Five Underappreciated Stories (In My Opinion)

[snickfic]

I had trouble coming up with a theme, since this is literally "two fics I read this year and really loved" + "some other stuff I love." XD Anyway, I hope folks enjoy! I've certainly gotten a lot of enjoyment out of buffyversetop5 over the years. <3


New-ish stuff (circa 2018-2019):
Even the Deepest Scars by cookiegirl
Wishverse, pre-Buffy/Giles, 16k. In an altered Wishverse, Buffy survives and Giles has the chance to get to know the Slayer who was once supposed to be his. But showing Buffy that she doesn't need to be alone isn't easy. It's great to see a fic that really digs into the person Buffy has become in the Wishverse and how she got there, and her and Giles's respective relationships with the Watchers is also really interesting.

urgent as airmail, animal red by seinmit
Buffy gen, 500-word drabble series. Buffy + makeup vs the world. A great window into the character, and man these are quality drabbles, incisive and efficient and precise.

Older stuff
Devouring Time by quinara
Darla gen, one-shot. Darla goes on safari! I love the portrayal of Darla here, that she will dare the hazardous African sun for the sheer experience of the thing. The writing is gorgeous, the whole thing is suffused with sunshine, the setting is beautifully evoked

Winds Blowing Chill and Wide and Starry Sky, by brutti_ma_buoni
Spike/Buffy and Wes/Illyria, 4900 words total. These are part of Brutti's larger Rulesverse, but these this set stand pretty well alone. The first is the story of how Spike and Buffy decide to have a child (with Wesley's biological assistance), and the second is Wesley's perspective on the whole thing, and also on his developing… acquaintance with Illyria. Brutti's stuff is always lovely, and the Wes/Illyria fic in particular is so patient with Wes and his angst and his day-to-day struggle with grief. Plus it's got Illyria leaving a message on an answering machine, which is difficult to beat.

In League With Serpents and Feathers and Forked Tongues, by WeyrWolfen
Spike/Buffy + ensemble, 120k total. Spike wins a smalled winged serpent in a poker game, and she proceeds to turn his life upside down. Basically this is a S6 rewrite where Spike has a fire lizard, except instead of retreading canon events, it strikes out on its own, adding all kinds of new elements and building them into a great plot, while also dealing with a lot of the emotional arcs from canon. Just really satisfying, but written late enough in the fandom that I don't think it ever reached the "classic" status of stuff written 6-8 years earlier.