RESULTS - Challenge 1 'Canon Schmanon'

[EndersWrath]

So I know I said I would be posting this like 2 weeks ago but I haven't been able to get onto the internet until this week (since about 3 weeks ago) basically and have been working like crazy this week and I have finally found the time to post this. Why is it that whenever I do a challenge that after it closes my internet decides it wants to die or I go out of town on vacation? Jeebus.

1st Place

Spoiler:

Franchises - KingofCretins
You so cheated! Playing to my Bander love, hehe. Nah, this fic was perfectly layed out, did not rush into anything and I really could have seen this happening in the comics...maybe even to what Buffy alluded to in her dream and being gentler this time. I was grinning so hard while reading it, Buffy and Xander felt like Season 7 never even happened ... or that at least they were able to overcome all that happened. The talking about Prom was really cute because I remember that when Season 3 aired I really wanted them to go to prom together, Angel annoyed the hell out of me even when I was 12/13 and I really was hoping that Xander would ask Buffy ... but no, two freaking demons got in the way of Bander. Eff that. Ok, I should get back to the fic ... It really was good King, it really felt in character and I loved how you made Buffy see Xander as more of a fighter that she thought, a very heartwarming moment. Ya did great King, the writing was superb and wouldn't have expected anything less from you.

2nd Place

Spoiler:

The Client Meeting - Wolfie Gilmore
Okay, so even without looking at who posted which fic (which I tried to do, so that I would have no bit of bias) I knew this was a Wolfie fic. There is just something about Lilah that screams you, and well it worked out great. I never, ever would have thought about integrating Harry into the world as you did but as you kinda point out in the fic W&H can do just about anything with dimensions. I really liked how you kept it to where the books existed in our universe rather than him just being some guy from another dimension. The older Harry was pretty badass, and especially with the white hair he gave off an eerie vibe. Not to mention the hot sex that was Lilah and Harry, I liked that you kept mentioning Wes, that girl can never get him outta her head. A unique piece with some really excellent writing behind it ... which is sometimes hard to come by.

3rd Place

Spoiler:

Leaving - Veverka
This idea also came outta left field for me. A very, very interesting choice. I believe my favorite part of this fic was when you would reference OMWF to a lot of things and especially using Spikes POV, very well done. It was a very cunning move to use Buffy as pretty much the catalyst for this all, the common ground and such I thoroughly enjoyed that. It was slash without the slash pretty much, lol, I honestly don't think it would have worked as well as it did would you have thrown in a random sex scene, lol. You got the characterization down pat and I do agree, visualizing Spike and Giles isn't something I really wanna do but you wrote about it in a way that didn't disgust me Haha.

The Participants:

Spoiler:

Faces - Rosamunde
A great piece of smut this was! But that is all it really felt like, no real story behind it, just Ethan and Spike shagging, at times it was a tad confusing but overall the writing had great quality and it did entertain me it just lacked that extra piece of plot that really would have placed it up there.

Safe in your Arms - tangent
This was a cute fic and I love me some early Willow/Giles stuff, but Willow at times really didn't feel like Willow and it kinda felt off because of that. The kiss was nice though I think I would have liked it more if it was more one sided and just seeking comfort. Again, this wasn't a bad fic in any means, just the characterization was off on Willow and from my experience that can really hurt a fic because of how much influence that Willow can have in a scene.

I Have Faith in You - Pandora's Box
The script format kinda threw me (which is weird seeing as what I write all the time is in script form) but after a few lines it didn't bug me a bit. I felt as if Faith's crying was really out of the blue and just not like her to do, especially in front of Buffy. She wouldn't even really show Wesley her crying, the only person she has truely opened up to is Angel and her and Buffy have too much unfinished business for her to open up like that and just start to cry and be that vulnerable. I really like when Faith told Buffy to try the online dating thing, that was really funny, especially when she listed Buffy's wants.

So for the top three winners, I will offer up my photoshop skills for either a banner set of your choice, a wall for your desktop or something else that I may be able to do in PS. Just ask through PM or this thread

Thank you all for entering, I am glad to see such great writers on this forum!

[Veverka]

Congrats to all the contestants, especially Wolfie and KingofCretins! Go you two! Woot

And I am quite excited about my placing! I hadn't loved this fic as much as I would have liked to, so I'm quite pleased that Joe liked it. I found the hardest thing was keeping it canon in terms of fitting in a Spike/Giles ship with the obvious spuffiness that occurs in the series, so I found the best way was to try to make that kind of the point, that Buffy is the centre of both their worlds!

Thanks again for a great challenge Joe!

[Pandora's_Box]

Congratulations for everyone and thanks EndersWarth for all your advises...

[Wolfie Gilmore]

Woo, thanks! Must read the other fics now