Procrastination results in memes...

[alinaandalion]

Idea taken from errant_evermore, who borrowed it from telaryn and mizzy2k respectively.  :)

Pick any passage of 500 words or less from any fanfic I’ve written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you the equivalent of a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what’s going on in the

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[alinaandalion]

The reason I wrote this was because I was trying to move Parker and Eliot into an actual pairing together, and I needed someone outside of the two of them to help.

It felt logical that Sophie would eventually figure out that Parker loved Eliot, and she would want to try to keep everything from falling apart.

Parker sighed and let her blonde hair fall into her face. "I liked Eliot, but Hardison liked me. And, I liked Hardison, too. I thought these feelings would…go away, but they haven't. I don't know what to do because I don't know how I feel. Why can't you just tell me?"

I've always operated in canon, and when I started this fic, it was pretty obvious that Parker and Hardison were on the verge of being a couple in the actual show. So I needed to establish why in this fic, where Eliot loved Parker and Parker realized she felt the same for him, Parker would be with Hardison to begin with.

And, I also had to think about how Parker would react to this sort of situation. This isn't Grey's Anatomy. The characters don't constantly swap romantic partners, and especially since this is Parker, she wouldn't know what to do, and she would ask Sophie to help her.

Sophie started for the door, but Parker's timid voice stopped her. "I don't want to hurt him."

"It's going to hurt, no matter what you do."

I had dropped everyone into an emotionally messy situation where someone had to be the loser, and I was acutely aware at the time that this wouldn't end easily. Hardison wouldn't just stand aside for Parker and Eliot to be together; and because all three of them are so close, of course this will hurt if any of them loses the other.

This was the first time I had ever tackled Eliot/Parker, and it wasn't an easy process for me to write it. Not only did I have to set up a conflict, I had to provide reasonable cause for Parker and Eliot to have these feelings for each other while still keeping them in character.

Which is how I arrived at the idea of using Tara as a catalyst for Parker. In Season Three of the show, what led to Parker telling Hardison she was having feelings for him was her jealousy over Ashley. I felt that the same principle would apply here. Which is how I ended up with the B plot of Sophie/Tara versus Nate/Sophie since in my head!canon, Sophie and Tara have a friends-with-benefits relationship that wouldn't go over well with Nate.

This scene takes place after what I would call the climax of the story, so that makes this scene the beginning of the resolution of the conflict. I don't think this was actually intentional, but this scene also works on a level for Sophie, who in turn later makes the decision to completely choose Nate. It's not as pronounced, and if I had done it on purpose, there would be something else layered in to suggest it.