Okay, I finally sat down to read this in its entirity. Sorry for it taking me so long. I'm crap at keeping up with things once I start them. Stories, I mean. Stories. Not um, anything else...
Ho hum.
Anyway...
Quote:
Tara was thoughtful for a moment, a small smile playing over her lips."Yeah it’s cool, but you know, I’ve heard there’s this nifty new invention called a phone that you can use to actually arrange to meet someone at a certain place in time."
I love how you introduce us to Tara's character from the get go. Her humour is always something I've loved, and generally it's glossed over way too much for my tastes. That she feels comfortable enough and daring enough to tease Willow here is very sweet, and points to that "naughty" side of her that we don't often get to see. What a lovely characterisation point; you slip it in so well and deftly, and it just enhances how adorable they are with one another at this point in time.
Quote:
"Wow! Who died?"
Willow looked up to find her best friend standing over her. The room was dark and she hadn’t even heard Buffy come in. When Willow didn’t respond right away, Buffy’s mind began to race to the obvious Sunnydale conclusion."Oh, wait. God. Did someone die?"
I always loved that line in
Dopplegangland, and here you use it really well, indicating that Buffy's breezy and pretty clueless. I do love the interaction between them though, especially as I love the way you write Buffy. Can't help feeling sorry for her in a way, because you know, she's just as dorky as Willow ever was sometimes, heh heh.
However, having said that, I do love how you emphasise the friendship between them. I always loved seeing how they stuck with one another, through the hard times as well as the good. Here you've established firmly that the notion of best friends is well and truly entrenched in the way that Buffy's there for Willow. Makes me all warm and fuzzy. But don't tell anyone; I have a reputation to protect. Ahem.
Quote:
"Oh!" she backed up abruptly pulling her arm away from Tara without meaning to. "Oh." And that was all that she could seem to say. Her brain locked in an infinite loop on Tara’s last statement. She’s on a date. With a girl. Date. Girl. She dates girls. Tara dates girls. Like a complicated equation she had been working on subconsciously for weeks and maybe months and well, probably years that had suddenly arrived at one simple solution. "Oh."
Oh, hee, I love this. The short sentences as the truth finally hits poor Willow. It's so great that you're exploring this with her, and with us, too. I love the fact that Willow is, to all intents and purposes, pretty much in denial of her feelings for Tara and the manner in which they're choosing to manifest themselves. This is such a wonderful moment, particularly as I'm sure it's hardly the best situation in which Tara might tell Willow about her sexuality. You capture that wonderful balance between wanting to laugh, and wanting to clap my hand over my mouth in empathy. Poor Willow. Bless. So cute.
Quote:
Okay, so she was on a date. With a girl. With Rachel. I wonder if Rachel’s a witch. Maybe they do spells together. Oh god, what if they do spells together? Powerful spells? Willow blushed furiously at the memory of casting with the blonde witch. The intensity of it, the strength of the connection. What if they’re doing a spell right now? Tara doing a spell without me. With someone else.
Ah, wonderful. You know, despite the fact that it's a character trait of hers, there aren't many writers who can write Willow-babble convincingly. I love the connections she's leaping to here, and how, again, your short sentences just accentuate those thoughts flooding into her head and taking her on a real leap of feeling. This is so real; the internal babbling and seeing spells where there are none, heh. Lovely stuff; and subtle enough so as not to disturb the overall contemplation, too.
Quote:
Willow froze in the middle of the quad. Her mind was overwhelmed by a sudden electrical storm of activity – a huge, earth-shattering epiphany – all of the resources of her powerful psyche focusing on one overwhelming realization: I’m in love with her. That’s what this is. I’m in love with that girl. That perfect shy, quiet, sweet beautiful girl. Tara.
Ah, fantastic. I was waiting and waiting for the moment to hit Willow and you've described it perfectly here. I love that idea of it being an "overwhelming realization" - the mere fact that Willow, with all her brain power, hadn't made the simple connection between her feelings and her jealousy. And that she even considers that she's homophobic...hilarious. What a lovely moment, and how beautifully you move from the silent rampaging of her mind to her running towards Tara, as though she simply cannot wait another minute to share her news. There's a certain impetuous nature here that's just
so very Willow, and you nail it.
Oh wow; that conversation between them was horribly real. The stuttering, the half confessions, the way that it all rushes out in a really inappropriate way; just lovely to read but also very painful. Tara's reaction was unexpected, but I do like that you didn't have them fall into one another's arms immediately. In fact, having them argue, and having Tara resist Willow's admission and raise her voice was closer, I think to a reality of a situation like that. Plus, the discussion about Tara being gay and Willow's reaction to that was something I love reading. I always found it a little odd that they could get to know one another and Tara would admit that she was gay to Willow and everything would be hugs and puppies. I love here how you have Willow say that it threw her for a second, but that in the long run it doesn't matter. And I'm getting the feeling too, that Tara also has some kind of issues surrounding her sexuality. I like that; that Tara feels awkward not having told Willow, but that she's nervous about having Willow know. Feelings for one another aside. This is a really sensitive and well-written scene that touches the nervous part of all of us, I think.
Quote:
Willow opened her eyes carefully, terrified that she would find herself in some nightmarish demon shower scene replete with her own Vamp self and definitely some kind of Faith-in-dominatrix-leather vision.
Ooh, I wish.
Okay, so the box is a time machine. I'm always intrigued by time travel stories, mainly because there's that whole notion of cause and effect going on. Here, you've got Willow desperately trying not to change the course of events over the previous month, when in fact, she's already doing that. I love how she's taking her memories with her back through time; that must be fantastic in the way that it enables her to re-process so many things going on between her and Tara. And Tara comes out to Willow, and thank god, it's handled a whole lot better this time, heh. I love how the inner turmoil is raging on whilst Willow's attempting to "act normal". You combine the speed of that really well with the pacing of the scene between them here, and I love how it feels like Willow's constantly holding back all the time, although all she wants to do is rush forward and tell Tara how she feels. There's a real sense of tension here, and I just love that. This line, particularly, summed it up for me:
Quote:
And the world stretched out again, expanding the space between them exponentially with each heartbeat
Ooh, okay, I see how you're dealing with the time travel now. Very clever. And I like the notion that in some way, Willow is going back through time to realise things about herself, and her relationship with Tara that she never did at the time. God, that's lovely; I've always wanted to play out scenes with people knowing then what I do now, if you know what I mean, heh. This is lovely; the scene where they're in bed together and how much it means to Willow now, as opposed to Willow then.
And finally, they figure it out. I love how Tara's the one to get all researchy and prove her intelligence to the brain that is Willow. And I love the underlying theme here, that second chances can and do happen, especially between them. Thank God Willow finally got it together enough to kiss Tara. Oh, and yes, everything's
always about Tara. I do so love that all-consuming tenet by which Willow lives. It's romantic and true and just lovely to read.
Sigh.
That's pretty much my feedback for the whole of the last part of this. You got it. And boy, it's great to read.
Thanks for this, lipkandy. What a lovely story; now I'm going to haul my sorry arse over to your Season 7 story and remind myself of what I've read and then get to grips with what I haven't.
Ah, romance. Is there anything better in this world?
"Cheese board now." ~ Blue Stilton Willow
Login
FAQ
Search
thank you so much for sharing 
at: 8/30/03 10:15 pm
