Ritsuko Akagi glanced worriedly at the iridescent screen of her mobile phone, chewing on one of her fingernails while she scanned her inbox for any replies from Major Katsuragi or Kaji. She hadn't seen either of them since the incident at her apartment, and she suspected that between the two of them, they'd more than likely pieced together enough of the puzzle pieces to start seeing the bigger picture that was secretly unfolding all around them. Thus far, nearly every single move Commander Ikari had made had been the right one; even during the worst and most perilous moments, it appeared Gendo had contingencies for every contingency imaginable. All but one. Dr. Akagi raised her head and gazed out over the labyrinthine sprawl of computer monitors and cables and to the treadmill where a young, raven-haired Japanese boy was running in place, at nearly full sprint, the wires fixing the electrodes to his chest bobbing rhythmically.
Asuka could scarcely remember a time when physical exercise had felt this good. As she sprinted along the rubber belt of the treadmill, she marveled at how much more sturdy and compact Shinji's body truly was than her own. She envied his natural stamina and physique, something the third child himself had never been interested in developing or really utilizing. She found herself able to move faster and with greater fortitude and vigor what with a male's anatomical muscle distribution at her disposal. And then there was the simple-yet-absolutely exquisite ability to be shirtless in a non-private environment without the frustratingly feminine shame and prurience that naturally ensued. The gentle breeze of the desk-sized fans aimed in her direction felt sublime against her bare, sweat-slicked skin. She opened her eyes, inhaled deeply, then hopped off the treadmill and trotted over to the conditioning room's punching bag, summarily proceeding to pummel and thrash the bag with more discipline and intent than it was structurally used to. The crossbeams above from which it hung groaned loudly as every inch of the bag's mass was roused from inertia by Asuka's strikes, straining the steel chain that bound it in place.
"How do you feel, Asuka?" Ritsuko called loudly over the echoes of unwrapped flesh colliding erratically with the synthetic fiber-weave sandbag.
"Feels… great!' the second child grunted between strikes. "Shinji's… a big idiot… doesn't even… know how much… strength… he's got to work with!"
"Maybe that's something you should tell him yourself, Asuka," the medical professional suggested. "I'm sure he'd like to hear that from you especially."
"Hah," the German sneered. "Shinji doesn't… care what I think… He doesn't really… care about… much of anything."
"What makes you say that?"
Asuka stopped striking the bag for a moment, steadying it with both of her hands. "Don't you think if he was even remotely interested in me or anything I had to say, he would have confessed something by now? I mean, given that I'm like… one of the only people he actually does hang out with on an even semi-regular basis."
Ritsuko glanced once more at her mobile phone, opening up an application whose shortcut read Misato Tracker Alpha 1.0.2, and slid her fingers along the touch-screen to enlarge the location around the blinking red dot. That old, practically-abandoned GEHIRN satellite was still triangulating on the tracking bug Ritsuko had secretly installed in her friend's cross amulet. According to the data, Misato was at her apartment, presumably with Shinji or Kaji or whomever. Ritsuko sank back into her computer chair breathing a heavy sigh of relief.
"You know, Asuka, Shinji isn't the kind of boy who is generally very open with his feelings. He communicates very differently than most boys you've probably interacted with in your past."
"How would you know that?" retorted the second child. "You might have the physical and psychological stats of a person burned into that eidetic memory of yours, but you don't understand anybody at all at the emotional level."
At that, the fake-blond winced visibly, betraying for a split second her true insecurities and vulnerabilities. The statement stung her deeply, wounding her even, because she knew that this assessment of her was the one shared by the majority of NERV personnel. It was a reputation of detached and frigid antisocialism which she herself had a hand in promoting. Self-isolation and apathy were requisite disciplines, she knew, for anyone who wished to last for long in the employ of NERV. Yet, they were disciplines at which she was a poor student, for she found herself routinely unable to deny the illogical and vexing obsession—and emotional dependence—she had developed for the senior Ikari. Each time she did his bidding, sent mere children to their deaths as frontline soldiers of a futile war, covered up illegal schemes and plots, serviced him sexually and tolerated the endless cycle of emotional and psychological abuse she routinely swallowed, she hated herself more and more. And there was nothing Ritsuko reveled in more than perpetuating the contemptuous hatred she felt toward herself and her submissive, depraved and parasitic personality.
"I know Shinji's mind because I know the mind of his father," the doctor said at last while the second child continued to test the physical limitations of her new body. "There certainly are many differences between the two of them, however you don't have to look too hard to see the similarities."
