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From Lucius-Walker on August 26, 2019 Thank you! Some readers expressed disappointment with the “happy” ending, and then it occurred to me that it would be really fun to write an alternate, dark ending. Maybe a little TOO fun. So I went for it. Steven had a lot of women to take care of in this story. And Priyanka had a fair amount of “off camera” work to do, being both the group’s only doctor and the owner of the home where they made their base. I didn’t think it would be any fun if the Splinter just turned people into mindless automatons that did its bidding. Instead, I wanted them to be sinister versions of themselves, driven by every impulse that the Splinter could dredge up from their psyches to make them do what it wanted. That ended up being a lot of (twisted) fun to write, particularly Connie’s buried anger toward her mother and desire to see her punished and controlled. Thanks! And thanks for the review!

@GG: Plot and title suggest a proper stand-alone episode at some time during S01-S04. I'd read it. Is this thread just for proclaiming or should others feel encouraged to offer opinions and suggestions so the story might work after all? Working title: Not Human at all Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Plot: S04 What if... Starts with "Living Conditions". The Initiative coincidentally finds out about Willow's witchiness, abducts and confines her in its facility. They fake her death, remove uterus and oviducts, shave her hair and implant a chip similar to Spike's. They consider her not human and want to use her abilities for their own purposes. Walsh is the main meanie here. Riley is one of her captors but eventually turns from abettor to her only connection to the outer world as well as the only one who treats her human. At the end, he's a crucial element to her liberation. Willow herself develops from plain victim to her own rescuer. The others believe her death until Riley, who started to date Buffy here as well, tells them the truth. Supposed to be an alternate S04, where every character gets his/her adequate attention and the canon main topics are somehow merged in. Fatal flaw: Everything! It was foredoomed from the beginning. Story is too big and advanced for a beginner and I didn't thought it through. After two chapters it was like "Errm, yeah. What comes next?" The bright side is that I really started to think about what it means to write a story with everything involved instead of having the "Ha! It just will work out somehow." mindset. The project is on hiatus now until I've gained more experience and skill by writing shortfics with much simpler demands.

For financial reasons (some self-inflicted, some because of my mother-in-law’s medical expenses), I am giving up cable TV. Will have to find some other way to watch The Loud House and Craig of the Creek. Or else my cartoon fanfics are going to be taking a Netflixy turn.