Like Integration.

The thing about the DWCG era, I think, that makes fic set then completely unlike fic set, say 'after ITF' or 'after saving omi' or 'after TAT' is that it is before. Most fic, even full AUs/ARs, are based on what happens before the fic happens, but not DWCG.

We start with the conclusion, and try to find how that conclusion was reached. It can almost be triangulated - we have the conclusion that was explained through three seasons of canon, and we have the conclusion from the second half of TAT2. (That's twice as many conclusions as most fandoms have!)

It's sort of like calculus. Normally fic is like Differentiation - easy and straightforward, though sometimes you have to use the Chain Rule - but writing DWCG era is more like Integration by Recognition. You have to try and see what, when you differentiate(/follow on from) it, would bring you back to what you've got in canon.

*should probably sleep*



Edit: Ta for the love on Well Together! Hee, WuyaGuan...