Let's talk about id!fic

[lirazel]

So I was bored at work and combing back through old metafandom entries, and I stumbled across this jewel. You should read it because it's short and kind of hilarious.

The premise is a celebration of those fics you should be ashamed of enjoying and you know they’re kinda bad but you can’t help it, you love them anyways: id!fic.

[As an aside, this topic always reminds me of OH JOHN RINGO NO, which is one of my favorite posts to ever happen to the internet. Except that his id freaks me out. Unlike my id, which I’m quite comfortable with. GO READ THE POST.]

Of course, not all id!fics are fics to be ashamed of, and I won’t call them guilty pleasure fics, because not all of them are bad. Harbingers of Beatrice by hollydb, for instance, is definitely an id!fic for me: Spike has a BFF! Spike and Cordy are friends! It’s h/c with Buffy being the one who gets hurt and comforted! Buffy and Spike pretty much ride off into the sunset! All of Angel's friends end up liking Spike better! [I know, I know! I'm a horrible person!] The parts of it I enjoy most appeal to the pettiest parts of me or are the parts that are least likely to happen in canon. That's what makes it (for me) an id!fic, which it might not be for another person.

Then there’s botias's awesome Persephone, which she says is just an excuse to have virginal!S2!Buffy and evil!S2!Spike get it on...but it’s really, really good (and, unfortunately, unfinished). I’m pretty sure Season Noir just started out as Anna S.’s idfic. nautibitz has made an entire fandom career out of writing id!fic.

So while the fics/authors I listed aren't all pure id!fic (though some of Nauti's certainly are), they all have varying levels of id-appeal. I, unfortunately, don't have any id!fic loves quite as extreme as the ones mentioned in the linked post. The closest I can come to an id!fic that I enjoy because of its iddiness are those big epic fics by a certain Spuffy writer in which (invariably) A) Spike is horribly, horribly hurt and/or tortured and/or enslaved, B) Buffy saves him and loves on him, C) Buffy betrays her promise to never let him get hurt again by either allowing him to be in a situation where his torturer can hurt him or where she herself hurts him, D) Dawn is OUT FOR REVENGE (I don't even know why, but Dawn is usually the one to be OUT FOR REVENGE in these fics and it makes me lol forever), and E) Buffy apologizes to Spike (sometimes this strays too far into Buffy That Bitch! territory and makes me mad) and they live happily ever after.

And look. It's ridiculous, okay? (That's not a slam at the writing, which is quite good, just an observation on the premises.) But it's way, way fun. I enjoy the hell out of it. I love h/c just so much, and sometimes I really love woobies.

[Another aside: I would love, love, love to read more fics where Buffy is the woobie. Someone should write more of those. I wanna see Spike loving on Buffy like in “Touched.” But I want this without Buffy being reduced to the stereotypical damsel role. I want her to still be Buffy...just with h/c. Y’all get on that.]


Now, at this point, you may be asking yourself what the difference is between an id!fic and a fic that contains your narrative kinks (I asked myself this myself). In my mind there are two main differences between something appealing to your id and something being a narrative kink.

1) Id-appeal is more situationally specific than narrative kinks. For instance, one of my kinks is babyfic. I don't want to see it with every pairing I like, but I certainly would in more than one pairing. Whereas the fics I describe below are very character or situationally specific. They're revenge fics or fics that rub in everyone's face how awesome a particular character is or just flat-out would never happen in canon. Ever.

and/or

2) You realize it's ridiculous. Whether that's because it doesn't fit the characters or it's insane troll logic or it's just plain silly, id-appeal tends towards the ridiculous. Sometimes a really talented writer can pull that ridiculous off (see the fics I talked about above). But if you strip away the great writing the idea itself is really ridiculous. [Note: I realize almost every single plot could be construed as being ridiculous. There's a TV Trope about descriptions of stories that sound stupid. Id-appeal, though, takes it further.]

So, as I said, sometimes id!fic can become something really, really great. But most of my personal id!fic is of the kind I’m never gonna write because either A) no one else would want to read it or B) it would ruin my reputation in fandom (HAHAHAHA! Fandom reputation! *dies laughing*). But I’m gonna come clean and tell you all about them.


Here's the one that sticks with me: Post-"Empty Places," Spike comes back from his Mission Mission (oh, Andrew!) and Buffy's all depressed and everything, and he's furious at her friends for what they did to her, and the two of them say, "Screw it!" and they run far away and live happily ever after in some place awesome (Vienna, probably, just so I can write about Vienna and picture the look on Buffy's face when Spike takes her shopping on Mariahilferstrasse for the first time and the two of them eating massive amounts of gelato at Zanoni & Zanoni and go to the Wiehnachtsmarkt and generally just be awesome together in Vienna).

And everyone back in Sunnydale dies fighting the First. And then Angel has to come riding in and stops the First and has to wear the tacky amulet to do it and closes the Hellmouth burns up doing it and Lindsey or whoever doesn't bring him back.

And Spike and Buffy are off being happy and NAH-NAH-NAH-NAH-BOO-BOO.

Probably also in this fic, Riley and his wife will show up in Vienna and Buffy’ll be all, “I could be all mad at you for being a horrible, passive-aggressive, victim-blaming, patronizing jerk the last two times I saw you, but I’m too happy with Spike to even care about you. Go away.” And Riley feels like the douche he is for giving Buffy ultimatums and telling her it was her fault that he went and got suckjobs from vamps and then came back to town as was patronizing as hell (can you tell I recently rewatched "Into the Woods"? Any softness I felt towards him while rewatching S4 gets thrown out the window when I watch ItW or AYW). And Sam is revealed to be a robot. Made by Warren. Idek why. Just because it’s funny.



