Considering that she's Lilith and all souls are now inside her, are we really sure this isn't some wacky way of getting us stuck inside Instrumentality?

Oh well, whatever, go for it.

Also, this CYOA has gone from 0 to weird-as-hell in no time flat. Congrats.

Argh! I want to say yes though I'm worried it's a weird plot... But go for it. Even if boinking Rei results in Instrumenality's acceptance somehow, at least the ending should be interesting. >=3

Though Asuka won't be too happy regardless of what happens next, I'm sure. >_> There's still Mari and then her to deal with.

...yeah, might as well

As for Asuka and Mari, maybe Asuka's stay in instrumentality has let her come to terms with her "swing both ways remarks".

You smile and say, "It's not only O.K., I insist on it."
"Thank you, Ikari."
"Why don't you call me Shnji and I'll call you Rei?"
She gets the happiest smile you've ever seen on her.
"Yes, Shinji!"
She embraces you. You could have sworn that a minute ago her arms were inside your chest, but you both seem pretty solid now. Oh well, the better to.........

Some time afterwards you hear a voice.
"Are you two finally finished? It's boring to have to avert my eyes."
It's Kaworu! At least he has his clothes on.
"It looks like I'll be saying farewell now too, Shinji-kun. It seems that because of this 'forbidden combination' of Adam and Lilith, I can't come back unless she does. It would have been interesting to join you with all the angelicness ripped out of me; I would have been fully human. But alas, Ayanami says no."
"I see; that's too bad."
You turn to Rei, "Would that be true of you as well?"
"Yes, I would be human, but I would still be..."
"Well, if you ever change your mind, I'd be glad to be your friend at least."
"I see, but I don't think could I settle for that.

"It's nearly time for you to leave; lets see how those girls are doing."
Suddenly you are in the dark room again. Mari is in the spotlight.
"Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Offer to let Shinji help strip Misato even though she was uncouscious?"
"To get Puppy-kun hot and bothered, of course!"
"Um... aren't you going to scream No! and claim you were just teasing?"
"Why would I do that? I'd do anything for Puppy-kun; I love him so much!"
"You also forced a kiss on Asuka that night. Don't dare say you were just teasing!"
"Of course not! I thought it would be really cool if we could have some 'fun' with each other too. That would really get Puppy-kun going!"
"Ummm..., O.K., next!"
You almost double over with laughter.

The spotlight switches to Asuka.
"So Asuka, you love Shinji, right?"
"Why would you think something like that?"
"You've been sleeping with him every other night."
"I couldn't let Mari win."
"That's the only reason?"
"Yes."
"Don't lie! You cannot lie here; your soul has been laid bare. Why did you kiss him that first night?"
"Because he hadn't kissed her yet. I wanted to beat her."
"You mean you wanted to beat her to Shinji?"
"No!"
"Stop lying! Shinji, step into the spotlight."
You obey."
"Now tell him to his face you don't love him."
"I-I-I can't."
"You admit you love him then?"
"Yes! Are you happy now?!"
But the voice has vanished.

Rei leads the three of you into space. Evas 01, 02, and 05 are there. Your parents are waiting.
Your father speaks first. "Son, you are a man now. I expect you to keep up the good work. There'll still be a lot of work to do when you get back, but I know now that you can do it. You've made me proud."
"Thank you, father."

Your mother speaks, "Shinji, will you alright with those girls? It looks like you'll be with both of them permanently."
"Yes, I can handle it now, and I wouldn't want to pick just one anyway."
"I see; that's good for you then. Goodbye."
"Goodbye, mother."

You see that the girls have been saying their goodbyes to their mothers as well. The Evas rise into space as the three of you fall towards Earth.

You bob to the surface of a sea of LCL. Asuka, Mari, and Misato surface with you. You swim ashore. The entire area around the Geofront seems to be in ruins.
"We should head for Matsuhiro," says Misato. "The Nerv facilities here are useless. Let's find a working car."

