Rei Ayanami Raising Project

[Sutekh]

[X] Force Shinji to hang out with you. You can't leave the apartment with him, but it's something to do.

You drag the kid out into the living room and make him play DDR with you. He's reluctant at first, but he eventually folds under the onslaught of peer pressure and mild emotional blackmail. Despite his initial disinterest, after a few rounds it seems like he's genuinely having a good time (even if you still win way more often than he does).

The smile fades off his face once the session ends. He feels guilty for having a good time while the other pilots are stuck at base in various states of injury. He should have done more to help them. He shouldn't have just blindly followed orders. He was the only one that Angel didn't get to, and he should have stepped up more. But he didn't. He didn't do anything at all. He shouldn't have let Rei kill the Angel. He should have intervened when Hikari turned on Rei. There are so many things he should have done instead of what he did do. So many people keep getting hurt to keep his worthless skin alive and unharmed.

Shinji's shoulders tense and he clenches his fists and looks at the floor. His voice is thick and congested. You step off the machine and gently put your arms around him. He resists. Don't touch him, stop, no. He squirms against your body before going limp. You feel a damp spot around his face. You're not great at this kind of thing, but you run your fingers through his hair a few times and manage a few awkward there theres before Shinji pulls away. He mumbles an apology and looks at the floor, then apologizes again.

There's a pregnant pause before Shinji asks how you do it. You blink in confusion. Do what? Shinji looks around the room, seeming to regret opening his mouth. You know, he says after some deliberation, keep it together. Keep going even with all this bad stuff happening all the time?

Well?

[ ] Be vulnerable with the kid. Tell him you don't have it together.
[ ] Put on a strong front. This kid needs an adult he can lean on and an example to learn from.
[ ] Try to take the focus off yourself and give what you hope is sound advice instead.

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Be vulnerable with the kid. Tell him you don't have it together.

You shake your head. You tell Shinji that you don't have things together at all. Shinji knits his eyebrows together in bewilderment. You put your hand on his shoulder (he flinches a little) and admit you're more stressed out than you've ever been in your life.

Shinji apologizes. You say there's nothing to apologize for. He's not your only source of stress. Far from it. If anything, working with him is one of the easier parts of your extremely complicated life. Shinji says oh. You're not going to vent to him, but you do briefly list off most of the stuff you've been struggling with lately (except for Rei and Asuka's personal business, of course). Honestly, it feels good to complain to someone. But you're trying to make a point here, not overwhelm Shinji into guilty silence or use him as an agony uncle.

You clarify that the point you're trying to make is that most people don't have everything figured out or together. Everyone struggles. At the risk of being overly blunt, you tell Shinji that he isn't uniquely inept in his own struggles. Not to say that his problems aren't important. But he's not the only one that has problems. It's normal.

Shinji asks about Gendo and you try and fail to hide your annoyance. You rightly point out that Gendo can barely carry on a normal conversation with his own son, and according to Shinji, has kept no keepsakes of his deceased wife, instead rarely speaking of her. That does not strike you as someone who has their life figured out. Shinji supposes you're right. He doesn't really understand why his father acts like this. He wishes they could talk more.

Thanks for hearing him out.

---

Not too long after this conversation with Shinji, the girls are released back into your custody. Rei is forbidden to leave your apartment except to go to NERV, and the places within NERV she is allowed to go are severely restricted. She is to be supervised at all times by either you, Fuyutsuki, Gendo, Ritsuko, or a member of NERV Intelligence. Notably, she's still wearing the collar around her neck. Her demeanor is distracted and inattentive, and she responds even slower than usual to attempts to talk to her. She generally replies in one- or two-word sentences. Out of concern, you check her arm, but the wound is still there. This is still the eleventh. Overall, she seems out of it.

Meanwhile, Asuka has been sent to you with an ankle monitor, which she finds a way to complain about three times during the drive between NERV and your home. That's going to get old fast. Her movements are restricted as well, though not to the same extent as Rei's. Her arm appears to have nearly recovered full functionality. Who knew the best treatment for getting your arm viciously ripped off by the target was to get your neck cruelly broken by your own teammates? Asuka says while glaring at Rei, who ignores her.

In the household, tensions are running high. Asuka's mad at Shinji again, predictably, and has no tolerance for him worrying about her, and especially not for him worrying about Rei. Meanwhile, Rei is actively avoiding all human contact and rarely leaving her bedroom, perhaps operating on the logic that her secrets are safe if she never talks to another person ever again. Naturally, this makes Asuka suspicious and angry, and it's majorly stressing Shinji out, which makes Asuka even more pissed off. You don't consider yourself an expert on Asuka's psychology, but the Rammstein and Nirvana blasting in her bedroom at all hours of the day leaves very little room for interpretation about her current emotional state.

Conversation
Select one of the following for each:
[ ] Talk to Rei about:
[ ] Talk to Shinji about:
[ ] Talk to Asuka about:
[ ] Talk to Hikari about:

Self
[ ] 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 for each pilot (if the same activity is selected for two pilots, they will attend that activity together):

[ ] Combat training (no Hikari)
[ ] Synchronization training
[ ] Physical training (no Hikari)
[ ] Study
[ ] Arts program
[ ] Go out/free time (free time is restricted to your apartment for your wards and the medical wing for Hikari)

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. Note that this activity does not have to include the pilots.

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Team (Re)building

-[X] Talk to Rei about The Future

You focus on the highest-priority problem first. Rei cannot hide in her bedroom forever, and her doing so is majorly disturbing the dynamics of the household. Shinji is worried sick about her, and Asuka knows something is up and is acting out accordingly. You'll deal with her later. The longer Rei sits on this, the worse things are going to get. It's time to rip the bandage off.

You knock on Rei's door. No answer. You know she's in there. You knock again and tell her you need to talk. Sympathetically at first, but when that doesn't work, more insistently. You try bribery. This produces no response, so you have to resort to a few mild threats of further discipline. This manages to get Rei's attention. She cracks open the door and peers up at you, her red eyes blinking rapidly at the sudden incursion of light into her dark bedroom.

Yes, Major?

You slide open the door more fully and let yourself inside, and you survey the room and its occupant. Rei is wearing what looks like an old hospital gown, and as far as you can tell, nothing else. Apart from that, her hair is slightly messier than usual, but she doesn't look sickly or unclean or anything like that. There are, however, noticeable dark circles under her eyes. She has not been sleeping well.

Her room is a mess of unwashed painting materials and scattered graphite sketches, many of them smeared badly. You can't tell what most of them are supposed to be, though some vaguely resemble her face, maybe. The lights are off and the curtains are drawn. The air is a little stale.

You decide to be direct and ask Rei when she's going to tell the others about everything. Rei avoids your gaze and focuses on a point near your left ear. Eventually, is her response. You are not satisfied. You understand that what you're asking her to do is really, really hard for her, but it needs to be done. Rei looks at the floor. Rei isn't sure what to tell them. They are going to hate her.

Select up to two:
[ ] Tell her to leave out the part about Yui Ikari.
[ ] Tell her to leave out the part about being a clone.
[ ] Tell her to leave out the part about being part-Angel.
[ ] Tell her not to leave anything out. You'll handle it if one of the others gets upset.

She's going to tell Horaki separately from the others. But she doesn't know how to break it to her two roommates either.

[ ] Tell Shinji first. Asuka can wait.
[ ] Tell Asuka first. Shinji can wait.
[ ] Tell them both at the same time. Get it over with.

-[X] Talk to Shinji about Romance

You ask him how things are going with Rei. Shinji shrugs at you. He's still not sure about asking her out. He doesn't know what to do to be a good boyfriend to her, assuming she says yes, which he's still not convinced she would, by the way. Right now doesn't seem to be a good time. She's hardly said more than a dozen words to him since she came home. He feels like he should be doing more for her, but he doesn't know what. She brushes off any attempts to talk to her. Maybe she's mad at him? He did mess up her foot and her plans. She doesn't seem mad at him, though. How are you supposed to support someone that doesn't want to be helped, though? Asuka's one thing. She's all talk. But Rei? He has no idea when or if she'll even talk to him again.

That thought makes him feel lonely. At least Asuka's talking to him, but she's not being very nice about it. She seriously needs to get over herself. Everyone's had it rough. He's been patient with her, but he's getting fed up with how she acts like the only person in the world with problems.

-[X] Talk to Asuka about Yourself

Speaking of problems. Asuka is unreceptive to your attempts to converse. She's chosen to ensconce herself in a wall of sound, largely courtesy of Trent Reznor. You don't know how she can think at the volumes she chooses to play her music. Maybe that's the point.

In addition to her disturbance of the peace during daylight hours, which has to be deliberate at this point, you've also been woken up in the dead of night by her screaming herself awake twice already. She's doing whatever she can to act like she hasn't been hurt, save when she's trying to leverage her pain to hurt the other people around her. Namely Rei.

She's being a gigantic pain in the ass, but not one that's unfamiliar to you. She reminds you of someone. It takes you an embarrassingly long time to realize that person is you. You handled it differently, initially.

The Second Impact caused something in your brain to jam, the mechanisms of your consciousness cracking, grinding, scraping. For years you lived in an isolation room. To quarantine you from the survivors, in case you were carrying some malignant energy from the tragedy in your tiny body that could infect them. But also, for your own benefit, to rest your mind while it healed. There was a period in your life where you did not speak to anyone for years.

