"I don't think he means any harm," Sobki said, "but he's only here for a day or two, then disappears for weeks, so I don't know much beyond surface level."

He took an awkward sip of his punch.

"I don't 'hang out' with him so much as I try to keep him out of too much trouble, but that...didn't work out this time."

Lock's glare softened more into amusement when Chad turned his focus to Carmilla.

"Actually," he corrected, "I picked them for talent. If I wanted eye candy, I would've recruited Agatha."

He nuzzled against Lillith again and directed her away so they could dance - and to get out of range of his older sister.

"Oh," Shock said with feigned ignorance. "I must have misheard."

Much to her dismay, he chugged the rest of his beer before she could spike it. However, another opportunity presented itself.

"Then I'll get you another drink so you can try one, then," she said sweetly, "because Barrel worked so hard on them."

This, actually, would work better.

Lock's tail pointed towards a trash can by one of the couches.

"Over there," he said.

Shock waited for Chad to turn to toss the beer can so he wouldn't see what she held when she turned away. She observed the snack table and located the Bludlite box. No way in hell was she gonna waste the good stuff for this. Shock set her glass on the snack table, then knelt down to open the box, crack open a can, and put a drop of adder pepper juice into it. She then closed the bottle and hid it in her pocket, before she grabbed the Bludlite can, retrieved her drink, and headed right back to Chad to hand it to him. Shock sipped her own drink, before she picked up the prior conversation.

"It's a shame you want a guy singing," she said, "because I did the voicework."

Agatha winced sympathetically and nodded. “I guess somebody’s gotta do it. Probably wouldn’t want him dying and becoming a permanent resident of the town…”

Carver snerked. “I think he’d fit right in with the redneck zombies across the lake. They have the same taste in alcohol, and a shared IQ of six between them.”

Agatha bit back a chuckle and sampled one of the poison puffs. “Wow, Barrel! I never forget how good you are at cooking, but it still always surprises me anyway!”

“What I have is not talent,” Carmilla corrected Lock. She drained her glass again before continuing. “It’s trained skill. Your sister is the one with talent, which remains relatively unrefined. But I suppose there’s some potential, there,” she added with a sniff.

Chad thanked Shock with a grin. As she walked away, he turned where Lock had indicated and put on what he imagined to be a good ‘game face’.

“Nine seconds left on the clock,” he said in a hushed but very serious tone. “Three opposing players blocking, no one to pass it to, and no path to get closer.”

He bounced on his toes, still talking. “His team is two points down. If he makes this shot, they win the championship. If he misses, he’ll go down in history as the biggest let-down the Halloween Town Hares have ever faced. Will, he, make it?”

Chad jumped into the air and threw the beer can at an unnecessarily high arc. “He takes the shot!” The can descended, hit the side of the trash bin, and bounced off it, coming to rest on the floor a foot away from it’s target.

The blonde boy dropped to his knees, yelling, “Nooooooo!! It’s a rim shot! And there’s the buzzer! There, is, no coming back from this! A young man’s career ended; an utter failure! How, will he, go on?”

He slumped down in defeat. Then a few seconds later, cheerfully hopped back to his feet and walked over to pick the can up and drop it in the trash normally.

Lillith started dancing a slightly creepier variant of the jitterbug, which resembled a skeleton jerking its joints as it stalked living prey.

Carmilla shook Carver’s vine away. She shot Shock an obligatory dirty glance as they passed each other on the trickster’s way back from the refreshments table. The vampiress poured herself another helping of wine and put the bottle down for someone else to partake later. She decided to nurse this glassful slowly; the regular inclusion of blood wine with dinner at the vampire castle had built up her alcohol tolerance quite well, but three glasses in under ten minutes -- plus what she had imbibed before Chad’s unwelcome arrival -- would be a stretch even for her.

Once they were sure Carmilla wouldn’t interfere with Shock’s prank, Carver recoiled their vine. Next up on their agenda: preparations for more mayhem. They tapped out a quick message to Lock, telling him to drink some of the crappy beer.

