Nothingness XIII: Become Whole Again
[X] Remind Ritsuko that Rei's hostility to NERV at this very moment comes from the fact that NERV was actively trying to kill her and her friends. Rei has already backed off from killing Ritsuko on the basis that her friends would die if she had, so it's hard to imagine her wanting to kill them herself through Third Impact. Hell, she stopped when Shinji asked her to and when you asked her to. That's evidence enough that this works.
-[X] You're not going to take parenting criticism from one of the people responsible for this mess. You're going to move on to more productive things instead.
-[X] Take the conversation back to Rei, since surviving this is going to need her co-operation one way or another. Ask Rei if she had a plan for what to do next, in the full expectation that she didn't.
-[X] Ask if there's any way we could fool Gendo with science regarding her injuries. That, or patch them over and have Rei pretend not to be injured until she heals - this would need an excuse to not have the Commander not be able to examine them closely for that time.
-[X] We can also say that Rei's actions in the last battle led to more of her memories transferring over, to cover any suspicious lack of gaps in her knowledge. This covers the other pilots not noticing, that and the stress of the last battle.
Okay, you're done taking this crap from Ritsuko. You know that you could have done better in some places, but you're really trying your hardest here, and nobody is making it easy on you. Anyone would struggle in your position, even if they actually had child-rearing skills or access to therapy for your deeply screwed-up wards.
You repeat that Rei's hostility is entirely based on the fact that there is an imminent threat on her life. No, Ritsuko, you're not finished yet. You don't care that technically, Rei can't die, she's just being moved, or whatever. The fact of the matter is that Rei perceives being reset to "factory defaults" as synonymous with death, and so acted accordingly. Moreover, she's been talked off the ledge twice, and you doubt she'd want to kill her close friends with a potential extinction event. It's obvious that she listens to you or Ritsuko would be dead already. So yes, you have confidence that you can fix this.
Also, you're pretty done hearing about how poor a parent you are from someone that only has cats waiting for her at home. Ritsuko reacts like you've slapped her. You strongly doubt she, or anyone else at NERV, could do a substantially better job under the constraints you're working under. But you're not going to debate this any further. It's irrelevant and unproductive. It's more important to figure out a solution to the current problem.
And that solution isn't going to be wiping Rei's memories or murdering her. Full stop. Ritsuko can give up trying to convince you otherwise, because it's not going to happen. So, she'd better work with you here. Ritsuko snorts and asks what you propose. You suggest asking Rei for ideas. Ritsuko wonders if you're joking. You're going to ask the source of the danger that NERV is trying to contain how to contain her? You shrug. You're going to need her to cooperate one way or another. Ritsuko says not if you go with her plan. You brightly reply that you won't.
You start walking back towards Rei's room. Ritsuko sighs in annoyance and trudges after you, saying that this is a waste of time. Rei's right where you left her, sitting on the bare frame of the bed, looking at nothing in particular. Fear briefly fills her face when you make eye contact. She knows that you know. She opens her mouth to ask a question, but she can only get out a few soft, inarticulate sounds.
You ask Rei what she was planning to do after um, guaranteeing her safety. You mean after gunning Ritsuko down with a stolen firearm, Ritsuko says darkly. Yes, that. Rei's eyes widen in panic. She says she didn't have a plan. She just wanted to keep the others with her. Please believe her.
What about the getting rid of people in her way? Ritsuko asks, Getting justice? Vengeance? You can't expect her to believe she was planning to pretend like nothing happened after shooting Ritsuko to death. Rei says she doesn't know. She was just going to do what she needed to survive. She doesn't know. You admonish Ritsuko. This isn't an interrogation. You're just curious. That's all. Rei relaxes a little. You're not one hundred percent sure you believe her, but Ritsuko grilling her trying to get her to confess to starting Third Impact is not helpful.
You're not surprised Rei didn't think this through. It does make her dangerous, because she could use her…Angel powers…? on impulse. Which makes her unpredictable. But also, it at least puts you more at ease that Rei isn't acting with nefarious intent. You have a lot of questions to ask her, though. Rei draws her body tighter, sagging in place. For now, you're focusing on getting her out of this situation alive and with everyone in this room intact. You ask both of them if either of them know a way to fool Gendo about Rei's injuries.
