“Kirlian Logic”, End notes
[ Endnotes posted 13 Jul 2018 ]
Where did the idea for the story come from?
Honestly, this one grew for so long, from such vague beginnings (much like ‘Natalie’ herself) that I can’t trace it back to any single concept. There may have been some muzzy inspiration from visitorfic’s “Buffybot Adventures”, or even from re-watching “I Was Made to Love You” and wishing that hadn’t been the end of April. It combined with other issues, obviously (again, rather like Natalie), and this was the eventual result.
Is there any particular significance to the title?
That’s basically explained in-text, but - as has been referenced for other titles - there was influence from the fact that this came during the period that I was trying to “fill in” the alphabet with aadlerfic titles, and I didn’t yet have anything for “K”.
What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?
Liked: I took some pleasure in my (I believe) successful efforts to tell a story from the POV of a not-human but likewise not-thoroughly-inhuman character. It was also fun to, once again, use the external viewpoint - someone not core-group in either BtVS or A:tS - to show familiar characters from a different angle. (Of course, one of these characters, Dustin, was my own creation, but he had appeared before.) And I won’t deny that I let myself fall just a little into fanboying Joel Kreuter; I like ‘average’ guys who turn out to be people you shouldn’t dismiss.
Disiked/uncertain: Some of that is what I already named as a ‘like’: convincing representation of a nonhuman viewpoint is tricky, and I always wonder whether I did that well enough. Too, keeping the setting restricted - everybody together in one very small space till the last chapter - made it a conversation/character interaction piece (till some sharp action at the very end of the next-to-last chapter), and that has to be done carefully. I’m not unhappy with any of it, but I still occasionally wonder if I got it all right.
Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?
Not really. The whole story could have been told from someone else’s POV, and that could indeed have been extremely effective - involving the progressive realization, and then full recognition, that ‘Trish’ was someone/something else entirely - but that would have been an entirely different story. This one, as it stands, is already about as good as my own abilities could make it.
Do I have any plans to follow up on this story, or to use the character(s) or situation in a subsequent fic?
As has been the case for a while now, there are narrative links to other stories. The minor demon H’laat-tuuc had previously been mentioned in “ Notes on an Opera Program”, and Dustin, as already noted, was a returning character from “ First Do No Harm” (his mention of Katie underscoring this). More than that, Natalie made a brief appearance in “ An Eye to the Future”, which served to presage her featuring in … a story that still hasn’t been written, but toward which I am still gradually working.
[ There was likewise a brief appearance in “ Jack Be Nimble” in 2019, again moving her toward that same story-not-written-yet. ]
Any observations to add at the end?
Wish I did. I enjoyed doing this one, and still enjoy occasionally re-reading it, but I’ve already said about it anything I had to say.