At first it was because you could not. Your language centers were not able to produce, endlessly preoccupied with trying to put into language the damage that day had done to you, holding up less important tasks like communicating your wants and needs. Eventually you did not speak because you did not want to. You were tainted, damaged, contaminated. Billions of years of violent intent had irradiated your soul.

The anger ebbs and flows. The peaks and troughs were sharper and narrower back then. In your self-imposed prison of silence you sometimes found yourself annihilated by a single, overpowering thought: I will hurt the world that hurt me. When that thought grew too strong, the medical staff were there to put it away, back in the amygdala where it belonged. You were able to regain control of your life. Normalcy was provided to you by Ritsuko. Your first real friend.

You imagine that Asuka on some level must be going through the same thing. While she's refusing to speak to you right now, you wonder if you should carve out some time to talk about this with her. Or maybe she'd brush off your pity. You know that your younger self would hate some rotten adult fuckup trying to give you unsolicited life advice. Nobody can understand the pain you feel. Maybe some part of you wonders whether your younger self was right. At any rate, you still intend to punish the beings that hurt you. To fall short of that goal is deserving of punishment.

-[X] Talk to Hikari about The World

What about it?

Hikari hasn't had too many thoughts about her purpose when it comes to big stuff like that. As far as she's concerned, the job of an Evangelion pilot is to save the world, and that's what she's going to try to do, if she decides to stay with the program. She doesn't know if her health will permit it. And she's also proven that she isn't very good at that job. She'll keep doing her best, but she's not feeling optimistic.

-[X] Rei: Arts program

Rei's art has become increasingly abstract as of late; in addition to her usual empty urban landscapes and paintings of snow, she's been adding art of vague figures and shapes you'd classify as expressionist. You're not really sure what most of them represent, though you can make out a few as being her own silhouette and one white figure hugging some unidentifiable object you're fairly certain is supposed to be Lilith itself, though the head lacks the violet "mask" that serves as its face. The colors Rei picks are almost wholly restricted to muted browns, purples and greens.

Despite the distressing presentation and subject matter, Rei finds the exercise refreshing and appreciates you continuing to support her artistic pursuits.

-[X] Shinji and Asuka: Combat training

Asuka takes to combat training with vigor and takes out her frustration on simulated Angels with extreme prejudice. She can even give your artificial Angel, Ramiel, a run for its money by herself, though ultimately most powerful Angels prove to be at least two-person jobs, something she never lets Shinji forget whenever she bails him out and something she pointedly tries to ignore when he returns the favor. Shinji takes the training on with a sort of grim-faced stoicism and doesn't complain. Asuka notices this and tries to needle him, but he doesn't take the bait. Asuka seems a combination of disappointed and impressed by his maturity.

She spends far longer in the simulation than Shinji does, pushing herself extremely hard. She even insists on a few rounds against Dummy Unit-00, which go badly. Not as badly as the real thing, but Asuka emerges from those simulations drenched in sweat and shaking with anger. Asuka suggests Ritsuko should consider making simulations for combat against conventional artillery as well, an idea both you and Ritsuko find unsettling. Asuka easily reads your expression and says it doesn't hurt to be prepared. It'd make for a nice change of pace, too.

Before Asuka turns to leave, Ritsuko attempts to pry some details about Asuka's experience with the Angel's effects on her. Asuka becomes defensive. What does this have to do with combat training? Ritsuko says that being able to understand how Angels attack psychologically could potentially help NERV defend against future attacks. The benefits of this should be obvious.

Asuka thinks on this and then chooses to be uncooperative. Her answers are evasive and formulated to make herself look better. She finally shuts down after Ritsuko begins asking if she saw or heard anything that wasn't there. Asuka says Rei must have put her up to this interrogation session, states that she is perfectly sane, and that this conversation is over, before she storms out of the room.

Ritsuko and you exchange a look. You ask if Ritsuko knows anything about Asuka's claims about Rei. Ritsuko shakes her head. Asuka's acting paranoid. She knows something. About Rei. Ritsuko is leaving it to your discretion to deal with it.

As for Asuka's suggestion for new exercises, she'll relay it up the chain. Asuka's right. Obviously, any evidence that NERV is considering training exercises against a potential human military threat is to be kept secret. You're more worried that none of your other pilots are going to be willing to practice killing human targets. Shinji would reflexively refuse, Hikari is probably traumatized by the deaths she's already caused, and Rei seems reluctant to even kill Angels, let alone people. You're not convinced Asuka's processing killing dozens of soldiers well, either.

-[X] Hikari: Synchronization training

Hikari is cleared for a synchronization test in the middle of the week. She insists on suiting up by herself, and while aware she can't easily access the locker rooms without assistance due to their distance from the medical wing, you get the sense she's starting to resent her disability.

You watch as she's wheeled over to the test Plugs and awkwardly loaded inside. You ask how she's feeling. She says she's fine, just feeling nervous. And a little claustrophobic. Last time she was in here didn't go very well. She laughs mirthlessly. You tell her to do her best to relax. She's safe.

That's what you told her last time too, a nasty little voice in the back of your head tells you. You clench your fists and pour yourself a cup of coffee. Ritsuko sits down next to you. Let's get this over with, she says. She gives Hikari some advice on where to focus her attention and says that her vitals are being monitored at all times, so if anything goes wrong, it can be handled. Hikari says okay, laughing again anxiously. You give Ritsuko a look. What? She thought it'd be reassuring.

You shake your head and turn your attention back to the test.

After a few minutes, the initial results come in. Hikari can, on paper, synchronize with Unit-03, despite the nerves in her legs being damaged. The synchronization is not, however, very good. It's above the startup index, sitting in the low 20s. Unit-03 can move, but fine motor movements are going to be a problem. Locomoting is possible, but it will be awkward and sluggish. Current recommendation is to deploy Unit-03 as a long-range fighter and to work on improving Hikari's manual dexterity with the Evangelion.

After an hour of this, Hikari says she basically expected it to be like this. She returns to the locker room with her head held high. She's got some thinking to do.

-[X] All: Go out/free time

You let everyone off the hook and schedule them for only one task this week. Everyone, even Asuka, is grateful for the reprieve, though you secretly worry that giving them this well-earned break might cause them to fall behind. For the most part, each pilot sticks to their hobbies and routines: Rei remains in her room to paint, Shinji practices his cello, Asuka watches TV, and Hikari chooses to spend her free time with the Suzuhara siblings.

You take this time to sunbathe on the balcony and daydream about things that don't involve your unbelievably stressful job. Getting drinks, potential vacation ideas, sleeping with Kaji, that sort of thing. It helps a little, though less than you'd hoped.

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Tell them both at the same time. Get it over with.
[X] Tell her to leave out the part about Yui Ikari.

Rei dips her head, perhaps disappointed you haven't inexplicably decided to call the entire thing off, but she nods slowly. Okay. She'll…try. She's not very good at using her words.

Later in the week, it finally happens. After dinner, Rei stops Asuka from retreating to her bedroom and says there's something she has to tell her. Asuka folds her arms and tilts her chin up. Oh, really? Do tell. You sigh and grab a beer from the fridge. Rei moves to the living room and gets Shinji's attention. You follow them and settle in on the couch, eyeing your charges warily. You have no idea how they're going to react. Pen2​ watches from the door of the kitchen.

Shinji gives you a bewildered look, looking back and forth between you, Rei, and Asuka. He seems confused about why Asuka is there. It seems all your talk of romance might have primed him to think Rei's big secret involved her romantic interest in him. Oops. Asuka looks like she wants to punch Rei already. Rei opens her mouth to speak and closes it several times. Asuka says out with it already. Asuka doesn't have all night to wait around.

Rei gives Asuka an intense look. Asuka's scowl deepens, and her eye twitches with annoyance. What, is there some kind of problem with what she said? Rei doesn't say anything. She balls her fists, and she begins.

As instructed, she glosses over the reason for her existence, Yui Ikari, and begins with the fact that she is the eleventh member of the Rei Ayanami series. That she is a clone. Asuka reacts with confusion, and Shinji with alarm. He begins to bombard Rei with questions. Human cloning is possible? Is she one of those clones that has an expiration date like in sci-fi movies? What happened to the first ten Rei Ayanamis? Doesn't she have a bellybutton? Rei turns her intense gaze to Shinji and answers his questions tersely. Yes, no, they died, yes.

Asuka blinks a few times and asks why Rei exists at all. Are there clones of Shinji and Asuka too? Underneath her abrasive tone there is a hint of panic. Rei says NERV needed to ensure it always had a pilot. And that it needed a vessel. Rei also explains that her body exists as parts for the Dummy System. Asuka and Shinji are unique. Asuka says well of course she is. The world's not big enough for two of her anyway. You take a sip of your beer and try not to roll your eyes.

The smug expression fades off Asuka's face when she realizes that this means the Dummy System wasn't just Rei's mental scans. It was Rei herself. Which means that it was her that did that to Unit-02 last battle. Asuka closes the distance between herself and Rei instantly. Rei stands her ground. Another Rei, without a real consciousness to speak of, did that to her, yes. It was killed when the Dummy System was aborted by Dr. Akagi. All uses of the Dummy System end with the destruction of the clone. The clone itself is largely reduced to a nervous system kept on life support when put into the Plug anyway. They are not the same thing as Rei is.

