Terrible Father Quest (Evangelion)

[gibbousmoons]

This is a simple quest. No stats, no objectives, just you being a terrible father to your son. Note that this quest is based around making light of child abuse and being a terrible parent, which is why I took it off of SB.

INDEX
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,


Sometimes, you think that maybe you aren't cut out to be a father. The rest of the time you know that you aren't. That said, there are certainly worse parents to raise your son. Perhaps. . . no. Maybe . . . probably not. What about . . . yes.

You are absolutely sure that you'd have done a better job raising Shinji Ikari than Yui's step-brother.

As you stare down at your son, your not-all-that-impressive looking fourteen year old son, you are suddenly reminded that you did let your wife's step-sibling raise your son for you while you were laying the grounds for Third Impact.

"You will pilot the Evangelion." You say so calmly, reasonably, but the look he gives you- it's like Shinji's trying to figure out how to say no politely.

It's worse than you thought. They taught him manners.

Perhaps you should have taken some time off, maybe just stuck him in a room in the geofront and Nerv's policy books like you did with Rei. Maybe you could have stuck them in the same room?

Your musing is interrupted when Shinji shouts back at you. "No! I won't do it!" There's that spine! You were starting to think he wasn't an Ikarii at all, with all that hemming and stammering he was doing.

Well, you've got a few options here.

You could just lay down the law with your hand, except that didn't exactly make you obey your father, and you're not sure you'd survive the fall if you jumped out of the Pribnow Box to get to Unit 01's access ramp. So scratch that plan. That leaves. . . verbal manipulation, being honest, and blackmail.

Mmm. Blackmail, has it ever failed you?

No, no it hadn't. A least when Yui wasn't involved, anyway.

Convince Shinji to get in the robot
[] Send out the injured clone based on his mother.
[] Play the parent card. Threaten to ground him.
[] Be honest, lay your cards on the table, and don't lie.
[] Bribe him with what he wants.
[] Promise to be more active in his life.

And it's best to have a backup plan.
[] Send out the injured clone based on his mother.
[] Play the parent card. Threaten to ground him.
[] Be honest, lay your cards on the table, and don't lie.
[] Bribe him with what he wants.
[] Promise to be more active in his life.

 

[gibbousmoons]

[10] Promise to be more active in his life.
- [8] This is important. Make sure he knows it's important, even beyond the fact that the giant monster stomping this day will kill everyone. You'll eat dinner with him once a week. And pretend to care about his stupid teenager angst problems.

And it's best to have a backup plan.
[12] Send out the injured clone based on his mother.
- [8] She'll probably die from the combat, sure, but you have an entire swimming pool full of Rei.

As you look down at the slender boy standing there, staring up at you with fire in his eyes, you can't help but feel a little kinship with him. Just enough to make you purse your lips and pull out your phone.

You already have Misato's number, so you select it and punch 'dial'.

She picks up a few rings later. "Give the phone to the child." You say. The leggy brunette glances up at you, then does as you say.

This is going to require tact. "Shinji." You whisper, trusting in the high-tech phone's microphone to pick up on your words. "I made a mistake when I sent you away."

He sucks in air with an audible gasp, and your son's head snaps up to stare at you again.

"I thought that I was the worst possible person to raise you, but that's in the past now. I'm very busy with important things, but maybe-" when are you not busy doing important things? Today is Thursday. "Wednesdays we could have dinner and I could. . . get to know you again."

"That would. . . that would be nice." He whispers back, and-

Oh god, you bet he's crying. You know what fixed your crying problem? Beating the shit out of people. It's also how you met your wife. Speaking of your wife-

"But you're the only person compatible with the Evangelion we have that hasn't been horribly injured in a training accident or falling down the stairs." You say into the phone, "And if you don't get in Unit 01 and do your best to stop it, then that angel is going to kill me, you, and every other living person on the face of this planet."

The silence stretches on. If he makes you say please you're just going to ask Rei to pilot Unit 01, and you'll decant a spare.