Ritsuko says she's still not sold on cooperating with this plan. You say you can always hand Rei the gun back and see how well that goes for Ritsuko. Ritsuko pales. Still, Ritsuko sees no reason why she couldn't just tell the Commander about this stupid ruse you're trying to set up the second she's out of danger. You give Ritsuko a hard look. Does she really want to get you killed that badly? And besides, the point still stands about the other Children being adversely affected by her approach. She can point fingers all she wants at you, but considering the realities of the situation with the other pilots, the cold pragmatic truth is that her plan sucks.
Ritsuko grits her teeth and doesn't say anything. You know you've won.
The way Ritsuko sees it, there aren't many options for hiding Rei's lack of transfer, which is why this is also a stupid plan. But more or less, she could keep Rei here until the wounds close up on their own. Rei's anatomy should heal them. The risks are that this would take an abnormally long time for what she's supposed to be doing, which risks the Commander coming down here to see what's going on. Also, Rei still scars like humans do.
Another option would be to try to graft part of the Dummies to her body, but that has its complications. Rei could still scar, and every Dummy is a little different anatomically due to imperfections in the cloning process. There's a small but not-insignificant chance of rejection. Also, she'd have to amputate parts of Rei's body. With limited tools, and without anesthetic.
A third option would be to try to graft parts of Lilith's body to Rei, but Ritsuko outright rejects that. First off, there's zero way you could convince her to let Rei come into contact with Lilith's body. Second, there's no practical way to harvest Lilith's flesh with just the three of you.
There's a fourth option, but you wouldn't like it.
You ask to hear it anyway.
Rei answers for Ritsuko. Dr. Akagi could back up all her memories and simply perform the operation. But dump the full backup instead of selected parts. You would have to trust Dr. Akagi not to betray you. And Rei's not sure how much continuity between persons there would be. Ritsuko says it's still one soul being rehoused, so she certainly thinks Douze would be the same person, but she's never cared much for ontology.
None of these options are very appealing. Simply waiting for Rei to heal would be the least likely to do her bodily harm, but it's incredibly logistically risky. Cutting Rei apart would be quicker and not risk discovery, but it could hurt her or kill her. And moving Rei would be the safest, but you'd have to put all your faith in Ritsuko to not stab you in the back.
What will you do?
[ ] Let Rei heal naturally and hope for the best.
[ ] Replace the damaged parts with the spare parts and hope for the best.
[ ] Move to Rei Twelve and trust Ritsuko.
-[X] You're not going to take parenting criticism from one of the people responsible for this mess. You're going to move on to more productive things instead.
-[X] Take the conversation back to Rei, since surviving this is going to need her co-operation one way or another. Ask Rei if she had a plan for what to do next, in the full expectation that she didn't.
-[X] Ask if there's any way we could fool Gendo with science regarding her injuries. That, or patch them over and have Rei pretend not to be injured until she heals - this would need an excuse to not have the Commander not be able to examine them closely for that time.
-[X] We can also say that Rei's actions in the last battle led to more of her memories transferring over, to cover any suspicious lack of gaps in her knowledge. This covers the other pilots not noticing, that and the stress of the last battle.
Okay, you're done taking this crap from Ritsuko. You know that you could have done better in some places, but you're really trying your hardest here, and nobody is making it easy on you. Anyone would struggle in your position, even if they actually had child-rearing skills or access to therapy for your deeply screwed-up wards.
You repeat that Rei's hostility is entirely based on the fact that there is an imminent threat on her life. No, Ritsuko, you're not finished yet. You don't care that technically, Rei can't die, she's just being moved, or whatever. The fact of the matter is that Rei perceives being reset to "factory defaults" as synonymous with death, and so acted accordingly. Moreover, she's been talked off the ledge twice, and you doubt she'd want to kill her close friends with a potential extinction event. It's obvious that she listens to you or Ritsuko would be dead already. So yes, you have confidence that you can fix this.
Also, you're pretty done hearing about how poor a parent you are from someone that only has cats waiting for her at home. Ritsuko reacts like you've slapped her. You strongly doubt she, or anyone else at NERV, could do a substantially better job under the constraints you're working under. But you're not going to debate this any further. It's irrelevant and unproductive. It's more important to figure out a solution to the current problem.
