Yuletide post-reveal commentary
So yuletide reveals are up, and I think I'm going to do commentary on the two longer ones.
Snap Judgments and Premature Celebrations
This was my main assignment, for kuteki, who requested Daria and Jane doing just about anything, with a preference for pairing. Now, I'm a Daria/Tom girl at heart - have been since I first saw "I Loathe a Parade" - so I chose to take it as a challenge; there's a lot of history with Daria and Jane, not all of it pretty (see also: Tom), and that has to be acknowledged if there's any chance of them working as a couple. It had also been years since I last really wrote in the fandom, so I was a little nervous. But I had fun once I got going, and people loved the end result.
"Come on, Daria. It'll be fun."
"You keep using that word," Daria says, not even looking up from whatever it is she's highlighting in her Shakespeare volume this time. "I do not think it means what you think it means."
I couldn't pass up the Princess Bride quote. It fits Daria's attitude toward parties.
"Do you agree with anyone on the definition of the word?"
"Sometimes. But generally not when it involves watching a bunch of drag queens getting drunk off their asses because the country's legal system actually gave them something to celebrate for once."
Jane sighs, and tries to figure out where the shadows in her painting in progress are going. "They won't all be drag queens, and they won't all be getting smashed. Goes double if we go - you won't want to get drunk, and I'll be too busy taking pictures."
"Still. I can't help feeling like this is a little premature. Just because the court said nothing should stop people from getting married doesn't mean no one's going to try to block it."
My brain lit on using the Massachusetts Supreme Court's decision in favor of same-sex marriage as a plot catalyst of sorts, since Daria and Jane both go to college in Boston. This would be fall of Daria's senior year, and Jane's second semester of junior year, due to her semester-behind-ness.
"Ah, but what is life if not a series of snap judgments and premature celebrations?"
"A lot more peaceful," Daria replies without missing a beat.
"Maybe, but it's also a lot more boring. You don't even have to do anything but sit in the corner and snark at history in the making."
And that's what Daria's good at, so! XD
Daria's quiet for a while, long enough that Jane's pretty sure she just had the end of the discussion. But eventually, she says, "Well, how can a girl refuse an offer like that?"
Jane grins. "Not to mention, you could probably make a good article out of it."
"Maybe. Whether I go at all will probably depend on how far I get on this damn paper by Friday. But it's a lot more tempting than your first sales pitch."
"Well, naturally, homework comes first, but if you're free." Daria doesn't get out enough, even with the Raft newspaper and the campus writing group she unearthed. Sometimes Jane wonders how Daria managed that semester more or less by herself, before Jane got to BFAC.
I think Daria would be slightly less avoidant of extra-curriculars when they don't benefit Ms. Li in any way, shape or form. Also when her mother isn't breathing down her neck trying to make her join them. The fact that both involve writing certainly doesn't hurt her.
But she's around to drag Daria out into the real world, now; that's got to count for something.
***
Friday comes, and Daria mentions at lunch that she's actually looking forward to the shindig.
Jane blinks. "Okay, you're excited about going to a party? What Kool-Aid did you drink?"
"I'm completely blocked on that paper." Daria sighs, and picks up a slice of pizza. "Ask me to talk about one of the tragedies, and I can damn near write a book about it. I'm even fine with the histories. But no, we're on to the comedies, and I can't figure out where to start. I knew a whole semester of Shakespeare was a bad idea."
"You've been fine with it before. You'll pull something off in the end. Did the prof give you any starting points?"
"Only if you count 'by this point in the semester, you should know how to guide your own thesis from concept to finished product' as a starting point. Never thought I'd miss the days I could justify failing to produce a paper as completing the assignment."
I think Daria mostly appreciates that college is a bit more intellectually challenging than Mr. O'Neill's classes could ever hope to be. But sometimes, it gets frustrating, especially when you can't write anything for your assigned paper.
"Not that you would've really let yourself get away with that." Jane shrugs. "Artist's block can be a real bitch. Maybe doing something out of your usual groove will help."
"That's what I'm hoping. If worse comes to worst, it'll beat turning on the Sick, Sad World marathon for background noise."
"Well, we could always head down there when we're done eating. The actual party's supposed to be tonight, but from what I heard, there'll be people around all day."