"Similarities?" Asuka wondered. "Between Shinji and his dad? Gendo's practically more machine than the EVAs themselves, and Shinji… well… Shinji's just… a weak kid, really."
"Is it necessarily wrong to be weak?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because when you're weak, others can easily take advantage of you." She slammed her foot into the punching bag with all her might. The chain creaked noisily. The heart-monitor displays began to show erratic activity as her pulse quickened.
"True," Dr. Akagi replied patiently, "but if nobody was weak, then how could anyone be strong? The truth is, Asuka, we live in a world that is hardly black and white. Sure we humans like to categorize everything as much as we can to keep track of things… so that we're comfortable with ourselves… and so that we know more easily who we want to do harm to. However everything is really just shades of gray. Even the strongest show the occasional moment of weakness, and the weakest are sometimes prone to fleeting moments of incredible strength and heroism. Look at yourself and how you've grown accustomed to Shinji's body—that's proof enough that everybody's got masculine and feminine characteristics. And there's nothing inherently bad or good about either. Good and evil, Asuka, right and wrong, strong and weak—all of that comes into play later, defined through our actions, and through our choices and how we wish to represent our souls to others. You have the gift of strength, and you have been granted the unimaginably rare opportunity to use that strength to protect others who are weak. This is the challenge you were selected for… the challenge you were born for. You might find that if you opened up to Shinji, you may find that you not only complementary as pilots, but that you are complementary as individuals too. And when individuals complement each other, they grow stronger together. As a pair. A unit. A couple."
Asuka's cheeks burned with a bright, salmon-colored hue. "You… you don't know what you're talking about," she blurted, then went back to hitting the bag.
As the second child buried her fists into the compressed fiber-sand blend, she attempted to force the disconcertingly intuitive observations of Dr. Akagi out of her conscious thoughts. Shinji was just a stupid boy who didn't know what he had and didn't care about anything or anyone.
Thud. Thud. Thud. She struck the bag over and over with all the force available for muster. Ritsuko observed the whirlwind of emotions easily read in Asuka's troubled demeanor.
"Moreover," the doctor continued. "You don't choose who to love. Your soul does. And you can always tell when that connection is being made because at those moments, our A.T. fields—the walls around our souls—are weakest."
"I'm not weak."
"Perhaps the reason why Shinji Ikari seems so weak to you is because he is filled with nothing but love and admiration for you."
"Baka!" Asuka shrieked, feeling her brow line and nose tingle with the onset of tears.
And then every light in the room—the computer monitors, the lamps, the glowing wires, the holographic displays—everything except Ritsuko's mobile phone—flickered, and went dead.
Five minutes until the evacuation of the Western district can be completed, the alarms sounded over the NERV intercommunication system. The emergency backup generators had been summoned immediately to life after Tokyo-3's main power grid had suddenly experienced an inexplicable and nearly catastrophic overload to their breakers. NERV personnel raced hurriedly throughout the narrow and serpentine corridors within the Geofront, many of them chattering noisily over their Bluetooth headset devices all keyed into the designated encrypted military frequencies.
"The target is advancing slowly at approximately 2.5 kilometers," an analyst barked loudly as Dr. Ritsuko Akagi strode into the command bridge, Asuka in tow and scrambling to pull a tank top down over her head. She ruffled her fingers through Shinji's hair, making some vague attempt at looking half-way presentable. There was still, after all, the mind of a girl upstairs.
"Where the hell is Major Katsuragi?" Ritsuko yelled over the whirring of computers and the steady drone of the alert messages.
"She's been notified, Dr.!" Shigeru Aoba spun around in his seat, his long hair dripping with a nervous sweat. "She's on her way over now with Shinji. No word on Commander Ikari or Ayanami."
"No word?! Where the hell is the Commander?"
"Anybody's guess, m'am," Makoto Hyuga chimed in. "Nobody's heard from or seen either of them for several hours! But Vice Commander Fuyutsuki—"
"—is here," Kouzou Fuyutsuki finished the sentiment, entered the bridge and seating himself at Gendo's usual terminal. His hardened eyes narrowed and scanned the faces of the NERV personnel before him. "I'll be handling matters here while the Commander deals with pressing matters elsewhere."
"Elsewhere?!" Ritsuko screamed. "We're being attacked by an Angel! What could be more pressing than that?!"
The third senior member of the NERV Tactical Operations Division, Maya Ibuki, turned in her seat to face the Vice-Chairman. "The Fuji Observation Center never detected it! It just suddenly appeared directly above us!"