Shinji says that's horrible. Rei doesn't say anything at all.

Asuka says it doesn't matter. It's still Rei's mind that did it, isn't it? Rei remains silent.

Shinji breaks the silence by asking about the vessel thing she mentioned. You drink more generously.

Rei looks at you. You nod. She turns her attention back to Asuka, almost glaring at her. Asuka glares back.

Rei explains that her body is a vessel for the soul of Lilith, the Second Angel. Her body isn't fully human. She's an Angel-human hybrid. Her voice quavers just a little bit. She assures you all that she poses no existential threat—

Asuka shouts that she fucking knew it. She turns her attention to Shinji, who shrinks under her withering glare. She fucking told him so. And he didn't believe her! He called her crazy! Shinji looks around and stammers that look, he's really sorry, it's just—

Asuka doesn't care about whatever stupid excuses he has. Get on his knees and apologize to her, right now. Shinji complies readily. Asuka says good. She'll think of some suitable punishment for him later. She turns her attention back to Rei. As for her.

Asuka grabs her by the top of her head and drags her to the floor by her hair, forcing her into a dogeza position. Rei yelps in pain as her head bangs into the floor. You start from your chair and move to intervene. Asuka tells you to stay back. You don't understand what Rei did to her.

Shinji throws himself at Asuka. She responds by giving him a wicked kick, knocking him off his feet. He pants heavily, winded. Pathetic, she spits at Shinji, and he calls himself a soldier. She places her foot on Rei's back, forcing her into the floor. Say you're sorry, Asuka snarls. Rei doesn't. Asuka puts more of her weight on her, making Rei grunt in pain. She repeats herself more forcefully. You move in, shouting at Asuka to get off of Rei. What's wrong with her? Asuka shoves you away with considerable force, nearly knocking you over. Asuka's not moving until Rei apologizes to her. She'll fight you for it. She sounds hysterical.

You demand an explanation. Asuka gives it to you, relaying what happened to her while you were away in Matsushiro. How her work with Fuyutsuki made her suspicious of Rei, how she tested Rei's DNA and received a positive identification as Lilith, how she confronted Rei about it, how Rei not only lied to her but tried to make her feel insane, how she threatened to have her psychologically examined by Ritsuko, how she poisoned Shinji against Asuka by telling him that Asuka was losing it. She presses Rei further into the floor. There was a point where Asuka began actually doubting herself. Asuka wants an apology, now. Then the three of you can figure out what to do about the Second Angel.

What will you do?

[ ] Write-in

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Write-in: Give it a second, just to see if Rei says anything. If she doesn't, tell Asuka to let her up so she can talk. Lean on that time in the Army. If she doesn't, separate the two using the minimal amount of force you can.
-[X] If Rei then talks, let her speak. If not, tell Asuka that yes, she is right to be upset about this, and you're all here to talk this out. You won't let your wards hurt each other.

Rei doesn't do or say anything. Asuka looks like she's closer to detonating with every second of silence that slips by. You tell Asuka to stand down. This is totally inappropriate, regardless of whatever Rei did to her. Asuka says she's not moving until Rei admits what she did and apologizes for being a lying piece of shit. You sigh and grab Asuka's arm, pulling her off Rei and putting her into an arm hold so she can't easily escape. She squirms and growls obscenities at you in three languages, but you're bigger and stronger than she is.

Rei pulls herself up and dusts herself off. She shifts nervously, but her expression is one of deep annoyance. She rubs the part of her scalp that Asuka yanked to pull her to the floor. There's a nasty-looking welt on her forehead. You reluctantly sacrifice your cold beer to treat Rei's injuries.

You wait for Rei to explain herself, or defend herself, or deny Asuka's allegations, but she doesn't respond. You ask Rei if what Asuka said is true. Rei doesn't respond. Not encouraging. You tell Asuka you are going to let her go on the condition she keeps her hands and feet to herself. The four of you can talk this out. You're not going to let the two of them hit each other. Asuka mutters her assent and you gingerly release her from your grip, half-expecting Asuka to lunge at Rei. To her credit, she doesn't. You tell Asuka if what she's saying is true, she's got the right to be upset. That's a shitty thing to do to someone.

Asuka looks surprised you're taking her side. However, you continue, that doesn't give her the right to beat Rei up. Asuka scowls. You ask Rei once more to confirm or deny Asuka's account. Rei hesitates, but she nods. Asuka is more or less telling the truth. Her voice is flat and clinical. Shinji gives her a disturbed look. She draws her mouth into a thin line and tenses her shoulders.

See? Asuka says, Rei owes her a big apology. So, hand it over.

Based on Rei's body language, you're fairly certain that Rei is not inclined to grovel on the floor and beg for Asuka's forgiveness. You're not sure if it's a matter of ego or whether Rei simply feels no remorse for her actions. It's possible she doesn't understand their consequences. But she's not exactly giving you much to work with here.

Shinji asks Rei why she'd do something like that. There's a hint of horror tingeing the confused quaver of his voice, something that does not go unnoticed by Rei, who grows visibly less confident and poised the longer Shinji looks at her.

Rei says she was simply following protocol. Asuka accessed highly classified information without permission, and Rei was protecting NERV secrets.

Asuka starts, and you're tempted to grab her again as she gesticulates angrily. First of all, Asuka was doing her job. If there's an Angel living under NERV's nose, it's her business to know about it. Considerations of security or privacy are irrelevant, especially when the subject isn't even a person, it's an object pretending to be a person. Rei twitches, glaring harder at Asuka. It seems that Asuka has struck a nerve. You're not looking forward to breaking up a potential fistfight.

Second of all, why the hell is NERV keeping the presence of an Angel secret from her? It's NERV's purpose to protect the world from Angels, and to that end, NERV has recruited her to exterminate them. What makes Rei or Lilith or whatever so damn special that they'd keep them around without telling anyone? Going out of their way to make sure Rei can't die with clones, even. There's obviously something else Rei isn't telling you.

And third of all, what, Gendo just told her to psychologically torment anyone trying to do their damn job?

Rei says no, she had a range of options taught to her to deal with this situation, and she selected the one that she felt would be the most effective at neutralizing Asuka. That wasn't lethal. Asuka slaps her. "Just following orders" really isn't going to cut it. Asuka's hands twitch with rage, perhaps itching to squeeze Rei's windpipe. Asuka asks if the three of you can just kill this bitch already.

What now?

[ ] Write-in

 

[Sutekh]

[X] No Kicking Employer
-[X] Reprimand Asuka for the slap. Repeat the declaration that there is to be no violence between the pilots/wards.
-[X] No, Asuka, we cannot "just kill this bitch already." "This bitch" is an actual person who has been instrumental to your survival on a number of occasions. Also - if she really was some mindless puppet, you shouldn't bother demanding an apology from her, and if you actually want an apology, calling for her death is not the way to go. Just saying.
-[X] Ask Rei what were her other protocol options were. Rei likely went with the least harmful one.
-[X] Ask Asuka what would she do in Rei's shoes, having a secret she was ordered to protect discovered.

You've pretty much had it with Asuka's (and frankly everyone's) preference towards violence to solve disputes. You yank Asuka away from Rei like a misbehaving kitten and sharply reprimand her for striking Rei. You told her to knock it off, and you're starting to get mad. If Asuka wants people to start treating her like an adult, she needs to stop hitting her roommates and to listen to instructions. Asuka says fine and folds her arms. She deserved it though.

Before you can try to deescalate further, Shinji beats you to the punch and says no, nobody is killing Rei. It's obvious that she's a person. If Asuka thought otherwise, she would have killed Rei already. Or Misato would have. Obviously, Misato knew about this beforehand and decided she wasn't a threat. Use your head for once, Asuka. Asuka's hackles rise and she asks where the hell he gets off calling her dumb. She was right under his nose, and he didn't suspect anything because he was too busy mooning over her.

Shinji mutters something under his breath. What's that, Shinji, speak up, Asuka growls. Shinji says Asuka's acting like she hasn't been obsessed with Rei for months. What the hell is that supposed to mean? Asuka retorts.

You try to get this discussion back on track. You ask Rei about what her other options were. Rei says she had fifty-eight different options to her. Some of them involved various uses of lethal force. Rei preferred not to kill Asuka, as she considers Asuka a friend. Asuka says Rei is an awful friend if she feels that's true. Rei ignores her and adds that additionally, she did not feel that she could overpower Asuka to execute most of the lethal options. Some of her options involved reporting Asuka's breach of security to various higher-ups, but Rei wasn't sure what would happen or whether they'd be effective, so she skipped those. Others involved simple to elaborate cover stories, but she felt they wouldn't work on Asuka, or would only work temporarily. Her remaining options were ridicule (Rei didn't feel she was capable of acting out the part), flat denial (obviously wouldn't keep Asuka quiet), or psychologically or socially isolating Asuka.

