This would be the first time I’ve used Spike as a central character (not counting his concealed identity in a particular ‘Spander’/genderswitch fic a few years back), and I was a bit surprised at how little difficulty it gave me. The episodic nature of the interactions helped a lot.

And, yes, I noted and drew particular pleasure at the contrast between Spike’s verbal attacks on the others (all exaggerated and unfair), and his semi-justified but voiceless resentment of Dawn. Gentleness in an otherwise brutal individual is interesting; gentleness when we can see he wants to be vicious, that really grabs the attention.