Title: The Sweet Smell of Preparations (1/1)
Authors: Cousin Shelley, Arletta Asbury, and Cousin Tserisa
Time: Saturday Evening and Night
      Right after "The Bear went over a Glow Worm (2/2)"
Date: July 7th, 2001
Disclaimers:  All participants used with permission.  Perry
dognapped with permission of the UF.  No animals were harmed
in the writing of this post.


"Where is it?  Do you have the credit card?" Shelley sounded
frantic.  "I thought I had it in my purse but it isn't there...."

"No, you had it last, paying for food at the Fiendish Glow.  I
saw you put it in your purse, I'm positive."

"Well it hasn't been out of my sight since then ... no wait ...
when that Vampbear tried to bite me, and I spilled out my purse,
and the UF'er helped me pick up the contents....what was his
name again?  Les, I think?  He couldn't have, could he?"

"Couldn't have what?"

"Stolen it?  Not that quickly ... that's impossible .. isn't it?
... Is it?  What'll we do?  We NEED that card!  Aaarrrrgggghhhh!"

"Asking them isn't gonna help?" Arletta said forlornly, her
Light Cousinly nature showing.

"No we're just gonna ... gonna attack them and get something
they value so we can ransom it back," Shelley said defiantly.

---------------------------------

Tser seemed enthused as Shelley and Arletta expressed their
intention to attack the UF.  Something about this War seemed
Uber-Stressful to her, an urgency and confusion she hadn't
experienced since that RitSTC hit a few Wars ago.  She was loathe
to start another George fight, so attacking some hapless
faction seemed like a good alternative stress release.

"I have an idea!" she said.  "I caught them myself with
Hav-a-Hart traps and a pb-molasses bait up at my place in
the mountains.  I brought them along for the War and I'm sure
they wouldn't mind helping us out.  Two striped beauties and
one spotted one! They're soooo cute."  Tser's face was spread
with a goofy grin, but then she looked seriously at the other
Cousins.  "Of course, remember I'm very strict about 'No
hurting animals!'  It's my motto."

"Doesn't Perry, the vampire dog, hang out with the UF'ers
sometimes?" Arletta asked. "Could we kidnap him, if we treated
him well while he was with us?"

Tser's eyes lit up.  She loved the idea of getting to visit
with the floofy canine.  "I don't see why not!"  She looked
thoughtful.  "Maybe we should leave them a note if we do... I
mean, I know it's an attack, but I would be terribly upset
if one of my animals went missing."  [Which seems to
happen every War, she mentally made note.]

"What's going on?" asked Deborah, rounding a corner.

"We're attacking the UF," Shelley answered.  "They stole my,
uhhhh...his.....ummmmmm, the credit....ummmmmm....they stole
*something* from me," Shelley stammered out, realizing slightly
too late that Tser was standing there.  She didn't think the
Cousinly leader would take too kindly to the knowledge that
they had been using LaCroix's Visa to finance all their
research at Toronto's finest (and not-so finest) restaurants.

Tser gave Shelley a strange look.  The Cousin was looking slightly
too nervous and Arletta had broken out into a cold sweat.  They
were obviously hiding something.  But what?  Tser finally shrugged.
Half the fun of War was getting into trouble, and Cousins were
known for their uncanny ability to do just that.  Tser was pretty
good at it herself.

Deborah was completely unaware of the nervous Shelley and the
suspicious Tser.  "Can I help out?  I speak Spanish and French,
and I can draw pretty well!"

Shelley looked thoughtful for a moment.  "Can you do murals?"

---------++++++++*********++++++++---------

Rhonda and Brandi approached their first store on the list of
errands they needed to accomplish.  It was getting late on Saturday
night, and they were beginning to worry the stores would be
closing soon.

"Is this the place?" asked Brandi.

"I think so," replied Rhonda, squinting at a scrap of paper with
an address scrawled on it.

"Okay, we need 6 Hazmat suits, rented for 24 hours.  Make sure
they can handle,  uhhhh ... strong smells.  Can you take care of
that, and I'll hit the paint store to save time?"

"Sure, Brandi," Rhonda answered, and headed inside 'Hazmat's R Us'.

 ---------++++++++*********++++++++---------