Fics I Enjoyed In 2006

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At the end of 2005 I decided that for 2006, I was going to put into my memories every fic I *really* enjoyed reading.

I failed miserably.

The times when I remembered to put a fic into memories where haphazard, random, and strange. Half of the fics listed below weren't taken from my handy-dandy memories list; I hunted down because I remembered them. As a result, every single one is from my flist, because with the ones off-list, I couldn't even remember who wrote them, much less where to find them (among fics I remember truly enjoying, but can't remember where to find them: there's a What Spike Did With Angel's Ashes piece, a Brink of Apocalypse Spike/Angel, in which Spike brings help from his poetry slam, and a truly creepy Firefly in which use is made of Inara's needle).

Anyway, this means most of you have probably seen the majority of these fics already, so it might not actually be useful to anyone. If it looks like I favor some authors--some of you are on there five or more times--it's because I totally do, not 'cause I like them as people (though I do) but because I totally pantyfan their writing. But my spotty organization also means that these are by no means the only fics I really enjoyed--it's just what I happened to have when push came to shove. And there are so many fics I plan on reading from 2006 that I haven't gotto yet (haven't done my holiday fb festive thingy--dude, I suck), that I can just *feel* I'm going to love.

If nothing else, it can be a Big Damn Supplemental Feedback List.

In the end, what I want to get across is a big ole THANK YOU. Thank you flist, for writing fic. For keeping at it and keeping me entertained. Thanks for making icons and graphics and vids and meta and creating. Thank you for reading and reviewing and pantyfanning and loving. Thanks to everyone not on my flist for being there and mysterious and wanky and slightly scary and yet attentive when I want to poke around and funny when I want to laugh at you. OMG THANK YOU, everyone. You made last year live-able.



***Big Damn Rec List, Buffyverse, 2006***

All Ways, by kita0610
Summary: B/A, B/S, A/S, A/B/S, character dynamics study, one-shot.
What I Thought: These three characters play off each other in so many different ways. This fic seemed to take each of those ways, take it apart, and put it back together again. It worships and tears down each character individually, each pairing among the three, and at last all three: tells us who they are, what they are, the ways they work and ways they don't, how independent each of them are in existing and how dependent they are on each other in living. I read this fic as a tribute to these characters I so love.
Quote: She is pressed between them like a flower inside the pages of a book, like something rare and precious they would keep.

Angel/Fray Cross-over, art by astridv, text by yhlee
Summary: Comic, WIP. Angel and Gunn post NFA meet up with Fray. Index of parts in astridv's userinfo.
What I Thought: The dialogue in this feels like it could be real. The non-dialogue parts are illustrated in a way that gets deep inside the characters in a way you wouldn't have expected through art; it takes you inside once or twice and *shows* you who these people are. The plot is new and keeps slowly unfolding new aspects; I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I'm excited to see what. And the art throughout: you'll catch your breath, it's that amazing.
Quote: Then again, this was a city the way a scream was a song . . . a wolf was a dog . . . a vampire was a man.

As Dark Things Are Loved, by redbrickrose
Summary: Buffy/Angel, Angel/Nina. Post NFA one-shot with shippiness and meta.
What I Thought: If you want to do B/A post NFA there's a couple ends to tie up: Nina and the battle in the alley and what Buffy's doing post-Chosen. Instead of tying, though, this fic takes those threads and weaves them--shows them as shapes and patterns in Buffy and Angel's lives, makes them a part of them just as these characters are a part of each other, and shows the ways everything connects. It's done with clear language that despite rich poetry is easy to read, stark and gorgeous imagery, and a poignancy that makes you ache.
Quote: The thing about circles is that sometimes you end up in that alley after all.

Breathless, lostakasha
Summary: Angel(us), Fred, and Wesley character interdynamics study. Voyeurism, dark!fantasy. One-shot.
What I Thought: This fic links, parallels, and shapes patterns between characters in ways I would never have thought: Angel(us) works as the focus and bridge of Fred and Wesley's dark fantasies, in extremely shiver-inducing, thought-provoking ways. Angel's dark side is named (Angelus), but Wesley and Fred have one too, and this fic unearths that with its terrible insight, morbid situations and truly eerie, beautiful language.
Quote: She becomes a lifeline to him, more than the twisted clothesline of his childhood or the dream of skilled hands controlling his last breath.