It’ll keep him off guard, they told him. See how much he’ll take before he figures out the pranks aren’t accidents.

Chad, having completely missed Shock’s tampering due to his theatrics, turned around just in time to have a helpfully pre-opened fresh can of booze pressed into his hands. “Hey, thanks!” His smile dropped a bit when she said she was the singer in Lock’s band. “Oh! Dude, I’m sorry! You’re actually not that bad a singer. I’m just used to guys doing the whole, growl-y scream-y kind a’ music. You know, like that dude in Linkin Park, singing ‘With You’.”

He then softly sang a rough attempt at a line from that song, as a demonstration.

Sobki laughed at Carver's shot about the redneck zombies, but then immediately pulled his hand up to the front of his snout to hold back further laughter. While it was funny, it was also pretty mean. Barrel, however, had no such qualms.

"Even I'm not that dumb!"

He grinned at Agatha.

"Thanks!"

Grateful for the distraction from Carver's joke, Sobki tried one as well. It went down his crocodile jaws in one bite, though he let it slide along his tongue as he tilted his head back to swallow it.

"Oh, that really melts in your mouth!" he said. "And the flavor bursts like a mushroom spore."

Sobki grabbed another one to enjoy.

Lock rolled his eyes.

"I picked you because you can sing," he said. "Happy?"

Shock ignored their bickering and Chad's failure to sink his crushed beer can into the trash. She returned Carmilla's glare, then just waited patiently with a new beer for Chad and a sweet smile on her face.

Lock danced around Lillith in accompaniment. His tail brushed against her legs as he slid behind her. He snickered at Chad.

"Hopefully in a hearse," he said, in regards to "going on".

Lock took Lillith's hand to kiss as they finished their dance, and gently tugged her arm so he could kiss her cheek. He saw Carver's tapping in the corner of his eye and tapped a response with his tail while he asked Lillith if she wanted anything from the snack table while he was heading over there.

And waste my tolerance on that garbage? Make Barrel do it.

One of Shock's eyes twitched at Chad's singing. Having been visiting the mortal realm for over a century, she had some knowledge of its more popular music. And Lock's band - and her singing - were nothing like Linkin Park. Still, she kept a genteel expression and her tone dripping with sugary sweetness.

"I got you another beer," she said, "so I dare you to try a poison puff."

“Yes,” Carmilla replied to Lock. She sipped her drink and watched everything going on around her.

Barrel lacks the self control to pretend he likes it, or even just keep his mouth shut about how much he hates it, Carver tapped out. “So Agatha. How have things been down at the shop? Put any new potions in stock lately?”

“Oh! I meant to tell you! We figured out how to modify the daphnius potion for your heads. We can make it in larger batches, but with a longer set time and a softer wood variant. If you soak a whole head in it for a few days, the product would be a lot more durable and wouldn’t rot as quickly.”

And before you try telling me to do it myself, the target would start asking questions if I consumed a liquid of any kind, which is the exact opposite of what we want. I’m not brave or stupid enough to suggest Shock do it. But you’re welcome to try, if you are.

“Huh, that might be useful. I’ll probably give it a shot. What’s it going to cost, though?”

Plus, now that you so helpfully brought up your utter lack of ability to hold your liquor, you might actually be able to stay above the table with this beer. Win-win!

“Not too much more expensive than the original version,” Agatha said. She popped another poison puff in her mouth.

Lillith gladly obliged, leaning down so he could reach. “Rodent rolls and blood pudding, if you would. Thank you.”

“Dare accepted!” Chad marched over to the snack table and chucked a couple puffs in his mouth. He frowned as he chewed. “Weird, they don’t seem hot…”

He shrugged and took a swig of his beer to wash them down. Within a very short moment, his eyes widened. “OH. Oh, THERE it is! Slow burn! SLOW BURN!” He took another gulp, but it didn’t help at all. If anything, it seemed to spread the flavor around his mouth and make it worse. Waving his hands at his mouth and breathing hard wasn’t helping, either.

Suddenly, he froze. “Oh… Oh, shit. Oh, SHIT! Where’s your bathroom?!” He hollered, looking around frantically.

