Fic: 'Sunstroke' by Quinara (PG-13; Spuffy; ~3500 words)

[quinara]

Well, I was convinced I had to try and write something, because it's been too long! And so I started with this week's Fag Ends prompts, Land Rover and A Sudden Sandstorm, but then I got to a thousand words and it was a thing that needed more words. It is still a thing that is a thing that I don't know what it is. But there is Buffy, there is

Comments

[bogwitch]

Lovely! I especially liked 'the wheezing kiss of aircon'.

>>her water had been moved the dashboard
Missing a word?

[quinara]

Yay! Thank you! :D

And curses...! I knew there would be at least one typo that couldn't escape my wrath.

[bogwitch]

There always is.

[thisficklemob]

Oh, this made me ache. Especially how Buffy refused to hear what the First Slayer had to say. Even having him back is painful. Poor Buffy.

[quinara]

Poor Buffy exactly. :( Although I imagine she might cheer up at least a little with the return of the Spike!

[rahirah]

Ow. Even your happy endings are killers. *g*

(A hundred degrees is not that hot. Just saying...)

[quinara]

:D I fear the Great Happy Ending Phase of 2009-2012 or whenever it was might well and truly be over for me... I have become bored of them again!

And :P Buffy cannot be relied upon to accurately record temperature, surely? A lot of the stuff with the car was mostly an homage to the family holiday we went on in France in my yoof where my mum accidentally melted a cassette tape by leaving it on the dashboard while we had lunch. And I doubt that was 40 degrees! (I, er, did remember correctly that 100F is about 40C, right?)

[rahirah]

Hee! True, cassette tapes will melt if you look at them funny. I made the mistake of storing a bunch of them in the garage over the summer as a teen, and they were never quite the same after that...

[quinara]

It's all these little things people forget when they pine for analogue...

[slaymesoftly]

Oh, wow. And so sadly true. Loved this. Wondered if it was leading up to a happy Spuffy ending, had just decided it probably wasn't when it suddenly seemed to be doing so... and then that last line.... Owie.

[quinara]

Oh, thanks! I think this could well be a happy ending eventually - it's just not how Buffy's thoughts go!

[red_satin_doll]

You've written again, hurrah! You capture Buffy's voice so well, in all her contrariness. This is sad and lovely and whatever they share it's laced with such terrible pain. Both so difficult, wanting to love and unable to let down their guards completely or entirely let go of certain defenses.

I don't know why there is something oddly vunerable about him showing up when she's brushing her teeth of all things.

“Spike?” she asked honestly, letting the scythe drop to a gentle grip in one hand. “Can we - can we just stop for a second?”

This is my favorite moment in the story because I can feel and hear every ounce of her spiritual exhaustion and sadness - the parallel moment to "Can we rest now, Buffy?"

“Look, it really takes a lot more to be Spike than answering everything I say with a question. It’s kind of embarrassing that I know that and yet can’t seem to come up with a better blow-up doll of you. And that's my second favorite moment - the dry wit and sarcasm are so in character and one of the things that keep the story from

[quinara]

Yeah!! And thank you so much - I'm really glad you enjoyed it. This is complete comfort fic for me; the sort of thing I used to write back when I first seriously got into fanfic, with Buffy and her desert dreamscapes (and for every one that exists there were at least three WIPs), so I'm glad it was still enjoyable! It was so much fun to have Spike flickering halfway between believability and not (at least for me!).

[red_satin_doll]

It was so much fun to have Spike flickering halfway between believability and not (at least for me!).

Even Buffy, in a way, flickers between the two constantly, with only the lamp and the bedsheets, the water bottles and the toothpaste - those "killer diller details" - to really establish her physicality, although you convey her presence beautifully in both realms. (That's a huge thing to me, part of what establishes believability of characterization: a sense of presence.)

The ONLY thing I've ever been able to write that truly qualifies as "Spuffy" is a dream, as it happens, perhaps even a dream within a dream within who knows what. I have never been able to write Spike in his physicality or totality, or Spuffy for that matter. I think perhaps there is so much good stuff out there already written.

More, please?

[quinara]

I am completely in debt to bogwitch for any effective grounding of characters - over the years I've had many beta comments about empty figures trading dialogue in empty planes! The thing with dreamscapes is that you can get away with it, but it's quite disassociating to read after a while... I quite like the idea in this of mixing the dreamy empty dialogue with Buffy haring back to 3D memories and then disassociating again. Or at least that's what I tried to do to wake myself up!

I think perhaps there is so much good stuff out there already written.

There's certainly a lot of stuff out there, but there's definitely still room for any Spike and Spuffy you would care to throw at the world! I'm still reading so many stories that I know I've read a hundred times, in different ways, but it's always interesting to see how and where people go with them in the specifics. (Even if there are a few scenarios I'm burned out on.) Writing Spike is just too much fun! Buffy too, of course.