Damage Done, by chrisleeoctaves
Summary: Angel/Riley angsty!dark!with smut one-shot, S5 BtVS/S2 AtS.
What I Thought: The timing on this one is perfect: both Angel and Riley are living some of their darkest hours. The genius, though, isn't that this fic takes place in that darkness and mucks about on the bottom. This fic is instead about the very distance of the fall--what these men once were in relation to what they have become, and the shame in that, the self-hatred, and the horror. The need to dig deeper as an expression of the inability to crawl out.
Quote: "Sex and blood,” Angel shook his head, “nothing like it. As a matter of fact, earlier this week I made just that point with a roomful of scum-sucking lawyers. Good times.”

Dreaming of We, by femmenerd
Summary: Buffy/Faith, S7, mostly in a dream, with Faith in Buffy's body.
What I Thought: Of course, Faith had Buffy's body in BtVS S4, but it wasn't really until Buffy went through her own time of darkness in S6 that Buffy really has the capacity to understand how much of a mirror Faith is to her, to understand *who* Faith really is at all. This fic shows how that has changed Buffy, how she at last has the capacity to understand Faith and let her into her heart. The concept behind the fic seems in retrospect as though it should be heavy-handed, but the author really allows for the meanings to show up for themselves and stand on their own.
Quote: She’s searching for the Faith she knows now: the toughness and the grace, the grudging loyalty.

An Encyclopedia of Why Not, by romanyg.
Summary: all dialogue Spike/Dawn one-shot.
What I Thought: All dialogue fics seem to be a fairly common kind of experiment, but I've rarely seen one in which I felt the author perfectly conveyed what was going on while managing to keep the dialogue realistic (not to mention funny, heartbreaking, and meaningful) at the same time.
Quote: “First off, you shouldn't go about touching your sister's things.”
“Now that's just stupid. You're not a thing.”

Eulogy, by chrisleeoctaves
Summary: Angel and Spike mourn Buffy. One-shot.
What I Thought: I think it's hard to write about something like grief without venturing into melodrama and contrived heavy-handedness. The grief in this piece is extreme, but it happens in almost all the empty spaces between the words. Instead we see the left over: pitch perfect Angel and Spike voices raised in anger, dull in reaction, and quiet in hope, with the sense of Buffy between them, holding them forever together and forever apart. It's a subtle way to look at loss, and all the more powerful for that.
Quote: They sit at the back and order a bottle of Ouzo because it reminds them of the days when they sipped absinthe from the curve of Drusilla’sback.

Ever After: Five Fairytale Endings, by seraphcelene
Summary: 5 interconnected short ficlets describing B/A through fairytales.
What I Thought: For one thing, the imagery in this is just so intense, so spooky and real and chilling and visible. The language matches that--lyrical, poetic, it sweeps you up. This fic exploits the concept beautifully: these are all things that never were and never can be, things you don't even consider happening, so much so that some of them surprise you, all of them shock you. And yet each instance of Absolutely-Not-Gonna-Happen says something deep and poignant about Buffy and Angel and B/A, and each uses a different fairytale in inventive, often chilling ways.
Quote: It is an old story, the lovers who become lost to each other, separated by death and frigid forever.

Five Years Later At A Holiday Inn, by romanyg
Summary: Angel/Connor, five years later, one-shot, please note warnings.
What I Thought: I think if you scraped these characters down to bare essentials, you'd find that Angel accepts suffering, while Connor will do anything--even ugly, terrible, in-the-end worse things--to create an ounce of beauty, peace, and love in this world. The author doesn't shy from the brokenness of this act, but nor does she from the fact that peace and comfort can exist in those dark places. And yet, she's not heavy handed at all with that theme; it can be read as quick dirtybadwrong smut if that's all you're into, too.
Quote: “Angel, don't. I swear to god, don't you fucking get emo over this.”

Fairytale of New York, by a2zmom
Summary: Buffy and Angel, post-NFA, both shippy and not. Last in a 3-part series, the first two fics of which I also highly rec. First in the series: Guilt Trembling Spoke My Doom, second, Happy (Baby Won't You Keep Me).
What I Thought: To me, this fic is about "true love"--which I don't think of as exclusive or binding. It merely is. Buffy and Angel post-NFA are mature, independent people who have lived and lost so much it would be ridiculous to assume that they cannot move on from each other and love new people, and in this fic, they can and do. They learn to accept that they are different people who have moved on, and who can never have what they once had again. Yet they do it with the acknowledgment that a part of them will always love each other, and that what they *did* have was sacred. It doesn't make the relationships they will go on to have any less real, or any lesser in any way. That's what love is about, and this series demonstrates that so beautifully, with a gradual, unfolding style that opens your eyes to who these characters are and can be.
Quote: He half expected her to tell him she'd never forget but instead she looked at him with resignation in her eyes. She had also known that this was only a shadow play and nothing to do with their real lives.

