Rei Ayanami Raising Project

[Sutekh]

[X] Have Rei do it instead. It'd be a good way for Rei and him to make friends his own age. Take the Misato Is Feeling A Bit Lazy approach.

Honestly, you have way too much on your plate right now to worry about trying to give this kid an orientation without being able to even specify what he's really being oriented for. If you took the formal route, it'd read like a draft letter, which you doubt would go over well. You think about maybe trying to tease him a little to loosen him up. You don't know what he's like, but if he's anything like his father you imagine he'd be pretty uptight. You really hope he's not like Gendo. You try to think of a few openings with him before dismissing the entire idea as stupid and inappropriate. Gendo is already up your ass about Rei, the last thing you need to do is get him even more wound up by sending his son a flirtatious letter as a joke.

You're basically out of ideas at this point. You've never really known how to deal with members of the opposite sex. You thought you did once, but you were very, very wrong. You have some pretty severe misgivings about handling another teenager on top of Rei, who has proven to be quite a project herself. You're probably not the person who should be handling this at all. But orders are orders, and you'll have to deal with him eventually. For now though, you can stall a little bit. He's a problem for Future Misato to worry about.

You decide to try to kill two birds with one stone by foisting delegating the task of contacting Shinji to Rei. It makes sense to have your pilots get to know each other, and Rei could really use a friend her own age. Plus, it'd be a good way to work on her people skills a bit. She has those, right? You're not sure. She seems slightly…less bad…at it? than when you first met.

Anyway, you let Rei know that you're relying on her to contact Shinji. Rei says she understands and sets to work. Beaming, you decide to do some of the budget paperwork (ugh).

It occurs to you as you reach the halfway point of your work that you've just left Rei completely unsupervised. Well, it's probably fine, right?

…

You rush out of the room to see what Rei's up to. You find her in her hospital bed with several crumpled pieces of paper on the floor. Rei tells you calmly that she has not finished yet. She's having trouble finding the right things to say. Without asking, you pick up the paper she's working on.

Ikari—

Come to Tokyo-3. We will be waiting for you. I do not think we will require your services, but there are orders for you to come. I can perform my duties fully.

-Rei Ayanami.

Wow.

You crumple the paper and throw it on the floor with the others. Checking the others, they mostly say something to a similar effect. Rei frowns. She tells you she knows the letters are bad, but this is the best she can do right now. She seems frustrated.

You explain that telling someone they are unneeded is probably not the best approach. Rei starts to protest that NERV doesn't need Shinji. Rei is doing fine. If Rei fails, she can be replaced with ease. Her conviction in her disposability concerns you. Her self-confidence appears worse than you had anticipated. You tell her that even if that were true (which it is not), nobody likes being told bluntly that they are unneeded.

Rei thinks about this for a moment. You try to encourage her to be more welcoming and open to Shinji.

Rei writes this.

Ikari—

Come to Tokyo-3. We will be waiting for you. I am Rei Ayanami. We will be working together. I will see you soon.

-Rei Ayanami.

Better. You tell her it needs a little work, and could stand to be a bit longer, but this is more what you're looking for. You tell her not to worry too much about the exact words and to try to convey a welcoming mood. Rei seems a little confused for a moment, but nods and sets back to work. You go through a few more drafts with her, which are improvements, before returning to your desk. You can't hold her hand the entire time.

You do want to see the finished work before she sends it, though. Just in case. You tell her you'll be back at the end of the day to collect the final product and mail it. Rei nods, staring at the blank piece of paper in front of her.

You finish the budget report (ughhhh) and return to Rei. The room is clean of paper now. You ask to see the letter she came up with. Oh, Rei says. Rei already mailed it. It was more efficient this way. You feel the blood drain from your face. You feel faint. You really hope you haven't made a big mistake.

You should set some activities for Rei to do next week. That will help get your mind off this.

Conversation
Select one of the following:
Talk to Rei about:

Rei
[ ] General well-being
[ ] Mood
[ ] The past
[ ] The present
[ ] The future

Others
[ ] Yourself
[ ] Friends
[ ] Romance

Environment
[ ] NERV
[ ] School
[ ] Home
[ ] Tokyo-3
[ ] The World

Activities

Congratulations, Rei is now considered well enough to do some basic combat exercises in the Evangelion. Heavy physical activity is still a no-go, though. Unit-00 is still in the shop, unfortunately, but Unit-01 is available. Of course, it will have to undergo activation first...

Select two of the following:

[ ] Combat training
[ ] Synchronization training
[ ] Physical training
[ ] Study
[ ] Arts program
[ ] Go out

Special Activity
You may do one special activity of your choosing each week. It won't raise Rei's stats, but you can use it to bond with her, affect her mood, or solve her problems. Additionally, you can also use this slot to pursue your own projects, if any. This is not controlled by majority vote. The QM will merely choose the most entertaining one.

[ ] Write in

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Talk to Rei about the future

The future? Rei seems unusually reticent (even for her) when you bring up the future. You prod her several times before she admits that she's never really thought about the future in much detail. Evangelion pilots can die at any time, you know, so it's never really been something she's ever distracted herself with. There might not be a future for her. Or for you, even.

You stop Rei's monolog about the nature of war because it's really bumming you out. She's made you feel acutely aware of your own mortality, which sucks. You feel doubly depressed because she's even younger than you and she's so…morbid. She seems to have almost no hope for her future at all. She's a child.

You scramble to find a concrete thing that will happen, no matter what, to recover from looking into the Void with Rei. You bring up Shinji's imminent arrival as an attempt to prevent further sanity damage. It's barely perceptible, but Rei's voice sounds less monotone. You feel like her little speech about how Nothing awaited her was something she told herself in her head so much she'd gotten bored of it. It feels like she was reciting something pre-prepared.

She tells you that she does not know what to think about Shinji. She does not know him, and she does not want to assume things about a stranger. It would be…unkind. You try to get her to talk about how she feels about Shinji, rather than what she thinks. Is she curious? Excited? Nervous? Rei considers all these options. She does not know. She'll…have to think about it more. You're not sure what emotion Rei is feeling, but she feels something. You suspect, and this is only women's intuition talking, that she is nervous.

Rei wishes she understood herself better.

