thedeadlyhook

Happy Birthday to kassto!

This 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.

Title: How to be Good or Evil
Author: thedeadlyhook
Pairing: Probably Spike/Buffy. Eventually. You know me.
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters not mine; no infringement intended, and no profit is being made here.
Rating: PG, so far. I'll let you know when that changes. It will.
Warnings: A little horror movie-esque creepiness.
Feedback: No obligation, but it's nice.
Summary: A complete reimagining of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 7, following the breadcrumb trail of where I'd originally thought things might go/what kind of things I'd wanted to see.


How to Be Good or Evil, Chapter 5b: Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves ( Read more... )

Next part! This is technically the second half of chapter 4, thus the "4b." But at this point, I figure it's better to just get the posts up as quick as I can and see how far I can get before RL starts getting crazy again.

Title: (No Name Yet... working on it)
Author: thedeadlyhook
Rating: This chapter, PG-13. Not sure where it's going overall yet.
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters not mine; no infringement intended, and no profit is being made here.
Summary: A complete reimagining of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 7. Some ideas from the season will appear, but I'm making no real attempt to track canon here, so others probably will not. We'll see where it takes me!

Previous installments: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4a.

( Read more... )

I'm having a very odd moment of stage fright. It's been so long since I've posted regularly to LJ, that I've even had time to read my Friends page or check in with anyone, that coming back to the journal I've had for... holy crap, nearly 10 years(!) is starting to make me feel like a bit of an intruder. I have no idea what anyone's up to anymore or if anyone's even interested in reading Buffyfic these days.

Would it be weird if I started posting new chapters of my WIP? Bueller?

And thank you sharelle! What a great start to the day!

I can't believe I missed Seasonal Spuffy free day! It's been that kind of couple of weeks -- I blinked, and then it was gone. Wah.

Ah, well. I'll just keep posting here when I get the chance. So, a little Halloweenish scare reading for you -- part the third of my as-yet nameless fic, a BtVS Season 7 redux.

( Part Three )

Wow, guys! I'm just blown away by the reaction to my weird little stream-of-consciousness fic post. I promise I'll respond to everyone individually to everyone when I get a minute, but in the meantime, I just wanted to say Thank You in general. One of the biggest issues of my current circumstances is that my online time has been rather severely limited, and as a consequence I know I've lost touch with the community and my friends here. But you just all made me feel like I just came home.

On the fic: I should warn you, though, about what you're getting into: I don't actually have a specific ending in mind for this story yet. (This is actually typical for me - as I recall, I started out "Dirty Back Road," this way.) This has to do with the main reason I wanted to write this fic, and why I think I keep returning to it. I want to work out what I would've like to have seen or experienced through these characters instead of what I did see onscreen. A lot of times, weirdly enough, I don't really know what that is until I start to write it.

I may end up posting a few ruminations on all this in between the fic posts, which may be.... a little spaced out. (See above note about limited Internet time, although there won't be too long a wait for the next part, as that's mostly finished and has been for some time now.) How stories are built, what attracts my attention and keeps it, and what I find satisfying by way of resolutions and endings are topics that are sort of obsessing me right now, so I'll be trying to see if I can put some theory into practice over the course of this story.

I would love to hear some of your opinions about the characters, though, if people have time. I guess it's pretty clear from this opener that one of my frustrations with Season 7 was the status of various relationships, which I felt needed some serious clarification. How are Buffy and her sister getting along these days? What's the deal with Xander? And shouldn't everyone be a little more weirded out by the re-opening of the high school? Etc.

Any questions that you always wanted to see answered from Season 7? Hit me with your thoughts!

I thought about creating a filter for this, but... whatevs. If I get too much grief from it, I'll just flock it.

If you like the Buffy Season 8 comic, you won't find joy here.

(  On Buffy Season 8 Issue 40 )

Talk about handy for research purposes! I just realized that all of BtVS is available on streaming Netflix. As well as the Buffy movie, which I'm rewatching right now.

Wow, I'd forgotten that Hillary Swank was one of Buffy's valley-girl crew in this movie. She does disdainful like a champ. (She seems to be the proto-Cordelia character.) And whoa, David Arquette is Luke Perry's best friend!

I do love me some Rutger Hauer, but Paul Reubens really stole this film.

It's funny; Buffy in the movie was a character I'd quite liked, although she is different from the TV series. Part of it is simply that Kristy Swanson comes off as less vulnerable and fragile than Sarah Michelle Gellar; this is Buffy as ass-kicker even without knowing about her powers. Likewise, the YouTube clip of the promo reel for the Buffy Animated Series that never quite materialized is also quite instructive in that that Buffy is more unapologetically superhero-ish and has a kinda Gothic-looking character design, which makes her... well, a bit more like Faith or something. Interesting.

ETA: Huh. I'd note that in the movie, vampires can't just waltz into the high school gym. Buffy has to come outside to deal with them. And I'm strangely enchanted by the bit where Luke Perry gives Buffy his leather jacket so she doesn't have to fight them at a full prom-dress disadvantage. There's a lot of things the movie does right.

Then again, there's also a lot of rip-off sources in clear view: Valley Girl, Salem's Lot and Carrie, most obviously. The film plays as a parody of these sources, so it isn't what you'd call a problem, but it doesn't much count as a display of originality, either - only Buffy herself feels fresh, and that's only if you haven't seen Nightmare on Elm Street 4. (Seriously, all the pieces are there: the horror-movie final girl, the gymnastics, the special powers, the blonde...)

ETA 2: Not that I'd, like, recommend Nightmare on Elm Street 4. It's honestly not the best of the NoES sequels (that would probably be the one in 3D, IMHO - 6, I think - which plays a bit like a dry run for Freddy vs. Jason; it's not perfect, but gets points for cool ideas), but there is this one moment with a training sequence where you go, whoa, this chick is like a proto-Buffy or something.

Thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes! And thanks so much for the virtual milk and cookies, lyrstzha! And Happy Belated Birthday to you as well - I hope you had a great day!

I've been reading a few first reactions on my flist to the latest Buffy comic (#35), and... wow. I'm sorta speechless. But only sorta. ( Read more... )

Figures that the moment I actually find the time, energy, and something to say on LJ the damn journal chooses to all but shut down. I mean, just getting this text to post has been like fighting a siege.

Seriously, is it just me? My computer is a few years old and not running the latest browser, plus I recently let my account lapse from paid to free (due to financial woes with which I will not bore you), but hoo-boy, those advertisements are browser speed killers. I'm running NoScript to block the worst of it, but it's still bad - if I were a newbie looking for a journal right now, and the community I was eager to commune with wasn't already there, I wouldn't like twice at LiveJournal, not when I can get ad-free accounts elsewhere: Blogger, Twitter, Dreamwidth, etc. Video and audio ads! Jeebus! Facebook is certainly as irritating as hell with its ad content, but at least it's never thrown audio at me. Yikes. Fail, LJ. Gigantic fail.

Sigh. Does that whole invite thing still apply for Dreamwidth?

Anyway, on to the main event. Do I even dare comment on the current Buffy Season 8 hijinkery? Can I resist? ( Read more... )

Otherwise, I've missed so many birthdays as to really not be funny. Very Belated Very Happy Birthdays to danceswitwords, asta77, rahirah, sangueuk, makd, paratti, calove, goldenusagi, crackers4jenn, constance_b, revdorothyl, irfikos, entrenous88, sharelle, quinara, eowyn_315, and Happy Birthday in advance (tomorrow) to evilawyer!!!