Heartsongs

I don't think I've commented on your work before, even though I have been reading it for sometime (I tend to be slack like that). However I felt that it would be remiss of me not to tell you how much I have enjoyed your stories, and in particular this one. You have a wonderful ability to communicate the Scoobies' worst features (in a good way), these features were often glossed over in the show, or excused away because they were 'humans'. Maybe they were, but many times they were the cruelest monsters on the show - always makes me think of Frankenstein and his monster - Mary Shelley created a great Gothic novel that explored the humanity of the monster, and the monstrosity of the humans. To me, at least, this is what makes the Buffyverse so fascinating, even if it wasn't effectively explored on the show itself. I have recently finished re-watching S1, and was continuously surprised at how unlikeable I found Xander (I thought I liked him in the early seasons) but his continual lusting for Buffy and hatred for anyone else showing interest in her, cruelty towards Willow (even if it was unintentional), and inability to accept the 'greyness' of the world, has made me see him only as a narrow-minded bigot (as I said before - totally surprised me - wasn't expecting such a response). Your story, to me anyway, is successfully exploring the deficiencies of the core Scoobies, in their inability to understand that not all so-called monsters are evil, and that not all humans are good. See this is probably why I tend not to comment, I ramble on incoherently, at great length, when all I really should say is 'really enjoy your story, looking forward to more'.