A while back after Gwen's day with Ms. Chalice and busting her best friends out of prison, Gwen was looking for something new to do aside from helping keep the cottage and watching the boys while they were grounded for their crime at the cookie factory. So, Gwen decided to go into town one day to find something else to do such as taking a class in something she never tried.
Suddenly, she comes across the Inkwell Theater, where she saw a sign that says, "Talent Show Contest Auditions Today! First prize: $100, Second prize: $50, Third prize: $25."
"Huh, a talent show contest for prize money. Maybe I should check it out." She said to herself.
Gwen goes inside Inkwell Theater and stands behind a line of people waiting to audition for the theater's manager. Gwen waits patiently in line and watched various people audition for a cartoon-human woman with curly blonde hair.
After someone performs an act, she would yell,
"NEXT!"
And sends them to sit down in the audience. Gwen gulped and decided to back out and leave when she suddenly heard a familiar voice say,
"Gwen girlfriend!"
Gwen looked down and saw her friend Ms. Chalice come in from behind her.
"Ms. Chalice!" Gwen said. Ms. Chalice jumped into Gwen's arms and hugged her.
"What are you doin' here?" Gwen asked.
"Oh, I noticed they were havin' the Inkwell Talent Show again and I thought I'd give it a shot this year. So, what are ya gonna do for your audition?" Ms. Chalice asked.
"I don't know, maybe I'll just show off some of my magic from the inkwell." Gwen answered.
"Uh, girlfriend? I think you gotta do something yourself like singin' and dancin'. Like I showed you before. Remember?" Ms. Chalice pointed out.
"But I don't know what to perform. I haven't done this in forever since childhood." Gwen pointed out.
"Don't worry girl! We'll sing and dance together! Just like last time!" Ms. Chalice offered.
"Oh, I don't know what to do. We never rehearsed a song together." Gwen said.
"Don't worry. Remember what I showed ya?" Ms. Chalice asked.
Gwen thought for a moment and asked,
"Oh, let me guess. Turn up the charm?"
"That's right Gwen!" Ms. Chalice answered.
"NEXT!" The manager called.
Gwen realized she was up next.
"Uh, I don't know about this Chalice." Gwen said feeling nervous.
"Girl, relax. Just follow my lead."
Ms. Chalice assured her, took Gwen's hand and walked up on stage. The manager looked at Gwen and asked,
"Alright girls, what's your talent?"
"Uh…"
Gwen was unsure what to say until Ms. Chalice answered,
"Why, we're gonna sing and dance for ya Mrs. Stageplay!" Ms. Chalice answered excitedly.
"Mrs. Stageplay?" Gwen asked.
"Yes, my dear. I am the great Sally Stageplay, owner of this fine theater! Now, will you both show me what you got?"
Gwen was unsure until Ms. Chalice started dancing and singing the Cole Porter song, You're the Top. Gwen remembered the song from the musical Anything Goes until she joined in on the second verse and improvised her dancing as she went along with Ms. Chalice using her charm.
After the song, Sally applauded them and said,
"Wonderful job ladies! Would you two mind hanging out in the audience for a moment?"
"Uh, sure ma'am." Gwen answered.
"NEXT!" Sally yelled.
Gwen and Ms. Chalice sit in the audience with a few other people and among them was Ludwig, the snooty piano teacher Gwen and Ms. Chalice scammed.
"Uh oh." Said Gwen.
"What?" Asked Ms. Chalice.
Gwen gestured Ms. Chalice to look in a different direction. Ms. Chalice does and she realized Ludwig was also auditioning for the talent show.
"Oh no! Let's not panic. Maybe he won't know we were the ones who…"
Gwen quickly covered Ms. Chalice's mouth before she could finish and quietly said,
"Shush! Don't say anything! Act normal!"
Gwen and Ms. Chalice sat and waited like nothing was wrong as Sally was finishing up deciding who was going to be in the talent show by making a list.
"Alright everyone! Thank you all for your auditions! I will have the list up on the front door tomorrow at noon! You can come by and see if you made it to the show! See you then!" Sally announced.
Everyone gets up to leave until Sally called,
"You! Red-headed girl! Why don't you stick around for a minute?"
