The next morning, before she did anything else, Lucca checked the Entity's website. The results of last night's vote were up, and the plans section had some new information.

"The new roommates seem to have real chemistry this time. Crono was falling for Marle, but will he develop a fondness for Schala with the two of them sharing a room? Ayla and Ozzie is even more of a long shot than Ayla and Frog. Don't expect any romance, but a good fight is bound to happen sooner or later. I think I really hit the jackpot with Magus and Lucca, though."

"NO! I hate you, Entity. I just hate you."

"Lucca's fascination with Magus, revealed by the hologram of Magus that comforted her to sleep a few nights ago, combined with Magus's admission he liked Lucca during the drinking game yesterday..."

Lucca stopped reading right there. Magus? Liked her? Eww. Why, besides her huge intellectual genius, caring personality, and unique, yet strangely attractive, appearance would Magus like her? Come to think of it, she could see why a man would fall for her, but Magus? She was ten years younger than him! It was just wrong, because... Well, she didn't quite know why it was wrong, but it was. She wasn't going to let herself like him. Because if she did...

Then the Entity would win, because he was right about them. Lucca wasn't about to let that happen. She'd have to act like she loved someone else, at least in front of the camera. But who? Crono would do. She'd act like a, um, Marle around Crono while she was sure the Entity was watching to try and fool him. The Entity would be sorry he ever messed with Lucca the Great.

After a mediocre breakfast of sliced cactus courtesy of Crono, Marle stood up on a chair. Ayla did the same thing, then jumped off when she spotted something shiny in the corner of the room. Marle spread her arms out, then began talking. "I have an idea! Some of us haven't been getting along too well, so I think we should all play a game together," said Marle enthusiastically.

"We're not five," said Magus.

"We're not gonna play little kid games. We're gonna play... grown-up games."

Jimmy was just dying to edit in that sound clip out of context somewhere.

"Like what?" asked Frog, thinking of yesterday's drinking contest.

"You know, Truth or Dare, Spin the Bottle, that type of thing."

"We're not twelve, either," said Lucca, rolling her eyes.

"Come on!" cried Marle. "I'll give everyone jerky!"

And soon everyone was gathered around in a circle on the floor, read to play Truth or Dare, Spin the Bottle, Duck Duck Goose, or whatever they had to play to get free jerky.

"Okay," said Marle, "we'll play truth or dare. I'll start off by asking Lucca. Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

Marle giggled. "I dare you to sit on Robo's lap!"

Lucca walked over and sat on Robo's legs like it was nothing, then sighed. "I hope that was just a warm up. If everything's as tame as that, this is going to get boring really quick. Hmm... Okay, I chose Magus. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Have you ever kissed a woman?"

"Not including my mother or sister, no."

Not really caring what anyone else thought about his lack of experience with females, Magus surveyed the crowd, then chose his victim.

"Ozzie, truth or dare?"

Ozzie imagined all the evil things Magus would force him to do, then said "Truth."

Magus smiled evilly. "Have you ever been defeated by a cat in battle?"

Ozzie squeaked out yes, then disappeared with his head bowed in shame. Marle saw this game wasn't exactly working wonders for everyone's friendships, so she gave a small piece of jerky to everyone. Why couldn't everyone just be friends, wondered Marle as she gave out her last bit of jerky to Alfador.

Lunch was another unremarkable meal, cactus cubes prepared by Frog. Afterwards, Magus, Schala, and Lucca buried their faces in ancient tomes, looking for a way to reverse the Black Hole spell and bring Melchior back. Marle and Frog got back to the books in search for a cure for the curse of the frog. Crono, noticing everyone else was reading for some reason, picked up one of Magus's books that had a sparkly cover and began reading about evil curses and neat stuff like that.

Jimmy was bored, and frustrated. How could he ever get anybody to do anything interesting? Mind control would be easiest way, but the real Entity, knowing the full extent of Jimmy's warped mind, did not grant him use of that specific power. Jimmy only had the power to make insignificant NPCs give the heroes clues. What good would that do? Wait! That Nu technically was an NPC, and he was about as insignificant as you could get...