And this is like the least realistic thing in the universe, and it shouldn’t ever, ever happen in canon because it just doesn’t make sense. I also wouldn’t love Buffy nearly as much if she wasn’t the kind of person to just straight-up forgive people when most others probably wouldn’t. I wouldn’t love Spike as much if he didn’t love the way Buffy tries and didn’t give her the strength to go back and if he wasn’t willing to die to save the whole freakin’ world. I definitely wouldn’t love either of them as much if they were fine with leaving people they loved to die. They wouldn’t be heroes then. I fully acknowledge that.

But my id doesn’t care. My id wants that fic. And the truth is that I really don't want everyone else to die (I love Dawn! And Anya! And Andrew! And...some other people sometimes!). But when I'm watching that episode, I do. Because when I watch “Empty Places,” I become so angry that I shake and I can’t watch the whole episode and I want EVERYONE TO DIE DIE DIE except for Buffy and Spike (and Andrew, but he isn’t invited to Vienna. Sorry, bro) and I want them to be deliriously and blissfully happy.


I’d also love to write/read fic in which Riley walks in on Buffy and Spike in “As You Were” and Spike does the whole speech about the word delicious and Buffy goes, “You know what? This is kind of hilariously awesome” and tells Riley to go away and never come back and then she and Spike live happily ever after.

And I know that wouldn’t be realistic. That wouldn’t be Buffy—she’s struggling with depression and isn’t capable of being in a healthy relationship at the moment. And it wouldn’t be good for Spike—he’s manipulative and horrible in a lot of ways in S6 (because he doesn’t have any sort of moral compass) and also isn’t capable of being in a healthy relationship at that moment.

But my id doesn’t care. My id wants that fic. You know?



I have a few id!fic cravings in other fandoms as well. And even though you didn’t ask, I’m gonna tell you about them.

* Veronica Mars: I really, really want a fic where Kendall and Cassidy Casablancas take over the world and snark at each other (and secretly are very fond of each other but would never admit it) while they RULE THE WORLD. Like, Cassidy owns every major company in the world and is like Donald Trump and Bill Gates combined and Kendall is his partner in crime, and there's much snarking and plotting and general awesomeness.

* Battlestar Galactica: I want fic where Felix and Dee are laughing and partying it up in heaven (I blame this on ineffort. Also, fic wherein Sam finds a nice girl who appreciates him and Kara feels bad. [Gah! And I hate those kinds of fics in Buffy fandom! It makes me furious when I read a fic where someone "finally appreciates" Spike and Buffy feels bad. But for some reason, I want it for Sam Anders. I do not know why.]

* Dollhouse: While the show was airing, I posted my plans to make it awesome. And it's pure id, y'all.

*Supernatural: I want fic where all of the dead women—women killed off to give men something to angst over—haunt the Winchester brothers to death.

* Doctor Who: I want fic where Billy Shipton comes back from the dead (and being old) and he comes to visit Sally Sparrow and she’s all, “What was I thinking with stupid Larry Nightingale? Billy’s the guy for me!” [That part is vital to it being id!fic and not just wish!fulfillment!fic] And then they run off and become Companions and run around the universe in the Tardis.

* Being Erica: I want lots and lots of AU fic where (highlight for possible spoilers, yo) Erica falls into 2019 (sans annoying wig) and she meets bad-boy!rock-star!Kai and cures him of his bad-boy!rock-star ways by the POWER OF THEIR LOVE.

* Buffyverse: I want fic post-“You’re Welcome” where Cordy isn’t dead and she and Spike are BFFs, dammit! And Buffy and Spike must be together and Buffy must have chosen Spike over Angel and Cordy must think this is all hilarious and Cordy and Spike must snark together constantly. Mostly about Angel. (To be slightly nicer to Angel, he can be with Cordy, even though he totally isn't good enough for her. ;D) [I know, I know! I ask about this all the time! Sooner or later, though, I'm gonna wear one of you down and you're gonna write it.]

* Crossover time! I want fic where Veronica joins the FBI and Dana Scully is her mentor and while she’s investigating a case she meets this woman named Buffy Summers…. [Actually...this isn't id!fic. It's just an awesome idea and one of you should write it. I'm just sneaking it in in hopes it will latch onto someone's brain.]

* nu!Trek: I want fic where adorable little nu!Chekhov has a crush on some girl and doesn’t know how to talk to her so Uhura plays big sister and gives him advice while her BFF Jim (like this fic, which is an id!fic all on its own) snarks and banters and generally makes fun of everything.

* That 70s Show: I want fic where it’s revealed that everyone was smoking crack in the last few seasons and HYDE AND JACKIE GET BACK TOGETHER OKAY? What makes this id!fic is that I also want to see Fez fall off the planet and Hyde's wife-whatever-what-is-going-on-here? get sent packing by Jackie's awesomeness. Basically, I want it to be a Jackie!lovefest where Jackie gets the guy. The guy being Hyde. Yes.


I realize a lot of other people’s id!fic might be, like, porn, right? 'Cause that's kind of a thing in fandom? It isn’t my thing, but to each their own. Regardless of what rating your idfic would be, I want to hear about it.