Gwen stopped and said to Ms. Chalice,
"You go, I'll catch up in a minute."
"Okay girl, but don't be long!"
Ms. Chalice said and heads outside the doors. Gwen goes up on stage to Sally and asked,
"Yes, Mrs. Stageplay?"
"You are that girl Gwendolyn Mae Emmons with that magic inkwell, right?" Sally asked.
"Yes, ma'am." Gwen answered politely.
"I gotta say, I'm impressed you didn't use the inkwell for your act." Sally admitted.
Gwen was surprised and asked.
"You were?"
"Oh yes. You see, magic doesn't create talent, you do. One of the rules of the talent show here is no using magic. It is considered cheating." Sally explained.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know that." Gwen apologized.
"That's alright, you're new here, so I was just letting you know for the show." Sally assured her.
"Okay, thanks." Gwen said.
"No problem, dear. Now, come by tomorrow afternoon." Sally told her.
"Will do! Bye!"
Gwen said and leaves the theater. Gwen closes the front door and notices Ms. Chalice waiting for her.
"There you are girl! What did she want?" Ms. Chalice asked.
"Oh, Sally told me that she was impressed that I didn't use the magic inkwell and that using magic is considered cheating." Gwen explained.
"Yep, I told you to follow my lead. I know these things." Ms. Chalice said.
"Thank you Chalice." Ms. Chalice holds Gwen's hand and both leave the theater.
"So, how's the laying low going?" Gwen asked.
"It's going good so far. Thanks for helping me after the angry mob incident." Ms. Chalice thanked Gwen.
"It's the least I could do for you. But promise not to lie to my friends again and almost getting them beat up again?" Gwen asked.
"I promise Gwen. I saved them after all, even gave them a little scare afterwards."
Ms. Chalice said with a wink. They both say goodbye and Gwen heads home. Gwen arrived back at the cottage, only for her to notice the cups came home from and they looked like they were just released from the hospital.
"What happened to you guys?" Gwen asked.
"Oh, Bowlboy and I became brothers for a while until he blew himself over the canyon. Then Mugsy got us blown up over the canyon and we were all at the hospital. Bowlboy tried to get us, but we luckily learned that we recovered from our injuries and escaped! Then we saw him go to that talent show audition with his tricycle." Cuphead explained.
Gwen stood there shocked and asked,
"You hung out with Bowlboy?"
"Yep, I didn't know he was a loose cannon. He's wreckless, irresponsible and unhinged!" Cuphead exclaimed.
"That sounds like someone else I know. I can't believe you would replace your own brother!" Gwen said in an angry tone.
"But Gwen, it made him appreciate who his true brother and best friend is." Mugman explained.
"Good, I'm glad you both learned your lesson. And I don't want you hanging out with Bowlboy anymore Cuphead. Understand?" Gwen scolded.
"You don't have to tell me, he's insane!"
Cuphead fearfully exclaimed and hugged her.
"Alright then. Let's get inside." Gwen said and led the boys in the cottage.
The next day at noon, Gwen goes back to the Inkwell Theater and checks to see if she if she made it into the talent show. Gwen joins the crowd checking out the list. Gwen moves through the crowd and skims through the list and saw that she and Ms. Chalice made the list. Gwen gasped happily as Ms. Chalice jumped on her shoulders and yelled,
"WHOO-HOO! We're in the show girlfriend!"
"Yeah! We are!" Gwen said.
Gwen and Ms. Chalice also noticed Ludwig was in the talent show too for his piano playing act. Gwen thought nothing of it at first and noticed that the show was Saturday night at 6:00. Ms. Chalice leapt off of Gwen's shoulder.
"I'll tell you what, we'll meet up at the cottage later and we'll rehearse for the show!" Ms. Chalice proposed.
"Sounds great!" Gwen said.
Just then, Gwen was approached by Ludwig and says to her,
"Hello again, Gwendoolaan. I see you also entered the talent show and got in huh?"
Gwen felt uncomfortable and answered,
"Uh… yes?"
Ludwig put his arm around her shoulder and said,
"Well, Gwendoolaan, you should have become a student of mine. Otherwise, I would've turned you into a musical star!"
