- Location
- Somewhere between here and there
Luckily for the poor bastard in question.
(Excluding the extremely rare scenario of someone who managed to transition by mistake.)
A Crown of Biosteel (Kancolle)
Luckily for the poor bastard in question.
(Excluding the extremely rare scenario of someone who managed to transition by mistake.)
- Location
- Somewhere between here and there
Shipgirls ARE pretty prone to being ... extra.
Like using depth charges for fishing. (This is an actual game mechanic during the yearly saury festival event.)
Like using depth charges for fishing. (This is an actual game mechanic during the yearly saury festival event.)
Well, that wouldn't add up with a shipgirl. I don't know whether there are any shipguys. (Or NB-boats, tangentially.)
DoobleDeeDooble
Please read me again sometime.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
At least in this story's 'verse, being a girl is one of the qualifications for becoming a shipgirl, and so is being happy with getting the shipgirl body.
I suppose it might be looser on the gender front? A nonbinary non-girl shipperson who is happy with the body (say, transfeminine and enjoying the miracle transition just as much as a girl would) could potentially qualify? If I'm remembering Itmauve's statements correctly that hasn't been explicitly ruled out.
Still, the thrust we've seen is very much that shipfolk are all shipgirls. My guess would be there could be nonbinary shipfolk, they'd just... be both nonbinary and girls, rather than say agender.
We have just learned that people who haven't realized they were girls can get shipgirl'd, but my strong suspicion is that anyone who would start an extra puberty after getting shipgirled before realizing 'Oh wait I wanna stay this way actually' wouldn't qualify in the first place?
I suppose it might be looser on the gender front? A nonbinary non-girl shipperson who is happy with the body (say, transfeminine and enjoying the miracle transition just as much as a girl would) could potentially qualify? If I'm remembering Itmauve's statements correctly that hasn't been explicitly ruled out.
Still, the thrust we've seen is very much that shipfolk are all shipgirls. My guess would be there could be nonbinary shipfolk, they'd just... be both nonbinary and girls, rather than say agender.
We have just learned that people who haven't realized they were girls can get shipgirl'd, but my strong suspicion is that anyone who would start an extra puberty after getting shipgirled before realizing 'Oh wait I wanna stay this way actually' wouldn't qualify in the first place?
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
So this is gonna be my own experience & opinion here, but whenever I read a story with genderbending and a boy/man who wants their old, male body back, I was always extremely confused and frustrated by the character, and usually put it down quickly. In my daydreams about the same, my concerns were always about getting ID and recognition, and never involved turning back.
And I recognize that's not going to be universal, and there are some unhatched trans women who would panic and consider reversing a sudden miracle transition if they got one.
But I don't know what situations would result in a new shipgirl being able to go through with FTM treatment. I'm not going to say it's categorically impossible, but I don't think you can get T over the counter. Let alone get top surgery. They're gonna have to talk to someone about it, and... I don't think it would just get rubber-stamped. It's not like you just say the right words to the God of Trans Men and your facial hair comes in.
Are those characters actually supposed to be trans? A lot of gender-bending stories have subjects that aren't.
Your shipgirl rules may preclude a 'true' cis guy getting turned into a shipgirl, but most transformation webcomics I've seen don't include that kind of constraint. (Not that they necessarily grapple with the results much.)
Which of course could be kinda dark if that scenario was able to develop (probably contrary to the metaphysics in play?) and their desire to go male so much they sought that transition twice wasn't somehow a mistake.
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- Location
- Sweden
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A lot of them aren't, didn't stop egg me from reading every gender bender thing I found. Also didn't stop me from being frustrated in the exact same way. I just could not understand why they would fight so hard to turn back, and why I could never find a webcomic or manga where they where happy with the change like I would be.
Totally wasn't trans though, obviously not, not me.
After reading this story and some of the Trinitite shenanigans I came up with an idea that I wanted to throw in here for discussion. It was suggested that tonal cream could be used to hide the pale skin of an abyssal, but I bet that it might not be a great solution for "large scale" and "long term". Note that I have never used tonal so I might be completely wrong on this.
Tonal cream likely won't handle exposure to water well and thus it would need to be reapplied almost daily and it might come with additional risk of the disguise being washed off with no warning by sweat, rain, getting sprayed by a car driving past a puddle, naval artillery shells exploding nearby in the water, etc. Also if it needs to be reapplied regularly it makes the process laborious if you want to cover more than just the face which might incentivise clothes that cover as much skin as possible like long sleeve shirts and pants just so you don't have to paint there.
So the thought that I had was: why not spray tan? From what I was told, modern spray tan has advanced past making you into a "literal orange" and paint mix can likely be tuned specifically for the skin type. And if not, going for a gyaru look might be preferable to having regular people flee you on sight.
Tonal cream likely won't handle exposure to water well and thus it would need to be reapplied almost daily and it might come with additional risk of the disguise being washed off with no warning by sweat, rain, getting sprayed by a car driving past a puddle, naval artillery shells exploding nearby in the water, etc. Also if it needs to be reapplied regularly it makes the process laborious if you want to cover more than just the face which might incentivise clothes that cover as much skin as possible like long sleeve shirts and pants just so you don't have to paint there.
So the thought that I had was: why not spray tan? From what I was told, modern spray tan has advanced past making you into a "literal orange" and paint mix can likely be tuned specifically for the skin type. And if not, going for a gyaru look might be preferable to having regular people flee you on sight.
- Location
- Europe
Or you do something about the color of your hull & the type or food of your deck.
Heck, the lack of a wooden deck, could be the reason for their skin color, for all I know.
In one fanfic I've read, the replacement of the original wooden deck, with wood that was locally found, changed the skin color.
Lots of Palm Trees, resulting in a tan color.
Don't ask why.
Heck, the lack of a wooden deck, could be the reason for their skin color, for all I know.
In one fanfic I've read, the replacement of the original wooden deck, with wood that was locally found, changed the skin color.
Lots of Palm Trees, resulting in a tan color.
Don't ask why.
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Nerrevarrine
Formerly of House Indoril
- Location
- Stranded in Akavir
See, what I wanna know is what happens to Russian shipfolk. If memory serves, Russia has one of the few Eurasian cultures to use masculine language to describe ships. Would the majority of Earth's population seeing them as feminine cause Russia to produce shipgirls the same as everyone else? Would Russian culture cause Russian "shipgirls" to be trans men? Would it be an inversion of the "shipgirls are made of cis and trans girls" that is shown in this story, and Russian ships are made of cis and trans men? Would Russia's anti-LGBT legal structures finally collapse when the survival of humanity itself relies upon a population of living death machines with a high percentage of gay and trans individuals? It might not be relevant to this story, but it's worth thinking about for the sake of worldbuilding.
