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Replacing the Zippo

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I think I won't intentionally scribe a Write In this time, I may support someone else's though.

Some thoughts, I will be surprised if we don't see a Second Xander at some point. Though I fear for what happens to Marcie here because it will be hard to find her if separated. I lean towards Friendship of the standard options. I think unity is quite big because separation further compounds one's fears.

Mount. Elements said:
Maybe someone can come up with a good write-in? Friendship feels a bit weak in this situation when the PC isn't the original Xander and is keeping huge secrets from Willow and Buffy. Hitting any threats might result in friendly fire. I don't think the PC has been particularly logical?
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Original Xander kept some secrets too, mostly to Buffy, mostly his home life, which Cordelia ends up being perhaps more directly informed than Willow, though Willow probably knows most of it just from length of time known. Not a super big counter argument against the statement, but Friends can certainly have some things kept close to their chest and still rely/aid each other.
[X]Think of friendship to help fight the nightmares
 
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Oh, right. I should vote.

[X]Try to be logical about the nightmares

The PC isn't the original Xander and has knowledge from the show. Personally, I think that would make it harder for him to rely on friendship because he knows how things can go wrong with Buffy and Willow. I suppose that he also has knowledge of how things can go right with them, but we haven't really seen a lot of bonding between the Scooby Gang on-screen in this quest. Xander has the advantage of knowing what's causing the nightmares so I'm hoping that logic will win out over emotion here.
 
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Nightmares New
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    • You tried to warn everyone to stick together. You were facing an unknown, and how often had things gone well when you had all split up in this kind of situation? Buffy of course just reminded you that she was the Slayer, and wasn't concerned about it, while Willow seemed more set to reassure you than actually listen to you.

    It wasn't so much of a surprise with that that you ended up separated when everything began to go to extremes. At least the 'naked in front of class' nightmare was basic enough to handle. You still felt terribly flustered, but you didn't stay in front of the class wondering what was up as long as the original Xander had done it for. You started to hunt for them through the nightmare warped halls of the school.

    You were half expecting it when you saw a mirror. You knew the original Xander would be in there. He would be accusing of what you'd chosen to do. You took a deep breath. You weren't going to let this haunt you. You were better than that. You hadn't exactly chosen to become Xander. And you were trying your best. No you weren't him, but you weren't terrible because you weren't him. You approached the mirror and looked in ready to talk him down.

    It was you. The real you, not Xander. It was who you really were, looking back at you from the mirror. "Did we really think coming here changed who we are?" your reflection asked. It gave a sad smile looking you over. "I think it's time we stop dreaming. You need to wake up."

    No. No no no.

    You turned and ran. It didn't matter how hard you ran though, it didn't seem like you were moving at all. You could feel the ground under your feet, the exertion you were putting in, and yet nothing changed around you. You looked behind you to see your reflection still giving a sad smile, waiting for you to accept the truth. It was a nightmare come to life.

    Wait. That's exactly what it was! You knew you'd be living a nightmare! It had taken a different form than you'd expected, but that didn't mean what was happening was anything more than a reflection of your fears! You turned and approached the mirror again. "Wake up," your reflection repeated.

    "I intend to," you told it, and hit the mirror. It shattered into shards, and you stepped through the broken mirror to the front of the school. You relaxed as you spotted Willow and Giles, and jogged over to them.

    "It's getting worse," Giles stated worriedly. He glanced at you as you joined them.

    "Where's Buffy? Do we know how to stop this yet?" you asked.

    "No," Willow said glumly. You walked together towards a dark patch of night that shouldn't be there. You knew what this was. Giles dropped. "Oh, my nightmare," he murmured. "I'm sorry Buffy, I failed you."

    Just as he finished those words a fist punched out of the earth, and nightmare vampire Buffy emerged. Buffy was of course, completely freaked out once she realized she was a vampire, but the reassurance things would return to normal once fixed got everyone moving again. Buffy had managed to put the clues together to find the boy in the hospital causing all of this, and helped him fight off his nightmare to wake up.

