On Mon, 28 Jun 1999, Travis Butler wrote:

On 6/23/99 at 1:43 AM, rpm@thekeep.org (Rod M) wrote:

half-familiar, like it's something I should know.

Bailesu:  It's a new song from...I can't remember the guy's exact name.
Used to be in a band called 'Take This', and his first album in the US is
called 'The Ego has Landed'.  Robbie Benson?  No that doesn't sound quite
right.

  For a moment, Misato stared at the empty piano
chair, mental gears grinding.  She had that _feeling_, like
something in the universe was trying to tell her of grander
things, or something like that.

  Nah.

Frito: Ya think that ain't gonna come back ta haunt 'er?

Windir: In a competently-plotted story, one might certainly expect so;
do remember Chekov's dictum. To be sure, given both the nature of the

Bailesu:  The nuclear wessels are in Alameda?

  Namura-sensei whistled merrily as he walked through
the library, thumbing through the many volumes. 

Windir: Is this, perhaps, the homeroom teacher of Shinji's class? I
admit, the name is familiar, but the mental image of that older and
rather stultifying personage 'whistling merrily' is --

Frito: Yeah, yah, it's bloody 'incongruous', now can't ya say it so's us
regular folk can understand it? Like, ain't no way a dried-up old stick
like that is gonna walk along whistlin'?

Lyra: Well, John and Rod have already dragged in cameos from other anime
series; he probably isn't the teacher from Eva. Sure wish I could
remember where he's from, though.

Bailesu:  He's not the withered old man of the homeroom, though even old
men can whistle merrily.  Think Marmalade Boy. :)

 

  Romeo and Juliet had been done far too many times,
even though it was a classic.  Shakespeare in general was
becoming a bit overexposed, he thought.

Frito: Hah! Overexposed? Ya ain't seen Shakespeare overexposed 'till
you've been to da Bazooka's version a' Tamin' of the Shrew...

Bailesu:  Iya.
 

  Shinji listened.  It was probably just a silly
story, but after seeing Mu, he had to admit there might be
some truth to it.  "Does he have any pictures of the city?" 

Windir: Hmmm, yes. One might have wondered why, given the fact that
these documents apparently do exist in the world of the story, our
Children have not made connections between said publically-available
material and their prior exploits; it is gratifying to see such a
connection finally drawn.

Because NERV has done its best to keep such publically-available material
not publically available in the little hermetic world of Tokyo-3.
Unfortunately, there'sa  few serpents in their garden.

Lyra: In other words... <grins> No, this isn't going to turn into Attack
of the Mutant Ninja Sex-Kittens From NERV, Frito.

Frito: Waaah! Why ain't it gonna? I mean, he's da guy who wrote Lemon
Sherbet, and *he's* da guy who created Ryo Muhoshin... I mean, what more
could ya ask for! <Pouts> You guys ain't no fun. When we gonna get more
blood 'n guts?

Bailesu:  He won't let me kill Ritsuko, either.  Sigh. :)

Frito: Brother, get yer butt outa there! When some lady starts wantin'
ta 'understand' ya, she's got somethin' on her mind -- if you ain't gone
you're gonna be wearin' dem leg chains before too long!

Bailesu:  Maybe Shinji likes chains :)

 

  Misato looked up at her boss, stunned.  "S-sir?"

  "There are to be no survivors," said Gendo calmly.

Lyra: <Shudder> Just when I think he can't get any more ruthless...

Frito: Dis Gendo is a real cold fish. Yah, yah, I know, so's da real
one, but dis guy really takes da cream puff.

Gendo:  Those who play for high stakes have to be ruthless.

  "It's not your fault," said Makoto.  "We're in a
war, there's going to be casualties."

  "Yeah, I know," said Misato, not sounding any
happier. "I know."

  "At least," said Maya, "it didn't end like the last
mission."

  Aoba shuddered.  "Orange goo."

Windir: It is interesting to see this look at NERV and its missions,
outside of the activities of the Evas and their pilots. The original
series concentrated on fighting Angels with Evas, which is
understandable given that Angels were the major threats and could only
be defeated with Evas; this variant of the war apparently has a much
broader scale, and can be fought on many levels; given this, it is

Bailesu:  Exactly. The Angels were solitary threats; these Angels are not.

  She quietly hung up and drifted away from the phone. 
There were no tears until she was safely hidden in her room.

Lyra: All right, so *this* is contrived...

Frito: Huh?

Windir: One must admit that it was a remarkably convenient event, having
the woman utter such an incriminating phrase just at the moment when
Asuka would be most disillusioned...

Bailesu:  The woman knew who he was talking to and did that deliberately
because she was irritated with him, as shown later.
 

