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Rei Ayanami Raising Project

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Some stuff here I am kind of split on. Going off Misato's own reactions, and all it implies for her relationships, I'm not sure disclosure of the whole sign off thing is a good idea right now. Rei's whole interpersonal world consists of roughly five people.

Confirming what she might expect, that her fatherish figure and etc are actually shitty, won't do anything great for her stability rn. Misato also risks providing uninformed information/framing due to the nature of the beast. She doesn't know how much of a finger those three people have in this pie. Does Ritsuko share an equal amount of responsibility as the other two? Did she have no idea? Or did she pass it through for unknown reason?

Do we want Rei to possibly become hostile to people and an organization like Nerv, even if deserved? At this point in time, I don't think it would benefit Rei for her to start developing conflicted negativity towards anyone. Ignoring long term needs, as bad as it sounds, she's not in a living situation where she can afford to fully realize just how traumatizing and fucked up her life has been. And honestly? Misato is her commanding officer who is also traumatized. Neither of them can.

As a player, from what I remember it's also plausible for us to get Ritsuko on our side. It'd be nice to talk to her first before we tell Rei that Ritsuko might be responsible for her crappy life. That said... I also remember that Rits has some kind of beef with Rei. Forgive me, but it has been a while since I watched the original anime. Over a decade tbh.

At the same time, she deserves to know and Misato should not just sit on this. There's dangerous shit going on behind the scenes for sure, but people imo deserve to know about this kind of thing on principle. You can't make informed choices when you aren't informed. Rei is so uninformed about, basically, everything to the point that her choices are essentially just examples of how lacking her agency is when it comes to her own life. Because she's Rei. I don't think it's great to continue that trend.

On a meta level Misato isn't really in control of her own life either. But hey! We are turning her into a more responsible vodka aunt version of Misato for a reason.

SO, if I combine that with what other people have said, I find myself swayed.

[X] Tell Rei
[X] Arcade (kids like that sort of thing, right?)
[X] Friendship. Rei needs a friend that isn't you. You know, if she considers you a friend. You're not sure about that.
[X] Break the news to Gendo

Sometimes it's good to push people out of their comfort zone. For Rei, I think that she is well served by gaining a large variety of life experiences. I also think that Misato might herself want to hang out at an arcade.

As far as the update itself I am extremely amused by the fact that Ritsuko is shook by the improvement. Like yeah, no shit sis, Rei is living in an actual HOME instead of a health hazard. 8% increase is a no brainer. As an example, childhood poverty like Rei was experiencing harms the brain and sense of self. She's also fighting monsters in a giant robot at age 14. It is not shocking that her art of herself would imply self hatred, or even suicidal ideation.

Also hehe penguin doodles

Next time we can vote I'm going to aim for Misato talking to Ritsuko.
 
Hyacinthium said:
Do we want Rei to possibly become hostile to people and an organization like Nerv, even if deserved?
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Given a choice between turning Rei against people and institutions that generally sit somewhere between exploitative and outright abusive, and not doing so...I fail to see how the former is better for Rei's long-term mental health. The solution shouldn't be to make sure Rei has positive opinions of everyone in her life, even people like Gendo, but to try introducing her to people who deserve positive opinions.
 
GreatWyrmGold said:
Given a choice between turning Rei against people and institutions that generally sit somewhere between exploitative and outright abusive, and not doing so...I fail to see how the former is better for Rei's long-term mental health. The solution shouldn't be to make sure Rei has positive opinions of everyone in her life, even people like Gendo, but to try introducing her to people who deserve positive opinions.
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To repeat everything else in that comment even though you ignored it?

Well, if Rei becomes sufficiently hostile then it's very possible that Gendo will just kill her and activate a new Rei. Mental health wise, it's very much damaging and un-fun to suddenly find yourself being told that your parental figure is actually an abusive asshat responsible for your shitty living situation. Many people around Rei's age would lash out and double down in favor of Gendo. Even when living through the proof, it is hard to Intergrate with the reality of neglect and trauma as a teenager. The inner conflict wouldn't be healthy at the moment, even if she decides to fully believe Misato, and that itself is no real indication that Rei would turn against Nerv.

