Ficlet: The Brian Situation

[beer_good_foamy]

So here's a fic I found loitering half-finished on my hard drive. Reading mcjulie's post on Hell's Bells some time ago, I realised there's a minor character in Buffy who gets a few intriguing lines, who openly flirts with one of the scoobies, and has, to the best of my knowledge, never had any fic written about him: that demon guy with the horns that Dawn talks to at Anya and Xander's wedding. Hell, even the script just mentions him as Demon Teen. So I started wondering, and... well, here's what came out.

ETA: There's now a spin-off fic for this one, by dragonyphoenix: Extraneous Tomes

Title: The Brian Situation
Author: Beer Good (beer_good_foamy)
Fandom: Buffy, post-season 6
Rating: PG13
Word count: ~950
Summary: Dawn has a date. Buffy has mom hair.

The Brian Situation

The sound of footsteps thundered down the stairs heading for the front door like, whatsitcalled, the cobbler effect? where a siren goes past you and changes pitch in the middle:

"...andIpromiseI'llbebackbytenOKgreatbye!"

Even Slayer senses aren't keen enough to pick up on a 16-year-old girl talking at top speed. Slayer reflexes, of course, are a different matter, as are big sister instincts that something is going on. Buffy quickly placed herself between Dawn and the front door, forcing her little sister to brake hard and somewhat awkwardly in her high heels. "Come again?"

Dawn hesitated and pulled at her skirt. "...I'll be back by ten?"

"Uh-huh, and before that?"

"Um… Fine." Dawn crossed her arms and pulled herself up to her full height, towering over Buffy. "I have a date."

"A- Oh." Okay, this was one of those handle-this-in-an-adult-but-not-stuffy-way things. Because, well, she had told her it was OK as long as they talked about it first, even if some part of her had hoped it would be, like, 10 years from now or something, but... Dawn was looking at her as if she expected a reaction so she had better come up with one. "OK, that's... Great! Do I know him? Is he in your class…?"

"Who said it's a him?" Dawn allowed Buffy about half a second of bad-parenting self-reproach before continuing. "Just kidding. No, but his name is Brian, we met at Xander and Anya's not-wedding and hung out a bit. He's about my age, and he's into some stuff I'm into, and we could just talk, you know? Plus he has the cutest little horns, and - "

Buffy's eyes immediately narrowed. "Horns?"

"...Crap."

"HORNS? Your date is a demon?"

Dawn held up her hands. "OK, Pot the Kettle Slayer. Yes, he is, but... Wait, who'd you think I'd meet at Xander's wedding? It's pretty much either demons or one of Xander's cousins, and don't tell me that'd be less squicky."

"Um..."

"Look, I know all the objections here. I mean, my big sister's the Slayer. My life is pretty much demons and vampires and witch... Uh, whichever 24/7. Which I'm OK with, really, but there’s so much in my life I can’t even bring up in casual conversation. But Brian already knows about all that stuff, so… Also,” she added, “I live in Sunnydale, so odds are I’d end up dating a demon anyway, and at least this way I know about it beforehand."

"You’ve really thought this through, huh." Buffy paused and nodded. "Brian the demon. Do you even know what kind of demon - "

Dawn sighed and rolled her eyes in a way that's only genetically possible between the ages of 13 and 17. "Fulgrash demon. Sotos codex, pages 421 through 429. Diurnal, vegetarian, except Brian's vegan which is pretty cool, mostly urbanized, no recorded human sacrifices or any other form of aggression since before 1813. Come on, Buffy, it's me. Besides, he knows you're the Slayer and he asked me out, and was totally nervous about it, oh, and his dad knows Clem, so how bad can he be?"

"You want me to answer that or just - “ Buffy paused long enough to realise that she was channeling Giles, and then shuddered. "Urgh. Whatever," she continued, briefly wondering if people still said 'whatever'. "So... Well, um... I mean..."

"Oh, for... Mom gave me The Talk when I was 13. A-and Tara last year." There was a brief hint of pain in Dawn's eyes, and Buffy almost asked about it before stopping herself. Tara had been in the ground for two months, grieving has to stop sometime. "It's just one date. We're going to have coffee, and talk, and catch a movie. And yes, I have protection." She opened her purse to show a bottle of holy water and a stake. "So, please?"

"You'll be back by ten?"

Dawn grinned. "I'll be back by ten. Promise."

"OK." Buffy moved out of the way but held on to her sister's shoulder for a few seconds. "But you know you can talk to me about anything, right? Whatever it is."

Dawn gave her a quick hug. "I know. Love ya."

"TEN!" Buffy yelled as the door slammed.

Alone in her house, Buffy relaxed a bit. That went reasonably well, she supposed. OK, feelings slightly hurt by the not being let in on until the last second, but... Dawn had spent most of the summer burying herself in research, and it was nice to see her excited about something. Besides, Buffy had to admit, her little sister was growing up fairly responsible and had earned some trust. I mean, just look at the thoroughness of her research methods, she thought as she casually strolled over to the bookcase and casually pulled down a volume completely at random that just happened to be the same one Dawn had mentioned had information on her not-boyfriend. By an extraordinary coincidence, it opened to page 421. Buffy casually wondered how Giles would react at Dawn making notes in his precious books, noting cross references, doodling around a couple of words, underlining and highlighting bits like "diurnal", "vegetarian", "non-violent", and -

- and come to think of it, Buffy had earned some time off herself. Treating herself to coffee and a movie sounded like a good idea. She did have this new trenchcoat and sunglasses she'd been meaning to try on. She'd just sit inconspicuously in a corner, watching the people. Couldn't hurt to keep up with what the kids were up to these days. Maybe underlining "anatomically compatible with Homo Sapiens" in books was just some new teenage fad.

