Buffy Summers

*The Vampire Slayer*

* Overview
* Sheet
* Background
* Logs

 I want you to hurt over me... Feel what I feel... I want you to cry over, die over me, Baby, just for one time...

— Meat Loaf

Died, came back. She was there at Sunnydale before the First Evil turned it to a crater, fighting whatever evils its Hellmouth attracted. Once The Slayer, now one of many. A former cheerleader, she has grown far past her origins to a leader, to a fighter, to a faithful friend--a modern day warrior in heels. Closely tied with the remnants of the Slayers left after Sunnydale, she fights to find her place in this brave new world--and maybe slay a monster or three along the way.

## Personality

Always ready with a joke and a quip, even in the most dire of situations -- Buffy uses humor to stop the largely depressing work that she has to go through from getting to her and to help her keep a happy, more positive outlook on life itself. Sarcastic more than serious, Buffy nonetheless has a strong sense of her duty -- keeping monsters and things from affecting the lives of normal everyday people, often having to make sacrifices in her normal life to keep her duty going. However, Buffy longs for a more normal life and often tries to do the best she can to wedge normal things into her life, which has led to heartbreak -- with boys and other things in her life. Buffy also tends to have trouble with accepting authority figures in her life, as she tends towards the very stubborn and commanding. She tends to be a bit short-tempered and easy to irritate if questioned or otherwise disrespected. Likewise, she has a competitive streak that might be inappropriate at times.

## SIGNATURE ABILITY

### The Gift

Buffy was once told that "Death is your Gift." As the most gifted and most powerful Slayer, she has the greatest connection to the line of past slayers of all slayers. In the end, when all hope is lost, when it seems like there is no other way, she will feel a powerful rush of adrenaline, calling upon a hidden strength that even she didn't know existed. This adrenaline rush, common to all creatures when backed into a corner, is even more potent in The Alpha Slayer -- it will double the potency of all her abilities and has been displayed a few times in canon. It greatly increased her willpower, allowing her to overcome Dracula's powerful hypnosis. It seems to adjust to whatever is needed for a particular situation, whether it be increasing her strength, her willpower or her durability to survive a powerful blow. It's only a brief adrenaline rush that may last a few minutes at most, but it's there when she needs it in a desperate situation.

## SKILLS

From years of Slaying, from a start in cheerleading, Buffy has a well-honed sense of acrobatics and her physical place in the world. Buffy performs well at sports that are helped with a good sense of gymnastics and acrobatics, or a sense of endurance, like track and field.

Giles probably likes to say that he trained Buffy to begin with. But the fact of the matter is - Buffy was Born to Slay. She's always had an innate sense of combat and tactics, and often favored the smart approach rather than the brute force approach. Certainly, the martial arts and weapons training that the Watchers and otherwise gave her has helped hone her approach, but the fact of the matter is Buffy is one of the longest living Slayers, and girls in that profession usually have a fast expiration date.

Perhaps Buffy clings to this to maintain some sense of not-Slayer life, but - where possible, she enjoys not only keeping up with the latest fashion and hairstyles, but modifying it to be more functional, to fit her own life, what with the Slayage and all.

Generally, the Scoobies were the ones that did the research, and passed it along to Buffy to get with the slaying. But you pick up a lot when you have the opportunity to slay all manner of beasties, and so Buffy's lore knowledge is generally limited to "how to kill things."

Some might call it "stalking," but Buffy tends to prefer calling it "investigation." Buffy is highly skilled at remaining quiet when she needs to be, especially when there are creatures about.

## ABILITIES

Greater strength leads to greater movement speed, particularly in her light frame. This helps with reflexes in being able to help her move quickly, but also run at much greater speeds, and jump higher and for greater distances.

Slayers tend to be suspectible to prophetic dreams, and this Slayer is no different. Slayers are also known to share dreams, and now that there are tons of slayers around, Buffy is likely to share dreams with them as well.

It takes a lot to put a Slayer down. Buffy has a resistance to natural disease, wounds, and otherwise that would fell a normal human being, and can recover quicker from the same, once she is hurt or sick.

Buffy always had a sense of where she was in the world, even if she wasn't specifically using her eyes to look that way. Buffy can therefore move and respond to things lightning fast, and has a keen sense of what is going on around her, combat-wise.

