“Diane!  Turn it up, please. I want to be able to
hear Nicole’s and Andrea’s chunks of flesh hit the
ground,” Lisa said.
     “She’s way too good at this. Are you sure you’ve
never played before?”  Nicole asked.
     “I killed her!” Diane shouted happily.
     “Hey! Who was that?” Andrea wailed.
     “Me,” Lisa smiled. “You just ate my rocket.”
     “NO!” yelled Nicole. “I had the BFG, too. That’s
not fair!”
     “What isn’t fair is you pushed restart before I
had a chance to dance all over your decimated corpse,”
Diane replied.
     “Look at all that blood. That can’t possibly be
rated PG,” Jenieve said.
     “No- I’m pretty sure it’s an M,” Desiree
answered, trying to peek at the little gray rectangle
without getting in front of the screen.
     “And what are we playing to, girls?” Lisa asked
as machinegun fire rang out.
     “Ten,” came the disgusted reply as the other
three dropped their controllers in defeat.

     The game over,  Kezia asked, “Everyone ready for
a little brainstorming session?”
     “About what’s causing the switches?” Sunny asked.

     “Can we eat while we brainstorm?” Nicole asked.
“I’m hungry.”
     “Me, too,” was the general reply.
     Andrea and Diane volunteered to bring out some
snacks from the well-stocked kitchen.
     “All right, everyone. The point of this session
is to just throw out ideas, no matter how strange they
might sound. It could give us a thought on something
else. Agreed?” Kezia asked?
     The cousins of the knight agreed.
     “Hole in the ozone?”
      “Cloning?”
      “Microwaves…”
      “You really think Screed has a microwave?”
Jenieve asked.
      “He could have used one at the Raven… maybe?”
Andrea defended her thought.
      “No suggestions are too crazy, remember
everyone?” Kezia reminded them.
      There was silence for a while and then Nicole
said ominously,”*They* did it.”
      “They?” Sunny asked.
      “Yes,” Nicole replied. “As in *they* ran out of
nachos at the movie theater. *They* cancelled my
favorite TV show. *They* are still trying to find a
way to relate this whole thing to the premise.”
      Seven pairs of eyes looked at her wearily.
     Then Lisa spoke up. “Yes, but ‘they’ in all of
those instances, can be traced back to specific groups
or individuals. We could hunt down the ‘theys’ in
those cases and..”
     “Kill them?” Nicole interrupted.
     “Careful, you two,” Sunny said. “Your togas are
showing.”
     “ha ha ha,” Lisa replied.
     Nicole stuck out her tongue.
     “What if something happened that was so terribly
traumatic that their own personalities couldn’t deal
with it and ended up switching bodies?” Desiree
suggested.
     “It would have to be something really bad to get
LaCroix to leave his house after over two thousand
years,” Kezia  mused.
     “No one has mentioned the personality fairy, a
voo doo curse, the tellytubbies or ghosts yet,” Andrea
offered.
     A round of giggles erupted at that.
     “What exactly are the tubbies?” Jenieve asked.
“Does anyone know?”
     “I think they’re aliens,” Diane answered.
      “That’s it!” Sunny said excitedly. “Invader
robots from outer space!”
      Several pillows from the couch were thrown in
her general direction, which she wisely kept.
      “Has anyone checked the weather reports to see
if there’s a possibility of it being some sort of
natural phenomenon?” Lisa asked.
     “Not yet- but I’d be happy to,” Diane
volunteered, jumping up.
     “Me too,” Sunny and Desiree volunteered. They
headed off cheerfully towards the computer room.
     “What do you want to bet, that they’re not just
checking the weather?” Kezia asked.
     “Maybe you see how they’re doing in a little bit?
Offer to help them?” Lisa suggested.
     “Let them have some fun for now,” Nicole said.
“We have all certainly earned some rest and
relaxation.”
 
 

       Later that night….

