Changing Destiny (Kancolle)

[DezoPenguin]

Well I think the contrast is in part because the Japanese kanmasu's stories are ultimately tragic ones where even if that ship survived, it would have been the only one of her sisters to make it to the end of the war (IE Hibiki, Haruna, Nagato, or Yukikaze). In addition, the game was geared to the Japanese market at the start, so they made them cute for marketing reasons.

OTOH, Americans had so many ships that the ones that do get screen time tend to be the ones that did something especially memorable and legendary (Taffy Three, Enterprise, etc.), most of whom are original characters who the author knows from studying naval history. So what you have is a knowledgeable author like Sky here trying to do a legendary ship like Saratoga justice with his portrayal of her. It would be far tougher to make someone like say Nevada or Pennsylvania epic since they spent most of the war as naval fire support. To say nothing of all the Fletchers who spent the war escorting convoys and carrier task forces around the globe and missed out on the few major naval engagements 1943-45. You see the cute (well in this case cute and derpy) dynamic come out when in BelaBatt, Alaska got introduced, since she really didn't do much of note in her career (commissioned June 1944, 3 battle stars for AAA escort and ground support at Iwo and Okinawa, decommissioned 1947, scrapped 1960).

Kancolle has a bunch of ships that didn't do much really like Fubuki who escorted a bunch of convoys, was at Sunda Strait where Perth and Houston were sunk, then her luck ran out at Cape Esperance in 1942. So the designers have to come up with something to make her attractive from that, so they make her moe.

Even the IJN ships who did have an 'epic' career like Zuikaku who participated in five carrier battles plus Pearl Harbor wound up sunk in the end and of course the war was lost. In addition, emphasizing the cutes and the tragic aspects of it downplays that fact that Japan was the villain of the Pacific War in a lot of ways, and the kanmasu were fighting for a bad cause.

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The cynic in me would also point out that the stories of cute/moe IJN ships come out of canon, which is a waifu-collecting browser game. Whereas the stories of U.S. ships generally come from Western authors, who give the shipgirls personalities (and plotlines) that suit not only their personal tastes but also the needs of the material they're producing (i.e. fanfiction). Less cynically, as you note, a Western author talking about Western kanmusu is going to be more likely to heavily indulge in references to the original actions of WWII because the Allies were both the winners (less with the heroic/tragic sacrifices, more with the glorious victories) and the "good guys" (I mean, you can point to many occasions where the Americans, the Brits, and so on committed various war crimes and shameful acts, but the other side were the literal Nazis and Imperial Japan), whereas canon basically indulged in backchannel historical revisionism and left it at that.

 

[Doomsough]

Since Utah was able to summon herself as a shipgirl and proved herself in combat, the cat is out of the bag. I think that every nation, both Allied and Axis, will now be trying to summon their own shipgirls for use in combat.

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No they won't, because they won't believe its real. Intelligence agencies often come up with garbage information like "the martians are invading!" and the file gets ignored because its obviously bullshit. That is why the US didn't act on the information it got on Pearl Harbor or the Twin Towers: the report looked absurd and couldn't be collaborated.

A warship getting pissed off and turning into an angry spirit is definitely absurd and will be pretty difficult to collaborate for months, maybe even more than a year since its so far out of the ballpark that they won't even try to get a confirmation on this.

 

[Skywalker_T-65]

I mean, I just write everyone the same. If more cutes come out of the Japanese side, it's because of the canon characterization. Little E, for example, is prime example of 'moe American'. Blucher could be the same for the Germans in her more cute moments. Repulse for the Brits.


This aside, I try to write all of them the same. Rather, I try to do justice to every ship. This is admittedly easier to see in Indy than in here, since we're in literal World War 2 right now.

 

[DezoPenguin]

No they won't, because they won't believe its real. Intelligence agencies often come up with garbage information like "the martians are invading!" and the file gets ignored because its obviously bullshit. That is why the US didn't act on the information it got on Pearl Harbor or the Twin Towers: the report looked absurd and couldn't be collaborated.

A warship getting pissed off and turning into an angry spirit is definitely absurd and will be pretty difficult to collaborate for months, maybe even more than a year since its so far out of the ballpark that they won't even try to get a confirmation on this.

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Especially since the U.S. Navy would, I think, be working very hard to keep said confirmation out of the public eye, and especially the eyes of foreign countries.

 

[Darth Thanatos]

whereas canon basically indulged in backchannel historical revisionism and left it at that.

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To be fair to canon material, they actually didn't reference explicitly to any historical events. Event the Seasonal events tend to obscure what and when the "maps" happened.

It's quite unlike "Zipang" which heavily and shamelessly rewrites history and makes the Japanese look like the offended part. Which, "looked from a certain point of view", isn't exactly a lie, as an embargo, while a peacetime measure, is a casus belli for a nation like Japan. From the US perspective it was a matter of money, while forJapan, it was life or death.

collaborated.

