Yay, a new vignette! Because, really, sometimes I sit down to write, and I've just got nothing. Today, I got up early to play video games before work, and this popped into my head.
But first, the overdue replies:
**Irene7353: Awwww ... now I'm a little disappointed that this was a very minor goof instead of wacky goings-on with the very fabric of time. Because I do so love it when that happens
**willohand: Thank you for reading all of these. #13 and #15 were fun in a rip-my-heart-out kind of way (#13 more than #15). #15 was simply the idea of going through old yearbooks popping into my head. The fact that Willow doesn't really like who she was in high school (which is insane - Willow was awesome in high school) did the rest. #13 was a request for a vignette about what was going on inside Tara's head during the brain suck - the uncomfortable chair, the room with no windows or doors, the unplugged black and white tv on the floor ... that was a freaky dream I had once. The bugs were added because they creep me out. I'll kick around your ideas in my head - if nothing comes of it, it's because I've gotten into the habit if avoiding the post-S5-dead-Buffy timeframe and because I usually do W or T or W and T POV, not because they aren't good ideas. Heh ... #39 WaGGD: Disco Inferno is just about one of my favorites. I do, in fact, giggle madly every time I think of the Copacabana montage. TeeHeeeeeee.
**EasierSaid: Thank you, and you're welcome. I don't think anyone has ever said that they had a conversation with their girlfriend sparked by a vignette before (not counting 'Addiction' - the one where Tara catches Willow reading fanfic - as that one was written to mirror conversations that pens-addicts have with their girlfriends). So what was the verdict? Would you have met if you hadn't met how you met? And does this hypothetical AU meeting involve either pirates or monkeys? Or ninjas? Or piratical monkey-ninjas? Okay, so my brain does strange things to me when I wake up early. Feel free to disregard these questions
**watty: Heh ... really, the idea of doing an AU fic (that is, non-BuffyVerse uber-AU, as oppposed to split-off-from-canon AU) is what popped this into my head. Because, really, that list of questions you rattled off if what you have to start with - and as I haven't yet come up with anything (hence the lack of AU fic-writing on my part), I just decided to run with the coffee-cliche.
I'm really glad the transition from daydream to real-life worked for you. I have to admit I was a little worried about it. I was happy with it, but worried about it all the same - it's hard sometimes to know if something works because I wrote it correctly, or if something works just for me, because I'm the one who wrote it. Kind of like that last sentence. As for the small movements - thank you. Sometimes, they're just not there ... I don't see them moving, so I don't put that stuff in. This particular vignette was extremely visual for me, and I'm not sure why. I pictured the entire thing as if it were a on my television, complete with dream-bubble over Willow's head.
There's definitely indulgence in Tara's feelings about her younger self. One of the most fun things about writing these vignettes for me is how much Tara grows and changes in just two years. Especially when writing future-Tara, there's a sense, for me at least, that she's so happy with how her life has turned out, it allows her to look at the pain of her past with a sense of humor - in kind of a "I can't believe I was scared of my own shadow that long because I fell for that I'm-a-demon stuff" way. I see Tara as the kind of person who really understands, on a basic and intuituve level, that life is a journey, and that she wouldn't necessarily have gotten to where she is now if she had been on a different road for any reason.
Hmm - I think I fall into the 5% of the population who needs no translation of your brain ... your coffee analogy makes perfect sense to me. Though, now that I'm reading that W/T exchange again, I believe Tara did catch Willow's meaning the first time around ... but just wanted to hear her say it again, slower. Vixen.
**NewRuthRising: Thank you
I agree that insomnia seriously, seriously bits without fanfic (that is, it bites anyway, because not sleeping is pretty much not fun - but fanfic makes it better). If you'll allow me to overanalyze canon for a moment - Tara's ability to sense auras with no ritual or rhyme-y wording necessary, to me, says that she's generally "in tune". I went from there to the idea that she's very, very mildly pre-cognitive on a subconscious level.
**notl33t: Heh ... I was just wondering how long I've been writing these. I was planning on looking it up, and now I don't have to - so thanks!
And thank you for the applause. It >is< a long time to be doing this, but I certainly enjoy it.
I definitely see Willow as the "forget to eat" type. She's very focused and driven. Really, I just see thinking about Tara to be the only thing she'll pull her focus off of a project to do
**dorksrcool: Gosh, thanks. I love writing their relationship at different stages. I tend to overanalyze things ('cuz, y'know, I'm a nerd), but that's how I make this jumping around to different times work for me. I start different vignettes in different ways, but always, at some point, I stop and mentally take stock of where they are in their relationship together.