Gwen glared at him and confronted him.
"Yeah, right. You'd rather hear cats howling on the fence than my music skills! You didn't think I'd hear that, did you?! You were only gonna use me to boost your image!" Gwen admitted.
Ludwig clapped slowly and admitted,
"Well played Gwendoolaan. You figured me out. But you'll never surpass the brilliant musical mastermind himself. I won last year."
Gwen looked at him un-amused.
"Good for you." Gwen said sarcastically.
"Thank you, dear. Well, I must tend to my rehearsal. Good luck… you're going to need it."
Ludwig snickered and walked off in a fancy-like way.
Gwen glared at Ludwig and stuck her tongue at him. Ms. Chalice made clucking sounds like a chicken and Gwen stifled her laughter. After Ludwig walked off, Ms. Chalice came from behind Gwen and said,
"Don't worry about chicken-legs. He's gonna be howling with the cats on the fence when we win the competition!"
"Well, maybe we will, maybe we won't. But I have a bad feeling that Ludwig may try something." Gwen expressed her concern.
"Don't worry, we'll steer clear of him. Besides, no one out-scams me! Remember?" Ms. Chalice assured her as Gwen smiled.
"Well, I gotta go! I'll come by the cottage later and we'll rehearse! Bye!" Ms. Chalice said and ran off.
"Bye!" Gwen called.
Gwen was about to head home until she is approached by Sally Stageplay and said,
"Hello Gwen. Congratulations on getting into the show dear. You and your little friend earned it."
"Thanks Mrs. Stageplay. But I…" Gwen hesitated to speak.
"What's wrong dear? Got a little stage fright?" Sally asked.
"No, it's not that. It's just I just barely learned how to dance not too long ago. And I did it all without magic." Gwen admitted.
"That's alright dear. I admire the hard work you're putting into it. Tell you what, I'm holding dance lessons in a few minutes. How would you like to join my class?" Sally offered.
"I'd love to ma'am!" Gwen answered eagerly.
"Alright then, you can join the other students in the theater. I'll be there in a minute." Sally instructed her.
Gwen goes into the auditorium, magically changes her outfit into a workout outfit and joins other students on the stage. Sally comes in and has Gwen and her students start with warm ups.
Afterwards, Sally teaches them the basic moves such as tapping with the rhythm, the ball step, the ball heel, ball change, the shuffle and the heel step. Then she shows them that they can combine those moves into advance moves.
"When learning a difficult dance routine, learn each move slowly until you start to get comfortable. You can speed it up a little each time." Sally explained.
Gwen practiced the basic steps, but is struggling to maintain balance.
"Gwen, bend your legs, there are no straight legs in dancing."
Gwen bend her legs and practiced the ball-heel. Later, class was over and Gwen was sweating and tired from dancing.
"Well done everyone! Just keep practicing and we'll pick this up again next week!"
Gwen is about to head home until Sally approaches Gwen and said,
"That was a very nice first day Gwen."
"Thank you ma'am. That was quite a workout." Gwen said, catching her breath.
"Oh, it is dear. Now, keep practicing and you'll get much better for the talent show." Sally advised her.
"Oh, I will. See ya!"
Gwen said and leaves the theater to go home and rest before practicing.
Gwen approaches the cottage and to her shock, it is all splashed with frosting.
"What the?" Gwen asked.
She hears the cups screaming and Elder Kettle chasing the boys.
"Oh boy." Gwen said concerningly and enters the cottage.
She saw Elder Kettle going crazy like he was on sugar rush. Gwen sighed, raised her ink pen and said,
"I hope you understand why I have to do this."
Gwen uses her giant glove attack and knocked out Elder Kettle cold. Then Gwen used telekinesis to lift Elder Kettle and puts him to bed. Gwen uses the inkwell to restore the cottage and clean up the frosting. Gwen sighed and goes into the boys bed room and saw the cups holding each other scared.
"What happened guys?"
"You don't wanna know!" The cups answered.
Gwen stood there shocked and said,
"Uh… okay. I'll be in my room."
Gwen quickly leaves and goes in her room to take a nap. Afterwards, Ms. Chalice arrived in Gwen's room in her ghostly form and gives Gwen a good scare.