Stayed tuned for the final chapter! (No more multiple choices)

Son, you are a man now. I expect you to keep up the good work.

lol, awesome.

This is defiantly one of, if not my favorite CYOA, and it saddens me that this is ending.

Thewayneiac, I better be seeing more of your work throughout the forums.

Well that was fun, it's sad to have it end, but having Shinji but a Harem stud was good fun.

Thanks thewayneiac.

Excellent job, I await the ending! heh, Mari's nuts.

"Um... aren't you going to scream No! and claim you were just teasing?"

hahahah, this is actually a good point, emphasizing how different Mari is from rest of cast :P

You head to the edge of town and find just a handfull of buildings still standing. Among them is Misato's. You pack and pile into her car, which is surprisingly still working, and begin a slow drive to Matsuhiro. You have to ease past many cars that had stopped in the road, some with trickles of LCL leaking from their doors. After quite a while you begin to see signs of human life. Three cars pass you heading the other way in two hours. You try to flag them down and tell them that Tokyo III is no longer there, but only one stops.
"It looks like a few others have returned," Misato observes.
At one point a helicopter flies overhead.

At long last you arrive. A handfull of people are milling around, discussing what had happened.
"Was that a dream?"
"I don't know."
"I woke up wearing my favorite outfit, even though I had been wearing something else. When I looked in the closet I found a duplicate outfit!"
"Impossible."
"At least you didn't wake up naked like me!"
"You were naked and I missed it?!"

You pull into a hotel parking lot. Misato seems to know where she is going.
"It looks like they have power."
You walk into the lobby. A single forlorn clerk stands behind the counter.
"You're up and running?"
"If you mean can I give you a room, yes. If you want food you'll have to fend for yourselves. There's no sign of our cooks."
"They'll show up, some sooner, some later. Give us the Honeymoon Suite."
She shows him her Nerv I.D.
"Yes, right away!"
"The Honeymoon Suite is a Nerv safehouse," she explains. "You girls go open the room; I'll help Shinji with the bags."

As you walk together Misato says, "Shinji-kun, I'm an evil woman."
"No, not really."
"No, I am. I used to deny it, but now I accept it as part of me." Her eyes twinkle. "Shinji-kun, I remember what our souls did in Instrumentality; I'll be expecting a repeat performance soon in the flesh." She then speaks with mock concern. "Unless the experience has made you change your ways."
"As if that would happen!"
"Good. Oh, and rest assured that I'm planning something for tonight naughty enough to deserve another spanking later on.

"I won't be on your hands forever though. I met Kaji in Instrumentality. If he was there then he can come back to me. I'll probably just stick with him after that. Until then please take good care of me."
"I'll do that."

You enter the Honeymoon Suite. look at the size of that bed!

Misato pops a secret secure phone out of the wall and talks for a long time.
"That was the Vice Commander; it was his chopper we saw. We're not needed until tomorrow. Already Nerv personel are storming Seele divisions. Our people found orders waiting for them when they revived. Apparently Seele left no contingency orders."

She smiles, "Now lets go on a supply run."

That night, you have all been well fed and showered. Misato smiles at you. You can tell that she has something in mind.
She says, "I think we all deserve a drink," pulling a bottle of tequilla out of a bag.
"You know we're underage, don't you?" Asuka observes.
"So what? It's a celebraton!"
After two rounds Misato observes, "I believe it's a triffle hot in here, don't you?" and sheds her top. Mari quickly follows suit. Don't any of these women ever wear a bra?!

Asuka frowns, "Isn't this getting a little weird?"
"Have another drink," offers Misato.
"Don't mind if I do."
You all have one more round. Soon Asuka is topless as well.
"Baka Shinji!" she observes, "Why are you the only one not stripping?! Get with the program!"
You remove you shirt as well.