    Everyone was drained from the experience. You headed home and silently slipped into the bedroom. You looked in the mirror there, staring at Xander. Or yourself.

    What defines you?
    [ ]Your original self
    [ ]Xander's identity
    [ ]Your will to adapt
    [ ]Your will to help others
    [ ]Write-in
     
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    • Can he say he is Xander or his original self now?

    [X]Your will to help others

    He could've run away or try to ignore what he know what to come but he seeming going for the helping others even if his first attempt was a fail
     
    [X]Your will to help others

    I think this is the moral that the character has taken the most from Xander and potentially why we have taken his place. Xander is the scoobie that despite his comparable general physical inability he does what he can to help, often this moves towards the more social aspects of his role as the heart, and his ability to notice even if Xander is imperfect, he MOSTLY means well. He also doesn't always like himself, he doesn't always think things through, he doesn't always let people make decisions for themselves. But he notices things, and he tries in his imperfect way. He wants to help people because he's too proud to ask for it himself, so he forces and flubs his way into scenarios and situations regardless of his own ability.

    Helping Others doesn't have to be a purely selfless act, and it doesn't fight with anything we've done quite yet. Adaption is probably more inherently aligned to our Intrigue focus, but it is an ultimately more selfish choice.
     
    [X]Your will to help others

    We chose to try to save Jesse. We chose to seek out Marcie. We've been trying to help Willow, Buffy, and Giles instead of staying as far away as possible. We could have tried to adapt in ways that helped other people less than the ways we've chosen.
     
    Closing Song New
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    • You knew what was at the core of you. Perhaps the rest of you was still something you were puzzling out. But your drive to aid others, and your will to adapt to anything thrown at you and make the best of it was at your center. And that was enough to go on for now. You would hold onto those closely to help keep back the fears your reflection had shown you.

    Marcie felt wonderful when you thought about that. You also sometimes thought about her being naked when invisible, but that wasn't any different from some of the other thoughts about girls you had. Cordelia was still proving to be your best focus to help with that. Angel occasionally helping out at the library on top of everything was another thing you could look at and see how you were helping. No, it didn't fix the whole doomed romance Buffy had going with him, but you were keeping a much closer eye on him than would have been possible. In the light of the school Angel seemed to lose some of his mystique as well, even if Buffy had switched that over to mooning over how mature he was.

    Everyone was starting to get ready for the final dance of the year before school finished and summer started. You weren't, more worried about what you would do when you no longer had school to hang out in for hours. You certainly didn't want to spend it at home. You also knew that one of original Xander's biggest moments was coming up: forcing Angel to take him to the Master's lair so he could save Buffy's life.

    Willow and Buffy were both heavily immersed in girl talk about the dance. Marcie wasn't joining in, but you figured that was more from being invisible and not being able to participate than because she wasn't interested herself. You knew that Buffy wouldn't make it to the dance at all, and were quietly worrying to yourself about it.

    [ ]Try to camp the path to the Master's lair early before Buffy arrives
    [ ]Try to shadow Buffy
    [ ]Follow what happened in canon best you can
    [ ]Write-in
     
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    • I need to go to bed soon, but should we invite anyone to the prom? I don't want Marcie to feel left out, but I also don't want Xander to look weird for apparently dancing with an imaginary girlfriend.
     
    Still believe mostly cannon is the correct call here, but social side changing things up is the play.
    Because Marcie didn't beat him with a bat in this timeline, I'm pretty sure that Cordelia has a date this time, so the potential of asking there is probably a bad idea for a variety of reasons, even if Cordy is who Xander is somewhat fixated on.

    Asking Buffy to the dance is a bad play like it was in the real timeline. Buffy doesn't see Xander that way, and at least this Xander doesn't actually have the fixation on her in that manner like Original Xander.

    This leaves us with 3 options: Willow, Marcie, none.

