Buffy fandom: Spike/Xander classic recycled as... Spike/Xander
I run bloodclaim, a Spike/Xander community in the Buffy fandom. As mod, I made the decision, years ago, to request that accusations of, or queries about, plagiarism within the comm come through me, because I know lot of people aren't comfortable confronting a possible plagiarist. Hell, I'm not! But I'd rather take responsibility for it than have someone ignore possible plagiarism because they don't want to have to go through the process of exposing it and being blamed for the fallout.
Early yesterday morning (5th October 2010) I received the following email:
Subject: Problem
Just FYI Mending the Souls fiction recently posted on Bloodclaim by spikes_kogagirl, seems very much like Twilight Time by Shadow - even some of the wording is the same.
Thought you should check it out. (name redacted)
Twilight Time is a well-known Spike/Xander fic. A classic. Just from skimming the first chapter of Mending Souls, I could see there were problem areas, so I did a side-by-side comparison of the text.
Links: spikes_kogagirl's 'Mending Souls' ~ Shadow's 'Twilight Time'
When I started, only chapter 1 had been posted. As I was finishing the comparison, chapter 2 went up, so I got to do it all over again today. :/
The basic plot is as follows:
Spike comes upon Xander, who has been beaten by his father, though he at first claims to have fallen and hurt himself. Spike calls him on the lie and then convinces Xander to let Spike clean him up. Spike leaves to procure prescription meds (without a prescription) and a bottle of spray that is unnamed in Mending Souls, but is referred to in the following line:
The antiseptic was going to work though and he groaned softly as the pain abated.
In Twilight Time, the spray is named as Chloraseptic, an anaesthetic throat stray that Spike improvises with to help numb the injuries on Xander's back before he cleans them. Yes, it is also an antiseptic, but... antiseptic alone just does not work like that. Possibly this was a misunderstanding based on the brand name in TT. Annoying, but fairly minor, and could possibly have been meant to be 'anaesthetic'. But then...
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
"Might have cracked one there, Pet," he said. He sat back, gazing into Xander's eyes. "What'd your bleeding folks use on you, a fucking baseball bat?"
"They didn't - " Xander flushed darkly. "I fell and hit the pool table."
"Yeah, well, that must be one bleeding feisty table to do all that," Spike said with a chuckle. "I figure it must be possessed or something. Suppose we just go tell Giles about that demonic table, ey? Might need exorcising, that, before it eats someone."
"No!" Xander flushed even darker. "I mean - "
Spike raised an eyebrow.
Mending Souls (cap 1x3)
Spike hooked his thumbs in his belt as he took a few more steps forward, time to strike the nerve and put the boy off balance. “Wot your pop beat you for this time, then?” Xander looked up at him with a shocked expression and Spikes eyebrows rose in a ‘well?’ expression.
“I fell down the stairs,” Xander replied smoothly. Not the first time then, Spike decided, if the boy had an excuse thought up like that and could give it out so smoothly. He had practice at this, and Spike was curious just how much practice.
“Must’a been a mean set of stairs to do all that, then. They jump up an bite you, mate? Must be possessed,” Spike declared as he eyed the stairs leading up to the main house, “wot say we go take a stroll over to the watchers an tell him ‘bout those demonic stairs before they eat someone else yeah?”
“NO!” Again Spike’s eyebrows shot up again, waiting for Xander to elaborate. “I mean no need to do that. I’ll be fine, just a few cuts.”
~~~
In response to Xander's 'I wish' when Spike tells him he came close to death:
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
"Undead's not bad, but dead's no fun at all."
Mending Souls (cap 1x4)
Undead is alright, but dead is no fun at all.
~~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
"Right," Spike said. He grimaced. "Well, make yourself comfortable. I'm 'round to the chemist's for a few things."
"Chemist?" Xander echoed worriedly, frowning.
Mending Souls (cap 1x4)
“right, I’m round to the chemists. Some of that is gona need more care than we can give em an I know you don’t want to go to the clinic.”
Xander looked up at Spike slightly dazed, questions bombarding his mind with few or no answers. Why did Spike care? Why was he doing this? What was ‘the chemists’?
~~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
Now, before you get too muzzy, toddle over to the loo and take a piss, all right?"
"Huh?" Xander wasn't too fuzzy to gape at Spike's words.
"Want to make sure there's no blood in your urine, Pet," Spike said patiently. "All that bruising over your kidneys, might be a problem. Go on now."
It took Xander a few minutes to relax enough to urinate, and when he did he let out a hollow groan. There was indeed a trace of blood in his urine, but Spike, who over a century or so had become pretty damned familiar with human physiology, could tell it wasn't serious.
"Well, I'm sure it don't feel any too good, but you'll heal up on your own," Spike said with satisfaction. "Here, you can put these on now." He helped Xander step into a pair of black silk boxers and carefully pulled them up.
