(no subject)

[doyle]

I'm having a go at RPing over in pruegirl17's journal, all about Buffy and Tara and their college romance. It's fun and a new experience for me, RP-almost-virgin.

If anybody wanted to start a tig in the comments I'd play, cracktastic scenarios welcomed...

Comments

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

He grimaced at her turn of phrase. Nasty habit she had, blurting out what everyone else was too afraid to say.

Alcohol sounded very tempting, even if it was barely four o'clock.

"We could drive out to the university," he said. "There's bound to be somewhere open at this time... oh." He'd just remembered his expired driver's license. "You'll have to drive," he said, with trepidation.

[thiswholeflight.livejournal.com]

Anya smiled, not noticing his grimace as she took the rental car keys from him. She had no problem with driving. She had much more experience since her first time driving Willow around Sunnydale to find Olaf. Okay, well, she had some.

"Well, then, lets go." She told him as she slipped into the driver's seat. Which one was the gas again?

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Giles knew how to defeat the First. All they had to do was work out some way to manoeuvre it into a car which Anya was driving and it would leave their dimension of its own accord.

He gingerly uncurled his fingers from their death grip on the seat and reminded himself that it was only a rental. Really, the worst that could happen was their deaths in a flaming ball of death.

"It's this turn," he said, and spent the next minute separating himself from the door. Anya was overly fond of the accelerator. "That light's red. Anya. Anya!" They passed it. He sighed.

[thiswholeflight.livejournal.com]

"Really, Giles," Anya started with a sigh which told him that he wasn't being any fun, "Do you think because everyone's scaddadled from Sunnydale that people are going to care about red lights? It's just a color."

She made a sharp turn at the next light (which also happened to be red). This is where he said the bar was, right? They stopped quickly across a few parking spots out in front of the bar. She was halfway up the curb.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Giles, never a particularly religious man, offered a quick prayer of thanks anyway. They'd found the bar, they'd emerged unscathed from the worst driving he'd ever seen, and... wait a minute.

"If you're drinking, how are we planning to get back?"

[thiswholeflight.livejournal.com]

Anya shrugged a shoulder towards him, "We could call someone later." Why was he worrying now?

"Right now we're here to relax, aren't we? So, I do hope you're planning to. I was looking forward to seeing you drunk," she commented as they headed inside.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

He didn't make a habit of frequenting college bars, but he would have expected something not dissimilar to the English equivalents. Pool tables, quiz machines, students already off their faces at this time of the afternoon -

Well, there was a pool table. But the several large Bharnoth demons clustered around it weren't typical university types.

He caught Anya's arm. "This is a demon bar," he whispered, already backing them towards the exit.

[thiswholeflight.livejournal.com]

Anya sighed and rolled her eyes, "It's still a bar, is it not?" Did he really have that much of a problem with demons? She was newly an ex-demon and he didn't seem to have much of a problem with her, did he?

Besides, there was pool here and she was pretty sure that she could kick his ass at it if he was drunk.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

With trepidation, he allowed himself to be lead to the bar. A chaos demon, slime dripping from his antlers and pooling on the bar, gave Anya an interested leer. Giles glared him down, and was a little surprised at his own reaction. Anya was more than old enough to take care of herself, after all. Far more equipped to deal with this kind of environment than he was, in fact.

Still, he said, "Why don't you find us somewhere to sit, and I'll get the drinks? What would you like?"

[thiswholeflight.livejournal.com]

"Something froofy and sweet," Anya said thoughtfully, telling Giles, "but one that will also make the room spin - but in a good way."

She then found a table beside the jukebox with two seats. Plotting herself down in the black metal seat, she waited for Giles to order.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

"Scotch, neat," Giles said, passing the bartender a twenty dollar bill. "And something..." A look of pain crossed his face. "Something 'froofy and sweet'. Please."

Both the man's heads snorted. "Scotch for you, girly drink for the lady, coming up."

The glasses seemed clean, at least.

He joined her Anya at the table, keeping a watchful eye on their fellow drinkers, who didn't appear to be paying them a blind bit of notice. "I don't know what this is," he said, handing her the drink. A paper umbrella spun sadly in the glass. "Radium, judging by the colour."

