FurEva: Introspective changeling [Episode 65272]

by Kestral

"Report," said Gendo to the videoscreen, with the NERV Britain mad scientist Doctor Smart being shown.

"The thrush knocks three times at dawn," said the Mad Scientist. "And though the ox is slow, the Earth is patient."

Gendo sighed and began rubbing his forehead. "In simple English, Doctor. This is a scrambled communique. There is no need to use the codebook."

"Shouldn't we be using the Cone Of Silence then, Chief?" asked the Mad Scientist hopefully.

"No," said Gendo, wishing that Doctor Smart would suffer some problems with the prototype S2 engine. Maybe involving a large explosion.

"Oh. I see. All right, Chief, it's like this. All of the people who have been listed as victims of the Angel attacks are suffering side effects."

Gendo nodded. "That is exactly what I am wanting more details of."

"Right, Chief."

Gendo waited a few minutes. "Smart. The details?"

"Oh, right! Well it's curious, I can't find any physical causes, but they're all healthier. One subject was taking thyroid medication (Levothyroid 10mg 1qd) but got incredibly sick off of it and you'll never guess why!"

Gendo frowned. "Because his thyroid had mysteriously cured itself."

"Wow," said Doctor Smart. "That's incredible. I guess that's why you're the Chief."

Avoiding pointing out that the mad scientist had just mentioned that all the victims were healthier, Gendo merely proceeded. "So they're showing signs of increased health without any indication of why?"

"Exactly," said Doctor Smart. "There's also some odd mental effects but I can't verify those at present."

Gendo waited a moment but it was obvious he'd have to ask. "Mental effects?"

"Oh one girl went chasing after her bus and was BARKING." Doctor Smart blinked and pulled a piece of paper out and re-read it. "Hmmm. Must not have had her coffee yet."

Gendo found he was grinding his teeth again (one reason he rarely had anything to do with NERV Britain) and forced himself to stop. "Any others?"

"Oh, a couple of skin rashes and some minor details like that. Nothing major. Just the usual thing," said Doctor Smart, "though one of the subjects has apparently become very limber, it says here she... oh my. Hmmm. I better investigate this one personally."

"You do that," said Gendo, cutting the connection.

While Misato was the most likely to imagine changes visible to herself, there was one among the ranks of the Changelings that had been known to get somewhat philosophical and introspective.

That was Rei Ayanami (II).

The past week had seen some odd changes, and she had noted most of them and had in fact tied them together with the attack. What the end result was, she had no idea as yet, but she had determined some of what was going on.

  1. Under normal circumstances, most people tended to feel uncomfortable around her. Part of this was her lack of emotion, part of it was that most people picked up on a subtle "unnaturalness" about her. People put this off to her albinism, but it was actually due to her partly inhuman nature. Over the past week this "social barrier" had been eroding - people actually approaching her and she was gaining some measure of acceptance. How odd.
  2. She felt oddly stronger and healthier, aches and pains that had remained from the Unit 00 test (though she had suppressed her awareness of them as they served no useful purpose) had begun easing around the third day after the attack. At present she estimated they were roughly 10% of previous levels.
  3. An odd distance between her and Commander Ikari. Instead she felt more at ease around Shinji-kun. While this might be worth mentioning to the Commander, he smelt of cruelty that Shinji lacked. This would seem to indicate that mentioning this phenomena to Commander Ikari would likely be unpleasant to Shinji-kun. Therefore she would not mention this unless the phenomena posed a threat to her duties or to Shinji-kun.
  4. While she'd always found meat... unpleasant... as far as eating it herself, and abstained from its consumption she was being hit with odd cravings that she interpreted as a need for increased protein consumption. Iron and mineral supplements helped, and she had found a suitable source of vegetable protein. The altered diet seemed to work.
  5. Other cravings had begun, and a little research had determined that she had hormonal imbalances occurring in keeping with a normal teenager of her age and gender. Just that she caught herself watching Shinji-kun in class with rather more attention than would be normal for a fellow pilot - indication of her endocrine system responding to some biological changes within her.
Of course, this last could have been normal for her age. She was the first of her series to reach this age and operating with a soul. Therefore, this was new ground for her.

So Rei rationalized and categorized her changes, not realizing that she was becoming:

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(Posted Sun, 24 Aug 2003 14:09)

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