The oak doors opened into a grandiose room. It was adorned with luxuries old and new. A crystal chandelier hung from the center. The walls were smothered with artwork of all different ages. Each piece depicted important events in human history following the mushroom war. The surrogate father-daughter duo took momentary interest in a painting titled Escape. The work depicted the remnants of humanity departing a shadowy continent on a dingy boat. The boat dwellers were staring at two figures hovering above the water. One of them was a lion with bloody fangs and chicken legs who was wearing a crudely made crown. Despite towering over his opponent, his face wore the distinct look of terror. The other was a teenage girl with grey skin. In one hand she held a stake and in the other a red axe. She wore a white sash with the word savior written in blue. Her face radiated absolute confidence. The left bottom hand corner held the artist's signature, a curved J.
"It didn't really go down like that. I mean, he wasn't scared of me and he wasn't that tall. I was pretty confident though."
The pair moved on. Soon, grand marble statues of humans in animal hats came into sight. Each statue's base was labeled with a name and date. Every statue had a small plaque on the wall next to it listing off the depicted individual's achievements. The statues were imposing and seemed to judge everyone who walked by them.
Soon, they came to their destination. A smaller, yet still impressive set of doors which led into the banquet hall. The two were greeted by the doorman and allowed inside. The room was surprisingly plain compared to what they had seen before. It was divided into two distinct areas. The first portion was filled to the brim with people and little else. Princesses, diplomats, and what looked to be the highest echelon of human society were scattered about. Despite their best efforts, any outside observer would notice how few actual conversations were going on. People were talking, but every speaker was struggling to be heard. Listeners strained their necks and ears to identify any sounds that could be interpreted as a word. The other half of the room was orderly. There were four tables that were each covered in a white and gold cloth and golden candlesticks stretched across the room. Slips of paper with names crudely scribbled onto them were positioned in front of each chair. At the far end of the room was a perpendicular fifth table with similar decorations raised onto a platform. Instead of slips of paper, each chair was marked with refined nuggets of silver.
Simon and Marceline nodded at one another and explored the empty half of the room. They made their way to the raised table and observed names on the silver strips. Elder Marc's name was on the far-left corner standing out amongst various others. Concentrated in the center of the table were various council members and descendants of founders. On the far-right Marceline caught sight of her own name. Simon was seated next to her left, and Finn at the end of the table. Simon discretely moved the nugget with Finn's name on it to his right. Bubblegum's name was, however, was noticeably absent.
"They have all of the princesses and diplomats sitting at the other tables Marcy. They probably figured it would be a bit rude for Bonnibel to be the only foreign royalty sitting at this table."
A dark-haired woman in a red dress separated from the crowd on the other side of the room. She began walking towards the pair.
"I guess. I'd still prefer for her to be sitting with us though. Besides, I'm not sure I like that she'll be among a bunch of the people who were protesting her a couple of hours ago."
"Maybe we could speak to someone and express your concern? Although, I admit it may cause tensions to flare a bit more. The other princesses might see it as evidence of special treatment. Alternatively, we could go sit with her, but that might cause all the fat cats up here to feel slighted by us. Personally, I think we should trust the other princesses to act civil. We could request a Minerva bot or some security to scrutinize Bubblegum's area though."
"I think you're right. Them thinking Bonnie is getting special treatment started this mess. Maybe showing them that she isn't will help people cool down."
The woman reached the pair and clasped her hands on their shoulders.
"Oh, nonsense to that! You are two of our honored guests! I'm sure we can find a suitable explanation to Princess Bubblegum being seated at the VIP table."
Her voice was inviting, but she looked to be gritting her teeth with each word.
"I'm sorry, who are you exactly?" Marceline said as she removed the woman's hand from her shoulder. She quickly reached over and removed her other hand from Simon, who was struggling with himself to not be rude.
"How disrespectful of me. I am councilwoman Lana Tollins."
"Councilwoman Tollins, we appreciate your gesture, but like I said it may be best to leave the current seating as is. I'm sure you've heard of the disruption from earlier today?"
Tollins turned her head to Simon and shook her head.
"That? That was a minor inconvenience at worst! I'm sure seating Bubblegum with the rest of our distinguished guests will be of no concern."
"A minor inconvenience! Those princesses looked like they wanted blood for a minute! I should know, I was in the middle of it!"
"Come now great protector, surely you must be overstating this?"
"Listen, I don't mean to be rude or unappreciative of your offer councilwoman, but Simon's right. I don't want to risk messing anything up for Bonnie."
"I see. Well, you don't have to worry. I'll take care of everything."
"Wait!"
The dark-haired woman withdrew and vanished into the sea of bodies. Marceline tried to follow as closely as she could, but was cut-off when the crowd restructured itself. She rose in the air desperately looking for any identifying features, but was forced to concede the search. She returned to Simon's side.
"Why do I feel like I may have just made things worse for Bonnie?"
