Survivor - Ash Island

[JustSkipIt]

Hey Washi,
Don't worry about the lack of feedback. I know that you've been reading all along. Thanks for writing now. I'm glad you enjoyed it and even that you started watching the show. Thanks always.

[AntigoneUnbound]

OK, Debra--I still have miles to read before I sleep, but I wanted to break in now and start my feedback so that I don't end up with a novella to write.

First of all, I love this premise! I'm sure you've heard this from many, many Kittens but part of why it's (my reaction) so noteworthy to me is that I don't watch the show. I've seen it perhaps twice, and while I thought the idea was interesting I just couldn't get into the machinations and manipulations. (Maybe I just hear too much about such things in my job...) But here--I love it! And it's all because of the characters. I like these people, even though they're different from canon folks, and thus I'm already invested in what they do and how they do it. The discussions around alliances, and wondering whom they can trust--fascinating! Of course, it's wild to read all the behind-the-scenes stuff, too, particularly the mother and child reunion between the Summers women.

You know, I don't always like reading kids (interesting, since I'm currently writing one) but I like Ariel. She's obviously smart w/o being so obnoxiously precocious that you either wanna wring her neck, or you just shake your head and say, "No kid talks like that." Great balance.

You also intersperse some really nice, subtle humor. I think my favorite example is when Buffy "turns to the fire and begins to make a speech." (Dunno if I'm quoting it exactly, but the line certainly stood out to me!) That was just wonderful--just a simple line, but such a great in-joke re: the Slayer's tendency to pontificate.

So they're almost to the merge and I gotta make sure I understand it correctly so I may go back and reread the early parts. Suffice it to say, though, I'm looking forward to this immensely!

Have a great weekend~
Mary

[JustSkipIt]

Hey Mary,
In case I haven’t said it enough, I’m so happy to see you back with us. Good idea on staving off the novella of feedback. It’s always hard when you come in late to a fic. You are right; many readers have said that they don’t like the show but that they love the fic and it is the biggest compliment in the world that you are willing to give it a chance. That you would not only give it a chance but choose it is fantastic so thank you for being one of those who took the chance.

You know, I don't always like reading kids (interesting, since I'm currently writing one) but I like Ariel.

That actually does make sense. For one thing it’s just AU. I mean by definition. You know? The other thing is that frequently they’re either incredibly age-inappropriate or just stupid. I’m glad that in this case, she’s neither. Thanks.

Yes, Buffy’s tendency to speechify is certainly victim to my jokes in this fic. I’m glad you got and liked it. Re: understanding everything correctly you may want to look at the FAQs but if you do, you may see some spoilers. Also, frequently reading comments, you will see my explanations to questions being asked by other readers. Thanks a ton and enjoy your weekend. Debra

[Ittybittykitty]

Just finished this and I have to say I loved it!

[JustSkipIt]

ittybittykitty - Thanks so much. I'm glad you read it and posted. Have a great day.

[Warduke]

New to the archive. You can leave feedback!

[JustSkipIt]

Ok, my sister sent me this and it seemed appropos:

Do We Have A Winner?

Due to the popularity of the Survivor shows, Texas is planning
to do one entitled, "Survivor: Texas Style." The contestants will all
start in Dallas, then drive to Waco, Austin, San Antonio, over to Houston
and down to Brownsville. They will then proceed up to Del Rio, El Paso,
Midland, Odessa, Lubbock and Amarillo. From there they will go on to
Abilene, Fort Worth and finally back to Dallas.

Each will be driving a pink Volvo with bumper stickers that read:
"I'm gay, I love the Dixie Chicks, Boycott Beef, I Voted For Al Gore,
George Strait Sucks, Kerry in '04, Hillary in 2008, and I'm here to
confiscate your guns."

The first one to make it back to Dallas alive wins.

[Tara the Phoenix]

Heya Deb,

Was this ever a romp! From the very first moment when Wesley is going on and on about the weight of the leaves I was thoroughly enjoying it. You made so many jokes throughout, I found myself laughing out loud several times and even a guffaw or two. I believe one guffaw was when someone commented on how poor the new tree mail poetry writers were. Hilarious.

The interspersing of 'episodes' with real life was ingenious. We got to watch Tara and Willow's relationship unfold in both 'realities', and it certainly made the finale a whole lot easier to understand. I was surprised that Kendra made it so far, but maybe you just wanted to give the poor girl a chance at life that she certainly didn't get in canon.

