The Courts' Barely Serious FAQ:

Or, Who are you people, Who do you think you are, and Who are you really?

Q: Why are you called the Courts?

A: It's an old running joke, dating back from the time when people divided up the dominance over the body with the seasons of Summer and Winter. During the winter, it's almost expected that people become reclusive--hence, time for the less social of us to be out.

Q: What is the 'LoveCats' thing?

A: It's another old running joke. The Cure had a song called 'The Lovecats', which had the chorus of 'We miss you hiss, the Lovecats' (or, "'We miss you.' hiss the Lovecats"). In other words, a case of being able to use 'we' in public. (Reb: heheh) It's just a big sing along for us.

Q: Why do you sometimes call your group the Cats and sometimes the Courts? Pick one!

A: You want us to... what?

Q: Aren't you supposed to be just facets of one person who's delusional and thinks they're more than one?

A: That's a take on the technical meaning of multiplicity, yes. Frankly, we find the concept of someone just casually looking at you and saying, 'Sorry, you don't exist, you only think you do' a little... (insert random adjective here). Sure, we can be considered to be simple facets. But frankly, how much of a difference does that make in our lives?

Q: How do you know you're not just making it up to feel special?

A: Well... apart from the fact that we're not doing this for attention--indeed, the response we'd have upon our friends finding out is to deny it systematically to begin with? We didn't suddenly appear with sixty people overnight (or shortly after finding out about the buzzwords of multiplicity), and no one in here believes that they're 'more special than normal humans'. We're not focused around what happened to us in the past (some of us could care less about trauma). We could go on, but basically, we don't fit into the stereotype of an induced multiple.

Q: What's with all these corny names? How are we supposed to take you seriously with names like 'Stryke'?

A:
Reb: The majority of the sillier names are nicknames/pet names or simply functional. Why bother with a overly complex name when, when I want to talk to Stryke, I call her attention with as much a visual post-it note as a verbal one?
Alex: Think about the identity function of each of us as being composed of memories of past actions, essential thought patterns, personal relationship values, and emotional mood.
Reb: What Lexa means is that we communicate with each other on more levels than just verbally. So the names aren't as important.

Q: Why do some of you have longer names?

A: Names are actually a way of counting informal rank for us. Those of us who actually take up subscriptions outside of the body's name need a last one. Others are given as sort of awards for things we never expected, such as skill at a certain task, or as a way of respect. Nearly all of the older people (time-wise, not age-wise) have last names.

Q: How can you claim to be functional, and yet a multiple?

A: Ignore the hype about dysfunctionality--it's possible. We've invested a lot of effort into working out a stable system. We're not in therapy, nor do we require it--when we have problems with each other, we work them out amongst ourselves. And because people can specialize in here, we can actually be overproductive. (Reb: Actually, I have a rant about this somewhere. Ariel: Don't you always? *ducks and runs*)

Q: Okay, which one of you is the core child/host?

A: None of us are. We have a general decision-making council who changes as needed or as the whim suits us. There is no single person in here who 'owns' the body and who we should listen to just because *they* are the ones who are 'real.' We did have someone who matched up with the body closely and was born in it. She is no longer with us, and the unanimous decision has been to never try to revive her again.

Q: If you work as a collective, doesn't this mean you're integrated?

A: If you work in a company, does this mean you're at one with your boss?

Q: Where did you go for the years 1999-2001?

A: I haven't the slightest. Which makes it sound like we're really -out- of control, doesn't it? But somewhere in that time, we graduated college, got repeatedly massively sick, and got on salary pay. So at least it was productive.