#heavily based this Shepard in this AU off the one from my playthrough

[gaiaplantress]

My brain deals with stress by going ‘hey you can smash two of your fandoms together and have your OTPs on the same ship’.   So Mass Effect AU Wei Wuxian in pursuit of  Wangxian and Shakarian supremacy .  Very specifically catered to me but it’s making me happy and I have put far to much thought into this.

 Alliance Lieutenant (I think I got the rank markings right, IDK) Wei who probably should have gotten in more trouble for insubordination but Captain Hannah Shepard took a liking to him. Around when the Reapers show up he suddenly finds himself on the Normandy.   Captain Shepard basically sent her daughter a message that said ‘sending you a trouble maker, you’ll probably like him’.  Ends up getting along with everyone on the ship.

LWJ is a turian.  Because it’s funny and I like the concept.  Supposed to be sort of an aide/liaison for Garrus but Not Happy about that fact, or the human who keeps bothering him when he shows up.  Wen Qing is still human.  Worked with Dr. Chakwas once.   Chakwas actually gets a message from her going ‘I heard Wei was on your ship now.  Good luck keeping him in one piece’. 

Nie clan are now Krogans because I find the thought of Huaisang being a krogan hilarious.

Maybe Baoshan Sanren as a terrifyingly powerful Asari Matriarch  who no one has really seen for centuries?

(Anatomy and Omnitool are scuffed because I didn’t look at many references, I just had to get this out of my head. )

[crackinglamb]

For you fic ask: K, L, and O?

Thanks for the ask!

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with? 

On my own?  Probably the major character injury I inflicted on my SoSu Val Thorsgaard in Set to Repeat, Subject to Change.  I struggled so hard to finish that fic, it gave me absolute fits for months.  And in the end, I had this brilliant, awful idea that left her maimed and near dead for a while.  It was supposed to lead off into a sequel...that never got written because frankly, I’m done with FO4 as a fandom.  I did at least lay the groundwork of how she overcomes the disability, so readers can use their imaginations.  Seriously, though, that entire fic is angsty.  I’m still rather proud of myself for pulling off a happy ending on it.

L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

Answered here.

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters?

It depends.  Sometimes a character bursts into my head and the story grows from there.  Sometimes I get an idea and have to make up someone on the spot.  I hope you’re in the mood for a list, because I ended up gushing about my favorite OC’s.  Whoops.

Carly Lavellan in Twist was born from the idea of what would a gamer do - with all the spoilers under her belt - if she was suddenly dropped into Thedas?  How would she react, what would she do to change things, how would she ‘fix’ it?  I actually came up with her all in one night, from nebulous idea to fully fledged character with a name and backstory.  The plot was the game.  Well...actually, the plot is ‘how will she save Thedas from Solas’s brand of idiocy while accidentally falling in love with him?’  The canon game events are a backdrop to that.

Laani Lavellan was always going to be a post-canon OC.  She’s angrier, more tired, more worn down by the Inquisition.  I had a lot of her figured out before I started writing The Fox Runs.

Poor Eshali’nan still doesn’t have a story, but she has her character fully realized.  Elvhen Sentinel, rebel, beloved of Fen’Harel and Inquisitor.  I think.  Haven’t committed on that last one.

Jayne Shepard grew somewhat erratically.  Flash In the Pan was not going to be a longfic, much less the first part of a series.  I had an idea of detailing the last moments of Shepard and then filling in the gaps of the two years she’s ‘dead’ with memories of the first game.  She’s based heavily on my first playthrough of ME, with some twists and turns because canon and I are rarely friends.

Henna Shepard was the reverse.  I’d had a Nihlus fixit in mind for a long time.  She was the necessary piece to make it work.  I made her deliberately different from Jayne in an attempt to keep Shakarian from happening.  (I failed, but who’s complaining?)

Junkyard Dogs is written in a way that reflects much of my original work, which makes sense since it was my very first fandom piece.  The story is told from a single POV but it’s about another character.  In this case, the POV is Hancock, and the story is about Nora, the SoSu.  The reader gets to see her through his lens.  Two for one special there.  Coming up with my own OC and getting into the headspace of a companion and LI.  It was fun, and cemented a lot of my headcannons regarding a certain red coat wearing ghoul.

My daughter created Valara Thorsgaard.  From there, making her story was a challenge.  Another post-canon work complete with whole new plot.  Set to Repeat also has my Lone Wanderer in it, a rare male lead character for me.  There is so much POV juggling going on in that fic.  Ugh, never again.

Tien Xu was a deliberately non-canon SoSu, and was again a study of OC and existing character.  Namely, Conrad Kellogg.  Unexpected wasn’t supposed to be a longfic either.  But people liked it so much I ended up writing a whole thing.  My first dip into AU, my first attempt to redeem the villain and keep him in character, my first rare-pair.  I’m still immensely proud of that fic.

Okay...I’m gonna stop before I dredge up every single character I’ve ever written.