Daria drinks some of her soda, then says, "Oh, why the hell not."
When they get to Faneuil Hall, there's already a good-sized crowd; Jane's sure some of that's just the standard tourist draw the place gets, but there are still some people interesting enough to merit candid shots. At this rate, she could probably square away her photography class portfolio from one afternoon alone, if she likes the results.
"Hey, Daria, did you see that--" But Jane turns around to find a lack of Daria, before she can finish the question. Apparently, her photo snapping got the better of her again - but it's not like she can help it, not when she has a shiny new digital camera to play with. Besides, they'll find each other before they have to leave.
The better part of two hours later, when the party's really starting to hit its stride, she spots Daria off to one side, talking to a black guy and actually smiling. She snaps a few pictures - it's rare that anyone can get Daria to smile that much, so the moment clearly ought to be captured for whatever posterity might care - and leaves her to it. They're both pretty engrossed in what they're up to, so there's not much point in changing course before they have to leave.
I think this is how Jane was hoping taking Tom to the homecoming parade in canon would go: She goes crazy with the pictures, the other person chills to one side and snarks at things. Of course, it didn't quite go according to that plan - and from Tom's comments, he would've wanted to interact with Jane more during the outing. Daria, meanwhile, is fine chillin' by herself.
(Or, you know, with the soon-to-be-explained cameo crossover character.)
***
After the party, she doesn't see Daria all weekend - not until Tuesday, in fact, when they meet up to double-team the drive to Lawndale for Thanksgiving. Turns out she went back to her dorm room after the party and banged out the Shakespeare paper that had been vexing her.
"Huh. Guess getting out of the house was good for your brain, then."
Daria nods. "That and the guy I was talking to. I just hope the prof doesn't mind five pages about the abundant homoerotic subtext in Twelfth Night."
Aside from the obvious in Viola's crossdressing hijinks, Sebastian and Antonio are kind of totally in love. XD
"Really? I didn't think you read stuff with an eye for that kind of thing."
"Not usually, but it's kind of blatantly obvious in that one. Besides, my mind was already there when I went to start writing, and it was easier to develop than anything else."
Jane shrugs, as best she can while driving; Daria still gets kind of wigged out behind the wheel, so they agreed the first time they did this that Jane would handle driving in the vicinity of Boston. "Long as it gets the job done. Who was that guy you were talking to, anyway?"
"You remember that documentary Playhouse 99 picked up, beginning of junior year? The one where the guy in New York filmed his friends and strung it all together?"
See, when I say I'm going back to my fannish roots, that means there's a crossover somewhere; back when I was heavily involved, nothing was too weird to cross Daria with (I wrote Hitchhiker's Guide, Good Omens, and Discworld crossovers, just as a sampling). Collins wandering back to Boston to celebrate a cause near and dear to his heart is rather subtle, by those standards, but I wanted to keep it within the realm of plausibility, this time - and a second fandom my recipient would recognise.
"Yeah, but... what does that have to do with anything?"
"That was the guy who fried MIT's virtual reality equipment." Daria has to be smirking; Jane can't exactly glance over, not when she's trying to find the Mass Pike sooner than the fifth try, but by this point in their friendship she can hear it.
"Damn, you met a minor celebrity and you didn't even tell me?"
"You were busy. Besides, you think I didn't get his email? Anyone who fails to be boring for that long is worth keeping in touch with."
Jane sighs, and changes the subject rather than bring up the depressing side of that documentary. Daria probably remembers it, and anyway, there's nothing wrong with talking to someone who's living on borrowed time.
***
Daria's busy with her family for Thanksgiving; fortunately, there's no influx of wandering Lanes to deal with, so the day is Jane's to do with as she pleases. This year, that turns out to be going through potential entries for her photo portfolio while Trent snores to the tune of Alice's Restaurant on repeat.
"Never let it be said," she says to herself, the fourth time Arlo Guthrie had never before heard of the dump being closed on Thanksgiving, "that Casa Lane has no sense of holiday spirit."
It is not Thanksgiving - US Thanksgiving, anyway - without Alice's Restaurant. (Note to self, possibly nominate that for Yuletide next year?)
Most of her photos are on her computer, thanks to the wonders of modern technology; the poor thing wasn't designed for that much data at once, so it's slow going, but eventually she has something that will probably resemble a portfolio after she spiffs it up a bit.
