Why did I add a stint on Earth to the backstory of my first fic?

Good question, really.

I mean, this is a Displacement fic, I think. I may not be using the term right. But I didn't want to do that thing where a human being gets turned into something kind of weird in the transition. It seems to involve cons and cursed costume props a lot.

I've always had an inexplicable soft spot for the bellikos backstory, so I did not want to ditch that. I mean, if you turned a human into one of those things, they'd probably assume they got turned into some nightmare mannequin.

On the other hand if you dumped any kind of well-traveled and informed EverQuest creature into Equestria, I wouldn't really know how to write that. The EverQuest setting has so many divine realms, complete jack-ass deities, alternate timelines and invading parallel worlds that an adventurer might actually be kind of jaded about the world of ponies. Besides, MMO protagonists are all sociopaths without impulse control anyway. I'm not saying that can't be written well, I just wouldn't know how.

I guess I cheated, in a way. I took a non-protagonist creature because bellikos really have fairly little experience with all the nonsense that goes on outside their own realm, and then I added a stint on Earth because I needed the character to be aware that there are realms without gods like that. EverQuest deities are almost all complete jerks, going from there to Equestria would probably be a vacation. "Your sun god hasn't yet turned an entire nation into a vast desert out of pettiness? Wow!" Even Brell Serilis, allegedly the good side in that whole Underfoot conflict is a confirmed jerk, when the gods came together and agreed to each make a limited number of species he just kind of abandoned the already-created kobolds, walled them in underground, just so he could claim he was starting with zero species to his name like anyone else Also that whole situation in the Underfoot only spiraled as far out of control as it had because he's neglectful. He just hadn't noticed. Too busy tinkering in his forge.

But having spent time in a world where mortals aren't pawns in the dumb feuds of the gods was a useful backstory bit to help me shape the protagonist's personality.

But why did Landshark end up on an Earth that seems to have some kind of weird XCOM/SCP Foundation hybrid? I'm a huge nerd, and having my protagonist basically be conscripted into that sort of job means I can keep her as inept at functioning in civil society as she had to have been coming out of the Underfoot. Plus it's an explanation what a bellikos would even be doing on Earth. Can't exactly get a regular job.

I'm just rambling now, of course.