5 Surreal Stories of 2018

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Or, Five of the Weirdest Stories I've Had the Pleasure of Reading This Year, and That's Saying Something, Because I Tend to Read as Many Weird Stories as I Can. Each of them has other things going for it, too -- they're not just surreal. Sorted from shortest to longest.


this can't be living now
by nowrunalong
Ship: Fuffy
Rating: M
Words: 6,276
Comment: A Fuffy story based on a dream the author had. It's a coffee-shop AU, but HOW. :)) As a side note, I appreciate how many of the original canon Slayers appear here.

A Place Beyond the Rains
by thewiggins
Ship: Spuffy, past Buffy/Groosalugg
Rating: PG-13
Words: 10,059
Comment: I greatly enjoyed being weirded out by thewiggins' imaginative descriptions of this pocket dimension and its inhabitants.

Loyalty
by zabjade
Ship: Spuffy, Spike/captain of the Flying Dutchman
Rating: M
Words: 19,489
Comment: I can't believe that what season 5 Spuffy* was missing all along was a spot of consensual tentacle smut, and I seriously love zabjade's treatment of the Flying Dutchman legend. *There is extensive, graphic Spike/Other, but it serves to advance the Spuffy; also, it's very nice in its own right.

Exquisite Consequences
by yellowb, angelic_amy, bewildered, -Carrie-Ann-, Sunalso, OffYourBird, othellia, sandy_s, Behind Blue Eyes, relurker, thenewbuzwuzz, Sigyn, Fraggleshrew
Ship: Spuffy
Rating: NC-17
Words: 59,997
Comment: The second Elysian Fields surrealist round robin went incredibly well. There was an honest to goodness character arc! There were accidental uniting themes and motifs! There was cat POV!
The story was posted in two parts as responses to a challenge. The link above goes to the challenge, which explains how the story was written, and one can also see OffYourBird's beautiful banners there. Unfortunately, only users of Elysian Fields can read the whole story, but some chapters are available on AO3. Because of the way the story was written, I believe chapters can be enjoyed separately.
Chapters on AO3:
Love Commands by OffYourBird
Virtual Reality Bites by yellowb
Taking Flight by SpuffyCarrie
A Tamale Cad Can by sunalso
A Kind of Heaven by bewildered
No Way Out This Time by TheSigyn
An Evening At The Ladies' Historical Reading Society by Relurker
A Hundred Tiny Silver Deer by me
And Linger Here Among the Stars by sandy_s
Buffy Encounters the Trousers of Time in the Company of a Drunk Horny Kitten by Fraggleshrew

Tales From a New Body
by OffYourBird
Ship: Spuffy
Rating: E
Words: 73,302 and counting (WIP! soon to be completed, though)
Comment: a full-blown epic Spuffy romance, but Buffy is in a different body the entire time. This story makes me happy in many, many ways. It fixes season 6 Spuffy by giving Buffy a long, relaxing vacation and a chance to improve her communication skills before she meets Spike again (while Spike has his own character development), but it's not just a fixit -- it's way more imaginative than that. <3 There is Egyptian mythology and the Watchers' Council 2.0, and the way the Scoobies have aged 20 or so years post-series, and the romance is particularly body-/sex-/kink-positive, with much emphasis on communication, and just lovely.

Comments

[petzipellepingo]

Very nice list, thanks for posting.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Thank you! <3

[yourlibrarian]

I'm distracted from the works because I think "thewiggins" is the cutest username ever :D

And wow, it's been a while since I've seen a round robin being done much less recced here, that's great!

[thenewbuzwuzz]

It is a pretty awesome username. :D

Yay! And it's the second round robin of its kind on Elysian Fields. The first one was through here: https://dark-solace.org/elysian/modules/challenges/challenges.php?chalid=2118

[dragonyphoenix]

I don't know any of these stories but I've recently discovered OffYourBird's stories and love them!

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Yay! I've loved OffYourBird's stories ever since I discovered them! (Okay, there may have been a brief period of mere 'hmm, I think I like this' before I got into the Jumpverse. After that, I never looked back... :D)