Trouble is, the prof's a real stickler for having a theme to something like that. Jane ruined her idea from the party, since most of those photos didn't make it to her virtual pile of favorites; she can't see a theme in what she's set aside for the life of her, beyond 'a bunch of pictures I think are pretty cool,' and that's not very likely to go over well. Taking that kind of a risk seems like a bad idea, especially with her final grade in the photography class on the line.
She tries to puzzle something out for a while, then sighs, makes sure she saved everything she likes in one place, and shuts off the computer. Staring at the screen isn't getting her anywhere, so it's probably a good time to see if the oven will work long enough to heat up the frozen pizza she picked up yesterday.
The oven does, in fact, heat up, but it takes its own sweet time to get to temperature; at this rate, it's going to take at least an hour for the pizza to cook, once it gets there. Just as well, since it turns out there's no soda in the fridge. Jane sighs, and figures the house probably won't burn down if she goes down the street in pursuit of pop.
This being Casa Lane, any attempt at cooking is bound to be an adventure, considering there's nothing in the fridge but mysterious red stuff. The oven's loosely based on the one we had before we remodeled the kitchen a few years back; it took at least half an hour longer to cook things than the box said.
Half an hour later, she comes back, having had to settle for a vending machine outside of the grocery store. The house hasn't burned down, the oven is creeping closer to temperature, and Trent wanders downstairs about five minutes after she gets back.
"Do I smell pizza?"
Jane grins. "Only if you have a nose from the future and never told me about it. The oven only just hit baking temperature."
"Oh." Trent blinks a few times. "You think 'Nose from the Future' would be a good name for a band?"
"A band, yes. Your band... probably not so much. You might be able to pull it off as a song title, but as a band name, it sounds a little too prog rock for the Spiral."
I really kind of love the 'Nose from the Future' bit. It's right up there with 'Something Something Explosion' or... well, 'Mystik Spiral,' as band names go.
"Got a point there, I guess. We got any soda?"
Jane smirks, and hands him one of the bottles of Ultra-Caf Cola. "We do now."
"Thanks. Man, I might be up all night now."
"No, this is you. You'll still be zonked out by midnight."
Trent laughs a little. "What're you up to?" he asks, after the usual cough subsides. "Other than trying to make a pizza. We really should tell Mom and Dad to get the oven fixed."
"They'll just tell us to use the emergency fund in the coffee table. If no one's been home by Christmas break, I'll set something up." Jane sighs. "I've been going through stuff. I have enough photos for my final portfolio, but I don't know what the unifying theme is, and I'm gonna need one of those."
"What've you got so far?"
Jane shrugs, and closes the oven. "All kinds of stuff. Daria in her dorm room, Daria in my dorm room, the pizza place between Raft and BFAC, a couple shots from that party last week... just. Stuff."
Trent gives her an incredibly pointed look, for how sleepy he usually is. "Sounds to me like you've already got a theme, Janey."
Part of my review was looking up episode details on Outpost Daria, including Trent calling out Daria on how much she liked Tom in "Fire!" Given that and the fact that he knows Jane better than just about anyone else, of course he'd call her on her own interests.
"No, I--" But he's right, damn him. She sighs, and takes a great deal of interest in opening her soda bottle, the better to avoid meeting her brother's eyes.
"Maybe you need to stop ignoring that. Just a thought."
"I can't - there's no point, she's not - she stole my boyfriend, not me from him. In case you forgot."
One of the major sticking points in Daria and Jane's history that'd need to be negotiated. The other big one I saw was Jane's "I like guys, okay?" freakout in "Is It Fall Yet?"; in the case of this story, I think that was partly a reaction to Allison's motives and partly her trying to keep her crush on Daria from becoming a problem.
Trent shrugs. "I hadn't. But it's been a few years, so maybe it's worth thinking about again. I'll be on the couch - come and wake me up when the pizza's done?"
"Sure."
When he's gone, Jane sighs again and stares at the oven for a while. Trent's right about the theme in her photos, and... well, maybe he's right that she doesn't need to convince herself she's straight for fear of weirding out Daria anymore. But that doesn't really make it okay to have a raging crush on her - very, very straight, to the best of Jane's knowledge - best friend. It'd only make things awkward, and she already knows how badly she and Daria handle awkward. She'd rather not do that again, and if it means she keeps her best friend by never saying she really wouldn't mind something more coming of it... well, she can live with that.
