Out of Character Ideas
by Sandra Gray
Place: The loft
Time: Tuesday, July 17, 2001, late afternoon
Everyone used with permission


Sandra looked at her fellow Knightie compatriots and sighed.  She
reflected again on what had gone on in her absence.

The mission Nick had sent her on had not proven fruitful.  And
she had returned to find that Nick wasn't even there for her to
tell him of her failure.  Instead, she had found the Spanish
vampire, Vachon, inhabiting Nick's body.  *Proof positive that
the magnetic shield doesn't work,* she had thought glumly.
While she was gone, she had nursed the idea that LaCroix had
leaped into Nick while he was not shielded.  But the switch with
Vachon had happened during the day when Nick was in the loft.

But Vachon didn't seem quite right somehow.  Not that he wasn't
charming, but she couldn't forget how he'd tried to get her to
tell him what she had discovered while she was gone at the UF
party.  Her face got hot as she remembered how close he had come
to her and those leathers...  It might have been Vachon's mind,
but it was still Nick's body.  And he knew how to work it.  Made
her glad she had hit the 48-hour whammy protection.

The bright side of things was that LaCroix was gone.  Sandra
smiled, remembering all the things the Knighties had told her
they had done to torment the master vampire after she had gone.
And no one had been harmed by him as a result!  Which was pretty
amazing actually.  Almost out of character.

Others had been working on the switching problem in her absence.
Roz had scoured newspapers and turned up interesting info.
Katrinka and some others had checked for history changes.  The
loft was being protected against the new and worrisome threat of
Divia's master, who was out to get LaCroix.  Sandra chewed on her
lip and tried to stifle the worry she felt for Nick.  He'd
actually been the one to stake Divia, after all.  She even felt
some concern for LaCroix's safety.  Now wasn't that out of
character!  *But he is family,* a small voice inside her said.

Sandra shook her head.  She had to clear her mind.  Think.  What
could they do?  What hadn't they done?  How could they get things
back to normal and get Nick back in himself to stay?

Katrinka had been reading bad fanfic by a M. Sue Scientist.
She'd read so much bad fanfic her brain had turned to mush for a
while.  Sandra had glanced at some of it herself.  "They're so
out of character," she said, not realizing she had spoken aloud.

"Who?" asked Eowyn.

"All the characters in those stories Katrinka's been reading."

Eowyn smiled.  "They are pretty bad," she agreed.

Sandra looked around.  Vachon wasn't in the room, so maybe that
meant he was still asleep.  "I know Katrinka wants to find that
M. Sue Scientist.  But Toronto is a big place."

"That's so."

"I've been thinking about that bad fanfic, though.  Suppose
Katrinka's right and it's bad fanfic that's caused all the
switches?  If we can't find the right author, how can we get
things back to normal?"

Eowyn's face took on a serious and sad expression.  "I don't
know."

Sandra got an idea.  "Maybe there is another way.  If *bad*
fanfic caused all this, maybe *good* fanfic can get things back
to normal."

"What are you getting at?" asked Eowyn.

"If we can get Nickbody to read good fanfic about Nick, maybe
Nick will be lured back to his own body."

"But wouldn't Nick in Vachon have to read good Vachon fanfic?"

"You got it.  And I've got an idea how we can do that too."

Sandra walked off in search of a computer, Eowyn following.

Outside, a storm was gathering.


to be continued in "IMPORTANT! CURE FOR SWITCHES INFORMATION"


--Sandra Gray, forever Knightie
--sandragray@rica.net