Rhea Seraph wrote:
-*-
John Biles & Rod M. Present
A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds
Children of an Elder God
Part 17
The Second Sun
The elevator descended into the depths of NERV,
its four passengers looking down below. Clad in their
"down below" seems redundant
"You DO know that my Unit02 is the first
PRODUCTION model, while Shinji and Rei's are the
prototypes, don't you?" she added haughtily.
The secrets of the eldritch horrors lurking beyond time and space are
top classification.... Eva production specs less so.
"Black and blue, your Eva is one big bruise,"
quipped Asuka. Touji, however, was too eager to give
his Eva a test spin to pay any more attention to her.
"Yo! Mission control!" he yelled to the
observation room jutting out from of the walls. "Got
the keys? I wanna take this bad boy for a spin!"
You really have to admire Touji's enthusiasm. It's one of the things
that makes him such a likeable character.
A moment later, all four Evangelion plugs
emerged, the four pilots departing to their assigned
machines. Touji hesitated at his, staring down at the
black noxious goo known as LCL.
"Shit, I forgot about this part."
Couldn't they give it some peppermint flavoring or something?
//"Let's proceed, Mr. Suzuhara."//
"Hey, can I, like, bring some air freshener or
something next time?"
What he said.
Meanwhile, Touji had suddenly realized
something.
//"Hey, Misato-san, when can I wrap this up?"//
//"You want out already?"// asked Misato,
amused. //"You were so eager to start, what's the
problem?"//
//"I, er, just remembered a previous
engagement, y'know?"//
Heh. And people claim this part has less humor!
"Touji, could you put the flowers over there?"
asked Hikari, pointing to the bedside table.
He nodded, and set them down, but hesitated as
he looked at them. The flowers seemed kind of wilted,
though they seemed fine when she gave them to him.
Maybe he just didn't notice? Whatever, it wasn't
important.
Yeah, just one of the little indicators that the being an Eva pilot is
already taking its toll.
"Hi, Mika-chan," Hikari said softly. "We just
came to visit, Touji and me."
"So... get well soon, okay? We'll be praying
for you."
Though hopefully not by method of cutting out human hearts on top of
ancient sacrificial altars.
*beep* -hiss-
While Hikari looked with sadness at her
stricken classmate, Touji's face was the very
expression of shock, his eyes wide, his color pale.
He'd seen Mika before, without a doubt.
Yeah, in school.
In the Dreamlands, he'd seen her.
Her decapitated head, frozen in a horrified
expression.
I thought being killed in the Dreamlands couldn't kill you in real life.
"Touji?"
Rei had killed her, she'd killed her, their
classmate, and there wasn't a thing he could do about
it. What proof did he have? What could he say?
TOUJI: Shinji, tell Rei to stop killing people!
SHINJI: Awww, but she seems to enjoy it so much.
He couldn't say anything if he wanted to.
Commander Ikari made it clear he'd have to stay out of
it.
And NERV had his sister.
I suspect that (at least until DAGON comes online) the pilots are in
better bargining positions than the Commander is letting on. As is very
wise of him, of course.
Shinji looked up from doing homework when a
feminine shadow loomed over him. "Yes?" he asked.
A feminine shadow? I guess Misato sort of edged up sideways to give her
shadow a profile shot.
Shinji nodded, got up and went to his room,
grabbing the cards from the pile of stuff which he
wanted to keep but didn't know how to best organize.
Coming back out, he sat down at the table again and
spread them out nervously. I wish I didn't have Misato
staring at me so eagerly while I do this, he thought.
MISATO: Your love life is one of the few entertainments available. It's
sad, really.
"Father ordered her back to the base the day of
the dance, right as she came to talk to me," he said,
staring at the essay on the products of Venezuela and
the last of the secret admirer cards, which contained
Earlier he was working on "equations", not an essay.
Usually, it was easy for him to forget that.
Indeed, some days it was hard to remember Misato wasn't
his big sister or aunt or mother or older cousin or
something, instead of his boss at NERV. He felt closer
to her than he'd ever felt to any of his blood
relatives, except for a few rare moments with his
father and faded memories of his mother. But now he
felt acutely aware of her status as his boss and his
father's assistant.
Which just means she's even more aware of how creepy Gendo can be.
"I tried talking to her at school, but she
just...It was like talking to a wall," Shinji said.
Or talking to someone who has been trapped behind a wall.....
