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nyxocity · 3 years

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Fic Writer Questions!

Thanks to @redmyeyes for the tag!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

82, although that's not even close to my actual total. There's a bunch on LJ that have never been transferred (all shorter works)

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,780,805 (over 2mil on LJ)

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Mostly three, plus a couple dips into a few other pools. X-Men Comic Book fandom, Buffy & Angel fandom (they kinda count as one since it's the same universe), and Supernatural & SPN RPF. Dips have included Dragon Age, Firefly, a tiny bit of TVD, a Sons of Anarchy crossover.

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

This is tough if I go by numbering. Homework Verse has the most kudos scattered across all parts, but Stranger Than Fiction has the most as a single story. Anyway...

Homework Verse (J2 RPF, 200k+ words) - My very first RPF fic, Supernatural or otherwise. Two of my online fandom friends basically TOLD me I was going to write Teacher/Student J2, and I kept protesting that I drew the line at RPF. They didn't care. 200k later, here we are. This story was a game changer for me; it made me fandom famous. I still love those boys with my whole heart, and they still talk to me sometimes.

Stranger Than Fiction (Sam/Dean, 50644 words) - This story idea took root immediately following the episode The Monster at the End of This Book. I quit the Big Bang I'd already begun writing for that year (which was Who Watches Over Me, which I finished and posted for BB the following year) to write this story. It just took hold hold of me and took over. I wrote it in 6 weeks and it was easily the most fun I ever had writing anything--I cackled like a madwoman most of the time.

Who Watches Over Me (J2 RPF, 96591 words) - This story was, at the time, the toughest thing I'd ever written. Little did I know that would become the norm and not the exception, as I began to write more complex stories. It was by far the longest story I had ever posted all at once in its entirety (rather than chapter by chapter) and I had no idea if people would like it. Fortunately a lot of people did.

Like Staring Into the Sun (Sam/Dean, 23243 words) - Ah, my very first hardcore Wincest fic. I remember writing the first chapter of the story (meant to be a one shot honestly), and just sitting there, at 5am, being terrified to post it. It was twisted, dark and intense and SO porny I was scared people might think I was weird. There wasn't anything like it out there at the time. As it turns out, people loved it so much I ended up writing eight more parts.

Like a Fish Out of Water (Sam/Dean, 59498 words) - I have a lot of love for this story. It didn't come to me easily, but it was fun to write. I remember smiling a lot and just having a nice, warm cozy feeling the whole time. I had no idea if anyone was interested in reading this many words of what amounted to a dramedy curtain fic

Of course there are other stories that I feel deserve love, but I can't argue with these.

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I do. And by that, I mean I try. I don't always succeed in answering them all, but I answer as many as I have time and energy for. Life is busy and there is writing to do as well. I read every comment I get (multiple times) and I feel guilty for all the ones I don't answer, because they mean SO MUCH TO ME. Like you took time to leave this beautiful, well thought out comment, or even a keysmash, or a heart, in response to something I wrote. That means the world.

I WISH there was a reaction function for comments on Ao3, so I could heart things, or laugh in response. Replying with emojis without words feels weird. So yeah, a reaction function would be amazing. But in the meantime, I do my best.

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hmm. Probably A Touch of Evil. Interestingly, it's also a HAPPY ending, so there you go lol. It's a serial killer love story with a happy ending that comes at an exorbitant price.

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I'm not sure why the OG post skips from 6 to 8 lol . So, yes, I have written a few minors crossovers. Mostly Faith in the SPN verse with the boys, nothing too crazy, because she fits right in. But for long stories, I have written all of ONE crossover. It's Dean Winchester/Jax Teller (SPN / Sons of Anarchy). My crossovers so far have tended to make sense to crossover, so I don't think any of them are crazy.

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes. I got some hate on a Buffy/Xander fic back in the day. I got really excited and had fun with it. Like yeah, now I'm SOMEBODY! You're no one til someone hates you lol Most of that was people who were haters of the ship, or were like, gross, they're like brother and sister (they weren't, they were FRIENDS). I've gotten nasty comments here and there on some of my SPN fic. My favorite was the person who accused me of having a "Top Dean Agenda". I STILL laugh about that one. I don't respond to that crap.

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Have you MET ME? LOL If I ever post a story without smut just put me out to pasture, because I'm done. And all kinds. Het, Gay, PWP, Plotty porn, mostly super kinky but some vanilla (but intense). I used to challenge myself regularly to see if I could up my kink game--like hmm, but could I write THIS? I haven't written really kinky sex in a long time, though. Might be time to do that.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Several times. Who Watches Over me was stolen by someone and converted to One Direction Lourry fic. Literally just did a name change. Someone else stole a bunch of my one shots and passed them off as their own. I know there were a couple other instances but I only vaguely remember. I never got too deep into it, most of the time the people who discovered the theft already told everyone else too, and the plagiarist had been hammered by them so hard that I didn't have to step in before they took it down.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes. I used to get requests so often that I just posted my usual response in my profile for people to read instead of replying. Definitely into Russian and Chinese for most of the stories listed with most kudos above.

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

A few times on one shot fics. SO MUCH FUN. I love co-writing with people.

14) What’s your all time favorite ship?

Sam/Dean. Easily. Hands down. I just love their unique relationship, bond and love so much.

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Well I finally finished A Touch of Evil after posting 3 chapters in 2009 and never touching it again until 2017. And I never thought I'd finish that. So never say never, I say. That said, there's the third and final part of my X-Men comic book epic that remains unfinished by about five (shorter) chapters, and it HAUNTS ME. But I don't think I'll ever finish it.

16) What are your writing strengths?

NOW we get to the hard questions. I'm really good at dialogue, bouncing banter back and forth between characters, and I have a sense for how long a scene should be. I just KNOW when it's going on too long, even if there's more that needs to be said, and I try to tighten it up in that case.

A friend of mine once told me "Porn is my gift". I don't write as much of it as I used to, but yeah, I shine in that area.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

So I always reach a point after writing so many words in an unpublished fic where I'm like, I have no idea if this is even any good/makes sense/hangs together etc. Beyond that, I've been writing for so long that I've had so much practice that I've strengthened a lot of my weaknesses. I'm sure I still have some, but I don't FEEL them like I used to anymore. That said, there are things I simply will not write. Like historical pieces. Because I would research the fuck out of every detail trying to get it perfect and then I would still doubt myself completely.

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I mostly try to avoid it, because there's no way I would ever get the language correct. I usually write it in English and then explain that they're saying it in another language. Like, "What are you doing?" the man asks, speaking in Chinese. Then reiterate in the continuing dialogue in various ways that they're speaking in Chinese.

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

X-Men Comic Book fandom. I was reading a lot of Remy/Rogue fic back in 1996-1997, and one day I was like, you know what? This person did a pretty good job on this story. It's not great, but it's pretty good, and if they can have the guts to put it out there, then I can do it, too.

20) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

This is a tough question. I don't love all my children equally, but I love them all a lot in different ways lol

Remembering favorite is different than which one I think is BEST... Homework Verse is probably my favorite. I was learning so much about writing then, I was really growing, and discovering, and pushing my limits. Those characters lived and breathed in me, I swear they spoke through me from some alternate universe. They feel so REAL to me. There's so much of what I've learned in life in that story, like really, big, life changing ideas and understandings that happened to me that I put into that story. There's so much of me in that story, and yet there's so much of THEM, too. It's their story, but it's also mine. It's raw and not entirely perfect and it feels like home to me.

So that's it, that's my piece. I feel like EVERYONE has been tagged since it took me 3 days to have time to do this, but I'm basically tagging any of you writers out there who haven't done this yet!

#my stories #about me #writing #on writing

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we-pay-for-everything · 3 years

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10 most controversial opinions you have heard about the characters of Buffy the vampire slayer and what do you think about them?

I’ve been meaning to answer this for a long time, and this is my second attempt. I’ve been in the fandom long enough that nothing is controversial to me - I don’t even know what a controversial opinion is anymore. I’ve taken the liberty of choosing some opinions fans are split on, as well as some of my own less popular opinions about the characters (and relationships).

1. Willow is lesbian/bi. Fans have been debating this for ages, and both sides have plenty of supporters, so it’s not even a controversial opinion, but rather a controversial topic. My opinion is that Willow is both lesbian and bi, sort of.

Willow was written as straight from the beginning, and her relationship with Oz can’t be seen as anything other than genuine imo. If you consider her character until Tara’s appearance, and vampire Willow, then Willow is written at most as bi (mainly straight in the minds of the writers, who had the old fashioned thought that every straight person lusted after a person of the same gender but it meant nothing). However, her character was “retconned” after season 4. The writers either weren’t open minded enough to write a bi character or weren’t thorough enough when making Willow lesbian - I say this because they never reframed her relationship with Oz in the context of Willow being a lesbian: if they wanted the fans to think Willow was gay from the beginning they should’ve cleared some things up (Oz’s last episode is a good example of this). However, Willow undeniably stated she was gay and didn’t like men anymore. That doesn’t leave room for interpretation: after Oz, Willow only liked women and didn’t see men in a sexual/romantic way. Does that mean she didn’t like men in the past (she always said “gay now”) or that she won’t like men in the future (it seems that way...)? I think you can say she’s gay but liked Oz (and even Xander) romantically, or that she’s bi but strongly leaning towards women after Oz. I think you can argue in many different ways. The only wrong opinion is saying Willow never liked Oz or doesn’t like women. I think the show is pretty clear on the fact that Willow was in love with Oz at one point, and the latter seasons never refuted that. I have a bi friend who said Willow was bi and loved both Tara and Oz, and I know lesbians who said she was gay and not bi. There’s not right or wrong, I think, because Willow was written as straight, from the writers’ pov, for 3.5 seasons, and then become gay. The lack of consensus in the fandom is due to the incongruence between pre-Tara and post-Tara Willow.

2. Joyce is a good/bad mother: This is almost identical to the debate over Willow’s sexuality. Joyce is written very inconsistently. Because of how she died, and the fact that she became a decent mother when Dawn entered the picture, many fans think positively of Joyce’s parenting. I also think a lot of people go easy on parents: as long as the kid isn’t physically or blatantly abused and lives comfortably, it’s all good. Personally, although my expectations are much higher, Joyce doesn’t even come close to reaching them. She systematically neglects Buffy throughout the show, and puts Buffy in the position of being the caretaker in the family (Gingerbread is a good example of this). Even if Joyce loved Buffy and was written that way because good parents are boring and bothersome, I still strongly believe she wasn’t a good mother. I can’t forget her good qualities but neither can I forget episodes like Ted and Becoming part 2, or her attitude towards Buffy being a slayer and dating an older man.

3. Giles is not a great character overall. Personally, I can’t really love Giles. As a character, I think he starts off strong but gets tossed aside by season 4 and never quite regains his footing in the show. He doesn’t really evolve or grow past season 3. In season 4, there’s a weird “reset” where Giles becomes much happier and goofier, as well as a bit dumber, and this carries on into season 5. Then things get serious in season 6 and he’s written out of the show in a very unflattering way. The final nail in the coffin in season 7. If you put all of it together, Giles is wasted as a character, and ASH’s massive talent is wasted as well. All of this makes it hard to love Giles as well. He has too many moments of neglectfulness and apathy.

4. Giles is not a good father figure/ I didn’t like his relationship with Buffy. Is this even a controversial opinion? I think people love Giles and Buffy overall, so that part may be. Giles is definitely not a good father figure or mentor to anyone - definitely not to Xander, most definitely not to Willow or Faith, not even to Buffy. Giles was a very flawed character who never made it his job to take responsibility for other people. His responsibilities were to his Slayer - and that was a choice he made. He didn’t want to be anyone else’s mentor. He didn’t try with Willow, and he was never very interested in Faith. Giles was exactly like Joyce - inconsistently written for the sake of the story. If Giles hadn’t often been neglectful or inconsiderate the characters wouldn’t have struggled so much and made the mistakes they made. Giles was often sacrificed for the the story (which is a common theme in the Buffyverse), so, to me, he’s a very morally ambiguous character. It makes him interesting, but because the ambiguity often comes from bad writing, imo, it’s actually not a good thing.

5. Tara isn’t a great character. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard this before, but I know Tara is generally a beloved character. I just don’t connect with her, or think she was very well written. She was just there for Willow - until season 6, which was her best season - and I feel like she was inconsistently written too. There’s just something missing with her.

I can’t think of anything else! If anyone has some controversial opinions for me, I’ll add a part 2 and finish this ask properly. I’m really sorry, Anon! I’m very grateful for your interest, but this is a really tough ask!

#ask meme #btvs #willow rosenberg #rupert giles #joyce summers #tara mclay #thanks #Anonymous

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buffyversefanfiction · 3 years

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Slayer of Slayers

Warnings:I do not own, nor do I claim to own any of the copyright or characters within the Buffyverse which includes but not limited to the television shows Buffy and Angel, as well as the Darkhorse comics series’ continuation.

15+ Strong to moderate violence, Graphic to mild descriptions of gore, and torture, sexually charged scenes, sexual innuendos, mild to strong language, and practices of witchcraft.

M/M, F/F, M/F, GEN, OTHER +

PART SIX LINK HERE

Part Seven - Rogues

1928

Spike found himself running through woods in the middle of the night in search of his beloved Drusilla only to find his sire dancing on a field, which had been scorched by fire, as the raven-haired vampire continued swaying from side to side, laughing away at herself in the process making Spike curious to what she was up to now. “Dru, what are you doing out here?” Spike asked the woman he loved as he walked towards her, pulled her body into his arms, and began dancing with Drusilla. “Here on these very grounds lies a future of torment, torture, and agonizing pain…it’s so delicious it makes me giddy!” Drusilla replied as she continued to slow dance with her immortal lover. “One day I’m going to raise a family right here, and will almost be worth all that I’ll have to lose before then…” “I was worried you got yourself killed babe; you know you’re not at your full strength,” Spike confessed admitting his fears for her. “Oh, my dear William, I will be the only one who will not die, not once, even at times when I’m so lonely I wish I would die…” Drusilla sighed with a profound sense of sadness, wanting to stay in that moment but knowing the future was coming. “You’ll always have me!” Spike protested, meaning what he said with all his heart but not knowing what the future would hold for him and the woman he loved more than he could ever imagine loving someone…at the time.

1977

Following Angelus leaving her after regaining his soul and Darla returning to The Master, Drusilla knew her time with Spike was nearing an end, that the quest for her to become strong again would be the beginning of the end for them both and despite how much sadness the thought of losing her beloved Spike one day, she knew her and Spike’s trip to New York would bring some happiness to them both as Spike set out to kill his second vampire slayer, Nikki Wood, while Drusilla set her sights on siring a new vampire, the first child of her new family. Drusilla had spent most of the night watching Tobias from a distance, she followed him as he walked home from his work at a diner nearby to his rundown studio apartment, watched him as he got strung up on drugs, and noticed that this man was far from the one she had seen in her visions. At first glance, this man was no more than a depressed junkie who without her input would die a nobody within a matter of years, but as she watched him further, she began to see the potential hidden deep within him and decided to make her move. “How sad a life you must live to need to block it out with every toxin available to you.” Drusilla greeted Tobias after he opened his apartment door to her, the vampire waiting in the hallway, ready to claim him as her own. “I can feel your pain as if it was my own and I know you are so lost you think you cannot find a way out of your despair, but mummy can make everything all better.” “Did Mick send you? He always did like his girls crazy as hell, just hand me the drugs already and tell Mick I’ll pay him when I get my wages from the diner.” Tobias replied to her, having no clue who she really was nor what she had planned for him. “I do not know this Mick, but I do know you, Tobias, I know who you are now, but I also know who you can be. I can give you meaning in this world, a purpose, and a love that will consume you…you will never be alone!” Drusilla said in a rather convincing tone, acting if she was the answer to his many troubles. “Whatever you are on lady…I want some.” Tobias responded in a mocking tone, confused by who this woman was and what she wanted from him. “I can you make you stronger than you ever imagined, give to you a family you have always longed for, make you part of something truly incredible and even lead you to the love of your life…once I make you worthy of him of course,” Drusilla promised the young man, knowing this time that her words were somewhat resonating with him, tempting him to give her a chance to prove she was telling him the truth, a chance which she would use to turn him into a vampire-like her…

The 2000s

Drusilla stood in the same field she had once stood in the late 20s, but what was now standing there was the abandoned building of an insane asylum, a building which had been built, used, and abandoned within the years since she had last visited this field. and the vampire could not prepare her eyes, for the place was even more beautiful, to her at least, than she found it in her many visions, and now that she had lost her beloved Spike, she could at least find some salvage in claiming the home she had dreamed off for many decades now. “It’s been a long time my darling boy, mummy would be so mad at you if you were not the only family, I had left…for now,” Drusilla told Tobias as he began walking up towards his sire until he was stood next to her. “I really did love that man just like I loved Angelus and grandmother, but they are all gone now…” “I still do not understand why you wasted so much time on that peroxide prick but then I’ve never been in love, if it were not for you, I’d have found it impossible for any vampire,” Tobias replied to the vampire who had created him. “You’ve certainly had your fair share of conquests though; you’ve been a very naughty boy but the time for you to settle down with your forever love is coming soon and mummy could not be more excited,” Drusilla revealed to him, knowing she was going closer to forming a new family, one she believed would be even better than the ones that came before.

