WHAT DOES THIS SITE CONTAIN?

Through the Looking-glass is a collection of Uber fiction featuring the characters Willow and Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm hoping to gather all the Uber-Will/Tara fan fiction written by all the talented Buffy scribes out there, and present it all in a single archive.

It pretty much goes without saying that the stories on this site will contain romance between two women. If that bothers you, find other reading material.

WHAT IS UBER FICTION?

Über is a German word meaning 'above'. Writers of Xena fan fiction began using it (generally without the little dots above the 'u') to describe stories in which the characters from that show appeared as people in different time periods and settings (originally inspired by the TV episode 'The Xena Scrolls', which featured Xena and Gabrielle's direct descendants, Melinda Pappas and Janice Covington, in 1942). Since then the term has broadened to refer to fan fiction of any genre, in which the main characters are translated into a different setting than normal.

SO IT'S LIKE AU FICTION?

Not exactly. AU (Alternate Universe) fiction generally supposes that the regular background of the characters occurs up to a certain point, where the story's background then diverges from the original - for example, Buffy fiction in which Buffy was not raised from death after the end of season five, or in which Tara was not killed at the end of season six (I'm quite partial to the latter idea).

Uber fiction is fiction in which only the natures of the characters are retained. The characters may have lived lives completely different to those of their original setting, but (due largely to the indulgence of authors) their personalities are unchanged. Uber is a sub-genre of AU, with particular requirements.

WHY WILLOW AND TARA?

Because they're cute as kittens - particularly Tara. As a romantic couple they're gorgeously wonderful. Are you detecting a hint of bias? That's why.

WHAT RESTRICTIONS ARE THERE ON STORIES ON THIS SITE?

All stories will be rated on their content with regards to coarse language, violence and sex. However I'm very reluctant to suggest that censorship is a good thing, so any and all of the above may be present in stories on this site. If that may be a problem, check the rating and summary before reading the story. In extreme cases I may decide not to host a story, but that would be exceedingly rare.

I'm requiring all stories here to be Uber. So any stories featuring Will and Tara as they are on TV don't qualify, much as I love reading them (go to The Kitten Board for much conventional Willow & Tara goodness). Stories in which they are transported from Sunnydale to another setting (e.g. a spell going wrong and dumping the girls in Greece around Xena-time) aren't Uber either, despite having elements in common. Obviously there could be cases where the lines get a bit blurred, but I'll just make individual choices in those cases.

Finally, this is a Will/Tara site, so it's pretty fundamental that stories featuring the two of them have them in a romantic relationship (not necessarily at first, but by the end), and don't kill either of them permanently. So the TV show itself no longer qualifies. Their loss.

That said, the stories hosted here needn't be solely about Willow and Tara. Other characters from Buffy may be present, and even (for example) a Buffy-led story would qualify for the archives. Just so long as Will and Tara are around, and get a decent amount of 'screen time', I won't be terribly fussy.

WHERE DID THE TITLE GRAPHICS COME FROM?

I put them together using images found through Google's image search engine, and doing what I can using Photoshop. It's quite possible that some or all of the source images are copyrighted, in which case I hope the owners don't mind me using them.