madimpossibledreamer

Also I confirmed have BtVS living rent-free in my head because (I think as a coping mechanism) my brain immediately jumped to ‘well, what would vtuber Scoobies look like’, especially with the new Xander being a youtuber.
*Joss Whedon as the owner of the company (because let's get meta)
Xander
*not being allowed to be out as bi; mentioned briefly in a single stream & never again
*generally presented as the ‘nerd one’, which he’s kind of cool with because he can ramble about stuff he likes and cool plot twists in the game he’s playing for hours and people actually listen to him and don’t think he’s a loser
*lost an eye from trying to show off (possibly during career), stuck somewhere between embarrassed because it was an embarrassing move & kind of pleased because he actually finally thinks he’s kinda handsome? until he gets a headache and then is just in a bad mood. It’s not super common, but he has canceled a stream because of it
*community describes him as having “off” and “on” states, because depending on how calm he is he can be really good at puzzles, but if he’s distracted or upset he fails them and eventually just starts randomly inputting answers
*also absolutely terrible at FPS, since his fast-paced hand-eye coordination is practically nonexistent, but will collab if Buffy wants to play. Generally dissolves into a pile of incoherent rambling akin to Markiplier but even less coherent
*often says things without thinking, but when he’s called out on things (& he is called out on things) apologizes, promises to do better, & then actually tries to do better even if he doesn’t always succeed
*admits he’s trying ‘to un-learn problematic shit’ from his parents
*does not always realize things are problematic at first, due to the past trauma, which is why he puts up with management abuse for so long
*Willow helped design his avatar (she was used as unpaid free labor for most of the vtuber models, not that any of them really got that part) and he’s ridiculously proud of it and her for that
*had several toxic relationships, including Faith while Willow had a crush on him he was trying to overlook. Also Cordy, but as per canon that was mostly them just being shitty to each other. (they still kind of lovingly snipe at each other when they run into each other later? But they also 100% have each other’s backs and make better friends, even if most people around them don’t consider them friends; mostly they avoid insults and topics that would actually bother each other)
*hands are tied due to contractual reasons (& maybe recovering from the Eye Incident himself) so he doesn’t speak up when Buffy’s contract is unceremoniously terminated & she’s practically ejected into space
*gets to graduate, speaks in a few vague terms about the matter, wants to collab w/ Buffy again (they go for horror for a ‘more laidback time’, which it is, because neither of them get spooked too often
*misses the old model, but also really really excited about the fact that he gets to gush about “hot guys and pretty girls and everything in between now”
*also is excited because he’d kind of wanted a punk/goth look to his model but that’d been nixed by past management. New management doesn’t restrict him as much.
*went for “a knight who joined an attack on Hell and came out but not unscathed”, trying to decide if he’d go for “demon hyena” here though. We don’t really know anyone’s favorite animals do we
Tara
*was allowed to graduate but basically was never given a chance to succeed; currently taking a break from vtubing right now
*Willow broke up with her when she graduated
*Cordy has extended a ‘behind-the-scenes’ job offer to Tara that she’s considering
Cordy
*practically run out of town, made her own agency & with a lot of hard work has made it work
*It helps that she has an actual management degree & knows what the hell she’s doing
*still streams once in a while with a businesswoman with a bee motif and a whip. Mostly does not have time for this, but she’s still a workaholic.
*she’s the only female owner of a name-brand agency & is proud of it
Angel
*Lost it & started stalking Buffy when they were dating
*went to counseling & is doing better
*Cordy’s holding a seat open for him at her agency when he feels like coming back
Willow
*currently deep into trusting management
*possibly dating Faith? Xander is trying very hard not to think about that and the implications thereof
*mostly she’s hyped up on the fame & glory rn, Xander’s hoping for the best
*and the fact that when she gets an idea stuck in her head, it’s well and truly stuck. Then again, he’s kind of the same way; it took Buffy’s attempted suicide to shock him out of it, but even that hasn’t broken through yet.
*especially enjoys any thinky games or simulators, such as shop simulator games. Occasionally branches out to yuri visual novels because management thinks that’s fine.
*rambles, goes on tangents, sometimes forgets that she’s even playing a game.
Buffy
*was in several abusive relationships that escalated to stalking and one that escalated to cheating; management did nothing to protect her from this
*Loves FPS and action games, though sometimes forgets to even slow down and pay attention to any possible story because she’s having too much fun wrecking shop
*butchers names though half the time it’s on purpose to drive people up the wall
*especially opponents. Particularly when they spend matches screaming abuse at her.
*she refuses to mute her microphone. It’s a pride thing.
*she also pretends none of this gets to her. It does.
*bright, bubbly, likes acting more like an airhead & messing up names if she’s annoyed
*was attacked by a mugger (the Master is now a mugger) once & sent to the hospital. Technically she provoked him a little because she was still feeling bad about Angel but she doesn’t admit to herself why years later.
*the second time was after Dawn joined “as a little sister character” and also her abusive relationship with Spike. Her contract was terminated after this one. She ended up not at Cordy’s agency but a friendly one to that.
*this was also after years of her management gaslighting and lying to her and her friends to try to make sure there wouldn’t be enough solidarity for a security net for anyone in case anything went wrong.