Sobki left the ghouls to their conversation and wandered over to Carmilla. Maybe she'd appreciate some company. Lock put a hand behind his back to flip Carver off without Lillith noticing as he gave her a kiss. He couldn't help he was a lightweight!

"Sure thing," he said.

Lock pondered Carver's suggestion on the way to the table. Fuck it, no one said he had to drink the entire thing. He got what Lillith requested and brought it to her, before he made his way back to help himself. Lock pulled out a can with his tail.

Barrel grabbed for some of the other snacks on the table and ate while Carver and Agatha discussed the daphnius potion improvements. He made sure to watch his sister and Chad. He couldn't wait to see someone else suffer the affects of the adderpepper juice.

As Chad came over to take the dare, Lock put his plate down long enough to crack open the Bludlite can in his presence and take a sip.

Ugh, this stuff was awful! Lock kept the can tilted up just enough to hide his grimace, then gripped the can in his tail again. Hopefully, the death dip would overpower the taste. He saw Shock calmly sipping her pumpkin lager in the corner of his eye. She'd dropped all pretenses of sweetness and now watched Chad's back with a focused stare. She pulled her drink from her lips as Chad took a drink of his beer.

Her brothers followed suit and put down drinks and swallowed anything they were currently chewing on, because their trouble senses all wildly rang.

At Chad's shout, all three of them started laughing. Sobki, who had attempted to engage Carmilla in conversation, looked over at the start of the trainwreck. He forgot what he was saying immediately as Chad asked for the bathroom.

"Uh..."

Shock anticipated the end result of her trick. She got ahold of herself first and gestured toward the jagged orange door with an eerie calmness.

"In there, down the hall, bedroom on the left, back of the room," she said, having turned the sweetness back on just for this.

Lock and Barrel laughed even harder.

Chad slammed his beer down on the table and made a dash for the door she’d indicated. While he was out of commission dealing with the oncoming system purge, Carver fell into a mad fit of cackles. She wrapped a vine around Barrel’s shoulders to help hold herself up.

Ho-hold onto that d-drink, Lock, the pumpkin creature managed to tap through his laughter. Le-let’s see ho-hahahah-how far we can t-t-take this!

Agatha started to let out a tiny cackle of her own. Then a realization dawned on her, and her expression shifted to one of mild horror. That’s where the missing adderpepper juice had gone. And it wouldn’t require the whole vial to spike just one drink past a human’s tolerance, so… What were the tricksters going to do with the rest of it?

Lillith daintily sucked on the tips of her fingers as if she had gotten some pudding on them. Amused as she was, she also realized she had to take the role of responsible semi-adult, again. She kept an eye on the flailing Chad to make sure his health wasn’t going to be significantly affected by the poisoned food or whatever Shock had spiked his drink with. Thankfully, his level of dramatic flailing indicated that he was relatively fine (at least for the time being).

Carmilla caught herself about ten seconds into a gratified giggle. She snapped herself out of it as fast as possible, given her state of mild inebriation. She struggled to put her scowl back in place, mentally cursing Shock for being the kind of monster that the vampiress couldn’t allow herself to outwardly appreciate any of the bitch’s work. But death… watching the sweet justice of Chad’s comeuppance was just too good to hate…

After several minutes, Chad came back into the main room of the lair. He was holding his mouth open and panted, trying to breathe past the residual burn in his mouth.

“Dang, you guys weren’t kidding! Those poison puffs are no joke!” He stopped to take a few long deep breaths. “No idea how you guys aren’t reacting to them at all. You must have spicy food every day to have that kind of tolerance!”

He rubbed his tongue over the roof of his mouth and let out several shorts bursts of air. Finding the flavor not completely gone, he made his way over to his beer. “Swig of this should rinse the last bit of the burn, then we can get the party really rockin!”

Carver could barely contain themself as Chad took a big gulp of the beverage and, instead of swallowing it immediately, decided to swish it around in his mouth first. By the time he realized the heat was getting worse instead of better, it was too late.