She has no access to professional mental help. She is beholden to Gendo's legal power over her. She is also more or less a science experiment that the man has some manner of fucked up attachment to. She cannot currently gain independence at age 14. She has known Misato for, like, a month. This is not a situation where Misato can just sit down and perfectly help Rei work through the psychologically demanding labor of acception that her main, if only, loved one is actively responsible for everything wrong in her life.

Additionally, we do actually need Rei to get in the robot. Misato doesn't have a hint of Adam or Lilith existing. We don't have the ability to go up to an Angel and talk things it. A Rei who will not fight, or whose sync rate is low due to knowing that Gendo actually doesn't give a shit about her, is either dead or risks a shit ton more people dying. There is currently no way for Misato to make Rei free from Nerv.

I also never suggested she should have positive opinions of everyone in her life. That's a horrible solution, and I'm not sure why you're bringing it up. Especially since I voted to tell her anyway lmao. I just expect it to bite us in the ass.

Rei has no support system outside of Misato, a person who she's only starting to genuinely see as a safe person. Misato telling her that Gendo, old man, or Ritsuko signed off on her crap apartment... doesn't automatically help her. Not at THIS moment. Making her concept of the world shakey like this is not the best idea. It could fuck things up just as much as it could help.
 
Personally, I assume that the "Tell Rei" option will most likely lead to the fact that condemning Gendo's act will only worsen our relationship with Rei. Given that we've only known her for a short time and have only just begun to gain her sympathy, it's pretty obvious which side she's going to take right now.
Alternatively, she may think that it was "wrong" for us to take her into our home, as well as her feelings about it.
I don't see how choosing this option will end well. Pretty pessimistic, but not surprising for this setting.
 
Hyacinthium said:
To repeat everything else in that comment even though you ignored it?
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I didn't ignore it, I didn't think it was relevant to my point. There's a difference.

Well, if Rei becomes sufficiently hostile then it's very possible that Gendo will just kill her and activate a new Rei.
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Really? If that's true, then Gendo's even worse than I'd heard.

Also, did not realize Gendo could just get a new Rei if he broke this one. That does put some stuff into context.

Mental health wise, it's very much damaging and un-fun to suddenly find yourself being told that your parental figure is actually an abusive asshat responsible for your shitty living situation.
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Yes. But it's also damaging to have an abusive asshat as a parental figure, and pretending that everything's fine as they continue to be an asshat isn't a solution. In the long run, distancing Rei from the abusive asshat in favor of less-abusive people is probably better for her mental health than letting the abuse continue uninterrupted. (Unless Gendo murders her. That does complicate things.)

She has no access to professional mental help. She is beholden to Gendo's legal power over her. She is also more or less a science experiment that the man has some manner of fucked up attachment to. She cannot currently gain independence at age 14. She has known Misato for, like, a month. This is not a situation where Misato can just sit down and perfectly help Rei work through the psychologically demanding labor of acception that her main, if only, loved one is actively responsible for everything wrong in her life.
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You'll note that the option does not say "break Rei out of NERV," "sue Gendo for custody over Rei," or even "be Rei's therapist". It says "Tell Rei". I don't have any delusions that this is going to instantly free Rei from Gendo's grasp or anything like that. But if I have to choose between letting the status quo continue and maybe taking the first step away from it, I'd rather pick the second.

Additionally, we do actually need Rei to get in the robot. Misato doesn't have a hint of Adam or Lilith existing. We don't have the ability to go up to an Angel and talk things it. A Rei who will not fight, or whose sync rate is low due to knowing that Gendo actually doesn't give a shit about her, is either dead or risks a shit ton more people dying. There is currently no way for Misato to make Rei free from Nerv.
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The argument that we should tolerate Gendo's abuse because it might get worse if we don't made me kinda queasy. The argument that his abuse should be tolerated because it's good, actually, without it Rei might not let herself be exploited...it's so, so much worse.