[thiswholeflight.livejournal.com]

Anya smiled, delighted that she was finally out and away from all the chaos at the house. She teased the paper umbrella with her fingertips and took a sip. Well, at least he didn't get her a White Russian - they might have taken his request literally.

"What did you get?"

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

"Oh. Just scotch." He swirled the glass. "Playing it safe, I suppose." He tucked his wallet back in his jacket, and his fingers brushed his mobile phone - Xander's phone, technically, on loan so he could stay in contact.

He fought the urge to ring and see how things were. It wasn't even dark yet.

Small talk, then.

"So," he said. "What have you been doing with yourself? Did you reopen the Magic Box?"

[thiswholeflight.livejournal.com]

"You mean the store that got smashed to itty bitty pieces when Willow went on her murder rampage?" Anya stated sardonically, "No." She shook her head in reply.

"The place is beyond repairable, even with my funds and the ex that happens to be a carpender. Even with the insurance which happens to not cover psychotic witches or apocolyptic events."

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

"We don't tend to think of things that way," Giles mused. "As irreperable. I always thought the Council would be there forever." He shook himself. "I'm sorry, Anya. Must be getting maudlin, I haven't drunk in a while." He hadn't drunk *still* - the glass was untouched. He drained it.

And while he was apologizing, there was one he'd owed her for a while. "I'm sorry I wasn't here. For the wedding."

[thiswholeflight.livejournal.com]

Anya frowned. He had to mention her disasterous wedding, didn't he? Xander could save the world on a whim but when battling decoupage he ran scared. She removed the umbrella from the glass and took a large gulp.

"Does it matter anymore?" She asked, "You would have hated it. When the families weren't fighting with each other they were flirting. It was sickening." She paused, "It's not as if the wedding even went through, obviously."

She was still hurting inside about it. She knew that.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

She was twisting the umbrella, he noticed, the pink paper falling to shreds between her fingers. Anya-semaphore. They were approaching dangerous waters.

He took the safest route. Change the subject, steer them away from the difficult questions about why she wasn't currently calling herself Mrs. Harris.

With a wan smile he didn't feel, he said, "Do you come here often?"

[thiswholeflight.livejournal.com]

Anya discarded the ruined pink paper umbrella, sipping at her drink. She flashed him a smile. Thank god she could count on Giles not to press anymore on the wedding that could have been.

"Never," she replied.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

"My friends and I used to visit a few demon bars when we were young. Thought we were being brave, I suppose. It's a wonder none of us were..." He trailed off, remembering Randall. "Still. It's good to get out of the house."

[thiswholeflight.livejournal.com]

"Well, that was the point." Anya nodded in agreement, stirring the drink with her straw briefly. "I mean, do you have any threads of patience left that the potentials haven't sucked up?"

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

"I had one," he said thoughtfully. "I was keeping it for a special occasion. Then this morning, Molly wrote a telephone message on the frontispiece of the Mishnahoth Demon Field Guide. I could actually feel myself snap."

[thiswholeflight.livejournal.com]

"Figures," Anya sighed. "They have no respect. Absolutely none. Especially for things that might be worth anything."

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

For some reason, he thought again about the wedding.

All he said was, "Another drink?"

**

The glasses were breeding. It was the only possible explanation. Giles frowned at the ten - no, twelve of them on the table.

"We should really be heading back," he said, for the third time in two minutes.

[thiswholeflight.livejournal.com]

Anya had been giggling, almost obnoxiously, for the past ten minutes at anything and everything Giles had been saying. Finally, she actually paid some attention to what he had said.

"Going?" She stopped, "But we haven't even played pool yet." There was a plan to getting him drunk. Didn't he know?

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

"You're drunk," Giles said severely. He was perfectly fine, of course. He'd only had four - five? - five drinks. Maybe six. He was nowhere near his tolerance.

He squinted at the floor. It seemed awfully far away.

"Well, then," he said, getting rather unsteadily to his feet and extending a hand across the table to her. "Let's play pool."