**Sassette: Eh - a little melodramatic, but true. Very true.
**dorksrcool (again
): Aww, thanks. I was feeling quite introspective, and had definitely hit a big milestone with the completion of that project (recently, I've been a bit busy with the post-project stuff, but mostly I've been giving my brain time off by doing silly mindless things ... which has been just >awesome<). I'm glad that post resonated with you (and, now that I've reread it, I'm a little relieved that it made that much sense ... heh). And no, I didn't have a hangover. Tall glass of water and two aleve before bed - doesn't actually "cure" the hangover, but since aleve lasts twelve hours, it staves off the owie part.
**reyjawk: Thank you. I'm glad you've enjoyed the vignettes - I certainly enjoy writing them. That was a lovely way of describing those moments when we're aware of all the good things, and that there's something in this world that's so much greater than ourselves. It's nice to keep those in mind - it reminds us to look past the weeds and thorns.
**binky: Gosh, thanks. You're very welcome. I'm delighted to have an audience to share these with, and very much enjoy writing these vignettes. Don't worry about lurking - I watch the view count after I've posted something, and I've trained myself to regard the count ticking higher as its own kind of feedback (I've certainly been guilty of only having time to read and run before, so I definitely understand). Even so, I'm always delighted when someone delurks in this thread to just say "hi - I've been reading and I like these" ... but when someone, like yourself, says they just >had< to post? That's going to make me smile all day - so thank you.
**Thianne: Thank you. In vino veritas, indeed. I think I had a vague sense that the vignette series was about the magic of little moments, but not necessarily on a conscious level. I'm so glad to hear that this is how you've always taken them, anyway. Until recently, I've thought of these as a fluffy writing exercise, and it's actually kind of nice to know that they've always been more than that. For me, writing one of these vignettes is one of those little magic moments. Thanks for the feedback - and you're welcome for the vignettes
**Tujeky: Work, work, blah? Oh, yeah - I know how that goes
I'm a very flattered that the vignette series is one of the things you chose to revisit after a long time of the aforementioned "work, work, blah". I'm glad you've enjoyed these little moments - as I have spent awhile enjoying the phrase "graceful gravity" ... thank you.
And now, the vignette:
Series: Vignettes
Number: 48
Title: Inventory
Author: Sassette
Feedback: Can be sent to
pink_overalls@yahoo.com , or posted here.
Spoiler Warning: No spoilers
Summary: Willow and Tara take inventory
Disclaimer: I didn't create these characters. I’m just borrowing them, because it’s lots and lots of fun.
Rating: PG-13
Inventory
Part 48 of the Vignettes Series
By Sassette
“What’s all this?” Tara asked, a confused expression on her face as she walked into the back room of The Magic Box. All of the “slayer training” accoutrements were shoved to the side of the room, and in their usual places sat stacks of crates and cardboard boxes.
When Tara had gotten Willow’s message on the answering machine, she had put the candles away, and scratched off her plans for a quiet dinner with her girlfriend for their anniversary. Well, it was one of their anniversaries: six years ago that night there had been a power outage, and an extra-flamey candle, and all Tara’s dreams came true. Even so, it was just a simple fact of life with Willow that demon activity trumped a romantic evening in, but Tara didn’t mind. She was proud of the life she and Willow led, fighting demons and saving the world.
But Willow’s message had been vague, saying only that she would be at The Magic Box all evening, so Tara had grabbed her bag and headed out, only to find no one in the front room where the research usually took place, and the back room filled with unfamiliar boxes.
“This,” Willow said, waving a hand to encompass everything, “is the estate of one Mr. David Jameson.”
“Who?” Tara asked.
“David Jameson,” Anya said, coming through the back door and holding it open as Xander stumbled in with another crate. “An old eccentric who was absolutely convinced he was going to be killed by a demon, and bought anything that looked old and had a good story attached to it. He has some good pieces intermixed with the junk, though. I’ve had my eye on his collection for awhile, so it’s about time he died.”
“Oh,” Tara said, blinking. “How’d he die?”
“Demon,” Willow said absently, helping Xander with the crate as Anya looked on.
“He had a few things that protect against demons by themselves, but placed too close together created a mystical vortex that opened a portal and summoned a G’lorn,” Anya explained. “Just goes to show that too much paranoia helps demons kill you.”
Tara’s lips quirked with amusement as Willow and Xander placed the crate down and Willow retrieved the clipboard she had placed on top. She crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway, taking everything in.
“Okay,” Willow said, her brow furrowing as she flipped a few pages, her lips pressing together in concentration. “This one is … C13, and it has the Fobian Crystal in it, and the Amulet of Dron is …”
“A6,” Anya said, coming to stand next to Willow. “Here, give me that,” she said, reaching out to take the clipboard.
