Annoyed Catholic
Moody fellow
Really?
...
Tried to look at it both logged in and logged out. Didn't see any broken images...
Odd.
All Wo-rk and No Play: An Abyssal's Trials in the Job Market (KC)
- Thread starter PyrrhicSteel
- Start date
Really?
...
Tried to look at it both logged in and logged out. Didn't see any broken images...
Odd.
Issue was on my end, seem to be fixed now.
They're very nice pictures.
Annoyed Catholic - Wo Wo Wo: Strange Shipgirls in a Strange Land-Epilog Chapter 8: Was I a Good Boy?
Annoyed Catholic
Moody fellow
Wo Wo Wo: Strange Shipgirls in a Strange Land-Epilog
Chapter 8: Was I a Good Boy?
Author's Note: borrowed several ideas from CDRW's omake Squeaky Sara and jessetheswift's omake Grandma's Here.
With JS Aki
"Oooh!" my newest 'little' sister cooed, looking around the desert landscape. "So RED!"
I have to smile and nod slightly, agreeing with my younger sister. The surface of Mars does indeed happen to be rather red. That and it has a stark beauty that the simulations and movies just cannot convey. You have to experience it yourself to understand it fully.
My little sister Re-13 had not even waited long enough to be properly "rechristened" with something more than the mere hull designation that the Crane Princess of that mirror world we'd left a bit ago before jumping on the Program. Oh, we DID get her a proper name before my purple-eyed sister here could slip through the cracks and enter into the Training Program for the Mars Mission. Honestly, I think that JS Autumn was halfway hoping to have been able to make it all the way to Mars before getting properly named. She does have something of a mischievous streak that stands her apart from me at HER age.
Of course, the other thing had been that despite having excelled in combat whilst under her version of our Princess she had died not a moment after defeating that bint of a Princess who'd tossed a depth charge into her Hime's face...
Thus the purple eyes instead of red ones like I sport. Yes, my sister was sunk before I had back in our first/Abyssal life.
But unlike me, my sister did not have to set sail for the Abyssal War. Instead, we are now serving humanity in other ways. We and others like the former Crossroad Fleet are involved in various projects to build off-world colonies. Something that we as Kanmusu are better suited than humans in many ways. Of course, we may consume more food than what a standard human could (or should) per meal, but we have much in our favor. We are MUCH more resistant to radiation, not suffering from either short or long-term exposure. Trinitite's time on the Bikini Atoll is a good example of that fact. We also are much more resistant to microgravity to the point that some scientists speculate that it would take centuries before the first signs of degradation would occur in a Kanmusu (if even that). And perhaps the most important thing of all? We Kanmusu can operate MUCH longer between bouts of sleep, being able to work days (and weeks) at a time.
Meaning that a group of Kanmusu could throw up a working space colony much quicker than the same number of human beings could, which is the plan. Some Kanmusu had gone to the Moon to set up Lunar colonies. Some have set up in high orbit around Earth to make large long-term cylindrical (spinning) space stations. Some have even gone out to places like the Astroid Belt or even out to the moons like Titan (the moon of Saturn). As for what you've seen, my Princess chose to set up one of the initial ground side settlements on Mars; the former Abyssal Jellyfish Princess (and her fleet) is setting up the orbiting facilities and space colonies orbiting around Mars.
Ah, but while I totally agree with the sentiment that while Earth is our Cradle (for both Kanmusu and humanity as a whole) if we do not LEAVE Earth it will soon become our grave. The damage done to the environment from the Abyssal War on our Earth is being attended to here, but . . .yeah.
From what I am hoping that our sister Earth will have a shorter and much less costly war with the Abyss, but honestly, after having done one war already I and the other Resummoned do not wish to partake in another unless we have to here. We have helped with gifts of technology and such (and a limited form of trade through the narrow portal down in the Bikini Atoll), but enough is enough for me and my sisters thanks! Now is a time to create.
...
But that is not why I and my sister are out and about this section of Mars? Well, the thing is that Trinitite's young daughter--what a scamp! It started so early; back as an infant she nearly she drove her father and mother insane with that squeaky Jellyfish Princess toy Trin had bought before finally rejoining with Saratoga and had continued well until now! Now she wanted to swing on by where the Pathfinder prode was located before going silent back in 1997. She'd seen The Martian with us while in route to Mars, so . . .
What the Fu...?
Is that a little BOY crying over there? In THIS atmosphere without a spacesuit?!
Jumping off the rover and running up to the youngster, I and my sister pause when we notice . . .the boy is translucent as he stands over a pile of sand. A pile which is rather near the spot we'd been angling towards for a while now . . .
"Pathfinder?" Autumn ventures, guessing what we're actually SEEING here.
Some of the Kanmusu involved in a rescue mission back on that sister Earth had mentioned meeting a modern Chinese warship's spirit.
"Wha . . .you see me?" the young boy whispered, turning and staring at me and my sister in our spacesuits. "And . . .why do you look like humans and big warships?"
"Yes. . .yes we can," Autumn finally says after giving me a quick glance, as if asking if I am seeing the same thing as she was seeing.
Yes, Trinitite and Elizabeth had been in the belief that various space probes could have their own versions of ship spirits but I had . . .
. . . I had been wrong.
"We are what people call Kanmusu," I begin, bending down to be better able to look the young red-haired boy in his blue eyes. "And we're somewhat like what you are, to make a long story short. Would you like to hear about it while we bring you back home?"
" . . .Could I?" the young boy asked hesitantly. "I mean I must have done something wrong. What I don't know because I've been alone so long. What did I do wrong?"
"You didn't do anything wrong!" I say loudly, putting aside the fact that despite the fact that this boy should probably not be able to hear my voice through the thing Martian atmosphere. When has logic been a reason for what sometimes happens with shipgirls (and apparently space probe boys)? "We've just . . .got caught up with other things like war and other things we'll tell you all about. Sound good?"
"Okay," the young boy blinked, looking hopeful. "So it's time to go? Was I a good boy?"
Giving my sister a look, I smile softly.
"No, I was told you were the best." I smile, reaching for an extraction tool to dig out Pathfinder's body and take it with us back to base.
It was time for a return home.
Chapter 8: Was I a Good Boy?
Author's Note: borrowed several ideas from CDRW's omake Squeaky Sara and jessetheswift's omake Grandma's Here.
With JS Aki
"Oooh!" my newest 'little' sister cooed, looking around the desert landscape. "So RED!"
I have to smile and nod slightly, agreeing with my younger sister. The surface of Mars does indeed happen to be rather red. That and it has a stark beauty that the simulations and movies just cannot convey. You have to experience it yourself to understand it fully.
My little sister Re-13 had not even waited long enough to be properly "rechristened" with something more than the mere hull designation that the Crane Princess of that mirror world we'd left a bit ago before jumping on the Program. Oh, we DID get her a proper name before my purple-eyed sister here could slip through the cracks and enter into the Training Program for the Mars Mission. Honestly, I think that JS Autumn was halfway hoping to have been able to make it all the way to Mars before getting properly named. She does have something of a mischievous streak that stands her apart from me at HER age.
Of course, the other thing had been that despite having excelled in combat whilst under her version of our Princess she had died not a moment after defeating that bint of a Princess who'd tossed a depth charge into her Hime's face...
Thus the purple eyes instead of red ones like I sport. Yes, my sister was sunk before I had back in our first/Abyssal life.
But unlike me, my sister did not have to set sail for the Abyssal War. Instead, we are now serving humanity in other ways. We and others like the former Crossroad Fleet are involved in various projects to build off-world colonies. Something that we as Kanmusu are better suited than humans in many ways. Of course, we may consume more food than what a standard human could (or should) per meal, but we have much in our favor. We are MUCH more resistant to radiation, not suffering from either short or long-term exposure. Trinitite's time on the Bikini Atoll is a good example of that fact. We also are much more resistant to microgravity to the point that some scientists speculate that it would take centuries before the first signs of degradation would occur in a Kanmusu (if even that). And perhaps the most important thing of all? We Kanmusu can operate MUCH longer between bouts of sleep, being able to work days (and weeks) at a time.
Meaning that a group of Kanmusu could throw up a working space colony much quicker than the same number of human beings could, which is the plan. Some Kanmusu had gone to the Moon to set up Lunar colonies. Some have set up in high orbit around Earth to make large long-term cylindrical (spinning) space stations. Some have even gone out to places like the Astroid Belt or even out to the moons like Titan (the moon of Saturn). As for what you've seen, my Princess chose to set up one of the initial ground side settlements on Mars; the former Abyssal Jellyfish Princess (and her fleet) is setting up the orbiting facilities and space colonies orbiting around Mars.
Ah, but while I totally agree with the sentiment that while Earth is our Cradle (for both Kanmusu and humanity as a whole) if we do not LEAVE Earth it will soon become our grave. The damage done to the environment from the Abyssal War on our Earth is being attended to here, but . . .yeah.
From what I am hoping that our sister Earth will have a shorter and much less costly war with the Abyss, but honestly, after having done one war already I and the other Resummoned do not wish to partake in another unless we have to here. We have helped with gifts of technology and such (and a limited form of trade through the narrow portal down in the Bikini Atoll), but enough is enough for me and my sisters thanks! Now is a time to create.
...
But that is not why I and my sister are out and about this section of Mars? Well, the thing is that Trinitite's young daughter--what a scamp! It started so early; back as an infant she nearly she drove her father and mother insane with that squeaky Jellyfish Princess toy Trin had bought before finally rejoining with Saratoga and had continued well until now! Now she wanted to swing on by where the Pathfinder prode was located before going silent back in 1997. She'd seen The Martian with us while in route to Mars, so . . .