Tell me about:

1. The fics you absolutely flat-out love, despite the fact that they're kind of ridiculous or are just horribly bad or appeal to the worst parts of you but you love them anyway.

and

2. The fic you’ll never, ever write because you know it doesn’t make sense or because your reputation would be shot to hell or because you’re embarrassed. Or the fic that would hit the less reasonable of your narrative kinks but that you crave despite knowing how ridiculous/unpopular/just-plain-silly it would be.

Anyone want to play?

Tell me, please!

Comments

[angearia.livejournal.com]

big epic fics by a certain Spuffy writer in which (invariably) A) Spike is horribly, horribly hurt and/or tortured and/or enslaved, B) Buffy saves him and loves on him, C) Buffy betrays her promise to never let him get hurt again by either allowing him to be in a situation where his torturer can hurt him or where she herself hurts him

LOL, this sounds familiar...

The Buffy "woobie" sounds familar too...

I haven't done the DAWN OUT FOR REVENGE thing, though. Clearly, I'm lacking.

Hmm, id!fic for me would be...

*post-Empty Places fic where something horrible happens to Buffy and maybe she's turned into a vampire and yes, the good guys are doomed because they all turned Judas. (Okay, I also have viciously imagined that the scene where Spike discovers Buffy's been kicked out goes much more violently and he really tears into everyone more and punches walls and throws furniture and is just so flipping terrifying.)

I can't quite think of any more at the moment, but I'll come back if I do!


ETA: You know your id!fic has been written, right? The one where Buffy after getting kicked out reunites with her vampire love and runs off to live happily with him, leaving Sunnydale and her friends behind. Except... it's BANGEL fic. Actually, it's BANGELUS fic. It's called "Salvaging the Emptiness" by Rehatha (and whoa, there's S&M in this. It's also clear that apparently Buffy being disempowered and pushed into the little woman by Angel is a kink in this fic).

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Ha! I didn't even consider that you'd sort of done that, too! But yours isn't nearly as iddy as this author's. She's written multiple fics with this same formula and they're all long. It's good times.

While I'm in the clutches of that episode, I totally want all the good guys to be doomed. *sigh*

Okay, I also have viciously imagined that the scene where Spike discovers Buffy's been kicked out goes much more violently and he really tears into everyone more and punches walls and throws furniture and is just so flipping terrifying.)

Me, too. Definitely.

It's also clear that apparently Buffy being disempowered and pushed into the little woman by Angel is a kink in this fic
Eh. Not for me. Why isn't there a Spuffy version? Seriously!

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

Okay, I also have viciously imagined that the scene where Spike discovers Buffy's been kicked out goes much more violently and he really tears into everyone more and punches walls and throws furniture and is just so flipping terrifying.

Have you ever read Loyalties by Ginmar? It's not quite what you describe exactly, but along that route. No violence, though, but he lays a great verbal beatdown and kicks everyone out. Not finished, sadly...

The one where Buffy after getting kicked out reunites with her vampire love and runs off to live happily with him, leaving Sunnydale and her friends behind.

BuffyX wrote a story along those lines called Gravity. Can't remember if everyone died or not. Again, not finished, I don't think... :(

[molly_may]

My id also craves "Buffy is the woobie" fics! Sadly, there are so few out there that don't turn Buffy into a damsel. Nauti generally hits my id cravings pretty head-on; for id fic I'm drawn more to snark and smut than to angst, I think. "Persephone" being a prime example.

While reading this:

Spike comes back from his Mission Mission (oh, Andrew!) and Buffy's all depressed and everything, and he's furious at her friends for what they did to her, and the two of them say, "Screw it!" and they run far away and live happily ever after in some place awesome

I was thinking "WRITE THIS PLEASE!",

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Nauti's unique in that she's totally harnessed the power of id!fic and become well-respected. It's really kind of awesome.

Ha! I'll probably never write it simply because it is so iddy. I mean, I just get so, so worked up in that episode that I just want EVERYONE TO DIE and Buffy and Spike to BE HAPPY AND IN LOVE. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[deird1]

I really must read more fic where Dawn is OUT FOR REVENGE. It'd be awesome.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I think you should write more fics where she's OUT FOR REVENGE. I'd love to read yours!

I can point you to those fics if you want, and if you're willing to go through all the Spuffy h/c stuff to get there. ;D

[dorians-kitten.livejournal.com]

All I kept thinking about while reading this was a fabulously silly scene I once read in a fic (Totally wish I could remember the name-I'm sorry)in which Spike has recently and possibly inexplicably regained his humanity but apparently forgotten key parts of human life and Buffy sends Oz in to show him how to use the bathroom. I laughed out loud reading it and then had to reread it like five times. It was perfect-Oz was totally Oz and Spike was adorable and it was also one of the most improbable things ever.

Myself-I have tried twice to create a fic in which a shy, virgin William gets a playful smack on the ass by a flirty Buffy and comes on the spot. I loooove that idea. He would be all embarrassed and adorable. I can't write it. I can't create a reasonable character -driven scene in which that happens. But I want it...bad. *sigh*

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

If you ever do remember the name, let me know! That sounds delightful!

And yes--that's exactly what I was talking about with id. That kind of a scene is just pure id. And you so know people would enjoy it if you did write it!

[snickfic]

Ooh! Ooh! If you haven't yet, you have to read ellen_fremedon's classic essay on slash, shamelessness, and the id vortex. It's exactly what you're talking about, and it rocks.

