Favourite Fanfic with Benefits

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There's no proper title for this (I also had it down as 'Where's there's a skill', and other cheesy headings). The topic here is poems and fics which draw on something bigger than fandom, weaving Jossverse motifs into wider cultural themes, but never losing sight of the fandom audience. (In other words, they are very, very clever, but also hugely fun for fans).

quinara, Spikeid II and III. Because it's in epic iambic pentameter, and based on the Aeneid, and yet it's accessible, funny, touching and in-voice. They're heroes, dammit. They deserve this poem.


mere_ubu's Intervention Spaiku. From epic to bite-size, but this rec is still in verse. Cute, touching and incredibly clever evocation of one of my top 5 Buffy eps, in haiku form.

fluffernutter8, Love's Truest Language: Buffy/Angel in the language of flowers; much more complex, painful and subtle than you could expect. It must be the product of much research, but it's also a lovely fluent read.

confusedkayt's Walk Like An Egyptian. Because if you're going to have gods in your fic, why not make them proper Egyptian gods?

shapinglight, Venus and Mars: rec'ed by others, but it deserves its place here for a beautiful evocation of Darla and Drusilla in Victorian London, and of the place of art in society at the time. (And it's not short of plot, evil-doing and oblivious humans too).