What the Fu...?
Is that a little BOY crying over there? In THIS atmosphere without a spacesuit?!
Jumping off the rover and running up to the youngster, I and my sister pause when we notice . . .the boy is translucent as he stands over a pile of sand. A pile which is rather near the spot we'd been angling towards for a while now . . .
"Pathfinder?" Autumn ventures, guessing what we're actually SEEING here.
Some of the Kanmusu involved in a rescue mission back on that sister Earth had mentioned meeting a modern Chinese warship's spirit.
"Wha . . .you see me?" the young boy whispered, turning and staring at me and my sister in our spacesuits. "And . . .why do you look like humans and big warships?"
"Yes. . .yes we can," Autumn finally says after giving me a quick glance, as if asking if I am seeing the same thing as she was seeing.
Yes, Trinitite and Elizabeth had been in the belief that various space probes could have their own versions of ship spirits but I had . . .
. . . I had been wrong.
"We are what people call Kanmusu," I begin, bending down to be better able to look the young red-haired boy in his blue eyes. "And we're somewhat like what you are, to make a long story short. Would you like to hear about it while we bring you back home?"
" . . .Could I?" the young boy asked hesitantly. "I mean I must have done something wrong. What I don't know because I've been alone so long. What did I do wrong?"
"You didn't do anything wrong!" I say loudly, putting aside the fact that despite the fact that this boy should probably not be able to hear my voice through the thing Martian atmosphere. When has logic been a reason for what sometimes happens with shipgirls (and apparently space probe boys)? "We've just . . .got caught up with other things like war and other things we'll tell you all about. Sound good?"
"Okay," the young boy blinked, looking hopeful. "So it's time to go? Was I a good boy?"
Giving my sister a look, I smile softly.
"No, I was told you were the best." I smile, reaching for an extraction tool to dig out Pathfinder's body and take it with us back to base.
It was time for a return home.
Last edited:
43: A Late Morning
PyrrhicSteel
Look natural.
- Location
- Idaho
As she walked, Trinitite fished another wrapped 'Rice Crispy' from the box she was carrying, tearing open the plastic wrapper with her teeth and placing the large bar of food in her mouth. Dropping the plastic wrapper back into the box where it had come, the aircraft carrier tried to shake the feeling that she'd been cheated, somehow.
As the portion of the bar that was in her mouth started to dissolve, Trinitite reflected that these things tasted fine, but she'd expected a bar of food this large to have less... air in it. On a whim, she placed her hand against the end of the bar still hanging from her mouth and pushed, effortlessly squishing the thing against her tongue with a sudden crunch. The Wo-class sighed through her nose, unable to hide her disappointment as she shifted the compacted remains of the bar around with her tongue. The thing had filled her hand, but it seemed there only was enough real food in it for about a bite.
She'd been hoping to get a meal out of this massive box, but now she was just eating the treats to get the space-hogging sweets out of her hold. The abyssal had woken up later then she'd wanted, something she'd blamed on her crew but knew was really her fault, meaning she couldn't sit down and have a meal like she'd enjoyed last night.
After the small purchases at Luzon Blues, Trinitite had revisited the distant Walmart Fleet Warehouse. Her mind racing with the possibilities, the Abyssal had removed the needed money from her hold well before she'd arrived there, fiddling with the sheets of paper to pass the time needed to walk there. Once she'd arrived, procuring the camping stove hadn't been a problem…
Until she realized that wasn't all she needed. If she settled for the stove with the lowest price, she might be able to afford some of the fuel, pots, measuring instruments, and cooking tools she found, but something was telling her that if the lowest priced grill was actually effective, then the Walmart Fleet wouldn't bother going to the effort to trade for the more expensive stoves. From witnessing the effectiveness of her 5-inch/38s compared to the superficially similar 12.7cm/40 guns some other Wos had the displeasure of carrying, Trinitite knew the value of high-quality equipment. Sure, the stove wasn't nearly as vital to her safety, but it did use a flammable gas. She wasn't going to take chances with that.
Thus, the abyssal's meal that night had consisted of a pineapple, some very salty shredded tuna, the can the tuna had come in, as well as a block of cheese washed down with a container of cranberry juice. No major surprises (although the deep taste of cheese had been pretty pleasant), and nothing that might need expert preparation. She'll get everything she needed to cook tonight, then begin to make full use of her stockpile.
The trees lining the road parted for a moment, giving Trinitite a view of the distant crane that dominated her worksite. It seemed… farther then she'd expected it to. Shooting a query over to her navigating officer returned far worse news then she'd expected: At her current pace, she'd only arrive at the site ten minutes before she was supposed to, and factoring how much time it would take for her to find her PPE and get to her work location, she was practically late!
An angry grumble emerged from her belly, her mess crew confirming that what she was eating wasn't nearly enough to ensure she was ready for the coming day. Of course, a ship could be expected to sail for weeks without a resupply of food, but Trinitite hadn't really found the opportunity to eat as much as she could since the raid on the Fred Meyers, instead choosing to carefully ration her supplies. She'd survive the day, but her own morale would certainly suffer, let alone that of her crew.
Additionally, that kind of distraction might be dangerous. After the rest of Austin's division finished with the rebar skeleton for the building's stairwell and main support, they'd rushed to help Trinitite's team with finishing the cages for the rest of the floor's pillars. Trinitie and a few others had worked a few extra minutes to finish, but they had finished, meaning today's work was likely to be radically different then the last. Probably something to do with setting the concrete, or installing the proper conduits. In any case, if she needed to learn a new skill today, she wanted to be at her best, and the abyssal just couldn't if hunger pangs were distracting her.
The carrier stopped, taking another look at the box of air she'd been wasting time eating. Considering all of that…
The box suddenly collapsed in her arms, the frustrated abyssal cursing herself. She was wasting time with this… garbage!
Stupid, stupid Wo!
Ducking into a collection of bushes, she stowed the remains of her meal, almost frantic in searching for something to tide her over until lunch. She couldn't afford to spend any time on discovering new food, though, so she needed to grab something she knew had a bit of weight to it.
Her mind drifted to getting something familiar from the meat locker, but walking into work covered with thawed blood and grease would certainly look suspicious.
That wasn't the only meat though, was it? The Fred Meyers Fleet had felt safe storing plenty of shriveled, dry, versions of regular meat on shelves, instead of properly cooling it. The idea didn't seem particularly appetizing to her, but she'd made much more severe compromises over the last two weeks. Grumbling to herself, she withdrew the plastic container from her hold, tearing where the labeling indicated and downing one of the bite-sized chunks.
The first thing that she registered as she chewed was the salt. It wasn't something a ship like herself had an aversion to, obviously, but it also wasn't something she'd really associate with food. With some experimental chewing, the stiff food, shredding and softening, the rest of the meat's flavor began to seep from the 'Jerky.' Trinitite noticed even more odd flavors, but this time she wasn't sure they existed purely for their taste. She had no idea what kind of process would turn the meat from a fresh kill into something you could easily store like this, but it clearly involved a lot more work then just heating it. No, just like how steel transformed to rust and avgas broke into water and exhaust in certain chemical reactions, this had been similarly transformed. How much of this food's flavor was because of that?
Eager to make up time, she gobbled up another chunk of the jerky from the bag, then broke into a jog for work. She'd probably have the opportunity to ponder the question later today, at least. These packages were small enough to reasonably hide in her coat as well, so she'd probably have a good excuse to sneak some more while she worked. Nobody looked down on carrying water and coffee everywhere around the worksite, so a little food couldn't be suspicious, right?
- - -
With the bag of food tucked into her coat and a steaming cup of coffee cradled in her other hand, The Abyssal started up Building 2's scaffolding. The cup, sipped down so the bitter liquid wouldn't keep sloshing onto her gloves, was the second she'd ever had. She still wasn't quite sure what she thought about it. Since it was supposed to wake her up, and she wasn't feeling too tired yet, the utility of the drink was lost on her, leaving her to focus on the taste.
After following Thomas's preparation instructions, the bittersweet drink was okay, but she had only really gotten this second cup because the drink had seemed so popular. She was lucky, Trinitite supposed, that humans prefered this over something spicy, like that hot sauce she'd 'enjoyed' a few nights ago.
Unlike the rest of the worksite, which had started to settle into it's normal operational tempo, nobody on Trinitite's floor seemed to be working. It was… odd, since she was a few minutes late. Confused, she gave her fleetmates another look. A few of the humans were holding equipment: hammers, rebar benders, and other handheld tools, but they certainly weren't using them. They were just… waiting.
Her three familiar coworkers weren't far, so Trinitite adjusted her course for them. A part of her wanted to ask what was going on, but it quickly died in her lips. Initially that was to avoid interrupting their conversation, but as she approached, she realized no words were overcoming the general noise of the worksite. Both Alton and Sern seemed to be focusing on handheld instruments they were carrying, but given the angle Trinitite couldn't quite make out what they were. Tirto wasn't even trying to look busy, his hands resting in the pockets of his jacket as he observed the worksite below them. Unsurprisingly, the idle human heard the abyssal's footsteps first, lazaly glancing over his shoulder to meet Trinitite's gaze.
"Ah, Elizabeth!" He smiled. The exclamation caused the other two humans to look away from their devices, Alton quickly pocketing his before Trinitite could get a good look at it. "You get delayed by traffic?"
"Just forgot how long it takes to walk here." The abyssal admitted. If she was talking with Austin, or even the other two humans in their team, she might have tried to find a real excuse, but with Tirto… The truth just came naturally.
