Surrogate of Zero
, by Charles Bhepin, is a crossover fic between Neon Genesis Evangelion and The Familiar of Zero, wherein Louise summons a post-Third Impact Shinji Ikari as her familiar. It's a rewrite of Points of Familiarity, promising "A smaller scope, a tighter narrative, less innuendo."
Discussion threads for Surrogate at SpaceBattles.com can be found here and here. Note that the second thread includes a snippet of chapter 8 yet unpublished in FanFiction.Net.
See Neon Genesis Evangelion and The Familiar of Zero for the tropes of those respective universes.
Surrogate of Zero provides examples of the following:
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: It's first defied when Asuka tells Shinji to ask Louise for details about Halkeginian magic, and then discussed later in dialogue between Asuka and Shinji, and Asuka and Rei.
- Animal Eye Spy: Shinji discovers that the familiar/master bond allows he and Louise to see through each others' eyes. They use this in ch. 7 to discuss Siesta's odd behavior and what would have caused it via written notes.
- Animals Hate Him: ZigZagged. Kirche's fire lizard is afraid of Shinji, but Tabitha's dragon just bites his head and slobbers on him in nothing more than apparent curiosity.
- Aristocrats Are Evil:
- The commoners generally see the nobles as this, especially when they think that Louise stole Shinji away from his prior life to be her familiar.
- Guiche all but says outright that Count Mott has a taste for rape, and throws orgies for other nobles as a way of securing influence.
- Badass Bookworm: Due to being the container of the Well of Souls, Shinji has the sum of human knowledge stored in his head.
- Beef Bandage: Used by Shinji after Louise gets mad and blows him up in ch. 7.
- Body Surf: Rei emerges through Shinji and comes close to "tanging" Siesta before she's stopped by Asuka.
- Canis Latinicus: Asuka refers to Shinji as Shinjicus Ikaricus Inepticus, Louise as Louise-la-Vallieries Tsunderis Jailbaitus, and Tabitha as Tabithas Neotenus Badasseri.
- Colon Cancer: Comes up when Rei chides Asuka at the start of ch. 6.Sohryu, we are concerned about how you're treating your task as if it is Shinji Ikari: The Spin-off Game: Divinity Maker: The RPG.
- Comic Role Play: A serious take. After failing to get Louise to understand the implications of Siesta suddenly becoming a mistress of Count Mott through discussion, Shinji roleplays the possible iterations with her. It's eerily effective; Asuka is especially impressed.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Shinji utterly dominates Guiche in their duel.
- Death by Childbirth: Just as in Points, although the details are still unknown. What's established is that Shinji and Asuka's baby was a girl. Also, the baby's skeleton is referred to as "hand-sized", and Asuka calls her "aborted" at one point, hinting that she may have died from a miscarriage.
- Dramedy: Surrogate is much more comedic in tone than Points, although the fundamental seriousness is still present.
- Exposition Beam: Shinji gives Louise, Colbert, Osmond, and Longueville an idea of his past and what he had to deal with by having them relive his experience of piloting Unit 01 against Sachiel.
- Eye Scream: The experience of Sachiel impaling Unit 01's head through its eye is described in detail during the Exposition Beam scene, which causes Louise, Osmond, Colbert, and Longueville all to bleed from their right eyes as a side effect.
- First-Person Smartass: Asuka's narration frequently drifts into this, especially when she and Shinji are "talking" directly to each other. That said, no one is safe from her snark (except Tabitha, to some extent).
- Flat "What": Chapter 1 gives us this gem:Asuka: The waters are red, not like blood, but the broken dreams of Communism.
Shinji: What. - God Guise: In order to cover up his AT-field tricks, Shinji sets up Asuka as a goddess of war, her skull being a holy relic that gives its wielder power. The intro to ch. 6 is a discussion between Asuka and Rei about expanding the "pantheon."
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Shinji and Guiche's duel ends with Shinji taking out Guiche in one hit by beaning him with Asuka's skull.