I think maybe my id is broken. 'Cuz what I thought was my id talking is what you're calling narrative kinks. It's not like I haven't read scads of fic with non-existent characterization or logic just because it was Spike/Buffy or whatever, but mostly when I'm done I find I haven't really enjoyed them, and I don't usually want to reread them.

I dunno. I love love love fic - like Persephone, or that Giles/authorial-insert fic I recced to you (did you ever check that out?) - that takes a crazy ridiculous premise and makes it work. Crackfic redeemed, if you will. It's just about my favorite kind of fic, actually. (Possibly this is yet another reason I keep wanting a really top-notch S4 Spuffy fic.) But in order to do that, everything after the initial cracky premise has to be spot-on.

OTOH, I do write things that I know I'll never show the world. Like that Spuffy apocafic with bonus mpreg and Giles/Faith. I actually have about 2000 words on that, none of which will make it into the actual fic if I ever write it because by the point Spike's been through so many separate body image re-evaluations that pregnancy would be major overkill. (I'm actually thinking he might lose his soul instead, which would conveniently tie into this unmooring-of-magic larger plot thing I'm thinking on. And then I could deal with all the crunchiness of Spike soulless again, and what that would mean with Buffy, and so on. Yum.)

At any rate, if I have an idkink, mpreg is clearly it. And, uh, I think that secret's already out. (However, even that has its limits. The HP mpreg mentioned in the first post you linked to? I tried it a long time ago as part of my vast pan-fandom hunt. I couldn't finish it.)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I have not read that! But now I'm excited to do so! Thanks for the link!

It's not like I haven't read scads of fic with non-existent characterization or logic just because it was Spike/Buffy or whatever, but mostly when I'm done I find I haven't really enjoyed them, and I don't usually want to reread them.

Yeah, I'm very, very picky about those. Most of them I hate and never revisit. But there are a few that just really appeal to me enjoy that I enjoy them. A very few.

I totally list the link to that fic! Would you mind linking here again so I'll know where to find it?

I totally agree with you about crackfic redeemed. Yes.

See, and that fic you're describing totally reads as id to me--especially with the body image stuff. Your id is just less...kinky than other people's! (And I am not surprised by this at all.)

. (I'm actually thinking he might lose his soul instead, which would conveniently tie into this unmooring-of-magic larger plot thing I'm thinking on. And then I could deal with all the crunchiness of Spike soulless again, and what that would mean with Buffy, and so on. Yum.)

You tease! You enjoy torturing me, don't you!

Yeah, you embraced your id and then definitely, definitely redeemed the crackfic. *loves on Seraph*

(Well, I'll be honest: I'm much more open to mpreg now that I read Seraph and loved it so, but I gotta say: that fic sounded atrocious to me. I can't imagine a world in which you would be able to finish such a fic.)

[angearia.livejournal.com]

You know, thinking more on this, I've been pretty open with my id!fic tastes.

DARK and FUCKED UP. It's why I love bodyswap/genderswap fics and yes, I even read messed up mpreg fics that are so bizarre. I dunno, it's just interesting. I also love fics where Buffy goes evil and while I don't like Buffy/Angel so much anymore (I did once long ago), I do still have this weird id thing about evil!Buffy/Angelus. I don't want evil!Buffy/Spike. No no no. But evil!Buffy and Angelus somehow works for me in all its twistedness. IDEK.

You know, I still feel like I'm not quite sure what's the difference between narrative kink and id!fic, but from reading the original post, it's the kind of crazy insane stories that have that one element that should make it worse, but for you it makes it even better.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

but from reading the original post, it's the kind of crazy insane stories that have that one element that should make it worse, but for you it makes it even better.

I think that comes pretty close. There's definitely a continuum with id and narrative kinks--something like mpreg could fall further on one side or the other, depending on the person, how they feel about it, and how they approach it.

I'm just going with my gut on this one. The one that says there's a big difference between LET'S TORTURE SPIKE! and, say, my kink for sibling stories.

[deird1]

For my part, the closest I've ever gotten to posting idfic is Not Yourself. Because I apparently have a thing for Illyria hatesex with her pretending to be Fred.

And I've always had a secret longing to write a Lord of the Rings fic with a self-insert character - you know, how they always come into the universe, having read the book, and join up with the Fellowship? Well, in my head, this chick comes into the universe, having read the book, and accidentally makes a teeny bit of the plot go wrong and goes "Oops. Better fix that." And somehow her "fixing" things escalates to the point where she's actually hunting down members of the Fellowship and slaughtering them all... purely so that the plot will get back on track, you understand.

:D

[angearia.livejournal.com]

I think I have an id for hatesex because I really loved that fic of yours. :P

[prophecygirrl.livejournal.com]

You know, when Botias wrote "Persephone" I think every comment I left on it read "it feels like you are writing this just for me!" :D And of course I am not surprised to find out that there are legions of us -- it's just that good.

Nautific is satisfying and fun in a way that almost nothing else is.

