Fic: ‘Turn and Face the Strain’ 3/15 by Quinara [strongish R]

This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series Turn and Face the Strain

Here we go…

Turn and Face the Strain.

[Sequel to The More Things Stay the Same and As Good as a Rest.]

When Buffy thought about falling in love again, she didn’t expect it to be nearly so complicated as it actually turns out to be.
Also, she didn’t expect it to be Spike. (She’s not sure he did either.)

Author: Quinara
Rating: R…? I’m not sure I even know anymore with ratings, but there’s sex in it and people swear lots and (gasp) I think there’s some underage drinking too, which probably needs to be censored. ;)
Length: ~80,000 words in total; ~33,000 words today; chapters are generally between 5000 and 6000 words.
Setting: Late S6, AU As You Were (and so much more! Not least in an AU AtS S3…)

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Fic: ‘Turn and Face the Strain’ 2/15 by Quinara [strongish R]

This entry is part 2 of 7 in the series Turn and Face the Strain

Carrying on to Chapter 2!

Turn and Face the Strain.

[Sequel to The More Things Stay the Same and As Good as a Rest.]

When Buffy thought about falling in love again, she didn’t expect it to be nearly so complicated as it actually turns out to be.
Also, she didn’t expect it to be Spike. (She’s not sure he did either.)

Author: Quinara
Rating: R…? I’m not sure I even know anymore with ratings, but there’s sex in it and people swear lots and (gasp) I think there’s some underage drinking too, which probably needs to be censored. ;)
Length: ~80,000 words in total; ~33,000 words today; chapters are generally between 5000 and 6000 words.
Setting: Late S6, AU As You Were (and so much more! Not least in an AU AtS S3…)

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Fic: ‘Turn and Face the Strain’ 1/15 by Quinara [strongish R]

This entry is part 1 of 7 in the series Turn and Face the Strain

Hi! I have a novel-length fic for seasonal_spuffy this round, which is completed, but which I’m not going to post in its entirety today, because I don’t want to overload the world with ~80,000 words and because I still need to edit bits. Instead I’ve got the first six chapters, ~30,000 words, which I’ll post over the course of the day and then I’ll make sure to have the rest up on the free-for-all day. This will be either on the comm itself (the current plan) or on my journal, which I’ll make sure to link to, so you won’t be left hanging for any more than a week! The rationale behind going with six chapters today rather than a few more, also, is because they do make something of a self-contained arc/story-bit on their own, so what’s up today comes to a certain sort of pause before the nine chapters afterwards respond to it.

Turn and Face the Strain.
[Sequel to The More Things Stay the Same and As Good as a Rest.]

When Buffy thought about falling in love again, she didn’t expect it to be nearly so complicated as it actually turns out to be.
Also, she didn’t expect it to be Spike. (She’s not sure he did either.)

Author: Quinara
Rating: R…? I’m not sure I even know anymore with ratings, but there’s sex in it and people swear lots and (gasp) I think there’s some underage drinking too, which probably needs to be censored. ;)
Length: ~80,000 words in total; ~33,000 words today; chapters are generally between 5000 and 6000 words.
Setting: Late S6, AU As You Were (and so much more! Not least in an AU AtS S3…)
Notes: Many thanks to the fabulous bogwitch for putting up with me and being my beta! This is the final story in a series I’ve written for the previous two rounds of seasonal_spuffy, consisting of The More Things Stay the Same and As Good as a Rest. I think what I’m posting today probably could stand on its own as a S6 AU, but I do follow up some stuff that happens in the previous fics, because it’s a sequel. The main thing is that Dead Things went differently and some stuff happened in LA. Other stuff happened around Buffy’s birthday.
Warnings: I don’t think this would need any of the AO3 listed warnings. I think the genre of this is much more of a drama-going-on-mystery-ish-adventure story, so it’s mostly in line with the show in terms of what it involves.
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Fic: ‘As Good as a Rest’ (3/3) by Quinara [R/NC-17]

And this is all of it! The last chapter’s a bit of a monster…

As Good as a Rest.
[Sequel to The More Things Stay the Same.]
So, Buffy’s alive. Ish. Spike’s dead, but she’s hoping for the ish. Katrina’s definitely dead. At least the cops are investigating that one?