Modern Day…

Buffy and Spike’s on/off relationship had reached its inevitable end almost two years ago, when their last split led to Buffy’s one night stand with Angel resulting in a baby which led to Buffy going M.I.A. after losing that baby, and in her absence, Spike had taken over the duties of protecting the city of San Francisco, a city which included Buffy’s sister Dawn Summers, Dawn’s daughter Joyce Harris, and Spike’s on/off roommate Xander Harris in its population. And it was during his patrolling duties within a local cemetery in the city of San Francisco that he was reunited with an old friend, one who would lead him into joining a mission to kill the first woman he ever loved… “Sneaking up on a vampire is a rather foolish move considering the heightened bloody hearing and everything,” Spike shouted into the dark night as he turned around looking for a face to come out of the shadows. “Calm down Spike I was merely trying to surprise an old friend.” Ruby Moon stated as she appeared from out of the shadows. “Someone who I owe my life to and yet have the audacity to ask another favor of.” “Well, if it isn’t the little witch, I helped break free from my ex-Dru’s crazy cult,” Spike said with a smile on his face, happy to see the witch in question. “I heard you were all suburban wife again living the normal life or as close to it as one can get married to one of Riley Finn’s G.I. blows.” “It’s good to see you again too!” Ruby responded with a chuckle as she walked towards the vampire, whom she considered being a good friend, one who she knew she could rely on. “So, go on and tell me what you need saving from this time? Please do not tell me your back being the ex’s magical minion again because you only get one save from that, the second time is on you!” Spike told her with a level of sarcasm, knowing he was about to help her again no matter what situation she had now found herself in. “Remember the friend we left behind? The one crazy enough to consider Drusilla as family. Well, he’s forming a team to kill that ex of yours, and something tells me you will want to be part of that team.” Ruby revealed to the vampire. “I’ve put Dru in my past and if you are smart you would too, let this friend of yours go it alone if he’s so determined serves him right for not getting out when you gave him the option anyway.” Spike rejected her offer, not loving Drusilla anymore but not wanting to be part of her death either. “This friend of mine is Theo Frey, and it just so turns out his mother happens to be your latest ex Buffy Summers’ son, I figured telling you that would help change your mind and everything considering you do not want to be the one telling the slayer that you had a chance to save her son and said no.” Ruby continued with her revelations, shocking Spike by the latest, knowing with certainty he would not reject her offer a second time.

Elsewhere, back in the city of Los Angeles, Theo Frey was once again stood behind his now run-down dive bar, the one he shared with his now-dead again lover Tobias, frozen in thought, with tears in his eyes, as he began to wonder whether Tobias was as guilty as Drusilla for killing his parents, wondering if his entire relationship with Tobias was just a lie and he had been nothing more than a fool to both him and his sire Drusilla. Suddenly, the very place he returned to for comfort, the place he lived with Tobias, and the place they have both called home, had become nothing more than a place of ruins holding memories of a past that the vampire/slayer hybrid could no longer believe to be true after Ruby’s recent revelations. “I did not think I would be seeing you again especially in the place you almost burned to the ground.” Theo declared after drying his eyes, as Faith Lehane, the vampire slayer determined on pestering him forever, walked into what remained of his demonic little dive bar. “Well, it’s not like you can be picky with your customers considering you only have half a bar these days.” Faith joked with the vampire as she walked over to the counter cautiously. “Your little friend Ruby left me this really sketchy video about you and her going to take out Drusilla and now Spike seems to be in on this little mission so I threw my hat in the ring considering you could do with another super strength in the ring, and something tells me you’re not exactly going to be hitting up B or Angel anytime soon…” “Ruby said something of getting some vamp help, but she never said anything about Spike and as for you no thanks, the last time I played with you, you turned my lover into ashes, well your blue-haired pet did anyway.” Theo snapped at the slayer, refusing to team up with her after their complicated history. “I get that you do not trust me, and I do not trust you but here’s the thing Dru’s a big player and she’s made an enemy of everyone not just you so, swallow your pride dude, and take the help I mean it’s better taking too much firepower to the vengeance party than winding up losing her…she’s survived this long for a reason kiddo.” Faith advised the slayer of slayers, trying to convince him to accept her help. “If B hears I’m not going you know she’s going to get herself involved, I mean it was hard enough telling her to sit this one out like it and I will not even get you started on Angel…” “Killing Drusilla…it does not mean I’m suddenly team slayer or anything, it just means, for now, she’s number one on my hitlist…” Theo explained to her. “I will not protect you; I will not save you, and I most certainly will not thank you.” “Well, that sure as hell seems like a yes to me.” Faith smirked, knowing Theo would rather chance to trust her, than giving Drusilla too much of an opportunity to escape his vengeance. Once Theo reluctantly agreed to work alongside Faith, and Ruby returned to Los Angeles with Spike in tow, the team consisting of a vampire slayer turned vampire, a rogue slayer turned good, a vampire with a soul, and a powerful witch began planning to strike Drusilla where she’s least expected to be attacked, at the one place she called home…

Faith, Theo, Ruby, and Spike found themselves deep within the woods, the same woods that Spike had once visited many years ago, and the same woods Theo and Ruby knew all too well thanks to their time with Drusilla, and before long the group of rogues had found themselves standing outside of the abandoned insane asylum, boarded up with planks of wood that themselves had been broken, with smashed windows, and a general sense of abandonment, abandoned in the middle of nowhere, the road to it long gone, hidden in shame of its own secrets A truly horrifying, and haunted place filled with misery from its past, and the perfect home for an insane vampire-like Drusilla. “I get you’re on mission vengeance and everything here Theo but what are the chances you are going to turn us all and lead us into some kind of slaughter?” Faith asked Theo, as the four remained hidden within the trees, beginning to question Theo’s loyalty towards this team of rogues. “The only person I hate more than you and the blue haired bitch is Drusilla so as long as she is alive you are safe but the minute, she’s dead we’re back to being enemies,” Theo answered honestly, making it clear he had no intention of seeking redemption. “He looks like Angel speaks like Angelus and smells like Buffy,” Spike stated, referring to Theo’s similarities with his biological parents. “Got to say it’s as hot as it is annoying!” “Listen up do not let your past get in the way of dusting Drusilla once and for all or else you’ll be joining your ex in the afterlife!” Theo quickly threatened Spike, proving he distrusted them as much as they distrusted him. “You were her minion just days ago I was her equal, if we have to worry about anyone getting second thoughts then it's you, not me!” Spike responded, making it clear he was down to do what needed to be done. “She killed my parents, there’s no going back for me even if it kills me, you better know it's going to kill her too!” Theo declared defiantly as he prepared for the fight of his undead life.

Instead of just charging into the abandoned asylum, Theo decided to get his poker face on, going in first and playing nice with his former mentor Drusilla, as he got a layout of where her minions had placed themselves, knowing the vampire was always ready for an attack, ready to strike before anyone else, as her asylum had become her armed kingdom. Despite the disgust over having to pretend not to entirely loathe the woman that had killed the parents who had raised him since birth, Theo knew it would be worth the cost once he ended the night plunging a wooden stake into Drusilla’s chest if he could convince her that he was still an ally of hers, the problem, of course, being Drusilla was always one step ahead. “My first family was taken by Angelus before he decided to take me too…” Drusilla told Theo as they walked down one of the many hallways found within the abandoned asylum that Drusilla used as her headquarters. “But then I found a new one with him and Darla, then my Spike but your mother took that all from me which is why I found it so fitting that I was the one to take you from her…but you were never really mine were you?” “What are you talking about? I believed your every word, did every demand and loved you like a son, I have been loyal to you since the first time I met you and I continue to be.” Theo argued with her, fearing she already knew of his intentions to kill her. “I took you into my home and loved you like a son, I even loved you when you took Tobias from me because I knew that was the way things had to be but now you’re too far gone for me to save…” Drusilla said with a great sense of sadness as the two stopped walking, and Theo noticed vampires appearing from both ends of the hallway, as he realized she was the one ambushing him. “The only thing I can do for you now is killing you and hope you are reunited with Tobias in whatever hellish dimension you are sent to.” “You really do see everything coming, don’t you?” Theo asked as he pulled out a wooden stake from his jacket pocket. “You killed my parents, pretended to save me, and had me fooled to think you as my savior all this time! I trusted you…I fought for you…I loved you!” “Everything I did I did to make you who you are today, the slayer of slayers, the world’s first self-sired vampire and you repay me with siding with the very same people who abandoned you without a second thought,” Drusilla replied, as she pulled out a wooden stake of her own from out of the side of her dress, as her minions cautiously walked closer to them both, ready to help their master if Theo got the upper hand. “I don’t give a shit about them! I gave a shit about my parents, the ones who raised me, who loved me, and you took them from me!” Theo shouted at her furiously. “My whole life has been one big lie and you’re the one telling the twisted tale.” “I loved you as much as someone like me could ever love anybody…you were more my son than perhaps even Tobias, I had such high hopes for you and now you’re letting something as mortal as dead humans affect your emotions making you dumb, dumb, dumb,” Drusilla responded before going on to reveal. “My vision had two endings you know…one where you were her ending and another where she was yours, I guess we both know now what ending you have chosen.” Suddenly, the two vampires who had once considered themselves to be like mother and son were now ready to fight to the death against each other, both feeling equal as betrayed as the other, Theo having perfectly reasonable reasons to feel betrayed by her, and Drusilla in her mind only having reasons of her own.

Meanwhile, just outside of the abandoned insane asylum, where Drusilla and Theo were beginning to battle each other, Faith, Spike, and Ruby remained to hide behind the same trees where Theo had left the three of them as they awaited a signal from the vampire slayer/vampire hybrid to know when to come into the fight, not realizing that Drusilla already had the upper hand on them all. “I know he’s Buffy’s kid, Angel’s too, but at what point do we just bail on this and let the two vamps fight it out between themselves?” Spike asked the vampire slayer, and witch, who he was stood next to. “I mean this guy is just as evil as everything else we tend to kill so why don’t we leave it to Drusilla to kill him instead of one of us killing the kid?” “I am not going anywhere!” Ruby said defiantly, refusing to give up on her former best friend. “I have known Theo my whole life, you two only know the evil side to him but I’ve seen the best and worst of him and I was there when he lost everything…despite that there’s still good in him.” “Well, I do not bloody see it,” Spike replied to the brown-haired witch. “But I am not leaving you to die out here!” “I saw it…in the way he loved that vamp Toby or whatever, they loved each other as I’ve never seen anyone love each other, except maybe Buffy and Angel.” Faith confessed, once again standing up for the slayer of slayers, feeling now more than ever before that his redemption was drawing nearer. Suddenly, the sound of a window-smashing grabbed their attention, as they turned to see a vampire falling from the top floor window before hitting the ground with force, before getting back onto his feet and running back into the asylum via a side door, and although this was not the signal they agreed on, it was clear to Faith, Spike, and Ruby that Theo was in trouble and now was the time to act.

Theo’s fight against Drusilla was unfair in every way as each time he gained the upper hand against his former undead mentor, her vampire army would attack him, and before long he was down on the floor, bloody, bruised, and beaten, while being pinned down by several vampires as Drusilla stood above him, ready to plunge the wooden stake she held into his chest and end him once and for all. “You have been such a naughty boy Theodore,” Drusilla stated with a look of struggle in her eyes as she kneeled over Theo’s body, clearly finding great difficulty with the fact she was about to kill someone she once loved like a son. “All I ever wanted was to be your mother…but she gets her claws into everyone I love.” “Get it over with already!” Theo shouted at her, ready to admit his defeat, accept his fate, and let his miserable life come to an end. And Drusilla did just what she was told, as tears formed in her eyes, she plunged the stake into Theo’s death while letting out a frantic scream at the same time, before falling backward and beginning to sob manically for a moment, only to be left just as stunned as Theo himself as he did not turn to dust, but instead, pulled the stake out of his chest, and rose back onto his feet. Before Theo or Drusilla could even usher a single word to display their joined shock at the fact that Theo was somehow still alive, the surrounding vampires, very recently loyal to Drusilla, began to kneel for Theo, displaying the change in loyalty, now towards the slayer of slayers, as Drusilla quickly rose to her feet and made her way out of the exit located nearest to her, as a shocked Theo continued to look at the vampires kneeling before him, still in shock, as the stake he was holding, which was just plunged into his chest, fell to the ground. “You are our new master now!” One of the vampires declared as Theo continued to just stand there in shock. “A vampire that cannot die, the true immortal, the true heir to the undead kingdom!” Another declared, followed by cheers from fellow vampires, just as Faith, Spike, and Ruby rushed into the hallway from the exit farthest away from them all, only to stop in their tracks by the shocking sight in front of them. “Theo…” Ruby shouted towards her former friend, having no idea what all this meant, or what would follow, as the slayer of slayers was declared king among the vampires…

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prose-for-hire · 4 years

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I know what you did last Halloween...

Part Two // Part Three // Part Four

Pairing: Scooby gang x reader (platonic)

This is a platonic story with the reader as part of the Scooby gang. Set season 3. It’s going to be a small multi-parted serial killer/slasher fic for Halloween. Reader lives with Giles, but is not related. The deaths in this part are not described in much detail.

Not sure how popular it’ll be with you guys, but I’ve enjoyed writing it so far !! 🖤🦇

Warning: It is a serial killer fic, main characters are going to die (I’m sorry, it’s Halloween). Violence. Blood mention. Threat.

Sunnydale Scare? Scythe-wielding killer strikes again

Sunnydale Express, October 1999.

Sunnydale High school, not used to such horror inflicted on their student body since Principal Flutie’s unfortunate death in office [His memorial will be on the 31st as his family reveal it was his favorite time of year].

The scythe-wielding killer, who was seen wearing all-black with a festive mask, has claimed his most recent victims. Two members of the swim team found themselves in hot water after they were found with brutal and fatal injuries. The wounds matched the scythe that is commonly associated with the widely termed ‘Sunnydale slasher’.

It makes us wonder at the Sunnydale Express, why and how this idyllic town has managed to create such a monster?

You and the Scoobies were good friends. You helped save the world more than once whilst fighting algebra homework and Principal Snyder. You had moved from your hometown to Sunnydale at the same time as Buffy, meeting her on your first day and becoming best friends since that day. You had moved into Giles’ spare room after your parents had wanted to move on again. You had been sucked into the slaying and you couldn’t leave the others. Giles had been very accommodating and very much like a parental figure. Things had been going well, you were close to graduating and finally getting the hell out of there until one life-changing event that would forever be ingrained in your minds.

You and your friends were sat around the school canteen. The mood was pretty low and you were collectively checking over your shoulders every so often. You had been discussing the latest spate of murders. Surprisingly, it was widely covered by various news outlets and hadn’t been brushed under the rug as the usual demon relating killings were.

Buffy and Faith had been doing double patrolling, making sure there was always someone out after dark. Giles had been pleased but he wasn’t aware of the real reason. Although he had noted a difference in your mood in the past year. Despite the extra patrolling, no matter how many demon-snitches they beat up and threatened, there was no changing the answer they didn’t want to hear.

“So this… slasher? He’s-it’s-she’s-?” Xander spluttered through the pronouns in his disbelief.

“Yep. Human” Buffy shrugged, sighing and staring down at her food. Nobody had eaten anything. The lunch you all had set out in front of you was just for show. None of you could stomach much at the moment.

