madimpossibledreamer

( just when I thought it was going alright )

this is the second time I’ve written a fic with a romantic offer to kidnap someone else. It’s weird that it happened twice, but makes perfect sense in context.

More extraneous dialogue. “Even then, I dare say disintegration would not agree with you. Care to find out?”

Val most wants a rat, but he’ll find the city strays and give them pets and food.

The only person from Real Life Xander has spoken to after the Tear is Mrs. Summers and she was visibly weirded out and hasn’t been back—which sucks, because he definitely liked her as a parental figure he’d pseudo-adopted. He’s heard nothing from his parents, which doesn’t surprise him in the slightest. He’s also heard nothing from the woman he’d been dating, but then, he’s not particularly surprised. She’d already started pulling away. She was jealous about him playing games, and he assured her that it was just with friends, but she was convinced that he’d met a woman and was cheating on her. He tried to explain that he just liked playing it because he knew what he was doing, for once, that in games he felt a sense of accomplishment that he hadn’t in real life. She didn’t believe him, but hadn’t been aware she’d been subtly questioning his competence when it came to his classes.

He loves restaurants, little holes in the wall especially, because he likes getting to know them. He likes walking around. He got the latest music player and goes to concerts and stuff. He’ll also send little messages like post-it-notes to make the people he cares about smile. He hates cooking but will do it if someone’s busy and won’t have time.

Scammers tick him off. Sometimes he’ll hunt them down. They’d taken advantage of Jesse, once or twice, and he couldn’t stand that.

It’s not a complete truth to say that Xander has absolutely no contact with the outside world. There’s a research program. Some of the original devs were fired and replaced, so they suspect one of them was the cause of the code that caused the Tear. He’ll go in every now and then and they’ll scan him and run a few tests. It’s not without risk, since they’re poking at his character’s code, and they’ve made a backup but can’t be sure that’ll work if something goes wrong, so he’s given a cred stipend. He doesn’t tell Buffy or Willow (or anyone, really) about it; they talked about the program and Buffy said it was too risky, so she forbade anyone from taking part. He’s just doing it in secret.

He also keeps active in Discord. He wanted to run a youtube or twitch channel but didn’t particularly want to use his face. He’d started contemplating vtubing using Val as his face but then the Tear happened. Fans of the franchise continue to be fans of the franchise, and a lot actually are interested in helping out with research on their end, because it’s not dangerous for them. He does also have some thirsty fans, but luckily a mod keeps them in check and he’s managed to get them to be fairly respectful, even when they log in.

Xander did talk the devs out of giving players trapped in the game anything they might want. It’s still a society that needs to function, he pointed out. Instead, all trapped players get the same amount of cred deposited in their account every week, enough to cover basic cost of living + a little more. It doesn’t really reflect the capitalistic cyberpunk spirit of the game, but it does let them all breathe a little easier.

Val actually does drink at bars, but what he usually does is get one, secrete himself in a corner, people-watch all night, and nurse his drink. He sometimes hears important information this way, but also just gets to know people and know of people, which is important.

Xander didn’t used to care about other people or saving the world or anything. Helping people out, not just his friends, made him feel good. Feel happy. Like he actually mattered. Like he was a good guy. It’s mostly this that makes him think Val is a better person than Xander, even though he knows that’s slightly neurotic and they’re obviously the same person and he’s the only one that thinks of himself and his avatar as different people.

Willow and Buffy just live at Slayer HQ. Xander has his own apartment. Jesse’s usually on the couch at HQ or with his latest fling. Xander offered for Jesse to stay with him, but Jesse was like, “no, that’d be lame” and he hid his hurt, but he’d really kind of wanted someone there. He hasn’t offered for anyone else to come. He has plants that were usually just decorations but now act like normal plants that he’s miraculously not killed yet. He’d say that’s not possible, but others have complained about theirs dying, so it’s just a mystery.