"Chalice, I'm tired. I took dancing lessons from Sally earlier." Gwen said in a tired tone.
"Good for you girl! Now, get up! Cause we need to get started rehearsing if we're gonna beat that snooty jerk!" Ms. Chalice said.
"Alright already."
Gwen gets up and goes out in the front yard and both rehearse their musical number for a while until sunset. After rehearsal, Gwen and Ms. Chalice say goodnight call it a night.
Throughout the week, Gwen did her rehearsing and even started taking acting classes from Sally Stageplay. During that time, Mugman at one point got sick and had to stay home for the day while Elder Kettle and Cuphead ran errands.
Friday morning, Gwen woke up to the sound of someone playing the piano badly. Get comes downstairs after getting ready and to her shock, she saw Ludwig giving Mugman piano lessons.
"Uh, Mugman? What are you doing?" Gwen asked Mugman awkwardly.
"Oh, good morning Gwen! I've taken up piano playing. You didn't tell me you took lessons from the great Ludwig!" Mugman said excitedly.
Ludwig gives Gwen a smug look and she glared at him.
Then, she left them alone with their lessons. Gwen angrily sits at the table with her cup of coffee and her plate of bacon and eggs.
After breakfast, Gwen leaves the cottage to go rehearse some more with Ms. Chalice at the theater. Gwen kept practicing her dance moves and keeps better every time she tried.
"Girl, you're gettin' so good at this! At this rate, we'll win that hundred bucks and split it fifty-fifty! We'll be huge!" Ms. Chalice said.
Gwen wasn't sure and said,
"Chalice, I'm really not aiming for the top. I'm just doing this for fun. Besides, I'm already famous enough because of the magic inkwell." Gwen expressed her concern.
"Aw, come on girl! Think of it, Chalice and Gwen! Singing and Dancing Duo! We'll go places!" Ms. Chalice said proudly.
Gwen was getting concerned that Ms. Chalice was letting showbusiness go to her head and getting too confident.
"Take it easy Chalice, we're not going places. It's just a talent show competition. We're just having fun."
Ms. Chalice looked at Gwen and said,
"Maybe you're right girl. Sorry. I get too confident with these things. You know how many times I charm my way to first place at that dance competition?"
"Of course, I do. You and the boys came home that night with that trophy before the angry mob showed up. Remember?" Gwen pointed out.
"Oh, yeah!" Ms. Chalice said.
"But, we can still do singing and dancing together. Never give up your passion for dancing just like I never give up my passion for art." Gwen advised Ms. Chalice.
"Oh, I definitely won't girlfriend! Plus, it's more fun when we do it together. Or the boys too." Ms. Chalice said and put her arm around Gwen's shoulder.
Gwen smiled and said,
"Well, I should get home. I just hope that blockhead Ludwig is gone by now."
"What would he be doin' at the cottage?" Ms. Chalice asked.
"Oh, Mugman started taking piano lessons from that jerk!" Gwen explained in a frustrating tone.
"Don't worry about him. I think he's just trying to mess with ya. Don't let him see that he gets to you." Ms. Chalice advised Gwen.
"Maybe you're right. If he tries anything, I'll be ready." Gwen said and leaves the theater and heads home.
Gwen arrives at the cottage and opens the gate. Just as Gwen was about to open the door, she hears a voice whisper,
"Psst!"
Gwen looked around for the voice. She gets out her ink pen and looks around until she is suddenly covered in something dark and carried away. After a while, her cover is removed and Gwen finds herself in a chair in the theater. Gwen looked for her captor and only saw Ludwig. She looked un-amused and said,
"And here I thought you were the Devil at it again."
"Sorry to disappoint you dear, but I'm afraid I have something to ask of you."
Ludwig said as he was putting on a pair of gloves.
Gwen folded her arms, sighed and asked,
"What? Is it something to do with the talent show?"
Ludwig approaches her, leans down to her and asked,
"I have but one question to ask of you… where is my music jewelry box?"
Gwen's heart started beating fast and asked,
"What are you talking about a jewelry box? I have no interest in jewelry." Gwen answered, trying to keep her cool.
