The Outsider by Valyssia

Fanfiction: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Found: http://archiveofourown.org/works/231502


This is a short story about a version of Buffy . . . I should mention that first.

This short story is fanfiction based on the television show (and comics) called 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (technically there's a movie that came out first, but the tv series and comics diverged enough from the movie to need that 'movie' tag to be listed on AO3 for it to be mentioned here). The series starred a young woman in high school who, it turned out, was the next 'Slayer' - one woman each generation is 'the Slayer' who battles monsters. They tend to be young, die young, and have no life but for training and fighting. Buffy had been a popular kid and a cheerleader before the change occurred and she didn't want to be come some lone fighting machine. So she fought against her 'destiny', while, at the same time, fighting monsters. Most of the show had Buffy in High School in California. One or more tv show seasons had her in college, and I forget if the Scotland thing occurred before or after the series moved to the comics (oh, season 8 was in the comics, okay, so the move to Scotland occurred in the comics). But, regardless, this specific short story is set in Scotland. With Buffy leading a team of slayer women (yeah, Buffy had an overwhelming number of bad dudes to fight at some point on the show and 'released' something or other, turning all potential slayers into slayers).

Well, the pressure of being 'General Buffy' has overwhelmed Buffy, in this short story, and she goes a little insane.

And shesh - to actually read fanfiction about a show I actually cared about and watched (I'm not 100% sure I actually saw all of the last season(s)), versus reading fanfiction for a show I might have seen 1 or maybe even 1/2 of one episode for (SwanQueen), or a lot but not anywhere close to significant percentage of the episodes (Supergirl) - is a rather fun experience.

I'm 100% certain, and acknowledge, that my rating for this short story is directly related to the fact that this was actually one of 'my shows'. So much so that I'd actually followed the show to a 'new to me' medium (for the most part, except for some adult comics I'd read in the 1990s), comics. Yeah, I hadn't actually tried comics until I was an adult.

Was 'neat' to see Buffy riding on a motorcycle - pushing it to the limits. Being snarky even while being super depressed and overwhelmed.

For those who do/did care about the series - the short story includes: Buffy, Xander, Willow, and mentions of: Faith, Giles, Dawn, and Spike.

Fanfiction found: http://archiveofourown.org/works/231502?

Rating: 4.8

September 11 2017