Prophecygrrl --
Reality Bends to Desire is a great story! Thanks for reminding about it!
Actually, some of Ariane's stories, including
"Reality" are archived on UnDead Archive.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Right now I read a couple of WIPs, and they are fascinating.
Home Is Where They Have to Let You In by
slaymesoftly
http://www.bloodshedverse.com/stories.php?go=chapters&no=12756
http://slaymesoftly.livejournal.com/tag/home is where they have to take you in
R, WIP, 10 chapters so far, post-Chosen, not comics-compliant. After relocating to London Buffy buys there a house that was once William Pratt's family's property. One day she discovers that there is a vampire in her shed. He saves Dawn and Buffy decides to help him. He is so badly burned that even his voice sounds like a rasp; he doesn't remember anything about himself; he only knows that something attracted him to that place... Author takes the characters through the usual hurt/comfort tropes, but she informs the scenes with delicious ambiguity. Fairy tale ambience combined with cunning use of clueless narrator mode makes the story fascinating.
Dust by
knifeedgefic
http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/464752.html
http://www.bloodshedverse.com/stories.php?go=chapters&no=12728
WIP, 10 chapters, PG so far, NC-17 later. Alternate season 4. Buffy wakes in a Sunnydale that went utterly wrong... Everybody's asleep; the phones are dead; and there is no way out of the town. Buffy's only hope is a certain vampire who managed to stay awake and who was persistent enough to wake her up. Intriguing premise, genre storytelling par excellence, witty dialogues, funny insights into Buffy's mind and overall creepy atmosphere make "Dust" one of the most exciting and gripping stories of the year.
And I'd love to rec a newly-completed story
In A Yellow Wood by
Rahirah
http://sleepingjaguars.com/buffy/viewstory.php?sid=101&chapter=1
PG-13, AU post-The Gift, completed, about 20,000 words. This story takes place in the same universe as "Raising In the Sun," "Necessary Evils," and "A Parliament of Monsters." It takes place simultaneously with the story "The Lesser of Two Evils," and contains spoilers for the series to date. ...Buffy who happily lives with Spike and has just discovered that she is pregnant, is abducted by Warren Meers and teleported into a W&H holding dimension where they collect Slayers for a secret mission. She meets Vampire!Buffy and several human Buffies who reluctantly accept her in the team of good guys. But even if she escapes, can she be certain that her life's followed the right path after the revelations from the other Buffies?
Started in 2007, finished in 2011, Rahirah's story is a great fantasy-adventure story - as well as a multilayered exploration of the philosophy of the show, characters' choices, fandom's dissents and storytelling techniques. How many Buffies are out there over the interwebs? Here we deal with some of them. A Buffy who married Riley; a Buffy who loves Angel and hates Spike; a Buffy who is on the run together with Faith; canonical Buffy who led an army in comics. And - the protagonist, Rahirah's Buffy who loves unsouled Spike and feels she's an outcast among them. Uneasy choices, grand sacrifices and unexpected catches - "In a Yellow Wood" is a happy marriage of amazing characters and brilliant storytelling.