Glimpses, by femmenerd
Summary: cross-over with Supernatural, Faith/Dean shipper fic, with Sam and a bit of Angel. Multi-chaptered; the link above is the index.
What I Thought: I've seen two eps of SPN, but you don't need to know that show to appreciate the beauty and genius of this fic. It's about who Faith really is: her fears, her insecurities, her incredible strength, her humor, her bravado, her sex appeal, all demonstrated in this fic not through the author telling you it's there, but through Dean (a character with his own weaknesses/strengths, who plays so brilliantly against Faith's every strength and weakness that you feel as though you know he is even if you're not familiar with the show: he's Faith's other half), through a brilliantly imagined secondary cast, through a plot that brings the deepest parts of the characters to the fore. The writing is light, easy to read, fast-paced, but is spangled with so many refreshing metaphors and inventive turns of phrase that sometimes it feels like poetry or song. Each chapter is kind of a fic itself, sometimes loosely and sometimes intricately connected to the others, each based on a song. It feels like a collection of sparkling, beautiful things.
Quote: She’s become a staple—a weird, remote-control-hogging ubiquity who fights dirty and rough and somehow manages to accomplish miracles like taking down demons three times her size with little more than her fists and a few insults—not to mention getting his brother to purchase tampons on stolen credit cards and the like.

Half The Pieces, by frimfram
Summary: Spike-centric gen take on A Christmas Carol, with a side of Illyria. Includes many characters of Buffyverse and the looming idea of Angel. Multiple chapters; the index is linked above.
What I Thought: This fic is one of those that makes me think people who say, "it's all been done" are clueless. It's funny that that's my first reaction to this piece, because A Christmas Carol *has* been done, ad naseum. But never like this, and it's so different and refreshing that it gives me hope for fic-kind. The characters are both perfect and totally wrong for the slots the author sticks them in--particularly Spike, who actually isn't meant to be visited by Christmas ghosts at all, and is somehow picking up Angel's PTB get-screwed-over tab. This fic is constantly funny, well characterized (with perfect voices), exciting, and unexpected.
Quote: “Just – I never thought I’d outlive him. Get left kicking around this vale of sodding tears without him somewhere to piss off. Thought he’d always be there, you know? Like the Easter Island heads. Big, brooding foreheads of eternity.”

here, not waiting, by regala_electra
Summary: post NFA adventure in which Buffy has to save Angel, good helpings of Spike, one-shot.
What I Thought: My favorite thing about this fic is the plot. It's not intense or complex, or really all that important: this fic is about the characters. But instead of getting swept away by the melodrama of intense emotion and inner feeling, this fic is firmly grounded in what Buffyverse is all about: adventure, world-saveage, being a hero. And so it is that this fic never loses sight of who these characters are: they love and they lose and they mourn and they rage, but in the end they fight. They fight for good, and they fight for each other, and in the end you hope that they will fight for their happiness--grab it with two hands, accepting at last that they may never keep it, but reaching for it just the same.
Quote: Buffy lives in the here and now and makes her plans on the fly whenever she can.

If Ever, by kita0610
Summary: 5 Buffy/Angel interconnected drabbles.
What I Thought: The concept behind this fic is genius: it takes the old tropes of romantic pageantry, and applies them to moments between Buffy and Angel in new, unexpected ways. It shows how epic, fairytale, larger than life they are, but more importantly it tears down all such illusions to show the harsh reality underneath. These are, in the end, real people, with all the ugliness and failure and true beauty of humanity.
Quote: Tomorrow, he’ll serve: foot soldier, general, warrior in her charge.

Intermezzo, by marenfic
Summary: Buffy/Angel, post-NFA meta, reconnection, one-shot.
What I Thought: This is about love lost, but not regained. What Buffy and Angel build in this piece is a totally new love. Their old selves are lost, and they have to start again. In the end, that losing, both of themselves and of the love they once shared, makes them more compatible, more able to come together. But even this new love is not eternal or ultimately binding: it's an interlude of happiness, and they take advantage of it as they can. This piece packs in all that meta in a truly uplifting story, with poetic language and a fantastic Buffy voice.
Quote:She thinks that the reason they ended back together is exactly because they worked so hard to be just fine apart.

