Sequel?

Author's Response:

Yep.

So I have this huge quandry, perhaps you can help? I'm finding so much to love in this first chapter, the only way I can express it properly is to copy and paste the whole thing back to you. That seems more than just a little impractical, so I'm going to just pick out a few of the things I loved.

"Miss Mentally unstable had blown into town ready to steal her boyfriend - OK, so ex-boyfriend, she begrudgingly corrected - and peel her skin off." It's not exactly funny, but it made me laugh. It sums up the sitch perfectly and it sounds just like how Buffy would be thinking about it.

"She gave Giles what she considered to be her best wide-eyed attentive look." and I loved when she explained that she wasn't shuddering, but was instead feeling cold. HAHAHA!!!

All of this feels like I'm watching the show. I can hear and see Buffy and all of the Scooby Gang, from Xander's jokes, to Willow practically salivating at the faint chance of catching a glimpse of "Naked" Xander.

Buffy listing out what Faith had done from working for the Big Bad, to trying to turn Angel, to being nothing but "eager to get in a few rounds of Buffy dissection", was exactly how I think Buffy would be processing what had gone down the night before.

The show didn't really get into it much, certainly not enough for us Fuffy lovers, but really: "Why the sudden anti-Buffy blow-out"?

And it was great how you had Buffy upset and wondering how Faith could have turned on her so completely. While not the "bestest of buds", they weren't exactly not friends either. They were together for the slaying every night, and from Buffy's perspective how did that not count?

I think that's a great point because when you actually go by what we were shown on the show, Buffy reached out to Faith quite a bit. They were becoming friends, but Faith had her issues too and the timing of various events didn't work in their favor. Anyway, I loved how you brought that perspective into it.

It cracked me up that Giles was 100% arguing with Willow and Xander. LOL! As with everything else in this chapter, I could actually see them bickering and Giles' embarrassment that he was behaving somewhat immaturely.

"Demkin!" HAHAHA!!!

Xander's comments/jokes are perfectly placed throughout the conversation, as are Willow's, and I found the whole thing very enjoyable and fun to read.

As it is with the show, there's humor mixed in with the serious stuff and for me it was a total "Awww" moment when Giles encouraged Buffy to take the night off. Faith's betrayal hit her hard and deep (not that way!) and it's nice to get a look at the impact it had on Buffy and also to think that Giles got it.

Obviously I loved this chapter and to say I'm looking forward to reading more of this fic is a huge understatement! I love your writing style, your ideas, your dialogue, the plot, the emotion, the humor, the little changes you've made to canon...

I think "copy & paste" would have been shorter.

 

Author's Response:

 

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

See, that's the problem with reading on a screen. Otherwise you could have just broken out the highlighters (Though I'm sure Giles wouldn't approve).

I agree that Buffy tried. She did show concern, and she did try to include Faith at times, but other things (E.g. Angel, dead deputy mayors) just seemed to get in the way. I think Faith just needed a little bit more from her, especially after Post, and it didn't help that a lot of the time they weren't really on the same page (understandably given their different backgrounds) – the Finch incident in particular.