Willow went full gothic with it. Fey are maximum 5 feet, and she’s a little shorter with it. Buffy maxed out that slider. Willow doesn’t have tattoos, but she does have cyber enhancements. She also has a cybermancer necklace, earrings, and staff. She started out fully covered and then started, partly because she wanted to see more herself (though it took her a bit to admit she wanted eye candy), getting skimpier clothing until she found a tasteful amount of skin she was happy with. Her hair definitely has layers and is midway between her shoulders and her waist. She also has hair jewelry. For color scheme Willow went with the pastel purple, white, and black, with a darker skin color. She’ll often have hoods.

Alacine’s hair alternates between a pixie cut (usually dark), buns (any color), a long ponytail with bangs (red) and a medium-length cyberpunk braided style (white). She absolutely has tattoos, especially around her lower arms and hands. She’ll often wear her coat without putting her arms through the sleeves, like a confident leader type look. She has almost as many outfits as Val, but she also absolutely collects weapons and probably has the most weapons in the game. She tends to at least wear leather and often has some type of armor, whether a lighter tech style or a heavier more powered armor type style. She prefers the lighter tech style, because she likes to move quicker. She also has the snazziest tech sunglasses cred could buy.

Buffy saved up to get Willow her own cyber cat. She hadn’t bothered when it was just a game, but she wanted to cheer up her friend, so she’d grabbed one from the store. They used to have premium cosmetics & stuff but all of those switched to Creds or earning when the Tear happened and people couldn’t necessarily earn or pay with real world money anymore. Willow got so excited it was the first time they’d ever kissed.

Buffy and Willow and Jesse can be really nosy, which is part of why he’s got an apartment. Even if he had his own room there, he’d still feel weird. Plus he feels adult having his own apartment, even if it isn’t there.

Jesse’s avatar 100% looks more intimidating, plus he’s not as prone to being a dork. He is also the less dangerous one because he doesn’t know the mechanics inside and out and doesn’t tend to be clever about it.

Jesse has definitely gotten better than when he was a kid. He can be downright normal to the Slayers. “It’s ‘cause I don’t think of you as women.”
“I hope you still have that shovel from digging that hole,” (implied to dig yourself back out) Val remarks and settles in, crossing his legs and arms, to watch the entertainment. (Mostly Jesse’s guilty of ‘benign’ sexism.) Xander wanted to say something to say ‘you done goofed’ but also didn’t want to yell in place of the women, because it’s their input that really should matter.

Kairias has powered armor and a red and black color scheme. He also has a big two-hander type sword that, as an Akuma, he can wield like it’s barely anything. It’s not your traditional powered armor suit, even for cyberpunk, as it’s spikier and has room for his tail (he actually normally has a tail, unlike Valichar, who can only summon a psychic version). Val in contrast even in the equipped versus cosmetic equipment doesn’t change much—he tends to go medium armor for maneuverability. (For whatever reason, cosmetic outfits in general are fine and don’t bug him like the accessories do. You only feel the cosmetic outfit, so his best guess, that he will never tell anyone for fear of seeming weird, is that he knows he should feel rings on every finger and cannot, so it’s a disconnect that freaks him out.)
Kairias also has giant curving horns in comparison. Not, like, ram’s, more like just the slight curve of a cow’s horns if they were at least three inches in diameter and probably at least a foot long. He’s also several feet taller than Valichar so can quite easily rest his giant arms on Val’s head (minding the horns). As a fellow Akuma, though, Val doesn’t seem to notice. Kai is still Aggressively Hetero and doesn’t mind draping himself like that over Val, who is Not Aggressively Hetero.  He may or may not figure out that that could look odd someday.

Xander was hurt that Willow & Buffy didn’t tell him right away. “What, didn’t you trust me?”
“We thought you might be weird about it.”
“…I’m not Kai.”
Because he really is happy for them. Someone in this nightmare is happy, even if it isn’t him. (Well, he is happier, anyway, which is something.)

