It is a momentous occasion, folks. Against all odds, our archive is on the cusp of turning eighteen! 

Whether you are a commenter, an author, an artist, a beta reader, a sensitivity reader, or any combination thereof, the Mod Team invites you to join us to celebrate with our anniversary event, the theme of which is: Poodles!

That’s right. You’ve been asking for months, and we’ve been telling you for months. Now, don’t you feel silly?

Where did the inspiration for the theme come from? Buffy’s own near-fatal experience of being bitten on the neck by an angry poodle puppy.

RULES:

• All fics must be poodle-centric. Spike adopts a poodle. Buffy is turned into a poodle. A poodle is the Big Bad. As long as poodles are heavily featured, we’ll consider it a win
• Poodle perms and skirts are also encouraged
• Minimum 100,000 words, maximum 1 trillion words

This seems reasonable, we think, and we’ll be taking no questions.

Poodle photos provided by EF member yellowb.

…

All right, fine. The theme is not poodles (though if you work poodles in, we will applaud).

The theme, for real, is BETRAYAL!

Where did the inspiration for the theme come from? Buffy’s own harrowing eighteenth birthday, when she is betrayed by Giles and the Council alike. 

Does your fic/art have to be based around that same episode? Absolutely not! So long as it’s a Spuffy work with betrayal as a theme, you’re good. This does not mean it specifically has to be Buffy or Spike who is the subject or perpetrator of the betrayal! You could go for a spin on canon with Amy betraying Willow, Willow betraying Tara, or something completely AU like Xander being betrayed by the cheese guy from Restless. Your use of the theme can be as small or as large as you want. So long as it's obvious enough for the readers to go "Oh, I see what you did there!" then your fic qualifies for this challenge. Whichever path you choose to take, we'd love to see what you come up with.

That said, please note the following:

• Written works must be 100 words minimum and include or address the theme in some fashion. 
• There is no word count limit for artwork-only pieces or narrative artwork (i.e. works that consist of both words and pictures, such as a comic). If you are writing a multi-chaptered fic, you must post at least the first chapter during the month of October according to site time––no earlier, no later. (As always, you can see the current site time underneath the Shoutbox on the front page.) You do not have to finish your fic in October; you only have to post the first chapter. 
• Awards will be available for authors, artists, beta readers, sensitivity readers, and commenters as usual. Artist awards can be earned by creating a banner for someone (or yourself) or by posting an artwork-only or narrative artwork. Video edits are also more than welcome!
• Please remember that EF has a strict no-AI policy.

More details (including a reveal of the banner, skin, and awards) to follow, but if you have any questions, please comment below.