Mending Souls (cap 1x6)
Spike moved away from Xander, “first, though, piss.”
Xander stared at Spike a moment and blinked, why did the idea of Spike striping his ass make him shiver? But wait, what did Spike say again, “What-huh?”
“I said piss, all that bruising around your kidneys might be a problem.” Spike ordered as he stood by.
“Joy, just what I need, the evil undead watching me piss. I can cross that off my “never want to do again” list.” Xander, however, complied and stood over the toilet. He let out a hollow groan as the stream started and there was, in fact, a trace of blood in his urine.
“Right, you should be fine. Not much there, it should heal up on its own. Now, toddle off to bed.”
(The word 'toddle' is used 4 times in TT, once in this scene. It seems an odd sort of coincidence for it to turn up in the same scene in MS.)
~~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 10)
“Ummm, yeah. Can I speak to Angel, please.”
Cordelia sounded bored, which meant, Spike supposed, that she hadn’t recognized his voice.
“Who should I say?”
“Tell him William Barstow, please.”
“Hold on.”
A moment later Cordelia came back on.
“I’m switching you to his phone,” she said. “If I can figure this thing out. If you get cut off, call back, okay?”
“Right.” Spike braced himself. A moment and several clicks later, one quiet word.
“Will.”
That tone said it all. Flat, emotionless, not angry. He didn’t even merit anger. Right. State your business and bugger off.
“Won’t keep you,” he said, just as quietly. “I want my stuff, the stuff you had stored - if you haven’t done something with it, I mean. And access to my accounts.”
A long pause.
“You’ve got a hell of a nerve, Will,” Angel said in that same measured tone. “Giles tells me you’re living in my building.”
“Yeah, well - “ Spike grimaced. “If I had the money, I’d buy it off you. Look, Angel, I don’t care what you think of me - “
“Yes, you do.”
That flat, matter-of-fact tone again. Spike swallowed, closing his eyes briefly.
“All right, I do,” he admitted. “But this isn’t about me. It’s for Xander.”
“Xander?” This time Angel’s tone changed, sharpened. “Xander Harris? What about him? Is he all right?”
(...)
Another long silence. When Angel spoke, his voice had softened slightly. Not much, but enough to let Spike know that forgiveness, while still only a remote possibility, wasn’t completely out of the question.
“Your belongings are at Millenium Self Storage in Sunnydale,” he said. “I’ll FedEx everything you need for your accounts, plus the key card to the storage unit. You’ll have them tomorrow before sunset.”
Spike swallowed.
“Thanks,” he said quietly. “Angel, I - “
“Shut up, Spike,” Angel said, his voice hard again. “I don’t want to hear it. And I heard about the chip. Don’t show up on my doorstep expecting my help with that.”
Spike grinned. The very fact that Angel was giving him this lecture - well, it was good enough for him.
“Thanks,” Spike said again.
“Fuck you, Will,” Angel said coldly.
“Could happen,” Spike said cheerfully, hanging up on Angel.
Mending Souls (caps 1x7, 1x8, 1x9)
“Yeah, luv, put Angel on the phone.” Spike replied.
Either Cordelia didn’t recognize his voice or didn’t much care because she made no indication of recognition, “Who should I say is calling?”
“Tell ‘im it’s William, pet.”
“You got a sexy accent going on there; you can call back any time.” Cordelia said as she sat up to figure out how to transfer Spike over to Angel’s line.
Spike couldn’t help but preen at the compliment, even if Cordelia didn’t realize who he really was, “Ta luv, I’ll keep that in mind.”
Spike heard a click as he was being transferred and figured Angel might just cut him off after Cordelia told him who was calling. However, he didn’t have long to wait before Angel answered, “William…”
Right, monotone, one word response, Spike didn’t warrant any emotion obviously. Obviously Angel was in no mood to deal with Spike’s usual shit, so for any hope Angel would actually fill his requests he’d be brief.
“Right, Peaches, I’ll be brief. I want my stuff.” Spike knew such a bold request would probably be flat out denied. But he had to get Angel to see reason if he had any hope in caring for Xander.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve calling here and asking for anything, Will. After what you did I have a mind to stake you myself. I heard about your situation and I am not sympathetic, so don’t come asking for help with-”
“It’s not for me, it’s for Xander.” Spike cut Angel off in mid rant.
That gave Angel need for pause; just what interest did Spike have in Xander? Finally, after some deliberation, Angel spoke again, “what about Xander, what’s happened?”
(...)
“Is Xander alright?”
(...)
Spike could almost hear Angel brooding over the phone. But he didn’t have long to wait until Angel finally made his decision. “I’ll have everything put together and sent by messenger by this afternoon. Can I assume you’re staying in the basement at the moment?”
(...)
