Toy Soldiers by Perri Smith (PG-13)

[kraken-wakes.livejournal.com]

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Author: Perri Smith
Author website: Seanachais
Author on lj: neonhummingbird
Pairing: Various/gen
Rating: PG-13


Why this must be read:

I'm not sure if this really is one of the first positive Wesley fic but it probably is one of the earliest to see potential in Wesley back when he was running around Sunnydale screaming like a little girl. It was a long time before I liked Wesley, but I suspect that the way was paved with this story. Set post the season three episode Consequences, a wonderfully superior and sneering Wesley who has recently been cut down to size comes across Giles's diaries and starts to read. The diary entries lead to flashbacks and a fascinating and interesting look at Giles-as-patriarch and his interactions with the Scoobies when the relationships were clearly delinated; he the adult, they the children.

One thing I enjoyed about the show was how the relationships altered and changed over time and like a recent set of reruns, this story takes you back to when it was arguably less complicated, where the world of 'Buffy' was more stable and secure because there wasn't a monster who couldn't be defeated and Giles knew all the answers - even when he didn't. The primary relationship of this kind is naturally the Giles/Buffy father/daughter relationship on the show, but this story expands it and takes a look at Giles's relationship with Cordelia and Oz who both got less time with Giles than the main three. There's also a superb and poignant section with Xander.

I think it's the little asides which I love above everything, the way that this story just sort of fills the gaps and Wesley's commentry on each diary entry shows something of the compassion and understanding that he develops in AtS.

And it's worth reading for the last few paragraphs alone.




26 November 1998

I was gone for only three days!

I left for my retreat in the full knowledge that, when I returned, all would be as I had left it -- a small consolation, given current events, yet a comforting one. I dislike leaving Buffy and the other children on their own for any length of time, yet they seem to have surpassed even their considerable capacity for chaos and mayhem during this particular outing. Fortunately for the residents of Sunnydale -- and unfortunately for the children -- all of that mayhem appears to have been visited upon themselves.

I cannot even conceive of what the last days must have been for them. Xander and Willow kidnapped by Spike; Buffy forced to face him with only Angel, still far from trustworthy, at her side; the two reasonably healthy, if mystifying, relationships between Xander and Cordelia, and Willow and her Oz, lying in ruins; Cordelia in the hospital; Willow barely able to speak without crying; Xander actually shelving books alone in the library; Oz nowhere to be found; Buffy retreating into herself beyond all hope of reaching.

With all of them in various stages of trauma and shock, unwilling or unable to help each other, I find myself confronted with sole responsibility for five broken teenage hearts, and no earthly idea what to do with any of them. But at least there is an obvious place to begin....


Toy Soldiers by Perri Smith

Comments

[em-meredith.livejournal.com]

I believe that Perri is neonhummingbird on LJ and her fic lives here (http://www.neon-hummingbird.com/storyteller/index.html).

[kraken-wakes.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks very much. *toddles off to amend*

[casapazzo.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes. This one's great. It was on my list to do, but I never got to it, so I'm very glad you did.

[raveninthewind.livejournal.com]

I really like that one; I remember how struck I was by the possibilites of Wesley as an interesting character for the first time.