"Pattern is orange!" Hyuga shouted nervously, his fingers trembling at his keyboard. "No A.T. field detected!"
"I've never seen anything like it!" Aoba gasped with surprise.
"A new kind of angel?" wondered Ritsuko aloud, staring incredulously at the holographic data displays above her.
"Unknown!" Maya said. "The MAGI are withholding judgment on that conclusion yet!"
"Well now that's just great," Asuka growled irritably. "Another situation like this and Commander Ikari's missing in action yet again! That's just great! Fantastic! How about it, Ritsuko? Should I suit up?" She made a tight fist and folded her opposite hand over it, cracking her knuckles. "I haven't kicked some angel ass in quite a while. I could use the practice."
Fuyutsuki glared hard at Shinji Ikari. Hearing Asuka's ego pour forth from the junior Ikari's lips was greatly unsettling. He opened his mouth to issue an order when a soft, mellow voice off to his left interrupted him.
"If NERV does not wish to risk further psychological trauma to its pilots, I can pilot the EVA against the current threat," Kaworu Nagisa stated flatly.
"You'll do nothing of the sort," the Vice-Commander shot back indignantly. "You have not received a physical or psychological clearance to operate an Evangelion at this time. You are here in an observational capacity only, Mr. Nagisa."
"That is fine," the silver-haired youth replied. "For now." His crimson eyes suddenly shot to Ritsuko, catching her staring at him curiously. "Oh dear," he said. "I do hope you don't think me sinister, Dr. Akagi. I am here neither to challenge nor supplant your pilots and the time and energy you have put into them. I will do whatever I can to assist you. I would like you to know that I am at completely at your disposal, Dr. Akagi."
"Y…yeah, that's reaaaaaally reassuring," Asuka jabbed sarcastically. "Why don't you watch from the sidelines how the pros like me kill the angels in the name of mankind, eh?"
As Ritsuko begrudgingly prepared to deploy Asuka in Unit-01, Misato and Shinji careened around the mountainside some several kilometers from the Geofront, bound for a remote deployment location. There was a stiflingly awkward and saturnine atmosphere in the vehicle as both of them reviewed the auditory data being fed to them by NERV HQ over Misato's military-grade band scanner. Shinji stared at the satellite-relayed video feed of the monochromatic orb slowly floating through downtown Tokyo-3.
"The twelfth angel," he whispered to himself. "I wonder if it can switch my body back with Asuka…"
"Shinji," Misato muttered gently.
"Maybe just… maybe we can just see if it's A.T. field is special… and then maybe…"
"Shinji," Major Katsuragi repeated. "Our sensors haven't detected any sort of A.T. field at all. We really… uh… don't know what to… you know… expect… from this new enemy."
Shinji continued to stare silently at the video feed. It was as if he couldn't bring himself to look at the older woman driving beside him.
"I… I want you to know… Shinji… that I…"
Shinji placed his hand atop Misato's gear-shifting hand. He tore his eyes away from the tablet device he was holding and looked at the other with a pair of dazzlingly bright, blue eyes. There was a smile on his softly-freckled face. "Don't," he said in a soft, reassuring voice. "It's fine. I want to meet this new angel… fight it if I have to… and I won't think about dying." Tears misted into Katsuragi's eyes as the third child spoke to her. "If you're still worried about what happened, we can talk it over when I get back. But right now… I need to do this. I need to… see… if there's a way that I'll ever be me again… and if there is a way, it has something to do with this angel."
The purple-haired woman wiped her tears on the sleeve of her red leather jacket. "Yeah," she said. "I'd like that, Shinji. So come back to me, OK?"
"Of course," the junior Ikari told his guardian. "I could never let this body get destroyed. Asuka would kill me," he laughed. And in that laugh was happiness. Real happiness.
"I've sent you all of the known target data," Ritsuko said over the voice communication system as Unit 01 moved into position five kilometers outside the downtown red zone corridor. "Approach it carefully and observe its reactions. And, if possible, try to lure it outside of the city. Asuka, you're going to be point man—or point woman, or whatever—until Shinji arrives to support you in Unit 02. Do not engage until you are both on-site. I want you to back up each other on this; we've got an audience here, so don't let me down."
"Understood," Asuka radioed in. "Just leave it to me. I'll show that underachieving numbskull Shinji the synch scores his body and unit are truly capable of!"
"Where is Commander Ikari?" Kaworu asked Fuyutsuki. "Should he not be present for such engagements, as per the U.N. outlined protocol for NERV's personnel structure when dealing with angels?"
