coprime_recs | Entries tagged with buffy the vampire slayer

Denser Still the Snow (Fraser/Kowalski/Oz | NC17 | 3,562 words): Ray finds Oz in the snow and brings him back to his and Fraser's cabin. This is a lovely atmospheric piece set during the long winter of the Arctic.

Excerpt:
"It derives from an Old English word-form meaning 'man-wolf'. Though the bite is still the most common means of transformation, many packs are familial."

"m'cousin. bimme"

Fraser nods. He gets up, walks over to the closet and digs for more blankets. Lays them on the bed.

"Are you coming, Ray? Or did you want to read?"

"Werewolf."

"I'm sure he'll still be there in a few hours. His leg wound will heal more quickly than a wound of yours would, but it's hardly instantaneous." Fraser piles logs onto the fire. He must have brought wood in earlier; there's a huge stack of it by the door.

Eventually, he gathers Ray up and takes him to bed too. Pulls him in and wraps up behind him. Both of them wrapped in fleece and wool, spooned up for warmth, facing the fire. Ray watches the werewolf sleep under his pile of blankets for a long time.

Vampires and Vigilantes (Buffy-Matt | PG13 | 11,162 words): Buffy visits New York on slayer business and in the process meets Daredevil. This is a really fun team-up with Buffy making friends with Matt, Karen, and Foggy.

Excerpt:
She heads into the cemetery, Mike a step behind, but walking like he knows where he's going. At the first new grave she finds, Buffy halts; it's as good a place to wait as any. Mike leans on a gravestone next to her. "Fresh soil," he says. "So, you been doing this long?"

"Slaying?" Buffy sighs, and twirls her stake in her fingers. "Too long. Since I was 16."

He turns his head in her direction. "I can't get a feel for how old you are now. That could be four years, or 20."

"More like 20 and change," Buffy says. "How long have you been vigilante-ing? Is that even a word?"

He laughs. It's a good laugh, and his smile is warm. "It'll do. A few years. Properly. Was taught to fight when I was about 10."

"Shit, that's way too young," she says, with feeling. He shrugs.

"It's fine. It helped at a bad time." He stops talking, holds up his hand. "Something's...something's just broken through down there. I can hear it scrabbling up through the soil."

Hitching a Ride (Jayne/Harmony | PG13 |3,178 words): Jayne sneaks Harmony aboard as a stowaway. Hah, I feel like if Harmony were to exist in the Firefly-verse, this is exactly how her introduction would go.

Excerpt:
"Alright," Mal said. "Jayne, kindly explain what gives you the right to bring an extra, non-paying passenger on my boat without notifying me of it?"

"Hell with that," Jayne said. "I want to go back to this demon go-suh."

"I'm rather curious about that myself," Book said, giving Harmony a piercing look.

"That's all well and good, but I'm still the captain here, and I want an explanation before we get to the fairytale," Mal said, sitting down on a crate. "We've got thirty hours before we reach Sihnon. Get talkin', Cobb."

The Soul of Wit (Oz-Silent Bob | PG13 | 629 words): Oz and Silent Bob meet. These two could most definitely have entire conversations without ever actually saying a word.

Excerpt:
Jersey's got a very particular vibe and he likes it while he's here, how it's so very its own place, to contrast later with all kinds of other backdrops. Suburban cookiecutter desperation to the nth degree.

The Waiting Room (Buffy-Death | PG | 1,617 words): Buffy meets Death. There are a lot of stories out there where a character meets Death (either the Sandman version as here or the Discworld one) and they run the emotional gamut. This particular one is on the bittersweet end of the scale because Buffy's still got some fantastic and some terrible things ahead of her. But it's comforting in a way, despite knowing what's coming, because at least Buffy has someone friendly on the other side of it all.

Excerpt:
"Hey," [Buffy] says to the girl sitting next to her.

"Hey," says the girl, and smiles. But she doesn't say anything else; she just sits there, staring at Buffy without a hint of rudeness.

"We're dead, right?" Buffy asks, surprised at how calm she is.

"You are," the girl replies. "For me, it's a little more complicated."

Ten Weddings Planned (Tara/Willow | G | 1,000 words): Ten snippets showing what Tara and Willow's wedding might have been like. Each one of these is sweet and fun.