“HOLY SWEET HOT STUFF, IT’S IN THE BEER!” Liquid ran down his chin onto his shirt as he made his exclamation. He quickly closed his mouth and forced himself to swallow what remained, before falling right back into panicked flailing and heavy panting.

Carver lost all control and burst into hysterical laughter. He lost his grip on Barrel’s shoulders and fell to the floor. Lillith brought her hand up to her face, pressing two fingers to her brow as she sighed. Carmilla cracked again and quickly took a drink to hide her expression. Agatha simply stared, unsure of what to do.

Chad noticed none of this. Between the flailing and the hollering, he was completely occupied right through the point he had to race back to the bathroom.

Sobki started to laugh and quickly clamped his hand over his jaws to keep them shut. Even so, he was still very clearly laughing. All things considered, Chad was getting off easy, so he didn't feel too bad. Hopefully, this was the kick in the pants he needed to be more wary of the trio and better behave himself.

Barrel clutched the edge of the snack table to keep himself standing. Lock fell to the floor and pulled himself up after a moment.

Shock only remained standing because she had prepared herself for the fallout. She took a self-rewarding drink of her pumpkin lager upon composing herself...and caught Carmilla in the corner of her eye. That lifted her mood even more.

"And here I thought we already had tonight's entertainment planned!"

Barrel shrugged and tossed another poison puff in his mouth.

"Surprises are always fun," he said.

"And he contributed more than just some shitty beer," Lock said.

His amusement faded when he realized he could still taste the Bludlite after consuming snacks. Lock picked the can back up and stared at it.

"Not sure if anything can make it taste better."

When Chad came back, the trio acted as if nothing had happened. And when he picked up his beer can again, they all prepared for round two. Chad earned himself another round of wicked laughter which only got worse when he made a mad dash back for the bathroom.

Shock dropped the act for good and called after him.

"Catch you later, hot stuff!"

If that didn't teach him, she'd just have to pull out her lesson plan.

It took a long moment for Carver to stop laughing enough to stand and speak. "Entertainment might not even be over, yet." Keep drinking it when he's looking, she tapped out to Lock. We can probably convince him it was a fluke. The longer he goes without putting his guard up, the more we can get away with.

Lock rolled his eyes and set the can down on the snack table and instead got a cup of pumpkin punch to try to wash the taste out of his mouth.

Fine, he tapped out. But I can't take more than a sip without gagging.

He finished the punch and headed back over to Lillith. The night was still young, and they still had some time to dance in peace before Chad got back and the fun began again.

Carver draped a few vines across Barrel’s shoulder’s and leaned on him again as they popped a couple of the snacks into their front mouth. As they munched, they began to tap the back of his shoulder gently enough not to produce any noise for the shortest trickster to pick up.

I think Agatha brought something pretty light that might make the beer taste a little more tolerable. Do you think you could get her to help Lock by mixing some in his drink? Not while he’s looking though, because he wouldn’t trust us at first and any suspicion could ruin the pranks on Chad.

Barrel had only been halfway paying attention to Lock and Carver. He picked out something about the Bludlite being used to keep Chad off-guard, but otherwise was more interested in snacks, and then maybe joining the dance. He downed a whole bottle of the Frankensteiniken's before he answered.

Maybe, he tapped on the bottle.

He set the bottle on the table and gently tapped against it, now that Lock was out of earshot and happily rejoined with Lillith.

Why can't you do it?

Carver stuffed a few more snacks into their front mouth to have an excuse to not talk. He tapped Barrel's shoulder in response.

Because she probably figured out I stole the adderpepper juice, so she's not going to believe me.

Barrel just shrugged. That made sense. He thought for a moment, then turned to Agatha.

"Lock said nothing can make that taste better," he said as he pointed to her purse. "I think that might."

Agatha smiled up at her boyfriend.

