Okay, let's see if I can summarize this well enough. Skysaber's tactic is to act like a delusional nutcase who's convinced he's the star of a sentai series, and treats the rest of the cast like they're, well, the rest of the cast. Couple this with some inside information on the Evas, plus what he knows of the show's plot, and he starts convincing the other people around him. In the process he makes some wild off-hand comments, like one about Misato being a former magical girl driven to despair, whose powers are suppressed by alcohol.
Later in the story, some reinforcements he's called in from his "home office" show up, and they include Washuu from Tenchi Muyo!, who promptly decides to make his off-the-cuff comments true, just for the fun and chaos factor of it. Here's the first relevant passage from Otaku 3 (chapter 7); I hope Jared doesn't mind the excerpting.
"The MAGI predict the battle will last no more than two minutes, without a significant chance for Sky Lord to get a victory." Aoba regretfully reported, reading his boards. Faces paled in the command center as Jared dodged another blast. Pen Pen leaped up onto her desk. "Misato quick! Transform into Pretty Katsuragi and save Jay-chan! You're the only one who can do it!" Everyone stood frozen, gaping at the penguin. Misato had a HUGE sweatdrop on the side of her head and her eyelid twitched, mouth hung open. Ritsuko was clutching her chest like she might have a heart attack any moment. Ignoring the stares it was receiving, Pen Pen continued to gaze in open hope, only seeing Misato, focusing all his considerable powers of cuteness on wearing her down. Misato blinked. "Do I really have to do this?" On seeing Pen-pen nod, she winced, and started twitching. "Oh... this stinks." The bridge tech Hyuga couched into his hand, saying loud enough to mention. "The choice between being a comic sidekick or a fighting team player only comes once, Major." Maya didn't have the energy to glare, still busy staring at the reformed neo-penguin. "How can you be so calm about this?" Hyuga coughed again, speaking lowly. "Uhm, Aoba and I are writing a manga series on the side, based on our experiences here. We were actually kind of expecting this." Aoba gave a calm confirmative nod. "Yah, it was either have it happen for real or make it up on our own, and so far it's been more interesting to let the real stuff outpace the fake. I know I couldn't come up with something this weird." Ritsuko was obviously strained near her breaking point to ask the inane question she did. "How is it selling?" "Really well, so far. I guess we're going to have to include that part about Gendo being a surgically altered monkey anyhow." Hyuga gladly admitted. "I thought that was too weird, but with Misato being a magical girl..." Misato resumed twitching. Pen Pen pleaded with her using all of the force of cuteness a magical (or in this case, Washu-enhanced) mascot could cram into liquid, trusting eyes. Misato squirmed. "But isn't that kind of a stupid name? I mean Jared gets to be 'Sky Lord' and all I get is 'Pretty Katsuragi'? What about when I get married?" Pen Pen leaped into her arms and warbled. "Pretty mode is just what we call it when you change. Your combat name for fighting evil is Magical Soldier Cutie Emerald!" "Yaaahh!" Hyuga and Aoba broke into simultanious applause. One of them had produced party hats out of nowhere and the other had inflated balloons. Somehow even Ritsuko had a hat on and joined them in snapping party favors. It was the flash of an explosion as seen from the monitors that decided Katsuragi as to the course she should be pursuing. She clenched her fists to both sides in determination, leaning down to ask her pet penguin. "Okay, now what do I do?" Pen Pen leaped, performing a cute little mascot twirl and flip, which just happened to serve as the call beacon to the lab of The Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe, who had been waiting for such an eventuality, and with a ripple of disturbed dimensions, a green gemstone in a fancy necklace appeared to fall into Misato's suddenly outstretched hands. "Have you been taking any alcohol?" Ritsuko demanded of her friend seriously. Misato was too stunned to properly reply. "Huh?" Doctor Akagi folded her arms. "Jared was the one to tell us that your powers were inhibited by alcohol. I'm not sending a magical girl into battle with her powers impaired." Aoba wondered aloud to Hyuga if Fuyutsuki really