Title: Spicing Up the Blood (1/1)
Authors:  Cousin Shelley and Arletta Asbury
Faction:  Cousins
Date: July 14th, 2001
Time: Noonish
Disclaimers:  All participants used with permission.



"I've got it!," Shelley said excitedly. The blonde Cousin had spent most
of the night searching the Internet after their return from the Happy
Souvlaki Deli. "Asafetida is BOTH a spice and used medicinally."

"Really?" Arletta asked, surprised.  Of the pair she at least had
heard of the spice before their attack had proved that it was the
only ingredient of Tofu Souvlaki which contained the all-important
Vitamin U. "What does it cure?"

"It's used as a remedy for several different things in folk medicine,
but listen to this, among them are hysteria, nervous disorders,
epilepsy, and mood swings."

"And personality switching?" Arletta grinned.

"Let's show this to the leaders."

As Shelley spoke, her computer suddenly began acting oddly.  First,
the screen turned an odd shade of purple and green, reminding her
of the way they had left the Happy Souvlaki Deli's kitchen.  Then,
without warning, *hamsters* appeared.  Dancing hamsters.  With
obnoxious music.

"EEEEEEwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!  This is worse than plaid," Shelley whined.

"*Nothing* is worse than plaid," Arletta disagreed.  "Although those
dancing things on the screen are pretty bad.  Shut them off, okay?"

Shelley tapped some keys and looked at the screen.  The hamsters
danced, as happy as ever.  Hunching over, she frantically pounded
on the keyboard trying every command she knew (and a few she was
making up as she went along).  The hamsters danced on.  Shelley, in
a fit of frustration, banged on the monitor.  Dance, dance, dance.

"They won't stop ... I can't get this darn new computer to do *anything*
but show dancing hamsters!" Shelley sobbed.

"Let's go to Tok's office and show her the printouts," Arletta offered.
"It will get us away from those *dancing rodents* and we can tell her
what we found on the asafetida."


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

"I don't understand," Tok said, after reading the pages Shelley had
printed from the Internet.

"Don't you see, this list is *very* similar to what a Vitamin U
deficiency causes.  That must be WHY asafetida is a remedy for
all those ailments. It's because of all the Vitamin U it contains."

"So?" Tok asked.

"Asafetida has a lot of vitamin U, it's really very concentrated.
Only a pinch of it contains several times what's contained
in a dozen tofu souvlakis. That's why Lacroix only needs to consume
a small amount of asafetida and he'll be getting much *more* of the
vitamin than from eating the deli's tofu souvlakis.

Tok shuddered, "you want Lacroix to eat MORE mortal food?  I don't
want to think about what he's going to say or DO to you, if you
suggest that."

"No," Arletta chimed in.  "It's a powder and can be added to
his 'private stock'.  Uh ... there's just one drawback, though."

"Are you saying he shouldn't? I thought you agreed with Shelley
about this?" Tok asked, confused by Arletta's comment.

"Oh, I do agree that this is the best way of getting more Vitamin U
into him."

"Are you saying that it's not needed?  I don't want to put him
thru any more nonsense.  This war has been particularly hard
on his ... er ... digestive system.  He believes that the
Knighties fed him something equally noxious."

"That's all the more reason to use asafetida.  Look we *think*
it delayed switching last time.  But he just didn't eat enough
of the stuff.  This way we *believe* that he CAN eat enough of
it.  It's just that ...."

"What?"

"It smells awful," Shelley interjected. "Sorta like really old
onions or garlic."

"GARLIC!" Tok nearly shouted. "You know he can't ...."

"NO, No," Arletta quickly added. "It's not garlic. It's not
even closely related to that plant.  It's just that it
smells a little ... well ... a lot like it."

"It should be perfectly safe," Shelley added. "It's just that
... well it ...."

"It's gonna *ruin* the taste of his normal beverages.  It has
a sorta onion-like flavor.  That's how the spice is used
sometimes, as a substitute for onions. And ... um ... it's so
strong that we can only add a small quantity to each bottle."

"He might get to like the oniony flavor ... after a while,"
Shelley added hopefully.

"And how much of this does he need?"

"We don't really know how much it'll take to stop the switching.
We HOPE it won't be more than a jar of it, added to several
bottles of blood."

"How many bottles?"

"Figuring about 1/8 teaspoon per bottle ... uh ... about 50."