"Not just that, my beautiful boat was also stolen and crashed just outside my beautiful home. And coincidentally, my jewelry box disappeared and my boat was destroyed after you left my home that day. And on top of that, I was arrested for wreckless driving! I didn't do anything! I had to bail myself out of jail! Almost destroyed my reputation you know!"
Gwen's eyes popped and asked,
"And… what does this have to do with me? I would never steal from you or anybody!"
"Maybe you didn't steal from me, but maybe you know who did steal from me?" Ludwig pointed out.
"I don't know! All I know is, I wanted to try lessons from you and I then left your home. That's it! Maybe a thief broke into your home! I dunno!" Gwen explained.
Ludwig looked at her suspiciously, when all of sudden, a club was floating above Ludwig and then… BONK! Ludwig was conked on the head and passed out. Gwen looked at the floating club and Ms. Chalice revealed herself in her ghost form.
"Shh! Now, get out of here! I'll take it from here!" Ms. Chalice instructed her.
Gwen gets up from the chair and runs out of the theater and back to the cottage. Ludwig wakes up and realized Gwen was gone and looked around for her. Suddenly, he hears a wailing noise and looked up and saw floating stage masks and Ms. Chalice appeared in a monstrous ghostly form and roared loudly. Ludwig turned white, screamed and ran out of the theater. Ms. Chalice laughed and said,
"That'll keep him out of Gwen's hair."
Police sirens were heard. Ms. Chalice quickly leaves the theater before the cops show up, searching for the assailant on Ludwig. The bee cops look around for the ghost, but they laugh at Ludwig and leave the scene, to Ludwig's disappointment.
The next day, the talent show was finally here and Elder Kettle and the cups are in their seats in the audience, waiting to watch Gwen and Ms. Chalice's act. Backstage, the contestants were all getting ready for their acts while Gwen and Ms. Chalice get ready. Gwen wears a beautiful black satin halter dress, long black gloves, pearl necklace and earrings and with black dance shoes. Ms. Chalice wears a white dress with white dance shoes.
"You think we're ready for this Chalice?" Gwen asked, feeling nervous.
"You betcha we are! Look, I know your nervous, but pretend there's nobody out there watching and do what we've been doing. Okay?" Ms. Chalice assured her.
Gwen takes a few deep breaths and says to herself,
"I can do this. I can do this. Just like a rehearsal."
Just then, a fanfare was played and Sally Stageplay steps out of the curtain and the audience applauded.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to our annual Inkwell Theater Talent Show Competition! You're all in for a real treat tonight folks! Cause we got some real talent for you here! You might even see some familiar faces here like Ludwig who won first place last year! So, let's start things off with our winner from last here: Ludwig and his piano-playing act!"
Sally announced and the audience cheered.
Ludwig bowed to the audience and played Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata. After his song, the audience cheered and Ludwig proudly bowed and flowers were tossed at him. He fancily walks off stage and says to Gwen,
"Top that, Gwendoolaan."
Gwen gives him a glare as he walked by. Ms. Chalice said,
"Don't worry about fancy blockhead. Don't worry about the Devil or anybody else. Just remember what you said. We're doing this for fun."
Gwen keeps her cool and says,
"You're right. By the way, thanks for saving me yesterday. He was on to me for the stolen jewelry and crashed boat."
"What else are friends for? Besides, I gave him what he deserved. You should've seen the look on his face when I scared him!" Ms. Chalice said.
Gwen giggled and said, "Oh, I bet it was hilarious!" Gwen said.
"By the way, about that amethyst brooch, how did you know I was a February birthday?" Gwen wanted to know.
"You're a February birthday? I didn't know that, what a coincidence! I just thought that would look pretty on you. That's all." Ms. Chalice explained.
Gwen was shocked that it was just a coincidence, but let it go.
Other acts were performed as the show went on until finally, only Gwen and Ms. Chalice were left.
"Ooh! This is gonna be tight one folks. We're down to our last performance! For our final talent, we have a singing and dancing act by Ms. Chalice and Gwendolyn Mae Emmons!"
The audience cheered as Gwen and Ms. Chalice got into their positions. Gwen took some deep breaths and blocked out Ludwig or the Devil from her mind.
