Bear with me, this is going to take a while-- but I 
have to thank a lot of people for making "Invariant 
Factors" possible. First of all, Virg, who encouraged 
me to submit a story in the first place. I'm glad I 
wrote this story, but I never would have done it 
without the TBL contest. So, my thanks to the team who 
put it all together. 

On the the technical front, Becky and Robyn's Sentinel 
Transcripts site was invaluable. Their transcript of 
"Switchman" helped me create a framework to base my 
story on. 

I want to thank the Erisers for general support, 
reading rough drafts, and looking at endless versions 
of Jen and Bayle pictures that I made in Photoshop. I 
owe Lori a debt of thanks for giving Bayle her name, 
which really enabled me to see the character more 
clearly. Te really helped with some advice on the sexy 
bits. I especially, *especially* want to thank Resonant 
and Lanning-- both let me talk out problems, encouraged 
me *and* sent me back rough drafts of "Invariant 
Factors" after I accidentally deleted it. (Yes, twice.) 
Also, thanks to everyone on Prospect-L who discussed 
the TBL stories. Even if you didn't like mine. :) I 
appreciated every comment. 

I was inspired by a lot of different things. It's 
always been a pet theory of mine that Cassie was Pet 
Fly's attempt at a "female Blair" (and a lot of people 
were afraid she'd actually replace Blair.) while Megan 
is sort of a "female Jim," complete with lone-wolf 
tendencies and vehicle abuse. And I've always been 
fascinated by stories where a character is transformed 
from one gender to another, like Russet McMillan's "The 
Body Thief" or Gillian Middleton's "B.J. Sandburg," but 
I wasn't really interested in *writing* a story like 
that. Then I came across "Gentler" by Gemma Files and 
Nicole S., an OZ fanfic that switched the genders of 
all the characters. It was an incredibly interesting 
AU, and so I began to wonder what Jim and Blair's lives 
would have been like had they been born female. I 
really like how Jen and Bayle turned out. I'm kind of 
tempted to write some of their further adventures, 
although I'm currently very busy with other projects... 
but, never say never. :) 

About the title: an invariant is something that remains 
the same after it's been transformed. For instance, a 
piece of music put in a different key. 

--Livia