"...You're fine, Elizabeth." Tirto reassured her. "Even without the Crane Situation, work wouldn't have started by now."
"Crane Situation?" The Wo-class echoed. Remembering where Tirto had been looking, the abyssal straightened, getting a better view of the ground three floors down. Up close it wasn't that difficult to tell humans apart, but with everyone wearing coats, helmets and safety vests she couldn't tell the difference between them from up here.
"You know how you spent some time on getting all the cages finished?" The friendly human asked, standing besides Trinitite to survey the ground below them.
"It wasn't that much more work." Trinitite tempered, glancing over her shoulder to ensure that Austin really wasn't on this floor. "Around fifteen minutes?"
Part of that statement was just to ensure she sounded loyal, but compared to lost time created by convoys needing to adjust their course to deal with a crisis, a fifteen-minute delay was nothing.
"Good attitude." Tirto's off-hand complement caused a thin smile to spread across Trinitite's face, the Wo-class looking away from everyone in case her darkening cheeks were noticeable. "Anyways, part of the plan was for the crane folks to get the palettes with the formwork up here before work ended."
"...Someone down there messed up." Trinitite provided, comprehension dawning. "Austin's yelling at someone right now, then?"
"...Yep." Alton spoke up. Turning to face him, Trinitite saw he'd drawn the device he'd been using earlier again. She recognized it as the radio-like object The Navy had been jamming on the Pacific Lilly, but why he and Sern would be so interested in a communication device would be beyond her. "And we've got nothing to do until the snafu is cleared. As the military says, 'hurry up and wait.'"
"...huh." That phrase made a lot of sense, actually. She might have to use it later, although 'hurry up and look busy' might be a better way to describe her time under the command of other Princesses. Speaking of which…
"Shouldn't we still be doing something?" She asked. Surveying some of the other teams scattered across the floor. There were zero exceptions. Each and every human looked bored or relaxed, fiddling with their pockets, the surprisingly common communication device, a tool, or a steaming foam cup.
"Looking busy?" Tirto asked, his thick accent carrying a hint of amusement. "No point. We might as well be honest about not having anything to do."
"We could do something, though!" Trinitite asserted, her mind racing. Sitting on your aft around a princess was never a good idea. They weren't going to listen to why you couldn't do your duty, they were only going to be thinking about the lazy ships from another fleet who were lounging around while running on their fuel and eating their supplies. Everyone in the Crossroads fleet had developed their own favorite timekiller task, so they at least looked like they were contributing to the Princess' grand strategies when they were waiting. You could rest without much issue at Bikini Atoll, but this certainly wasn't home to Trinitite. She needed to find something to do for her own sake, if nothing else. "What about carrying the palettes with the formwork up here?"
She almost jumped when a laugh erupted from right next to her, looking over at Sern. He'd been focus on his own communications device until now, but Trinitite's suggestion seemed to have caught his attention. The noise seemed as unexpected to him as it was to the abyssal, as when she looked over at the human he covered his mouth with a gloved hand, the chuckle quickly dying. A second of silence passed.
What? The idea couldn't have been that ridiculous, right?
"...That was a joke, right?" Alton finally asked.
The human had a ghost of a smile on his face, but it didn't reach his eyes. Realizing she'd messed up, somehow, the Aircraft Carrier backed down.
"...Yeah, sure."
"I'm sure all four of us could lift a palette," Tirto reassured her, "but I'm not certain the scaffolding could handle the weight."
"Or if it would fit." Alton added.
"I get it." Trinitite acknowledged. She was looking directly down, now, because she was definitely blushing. "Sorry."
The suggestion had been a serious mistake. How could the humans respect someone who'd proposed such a stupid idea? She didn't plan on taking any leadership positions on the jobsite, but what if a crisis happened? If there was an emergency, Austin was incompacitated, and someone needed to take command, would they respect her enough to follow her orders, or would she just have to hope someone else took the initiative?
She needed to do something to repair her reputation, and fast.
Thankful she'd had the foresight to hide her white neck with a bandanna she'd hid under her coat, she zipped her jacet partially open. Reaching for the bag of Jerky tucked under her left breast, she worked it open with one hand and removed a chunk of chemically-treated meat. After extracting the bite of jerky, the Abyssal popped it into her mouth, making a show of chewing and swallowing to prove to the others that it was safe. After that, she moved her cup of coffee back to her starboard hand, making a show of washing the bite down with a satisfied sip.
It was a tried and tested tactic: Just like how abyssal princesses would engage in high-stakes negotiations to trade services or resources, ships of fleets that were expected to work together often casually exchanged fuel or food to get to know each other a little better. She had pretty fond memories of a Ru-class under the Harbor Refinery Princess who'd tried to ease the tensions between a few fleets by tearing the engine out of a human vehicle and splitting it between all the capital ships. It wasn't much in the way of resources, but the process had been a fun diversion while the Princesses a few buildings away argued with each other. As far as food went, a chunk of beef jerky was no piston or radiator, but hopefully it would be good enough for the humans.
Lowering her cup, her rangefinders darted between her coworkers to see the success of her tactic. It seemed that, for once, her plan was going perfectly. She'd soundly grabbed the attention of the three men in her team, all but Tirto's gaze focused on her open jacket.
"Do you all want a bite?" She asked.
"Yes please." Alton replied, focused on the corner of the bag that was sticking out of her jacket. "What's the flavor?"
"Oh-, uh, yeah." Sern suddenly looked up, pocketing his communication device.
"I don't think I've had that before." Tirto commented. "Sure."
Success! The humans gladly took their chunk of beef jerky, content to quietly chew while Trinitite zipped her jacket back up, ensuring the bandana was properly tucked in.
After they thanked Trinitite for the snack, the team fell into a content silence, waiting for whatever was going on with the crane to get fixed. The abyssal felt a bit better, but the lack of things to do still had her shifting in her boots, nervously scanning the build site until she finally settled on watching the workers at building 3.
"Hey, Elizabeth?"
The question came from Sern, surprisingly, the human shifting on his feet much like Trinitite had been.
"Yeah?" The Wo-class responded, her voice guarded. Her suspicions from earlier rose to the forefront as she mentally braced for a difficult question.
"Do you play any video games?"
Video games? She knew what those two words meant separately. There was her gun cameras that recorded videos, and the training videos she'd recently seen, and of course she was familiar with wargames, but they way those two terms intersected didn't make any sense to her. She guessed the training videos she watched on friday could be considered videos of war games, but that probably wasn't his meaning.
She still needed to say something, though. Looking over her other two coworkers for hints, she caught a glimmer of hope from Alton's expression. The human was looking towards Sern, and he did not seem amused. Had Sern said something stupid this time?
"We didn't have those." She admitted.
Defeated, Sern nodded, sighing.
"I... see."
She didn't trust Sern in the slightest, but the way he hung his head as he focused on his communication device had Trinitie feeling a bit sorry for him.
At least she seemed to have given the right answer.
As the portion of the bar that was in her mouth started to dissolve, Trinitite reflected that these things tasted fine, but she'd expected a bar of food this large to have less... air in it. On a whim, she placed her hand against the end of the bar still hanging from her mouth and pushed, effortlessly squishing the thing against her tongue with a sudden crunch. The Wo-class sighed through her nose, unable to hide her disappointment as she shifted the compacted remains of the bar around with her tongue. The thing had filled her hand, but it seemed there only was enough real food in it for about a bite.
She'd been hoping to get a meal out of this massive box, but now she was just eating the treats to get the space-hogging sweets out of her hold. The abyssal had woken up later then she'd wanted, something she'd blamed on her crew but knew was really her fault, meaning she couldn't sit down and have a meal like she'd enjoyed last night.
After the small purchases at Luzon Blues, Trinitite had revisited the distant Walmart Fleet Warehouse. Her mind racing with the possibilities, the Abyssal had removed the needed money from her hold well before she'd arrived there, fiddling with the sheets of paper to pass the time needed to walk there. Once she'd arrived, procuring the camping stove hadn't been a problem…
Until she realized that wasn't all she needed. If she settled for the stove with the lowest price, she might be able to afford some of the fuel, pots, measuring instruments, and cooking tools she found, but something was telling her that if the lowest priced grill was actually effective, then the Walmart Fleet wouldn't bother going to the effort to trade for the more expensive stoves. From witnessing the effectiveness of her 5-inch/38s compared to the superficially similar 12.7cm/40 guns some other Wos had the displeasure of carrying, Trinitite knew the value of high-quality equipment. Sure, the stove wasn't nearly as vital to her safety, but it did use a flammable gas. She wasn't going to take chances with that.
Thus, the abyssal's meal that night had consisted of a pineapple, some very salty shredded tuna, the can the tuna had come in, as well as a block of cheese washed down with a container of cranberry juice. No major surprises (although the deep taste of cheese had been pretty pleasant), and nothing that might need expert preparation. She'll get everything she needed to cook tonight, then begin to make full use of her stockpile.
The trees lining the road parted for a moment, giving Trinitite a view of the distant crane that dominated her worksite. It seemed… farther then she'd expected it to. Shooting a query over to her navigating officer returned far worse news then she'd expected: At her current pace, she'd only arrive at the site ten minutes before she was supposed to, and factoring how much time it would take for her to find her PPE and get to her work location, she was practically late!
An angry grumble emerged from her belly, her mess crew confirming that what she was eating wasn't nearly enough to ensure she was ready for the coming day. Of course, a ship could be expected to sail for weeks without a resupply of food, but Trinitite hadn't really found the opportunity to eat as much as she could since the raid on the Fred Meyers, instead choosing to carefully ration her supplies. She'd survive the day, but her own morale would certainly suffer, let alone that of her crew.
