Oh, gosh. I don't remember exactly how I originally found your LiveJournal, but I am bowled over by the fabulousness that is this story so far. I loved Riley and the Buffy-Riley relationship, despite their faults. You are especially, absolutely dead on in this passage:
He had an itch on his skin from where Faith had touched him. Sixteen showers later and it still wasn’t enough to shake off the feeling of her fingers. He was afraid Buffy might still blame him for not realizing it hadn’t been her; only in the back of her mind, perhaps, but still enough to set up a fissure of doubt. Anyone from the Initiative – were he still on speaking terms with anyone in the Initiative – would have told him that was crazy. They lived in a world where it turned out there really were demons and monsters and things that went bump in the night, but the humans were still human, and people were the things that you could trust. They didn’t shape-shift or soul-switch. They were who they were, all the time. Except these teenagers knew better than he did. The world, to them, was more elastic, and nothing could be taken for granted, not even the touch of the woman you loved, not her caress or her kiss, or a word that came out of the mouth that was undoubtedly hers.
He was the one who’d been raped by a stranger, yet he suspected Buffy was the one feeling betrayed. Willow’s friend had known. That still upset him, that someone who had never met Buffy before still knew her better than him. He had to remind himself that Willow’s friend also lived in a world where nothing could be taken for granted, whereas he had only just strayed across that threshold. All bets were off on a Hellmouth, that was the truth of it. Nothing, including the laws of physics, could be relied upon here. Not people either. Maybe not even himself if he stayed here too long. But all the time he still found himself thinking – Would he have known it was Faith? Perhaps, more to the point, was the thought that Buffy believed that Angel would have known the difference, whereas she had the empirical proof that Riley Finn had not.
How eloquently stated! Hardly anyone seems to give enough thought to Riley's feelings on his encounter with Faith-in-Buffy's-body. I don't even know how else to praise this, except by saying that I wish the show's writers had thought it out this well.
Ever since I first heard Dar Williams's "Iowa," I've connected it to the Buffy-Riley relationship—I've always wanted to make a video based on it, but don't have the skills! I'm delighted that you made the same connection!
I also love "Cheerleader Philosophy" (early-season Cordelia-Wesley friendship has top billing in my heart, and I am secretly hugely in favor of a Cordelia-Wesley relationship in AtS 1 or 2!), "New All Over," "Childish Things," and "Spike's Very Bad Day"; although I do think Angel's decision to help Faith and keep her from committing suicide or yet another murder was the right thing, it was ridiculous that we never saw Angel follow up with Wesley's trauma.
Plus, as if that wasn't enough, you have Cordelia/Fred listed as an interest: a pairing I see even less frequently (than either Buffy/Riley or Cordelia/Wesley) and really, really like! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work in future!
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Date: 2006-11-01 03:28 pm (UTC)He had an itch on his skin from where Faith had touched him. Sixteen showers later and it still wasn’t enough to shake off the feeling of her fingers. He was afraid Buffy might still blame him for not realizing it hadn’t been her; only in the back of her mind, perhaps, but still enough to set up a fissure of doubt. Anyone from the Initiative – were he still on speaking terms with anyone in the Initiative – would have told him that was crazy. They lived in a world where it turned out there really were demons and monsters and things that went bump in the night, but the humans were still human, and people were the things that you could trust. They didn’t shape-shift or soul-switch. They were who they were, all the time. Except these teenagers knew better than he did. The world, to them, was more elastic, and nothing could be taken for granted, not even the touch of the woman you loved, not her caress or her kiss, or a word that came out of the mouth that was undoubtedly hers.
He was the one who’d been raped by a stranger, yet he suspected Buffy was the one feeling betrayed. Willow’s friend had known. That still upset him, that someone who had never met Buffy before still knew her better than him. He had to remind himself that Willow’s friend also lived in a world where nothing could be taken for granted, whereas he had only just strayed across that threshold. All bets were off on a Hellmouth, that was the truth of it. Nothing, including the laws of physics, could be relied upon here. Not people either. Maybe not even himself if he stayed here too long. But all the time he still found himself thinking – Would he have known it was Faith? Perhaps, more to the point, was the thought that Buffy believed that Angel would have known the difference, whereas she had the empirical proof that Riley Finn had not.
How eloquently stated! Hardly anyone seems to give enough thought to Riley's feelings on his encounter with Faith-in-Buffy's-body. I don't even know how else to praise this, except by saying that I wish the show's writers had thought it out this well.
Ever since I first heard Dar Williams's "Iowa," I've connected it to the Buffy-Riley relationship—I've always wanted to make a video based on it, but don't have the skills! I'm delighted that you made the same connection!
I also love "Cheerleader Philosophy" (early-season Cordelia-Wesley friendship has top billing in my heart, and I am secretly hugely in favor of a Cordelia-Wesley relationship in AtS 1 or 2!), "New All Over," "Childish Things," and "Spike's Very Bad Day"; although I do think Angel's decision to help Faith and keep her from committing suicide or yet another murder was the right thing, it was ridiculous that we never saw Angel follow up with Wesley's trauma.
Plus, as if that wasn't enough, you have Cordelia/Fred listed as an interest: a pairing I see even less frequently (than either Buffy/Riley or Cordelia/Wesley) and really, really like! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work in future!