Also, pitching in on the gender-bending story reactions discussion, I think the "desparation to return to one's original body" thing that permeates a lot of them stems from cis writers who subconciously understand gender dysphoria without realizing that it can apply to one's "original" body. They understand the instinct of "this is not the body I should have and its SUPER disturbing," but it never occurs to them that the "natural" form might be just as wrong. What never made sense to me, personally, is that there are so few stories of someone being gender-bent and is just sort of ambivalent about it. I'm cis, personally, and never really knew about the concept of transgender-ness until I was well into adulthood. My reaction to learning about it was "huh, neat." The concept of dysphoria never really occured to me, so all the stories with gender bending and such seemed kinda obsessive about "returning to normal" when, to me, it seemed a minor inconvenience at worst and a complete non-issue at best. The idea that gender can be a major central part of someone's identity was foreign when I was a child, and even now I only understand the concept academically. Honestly, if I were gender bent, my main concern would be a purely medical, "am I experiencing dysphoria." Hell, turn me into a dragon, or a robot, or whatever, as long as I have opposable thumbs, at least 5 senses, and a brain that's at least as good as what I've got now, I'm golden.
Though on the subject of shipgirls, I think I'd rather be a Fleet of Fog warship than a kanmusu. Shapeshifting as a function of engineering skill makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, and their tech looks fun to play around with. I'd also accept being a Mass Effect Reaper Abyssal, if only because I'd literally be Mecha-Cthulhu except shaped like a hot 7 foot tall cyborg amazon with an unnatural skin color and glowing eyes, which is, as far as I'm concerned, peak character design.
Also, pitching in on the gender-bending story reactions discussion, I think the "desparation to return to one's original body" thing that permeates a lot of them stems from cis writers who subconciously understand gender dysphoria without realizing that it can apply to one's "original" body. They understand the instinct of "this is not the body I should have and its SUPER disturbing," but it never occurs to them that the "natural" form might be just as wrong. What never made sense to me, personally, is that there are so few stories of someone being gender-bent and is just sort of ambivalent about it. I'm cis, personally, and never really knew about the concept of transgender-ness until I was well into adulthood. My reaction to learning about it was "huh, neat." The concept of dysphoria never really occured to me, so all the stories with gender bending and such seemed kinda obsessive about "returning to normal" when, to me, it seemed a minor inconvenience at worst and a complete non-issue at best. The idea that gender can be a major central part of someone's identity was foreign when I was a child, and even now I only understand the concept academically. Honestly, if I were gender bent, my main concern would be a purely medical, "am I experiencing dysphoria." Hell, turn me into a dragon, or a robot, or whatever, as long as I have opposable thumbs, at least 5 senses, and a brain that's at least as good as what I've got now, I'm golden.
Though on the subject of shipgirls, I think I'd rather be a Fleet of Fog warship than a kanmusu. Shapeshifting as a function of engineering skill makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, and their tech looks fun to play around with. I'd also accept being a Mass Effect Reaper Abyssal, if only because I'd literally be Mecha-Cthulhu except shaped like a hot 7 foot tall cyborg amazon with an unnatural skin color and glowing eyes, which is, as far as I'm concerned, peak character design.
- Location
- Somewhere between here and there
The canon Russian ships are all female, in game and manga both. Apparently whatever mechanism causes the spirits of warships to incarnate into a human body either doesn't care about local culture, doesn't have access to a Y chromosome, or both.
I've seen exactly ONE manga where the genderbent character was ambivalent about the transformation. Then again, the main running gag of the piece was that said character was lazy to the point of not giving a toss about much of anything, with his/her friends doing all the actual freaking out about the sudden, unexplained male/female transition.
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I don't know genderbend manga, but have definitely seen webcomics where the genderbent character has mixed to positive feelings about it.
EGS being particularly obvious here. Ultimately (after a whole lot of the author learning things, among things) one of the original male main characters (and the main transformation instigator) is solidly established as genderfluid. I'm not sure whether the other has a label down, and he seems to stick to 'primary state male and masculine' but does voluntarily genderbend frequently and has special abilities to that effect.
IIRC even from the beginning their main concerns were 'this is weird and we don't want people to know about it' with a side of 'this is non-permanent right' because of course they had to have occasions where it was temporarily not reversible.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I had something of an opposite experience. Personally I had a really hard time connecting to the more "cis oriented" gender bender stories, despite trying to get into the genre several times over the years (for some very mysterious reason). It was something that I found really intriguing in theory, but mostly just let to disappointment and alienation every time I dipped my toe in.
It wasn't until I discovered the more trans side of the genre with writers accepting and describing the innate joy of the MC's newly discovered girlhood, that I really started vibing with it.
Of course on that side of the genre at least some of the writers were also actually aware that what they're writing is some kind of trans thing.
Which led me to this really weird and funny moment where I was like: "Okay, these stories are way better written and more relatable than the drivel I was reading before, but why do these authors constantly have to mention that the protagonist was apparently trans all along. It really takes me out of the immersion and also it's unfair that apparently only trans people deserve to have a magical gender transformation happen to them!"
As you might imagine I ended up feeling incredibly stupid about that just roughly six months later.
ComfyOfy
A dreamy Trans Witch
- Location
- Lost
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I had a very similar line of thought, but for me was about Madoka Magica. I wanted to be like them so much (yeah I know how stupid that is and how painful is being meguca)
In response to the current discussion: it reminded me of a concept I had for Synthetic Gods Quest. Essentially, in the post-post apoc setting there are "monsters" that are basically leftover autonomous terror weapons and I had a concept for monster that "baleful polymorphs" its victim into a different biological sex as well as a significantly different appearance. My idea was that in a low magic world (for peasants at least) it would be almost irreversible and a constant source of mental stress as you get a triple whammy of dysphoria (if you were unlucky to be cis before), loss of legal identity and negative societal response on both the victim and their family circle. When I ran it through a few people I knew... I was not so kindly informed that it would apparently be considered transphobic because "not liking the change" can be interpreted as me pushing for the "regret statistics" which is the opposite of that I intended which caused me to scrap the idea.
ComfyOfy
A dreamy Trans Witch
- Location
- Lost
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I get where they were coming from, but personally I don't see what's wrong with your idea (I may be mistaken tho), I think that a lot of trans people would search for this monster (sorry if my english was not on point it's not my first language)
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
No, they're not, and that was confusing to little eggy me's head. Why wouldn't anyone want to be a girl?
The glowing eyes and armored gauntlets and boots covering most of her limbs might make hiding her nature a little harder than that. Even when removed, they've still got mounting studs sticking out.
Yeah, I agree. I was mainly suggesting it as an alternative to a swimming pool of tonal cream that would otherwise be needed for the skin color alone. For boots, gloves and eyes the other proposed solutions would be needed and what was already proposed in canon might just work. The eyes could probably be hidden by sunglasses or maybe even opaque contact lenses used in cosplay (which are less likely to work, but might be worth a try). For armored bits you could probably paint the metal so that it doesn't look black and maybe even kitbash cosmetic covers and greeblie bits to make the parts look less organic and with more distinct ship features. For conceptual reference, this could result in a setup visually similar to Epsilon's leg rigging from my TSO fic. Alternatively, if gloves and boots are removable but reveal exposed cybernetics you could maybe wear something over them. Replace organic metal high boots with normal high boots and it might just work.