Excerpt:
They went to Vegas, because, y'know, everyone went to Vegas. And even though they couldn't actually get married, one of the chapels had a fantastic commitment ceremony-- you even got Elvis officiating.

Unfortunately, perhaps because they did it at midnight, or because it was just a commitment ceremony, or maybe it was just fate, they ended up with a trainee Elvis.

The Missing Chapter (ensemble | PG | 714 words): What if the mystery in The Picnic at Hanging Rock had a more supernatural explanation? Even though I didn't like the original book very much, I enjoyed this. An interesting idea that doesn't outstay its welcome and explains things fairly neatly. Or, if you've never read Picnic at Hanging Rock, it's a nice story of an original slayer.

Excerpt:
Miranda cut her off, exasperated. "Honestly Irma, I've told you. Miss McGraw doesn't think this is a Broggywell..."

"Broggawell!"

"Yes, yes, I'm certain. Just as Miss McGraw is certain that this is a far more minor demon. Just because it seems to share a few traits with a Broggawell is no proof that it is..."

Edit (Dawn | PG | 3,564 words): The Doctor, Rose, and Jack stop by Sunnydale while Dawn's being made by the monks. Which is just a nifty concept since it involved a good bit of rewriting the past and, well, Doctor Who's all about playing with time.

Excerpt:
The Doctor peered at an instrument he'd brought from the TARDIS and said "There's something odd about this whole section of space-time, I don't think it's quite real. Even so we need to be careful. We're only a few years in your past, you're still a schoolgirl on the other side of the world. Don't be tempted to phone home, or take advantage of your knowledge of the future."

Rose shivered and said "Right, like nearly ending the world last time didn't teach me anything at all." Then what he'd said sunk in, and she added "What do you mean, this time isn't real?"

"It's an Edit" said the Doctor.

Man of Tweed (Giles | PG13 | 1,037 words). Giles is at the bank when Metallo decides to rob it. Superman and the citizens of Metropolis have a great deal of wide-eyed earnestness, while Giles is far more annoyed and practical about the incident.

Excerpt:
"I didn't go to all this trouble to set off alarms to attract your attention, and not have a plan, Kryptonian!" said Metallo, as a plate in his chest slid open and a sickly green glow shone out. There, sitting in the middle of a number of circuits and machinery, was a glowing green rock.

Giles sighed loudly, and waited for the inevitable defeat, ignoring the Account Manager's attempts to drag him back behind the desk in their meeting room. Honestly, Xander and Andrew would never forgive him if he didn't memorise every little detail.

The Scarab (ensemble | PG13 | 51,487 words) has a Goa'uld getting the idea to use vampires, demons, and the Hellmouth to try and take over Earth. The plot's actually really well laid out and interesting. The characters are written well, and I loved that no one (not even Riley) got villainized. It's a really good, fun action/adventure story.

Excerpt:
"DOWN!" Riley shouted; he'd only just now seen the swiftly moving shape, and he thanked God that he still had some reflexes - and that he'd healed up after tearing that damn chip out of his chest that spring. His Beretta was up and leveled, and he waited barely long enough for O'Neill to drop to the turf before double-tapping the demon behind him.

It was a vampire, he noted with an inward curse; two bullets to the head wouldn't stop it, but they might slow it up enough to give him a chance to go for a stake - no such luck. The thing was still in the suit it had been buried in, in full vamp-face, brows furrowed, eyes an evil red-yellow color, teeth all over the place - it charged - Riley fired again, one-handed, the gun jerking wide, and the thing was almost on him when O'Neill hit it in the chest with a three-round burst from his MP-5.

It turned to face O'Neill and growled. The Colonel leveled his machine gun; the vampire charged, stumbled as O'Neill hit it with another three-round burst - but it didn't fall, just stepped back once more, then charged. O'Neill didn't hold back; he went to full-auto, rock-and-roll, and poured fire into the thing at seven paces, trying to force it back just from the impacts.

The vampire staggered, but held its balance; Riley finally had a stake out, and was about to charge when he heard a whistling screech and a wet thump. The vampire stopped, stared dumbly at the wood shaft coming out of its chest - and disintegrated into dust with a sigh and a dull metallic clatter.

Riley and O'Neill walked up to the pile of dust; O'Neill hesitantly poked at it with a toe, revealing a pile of deformed bullets. Riley glanced back at the projectile's path and saw Buffy, crossbow at her shoulder. He grinned at her.