The professor side-glanced SEELE's anomaly and spy. "If the Commander is not present, he is clearly involved in something of even greater significance than this. Of that fact you can be assured. I cannot give you or anyone else anything beyond that; the Commander did not furnish me with the exact details of his absence."
Ritsuko's eyes narrowed. The question had been nagging at her too. Just where had the Commander spirited Rei away to and what was he up to? The doctor fished her mobile device out of her lab coat and began writing a text to Ryouji Kaji:
FROM: Akagi Ritsuko
NERV.t3net
TO: Kaji Ryouji
iluvmelons
CLASS: pvt_memo
Kaji,
It's Ritsuko. I need you find out where The Shepherd is and what he's up to.
I don't care what it'll cost me.
I'm pretty sure I've already lost everything anyway.
There were good days once… weren't there?
~Rit
The orb continued to drift through the now-abandoned concrete jungle of Tokyo-3. A faint hum accompanied its serene odyssey through the western metropolitan sector of the city, but it was a hum that was felt more than it was heard. Anyone close enough to it could feel its rattle in their bones. The sphere itself seemed to possess an abyssal black form that was enigmatically terrifying to behold. Within that blackness, a series of somewhat impossible geometric shapes were contoured with blinding white outlines. Beneath it, a 680 meter-wide shadow followed the orb above it. For the moment, a nervous calm settled over NERV headquarters.
"Has the angel launched any kind of attack? Done any significant structural damage to the city?" Vice Commnder Fuyutsuki inquired.
"Negative! And still no sign of A.T. field type emissions!" Hyuga reported.
"Target's speed and course remain unchanged, sir!" added another technician.
What the hell is it waiting for? Ritsuko wondered darkly. Is it waiting for us to launch the first strike?
Inside the cockpit of Unit 01, Asuka crouched, using a corporate office building as cover. The setting sun glinted off the purple plating of the Evangelion. Prudently, she risked a peek around the corner of the structure.
"I have a clear shot from this angle," the second child reported over the radio. "Requesting permission to take the shot!"
Kaworu fixed his blood-red eyes upon the Vice-Chairman assiduously. His eyes narrowed somewhat as he scrutinized the micro-expressions which played out upon the angular, weathered features of the professor. A bead of sweat formed along Fuyutsuki's brow the moment he became aware of the penetrating scrutiny tasked upon him.
"If you want to be useful in any capacity, located the Commander, and bring him to the bridge," the Vice-Commander snarled anxiously.
"You would like me to locate Senior Commander Gendo Ikari and escort him here," the fifth child restated the order for emphasis and understanding.
"Yes, dammit!" Fuyutsuki shouted. "As quickly as you can!"
"Yes sir," Kaworu nodded, then exited promptly and without another word. Fuyutsuki turned his attention to Ritsuko.
"Any further updates from the MAGI, Dr. Akagi?"
Ritsuko swallowed hard as her gaze wandered from Fuyutsuki to Ibuki, to Aoba, Hyuga, and back again. The blood drained from her already pale complexion. "Sir, without being able to measure any nominal power output or A.T. field generations from the target, we are unable to predict the angel's intention or capabilities in combat. I feel it would be unwise at this time to attempt to engage the target at range or in close combat until we can gather more data."
"But your pilot has a shot."
"Asuka, do you still have a shot with Unit 01?"
"Of course I do, but the window's closing fast to attack from my current position. If I have to relocate, I'll have to switch to auxiliary battery power until I can get to another power supply node."
There was something about the scenario that Ritsuko was entirely averse to. The timing of the latest angel attack, for instance, coincided suspiciously with the arrival of the fifth child. While some might dismissively pass it off as coincidence, having worked for NERV for more than a decade, she knew better. Second, there was the issue of the pilots. Neither Shinji nor Asuka had piloted an Evangelion since the incident, and even though preliminary synch test ratios had been high enough to declare both combat ready, there was realistically no way to tell how they—or their Evangelions—would perform. She stared at the monitors hesitantly.
"Dr. Akagi, we're running out of time!" an analyst sounded fearfully.
Since inhabiting a boy's body, Asuka had found that her usual confident and headstrong nature came more naturally—like a voice she heard someplace in the back of her mind—than it did as her normal self where she often fought past numerous mental and psychological obstacles to maintain her trademark levels of bravery and battle-prowess. Perhaps it was because, as a girl, Asuka felt she had something to prove, and had consistently remained as tactically efficient as any males she'd ever competed against. Now that she was a male, she could simply enjoy the purity of combat without any extra considerations lingering in the back of her mind. Asuka had always felt that she had been fashioned into a fine instrument of warfare, but as a male with more musculature and physical durability at her disposal, she felt born anew, baptized in the fires of discord and turmoil. She was ready to fight.
