31_days fic: Not an easy one to write...
...Even though it's been sitting in my head for months now.
Title: "What is and What Should Not Be"
Day/Theme: Sept 24) monster hospital
Series: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Character/Pairing: Kozo Fuyutsuki, Rei Ayanami, Ritsuko Akagi, OFC
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: I've had the core idea behind this next bit in "Neon Enoch Evangelion", aka the ambitious NGE project sitting in my head for months, ever since I first broached it on the Eva Geeks forum and several people went "Whoa, wait: you're right!" over it. Takes place during Episode 23 (Note: at the risk of disappointing some of the fans, one thing I don't think I'm going to do is novelize the scenes from the anime. For starters, I don't think I could really add anything to Hideaki Anno's creation, aside from my apocryphal asides and side scenes, and I've been toying with the idea of printing up this series as a book. Not sure how this would play out with the copyrights with the American distributors, so I'm playing it safe).
He knew without a doubt that it would not be long before a replacement was crafted; granted, this would make her redundant, since Unit 00 was irreparably lost, but Fuyutsuki knew this would not deter his superior from bringing Rei back from the dead, where she should have been mercifully left in peace.
He was on his way out of NERV headquarters, en route to delivering the disks containing the audio files from Armisael's attack, when he heard the rattling clatter of casters echoing through the corridor. He turned to spy Dr. Akagi accompanying a group of nurses and staffers from Cranial NERV pushing along a gurney on which lay a small, bird-like figure with pale skin, her blue hair sticking out in tufts around and above the bandages that swathed her neck. The girl's crimson eyes ticked around her, taking everything in as if for the first time, and yet as if trying to remember where she had seen the walls and ceiling and faces around her before.
His grip on the handle of his briefcase slackened with shock and the security chain which shackled it to his wrist tightened ominously. Tightening his grip, he quickly stepped aside, averting his eyes, but not before Ritsuko caught his gaze.
"Not another one, when's enough, Gendo?" he mumured.
"You know I'm only carrying out orders, Vice-Commander," Ritsuko replied, with her usual sarcastic coolness.
He waited till the footsteps and the clatter of the casters
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"You look frayed," Sabia observed, as he handed over the mini-disks, later in her apartment.
"The past two days have been too full," he said, digging in his trouser pocket and taking out his cigarette case and a lighter.
Sabia chuckled. "You? The human icicle? The tower of sanity in the midst of the madness that runs through NERV?" she teased. Growing serious, she added, "Sorry, that was out of place."
He managed a shadow of a smirk. "Even glaciers can succumb to the heat of circumstance," he said, taking out a cigarette. "Do you mind if I smoke?"
She had started to insert one of the disks into her laptop; eyeing him, without raising her head, she said, "Seven minutes."
"Hm? What do you mean by that?"
"Seven minutes: it's something I used to say to Enniel when he'd light up. I've been told that each cigarette takes seven minutes off one's lifetime, so back when I was a loopy sixteen year old and I was crushing on him, I used to say it to him because it meant seven fewer minutes I could spend with him," she said.
He took the hint and pocketed the cigarette case and the lighter. "It's hard to argue with that."
She typed several commands, opening the word processor and the audio player. "So what's on your mind? That's about the first time I've ever seen you light up, and I've rarely smelled smoke on you, so I gather that you light up only when you're really shaken by something."
"I wouldn't want to pile more on your desk when you've got those files to go over, especially given their nature," he said.
She paused the recorder and looked up at him, taking off her glasses. "No, it can wait: I've got all night to work on this. I just don't like seeing you this upset." She gestured to a chair beside the desk, but he opted to remain standing.
"It's really nothing compared to the horrors we deal with on a regular basis, but in other ways, it is something that would disturb anyone with any amount of sense and compasssion and respect for their fellow man."
Sabia leaned forward, folding her arms on the desktop. "Go on."