Additionally, that kind of distraction might be dangerous. After the rest of Austin's division finished with the rebar skeleton for the building's stairwell and main support, they'd rushed to help Trinitite's team with finishing the cages for the rest of the floor's pillars. Trinitie and a few others had worked a few extra minutes to finish, but they had finished, meaning today's work was likely to be radically different then the last. Probably something to do with setting the concrete, or installing the proper conduits. In any case, if she needed to learn a new skill today, she wanted to be at her best, and the abyssal just couldn't if hunger pangs were distracting her.
The carrier stopped, taking another look at the box of air she'd been wasting time eating. Considering all of that…
The box suddenly collapsed in her arms, the frustrated abyssal cursing herself. She was wasting time with this… garbage!
Stupid, stupid Wo!
Ducking into a collection of bushes, she stowed the remains of her meal, almost frantic in searching for something to tide her over until lunch. She couldn't afford to spend any time on discovering new food, though, so she needed to grab something she knew had a bit of weight to it.
Her mind drifted to getting something familiar from the meat locker, but walking into work covered with thawed blood and grease would certainly look suspicious.
That wasn't the only meat though, was it? The Fred Meyers Fleet had felt safe storing plenty of shriveled, dry, versions of regular meat on shelves, instead of properly cooling it. The idea didn't seem particularly appetizing to her, but she'd made much more severe compromises over the last two weeks. Grumbling to herself, she withdrew the plastic container from her hold, tearing where the labeling indicated and downing one of the bite-sized chunks.
The first thing that she registered as she chewed was the salt. It wasn't something a ship like herself had an aversion to, obviously, but it also wasn't something she'd really associate with food. With some experimental chewing, the stiff food, shredding and softening, the rest of the meat's flavor began to seep from the 'Jerky.' Trinitite noticed even more odd flavors, but this time she wasn't sure they existed purely for their taste. She had no idea what kind of process would turn the meat from a fresh kill into something you could easily store like this, but it clearly involved a lot more work then just heating it. No, just like how steel transformed to rust and avgas broke into water and exhaust in certain chemical reactions, this had been similarly transformed. How much of this food's flavor was because of that?
Eager to make up time, she gobbled up another chunk of the jerky from the bag, then broke into a jog for work. She'd probably have the opportunity to ponder the question later today, at least. These packages were small enough to reasonably hide in her coat as well, so she'd probably have a good excuse to sneak some more while she worked. Nobody looked down on carrying water and coffee everywhere around the worksite, so a little food couldn't be suspicious, right?
- - -
With the bag of food tucked into her coat and a steaming cup of coffee cradled in her other hand, The Abyssal started up Building 2's scaffolding. The cup, sipped down so the bitter liquid wouldn't keep sloshing onto her gloves, was the second she'd ever had. She still wasn't quite sure what she thought about it. Since it was supposed to wake her up, and she wasn't feeling too tired yet, the utility of the drink was lost on her, leaving her to focus on the taste.
After following Thomas's preparation instructions, the bittersweet drink was okay, but she had only really gotten this second cup because the drink had seemed so popular. She was lucky, Trinitite supposed, that humans prefered this over something spicy, like that hot sauce she'd 'enjoyed' a few nights ago.
Unlike the rest of the worksite, which had started to settle into it's normal operational tempo, nobody on Trinitite's floor seemed to be working. It was… odd, since she was a few minutes late. Confused, she gave her fleetmates another look. A few of the humans were holding equipment: hammers, rebar benders, and other handheld tools, but they certainly weren't using them. They were just… waiting.
Her three familiar coworkers weren't far, so Trinitite adjusted her course for them. A part of her wanted to ask what was going on, but it quickly died in her lips. Initially that was to avoid interrupting their conversation, but as she approached, she realized no words were overcoming the general noise of the worksite. Both Alton and Sern seemed to be focusing on handheld instruments they were carrying, but given the angle Trinitite couldn't quite make out what they were. Tirto wasn't even trying to look busy, his hands resting in the pockets of his jacket as he observed the worksite below them. Unsurprisingly, the idle human heard the abyssal's footsteps first, lazaly glancing over his shoulder to meet Trinitite's gaze.
"Ah, Elizabeth!" He smiled. The exclamation caused the other two humans to look away from their devices, Alton quickly pocketing his before Trinitite could get a good look at it. "You get delayed by traffic?"
"Just forgot how long it takes to walk here." The abyssal admitted. If she was talking with Austin, or even the other two humans in their team, she might have tried to find a real excuse, but with Tirto… The truth just came naturally.
"...You're fine, Elizabeth." Tirto reassured her. "Even without the Crane Situation, work wouldn't have started by now."
"Crane Situation?" The Wo-class echoed. Remembering where Tirto had been looking, the abyssal straightened, getting a better view of the ground three floors down. Up close it wasn't that difficult to tell humans apart, but with everyone wearing coats, helmets and safety vests she couldn't tell the difference between them from up here.
"You know how you spent some time on getting all the cages finished?" The friendly human asked, standing besides Trinitite to survey the ground below them.
"It wasn't that much more work." Trinitite tempered, glancing over her shoulder to ensure that Austin really wasn't on this floor. "Around fifteen minutes?"
Part of that statement was just to ensure she sounded loyal, but compared to lost time created by convoys needing to adjust their course to deal with a crisis, a fifteen-minute delay was nothing.
"Good attitude." Tirto's off-hand complement caused a thin smile to spread across Trinitite's face, the Wo-class looking away from everyone in case her darkening cheeks were noticeable. "Anyways, part of the plan was for the crane folks to get the palettes with the formwork up here before work ended."
"...Someone down there messed up." Trinitite provided, comprehension dawning. "Austin's yelling at someone right now, then?"
"...Yep." Alton spoke up. Turning to face him, Trinitite saw he'd drawn the device he'd been using earlier again. She recognized it as the radio-like object The Navy had been jamming on the Pacific Lilly, but why he and Sern would be so interested in a communication device would be beyond her. "And we've got nothing to do until the snafu is cleared. As the military says, 'hurry up and wait.'"
"...huh." That phrase made a lot of sense, actually. She might have to use it later, although 'hurry up and look busy' might be a better way to describe her time under the command of other Princesses. Speaking of which…
"Shouldn't we still be doing something?" She asked. Surveying some of the other teams scattered across the floor. There were zero exceptions. Each and every human looked bored or relaxed, fiddling with their pockets, the surprisingly common communication device, a tool, or a steaming foam cup.
"Looking busy?" Tirto asked, his thick accent carrying a hint of amusement. "No point. We might as well be honest about not having anything to do."
"We could do something, though!" Trinitite asserted, her mind racing. Sitting on your aft around a princess was never a good idea. They weren't going to listen to why you couldn't do your duty, they were only going to be thinking about the lazy ships from another fleet who were lounging around while running on their fuel and eating their supplies. Everyone in the Crossroads fleet had developed their own favorite timekiller task, so they at least looked like they were contributing to the Princess' grand strategies when they were waiting. You could rest without much issue at Bikini Atoll, but this certainly wasn't home to Trinitite. She needed to find something to do for her own sake, if nothing else. "What about carrying the palettes with the formwork up here?"
She almost jumped when a laugh erupted from right next to her, looking over at Sern. He'd been focus on his own communications device until now, but Trinitite's suggestion seemed to have caught his attention. The noise seemed as unexpected to him as it was to the abyssal, as when she looked over at the human he covered his mouth with a gloved hand, the chuckle quickly dying. A second of silence passed.
What? The idea couldn't have been that ridiculous, right?
"...That was a joke, right?" Alton finally asked.
The human had a ghost of a smile on his face, but it didn't reach his eyes. Realizing she'd messed up, somehow, the Aircraft Carrier backed down.
"...Yeah, sure."
"I'm sure all four of us could lift a palette," Tirto reassured her, "but I'm not certain the scaffolding could handle the weight."
"Or if it would fit." Alton added.
"I get it." Trinitite acknowledged. She was looking directly down, now, because she was definitely blushing. "Sorry."
The suggestion had been a serious mistake. How could the humans respect someone who'd proposed such a stupid idea? She didn't plan on taking any leadership positions on the jobsite, but what if a crisis happened? If there was an emergency, Austin was incompacitated, and someone needed to take command, would they respect her enough to follow her orders, or would she just have to hope someone else took the initiative?
She needed to do something to repair her reputation, and fast.
Thankful she'd had the foresight to hide her white neck with a bandanna she'd hid under her coat, she zipped her jacet partially open. Reaching for the bag of Jerky tucked under her left breast, she worked it open with one hand and removed a chunk of chemically-treated meat. After extracting the bite of jerky, the Abyssal popped it into her mouth, making a show of chewing and swallowing to prove to the others that it was safe. After that, she moved her cup of coffee back to her starboard hand, making a show of washing the bite down with a satisfied sip.
It was a tried and tested tactic: Just like how abyssal princesses would engage in high-stakes negotiations to trade services or resources, ships of fleets that were expected to work together often casually exchanged fuel or food to get to know each other a little better. She had pretty fond memories of a Ru-class under the Harbor Refinery Princess who'd tried to ease the tensions between a few fleets by tearing the engine out of a human vehicle and splitting it between all the capital ships. It wasn't much in the way of resources, but the process had been a fun diversion while the Princesses a few buildings away argued with each other. As far as food went, a chunk of beef jerky was no piston or radiator, but hopefully it would be good enough for the humans.