Shari (Cordy) has glasses, tends to wear dresses, and her eyes sometimes glow green. Each Wraithborne soul has a specific color associated with them or their power.  She tends to wear gold, though.  A lot like her vampire self from my Dresden Files crossover, she owns a lot of the city, pretty much, though not everyone realizes.  It's a lot of hard work, a lot of contacts, a lot of rep.  She's actually one of those people who has spreadsheets once she started playing the game in earnest, because there was no point just playing if she wasn't going to play well.  She felt weird briefly about being dead and basically possessing her dead body, realized that she wasn't decaying and could still buy nice clothes (nicer, even, given that she didn't have to use real-world money for it) and threw herself into the Kith wars, muscling out some of the other big corps in the most cutthroat way she can.  They haven't talked about it, but she agrees with Xander that she's not sure she wants to go back, because she feels the same--they're both somebody here, they're not losers, and they'd have to face the fact that life is not what they hoped if they went back.

Despite liking Akuma, Val actually ends up hanging out a lot with Lusus Naturae, Wraithborne, and  Mechanoids as fellow outsiders. He feels a little helpless with the Mechanoids because they are, more than anyone, losing some control of their humanity. They’re in existential despair as they don’t even have bodies with flesh anymore. He’s organized sports to emphasize that they still experience the simulated sensation of touch, and art/film things to try to prove to them that they’re not losing their artistic, creative touch. He has been looking into biotech a little, having a few talks with Sheni characters, to see if they can’t cyborg in the other direction. It might be a little disgusting and they might not like it, but it’s a possible solution.

Oz is a Lusus Naturae werewolf. He was dating Willow, but she couldn’t do long-distance, so they broke up. He knew that she always had a crush on Xander and that she’d been able to act as his hero by saving him from the clutches of the horrible teacher and feels bad about being mad at him, but can’t help it.  Well, until they finally, uh, "talked" (see last post).

Angel was in grad school and dating Buffy when she was in college. He broke up with her and went into therapy for anger issues, because he didn’t want to hurt her. It took her a while to get over it. He plays, specifically a Mechanoid, and he doesn’t really worry about losing his humanity, unlike most Mechanoids. He likes to help from a distance. He’s part of Shari’s Kith, Ninazu Logistics, and is on ‘helping Slayers’ duty whenever they ask Shari for help, sometimes with others. He generally has a robot butler look going on. Val will keep him updated on Alacine’s current state, which he’s happy with, although he’s started asking a lot less since Alacine (Buffy) and Metis (Willow) started dating.

It took Xander a while to come to terms with it, though. The age gap was much lower but the whole concept of the thing wigged him out so he was a little actively hostile about it all. He’s seen the change in Angel, though, the fact that he’s a better guy who cared enough to break up with the person he was in love with and try to change. Buffy got the idea he was in love with her and jealous. If he had been at all before Miss French, though, he 100% was not after. Again, she didn’t get the full context of the situation. It also took Xander a while to figure out why, so he couldn’t argue much either.

i wonder if the whole white court vampire preventing couples from being together thing was inspired by buffy and angel (especially the whole True Love meaning they literally can’t touch thing)

( Meetings between the Mob and the Local Vamps )