“Alright, but don’t start asking for help with the chip, Spike. That’s your problem, not mine, and if I find out your doing something bad to Xander I will personally come down there and kick your ass to the moon.” Angel threatened as he began the process of getting Spike access to his accounts and stuff.
“Ta, peaches. I appreciate it.” Spike smiled, even the threat was meant to show that Angel still cared and that forgiveness was a possibility if not yet then someday.
“Fuck you, Spike. Don’t call me again.” Angel then hung up on Spike and again, Spike couldn’t help but smile. The “don’t call me again” screamed “call again when you really need it” and Spike was planning to do just that.
“Just might happen peaches…”
~~~
(In both excerpts, expositional dialogue has been redacted (...) for the sake of brevity.)
~~~
I had just finished writing this up when chapter 2 went up. I was too tired to go through the whole thing there and then, so I sent the following PM:
Earlier this morning, I received an email informing me that your fic 'Mending Souls' (at present just one chapter of a WiP) appears to be very similar to Shadow's 'Twilight Time', to the point that 'even some of the wording is the same'.
I have now completed a side-by-side comparison of the two texts and I agree with the person who emailed me. In my opinion, there are too many similarities for it to be coincidental, so, as it clearly states on Bloodclaim's profile page, I will be passing the information I have to the community stop_plagiarism. One of the mods there will deal with the complaint and get back to us both on the matter at their earliest convenience.
darkhavens, bloodclaim mod.
In the space of half an hour, I received three replies:
#1 (08:01)
I don't know who accused me of plagiarizing. I've read Twilight Time and it is not what i was thinking about when i was writing this. Perhaps I and the writer of twilight time had similar ideas to how Spike and Xander may get together, Xander having crap parents and the like, but that is hardly plagiarizing if facts are used from the series. Xander did have crap parents, and Spike may actually care. If the mods want to take it down that's fine, but i am adamant that it is not plagiarism. It is based off an rp that i did with DeadlyNight27 some time ago.
#2 (08:06)
I would also like to know who is accusing my story of being plagerized. It is now finished, i just completed the second part, and I assure you it is not plagerised. I'd like to know what wording is the same and what parts are considered the same because if they really are so similar i would happily go in and fix it. TT is a great story and one of my favorites.
#3 (08:32)
I would just like to make one more message. Again, i'm not sure if my work plagiarizes twilight time. I've completed the second part and if you would be so kind as to read the second part you will realize that the story is not plagiarizing Twilight Time.
You gave me absolutely no chance to defend myself or my work. You have absolutely no idea how damaging something like this is to my already brittle confidence in my writing abilities. Please, i ask you to reconsider sending messages to the community so it can be resolved without having to include them. I work very hard on my work, I am very proud of it. If there are similarities if they would be clearly pointed out i would happily fix it so there is no problem.
Thank you,
Spikes_kogagirl
So, she went from "I wasn't thinking about Twilight Time, I am adamant this is not plagiarism" to "Twilight Time is one of my favourites and I will change anything that is too similar but it assuredly is not plagiarized" to I'm not sure if it is plagiarism - but it isn't. Tell me which bits are and I will change them."
At this point, I just wanted to get some sleep, but felt the need for some sort of reply, so I sent this PM:
I was about to go to bed when the originating email landed in my inbox. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep with the idea of it lingering in the back of my mind, not knowing if it might be malicious or justified, so I took the time to make the comparison. Now the second chapter is up, but I really have to get some sleep so I will take a look at it later today and will contact you with a copy of my assessment.
darkhavens, bloodclaim mod.
When I woke up and came online, I found a further PM:
Again, Thank you.
I work very hard on my writing and am very proud of it. I take plagiarism very seriously. If there are sections of my story that you and others consider too similar i would happily edit it out of respect for the writer of Twilight Time. It's a very good story and I very much enjoyed reading it.
Reviewing what i wrote in the first chapter admittedly there may be a few sections that are similar. Namely the items Spike obtains to take care of Xander with and Spike's call to Angel about retrieving his accounts. (The accounts ideas is a widely used idea and so i wouldn't call that plagiarism at all) but if there are similarities in the wording that need to be worked out, i will do it.
I would appreciate knowing who accused me of plagiarism. Not to attack them or anything. I would like the benefit of avoiding this user as much as possible. I'm not sure why they felt the need to go behind me (so to speak) and start this chain of events. But a simple message outlining the concerns would have been sufficient for me to change something that may be considered too similar.
As it is this episode gave me an anxiety attack, of which i have not had in a year, and an emotional breakdown. I'd like to clear this up as soon as possible and put it behind me. And so being able to avoid the user in question that made the accusation would benefit me.
Thank you again for your consideration.