The curtain raised up and Ms. Chalice started singing and dancing the first verse of the song You're the Top. Gwen remembered her training with dancing and acting and started singing and dancing the second verse.
Meanwhile, Ludwig was impressed with how Gwen's talent had been improving he started to fear she may surpass him. So, Ludwig decided to take matters into his own hands. He goes backstage and pulls a lever to make lights shimmer, which wows the audience as Gwen and Ms. Chalice kept singing and dancing.
Ludwig grumbles angrily and tries something else; he climbs up the ladder and tries to cut the sand bags on ropes to crush them. The sandbags miss them as they didn't even notice.
Ludwig tries one last tactic. He goes to the control booth and pressed all the buttons, making every lighting and stage effects activate. But the audience assumed it was all part of the show and Gwen and Ms. Chalice finish their song,
"But if baby, I'm the bottom, but if baby I'm the bottom, but if baby I'm the bottom, you're the top!" And belted out the last note and held the finishing pose.
The audience cheered and give Gwen and Ms. Chalice a standing ovation and flowers were tossed at them. Ludwig stood there with his mouth hung open, realizing he may have sabotaged his chances of winning first place.
Gwen and Ms. Chalice take their bows and the other participants join Gwen and Ms. Chalice for the results. Ludwig quickly joins them, acting like nothing was wrong as Sally Stageplay comes on stage with an envelope with the results.
"Alright folks, we have the results in! And let me tell you, it was hard picking the top three performers! So, let's get to it! Our third-place winner is… Bowlboy for his tricycle act!"
The audience cheers as Bowlboy accepts the $25 prize money.
"Our second-place winner is… Ludwig!"
The audience cheered as Ludwig angrily grumbled as he accepted the $50 prize money.
"And finally, our first-place winner is… Ms. Chalice and Gwendolyn Mae Emmons!"
The audience cheered and give Gwen and Ms. Chalice a standing ovation and Gwen an Ms. Chalice accept the $100 prize money.
"Well, this was a wonderful show folks! I can't wait to see you all next year! Good night!"
Sally ended the show and the audience started to leave. Gwen joins her surrogate family and gives them a hug as Elder Kettle says,
"Congratulations my dear! You and Chalice earned that prize money fair and square!"
"Thanks, Elder Kettle. We were just havin' fun." Gwen responded.
Ms. Chalice hugged Gwen and the cups and said,
"Hot dog! They love us Gwen!"
"They sure do Chalice! This was a really fun night!" Gwen said, feeling proud.
Sally Stageplay comes up to Gwen and said,
"Wonderful job you two! You earned that prize for all your hard work!"
Gwen hugged Sally and said,
"Thank you so much for your lessons ma'am!"
"You see my dear? Magic doesn't make talent, you do." Sally reminded her.
"You're right ma'am. I see that now. Although I gotta say, whoever was on the stage tech did a wonderful job with the lights and effects. It made it look magical." Gwen said.
Sally was confused and said,
"Our stage tech didn't do those. Oh well, we still had a good show. I look forward to seeing you in class next week dear." Sally said.
Gwen and her surrogate family leave the theater and Gwen and Ms. Chalice were interviewed for their success by the press.
"Miss Emmons, you and your friend won first and you didn't even use magic, very impressive. How did you both still pull it off tonight?" A reporter asked.
"Well, my acting and dance teacher taught me that magic doesn't make talent, you do. All it took was hard work, perseverance and heart. And never give up your passion." Gwen explained as she and Ms. Chalice held each other.
Both girls posed for the photographers and then it was time for them to head home. Ludwig watched in anger Gwen and Ms. Chalice leaving, but then he lets it go when he learns about an upcoming piano competition with a grand prize for $10,000.
One week later, Gwen was out one morning by the creek catching crawdads and noticed as she was walking up to the gate Mugman laughing tiredly and takes off a pink towel he wore as a cape.
"Uh, Mugman? Were you up last night? And where've you been?"
"Oh, nowhere important…" Mugman said seemingly innocent.
Gwen gave him a suspicious look and said,
"Come on, you can tell me inside."