Kinesis, by incasink
Summary: all human AU (to the point of mostly original characters), Angel/Spike, multi-chaptered (the index is linked above).
What I Thought: Usually I fail to see the point of AUs that don't appear to be using the characters I know from canon, but with incasink I just usually don't care. The characters in this are fully fleshed out, even if they're not the characters I know, and so they become characters I care about in their own right. They have their own personalities, inner worth, inner demons, tragic history, and this story unfolds it all in an inching-along, gradual way, chock full of description, careful consideration, details about food (yes!), and hot sex. The way these people fit together--and don't--explore some interesting power dynamics (one of my favorite kinks) and is crack!romance at its best, imo.
Quote: Will enjoyed the last of his sashimi with relish, watching Liam wield the chopsticks, the wood lightly against his fingers, not pinching them as tightly as Will did. His forefinger barely moved as he picked the sushi up. Will watched, almost voyeristically.

New York Blooms, by entrenous88
Summary: Buffy and Connor meet in New York. One-shot.
What I Thought: In "Chosen" and in "Home", Buffy and Connor (respectively) are given the chance to live "normal" lives--this fic has these characters taking advantage of those new lives, complete with new names, and yet shows not so much how the past catches up with you but how you can never leave it in the first place. It's just a glimpse of who these characters are, how they parallel, how they fit together and don't--and insightful, bittersweet glimpse it is.
Quote: He’s the opposite of Spike’s swaggering, completely unlike Angel’s solid presence.
Weird that he reminds her of both of them just the same.

No Place Like Home, by chrisleeoctaves
Summary: getting A/B/S into bed together one-shot, post-NFA.
What I Thought: The beauty of this is that it is simultaneously a piece of incredible despair and incredible hope (mostly Angel's, I think). In the beautiful, simple, sparse language I love so in almost all of chrisleeoctaves's fic, this piece is steeped in the awareness that love and relationships (not to mention between three people) rarely end happy, and that hopeless, foolish, and yet endearing wish that this time might be different . . .
Quote: “I know it’s not what you’d imagined, but it’s--” She pauses, searching for the right word. “possible that we could be for each other what nobody else could ever be for any one of us."

Older and Far Away, by chrisleeoctaves
Summary: Angel and Buffy mourn Spike. B/A. Smut, sadness. One-shot.
What I Thought: Even though so much of this is about Spike, this is everything I love about B/A. The bittersweetness of being together is heightened by their grief, and the silences between and behind their words speak every truth they dare not express. The language is beautiful, the imagery intense, and the whole thing sits with you like a bright, achey thing deep inside.
Quote: . . .it isn’t hard for Buffy to imagine what it had been like for them, once.

One Hundred Forty-Seven, by ros_fod
Summary: three drabbles making up a one-shot, Spike/Connor, with Angel.
What I Thought: This fic is shocking in the intensity it packs into such a brief space. It's brutal and concise, without time for overly wrought descriptions or ruminations on what is happening--things just *happen* in a series of quick blows. But what happens is believable, and tragic, and twists your gut, and leaves you thinking about might-be's and dear-Jesus-I-hope-not's for hours after.
Quote: After the 147th time that Connor asked him, Angel finally gave in.

Pentimento, by lostakasha
Summary: Xander/Angel, post NFA, having sex and thinking of Buffy, one-shot.
What I Thought: The set-up for this (Xander's and Angel's mutual situations as imagined post-NFA, and also the fact that Xander and Angel are having sex at all) should be crack, but in this story it not only works but is giving meaning and depth. This fic is about having moved on to completely different places and situations you would've never imagined for these characters--and yet never moving on at all, remaining both who you once were and who you have become. Xander and Angel become who they once were with each other, remembering Buffy, but also start something new--something not so much about hope as laying hope to rest, and accepting that.
Quote: Christ's cross of redemption or a beguiling blonde girl are simply interchangeable symbols now.

Precipitation, by lostakasha
Summary: Short one-shot. Xander/Wesley, between AtS S4-S5, BtVS post-"Chosen". Meta and sex.
What I Thought: I never really considered how these two characters could fit together before I read this, but the author makes it work. This piece looks deep inside each character, and sees what in each of them would speak and respond to each other, and brings out that mirroring and supplementation with beautiful, poetic language.
Quote: The grace that might have been his exists now only for vampires and slayers. He lives now in the secular space between.

Prometheus Unbound, by germaine_pet
Summary: Angel/Spike, with hints of /Connor. Also, Illyria, and adventure/apocalypse stuff. Sequel to Angels And Insects (one of my favorite fics ever). Multiple parts, part one above followed by: Part 2, and Part 3.
What I Thought: The wonderfulness of this fic is twofold (though there are plenty of other great things about it, too. Such as the easy-to-read, story-telling style that does not skimp on the illuminating metaphor or clever and beautiful turns of phrase, but manages not to weigh itself down, either). I love the plot. This is one of the best plots I've ever read in a fic and a great deal sight better than some plots from canon Buffyverse, and is what I firmly believe AtS S6 should've been about. The other thing I love about this is that these characters--things I truly care about--get to be happy. They get, for a moment, to understand each other and care about each other and love each other. It's like a moment of grace, and although I'm not sure it can happen, this fic makes it so.
Quote: “There are some things in this world stronger than fire.”

