I think I may have been quite influenced by some of my early fandoms - particularly Stargate SG1 and Buffy and Angel, several of which dealt with a lot of really dark themes. I once read a huge epic Stargate fic where Daniel was taken prisoner and locked in solitary confinement for so long that he had a complete mental breakdown, and the fic was really, really long but I just couldn't stop reading it because it was so good. Those fandoms were full of dark, angst-ridden fics about rape and torture and general maimage of characters and stuff like that. Possibly explains a lot of what I write now. Meep!