Twumbo's Surprise

     “No, what is the event called, Typical?” the Yellow Xweetok asked eager to find out.

     “It’s called Roll for Initiative! Tabletop and Board Gaming” Typical, the Starry Xweetok answered in excitement. “I love board games. Do you and Twumbo want to enter it too?” she asked, jumping around in excitement at the thought of joining the games with other pets.

     “What games do we play and is there a competition for it?” the yellow Xweetok asked, curiously.

     “Yes, Bree. We do win prizes. We play board games like Don't Splat the Korbat as an example – that one is my favourite it’s so funny!” Typical answered, smiling to the yellow Xweetok now known as Bree. Her full name was Bree64, however, she preferred to go by Bree.

     “How do you play that game?” Bree asked. Twumbo had other ideas for the games though as he listened.

     “The Instructions are: Roll the dice to see who gets the highest - highest dice roll goes first. Move your token around the board - if your token lands on the Red Korbat’s square - then it's game over. The last player on the board is the winner. You can earn Neopoints if you land on a certain square – if you save up enough Neopoints and you land on the Red Korbat – then you can get an exemption from losing” Typical answered. She had played the game many times and loved it, and knew the instructions by heart.

     “Is that all you can do with the Neopoints in the game?” Bree said, curiously.

     “You can do other things, however, I don’t want to spoil it for you. Are you interested in joining, Twumbo? You look excited about it!” Typical said, looking at Twumbo who had a smile on his face.

     Twumbo quickly stopped smiling, looked at Typical and shook his head. “I’m not interested in the games, as I have something else on that day. But, it does sound exciting!” he answered. He couldn’t help but feel excited for the idea he came up with, with that he bid the two Xweetoks good bye and ran off.

     “Is he scared of losing?” Bree asked, looking at him in confusion.

     “I’d say he doesn't play games!” Typical suggested with a shrug.

     “When is the event on anyway, Typical?” Bree asked excitedly as the two finally made it to the Neolodge Restaurant’s Games Room.

     “In a couple weeks. Here we are – what game would you like to play?” Typical said, smiling as they made their way inside.

     The furniture in the Neolodge Game’s Room were a: Bilge Dice Game Table, several Classic Dining Table with four Checked Kitchen Chairs tucked at the Classic Dining Table and several Violet Shelf Unit, with assorted games on them.

     As they walked inside, they noticed a couple of the Classic Dining Table had four other Xweetoks sitting at them already. Two Xweetoks at the table were playing AAA Chess, while the other two were using Fyora Playing Cards.

     Bree watched in admiration as a Plushie Xweetok looked like she was about to win the game of AAA Chess against a Tyrannian Xweetok. She looked at the two Xweetoks using the Fyora Playing Cards, they were a Regal Royal Girl and a Regal Royal Boy.

     “It’s good to see Neopets we know. Acuarina versing Calaem, while Mayleigha versing SirAlik! Wonder who will win” Typical said quietly. She didn’t want to interrupt her friends while they were gaming.

     A Baby Xweetok sat in the corner of the room with two Nostalgic Baby Kougras and two Baby Cybunnies, taking turns with playing the Fiendish Formations Board Game.

     It was such a fun atmosphere much to Typical’s delight. “We’d better get the game before someone else does!” Typical reminded Bree who nodded. She turned around only to see a familiar grumpy looking Green Ogrin walk in the room with a White Gnorbu.

     “I can’t believe you talked me into this!” the grumpy Green Ogrin muttered to the White Gnorbu, who quickly ran off to Violet Shelf Unit, pulling Game of Power from it, much to Typical’s relief.

     The White Gnorbu simply grinned in reply to him and ran off to choose a table for them. Typical and Bree watched as other Neopets turned up and chose the games they wanted, a White Xweetok picked Don’t Splat the Korbat, much to Typical’s dismay. She was meaning to get it, however, was distracted by watching other Neopets playing.

     Typical quickly ran to the Violet Shelf Unit and got another game out, this one was called Mynci Board Game. Typical liked that game too, smiling, she took the game and sat with the Green Ogrin and White Gnorbu, Bree joined them.

