Title: Don't Look
Author: gabriel blessing
Rating: M
Fandom: Evangelion / Slender Man crossover
Genre: Horror
Pairing: Misato K./Shinji I.
Chapters: 6
Words: 51,016
Updated: Oct 31, 2012
Published: Oct 24, 2012
Status: Complete
Summary: 'No no no no no no'. 'Can't run'. 'Always watches, no eyes'. 'Leave me alone'. 'Don't look... or it takes you'. 'Help me.' Shinji already knew all that. He knew it all too well. But there was never anyone there to help. Misato intends to change that. If she can.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8637502/1/Don-t-Look


When Misato picks Shinji up, she notices a man in the background, a tall, slim man in a suit. She realises that something is off when right after the third angle the same man is standing right outside of Shinji's hospital room, deep in the innards of Nerv's geofront. Shinji himself is odd as well. He always looks to the ground, never looks up, never faces anyone directly. And he knows the man he calls the "slender man" - but that's all Misato is getting out of Shinji.

I don't know how well known 'the Slender Man' is. It started as an internet meme in 2009, got some games and eventually some real attempted murder in its name. You don't need to know anything about it, the story is pretty self explanatory.

What you won't see in this story: Evangelions. NGE with Tokyo 3 and Nerv's headquarters is the stage on which the story takes place, but the Evas and the fights against the Angles are only mentioned in passing.

The story starts with Misato picking up Shinji and focusses on the incidents around the appearance of the Slender Man. It ends with Kaji and Asuka arriving in Tokyo 3 as a kind of epilogue. The story is told from several point of views, Misato's, Ritsuko's, and the students' who interact with the Slender Man.

Gabriel Blessing has delivered better works, nevertheless I think it still qualifies for the library. It's a horror story with some really good, perhaps even great moments, and some not so great scenes as well, especially when the author tries to insert some funny elements (i.e. Ritsuko's thoughts when interacting with Gendo). It also could do with a beta reader.

I liked the way the author combined the two 'fandoms' and used the Evangelion setting as a background, though it is on the verge of becoming exchangeable. Shinji says one line that should have been explored further: "The Evas are the only thing that scare him."

All in all I rate it 4/5.

 

This is one of my standard recommendations when telling people that Gabriel's shorter work is superior to his long-running stories. The horror is well executed and the anticipation builds up nicely.

The lack of Evangelions in an Evangelion fic is a small downside, I agree, but to be fair NGE was never really about the robots. It was about the people, and their neuroses as they interacted with one another in a high stress environment. This accomplishes that admirably, and is something I've reread a few times now due to its characterization.

Solid 4/5

 

Yeah, this is one of the few fics that I've read more than once or twice. I'd reckon I've read it at least 5 or more times.

4/5

 

Great piece of fan fiction, one of the better portrayals of Slender Man in fan written fiction. I felt sorry for Shinji and plain creeped out. His fear and idiosyncrasies come out very well.

The only negative thing I can remember is that while there is a hook it took me a bit of time before I started enjoying the story.

4/5

 

Read this one ages ago. For all his shortcomings, GB comes up with absolutely bizarre crossover ideas and somehow makes them seem so damn natural (hell, I remember when I first started reading In Flight, I didn't think it'd work at all - now it's a standard crossover).

It was executed well and managed to avoided any of the usual GB issues.

4/5