Maybe you're right. Maybe the world is fucked if we don't keep Rei in the dark about how fucked-up her life is, if we don't tolerate Gendo. But I don't think it's likely, it's definitely not certain, and I don't think this end justifies enabling Gendo. Not when it's "Maybe Rei wouldn't get in the robot at a critical juncture, and maybe we'd all die because of it".

I also never suggested she should have positive opinions of everyone in her life. That's a horrible solution, and I'm not sure why you're bringing it up.
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If it doesn't matter, then I don't know why you brought up like half of your arguments. What does it matter that Rei only interacts with five people and that we'd be ruining her opinion of half of them? Why does her opinion of Gendo matter if you don't think she needs to have positive opinions of the people in her life? Why make any argument beyond "Rei might not get in the robot" if you're not arguing that Rei should have positive opinions of the people in her life?


I'm not sure why you're bringing it up. Especially since I voted to tell her anyway lmao. I just expect it to bite us in the ass.
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My position isn't "You shouldn't have voted against telling Rei" or "Telling Rei won't have any unwanted side effects". It is "No, letting Rei blindly endure Gendo's abuse is not a good thing". You argued that telling Rei would be bad for her long-term mental health, I argued that keeping her in the dark would be worse. I don't see how votes enter into it.
 
GreatWyrmGold said:
Really? If that's true, then Gendo's even worse than I'd heard.

Also, did not realize Gendo could just get a new Rei if he broke this one. That does put some stuff into context.
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Oh yeah, there are many reasons why Gendo was, for a long time, the front-runner for "Worst Anime Parent of All Time", at least until Ragyo Kiryuin of Kill La Kill ended the debate by claiming it for herself (if you wanna know what SHE did, take everything Gendo did up to 10 and add
MOLESTING YOUR OWN DAUGHTERS
as a starting point). And yeah, there's a whole "Reiquarium" of spare Rei bodies deep in the Geofront that only Gendo, Fuyutsuki, and Ritsuko know about. Rei regularly has her memories downloaded so that if she dies, they can just crack open a spare. This is the main reason why Rei views herself as so replaceable, because she literally can be. And, in point of fact, already has once. The Rei we've been interacting with from the beginning is the second Rei or "Rei II", after the first one was murdered years ago as an adolescent by Ritsuko's mom due to manipulations by Gendo before promptly taking her own life.

[X] Do not tell Rei
[X] Arcade (kids like that sort of thing, right?)
[X] Friendship.
[X] Break the news to Gendo
 
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GreatWyrmGold said:
I didn't ignore it, I didn't think it was relevant to my point. There's a difference.


Really? If that's true, then Gendo's even worse than I'd heard.

Also, did not realize Gendo could just get a new Rei if he broke this one. That does put some stuff into context.


Yes. But it's also damaging to have an abusive asshat as a parental figure, and pretending that everything's fine as they continue to be an asshat isn't a solution. In the long run, distancing Rei from the abusive asshat in favor of less-abusive people is probably better for her mental health than letting the abuse continue uninterrupted. (Unless Gendo murders her. That does complicate things.)


You'll note that the option does not say "break Rei out of NERV," "sue Gendo for custody over Rei," or even "be Rei's therapist". It says "Tell Rei". I don't have any delusions that this is going to instantly free Rei from Gendo's grasp or anything like that. But if I have to choose between letting the status quo continue and maybe taking the first step away from it, I'd rather pick the second.


The argument that we should tolerate Gendo's abuse because it might get worse if we don't made me kinda queasy. The argument that his abuse should be tolerated because it's good, actually, without it Rei might not let herself be exploited...it's so, so much worse.

Maybe you're right. Maybe the world is fucked if we don't keep Rei in the dark about how fucked-up her life is, if we don't tolerate Gendo. But I don't think it's likely, it's definitely not certain, and I don't think this end justifies enabling Gendo. Not when it's "Maybe Rei wouldn't get in the robot at a critical juncture, and maybe we'd all die because of it".