Misato looked at him, started to speak, then
fell silent. For a few seconds, her usual grin
vanished and she looked much more serious than usual.
"No. I'll see what I can find out if anything, Shinji.
But your father doesn't answer to me; I have to answer
to him, so I don't know if I'll be able to get you any
useful information. I'm sorry."
You know, I don't think we ever actually see her trying to dig up
information about Rei. On other things, yes, but not Rei. Guess she's
assigned it an insufficiently high priority.
Touji was at the door when he opened it. "Yo,
Shinji, it's hoop time." He began dribbling the
basketball he was carrying for emphasis.
SHINJI: Don't you have other friends to play with?
TOUJI: Hey, I'm a celebrity now. I can't play with the riff-raff.
"I need to finish my homework," Shinji said.
"Homework can wait, but once the sun goes down,
we can't play. C'mon, man, you can do it later."
SHINJI: You're right. I mean, the end of the world is coming up. Am I
really going to be wishing I'd spent more time on my homework? Look at
the amount of time I spend on it this chapter alone, when I could be
blowing it off and playing video games!
"You really suck at this, y'know?"
Shinji would've said something, but he was busy
wheezing and getting his breath back. Seeing his
friend in such sad shape, Touji decided to ease up for
a moment.
Shinji's occasional bursts of superhuman physicality come and go, and
right now they're gone.
The two sat on the nearby benches, Shinji
electing to lay down while Touji sat up and performed
various spinning and balancing tricks with the
basketball.
TOUJI: I ask you, what's going to keep me from a pro career?
SHINJI: About a foot of height.
Shinji, having recovered somewhat, sat up and
faced his friend. "Hey, Touji?"
"Whasa?"
"What do you think happened to Rei?"
"I mean... she's so... she's so cold now, like
she was the first time I met her."
"From a certain point'a view, she's just back
to normal, yeah?"
"I... I guess."
Ah Touji, great well of wisdom. At least the kinder gentler Rei cut
back on the gruesome murders!
"So, then he finally kissed me. I was starting
to wonder if it would ever happen." Hikari rambled on
while Asuka tried to focus on her math homework instead
of on hearing poppycock about how Touji was the
manliest man who ever was a man, or whatever it was
that Hikari was talking about. While Asuka knew it was
her duty to support Hikari, she really wished Hikari
would date someone who wasn't pond scum.
She just sees too much of herself in Touji.
Hikari sighed. "Touji will never be much of a
dancer."
He certainly seems well-coordinated enough. I suspect somebody just
needs to give him a few lessons.
Misato stuck her head in the door. "So, should
I be moving you and Shinji into the same room, Asuka?"
she asked teasingly.
Ninja-Misato strikes again! They have to start putting bells on her
clothes or something.
"We're doing well, Katsuragi-san. How are you
and Kaji-san?"
"Things are GREAT!" Misato crowed. "Now I
just have to get Ritsuko laid and the world will be a
perfect place."
"..." Hikari stared in shock.
I guess most adults she knows are a little less forthcoming.
Asuka was not so shocked. "With who?
Makoto?"
"Hey, great idea! He could use a girlfriend.
Although I tried to hook her up in college with a guy
like that; it was a total disaster." She shook her
head. "I've never seen a man cry after a date."
"Cry? Did she slap him or something?" Asuka
asked.
"He never would tell me the whole story, but I
managed to pry a few bits away from him. He took her
to a seafood restaurant, even though I told him not to
do that. She fell asleep during the movie he took her
to. And finally, he took her down to the beach
and...something happened. I'm not sure what. But for
the rest of the time I knew him, every time you said
'frog', he would just run away screaming. I dunno what
she did to him, but he wouldn't even come within fifty
feet of her any more." Misato shrugged. "I guess
I think the reader can just about fill in the blank spots here.
Metal hinges groaned and squealed as the
bulkhead-esque door of Rei Ayanami's apartment swung
open. Standing in the doorway was its sole occupant,
They wanted something she wouldn't accidentally rip off its hinges.
With the lights still off, the only
illumination available was the faint light pushing
through the curtains and the dimly glowing crimson of
her eyes as they swept through the contents of the
room.
She was designed that way so she'd be easy to find in a blackout!
On the bed was an assortment of stuffed toys,
among them superdeformed versions of herself, Asuka and
Shinji. Her attention was focused on those odd little
figures for a moment, then turned elsewhere.
