Winter Lights [1/6]

[the_moonmoth]

Title: Winter Lights [1/6]
Media: fanfiction & fanart
Creators: the_moonmoth, wolveswithhats, kylathelurker, bewildered
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Buffy, Dawn, Giles, Andrew, OFC
Pairings: Buffy/Spike
Setting: Set shortly after ‘The Girl In Question’ and imagining it took place a little earlier than its air date.
Length: ~18,000 total (each chapter

Comments

[slaymesoftly]

Because I am a dodo - I read chapter 3 before this one (links came in my email and I just clicked on the first one without looking at the times - possibly should have waited to finish at least one mug of strong tea first....) Anyway, love this first chapter, and if I didn't already know where she was going, I'd still be anxious to find out. :) Broke my heart when she reacted to the music as she did. But in a good way. "... taste of Scotch, fresh air and sleeplessness. " is just one example of your spot-on writing. Kudos to you and your team.

[the_moonmoth]

Ah. Whoops! I'm amazed you managed to make at least a little sense of it ;)

Thank you - my team are indeed an awesome bunch :)

[sandy_s]

Beautiful tone that you've set. The sadness is palpable. I love that you have the advantage of knowing England and the US so well that you can write them with such aplomb. I love the little touch with the hedgehog at the end...

[the_moonmoth]

Thank you :) While I have been to Bath, I haven't been to anywhere else this fic is set, so I'm kind of ridiculously pleased about the aplomb bit! Hedgehogs are the sweetest little creatures :)

[rebcake]

There is a lot to appreciate in this, which I'll get to, but the thing that keeps poking at me is that Giles is lying to her with every word he doesn't say. It's irritating and heartbreaking. He knows how much she's suffering, and he's being a controlling watcher-guy and I'm not very impressed with him.

Things that stood out for me are her secret patrols, the hedgehog, talking to her own feet, and that she says this perfectly reasonable thing to Dawn (who, for all that I love her, is being sorta bratty here):

I’m sorry you have regrets, Dawnie, really, I am, but none of that’s on me.

I always have a soft spot for Buffy refusing to cave on the emotional pressure tactics, even if sometimes it might be in her best interest to not have so many walls. As you well know. (I cheated and read the whole thing before coming back to comment.)

There's also the music, which was used to excellent effect in this. We've all been there, even if it didn't result in damage to the moldings. Fantastic mood, Mooney.

[the_moonmoth]

Giles is lying to her with every word he doesn't say.

Yes, indeed. I imagine that in his mind, he's doing her a favour because he wants to think she's moving on, but really deep down he knows he's being an asshole.

I think Buffy and Dawn's relationship in one of those complex things where sometimes one of them is right, and sometimes the other (and sometimes both and sometimes neither), so I wanted to give them both chances to be right and wrong throughout the story. And I think Dawn kind of has a point, but that is not the way to raise it. Then again, she is probably very frustrated by Buffy's lack of visible grief. Like all of Buffy's important relationships, this one would go an awful lot smoother if she could just express herself...

Thank you <3

[tei_lj]

This is gorgeous and so sad. I haven't ever really thought much about Buffy and Giles' relationship post-series, because by the end of Sunnydale she has thoroughly outgrown him (even if mostly because he misguidedly forced her to) and it just seems so broken in a way thats really hard to put back together.

[the_moonmoth]

Giles misguidedly forced Buffy to outgrow him - yes! I love the phrasing. And the really frustrating thing is, once it had happened, he held it against her!

[relurker]

I've been holding this to read later as a treat, but I couldn't resist the first chapter, and it's beautiful. I could taste the air of the town, and feel like I was in the flat with them (very nice touch, there, with the re-mortgaging--Giles' finances are often a blur in the show's writers mind...; )).
If I had to say what I liked, I'll just copy-and-paste 'till tomorrow. Now I'm torn between reading this all in one go tonight or savoring it chapter by chapter...
A sure sign of "GOOD STUFF"!
Plus, I really, really like hedgehogs.

[the_moonmoth]

Thank you :) I, too, am a hedgehog fangirl ;)