Misato frowns, "I'm still hot." and unfastens her skirt; it drops to the floor. The girls follow her lead. You don't have to be told this time. Soon you are all wearing nothing but underpants. Misato and the girls grin at each other. Nothing about the temperature this time. Giggling they all step out of thier panties. You reach for your waistband, but they interrupt, saying "Let us get that for you, Shinji!" They leap towards you.

The next morning you think back on this experience. Judging from her antics last night, apparently Asuka does swing that way after all, Mari and Misato too. And it's a damned good thing. Although you did manage to rise to the occasion three times, you appreciated all the help you could get.

THE END (But watch for outtakes coming soon.)

Epic!

I like the idea of Misato going back to Kaji when he returns, and how Shinji has a two-person harem in Mari and Asuka. Pity we didn't get Shinji's thoughts on Asuka's feelings for him though.

Good job, this was a really fun read. I can't wait to see the outtakes.

The Outtakes:

First the biggie, what would have happened if #2: "Talk to Kaworu" had won during the big Ep. 24 confrontation in Terminal Dogma. (Or if my lucky tie-breaking die had come up 1-3. But to be honest if that had happened I probably would have let it run another couple of hours to see if anymore votes came in. But if it were still tied or "talk to him" had won, I would have been forced to implement):

"Kaworu!" you cry. Why must you do this? You're our fellow pilot, aren't you? Come back down from here and fight by our side!"
Kaworu shakes his head. "I'm sorry, Shinji-kun. I truely chose to die here, but now I must fulfill my destiny. Farewell."

Sudden his A.T. Field bursts forth with redoubled fury! Rei falls back with a cry. Bursting free from your grasp he rises towards Lilith; soon he disappears into her.

To your horror a sudden change occurs in the white giant. An obscene blob rises from her shoulders! Parts of it look strangley familiar. It resembles the dead Angels! They seperate one by one and stand before you resurrected. Lilith transforms to resemble a giant Kaworu.

You hear Asuka's voice in your ears. "Shinji! What's happening? I feel..."
"Puppy-ku........."

You feel the flesh start to melt from your bones. It doesn't feel good.

Bad End: The Angels win and all Lilim die with no hope of Instrumentality or resurrection.

I would probably have been just a little bit ticked off by all this and would probably have posted something like:

Sheesh! Do I have to hit you over the head with this stuff? Kaworu said what would happen:

Now, erase me before I erase you. Even I cannot supress my instincts much longer. Delay and your race shall perish.

and I pointed this out in option #1:

You heard him. He's admitted himself that he will destroy the world if he isn't killed right now...

I practically had "squash the sucker! " written in red letters! Oh, well."

(Or maybe I would have been able to restrain myself, who knows? :)

Fortunately good luck prevailed prevailed and we were able to get through to the mostly happy ending.

More:
To get to the best possible ending you needed to chose #3 in the big Rei seduction scene. She would have agreed to another temporary delay in the relationship as long as Shinji promised that she still had a place in his heart. Later, when they found out the truth, they would have both been really relieved that they hadn't done it. Losing Shinji wouldn't have been as hard on her in this case, and she would have chosen to resurrect in the end. Being "just friends" would have acceptable. (They still would have done the "soul sex" thing in Instrumentality, however.)

Hmmm... it just now occured to me that if I wanted to be really evil I could have had their experience in Instrumentality force them to admit that they were so in lust with each other that they didn't care about the genetic implications... Nah! I would have stuck with the "just friends outcome". Either way you needed to pick #3.

2. Turn her down and explain that you somehow just don't feel right about this.

was the worst choice and I was surprised that it came in second. Rei would have felt rejected outright, and it would have triggered a much more extreme reaction than the synch rate plunge we see in Asuka. Rei would have launched a suicide attack against Bardiel after rescuing Toji.

Without waiting for orders from you or your father Rei races ahead.
"Ayanami! What are you doing?"
She does not reply.
You hear your father, "Rei, stop this at once!"
Still no reply.
"Come on, something must be wrong!" you tell the others.