If it doesn't matter, then I don't know why you brought up like half of your arguments. What does it matter that Rei only interacts with five people and that we'd be ruining her opinion of half of them? Why does her opinion of Gendo matter if you don't think she needs to have positive opinions of the people in her life? Why make any argument beyond "Rei might not get in the robot" if you're not arguing that Rei should have positive opinions of the people in her life?



My position isn't "You shouldn't have voted against telling Rei" or "Telling Rei won't have any unwanted side effects". It is "No, letting Rei blindly endure Gendo's abuse is not a good thing". You argued that telling Rei would be bad for her long-term mental health, I argued that keeping her in the dark would be worse. I don't see how votes enter into it.
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That's some impressive spaghetti when we share the same position. So, let me get this right, you picked out a single sentence out of context and decided to write a whole lot in reply to only that? Throughout all this you somehow skipped over my conclusion that Rei deserves to know anyway. Because her ability to exert agency and make informed decisions matters more, even if it's likely to result in backlash at this point in time.

Yeah, that's a really poor way to engage with anything, or anyone. It is also possible, you see, for people to write long comments because engaging with the story makes writers happy. Instead of making an argument to sway people's opinions, or whatever. I don't have an argument, I'm just talking about what I think is possible and then saying I ultimately don't care.

Anything else I suggest you send to my dms because I honestly don't care for having a random try to debate me in thread over a position I don't even have.
 
CrimsonKnight said:
after the first one was murdered years ago as an adolescent by Ritsuko's mom due to manipulations by Gendo before promptly taking her own life.
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Why is every parent in this series hot garbage? The best seems to be the guy who thought bringing his daughter to an Antarctic alien monster research facility was a good idea.
Do I want to know what Asuka's parents did?


Hyacinthium said:
That's some impressive spaghetti when we share the same position. So, let me get this right, you picked out a single sentence out of context and decided to write a whole lot in reply to only that?
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First off, no. I only "picked out a single sentence" in the sense that I left only the sentence which best summarized the part of your post I disagreed with in my post. I read the rest of your post, decided I could get my point across without needing to individually respond to every sentence that supported that core point, and wrote a response.

If you're asking why I only responded to the part of your argument which I disagreed with...it's because that's the part I disagreed with. I didn't and don't see any point in quoting and responding to the parts I agreed with.

Throughout all this you somehow skipped over my conclusion that Rei deserves to know anyway. Because her ability to exert agency and make informed decisions matters more, even if it's likely to result in backlash at this point in time.
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I acknowledge that you eventually came to that conclusion and disagree with other parts of your post. I can agree with part of what you say without agreeing with all of it. You said "Telling Rei would probably have negative long-term effects on her mental health, but I still want to do it"; I disagree with the first part and not the second. Is that so hard to understand?

Yeah, that's a really poor way to engage with anything, or anyone. It is also possible, you see, for people to write long comments because engaging with the story makes writers happy. Instead of making an argument to sway people's opinions, or whatever. I don't have an argument, I'm just talking about what I think is possible and then saying I ultimately don't care.
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Apathy about an argument is a perfectly logical reason to respond twice to someone responding to it.

Also, why is it that your long comments are "engaging with the story to make writers happy," while mine are apparently just me picking fights with strangers online or whatever?

Anything else I suggest you send to my dms because I honestly don't care for having a random try to debate me in thread over a position I don't even have.
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I don't think you understand my argument. It's not "Everything you say is wrong!", it's "This one specific thing you said is wrong."

Also, a pet peeve of mine is people making an argument and then immediately saying some form of "Let's stop having this argument now that I've made my point". Yeah, in this instance the person (you) said "We can have this argument in private, where nobody can see your responses," but that still has the same fundamental problem. Normally I'd add something about how you're probably not trying to intentionally hide the counterarguments to your points, but your claims here are...suspicious. If you don't want to have a debate in a thread because you don't care to argue about a position you claim not to hold, why the hell would you want to have that exact same debate in PMs? Your argument supports "Let's not have this discussion," but you said "Let's have this discussion in private".


Also, I'd like to point out an irritating irony. You accuse me of only responding to a single sentence from your original post, and then proceed to respond to absolutely nothing from my response. You just accuse me of writing spaghetti and respond to the idea of me disagreeing with you. And then ask me not to respond in public, so your post can be the last word on the subject anyone else sees.
 
