A little something that bubbled up out of my subconscious...
01-30-2018, 12:35 PM (This post was last modified: 06-28-2018, 01:29 PM by Bob Schroeck.)
01-30-2018, 12:35 PM (This post was last modified: 06-28-2018, 01:29 PM by Bob Schroeck.)
*OK. So. It's a dream,* Shinji thought. *It's got to be.*
The last thing he remembered was going to bed, so suddenly finding
himself standing up and dressed in front of a perfectly ordinary-
looking door was understandably disorienting, at least until he
realized that he had to be dreaming.
That he'd never realized he was dreaming *while* dreaming before,
at least not without an Angel being involved, did occur to him.
But the Angels had been beaten back, completely and permanently,
more than a year ago, so he was pretty certain that one couldn't
be involved now.
*So...* he wondered. *What's going on?*
The door declined to answer.
Shinji slowly turned around and decided that whatever his
subconscious was up to in this dream, it was decidedly *not*
playing fair. White walls, white floor, white ceiling -- an
unfamiliar one, he thought with a small smile -- and no windows
or other doors. *Okay, so... either open the door or have the
most boring dream I've ever had.*
He had to admit that with his life there was some *attraction* to
the idea of a boring dream.
However, he knew perfectly well what Asuka would say if he
*didn't* open the door. Plus, he had to admit to a certain
amount of curiosity about what his subconscious had in mind. So
with a little laugh at his hesitation, Shinji reached out,
grasped the simple brass knob, and opened the door.
On the other side was a room out of a movie -- dark wood
paneling, built-in bookcases filled with books of all sizes,
colors and ages, and several chairs and sofas arranged in a
semicircle around a fireplace in which a fire was blazing
merrily.
He'd barely taken that in when he realized there was someone in
the room -- two someones, actually, the backs of whose heads he
could see over the back of the sofa on which they sat. From the
hairstyles he thought they might both be women. One had hair the
same color as Misato's, but what little of her skin he could see
was a warm coffee color. The other had hair of the most
improbable shade of pink, and at the sound of the door closing
behind him she stood and faced him.
Shinji's breath caught for a moment. Ah, yes, definitely female.
Brilliant blue eyes in a heart-shaped face, perched atop a blue
jacket of a decidedly military design, red biker shorts and...
Shinji tore his eyes back up to hers -- he wasn't going to admire
anyone's legs other than Asuka's, not if he was going to survive
the inevitable telling of this dream in the morning.
"Um, hi?" he half-asked as the pink-haired girl -- and girl she
was, not much older than him if he was right -- smiled broadly.
"Oh, hey!" To his surprise she suddenly grabbed the back of the
sofa and vaulted it, pivoting over the overstuffed upholstery and
dropping neatly on the carpet behind it. The other girl turned
to follow her with a fond, amused smile on her face. She had
amazing emerald eyes, Shinji realized before the pink-haired girl
regained his attention by sticking out her hand. "Shinji, right?
I'm Utena." When he failed to take her hand, she grabbed his and
shook it anyway. "I'm your sister."
*Yup, definitely dreaming,* Shinji thought.
* * *
Several minutes later Shinji found himself surrounded by more
people than he was normally comfortable being around. Moments
after Utena had introduced him to the dark-skinned girl --
Anthy, her name was, and he was a bit stunned to learn that she
was Utena's *wife* -- the door had opened again to admit three
more people who were energetically chattering. Immediately
uncomfortable, Shinji tried to slide back against one of the
bookcases, but Utena hooked her arm around his before he could do
more than twitch, and drew him gently but inexorably forward.
The new three were two girls and another guy, who all quieted
down and studied him speculatively when they spotted him on
Utena's arm. "Hey," said the guy, who was a Westerner with messy
black hair, striking green eyes behind round glasses, and the
faded remains of a nasty scar on his forehead, "Is that...?"
Utena smiled. "I finally found him. Ladies and gentleman, may
I present our no-longer-missing sibling, Mister Shinji Ikari."
