All Purpose Evangelion Fanfiction Thread

All this character mapping is well and good, but it still leaves me in the hole on how to progress from where the fic's at, to the Tokyo-3 arc.

I mean, at some point I figure I need a situation where Shinji would go into the TSAB's military intelligence division. But how the hell do I do that? Surely they don't take walk-in applications?

And of course I killed the thread. Beautiful.

BE AWAKENED, BY THE POWER OF AN EPIC METAL LOVE BALLAD!!

You call that metal?! THIS is metal!

And don't worry about killing the thread. I keep doing that all the time, yet I'm still here. I haven't contributed to your idea because I feel I'm not nearly enough familiar with the Nanohaverse to pitch in (only seen the first season and A's).

Ah. Yeah, it's post-Strikers, so that would be kind of a handicap.

And it's tough, talking about it in the Nanoha fanfic thread. Because, honestly, the fic is targeted more at Evangelion fans than it is at Nanoha fans.

<fades back into the distance, softly singing>

Tell me now, do you remember? The first time that our eyes met?~

edited 2nd Mar '15 12:59:19 PM by EvaUnit01

Can I ask something?

If you get the fic written, would you set up a situation at one point where Nanoha or Fate gets seriously hurt by an anti-Device weapon while Shinji is stuck without his Device, causing him to get so depressed about having been useless that Nanoha or Fate (whoever didn't get hurt) has to Brightslap him back to his senses?

Essentially, a recreation of this scene:

edited 2nd Mar '15 1:57:18 PM by amitakartok

Shinji doesn't have a linker core, so he can't use magic. Ever. Unless he were to gattai with a Unison Device like Zwei or Agito, in which case he'd be piggybacking off of their magic.

...Or if he's piloting an Evangelion, which in this verse is pretty much like a hobo steampunk unison device anyway.

Also, Nanoha (known In-Universe as the Ace of Aces by this point) and Fate (not as famed, but still equivalently powerful/skilled) are fairly well-versed in doing battle against enemies with AMF (Anti-Magic Field) capability.

Also, the premise you put out is basically the ending climax of the fic - Shinji goes on a huge Motive Rant about how he felt completely worthless on Mid-Childa and how there wasn't any way that he could prove himself deserving of everyone's love and affection (not realizing that he's completely missing the point of familial love in the first place), and how even being able to pilot EVA hasn't changed anything except the amount of blood on his hands (either not realizing or not caring that the people he saved are orders of magnitudes greater in number than the people that died as a consequence of his reckless fighting), and then using all of that angst to try and justify an attempted self-Ret-Gone so that Fate (and everyone else) wouldn't be sad over him disappearing.

Fate has to preface her kind motherly words with a Plasma Zanbar Breaker (the huge-ass Laser Blade she used near the end of A's in combination with Nanoha's Starlight Breaker and Hayate's Ragnarok Breaker) before she can actually get him to listen.

Shinji tried to retcon himself out of existence?!

Wow.

Of course. If he stopped at "just" killing himself, Fate would be sad. So to make sure she's happy, it's better to make it so she (or anyone else) never knew him in the first place. After all, nothing positive (he claims) ever came out of his existing...

Huh. He's actually pretty smart to think up that course of action. It's what I would've done.

.....o.0

...what?

...I suppose I just didn't expect that, if anyone agreed, they would actually say it out loud instead of keeping it to themselves.

Gallows humor is the best humor, mate. Not taking your own death seriously is a weird way of cheering yourself up, I admit, but it works for me.

Hrm.

...okay, I really need suggestions on what the heck I can do next. Hell, I'll even resort to.. <scowl> Slice of Life at this point!

Unit 01, I have a conceptual question to ask, regarding SCE's third part. You know, the one I said to have a female OC protagonist you compared to Subaru Nakajima?