Lowering her cup, her rangefinders darted between her coworkers to see the success of her tactic. It seemed that, for once, her plan was going perfectly. She'd soundly grabbed the attention of the three men in her team, all but Tirto's gaze focused on her open jacket.
"Do you all want a bite?" She asked.
"Yes please." Alton replied, focused on the corner of the bag that was sticking out of her jacket. "What's the flavor?"
"Oh-, uh, yeah." Sern suddenly looked up, pocketing his communication device.
"I don't think I've had that before." Tirto commented. "Sure."
Success! The humans gladly took their chunk of beef jerky, content to quietly chew while Trinitite zipped her jacket back up, ensuring the bandana was properly tucked in.
After they thanked Trinitite for the snack, the team fell into a content silence, waiting for whatever was going on with the crane to get fixed. The abyssal felt a bit better, but the lack of things to do still had her shifting in her boots, nervously scanning the build site until she finally settled on watching the workers at building 3.
"Hey, Elizabeth?"
The question came from Sern, surprisingly, the human shifting on his feet much like Trinitite had been.
"Yeah?" The Wo-class responded, her voice guarded. Her suspicions from earlier rose to the forefront as she mentally braced for a difficult question.
"Do you play any video games?"
Video games? She knew what those two words meant separately. There was her gun cameras that recorded videos, and the training videos she'd recently seen, and of course she was familiar with wargames, but they way those two terms intersected didn't make any sense to her. She guessed the training videos she watched on friday could be considered videos of war games, but that probably wasn't his meaning.
She still needed to say something, though. Looking over her other two coworkers for hints, she caught a glimmer of hope from Alton's expression. The human was looking towards Sern, and he did not seem amused. Had Sern said something stupid this time?
"We didn't have those." She admitted.
Defeated, Sern nodded, sighing.
"I... see."
She didn't trust Sern in the slightest, but the way he hung his head as he focused on his communication device had Trinitie feeling a bit sorry for him.
At least she seemed to have given the right answer.
A bit of a late chapter, sorry. Had a bit of an issue getting inspiration for this, and when combined with my upcoming graduation and some other life stuff there was a bit of a delay.
Thankfully, coming up is the interrogation of those two lost pilots that I've been off-and-on planning ever since someone asked about them around chapter... eight, I think, so it should go decently quickly. Thanks to Jessetheswift for betaing this chapter, and giving me a suggestion that actually helped me finish it!
Thankfully, coming up is the interrogation of those two lost pilots that I've been off-and-on planning ever since someone asked about them around chapter... eight, I think, so it should go decently quickly. Thanks to Jessetheswift for betaing this chapter, and giving me a suggestion that actually helped me finish it!
Annoyed Catholic
Moody fellow
Ah Sern, I do feel sorry for you there.
I just don't see things working out for you with Trinitite, though. Then again, they do come from almost two different worlds. . . . even if Trin is trying to blend in here.
I just don't see things working out for you with Trinitite, though. Then again, they do come from almost two different worlds. . . . even if Trin is trying to blend in here.
Metroidwave
Strength To Lean On
- Location
- Somewhere in Colorado
This is exactly my reaction to those things as a kid. They were bland as far as sweets went and so much air made them so... unfilling for their size.
If you ever want to just give in to your true feelings and have Trinitite magically wake up one morning as a celebrity food-critic, I won't blame the story for the implausible nonsequitur.
Pangs at Trinitite's catch-phrase.
incapacitated?
A lesson that will serve her well in life; probably one shared by many of her co-workers.
Insightful and correct. Trin's really starting to translate her Abyssal experience into humans.
Though unions apparently don't translate. On the other hand, in MANY human jobs, Trin had exactly the right idea.
Also a cross-species concept.
And surprisingly generous considering she's bemoaning her own food situation. Her so carefully consuming some to show it's not poison was great.
Annoyed Catholic
Moody fellow
Back with Sern and video games...
A poster over at the other site (cough cough Spacebattles) suggested that Sern introduces Trin to video games and for maximum lols he fire up the game Azur Lane (Kancolle's biggest competitor in the Shipgirl genre) on his cellphone. The reaction to the Azur Lane version of Saratoga (a magical girl style of shipgirl) should be comedy gold...
I mean seeing this:
When Trin is used to THIS from the last time she'd seen her mother:
Yeah...
A poster over at the other site (cough cough Spacebattles) suggested that Sern introduces Trin to video games and for maximum lols he fire up the game Azur Lane (Kancolle's biggest competitor in the Shipgirl genre) on his cellphone. The reaction to the Azur Lane version of Saratoga (a magical girl style of shipgirl) should be comedy gold...
I mean seeing this:
When Trin is used to THIS from the last time she'd seen her mother:
Yeah...
Last edited:
- Location
- USA
While I get the comedy, I find it unlikely that a game like Azur Lane would be a thing in this setting.
Enemies like the Sirens and the Abyss are a lot less cute when they are actively killing people.
Enemies like the Sirens and the Abyss are a lot less cute when they are actively killing people.
Annoyed Catholic
Moody fellow
Ah, you do have a real point there. Of course, it would be nearly impossible for the game "Kancolle" to have developed, considering everything. At least not in the fashion we here in the real world have it. But the same cannot be said about Azur Lane. See, I looked online and found that it was with an Initial release date of May 25, 2017. If Azur Lane was to have come about in response to something else that Kancolle in this story, then of course it would HAVE to change its tone to something more serious if it doesn't want to go bankrupt. Maybe it would turn into something more akin to Xcom with a touch of "humanity Hell Yeah" in the mix if the player grinds hard enough. I would think that it wouldn't be so . . . cutsy as what you might see in our world, but it would have legacy material....one with a "magic girl" Saratoga before the "real" one came about in the story. A magic girl Saratoga who's story arc and character who's no longer at all like what we see in the Azur Lane setting (at a guess. . . I never really played it and know next to nothing about it in reality).
....
BUT, that is by the by and I must admit that the initial thought had been funny. Now? Not so much so I'll just drop it.
Sorry.
- Location
- America
Honestly I just want Trin to play any of the SoulsBorne series of games, the end result would be funny as hell.
Also, fuck Pontiff Sulyvahn, stupid fucking combo bullshit and then a fucking Stand, what an utter prick-(angry mutterings on how he's a bitch and the Ithryill Dungeon is a fucking nightmare continues for several more minutes).
Also, fuck Pontiff Sulyvahn, stupid fucking combo bullshit and then a fucking Stand, what an utter prick-(angry mutterings on how he's a bitch and the Ithryill Dungeon is a fucking nightmare continues for several more minutes).
Interlude: Interrogation
PyrrhicSteel
Look natural.
- Location
- Idaho
Nashville sighed, filling another cup from the office's water cooler and downing it like badly-needed whisky. She wasn't that much of a drinker, at least compared to some rumors she'd heard, but given what she was preparing for, the Light Cruiser was doing everything she could to keep her nerves steady.
She wasn't in any real danger, but she'd spent days preparing for this. That was time she could have been out there, looking for the abyssal, and still she didn't feel like she was prepared for this! Studying the art of interrogation was one thing, but it was clearly something that needed practice to master, she was lacking that. Finding the needed patience alone was going to be a problem, but they didn't have any other option.
From watching Murray debriefing civilian's who'd encountered the abyssal, The Cruiser had no doubt that he'd be much better at the task… if he could actually understand what the captured pilots were saying. The same went for their civilian newcomers, as well.
That left Shangri La and herself, and between the two Nashville's 'experience' made her the better option. That being said, considering The Essex had a very similar design to Trinitite, there could be advantages to using her for interrogation. She'd have to float that suggestion to Murray if this didn't work out.
She sighed, hand resting on the entrance to the office's makeshift interrogation room. Considering how much success they'd had so far, Nashville was fairly sure they'd be going with that option.
Counterintuitive as it seemed, she'd devised a way to make the fairy talk.
Nashville could only hope that they'd work.
- - -
"She's starting now."
From her seat in the conference room, Shangri La pocketed her phone, looking up to projected video feed. They didn't have anything fancy like a room with those one-way windows, so instead they rigged a webcam to monitor their converted office, the device hooked up to Nashville's government-issue laptop. Watching the fed was the Lieutenant Commander and the law enforcement personnel (Katie Harmon had left for California the previous day), with herself acting as a translator. Both rooms were being recorded to ensure that Shangri La's translations could be matched to the fairy later, when the footage was inevitably reviewed. The setup wasn't ideal for a myriad of reasons, but considering the required secrecy they hadn't been able to figure out anything better.
As the light cruiser opened the door to the interrogation room, a tinny click emanating from the laptop's poor speakers, the fairy in the center of the feed abruptly sat up. They'd dropped the abyssal fairy off there an hour ago, and it was obvious the boredom had quickly overwhelmed her. They'd cleared the office out, leaving their captive only the unwieldy desk and webcam for company. Aboard Nashville, at least, the fairy had been interned with her comrade, allowing them each other's company. The tactic here seemed to have worked, as the fairy seemed almost happy to see her captor.
"She read about Scharff." Agent Fergeson noted, his voice even. The large man didn't seem that impressed, but the other two civilians seemed more so, nodding slowly.
"That's what the cake was for?" Shangri La asked. Both of her hands cradled a paper plate, perfectly cut slivers of cheesecake resting atop them. She'd just thought Nashville had wanted to buy the team a treat when she'd asked that they stop by a local bakery on the drive between Smokey Point and The Naval Station, but now… she wasn't sure what the Light Cruiser was getting at. Had she been starving the fairy, and was going to eat the… chocolate raspberry, if she recalled correctly, in front of her as a form of torture?