Raven, by ladycat777
Summary: Spike/Connor, one-shot smut.
What I Thought: This fic occurs in a place-out-of-time, something that couldn't quite happen in canon. But that very dissonance from "reality" shows us truths about both characters: a viciousness and Spike and a darkness in Connor that are always there. The details and descriptions are sharp and vivid, and the smut is hot and dark and strangely sad.
Quote: He's nothing but skin and bones and burning fires clumsily banked.

Shanshu Blue, by germaine_pet
Summary: 2nd person, one-shot, character study built out of character studies.
What I Thought: This piece shows who Angel is by showing what he has been to other people, and what they have been to him. It's amazing, the number of smaller statured, blue-eyed boys Angel(us) has played a role in moulding, to the extent of playing a father to . . . and ended up having to kill or have die for him. The metaphors in this are brilliant, the moments the author chooses to highlight insightful and so meaningful.
Quote: It’s a mercy killing, really. You’d do it yourself, but then caritas was always Lorne’s thing . . .

The Classics, by stakebait (edited to give it it's real title, so it's out of ABC order.)
Summary: Humorous, cliche-romantic plot utilizing, goofy gay romantic romp! One shot.
What I Thought: The author's, not to mention characters', meta-awareness that they are in a cliche, silly situation make whatever *might've* been damning about this--the stock plot and the schmoopiness and well, the silliness--and turn them into humorous, ironic highlights. The voices are spot-on despite the ridiculous situation, and on top of being funny, the romance is extremely fulfilling.
Quote: "Don't any of you idiots read? This is the plot of half the terrible historical romances ever written. We're forced to pretend to be married to foil a dastardly plot, and the next thing you know, I'm bloody swooning, he's swooping me up in arms the size of a Volkswagen, and at the peak of simultaneous orgasm doves fly out of my arse. No bleeding way."

Sponnor, by coercion88 (I don't think this one has a real title either?)
Summary: Spike/Connor, on the road and kind of adventure-y, after Angel is dead post-NFA.
What I Thought: One of the beauties of this piece is its lightness and sparseness: dialogue-heavy and low on the "inner" dialogue. This gives the piece a sense of immediacy that made it feel very real (on top of the fact that these are some of the best character-voices I have ever read). That reality, and lack of extraneous explanation, allow the metaphors and parallels with which the characters and plot and situation themselves are already replete to shine through naturally, without the author having to bang you on the head with that. I found this piece extremely refreshing--it's how I wish I could write, sometimes.
Quote: Because you’re the Defender, or the Detonator, or whatever the hell stupid thing it was you used to be. But you’re not anymore. Though you’re trying your damnedest to turn back into him.

Stick Shift Redux, by stultiloquentia
Summary: Buffy/Spike pegging one-shot with very little angst.
What I Thought: I don't really enjoy reading Buffy/Spike that much, particularly when it's not the hate!sex mood of S6, which I say *only* to emphasize how this fic overcomes any prejudices and how stellar I think it is for doing that. This fic, rather than dealing with B/S's past issues, exists in a time when those issues *are* past and gotten over, and yet both halves of the couple behave so believably that I find it believable they did deal with those issues, started fresh, and built a relationship based on mutual goals, trust, and love. The author deals with the resultant power dynamics--how Buffy and Spike would still be, because of who they are, but with the emotional baggage now to create something beautiful, rather than something ugly. Oh! And it's all the kinda meta-tasticness taking place through really hot sex that gets described in *new*, interesting ways.
Quote: She expected raunch. What she's got is revelation.

There Is No Happily Ever After, by stoney321
Summary: 5 fairytales as they apply to Connor, one-shot character study.
What I Thought: This piece takes the women of AtS and examines how they relate to Connor, and how he relates to them, through fairytales. How each fairytale applies, and how each beautiful, fanciful, what should've been-happily-ever-after tale breaks down into something hypocritical, grim, ugly, doomed is ingenius: different in each part, left for the reader to understand and make sense of, left for the reader to understand the real story underneath: Connor's life as a striving toward the ephemeral magic happy of a fairy tale, and broken in pieces every time.
Quote: Once upon a time there was a mean lady. Well, mean's not the right word. That just makes it sound like she turned the sprinklers on the neighbor kids as they walked to school. She was bad. A bad lady of the worst sort, but the knight loved her.