was a robot in human guise over the bowl of punch that had been set on the table. Celebratory streamers hung overhead. Misato paid no attention to them, shaking her head. "No, I haven't been able to touch a drop since I moved in with... Jay-chan??" She directed a stunned look towards her neo-penguin, aka magical mascot. Said penguin gave a very professional nod. "Then that means he must have broken the curse that was put on you by Cyber Jew. The Gemstone Girls are getting ready to be together again! It was said that only True Love could break the spell, but since here you are again, it must have been he that did it! Now that their leader has been cured the rest of the team can be gathered! But first you *gotta* save Jay-chan!" Aoba and Hyuga gave very firm nods, toasting with their drink glasses. "True love?" Ritsuko sweated. "Him and her? Talk about age difference." Maya's mind was just boggling. Hyuga helped her to a little slice of 'Remember The Love' magical girl memorial cake they'd had delivered. Misato hurried to put the necklace on, then froze, sweatdropping, unable to believe she was doing this but going forward anyway. "Ugh, are there words that go with this? You know, trigger the transformation or something?" "They should come from your heart." Hyuga and Aoba both echoed professionally. Feeling clumsy, but having her sense of reality revoked moments ago when this all began, Misato shoved a fist at the heavens and shouted. "By the Power of Love!!" A burst of emerald green light shot forth from the crystal on her chest, expanding in a ring of change that swept over her. The uniform she'd been wearing was replaced by a green outfit with lots of very feminine appeal, tons of ruffles and ribbons combined into a beautiful style like you might see on an idol singer going all out for a cute look. Jewelry and accessories, along with a pair of pretty green shoes, completed the ensemble. Her hair had aquired two perky green bows on either side of her head and her hair had turned blonde all over. She could have faced against Azusa Shiratori for a cute contest. "Tame, but adequate." Aoba leaned over and calmly marked the day on his Doctor Ritsuko Akagi Swimsuit Calender. Hyuga had finished with snapshots and was now taking notes. Pen Pen jumped up on Misato's shoulder and explained. "The hair color change will keep *anyone* who knows your civilian guise from knowing who you are when you're in pretty mode. That is unless they see you transform." "The skirt could be a lot longer." Maya primly complained. "Actually that's in genre. The power of magical girls could almost be compared to the shortness of their skirts." Ritsuko observed, asking. "So, how do you feel, Cutie Emerald?" Misato was taking stock of her new earrings and whatnot. "Huh? I feel alright, I guess. Though I get the sneaking suspicion that I could fold rebar in my fist." As an experiment she reached out and twisted a steel plate in her grasp, actually surprised that she could do it. Pen Pen hopped up high and flapped his flippers hard enough to be actually flying in a sustained hover before her face, which almost astonished people as much as his talking earlier had done. "No time for that now, Cutie Emerald! Now you've got to use your magical powers to save Jay-chan! Hurry up and get in one of those giant robots so you can go out and enter the fight! Your true love is counting on you, Emerald!" Misato swallowed all lingering doubts about reality and took off running. Maya was slowly shaking her head. Watching the neo-penguin fly after her interim commander, she groused. "When did we all fall down the rabbit hole?" The two other techs shared a look, then united in chorus. "You mean this Geofront?" Maya's face fell into her hands, groaning. In her lab, eating popcorn, Washu began to laugh herself SICK! The antics of Jared were just too hilarious! She *never* would've thought to perform a joke like this without his having set it all up in advance! But it was so humorous! Her scheming mind was already working on other angles. The alterations to Pen Pen had to be pretty extreme, making up a past history and all that so the little animal wouldn't even know about his own part being fabricated. Luckily, she had a machine that would do that. She'd just fed in a few copies of Neon Genesis Evangelion for the characters and a coupla issues of Sailor Moon and Cutie Honey for genre, and already what it spit out was rocking her sides with laughter!
