The Dream She Can't Remember : Icons and Banners for Slayerstillness #47 (IWRY)

It all connects to the dream, the real dream – the one she can’t remember well enough, the one she wishes she could just let go of and forget. She doesn’t know how and she doesn’t know why, but it’s sitting there, salt and bitter on the tip of a tongue that can’t tell the truth to the people who need to hear it…a tongue that rises in songs of bitterness and numbness and a longing for what she left behind – for a place from which she was torn, bleeding from wounds no one but her can see.

- velvetwhip, "Blink and You'll Miss What You Never Saw" (IWRY Marathon, 2011)

Gabrielle's story is my favorite IWRY fiction, ever. The passage above should tell you why. It might also give you an idea as to why I dislike the episode  And yet, I'm fascinated by the notion that the repeated violations of Buffy's mind - Angel taking away one set of memories, the monks inserting another in S5 - contribute to Buffy's mental illness, to her  trauma, depression and grief in later seasons, simply in terms of altering her brain's neurological pathways.

Which is to say that I very nearly didn't make any icons for slayerstillness Challenge 47 - and I'm honestly stunned by the outcome of the round.

Congratulations to muirthemne and tempertemper for their wonderful winning entries this round and THANK YOU to everyone who voted for my icons and thank you also tempertemper for the lovely, swoon-worthy banners! I love the contrasts of "glamour" and grit in these banners; the light leaks and the disintergrating font contrast against one another in much the same way the chain-link fence sets off the dolled-up Sarah. (And kudos to you for signing your work, babe!)

     

       

Entries

    1 - 4

Alts:
      5 - 7


         8 - 12
My personal favorite is #5, and it was very close to being an entry instead of #1.

I really wanted to make at least one icon of he Oracles, because I think they look like rejects from a high school production of "Satyricon: The Musical!" I'm sort of disappointed with myself that I didn't but I wasn't inspired by any of the screencaps of them I looked at.

I honestly thought the awards would be pretty evenly spread out this round because there were so many lovely ones to choose from. I assumed muirthemne's set didn't dominate. I didn't know who made them - or any of the entries - I just knew they were elegant, autumnal, and suffused with emotion. Her 3rd place Angel icon was my first place choice, and her Mod's Choice and Banner Maker's Choicer wins are well and truly deserved. tempertemper's Cordy lightbulb icon, the other Mod's Choice winner, was my Most Creative choice; any icon that can make me chuckle every time I look at it deserves bonus points.

Don't forget to enter Challenge 48 "Five Faces"; deadline is midnight on Friday the 17th.

Texture Resource Credits:
#1 - colorfilter;
#3, 11 -  whitebamboo;
#5, 9, 10 - lookslikerain;
IWRY Screencaps from Pretty as a Picture

Want? Take, have!  But proper credit a must; do not claim as your own, hotlink, post to fanpop.com. or any other archives or websites without my express permission first.

• ETA: IWRY Icon  #1 Nominated Best Icon wicked_awardswicked_awards 2015  -THANK YOU for the nomination!

      

• Winner, Something to Sing About (Best Icon), wicked_awards Round 12, 2015