Drabble: Cave In, Hand Over, Hang On

[lettered]

Title: Cave In, Hand Over, Hang On
Length: I may have cheated a bit. But 100 words, my way; I DID IT AGAIN!
Rating: G! again!
Prompt: for semby. Angel and Xander.
A/N: Xander saves Angel.
edited because I fucked up.



Cave In, Hand Over, Hang On

Angel lives and gives in, lives to give in, lives/gives with army ordinances/Lawsons, haunted hotels/ungratefuls. Angel put quarters in for Mandy but drank a man already dead instead.

Then there's Buffy, and Angel wants life again. But she rips his necklace off, quits, and that's the end of this . . . but for Xander at his door.

Then Angel puts hopes in some pool underground (for pennies: pounds), but Buffy's already dead. And Angel wants to drink her, too; give in, like Darla said . . . but for Xander on the floor, beside the dead.

Instead, Angel watches Xander bring him back to life.

Comments

[43100.livejournal.com]

*drools* That's beautiful. And I'm drunk right now and I'm not laughing, so that's a good sign, b/c right now I'm laughing at everything. *hangs head in shame*

[tinpanalley.livejournal.com]

Lovely!

[ignoramouse.livejournal.com]

Love your language use.

The rhythm and meaning of the first line alone is to die for.

Smashing wee drabble!

[semby.livejournal.com]

Damn! So pretty. And I love love love how you show his complete loss and despair, only to be revived by Xander, of all people. Xander was certainly a hero that night.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And hey, if you can still do html, you're ok. And I also have a bad habit of coming onto lj after drinking!

Hope you feel alright this morning!

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Glad the first line worked for you. I liked it a lot when I first wrote it, but I had to cut so many words to get down to 100 that I wasn't sure it made sense any more. So thanks!

[43100.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm feeling fine, actually. I have a slight headache tho.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

For some reason, at first I never really bought that Angel would need Xander to come convince him to save Buffy. She was his life; he was already obsessed with her by then. But recently while rewatching, I realized what I hadn't before: I think that Angel used to be the kind of person who expected the world to fall into place for him, and when it didn't, he liked to revel in despair and feel sorry for himself. His love for Buffy didn't resist that but rather facillitated it. He's still like that to some extent all the way up through "Amends", and it's not till then, I think, that he decides to fight and fight without any expectation of anything in return. And then, he still falls and falters and wants to give up on his own show.

Anyway, babbling, but I wanted to show that here and I'm glad you think I did.

[cordelianne.livejournal.com]

Lovely! There's such a wonderful poetic feel to this, particularly with the rhyming in that first sentence.

Wonderful line:
Angel put quarters in for Mandy but drank a man already dead instead.

I like how Buffy is Angel's connection to life, and the desire for life. So it's so neat the Xander reanimates Angel as well as Buffy. Love this line:
Instead, Angel watches Xander bring him back to life.

[femmenerd.livejournal.com]

This is beautiful and uber-compact in just the way a drabble should be.

On an unrelated note--I read "The Confessional" today in between having delirious fever dreams that I was in QAF and torturing myself watching "The Prom" and the Graduations.

It rocked my face. And I usually am wary of first person fic, but you made it smooth like a super-smooth thing, and really made me think about Faith.

Buffy: I want my life to be with you.

Angel: I don't.

Me and my friend (who owns Yummy Sushi PJs): Liar! Liar-pants! Liar-pants-face!

[lillianmorgan.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you read my post about being a style junkie, but ::big fat sigh of happiness: this pushed all my buttons.
I love the way you tie Angel's past to his future. Lovely.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

So glad the first sentence worked for you!

And yeah, in the beginning, Buffy's totally Angel's connection...which is why when he thinks she's given up, he gives up too. I didn't really get that the first few times I watched Prophecy Girl.

Thanks so much!

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it!

And am so flattered you read The Confessional! Thanks! I don't like first person either--in fact, I hate it, which is of course why I had to write it. I thought she would be just about the most impossible head to get inside of. Ha!

Buffy: I want my life to be with you.

Angel: I don't.

What I love about the wording there is he doesn't. He really doesn't. He want his life to be with her, but doesn't want her life to be with him, because he loves her THAT much. It's a bit of a deceptive (and cheesy) play on words on his part, but I love love love that it was written that way, and adore DB's delivery to death.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

I'm really behind on reading my flist, so probably not! But I'm so glad it worked for you.

I always thought of drabbles as just being a moment in time, and my moments always turn into scenes which rapidly become epics, which is one of the reasons I feared writing them. But before starting this project I went and read some of the best drabbles I've read, and realized that some of them are just sound bites about the characters themselves, who they are, what they've been, what they will be. I tried to pull that in here, and make a statement about Angel himself. Again, so glad it worked for you! Thanks!

[my_daroga]

Just gorgeous. Angel put quarters in for Mandy but drank a man already dead instead. I want to use words this way, I want to be able to pay attention to the sounds not just the meanings, and you give me hope. =)

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Aww! I read this comment and melted a little. You really know how to make a girl feel good :o)

And I'm glad you liked that line. It took a whole lot of cutting to fit the word limit, but I was rather pleased with the result.

[my_daroga]

I just did my first two drabbles ever (100 word exactly). I don't know how I did, but I do know it's hard!

Not half so poetical as you, though.

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

That's very beautiful. I especially loved the last sentence.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's one of my first drabbles, so I was unsure about it. Glad you liked it.