(Third Annual) Lilim Design Contest! (Afterthoughts)

[Chowwow]

Ugh, delays are the story of my life with these Contests. Hazukari will be late and is set to be rescheduled to Present around the 14th. Themaninblack hasn't gotten back to me on my recent PMs, but he's still around. And our late-joining guys are also late. Don't feel bad though, I've been bogged down with my own Character as well. So all in all, business as usual during this time of the Contest. I'll update the schedule when things are more concrete later.

[NemZ]

I've been too busy with work to finish the awards yet either, so it's all good.

[Avatar of Dreams]

Haha, I too unfortunately will be late on my submission.

Artwork is mostly done, still need to do the writeup but it's short so I will finish in a few days.

[Formless One]

I said it last year, I'll say it again: doing presentations at the tail end of the holidays is a bad idea. I know you gave us months to prepare, but I don't think people are using them.

Hopefully I will have mine done by tonight. Or if not, soon.

[Chowwow]

Haha, I too unfortunately will be late on my submission.

Artwork is mostly done, still need to do the writeup but it's short so I will finish in a few days.

And so the wait continues. Try to pick it up.

I said it last year, I'll say it again: doing presentations at the tail end of the holidays is a bad idea. I know you gave us months to prepare, but I don't think people are using them.

Indeed. When we are done, I'd like to discuss a better time line with everyone. I tried to get things done shorty before the holidays, but I then realized that Presentations would go over them - which is what no one wants to do.

Anyway:

Schedule:

Jan. 1: Omegagouki
Jan. 2: Holy Diver
Jan. 3: Agentomega
Jan. 4: Vegeta 20XX (Rescheduled)
Jan. 5: Themaninblack (Rescheduled)
Jan. 6: UrsusArctos
Jan. 7: Hazukari
Jan. 8: Formless One
Jan. 9: Avatar of Dreams
Rescheduled, Jan. 10: Vegeta 20XX
Rescheduled, Jan. 11: Themaninblack
Rescheduled, Jan. 12: Great Genius Shinji-Sama
Rescheduled, Jan. 13: Hazukari
Rescheduled, Jan. 14: Formless One
Rescheduled, Jan. 15: Avatar of Dreams

[Great Genius Shinji-Sama]

gah! ive got less then two days and i dont even know where to start! as much as I like Eva i find it somewhat difficult to write or create for. Same problem with Vegeta's RP. I think you should just drop me.

[Chowwow]

This just in: Vegeta 20XX and Great Genius Shinji-Sama are being withdrawn from the Contest. Vegeta has been inactive for a very long time, and GGSS just isn't up to it. This also means that Vegeta will no longer be a Judge, leaving me to odd out the vote count. Themaninblack I'm gonna keep up on here for as long as I can, since he seems to be busy at the moment. Over to my pal Hazukari...

Schedule:

Jan. 1: Omegagouki
Jan. 2: Holy Diver
Jan. 3: Agentomega
Jan. 4: Vegeta 20XX (Rescheduled)
Jan. 5: Themaninblack (Rescheduled)
Jan. 6: UrsusArctos
Jan. 7: Hazukari
Jan. 8: Formless One
Jan. 9: Avatar of Dreams
Rescheduled, Jan. 10: Vegeta 20XX (withdrawn)
Rescheduled, Jan. 11: Themaninblack ?
Rescheduled, Jan. 12: Great Genius Shinji-Sama (withdrawn)
Rescheduled, Jan. 13: Hazukari
Rescheduled, Jan. 14: Formless One
Rescheduled, Jan. 15: Avatar of Dreams

[Avatar of Dreams]

Arg, I apologize for mssing my date again but I promise that I'm almost done. I need 1/2 days tops.
Again, very sorry.

[Chowwow]

I hear you, don't worry! I'm sure the wait will be worth it.

[Chowwow]

We end our drought of updates with an entry from the venerated Avatar of Dreams. His approach for this Contest is much simpler, which carries with it many strengths.

January 17
Avatar of Dreams

General Data:
Full Name/Nickname: Makie Horie (堀江 マキエ)
Age: 13
Measurements: I’m no good with measurements. Whatever Asuka’s measurements are, let’s just say they’re around there
Nationality: Japanese
Occupation/Rank: Student



References/Name Origin: Not important.