And now I have made the comparison, and while I haven't found nearly as many 'similarities' as I did in chapter 1, I did find some. Chapter 2 has them moving into Angel's mansion, with an airbed; Spike feeding Xander tinned chicken soup and thinking about cooking homemade food for him (in TT, Spike first feeds Xander tinned soup and then makes chicken soup from scratch for him); Spike wanting to make Xander his Consort - and later doing it; Spike feeding Xander his blood without Xander's knowledge to help clear up the infection that is setting into Xander's wounds; and then there are these:
Twilight Time (Chapter 14)
for the shackles of love are looser and easier to bear than those of fear and hatred.
Mending Souls (cap 2x7)
But the shackles of love were easier to bear than the lonely freedom he’d experienced so far.
~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
Let them think him helpless and dependent and controllable as long as they liked. Let them make a habit of it, in fact. Sooner or later he'd be rid of the bloody chip, and then he'd vastly enjoy . . . re-educating them. For example, it might be fun to break one of Buffy's bones for each and every sarcastic barb she'd flung his way, plus a few extras for the way she'd snubbed him when he'd been crazy enough to think he fancied her. That thought made him smile. Although the human body housed only 200-odd bones; he wasn't sure that was enough. Of course, he could always finish with his trademark railroad spikes, nail her up to a tree. There were lots of places to drive them through that wouldn't finish her too quickly.
And Giles? Hmmm. Maybe he'd take the Watcher's precious stapler, tear out the pages of his precious Watcher's journal, and staple the pages to the Watcher (all, right, ex-Watcher, but one got into these habits and it wasn't worth his trouble to break it) - one for every gripe and fucking order the Watcher had made him endure. "Don't drink blood out of my good tea set, Spike." "Feet off the coffee table, Spike." "No, you may not play the stereo while I'm researching." "Turn the television off, Spike, you've watched long enough." "Oh, do get out of the way for a while, Spike." Or better yet, maybe he'd just lock Giles away with nothing to eat but the odd packet of pig's blood now and again. See how he liked the stuff.
Mending Souls (cap 2x9)
“You know ducks, I’m relishin ever little barb an insult you throw my way because one day, when I get this chip out, you’ll be the first I come after. And then every barb an insult is gona turn into a broken bone. Remember, human body houses 200+ bones. I think I’m gona have to pack a lunch to bring wiv me cause its gona be a long day.” Spike threatened coolly, and he hoped they didn’t think he was joking. He was dead serious; one day when he had the chip out Buffy would be the first. “And that’s not mentioning wot I’d do to the watcher. Probably just force feed him a few bags of that pigs blood he so enjoys unloading on me.”
~~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 18)
Spike felt a vague pleasant echo of the sensation that had pushed him over into climax, and he reached up and touched his shoulder, his eyebrows shooting up as he felt the moisture and fading soreness. He glanced at his red-tipped fingers, then looked over at Xander. There was a suspicious hint of red on his lips.
Spike gaped.
“You bit me!” he said.
Xander panted some more, but his eyes were twinkling. The bite on Xander’s throat was already almost gone, thanks to the fair amount of vampire blood running through his veins at the moment.
“Turnabout’s fair play,” he gasped.
“But - you bit me!” Spike repeated blankly. He grinned. “Sodding hell, whelp, you bit me!”
Mending Souls (cap 2x15)
Moments ticked by where the two laid together, basking in the afterglow of sex and claiming. When Spike finally decided he could move he reached his fingers up to touch at his shoulder and they came away smeared with blood. He looked down at Xander whose mouth was also tinted red and the boy could only grin up at the dumfounded look on Spike’s face. “Bloody ‘ell, whelp…you bit me!” Spike slowly grinned as he realized the bond was complete now, Xander must have known what to do and thank god he did. He really knew how to pick ‘em. “You bit me!”
“Vampires aren’t the only ones that know how to bite.”
~~~
I know that most of these points revolve around themes and tropes very common to a lot of Spike/Xander fics,but it just seems to be too much, too similar.
I have emailed the author:
I have finally finished going through chapter 2 of your fic, and while there aren't as many elements in common with Twilight Time as there were is chapter 1, there are still enough to raise red flags.
I will not be telling you who complained. They followed the rules of the comm, as seen on the profile page. As mod, I made the decision, years ago, to request that accusations of, or queries about, plagiarism within the comm come through me, because I know lot of people aren't comfortable confronting a possible plagiarist. Hell, I'm not! But I'd rather take responsibility for it than have someone ignore possible plagiarism because they don't want to have to go through the process of exposing it and being blamed for the fallout and attacked, or shamed into backtracking. (And believe me, I have seen all of those things happen, time and again.)
I also decided that if I thought an accusation was justified, I would pass the information on to the community stop_plagiarism. This is also mentioned on our profile page, as is our affiliation with that community.
Here, for your information, is the complete list of points I have sent to stop_plagiarism. I do understand that you were hoping to dissuade me from contacting them, but that just wasn't going to happen. Offering to change the bits that I (and others) have problems with does not negate the existence of those problems.
(list of points [as seen above] redacted.)
