Fic: Behold, Little Padawan! (BtVS; Gen; Part 8/16)

[liz_marcs]

All parts can be found here.
Continued from Part 4B.

Part 4C: Falling In Place

Xander trudged downstairs for the mid-morning meeting and exchange of information. His plan at the moment was mostly the same as it was before he had read the files: find a way to keep Faith away from the demons. The list now also included Cheryl, based on Bernie’s

Comments

[texanfan]

Oh my. Andrew's mishmash of fantasy, lies and truth was truly staggering. I wonder if Susan intervened because she saw he was working out something personal with the story. I must admit, I never gave thought to Andrew being victimized by his brother. Since Andrew wears a sign around his neck saying, 'please use me' it makes all kinds of sense. I loved the Evil OVerlord slip! Overall, I still want to kill the little twerp, but you make him more fully realized.

The clown must be Xander's curse, whatever it is. My suspicion is that his demon magnet ways have been dialled up to 11. The leprecaun seemed to indicate that to me.

From his reaction to Bernie I'm getting the impression Xander's on his last nerve of people not seeing things that are plain to him. I'll be curious what LaTisha and Susan see now that they're on the lookout.

[ludditerobot]

Y'know, I was kinda thinking that D'Hoffryn kinda looks like a clown....

[anonymous]

Well, if we're all launching out who-dun-its...

Rona, making a wish that Xander leave and wander the world, being a demon magnet, basically turns him into the Littlest Hobo/Lassie of Buffy. Cause could have been Xander's demonic magnetism might have attracted something, harmed or annoyed, whatever, the Cleveland crew, and thus Rona and her large mouth makes a wish. The wacky evil clown? D'hoffryn's custom demon to irritate Xander until the cows come home.

Probably a clause that Xander cant get laid or something in there too. There is NO justice.

[anonymous]

My turn.

The clown is Andrew. I'm betting that since he's the number one fan of the Xand-man he has all the facts. He just put them together in his own inimitable style. He's the one they have to listen to to get to the truth.

Quite likely Rona was being played, Xander saw it and tried to warn her but she didn't take it well. Given the lack of forgiveness on Xander's part and D'hoffryn's involvement, I'd say she brought some Anya-related unpleasantness into the mix.

OR

There came a situation where they were forced to let one or more people that Rona cared about die and Xander was the one who had to make the call. That seems less likely since X is not accepting her apologies.

Either way, Xander ends up with a curse that strikes at the people he cares about if he spends too much time with them. Thus he's forced to keep on the move to protect the ones he cares about.

At the current rate of posting we should know how close I came by Tuesday.

D

[set_aka_ian]

As so often would happen watching the show, I wanted to lean into the narrative and slap someone (in this case Xander) for not sharing important information. Faith kinda needs to know *why* Cheryl should be kept away from the Emokillsus.

And I'm probably the only one, but 'Emokillsus' makes me laugh, but only because it makes me think of Emo Phillips. I'm too old to get the 'emo' reference. I had to look it up...

An Observation. In Haiku.

[lufio]

--,'{@

You broke the pattern.
Was expecting Andrew here.
That's why it's Part C?

- The Masked Lurker

[beege22]

So clearly this is the chapter where it becomes obvious what Xander's problem is. No wonder he can't stay in one place too long. Great work dropping hints in earlier chapters, from Xander's itinerary and the watchers talking about his track record to Xander's thoughts about Giles turning his circumstances into a good situation for the council. Nice metaphor on the dream, too.

One thing I wonder about - the new generation of slayers seem remarkably ignorant of some of the things that went down in Sunnydale if they've never heard of D'Hoffryn or Willow's magical misadventures or Faith's track record. I can see why some of this stuff would be considered private by the scoobies, but still. Haven't they learned their lesson about keeping secrets?