GreatWyrmGold said:
Do I want to know what Asuka's parents did?
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No, you do not. Both her parents are shitty in the manga timeline, though for vastly different reasons and to vastly different degrees.
We only have confirmation on one parent being shitty in the anime.
As far as I know, her parents are non-entities in the Rebuild movies, though Asuka's issues are very different there.
 
GreatWyrmGold said:
Why is every parent in this series hot garbage?
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Because Hideaki Anno's work was heavily fuelled by (a) his personal experience of being clinically depressed in Japan (b) a growing disenchantment with obsessed anime fans.

(There are some specific in-universe reasons, but most of them are massive spoilers.)
 
grommile said:
Because Hideaki Anno's work was heavily fuelled by (a) his personal experience of being clinically depressed in Japan (b) a growing disenchantment with obsessed anime fans.
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Japan was also three years into a massive recession after its housing market collapsed under its own weight in 1991-2. The traditional "Japanese dream" of a single-earner household where the father would work at the same company for 30-40 years and the mother would take care of the children, who would go through rigorous schooling and become parents of their own, was slowly evaporating as the "stern but providing father" and "nurturing but kept mother" archetypes were becoming increasingly obsolete in the new material environment they found themselves in. Gendo is himself in some ways the idealized Japanese father but rather than being presented as an accepted part of the Japanese family system his incredible shittiness is presented in a way that has a negative psychological impact on his struggling child(ren, if you count Rei).

Also, if we can cool down a little in the comments, I would appreciate it. We all want Rei to be happy, and I encourage healthy and vigorous debate over important topics (or unimportant topics if you're really passionate about them), but please do not personally attack each other. Misato has enough to deal with without the voices in her head getting into a flame war. Thanks.
 
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The Third VI: Dance Dance Reivolution
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Break the news to Gendo

    You made a promise. Besides, there's a very good chance Gendo already knows what you did. Time to bite the bullet. You knock on Gendo's door. Very gently. Maybe he won't hear you and you can just say oh well you tried—

    Enter, Gendo's voice issues from a loudspeaker hidden somewhere nearby. You nearly jump out of your skin. You begin thinking this is a very bad idea and your brain cycles through a few flimsy excuses to get out of this, but none of them work. Okay, Misato, let's be brave. You faced down the First Angel all by yourself. And almost died, but…irrelevant. This is only a man.

    You enter the room, where you find Gendo and Fuyutsuki in their usual spots. Rei is absent this time, which erodes your confidence. You think her presence would lend some credence to your arguments. I mean, you can see that she looks healthier now.

    Ah, Captain Katsuragi, you have something you'd like to tell Gendo?

    You gulp and tell Gendo that you've taken Rei into your home. You found her apartment in an unacceptable condition for a young girl—a valuable asset like an Evangelion pilot to live in. You actually end up using very similar arguments to the ones you used to convince Rei to leave. Rei is more similar to Gendo than you realized. You finish by bringing up Rei's sync ratio, which has increased eight points since moving into your home.

    Gendo does not say a single word the entire time you talk. It's like trying to convince an oncoming boulder to not crush you. When you finish, Gendo leans slightly forward at his desk. The little light in the office catches his glasses so you can no longer see his eyes.

    Do you know what it's called when you take a child into your custody without permission, Captain? It's called kidnapping. The blood drains from your face. Thankfully for you, Gendo is deigning to give you permission to keep Rei in your apartment. For now. The results of Rei's sync scores speak for themselves. Fuyutsuki chimes in that he had long thought Rei should be moved elsewhere, to Gendo's clear annoyance.

    Gendo continues. The instant there is a problem, this arrangement will stop. Considering the living conditions you described at Apartment 402, the degree of which Gendo claims ignorance, she obviously cannot move back there, so rest assured she'll be put elsewhere. If it comes to that. Gendo trusts that it will not. Gendo also informs you that if you even dreamed you would succeed keeping Rei's whereabouts from him, you would be sorely mistaken. He knew about her move within seconds of you leaving her apartment with boxes of her possessions. Of course, you would not withhold such important information from him, certainly not for a week next time, right, Captain?

