Shock stuck out her tongue at Carver, but quickly realized this meant she or Barrel - maybe both - might be a future target. Barrel groaned, though it took him a moment longer to realize it too. The hot sauce had potential to be fun. If Carver gave Lock something to retaliate with, then he'd have to be careful.

Unless...

Barrel grinned. Lock didn't know what he had, or that he got his gift first. He could always wait for Lock to make the first move, then retaliate. It gave him a small thrill just thinking about it.

Shock turned to head back to the scorpion room.

"Have fun," she said simply.

Despite knowing there was the potential for Lock to pull something against her, [i]nothing[/i] was going to bring down her good mood now that she could all but guarantee her trick would go smoothly. She sniffed the air a bit.

"...Is something burning?"

Barrel quickly noticed too. He'd been so interested in trouble that he forgot about dinner.

"My crackers!"

He quickly rushed into the kitchen to pull them out. He let out a long sigh of relief that they were salvageable. Shock cackled, but otherwise didn't antagonize him. Rotten fish stew by itself was still pretty good, but she had to admit having oyster shell crackers with it made it better. It went even better with a smidge of her little brother's misery that he'd almost ruined them.

~~~

Behemoth was at the mulch pile in the pumpkin patch with a shovel. He carefully turned it to ensure an even breakdown, and to make sure every part got good and rotten. He prided himself on his pumpkins, and good mulch was the secret.

The rhythmic motion of the shovel scraping and turning soothed him. Bugs hissed and chirped in the late afternoon air, broken up by the occasional caw of a crow.