ANGEL: THE SERIES
Mockingbird by Jane St. Clair -- The best Cordelia/Faith piece I’ve seen (out of the admittedly fairly small total number of stories written about this pairing). I find it a little unbelievable that Cordy never engaged in certain activities with men--especially Xander--prior to her encounter with Faith, but that’s only a minor flaw. Jane’s characterization of Cordelia is superb, which is particularly impressive because writing Cordelia well isn’t as easy as it looks. If you don’t believe me, there are a couple of episodes of Angel you should watch.
Death Becomes Her by Tanja Kinkel -- What she does for Cassandra in her Highlander story “Death and the Maiden”, Tanja does for Darla in this amazing piece, the first of her Buffy stories I’ve been able to find in English.
Situating the Self by Spyke Raven -- Probably my favorite look at the Lindsey/Darla relationship, this set of missing scenes--like much of Spyke's work--has that cinematic quality which convinced me that it was actually happening somewhere offscreen:
When he came out again, she was still sitting in the same position.Strangely enough the only problem I have with this story is the slash--obviously I don't have anything against slash, but the introduction of a sexual component into Holland and Lindsey's relationship seemed gratuitous to me; I think Holland's later actions with regard to Lindsey can be justified and understood without their needing to have been lovers, and Lindsey's whoring himself doesn't have to be literal to be dramatically effective. Nonetheless, this story is gorgeously written and highly recommended."I have to"
She didn't look away.
"Darla. I. Have to. Go."
"So." He stopped and thrust his fists into his pockets.
Half turning, "The kitchen is through that door. There's... food. In the fridge. And the phone is there...I left numbers. For take-out. You just call the -"
Shit.
"And my number. If you need me to -"
Crap. Crap, crap.
The constriction around his chest sucked all the air out of the room. Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to leave, to escape this, this strange...
Everything
His heart contracted painfully.
Shit.
How could he leave her like this?
"Lindsey."
He turned back at that.
She didn't look at him, but her mouth was quirked in what could pass for a smile.
"I remember phones."
Thirty Days by Kita -- [add rec]
The other Kita story that I can't live without is Echoes. [add rec] Also not to be missed are her story cycles Of the Beast (Buffy, Spike, Angel, Darla and the threads that bind them) and Equinox (Angel meditates upon lovers and seasons).
In Season by Elizabeth -- Remember what I said about how hard it was to get Cordy right? Well, that's nothing compared to how few good Kate stories there are out there, and Elizabeth manages to capture them both in a late-night encounter so believable I could taste it.... And A Point Apart is the best solo Kate story I've found.
Um, everything Yahtzee's ever written? Standouts include The Other Half Lives, Chapter Six-and-a-Half of The Quality of Mercy (that would be the NC-17 slash naturally, not that the rest of the story isn't good too), and [add rec]
Kiss Me Deadly by Jennifer-Oksana -- Wesley gets laid. There are complications. (A sexy, noir-inspired romp with tons of plot and snark... I can see the influence of certain X-Files epics (in a good way) combined with her own style in this one).
Dances with Groos by Dolores Labouchere -- Makes the Pylea arc worth it.
Deliverance by Debchan -- I want to say, makes third season worth it, but there were good points to third season, namely the introduction of Connor and Wesley's arc--and this story is about the two of them, set during the summer after.
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