Ratings

The ratings at Elysian Fields are as follows. Please do your best to label your work with the appropriate rating and warnings so that readers can make an informed decision about what to read. If you're not sure which rating or warnings to choose, please ask an Administrator. Elysian Fields reserves the right to change a fanwork's rating and add warnings if it is deemed necessary.

• G: Suitable for any audience. Content should be free of coarse language, violence, and adult themes.
• PG: Contains content with minor action violence, or mild coarse language. Should not contain any adult themes.
• PG-13: Contains content with some violence, coarse language, or suggestive adult themes.
• R: Contains non-explicit adult content, themes, and/or language.
• NC-17: Contains explicit adult content, themes, and/or language.
• Adult Only: Contains explicit adult content, themes, and/or language that may be disturbing to some readers (eg, incest, graphic torture, etc)

Categories

• Pre-Series: Works set pre-Sunnydale, when Buffy still lived in LA
• Season 1: Works set during Season 1 of BtVS
• Season 2: Works set during Season 2 of BtVS
• Season 3: Works set during Season 3 of BtVS
• Season 4: Works set during Season 4 of BtVS
• Season 5: Works set during Season 5 of BtVS
• Season 6: Works set during Season 6 of BtVS
• Season 7: Works set during Season 7 of BtVS
• Between Seasons (any): Works set between seasons 1-7 of the TV series (aka, during the summer) or between comics seasons.
• Post-Series: Works set after Season 7 of the TV series
• Season 8 (Comic): Works set during Season 8 of the BtVS comics
• Season 9 (Comic): Works set during Season 9 of the BtVS comics
• Season 10 (Comic): Works set during Season 10 of the BtVS comics
• Season 11 (Comic): Works set during Season 11 of the BtVS comics
• Season 12 (Comic): Works set during Season 12 of the BtVS comics
• Comic (Season Not Specified): Works based on Buffyverse comics in which the season is not obvious or mentioned.
• Comic (Boom! Studios): Works set within the Boom!Studios Buffy reboot comics universe
• Slayers Audio Play: Works set within the world of the Slayers Audio Play (2023)
• Artwork: Artwork: A visual image or set of visual images including but not limited to drawings, digitally manipulated photographs, or videos. Words, if present, are limited and/or incidental.
• Narrative Artwork: Narrative Artwork: A fanwork that combines written and visual art. Visual art is defined as a visual image or set of visual images including but not limited to drawings, digitally manipulated photographs, or videos. Works in the Narrative Artwork category must meet the criteria for story submissions.
• All Human: Works in which there are no supernatural or magical elements (the "real world")
• Alternate Reality: Works that alter Buffyverse lore, events, or character roles to the point where they significantly differ or diverge from canon. See Fanlore for more on Alternate Reality fanworks.
• Award Runners-Up: Works that have been runners-up for fandom awards
• Award Winners: Works that have been the recipients of fandom awards
• Baby/Kid Fanworks: Works which prominently feature pregnancy and/or babies and/or raising children
• Canon-Compliant: Works that maintain canon and don't change canon events (i.e., what we saw on-screen and/or read in comics). Canon-Compliant fanworks can be either TV-compliant or TV and Comic-compliant, but they must be one
• Challenge Response: Works that are written as responses to Elysian Fields member-issued challenges or official Elysian Fields Challenge Events. May also include challenges issued by members of other Spuffy archives
• Claim: Works that contain a vampire creating a supernatural (often blood-related) bond with their partner, or featuring characters who are already "claimed" partners
• Crossover (AtS): Works that include characters or significant elements/settings originating from Angel the Series
• Crossover (Books or TV Shows outside of Buffyverse): Works that include characters or significant elements/settings originating from another fandom universe
• Drabbles: Traditionally 100 words or less, but since we're not much for tradition, can include Works with fewer than 1,000 words
• Episode Rewrite: A rewrite of an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and/or (if applicable) Angel the Series
• Foreign Language Fanworks: Works written in languages other than English
• High Fantasy: Works featuring traditional fantasy themes and archetypes, up to and including classic fairytales
• Historical: Works in any category or genre that take place (in full or in part) in an era prior to 1990
• Holiday: Works which feature holiday celebrations, themes, or settings
• Missing Scene: A scene missing from an existing episode or issue that the viewer or comic reader didn't get to see. Typically Canon-Compliant
• Political/Protest: Works with political or social themes, crafted in part with the intent of making a statement
• Poetry: Content in verse format, whether metered, rhymed, blank, free, etc
• Seasonal Spuffy Entries: Works that were entries in one of the rounds of Seasonal Spuffy
• Song-Inspired: Works that prominently feature song lyrics and/or Works in which a song plays a key role in a character's actions, decisions, or motivations
• Taboo: Adults Only: WARNING The Taboo category is specifically for Adults Only. It houses works not appropriate for the faint of heart. If you are under the age of 17 and/or have serious moral reservations about any aspect of sexuality, TURN AROUND NOW
• Time Travel: Works where the characters experience a time disruption or time displacement, whether forward, backward, or in a loop
• Vignettes: Brief, evocative descriptions, accounts, or episodes
• Wishverse: Works set in the alternate reality created by the episode "The Wish"

