Drabble Post - Excuses (SK)

[kristensk]

So, mintysage and I were reading examples of the I Need To Go Iron My Dog trope wherein characters make absurd excuses, often to cover their superhero-ing. Somewhere in there, mintysage double-dog dared me, and that is why this drabble exists.


Excuses

Burke and Murray had chronically bad timing. So bad Jake had stopped counting the times the twosome had been present when the alarm sounded.

He had also stopped counting his excuses, having long ago run out of “things to take care of” and phones that somehow required both him and Chance to answer.

(He was sure he’d even once told them he and Chance had to iron a car.)

Whatever excuse he gave, the pattern never changed. Murray laughed. Burke laughed. A few more insults were thrown. And, the pair finally left.

Jake eventually came to the conclusion that it didn’t matter what he said.

So, he gave up trying.

“Look, guys,” he said one day, “we’re the SWAT Kats, and we gotta go save the city from the latest maniac trying to destroy it.”

Burke and Murray stared.

Then, Murray let out a hoot of laughter. “Th’ SWAT Kats! That’s rich!” He cackled loudly as Burke followed suit. “Keep that up, Clawson, and they’ll let you on the Litterbin Show!”

Laughter. Insults. And, the twosome piled into their dump truck and peeled away.

Chance was left staring at Jake. “I can’t believe you said that.”

“It worked, didn’t it?”

Comments

[jordannamorgan]

*laughs* Awesome. I can totally see Jake doing that. :D

(And the trope reminds me, of course, of all the colorful excuses Ed and Al are always making to explain Al's perpetual armor. *g*)

[kristensk]

Thanks!

And, you're right! Ed and Al are pretty chronic dog-ironers too. Unless their responses are more Wild Card Excuses.

[jordannamorgan]

Hmm... It says that with "Wild Card Excuses", the same excuse is always used, but the Elrics do manage to come up with various comical explanations for Al's armor. So it seems more dog-ironing to me. :)

[kristensk]

True. Though there's no element of getting away/escaping in their excuses. But, I'm seeing a number of the same excuses are posted under both tropes, so there's clearly some overlap.

[jordannamorgan]

Yeah, after further reading both trope articles, I was tempted to say that what the Elrics do seems like a combination of the two. Maybe we've stumbled upon a separate, undocumented trope. ;Þ

[kristensk]

Oh, don't suggest any more tropes to them! I can barely escape that site before a half hour has passed as it is. ...And, I'm now half-tempted to go and add the Elrics' excuses to at least one of those categories since I see that they've been neglected.