lettered | Questions Post #1

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Questions Post #1

Usually I don't ask questions in public settings. I'm shy and also very arrogant; I like to think I know stuff or can find out on my own. But these things have been bothering me, and while I think a few things might be answered by digging through people's old entries or some FAQs, I'd love some answers (and opinions. Some are about opinions. Not the one about Buffy's natural tufted treasure, though. That has to be fact).

General

What does RPS stand for?
I'm aware OTP means pairing of choice, but what do the letters stand for?
Where did the term 'squee' originate and how come so many people use it?

LJ

What's a meme? Does it mean memory?
How do you tag someone? What does it mean?
What does the term "gak" mean?

Fanon

-How do people feel about using fanon? For instance, some fic writers use the name "O'Connor" for Liam (mostly in all-human AUs, which I don't really read, but whatever). Do you frown upon writers who use this name? Does it throw you off when writers don't use this name? Do you yourself consciously just avoid ever getting anywhere near the characters' surnames just to avoid the issue?
-From where did O'Connor-as-Liam's-surname originate, anyway?
-Does Spike have a commonly used last name? What about Faith? What about Darla, whose first name we know isn't hers, and Drusilla, whose first name is almost certianly not hers?
-This is a much debated topic, but is there even a marginal consensus regarding the age of Spike?
-Buffy smells like vanilla in a lot of fics. What's up with that?
-Does canon make Buffy out to be a natural blonde? I.e., is her altar of love, her carnal trap, her eye that weeps most when best pleased, her bearded clam, her garden of eden, her nest of curls blonde in most fics? What? Just asking.
-Is there a generally accepted explanation for how vampires get it up?
-Is the idea that vampires "pretend" to breath in order to look natural a fanon thing, or was it on the show?
-Does nobody use the fact that Angelus wears eye-liner in fics?
-Is Andrew ever a heterosexual in fics?

General again

-Whatever happened to Miss Kitty Fantastico? Did Dawn really shoot her with a crossbow?
-Do vampires sweat?
-What're some (slang) words for the dominant partner in a D/s relationship? I.e., some for the sub are: bitch, punk, sister (in prison), et al. I've just been drawing blank on their counterparts for about a week, now.
-Does anyone besides me hate Joyce Summers' guts in a visceral, it's-even-alright-to-character-bash sort of way?
-Have you ever not been able to find relatively common words for weeks at a time? (I once spent a month looking for the word 'conceited')
-Am I the only (character) Angel squeeing fangirl who didn't find David Boreanaz convincing as Angel at times? (don't get me wrong; most of the time he was great.)
-Can David Boreanaz sing better than Angel?
-What is the IQ of David Boreanaz? Is it really as low as it seems sometimes?

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I guess we didn't know each other during all the excitement. If you have any desire to read about my close encounter you can read the following:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine

Although he looks short in the pic (or I look tall) I was actually wearing boots- he's easily 6 feet tall and in incredible shape.

There were some moments that I think were supposed to by mother/daughterly, and came off to me stilted. KS and SMG had NO chemistry, imo.

There were very few moments where I didn't buy whatever SMG was trying to portray. Joyce sometimes came across off... I never didn't buy Buffy in those scenes.

I always felt Buffy's fixation on the dinner in S4 showed signs of a manic mother who stressed out and made everyone's life hell for "events."

Perhaps - it seemed self-contained to me. Part of my sense of Buffy's manic-ness is that she was trying to live up to a standard she thought others had set, without really internally knowing what her own goals were. (See Buffy try to be an 18th century noblewoman to impress Angel in Halloween...) In my own family, my mother always goes nuts over making things perfect, while my siblings and I are very laid back.

I see that most (probably all) of your questions have been answered already, but I thought I'd interject my own opinion as well.

As to how I feel about using fanon: it depends what sort of fanon. I don't really like the Liam O'Connor bit, because it just sounds so blatantly Irish, like the writers are trying too hard. I do use the fandom word "childe" though.