     After tossing and turning for half an hour, Lisa
headed back to the living room.  She was just about to
put on a tape of Be My Valentine, when Nicole joined
her.
     “Can’t sleep either?” she asked.
     “It sounds like Riverdance up there.” Lisa
complained.
     The tape went in, the volume on the TV turned
down low.
     “It would be just awful, wouldn’t it?” Nicole
asked. “I mean, what do you suppose *they* think is
causing it?”
     “They, as in LaCroix, Natalie, Nick, etcetera,
they?”
     “Yes.”
      The two watched the screen in silence for a
moment and then Lisa said, “Well… Nick won’t have a
clue, but is most likely blaming himself.”
     “Hey! I heard that!”
     “Me, too!” came the voices of Sunny and Desiree
as the sometimes knighties joined the others in the
living room.
     “Oooh- Be My Valentine.  Shall I make popcorn?”
Desiree offered.
     “I think this is more of a strawberries and
champagne episode.” Nicole said.
     “Ignore her, Desiree- popcorn would be great.”
Lisa responded. “We are saving those!”
     “Hey! Who forgot to invite me to this pajama
party?” Diane asked flopping onto the couch.
     “I don’t know- but someone better go get Jenieve,
Kezia and Andrea, or they’ll never forgive us.” Sunny
mentioned.
    “Forgive you for what?” Kezia asked, entering the
living room with Jenieve and Andrea in tow.
     “For not asking your opinion on a couple of
things.” Lisa said. “We were talking about what Nick,
Nat, and the others must think about what’s going on
with the switches.”
    “Natalie wouldn’t know, but is probably working on
a medical cure for it.” Diane mused.
    “Janette will probably leave for a while, and come
back cured of the switching ailment, but the cure will
only work for her.” Jenieve suggested.
    The cousins of the knight were beginning to share
amused glances, as the thoughts went on.
    “Vachon?” Nicole asked the group.
    “Switches? (blink blink) There are switches going
on?” Lisa said in her best imitation of the Spaniard.
    Several pillows were thrown her way amidst the
laughter.
    “What about Tracy?” Sunny asked.
    “She won’t know either, but will be convinced that
if we just keep a chipper attitude and work hard
enough the answer will surely come to us. And in the
meantime, does anyone want a cupcake? She baked them
herself.” Andrea joked.
     More laughter filled the comfy cottage.
     “Schanke?”
     “Well, first he’d seek consolation in souvlaki,
and then he’d consult his horoscope or call the
psychic friends hotline.” Desiree suggested.
     “I’ve always wanted to try that,” Nicole said.
     “Souvlaki? Don’t- it’s terrible,” Jenieve
informed her.
     “No- the psychic friends…”
      “I’ll be your psychic friend if you pay me $3.99
a minute,” Diane offered.
      Nicole threw a pillow at her.
     “All right- no one has mentioned *him* yet.
Afraid of retaliation, cousins?” Sunny asked.
     Kezia, Lisa, and Nicole looked at each other.
    Lisa began, “ Well, after discovering the only
thing that is truly permanent isn’t actually himself
any longer, he would probably begin broadcasting some
pretty disturbing stuff from Cerk.”
   “Ooh!! I’ve got it. Hold on one minute!” Nicole
shrieked running back to the bedroom and returning
with a little notebook.
   Lisa covered her eyes with one hand and sighed.
    “What is evil, but good tortured by it’s own
hunger and thirst? For when good is hungry it seeks
food even in dark caves and when it thirsts, it drinks
even of dead waters. You are good when you are one
with yourself….or so says Gibran. And if that holds
true, then I suspect some of us have been very, very
evil….” Nicole finished in her best Nightcrawler
voice.
    “Not bad,” came the reply along with a few cheers.
     “But not a very likely source to draw on for a
Nightcrawler broadcast.” Lisa laughed.
     “Yeah, and then he’d stalk Nicholas for another
eight hundred years to see what he knows about the
switches.” Kezia added.
     “The guy needs a life,” Sunny said.
     Three pillows were promptly launched her way.
    An hour and a popcorn war later, everyone headed
back to bed.
    On the way upstairs, Desiree said, “Hey- we forgot
about Screed. What do you think his take is on all of
this?”
     “He might very well know the answer to all of
this, but no one would be able to understand him,”
Andrea answered.
    "Whaddya mean,
> ma'ey?  I'll 'ave yers know dat no' only is I
Inglish, but me la'e
> fahver (Gaw' bless 'is soul) was a gen-yu-whine
Cockney, 'e were,
> born'n'bre' wivin' the sahnd a Bow Be(ll)s!  Fack o'
the ma'er is, I
> unnerstans ahr Screed be'er 'un I unnerstans them
thar RatPackers
> sumtimes,” Kezia’s voice came wafting down the
stairs.
 

          And still later that night….

    “Lisa, you asleep?” Nicole asked her roommate.
    “Not exactly,” Lisa said sleepily. “What’s up?”
     “Do you think the other factions have any answers
yet?”
     “Probably as much as we do, which is nil. You
know how it goes:  The Ravenettes are convinced the
answer to the switches must have something to do with
raiding Goths R Us, shopping and throwing parties.
The Ratpackers think the answer must surely lie in the
tunnels, or in something bright and shiny.”
    “And the N&N Packers would think the whole thing
has been caused by the defect in Nick and Nat’s
relationship, and if they’d just get together, then
everyone could live happily ever after..” Nicole
added.
   “You got it. The Vaq’s wouldn’t care too much-
unless Vachon’s hairstyle was threatened.”
   “What about the Mercs?”
   “If I thought they were capable of it, I’d suspect
them of instigating the switches to start a war in the
first place. You know how they love wartime profit.”
   “Can you hire a Merc to spy on another Merc?”
   “Hmmm, maybe. I don’t know.”
    “And what about the Cousins?”
    “Maybe suspect that Divia is back?”
    “Ahhhhhh!! No! No. No. Can’t see you, can’t hear
you…. Lalalalalala,” Nicole stopped her ears and
closed her eyes at the mention of the name.
     Lisa grinned.
     Nicole cautiously unplugged one ear.
     “Divia,Divia,Divia!!!” Lisa chanted.