After this point, the modified Pen-Pen (and his new counterpart, Pan-Pan, who is of course first seen standing on a Little Caesar's pizza box) hand out necklaces to a number of the female Eva cast, revealing that they, too, supposedly were Gemstone Girls in an earlier life -- Asuka and Rei are Cutie Sapphire and Cutie Ruby, respectively.
And that's the core of reference in the passage.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Later in the story, some reinforcements he's called in from his "home office" show up, and they include Washuu from Tenchi Muyo!, who promptly decides to make his off-the-cuff comments true, just for the fun and chaos factor of it. Here's the first relevant passage from Otaku 3 (chapter 7); I hope Jared doesn't mind the excerpting.
"The MAGI predict the battle will last no more than two minutes, without a significant chance for Sky Lord to get a victory." Aoba regretfully reported, reading his boards. Faces paled in the command center as Jared dodged another blast. Pen Pen leaped up onto her desk. "Misato quick! Transform into Pretty Katsuragi and save Jay-chan! You're the only one who can do it!" Everyone stood frozen, gaping at the penguin. Misato had a HUGE sweatdrop on the side of her head and her eyelid twitched, mouth hung open. Ritsuko was clutching her chest like she might have a heart attack any moment. Ignoring the stares it was receiving, Pen Pen continued to gaze in open hope, only seeing Misato, focusing all his considerable powers of cuteness on wearing her down. Misato blinked. "Do I really have to do this?" On seeing Pen-pen nod, she winced, and started twitching. "Oh... this stinks." The bridge tech Hyuga couched into his hand, saying loud enough to mention. "The choice between being a comic sidekick or a fighting team player only comes once, Major." Maya didn't have the energy to glare, still busy staring at the reformed neo-penguin. "How can you be so calm about this?" Hyuga coughed again, speaking lowly. "Uhm, Aoba and I are writing a manga series on the side, based on our experiences here. We were actually kind of expecting this." Aoba gave a calm confirmative nod. "Yah, it was either have it happen for real or make it up on our own, and so far it's been more interesting to let the real stuff outpace the fake. I know I couldn't come up with something this weird." Ritsuko was obviously strained near her breaking point to ask the inane question she did. "How is it selling?" "Really well, so far. I guess we're going to have to include that part about Gendo being a surgically altered monkey anyhow." Hyuga gladly admitted. "I thought that was too weird, but with Misato being a magical girl..." Misato resumed twitching. Pen Pen pleaded with her using all of the force of cuteness a magical (or in this case, Washu-enhanced) mascot could cram into liquid, trusting eyes. Misato squirmed. "But isn't that kind of a stupid name? I mean Jared gets to be 'Sky Lord' and all I get is 'Pretty Katsuragi'? What about when I get married?" Pen Pen leaped into her arms and warbled. "Pretty mode is just what we call it when you change. Your combat name for fighting evil is Magical Soldier Cutie Emerald!" "Yaaahh!" Hyuga and Aoba broke into simultanious applause. One of them had produced party hats out of nowhere and the other had inflated balloons. Somehow even Ritsuko had a hat on and joined them in snapping party favors. It was the flash of an explosion as seen from the monitors that decided Katsuragi as to the course she should be pursuing. She clenched her fists to both sides in determination, leaning down to ask her pet penguin. "Okay, now what do I do?" Pen Pen leaped, performing a cute little mascot twirl and flip, which just happened to serve as the call beacon to the lab of The Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe, who had been waiting for such an eventuality, and with a ripple of disturbed dimensions, a green gemstone in a fancy necklace appeared to fall into Misato's suddenly outstretched hands. "Have you been taking any alcohol?" Ritsuko demanded of her friend seriously. Misato was too stunned to properly reply. "Huh?" Doctor Akagi folded her arms. "Jared was the one to tell us that your powers were inhibited by alcohol. I'm not sending a magical girl into battle with her powers impaired." Aoba wondered aloud to Hyuga if Fuyutsuki really was a robot in human guise over the bowl of punch that had been set on the table. Celebratory streamers hung overhead. Misato paid no attention to them, shaking her head. "No, I haven't been able to touch a drop since I moved in with... Jay-chan??" She directed a stunned look towards her neo-penguin, aka magical mascot. Said penguin gave a very professional nod. "Then that means he must have broken the curse that was put on you by Cyber Jew. The Gemstone Girls are getting ready to be together again! It was said that only True Love could break the spell, but since here you are again, it must have been he that did it! Now that their leader has been cured the rest of the team can be gathered! But first you *gotta* save Jay-chan!" Aoba and Hyuga gave very firm nods, toasting with their drink glasses. "True love?" Ritsuko sweated. "Him and her? Talk about age difference." Maya's mind was just boggling. Hyuga helped her to a little slice of 'Remember The Love' magical girl memorial cake they'd had delivered. Misato hurried to put the necklace on, then froze, sweatdropping, unable to believe she was doing this but going forward anyway. "Ugh, are there words that go with this? You know, trigger the transformation or something?" "They should come from your heart." Hyuga and Aoba both echoed professionally. Feeling clumsy, but having her sense of reality revoked moments ago when this all began, Misato shoved a fist at the heavens and shouted. "By the Power of Love!!" A burst of emerald green light shot forth from the crystal on her chest, expanding in a ring of change that swept over her. The uniform she'd been wearing was replaced by a green outfit with lots of very feminine appeal, tons of ruffles and ribbons combined into a beautiful style like you might see on an idol singer going all out for a cute look. Jewelry and accessories, along with a pair of pretty green shoes, completed the ensemble. Her hair had aquired two perky green bows on either side of her head and her hair had turned blonde all over. She could have faced against Azusa Shiratori for a cute contest. "Tame, but adequate." Aoba leaned over and calmly marked the day on his Doctor Ritsuko Akagi Swimsuit Calender. Hyuga had finished with snapshots and was now taking notes. Pen Pen jumped up on Misato's shoulder and explained. "The hair color change will keep *anyone* who knows your civilian guise from knowing who you are when you're in pretty mode. That is unless they see you transform." "The skirt could be a lot longer." Maya primly complained. "Actually that's in genre. The power of magical girls could almost be compared to the shortness of their skirts." Ritsuko observed, asking. "So, how do you feel, Cutie Emerald?" Misato was taking stock of her new earrings and whatnot. "Huh? I feel alright, I guess. Though I get the sneaking suspicion that I could fold rebar in my fist." As an experiment she reached out and twisted a steel plate in her grasp, actually surprised that she could do it. Pen Pen hopped up high and flapped his flippers hard enough to be actually flying in a sustained hover before her face, which almost astonished people as much as his talking earlier had done. "No time for that now, Cutie Emerald! Now you've got to use your magical powers to save Jay-chan! Hurry up and get in one of those giant robots so you can go out and enter the fight! Your true love is counting on you, Emerald!" Misato swallowed all lingering doubts about reality and took off running. Maya was slowly shaking her head. Watching the neo-penguin fly after her interim commander, she groused. "When did we all fall down the rabbit hole?" The two other techs shared a look, then united in chorus. "You mean this Geofront?" Maya's face fell into her hands, groaning. In her lab, eating popcorn, Washu began to laugh herself SICK! The antics of Jared were just too hilarious! She *never* would've thought to perform a joke like this without his having set it all up in advance! But it was so humorous! Her scheming mind was already working on other angles. The alterations to Pen Pen had to be pretty extreme, making up a past history and all that so the little animal wouldn't even know about his own part being fabricated. Luckily, she had a machine that would do that. She'd just fed in a few copies of Neon Genesis Evangelion for the characters and a coupla issues of Sailor Moon and Cutie Honey for genre, and already what it spit out was rocking her sides with laughter!
After this point, the modified Pen-Pen (and his new counterpart, Pan-Pan, who is of course first seen standing on a Little Caesar's pizza box) hand out necklaces to a number of the female Eva cast, revealing that they, too, supposedly were Gemstone Girls in an earlier life -- Asuka and Rei are Cutie Sapphire and Cutie Ruby, respectively.
And that's the core of reference in the passage.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.