"I licked the drops of blood from the shallow cuts I'd made on Wesley's abdomen." Maybe. If "I" is Faith, you betcha. If "I" is Andrew, I'll need some really convincing backstory.

See, I take this on, er, faith (there must be another non-Buffyish way of phrasing this!). If I'm going to bother to read the story, I have to begin by trusting the writer. If I can't trust the writer to be who they say they are, I can't imagine bothering to read the story anyway, so the POV doesn't come into it for me. It wouldn't matter.

Totally with you on second person POV. That one always kickstarts the internal blinkies, as a reader. As a writer, I virtually never go there.

As a writer, about 99% of what I write is third person. I'm just aware how easy it is to plump up and play God that way, so I have to watch out that it doesn't turn masturbatory and self-congratulatory: ooooh, lookee, I can make the characters dance!

Nothing intrinsically wrong with that, I suppose, but as a personal taste? I dislike reading it, shrug and move on when I see it, and I always want to kick myself when I catch myself doing it. I don't mind references to the same things in serial fiction or fic, mind you; I just don't want to see the writer leaning over the top of the puppet theatre, yanking strings maniacally.

Again, your reader/writer mileage will almost certainly vary wildly.

"Gunn licked the drops of blood from the shallow cuts Faith had made on Wesley's abdomen." You betcha.

Can he be nekkid?

Randomly:

I think I was having POV thoughts in the shower, relating to the notion of POV, 1st person, as being seen as more narcissistic than, say 3rd person, and realizing that the Single Most Narcissisitic Self Insertion I've ever seen was decidedly third person. (CoughLevinSueCough)

While I'm more with Calli on 1st person as a reader (it's easier for it to lose me than 3rd person), I have read a lot of 1st person, The Color Purple, I Have No Mouth, Yet I Must Scream, Surfacing, that sucked me in deeper than 3rd person.

This is me, avoiding site redesigns.

Run, Plei! Run from the evil site redesigns! There are cookies coming atcha!

BTW, I should say that in the rare cases when second person is perfectly suited to its task, it can be ghostly, staggeringly effective for me to read becuse of its very detachment. But alas, I rarely see it done that well.

And in drabbles, the ultra-short form? I've seen superb stuff in all shapes and voices. Everything seems to work when the form is that taut.

(edit" GAH! I typoed "site" three times.)

See, I take this on, er, faith (there must be another non-Buffyish way of phrasing this!). If I'm going to bother to read the story, I have to begin by trusting the writer. If I can't trust the writer to be who they say they are, I can't imagine bothering to read the story anyway, so the POV doesn't come into it for me. It wouldn't matter.

With a writer whose work I know, this would be true. I'll give a writer I like all kinds of rope, because I'll trust they won't hang themselves with it. If I ran into a story by a writer who I'd never heard of, she'd have to earn my trust. There are all kinds of ways to do that with me if the writing's good. But I won't take nearly as much on, um, faith, in trusting the first person narrative or anything else.

But I won't take nearly as much on, um, faith, in trusting the first person narrative or anything else.

We so need to invent a word for this. Maybe Eliza? We can take it on Eliza?

Where I was going with that was, literally, that the writing has to take me in the first few paragraphs, be it fic or fiction. I generally know pretty early on if I'm going to want to read beyond that point; something in the voice, in the ability to back away and let the characters be, will usually declare itself early on.

Alas, the inverse of that is true, as well. If I writer I know and trust screws it up early, I throw the book across the room and say rude things and then it really takes awhile to get my trust back.

I see second person less as the author telling the reader what she herself is doing than the character internally narrating they own selves.

Like....

TWO

"And that's the other thing," Amy says. "Sunlight. Crosses, stakes, and sunlight, that's all that can hurt us. Today is really overcast but you still can't be sure, so that's why I have these blankets. They're thick, we can walk around under them and be safe. We'll look a little weird, but it's just temporary." Pauses. Makes her voice a little whiner. "Willow, please pay attention."

You don't look up. "What about holy water?" you ask. "Can we cross rivers? If your necklace breaks, will I have to count every little bead?" Now there's an idea. You stop stirring your fingers in the dirt. "Hey, can I break your necklace?"

She makes a little sound of unhappiness.

"Then can we go get new clothes now?" You pick at your sleeve. "You kind of ripped this. And... I don't know. I think I want some different colors."

You remember being pulled into the bushes, on the way to the high school, early morning. You imagine how it might have appeared to any observer: your little kittenish limbs flailing for a moment, her arms tight around your ribs, the desperate shock on your face as she pressed the fangs inexpertly into your throat. It took you a while to die.

You remember waking up. The cool weight of another body on top of yours, someone's tongue against your neck. You'd never admit it, but your first thought was a happy, drowsy *Xander?*. Your second thought was, *This is not my bed.*

Now: your skin is cold. You're sitting under the bower in a neighbor's flower garden, middle of the day, wearing the remnants of your own pink fuzzy sweater. Examining the flowers and listening to Amy talk.

Your throat's still scarred. You can feel it. Rub your fingers over the lines.

You stroke the long stalk of Mrs. Floesen's tulip, slide your fingers down next to the ground and break it off neatly, at the base. Proffer it to Amy, who scoots back imperceptibly. You know she had a crush on you, but really, she should have never chosen a girl who could make her so nervous. You think about telling her this; but you are, after all, sitting in a flower bed with a wooden frame (it's a good thing Mrs. Floesen works mornings), and you're not exactly sure how good Amy is with a makeshift stake.

You think about finding Xander, also. You wonder if Amy'll do him too. You wonder if biting his sweet, pale neck is something you could do yourself.

You maybe think so.

But Amy's looking around, looking like she has some definite ideas about what the two of you are going to do next, and so you don't bring that up. Instead, you look down at the tulip in your hands, consider its smooth green stem, its soft petals. "This is the most poisonous flower in the Western Hemisphere," you tell her. "It's so red. See? That yellow piece is a warning stripe to bees. It says, do not taste this flower or you will be killed. The nectar's so sweet you'll ache when you drink it. It says, if you touch this flower, you will die wanting for more." You show her the velvety petals, the soft red inner parts, then place the tulip's head into your mouth. Sever the stem with your neat, sharp teeth, chew once or twice, and swallow.

She forgets herself, and draws in a quick breath by nothing more than force of habit. "Willow? Is that a lie?"

Yup - and Liz, that's exactly what I mean by a ghostly separation. That piece is beautifully done, and I don' think it could have been written in any other voice to the same potency. This suited it perfectly, and for me? Burned from the first note. Loved it.

(Not, I hasten to add, that the other four things are written in second person.

Not all of the other four things.)

I see second person, really, to be the intermediary step between third and first in terms of narratory self-consciousness.

I see second person, really, to be the intermediary step between third and first in terms of narratory self-consciousness.

It's a good solid definition, I think. I do think it's by far the trickiest of the three to pull off properly on a consistent basis.

We can take it on Eliza?

I'll take on Eliza -- oh, er, whoops.

I vote for taking it on slutbomb, myself.