I am very sorry that both of us are involved in this messy business and hope that it can be resolved as soon as possible.
darkhavens, bloodclaim mod.
In case of deletion, or editing - as the author has already offered to do so...
Screencaps of Ch1: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 10, 11
Screencaps of Ch2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Early yesterday morning (5th October 2010) I received the following email:
Subject: Problem
Just FYI Mending the Souls fiction recently posted on Bloodclaim by spikes_kogagirl, seems very much like Twilight Time by Shadow - even some of the wording is the same.
Thought you should check it out. (name redacted)
Twilight Time is a well-known Spike/Xander fic. A classic. Just from skimming the first chapter of Mending Souls, I could see there were problem areas, so I did a side-by-side comparison of the text.
Links: spikes_kogagirl's 'Mending Souls' ~ Shadow's 'Twilight Time'
When I started, only chapter 1 had been posted. As I was finishing the comparison, chapter 2 went up, so I got to do it all over again today. :/
The basic plot is as follows:
Spike comes upon Xander, who has been beaten by his father, though he at first claims to have fallen and hurt himself. Spike calls him on the lie and then convinces Xander to let Spike clean him up. Spike leaves to procure prescription meds (without a prescription) and a bottle of spray that is unnamed in Mending Souls, but is referred to in the following line:
The antiseptic was going to work though and he groaned softly as the pain abated.
In Twilight Time, the spray is named as Chloraseptic, an anaesthetic throat stray that Spike improvises with to help numb the injuries on Xander's back before he cleans them. Yes, it is also an antiseptic, but... antiseptic alone just does not work like that. Possibly this was a misunderstanding based on the brand name in TT. Annoying, but fairly minor, and could possibly have been meant to be 'anaesthetic'. But then...
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
"Might have cracked one there, Pet," he said. He sat back, gazing into Xander's eyes. "What'd your bleeding folks use on you, a fucking baseball bat?"
"They didn't - " Xander flushed darkly. "I fell and hit the pool table."
"Yeah, well, that must be one bleeding feisty table to do all that," Spike said with a chuckle. "I figure it must be possessed or something. Suppose we just go tell Giles about that demonic table, ey? Might need exorcising, that, before it eats someone."
"No!" Xander flushed even darker. "I mean - "
Spike raised an eyebrow.
Mending Souls (cap 1x3)
Spike hooked his thumbs in his belt as he took a few more steps forward, time to strike the nerve and put the boy off balance. “Wot your pop beat you for this time, then?” Xander looked up at him with a shocked expression and Spikes eyebrows rose in a ‘well?’ expression.
“I fell down the stairs,” Xander replied smoothly. Not the first time then, Spike decided, if the boy had an excuse thought up like that and could give it out so smoothly. He had practice at this, and Spike was curious just how much practice.
“Must’a been a mean set of stairs to do all that, then. They jump up an bite you, mate? Must be possessed,” Spike declared as he eyed the stairs leading up to the main house, “wot say we go take a stroll over to the watchers an tell him ‘bout those demonic stairs before they eat someone else yeah?”
“NO!” Again Spike’s eyebrows shot up again, waiting for Xander to elaborate. “I mean no need to do that. I’ll be fine, just a few cuts.”
~~~
In response to Xander's 'I wish' when Spike tells him he came close to death:
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
"Undead's not bad, but dead's no fun at all."
Mending Souls (cap 1x4)
Undead is alright, but dead is no fun at all.
~~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
"Right," Spike said. He grimaced. "Well, make yourself comfortable. I'm 'round to the chemist's for a few things."
"Chemist?" Xander echoed worriedly, frowning.
Mending Souls (cap 1x4)
“right, I’m round to the chemists. Some of that is gona need more care than we can give em an I know you don’t want to go to the clinic.”
Xander looked up at Spike slightly dazed, questions bombarding his mind with few or no answers. Why did Spike care? Why was he doing this? What was ‘the chemists’?
~~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
Now, before you get too muzzy, toddle over to the loo and take a piss, all right?"
"Huh?" Xander wasn't too fuzzy to gape at Spike's words.
"Want to make sure there's no blood in your urine, Pet," Spike said patiently. "All that bruising over your kidneys, might be a problem. Go on now."
It took Xander a few minutes to relax enough to urinate, and when he did he let out a hollow groan. There was indeed a trace of blood in his urine, but Spike, who over a century or so had become pretty damned familiar with human physiology, could tell it wasn't serious.
"Well, I'm sure it don't feel any too good, but you'll heal up on your own," Spike said with satisfaction. "Here, you can put these on now." He helped Xander step into a pair of black silk boxers and carefully pulled them up.
Mending Souls (cap 1x6)
Spike moved away from Xander, “first, though, piss.”
Xander stared at Spike a moment and blinked, why did the idea of Spike striping his ass make him shiver? But wait, what did Spike say again, “What-huh?”
