An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Today is day 13 of the 2026 Spangel Fanwork Marathon! Today we have a fluffy fic by @somekindofadeviant @runsintheblood! Be sure to kudos and comment!
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Angel: the Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Angel/Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Characters: Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Established Relationship, Seaside, Post-Coital Cuddling, Fluff, Triple Drabble
Summary:
A little beach fluff.
Spangel, cuddling, and hairy musing.
Read “Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow” here!
By Somekindofadeviant
See the whole collection here! | Join us on Discord for year round Spangel community
When the pairing is so good that it doesn’t matter if you see it as romantic or platonic. What matters is that you see them and know that one is not complete without the other. Frequently bought together. Do not separate. If you separate them one of them will bite you
So man, New Sunnydale is dead, huh.
Honestly, I wasn't all 'oh wow this series is gonna be the best thing since sliced bread' but I was cautiously optimistic about this one - cautious being the optimal word.
The hard reboot/remake that was floating around in pre-production years ago? I loathed the idea. Very much 'gee thanks, that's literally the single lowest effort thing you could have done'.
I also really don't want a continuation centreing Buffy herself - there's no way to make that in a way that would satisfy anyone at all, too many actors are either dead or retired (some by choice, others because they've blacklisted themselves), and some have aged out of the roles (I am NOT a fan of the shanshu).
Plus, truly, I have fanfic for that - to scratch all the itches I have for stories centring Buffy, the Scoobies, Angel, Spike, Dru & Darla etc, with none of the limitations of anything official.
There was a cartoon pitch made years ago. It's on youtube. It looked awesome... and it was rejected. It had about as many former btvs cast members as one could ever have hoped for, though it didn't have SMG voicing buffy. I suppose a cartoon could still be made for it, but it would have to have a whole bunch of changes (not least of all, personnel changes).
This pitch though? This made me go 'yeah, i have serious reservations, but i could be into that - or if i'm not, I'd be glad it existed for others' - I mean, it was basically Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Next Generation style. Focus on a new young slayer and her equivalent to the Scoobies? That coulda been fun! Because… yeah, I do want more tv stories set in the buffyverse. At literally any cost or quality level? Obviously not. But this one looked like a neat approach! And even if it was awful, it's not like some Disney exec was gonna ruck up to my house and go 'Excuse me, miss, I'll be confiscating your BtVS/AtS dvds and merch and all your Fanged Four fic'.
So, yeah, I'm very disappointed it was dropped. I'm disappointed I'll never get to know what could have been. Even if the pilot was Not Great, which I might never get to know and see to judge for myself unless it leaks, cuz a script which may or may not be real/a final version is not a filmed pilot... it's physically impossible for me to ever get to know if the show itself could have been made awesome after changes were made, with whatever writing team they went with etc. All I know is, I liked the premise and I wanted to get the chance to know how a full season of a show based on it would turn out, even if I ended up hating it.
But most of all, i'm deeply saddened for Chloe Zhao, for SMG, and for the young actors like Ryan Kiera Armstrong. Particularly given what SMG said about how much of an uphill battle this was made for them, and the timing of the rejection reveal, and how much hate i've seen levied their way. Social media has been real Rough with people saying some real nasty shit - both about them and about fellow fans, mean girls style, which is… unsurprising, I suppose, but still. Yeah. I'm just disappointed.
If I had a nickel for every time I saw someone make a 'my hed iz pastede on yay' meme out of an image from the sodding Epstein files, one including a victim/survivor, in order to make a stupid bloody fandom/ship war gotcha...
I'd have two nickels, but it's fucked up that it happened twice.
Hey y'all. We're in the final stretch! So, here's a reminder of posting details for anybody doing the last minute thing.
Posting Details
Here is our Ao3 Collection for the Event. Works will remain unrevealed until the event. Your works should be submitted here by the 1st of February. Ideally this will be by midnight Eastern Time at the end of the 31st, so that we can create our reveal schedule ready for our first reveal Sunday morning. If you absolutely have no other option but to need to submit later on the 1st February, please contact us via Discord or Tumblr (Discord server invite link available at the bottom of this post).
If you are posting fanart, you should still post this to ao3 and our collection there, but you will need to host the images offsite. Here are Ao3 guidelines for how. You can try using private tumblr posts, but here are four free image hosting site options that allow adult content: Squidge Images, Postimages, put.re, and Macintosh Garden. We do not recommend using discord to host images, as Discord has changed how they handle image links and no longer works reliably.
If you submit your work but need to make last-minute edits before the deadline, you can do so by visiting your Ao3 Dashboard near the top right of the screen, and hitting the 'Edit Works' button - it will list all your works, including unrevealed ones. You can edit from there. Alternatively you can access all your works through the statistics page.