And that solution isn't going to be wiping Rei's memories or murdering her. Full stop. Ritsuko can give up trying to convince you otherwise, because it's not going to happen. So, she'd better work with you here. Ritsuko snorts and asks what you propose. You suggest asking Rei for ideas. Ritsuko wonders if you're joking. You're going to ask the source of the danger that NERV is trying to contain how to contain her? You shrug. You're going to need her to cooperate one way or another. Ritsuko says not if you go with her plan. You brightly reply that you won't.
You start walking back towards Rei's room. Ritsuko sighs in annoyance and trudges after you, saying that this is a waste of time. Rei's right where you left her, sitting on the bare frame of the bed, looking at nothing in particular. Fear briefly fills her face when you make eye contact. She knows that you know. She opens her mouth to ask a question, but she can only get out a few soft, inarticulate sounds.
You ask Rei what she was planning to do after um, guaranteeing her safety. You mean after gunning Ritsuko down with a stolen firearm, Ritsuko says darkly. Yes, that. Rei's eyes widen in panic. She says she didn't have a plan. She just wanted to keep the others with her. Please believe her.
What about the getting rid of people in her way? Ritsuko asks, Getting justice? Vengeance? You can't expect her to believe she was planning to pretend like nothing happened after shooting Ritsuko to death. Rei says she doesn't know. She was just going to do what she needed to survive. She doesn't know. You admonish Ritsuko. This isn't an interrogation. You're just curious. That's all. Rei relaxes a little. You're not one hundred percent sure you believe her, but Ritsuko grilling her trying to get her to confess to starting Third Impact is not helpful.
You're not surprised Rei didn't think this through. It does make her dangerous, because she could use her…Angel powers…? on impulse. Which makes her unpredictable. But also, it at least puts you more at ease that Rei isn't acting with nefarious intent. You have a lot of questions to ask her, though. Rei draws her body tighter, sagging in place. For now, you're focusing on getting her out of this situation alive and with everyone in this room intact. You ask both of them if either of them know a way to fool Gendo about Rei's injuries.
Ritsuko says she's still not sold on cooperating with this plan. You say you can always hand Rei the gun back and see how well that goes for Ritsuko. Ritsuko pales. Still, Ritsuko sees no reason why she couldn't just tell the Commander about this stupid ruse you're trying to set up the second she's out of danger. You give Ritsuko a hard look. Does she really want to get you killed that badly? And besides, the point still stands about the other Children being adversely affected by her approach. She can point fingers all she wants at you, but considering the realities of the situation with the other pilots, the cold pragmatic truth is that her plan sucks.
Ritsuko grits her teeth and doesn't say anything. You know you've won.
The way Ritsuko sees it, there aren't many options for hiding Rei's lack of transfer, which is why this is also a stupid plan. But more or less, she could keep Rei here until the wounds close up on their own. Rei's anatomy should heal them. The risks are that this would take an abnormally long time for what she's supposed to be doing, which risks the Commander coming down here to see what's going on. Also, Rei still scars like humans do.
Another option would be to try to graft part of the Dummies to her body, but that has its complications. Rei could still scar, and every Dummy is a little different anatomically due to imperfections in the cloning process. There's a small but not-insignificant chance of rejection. Also, she'd have to amputate parts of Rei's body. With limited tools, and without anesthetic.
A third option would be to try to graft parts of Lilith's body to Rei, but Ritsuko outright rejects that. First off, there's zero way you could convince her to let Rei come into contact with Lilith's body. Second, there's no practical way to harvest Lilith's flesh with just the three of you.
There's a fourth option, but you wouldn't like it.
You ask to hear it anyway.
Rei answers for Ritsuko. Dr. Akagi could back up all her memories and simply perform the operation. But dump the full backup instead of selected parts. You would have to trust Dr. Akagi not to betray you. And Rei's not sure how much continuity between persons there would be. Ritsuko says it's still one soul being rehoused, so she certainly thinks Douze would be the same person, but she's never cared much for ontology.
None of these options are very appealing. Simply waiting for Rei to heal would be the least likely to do her bodily harm, but it's incredibly logistically risky. Cutting Rei apart would be quicker and not risk discovery, but it could hurt her or kill her. And moving Rei would be the safest, but you'd have to put all your faith in Ritsuko to not stab you in the back.
What will you do?
[ ] Let Rei heal naturally and hope for the best.
[ ] Replace the damaged parts with the spare parts and hope for the best.
[ ] Move to Rei Twelve and trust Ritsuko.
