BtVS Ficlet: Uncertain Future
Title: Uncertain Future
Fandom: BtVS
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Buffy.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 694.
Spoilers: What’s My Line.
Summary: Buffy isn’t enjoying career week; the way she sees it, her fate is already sealed.
Written For: Challenge 279: Amnesty at fan_flashworks, using Challenge 85: Monsters.
Disclaimer: I don’t own BtVS, or the characters.
All the career week stuff is getting Buffy down; how is she supposed to know what she wants to do with her life when she doesn’t even know what she wants to do at the weekend? She’s sixteen; no one should have to make choices that will affect their whole lives when they’re still trying to figure out who they are. No wonder adults always seem so stressed and worried about everything; they were forced to make big life decisions too soon and now they’re having to live with the results, stuck in jobs they hate.
Besides, Buffy knows she might not live long enough for choosing a career to be an issue, and like she told Giles, she already has a job, working nights, slaying monsters.
That’s another thing; if, sometime in the future, she does get a job, how is she going to explain if she has to suddenly drop everything to go deal with some vampire, demon, or other creepy creature? It probably wouldn’t go down too well with her employer, and it’s not like she can tell anyone the truth about why she disappeared in the middle of the workday, where she went or what she did.
But if she doesn’t get a job when she leaves school, what then? How will she pay bills and do all the other adult stuff? She can’t just live at home forever, expecting her mom to pay for everything. She’d look like a total loser; everyone would laugh at her.
And what about job interviews? If she’s asked about what skills she has, what’s she gonna say? ‘Oh, I’m terrific at dusting vampires, I’m a great shot with a crossbow, and you should see me decapitate monsters with my sword. I’m sure you’d be impressed.’ Before she knew it the men in white coats would be hauling her away in a straitjacket, and wouldn’t that be peachy?
Maybe she should stick with what she knows and go into the monster slaying business, although technically she’s already a charter member, she just doesn’t make any money from it. She could get some business cards printed up: Got Demon Trouble? I can help. Call 555-DEMON. Competitive rates.
She can just picture herself, ten years down the road, at a party, or maybe her high school reunion, some cute guy coming over to talk to her, asking, ‘So, what do you do for a living?’
‘Oh, I slay vampires, demons, and assorted monsters, no job too big. Here, let me give you my business card.’
Yeah, right, and here come the guys in white coats again…
It hits her suddenly, and not for the first time, that she’s never going to have a normal life with a good career, marriage, maybe kids… For one thing she’s not likely to live long enough to have all those things, and for another, slaying is a fulltime job in itself; it doesn’t leave much time for her to have a social life. It’s a depressing thought.
She envies Willow, and Xander, and god, even Cordelia! They have futures that don’t revolve around killing the next Big Bad to come through town. They can look forward to leaving high school, going to college, graduating, finding their place in the world… Buffy already knows hers, and it’s right where she is, patrolling every night, keeping the monsters at bay.
Will her friends even think of her when they have successful careers and she’s… gone? Will they remember the glory days of helping her fight evil or will she just become a footnote to their teenage years? ‘Hey, d’you remember that girl we used to hang out with when we were sixteen? The blonde… what was her name again? We had some crazy times back then, didn’t we? Whatever happened to her?’
“Everyone else gets to make big plans for the future, and I might not even have one.” Even though it’s old news it still cuts like a knife. Of course, if slaying does get her killed, at least she won’t have to worry about choosing a career, so there’s that.
Somehow it doesn’t make her feel any better at all.
The End
Fandom: BtVS
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Buffy.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 694.
Spoilers: What’s My Line.
Summary: Buffy isn’t enjoying career week; the way she sees it, her fate is already sealed.
Written For: Challenge 279: Amnesty at fan_flashworks, using Challenge 85: Monsters.
Disclaimer: I don’t own BtVS, or the characters.
All the career week stuff is getting Buffy down; how is she supposed to know what she wants to do with her life when she doesn’t even know what she wants to do at the weekend? She’s sixteen; no one should have to make choices that will affect their whole lives when they’re still trying to figure out who they are. No wonder adults always seem so stressed and worried about everything; they were forced to make big life decisions too soon and now they’re having to live with the results, stuck in jobs they hate.
Besides, Buffy knows she might not live long enough for choosing a career to be an issue, and like she told Giles, she already has a job, working nights, slaying monsters.
That’s another thing; if, sometime in the future, she does get a job, how is she going to explain if she has to suddenly drop everything to go deal with some vampire, demon, or other creepy creature? It probably wouldn’t go down too well with her employer, and it’s not like she can tell anyone the truth about why she disappeared in the middle of the workday, where she went or what she did.
But if she doesn’t get a job when she leaves school, what then? How will she pay bills and do all the other adult stuff? She can’t just live at home forever, expecting her mom to pay for everything. She’d look like a total loser; everyone would laugh at her.
And what about job interviews? If she’s asked about what skills she has, what’s she gonna say? ‘Oh, I’m terrific at dusting vampires, I’m a great shot with a crossbow, and you should see me decapitate monsters with my sword. I’m sure you’d be impressed.’ Before she knew it the men in white coats would be hauling her away in a straitjacket, and wouldn’t that be peachy?
Maybe she should stick with what she knows and go into the monster slaying business, although technically she’s already a charter member, she just doesn’t make any money from it. She could get some business cards printed up: Got Demon Trouble? I can help. Call 555-DEMON. Competitive rates.
She can just picture herself, ten years down the road, at a party, or maybe her high school reunion, some cute guy coming over to talk to her, asking, ‘So, what do you do for a living?’
‘Oh, I slay vampires, demons, and assorted monsters, no job too big. Here, let me give you my business card.’
Yeah, right, and here come the guys in white coats again…
It hits her suddenly, and not for the first time, that she’s never going to have a normal life with a good career, marriage, maybe kids… For one thing she’s not likely to live long enough to have all those things, and for another, slaying is a fulltime job in itself; it doesn’t leave much time for her to have a social life. It’s a depressing thought.
She envies Willow, and Xander, and god, even Cordelia! They have futures that don’t revolve around killing the next Big Bad to come through town. They can look forward to leaving high school, going to college, graduating, finding their place in the world… Buffy already knows hers, and it’s right where she is, patrolling every night, keeping the monsters at bay.
Will her friends even think of her when they have successful careers and she’s… gone? Will they remember the glory days of helping her fight evil or will she just become a footnote to their teenage years? ‘Hey, d’you remember that girl we used to hang out with when we were sixteen? The blonde… what was her name again? We had some crazy times back then, didn’t we? Whatever happened to her?’
“Everyone else gets to make big plans for the future, and I might not even have one.” Even though it’s old news it still cuts like a knife. Of course, if slaying does get her killed, at least she won’t have to worry about choosing a career, so there’s that.
Somehow it doesn’t make her feel any better at all.
The End