From Your Lips to the Author's Ears: Story Ideas

[Bagheera]

This is the guidance I follow:

Huh. My German teacher has some 'splainin' to do, then. Granted, I took those classes decades ago, but according to that link the term was considered problematic even then. Glad I know better now!

[Kendrix]

A time travel fic where Rei or Asuka are the ones to go back.

A fic where ReiQ somehow winds up in a pre-TI world, has no clue what anything is or how it works (so lots of opportunity for interesting POv and contrasting the pre- and post NTI versions of the world & characters), but does recognize/ locate a younger Shikinami. They hide her & plot how to subvert the clusterfuck, possibly recruiting poka Rei and/or Misato; Shinji, they all agree, cannot handle the truth, at least at first...

Actually I'm willing to take any variation of 'ReiQ gets introduced to this thing called 'normal life'.

[amitakartok]

Actually I'm willing to take any variation of 'ReiQ gets introduced to this thing called 'normal life'.

I'll have something kinda like that in SCE a very long time from now. Granted, it won't be ReiQ. Hell, it won't even be a Rei.

Not that you'd care either way...

[Kendrix]

I'd like to see an Evangelion Fanfic that blends continuities to an extent.

A fanfic that starts out like Angelic Days or The Shinji Ikari Raising Project. Wacky Harem Hijinks, highschool life. But progressively becomes more and more bleak and like the Canon Evangelion as the story goes on.

Shinji grows up with Yui and Gendo, unaware of the project to protect the world they are working on, and has a relatively healthy home life up to that point. But becomes more depressed and unhappy after his mother dies in a mysterious accident involving the project, and his father starts shutting him out, and then he's drafted against his will into piloting the machine that will save the world.

Yui raises Shinji, but still ends up dying and becoming one with Unit 01.

Gendo starts out as wacky!Gendo, but after losing Yui shuts Shinji out and becomes more like his Canon counterpart.

Rei Starts out as less weird pale moe alien girl, and more like her character in the spinoff Mangas. But as the story goes on becomes creepier and more alien, like her Canon counterpart.

Misato is a friend of the Family, and Shinji's teacher, and takes Shinji in when he's still grieving for the loss of his mother.

Asuka be Shinji's childhood friend like Angelic Days. But has a similar history to her Canon counterpart, dead mother, a prodigy, a crush on Kaji. Like Shinji, is also drafted into NERV against her will.

Just a few Ideas to knock around.

this seems actually interesting - in part because the show itself plays around with a kind of descent and the gradual disintegration of tokyo-3 etc. up to the apocalypse (with Q having recently gone and driven it even further)
So, "Let them fall from a bit higher" may make sense, though there's also the variable of a teenaged Shinji & Asuka potentially dealing differently with their mother's demises simply because of their different ages. On the one hand they're older with their identities somewhat formed, on the other, their moms' deaths and their child-soldier-ization would go very close together so it's more drama at once - Though you'd have to figure out what to do with Asuka in the time corresponding to eps 1 to 7.


Imagine Shinji and the Pilots being subjected to Raising Project esque semi-nonsensical 'training sessions' at first, moving to Misato's place because Yui is busy with EVA 01 nearing completion, a Rei I who survived to teenage-hood & was raised somewhat differently under the influence of Yui and a less effed up Gendo, only to kick the bucket somehow & be replaced by Rei II who acts roughly like her canon self.

It's hard to imagina a Shinji who knew Yui & how she's the mastermind/ wearing the pants in the relationship ending up blaming Gendo for 'using her as a test subject', the dynamic might wind up quite differently depending on how the events take place; It would take a while for Shinji to get to the same level of resignation.
But it would make the repitition when Kaji dies & Misato becomes completely caught up in stopping the conspiracy distractig herself from her increasingly failing attempts at caring for the Children that much more explicit.

You could even drive it further and have things deteriorate to a Q-style situation in the end.


you sort of remove the initial sense of hopelessness from the setting but seein it establish itself and the world & characters driven to ruthless pragmatism "in real time" might be quite interesting.

[Geometer]

Some ideas:
Reading with Rei:
The library/book store where Rei gets her books is replaced with an incompetent staff. So somehow she always ends up with the wrong books. Instead of her usual genetics/biology text she ends up with whatever the author wants. She can pick up a philosophical text, a sappy romance or a work of smut. I'm thinking of a series of disconnected oneshots or short multi chapter works, but this can be a lengthy piece if the author wants. They can be fluffy, comedic, angsty, philosophical, romantic, demented or whatever angle you want to explore Rei in.

