Title: Money From Wolbats
Summary: The White Falls Wolfbats find a new way to amuse themselves using their prize money. Completely random and pretty much OOC all around.
This came from watching Money From Strangers last night on MTV. If you're not familiar with the game, you'll learn the rules as you read. We started off watching it like we always do, then started making up challenges as we watched, which then evolved into Legend of Korra challenges, which eventually wound up into this. I can't imagine all this technology exists in Republic City, but it's required I'm afraid. I'm open for character requests, though I will say I'm not sure Mako will be tricked into doing this, OOC or not!
Chapter 1: Bolin
The streets of Republic City were bustling, and yet Tahno still could not find the right person. He had been on the streets for nearly a half hour, mostly due to what Ming had suggested the night before. "Tahno can convince anyone to go along with this," Ming had said as the three members of the White Falls Wolfbats sat around the apartment they shared. "He's a people person."
Tahno frowned at the passersby, ready to head back to the Satomobile Ming was driving and make him look for someone to try their new game.
Just as he was ready to give up, his eyes fell on a familiar sight. Walking by, his pet fire ferret perched on his shoulder, was Bolin, the earthbender for the professional bending team, the Fire Ferrets. "Bolin!" Tahno shouted, startling the earthbender. When he glanced at Tahno, the former waterbender jerked his head and said, "Come here a second."
"What do you want, Tahno?" Bolin asked, narrowing his eyes, but approaching Tahno anyway.
"Just offering you the chance to make up to a thousand yuans."
Bolin's green eyes widened, then they narrowed again. "This isn't going to be anything sexual is it?"
Tahno let out a short laugh. "You'd never be that lucky. All joking aside, this is one hundred percent serious. It'll take maybe fifteen minutes of your time. All you have to do is complete twelve small tasks."
Bolin thought about it for a moment or two. A thousand yuans would be great, but this was Tahno after all. Korra felt he had changed since losing his bending, but Bolin was still unsure. Finally he decided that he had nothing to lose and followed Tahno back to the Satomobile.
Pabu chittered angrily as the three Wolfbats descended on his owner, but none of them hurt him. Instead they fitted him with a small camera and an ear piece.
"What we're going to do," Shaozu said as he fiddled with the ear piece, "is put this in your ear. You're going to go into Narook's Seaweed Noodlery and do as we say."
"We've already had cameras installed in the restaurant as well, so we can be sure you're doing what we're telling you," Ming said as Bolin nodded absently. "There are three rounds. The first round consists of eight tasks, each worth fifty yuans. The second round consists of three tasks, worth one hundred yuans each, and finally the speed round, which is worth a whopping three hundred yuans."
"You guys are serious, aren't you?"
Tahno only shrugged and said, "Ming thinks this will cheer us up."
When Bolin was ready to go into the restaurant, he suddenly turned back to the three former benders and asked, "What about Pabu?"
"He can stay with us," Tahno said as he slid into the backseat of the automobile. "Provided he doesn't bite, of course." He then popped his head out the door of the car and added, "If they call the cops, we don't know you."
Bolin's eyes widened to green discs but Ming and Shaozu only laughed. "We'll handle the police if they come. Now go inside."
Bolin looked back once, just in time to see Pabu climb on Tahno's head and sniff at his hair. Tahno made a shooing gesture, so Bolin entered the noodlery.
Once inside, he jumped slightly as he heard Tahno's voice in his ear. "For fifty yuans, go order the soup of the day."
Bolin smiled. If all the tasks were like this, then he'd have one thousand yuans to the good in no time! After ordering his soup, a delicious seaweed concoction, Ming told him to sit down. Once he did, he heard Shaozu's voice this time, ordering to eat the soup with his face.
When Bolin hesitated, Ming reminded him it was for another fifty yuans. Nervously, the pro-bender ducked his face into the soup and began to slurp it up loudly. In his ear he heard an unfamiliar noise, which happened to be Tahno covering the microphone attached to the piece as he howled with laughter.
"Bolin, that woman sitting next to you is looking at you funny. The one to your right. Look up at her and ask if you have something on your face."
Bolin looked up at the woman, flashed her his best smile and asked, "Excuse me, do I have something on my face?"
The woman covered her mouth and giggled. "Other than a seaweed mustache, nothing at all." She then rose to her feet and left the restaurant, still giggling.
"Nice job, Bolin," Ming said in his ear. "You're up to one hundred and fifty yuans. For another fifty, stick your fingers in the remains of your dish and start flicking it at people while yelling 'Look at me, I'm bending soup!'"
Bolin, trying to hide his own laughter, stuck his fingers in his soup and began to flick it at the tables nearby. "Look at me, I'm a soup bender!"
In the Satomobile, Tahno had his head between his knees, his cheeks red with laughter. "I'm about to die here," he said, gasping. "Is he still doing it?"
In response, he could hear Bolin shouting "Soup bending mastah!" as he continued.
Swallowing his giggles, he took the microphone and said, in a tiny voice, "OK, Bolin. Enough soup bending. For this next part, I want you to go over to where we usually sit. You know where that is, right?"
"Obviously," Bolin muttered to himself as he got to his feet.
"Now pretend to be Tahno!" Ming said, tears of laughter running down his cheeks.
"He's not going to hurt me for this, is he?" Bolin whispered.
"No, of course not."
Reassured, the earthbender flopped down at the table and kicked his feet up. He toyed with his hair, trying to get his to look remotely like Tahno's, but failed due to his hair just not being long enough.
"Good enough," Tahno said, "worth another fifty, at least. Now, to bring yourself up to three hundred yuans, order yourself another bowl of soup."