Genres

• Action/Adventure: a work involving dangerous and/or exciting (often fast-paced or geographically exploratory) plot elements
• Angst: a work involving emotional pain, turmoil, or anxiety
• Apocalyptic/Dystopian: a work set during or after an apocalypse or end-of-the-world scenario.
• Dark: a work that deals with disturbing themes, often featuring elements of hopelessness, despair, and trauma
• Drama: a character-driven work with various possible elements of action/adventure, melodrama, horror, and/or angst
• Dramedy: a work that combines the elements of drama and comedy
• Erotica: a work that contains subject matter that is erotically stimulating or sexually arousing
• Established Relationship: a work in which Spike and Buffy are an established couple from the offset
• Fighting: a work that significantly features verbal or physical fighting, or in which verbal or physical fighting is graphically portrayed
• Fix-It: a work that fixes something that went awry in canon
• Fluffy/Comedy: a work that focuses on happy emotions or situations, and which often does not have substantial plot elements
• HEA/HFN: a work that will conclude in an HEA (Happily Ever After) or an HFN (Happy For Now) for Spike and Buffy
• Historical: a work in any category or genre that take place (in full or in part) in an era prior to 1990
• Horror: a work that plays upon the audience's primal fears
• Humor: a work that is comedic in nature
• Hurt/Comfort: a work involving the physical pain or emotional distress of one character, who is cared for by another
• Kidnapping: a work in which a character is abducted as a main component of the plot
• Lighthearted: a work that is lighter in tone and theme
• Mystery: a work featuring a prominent mystery for the characters to solve
• Parody: a work created to mock or comment on another work by means of satire or ironic imitation, usually for comedic effect
• Porn w/ Plot: a work in which sexual encounters and the work's plot are of equal focus
• Porn w/o Plot: a work in which sexual encounters are the primary focus
• POV: a work told exclusively through one character's perspective, usually in first-person narration
• Prophecy: a work in which a prophecy of some sort is prominently featured
• Queer Themes: a work that involves Spike and/or Buffy exploring some aspect of nonstandard gender/sexual representation (i.e. female Spike and Buffy, Spike and male Buffy, either character as trans, non-binary, etc.) As with all Elysian Fields fanworks, the main pairing must be Spuffy-centric
• Resurrection: a work in which a character's resurrection is a prominent theme
• Road Trip: a work that involves travel and/or takes place at a location other than Sunnydale, California
• Romance: a work that focuses heavily on a romantic relationship
• Slow-Burn: a work containing relationships that take time to develop, either romantically or sexually
• Tragedy: a work that will conclude with tragic events and/or consequences
• Under Magical Influence: a work in which magical hijinks dramatically alter what a character says or does