     “Well, you did say you wanted something different to do, Cappy!” the White Gnorbu said, earning a frown from the Green Ogrin.

     “I told you not to call me that!” the Ogrin muttered, earning a cheeky grin from the White Gnorbu. The Ogrin’s full name was CaptainJethroRourke, however, he hated being called Cappy. The White Gnorbu was named SScrap.

     “Good morning, you two, how are you both? Where are the others?” Typical said smiling to CaptainJethroRourke and SScrap.

     “They’ll be a bit late, today. LilianFairweather is stopping by the Magical Bookshop on the way here with her father and MasterWerther. RoxtonAColchesters has to get a few other things for our next journey” SScrap answered.

     “Are they aware of the new event for the Neolodge’s Games Room called Roll for Initiative! Tabletop and Board Gaming?” Bree asked, concerned that her friends might not know.

     “Doubt it. We didn’t even know of it until now” CaptainJethroRourke answered, though he didn’t appear to be interested in the event.

     “Do you win some sort of prize and who is hosting it?” SScrap asked, excitedly.

     “Tyzlant the Varwolf is hosting it. Yes, however, he hasn’t told us what the prize is” Typical told him.

     “We should join in!” SSCrap said, looking at CaptainJethroRourke full of hope.

     “No thanks, we have better things to do, kid!” CaptainJethroRourke simply replied, SScrap, expected that answer.

     Soon the Neolodge Games Room was full of Neopets, chatting away and playing games together. The ones who were late arrived and got the games they wanted to play.

     Typical loved the atmosphere in the room, it felt like magic to her, seeing so many Neopets happily chatting away to their friends, or siblings. Some looked grumpy, she guessed the grumpy ones would’ve lost a game!

     Tyzlant, the Blue Varwolf walked into the Neolodge’s Games Room around 12pmnst with a smile on his face, happy to see his friends playing together.

     “Hi Tyz! Been a while, how’ve you been?” an Elderly Boy Kougra asked as he played a game of AAA Chess with a Royal Girl Kougra.

     “Hi Gazri and Stefni. I’ve been great, quiet busy organizing the prizes for this event, my Petpet and Petpetpet have gone off to play at LLeonn’s. Great to see everyone’s having fun, though I expected Twumbo to be here. Guess he’s not interested in gaming” Tyzlant answered, noticing most of his friends were there, except for the Pirate Xweetok.

     “Maybe he caught the NeoFlu?” a baby Cybunny suggested, looking up at Tyzlant.

     “That’s a possibility, Botanshi. I’ll have to check on him this afternoon when we finish” Tyzlant said, looking worried about Twumbo.

     “I wonder if the Meepits are distracting him” a Nostalgic Baby Kougra said, looking at Tyzlant.

     “I think anything could’ve happened, Oira. I bought a new game with me today, well new to this room anyway!” Tyzlant announced, many Neopets at once looked at him in excitement.

     “How do you play it?” LilianFairweather asked.

     “You roll the dice, highest goes first. When you land on certain spots, you get Neopoints for it. It’s the only game you can get rich in as there doesn't appear to be any method of removing NPs from it at least from what I worked out” Tyzlant answered as he showed her the game.

     “Wow, it sounds fun! I think we should play” RoxtonAColchesters said, smiling to LilianFairweather, and a few other Neopets.

     “How many Neopets can join in?” ProfHugoFairweather asked.

     “Four Neopets can. I will go and have a look for other games for this room too!” Tyzlant said as he gave ProfHugoFairweather the Banker Board Game. “I hope you have fun!” he added, smiling. “Let me know how it goes, I’ll be back soon!” he added, then left the room. As the room’s organizer, it was his job to ensure that the room had plenty of games and things for other Neopets to do. He also wanted to know what happened to Twumbo as he wasn’t around.

     Twumbo however, has been rather busy, plotting up his next trick for the gamers in his room with Mumbo and Wumbo.

     “I think we should hide the game pieces. Just the morning the event happens. We have to get up super early though!” Twumbo suggested excitedly.

     “Where would we hide them?” Mumbo asked, giggling at the thought of the other Neopets opening the games only to find that they are missing pieces.

