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INTO EACH GENERATION A SLAYER IS BORN...
...one girl in all the world, a Chosen One.
Buffy Summers: a Slayer who was activated in the late 20th Century. Originally based in Los Angeles, she relocated to Sunnydale, California when expelled from Hemery High School. She remained in Sunnydale for approximately 7 years before collapsing the town while closing a Hellmouth.
She is responsible for the simultaneous activation of all potential slayers worldwide and the inevitable "coming out" of the supernatural world.
IN THE BEGINNING...
i don't have a destiny.
i'm destiny-free, really.
Picture it. You're a 15 year old cheerleader named Buffy, from a good family. Mom's an art dealer, dad does, you know, something with suits. And your life is pretty good, in that 15 year old girl way, and also pretty awful in that 15 year old girl way, and you're so busy being good and awful that you don't get to appreciate the Normal of it all, which is a shame, because it's all about to end.
THE CITY OF ANGELS...
no one wants a gym full of vampires asbestos, anyway.
First things first, though: the Slayer has to die. You don't know when it happened, or who she was. You've never even heard of Slayers, and you don't notice anything really different about yourself... but someone does. Or someones, as in plural, as in the Watchers' Council, which is a stuffy old British institution put in place to monitor people like you. Girls like you. Slayers, and potential ones.
The first one you meet is Merrick. He's a short guy and kind of stodgy, and he tells you that you're a vampire slayer and takes you into the graveyard where you get attacked by a dead man and miss his heart one time before you hit it the second. You're still trying to comprehend what you just did when the body explodes into dust, and you've just killed your first vampire. That's when normal ends.
You're still trying to comprehend that when you get home, and your parents start arguing while you're trying not to cry - over the fighting, over what you've just become, you're not sure. Picture this: the fighting isn't going to get any better. Soon they'll be divorced, and you'll be on your way to Sunnydale.
But wait, there's a few stops along the way: a battle with a minor vampire lord named Lothos. A romance, too, with Pike - a rebel guy, a good guy, a guy whose name is so reminiscent of some other guy you'll know soon. And then a vampire invasion in the school gym, too - one that ends with you setting fire to the gym and burning it all out. They say fire is cleansing, and it totally is, with vampires. It's pretty satisfying. Maybe that will carry you through the mourning - mourning for dead Merrick, your lost watcher, and mourning for your normal life. Not to mention your high school career in Los Angeles.
WELCOME TO SUNNYDALE!
population: rapidly dropping
So, okay, Sunnydale.
You get there, and you're thinking this is it, no more watchers, no more vampires, no more slaying. Sure you've got a sacred duty and all that good stuff, but who cares, right? How much impact can you make anyway, and this is a fresh new start, and... well. The last thing you want to deal with is more midnight grave runs, more vampire lords. Lying to your family, hiding from your friends until you have no more friends. Violence and danger, and okay, see, that's all done, its in your past, it's over. Right?
...Right.
Except you walk into the library, and there's this British guy, and he drops a huge book in front of you, and it says VAMPYR, and you know he's the new Watcher. This is too much, and you so can't run fast enough, except...
Except you may be... 16, now, and you may be a wannabe normal girl, but you're not a heartless bitch. So when people start turning up dead in lockers and stuff, you pull out the stakes, and you go to the fight. You swore off vampire lords? Okay, but how about vampire Masters, then? Specifically The Master. A vampire so old he doesn't even look like a person anymore and so powerful that the first time you face him, he bleeds you dry and drowns you in a puddle without ever breaking a sweat.
But remember that bit about having no friends? Turns out that's not the case here in old Sunnydale - here, you have Willow, and Xander. Giles, too, but he's a Watcher so he doesn't count. It's Xander who brings you back with his mad CPR skills, and you beat the bad guy, and the apocalypse is done. One in a series of many.
And here, you have Angel.
CLOSE YOUR EYES
the moon may be high but i can't see a thing in the sky
'cause i only have eyes for you.
He used to be a legend called Angelus. The vampire with the face of an angel - a monster with a particular taste for sadism, for destruction. Unusually cruel, even for a demon. Back then, he traveled with three others: Darla, his creator, and Drusilla, the one he created... and Spike, the one Drusilla created in turn. Together, they bled Europe dry.