[X] Combat training

Now that your ward is able to walk unassisted, the first course of action is to put her back in the machine that injured her in the first place! You think sarcastically to yourself as the techs load Rei into the entry plug for Unit-01. They place the gargantuan purple mech in a room that reminds you unpleasantly of a padded cell you once sojourned in shortly after your rescue off the coast of Antarctica. You shake pff the bad memories and stand by the viewing window.

Ibuki and the other techs babble on about the stages of activation and various numerical values that mean nothing to you. Some of them sound vaguely familiar from the instruction manual you read, but honestly the technical side of things was always Ritsuko's job to translate for you. Nobody seems to be panicking, which you assume is good. Rei hasn't said anything, but you don't think Rei would say anything unless she was literally lit on fire. She seems calm on the internal monitors, which you also hope is good.

Ritsuko and Ibuki determine that the sync ratios are nearly the same between Unit-00 and Unit-01, with a slight dip for Unit-01. No detectable problems found for compatibility. Unit-01 can be piloted by Rei without issue. You sigh in relief.

The next few hours are spent getting Rei back into the swing of the basic offensive tactics. Repetitive and mind-numbing shooting exercises, slashing the Progressive Knife at different angles, stuff like that. After the combat training concludes, Rei seems exhausted. Still, it seems like she's in okay shape.

---

[X] Arts program

Later in the week you and Rei head back to the arts program for another try. You hope that she understands the point of this exercise better now. Honestly, you've looked into possibly getting therapy for the girl, but the Commander has blocked you at every turn. Rei is already evaluated psychologically by Ritsuko Akagi, no need to bring in a third party. Yeah, sure. Honestly, the more you learn about Ritsuko and Rei's relationship with each other, the more disturbed you feel. The Ritsuko you know is overly logical, a bit haughty, could be a bit more in touch with her feminine side, sure. But she was still caring and kind. Her apparent callous disregard for Rei's well-being bothers you. It makes you feel like you don't know your friend as well as you thought.

This is the closest thing to therapy available for Rei at the moment. You hope it works for her. Today, Rei has decided to forego the paint and has decided to work with a piece of charcoal instead. You ask her to draw how she is feeling. Rei seems to have some issue naming her emotions. You're pretty sure there's a word for that, but you never learned it. You think this will help.

Rei nods and begins working. The end result is…well, it's certainly unique. Rei's drawn some stylized human figures in a wide circle around another human figure, standing a good distance apart from the rest. You ask Rei what it means. Rei shrugs. It's how she's feeling. Rei does a few other drawings, mostly of rows and rows of human figures, some of them scribbled out roughly. One of them, in the top right corner, is scribbled out so violently Rei has torn a hole in the paper. You ask Rei more about that. Rei remains silent. No matter what you ask, she refuses to answer any questions about this one. Weird.

You try one last exercise. You ask Rei to draw the future. Rei stares at the page blankly before drawing a black circle in the middle. She refuses to talk about this one either. You're trying to humor her, but Rei's art really unsettles you. You hesitantly ask if Gendo has ever…hurt her. Rei shakes her head. The Commander has never struck her or put his hands on her. Rei's gaze on you is intense. You conclude, with some reluctance, that she's probably being truthful.

---

The day you're supposed to pick up Shinji, it is pouring down rain. You prepare yourself mentally. You're like 85% sure you're going to mess up your first impression with this kid. For moral support, you decide to take Rei along with you. Rei's not exactly the pinnacle of optimism and encouragement, but it's better than being by yourself.

Your windshield wipers have to work overtime to get to NERV HQ. It's really coming down. You feel like crap. After you arrive, you go to retrieve Rei from her hospital room. You're not quite sure why she hasn't been allowed to go home yet, as she seems mostly well enough to walk. She still has a few bandages, mostly on her arms, but overall you don't think she needs to stay here anymore. She hasn't flinched in pain in front of you in a while. You wonder if she even has a home to go back to. You should look into that.

You have a few hours to kill before you have to pick up Shinji. What will you d

BLOOD TYPE BLUE CONFIRMED. ANGEL DETECTED APPROACHING TOKYO-3.

AZAZEL
~Der Engel des Krieges~​

The Angel has crawled out of the lake. It has two pairs of deer antlers. It is bipedal. It is blue-gray. It has four stalked eyes. It has four arms ending in spearlike claws. It has too many legs hanging uselessly from its segmented body. It has a red core on its belly. It looks like a gigantic mantis shrimp.

The early warning system was not successful. Evacuation is still ongoing, but nearly complete.

Your combat readiness is Good. The Geofront is Fully Intact.

The JSSDF is prepared to assist with the battle. Their combat readiness is Fair. Their attitude towards you is Begrudging.

Evangelion Unit-01 and Rei are standing by, awaiting your orders.

MOVEMENT I
~Largo~​

Defend the Geofront. Rei's not the most creative thinker out there, so it's up to you to determine her orders.

Your combat options are:

• JSSDF Strike: The JSSDF will use artillery, missiles and incendiary bombs to fire on the Angel.
• N2​ Weapon: The JSSDF will drop a Non-Nuclear super bomb on the Angel.
• Rifle: Rei will fire her Pallet Rifle at the Angel.
• Knife: Rei will engage the Angel in close combat with the Progressive Knife.
• Grapple: Rei will engage the Angel in close combat with her bare hands and try to immobilize the Angel.
• Retreat: Rei will put distance between Unit-01 and the Angel.

The following plans are available:

[ ] Missionary Position: JSSDF Strike, Rifle, Knife
[ ] Shock and Awe: N2​, Knife, Knife
[ ] Wunderkind: Rifle, Knife, Knife
[ ] Glass Sea: N2​, N2​, N2​
[ ] In-N-Out: Knife, Retreat, JSDF Strike
[ ] Animal Style: Knife, Retreat, N2​
[ ] Wrastlin': Knife, Grapple, JSSDF Strike
[ ] Custom: 3 write-ins comprising of the options above. The QM requests you give this plan a cool name.

You may also give Rei one special instruction:

[ ] Write-in

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Plan "Defeating Angels with the Power of Friendship and also this N² Bomb I found": N², JSSDF Strike, Knife
-[X] Special Instructions Write-In: "Be patient, wait for your chance, and stay safe out there."

