Everything Is Different Now
Awesome. Like always... Just keep it, please.
Author's Response:Thank you- you're very kind.
Next chapters up- see, your begging worked! :P
really didn't see that coming! excellent up-date. again the girls sounded spot on. don't leave us hanging to long!
Author's Response:Thank you and thank you!
Your wait is over. :)
Whaaaaatt? Whats goin on?
Author's Response:You can find out NOW! :D
Well that was an unexpected end to the chapter. I honestly didn't see Faith turning on Buffy again - not entirely 100% sure why she is. But I'm sure you know. And to think I was going to reprimand Willow for being so mistrustful of Faith. Boy, don't I look silly now.
Great chapter, nice to see a victory for the good guys after things looked pretty dire last chapter. Can't wait to see what the hell's going on!
Author's Response:The whole Faith turning on Buffy will hopefully become a little clearer by the end of this chapter, and yeah-Willow is concerned about Buffy's behaviour and distrustful of Faith- so of course she's going to rely on magic.
When in doubt that's what Willow does for a quick fix (and no, that wasn't a magic as drugs pun- THAT doesn't come up until S6...).
Yeah, the demon is dead, but the baton has been passed to a familiar face form the past. :O
Next chapters up.
An update already, it must be christmas!! Good chapter, the ending got me questioning what the hell is going on but then I would say buffy deserved that one for chaining her in the bathtub.
I hope neither of those spells gets used, the first is like a chip which would reduce faith to a female version of spike (not good) and the fact its technically slavery (forcing someone to act a certain way) and then there is fact that no scoobie should have the moral authority to do that, they wouldn't either if you're being accurate to their characterizations.
The second one is a death sentence and the fact that willow entertained the thought of using it and keeping it as a "just incase" thing is unsettling to me because so far characterization have been spot on until this chapter anyway, Willow may hate Faith but she is still a scoobie and goes by their rules i.e no killing humans no matter what (not including dark willow, as she was corrupted by dark magic) Faith is a human. Willow seemed a little too dark and immoral to me, especially when in Season 4 she was quite moral and innocent, she couldn't even go through with cursing Veruca and Oz. Out of all the scoobies, its Xander who would likely entertain the thought of killing humans (Ben, Warren) Giles as well, but he is more pragmatic than the others.
Author's Response:Firstly, thanks for the feedback and your thoughts. It's always great to get these things.
Hmn, the spells...well, firstly on the one hand Willow is just doing as Buffy asks (researching a spell to take care of Faith IF she does something bad) but only time will tell whether Willow will have to, or even be ABLE to, use it effectively.
The second spell...is a death sentence, though not an 'immediate- your dead' one, and it is rightly out of character for Willow to think of such things. But then I always thought that Willow's intense dislike/straight up hatred of Faith was a little odd. In S4 Willow's strong hatred of Faith is a lot more obvious than Xander's conflicted feelings, or Giles thinking.
Without giving too much away Willow's emotions will be explored more thoughly in the coming chapters.
Again, thanks for the thoughts- I appreciate it.
Next chapter's up. :)
Man. At the start of this chapter I was kinda confused. Faith was just being awfully, awfully cooperative and coupled with last chapter how she was acting seemed pretty wildly out of character. It felt more Faith-ey when Buffy was all like "i want us to be OK again" and Faith shot her down.. a little dissapointing but not really unexpected. Not really sure what she is thinking. Hope you will fill us in soon.
Also that Watcher woman and Ethan.. hmmm Ethan is just the go to guy for some chaos magic no? Trying to set up that same spell as the last fic or something similar? Heh magic is always bad news.. this story is jam packed with bad guys (and that is a good thing) XD
Running into Adam like that was a heck of a coincidence. Hmmm I think he will be more interested in fighting zombies than Faith especially since they are probably going to try to swarm him and she's going to try to get the heck away from him. Should be interesting. Looking forward to seeing what you do there.