"Brilliant!" the guy responded while grabbing his hand and
enthusiastically shaking it, Western-style. "It's about time you
showed up! Now us guys are only outnumbered two to one, instead
of four to one. I'm Harry -- Harry Potter," he added, releasing
Shinji's hand. "And in case Big Sis here hasn't gotten to it,
I'm your brother."
"Um," Shinji offered. "Hi?"
"Oh, for..." said the smaller of the two girls. She was slender
and delicate and tiny, with wavy dark hair and hazel eyes no less
striking than Harry's. "Can't you see you're crowding him,
Harry?" She elbowed Harry out of the way -- he gave a very
dramatic-sounding "oof!" but grinned at Shinji as he did -- and
to Shinji's surprise stepped forward and very gently hugged him.
"Right, and *I* was crowding him," Harry muttered with obvious
amusement in his tone.
Shinji went very still, not quite sure even after all he'd been
through how to react to a stranger -- and a girl, at that! --
hugging him. "Hi, little brother... I'm your sister Bibi
Summers," she said when she released him and stepped back. Then
she screwed up her face in concentration. "At least I think it's
'little brother'. I mean, physically and mentally I'm like
twenty-sevenish, but I'm really only five years old, so..." She
shrugged.
"Five years old...?" Shinji managed to ask before the other girl,
a tall, voluptuous brunette with her long hair in a high
ponytail, laughed.
"Well, I know for a fact that he's 'little brother' to me," she
said with a chuckle.
"Well, that's because you're a thousand years old to Bibi's five,
Grandma," Harry snarked good-naturedly.
"Watch it, wandboy, or I'll kick your butt again," she riposted
in exactly the same tones. "There's still some life in these old
bones." Shinji noted that she didn't look any older than Bibi
or Utena. "Hey, little bro. I'm Kino Makoto, the oldest and
best of your big sisters."
Bibi made a raspberry noise while Utena called out, "Hey!" To
the side, Harry chuckled.
"They're always like this," he said when Shinji glanced at him.
That's all there is so far. I don't know if I'll write any more, because I don't have a plot or an ending to this set-up, although if the mood takes me I know what the next couple of kilobytes will look like.
Oh, and I have a working title: Family Union.
Updated a bit on 28 June 2018.
The last thing he remembered was going to bed, so suddenly finding
himself standing up and dressed in front of a perfectly ordinary-
looking door was understandably disorienting, at least until he
realized that he had to be dreaming.
That he'd never realized he was dreaming *while* dreaming before,
at least not without an Angel being involved, did occur to him.
But the Angels had been beaten back, completely and permanently,
more than a year ago, so he was pretty certain that one couldn't
be involved now.
*So...* he wondered. *What's going on?*
The door declined to answer.
Shinji slowly turned around and decided that whatever his
subconscious was up to in this dream, it was decidedly *not*
playing fair. White walls, white floor, white ceiling -- an
unfamiliar one, he thought with a small smile -- and no windows
or other doors. *Okay, so... either open the door or have the
most boring dream I've ever had.*
He had to admit that with his life there was some *attraction* to
the idea of a boring dream.
However, he knew perfectly well what Asuka would say if he
*didn't* open the door. Plus, he had to admit to a certain
amount of curiosity about what his subconscious had in mind. So
with a little laugh at his hesitation, Shinji reached out,
grasped the simple brass knob, and opened the door.
On the other side was a room out of a movie -- dark wood
paneling, built-in bookcases filled with books of all sizes,
colors and ages, and several chairs and sofas arranged in a
semicircle around a fireplace in which a fire was blazing
merrily.
He'd barely taken that in when he realized there was someone in
the room -- two someones, actually, the backs of whose heads he
could see over the back of the sofa on which they sat. From the
hairstyles he thought they might both be women. One had hair the
same color as Misato's, but what little of her skin he could see
was a warm coffee color. The other had hair of the most
improbable shade of pink, and at the sound of the door closing
behind him she stood and faced him.
Shinji's breath caught for a moment. Ah, yes, definitely female.