You tell Rei to hold her position and to wait patiently until there's a clear opportunity. You also tell her to stay safe. Rei protests that destroying the Angel takes priority over her safety. You tell her it's an order to keep herself alive. Rei assents.

The JSSDF seems incredulous you're going to go with the N2 ​Mine first, but hey, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, right? It takes the JSSDF a bit longer than anyone really wanted to get their shit together to drop this thing. This is an unprecedented scenario, after all. As a result, the Angel is about to walk into the waterfront of Tokyo-3 before the bomb finally drops. There's a tremendous flash of light and all your sensors go dead. The entire Geofront vibrates from the force of the impact.

The JSSDF generals on the bridge with you cheer before turning to you and Gendo, who is sitting behind you. Looks like you won't have to use that oversized toy of yours, after all. He's barely trying to hide the fact he's gloating. Gendo doesn't say anything. Fuyutsuki grimaces and asks the status on the sensors the EMP took out. It's going to be a moment or two.

The video feed returns to reveal the Angel is still standing amid a smoldering crater that once was the vibrant waterfront of Tokyo-3. The waves from the impact have completely inundated the neighborhood. The heavy downpour is making the effects even worse. The generals behind desk swear in such colorful epithets you can see Ibuki's ears turn pink. That said, the attack wasn't totally ineffective. The Angel looks worse for wear. Several of its horrid little legs hanging from its thorax are either broken off and spraying blue blood everywhere, or are bent at clearly unnatural angles. It appears to have been stunned. One of its antlers is snapped off.

Well, it was. A ghostly translucent green antler immediately appears in the spot where it was snapped off and starts glowing bright enough to make it physically painful to look at. Magi analysis reveals the radiation from the antler is thankfully non-ionizing.

Time for phase two of the plan. Hit it while it's down! Dozens of VTOLs appear from behind a hill and hundreds of artillery batteries take aim at the Angel. Billions of yen worth of artillery is loosed into the skies about Tokyo-3 as the Angel is bathed in a halo of fire. Some of the missiles fail to connect with their target and hit the already devastated waterfront. Oops. One of the generals picks up the phone and starts yelling at the poor bastard responsible for the batteries on the ground to "get his thumb out of his ass and actually aim for fuck's sake". There's a heated back and forth. Apparently the brightness from the antler is even worse on the ground, and pretty much anything that has to be manually aimed is suffering. Great.

The artillery stops. The cloud of smoke and fire slowly dissipates. And then, without warning, an ear-splitting crack sounds four times in quick succession. The Angel has snapped its four claws in quick succession. Several of the VTOLs are literally swept out of the sky by an unseen force. The smoke cloud dissipates immediately.

Aoba informs the bridge that the Angel can punch and snap each of its claws shut so quickly that it creates a shockwave. The effects are identical to inertial cavitation in a liquid, creating little vacuum bubbles that explode with great force. Except in air, somehow. The physics of it by all means don't make much sense.

You watch as the Angel snaps its claws again and blows a hole in the artillery battery on one of the hills. It explodes in a ball of fire that is quickly doused by the rain. The generals are completely baffled by the utter failure of any of the artillery to penetrate the carapace of the Angel. Ritsuko (a bit smugly) explains to the generals that the Angel is protected by an Absolute Terror Field, which is a sort of forcefield. It's not impenetrable, but conventional weapons aren't going to be very effective on it while it's up.

Gendo heads off whatever retort the generals have to say by announcing that they are going to send the Evangelion in, if the generals do not mind. They grumble in annoyance and concede that it is time for Plan C, basically. You tell Rei to move in with the knife.

While the Angel was distracted showing off its fancy claw trick, Rei had been moving into position. The Angel whips around as Rei is approaching and gets tackled by Rei. The Angel makes a weird, mechanical sounding groan and shakes violently as Rei rips open its AT-Field and plunges her Progressive Knife into one of its eye stalks, which explodes into gelatinous blue and purple goop. Ibuki makes a gagging sound. The Angel makes a shriek that sounds uncomfortably human and punches Unit-01 in the stomach with one of its arms. You flinch as Rei audibly grunts in pain over the speakers. Part of Unit-01's armor has been dented, and reddish-orange blood is leaking from a crack in it. The Angel winds up for a second punch and hits Rei in the side with a different arm. Rei actually screams in pain. She smashes her fist into its face wildly and manages to bonk it in another eye, which jiggles disgustingly with the impact.

Rei groans and tells you she's feeling fine.

MOVEMENT II
~Allegro~​

The JSSDF needs some time to regroup. The evacuation has also been completed. The last of the buildings retracts into the shelter below.

[ ] Knife
[ ] Grapple
[ ] Retreat
[ ] Write-In

 

[Sutekh]

Gonna call this here.

[X] Knife

Rei gives her assent weakly and flails against the Angel, stabbing wherever she can get her knife. She slices off a bunch more of its weird little legs. The front of Unit-01 is absolutely coated in blue blood. Rei also manages to blind it by hacking out its three remaining eyes. Ibuki actually does throw up this time. In spite of everything, you groan in annoyance.

Unfortunately, hacking out its eyes seems to have driven it into a panic, and it thrashes about, snapping its claws and punching in Rei's general direction. Unit-01 takes one to the face, and Rei goes tumbling backwards into the flooded waterfront district with a colossal splash. Hyuga informs you that the umbilical cable has been severed and that Unit-01 has 4 minutes and 49 seconds of operational time remaining. Rei pulls herself up and plunges the Progressive Knife into the red core on the Angel's belly. It screams and smashes Unit-01 in the face with one of its claws. Rei loses her grip on the Knife, which remains embedded in the Angel's core. Purplish-black blood leaks from the core, which is cracked. Rei rises again and rips the Knife out. For good measure, she breaks one of its arms like a twig. The Angel's remaining antlers explode in Rei's face, ghostly green antlers taking their place. The light is too intense for you to look at.

Rei informs you that she cannot see at all right now. Also, her ears are ringing pretty loudly. She sounds exhausted. She grabs its face with her left hand and its core with her right.

The Angel's mouthparts have started to vibrate at extremely high frequency. According to the Magi, the mouthparts are similar in design to the stridulatory appendages of various insects. No sound has yet been detected, but the frequency of the vibration is increasing.

