It's Galavant,Charlie Brown
Chapter 25: The Army Proposal
As the sun was slowly starting to make it's daily decent,the town-hall meeting had long since started and like the town leader told Galavant,it was a place where people could propose ideas for new businesses and in Gal's case,try to get the citizens on his side and form an army so he could invade Hortensia. Richard however was an absolute wreck ever since he came to the conclusion that he couldn't do anything beside be a king as he was sadly getting drunk all by himself in the nearby corner while Snoopy and Woodstock watched in pity. The duo soon trudged over to Galavant,who was busy watching the meeting go down as he sighed and asked them when he noticed how glum they looked "What's eating y'all up?" to which Snoopy pointed over to Richard and replied "Well we tried to help Richard find something he's good at." before Woodstock added "And no offense to him but...he's pretty bad at everything. Feel really bad for the guy."
Galavant turned his head towards Richard and noticed that he was quietly crying to himself as he sympathized with him when it reminded him of after Madelena dumped him "Yeah,I can relate." before they proceeded to watch the meeting and wait for Gal's opportunity to propose the idea for his army.
"All those in favor of moving the drinking well away from the graveyard say "yea."" The town's leader asked the many members of the audience to which they all loudly agreed "Yea!" as Richard walked over to the group with beer bottle in hand and remarked bitterly "So they would prefer to decide their fate by majority opinion rather than being ruled by me whose right to kingship was passed down from ancestors said to be a god and a mermaid. Fools." before he took a big swig of beer.
"What are you the town drunk?" Galavant asked the once former king in a bewildered tone of voice as the man regrettably replied "I wish. At least then I'd know what I was supposed to be,that position was already taken." before he pointed to one of the crowd members throwing up in an empty barrel to which Richard remarked "Lucky bastard." before he took another swig.
"How many of those have you had?" Snoopy asked when he noticed how slammed Richard seemed to be as the man merely retorted "Far too many my friend." before he pointed to large pile of empty beer bottles in a garbage barrel outside. However the gang's attention would be quickly diverted back to the stage as the town leader clasped his hands together and announced "Right,that concludes all old business,uh but I do believe we have one bit of new business. Galavant,the floor is yours." before Galavant took a deep breath and headed up to the stage as Snoopy tried to encourage some good luck "It's all on you champ."
Once Galavant quickly hurried over to the stage and turned around to face everyone,he took another deep breath as he saw Snoopy and Woodstock silently cheering him on before he started his proposal "Hello,Galavant. I've come to take your army to Hortensia to rescue my one true love." to which one of the crowd members asked in confusion "Who? Madalena?"
"No,Isabella." Galavant politely corrected the man before a woman suddenly asked "But didn't you and those kids already do that?" as the knight replied even more politely "I don't think I'm quite explaining this properly you see Isabella and even some of those kids are actually being held hostage." before another crowd member interrupted him yet again "We know,in Valencia." to which Galavant chuckled and corrected him as he was getting slightly more annoyed "Uh no,again that's Madelena,Chuck and Sid. Isabella and the others are in Hortensia." only for the same woman from before to remark "I don't think he knows what he's talking about."
"No I do you're just not listening-it's true love people,I just need your vote. Please?" Galavant retorted in a much more annoyed and desperate tone of voice as the crowd started to murmur amongst themselves for a moment while Richard and the others watched with pity. It was then and there that Galavant decided to unfortunately resort to Richard's suggested slogan for the posters and remarked "Uh,die for the guy who loves his Gal?" to which the crowd immediately started to boo the knight,for it seemed that Galavant's plan to get them on his side was completely backfiring as Snoopy stated in nervousness "Good lord." to which Woodstock added "Wowzers.",all the while Richard stood in complete silence.
"Can you hear yourself?!" One of the crowd members insulted and asked as Galavant tried to explain himself "Look hey listen-" only to be rudely interrupted once again "Hero?! More like Zero!"
"You suck!"
"Pompous jackass!"
"Galadookie more like!" The crowd continued to hammer in and spout these vicious and discouraging insults for at least 10 more seconds until Richard suddenly yelled and shut up the crowd to the surprise of Galavant,Snoopy and Woodstock "I can't believe what I'm hearing!" as the crowd turned around to see the once former king walking to the stage after he threw away and shattered his beer bottle "Standing before you now is a man of noble intention,a man who knows what his purpose is-to be a hero! And me and my pals over there admire that! While I am no longer your king…..unless of course you'd like to put it to a quick vote? All in favor? Yes? Anyone? Hmm? No?"