Gwen opens the door and goes inside with the crawdads in the bucket. Mugman said as he was about to open the door,
"Enjoy your recital, Coop Haad."
But to his surprise, Cuphead was sleeping on a bench outside the cottage.
"Cuphead?" Mugman asked.
"Oh, hey Mugsy." Cuphead said as he woke up.
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the recital." Mugman asked
"Eh, Ludwig was a no-show." Cuphead said, looking sad.
Mugman looked sympathetic and said,
"Really? Oh gosh, that's awful. I know what it's like to be abandoned."
"Eh, I'm over it." Cuphead said.
Gwen sticks her head out the door and said,
"Uh, guys? You might wanna hear this."
They hear a familiar ragtime piano song playing on the radio. The cups join with Gwen inside and listen the song.
"Hey, that's my song!" Cuphead exclaimed.
"What?" Asked Gwen.
After the song ends, the audience applauds and an announcer said,
"And the winner of this year's piano competition is… Ludwig!"
"LUDWIG?!" All three of them exclaimed at once.
"Tell us Ludwig, how did you come up with this new fantastic piece?" The announcer asked.
"Oh, I'm so glad you asked that. I just play what feels right."
Cuphead grumbled angrily and said,
"What a phony! Someone oughta teach that jerk a lesson!"
"Yeah!" Mugman agreed.
Just then, they hear a rope snap and hear a falling piano crush Ludwig. People were heard screaming as the announcer said,
"Oh dear! Ludwig has been crushed by a falling piano! Who would do such a…"
Mugman turns of the radio with a guilty look on his face.
"So, you were gonna crush me with a piano, huh?" Cuphead asked suspiciously.
"Just a little." Mugman confessed.
"Eh, don't sweat it. I would've done the same thing if I were you." Cuphead said, not worried.
Gwen stood there, unsure what she just saw. But she was satisfied that Ludwig got his just desserts in the end.
"See guys, I warned you that jerk was a narcissistic, self-centered egotistical blockhead who only cared about himself. And if I didn't know better, I think he was the one who tried to sabotage my act last week. Actually, I should've thanked him for helping me and Chalice win first place at the talent show." Gwen smirked.
Cuphead takes the bucket from Gwen and offered,
"Crawdad?"
"Hmm, don't mind if I do."
Mugman said as he, Cuphead and Gwen each took a crawdad, ate them and tossed their tails aside.
"Hey, when you think about it… these things are just tiny lobsters."
Cuphead said as he swallowed.
"Hey, I guess you're right." Mugman chuckled.
"You know, I remember trying crawdads when my family and I went on a vacation in New Orleans, Louisiana a long time ago when Rose and I were kids. They were delicious and Rose and I would toss the tails to the seagulls." Gwen recalled a memory.
"Oh, nice." Mugman said.
"Yeah." Gwen answered.
"HEY!" A deep voice yelled.
The three looked up at a giant crawdad in their living room and asked,
"Who you callin' tiny punk?"
"Uh oh." Gwen said nervously.
The giant crawdad chased the three around the cottage, ready to beat them up until Gwen yelled,
"WAIT!"
They all stop running and Gwen said calmly,
"This is getting us nowhere. Let's go outside and talk about this sir."
Gwen leads the giant crawdad outside as Cuphead and Mugman waited for a while.
Afterwards, Gwen comes back inside and grabs the bucket of crawdads and goes back outside. Then, the cups hear Gwen used her ink pen, doing some magic.
After a few minutes, Gwen comes back inside and said,
"It's alright guys, I took care of him. We settled on an agreement."
"What did you give him?" Cuphead asked.
"Oh, he wanted me to magically resurrect the crawdads we ate and gave him back the rest of the crawdads in the bucket. And he promised not to pound us if we promised not to come back to his creek again." Gwen explained the crawdad's conditions.
"Okay." The cups said, disappointingly.
Gwen thinks for a moment, gets an idea and said,
"I know what'll cheer us up. I'll make us a Cajun-style gumbo for lunch. I remember how they did it back in New Orleans."
"Yay!" The cups cheered.
Gwen and the cups go into the kitchen and Gwen magically conjures up a pot of hot gumbo and served her friends and herself and ate together, happy they got through another ordeal together.