“Shouldn’t we have found them by now?” Willow wondered, her brow furrowing in frustration.

“It could be anyone. And I’m guessing they’re not exactly wearing their ‘I’m a killer come catch me’ sweater”

“Yeah, Giles says he’s gonna look into it, but unless it says ‘Scythe killer was here’ in one of those big old books…” You tail off as Buffy picks up your sentence.

“We’ve got zip. Nothing” Buffy nodded again. Conversation then turned. You had been in a deep discussion of something in low murmurs, that was until your best friends boyfriend walked in. A dead silence blanketed your table.

“The blank stares and silence make me feel at home” oz deadpanned and you all laughed slightly too loud at this. He squinted around the room, shrugged and then kissed Willow’s forehead before staring around at the odd vibe. He had noticed that none of you had been the same for at least a year, but anytime he tried to talk to Willow about it she just shook her head vigorously and locked herself in a different room until he dropped it.

“Well, I have some place to be that’s else. Or about three tables that way” He gestured with his head to where one of his bandmates were sat. Willow assured him she would come over and sit with them in a minute. After you finished a very important conversation.

“I can’t do this anymore, lying to him hurts my heart” Willow said sadly, shifting uncomfortably as if her heart was physically aching her, “I have to tell him”

“And how’re you gonna do that exactly, Will? Oh, hey there Oz remember last Halloween, well we-” Xander cut in harshly, trying to make Will be realistic.

“Stop it! We can’t talk about this here. Anyone could overhear, they already suspect I’m a slayer” Buffy said firmly.

“We have big mouths, sorry” You shrug, smiling tightly.

“This isn’t funny!” She snapped, the events of last year had her wound even more tightly than usual. She had more responsibility than she could handle on her shoulders as it was, let alone this secret weighing down on her like a

“I’m not laughing, Buff… I’m sorry” You whisper. You did feel guilty. You felt horrible. Some nights you barely slept, and when you did you had these horrible nightmares.

Oh, right. That guy that you killed. Well, it was a total accident and you were all very sorry at the time. I mean, you still are. But, thing is, you just didn’t happen to tell anyone or alert the correct authorities. Must have slipped your mind.

Let me paint the picture in case you managed to forget…

Last Halloween, you and your friends had been attending a Halloween party. Your collective night off from saving the world. Oz, who didn’t appear to be wearing a costume, had explained it was a shindig and you had all enjoyed the live music and spooky theme. Even Buffy had managed to relax.

Buffy had chosen little red riding hood and Willow was dressed as a knight in historically accurate chainmail. Cordelia was a cat, it was the back-up she always had in case her first choice fell through. She had shrugged, at least she looked good in it. You had decided on a werewolf, after apologising profusely to Oz who didn’t appear phased.

Xander was walking around in a karate outfit, something about being inspired by the copious violence he enjoyed on screen. Every so often he did a karate chop in mid-air and you and your friends would share a collective eye roll. Especially when he chopped some jock guy that he spent the rest of the evening hiding from. Whereas Faith was wearing as little as possible and appeared to be dressed as herself.

The band was playing decent music and the atmosphere was electric. You and Buffy had danced together while Willow and Xander laughed by the punch bowl. Out of nowhere, Faith joined the both of you and muscled you out of the way to dance with Buffy. You rolled your eyes, but knew better than to make a fuss so you went back to your other friends and joined them in conversation.

Buffy had borrowed her Mom’s car and had sneaked out while Joyce was sleeping. Joyce had been feeling a little under the weather and hadn’t noticed. When it was time to leave, she drove (badly) through the streets to drop everyone home. Oz was doing another set and would get a ride with the rest of his band.

You were squished in the back with Cordy, Xander and Willow. Faith had called shotgun. There were more people than there should be, with Cordy sitting precariously on Xander’s lap. It meant you and Willow were crushed together sharing an annoyed look as the pair continued to kiss.

Buffy looked out of the side window for a nicer view and managed to hit something in the road. You all screamed as she broke suddenly. You had hit something. Something big. You all got out to investigate and saw that it was a man. You went and shook his shoulder and he immediately sat up and grabbed at you. His grip tight and strong. You screamed as you looked at his face, there were fangs and his face looked bumpy. The others saw it too and Buffy pulled you away as Faith moved in and staked him.

The man struggled for a moment before going still. Blood had started to run from his heart and the stake that had been stabbed through it. You all just stared.

“W-why isn’t he going poof?” Willow whispered as you all just stared in horror. He had been human after all.

“It was a costume!” You shrieked in horror. Everyone’s blood turned cold.

“We’ll have to bury him” Faith said quickly. Xander stayed silent, his eyes glazed in fear.

“We can’t!” Buffy said firmly.

“Look, it’s that or another stint in juvey and I’m not goin’ back there” Faith muttered and you all frowned, having not realised she had ever been.

“I think we should see if he has any ID, maybe we could-” You started, Willow nodding along.

“No, Faith’s right. We bury him” Xander said suddenly.

“Who made you decision-gal?” Buffy said, her usual fun language lost on the moment as she stared through Faith.

“I’m a slayer too, B. You’re not the boss” Faith tilted her head to the side and shrugged. You paused, thinking it over for a while.

“Buff, we can’t risk it. You and Faith are needed here – we can’t go to prison” You sigh, not sure if you fully believed what you were saying.

“Th-that’s actually true…” Willow said eventually, not looking anyone in the eye. It was hurting her conscience.

But that’s what you decided. For better or worse. You were all complicit now as you put him in the trunk and buried him in the graveyard in the early hours of the morning.

Nobody spoke as the sun started to rise and the plot you had chosen was no longer vacant. It had been hard to come to terms with ever since.

Missing – have you seen this man?

Sunnydale Express, 1998. November 2nd.

Mr Bates of Sunnydale California has been missing since Halloween night. Last seen leaving a party in the early hours. His wife and children are anticipating his return, although with the current rate of people vanishing often with no trace the Express, with their condolences, fears that Mr Bates may be one of a hundred Sunnydale citizens on Halloween night that will never return to their families.

This begs the question, where are all the missing going? Sunnydale has one of the largest cases of missing persons never being found in the state of California and statistics suggest it has the highest number compared to towns in neighboring states.

It had been a few days and something had shifted. Your friend’s mood was lower than ever and you were really worried about her. The guilt was eating away at her. It was so bad she finally had to talk to someone about it. Buffy was the most outwardly guilty one of you all. Covering for this went against everything she believed in. Fought for. Which is why she was probably being targeted the most.

You closed your locker and jumped, she had been standing behind it, waiting for you to notice her. She gave you an apologetic glance but still asked, “Hey, y/n, can we talk?”

“Sure, I didn’t wanna go to English anyway” You smile at her as you walk to the usual place under the stairwell you would hide when you needed to talk. She pressed a note into your hand which you unfolded and read:

‘I know what you did last Halloween…’

You gasped, looking around before looking back at her for some kind of explanation, “It was in my history textbook, so, it might have been there for at least a month” Buffy said “Did you get one?” she whispered. You shook your head, nobody had left anything for you. You would remember. Buffy’s note struck a sense of fear you hadn’t felt since that night. A bubbling guilt that was squeezing your insides and threatening to spill them out. You had felt numb since then, unable to cry or even think about the events.

“We need to tell someone. Maybe Giles? I can see how much this is killing you, Buff…” You say, trying to comfort your friend the best way you knew how.

“I know, I try and I try but I can’t tell him. He’ll get all moral and Giles-y”

“Maybe we need that. What we did was stupid, but still an accident. I wish I had never agreed with Faith” You muttered as Buffy nodded along silently. She wished you hadn’t agreed with Faith too, you had been the type people came with for answers. Advice. So you agreeing with Faith was probably the deciding vote. She told you she would meet you later and appeared to be in deep thought as she walked away.

Willow and Cordy looked spooked, sitting down silently during the break between classes. Their notes had fallen out of their lockers and they were afraid they had been seen picking them up. Buffy revealed to the others hers had said the same thing just as Xander ran in, very visibly panicking and checking behind him with every step he took.

He just slammed the note in the middle of the table without comment. He had nothing he could say. No jokes could mask the horror that came with

“That settles it. We go to Giles” Buffy said firmly.

“No-” Xander tried to assert, but he was outvoted this time.

“We have to. He’ll help us, I know he will” You confirmed, “Walk home with me tonight, we’ll tell him then” This was to give you some time. None of you could face going to the library for the rest of the day.

The bell rang and it felt as if it were tolling for a funeral march. The walk to Giles’ house was slow. You had swung by Faith’s motel on your way, taking a detour as you explained you would have to tell him. She surprisingly didn’t put much of an argument against.

The door creaked open and you shouted to announce your presence. But when you get there, you felt it instantly. You dropped your bags and walked into the living room. Every step felt heavy and echoed around the room.

There he was. On the floor. Surrounded in his own blood.

Your knees buckled and you had to steady yourself against the sofa. The blood-stained sofa. Someone’s arms held you up. There were gasps and mutters but your ears were ringing, you felt very far away. He was cold, his body mutilated.

It took you longer than the others to see the new centrepiece of the room.

‘I know what you did last Halloween’ was written in what could only have been Giles’ blood smeared across the wall of his living room. It was your warning. Your note.

A warning that turned your stomach. Knocked you all sick. He was one of you and he was gone. You tuned back into the conversation around you after having stared at the words. The words meant for you. Every time you blinked, those words were now stamped into your vision.

“It’s the same thing that was written on the notes”

“Oh, I got one of those but I threw it in the trash” Faith shrugged, but she wavered. This was hard to look at.

“We’ll have to clean it up” Xander said flatly. Gesturing at the writing.

“What?! We can’t-”

“Xander Harris, your brain is barely functional anyway - but this is totally the worst thing that’s come out of your mouth!” She shouted, her voice getting higher as she continued, “I am not cleaning the bloody writing off our dead librarians wall!” She warned. They had broken up since everything had happened. Everyone collectively winced as she said Giles was dead. It hurt. It sliced too close to the bone. At least when it had been a stranger, there was some degree of separation. But now it was even worse.

“They’ll know or start to look into it - we gotta do it”

You stayed silent this time, every time someone’s eyes looked at you you kept your expression blank. Until you were handed a cloth and some bleach and you grimaced but followed the others. Cordy joined you, nodding her understanding at your blank look. She took the cloth and the liquid from your shaking hands and started to help with the clean up.

Teen scream

Sunnydale Express, October 1999.

Reports of a large number of young people are now rejecting the upcoming holiday in an attempt to preserve their lives. Many say that this is a kneejerk reaction and that many will lose out of the best years of their lives to fear – which is what the killer will want.

Despite this, there has been a curfew agreed amongst the young people of the town and the Mayor’s office, reports suggest. Time will tell if this will be kept or if it another attempt by those cautious to get a re-election rather than improving the spate of missing persons that has only doubled since the year previous.

You were all waking in a group. You couldn’t face staying at Giles’ place so you were going to stay over at Buffy’s for the night. There was still an argument going on around you that you weren’t listening to. Faith had lit up a cigarette and kept telling everyone to calm down. That nobody could know or people would be hauling you all off to jail. That you had chosen the right thing.

“I’m sick of you all, I’m going out. There’s a party down the block. Anyone coming?” She looks around. This, you had heard. You shrug, resigning yourself to it. You made plans based on alibis now. With this cynical thought, you manage to convince everyone else to come too. You never know, it might relax them.

...Or not.

You and the others all sat around in silence as the bass, and Faith, jumped around you. You barely spoke, you just stared into your cups. There had been some hugging when you first left the house but since then you all felt so alone. So disconnected despite being in this together. What you had chosen to do didn’t feel right and without your constant, your compass that had been Giles you didn’t know what to do.

“Hey, man, it’s not Halloween yet!” Someone shouted. It caught all of your attention. A collective feeling of dread. That had been before all of the screaming had started.

The figure loomed over you. Everything about him screamed menacing. He frightened you more than any demon. He was stood in a Grim reaper costume, complete with blood stained scythe. He turned, spotting you finally. He had been slicing kids down as he walked. He wasn’t aiming, just wildly enjoying the chaos he caused.

He stopped in the centre of the room, facing the group of you that had just risen to your feet. He pointed. He stood still and pointed at you all. The Scooby gang.

In that moment, you knew. You knew he was the one that was taunting you. And so did every one else.

“Well, one of us has a brief scythe of life” Buffy stated, “…and it isn’t me” She ran at him, her fists raised as Faith came up behind her. In the chaos it was hard to see what was happening, all you could feel was this descending feeling of foreboding. You knew it had happened before you saw it.

To be continued…

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yossariandawn · 4 years

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fanfic asks: 1, 4, 6, 9, 15, 20, 50, & 51!!

1. What was the first fandom you got involved in? Honestly, FDTD is the first fandom I’ve done anything approaching real involvement in! I was a long time lurker of many different fandoms, but this one is where I actually made accounts on the different platforms for myself, created stuff past a one off here or there (that mostly never saw the light of day lol) and actually interacted and even made friends in! However, if we are going for the first fandom I discovered, that would be Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

4. Do you regret getting involved in any fandoms? Since I’m only counting this one, nope! Though I will admit, several months ago I did start to see some of the rude or even nasty stuff that is scattered throughout probably all fandoms, directed at real people, normally over characters or ships. And I did make me think real hard about how much time I was putting into this, and whether it was something I wanted to continue to be a part of, even if it is pretty rare overall here. I decided to stick around, and I’m glad I did, but I definitely am trying to be much more conscious with disagreeing publicly when it comes across my dash.

6. List your OTP from each fandom you’ve been involved in. FDTD SethKate. Shoot, the only other kind of involvement in fandoms that I have OTPs in are Falling Skies Hal/Maggie. The Punisher’s Frank/Karen probably get in on just a technicality, since as much as I love them together, I could see them being happy with other people, but ONLY AFTER the events of the show and the impact they had on each other. I did make some vid requests waaaay back in the day for Life With Derek vids, since I couldn’t make any myself at the time! Here is one I found, but it’s not great quality anymore for some reason, and isn’t shippy, lol It’s Casey and her supportive therapist Paul, which is something I loved (VERY MUCH IN A NON ROMANTIC WAY) And I shipped Derek/Casey pretty hard, but I’m not sure they really reach OTP levels. And a fandom I am very much not in does hold the only other OTP slot I currently have (General Hospital’s Jason/Sam) which I talk about for question 20. The truth is I’m not really normally an OTPer, most shows I watch I couldn’t care less about the ships by themselves as long as I think everyone is acting in character and in interesting ways. Which is a prerequisite for me liking a show in the first place, so 🤷‍♀️

9. What are the best things about your current fandom? The people and the talent. AND THE SHOW, which I adore, for all its faults! But the people have really made this into something special.

15. Is there an obscure ship which you love? Hal/Maggie from Falling Skies probably qualifies for obscure, as there is shockingly little stuff for my favorite badass alien invasion resistance fighters duo.

20. Any ships which you surprised yourself by liking? OK, so this one may also count as obscure, they have a big presence on youtube but basically nothing on tumblr. Jasam aka Jason Morgan/Sam McCall from General Hospital. I don’t watch soaps as a general rule (not knocking them, by any means, they just rarely have stuff I am interested in, and the nature of the format makes it hard for me to stay invested) and when I first got cable I started catching glimpses of the late night reruns on the SOAP Network of some of the weirder ones, like Passions (haha thanks Spike for referencing it enough to catch my interest) and Port Charles, General Hospital’s confusingly related (but not really?) spinoff show. And then one day I noticed one of the Port Charles actresses (Sam!) was now on one of the big deal soaps, but was playing a different character! IN THE SAME TOWN?! but during the day, with less/no vampires and more/all mob antics. ANYWAY, end result is I got increasingly sucked into her storyline, and THEN THE JASAM STUFF HAPPENED, which it was so my kind of thing it’s not even funny. PARTNERS! IN CRIME! AND IN LOVE! BADASS SOFTNESS AND TRUST AND PEOPLE WHO LOVE AND PROTECT EACH OTHER AND THEN REALIZE WHOOPS WE’RE IN LOVE OH NO WHAT WILL WE DO. And the downside of loving a soap opera character or pairing is you just have to accept the fact that at some point they will become completely UNRECOGNIZABLE, either through characterization or actual recasting. 🤣 So while I did stop watching after the god awful “Sam sleeps with her stepdad and Jason has a secret love child” arc, I did tune back in for both their Mexico Road Trip Reunion and their (First) Wedding! And I still rewatch their 2004-early 2006 storylines on youtube, and I will always scan the supermarket soap mags for little glimpses into how things are going for them, which seems to be pretty well actually! They are definitely a real Legacy Couple now, and Jason the Original is apparently back too, which is nice.