There were a few options to do that. Social ostracism via blackmail or rumors could work, but Asuka's too irrational to predict there, and there was no guarantee of silence. Rei settled on manipulating Asuka and her social network into thinking she lacks credibility. There wasn't enough time or groundwork laid to convince everyone Asuka was a chronic liar. It was possible, Rei supposes, to convince everyone that Asuka had something to gain from making up this information, but she felt striking at Asuka's insecurities would be more effective. Therefore, Rei simply told Asuka and anyone that came into contact with her that she was undergoing a psychotic break. Rei feels this worked.

Oh, so when presented with a list of fifty-eight options, Rei decided to select the option that would cause Asuka the most grief? Rei gives Asuka a frank look and says that she is still alive, isn't she? Asuka explodes.

She doesn't care! Asuka wishes Rei came at her, to be honest! Asuka would have beaten the shit out of her! Asuka doesn't care if Rei thought she was doing her a favor, or whatever, it's fucked up what she did. Asuka doesn't know how Rei knew about what happened to her mother, because Asuka certainly didn't tell her! Asuka looks at you. Did you tell her? Did you give her weapons to use against her?! She told you not to tell anybody! You shake your head vigorously.

There's a pregnant pause before Rei asks what Asuka is talking about. Asuka's eyes widen with awareness at her slip-up, before she turns her nose up and says it's none of Rei's business.

Oh, in the same way that Rei's genetic material wasn't any of Sohryu's, Rei replies coolly. Asuka bares her teeth at Rei. That's completely different. Rei being a fucking Angel and an immortal clone soldier or whatever is information that affects everyone here. Asuka's issues with her mother are nobody's business but her own, and not relevant to anyone's mission. Yes, Asuka can intellectualize too, Rei. If she won't show any kind of decency, maybe being told that sitting on this crap was a dumb idea guaranteed to backfire might get through to her.

Rei calmly says she was following the protocol given to her by the Commander. She was following the mission. Before Asuka can jab back at her, Shinji interrupts.

His father told her to do this? he asks. Rei hesitates before slowly nodding her head. Yes, he taught her how. She answers slowly, and carefully chooses her words, trying to gauge Shinji's reaction.

So his father taught her how to use him as a weapon against Asuka, then? Rei stiffens. Shinji's voice is low and flat. You've seen Shinji annoyed before, but you're not sure you've seen him angry. Rei says that's not what she intended—

What was it that she intended to do, then? Shinji asks. Rei doesn't answer. Shinji raises his voice. If Rei had talked to him, he would have heard her out! She's his best friend. He doesn't care that she's a clone or an Angel. He's been doing what he can to protect her. Rei says quietly that he did protect her. Shinji shouts that she manipulated him into that position without his knowledge. She made him hurt Asuka, someone he cares about. Asuka breaks eye contact and rubs her shoulder.

Rei says in a small voice that she had to keep her secret. Asuka says she was just hiding it for selfish reasons. She didn't care who she had to hurt to do it, and she still doesn't! Still waiting for that apology, by the way. She really isn't human after all, is she? Any other bullshit she's hiding or plans to manipulate all of you she'd like to share?

Okay, you've gotten more information out of Rei, and at least convinced her to make a half-hearted defense here, but the two other pilots are ganging up on her now. You don't think you're going to get them to kiss and make up, but you should probably do something to ensure they don't hate each other now.

[ ] (Write-in)

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Plan Paradigm Shift (QM tiebreaker)
- [X] Blame Gendo for shitty orders, not Rei for following them.
- [X] Sympathize with both Rei and Asuka for having to deal with this crap. Must've been hard.
- [X] You're sorry for not noticing the problem and making the kids suffer through it on their own.
- [X] But if Asuka had come to you instead of plotting on her own, everything could've been much simpler. Asuka wasn't restricted by protocols after all.
- [X] Rei could've done it too. Even a hint, without revealing everything, would've been enough to get you to act and help.
- [X] Ask Rei if she understands why Shinji is upset. If she doesn't, make Shinji explain it once again. Ask her to tell Shinji how she feels about it after she understands.
- [X] Asuka has forfeited her right for apology the moment she hit Rei. They're even now. If she still wants her apology, she's apologizing for the violence first.

You try to shift the blame away from Rei, and onto Gendo for outlining these protocols. It's not fair to either Rei or Asuka, or frankly, you, that you need to put up with such important information being withheld from you. Your attempts are less than successful. Rei looks at the floor, clearly not buying what you're selling, even when it'd benefit her, and Asuka is quick to point out that Rei was still free to choose what she wanted to do, and she chose violence. Shinji looks conflicted, but ultimately doesn't seem convinced by this logic, either. Asuka sees your transparent attempt to distract them for what it is, and she isn't having any of it.

She's pissed off at Gendo too, don't get her wrong, but this isn't about him, and she's tired of your constant attempts to run interference for Rei. She already knows Rei's your favorite, so you don't need to bring the old man in to make that point. It's already clear you've taken Rei's side to her. She glowers at you. Do you really not see anything wrong with the current situation? God, she's so sick of you.

You say you're not taking Rei's side at all. You think what Rei did was hurtful and damaged the relationships she has with her teammates. You empathize with her situation; she was not in a great position, and you're not sure whether you'd be much better, but you think Asuka and Shinji have the right to be upset. Asuka's expression softens a little.

That being said, Asuka should have come to you before plotting on her own. Nobody gave her any orders to investigate Rei. You could have handled the problem sooner and less messily, and without the need to use false kindness to do so, either. Asuka protests that you always take Rei's side, so why should she have trusted you? You ask whether you're taking Rei's side right now. No, Asuka concedes. She also mumbles something about how she wasn't being a total phony; Rei's hair was in need of help…it'd been bothering her…Asuka's voice gets quieter with each word.

As for Rei, you understand that she was in a difficult situation, but you're here to help her, and so are Shinji, and yes, Asuka is supposed to help her. You give Asuka a pointed look. She goes back to scowling. Maybe Rei couldn't tell you everything, but even just a hint, something, anything you could use to help her would've been enough. She needs to be able to trust her teammates if you're going to work together, and hiding stuff like this, especially in the way she did, undermines that. She tried to engineer a situation where Asuka couldn't even trust herself; how was that going to work out when the three of them were in a life-or-death situation and needed to rely on each other?

Rei quietly says she did not want you all to hate her.

Yeah, bang-up job, Rei, well done, Asuka growls. Is she stupid? Asuka has zero idea how she'd react to Rei just fessing up before she snooped, to be honest, but she knows she's pissed now. That's the problem with Rei. She doesn't care about other people's feelings at all. The only thing she cared about is how she'd feel.

Shinji's been awfully quiet. You ask if he's okay. He shrugs at you. That's probably a no. You ask Rei if she knows why Shinji is upset with her. Rei doesn't answer. Asuka demands she answer the question. This silent treatment shit is the kind of thing that really pisses her off. What, is Rei too good to talk to you or something? She simply knows better than all of you, is that it? Because from Asuka's perspective, Rei doesn't seem to know much of anything about being a person and not an unfeeling, barely sentient shell. Which is, come to think of it, what she is, isn't she?

You tell Asuka that's enough. She has a point, but she's saying way too much. Picking at stuff Rei's obviously insecure about isn't exactly predisposing her to be open about her problems in the future. Asuka growls and says fine, but Rei needs to knock this shit off. She hopes you appreciate the restraint she's been showing in not socking Rei in the face, because she's really asking for it.

Rei finally says no, she doesn't know how Shinji feels. She's not Shinji.

Asuka mumbles something under her breath that sounds like "smartass", which you choose to ignore. You ask Shinji to, if he's able, explain to Rei why he's upset. Rei shrinks away from Shinji a little, as if bracing herself to be hit.

Shinji rambles aimlessly for a bit, obviously trying to avoid being too direct now that you've put him on the spot (and now that Rei is, if perhaps unintentionally, looking at him like a kicked puppy), but the gist is this, and you summarize it for Rei as the following: Shinji is upset because Rei treated him like his father does. She asked him for help, using his personal connection with her as leverage over him, and then turned him into a weapon to serve her own ends, without his consent, or even his knowledge, which in some ways is honestly worse. At least Shinji sort of knew what he was getting into when he agreed to be a pilot. And Rei doesn't seem to recognize that's what she did, which honestly scares him a little.

Rei says that that was the best way she could think of to ask him for help. And also, that like it or not, he is a weapon, for NERV. This was in some way her just using the tools she was given. Rei pauses, frowning thoughtfully. But…Shinji isn't a tool, he's a person. She's…she's sorry. For treating him like an object. That was wrong of her. Shinji says it's…it's fine, he guesses. Just never do it again, or he...he's not sure he can be her friend. Rei says okay, avoiding eye contact.

Asuka looks like she's going to burst a blood vessel. You know, this is great and all, but she's the victim of this shit. Where the hell is her apology.

For your part, you tell Asuka that she forfeited her right to an apology when she attacked Rei. As far as you're concerned, they're even. Asuka starts as if you've slapped her. Asuka shouts that they're not even remotely even. Are you stupid? Boo hoo, Rei got a little bump on her forehead. Meanwhile, Rei, she…Asuka pauses for a moment, grits her teeth, and says you know what, never mind. She recognizes that Rei's not going to apologize, and you're clearly not bothered. Asuka will get over it. It's not that big a deal. This conversation is pointless to continue. Sorry for hitting you when you deserved it, Rei.

