The one who did that to you should be sorry, for hurting you like that.

[he scratches his cheek.]

...From what I hear, he's kind of... beyond being sorry, now.

... Yeah. You're right.

[And not for any sort of good reason.]

God, I still can't believe all of that happened...

...I should have been there.

I'm sorry. I want to know what happened, but I'm sure everyone would rather just move on than relive it.

No! If you didn't have to see that... that's good. It was all chaos.

[Even being in the middle of a blizzard of her own creation, that she had no way of stopping, hadn't been as terrifying as what had happened at the end of the latest trial.]

The Host... he tried to protect us, in the end. And he was killed for it.

...Ghosts can only be killed if they're in a body.

[That was what Maui had said, wasn't it?]

But- how did he...

[...Okay he got kind of distracted from hearing the story by forehead presses and smooches #priorities]

[Look Elsa's not going to judge him for wanting to prioritize comfort over being filled in on what happened.]

There was a... strange man. He had some sort of magic, and he was impersonating Tarzan with it. But he revealed himself as the murderer, and when we all confronted him, he pulled this... odd device out. I didn't know what it was, but it was certainly bad news judging by how the others reacted.

[She still hasn't asked about it??? Maybe she'll do that later...]

The Host, he... he possessed the man, so that he could stop him from hurting us. And another ghost killed the man while the Host was inside his body.

[She hadn't been as close to the Host as Wander, but she'd felt bad for him. He didn't really look too pleased with what he was being told to do to them, and he'd tried to help... only to get killed for his efforts.]

[Lefou listens, because he has to. Because he needs to know, because he's worried.

He hadn't been close to the host, but he had respected the ghost. For helping him put Anna to rest, for giving them time to say goodbye. For always being as honest as he could be with them.

The gears turn slowly, but he puts together the pieces of the story that he's heard, slowly, turning them over in his head until they make almost a coherent picture. He sighs in what's almost relief.]

...Maui told me part of what happened, too. That the Host died possessing the guy who did it to save everyone.

I've- [His voice falters, and his gaze drops to one hand tightening in his sheet.] ...Never seen him so shaken.

I don't blame him.

[She won't... go into any more detail, especially where Maui is concerned. Not that she's afraid of how Lefou would react to it, but it should be Maui telling him what happened. He deserves to hear it from the man himself.]

Even after everything else we've seen here... what happened after that trial was possibly the most terrifying thing I've ever seen.

...Did something else happen? After what happened to the Host.

[Because that does sound horrifying but also really not worse than either of the executions he'd already witnessed.]

[Nooo buddy why you gotta do this to her... maybe if she can jsut be vague...]

The ghost who killed the Host, he... got angry. And seemed to be summoning something, or calling up some kind of spell. But it seemed to be taking a while, so we were all able to run back into the mansion. For some reason... he didn't follow us.

all that glitters is gold [AFTERPARTY]

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