Young girl make yourself legend:
14 year old Misato Katsuragi has been called to tokyo-03 by her distant and neglectful father. She has always hated him but now everything has gone to hell. He tells her she must pilot a bio-mechanical robot called eva unit-01against the cosmic threat of the angels under the command of his organization NERV. She thinks she is all alone in this new life but after her first battle the surprisingly kind operations director Captain Ikari offers her to live in his apartment. Misato is now thrust into a new world, will she ever reconcile with her father? Can she stop the angels? Will she be able to connect with her fellow pilots? And what about this Ikari fellow, he surely can't be this nice without some ulterior motive.

life after evangelion:
An post EoE fic focusing solely on Asuka, but with a twist. The invincible Shinji somehow managed to defeat the mp evas and stop 3rd impact. However, he died in the process. Now Asuka is all alone, Misato is dead, that moron Shinji got himself killed, and even wunder girl is gone. Now Asuka must find a new sense of self worth and at the same time humility now that she is no longer a pilot and the world moves on surprisingly quickly, all too eager to forget about the evas. Obliviously this assumes somehow the surviving NERV personnel gets off the hook, this can be a big part or small part of the story if the author wants

be thankful of what you have:
An inter-dimensional swap of two shinjis due to leliel or some other eva magic. One is cannon Shinji and the other living life like in 26 or angelic days. A normal happy teenager. Now he wakes up in a new world with everything has gone completely insane. His mother is dead, his father barely will speak to him, the cute Rei girl is now creepy and distant as you can get, Asuka is now straight out mean and always angry at him and he is living with miss Katsuragi of all people. And most crazy off all he is now being expected to pilot a robot against crazy eldritch abomination. Meanwhile on the other side can the other Shinji adapted to the normal life and pretend he has always lived like this, and can it last forever?

[brer rabbit]

^I love the last two, they seem like great fan fic material.

I have one that's similar to your life after evangelion: But its one where, Asuka after getting mind raped by Arael and the events involving Armisael doesn't try to commit suicide but instead she leaves, quit's Nerv and head back to Germany to her father.

That would be an interesting ripple effect, like how does the invasion of Nerv go down without her and even if Third Impact is avoided what would a older (say twenty-years) Shinji, Asuka, and maybe Rei would be like after the Angel war. Like say Hikari decides to head to Germany to catch up with Asuka for some reason and finds her still living with her father and step-mother and explaining to Asuka what everybody lives are like back in Japan.

[Geometer]

^I love the last two, they seem like great fan fic material.

I have one that's similar to your life after evangelion: But its one where, Asuka after getting mind raped by Arael and the events involving Armisael doesn't try to commit suicide but instead she leaves, quit's Nerv and head back to Germany to her father.

That would be an interesting ripple effect, like how does the invasion of Nerv go down without her and even if Third Impact is avoided what would a older (say twenty-years) Shinji, Asuka, and maybe Rei would be like after the Angel war. Like say Hikari decides to head to Germany to catch up with Asuka for some reason and finds her still living with her father and step-mother and explaining to Asuka what everybody lives are like back in Japan.

Well in my idea I was think along the lines that Shinji getting one last burst of energy after Misato yelled at him during the siege of NERV and getting in the eva for one last showdown. A lot of what will happen will depended on how well Shinji defends NERV in your idea. Is he able to save Misato? How much of NERV gets destroyed? Is Shinji guilty about fighting humans? Not sure if he would be would be willing to fight humans during the jssdf attack, and he still would be pretty messed up from killing Kaworu. He'd probably be slightly better off with Asuka being safe, but he still is isolated from everyone he cared about by the time he meets Kaworu. Also not sure how Rei can make it out of it alive, Gendo will make her merge with lilith, so either some needs to stop him or he needs to change his plan.

[brer rabbit]

^ And well obviously the whole thing with Asuka in the hospital doesn't happen so he maybe has a chance to fight the MP Evas himself. But let's say 3I is averted then I suppose it depends on Asuka herself. If she gets the help she needs in that time to resolve her issues I could maybe see her trying to reach out and mend those broken bridges between herself and Shinji/Rei and Misato.