There's Fire, by crazydiamondsue
Summary: poist-coital (assumed) conversation between Spike and Angel, one-shot.
What I Thought: This piece feels like a bit of a day in the life: it's just a conversation, not particularly symbolic or weighty, amusing and sweet with a touch of sexiness. But it is so *real*, and the voices are so spot on that beneath the words, and the smoke and hotness and humor, there's a sense of passion, love, and endurance, and also something bittersweet that speaks to me of impermanence. It's just a moment, but it felt like a microcosm of everything these two are, and everything they are to each other.
Quote: “Unlike this Black Thorn plan of yours, which is the Acathla 2004 of great ideas.”

Undrowning, by hannasus.
Summary: one-shot. Angel grieves for Cordelia.
What I Thought: The best thing about it was the way the author dealt with the realities of grief, rather than the melodrama of it. In that way it is very similar to the ep, "The Body". The language is beautiful and poetic, without ever being heavy-handed; the characters are sharply drawn and well-voiced, and the grief is terrible, beautiful, and one day going to pass.
Quote: All the lives Cordelia had touched, and only seven had been moved to pay their last respects. (Oh, and you're welcome.)

Waiting For Apocalypse, by femmenerd
Summary: B/A, Buffy and Angel mourn Spike on the eve of apocalypse, one-shot.
What I Thought: There's a lightness here that you wouldn't think *shouldn't* be in a piece about two people trudging into almost certain death, mourning a third already dead. But this is Buffy and Angel as I've always hoped they could be, one day: accepting their fate and making the most of it, not with resignation so much as hope and humor and the kind of joy that can only come from living in the moment. This is B/A--and Buffy and Angel--distilled down from the epic and heroic and doomed archetypes who must suffer and save the world, into humans who can *live*--and in doing so, are more heroic than ever.
Quote: “Wake up, lover, it’s time to be heroes.”

Weighs Nothing: Five Lies Connor's Father Never Told Him, by kita0610
Summary: 5 interconnected drabbles, Connor character study.
What I Thought: This fic is a mobius strip. The last lie gives truth to the scene that is the opening lie, and each of the other lies bear truth in them in this same, twisted way. Connor was raised on lies, and was lied to so often that he thinks the only beauty or truth that could ever be achieved is through a lie, and when that lie fails Angel gives him a new lie to give him another chance at that beauty and truth. This fic takes that paradox and twistedness and packs it into 5 hard punches that still leave me reeling. And thinking. Hard.
Quote: He is slaughtered like Isaac was meant to be, by the blade of an Angel.

Welcome To The Wheels-O-Rama, by crazydiamondsue
Summary: Humor, parody. All-human AU at an 80's roller rink. Multiple parts, unfinished (you don't need an ending to laugh your ass off).
What I Thought: There are so many lines straight out of BtVS/AtS which have been brow-beaten into servicing an 80s roller rink romance that it's not even funny. Except for the part where it's hilarious. How all the little bits we know and love get reshaped into this is . . . just genius.
Quote: Riley put his hands on his hips, his chiffon sleeves floating on waves of frustrated masculinity. “Who you calling a dip?”

What Am I To You, by a2zmom
Summary: B/A post NFA. Romance, smut, and saving the world. One-shot.
What I Thought: This fic takes every important aspect of B/A together post NFA, and examines them through the lens of a plot that shows us everything awful about B/A and everything beautiful about it. The first half is all about the reasons they shouldn't be together, and in the second half, when they come together once again as fellow warriors who understand what each other needs, it's all about the reasons they should be together. This is a realistic fic in which the characters do not fall into each other's arms because of some abstract, pure, undying love, but in which two people learn who each other are all over again and find that they have some things in common, and one of them is a hope for happiness.
Quote: What she really felt like was a 24 year old who had way too many regrets, but had finally come to the conclusion that some of those choices could not only could be forgiven, but could turn into something better.

What I See, by femmenerd
Summary: three interconnected A/B/S drabbles.
What I Thought: This touches on the beauty of what these characters could be, with an extremely light touch. There is poetry and insight, but humor and a sense of happiness, as well.
Quote: Hand meets hand over the remote control and Buffy can just about see the sparks go off.