As for my wish for fic? I have issues with OMWF. Spike totally saves her life with a sweet, heartfelt and insightful "so one of us is living" and there's a kiss with swelling music and swelling... only for it all to go to hell in a handbasket. I want Buffy to be shy and flirty and sweet with him afterwards, and for them to be the schmoopiest couple on the planet and for the scoobies to have to accept it out of guilt after the big heaven reveal. And Spike is allowed to spoil Buffy rotten and feed her chocolate covered cherries while she sits on his lap (this is a must), and make her mixtapes (hello quinara!) and for her to go shopping for lingere with him and basically allow Spike to remind Buffy of every wonderful reason to be alive. Lots of times, and in lots of different ways. And for Buffy to walk with a swagger in her step and a smile on her lips ALL THE TIME as he moves into the house and teaches Dawn to play poker while they bust Faith out of jail and make her fulfill her debt to society by BEING THE SLAYER at least half of the time so that Spike can take Buffy to the carnival and to old black and white movie revivals and tell her about meeting Ingrid Bergman in Paris.

Oh, there's lots more id fics in my hindbrain...and it's a wonderful way to get back the fun after all the strum and drang and disappointment of S8.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

OMG I want to LIVE IN YOUR ID. Oh, that's so delightful and happy and adorable and sweet and I want it!

Thank you so much for sharing!

Or maybe not, because now I'm gonna be all depressed that no one's ever written it....

Yeah, Persephone tapped into a lot of people's id--and overcame the antipathy people like Snick and I feel towards Shag or Die scenarios and towards porny stuff.

Listen: if you want to share more of your id fics from your hindbrain...I want to hear them!

[maddie2927.livejournal.com]

ohh yess. this post. haha I love all of this!
but okay, I read this and I was like, uhh idk what does my id want? but then I realized I TOTALLY ALREADY KNEW. because I would write this, probably. if I did more write-y things and less read-y things.
OK. so. Firstly, my id says, "fuck you, season eight. you are incredibly unsatisfying and wank-making."

Then my id decides it's Angel S5, right? and Angel and Spike are great and they bicker and I love it, and it doesn't really matter what part of the season because at some point Buffy is so distraught over losing Spike that for a crazy and whacky reason she decides that she's cookies, right? She goes all safety with Angel or whatever and goes to LA to tell him after thinking about it FOREVER and she gets there and Angel basically knows why and when Buffy gets there and sees, who else? SPIKE, there's basically this big freak out and he's upset, and she's upset and confused and then ANGEL AND SPIKE FIGHT OVER HER. like, Destiny style, with the fighting, and the jokes about who "had" her more. and Spike wins and then Buffy picks him and they ride off into the sunset, the end. except with no Angel bashing. I have this like, anti-kink for Angel bashing.

basically.

[bloodypoetry.livejournal.com]

My Id!fic is any hurt/comfort. Seriously. I love it like woah if Spike is hurt and Buffy saves him. Even if the rest of the story sucks, I will read those parts. Cause I am way messed up in the head.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Nah, I'm messed up like that, too. I love me some hurt/comfort.

[bobthemole.livejournal.com]

I massively heart Flu/Comfort. It's like h/c but with less pain and more Nyquil-induced hallucinations, soup-with-toast, and cuddling.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Like that Kantayra fic? I quite enjoy that one myself.

[quinara]

I do like a good bit of h/c, and other silly premises... (But then I get bored if Spike is unconscious too long - really you only need one chapter of Buffy watching him sleep and telling everyone else how much she means to him.,. Then he needs to wake up and have awkward bandaging sessions!)

I wonder whether my real idfic, though, isn't Spuffy crossovers with pretty much any other show/book/whatever I watch/read/consume. I love them, yet people never seem to write that many of them (compared to Buffy/Legolas or Spike/Hermione or whatever) - why does no one want the multiverse to confirm how great Spuffy are??

And, more specifically, why are there not more Spuffy crossovers with REALITY TV??

On this front, I suppose the never-to-be-completed Doctor Who crossover on my hard drive is pretty much an idfic (Spike meets Ten and Rose in the future, but is all curmudgeonly because the slayers have finally kicked all the demons off the planet, only to become useless C-List celebrities in the wake of that - leaving Spike practically the only person left to help against the inevitable!demon!uprising. And then at the end Rose asks the Doctor if they can go and see him and Buffy in the past, so they go and see Buffy be all super and Spike be all nice. And then they go 'aww').

Otherwise I just tend to write my idfic... (Buffy&Illyria+dragon, check; Buffy proposing and she and Spike living pretty much happily ever after, check; SPIKEMOBILE, check; penguin!slayage, check - and I have more plans besides!!!) Though I suppose I've trained myself to limit the random Riley and Angel bashing, because it makes me feel bad afterwards... (And strangely more satisfying, with Angel at least, to make him see the light and become pro-Spuffy - is that more ridiculous, I wonder?)

Back in the early 2000s, the best idfic I ever found was on the BSDiaries Yahoo! Group - but that's been deleted for a while and I haven't managed to find it anywhere in years. (I should probably ask somewhere to see if anyone saved a copy...) It was by someone called Denna and was titled 'Circle of Slayers': Buffy and Spike finally declared their love (with ELVEN BRACELETS Spike found in a MAGICAL MARKET) that meant they would always be able to find each other, only for Riley to come back as an EVIL MASTERMIND, who kidnapped Buffy and took her away to a CASTLE somewhere between dimensions, or something... And then Spike goes on a QUEST to get her back - with the Scoobies' blessings, just as Buffy slowly overthrows the mind-control that says she's always been in the castle and remembers Spike - possibly in a DREAM; maybe the talk to each other in dreams... - and then tries to escape. When they finally meet up they're themselves again, and then they kill Evil!Riley (who may actually be being controlled, so possibly they just let him overcome that) and then they ride back home to Sunnydale. It was excellent. If slightly cracky.