TOUJI: Man, arrive in the program late and get cut out of everything!
Reflections of what used to be, muddled in her
mind's eye by the ever-present flickering of red
sigils.
On the floor was a dusty rag, unused for a
while and due for some cleaning. She looked at it a
moment, blinking once, then bent down to reach it. In
slow, small circles, she began to clean the floor.
The rag is due for cleaning, so she starts wiping the floor with it.
Yeah, there're a few short-circuits here.
She smiled warmly to the crowd, looking about
the room, while another person quietly took position at
the piano bench. Makoto wasn't sure, but he thought
she winked at him.
"Wow, who's that?"
"She's a looker, ain't she?" asked Pat. "Lyn
H. Taparote. Just came in from Miami, she says."
Now see, I know that's some clever reference, but it's totally passed me
by.
Sigh. You guys _are_ going to release a set of annotations after you've
finished CoaEG, right?
"You're right, Jimmy. One heck of a
replacement."
JIMMY: Now, if I could just get some actual human beings to work for me.
"I think she's gonna try to do Elvis in acid
jazz style tomorrow night."
The King in Blue Suede Shoes will come back and smite her for that.
He sat down near the edge and Misato plopped
down next to him. A cool breeze played across them as
the sun worked on vanishing behind the mountains to the
west. "Our first hint of winter," he said.
"Winter won't come for a few months," Misato
said, wrapping her left arm about his right and holding
his hand. "We're not even into fall yet. It's just a
summer breeze."
KAJI: I was thinking more of the "winter of human civilization" sense.
MISATO: Oh.
"So do I," Misato said. "But we have no way to
find out unless we can capture and interrogate one.
The King in Yellow wasn't much help in that regard."
"I think NERV already has," Kaji said. "The
question is where they keep it."
Misato frowned. "Poke your nose where it
doesn't belong and it'll get cut off."
MISATO: As Chief of Security, I might have to be the one to do the
cutting, too.
"I think Ritsuko knows more than we do, but I'm
not sure how to winkle it away from her." He stared
off across the city, tapping the fingers of his left
hand on his left leg.
>From their meeting near the end, I guess it was just a matter of
everybody offering to lay their cards on the table.
Now Asuka felt like she was going to die.
"Well, I was just wondering...if Alars ever decided
which of you he was going to marry."
Uoht blinked, then sighed. "He STILL can't
make up his mind. I've half a mind to just pound him
flat one of these days."
Asuka's head thumped on the table.
Of course. The Kingdom reflects the Waking World, after all, not the
other way around.
"Good," Gendo said. "I will approach the
Peruvian government and prepare our cover story.
Akagi-san, we'll need some high energy experts." He
pushed his glasses back up his nose.
I have to wonder what's wrong with simply approaching the Peruvain
government with the truth. Lying simply become too habitual?
Fuyutsuki departed, but before Misato could
follow him out, Ritsuko caught her by the sleeve.
"Hold on a second."
"Okay."
"Did you get the feeling they know more than
they're telling?"
"I always get that feeling. Sometimes I wonder
if they rehearse these briefings," Misato said.
MISATO: For that matter, I think there are a few things you aren't
telling me. Like what the deal with Rei is....
On an impulse, she plotted out all the Angel
attack sites, trying to see if they traced out some
sort of pattern, but they didn't, except for the fact
that only one of them had been in the Southern
hemisphere. Three in North America. Two in Tokyo- 3,
plus a third which had been in North America but had
been brought to Tokyo-3.
Why not Europe or Africa or the rest of Asia,
she asked herself. It could be that the ones in Europe
were simply taking longer to wake up for some reason,
and the same for Africa. She shook her head. I just
don't have enough data.
Are these questions ever going to be answered? As the fic goes on, I'm
growing ever more skeptical that there will be some long scene in #22
where everybody sits down and we get ten pages of explanation for what's
actually going on and why.
truth. You don't matter. None of us matter. Only the
stars matter, and those who serve the stars will share
in their power and wisdom. They slumber now, but soon
I just can't quite bridge the gap between "none of us matter" and "those
who serve the stars will share their power and wisdom". I guess you
have to be a bit screwy to be a cultist.
"Sure, I can take care of PenPen again," Hikari
said. Turning, she saw Shinji clumsily lugging a heavy
As if Pen-Pen needs someone to take care of him. Just leave some money
for the supermarket and a door key, and he'll be fine.
