Cause if I did go back there for that prompt, Buffy would die.
After all, Defeat has the fallout of a nuclear explosion, and Buffy's clearly sick. It's not explicitly noted, but I wrote it so that she has leukemia as a result of exposure to radiation. She proposes marriage to Spike, though. For the next visitation to the verse, it makes sense to me that she'd die.
But...well, I suppose the connotation with "schmoop" is that the fics will be fluffy. But that's not exactly my take on the term. I'm not good at writing fluff, despite my love for reading the genre. So I like my schmoop_fics to have something of an edge to them.
"Schmoop", to me, is just a sign that there'll be overwhelming romantic shippiness of some sort. This, obviously, can include fluff as couples do couple-y things (Say, eating pancakes together or something syrupy like that). But it can also refer to a character, say, having a long monologue about how much they love their partner as they die. That would be schmoop. It would be sad schmoop, but schmoop nonetheless.
Though I'm kinda wondering if I'm alone in my interpretation of schmoop. Are most people expecting pure fluff when they read a schmoopfic? If so, I'd feel kinda bad about delivering a deathfic (even though I'm surely gonna warn).
So, schmoop, guys? What's it mean to you?
Um...should this go under a cut? Does this count as potential fic spoilers for a hypothetical fic that's as of yet unwritten? I have no clue on the etiquette on this one.
Edit: My minority opinion, let me show you it. Think along the lines of Buffy killing Angel in Becoming Pt 2 or Fred's death or Wesley's death for schmoopy death scenes. At least, I find them schmoopy. But I appear to be working from a different definition of "schmoop" than most people...
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And of course, that will differ from reader to reader; others might think happy endings aren't needed in order to count something as schmoop.
Also, I'm not a writer myself, and I don't know if part of the point of the schmoop bingo is to serve readers looking to OD on fluffy schmoop, and if your tag would indicate that that's the primary purpose your story would serve. So I could be weird/wrong.
"schmoop" is anything disgustingly romantic
Which is unlikely to apply to death scenes, methinks.
I thought that it would be a breeze to write the schmoop, but my contrary nature keeps turning it into something else. I haven't got any squares crossed off. Hmpf. Which isn't to say that I haven't got any writing out of the prompts. That's ultimately more important. *nods*
Having said that, I do sympathise with me_llamo_nic's point: personally, I think a fic labelled schmoop should send the reader away feeling happy and fuzzy. They might be in floods of tears as well, but only if they're happy tears. It's a matter of mood rather than specific plot details; if you can write about Buffy dying of horrible radiation-induced cancer and yet still leave the reader thinking "Aww, that's just so sweet how Spike loves her", then go for it. ;-)
But schmoop!death!fic? No way. Mourning does not = schmoop. Nosirreebob. Schmoop = fluffy happy and preferably a little cracky, since everyone in love is pretty dorky sometimes. :)
That's pretty much the only way I'd ever read it, lol.
That said, I don't think that's the commonly accepted definition. When I hear schmoop, I definitely think romantic and/or smutty, fluffy, happy ending, possibly with such saccharine sweetness it will make me puke. :)
Definitely not the commonly accepted definition. Though given the definition
There may be cuddles.
There are almost definitely cuddles.
A schmoopy illness is non-life-threatening, and focusses on how cutely pouty the sick partner is, how loving the healthy one is, risking gross tissues and whinging to bring hot soup and cold compresses.
Non-schmoopy illness... yeah. Now you have me thinking how cool it would be to have a story where a vampire is exposed to radiation. Would there be lingering affects? Would he (presuming good guy vamp) have to isolate himself for the protection of others?
Would that suck major? *gleeful hand rubbings of evol fic*
Well, that's my plan for my upcoming prompt, "cuddling while sick". I was hoping to do something different for "anniversary - one partner sick". Though it seems most of fandom associates schmoop with fluff, so I'd be best not doing so.
That's what I get out of it. But... You can finish reading something with a smile and a tear.
(Though, I tend to think of Wes's death as superficially schmoopy and primarily angsty, because it's not actually Fred. And we know that. And so does he. So, more angsty than schmoopy but still quite schmoopy. /digression)
Hmm. I have decided I can tolerate tragic schmoop in canon infinitely more than happy schmoop. The latter tends to make me wish the characters WOULD die.
I think of schmoop as the antithesis of angst. Angst, for me, has a romantic element that ends tragically or on some level of badness, whereas schmoop is romantic with a happy/sweet ending.
Angst conjures up images of heavy sobbing, multitudes of hankies, and chest beating with simultaneous wails of "Why, Lord, why?" Without romance, a story falls into the drama or tragedy category. Angst is drama and/or tragedy, but the reverse isn't necessarily true.
Fluffy fics are lighthearted in general, do not end badly, but do not need romance. They can be friendship fics, e.g. You could equate fluff as the antithesis of drama. So schmoop is a form of fluff with the romance thrown in as angst is a form of drama and/or tragedy with romance as the main source of the drama/tragedy.
But I appear to be the odd one out.