I feel like reccing. First of all, two Halloween fics I enjoyed:

As Old As Time by Hils
Smallville vampire AU Clex. It's been done before, but not this awesome. Excerpt to show you how goddamn wonderful this is:
“When I was eight years old,” Bruce began. “I saw my family killed. By vampires.”
Yes. It has Vampire Slayer!Bruce. With a crossbow. Run, don't walk.

The Count's Only Daughter by drakeofdross
Hilarious and sexy. There's no Halloween costume less appropriate than Clark Kent as Don Juan. But when magic turns everyone into their costumes, Clark loses his tragic fear of boobies and there's genderswitched romance-novel parody het Clex.
And Gabe Sullivan as a canine superhero. Woohoo!

And now a vid:
Cobrastyle by Talitha
I bet most of us have realized at one point that no matter how wonderful Smallville's Lex is, he's not really... a good supervillain. Like, toon or comics Lex would eat him alive in five seconds.
Not the Lex in this vid, though. It's a groovy, fast-paced vid without plot: it just shows us that Lex Luthor = badass. He's got money and style and guns and girls and cars and wicked weird science and he loves it. And he's hot as hell. Watch it! It's the perfect cure against S6.

Smallville Day by Ballistic Liz
One of the billion discarded SV wips on my harddrive is a Groundhog Day scenario, but this fic has satisfied that craving in me. It's *long* and detailed and plotty and romantic with dark and light touches and an interesting villain, and it's a S3 AU as well, set in that time between Belle Reve and Clark discovering the Room - that last stretch of SV where Clark and Lex were could truly have been called friends, where everything was fragile but still... had potential to turn out well. I love, love, love the Clark in this fic.

Everything by tasabian, but especially The Hinge Moment
because, well... it touched me and it hits straight to the centre of Clark and Lex and their tragedy. And it's long, gorgeous hurt-comfort futurefic, and what more can you want? Also, it hits my weird story kink of taking two characters and putting them in a room together until they work their issues out. I read it twice and smiled blissfully through every sentence.

averaird is another totally cool new SV author. I especially love that she includes so much comics canon in her fic and her Lex is often reminiscent of old-style comics villain Lex, which fills me with unholy glee. I can't really decide which of her fics to rec, so if you have been living under a rock, go check her writing out!

Also, everything by romanyg and mskatej but, duh. The things they do with current SV canon! So damn good authors both of them, I get excited everytime I see a new story by them.

Buffy

My Life Closed Twice by anaross
Spike/Buffy. Spike as a college teacher and Spike and his love for poetry are both tropes of Buffy fanfiction, but this is far, far above that. It left me yearning for a poetry class like that and I really hope that the author is a teacher herself because, well, anything else would be wasted talent. Spike's teaching is so great that even Buffy becomes enthusiastic about poetry.
It's a post Buffy and post Angel fic, and Buffy is completely herself, with all her character flaws and so very iconic, and incredibly likeable and bitchy and lonely and tragic. And Spike is brilliant, and amoral except not, and an asshole and a woobie. The setting, a enchanted small town and a college and a hidden demon community a just plain wonderful.

If you love poetry read this. If you love Buffy, read it. Oh, go read it anyway. It's educational.

DCU
If you ever wanted to know what comics!Lex is like, or what he could be like if comics were smart and clever and awesome to infinity, then read __marcelo's entries for Lex in the philosophy_20 challenge.
20 short philosophy themed fics that encompass the brilliant, terrifying, evil glory of Lex. Of course there's a lot of Lex and Superman in there, too, because Lex isn't Lex without Superman. (Only a couple of them are slashy, but, well, the lines between slash and obsession are blurry). __marcelo is one of the smartest writers on LJ, if I may say so, and his Lex will make you want to clap and cheer and cover in fear and slap him and headdesk and just stare in awed terror.

The Mask Behind the Man by damo_in_japan, Superman, Batman.
This is a short futurefic for the DCU and it's incredibly clever and painful and well... iconic. The main focus is on Bruce Wayne, on Batman and Superman, and it's sort of an "Interview with the Vampire" kind of story in which Bruce is interviewed about how he killed the Man of Steel.
But Clark isn't just dead. Clark died as a modern Christ figure should die, all symbolic and beautiful and as a martyr for all other superheroes - and for the world. And Bruce is broken, but still so smart and still such an ass and still... a hero.
I won't say this is how I want the comics to end, but if they did end that way... I wouldn't complain.

Christmas was pretty busy this year, I celebrated with my family on the 24th (notable was only the unbelievably ugly pink-brown-grey-white bed linen I got from my grandma and the fact that my three-year old niece gets more presents than Dudley Dursley.) and with my friends on the 25th. Other than that, I gave my extensive manga collection to the local comic shop for free (they sell them second-hand) and studied a lot of English and Biology for the upcoming end-of-term exams.

Here's the second part of Devil's Deal!

Rating: PG
Length: 5667
Continuity: SV - JLU - DC comics
Summary: Lex sells his soul to the devil to bring his son back from the dead.

Dedicated to talitha78. Betaed by averaird. You're both awesome!

Part One: The Deal

( Part Two: Complications )

( Annotations )