Reaping the Whirlwind (Boom Boom Ba Remix) (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Dead Like Me); Pt. 10/14

[ludakreusz]

Title:  Reaping the Whirlwind (Boom Boom Ba Remix), Part 10/14
Author:   liz_marcs

Summary:  What does the addition of supernatural-related reaps to the reaping workload, Roxy’s promotion, the addition of a new grim reaper with supernatural experience, a new sort-of boyfriend who may or may not be a pirate, and an approaching apocalypse all have in common

Comments

[brunettepet]

This was an action packed chapter. I knew the apocalypse was coming, but that doesn't make the sheer amount of deaths any less shocking. This exchange was wonderful: “But I never thought about the post-its. Never. There must’ve been post-its, right?” Dawn glanced at George before returning to her contemplation of the post-its in her hand. “There had to have been. All those names. All those pieces of paper. All those lives. What does it say about me that I never even thought about it?”

“Do you think any of us do?” George asked. “Hate to say it, but you’re not the only competitor in the self-centered horse race, and you sure as hell aren’t going to win, place, or show in that one.”

“Why do you that?”

“Do what?”

“No matter what anyone says, you always boil it down to, ‘Hey, you’re not all that unique, you know’,” Dawn said with irritation.

“And if you actually listened to me, you’d realize that I just said that you weren’t the most self-centered person I know. I said you weren’t even close.” George threw up her hands. “Jesus. You just told me that you’ve fought in - not stood by and watched with a thumb up your ass, not ran the hell away like any sane person would do, not nearly get killed because you were too busy screaming for help - but fought - as in put your ass on the line - in so many of these that you’ve lost count, and you think I’m dissing you? I’m just saying that you’re being too hard on yourself for not wanting to think about death and destruction because you were too busy keeping yourself and the people you knew in one piece. No one wants to think about death and destruction, and that’s even if they sit on their asses all day and watch Barney the Purple Dinosaur.”

The chaos of wrangling so many souls was beautifully realized, and when Georgie came to her last Post-it, it felt like the bottom fell out. Dawn is reaping Buffy and Georgie has to take Xander, too? Awful.

[liz_marcs]

This was a difficult one to write, mostly because I had to get across so much information without bogging it down. The twist of Dawn reaping Buffy was all nothorse, and since that was a key element of Dawn's arc in her drabbles it had to go there. My job was to re-write the scene so that George would be sympathetic enough to let Dawn do it.

Part of it was because George grabbed Xander's post-it for admittedly less noble reasons, like covering her ass. Although her other motivation for laying down the groundwork so she could tell Dawn about why Xander missed her funeral is less selfish.