It stirred him from his
homework when he couldn't take it anymore.  Cheering others
up was something that was entirely alien to Shinji, but he
guessed that some upbeat music would perk her up.
Unfortunately, he didn't HAVE any cheery CDs. 

Frito: Cheery DAT's, I think ya mean; he don't have a CD player. Might
be a Minidisc player, but I think it's a DAT.

Bailesu:  d'oh

 > > 

  "That's AWFUL!  If it's someone just toying with
you, I'll...I'll make them regret it."  Her voice was grim
for a moment.  "Toying with people is just WRONG.  If Kaji's
been just toying with me..."  she growled. 

Lyra: Hmmm. Just angry about being toyed with in general, or being
protective of Shinji for other reasons?

Windir: Surely it is obvious that she holds romantic feelings for him?
Note the gradual softening of her attitude towards him, her increasingly
frequent protective impulses --

Bailesu:  I could tell you, but Asuka would kill me :)

TO:  AgentX42@Users.Mizunonet.Net

Windir: <groaning> So, now Ami has her own internet provider?

Lyra: Huh?

Windir: Examine the domain. 'Mizunonet'? As in Ami Mizuno, Sailor
Mercury?

Bailesu:  In 2012, she gained enough power to have Bill Gates executed.
And there was much rejoicing. :)

  Sae Tamagotchi shook her pretty little orange haired
head.  "Why of course, Namura-Sensei!  I'd be happy to get
you some coffee!"  She bounced off the stage as if fetching
and carrying made her happier than anything else in the
universe.

Windir: And so, we see the return of our incompetent cultists, borrowed
from that refuge for whining incompetents, Maho Tsukai Tai -- 

Lyra: <innocent look> I thought that was Sailor Moon?

Windir: Ahem. Surely our intrepid authors could have picked someone who
could actually produce a certain atmosphere of menace, as opposed to a
set of inept magic users in costumes with a fictitious southwestern
flavor.

Bailesu:  I suppose we could have used Snickers :)

Windir: <raised eyebrow> I was under the impression that you liked
horror, depraved person that you are.

Frito: Bite me, Windy.

Windir: In any event, there are places where the phrasing could be more
felicitous; in particular, the repetition of 'herself' is rather
redundant.

Lyra: Anyway, I thought she was the one with dream-control training?

Bailesu:  The problem with training is that if one panics, training goes
out the window. 
 

  What Shinji had to do next was to portray anger;
this wasn't his specialty.  He summoned up all his memories
of people yelling at him and tried to imitate it.  "You have
come into my kingdom!" he said loudly, pointing a finger at
Kensuke.  He took a step closer, remembering the time one of
his foster parents had yelled at him for stealing a bike,
when really he had just found it.  He still had moments of
bitterness about that, and now it welled up.  "You have
turned my people against each other!" 

Lyra: Interesting technique. 

Windir: But does it work?

Bailesu:  It's what my high school drama teacher taught us to do.

  Megumi Kunzama strolled through the streets of
Tokyo-3, hoping to catch some inspiration.

  After a nice start in Tokyo-3, things were slowing
down to a painful degree for the ambitious reporter.

Windir: This was another disappointment. Although we do see our reporter
briefly at the play, the authors spend an inordinate amount of time with
her viewpoint for the rather brief payoff we get during the play.

Lyra: And showing the advertising banner for the play, and the first
foreshadowing of the Sigil isn't enough?

Bailesu:  That was the major goal.

captive Cherubim had been in a coma, or a reasonable
facsimile.  Now it was awake, and moving about, though
sluggishly.  Its flesh had stopped turning grey and was
beginning to regain its color.  And as it paced, it hummed,
a deep throbbing beat, mixed with occasional cries that
sounded joyful. 

Windir: And another voice joins the chorus. Truly, we are on a voyage to
the spirit of the damned, it would appear.

Bailesu:  Yep.

Lyra: I just thought of another reason to cast someone whose personality
fits the part. Suppose you're trying to get them to live the part.
Remember Kensuke and Shinji?

Bailesu:  Amen.

  "We invited it in," Misato said, finishing her
search, then slapping herself.  "I'll just...oh dammit, she
won't be carrying her phone!" 

Windir: Eh? This makes little sense. If shouting at her fails to bring
her to herself, how would a cellular phone call?

Bailesu: Can't use the 'Make the Phone beep' trick to find her.

  Shinji took her shoulders and turned her to face
him.  "Rei, everyone's under some kind of mind control! 
There's an Angel attack going on!"

  "Lenilda foretold this.  We must aid Uoht. You will
need her."  She started to turn again. 

Frito: Wow. She actually ain't wantin' ta kill her now?

Bailesu:  Cassilda has no dislike for Uoht, unlike Rei and Asuka.