Story: Compared to the rest of the teens in Evangelion, Makie has a near perfect life. Both her parents are alive, she doesn’t have daddy issues, and she wasn’t artificially created in a lab.

Makie is the younger of two daughters in her somewhat wealthy family. Her onee-san (I couldn’t be bothered coming up with a name) is extremely gifted and excels at all forms of academia. This naturally attracts all of Makie’s parents’ attention, and leaves Makie jealous of her sister’s talent (Yea, I know it’s a really cliched situation, but I couldn’t come up with a better one so too bad). Anyways, due her sister’s influence, Makie develops a lazy tendency to do as little work as possible.
After getting though elementary school with minimal effort, Makie is unhappy with the fact that she must take entrance exams in order to determine her future middle school. Unwilling to do any actual studying, Makie cheats her way through the exam using numerous methods that she had learned in elementary school. As a result she ends up with a perfect score. Her parents, ecstatic that Makie was showing potential comparable with that of her sister, apply her to an accelerated learning program overseas, much to her dismay. The location is a prestigious university in Germany, and despite Makie’s repeated insistence that she did wish to go, she is ultimately forced by her parents to do so.

Upon arriving, Makie is disheartened at the large number of “overachievers” she meets. Her immediate dislike for the others in the program combined with the knowledge that she would not be able to remain at the university with her level of academic aptitude leads her to hatch a “clever” plan to solve both problems. Unfortunately for her, her red-headed roommate chose an unwise moment to move in…

SPOILER: Show

Reads left to right like any manga page

Upon learning of Makie’s scheme, Asuka immediately puts a stop to it but does offers to assist her in her studies. The two become friends, with Makie teaching Asuka Japanese, and Asuka teaching Makie…pretty much everything else. Despite Asuka insisting that Makie complete all of her work alone, Makie, being the way that she is, frequently copies Asuka’s work anyways. However, it is through Asuka that Makie is able to scrape by through the program, and ultimately is able to graduate, albeit with less than stellar grades.

After graduating, Makie makes plans to travel, and is surprised that Asuka declines to accompany her, only giving the reason that she was going to Japan to “do something important.” Adding to her suspicions was that fact that Asuka had been disappearing for entire days and returning exhausted. Makie, concerned for friend, follows her one day to a large installation with heavy security. She somehow manages to sneak in (she just does alright, I don’t know how) but what she finds shocks her completely…

SPOILER: Show

Makie meets Kyoko

Horrified at her discovery, Makie is unable to confront Asuka directly. A conversation with her with many roundabout questions in an attempt to get Asuka to tell her the truth leads to a heated argument and Makie ends up avoiding Asuka for days, finally seeking her guardian, Ryoji Kaji for answers. Kaji senses her concern for her friend, and decides to reveal Asuka’s true job as an Evangelion pilot. Makie is amazed at her friend’s determination and what she believes to be true selflessness. The two are able to repair their friendship shortly before Asuka’s departure with Makie joking to Asuka that she had fallen for her (much to Asuka’s embarrassment), reminding the two of them of the mishap that occurred during their first meeting.

Fate: Who knows? But she does keep in touch with Asuka from time to time…

SPOILER: Show

Personality: AB Blood type…I think

Career / Achievements / Goals: Lol

Names of Designer and all contributors: Watashi

Few closing notes:
-Second picture’s art style was shamelessly stolen from Lucky Star. The second picture is also the reason why my entry was delayed so much. I ended up watching all the episodes and OVA over again because it is just so good. Also, it is easier to draw.
-Third picture is incomplete (this is why the second panel is blank and why there is no text). Only managed to draw it out with pencil and scan it before I ran outta time. Oh well.
-Why is the fourth picture black and white? Because I thought it would be easier than to color it. Turns out, not so much.
-There are probably many many holes in the storyline. My excuse is that I’m just bad at writing.

And finally I would like to thank Chowwow for organizing the contest and for waiting patiently for my entry while I lazied around and missed deadlines.

For our next Entry, one of our three remaining Designers are up to Present as soon as possible (Hazukari, Formless One, and themaninblack). We'll be waiting!

[UrsusArctos]

Does she color her hair like Ritsuko? You don't get natural blondes in Japan!

Oh, very nice drawings, BTW. Me likes.

[Agentomega]

Heh, damn. I'm finding myself jealous of AoD's ability to draw... Good work!