- Humanoid Abomination: Shinji is, as labeled by Asuka, Homo Apotheosis: the embodiment of the Well of Souls created in Third Impact. In other words, he's an Angel...a description that Shinji doesn't do much to dispel since he made his and Asuka's daughter's skull into an Angelic core inside his body. His AT Field mastery also gives him seemingly superhuman power (he can casually break stone with his bare hands and climb up solid rock walls), plus Halkegenian magic doesn't affect him. That said, he is very reluctant to actually use the Well of Souls to its full potential, for various reasons.
- Improvised Weapon: Asuka describes her skull as this during Shinji's duel.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Asuka's most proud of and affectionate toward Shinji when he's fighting and standing up for others, especially if he's invoking her and/or using her skull.There are so many ways of resolving this, and still you chose the one that leads to violence. Oh you sweet thing. I so want to give you a biiig hug right now.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Done intentionally by Tabitha with her book stacks in the library.
- Interactive Narrator:
- Asuka's narration sits on both sides of the fourth wall—it's not only a foundation of the story, Shinji hears most (if not all) of it in his head.
- Rei also tries to join the fun but Asuka blocks any attempts at doing so. However, the two of them do converse "behind the scenes" about certain issues.
- Lemony Narrator: Asuka never holds back on snarking, mostly at Shinji.
- Little Miss Badass: Asuka recognizes Tabitha as someone not to be trifled with almost immediately after Shinji meets her. Learning later that she's already a Triangle-class mage reinforces the point.
- Memento Macguffin: Asuka's skull. For Shinji, it's a reminder of what he's lost, a sentimental token of their relationship, and a potent weapon. It later becomes a way for Longueville to get access to the school's Vault once Shinji turns it over to the school.
- Mindlink Mates: Shinji and Asuka, as a result of her soul having rejoined the Well of Souls after her second death.
- Mister Seahorse: A very odd take. Some of Shinji's behaviors remind Louise of a pregnant woman, which leads Asuka to note that by taking their unborn daughter's soul into himself, he's made himself metaphysically pregnant.
- No-Sell: Neither Shinji nor Asuka's skull are affected by Halkegenian magic in the slightest, aside from Shinji acquiring the runes on his hand as part of the familiar binding spell.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The start of ch. 7, when a slightly-drunk Siesta interrupts one of Louise's classes to tell Shinji goodbye, signals to him that something is very wrong.
- Posthumous Narration: There's a reason Asuka isn't directly interacting with Shinji. She even mentions her skull in first-person.
- Power Limiter: Asuka herself acts as a barrier between the Well of Souls and Shinji. For his sake, it should be mentioned, since he doesn't want the power it offers, and she protects (or merely blocks?) him from the other personalities within the Well such as Rei.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Guiche has no love lost for Count Mott, primarily because of his predatory ways.[...] don't you dare compare a Gramont to a Mott! Someone who forces himself onto a woman is scum! Though there are those who despise the well-earned reputation of the Gramont, never have we taken liberties with a woman without her willing consent! To us, the face of Mott is the face of the enemy!
- Shout-Out: Bpen continues his penchant for them, but he takes it a step further by having Shinji lampshade their use in Asuka's narration, which she defends as a means of helping make sense of their circumstances.
- A wild portal appears!
- nananananana Asukaaah!
- He is off to explore new worlds, new civilizations, [...]
- "By your command, Mistress."
- Asuka describes a familiar in one of Louise's classes as a Beholderkin.
- Asuka compares a possibility of Shinji going to rescue Siesta to Mario.
- "This is Sohryu, Langley Asuka.” He pronounces it Sohhr-yu, L’anglih Azukah. Hey, you bitches. Roll for SAN loss already.
- Peace is a lie. There is only passion.
- Tragic Keepsake: When Shinji goes to Halkegenia, he takes two of these with him: the skulls of Asuka and their baby, the latter of which Shinji transforms into an Angelic core in his body.
- Unreliable Narrator: Self-admitted by Asuka. Shinji's also aware of this, and thus it's hard to tell when he's "listening" to the narration or tuning it out.