Untitled, Riley Character Piece, by ros_fod (I had the title wrong. That's how come this one isn't in alphabetical order.)
Summary: Short, one-shot, Riley in Russia character sketch.
What I Thought: I tend to find Riley a little boring, but I always feel as though he's just on the cusp of something interesting--and this feels like it's it. Riley turns spy and meets Connor in Russia. It's more situation- than character-driven, which is interesting seeing how it's so short that there can be little plot to speak of, but the richness of the detail makes it fun to read, and feel real enough to spark all kinds of ideas and fantasies and, well, cusps of more interesting things to come. I guess I love it because I love to imagine something on-the-verge-of-incredible is going on with Riley these days, and this fic puts you there.
Quote: As the weeks wear on, the stakes get replaced with MREs and ammo.

***Drabbles***

In case someone doesn't get the picture: spuffyduds ROCKS my drabbled world.

Counting Down, by spuffyduds: ensemble BtVS, conceptual
Crib, by spuffyduds: Angel mourns baby!Connor
Cursed, by m_phoenix: Angel and Faith in "5x5"
Heat, by a2zmom: why Angel likes showers, AtS
Untitled Spike/Connor, by ros_fod
Visitation, by lostakasha: Liam's childhood
When It All Comes Together, by spuffyduds: Jenny's death

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***Itty Bitty Rec List, Other Fandoms, 2006***

For most of 2006, I was a one fandom gal (except for this whole crazy period where I keep reading Harry/Draco SOMEONE STOP ME PLEASE, Draco is a little shit!), but certain authors can and do pull me in different directions. As you can see, for most of these other fandoms, one author has the corner . . . it's because of them I venture outside my bubble.

The Sound of Music

Invitations, by imnotacommittee
Summary: Some events as seen through Frau Schmitt's (the housekeeper's) eyes, gen, one-shot.
What I Thought: This piece is a marvel of subtlety. It wins at subtlety. It's the ruler of it. This is something you can't do in anything but fanfiction: it requires the reader's knowledge of what is happening in the movie, and forces the reader to extrapolate: because everything is seen through Frau Schmitt's eyes. And Schmitt, like any good housekeeper of the era, is not given to gossip or idle speculation on who her employer should marry and who he should love. She merely does her job, and you have to read through that job, and through the slightest tilt of her lips, what's happening, and what she truly feels. This fic not only illuminates what's going on with the main characters of the movie, but takes a very small, peripheral character and shows us that she's a person too, with a whole different world and thoughts and feelings on it, but firmly repressed into the character we're so familiar with being on the sidelines.
Quote:The maid’s cheeks reddened, and she curtsied quickly before turning todepart. The housekeeper watched her leave. She glanced around the room,relishing in the brief silence before resuming her many tasks for theday. Unable to resist, she looked out the window again. The view hadn’tchanged; the Captain and the governess remained captured inconversation. A smile tugged on her lips.

Regrets, by imnotacommittee (link is to ff.n)
Summary: Brigitta makes a mistake. Involves the whole family. Gen, three chapters (accessible through link). This fic takes place in Stefanverse, the stories of which are available here. It's a world in which the Anchluss has not happened *yet*, and the Captain and Maria had time to get married and have a son, Stefan. Now another one is on the way. I highly recommend this whole 'verse. Each story is a gem.
What I Thought: This fic deals with so much you almost *expect* to happen--Brigitta says something terrible to Maria, but something that perhaps is inevitable for a stepmother, Maria has Georg's child, and Georg regrets the way he treated his children so long ago, before Maria came. But the inevitabilty of these things isn't something you see until the author slips them into place and makes them interlock, makes these events dialogue with each other and show how much this family stood to lose, once, and how much it has gained since. The simple, clear language and series of events brings the sweet, and yet somehow not overly sappy, point of this story to the fore: the strength of love and family.
Quote: “Everyone has actions they wish they could erase, but we cannot,” he said, a shadow crossing his eyes. “We can only learn from them.”

Phantom of the Opera

Infidel, by my_daroga
Summary: Erik/The Persian, smut, meta, one-shot.
What I Thought: This author pretty much introduced me to Erik/The Persian, and if you at all love POTO--even if you only know the musical, so don't know who The Persian is or that the Phantom's name is Erik, if you have any love for the Phantom at all--I highly recommend reading this. This fics shows Erik as he truly is: ugly outside, and, the Persian knows it--ugly inside. But the Persian is fascinated by both types of ugliness, and the strange beauty that lurks within. And of course he's voyeuristic, and guilty and ashamed for being fascinated, and wonders if he is a party to some of that ugliness as well.
Quote:I did not give you the mask back, and you never requested it.

