Penname: Touchstoneaf
Real Name: Kat
Pronouns:
Location:
Member Since: November 11, 2018
Last Active: March 16, 2024
Membership Status: Member
Skin: rough and tumble

So...  hm.  I had a peripatetic childhood, which fueled my endless curiosity.  I'm a bit Aspergers-y, so I'm a people-watcher, and that pays dividends in fic if not in RL, lol.  I was a psych-anth major, and am broadly spiritual-agnostic-unlabeled and alternative in just about every conceivable way, so my stories tend to be hugely wordy, philosophical, psychological, and delve a lot into weird personal ethics, biology, sexuality, existential angst, and stream-of-consciousness.

When it comes to Spuffy...  Well.  One day I was at a friend's house when out of nowhere she turned on the current season of BtVS and showed me this guy who looked like the guy I wanted to marry when I'd seen the "White Wedding" video when I was five.  He was wearing this sexy blue midriff shirt and then, you know, laying over a cross, smoking, all cray-cray, his hair coming unraveled and undisciplined, and... well.  I found out later she was trying to get in my pants, lol, using the universal sexiness that is Spike, which... isn't necessarily the wrong way to go, but was a bit confusing.  Didn't work for her, but later I went back and found That Guy, and you know, FELL IN LOVE, HARD.  And, the rest, as they say, is history.  Which means I came at Spuffy from the lens of a 35yo, and thus I despise everything about Bangel; therefore you will see mostly thinly-disguised rage in my fics in that direction, since I'm also a youth-counselor, and... yeah.

As it stands, Spuffy has managed to be the only het pairing which still maintains my interest (boy-howdy!), which is saying something.  I LOVE YOU, SPUFFY!!!

Thank you, OYB, for bringing me to EF!

  Stories (20)    Series (6)    Challenges (1)    Comments (178)    Favorites (33)    Awards (29)    Statistics  
 
 
Summary:

(Between “Listening To Fear” and “Into the Woods”)

Spike is in love.  Buffy is in a relationship.
Spike is irritated.  Buffy is unsatisfied.
Spuffy are tiffing. Tara is uncomfortable.
And the Gods are watching.
With popcorn.

 

Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Series: Buffy and the Olympians
Categories: Season 5, Alternate Reality, Challenge Response
Characters: Anya, Buffy, Giles, Other, Spike, Tara, Willow, Xander
Genres: Fluffy/Comedy, Humor, Lighthearted, POV, Under Magical Influence
Warnings: Adult Language, Buffy/Other (Temp), Spike/Other (Temp)
Challenges: The snark battle to end all snark battles
Event: 2020 Challenge Month
Completed: Yes Chapters: 1 Table of Contents
Word count: 4,192 Hit Count: 1,992 ePub Downloads: 70
Published: April 24, 2020 Updated: April 24, 2020
Summary: Part Four of “Something Wicked”:  OMWF with an established relationship, and a happy Slayer.  Also, no resurrection or Trio. There is something else looming… but not those dopes.  We’ve messed with the S6 theme too much for that, by now. (i.e. it can possibly be read as a standalone, but I wouldn’t recommend it.)
Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Summary:

Part 1 of the Something Wicked series.  (S4, between "Something Blue" and "Hush")

The Hellions have visited Sunnydale before.  Here and there, in twos and threes, looking for a good time.  Any hellmouth is a good time, after all.  Usually they don’t stay long, since the new Slayer started to get a reputation for making good times go bad.  No one wants to play when there’s a sheriff in town.  But then word gets around that a vamp with a reputation of his own has joined the Slayer’s camp.  That pisses off more than a few boys in the demon world; especially demons with a score to settle and a serious dislike of vamps in general, that one in particular.

What’s interesting is… Once the score gets settled, the sheriff gets distracted dealing with the fallout.  And all of a sudden, the town’s wide open. 

Or is it?

Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Summary:
NOTE: 
 If you are here and you haven't read the first two stories of the "Souls In Bondage" series, this story will make literally ZERO sense.  This is an ancillary tale to  "LA Is the Hell You Make It", originally written as a gift for Magnus, and is the only "Tales from the SiBverse" fic that cannot be read as a standalone
***

Summary:
Some demons aren't in our dimension to start trouble.  

Some demons just wanna do a job.  

Heck.  Some demons just want to get out of their home dimension, because they're teeming with others of their own kind, they're crowded, they're boring, life is monotonous.

Any job will do.  Even plumbing a dying city in the human world. 

But then... Dreams get in the way.  An out-of-practice Morpheus demon just trying to make an honest buck can easily get sucked into the desperate, guilty REM-sleep of a Slayer who's just tragically lost her lover in the ending of the world a month or two ago.  At which point, things tend to spin rapidly out of control.  Because tinkering with mortal dreams?

Definitely not in the work-contract.

Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Series: Tales From the SiB-verse (in-series one-shots)
Categories: Season 8 (Comic), Between Seasons (any), Crossover (AtS), Alternate Reality, Time Travel
Characters: Buffy, Faith Lehane, Original Characters, Spike
Genres: Angst, Established Relationship, POV
Warnings: None
Completed: Yes Chapters: 1 Table of Contents
Word count: 8,996 Hit Count: 425 ePub Downloads: 45
Published: April 26, 2020 Updated: April 26, 2020
Summary:

(Somewhere Between “Doublemeat Palace” and “As You Were”)

Buffy is in pain.  Spike is in denial.
Dionysus is watching.  So is Apollo.
Everything is about to come to a head.
Which way will the coin flip for our Slayer, and our vampire?
Honestly, both would be good.

Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Series: Buffy and the Olympians
Categories: Season 6, Alternate Reality, Episode Rewrite, Challenge Response
Characters: Buffy, Other, Riley Finn, Spike
Genres: Angst, Drama, Fix-It, HEA/HFN, Hurt/Comfort, Resurrection, Romance, Under Magical Influence
Warnings: Adult Language, Mental Health Issues
Event: Secret Santa Fic Exchange 2021
Completed: Yes Chapters: 1 Table of Contents
Word count: 14,616 Hit Count: 949 ePub Downloads: 35
Published: December 24, 2021 Updated: December 24, 2021
Summary: Spike's life, as told via his poetry.
Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Summary: Part Three of “Something Wicked”; this is ‘Flooded’/‘All The Way’ with an established, very loving Spuffy relationship, no resurrection, and no Trio (which thematically really changes S6.  i.e., it can possibly be read as a standalone, but I wouldn’t recommend it). 
Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Series: Something Wicked
Categories: Season 6, Crossover (AtS), Alternate Reality, Episode Rewrite, Claim
Characters: Andrew Wells, Angel, Anya, Buffy, Clem, Darla, Dawn, Drusilla, Ethan Rayne, Faith Lehane, Giles, Jonathan Levinson, Joyce, Nikki Wood, Sam Lawson, Spike, Tara, Willow, Xander
Genres: Angst, Drama, Erotica, Established Relationship, Fluffy/Comedy, HEA/HFN, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Lighthearted, Prophecy, Romance
Warnings: Adult Language, Sexual Situations
Completed: Yes Chapters: 3 Table of Contents
Word count: 15,908 Hit Count: 1,874 ePub Downloads: 87
Published: November 26, 2021 Updated: November 26, 2021
Summary:

Once upon a time it was a bit of a fetish.  Now, it's really more in the nature of a game.
Except, sometimes, he goes overboard.  And when he does, she lets him know about it.
And how.  When certain vampires push the game too far, they pay the price.  Willingly. 
(After all, there are rewards.)

Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Series: Tales From the SiB-verse (in-series one-shots)
Categories: Comic (Season Not Specified), Post-Series
Characters: Buffy, Spike
Genres: Established Relationship, Fluffy/Comedy, Humor, Lighthearted, POV, Romance
Warnings: Adult Language, Fetish, Sexual Situations
Completed: Yes Chapters: 1 Table of Contents
Word count: 3,773 Hit Count: 729 ePub Downloads: 41
Published: June 29, 2020 Updated: June 29, 2020
Summary: Part 3 of a the Souls In Bondage series:
After nearly five months spent in a Hell that was strangely like Heaven, Buffy and Spike have come back to the real world.  And guess what?  There’s a reason why Hell was so much fun.  For one thing, there weren’t old friends and ex-Watchers there, and the ur-Slayer didn’t have to figure out what to tell her baby Slayers about the whole, ‘in a lifelong, committed relationship with a vampire’ sitch.  Also, you know, now there was giant Dawn to deal with, and figuring out where to set up housekeeping if everything went to… well, hell. 
Also, you know, there was that whole business with the Scourge.  Couldn’t drop the ball on that. 

Note:  This is a sequel to “LA Is the Hell You Make It”, and is Part 3 of a series.  If you haven’t read the rest, you’ll have no idea what the bloody hell is going on.  I mean, you can; I can’t stop you.  But a lot of what’s happening in here will be taking place in a world unrecognizable to the uninitiated.
 
Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Summary: Part 2 of a the Souls In Bondage series:
Team Angel has gone through the looking glass.  But this time, they happened to do it a little differently.  See, the one thing the Senior Partners didn’t count on was Buffy. 
Normally, the Powers That Be can’t affect things in a hell dimension ruled by entities who suck at losing so bad they cheat their own lawyers.  But when you not only have a bunch of Champions… but also a bonafide PTB conduit stuck in your hellscape like a fly in the ointment, it causes serious problems for hellgod types… and really makes things interesting for a bunch of lost souls and demons trying to make a difference in Hell-A.
Also, you know…  Who knew Hell could be such a nice vacation spot for a vampire and Slayer who just wanted a damn moment alone?

