[X] Talk to Rei about the future
The future? Rei seems unusually reticent (even for her) when you bring up the future. You prod her several times before she admits that she's never really thought about the future in much detail. Evangelion pilots can die at any time, you know, so it's never really been something she's ever distracted herself with. There might not be a future for her. Or for you, even.
You stop Rei's monolog about the nature of war because it's really bumming you out. She's made you feel acutely aware of your own mortality, which sucks. You feel doubly depressed because she's even younger than you and she's so…morbid. She seems to have almost no hope for her future at all. She's a
child.
You scramble to find a concrete thing that
will happen, no matter what, to recover from looking into the Void with Rei. You bring up Shinji's imminent arrival as an attempt to prevent further sanity damage. It's barely perceptible, but Rei's voice sounds less monotone. You feel like her little speech about how Nothing awaited her was something she told herself in her head so much she'd gotten bored of it. It feels like she was reciting something pre-prepared.
She tells you that she does not know what to think about Shinji. She does not know him, and she does not want to assume things about a stranger. It would be…unkind. You try to get her to talk about how she
feels about Shinji, rather than what she thinks. Is she curious? Excited? Nervous? Rei considers all these options. She does not know. She'll…have to think about it more. You're not sure what emotion Rei is feeling, but she feels
something. You suspect, and this is only women's intuition talking, that she is nervous.
Rei wishes she understood herself better.
[X] Combat training
Now that your ward is able to walk unassisted, the first course of action is to put her back in the machine that injured her in the first place! You think sarcastically to yourself as the techs load Rei into the entry plug for Unit-01. They place the gargantuan purple mech in a room that reminds you unpleasantly of a padded cell you once sojourned in shortly after your rescue off the coast of Antarctica. You shake pff the bad memories and stand by the viewing window.
Ibuki and the other techs babble on about the stages of activation and various numerical values that mean nothing to you. Some of them sound vaguely familiar from the instruction manual you read, but honestly the technical side of things was always Ritsuko's job to translate for you. Nobody seems to be panicking, which you assume is good. Rei hasn't said anything, but you don't think Rei would say anything unless she was literally lit on fire. She seems calm on the internal monitors, which you also hope is good.
Ritsuko and Ibuki determine that the sync ratios are nearly the same between Unit-00 and Unit-01, with a slight dip for Unit-01. No detectable problems found for compatibility. Unit-01 can be piloted by Rei without issue. You sigh in relief.
The next few hours are spent getting Rei back into the swing of the basic offensive tactics. Repetitive and mind-numbing shooting exercises, slashing the Progressive Knife at different angles, stuff like that. After the combat training concludes, Rei seems exhausted. Still, it seems like she's in okay shape.
[X] Arts program
Later in the week you and Rei head back to the arts program for another try. You hope that she understands the point of this exercise better now. Honestly, you've looked into possibly getting therapy for the girl, but the Commander has blocked you at every turn. Rei is already evaluated psychologically by Ritsuko Akagi, no need to bring in a third party. Yeah, sure. Honestly, the more you learn about Ritsuko and Rei's relationship with each other, the more disturbed you feel. The Ritsuko you know is overly logical, a bit haughty, could be a bit more in touch with her feminine side, sure. But she was still caring and kind. Her apparent callous disregard for Rei's well-being bothers you. It makes you feel like you don't know your friend as well as you thought.
This is the closest thing to therapy available for Rei at the moment. You hope it works for her. Today, Rei has decided to forego the paint and has decided to work with a piece of charcoal instead. You ask her to draw how she is feeling. Rei seems to have some issue naming her emotions. You're pretty sure there's a word for that, but you never learned it. You think this will help.
Rei nods and begins working. The end result is…well, it's certainly unique. Rei's drawn some stylized human figures in a wide circle around another human figure, standing a good distance apart from the rest. You ask Rei what it means. Rei shrugs. It's how she's feeling. Rei does a few other drawings, mostly of rows and rows of human figures, some of them scribbled out roughly. One of them, in the top right corner, is scribbled out so violently Rei has torn a hole in the paper. You ask Rei more about that. Rei remains silent. No matter what you ask, she refuses to answer any questions about this one. Weird.
You try one last exercise. You ask Rei to draw the future. Rei stares at the page blankly before drawing a black circle in the middle. She refuses to talk about this one either. You're trying to humor her, but Rei's art really unsettles you. You hesitantly ask if Gendo has ever…hurt her. Rei shakes her head. The Commander has never struck her or put his hands on her. Rei's gaze on you is intense. You conclude, with some reluctance, that she's probably being truthful.
The day you're supposed to pick up Shinji, it is pouring down rain. You prepare yourself mentally. You're like 85% sure you're going to mess up your first impression with this kid. For moral support, you decide to take Rei along with you. Rei's not exactly the pinnacle of optimism and encouragement, but it's better than being by yourself.
Your windshield wipers have to work overtime to get to NERV HQ. It's really coming down. You feel like crap. After you arrive, you go to retrieve Rei from her hospital room. You're not quite sure why she hasn't been allowed to go home yet, as she seems mostly well enough to walk. She still has a few bandages, mostly on her arms, but overall you don't think she needs to stay here anymore. She hasn't flinched in pain in front of you in a while. You wonder if she even has a home to go back to. You should look into that.
You have a few hours to kill before you have to pick up Shinji. What will you d
BLOOD TYPE BLUE CONFIRMED. ANGEL DETECTED APPROACHING TOKYO-3.
AZAZEL
~Der Engel des Krieges~
The Angel has crawled out of the lake. It has two pairs of deer antlers. It is bipedal. It is blue-gray. It has four stalked eyes. It has four arms ending in spearlike claws. It has too many legs hanging uselessly from its segmented body. It has a red core on its belly. It looks like a gigantic mantis shrimp.
The early warning system was
not successful. Evacuation is still ongoing, but nearly complete.
Your combat readiness is
Good. The Geofront is
Fully Intact.
The JSSDF is prepared to assist with the battle. Their combat readiness is
Fair. Their attitude towards you is
Begrudging.
Evangelion Unit-01 and Rei are standing by, awaiting your orders.
MOVEMENT I
~Largo~
Defend the Geofront. Rei's not the most creative thinker out there, so it's up to you to determine her orders.
Your combat options are:
- JSSDF Strike: The JSSDF will use artillery, missiles and incendiary bombs to fire on the Angel.
- N2 Weapon: The JSSDF will drop a Non-Nuclear super bomb on the Angel.
- Rifle: Rei will fire her Pallet Rifle at the Angel.
- Knife: Rei will engage the Angel in close combat with the Progressive Knife.
- Grapple: Rei will engage the Angel in close combat with her bare hands and try to immobilize the Angel.
- Retreat: Rei will put distance between Unit-01 and the Angel.
The following plans are available:
[ ] Missionary Position: JSSDF Strike, Rifle, Knife
[ ] Shock and Awe: N
2, Knife, Knife
[ ] Wunderkind: Rifle, Knife, Knife
[ ] Glass Sea: N
2, N
2, N
2
[ ] In-N-Out: Knife, Retreat, JSDF Strike
[ ] Animal Style: Knife, Retreat, N
2
[ ] Wrastlin': Knife, Grapple, JSSDF Strike
[ ] Custom: 3 write-ins comprising of the options above.
The QM requests you give this plan a cool name.
You may also give Rei one special instruction:
[ ] Write-in
. At least she's communicating!
