“Man in Motion”, End notes

[aadler]

[ Endnotes posted 10 Aug 2020 ]

Since this is a remix, what prompted the direction this story took in differing from the original?

Not too hard to figure out; the original showed Pike and Vi meeting in the middle of a vampire brawl. I just thought, Okay, so what comes next?, and started figuring out an answer to that question.

Is there any particular meaning in the title?

When it comes to remixes, my first priority (with extremely rare exceptions) is to find a song title that will fit the basic idea. (Since the whole ‘remix’ concept came from music, anyway.) I actually wanted “Free Falling” — or one of the lines from it — to form the title, but that somehow just didn’t quite work for me. Further searches of song titles/lyrics brought something that seemed to meet my needs. (Second priority: Sounds good.)

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

My favorite part is the combination of Vi’s squeaky-clean wholesomeness with her growing internal gripefest regarding Pike, then her horrified realization of where it came from. (And I have a bit of a soft spot for her decision to set aside her feelings to give him what she thought he needed.)

My most doubtful part — because I don’t actually have anything I don’t like — is where I wonder if Vi’s ambush-infatuation with Pike (at least, it ambushed her) was convincingly done or just a narrative trick. You see it all the time in fiction, especially movies: the opening clash between a woman and a man is practically a neon-light signal that they’re gonna wind up hot for each other. In real life, people tend to stick with their first impressions. You can justify a change of heart, and two people in a life-and-death partnership certainly have reason for occasional re-evaluation … all the same, I do still wonder.

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

Only the parts I already touched on. Of course, then I would have to come up with how I would do it differently, and nothing comes to mind at first thought. (And any change would change one of the parts I really did like: Vi’s realization that Pike’s distance came from his belief that she was ‘the’ Slayer because Buffy was dead, and he wasn’t going to let himself lose his detachment this time.)

Was there a different direction I could have taken the story, and what would have been some of the advantages of the not-taken path?

Pretty much any story can be redone simply by telling it from a different POV: Pike’s, for instance, or that of some third party trying to work out the Pike/Vi dynamic. It could even be done retrospectively, looking back on the beginnings of something that’s settled history now. Advantages? I’m sure some could be found, but this is the direction I took and I’m satisfied with it.

Any observations to add at the end?

Looking at it now, I wonder why I chose to make this an Independent Story, rather than working it into my Backstage Series. I’ve used Vi here and there in that one, and I suppose putting this story in that series might have threatened to cause some conflicts with the intended timeline. Those probably could have been worked out, though, and I suspect I did it that way just because that was the way I did it (in other words, if a story isn’t one I’ve already planned for Backstage, it goes to Independent by default unless I stop and think about it).

I know these are things that really matter only to me. Still, there it is.