Val and Kai have earned the nicknames of Red Oni and Blue Oni. Val scoffs at this, because him, plan things? Yeah right. It’s actually kind of true, though—Kai goes in without a plan, and Val plans on the fly. He’s actually kind of infamous for improvising, especially improvising weapons. Even in a battle rage he’s still paying attention and evaluating things, such as the locations of friendlies, and while he’s gotten to the point where he’s using mechanics unconsciously because he’s played this game too much, he is purposefully using the mechanics. Val opts for the thing that looks cool and is effective. Kai opts for the thing that just looks cool. It started because of the color schemes in general. It’s also slightly hilarious because while Kai is good with heat, Val absolutely hates the cold. It’s something specifically about Xander inhabiting that body, because when just playing the character Val didn’t have a weakness to cold. Sometimes if he wants to wear less clothes during the winter he’ll just get one of those ‘warding against the cold’ consumables and use one immediately when it starts wearing off.

Kairias always puts up a big fight whenever the cops pick him up. Valichar makes a game of it, flirting (particularly if there’s a PC involved, unless they’re obviously uncomfortable), making friendly conversation, talking about their dog or their cat or their favorite flick. He’s incredibly friendly and just as uncooperative. He’s just very nice about it. Unlike Kai, who insults and threatens everyone, and gets mad that this means his stays are a lot longer. Getting picked up was a mechanic but it was generally much shorter and only after certain Underworld missions. It expanded after the Tear.

Kai gets really mad that Val still has money. “I can understand the others, but you keep spending it, just like me. How are you not broke??”
Val just laughs. “Must be all the partying you do, while I’m sitting back here like a good little Akuma choir boy.” He considers. “Also, I gave Shari a little of my money to manage my portfolio.” Kai gets mad again.

The cyberpunk game (Elysium Cypher) was Buffy’s idea, though Jesse might’ve been the one who first mentioned it as a possibility to her. Xander pouted and didn’t put too much effort into his first character, a Merc he basically flipped a coin to make and randomly generated costume. Or basically any of it, really. Willow yelled at him for not trying, and he made a joke that that wasn’t any different than normal. When he got into the story, though, he got more into it than anyone. It’s clear they’d thought out their story and had story arcs going on in the background of just average everyday events. He also got attached to the characters. Val is his Epic Tryhard character. He often comes off as a goof in between actual fight scenes. Basically, when he’s trying to impress, he makes a fool of himself. When he’s just acting on instinct, he is terrifying. And he’s an expert on the game, but he lets Willow be the expert, even when she’s wrong.

Val actually has a slight anti-human bias. He knows that they pretend everything’s fine, but even before the Tear it was obvious Xander knew that sometimes that hid the worst of humanity underneath (his remark about abusive coaches), and since his opinion’s gotten a whole lot worse. He’s met good ones, or he’d dislike them entirely. He’s not superior. It’s just…complicated. Because he was human, and he still feels some weird kinship only a half-human in this new world would, but how does he keep ahold of his humanity if he’s not even sure if he wants it? Should he even do that? It’s not like he’s less of a person without; plenty of others in that world manage without a drop of human blood.

He hasn’t told everyone, but given the choice he would send them all back and stay himself. He’d miss them terribly but he doesn’t think he has anything to live for in that world. Everyone else could manage, he thinks, but he’s just a loser out there. Here, he’s Valichar the “Blue Oni” (despite not even being an oni). He knows they wouldn’t want to leave him, and knows if he told anyone they’d be really upset and worry for him. Willow might actually agree with him, but he can’t imagine a world in which that’s true, particularly since she started dating Buffy. He’s single right now and not entirely happy about that, but he’s trying to stay positive. He wants to do sappy gestures, bringing a bunch of flowers while blushing (and trying not to shred them using his claws). He’s been pushing that outlet into taking care of stray cats and orphans instead, being the “big brother” to almost anybody and everybody. He really wants the romantic connection. He had a “friends with benefits” situation with ‘Faith’, and while it went a whole lot better than canon, Xander broke it off. (Part of it also had to do with the fact that Faith was trying to swipe him from Buffy’s Kith.)

He feels even guiltier because when it happened he was actually kind of happy about it. He’s more important, more useful, more loved than he’s ever been. Willow had a big panic attack when it first happened. They haven’t talked about it since, but he’d been pretty sure she’s just putting on a brave face.