Of all the depictions of Xander/Buffy--even my own--I enjoy this the best. The awkwardness and the closeness and the quiet comfort they have in this "complicated" are touching. The final bit about "hurt" summed it all up nicely.
So, Xander knows Adalia's name.
I think Adalia is about to learn she's in big, big trouble.
"I think Adalia is about to learn she's in big, big trouble."
I get the impression that Xander is going to try to save her soul. Which probably means that once again, Xander's going to be in trouble. Thankfully for him, he's got Buffy and Willow watching his back, even if he doesn't want them to be.
So, Willow still hasn't bothered to mention to Buffy what she almost got killed for?
Making hard choices in the name of the greater good is fine. Not bothering to tell other people what the "great good" is and expecting them to go along with you is worse than wrong; it's counterproductive.
Thus far, Buffy has shown herself willing to fight on what she suspects is the wrong side of the war simply because Willow said so. I have a feeling that Xander is not going to make the same choice, but I can't help wondering why neither of them is willing to ask her what she's getting out of the deal.
I never really understood why Willow was the default backup boss for the Scoobies in Season 6. She has no people skills and doesn't understand the concept of the word "delegate." I'm wondering if her inadequacies as a leader are showing through here as well.
You've got this habit of picking up on stuff when I've only briefly alluded to it. It's frustrating, 'cause I like people go back and read and be like "OH! So that's what that was about!"
There's a lot going on here, and only about half of the problems between the characters are the lingering ones from the show. Beyond that, they're cutting one another out, not telling each other everything, so much so that the only ones who are staying caught up on everything are the readers.
It's not so much that she's being a bad leader as it is that she's forgetting she's not the only leader anymore. She brought Xander and Buffy to Rio, not as subordinates, but as backup. For the most part, she's kind of leading the way right now, since she's the one familiar with the territory, but not giving Buffy all the info and trying to keep Xander mostly to menial operations isn't helping their cause at all
( ... )
I'm not going to share my guesses about the plot, partly because I'm almost guaranteed to be wrong and partly because if I happen to luck out, you'll lose another piece of your mystery.
Wonderful Xander/Buffy moments here. Both of them are not only a little lost in Rio but seem rather lost in general. Hopefully both of them end up arriving in the same place at the same time.
(And yeah, I'm aware that could have been put better, but meh)
I like the way you put it. And thanks for preserving some of the mystery.
Is it sad that I've pretty much got the conclusion to this story already planned out? Same thing happened with Sparrow. Just can't help myself sometimes.
Despite the appeal of mystery, it's not a bad thing for the writer to know where things are going to end up. Actually, I think it makes for much more cohesive writing overall, even if you get waylaid from the original plan along the way.
I've never been able to do it - the whole planning thing - so I'm envious.
Heh, half the time I've been touted for planning, it's just been luck that things worked out the way they did.
In Sparrow, the only things I definitively planned from the start (once I decided the story was going to be more than just a dozen parts or so) was:
A.) Willow getting to Xander via the medallion. That scene in the end was one of the first long-term plans I made.
B.) Someone was gonna die. It was originally going to be Radhi, but ended up being Amelie.
C.) Buffy was going to show up at some point and remind him why he was fighting.
Aside from that, a lot of the stuff was largely happenstance. Matib wasn't even going to be a Shadow Man at first. It wasn't until the Egypt arc had already begun that I settled on that.
I'm going for a bit more of a planning approach this time, though.
There are bits and pieces and hints all over but none of them seem to have the whole picture, and that's the kind of thing that brings a team down faster than anything else.
It will be interesting to see as they each fill in their blanks.
I've wanted to write a convoluted ensemble piece for a while now. Where all the characters are only partially informed and the reader is privy to which details each is lacking.
Okay, so I've finally caught up on this (aka, read the whole thing). Really good job. I'm a little wiped out from being uber busy, so I can't offer a whole lot more than that, but yeah. Good stuff.
Comments 16
So, Xander knows Adalia's name.
I think Adalia is about to learn she's in big, big trouble.
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I get the impression that Xander is going to try to save her soul. Which probably means that once again, Xander's going to be in trouble. Thankfully for him, he's got Buffy and Willow watching his back, even if he doesn't want them to be.
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Man, people have been guessing at the plot a lot lately.
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Making hard choices in the name of the greater good is fine. Not bothering to tell other people what the "great good" is and expecting them to go along with you is worse than wrong; it's counterproductive.
Thus far, Buffy has shown herself willing to fight on what she suspects is the wrong side of the war simply because Willow said so. I have a feeling that Xander is not going to make the same choice, but I can't help wondering why neither of them is willing to ask her what she's getting out of the deal.
I never really understood why Willow was the default backup boss for the Scoobies in Season 6. She has no people skills and doesn't understand the concept of the word "delegate." I'm wondering if her inadequacies as a leader are showing through here as well.
Reply
There's a lot going on here, and only about half of the problems between the characters are the lingering ones from the show. Beyond that, they're cutting one another out, not telling each other everything, so much so that the only ones who are staying caught up on everything are the readers.
It's not so much that she's being a bad leader as it is that she's forgetting she's not the only leader anymore. She brought Xander and Buffy to Rio, not as subordinates, but as backup. For the most part, she's kind of leading the way right now, since she's the one familiar with the territory, but not giving Buffy all the info and trying to keep Xander mostly to menial operations isn't helping their cause at all ( ... )
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Wonderful Xander/Buffy moments here. Both of them are not only a little lost in Rio but seem rather lost in general. Hopefully both of them end up arriving in the same place at the same time.
(And yeah, I'm aware that could have been put better, but meh)
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Is it sad that I've pretty much got the conclusion to this story already planned out? Same thing happened with Sparrow. Just can't help myself sometimes.
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I've never been able to do it - the whole planning thing - so I'm envious.
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In Sparrow, the only things I definitively planned from the start (once I decided the story was going to be more than just a dozen parts or so) was:
A.) Willow getting to Xander via the medallion. That scene in the end was one of the first long-term plans I made.
B.) Someone was gonna die. It was originally going to be Radhi, but ended up being Amelie.
C.) Buffy was going to show up at some point and remind him why he was fighting.
Aside from that, a lot of the stuff was largely happenstance. Matib wasn't even going to be a Shadow Man at first. It wasn't until the Egypt arc had already begun that I settled on that.
I'm going for a bit more of a planning approach this time, though.
Reply
There are bits and pieces and hints all over but none of them seem to have the whole picture, and that's the kind of thing that brings a team down faster than anything else.
It will be interesting to see as they each fill in their blanks.
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It's definitely an exercise in consistency.
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Always happy to see you when you've got time to pop in.
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