Comments

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I was just reading this book (http://www.versobooks.com/books/1489-the-hamlet-doctrine), and stumbled upon a quote which reminded me of this situation, speaking of Hamlet as interpreted by Freud (yeah yeah, I know). Their main point being, near as I can figure out, that grief without catharsis easily leads to melancholia - what we might today call depression - "how weary, stale and unprofitable" s6 is, and how Hamlet/Buffy is unable to articulate any feelings but desire and contempt towards Ophelia/Spike etc. (It's a bit of a mess, as Freud tends to be.) But I liked this quote:

In a civilization defined by an endless, exhausting, and atomizing experience of labor in which each person has a price in the form of a wage, where our time is never our own, mourning offers a unique experience where we work on our own time, where we take the time we need. We might even say that a condition sine qua non for something resembling a decent culture consists in allowing subjects to take the time they need to mourn. Insofar as that time is not granted, then we might well declare that society is rotten. Of course, this is the rottenness of Denmark in Hamlet. The first time we encounter Hamlet before he learns of the apparition of the ghost, he is addressed by Claudius and Gertrude in exactly the same terms: "How is it that the clouds still hang on you?" says the former; "Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off," adds the latter. Hamlet is denied the time to mourn.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Hamlet is denied the time to mourn.

And that is exactly what I've always maintained about the buffyverse characters but most especially of Buffy. (mourning takes time - it can take years, and buffy was certainly not expecting her mother to die. Fearing it? of course, but that is different to acceptance of the possibility.) When does Buffy get to finish grieving her mother's death, Angel's death, her own, Tara's - how do you process that body count emotionally without help?

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

When does Buffy get to finish grieving her mother's death, Angel's death, her own, Tara's - how do you process that body count emotionally without help?

I guess at some point you can't. Hence the s6 storyline. Not to keep harping on about the Hamlet book, but the more I read about their interpretation of Hamlet, the more it reminds me of s6. One of their main points is that information and action are mutually exclusive. Hamlet-as-tragic-protagonist is the exact opposite of Oedipus-as-tragic-protagonist in that Oedipus can act because he doesn't know the secret backstory, whereas Hamlet is given all information at the very start of the play and, as a result, becomes unable to act at all (until he knows that he's dying). All choices become equally impossible and he sinks into melancholy/depression. S6 begins with Willow raising Buffy because she doesn't (want to) know where she's raising her from or what the consequences might be, whereas Buffy knows exactly where she's been raised from and is left unable to do anything at all about it. Hamlet and Laertes go through the same things, lose the same people, and acknowledge how their lives mirror the other's - and end up killing each other in competition over who grieves the bestest rather than admitting their similarities; viz the entire "Dead Things" alleyway scene. Etc.

I don't always agree with the book 100%, but it's putting ideas in my head. (Though it'd be nice if they addressed Gertrude being robbed of her grieving period in the name of politics as well, as anything but a plot point to serve Hamlet with a reason to be an asshole...)

[quinara]

Now, aren't I glad I read this story again via buffyversetop5, just for the comments! (But also the story, which is still very amusing.) Glad to hear the Sotos codex is in print although at that point it wouldn't be a codex, but then I imagine its hippy publishers were hardly going to care, but even more entertained by this Buffy as Hamlet conversation. There's no reason why you might want to start it up again, but I can't help but prattle on, as I love Hamlet to little bitty pieces...

But the psychoanalytical reading is interesting! I've always had most sympathy with readings of Hamlet that focus on his split between Elsinore and Wittenberg, with Hamlet the intellectual Lutheran caught up in a dying Catholic world of ghosts and vendettas and duty (I always think Fortinbras is so necessary to the play, because the point is that even had the old king lived on, he wouldn't have lasted much longer: the royal house was falling apart anyway, so the revenge can only be a personal thing, rather than something truly necessary for the state). The sad thing for poor Ophelia (and Gertrude) is that she's trapped in that rotten world without any recourse to get out even if she wanted to. And so Hamlet feels contempt for her as much as the rest of them, even though she's actually a good match for him in terms of her passion and (as far as I'm concerned) general mental quickness...

Which I suppose, funnily enough, does make me think things about S6! Because I could be quite tempted by a reading of Buffy wherein she's all about trying to change the world of demons and death that she lives in - not least as she tries so hard through S1-5 to have a normal life alongside the monsters - but S6 is about how what was meant to be her final revision of the rules just wasn't enough: her friends couldn't accept it, seeing her place instead to be the traditional Slayer's, fighting on until she is physically struck down (rather than choosing to go for an actual reason). And so Buffy has to come to terms with her situation being less flexible than she thought, which is why she hardens up by S7. Spike, meanwhile, is inevitably trapped in the world of demons, with no convenient escape route of being human, and Buffy punishes him for it.

Hmm... This might be worth a post on the old journal; do you mind if I make reference to your convo over there?

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I think you'd disagree with the authors of this book on a few points (they have NO sympathy for Gertrude, for instance) but it's an interesting take on it.

And I'd love to hear some more thoughts on you on that topic - and by all means, feel free to reference this!