The question isn't really about her, per se. Y'see, while undertaking an emergency pilot training course, she ends up mustering enough hard work and guts to finish in the second place of her "class". As such, instead of being commissioned as a rank-and-file pilot, Makoto gets reassigned to the Mark III program and is given an advanced prototype she needs a Guy in Back for. She ends up going through the entire roster of pilot candidates but none of them match her neural patterns close enough for the system to work at optimal capacity.

Her superiors are just about to throw their arms up and make due with a suboptimal partner when she gets acquainted with a specific girl. This girl - as of yet unnamed, so let's refer to her as Sidekick - is a Shrinking Violet type being raised by an abusive single parent and only entered the training course because of a "Well Done, Son" Guy situation. Thing is, she didn't cut it: her maneuvering is passable but her combat simulator technical scores are absolutely abysmal. She's at the very bottom of the class and about to wash out of the program altogether but Makoto unexpectedly decides to take her under her wing, insisting to their superiors that she wants Sidekick as her partner. Naturally, said superiors don't take this request seriously and even Sidekick insists she's not worth it, but Makoto's persistence about the issue eventually results in a test simulation being arranged for the two. It goes about as well as expected: Sidekick can't concentrate on her task at all, keeps cringing at every single explosion in the simulation and the two are about to fail the test abysmally... when Makoto requests a time-out, cuts the entry plug's audiovisual feed and gives Sidekick a Dare to Be Badass heart-to-heart, telling her that she knows the timid girl can make a difference and that they can do it together. It works and they pass the test successfully. Turns out Sidekick's isn't a failure, she's just a Cowardly Lion who keeps messing up her combat simulations due to being startled by Stuff Blowing Up.

And to back her words up, when Sidekick's parent gives the girl shit over "thinking you're hot shit now because you rode someone else's coattail", Makoto corrects the guy/bitch in the most epic You Leave Him Alone! ever - by showing up in her Eva and threatening to squish the offender on the spot if they ever raise their hand against their daughter. Compared to her predecessors, Makoto is just a Badass Normal... but her Undying Loyalty actually eclipses both of theirs', combined.

So then, does this concept appeal to you?

edited 3rd Mar '15 6:33:35 PM by amitakartok

In four words? GODDAMNED RIGHT IT DOES.

Note that Makoto is meant to be the Noriko character, not Sidekick.

Also, Makoto doesn't Take A Level In Badass like Noriko did; she was always a Hot-Blooded Determinator (while on her meds, that is). On the other hand, being impulsive is a character flaw of hers, although I'm not sure yet how to play that card.

edited 3rd Mar '15 6:43:23 PM by amitakartok

While Makoto does absolutely sound more like a Noriko, you have to admit that her mentorship role is going to invite some inevitable comparisons to Kazumi as well.

Anyhow, listening to the radio has given me a title for that Eva/Witchblade crossover I keep planning out but never actually writing (like 85% of my other work, really): Livin' on a Prayer.

As you may recall, in that fic, Shinji is a Henshin Hero by method of Third Impact metaphysically fusing him with EVA-01, and his Transformation Sequence involves EVA-01's armor tearing itself out of his body. Sort of like the opposite of the Guyver's henshin sequence.

Appropriately, Shinji initially can't control himself when transformed due to the intense pain driving out any attempt at rational thought. Meaning, he becomes able to control himself transformed in part because he's gotten used to having his flesh ripped off.

Anyway, it is inevitable that at some point, Masane and Shinji have to meet and come to blows while transformed. Shinji (wow, I'm using that as his motif a lot lately, aren't I?) just attacks anything in sight because he's missing his sanity, while Masane herself is at least somewhat under the influence of the Witchblade making her into a Blood Knight while transformed.

What would you guys think of a scene where transformed-Shinji starts grappling, and then suddenly stops his attack on realizing just who it is he's been fighting (possibly by her voice), before then running like hell.

