when I want to write fic I don't want to tell a story so much as say something about the characters. Even when my idea starts out as plot based, I write not because I want to see what happens, so much as I want want what happens to reveal who the characters are inside, and to affect that core.

This is very true for me as well (I'm horrible with plot). I think it goes with what you were saying about wish-fulfillment earlier on. I don't write fic for wish-fulfillment so much as I read fic for wishfullfillment, but I do write fic mainly to process canon; it's not about fixing it, but it is about analyzing it and processing it and making it make more sense to me. Sometimes I have to explain things to myself. I wish I could write just to play with the world. I wish I was good with plot and could just write stories, but it doesn't seem to work that way for me so much.

I love your last paragraph. I love that you see it that way. Oh, my show.