MOVEMENT III
~Presto~​

[ ] Tell Rei to stab it in the mouth
[ ] Tell Rei to stab it in the core

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Tell Rei to stab it in the core

Rei gropes for the core with her hand and seizes it, plunging the Knife into it. The Angel finally falls to the ground with a gigantic splash. It's somehow not quite dead yet. Fuyutsuki makes some snide comment about it not knowing when to resign. Nobody really laughs, just a few weak chuckles. Whatever it was doing with its mouth has finally paid off. A high-pitched screaming sound emits from its mouth. It's a wretched sound; it sounds like dozens of people screaming in pain all at once. The entire bridge is transfixed. Any glass that hasn't already been broken in the area bursts. The internal and external cameras on Unit-01 completely stop working. Most horrifically, the sound it's making seems to be too much for its own body to handle, and its carapace shatters in several places, blood and what you assume is viscera oozing out. Ibuki retches again. Ritsuko gives her a withering look.

Hyuga shouts that Rei's psychograph reading has become irregular. Ritsuko barks some instructions to dampen exterior sound input to the Evangelion. Her psychograph stabilizes, though her sync rate has dropped dramatically and her vitals are elevated. Rei stabs it repeatedly in the core in a frenzy. The Angel finally falls silent after a few convulsions. Aoba confirms the target has been destroyed.

AZAZEL
~Fine~​

You call out to Rei.

She does not answer you. You force down the sick feeling in your stomach and direct all efforts to recovering the pilot. You pace around, growing more and more agitated with each passing minute. Hyuga tries to calm you down by assuring you that at the very least, Rei is alive and does not appear to be in life-threatening danger. You smile weakly at him and collapse into a chair. You have a headache.

---

About forty-five minutes later, Rei is presented to you wearing a blindfold on a stretcher by Hyuga. See? She's fine. You call out to her, but she doesn't react. Ritsuko materializes seemingly from nowhere and informs you that the sonic attack by the Angel has temporarily deafened Rei, but it should wear off within twelve hours or so, probably? Oh, she's also been blinded, but that's already wearing off. She just needs to rest her eyes. Anyway, her lack of responsiveness is mainly because she can't hear anything we're saying. Rei will be fine.

You tune out Ritsuko as she continues talking about some tests they have to run on her and gently grab Rei's hand. She jumps from the contact. Captain, is that you? she asks. You give her hand a little squeeze. It's trembling. Rei asks where the Commander is. You look around the bridge. He's nowhere to be seen. Your heart breaks a little as they wheel Rei back out of the room. She's clearly disoriented.

---

You have a debriefing to attend. Ordinarily, Rei would also attend with you, but given she cannot actually hear the debriefing, there isn't much point.

The debriefing is unpleasant. Gendo seems satisfied with your performance, which is a relief. The Evangelion was used effectively, and the Angel was destroyed. Moreover, your commands demonstrated clearly that conventional weaponry cannot penetrate an AT-Field. The necessity of NERV has been clearly demonstrated to the world. Gendo is smiling when he tells you this. You do not like his smile.

The JSSDF are less satisfied. They lost dozens of men to the Angel's shock wave attacks. For nothing but to act as a distraction for Unit-01. Sure, nobody could have reasonably known that the Angel could break the laws of physics to punch them from miles away, but it sure doesn't feel right. Your pilot got hurt, but their men were killed. Think about that next time you send them in, Captain.

There's an uncomfortable pause before Fuyutsuki brings up the elephant in the room. Civilian casualty numbers are still coming in. Using the N2​ mine before the evacuation was complete resulted in, according to the latest estimates, seventy-nine fatalities. Most from drowning. There's blame to go around here. NERV technical staff are to blame for the alarm failing to sound in time. You are to blame for pulling the trigger on the mine too soon. The JSSDF is to blame for taking too long to drop the mine, allowing the Angel to get closer to the city than the originally planned target point. Their poor aim with the missiles may also have increased the death toll. Moreover, the waterfront and the entire neighborhood surrounding it is either vaporized or inundated. It will take months or even years to repair it, assuming it's not simply abandoned to sink into the lake.

You manage to win a few brownie points back with the JSSDF for making the reasonable point that they were doing the best they could, given the circumstances. You don't know if you're defending them, or yourself, though. Fuyutsuki sees the generals out of the room and excuses himself to make some phone calls to the city council he's been dreading.

Gendo and you are now alone. Still wearing his icy smile, Gendo tells you to pay the others no mind. You did your job, and the Angel is dead. Rei is alive and relatively well. He informs you that her injuries beyond the hearing damage are mostly some sprains and nasty bruises. Nothing serious. You did what was required of you for the good of mankind. Commendable work. You feel some small measure of comfort from this, but you still really do not trust your boss. Gendo dismisses you.

Oh yeah, what about that Shinji kid?

[ ] Pick him up now. He's probably stranded in some shelter near the train station.
[ ] Spend the rest of the day with Rei and pick him up tomorrow instead. She's hurt and could use some friendly company.
[ ] See if you can somehow take Rei with you to pick him up.

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Pick him up now. He's probably stranded in some shelter near the train station.

You decide to rip the bandage off and pick Shinji up. The kid is in a war zone and it probably isn't best to leave him to his own devices. You consider taking Rei with you, but somehow you don't think parading a battered and unresponsive pilot in front of him is really going to make a great first impression. You'll have to check on Rei another time. Sorry, Rei.

The drive over is chaotic. Several roads have been rerouted for evacuation, medical, and cleanup traffic. The pouring rain makes visibility crap. You've driven at a crawl past a few car accidents, one of which looked serious. You feel a strange mixture of melancholy at the dreary scenery and relief that there are even people left to cause traffic.

You arrive at the designated shelter near the train station. Crowds of people are milling around outside in the rain, heedless of the emergency workers ineffectually trying to disperse them. You park in a nearby garage and push your way into the crowd to investigate. You look at Shinji's picture in his file. He's not bad looking, but pretty unremarkable. He's going to be annoying to find in a crowd. At least you never have to worry about losing Rei, what with her looks.

SHINJI
~Das dritte Kind~​

You eventually find him leaning against the building under an awning, listening to music on an SDAT player. You didn't know anyone still had those. He looks tired. You greet him with as much kindness as your own tiredness can manage and offer him an umbrella. He mumbles some words of gratitude and follows you to your car. You swallow nervously and tell him to read the contents of a folder you pull out of your glovebox.