Brilliant blue eyes in a heart-shaped face, perched atop a blue
jacket of a decidedly military design, red biker shorts and...
Shinji tore his eyes back up to hers -- he wasn't going to admire
anyone's legs other than Asuka's, not if he was going to survive
the inevitable telling of this dream in the morning.
"Um, hi?" he half-asked as the pink-haired girl -- and girl she
was, not much older than him if he was right -- smiled broadly.
"Oh, hey!" To his surprise she suddenly grabbed the back of the
sofa and vaulted it, pivoting over the overstuffed upholstery and
dropping neatly on the carpet behind it. The other girl turned
to follow her with a fond, amused smile on her face. She had
amazing emerald eyes, Shinji realized before the pink-haired girl
regained his attention by sticking out her hand. "Shinji, right?
I'm Utena." When he failed to take her hand, she grabbed his and
shook it anyway. "I'm your sister."
*Yup, definitely dreaming,* Shinji thought.
* * *
Several minutes later Shinji found himself surrounded by more
people than he was normally comfortable being around. Moments
after Utena had introduced him to the dark-skinned girl --
Anthy, her name was, and he was a bit stunned to learn that she
was Utena's *wife* -- the door had opened again to admit three
more people who were energetically chattering. Immediately
uncomfortable, Shinji tried to slide back against one of the
bookcases, but Utena hooked her arm around his before he could do
more than twitch, and drew him gently but inexorably forward.
The new three were two girls and another guy, who all quieted
down and studied him speculatively when they spotted him on
Utena's arm. "Hey," said the guy, who was a Westerner with messy
black hair, striking green eyes behind round glasses, and the
faded remains of a nasty scar on his forehead, "Is that...?"
Utena smiled. "I finally found him. Ladies and gentleman, may
I present our no-longer-missing sibling, Mister Shinji Ikari."
"Brilliant!" the guy responded while grabbing his hand and
enthusiastically shaking it, Western-style. "It's about time you
showed up! Now us guys are only outnumbered two to one, instead
of four to one. I'm Harry -- Harry Potter," he added, releasing
Shinji's hand. "And in case Big Sis here hasn't gotten to it,
I'm your brother."
"Um," Shinji offered. "Hi?"
"Oh, for..." said the smaller of the two girls. She was slender
and delicate and tiny, with wavy dark hair and hazel eyes no less
striking than Harry's. "Can't you see you're crowding him,
Harry?" She elbowed Harry out of the way -- he gave a very
dramatic-sounding "oof!" but grinned at Shinji as he did -- and
to Shinji's surprise stepped forward and very gently hugged him.
"Right, and *I* was crowding him," Harry muttered with obvious
amusement in his tone.
Shinji went very still, not quite sure even after all he'd been
through how to react to a stranger -- and a girl, at that! --
hugging him. "Hi, little brother... I'm your sister Bibi
Summers," she said when she released him and stepped back. Then
she screwed up her face in concentration. "At least I think it's
'little brother'. I mean, physically and mentally I'm like
twenty-sevenish, but I'm really only five years old, so..." She
shrugged.
"Five years old...?" Shinji managed to ask before the other girl,
a tall, voluptuous brunette with her long hair in a high
ponytail, laughed.
"Well, I know for a fact that he's 'little brother' to me," she
said with a chuckle.
"Well, that's because you're a thousand years old to Bibi's five,
Grandma," Harry snarked good-naturedly.
"Watch it, wandboy, or I'll kick your butt again," she riposted
in exactly the same tones. "There's still some life in these old
bones." Shinji noted that she didn't look any older than Bibi
or Utena. "Hey, little bro. I'm Kino Makoto, the oldest and
best of your big sisters."
Bibi made a raspberry noise while Utena called out, "Hey!" To
the side, Harry chuckled.
"They're always like this," he said when Shinji glanced at him.
That's all there is so far. I don't know if I'll write any more, because I don't have a plot or an ending to this set-up, although if the mood takes me I know what the next couple of kilobytes will look like.
Oh, and I have a working title: Family Union.
Updated a bit on 28 June 2018.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