50. How did you get into reading and/or writing fanfiction? Spuffy 😂. I don’t know how I found the first fanfic I read (other than clearly way to much free access to the internet) There’s a chance I was watching fanvids first, which led into finding out about fics. AND IN MY DAY THERE WAS NO YOUTUBE, so fanvids were much harder to find! RIP Buffyverse Database (i think that’s what it was called lol) But Spike was my favorite character on Buffy, and I fell so hard in love with the IDEA of Buffy and Spike having a romantic connection and acting on it, right up until it started actually happening in Season 6. It was a wild ride for twelve year old me, but I learned a ton about what kind of things I like in relationships, and want kind of things I VERY MUCH DO NOT LIKE. And for anyone who likes Spuffy, this is completely a personal preference, not a dig at the couple. I do understand the appeal, it’s just didn’t end up being what I wanted it to be.

51. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! Go! Ok, so this is a bit of advice with some rant mixed in! If you send anon stuff to a writer, please remember you are talking to a real person, and someone who has put themselves out there in some way enough for you to comment on. If you choose to go anon, the very fact of your anonymity means that the only information they will have are the contents of that one message you’ve sent, and that you’ve chosen to not take the risk of putting yourself out there in the same way the person receiving the message has. And if all you are sending in that message is a correction, or disagreement, or (in more extreme cases) even an attempt to police your fandom by telling someone else that they are participating wrong (meaning not in a way you agree with) then your message? May not be given the good faith extended to people who DO put themselves out there, however imperfectly they do it. Good and effective communication is so hard, I really understand, and it’s a skill that all of us are still learning and sometimes failing at. I’ve been really impressed by how I’ve seen people handle messages I know I would not have been able to do with such grace! Personally, at this point the cons of anon stuff outweighs the pros for me, but everyone gets to make their own choice on how they handle their inbox thankfully! (anon asks can be toggled off and on, and you can even block anons instead of answering them!) But anon or not, we should all treat each other kindly, even people we disagree strongly with. And if you do, you may even change someone's mind or learn something new yourself. I know from personal experience it’s way more effective than the alternative, which doesn’t make it easier, but does make it worth trying.

Thanks for sending these in @alwaysupatnight! 💖💖💖

#about me #ask games

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thinkingaboutyoungroyals · 5 years

Text

The Space Between Us (Chapter 4)

Summary: After the events of Costume Day, Cyrus asks T.J. for space. How will T.J. handle this distance between them?

A/N: Now that the plagiarism incident is behind us, this story can get rolling once more!

The cafeteria lady placed a wrapped sandwich, a cup of fruit, and a carton of apple juice on his tray. Giving her a faint smile, T.J. thanked her before taking his food and heading to the basketball team’s table.

He was barely halfway there when he spotted the familiar head of curly hair, sitting next to one of the Forwards, laughing with everyone.

His stomach churning with nausea, T.J. changed his course, heading for the back of the cafeteria, instead. There were some tables there, hidden behind some pillars and away from prying eyes.

He didn’t want to sit with the team right then. Or maybe for a while. Not while Kira was still trying to buddy-buddy her way in. She really couldn’t take a hint.

As he scanned the back for an empty table, his eye caught two familiar figures in a corner, sitting at a table by the trash cans.

T.J. hesitated but before he could turn around and find someplace else to eat his lunch (maybe the bathroom or a classroom), one of the figures raised his head and caught sight of him, his blue eyes connecting with T.J.’s own.

For a moment, they stared at each other, neither moving nor looking away.

The second figure spun around in his seat and saw him. Smiling kindly at him, he lifted a hand to wave.

Swallowing, T.J. returned the smile and approached, his heart hammering in his chest.

“Long time no see, Kippen,” Reed drawled out, smirking.

T.J. nodded. “Yeah.” He gestured to the empty spot beside Lester. “Can I sit with you, guys?”

Reed tilted his head in agreement while Lester scooted over to give him space.

For the first time in weeks, T.J. sat with his old friends.

After the whole gun issue, he had taken extra measures to avoid the two boys. They weren't bad kids, exactly. Stupid, sure. But, it wasn't like they went out of their way to do bad things and get in trouble. T.J., himself, was no angel. But, he was taking steps to change. Meeting and becoming friends with Cyrus made him want to become better. And the first step was to distance himself from trouble.

It seemed like his efforts were in vain. He still messed up and he still found himself sitting with the friends he abandoned in his quest to become a better person.

He cleared his throat as he unwrapped his sandwich. "So... what's up?"

Across from him, Reed chuckled. "Same old, same old. Except now, I'm a changed man. I don't play with my dad's guns anymore. Mostly because they’re all under lock and key and code now and he and my mom won’t let me near the Master’s Bedroom anymore. And I’m pretty sure they installed a camera in there so I’m not risking it, man."

He laughed again, somehow finding the humor in such a serious incident. That was Reed for you.

T.J. managed a strained smile before moving his attention to his sandwich and taking a bite. It was tuna salad. It tasted like nothing. Maybe it was just his mood.

“Hey, um, so I never apologized for, uh, last time.”

T.J. looked up to see Reed looking sheepish and, dare he say, a little guilty. Reed never felt guilty about anything – he was too proud for that.

“So, I’m sorry,” the other blonde boy continued, sounding sincere.

“Me too,” added Lester.

This was an interesting turn of events.

T.J. felt himself smile at both of them. They were idiots. But, they were his idiots (though he would never say that to their faces).

“Thanks. And… sorry for shoving you, man,” he said to Reed.

The other boy shrugged. “Nah, I deserved it. I shouldn’t have done it. And, don’t worry, Mom grounded me… after she threatened to divorce my Dad.” He chuckled again, shaking his head. “And… I apologized to Cyrus, too.”

T.J.’s eyes widened at that. “Yeah?”

Reed smiled. “Yeah. He’s a great guy, Teej.”

T.J. already knew that.

“What happened between you two, anyway?”

His chest twitched with guilt at the reminder.

“Stuff… happened,” was all he could say. “It’s… a little hard to explain.”

“It has something to do with the Kira chick, right? What’s the deal with her, anyway?”

T.J. took a sip of his apple juice before letting out a sigh. “She wants to join the team.”

“Your team?”

T.J. hummed.

“But, there’s a girl’s team now,” Lester pointed out.

“Buffy doesn’t want her on her team. Because of bad sportsmanship, I heard.”

“Sounds like the old you,” Reed laughed.

T.J glared at him. “That’s not me anymore.”

The other boy raised his hands in surrender. “Chill, man. I know you’re not.” His gaze softened. “Cyrus really did a number on you.”

To his embarrassment, T.J. flushed red. “He just… he believed in me.” His lips quirked into a small smile, remembering all of Cyrus’ encouragement and faith in him. “I didn’t want to let him down.” Cyrus’ devastated face flashed in his mind, making his smile dip into a frown. “But I did it, anyway. He hates me, now.”

His voice strained at that last sentence and he looked down at his food tray, lest the tears started falling in front of the two boys. He was sure they would make fun of him if he cried.

To his surprise, Reed only said, “He doesn’t hate you. Upset, yeah, but I don’t think he’s capable of hating you. Trust me. I talked to him this morning.”

T.J. finally raised his head. “Yeah, I saw you two.” He swallowed. “Is he okay?”

The other blonde hesitated, seeming to be contemplating his answer. “He… looks like he’s okay. But… I don’t think he actually is.”

T.J.’s heart fell at that. Cyrus didn’t deserve this. How could he do this to his best friend?! He was one of the only few people left who still believed in him and his capabilities! He trusted T.J. with everything and defended him at every turn!

And, once more, the guilt and anger at himself settled in his stomach, making him queasy. He didn’t feel like eating anymore.

“Hey, dude.” Reed’s call made him lift his head, but he refused to meet the other blonde’s eyes. “I know it’s bad, now. But, I’m sure things will be okay again.”

T.J. wished he could say that that made him feel better, but it only made him feel worse. He appreciated the attempt at making him feel better but, unfortunately, comfort was not Reed’s forte.

“Yeah, maybe. Thanks.”

He cleared his throat and opted to change the subject lest he really started crying.

“Anyway… How did your community service go?” he asked, instead.

Immediately, Reed pursed his lips in disgust. “Excruciating! They made me clean up the park! You know, pick up litter and plant some flowers and all that jazz. Do you know how much people litter?! And they don’t recycle! They’re so rude!”

He huffed, looking personally offended by people’s horrendous trash disposal habits. “It wasn’t too bad towards the end, though. They took me off litter duty and had me do a few hours at the community center.”

Then, all of a sudden, he just…grinned. “I met this cute girl during one of the activities,” he stated, excitedly. “She’s an artist and she does these cool murals and…”

And, with that, he droned on and on and on.

T.J. raised a brow in surprise. Subtly, he turned to Lester with a questioning gaze.

“He won’t shut up about her,” the brunette replied, quietly.

Wow. Reed must really like this girl. T.J. had never seen him so excited talking about someone before. It reminded him of… well… him whenever he talked about Cyrus. He was pretty sure he looked like that. All smiley and happy… unlike how he was now.

Shaking his head, T.J. listened to Reed go on and on about this girl. It provided a nice distraction from his stormy thoughts.

..............

Cyrus was distracted. He barely touched his food and, instead, was staring somewhere else. His lips were pursed and his eyebrows scrunched in close examination.

Buffy was worried about him. The last few days had been really rough.

Beside her, Andi also noticed Cyrus’ far-off look. “Cy, you okay?” she asked.

Cyrus blinked a few times before looking back at them. “T.J.’s not sitting with the basketball team,” he simply said, looking confused.

That piqued Buffy’s curiosity. Spinning around in her seat, she locked her gaze on the team’s table. Andi did the same.

All the usual guys were there…with Kira. However, T.J., the Captain, was nowhere to be seen.

“That is weird,” she voiced out, frowning.

They continued to watch the team laughing or nodding along with whatever Kira was saying. She sure loved to talk.

“Do you think something happened?” Andi questioned.

“I don’t know,” Cyrus replied. “But, the last time T.J. didn’t sit with any of his friends was when… you know… the thing with Reed.”

Buffy remembered that day well. She remembered seeing T.J.’s hopeful face as he looked at Cyrus. She watched that hope die when she and Andi took Cyrus away. Honestly, she still of felt a little guilty for doing that, but she didn’t regret it. Her friends’ safety always came first.

And, even if she didn’t consider T.J. a friend, but she was just as worried and concerned for him, especially after he practically came begging to her for help the day before.

Determined, she got to her feet. “I’m gonna go talk to them,” she said in response to her friends’ questioning looks.

Head held high, she weaved her way down the aisles in between tables of lunching students. The team noticed her before she even got close.

One of the guys, Tony, grinned and stood up. “Driscoll! What’s up?” He extended his hand out which she slapped in response.

“Hey, guys,” she greeted them before schooling her features into that of nonchalance when she met Kira’s frown. “Kira.”

“What are you doing here?” the other girl huffed. “You’re not on this team anymore, remember?”

She was trying to get a rise out of Buffy, that was for sure.

Taking a deep breath and mentally reminding herself to calm down, Buffy simply smiled. “Well, I once was part of this team. You know, before I managed to make my own?”

If Kira’s looks could kill, Buffy would be a goner. Thankfully, they were not.

“But, I miss these dorks, sometimes.,” she continued, still beaming that her cheeks hurt. “We had some good times.”

All at once, the boys spoke up.

“We miss you, too, Slayer!”

“It’s not the same without you!”

“Your team should come by sometime and practice with us!”

“We went to your last game!”

Pleased, Buffy simply flashed Kira a neutral smile before turning back to the boys.

“Awww, you guys are so sweet! I’ll talk to T.J. about that practice, I think it would be good for the girls.”

She took another glance at Kira, who seemed to realize that she was losing the team’s attention. With an angry glare, she stood up.

“I have to go,” she said, gathering her things and picking up her tray. “The air here seems stuffy all of a sudden.”

Without another word, she walked off, making sure to bump Buffy’s shoulder in the process.

She resisted the urge to go after her and retaliate, in some way. But, right now, she had more important things to take care of.

“Anyway, speaking of T.J., where is he?” she asked, casually as she occupied the now vacant seat.

The boys shrugged.

“No idea,” one of them answered. “He didn’t have lunch with us.”

Pursing her lips, Buffy continued to prod. “So… he and Kira, huh?” she tried to sound nonchalant. “When did you guys start hanging out with her?

At this point, the boys gave each other looks, as if they were unsure if they should say anything.

Finally, the shooting guard, Freddie, decided to speak up. “She just kinda showed up last Friday at Costume Day. T.J. brought her.”

Tony scoffed. “More like she brought him.”

Buffy quirked an eyebrow. Interesting choice of words. “So… is T.J. letting her into the team?”

“Don’t think so,” Tony answered. “She’s been coming by practice, though, and I guess Teej is too nice now to make her leave. I mean, don’t get us wrong, she’s a great player but she’s kinda…”

“Pushy,” another player filled in.

The others nodded in agreement.

“Honestly, we like you better, Buffy.”

She couldn’t help but proudly puff her chest out at that.

“And Kira keeps following T.J. around and showing up wherever we are. I don’t know about you, but T.J. seems annoyed by it.”

“But, like Tony said, T.J.’s been too nice to tell her off.”

Too nice. That was a phrase she never thought someone would use to describe the boy’s team captain. But, he really had changed a lot since her days with the team.

And it was all because of Cyrus.

T.J. changed and made himself better because of Cyrus.

And, as much as it hurt her to even think about it, Buffy really was rooting for them to make up and leave this whole incident behind them.

…….....

A soft sigh left Cyrus’ lips, after hearing Buffy recount everything the boys’ basketball team had told her.

“I don’t know about you, guys, but I think Kira is definitely using T.J. to get on the team,” she continued as they walked away down the hall.

“For sure!” Andi agreed. “Can you believe how she’s acting like she’s friends with the whole basketball team when they think she’s actually… what did they call her, again? Bossy?”

“Pushy,” Buffy corrected. “But, pretty much.” She grinned. “They obviously like me better.”

“Everyone does,” Andi agreed.

Cyrus felt himself break into his first chuckle of the day. That got him both girls’ attention.

“Have you talked to him?” Andi asked, sounding concerned.

He shook his head. “No.” He pursed his lips. “But, I got a letter this morning.”

“What did it say?” Buffy asked.

He sighed again. “That he’s giving me space.”

“Isn’t that what you wanted?”

His heart dropped to his stomach. “Yeah… I guess…”

“You don’t… sound happy about it,” Buffy continued to prod.

“Is anyone really happy to be not talking to their friend? I mean, just because I’m the one who asked for space doesn’t mean I’m enjoying it either. I just… need time.”

Andi walked closer to his side. “Are you still mad at him?”

A nerve on his forehead twitched. “I’m not mad.”

“Cyrus, you keep saying that you’re not mad but your actions say something else,” said Buffy.

“You don’t have to hide how you really feel about everything that happened,” Andi added. “You’re allowed to be mad, you know.”

Cyrus couldn’t help but think back on Costume Day. The moment he saw T.J. unzipping his hoodie to show the “Dribble” written across his shirt. How frozen and helpless and betrayed and so… pissed off he felt during those few minutes.

“Okay. Fine. Maybe I’m a little mad,” he confessed. “But, I’m also not mad. Ugh, it’s complicated! And I hate that I can’t just name exactly what I’m feeling right now because it’s a lot of different emotions!” He bit his lip, swallowing the lump in his throat. “I told him that I forgive him but I also can’t stop thinking about what he did. No matter what I do, I can’t let it go as easily as I usually do. And I don’t get it. I really… don’t get it. It’s… it’s a lot to take in.

Andi nudged his shoulder with hers. “But, you know we’re here for you, right?”

“Of course,” he replied, pausing. “You, guys, are my most trusted and bestest best friends. Nothing will ever change that.”

They both wrapped him in a tight hug and for a moment, Cyrus felt a little better.

The last few days weren’t easy for him emotion-wise, if he was honest. It was the first time in a while where he felt so genuinely hurt and unwanted that he didn’t know what to do with himself or how to act.