As to your note at the beginning, I think shorter chapters are a mixed bag. Longer chapters are more enjoyable and by my experience in other sites get way more reviews. If you want more feedback why don't you post this story (and your others) on other sites as well? The biggest website that comes to mind is fanfiction dot net... it is a guilty addiction for me. The more places you post the more reviews you will get. I think you should make an account there more people deserve to read your stories!
Author's Response:Faith's reasoning will hopefuly crystalise over the coming chapters- which are sort of a big turning point for her. Hopefully they'll ring true. (he said nervously)
Ethan Rayne is a known quantity, available for hire, and has a grudge against Giles/Buffy. Though I'll admit he's mainly here because I would've loved to see more of Robin Sachs on the show. The guy played glorious evil so well!
And bad guys will (slowly) start to get dealt with- starting next chapter (I hope!)
Sort of a coincidence- Adam could've been attracted by the undead activity, or the strange demonic energy...or writer's willing plot strands together. Take your pick- although you do get a cupie doll for guessing Adam's true interest will be in the zombies (should I be worried if my plots are becoming too predictable?)
I usually enjoy longer, meatier chapters to read, so that's what I tend to write as well- but there's a lot of little things going on that probably have more impact if their absorbed in separate chapters.
And I took your suggestion and posted the entirerity of my previous story on fanfiction dot net- and I'm already getting feedback! The beast is sated and will now sleep for a time...
Thanks for your thoughts- always interesting to read. :)
sorry for lack of reviews! you so nailed the girls (buffy and faith) in this chapter. the one thing that stuck out for me was that only anya (sort of) wished faith luck! everyone else was all about buffy, i luv buffy but faith was willing to help and giles should have acknowledged that at least!
Author's Response:No need to apologise. Feedback should be a welcome surprise, not a requirement. But thank you anyway! :)
I'm glad that the Buffy/Faith characterisation is ringing true, since their the most impotant characters inthe story- so yay me. And the focus will be mostly on them in the coming chapters.
Yeah, Anya has no axe to grind now that her man is safe. *G* Xander wanted to wish Buffy luck (to show his support) and Giles was still wondering about the wisdom of her decision- poor Faith got ignored by them both as a result. :(
Next chapter up sometime today.
Love it and great idea to split it up! However I'm not a patient girl but I'll work on it Hehe. I love your work and can't wait for next week!
Author's Response:Thanks- not something I'll do often, I like my chapters to be a bit longer. But shorter and more regular in this instance makes sense. Hope that you'll agree.
Your feedback is always appreciated. :)
Next (short) chapter up sometime today.
Since you're looking for more feedback, here you go! That was a well-executed chapter, minus the whole underhanded breaking it into chunks thing. Faith and Buffy seem more alive here than in previous chapters, and the action bits read very well. Looking forward to the rest as you post it!
~OW
Author's Response:Thank you kindly!
I know I am being sort of underhand and sneaky, but in my defence there's lots of things going on here to be absorbed- I though it might have more impact this way.
Glad you're liking the Buffy/Faith stuff, since this is a very transitional period in the story, where they start to work together, and I need Faith's behaviour especially to be believable. Time will tell.
More action coming up- I'm pleased with how all the action stuff came out in the end.
Next post will be up sometime today- thanks again for the support. :)
Excellent chapter, I hope Faith isn't going to put up with this for long though, she should be free and independent, not forced to play nice under threats of tazers, tranqs, magic and the council. From her perspective, she was set up and I'm glad you had buffy acknowledge that but if Buffy truely wants to work together with faith and build trust, she needs to let faith go because Faith should never have to answer to Buffy, Faith is THE slayer, not buffy. Faith has always been like an animal, and caged animals tend to be really aggressive, so I hope she just snaps and tells the scoobies off for theiy faults and part in her downfall. XD
Please update soon, this site felt like it was frozen or abandoned over the last few weeks.
Author's Response:Faith is going to be a bit more proactive next chapter- get to fight things, make her thoughts known and stuff. She certainly isn't okay with her current predicement.
And while her thoughts about Buffy are REALLY confused, she doesn't really worry about her friends. She might feel some guilt from the things she did to them but she's not going to just take crap from them either.