I knew Tara would vote off Willow. It made sense. I was a little surprised that Tara didn't win - I guess you didn't want to be obvious with that. Was that a tough decision to make? Buffy in tribal council - grr. I'm glad they made up, though.

Once again, I read this on LG so I didn't read all the fb left by the other kittens, but I bet they enjoyed it as much as I did.

I am steadily devouring your works, my friend. I also read 'Better Days', also on LG. Is there anyone here I can leave fb?

Thanks for Survivor Ash Island. It was a lovely love story (running out of adjectives, it's early...) Thanks for sharing it.

Phoenix

[JustSkipIt]

Phoenix – A romp? Jolly good term for it. I had a fantastic time writing this story and I’m glad you had so much fun reading. Wesley. Harumph. I’m glad it made you laugh. Poetry is far from my strong suit and it seems that they’ve actually kind of given it up on the show. Perhaps they were guided by my poor attempts. Of course, they’ve kind of replaced it with Jeff Probst wanting to influence the game every week so that’s a pain in the bottom.

The interspersing of 'episodes' with real life was ingenious. We got to watch Tara and Willow's relationship unfold in both 'realities'…

It was an inspired thought on my part and I’m just glad that I though of it in time to post the first at home part in time. I literally thought of it the night before I would have posted week two. I love the muse; don’t you?

I was surprised that Kendra made it so far, but maybe you just wanted to give the poor girl a chance at life that she certainly didn't get in canon.

Actually she was the beneficiary of some good luck on randomly assigning teams and exit positions. I basically came up with the list of 16 folks. I put Willow on one team and Tara the other and randomly assigned everyone else to the two teams. Then I gave Willow, Tara, and Faith their final positions and randomly drew for the winning/losing team each week and who would be voted off. Kendra did very well in the random selection process. But you can imagine that she got a bum deal on the show if you want…

Tara win? I guess it just seemed a bit unfair to me. I mean everyone idolizes her. It would have been too easy to make the W/T show also the W/T win it all show. I don’t know if that makes sense.

The fb from the other kittens was fantastic with some common themes:

• I’ve never liked Survivor so I didn’t want to read this but I started and you’ve won me over.
• I can’t decide which I like better: at home or on the show.
• I hope Tara wins
• I hope Willow wins
• I am dying of curiosity to see who wins!


You can leave feedback for Better Days at … as well as the other fine stories in that series.

You are so very welcome. Thanks for reading it and all the fantastic feedback.

[Renatecs]

Really nice story. I don't really watch the show on tv but i certainly would have watched this one!!! I like how you wrote all the interviews and talk shows too.
You did a great job here.
R.

[JustSkipIt]

Renatecs - Thanks so much. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[em317]

I have never been a fan of the show, however I just adored your story version. I loved the way it moved from the episode to what Willow & tara were doing in their current lives, and also their interactions on the show. I was however surprised that you didnt use characters like Spike and Angel as contestants as well. I have always been wondering if there could be any hope of a sequel of some sort, their lives after the show etc.

[JustSkipIt]

em - Your comment that you never liked the show but liked this story is probably the most common one I had during the entire story. I take that as a compliment and appreciate it. The timing of the show/real life was somewhat spur of the moment so I'm glad to have fb that it worked.

I was however surprised that you didnt use characters like Spike and Angel as contestants as well.

Very simply because they are not Americans. I guess by that logic I shouldn't have allowed Wesley but the actor is American (yes as are DB and JM) but he always struck me as a poser on the show.

I have always been wondering if there could be any hope of a sequel of some sort, their lives after the show etc.

It floats around my head sometimes and I consider doing a wedding show with Faith/Kent getting married and lots of W/T. So it's a possibility.

Thanks.

[fhiwda]

I just finished reading this from beginning to end...again...I've read it a few times...and i have been trying to come up with the words to say how much i love this and words to describe it...and only one word seems to explain how amazing this fic is...GENIUS!!!! You, my dear, are a genius!

[JustSkipIt]

fhiwda - Thanks so much for reading and commenting. I haven't published anything in such a long time that an e-mail from the admin telling me there's new feedback is always cause for celebration. Thanks.

[WrongObsession]

So reading this took the longest time ever because of my lack of internet and being home, but tonight after much reading and caffinated beverages I valiantly finished. And before I forget I am going to comment on the amazingness which is you.