     “We’ll scatter them around the Neolodge – it’ll keep them busy for a while!” Twumbo said with a chuckle. “It’s a harmless joke!” he added, smiling.

     Wumbo shook his head in disagreement. “I think we should hide the prizes instead!” he suggested.

     Twumbo looked at him in delight. “Why not both the prizes and the game pieces?” he said excitedly.

     “I love your idea, Twumbo! Let’s do that instead” Mumbo said, smiling at the thought of Tyzlant and the others looking for their lost pieces and prizes.

     Unknown to Twumbo, Tyzlant was ahead of him. He had collected his Petpet and Petpetpet from LLeonn to talk to them about it. “Rinae and Mina – we need to think about putting the games and prizes in a safe spot before the day comes. I know a certain Xweetok who would most likely do something with them to prevent us playing in the event and it’d be awful for everyone if he did what I think he’d do!” Tyzlant said as the three made their way to his Neolodge Room to get a few more games.

     “But where will we hide them? Twumbo would surely find out!” Rinae asked in concern. She liked Twumbo, but knew it was important to keep games and prizes safe too.

     “I’m not sure yet, I’ll keep an eye out on things. I might have to hide everything in the Neolodge Room’s Safety Deposit Box which is being guarded by the Cockroaches and Moaches” Tyzlant said, remembering when he last went there to put a few things away. It was a good thing they were in his Neolodge room, otherwise he’d be most certain that Twumbo would be overhearing them.

     “Should we have a special lunch order in the Neolodge Games Room for the day? We can ask our friends what they’d like and go to the Super Shop Wizard early that morning to get them” Rinae asked figuring they’d all be hungry around lunch time.

     “That’s a great idea. Let’s gather a few more games and tell the others, it doesn’t finish until 3PMNST” Tyzlant said.

     For the rest of the day, Tyzlant spend time in the Neolodge Games room until 3PMNST and informed his friends about the upcoming event – including what prizes they could win. Nearly everyone was excited. The only one who wasn’t is CaptainJethroRourke, as he lost the game against SScrap.

     “Did you end up finding Twumbo?” LilianFairweather asked, looking at Tyzlant in concern. She was worried that Twumbo would be up to his old tricks again.

     “No. But I think the day before the event, I’ll put all the games in a safe spot. Knowing him, he’d most likely try something to trick us!” Tyzlant answered, sounding worried.

     “He certainly is a prankster. He played a trick on me and I can’t believe I fell for it!” LilianFairweather said, feeling embarrassed as she thought about it.

     “What happened?” Tyzlant asked, trying to figure out what Twumbo did to LilianFairweather, however, he couldn’t work it out.

     LilianFairweather looked at him in embarrassment. “The six of us are planning a journey to go to Dacardia. CaptainJethroRourke said we’d need a map to get there, and Twumbo overheard that and he gave us the Ancient Map of Neopia, saying we’d have better luck finding Dacardia on it and there’s a shortcut to Dacardia. RoxtonAColchesters had a look at it and said it didn’t have Dacardia on it, all of us compared it to Explore Map and figured the truth that he was lying” she explained.

     Tyzlant chuckled. “Lucky you figured it out before you left – when do you plan to go to Dacardia?” he asked, wondering if she’d make it to the event.

     “We’re hoping to go a week after the Roll for Initiative Tabletop and Board Gaming event. We’ll be helping out on Dacardia for a bit before heading back home” LilianFairweather told him, feeling excited for their journey.

     “I’m so jealous! I’ll be busy training while you’re gone and running this games room” Tyzlant said, smiling at her. Soon all the Neopets left the room to do their own things.

     For the next few weeks, Tyzlant was busy organizing the prizes and buying more games for the Neolodge’s Games Room. He had visited the Neolodge Safety Deposit Box and found out they had two Cockroaches as guards there, to protect everyone’s items. He decided each night he’d store the games there and would bring them in the Neolodge’s Games Room each day. He hadn’t the time to look for Twumbo and see how he was whether he was going or not.