The next few chapters will be about Buffy/Faith and Buffy fighting Faith's corner a bit more. Angst!
Will update as soon as possible- can't promise when, but I really appreciate the enthusiasm!
Thank you for the kind review.:)
Wew. Well you were right that this was a sort of bridging/transition chapter but that didn't take away from it being enjoyable.
What I really want to know (and I hope you include) is what Faith was thinking when she was chained up in the tub. I mean this is Faith we're talking about... some really powerful stuff has to be going on in that head of hers for her to so meekly (for her) accept being chained up in a bathroom and NOT come out swinging because of it. If she doesn't have some real good reasons for that it would be incredibly ooc imho. Maybe she was finally so overwhelemed and had no idea what to do or where to turn that she kinda gave up and went along with it? It would have to be some real deep despair or something cuz that doesnt sound like Faith. Did she decide at some point she was going to trust Buffy and was willing to put up with that to gain her trust back? That seems more likely but I guess we dont know. Darn. I want to get into that head of hers.
A scene that really stood out for me was surprisingly not a Buffy or Faith one.. the one with Xander and Anya in the cemetary was really well done and you made those Initiative zombies really really scary. Xander escaped with his life by pure dumb luck! (then again that's nothing new). I also liked/was surprised by his internal monolouge about Faith.. and how he seemed to have almost like trauma or some minor ptsd because of his experiences with Faith, what with the sex and the choking. Wonder how we're going to get over that. I hope you do a similar scene with Willow to get into her head and find out what exactly HER hangups with Faith are.
Also Morely's little speech about using Faith's love to control her or whatever? Man.. that wasn't at all ominous or creepifying. Of course her 'love' is going to be Buffy so we're just going to have to see how she plans to manipulate that can of Worms. Why is it that every single Watcher except for Giles (and possibly later Wes) ends up being a bad guy, a sleezebag or completely useless? Ugh the Watcher's council is crap I tell ya.
Liked the chapter. Can't wait for the next one. My guess is you eventually have the bad guys play off against each other.. somehow lure Adam into attacking the demon dude with his corpse army. Hmm not a standard Buffy tactic but I think they have so many enemies something like that might be necessary.
Great update!
Author's Response:Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. :)
Yeah, Faith in the bath-tub, and not in a naughty-fun way either. Faith's mental processes will become clearer next chapter and the chapters after that will largely focus on what's going on in her head- rest assured.
Your own theories are pretty near the mark though- waking up hasn't exactly been a picnic for the girl- all those bad decisions are coming home to roost and Faith's not exactly at her most stable at this point in time...
Yeah, the Xander scene took me by surprise- I liked how it turned out, even though I really just wanted to have a scene that wasn't Buffy and Faith talking in a bathroom. lol
I'm glad you liked it too- Xander's kinda hard to write for a lot of the time. His reactions to Faith are...conflicted. He has good (very good) memories of her but also bad ones- akin to sexual assault.
Usually Xander is very morally certain. Vampires=bad, even soulled ones. They're all evil, but he doesn't know quite what to make of Faith (his reactions on the show were comic, but also telling- he was somewhat obsessed with the idea that Faith might come after him, but didn't really seem worried...)
His emotions will be explored in the next chapter or two, as will Willow's (who is far more certain in her dislike of Faith- for various reasons)
Morley will be in the background for the next chapter or two as her plotting takes shape...but she does have plans for the two slayers. Plus, yeah she's creepy, and she has a creepy view of slayers in general.
Next chapter- Adam may have a cameo- I'm gonna try and utilise him better rather than have him linger about in the background. He's supposed to be a Big Bad of the season after all.
Thank you very much for the detailed review- gives me a happy! :)
I finally came back to the this story after getting sidetracked with, erm, life, I guess.
I had about 4 juicy chapters waiting for me and I'm glad to see Faith and Buffy interacting again. It wasn't as fun when the two were separate, it lacked all those moments the story before this one had.
