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Rei Ayanami Raising Project

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The way it was presented makes me think that the JSDF withdrew before Rei took the field - but that's open to interpretation. On the plus side, employing them there didn't allow the Angel a chance to regroup. If there was a gap, it was a matter of minutes, rather than the hours Sachiel got.

WRT co-ordination, as far as I know Evas do have to be in melee, yeah. There's also Matarael as an example of long-range AT Field neutralisation... but Unit 02 still had to be close. My thinking is that such a strategy would employ less "artillery support" and more "close support from VTOL gunships"; something to harass and damage Angel body parts while being precise enough to avoid hitting the neutralising Evangelion. Such precision would require the pilots have direct line to their support, that their support be equipped with precision weapons, and that the Angel be weak enough to actually hurt physically with conventional weapons.

So, in other words, setting it up would be practically impossible right now for little gain. Something to maybe experiment with when we have the time, but I'm sure better options will be available.
 
[X] Pick him up now. He's probably stranded in some shelter near the train station.

Honestly, that went about as well as one could hope for. By comparison, the canon first battle against Sachiel saw the JSDF absolutely butchered like lemmings, the N2 mine deployed further inland but still destroyed plenty of infrastructure, and Shinji's actual fight of course was much, much worse with only Unit-01 going berserk on its own saving the day from horrible defeat. And civilians still got in the crossfire there too, remember Toji's sister?
 
Sutekh said:
[ ] See if you can somehow take Rei with you to pick him up.
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Introducing Rei to her new...colleague?...is a good idea, but I don't think it'll do much under the current circumstances.


grommile said:
And, uh, turning up with a deafened, blinded, battered Rei is not exactly the best way to greet him either. "Yeah, we've brought you here to do the same thing she's just been doing."
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Rei: "What?"
Shinji: "I don't think she was talking to you."
Rei: "What?"
Shinji: "..."
Rei: "What?"


[X] Pick him up now. He's probably stranded in some shelter near the train station.
 
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The Third I: Arrival in Tokyo-3, with Rain.
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    • [X] Pick him up now. He's probably stranded in some shelter near the train station.

    You decide to rip the bandage off and pick Shinji up. The kid is in a war zone and it probably isn't best to leave him to his own devices. You consider taking Rei with you, but somehow you don't think parading a battered and unresponsive pilot in front of him is really going to make a great first impression. You'll have to check on Rei another time. Sorry, Rei.

    The drive over is chaotic. Several roads have been rerouted for evacuation, medical, and cleanup traffic. The pouring rain makes visibility crap. You've driven at a crawl past a few car accidents, one of which looked serious. You feel a strange mixture of melancholy at the dreary scenery and relief that there are even people left to cause traffic.

    You arrive at the designated shelter near the train station. Crowds of people are milling around outside in the rain, heedless of the emergency workers ineffectually trying to disperse them. You park in a nearby garage and push your way into the crowd to investigate. You look at Shinji's picture in his file. He's not bad looking, but pretty unremarkable. He's going to be annoying to find in a crowd. At least you never have to worry about losing Rei, what with her looks.

    SHINJI
    ~Das dritte Kind~    ​

    You eventually find him leaning against the building under an awning, listening to music on an SDAT player. You didn't know anyone still had those. He looks tired. You greet him with as much kindness as your own tiredness can manage and offer him an umbrella. He mumbles some words of gratitude and follows you to your car. You swallow nervously and tell him to read the contents of a folder you pull out of your glovebox.

    NERV? Like, where his dad works? He's going to be working for him? Shinji's eyes race back and forth over each page. You shake off some of the nervousness. He's just a boy. Anyway, you tell him that yes, he will be working for NERV, a secret organization run by the United Nations. Shinji seems rather confused. He doesn't really know anything about his dad's work. You probably should have put something about it in the letter you sent him. Or, uh, Rei sent him. Past Misato wasn't feeling up to it. You hate Past Misato. It seems like Past Rei isn't really in your good books right now either, given how completely blindsided Shinji seems.

    Shinji mutters something about his father not bothering to call him until he needed him for something. You commiserate and tell him you don't get along with your dad either. Shinji seems surprised by this, but doesn't say anything more.