NERV? Like, where his dad works? He's going to be working for him? Shinji's eyes race back and forth over each page. You shake off some of the nervousness. He's just a boy. Anyway, you tell him that yes, he will be working for NERV, a secret organization run by the United Nations. Shinji seems rather confused. He doesn't really know anything about his dad's work. You probably should have put something about it in the letter you sent him. Or, uh, Rei sent him. Past Misato wasn't feeling up to it. You hate Past Misato. It seems like Past Rei isn't really in your good books right now either, given how completely blindsided Shinji seems.

Shinji mutters something about his father not bothering to call him until he needed him for something. You commiserate and tell him you don't get along with your dad either. Shinji seems surprised by this, but doesn't say anything more.

The rain hammers on the roof of your car. Several minutes pass in silence before Shinji asks if he's going to meet his father soon. You tell him of course he is. He's not scared, right?

Shinji doesn't respond to your provocation. You thought boys responded to this sort of thing.

…

You turn the radio on only to get the news, which reports blandly that the death toll from the previous Angel attack has risen to one hundred and nineteen civilians, with another twenty-two still unaccounted for. You quickly turn off the radio.

Well, that's awkward.

Quick, change the subject!

[ ] Rei's letter
[ ] Plans to settle Shinji in
[ ] Life in Tokyo-3
[ ] Write-in

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Rei's letter

You quickly switch gears to a more lighthearted topic. You teasingly ask if he's gotten any letters from cute girls lately. Shinji's ears turn pink and he stammers something about a weird note he got in the mail. Shinji rummages through his pockets and pulls out three crumpled pieces of paper.

The first is…a completely censored NERV document. Scribbled in the corner are three words:

Come.
-Gendo Ikari

Hey wait a minute, this is the budget report. You filled this out. He couldn't even bother to get a fresh sheet of paper to write to his son? He couldn't even call himself "dad"? Shinji just looks sullenly at the "letter". You crumple it back up and put it aside. Shinji seems to appreciate the gesture.

The other two are from Rei. The one that immediately gets your interest is the drawing. Rei apparently enclosed a self-portrait with her letter. She must have had the same idea you had for loosening Shinji up. Unfortunately, this is Rei's art we're talking about, so…it's…well, it's a little disturbing. It's done in charcoal and smudged badly. The lines are harsh and scribbly. Rei manages to approximate her face fairly well; the proportions seem right. She's making her characteristic frown. But the eyes. Rei apparently really struggled with them, and ended up giving up on them and making them almond-shaped black voids in her face. It gives the entire portrait a skull-like feeling. Below the neck, the lines sharply disappear without touching the bottom of the page. You're not sure why, but that unsettles you too. Rei signed her name in small, messy print at the top right.

Shinji looks at the drawing with some apprehension. You assure him that Rei is…well, not normal-looking, but she's very pretty. Shinji doesn't say anything. You sigh. Not the impression you were hoping for. While the mischievous part of you is definitely toying with the notion of pushing the two of them together like a child playing with dolls, you're mostly concerned about Rei being able to befriend Shinji. She's got to get some friends. You preemptively tell him that Rei's great and that you hope they get along. You really, really hope they get along.

With dread, you look at the essay portion of this exercise.

Dear Shinji Ikari,

My name is Rei Ayanami. We are going to be working together in Tokyo-3 very soon. Captain Katsuragi delegated this important task to me, but I am not very good with words. I desire to make you feel welcome here in Tokyo-3. I admit I do not know how. But I will make you feel welcome. I have included a picture of myself for that purpose. Being able to put a face to a voice will make this message more personal, I feel. I am still training at drawing, so it will be amateur.

I will see you soon. I am waiting for you.

Sincerely,
-Rei Ayanami.

You exhale in relief. It's…kinda bad, but you were expecting the worst. Shinji looks a little uncomfortable and mumbles something about the message being so weird. You decide to tease him a bit. You can't really resist.

Is Rei's message why you came to Tokyo-3? You wanted to meet a girl?

Shinji mumbles something unintelligible. Hey, Shinji, there's a pretty girl back at HQ waiting just for you. Aren't you intrigued? Shinji turns red and tells you to cut it out.

Groan, this kid has no sense of humor, like, at all. Still, the atmosphere in the car seems to have improved a bit, and you ask him some routine and boring questions about how the train ride was, did the evacuation go okay, was he waiting long, etc.

The conversation dies down a bit until you get on the car train and Shinji gets his first aerial view of the Geofront. He presses his hands to the passenger window like a little kid and oohs and aahs. It's kind of cute. You answer a few of his questions. Honestly, you can't remember the last time someone seemed genuinely interested in your work. It's nice. It's the first time you've seen him smile since you picked him up. It's an impressive view.

His demeanor goes back to gloomy once you park the car. You escort Shinji to Gendo's office with trepidation. You clench your fist with determination as you watch father and son stare each other down. Shinji's expression is hard to read, but it shifts rapidly between being afraid and being angry. Gendo just looks like Gendo usually does. He's even got his hands folded at eye level and everything.

…And then Fuyutsuki hurriedly escorts you out of the room. He apologetically tells you it's best that the two of them speak in private. You don't even try to hide your annoyance. It's muffled, but you're sure you hear Shinji yelling. Fuyutsuki pinches the bridge of his nose.

Go home and get some rest, Captain. You've had a very long day.

As soon as Fuyutsuki tells you this, you become aware of how exhausted you feel. You've spent the entire day variously driving through a heavy rainstorm, fighting an Angel, and worrying yourself sick over Rei. You need to sleep. Before you go though, Fuyutsuki asks if you can take Rei home tomorrow.

You grunt your assent.

When you return home to your apartment, you find the power's gone out in your neighborhood as a result of damage to one of the solar towers near the waterfront. You have to manually unlock the door using a complicated method because your automatic door's card reader won't work. It's so hard to be you.

---

The next day, you pick Rei up from the hospital wing. Her blindfold is gone, and she can hear again. Mostly. She tells you her ears are still ringing. You drive out to the outskirts of Tokyo-3. The roads here are relatively clear of detours, at least, so it's not excruciating. Rei spends the entire car ride looking out the window with her hand pressed to her cheek. It seems like she's not feeling very talkative.

