Alison wrote:

What's happening is that some people (mainly women) enjoy writing erotica about men having relations with each other. They prefer that erotica to be grounded to some extent in characterisations that have existence outside of the particular piece of erotic writing itself. Perhaps for two contrasting reasons- women (it appears) find stuff more erotic when it has some back-story and characterisation- as fans they want to explore the characters they like, and do so through eroticisation

I think additionally there's also an awful lot of self-projection going on. If I wonder (fictionally) what it was like on the _Liberator_, I would tend to place myself in that circumstance and try to imagine how I'd behave. Hence my sexual mores -- as well as many of my other views -- will tend to get interposed onto the B7 characters, especially where there's little or conflicting evidence on the point in the series. So, for example, 'my Avon' likes espresso coffee because I'm addicted to espresso coffee. OK, so this might be bad writing, but it's the only writing of which I'm capable....

I'd tend to think of something being 'canonically compatible' if it isn't directly contradicted by canon. So Avon liking espresso coffee is fine (IMO), as there's little or no evidence as to his tastes in hot drinks. Avon being soppy about black-and-white kittens, another Tavian trait, *isn't* fine (IMO), because it would seem outside his canonically established character.

But you're free to take or leave my views on Avon's coffee habits, just as you're free to take or leave writers' views on the crew's sexual habits. After all, it's all just fiction, goddamnit...

Tavia