Quote:
Another one, that I saw the start of, and it was abandoned: Rei Ayanami finds herself at an anime convention after self-destructing her EVA against Armisael. She wins a costume contest for her plug suit, and is led around by an Asuka cosplayer...
This sounds a whole lot like a fic I used to have a copy of somewhere -- except for being led around by the Asuka -- and it wasn't an abandoned beginning, it was a short that had an ending that was a weird blend of "feel good" and ominous "what now?"
Found it in my archives -- for once I found something quickly -- it's Richard Lawson's "Rei II's Excellent Adventure", posted to the FFML in 1998:
From: "Richard Lawson"
To:
Subject: [FFML] [EVA][spamfic] Rei II's Excellent Adventure
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1998 13:25:07 -0500
What the heck. Someone mentioned this on the FFML and the idea's been
echoing in my brain for far too long. Let's give it a try and see what
happens.It was *inside* her.
She felt it like liquid fire flowing through her veins. It was going to eat
her from the inside, and when it did, it would have Unit-00 as well. And
then it would win.
If there was no other point to her existence, she still knew that she could
not lose. Defeating the Angels was her only reason for living. Almost her
only reason.
Really, the decision was easy. There would be another after her.
She struggled to her feet, the liquid making her motions slow and precise.
The pain was intense, it fired along her nerves like a thing alive. It
*was* alive, and knew what she was going to do, and did its best to stop
her. But pain was nothing to her, nothing could compare to the forced
injection of memory and purpose, of the ties that bound her to a man she had
no choice but to acquiesce to, life itself was empty pain and nothing the
Angel could do could compare to that.
She gripped the handle, turned it, activated it.
And the explosion, during which the Angel tried to get away. And something,
something inside of her she wasn't aware of, something that was not the
Angel but very like it, something held on to the Angel, the roles reversed
now, she preventing escape instead of fighting off invasion. And in the
confusion of death and terror and energy, something shifted and she felt the
Angel slip away from her grasp into chaos. The chaos claimed her, too, and
her mind and body became randomized, flew apart......and came back together.
She drew one breath. Two. Air, it was real air she was breathing, not
liquid. Her heart was beating and her body was empty of anything other than
herself. She took a few precious seconds reveling in her solitude.
Discipline, literally ingrained into her soul, forced her to assess the
situation. She slowly focused on the sky, which appeared to be made of
brown wooden panels. The ground was smooth, flat, and slightly padded.
This was not a part of Tokyo 3 she was familiar with. She immediately
chastised herself; no reason to assume she was in Tokyo 3 at all.
With no small amount of effort, she sat up.
A long hallway, lined with doors. Each door sequentially numbered.
Utilitarian decor.
She thought on this for a while, then stood up. She walked slowly down the
hallway towards an open area at the end.
A door opened as she passed it. She turned and examined the man that walked
through. Tall, Western, scruffly shaven, slightly built. Wearing a blonde
wig tied in two long ponytails. His legs underneath the elaborate fuku were
unshaven.
He grinned as they looked at each other. "Neat costume."
She looked inside her mind to see if she could speak English and found that
she could do so. "Where am I? Was the Angel destroyed?"
He laughed. "Excuse me, I want to go see the fanfic panel." He walked
briskly by her and down the hallway.
Her brow furrowed slightly. She reprocessed his response but was unable tom
ake sense out of it. Maybe she didn't know the language as well as she had
thought.She followed him from a distance. He entered the open area, which turned
out to be a hotel lobby. He made his way down another corridor and into
another open area.
She stopped there to look around. This appeared to be a foyer of some sort,
filled with people. It was lined with tables, behind which sat other
people. The tables were covered with various things, from what looked like
manga to flyers to artwork. One table, behind which was a large sign
reading "Registration", had lots of people lined up at it.
The people were the oddest thing. While most were dressed in typical
American casual, some were dressed in what could only be elaborate costumes.
Costumes similar to the man in the hallway's were prevalent. There seemed
to be themes - she could look at one costume, and then at another, and judge
them to represent the same character. She didn't recognize any of them,
however.
A scream made her and other people look towards the center of the room. A
woman who looked to be in her thirties and dressed in some kind of flowing
robes and unusual markings on her forehead came charging towards her. She
took a cautious step backwards, but the robed woman came up and clasped her
hands."Your outfit is *wonderful*!" The robed woman grinned, then turned and
shouted over her shoulder. "Look, it's Rei!"
