On Tue, 20 Jun 2000, Matthew Campbell wrote:
Rhea Seraph wrote:
"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.
Yep.
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?
New Winter Fresh LCL! Ask for it by name!
"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.
Yep. Calling on the Outer Gods has its consequences.
"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.
Not today, anyway.
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.
She isn't dead. But the psychological shock was too much for her, and
thus she's in the coma.
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.
Yep.
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.
The hair.
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.
Heh.
"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.....
Yep.
"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.
Quite.
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.
Doh again!
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.
She's shown up before in this tale, just not by this name :)
Sigh. You guys _are_ going to release a set of annotations after you've
finished CoaEG, right?
Yep.
"You're right, Jimmy. One heck of a
replacement."
JIMMY: Now, if I could just get some actual human beings to work for me.
MAKOTO: But the inhuman ones have such lovely voices.
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.
Yep.
"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?
Pretty much. And wanting to avoid a panic-inspiring leak.
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.
The truth will come out, although a few things only have the answer of
'Lovecraft put being X in place Y because he felt like it, and we keep his
arrangements'.
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.
By serving the stars, you connect yourself to something that does matter.
But yes, it does reflect the screwiness of cultists.
"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!
We'll be seeing her starting in 20, if my memory serves me correctly.
"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.
Heh.
"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.
Exactly.
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.
Yep.
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.
Yep.
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.)
Gendo dreams very, very large.
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.
Yep.
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?
Yep.
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!
Hehe. :)
"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?
He's not absolutely certain he's making the right decision here. He
believes it's necessary, but there's the possibility of it getting Shinji
killed, and he doesn't want that.
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.
Thanks!
"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
Yep. He's just used to being annoyed with her :)
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.)
Yep.
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.
I've seen someone actually try to do that.
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.)
Intentional.
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.
Someone's brain will likely be eaten in 18, but it's not Maya's.
"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.
You'll get to see who Gendo is visiting in the next chapter.
This was a good chapter. Looking forward to more as we move into the
endgame. (Just hope explantions are eventually in order.)
They are.
John Biles
Emperor of all He Surveys
http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
"Snap out of it, Misty. Only one of us can hallucinate at a time."
"Don't worry, Brock. There's lots of other girls who can reject you too."
--Ash Ketchum, Pokemon