Buffy wasn't smiling.

Riley was thinking oh, crap, and was about to say it when O'Neill broke in: "Okay. What in the hell was that?"

"Vampire," Riley whispered, inching back to Buffy and the rest of the gang, pistol holstered, stake in one hand, taser in the other.

Amazons (Faith-Diana | G | 1,884 words) has Faith accidentally dropping in to the Justice League universe. Hee, the interaction between Faith and Diana is great fun. I like how blasé Faith is about everything, and it's nice to see a more care-free Diana than normal.

Excerpt:
"You ever have an invisible plane?"

"You mean like a cloaking device? No, but I wouldn't be surprised if Bruce -- er, um, Bruce, a friend -- was working on one."

"Actually, I meant invisible. Like, completely transparent."

"Who would want a completely transparent airplane?"

"Tch -- you got me. I always wondered about that."

"You know, I'm getting the feeling you might know someone like me in an alternate dimension...."

"Yeah, sorta. I don't know if I should go into it. Sometimes that whole alternate universe thing kinda freaks people out."

"Oh, tell me about it. The only one I've personally experienced was one where everything was like a comic book from Green Lantern's childhood, only it turned out to be the mental projection of a boy with a giant mutant brain. But Superman tried to explain this thing with ten different dimensions, and Earth Prime, and some crisis, and it's just, no. He seemed kind of upset that I couldn't follow it. I think there may actually be dark forces at work preventing his story from being understood."

"Dark forces are always a safe bet."

Liamiellion of Eire (Angel | G | 317 words) features an inappropriate elf. Very much on crack and very funny.

Excerpt:
Angelus squeezed his eyes shut. "It's true. I'm... an elf." He opened them just in time to see Darla hit the floor, Drusilla rushing to her aid.

Spike just blinked at him for long moments.

"Well?"

"It explains the nanciness."

Artificial Intelligence (Buffybot | G | 804 words) is a day in the life of the Buffybot. The story's kind of creepy, especially in the way that it manages to make the Buffybot living rather than a programmed robot. And it's such a unique perspective.

Excerpt:
Run file: Welcome.

"Hi, Dawn! How was your day? Hi Willow! How was your day?"

Dawn is my sister. Dawn looks at me, and her face smushes and folds in a weird way, and she runs away upstairs. Probability: she goes to her room. Probability confirmed when the door slams.

Willow looks at me and shakes her head. "I should pull that routine out."

Run file: Make comfortable.

"Can I get you something to drink? Do you want to talk about your day?"

How Good Girls Get Laid (Willow/Tara | G | 499 words) is Willow really noticing Tara for the first time. The story's short and sweet and really, really nice.

Excerpt:
"I really like your sweater." And she did, it was soft and modest, yet kinda clingy, a deep burgundy with a v-neck. "It's pretty." Tara dimpled and dipped her head. And really, Willow had meant, you're pretty. She felt almost cozy here in the hard plastic chair and the prison-esque florescent cafeteria lighting. There was something so *relaxing* about this girl.

A Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes (Willow/Tara | PG13 | 1,511 words) is not about Tara. Rather, it's about (not) coping and deftly breaks Willow.

Excerpt:
Tara likes to sit very still and let the shadows drip through her fingers and she won't answer when Willow tries to talk to her. She looks instead at the wallpaper and the floor and the darkening sky through the window. Sometimes she looks sad, but sometimes she bites her lips to hide her smiles.

If Willow tries to touch her she vanishes silently, leaving behind no flash of light or rush of disturbed air, only a sudden coldness which pools darkly in Willow's stomach.

Drawing Comparisons (Tara, ensemble | PG | 609 words) is a sequel to A Birthday Wish. Here, Tara compares the Empire Records crew to the Scooby Gang. The comparison works surprisingly well, and the story's just plain nice.

Excerpt:
Then there's Mark, who's a lot like Dawn, though I think he'd hate me thinking that, for obvious reasons. But he's like the bratty little brother who you have to take care of, who drives you nuts, but you love him and you wouldn't have it any other way.

A Birthday Wish (Tara/Lucas | PG | 1,980 words | sequel is Drawing Comparisons) has Tara working at Empire Records. I can imagine that she'd be able to find a place for herself at the store. The story has a gentle tone that I like and which fits with Tara.

