2, 12 w/ Loner Phase, & 18 !!
omg Loner Phase mention.... (<- mentioned it like 15 minutes ago)
2. If you could sit down and finish any completely new fic without anything stopping you (time, tiredness, etc), what would you write? tell us about it if you want!
I answered this with twewy but also I would like to write something bg3-related with my Tav, Favio :] They are my 100% self-indulgence oc, a devil, the child of the Archdevil Mephistopheles and Faustus (known in folklore as the first human to enter the realms of hell), who fled from Cania to create their own cult of devil-worship, but ending up developing an affection for their tieflings and fully taking them under their protection, guiding a flourishing Tiefling community in Elturel before the city was sucked into Avernus and the population unjustly expelled. Getting an illithid tadpole stuck in their brain somehow smothered their powers enough that they appear like any other Tiefling. So, in fear of prosecution if their true nature were to reveal itself, they reinvent themselves as a simple bard traveling the lands in search of new ways to archive, expand, and celebrate their peoples' culture. All the while being confronted by the gaping holes left in their absence, and how vulnerable their dear friends and compatriots are now that they've lost their leader.
However. DND lore is very intimidating.
12. What's a song or two you associate with [insert fic]?
YES!!! HAHAHA YES!!!! I LOVE MUSIC I LOVE SONGS!!!!!
I naturally have a whole Loner Phase playlist >:] Reaper by No Vacation was the first song other than the very obvious Loner Phase that inspired me to write about Sho's childhood. It's such a soft and haunting melody. The line, "Do I smell fear, the scents that you hold dear? Could that be me, fighting so beautifully?" rangs to me as the kind of thoughts that might have run through a tiny Sho's head-here able to see the UG-who felt abstractly powerless in his life and so idealized the easy-seeming violence of the Reaper's Game.
I also really really love How Do You Talk To A Star? by Everybody's Worried About Owen for Sho's dynamic with Kariya. He's really his only friend, the only person who can possibly understand him. He idolizes him as everything he wants to be, while Kariya understands himself as nothing he wants this little kid to emulate. He tries to lead him in the right direction, in his own way...but that usually involves being distant, apparently disinterested, and harsh, and inadvertantly pushes Sho closer to the UG. They are doomed brothers to me <3
Also, PIN-EYE by Jhariah is generally a Sho song to me, but it fits best with Loner Phase bc of Sho's chronic illness, and how that connects to the ways he self-destructs by pushing his body faaaar beyond its limits.
18. how do you want your writing to feel to your readers?
With Loner Phase specifically my main goal is to have people say "Ooooh THAT'S why he's like this/does this/says this!" It's pretty canon-divergent in how it delves into his backstory, but follows the events of twewy/ntwewy pretty faithfully, and once we get to them I want to have established a Sho that feels real enough and true enough to his canon self that his actions and beliefs connect clearly to what you've seen him go through during his childhood. For example, him choosing to mentor the Wicked Twisters comes from how Kariya mentored HIM when he was Rindo's age, and their relationship is a direct parallel to how both Sho AND Kariya failed to break the cycle of violence, and are now getting a second chance.