I don't know that Daria is quite as straight as Jane thinks she is - mostly, she's just not the world's biggest fan of people in general. But the evidence Jane has to work with (Daria had a major crush on her older brother and then stole her boyfriend) suggests otherwise, and she thinks asking would just be a whole world of awkward.
***
She can't do much else with the photography project from home - even burning the photos to a CD or two could be risky, as messy as the house can get - so Jane puts it out of her mind, and spends the rest of break filling out her sketchbook and hanging out with Daria. It's not awkward, somehow, despite the fact that Trent's comments are still weighing on her mind. And, well, she knows she ought to ask about the theme before she uses it, since it's a person, but this really isn't the time.
You know, it was really weird thinking of the days before flash drives were common?
Jane finally gets tired of the flimsy excuse for putting it off when they stop for burgers and a driver switch, most of the way back to Boston. If nothing else, her timing means they can't dodge the subject forever; they can both be masters of evasion, when they want to be, but Daria would have an answer on something as simple as Jane's photo portfolio by the time Jane dropped her off at Raft.
Daria raises an eyebrow, at the question. "Why me?"
"Oh, no reason." Jane knows that's a total lie, and hopes like hell Daria doesn't decide to push it now; that's not a discussion she wants to have in the middle of a fast food joint, if at all. "And you're in pretty much all of the photos I really like."
"It would be mean to ask you to take a new batch of pictures with a week and a half to go, to boot."
"I - look, if you don't want me to do it, I can come up with--"
Daria waves the protest off with her soda. "Don't worry about it. Probably would be good for the world, to have the focus on someone other than the beautiful people for once."
Jane grins, and doesn't bother correcting Daria's assertion. She has faith that her photos will speak for themselves, once she has the collection polished.
I couldn't decide whether to leave it there or write the bit where Daria and Jane actually have the conversation; I think I'm glad I left it here. It's a complete story as it is, and it lest people fill in the blanks however they'd like.
Snap Judgments and Premature Celebrations
This was my main assignment, for kuteki, who requested Daria and Jane doing just about anything, with a preference for pairing. Now, I'm a Daria/Tom girl at heart - have been since I first saw "I Loathe a Parade" - so I chose to take it as a challenge; there's a lot of history with Daria and Jane, not all of it pretty (see also: Tom), and that has to be acknowledged if there's any chance of them working as a couple. It had also been years since I last really wrote in the fandom, so I was a little nervous. But I had fun once I got going, and people loved the end result.
"Come on, Daria. It'll be fun."
"You keep using that word," Daria says, not even looking up from whatever it is she's highlighting in her Shakespeare volume this time. "I do not think it means what you think it means."
I couldn't pass up the Princess Bride quote. It fits Daria's attitude toward parties.
"Do you agree with anyone on the definition of the word?"
"Sometimes. But generally not when it involves watching a bunch of drag queens getting drunk off their asses because the country's legal system actually gave them something to celebrate for once."
Jane sighs, and tries to figure out where the shadows in her painting in progress are going. "They won't all be drag queens, and they won't all be getting smashed. Goes double if we go - you won't want to get drunk, and I'll be too busy taking pictures."
"Still. I can't help feeling like this is a little premature. Just because the court said nothing should stop people from getting married doesn't mean no one's going to try to block it."
My brain lit on using the Massachusetts Supreme Court's decision in favor of same-sex marriage as a plot catalyst of sorts, since Daria and Jane both go to college in Boston. This would be fall of Daria's senior year, and Jane's second semester of junior year, due to her semester-behind-ness.
"Ah, but what is life if not a series of snap judgments and premature celebrations?"
"A lot more peaceful," Daria replies without missing a beat.
"Maybe, but it's also a lot more boring. You don't even have to do anything but sit in the corner and snark at history in the making."
And that's what Daria's good at, so! XD
Daria's quiet for a while, long enough that Jane's pretty sure she just had the end of the discussion. But eventually, she says, "Well, how can a girl refuse an offer like that?"