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AutoCorrupt strikes again, I guess. You meant "corroborated". As in "confirmed".

 

[Archduke]

Do you mean an Embargo or a Blockade?

 

[CV12Hornet]

It's quite unlike "Zipang" which heavily and shamelessly rewrites history and makes the Japanese look like the offended part. Which, "looked from a certain point of view", isn't exactly a lie, as an embargo, while a peacetime measure, is a casus belli for a nation like Japan. From the US perspective it was a matter of money, while forJapan, it was life or death.

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Uh... no. No it's not. Even disregarding Japan's blatantly warmongering actions that precipitated the embargo in the first damn place, the US is under no obligation to sell stuff to Japan. None. Nada. Zilch. The embargo is a legitimate casus belli only in the fevered minds of Imperial Japan.

You may be thinking of a blockade, which is an outright act of war.

 

[Darth Thanatos]

As I said, "from a certain point of view". And yes, the embargo was a casus belli for Japan. It put a huge countdown timer on their everything. The US OTL didn't understand how big an issue it was for Japan, until Pearl happened, and neither do you, even knowing Pearl happened. You don't poke the dragon, unless it moved in its sleep so you are suffocating.

I agree they had more reasons for their moves, like being greedy, expansionistic, too full of themselves, and deigned everyone not Japanese as dumb barbarians only fit to serve the Empire. But the embargo forced them to push the timetable and take the risky option.

 

[ColdGoldLazarus]

This may be a bit of a tangent, but it's just kind of interesting to me. Tanaka is infamously nationalistic and Kancolle is subtly (or not so subtly; coughmidwayprincesscough) historically revisionist...

But at the same time, because I've gotten into it, I've learned so much more about the WWII pacific theatre than I even realized there was to know, including things like the Nanking and Wake Island massacres, the forced labor and the Bataan Death March, ect. Admittedly most of the more negative things on Japan's side I learned about through the fans and fanfic on this site after the fact rather than the material itself, but it's still interesting how the game's intention wound up backfiring in this case.

 

[CV12Hornet]

As I said, "from a certain point of view". And yes, the embargo was a casus belli for Japan. It put a huge countdown timer on their everything. The US OTL didn't understand how big an issue it was for Japan, until Pearl happened, and neither do you, even knowing Pearl happened. You don't poke the dragon, unless it moved in its sleep so you are suffocating.

I agree they had more reasons for their moves, like being greedy, expansionistic, too full of themselves, and deigned everyone not Japanese as dumb barbarians only fit to serve the Empire. But the embargo forced them to push the timetable and take the risky option.

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No one was forcing them be greedy, expansionist, warmongering bastards. The embargo put a countdown timer on everything? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Again: the only reason it was a casus belli was that the Japanese leadership consisted of insane, fevered minds groping furiously for some fig leaf of justification.

When that "certain point of view" is objectively nutters, it ceases to be a legitimate point of view.

Edit: One more thing. Japan was already on a timer due to the military cannibalizing its own economy. And the embargo specifically didn't include civilian goods, only military.

 

[newwriter]

No one was forcing them be greedy, expansionist, warmongering bastards. The embargo put a countdown timer on everything? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Again: the only reason it was a casus belli was that the Japanese leadership consisted of insane, fevered minds groping furiously for some fig leaf of justification.

When that "certain point of view" is objectively nutters, it ceases to be a legitimate point of view.

Edit: One more thing. Japan was already on a timer due to the military cannibalizing its own economy.

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Plus, the reason why the Americans imposed the embargo was due to the Japanese invasion of China and Japan's takeover of French Indochina. The United States warned the Japanese that it would not accept further Japanese expansion, especially as Japan was starting to threaten the Philippines and the European colonies of Southeast Asia.
Japan refused to listen and the Americans imposed the embargo.

 

[SisterJeanne]

I mean, I just write everyone the same. If more cutes come out of the Japanese side, it's because of the canon characterization. Little E, for example, is prime example of 'moe American'. Blucher could be the same for the Germans in her more cute moments. Repulse for the Brits.


This aside, I try to write all of them the same. Rather, I try to do justice to every ship. This is admittedly easier to see in Indy than in here, since we're in literal World War 2 right now.

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True, Little E is very cute and adorable. But my argument is that she was not pulled from a hat and part of the draw for her is that she's undeniably the most legendary US ship of the war for her actions in 1942 OTL especially during the Eastern Solomons/Santa Cruz time frame. So while she's cute and charming and looks up to Dadmiral Halsey and Big Sis Yorktown and Aunt Sara and Aunt Lexie, she's got a core of STS armor in her.

