Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any related aspects, which belong to their respective owners. No money made.

Summary: Duet partners of a certain violinist are murdered after their first performances. The BAU are asked to help find the killer.

Rating: M

Warnings: Violence, sexual themes, yaoi, language

[Criminal Minds] The Essentials [Hotch/Reid, Reid/OMC, OMC/OMC]

Coda [a tail; i.e., a closing section appended to a movement .]

photobucketcom/the-essentials

It needs a dot between "photobucket" and "com"

The password is "essential"

Sorry for crappy quality.

68luvcarter, Reidemption, and ZeroPanda sent in some questions for me (at my request) regarding the writing of The Essentials. I paraphrased and shortened questions, to an extent (sorry about that) and treated the questions like an interview, so take a look if you have the time~

Feel free to ask me anything about The Essentials; I'll post the answers best as I can in this chapter ASAP. Wai Li, Mei Xing, and Liu will help me, I'm sure.

Wai Li: So be it. [nods]

Mei Xing: Alright, that is fine.

Liu: I brought the beer.

meifl0wer: I brought the stun gun.

Liu: Okay, okay. Point taken.

"How long have you been a writer?"

Fanfic-wise, my first published fic came out May 2008 on deviantartcom. I didn't really consider myself a fanfic writer until about a year later, when I made my fanfictionnet account.

"Who inspired you to write?"

Many fanfictionnet authors, and all the readers who ever read and/or reviewed any of my fics as they were being written.

"What inspired you to write "The Essentials?""

I was transfixed by the writing of the Criminal Minds episodes and wanted to write a fanfic that would capture the same feeling. TE was also an experiment in which I tried lots of fanfiction devices I'd never used before… like OCs. I was inspired by a desire to write something for this fandom that I could be proud of.

"Where did the idea to link the chapters with music come from?"

I used the musical terms as a focal point, to focus the ideas that I presented in the story. I also wrote them as a remnant of how my original drafts had way more emphasis on Wai Li's musical career.

"What is your favorite/least favorite scene?"

Favorite scene… Wai Li and Mei Xing making up and having a domestic moment in the last chapter, A Due. In case anyone was wondering, it's because that scene is the first time Wai Li and Mei Xing interact directly in the story, believe it or not. Least favorite is all the scenes where I described the murders. I didn't give those scenes any life (HAHAHA)… but no, really, they were written in a really boring way. :C

Wai Li: The scene in which I showcased my abilities and was described as "beautiful" early in my introduction to the story appealed to me very much.

Mei Xing: Older Brother, I believe the size of your head is increasing.

"Do you have plans for another Criminal Minds story?"

I will definitely write more for this fandom, but I'm pretty dry on ideas for something of TE's length and intensity. I'm certainly considering writing another fic similar to TE though in the future; maybe even a sequel? Haha~

"Are you pleased with the outcome of your story?"

Yes.

"What about your OCs? Did you know from the very beginning who they were going to be?"

Nope. Originally, the siblings were twins, and really early on, they were both male. Wai Li was always a violinist, but originally Mei Xing (when first created) was a pianist as well… not sure why, can't remember. Liu didn't come into the world until waaaaayyy later. I knew Johnson would exist from the start, keeping with the Criminal Minds tradition (usually a cop-of-the-episode fills in the BAU about the case.) I didn't make him a "villain" until much later though. Roberts came shortly after Johnson, and was always meant to be "a bad guy." I tried for the most part to be a minimalist with the OCs, each one serving several roles. I didn't want to overpower the reader with a crapload of original characters, especially for my first OC-inclusive fic.

"I'm interested in knowing… maybe more about the character Liu. He kind of fascinates me with how dark he is... I want to know where he stems from, what mind-set you get into to write him, etc."

