Five Surreal Stories I Enjoyed This Year
Oct. 29th, 2019 07:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thenewbuzwuzz posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
buffyversetop5Two that were written earlier.
The Cheese Man Cometh by @snickfic (Cheese Man, Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander, G)
I went looking for Cheese Man stories because reasons, and this one is everything I could have wished for. It's brilliant, and I love it.
Excerpt:
"“We sleep on beds of cheese” the cheese man says, and Buffy hears, The taint has come and will not leave again. With the thought comes an image wrought in shades of cheese: the First Slayer."
Something Old by yellowb (Spike/Buffy and Giles & Quentin Travers, M). WIP! Alternative link (Elysian Fields).
S(team)P(unk)uffy! :)) I found it an absolute delight, from the reversed technological development shenanigans to adorable "Something Blue" Spuffy, to an excellent Xander, to the Giles&Travers dynamic that is so funny and great I can't even describe it. Platonic foe yay? Horror sitcom, where interacting with Travers is the horror? It's something brilliant or other.
Excerpt:
"“We sail tomorrow evening, old chap,” said Travers, with more than a touch of acid. “Aboard the Carpathian Princess.”
"“The Carpathian…” Giles stared. “We two … are going on a cruise. Together.”
"“No, we’re taking sled dogs to the Bering Straight,” snapped Travers. “Then we swim. Believe me, we have thought through the alternatives. I’m afraid long-distance travel today is not what it was … Tuesday.”"
And three written in 2019.
The Visitor by Quaggy (Giles, Quentin Travers, light background Giles/Buffy, T). Alternative link (Dreamwidth).
This story features a marvelously fresh, unorthodox take on Quentin Travers, and I found the gradual reveal riveting. It's something between an AU and a missing scene. A missing scene that would make us reevaluate what we thought we knew about canon.
ETA: sadness warning! It's set after The Gift.
Anywhere But Here: Carnival Dream by @thewiggins (Spuffy, M). Part of a WIP, but ought to stand alone. Alternative link (LiveJournal).
I'm biased. I love this as much as you can love something when the concept is up your alley to begin with and then the author revises the thing based on your wishes ("make it weirder", mostly). :D
It's (I think it's fair to say) an AU version of Spike's "Out of My Mind" dream, set in Wiggins' season 2 vamp!Buffy AU. And it is gorgeous, it is trippy, it is insightful, it probably has better plot and character motivation than most things I write where the characters are supposed to be awake, it has emotional resonance, I love it.
Excerpt:
"The figure turned, just before reaching the shadows that hid the end of the walkway, and his face was bathed in the moonlight that streamed through one of the windows. His bare, all too familiar face, vulnerable and open, surrounded by those loose, sandy curls that Spike had always detested. Spike growled and stepped toward him. But the man just gave him a sad little smile before turning and vanishing into the shadows."
Yukon Ho! by @beer_good_foamy (Spuffy, M). Alternative link (Dreamwidth).
Spuffy: the all-ungulate AU. Hilarious, well-researched, my brain will never be the same... Beer Good took the one concept that was too out there to be included in a crackfic I had posted, and he boldly went. All the way out there to Fairbanks, Alaska. *g* Read it if you dare!
Excerpt:
""Errah?," Buffy asked; Have you heard of someone named Spike? (Moose is a very succinct language with many possible inflections.)"
The Cheese Man Cometh by @snickfic (Cheese Man, Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander, G)
I went looking for Cheese Man stories because reasons, and this one is everything I could have wished for. It's brilliant, and I love it.
Excerpt:
"“We sleep on beds of cheese” the cheese man says, and Buffy hears, The taint has come and will not leave again. With the thought comes an image wrought in shades of cheese: the First Slayer."
Something Old by yellowb (Spike/Buffy and Giles & Quentin Travers, M). WIP! Alternative link (Elysian Fields).
S(team)P(unk)uffy! :)) I found it an absolute delight, from the reversed technological development shenanigans to adorable "Something Blue" Spuffy, to an excellent Xander, to the Giles&Travers dynamic that is so funny and great I can't even describe it. Platonic foe yay? Horror sitcom, where interacting with Travers is the horror? It's something brilliant or other.
Excerpt:
"“We sail tomorrow evening, old chap,” said Travers, with more than a touch of acid. “Aboard the Carpathian Princess.”
"“The Carpathian…” Giles stared. “We two … are going on a cruise. Together.”
"“No, we’re taking sled dogs to the Bering Straight,” snapped Travers. “Then we swim. Believe me, we have thought through the alternatives. I’m afraid long-distance travel today is not what it was … Tuesday.”"
And three written in 2019.
The Visitor by Quaggy (Giles, Quentin Travers, light background Giles/Buffy, T). Alternative link (Dreamwidth).
This story features a marvelously fresh, unorthodox take on Quentin Travers, and I found the gradual reveal riveting. It's something between an AU and a missing scene. A missing scene that would make us reevaluate what we thought we knew about canon.
ETA: sadness warning! It's set after The Gift.
Anywhere But Here: Carnival Dream by @thewiggins (Spuffy, M). Part of a WIP, but ought to stand alone. Alternative link (LiveJournal).
I'm biased. I love this as much as you can love something when the concept is up your alley to begin with and then the author revises the thing based on your wishes ("make it weirder", mostly). :D
It's (I think it's fair to say) an AU version of Spike's "Out of My Mind" dream, set in Wiggins' season 2 vamp!Buffy AU. And it is gorgeous, it is trippy, it is insightful, it probably has better plot and character motivation than most things I write where the characters are supposed to be awake, it has emotional resonance, I love it.
Excerpt:
"The figure turned, just before reaching the shadows that hid the end of the walkway, and his face was bathed in the moonlight that streamed through one of the windows. His bare, all too familiar face, vulnerable and open, surrounded by those loose, sandy curls that Spike had always detested. Spike growled and stepped toward him. But the man just gave him a sad little smile before turning and vanishing into the shadows."
Yukon Ho! by @beer_good_foamy (Spuffy, M). Alternative link (Dreamwidth).
Spuffy: the all-ungulate AU. Hilarious, well-researched, my brain will never be the same... Beer Good took the one concept that was too out there to be included in a crackfic I had posted, and he boldly went. All the way out there to Fairbanks, Alaska. *g* Read it if you dare!
Excerpt:
""Errah?," Buffy asked; Have you heard of someone named Spike? (Moose is a very succinct language with many possible inflections.)"
