I think they're as real as anyone wants them to be. I write fiction. My characters are very real to me, even though they're only words on a page. How does this differ from that? There are certainly very much more serious things in this world to be scared of. Real things that can hurt real people. Here in the Northwest, a man is being hunted by the authorities, suspected of killing his wife, three children, and unborn baby. That scares me. Giving our Poser characters a life-like personality is just another form of fantasy, very innocent and harmless. Melanie