Some fic recs, while I dust off "DUST"...
I'm hoping I can have the next chapter of DUST up tomorrow on time, but one of my betas is traveling overseas at the moment, so it might be a tish late.
In the meantime, I think it's nice sometimes to hear what other people are reading, so I thought I'd post a list of fics (mostly WIPs) that I'm currently hooked on.
Home Is Where They Have to Take You In - slaymesoftly (R, WIP)
Non-comic-compliant; this is a future fic in which Buffy has settled in London to help Giles run the Slayer School and Council. She finds an old, neglected home for sale and decides it should be hers. And then something moves into her tool shed and life gets complicated...
H/C fic isn't usually my thing. In fact, I subvert the trope when I can. On the other hand, vampires that have gone way past "injured" to the point of "living skeletons" really interest me for some reason. It's not a kink thing, it's more interesting to me from a "these guys really AREN'T human" POV. Can you love something that looks, basically, like a reanimated corpse? Can you care for it? Find humanity in it? Anyway... that's one of the reasons I'm totally digging this fic.
Embers - coalitiongirl (PG-13, WIP)
Buffy is a waitress at a gay bar, and Spike is a dashing captain of a space ship... and it's not an alternate universe. It's a year after the events of Season Eight, and Buffy is still reeling. But while she and Spike try to sort out the hurt and confusion that Buffy's been dealing with all year, the aftershocks of her betrayal have brought a new enemy forth...one that might just be the one to break her completely.
Why aren't you reading this? Seriously, why? It has fucking NUANCES. It's lovely. And complicated. And today's chapter left me kinda teary and sad for Buffy and ... and ... yeah. Go read this. I'll wait.
Time's Fool - MsJane (NC-17, WIP)
Decades after the battle in Los Angeles and two years after a small army of Slayers destroyed the Dragvlok demon homeland, Dragvloks are on a mission to destroy the Slayer line. They’re making pretty good headway as they head to L.A., home to the largest group of Slayers outside London. It’s up to an aging Slayer in California to stop the bloodshed. Meanwhile, the Saviour of Slayers, as he coined himself, decides to return to L.A. to stop the Dragvlok advancement to the city. Both think they’re on a mission to save the next generation of Slayers, but they may just end up saving each other.
I love this story. Normally I read words like "decades" and "aging" and I picture a little old Slayer Buffy, kicking butt and slathering on the wrinkle cream. Turns out Spike and I have a lot in common. Buffy, however, never does quite what you might expect and I'm thoroughly enjoying this fic even if the chapters are just a tiny bit too short for my satisfaction. I need more. Like, ten years ago. ;)
The Tenant - ssddgr (AO, WIP, All Human)
In hopes of getting her fiancé to consummate their relationship before the wedding, Buffy convinces him they should check out the apartment her step father gave her as a gift for her upcoming nuptials. Darkness and privacy are supposed to work for her, but there is one parameter she doesn’t know about: the apartment is not empty yet, and the current tenant has no plans of moving.
It's hard sometimes for All Human fics to capture the Spuffy dynamic. Without the conflict of Spike being a vampire, often it's difficult for authors to come up with sufficient conflict to make their relationship as complicated and antagonistic as it was in canon. This fic manages it perfectly: Buffy is a nice girl who is REALLY frustrated with her fiance (I would be too!), and Spike is kind of a dick who is going through a bad patch of his own. Not to mention the first time she met him, she was making out on the floor of his apartment with her fiance, while he was naked and wielding a baseball bat. ... Hilarity and UST ensue.
The Secret of the Boy You Never Kissed - Minx DeLovely (NC-17, WIP, All Human)
"Will and Buffy had been best friends since the day they met in the walk-in freezer at Wendy’s. They were both working fast food after college didn’t pan out. Buffy had been eating frozen cookie dough and Will had actually been trying to do his job.They’d been roommates for about two years and had only slept together once, something that Buffy was fairly proud of given how naked and around Will always was."
Can Will and Buffy's friendship survive now that they've had sex? This story has it all: sexually berated beef patties, Willow getting it on with Harmony of all people, references to Yentl and the Cremaster Cycle by Matthew Barney and lots of awkward missed opportunities between our leads.