She says she appreciates Shinji doing the right thing, thanks you for setting this up so she could have some closure on this, and tells Rei to stay the hell away from her, then storms out of the room and slams the door to her bedroom. For once, she doesn't start blasting her music.

Shinji says he still has some questions for Rei, but he needs a moment to himself. Sorry. It's just a lot. Your little heart-to-heart ends somewhat anti-climactically as everyone drifts back to their rooms. You're glad you cleared the air, and you think this went better than Rei thought it would go, but you're really worried about Asuka. You feel like Rei isn't going to recognize what she did wasn't okay without Asuka opening up more about how she feels, but that would require Asuka to admit Rei hurt her on a deep and personal level. Asuka's being difficult, but this isn't just another tantrum. Rei probably hurt her worse than you thought. Getting Asuka to admit that isn't going to be easy.

Conversation
Select one of the following for each:
[ ] Talk to Rei about:
[ ] Talk to Shinji about:
[ ] Talk to Asuka about:
[ ] Talk to Hikari about:

Self
[ ] 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 for each pilot (if the same activity is selected for two pilots, they will attend that activity together):

[ ] Combat training
[ ] Synchronization training
[ ] Physical training (no Hikari)
[ ] Study
[ ] Arts program
[ ] Go out/free time (free time is restricted to your apartment for your wards and the medical wing for Hikari)

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. Note that this activity does not have to include the pilots.

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Talk to Rei about The Past

Rei gives you a dangerous expression that quickly informs you she'd rather not talk about the specifics. You approach the matter as gingerly as possible and fish for anything you can get. Rei's as laconic as ever when backed into a corner, but you manage to learn a few things about her. One is that almost all of the deaths her previous clones underwent were either accidental or self-inflicted, rather than her being repeatedly decommissioned by Gendo or a vindictive Ritsuko. The fact that this was "almost" all of her previous clones leaves you somewhat less than reassured.

Another thing you learn is that the details of Rei's past lives are fuzzy in places; the memories are implanted, after all, not direct experienced, so Rei has the strange sense that some of her memories happened to someone else. Curiously, this doesn't seem to be uniform across the entirety of her existence, with some memories from past iterations feeling very impersonal, and others being surprisingly visceral. Rei thinks that this is the result of some kind of imperfection in the copying process.

Rei says she doesn't remember most of her deaths. Really, only the first one. She's not sure how. If it's okay with you, she doesn't wish to discuss it. She's not refusing because it's confidential. She just doesn't want to talk about it.

You recall one of Kaji's files being about the murder of a Rei Ayanami by an unknown (or rather, a heavily redacted) assailant, so it's understandable that she'd rather not relive that. You thank Rei for what information she was willing to give you and tell her that she's been very brave to open up about her situation. Rei says she's still not sure this was a good idea.

Her roommates have been…different. Asuka obviously is still furious with her. Rei's clearly bothered that Asuka is no longer her friend, but she's also struggling to empathize with Asuka. She does not understand Asuka and is, not unreasonably, still upset about Asuka's intrusion into her business and tendency to prefer violence to vent her emotional issues. Rei is going to stay out of her way.

Shinji, meanwhile, has treated her ambiguously. On one hand, he's nervous around her again, which makes Rei feel sad. She understands she broke his trust, but it still feels bad. On the other hand, he's also been accepting and curious about her being an Angel, to an almost annoying degree, which is a relief. It's sort of nice having someone curious about rather than disgusted by her body. Rei would prefer he stop asking her about whether her alien biology can accommodate certain foods, though. Her preferences are the same as ever: no meat, and most dairy, particularly milk, makes her sick to her stomach. Still, she's glad he's on her side.

[X] Talk to Shinji about NERV

Shinji has seriously mixed feelings about NERV right now. He recognizes that you do good work for the good of humanity and everything, but every time he gets into that thing, he has to watch someone get hurt. The last two times he piloted Eva, he personally caused physical injury to one of the girls. He's tired of it.

The recent revelations about Rei deeply unsettle him. Not necessarily that Rei is scary, or anything like that, but Asuka's right. There's clearly something going on at NERV that nobody's telling him, and he doesn't like it. He's positive Rei knows what it is, too, but she's still keeping secrets from him, which bothers him greatly. He does not know if it's safe to trust Rei.

Obviously, she has her own problems with his father. He had to stop her from doing something she couldn't take back. But she was still raised by his father, and she's ready and willing to hurt him and Asuka to keep his father's secrets. He's glad she was able to recognize that her actions towards him were wrong, but her lack of remorse for manipulating Asuka disconcerts him. Though he guesses can't blame her for not wanting to make up with Asuka. Asuka was way out of line back there.

Asuka's been moody lately, but it feels like she's been less harsh on him since the other night? Which is a nice change of pace. He's been trying to avoid pushing her buttons, and it's mostly been working. He does not like being caught between the two of them. He just hopes that whatever else Rei's been hiding from everyone, it's not going to make things worse. Knowing his father though, that seems unlikely.

[X] Talk to Asuka about The Present

It's bad. Things are bad. What do you care, anyway?

You find Asuka in her room, lying on her bed. She looks exhausted. There are deep bags under her eyes, and her hair is a mess. Over the last week, you've been woken up once again by Asuka screaming herself awake. She's been pretending there's no problem, but it's getting difficult to ignore. Her room is in complete disarray, the result of some kind of tantrum you must have been out of the apartment for. Her hairbrush has been snapped in half, and one of her pillows lies in a mutilated heap in a corner, leaking stuffing. You avoid cutting your foot on the shards of a shattered mug sitting in the middle of the floor near a torn-up fashion magazine.

You ask Asuka if she wants to talk about it. Asuka says why bother, you'll just find some excuse to write her off. She's not going to beat up Rei, as badly as she wants to, so don't worry. She wants Rei to stay away from her. Asuka doesn't care if she's supposedly "safe", or that she's allegedly a person, just like you. She's a sociopath who's perfectly content to manipulate the people around her if it suits her. Asuka wants nothing to do with that.

She doesn't care how hard Rei's life has been. It's not like anyone else's life here has been a cakewalk, either. Certainly explains why Rei walks around with that unwarranted air of self-importance, though. Rei isn't used to facing consequences for her actions. Everyone around her is willing to make excuses for her, or pull her ass out of the fire when she fucks up. Asuka had to work for everything she has. Rei was born special. Asuka's not going pretend Rei's had an easy life, but her high-and-mighty attitude pisses Asuka off. She's also still obviously lying about shit, so fuck her. The only solace she takes in this is that even stupid Shinji recognizes that his darling Rei isn't perfect.

And that she was right, of course. Hopefully that gives you and Shinji something to think about next time you choose to disregard her problems. Now leave her alone.

[ ] Leave her alone
[ ] Push back

[X] Talk to Hikari about The Present
Hikari is stressed out. Her disability is still taking time to get used to. It's frustrating, but she's also afraid she will get used to it. She's always been an independent person, used to taking charge of most situations she's in. It's been rough needing someone to help her get dressed or push her around NERV. Even if she is sorta enjoying all the extra attention Suzuhara's been giving her.

Rei says she has something she wants to tell her once she gets out of the medical ward, and she doesn't know what that's about, but whatever it is, Rei seems very worried about it. Which Hikari finds concerning. She doesn't think she's seen Rei worry about anything. If it's about the last Angel fight, Hikari doesn't hold it against her. It's not like Rei was piloting Unit-00 when it trashed Mizuho. It's Hikari's fault, anyway.

Affairs at home are the greatest source of stress for Hikari. Her father is obviously feeling guilty about what happened to her, despite it not being his fault at all. Hikari's told him over and over, but her father is a sensitive man, and she can tell he feels like he should have said or done something to stop her from piloting. He's been "subtly" trying to get her to step down as a pilot, but he's respected her wishes so far. It's a lot to deal with. She knows it's because he cares, but it's made talking to him unbearably awkward.

Nozomi's become moody and withdrawn. Hikari thinks she's going through her rebellious phase, but she's not entirely sure. She hasn't been at home to get a feel for the situation on the ground. She just knows that she's been getting into arguments with Kodama a lot about Kodama's quality of care in Hikari's absence and snapping at their father over little things. Hikari can't get much out of her about what's bothering her when she visits.

As far as Hikari can tell, Kodama's been doing her best to run the household in Hikari's absence, but she has both school and work to deal with, and that makes things hard on Nozomi, since she's often left to her own devices or not fed until later in the evening. The added stress is creating friction between her two sisters. And not to denigrate her sister's caregiving activities, but there is a reason Hikari cooks for the family and not Kodama.

And she's not taking Hikari being in the hospital well, obviously. She's calmed down a little, but she hates your guts, like, a lot. She's lost a lot of her family to NERV. Her mother died in some kind of accident at NERV, her father is often not home, Hikari's in the hospital, and up until recently the only thing Nozomi would talk about at length was Evangelion. Hikari's not surprised she's feeling angry.

Hikari is kind of happy Kodama is mad at you on her behalf, though. She feels like she should be mad at NERV too, but she can't find the anger. She feels angrier at herself for failing than anything else. So maybe it's good someone out there is mad for her. Is that weird? She's sorry if it is.

Hikari's heard she's going to be let out of here soon, which is good. She wants to be back home with her family. She just hopes that she can go back to the way things were without too much difficulty. She's not sure how her disability is going to affect her at home or school yet, and that worries her.