As to Spike's last name, I've seen "Sullivan" used a few times, and I like it. William Sullivan is a good, realistic name, plus boys called Sullivan were sometimes nick-named "Spike," so it could work that way too.

The Age Of Spike is something that I try not to think about. I just say "approximately one hundred and thirty" and leave it at that.

Vampire sweat and breathing: If you've noticed, Angel breathes a lot when he's freaked out or in pain, in fact, he nearly hyperventilates. I think it's a left-over reflex from his human years, unnecessary, but habit. Same with Spike's breathing. Also, vamps have to inhale in order to speak or to smoke, so yes, they do breathe, even if they don't have to. They sweat, too. They shouldn't, but we see them do it, so it must be true.

As to how vamps get it up: well, they're supposed to have no circulation, but that can't be true because they bleed when they're cut, and if their blood didn't circulate then it would all pool in places like their shoulders and bottom when they lay down for a while, like blood does in human corpses. So I think the general consensus is that their blood circulates very slowly (it's a mystical thing, best not thought to closely about it, like Spike's age or the fact that Angelus can grow facial hair but Spike, even when he gets captured for long periods of time, doesn't even grow stubble).

If you're looking for Andrew het fics, google "Funnel Cakes and Flying Monkeys," the Andrew fiction archive. Some links to it are dead, though, so you have to look around for it.

Angel wears eyeliner in fics? Really? Why was I not aware?

-Does canon make Buffy out to be a natural blonde? I.e., is her altar of love, her carnal trap, her eye that weeps most when best pleased, her bearded clam, her garden of eden, her nest of curls blonde in most fics? What? Just asking.

For the record - As a natural blonde - I think that's a myth. Most blondes are also Brunettes - If you catch my drift.

Joss has given his official blessing to Faith Lehane and William (Spike) Pratt.

Hee. Pratt. ::is tweleve::

Okay, I'll answer some... probably most have been answered by someone more fandom literate than me but meh.

RPS mean Real Person Sex

OTP means one true pairing. OT3, a not often used relation, means One True Threesome.

Squee = no idea. I never asked.

Meme is actually a word. It means "A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another."

Tagging someone means asking them to do something next. I don't know why.

Gak means to take. I never use it, so I don't know why it means that.

The O'Connor thing and last name thing in general. Some people (not me or anything ::cough::) just pull last names out of the air. Other people have very specific last names chosen for very specific reasons. Where "accepted" last names come form is a total mystery to me. Well, except the last names we already know.

Marginal consensus on Spike's age when turned: somewhere in his twenties, earlier rather than later.

romanyg says 26. She's the only one I know with a definite age. All I know that it is not James Marster's real age which is definitely not early twenties. Spike's age as a vampire counting the day he was turned as a birthday: 120 at Fool for Love. Prior to that it was 126 in The Intitative and "barely 200" in School Hard.

From what I have heard, the vanilla thing was based on an interview SMG gave where she said she wore vanilla scented perfume. This is one of those little things in fic that annoy the hell out of me, so I'll forebear speaking on the topic.

As to her blondeness. Considering that in season one her hair was a very dark blonde, almost brown, I would say no. But hey, who knows.

I wish people would put Angelus in eyeliner once in awhile. But I am a firm believer that all boys look better in black eyeliner, so I'm biased.

Andrew is written as Het in some fic (usually with Dawn, no idea why) but, as much as I hate stereotyping, the boy is so gay Liberace wants his jewellery back.

Miss Kitty Fantastico's fate is up in the air, but i do think Dawn might have accidently crossbowed her. Because as much as I love cats. it's sorta funny.

I don't know a lot about D/S, so the one's I know best are dom and sub, and top and bottom. But mostly dom and sub.

I like Joyce in a vague way, but have never written a fic about her or including her, so maybe there's some latent dislike.

as for Angel/DB questions, I have nothing, because yeah. Spike fan. Sorry. But I like Angel a lot!

