...WOW. I mean, seriously: HOLY SHIT. You are made of awesome. This fic? Total win. I had to do a bit of Wiki research on Buffy-and-friends before reading it, but I'm glad I did. I actually read this a couple days ago and stayed up til three am to finish it, but was too tired to comment at that point. Now I'm trying to remember everything I wanted to say. One of my favorite parts was definitely the bit about the romance novels... here it is:

Let me tell you, seeing black smoke rise out of a paperback with a lurid cover and reform into the buttoned-up image of a man with widely dilated eyes and tears on his cheeks is deeply disquieting.

Who am I kidding? It's arousing as hell.

That was the point when I realized I loved you. srsly. *glomps and squees* LOVE YOU!!!!

On a more serious note, I wanted to make a few "intelligent" comments about your style... Loved Harry's voice, loved the characterizations, had a love/hate thing going for the few times Harry gets ahead of himself in the storyline, and totally loved the sex... Except that I think Bob would be a little less quick to go from "I love you Harry, but I've never even considered sex with a man" to "Fuck me now"... But it was still way hot, so I love it anyway. (I'm a whore, what can I say) Um.... Usually don't leave reviews this long, but your story was so long I figured I should make the effort... But I think the bit you "nailed" the best was really Harry's voice. Oh, and even though most of your monster of a fic takes place over only a few days, the plot still moved along with a good pace. The dialog and the details made it *totally* worth it. This one not only rates a mem, I'm copying it to my hard-drive. W00T!! *more hugs*

~Amira

P.S. ~ Hope you don't mind the "constructive criticism" - I save that stuff up for the fics that I really love so you should take it as a compliment that I even bothered. *is lazy*

P.P.S ~ The love-hate thing for Harry getting ahead of himself was mostly love because it's so Harry but a little hate 'cause I wanted to whap him on the head and tell him to get on with the story but I couldn't 'cause it's a story... very frustrating. *pokes Harry* Didn't you pay attention to Bob's lessons on creative writing? No wonder his hair turned white. Oh wait, it's been white for a millennia... nevermind

/rant

continued from part 2

...and totally loved the sex... Except that I think Bob would be a little less quick to go from "I love you Harry, but I've never even considered sex with a man" to "Fuck me now"...

Actually, I blame my research on that.

According to the multiple sides I browsed, at the times Bob was alive the Catholic Church hadn't yet damned homosexuality as severely as it would happen later. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian's laws that had been passed in the 6th century, ordaining death by burning for the "sin against nature", were no longer upheld.

And until the 13th century, there were no laws against homosexual sex in Europe, although between 569 to 1008, the so-called "penitentials" (handbooks of penances) were introduced. They were not secular law and only reglemented the penance required of members of the Catholic Church who had committed any of the "sins of Sodom". The basic penance consisted of exclusion from the sacraments, self-mortification (though younger boys were beaten with rods at the hands of older clerics), fasting on bread and water on holy days (which included most days), and general discomfort. The Penitential of Theodore the Archbishop of Canterbury in 670 required 1 year for inter-femoral contact (penis between thighs); 3 years for all lesbian activity, undifferentiated; 7 to 15 years for anal intercourse; 7 to 22 years for fellatio; and, for comparison, 7 to 10 years for murder; 15 years for infanticide (reduced to 7 years if the mother was a pauper). If caught kissing, boys under the age of 20 were subject to 6 special fasts; 8 fasts if it was "licentious kissing"; 10 fasts if it was "kissing with emission"; more if it involved mutual masturbation; and much longer if the partners were over the age of 20. Sometimes the penance was greater for the insertor than for the receptor.

In 1051, Saint Peter Damian, a member of the circle of papal reformers, denounced homosexuality, especially among the clergy. Pope Leo IX., however, questioned the severity of the penances, but did not deny the condemnation itself.

All that changed with the Crusades. The Catholic Church proclaimed that sodomy was rife in the Islam, and used that claim to denounce its enemy and gain support in the kingdoms in Europe. Beginning in 1116, the same claim was then made against heretics like the Henricians, the Albigensians, and later the Knight Templars in 1307. The reasons behind that were more an interest in the wealth amassed by the order than a true revulsion against the male/male orgies they did most likely take part in.

Anyway, that change was felt everywhere, and between 1250 and 1300 homosexual sex turned from a sinful, if legal, practice into a criminal act punishable by death.

My Bob lived before 1066 (the Norman conquest of England). I decided to make 972 the year of his death, which means that during his lifetime, male/male sex used to be legal and more or less common. He might have experienced the introduction of the penitentials, but I doubt he was a very devoted Christian, and I see him as getting several offers once he came into a tavern to book a pallet for the night - two or more by women, and perhaps one by a man. Bob, oversexed as he is *g*, would have accepted the most attractive of the available women and not given much thought to the men. Not because the idea of homosexual sex disgusted him, but because he already had all he could ever wish for with a knowledgeable wench to warm his bedding.

Later, after being cursed, I think he would have been amused at the Church's crackdown on homosexuality, and even more amused whenever one of his "masters" turned out to be a stuck-up upholder of moral standards, and secretly recall the most shocking actions he had ever been a witness to, wishing he could detail them out loud in order to gross out one of the early Morningways.

So, no, I don't think Bob would have anything against homosexual sex, not morally and not personally. I think he'd value feelings far more than morals that never applied to him during his lifetime anyway.