[X] Rei: Study
You decide to keep Rei away from the other pilots for a little and have her focus on her academics, which are lackluster. They've improved since you've taken her in, but she's been scraping by at best. The main issue you've been having has been convincing Rei that her studies are important to achieving her future goals. You think she's been considering attending an art school once she gets through high school, but she needs to get into a decent high school before anything else, and Rei is uninterested in preparing for entrance exams. It appears to be a combination of deep pessimism about her place in the future, as an Angel-human hybrid and Evangelion pilot, and the less existential concerns of a teenager wondering when the hell they're going to use any of this stuff. For Rei, doing trigonometry problems is irrelevant to her interest in the visual arts, and she doesn't understand why it's important she needs to know how to do it in order to get into art school. You think you can handle that, though you're less certain about your ability to assuage her worries she might not even make it to her high school graduation.

[X] Rei, Shinji, Hikari: Arts program

On that note, you let Rei relieve her stress by giving her dedicated time to work on her art this week. Rows of dark figures populate many of her images, mostly sketches of classrooms and hallways. Her grasp on perspective has tremendously improved over the months you've known her. Rei is a fast learner, but you're really impressed. You notice it's been a while since she's drawn Pen2​. You're not sure whether you should be worried.

Shinji takes this time to practice his cello while Rei draws. At one point, Rei gets him to try drawing something, but the result is basically what you'd expect from somebody who hasn't drawn anything but doodles for his entire life. Shinji visibly sags in his chair as Rei neutrally gives him encouragement and fails to hide her faint disappointment.

Hikari doesn't understand what the purpose of this exercise is, and wonders if it's a secret training technique for her manual dexterity so she can pilot Evangelion better. She enthusiastically tries and fails to draw a portrait of Suzuhara while he comes to visit her. The result resembles some kind of goblin or ogre, which you find amusing and Suzuhara finds insulting. The pair of them get into some kind of minor argument about the technical merits of Hikari's masterpiece, leaving them both feeling grouchy. Hikari, for the most part, thinks it can't possibly be that bad. But it is.

You don't have the heart to tell her otherwise, and she seems to be getting something out of it, so you let it be. The two of them reconcile later after Suzuhara's little sister gives the picture the thumbs-down, but asks to keep it anyway, since it makes her laugh.

[X] Shinji, Asuka, Hikari: Synchronization training
The session proves to be one of the most stressful sessions since you started having them. Shinji sits at a comfortable 87.8% synchronization rate with Unit-01, more than enough for flexible use of its body and a strong AT-Field presence. Ritsuko suggests that if he can get it just a little bit higher, she and Fuyutsuki might consider using him to research potential methods of shaping the AT-Field as a weapon or even as a method of propulsion, as the Angels use theirs for the same purpose. The caveat is of course that the higher synchronization might lead back to feedback injury and increased likelihood of a berserk incident when Unit-01 is placed under duress.

Meanwhile, Asuka sits at 39.9%, less than half of Shinji's score. To say that Asuka takes this poorly would be an understatement. She does not even try to hide her displeasure behind passive-aggressiveness. She manages to start an argument with Ritsuko, Shinji and even tries to drag poor Hikari, who is simply just trying to get through the session without drawing too much attention, into it. She manages to avoid responding to Asuka's attempts to get a rise out of her, though the disruption does cause both Hikari and Shinji's sync ratios to falter whenever Asuka opens her mouth.

You ask Ritsuko to cut Asuka's mic, but Ritsuko shakes her head. In a real combat situation, they're going to have to put up with her. If nothing else, this can serve as training for that. Ritsuko does unsuccessfully attempt to get Asuka to knock it off, and she has very little patience for Asuka's excuses and complaints.

She's also annoyed at you, as she knows that this is about Rei, and your reasoning for going with your plan was that it would be better for team cohesion than hers. Your attempts to get her to empathize with Asuka's situation fall on deaf ears. You and she are the ones that created it, and Ritsuko's getting very tired of cleaning up everyone's messes.

Finally, Ritsuko loses her patience with Asuka and tells her to stop her bitching or so help her God she will do whatever it takes to ensure she never sits in the cockpit of Unit-02 again. She has an important task to do, and she's acting like a spoiled brat. If she does not get her shit together, people will die. And one of those people might be her. Asuka asks what the hell that's supposed to mean. Like she'd just roll over and die.

Ritsuko doesn't respond to her, but she grumbles to you that she's sorely tempted to explain the cold calculus her technical team does when prioritizing which Evangelion unit to support in emergency situations. The current state of affairs does not favor prioritizing Unit-02's pilot over the pilots that can actually do their jobs. Ritsuko opts instead to say that if Asuka's performance and attitude doesn't improve, she'll be taken off the team, for her own safety, if nothing else. Asuka launches into a tirade about both her training and her history of successfully killing Angels, but Ritsuko tells her point blank that she does not care. None of that stuff matters. What matters is the present, and at present, Asuka is making her seriously question the point of keeping her around. She can get out of the Plug; Ritsuko has nothing left to say to her.

Asuka explodes, and Ritsuko finally cuts off her mic. You tell her that she's not really helping. Ritsuko gives you a look and says this is all shit you should have said to her a long time ago. You're her CO, not her mom. Hell, even as her mother you should probably have said something about her behavior at this point. Somebody has to put their foot down, and if nobody else is going to do it, it might as well be her. This is a military facility, not a daycare. The Commander letting you play house with her was obviously a mistake. Ritsuko mutters something to herself, something about her disbelief that the one they put in a wheelchair is the one with the best attitude.

Speaking of, Ritsuko has Hikari stay a little longer. Partially to evaluate her skills (lacking), and partially to spare her from having to put up with Asuka's bullshit in the locker room. Hikari manages to demonstrate she can probably fire a gun a safe distance from the fight, but her mobility and combat skills are limited, and she would be dependent on using the Magi to help her aim. Still, Ritsuko sees that she wants to get to a higher skill level, so she doesn't see the harm in putting more work into her piloting abilities. Just make sure she's being trained in other combat-related exercises, too.

[X] Asuka: Physical training

Asuka chooses to focus her efforts on doing as much violence to training dummies as her body will allow. She trains long and hard, pausing only to consult with her OT and PT about some lingering concerns with her arm. She refuses to leave several times, even when showing clear signs of fatigue, and you have to cut her off before she manages to push herself to total exhaustion. She does not appreciate your concern, and she has some choice words for you not worth repeating here. At the very least, you get her to treat her bruised knuckles and ensure she stays hydrated. The car ride back home is silent. You try to make some kind of conversation, but Asuka's closed for the day. You find her bad mood puts you in one, and you feel a mixture of anxious and irritable for the rest of the evening.

So far, the emotional contagion hasn't spread to the others yet.

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Push back

No. You're not leaving Asuka's room until she tells you what's going on with her. Her room is a mess, she looks like shit, she's having bouts of explosive anger, she's screaming herself awake at night. Something's obviously wrong beyond the situation with Rei, and you're not going to tiptoe around the problem any longer. You've been very patient with Asuka and her behavior over the last few months, but she's out of control, and it's causing problems at home.

Then Asuka guesses you'll be there for a while then, because she doesn't want to talk to you. Where do you even get off, barging into her room and pretending you're somehow here to lend a sympathetic ear? You've never once taken her side when it mattered. Not once. She knows that you consider her a problem to be solved. That you think you can "figure her out" and bend her around your fingers with the right combination of empty gestures and cynical bribes of ice cream. But there's nothing you can say or do that can help her, because she doesn't need help, especially not your kind of "help". Where you "hear her out" and then conclude that she's the cause of everyone's problems. She's had enough of your bullshit, Misato.

You sit in uncomfortable silence for several minutes while Asuka glares at the ceiling from her bed. Asuka finally relents and asks why you're still here. You're wasting your time. You repeat that you want to help her. She's obviously struggling. You've delayed talking about this long enough, and for that, you're sorry. Asuka snorts. The two of you sit silently for even longer.

Asuka's patience runs out. You want to know what's going on with her? Fine. She's tired of everything. She's tired of accommodating Rei's bullshit, she's tired of having to work harder than everyone else to barely keep up, she's tired of being treated as nothing special, she's tired of sharing a living space with people that put her second in all matters, she's tired of getting hurt all the time and nobody caring, she's tired of being used as an object by the people in her life, she's tired of people like you pretending you're on her side in private but when the chips are down, when you have to take a stance on her in front of everyone, you turn your back on her. Why do you think she'd be pissed off with the amount of bullshit she's had to put up with?

She doesn't even know why she's bothering to vent to you. She might as well be talking to a brick wall. You don't really listen to her or help her. You don't do anything. None of you do. You all just nod your head up and down and pretend everything is okay and then go back to ignoring her, and repeat the cycle all over again like it's the first time you're hearing about this, just like every other shitty adult in her life. She thought maybe you'd be different, but you're just like everyone else. Rotten. But that's fine.

She doesn't need you. The others might, but she doesn't, and she never will. You will never be special to her. Get out of her room.