When you reach your destination, you do a double take. You make sure you got the address correct like three times. It's clearly a low-income government housing project. The complex Rei lives in is really run down. Several of the windows are broken or missing, and the metal frame of the building pokes out of cracked concrete here and there. One of the gutters sticks out at a 45 degree angle, having partially broken away from the building. There's garbage everywhere. The buildings nearby are literally in the process of being torn down. A rhythmic metal thumping noise fills the hot morning air, which shimmers in the summer heat.

A sign informs you that the elevator is out of order. You go up the stairs. It's like an oven in the stairwell, which is little more than a concrete tower. All of the windowpanes in the stairwell are missing. Some crude graffiti adorns the wall. You keep looking back at Rei with increasing alarm on your face. Rei's expression is unperturbed.

Most of the apartments are unoccupied, though a handful are. You finally reach Apartment 402. A dirty plaque says "Ayanami" in neat marker. Upon closer inspection, the word isn't actually written on a plaque; it's written directly on the track the plaque slides into. Rei steps over an abandoned soda bottle and lets herself inside.

The door closes, but you do not hear her lock it. This is bad. This is not the kind of neighborhood to leave your door unlocked in.

What will you do?

[ ] Snoop. Open the door to Rei's apartment. Her safety is more important than her privacy.
[ ] Leave. Give Rei her privacy. Try to see if someone at NERV can help you.

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Snoop. Open the door to Rei's apartment. Her safety is more important than her privacy.

You hesitate for a minute or two, thinking about how much you valued your own privacy when you were Rei's age. Everyone has their circumstances after all, and the fact Rei hasn't told you about this means she doesn't think it's your business to know.

But still! This isn't right. You knock on Rei's door. Rei does not answer. You put a shaky hand on the door handle. Sorry, Rei. You pull down.. It feels stiff and in need of maintenance. You step inside. A crumpling sound under your feet alerts you to a pile of mail on the floor. Most of it is junk, though there are a few past due notices. That said, there are no eviction notices you can see. NERV must pay her rent. It just pays it late. The letterbox on the other side of the door is absolutely overflowing. You gently close the door behind you, and the room grows dark. Rei hasn't turned on any lights.

The floor is covered in dirty footprints. Rei never seems to take her shoes off in the house, which is borderline sacrilegious to you. You may be a slob, but you don't track mud into your house. Everything in the apartment is a dull gray color. The air is stale and smells fusty. You don't bother removing your shoes as you venture further in. There's a little kitchenette by the door, which is positively filthy. The sink is filled completely with dirty dishes, which emit an unpleasant smell. The walls are a dreary pockmarked concrete.

You enter the main room of the apartment. There's three pieces of furniture within. A bed with a lamp attached to the head, completely unmade. There's old bloodstains on the pillowcase. A bunch of dirty laundry is thrown haphazardly on the bed. To your right, there's a mini fridge with several blister packs of pills and bandages on top of it, and a beaker full of stagnant water. A bag of garbage hangs from a hook on its side, mostly cans of vegetable juice and empty ramen packages. It smells. A box of used bandages sits to its side. A beaten-up old dresser sits at the foot of the bed with a cracked pair of glasses on it, along with some of Rei's books.

Rei emerges from behind a curtain off the kitchenette wearing only a pair of white panties and the shoes she arrived in. Captain, is everything alright? Did you need Rei for something?

You gape at her. The first thing she was going to do after coming here without locking the door was take a shower? You push past her and check the bathroom. It's pretty decrepit and you can see mold growing on the ceiling. The tub is fairly grimy, and one of the faucets for the shower is broken off. A layer of dust coats most surfaces. The smell is pretty awful.

You step out of the room and resist the urge to gag. Rei seems somewhat distressed by your reaction. You take her gently by the shoulders.

What will you do?

[ ] Move Rei into your apartment immediately. You will fight tooth and nail to get this girl out of here.
[ ] Make arrangements to move Rei into her own apartment in better accommodations. It may take some time, but she can't keep living here.
[ ] Talk to NERV and see if they can't remodel the place to make it more habitable for her.

Is there anything you want to tell Rei?

[ ] Write-In

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Move Rei into your apartment immediately. You will fight tooth and nail to get this girl out of here.
-[X] Talk to Rei about why these accommodations are unsafe. You care about her and will not see her life and living situation abused through negligence.
--[X] If Rei needs further convincing, reiterate the dangers this place poses to her health and, therefore, her ability to fight Angels.
-[X] Find out who approved this.

You give Rei's shoulders a little squeeze. Then you tell her to get dressed. Rei does so without question, though she puts on a clean bra and a clearly unwashed school uniform. You look in Rei's fridge and cabinets while she does so. The fridge contains mostly cans of fruit juice and bottled water. You check the tap water. It's cloudy. Ugh. The cabinets mostly contain packets of instant noodles and cans of condensed soup. Not really what a girl her age should be eating. It's not like your kitchen supplies are too much better. But you eating junk food and beer for dinner is a choice, and you can stop whenever you want.

Rei finishes dressing and frowns at you. She's clearly dismayed by your reaction to her…you hesitate to even call it a home. You tell her gently that the accommodations she lives in are unsafe. The neighborhood is run-down and has few passers-by. You tell her that it's very important to lock her door at night in places like this. Rei informs you that the lock on her door doesn't work properly. You clench your fist. You also tell her the place is basically a biohazard and you're not too sure about how structurally sound the building is either. Rei nods. She tells you in a neutral tone that her balcony has partially detached. You grit your teeth.

Captain, what's wrong? Are you unwell? Rei asks you. You realize you've probably been glaring at her with clenched teeth during this entire lecture. You tell her that you care about her and you're upset that she's being neglected. Rei doesn't understand. She's always lived in places like this. She has food and shelter from the elements here. And even if this place was unsafe, she can always be repl—

You grab her by the shoulders tightly, trying very hard not to slap her. Whenever she says that, you feel angry. Obviously, part of that is because you resent the forces that have shaped someone the same age as you when you had your incident into a person who doesn't value herself. Though a darker part of you resents her for reminding you that you too are ultimately replaceable, should something go wrong. You feel the same force whenever Gendo calls you into his office, or whenever you think about Angels.

