This chapter has the Trio in it. [link] hope you find some sympatico fanartists soon, ita. I never got much past stick figures, myself.

You know what's ickier than writing a sex scene? Going back to edit several sex scenes in order to make them less explicit in order to make them fit FFN standards. And then going back over all of them two more times because one realizes one's idea of suggestive is probably still too full of named body parts and actions which are a bit too specific. Icky, icky, icky.

Thank heavens for AO3.

Also, now I have vastly more sympathy for pulp romance writers whose euphemisms can end up being so ridiculous.

And now I have an urge to abandon sensuality and eroticism and jump right into the crudest written bad-porn I can manage. Fuck, tits, dick, pussy, bunghole, stick it in and push it harder, harder, scream yeah fuck fuck fuck .

less explicit in order to make them fit FFN standards

Does that even count anymore? I just wrapped up reading a 18 year olds into BDSM fic featuring anal beads (aren't you all glad I shared) on FFN, and the author has plenty of stuff that explicit for my pairing. I thought it was only empty talk at this point.

What's the penalty if you get dinged for porniness?

Ao3 has been having technical issues...tell the truth, it's just *whipped*

I liked this fine when I posted it, but now I'm having some doubts about my Spike.

"Damn," Buffy cursed under her breath as she tried, for what seemed to be the millionth time, to get Raylan's head out of recidivism statistics, and into calling her back, and maybe, please, God, patrolling tonight? Her mom tried not to complain, but she could see that Joyce's headaches were becoming far worse. They should probably go to Urgent Care. Giles said he could stop in that night and check in on Dawn, but as a fighter? He made a better librarian. She had to have this resolved very soon or her mom would go all stoic and try to treat her pains with all the herbal stuff Tara gave her, which was sweet and all, but not like being checked by someone who knew something.She pictured Raylan's abandoned phone blasting out the opening of "Honky-Tonk Woman" loud enough to annoy the person in the next carrel but not really even denting her sweetheart's sense of purpose. Sometimes, it was great having a partner who was so single-minded(although thinking about it sometimes made her blush, but at a time like this? It really sucked. She was pretty sure it was only worry that made her curt when she said "Don't worry about it...I'll get someone else," and she wasn't even sure what she was going to do till she counted the three twenties in her pink purse...a relic of much lighter, happier days. Dawn, who despite testing into the gifted program in junior high, was chortling at "Spongebob", barely noticed when she slipped out, let alone askingto come like usual. It was a rare reprieve.
Striding purposely toward the cemetery, she allowed herself a momentary wish that her dad could have been a cliche right here in Sunnydale...maybe he could have taken Joyce to the doctor or something, left her with only the *one* difficult destiny, what would be wrong with that?
Despite her businesslike intentions, she felt herself beginning to well up and she was grateful for the cover of darkness. She made her way to Spike's crypt and pounded on the door. A moment later she heard something about "bloody pizza delivery" and the door was open a crack.

"Slayer...you're not Domino's. .."

"Never mind that. I hate to admit it, but I need you, Spike."

"Sheriff Matt Dillon's not getting it done for you, is he? Having a romance with his horse, or something?"

"What the hell are you talking about? And why are you getting a pizza? You don't need to eat."

"You don't need to eat pudding cups, either, but I know that you do."

"Mostly, those are Dawn's...wait, are you going through my garbage now? And when did Matt Dillon play a sheriff?"

"Your trouble, Slayer, is that you're just so bleeding young.Still, you must want...something." Spike couldn't resist laying it on, even though her not knowing what he was on about did rather puncture the fantasy. Even he had to admit, though, that American telly had come a long way since those early days. He sometimes missed his ducktail, though. Eating girls with circle pins...mid-century had been an underrated era, menace-wise. It had to be, he supposed, with three channels.

"I need you to help patrol tonight," she said, holding two twenties out like a distress flag. "So I can take my mother to the emergency room."

No wonder she forgot to be repelled about the garbage. He had had this whole line about knowing his enemy, and recon, but he didn't need to bother now.

Buffy saw, with some surprise, that the vampire looked concerned. "Is your mum going to be all right, then?" He lunged forward, but he only took one of the proffered bills. "I don't know. I really hope so."

"I'd do it for free...this is just to replace my pizza.I don't want to leave *y'all* completely undefended, unlike a certain former coal miner of our mutual acquaintance."

