Drabble Tree

[queen-fiend.livejournal.com]

What ho, what ho, what ho! I would like to propose a drabble tree, because they are fun. Someone posts a drabble, and then anyone can come along, choose a sentence or phrase from that drabble, and create another drabble around that sentence or phrase. I have written one to start things off, but I pretty much failed on the 100 words requirement...it's 275 words. However, this is about having fun and being creative, and the more words of fic the better, I say!

Guidelines:
- The pairing doesn't have to be Bertie and Jeeves, or indeed, have any pairing at all.
- When responding to a drabble, copy and paste the sentence/phrase you're using into the subject line.
- If someone has already responded to a drabble, it doesn't mean that you can't as well!

So without further ado, here is my drabble. :)

~~~~~

Picnics are, in this Wooster's opinion, one of life’s most pleasant pastimes. Unless, of course, you are expected to take a girl of Aunt Agatha's choosing on one. Luckily, said girl had not been able to make it, so I had taken Jeeves instead. He had already gone through all the trouble of preparing the food, so why not? Jeeves was perched on a little stump with his nose in a book, and I was sprawled out on the picnic blanket reading my own mystery novel.

Something tickled my ankle, and I jumped in surprise.

"I say, Jeeves!" I exclaimed.

"Sir?" He glanced up, looking slightly dazed. Spinoza will do that to a chap.

"There are ants all over your dessert!"

Jeeves looked down at his dish. "So I see, sir."

"Well, you can't eat that! Here, take mine."

"Thank you for the offer, sir, but I do not require any dessert."

"Tosh, Jeeves! Your mighty brain deserves it more than I do. Besides, I've already had one."

"Really, sir -"

"I insist!" I cried, and picked up my remaining tart in order to move it toward Jeeves's lips. When it was about an inch from his mouth, the thought occurred to me that it wasn't exactly preux to go around shoving tarts in manservants' mouths, no matter how tasty. My hand froze. Jeeves's hand came up then, and took hold of the dessert.

"Thank you, sir," he said softly, and I felt a few puffs of warm breath on my fingers. A shiver ran down my spine, which I'm fairly certain had nothing to do with the warm May weather.

Comments

sex v. philosophy

[lawnnun.livejournal.com]

"Sir?" He glanced up, looking slightly dazed. Spinoza will do that to a chap. Not to say that he looked like a fish, or anything. There's a difference between glazing over without a thought in one's head, and the kind of mystical whatsit in the eyes of a man who has been absorbing abstruse philosophy.

"Coming along all right, then?"

"If you are inquiring as to the success of my studies, sir, remarkably well."

"Jeeves," I said, "what is this Spinoza bird really about, anyway?"

"...I can endeavor to explain, sir."

I settled in beside him on the sofa, leaning the old onion on his shoulder. "Do your best with the Wooster brain, Jeeves. If I can't understand it, I won't hold you accountable."

"Very good, sir." And then he was off about Modes, and Substances, and Affects. It didn't make much sense to me, but it sounded sort of serene, like those stoic birds who don't believe you can really do anything about anything and so you might as well not get worked up. It seemed like just the sort of philosophy for a man who's always at the eye of the storm. After a while, I rather lost track, just leaning against him and enjoying his voice. "Sir, you haven't registered a word I've been saying for the past fifteen minutes."

"Good lord, Jeeves. I didn't know it had been that long. Terribly sorry."

"It doesn't matter, sir." I might have said that it did, that I really ought to be more attentive to explanations that I've asked for, but he kissed my neck, which always throws me off. In the best possible way, I mean. "A key point of Spinoza's work is that God exists in everything, sir. An uncaring, insensate force."

"R-rather like not having a God at all, isn't it?"

"So the Jewish elders thought, sir." He nibbled gently, and I made a rather small and undignified noise. "I personally find the idea comforting."

"Really, old thing?" I asked, rather breathlessly, because my collar had somehow come undone, leaving Jeeves with more neck to kiss and me with even less brain than usual.

"Indeed, sir." He purred. "Because if all things are one substance, that means that you and I are both faces of God, almost the way the Hindus believe. And if we presume that to be true, sir, I finally have an explanation for the religious awe I feel when I make you come." After that we abandoned philosophy in favor of carnality, just like the rest of the human race.

Re: sex v. philosophy

[ninjaboots.livejournal.com]

Jeeves, my very dear man, you really must refrain from saying such things if you want Bertie to have any use of his brain at all. It's quite an unfair proposition, you know, expecting the poor dear to be in any way functional with you murmuring such things in a dark velvet voice. Not on, old chap, not on at all.

Re: sex v. philosophy

[toodlepipsigner.livejournal.com]

Not that I don't adore thew original or any other of the follow-ups, they're all wonderful;
But if forced to pick a fav, it's this one. Yum.
Says a lot by saying very little. Rather beautiful.

Re: sex v. philosophy

[youngsaavik.livejournal.com]

I was going to join the tree, but your last paragraph killed me. It will take a couple of philosophy books to get me back into writing shape... But not Spinoza. I won´t be able to focus on him for a while. *_*