Cut to a few days or so later, Masane and Rihoko haven't seen Shinji since that time (though Rihoko doesn't know about what happened, and Masane doesn't yet realize that the crazy-ass thing that attacked was her living-in boyfriend/unofficial hubby). Though know he's okay, because he keeps leaving his paycheck in the house, but he's avoiding them. So Masane eventually tracks him down and finds him under a bridge somewhere, before then demanding why he's been avoiding his family. So he comes clean about his still-uncontrollable transformations, and then confesses that his transformation made him attack and hurt Masane, and that he's been staying away because he's afraid that that bestial side of him will come out and attack Masane - or worse, Rihoko - yet again.

And then Masane smacks him a good one for making her and her daughter lose sleep worrying about him, before then comforting him.

Shinji: "I... I have to stay away. That thing, it's... it's a horrible part of me I thought I'd never see again. You and Rihoko... you really deserve better than having to deal with a terrible person like me."

Masane: "Oh, jeez, how do I say this? ...Look, you never open up about your past, and I don't have one, so it feels like bullshit for me to be saying this, but it's not. You're not a bad guy. Hell, the fact that you're so damned scared about hurting us proves that you're worth the risk. And because that's the thing that scares you, I know that you can keep it on a leash. Now come on back home. Or I'll drag you through town by the ankle."

Shinji: <smiling despite himself> "...if you're sure, then... all right."

...your thoughts on a scenario to that general effect?

edited 3rd Mar '15 8:41:48 PM by EvaUnit01

Define "a scenario to that general effect". It sounds to me that you've got most of your essential bases covered. BTW, it's "live-in", not "living-in".

... And Shinji (whom I assume is college-age by now) is a Lucky Bastard for having that sort of relationship with Masane.

edited 4th Mar '15 2:13:37 AM by MarqFJA

I don't have the exact timescale figured out, and I'm not terribly satisfied with the wording in that dialogue.

And you're correct, Shinji is 20 at this point, since TI dropped him at ground zero of the megaquake that wrecked Tokyo six years prior. So he's been hanging around Rihoko for her entire life, and with Masane for her entire life that she can remember (since she has no memories at all from before the quake).

re:Lucky Bastard: I suppose I should tell you that Shinji and Masane are working offscreen at giving Rihoko a younger sibling.

I do hope that they're not keeping Rihoko up at night with their... uh, "efforts".

... Wait, how old is Rihoko, anyway? Is Masane going to have to give her The Talk soon due to her asking too many questions about what her mom and de facto foster-dad are doing at night that's so noisy?

1) Steps are being taken to keep the noise down. Occasionally with a gag as needed, as per Masane's suggestion.

2) Rihoko is six years old, but she's also Wise Beyond Her Years. I remember in one episode, she gave her mother a lecture about needing to wear a bra, even if it's a real bother to find them in the right size.

edited 4th Mar '15 9:29:44 AM by EvaUnit01

... Wait, six? But the incident in which Masane got the Witchblade and found Rihoko was six years ago from the current timeline point that the story starts at, right? Was Rihoko an infant when Masane found her?

Yes to Rihoko having been an infant at the time of the quake.

However, I'm preeeeetty sure that Masane was chosen by the Witchblade only fairly recently.

EDIT: NOPE, I stand corrected. Masane was already bonded to the Witchblade at the time of the quake.

On to the next topic of discussion. Since the Witchblade (and Cloneblades) inevitably cause their hosts' bodies to destabilize and undergo Superpower Meltdown sooner or later, what are your thoughts on Shinji-as-EVA causing a localized Impact in order to restabilize Masane and/or even take the Witchblade out of her for the fic's Grand Finale?

The logic being that 1)revert her destabilizing body to LCL, 2) while giving a Hot-Blooded heartfelt speech to revive her willpower so that she can then reform herself back to a healthy state, 3) at some point mid-transition, Shinji tears the Witchblade - which wouldn't have dissolved into LCL - out of the semifluid mass and flings it into space where it can't ruin any more lives for the forseeable future.

Y'all's thoughts?

edited 4th Mar '15 4:19:01 PM by EvaUnit01