He doesn't say anything, and you can see that he's shaking, paralyzed by indecision.

You give the signal, and Rei is wheeled out of the elevator, using her IV stand as a walking stick. You've got to give her credit, she's good.

Shinji takes on look at her and he breaks. "I'll pilot the Evangelion."

It's all you can do not to smile

-- You are a terrible father --

The fight goes about as well as you can expect. Your son lacks your fine-tuned instincts for brutal physical combat, and he crumples like a drunk before, also like a drunk, flying into a screaming cannibalistic rage.

So there's good news and bad news.

The good news is that the third angel is dead, and your only available pilot only needed three days in the hospital to recover. The bad news is that Unit 01 ate the third angel's core, and is rapidly developing an S2 organ.

Definitely not in the scenario.

. . . Whatever.

So who should you foist your impressionable fourteen year old son off on?

Pick a chump, any chump.
[] Misato
[] Ritsuko
[] Rei
[] Kaji
[] Write in (not yourself)

 

[gibbousmoons]

[17] Rei

You almost give in to temptation and set your son up with some kind of pseudo-harem. You could just pile all of the women you know into one apartment building with Shinji: Misato, Rei, Ritsuko, Rei, and Ritsuko's little yes-girl, what's her name- Maya?

But no, Shinji needs to learn to be assertive, to take control of his own destiny and to do what you damn well tell him to.

You dial the only person in the entire complex who's never talked about you behind your back. "Rei."

"Commander."

"The third child will be living with you for the foreseeable future. You current living arrangements will not be sufficient." You tell her to pick up her things and report to the secure apartment building that your operations director, Misato, will be staying in. By sheer 'coincidence', the apartment you're planning on having her share with your son has a wall in common with Misato's bedroom.

. . . You make a mental note to give a small bonus to whoever designed that feature.

Now all you have to do is justify your decision.

An hour later you realize that, once again, you've underestimated just how much people are willing to rationalize your decisions for you.

"It's a good choice from the security perspective." Misato says. "Rei's previous accommodations were nowhere near secure enough for a pilot. Though do they really need to live together?"

You nestle your hands together and lean down in the way that you've practised, letting the light glance off of your glasses.

Ritsuko chimes in. "Rei is the more experienced pilot."

You nod for her to continue, and she does. "Shinji needs to learn to take cues from Rei instinctively, to learn good ways of thinking from someone who has more experience with the system."

After a moment, Misato concedes. "All right."

So to recap, today your son got out of the infirmary after ripping a giant monster to pieces with his own giant monster, hopefully boosting his confidence. You got a good look at your new Operations Director, and thoroughly approve of your son's new eye candy adult supervision. And, to top it all off, you've made plans for Shinji to live with a meek girl that gleefully submits to authority.

"Then this is the final decision. The third child will live with the first, and will follow her directions."

You wonder how Rei will handle being in control of something- someone. She's never had this kind of responsibility before.

And. . .

what kind of setup should you arrange for the apartment?
[] Let it be a surprise. Tell Section Two to take care of it.
[] Everything's fine, but there's only one bed.
[] The shower opens into both bedrooms, and the doors are on backorder
[] There's a door that leads to Misato's apartment, and it doesn't lock.
[] The heater is stuck. It keeps the temperature a balmy 85F.

 

[gibbousmoons]

[] The shower opens into both bedrooms, and the doors are on backorder.
[] The heater is stuck. It keeps the temperature a balmy 85F.

As you walk away from the meeting you hit *2. Your section 2 chief picks up immediately. "Yes sir?"

"I want both doors to the children's shower removed, and the apartment complex's thermostat fixed at 85F."

"Yes sir." The faceless go- ah, loyal henchman replies. You hang up on him, because you can.

Your office is located deep in the bowels of the geofront, as far from the surface as possible for a number of good reasons. Only one of them was related to putting yourself as far away from any possible N2 surface detonation as possible.