(And now I've gone on too long.)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

. (But then I get bored if Spike is unconscious too long - really you only need one chapter of Buffy watching him sleep and telling everyone else how much she means to him.,. Then he needs to wake up and have awkward bandaging sessions!)

Ha! Agreed!

I love me some crossovers. Not gonna lie. And I'd love to read more of them that embrace the Spuffy.

And then at the end Rose asks the Doctor if they can go and see him and Buffy in the past, so they go and see Buffy be all super and Spike be all nice. And then they go 'aww

WANT.

Let it be known that all those idfic you write? I loves them.

(And strangely more satisfying, with Angel at least, to make him see the light and become pro-Spuffy - is that more ridiculous, I wonder?)

Not at all! I'm on that team, too! Any Spuffy fic with Angel handling it well if not graciously or even supporting them albeit reluctantly hits one of my kinks. I love those. I've written those!

Hahaha! I would so read that fic if you ever managed to find it through Wayback or something!

[ruuger]

I was actually thinking about the whole id thing just last night when I saw Iron Man 2, and there was one plotline that was totally let's-feed-ruuger's-id. And then the whole plotline turned out to be just a MacGuffin. And I was very sad :(

My id-fics also tend to be on the h/c side - the The Mentalist prompts at het_idcrack (a ficathon that, btw, was totally made for me and I was so disappointed that it wasn't more popular) cover my kinks quite well, and you could change pretty much any one of them to Spike/Buffy I'd be happy :)

Though generally my id is better fed through canon than fic - I usually need a certain kind of id-fix from canon first before I start looking for id-fic (hence my id-fic usually centering around certain characters or pairings). Awesome women rescuing slightly incompetent men is usually a good start :)

As for writing, When the Rest of Heaven Was Blue is unashamedly an id-fic and will contain pretty much all my kinks when it's finished (and I will eventually finish it, I swear, even though my Buffy-muse has been absent for a while now because of the comics).

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Now I'm wanting to see the movie even more so I can figure out what your id wants!

I think we have similar ones--those fics sound great!

I totally agree: I want different things from canon, and I want canon more.

Stupid comics! *kicks them*

[eilowyn.livejournal.com]

I really need to think about this more. Because y/y, nauti feeds the id like no one else, but I really need to examine my id fics more so I don't sound as mean as I think I do when I say some of my id fics contain Angel bashing. Now I will be examining every fic I read to see if it feeds an id kink, and . . . ooh! I got one!
One id fic for me is ImmortallySpuffy's Fixing the Factors, where Drusilla puts Spike and Buffy under a spell where they experience The Yoko Factor like Bill Murray's Groundhog Day, and Spike and Buffy become friends and Spike and Giles become friends and Buffy and Spike manage to fix every fucking thing that will ever go wrong in the Buffyverse, and because the day resets Giles and Spike get drunk and have fun staking Angel, and Spike and Buffy give each other cute presents, and finally the battle in Primeval is all about a big ass group effort that saves the day. Yeah, that's a good id fic for me. Another one is JackofSpike's (one-half of ImmortallySpuffy)'s Second String Scoobies where Spike goes to Tara after being plastic staked by Riley, and Tara gets all indignant and Joyce, Dawn, Anya, and Tara are totally awesome by adopting Spike and going to the mat for him and making the Core Four realize that the B-Team really is awesomer than anything. Yesh, secondary, late-season Scoobies being awesome is an id fic because they always seem to be screwed over to serve the Core Four's stories.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

It's okay to admit that your idfic ideals contain Angel bashing. That's why it's the id!

I like that fic! I remember reading it and enjoying it!

As for the Scooby one, that is so what I'm talking about with id: like those fics where the writer just rubs in your face how awesome a particular character (or, in this case, several characters) is. Those fics only appeal to very big fans of the particular character, but if you love that character? Golden.

[ohwaluvusbab.livejournal.com]

Re: S/B Vienna fic. OMG. MAKE IT HAPPEN, SOMEONE.

I’d also love to write/read fic in which Riley walks in on Buffy and Spike in “As You Were” and Spike does the whole speech about the word delicious and Buffy goes, “You know what? This is kind of hilariously awesome”

I would give my firstborn for this to happen. MAKE IT HAPPEN, SOMEONE.

^ So yeah, those are basically your answers to #2. Hell, I'm actually thinking of writing them my own self. WHAT HAS HAPPENED.

Re: BSG. Dee and Felix are TOTALLY partying it up in heaven. You know it.
Re: Sam finding a nice girl. Aww, I actually think Kara loved Sam very much in canon, and has way too much guilt on her soul besides, but yeah, would be nice for him to be chosen *not* because he's 'safe' and 'easy'.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

HA! Maybe I'll write it sometime!

I WOULD DIE OF HAPPINESS IF YOU WROTE THEM, THOUGH. OR ANYTHING. I think you would bring such a fresh take to Spike/Buffy.

Aww, I actually think Kara loved Sam very much in canon, and has way too much guilt on her soul besides, but yeah, would be nice for him to be chosen *not* because he's 'safe' and 'easy'.

