1) Fiction Banners by teragramm. I don't tend to see these very often anymore unless a Big Bang fic is involved. I liked the sleek yet different look in these two works.

2) And I Won't Feel a Thing (The Rinse and Repeat Remix) by SegaBarrett. " Billy has everything he ever wanted." I like the fact that Billy having what he wanted doesn't change who he is, it's just the same steps to different music.

3) Vantage Point (Remix of Heights) by Corina (CorinaLannister). "Spike and Willow go on patrol together with Spike being the powerhouse fighter and Willow helping him out with her telepathic abilities. But who is helping who really?" I read this together with the original story (written last year) and found that it was the final lines in both the original and remix that stuck with me. Spike and Buffy as Heathcliff and Catherine is a little off to me, Angel being rather more Heathcliff-y. But then that says so much about Willow's frame of mind, she should know that. Spike reminds her, but she does tend to forget it.

4) Restoration by circular_infinity. Buffy & Angel's missing scene after her return. Part of what struck me about this story was the way Angel thinks of her with an artist's eye as he sees her again, "Part of her demeanor speaks of grief. It eases as she nears him, but it's still there like a layer of priming on a canvas."

5) Junior Deviants by Aadler. "Not everything fell apart in the last days of Sunnydale. Some things came together." First off, hardly anyone remembers or writes about Dawn's friends in early S7, especially since the show didn't either after the spinoff idea went nowhere. And this one has a nice surprise at the end. Second, so happy to see drabbles on AO3 since very few of them end up there!

Lastly, I didn't include this in my list because it's commercial not fannish – which in itself has become a harder thing to tease apart in these last 15 years given people's platforms on YouTube and fannish news outlets, Patreon and even commercializing individual websites. But I did find the concept of this quite entertaining: I've Never Seen "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" So I Watched The Pilot And Finale And Nothing In Between

1) Illyria Writes a Poem (What country, friends, is this?) by Stultiloquentia. I'd thought this was recced here before, but I didn't find it in a search. Loved the end, see if you don't agree? ( Read more... )