    Moreover, you have bigger issues to worry about. Shinji will not pilot Evangelion Unit-01. Gendo of course would have put the boy on a high speed train out of the city as soon as possible, but the train is not currently running, thanks to your stunt with the N2​ mine. You take some personal satisfaction in seeing Gendo's annoyance here. Moreover, Fuyutsuki thinks the boy can be persuaded. By you, ideally. If he can before train service is restored to Tokyo-3, he can stay, provided he behaves himself.

    Also, you're dismissed. Take good care of Rei. Gendo will be watching you.


    [X] Do not tell Rei

    You agonize over the decision, but you eventually decide that Rei might not be ready for this information right now. She should focus on adjusting to her new living situation and growing stronger as an Evangelion pilot. She can process her fucked-up situation later. You hope.

    [X] Ask Rei when her birthday is

    Rei doesn't know. She's only vaguely familiar with the concept of a "birthday" and a "birthday party". She's pretty sure she's supposed to be fourteen. You're taken aback by this, but Rei just goes back to her reading as if admitting she's not sure of her age and date of birth is no big deal.


    [X] Arcade (kids like that sort of thing, right?)
    [X] Friendship. Rei needs a friend that isn't you. You know, if she considers you a friend. You're not sure about that.

    Okay, okay, let's finally get these kids acquainted. You drag Rei downtown to an arcade, where Shinji is waiting outside with a frown. He looks tired. The arcade, in spite of recent events, is noisy and crowded-looking. You guide Rei over to him and prod her into introducing herself. Shinji's frown disappears, and he looks warily at her as she introduces herself as the pilot of Evangelion Unit-00 (and 01, for now). You quickly add that this is Rei. Rei sticks out her hand stiffly. This is what people do when they meet. Rei saw it on TV.

    Shinji mutters something under his breath and shakes her hand, blushing slightly. Shinji introduces himself as "nobody important". You give him a Look and he adds that his name is Shinji Ikari. Rei stares at him. Shinji stares back. Rei pulls out a crumpled piece of paper from her uniform pocket and hands it wordlessly to Shinji. It's a picture of Pen2​. Shinji looks at it with confusion but pockets it. Rei seems happy about this.

    You usher the two of them into the arcade and immediately are overwhelmed with noise, humidity and people. It's also dark. They have those cool blacklights that make certain colors glow. Rei's hair glows bright purple. At the very least, you don't have to worry about losing her in here. Shinji mumbles that he likes Rei's hair. Rei cups her hand to her ear, clearly unable to hear him over the din. Shinji repeats himself louder, flushing. You smirk at him and he gives you a brief glare. This should be fun.

    You drag them around the arcade and try to encourage them to try a few different games. It's a little awkward. They're hesitant at first, but you manage to get them to play a light gun game about shooting zombies together. Rei's a pretty good shot, and Shinji isn't terrible either. Nonetheless, they die pretty quickly. Rei seems disappointed and you let her keep playing until Shinji gets tired of it. Rei wants to keep trying until she wins, but you push them along to other games.

    Shinji keeps bumping into other patrons and profusely apologizing. You're not sure he's having fun. Rei seems okay, though you can tell she's getting some sensory overload based on how frequently she looks around the room.

    You find the DDR machine. They are going to dance for your personal amusement. You will make this happen. You cajole and tease Shinji into stepping up to the plate. Rei just goes with it. And holy shit, Rei is freakishly good at DDR. After some initial frustration with the machine, Rei suddenly enters a Zenlike state and begins nailing every beat. PERFECT after PERFECT lights up on the screen. Shinji, for his part, does just okay. Rei obviously smokes him. He seems pretty put out by this, so you swallow your pride and decide to take one for the team. You tell Shinji to step aside, you'll show Rei how it's done.

