on the look out...

[timepiececlock]

I was reading girlwithjournal's post-Chosen story where Randy Giles wakes up in a crater that used to be SunnyD and wonders what the heck is going on, especially since the last thing he remembers is fighting vampires with Superhero!Joan. It's a fun and cool read.

However...

It has inspired in me this huge hankering right now to read some fun post-Chosen Spuffy fanfic. Something that can have some amount of angst, but also is either funny, or adventurous, or something. I want something that's a good story but won't make me cry.

Anyone got any recs?

Comments

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

You avoid WIPs? Because Cynthia Martin's "The Code of the Watchers" is delicious. It's all Giles POV, and his voice is perfect and delightful. A different, and hilarious, Spike return.

There's another story that's complete that I can't remember the name or author, only every freakin' thing about the plot, because it was lovely. *searches through the Sandlot archive* (Oh yes, "Code of the Watchers" is there, too, if you prefer their layout...)

Dammit! Help me out here, people... Buffy was living on her own, the Scoobs were running a Slayer academy in upstate New York... Fatih/Wood, Xander/Andrew, Willow/Kennedy... (trying to be specific without giving things away)... um... Xander refers to Spike as an albino gargoyle?

caia

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

never hear do of that one. sounds good though! Thanks for the link to the Giles one. I'll check it out. Tell me if you see more.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

A lot of the post-Chosen Spuffy is angsty... most of what I've seen has been on LJ. The Giles one is a WIP, btw, and it hasn't been updated in awhile. It's at an acceptable stopping point for a reader, though, IMHO... it's not done, but it's not gonna make you tear your hair out. You'll just want more because it's good.

I can't understand how I have no concept of the fic's name or author, when I followed it in progress for weeks. Ah well.

caia

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I just finished part 2 of the Code of the the Watchers. Giles' speech pattern is weird, but it's almost a self-conscience kind of weird, as if the author is making fun of Giles by turning him ultra!British instead of the Americanized Brit he was in the end. I liked how Giles laid a heap-load of guilt and crap onto Spike to get him not to call, and then felt guilty and immediately tried to change his mind. But sadly, damage is done. I kinda wanted to smack Giles for that.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

What I liked about the Gilespeak was that it was sort of pompous and yet snarky, in the way he might well write, and maybe organize his thoughts, if not speak... because really all we've heard of Giles' journals were a few brief sentences about Dawn being the Key.

caia

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think it said in the beginning that he was writing it, not reciting it. It's full of so many allusions and is so pompous-- whether he's calling himself the greatest, most dangerous and resourceful watcher in history or the most awful, screw-up watcher in history, he's doing it with such outrageous diction that it's ridiculously self-consciously pompous either way.

Giles and Spike often seemed out of character to me, but in a parody and exaggerated way, that invited laughs instead of embarrassment. I loved Giles' employees. I loved that everyone in the fic is so silly and cartoonish. I love that the only semi-mild danger of Ehtan Rayne is suddenly a world-threatening catastrophe of the most melodramatic portions... only Spwilliam and Buffy don't care because they're too busy ogling and fondling each other. I love the reborn Spwilliam too.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

Hey, the way I figure it, coming back from the dead changes ya'. Especially if you've been burning with joy. But look at Buffy. Before she died, she was all devoted to her friends and quippy and spunky, and ok, kinda stressed and upset at the end, and then she came back as a numb faker who turned abusive and then spent a whole year without making a facial expression other than "pinched." And that was when she was better. So I figure, if Spike's getting all psyched up about being a monk and using Flanderisms for swears and pulling a burning bush at the drop of a hat, I figure, hey. He still loves Buffy, and he's still annoying Giles. That's Spike. :)

And yup. Comedy. So it gets away with it. I still love the pompous Gilespeak, even if it is OOC.

caia

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

ok, the line "I cannot believe that you were sent to grace my oven with your
rebirth simply because we have a nodding acquaintance." is pretty funny.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Just finished. And can I say? So. fucking. funny. Thank you.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

Yay! Glad you liked. Wasn't Giles' attitude towards Spike and Buffy being schmoopy priceless? I'll let you know if the name of the other fic comes to me.

caia

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

it is. I love how Giles kept reffering to them as "the sundered lovers" that he must reunite in order to achieve redemption. It's such a parody of Giles.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

Well, now that he's the only Watcher left (and surely some others survived... didn't they say one had?), so maybe he feels the need to be Watcher-concentrate to compensate. He's Writing For the Ages. :D

caia

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

P.S. – Would you think me a gigantic sap if I confessed that I thought combusting!Buffy&Spike were adorable? Without the lens of Giles' disgust, it might have been too much, but I thought they were cute as all get out.

"I love you like the rain too," testified Buffy moistly.

"Oh, God! Say it again! No, stop, don't!" Spike's mental equilibrium seemed rather loose on the spindle, but his face was incandescent with devotion.

They're like Bwa! and Meep! all rolled into one.

caia