you guys make researching on my own practically irrelevant.

What can I say? It's all in avoiding a day's work.

Hey, I'm writing between phone calls, works for me.

Bee-yoo-tee-ful tats.

So long as it's clear, as in naked or loose robe status, I am happy.

Connie, Connie, Connie. This promises to be fun.

SA, I liked that a lot, dollface. And I've not read any QaF US fiction at all, and only seen maybe half a dozen episodes (an odd experience, with the UK original constantly interposing itself in my brain). Nice take on Michael, though. Sweet. And I'd agree with Dana that this kind of indirect take on Brian is the only one I can imagine buying. Lindsey's the pretty blonde dyke, yeah? Are you planning on Justin for the next one, or a more peripheral character?

SA, are you doing the remix?

Yup. Still have a day or so.

Thanks for the comments, folks, and I'll probably go back and poke at it a bit. Ah, slash, the genre of difficult pronoun use.

I'll see if I can answer your questions later, okay?

LindsAy. LindsAy. Not LindsEy. Jeez. Sorry.

regards fingers disapprovingly.

Stop it, Evil Hand!

fresh, hot off the WordPad fic

Giles' guide bowed at the doorway. He bowed in return and, with a deep breath, drew the curtain aside. "Ethan, it's me."

On a futon on the far side of the room lay Ethan, facedown with a tiny woman mostly draped in a towel walking on his naked back. "Hello--oh, yes, love, right there--Rupert. This is Midori."

Giles bowed. "Konnichiwa, Midori-san."

Midori smiled brightly and bowed in return, still treading Ethan's spine. "Konnichiwa, uezama."

"This girl has the most amazing toes," Ethan said between gasps. "Would you like a turn?"

BTW, I'm pulling the bits of Japanese out of an online English-Japanese dictionary, so, please, any Japanese speakers, be kind.

Are you planning on Justin for the next one, or a more peripheral character?

Yup. Michael will always take care of Brian, Lindsay will never leave Brian, and Justin will always love Brian.

Or, you know, so they think in Season One.

Anne, here are the comments I promised you. First off? Love the title. Tomb of the Unknowns is lovely. I am so bad with titles.

Far too much of his life had been nothing but noise.

I commented on this line before, but I love it so much. It captures Xander's life. 'I like the quiet' is the one line he's spoken that I believe sums up his character, and you've used the concept here in a way that punches me in the stomach.

Then there was the noise of school, but most of the time that was nothing more than his own voice as he mouthed off for any one of the million reasons he had.

Oh, yes. Very true. But really only one reason - to defend himself. Not that he knows that.

The job was harder than he'd expected. He should have realized that working with stone wouldn't be the same as working with wood. Willow had to do some magical editing at one point when one of the Fs in 'Buffy' became an E by mistake. He'd been trying to see the letters as nothing more than lines, angles, and curves, so he wouldn't think about what the words and dates actually meant.

What a lovely thought - Xander carving the headstone (I had him making her coffin in my fic). And nice touch with the magical editing. I love the way Xander is concentrating on the task instead of thinking about the meaning.

"A lot," Anya, ever the literalist, added not even a second after Willow had finished. It was so absolutely perfect that Xander was caught between laughter and tears for nearly twenty minutes.

Beautiful. The entire passage about the words, actually. But I love this part. I'm a sucker for good Anya (which this is, even though it is such a wee bit) and imagine that Xander's laughter has frequently been mixed with tears.

He finally reached the clearing, and pushed all thoughts of Anya out of his mind. There was only room to deal with one pain at a time.

Ouch. But it fits in with what I said above.

As always, Xander checked to make sure that none of the stones were missing. Twenty-one stones. Twenty-one weeks. One hundred forty-seven days in the grave.
He wondered if anyone else had kept track of all of the days she was gone.

What a lovely little touch. Such a subtle way of bringing to mind Spike and Buffy's conversation after she was raised.

Today, however, things were a little different. Twenty-one had taken on a different meaning.

Yeah… That's sweet. Poor Jesse.

Rocks were one of those things you expected to find lying around handy when you needed one.

Stupid unreliable rocks. I had Willow carry one with her for this very reason.