     Twumbo however, had been plotting more ideas for the event. “They’ll never expect it!” he said smiling to himself as he looked at Mumbo and Wumbo.

     “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Twumbo? I mean, it’s a massive prank to play on them!” Wumbo asked, looking worried.

     “Of course – what could go wrong?” Twumbo said delighted with his idea.

     Mumbo looked at him nervously when he said that. “A lot actually. What if they suspect it was you at the start?” he asked.

     “Nonsense, things will be fine! Tomorrow’s the day, we start the chaos, Mumbo and Wumbo. This was a hard to keep secret” Twumbo said – there were a few times he wanted to tell his friends what was going on, however, he managed to stay silent. Which was difficult. He had several trips to the Super Shop Wizard to get items for his plan.

     “I still don’t know why you wanted so many Strong Forever Glue, Fire Tape, Robot Stapler and more random items” Wumbo said in confusion.

     “I’m interested to know what Twumbo’s planning. Maybe that’s going to be the prizes for the event?” Mumbo suggested.

     “No, but I did have a better idea for fake prizes now you mentioned it! I’ll be back shortly!” Twumbo said with a grin. He left his room and went to the Super Shop Wizard yet again, to buy a few other items he needed to finish his plan. Smiling, he returned to his Neolodge Room in delight.

     “What are they?” Wumbo asked, noticing Twumbo held a Enormous Fake Diamond and several other items in his paws.

     “The fake prizes – not sure if Tyzlant has real prizes. But I think we should actually leave now and do it since it’s tomorrow. I’m not sure if Tyzlant plans to put the games away tonight. I’ll get my Explorer Backpack and put everything in it” Twumbo said and quickly got his Explorer Backpack which was in his Purple Wardrobe. He then put all the items he had got for his plan in the Explorer Backpack and grinned. He was so proud of himself.

     “Anything else? Did you get any cushions? I noticed the chairs didn’t have any” Wumbo said.

     “Cushions? That gives me an idea, another trip to the Super Shop Wizard, then we’ll head to the Neolodge Games Room!” Twumbo said with a big grin.

     Wumbo and Mumbo looked at one another, as they tried figuring out what Twumbo’s plans were and what cushions had to do with the items he bought. After another visit to the Super Shop Wizard to buy the items they needed, the three made their way to the Neolodge Games Room. By the time they got there, it was around 5PMNST, which is usually the time the room is empty but not locked.

     Smiling, Twumbo knocked on the door, confusing Wumbo and Mumbo. He winked at them, hoping they’d figure it out. He waited a bit and listened, however, there was no answer. He quietly turned the door handle and opened the door, looking in the room, only to notice the light was turned off and the games were put on the shelves.

     Twumbo noticed an Anubis Lamp sitting on a Classic Dining Table and turned it on. He then closed the door behind him and took the Explorer Backpack off.

     “Ready guys? Let’s get started!” Twumbo said as he pulled all the items out for his pranks and put them on the Classic Dining Table. The Pirate Xweetok happily walked over to a Violet Unit Shelf and looked at the games there. He smiled in delight to know there were so many. He took the one off the top called Don’t splat the Korbat and opened it, seeing all the pieces there. Delighted to go with his plans, the Xweetok decided to hide the pieces somewhere else in the room. He proceeded to do this with all the games.

     Twumbo then took empty game boxes and turned them upside down, he put glue on the bottom of them and placed them on the Classic Dining Tables. He did that to all the empty game packages.

     “Why did you get so many Fire Cushions?” Wumbo asked as he looked at his owner in confusion.

     “You’ll see in a second, Wumbo! I have several Whoopee Cushions too, I’ve done the Whoopee Cushion trick once before, but been a long time since I used it” Twumbo answered giggling as he remembered the last prank.

     Twumbo busied himself as he put a Whoopee Cushion on each Checked Kitchen Chair and the Fire Cushion on top of it.

     “What else do we need to do afterwards, Twumbo?” Wumbo asked. “It’s interesting because I thought Tyzlant was going to hide all this stuff the night before the event!”

