On Fri, 15 Jan 1999, Nightman wrote:
Part 3
"Cherubim"
What an odd name for a part.
I lacked a better idea.
The train plunged for a moment into a tunnel,
Wait ... isn't a train going into a tunnel usually ascribed as a sexual
thing? Oh wait, this is Shinji. I guess sometimes a train is just a
train. ;)
I prefer to not psychoanalyze Shinji when I can help it.
Talking.
Smiling.
Laughing.
Who? both of them? It's unclear...
Yes. Both.
If something had been watching from the sky, it would
have seen an abnormal number of brooms upon the front porch
odd ... not sure what the point of the brooms was ... from cleaning up
inside maybe?
That would be telling. :)
Think about what happens later.
of the house, the beat up Toyota Corolla that was likely the
oldest functional car in Japan with no value to a collector,
the plain black van, and the Shinohara Motors SUV-5, whose
Patlabor in-joke?
Yep.
Whistles blew and words were chanted in a clearing
in the forest near a 'abandoned' old house (or near a SUV-5
which had bashed into a tree, if you prefer that landmark),
Seems a trifle awkward way to refer to this place considering how
smoothly it was cut to before -- did you guys each write a different
scene involving the house? They should match better.
No, I wrote both. But the first scene has gone through about a billion
revisions now...
under the stars. It was a call, a summons which was ancient
when men still thought that banging rocks together to make
flint blades was the greatest invention of all. The
whistling had been a bit trickier then, though.
The stars shone down serenely, slowly moving in
their courses across the heavens, unshrouded by a single
cloud. Aldebaraan hung low in the sky, and Fomalhaut could
Aldeberaan, where Hastur rests; Fomalhaut, the star Master Pharoah 90,
er, I mean Cthuga, hangs out near...(actually I heard Cthuga bought a
condo in Tau Ceti...)
Heh.
trying to chant in unison and failing, another one kept
blowing a silver whistle as if his life depended on it, and
the fifth one was trying to surreptitiously do her nails
while holding a book for the first three. This wasn't
working so well.
I'd almost suspect this woman of being the "romance novelist" from
earlier, but SHE seemed more competent.
I plead the fifth.
Misato frowned. Maybe I should have done the
laundry, she thought. Math had never been her strong point.
Especially since she was pretty sure she already had a haiku
she'd written in high school about beer that she could have
scribbled down.
And her "logic" here is what? She should have sent Shinji to the
laundromat with the math and kept the haiku? Actually didn't she say
she'd do ALL the homework if he did ALL the laundry?
That she should have done the laundry instead of volunteering to do the
homework. She doesn't know Shinji is working on the poems at the
laundromat.
squawking. More wasted beer. She tensed and readied her
gun. They would be framed in the doorway. She could see the
They? Oh, you're trying to be gender neutral aren't you ... Just use he.
Wouldn't she assume her assailant was more likely to be a he? Wouldn't
the size of the shadow hint that? Or REALLY confuse people and use te
and ter (yes, they're real words.)
She's expecting more than one to come into sight, since she hears several
of them in the apartment.
Then it stepped into the doorway. It was naked and
bipedal, with a black chitinous hide run through with
streaks of grey and blue. On a few places, ice clung to its
wings and its limbs, and there was a faint sheen of moisture
all over it. It had two arms, with ended in thick three
pronged claws, and two legs which it stood upon shakily, its
legs bent unnaturally. Its black leather wings were folded
in somewhat, compacted to allow it passage down the narrow
hallway.
Darn! Now, is this supposed to be a Mi-go, the fungi from Yuggoth
(usually assumed to be Pluto) which I remember as being like giant
grasshoppers, or a Night Gaunt, which I remember as being bat-winged? In
Lovecraft's mythology, as I understand it, Mi-go are allies to the Old
Ones but night gaunts serve Nodens, the only Elder (space) God ever
named in the Mythos. Cthulhu and the Old Ones were supposedly banished
from Earth to another plane by the Elder Gods. (That's why the "elder
sign" can repell the Old Ones like a cross to a vampire. There are
*opposed* alien forces at work.)
That would be telling. :)
Anyway, if they ARE night gaunts that are attacking, and you are aware
of the distinction between Elder Gods and Old Ones, it implies to me
that Nerv is actually aligned with the Old Ones and some cult is trying
to shut them down. If you're using a different or simplified take on the
mythos, which you're certainly entitled to do because, it is after all,
YOUR STORY ... well, then I have no idea what's really going on. (It's
still good & weird tho! ^_^)
One of your guesses is correct, but I won't say which one :)
It looked into the room and sniffed. She tried to
shoot, but her fingers wouldn't move. Her brain felt
Shouldn't she be experiencing flight-or-fight response? If it has a
paralyzing fear power, well, it's not clear.
That would be telling. :)
Shinji had concluded he would never become a poetry
teacher. "It has a nature reference because it does.
Is he trying to say that the haiku calls for a nature reference or that
the third line of it IS a nature reference and its good subject matter?
Haiku typically make some reference to nature.
much happened until Rei straightened most of the way up and
shoved also from above instead of below. The whole row of
dryers, a huge contraption of ten linked machines, stacked
in two rows of five, toppled over onto the creature, which
gave out a great howl.
That is NOT normal human strength.
Nope.
apartment forever," she said. "And how I'm going to
replace everything they broke...I don't know."
She doesn't have renter's insurance?
Only a maniac would insure anything in Tokyo-3.
"For lack of a better name, we're designating them
as 'Cherubim'," Ritsuko said. "They are like Angels, but
Seems like a very odd name choice, considering that Cherubs are one of
the higher-ranked choirs of angels. Sure, the image of cherubs as little
valentine cupids is prevalent, but the people behind the scenes SURELY
know enough about Kaballa to not think that way. You could at least use
an alternate spelling, such as Kerubim, to distance them from the
winged-baby image.
Ritsuko is not a master of the Kaballa, nor particularly a genius of
Angelology. :)
"Our scouts indicate he has not yet awakened, though
he stirs. And when he does...it will be a long swim from
where he slumbers. Although I would not wish to be living
in Toronto this year," Gendo said, walking towards the door.
"This would be much easier if we could simply order him
transferred to a secure facility, but..."
He huh? Interesting! If I watched EVA I would probably know what this is
referring to.
Actually, it's a reference to one of Lovecraft's more obscure stories.
John Walter Biles : MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu
rhea@tass.org http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/
If it has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that
was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the
Marring be amended, Manwe and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it,
and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos.
--Final Line of The Silmarillion