((Rolling for fun with Rej's permission to see where they would have ended up!))
Character name: Blarney
Competing for: Aruna
Cooperating with: Edam
Points earned: 2+1+5+1 = 9/2 = 4.5 = 5 (rounded up) + 1 = 6 = 2 points
Blarney twirled the stick over his fingers, watching his sister stare thoughtfully down at the pile of silver whistles. "You don't need one of those," Blarney said, with an air of knowing that bordered on condescension. Normally, he knew, his sister would've strongly objected to such a tone, but he could almost feel her gears turning too loudly to hear his tone, let alone tell him to shush it up.
"You really don't," he continued, "since I've met Pal before."
This, at least, did seem to get through to her, and she turned to look at him. "What?"
"I said I've met Pal before. She
loves a stick," Blarney said, very confident in his memory of how excited Pal had been, after fighting the demon chicken during StarFest, to chase after the stick he'd tossed for her. "The whistle might just confuse her. She got a lotta heads, I don't know how many ears she has on top of them, but one of these little things is enough to rattle a regular dog, I'd think, right?"
Edam was looking at him, thoughtful and maybe a little bit impressed. He felt his chest puff up a little, in spite of himself, for feeling that he not only knew what he was talking about, but that his sister
knew he knew what he was talking about.
"When did you meet Pal?" Edam asked, and Blarney grinned in response, but shook his head.
"That's a long story, and one for a different day. Or at least - later in the day," Blarney said. "'Cause right now, we have a Pal to catch, and I know just the way to do it."
He hoped. He really hoped that he'd not overstated how much Pal loved a stick; that had been a very different scenario. That had been a fun afternoon romp, from Pal's point of view. It had just been him, Joy and the dang chicken. This was - this was everybody and their mother in town, with Pal the center of everyone's attention.
Pal would love it, certainly. There might finally be enough hands for each of Pal's heads to get the pets she so richly deserved, if Joy was to believed. Blarney could only hope that between him and Edam, they could herd Pal or play Pal or something Pal and get close enough to get what they needed. Maybe nobody else would just - ask politely? Offer a fair trade, sticks for rings?
Somehow, Blarney very much doubted it, or else nobody would be traipsing through the woods trying to flag her down. It wouldn't be much of a 'questing beast' if the entire 'quest' was saying please and thank you. Truthfully, beyond the stick, Blarney didn't really have an idea of how to encourage or induce Pal and the rings she carried to head in their direction.
"Okay," Edam said after another moment of quiet consideration. She disregarded the whistles and grabbed up another stick instead. "Twinning where we can makes more sense anyway," she said with a shrug, and Blarney grinned.
"Twinning~" Blarney agreed, batting his stick against hers briefly, just hard enough to make a little
tap noise. Blarney was prepared to leave it at that, but as they began to walk into the forest, Edam caught his arm.
Character name: Edam
Competing for: Herself
Cooperating with: Blarney
Points earned: 2+1+5+1 = 9/2 = 4.5 = 5 (rounded up) + 1 = 6 = 2 points
"Give me your stick," Edam said, a slow smile on her face. "Just--trust me. Let me see that," Edam said, holding her hand out for Blarney's stick, which he handed over, brow furrowed slightly in consternation.
"We can be our own whistles," Edam said, and wet her lips before she began to whistle a familiar tune, one she and Blarney had made up when they were tiny, and had been singing or humming or whistling to each other their entire lives. Blarney joined in, the tune immediately putting a spring in his step. It was a joyful little sound, and it had always been just that - a happy little melody.
Edam glanced at her brother out of the corner of her eye when she began to add percussion, by way of two sticks tapping together. Edam smirked around her whistle when Blarney lost a note from surprise, but he caught up quickly, delight clear on his face. Between the whistling and the stick-clanging, they were sure to get Pal's attention and, if all went well, keep it long enough to snatch a ring or two.
Their plan may have worked better in theory than in practice, especially with the sounds of all the rest of the party cavorting through the woods in search of the same prize. It took the better part of an hour, but they did, finally, spot Pal, in all her multi-headed glory.
"I'm going to throw you your stick," Edam whispered. "I'll go around that-a-ways, you go around this-a-ways, I'll toss your stick and she'll follow the stick to you, you grab the ring, then throw the stick back--or I can whistle, maybe, we'll see in the moment--and I'll grab mine. Sound good?"
It seemed to sound as good as any other plan they had--which was to say, no plan, and any plan is better than no plan at all.
Edam watched Blarney trip around to his appointed spot, and a beat later, Edam began to move, whisper-silent, to her spot on the other side of Pal. It was kind of unnerving - with so many eyes, Edamn couldn't quite tell if Pal was watching her--them--or not. She didn't want to spook the creature, so she emerged slowly, straightening up into the light so that some or all of Pal's attention would be pulled her way.
"Here girl," Edam said, hoping her voice sounded more playful and fun than just this side of terrified, which was how she felt. Edam wiggled the stick, and at least some of Pal's attention followed it. "Heeeere girl, want the stick? Want the stick?" Just as Pal was beginning to take a step in Edam's direction, Edam
chucked the stick as far as she could, in the direction of where she'd sent Blarney.
Pal ran after the stick, and Edam crossed her fingers in the hope that it found Blarney. A second or two later, Edam was startled to see the stick come wheeling back to her, followed closely by a pink, multiheaded nightmare, and she had to remind herself not to run
away, but rather
toward Pal, and she did just at the right time, just soon enough to snatch a gold ring off Pal's collar.
Edam threw both sticks for her, one after the other, and Pal took off with a happy, echoing woof as the twins reunited. "Didja get one?"
"Barely," Blarney said, twirling the ring over his fingers. "You?" Edam nodded and held up her own, and the two of them beamed at each other.
"Mission accomplished," she said, and gave her brother a high-five, then a wicked grin. "So! What's next?"
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