"The hell with waiting for Shinji," Asuka said. "Better my body be safe on the sidelines anyway!" Asuka peeked around the corner of the structure she crouched behind and fired a few small arms bursts directly into the sphere as it floated by. She hit nothing but air. At the precise moment the slugs would have impacted the target, the angel vanished as though it had never even been there in the first place.
"It vanished!" Ritsuko barked with alarm.
"Status!" Fuyutsuki ordered.
"Pattern is blue! Angel confirmed!" bellowed Makoto Hyuga in response. "It's right beneath Unit 01!"
The shadow that had previously accompanied the floating orb on its tour of Tokyo-3 suddenly appeared beneath the purple Evangelion. The behemoth war machine began to slowly sink into the mire of blackness as though it were quicksand.
"Wh…what is this?!" Asuka screamed. "There's a… a shadow!" She emptied the rest of the pistol clip into the maw of blackness that was slowly devouring her EVA and her inside of it. "What the hell is this?! This can't be happening!"
The giant orb, now directly above Asuka's EVA, thrummed with dark purport. She could do little else than behold the spectacle with absolute terror.
"Where is Unit 02?!" Ritsuko shot a worried glance toward the Vice-Chairman.
"Still 7 kilometers out, m'am," Maya Ibuki replied. "Shinji's not going to make it! Asuka's…"
The frantic screams of Asuka through Shinji's vocals echoed through the command bridge of the Geofront. "Oh God! What is this?! It's swallowing me up! I can't shoot it! Somebody help me! Shinji! Help meeeeee!"
"Eject the entry plug!" Ritsuko ordered. "Save the pilot!"
"Negative! There's no response!"
"Help meeeeeeee Shinji! Rei! Mama! Anybody! I'm sinking into—"
And with that, Unit 01 disappeared completely into the shadow, the tip of the machine's distinct horn the very last thing to vanish into the darkness. Asuka's vital and voice feeds went dead.
Somewhere, off in the distance, there was an explosion, presumably someplace down in the metropolitan area of Tokyo-3. Ryouji Kaji placed his off hand to his eyes, scanning the horizon. From his vantage downwind, he could just barely hear the rapid snapping sound of small arms fire. He directed the spray of water from his garden hose to another area in the melon patch at his feet. His mobile phone beeped, and he sighed, finding the device in his right trouser pocket and snapping open the screen. He read the message from Ritsuko, then grunted knowingly.
"Of all the wonders that I have heard," the triple agent remarked soberly, "it seems to me most strange that men should fear; seeing death, a necessary end, will come when it will come."
He authored a new note in his phone. His finger hovered several moments above the digital keypad as he stared hard at the screen. The poetry of one's heart could not be forced, only summoned. At length, Ryouji Kaji began to write.
How many letters have I written like this? I think writing letters to nobody might be habit-forming. Do I remain here because I egotistically want to leave something behind? A memory of my heart? A remnant of my soul? Irrefutable, immutable proof that I lived my life here? That for a brief moment in time, I existed? What kind of person am I to think like this? How utterly absurd! This will be the last time I write. Lately I always have a feeling of sinking down, down into the shadows of a life colored by cowardice, failure and self-contempt. I am mired here in the swamp of my fetid soul, and escape is impossible. Who or what is dragging me down to the very bottom of it? Ultimately, nobody. Nobody but myself. It is I who decided to step into the swamp. Have the truths I've witnessed and uncovered made me worthy of this life? Have I satisfied my soul? What began as a mere curiosity, not even an officially sanctioned mission, has come to define me and the choices I've made. I have been consumed by its mysteries, and in so doing I have become a mystery even to myself. But now I want to tell you the truth, as I have been unable to do so many times before. I know this letter won't be sent to you because certainly I will lack the nerve and resolve to post it in the end. Nevertheless, I have tried to tell you of my heart and the secrets it has strained to bear, but it is nothing more than a silent scream. Do I want you to remember my existence? Alas, I'm just debating with myself as always. It is meaningless. I'm just trying to take responsibility… for everything I did… and for everything I didn't do. I have to leave here now. I'll never write again.