Richard's final attempt to convince the townspeople to rebuild his castle and rename him king had ultimately failed as the crowd merely kept silent as expected before he continued much more sternly "Fine. But if I were still your king,I would force every single one of you to join this man's army,not because I was a tyrant,a child kidnapper and a terrible leader who hosted baby fights which I now realize is weird and not that entertaining even after the addition of the cobra,but because true love is rare,and worth fighting for. It is life's greatest purpose. So...as someone who is "not️" your king,I ask…..who will join this fight for true love?"
The entire crowd as well as Galavant's group was left in complete silence,with the latter mostly being shocked that he stood up for Galavant like that,however it still seemed that none of them wanted to go on Galavant's quest as Snoopy shrugged his arms and sadly remarked "Well at least we tried." to which Woodstock added as they began to walk out of the rec center "I'm sure there's at least someone out there who will help us." before a woman suddenly rose up from the crowd and shockingly agreed to join Richard and Gal "I will join King Richard!"
"Wait what?" Snoopy and Woodstock both asked out of surprise as they both turned around to see a woman around Richard's age with orange stringy hair and a black dress standing up and smiling happily at the two travelers as Snoopy wolf whistled at the sight of her to which Galavant happily remarked "Well,there we go that's a good start. Right,who's next?"
However it seemed that this mysterious woman was the only one who wanted to join Richard and Galavant on their quest as the rest of the rec center was left completely silent as Galavant asked once more "Anyone at all?" before Richard replied out of discomfort "Well this is certainly uncomfortable." to which Woodstock tried to stay positive "Well...at least we got someone to help us."
Meanwhile back in Valencia during the dead of night,Gareth was about to head off to bed once more and hopefully not deal with any more of his guilt filled nightmares as he lifted the blanket off his bed to be met with a shocking image. Richard's severed head was laying right there next to his pillow with a lifeless expression on his face as Gareth screamed at the sight before Richard blew away one of the hairs that was in his eyes and growled "You did this to me!" before Gareth shot right out of his bed again and screamed in terror,he was having another nightmare.
"Oh no!" Charlie Brown gasped in fear when he and Sid heard his screaming come down the hall as both he and Sid soon burst into his room with their pajamas still on before Sid tried to keep the man quiet "Shh! Are you trying to get us both killed?!" to which Charlie Brown nervously added as he gripped his neck "I really like my head where it is Gareth!"
"I saw his head! It was right there! And it was giving me that look." Gareth gave a sigh of relief and explained his most recent nightmare to them as Sidney sighed and sympathetically replied "My king,we think we know what's going on. Richard was your friend,and yes you took his throne and his queen and his kingdom and his favorite shirts and his weekly bridge game-"
"Oh get on with it!" Gareth angrily yelled as he tried to move things along and not be reminded of all he's done to which Charlie Brown added "Yeah that's really not helping Sid." before Sid continued as he sat down on Gareth's bed "But the fact you feel bad is a good thing. It means you're actually...surprisingly human."
"This is all part of being human Gareth,we all feel guilty about things we've done in the past,and it's perfectly fine to feel that way like Sid said." Charlie Brown added as he tried to comfort Gareth to which the man finally admitted "Maybe y'all are right,maybe I do feel guilty. I do miss the old bastard,I'll even admit I miss Lucy and that piano guy."
Gareth,Charlie Brown and Sid sat in silence for a few more moments now that Gareth had finally admitted his guilt until Sid got an idea and remarked "Look,there was one other thing my mother used to do for my dreams." before he pulled strands of air out of Gareth's head and sung a short little song.
Sidney: Good dreams only,good dreams only,bad dreams out of his head. It's time tonight,for dreams of fright,to leave this little boy's bed.
However it seemed that Gareth still had one more bad dream left in his head as he nonchalantly asked Sid "There's one more in there." before the latter replied "Oh." before he smiled and pulled one more strand of air out of Gareth's head to which the man surprisingly gave them a genuine smile and laid back down to go back to bed,confident and hopeful that the dreams would finally stop.