I could perhaps see a bit of a cold reception from Shinji who accuses her of abandoning him and maybe feels some resentment because of how he was treated by her but I can also see a genuine effort on both parts to be friends or maybe even more once again. Hikari I can see being supportive to Asuka but maybe Asuka is a bit afraid of her, possibly fears she'll be accused of running away or turning her back on the world.

[Glor]

life after evangelion:
An post EoE fic focusing solely on Asuka, but with a twist. The invincible Shinji somehow managed to defeat the mp evas and stop 3rd impact. However, he died in the process. Now Asuka is all alone, Misato is dead, that moron Shinji got himself killed, and even wunder girl is gone. Now Asuka must find a new sense of self worth and at the same time humility now that she is no longer a pilot and the world moves on surprisingly quickly, all too eager to forget about the evas. Obliviously this assumes somehow the surviving NERV personnel gets off the hook, this can be a big part or small part of the story if the author wants

Really like this one. Never seen it before.

The age swapped Misato and Shinji one is a fic I've always wanted to see done well, too. A few have attempted, and none of them go past chapter 2.

[Geometer]

^ And well obviously the whole thing with Asuka in the hospital doesn't happen so he maybe has a chance to fight the MP Evas himself. But let's say 3I is averted then I suppose it depends on Asuka herself. If she gets the help she needs in that time to resolve her issues I could maybe see her trying to reach out and mend those broken bridges between herself and Shinji/Rei and Misato.

I could perhaps see a bit of a cold reception from Shinji who accuses her of abandoning him and maybe feels some resentment because of how he was treated by her but I can also see a genuine effort on both parts to be friends or maybe even more once again. Hikari I can see being supportive to Asuka but maybe Asuka is a bit afraid of her, possibly fears she'll be accused of running away or turning her back on the world.

A fic about an adult Shinji and Asuka reconciling could be heavy in the feels but I'm not sure Shinji would hold a grudge against anyone but his father. Asuka would have to do something really bad to get on his bad side. But I suppose there is still plenty of time for Shinji and Asuka to change as they grow up if its written believably.

[jcmoorehead]

I suppose I should probably elaborate a bit on that idea, seeing as those words are pretty much the same as what I posted over on SV :P

That was just a quick idea that I threw out and would probably need more development and planning. I was thinking a bit more about the idea whilst i was on the way to work this morning. I suppose my idea of a colder Shinji would be based a little bit on his reaction on first seeing her again. He'd immediately have all of those negative memories rush back to him as well as the knowledge that she did leave when everyone was at their lowest point.

Asuka was supposed to be the strongest one, he thought that and he needed her to help her through. Selfish on Shinji's part to think such things but all the characters are capable of being selfish. I don't think he'd go to a point of blanking her or yelling at her but there would definitely be an 'atmosphere' at first. It's also likely his own guilt would manifest itself as he was incapable of recognizing and helping her before she ran away.

For Asuka I can also see her being afraid to reach out to the others and maybe fearing Shinji a little bit. She knows how she acted and after all her boasts she ended up being the one to leave and abandon them. She's probably going to be scared of Shinji/Misato and be looking for reasons for them to hate her even if they do reach out to her first.

Basically I can see a lot of miscommunication on both sides to start with.

---

For what its worth I have done an Asuka/Shinji reconciliation fic in The Division Bell which was set a few years after EoE.

[amitakartok]

An idea I had about a week ago. Basically, Adam's awakening did not happen all at once. Rather, it was already slowly approaching awakening on its own for decades before Second Impact. As the time grew closer and Adam's AT-field gained strength, it started causing distortions in the fabric of reality that brought Angels into existence.

These early Angels, however, were much weaker than the ones Shinji and co. face and increased in power gradually as time went on. Initially, a lot of artillery was usually enough to kill one but starting from the seventies or so, conventional military tended to suffer casualties too heavy for this. Things were made more difficult by the fact that the Cold War paranoia was generally too hostile to allow international cooperation into devising a countermeasure. It was in the late eighties that Japan was attacked by an especially powerful proto-Angel that turned most of the JSDF into scrap metal and was ultimately put down by the American forces in Okinawa dropping a Daisy Cutter on it. From this incident, Japan and the US were able to start a joint research program into what we know as Evangelions, but the US pulled out of the project after the USSR collapsed citing no need for such a powerful weapon now; the Japanese were able to finish on their own and even rolled out a few prototypes before the Lost Decade hit and the JSDF suffered a serious budget cut.

