Going to want more specifics than "I vote we come up with a good plan", especially if you're advocating for the riskiest presented option.
Rei Ayanami Raising Project
- Thread starter Sutekh
- Start date
- Location
- Laniakea
I'd personally be in favor of grafting parts of a spare clone onto Rei - I feel like all 3 choices will come with a drawback and the only one whose drawback is obvious is that one, which is physical pain and Rei is someone who seems to have a remarkable tolerance for physical pain (and far less for the emotional kind).
Just leaving her there is liable to end up with a hidden dice roll to see whether Gendo finds out and the dice have historically been unkind. I suspect replacing her, even if Ritsuko can be trusted to do a "full transfer", is liable to at best end up with some personal shifts anyway due to the same anatomical differences that make organ rejection a possibility, which means the new body will physically have a slightly different brain structure and nervous system than the old one and Rei will probably feel different even if she keeps all her memories. At worse, Ritsuko won't actually do it properly, which is a distinct possibility given how much she's been antagonized the past few chapters.
But since grafting parts of a spare clone inevitably means chopping up and killing a spare clone anyway, I'd propose that if we decide to leave Rei to heal naturally, we bluff Gendo by dragging out one of the spares, shooting it in the head, wheel it out in front of him and telling him they did the replacement, but the fresh clone was suicidal and stole Misato's gun and shot herself as soon as Ritsuko popped it out and now Ritsuko needs more time to find out what went wrong and make sure the next one doesn't immediately kill herself.
Just leaving her there is liable to end up with a hidden dice roll to see whether Gendo finds out and the dice have historically been unkind. I suspect replacing her, even if Ritsuko can be trusted to do a "full transfer", is liable to at best end up with some personal shifts anyway due to the same anatomical differences that make organ rejection a possibility, which means the new body will physically have a slightly different brain structure and nervous system than the old one and Rei will probably feel different even if she keeps all her memories. At worse, Ritsuko won't actually do it properly, which is a distinct possibility given how much she's been antagonized the past few chapters.
But since grafting parts of a spare clone inevitably means chopping up and killing a spare clone anyway, I'd propose that if we decide to leave Rei to heal naturally, we bluff Gendo by dragging out one of the spares, shooting it in the head, wheel it out in front of him and telling him they did the replacement, but the fresh clone was suicidal and stole Misato's gun and shot herself as soon as Ritsuko popped it out and now Ritsuko needs more time to find out what went wrong and make sure the next one doesn't immediately kill herself.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Move to Rei Twelve and trust Ritsuko.
I think, if successful, it's the only option likely to pass muster with Gendo. Remember, if he catches on Rei defaults to the transfer with no memory backup, rendering it moot.
If Ritsuko betrays us she's betrays us and we'll still care for 12 like she was 11.
I think, if successful, it's the only option likely to pass muster with Gendo. Remember, if he catches on Rei defaults to the transfer with no memory backup, rendering it moot.
If Ritsuko betrays us she's betrays us and we'll still care for 12 like she was 11.
ClawClawBite
Mad Engineering!
- Location
- Seattle, WA
[X] Move to Rei Twelve and trust Ritsuko.
It is a crazy idea, and I like it.
It is a crazy idea, and I like it.
- Location
- Irradiated Wasteland
Physical pain is not the only drawback here.
Frankly, this is the worst option.
Not only that it has problems with doing it, but because it can be ultimately futile.
In the first variant, we only have to worry about Gendo finding out. Here we can end with the same state when Gendo can easily find out anyway, and Rei's pain would be for nothing.
In the last one, we have to believe that Ritsuko is actually a good and trustworthy person who will use the last chance for redemption given by Misato.
The idea with shooting a Dummy Plug before it becomes sentient is interesting, though.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
Sure.
This remains a suggestion (as did the first one) but how's this?
[] Let Rei heal naturally and hope for the best.
-[] Plan to distract the Commander with other minor emergencies around NERV; you have a concussion and can probably get away with messing up just enough of your own work to cause problems for him. Rope him into conversations with the PR department about how they're going to handle the last battle, pass some of the JSSDF correspondence up to him since you're not in a good place to handle that, and dog him about the proposed punishments for the pilots in the wake of the last battle.
-[] Ritsuko can do the same; if she plays up how unreliable the process is and how much attention she, personally, needs to pay to it, she can offload other technical tasks to the Commander, like overseeing the Eva repairs and seeing just what happened with Unit 00.
-[] You'll have to rope Kaji into this as well. He has contacts with some of the groups which ostensibly control NERV; they can cause issues needing the Commander's direct attention.
-[] And, worst comes to the worst, lay in preparations for an unexpected visit from the Commander. If she needs anaesthetics or other medication to pass for a new version, you can go get them.