Exactly. I just wish she'd been more honest with him about what she could give him. *sigh*

[caboca.livejournal.com]

There is nothing I do not love about this post and its comments. I wish to marry this post, then seduce it and bring it kittens and then buy it a collar. [and you bet your bottom dollar I shall plunge into nautibitz as soon as I have finally watched Buffy]

(And that's all I have to say right now, because life is more hectic than a menagerie, but hopefully I shall eventually.)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I LOVE YOU ALWAYS. And I hope that life settles down some! I always like to hear from you!

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

Haven't read the other comments yet...

Oooh! For me, dreamsofspike is THE id!fic writer. My delicious bookmarks for her are here.

She does the most idtastic, h/c, tortured!Spike, mindfuckery fics ever...they veer into they whole Buffy Takes Responsibility for being a bitch in S6 territory sometimes, but...I don't care. Whenever I read, I get hooked early on and cannot stop reading for ANYTHING. *loves*

Personally, I have some god-awful fic ideas that fall into the id!fic category. And I've gone so far as to play with the idea of writing them under another pseudonym so as to not have them attached to my main fannish identity. But I doubt I'll actually ever write them. They're just...well, they're horrible. Just horrible. I get embarrassed even thinking about them. Heh.

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

Okay, now that I've read the other comments, it dawns on me that you were probably referencing dreamsofspike with this:

"big epic fics by a certain Spuffy writer in which (invariably) A) Spike is horribly, horribly hurt and/or tortured and/or enslaved, B) Buffy saves him and loves on him, C) Buffy betrays her promise to never let him get hurt again by either allowing him to be in a situation where his torturer can hurt him or where she herself hurts him"

lol! Uh...was I not supposed to mention her by name?

[kitewithfish.livejournal.com]

Vienna, probably, just so I can write about Vienna and picture the look on Buffy's face when Spike takes her shopping on Mariahilferstrasse for the first time and the two of them eating massive amounts of gelato at Zanoni & Zanoni and go to the Wiehnachtsmarkt and generally just be awesome together in Vienna

Yesssss. I want this fic, too.

(and they go to der Prater! And Buffy can't go to the little pavilion restaurant because it closes really early cause it's Vienna and they have to get a sausage from the late-night stands and Spike waxes snobby about European mustard. God, my id is for this idea a lot. )

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

OH YES THE PRATER! And they make out in the ferris wheel like Jesse and Celine in Before Sunrise (and Spike makes jokes about The Third Man, which Buffy hasn't seen, obviously) and they go on one of those crazy rides that like makes you bungee jump or whatever and Buffy can't figure out why all the decor is so tacky.

AND YES ABOUT THE MUSTARD.

I seriously may have to write Vienna!Spuffy fic. I just don't know if I'll be able to make it through without sobbing about how much I want to go back!

[redsilverchains.livejournal.com]

I…did not know there was a name for this bizarre fandomish feeling. But yes, yes. IDDY.


To speak in TVTropes terms, when I get iddy, I think: Everything’s Awesome, Just Add Jedi. The Winchester Brothers -and everyone else who’s a Hunter- as Jedi! (Bobby is Obi-Wan-ish. The Harvelles work at a cantina and regularly Force-slam idiotic brawlers) Edmund Pevensie as a Jedi! (He’s seen the Dark Side but he’s making things right now!) Buffy as a snarky, force-happy Jedi! You get the picture.

Little Women: Laurie and Jo run away together and have crazy-wonderful adventures and discover grand old books in romantic old bookshops all over the world. Meanwhile, Amy reencounters Beth’s sweet friend Frank Vaughn while in Europe and they fall in love too.

Gilmore Girls: See Jo and Laurie above. Modernize the era and replace them with Rory and Jess. (Is this even iddy? There are so many awesome Rory-and-Jess-adventuring-together fics out there! :D)
Rory, at some point, runs into Sam Winchester (preferably the Sam of the earlier seasons) and they hit it off. And Rory mentions, ‘Hey, I once dated a guy who’s a dead ringer for you only he was a boring loser, what was I thinking….’
(IDC, I am forever bitter over the stupid Rory-having-an-affair-with-Dean plotline)

BTVS: Willow is bisexual. And post-show, she meets Oz again, and they reconnect and it is beautiful and they dye their hair blue together and they frolic together under a full moon, complete with magick-conjured special effects. Yes.

Veronica Mars: Remember the ‘Cassidy in the Dollhouse–verse’ ficlet I wrote? I have since kept thinking, OMG and then one day he meets Mac and she’s also a programmer (but the kind who’s trying to steer things in the right direction—idk, maybe she’s incognito for Veronica who is trying to bring down this whole twisted Dollhouse thing once and for all) and he doesn’t know why but he has to see her again…

Meanwhile, Mac is all, OH HELLS, it’s my psycho ex-boyfriend only they wiped the psycho out of him and he’s nothing but awkward and brilliant and shy once more and…argh, stop it woman, this is wrong (or is it?)!

Yeah, I have thought way too much about that last one :p


Fic I’ve read:

-There’s this Veronica Mars zombie apocalypse fic where Logan, Wallace, Mac, and Dick are left alive and they wall themselves up in Neptune High and try to survive. It is glorious.

-a Harry Potter/Narnia crossover fic where somehow, the Pevensie siblings find themselves at Hogwards. Well written, yes, but ridiculously wish fulfilly and sometimes Mary-Sue-ish (the Pevensies take over EVERYTHING the Trio accomplishes). But…Edmund is a guidance counselor! Who helps traumatized Hogwarts students! And succeeds in helping Draco not-turn to the Dark Side! HEE!