    And proceed to get your ass handed to you. Again and again and again. It's what you expected, but you weren't aiming to win. You were aiming to make Shinji root for Rei against you. And it worked. Shinji finally seems to be having a good time. It takes some convincing to get Rei off the machine (she's still more than capable of continuing, she tells you), but you unveil a second phase of your plan. You promise to take over Rei's chores for a week if Shinji can beat you three times at this game. Rei lets you and Shinji battle it out while she watches and roots for Shinji against you. You and Shinji are more closely matched than you thought, and he beats you twice. He never manages the third time, but Rei occasionally volunteers some advice to him, and he does improve a little.

    You manage to survive, and you decide to leave the two of them to their own devices and grab a beer at the bar. You'll easily be able to find Rei again if you need to.

    Three beers later, you remember you should probably go and check on the kids. You survey the room, and…where's Rei? Oh no. Oh no no no. You just had a meeting with Gendo about taking care of her. You can't lose her. You wobble to your feet and wander the arcade, unable to find Rei's distinctive hair. Shit! You're about to despair when you spot Rei out of the corner of your eye outside the front entrance, standing next to Shinji.

    Hello, Captain. Rei informs you she needed some air. Shinji agrees. The two of them seem to be making some conversation about one of Rei's hobbies. Mahjong. Shinji apparently plays sometimes too. Good to know. Anyway, you think today went well. Nobody died, the two kids seem to like each other, they had a conversation. Everything is good in Tokyo-3.


    Random Event​

    Everything is not good in Tokyo-3. The amount of damage caused by the N2​ mines and Angel attack has the populace pretty spooked, and a mass exodus has begun as people realize they really would rather not be in the city giant alien monsters have at the top of their shitlist, nor one the military would readily blow up in the case of an emergency. The death toll settled at one hundred and thirty-eight civilians dead and thirty-one military personnel KIA. It's not exactly attractive to a homeowner.

    The JSSDF is also disgruntled about the entire thing. It made them look bad. You need to reinspire some confidence to make sure your population doesn't hoof it to safer climes. They're a major pool of personnel and funding, and a valuable source of normalcy for NERV employees. Now it's your job to convince these people to stay in a potentially dangerous place to keep the air in the balloon hot. You cannot force them, much as you would like to.

    What will you do?

    [ ] Hold a demonstration of the Evangelion. Show people that they're safe with the tools NERV has to offer.
    [ ] Center a propaganda campaign around the pilot(s). Let people feel like they know them and use them as a rallying point to appeal to people's sense of duty. They might not have loyalty to a sketchy government operation, but they could be convinced to be loyal to an individual.
    [ ] Offer special benefits to the citizens. This will cut into NERV's budget, and likely only work on people in more precarious positions economically, but it's probably the most moral thing to do.
    [ ] Something else (Write-in)
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Center a propaganda campaign around the pilot(s). Let people feel like they know them and use them as a rallying point to appeal to people's sense of duty. They might not have loyalty to a sketchy government operation, but they could be convinced to be loyal to an individual.
    Propaganda can be quite cheap and effective and making Rei an hero may help her to connect more to people in general, she values being a pilot so them admiring her for it could work well.
     
    Sutekh said:
    [ ] Hold a demonstration of the Evangelion. Show people that they're safe with the tools NERV has to offer.
    [ ] Center a propaganda campaign around the pilot(s). Let people feel like they know them and use them as a rallying point to appeal to people's sense of duty. They might not have loyalty to a sketchy government operation, but they could be convinced to be loyal to an individual.
    [ ] Offer special benefits to the citizens. This will cut into NERV's budget, and likely only work on people in more precarious positions economically, but it's probably the most moral thing to do.
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    Well, these aren't really good options. Offering benefits to the citizens is a pretty blatant bribe and risks Gendo's ire. He doesn't care about money, but Seele might. Gendo is mono-obsessed with his plan and for his plan to work he needs to remain in charge of NERV in a position of control which requires remaining in Seele's good graces for the time being. We might be riding out the last of his good will towards Misato for her inadvertent humiliation of the JSDF and proving the EVA is the only thing that can fight the Angels. Propaganda campaigns centered around the pilot's is...kinda iffy. Shinji would hate it while Rei would be ambivalent. Asuka would love it though. There's also something about putting Rei and Shinji in the spotlight which just doesn't strike right with me, neither of them really deserve the scrutiny. And as for the demonstration with the EVA...safe is not the first word I would use to describe the 40-60 meter tall cyborgs made out of godflesh.