"So when is your friend from Germany supposed
to get here?" Hikari asked Asuka.
"Anna's supposed to arrive in a month," Asuka
said, stretching and listening to her joints pop. "I
can hardly wait!"
Well, neither can I. Be interesting to see how she fits into all this.
My prediction? She's evil to the bone!
"I'm afraid I haven't memorized every city on
Earth," Hikari said with just a tiny touch of
irritation. Brightening again, she said, "Anyway, good
bye, and I don't envy you the amount of homework you're
going to have when you get back."
"Ugh, don't remind me," Shinji said.
SHINJI: Now see, this is why being kept in the dark is so annoying. If
only my Dad would explain that in a few months we're either going to be
dead or gods on earth, I could blow off all this homework.
GENDO: What makes you think you get to be a god on earth?
SHINJI: You wouldn't cut out your own son, would you?
Shinji turned to Rei. "Hey, Rei, wanna join
us?"
The First Child, sitting by the window, did not
reply. Instead, she merely stared out into the sea,
silently.
"Um, Rei?"
Still no reply.
Curiously, it wasn't that her programming was forcing her to ignore
him. It was just that her ears hadn't popped yet and she couldn't hear
so good.
"But this person... s... er... seems serious,
really serious."
"So, Maya finally spoke up?"
Ritsuko stared at Misato, aghast.
"You knew?!"
"Weeeell, we kinda guessed, we didn't know for
sure."
"_We_?"
RITSUKO: There wasn't some kind of office pool, was there?
Ritsuko blinked in confusion. "What?"
Misato's discomfort was apparent. "Are you
a... y'know..." She waved her hands about vaguely,
for effect, it seemed. "You a lesbian?"
I think the hand motions are mandatory.
Ritsuko looked at Misato dryly. "I wasn't
exactly spending my life pondering my sexual
orientation. It's always been about my work and my
career... and other things."
RITSUKO: Like not turning into a nonhuman monstrosity. But I'll save
that little bombshell for later.
A shadow fell across the table he was sitting
at. "I'm not done yet, Touji," he said without looking
up.
"I must admit no one has ever mistaken me for
Suzuhara-kun," Gendo said.
Of course not, Touji is coordinated.
Gendo nodded. "The Incans were a magnificent
people before they were destroyed. Still, it shows
what a few determined people can do. Francisco Pizzaro
had only a few hundred men, but with them, he brought
down an empire of millions. He didn't even have a
prophecy working in his favor, the way Cortes did."
"God-kings have the advantage of great
authority, but if you pull down the god, the society
becomes like a headless chicken--all body and no brain.
Not that chickens have much brains to start with. And
god-kings foolish enough to buy their own propaganda
start thinking they are invincible, and then usually
learn the truth too late."
I get the feeling Gendo is trying to tell his son about more than Incas
here. It's actually a very neat scene, seeing him try to impart some
Truths to his son, but unwilling to be direct and not speak in metaphor.
Maybe the closest he actually can come to explaining himself.
"So what IS she?" Shinji demanded. He stood
up and stared into his father's eyes. For a moment, he
felt dizzy, as if they were vast abysses into which he
was plunging head first, but he grabbed onto the table
and steadied himself. The feeling passed, and now they
were a wall instead of an abyss. A wall he could feel
give slightly as he pushed against it with his anger.
"Tell me! WHAT IS GOING ON?"
His father's eyes widened slightly, and a
single bead of sweat ran down his brow. "You would not
understand if I told you. It is best that you not
know, for the knowledge would break you in the telling
of it." He stood up, took off his glasses, and
This was a very intense scene. Cracks are appearing in Gendo's armour,
and I wonder if just for a moment he _wanted_ to tell Shinji something
of the truth.
polished them with a handkerchief. Putting them back
on, he said, "You can stay and fight, not asking me
questions I won't answer, or you can leave Tokyo-3 and
go live with another foster family and you still won't
find out. Those are your choices." His voice was
cold, but Shinji could hear it wobble ever so slightly.
The advantage of being the boss's son is that anyone else's choices
would have been stay and shut up or be shot.
You know, I feel a certain amount of sympathy for Gendo. He's playing
for very high stakes indeed, and you can see why he feels like secrecy
is imperative. I think he's making a mistake in holding quite as many
cards to his chest as he is, though. When crunch time comes, it may be
necessary that they understand more and there'll be simply no _time_ to
explain.