You try to keep a neutral face, but Asuka's words scrape against a tender part of you that you keep buried deep inside. You know that this is her putting up a strong front, but you're hurt that she thinks so little of you. You really feel like you've been doing your best with Asuka, but is that true? Whatever your approach is, it isn't working. Asuka's a mess, and she's rejecting your attempts to reach out to her, again. A small white flame of anger flickers to life in the back of your mind. You feel like you've tried everything, but she still hates you. You take a deep breath, let the anger fade, and decide to regroup. You're not quite ready to give up on this relationship, even if Asuka is.

The only thing you can say right now to Asuka is that you're sorry. Really, you are. Asuka says not to bother if you don't mean it. Let's not kid ourselves. Do you think she's stupid?

Get out.

You do just that. You need to think of some other way to get through to her. If such a way even exists. The air outside her bedroom feels lighter, less oppressive. This isn't just a childish tantrum. There was real hatred in what she said to you. If you don't fix this soon, Asuka will be on a collision course with total self-destruction.

---

[X] Special Activity:
- [X] Coordinate with Ritsuko to create combat simulations (using the Magi) for Shinji and Hikari, focusing on paired scenarios with Shinji as melee and Hikari as ranged, with added focus to compensate for Hikari's injuries.

Hikari badly needs the extra training, and the next Angel could be here at any minute. Ritsuko agrees this is a good idea, but she's annoyed by the lion's share of the work being pushed onto her on such short notice. It's your responsibility to ensure she gets combat training within her regular training schedule, and according to her progress report, you've elected to have her do arts and crafts this week? You do know how far behind she is, right? Despite her grumbling, she manages to stitch a few scenarios together for Hikari to use.

It's a bit of a slog. Hikari needs to be carefully walked through the Positron Rifle and Sniper Rifle assemblies. Based on her current level of control, Unit-03 is most likely going to be limping or even crawling around. Overall, not very mobile. It's best to deploy Hikari where you plan to keep her for most of the fight, because she's not going to be able to reposition easily.

As for the target practice itself, it goes okay. After Hikari gets the basics down, it turns out she's not a terrible shot. However, her low synchronization rate means she tends to overcorrect her aim; fine motor movements are difficult for her. Reloading is also clumsy. You suggest having Ritsuko 3D print a scaled-down replica of the actions of various Evangelion combat firearms so Hikari can practice reloading. Sure thing, she'll add it to the list. It's not like she has hundreds of other tasks to handle and messes to pick up after. You do your best to ignore her prickliness and thank her for her time. She merely shrugs at you and goes back to work, rubbing her temples.

Seems she's pretty sick of you too.

---

Your home phone rings one evening while you eat dinner. Asuka refuses to pick it up for you, despite sitting closest to the phone, since it's probably going to be Kaji, and she does not want to talk to him right now. You grunt in annoyance and trudge over to the phone.

Katsuragi, it's him. He needs to meet up with you really soon. It's urgent. You feel Asuka's eyes glaring a hole in your back as you quietly ask whether this is a business or pleasure emergency. You still never figured out how to navigate that aspect of your relationship, and you're starting to think you never will.

Ideally, both, Kaji says. You can hear his smirk over the tinny earpiece of your phone. He's going to reserve a hotel room. What, right now? Kaji says of course. How soon can you get down here? You peek over at your pilots. Shinji's busy trying to fend off Pen2​'s repeated attacks on his dinner, but the girls are both giving you eerily similar glares of displeasure. Asuka notices Rei glaring at you and breaks eye contact to glare at her.

Man, you don't want to deal with them right now. You tell him you'll be there after you finish eating. Fantastic. He'll be waiting. You hang up the phone and say you'll be going out tonight. Um, don't wait up for you. Rei and Asuka make identical sour expressions. Shinji, either oblivious or feigning ignorance, tells you to take care out there. He's a good boy.

You tell them not to do anything stupid in your absence, seriously, you do not want to come home to another fight, and you take your leave. You can only hope that everyone does what they've been doing over the last week and keeps to themselves. It feels like every time you leave the three of them alone they manage to make a mess of things. It's so hard to be you.

---

You meet Kaji in the hotel room and ask why you're here. This better not be just a booty call. Your pilots are ready to tear each other apart like feral cats and you're already having second thoughts about leaving them alone without adult supervision. Kaji says not to worry, he wouldn't call you out here on short notice just for that. Well, maybe he would, but that's not the case this time. You roll your eyes and ask what's so urgent. Two things, really.

The first thing is that the Fifth Child has been located. Surprisingly, not a member of the kids' class. Japanese-German kid, like Asuka. Last name Nagisa, first initial K. No plans to ship him to your apartment just yet. His file's blank, which is incredibly suspicious. You've seen parts of the kids' dossiers as well as your own, and they are extremely thorough. Even Rei's, whose file is missing very important details such as her own birthday, still has pages and pages of text dedicated to base-sequence pairs and her performance history (at least the parts of it that haven't resulted in her own death). There are of course, similarities between his and Rei's files. Namely, all details of Nagisa's past have been expunged. Just like Rei's.

Speaking of which, you've been doing some investigation of your own, haven't you? Would you like to share with the class?

[ ] Keep Rei's secret to yourself. The more people that know about it, the more dangerous this situation becomes.
[ ] Tell him Rei's secrets, but only the things she's told the others. They're her personal matters, and it's already bad enough you're blabbing to Kaji, probably her least favorite person, about it at all.
[ ] Tell Kaji everything. He's been very upfront with you about the things he's found out, and it's only fair to return the favor. The more information you can pool together, the better your chances of getting to the bottom of the shady dealings at NERV.

 

[Sutekh]

[X] Tell Kaji everything. He's been very upfront with you about the things he's found out, and it's only fair to return the favor. The more information you can pool together, the better your chances of getting to the bottom of the shady dealings at NERV.

You feel a pang of guilt deep in your guts over betraying Rei's trust, but if there's anyone at all you can trust to be discreet about this, it's Kaji. The two of you aren't going to get anywhere if you refuse to share information with each other. Besides, keeping secrets hasn't been working out for anybody else you know right now. You tell him as much about Rei and her situation as you can remember. Admittedly, some of the finer details escape your memory. Much of what Ritsuko said when she was ranting about salvaging Yui's soul and the development of Evangelion went over your head. But Kaji listens attentively as you search for the words to describe the atrocities that resulted in Rei's creation.

Kaji scratches his stubbly chin and lets out a whistle. He knew Rei was different in some sinister way, but he wasn't expecting her to be a reanimated corpse acting as an accidental prison for God. He asks what you think of her intentions. You admit you're not sure. You don't think she wants to hurt anyone on purpose, but…you don't how much she can help it. You feel reasonably confident that you can get her on-side. She's resentful of her other NERV superiors, and you believe her when she says she loves you. You still love her, too.

But…? Kaji asks.

But she's still at least, in part, an Angel. Which means she is dangerous. You think that the danger can be contained, unlike Ritsuko. But you're not going to pretend you're not worried about what Rei is capable of. As of right now, Rei's capabilities only appear barely superhuman, but Ritsuko is awfully worried about what might happen if Rei were to merge with Lilith's body. And Rei's behavior isn't that of someone in possession of restraint when threatened. Rei is ordinarily a patient, calm, and overall sweet girl, but when pushed, the depths of her determination to achieve her goals work to the exclusion of anything standing between her and them, unless someone aggressively steps in to provide alternative solutions, or failing that, physically stops her. You and probably Shinji can do that for Rei, but in your absence, you worry that Rei might impulsively start Third Impact to achieve her own ends.

What do you think her ends are? Kaji asks.

You shrug. You think she just wants to survive everything at this point. Her motivations for most of her behavior don't seem particularly nefarious or incomprehensible. She wants security, self-expression, and to be loved and accepted by other people, same as everyone else. You're not sure how ending humanity would serve those ends, but Ritsuko seemed very convinced this was a real possibility. You suppose given Rei's circumstances, it'd probably be the only way to commit suicide and ensure nobody brings her back again.

Kaji says he believes there's more to Third Impact than simply ending all life on Earth. The Angels could choose to fight away from Tokyo-3 and probably kill a lot of, or even most of, humanity, but they seem to be focused on hitting the reset button to ensure nothing exists except for them. Kaji's been collecting some information that suggests that there are other potential ends Third Impact could serve. He has some thoughts about why Rei's being kept around.

He doesn't think it's as simple as "keeping Lilith contained forever" and "having a free soldier at all times", as important as those benefits are. Think about it. Is the plan for Rei to just have a contingent of people working at NERV cloning her indefinitely, after everyone else is long dead? Moreover, Lilith's soul only got stuck in a physical body after Fuyutsuki tried to restore Yui to life, right? So, it must have been in that thing on the cross's body for however long it's been there, underground. Which was probably millennia at the very least. It doesn't seem like GEHIRN was really all that concerned about separating its soul from its body before that point.

Giving Lilith's "mind", he supposes, a way to see the human condition doesn't exactly sound like a fantastic way to keep it stable. The risk of having it decide that humanity isn't worth keeping alive for whatever reason probably increases if you make it live the life that Rei leads. The fact that everyone who knows that Rei's effectively the spirit and will and probably the mind of Lilith is freaking out that Rei might decide to end everything on a whim speaks to that.