"You knew that Unit 00 was damaged beyond recovery and the pilot was severely injured: that's the official story we're giving to the UN. But there's far more to it than that." He drew in a long breath and centered himself. "The pilot did not survive the attack, but she hasn't passed beyond the pale, either."
Sabia blinked and her brow furrowed, but she said nothing to this.
"Gendo ordered Dr. Akagi to resurrect Rei, after a fashion. We've created clones of her to form the core of the dummy plug system. The fact of the matter is, the genetic matrix for these clones, was Yui..."
He paused, letting that sink in. Sabia stared unblinking, then she leaned back in her chair, pressing the backs of her hands to her forehead and closing her eyes. "That's... creepy. It borders on a kind of Platonic necrophilia, or it's as if he has some kind of seperation issues, but it's not my place to judge."
"No, as I said, anyone with sense would feel a similar revulsion," he said. "The very concept of another Rei fills me with despair while it gives Gendo some place in which to pour forth his hope." He paused regarding Sabia in silence.
Similar eye color and similar skin tone. Hair color that is abnormal in a woman her age... Is she some creation of SEELE, on the same order as Rei?
He quickly banished this thought. "If this was too much for you to take on --" he started to say, but he stopped as she leaned forward in her chair.
"No, it's all right: you needed to get this off your mind."
He managed a small grunt of laughter. "Besides the obvious breach of security, I'm surprised with myself for telling you all this."
She smirked. "Well, I'm a disinterested but caring third party who doesn't have thirty-seven ulterior motives up her sleeve, as well as a concerned colleague. I have no reason to repeat what you unburdened to me."
"No one could ask for a better listener in circumstances such as this," he mused.
She reached across the desktop and taking his hand in hers, covered it with her free hand. "Don't hesitate to talk to me when something's weighing on your mind."
"I appreciate the offer, but there's some things which I would not want to trouble you with," he said. He eyed her laptop and gently withdrew his hand. "I should leave you to your work."
"If I've crossed any lines, sir..."
"No, not in the least: you've done nothing inappropriate." But I am on the verge of crossing that line, he realized.
Title: "What is and What Should Not Be"
Day/Theme: Sept 24) monster hospital
Series: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Character/Pairing: Kozo Fuyutsuki, Rei Ayanami, Ritsuko Akagi, OFC
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: I've had the core idea behind this next bit in "Neon Enoch Evangelion", aka the ambitious NGE project sitting in my head for months, ever since I first broached it on the Eva Geeks forum and several people went "Whoa, wait: you're right!" over it. Takes place during Episode 23 (Note: at the risk of disappointing some of the fans, one thing I don't think I'm going to do is novelize the scenes from the anime. For starters, I don't think I could really add anything to Hideaki Anno's creation, aside from my apocryphal asides and side scenes, and I've been toying with the idea of printing up this series as a book. Not sure how this would play out with the copyrights with the American distributors, so I'm playing it safe).
He knew without a doubt that it would not be long before a replacement was crafted; granted, this would make her redundant, since Unit 00 was irreparably lost, but Fuyutsuki knew this would not deter his superior from bringing Rei back from the dead, where she should have been mercifully left in peace.
He was on his way out of NERV headquarters, en route to delivering the disks containing the audio files from Armisael's attack, when he heard the rattling clatter of casters echoing through the corridor. He turned to spy Dr. Akagi accompanying a group of nurses and staffers from Cranial NERV pushing along a gurney on which lay a small, bird-like figure with pale skin, her blue hair sticking out in tufts around and above the bandages that swathed her neck. The girl's crimson eyes ticked around her, taking everything in as if for the first time, and yet as if trying to remember where she had seen the walls and ceiling and faces around her before.
His grip on the handle of his briefcase slackened with shock and the security chain which shackled it to his wrist tightened ominously. Tightening his grip, he quickly stepped aside, averting his eyes, but not before Ritsuko caught his gaze.
"Not another one, when's enough, Gendo?" he mumured.