Eyes closed, you remember the good old days, when your son was just a tiny minime that followed Yui around the lab. Maybe spending so much time around the esoteric equipment had done something to him, you pondered. Perhaps that was why he didn't have any confidence.

You suppose. . . you should do some paperwork after taking a nap.

Nearly three weeks later, you're disappointed with Shinji. Also yourself. Was sticking the temperature high and removing a few doors really the best you could come up with?

True, the hot interior of the apartment caused problems for a little while, but with Misato living next door she'd soon discovered the young girl's habit of not wearing her school uniform when hot, and of not owning any other clothes. The problem had been rectified with a shopping trip, billed to Nerv.

. . . Yui never wore shirts that cost that much money, and had so little material. The only silver lining was that, apparently, your son appreciated those clothes as much as any teenaged boy would on an exotic looking girl, and he'd taken to 'accidentally' getting glimpses of Rei when she was leaving the shower.

Damn. It would have probably been better for his confidence if you'd sent him to live with Misato instead.

Your gambit has failed! Take one straight to the pride!

At least Shinji isn't stuttering so much any more, though. You'll need to do something more to build up his confidence, but what?

When you eat dinner with him, it's at his apartment. Apparently your son can cook, and though normally you'd disapprove, he's feeding you some of the time, and you were getting tired of takeout. You spend most of the time asking him about his studies, his friends, and how he's getting along with Rei. Doing well, two backup pilots, and "She's nice", respectively. The clone seems to be acting more human too, which you should have also anticipated.

She actually smiled at you when you opened the door. A normal, human smile.

Bizarre.

That said, you've got more important things on your mind. The United Nations is starting to nose around your business, trying to find out what use you're putting the funds they've been sending you to.

Damn it, you don't need this right now. If you let the U.N. stick their nose into things, they'll give somebody access to Nerv, the ability to snitch on you to the global communi- you mean old bast- sorry, SEELE.

No, wait, you did mean old bastards.

You can block them, or you can try to set up a compromise that'll look to the front men like a good enough deal that they won't check with their backers before signing off on it. You need someone predictable enough that you can work around them, but that the old men would still think they could use against you. Perhaps. . . yes. And of course she'd have to live with the others!

This will work nicely.

After all, if someone wants to be in the thick of things, who was he to argue?

Who are you going to offer to let in?
[] Asuka Langley Sohru
[] Mari Makinari

Almost immediately after you make the deal, though, the unthinkable happens.

The fourth angel attacks nearly three days early.

The city erupts into chaos as people fight to get into buildings, and when the streets are clear they retract, stowing their inhabitants safely inside the geofront.

You rush to the pribnow box, and oversee your two pilots standing on the gantry. Rei had been about to perform an activation test in Unit 00, and Shinji had been in for a checkup from Ritsuko Akagi.

There's a choice to be made.

All eyes look to you, and you realize that the scrolls didn't have anything about this situation. This wasn't foretold.

You are officially off the rails.

. . . and you're going to ram this up SEELE's ass if it's the last thing you do. Your mind kicks back into low gear, making small steps and decisions, piecing the small pieces into bigger pieces.

Immediate goal: Prevent a third impact caused by Shamsel reaching Terminal Dogma.

Resources: Unit 01, Unit 00, Rei Ayanami, Shinji Ikari.

Rei had been backed up yesterday, in case the activation test went wrong. You could call on the JSSDF for long-range bombardment with conventional weapons, for what good they'd do.

Reserves: Backup Reis and a JSSDF air strike.

You need a plan of battle

[] Plan?

 

[gibbousmoons]

[1] Mari Makinami
[8] Mari Makinami
- [8] move her in with Shinji and Rei.
[1] Asuka
[3] Asuka Langley Sohru
-[1] She can share room with Shinji, make it clear she can not share with Rei.
[6] You know what? You have an opportunity to show yourself off as being 'Generous' and 'Transparent' in your activities, here. Cut a deal to let them both in. Another Eva pilot and if whatever Makinami is related to falls through, a back-up pilot, just in case. Reserve pilots and back-up plans are good to have... though, you have to wonder if any of the Evas will take a shine to her.
-[6] They'll be living in the same building, of course. Sharing an apartment. You think... there will be an error with the water heating. The faucets and showers will only run cold.