[Avatar of Dreams]

Does she color her hair like Ritsuko? You don't get natural blondes in Japan!

Oh, very nice drawings, BTW. Me likes.

Haha, I think animes are generally pretty lax when it comes to realistic hair colors.
I was just going for a color to distinguish her from the other children.

[Chowwow]

More updates: Hazukari is experiencing computer problems, but still wants to be in the Contest. Formless One is still in, and I think it is worth waiting for him a little longer. themaninblack has been inactive for a very long time, and I may have to drop him from the Contest. I think I'll keep this up for another week, then we are moving on.

[Formless One]

ArrrrgggghhhSiofngdfjSDnSDgjrtb dlb fkbijniohnk b

Writers block sucks monkey balls.

But don't worry. I know the character, I have the plot. I can work it through it... Yes, I'm still in this, don't worry, Chowwow. Its just... a matter of getting focused once and for all, and by damn I'm going to do it if it kills me. ;-)

[UrsusArctos]

Is this contest officially dead or something?

[Chowwow]

Is this contest officially dead or something?

Not quite. I'm withdrawing Themaninblack because he has gone MIA. Hazukari has lost all of his data for his entry in the aftermath of his computer problems. I'm giving Formless One a bit more time because I am really chomping at the bit for new flesh. I'm gonna keep waiting for a couple more days, then start Judging sometime early next week.

As of January 29, 10:37 AM EST:

Designers:

Hazukari
Omegagouki
UrsusArctos
Themaninblack withdrawn
Holy Diver
Great Genius Shinji-Sama (withdrawn)
Vegeta 20XX (withdrawn)
Formless One
Agentomega
Avatar of Dreams

[Chowwow]

I am proud to present to you the second of our stragglers, Formless One's entry! This one is a bit different from the others, as the format is much more like a narrative than any of our profiles that we have last seen. Take a look!

February 2
Formless One

Commander Spencer Lemel Draper

The screen on the small folding video player flickers to life in your hands. A single laserdisk inside it starts spinning, producing a whirring noise that soon quiets down as the recording loads.

On screen a tall, middle aged man with gray hair and dressed in the outfit of a united states major general sits down inside a lavish looking office. Behind him is a large window covered by venetian blinds and flanking him on both sides are a pair of bookshelves. The titles of some of the books can be made out, such as "sun Tzu's the Art of War," "Think and Grow Rich," "The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells," "The Call of Cthulhu: an Anthology of H.P. Lovecraft," and "2014 Baseball Card Collector's Guide." On top of the bookshelf on his right is a small decorative sword. On top of the other are several small framed photos of the man's family and friends. The man's desk is mostly clear, save for another pair of photos. One is of a woman in a wedding dress. The other is of another man and a different woman standing on a beach, their smiles frozen in time.

The man clears his throat and begins to talk. He speaks in a slightly clipped baritone, a clearly military accent.

"My name is Commander Spencer Lemel Draper of NERV. If you are watching this, it means the worst has happened. For what its worth, I congratulate you on surviving the end of the world as we know it.

"This message is intended to serve as a testimony to how these events came to be, from the perspective of one who, unwittingly, helped set them in motion. This is my story. It is also yours."

Spencer shuffles a few papers on his desk. "At this point, you probably want to know a little bit about me to better understand. In a few months I will be turning 56. I've been married twice, and have had the privilege of raising three children in my time. One of them will hopefully help prevent anyone from ever having to watch this tape.

"I've served in the US Army since as an intelligence officer since I was young and foolish. I wish I could say I chose this career out of patriotism or some such thing, but in fact I was young and I didn't know what to do with my life at the time. Myself and a few friends all chose to join the military over a game of poker. It was that or... well, actually...

"Ahem-- I'm getting off track. After I got through officer training I was assigned to Army Operations Activity, part of the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command center. Most of my career was spent analyzing information gathered through human intelligence by the CIA for its relevance, potential, and interest to the Army, and advising people in positions of more authority on which threads to pursue. My commanding officer had a lot of respect for me and trusted my judgment, so my suggestions always held some weight.

