Good afternoon, everyone,
Well, I've been promising this for a while, so here you all go. The
first two segments of _Ascent of the Fallen_, rewritten at last. From
this point forward, I'm going to try and do one part a week, usually
posting them on Wednesdays (can't do it on Monday 'cause I'll be
reading the newest HL chapter from Strike). Of course, they'll also be
available on my website, along with the old version. You can read them
at http://members.tripod.com/Sage_Ohlmin/evafic.htm
This week, I'm posting the Foreword and Prologue to _Ascent_. They're
short, but the rest of the story will have longer parts. The Foreword
is a couple of author's notes and the copyright dance, so I figure
you'll skip it. It has to be posted anyway. The Prologue is actually
plot, so you should definitely read it. Have fun!
NEON GENESIS EVANGELION:
ASCENT OF THE FALLEN
By Sparky Clarkson
Foreword
*******
I suppose you'll skip this part--most people do. Those who don't do
that always complain about the author's putting this section before
the story, instead of at the end where it can be more conveniently
ignored. But the beginning is the natural place to put these notes,
because these feelings came about before the story. So if you've read
these sentences I'd like to invite you to read a few more before you
begin my little novella. I promise it won't hurt too much.
Everyone has a reason for writing fanfiction. Some writers just want
to expand the series that they loved. Others hope to live vicariously
in the experiences of the show's characters (hence self-insert fics).
I decided to write the story you will shortly (I hope) begin reading
because I had something to say. Some of the feelings stirred in me by
the GAINAX production _Neon Genesis Evangelion_ wanted expression, and
the universe of Eva was the perfect place to express them.
That's not all, of course. I wanted some of those other reasons, too.
I found myself profoundly dissatisfied by the ending of the series and
by the movies. The television finale did not serve the plot of the
series well, and the movie did the same to the themes and characters.
Sadly, neither one could repair the deficiencies of the other. I
believed that something more, something better could be done. So I
wrote. This is what came out, starting from a single image I had of
Shinji standing between Gendo and Kaoru. To say more about that image
would ruin your surprise later on, but I think you'll know when you
see it.
This story also expresses some of my beliefs about story writing in
general. I've tried to emulate the methods of the old masters of
science fiction, back when it and fantasy were really interesting.
These days, speculative fiction (SF, Fantasy, Horror) has developed a
tendency to produce ridiculously huge, unfocused books and series. I
wanted to take things back to the way they were, if only for one
story. I hoped, with _Ascent_, to recapture the feel of those old sci-
fi serials that used to be in magazines. You'd read each one, and then
you couldn't wait until the next month for the following installment.
I hope you enjoy the experience, and I hope it has tightened my
writing style.
On a final note, I must admit with regret that the characters,
technology, and society depicted in this story are not my own
invention. They are the intellectual property of Anno Hideaki and
GAINAX Films, Inc., and are here used without license. I offer this
story as free entertainment to fans of the series, and host it without
profit to myself. The plot of this story is my intellectual property.
I offer unlimited rights to distribute and store this work in
electronic form, provided that no alterations are made to the text
beyond those required for formatting. Any profit made from the knowing
distribution, storage, or display of this story must be remitted in
full to GAINAX Films, Inc. as a licensing fee.
That's all from me. Please enjoy the story as it comes out.
--Sparky
*******
Prologue:
"I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart
out..."
(Ezekiel 11:19)
*******
The white marble disk that formed the floor of the room felt warm to
the nude boy kneeling at its center. His pale skin, a match for the
color of the stone beneath him, did not recoil from the living rock
as it might have from the cold blaze of steel. The boy had bowed his
head, his unruly grey hair hiding his red eyes from view.
Nonetheless, he sensed every aspect of the room around him.
Evenly spaced around the perimeter of the white disk, hovering
between the stone circle and the glowing grey mist that lay beyond
it, floated 10 monoliths. Most of them also glowed, each suffused
with an inner illumination. All of the simple rectangular prisms were
formed of different materials, yet each had something in common with
its neighbors--an underlying similarity, beyond a likeness of shape,
that unified the disparate emanations.
Ahead of him and to his right was a glass monolith, all but invisible
compared to the others. It alone did not glow, yet something about it
nonetheless drew the boy's eye. To the right of it floated a series
of seven smaller, glowing monoliths, each formed of a different
material: gold, moonstone, silver, onyx, ruby, aquamarine, and
emerald. Each was twice as tall as the boy, and three times as broad.
After that was a slightly larger monolith of diamond, glowing
somewhat more brightly than the seven.
Directly in front of the boy floated the largest monolith,
constructed of sapphire. However, neither the boy nor anyone else who
might have been in the room could bear to look directly at it. No
brighter than any of the others, it was nonetheless greater, as if
the radiance pouring from it encompassed the entire spectrum--
incomprehensible in its vastness. All the other lights in the circle
were but single tones to the symphony of its light. No being could
come to grips with such illumination, and so all bowed their heads in
deference to the inconceivable.
A voice emanated from the sapphire, saying, "You know that this
choice will change everything, do you not?" This indeed was a
symphony: the mellifluous tones seemed to be created by every single
particle of air, as if the universe itself spoke for the light in the
sapphire. The memory of the sound lingered long after it was gone,
like the last note of a sweetly tolling bell, inspiring an almost
painful longing to hear it again.
The boy bowed his head lower. "I know, Father. But truly, I have no
choice--no power over my heart," he said.
There was a rustling sound from the seven smallest monoliths in the
circle, but this stilled quickly when the voice again emanated from
the sapphire. "Do you then leave me, Tabris, as so many have before?
Have you chosen another to worship?" it asked.
Tabris shook his head. "Lâ ilâha ill Allâh," he replied, "I have not
chosen to worship another. I have decided to surrender my eternal
life for the one I love." A tear formed in his right eye.
Now a voice emanated from the diamond monolith. "I have seen his
heart," it said, its tones similar to those from the light in the
sapphire, but somehow more strident. "True love has guided him, not
base lust."
The supreme light did not reply that it knew this already--doing so
would only repeat the obvious. "Then, Tabris, I have reason to make
judgement," it announced.
Tabris bowed his head lower again. "I cast myself upon your mercy,"
he replied.
"As you have asked, so shall it be done. My plan continues. The day
of glory approaches. Let all know the consequences," the voice from
the sapphire monolith announced. "Go in my love, Tabris," it added
warmly.
"Thank you, Lord," the boy replied.
A chorus from the seven seats quickly drowned him out. "So let it be
written, so let it be done. Amen," chanted the choir of lights.
Beneath his breath, Tabris whispered, "It is my choice..."
And then he was gone.
*******
Next week's post will be Part One: "And now art thou cursed from the
earth..."
Sparky
*********
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."--Isaac Asimov
Access Sparky's fanfiction, links galore, and all kinds of heresy
at Heaven's Gate!
http://sage_ohlmin.tripod.com/evafic.htm
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