(fic) This isn't about hate

[stormwreath]

There's been lots of controversy over a certain revelation in the S8 comics. Rather than agonise over it, though, I've decided to write fic about it. This is a short story set in Season 6, giving two missing scenes - one from just after 'Doublemeat Palace', the other starting 3/4 of the way into 'Villains' - inspired by the new S8 storyline.

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Comments

[owenthurman]

Very nice. I like Amy; she's always been interesting. I do wish we got to see her dad a little, though.

[stormwreath]

Thanks!

He probably doesn't appear because he sounds like a fairly decent father, so by definition is not allowed to appear on the show. :) Plus, Amy says in S6 that she's deliberately avoiding him. She's more her mother's daughter than S1 Amy would have admitted...

[spikendru]

She's more her mother's daughter than S1 Amy would have admitted...

Yes, I wondered how that came about. After "The Witch", she was looking forward to going to live with her father and making brownies and seemed really happy about the changes in her life. Then, when we next see her, she's using magic to make the teacher think she handed in a paper when she didn't, and is skilled enough to be calling on Hecate to do love spells and has somehow learned transmorgrification. Guess being a normal girl with a father who probably had to make a living so may not have been around as much as she would have liked wasn't enough for her.

[stormwreath]

In some ways she's a mirror to Willow - power corrupts, not because it turns you Evil, but because it lets you arrange other peoples' lives to suit yourself. Amy playing with her teacher's mind instead of doing her homework isn't on the same level of violation as Willow wiping Tara's memories, but it's starting down the same path.

The difference is that ultimately Willow cares about what others think about her (and her own self-image), while Amy is much more self-centred. Catherine Madison probably soured her daughter permanently against anybody trying to control or arrange her life for her, or even impose any restrictions on what she wanted to do...

[spikendru]

Is that really her mother talking to Amy, or is it perhaps The First?

[stormwreath]

Interesting guess. :)

Ever since 'The Killer In Me' when Amy said 'Oops" and "It's about power" using not only the same words but the same intonation as The First, I've been convinced they were somehow connected. And what dead person could The First appear as who would have maximum impact on Amy? And how did she turn from the strung-out junkie of S6 to the competent, malicious witch of S7?

One of the ideas I was trying to get across in this story was Amy's gradual corruption; she doesn't think of herself as evil, but she doesn't really care about anyone but herself (except for the hints at jealousy of Buffy and Willow), and she's got lots of bitterness. A perfect target for an entity that gets its pleasue fom tempting people into acts of evil...

[stormwreath]

Thanks! And yes, Amy's mother may have had a few First-like qualities... :)

[beer_good_foamy]

Nice AU. ;-) Really liked the way the First tapped into Amy's insecurities, gradually twisting her and, not unimportantly, making her think she's the one coming up with all the ideas. Feeding her ego along with her dislike of Willow and Buffy.

not that good, mister...

So you're saying you don't believe in the twu wuv of Warren/Amy? :-) Of course, this is 2 1/2 years before we see them again, they spend most of that somehow surviving below the rubble of Sunnydale, and I guess any port in a storm...

a certain residual dislike of people who owned cats, but that was a rat thing and she was totally over it.

Oh, I'm definitely going to have to write some Rat!Amy/Miss Kitty Fantastico femslash.

[stormwreath]

Nice AU.

[lilred26x]

I really enjoyed this! I've read your responses to the other comments and I think you accomplished your goals very well with this fic. The longer I read Amy's mother's comments the more convinced I became that it was the First. Of course, Amy had no way to know that. You showed how she could have been led astray. And I laughed out loud at her thoughts about not liking people who owned cats being a residual of once being a rat. Perfect! Thanks so much for sharing this!

[stormwreath]

Thanks muchly! I weanted to drop hints that Amy's mother wasn't exactly what she seemed, rather than state it outright, because like you say Amy wouldn't know that. (Although I think she's starting to suspect something right at the end, where the First gets a little careless - or thinks she's hooked, so it doesn't need to pretend).

Thanks again!