While this story sometimes feels like an original novel with characters who just happen to share the same names as our favorites and a few superficial characteristics, the story is compelling and unusually told, often hilarious and memorable, and the relationship between the various couples is multi-layered and complex. I like complications. I like characters with complicated histories. I like stories about best friends who fall in love. While I admit I kinda skimmed over some of the Cordy/Angel bits in this story, and some of the Willow/Harmony stuff (cause, uh, it was a little disturbing... less because it was slashy and more because it was Willow seducing HARMONY of all people), I'm pretty much enjoying the heck out of this. I also like the way it's told in "Memento" like flash backs, as the present day timeline inches forward.
Not Your Average Superhero - abelina (NC-17, Oneshot, AU)
Something wasn't quite right, but what could Buffy do about it? She was no superhero. Season 4, during the episode Superstar, sometime after Buffy and Jonathan encounter Spike but before everyone realizes Buffy's right about Jonathan.
I don't know why, but I love "Superstar" fics. Pretty much any of the canon AU's interest me, but the amount of tampering this spell had to do with EVERYONE really fascinates me. I like how this fic portrays the changes that had to be mentally wrought on Buffy in order to make her subserviant to Jonathan, and I love, love, love that in this fic Spike is the one who manages to give Buffy back to herself. It's a theme that I really dig, and it's done very well here. This is, really, at heart, a porn with plot--just in case you needed the warning.
[Edit]
GAH, how did I forget this one? I blame it on my lack of caffeine, when posting this morning:
Yours, William - thepuddinhead (NC-17, WIP)
A time travel story in which a 2011 Buffy visits Victorian England. You'll read about weighty concepts like Kurt Cobain, a musty bastard, candlesticks as microphones and Princess Leia. You'll be thrilled by knife-wielding assailants, dessert-wielding maids and a sexual device that is safe for airport scanners.
I love this story. I shouldn't, because I'm not a huge fan of "William" fics. I like Spike--fangy and grr and mean and sarcastic and evil and all. William often comes across to me as too much of a wimp--or that's how a lot of author's write him. Puddinhead gets him right. There are glimmers of Spike under all that Williamness in this time-travel fic. I'm on the edge of my seat to see how she ends it, too.
In the meantime, I think it's nice sometimes to hear what other people are reading, so I thought I'd post a list of fics (mostly WIPs) that I'm currently hooked on.
Home Is Where They Have to Take You In - slaymesoftly (R, WIP)
Non-comic-compliant; this is a future fic in which Buffy has settled in London to help Giles run the Slayer School and Council. She finds an old, neglected home for sale and decides it should be hers. And then something moves into her tool shed and life gets complicated...
H/C fic isn't usually my thing. In fact, I subvert the trope when I can. On the other hand, vampires that have gone way past "injured" to the point of "living skeletons" really interest me for some reason. It's not a kink thing, it's more interesting to me from a "these guys really AREN'T human" POV. Can you love something that looks, basically, like a reanimated corpse? Can you care for it? Find humanity in it? Anyway... that's one of the reasons I'm totally digging this fic.
Embers - coalitiongirl (PG-13, WIP)
Buffy is a waitress at a gay bar, and Spike is a dashing captain of a space ship... and it's not an alternate universe. It's a year after the events of Season Eight, and Buffy is still reeling. But while she and Spike try to sort out the hurt and confusion that Buffy's been dealing with all year, the aftershocks of her betrayal have brought a new enemy forth...one that might just be the one to break her completely.
Why aren't you reading this? Seriously, why? It has fucking NUANCES. It's lovely. And complicated. And today's chapter left me kinda teary and sad for Buffy and ... and ... yeah. Go read this. I'll wait.
Time's Fool - MsJane (NC-17, WIP)
Decades after the battle in Los Angeles and two years after a small army of Slayers destroyed the Dragvlok demon homeland, Dragvloks are on a mission to destroy the Slayer line. They’re making pretty good headway as they head to L.A., home to the largest group of Slayers outside London. It’s up to an aging Slayer in California to stop the bloodshed. Meanwhile, the Saviour of Slayers, as he coined himself, decides to return to L.A. to stop the Dragvlok advancement to the city. Both think they’re on a mission to save the next generation of Slayers, but they may just end up saving each other.
