More comments on AO3, but yes, I enjoyed that.

hS

Oh, sweet, it’s pre-season seven, so I get to read! (Just finished season six last month, heh heh!)

That opening assassination is great! It’s such a very PPC-style outsmarting of the Suvian, leading her on with her own power before tricking her with a B’rer Rabbit gambit. I was initially laughing about her eucalyptus wand, but then I remembered what good exhibit decorations eucalyptus wood makes, and honestly, it feels like a good idea for wands. They would be nice and sturdy, hard to break by accident . . . although maybe shooting magic through them would make them more brittle?

I really like the early scene with Moira comforting Buddy. It makes sense, given how recently he’s become human, that he needs that sort of emotional attention, the way a child or pet would. Actually, throughout the mission, he reminds me a lot of Aximili, the alien member of the Animorphs, in the way he he’s watching everything with a slightly detached eye, not understanding everything he sees, and not even sure if he wants to engage with everything he sees, as far as Blank’s aggression goes. His desire for stories about the sky is cute (and a little sad!), and I can understand his frustration at things like the labels for days of the week, which are of course an arbitrary measurement for time that we only accept because we grow up under it. It’s a difficult transition, but I can tell he’s trying!

Was Autumn considering naming herself after Willow? Heh, it’s like, “autumn willow.” It would have been a good name, but going for something original is good, too. I love the mental image of the Mary Sues That Weren’t having big watch parties together to start researching canons, while they were all adjusting to HQ life . . . Oh, is that Blessie in the photo, with the reddened nose? I feel bad for her and Blank, losing Zit . . .

Poor Cordelia; her continuum gets its first mission in over a decade, and her screen time gets completely taken over by minis! I love that they’re all dressed as teenage valley girls, and the Heathers joke Blank made about them.

I more or less guessed at the reason for Moira and Buddy to have Buffyverse knowledge without watching it beforehand, though I was guessing the Buffy incarnations came before the Tolkienverse ones, not after. It’s interesting that removing Moira and Buddy from Middle-earth seems to have drawn at least one alternate pair of themselves away from the other story; I wonder if they have more unexpected canon knowledge from alternate selves to uncover?

Blank gets, uh, Very Yikes in here. As I’ve probably said before, I can understand the source of her prejudice from Sparklee, but at the same time, she’s been living in Headquarters for fifteen years at this point; you’d think she would have spent some time interacting with other reformed Suvians before this. Plus, I find it weird that she sees Moira’s little “rewrite critique” moments as a sign of delusion, when to me, it shows Moira is capable of “improving her writing,” in a metaphorical sense. Blank comes off as awfully unempathetic, and even “bloodthirsty,” as Buddy says in this mission. It just makes me sad, but I’m rooting for her to face some character development down the line . . .

All that being said, oh boy. I hope Moira made the right choice in bringing Jackie into HQ. I’m all for finding alternatives to assassination, but Jackie had a major aura of smooth to force Spike to act like he had a soul, plus I was reading on the suspicion that Buffy was feeling so tired and emotional because Jackie was actively draining the Slayer powers out of her. It would be nice to see Jackie reformed, but I don’t want Moira putting herself and Buddy, or anyone else, in danger. I hope everything works out all right!

You’ve got a floating “r” here:
“A tiny crack in the shell, and it was Buffy the Vampire Slaye r.”

—doctorlit will totally get around to season seven at some point, but might skip all the comic seasons because graphic novels tend to be expensive

• The beginning mouse bit was good
• Morphological field stabilizing ... do I detect a recent read of Nesh's back catalog here?
• The "defies all logic and common sense" bit about RC numbers is very PPC
• I feel bad for Buddy being confused by Tuesdays
• Buddy: "Will there be weapons?" ... That is so PPC Agent
• Weird that Buddy knew something about Buffy
• ... the early 2000s were not that long ago. I insist they were not. Also, darn kids, get off my lawn forum
• It's nice to see the mission pointing out good things about the fic
• Everything is too darn loud is a mood
• Personal conversations good
• I wouldn't trust Buddy with shiny things either
  Peregrin: cuts into the review to give Buddy a shiny because screw the rules and also seeing what it does to his staying human-shaped
• Father's feathers is a funny typo
• Ouch on timeskip
• How does Buddy know these things?
• ... Ah, character-derailing OTP. I understand the title now
• Huh. That's how Moira knows things, at least. Whoof on the sudden lust object appearance. Still doesn't explain Buddy though
• ... right, I'd forgotten his backstory
• Blank, that was harsh.
• "Welcome to humanity. There's no certainty."
• (But also Moira is having a heck of a time right now.)
• The conversation with the Sue is a really nice bit
• ... Moira, that was a understandable decision that's going to cause so much drama
• It's nice to see the point that the premise could've worked

Overall, very fun read that's also a good exploration of the PPC as an organization and does a good job of being constructive.

I enjoyed this story a lot; it managed to hit a wide range of emotions. The encounter with the shapeshifter was hilarious to read, while the conversations near the end made me thoughtful. I could follow along quite well despite being unfamiliar with the show. Great story overall!

Wonder what Moira will do next…

It sounds interesting, though. Would you recommend it?

I loved this so much! You mentioned Mina (I promise, I will work on that interlude. Soon!) and RC 8, and... just... I loved it. The way they tricked the first Sue, Moira and Jackie’s interaction, just... I loved it. Maybe Jackie can interact with some of the Sues Mina’s rescued

You did have a few stray spaces, including one inside of “Slaye r” at one point.

—Ls has not seen Buffy