Carver waited patiently while Shock ate, double-checking that none of her dice were unbalanced and that the inside of the cups were clean. Boogie's Boys had picked up a few things from their former master, in particular a willingness to cheat with a simultaneous refusal to tolerate cheating from others. Rather than trying to beat them in a game of Who Can Cheat Better, she figured it was better to just make sure that it was never possible for anyone in the game to cheat at all.

Not that the preparation made a difference, because Shock was almost as good at sleight of hand as Barrel was, and had learned to prepare her own counters to this ahead of time. When she returned to the kitchen to put the dishes away, she retrieved her secret stash of loaded dice from under the sink. And when Carver passed Shock a cup with five dice in it, the trickster palmed the fair dice and swapped in her own. 

The pumpkin head had the advantage of providing a superb poker face, which gave Shock a run for her money, but in the end she won anyway. She did another switch of the dice when handing the cup back to her friend.

Carver shrugged, closing the container and putting it away again. "So, what's the plan, then?"

---

"Aunt Agnes was chasing a monkey's hand on her broom and crashed into the shelf when the hand dove behind it," Agatha replied. 

She squinted at him in what she hoped was a playful expression, and tilted her head a bit to make her nose wart just a little more visible. "'Not tonight'?" the young witch asked. "Does that mean you're planning something for later, then?"

She shook her head at his last comment. "I don't understand how you three can fight each other so much, but still be so close..." She trailed off as a thought came into her head. Maybe.......