-and for something written, I have this SPN ficlet sitting around. It’s an AU take on two characters who were killed off for angst. It was an excuse for me to say ‘WTF, I want characters with potential to survive and kick ass, dammit!’ I think it is is Jossed by now (haven’t seen season 5 yet) but I might post it one of these days.

[elisi]

Late to the party, and a bit rushed, but here goes...

1. Buffy Summer's Diary and the sequel - not very ridiculous, but I love Riley being put down. And Five times the Doctor tried to get rid of Rose Tyler (and one time he succeeded). I love Rose, I really do, but... And probably a ton of shippy Jack/Ianto stuff that I'm not going to hunt down right now.

2. Well I already wrote the deeply disturbing Spike/Dawn fic, and the story where Spike and Angel were dragon riders on Pern, and the Torchwood/Twilight mpreg crossover, so... um... clearly I'm incapable of embarrassment. Dunno what that says about me though.

ETA: You know how sometimes you remember something waaaaaay too late? Well, that just happened to this meme (is it a meme? Whatever) - because I remembered the Martha/Master fic that I ate up with a spoon, despite it being all wrong on so many levels (I mean she never would. Ever. But oh this fic made me believe.) - it was a fabulous idea though, where the Master was Sam Tyler from Life on Mars (convoluted plot thing, he was send there by the bad guy after 'dying' in LotT) and Martha got sent back in time by Jack to find out what was happening, and had to pose as Sam's wife (and Gene Hunt was there too of course, and his wife was Romana who'd been fobwatched) - OH! And I almost forgot that Martha and the Master also picked up Jack-from-the-70s and seduced him and had this totally implausible but absolutely riveting 3-some thing going on...

Um. Yeah. Id-fic is a BAAAAAAAAAD thing. (Now I want to go find that fic... *whimpers*)

[starletfallen.livejournal.com]

Am I late to the party? YES! Do I care? NO! :D

Okay, so in response to question 1 (about the guilty pleasures I like to read...)

There was this horrible horrible completely implausible Jack/Ianto fic that was an AU where Jack had refused to work with Torchwood so he'd been locked up and for some reason that made him go insane and then childlike and then feral and he repressed all his proper memories or they were repressed by trauma or something. And so when the 2000's rolls around, Ianto gets a promotion and ends up in charge of hosing off the freak or whatever and is all INDIGNANT at the atrocities being visited upon the poor man, and shows him kindness and stuff even though his boss keeps being a jerkoff about it, and eventually Jack starts talking again (and is basically a child) and he and Ianto run away not long before the whole Canary Wharf Daleks-and-Cybermen Disco Inferno, and they stay with Sarah Jane and Luke for a while, and then with Jackie Tyler, so they can wait for Rose and the Doctor, and then the four of them manage to survive the CWDaCDI (though it's a near thing) and Rose doesn't get sucked in because Jack latches on to her leg and he's stuck in a conversion chair thing and then they go off and have adventures and Jack starts maturing and eventually he and Ianto have sex and it's brilliant.

It is a truly awful fic, if you're going for IC and believable and stuff, but I got alerts when new chapters went up and I read it RELIGIOUSLY until the author apparently got bored with it which made me sad.

As for fics I'll never write... gods. XD

Well, there's the one where Rose is actually a Time Lady under a malfunctioning Chameleon Arch, so her reproductive system is still Time Lord-y and when she and the Doctor get it on (no protection, because he says Time Lords and Humans aren't compatible for procreation so there's no NEED), she gets pregnant, and has the baby after like two years of pregnancy in Pete's World, and then goes back to save the day a la s4, but she can't bring herself to tell the Doctor, so her kid grows up really fucking smart, and not human, and raised by the Human!Doctor, and eventually when she's older she universe hops somehow and ends up joining Torchwood and being awesome, and also saving Tosh's life somehow (not Owen's, though) and then going with Jack instead of Ianto in CoE so Ianto doesn't die and she and Tosh totally have a thing and then eventually the Doctor comes and she and Tosh run off with him to have adventures in time and space and it is epic and wonderful.

And then there's the Kennedy dies a horrible painful death instead of Amanda fic, and Willow realises that Kennedy was a complete and utter bitch and goes about finding a way to bring Tara back from the dead, which she totally manages (and without horrible consequences), and Amanda and Dawn get together, and they find out that Dawn actually IS a potential except that because she was made from Buffy, basically, she didn't get triggered with the rest of the potentials (because Buffy was already the Slayer or something) and Faith takes them on a trip around the world trying to find a way to trigger Dawn's innate Slayerness and they sometimes have threesomes and eventually it's revealed that Dawn isn't aging normally since the "activate all Slayers" spell, and since the spell was a one-time thing, she's destined to be the next Slayer after all the ones alive now have died. So she swears Faith to secrecy, and she and Amanda have an awesome happy life even though Dawn never ages and eventually all of them are dead except for Amanda, who's, like, freaking 91 or something, and she's all "Dawn, I love you, but you have to let me go, 'cause the world needs a Slayer that can DO something," so Dawn says I love you and lets Amanda go and she dies and then Dawn becomes the Slayer, so she contacts what's left of the Watcher's Council and is all "a new Slayer's about to be Chosen. Find her." and then goes and finds this huge vampire nest and goes in with a grin and is completely killed fighting them, because she didn't want to keep living after Amanda was gone, but she was SO not going to be a fail!Slayer and off herself like normal people. Or something.



....yeah. My id is special. ^^