“I said piss, all that bruising around your kidneys might be a problem.” Spike ordered as he stood by.
“Joy, just what I need, the evil undead watching me piss. I can cross that off my “never want to do again” list.” Xander, however, complied and stood over the toilet. He let out a hollow groan as the stream started and there was, in fact, a trace of blood in his urine.
“Right, you should be fine. Not much there, it should heal up on its own. Now, toddle off to bed.”
(The word 'toddle' is used 4 times in TT, once in this scene. It seems an odd sort of coincidence for it to turn up in the same scene in MS.)
~~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 10)
“Ummm, yeah. Can I speak to Angel, please.”
Cordelia sounded bored, which meant, Spike supposed, that she hadn’t recognized his voice.
“Who should I say?”
“Tell him William Barstow, please.”
“Hold on.”
A moment later Cordelia came back on.
“I’m switching you to his phone,” she said. “If I can figure this thing out. If you get cut off, call back, okay?”
“Right.” Spike braced himself. A moment and several clicks later, one quiet word.
“Will.”
That tone said it all. Flat, emotionless, not angry. He didn’t even merit anger. Right. State your business and bugger off.
“Won’t keep you,” he said, just as quietly. “I want my stuff, the stuff you had stored - if you haven’t done something with it, I mean. And access to my accounts.”
A long pause.
“You’ve got a hell of a nerve, Will,” Angel said in that same measured tone. “Giles tells me you’re living in my building.”
“Yeah, well - “ Spike grimaced. “If I had the money, I’d buy it off you. Look, Angel, I don’t care what you think of me - “
“Yes, you do.”
That flat, matter-of-fact tone again. Spike swallowed, closing his eyes briefly.
“All right, I do,” he admitted. “But this isn’t about me. It’s for Xander.”
“Xander?” This time Angel’s tone changed, sharpened. “Xander Harris? What about him? Is he all right?”
(...)
Another long silence. When Angel spoke, his voice had softened slightly. Not much, but enough to let Spike know that forgiveness, while still only a remote possibility, wasn’t completely out of the question.
“Your belongings are at Millenium Self Storage in Sunnydale,” he said. “I’ll FedEx everything you need for your accounts, plus the key card to the storage unit. You’ll have them tomorrow before sunset.”
Spike swallowed.
“Thanks,” he said quietly. “Angel, I - “
“Shut up, Spike,” Angel said, his voice hard again. “I don’t want to hear it. And I heard about the chip. Don’t show up on my doorstep expecting my help with that.”
Spike grinned. The very fact that Angel was giving him this lecture - well, it was good enough for him.
“Thanks,” Spike said again.
“Fuck you, Will,” Angel said coldly.
“Could happen,” Spike said cheerfully, hanging up on Angel.
Mending Souls (caps 1x7, 1x8, 1x9)
“Yeah, luv, put Angel on the phone.” Spike replied.
Either Cordelia didn’t recognize his voice or didn’t much care because she made no indication of recognition, “Who should I say is calling?”
“Tell ‘im it’s William, pet.”
“You got a sexy accent going on there; you can call back any time.” Cordelia said as she sat up to figure out how to transfer Spike over to Angel’s line.
Spike couldn’t help but preen at the compliment, even if Cordelia didn’t realize who he really was, “Ta luv, I’ll keep that in mind.”
Spike heard a click as he was being transferred and figured Angel might just cut him off after Cordelia told him who was calling. However, he didn’t have long to wait before Angel answered, “William…”
Right, monotone, one word response, Spike didn’t warrant any emotion obviously. Obviously Angel was in no mood to deal with Spike’s usual shit, so for any hope Angel would actually fill his requests he’d be brief.
“Right, Peaches, I’ll be brief. I want my stuff.” Spike knew such a bold request would probably be flat out denied. But he had to get Angel to see reason if he had any hope in caring for Xander.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve calling here and asking for anything, Will. After what you did I have a mind to stake you myself. I heard about your situation and I am not sympathetic, so don’t come asking for help with-”
“It’s not for me, it’s for Xander.” Spike cut Angel off in mid rant.
That gave Angel need for pause; just what interest did Spike have in Xander? Finally, after some deliberation, Angel spoke again, “what about Xander, what’s happened?”
(...)
“Is Xander alright?”
(...)
Spike could almost hear Angel brooding over the phone. But he didn’t have long to wait until Angel finally made his decision. “I’ll have everything put together and sent by messenger by this afternoon. Can I assume you’re staying in the basement at the moment?”
(...)
“Alright, but don’t start asking for help with the chip, Spike. That’s your problem, not mine, and if I find out your doing something bad to Xander I will personally come down there and kick your ass to the moon.” Angel threatened as he began the process of getting Spike access to his accounts and stuff.
“Ta, peaches. I appreciate it.” Spike smiled, even the threat was meant to show that Angel still cared and that forgiveness was a possibility if not yet then someday.