"Stop it...I didn't come here to talk about him."

"It's not my fault 'Fire in the hole' turned out to be just an expression, love, now is it?"

"Don't be disgusting, Spike. For the record, (continued...)

( continues...) I have no complaints."

Spike seemed to be having fun then, light dancing in his eyes. "Then what are you doing standing in my bedroom?"

"You know your crypt's only one room."

"Lucky for you, I fancy a spot of violence...Give Joyce my love, all right?"

Buffy doubted that she would but she promised.

• * *
  

After a few weeks in Kentucky, Faith had to admit working at Audrey's as part of the Crowder operation was no path to prosperity. More packages than stimulus, you might say. Still, it was easy work, if sometimes she felt it tested her Slayer healing to the utmost. But it felt good to imagine the Council chasing their tails, because it seemed like nobody knew this place was here. She hadn't had very much chance to talk with Boyd yet, and never alone...he was always running off to retrieve suspicious looking packages...one even looked like it had a body inside it, but she knew enough not to say anything.Ava turned out to be a crack-up, she occasionally had the chance to relieve some of what Crowder called her "baser urges" with one of the other working girls, and somehow, she had no weakness for Oxy.
Life, as practiced by Faith Lehane, was pretty good. Still, something nagged at her. Maybe it was having Buffy in her body that day...she'd had a dream about that that some of her regulars would pay top dollar to hear, but still, a dissatisfaction persisted, a sense that saving her own skin(nice skin though it was), was not enough. After years of waiting, Faith Lehane thought she wanted to be a hero.

What's the penalty if you get dinged for porniness?

I have no idea what they are planning to do with or about violators of the porn-gag rule. But they posted a notice on the front page of the site on June 4, clarifying the differences between M rated fic (allowed) and MA rated ones (not allowed).

"Fiction M can contain adult language, themes and suggestions. Detailed descriptions of physical interaction of sexual or violent nature is considered Fiction MA and has not been allowed on the site since 2002."

I had been thinking of the difference between M and MA as the difference between R and NC-17, or like the difference between the light and racy historical romances that my mother used to read and the hot-and-heavy 500 page historical bodice rippers. This rather makes it sound more like the difference between PG-13 and R - or the difference between an Elizabeth Peters scene of marital affection and a Johanna Lindsey love scene. And I must admit that I was definitely pushing limits and assuming they would never bother to enforce it.

The TOS states they can and will terminate accounts or remove submissions that are found to violate their standards. I have a vague recollection of some form of kerfuffle years ago. I had not started using the site much at that point but I gathered that they rather suddenly changed their policy to forbid explicit stories and deleted a bunch of accounts and/or stories without warning. Of course, I may have this conflated with some of the more recent LiveJournal kerfuffles, so I dunno.

I find it difficult to believe that they have the time or resources to troll through all the M rated pieces to find infractions. But I can imagine if someone lodged specific complaints, they would check those out. And there would be two kinds of people making those reports - people with grudges going after perceived enemies and people who sincerely think that explicit sex scenes are harmful to people's souls and to the very fabric of society taking it upon themselves to police the site.

"Lucky for you, I fancy a spot of violence...Give Joyce my love, all right?"

erika, Spike mostly sounds about right. I'm having trouble syncing my memory of Joyce's illness and Spike's increasingly functional working relationship with the Slayer here. Is this meant to replace the scene where Spike decides he is going to kill Buffy once and for all with a shotgun, then ends up sitting on the back steps comforting her as she worries about Joyce's impending brain surgery, or is this earlier than that? I'm not entirely certain that such overt affection toward Joyce (even though we know he liked her because she was kind to him) would come so easily so soon. And Spike might still be mercenary enough at this point to take whatever cash Buffy puts in front of him (either because he needs or wants it, or because he's still trying to pretend not to be emotionally attached to her).

Yes, I suppose that's a bit too soft. Maybe he can be an extra pain in the next bit he's in to make up for it.

I've definitely encountered people who have grudge-reported authors. It's hella pissy.

But FFN is also apparently legendary for not replying to anything (I'm still waiting for feedback on how to get access to my long-forgotten account, and it's like yelling in a hurricane.

No doubt they'd rather crack down on the porn.

I guess they could do a search of fanporn cliches and go from there. I mean, who laves anything other than a nipple? That's a total giveaway.