I love the way the Buffyverse twisted words, made references and danced around language archaic and slang.

Absolutely. Which is why so much B'verse fic is downright painful and dispiriting to read. Actually making language work in fresh ways -- rather than mimicking styles (which is often the fannish trend) -- is very tough to do. That's why I'm really picky about reading certain characters -- badly-drawn!Lorne makes me scream!

I stick by the 'dying is easy, comedy is hard,' school of thought. And shy away. But i'm very happy that you don't, baby!