Phil was the more action-oriented writer and I was the character guy at this point, so I had first draft of these first dozen pages. But I was also the let’s-move-this-along guy, and after ten pages, I felt like I was starting to run out of conflicts to explore without getting this quest underway.

So I mined that for comedy by having Syr’Nj basically argue herself onto an action footing. All Gravedust has to do in this scene is ad-lib and be himself.

Of course, this is Syr’Nj, so even her wheel-spinning would be good for an afternoon class in philosophy. My late father-in-law was a believer in zero population growth as an ethical imperative, and not long ago, AOC brought up the fact that others felt as he did. My stance is that global population is due for a correction overall, so I see declining birthrates as more a necessary adaptation for our species than something to worry about. But if you’re a good person, you can do us all a favor by making another good person, or more than one if you can manage it. And if that seems contradictory, so be it. A complicated world sometimes requires thoughts more textured than tweets.