Once Charlie Brown and Sidney slowly exited Gareth's room and creaked the door shut behind them,they both gave a sigh of relief and proceeded to head back to the servant's quarters as Charlie Brown remarked "You know Sid,that was really something back there." before Sid chuckled "Hey it was something my mother always did when I had bad dreams. It really helped me in the long run,in fact a few nights before I went off to become Galavant's squire,I was having nightmares about messing up so my mother did this the night before to help me get a confidence boost." to which Charlie Brown meekly asked "Do you think….maybe you could do that for me? I mean I sometimes worry about Snoopy and all the others and sometimes I get nightmares about…..something bad happening to them."
"Sure thing Chuck." Sid agreed to do so before he and the boy smiled at each other as they were getting closer to their room.
The next morning shortly but surely came in Richard's former kingdom as Galavant's group with the exception of the the mysterious lady from the night before were past the outskirts of the town and were patiently waiting for her to come on so they could leave for good. Galavant had managed to get himself a black horse the night before for himself,Snoopy and Woodstock since Richard told him that he was gonna stay in the village and figure out who he truly was inside.
"I did not get a wink of sleep last night." Snoopy yawned out of pure exhaustion as he leaned on Galavant's horse while Richard chuckled and retorted "You think you had it bad? I was constantly throwing up all night due to all that beer." before Woodstock realized "So that's what all those noises were. I just thought it was a water mill or something." to which Snoopy sighed and decided to bid Richard farewell "Okay that's very gross but….I guess this is goodbye Richard. It's been...fun I'll admit." as he gave Richard a sweet and tender hug.
"Yeah,you've really turned things around since we were in Valencia Richard." Woodstock added in agreement before he gave Richard a small hug as well "I hope you find what you're looking for." as the man replied with a hint of sadness "I'll admit,I didn't like dogs or birds too much before…..but now I think I'll get one of each myself. Still though,thanks you three for putting up with me all those months."
"No problem buddy." Snoopy kindly replied as he and Woodstock gave off a salute before Richard asked Galavant out of curiosity "So what now?" to which the knight replied with his plans "We're off to Hortensia to rescue Isabella and the others,recruit some soldiers along the way,and after that,march to Valencia to reclaim her kingdom and rescue my two other squires."
"Well I have a bit of a surprise." Richard retorted in a slightly happy tone of voice as Galavant and the other two got curious looks on their faces as Richard continued "Your old pal Rick's gonna come with y'all!" and playfully punched Galavant in the shoulder to which Snoopy and Woodstock both cheered out of excitement and hugged Richard tightly as Snoopy happily yelled "Way to play with our emotions a minute ago!" before Richard retorted "You didn't think I'd just stay here while y'all are out on some adventure?"
However Galavant wasn't too pleased by Richard's sudden desire to come along with him and the others as he stammered out of confusion "What? No. No,no,no,no you said you were gonna stay here and try to figure out who you are." to which Richard nonchalantly explained himself "And I did,I realized I'm the guy who's going to help y'all rescue Isabella. Even though technically I'm the guy who started this whole disaster. So,what do you say?" before Snoopy pleaded to Galavant "Come on let him come along. The more help we have the easier this whole thing will be."
"Yeah come on Gal,he's already helped us out so why don't we help him find out who he is?" Woodstock ecstatically added as Galavant sighed and reluctantly obliged with a smile "Why not?" to which Richard exclaimed "Awesome! You,me,Snoopy,Woodstock,Roberta. Oh this is Roberta by the way,do y'all remember her from-from the election? She stood up,pledged to join me." before he pointed behind him to reveal the lovely Roberta walking down the country road with two horses to which he whispered to them "Watch this."
Richard then turned around and sarcastically asked Roberta "Oh Roberta?" before she replied almost on instinct "Yes my king?" to which Richard turned around and giddily whispered to them "She calls me "king."
"Oh my god." Galavant said in an almost bored sounding voice as Richard happily exclaimed "Oh this is gonna be so much fun!" only for Galavant to instantly disagree "No it's not." to which Richard suggested "Well we should probably go,I stole these horses and just set fire to the rec center." before he angrily growled as he stormed off "Dismantle my castle will you?"
