Buffy the Vampire Slayer Take Two

It's nice that we caught Harmony this time around, not that she's liable to be grateful.

While it'll be good for Xander to try and help her by making her visible again, I doubt it'll be that easy to solve this. She's still deeply messed up by 6 months of isolation, bullying prior to that, likely parental neglect, and the Hellmouth messing with her head - she was sleeping on top of it while stewing in how little everybody cared about her for half a year.

[x] Try to find a way to turn her visible again to make up for what happened
 
Cordelia Notices?
You left Buffy to her hunt, deciding to ask Giles if there was a way to undo the invisibility. Curses could be undone, couldn't they? Giles pointed out that this was closer to metaphysics than a spell, and the usual ways of undoing curses was not going to work, not when it was about reality alterations. You were going to press further when Cordelia burst in. "Is Buffy here?"

Buffy walked in after Cordelia. "Cordelia? What are you doing here?"

Cordelia spun around. "Great, you are here! Now, I know we've had our differences, and you do like hanging out with these...losers," Cordelia shot a look at you, Willow, and Giles. You frowned. "But you're always sticking your nose into the weird stuff. And now that weird is coming after me!" Cordelia exclaimed.

"Wow, Cordelia actually reached the right conclusion somehow," you mocked.

"So you want help from me," Buffy said.

Cordelia nodded. "Yeah. You're in a gang or something, right?"

You and Willow covered up your laughter at just how off base Cordelia was on her guess. She was somehow still blind to it all. Not that you were too surprised. Sunnydale blindness was strong. You had certainly not noticed it before Jesse. At least with Cordelia being aware that something was going on, you could work with her to figure out how to get Marcie. She was going to play bait, if somewhat unwillingly.

Buffy and Cordelia headed out to set the trap, while the rest of you kept up on research. The sound of a flute slowly reached you in the school. Marcie again. Willow looked at you uncertainly. "That's Marcie, isn't it? We should...try to talk to her."

[ ]Follow the flute
[ ]Stick with the plan Buffy made
[ ]Write-in
 
I'm guessing that the plan is for Cordelia to wait somewhere until Marcie attacks, and then Buffy intercepts the attack? I'm torn on what to do here because talking sounds good, but I don't want to slip and reveal the trap if she's not willing to listen.
 
Invisible Lines
You headed out with Willow and Giles following the sound of the flute. Your mind was full of thoughts on how you might try to reach out to her, or contain her if it was necessary. She had beaten Mitch badly enough to land him in a hospital after all. The sound didn't lead to the band room. It lead into the basement this time. Had she been spooked by Buffy following her the other night? You walked deeper in.

"Marcie?" Willow called.

Your eyes fell on a tape recorder and a chill ran up you as you walked over and picked it up. The flute playing was coming from it. Marcie had recorded herself and left this down here. "It's a trap." The door closed.

You rushed as a group up the stairs and started pushing on it. "Blasted door, she took the handle off," Giles growled. Willow coughed. Alarmed you looked around as a hissing sound filled the basement. She'd leaked the gas in the room. You rushed back down and started looking for a way to turn it off. Giles found the valve, but couldn't reconnect it.

You didn't have long, not with the gas. An hour maybe, before you'd be taken out. Half an hour, if you were particularly unlucky. You alternated working with Giles to try and put the valve control back together and trying to knock the door down. Willow grew weaker the longer you were stuck down there.

Your chances of escaping were dropping as you banged on the door, before finally it swung open, Amy and Ms Calendar on the other side. Giles practically fell into Ms C's arms. "Well, that's something," you said as you sank down. Amy rushed in and helped Willow get back out. "She...she tried to..." Willow gasped as she slowly became conscious again.

It was an hour later that Buffy came back with Marcie tied up in a curtain so everyone could see where she was. You kept a sharp eye on Marcie while everyone conferred. Giles ended up making the arrangements for Marcie to be sent somewhere with people researching metaphysics that could help her, and keep hold of her so she wouldn't slip.

"You're just sending me off?" Marcie asked.

"You can't stay here, it'll just keep driving you crazy," you replied. "And they might be able to make you visible again." That was the best you could hope for.

[ ]Relax with your friends, joke about teacher romances
[ ]Practice self defense
[ ]Study demons with Giles
[ ]Write-in
 
[X]Practice self defense

I think Xander took a break not too long ago so I'm not going to worry about him breaking mentally. Instead, I'll take this as him deciding to take action to avoid feeling helpless in the future.
 
Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention it, but Marcie's trap really took me by surprise. I was thinking of her as someone we needed to help when I should have kept in mind that she attacked multiple people. Great job!
 
Not that it will matter given the current state of the vote, but I'm actually sold on relaxing a bit with our friends. We did almost just suffocate to death.

While I'll be happy with the more disciplined and capable Xander emerging from this and our prior choices, I don't honestly know how Xander would practice self-defence. There's no internet yet, Giles is likely busy, and Xander doesn't know anything about fighting AFAIK.

It's also nice that Marcie didn't end up getting taken and trained as a disposable invisible assassin-in-training in this timeline.

[x] Relax with your friends, joke about teacher romances
 
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