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[color=skyblue]Location[/color]: Château de La Lune: Dining Room
[color=skyblue]Skills[/color]: N/A
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As the various conversations around the table began to dwindle, the tension in the room became palpable. In some ways, it made sense. It was pretty clear to Tony that this dinner hadn't exactly gone according to plan, and everyone probably knew it - Lawrence making an ass of himself, a nominee punching him, that same nominee feeling ill and needing to leave early, and so on. Then there was the fact that it felt like half of the nominees were completely out of their element at a formal dinner, behaving in ways he'd never seen at similar events in the past - in ways that would probably have them not get invited to future occasions, if not actually kicked out altogether. Not to mention the fact that the seating chart was made laughably awkward by the massive gaps now present across the table, making it exceptionally difficult for many of them to make conversation.

Yet in other ways, the tension was becoming another confusing piece of the puzzle that this trip had turned into. Between the rudeness of some family members and the lack of conversation from others, it kind of seemed like most of them didn't really even want to be here, playing host to a bunch of strangers they can barely relate to. Based on conversations overheard, it sounded like at least a couple of them don't even stay here for most of the year. So if all these people didn't want to be here, why [i]were[/i] they? Additionally, although in some ways it made sense that some of the nominees were acting weird - they clearly weren't the types to attend this sort of thing normally - some of the behavior just didn't make sense. One of the women at the other end of the table seemed particularly interrogative. Why did it seem like everyone was focused on questioning the La Lunes about the awards, and not just making friendly small talk? [i]Tony[/i] had a good reason for doing it, of course - someone here, most likely Elenore, was trying to blackmail him with something that could easily be the end of far more than just his award-winning prospects. But why was everyone [i]else[/i] acting strangely?

Something wasn't adding up, that's for sure. Tony just didn't know what part of the equation he was missing. There was one equation he [i]did[/i] fully understand though: cheese + wine = delicious. He'd always appreciated the simple truth that was good food; sure, you could make a meal as complicated as possible if you want, but you could also reduce a meal to its simplest form and a good pairing would still taste great. And this cheese (he assembled another combination from the cheese board) with this wine (he took another sip) was a great pairing. If only everything else could be so simple.