Except as the time of Adam's awakening is drawing near, Angel attacks are intensifying and Japan are now forced to pull those proto-Evangelions out of mothball for combat. Don't expect anything miraculous from these, however; even Unit 00 could run rings around them and their technology is quite less advanced (for example, replace the post-Impact Evas' curved panoramic entry plug display with a jury-rigged grid of low-resolution LCD displays). To indicate, what Evas are to Zeruel? That's what proto-Evas would be to SACHIEL. That's how much the post-Impact Evas and Angels are powered up by the aftereffects of Adam's full awakening in Second Impact screwing around with the very fabric of reality.

Cue a teenage Gendo Rokubungi irately yelling at teenage prodigy Yui Ikari who just redefined the meaning of a "Crash-Into Hello" by crashing her Eva in his backyard... because he just finished mowing the fucking lawn. Especially since the brownouts in his district caused by hooking up the Eva to the local power grid in the middle of a sweltering summer made the process of coaxing the lawnmover to do the whole lawn and not just part of it especially laborious.

[Kendrix]

Some ideas:

They all seem pretty good! 'd really like to read all of those, particularly the Shinji-swap. (though I'd really want it to give both story strands equal attention)

If I keep up with the translating as I have lately managed, CotP might soon treat readers to 'Rei watches some anime', 'Rei reads some books' and 'Rei reads "the Last Unicorn"' though I don't have her individually commenting on books, apart from a one-liner joke where she returns 'twillight' to get her cash back, though there's a brief side story where the book shop owner is at first a bit weirded out by her.

[Squigsquasher]

I was originally going to post this idea in the thread about writing older versions of the characters, but I decided I'd write it here instead. I have mentioned this idea before, but only in scant detail and alongside a load of other shitty fic ideas. Unlike those, this one is actually good. I think.

We're Putting the Band Back Together!  SPOILER: Show

I envisioned this as both an Anti-EoE and an Anti-Q. Simply put, a truly happy ending/extension of Evangelion.

Set 15 years after the end of the TV series, with EoTV as the "canonical" ending. Tokyo-4 has been built, and all is well. The children are all grown up, the adults are...well, slightly more grown up, and everything is in general rather wonderful. One day, a chance encounter between old comrades sparks a chain of events that leads to the cast getting back together for a "soldiers' reunion".

This features all the characters who were still alive at the end of Episode 24. So Kaji and Kaworu are dead, but Misato and Ritsuko are not, etc etc. Obviously 15 years have now passed, so things are a little...different.

Shinji: A much more stable and happy individual than he once was, but still haunted by his experiences and still suffering from the occasional bout of trauma. Fortunately he has his lovely wife Rei to rely on for support. Works for a pharmaceutical company, though when he is at home he is still as houseproud and domestically-minded as ever.

Rei: Having seen her destiny as the harbinger of the apocalypse, she rejected it in favour of a normal life. When Shinji finally told her his feelings for her, regardless of what she was, Rei became a changed woman. Far more, well, human than she once was, she is still somewhat awkward, but is far warmer and genuinely happier than she once was. Her one area of regret is that, due to her patched-together biology, she cannot bear children.

Asuka: Significantly recovered from her trauma at the hands (beams?) of Arael, at least in part thanks to the efforts of her doting husband, Kensuke. Still suffers from flashbacks, but is generally a lot better than she once was. Has taken up a part-time job writing for a magazine about important world issues, predominantly the plights of child soldiers, but spends most of her time looking after/playing with her beloved son, Akira.

Touji: Having been horrendously injured in the Bardiel incident, poor Touji is wheelchair-bound and not able to do a huge amount due to the extent of his injuries. Fortunately, he's still upbeat as ever, refusing to let his disabilities get in the way of enjoying life. After all, he has his wonderful wife Hikari, and their 3 children, Mamoru, Miyako and Mayu, and that's enough for him.

Kensuke: Whilst he has a job as a designer for an aircraft company (something he's always dreamed of) Kensuke's true loves are his wife Asuka and his son Akira. He does his best to support Asuka, both financially and emotionally, and he tries to take time off work whenever he can to be with his family.

Hikari: Now a famous TV chef, Hikari is married to Touji, and is the breadwinner of the family due to Touji being unable to work. She loves her husband a great deal, and has had three children with him- Mamoru, Miyako and Mayu.

