Two short ones

[beer_good_foamy]

Drabble for open_on_sunday, on the prompt "tie":

No Noose Is Good Noose

Some mornings, he wishes his job didn't require a tie; the perfect Windsor knot feels too tight. He used to be "Bob", he used to wear oversized t-shirts, when did he become proper Mr Flutie?

But the suit and tie give him that extra Authority he occasionally needs to lead troubled students back onto the straight-and-narrow. At least... that's the idea.

As the pack leap upon him, he briefly wishes he hadn't stayed in school. The jacket is too constricting to fight in. He screams, but one of them grabs his tie and pulls, and then there's no more air.

---

Double drabble for still_grrr, on the prompt "Bring out your dead - Jenny Calendar":

Title: Recurring
Author: Beer Good (beer_good_foamy)
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 200
Prompt: 018, Jenny
Characters/Pairing (if any): Giles
Timeline: AtS 5.16, "Shells"

Recurring

Six years is a long time, too long to keep grieving over something that never really had a chance to be. He lives with it and what remains is mostly a lingering unease around computers and roses, and an intense dislike of Puccini.

But once a year, it hits him, always on the same day. Giles sits remembering, wondering what might have been if things had gone in a different way, where they would be now. And it's not the emptiness of his bed that keeps him up, but the memory of the shock the one time he found her in it. The feeling that there'll be something cold and dead between his sheets, that it's far too late to do anything about it or stop the monster responsible.

So when Angel calls from Wolfram and Hart the next morning to ask for... make that demand his and Willow's help in resurrecting some "Fred" woman Giles has never met, not exactly sounding like the poster boy for atonement – yeah, maybe Giles could have done something different. Maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe he just needed a good night's sleep.

Maybe that's something they're both going to have to live with.

Comments

[shinodabear.livejournal.com]

Love the title of the drabble. Ties can be dangerous.

As for the ficlet!

yeah, maybe Giles could have done something different. Maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe he just needed a good night's sleep.

Maybe that's something they're both going to have to live with.

Brilliant! I love it. Such a . . .argh! To think what might have happened instead . . .

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Ties are not just dangerous, but downright evil in and of themselves.

And I'm so glad the ficlet works. I was afraid Giles was coming off as too vindictive, but...

Thanks!

[shinodabear.livejournal.com]

I was afraid Giles was coming off as too vindictive, but...

Ripper, anyone? Not to mention to whole "Oh, you want to kill Spike, do you, Robin? Well, fine. I'll distract the Slayer and you can have a go at him. Good luck."

I thought it showcased the darker side of Giles quite nicely.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

True. Or killing Ben and, as far as we know, never telling anyone about it. Yup, Giles can be VERY cold when things need doing (or not doing, as it were).

[mabus101.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm...

I really ought to do something for "Bring Out Your Dead" while it lasts....

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Oh, you definitely should. My guess is there'll be a free-for-all at the end of the month, so... any dead characters will be up for grabs.

[spikendru.livejournal.com]

Loved these - especially "Recurring". Beautifully done, and quite satisfying. Giles' flat out refusal to help in AHitW as an inadvertent consequence of Angel(us)' murder of Jenny makes so much sense and just fits. Great job!

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

It really does fit eerily well; I actually went as far as to look up the original air dates; "Passion" aired on Feb 24th, "AHitW" on Feb 25th, exactly six years apart. (Yeah, Giles' refusal to help technically comes in "Shells", but it's a double episode with no time passing in between, so...) Thanks!

[darkershadeof.livejournal.com]

Yesyesyes! You make sense dude! Of course that's what Giles was thinking at the time! Go you!

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Heh, thanks!

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor Flutie!

And I always wondered what got into Giles - now I remember.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Like I wrote above - the dates of "Passion" and "A Hole in the World" really are eerily close; Fred dies on the anniversary of Jenny's death (plus one day). Thanks!

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

Poor Proncipal Flutie. I always liked him.

And I loved Giles here. I always assumed he never fully forgave Angel.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I liked Flutie too. Of course, I loved Snyder, so... but Flutie was simply a little too much of a good guy for Sunnydale, I guess.

Thanks!

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Very nice.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Loved it!

[readingchampion.livejournal.com]

Indeed, ties ARE evil. And I always though the phone-call would have mentioned S2 somehow, like "...is this about the torture thing? 'Cause you KNOW that..." but you are right, the Jenny thing would be the thing that Giles would remember.

Re: Loved it!

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thanks! If I had to wear a tie every day, I'd... uh... not do it. Which is a somewhat Andrew-esque comment, I guess, but hey.

[chosen0112.livejournal.com]

Wonderful. Joss made such complex relationships and storylines that sometimes it was easy to forget the intricacies that both bound and divided his characters. I still watch episodes and think "Oh, That's the connection!"
Bravo.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm not sure if this is one connection Joss intended, but hell, it works. :-)

[shego2drakken.livejournal.com]

Hm. Maybe it's just as well that Wesley died in Not Fade Away...

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Heh. And yet in the comics, they've brought him back to make him suffer even more. There's no end to the pain heaped on poor Wes...

[shego2drakken.livejournal.com]

The question would be (if Wes survived): Who to throttle first? Angel (if he finds out the indirect part he played) or Giles?

Maybe tell Willow that Giles refused to help (considering their closeness [take that how you will]), and let the fireworks fly?