     “We got to put the fake prizes on the Violet Shelf Unit then we’re done! I thought that too, it’s weird he hasn’t put everything away” Twumbo said, in confusion. He shrugged then put the fake prizes on the Violet Shelf. “That’s it, everything’s done, let’s go!” he turned off the Anubis Lamp and left the room with Mumbo and Wumbo, forgetting his Explorer Backpack…

     Tyzlant hadn’t forgotten about his plans to collect the items and put them away safely. However, the poor Varwolf caught the Neoflu and gave it to Rinae and Mina, preventing them from leaving their room for the whole day. He worried about the Neolodge Games Room and wished he could leave the room to check on it. Instead, he spent the day in his Fresh Bamboo Bed, wishing someone could stop by and give him a Warm Amber Ointment. The poor Varwolf worried about the event and it wasn’t until the next morning that someone knocked at his door, exciting him.

     “Who is it?” Tyzlant called out.

     “It’s LilianFairweather. I wanted to stop by and give you another game for the event. You sound different, are you okay?” LilianFairweather asked, sounding worried. “I’m with RoxtonAColchesters and the others!” by others she meant ProfHugoFairweather, SScrap, CaptainJethroRourke and MasterWerther.

     “Good morning, LilianFairweather! Thank you so much. I’d get up and let you in, but I've got the Neoflu. Could you please get me a Warm Amber Ointment?” Tyzlant said, curious about the game.

     “I’m sorry to hear that, Tyzlant. Yes, we’ll do that now!” LilianFairweather said then left. Moments later, she returned with the Warm Amber Ointment. “I have it, Tyzlant!” she called out after knocking on the door.

     The Varwolf got out of his Fresh Bamboo Bed and went to open the door, he smiled gently took the Warm Amber Ointment and used it, feeling much better straight away. “Thank you, again, LilianFairweather. I’ll give one to Rinae and Mina then head down to the Games Room for the event!” he said with a smile, giving her a quick hug.

     LilianFairweather smiled and hugged him back.

     Tyzlant went to get the Warm Amber Ointment for both Rinae and Mina from the Super Shop Wizard and gave it to them, once they were cured, the Varwolf made his way with LilianFairweather and the others to the Neolodge Games Room, excited for the event.

     When they arrived at the Neolodge Games Room, Tyzlant was surprised to see about thirty other Neopets outside waiting excitedly for him, including Twumbo.

     “Today’s the day and I’m so excited!” a Baby Xweetok said.

     Tyzlant smiled to her. “Good morning everyone, how are you all? Let’s go in and have fun!” he said. The Neopets cheered when he said that. Tyzlant opened the door and walked inside, chatting to his friends as he did.

     “Did you get the new Fire Cushions, Tyzlant? They are a nice touch!” Twumbo asked, knowing the truth.

     “No, but I agree! Let’s all sit down and have fun playing the games, remember, first one who finishes theirs gets the prizes!” Tyzlant announced excitedly.

     CaptainJethroRourke sat down first, and when he did, a strange sound came from the Fire Cushion, making other Neopets to look at him. Confused, the grumpy looking Ogrin looked at Tyzlant. “Chair must be broken!” he said. Twumbo badly wanted to laugh. One by one, other Neopets sat down too, all getting the strange sound, the Neopets themselves, looked at one another in confusion. Twumbo knew what was going on and burst into laughter.

     Typical chose her seat next to the Don’t Splat the Korbat game and went to pick up the box and open it, however, it was stuck tight on the table. Confused, the Xweetok took the lid off and gasped. “It’s empty!” she said in dismay. Other Neopets did the same and were surprised to see theirs was empty too.

     Tyzlant was just as confused as his friends were. “Strange, I was most certain that I put everything away!” He said, watching as Typical opened the Don’t Splat the Korbat game. “Then who took the pieces?”

     Twumbo grinned then started laughing. “I did! I hid the pieces because I wanted the day to be memorable. You’ll find them in this room” he announced. Moments later, the others found the funny side of things and laughed too, then began looking for all the pieces, which were eventually found.

     They then began playing their games, with Twumbo joining in this time and actually winning the event, winning the fake prizes that was meant to go to a different Neopet instead!

     The End.