“Listen to the Mockingbird”, End notes
Endnotes posted 04 Oct 2024
Where did the idea for the story come from?
I don’t specifically remember … but there’s a whisper of memory that makes me think that, because this was done for
summer_of_giles, I just looked through SoG stories for the previous year, saw one that had (or suggested) Giles interacting with Drusilla, and thought, “Yeah, I could do something with that.”
Is there any particular significance to the title?
No large significance, but I couldn’t quite say “none”. Dru definitely took a mocking tone in dealing with Giles - at least until he taught her to regard him seriously - and her stream-of-consciousness sometimes-prophetic musings could be seen as having all the nonsensical lack of meaning of a birdsong. (Okay, I’m reaching a bit on that one, but that’s the feeling I get.)
What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?
What I liked most was the way the stuffy, repressed, unthreatening Book Man (as Drusilla regarded him) turned out to be the most frightening foe she had ever faced, purely through the power of ruthless intellect.
Liked least? Well, this was a largely passive story; Drusilla throwing herself to the floor is the most action contained therein, and it isn’t even specifically shown. This potential weakness is lessened by the sharpness of the psychological sparring between them, but I’m aware of it. (More and more of my stories these days follow a similar path, which is surprising and amusing for someone like me who enjoys writing action sequences and takes pride in doing them well.)
Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?
An author can always find some means of approaching a story differently (changing the POV character is the easiest and most obvious), but I don’t think this one would have been nearly as effective by any other method. It might be interesting to see how it would have gone to have someone else following the byplay between them, and wondering how Giles would deal with a mad seer, and trying to understand what he/she was seeing … but, overall, I like this way better.
Do I have any plans to follow up on this story, or to use the character(s) or situation in a subsequent fic?
Not directly (except for a couple that I can think of), but there are many, many links to other Backstage Stories. A listing:
- Her mother, her father: they didn’t love each other - though there was passion, oh, yes, such a tangle! - but they shared love of her. followed by He doesn’t know what that means, she sees instantly, he still doesn’t know … followed finally by the awful girl’s not-father: All those refer to “ Morning’s Echo”, wherein is listed Aadler’s version of Buffy’s real paternity
- the man on the false cruise ship: “ Tip of My Tongue”, which describes what actually happened to Hank Summers during his supposed hijinks in Spain with his secretary
- the desperate, secret combat in the little Missouri town: “ Solitaire Till Dawn”, something that Kendra was involved in between Season 2’s “What’s My Line?” and “Becoming”
- other Slayers coming to Sunnydale … depictions of the awful girl’s sister and mother as Slayers themselves: “ Each Proud Division”, which shows four crosstime Slayers being shepherded through Sunnydale by an unlikely team-up
- the sour man’s son, and the bitter letter he will write for the Dark Slayer: “ Ex Post Facto”, with A:tS Wesley attempting to write to Faith in prison
- the seer-girl who struck/freed her from the Slumberer in Mexico: “ Oaxaca Nights”, Cordelia’s summer vacation between Seasons 2 and 3
- another version of the seer-girl, coming from outwise with stolen power and so much new capability: “ Glass Ceiling”, a ‘lost’ Cordelia training and scheming in an other-dimensional limbo
- The machine-woman’s birth from the rubble: “ Kirlian Logic”, a new player from Sunnydale (but ‘descended’ from five previous)
- The meeting-to-come of the awful girl and her poor, shackled Angel in that dreary motel: “ Bitter From the Sweet”, Buffy’s never-shown-in-canon meeting with Angel following her resurrection
- … and, which should befuddle, how the boy will briefly be a girl: “ Beg to Differ”, two ‘unknown’ characters interacting in a way that seems to have nothing to do with Sunnydale (but does)
- And the pale woman. Descended from Drusilla herself, in her own wretched way: “ Shadow and Substance” (though the same individual is seen or referenced in other stories), upending ‘what we thought we knew’ about one of Season 2’s major events
Any observations to add at the end?
The last time I did a story with a seer - “ An Eye to the Future”, with Madame Tiphaine - I used it to point toward stories I intended to write but hadn’t yet. This time, I looked backward (though a couple of the things Drusilla referenced will figure in tales to come). I suppose most of that is because so much of what I’ve been planning, I’ve already done, and less remains to be revealed.
Not through yet, though. Just watch and see.