Oh my gosh, I am so glad you recruited Summer last mission! She is an absolute joy to read here. Her knee jerk reaction to ship anyone she finds “nice” is a hilarious behavior to hold over from her narrative (and dare I say, an excellent commentary on how “western culture” exalts romance to be greater than other forms of love?), and I love that it swung back around as an advantage in tricking Falathiel at the end. The Falathiel/Balrog moment was so funny to picture happening, and it makes sense that a Suvian can be easily swayed by another Suvian’s brand of illogic! And you’ve done a great job of making Summer feel like she really did step out of Sunnydale; her dialogue sounds very “Buffyspeak,” as they say, and the love-at-first-sight moment between Summer and Buddy has a similar vibe to the canon relationship writing from the show. But I especially loved how Summer really deconstructed Moira’s behavior, and her relationship with Blank. As I mentioned in my comment on your last mission (which I think you missed because I couldn’t get to reading it for a long time, sorry!), I’ve been bothered by how prejudiced Blank is, and how she’s been treating Moira, so it was nice hearing Summer point out the toxicity there and encourage Moira.
Oh, man. I read Blank’s reaction to Falathiel holding her siblings at swordpoint, and I figured it had to have something to do with Zit. And while I wasn’t wanting Blank to get hurt, I appreciated the scene where Blank tried to confront Falathiel alone and got snapped out of her fugue by the injury, I . . . Man, I just wasn’t expecting that last line of the mission. I’m sure there’s context I’m missing right now, but at the moment, I’m just sad that Zit went down due to one of his friends. : ( Poor Zit, poor Blank, poor Autumn!
I also want to say, that “She forgot the ‘y’ in ‘canyon’” scene was a masterpiece. It’s such a funny typo to have to interpret, but you made it such an artistic and beautiful moment to read! Even though I guess I should feel bad for Middle-earth there instead!
—doctorlit wonders how long you’ve been waiting to drop that “Blank’s surname is ‘Slate’” bomb on us