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Undeath And The City: Notes and Trivia
A Sex and the City/Forever Knight Xover
Copyright 2000
By Bonnie Rutledge

-	The original title was 'Sex Out Of The City,' which, while appropriate, lacked 
flair or significance. Beta reader extraordinaire Jules came to the rescue, 
suggesting 'Undeath and the City,' which ended up being perfect!

-	Originally, Mr. Clumsy was named 'Alfred.' Jules felt certain we could come up 
with something more colorful. Ever helpful, she compiled a list of unusual names 
that she had encountered. Knox Fallsworth was born!

-	No, I've never had a 'Dean' experience. If I had, I doubt I'd want to rehash the 
humiliating details.

-	I first started writing this story in June of 2000, before Big made any third season 
appearances on 'Sex And The City.' In the first outline, Big is murdered in 
Toronto (Didn't a lot of you want to kill him every time he said something 
insensitive in season two?), and Carrie winds up a suspect. Well, I worked on the 
story off and on, and within a few weeks it became clear to me that I had to make 
a choice between making 'Undeath' continuous with the series, or set off in its 
own little universe. Ever pedantic, I chose continuity, and Big escaped a horrible 
death. He also, consequently, escaped a larger mention in the story. The same 
logic goes for Natasha's 'pregnancy.'

-	Continuity trivia: In 'Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl,' Steve has the key to Miranda's 
apartment from 'that time I fed your cat.' That one throwaway line is basically 
responsible for generating this entire story. 

-	In the second draft of the story outline, Carrie goes to warn Samantha herself, 
betrays Vachon's location to the Inka, and almost has an encounter with Big at a 
crime scene (He and Natasha are mugged at gunpoint, only Big ends up shooting 
the guy). This was before I realized that the 'Sex and The City' crossover had 
very little sex in it. I forced myself to rewrite, substituting the drinking game 
scene.

-	I have never been stuck in a condom machine. There are some things you just 
don't poke. It seemed like an embarrassing scenario, though, and the scene 
contains one of my favorite lines: 'I considered the irony of a woman imprisoned 
by a condom machine being screwed free.' 

-	Any jokes about 'The Code' should somehow be laid at the door of the MEP New 
Orleans ladies. Especially Gail.

-	Any difficulties I've given the vampires in 'completing a transaction' are James 
Parriott's fault. As much as adult fanfic has Nick & Co. humping like rabbits, I 
chose to go with the creator's theory, however inconvenient.

-	There's one little timing detail I squished: 'Black Buddha' implies that there is a 
week between the capture of Dollard, and the time Schanke and Cohen extradite 
him. I only give it two days.

-	The trouble with continuity: how do you have someone where they're not 
supposed to be? Samantha's final scene with LaCroix was supposed to be at the 
Raven, with Nick busting in at Charlotte's request. The problem was, when Nick 
first goes to the Raven in 'Black Buddha,' he's unaware that Janette has left and 
handed the club over to LaCroix, meaning he hasn't actually been *in* the club 
recently. Blah. The final scene was shifted to an alley to keep Nick in the dark.

-	One of my objectives for this story from an 'FK' point of view was to develop a 
little more back story as to what we see during season three. The little 
Inka/Vachon tussle at the Raven gives LaCroix a reason to know who the 
Spaniard is, for example. A big theme of season three is Nick's backsliding and 
Nat's crisper attitude. The bittersweet end with Charlotte is designed to make 
Nick despair, cementing that even if he found someone that he could love (say, 
Charlotte or Nat), he's not going to find his cure before he loses them to time or 
frustration. Natalie, of course, gets the fact that Nick has been seeing another 
mortal woman thrown in her face, plus Nick won't explain his involvement in 
Austin's vampire-related injuries to her. I'd be fed up with him, too, in Nat's 
shoes.

-	I chose Austin for Caren's sake. If she reads this, I'm sure she can picture exactly 
who I'm talking about.

-	Helen Dreisen is the same character from 'Unnatural Selection' and the later 
Clare series novels. It's a bad habit of mine to work in cameos for characters 
across storylines. 

-	Trivia: whenever I use a writing instrument in a story, it is always a recycled 
pencil, unless said writing instrument is a plot device. This is an in-joke for fans 
of the Clare series.

-	The black-haired vampire on the dance floor that Samantha first picks out to 
seduce was supposed to be Domino.

-	Rum-O is another Clare series tie-in. I always wanted to do a scene where 
characters were actually playing it (the contest between Vachon and Ivy planned 
for 'Survivors' was written out in favor of the greenhouse scene and introducing 
Bourbon), but I've always wound up doing vague references instead. In comes 
'Sex And The City,' where the gals drink plenty and leap onto trendy new 
beverages like fleas to a dog. Carrie was a sitting duck from the get-go. The 
Ribena was an in-joke for Forever Knight fans.

-	The Miklos dilemma: What can I say? Fans know that one episode was written 
from the angle that the character was a vampire, the other from the perspective 
that he was a mortal who knew about vampires. I chose the 'Bad Blood' scenario 
where he was mortal because it worked better with the story. All the other 'Sex' 
women were fooling around with vampires. I needed some contrast.

-	Why didn't Nick flinch? Someone's bound to question Carrie and Charlotte's 
'cross examination,' but I think it's fair to insist that 'For I Have Sinned' 
establishes that Nick *does* practice handling crosses without flinching on a 
regular basis.

-	The introduction LaCroix gives Samantha to vampires was meant to mimic the 
'Dance by The Light Of The Moon' flashbacks. Samantha assumes Janette's role 
of 'bait,' and Austin is the unwary tasty blond male who discovers too late that his 
number is up. 

-	Continuity checkups: Carrie's gold boots do appear on the series, and Charlotte 
wears her gold filigree cross in 'Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl.' 

-	Ever notice that words can be serious when used once in a sentence, but silly 
when repeated aimlessly? Example: naked, naked, naked


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End of Notes and Trivia