Cousins (Forever Knight community)

Forever Knight Faction
Name:	Cousins
Abbreviation:
Date(s):	late 1993 to present
Leaders:	Cerberus (tripartite)
Founder:
Type:	original faction
Focus:	LaCroix
Wars:	all
Community:	fkcousins Yahoo!Group
URL:	Cousins List Page (Wayback Machine copy)
The faction symbol for the Cousins. Faction icon for the Cousins, created by Greer Watson in 2012.
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The Cousins are a faction of Forever Knight fandom comprising fans who declare an affiliation with LaCroix. This is one of the original six factions that took part in the first Forever Knight War.

The Cousins' faction symbol is a black equilateral (i.e. equal-armed) Cross of Lorraine on a white background. ("LaCroix" is French in origin, and translates as "the cross".)

Faction History

The original name of the faction was "the LaCroixettes". The affiliation was renamed after a particular incident in which a trick was played on a fan of Nick, Sharon Scott of Texas. When she admitted to the [email protected] list that she had a phobia about frogs, two other list members who were fans of LaCroix immediately sent her gifts of chocolate frogs in the mail. Sharon replied that the two were so cruel that they must be cousins. Hence the name "Cousins".

According to Lisa McDavid, an early member of the faction:

"The Cousins really started as LaCroix and the LaCroixettes, an alleged nightclub act, run by a lister who left a long time ago. Then came the famous incident of the two LaCroix fans who sent Sharon Scott the chocolate frogs, hence the renaming of the Cousins. Most of us, although enjoying LC's deviousness (and the sexy way Nigel played him <g>), had a love-hate relationship with the character. During the first few wars, some of us wrote him in situations that would now be considered attacks. As Laurie Fenster, one of the first heads of Cerberus put it, "poor LaCroix, the only character in more danger from his own fans than from the other factions." -- Letter to [email protected] by Lisa McDavid on October 28, 2010.

The Cousins immediately became one of the largest factions, and have remained active in the fandom to the present day. Partly because of their size, they have engendered several subordinate factions (notably the General's Secret Service) as well as spin-offs (such as the Light Cousins and Nunkies Anonymous) and running jokes (such as the Thong Throng).

Nicknames

Many fans who identify themselves as members of the Cousins prefix their personal name or pseudonym with "Cousin" (e.g. Cousin Lucilla, Cousin Mary, Cousin Michelle, Cousin Shelley, Evil Cousin Tiff, Cousin Tserisa).

Faction Groups

The faction has an open, unlisted Yahoo!Group, fkcousins, that was founded in 1999.

For planning during Forever Knight Wars, the faction has two more Yahoo!Groups, both with restricted membership so that non-participants and people from other factions cannot access the posts. The first, fkcousinswar, is for all Cousins who are taking part in the War. The second, CerberusFK, is only for the leaders of the faction.

Faction Websites

• Cousins' List Page — (Wayback Machine copy)
• Three Heads Before Hades — the Cousins' war site for Wars 11 (archived)and 12 (archived)

Characteristics

Each Forever Knight faction has its own characteristics, and tends to appeal more to some fans than others. In the first season, in particular, LaCroix's Machiavellian manipulations (all, except in the series premiere, perforce limited to flashbacks) made him immediately popular with many fans. It is in this light that one needs to see the practical joke played on Sharon Scott. Derived from that, the first Forever Knight War opened with three of the newly-minted "Cousins" ostensibly being ordered by LaCroix to play virtual practical jokes on members of other factions—these jokes being perpetrated through fiction posted to the FKFIC-L mailing list.

The Cousins have remained a tricky lot ever since.

Forever Knight Wars

The Cousins have participated in all the Forever Knight Wars. As a faction, they take an active role as tricksters, often starting the long sequences of attack and counterattack that characterize wars. From War One, they have traditionally been led by a tripartite leadership, whose identities have varied over time. The leaders eventually were dubbed collectively "Cerberus" (or, individually, the Heads of Cerberus).

• At the beginning of War 2, Janette is "administrative assistant" in charge of all the fan mail from people declaring their affiliation. She expresses her frustration to Nick, identifying the type of letter from each faction, being particularly upset by the ones from the prospective Cousins because, as she puts it, "They're few and far between, all shapes and sizes and colors, no two alike . . . except for what's inside."

Faction Headquarters

In the early Forever Knight Wars, the Cousins based themselves in the warehouse where LaCroix confronted Nick in "Dark Knight: The Second Chapter" (the second half of the series premiere). A few episodes into Season Two, however, LaCroix returned to Toronto as the "Nightcrawler", a late-night host working for the fictional CERK radio station in Toronto. Thereafter the Cousins moved their headquarters to CERK.

Faction Symbol

An equal-armed cross fleury. The original version of this symbol appears on the Cousins' affiliation pin.

Faction Icon

In 2012, Greer Watson created an icon for the Cousins as part of her project to create a set of icons for all the Forever Knight factions. The design composits a screen capture of LaCroix with an updated version of the faction symbol. A mosaic border represents the character's Roman origin; and a microphone (taken from a screen capture) represents his current occupation as a radio host, the "Nightcrawler".