Through a Glass, Darkly (A little postie 21/05/04)

It IS easily the best crossover on the boards, I totally agree - and dare I venture the best I've read anywhere! And was actually my first contact with Buffy, which I'd steadfastly refused to watch until that point.

Great story, HaiGan!

 

I myself have not seen much Buffy but know quite a bit about it because one of my friends from school (now at college in Walla Walla Washington) is a Buffy/Angel fanatic who filled me in on anything I didn't get, so I can sympathize with people who don't get every little reference, but I'm able to follow the Buffy plot in this, and I'm loving it.

I'm especially glad this was started in time to have Joyce in it. I have to admit, though -- and this is going to sound bad -- I'm also glad there's not much Tara in it. Of course, Tara's so meek that unless Willow is a leading figure, you're not going to notice her, but I never like gay-Willow and was actually rather glad when I heard that Tara was going to buy the farm, as it were...

 

Oh, you all got my hopes up; I thought she'd given us another post!

Like Jemmiah, I had never seen a Buffy episode or had any interest in it until Hai Gan started this. Fortunately, my roommate is a Buffy FANATIC, who videotaped every single Buffy episode from Day 1. It took three weekends (and one 4-day bout on the couch with a stomach flu) but I watched every single one to catch up (and she even numbered them in chronological order for me!)

And now it's gone. Angel is but a pale substitute. Come on, Hai Gan, you're our last hope!

 

Angel is but a pale substitute.

And it's gone, too.

 

Yeah, but it wasn't that hard to see Angel's imminent demise. The reintroduction of Spike was pretty obviously jumping the shark, as it were.

 

The shark was jumped when Connor arrived. Anytime a TV series has a wedding or a pregnancy... you know they're struggling. Hm, if they'd introduced a Jedi Knight... Man, I wish I could have seen Jonathan & Andrew meet Barin!!!

Haaaaaaai Gaaaaaan....

 

Man, I wish I could have seen Jonathan & Andrew meet Barin!!!

Maybe you will...

 

-Jonathan and Andrew meet Barin- That would be just too funny if the uber-geeks met a real jedi. I think that they'd wet themselves if it happened. It's a shame they're the next season

A-ha - so Jemmiah may be persuaded to watch a Buffy episode (runs and gets video collection off shelf). If you ever want to borrow, just email and I'll get them over to you.

It's a shame Angel is being cancelled - last year was awful with the Jasmine/Connor storylines, but this year is looking up. We're a few weeks behind in the UK, but I want to know what Lindsay is up to. Good to see him back.

 

Anytime a TV series has a wedding or a pregnancy...

I guess you could say that, Renata, and you're definitely right about the signs of a struggling show, but I'm not sure if that's actually jumping the shark... Angel made it a whole other season, obviously, since the whole Connor storyline was last year and has already hit syndication on TNT. Mad About You survived two years after the birth of Mabel. Grace of Will & Grace found and married Leo, but I don't think they've jumped the shark yet.

That's just one more thing I love about the X-Files... they start wrapping things up for the end of the show, so they kill off a set of beloved secondary characters and call the episode Jump the Shark...

Anyway, back to Buffy...

Post, Hai-Gan, post!

 

I'll come back and 'talk', as it were, later. In the meantime, it's short, but it's a post!

******

"Ow! Bloody hell! Will you stop that?" The words had become Spike's new mantra. Carrying the struggling Dawn called for a physical subtlety Spike had never bothered to develop: exerting sufficient force to restrain her without hurting her enough to give himself an incapacitating migraine courtesy of the chip. Now given a motive, the vampire was learning fast; but between the combination of Dawn-inflicted injuries and a low-grade headache he was finding things a strain.

"Big sis' will not be happy," the vampire thought aloud, with masterful understatement. Buffy would be so far away from happy that happiness would vanish right over the event horizon. Inevitably, it would be Spike who got the blame. Regardless of the fact that he'd had no way to know that the Nibblet was the Key, and very little reason to guess that she'd react this way to the news. In fact, Spike reasoned, if he hadn't followed along when Dawn took herself off to the magic shop, she'd have had nobody there to look after her and take her home.

