Fangirls, to your keboards!

[ratherastory]

Okay, this has been bugging me for MONTHS.

What would YOU call this expression?




The boys and other characters on SPN do this all the time, and I don't know what it's called! It's one of those "Huh, you have made a valid point that I hadn't considered," expressions, but there MUST be a name for it!


HALP!

Comments

[running-hot.livejournal.com]

Dubious acknowledgment is what I'd go with. A dubious frown of acknowledgment.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

That seems to be along the lines of what most people are thinking, yeah.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

I'd call it "a considering frown" ...but, maybe someone else has something better. You're right, they do it a LOT.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

They do it all the time, and I've never been able to reproduce it in fic form, because I'm lacking the proper nomenclature. Bah.

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

A speculative frown? I mean, I normally think of this as just ‘pulling a face’ and sort of let the imagination work on the details of what that face is.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

See, "pulling a face" to me denotes disgust or petulance, and that's not quite right. Mrrr. I don't know.

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

I see what you are saying. Having read further comments I am down with the 'facial shrug'. It seems to cover all the bases well...

[phx69.livejournal.com]

A pout? It is a tough one :P But he looks sweet anyways!

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

He does look sweet!

I wouldn't say pout, because that implies sulking, which isn't what this is. Gah.

[phx69.livejournal.com]

Dubious, then? It kinda reminds me of a face my husband makes when I've told him something that he hadn't necessarily considered before, and it is part skeptical part 'hmmm... I never considered that before.' 'Tis a hard one :P

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty good word for it. It would have to go in a complete sentence to help describe the expression, but I can't think of anything better at this point.

[mimblexwimble.livejournal.com]

As far as I know it's called a facial shrug. How do they do it though? My face won't go that way!

[saschi212.livejournal.com]

That's what I call it, too!

[annj-g80.livejournal.com]

Dito'd :-D

[debbiel66.livejournal.com]

I just stood in front of the mirror, trying to get my face to do that too. Nope. Mine either. I do like facial shrug though.

[cece-away.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's what I've always heard it called.

[cordelia-gray.livejournal.com]

Yes, facial shrug, exactly. I think it's kind of adorable.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I can do it, but it's not an expression I make a lot. ;)

[jesseofthenorth.livejournal.com]

Speculative, considering frown.
I'm lazy I call it the "Huh!" look ;D

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

That's what I call it too. :)

[de-nugis.livejournal.com]

When I see that I have a voice like Oz from Buffy's internal monologue "Huh."

[de-nugis.livejournal.com]

Uh, that is Oz-from-Buffy, the internal monologue being his, not Buffy's. Sorry, I have a headache and a brain ache.

[tifaching.livejournal.com]

LOL, I was trying to figure out what internal monologue of Buffy's Oz was "Huh-ing" in.

[de-nugis.livejournal.com]

I SPENT THREE HOURS BEING TAUGHT HOW TO MEASURE WATERMARKS TODAY. I am incapable of coherence, prose, and, I greatly fear, watermark measurement.

You remember that ep where Buffy could hear people's thoughts and Oz had all those deep philosophical reflections punctuated by "huh"? The Oz huh has become an important expressive concept for me.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's exactly it! Alas, it doesn't work for when I'm trying to describe it in fanfic. :(

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

I've always mentally just called it the ".... huh." face.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Me too, but how do I describe it in fic? It's driving me nuts!

[peepingdru.livejournal.com]

FACIAL ACROBATICS...ONLY ACHIEVABLE BY J2!:)))))))))))

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

LOL

[erickajane.livejournal.com]

LOL I've been trying to put a name to this expression forever, and have yet to be successful. Facial shrug fits nicely. I think I always just call it a contemplative frown, which isn't as cool as "facial shrug."

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I can't use "facial shrug" in a fic. It just looks wrong. ;)

[emmram.livejournal.com]

Well, if you're going for a stream-of-consciousness thing, it might still work. Refur used it to great effect whenever she wrote Dean (and man do I love the way she writes Dean!).

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I'm not Refur by any stretch of the imagination, alas. I do use stream-of-consciousness a fair bit when I write Dean (a lot more than when I write Sam, whose thoughts always seem to come out more organized for some reason), but I doubt I could ever reach her level of brilliance when it comes to Dean's inner monologue. :)

[tifaching.livejournal.com]

I can make the perfect sound to go with it, that "hmm" where the m is higher pitched than the h, but since it's difficult to write pitch, I'd have to go with speculative frown.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's pretty good. It's the closest anyone has come to it, anyway. :)

[asilia.livejournal.com]

I would't even know what to call it in German, let alone in English... I'd go with something like 'huh' face or so. And I adore that look, esp. on Sam :)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Heh.

I love how many people have icons of Sam making that face, but no one can tell me what it is. \o/

[katwoman76.livejournal.com]

That's because sometimes a look says more than a thousand words. ;)

[emmram.livejournal.com]

That's actually a pretty good question. I've always called it the "lipshrug" in my head (and hey, if "bitchface" has become a valid term...).

I've only ever described it once in my writing. I think it went something like this:

The corners of his lips quirked down as he considered the possibility. "Huh."

*pokes at sentence* Blech.

It just comes back to the "Huh.", doesn't it?

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

It really does. It makes the OCD part of me a little nuts that I can't find a word for that expression. Gnarr.

[nwspaprtaxis.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you posted this.... and I'm reading through the comments and feeling kind of ineffective. Mostly because I can't accurately describe it in a fic either. The nomenclature is driving me insane. It comes down to the "huh" but it feels woefully inept.

But what I *do* love is that both guys can do it. In my opinion, JP does it slightly better than JA, but JA's no slouch at it either. I can't do it at all.

Also, re: that picture, OH MY GOSH!!! SAM'S HAIR!!! I'D FORGOTTEN HOW MUCH I LIKED HIM WITH BANGS!!!

And, well, that shot is pretty much right after my favorite scene in PLAYTHINGS -- Puking!Sam for the win! \o

[kasman.livejournal.com]

Considering the scene that cap is from, hungover "you've made a valid point".