Then, one day, Angelus chewed on the wrong girl, and her people cursed him - returned his human soul. And now he's gone all champion of good, all redemptions'r'us. And now he's fallen in love. With you. And you with him. So much, so hard, that a bad spook pushes you right into his arms on your 17th birthday - your first night in the arms of your first love.
Too bad you wake up alone. Because as it turns out, there's this curse on him - one moment of true happiness, and he loses that human soul. And really, what could bring more happiness than you?
Angel goes bad. And not just bad, but bad - pet murdering, girlfriend neck snapping, sneaks into your home at night and leaves you sketches of your sleeping mother bad. He has a talent for torment, the physical and the mental both, and he's got his sights on you. For months, he makes your life a hell, and then he sets out to make your world a hell, too.
Literally.
With his blood, he awakens the demon Acathla, whose gaping jaw opens, and he begins to bring all the physical world into Hell. The only way to stop him is to spill the blood of the one who opened the portal. Angelus's blood.
Or, Angel's blood. Because just as you're about to kill him - strike the blow that ends it all, Willow manages to restore Angel's soul. Suddenly, he's the man you knew again - gentle and good, and aching because he feels like he hasn't seen you in months. But the demon is alive. And the world is ending, and only his blood can make it end.
So you whisper I love you, and you kiss him, and you kill him.
After that, it's all you can do to get home, to pack your things, to head off on the next bus out.
WELCOME TO SUNNYDALE... AGAIN!
Scar tissue. It fades. It all fades.
Normal life, take three. But trouble follows everywhere you go, and so back to Sunnydale you go.
Life is different there, now. Willow has become a practicing witch, and it's senior year, and you try dating, and you try living, and you try to imagine what your life will be like when you're 20, 25.
If you make it to 20, 25.
And your world keeps shifting around you. Angel returns from centuries in Hell, and the first word he speaks is your name. And enter Faith, a second Slayer - a peer who becomes your rival, and your friend, and then your enemy when she joins with the demonic Mayor of Sunnydale. Finishing High School? That doesn't stop the changing. For one thing, the school ends when you finish it - literally. You use it to kill Mayor Wannabe-a-Demon only minutes after you put Faith in a coma. And as for Angel, he leaves you behind, telling you to pursue that Normal Life you want so much, but can never, ever have.
CHANGES AND CHANGES
Scar tissue. It fades. It all fades.
But hey, may as well keep trying. Except nothing is normal in Sunnydale, is it? Date a normal college boy, and he turns out to be a military supersoldier from a secret division of the army charged with handling supernatural activity.
And yes, that does happen. His name is Riley. Try to cooperate with them, almost get killed by the boss lady. Deal with Spike coming back, deal with Sci-Fi Frankenstein, deal with the coming of a Hellgod.
Her name is Glorificus, the Beast. People just call her Glory. You fight her once, and she wipes the floor with your face. She is powerful on a scale you've never encountered, and she is bitchy and wearing a cheap red dress to boot. All she wants, she keeps saying, is the key. Her key. her way home to the hell dimension that kicked her out. All that would be well and good, except that opening that portal breaks down the barriers between dimensions and destroys the world.
Well, there's that, and the fact that the key is your sister.
RISING DAWN; SETTING SUN
you think you know what you are, what's to come.
you haven't even begun.
"Sister."
Fact is, you don't have a sister. But you remember her. You remember holding her as a baby and asking if you can be the one to take care of her. You remember crying with her in the other room, back when Angel walked away. You remember her anger when you had to leave LA and come to Sunnydale. You remember when she found out you were the Slayer.
You remember a lot of things that never happened, because some monks took a green ball of energy and shaped it into a girl and sent her to your home, with fake memories to go along with it. Her name is Dawn, and you're going to die for her in one year's time.
It starts little - the fights with Glory that you can't win. The death of your mother. The grief. The exhaustion. Spike loving you too much to leave you alone, and Riley loving you too much to stay if you can't love him back. It gets bigger.