"That kind of technique requires a firm grasp of psychology, though." Agent Peters added. He continued to spin a pen around in one of his hands, but this time it hovered over an open notebook.
"Fairies are simple creatures." Lieutenant Commander Murray noted. With both elbows on the table and his hands staples in front of him, it was hard to read his expression, but his gaze didn't stray from the projection. He was a psychologist himself, right? Shangri La wasn't sure what kind of methods this 'Scharff' had used, but it would make sense the inexperienced cruiser would defer to her superior. "Not dumb, by any means, but Nashville should be familiar enough with them to manipulate this one."
Lowering his hands, her commander glanced over at Shangri La with an unsaid apology in his eyes. The carrier nodded in acceptance. Some of her crew weren't happy to hear that, but she had to admit there was truth to his words. Her crew performed their duties as well as anyone would expect a human to, depending on training, morale, and the usual factors, but outside of that?
Well, excluding a very limited range of topics, she couldn't hold a conversation with one.
Speaking of the fairy, the abyssal had clearly noticed the sweets. With the low-quality webcam it was hard to make out the tiny being's expression, but her head was certainly following the food as Nashville laid it on the table.
The Light Cruiser left the food unattended for a moment, removing a folding metal chair from her hold and setting it up across from the fairy. Something moved in Shangri La's periphery, and The Carrier reflexively checked. It had been Agent Furgeson, the balding man straightening at the sudden appearance of a chair. Was he incredulous that Nashville could store that in her dress?
Smiling to herself, The Carrier returned to the projected feed. He'll get used to that sort of thing, eventually.
Back in the interrogation room, Nashville had sat down, dropping a pair of plastic forks between herself and her prisoner.
"Good morning."
Nashville's greeting echoed from the laptop's tiny speakers, but the fairy remained silent. By listening in on the two abyssals talking to each other, Nashville gathered that this one had been the aircraft's gunner, and hoped isolating this one first would get better results. However, while the two abyssals had started talking (albeit about nothing useful) fairly quickly together, here she remained quiet.
The conference room matched the silence of the impromptu interrogation chamber, the observers focused on the prisoner. She could be holding her tongue due to discipline, sure, but there was also the possibility she was too frightened or curious to speak. Honestly, the idea that abyssal fairies thought similarly to regular ones was only an assumption, but Shangri La guessed that wasn't confirmed. There could be dozens of reasons this one was staying quiet.
Undeterred by the silence, Nashville grabbed one of the forks she'd dropped on the table, delicately slicing a small portion of the cheesecake off and placing it into her mouth. After making a show of relaxing, smiling, and rolling the treat around in her mouth, the Light Cruiser spoke up again.
"It's pretty good." She commented, sliding the second plate over to the fairy. "You should try it."
It… did look pretty good. As a portion the thin slice of cake wasn't much for a shipgirl, but Nashville was planning on letting the rest of the office get a taste afterwards, right?
The fairy still didn't say anything, but hesitantly stood, waddling over to the confection she'd been offered. Accepting the second plastic fork and resting it on her shoulder, the fairy eased the utensil onto the edge of the dark cheesecake. Of course, it was too light to sink into the soft dessert, so the fairy awkwardly had to reposition herself over the fork to lever it down.
Shangri La couldn't hide her smile anymore. Even if this was vital for hunting down Trinitite, it was pretty darn entertaining.
After struggling to force the plastic fork through the cheesecake's cookie crust, the captured gunner set it down, a small portion of the desert now balanced atop the utensil. Sliding it forwards so the treat balanced on the edge of the plate, the fairy tried to wrap her mouth around the fork, only to take a step back, pause, then try again. From the poor quality of the webcam feed, it was difficult to tell exactly what was going on, but by reconstructing the scene in her head Shangri La suddenly realized the problem. The fork was massive relative to the fairy, just a little too wide for her mouth. Fortunately, Nashville seemed to grasp the problem just as quickly, as she slowly leaned forwards.
"Let me help with that." The Light Cruiser offered, reaching down and snapping one of the plastic fork's tongs off.
Again, the fairy didn't say anything, but did nod to the light cruiser before trying again. Grabbing a tong in each hand, she wrapped her mouth around the fork, taking a hesitant bite of the treat. The abyssal abruptly stopped, taking a few steps back as she focused on the food she'd just ate.
"What do you think?"
A moment passed.
"...Hey."
"She loves it." Shangri La announced. It was strange, as when she was in the same room as a fairy, she had no problem making out their speech, but through the microphone all she heard was a series of 'Heys.' This is what humans heard, right? Must get pretty old for them after a while. If it wasn't for Nashville radioing the conversation over to her with her own equipment, she'd be just as bad at understanding the fairy as the rest of the humans here.
"Great. That's all yours." Nashville announced, taking another bite of cheesecake. After enjoying her slice, Nashville leaned in to grab another bite, only to place the fork down and close distance with the fairy. "Do you think Trinitite would like it?"
The Fairy froze, her treat momentarily forgotten as she stared at her captor.
"Going in for the kill already?" Deputy Golding noted, minor surprise apparent in the Marshall's tone. Before someone else could respond, however, the fairy finally spoke up.
"How do you know that name?" Shangri La translated.
"We have our methods." Nashville replied. As The Light Cruiser wasn't facing the camera it was impossible to make her expression, but Shangri La could hear the sadistic smile in her response. "Anyways, it's called cheesecake. Do you think your ship would like it?"
"Hey."
"That's a yes." Shangri La translated. The Abyssal's dessert preferences didn't seem particularly important to her, but Shangri La hadn't been studying interrogation all this time. The experts in the room didn't seem to think anything was wrong…
"Good." She said, motioning to the fairy's cheesecake. "I'll let you finish another bite."
The conference room remained silent as the abyssal prisoner sliced another narrow portion of the cheesecake off, this time ignoring the fork and using her hands to take smaller bites from the dessert.
"Now, I know you're suspicious, but after learning some new information, my superiors think we can resolve the conflict between your ship and ourselves."
Despite herself, Shangri La felt herself leaning forwards. Nashville had more-or-less expressed the opposite sentiment during their conversation yesterday. Had the Carrier's argument changed her mind? Probably not, The Essex admitted to herself. Acting like you couldn't wait to sink a pilot's home base wasn't going to ingratiate yourself to them, after all.
At least she was entertaining the idea, if only to fake believing in it.
Reaching into her hold and producing a file, Nashville hesitated for a second, before fishing an image out of the folder and placing it between the two.
"You're looking for her, correct?"
This was the second bombshell. Part of Shangri La was worried about telling the Fairy too much information. These abyssal pilots were special because any other they'd tried to capture had committed suicide, and that implied they returned to their mothership after death just like many shipgirl pilots did. Telling her too much might just motivate her to finally do the deed, reporting the free intel to her commander without the Navy gaining much in return. However, Shangri La could admit there was an advantage of making the fairy think they knew more than they actually did.
They had a second pilot if this one offed herself, after all.
Nashville's gambit might have been paying off, as the Fairy answered in affirmative without much hesitation.
"Do you think we could arrange a meeting?"
Nashville's offer was thoroughly against Saratoga's wishes, and counter to preferences of pretty much everyone involved in Absolute Railroad, but convincing the carrier to show up at a set place and time through the pilot would be infinitely more valuable than some general intelligence.
Still, if Nashville did manage to arrange a meeting with Trinitite, Shangri La would suggest they send herself out in good faith instead of bringing the hammer down. Maybe it was the fact that the Wo-class was something of a half-sister to the Essex, or perhaps it was that she'd known what Saratoga was like while she'd been at her lowest point on Bikini.
Perhaps it was just curiosity. Intercepted transmissions had answered many questions on the nature of abyssal princesses, but The Abyss's cannon fodder remained mysterious. No matter which, the more she thought about it, the better a general conversation with the renegade wo sounded.
The fairy didn't reply, staring at the photo while chewing down another handful of cheesecake, but Nashville found the patience to wait for her.
The seconds dragged on, pressure slowly rising in Shangri La's active boilers, until a single, unsteady "Hey" drifted from the tinny speakers.
Shangri La tensed, listening to the repeated response from Nashville's radio transmission, before relaying the response.
"She said yes!" The Aircraft carrier practically cheered, a smile spreading across her face. She'd had her misgivings about Nashville, but it seemed Lieutenant Commander Murray's trust in the Light Cruiser hadn't been misplaced. She'd managed to convince the fairy to cooperate!
Checking the mood of the others in the room saw a similar sentiment among the Marshall and Agent Peters, but the experienced Furgeson was still watching the feed with a carefully neutral gaze.
"Okay." Nashville replied neutrally. "Now, before I can recommend anything, I'd need to know how Trinitite would respond to seeing her."
The floodgates were open, now. The fairy's immediate answer wasn't particularly helpful (there was a chance her not knowing was a lie, but it wasn't like they'd captured a flag officer), but they'd made progress. Without help from the civilians, too! They were all on the same team, and Shangri La didn't have anything against most of them, but something about Agent Furgeson told her they probably should be relying on him too much. On the other hand, she was considering a friendly conversation with an abyssal, so perhaps she wasn't the best judge of character.
As the gentle interrogation proceeded, the mood in the conference room continued to lift. Maybe they wouldn't be able to lure Trinitite to a location of their choosing, but it was looking like they were going to get everything they could out of their captives.
