The Sorrowful Tale of Miss Kitty Fantastico - Ch.1: Spike,Dawn,Clem

[myfeetshowit.livejournal.com]

TITLE: The Sorrowful Tale of Miss Kitty Fantastico - Ch.1 by myfeetshowit
Summary: Buffy is dead and Dawn’s fifteenth birthday is coming up. A penniless Spike wants to get her the greatest present ever. It proves to be harder than he expected. He encounters kittens, and Clem and nosehairs and learns some valuable lessons about life.
Rating: PG for swearing
Warnings/Notes: A Sunnydale version of a Victorian Morality Play. Inspired by Kipling’s ‘Just So’ stories and served with a side dish of Dr. Seuss. A mixture of humor, angst, and reflection upon the foibles of a vampire who wants to be a good man.

Sorry about the spacing. LJ seems to want it that way.

TSTOMKF 1

The widely held belief is that Miss Kitty Fantastico is dead.  Not surprising since even her most nearest and dearest believe it to be so and have widely lamented the fact.  In truth, she now lives a life of ease despite her humiliation at bearing the current name of Stripe.  Her desperation to leave the vicinity of the Hellmouth, despite her affection for those worthies Miss Willow Rosenberg and Miss Tara MacClay, can better be understood if one has knowledge of the players and the setting in which her drama played out. 

Miss Rosenberg and Miss MacClay had little to do with the climax of Miss Kitty's adventure, being more involved in its beginning.  Maintaining co-custody after rescuing the infant Miss Kitty from the clutches of the Humane society, they provided ample bosoms to be pressed to, and kisses and the other necessities that make life especially worth living.  Unfortunately, as relationships often do, the fabric of theirs began to fray.  As they grew further and further apart Miss Kitty fell through the weave, not abandoned but frequently overlooked and neglected.

More and more often in these lonely and desolate days she began finding a companion in one Miss Dawn Summers, a key actor in this play.  Miss Dawn was at that time of life when she was beginning to unfold like a flower but as is often the case with youth, her development was irregular.  While at one moment she was grace and perception, at the very next she was the personification of clumsy and dim-witted.  To be colloquial, young Dawn was a spaz with two left feet.  Nonetheless she held dear to her budding breast a burning desire to be held capable of adult responsibilities for which she was in no way competent.  This yearning held the seed of Miss Kitty's disaster, and the seed was watered by the unwitting disregard she was given by the adults that surrounded her. 

As the day of Miss Kitty's downfall approached, events were set in motion by one Mr. Spike of Restfield cemetery.  The main protagonist in our tale, Mr. Spike was, in many ways like Miss Dawn, also victim to a period of growth, not physical but mental and moral.  His evolution was an unexpected occurrence that often left him stumbling and reaching to grasp at dreams that melted away at his merest touch.  This, if not the most important, is the most amazing element of our tale, for Mr. Spike was a vampire - a breed not given to growth in matters other than bloodshed and mayhem.  Unlike Miss Dawn who was yet growing into her competence, Mr. Spike was abandoning his field of proficiency and attempting to learn new skills.  Like Miss Dawn, he was held in disregard and was given no assistance, no teaching, no commendations by which he could measure his progress.  Uncertain and often misled, Spike would begin his course with the most noble of intentions.  Once committed to action however he lacked the concepts that would allow him to surmount obstacles in a way consistent with the morality he now wished to pursue.  Trapped in such a situation, he would fall back into the competencies that had served him well during his evil past - cheating, lying, theft and where possible, violence - hoping that the ends would justify the means.  Alas, seldom is such the case, and thus was Mr. Spike the unwitting means by which Miss Kitty Fantastico was given a new life. 

Before we further remove the concealing curtain, we must warn that while Miss Kitty flourishes amongst the love of new companions, a cat did indeed die this day.  Although young and fluffy and to all outward appearances healthy, this unfortunate creature was the possessor of an enlarged and feeble heart.  Her departure from this veil was inevitable and although it was perhaps hastened by the events of the day, it was in no way caused by it.  The poor kitten was unremarkable except that in appearance she bore a resemblance to our very own Miss Kitty Fantastico. 

If our readers have not been discouraged by this sad digression from the throughline of our story then we shall proceed to the middle of the tale. 
 

NEXT

Comments

[boy-named-susie.livejournal.com]

Absolutely love this. I love your inspiration for this fic, which really makes it stand apart from most fanfic that's out there. Really well written and can't wait for the next part.

[myfeetshowit.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

There are so many well-written fanfics out there. I wanted to try doing something that was really different (kind of my MO).

I'm glad you're enjoying it.

[hesadevil.livejournal.com]

I've always loved your use of mirroring in this opening chapter. Already we're invested in the fate of the two kittens and the development of Dawn and Spike and the lessons each will learn.

A morality tale of the grand old tradition setting out its stall and introducing the major protagonists. The only thing I miss is the illustrations that usually accompany such tales.

Thank you so much for bringing this over. I'll tag and add you to the list of authors in the 'Memories' link.

[myfeetshowit.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Should I do the tags or do you prefer the mods doing them to keep them a certain way? I've never tried it before.

This was definitely an experimental piece, and I think I learned a lot about writing, moreso because I wasn't doing most of the things that modern convention insists that you do.

[hesadevil.livejournal.com]

We haven't worked out how to let authors add tags that might be missing from the list so I'm adding new ones as fics are posted. Miss kitty provided many new tags. Multi-chaptered fics are also tagged by author and title.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

What a fabulous beginning! This is one of those fics I've always meant to read and just never did, so thank you for bringing it back out. :)

[myfeetshowit.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading!

It's so wonderful to dust off the old stories and post them again.

[scarlettlily.livejournal.com]

Hehe this is really cute and I cannot wait to see what happens to Miss Kitty Fantastico next!

[myfeetshowit.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Morality tales are fun!

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

I rember reading this story ages ago-- back on one of the Yahoo groups. I loved it then, but lost track of it and don't think I ever read the ending.

So I'm so glad you're posting it here!

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

er, remember!!

[myfeetshowit.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That was quite a while back, so it's quite a compliment that you remembered it. (and don't worry about the typo--I've been typing them all over hte place lately.)