Gah! I loved reading this. Besides all the vicarious excitement, you told the story really well.

What struck me the most is what an awesome person your husband seems like. It's so awesome he helped you feed your obsession--and it sounds like him and DB got along really well, which is so cool. But DB sounds very personable, which I think is a hard thing to do as a star. Maybe he's brighter than people give him credit for.

I loved your pics--so nice to see DB in such a candid smile. And you looked great in that jacket! Gah! You wore his jacket? Now I'm turning into a slathering fangirl. It sounds to me as though you did the fans like us proud (you neither let your nerves get in the way of your great experience--as I would have done!--nor behaved like a complete papparazzi-type idiot, as so many people do). Thanks for sharing the story with me.

He doesn't look short, but I do have just a very general wish that every hot guy I've heard of would grow an inch or two. I'm a very tall woman and I like men to be taller than me ;o)

I do use the fandom word "childe" though. It's so hard not to, though. I hate that there wasn't a term for it on the show.

So I think the general consensus is that their blood circulates very slowly Interesting theory!

(it's a mystical thing, best not thought to closely about it, like Spike's age or the fact that Angelus can grow facial hair but Spike, even when he gets captured for long periods of time, doesn't even grow stubble). I asked about this on a forum not too long ago. Actually, the question was why didn't Angel grow facial hair when he was locked in a box at the bottom of the ocean? Someone said maybe because he didn't have any blood to drink, but I think the conclusion we came to is that vampire's can grow their hair (or not) at will. Weird, but that's actually the best solution I see to the writers' inconsistencies.

If you're looking for Andrew het fics, google "Funnel Cakes and Flying Monkeys," the Andrew fiction archive. Some links to it are dead, though, so you have to look around for it. I wasn't really looking, but thank for the heads up on the archive. ;o)

Angel wears eyeliner in fics? Really? Why was I not aware? Angel does not wear eyeliner in any fic that I have seen. However, Angelus used to wear it so viewers could more easily differentiate him from Angel, though a2zmom tells me they stopped doing this in S4 of AtS. The show itself never commented on the make-up--it was supposed to be subtle, just to make his eyes darker and scarier--but I always thought the idea of Angel not only changing his dressing style but applying cosmetics because he didn't have a soul really amusing.

Thanks for your answers and opinions!

OT3, a not often used relation, means One True Threesome. I saw that on an icon of yours. Huzzah for threesomes! (btw, I started reading Slide and really, really like it. I'll leave a proper review for you one day soon.)

Squee = no idea. I never asked. I was actually kinda afraid to ask.

Meme is actually a word. Wow, thanks. Love learning new words.

I wish people would put Angelus in eyeliner once in awhile. But I am a firm believer that all boys look better in black eyeliner, so I'm biased. ha! The reason I asked was because I was thinking about putting it in a fic. I was wondering whether everyone just preferred to pretend that his eyes were darker and scarier when he was soulless, instead of actually just made-up differently.

Because as much as I love cats. it's sorta funny. I love cats too, and had been worried about Miss Kitty since half way through season 5. I'm not the biggest Dawn fan (I like her better in the fic world), so when I heard that I kinda wanted to throttle her. But yeah, it's kinda funny when I think about it.

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that it was SMG's fault at all. The way SMG played Buffy made Buffy out to be a person who really loved her mom, and even respected her, even though she didn't always agree with her. That's the way the writers wrote Buffy and SMG played it to a tee. But since I thought the writing and the acting for choice were so flawed at time, I found Buffy's affection unbelievable, sometimes. If I were her I'd still love my mother, but I'd feel much more conflicted about it.

Huh. Interesting. I had blonde hair when I was little but that was before I could...you know. Find out. Thanks ;o)

He really isn't short. My husband is 6'4 and DB isn't *that* tall...but he's not little.

And my husband made the experience *that* much more amazing just by understanding how much meeting DB meant to me.