Captain, that hurts, Rei tells you. You loosen your grip and straighten yourself. You make a logical argument. You tell her that first off, it is unacceptable that an important asset such as a pilot is living in a state that could compromise her health and therefore, her ability to fight Angels. It's important for you to pilot the Evangelion, right Rei? Rei nods. It is very important to her that she can keep piloting. Furthermore, you tell her that knowing she's in a place like this causes you immense anxiety. Not only because she's a pilot, but because you care about her. This will affect your ability to do your job as well. Rei pauses, but nods. She hadn't considered that. You close by saying that if she moved in with you, she would have a better home life and feel physically and mentally stronger than she would if she stayed here. Rei isn't as sure about that, but it's important for your job that she be as strong as possible.

You remind her of the meal at the restaurant. Remember when Rei wanted to just eat the hospital paste instead of solid food, because food is food, and it doesn't matter what form it comes in? And remember how much better it was when she went with you instead? Rei nods. The same principle applies here.

Rei considers this. For a while. She sits down on her bed, which creaks horribly, furrowing her eyebrows. Her eyes dart around the room. You sit on the bed next to her and wait.

Alright, she says. She will go with you. But the Commander should be informed as soon as possible. You swear you'll talk to him as soon as you can. Which is uh, not today, because you've got to help her move, of course. Rei nods. Of course, you will speak to him tomorrow. You also resolve to find out how this even happened. Who approved this? Rei goes with you to your car, and you go back to your apartment to get some of the moving boxes you haven't thrown out yet.

You apartment is…well, it's not the cleanest either, but it's mostly just messy, rather than "unfathomably dismal". A lot of your possessions still haven't been unpacked yet, so there's a bunch of boxes everywhere. The bigger issue is you have kind of a teeny-weeny little issue with forgetting to throw stuff away. Just like Rei! Anyway, your kitchen table and counter have a lot of empty bottles and cans of beer stacked on them. Also, a few garbage bags are on the floor in the corner. They haven't gotten ripe yet and mostly just contain empty bottles and wrappers and things, but you should probably throw those away. There's a couple of dirty dishes that have been sitting on the table for…a couple days?

The more you think about how much of a slob you are, the worse you feel. Rei seems completely unbothered by the mess and picks up a few boxes and heads out to your car. She doesn't remove her shoes in your apartment, which annoys you, but you can straighten that out later. You decide to take out the garbage bags at the least. You can put off the other tidying for later.

You go in for more boxes but Rei tells you that what she took is more than adequate. This concerns you, and your concerns are validated upon returning to Rei's apartment. Her only possessions are her rather small book collection (consisting of medical textbooks, two books on riichi mahjong, a datebook, three books on probability, and a book about animals clearly aimed at much younger children), six identical school uniforms, a dozen sets of plain white underwear and socks, two brown towels, a toothbrush, a razor (which you convince her to toss out), antiperspirant, and a tattered pair of house slippers. The only other possession of note is the eyeglasses, which she seemingly keeps on her person at all times. You offer to buy her new glasses, but she shakes her head. No thank you, Rei does not want new glasses. She's extremely firm on this issue, so you decide not to press it. You're concerned that Rei doesn't seem to own any casual clothing at all, though.

You load all this and the copious amounts of medication Rei keeps into these boxes. Rei dumps out the grocery bag serving as her trash can and puts the remaining fruit juice in her fridge inside. You notice she does not take any of the food. Rei does not look back when you leave the apartment.

After this, you return home and show Rei her new bedroom. After she removes her shoes, that is. You tell Rei it's better to not track dirt in your home, and it's polite. Rei doesn't argue. You spend most of the day helping Rei unpack her things and finally getting around to tidying up a bit. Rei helps. Mostly just by holding the trash bags open, but it's helping all the same.

The two of you share some takeout for dinner. You realize you're going to have to learn how to cook vegetarian meals for Rei as you watch her eat her stir-fry. Are you going to have to give up meat too? You hope not.

After that, Rei runs into Pen2​, your pet hot spring penguin. Yes, really. Look, a girl has to hold onto some of her childhood dreams, right? He warks at her suspiciously until Rei warks back at him. Her impression of him is uncanny. This seems to satisfy Pen2​, who has now accepted her as his new roommate.

Rei takes a forty-five minute shower. After you complain about how she's hogging the bathroom she explains that her old apartment did not have hot water. Well, okay. You guess. There's no hot water left for you now though.

With that, Rei goes straight to bed from her shower. Good night, Captain.

Good night, Rei.

---

Conversation
Select one of the following:
Talk to Rei about:

Rei
[ ] General well-being
[ ] Mood
[ ] The past
[ ] The present
[ ] The future

Others
[ ] Yourself
[ ] Friends
[ ] Romance

Environment
[ ] NERV
[ ] School
[ ] Home
[ ] Tokyo-3
[ ] The World

Activities

Select two of the following:

[ ] Combat training
[ ] Synchronization training
[ ] Physical training
[ ] Study
[ ] Arts program
[ ] Go out

Special Activity

You may do one special activity of your choosing each week. It won't raise Rei's stats, but you can use it to bond with her, affect her mood, or solve her problems. Additionally, you can also use this slot to pursue your own projects, if any. This is not controlled by majority vote. The QM will merely choose the most entertaining one.

[ ] Write in

Note: this week, this special activity will be in addition to the previous, unresolved special activity. ([X] Special Activity: Introduce Rei and Shinji to each other (under your supervision))

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Talk to Rei about Home

You catch Rei sitting on the couch in her school uniform watching television with Pen2​. She's never owned one before, apparently. She's been flipping back and forth between a documentary on life in the Patagonian Sea and some crappy romance film from pre-Second Impact. She doesn't take her eyes off the screen while you talk, but she's listening.

She says that you're right, your apartment is an improvement over her old one. She didn't know how nice it was to take a hot shower, or to sleep on clean sheets, or to have carpeting was. It feels…warm here. Rei does something you've never seen her do before. She smiles. It's very small, and disappears after only a second, but you know she smiled. You feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Rei hopes she can be of use here. When she's not at NERV or school, anyway.

Pen2​ says wark, by the way. In case you were wondering his feelings on the matter.