Note:  This is a sequel to “The Ethnocentrism of Vampthropology”, and is Part 2 of a series If you haven’t read Part 1 you might be able to keep up, but you’ll have missed some important stuff.  Read on at your own risk.  
 
Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Summary: Being Called does not mean being Owned.
The Calling has Buffy in Las Vegas; jaded, bored, struggling with 'normal life'.  For one thing, she hasn't been 'normal' since Merrick, and Lothos, and the mental ward. Mom is also struggling; with the move, her new job. Buffy’s new Watcher is struggling with... well, everything (he's pretty useless, that Wesley).
Buffy feels she's owed a good time...and she finds it, on her birthday; in a strange new, blue-eyed vamp she meets at some dive bar.  He's different, a little weird, he's been looking to meet her for a good, long while... and god, is he ever good in bed.
(Written for the EF "Called" Challenge.)  
NOTE:  While part of a series, this story is NOT a sequel to Reordering the Universe.  The tales in this series are only thematically linked, and are but supposals with one thing in common:  What if Buffy was never the Sunnydale Slayer? 
What if, indeed. 
Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Summary:

There must have been a spell.  Probably.  Not that she really cared, when the proceeds were so...
Well.  Sensuous.  
And fun.  
Certain demons could be very playful when they were feeling a certain kind of way.

Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Series: Tales From the SiB-verse (in-series one-shots)
Categories: Comic (Season Not Specified), Post-Series
Characters: Buffy, Spike, Willow
Genres: Established Relationship, Fluffy/Comedy, Humor, Lighthearted, POV, Under Magical Influence
Warnings: Adult Language, Fetish, Sexual Situations
Completed: Yes Chapters: 1 Table of Contents
Word count: 2,733 Hit Count: 1,138 ePub Downloads: 48
Published: June 28, 2020 Updated: June 28, 2020
Summary: Part Five of “Something Wicked”:  ‘Tabula Rasa’ with an established, functional, and happy Spuffy, no resurrection, and no Trio; at least not as it was configured on the show.  There is something else looming, in hints, but this is by now very far afield of canon.  You could possibly read it as a standalone, but I wouldn't recommend it.  
Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Series: Something Wicked
Categories: Season 6, Alternate Reality, Episode Rewrite, Claim
Characters: Andrew Wells, Anya, Buffy, Clem, Dawn, Ethan Rayne, Faith Lehane, Giles, Graham Miller, Jonathan Levinson, Joyce, Oz, Sam Lawson, Spike, Tara, Willow, Xander
Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Dramedy, Erotica, Established Relationship, Fighting, Fluffy/Comedy, HEA/HFN, Humor, Lighthearted, Romance, Under Magical Influence
Warnings: Adult Language, Sexual Situations, Violence
Completed: Yes Chapters: 5 Table of Contents
Word count: 26,089 Hit Count: 1,756 ePub Downloads: 79
Published: December 04, 2021 Updated: December 04, 2021
Summary:

The universe had a few things go wrong in it.
So an order was put in for a second go, by the Powers.
When a Slayer took down her first Master, in LA,
when Whistler was sent in to point a vampire with a soul at a girl who had no clue what he was up to,
things slid a little sideways, onto a slightly different track.

What is 'normal', really?
Who is prophesied?
And what happens if you give the ingredients a stir before you send your dish back to the kitchen and ask for a new version of the same meal?

Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Summary: What the hell were the ex-Cordettes thinking, inviting the surviving 1999 Razorbacks to a freaking High School Reunion?!

Were there even enough surviving students to have a reunion?

More importantly, could Buffy go to such a thing and have it not be a disaster?  For one, she'd have to convince them all she was in a long-term relationship without Spike there, which, yeah, right.  Like they were going to believe that.  (She'd ask Spike for a lot, but going to something like this?  An even bigger tsha, right!) 

Two... Wil and Xan were right.  There'd probably be monsters.  

The whole thing was doomed.
 
Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Series: The Reunion Arc
, Series: Tales From the SiB-verse (in-series one-shots)
Categories: Post-Series
Characters: Buffy, Spike, Other
Genres: Established Relationship, Fluffy/Comedy, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Lighthearted, Porn w/ Plot, Romance
Warnings: Adult Language, Sexual Situations
Event: Secret Santa Fic Exchange 2020
Completed: Yes Chapters: 1 Table of Contents
Word count: 14,419 Hit Count: 1,134 ePub Downloads: 69
Published: December 05, 2020 Updated: December 05, 2020
Summary:

Short, punchy sequel to "Reunited, and It Feels So Doomed", that didn't fit as an epilogue.
(https://dark-solace.org/elysian/viewstory.php?sid=6690)

Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Series: The Reunion Arc
, Series: Tales From the SiB-verse (in-series one-shots)
Categories: Comic (Season Not Specified), Post-Series
Characters: Buffy, Spike
Genres: Established Relationship, Fluffy/Comedy, Hurt/Comfort, Lighthearted, Romance
Warnings: Adult Language
Completed: Yes Chapters: 1 Table of Contents
Word count: 912 Hit Count: 452 ePub Downloads: 22
Published: January 07, 2021 Updated: January 07, 2021
Summary: Part 4 of a the Souls In Bondage series:
The Scourge are done for.  The baby Slayers are back on track, nicely settled under Xander and Willow’s careful tutelage.  Dawn is right-sized.  Things with Giles are… steady-ish.  And Buffy and Spike have found a nice safe haven away from it all where they can just be.  Dial in case of Apocalypse.  Sort out the gray areas on their own time and terms.  Maybe redefine the whole relationship between demons and humanity, and vamps and humans… and of course Slayers and vamps.  You know; given enough time and… social intercourse.

Anyway, that was the theory.  Then the whole thing started with the military, and Amy.  And then Willow and Xander decide to show up on their doorstep.  And there was that thing with Faith and Giles, and…  Jeez.  Hellmouths weren’t the only things that keep rumbling.   

Well, at least they’d closed the book on Angel, right?

(Note:  This is a sequel to “Home Is Where the Scourge Is”, and is Part 4 of a series.  If you haven’t read the rest, you’ll have no idea what the bloody hell is going on.  I mean, you can; I can’t stop you.  But a lot of what’s happening in here will be taking place in a world unrecognizable to the uninitiated.)
 
Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Summary: Part 1 of a the Souls In Bondage series:
Buffy has a run-in with the Scourge, and she learns a few things from them—about the nature of vampires, the Slayer line, herself, and about a certain bleach-blond vampire who vanished into flames at the end of the world a year ago, and took all the heat of her heart with him.  

She needs answers. But when she rings in from Rome to LA to reach the one vampire she has left, she finds out something that she never thought possible. What--and who--she finds in her old hometown sends her on a journey of self-discovery and reunification the likes of which she never dreamed... one that bids fair to set both broken souls and bound demons free.
 
Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Series: Souls In Bondage
Categories: Season 8 (Comic), Post-Series, Crossover (AtS), Alternate Reality, Episode Rewrite
Characters: Angel, Buffy, Charles Gunn, Illyria, Lorne, Other, Spike, Wesley
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Dramedy, Fighting, Fix-It, HEA/HFN, Humor, POV, Romance
Warnings: Adult Language, Character Death, Mental Health Issues, Violence
Completed: Yes Chapters: 8 Table of Contents
Word count: 46,844 Hit Count: 13,199 ePub Downloads: 358
Published: July 05, 2019 Updated: August 19, 2019
Summary:

Buffy is holed up in a hotel in Rome, hiding from the Immortal.  
She is not alone. 
Things are not what they seem... in more ways than one.
Follow us down the rabbit hole, gentle reader, if you will?

Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None
Series: Tales From the SiB-verse (in-series one-shots)
Categories: Season 8 (Comic), Post-Series, Crossover (AtS), Alternate Reality
Characters: Angel, Buffy, Spike
Genres: Drama, Established Relationship, Fix-It, HEA/HFN, POV, Romance
Warnings: Adult Language, Sexual Situations
Completed: Yes Chapters: 1 Table of Contents
Word count: 4,030 Hit Count: 912 ePub Downloads: 49
Published: June 27, 2020 Updated: June 27, 2020
Summary:

Part 2 of the Something Wicked series  (S5, beginning with "Buffy vs Dracula")

Spuffy have been together for a while now.  Things have been great.  The Scoobies have more or less accepted the reality of their couplehood, Spike finally has his own place, so there’s plenty of thoroughly excellent shag-time, and college is kind of fun when you have a worldly, undead tutor to poke fun at your instructors and help you remember your lessons with fascinating anecdotes or, when that fails, incredibly memorable sexy-times.  Life is actually, like, bordering on good

But then Mr. Eurovamp 2000 blows into town and causes a bunch of jealousy.  And then Buffy starts having a bunch of crappy Slayer dreams about glowy purply stuff.  And Dawn is going off the hook even more than usual, and Mom is acting weird…  And, as if there’s not enough to deal with, Buffy’s pretty sure that idiot Riley Finn is still lurking around town trying to come up with a reason to shoot her boyfriend…

Buffy should have known things couldn’t stay yummy for long.  She probably would have started to worry if it had.

(Note:  you can read this without reading the first story, Cry Havoc, and Let Slip Your Heart... but I wouldn't advise it.)

 

Beta and Sensitivity Readers: None
Artists: None