This fic seems to be heading to something big with all the pieces in motion coming to a head, I'm very curious to see what that is and to see how Buffy and Faith reconcile. There was a lot of misunderstanding for a while there and it was getting a bit silly. Just stop and talk, guys, jeez. I think it's harder to believe Buffy would assume the worst of Faith when she's already experienced everything with the wish. But it presents drama and such so I suppose I get why you did it.
Characterizations are pretty much on point and I like the dialogue you come up with; Faith's "eyes are the windows to the pink squishy thing" being a good example. I do think your Buffy, Giles and Willow sometimes - only sometimes - come off slightly as caricatures of themselves. But those are my only gripes. This review comes across more critical than praising but I really do love this story in its entirety.
I hope you update soon! :)
Author's Response:You mean you put your own life ABOVE reading my fics...ah, that's cool. Life is pesky sometimes. :)
Well you're right to a certain extent, they'll be lots of 'little' things coming to a head over the course of the next few chapters. Some evil plots have a lot of moving parts. But we have seen the last of Buffy and Faith being separated, at least for a long while to come.
The thing with Buffy is...she's confused (understatement) she has TWO Faith's in her head and she doesn't know if her feelings for one were clouding her judgement with the other. When she saw Faith threatening her Mom (her neglected Mom) she kind of lost it momentarily- and she feels guilty for that.
To a certain extent Buffy still is second-guessing herself (I always thought Buffy could be very hard on herself, especially in those earlier seasons) in regards to Faith, her own feelings and what she thinks Faith's feelings are towards her. It's all gloriously messy...hopefully.
Some of that will end soon enough when the two of them start to reconcile, and then all those slushy, mushy feelings may make themselves known again...nothing is ever simple for the Buffster. :)
Thank you- I'm finding it easier and easier to write Faith-isms, and I seem to get into her head fairly easily.
As for caricatures...my only excuse is that I may have spent too much time juggling plot elements that I short-changed decent characterisation. As the plot becomes more stream-lined there will be more 'room' for the characters to get there voices back- if that makes sense.
Thank you very much for the feedback, I like specifics/details in my reviews, it lets me know what I'm doing right! :)
Brilliant chapter. Please update soon!
Author's Response:Thank you!
There should be an update....sometimes this weekend? I hope, and I'm working on the chapter after right about now, I'm on a roll. :)
Poor poor faith... Never can catch a break.
Your writing is wonderful as usual.
Author's Response:Yeah, she finds out the truth and then POW Buffy-fist! Ouch...
More pain for Faith in some of the coming chapters I'm afraid...then maybe some lovin'...and then some more pain. *sigh* And so it goes for our slayers.
Wow... So did not see that coming.
My heart is in my mouth! I adore Joyce!!!
Author's Response:Thanks, I too adore Joyce- I'm sure Faith won't hurt her that much. :)
Good writing as alway. You really managed to rework the 4th series in a way that makes sense given the circumstances. Can't wait for more Fuffy. :)
Author's Response:Thank you!
I always think S4 has a lot of potential for a re-write. It's not bad exactly, but a lot of it lacks emotional punch for me, at least compared to other seasons.
I think Fuffy provides what's missing. ;)
Thanks again for the kind praise! :)
Real good chapter, nice and long. Oh man I know it's a little off from what people would expect but I feel especially bad for Buffy in this chapter. I can't imagine the ammount of clusterf**k confusion she must be going through. Riley and his thing, him being hurt and taken by the soldiers, his drugs and him shooting at Faith and sort of spying on and acting crazy, what's going on with Faith, her feeling for Faith, figureing out what Faith actually did, her mom telling her to go easy on 'confused' Faith, plus Adam now and the other bad bad monster running around out there... I feel like she's gonna snap before too long and vent (perhaps explosively) from having to deal with all this crap.
I love your Buffy but for me the best scenes are still consisntenly those from Faith's POV. I think you get into her head extremely well and its one of my favorite takes on her character. Everything about it feels just right.