---

Investigation Results​

You dig around in some old files trying to figure out who the hell ordered Rei's old living arrangements. It's difficult work. For reasons unknown, almost all of Rei's records are blank. You can't find when she started living in Apartment 402, when she started working at NERV, anything about her parentage, when Gendo adopted her, her blood type; you can't even find a birthday on file. The only clue you can find regarding her entrance into NERV is the earliest of the expunged records being dated 2005. It's unnerving, given the amount of detail in your file.

You cannot find any details regarding who approved it, but you can work out that at least three people knew about Rei's living situation prior to your own discovery of it: Gendo Ikari, Ritsuko Akagi, and Kozo Fuyutsuki. So whoever approved it, it is most probably one of them. You find yourself wanting to avoid all three of them having learned this information. Especially Ritsuko.

Will you tell Rei about their neglect of her?

[ ] Tell Rei
[ ] Do not tell Rei

---

[X] Synchronization training

Rei's sync rate has risen to 46.2%, almost 8 points. Ritsuko is baffled at the change. Rei's range has always been fluctuating in the 30% range her entire time here at NERV. That said, Rei's range isn't exactly stable, and it dips occasionally into the high 20s. Ritsuko notices that her psychograph outputs show some irregularities similar to those that appeared during the Angel's sonic attack. This worries her. Rei is eventually taken out of the simulation plug and whisked away for some sort of special testing.

When Ritsuko returns, she shrugs at you and says she isn't sure what's wrong with Rei. There's no evidence of mental contamination or organic brain damage. The issue must be psychological in nature. Have there been any major changes in Rei's life lately?

You hesitate. You're having trouble trusting your old friend. It feels...awful, to be honest. For the time being, you keep Rei's move quiet. Ritsuko looks at the both of you questioningly, but doesn't press the issue. Rei, to her credit, also keeps quiet.

[X] Arts program

Rei's art remains Rei's art. Some of her pictures are at least slightly more normal looking, though. She seems to enjoy drawing pictures of Pen2​. You notice that in addition to her pictures of human silhouettes, she seems to draw the Third Angel in various states of injury or crossed out. But seemingly for every picture of the Angel she draws, she draws a picture of herself crossed out instead. You tentatively ask why she's crossed out the Angel. She tells you that it's because she…wants it not to exist. That she…h-hates it. That's the correct word, right, Captain? It's the first time she's ever used an emotion word to talk about her feelings.

You tell her that you hate it too. Rei seems to relax a little after you tell her that.

But what about the crossed-out drawings of Rei?

Rei doesn't answer.

---

[X] Write-in: Cleaning up the apartment or buying groceries seems rough, impossible, and honestly boring. But Rei needs at least some role modeling. Misato will do her best to battle the beer cans and take out trash.

You reluctantly try to step into the role of a parental figure for Rei. You have some misgivings about this, but what Rei needs in her life is some structure and routine. Rei has for the most part spent her time in her room reading her books or watching television on the couch with Pen2​. Neither of you have been doing many chores, and it's not very long before your apartment reverts to the state of disarray typical of it. This has to stop.

You make a chores list and do your best to divide it fairly. You consider playing rock-paper-scissors for each day, but you feel like Rei would just experience a freakish stroke of luck or read your mind or something and make you end up doing everything. You show Rei how to clean dishes (she initially tries to use bar soap rather than dish soap), clean the bathroom (she tries to use the toilet cleaner on the bathtub), sort and take out the garbage (she considers all garbage "flammable" because in theory everything you throw out does have an ignition temperature), and teach her how to cook some basic meals. Mostly for you (so far). Rei, thankfully, does not have any problem with other people eating meat. She considers it her personal choice. The thought of eating meat makes her feel nauseous, apparently. Oh, and she can't have dairy, either. Not because of any philosophical stand, but because it gives her a stomachache. She doesn't seem averse to cooking eggs. She can't eat them, but she's fine with making them when she's on breakfast duty. You take some time during the week to find some vegetarian recipes.

Rei's cooking isn't bad, but it's mediocre. She's inflexible and not great at problem-solving, so if anything goes wrong, she has difficulty correcting it if it's not written in the recipe. It's something to work on. Your cooking is also fairly mediocre, but mostly because any time you try to get creative you invariably overseason whatever you're attempting. Whatever, you're not on Iron Chef.

After a week of eating actual real food, Rei's complexion seems noticeably improved. She's still incredibly pale, but she looks more alive than she did before.

---

You also make some plans to introduce Rei to Shinji, under your supervision, of course. You're going to try to take them out of the very narrow world they currently inhabit without the entire encounter lapsing into protracted and awkward silence. After that you're going to multiply some loaves and some fishes. Good luck!

Where are you taking them?

[ ] Arcade (kids like that sort of thing, right?)
[ ] Aquarium (apparently this one got blown up by the N2​ mine, sorry. You probably shouldn't tell Rei about this.)
[ ] Mahjong parlor (you want vengeance)
[ ] Fishing (You-Know-Who was really into this)
[ ] The beach (it would give you an excuse to buy Rei literally anything that isn't a school uniform)

You will make them talk to each other and they will participate in some activity together. Neither of them are very talkative, but there's no way you're going to let them sit there in silence. You're filled with dread. You kind of half-hope an Angel attack interrupts your plans.

Anyway, what are you trying to accomplish here?

[ ] Friendship. Rei needs a friend that isn't you. You know, if she considers you a friend. You're not sure about that.
[ ] Romance. The matchmaker in you definitely sees this as a potential opening for Rei to expand her emotional horizons. Maybe having another person to fight for will help Rei's obvious self-esteem issues.
[ ] A working relationship. They are coworkers, and they've never met. They need to be able to trust each other if they're going to be backing each other up. Not exactly going to be easy to manage them the way things are now, either.
[ ] A friendly rivalry. Pushing both of them into a friendly competition will help them improve faster.

---

You spend a good part of the week procrastinating telling Gendo about Rei's new living arrangements. Yes, you promised Rei you'd talk to him right away, but, uh, you were busy. Yeah. With um, moving Rei in. Rei has not asked you about it yet. In fact, you think she probably assumes you've already done it. You've been pacing up and down the floor his office is located on.

[ ] Break the news to Gendo
[ ] Pretend nothing has changed for now