Misato: Now running a bar in Tokyo-4, the Bathing Penguin. She's sadly still unmarried, and a little melancholy at times, but she still tries to be as positive as possible, and she has many patrons at her bar. Fairly obviously, the bar is named after Pen-Pen (sadly now deceased).

Ritsuko: One of the regulars at the Bathing Penguin. A professional computer programmer and head of a popular programming e-magazine. She feels a lot of guilt over the actions of NERV, and longs to atone for what she believes she was partially responsible for. Lives with her soulmate and fellow computer whiz Maya.

Maya: Another regular at the Bathing Penguin, Maya lives with her senpai (at long last!) and is co-editor of Ritsuko's magazine. Acts as something of an emotional crutch for Ritsuko.

Aoba: A musician at the Bathing Penguin, Aoba finally did get his band together. Hooray!

Hyuuga: Another regular patron at the Bathing Penguin, Hyuuga still has a crush on Misato...and still hasn't plucked up the courage to tell her how he feels. Poor sod.

(I know there's other characters but I need to think about how best to do them, or if they'd even fit into the story.)

[brer rabbit]

^Everything thing on your idea is plausible, (even Shinji/Rei) except two

Ritsuko/Maya, since this is base on the original tv series and Maya outside of EOE never showed any hints that she likes Ritsuko and Ritsuko never shows that she likes Maya in any media.

Asuka/Kensuke,... Yeah, Kensuke/Rei or Asuka/Hikari makes more sense and is more plausible than those two getting together.

[Squigsquasher]

Ritsuko/Maya, since this is base on the original tv series and Maya outside of EOE never showed any hints that she likes Ritsuko and Ritsuko never shows that she likes Maya in any media.

Nonsense. RistuMaya is love.

Asuka/Kensuke,... Yeah, Kensuke/Rei or Asuka/Hikari makes more sense and is more plausible than those two getting together.

LIES

[DarkBluePhoenix]

LIES

Yeah, no, Kensuke would not be able to handle Asuka. He's simply not that strong willed. She would eat him for breakfast and spit him out at lunch. Asuka/Hikari, Asuka/Toji, Asuka/Rei, the obvious Asuka/Shinji are all better contenders at pairings than Asuka/Kensuke. No offence.

Also, I've never liked Shinji/Rei, it seemed too... have you ever seen "Deliverence"? I can hear the banjos with that pairing... you know, clone of Mom, so he'd be with his mom/sister... little wierd unless you go the "Shinji Ikari Raising Project" route and make her a distant cousin, but considering your story outline, that's not the case.

[Glor]

Asuka/Kensuke,... Yeah, Kensuke/Rei or Asuka/Hikari makes more sense and is more plausible than those two getting together.

Brother brer... every ship is destined to sail in some verse or another. I think Kensuke/Asuka is one of those pairings that wouldn't blossom until they're older, but I have yet to see a decent attempt at it while they're just teens.

[silvermoonlight]

Some ideas:
be thankful of what you have:
An inter-dimensional swap of two shinjis due to leliel or some other eva magic. One is cannon Shinji and the other living life like in 26 or angelic days. A normal happy teenager. Now he wakes up in a new world with everything has gone completely insane. His mother is dead, his father barely will speak to him, the cute Rei girl is now creepy and distant as you can get, Asuka is now straight out mean and always angry at him and he is living with miss Katsuragi of all people. And most crazy off all he is now being expected to pilot a robot against crazy eldritch abomination. Meanwhile on the other side can the other Shinji adapted to the normal life and pretend he has always lived like this, and can it last forever?

I love this idea someone should write this

[Fyrstorm]

A funny-ish idea. I hope.

Shinji's Wingwoman: (a romantic comedy)

Shinji is at an impasse. Not only are the Angels still coming, but hormones are really starting to kick in, making his complicated emotions regarding the First and Second Children even worse than usual. Amongst this emotional and romantic turmoil, Shinji learns that the new pilot, Mari, likes girls as well.

Now, as neither of his friends are any help when it comes to such matters, the boy decides that his best bet is to ask the other pilot for advice... and possibly some help.

It goes just as well as one would think.

"The solution... is for you and the others to join my harem."
"But... but you don't have a harem, Mari."
"Not with that attitude, Puppy!"
"Mari no."
"Mari yes."