Jane grins. "Not to mention, you could probably make a good article out of it."
"Maybe. Whether I go at all will probably depend on how far I get on this damn paper by Friday. But it's a lot more tempting than your first sales pitch."
"Well, naturally, homework comes first, but if you're free." Daria doesn't get out enough, even with the Raft newspaper and the campus writing group she unearthed. Sometimes Jane wonders how Daria managed that semester more or less by herself, before Jane got to BFAC.
I think Daria would be slightly less avoidant of extra-curriculars when they don't benefit Ms. Li in any way, shape or form. Also when her mother isn't breathing down her neck trying to make her join them. The fact that both involve writing certainly doesn't hurt her.
But she's around to drag Daria out into the real world, now; that's got to count for something.
***
Friday comes, and Daria mentions at lunch that she's actually looking forward to the shindig.
Jane blinks. "Okay, you're excited about going to a party? What Kool-Aid did you drink?"
"I'm completely blocked on that paper." Daria sighs, and picks up a slice of pizza. "Ask me to talk about one of the tragedies, and I can damn near write a book about it. I'm even fine with the histories. But no, we're on to the comedies, and I can't figure out where to start. I knew a whole semester of Shakespeare was a bad idea."
"You've been fine with it before. You'll pull something off in the end. Did the prof give you any starting points?"
"Only if you count 'by this point in the semester, you should know how to guide your own thesis from concept to finished product' as a starting point. Never thought I'd miss the days I could justify failing to produce a paper as completing the assignment."
I think Daria mostly appreciates that college is a bit more intellectually challenging than Mr. O'Neill's classes could ever hope to be. But sometimes, it gets frustrating, especially when you can't write anything for your assigned paper.
"Not that you would've really let yourself get away with that." Jane shrugs. "Artist's block can be a real bitch. Maybe doing something out of your usual groove will help."
"That's what I'm hoping. If worse comes to worst, it'll beat turning on the Sick, Sad World marathon for background noise."
"Well, we could always head down there when we're done eating. The actual party's supposed to be tonight, but from what I heard, there'll be people around all day."
Daria drinks some of her soda, then says, "Oh, why the hell not."
When they get to Faneuil Hall, there's already a good-sized crowd; Jane's sure some of that's just the standard tourist draw the place gets, but there are still some people interesting enough to merit candid shots. At this rate, she could probably square away her photography class portfolio from one afternoon alone, if she likes the results.
"Hey, Daria, did you see that--" But Jane turns around to find a lack of Daria, before she can finish the question. Apparently, her photo snapping got the better of her again - but it's not like she can help it, not when she has a shiny new digital camera to play with. Besides, they'll find each other before they have to leave.
The better part of two hours later, when the party's really starting to hit its stride, she spots Daria off to one side, talking to a black guy and actually smiling. She snaps a few pictures - it's rare that anyone can get Daria to smile that much, so the moment clearly ought to be captured for whatever posterity might care - and leaves her to it. They're both pretty engrossed in what they're up to, so there's not much point in changing course before they have to leave.
I think this is how Jane was hoping taking Tom to the homecoming parade in canon would go: She goes crazy with the pictures, the other person chills to one side and snarks at things. Of course, it didn't quite go according to that plan - and from Tom's comments, he would've wanted to interact with Jane more during the outing. Daria, meanwhile, is fine chillin' by herself.
(Or, you know, with the soon-to-be-explained cameo crossover character.)
***
After the party, she doesn't see Daria all weekend - not until Tuesday, in fact, when they meet up to double-team the drive to Lawndale for Thanksgiving. Turns out she went back to her dorm room after the party and banged out the Shakespeare paper that had been vexing her.
"Huh. Guess getting out of the house was good for your brain, then."
Daria nods. "That and the guy I was talking to. I just hope the prof doesn't mind five pages about the abundant homoerotic subtext in Twelfth Night."
Aside from the obvious in Viola's crossdressing hijinks, Sebastian and Antonio are kind of totally in love. XD
"Really? I didn't think you read stuff with an eye for that kind of thing."
"Not usually, but it's kind of blatantly obvious in that one. Besides, my mind was already there when I went to start writing, and it was easier to develop than anything else."