Aww, he’s trying to help his older brother, she thought. And he doesn’t even want the credit! But…

She pursed her lips, considering it. Some alcoholic drinks generally did little in the way of improving taste, and the stuff she brought, even less so. Vodka and tequila both had pretty rough flavors and usually required a chaser if they weren’t in mixers that could overpower them. Then again… Vodka wasn’t really that hard to overpower, and tequila… Well, it had a tendency to slightly fry the taste buds for a few seconds afterward. Wouldn’t really improve the taste much, but it might make the bad taste go away faster after each sip.

“I don’t think it’ll make it taste better,” she said, “but it could at least make it easier to handle.”

She decided not to ask why Lock was drinking the beer in the first place, if he needed help to handle the flavor. If it were anyone else, she would assume that the host was simply partaking to some small degree in whatever their guests brought, out of politeness. But this was a trickster party, and Barrel’s siblings were generally much less interested in being polite than he was. Maybe Lock lost a dare, or something.

The young witch picked up Lock’s drink and gave it a small swish to see how much space there was. Lock had only taken a few sips, so there wasn’t much. But she’d be able to fit a good size shot, and hopefully that would be all it needed. She tipped a splash of vodquila into the opening as best as she could; some didn’t quite make it in and ended up pooling around the rim of the can. Once that was done, she set it back on the table where it had been.

Barrel shrugged.

"That works," he said. "He just needs to tolerate it a little longer."

If Agatha asked, he'd just tell her what little truth he gleaned from the tapping code: that they were keeping Chad off-guard, and Lock's job was to keep Chad from noticing anything was off with the beer. He was just assisting.

Barrel played lookout to make sure Lock didn't notice Agatha spiking his drink. He was too preoccupied with his girlfriend. Shock didn't notice, either, as Sobki decided to take advantage of her current good mood to politely chat with her. The crocodile-headed teen was polite to a fault, and intended to spend at least a little time with each of the trio to ensure his gratitude for the invitation.

Chad came back a second time, and decided to crack open a new beer instead of attempting to drink from the tainted one again. Lock had by that time went to the snack table to get himself and Lillith some punch. As Chad was there, he picked up his own Bludlite can and took a drink from it.

It was still awful, but that time...huh. It wasn't as bad as last time. Maybe he was getting used to it? Death, he hoped not. Lock got himself and Lillith some punch, then wandered back to his girlfriend.

Barrel stuffed a rodent roll in his mouth to help keep back his laughter from the look he caught on Lock's face.

Chad returned and cracked open a new beer. In his pained and panicked hysterics, he had completely missed Shock’s “hot stuff” comment. As such, he was completely oblivious to the intended revelation that the spiciness of his previous drink had been an intentional retaliation against his earlier comment to her.

“Man, who knew backwash could carry that much of a kick? Explains why none of you took drinks afterward to help with the burn. You guys must have tongues of steel to eat more than one of those puffs! Truly badass, my bros,” he added with a grin. He held out his fist for Barrel to bump.

Lillith continued dancing with her boyfriend for several minutes, periodically taking a sip of punch or wine and slowly relaxing once the double-pronged prank on Chad was determined to be a relatively harmless way to keep him out of the way and out of trouble. Well, the kind of trouble the trio didn’t appreciate. In any case, he wasn’t hurt, and he wasn’t giving poorly chosen commentary. She was therefore allowed to put her order-keeping duties on the cool side of the cauldron for the time being.

After a while, she glanced down and noticed Lock was just a bit too interested in his drink, and decided to get his attention squarely back on her. With a smirk, she kicked in her vampiric speed and grace to suddenly grab the glass from his hand and hold it above her head. In the same motion, she swiped his feet out from underneath him and caught him mid-fall, such that he ended up nearly horizontal with her free arm hooked under his lower back. Her own glass ended up resting perfectly balanced on her foot, which she lifted up to keep her leg parallel with her upper body as she bent forward to hold him in the deep dip.

Shock revelled in the new peace, and briefly discussed the mechanics of the bomb she built at the Finklesteins' lab with Sobki, as after the initial thanks, he genuinely was interested in some of the mayhem Jack let them get away with.

"Now, I can't give away all my tricks," Shock explained, "but let's just say the counterweights were precise. The second she picked it up..."

"...She throws the balance off," Sobki said.