Warnings

• Abortion: contains extended discussion of someone purposefully terminating a pregnancy and/or the actual termination of a pregnancy. The pregnant person may or may not be the one who chooses to terminate the pregnancy.
• Abuse: contains the physical, mental, or sexual abuse of a character. While torture and abuse can overlap, for the purposes of tagging your work, they are differentiated in that abuse is sustained over time while torture occurs over a shorter timespan.
• Adoption: contains content in which a baby or child is put up for adoption, a baby or child is adopted, someone deals with their own adoption, or a character (or characters) is trying to adopt a child/going through the adoption process.
• Adult Language: includes graphic language generally considered profane or vulgar
• Animal Abuse: contains the abuse or death of an animal
• Attempted Rape: includes the attempted sexual assault of a character(s). Rape is defined as sex between two characters where the victim does not or cannot freely give consent or does not or cannot freely refuse.
• Attempted Suicide: includes a character attempting or a character who has attempted suicide
• Baby or Infant Death: contains content in which a baby or infant dies. This includes but is not limited to stillbirths, nonviable pregnancies carried to term, infants who die of SIDS or other illnesses or natural causes, violence, magical means, or other deaths.
• Baby/Kid: contains content which prominently features established characters involved with the raising of babies or children.
• Blood Play: includes deliberate cuts or bites meant to release blood during sexual activity
• Buffy/Other (Temp): a brief pairing of Buffy with someone other than Spike
• Character Death: includes any character death that has an emotional impact on the reader and/or characters. Does not need to include canon villains who are expected to die
• Cheating/Infidelity: includes a character being unfaithful to their partner with another party
• Child Abuse: includes references to or depictions of situations in which a child is physically, sexually, or mentally abused
• Depictions of Bigotry: contains characters making prejudicial statements and/or offensive slurs regarding race, gender, ability, orientation, religion, or class, including incidentally. (Not to be confused with authors making such remarks.) Authors are asked to use their discretion here as to what qualifies as bigotry, as a full explanation on where we're drawing lines could quickly become a six-page essay. If you have any questions on a specific work, you can contact the mods—we are happy to consult. Please be aware that if you do not use the warning and it comes to Mod attention, we reserve the right to reach out and address the situation.
• Dubious Consent: includes sexual content in which consent is not clearly present or established
• Fertility Issues: contains content in which a person or couple is dealing with fertility issues. They may or may not be actively trying to conceive or be pregnant.
• Fetish: includes sexual content in which gratification is linked to an abnormal degree to a particular object, item of clothing, part of the body, etc.
• Foster Care: contains content in which a character is removed from their home, is placed into foster care, or deals with having previously been in foster care.
• Gun Violence: contains depictions of firearms being aimed or fired at individuals, often (but not always) resulting in injury or death
• Human!Spike: includes depictions of Spike in a supernatural Buffyverse setting in which Spike is human
• Incest: contains depictions of a romantic and/or sexual relationship between family members, whether related by blood or marriage. If the latter, situations in which the characters in question were raised as and/or regarded each other as family prior to their romantic and/or sexual involvement.
• Infertility Issues/Miscarriage: includes depictions of or references to struggles with conceiving a child and/or the unplanned loss of an unborn child
• Mental Health Issues: focus on a character's mental health or wellness
• Miscarriage: contains content in which a pregnancy is terminated unintentionally, whether the pregnant person wishes to keep the baby or not
• None: no archive warnings apply
• Pregnancy: contains content which prominently features pregnancy.
• Rape (Actual): includes graphic depictions of rape. Rape is defined as sex between two characters where the victim does not or cannot freely give consent or does not or cannot freely refuse.
• Rape (Implied): alludes or infers to a rape of a character. Rape is defined as sex between two characters where the victim does not or cannot freely give consent or does not or cannot freely refuse.
• Self-Harm Injury: contains content where a character deliberately engages in or attempts acts which result in harming their own body, such as by cutting or burning themself.
• Sexual Situations: includes or alludes to consensual sexual activity
• Sexual Violence: a sexual act committed or attempted by another person using a variety of tactics, where the victim does not or cannot freely give consent or does not or cannot freely refuse. Sexual violence can occur in person, online, or through technology, such as posting or sharing sexual pictures of someone without their consent, or non-consensual sexting, and can include unwanted sexual contact or unwanted sexual experiences that do not include contact. This warning should be used when forms of sexual violence not covered by another warning are present in a work.
• Slavery: includes depictions of ownership and/or exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, and/or abuse of power. Not to be confused with BDSM or consensual practices that explore these themes.
• Spike/Other (Temp): includes a brief pairing of Spike with someone other than Buffy
• Substance Use/Abuse: includes the use of illegal substances and/or the abuse of legal or illegal substances
• Suicidal Ideation: includes thoughts and/or consideration of suicide
• Suicide: includes a character taking their life
• Taboo: includes content that is culturally considered repulsive or sacred by mainstream audiences
• Threesome(s): includes sexual encounters with three partners
• Torture (Emotional/Psychological): includes assault on a character's mind/mental well-being. While torture and abuse can overlap, for the purposes of tagging your work, they are differentiated in that abuse is sustained over time while torture occurs over a shorter timespan.
• Torture (Implied): alludes or infers torture of a character. Torture can be emotional/psychological or physical, and is defined as assault on a character's mind/mental well-being or body. While torture and abuse can overlap, for the purposes of tagging your work, they are differentiated in that abuse is sustained over time while torture occurs over a shorter timespan.
• Torture (Physical): includes assault on a character's body, including physical violence and sexual violence. While torture and abuse can overlap, for the purposes of tagging your work, they are differentiated in that abuse is sustained over time while torture occurs over a shorter timespan.
• Trying to Conceive (TTC): contains content in which a person or couple is actively trying to have a baby.
• Underage Sex: includes sexual activity among characters who are under 17 years of age, in some cases 18, at the author's discretion
• Vampire!Buffy: works in which Buffy is turned into a vampire or spends a considerable amount of time as a vampire
• Violence: contains graphic depictions of violence
• Voyeurism: contains depictions of character(s) being observed without their knowledge or consent, by another character(s), often but not always in sexual situations or situations that can be considered titillating, such as states of undress