A large, flat, drum looking instrument was pushed into the room. The crowd didn't seem to take notice, being enthralled in attempting to impress one another. Simon looked to Marceline and mouthed the word loud. He quickly covered his ears in anticipation of the noise. He darted his eyes to try and get Marceline to do the same. Instead, she stared at him quizzically before stacking her hands-on top of his. He started to protest before she shushed him. She flashed her best attempt at one of his smiles. The kind he had often worn to calm her down when she was a little girl. She looked towards the foreign instrument. It didn't look like it was going to be terribly loud. A man holding an oversized mallet walked into the room and positioned himself next to it. He began grazing the mallet over the instrument. A deep hum began to fill the room. He became faster and wilder in his motions. A few observant members of the crowd began to stare. A couple of humans covered their ears as well. He began pulling his arms back. Simon's face contorted as he braced himself.
The man finished ramping up and swung the mallet with everything he had. The gong produced an ear-splitting clamor. Most of the crowd were caught completely off guard. Many stumbled in place upon hearing the noise, unsure what to make of it. Several of the guests ducked for cover in their confusion while others turned back ready to fight. Many brought hands to their ears hoping to soothe themselves of the unwanted ringing. After quickly catching herself, Marceline laughed. Her earlier fears of the dark-haired woman temporarily subsided. Admittedly, the sound was louder than she expected. Her own ears were still buzzing, but she didn't make a complete fool of herself like most of the others. She rubbed her ears and glimpsed at Simon. He wasn't holding his ears like the others. In fact, he looked surprised.
"I actually thought it would be louder." He whispered.
Elder Marc emerged in the door frame. He carefully removed and hid a pair of earplugs before fully stepping into the crowd's view. He took advantage of the temporary silence and addressed the crowd.
"Distinguished guests. It is my honor to welcome you to our celebration of future diplomacy! If everyone could please make their way to the tables and begin looking for their assigned seats, we shall be able to begin to festivities in no time!"
The crowd began messily lurching forward. Princesses scooped up name tags to examine them and tossed them aside without care where they landed. Diplomats and other guests were a bit more civil, but eventually were forced to take up the same practice. Out of the corner of her eye, Marceline spotted Finn awkwardly trying to find his name tag on one of the lower tables. She debated letting him struggle for a minute, but saw that Simon was about to step down into the chaos to grab him. She held him back and motioned for him to take his seat. After making sure he did so, Marceline floated above the mob and plucked Finn by is armpits. She lazily floated back, but made sure to lower Finn so that he would inadvertently kick a couple of the snobbier princesses. She returned and plopped him down near his seat before taking her own. She began scanning the crowd to make sure Bubblegum wasn't being harassed. Luckily, she had found her seat quickly and was doing her best to ignore the chaos around her.
Finn was confused. He looked at the silver nugget with his name on it for a moment before sitting. He looked to the nugget to his right expecting to find a familiar name. Instead, he was greeted with one he couldn't pronounce. He debated asking Simon, but decided it wasn't worth the effort.
After fifteen minutes of the guests making fools of themselves, everyone seemed to be settled in. The raised table, however, remained noticeably unoccupied. At the end of it stood various figures. Elder Marc and councilwoman Tollins were at the front of the line, both staring in the direction of the princesses. One by one, each member of the line strolled behind their seat but did not sit down. Simon took notice and rose before nudging the other two. Finn stammered at first but stood up and stared into the room. Marceline rolled her eyes and let out a sigh, but followed suit. Members continued to take their place behind their chairs. One man paused for a minute when he got to Finn. He looked like he was going to speak out, but instead continued down the line cautiously observing each nugget until finding his own at the very end. Eventually, every chair had someone trying to appear impressive behind it. A clinking sound came from the middle of the line. An unfamiliar man's voice filled the room. It was high-pitched and various guests were forced to stifle their laughter; Marceline included.
"I want to thank everyone for coming today. I am council chair Wayne. I take great pride in being able to welcome everyone today, and hope each of you have had a wonderful time exploring our settlement. However, before we begin, I was made aware of an unfortunate situation. It seems there was a slight issue with our seating chart which I would like to amend.
Marceline's giggles caught in her throat and eyes widened. She looked to councilwoman Tollins who put on a face splitting smile and waved at her.
"I will spare the details of the situation, but I would like to ask for Princess Bubblegum to please join us at the VIP table, and for any affront this may have caused."
All eyes in the room turned to the candy princess. Normally calm and collected, she was hesitant, quivering even.
"Thank you, but I don't think that its- "
"Nonsense princess, I won't hear of it! You deserve to be up here with your friends and the rest of the VIPs. Please, we can make room for you easily enough."
"Really, I appreciate it, but I'm just one of many princesses here today. It wouldn't be fair."
"It isn't fair for you to not join us here princess."
Bubblegum sat frozen for a minute before awkwardly pushing out her chair. She made her way to the edge of the raised table. A crude wooden chair was carried to the right-side end of the table. Soon, everyone to Finn's right began shifting one chair over. The man who had briefly paused behind Finn hesitated before standing behind his new chair. He looked like he was going to cry. Bubblegum was ushered behind the now unoccupied chair next to Finn. She took her place and stared into her hands.
"Good. With that sorted out, the VIP table can now take their seats, and the food can be brought out."