She wasn't in any real danger, but she'd spent days preparing for this. That was time she could have been out there, looking for the abyssal, and still she didn't feel like she was prepared for this! Studying the art of interrogation was one thing, but it was clearly something that needed practice to master, she was lacking that. Finding the needed patience alone was going to be a problem, but they didn't have any other option.
From watching Murray debriefing civilian's who'd encountered the abyssal, The Cruiser had no doubt that he'd be much better at the task… if he could actually understand what the captured pilots were saying. The same went for their civilian newcomers, as well.
That left Shangri La and herself, and between the two Nashville's 'experience' made her the better option. That being said, considering The Essex had a very similar design to Trinitite, there could be advantages to using her for interrogation. She'd have to float that suggestion to Murray if this didn't work out.
She sighed, hand resting on the entrance to the office's makeshift interrogation room. Considering how much success they'd had so far, Nashville was fairly sure they'd be going with that option.
Counterintuitive as it seemed, she'd devised a way to make the fairy talk.
Nashville could only hope that they'd work.
- - -
"She's starting now."
From her seat in the conference room, Shangri La pocketed her phone, looking up to projected video feed. They didn't have anything fancy like a room with those one-way windows, so instead they rigged a webcam to monitor their converted office, the device hooked up to Nashville's government-issue laptop. Watching the fed was the Lieutenant Commander and the law enforcement personnel (Katie Harmon had left for California the previous day), with herself acting as a translator. Both rooms were being recorded to ensure that Shangri La's translations could be matched to the fairy later, when the footage was inevitably reviewed. The setup wasn't ideal for a myriad of reasons, but considering the required secrecy they hadn't been able to figure out anything better.
As the light cruiser opened the door to the interrogation room, a tinny click emanating from the laptop's poor speakers, the fairy in the center of the feed abruptly sat up. They'd dropped the abyssal fairy off there an hour ago, and it was obvious the boredom had quickly overwhelmed her. They'd cleared the office out, leaving their captive only the unwieldy desk and webcam for company. Aboard Nashville, at least, the fairy had been interned with her comrade, allowing them each other's company. The tactic here seemed to have worked, as the fairy seemed almost happy to see her captor.
"She read about Scharff." Agent Fergeson noted, his voice even. The large man didn't seem that impressed, but the other two civilians seemed more so, nodding slowly.
"That's what the cake was for?" Shangri La asked. Both of her hands cradled a paper plate, perfectly cut slivers of cheesecake resting atop them. She'd just thought Nashville had wanted to buy the team a treat when she'd asked that they stop by a local bakery on the drive between Smokey Point and The Naval Station, but now… she wasn't sure what the Light Cruiser was getting at. Had she been starving the fairy, and was going to eat the… chocolate raspberry, if she recalled correctly, in front of her as a form of torture?
"That kind of technique requires a firm grasp of psychology, though." Agent Peters added. He continued to spin a pen around in one of his hands, but this time it hovered over an open notebook.
"Fairies are simple creatures." Lieutenant Commander Murray noted. With both elbows on the table and his hands staples in front of him, it was hard to read his expression, but his gaze didn't stray from the projection. He was a psychologist himself, right? Shangri La wasn't sure what kind of methods this 'Scharff' had used, but it would make sense the inexperienced cruiser would defer to her superior. "Not dumb, by any means, but Nashville should be familiar enough with them to manipulate this one."
Lowering his hands, her commander glanced over at Shangri La with an unsaid apology in his eyes. The carrier nodded in acceptance. Some of her crew weren't happy to hear that, but she had to admit there was truth to his words. Her crew performed their duties as well as anyone would expect a human to, depending on training, morale, and the usual factors, but outside of that?
Well, excluding a very limited range of topics, she couldn't hold a conversation with one.
Speaking of the fairy, the abyssal had clearly noticed the sweets. With the low-quality webcam it was hard to make out the tiny being's expression, but her head was certainly following the food as Nashville laid it on the table.
The Light Cruiser left the food unattended for a moment, removing a folding metal chair from her hold and setting it up across from the fairy. Something moved in Shangri La's periphery, and The Carrier reflexively checked. It had been Agent Furgeson, the balding man straightening at the sudden appearance of a chair. Was he incredulous that Nashville could store that in her dress?
Smiling to herself, The Carrier returned to the projected feed. He'll get used to that sort of thing, eventually.
Back in the interrogation room, Nashville had sat down, dropping a pair of plastic forks between herself and her prisoner.
"Good morning."
Nashville's greeting echoed from the laptop's tiny speakers, but the fairy remained silent. By listening in on the two abyssals talking to each other, Nashville gathered that this one had been the aircraft's gunner, and hoped isolating this one first would get better results. However, while the two abyssals had started talking (albeit about nothing useful) fairly quickly together, here she remained quiet.
The conference room matched the silence of the impromptu interrogation chamber, the observers focused on the prisoner. She could be holding her tongue due to discipline, sure, but there was also the possibility she was too frightened or curious to speak. Honestly, the idea that abyssal fairies thought similarly to regular ones was only an assumption, but Shangri La guessed that wasn't confirmed. There could be dozens of reasons this one was staying quiet.
Undeterred by the silence, Nashville grabbed one of the forks she'd dropped on the table, delicately slicing a small portion of the cheesecake off and placing it into her mouth. After making a show of relaxing, smiling, and rolling the treat around in her mouth, the Light Cruiser spoke up again.
"It's pretty good." She commented, sliding the second plate over to the fairy. "You should try it."
It… did look pretty good. As a portion the thin slice of cake wasn't much for a shipgirl, but Nashville was planning on letting the rest of the office get a taste afterwards, right?
The fairy still didn't say anything, but hesitantly stood, waddling over to the confection she'd been offered. Accepting the second plastic fork and resting it on her shoulder, the fairy eased the utensil onto the edge of the dark cheesecake. Of course, it was too light to sink into the soft dessert, so the fairy awkwardly had to reposition herself over the fork to lever it down.
Shangri La couldn't hide her smile anymore. Even if this was vital for hunting down Trinitite, it was pretty darn entertaining.
After struggling to force the plastic fork through the cheesecake's cookie crust, the captured gunner set it down, a small portion of the desert now balanced atop the utensil. Sliding it forwards so the treat balanced on the edge of the plate, the fairy tried to wrap her mouth around the fork, only to take a step back, pause, then try again. From the poor quality of the webcam feed, it was difficult to tell exactly what was going on, but by reconstructing the scene in her head Shangri La suddenly realized the problem. The fork was massive relative to the fairy, just a little too wide for her mouth. Fortunately, Nashville seemed to grasp the problem just as quickly, as she slowly leaned forwards.
"Let me help with that." The Light Cruiser offered, reaching down and snapping one of the plastic fork's tongs off.
Again, the fairy didn't say anything, but did nod to the light cruiser before trying again. Grabbing a tong in each hand, she wrapped her mouth around the fork, taking a hesitant bite of the treat. The abyssal abruptly stopped, taking a few steps back as she focused on the food she'd just ate.
"What do you think?"
A moment passed.
"...Hey."
"She loves it." Shangri La announced. It was strange, as when she was in the same room as a fairy, she had no problem making out their speech, but through the microphone all she heard was a series of 'Heys.' This is what humans heard, right? Must get pretty old for them after a while. If it wasn't for Nashville radioing the conversation over to her with her own equipment, she'd be just as bad at understanding the fairy as the rest of the humans here.
"Great. That's all yours." Nashville announced, taking another bite of cheesecake. After enjoying her slice, Nashville leaned in to grab another bite, only to place the fork down and close distance with the fairy. "Do you think Trinitite would like it?"
The Fairy froze, her treat momentarily forgotten as she stared at her captor.
"Going in for the kill already?" Deputy Golding noted, minor surprise apparent in the Marshall's tone. Before someone else could respond, however, the fairy finally spoke up.
"How do you know that name?" Shangri La translated.
"We have our methods." Nashville replied. As The Light Cruiser wasn't facing the camera it was impossible to make her expression, but Shangri La could hear the sadistic smile in her response. "Anyways, it's called cheesecake. Do you think your ship would like it?"
"Hey."
"That's a yes." Shangri La translated. The Abyssal's dessert preferences didn't seem particularly important to her, but Shangri La hadn't been studying interrogation all this time. The experts in the room didn't seem to think anything was wrong…
"Good." She said, motioning to the fairy's cheesecake. "I'll let you finish another bite."
The conference room remained silent as the abyssal prisoner sliced another narrow portion of the cheesecake off, this time ignoring the fork and using her hands to take smaller bites from the dessert.
"Now, I know you're suspicious, but after learning some new information, my superiors think we can resolve the conflict between your ship and ourselves."
Despite herself, Shangri La felt herself leaning forwards. Nashville had more-or-less expressed the opposite sentiment during their conversation yesterday. Had the Carrier's argument changed her mind? Probably not, The Essex admitted to herself. Acting like you couldn't wait to sink a pilot's home base wasn't going to ingratiate yourself to them, after all.
At least she was entertaining the idea, if only to fake believing in it.
Reaching into her hold and producing a file, Nashville hesitated for a second, before fishing an image out of the folder and placing it between the two.
"You're looking for her, correct?"
This was the second bombshell. Part of Shangri La was worried about telling the Fairy too much information. These abyssal pilots were special because any other they'd tried to capture had committed suicide, and that implied they returned to their mothership after death just like many shipgirl pilots did. Telling her too much might just motivate her to finally do the deed, reporting the free intel to her commander without the Navy gaining much in return. However, Shangri La could admit there was an advantage of making the fairy think they knew more than they actually did.
They had a second pilot if this one offed herself, after all.