In the worst case, the camouflage probably only needs to work from afar. For OPSEC reasons every shipgirl in contact with Grace would most likely know about her nature if only for the option to tackle her on command. The camouflage would be needed almost exclusively for two reasons: to prevent paparazzi attention and to not startle civvies if Grace is ever allowed to walk out of a military base and go anywhere public. But while she's in a restricted area where everyone knows about her she'd likely not need to resort to that and she can probably remain there until the press release anyway.
Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
- Location
- Where the Beef is
- Pronouns
- Any
The only media I'm familiar with with that kind of element is the turn based strategy video game Disgaea D2, the (so far) only direct sequel to the original DIsgaea. (Though it does lead into the events of Disgea 2, where one of the D1/DD2 party members also plays a major story role, and postgame appearances continue throughout.the other games.)
But anyway, in Disgaea D2 your demon protagonists have various allergic reactions to the Heaven-flowers that have started growing throughout the Netherworld: ditzy Fallen Angel Flonne of course just thinks they're pretty and treats her mildly more adult transformation like a magical girl fan who learned how to henshin, but Etna's color palette gets swapped and she hates it, being nobody's second player, while Prince Laharl turns into a busty anime girl. Despite normally having a phobia or disgust reaction to big boobies due to [backstory], having a pair of her own is mostly inconvenient because they get in the way and throw her balance off, and the only thing she dislikes about it otherwise is becoming wildly popular as an idol singer after rocking out to replace one of the antagonists as main event of a concert rather than feared as the Overlord Laharl.
Once it's unlocked in a couple of story chapters, Laharl can be switched to female form any time with a cheap Dark Assembly vote, though it only lasts until the end of the next battle map visit. Yes, it's that kind of a series, though there are some deep and occasionally grim moments as well. Laharl's "yeah, so what, I've got stuff to get done and this isn't related to it" reaction is an unusual bout of levelheadedness that I find to be admirable and do my best to match. See also my stance on the pronouns thing, and my preferred superpower being "unlimited shapechanger."
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Jonen C
F.M.D.G.
- Location
- Lincopense, Ostrogothia, Suecia
They way I see it, TG transformation stories can be roughly categorized in three modes:
1) Juat fucking around with gender norms and roles. Think Ranma 1/2, common in comedies. Usually contains elements of the other two but doesn't linger on them. *Poof* Everyone swap bodies with the person to the right and figure it out, LOL IDK, isn't it funny how the world turns upside down with just a few little changes of what is expected?
2) Wish fulfilment. *Poof* you're your preferred gender, and the world has to deal with it. TG fics for transpeople.
3) Narrative vehicle. How do you tell a transmans story without being explicit about it being the story of a transman? Introduce the character as a man and turn him into a girl. *Poof* You are no longer your preferred gender, deal with it. TG fics to engender sympathy for trans people.
Makes sense?
1) Juat fucking around with gender norms and roles. Think Ranma 1/2, common in comedies. Usually contains elements of the other two but doesn't linger on them. *Poof* Everyone swap bodies with the person to the right and figure it out, LOL IDK, isn't it funny how the world turns upside down with just a few little changes of what is expected?
2) Wish fulfilment. *Poof* you're your preferred gender, and the world has to deal with it. TG fics for transpeople.
3) Narrative vehicle. How do you tell a transmans story without being explicit about it being the story of a transman? Introduce the character as a man and turn him into a girl. *Poof* You are no longer your preferred gender, deal with it. TG fics to engender sympathy for trans people.
Makes sense?
I'd say that there's also an option four which starts as option three but it turns out that the individual is secretly an egg in denial. It also feels like option 1 and 3 became way rarer and are now considered problematic by some people.
Jonen C
F.M.D.G.
- Location
- Lincopense, Ostrogothia, Suecia
And 3 also often can be read as a kind of "walk a mile in their shoes" kind of thing (thus unintentionally being TG fiction).
Chapter 8 - Rouse and Revelations
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Chapter 8 - Rouse and Revelations
Saturday, 14 October 2028
I woke up and checked my phone. 0112. The dark ceiling was unfamiliar, but down the line in both directions were the somewhat-familiar echoes of the women I was dorming with.
"What's wrong?" Alden asked. She and Barker were sitting on stools. Alden was typing on a laptop, while Barker was playing something on a Switch.
"Hmm?" I said, grabbing a handkerchief and preparing a ponytail pulling party. "Nothing. I just don't need as much sleep."
"Really?" Alden asked.
"Yeah, I woke up early yesterday too." I pulled myself up and started disassembling the sway cot.
"That's neat." Alden said. "But hopefully you can stay awake for longer, too."
"I think I can." I said, using one hand to get the clasp around the formed bundle of hair, then holding that there long enough for the party of heavy symbionts to climb back to the hatch. "What about you regulars?"
"Pretty much can go indefinitely without sleep if we need to, but sleeping regularly and even running a low-key night watch are good for us." Alden answered. "But someone needs to make the coffee so each dorm always has someone on night watch. This just means we've swapped with Katie and Marissa later this week."
"Ah." I nodded, as I continued my disassembly.
"So what are your plans for predawn operations?" Barker asked.
"I'm still kinda unfamiliar with a lot of the war." I said. "So research on that."
"Feel free to ask us any questions, kid." Barker said. "I've been here from day five, and Alden's been here from day fourteen."
I blinked a few times at that.
"Sure, I'll take you up on that offer. Thanks." I began packing away the cot into its bag.
Apparently, the way they figured out the rule about "full-scale ships treat shipgirls like ships" was when Atlanta took severe damage during Abyssal Suppression Mission 1. The Navy had USS Bonhomme Richard with the fleet, not only holding a MEU to investigate the island but also to provide support for shipgirls. Atlanta, along with Cleveland and Hull, wound up punching a hole through Bonhomme Richard's well dock. Fortunately enough people were on the ball, and they stopped before the three shipgirls could break the keel. They wound up medivacing her via Osprey.
The "Why the fuck are the shipgi- wait. Nevermind. Belay that swear word." was probably not going in the history books, even though all three of us agreed it should.
"So, where do fairies come from? How do you get more fairies?" I asked.
"Fairies are probably the least-understood aspect of us." Barker groaned. "And since fairy stuff determines if gear is going to work, that means it's really a roll of the dice to get new gear."
"But what we do know is that we need fairies for our equipment to work. Berths give us fairies to work with, and then the specific... instancing of the fairies is determined by what equipment we have. When we got refit to one-stacker, all our engine room fairies were replaced."
"Isn't that traumatic?" I asked. Having your crew ripped away like that....
"No?" Alden said. "Fairies are kinda like cells? They are us and we are them, but just because they get replaced doesn't mean we change."
"Uh, okay." I frowned, but shrugged. "I was just wondering because I seem to grown myself a marine detachment."
"Huh." Barker said. "We'd have to get an armory installed for that to happen."
"So yours just showed up?" Alden said.
"I mean, my hive chambers work fast." I said. Which is why I now had over a dozen extra light symbionts and a few extra heavy symbionts. And two-thirds of that number had been mentally blocked out, in what I suppose was my duty roster, as needing to wear plate carriers and have weapons attached at all times.
"You could be a little troopship like that." Alden said. "Probably not literally though, since you need the actual ability to do that."
"Wait, can you get your crew out at human scale?" Barker asked.
