Sweetness

sweet (adj.)

Old English swete "pleasing to the senses, mind or feelings; having a pleasant disposition," from Proto-Germanic *swotja- (source also of Old Saxon swoti, Old Frisian swet, Swedish söt, Danish sød, Middle Dutch soete, Dutch zoet, Old High German swuozi, German süß), from PIE root *swād- "sweet, pleasant" (Sanskrit svadus "sweet;" Greek hedys "sweet, pleasant, agreeable," hedone "pleasure;" Latin suavis "pleasant" (not especially of taste), suadere "to advise," properly "to make something pleasant to"). Words for "sweet" in Indo-European languages typically are used for other sense as well and in general for "pleasing."

Then come kiss me, sweet-and-twenty!

Youth's a stuff will not endure.

["Twelfth Night"]

Also "being in a sound or wholesome state" (mid-13c.), and, of water, "fresh, not salt" (late Old English). As an intensifier from 1958. Sweet in bed (c. 1300) was the equivalent of modern "good in bed." To be sweet on someone is first recorded 1690s. Sweet sixteen first recorded 1767. Sweet dreams as a parting to one going to sleep is attested from 1897, short for sweet dreams to you, etc. Sweet-and-sour in cookery is from 1723 and not originally of oriental food. Sweet nothings "sentimental trivialities" is from 1900. Sweet spot is from 1976, first in reference to tennis rackets. Sweet corn is from 1640s.

sweet (n.)

c. 1300, "something sweet to the taste," also "beloved one," from sweet (adj.); the specific meaning "candy drop" is 1851 (earlier sweetie, 1721). Meaning "one who is dear to another" is from 14c. Old English swete (n.) meant "sweetness."

30     INT.     LOBBY AT HOTEL/ANGEL INVESTIGATIONS - NIGHT

Angel and gang are interviewing Skip about Cordelia.

SKIP

You really think it matters? I mean, nothing I tell you is gonna change what's gonna happen.

ANGEL

Cut the gloom and doom. What's taken over Cordy?

SKIP

Something beyond your comprehension. To give it voice would rend your feeble brain into a quivering mass of—

ANGEL

(looks to Fred) Fred, infinite agony. (walks away)

Fred stands, holding open a book.

SKIP

OK, you got me. It doesn't even have a name.

GUNN

Then what do you call it?

SKIP

Oh, Master or "Hey."

LORNE

Unspeakable horror for real this time.

ANGEL

Ah, it doesn't make sense. Cordy was made a higher being because she proved herself to the Powers by bearing their visions. This thing couldn't have—

WESLEY

Unless it maneuvered her to inherit the visions in the first place.

SKIP

Uh, oh. Better step on it. The rubes are catching up.

ANGEL

It wasn't just her ascension. Everything that's happened to Cordy in the past few years—all of it—was planned.

SKIP

You really think it stops with her, amigo? You have any concept of how many lines have to intersect in order for a thing like this to play out? How many events have to be nudged in just the right direction? (looks at Lorne) Leaving Pylea. (looks at Gunn) Your sister. (looks at Fred) Opening the wrong book. (looks at Wesley) Sleeping with the enemy. (beat) Gosh, (chuckles) I love a story with scope.

GUNN

No way. We make our own choices.

SKIP

Yeah, sure. Cheese sandwich here, uh, when to floss. But the big stuff, like two vampires squeezing out a kid?

ANGEL

Connor.

WESLEY

An impossible birth to make one possible.

SKIP

That's what the kid was designed for.

LORNE

(chuckles) To sleep with mother love?

ANGEL

To create a vessel.

SKIP

Look out. The monkey's thinking again.

ANGEL

Being inside a human makes it vulnerable, doesn't it? That's why it had to stay hidden. Why it needed to create something stronger to pour itself into.

GUNN

Wait. So the big nasty inside of Cordy is going to give birth... to itself?

SKIP

Circle of life. It's a beautiful thing.

ANGEL

How do we stop it?

SKIP

That's the easy part, slick. All you gotta do is find Cordelia and chop her head off.

ANGEL

Has to be another way.

SKIP

Sure. Stab her in the heart, kidney, couple pokes in the lung—

ANGEL

A way that won't kill Cordy in the process.

SKIP

Takes a whole lot of cramming to get that much sweetness into a human. 

It's in every hair, every cell, every molecule of Cordelia's body and it ain't letting go 'til it got a brand new bag.

FRED

What happens to Cordy then?

SKIP

Drained of her life force during labor. Those contractions are a real bitch.

ANGEL

It'll kill her?

SKIP

Or she'll end up a head of cabbage.

WESLEY

What do you wanna do?

SKIP

The only thing you can do. 

Kill the woman he loves to save the world. 

Times like this? 

Really gotta suck being you.

ANGEL

How do I find her? (Skip doesn't answer; Angel walks forward intimidatingly) How?

SKIP

Well, I'd go with the Bu'shundi ritual but, uh, you're gonna need a sacred Hutamin paw for that—

LORNE

Got it. (stands, goes behind the desk)

SKIP

(shocked) What?

LORNE

Cordy—the real Cordy—kept one in her desk drawer.

SKIP

Probably a knock-off. It's not some trinket you'd throw in a desk drawer—

LORNE

(Lorne pulls the item out of Cordelia's desk) She thought it was a back scratcher.

ANGEL

Get started.

SKIP

Wait, wait. Uh, did I say "Bu'shundi "? I meant "Ru'shundi ". It's—it—whole different— (turns around in disgust) Crap.