Author: Quinara
Rating: R/NC-17 for explicit sex (some of it somewhat dark? Or something?)
Length: ~31,000 words (in three chapters of approx. 10,000/9,000/12,000)
Setting: Late S6, AU OAFA.
Notes: Many thanks to evilawyer for her help on US-California finance thingemies, lettered for reminding me how many words could be conceived in a short time period, plus extra massive thanks to dear bogwitch, who was a brilliant and fantabulous beta, sounding board and whinging post, comboed all in one and without whom this fic would probably have been ditched halfway through. Or just suck. [ETA: Plus, she made me a lovely, lovely banner, which you can see under the cut!]
As mentioned above, this fic is a sequel to my seasonal_spuffy fic from the last round, The More Things Stay the Same; I think it functions fairly well on its own as a post AU Dead Things AU fic assuming that Buffy and Spike are getting along better – but why would you read this on its own when you could read a 55,000 word diptych? :P The chapter titles are indeed from Dead Things, BTW.
Warnings: Graphic violence? Otherwise nothing the AO3 would make you warn for, but violence and sex blur a bit at certain points. There’s also angst that maybe isn’t angst and fluff that maybe isn’t fluff? I’m bad with judging tone.

[Chapter One: Don’t Close Your Eyes.]
[Chapter Two: Look at Them.]
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Fic: ‘As Good as a Rest’ (2/3) by Quinara [R/NC-17]

Massive cheers to the mods, I should have said in the last post, also! Yay for seasonal_spuffy!

As Good as a Rest.
[Sequel to The More Things Stay the Same.]
So, Buffy’s alive. Ish. Spike’s dead, but she’s hoping for the ish. Katrina’s definitely dead. At least the cops are investigating that one?

Author: Quinara
Rating: R/NC-17 for explicit sex (some of it somewhat dark? Or something?)
Length: ~31,000 words (in three chapters of approx. 10,000/9,000/12,000)
Setting: Late S6, AU OAFA.
Notes: Many thanks to evilawyer for her help on US-California finance thingemies, lettered for reminding me how many words could be conceived in a short time period, plus extra massive thanks to dear bogwitch, who was a brilliant and fantabulous beta, sounding board and whinging post, comboed all in one and without whom this fic would probably have been ditched halfway through. Or just suck. [ETA: Plus, she made me a lovely, lovely banner, which you can see under the cut!]
As mentioned above, this fic is a sequel to my seasonal_spuffy fic from the last round, The More Things Stay the Same; I think it functions fairly well on its own as a post AU Dead Things AU fic assuming that Buffy and Spike are getting along better – but why would you read this on its own when you could read a 55,000 word diptych? :P The chapter titles are indeed from Dead Things, BTW.
Warnings: Graphic violence? Otherwise nothing the AO3 would make you warn for, but violence and sex blur a bit at certain points. There’s also angst that maybe isn’t angst and fluff that maybe isn’t fluff? I’m bad with judging tone.

[Chapter One: Don’t Close Your Eyes.]
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Fic: ‘As Good as a Rest’ (1/3) by Quinara [R/NC-17]

Helloo!! I’m sorry for being a bit quick off the mark with my day, since it’s only just gone midnight here, but I wanted to make sure I got some work done tomorrow, hence posting it tonight rather than compulsively faffing and not working in the morning!

What I have is a long fic in three parts:

As Good as a Rest.
[Sequel to The More Things Stay the Same.]
So, Buffy’s alive. Ish. Spike’s dead, but she’s hoping for the ish. Katrina’s definitely dead. At least the cops are investigating that one?

Author: Quinara
Rating: R/NC-17 for explicit sex (some of it somewhat dark? Or something?)
Length: ~31,000 words (in three chapters of approx. 10,000/9,000/12,000)
Setting: Late S6, AU OAFA.
Notes: Many thanks to evilawyer for her help on US-California finance thingemies, lettered for reminding me how many words could be conceived in a short time period, plus extra massive thanks to dear bogwitch, who was a brilliant and fantabulous beta, sounding board and whinging post, comboed all in one and without whom this fic would probably have been ditched halfway through. Or just suck. [ETA: Plus, she made me a lovely, lovely banner, which you can see under the cut!]
As mentioned above, this fic is a sequel to my seasonal_spuffy fic from the last round, The More Things Stay the Same; I think it functions fairly well on its own as a post AU Dead Things AU fic assuming that Buffy and Spike are getting along better – but why would you read this on its own when you could read a 55,000 word diptych? :P The chapter titles are indeed from Dead Things, BTW.
Warnings: Graphic violence? Otherwise nothing the AO3 would make you warn for, but violence and sex blur a bit at certain points. There’s also angst that maybe isn’t angst and fluff that maybe isn’t fluff? I’m bad with judging tone.
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Fic: ‘Walking at Midday’ by Quinara (PG-13/R)

This is a piece of angsty/squishy/fluffy smoosh that I didn’t have ready for my day, but conveniently have ready now. In which Spike finds a different way of dealing with the trigger!