You arrive in time to see Rei knock Unit-03 flat with her A.T. Field. Before the Angel can recover she yanks the entry plug free and flings it to safety. You see its landing chute deploy in the distance.

She embraces the Angel, crying "Stay back! All of you!"
Ritsuko's voice rings in your ears, "Rei, why have you activated self-destruct?!"

This can't be happening!
"Ayanami?! What are you....?"
"This is for the best, Ikari-kun. If I can't be with you..."
"Wait! I didn't mean....!"
But it's too late; you maximaze your A.T. fields just in time...(ect.)

Since I wasn't expecting to use this I hadn't completely planned what would have happend next, so I would have had to wing some of it. The big Misato/Shinji seduction scene and the Rei tank scene would have come a few turns earlier, of course. Also, as Shinji had no opportunity to disobey Gendo in this version, he would not have been suspended as pilot in the next battle. The big problem would have been to figure out how to handle Armisael with Rei no longer having an Eva. I would probably have put it off for a while by having Zeruel show up in his proper order.

BTW, those of you who voted for #1 not only made Rei decide to stay disolved, you also killed Ritsuko. One of the things I decided before I made the first post was that in this case she would be shot just before revealing whose clone Rei was, but that it would do no good. Shinji would understand what she was going to say. If Shinji had kept his hands (among other thigs) to himself, the Reiquarium scene would have played out as it did in the show.

Episode 15 stuff:
Any set of choices that resulted in Shinji kissing both of them automatically lead to Mari kissing Asuka, Asuka sleeping alone, and Mari trying to seduce Shinji. To prevent this night from having any consequences, you needed to pick "kiss neither." They would have called him chicken, but then they would have all crashed together as always. No one's synch rate would have dropped. If you had Shinji kiss just one girl, it would have triggered the synch rate crash in the other.

Once Mari had her clothes off, if you had turned her down and gone to sleep the day would have ended in a draw, both kissed and nothing else. No synch rate effects. If you had turned her down and gone to sleep with Asuka, you would have faced the same choice with her. When she heard you had turned down Mari's seduction she would have felt the need to prove that she could succeed where Mari had failed. Once again, if you had turned her down there would have been no further consequences. Accepting Asuka's seduction after turning down Mari's would have triggered the synch rate crash in Mari.

All in all, I think that you made the right choices when you had Shinji do Mari and then Asuka. Asuka snoozed and temporarily lost, but made up for it the next day. If you had vetoed all of their relationships at every opportunity, they would all three have ended up in the same mental state that Shinji and Asuka ended up in in EOE.

Stay tuned! Up next is the deleted coda, sort of a final chapter after the final chapter. You may treat it as official.

Heh, interesting choices you have there. I would have had various different outcomes with my previous CYOAs as well, none that I remember currently. By the way, my latest offering which takes place after the Misato CYOA is here.

Anyway, I look forward to reading your final-final update with this.

Coda: After the Final Chapter

I wrote this just for fun, but let's call it official.

The next morning you report to Nerv in Matsuhiro. You and your fellow pilots begin training to fly light rescue aircraft. There's no problem with people reembodying from pools of LCL on dry land, but there's the Sea of LCL to contend with. Your mission will be to rescue people who bob up too far out to easily make it to shore. It seems that you can't actually drown in LCL, but people could very well just float around until they starve.

That evening you, Asuka, and Mari are in the Honeymoon Suite trying to think of a gimmick for the night's festivities. A couple of the hotel's cooks have returned, so you are well fed. Misato has gone for a walk, saying as she leaves that you had better think of something interesting.

"It would be boring if we just used that 'it's hot; lets strip' routine every night," you say.
"How 'bout strip rock-paper-scissors?" suggests Asuka.
"Good idea," Mari agrees. "Or maybe strip mah-jong."

