Hey Tulipp--The minute I saw your name on this fic, I knew I wanted to read it. And having done so, in one long, incredibly rapt sitting, I wanted to write to tell you that it was the best fic I've encountered--here or elsewhere.
You received so much incredible and insightful feedback throughout the story, so I don't think that my comments will necessarily add new information to all of it. I just very much wanted to point out some of the things that I loved.
First of all, the flow of your writing is amazing. I think that what I most admired was the way that you took a very dramatic situation and painted it out in such poignant yet never-mawkish or melodramatic fashion. Willow's dawning realization that Tara is actually alive, that she can let herself believe this, is simply incredible. The moments of their reconnection are depicted in an almost understated fashion. There's not a single cliche or overwrought phrase in there (or in the entire piece, for that matter). I thought that it was incredibly clever and effective to have the moment of Tara's reappearance at the Magic Shop be shown from multiple POV's along w/ the exact minute of their emergence. There was so much to be told and shown in that scene; I think that by breaking it down as you did, you helped the reader get a true sense of its import--far beyond what we would have had if you had relied only on dialogue and one perspective. Having read this story, I appreciate your comments on POV even more.
You also nailed the characterizations incredibly well. There were so many, but I want to mention one in particular b/c it involved a lesser character and one of his dynamics that is usually missed: I sat nodding my head in agreement when Anya cut through Xander's diatribe and commented that he liked her "weak and needy." That was deliciously apt.
And a few phrases that I found simply wonderful...
** the finger-kiss of skin on skin;
** a tiny white pocket of extra time;
** The time for object lessons was done;
** crawling flesh and quicksand shame;
** "You have no victims here. Save your atonement for those you really hurt."
I could have picked so many more, but those give a sampling of my appreciation of how you use language--the allusion to a thing; a path not named verbatim but marked with such powerful blazes that only the blind could fail to see it. I felt like this was especially the case where emotions were involved.
The paragraph in which you described the mental chain of events that could take Willow from honey to Tara was simply brilliant. As a reader, I was taken on that path and it was utterly believable. As a therapist who does a lot of grief counseling, I also want to say that you nailed it: All roads lead to the beloved.
And finally, I simply sighed and smiled so many times as the story unfolded and the people became those people we originally fell in love with. I so resonated with the theme that they deserve some easy times; they deserve forgiveness; they all NEED forgiveness; laughter is a fine and good thing to have no matter how dire the circumstances. When Buffy walked into the Magic Box and took in the scene before her, and then quickly scanned over all that she could do and all that she hadn't done before, recognizing that sometimes there were choices that we could make, ones that would help undo past mistakes--that scene was amazing. She chose to comfort Willow, attend to her. It was wonderful.
Anything else you've written? Because I would jump all over it like Jenna Bush on a fake ID.
Thanks,
Mary