Shades, by my_daroga
Summary: One-shot meta on shades of the Opera.
What I Thought: There's a character in Leroux's book he merely calls "the shade". To me, that shade represented the mysteries of opera, drama and life that even the author--who knows everything--cannot illuminate. This fic takes that one step farther and shows that shade as an aspect of each of the characters, groups, and things that populate the opera, each possessed of their own darkness and mystery. This fic sweeps through the Opera's halls on the whisper of mystery and rumor, and is mysterious in it's own dark way. There's a true sense of place in it. ETA: Also, Christine in trousers! The author has given me this kink as well.
Quote:A wide brimmed hat, an opera cloak, and she can be anyone and no one at once.

Bones:

Pink Shell Motel, by lostakasha
Summary: Temperance/Angela, one-shot smut.
What I Thought: This is my favorite pairing in this fandom, and this fic shows everything it is (despite the fact that it is mostly a smut scene, it shows their friendship, how they can be their for each other when no one else can be, how they can talk to each other as they can to no one else, how they snark and observe their lives and love), and everything it could be (the sex is extremely hot). The voices in this are so perfect it's not even funny. And the author manages to bring in all of the main cast, and show their meanings/interactions with these two characters: with insight, humor, and more sexiness.
Quote: Rules, the first of which is Brennan’s most strident: no talking aboutsex. Directions, instructions and suggestions don’t count. This overlaps with her ‘no roleplay’ rule and leaves Angela drifting through her own thoughts now and again. (Multitasking is allowed.)

Watching The Wheels, by lostakasha
Summary: Very short Booth/Hodgins prelude to sex.
What I Thought: You're not quite sure how the characters got there, or why it's these two, but the voices are so spot on that you *believe* it's them, and are laughing with them, annoyed with them, wishing with them, a little tinge of sad with them, and also hot and bothered with them. This all happens with in the space of 200 words!
Quote: I can actually see him thinking. Angela noticed the same phenomenon early on; she originally dubbed it the hamster wheel special but over time we’ve shortened it to “Seeley-wheelie.”

RPS

Moving Pictures: Measure of a Man, by kita0610
Summary: Original fic in Vincent Katheiser's and James Marster's bodies, with another Buffyverse actor or two made mention of, with some OCs. This is a part of a verse constructed by various people; links to the other parts are at the top of the fic. It's a direct sequel to Snapshots: Son of a Preacher Man, which I also highly recommend, but you don't need that to read this.
What I Thought: These characters are their own people: they're beautiful and shakey and rude and weighed by personal history. But they also feel to me like constructs of some of the most frail, beautiful, small, vicious and vulnerable parts of humanity, archetypal and raw that way, and made to dance a dance by fate and their own hates and fear, and you just wish they could lie down. In the end, they do, and there is such hope there, such a sense of overcoming not just their mutual pasts and themselves but a whole world that felt at times out to get them too, that I didn't only feel uplifted for them, but for myself as well. There's something intensely intimate, and yet strangely universal about this fic that touches you in your deepest places.
Quote:Vince’s breath tasted like peanut butter and Marlboro’s, like riverwater and summertime, like everything Jimmy thought he’d left under his childhood bed.

On The Road, by femmenerd
Summary: Jared (Padalacki) /Jensen (Ackles) one-shot phone conversation, smutty.
What I Thought: This was hot, and snarky, with the exact tone of resentment/confusion that really gets me going. There was an obligatory mention of Kerouac, and the dialogue is snappy and clean.
Quote: “What if I was the big brother…”

Prequel To Slow Burn, by chrisleeoctaves
Summary: David Boreanaz/James Marsters one-shot smut. Sequel is Slow Burn, which is a Vincent Kartheiser/James Marsters one-shot, and just as good.
What I Thought: This fic really took a good look at where these two were in their careers--and, although I must admit I generally like my RPS as cracktastic and unreal as possible--some of where these two were coming from seemed as if it could be real, considering their respective situations. JM is a little over-obsessed, a little sad. DB is devil-may-care, a little cruel. In the end, though, it's about really hot sex. 'Cause it is. Hot.
Quote: Dave came back into the room, towel slung low on his hips, just as Buffy attacked Spike’s mouth with a vengeance on the screen.
“That girl’s a real method actor,” Dave said blandly.

VK/JM Untitled Ficlet, by ros_fod
Summary: Vincent (Katheiser) / James (Marsters) one-shot smut.
What I Thought: This is one of the hottest things I've ever read. It may be about like, power, and gender roles, or something, and also the hotness and humor that the author can pack so hard into the very little dialogue their is, but mostly it's just hotness textified.
Quote:“Gotta pay if you want to ride the carousel again, little boy.”