WAR: UF/Knighties: Who Do You Think I Think I Am, or ... A Kiss is Still a Kiss By: Julia, Kathy, Nancy, Roz, and Les Time: Sunday night, July 15th Location: The UF Hive party The UF party was going very well. Even Julia had to admit it. There had been a hallucinatory interview with a llama, but Julia decided that would be one of the six impossible things she was prepared to believe in on any given War day. Old friends and new acquaintances mingled, drank, and danced throughout the Hive. Various characters were there, too, but since she was in the state of mental paralysis associated with War overload, she wasn't at all sure "who was who," so smiled at everyone, from a safe distance, but avoided getting into any real conversations. She opened the door to the latest arrival, and was surprised to find herself face to face with Don Constantine. "How do you do, sir? Please, come in. I'm glad you could come to our birthday party ... er ... if that's the reason you're here," she said as she led him into what had been, after all, his property. She wondered if they'd remembered to actually send him an invitation. As if reading her mind, he smiled and said, "I did hear about the celebration from my own sources, but I did not think you would take offense at my 'crashing' your party." "Of course not! I'm so sorry if we forgot your invitation. It's been a most exhilarating but ... strenuous ... War." Julia went into her embarrassed babbling mode. Don Constantine cut her off in midflow. "I understand there are some peculiar things happening among some of my friends." "Um, that's a very diplomatic way of putting it," Julia smiled. She escorted her guest, who she couldn't help thinking of as the UF's patron, if not actual host in TO, through into the party. "Can I get you some wine?" "Thank you," the aged vampire replied. As Julia pushed her way back from the bar with the special "house rouge," she saw that Don Constantine had caught the eye of Lacroix. Except, of course, it was Janette-in-Lacroix. "Don Constantine, this is Janette du Charme. I don't know if you know each other." Don Constantine had sensed that this elegant, almost regal, figure was not indeed his own maker, and replied, "Yes, we're friends, as well as family." Janette smiled and held out her hand. "My dear Don Constantine, how are you? It's been quite a while since we've seen each other." Don Constantine took the hand, and, as Janette intended and expected, kissed it with utmost gallantry. They walked away, speaking at a level that only vampiric hearing could discern amid the noisy dance music. Julia smiled. Then she whirled around, her face a rigid mask. At the bar, she asked for another glass of Merlot. "What's the matter, Julia?" asked Lora, who had been keeping an eye on her co-birthday-honoree all night. "Well ... I just saw Don Con kiss Janette's hand. It was the most natural gesture imaginable, for these two characters. Yet ... I'm afraid that a careless reader will leap to the conclusion that," Julia mimicked a shrill complaining voice, " 'Don Constantine kissed Lacroix at the UF party!' " Julia downed her wine, ordered another, and told Lora about the misreading of the scene between Schanke and Nick by the lake that had made her almost apoplectic. "Can't people just wrap their heads around the fact that the characters are the characters, no matter which body they happen to be in?!" "But Julia, you know we're almost guaranteed to be misunderstood. No matter what we do, somewhere, somehow, manages to see what the don't want to see, even when it's not there. It comes with the territory." Julia sipped on her wine, silently. Another thought struck Lora. "Julia, how did *you* know it was Don Constantine? Maybe he's switched personalities with someone, too?" Kathy, Nancy, Roz, and Les had sidled over from the other end of the bar as soon as they saw that Julia was in Outraged Mode. There was a certain level of amusement in watching Julia in Outraged Mode, as long as one was merely a passive observer. They had seen it before. "I don't know, Lora. I just .. recognized him. For himself," replied Julia, after giving the question some thought. "Speaking of characters, and the misunderstanding of the characters," said Kathy, "maybe that has something to do with all these personality switches. I even wrote a War post about it." "Well, that's guaranteed to get you an argument that it is a deeper and more complex understanding, not a mis-anything," Roz murmured from the sidelines. "Kathy, that was a great post! Although I have to confess that I was perfectly happy just playing with the characters, without giving the Premise any serious thought," Julia said. "It's a seductive idea," Roz said, seriously joining the conversation. "God knows, I'm the first to complain when Nick shows up as a whining baby or Dagwood Bumstead, and I'd love to blame all our woes on bad characterization. But could this actually affect reality? Well... War reality?" The group pondered the possibilities. "So ... there was no question in any of our minds that Don Con was Don Con," said Les, thoughtfully. The friends sat, sipping on their drinks, thinking. Kathy finally said, "He's not a canon character who features in much fanfic, does he?" "That's true. We seem to be the only faction that uses him, and then only during FK Wars," said Nancy. "And then mainly as a Don ex machina," added Julia, unnecessarily. "So are you suggesting that the switches are associated with how much a given character is written in fanfic?" "Written *badly* in fanfic," Nancy muttered. "Much of a muchness, that," replied Julia, dourly. "Or whether other people care about how a character is written?" Roz mused. They pondered some more, until they remembered that, hey, this was a party. A double birthday party. So they decided to reconvene the following day, or night, to consider the matter of the personality switches further.