-[] Secretly make sure to leave Rei a gun somewhere she can get at it, for her peace of mind as much as self-defence.
The last one's separated out since it's pretty out there. I don't know how far these are actually feasible in-character, and I welcome suggestions since I don't have too much time to think right this moment.
I am going to amend my vote:
[X] Let Rei heal naturally and hope for the best.
-[X] Give Rei a hug and tell her you still love her.
for now, though, since the idea occurred late last night and hasn't left me since.
- Location
- Laniakea
No, not that easily.
Rei might still scar, but they won't be the same scars as the ones he knows Rei got from the fight. Passing off the surgical scars as having been done AFTER replacement on the new clone, because it turned out the new body had a malformed or mis-grown leg/arm and needed a graft is far more believable than trying to explain why the supposed "replacement" has scars in the exact same spot as the predecessor's wounds.
Rejection is also problematic, but even if Rei rejects one set of limbs.... they can just try again with another set, since there are lots of "spares". Would mean even more pain for Rei but you'd think there's eventually going to be a set that works among all the clones.
Meanwhile, who knows what Gendo will do in the first case and even if Ritsuko keeps her word in the third option, there's still no guarantee it will actually be the "same" Rei. We could replace her only to find out the new Rei is suddenly terrible at mahjong and big on hip-hop rap afterwards.
- Location
- Irradiated Wasteland
Grafting has two major failure points (rolls?):
Rejection, obviously.
Scarring what means Gendo finding out. Scars would be simillar as on original Rei, because we want to repair already existing damage on Rei's body.
Fresh Rei should have zero scars.
And "mutations" on the new clone in the same places as injuries on original Rei are very convenient and hard to believe indeed.
Natural healing has a big drawback, i.e. "what if Gendo finds out"
Technobamboozling Gendo about Rei's biology is like trying technobamboozle Torvalds about "How Linux works".
I wonder how successful would be line of defense "Rei was willing to go through replacement like a good obedient doll, but Misato followed them and stopped the procedure because [pilot morale spiel here]"
Also Kozo is the wildcard here. While he was nice towards Misato before it is difficult to predict what he would do.
The problem with Rei 12 is Ritsuko herself.
I perfectly trust that if she claims that process works, then it will work as intended.
What I do not trust is Ritsuko doing what she is promising. Unfortunately, she did not give us more reasons to trust her. Nor Misato has reasons to consider Ritsuko as a victim of circumstances, which forced her to do everything she did.
Which is sad, because if we could actually trust Ritsuko this option would be an optimal one.
- Location
- United States
[X] Move to Rei Twelve and trust Ritsuko
Don't like it, but don't trust in the long-term longevity of the letting her heal naturally, Gendo will find out, and we don't have much political capital to spend in terms of trust, professional conduct, or plan wise due to our tantrum earlier, and the concept letting our current Rei die to bring her back as the twelfth, after going through all of this to stop it, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Some ideas.
1, From from our previous conversation with the JSSDF commander from the previous battle (who is probably dead now) we gleamed that the JSSDF have been putting a lot of planning and preparation into a possible confrontation with NERV, and given the results of our last battle, it is safe to say that the JSSDF has even more reason to renovate the Geofront as a mass grave.
2, In light of this, we wish to have NERV undergo a review and or reorganization of our conventional defenses, manpower and protocols to better prepare for any hypothetical conventional assault on the Geofront or other NERV locations.
3, Misato does have stardom being the public face of NERV, we can propose to use this to help our damage control efforts, with a new public affairs campaign, and could request guidance from Gendo in order to maximize these efforts.
Some ideas.
1, From from our previous conversation with the JSSDF commander from the previous battle (who is probably dead now) we gleamed that the JSSDF have been putting a lot of planning and preparation into a possible confrontation with NERV, and given the results of our last battle, it is safe to say that the JSSDF has even more reason to renovate the Geofront as a mass grave.
2, In light of this, we wish to have NERV undergo a review and or reorganization of our conventional defenses, manpower and protocols to better prepare for any hypothetical conventional assault on the Geofront or other NERV locations.
3, Misato does have stardom being the public face of NERV, we can propose to use this to help our damage control efforts, with a new public affairs campaign, and could request guidance from Gendo in order to maximize these efforts.
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- Location
- Irradiated Wasteland
I did not end well there.
NegativeJ
LOVE
- Location
- Est
Well let's hope we buy at least 3 years.
Also, we're probably at the point where Gendo is starting to distance himself from his duties. He was probably prepping for the surgery and is starting to isolate himself to the base. Fuji is going to start taking over those off base duties.