  Before he could reply, she was gone, streaking
across the backstage, from dead stop to lightning bolt
instantly.  The shadowy figure simply awaited her onslaught. 
Leaving a trail of icy footprints behind, she charged right
into him.  But there was nothing there, and she passed
through him as if he had never been.

Lyra: <uncertainly> Icy footprints? I'm not sure I like the sound of
that...

Bailesu:  You are what you eat.

 

  They could hear the play continuing, as characters
came and went, and a new plot took shape.  Asuka glanced
out, and some people from the audience had come onto the
stage and were taking on roles.  The crowd itself was in
full riot, a wild orgy of violence and sex, though they
didn't have any drugs to work with.

  This had better not go on my permanent record, she
thought.

Windir: Asuka's permanent record?

Lyra: It's supposed to be Misato, ne?

Windir: Indeed, one might suspect so, but the pronoun's antecedent is
'Asuka'; the authors need to use Misato's name if that is who is
intended.

It's Asuka.  

  Not everyone was affected; some of its denizens had
a quiet night in front of the TV set, watching Nick
Hatchett: Robot Hunter, or ESPN3, or a rented movie.  But
those were the lucky ones, who had not gazed upon the Yellow
Sign and fallen under its sway.  For those who had, the
night was full of terror and ecstasy, for their lord and
master was coming, with none to bar his way. 

  The Carnivale of the King had begun. 

Lyra: Hooboy. <covers eyes>

Windir: Yes. But... 'Nick Hatchett: Robot Hunter'? <blinks>

Bailesu:  A joke so inside that only I can get it.  Nick Hatchett was a
call of Cthulhu character in an RPG campaign I ran.  
 

  It had begun to sing at the very moment when the
play had started, though she hadn't realized it at the time. 
Like a reverse mining canary, she thought.  A very ugly one. 

Lyra: *reverse* mining canary? 

Bailesu:  A mining canary signals poisonous gas is present by dropping
dead and ceasing to sing.  This is a reverse mining canary, which signals
by beginning to sing.
 

  Misato looked around the shop.  There was some metal
working equipment in one corner, which had been dragged in
when they'd been making the prop swords a few days ago, and
not moved back to the regular shop yet.  In fact, there was
another door, one TO the other shop, which she hadn't
noticed before, and felt like an idiot for not seeing.  

Windir: And in what manner is this significant? If this is important,
the authors should note why, by specifying (for example) that there is
an exit from that room to the outside.

It means there's another way out.

smiled darkly as she pressed the sign to his flesh, ripping
off his mask.  For just a moment, Shinji expected her to
announce he was old Mr. Crowley who ran the carnival.  But
only Kensuke's face was revealed, and she said, "Uoht was
right.  We should have killed you the second you arrived." 

Frito: Damn straight. Even if it means agreeing with her.

Lyra: Not sure where the 'old Mr. Crowley' came from... yes, I know,
Alistair and co., but it still breaks up the flow a little. <shudders>
Not that that's necessarily a *bad* thing...

Bailesu:  That would have been the Scooby Doo ending :)  Every monster was
actually someone in a rubber mask.  

Windir: Ah, yes, and the Gendo arrogance raises its ugly head again.

Lyra: Though he's got a point; that kind of arrogance comes with the
territory. Wonderfully ironic that Mr. I-Can-Handle-It is the one making
it, too.

Bailesu:  Given his success rate, he has some reason to be arrogant.
 

  Neil smiled as he sat down at the piano.  "Everyone
thinks they're writing their own ending, but usually they're
just playing the role given them by someone else.  And those
who break the script are usually punished by those who stick
to it."  

Frito: Um, ya think ya can be any more obscure? I mean, Windy's bad
enough, but this is right up with the classics.

Neil:  I'll work on being more obscure, just for you.

 >He stretched his
fingers, then said to the

audience, "This one is for a friend of mine who's fallen on
hard times.  The wheel of fortune has turned unexpectedly,
and he has fallen from grace."  He smiled, flashing perfect
white teeth, then began to sing as he played. 

Lyra: Maybe I'm just tired, but I can't figure out if he's glad or
sorry.

Bailesu:  Neither can he :)
 

  And the piano player smiled, for in the city of the
blind, the one eyed man is king. 

Frito: Um... say WHAT?

Bailesu:  Never heard of that saying?
 

Frito: I dunno. It's good, so I don't really wanna give up on it... but
it's so creepy that I don't always feel good after readin' it.

Bailesu:  We've got more creepiness to come :)


John Biles
Emperor of all He Surveys
http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html

PLEASE!  NO TRACTOR-TRAILERS!
--When I saw this sign in the Shoney's parking lot, I knew I had entered
the Deep South.