Whoo boy. Let me say this first of all: Liu was the one character I had the least and most control over throughout the writing of this fic. That sounds weird, but it's true. He came into the story as a last-minute addition who filled in the role I'd realized I needed after scrapping old ideas: the antagonist. Once he came, I couldn't get rid of him, though. From my point of view, writing Liu was largely like this:

meifl0wer: Liu. I need you to rape Wai Li and rough up Mei Xing in these coming chapters. Also, you need to reveal a little more of your crazy when the BAU finds you. Can you do that?

Liu: Can I do it my way?

meifl0wer: What's "your way?"

And I would wake up the morning after posting the chapter feeling awkward because Liu would do all this stuff I didn't realize could actually come out of my head, like skipping through the hallways, sticking his fingers into Mei Xing, and using the f-word multiple times along with most of the profanity in the fic.

Even more crazily, I kept that stuff in the story.

I like Liu too, because I think he is a well-made original character. But to write him, I had to submit to the idea that whatever role I wanted him to serve in the story, his pre-established personality I had in my mind for him would do its own thing.

Liu: I'm a bundle of joy, aren't I? I practically write myself! Isn't that right, miss authoress?

meifl0wer: Please get out of my lap.

"And your comics! Drawings, whatever. I… would love to know if that's something you normally do after stories or if it was a one-time thing?"

This was my first time drawing an end-comic; I felt as though that was the best way for me to give the characters a proper send-off… I'm more comfortable with drawing than writing; see my profile page for my deviantart for case in point…

Mei Xing: Is this what is called "self-advertising"?

Wai Li: Have I mentioned, Little Sister, that my most recent compilation of concerto music has just recently been released to the public?

"How many times did you revise each chapter before you posted?"

Many, many times. More than twenty times, for some chapters. It seemed like fighting a hydra; every time I found and corrected a grammar or spelling mistake, more sprang up in its place the next time I read the chapter over. The first chapter was revised I think at least thirty times. Yeah.

Cupcakes or muffins...?

Wai Li: Muffins.

Mei Xing: Cupcakes.

Liu: Pot brownies.

meifl0wer: [slaps forehead]

Liu: Ow!

Did you see from the very beginning where this story was going? I saw a lot of the things you changed in the revision process, but was there anything else that you cut out or altered that you didn't mention in the little comic?

I knew where I wanted the story to go: a happy ending. However, my attempts to get there were very skewed along the way. I had lots of ideas that were scrapped throughout the writing process, many of them because I thought it would be difficult to write a happy ending for the scenario. For example, Wai Li was originally the elder of two incestual twins. He was also a narcissist, and a closet homosexual… I feel like I've said this before. Hmm. The first big twist was supposed to be that the twins were incestual, the second, that the younger twin was the murderer of the other musicians. I actually still like the idea of writing that for another CM story… ah, whatever. Other discarded ideas… the younger twin was originally going to try to kill Reid after Reid was getting "too close" to the older. Hotch was supposed to have a big hero moment and save Reid, and that was the point in the story where the murderer was supposed to be revealed. Also, something I thought I'd keep to the end was a scene near the beginning where the first big twist, the incest, would be revealed and Reid and Hotch would walk in on the twins. Then, later in the story, after the arrest of the younger twin, Wai Li would walk in on Reid and Hotch and remark on how far they'd come before the story would end.

But like I said, this in all didn't really contribute to the idea of a happy ending. So, I tweaked the siblings a lot. Most of the other things did not change much…?

Mei Xing: Thank you for your time.

Wai Li: We hope you'll return for an encore performance perhaps, someday.

Liu: Right. Take care~

meifl0wer: That sounds very disturbing coming from you.

This was fun! Please feel free to ask any questions of me and thank you very much for reading~!

P.S.

For fun, I decided to take the Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test for the three Asian characters.

Wai Li tested as a Mary Sue... er, Gary Stu. I'm not surprised, seeing that he's a young, semi-famous concert violinist who ran away from home and is the love interest of the antagonist.

Mei Xing tested as not a Mary Sue. She had too few Sue-ish traits, I think. I hope she wasn't too dull, though. :C

Liu tested as an Anti-Sue. Pffft