Would the Slayer see things that way, though? Never. Not even if Spike tied her up first in the hopes of getting her to listen for once. Chances were, this time she'd stake him as soon as she saw him, what with him turning up on the doorstep with the Nibblet in this state.

Much as he liked the Nibblet... liked the Nibblet? That wouldn't do. Handy as it was to have the Key eating out of his hands... currently eating his hands, but he was generalising here... to have the Key thinking he was her best mate, he wasn't prepared to risk a staking. He'd take her around the back of the Slayer's place, and pop her in through the door. She was making enough of a racket, they'd hear her, but Spike could take himself off before they realised he was there too.

That is, he'd pop her inside if he could detach her teeth from his thumb...

******

In the alley that was not unlike several others among Sunnydale's not-so-sunny back streets, silence reigned. It was a rather protracted silence, as the vampire known as Eric tried to work out what to say in order to avoid meeting a short and very permanent end.

"Erm... not ringing a bell here, yet," he finally tried, apologetically. "I'msureIcanthinkofsomething!" he added hurriedly, in case he'd just said the wrong thing. "Anything else to help me recognise him?"

Barin considered the question carefully. "He might be wearing Jedi clothing," he added, with some reluctance.

That seemed to jog Eric's memory quite effectively. He looked surprised and even more worried, and a trace of respect appeared that had not been there before. "So the crazy bitch wasn't so crazy... I haven't seen him, but I know someone who has. Well, I say I know her, but I only met her the once, see, so I don't really know her at all-" he gulped as he felt the fingers tighten around his neck. "-er, have you heard of Drusilla?"

"Let us pretend that I have not," said Barin in quiet, patient tones that promised not to remain patient for long.

"She's crazy. Nuts. But powerful, mind, you don't want to mess with her. She hasn't been around for a while, then she shows up a couple of days ago, and leaves again. She was going on about a... a juicy, fresh star-boy with a nasty, biting sunshine-stick. Something had had a go at her. Her arm was burned. I don't think she killed him," Eric put in, quickly. "She was whining about not having had her tea and cakes, and the nasty shiny woman chasing her away. She, uh, Drusilla, was supposed to be doing something here- I don't know what!" Eric added, eyeing his captor, "but she was going to come back later instead. I don't know any more. I told you, she's a loony. She doesn't talk straight."

"Drusilla would be a vampire?" Barin guessed.

Eric nodded.

"Where is she now?"

"I don't know... I don't know! I don't know!" Eric's voice dropped to a relieved whimper as the Jedi abruptly let go.

"Thank you," said Barin, simply. "If you sh

 

Oh yes. It's all about being polite. <eg> It always works for me. Speak softly and carry a charged lightsabre.

Short, but well worth the read, Hai-Gan. Now if you could just do it again in the near future....

 

Eric is smarter than he sounds eh? It certainly is true that the beings who state calm quiet threats (promises) are usually much scarier than the raging maniacs.

Lovely as usual. And HaiGan, you really do have "leave them wanting more" down pat my dear.

KD

 

The sunshine-stick... it took me a minute to get "lightsaber" out of that, given the Scoobies' tendency toward immature humor and the rather odd relationship Spike and Dru had, I thought for a quick second that it referred to... never mind.

Good post, Hai-Gan.

 

I loved Spike's thought processes! They made complete sense. And I loved Eric's sense of self-preservation. I'm glad Barin's finally decided to check up on the kid; he didn't know Thom had followed him originally, did he?

And in the meantime...

SHE POSTED! SHE POSTED! SHEEEE POSTEEEEEEEEED!!!

And there was much rejoicing.

 

Happy Dance

I almost feel sorry for Spike- almost

 

a juicy, fresh star-boy with a nasty, biting sunshine-stick. was so exactly Dru. Actually the whole thing quoted by Eric was so exactly her and how she would be quoted by any "sane" vampire. Dru creeps me out.