Actually, the most I've liked Gendo so far was a chapter ago in #16. He
and Fuyutsuki were talking about Ritsuko's "health problems", and they
honestly seemed to feel an obligation to help her. Not just because she
was of use to them, but because they owed it to her.
This suggests to me that if their plans for "the Day of Return" go over
as they hope, the people on their side aren't just going to get tossed
on the trash heap. They plan to see that Ritsuko, and presumably Misato
and the rest of NERV (including the Children?) get rewarded once it's
all over. (Whatever that means for the world.)
Just that fact makes me view Gendo and Fuyutsuki in a more sympathetic
light, no matter how ruthless they are at the moment.
Shinji stared at him angrily. He couldn't bear
to leave his friends, not now. And he would never find
out the truth if he left either. If you've hurt her,
Father, I WILL find some way to get even with you, he
thought. "I'll stay," he said, trying to match his
father's coldness.
Not that Gendo could have afforded to let him leave for real.
Shinji sagged down into his chair. Dammit, I
blew it, he thought. Now Father's mad at me and I
still don't know what happened to Rei. There has to be
something I can do to...to undo what he did to her.
But why? Why did he do it?
I suspect that a heavy emotional appeal by Shinji could do some damage
to what they've done to her. But he's not quite ready to go on his
knees and tell Rei how much he loves her, so that's out.
He sighed and went back to his homework, so
preoccupied he didn't notice the dents in the table
where his fingers had gripped it.
Yes, Gendo had a definite attack of nerves in that scene.
Perhaps there was some cosmological cycle with
certain forces arising that mutated old species to
create new ones and woke the Angels to clear out those
of the old who were no longer fit. Once the wave of
energy or whatever it was passed, the Angels would sink
back into slumber, and the new species would go on to
thrive. Perhaps Second Impact had simply been a marker
for the start of the process, a natural disaster
triggered by the shift in cosmic forces.
No comment on all this except to say that it's interesting.
doing the same thing. There was a wind, and blue hair
streaked past Misato to Shinji's side. The chill
around Touji faded away.
Rei embraced Shinji, and light erupted from her
flesh, driving the fires off him. They burned blue and
then went out. She still held him as Misato arrived by
their side, quickly followed by Ritsuko.
I guess that conditioning didn't make her into a total robot. Then
again, what would be the point in blocking out protective instincts
towards Shinji?
Ritsuko scrambled in and tossed Misato the
keys. "Let's get going."
"What about Commander Ikari?" Asuka asked.
"He can get his own damn van," Misato said,
revving the engine. "I told him this press conference
was a stupid idea. Anyway, he can take the other van.
My job is to keep all of you safe." She frowned. "As
possible."
Misato and Ritsuko, actually acting like friends and teammates for
once. Could this alliance threaten Gendo's iron grip? Tune in next
time to find out!
"He MUST go," Gendo said. "We will need him."
Misato narrowed her eyes. "He won't be any
use."
"He has experience, and they cannot hurt him
further in his EVA. And the LCL will help him heal
more quickly." For a moment, Misato saw his eyes
flicker with just a hint of nervousness, and then his
usual calm returned.
I wonder why the nervousness?
I'm just going to skip any specific comments on the battle, except to
say it was very well done. The sheer scale of destruction and loss of
life blanced well against the earlier smaller losses of character we had
actually gotten to know. They hit you in two different ways.
"I am VERY displeased with all of you," Gendo
snapped out.
The Children, seated around one of the
Scimitar's briefing room tables, all winced slightly,
even Rei. The force of his voice had felt like a
physical slap. Shinji, who was wrapped in enough
bandages to do a good mummy impersonation, winced the
most, then winced again when the act of wincing caused
more pain.
"Because you failed to obey orders, Uriel ended
up destroying most of the city, and we had to destroy
the rest to stop him. Two million dead. Nine hundred
thousand injured, and many of them may die. Six
hundred thousand got out relatively unhurt. We had to
pollute the off-shore waters of Peru, and if Peru had
any nuclear weapons, they'd probably be dropping them
on Tokyo-3 right now to show their displeasure. What
were you THINKING?" he bellowed, leaning across the
table.
You know, Asuka didn't do anything wrong. She obeyed orders. Shinji at
least has the excuse of being hopped up on drugs, and after all the
screwing around that has been done to Rei's mind, yelling at her is
pointless. Which I suppose leaves only Touji to shoulder the blame, but
he gets slack for it being his first battle.