    The rain hammers on the roof of your car. Several minutes pass in silence before Shinji asks if he's going to meet his father soon. You tell him of course he is. He's not scared, right?

    Shinji doesn't respond to your provocation. You thought boys responded to this sort of thing.

    …

    You turn the radio on only to get the news, which reports blandly that the death toll from the previous Angel attack has risen to one hundred and nineteen civilians, with another twenty-two still unaccounted for. You quickly turn off the radio.

    Well, that's awkward.

    Quick, change the subject!

    [ ] Rei's letter
    [ ] Plans to settle Shinji in
    [ ] Life in Tokyo-3
    [ ] Write-in
     
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    • Sutekh said:
    You consider taking Rei with you, but somehow you think parading a battered and unresponsive pilot in front of him is really going to make a great first impression. You'll have to check on Rei another time. Sorry, Rei.
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    Rei: "What?"
    Misato: writes an apology down
    Rei: "What?"
    Misato: "Oh, right, you were blinded too."
    Rei: "What?"
    Nurse: "If I didn't know better I'd say Rei was having fun at our expense."


    [X] Rei's letter

    "Life in Tokyo-3" would have been a better conversation topic before we accidentally destroyed a decent chunk of it. "Plans to settle Shinji in" are important to talk about at some point, but probably not top-tier immediate stuff. Figuring out what Shinji has and hasn't been told, and what he thinks of our other ward, is.
     
    [X] Rei's letter

    Best to go with introductions first ( really want to know what she said to him) before plans on settling him in, and the less said on the current state of life in the city the better.
     
    [X] Rei's letter

    This is probably the safest option, and honestly I really want to know. Also... Misato you are terrible at understanding boys!
     
    The Third II: Portrait of the Artist
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    • [X] Rei's letter

    You quickly switch gears to a more lighthearted topic. You teasingly ask if he's gotten any letters from cute girls lately. Shinji's ears turn pink and he stammers something about a weird note he got in the mail. Shinji rummages through his pockets and pulls out three crumpled pieces of paper.

    The first is…a completely censored NERV document. Scribbled in the corner are three words:

    Come.
    -Gendo Ikari

    Hey wait a minute, this is the budget report. You filled this out. He couldn't even bother to get a fresh sheet of paper to write to his son? He couldn't even call himself "dad"? Shinji just looks sullenly at the "letter". You crumple it back up and put it aside. Shinji seems to appreciate the gesture.

    The other two are from Rei. The one that immediately gets your interest is the drawing. Rei apparently enclosed a self-portrait with her letter. She must have had the same idea you had for loosening Shinji up. Unfortunately, this is Rei's art we're talking about, so…it's…well, it's a little disturbing. It's done in charcoal and smudged badly. The lines are harsh and scribbly. Rei manages to approximate her face fairly well; the proportions seem right. She's making her characteristic frown. But the eyes. Rei apparently really struggled with them, and ended up giving up on them and making them almond-shaped black voids in her face. It gives the entire portrait a skull-like feeling. Below the neck, the lines sharply disappear without touching the bottom of the page. You're not sure why, but that unsettles you too. Rei signed her name in small, messy print at the top right.

    Shinji looks at the drawing with some apprehension. You assure him that Rei is…well, not normal-looking, but she's very pretty. Shinji doesn't say anything. You sigh. Not the impression you were hoping for. While the mischievous part of you is definitely toying with the notion of pushing the two of them together like a child playing with dolls, you're mostly concerned about Rei being able to befriend Shinji. She's got to get some friends. You preemptively tell him that Rei's great and that you hope they get along. You really, really hope they get along.

    With dread, you look at the essay portion of this exercise.

    Dear Shinji Ikari,

    My name is Rei Ayanami. We are going to be working together in Tokyo-3 very soon. Captain Katsuragi delegated this important task to me, but I am not very good with words. I desire to make you feel welcome here in Tokyo-3. I admit I do not know how. But I will make you feel welcome. I have included a picture of myself for that purpose. Being able to put a face to a voice will make this message more personal, I feel. I am still training at drawing, so it will be amateur.