Going once more into misquoted gull...

More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More.

Pleeeeeeeease.

KD

 

Thanks for the great update HaiGan.

 

Hai-Gan - you have Dru down perfectly. She would refer to a lightsaber as a glow stick and get all wierd and cryptic.

I also forgot how cute spike was in that season of Buffy, and the way he cared for Dawn.

I love your characters of Barin and Thom - is there anywhere I can read earlier stories of them? I've read The Lion Sleeps Tonight and the short stories on the Jemmiah Chronicles website, but are there any more out there?

Thanks

 

Ooh, everyone's still here, and some less familiar names too. This isn't another post though, yet, sorry.

*Pictures Lilith with a smile and a lightsaber* Yup, that would be effective. And it's remarkable what a threat to your existance can do for your intelligence, KD and Renata. No, Barin didn't know at first that Thom had followed him; although that little talk with Giles gave him a clue. This is Thom here, after all!

Leona and Darth Moby, glad you liked the post, and Ty-gon, take a nice, cold shower . PadawanKitara, you mean you don't feel sorry for poor, poor Spike? Aww !

Tanith! The first ever story posted about Barin and Thom was the 'snapshot' story called "Don't Try This At Home". The characters have evolved somewhat since then, but it's still good for a laugh despite the occasional typo and minor plot inconsistency:
http://boards.theforce.net/Fan_Fiction_Stories--Classic_JC_Board_(Reply-Only)/b10016/452770/p20
(you'll need to have your board settings to the default page length for the addy to work)

The next was "Winning Hands Down":
http://boards.theforce.net/Fan_Fiction_Stories--Classic_JC_Board_(Reply-Only)/b10016/452770/p21

There are some others on the Snapshots thread as well. I used to have an archive on my webite, but I took it down when I moved the site and haven't put it up again. The best place to find most of them is on the Jemmiah Chronicals website:

http://www.hellschancecantina.com/Fanfiction.html

There's also a lot of other fiction there by several different authors, all based around one particular enterpretation of the Star Wars universe.

The first full-length story is "You Can Run But You Can't Hide", telling the story of how Barin came to take Thom as a Padawan:
http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=2065258

Imzadi borrowed Barin and Thom for a story (with permission), and did a very good job of writing the pair:
A Glimpse of Dawn
http://boards.theforce.net/Fan_Fiction_Stories--Classic_JC_Board_(Reply-Only)/b10016/5604215

A rather darker story, set in the future, is The Hunt:
http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=5300033&start=5352239

Some of Barin's background is covered on the Xanatos Snapshots thread, which was co-written with Kit' and includes a bunch of her OCs as well. Be warned, it gets very dark and deals with some sensitive subjects:
http://boards.theforce.net/Fan_Fiction_Stories--Classic_JC_Board_(Reply-Only)/b10016/2273026/p3

I've just realised that my son was 7 when I wrote my share of those stories, and this year he'll be off to secondary school (that's high school, I think). Has it really been that long??

There will eventually be a story that fits between The Lion Sleeps Tonight and The Hunt, which fills in the story of why things were as they were for The Hunt. There's also several other bits and pieces in progress, some with Barin and Thom, some with Barin and his second padawan Caelum.

 

Has it been that long... I looked back and discovered that the conversation between Giles & Barin was in July of 2002!! My dear, please please do your fans a favor and WRITE MORE SOON!!!

 

You may have thought you took it all down, never to be retrieved again....but you forgot that Google is your friend

HaiGan's old archive can be found here



Great post too! Loved Spike's internal monologue and I loved how the vamp was more scared of Barin because he was polite rather then anything else.

Kithera

 

and Ty-gon, take a nice, cold shower .

Okay, I'm settled down now. Can I have a new post?

 

Thanks for the links to the other Barin and Thom stories - I've spent the last three days reading them
I read at work - I promise I've been working too hee hee