Event Rules
All submissions must be your own creation and shouldn’t have been posted anywhere else beforehand. We wanna encourage fresh creative blood to be spilt!
Stories and artwork can be set at any point in any timeline, they could be missing scenes, other universes, other dimensions entirely, and with any combination of souls or a lack thereof, they can be in any size or shape, you could even resurrect the ol' penguin AUs - whatever floats yer boat!
Your work needs to incorporate the theme of Reunion in some way, however small. We encourage creative interpretation.
Works should involve at least two members of the Fanged Four.
The main ship and primary focus should be the Fanged Four or one of the sub-pairings (Spangel, Dangel, Sprusilla, Darsilla, etc). Any romantic endgame for a member of the Fanged Four should include at least one other member of the Fanged Four.
No bashing of the vamily or its members please, we're here to show them love.
Minimum word count for fic is 100 words and there’s no maximum. One shots and chaptered works are equally welcomed, but they should be complete and not part of a pre-existing fic series.
There’s no rating limit but you should tag responsibly. The same goes for artwork, adult content is very much allowed but please tag accordingly. 'Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings’ is a valid warning.
And, of course, please be excellent to each other.
Our Discord is here if you have any questions, or want to chat with everyone about the Fanged Four and Fangfest. It’s also where we’ll be hosting our watch parties during the event.
During February, as part of our Fangfest festivities, we'll be doing a weekly watch party on our Discord server. Come join in and let's watch the vamps together ♡
This is the stream schedule, and we're currently running a poll for which time of day works best for everyone - we'll announce the results in a few days!
Sunday 1st February - Fool For Love & Darla
Sunday 8th February - School Hard & Dear Boy
Saturday 21st February - Reunion & Lullaby
Saturday 28th February - A Hole in the World & The Girl in Question
Only a few hours left!! We're only a couple people away from having our biggest amount of sign-ups ever!! So if you're on the fence, come help us make this the best 'fest ever :D
Also, if y'all have any questions about things, feel free to drop us an Ask, DM, or hop on over to our discord server (linked in our blog's pinned post).
William "Spike" Pratt (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) vs Stanley Pines (Gravity Falls)
William "Spike" Pratt (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Stanley Pines (Gravity Falls)
Voting ended onJan 16
Vote for the character that you love despite (or because of!) their many crimes. Reblog to support your favourite!
Propaganda below:
William "Spike" Pratt (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Crimes:
Killed lots of people. Also most infamously tried to rape Buffy at one point.
Mass murder, assault, thievery, torture, attempted rape, innumerable other offenses. Cut a bloody massacre throughout Europe in the late 1800s. He’s quite rude and hits below the belt too lol. and hes british
Why do you like them?
He's wears a cool outfit. He thinks he's hot shit. He has mommy issues. He falls in love with every woman who can beat him up. He's my pathetic meow meow.
Vote Spike/"William the bloody" (bloody terrible poet, that is, because who the fuck says "effulgent"?)!!!
He's monogamous despite being in a polycule he has catholic guilt he's a hopeless romantic (but is also, unknowingly, arospec) he thinks the only way to love is to be sacrificed and HE HAS THE LOVELIEST SINGING VOICE EVERRRRR
(added by @thatwasfunnypleaselaugh)
He’s a genuinely evil person who goes through a seasons long arc to get redeemed.
Spike starts out being a no-holds-barred soulless evil villain with his only goal being to kill the protagonist Buffy. he would do everything to kill her if not for the fact that someone worse shows up and he needs to work together with her to stop the entire world from getting destroyed - he’s a vampire, but he doesn’t have a death wish.
He is very skilled at manipulation, and despite most of the main characters hating him outright, is able to pit them against each other for his own gain. He has an extreme bloodlust and thirst for violence, and upon being rendered powerless to hurt humans, almost killed himself bc he was so upset. He got back to normal once he realized he could kill his own kind, which indirectly benefited the good guys.
After seasons of wishing death upon Buffy, it comes as a shock to him to realize that he has evolved to being in love with her due to how twisted vampires are concerning pain, love, and hate. after a century of committing the most violent, heinous acts, spike makes the decision to get a SOUL, which is the single most important thing that the show delineates between being on the very black-and-white side of good and evil.
Before spike, there was only one other vampire with a soul, and he had to be Cursed with it by travelers. Spike actively chooses to GET a soul in order to be a better man worthy of buffy instead of a soulless monster.
(I mean, just look at this shot of spike draping himself over a cross while mad with guilt over all the harm he's done. very nice.)
But even while he’s supposedly evil, spike is remarkably humanlike, and he cares about other things than killing his own kind. He cares about Buffy and buffy’s family, acting as a guardian for her kid sister in her absence even while he’s soulless, and their friendship is one of the most humanizing aspects of spike.