“Fuck you, Spike. Don’t call me again.” Angel then hung up on Spike and again, Spike couldn’t help but smile. The “don’t call me again” screamed “call again when you really need it” and Spike was planning to do just that.
“Just might happen peaches…”
~~~
(In both excerpts, expositional dialogue has been redacted (...) for the sake of brevity.)
~~~
I had just finished writing this up when chapter 2 went up. I was too tired to go through the whole thing there and then, so I sent the following PM:
Earlier this morning, I received an email informing me that your fic 'Mending Souls' (at present just one chapter of a WiP) appears to be very similar to Shadow's 'Twilight Time', to the point that 'even some of the wording is the same'.
I have now completed a side-by-side comparison of the two texts and I agree with the person who emailed me. In my opinion, there are too many similarities for it to be coincidental, so, as it clearly states on Bloodclaim's profile page, I will be passing the information I have to the community stop_plagiarism. One of the mods there will deal with the complaint and get back to us both on the matter at their earliest convenience.
darkhavens, bloodclaim mod.
In the space of half an hour, I received three replies:
#1 (08:01)
I don't know who accused me of plagiarizing. I've read Twilight Time and it is not what i was thinking about when i was writing this. Perhaps I and the writer of twilight time had similar ideas to how Spike and Xander may get together, Xander having crap parents and the like, but that is hardly plagiarizing if facts are used from the series. Xander did have crap parents, and Spike may actually care. If the mods want to take it down that's fine, but i am adamant that it is not plagiarism. It is based off an rp that i did with DeadlyNight27 some time ago.
#2 (08:06)
I would also like to know who is accusing my story of being plagerized. It is now finished, i just completed the second part, and I assure you it is not plagerised. I'd like to know what wording is the same and what parts are considered the same because if they really are so similar i would happily go in and fix it. TT is a great story and one of my favorites.
#3 (08:32)
I would just like to make one more message. Again, i'm not sure if my work plagiarizes twilight time. I've completed the second part and if you would be so kind as to read the second part you will realize that the story is not plagiarizing Twilight Time.
You gave me absolutely no chance to defend myself or my work. You have absolutely no idea how damaging something like this is to my already brittle confidence in my writing abilities. Please, i ask you to reconsider sending messages to the community so it can be resolved without having to include them. I work very hard on my work, I am very proud of it. If there are similarities if they would be clearly pointed out i would happily fix it so there is no problem.
Thank you,
Spikes_kogagirl
So, she went from "I wasn't thinking about Twilight Time, I am adamant this is not plagiarism" to "Twilight Time is one of my favourites and I will change anything that is too similar but it assuredly is not plagiarized" to I'm not sure if it is plagiarism - but it isn't. Tell me which bits are and I will change them."
At this point, I just wanted to get some sleep, but felt the need for some sort of reply, so I sent this PM:
I was about to go to bed when the originating email landed in my inbox. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep with the idea of it lingering in the back of my mind, not knowing if it might be malicious or justified, so I took the time to make the comparison. Now the second chapter is up, but I really have to get some sleep so I will take a look at it later today and will contact you with a copy of my assessment.
darkhavens, bloodclaim mod.
When I woke up and came online, I found a further PM:
Again, Thank you.
I work very hard on my writing and am very proud of it. I take plagiarism very seriously. If there are sections of my story that you and others consider too similar i would happily edit it out of respect for the writer of Twilight Time. It's a very good story and I very much enjoyed reading it.
Reviewing what i wrote in the first chapter admittedly there may be a few sections that are similar. Namely the items Spike obtains to take care of Xander with and Spike's call to Angel about retrieving his accounts. (The accounts ideas is a widely used idea and so i wouldn't call that plagiarism at all) but if there are similarities in the wording that need to be worked out, i will do it.
I would appreciate knowing who accused me of plagiarism. Not to attack them or anything. I would like the benefit of avoiding this user as much as possible. I'm not sure why they felt the need to go behind me (so to speak) and start this chain of events. But a simple message outlining the concerns would have been sufficient for me to change something that may be considered too similar.
As it is this episode gave me an anxiety attack, of which i have not had in a year, and an emotional breakdown. I'd like to clear this up as soon as possible and put it behind me. And so being able to avoid the user in question that made the accusation would benefit me.
Thank you again for your consideration.
And now I have made the comparison, and while I haven't found nearly as many 'similarities' as I did in chapter 1, I did find some. Chapter 2 has them moving into Angel's mansion, with an airbed; Spike feeding Xander tinned chicken soup and thinking about cooking homemade food for him (in TT, Spike first feeds Xander tinned soup and then makes chicken soup from scratch for him); Spike wanting to make Xander his Consort - and later doing it; Spike feeding Xander his blood without Xander's knowledge to help clear up the infection that is setting into Xander's wounds; and then there are these:
Twilight Time (Chapter 14)
for the shackles of love are looser and easier to bear than those of fear and hatred.
