Ha-ha! The Cunning Reader's Cheat Sheet! *bookmarks* This will be a useful Snupin Santa resource..... (Perhaps as a subset of number 8, there is often the ambience of an older, epic war movie: larger-than-life characters, sweeping events... and yes, gazing meaningfully into the distance....) I'll give it a go:

ten signs you might be reading a busaikko-fic
10. All the original characters are African or Asian. (And no one ever notices this....)

9. No one can resist a bad pun. They are rife.

8. If at all humanly possible, no one says 'I love you' (And again, no one ever notices this *g* --> the reason no one notices this is that it is obvious! (I hope!)).

7. Lupin kicks magical ass.

6. Snape has taken up some weird alternative employment: knitting shop owner, haiku poet, computer programmer, snake....

5. Snape is the one with the love of chocolate and sweets. Lupin prefers savoury to sweet.

4. Extremely bad things happen, but not on screen (i.e., there are no long graphic descriptions of the torture, rape, deaths, etc.). The story is not about angsting over the bad things, but about recovering from them. I am so squeamish about discussing the bad things that often people have to ask me in the comments: 'Er: so, Remus is blind?'

3. Even my worst endings have somehow been described as hopeful.

2. Voldemort gets killed in some weird-ass way. There may be pool tables or butterflies involved.

1. Fics that are intended as humour somehow end up with tragic endings and angst. Fics that are intended as angsty usually have the happiest endings. Fics that were meant as crack, it stands to reason, are regular heart-breakers. (This is not hard and fast, but if you've been laughing all along and suddenly find yourself weeping as everything all goes to hell, chances are!)

Whee!