Fic: Old Age

[boy-named-susie.livejournal.com]

Title: Old Age
Author: boy_named_susie
Rating: PG
Word Count: 200
Prompt: New Season (001)
Pairing: None
Characters: Giles, Buffy
Notes: This was inspired by the images from the upcoming season 8 comics. Written for the first prompt over at still_grrr

“Giles, I am *so* old,” Buffy moaned as she threw herself onto the chair next to her watcher.

Giles peered at her over his glasses with sketicism. “Yes, I can see that old age has you firmly in its grasp.”

“Okay, so I’m not as old as you…”

“At least you have that small comfort.”

“… but I am *old.* Do you know what I *said* today? Some of the girls were playing around with those new sun ray gun thingies, you know, the ones that look like a prop out of Blade. And I kinda snapped because they weren’t paying attention. I told them, ‘Back in my day, we used to kill vampires with *just* wooden stakes. We didn’t have all these high tech gadgets you’re all so dependent upon, nor did we have the capability to swoop in from the sky and launch surprise attacks. Just stakes and an occasional sword or ax, that’s it.’ You should have seen their faces.”

Giles laughed.

“Giles, it’s not funny.”

“I’m sorry, Buffy,” he responded, trying to look sufficiently contrite. “It’s just now I understand why all the girls were calling you Grandma Buffy when they returned from the mission tonight.”

Comments

[hesadevil.livejournal.com]

I'm so smitten by your Giles voice, I completely missed the reference to the new comic. I love your version and doubt the comics will be as good. Besides I can't be bothered working out the order in which to read the speech bubbles. I lost the knack when I was about 10.

[boy-named-susie.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much. Giles is a fun character to write. I'm really glad you liked this.

And the comics... I can't say that I'm planning to read them either. The picture that inspired this is one in which Buffy is leading a troop of slayers and they are all swooping down in from the sky with a helicopter in the background and they'll all holding futuristic looking guns as weapons. The first time I saw it, I must admit my reaction was "Huh? That's supposed to be Buffy?" I'm still confused actually because it seems more like the Initiative than Buffy's style, but it gave me the idea for this fic.

[hesadevil.livejournal.com]

Even after Angel moved into WR&H, with all the high tech weaponry at his beck and call, he still turned to the trusty weapons cabinet before going out to fight the good fight. It wasn't until TGIQ that Spike asked for 'guns, lots and lots of guns'. And it took Buffy seven years to catch on to the benefits of the mobile phone.

[boy-named-susie.livejournal.com]

Good points, which make the preview pages for the upcoming comics seem all the more strange to me. Seven years to get a cell phone and now she's swooping in on helicopters and using futuristic weapons. It's all very odd.

[shinodabear.livejournal.com]

Teehee!
Buffy does seem a generation or two removed from the fancy stuff the comics seem to be filled with. Cool gadgets, just odd to see them with Buffy.

[boy-named-susie.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does seem really out of place with Buffy. Who knows, maybe they'll find a way to make it work, but I'm a bit skeptical. Thanks for the feedback!

[mabus101.livejournal.com]

Muahahahaha!

I always love the idea of Buffy getting old and having to deal with a younger generation of Slayers. I think you're right, on some level, about the ray guns and stuff...but on the other hand, Slayers have been using low-tech weaponry for a very, very long time. Maybe it is time to upgrade a little.

Maybe sometime later I'll post "The Djinni Asked Me How I Wanted to Die." It's not one of my favorite fics as to how it turned out, but it carries some ideas like this out to their limit.

[boy-named-susie.livejournal.com]

Thanks, glad you liked it. I think it's not just the upgrade of weapons but the drastic jump to the upgrade. It's not like we really saw anything like what the comic book images are showing on Buffy (except maybe with the Initiative) so the big jump makes more of an impact. And I'd be really interested to read your fic as well.

[stretfordditto.livejournal.com]

At least she didn't start the convo "In my day..."