#I mean come on Angela and Gebura and Binah as mothers who won't love that?

[ahmedmootaz]

Good evening! As I was ubering to my house I had 2 questions that I think you'd be able to give good insight on.

If you had to kill a cast member in AiP (LC+LOR), who would it be and how would you execute it in your fic? I know we've had our close calls, but I do wonder how you'd handle having to get rid of a character, as I always find trouble on what to do with characters after they've had a journey.

What are some scrapped/ saved for other fics ideas you've had while creating in AiP?

Dear Anon,

Now that's quite the questions you've got there. I've given it a passing thought once or twice before, but now that you've asked, I've thought about it long and hard, so thank you for the fun thought exercise! Now, for the answers...

When it comes to a character I'd personally kill off, I'll be fully honest and admit that this probably comes back to my personal bias. I find it difficult to let go of characters which I like, so killing a member of the cast would probably need quite the strong and compelling narrative in order for me to follow-up such a task. In a way, the aftermath is the most important thing in such a scenario, not the death itself, as the interesting thing to read/analyse would be the reactions of those who have to grapple with the fact that someone they knew -and likely held dear- is no longer there. It's also a tough balance because I personally wouldn't want to always remind the readers about the passing of said character, but rather have the subtle yet permanent presence of their absence, if that makes any sense.

And with the AiP cast in particular, I'm not ashamed to say that I am quite attached to all of them, so choosing one to kill off is by no means an easy endeavour, but if I were forced to choose, I think I might cheat a little and go for X as my poor sacrificial lamb.

Now, the reasons for this choice are plentiful, seeing how X has a positive relationship with most of the cast, enjoys a long-enduring history with Ayin and Angela, and none of the Librarians think badly of him. By all means, I think that his absence can fulfil the sorts of reverberations in the plot that I think would justify his killing, where the knowledge of his absence is, in its own right, a silent presence that cannot be filled since he would be long gone.

As for how I'd go along with this idea, then I admit that I once entertained a little plot bunny about such a scenario. For me, I think that I'd either go for a sort of sacrificial death against a stronger foe, perhaps even the Distortion, during the inevitable re-confrontation with the City that Angela is planning, or I'd go with the hinted plot point of TMFoA where X has the ten year timer above him before his duration as a clone 'expires', as both situation offer a very interesting perspective to explore from the point of the view of X, someone who was mostly untouched by the vileness of the City thanks to his close presence to the Light and to the fact that his memory was constantly wiped, albeit imperfectly in my interpretation, which prevented him from succumbing to the City's cycle one way or another, even if it wasn't all that good for his health in the long run.

Regardless, what this presents us with is the first man "born" after the Light's release without any sort of lasting influence from the City beyond some ghostly sensations here and there, and thus in a sacrifice scenario, it would be a testament to humanity's lasting goodness in a way, seeing how even with so much to live for, X decided to give it all up for other people who likely wouldn't even know about him, not to mention if would be a good way to really harken how much the 'greater good' principles were drilled into him and offer an interesting monologue if such a scenario were to be written between X's desire to reject those notions that have chained him for millennia and his will to embrace them because he still wants to do the right thing despite how much the notion of 'the right thing' pained him.

And when it comes to the scenario of the 'slow withering' ending, if we were to call it that, it'd definitely be less climactic than the aforementioned potential sacrifice root, but it would also be very interesting to explore as a way of killing X off since there's always the chance of saving him one way or another during that decline, so it's almost guaranteed that he's the one who rejects being saved. It would present the dilemma of Angela's presumed immortality since it directly relates to her, seeing how a mere ten years was all it took for X to pass, and it would reverberate within her and cause a fear of losing the rest of the Librarians since she cannot age while they presumably do, and it would additionally put Tiphereth in the spotlight since she knows what it's like to have someone close to her who likely doesn't want to be saved, like how Enoch seemed so willing to 'shed his skin', as he put it. So this scenario would not only bring forth the immortality VS. letting life take its course arguments into the monologues and dialogues, but it would also relate to various characters involved, which would make the moment of the death the important part while the aftermath would be less critical to focus on in comparison because at that point, most would have come to terms with it since it was an expected and slow process for X.

And of course, by no means does this mean that I plan to kill off X anytime soon! I like him as much as everyone else, but it is very interesting to explore all of these options and analyse them if briefly, so once more, thank you for such a fun question!

2. Oh man, this is a good one. There are plenty of scenarios I've had in mind about other characters taking up the roles of the Trio of Idiocy as sorts of spin-offs that I thought about exploring at some point, such as a 'Adventures in Motherhood!' side-show with Angela, Gebura and Binah at the foray of the parenting experience instead of Ayin, X and Roland.

But when it comes to unimplemented ideas in AiP itself...I thought about adding a scene where Ayin and Roland make a little makeshift grave for Angela (and...Roland's child, since I assume that Argalia made sure that was also part of her puppet...) as a sort of apology to Roland for everything that has happened directly or indirectly thanks to him, however, I felt that such a scene didn't particularly work for AiP's atmosphere and would be better left for a more specific post-AiP extras segment or event one-shots detailing various events around the Library. I've also canned various different ideas for the "Slices of Life" Chapters, such as a more detailed cooking adventure with the kids, some more focus on X and his girls' history lessons, and I've thought about giving Gabriel some focus in a Chapter somehow, but I just didn't find anything that worked, so I tried compensating for that by involving him more than some of the others in the Sweeper Saga.

I've got to admit that I've had plenty of inspiration for other 'Fics while writing AiP, like exploring what-could-have-beens in certain spoilery situations, exploring more AUs like the 'Adventures in Motherhood' ones, etc...

Of course, if you want any detailed information or something of the sort, I would be happy to provide, but I don't want to bloat this answer too much otherwise.

Once again, thank you so very much for the interesting ask! I always like thought exercises like this, and I do hope that the responses pleased you! Until next time, stay safe, be well, and see ya'!