[1] Have the Evas pin down the Angel with Pallet rifles and use their AT feilds to render the core open to an Airstrike.
[8] The airstrike is only useful if the Evas are neutralizing the Angel's AT field, so hold the JSSDF back at least until that much.
-[8] Have the Evas flank (come at it from two different directions) and move to melee at mostly the same time. Only use the airstrike if they need cover to pull back, or if an extremely good shot presents itself.
-[8] Don't rely much on the pallet rifles.
-[7] If necessary, motivate Shinji with a "I have faith in you Son." Line.
[6] Angels generate a biological force field, that can only be jammed and disrupted by the Evas. Make this clear. As such, the initial plan of assault is to lock down the Angel's position, disrupt its AT field, and then deploy the air strike, targeting the Angel's Core. If successful, this should in theory neatly destroy the Core and eliminate the Angel. .... If unsuccessful, then Plan B is for the Evangelions to stab it to death with giant knives. Ideally, this won't be required. Make no comment on any Plan C's.


"Deploy Unit 00 and Unit 01 on opposite sides of the fourth angel." You say, and the orders are relayed as the pilots get into their entry plugs. "Operations Director- be sure to take advantage of outnumbering the enemy. You have permission to allow the JSSDF to make an attack with their jets, once the AT field is neutralized."

You snag a passing lab tech and take his microphone, dialling the number into the base that, combined with today's date, patches you into the pilots' network, but you don't say anything.

The scenario is ruined, but you still have a plan.

When the Evangelions are deployed, they're at wide angles to each other and the angel, freeing both of them to open fire as soon as they snatch a pallet rifle, Rei with disciplined bursts and your son with . . .

Well, at least he knows how to reload.

The angel's advance stalls under the dual hails of fire, and for a moment it looks like the pilots are close enough to scramble its AT field, but after half a minute, the tentacles hanging from it's stumpy arms glow brightly, and a lab tech screams-

"Code blue intensifying! It's using its AT field!"

You bark into your pilfered mic. "Block with the rifle!" And Shinji throws his pallet riffle up just in time for the energy whip to hack into it, rather than his Evangelion. Rei takes a measured step backwards, but Unit 00 is unable to move as smoothly, and its arm is snared as the whip coils around it. "Ah." She exhales, but brings the rifle around in her other hand to try to shoot the tentacle out.

Shinji whips around. "Rei!"

No use! The bullets vaporize as soon as they touch it.

Wait- That means. . .

Misato realizes it an instant before you. "It's focussing its AT field on overwhelming Rei's! Generals, we need that air strike now!"

Six streaks of fire and steel slam home almost simultaneously on the angel's back, missing its core but sending it reeling.

Shinji lunges in, knife held high and a wordless scream echoing through the comms.

The progressive knife cuts the core all the way through, and Rei goes silent.

"Rei, are you all right?"

"I am. . fine. Are . . . you?"

You set the microphone down and sigh in relief. That was close. Those whips had cut right through your pilots' AT fields. If either one had been deployed alone, you might not have been able to kill it so cleanly. As it is, all you need to do is put up with some more military swagger and repair some armor plating on Unit 00's arm. And as a bonus, your son manned up enough to jump a on a giant phallic angel to save a girl.

You nod to the Operations Director as Unit 00's timer runs out, and she tells Shinji to pick it up and bring it back down with him, and then you leave.

As you re-enter your office you dial your UN contact again. "I'm sorry. Something came up, but it wasn't a threat. Now I have an idea that will get us both what we want. . ."

Two days later Mari Makinari, the Americans' Evangelion pilot, arrives in Tokyo III. You don't go to meet her yourself of course, that would tell her that she's important, but from the deerstalker cap on her head and the magnifying glass she insists on looking back at the surveillance cameras with, you understand that she's already been contacted by the U.N. to 'spy' on you.