Which, I suppose, makes Gendo's rant pretty much pointless. Other than
to let him blow off steam. Yet more human showing through. (And I
still think Asuka is getting a raw deal for being lumped in with the
others.)
Asuka had intended not to answer, but she found
herself pinned to her seat by his gaze, unable to lie
or even to be evasive in the face of it. "Kensuke had
made some notes before he died, and I've read a few
books."
"Ahh yes, the deranged ramblings of a man being
slowly possessed by an alien entity that seeks to
corrupt and destroy mankind. Of course you can trust
them to guide you to some accurate understanding of
what's going on," Gendo said with contempt in his
voice. "Would you like me to send you some transcripts
of interviews with inmates at the Osaka Asylum too?"
GENDO: And, er, by the way..... Could I get copies of Kensuke's notes?
You never know.
"But we won..." Touji said faintly.
"If you hadn't stopped him, I'd be putting a
gun in your mouth and blowing off your head, boy,"
Which understand, is not a threat but Gendo being nice and not forcing
him to live through a Day of Return gone wrong.
She stared at the beer balefully. There was
only one thing left to do, use the force to get the
beer. "C'mon, if that moron Luke can do this, anyone
can," she mumbled.
Laughing out loud. Her and Slient Bob. This was maybe the funniest bit
in the whole chapter. A little pathetic, but funny.
Thus, she was still gesturing towards the open
cooler when Ritsuko came in. Ritsuko smelled her
before she saw her, and Ritsuko's eyes narrowed
slightly. "What are you doing?"
"Getting wasted off my ass," Misato said.
"But the damn Force won't bring me another beer."
Ritsuko walked over and shut the cooler,
putting it on top of the refrigerator and more
importantly out of Misato's reach. She kneeled down
next to Misato, frowning. "It's not the beer you're
looking for."
"This isn't the beer you're looking for. Move along now." (I can't
figure out whether that was an intentional continuation of the SW
reference, or just a coincidence of phrasing.)
She finally began to relax. "I'm going to
finish eating, and then I'd better go talk to Ritsuko,"
she said. "Tell her to give Maya a bonus for this
month."
"Commander Ikari already did. Raised her pay
too." He stepped back from her. "I guess I'd better
go work on my reports."
Gee, Maya is coming out the big winner lately. Guess it's just setting
her up before you have her brain eaten in Chapter 18.
Once she was gone, Kaji said, "Well, I call
this meeting to order." He banged the salt shaker down
on the table. "Now the first thing to do is to figure
out what we all actually know..."
It's frustrating to realize that I'm going to have to wait to get the
followup on all this. Is Ritsuko going to come clean with the Deep One
stuff? The things she knows about Rei? Is Kaji actually going to lay
his cards on the table? (And you know he has secrets.) Will this
meeting result in them putting enough facts together to figure out
what's going on? And do Gendo and Futuyusaki know about it, and what
will be their response if they do?
Many questions, and I hope we actually get to see the gang of five
(Misato, Kaji, Ritsuko, Maya, and Makoto) putting this stuff together.
The next day, Fuyutsuki greeted his superiour
with the expected bad news, "The Security Council is
howling for your head."
"I know," Gendo said. "The Peruvians want a
scapegoat, and we can't afford to give them the guilty
parties. Not while DAGON still isn't working."
Hmmm. Would he actually have given them Shinji?
"Going down to Sector 13?" Fuyutsuki asked.
"No," Gendo said. "I will see you tomorrow."
Fuyutsuki frowned, pursing his lips. He's
lying, Fuyutsuki thought. I suppose I shouldn't
begrudge him, we all need some vice. But... He shook
his head. It's a mockery, he thought. And sooner or
later, those who mock pay the price. Though given that
we're both involved in a much larger mockery, this
pales by comparison.
Yet more obscurities to tantalize and frustrate.
This was a good chapter. Looking forward to more as we move into the
endgame. (Just hope explantions are eventually in order.)
--
Matthew Campbell
E-mail:
mgcampb@clemson.edu
Willow: I implore you, Neisa, blessed goddess of chance and fortune,
heed my
call, send to me the heart I desire.
Xander: You know, magic at the poker table qualifies as cheating.
Willow: That wasn't magic. I was praying.
(from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER)