Advice and Trust [NGE]
Stargrave
Wine-drinking evil
- Location
- The White City
You got to hand it to Kyuubey, he works fast.
Please, feel free to speculate on why Zeruel would make a contract with the Devilbunny in order to save Touji. Please.
That was like rolling three 20s in a row. Yay exploding dicegasim...
Edit: What the hell happened to my text?
DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Critical Failure on formatting roll?
Shinji:
*Crit success on Kissing roll*
*Crit fails on keeping Balance*
*Crit success on reflex roll*
*Crit fail on INT roll*
*Crit fail on WIS Roll*
*Crit Success on INT Roll* ( when it dawns she like him...)
Asuka:
*Crit success on Kissing roll*
*Crit success on reflex roll*
*Crit sucess on Second Kissing Roll*
*Crit Success on INT Roll*
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Will he still have Rebuild's bag of tricks?
Reminds me of a moment in Valkyrian Mercs Quest. The GM takes the top 2 of the first 3 dice rolls. One of the squadmates (a sniper) is having a small sniping contest with another captured sniper (who had a bit of the hots for him). She rolled a 1. He rolled double 20s.
They had sex right then and there.
It would have been a triple 20 but someone rolled a 6 for the third dice.
Here's the link.
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I imagine he means more along the lines of "Shinji, Asuka, and Rei all fight Zeruel together" rather than "oh look Unit-02 just got beheaded hope Asuka's okay, right Shinji? Shinji? Shinji? Shi--oh look Rei just self-destructed in an attempt to kill the Angel but it did jack shit. Whelp, we're boned--oh look, Shinji's here, hooray. Wait, he's actually holding his own? Seriously? The fuck? Oh my god, he's actually winning, he can do--aaaand there goes the battery. We're fucked again. Goodbye eve--wait what."
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
Well, Asuka wanted him to kiss her back, poor canon!Shinji just froze up, and she interpreted it as rejection, because This. Is. Eva.
Duh: Raging crush. So then we can have a romantic triangle between Touji, Hikari, and Zeruel. DRAMA!
Hey, I once rolled five nat 20s in a row. In a Boss Fight!
Of course, that's never happened again...+1 win. XD
Probably not, but there will be surprises.
Just 600 words today. An update by the end of the week, or I start posting "A Crown of Stars".
Or both.
Probably both.
Art bonus: Read right to left!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Good point. Zeruel is no doubt powerful in either iteration, but he only ever fought one Eva at a time. Sure, technically he fought Rei and Mari in Rebuild, but that was more "fought Mari, fucked her over, then Rei charged at him with a super missile, he blocked pretty effortlessly, Mari comes back and helps her get the missile in, it blows up, Rei's fucked." With three Evangelion, and probably somewhat improved abilities (synch) on some of their parts (Asuka and Shinji, maybe Rei), they might at least be able to hold their own, at least for a time.
Winning, however...well, Zeruel is pretty bullshit, especially in regards to sheer durability. But they at least might be able to hold their own. For all that Zeruel is extremely powerful, he doesn't possess any particularly bullshit hax abilities, just normal stuff.
Of course, with how much closer he's gotten to Asuka, and to a much smaller extent Rei, it's likely going to be that much easier to spur Shinji into going Berserk if it comes to that. Of course, that would require Asuka being in extreme danger and/or pain.
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DB_Explorer
Purveyor of alternate realities.
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Pronouns
- He/Him
WTF is he made of? General Products hull?
.... that gives me an idea....
Better yet, ASUKA'S the one who goes berserk and eats Zeruel's
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
He had it up: All Asuka's fire was impacting on a flat plane in front of him and doing no damage to his skin. He just had his AT-Field up at such low power it hadn't hit the visible spectrum yet. He tanked everything Asuka could throw at him in and he was still in first gear.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I beg to differ. One of the critical components of a hax ability is its magnitude. A reality warper that can only make subtle changes that are very difficult to control or do at will? Very beatable. A reality warper that has complete, utter control of literally everything within a five meter radius of his person? Unbeatable.
Zeruel has no gimmicks, yes, and (theoretically) you could take him out before he has a chance to do significant damage (I'm looking at you, Bardiel, Mr. Bullshit-At-Maximum). But his raw power in all areas is so overwhelming and without weaknesses that the only way Zeruel could lose is by sheer stupidity or by an Eva going completely berserk. Which is what happened in canon, btw: Unit-01 awakened (absorbing its pilot into its core entirely) and went to town on the Angel. Otherwise, Rei shoved an N2 warhead through its AT field and held it right up against the core, and Zeruel still tanked it without a scratch. Its melee capability is insane (again, barring stupidity or berserk Eva, it's pretty much an all-range, all-direction, unblockable, versatile, and fast-moving attack that hacks off limbs like a flaming sword through paper-thin butter), its ranged capability is insane (it can even use it with accuracy at very close range, like a surgical beam, on top of using it as a pocket-nuke that he can just spam from long-range), its durability is insane, and it actually fights somewhat intelligently.
Arael is an obvious pain-in-the-ass to deal with, both because it's borderline-unreachable (unless NERV has a space program in the works, the Lance of Longinus and maybe the weapon used to take out Ramiel are the only options) and there isn't really any defense against its mindrape beam for Eva pilots. But beyond that, Arael can't directly do that much damage--at least, it can't actually initiate Third Impact or breach the Geofront.
Armisael is pretty hax, but a lot of that comes from its sheer alien-ness even compared to the other Angels--no one had any idea how to deal with it, either defensively or offensively, despite having roughly 15 Angels' worth of experience to fall back on. In a sense, Armisael is similar in nature to Bardiel, except Armisael doesn't automatically start from a winning position. Even if Armisael is much more difficult to actually stop/kill, it's not like Unit-00 spontaneously becomes an Angel (or several) out of nowhere, defying all sense and reason, never giving anyone a chance to even detect its presence before it's already got a perfect setup in the middle of the enemy's base.
Bardiel's total bullshit hax may have taken out an Eva before it could actually be used in the field, but Zeruel did the most damage--Unit-02 wrecked and Asuka's confidence and pride shattered, Unit-00 pretty wrecked, Unit-01 rendered unusable and Shinji MIA, Geofront wrecked and nearly all of its defenses and armor breached, big chunks of Tokyo-3 destroyed, and NERV as a whole so badly shaken that it's hardly operational when Arael comes along.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, than this is clearly just a difference of opinion on what constitutes hax. Zeruel, in my mind, has no hax abilities, just bullshit regular ones.
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hax is, by nature, something that totally overrides the skill of one's opponents (as well as their plans/preparations, where applicable) to the point where it's his/her game to lose, not their game to win. A hacker must either be careless or intentionally and arbitrarily limiting himself to the point where he is beatable by a sufficiently skilled opponent in order to be beaten.
Example: Aizen Sosuke. Even if the guy didn't have the kind of raw power that became absurd, his signature ability was so fucking broken that, intelligently/pragmatically applied, there was absolutely no way to counter. The only guy who was immune to this ability was someone he had plenty of chances to kill, but actively chose not to do so at any point, out of pure hubris. Guess who eventually defeated him?
About Rei: If she goes off the meds, she'll be both more passionate and aggressive and more perceptive/aware of the situation and surroundings, plus her mind--probably the equal of Asuka's, if not Yui's--will be working at higher efficiency. And think what will happen to her synch rate. (Yet she still might be willing to sacrifice her current incarnation.) Off-meds Rei could be a game breaker. That would give away her dropping the drugs; but if she's significantly more effective, how does Gendo justify putting her, or Rei III, back on the mind-control regimen?
Another point: Would lacking the suppressive drugs allow Rei III improved access to II's memories and, more importantly, her emotional development?
With a small act of caring towards someone she doesn't even like, Asuka may have completely remade NGE.
Way to go, Red!
and a 
God and the Snake
A Swamp of a Human Being
Through a series of increasingly unlikely events, Zeruel becomes friends with Toujis little sister, then uses his VAST ANGELIC POWERS to save Touji, because Sakura would be super-sad if he died.
A weapon that you cannot control is less valuable than a weaker weapon which you CAN control. The stronger and more independent Rei becomes, the greater the danger to Gendo's scenario. If he insists on putting Rei back onto the meds after her synch score skyrockets without them, Misato will most assuredly do all she can to fight him on it. In an effort to gain Misato's cooperation in convincing Rei to take her meds again, Gendo might reveal to her the fact that Rei is a genetically engineered clone made using Angel DNA, and claim that the meds are needed to keep her from growing beyond their ability to control.
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Actually...not quite true. As an example: normal Unit-01 versus berserking Unit-01. Sure, non-berserking Unit-01 can (and typically will) follow orders, but when Zeruel is wrecking your forces left and right and Shinji is too inexperienced and terrified to actually fight well against Sachiel, having a weapon with enough power to win is far more valuable.
Godzilla Threshold, in other words. If the Angels win, everyone dies. The Evas are literally the only things standing in the way of that. If your controllable weapons are not strong enough to defeat the next Angel, you either need an uncontrollable weapon that can or you are completely, utterly screwed. And considering that Angels are effectively unrestrained Evas (in terms of capability, anyway), this is a very real possibility.
While Gendo might not consider it worth the risk because his endgame plans are heavily reliant on a compliant Rei, SEELE might strongly disagree, thus forcing Gendo's hand on the matter. And as far as SEELE is concerned, a somewhat less controllable Rei that pilots significantly better as a result is a good tradeoff, because Rei is going to be fighting the Angels no matter what. Regardless, Gendo being so stubborn on this issue would raise a lot of eyebrows, and might cause Rei to become more defiant anyway.
Hell, Gendo relied on a berserking Unit-01 on multiple occasions as a winning strategy. That's the only reason I can think of as to why Gendo didn't authorize the use of the Lance of Longinus against Zeruel, too.
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- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
At least partly due to time. Zeruel hit Tokyo-3 fast. So fast they didn't even have time to deploy Asuka to the surface. Deploying it also required having an Eva go all the way down to the depths of Terminal Dogma and get the Lance out of Lilith's chest, then carry it all the way back up. That's several kilometers down and back up again. They had no time to send Rei and Unit-00 to do that this time.
Also, that brings up a lovely horror note: Rei was on the surface with Asuka when Arael hit her with the mind-rape beam. (She fired the Positron Rifle that bounced off Arael's AT-Field) She then had to go get the Lance and come back. The entire time that journey took, Asuka was getting hit. How long did that last?
Stargrave
Wine-drinking evil
- Location
- The White City
The basic premise of this is flawed because it assumes Rei would suddenly turn super competent without her meds, rather than confused and unfocused because she has has no idea how to operate without the meds that she has been taking her whole life. There are lot of different ways this could play out, up to Rei's death wish becoming stronger because she can feel the emptiness that more acutely.
Damn, how's that for a horror theme?
Damn, how's that for a horror theme?
Here's thing, Shinji had "lowest skill" in combat from all pilots but with combination of high sych ratio and using Eva in way (I believe they should be used) similar to angels own style, that is overwhelming power and demanding this power all time he was into winning the day he pulled shit that far surpassed other pilots (Unit 01 being cooperative surely helped).
Stargrave
Wine-drinking evil
- Location
- The White City
Shinji had a high sync ratio because his Eva was imbued with a soul that would tear through heaven and earth to protect him. Rei's Eva tried to kill her. It tried to kill Shinji too. It's frankly a goddamn miracle that she piloted it as efficiently as she did. I don't there's much room for improvement on that front.
Going off her meds and getting a life wouldn't necessarily result in Rei rejecting Gendo's scenario. Assisting him in reuniting with Yui is a core value that he developed in her. She might continue to believe that she neither could nor should refuse to submit to Gendo when the time comes, even if she has decided to enjoy, or at least experience, life in the meantime.
Or Gendo could lie, claiming that he has developed a procedure to join Yui that won't kill Rei but still needs her help. He might even get Shinji to go along.
Or alternatively, Gendo could apply that master-level mind of his and actually come up with something that will work without destroying all life on Earth. (Previously he just didn't care.)
Or Gendo could lie, claiming that he has developed a procedure to join Yui that won't kill Rei but still needs her help. He might even get Shinji to go along.
Or alternatively, Gendo could apply that master-level mind of his and actually come up with something that will work without destroying all life on Earth. (Previously he just didn't care.)