Author: Quinara
Rating: PG-13/R for, hmm, swearing and reasonably explicit discussion of sex and sexual violence. I’m thinking of it as something like a 15 over here. Teen?
Length: ~7500 words.
Setting: S7, just after Get It Done.
Warnings: Explicit discussion of canonical attempted rape, otherwise no others off the AO3 list.

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Vid: 4’33” by Quinara

Hello again! This is a bit of an experiment for me (definitely more so than my earlier fic), but I hope people enjoy it all the same. :)

So, John Cage’s 4’33” is a piece of music made out of silence – or more specifically ambient sounds. It was released as a single last December, in a bid for the Christmas No. 1 in the UK (hoping to beat the latest X Factor winner, like the re-release of Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name did in 2009), under the name Cage Against the Machine. It came with a number of ‘mixes’ – different people’s versions of four minutes and thirty-three seconds of ambient sound, of which Fake Blood’s Needle Drop Mix was one, building a piece around the sound of a vinyl record player just on the verge of playing something.

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Fic: ‘The More Things Stay the Same’ (3/3) by Quinara [R]

And the last part! I’ll be back later with something extra. :)

The More Things Stay the Same.
Buffy goes to Wesley instead of Tara about the resurrection spell.

Author: Quinara
Rating: R for for reasonably explicit sex and a whole bunch of swearing.
Length: ~25,000 words (in three chapters of approx. 8300 each.)
Other Pairings: None as such, though Angel is around, so there’s certainly Buffy-Angel interaction and a friendly acceptance of the Bangel of yore.
Notes: Big thanks to bogwitch  for the beta job! It rather got away with me after she saw it, though, so don’t blame her for anything you don’t like. ;) Also, this fic is set after DMP (where the chapter titles come from) and immediately after Loyalty on AtS.
Warnings: Nothing AO3 would make you warn for; otherwise, a certain amount of S6-y misery, but it’s not what I’d call the angstiest thing in angst town.

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Fic: ‘The More Things Stay the Same’ (2/3) by Quinara [R]

Cheers again to the mods (and everyone reading)!

The More Things Stay the Same.
Buffy goes to Wesley instead of Tara about the resurrection spell.

Author: Quinara
Rating: R for for reasonably explicit sex and a whole bunch of swearing.
Length: ~25,000 words (in three chapters of approx. 8300 each.)
Other Pairings: None as such, though Angel is around, so there’s certainly Buffy-Angel interaction and a friendly acceptance of the Bangel of yore.
Notes: Big thanks to bogwitch  for the beta job! It rather got away with me after she saw it, though, so don’t blame her for anything you don’t like. ;) Also, this fic is set after DMP (where the chapter titles come from) and immediately after Loyalty on AtS.
Warnings: Nothing AO3 would make you warn for; otherwise, a certain amount of S6-y misery, but it’s not what I’d call the angstiest thing in angst town.

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Fic: ‘The More Things Stay the Same’ (1/3) by Quinara [R]

‘Allo!

I hope I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes, but it’s just ticked over to my posting day in my time zone, and I was getting antsy, so does anyone mind if I begin? (Hi, mods! Thanks so much for running this again!!) I’ve got a three-part fic and a vid to post today, so will be popping in at fairly regular intervals!

The More Things Stay the Same.
Buffy goes to Wesley instead of Tara about the resurrection spell.

Author: Quinara
Rating: R for for reasonably explicit sex and a whole bunch of swearing.
Length: ~25,000 words (in three chapters of approx. 8300 each.)
Other Pairings: None as such, though Angel is around, so there’s certainly Buffy-Angel interaction and a friendly acceptance of the Bangel of yore.
Notes: Big thanks to bogwitch for the beta job! It rather got away with me after she saw it, though, so don’t blame her for anything you don’t like. ;) Also, this fic is set after DMP (where the chapter titles come from) and immediately after Loyalty on AtS.
Warnings: Nothing AO3 would make you warn for; otherwise, a certain amount of S6-y misery, but it’s not what I’d call the angstiest thing in angst town.

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Fanmix: Mixtape for Buffy’s 21st by Quinara

Hello again! Er, this is a random extra far less serious that the fic I posted earlier. You know all those stories where Spike ends up making Buffy a mixtape for some reason? Well, it’s a fun bit of fanon and I like it, but I always wondered what would be on such a tape – being a fan of 70s punk myself (including its relatives on the music family tree).

So I made one! The idea being that Spike was trying to put something together for Buffy’s 21st (ie. Older and Far Away). It’s quite possible he wouldn’t have ended up giving it to her – it starts off being about feelings, but ends up being about kind of more than that…

[ETA: Ooh, while you get stuck in – check out the accompanying fic bogwitch wrote about Buffy receiving the tape!!]