Glad you enjoyed the story...it was kinda nice to dig it up again.

makd pointed me in this direction and told me to read your close encounter with DB, but when I clicked on the "Parts", I got seven "There were no entries on this day", and two posts that had nothing to do with DB or the topic. Am I doing something wrong?

Some of my fic hatreds can be found here

My hair dye drabble

Annoyingly, I can not find the story where everyone meets as they sneak out to buy Miss Clairol.

"Why you ridin' me" is from the season 2 opener "When She Was Bad".

Gah. I hate most of those things too. And then I found myself using one in Best Souvenir (I'm pretty sure I mentioned being intensely unhappy with a particular plot point. It comes up in chapter 8, I think. Still don't know how to fix it. Maybe you can help). Thanks for the link to this!

Loved your drabble.

Darn on the Clairol fic front. Speaking of which, I bet Oz was a known customer on the Clairol hotline (had a friend who was, once).

I seem to recall disliking DB's acting for that entire episode. But that episode made me crazy, anyway. I liked it, actually, but I kinda hated it too.

Thanks! **runs off to friend you!**

Please don't slap my muse... he tends to get cranky... and may bite... or pout which is MUCH worse!
LOL... actually he is quite happy to work... he just doesn't want to work on the smutathon fic that is due in 11 days!!! **sigh**

Sorry, they're friends locked.

Oh, okay. That explains it.

I actualy like "When She Was Bad". All of the season 6 depression dealt with in one episode. More fun, less angst!

And I liked DB's acting (as well as NB, AH and SMG) during her dance with Xander.

Ha! Apt name for Liam, then. Except for the part about metaphysics.

Heh. Yeah, well the place was crawling with Jesuits who liked their whiskey but that one was in a class one himself... probably like our boy Liam so he got to be memorialized in my fic. As for the metaphysics, Liam seemed rather more living-in-the-moment guy but there's plenty metaphysical about the 'verse.

When you do get a chance to watch TGiQ, keep "Rosenkranz and Guidenstern Are Dead" in mind. That was supposed to be the concept underlying the episode, but personally I think the execution sucked. Andrew is - as always - the "storyteller" and unreliable narrator according the writers. However, it's never that clear in the episode. Eh, truthfully I just hate the episode.

A lot of times, he reminds me of the frat-like boys I knew in college. Yeah, this has been said about David before. And he's got a potty mouth on top of everything else.

Heh. Yeah, well the place was crawling with Jesuits who liked their whiskey but that one was in a class one himself...

Sounds like fun.

As for the metaphysics, Liam seemed rather more living-in-the-moment guy but there's plenty metaphysical about the 'verse.

Which is one of the reasons I love it. In fact, I have this fic in my head, the working title of which is 'Let's Get Metaphysical' (hopefully I'll think of a better title!). Ironically enough, the fic involves a lot of Liam.

Eh, truthfully I just hate the episode.

A lot of people do. I'm not really looking forward to watching it.

Yeah, this has been said about David before. And he's got a potty mouth on top of everything else.

Glad I'm not the only one. A potty mouth I like because I have a dirty, dirty mind, and am restricted from saying half the things I would like because it would offend the people I hang out with ;o)

Now I have to watch it again, because though I remember Angel's reaction I can't really recall how DB played it. Or maybe not. I liked the concept of the episode, but I hated watching it because it makes me sad.

Fear me because I am a god among men! In other words, I found that fic.

Dyeing Young by Mad Poetess

Pure sillyness.

lol, thanks for this; it was fun to read. (mousse-master! *snorts*)

And sure I fear you; you don't even have to ask. ;o)

Oh... and I meant to say earlier... I like Joyce.. she is lovely! Not always the brightest spark... but she was a lovely person and mother. I LOVED Band Candy... her and Ripper just sooo good! lol.

Every scene she had with Spike was wonderful... and fanfic Joyce is even better.... so no... not everyone hate Joyce!

Now Kennedy on the other hand! **grrrr** I don't think I know anyone who likes her.

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