Mending Souls (cap 2x7)
But the shackles of love were easier to bear than the lonely freedom he’d experienced so far.
~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
Let them think him helpless and dependent and controllable as long as they liked. Let them make a habit of it, in fact. Sooner or later he'd be rid of the bloody chip, and then he'd vastly enjoy . . . re-educating them. For example, it might be fun to break one of Buffy's bones for each and every sarcastic barb she'd flung his way, plus a few extras for the way she'd snubbed him when he'd been crazy enough to think he fancied her. That thought made him smile. Although the human body housed only 200-odd bones; he wasn't sure that was enough. Of course, he could always finish with his trademark railroad spikes, nail her up to a tree. There were lots of places to drive them through that wouldn't finish her too quickly.
And Giles? Hmmm. Maybe he'd take the Watcher's precious stapler, tear out the pages of his precious Watcher's journal, and staple the pages to the Watcher (all, right, ex-Watcher, but one got into these habits and it wasn't worth his trouble to break it) - one for every gripe and fucking order the Watcher had made him endure. "Don't drink blood out of my good tea set, Spike." "Feet off the coffee table, Spike." "No, you may not play the stereo while I'm researching." "Turn the television off, Spike, you've watched long enough." "Oh, do get out of the way for a while, Spike." Or better yet, maybe he'd just lock Giles away with nothing to eat but the odd packet of pig's blood now and again. See how he liked the stuff.
Mending Souls (cap 2x9)
“You know ducks, I’m relishin ever little barb an insult you throw my way because one day, when I get this chip out, you’ll be the first I come after. And then every barb an insult is gona turn into a broken bone. Remember, human body houses 200+ bones. I think I’m gona have to pack a lunch to bring wiv me cause its gona be a long day.” Spike threatened coolly, and he hoped they didn’t think he was joking. He was dead serious; one day when he had the chip out Buffy would be the first. “And that’s not mentioning wot I’d do to the watcher. Probably just force feed him a few bags of that pigs blood he so enjoys unloading on me.”
~~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 18)
Spike felt a vague pleasant echo of the sensation that had pushed him over into climax, and he reached up and touched his shoulder, his eyebrows shooting up as he felt the moisture and fading soreness. He glanced at his red-tipped fingers, then looked over at Xander. There was a suspicious hint of red on his lips.
Spike gaped.
“You bit me!” he said.
Xander panted some more, but his eyes were twinkling. The bite on Xander’s throat was already almost gone, thanks to the fair amount of vampire blood running through his veins at the moment.
“Turnabout’s fair play,” he gasped.
“But - you bit me!” Spike repeated blankly. He grinned. “Sodding hell, whelp, you bit me!”
Mending Souls (cap 2x15)
Moments ticked by where the two laid together, basking in the afterglow of sex and claiming. When Spike finally decided he could move he reached his fingers up to touch at his shoulder and they came away smeared with blood. He looked down at Xander whose mouth was also tinted red and the boy could only grin up at the dumfounded look on Spike’s face. “Bloody ‘ell, whelp…you bit me!” Spike slowly grinned as he realized the bond was complete now, Xander must have known what to do and thank god he did. He really knew how to pick ‘em. “You bit me!”
“Vampires aren’t the only ones that know how to bite.”
~~~
I know that most of these points revolve around themes and tropes very common to a lot of Spike/Xander fics,but it just seems to be too much, too similar.
I have emailed the author:
I have finally finished going through chapter 2 of your fic, and while there aren't as many elements in common with Twilight Time as there were is chapter 1, there are still enough to raise red flags.
I will not be telling you who complained. They followed the rules of the comm, as seen on the profile page. As mod, I made the decision, years ago, to request that accusations of, or queries about, plagiarism within the comm come through me, because I know lot of people aren't comfortable confronting a possible plagiarist. Hell, I'm not! But I'd rather take responsibility for it than have someone ignore possible plagiarism because they don't want to have to go through the process of exposing it and being blamed for the fallout and attacked, or shamed into backtracking. (And believe me, I have seen all of those things happen, time and again.)
I also decided that if I thought an accusation was justified, I would pass the information on to the community stop_plagiarism. This is also mentioned on our profile page, as is our affiliation with that community.
Here, for your information, is the complete list of points I have sent to stop_plagiarism. I do understand that you were hoping to dissuade me from contacting them, but that just wasn't going to happen. Offering to change the bits that I (and others) have problems with does not negate the existence of those problems.
(list of points [as seen above] redacted.)
I am very sorry that both of us are involved in this messy business and hope that it can be resolved as soon as possible.
darkhavens, bloodclaim mod.
In case of deletion, or editing - as the author has already offered to do so...
Screencaps of Ch1: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 10, 11
Screencaps of Ch2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