Spike's rubbish CD insert scrawled on file paper.
To Buffy from Spike.

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Fic: ‘To Apprehend Air’ (3/3) by Quinara [PG-13]

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series To Apprehend Air

To Apprehend Air

Two days after LMPTM, Spike’s soul is stolen. But that’s OK; they can get it back, right? Simple. How hard is it to hop dimensions, anyway? Or storm a castle…

Author: Quinara
Rating: PG-13 for a little swearing and some fairly graphic violence.
Length: ~18,800 words (in three chapters of approx. 8000/8000/3000)
Other Pairings: Anya/Xander is around as well.
Warnings: Discussion of canonical attempted rape, otherwise none in particular.

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Fic: ‘To Apprehend Air’ (2/3) by Quinara [PG-13]

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series To Apprehend Air

To Apprehend Air

Two days after LMPTM, Spike’s soul is stolen. But that’s OK; they can get it back, right? Simple. How hard is it to hop dimensions, anyway? Or storm a castle…

Author: Quinara
Rating: PG-13 for a little swearing and some fairly graphic violence.
Length: ~18,800 words (in three chapters of approx. 8000/8000/3000)
Other Pairings: Anya/Xander is around as well.
Warnings: Discussion of canonical attempted rape, otherwise none in particular.
Extra Note: Thanks to pj_krystofer  for checking and fixing my French.

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Fic: ‘To Apprehend Air’ (1/3) by Quinara [PG-13]

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series To Apprehend Air

Hello, seasonal_spuffy!! It’s so great to be here for another round! Thank you, enigmaticblues, for setting us all up again – I can’t wait to see everyone else’s stuff.

I’ve got one (reasonably) long fic for everyone today, with possibly something extra later if I can wrangle it into shape in time… So here goes!

To Apprehend Air

Two days after LMPTM, Spike’s soul is stolen. But that’s OK; they can get it back, right? Simple. How hard is it to hop dimensions, anyway? Or storm a castle…

Author: Quinara
Rating: PG-13 for a little swearing and some fairly graphic violence.
Length: ~18,800 words (in three chapters of approx. 8000/8000/3000)
Other Pairings: Anya/Xander is around as well.
Warnings: Discussion of canonical attempted rape, otherwise none in particular.

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Five Poems Spike Wrote about Buffy (and One that She Wrote about Him).

I posted some fic earlier today, and now I’m back with poetry! Slightly moody poetry…

Title: Five Poems Spike Wrote about Buffy (and One that She Wrote about Him)
Author: Quinara
Rating: PG-13? Sex references and swearing.
Summary: Two sonnets, two lumps of free verse and 17 lines of hendecasyllablics; one from S5, two from S7, one from AtS S5 and one post-NFA. Plus something Buffy wrote in some sort of domestic futureverse!
Author’s Notes: Any bloody awfulness is intentional. Because I say so. :P

Warnings: None in particular.

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Fic: “Positive Exposure (2/2)” by Quinara

On to Part 2!

Title: Positive Exposure
Author: Quinara
Rating: R/NC-17 for some briefly graphic sex and relatively high amounts of swearing.
Word Count: c. 13,600 in total.
Summary: Safe in the bosom of the A-List, Spike is set up on a date with Buffy: the world’s most hated tabloid trash. Wackiness refuses to ensue.
Author’s Notes: Please see Part 1 for notes and to begin reading!

Warnings: Pervasive misogyny, but otherwise none in particular.

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Fic: “Positive Exposure (1/2)” by Quinara

Hello! It’s so nice to be back at seasonal_spuffy again – thanks, enigmaticblues, for continuing to do such a great job! I’ve got some short bits of poetry to post later, but until then I have fic!

Title: Positive Exposure
Author: Quinara
Rating: R/NC-17 for some briefly graphic sex and relatively high amounts of swearing.
Word Count: c. 13,600 in total.
Summary: Safe in the bosom of the A-List, Spike is set up on a date with Buffy: the world’s most hated tabloid trash. Wackiness refuses to ensue.
Author’s Notes: Not AHAU! This instead takes place some time on from the end of the comics Angel: After the Fall #17 and BtVS 8×21 (Harmonic Divergence). It does not rely heavily on comics canon, apart from the idea that now Spike, Buffy, Angel and Harmony are famous! And people have been made aware of vampires, demons and slayers. It should still be accessible, hopefully, even if people haven’t read the comics. Massive thanks to bogwitch and spiralleds for their betas!

Warnings: Pervasive misogyny, but otherwise none in particular.

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