Nu, was sitting around, putting the pieces of his master plan together, when he suddenly realized that telling Crono and Marle to go a step further in their relationship would further his plans in some unspecified manner. However, he couldn't just walk up to Crono and say, "Hey! Spiky! That princess chic's all over you! Are you dense or something?" He would have to find some way to subtly suggest they should get to know each other a little better. As he was plotting some ingenious method to work the comment into a conversation, Crono walked in and asked if Nu knew where some Blue Rock was.

"I have no knowledge of a Blue Rock. By the way, do you like Marle?"

Crono nodded his head, then Nu continued.

"You know, I think you two have been going out long enough. You two should get married." Nu was amazed at what he just said. It was possibly the corniest and most scripted thing he had ever said in his entire life. It was as if that line was programmed into his head.

Crono asked Nu what in the world was going on and what brought that up, but Nu just repeated what he said the first time. Crono shook his head in frustration, then started out the door. Right before Crono stepped out, he asked Nu what Frog put in his food during lunch.

Nu felt an enormous impulse to tell Crono he should get married, but decided he didn't want to and would say something else. "You know... You should vote Alfador off as soon as you get the chance. That worthless feline has it in for all of us. I bet he's trying steal Marle from you."

Crono looked at Nu like he was a psychopath. He unsheathed his sword just in case Nu went on a rampage and tried to kill him. Nu saw Crono was getting a bit touchy, so he shut up and let Crono leave in peace.

Although Crono knew Nu was a few shy of a six pack, he couldn't help but imagine what a step farther in the relationship would be like. Now, he might actually tell her he liked, or dare he say it, loved her. It's not as if he was nervous, but he didn't want to scare Marle off by trying to take things too fast. After all, all she did was hug him once, except for maybe that first night in 65,000,000 B. C., but that didn't count, because neither of them could remember it...

Supper that night consisted of a dish called Chunks of Raw Cactus, which the great chef Ozzie claimed took all afternoon to prepare. Magus declined to eat his portion after he noticed a rusty razor blade and a piece of broken glass sticking out of his, and pushed it off to the side. This meal was certainly not up to the usual mediocre standards, this was just plain bad. With the lousy meal fresh on their minds, everyone headed for bed.

Crono looked over at Schala. He missed sleeping in the same room at night with Marle so much. Marle was beautiful, and he went to sleep every night dreaming sweet dreams of her. There was nothing special about Schala. Sure, she had a pretty face, but then again, so did Marle. Then she had that creepy blue hair. That hair reminded him of Magus. Added this to the fact that if he ever so much as touched Schala, Magus would kill him. Crono wasn't crazy about the idea of dying again. Crono finally fell asleep thinking of all the ways Marle was better than Schala.

Marle and Frog had finally given up searching for a way for Frog to regain his old form, and both of them were fast asleep. Jimmy wondered what he was on when he put those two together. Maybe if he turned Frog back into a human...

Magus had finally had enough of Ozzie, and he was going to end it all tonight. He picked up the Reaper and caressed the blade with his finger. Yes, this weapon was ready to kill. Magus made sure the girl Lucca was asleep, and he silently hovered out the door and floated over towards Ozzie's room. As he approached the door, a spike shot up out of the floor in front of him and a bell started ringing inside the room. Having lost the element of surprise, Magus dashed back into his room before Ozzie knew what was going on.

Awakened by the false alarm outside, Ayla and Ozzie both tried to get back to sleep. Ayla fell back asleep first, and Ozzie could swear he heard her mumbling and plotting his death in her sleep. Ozzie took a deep breath, realized Ayla probably didn't have the brainpower to plot much of anything, and somehow didn't feel any more secure.

Nu kept pondering over what happened with Crono that day. Why had he said that he and Marle should get married? It was like he was a pawn in some higher power's plan. He hated being a pawn. Right then, Nu decided to change all his plans to throw whoever it was that was using him off track. Now, priority number one was still getting Alfador voted off, but everything else had to be changed. Yes, this new plan truly would be unstoppable.