buffy and brie are both so new to the concept of Having Friends They Like, and i think they also both assume that the other girl is somehow an expert in Having Friends!!! from buffy's perspective, brie is so beloved and so intrinsically woven into the lives of all of her friends; from brie's perspective, buffy is a former Cool Girl who knows all the ins and outs of Effective Socialization. of course they are obsessed with each other. they wanna be each other.
i was definitely picturing paul frank :) and i could not decide on a pajama set for brie, but that is PERFECTION. my only specific Vision for brie's pajamas were exorbitant coziness + silly fluffy slippers, and your description matches that energy perfectly. (tho i suspect she wouldn't have froggy slippers -- willow has frog fear! in my head they are little pigs, just to hammer home the buffybrie of it all. make it even more ridiculous.)
marcie is having THE WORST TIME. i do feel bad for everything that brie has inadvertently been putting marcie through. this poor oblivious girl....
your take on joyce and giles DELIGHTS me; i really hadn't considered that particular mirror, but you are so correct that they are both soooo out of sync with what's going on with their daughters for a myriad of extremely complicated reasons, and so concerned about their safety regardless! much of what motivated that line was also that buffy and brie, who both present themselves as very warm and approachable people, actually have extreme discomfort re: talking about their deeper feelings, and parents motivate a lot of their most complicated current emotions and problems. they are, as ever, in the same boat. somehow.
i really wanted this to be a chapter where we start to get bits and pieces of the Other Brie! she has been presenting a very determined facade to a lot of different people, and buffy is starting to see that there's a lot of other stuff going on that brie is reticent to discuss, not limited to the little comment of giles's she overhears! (i felt that leaving the nature of the comment deliberately ambiguous served my big thesis statement re: this fic which is that Buffy And Brie Have The Same Thing Going On, But Giles Doesn't Like Thinking About What That Implies.) and of course buffy and brie sharing in their mutual giles-related frustration is always gonna be a bonding moment for them both!!
so much of this was also like. these girls want to be so much closer than they're able to be with each other, and they are so tangled up in what they're not saying, and yet they are trying so hard to create intimacy and familiarity with each other even as they're sooooo uncomfortable with vulnerability!!! aaaaaa indeed!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU KINDLY RE: BUFFY. i care so much about this girl and it's been so fun to write about her in this context? thinking about her complicated s1 journey towards accepting her slayerness, and the way she has to learn to grapple with the girl she was + the person she's becoming...delighted to know my distillation skills are working well. :D
also you were HARDLY slow to digest chapter five! i am writing FAST for some reason! i am literally about to post chapter seven. this fic is possessing me.
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TheEclecticLibrarian on Chapter 5 Mon 11 Mar 2024 07:19AM UTC
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