    Willow: Has a crush on us and long term is going to be Bisexual / Lesbian (depending on OP's thoughts on the matter, I lean Willow is Bisexual). This does heavily push that "Ship" and because of Willow's long term crush moving out of not quite pursing such further could go badly. I do think they are cute, especially if they are not actively cheating on other partners when they are together in that manner. But we also have the extra wrench of Willow is more enamored with Original Xander than Current Xander, and that is a tad icky.

    Marcie: If I'm honest probably has a slight crush on us, but at least it would stem from Current Xander and not Original Xander given we've gotten her a community and not let her go violent like the original Timeline. Inviting her to the Dance is a bit weird, as would general out on the town type dating. It would be interesting and certainly awkward and Willow will likely feel hurt by such (though she will feel hurt by Xander pursing any relationship that isn't her emotionally for the time being, though maybe less annoyed than she was with Cordy.) I would be cute for Current Xander to like bring some music to dance with Marcie somewhere after the events of this night though. My one concern is Marcie is because she is an outlier we don't know how she will develop and what she likes but that could be seen as a good thing for a more organic relationship.

    None: This doesn't mean we shouldn't eventually pursue a relationship with any of these people in our lives just not to nudge towards anything in particular quite yet. It has the benefit of not rocking the timeline much if at all, and does make the vote itself quite easy.
    Given we've reaffirmed ourselves here after the Nightmares, I think we are reasonably capable of pursuing a relationship if we want to, and as I was writing the above I sort of think the Marcie relationship is the most organic option for Current Xander. We are not taking advantage of Willow and Original Xander, and its also a relationship that doesn't give us an inherent advantage of knowledge about the other individual. It is also weird and likely to be humorous in ways to date someone invisible.

    [X]Follow what happened in canon best you can, but after everything transpires ask Marcie if she would like to dance with you. Apologize in advance for stepping on her feet.
     
    [X]Follow what happened in canon best you can, but after everything transpires ask Marcie if she would like to dance with you. Apologize in advance for stepping on her feet.
     
    [X]Follow what happened in canon best you can, but after everything transpires ask Marcie if she would like to dance with you. Apologize in advance for stepping on her feet.
     
    A Quiet Finale New
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    • You decided that your best bet would be to stick as closely to canon as possible. You didn't want to risk messing things up here. You didn't ask Cordelia or Willow to the dance, but that was the only real shift from what happened that you tried.

    You were surprised when Marcie sought you out to tell you about the prophecy telling about Buffy's death. It seems that Giles and Angel had missed her being in the library and she'd been there when Buffy found out. That wasn't something you'd been expecting. You knew you had to act faster than you'd planned to now, it would look strange if you acted like you didn't care about this.

    You gathered as much courage as you could and went to face Angel. You didn't know how original Xander had pulled this off. Facing the vampire was intimidating. But you stuck yourself forward the best that you could, and with threats got Angel to take you to the Master's lair. Of course Angel was mostly useless, far too willing to believe that fate was beyond his control. You were quick to give Buffy the CPR she needed to revive, and followed her as she went to face the Master in a final battle.

    You knew she was going to be messed up over the death. Everyone was drained after the surge of vampires and deaths that came with them. You hadn't had the chance to ask Marcie to dance with you like you'd planned, too tired after everything to do anything but sleep. And then Buffy was gone, off to be with her dad for the summer. So that was that, and you had to figure out what to do yourself.

    [ ]Focus on getting a part time job
    [ ]Try to make connections in the supernatural community - not everything can be evil, right?
    [ ]Work on patrols
    [ ]Train for fighting
    [ ]Write-in
     
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    • [X]Try to make connections in the supernatural community - not everything can be evil, right?

    Time to finally try for that Intrigue focus! Hopefully, one of Xander's future connections will help him get a part-time job.
     
    [X]Try to make connections in the supernatural community - not everything can be evil, right?

    Would be interesting if he gets interesting materials too rather than only info with this
     
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