“Seeking the Woman”, End notes
[ Endnotes posted 18 Aug 2015 ]
Where did the idea for the story come from?
Back in the day, there were more than a few BtVS/La Femme Nikita crossovers going, and a line from one of them caught my attention. Michael Samuelle and Buffy had got into one of those heroes-meet-and-fight-before-finding-out-the-whole-deal situations, and …
Nikita looked down into the pit and got a shock: Michael was losing. Well, not actually losing, but he wasn’t winning, and for Michael that was losing.
… so the idea of Michael finding himself in combat against a Slayer took hold in me, and Section One’s recruiting practices made it entirely plausible that Faith could wind up there. The rest followed naturally.
Is there any particular significance to the title?
But of course. At the end of LFN’s title sequence, a voice whispers twice, “Cherchez la femme.” This well-known phrase translates to “look for/search for/seek the woman”, so the title itself was a reference and tribute to the ‘guest’ fandom.
What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?
I was pleased with the language, especially the triple repetition (followed by the variation that made the difference) of “He was ready for any eventuality, even surprise.” I liked the way that even Michael’s crushing defeat turned out to be something he was using in pursuit of his longer aims. And I did like the humanity that peeked out of Faith in this.
I don’t dislike anything about the story, but I’m strongly aware that much of the meaning to be found there doesn’t come across unless a reader is quite familiar with both BtVS and LFN. While I don’t see that as a flaw, it definitely serves as a built-in limitation.
Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?
Not really. This one worked pretty well for me, did basically what I wanted it to do.
Was there a different direction I might have wanted to take the story, and what would have been some of the advantages of the not-taken path?
Two, actually.
The first was that my original idea (before I had developed it sufficiently that I was ready to write the story) was that Faith was in fact guilty of killing Nikita in a personal power-play of her own, and that she would discover that even Slayer prowess wasn’t enough to survive Michael Samuelle once he was set on payback. I’d say the path I chose instead worked quite a bit better, but that would still be a reasonable variation.
Second was my recognition - again, before I actually began the writing - that Buffy herself might have wound up in Section One if a few things had gone differently. Remember, for awhile she was being hunted by the police after Kendra’s death, and even the escape-from-cops with Faith (quickly followed by Allan Finch’s death) could have eventually led her to prison. Pitting Buffy against Michael … well, that would be a different matter entirely. She can lose, we’ve seen as much, but she has the darnedest habit of not doing so.
Any observations to add at the end?
This was only the second full crossover I’d ever done - and very shortly after my first in “ … Than Meets the Eye”. Reading other people’s stories, I’ve always seen crossovers as a ticklish business, insofar as one wants to do adequate justice to both fandoms. All told, I’d say I managed here, and I pretty much like the result.