Richard was just about to get on one of the horses he and Roberta stole until he suddenly perked up and remembered "Oh yeah Roberta I almost forgot,let me introduce you to Snoopy and Woodstock. Consider them our pets before we can return them to their owners." before the two animals jumped off Galavant's horse and bowed graciously before the lady as the dog greeted her "Hello there gorgeous. Pleasure to meet you." and kissed her on the hand.
However what he and Woodstock didn't realize was that Edwin's spell only worked for themselves,Galavant and Richard so all Roberta could here was high pitched gibberish come out of Snoopy's mouth as Galavant nonchalantly broke the bad news to them "Uh guys I don't think she understands you." to which Roberta asked out of confusion "I'm sorry what? What about understanding them?" only for her to be ignored as Snoopy pondered "Oh yeah…..that's gonna be a bit tough here."
"Oh wait a second! I think I may have an idea!" Richard suddenly exclaimed in excitement as he pulled out a black magic wand from his back pocket to which Roberta asked "Can I please be filled in on what's going on here?" only for her to be ignored once again as Galavant merely asked Richard "Where did you get that wand?" to which Richard clarified "I bought it last night while I was in town,maybe we can cast the same spell Edwin used so they can talk to people."
"Richard that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard,that thing is probably a toy for kids." Galavant facepalmed as he showed huge amounts of skepticism towards Richard's idea while Roberta asked "What is going on here?" to which Richard enthusiastically persisted "Oh come on it's bound to work." before he raised his wand into the sky and tried to cast the spell "Okay what was the spell again? Was it Animalicus Talkilcus?"
Immediately after Richard asked that,the wand suddenly levated out of his hand and shot out a large beam of purple light and struck the sky like that of a lighting bolt until the wand suddenly exploded into a million pieces,causing a massive and powerful shock wave across the entire world. Once the shockwave ceased and the wand fell back to the ground in tiny little bit sized pieces,Roberta coughed due to the dust and gravel in the air and asked out of confusion and shock "What the hell was that?" before Snoopy coguhed as well and replied "I think this wand of Richard's was a rip off." to which Woodstock woozily added "Well that was a lot of money likely wasted."
"What the hell!? They talk!?" Roberta screamed in terror and shock when she realized that she could suddenly understand the words coming out of Snoopy and Woodstock's mouth as the bird gleefully added "Hey we can talk to her now! Names Woodstock madam." bedore Roberta yelled once more "The bird too!?" to which Richard ecstatically remarked "Hey it worked! Now we can properly introduce ourselves. Would y'all kindly do the honors?"
"Hey there gorgeous. My names Snoopy-" Snoopy tried to greet the shocked and horrified Roberta properly only for Galavant to rudely interrupt him "Hold on a second guys. We have a long,long trip ahead of us and that means we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other. So how about we move things along and get going?" to which they all disappointedly sighed and got on their horses so they could start their journey,with Snoopy deciding to get on Roberta's and get in front of her as he made gross kissy faces at her to which she gagged "Ugh!" before she smacked him in the face and threw him off the horse.
Woodstock mockingly laughed at the display atop of Richard's shoulder as Snoopy regained his posture and yelled as he ran after the horses "Hey wait up guys!"
Meanwhile in Hortensia,Wormwood and Barry had managed to successfully take control of Isabella's mind thanks to their enchanted tiara. All they had to do was keep this scheme of theirs up and eventually they would gain complete control of Hortensia,with the only ones being slightly suspicious of their scheme being Linus and the others.
Isabella was happily greeting a crowd of peasants outside the royal palace as Wormwood asked her in a manipulative tone "Princess Isabella,isn't there something you'd like to say?" before the jewel inside the tiara started to glow once again as she gleefully announced to the crowd "Good news everyone! I've set a date for my wedding. It's in six weeks and you're all invited!" to which she as well as the crowd ecstatically cheered and applauded.
Meanwhile from the sidelines,the jester,the king and queen of Valencia as well as the peanuts gang were watching the announcement play out as the jester asked out of a slight hint of suspicion "Does something seem different about Princess Isabella?" to which the queen dismissed his suspicions and gleefully retorted "Who cares?! She's getting married!" before she and the king gave eachother a fist bump,all the while the peanuts gang were looking at the tiara and Wormwood with raised eyebrows.