We could also just get Gendo fired via PR. Release a sex tape between him and Rits. Both would probably have to fired. Them basically being a military organization under the U.N. Public gross misconduct is not really acceptable. Rits would lose her job, but them be the breaks.
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- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I wish we could have managed to reach an amicable agreement with Ritsuko. But since that seems to be off the table...don't feed the trolls, get to the point.
Those are two big ifs, and we can only check one of them beforehand. (Also if Ritsuko can be trusted, which is difficult to check beforehand.)
If Rei is okay with it, and if the untested procedure works more or less like it's supposed to, it would solve basically all of our problems at once, potentially with no complications. Between narrative logic, Misato's luck, and "Ritsuko has never tried to preserve Rei's memories before," something will almost certainly go wrong. And we don't know what.
The surgery plan and the Rei-heal-naturally plan have more obvious risk, but their risks are more obvious. We know exactly what we're getting into with them. Option 4 is a big gamble, for better and for worse.
Reminder that the copy/paste was performed when Rei was acting up. Completely transferring her consciousness from one Rei to another would have transferred the known problems with it, which would defeat the entire point of the procedure.
"Reacts like you slapped her" is a little too specific to fit that. Besides, I'm not sure RItsuko's in a headspace to recognize that Misato admitted she's Rei's mom. Misato certainly isn't.
Ritsuko is, on some level, Misato's friend. This makes her more willing to accommodate Misato's opinions. Also, she had a gun pointed at her.
Gendo is Misato's boss, and also head of a powerful international organization. This gives him enough leverage to crush Misato. Also, pointing a gun at him wouldn't end well.
No offense to you or Kaiji, but what the hell is he gonna do? AFAIK, he doesn't have any more familiarity with Angel biology or human medicine than Misato does, so it's not like he'd be a more effective medical auditor or surgeon's assistant than Misato would.
There are several problems with that plan, but let's start with "Where is Misato gonna get Rits's sex tapes from?"
[ ] Move to Rei Twelve and trust Ritsuko
At this point, my mood is "go big or go home". And honestly, I'm not sure the worst-case scenario for a Rei-12 transfer is that much worse than the worst-case scenario for an improvised surgery or the worst-case scenario for hiding Rei from Gendo while she heals (and then hiding any inconvenient scars for a while longer).
EDIT:
[X] Let Rei heal naturally and hope for the best.
Slept on it, read some more arguments. I still don't like any of these options. Definitely like the surgery least though, so I'm glad that's losing.
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Wiadi
Uncompromising Radical Leftist
- Location
- Something Clever
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hm hm. For context (and sorry if I missed this in the discussion so far), what's the rough scale of time we're expecting to need for Rei's wounds to heal sufficiently? Hours? Days? Weeks? Substantially affects just how risky the first option is, and in particular, for how much of the time Misato can reasonably be on hand (since her just disappearing from the base is obviously another possible vector for raising suspicion).
Several days. Probably more than a week but less than two weeks.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah, healing naturally just isn't gonna cut it. It's hope Ritsuko follows through on a transfer or the risky surgery.
NegativeJ
LOVE
- Location
- Est
MAGI should have a copy, from the surveillance state that Tokyo-3 is.
His medical expertise isn't what we're looking for. Kaji is a professional spy and triple agent. If anyone knows how to sell a con, it's him.
TsarinaGrogIV
Self-Proclaimed Crazy Bitch
- Pronouns
- She/They
[X] Move to Rei Twelve and trust Ritsuko
Very difficult decision, but for now I'm leaning towards this though don't feel great about it.
Very difficult decision, but for now I'm leaning towards this though don't feel great about it.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Plus he is a spy for people who can make trouble for NERV and thus keep Gendo from asking too many questions.
The backup-and-restart option may work, but I still can't shake the feeling this is 1) Ritsuko figuring out how to do what she's wanted to do this whole time (professionally and emotionally) and 2) an outright contradiction of the path we've taken over the past several updates.
- Location
- Laniakea
Don't forget spinal surgery. To give him a backbone.
Otherwise he won't be able to stand up straight, when presented in front of Gendo.
Otherwise he won't be able to stand up straight, when presented in front of Gendo.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Ah. Yeah, looping him in at some point might be handy.
And maybe a dress.
I assume Asuka approves; those certainly sound like giggles of approval.
- Location
- Lost in the internet
-Misato ! I know you replaced Rei with Shinji !
-W...What ? How ? Was it some subtle difference in her way to speak, move and think ?
-Maybe, but, for one, Rei dont call me dad...
-W...What ? How ? Was it some subtle difference in her way to speak, move and think ?
-Maybe, but, for one, Rei dont call me dad...