"Exactly!" Shock said. "Ka-BOOM!"

She lifted her arms (and now-empty glass) with an enthusiastic jump. Sobki awkwardly laughed with her afterwards. He sipped his punch and conveniently stepped to block Shock's line of sight as Chad came back.

Lock smirked at Chad's response.

"Oh, I've got a strong tongue, all right."

He glanced up at Lillith with a suggestive quirk of his brows. Shock glowered for a second, then moved to take a drink herself, before remembering the emptiness of her glass. Her glower melted into a devious little smile as she realized she and her brothers could still fuck with Chad.

Barrel awkwardly returned the fist bump and stuffed another poison puff in his mouth solely so he wouldn't have to speak to Chad.

Damn. What a waste of adderpepper juice.

Shock excused herself from Sobki to get more pumpkin lager. She ignored Chad as she grabbed a pastry, stuffed it into her mouth, and made her way back to Sobki.

Lock went back to Lillith. He drank more of his punch to further counter that awful beer. He found the cup pulled from his hands mid-sip, and himself falling back into Lillith's awaiting arm. With a small yelp, he reached to wrap his arms around her neck. Once he recovered, Lock smirked and reached up to kiss her. His tail found its way behind her to give a gentle, retaliatory slap on her ass.

Lillith started to make a sly response to Lock’s comment, but before she could get a single syllable out, she was cut off by a single boisterous guffaw.

“Well, you’re the right height for it! And I imagine with a girlfriend like that, you’ve probably got plenty of experience,” Chad added with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle.

Lillith immediately stiffened up, her claw-like fingernails digging into Lock’s back as she held him in the dip. The glass on her foot teetered dangerously for a moment. She quickly regained her composure, and in one fluid motion pulled her boyfriend to his feet and brought the glass back to her waiting hand, denying Lock that kiss in the process.

Agatha grimaced and shuffled over to Barrel. Now seemed like as good a time as any, but she suddenly felt nervous. If she was too blatant about asking her boyfriend for a dance, would he turn her down for lack of finesse? Or worse, would Chad make a crude comment about their relationship? She definitely didn’t want to risk the mood getting entirely ruined before they could even work it up properly. She had to find a way to get Barrel on the dance floor without without drawing the blonde boy’s attention.

“Hey, umm… Would you mind accompanying me to the dance floor?” She refrained from calling him ‘dear’ just in case. She did tilt her chin down and bat her eyelashes up at him, though. “It’s getting a little crowded over here.”

Lock grimaced as Chad killed the mood right before he could get a kiss. He winced at Lillith's fingernails and took his glass back from her when she shoved it in his hand. Lillith pulled him back up. Lock glared at Chad and took a defeated sip of his punch.

Shock, however, laughed at him, not because of Chad's comment, but the misery her little brother gained as a result. Sobki found himself chuckling.

"You walked right into that one," Shock said.

Lock flipped her off and took another drink of his punch. Over at the snack table, Barrel found himself giggling too. Lock was pretty short. He quickly composed himself and turned to Agatha. He saw her briefly glance at Chad as she mentioned it was getting "crowded" before batting her eyes. Maybe she had something in them? In any case, she was probably trying to be polite in getting away from Chad.

"Yeah, sure," he said.

Barrel finished his snacks, chugged down the rest of the cider he had, then offered his arm to Agatha.

With Shock distracted by Sobki and the trickster boys both occupied with their respective girlfriends, Carmilla let down her guard a little and helped herself to a few snacks. She wrinkled her nose at the insinuation made by the uninvited guest. Not because he was wrong, but because he lacked the manners to realize he shouldn’t say it in front of polite company. Or, well… company which included at least some polite people. The vampiress was pretty sure Shock couldn’t fit the description if her unlife depended on it, and the other tricksters were only slightly better.

Chad chugged some more of his beer, happy that his joke had gotten some laughs and completely unaware of the discomfort it had resulted in. He decided to take a moment to appreciate his surroundings -- namely, the girls he was pretty sure weren’t taken yet. Carmilla had more to look at, shape-wise, but Shock was clearly not shy about showing off and rocking her long legs in a much shorter skirt than the vampiress. He let his eyes wander up and down a bit while he drank.