Glory sticks her fingers in Willow's girlfriend's brain and pulls out her mind. Glory makes snake monsters, Glory shows up in your home. Medieval-type warriors chase you, try to kill Dawn. The First Slayer tells you in a vision that death is your gift. One day, you're putting a book on a shelf, and you suddenly know - suddenly accept, that you can't defeat Glory. No matter what you do. That she is too strong, too terrible, too beyond anything you can face. And that thought eats at you, eats at you, until the day Dawn is finally taken away, and your mind collapses into itself because you killed your own sister with your doubt.
Willow brings you back, and there's one thing that you know, now: if it comes down to Dawn, vs. the world... to hell with the world.
But in the end, it isn't Dawn vs. the World. It's Dawn vs. you. So you stand on the edge of a tower, and you tell Dawn to live, to try, because the hardest thing in this world is to live in it. And you jump from the tower, and you die.
....and everything is beautiful. And warm. And soft. Everything is perfect, and peaceful, and good. And you're comfortable and you're loved, and you have no doubts. Because you know your friends are safe, and that you're done. That it is your time. You've bowed and now you're in Heaven. With your reward.
It's the most wonderful thing you've ever known.
Until you wake up inside your own coffin.
GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS
the hardest thing in this world is to live in it.
Your friends have brought you back, and there's nothing you want more than to die and go home. To your real home. That place of light and warmth and happiness, where the edges are blurred and there isn't so much noise, and so much pain, and violence and it won't stop here. You tell Spike, sitting in your backyard, that this, that living... is Hell. You don't tell your friends, not at first. But they feel it. And slowly, they back away from you, confused by the dying of your light. In the end, even Giles (your mentor; your father) leaves you behind.
And maybe you're suicidal. Maybe you hate yourself. Maybe that's why you start fucking the dead man. Spike, the vampire without a soul, who loves you so much he can't bear it. Who falls on his knees in front of you and kisses your hands and tells you he'd do anything for you as he tells you that you love pain. That you belong in the dark, with him, apart from the world that doesn’t understand you. That you're a creature of violence, and rage. And pain. Like him.
It makes you feel something - revulsion, maybe, and passion, too. The only thing you ever feel, right until you realize that maybe sickness isn't better than nothing. He's toxic, you think, and so you let him go. But a monster can never take no for an answer, so he shoves you down on the bathroom floor, and he doesn't rape you, but only because you're stronger than him.
That year is full of horrors. There's Spike, yes, and there's blood splattered across Willow's shirt when the asshole who's been bothering you, Warren, shoots you and hits Tara. Tara, Willow's love, her light, now gone out entirely. And that's the worst horror, really, because it drives Willow over the edge, and her power is so big and so great it nearly breaks the world, and you're so powerless in the face of it. And suddenly, suddenly, you're so... scared. To die.
That's progress. So when the world doesn't end, you promise to show your sister the world - everything beautiful and ugly and sublime and terrible.
Good timing for the reopening of Sunnydale high, really, because there's nothing more terrible than that. Nothing, that is, except the horror lurking below.
FROM BENEATH YOU IT DEVOURS
I'm beyond tired. I'm beyond scared. I'm standing on the mouth of Hell and it is going to swallow me whole. And it'll choke on me.
You dream of it first. (From beneath you, it devours.) And then come the deaths. And then the girls, lining up in your home - the Slayers to be. The ones who may be called, if something happens to you and Faith. You take them, and you form them into an army, because you need an army to face what's to come: the rise of the First, the primordial, the ultimate evil.
You're scared, now - beyond scared, and you're becoming an island, too - this you know. But the battle is coming, it's drawing near, and you're surrounded by your friends and your allies. Some are new - Principal Wood, the son of a slayer, and Andrew, a reformed villain. Some are old, too - Giles comes home, and so does Spike (now newly repentant and sporting a shiny new soul). Even Angel, for a moment. Just before you send him away.
It ends in the pits of Hell, as your army faces the army of the First Evil - as Willow unlocks the potential in every Slayer-to-be, every girl who even could be a Slayer all across the world... and Spike sacrifices his life to bring your long battle to an end.
Sunnydale dies out, and the First is vanquished.
