(Fic) Experimentation

[stormwreath]

Two fics in the same month? Must be something in the water. And this is another Buffy/Willow fic (yes, the slash there is deliberate), this one set post-series.

This was partly inspired by the discussion on BuffyForums about Buffy and Willow's relationship over the course of the show. Now, I'm not claiming my ideas here are canon or anything like

Comments

[erimthar]

Hmmm... seems to me Buffy is down to 90% and falling fast.

I hope poor Satsu isn't watching this on her iPad too... or if she is, that she's someplace with some privacy. :-)

[stormwreath]

In strict percentage terms, the vast majority of Buffy's sexual experiences have still been with men. Probably a lot more than 96% of them. :)

I kind of hope Satsu has moved on and found someone nice by now. Possibly Kennedy, so the two of them can bitch about Buffy and Willow.

[erimthar]

Hmmm... Buffy's Sexual Experiences Tally Sheet:

Angel: 2 (only 1 of which she remembers)

Parker: 1

Riley: God only knows... 300?

Spike: Uncertain... a couple dozen?

Satsu: 2

And now Willow: 1(?)

The Parker incident, and the first Angel incident (considering its aftermath) might actually count as net negatives toward Buffy's heterosexuality, and the season 6 Spike stuff might be a wash.

Right now it's just down to her athleticism with Riley that her positive heterosexual experiences outweigh her positive homosexual ones. (The embarrassment factor of Batsu 1.0 doesn't seem to have spoiled Buffy's enjoyment of it in the long term).

As for how Willow affects the balance... I guess we'll have to wait for the sequel to this story. :-)

[stormwreath]

Possibly 0.5 or so with Faith, as well. :) My personal canon is that Buffy never did anything with Faith that she herself would acknowledge as sexual, certainly not at the time - but there might have been a few incidents during highly-charged after-slaying sessions that an older and more mature Buffy might wonder about, when she came to consider her sexuality as I've outlined in this fic.

[boot_the_grime]

More like:

Angel: 3 (2 of which she remembers)

Spike: Who knows how many, but probably loads of it. Including the one (?) that lasted for 5 hours straight.

Willow: 0, not counting fanfiction.

Fanfiction:

I have no idea, I imagine she's had all sorts of sexual experiences with all sorts of people in fanfiction.

The Parker incident, and the first Angel incident (considering its aftermath) might actually count as net negatives toward Buffy's heterosexuality, and the season 6 Spike stuff might be a wash.

Right now it's just down to her athleticism with Riley that her positive heterosexual experiences outweigh her positive homosexual ones. I don't know what you mean by 'wash', but her heterosexual experiences with Spike were certainly very positive in the sense of sexual pleasure. (And her night with Spike in Smashed was confirmed in Wrecked as the best sex she's ever had, so Sex with Spike > Sex with Riley without a doubt

[erimthar]

Oh yeah... I forgot about/was mentally blocking the Space Frak.

I was, of course, referring to her experience with Willow in the context of the story I was commenting on.

I'm certainly not going to get into a debate on Buffy's sexuality here. Her attraction to males and females are both canonically documented and require no further comment.

[stormwreath]

To play devil's advocate for a moment, Buffy also confirmed in 'Wolves at the Gate' that sex with Satsu was, at the very least, equal to sex with Spike in terms of being 'one of the best nights she's ever had

[boot_the_grime]

I don't think she meant just sex when she said "mine, too" to Satsu - I'm not sure how much nights with Spike could have been considered great if you disregard sex itself and consider the shame, self-loathing etc. afterwards, or their disastrous morning after conversation in Wrecked. And considering what her morning afters with Angel and Parker were like, her relationship with Riley is the only other candidate for "nice nights" as opposed to just "good sex" or "great sex".

True, she may have been exaggerating a little in the heat of the moment - but then again, she might have been in 'Wrecked' too.

She might have exaggerated a bit in Wolves at the Gate since she and Satsu were having a nice friendly conversation, and "me too" is a nice answer to give. She definitely wouldn't have exaggerated in Wrecked when she was trying to find ways to shut Spike up and cut him down to size, but wasn't able to deny when she claimed it was the best sex she's had.

Personally: despite writing this fic, I've never doubted that Buffy is heterosexual

[stormwreath]

Buffy assumed she was so drunk that she could have slept with any guy at that party (9.06), including those that she described as not showering or infrequently showering, so that's not such strong evidence of her wanting to sleep with Willow.

'Wanting' to sleep with Willow isn't what I'm saying; she'd not pining after her or anything. But that scene does prove one thing: if Buffy wakes up to see a just-showered Willow in her bedroom, her first thought is not an innocent explanation like "Oh, Willow must have crashed here after the party". Instead her mind goes straight to, "Oh my God, Willow and I must have had sex last night." The idea is clearly NOT 'something that would never cross her mind' - because it did.

It's only afterwards that Buffy starts to speculate on whether she might have slept with someone else instead, and to have nightmares that it could have been just about anybody since she doesn't remember.

There were no signs of Buffy thinking about it in seasons 4, 5, 6 or 7. Well, what sort of signs would you expect to

[boot_the_grime]

Well, what sort of signs would you expect to see? If it was something Buffy thought about, I imagine she'd do so very privately and not talk about it to anyone. :)

Heh, well in the same way we could speculate all sorts of things that people might be thinking - but there's no textual support for it. I'm not sure when exactly she would have been thinking about it, anyway - in S4 she was with Riley, post-Riley she was first thinking of dating Ben/finding another boyfriend then deciding she better be single, in season 6 she was preoccupied with Spike and other kind of sexual exploration for that to be credible, and in S7... She didn't seem to be in the mood to think all that much about relationships or sex.

I'd agree that Buffy isn't into casual sex as such - she'd want there to be an emotional bond with her partner - but post-S5 she's definitely willing to go to bed with people she's not "in love" with.But it's not so clear if she'd be willing to go to bed with people who are definitely and without doubt not in love with her. Whether

[erimthar]

As for Satsu, I'm wondering if we might see her soon, working in Kennedy's bodyguard agency?

I don't expect any further Batsu action, but Scott Allie recently mentioned that Joss still has an ongoing interest in Satsu.

I've always resisted the idea of Satsu and Kennedy hooking up, and not just for the obvious reason. Something about it just screams out "all lesbians must sleep together." I'd rather they just stay friends.

I wonder if we'll ever see Aura again?

[stormwreath]

I've always resisted the idea of Satsu and Kennedy hooking up

I know what you mean; but now that Kennedy is officially single I find that I'm less resistant to the idea. Not strongly in favour of it or anything; just neutral.

I'd hope we get more backstory about Aura, but I still think it'll say a lot about Willow's current story arc if we never do - in other words, if she turns out to be just a casual hook-up Willow brought to Buffy's party.

[mr_waterproof]

I thought that on the rebound from Willow, Kennedy should get together with another cute geeky redhead.

[stormwreath]

It's Felicia Day's character in 'Dollhouse' who was gay, not her character in 'Buffy' (as far as we know). :)

[mr_waterproof]

We don't know if Vi was straight, gay, bi or asexual. I don't assume every fictional character is straight unless it is pointed out that they aren't.

[stormwreath]

We do know that Satsu considers Kennedy to be "the other lesbian Slayer", however. :)

(And Vi is a squad leader and a Sunnydale alumna, so presumably well-known and talked about in the Slayer organisation).