Just then Misato returns.
"I met some people on my walk. I ran into Toji, his sister, and Hikari!"
"How did they fare?" you ask.
"They're doing well. His sister came back with all her injuries healed."
"That's wonderful."
"You should visit them. I have their address; they found an apartment that seems to have been unoccupied before Third Impact. They'll have to leave when the landlord comes back, but Toji hopes his father will be back by then. Then they can move into Nerv housing."
Misato's eyes twinkle. "Oh, and Hikari winked and whispered to me that since there are two bedrooms, the sister has her own room."
Simultaneously, you shout out congratulations for Toji while the girls do the same for Hikari.

"Did he know anything about Kensuke?"
"Yes, he's in the brig. He found a boat, rowed into the LCL and was climbing arround on what's left of Lilith. I called security and told them that he's harmless. They're letting him go tomorrow."
You laugh. "That sounds just like him."

"So, did you think of anything?"
"Yes, we ___"
"Save it for tomorrow; I've got something more interesting. They're not the only ones I met. You can come in now!"
Misato open the door and in walks Maya."
"Ibuki-san?" Three surprised voices at once.
"Yes, she's staying three floors below us. Tell them why you're here, Maya-chan."

Maya giggles. "Well, I don't know if anyone noticed, but I had a major thing for Ritsuko-sempai. Well, to make it short, I ran into her in the LCL and found out that not only did she have her heart set on Commander Ikari, she doesn't swing that way at all! I would normally have been crushed, but somehow finding it out there allowed me to accept it.

"After I returned I decided to catch up on some of the fun I missed while I was saving myself for sempai. So when Misato-san told me that not only would she be here tonight, but also the two cute pilot girls, I jumped at the chance!"
Mari frowns. "Hey now, this is Puppy-kun's harem! If you want to join you can't neglect him!"
Maya giggles again, "Silly Mari! Just because I was in love with Ritsuko-sempai doesn't mean I'm not interested in guys too."
"Fair enough," says Asuka. "Your price of admission is a sexy striptease."
"Great idea, Asuka!" Misato exclaims and puts on some music. She selects a medium tempo song. Not too fast or too slow.

Soon Maya's blouse hits the floor. Wow, for once a girl who actually wears a bra when dressed casually! The skirt soon joins it.
Propping her foot up on your chair she asks, "Help me with my stockings, Shin-chan?"
You oblige with one leg and then the other.
She unhooks her bra and tosses it into your lap. Dancing a little further away she faces away from you to remove her panties. Turning to face you she uses them to briefly shield herself, and then tosses them aside.
Wow! She has a really smoking body!
"Do I pass inspection, Shin-chan?"
"With flying colors!"
She sits on your lap embraces you and shouts, "Well then, lets get started, everyone!"

The next morning you awake to find that you have yet to extract yourself from what amounts to a human pretzel. Though you came through once again this has got to stop.

All of you dress and head downstairs for some breakfast.
"Misato-san," Maya begins, "I've got a confession to make. Kaji-san made a pass at me once."
"That's nothing new."
"Yes. but he was sooooo hot that I nearly went for it. But I didn't want to betray you or sempai so....."
She seems to remember something.
"No, no lying. I did want to but I told myself that I shouldn't."
"I see..., interesting. Maybe you, Kaji, and I can come to some sort of 'arrangement'."
"Really?!"
"Yes, I'm getting used to this sort of thing now. I'd miss it."

"I certainly don't object!" says a familiar voice.
"Kaji!" sound five voices at once.
"Yep, I bobbed up last evening. So Shinji, you don't mind if I steal half of your harem, do you?"
"No, that's fine. They were wearing me out anyway. I think two girls are about my limit."
You turn to Asuka and Mari.
"That is if neither of you object to the three of us becoming a permanent item."
"Object?" asks Mari.
"We insist on it," states Asuka.

Your problems solved, you all head into the dining room for breakfast.

The End. It really is the end this time.

Mari/Shinji/Asuka for the win!

Great ending.

Well, that was fun.

Nice ending.

This has been a fun romp. Nice work. :P