“Oaxaca Nights”, End notes

[aadler]

[ Endnotes posted 08 Apr 2018 ]

Where did the idea for the story come from?

This one originated in the intersection of two different things. The first, I’ve already mentioned in responses to comments in the story itself: the point in the Angel episode — Season 1, Ep. 3 — where Cordelia and Doyle appear when Angel is confronting Spike, and Spike observes, “Cordelia. You look smashing. Did you lose weight?” … and I realized, these two had actually never met before in canon. (With the exception of the Hallowe’en episode, mentioned in the story itself, where Cordelia had been a background bystander while Spike — in vamp-face — bore down on the helpless/bespelled Buffy.) It niggled at me, something that seemed to call for explanation. The second was an actual fanfic where Willow was the one to encounter Spike south of the border — Mexico, Central/South America, I can’t remember — and got out of it alive because he wasn’t actually hunting her and his focus was on protecting Drusilla. The two notions intertwined and interacted, and after years of so doing they finally resulted in this story.

Is there any particular significance to the title?

Not a lot. It has minor echoes of “Baywatch Nights” (a very dumb show, but unexpectedly entertaining on occasion), and came about at a time when I was still trying to fill in the alphabet with the initial letters of story titles. Working on the letter “O”, remembering Cordelia’s complaints about her awful Mexico vacation at the beginning of Season 3, and trying to integrate that vacation with Spike’s journey with Drusilla to South America … Las Palmas (Cordelia’s canonical vacation site) is actually in Sonora, but “Sonora Nights” doesn’t really have the same sound, does it? I had to juggle and shift things, but I’d say it worked out decently in the end.

What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?

Like most: Cordelia’s personality, as shown here. The task before me — again, something I noted several times in responses to comments — was not just of accurately depicting that personality, but of properly representing it at this point, one between her distinct non-heroism of Season 2 and her successful intimidation of Lyle Gorch mid-Season 3. Cordelia in canon (at least until her forced artificial devolution in the later seasons of Angel) was always entertaining, if not necessarily likable, and that was what I wanted to capture. A commenter on another site spoke of ‘my’ Cordelia measuring up to a challenging situation, “… all the while complaining, ranting and insulting people”. I was delighted, because that was exactly what I’d been aiming for. Years later, that’s still what makes me happiest about this story.

Like least: the interaction of ‘Nick’ and Cordelia at the beginning seems just a little … I don’t know, not quite either canon-Spike or canon-Cordelia. Granted, he was deliberately acting not like himself, and she was in a new place with someone she didn’t know and expected never to meet again in her life and needing to explore some issues that were bothering her … all the same, I could tell that this section would be a problem, and worked hard to get it into being both plausible and consistent with prior characterization, and I’m not altogether certain I succeeded

Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?

The original notion — back when it was still in the hazy planning stages, and before I set out actually to write the thing — had something in the way of ‘Nick’ conning Cordelia into some kind of museum break-in (to find and steal some artifact, maybe the mask itself, that would help free Drusilla from her possession from an unwanted demon) … That would have required a long con by Spike, much unlike the impulsivity of his previously-seen personality, and would have needed from Cordelia an uncharacteristic gullibility OR a likewise uncharacteristic bent toward long-term planning. I consequently chose a different approach, but perhaps a more skilled or focused writer might have been able to do something with my first idea there. Hey, who doesn’t like a good ‘caper’ fic?

Do I have any plans to follow up on this story, or to use the character(s) or situation in a subsequent fic?

No direct follow-up, but “Rough Trade” could be seen as a quasi-sequel — the same two characters at different stages of their lives and personal development, and Spike’s hijacking of Cordelia in Mexico is referenced there by both of them — and there are other links as well. Boone made a casual mention of the Ptarmiiki (who appeared in both “Each Proud Division” and “Walking After Midnight”; Cordelia was wearing shoes designed by one of the prominent women later named in “Into the Abyss” (and which vampHarmony likewise wore in “First Do No Harm”); Spike recalled his fight with Boone — over possession of ‘that acid-tongued cheerleader’ — in “Shock to the System”; and the mask housing ‘the Slumberer’ is clearly the same ‘mind-controlling Mixtec mask’ mentioned by Leah the Slayer in “Learning Curve”.

Any observations to add at the end?

This is another thing I’m pretty sure I’ve said elsewhere, but it till pertains here. I have occasional ‘big ideas’, notions that I know can be kick-ass stories and want to spend the time to get right. The first was “In Ev’ry Angle Greet”, but others have gradually filtered out over the years. Even if it wasn’t actually a long/large story, “Oaxaca Nights” was one of these, and solidly satisfying to me once it was finally done. All my Backstage Stories are designed to interlace with canon, showing new angles and insights without being actually contradictory to what went before; some meet that goal better than others, but this story seemed like a seriously successful venture in that direction. Spike as we knew him, Cordelia as we knew her, meeting and clashing between seasons in ways that had lasting effects on them both. This happened at a time when he was still evil, and she was still petty, and they were still these things at the end of the story, but it mattered all the same, made an eventual difference. I enjoyed doing this fic, periodically enjoy re-reading it, and count it without qualm as one of my better efforts.