Agatha beamed. She was finally getting the hang of communicating with her boyfriend on his level! She fell into step beside him and lightly rested a hand on Barrel’s elbow.

Barrel shrugged Carver off of his shoulders so he could lead Agatha away from the snack table. On the way to the dance floor, Barrel followed Chad's line of sight and frowned. With the recent events at Jack's house in mind, he elbowed Chad with some force to show he meant business and leaned down close to his ear to make sure the other boy heard him over the music.

"Don't stare," he said sternly. "Ghouls don't like it."

Or rather, Shock in particular didn't like it, had recently come down from an incident that put all her senses on alert and he didn't want to set her off again and risk ruining the fun, but Barrel was just smart enough to not single her out to Chad.

Barrel found a place on the roulette wheel with enough room for his long legs and large feet. Where Lock and Lillith danced with grace and clear knowledge of the other one's movements, Barrel moved like an unbalanced spider in roller skates on a freshly waxed floor. The most finesse he showed was taking care not to step on Agatha's feet or bump into her accidentally.

With the party starting to get into the swing of things again, Shock pulled Carver over to dance with her and Sobki.

Lock sulked for a moment at being denied a kiss and downed the rest of his punch. He walked over to the snack table to set the cup by his beer before wandering back to Lillith. His mood lifted upon seeing Barrel and Agatha. He snickered at his little brother's wilder dance style and how he tried to account for Agatha while doing it. When he returned to Lillith, he hopped straight onto her hip and nuzzled her neck. He could get a kiss later. Right now, he wanted to enjoy his new-found good mood.

Shock kept herself between Carver and Sobki, one so there was no chance for Chad to try and cut in, and for another, to plot more trouble, with some excitement of doing it right under the crocodile teen's nose. She wove between her best friend's vines and sometimes gripped them for a more complicated move. It also allowed her to tap her fingers and give Carver a message, albeit in parts and pieces so Sobki didn't catch on.

How do you feel about roulette?

“What?” Chad asked with an innocent shrug. “I’m just looking! I’m not touching without permission, or anything.”

"Touching without permission will get your arms ripped off," Carmilla interjected with a glare. She hadn't seen him staring, but she'd heard his response well enough to understand the situation. She continued, "And looking without permission will get your eyes gouged out. I suggest you avoid doing either."

Agatha’s heart fluttered. Of course Barrel, gentleman that he was, would defend the ghouls from unwanted attention! And he even specified that it was for all the ghouls’ benefit, not just his sister. She wasn’t surprised, but it was just so nice to have such constant reminders of his good nature, despite the unscrupulous behavior of and disrespect he seemed to receive from his siblings. She almost had to wonder if she even deserved him. Or if he was faking some part of his good nature...

And then she saw him dancing. Oh, good. At least there was something he wasn’t great at. She couldn’t believe she had almost entertained the thought that he might be suspiciously too perfect!

She laughed at how much fun he was clearly having, and joined in the strange chaos of goofy dancing.

Carver noticed Chad’s gaze on their little group and subtly shifted their position to not only block cut-ins, but also to block the idiot’s line of sight. Luckily, Barrel gave him some helpful “direction” before Shock noticed.

Depends on what we’re betting, and how we’re playing, she responded to her friend’s silent question. And whose turn it is to be the ball, of course.

Shock slipped behind Carver in another move so she could get a longer thought out to them.

I think I can offer an incentive for our guests to play, she tapped out. Immunity from a trick tends to be a pretty good motivator. As for the ball...

Shock let Carver take her in his vines and bring her forward again. She shot a quick glance to Chad, then put her focus back on the pumpkin creature.

...I’m on a roll with the possibility.

Both of Carver’s mouths widened into feral grins.

Oh, I am absolutely in! But just in case he’s actually smart enough to leave after that, there’s something I wanna do first.

It’s your party.

Carver turned around and gave Sobki a twirl. “Anybody up for Spin the Bottle after this?”