[GFS Exchange Fic] What You Want, Baby, I Got It by ellydash for dapplefur

[gfs_exchange]

Title: What You Want, Baby, I Got It
Author: ellydash
Written For: dapplefur
Prompt: all's fair in love and war
Pairing: Rachel/Mercedes
Rating/Warnings: PG
Spoilers: Takes place between 2x12 (Silly Love Songs) and 2x17 (A Night of Neglect).
Summary: No one ever said being friends with Rachel Berry would be easy.

Comments

[ellydash]

Oh, thank you so much! ♥ Rachel/Mercedes is fascinating to me - I love their dynamic; there's just so much there with the two of them.

[biruuu]

This is just brilliant. So much great insight into Mercedes and Rachel and Mercedes and Rachel.

One of my favorite things is the way you highlighted Mercedes' conflict between genuinely liking Rachel as a person and understanding where she's coming from on one hand:

She's weirdly touched, despite the bizarreness of the compliment. It's real praise, filtered through the filtered Rachel Berry worldview.

It's like her volume's permanently turned up high. Rachel lives her life like every minute's opening night and the New York Times' theater critic is hiding somewhere just out of view, taking careful notes. The more time she spends with her, though, the more Mercedes understands that Rachel can't help herself. It's just the way she's wired.

and getting frustrated at how easily Rachel always manages to somehow end up getting what she wants on the other (the part where she's jealous about Rachel having such a good time at her party because being liked is her thing. I can totally see Mercedes thinking that

[ellydash]

Oh, my lord, ♥_♥ over this comment, seriously. The things that stood out for you were really the things that defined Mercedes for me in writing this, especially the inner struggle between her confidence and insecurity, so it makes me really, really happy to hear that they worked. Thank you so much, bb. ♥

[snoopypez]

jdfhkdlg;ls LOVE. I love this pairing and I love your writing and I love basically everything that exists right now. <3333

[ellydash]

Well, I love your comment and I love your feedback in general, so <3333333.

[themillersson]

Oh wow. I have no words for how awesome this is (except that's kind of a lie, so please bear with the oncoming babble

[ellydash]

("Bear with," like it's a chore to read such a generous and detailed comment! ♥ ♥ ♥)

I'm so happy the TMOLM scene worked well for you - writing those group interactions is such a challenge, in terms of getting the rhythm across, so that's especially flattering. Basically everything you pointed out here was something I felt strongly about getting across, so, I mean, just, thank you for all of this. A huge amount.

(and lol, if I really made ANON make sense then I feel incredibly accomplished and maybe like I should put that on my CV or something.)

[lennoxave]

Oh, fine, JUST BREAK MY HEART, WHY DON'T YOU?!?!?

Seriously, so lovely. As always, your characterizations are completely spot on in a way that doesn't just make sense for the characters but tells us even more about them, and the little bits of the rest of the Glee kids were great. (Santana. Santana Lopez and her sensible shoes. I would now like to read some Mercedes/Santana, please.) Also, you managed to connect the totally disparate plot lines in like five different episodes! Which is damned impressive. :D

AND! In one sentence, you basically summed up why I get all flail-y about Mercedes/Rachel: Her grip's surprisingly strong, a little too much, but Mercedes can take it.

Awesome job, lady.

[ellydash]

Thank you so much, bb - I'm so pleased you enjoyed this! And happy that one sentence stuck out for you - I agree, that's what I love about this pairing - that Rachel is just too much, most of the time, but Mercedes is more than strong enough to take her on.

(I'm totally going to write Mercedes/Santana at some point - that ship is flawless.)