"Then one day the chance of a lifetime fell into my lap. It was a report from one of the CIA's covert case officers working in East Germany. In the report he detailed that a high ranking Russian officer was planning on defecting to Turkey, and was willing to sell us Russian materiel and who knows what other secrets in exchange for amnesty. Seeing this as a once in a lifetime opportunity to accomplish something that could advance my career, I jumped at it and suggested that it was worthy of going after. In my enthusiasm I didn't bother to fact check because I was sure that the report was legitimate. In retrospect I don't know how I managed to convince my superiors to investigate, but somehow I managed. They confirmed that the report was accurate, and they gave the go ahead on a covert operation to extract the defector. Alarm bells should have been going off in my head at that point since only the CIA itself could legally do covert operations. Instead I recommended Joshua Triton, one of my old buddies who was at the poker game where we decided to join the military, to fly the transport that would be picking up the mark because I trusted him personally.

"The two of us must have been the only damn fools that were part of that operation that wasn't in on the joke, so to speak. According to Josh, he knew something was wrong when a goddamn General got into the aircraft and told him to disregard the briefing and to take him to the Jordan/Israel border instead of Turkey where the defector was supposed to be. When they landed, the General got out, spoke to a few people on the landing strip. Then a CIA agent, smiling like piranha after a meal and holding a small black box, got into the aircraft. There was no Russian defector. There was no materiel, no Soviet secrets. It had been a cover for something else. The man ordered Josh to fly him with the "package" back to the US. He then told Josh that if he talked about what had happened that day to anyone, especially Military intelligence, he and his family would face dire consequences.

"Josh decided to risk it and come to me and our mutual friend Tom Langley, gambling that I would be the fall guy for whatever scandal he had just participated in anyway. Tom meanwhile worked overseas in Europe most of the year, so Josh figured that he wasn't going to be at much risk talking to him either. At the time I had heard nothing about the results operation, which annoyed me since I was still expecting high praise and a raise at that point. When he came in telling me that it was some kind of bait and switch operation, I didn't want to believe it. But when I went to my superiors, none of them were helpful. My CO was the only one who sympathized, but still told me to forget about it.

"I was furious. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what. I had a dozen theories running through my head; everything ranging from a defection on our side, to the Soviets trying to smuggle something dangerous onto US soil. I knew that I would get nothing from my superiors, so I had to look into it myself. I decided that the first place to start was to find out as much as I could about the case officer who had given us that report. I couldn't access the CIA's files, so I had to go directly to the source: Germany.

"I was lucky enough to even know who to look for, let alone find him. Supposedly he went by the name of Jonas. As it turned out, his cover was that he was an archeologist living in Western Berlin. According to his housekeeper, a young Japanese student named Kyoko, the man was out at an archeological dig. Ever so conveniently, this dig was in Jordan. This confirmed in my mind that he was not, in fact, a case officer at all. I was willing to bet that he reported to one, though.

"Before I left Berlin I looked up who was funding this so-called case officer's trip, and what they were supposedly looking for. Turned out that it was being funded by a Stuttgart based brain trust called 'The Soul of the World,' or SEELE, as they are now known. The institution was old, having survived WWII intact despite allegations of being sympathetic to the Nazis. The dig was supposed to be looking for evidence of more buried texts like the Dead Sea Scrolls that had been found in Israel in the forties and fifties. According to the publications they had found something, but the authenticity was called into question by scholars. I had seen enough to convince me that it wasn't what it claimed to be.

"When I got back, I told Josh and Tom what I had found. In retrospect, I almost wish I hadn't because of what Josh did next. He feigned injury to get medical leave from the Air force, and bought a plane ticket to Germany under an assumed name. Once there he went to the headquarters of SEELE, impersonated one of their staff, and made out with carbon copies of dozens of documents they had in the building. I... I'm still mystified how he managed that. He claimed he did it with nothing but a badly forged nametag and a confident tone in his voice, and apparently no one bothered to question his presence until after he had left. I didn't even know he spoke German.

"When he got back, he didn't waste any time getting in contact with Tom and I. I've never seen him that nervous, like the CIA or the Germans were going to arrest him and unperson him at any moment. He had committed so many crimes at that point that I couldn't blame him."