"You know I'm only carrying out orders, Vice-Commander," Ritsuko replied, with her usual sarcastic coolness.
He waited till the footsteps and the clatter of the casters
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"You look frayed," Sabia observed, as he handed over the mini-disks, later in her apartment.
"The past two days have been too full," he said, digging in his trouser pocket and taking out his cigarette case and a lighter.
Sabia chuckled. "You? The human icicle? The tower of sanity in the midst of the madness that runs through NERV?" she teased. Growing serious, she added, "Sorry, that was out of place."
He managed a shadow of a smirk. "Even glaciers can succumb to the heat of circumstance," he said, taking out a cigarette. "Do you mind if I smoke?"
She had started to insert one of the disks into her laptop; eyeing him, without raising her head, she said, "Seven minutes."
"Hm? What do you mean by that?"
"Seven minutes: it's something I used to say to Enniel when he'd light up. I've been told that each cigarette takes seven minutes off one's lifetime, so back when I was a loopy sixteen year old and I was crushing on him, I used to say it to him because it meant seven fewer minutes I could spend with him," she said.
He took the hint and pocketed the cigarette case and the lighter. "It's hard to argue with that."
She typed several commands, opening the word processor and the audio player. "So what's on your mind? That's about the first time I've ever seen you light up, and I've rarely smelled smoke on you, so I gather that you light up only when you're really shaken by something."
"I wouldn't want to pile more on your desk when you've got those files to go over, especially given their nature," he said.
She paused the recorder and looked up at him, taking off her glasses. "No, it can wait: I've got all night to work on this. I just don't like seeing you this upset." She gestured to a chair beside the desk, but he opted to remain standing.
"It's really nothing compared to the horrors we deal with on a regular basis, but in other ways, it is something that would disturb anyone with any amount of sense and compasssion and respect for their fellow man."
Sabia leaned forward, folding her arms on the desktop. "Go on."
"You knew that Unit 00 was damaged beyond recovery and the pilot was severely injured: that's the official story we're giving to the UN. But there's far more to it than that." He drew in a long breath and centered himself. "The pilot did not survive the attack, but she hasn't passed beyond the pale, either."
Sabia blinked and her brow furrowed, but she said nothing to this.
"Gendo ordered Dr. Akagi to resurrect Rei, after a fashion. We've created clones of her to form the core of the dummy plug system. The fact of the matter is, the genetic matrix for these clones, was Yui..."
He paused, letting that sink in. Sabia stared unblinking, then she leaned back in her chair, pressing the backs of her hands to her forehead and closing her eyes. "That's... creepy. It borders on a kind of Platonic necrophilia, or it's as if he has some kind of seperation issues, but it's not my place to judge."
"No, as I said, anyone with sense would feel a similar revulsion," he said. "The very concept of another Rei fills me with despair while it gives Gendo some place in which to pour forth his hope." He paused regarding Sabia in silence.
Similar eye color and similar skin tone. Hair color that is abnormal in a woman her age... Is she some creation of SEELE, on the same order as Rei?
He quickly banished this thought. "If this was too much for you to take on --" he started to say, but he stopped as she leaned forward in her chair.
"No, it's all right: you needed to get this off your mind."
He managed a small grunt of laughter. "Besides the obvious breach of security, I'm surprised with myself for telling you all this."
She smirked. "Well, I'm a disinterested but caring third party who doesn't have thirty-seven ulterior motives up her sleeve, as well as a concerned colleague. I have no reason to repeat what you unburdened to me."
"No one could ask for a better listener in circumstances such as this," he mused.
She reached across the desktop and taking his hand in hers, covered it with her free hand. "Don't hesitate to talk to me when something's weighing on your mind."
"I appreciate the offer, but there's some things which I would not want to trouble you with," he said. He eyed her laptop and gently withdrew his hand. "I should leave you to your work."
"If I've crossed any lines, sir..."
"No, not in the least: you've done nothing inappropriate." But I am on the verge of crossing that line, he realized.