"No, I don't think so." I called a few symbionts into my palm and concentrated. "Yeah, I haven't noticed any sort of switch for that."
"That's fine." Barker shrugged. "We operate in fleets for a reason. On the other hand, troopships and marine detachments seem to have the easiest time getting upgrades. New batteries are nice, better engines are amazing, but I do want a pair of AMATERASU."
"Hang on a sec." Alden said. "You said hive chambers? Are you saying you can just grow more crew without needing to be back on land? Because that would actually make you immune to attrition."
"Yep." I nodded. "And I can print more skywings too."
"I'm gonna tell Marcia that so she can infodump you about Macross." Alden nodded and smiled.
After that, we continued with the oral history of the Abyssal War. Things that either wouldn't be in a history book because they were too minor, or because they were too embarrassing for the powers that be.
Eventually, we reached reveille, or just enough before that Barker and Alden had to start up the coffee machines. The machines filled up most of the metal cabinets, and next to them were smaller wooden cabinets that held entire cans of coffee grounds. They were even hooked into the building's water supplies through the ceiling.
The first step involved flicking switches and checking dials and knobs. Alden and Barker pulled out a large hopper from each machine, along with two cans of coffee each. Then they peeled apart the cans, dumping the grounds into the hoppers. The hoppers went back in the machines, and then the largest button was the next step.
These machines weren't quiet in the slightest. Judging by the size of the room and the dorms overall, I was reasonably sure I could hear every machine in the building at this point. This apparently also served as the wakeup call for the other shipgirls, who began moaning and slowly moving their bodies as they tried to get up.
"Want to help us distribute the coffee, Grace?" Alden asked.
"Sure." I said.
"Grab mugs and bring them over, then." Alden said, turning towards the row of shipgirls, some of whom had retrieved what looked more like carafes from their holds.
Louise's had dancing sharks on it, while Henrietta had "Boiler Preheating Fluid" printed on hers.
"Thanks." They slurred out in unison after they had drained the mugs in one go. We were collecting, filling, and serving the mugs as quick as we reasonable could, until most of the dorm was now at "half asleep." By the third mug, they could reasonably be considered "awake," but everyone else was going for fourths.
"Hey, Katie, Marissa, you owe us for grabbing night watch, so you can clean the machines. We're taking Grace to the chow hall."
There was a pair of groans at that.
-------------------------
"Grace, just scan your pass. That should get it assigned to the project." Barker said.
"Hmmm?" I flipped the badge up to look at it, then flipped it over. "Ah, thanks."
The chow hall was still a little busy right as it opened, but there wasn't much of a line. A group of several sailors glanced at us, immediately locked onto me, then went back to the destroyers with their rigging out and relaxed slightly. One of them whispered to the apparent leader of the group.
"As long as she doesn't cut in line." The leader was slightly worse at whispering, perhaps deliberately.
That sentiment was met with approval by the other sailors, who nodded.
"Okay, it's Jenson as chef of the watch this morning, so muffins will be good, plus waffles, sausage, and french toast. And always get the omelets." Barker glanced through a door behind the line.
"The navy and marine corps have been working for nearly a century to produce an omelet recipe that is reliable, easy to follow, and delicious." Alden nodded. "It has definitely produced results."
I giggled into my fist a bit. "You make it sound like that's all they've been doing."
That provoked a chuckle from them. "By the way, grab a plate with green and black on it." Alden informed me.
When we reached the dish station, Barker grabbed a plate with red and black circles around the rim. I grabbed one from the specified stack, which was even larger than hers. We went down the line, collecting food. Most of the line was startled at Barker coming through with her rigging out, and then looked at me and just decided to do their jobs. I made sure to give everyone a "thanks" and a smile that was hopefully reasonably soft.
We exited the line, our plates piled high, grabbed silverware, and then grabbed tall glasses of orange juice. There were a few empty tables left right now, but Alden steered us over to a half-full table.
Ah. Enlisted, NCO, and Commissioned sections.Thank you, uniforms.
We sat across from a few humans, my escorts on either side.
One of them looked across to us, stared, and immediately dropped his fork, which bounced off his plate and clattered across the table.
"Hi." I waved. "I'm Grace, B-mint natural born."
There were several moments of silence, and I took one of them to relax my shoulders and breathe.
"B-mint?" The one on the left said.
"It's a term the brass came up with to describe her because clearly, she's not an Abyssal." Barker stated, eyes flat. "As you can probably tell by the fact that she is capable of amazing feats like speech and nonviolent action. Do you understand, commanders?"
"Yeah, yeah." The one in the middle said, to vigorous nods from the other two.
"Thanks." I relaxed a little more.
"So how did this happen?" The one on the right asked, picking up a bit of french toast on his
"How did any awakening happen?" Barker shot back.
The human's fork nearly slipped out of his hand at that retort, and the glare Barker was giving him.
"Also, it occurs to me that you haven't introduced yourselves." Alden added, twirling her knife around her fingers.
There was a moment of silence. Then another. I took a moment to glance at my escorts. Need this to calm down.
"We're not saying you have to treat her like royalty or anything, but if you've forgotten Constitution's speeches about personal dignity and respect for each other then we can arrange for you attend another one of the lectures in person. We'll let her know you're coming in advance." Alden continued.
All three men grimaced, eyes scanning for escape as their shoulders tightened up like ratchet straps.
Yikes. You really don't need to go that far.
"So... what video games do you play?" I asked, then swallowed half a slice of french toast.
"Shooters, mainly." The one on the right said. "Been playing a lot of Halo recently."
"RTSes." The one in the middle said. "And some shooters. I've been playing custom Spring games a lot though."
"Bunch of stuff." The last one said. "Trying out Photon Lancer lately."
"Oh! Which one?" I asked. "I just have Runner 3."
"Triumph of Light, 4 Absolution and Victory." He shrugged. "But mainly the last one since 4-A is really twitchy and Triumph has some annoying design decisions."
"And you haven't gotten the latest one yet?" I asked.
"Ibis Inferno has like a hundred hours of content without going into the sidestory mission chains." The man shrugged, gesturing with his spoon. "I kind of don't feel like starting a big project like that. Every time I'd just wind up staring at the screen and losing motivation."
"Plus if you get Runner 3 that's another fifty, sixty hours of stuff to do." I said.
"Not a selling point, thank you very much." The man groaned.
Well, at least they aren't worried about Constitution anymore. I breathed in.
----------
I went through the line a second time, devoured that food, then we left the chow hall. Barker had gotten a text that we needed to see the base commander, though.
"Ah." And here comes the part where I get in trouble for yesterday.
I didn't talk at all during the walk. Barker and Alden certainly picked up my own stress, which was making them stressed, which wasn't exactly helping me calm down.
Still, after a walk that seemed to take no time at all and wait for what seemed to be forever, we were waved into the office.
Behind the desk was a seemingly normal woman dressed in a white uniform with Captain's insignia. Fortunately, I could make out "Kenson" on her uniform, because the label on her desk was partly covered by her hat, leaving only "CPT. Gwe-"
"You're Grace." She said, shoulders straightening out and her stance shifting from a slump to fully upright.. "Sit down; let's keep this quick."