Willow moved the clipboard out of reach. “Uh-uh,” she said, shaking her head and frowning at Anya. “That wasn’t the deal. I help out, I get the clipboard,” she said firmly.
“Fine,” Anya huffed, standing next to Willow, their heads bent together as they poured over the paperwork. “Take a break,” she said absently to Xander, who sat down on C13 with a sigh of relief.
Tara stifled a chuckle, and covered her mouth with one hand to hide the grin. It was soon after Xander and Anya got married that Willow had done some of her computery-mojo on the Magic Box (somehow, a database that kept track of who bought how many of what for how much and when allowed Anya to make more money) in exchange for a 25% discount for life, and then bought out half the stock only to sell it back to Anya at a tidy little profit.
At first, Tara had been upset about making money off of a friend, until she’d noticed that their bickering and sniping at each had evolved into an intricate and unfathomable series of deals that boiled down to a de facto business partnership, with Willow eventually running The Magic Box Online in her spare time. A new grudging respect entered their interaction with each other, and the insults eventually changed into something affectionate.
In Tara’s opinion, that fact that Anya stopped talking about Xander’s penis was probably the lynchpin to the whole thing.
Not that she mentionated that fact. She’s have to say “Xander’s penis” in order to do so, and didn’t want to be the one who reintroduced the topic.
Tara shook her head, coming out of her reverie as Willow and Anya’s conversation got louder, and they started gesturing wildly at each other.
“Twenty percent and five minutes,” Anya was saying as Willow gave her an outraged look.
“Got more,” Buffy said, walking into the room, a huge crate held easily in her arms, but blocking her view of everyone and everything.
“Which one?” Willow asked, pausing in her negotiations with Anya.
“B10,” Buffy called, her voice too loud, as if she assumed she had to yell because she couldn’t see anyone.
“Bingo,” Xander muttered.
“Here it is,” Anya said, running a finger down the page. “Nothing dangerous – over there is fine,” she said pointing to the one empty corner.
“This way,” Xander said, getting up to help Buffy find the place Anya had pointed.
“Thirty-three percent and fifteen minutes, and you get all the profit from the first five Halloween web sales,” Willow said.
Anya’s eyes narrowed. “All the profit from the first five Halloween web sales, you get 25% and ten minutes, and a trial run of that membership card thing you wanted to do.”
Willow’s eyes lit up. “Thirty percent.”
“Twenty-seven.”
“Twenty-nine.”
“Twenty-nine and I get to take the clipboard.”
“Twenty-nine and you get the clipboard for ten minutes.”
“I get the clipboard for ten minutes and you admit that the genuine eye of newt was a bad idea.”
“Deal. The genuine eye of newt was a really bad idea,” Willow said as she and Anya shook on it.
“Okay, back to work,” Anya said, taking the clipboard out of Willow’s hand with a triumphant flourish, and taking it and Xander and Buffy outside.
Willow let out a relieved breath, blowing the hair out of her eyes before turning to Tara with a soft smile.
“Hey,” she said, walking towards Tara.
“Dare I ask what that was all about?” Tara asked, pushing off from the doorway and meeting Willow halfway across the room.
“I just got ten minutes alone with you and a trial run of that membership card thing I really want to do for 6% of the profits off of everything in this room, my half of the first five Halloween web sales, admitting that the genuine eye of newt was a bad idea, and temporary custody of the clipboard,” Willow said, smiling slightly.
“Mmm …” Tara said, stepping into Willow’s arms and snuggling in. “Ten whole minutes?”
“Yup,” Willow said, sighing happily and giving Tara a little squeeze. “I’m sorry about all this,” Willow said, searching Tara’s face closely for any hint of sadness or anger – and because she just liked looking at Tara.
“It’s fine,” Tara said, her thumb tracing a lazy line up and down Willow’s neck.
“’Fine’ like ‘Willow, you will never live down working on our Extra Flamey Anniversary’, or ‘fine’ like ‘Willow, this is your free one, but do not ever, under any circumstances, work on our Extra Flamey Anniversary again, unless it is to prevent impending apocalypse’ or ‘fine’ like ‘Willow, I am so impressed with your bargaining abilities and our ten minutes of alone-time that I am going to rock your world as soon as we get home tonight’?” Willow asked with a tilt of her head and an impish grin.
She could tell that Tara wasn’t actually upset. The first thing Tara did when she was feeling angry or hurt was to close off physically. Drawn together like little lesbian magnets, they were always touching or holding hands. It was when Tara went all hands-off that alarm bells would start ringing in Willow’s head, and so the snuggly hug and the thumb running slowly up and down her neck told her, without need for verbal confirmation, that everything was all right.
“Hmm,” Tara said, considering carefully. “’Fine’ like ‘Willow, I don’t care if I spend the evening going through crates and taking inventory, as long as I spend the evening going through crates and taking inventory with you’.”