Jane shrugs, as best she can while driving; Daria still gets kind of wigged out behind the wheel, so they agreed the first time they did this that Jane would handle driving in the vicinity of Boston. "Long as it gets the job done. Who was that guy you were talking to, anyway?"
"You remember that documentary Playhouse 99 picked up, beginning of junior year? The one where the guy in New York filmed his friends and strung it all together?"
See, when I say I'm going back to my fannish roots, that means there's a crossover somewhere; back when I was heavily involved, nothing was too weird to cross Daria with (I wrote Hitchhiker's Guide, Good Omens, and Discworld crossovers, just as a sampling). Collins wandering back to Boston to celebrate a cause near and dear to his heart is rather subtle, by those standards, but I wanted to keep it within the realm of plausibility, this time - and a second fandom my recipient would recognise.
"Yeah, but... what does that have to do with anything?"
"That was the guy who fried MIT's virtual reality equipment." Daria has to be smirking; Jane can't exactly glance over, not when she's trying to find the Mass Pike sooner than the fifth try, but by this point in their friendship she can hear it.
"Damn, you met a minor celebrity and you didn't even tell me?"
"You were busy. Besides, you think I didn't get his email? Anyone who fails to be boring for that long is worth keeping in touch with."
Jane sighs, and changes the subject rather than bring up the depressing side of that documentary. Daria probably remembers it, and anyway, there's nothing wrong with talking to someone who's living on borrowed time.
***
Daria's busy with her family for Thanksgiving; fortunately, there's no influx of wandering Lanes to deal with, so the day is Jane's to do with as she pleases. This year, that turns out to be going through potential entries for her photo portfolio while Trent snores to the tune of Alice's Restaurant on repeat.
"Never let it be said," she says to herself, the fourth time Arlo Guthrie had never before heard of the dump being closed on Thanksgiving, "that Casa Lane has no sense of holiday spirit."
It is not Thanksgiving - US Thanksgiving, anyway - without Alice's Restaurant. (Note to self, possibly nominate that for Yuletide next year?)
Most of her photos are on her computer, thanks to the wonders of modern technology; the poor thing wasn't designed for that much data at once, so it's slow going, but eventually she has something that will probably resemble a portfolio after she spiffs it up a bit.
Trouble is, the prof's a real stickler for having a theme to something like that. Jane ruined her idea from the party, since most of those photos didn't make it to her virtual pile of favorites; she can't see a theme in what she's set aside for the life of her, beyond 'a bunch of pictures I think are pretty cool,' and that's not very likely to go over well. Taking that kind of a risk seems like a bad idea, especially with her final grade in the photography class on the line.
She tries to puzzle something out for a while, then sighs, makes sure she saved everything she likes in one place, and shuts off the computer. Staring at the screen isn't getting her anywhere, so it's probably a good time to see if the oven will work long enough to heat up the frozen pizza she picked up yesterday.
The oven does, in fact, heat up, but it takes its own sweet time to get to temperature; at this rate, it's going to take at least an hour for the pizza to cook, once it gets there. Just as well, since it turns out there's no soda in the fridge. Jane sighs, and figures the house probably won't burn down if she goes down the street in pursuit of pop.
This being Casa Lane, any attempt at cooking is bound to be an adventure, considering there's nothing in the fridge but mysterious red stuff. The oven's loosely based on the one we had before we remodeled the kitchen a few years back; it took at least half an hour longer to cook things than the box said.
Half an hour later, she comes back, having had to settle for a vending machine outside of the grocery store. The house hasn't burned down, the oven is creeping closer to temperature, and Trent wanders downstairs about five minutes after she gets back.
"Do I smell pizza?"
Jane grins. "Only if you have a nose from the future and never told me about it. The oven only just hit baking temperature."
"Oh." Trent blinks a few times. "You think 'Nose from the Future' would be a good name for a band?"
"A band, yes. Your band... probably not so much. You might be able to pull it off as a song title, but as a band name, it sounds a little too prog rock for the Spiral."
I really kind of love the 'Nose from the Future' bit. It's right up there with 'Something Something Explosion' or... well, 'Mystik Spiral,' as band names go.
"Got a point there, I guess. We got any soda?"
Jane smirks, and hands him one of the bottles of Ultra-Caf Cola. "We do now."
"Thanks. Man, I might be up all night now."