Nashville's gambit might have been paying off, as the Fairy answered in affirmative without much hesitation.
"Do you think we could arrange a meeting?"
Nashville's offer was thoroughly against Saratoga's wishes, and counter to preferences of pretty much everyone involved in Absolute Railroad, but convincing the carrier to show up at a set place and time through the pilot would be infinitely more valuable than some general intelligence.
Still, if Nashville did manage to arrange a meeting with Trinitite, Shangri La would suggest they send herself out in good faith instead of bringing the hammer down. Maybe it was the fact that the Wo-class was something of a half-sister to the Essex, or perhaps it was that she'd known what Saratoga was like while she'd been at her lowest point on Bikini.
Perhaps it was just curiosity. Intercepted transmissions had answered many questions on the nature of abyssal princesses, but The Abyss's cannon fodder remained mysterious. No matter which, the more she thought about it, the better a general conversation with the renegade wo sounded.
The fairy didn't reply, staring at the photo while chewing down another handful of cheesecake, but Nashville found the patience to wait for her.
The seconds dragged on, pressure slowly rising in Shangri La's active boilers, until a single, unsteady "Hey" drifted from the tinny speakers.
Shangri La tensed, listening to the repeated response from Nashville's radio transmission, before relaying the response.
"She said yes!" The Aircraft carrier practically cheered, a smile spreading across her face. She'd had her misgivings about Nashville, but it seemed Lieutenant Commander Murray's trust in the Light Cruiser hadn't been misplaced. She'd managed to convince the fairy to cooperate!
Checking the mood of the others in the room saw a similar sentiment among the Marshall and Agent Peters, but the experienced Furgeson was still watching the feed with a carefully neutral gaze.
"Okay." Nashville replied neutrally. "Now, before I can recommend anything, I'd need to know how Trinitite would respond to seeing her."
The floodgates were open, now. The fairy's immediate answer wasn't particularly helpful (there was a chance her not knowing was a lie, but it wasn't like they'd captured a flag officer), but they'd made progress. Without help from the civilians, too! They were all on the same team, and Shangri La didn't have anything against most of them, but something about Agent Furgeson told her they probably should be relying on him too much. On the other hand, she was considering a friendly conversation with an abyssal, so perhaps she wasn't the best judge of character.
As the gentle interrogation proceeded, the mood in the conference room continued to lift. Maybe they wouldn't be able to lure Trinitite to a location of their choosing, but it was looking like they were going to get everything they could out of their captives.
Everyone loves some good cheesecake 
Anyways, I don't feel like I got too much out of Shangri La's perspective, here. Gonna have to write her more in the future, as well as everyone else in the search time. Next chapter's gonna shoot back to Trinitite, but no guarantee on the contents.
Also, shoutout to the youtube channel JCS - Criminal Psychology, for making researching this topic pretty fascinating/entertaining. It doesn't match the situation in this chapter very well (being about criminal interrogations trying to get a confession out of someone instead of military ones trying to get intel out of them), but it helped with writing out some of the basics and setting a tone. I'd recommend the episode on Dalia Dippolito as that one is more funny then sad or dark- unlike several of the others, where viewer discretion is advised.
Anyways, I don't feel like I got too much out of Shangri La's perspective, here. Gonna have to write her more in the future, as well as everyone else in the search time. Next chapter's gonna shoot back to Trinitite, but no guarantee on the contents.
Also, shoutout to the youtube channel JCS - Criminal Psychology, for making researching this topic pretty fascinating/entertaining. It doesn't match the situation in this chapter very well (being about criminal interrogations trying to get a confession out of someone instead of military ones trying to get intel out of them), but it helped with writing out some of the basics and setting a tone. I'd recommend the episode on Dalia Dippolito as that one is more funny then sad or dark- unlike several of the others, where viewer discretion is advised.
Annoyed Catholic
Moody fellow
...
Hm, almost expected Murray to next interrupt the interrogation and tell Trin's fairy to "Get into the robot."
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Now that you mention it, the scale of fairy to ship is not that far off...
Annoyed Catholic
Moody fellow
Okay, now I have a question!
...
If this one fairy is now amiable to the Feds and Trin meeting, then what? I mean I think the idea is that through the fairy they can begin to see Trin might be okay with meeting with Saratoga in a positive manner. That is, that Trin is not going to try to kill Saratoga to death for no longer being the Abyssal Jellyfish Princess. Maybe with a bit more interrogation, they might learn what Trin actually wants from the meet: her Mother back (as the Jellyfish Princess). I can see that being . . .a deal-breaker and a path to a positive resolution being curtailed for a bit (if not permanently).
But if not. . . . I betcha that we'll see some spook out there wanting to let the fairy commit suicide to pass along the proposition . . . .and just drooling over how brilliant such an idea is. After all, they still have a "spare" fairy, so why not?
Imagination probably something like this cool cool COOL cool resolution it will for this hunt:
Yep, until somebody with more common sense reminding that such a stunt would be too risky? That it might provide Trin too much intel for the Fed's to easily capture/contain her?
Betcha said genius would have this internal reaction then at a guess?
Or not.
I would write an omake on it, but am a bit too involved with other things right now for that...
...
If this one fairy is now amiable to the Feds and Trin meeting, then what? I mean I think the idea is that through the fairy they can begin to see Trin might be okay with meeting with Saratoga in a positive manner. That is, that Trin is not going to try to kill Saratoga to death for no longer being the Abyssal Jellyfish Princess. Maybe with a bit more interrogation, they might learn what Trin actually wants from the meet: her Mother back (as the Jellyfish Princess). I can see that being . . .a deal-breaker and a path to a positive resolution being curtailed for a bit (if not permanently).
But if not. . . . I betcha that we'll see some spook out there wanting to let the fairy commit suicide to pass along the proposition . . . .and just drooling over how brilliant such an idea is. After all, they still have a "spare" fairy, so why not?
Imagination probably something like this cool cool COOL cool resolution it will for this hunt:
Yep, until somebody with more common sense reminding that such a stunt would be too risky? That it might provide Trin too much intel for the Fed's to easily capture/contain her?
Betcha said genius would have this internal reaction then at a guess?
Or not.
I would write an omake on it, but am a bit too involved with other things right now for that...
Hecatonchires
Just an H-class cyborg with an octopus brain stem
- Location
- The Gong, NSW, Australia
Surely that would be "board the shipgirl " 🚢👧🏼...
Hm, almost expected Murray to next interrupt the interrogation and tell Trin's fairy to "Get into the robot."
Annoyed Catholic
Moody fellow
....
Funny! But of course if the fairy COULD actually board the shipgirl in question, then the Feds would practically HAVE Trin in their custody, eh?
Funny! But of course if the fairy COULD actually board the shipgirl in question, then the Feds would practically HAVE Trin in their custody, eh?
Shangri La is a bit on the naive side, is my impression. No one else is seriously considering a good-faith talk--or, more accurately, to let her go if she says no.
Half-half they probably don't consider the attempt likely to draw Trinitite out at all (though it would be a good bonus), which would mean they were only happy because the fairy was opening up, whereas Shangri La thinks they're happy because hostilities are about to be resolved.
Half-half they probably don't consider the attempt likely to draw Trinitite out at all (though it would be a good bonus), which would mean they were only happy because the fairy was opening up, whereas Shangri La thinks they're happy because hostilities are about to be resolved.
I get the feeling her time at this job is coming to an end.
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Huh... I just had a flash vision. What if Shangri La finds out that they are planning an ambush, and, convinced that the wild wo has a harmonious streak, goes off on her own to try to take Trinitite in peacefully before the shooting can start. Then someone realises what is happening and tries to scare Shang into obedience by threatening her with a desertion charge if she doesn't come in right away. Queue her panicking that she is going to be hanged, and running away, at which point we have a pair of cutely clueless but cunning carriers on the run together, trying to figure out how to civilian sans support and convinced that they'll be lucky to make it to a firing squad if anyone spots them. They could even reminisce about their missed mothers while trying to ignore that they are kind-of mostly the same person.
Memory Gem
Denizen of the Internet
- Pronouns
- Tree
So a sisters trip? And they'll grow closer together during the trip? Will Trin get to meet her other sisters along the way? What would Trin and Shangri-la's relationship at the end of such a trip be like? Will they ever see their mother again? Find out next time on the next chapter of All Wo-rk and No Play, featuring Shangri-la.
Wait, how would a shipgirl be hanged anyway? Wouldn't they be a bit too sturdy for that?
Edit: Now that I think about it, your flash vision sounds like something from a manga, and thus requires an appropriate title, might I suggest, "Trying to Save my Half-Sister has us both on the Run."
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- Location
- Finland
Decomissioned maybe.
Probably something nobody has ever done (because holy shit to firestorm if they tried), but that theoritically exists as a punishment for "ships".
Two ship girl sisters on a road trip trying to avoid capture and reach their mom sounds pretty awesome actually.
Probably something nobody has ever done (because holy shit to firestorm if they tried), but that theoritically exists as a punishment for "ships".
Two ship girl sisters on a road trip trying to avoid capture and reach their mom sounds pretty awesome actually.
Memory Gem
Denizen of the Internet
- Pronouns
- Tree
And it's likely they'll try because they're both the type to believe that only Sara can clear their names.
And I doubt that decommissioning would happen, because by the sound of it, they need every shipgal they have.
- Location
- Finland
It would not happen because they need every shipgirl they can get.
And because it could cause a huge uproar among remaining shipgirls, and possibly among civilians (not sure how well liked shipgirls are compared to navy at large).