~Ryou-Niisan
Kaji's eyes scanned the characters he had just entered into his phone before positioning his finger over the send button. His jaw twitched as he wrestled with the consequences of sending the message. Brow furrowed, he grinded his teeth together, trying desperately to convince himself to send the letter off into cyberspace, but the jury of his heart were suspended by the ringing of the phone. It was the Japanese Ministry of the Interior.
"Shit," he cursed. "It's already started."
Shinji spurred Unit 02 forward towards the site of the conflict as fast as its cybernetic legs would carry him. Though he was obviously no stranger to piloting an EVA, he experienced a strange and tingling calm that he'd never experienced inside the entry plug of Evangelion Unit 01. As the massive shoulder pylons and V-shaped tactical armor plating along the torso of his Production Model EVA groaned and strained in response to the enormous energy output of the machine's current vector, Shinji looked down at Asuka's body—his body—noting strangely insignificant things for the first time like how slender her arms were and the sharpness of her hipbones as they protruded against the skin-tight fabric of her uniform. The junior Ikari knew that he had to be extra careful with Asuka's body in a combat situation, but he felt unusually confident in his ability to get the job done: kill the angel, save Asuka, and save his own body. Still, going into battle without backup from either Asuka or Rei left him feeling naked, exposed. And just where exactly was Rei during all of this? Or his father? Or even the fifth child, Kaworu Nagisa? Why did it always end up, in nearly every circumstance and event in his young life, that he was left alone?
What Shinji saw next literally caused his jaw to fall open. As his GPS system indicated his arrival on the marker with a patterned bleep, Shinji gasped as he watched entire city blocks vanish into the pool of shadow assailing Tokyo-3. Shinji aimed his rifle in the direction of the sphere—more of an autonomous response than a calculated strike—and fired two shots. There wasn't time for a third, for the very moment the high-density slugs had left the barrel of the rifle, the shape disappeared—and reappeared beneath Shinji and Unit 02. The third child's reflexes served him well, however, as he shrieked and jumped onto the side of the nearest structure, a fairly lofty bank tower, which began at once to sink into the nebulous darkness absorbing the street.
"The shadow!" he screamed over the radio. "It's eating everything up!"
As the corporate office structure began to slowly descend into the abyss, Shinji thought quickly on his feet and used both melee weapons modified for close combat scenarios—the battle axe and prog-knife—to scale the side of the building and pull himself up onto the roof. He gasped as he looked out over the ghastly landscape of an entire city being plunged into absolute darkness.
"The…the entire city is sinking! It's all j-just… sinking! And there's no sign of Unit 01 anywhere!"
"Shinji! Listen to me! I want you to pull back!" The voice of Major Katsuragi sounded authoritatively over the radio. "I want you to pull back! Now!"
"What?!" Shinji hissed breathlessly. "But the angel is taking the city. And Asuka's still out there someplace!"
"Shinji!" Misato screamed back at him. Though she did her best to maintain her composure, her husky voice trembled with contrition. "This is an order!"
"Scheiße," Shinji cursed, before conceding temporary defeat and withdrawing from battle.
Author's Notes:
A few quick things I wanted to mention briefly. The first is that I consider myself fortunate that there has been renewed interest in this story of any kind. Because of this, I do read each and every review I receive, and do try to return criticisms if my reviewers are themselves authors on . Although please note that it is more difficult for me to do so if I am reviewing a story about characters I am unfamiliar with; in these cases, I will review the quality of the writing only, not how faithful to the characters that author is being. Secondly, I have finally gotten the hang of 's formatting jungle. In the past, all of my mutton-dashes, page breaks, and scene changes had been oftentimes lost in the translation from Word Document to Web Page. However I believe I've now gotten the hang of it, which is fortunate since I tend to write stories almost as though they are overly-literary screenplays in the sense that I am simply transcribing events which unfold in my mind like an actual anime-or manga-which has similar scene transitions. I have never claimed to be writing an actual novel, which I would certainly not do with Anno Hideaki's characters, without written consent from GAINAX. Some reviewers may also be growing impatient with the pacing of my story and the fact that I often spend inordinate amounts of time writing characterization for characters that nobody is particularly interested in reading about. To this I must say "Tough luck", because if you're looking for a one-shot sort of deal where your favorite characters just fall head-over-heels in love with each other and completely ignore the psychological and emotional hurdles present in the actual show, this is not the story for you. It will happen, when it will happen, as naturally and organically as possible. And I won't even necessarily promise you that it will happen. But like anything else in Anno's world of Evangelion, anything can happen.
For more insight and ramblings related to my Evangelion fiction, please visit:
forum/Caudimordax-s-Clubhouse/145294