I love this story. Normally I read words like "decades" and "aging" and I picture a little old Slayer Buffy, kicking butt and slathering on the wrinkle cream. Turns out Spike and I have a lot in common. Buffy, however, never does quite what you might expect and I'm thoroughly enjoying this fic even if the chapters are just a tiny bit too short for my satisfaction. I need more. Like, ten years ago. ;)
The Tenant - ssddgr (AO, WIP, All Human)
In hopes of getting her fiancé to consummate their relationship before the wedding, Buffy convinces him they should check out the apartment her step father gave her as a gift for her upcoming nuptials. Darkness and privacy are supposed to work for her, but there is one parameter she doesn’t know about: the apartment is not empty yet, and the current tenant has no plans of moving.
It's hard sometimes for All Human fics to capture the Spuffy dynamic. Without the conflict of Spike being a vampire, often it's difficult for authors to come up with sufficient conflict to make their relationship as complicated and antagonistic as it was in canon. This fic manages it perfectly: Buffy is a nice girl who is REALLY frustrated with her fiance (I would be too!), and Spike is kind of a dick who is going through a bad patch of his own. Not to mention the first time she met him, she was making out on the floor of his apartment with her fiance, while he was naked and wielding a baseball bat. ... Hilarity and UST ensue.
The Secret of the Boy You Never Kissed - Minx DeLovely (NC-17, WIP, All Human)
"Will and Buffy had been best friends since the day they met in the walk-in freezer at Wendy’s. They were both working fast food after college didn’t pan out. Buffy had been eating frozen cookie dough and Will had actually been trying to do his job.They’d been roommates for about two years and had only slept together once, something that Buffy was fairly proud of given how naked and around Will always was."
Can Will and Buffy's friendship survive now that they've had sex? This story has it all: sexually berated beef patties, Willow getting it on with Harmony of all people, references to Yentl and the Cremaster Cycle by Matthew Barney and lots of awkward missed opportunities between our leads.
While this story sometimes feels like an original novel with characters who just happen to share the same names as our favorites and a few superficial characteristics, the story is compelling and unusually told, often hilarious and memorable, and the relationship between the various couples is multi-layered and complex. I like complications. I like characters with complicated histories. I like stories about best friends who fall in love. While I admit I kinda skimmed over some of the Cordy/Angel bits in this story, and some of the Willow/Harmony stuff (cause, uh, it was a little disturbing... less because it was slashy and more because it was Willow seducing HARMONY of all people), I'm pretty much enjoying the heck out of this. I also like the way it's told in "Memento" like flash backs, as the present day timeline inches forward.
Not Your Average Superhero - abelina (NC-17, Oneshot, AU)
Something wasn't quite right, but what could Buffy do about it? She was no superhero. Season 4, during the episode Superstar, sometime after Buffy and Jonathan encounter Spike but before everyone realizes Buffy's right about Jonathan.
I don't know why, but I love "Superstar" fics. Pretty much any of the canon AU's interest me, but the amount of tampering this spell had to do with EVERYONE really fascinates me. I like how this fic portrays the changes that had to be mentally wrought on Buffy in order to make her subserviant to Jonathan, and I love, love, love that in this fic Spike is the one who manages to give Buffy back to herself. It's a theme that I really dig, and it's done very well here. This is, really, at heart, a porn with plot--just in case you needed the warning.
[Edit]
GAH, how did I forget this one? I blame it on my lack of caffeine, when posting this morning:
Yours, William - thepuddinhead (NC-17, WIP)
A time travel story in which a 2011 Buffy visits Victorian England. You'll read about weighty concepts like Kurt Cobain, a musty bastard, candlesticks as microphones and Princess Leia. You'll be thrilled by knife-wielding assailants, dessert-wielding maids and a sexual device that is safe for airport scanners.
I love this story. I shouldn't, because I'm not a huge fan of "William" fics. I like Spike--fangy and grr and mean and sarcastic and evil and all. William often comes across to me as too much of a wimp--or that's how a lot of author's write him. Puddinhead gets him right. There are glimmers of Spike under all that Williamness in this time-travel fic. I'm on the edge of my seat to see how she ends it, too.