Bolin raised his hand and snapped his fingers. "Another bowl of soup," he called across the restaurant. He received a few looks, but a man did carry a bowl of soup over to him.
"When he sits it down," Shaozu said, "kick it off the table and say 'Look what you did to my soup!' as loud and angry as you can manage it."
As soon as the bowl was set in front of him, Bolin moved his feet, knocking the bowl of soup and noodles to the floor. "Look what you did to my soup!" Bolin shouted, startling two young women who were dining at the table next to him.
"With all due respect, you knocked it over," the man insisted.
"Pretend to fall asleep now!"
Bolin stared at the man as though he was ready to yell at him, then suddenly his head drooped back and he let out a loud snore.
The bringer of soup stared at Bolin before shaking his head and walking back to the kitchen. "Wake up," Tahno said when he was sure Bolin was alone at their table, "you know, do the yawn and stretch thing. It's time for round two!"
Bolin yawned, stood up, stretched, and for good measure added, "Man that was a nice nap!"
"For your first one hundred yuan assignment, go behind the counter. Grab the first two dishes you see and slather them under your arms, then ask three different people which one works better as deodorant."
Bolin got up from the table and casually made his way behind the counter. Right in front of him was a dish of roasted arctic hen and a plate loaded with slimy squid. He took the hen and rubbed it under his left arm while taking the squid and rubbing it under his right. The first person he saw, a small girl of about six, was right behind him when he turned around.
"What are you doing, mister?" she asked.
Bolin held his arms over his head and asked, "Which one smells better, the hen or the squid?"
The girl broke out into peals of laughter. "The hen!" she giggled.
Back in the Satomobile, Tahno's face was pressed against Ming's shoulder as he shook with silent laughter. Ming was biting his hand in order to keep the laughter in. Shaozu's head was thrown back, his laughter waking the fire ferret, Pabu having curled up in Tahno's lap for a nap.
The Wolfbats managed to cease their laughter, but when Bolin went up to an older woman and asked the same question, they helplessly began to laugh again. She too, said the hen. He also asked a young, formally dressed man what he thought.
"The hen, friend. No one wants to smell like squid, not even the squids themselves."
Between bits of laughter, Tahno took the microphone and said, "For another hundred, convince someone to put on that polar bear dog skin and hunt them around the restaurant."
Bolin took the skin off the wall and went up to a pretty girl about his age. He smiled at her and said, "Hey, would you do me a favor? I'm practicing for a play. I'm the hunter and I need someone to pretend to be this polar bear dog."
"Um..." she looked around nervously. Since she was alone, she gingerly took the skin and draped it over her shoulders. "OK, but only if you're sure it won't get us in trouble."
"I promise it won't."
She dropped to her hands and knees and began to crawl around on the floor, making realistic sounding growls and barks. Bolin grabbed a boomerang off the wall and leaped at her, shouting, "Take this, you beast!" he shouted. With one swipe of her "paws", the young woman knocked Bolin down.
"Argh," Bolin groaned. "It got me!" He stayed on the floor pretending to be dead for a minute or so, before getting up and bowing to the young woman. "Thank you very much!"
"My pleasure," she said, getting to her feet, her cheeks pink. She returned the skin to the wall before sitting back down to her meal, acting as though nothing had happened.
"One last one hundred yuan task before the speed round, Bolin. You're doing great! Convince one person that they need a beard, then give them a noodle beard." Shaozu then passed the microphone to Tahno.
"Once you're doing with that," Tahno said, "Slap them and ask, 'How does that feel, noodle beard?'"
Bolin sat down at a table that several teen boys had just occupied. He looked at the one on his left, a dark skinned kid who looked no older than fourteen and said, "Hey, how about you get a beard?"
"How about you mind your business, weirdo?" the kid said. "We just want to eat."
"OK, just a suggestion." Bolin then moved over to a solitary diner, a man a few years older than him. To his happiness, the man had a full bowl of noodles.
"Hey, how about you grow a beard?" Bolin suggested. "I can show you how one would look on you."
"What are you talking about?" the man asked, looking up from the newspaper in his hand.
"Here, let me show you..." Bolin grabbed a handful of the man's food and smeared it on his chin. The man looked embarrassed. That embarrassment soon became horror as Bolin slapped him and shouted, "How does that feel, noodle beard?"
He rose to his feet, tossed his newspaper on the floor, and left the restaurant, shouting that he would never return as he went through the door.
"Speed round, Bolin, speed round!" came Ming's voice from his ear. "Go into the kitchen, sample a bite from twelve different dishes, then run out the door screaming 'The food tastes like fish!' after you've done that. You only have thirty seconds to do it!"
Bolin ran into the kitchen and started snacking on every finished dish he saw. In his ear, he heard the Wolfbats counting how many dishes he had sampled.
"Six... Seven... Eight... Nine... Ten... Eleven... TWELVE! Now out the door, Bolin, out the door!"
Arms thrown over his head, Bolin ran for the door, screaming, "The food tastes like fish! Oh my God, the food tastes like fiiiiish!" as he did. At the door he stumbled, but dashed out, still screaming.
By the time he met up with the Wolfbats, he was no longer screaming, but instead chuckling to himself. Pabu, upon seeing him, jumped from Tahno's shoulder to Bolin's, chittering happily as he did. Tahno, his cheeks still red from laughter, counted out Bolin's money and handed it to him.
Bolin accepted it with a smile. "I am never going to be allowed in there again," he said sadly, though he was still smiling.
"Don't worry, we'll handle it," Ming said.
"Tell your friends," Shaozu said with a wink. "The Wolfbats are giving out cash."
"Oh, I will. Come on, Pabu. Let's get you a new collar."