But, the girls never left his side.

“Anyway, we have English,” said his pixie-haired friend as they released him. “We’ll see you later?”

“Yeah.”

The two girls gave him one last wave before walking off together in another direction.

Sighing again, Cyrus turned a corner to get to the next hallway for his own class when he stopped in his tracks.

He stood there, frozen.

T.J. was only a few feet away, talking to some guy he didn’t know.

Cyrus’ heartbeat quickened and his palms got all sweaty. There was no time to leave the hallway and go a different route to his classroom. The bell was about to ring.

Then, the other guy left with a wave goodbye at T.J., who turned his head to the side just in time to see him.

They stood there, staring at each other. The air seemed thick and heavy around them. Cyrus wondered if T.J. felt the same way.

He thought his friend would walk over and say “hi”, maybe beg Cyrus to talk to him again, just like he had the last time they spoke face-to-face.

But, instead, the blonde just gave him a little smile and a tilt of his head in acknowledgement, before ducking into the classroom he was standing outside of.

Just like that, he was gone.

Stunned by this turn of events, Cyrus couldn’t move.

Maybe… just a small part of him… hoped that T.J. would try and talk to him.

But, he supposed this was for the best. And T.J. kept his promise to give him space.

Cyrus asked for this.

The bell rang, jolting him out of his reverie. He forced his legs to move, running down the hall to his classroom. He arrived just in the nick of time as his History teacher had also just reached the classroom.

Under his desk, he secretly opened his phone to type out a quick text message.

Thank you.

He debated adding more but decided against it and sent the text to T.J.

A minute or two passed before a response arrived.

It was a single smile emoji and nothing else.

Cyrus wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed.

#tyrus #tyrus fanfic #space between

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yetanotherbuffyblog · 7 years

Text

Being evil sux

I’m back! I picked up the last set of DVD’s for season four at the library, and if God’s willing then I’m going to be able to finish this season during the week. I hope so, anyway. I may have closed in on a place to live so that won’t be taking up my time anymore.

Oh also Castlevania is now on Netflix! It’s only four episodes so check that out! But not if you’re squeamish because there’s blood and guts. Lots of ‘em.

Alright so when we left off, Faith was back and had switched bodies, with Faith-in-Buffy’s-body safe at home and Buffy-in-Faith’s-body being taken away by the police. Let’s see where this goes!

So one of the first thing Faith does in Buffy’s place is use Joyce’s credit card to buy a plane ticket out of there. She does her best to ingratiate herself into the Scoobies (who are actually called ‘The Scooby Gang’ in this episode), going so far as to practice talking like Buffy in the mirror. It seems to mostly work, actually.

Meanwhile in Faith’s body, Buffy’s in real trouble because no one will believe she switched bodies with Faith. And then she gets taken by the Watchers’ Council’s hit squad, who are exactly as dickish as you would expect.

Oh and Adam recruits some vampires to work for him. For...reasons.

Faith proceeds to go and try to do her own thing as Buffy. She goes and parties, flirts with Spike, has sex with Riley, and is generally dickish to everyone. When Willow sees her at the Bronze she takes the opportunity to introduce her to Tara, and obviously Faith is crude about the fact that Willow’s started dating a girl. But Tara realizes something’s wrong with Buffy and tells Willow about it, and they do magic shenanigans to work it out.

But throughout the episode, we see Faith get an idea of Buffy’s world. Faith isn’t hated by Buffy because she’s a terrible person, it’s because she actively tried to hurt the people Buffy cares about. When Faith tries to go and act dickish, like flirt with Spike or have sex with Riley for spite, all of it makes her feel more empty. And when she actually saves someone from a vampire she actually feels good about it.

Buffy, meanwhile, escapes from the Watchers and meets up with Giles, managing to convince him that it’s her. And Willow and Tara come in with a counterspell that Buffy can use to get her body back. But ohes noes! The vampires working for Adam go and invade a church, holding it hostage! Faith, who is about to skip town at the airport, sees the news report and elects to go kill the vampires. She does so, but she has to get saved by Buffy. They fight, switch bodies, and Faith makes a dash for it, skipping town.

So basically this episode was a Faith character study.

So notes!

-Oh wow lots to talk about here.

-One of the things Faith practices saying as Buffy is “Because it’s wrong!” because Buffy’s a stuck-up goody-two-shoes and that’s what she’d say. And then she repeats it dead serious when the vampires ask why they shouldn’t kill people and that’s A+ writing guyz, more of that please.

-Like Riley, Faith just doesn’t get Buffy. And what’s amazing is that Faith thinks that she’s mysterious and that all her feelings are hidden, and yet she’s an open book. At the very beginning of the episode Joyce points out that she thinks Faith is deeply unhappy with herself. And she seems surprised that Joyce has any sympathy for Faith at all.

Joyce is so cool. She’s probably toast.

-It’s entertaining (and also really, deeply sad) that Faith tries to seduce Riley by appealing to common kinks? Asking if he wants to hit her or have rough sex with her. And she makes comments about “using this body” which is interesting given that she’s doing exactly that: using a body for her own gain. That Riley doesn’t want to have kinky sex, but wants to be gentle in bed freaks her out. I don’t know what to do with that, other than point out that Faith clearly has issues with emotional intimacy.

-ALTHOUGH when she was like, “Get off of me! What are you doing?” I was under the impression that she was reliving some past trauma? I don’t know if anyone else got that impression from that scene, that she was at some point sexually abused, but...yeah, that’s what I got. I could be wrong.

-And then Forrest, Riley’s black best friend, is all like, “Wow Buffy you suck and you’re controlling Riley’s life!” And Faith-in-Buffy’s-body is all like, “No I’m not, it’s not your business, buzz off!” And Forrest calls her a killer, which Faith reacts very negatively to. The conversation ends when he asks her if she really cares what he thinks, and she (unconvincingly) denies it.

-Faith seems unsettled by the thanks of the girl she saved from the vampire, as if not sure how to react to someone being glad she helped.

-The point I’m getting at here through all of these points is that Faith is clearly someone who wants--no, scratch that, CRAVES affection and admiration, but has no idea how to actually get it, especially now that she’s already done all of those morally evil deeds. So she tries to put skeeviness in its place, and obviously that doesn’t work and pushes her further away from other people. And she’s finally realized what a horrible twisted unhappy thing she’s become by the end of the episode.

UGH THE FEELZ

-Okay so is the church that they fight in at the end Catholic? The fact that Riley gets there in time because he’s “late for church” and his name is Irish McIrishson, and the crucifix up front, make me think so. No way to know for sure though.

-Adam points out that vampires are a bit of paradox--they’re immortal, and they’re afraid of death even more because of it (Harry Dresden points out something similar in White Night). And that they’re demons, but in human bodies.

-He also asks them what they fear, and the lead vampire doesn’t answer before the cut; but when we get to the church, he says that the one he was afraid of, the Lord, wasn’t there to stop him. Which...makes me wonder about the nature of God in the Buffyverse (Whedonverse?)? I know that there isn’t a satisfactory answer given in the show, but holy water and crosses work, and if this vampire is clearly terrified of Him...well, you’d think that there’d be more hints as to how this worked.

-Although, after ranting about how God isn’t there to stop the vampires from killing these people, Faith arrives to stop the vampires from killing those people, so...I’m going to go with ‘it was God’s will that she be there.’ Oh, and her name is Faith. Huh. Didn’t see that…

-Wait, HOW do vampires invade a church? If it was a Catholic church, there should be tons of holy water lying around. And even Angelus cringed back at a cross shoved in his face; there should be crosses, on rosaries, on hymn books, all over the place! If it’s not a Catholic church, I’m much less familiar with the layout, but I’d think that crosses still wouldn’t be hard to come by.

-Alright the Watchers? Are bad at their jobs. The one guy on that squad claimed that he wasn’t sure about the Council anymore, and that they “used to stand for something” implying that members are beginning to question it, but...yeah.

-How does the Watchers’ Council operate? I assumed they were just informants stationed in strategic places to help whenever a Slayer popped up, but sometimes they assume themselves to be a ruling authority and have their own (inept) enforcers. Just… stupid faces. Though the Initiative doesn’t seem to know about them.

-What does Adam want already?? I get we’re not quite near the finale yet, but I’d like to get an idea of what he’s up to other than deciding that he was made to kill things. Why can’t they just blow him up??? Before he...does, whatever it is he wants to do? Take over the world, maybe?

-Do I need to talk about the lesbian sex scen--I mean MAGIC! Yeah, that’s totally magic. With Willow and Tara doing heavy breathing and the crescendo of their spell looking suspiciously like a climax. That’s… yeah. Not subtle.

-Buffy is clearly disgusted that Riley slept with Faith, even if he didn’t know it at the time. And to be fair, he looks pretty shaken up too. Would we call that rape? Because we could.

-While Buffy gets into the church, Giles provides a distraction to the police. What kind of distraction, you ask? Well he waves his arms and hollers this:

Giles: Damn it, man! We have to get inside! Our, uh, uh, families are-are in there! Our, uh, m-mothers and-and tiny, tiny babies!

And that’s hilarious.

See you guys next time!

#Buffy The Vampire Slayer #4x16 #Faith Lehane #Buffy Summers #Willow Rosenberg #Tara #I don't know her last name #review

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burclay · 7 years

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Be Held -- Chapter 5

“No one would think you were okay, B.”

Buffy stuck out her tongue at Faith. “At least I’m cute.”

ao3 chapter 1

The dreaded Scooby meeting did come, of course. After Buffy showered, she brought her food outside to find Kennedy talking to Xander and Giles, and as she came closer, she could tell that they were talking about what to do next.

“What about Cleveland?” Xander was saying.

“If we replace the Watcher’s Council in England,” Giles answered, “we will be able to send Slayers to every Hellmouth there is.” He paused when he noticed Buffy. “Hello, Buffy.”

“Hey,” Buffy said, joining the circle. “Is this the part where we realize we can’t actually sleep for the next three years?”

“Looks like it,” Xander said.

“Where’s Will?” Buffy asked.

“Still asleep,” Kennedy said. “That spell took a lot out of her.”

“Where’s Faith?” Xander asked.

“In the shower,” Buffy said. “Probably avoiding this conversation.”

“Actually, I’ve already spoken with Faith,” Giles said. “I’ve asked her to take a role in educating young Slayers. We have no clue how many there are going to be, and some of them will be coming from difficult and dangerous lives.”

Buffy nodded. “Like Faith.”

“Exactly," Giles said. "We’re going to have to organize, however." He turned to Xander. "Which is why I feel that we should go back to England.”

“That’s why?” Buffy asked. “Nothing to do with how much you miss scones?”

“What’s a scone?” Kennedy asked.

“It’s a British thing,” Xander told her. “Like crumpets, or Queen Elizabeth.”

“I do not want to go back to England because I miss scones,” Giles protested. “Or crumpets, or Queen Elizabeth, for that matter. I simply believe that we will be able to make use of the Council’s extensive resources and the foundation that already exists.”

“Shouldn’t we spread out?” Buffy asked. “We need experienced Slayers everywhere, right?”

“You and Faith should stay central,” Giles said. “As the Slayers with the most experience, we will need you to teach younger girls, and perhaps to step in when things get dire.”

“I’ll go anywhere,” Buffy said. “I’ve gotten over the idea of being able to choose.”

“Your life is yours, Buffy,” Giles said. “Perhaps you should consider taking a break before we start reorganizing.”

“I can’t,” Buffy said. “Not with all these new girls. Maybe when the new Slayers have some experience. Faith can’t teach them all herself.”

“It wouldn’t be just Faith,” Kennedy said. “I mean, I don’t have much experience as a Slayer, but I know stuff, right? Lots of us know stuff.”

Buffy sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t know what I would do.” She looked at Giles. “I think I have to stay with you guys. I hate it, but I have to keep going. I have to help.”

“So, is England definite?” Xander asked.

“Not necessarily,” Giles said. “We will have to speak with Willow first, and Faith. We haven’t had long to recover.”

“Think there are any vampires near here?” Buffy asked. “I think Faith’s getting restless.”

“Just Faith?” Kennedy asked.

“Slayer’s gotta Slay,” Buffy sighed. “Seriously, I would love to just be able to kick back and watch some bad movies or something.”

“Could do some group training,” Xander said. “Get all the girls together, teach them to use their strength.”

“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Buffy said. “I bet Faith’ll be in.”

“In for what?” Faith’s voice came from behind Buffy, and a moment later her arm was snaking around Buffy’s waist. “You can’t be already making plans?”

“Just to do some group training with all the girls later,” Buffy said. “So we don’t all get too restless without anything to Slay.”

“Yeah, I’m in,” Faith said. “Girls won’t know what hit ‘em.”

“No hitting,” Xander said.

“You know what we do, right?” Kennedy asked. “It’s mostly hitting.”

“If we don’t do something to keep these girls active, there’s going to be hitting,” Buffy said. “Trust me, Xander. You want us to do this.”

“Plus, you know, lots of girls bouncing around,” Faith said. “Sounds like your paradise.”

Buffy stared at Faith. “Ew.”

“Seconded,” Kennedy agreed.

“Just telling it like it is,” Faith protested.

“Can we talk about something else?” Giles asked. “Anything will do.”

Kennedy grinned, looking over Giles’s shoulder. “Hey, Willow!”

Buffy turned her head, looking past Faith. Willow was walking towards them, looking far more chipper than anyone had the right to be.

“Hey, Ken, everybody.” Willow stepped around Buffy and Faith to get to Kennedy, putting her arm around Kennedy’s waist the exact way Faith had done to Buffy minutes before. Suddenly conscious of this, Buffy took an uncomfortable step away from Faith. She could feel Faith’s eyes on her, but she ignored it.

“We were just talking about what to do now,” Buffy said. “Since the big evil is gone and all.”

“What, no one new’s shown up yet?” Willow asked.

“I think we’re allowed a day off,” Xander said. “Just the one, though. We’ll be looking out for something coming at us tomorrow.”

Everyone laughed.

“Wow. When did that become funny?” Faith asked. “I mean, I knew I was messed up, but I thought the rest of you were okay.”

“Did you really?” Buffy asked, looking at Faith. “In your heart of hearts?”

“Yeah, good point.” Faith grinned a glorious grin at Buffy. “No one would think you were okay, B.”

Buffy stuck out her tongue at Faith. “At least I’m cute,” she said, turning back to the rest of the group. “So, if we continue this conversation, are we going to come up with anything new?”

“Probably not,” Giles said. “But we all need to be thinking about the next step. I, for one, don’t want to stay in this motel much longer.”

“You got that right,” Faith said. “I give it one more night before the girls revolt.”

Buffy looked around. Most of the girls were in various rooms, but a few were in the parking lot, looking through shopping bags and chatting with one another.

“We should clean that up,” Buffy said, gesturing at the bags.

“We should keep the clothes in the bus,” Faith said. “In case the girls want them. Is it unlocked?”

“I don’t actually know that much about buses,” Giles said. “Can they be unlocked?”

“The driver’s got to get on somehow,” Xander said.

“I’ll figure it out,” Kennedy said, peeling away from the group. Willow went with her, holding her hand.

Buffy started grabbing shopping bags, hanging them on her arm. Faith followed, taking the full bags from Buffy and bringing them to the bus, which Willow and Kennedy had indeed gotten open. A minute later, all the bags were on the bus, and Buffy leaned against the yellow metal and pulled Faith next to her.

“What do we do now?” she asked. “And don’t say we have to watch bad reality shows anymore, because I think I’ll explode.”

“Think the room’s big enough to spar?” Faith asked.

“If you want to explain to the front desk that we killed their lamp, sure,” Buffy said. “I guess fights in the parking lot are frowned upon.” She looked around. “We really do have to get out of this motel.”

“We’ll find somewhere to go,” Kennedy said.

“Possibly England,” Willow added. “Lots of room in England.”

“Have you been there?” Faith asked.

“Yes, actually,” Willow said. “I spent a while on a very nice farm. There were horses.” She paused. “I’m actually not the biggest fan of horses. But it’s the thought that counts.”

“So,” Kennedy said, “what’s going on between you two? Because my lesbidar is tingling.”

“Your what?” Buffy asked.

“She’s making fun of me,” Willow said. “And being rude about things that are really none of her business.”

“It’s okay,” Buffy said, grabbing Faith’s hand. “Isn’t this the sort of thing I’m supposed to tell my best friend about?”

