NeXus
Author's Notes
There is a story behind the origin of this fic and its universe, but it spawns many arcs and hundreds and hundreds of hours of role-play. It is worth noting before proceeding that there are significant differences between the original Nexus RP and this NeXus parody slew.
One could say that this started the summer before my freshman year in high school, when my friend Chrissy and I were talking about something over instant messenger that involved picking her up to go somewhere. This was after I had made her and her friend watch all of my beloved Shoujo Kakumei Utena fansubs once through, and I knew that Chrissy held a deep loathing for Ohtori Akio. I am also a sadistic bastard, so I started playing Akio over the messenger trying to offer her rides in the Akio car. This continued in a petty fashion for a while. At this point I was working on my wretched Utena fic Saionji Kyouichi's Day Off, if anybody wants a reference for how mature (or not) my writing style was back then.
In any case, long story short, random anime characters started showing up in my closet. They showed up in mecha. They showed up at the front door for no reason. Chrissy and I were main characters in this, as ourselves. So yes, there was self-insertation and every form of wish fulfillment one can imagine. Hell, two rabid fans get to shack up with all of their favorite characters and do crazy things and get superpowers; how much cooler can life get? Chrissy got to have affairs with both Eagle Vision and Lantis (at the same time), for example. But since it was OUR wish fulfillment, we loved it. And despite all this, I think that we kept ourselves very human and un-idealized. By no means were either of our characters perfect.
I played every single character but Chrissy. This started as small little gag skits over MSN messenger, but soon evolved into hour role-plays. Than two hour. Than three. Soon, we were piling into the Akio-car to go get caffeine-rushed at Starbucks. Things like that. Stupid things.
The last entirely gag, ludicrous role-play I can remember is the Disneyland one. It was after this point that I wanted to do a scary movie role-play spoof. Creepy noises and axe murderers and suchlike. I had no ahead planning, and I had expected this to entirely be a gag.
What happened, I do not know. I have always had a penchant for the depressing, the serious, and the supernatural. Esoteric, one might say. The random supernatural spook started hurting people. Really hurting them. They were bleeding and hurting, and for once the Great Will of the Macrocosm was not around to fix them up for the sake of the plot. The six that were hurt and dying were rushed to a local hospital. The role-play became serious and yet ludicrous. It was no longer a running gag. What once could not stay serious could not stay funny. Remember that saying "It's only funny until somebody gets hurt?"
Out of this supernatural incident, the character Mana was born. He was the 'spook', per say. He was and is my seriously deranged inner child. So yes, in this fic there is some self-insertation, one might say. Using the name Mana//Scienziato as a handle and then writing fic about it is one of the cardinal signs of Mary Suism. Whether or not it applies is a matter of opinion, but I do not think it does. I will not explain Mana's story here, for I am planning on writing it out someday as an original fic or revealing it through the course of NeXus.
We went to Middle Earth in the NSX to return the one ring. We went to Hogwarts. We did a vampire saga. We did another vampire saga. We did the Wanderer saga, which introduces a great deal more of my original characters: Gabriel, Mariel, Antigone, Michael, and Isimah. I plan on also writing their story. As of now, we are going back to Hogwarts, and I do not know where else the journey will take us. It is from this role play that many of my characterizations (example: Dalet from Escaflowne, as also seen in The Wretched) evolved. It is from these countless hours that my storytelling and dialogue improved by cosmic leaps and bounds. Looking back from where I started, I am amazed at how far this has come and how much my writing has evolved.
This fic, on the other hand, is not serious. It is absolutely ridiculous and ludicrous. Nothing is sacred. Everything is game. Think Terry Pratchett with a dash of Kurt Vonnegut and a hearty mixing with Simpsons brand egg beaters. There is also a lot of Kuro influence thrown in there. This is the product of my twisted mind. You are welcome to turn back now.
The fic merely uses the same universal setup as my role-play, which I also tend to call the Nexus (note the absence of the capitol X). However, in this case neither Chrissy nor I are the main characters. I wanted to let the other characters take center stage and tell the story for their fans. In the final analysis, this is what you need to know: all anime (and a lot of non-anime) is thrown into one big merging universe. The settings, the laws, and the characters have a tendency to run into one another, for better or for worse.
All of the world is a stage. The universe is a bigger stage. The NeXus is an even bigger stage with more insane actors.
I do not know where this will go, but I at least think that I have some idea as to why it began.
--December 19, 2003