    I feel like this would be a good time for a solid write-in vote.
     
    I don't want Rei and Shinji to be in the spotlight, it'll likely negatively impact them.

    Either a demonstration or a write in
    [ ] Hold a demonstration of the Evangelion. Show people that they're safe with the tools NERV has to offer.
     
    Sutekh said:
    Center a propaganda campaign around the pilot(s).
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    "Propaganda Campaign" is a bit vague. Are we talking pre-recorded ads, scripted interviews, posters, documentaries, a city wide hand-shaking, baby-kissing tour, etc.? These are all different levels of risk both in regards to the success of the campaign and the possible negative side-effects to the pilots.
     
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    I think revealing that the pilots of our anti-Angel weapons are literally children would not end well for anyone involved. Bribing people to stay cuts into our precious, precious budget would antagonise Gendo, which is always a positive except for when he's got an eye on us. Demonstrating the Evangelion has risks, namely it going berserk, but out of the options presented it's perhaps the best one; I'm open to a write-in, but I don't have any decent ideas in the tank. The closest I have is " show off the city's defences and hold some special evacuation drills". We could perhaps do the latter as part of whichever option gets chosen?

    Provisionally voting:
    [X] Hold a demonstration of the Evangelion. Show people that they're safe with the tools NERV has to offer.

    Commentary:
    Gendo's being a prick, as predicted. But then, that's sort of like predicting that it will rain somewhere on Earth in the future. Rei handing out pictures of Pen^2 is cute, and Shinji likes her hair! We should totally have him move in too if and when he decides to pilot, that's certainly not a re(i)cipe for disaster.
     
    [X] Hold a demonstration of the Evangelion. Show people that they're safe with the tools NERV has to offer.
     
    Provisional Vote.
    [X] Hold a demonstration of the Evangelion. Show people that they're safe with the tools NERV has to offer.

    Well informing Gendo went exactly as expected, good to know we are still walking the tightrope there, will have to look more into setting up a proper birthday day and subsequent party for our bluebird, also very nice and cute to see the Arcade adventure went very well, were Rei is a gamer and dancer at heart and continues to make us work for every scrap that we can call a win, very cute friendship in the making.

    Anyway holding a demonstration is the perhaps the best option out of the three, combining this with special benefits would be ideal in my mind, but I can not really think of a middle ground here that would be adequate with blowing our funding on things like (in the event of your home being incinerated you will be eligible for a newly constructed new home at no charge) for only substandard returns that cost us more then what we get in return, or something so small that its just insulting to offer it in exchange for living on the front line of this war, other then that maybe find way to include JSDF in this demonstration/parade to restore confidence in our standing forces and maybe sooth some egos between Nerve and and the JSDF.
     
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    WeBroughtMatches said:
    "Propaganda Campaign" is a bit vague. Are we talking pre-recorded ads, scripted interviews, posters, documentaries, a city wide hand-shaking, baby-kissing tour, etc.? These are all different levels of risk both in regards to the success of the campaign and the possible negative side-effects to the pilots.
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    Largely we would be talking commodification of the pilot, to some extent. Advertisements, (heavily scripted) interviews, merchandise, that kind of thing. Rei would be similar to an idol, except instead of singing and dancing and advertising canned drinks she'd be punching ancient aliens in the face (and advertising canned drinks, see Completely Real example below).

    The idea would be to appeal to their desire to protect a creature like Rei (or Shinji, or Asuka) and appeal to their sense of duty to help her out, basically (by supporting NERV through their continued presence and by spending their money on her so we can make bigger guns).

     
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    I assume there's also a good deal of implied 'Cute teenagers are risking their lives for you. Join the fanclub and or the military to simp/support them you simp/coward' .
     
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