So why take the risk? There must be some other purpose Rei serves, one known only to the other three NERV higher-ups. Possibly only to Gendo and Fuyutsuki, as Rei's existence predates Ritsuko's tenure at NERV. Gendo seems awfully concerned about keeping Rei on a tight emotional leash, so he must be planning to use her to do something, and that something is almost certainly related to Rei's dual nature. Kaji admits he doesn't know the details of how that would work. He's not a scientist. But this information you've given him has brought a new problem to light.

Adam. He told you that the Angel on the cross was Adam, right? That's what he thought at the time, but you're telling him that thing is the empty husk of Lilith. If you recall, he transported Adam to NERV HQ from an archive in Berlin. That's what he was carrying in his briefcase. It was the embryonic form of Adam encased in Bakelite. The Angel at sea probably attacked because of Adam's presence on board. When he first showed you Lilith, he'd assumed that Adam had just been removed from its seal and set up in Terminal Dogma for safekeeping. Adam's a white giant of light, Lilith is a white giant. It checked out to him, and it looked familiar to you, right? You recognized it, after all. You admit that you don't actually remember exactly what Adam looked like. You only saw it from far away and there was kind of a lot going on at the time.

Right, well, if that thing isn't Adam, then where the hell is Adam? It's surely still on-site somewhere, since the Angels haven't attacked anywhere else other than the test site at Matsushiro, and it could easily have mistaken one of the Evas for Adam. Gendo probably still has it, but what for? Moreover, there's also the issue of Unit-01. It's not a clone of Adam, it's a clone of Lilith instead. Why? That needs further investigation, too.

As for the souls inside the Evangelion units, Kaji imagines they must belong to the parents of the pilots. Unit-01 is Yui Ikari, Unit-02 is Kyoko Zeppelin Sohryu, Unit-03 is Mizuho Horaki, and Unit-00 is, as you've said, the original Rei, plus fragments of subsequent Rei clones. Does…does Asuka know about this? You shake your head. You don't know how she'd take it, to be honest. Based on Asuka's behavior since the day you've taken her into your home, you'd put money down on "poorly". You'd prefer not to think about how Asuka is doing right now.

What was that other thing Kaji wanted to talk to you about? Kaji says he's got a lead on Keel Lorenz and some of the other members of the Steering Committee. There's way more snooping to be done, but he's heard some credible information that suggests they're all members of a larger singular organization, despite allegedly being otherwise unrelated delegates from UN member states. He doesn't want to talk about the details just yet, not until he gets all the details right. It's some real fucking secret society, Illuminati, NWO-type shit. No, come on, don't smirk at him, he's serious. It sounds hard to believe, but he's about 90% certain he's right about this.

The situation is under active investigation right now, but the gist is this: Gendo and the Steering Committee are in frequent conflict about NERV's purpose and operation. Based on what he was able to get through some…less-than-strictly-legal-means, some of these arguments are about boring shit like budget overruns, or your battle plans running up the accounts due to the damage you've done, or some pissant government official thinking he can push around the UN, whatever. But the overwhelming bulk of the disagreements appear to be about the "Human Instrumentality Project". And given how often these come up, both Gendo and the Committee might have different plans for whatever that is. Kaji still hasn't been able to get his hands on any direct project documents yet. He might have to do riskier shit. It's possible that he might not come back. That's part of why he had to see you tonight. To tell you that. The other is to tell you the name of the organization his next investigation will focus on.

Seele.

Sale? You ask, not sure if you're hearing him correctly. No, with a "z" sound at the start. Seele. It's German for "soul". He's been able to confirm they exist, and he has high confidence that all five members of the Steering Committee, as well as Gendo and Yui Ikari, were also members of Seele, but further details remain to be found. If something happens to him, well, you know where to start looking.

You tell him not to do something stupid. He says it's probably too late for that, isn't it? Both you and he have long wandered in territory where a single slip-up could mean the end of you by this point. Well, in that case, if he does something that gets him killed, you'll kill him. Kaji grins ruefully. Same to you then. Don't die, Katsuragi. Or he'll kill you.

With that, the two of you start making love. It might be the last chance you get. You don't want to leave behind regrets.

Or that's your intention, because right when things start getting good—

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

You fucking hate this job.

---

You hurriedly put your clothes on and rush to HQ after extracting a promise from Kaji that he's going to evacuate properly. The sun has just settled below the horizon, and the normally lifeless and desolated streets of Tokyo-3 are a bustle of residents rushing for the nearest shelter. You can't see the Angel yet, so you have time to spare before it's upon you.

The bridge is a whirlwind of activity, as usual, with technicians rushing to and fro. Gendo glares down at the scene from his usual position high above you. You wrinkle your nose and ask for a status report. Hyuga obliges you, though curiously, he's avoiding eye contact with you. The Angel was sighted in the west, and it's closing on Tokyo-3. It will be here in a matter of minutes. The pilots are already suiting up down below, and launch procedures are underway.

Ritsuko trudges over to you, coffee in hand, tells Aoba to pull up the visuals, and informs you that there's a hickey on your neck. Hyuga slumps in his chair a little. Your face burns and you tug ineffectually at the collar of your jacket, willing it to cover more of your neck. Can she not say that on the bridge?

Ritsuko shrugs at you. She'd want you to say something if it were her. You groan.

Aoba directs your attention to the screen, towards the form of your next adversary.

ZOPHIEL
~Der Engel der Schönheit~​

The Angel is very wide. It is shaped like a long comb or handleless paintbrush. The "bristles" hang down loosely from a long, thin, gelatinous-looking "shaft". There are three small birdlike skulls along the shaft. They are on the far left, far right, and dead center of the shaft. They are all slightly different. The "bristles" drag along the ground. They are translucent. They paint the ground bright red. The Angel glides through the air.

You don't know what to make of this one. It's coming at Tokyo-3 head-on, with the broad part of the comb facing forward. You ask what the deal is with the "paint". Magi cannot positively identify it, but whatever it is, it kills anything organic in it, down to the microbial level. That's just wonderful. What's the risk to the Evas? Ritsuko says as long as their armor remains intact, it should hold against this stuff. Direct contact with it will make any biological substance that touches it disintegrate into a red dust. The dust is toxic, by the way. Fantastic.

As for the Evas themselves? Units-00 and -01 are in top condition. Unit-02 is in fair condition. Much of the damage the Dummy System did has been fixed; its neck and central nervous system are mostly back in working order and its arm has been reattached. However, the internal damage done by being impaled turned out to be more difficult to repair than anticipated, so it might have some flexibility issues. Also, it's probably going to hurt when Asuka fires it up, so there's that. Unit-03 was the most extensively damaged, but Ritsuko pushed her team extremely hard to get its arms back on and restore some functionality to its legs. The result is a rush-job, and the nervous system reintegration leaves much to be desired. It should be safe for Hikari to pilot without fear of feedback damage, but it's going to feel like shit to move around in. Not that it matters too much, given Hikari probably can't walk around much in it anyway. Also, there's still some gaps and weak points in its armor plating; the JSSDF and Unit-00 put a lot of holes in it.

Unit-00 is currently to be placed on standby given what happened last time Rei was in it, though if the situation gets dire enough, the freeze order might be lifted on it.

Your combat readiness is Good. The Geofront has sustained Minor damage.

The early warning system was successful. Evacuation has successfully completed, and the shelters have retracted.

The JSSDF will not assist with the battle.

Defend the Geofront. You have the following weapons at your disposal:

• Progressive Knife
• Sonic Glaive – A progressive knife on a very long stick. Not to be used as a brace under any circumstances.
• Double-bladed Naginata – A stick with a long, curved progressive blade at both ends. Can be separated into two swords. Not suitable as a brace. Currently only usable by Asuka.
• SEM Crossbow MM-144 – a crossbow that fires electromagnetic bolts at high speeds.
• Positron Rifle Mk. 20 – shoulder mounted rifle that fires antimatter rounds. Requires external power, very finite ammunition. Can be charged.
• Smash Hawk – a single-bit axe weapon similar to a battleaxe with a high frequency cutting surface. Not as long as the Sonic Glaive, but heavier and with a wider cutting surface. May be dual wielded by any pilot.
• Sniper Rifle – An Evangelion-sized sniper rifle. Packs more of a punch and has a greater range than the crossbow, but cannot be fired continuously.
• Type E-470 Bazooka – A portable rocket launcher. Large blast radius. Packs a powerful punch, but it must be reloaded after every shot. Low effectiveness on Angels with active AT-Fields.
• MLX-13-OBJ-235 ("Azrael's Scythe") – The organic scythe wielded by Rei in the aftermath of the battle against the Thirteenth Angel. Composed of a mixture of Unit-00 and the Thirteenth Angel's flesh and bone. Twitches occasionally. Impossibly sharp and seemingly indestructible, with good reach, but difficult to use and squirms violently when held by anything other than its master. Can only be used by Unit-00.

Select one primary weapon for each pilot:

[ ] Equip Rei (standby) with:
[ ] Equip Shinji with:
[ ] Equip Asuka with:
[ ] Equip Hikari with:

You have major reservations about sending Unit-03 and its inexperienced pilot into battle in their current state. Hikari won't be happy about it, and it will reduce your options, but you can choose not to deploy Unit-03 right away and just keep her on standby.

[ ] Deploy Unit-03
[ ] Do not deploy Unit-03