Five Looks At a Primordial God-King

[frogfarm]

Ah, Illyria. What more can one say about the Big Blue Meanie? Love or hate, the only thing that matters is that you must worship.

Before the five, here's an old link I can't currently verify or find any other copies of: "Shards of Night" by eleusis_walks (Angel, R, spoilers through 5x17 "Underneath"). Ends up in a femslashy place, but before that manages to thrill and creepify with a masterful walk through the dreams of what it means to be Illyria, and to have been Fred. First Angel fic ever for this author, so they claim, I can only pray it's far from the last.

Now for the five I could still find:

"Shell Games" by mabus101. Xander/Illyria, set in Mabus' "Deadwar" universe. Funny, creepy, awkward, and a little bit sexy.

"Lost In the Supermarket" by Lint. Wesley takes Illyria shopping. Humor and disturbing in equal measure, in spades.

"How Tantor and Tarzan Became Friends" by nwhepcat. Xander/Illyria. Meeting a god-king in Home Depot is just the beginning. Set in Hep's shared universe, but stands alone well on its own.

"The Sky Has Claws" by Kyra Cullinan. Fred, Illyria, Willow and Wesley explore each other body and soul. AU from "A Hole In the World". Vaguely post-apocalyptic.

Last and funniest: "A Memorandum From Illyria" by Hello Spikey. In the bowels of Wolfram and Hart, Illyria discovers a newer and more effective way to make her desires known.


Finally a bonus link from myself, Faith the Vampire Slayer 1x06: "The Day After". Faith and Willow explore Los Angeles, looking for clues to the fate of Team Angel. Illyria only makes an appearance at the end, but I think it's a wonderful scene, and makes me regret all over again that I didn't continue this series.

5 fics that don't contain a Xander...

[sparrow2000.livejournal.com]

Because it is not a secret that I’m a Xander girl, every year I challenge myself to do at least one rec list for buffyversetop5 that doesn’t have Xander in any of the stories. This is this year’s list.

In Living Dangerously by andraste Andrew bakes muffins (with real blueberries…) and has an epiphany. This is short, nicely written and quite delightful.

( More fics this way )

The Mostly Text Classic Recs Post 2019

[yourlibrarian]

1) A Quiet Conversation by Rainne. "Two old enemies sit and have coffee." Not often one runs across a story featuring Buffy and Ethan in conversation and it's hard to beat this story's ending!

2) Halloween Portrait Collection by thedothatgirl. Drawings of less frequently depicted characters: Adam, the Master, the Troika, Giles as a Fyarl, Glory, Clem and Amy (in both her forms).

3) Dracula vs Buffy by beer good. "I like "Buffy vs Dracula." I think it might even be the best season opener the show ever did. Here's some thoughts on why, and how it fits into the larger scope of the series and season 5." See if you agree!

4) Fight Scene Appreciation by stalwartsandall. "I wanted to gush a little about the fight sequence in Two to Go in which Spike fights the Walking Action Figure. It just feels a cut above the rest in terms of choreography, combatants, editing and production value."

5) Rupert Giles by Laurel Hach. Nicely Halloween themed painting of Giles.

Five Insightful Poems by cagd (trixiefatcat)

[thenewbuzwuzz]

In my FFN forays, I have been noticing some of the other poetry by cagd (who is represented in @stultiloquentia's Jossverse Poetry Masterlist with one poem under her LJ name trixiefatcat ). cagd has become easily one of my favorite Buffy poets. She has written lots of beautiful free verse; what I've read so far tends to center on the Fanged Four, especially on Spike's platonic relationships. These poems go deep into characterization, and they give me all of the feels.

 

Lunch Money (Spike&Dawn, T)

Broken Toys (Liam, Drusilla, William, T)

Drusilla's Tears (Drusilla, Spike, T)

Numb in Her Forgiveness (Spike&Joyce, T)

Wild Roses on a Grave (Spike&Tara, T)