Willow blinked a few times, and then grinned. “That just might be the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
Tara shrugged. “Besides, what’s an anniversary if not a time to take inventory?”
Willow’s lips quirked before she schooled her expression into one of mock seriousness. “That’s very philosophical, and very deep,” she said, nodding sagely.
“Hmm, yes, it is. I’m a very deep sort of person,” Tara agreed. “And my anniversary-inventory includes one Willow, in reasonable working order, so I’m also very lucky.”
“I’ll have you know that you have one Willow in excellent working order,” Willow said. “You have one Willow in excellent working order who managed to push second-quarter reports with Anya to next week, meaning she has a four-day weekend.”
“You’re kidding. Really?” Tara asked, her eyes lighting up. She happened to have the next four days free, herself, and the idea of spending all that uninterrupted time with Willow sounded like heaven.
“Really,” Willow said, tucking a bit of Tara’s hair behind her ear. “And …your Willow, in >excellent< working order, has made arrangements to spend some time up at a little cabin that has – may I live to regret this – horseback riding.”
“Okay, now I know you’re kidding,” Tara said, raising an eyebrow.
“Cross my heart,” Willow said, making the appropriate gesture. “We can leave anytime tomorrow, it takes about an hour and a half to get there, we’ll have all day Friday and Saturday, and we can come back Sunday afternoon.”
“You’re not kidding,” Tara said flatly, her expression one of mixed disbelief and excitement.
“I’m not kidding,” Willow confirmed.
“You’re perfectly serious,” Tara said.
“I am perfectly serious,” Willow confirmed again.
“You’re going to ride a horse?” Tara asked.
“I’m going to try it once,” Willow said, her resolve-face firmly in place. “See the resolve face?”
Tara’s eyes widened as the fact that she and Willow were going to spend the next four mutual days off together, and that two of those days were going to involve horseback riding, finally sunk in.
She couldn’t help it. She squealed.
Eyes widening even further, Tara clapped a hand over her mouth to prevent any more unauthorized noises as Willow started giggling madly.
“Okay, that was the best noise ever. Can you do it again?” Willow said, poking Tara lightly in the tummy.
“Stop that,” Tara said, swatting Willow’s hand half-heartedly.
“Make me,” Willow said, poking Tara again.
“Okay,” Tara said, smiling that little half-smile, her eyes glinting with intent. Taking Willow’s face in her hands, she brought their lips together, her smile growing against Willow’s mouth when she felt and heard Willow’s sharp intake of breath.
Willow did, in fact, stop poking Tara in the tummy, her hands finding Tara’s waist and pulling her in, their bodies making solid contact as the kiss deepened.
They didn’t notice when Buffy burst in the back door, with her wild-eyed where’s-the-demon look on her face, Xander close on her heels.
“Guess Willow told her about the trip,” Xander said.
“Guess so,” Buffy agreed, giving the room one last where’s-the-demon sweep, just in case.
“Come on,” Anya said, dragging Xander and Buffy out and shutting the door. “They still have five minutes.”
Thanks. I've mentioned before in replies what I like about writing the Vignette Series, but you've hit on a few new things that haven't really been brought up. For a long, long time, over-exposition and long-winded backstory/setup was a big flaw in my writing. There's something about writing >short< that's very challenging for me. Writing these vignettes really makes me consciously decide what the scene is about, what I'm hoping to accomplish with it (though, usually, the answer to that one is "Awwww ... W/T Lovin'! Yay!"), and whether or not something really needs to be in the story. For this one, the idea was that the "are we boring" discussion is universal, even for our favorite demon slayers, who lead just about the most exciting lives any of us can imagine. To that end, I only talked about the actual slaying enough to establish that they were covered in yuck, and that no one had been hurt that evening: the two things that needed to be established in order to make the "are we boring" discussion both ridiculous (because - hey - being covered in demon yuck? Not boring) and realistic (because they wouldn't be discussing such a thing if someone had been hurt ... they probably wouldn't have gone home if someone had been hurt) at the same time. So, I've said before that the vignettes are easy, but that's not entirely accurate: once I have a concept, writing them tends to be >quick<, but they're not easy.
and I loved the ending.
okay it has taken me some time (but ive actually done it) I have now read every one of these. And for the record I have to say that #`s 13 and 15 are the best of the best on this very long list.
Whoaaaaa there.I just checked my list and woohoo I forgot to mention how cute I find # 39, Whats a girl gotto do Disco Inferno.
but its all true.This one is too funny to not 
for another similiar to it,but of course it can be only one right. 
pretty much all the time. *shrugs* I don't think I'm alone on that one.