LAST EDITED ON Mar-15-16 AT 02:12 AM (EDT)
 
... as I've been re-reading NXE both to refresh for X5 and in the course of the HTML conversions, I'm rediscovering stuff we did that... well, I won't say I'd forgotten about it, but it had gone off the top of the stack, for sure. For instance, I love the way Asuka and Truss are buddies after 2:3—and the way we kept remembering to call back to it in later episodes. Their little scenes always make me smile.

The re-read has also brought back to mind how unexpected DJ-and-Asuka was, and how we decided to run with that inside the story as well as out. That reaches its logical culmination with their conversations in 3:6 and early in 3:7, which I'm still quite pleased with all these years later.

Honorable mention, as well, to the moment later in 3:7 where, at the end of a long damn couple of days, DJ does the only thing that makes sense:

DJ looked after [Rei] for a moment, then turned and went to his bedroom. After a few restless minutes, he decided he couldn't face solitude tonight, and went quietly to Asuka's room.

She was asleep, but that was all right; all he wanted was to be near her. He slipped carefully under the covers on the far side of the bed, moving slowly and quietly so as not to disturb her, and wandered off to sleep after only a few minutes.

I think of the email I got from people scoffing that their relationship wasn't "real" (whatever that means in a fictional context), and then I think of that passage, and I just shake my head with a smile. One toke, you poor fool?

I realize I'm sort of congratulating myself here, but given the amount of time that's passed, I prefer to think I'm congratulating 1997-2000 me, and the rest of the team from that era. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Going to sleep next to the one you love? Sounds real enough to me.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

>Going to sleep next to the one you love? Sounds real enough to me.

I'm not sure I would have called it love at that point,(though several arguments could be made on it) but it was definitely a 'deeper then friendship' connection.

>>Going to sleep next to the one you love? Sounds real enough to me.
>
>I'm not sure I would have called it love at that point,(though
>several arguments could be made on it) but it was definitely a 'deeper
>then friendship' connection.

Well, they certainly think it is at that point, though amusingly for purposes of this discussion, they had just had the "are we really in love, and at this point can we actually be expected to know?" conversation earlier in that same episode. Be that as it may, the point is that there was more to them, as a couple, than just sexual compatibility and teenageness, which I think is what the doubters meant by "not real" back in the day. They aren't the couple from "Life in the Fast Lane" (The Eagles, Hotel California, 1976):

He was a hard-headed man, he was brutally handsome
And she was terminally pretty
She held him up and he held her for ransom
In the heart of the cold, cold city
He had a nasty reputation as a cruel dude
They said he was ruthless, said he was crude
They had one thing in common: they were good in bed
She'd say faster, faster, the lights are turning red

I mean, that is something Asuka would say, but... ;)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

*shrug* It always worked for me - I was wondering what it would take for them to realize they actually were good for each other (DJ getting her to loosen up, Asuka keeping DJ's head from over-inflating), and then you took care of it. It may have been unexpected to you the author (and I know that sort of thing happens to you frequently, but I've learned that it's a good thing - when the characters know what works best, it means you've put enough effort into them that they're alive, if only in your own head :)), but to at least this reader it felt like you were slowly leading up to the possibility, and when it happened it was more of an "OK, they went left rather than right at the fork"...

In any event, NXE was, in my opinion, when you turned a corner in your writing, taking it to the next level in your evolution as an author. And yes, your 1997-2000 self deserves a little pat on the back for it :)

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>