Really happy that the next few chapters will be Fuffy focused though since the last couple have been very action heavy... not a bad thing but you gotta keep it fresh by mixing it up you know? Can't wait for the promised tears, recriminations and banter ahead... and the naughty flashback. That's exciting too :)
Lovely chapter as per usual from you. Look forward to the next update!
Author's Response:Oh, yes. Buffy is really getting piled on here, and she's not getting any breaks...well, maybe a couple of them in a chapter or two. I'm not totally evil.
Will Buffy snap? There will be a tipping point pretty soon, and I'm not saying which way she's gonna go.
Thanks for the Faith POV stuff- she's my favourite character (I love Faith POV stories most of all) and at the start of this I was really nervous about getting her voice/thoughts right.
That's especially true of this chapter and the chapter previously, where she's going through so much angst and pain and guilt.I really wanted to nail her state of mind and make it beleivable.
It really means a lot that it rings true for some people. :)
Yeah, there certainly have been a lot of threads flying about- somebody could lose an eye! But for the next...3/4 chapters its going to be a lot quieter, and a lot more Fuffy focused. (Especially that flashback!)
Thanks again for all the praise/feedback. I am one happy writer. :)
Ahhh i love this story! Just when i think its going to go one way, you surprise me! Keep it up!
Author's Response:It's not really skill as a writer, it's because I can read your mind! :P
But in all seriousness, thanks for the praise. Surprising somebody, in general, is a good feeling.
Thanks again for the review. :)
Looking forward to some reconciliation.
Author's Response:Then reconciliation you shall have. I will even promise tears, sweetness and smoochies in the coming chapters. :)
Good action scenes. Glad we're past the false accusations. Nothing like the Big Bad to get everyone on the proper side again.
Request: Please kill every single Initiative soldier. I dislike them. A lot. Ever since S4 came out, I always wanted every single one of them to die, including Riley. I was very, very disappointed that Buffy didn't have to kill Riley when Adam was controlling him. It would have fit in with the S2-S3 themes of Buffy losing her love interest at the end of the season. I suppose that shows a card or two form my stories, doesn't it? Oh, well.
Very much hoping that it will only take the next chapter to patch things up relationship-wise, or I might have to accuse you of stalling. ;)
~OW
Author's Response:Hi there, and thanks. I like some gratuitous violence, especially when it brings people together. :)
I always thought Adam was a good idea for a Big Bad, just executed poorly (just like the Initiative actually) so I'll try and do him a little more justice/make him a little more interesting.
As per your request...I am killing off more Initiative soldiers, maybe I can thin the heard a little for you.:P
As for Riley dying, probably not gonna kill him off, unless Faith really loses it. :)
Also remember that technically poor Buffy lost two love interests in S3. Faith and Angel. There's no denying that on some sub-text level Faith was a love interest in S3 as well as 'a road not taken.'
The next couple of chapters are all about Buffy and Faith trying to work together/reconcile their complex and heart-rending past.... whilst fighting demons and stuff.
Thanks for the great feedback. It means a lot.
This was a really good chapter. Thanks for writing it. I especially enjoyed the Faith POV scenes. They seemed to have the most character/story development going on and were the most enjoyable IMHO. I also really liked how you sprinkled scenes fromt the show throughout. It really adds a little something extra that makes you smile. Hehe.
BTW Buffy's angst filled "I loved you!" near the end kind of gave me chills. That cat is sort of out of the bag though I suspect Faith will have no idea what to make of that statement. Maybe think sisterly platonic friendly love? It would certainly seem more plausible than get into your pants and date you love. Poor Faith. Her head is going to be spun around five ways to Sunday now. My guess is she'll try to skip town and the initiative or someone will catch her... or maybe not if she's thinking about Buffy. We'll see. I'm excited to see what comes next.
The only thing I wasn't so sure about was Riley's sudden bloodthirstiness. It seemed a bit out of character that he would suddenly be all "let's hunt this bitch down and kill her but dead!". Then he kinda threw Buffy under the bus too. I'm not saying its a bad thing but it seemed a little inconsistent I think maybe.
