Meme: Ask me some questions; I'll tell you some ...

[nebroadwe]

I'm snagging a meme from lyricnonsense (who got it from cornerofmadness, who probably got it from someone who lived in the house that Jack built): "Ask me any question about any character you know I write, and I'll come up with an answer." As the Apostle of Backstory, I spend a lot of time considering the what the gaps between the details might add up to: what people do on their days off, who they meet when the camera isn't looking, what they trip over on their way out the door every morning. (You can find my collected works here, if you need to verify that I've actually written a particular character.)

Go on! Ask me! Ask me!

Comments

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

And why is Ed interested in learning such things when he seems so reluctant to form any lasting bonds with anyone on the other side of the Gate at this point in canon?

Mixed unconscious motivations: he doesn't want entanglements on this side of the Gate (for reasons ranging from self-protection to self-flagellation), but he's also lonely and does need the companionship he spends so much effort avoiding. And Alfons reminds him of Al (duh!), with all that implies (love and loss and doubt and hope and ...). So he reaches out to Alfons with one hand and pushes him away with the other. (I like to flatter myself that one of the things "Ubi Sunt Gaudia?" does well is show this push-pull through Ed's behavior without having to explicate it all that much with internal monologue. [buffs nails])