She blinked. How'd they know her name?
A man wearing a red shirt, black pants, and a black wig with a pigtail came
up. "Wow!" He reached over to poke Rei's cheek. "How'd you get your skin
so white?"
Rei looked up at him. "My skin has only been exposed to sunlight for a few
days."
Much as the man in the hallway had, he laughed. "You even *sound* right."
Another woman, this one only slightly older than Rei and wielding an
oversized spatula, called out, "Look at her eyes! They're *red*!
"An appreciative murmur passed through the growing crowd. Rei looked around,
feeling... odd. While at times she had been the center of attention, such
attention had been cold, clinical, and sometimes resentful. Never had so
many people... *admired* her.
One man wearing an odd cap came up to her. "Say, can I have my picture
taken with you?"
Rei blinked slowly. "With me?"
He handed his camera to another person standing nearby, then put her arm
around her shoulder in a rather familiar fashion. She had no idea how to
react, so just stared blankly at the camera as it flashed.
The man with the cap shook her hand. "Are you going to be in the cosplay?
"Cosplay. She had heard of those. "I... that was not my intention."
"Oh, you gotta enter." He herded her towards the registration table, and
people cleared out of the way for him. "Sign her up!" he called as he
approached.
The woman behind the desk also smiled. "That's wonderful, dear. What's
your name?"
"Um..." The confusion in her head was growing. "Ayanami Rei."
"Of course." The woman's smile grew wider as she filled in a form. "Okay.
Be at the ballroom at six."
"Um... I... I have to find the Angel."
The capped man grabbed her shoulders again. "I'll help! I've got to make
an appearance at our booth. Come with me and together we'll find the Lance
together!"The crowd of people nearby laughed. Rei gawked at them, absolutely at a
loss. She allowed herself to be pulled along, and almost began hoping that
soon Gendo would wake her up and tell her that it was time for school.
Instead, she found herself being pulled deeper into the crowd and chaos.
***
"And Best in Show goes to - Rei Ayanami!"
Rei walked back onto the stage, still in a daze. As before, all she had to
do was walk on and the crowd went nuts. They were cheering and smiling and
seemed to really enjoy looking at her.
The man in the cap, who turned out to be one of the judges, presented her
with some awards. One turned out to be a small figurine of Unit-00. She
frowned at the package, which prominently featured her picture on it. It
was all so confusing.
The capped man shook her hand and leaned close to her so that she could hear
him over the noise of the crowd. "Great costume, really. And you've always
stayed so much in character. You did a wonderful job."
She blinked at him again. Then she looked out into the crowd, which was now
on its feet. Dozens - hundreds? - of people cheering her. Cheering *her*.
She was no one, an automaton with clearly defined roles and no motivation to
do anything outside her programming. A replaceable part that no one could
ever afford to like. Especially, she could never afford to like herself.
But these people did. More cameras were flashing, and they were still
applauding, and everyone had treated her respect and affection. In thew
orld that was composed of a few rooms inside a hotel, people liked her.
*Liked* her. Wanted nothing more from her than her presence. Didn't want
her for what she could do for them, but wanted her because she *was*.
And suddenly there was more inside her than just her. These other people
had somehow slipped themselves inside, but it wasn't an invasion, it was
company, it was a connection that made her feel warm and comfortable. And
she loved it.
She smiled, and the crowd roared in response.
~*~
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. I couldn't
get the contrast quite right. Ah well, it was a fairly lame idea anyway.
^_^
You could go places with this, if you were of a mind. Rei's little universe
will come crashing down a bit when the con ends. After all, she has no
money and no real identity. You could turn this into a neat little story of
Rei II adjusting to "normal" life outside the clutches of NERV. But it
wouldn't be very much closely related to Evangelion at all. Unless that
Angel also made it to our world, and began looking for Adam. Hmm....
Anyway, if I were to write a serious Eva fic, it would be on a different
topic than this. But heck, I wanted to get this out of my system. I enjoy
playing little "what-if" games like this, toying with ideas and seeing where
they take me. Once in a while, they become full-blown fics, such as one
Sebastian Weinberg and I are working on together. This one didn't -
although anyone who wanted to take this and go someplace with it is
certainly free to do so. I don't expect anyone shall, however. [Image: smile.gif]
-Richard
-- Bob
---------
...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...
![[Image: Con.gif]](http://www.yggdrasil.org/misc/Con.gif)
