Fic: Show You The World (Buffy, Dawn)

[aliceinkinkland]

Title: Show You the World
Characters: Buffy, Dawn
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 1619
Summary: It turns out feeling better is a bit more complicated than looking at your sister one morning and realising you want to show her the world. It also turns out that telling your sister you want to show her the world leads, in Dawn’s mind at least, to Sister Bonding

Comments

[velvetwhip]

This is swell. It feels very real - the truth behind those "transcendent moments that change everything"...except that they don't. I love the dynamics between Buffy and Dawn here and you just knew they'd wind up with really obnoxious hitchhikers. Excellent job!

Gabrielle

[aliceinkinkland]

Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it. And yeah, epiphany moments are rarely the clean breaks we think they are, even when they do represent a real change of perspective...I'm a big fan of season six, and I feel like the ending sets things up for a lot of moments like this, but then season seven switches into a really different gear and doesn't pick up all the lose threads from the previous year, I think? I wish we'd had a moment like this, tbh.

[snogged]

I really like the genuine feel of this - the feelings that Buffy's experiencing, the relationship between her and Dawn, the witty back and forth, the hitchhiker incident. It's very well done.

[aliceinkinkland]

Thank you so much! spuffy_luvr gave me a really fun set of prompts to work with. This was my first time writing Dawn, and I was a little unsure of myself there, so I'm extra super glad you liked how I did her and Buffy's relationship :)

[baphrosia]

I have never ever gotten a gift fic before, and I tell you, that email was pretty exciting. :)

I adore this. It's so interesting to see what other people come up with from a set of prompts. And it's far from an angsty ending. Thank you!

I absolutely love how it's so *real*. It doesn't matter how many epiphanies you have, it isn't easy to just slide into a new way of thinking and acting. It turns out feeling better is a bit more complicated than looking at your sister one morning and realising you want to show her the world. Exactly, Buffy. But this: Buffy doesn’t want to make the mistake of thinking this is another one of those Moments That Change Everything, because she’s finding that real life rarely makes quite that much sense. Instead, she just decides this is a moment that feels good, and despite the fact that she still has days where she feels cold and numb and distant, she has to admit she’s having more of the good moments lately, and a lot of them have to do with Dawn. is an epiphany you can work with. It's a

[aliceinkinkland]

I'm so glad you liked this, and thanks for such a wonderful comment :) It was a really fun prompt to work with, so thanks for that too. I'm glad you felt like my Dawn characterization worked. And haha, I don't drive so I have never had to think about picking up hitchhikers. This also means I know nothing about cars, which may be why I made the characters in this fic also know nothing about cars lol. Amplifying my own ignorance for comic effect.

[red_satin_doll]

This made me laugh so hard: “Because I don’t introduce you to enough things that want to murder you,” says Buffy. And then there is a very real, painful moment right after. I love that kind of writing the best, where the I can laugh and cry in one paragraph.

Hey look at you, being all lengthy and eloquent with the review! :D thank y0u for saying everything I'd want to say for me!
(with apologies to Alice for getting over-excited, don't mind me.)

[baphrosia]

I suck at reviews. I do. But I love your long, in-depth ones. So I decided to let you be my role model and do like you do. :) Plus, it's a fic that totally deserves a proper review.

[red_satin_doll]

For once I'm going to be completely ineloquent here and confess that I can't do better than to point to velvetwhip's, 's and especially spuffy_luvr's comments here and say YES, ALL OF THIS.

If I were spuffy_luvr I'd be thrilled to be receiving this present. Summers sister bonding is my jam! And again, I'm going to point to what spuffy_luvr had to say about this story. Particularly this: This made me laugh so hard: “Because I don’t introduce you to enough things that want to murder you,” says Buffy. And then there is a very real, painful moment right after. I love that kind of writing the best, where the I can laugh and cry in one paragraph.I mean, DAMN, Alice. that is just something else. I don't even know what to do with this. I already love Buffy and Dawn Summers, you made me fall in love with them a little harder. Killing things doesn't make them heroes; loving and trying and enduring unspeaking traumas makes them my BDH's

[aliceinkinkland]

Wowowow this comment is making me flap my arms excitedly. Actually, though, this is so incredibly sweet and validating and just a lovely thing to have received in my inbox. I'm so glad you liked this! Thank you thank you thank you!

And YES, WOW, no one has ever made any graphics based on my fics, so this is SO INCREDIBLY EXCITING WOW. YES PLEASE!

[red_satin_doll]

Something I forgot to add:

I'm a big fan of season six, and I feel like the ending sets things up for a lot of moments like this, but then season seven switches into a really different gear and doesn't pick up all the lose threads from the previous year, I think? I wish we'd had a moment like this, tbh.Based on what little I know of the production during S6 (that by the end of it, no one was having any fun, to say the least) I understand why a lot of things got dropped but it's also frustrating. I cheered when Dawn picked up a sword and fought at her sister's side in Grave (and I don't like the end of that season for - reasons) and I really looked forward to more Summers sister bonding. It had been one of my favorite things about S5, I missed it in S6 (along with Buffy and Willow bonding); I really like the beginning of S7 and it seemed to promise more in the way of both of Buffy's relationships with her literal and metaphorical sisters but alas, it was not meant to be; they got shuttled to the side like so much else that year

[aliceinkinkland]

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH WOW! Thank you so much. Can I, like, add it to this post/my a03? Is that how this works?

And re: season six, that makes sense, but yeah, I do wish we'd seen more of what the scene with Buffy and Dawn in Grave meant for their relationship, and for Buffy's recovery. But I do get the tone shift somewhat for sure. I feel like I'm coming into this fandom and thinking through all these things that people have already thought through for the past decade haha.

[double_dutchess]

I came here on red-satin-doll's recommendation, and I didn't regret it! This was a lovely story, and as others have said, very real. It's at these kinds of moments, when things go totally wrong in a "we'll-laugh-about-it-later" way, that bonds are formed and cherished memories are created. I think Dawn had the right idea. I'm sure this experience will stay with them in a way it would never have if the trip had gone without a hitch (!). For the rest of their lives, whenever they hear a funny sound in the car they will probably be quoting Leticia “If there was something really wrong with the car, it would have stopped by now”! and fondly remembering their little road trip.

[aliceinkinkland]

This is so sweet and lovely; thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked it.

I'm sure this experience will stay with them in a way it would never have if the trip had gone without a hitch (!) OK puns are totally the way to my heart, so this makes your entire comment even more awesome.