Kivrin

antennapedia tagged me for this meme, and I've finally pulled together a list and a few thoughts on the subject.

5. Therapy.
I like this for the uneasy, eager, dorky, repentant-but-clueless Angel and the Wesley, who's still fumbling out of his carapace of nervous incompetence towards badass scholar/demon hunter. I'm very fond of the Sanskrit bit, too. Wesley/Angel is not a ship I sail with (After Wesley/Giles, Wes/Gunn rings my bells the most) but I enjoyed writing this. I felt so sad for Wesley when Angel was kissing up to Cordelia; it felt good to show Angel working to make amends with Wes as well. I am not satisfied with the title, but it gets the job done.

4. Never Spoken.
I like aftermath stories, and I wondered what the chocolate comedown would be like. The events of this story were always clear in my mind, but it took several tries to settle on a way of telling it. I like the allusions to the post-Becoming summer that the Xander-pov make possible, but there are things I really liked about the abortive Giles-pov version. Maybe that will see the light of LJ one day. Anyway. Bits of this that I particularly like are Xander's methodical tea-making, his desperate anti-arousal thoughts (Willow. Luge. Minesweeper. Willow.) and Giles' line "There's fuck-all to wear in there, unless I want to host a fancy-dress party as C.S. fucking Lewis." I also like "a hand-packed gallon of awkward with chunks of weird British slang."

3. Three Conversations in Liminal Spaces.
I owe this one to bethynyc's prompt "the beginning of a real relationship between them." So much more interesting (to me) than a first-time story. Which might explain why I haven't written any first-time stories.

I like this because it is a little bit of a romantic comedy, if you think of Buffy s3 canon as the "meet cute" in which the twu wuvvers hate each other, and the story being the Getting to Know You in which they recognize their attraction for each other. On rereading, I wish I'd found a less ex machina way to bring in the cat, and that perhaps I'd taken more time with section 2, but the whole AU still makes me ridiculously happy.

I'm particularly fond of the confrontation between Wesley and his dad, and the conversation in the attic.

2. Intransigence.
This scratches so many of my fic-writing-and-reading itches at once. It deals with what happened offstage during S7, and possible partial explanations for Giles' pod!behavior, and how events from Angel and Buffy synch up. And though it's a big shameless h/c-athon, I flatter myself that it's not absurdly shmoopy except in the dream. (Which is maybe cheating, but it makes me happy, dammit.)

1. When They Take You In.
I am terribly enamored of the elder Gileses, and the uncomfortable prodigal-son-ness of the whole situation, and the scene with Henry and Rupert and the crossbow, and the hints about Rupert's (not abusive, thankyouverymuch) childhood. When I reread it, there are a few bits of prose that I itch to replace or tweak, but overall I have a good feeling of (to paraphrase greyhoundliz on high-quality alcohol,) "yeah, I'd read that on purpose."

Title: Kitchen Dreams
Characters: Giles
Rating: G

Parsnips were hard work; the peeler always stuck near the tip, and the smell wouldn’t come off Rupert’s hands even when he washed. Still, he liked it when Mum gave him a real job, not just babyish tasks of counting carrots or choosing potatoes. Roasted parsnips tasted good, so the work was worth it. Not like onions, which were satisfying to pull from the garden but nasty to eat, or tomatoes that were finicky to pick and slimy inside. When Rupert had his own shop like Mr.Barnicot, he would sell all the onions and never have any tomatoes at all.

In accordance with the most popular responses to the h/c poll, here is an indulgent ficlet. It's Giles/Wesley, rated G, and set about four months after Three Conversations in Liminal Spaces.

Home

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Still to come: A minority-wins poll-response ficlet (with an appearance by the Citroen.)

meme snagged from headrush100:

Ask me anything you want about any of my stories: how I thought of the idea, what I did to write it, what I was thinking when I wrote it, what I feel about it now, what I wish I'd done differently, etc. Or ask any of the characters from particular stories something you want to know, and get an answer from them. Or both.

Title: Intransigence
Author: Kivrin
Characters: Giles, Wesley, various Scoobies, the First Evil.
Rating: PG-13
Setting: BtVS S7, just before “Lies My Parents Told Me” and around AtS “Apocalypse, Nowish.”
Summary: On his way back to Sunnydale with the Prokaryote stone, Giles breaks his journey in L.A., and tries to hold out against flu, exhaustion, and the First.
Note: comments and concrit welcome.
Length: approx. 10,000 words

ETA: Thanks to the brave souls who offered comments during the long gestation of this piece: headrush100, heron_pose, tx_cronopio, and glimmergirl.

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Yes, a fic post. No one faint. ;)

Title: Three Conversations in Liminal Spaces
Author: Kivrin
Characters: Giles/Wesley
Rating: PG-13
Setting: Angel season 5 (AU after “Lineage”)
Summary: After the events of “Lineage,” Wesley goes home and starts over. Some things are exactly the same. Some, happily, are not. Angst, humor, and h/c.
Note: comments and concrit welcome.
Length: 5,000 words

Thanks to headrush100 and glimmergirl for beta help and encouragement.

Written for last November’s Watcherlove ficathon, filling the request of the very, very, very patient bethynyc. Specifics of the request posted below.

( Read the fic here )

( Specifics of the ficathon request )

Title: A Song in the Dark
Author: Kivrin
Characters: Giles/Wesley
Rating: PG-13
Setting: Buffy s3
Summary: An injured Wesley spends the night at Giles' flat. Sequel to Songs and Curses. A little h/c, a little angst, a little UST.

ETA: Thanks to kimmerwoman for excellent and timely beta assistance.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, headrush100!!

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Missed Connection



Buffy told Willow it's fine, and she tries to believe that. After all, it's not like Willow's doing anything new, not like she and Tara weren't already joined at the hip, already walking hand in hand, talking all night.

It’s not like Will and Tara were doing anything Buffy and Willow hadn't done. Before.

When Buffy comes back from patrol, there’s a cheery @ Tara’s tonight! on their whiteboard. She sits on her empty bed, arms crossed over the weird ache in her stomach, and whispers to the silence, "It should have been me. It should have been us."

Searching

Another alley, another host of eyeless monks. Another starless night, this one still warm as afternoon and so humid it's hard to breathe. Another girl, this one dark-haired, speechless, bleeding from a fall on the pavement. Giles pushes her against the wall, putting himself between her and the Bringers.

The girls should blur in his mind like the alleys, but they are Slayers, if only in potential, and stubborn. He remembers how fear looked on each face, how anger and pleading mingled in each voice. When Chao-Ahn screams, he hears the other voices, dead and living together driving him on.