Considering the folders piled up on the desk, I sat down.
"Alright, first, allow me to formally apologize on behalf of the United States Navy for what happened yesterday. That should not have happened to you, and we will change things so it won't happen in the future."
I blinked. "Bwah?"
"Also, as for that: you're not in trouble for that. Everyone else said it was self-defense. ONI's Abyssal Research Group has promised to pay for repairing the SMF out of their own budget. A court martial is in the initial stages for both Admiral Simmons and Commander Fuller. Don't expect anything from that for months, though." She ticked the items off on her fingers, not even making eye contact with me.
"Eh?" I said.
"You're a minor, she's legally considered an adult." Captain Kenson stated. "We're also drafting a letter suggesting that the AR group contact Admiral Constance's office before approaching you."
"I, uh.. huh." I blinked a few times, then righted my head. "Who's Admiral Constance?"
"Commander, Shipgirl Training Command." She said. "Since you're down on paper as a natural-born and haven't finished your training, you fall under his authority."
"Ah." I said. "And these ONI people study Abyssals."
"Yes." She nodded, eyes immediately attempting to convey intense, soul-grinding boredom.
"Right." I nodded. "But my color scheme appears to be the only Abyssal thing about me. Biology-wise I seem to be completely different. So they aren't bringing expertise; they're bringing incorrect preconceptions." I grinned.
Captain Kenson perked up. "That's a good one. Lieutenant Arlan is writing the draft; tell them that." Then, after a moment. "After you've left my office, Captain."
I didn't need to turn my head to track Barker putting her phone back in her hold.
"Reprisal hasn't contacted you with any changes to the schedule?" The human asked.
"No word of change, ma'am." Barker shook her head
"Great. Dismissed." She nodded.
------------
We made a quick visit to the enby writing the letter. Shortly after that, we did a hand-off for a communications manual for me.
"Thank you." I nodded. The book was fairly hefty.
"You're welcome. Good luck with the sea trials." He said, and left.
I flipped through the pages, looking at the small text. "I'm not going to be able to memorize all this in the next five hours, though."
"Eh?" Barker said. "But you just use it.... Whelp. You don't have fairies. That's not going to work. To the study rooms it is then."
"So how quickly can you learn something?" I asked, falling in.
"Eh, it's not instant learning. Normally radio operators are trained and still keep the manual around. But if you can't do that...." Alden frowned.
"I mean, I can keep the book around. Just can't really read it without taking it out." I shrugged.
"You're going to have to study a lot." Barker said. "It might be a good thing that you don't need as much sleep."
I looked down at the book in my hands. "Yay?"
"If that's the case we can just waive the formalities for your sea trials. But if you're enlisting, you're gonna need to memorize a lot." Barker said. "If you want, we can start going over it now so you don't have to later."
"I... sure." I shrugged. "You will notice when you get a text, right?"
"Yes." Barker nodded. "I will."
"Unless we're out of cell service, like while doing sea trials." Alden pointed out.
All three of us looked at each other. I blanched.
"Fuck." I said. "And their phones are probably set to 'do not disturb' right now."
"We can just send the message and let them respond once day watch starts." Alden said.
----------------
We'd moved to one of the study rooms, small sections of the building with durable chairs and a small table. But with my size and Barker and Alden having their riggings deployed, it was a bit of a tight fit. There, we had finalized our own message to Luna and Zoey.
Please read. That is what happened to Grace, with a few complications.
We will be out of contact from 1100 your time onwards so please call us this morning.
Amelia Barker
Barker pressed send. I looked at the phone like it was going to explode.
Then it started ringing, with Zoey's number displayed on the screen. We glanced between each other.
"Answer it?" Barker asked, looking at me.
"Yes, and just know that she definitely hasn't read the link." I sighed.
Barker pressed the button.
"Oi! Amelia! Let me talk to Grace!" One of my two best friends shouted into the phone, with the volume jumping when Barker turned on speakerphone.
"Have you read the page we sent you yet?" Barker asked, trying to make her raised eyebrow as evident as possible through her voice.
"Just let me talk to Grace!" Zoey shouted. I clamped my hands over my mouth.
"Read first." Barker shot back.
"Nuh-uh." Zoey said, followed by a muffled "Hey Luna. Wake up." There was a little more muffled conversation before Zoey returned.
"Now why did you wake me up before six A.M. and then not let me talk to Grace!?" Zoey shouted. Then, quieter: "Huh? What do you mean? Eh? Are either of you going to explain? Can you just- alright, fine." The line beeped.
"Okay, this is Luna here." Luna slid into the conversation. "So what's going on is that Grace has awakened into a natural-born shipgirl, and as part of her changes, her voice is different. Correct?"
"Yes, and this is my new voice. You like it?" I asked, feeling a tug in my cheeks.
There was a moment of silence, then a harsh thud.
"Oh wow." Luna started laughing. "I've never seen her that red in the face. She just dropped her phone."
Luna was able to laugh for a little longer before Zoey picked her phone up and rammed back into the conversation.
"Banned! Banned! Illegal! Grace, you can't have a sexy voice like that! Banned for being too sexy!" She shouted.
Luna was still laughing, muffled by her hands. Barker and Alden looked at me, and I felt yet another blush overtake my cheeks.
"Well I'm glad you like it." I managed to say.
"Illegal! Go to jail for being too sexy!" Zoey shouted again.
"And send us pictures, too!" Luna cried.
"I will, as soon as I can." I said. "I don't have cell service right now."
"You could DM us, Keysmash-chan." Luna said.
"Huh?" All three of us shipgirls asked at the same time, blinking not quite in sync.
"Grace, you're on the Rochante Center chat, right?" Luna asked.
"How did you know that?"
"Hnng." Zoey muttered, then got louder. "Of course us trans girls would be on the Discord server for the closest queer community center!"
"You're trans?" I asked blankly.
There was a moment of silence.
"No, I just painted my leg covers with the trans flag because I wanted to be a good ally!" Zoey exploded. "Of course, dummy! You idiot! Are you-"
"Zoey." Luna interrupted, her voice echoing through both microphones.
"Sorry." I tried.
There was groaning on the other side of the line.
"Grace." Zoey said. "Can you come over and us a hug?"
"Well...." I started.
"Grace was unusual enough the navy already flew her out to Norfolk. A little far." Barker said.
"What is going on?" Luna asked.
"Nevermind that, does Grace need a hug?" Zoey asked.
"Yes." Barker deadpanned.
"Grace, do you trust them enough to let them hug you?" Zoey asked.
I froze for a moment or two, face twisting, as I glanced between the two destroyers.
"I'm going to err on the side of no." Alden said.
"Sensible policy." Barker nodded.
"So I can't help but notice that you two were in the same room." I said.
"Yeah, my house is currently a crime scene." Luna said. "Your gene donor came over, threatened mom with a gun, and then left. The cops managed to show up in time to stop him from barging into Zoey's house."
"He did what!?" I shouted. Barker and Alden scooted back as much as they could.
"He put multiple holes into the walls to scare Mom. And he went around and started breaking things." Luna said. "Then he left after being satisfied you weren't there. We called the cops the moment he left. They interrupted him before he could break into Zoey's house. And he tried to shoot one of them, so he's probably going to disappear for a long while."