You watch as Misato talks to her, and the backup pilot visibly brightens as she hears what the older woman has to say, though. . . there's something odd about that child.

You're reminded of a student intern from your days just starting at Gehirn. Smart, opinionated, and probably related to one of SEELE's members.

Section two answers on the first ring. "Bring miss Makinari's things to the pilots' room. She'll be staying with the others."

It's Wednesday, and since neither of the pilots suffered any major injury your 'family night' is still on. It used to be more of a family night, just you, your son, and the clone of your wife, but now there's a new addition to the mix.

One that actually talks during meals, and assigns everyone her age nicknames.

"So I was wondering, who cooked this? Because this is some seriously good stuff here." Mari says around a mouthful of salmon. "It wasn't you, was it Blue? I swear I'd offer to eat fish every night if I got food this good!"

Shinji doesn't get it, but Rei blushes. What has that girl been reading these past few weeks?

Neither of them seems to want to speak up though, and you've just had an idea.

A wonderful idea, that leaves taking away a few doors in the dust.

"My son cooked this." You say.

What's your idea?
[] "And you can have him if you want him."
[] "But you have to ask Rei first. She has a claim already."
[] "But you have to earn him, first."
- [] how?
[] write in

 

[gibbousmoons]

You think about coughing, but by the time you decide to do so your hands have found their way into their customary steepled position, and you've tilted your head to make your glasses turn opaque with reflected light. If you cough, you'll ruin your positioning, so you don't.

"Fraternization is. . . frowned on." You say, searching for the words. "Officially it isn't a problem because none of you are actual employees, but the practise is discouraged to prevent issues during battles."

Rei perks up. Clever girl.

"If anyone were to realize that such a relationship had formed, there would be consequences."

"What kind of consequences?" Shinji asks softly, but you ignore him.

If the boy wants to be paid attention to, he needs to learn how to properly project his voice. You wouldn't have gotten where you are in life without the ability to shout down a dozen rowdy hoodligans. Afterwards you'd had to beat them unconscious, but if you hadn't been picked up by the same police officer that had just arrested Yui for some petty cloning-related offense, you don't know where you'd be.

Wait- were you supposed to be continuing that talk? Had anyone asked you anything?

All three pilots are staring at you, Shinji nervously, Rei placidly, and Mari. . . no, she's staring at Shinji. Probably putting together the pieces from the footage of the battle with the fourth angel.

You stand up. "I must be going. There are important things happening in the geofront."

Shinji doesn't say anything as he walks you to the door, despite opening his mouth a few times. You look back in the general direction of the kitchen where the other two are standing. "Getting caught is not acceptable. Nerv demands the best from you."

And then you leave, loosening your collar as soon as you're out of sight. Damn but that apartment is hot.

When you get back to your office, you check the hidden cameras again. Mari Makinami seems to have followed Rei into her room. They seem to have decided to let Shinji keep the other bed, in lieu of making him sleep on a futon.

Shinji is. . . not all that well endowed. Hm. Also showing poor technique.

You frown in concentration as you watch him struggle to lift Mari's suitcase, and resolve to put the pilots through some physical training as you remember something. Evangelions are best synched by people who can wrap their minds around their inhuman instincts, and the easiest way to get that is through psychological trauma, but you're trying to fix some of that trauma, which would weaken one of your only anti-angel weapons capable of dealing with this altered scenario.

Shinji desires, most of all, to be wanted. He needs to be needed, to be valuable to people. Perhaps. . . you should get Shinji to embrace a different kind of altered mindset to make up the difference? If you could strengthen the attachment to different people, the resulting conflict when their goals diverged could increase his synch rate.

He's already attached to Rei, from what you've seen. But who else should you try to set him up with?

[] Mari. She's new and energetic. It'll be a nice contrast to his attachment to the stoic Rei.
[] Rei. There's already a connection. You wonder if you can deepen it?
[] Misato. She's older, and just across the hall. There's a very visible contrast.
[] write in