And you're standing on the road, and people are asking you what to do next.
But you never get to answer. Because now, you're waking up in an unfamiliar bed, with some weird brassy phone on the nightstand that isn't yours.
Because now you're somewhere else, entirely.
Welcome to Anatole.
PHOENIX-GIRL
i'm just a weary warrior, bandaged and bruised.
just a simple gesture: laughing, so i don't seem so confused.
Buffy's personality is an ever-evolving thing, which is fairly natural considering she begins the series as a high school girl and ends it as a general in command of an army of superpowered warrior chicks. Pretty badass. But to understand Buffy is to understand requires looking at her from the beginning, so let's start with this:
In the beginning, Buffy wanted to be a normal girl. For this reason, she rejected her destiny... repeatedly, and fought it tooth and nail, quitting several times, or threatening to do so. Buffy was, at that time, highly emotional too - she threw herself entirely into her friendships, into her relationships. She crushed on various guys, and sometimes pursued them, trying to be normal or trying to do stupid teen girl things like make Angel jealous. Normal, too, were her various insecurities - she frequently doubted her attractiveness, her confidence, her "coolness," etc all despite being beautiful and intelligent and witty in ways that would make most people's heads spin.
Unlike slayers before her, Buffy refused to relinquish her humanity, and maintained ties to community and friends, to family and lovers. This strengthened her, gave her an investment in the world, and therefore a motivation to fight beyond her simple and sacred duty. For this reason, she rejected claims that the Slayer does not walk in this world, does not have the luxury of emotion of human connection, and does not have room for friends or family or love. Buffy was, like her fighting style, all passion and drive - quips and sarcasm, and power drawn from instinct over formal training - although she did receive a great deal of that, as well.
As time went on, though, her ties to normal humanity began deteriorating. Arguably, it began when Angel left her - Xander later says that she shut down and refused to let anyone in after that... though it should be noted that by that point, Buffy had already suffered several intense and sometimes catastrophic betrayals and losses (Angel's loss of his soul, for example, or Faith's betrayals), so his departure may have been simply the proverbial last straw. In any case, Buffy began to withdraw from her friends and began making decisions on her own without consulting others or looking for help. She stopped fighting her position, and even stopped allowing her fear of death to influence her - understandable given her tendency toward death and resurrection.
By Season 7, she had come to consider herself the law, and admitted to doing so. She even embraced a concept that she had previously always rejected quite vehemently: that the Slayer, in the end, is always alone. However, despite her growing arrogance and lessening tolerance for assistance or advice, she continues to describe herself as unworthy of her friends. For this reason, she is described, in the episode Conversations with Dead People, as having a superiority complex... and an inferiority complex about having a Superiority complex. Probably true. And as time went on, she became so powerful and such a formidable warrior that she began to become cocky... which actually worked against her and once nearly got her killed on a routine vampire hunt.
However, while all of that is certainly very interesting, a few things do remain consistent over the years.
Buffy is, as she has described herself, "brave and kind of righteous." She puts her life on the line willingly and without regret, even when she is afraid. She appears confident most of the time, though she is given to comparing herself unfavorably with those she considers prettier, cooler or otherwise more attractive (physically or otherwise) than herself. And despite her seemingly flip personality and total lack of decent studying habits, Buffy is sharp and possesses a quick mind - a mind capable of getting near perfect scores on her SAT and punning even while in moral danger. She knows and follows her duties, but also follows her heart, and often tries to find a way to navigate the two without betraying either. She is loyal, and cares deeply... despite sometimes being entirely too emotionally blocked up to express it properly. This caring can sometimes lead to poor decision making and secret-keeping when she fears negative judgment from those she loves, but is generally well-intentioned.
Finally, while part of Buffy still yearns for a normal life... but if she resents her destiny, she at least no longer wastes time on mourning it. And while Buffy may falter, may stumble, may fall down... in the end, she always rises again.
SLAYER BREAKDOWN.
good thing we're hot chicks with superpowers.