    I will see you soon. I am waiting for you.

    Sincerely,
    -Rei Ayanami.

    You exhale in relief. It's…kinda bad, but you were expecting the worst. Shinji looks a little uncomfortable and mumbles something about the message being so weird. You decide to tease him a bit. You can't really resist.

    Is Rei's message why you came to Tokyo-3? You wanted to meet a girl?

    Shinji mumbles something unintelligible. Hey, Shinji, there's a pretty girl back at HQ waiting just for you. Aren't you intrigued? Shinji turns red and tells you to cut it out.

    Groan, this kid has no sense of humor, like, at all. Still, the atmosphere in the car seems to have improved a bit, and you ask him some routine and boring questions about how the train ride was, did the evacuation go okay, was he waiting long, etc.

    The conversation dies down a bit until you get on the car train and Shinji gets his first aerial view of the Geofront. He presses his hands to the passenger window like a little kid and oohs and aahs. It's kind of cute. You answer a few of his questions. Honestly, you can't remember the last time someone seemed genuinely interested in your work. It's nice. It's the first time you've seen him smile since you picked him up. It's an impressive view.

    His demeanor goes back to gloomy once you park the car. You escort Shinji to Gendo's office with trepidation. You clench your fist with determination as you watch father and son stare each other down. Shinji's expression is hard to read, but it shifts rapidly between being afraid and being angry. Gendo just looks like Gendo usually does. He's even got his hands folded at eye level and everything.

    …And then Fuyutsuki hurriedly escorts you out of the room. He apologetically tells you it's best that the two of them speak in private. You don't even try to hide your annoyance. It's muffled, but you're sure you hear Shinji yelling. Fuyutsuki pinches the bridge of his nose.

    Go home and get some rest, Captain. You've had a very long day.

    As soon as Fuyutsuki tells you this, you become aware of how exhausted you feel. You've spent the entire day variously driving through a heavy rainstorm, fighting an Angel, and worrying yourself sick over Rei. You need to sleep. Before you go though, Fuyutsuki asks if you can take Rei home tomorrow.

    You grunt your assent.

    When you return home to your apartment, you find the power's gone out in your neighborhood as a result of damage to one of the solar towers near the waterfront. You have to manually unlock the door using a complicated method because your automatic door's card reader won't work. It's so hard to be you.


    The next day, you pick Rei up from the hospital wing. Her blindfold is gone, and she can hear again. Mostly. She tells you her ears are still ringing. You drive out to the outskirts of Tokyo-3. The roads here are relatively clear of detours, at least, so it's not excruciating. Rei spends the entire car ride looking out the window with her hand pressed to her cheek. It seems like she's not feeling very talkative.

    When you reach your destination, you do a double take. You make sure you got the address correct like three times. It's clearly a low-income government housing project. The complex Rei lives in is really run down. Several of the windows are broken or missing, and the metal frame of the building pokes out of cracked concrete here and there. One of the gutters sticks out at a 45 degree angle, having partially broken away from the building. There's garbage everywhere. The buildings nearby are literally in the process of being torn down. A rhythmic metal thumping noise fills the hot morning air, which shimmers in the summer heat.

    A sign informs you that the elevator is out of order. You go up the stairs. It's like an oven in the stairwell, which is little more than a concrete tower. All of the windowpanes in the stairwell are missing. Some crude graffiti adorns the wall. You keep looking back at Rei with increasing alarm on your face. Rei's expression is unperturbed.

    Most of the apartments are unoccupied, though a handful are. You finally reach Apartment 402. A dirty plaque says "Ayanami" in neat marker. Upon closer inspection, the word isn't actually written on a plaque; it's written directly on the track the plaque slides into. Rei steps over an abandoned soda bottle and lets herself inside.

    The door closes, but you do not hear her lock it. This is bad. This is not the kind of neighborhood to leave your door unlocked in.

    What will you do?

    [ ] Snoop. Open the door to Rei's apartment. Her safety is more important than her privacy.
    [ ] Leave. Give Rei her privacy. Try to see if someone at NERV can help you.
     
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