“Hey,” Faith said. “Don’t I get a say?”

“Sure,” Buffy said. “Say something.”

Faith looked at Willow. “I’m gay for your best friend.”

Kennedy snickered. “You ever need tips, let me know.”

“Tips on what?” Buffy asked.

Willow pushed Kennedy. “Stop it!”

Faith laughed. “Don’t worry about us, Kennedy. We’re doing just fine.”

“I need new friends,” Buffy groused. “Maybe even a new girlfriend.”

“Too bad,” Faith said. “You’re stuck with me.” She slung her arm around Buffy’s shoulders. “Chosen two, remember?”

Buffy looked around for Giles and Xander. She didn’t see them, so she let herself kiss Faith’s cheek.

“Can’t forget.”

She looked back to Willow and Kennedy, who were giving each other a decidedly knowing look.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Willow said.

“I called it weeks ago,” Kennedy said.

“Faith wasn’t here weeks ago,” Buffy said.

“Feels like weeks,” Willow said.

“Fair enough,” Faith said.

“Do we get to do group training now?” Buffy asked. “I can’t just sit here.”

“I’m in,” Faith said.

“Me, too,” Kennedy agreed.

“Not for me,” Willow said. “I’m no Slayer.”

“You’re free to watch,” Kennedy said. “I’ll get the girls.”

Training with one Slayer had always been fun. Training with twenty Slayers was astounding. Twenty people, moving with power and synchronicity, all following Buffy and Faith, all drawing from the same energy, was beautiful.

“Imagine when we have hundreds,” Buffy murmured to Faith, forearms locked in a choreographed combination.

“Doubt we’ll have them all in the same place,” Faith answered, throwing Buffy’s arm to the side and kicking her. They each reset their feet.

“I think I like leading them,” Buffy said, attacking.

Faith blocked. “Me, too.”

Buffy kicked. “Good to hear.”

They reset their feet.

That night, Buffy was the good kind of exhausted, the kind of exhausted that came from safe exercise and not a fight to defend the fate of the world. She ate the food Giles had gone to get while they were training, and she took a good long shower, and then she pulled on a random T shirt and stretched out on the bed while she waited for Faith to do the same.

When Faith got out of the shower, Buffy was on her stomach and doodling on a notepad she had found lying around. She looked up at Faith, in a loose shirt and wet hair, and sat up, putting her doodle aside.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Never better,” Faith said, sitting next to Buffy.

“Really?”

“Well, yeah, but that’s not saying much.” Faith sighed. “I just keep thinking about the girls who died, you know? All those Slayers. Their energy has power. But--”

“There could be more,” Buffy said. “I know.” She wrapped an arm around Faith and pulled her close. “That’s why it’s hard being in charge. Even when you save the world, you lose something.”

“Yeah. We should do something,” Faith said. “You know, for all those girls. A memorial.”

“We should. When we get settled we can put something together.”

“Yeah.”

A moment of silence. Faith laid her head in Buffy’s lap.

“So what do you think about England?” she asked.

“I’m not wholly opposed to tea,” Buffy said, fingers twining through Faith’s hair. “I mean, Giles likes it, so I might as well try it.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“It’s far from home,” Buffy said, “but home isn’t an option anymore.”

“You know,” Faith said, “we could hang out at Angel’s hotel for a bit. He’s chill, and he’s got rooms.”

“We should suggest it to Giles tomorrow.”

“I’ll call Angel in the morning.”

“Cool.” Buffy leaned down. “Has anybody ever told you how soft your hair is?”

“I don’t let them get close enough,” Faith said.

They stayed like that for a while, Faith’s head in Buffy’s lap, Buffy’s hands in Faith’s hair, until Buffy leaned over and turned out the light and laid down, pulling Faith to a more comfortable position. Suddenly, Faith rolled over to the other side of the bed, facing away from Buffy.

“What’s wrong?” Buffy whispered.

“I don’t know,” Faith’s voice said. “I’m not good with the hugging.”

In the darkness, Buffy could see her curled in on herself.

“Thanks,” she said.

“For what?” Faith asked.

“Not running.”

“It’s no big, B.”

But Buffy, rolling to face away from Faith, thought maybe it was a bigger deal than Faith would ever admit.

“Night, Faith.”

“Night, B.”

Buffy fell asleep quickly. She woke up to an empty bed and rumpled covers.

#myth-spoken #btvs #fuffy #writing #be held #i should probably post the first four chapters on tumblr

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jennycalendar · 7 years

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Imperfections (3/?)

fsdljkfdsjkl this fic is really fun. it’s really really fun

it’s also on ao3

Jenny woke up shuddering, fingers curled tightly around the lapels of Rupert’s pajama shirt. After she’d reminded herself that Angelus wasn’t anywhere in the vicinity, she felt very grateful that Rupert had decided to stay the night.

“It’s all right,” Rupert was saying, voice steady, stroking her hair. “You’re safe.” She felt him press his lips to her forehead. “I’m here.” He pulled back to look at her, hand cupping her cheek. “Darling?”

Jenny nodded, tipping her head toward his and letting him kiss her softly. They stayed close even after she broke the kiss. “I’m good,” she said, and sniffled. “Was there sleep-crying?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Rupert answered, kissing her forehead. “I only awoke when I felt you start shaking.”

“You’re getting good at this,” said Jenny quietly. She wished he wasn’t so adept at holding her through nightmares, but at the same time she was kind of glad he was, because before this summer, the prevalent emotion on his face right now would be guilt instead of love, and she’d have hidden her fear from him anyway. It was comforting to look at him and know that her fear wasn’t causing him more pain than it had to. “I’m sorry. How early is it?”

Rupert glanced over at the small digital clock on Jenny’s bedside table. “One-thirty,” he said, “but it’s all right. Do you feel like going back to sleep yet?”

Jenny thought of Angelus, eyes glinting, and exhaled quietly, just to remind herself that she could. In the dream, there hadn’t seemed to be nearly enough air. “I don’t think so,” she said guiltily. “I’m so sorry to keep you up like this.”

“Don’t be,” said Rupert, and smiled a bit sadly—not as though he was tired of waking up early with her nightmares, but as though he didn’t like that she still felt guilty about it. “I want to be here for you.”

Jenny pulled him into a brief hug on the bed before pulling away and getting up, leaning down to pick up her bathrobe from the floor. Rupert was already out of the bedroom by the time she’d donned the robe, and when she entered the kitchen, he was pouring water for the kettle. She sat down at the table and said, “Can you turn on the radio?”

Rupert finished setting up the kettle before flipping on Jenny’s small transistor radio. Slow, staticky jazz filled the kitchen as he sat down in the chair next to hers, taking her hand and lightly kissing her fingers. He did that a lot, now. “Talk to me?” he inquired gently.

Jenny smiled. The warm glow of the kitchen hadn’t exactly erased her nervousness, but it did dull it a bit. “Well,” she said, “I have five thousand papers to grade tomorrow, and I’m thinking of asking Willow to help me with the marking, because—” She looked down at their joined hands. Her crooked fingers didn’t interlace quite as neatly with Rupert’s as they’d used to. “You know.”

“I’m sure she’ll be happy to help,” said Rupert. “She adores you.”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to use that all the time for my own personal gain, you know?” Jenny pointed out. “I could ask Willow to clean my entire classroom and she’d probably do it with a spring in her step.”

“To be fair, Jenny, you do need some help when it comes to, ah,” Rupert glanced down at their hands as well, “hand-related matters.”

Jenny nodded slightly. There was a strange, sad silence before she finally said with a rueful laugh, “God, can we go two minutes without talking about Angelus?”

“Perhaps not immediately after you’ve had a nightmare, no,” said Rupert carefully, “but I like to think that eventually we’ll both be able to move—if not past this, then at least through it.”

Jenny smiled at him. “Yeah,” she said.

The kettle went off. Rupert let go of Jenny’s hand, kissing her temple as he headed to the counter to pour them tea.

Some part of Jenny hated that Rupert had become so patient and reliable when it came to supporting her, because she didn’t like being someone who needed support. Some part of her was slowly coming to terms with the fact that maybe she’d needed support for a long while before now. It was something of a jumbled mess in her head, but she was still sure of two things: that she was grateful to be able to love and be loved, and that she was angry at Angelus for doing this to them. This was what Angelus would want, she knew. He’d be happy to know about the fact that he’d caused this much lasting damage, even if he wasn’t alive to see it. Or add to it.

She wished she’d seen Angelus die. On nights like this, it would be a comforting memory to bring up.

Rupert sat down next to her again, placing the warm mug in her hands and carefully curling her fingers around it. “Here,” he said. “On a subject that isn’t Angelus—what do you make of Faith?”

Jenny smiled slightly, taking a sip of tea before responding. “I mean, I did say earlier that I like her,” she said. “From what I’ve seen of her, at least. I hope dinner with Buffy’s mom went well for all parties involved.” She hesitated, trying to think more about Faith and less about the lingering fear the nightmares had left her with. “Does she have anywhere to stay?” she inquired. “And how long is she staying, for that matter? She’s been pretty vague about all that.”

“I’m not actually sure,” Rupert replied with a slight frown. “She never brought up needing a place to stay, but—”

“I think we should ask her tomorrow,” said Jenny, thinking about Faith’s hard, sharp smile. It glinted in places, like armor. “Regardless of whether or not she’s a Slayer, she came here to help, and we should definitely make her feel included for as long as she’s here.”

“Certainly,” Rupert agreed. He hesitated, then, “I feel a bit guilty that I didn’t think of that myself.”

“It’s okay.” Jenny placed a hand over his. “You’ve got a lot on your plate anyway. Mentoring your Slayer, running the library, getting woken up at weird hours by your girlfriend—it’s a wonder you even remembered the staff meeting yesterday.”

“I wish I’d forgotten that,” said Rupert with distaste. His face softened. “And you have plenty of things to deal with too. Please don’t ever think I mind being woken up.”

Jenny took a sip of tea and leaned towards Rupert. He wound an arm around her waist, pulling her quietly into his side.

So she’d fucked up with Buffy on patrol. No big. Faith had bigger fish to fry than whatever problem Buffy clearly seemed to have with her, and it was kind of pissing her off that she’d been called out for beating up the vampires too hard. What, was B trying to be humane with the vampires?

Faith had secretly been looking forward to meeting another Slayer, someone who understood the pain and the fear and had learned to toughen herself against it. An older Slayer, too, one who could have been guidance in a way her Watcher couldn’t anymore. (Not that Faith needed guidance, because Faith was fine by herself, but it would just be—nice.) And Buffy had been a total letdown in that respect.

Buffy, with her group of vampire-slaying friends and her sunny library and her friendly mom with tons of food. Buffy, who’d probably always known what it was like to have a home, and who probably more than took it for granted. Faith hated that.

Buffy’s friends weren’t all that memorable. Nice enough, but a little bland for Faith’s tastes. Everything about Sunnydale was so much blander and friendlier and uncomplicated than she’d been hoping for—it was like Vampire Slayer turned suburban. The plot of a friendly little teen TV show, maybe, where Buffy was the charming protagonist who struggled with balancing her Slaying and her social life. Faith amused herself imagining a scene where Buffy tried to figure out how to catch a vampire roaming the halls during the school dance before realizing that something like that probably had happened to Buffy at some point, which weirded her out so much that she put the concept out of her head.

Slaying wasn’t a job that you could put into a neat little box. Slaying was Faith’s life now, and she’d been hoping that Buffy would understand how alienating and lonely that could be. But Buffy seemed certain that her slaying was just a responsibility, not something to spend time on and fine-tune more than she had to. Out of all the girls that Faith could have been hanging out with, she’d ended up with Little Miss Part-Time Slayer.

Faith sighed, then looked over at the door out of habit. She’d locked it, but you could never be too careful. Lucky she was used to not getting much sleep, or she’d be a mess right now; she hadn’t slept a wink last night. An unlucky vamp had tried her door and she’d woken up and staked him before he could even blink, but the motel still didn’t feel all the way safe.

#fic #imperfections #i'm on a Roll #there might be another chapter tonight #there probably will be tbh #but like...this fic is gonna be really long so i don't feel too worried #about spacing out chapters or w/e #(haha forgot to put the read more in initially but I Fixed It)

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thatsmygvn · 7 years

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title: in each generation [ao3] fandom: shadowhunters (tv) ship: magnus bane/alec lightwood characters: magnus bane, alec lightwood, izzy lightwood, jace wayland, clary fray, simon lewis, luke garroway, & raphael santiago notes: 1,854 words; based LOOSELY in the buffyverse, mostly during s4 of btvs, but no actual buffy characters exist in this au. clary is the slayer, the shadowhunters/the clave are the gi joes/the initiative, and magnus is less of a traditional warlock than he is an actual half-demon.

“All the legends are true,” they said at the exact same time.

Alec edged near the doorway, hand poised over his bow. Jace and Clary stared one another down, disbelief on both of their faces.

“What are you talking about?” Jace insisted.

“I’m -- what do you know about it?” she countered.

A few feet away, Izzy rolled her eyes at them. She tried to divert her attention towards her newly-turned vampire friend, though he paid more mind to his best friend and the third Lightwood than her.

Jace interrupted Clary with a defiant, “I’m a Shadowhunter,” and he lifted his blade as if simply showing her the inlaid filigree she would suddenly understand.

“I’m the Slayer,” she said at the same time, pulling from her jacket sleeve a wooden stake.

Alec tuned the sounds of their voices out, instead focusing on the lair Clary based herself in -- though, he supposed “lair” was not quite the right word.

It was her family’s home, Izzy told him, but when her mother disappeared on the evening she found out about her destiny they turned it into their HQ. With the aid of some downworlders, they placed as many safeguards and wards on the building as they possibly could.

He rolled his eyes over the second exit, where Luke Garroway stood. Detective by day and werewolf by night, Luke acted as Clary’s pseudo-father, though legally he had no ties to her. Alec could see in his build and his body a specific sort of military training, though, and he knew -- even aside from the man’s lycanthropy -- that Luke was not the sort of man to be tested.

A rustle near the rafters brought Alec’s gaze towards the ceiling, and when he met a pair of deep russet eyes, he took a steadying breath. “That’s Raphael,” Izzy whispered in his ear.

The man jumped down and took his place in the far corner of the room, hiding in its shadows as if it were second nature. He looked twenty years old, but Alec could see the years in his eyes, betraying his otherwise youthful appearance. He had to have several decades on him at least, Alec deduced, as his skin still maintained a marble-like quality and not the powdery texture old vampires carried.

Simon Lewis looked back and forth between Clary and Jace, Izzy and Raphael, Luke, and Alec. He, Alec could tell, was only a fledgling. He was too jumpy, too slow, too anxious about the situation to have any experience with the supernatural world. His eyes lingered on Raphael, who, Alec noticed, ignored Simon much like he ignored the fly buzzing around the room or Clary’s rising decibels.

“If you, and your family, and your ancestors have all trained and operated as these… Shadowhunters,” Clary argued, her face as red as the hair framing it, “then how come I’ve never heard of you, huh?”

It wasn’t Jace who answered her, though he opened his mouth and was ready to reply; it was Luke, stepping forward and resting his hand on her shoulder with a somber expression on his face. “We didn’t want you finding out about them,” he said. “Your mother and I went AWOL when you were just a baby and we heard there was a chance you could become the next Slayer.”

Alec appraised Luke again, and he could see it: the way Luke moved without making a sound, the way he was proficient with every weapon he laid his hands on and had a plan as soon as he walked into a room.

“Did you leave before or after you turned?” Alec asked him.

Luke looked over Clary’s shoulder at Alec. “Even if I hadn’t turned, I was going to leave with Jocelyn. I couldn’t stand by and tolerate how the Hunters treated Downworlders any longer. The fact that I turned only cemented that I wasn’t one of them anymore.”

Jace’s eyebrows knit together and he was quick to argue. “What do you mean, how we treat Downworlders? Everything we do is to protect them!”

It was Izzy who replied. “Protect them, Jace?” she repeated. “Sure, yeah, the Shadowhunters protect the Downworlders. They also keep a brick wall around themselves and wards around the Institute to alert them to any Downworlder presence. They had us hunting Downworlders, but they told us it was to protect the humans, or they told us they were just demons.”

Raphael scoffed from his corner. “We may be part demon, but we’re part human, too. Most of us anyway.” Simon, now standing next to Clary, nodded vehemently.