"No, this is you. You'll still be zonked out by midnight."
Trent laughs a little. "What're you up to?" he asks, after the usual cough subsides. "Other than trying to make a pizza. We really should tell Mom and Dad to get the oven fixed."
"They'll just tell us to use the emergency fund in the coffee table. If no one's been home by Christmas break, I'll set something up." Jane sighs. "I've been going through stuff. I have enough photos for my final portfolio, but I don't know what the unifying theme is, and I'm gonna need one of those."
"What've you got so far?"
Jane shrugs, and closes the oven. "All kinds of stuff. Daria in her dorm room, Daria in my dorm room, the pizza place between Raft and BFAC, a couple shots from that party last week... just. Stuff."
Trent gives her an incredibly pointed look, for how sleepy he usually is. "Sounds to me like you've already got a theme, Janey."
Part of my review was looking up episode details on Outpost Daria, including Trent calling out Daria on how much she liked Tom in "Fire!" Given that and the fact that he knows Jane better than just about anyone else, of course he'd call her on her own interests.
"No, I--" But he's right, damn him. She sighs, and takes a great deal of interest in opening her soda bottle, the better to avoid meeting her brother's eyes.
"Maybe you need to stop ignoring that. Just a thought."
"I can't - there's no point, she's not - she stole my boyfriend, not me from him. In case you forgot."
One of the major sticking points in Daria and Jane's history that'd need to be negotiated. The other big one I saw was Jane's "I like guys, okay?" freakout in "Is It Fall Yet?"; in the case of this story, I think that was partly a reaction to Allison's motives and partly her trying to keep her crush on Daria from becoming a problem.
Trent shrugs. "I hadn't. But it's been a few years, so maybe it's worth thinking about again. I'll be on the couch - come and wake me up when the pizza's done?"
"Sure."
When he's gone, Jane sighs again and stares at the oven for a while. Trent's right about the theme in her photos, and... well, maybe he's right that she doesn't need to convince herself she's straight for fear of weirding out Daria anymore. But that doesn't really make it okay to have a raging crush on her - very, very straight, to the best of Jane's knowledge - best friend. It'd only make things awkward, and she already knows how badly she and Daria handle awkward. She'd rather not do that again, and if it means she keeps her best friend by never saying she really wouldn't mind something more coming of it... well, she can live with that.
I don't know that Daria is quite as straight as Jane thinks she is - mostly, she's just not the world's biggest fan of people in general. But the evidence Jane has to work with (Daria had a major crush on her older brother and then stole her boyfriend) suggests otherwise, and she thinks asking would just be a whole world of awkward.
***
She can't do much else with the photography project from home - even burning the photos to a CD or two could be risky, as messy as the house can get - so Jane puts it out of her mind, and spends the rest of break filling out her sketchbook and hanging out with Daria. It's not awkward, somehow, despite the fact that Trent's comments are still weighing on her mind. And, well, she knows she ought to ask about the theme before she uses it, since it's a person, but this really isn't the time.
You know, it was really weird thinking of the days before flash drives were common?
Jane finally gets tired of the flimsy excuse for putting it off when they stop for burgers and a driver switch, most of the way back to Boston. If nothing else, her timing means they can't dodge the subject forever; they can both be masters of evasion, when they want to be, but Daria would have an answer on something as simple as Jane's photo portfolio by the time Jane dropped her off at Raft.
Daria raises an eyebrow, at the question. "Why me?"
"Oh, no reason." Jane knows that's a total lie, and hopes like hell Daria doesn't decide to push it now; that's not a discussion she wants to have in the middle of a fast food joint, if at all. "And you're in pretty much all of the photos I really like."
"It would be mean to ask you to take a new batch of pictures with a week and a half to go, to boot."
"I - look, if you don't want me to do it, I can come up with--"
Daria waves the protest off with her soda. "Don't worry about it. Probably would be good for the world, to have the focus on someone other than the beautiful people for once."
Jane grins, and doesn't bother correcting Daria's assertion. She has faith that her photos will speak for themselves, once she has the collection polished.
I couldn't decide whether to leave it there or write the bit where Daria and Jane actually have the conversation; I think I'm glad I left it here. It's a complete story as it is, and it lest people fill in the blanks however they'd like.