I deployed two stress balls and started kneading them. Then I relaxed my shoulders and let out a breath. I didn't start tapping my toes, given what happened last time..
If he had entered Zoey's home.... I'd had to lie and claimed that Aunt Calypso was Aunt Gwendolyn's sister-in-law, even though I knew at age seven that wasn't correct. I even told my gene donors that said pretend husband/uncle was a construction worker, because that would explain why he was absent so much. If those cops hadn't been there....
I absently replaced one of the stress balls.
And more cynically, well, I remembered a few days in a row post-dinner, a few years back, when Fa- when Mr. Sperm Donor called us to rant about the new chief of police. The "wrong sort" of person. If the "right sort" of chief of police had been installed?
Then I sat back down. "Could I get that hug please?" I deflated. It felt like my eyes shouldn't have been working right, but they were still seeing everything just fine.
Barker and Alden retracted their riggings in a flash of sparks and mist and reached in to gently hug me.
"I... thanks." I slumped further into the hug.
"How are you holding up over there? No one's tried anything?" Luna asked.
"Er..." I said instinctively.
"I'm a cute girl; I can get away with murder." Zoey snarled. "Names."
"Mind if I take this one?" Alden asked.
"Sure." I settled on.
"The person in question managed to lay one hand on Grace's shoulder for less than a second. She was immediately removed, chewed out by the senior officer on scene, and then had her injuries treated. She is also under review for the third tier of court martial - the most serious one, as is her commanding officer." Alden stated matter-of-fact. "And yes, that's partly because of other factors, not just because she assaulted a civilian and a minor."
There was a heavy silence from the other side.
"Okay, I was not expecting that." Luna said.
"That... is a roughly accurate version of events." I said.
"What did she change?" Luna asked, and I could almost feel her gaze on me.
"Grace does not look comfortable answering that question so move on, please." Barker interrupted.
I relaxed and slumped into the hug a bit more.
"Let me send you some pictures." I said, trying to bleed the last of the strain from my voice. I retrieved my phone and stylus, and started tapping away.
In the server, there was chaos as Bunny_ZZ and LucidLunacy had asked about me. I looked at their profile pictures. LucidLunacy had a picture of the Apollo 11 mission patch, which should have been expected considering how much Luna liked space.
"Luna, did you pick your middle name?" I asked.
"Yep!" She said.
Bunny_ZZ's profile picture, now that I was looking at it closer, was definitely "Princess Shelly," Zoey's favorite bunny plush.
I took a moment to drop a quick reassurance in general chat.
Grace: I'm alive and in a safe place. Not going to answer questions right now because I'm on the phone with Bunny and Lucid.
Maria had also PM'd me, so I responded to the older woman with the same message. Then I turned to the three-way PM that had been opened.
Zoey and Luna had spammed the PM, with Zoey providing most of the comments. Including a bunch of "Hey!" and "Oi, bitch, are you okay?"
Luna was calmer in her questions and statements that everyone was worried.
I uploaded a picture of the poster.
There was a humming from the other side followed by a quick, literal "squee" from Luna. It wasn't as intense as some other Symphogear-related squees she had made, but it was still pretty loud.
"Oh my goddess Grace this so cool do you think you can get me an autographed copy?" She squealed into the phone. "How did they do the cosplay on their riggings? And-"
There was a muffled knock from the phone speaker.
"Girls! It's six in the morning!" We made out the muffled cry from the other side of the line. "What are you even doing up?"
"Grace is on the phone!" Luna shouted. "And she's a shipgirl now!"
There was quiet over the line.
"Meeting time." Came the voice. I couldn't tell if it was Zoey's Aunt Calypso or Luna's mom, Aunt Bernadette. "Let me wake our guests. If they aren't already awake." Ah. Aunt Calypso.
There was a pause after that.
"I am in the same dorm as Illinois right now, so I could ask about stuff." I said. "Might be a good idea anyways."
"Aw, you're the best, Grace!" She whispered as loud as she could into her phone.
"Yeah, use the PM to list stuff. I'm going to be undergoing sea trials soon and that's going to take a bit. I might forget, okay?" I stated.
"Yeah, I can do that!" Luna chirped.
"So how was school Friday?" I asked.
"It's school. Do you even need to ask?" Zoey sighed. "Only the teachers cared that you were missing."
"Mrs. Rodrigez was actually worried about you." Luna added. "And not just 'I'm paid to take attendance.'"
Good on our programming teacher for that.
"Tell her I appreciate it." I told them.
"So, did you just randomly pick 'Grace' out when you woke up, or?" Luna asked.
"Actually, I'd been considering both Grace and Ada as possible first names for a while." I said. "But, well, ship. So I went with Grace."
"What does 'Grace' have to do with ships?" Luna asked, and I could almost hear her raised eyebrow.
"Grace Hopper, computer scientist and United States Navy Admiral." I replied.
"Grace, are you saying you knew you were trans for a while?" Zoey hissed.
"You know I'm Keysmash-chan!" I shot back. "You were the one that posted a picture of a bunnygirl hatching from an egg when I announced it to the server back in May!"
"It appears there's a lot of 'not putting two and two together' going on here." Luna commented smugly.
"Jail! Jail for Luna, one hundred years!" Zoey shouted.
"Hey!" I snapped at the same time.
Luna just laughed, probably covering her mouth with the back of her hand in the classic ojou-sama style.
"Yeah, I owe you two a proper apology for that." I sighed. "No idea how to do that in this situation, though. I can't exactly take you out for ice cream if we're half a continent apart."
"Yes, true." Luna said sagely. "We'll have to work out something eventually."
"We were thinking of inviting you to an in-person meeting at the Rochante Center because you were giving off a lot of trans vibes over the past week." Zoey said. "Guess that's off."
"You were very much shedding hints that you were trans over the past month." Luna added.
"There was no cis explanation for your comment about skirts on Thursday." Zoey stated like a lawyer.
"Wow, rude." I snorted, then sobered. "Do you think my gene donors noticed?"
"That's a judgement that you have to make." Luna said. "We don't have as much data to compare as you do."
"I don't think they realized yet." I frowned. "No idea if they're going to review what happened and realize."
"I doubt they're as plugged into queer culture as we are." Luna said.
"Yeah, I think the hints would be flying over their heads." Zoey said. "And they're not shipgirls, so they don't have radars to track it." She paused. "Shipgirls do have radars, right?"
"Gen eight suite." Alden poked into the conversation, leaning forward from her hug position towards the phone. "SPS-112 surface search, SPS-113 air search, SPS-114 heightfinder, and SSG-66 multipurpose radar/optical directors."
"I would get you going on explaining that, but our parents are probably going to be up soon and ready to talk, so... sorry, please don't infodump-explain on us, Grace." Luna stated.
"Yes, take pity on the poor allistic girl." Zoey added.
"You forgot the 'dubious-discuss' tag." I smirked.
"Oi!" Luna mock-hissed.
I laughed, and then Luna made hissing noises at me too.
"Girls?" Came, muffled, from the other side of the line.