“Don’t tell me you don’t see it,” Izzy pleaded. “Don’t tell me you can’t see how Mom and Dad look at Downworlders. Alec?”

All six pairs of eyes suddenly turned towards Alec. Carefully, he tightened the cross of his arms over his chest. “You know I’ve seen it, Iz,” he told her, “but that doesn’t excuse us for going along with it for so long.”

They continued meeting against Alec’s best wishes. It started with Izzy texting her location and an SOS -- nights when Luke had to make himself scarce, nights when Raphael and Simon had to search for Simon’s sire, nights when they simple didn’t have the resources to go around.

It was a strange relationship Alec managed to nurse. He quickly decided he could care less for Clary; it was her “destiny” that roped Izzy into her crusade to find her mother and ensnare Jace as well. If not for her desperate pleas they could have left them alone and left the Institute of their own accord, but instead they risked high treason and a fate worse than death if caught with the rebels.

But Luke he did linger towards. His past as an ex-Shadowhunter sparked an interest in Alec he didn’t know he had. He had the chance to find out first-hand what a fully trained Shadowhunter was capable of, but he also had the chance to learn about the prejudices he had been raised to believe from someone who lived on both sides of the coin.

Even Raphael caught Alec’s interest, though the man was as cool and aloof as any stereotype. Raphael, at nearly eighty years old, had his own share of stories to tell regarding his encounters with the Shadowhunters. His no-nonsense attitude clicked instantly with Alec’s intolerance of bullshit, and the two -- when offered the opportunity to interact -- found themselves talking more and more.

He thought the arrangement might even be an okay thing until Jace insisted on answering Clary’s SOS on his own and nearly killed himself in the process.

It was Izzy who gave Alec the address of one of Clary’s friends, someone who she promised was an excellent healer. She swore Jace would be fine and this man -- Magnus Bane, she called him -- was the best at what he did.

Alec stepped inside the building, punching the top-most floor of the elevator, nervousness welling underneath his skin as each second ticked by. Finally, the double doors slid open, and he nearly froze at the sight before him.

Luke, Izzy, Clary, Simon, Raphael, and a sixth unfamiliar man hovered over a table where Alec could just barely recognise Jace’s messy blonde hair, stained through with mud and blood where it should’ve been as light as sunshine.

He surged forward, taking Jace’s hand in his own. Underneath him, Jace groaned. “Alec, I’m fine --”

But it was not Alec or even Izzy who shushed him; it was Magnus, whose hands emitted an inhuman glow and hovered over Jace’s middle. “Don’t make a liar out of yourself,” he said.

“Where’s your faith?” Jace asked him, but he winced and groaned in pain as Magnus’s magic worked deeper into his body.

Magnus, in turn, shook his head and began kneading the air above Jace, his magic mimicking his movements precisely. “Keep talking and I’ll knock you out myself. Everyone else --” he glanced up, and for a second Alec thought he caught a flash of golden irises before they were gone, replaced by a warm tawny -- “I need space.”

Clary and Simon stepped away with Luke and Izzy following suit, but Alec remained by his side, hand still clenched tight around Jace’s. Magnus followed his hand, eyes trailing over the runes adorning his skin, up the length of Alec’s neck before settling on his eyes, and he heaved a deep sigh.

“I’m not going to let him die, so if you’re worried about trusting a lowly Downworlder with his life, don’t. Who are you, anyway? I believe I’ve told everyone to clear out.”

“I’m Alec Lightwood,” he replied, a scowl beginning to set on his face.

Magnus scoffed. “Ah, yes, I know your family. Maryse and Robert, correct?” he asked. Before Alec could answer, Magnus continued: “Your mother is such a pleasant woman, isn’t she? I’ve known her for most of her life, and never once has she referred to me by my given name.”

Jace squeezed Alec’s hand. “Just because we’re Lightwoods doesn’t mean we are our parents,” he defended.

Under his breath, Alec caught Magnus mumbling, “Yeah, I get that. So -- brothers? Best friends? Partners?” He gestured towards Alec and Jace’s linked hands.

Jace laughed, the south cutting off to give way to a wince at the motion. “Brothers,” he answered through a wince.

Magnus’s hands stilled over Jace. With a slightly apologetic expression, he waved his fingers over Jace’s head. Seconds later, Jace’s eyes drooped shut and his breathing evened out. The hand inside Alec’s slacked; Magnus met Alec’s look with a shrug. “He doesn’t take well to sitting still. He’ll wake up in an hour or so.”

Alec nodded shortly. He lifted his hand slowly and pushed Jace’s hair out of his face, much preferring to ignore the way Magnus watched his every move with a look that said he could see through him.

“We’re Parabatai,” Alec explained. “Closer than brothers -- if anything were to happen to him….”

Magnus hummed in response. “Correct me if I’m wrong,” he began, “but is it not forbidden to fall in love with your Parabatai?”

At the way Alec froze, Magnus shook his head. He stilled his hands completely and stood up straight, though he remained several inches shorter than Alec. “I wonder -- is it because he’s your brother, your Parabatai, or another man that you hide it?” he asked, but then he shook his head. “Anyway, who am I to tell you, a Lightwood, the Shadowhunter law?” He paused, and at Alec’s stony expression he offered a tender, “There’s nothing to be ashamed of, Alec.”

Alec looked down at Jace’s unconscious form, withdrawing his hands from where he still held them near Jace’s head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Magnus stepped around the table, pausing at Alec’s side. “You will,” he said.

Alec watched Magnus walk away from the corner of his eye. He saw Clary and Simon step up to him with concern clear in their eyes, Raphael and Luke watching with idle curiosity. Izzy, though, joined Alec in the center of the loft. She opened her mouth to speak, but Alec waved her off. “Don’t,” he pleaded. “Just… don’t.”

#malec #fanfiction #otp: there's nothing to be ashamed of #mine #not twd

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zombiegurllll-blog · 7 years

Text

No title part one.

I wrote this fan fiction a few months ago. I'm still working on it, it's definitely a work in progress! Leave me any kind of feedback on here, facebook, or if you have my number text me!

Year 2019

(Castiel appears to be sitting in a park on a bench. Watching people pass by, It's lightly snowing. Children are playing, screaming.)

This, this story begins in a weird place. I told Dean and Sam this is the worst idea they've had so far. I even went to heaven to ask God and the Darkness if we should do this. I needed guidance, we all do. After...after the boy's mom came back from heaven things slowly started to fall apart. Soon after we found out Slayers still exist. The boys were not aware of their existence, I myself, thought they all died out. Once Buffy had awoken all of the last existing slayers to help in the good fight, we in heaven were under the impression they all died off in the apocalypse. I had no idea they fled to Italy. They have a small commune, not many of them are left; it's quite fascinating in a way. As far as I know Buffy is still the head slayer, from the information I gathered from God, she's tough. Buffy died saving the world twice. She's the real reason Dean and Sam are alive. If it weren't for her and her fearless friends this world would have ended before the Darkness tried to end it. It would have been taken over by a vampire they called ¨the master¨. This woman is an important play in this. We need her to help save the world one last time. Right now the boys are trying to find crowley. He is the only one whom can contact her and not die. Whoever this Buffy girl is she has a very powerful witch on her side. This witch goes by the name of Willow. I've heard many of stories about Willow, she almost ended the world once. As far as any of us know she's the most powerful witch in existence. I am positive they will help, if not, I don't know where we stand without them.

Italy

Buffy - I haven't seen Willow in a few days. She went out into the woods and poof! After Willow came back from witchy rehab it hasn't been the same. I know she still feels guilty for turning Dawnie into a huge horse thingy. But obviously Dawnie is over it. Her and Xander are...a...¨thing¨..ew...gives me the creepy, crawly, wiggins. Dawnie isn't even a giant anymore, Angel! Willow turned her back to norm. Maybe she still kicks herself in the butt for it. Im worried.

Angel - Buff, I'm sure she will turn up, she always does. Hell maybe she's on her way here OR did you ever stop to think maybe she's looking for Oz? It-

Buffy - Wait, WHAT!? Do you and Spike know where she's at!? It sure sounds like you do Mr. cryptic!

Willow (in the background) - Don't tell her I'm here Buffy can't know! Angel, we have to find these Sam and Dean guys before they find her! It's too important.

Angel - Buff, Spike and I will find her. When we have more intel we will call. When have we ever let you down? We've always had your back.

Buffy - OH? When you left town to move to L.A.? WHEN SPIKE TRIED TO MURDER ME?

Angel - Buffy...stop. I promise you we will find her. I have to go. You, Xander and Dawn will be fine. I'll call you when and if I find Oz and Willow. Then we can go from there.

Buffy -

Okay, we'll try our best here. Hopefully we get this done, I really dont want Giles or Faith knowing. They have enough on their plate the way it is. If they check in with you please play stupid.

Angel - Okay Buff, I'll talk to you soon. Bye.

Willow - Do you think she knows you're lying? Are we going to tell Spike yet? We need to find Oz A.S.A.P. He wasn't at the commune helping rebuild. His wife hasn't talked or heard from him in weeks. I'm worried Angel.

Somewhere, L.A.

Dean - I just don't get why Cass thinks some super human girl is going to save us. Also, WHY do we have wolf-boy wonder here tied up? Isn't he some good-vibes, yoga, fruitarian weirdo? I thought he could control his crap?

Sam - Dean, he can. It doesn't help that he doesn't believe us. We're the only two living humans who met God personally, remember? Castiel did say and I quote ¨Dean. This is a bad idea.¨ then i'm positive he called you an ass-butt?

Dean (scowling, looking over at Sam)

Sam - I'm just saying dude. Now that we have wolf-man, we need to find crowley.

Dean - Yeah, well just remember asking Crowley is YOUR idea, NOT Cass s!

Oz - You guys fight more than Buffy and Spike. Are you sure you re brothers and not together?

Dean & Sam - SHUT UP!

Back in L.A.

Willow - I did have an ¨odd¨ dream last night. It was way too real. Maybe we can figure this out somehow? It might be the reason why my mojo is wonky.

- out of nowhere crowley appears -

Crowley - Well, hello boys and girls. We need to have a little chat, yeah?

- Willow and Angel both jump to their feet in shock. -

Angel - Willow, get behind me. Who the hell are you?

Crowley - Names Crowley, king of hell. Moose and my ex bestie are on their way here with their new pet dog. They need your help.

Willow - Someone kidnapped Oz?! There better be a good reason for this, Mr. King of hell. OOoooooh.

Crowley - Oh love, calm down, little miss red riding hood. We all need each other right now. This is very serious stuff.

- Angel steps forward -

Angel - So is this.

- Angel goes into full vamp mode -

- Crowley rolls his eyes. Moves his hand, Angel hits a wall -

Crowley - HELLO, KING OF HELL OVER HERE. I'm a bloody demon! A little vampire isn't going to intimidate me, Angelus.

- Angel looks up with a confused look -

Crowley - Ah, yes...I know all about you. Just like I know about miss red riding hood witch of the century over here. You would have given mother a run for her money. We should have recruited you when we needed to put lucy back in his cage.

- Angel and Willow look at one another in confusion -

Angel - Lucy?

Crowley - Lucifer. Hes currently trapped in a cage that we put him in. You really need to brush up on your history, seriously.

Angel - So, you're telling me every apocalypse we've all been fighting the good fight but on different grounds? You? A demon?

Crowley - Ah. About that I -

Willow - I know all about Sam and Dean. They wer -

Crowley - Moose and his mini me are the least of everyone's worries.

Angel - I need to call Buffy.

Crowley & Willow - NO!

Crowley - You big softy. Let's go running to miss teen U.S.A. everytime we're in a jam. You're off your rocker.

Willow - I agree with this guy. Buff is kind of ask questions later nowadays Angel.

Crowley - So are moose and his side kick. Cass needs to meet all of you, then her.

Willow & Angel - Cass??

Downtown, L.A.

Dean - So this Angel guy. Who is he?

Oz - Not someone you want to mess with. Also, he's a vampire. About...a thousand years old by now, or older.

Dean - A thousand years old or not I'm still watching my back. You can't expect me to trust the other one either. Blood suckers.

Sam - Dean, dude, cmon. You need to grow up.

Dean - I'm just saying! We cant trust everyone, and you out of all people should know that!

Sam - We'll be fine. We still have God on our side.

Oz (scoffs) - YOU know God?

Sam & Dean - Yeah, he used to live with us.

Oz (smirks, bobs his head & looks at both boys) - Cool.

Italy

Xander - Any word about Will?

- Xander paces. Dawnie has her arms crossed, pouting. -

Buffy - I know Angel is lying. He knows where Will is. Maybe they're trying to find Oz, or...EW. Stop it, disgusting.

Dawn - Buffy, you're acting completely nuts. What's your deal? OOOOO, still in love with Angel?

- Buffy snaps her head over to Dawn -

Buffy - DAWN. SHUT IT.

Xander - WHAT HAPPENED?!?!

- Phone rings in the background. Xander answers in a panic -

Xander - Hello? Angel?! Did you find Will?

Willow - More like I found him.

Xander - Willow! What happened to you? Why did you leave?!

Willow - I can explain all of that later. I found out Oz is missing, well, kind of. Its a really long story. You, Dawn and Buffy need to come to L.A. Get on the next plane out here, its important.

Xander - Could you atleast tell me whats going on? You're being just like Mr. cryptic over there.

- Angel in the background, scowling -

Angel - I heard that, Xander.

Willow - Xander, I -

Xander - I get it. We ll see you soon Will.

Buffy - So? What did Will say??

Xander - Shes with Angel, you were right. We need to go now, all three of us.

Back on the road

- Phone rings -

Dean (rolling his eyes) - It's crowley. Im guessing it went well and no one died.

Oz - Huh. That's surprising. I thought Angel would have tried to kill him. Whata softy.

Sam - Crowley is the king of hell. It would be hard for anyone to actually kill him. To kill demons like Crowley you have to burn their bones. Otherwise he'll just come back. (sam sighs)

Oz - Huh, brutal!

Dean - So, how did you become wolverine anyways, kid?

Oz - Kid? I'm older than the other of you. While you were getting your diapers changed we were saving the world.

- Sam scoffs while Dean chuckles and grips the wheel tighter -

Oz - Ah, nothing to say Scoffs and Chuckles?

Dean - LISTEN, WE -

Cass appears

Cass - DEAN, that's quite enough.

- Everyone in the car jumps -

Dean - CASS! I thought we talked about this?

Cass - Dean, this isn't the time. We need to find the slayer.

Oz - I don't know how Buff is going to handle all of this guys. Im pretty positive she's going to try to kill you.

Dean - Well miss america is going to have to get used to it.

Sam (rolls his eyes) - Dean, stop dude.

Dean - Just saying! We all have this ¨mission¨ to uphold. Blondie better be on board or I'll chop her friggin head off!

Cass - You will do no such thing. God and the Darkness are watching very closely.

Oz - Guys, stop fighting, save it for later. Trust me you'll need all the energy you can get. Anyways, there's angels motel. We re here.

- Angel looks out the window. -

Angel (in a sullen voice) - They're here Will.

- Willow looks up at angel in shock while Spike enters the room. He leans against the doorway with his leg crossed behind the other, arms folded, smirking -

Spike (smirking) - Hey, red.

-Angel & Crowley both turn to see spike in the doorway. They roll their eyes-

Angel (scoffs) - Where the hell have you been? I thought for a second you were gone for good.

Spike - Sorry to burst your bubble, Angelus.

Crowley - Who the hell is the blondie boy band douche?

- Angel scoffs while holding the bridge of his nose. As he's shaking his head at Crowley Angel is pacing. -

Spike ( in an angrily raised voice) - Does this british twat know who we are?

Crowley (rolling his eyes) - Great...here we go again.

Somewhere flying over L.A.

Xander - Buff, I hope you have a plan. Do we even know what we're walking into?

Buffy - Kick ass, ask questions later.

(Buffy winks & head nods)

- Willow returns to her seat, looking around nervously. Buffy and Xander look around confused -

Buffy & Xander - Will!? What're you doing here? Wheres Dawn?

Willow (in a calm sullen voice) - I zapped her back home, it's too dangerous. Someone is watching us. All I know is it's a demon. Not the cuddly kind either.