I Feel bad for our girls. I think like everyone I just want them to be on the same side already but with what happened in this chapter that could possibly be some time in coming. This is the point in the story where it's hard to see how everything could possibly turn out well in the end I think. Love it, can't wait for the next update :D
Author's Response:Hi there! Thanks for reviewing. :)
I'm really getting into writing Faith POV stuff, something about it just flows so freely for me. Getting inside her is really satisfying...and I'm going to stop that run-on sentence before it gets dirty!
*ahem* I like writing Faith, and I'm glad that you enjoy it. *better*
Yeah, Faith's head is spinning a lot right now, too much to read into Buffy's slip of the tongue just yet. But she will remember it, and maybe later on she might start putting pieces together..mmmn?
About Faith's actions...you'll have to wait and see...and then comment on them with feedback! ;p (he asked nicely...)
Ah, Riley...yeah at this present time he's a little unstable (because of drugs...drugs are BAD) but also Riley is a little screwed up with Walsh's dead, and he can get crazy jealous even when he's at his level headed best. Add all that up and he might just want to take Faith down pretty hard...but its never that simple.
Things'll come to a crossroads for our girls in a chapter or two, after that you should see things start to stabilise for a bit. But not for too long! :)
The whole Buffy/Faith fighting on the same side might happen sooner than you think, but getting on the same page emotionally is gonna taka lot longer.
Thanks for the feedback. Feels glorious. :D
D
Cliffhangers are so mean. Great job though.
Author's Response:Next chapter isn't so far off- both my beta and I were pretty busy recently but 'free time' is looming, which means more updates!
Can't promise to stop with the cliffhangers though- I do like 'em!
Thank you for the encouragment!
things never seems to go their way, one always jumping to conclusions about the other! cool headed joyce, always on her toes mentally. like the mix of canon in with original makes for a great story! hate and love all the angst!
Author's Response:Yeah, just when Faith is beginning to open up...pow- Buffy fist! :(
And I'm a big fan of the Joyce/Faith scene in 'This Year's Girl' so I wanted to tweak it to show how Buffy's choices have affected her Mom, not just her.
The canon stuff is coming to end end (for a little while) in a chapter or so, then you'll get a lot more original stuff, and then it may go back to the pattern like in the last fic- episode by episode.
Hope it turns out okay! :)
Thanks for the kind words. I love the praise. (but then who doesn't? Crazy people maybe, I don't know.)
Awesome chapter!! please do update soon, its painful waiting for the next one lol
Author's Response:Aw, I feel your pain, I really do- the next chapter is in the pipe to my beta as I now breath, although I wish it were an actual pipe- like one of those vacuum ones that sucks things thorough like 'whoosh'...*ahem* Anyway, early next weeek-ish? Possibly.
Thanks for commenting.
Good chapter. Hell, good story so far.
Loved Joyce.
Love your Faith. Buffy's alright, too.
Hate angst. Hate-hate-hate-hate-HATE unecessary, pointless, God-handed drama. Just hate it to death.
That's why 'Good chapter' actually means amazing things from me, because your writing is so captivating even when you cover the most frustrating, unbelievable situations.
Keep it up!
~OW
Author's Response:Hi there, and thanks very much for commenting! :)
I love me a fiesty Joyce, but also one that's nicely empathetic.
She's the only chaacter one I felt was genuinly 100% nice to Faith in S3, no real downside to say that she probably didn't know any of the real sitch. So I wanted to keep/tweak the scene where Faith takes her hostage- 'cause its a great one.
Yeah, Faith is kinda my favouite slayer as well, just by a nose though- but she usually is more fun to write as well.
Thank you! When it comes to angst I always worry that a) its unnessesary and b) I'm not articulating it well enough through the thoughts of the characters. This story is a lot more angst-y than my previous one so I'm pleased that it comes across as genuine and not faux. Hate faux angst. :(
That really means a lot.
And the rest...wow, what more can a writer ask for. I'll take 'captivating' any day! :D
Thanks again for the v. kind review.
D