I believe in the power of stories.

hi mtv, my name’s barry bluejeans and THIS is my eerie cave

"just write a little every day" ok but what if i write nothing for 3 weeks and then suddenly type like i’m being hunted by god

Y'all this is a piece of history right here. Every single time you see a reference to a "shovel talk" in fic, defined here as "someone threatening harm to a potential romantic partner of a friend/loved one," it's referencing this scene. This scene specifically. Everywhere else that is not fannish internet, that interaction is referred to a "shotgun talk," referencing the father threatening a daughter's boyfriend with a shotgun. This scene gave a lot of people a chance to reframe that interaction in terms of a protective friend rather than a possessive father, which for a lot of obvious reasons resonated with people a whole fucking lot, and it immediately spread like wildfire into fannish and then general internet lexicon. I've seen people try and backronym it into an extension of the shotgun talk, as in, "I've got a shotgun and a shovel to bury you with," but I've asked a lot of rednecks from a lot of different necks of the woods and no one has ever encountered that variant in brickspace life. It's all Buffy, babey. This shit is linguistic history in the making.

[ID: gif from Buffy the Vampire Slayer showing Willow saying, "And remember if you hurt her, I will beat you to death with a shovel."/end]

[image description: several illustrations, beginning with a line drawing of an elf woman with chin-length hair. She’s touching her chin and smiling as she says, “If you accept this, Merle, you will lose the memories of the birth of your children!” Next image is of Merle, a dwarf with white hair pulled into a bun and a thick white beard segmented into two short ponytails. He has glasses and an eye patch over one eye, and he’s staring into space as a speech bubble with an ellipses in it is next to him. Next drawing is of a younger Merle, cradling an infant in his arms as the baby reaches up to touch his beard, and a slightly-older-than-that Merle, picking up a toddler as a little girl touches his arm and smiles up at him. The last drawing is back on present-day Merle’s face, which now has an expression of resolve. He says, “I’ll take the penalty.”]

[image description: a drawing of Duck, Aubrey and Ned from the waist up against a white background. Duck is a chubby man with an olive complexion, short dark brown hair that’s graying at the temples and scraggly facial hair. He’s wearing a green fur-lined coat over a yellow button-down shirt and he has a  calm expression on his face. Aubrey is a thin woman with dark brown skin and short textured hair that’s dark brown and shaved on the sides, and dyed orange on top. She’s wearing a dark vest with studded shoulders over a long-sleeve brown shirt with a flame pattern on the sleeves. She has many gold facial piercings and is smiling slightly. Ned is a broad older man. He has light skin with yellow tones, gray hair, a thick beard and glasses. He’s wearing a reddish coat over a white shirt. He’s smiling and saying, “Sounds like yer offerin’ us a gig.”]