How to be Good or Evil, Chapter 5b

[thedeadlyhook]

Happy Birthday to KasstoThis is a bit rough -- I just blasted through some parts of it just to get it down -- but I really need to get my momentum back on this story, so I'm just going to push ahead and hope for the best. I may do a little clean-up edit later. But! Things are finally starting to happen

Comments

[quinara]

Ooh, excellent! A very neat little instalment - and I do like your Xander.

[thedeadlyhook]

Thank you! I really like writing Xander -- he's a little bit on the outside of Buffy's life, so he has his own perspective on that, plus his own issues and relationships... I actually really wanted to see more of him in that last season. Ditto Willow, and more scenes with the two of them, as I'm sure you can tell. : )

[rahirah]

This is nicely creepy, and yeah, each of them would think the other was an illusion under the circumstances...

[thedeadlyhook]

I honestly felt that was true of Spike in the show -- he thought she was another one of his phantom visitors -- so I just pumped up the volume on the illusions to put Buffy in that state, too. That whole what's real?/what's unreal? aspect of the First really appealed to me, and I wanted to play around with it a bit more.

[thisficklemob]

I always felt the First could have been so much creepier than it was... or funnier. I mean, first creepy, and then funny.

I believe I once wrote a comment to that effect...

"Buffy! Spike's raping you in the bathroom again, and I have to get to school!"
"Just walk through them. And don't look!"

[thedeadlyhook]

Yikes!

But I see what you mean, yeah. I could never quite figure out what the First's objective really was -- its actions never really seemed to add up. If psychological warfare was the point, shouldn't it have targeted the characters' fears more directly, as per your example? In my opinion, it never quite lived up to its initial appearance on the show, with Angel, in S7, and that's too bad. There was so much potential there.

[seapealsh]

This is way creepier than canon. Keep up the good work.

[thedeadlyhook]

Thank you! I do love me some creepiness.

[thisficklemob]

Aaaaaah! I love it. I love Buffy going hunting in her cow hat, and Xander realizing how much his leader subverts type, and Buffy's self-doubt, and her bantering with the zombies. So many good lines. And the last line... damn.

Quipping she could do. Even queasy and unsteady on her feet, she could keep up with a bunch of zombies verbally. When she couldn't, that would officially be time to turn in her stake.

*snort*

He supposed he should have figured that out before, but then again, the person he usually followed really didn't look the part.

Especially not in the cow hat.

[thedeadlyhook]

It's funny -- I hadn't thought specifically about the cow hat in this scene, but it does add a whole new dimension to Xander's thoughts, doesn't it?

And actually the final scene, too, now that I think about it. I kinda love that hat. : )

[thisficklemob]

I didn't figure he meant that either, but in this instance...

I hadn't thought of it in the final scene, either! Somehow it's hard to keep the cow hat on Buffy's head in my mental 'verse. (Sympathy? Aversion?) And, it would lend itself even more to Spike thinking she wasn't a very good copy, either.

[thisficklemob]

(Maybe I'll just pretend the blow to the head knocked the hat off. Hey, it would make sense.)

[rebcake]

As you know, I'm partial to Wood where you are not, but First!Wood is an asshole supreme. Anybody who repeatedly calls our girl "Fluffy" deserves...well, a lot more than he's been given thus far, in my opinion. If he is a First version, that is. Perhaps he's more?

Buffy's work shoes squeaking on the school floor is a beautifully evocative detail. So sad and somehow precious. There are lots of little touches like that, and your dialogue is, as always, a delight. I do love what you're doing with this.

[thisficklemob]

! It didn't even occur to me that Wood was also the First. But how could he be, if Buffy kicked a gun out of his hand? Could the Wood outside be First? But if he was, how could Willow whammy him?

*scratches head*

[rebcake]

Well, I wouldn't want to step on Deadly's plans for this, but perhaps Wood is the Caleb of the piece? Or not. And does this version of the First only take on the appearance of the dead? That seemed limiting to me, in canon. Also, that "rule" got kind of screwed up by the reappearance of Warren in the comics, we shall speak of them no more.

[thisficklemob]

I do not read the comic, so I can speak of them no more.

But, good point, there's no reason the First has to be limited to dead people in this 'verse. Or, for that matter, no-touchy.