Alright I've never been a big survivor fan, except when they had Survivor Thailand. That was a huge cause for celebration at my house. Anyways so I had been kind of iffy on reading it. But after the third chapter my attention was hooked. From the start I believed buffy would win, but when she got voted off I couldn't decide who would win. And than near the end I was absolutly sure Kendra would win, but at the end of the chapter that I she got voted off...thats another reason I don't like the show, I can never figure out who's going to win. But the story was awesome! I felt complete after I read this.

I loved Tara's daughter. I love kids. Alot. Especially when they're in that age area. Four through six are my favorite age cause they're still small, cute, and havn't been exposed to such crap as Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers. *Shudders* I frequently thank the celestial beings out there that my childhood consisted of Seseme Street, Lamb Chop, And Mr. Rogers. Anyways...I loved Ariel's personality. She reminded me of my neaphew. Especially when she asked about lesbians. Jeez if I gave the explanation Tara gave, I wouldn't have struggled so much with mine. But I am sure my deffinition sufficed.

Over all I really felt like I was watching the show! Great Job! I bow down to your excelence!

(P.s. my comment is slightly on the spazztic side sense it's kind of late here, and I just had a lot to say and not enough brain cells functioning to covey or spell how I felt. thanks for putting up with my confusing comments)

[JustSkipIt]

WrongObsession – Well hello again. Fancy meeting you here. Sorry for the lack of internet. That can be a real bummer. But thanks re: amazingness.

I think most of the readers were not Survivor fans. Speaking of Survivor Fans though, have you read Watty’s Amazing Race fic? She got the idea from this and it’s really quite great. I highly recommend it.

As I said in the comments, I used random selection with only a few parameters such as that W/T had to start on different teams and would both make it very far into the game. I also weighted it toward Faith because I adore her.

Kids are a fantastic riot. My son is 5 and he’s going totally crazy this afternoon. He’s been bouncing off furniture (literally) and talking non-stop for over two hours. If it wasn’t >100 degrees out, I’d send him out back to play and chill out. And I’m sure your definition worked too.

Thanks so much and don’t worry about spastic.

[WrongObsession]

No I haven't read The Amazing Race yet, but that's on my list. =)

You have a 5 year old son? Thats awesome! I love when kids are jumping off furniture, I am usually right there with them. Drives my family insane that a senior has the same maturity of little kid. I have three little tykes running around, none of which are mine, I just like to play with them.

Well I am glad you took no offense to my lack of intrest in survivor. Its a cool show to watch, I just hate the deception, and lies that take place. It just feels so wrong.

Well seriously thanks again for being the awesome person that you are!

[Alicepire]

Hey Debra,
I'm re-reading the story for the third time for a couple of reasons:
1. I remembered it being pretty awesome
and 2. Because I have to do a story on Survivor tomorow and I'd never seen the show before and wanted to get a feel for the rules.
It's 2:40am now and I haven't been able to put it down.
I just wanted to say that the story is still great and engaging as I remember it being years ago. So thanks for making watching reality TV fun, keep up the good work!
-Alice

[JustSkipIt]

WrongObsession – Sorry it’s taken me a while to respond again. I missed this until the feedback below got posted. Anyway, I hope you’ve read Kitten Amazing Race now as it’s awesome and totally helped turn me on to TWoP. I actually have a friend who writes for TWoP but I was never into it until reading that story.

You have a 5 year old son?

Yep. 5 year old son and almost 2 year old daughter. They’re wonderful.



Thanks for all your comments.



Alicepire – Hi there. 1. Thanks. 2. What? You have to do a story on Survivor? For what class? They have classes with required assignments on Survivor? That’s hard to imagine but sounds cool. You’re very welcome and thank you for reading and commenting and good luck with your paper.

[Alicepire]

Actually I'm a journalist, I work for the TV guide section of a major Australian newspaper. My school assignments were never that cool
I wish the Kitten version was real though! It'd be much more interesting to talk to Willow than that Bob guy

[JustSkipIt]

Resubscribing.

[kimmy_s]

Hey again, yes it's me your stalker lol.
I think I'm almost done reading most of your fics (not a big fan of fic challenges written by anyone they just seem a bit far fetched and stretched but that's just my personal view).

So I wasn't all too interested in reading this first mainly because I've never actually watched the show. I was pleasantly surprised I thoroughly enjoyed reading (because of your fabulous writing skills). You set the scene very well and I followed the gist of the story easily.

Catch you soon
Kim

[JustSkipIt]

I'm glad you gave it a chance. Your comment about not wanting to read it because you don't watch/enjoy the show is one of the very common ones so I'm so glad that you (and others) gave it a chance and then enjoyed it.