"Yes, Aunty?" Luna asked.
"We're ready downstairs." Aunt Calypso said.
"Okay!" Luna called back.
"How much battery you got?" Zoey asked.
"It looks like about a third; why?" Luna replied.
"I'll be on speaker, then." Zoey stated.
"Ah." Luna said, and then there was a beep from Barker's phone.
The slight noises from the phone jumped, presumably as Zoey turned on speakerphone. The rustling of cloth, the sound of footsteps, and the creak of a door.
"Okay, say 'hi,' Grace." Zoey said, slightly interrupted by her placing her phone on something.
"Hi Grace!" I chirped.
"Grace?" Came a voice - probably Aunt Bernadette. "Is that you?"
"Yes, this is me, Grace Batoidea speaking." I said. "Hi Aunt Bernadette. Er, I haven't lost aunt-uncle privileges, have I?"
That was met with an overlapping chorus of negatives.
"I was gonna ask, what's with the name?" Zoey asked. "Because trans girls naming themselves after taxonomic orders is something I've only seen in fiction."
"We... uh, we can get to that later." I said. "Though feel free to send me the link for those stories. I have not had enough gender in my media diet."
"Can do." Zoey said, seemingly proud.
"So you're a shipgirl?" Aunt Bernadette asked. "What kind? A Destroyer?"
"Battleship!" Luna cried.
"Carrier?" Zoey asked.
"Point to Zoey." I said.
"Ha!" Zoey cried. "I'm gonna cash that point in when you get us apology ice cream!"
"Oi! Don't be like that." Luna groused.
"What kind of carrier?" Uncle Tom asked.
"A new one." I said. "It's part of the unusual circumstances involved. Which is also why I'm starting sea trials this afternoon."
"Where are you, anyways?"
"Norfolk, Virginia." I responded. "Specifically, Shipgirl Dorm Number 2 of Naval Station Norfolk."
"Did they fly you out there?" Aunt Calypso asked.
"Yup." I nodded. Then I remembered they couldn't see me. "They actually flew me out yesterday."
"Why the urgency?" Uncle Tom asked.
"May I?" Alden interrupted. I nodded. "When the first natural-borns started awakening, the brass expected a slow, steady trickle. Instead, one week later, over a thousand women woke up with propellers."
I narrowed my eyes a bit at that description.
"So this time, they're taking it seriously." Alden finished.
"Ah, who is this?" Aunt Gwendolyn asked.
"USS Captain Sophia Alden, United States Navy, DD-211." Alden replied.
"What is Grace's legal situation?" Aunt Gwendolyn asked. "With regard to her gene donors, especially."
"Right. That. Not a legal expert, but we do have a procedure. Grace is not the first shipgirl coming from a bad household. However, due to..." Alden glanced at me, and I shook my head. "The situation with Grace, the normal procedure got turned into a little bit of a pretzel. Grace's gene donors no longer have effective authority and the proceedings for them losing legal authority should not have been derailed by Grace's unique situation.
"The fact that one of the gene donors just got arrested should make that go faster, actually." She looked thoughtful.
"We have a process for getting her civilian guardianship but we're not in the loop on that." Alden finished. "We shipgirls look after our own, though, so she'll be fine here."
"So you have complete legal authority over her?" Aunt Gwendolyn asked.
"No, we don't." Barker butted in. "There are a bunch of long-term decisions that we can't make. And this includes signing her up for SJOTC. That can't be done by any member of the military, actually."
"Yeah, there have been a couple cases where the new shipgirl's family is entirely military." Alden said. "Those are apparently a pain."
"I see." Aunt Gwendolyn said, accompanied by the scratching of a pen. That had been going for a little bit, actually.
"What exactly is going on with Grace that's making her a unique situation?" Aunt Calypso asked.
Us three shipgirls exchanged glances.
"Please hold." Barker said, and tapped the "mute" icon. "So?"
"I... uh... yes and no." I said, and collapsed back in the chair, smushing Barker's and Alden's arms between my back and the chair back. They didn't seem to notice, though.
"Do you think you're going to get rejected?"
"I... I don't know what their connections to the war are." I said.
"You could just let your friends and not your... acquired family know." Barker suggested. "I'm not sure they could keep it a secret forever, though."
"We can at least hold off for a little bit." Alden said. "Do we think we can get a PI to investigate them and see if they have lost anyone?"
"Too risky for a false go-ahead." Barker said. "Between propaganda and connections that a PI might not be able to ferret out...."
"This sword is hanging over me by a piece of dental floss." I stared at the ceiling. "Time to get it over with." I pulled out my stylus and phone, and tapped unmute on Barker's phone.
"Give me a minute; I'll just send some pictures." I said.
"Ah... okay, I'll be looking forward to them." Zoey chirped.
Both sides of the line were quiet aside from some coughing and yawning.
I selected three pictures taken by Louise - one of me doing an-almost-idol pose like I'd seen sometimes when visiting Zoey and she was watching idol anime. I'd settled on a flexing pose to show off to Luna, and then picked a more general, neutral pose for the third option.
I pressed the send button in the PM.
Then I turned off my phone.
Then I tapped the big, red "end call" button, and handed Barker's phone back to her.
I slumped in the seat. Then I pulled out the communications manual I'd gotten earlier.
Maybe five minutes later, I read the same squiggles on page ten for the tenth time.
"Would you like to trying moving around?" Alden asked.
-------------------
"Come on, marines!" A voice shouted. "Are you going to let yourselves get lapped for the - you know, I've forgotten how many times you've gotten lapped by a teenager!"
The groans of men and women faded behind me as I continued blasting past them. Which, given the rough terrain and my driveshaft cowlings, took a fair bit of attention. On the other hand, damn what power. This was only my second time running, and my first time actually putting my legs to the limit, and they did not disappoint. I basically had to bunny-hop, throwing myself forward like they did on the Moon, in order to get my best land speed out.
The marines had apparently been out here for exercise, and the sergeant overseeing them had agreed to Alden's request with an evil grin.
"And she's a civilian, too, to boot!"
I turned sideways and did a complex dance involving high-power hops to turn as fast as I could, I process I'd figured out doing tighter and tighter turns over the past little while as the marines grew more and more upset.
Their ire did seem to be split between me and their sergeant, at least. Oh, and the audience we'd attracted. Mostly shipgirls, judging by the lack of respect given the uniform regs, but there were also men - definitely human - and some women who might have been either human or shipgirl.
Someone had also brought popcorn. And drinks. I didn't know who the people were, but I knew which position they were in. Barker had been texting someone the entire time, and Alden was chatting with the sergeant.
Finally after a few more laps by the humans - a few dozen by me - the sergeant called for the marines to take a break.
I trotted in, looking at the women I had heard bringing over the two big coolers.
"Ah." I said, getting a chance to get an actual look at said cooler-carrier. It was Kirka and Cynthia, two of the other women in Dorm 106.
"Here, Grace." Cynthia tossed me a bottle of sports drink.
"Thanks." I said, snatching the bottle of midair. "What brought you over?"
"The scuttlebutt indicated that you were doing something with a lot of humans watching." Kirka shrugged. "So, we brought something to tilt the scales in your favor."