He also used to be poet when he was a human and a lot of his sensitivity bled through to his vampire self so he’s much more emotional than the average vampire. And he’s serially monogamist. And throughout all this, a gigantic punk rock loser. Billy idol stole his look!
Spike is one of the best characters to ever grace television, especially because none of this would have ever happened if joss Whedon got what he wanted and killed him off in season 2.
Also he’s really pretty.
(submitted by @gottadomymanright)
Stanley Pines (Gravity Falls)
Crimes:
Trafficked, stole, many other crimes
Why do you like them?
He is funny but also a deep character with a lot of meaning and sad trauma.
That man canonically fucked at least two of the three other members of the polycule.
When he's a baby fledgeling who still has new grave smell, yeah, he starts out expecting monogamy inside the polycule, because he's a sheltered Victorian boy. Even then he's busy flirting with one of the other members and having his bi awakening, and would soon end up best friends with, protege to, and fucking said other member.
Also 'even when he's supposedly evil' our man did a lot of work to earn his evil reputation! Ain't no supposedly about it. He's a problematic fave because he put the work in, with a kill count in the tens if not hundreds of thousands - before you get to all the other atrocities. This man who would later become a champion, was the second worst vampire in recorded history.
hi! Sorry for the shameless self-promo, we chatted a bit a while ago and I am the one who really enjoyed your Sprusilla’s stories.
Would you be okay with me sharing my Darla & Drusilla’s story? I don’t know if you will like it, it’s more dark undertones in a domestic setting than the opposite which I noticed it’s more popolar, but I noticed a lack of fics analyzing the relationship between Darla and Drusilla and I tried to fill that gap with my idea of them!
it’s on ao3 under WednesdayinWonderland if you are interested to give me your opinion on it. I might write and post others similar one-shot in the future.
Hi! I am terribly sorry I missed your messages! I've not really been active on tumblr in a long while. But Fangfest stuff brings me back!
I am absolutely more than okay with you sharing your Darsilla story with me! I will check it out tomorrow :D :D :D And I'm so happy you enjoy my Sprusilla stories <3
Sorry again for the delayed response!!
It's time once again, fam! We're reuniting the family for the third annual February Fangfest, because these vamps are quite literally made for each other.
This coming February, we're gonna have a bloody great time celebrating the Fanged Four.
As is tradition, we’re looking for all kinds of fan creations. Fanfic, artwork, vids, meta/essays, icons, poetry, gifs, wallpapers, crossword puzzles, and whatever else you can dream up. If it's a fanwork celebrating the vamily - it's right up our alley!
This year's theme is REUNION - and we hope you enjoy!
How to Join in the Fun
We're taking sign-ups until the 15th January. To sign up, just fill out our sign up sheet! Want to enter multiple fanworks? Fantastic! You totally can! We'll be opening our collection shortly, and all fanworks should be posted there. We'll be revealing one per day throughout the event, or more if there's enough!
If you'd rather just look at the shinies and don't fancy creating, that's fine too. Commenters are beloved and will get all of the cakes.
Rules
All submissions must be your own creation and shouldn’t have been posted anywhere else beforehand. We wanna encourage fresh creative blood to be spilt!
Stories and artwork can be set at any point in any timeline, they could be missing scenes, other universes, other dimensions entirely, and with any combination of souls or a lack thereof, they can be in any size or shape, you could even resurrect the ol' penguin AUs - whatever floats yer boat!
Your work needs to incorporate the theme of Reunion in some way, however small. We encourage creative interpretation.
Works should involve at least two members of the Fanged Four.
The main ship and primary focus should be the Fanged Four or one of the sub-pairings (Spangel, Dangel, Sprusilla, Darsilla, etc). Any romantic endgame for a member of the Fanged Four should include at least one other member of the Fanged Four.
No bashing of the vamily or its members please, we're here to show them love.
Minimum word count for fic is 100 words and there’s no maximum. One shots and chaptered works are equally welcomed, but they should be complete and not part of a pre-existing fic series.
There’s no rating limit but you should tag responsibly. The same goes for artwork, adult content is very much allowed but please tag accordingly. 'Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings’ is a valid warning.
And, of course, please be excellent to each other.
Last but by no means least
We have a discord server, Runs In The Blood . If you've got any questions, you can find us there. If you just want to squee over the vamps and discuss em, head on over. We have a workshopping space for fanworks, too, and regular Work in Progress Wednesday events on the server to share feedback and cheerlead each other. We'll also be running watch parties during February!
You can find our 2025 masterlist here if you'd like to check out some of last year's wonderful works.