Spencer gets up and faces the bookshelf on his left. He pulls off a binder labeled "1980 baseball card collection" from it and faces the camera once more. "I hide those documents in here. From what I have pieced together from reading them and other information I have gathered since, in the late thirties SEELE, with the support of the Nazi party, did an archeological expedition in the Syrian desert. During this expedition they found seven nearly identical ancient machines, artifacts that could not have been made by human hands even now. Each one is the size of a dictionary, each one is covered in runes that, when touched, activate a holographic message. This message has only been partially deciphered, but from what a gather it says that the origin of life on Earth is an alien race which seeded it billions of years ago. The rest of the messages are about some kind of metaphysics pertaining to souls, the inevitability of intelligent life arising, some bits about technology." Spencer laughs. "If it gives you as much of a headache to think about as it does me, welcome to my world. Honestly, I think something must have been lost in translation... And that's assuming that the translation hasn't been outright tainted by SEELE's ideology. I know some of it is objectively true, just not how much."

Spencer replaces the folder and sits down. "Anyway, after WWII these machines were codenamed the "Dead Sea Scrolls," ironically shortly before someone else discovered actual man made scrolls in the same area that also bear that name. At that point, the Scrolls and SEELE had switched hands to the US government who let the institution continue to exist as a puppet so they could reap whatever benefits could be gained from the scrolls. The people running SEELE latched onto a bunch of doomsday beliefs, and gradually started spreading their influence around the world. As they deciphered the messages more they found out that they didn't have the full set of tablets. They were missing two of them, one of which had a technical archive, and the other had the technology needed to locate other artifacts made by their creators. From what I've learned since 1986, I'm guessing they found the latter, and one of the artifacts they uncovered with it was the cause of Second Impact."

Spencer Shifts in his chair. "Josh revealed the documents only to myself and Tom Langley. Initially, we were divided on what to do. I wanted to go public. Langley was intrigued, but wanted to investigate further before making any moves. Josh wanted nothing more to do with it. He was embarrassed that he had taken so many risks to steal what seemed like little more than insane ravings by a bunch of Nazis in denial. In the end, we decided to settle it the only fair way I knew of: over a game of poker."

Spencer smiles. "Well, to be honest it wasn't a fair game... I cheated. My line of work tends to encourage that kind of thing. However, even then I lost. Josh was just that good at poker."

"After that, Josh took the documents and hid them somewhere safe. He then owned up to the Air Force for feigning injury to get out of work and was dishonorably discharged for it. They never did manage to pin the other crimes on him, although I'm sure that if they did, they would have killed him in a heartbeat. Eventually they did... but that's another story.

"For a while there was still one loose end I wanted to tie up. The way the cover up had been orchestrated was too perfect. It wasn't just that it was a rather roundabout way to get transportation with deniability attached, but that the bait had been so specific. It was as if it had been intended to be bit by me, specifically. And I still didn't know who had sent that report to me. It obviously wasn't the archeologist Jonas. A part of SEELE he may have been, but he was, in fact, a real archeologist.

"Of course, only after years of paranoia did I find out that my friend Thomas Langley had been Jonas's 'assistant' in 86. And I only found that out at his wedding, where he married the same young girl, Kyoko Soryu, who had answered the door for me when I was in Germany looking for answers. Small world, I guess. Since then our friendship has been... strained.

"After Josh died, he left me two things: his daughter, who I have endeavored to raise to the best of my ability, and in his will he gave me information on where to find the documentation. By that time, it was too late to go public. However, it wasn't too late to join SEELE and bring it down from the inside. I have endeavored to do everything in my power to undermine their plans. Getting Yae into the Evangelion pilot program, maneuvering agents like Kaji into NERV headquarters, funding my own programs in secret. Anything I can do to spite those bastards."

Spencer sighs, and looks suddenly quite tired. "I don't know that it has done any good, though." he says. "That's why I wanted to be sure that this and other records of our civilization exist. I have gone to the effort to fund the creation of as many time capsules and crypts as I can. Should the worst happen, I want to be sure that the survivors have a chance. I tried to be sure these capsules would be filled with knowledge and things that would help people's survival. You must rebuild humanity. I hope to make it every bit as easy as I can."

"Good luck."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

With this, we are now left with Hazukari, who should be able to present on Wednesday. After that, we can go on to Judging!

Next time:
Hazukari

[UrsusArctos]

Kudos to Formless One. It's a superb entry!

[Formless One]

Kudos to Formless One. It's a superb entry!

Why thank you very much! Honestly there are parts of it that I'm not satisfied with, but obviously there was no more time to work on it, so I'm glad you like it.