"Hmm?" I asked.
"If you hand these out, you'll have a full platoon of marines convinced you have to be on the side of good." Kirka shoved one of the coolers at me.
"Sure, I'll take the free rep." I shrugged and opened the cooler. I grabbed a couple eight-packs from the ice and ripped apart the cardboard ring structure holding them together as I passed them out to groaning marines.
Still, those turned to appreciative groans as the marines sat up and cracked open their bottles.
After that, Barker walked up to me, holding up her phone, screen active.
Zoey Zelenka: Tell Grace to turn her phone back on.
Zoey Zelenka: We have DMs and questions for her.
Luna Aldrin: We also have questions for you.
Luna Aldrin: Like 'how safe is the situation?' Because you wouldn't be giving her a hug if it was dangerous, right?
Tom Aldrin: Also, how are the humans handling this?
Tom Aldrin: This is Tom Aldrin, Luna's father, btw.
"They're worried about you." Barker said.
"Yeah. I -" I shook my head. "It's annoying, but I guess it beats the worst-case scenario, right."
"Yeah, family can be like that." Barker nodded. "I haven't answered a lot of their questions because that's your information to disclose. Especially the medical stuff."
"I should be able to answer things myself, once we get back to wifi." I said, scrolling down the chat feed. "Plus I'm going to need to do that anyway for the DM'd questions."
---------------
We got back to the dorms at about eight in the morning. Zoey had transcribed all the questions over from the group text with Barker to DMs, so I was able to answer all of those.
She'd also included the person who wrote them originally, which is how I knew the question about whether or not I was getting my sexual health taken care of was from Aunt Bernadette. (Yes, but no one was sure how my anatomy in general worked, so everyone was winging it.)
Uncle Tom asked how the Navy was classifying me for the moment. (As a natural-born, and they invented the acronym "BMINT" for me.)
There were a lot of questions they asked. How was the food? Where was I sleeping? How were shipgirls treating me? Zoey even asked if I was hearing "echoy chants or something" in my head. ("No, no hallucinations right now." was my response.)
There were also a lot of questions about my performance, which I said I'd be better able to answer after sea trials. After all, my stuff didn't come with labeled gauges or anything.
That took nearly two hours of tapping away with my stylus before we all finished.
After that, we swung by the quartermaster for some equipment - in particular, laser safety goggles.
"Huh.." I said, rubbing my very-nice-feeling chin. "I have a lot of eyes, and I don't think we have time to custom-fit tiny goggles on all my turrets. Especially because they might interfere with the radar systems."
"We definitely should have considered that." Barker sighed. "Right. And you'll need custom goggles for your crew, too."
"Your crews have laser goggles?" I asked.
"Indeed." Barker said.
"Wait, was a DDG invited to this?" I squeaked, as my mind suddenly clicked onto the implications. That was what, 300 people following me around for the next however? There's no way they would task a CAG or CVN for me, right?
"Yeah, two actually." Barker said. "They're already out with Reprisal and most of our escorts."
"Reprisal isn't here?" I frowned.
"Yeah, she's been running around all yesterday in order to set up a few test scenarios for you." Barker mentioned.
"Should I be doing something nice for her?" I said quietly.
"Normally I'd recommend giving her a token of some kind, like a hat or challenge coin, but you haven't gotten a pennant number yet." Alden said.
"Huh." I said. "Can we borrow some tarps? My eyes may be laserproof, but we'll have to test that."
The two destroyers gave me a look at that. Then Barker spoke. "I have no idea how that would work. But since you're probably not compatible with standard refitting methods, I have no idea how we would give you and your crew protection for thousands of tiny eyes. So sure, let's run a test during your sea trials."
"So, tarps then." Alden said, looking around. "Right. I assume you have a test idea?"
"Yeah." I nodded. "I was thinking-"
----------
After the testing procedure was settled, and equipment modified to suit a new purpose, we got lunch. Again, I went through the line twice for that. And immediately striking up a conversation with the people already at the table - it was a lot more crowded even right at the start of meal service - prevented my escorts from immediately setting metaphorical targeting optics on them.
Then we left the chow hall and didn't head towards the piers, instead heading northeast.
"Er..." I raised a finger. "Don't we need to be heading towards the water?"
"We're hitting the water through the seawall catwalks." Barker said. "There is a fair bit of OSINT people watching the piers. Not to mention we have cargo ships heading through there on occasion too. So the seawalls are a good way to slip out when that's needed."
"How often do the subgirls use it?" I asked.
"No idea." Alden said. "But since their subterfuge probably involves messing around with tracking their support ships, they can probably just slip underwater directly at the piers anyway."
"Huh." I said. "So often is it used normally?"
"In case you can't tell, it's a bit of a walk, so it's not exactly something that gets casually monitored." Alden said. "That said, not often."
"Huh." I said.
We were met halfway there by another group of shipgirls.
Zoey Birman was there. As I'd learned from the posters along the wall, she was a member of DesRon 133. There was a white-haired woman who was from CruDiv 155, and a redhead from CarDiv 48.
"Emily Robertson." The white-haired cruiser stated.
"Laura Baube." The carrier said. She was also the first shipgirl I'd seen with an ensign's tabs on her collar.
"Grace Batoidea." I offered my hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Charmed." Baube nodded as she took the offered limb.
We made it to the shore. I asked Baube about her sea trials. She got her KCB-105 (the code for the "Yorkborn" project,) and then went through a shakedown after signing on. Then she went through six months of training, and only then did she get her actual sea trials, as a form of graduation trial. Then she was assigned to a reserve force while getting additional training for a further six months.
That was typical for natural-borns, as Robertson pointed out. The only real difference was the length of training. Minors had a longer period to train before getting assigned to a fleet.
Then Birman got her "grumpy old woman" act on and told us about in her day, how they had to sail through Abyssal-controlled waters both way to get to school.
Baube and I chuckled at that. Then I stopped.
"The waters aren't Abyssal-controlled, right?" I asked, a moment later.
"We aren't expecting major warfleets, but it only takes one torpedo." Barker said. "So don't be careless."
"Yes ma'am." I stated, frowning.
Yes, hugs and talking. I did say Chapter 10, but that got changed. Also, wow, I'm looking at the chapter length and it swings wildly.
But sorry, no, I do not know a third story where a girl names herself after a taxonomic order. I did not know about Chiro's new name when I picked out Batoidea for Grace's last name, but it's too good to pass up the reference. I did come up with the name after Shadell published, but hey, I had paused the story at that time.
Grace's Notes 8
Yes, Grace picking Grace Hopper as her namesake was my original reason for the pick. Also, thinking back on it, the original concepts for this story were interesting.But sorry, no, I do not know a third story where a girl names herself after a taxonomic order. I did not know about Chiro's new name when I picked out Batoidea for Grace's last name, but it's too good to pass up the reference. I did come up with the name after Shadell published, but hey, I had paused the story at that time.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
thanks for the update!
and if she can use that bunny-hopping for more Vertical movement?
Parkour training in the future?
i wonder what her max speed is?
and if she can use that bunny-hopping for more Vertical movement?
Parkour training in the future?