BtVS Triple Drabble: No Choice
Aug. 13th, 2025 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knittedTitle: No Choice
Fandom: BtVS
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Buffy, Joyce.
Rating: PG
Spoilers/Setting: Early Season Three.
Summary: Joyce tries to understand about Buffy’s Slayer situation.
Written For: Challenge 471: Amnesty 78 at
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fan_flashworks, using Challenge 469: Duty.Disclaimer: I don’t own BtVS, or the characters.
A/N: Triple drabble and a half, 350 words.
“Don’t you ever take a night off?” Joyce asked, as her daughter reached for her coat. “A girl your age, you should be having fun with your friends, going on dates, not patrolling for vampires every night.”
“Tell that to the vampires.” Buffy sighed. “I’d love to do all that stuff, even though my dating record kinda sucks, but the vampires aren’t just gonna take a night off because my social life is suffering. I’m the Slayer, I have a duty, whether I want it or not. If I don’t patrol, and someone gets killed, or turned into a vampire, that’s on me, and I don’t need another guilt trip. I mean, it still happens, I can’t be everywhere at once, but at least if I’m out there I know I’m trying, that I’m doing the best I can.”
“Oh.” Joyce sat down on the arm of the sofa. “I didn’t think of that, it’s… awful. And it’s unfair! How can a teenage girl be expected to put duty ahead of everything else?”
“Most Slayers are found early and trained, so when it’s their turn they already understand and accept their duties. Guess I was kinda… overlooked.” Buffy looked down at the floor, feeling the weight of her destiny pressing down on her.
“So you didn’t… choose to be a Slayer?”
“No, mum, we don’t get a choice. One Slayer dies, the next is called, and that’s it. We’re the chosen, not the choosers. No one ever asks if we want to give up all hope of a normal life to save the world.”
“I… I didn’t realise that. Oh, Buffy…”
“It’s okay, mom. I mean, it’s really not so bad, I always wanted to have superpowers, and now I do. I get to be the hero, kill the bad guys, and save the day. There’re worse ways of spending the evening.”
“I suppose so, but you’re only seventeen. Why can’t Slayers be adults?”
“Don’t know, it’s just always been this way, and now I really have to go do my Slayer duty.”
“Please be careful out there?”
“I will.”
The End
“Tell that to the vampires.” Buffy sighed. “I’d love to do all that stuff, even though my dating record kinda sucks, but the vampires aren’t just gonna take a night off because my social life is suffering. I’m the Slayer, I have a duty, whether I want it or not. If I don’t patrol, and someone gets killed, or turned into a vampire, that’s on me, and I don’t need another guilt trip. I mean, it still happens, I can’t be everywhere at once, but at least if I’m out there I know I’m trying, that I’m doing the best I can.”
“Oh.” Joyce sat down on the arm of the sofa. “I didn’t think of that, it’s… awful. And it’s unfair! How can a teenage girl be expected to put duty ahead of everything else?”
“Most Slayers are found early and trained, so when it’s their turn they already understand and accept their duties. Guess I was kinda… overlooked.” Buffy looked down at the floor, feeling the weight of her destiny pressing down on her.
“So you didn’t… choose to be a Slayer?”
“No, mum, we don’t get a choice. One Slayer dies, the next is called, and that’s it. We’re the chosen, not the choosers. No one ever asks if we want to give up all hope of a normal life to save the world.”
“I… I didn’t realise that. Oh, Buffy…”
“It’s okay, mom. I mean, it’s really not so bad, I always wanted to have superpowers, and now I do. I get to be the hero, kill the bad guys, and save the day. There’re worse ways of spending the evening.”
“I suppose so, but you’re only seventeen. Why can’t Slayers be adults?”
“Don’t know, it’s just always been this way, and now I really have to go do my Slayer duty.”
“Please be careful out there?”
“I will.”
The End
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Date: 2025-08-13 08:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-08-13 09:24 pm (UTC)Thank you!