Buffy is a Slayer! Mystical duty, great supernatural power, like that. At least, that's the story says. When it comes to specifics, her abilities lay out pretty much like this:
Natural Athleticism: A potential slayer always has athletic prowess and killer instincts and reflexes. This is shown in S7, where the potentials, as they are called, are routinely better fighters than normal girls despite having no supernatural powers - even those who had no prior training. This may be why Buffy was, herself, an athlete in high school before coming into her Slayerdom - specifically, she was a badass cheerleader. Of course, this all gets kicked up several notches when a slayer is Chosen, which leads us to...
Overall Physical Badassery: A Slayer is known for their physical power and resilience . They are stronger, faster, more difficult to injure and have greater stamina than any human, and even most standard demons. Buffy is known to be among the strongest slayers in history, due to her longevity and experience, and the increase in her powers can be seen through the seasons: in season 1, she had a great deal of trouble with a normal vampire (albeit a powerful one), but by Season 7, she was capable of slaying a Turok-han- the primordial, Ubervamps - the vampires feared by vampires.
In S6, her strength is shown to be sufficient to bring down a house - though it did take some work and some time. Her resistance to injury permits her to take an immense beating, even from creatures much stronger than she is herself, without breaking bones or becoming incapacitated. Slayers also heal very quickly - for example, she was able to stand and fight only hours after being drained of blood to the point of near death. It's not really accurate to call it regeneration, however - mostly it's just very swift healing.
Intuition and prescience: Her less frequently highlighted abilities can be roughly grouped under the heading prediction and reading: occasionally she receives visions in the form of dreams that highlight extraordinary dangers, particularly to those she most cares for. Buffy has no ability to control them, and they occur only rarely, though I may kick them up a notch for the purposes of Scorched if they're useful to anyone.
She also has a strong intuition regarding any kind of supernatural element - for example, she is able to discern to a high degree of accuracy when she is in the presence of a vampire... sometimes without even seeing or hearing them. She also has extremely well-honed battle intuition and can block or dodge even unseen and silent attacks.
Shared dreaming: Very occasionally, Buffy will be drawn into another person's dream. This mostly happens with people she shares a very powerful emotional or spiritual connection or with other slayers.
Battle skills: Buffy is an extraordinary hand to hand combatant, trained in various martial arts as well as many forms of melee and ranged weapons, both ancient and modern. She is handiest with swords, crossbows, staffs, axes and (of course) stakes, though she is also comfortable picking up almost any weapon and using it (again) intuitively, even if she has never used it before.
Slayer Knowledge Bank: Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she carries around the knowledge, skills and memories of every slayer that's ever lived. She can't access them instaquick or anything, but... they come out when she needs them.
PROJECTS AND AFFILIATIONS.
good thing we're hot chicks with superpowers.
Alliance: Buffy is a member of the Alliance, and associated with both the Search and Rescue and Patrol divisions. Her Patrol partner is Spike. She gives preference to the Search and Rescue division in times of conflict.
Dear Buffy: An advice column, ostensibly designed to give people who can't afford therapy a good shot at getting advice anonymously. She fields a lot of questions about romance. [ Question Submission and Archive ]
Let's Slay! Videos: A video encyclopedia on fighting certain types of monster. Open submissions. [ Archive and Submission ]
Therapy Sessions: Buffy provides therapy services to Anatolian residents, both Scorched and native resident.
buffy summers
she saved the world. a lot.
NICKNAMES: Buff, Buffyster, The Slayer
AGE: 23
DATE OF BIRTH: January 19
PLACE OF BIRTH: Los Angeles, California
DEATHS: Two, but none in Anatole
FAMILY: Joyce Summers (mother, deceased), Hank Summers (father, estranged), Dawn Summers (mystically created sister), various extended family types.
MARITAL STATUS: Single.
SEXUALITY: Heteroflexible
OCCUPATION: Therapist, Alliance (Patrol and Search/Rescue Divisions)
Height: 5'3" | Weight: 110ish. | Build: Very small!
Eyes: Green | Hair: Blonde.
OOC
NAME: Ariel
EMAIL: the.red.we.painted@gmail.com
PLURK: alovelyburn
CONTACT: Private Message or Plurk, please.
TIMEZONE: EST (GMT -4/5)