- Buffy starts to dig through her bag. As she digs a man puts his hand on her shoulder. -

Lucifer - Oh darling, those wont work. (He smiles & winks at Buffy)

- As the scooby gang looks around they notice time is at a stand still -

Buffy (in a stern/angry voice) - I would remove those paws before I do it for you.

Lucifer - Ha! What anger you hold, little one. So I take it Im early to the party.

Willow (looking ahead) - I...know who you are.

Lucifer (putting his hand on his face while his arms are crossed) - Oh really? And who's that m´dear?

Willow (still looking forward as her eyes turn pitch black) - You're being pretty cocky for a demon.

Lucifer (scoffs & chuckles) - Ah, so you haven't met Samantha & little Dean berry yet I take it.

Willow, Xander and Buffy (look at one another puzzled) - Who?

Lucifer - Well, well, well. Interesting, this should be fun. (smiles and chuckles to himself)

Back at Angel Inc.

The boys, Oz and Cass have been on the road for countless hours/miles. They find themselves frustrated. As they finally arrive to the motel emotions are at a all time high.

Dean - Okay, so let me get this straight...Spike and this angel guy are actually vamps? Cordelia is basically a floating guardian spirit, Buffy is the head slayer, Willow is super witch, Dawn was the ¨key¨ given to Buffy to protect for the rest of her life, you're a wolf-boy wonder and out of all of this Xander is the only human other than Buffy's old watcher Giles, which is nowhere to be found?

Oz - Well, yeah. In a nutshell.

Dean (rolls his eyes, scoffs) - GREAT. Every single last thing we're against NEEDS OUR FRIGGIN HELP. I didn't sign up for this Sammy.

- As they enter the hotel loud noises/voices and the sound of things breaking get louder -

Spike (screaming & punching angel) - WHERE IS BLONDIE? WHAT DID YOU AND RED DO?!

- Angel gets up, collects himself -

Angel - Spike, I told you -

- Spike punches angel in the face again -

Spike - Wrong answer, angelus.

- Crowley rolls his eyes and quickly realizes Willow vanished -

Crowley - Hey! knock it off! Have you lost your bloody minds?! We re at war! Also, has no one noticed that red riding hood is gone?!

- Sam and Dean break the front doors open -

Dean - HONEY, WE'RE HOME!

Crowley - Ha, I was wondering when those two block heads would show up.

- No one in sight. The hotel is empty, silent and warm looking -

Dean & Sam - Wow...

- Oz pushes ahead into the hotel -

Oz - Not every vampire lives like an animal. Or what? You've never been in such a nice place? Ha. ANGEL! Its me, Oz! I brought -

- Angel walks down the stairs -

Angel - Company, I see. Hello Oz.

- Cass appears behind angel, he puts his hand on angels shoulder -

Cass - Hello, Angelus. We need to talk.

- Angel and Spike both look at Castiel in disbelief as crowley appears as well -

Crowley - Ah, yes, my little blood suckers, you're not the only angel in the room, Angel.

Spike - Why have we never met before? Who the hell are all of these blokes? Does this have to do with Buffy?

- From the garden -

Lucifer - Oh this has a lot to do with more than just her.

Crowley - Oh bollocks.

- Crowley fades out. Sam & Dean shift around. Dead looks over his shoulder -

Dean - So, daddy let you out?

-Lucifer scoffs. He starts to shake his head -

Lucifer - Dean, dean, dean...how good of you to bring my favorite chew toy, again.

-Lucifer steps out of the darkness -

Lucifer (with his arms up & open) - SAMMY! How bout it? Let's be a team again!

Dean - NOT A CHANCE, LUCY.

Lucifer - Oh Dean, where's the fun in that?

Cass - Lucifer! Brother, leave them alone.

- Lucifer send Dean & Sam flying across the room. He starts to back away from cass-

Lucifer - Now Castiel, lets talk about this. Don't do anything rash.

- Cass pulls out his Angel sword. Spike & Angel both are baffled, they start to back up & instantly shift into vampire mode -

Spike - I think this one is on them mate. We need to stay out of it.

Angel - Agreed.

Lucifer (over hearing S&A) - OH! So no one wants to help their old pal out, huh? FINE, have it your way.

- Lucifer turns to Sam & Dean -

Lucifer - See you boys soon. (winks & fades out as Cass lunges at him.)

- Cass collects himself. Everyone looks around at one another -

Dean - I -

Cass - DEAN. Shut it...this isn't the time.

Spike - So, What the bloody hell was that!?

- Buffy, Willow and Xander arrive, Cordelia & Doyle both appear in the background -

Cordelia - So, hi everyone. We can explain.

- Buffy, Angel, Spike, Willow, Xander & Oz look baffled -

Dean, Cass, & Sam - Who the hell?

- Cordie & Doyle are standing side by side, hand in hand. Doyle bows his head -

Doyle - Ladies & gentleman.

Angel (with tears in his eyes) - Cordelia?

- Cordie runs over, wraps her arms around Angel. then kisses him -

Cordelia - Oh Angel...Ive missed you so much.

- Buffy scowling in the background with her face red -

Buffy - SO. THIS is what you've been up to? Great choice. HA.

Cordelia - Buffy, seriously? All of you are what? In your forties now? Angel doesn't love you like that anymore, this isn't high school.

- Buffy scowls even more, folding her arms -

Buffy - I might be getting older but ill still kick your ass, CORDIE. Don't tempt me.

Dean - Whoa, whoa, ladies. We have bigger fish to fry. You can fight over Edward cullen later.

- Dean laughs to himself, looks at Sammy & gives him a thumbs up -

Sam - Dean, stop.

Cass - Dean, Sam is right. Now that we're all here -

Cordelia - Castiel, right? Angel of the lord?

Cass - Whos asking?

Cordelia - Other than what just happened you're the real reason Doyle and I are even here. We all need one another right now. I believe Lucifer wants our powers. Everyone in this room, even you Xander, are important in this fight. We need everyone and -

Doyle - Hey, wait. Where's that Crowley bloke? We can't do this without him, mates.

Cass - I'll go find Crowley. He's still terrified of Lucifer. All of you need to talk this out and get along. God and the Darkness are depending on us.

The scooby gang - GOD?

Dean & Sam - He's real. And real pissed.

Buffy - How can we believe you? How do you know God?

Oz - Buff, these guys know a lot. They're hunters, born & raised. God lived with them. It's a long, rad, but long, story. Theyll tell you all about it.

#supernatural #dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel angel of the lord #crowlykingofhell #lucifer #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #willow rosenberg #xander harris #spike #angelus #oz #dawnie #rupert giles #faith #fanfiction #buffy summers #Cordelia Chase #allen francis doyle

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buffyversefanfiction · 4 years

Text

The Haunting of Buffy Summers

Warning: I do not own the rights to the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off series Angel, its dark horse comics continuation series, or any of the characters created by Joss Whedon and others in the Buffyverse. 15 years +, Mild to Strong Violence, Sexual References. F/F, F/M, M/M, Other +

PART ONE

It had been months since the passing of Buffy and Angel’s son Tristan and despite the relief over there being no sign of the shadow demon that was released at the time of Tristan’s death there was very little reason to celebrate for Buffy and co this Halloween as Buffy and Angel both mourned their child, Dawn grieved her nephew, Faith a friend, Willow an honoree nephew and Spike an strained ally. Yes, this Halloween nobody had celebration in mind, well almost nobody. “Xander, you absolutely cannot dress up my niece as a pumpkin!” Buffy told her best friend as she and Xander walked through a local cemetery within San Francisco. “With our luck with Halloween you’ll end up turning baby Joyce into an actual pumpkin.” Buffy had always called her niece baby Joyce instead of just Joyce, even though she was a young child now and no longer a baby she could never bring herself to just call her Joyce, perhaps because it was confirmation there was no other Joyce amongst the living anymore or perhaps it just brought up too much pain. Buffy thought about her mother everyday but more so since the death of her son, more than ever she wished for her mother to be there and somehow make everything okay not that she could even if she was still alive but still wishing was better than accepting the harsh reality of what her life had become. “Your niece wants to be a vampire of all things it is literally like she knows what we all get up to when we join her aunt Buffy for late night walks.” Xander admitted to her. “I for one don’t feel like having to stop my five-year-old from biting my neck because Halloween got too real again!” “Somehow I’d still prefer that over my niece potentially becoming somebody’s pumpkin pie despite how delicious pumpkin pie maybe.” Buffy replied to her best friend. “You should come over for Halloween might be nice spending it with family,” Xander suggested. “Especially after everything…” “Nah, maybe next year this year I really do not feel like getting caught up with Halloween.” Buffy responded, making it clear she wanted to be alone. “Do not get me wrong if some wacky stuff starts happening text me but otherwise it is me, my couch and some good old-fashioned movie watching.” Before Xander could reply to Buffy’s rejection of his invitation to spend Halloween with him, Dawn and baby Joyce Buffy stopped walking, becoming frozen within the spot she stood in, forcing Xander to stop walking, clearly concerned for the slayer as the slayer turned to her side to notice her son Tristan’s grave, her eyes going straight towards his tombstone. “I cannot believe I almost walked past it!” Buffy told Xander, the hurt of seeing her son’s grave clearly all over her face. “Burying dust is kind of weird when you think of it, I mean he was technically already supernaturally cremated…but it sure is nice to be able to see him every night…just wish I did not have to wait for his death before I could be this close to him.” “Maybe you should start skipping this cemetery?” Xander suggested as he put his arm around Buffy and side hugged her tightly. “Willow and I could patrol this cemetery, so you do not have to be here all the time.” “Thanks for the offer Xander but I cannot leave him again, I have already left him too many times before.” Buffy replied as tears began forming in her eyes. “Even if he does not know it, I do not ever want him to think I’m gone.”

The very next morning, the morning of all hallows eve certainly proved to live up to it’s spooky legacy for Buffy as she awoke from her bed, climbed out of it, stood up and walked over to her nearby dresser where she sat down in front of the mirror, picked up and brush and began combing her luxurious long blonde hair. “Happy Halloween,” Buffy mumbled to herself as she continued brushing her hair before she suddenly heard the roaring noise of the television coming from the living room of the apartment she shared with Willow. Buffy stood up from her dresser chair, charged towards her bedroom door, opening it with force before running straight into the living room where the deafening noise of the television continued to grow louder as she desperately search for the television remote within the corners and sides of the nearby couch. The noise was not only heard by the slayer as she quickly discovered when Willow rushed out of her room chanting loudly in a long dead language before waving her hand and suddenly the noise was gone. “Hey Buffy love you and everything but the next time you try deafening me in the morning I may have to turn you back into a rat.” Willow joked with her, only to be left shocked by a stunned Buffy who stared blankly towards the television. “Buffy, I was only joking about the rat thing.” Willow glanced over to the television to see what Buffy was staring at only for her to be left shocked to see the television was switched off. “Do not tell me we are haunted again,” Willow complained to Buffy. “Here is hoping it is something you killed this time and not me!” “I think it was Tristan,” Buffy admitted to her redheaded best friend. “I was at his grave last night he is clearly trying to contact me.” “Buffy, you are at his grave every night I doubt he’s decided to make contact for the first time on Halloween.” Willow told her as she began walking towards Buffy. “I’d love it for him to be able to say goodbye to you but you and I both know it’s probably some pissed off spirit or something else.” “Yeah I know,” Buffy sighed as she sat down on the couch. “It is just the shadow demon is out there somewhere whose to say Tristan is not?” “We have been through this before sweetie, Tristan’s at peace and maybe that’s the best place for him to be.” Willow replied as she sat down on the couch, sitting next to Buffy. “I do not think he’s anywhere bad I think he’s finally at peace and I think that is something he wanted for a really long time.” “Your right it is probably just some new Halloween horror that I am going to have to kill or whatever it is that we call getting rid of a ghost...” Buffy responded, trying and failing to sound any less sad than she was. “Or we could call ghostbusters and I can go back to bed?” “There’s a powerful psychic that I tend to go to from time to time when I feel the need to hear something from the other side her name is Madame Majestic and she is really good I’ll go see her and see if it is spirit related before we hit the books for alternatives.” Willow revealed to her best friend, eager to take some responsibility off the struggling slayer. “Here’s me thinking all those mystic megs and Madame magics were all phonies.” Buffy admitted before standing up from the couch. “Drop me her address and I’ll go see what Madame Majestic has to say about haunted televisions.” “I could go for you…you know…in case you get hurt when you realize it is not Tristan.” Willow suggested as she stood up to face her friend. “This seems like more like a case for a witch than a slayer maybe you should just go back to bed and let me handle this.” “I’m fine with going Willow to be honest I would rather stay busy and I think I want to handle this one alone for now…you know until witch assistance is needed.” Buffy told her, reassuring the witch that she would be fine going solo. “Okay…I could go with you though? Maybe even get Xander to tag along like the old days just us three?” Willow offered, worried to leave the slayer alone, knowing how much Buffy had been struggling following the death of her son. “I kind of just want to be alone!” Buffy admitted, feeling guilty for pushing away her friend but needing the time to herself.

Buffy walked down one of the many back alleyways within San Francisco in search of Madame Majestic’s headquarters eager to find out what caused the television annoyance earlier that day, convinced it was the spirit of her late son despite her friend Willow telling her otherwise but not wanting to get her hopes up at the same time in case Willow was right. Buffy stopped at a door painted a bright baby blue before noticing the writing “Come on in, I’m waiting” written on the window next to the door. “Well here goes nothing!” She mumbled to herself as she started knocking on the door only to be met by no answer. She waited at the door longer than she would wait at most doors that people did not answer because she believed her best friend would never steer her wrong and after several minutes the bright blue door suddenly opened by itself, alarming Buffy at first by a tell tale sign off what may await her when she walked into Madame Majestic’s. Although that worry never stopped Buffy as she knew deep down whatever was haunting her this Halloween would find her again one way or another and therefore, she was ready to find it first. “You must be Buffy Summers you have many fans on the other side and even more enemies.” Madame Majestic greeted Buffy, as Buffy walked into a darkly lit room to find Madame Majestic dressed up like a stereotypical gypsy styled psychic, sitting at a table with a clear crystal ball. “You got to be kidding me! This is right out a horror movie well a B horror movie although every horror movie is a B when your life is an A horror.” Buffy complained to the psychic as she walked over to the table and sat down on a seat opposite her. “I am very aware of your chosen destiny Miss Summers just as much as you are aware of a spirit haunting you,” The psychic replied to the slayer. “You are confused by the spirits identity and even more so confused that they have chosen Halloween of all times to contact you but you should not be frustrated with this spirit as Halloween hauntings are very common. It is after all when the veil between the living and the dead is at its weakest.” “I think I’ve heard that before never thought much of it till now. Is this spirit…. evil?” Buffy wondered, unable to ask if it were her son, fearing Madame Majestic would say no. “The lines between evil and good are blurred with many especially with your son but no he is not trying to harm you in fact he needs your help.” Madame Majestic revealed to the slayer who was shocked to learn she really was being haunted by Tristan. “Of course, I’ll help him!” Buffy declared to her. “I will do anything to help him…how can I help him?” Buffy was unsure whether or not she believed this psychic’s words not because she did not trust Willow’s recommendation but because she did not want to get her hopes up like she had so many times before when it came to Tristan but she knew she had to do whatever the psychic told her to do in order to potentially speak with her son once more and help him in any way she could.

After a short but seemingly long to her kind of day, Buffy Summers was now laid on her fully made bed within her bedroom in her San Francisco apartment, her eyes closed while she was deep in thought. She had been giving some herbs that was put in a tea that she had drank before going to her room after Willow ensured her what she was taking was not some hippie thing that’d make her go on some bad drug fueled trip. She just lay there with her eyes tightly shut, thinking of the son she lost, not daring to open her eyes or move in anyway, knowing that if she did before it was time then the psychic’s potion would not work. She laid there for what felt like forever until she almost found herself falling asleep when suddenly she was now stood next to the bed looking dazed and confused as she looked down at her own body, stunned that there was now two of her as she realized she was having some kind of magical out of body existence. “You know it is a whole lot spookier on this plane when you have a body to look at in the living realm.” Tristan declared, as Buffy turned around to see her son stood in front of her with a smile on his face. “Tristan…” Buffy replied softly, as she began to smile at the sight of her son, a sight she believed she may never have seen again. “It is nice to see you to mum!” Tristan said to her, shocking Buffy by calling her mum for the first genuine time. “But I am afraid to say this is not going to be a happy family reunion!”

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