With reflexes and a tremendous awareness of their surroundings, slayers are able to operate at a higher sensory level a regular person. They are, consequently, able to respond to stimuli faster and more effectively, which among other things is a tremendous advantage in battle. They can sense the presence of non-humans, although they typically have to first encounter each kind discovered its nature.

Buffy Summers can bend metal (or open doors by crushing the handle, a favorite trick of hers), and if pressed, she can dead-lift a few tons with maximum effort. Needless to say, this leads to hard punches, that can crack stone-hard demon carapaces or other suitably stony things.

## ADVANTAGES

Slayers are gifted with formidable fighting abilities. Even before the potential slayer is activated, they have a natural ability to defend themselves, which seems to be triggered by supernatural threats. This ability further allows slayers to learn combat skills and tactics at an astounding rate, learning in days or weeks what would take the average human years or decades to master.

Although it's a little complicated, Buffy is part of the Slayer Organization, serving to organize and help Slayers activated after Willow's spell have a fighting chance of surviving this brave new world. What makes her relationship with the group a little complicated is Buffy is often seen as a figurehead of the organization, if not its leader proper.

The Scythe, sometimes known as "m?," is an ancient weapon designed specifically for use by the Slayer. It features a keen edge, a masterfully forged blade, and a wooden stake mounted in the base of the haft. In practical terms, it functions as a Supernatural-level weapon, and it is generally unbreakable (even the wooden stake portion). It can also feature as a magical object of power in certain circumstances, but such uses must always be pre-approved by staff as official Plot-level effects. Otherwise, it is simply a powerful weapon that resonates with the essence of Slayers.

## WEAKNESSES

One of the things that tends to get Buffy in trouble is her approach to problems. While generally an intelligent and capable fighter, as an overall tactician, she tends to rely on the guidance of others. She's a superstrong and nigh-invincible (yeah, she died twice) nemesis of all that is evil - why /can't/ she walk up and just take care of problems?

For better or for worse, since that fateful day when she was fifteen, Buffy has grown to define herself as a Slayer. And as Giles and other Watchers have drilled into her constantly, a Slayer has a Duty. And for a long time, she was the only (good) Slayer around. So she might put aside that duty to hunt and slay evil for a time, but she'll feel guilt all the while.

Buffy (and all Slayers, really) is infused with some of the essence of the First Slayer, and those mystic sorts that can track such a thing, or detect such a thing - it makes her stand out from a crowd of normal humans, even before seeing her amazing abilities.

Whether it's the fact that Slaying is dangerous work, or that Buffy tends to just pick really terrible lovers, she has had a string of boyfriends that have died, been terrible creatures, or sometimes just part-time psychopaths. It really wears on a girl's heart, and she might have a bit of a wall put up between herself and potential lovers as a result. (This also manifests, in a lesser extent, to her friends, although those seem to fare a little better).

Life before the Slayer was pretty good for Buffy -- she was okay at school, had a lot of friends, turned out to be a cheerleader. It wasn't all roses, though - her parents divorced when she was young, and she went with her mother, for better or worse.

Then, when she was about fifteen, (and on the school cheerleading squad!) she was awoken as the Slayer.

Eventually, she made the move to Sunnydale, after burning down the gym in her LA high school to kill the vampires that were trapped inside, which gave her the rep as a troublemaker.

There, she met Giles, the Watcher, and formed a gang collectively called the Scoobies, who kept the local demon and other crazy beastie population under check. And there was a lot to keep under check, as Sunnydale was over a Hellmouth.

After defeating a series of increasingly bigger bads, and generally trying to keep the Hellmouth under check, it all came to a head when the First Evil was faced at the Hellmouth, and a spell activated every single potential Slayer in the world.

After the battle that ensued, the Hellmouth and Sunnydale were destroyed, and Buffy and the rest of the activated Slayers were left with the question: what's next?

So Buffy played a part in organizing the Slayers into squads, and spread out over the world, doing their part to eradicate evil -- but could she have a normal life at the same time?

She might give it a try. Some might say she earned it.

Logs featuring Buffy Summers:

* 2019.02.27 - The End of the Apocalypse