Excerpt:
Someone who's reliable, yes, who never misses her shift, is never late, but someone who, when Joe lost his temper at Lucas once, literally quailed in the corner as Joe brought thunder and damnation down upon Lucas's head. Lucas took it all on the chin, it was nothing he hadn't heard before, and it was nothing compared to being bounced off every wall in Joe's office, but he'd stood at the adjacent till to Tara for two hours that afternoon and saw her shaking hands, couldn't get the sight of Tara's scared eyes out of his head for days afterwards.

He's got the feeling that there's something going on in her life that she's not telling anyone, and he's interested enough to want to know what it is, to want to help her out, but she won't talk to him about it. All he knows about her is that she's a senior in high school, about her classes, about the colleges she wants to go to, the courses she wants to take. He knows she likes music, that she can sing, and that she's quiet.

An Englishman in Smallville (Giles, Lex | ? | ?) has Giles traveling to Smallville in orger to acquire Lex's box made from St. George's armor. It's a short but satisfying read.

Excerpt:
Thankfully, the town itself was rather ordinary. Giles had had quite enough odd for one day, ordinary oddities consisting of a stuttering farm boy who couldn't look him in the eye even when answering simple questions such as, "I'm looking for Clark Kent, do you know where I might find him?" And odd consisting of an unfortunately prematurely bald man traipsing about a structure the locals no doubt called a castle, and that was the trouble with an American education: it instilled an utter inability to call things what they were. Giles had acquiesced to calling a toilet a bathroom, and a photocopy a Xerox, but he absolutely refused to ignore centuries of art and architectural history to name what was plainly a godawful Victorian manor house a castle.

Common Ground (Dawn-Giles | G | 767 words) has Dawn and Giles bonding one Saturday evening. I like how Giles doesn't really have much of a clue as to how to deal with teenage girls.

Excerpt:
"Bisexuals," she said matter-of-factly. "We read about 'em in health class."

He would never cease to marvel at the wonder that was the modern American educational system. "Yes, well--"

"Is that what Willow is? 'Cause, I've noticed, she and Tara, they seem really close. But, before, there was Oz."

"That's, that's a matter you should discuss with her, not me."

Unless You're Us (Spock-Buffy | G | 1,242 words) has Buffy and Spock meeting at a conference-type thing. They're very different characters, but I could see them interacting like this. Plus, there are also several refences to other shows that are fun to spot.

Excerpt:
No demon ping, no vamp ping, but there's definitely something otherworldly about the old dude, even by Sunnydale standards and even given all the givens. "If you don't mind me asking," she says, "how did you end up here?"

Another sip, another grimace. "My friends brought me back to life against my will. You?"

"Same here. How'd it happen?"

"I committed a selfless act."

"A selfless act," she says, and mostly succeeds in keeping the bitterness out of her voice. "That'll do it, all right. I jumped off a tower to save the world."

Fanfic Recs by coprime

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Xover (Buffy/due South): Denser Still the Snow by Jane St Clair

Xover (Buffy/Daredevil): Vampires and Vigilantes by Eledhwen

Xover (Buffy/Firefly): Hitching a Ride by Meltha

Xover (Askewniverse/Buffy): The Soul of Wit by Kyra

Xover (Buffy/Sandman): The Waiting Room by Nestra

Buffy: Ten Weddings Planned by katemonkey

Xover (Buffy/Picnic at Hanging Rock): The Missing Chapter by blinkytreefrog

Xover (Buffy/Doctor Who): Edit by Marcus L. Rowland

Xover (Buffy/DC Universe): Man of Tweed by Booster

Xover (Buffy/Stargate SG1): The Scarab by BK the Irregular

Xover (Buffy/Justice League): Amazons by Loligo

Buffy: Liamiellion of Eire by Te

Buffy: Artificial Intelligence by Elizabeth Ann Lewis

Buffy: How Good Girls Get Laid by Pares

Buffy: A Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes by Kyra Cullinan

Xover (Buffy/Empire Records): Drawing Comparisons by helsinkibaby

Xover (Buffy/Empire Records): A Birthday Wish by helsinkibaby

Xover (Buffy/Smallville): An Englishman in Smallville by Hope

Buffy: Common Ground by Sarah T.

Xover (Buffy/Star Trek TOS): Unless You're Us by Kathleen Dailey