Plus, the reason why the Americans imposed the embargo was due to the Japanese invasion of China and Japan's takeover of French Indochina. The United States warned the Japanese that it would not accept further Japanese expansion, especially as Japan was starting to threaten the Philippines and the European colonies of Southeast Asia.
Japan refused to listen and the Americans imposed the embargo.

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Exactly and the Americans went to some lengths to try to avoid pushing the Japanese in a corner with the design of the sanctions (and promptly bungled the execution when State misread them and added oil to the embargo). Even so the US was prepared to reduce the sanctions and had that on the table for Japan when Pearl Harbor was attacked and made this all a moot point. Keep in mind that the reason the US did not go 'oops, our bad' and lift the oil embargo was because the papers had spent the last three years reporting on Japanese atrocities in China (the bombing of Shanghai and the Rape of Nanking for two big ones) and US public opinion would not have stood for it.

Also remember that the Japanese sent a team over to negotiate sanctions removal in extremely bad faith and then attacked the US without a formal declaration of war.

But at the same time, because I've gotten into it, I've learned so much more about the WWII pacific theatre than I even realized there was to know, including things like the Nanking and Wake Island massacres, the forced labor and the Bataan Death March, ect. Admittedly most of the more negative things on Japan's side I learned about through the fans and fanfic on this site after the fact rather than the material itself, but it's still interesting how the game's intention wound up backfiring in this case.

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Oh yes. It's a sad statement that the fact that Inazuma rescued US and British sailors after Java Sea was highlighted because it was so damn rare on the IJN side and her captain caught a certain amount of grief over it by his navy. While the USN committed a few dubious actions, mostly of the 'not accepting surrenders' variety, overall it fought a much much 'cleaner' war than Japan did. No slave labor killing POWs, no mass executions, no massive abuses of civilian populations.

Uh... no. No it's not. Even disregarding Japan's blatantly warmongering actions that precipitated the embargo in the first damn place, the US is under no obligation to sell stuff to Japan. None. Nada. Zilch. The embargo is a legitimate casus belli only in the fevered minds of Imperial Japan.

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Exactly. Japan had the option to go elsewhere for their needs and buy oil from the Duch East Indies and steel from Russia for example. If you are reliant on one supplier for your vital needs, maybe you should try to avoid pissing them off with your actions.

No they won't, because they won't believe its real. Intelligence agencies often come up with garbage information like "the martians are invading!" and the file gets ignored because its obviously bullshit. That is why the US didn't act on the information it got on Pearl Harbor or the Twin Towers: the report looked absurd and couldn't be collaborated.

A warship getting pissed off and turning into an angry spirit is definitely absurd and will be pretty difficult to collaborate for months, maybe even more than a year since its so far out of the ballpark that they won't even try to get a confirmation on this.

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Especially since the U.S. Navy would, I think, be working very hard to keep said confirmation out of the public eye, and especially the eyes of foreign countries.

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Exactly this. Remember the song and dance Thompson had to go through to prove that the spirits are real to his superiors with the help of the girls. Any agent who writes 'and then a girl popped out of the hull, walked around on the water, and started shooting down planes' in his report is going to be asked what drugs he is on by the analysts as they shred that report. The people who know of their existence will be sworn to secrecy (such as the crew of the Utah) and possibly reassigned someplace where they have limited communications for security. Even if Tanaka is able to show Zuikaku to her captain, his first reaction might very well be to assemble the crew on her flight deck and then demand that the joker who smuggled the girl on board come forth. Also remember this is the era of 'loose lips sink ships' so a lot of people who have experience such as Arizona's gun crew may just keep their mouths shut until after the war.

At some point the rumors will leak out, but for a long time they will remain rumors outside of the highly classified circles where some poor Navy officers figure out what to do with the sudden influx of females into their service.

 

[Bill Falsename]

I'm thinking of all the ways that things can go sideways and I keep coming to the idea of a panicked Hitler finding out about the Shipgirls and ordering Schreiber to "Summon all that we had in the last war!"

Weeks later, a bewildered Swiss diplomat sends word to London that the Hochseeflotte has staged a coup, Hitler is dead, and Wilhelm III would like an end to this war.

 

[Burning Baron]

I'm thinking of all the ways that things can go sideways and I keep coming to the idea of a panicked Hitler finding out about the Shipgirls and ordering Schreiber to "Summon all that we had in the last war!"

Weeks later, a bewildered Swiss diplomat sends word to London that the Hochseeflotte has staged a coup, Hitler is dead, and Wilhelm III would like an end to this war.

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The fleet rebelled. No, you don't understand, the fleet rebelled!

 

[Gosu]

Exactly. Japan had the option to go elsewhere for their needs and buy oil from the Duch East Indies and steel from Russia for example.

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No they didn't have that option. The British embargoed the Japanese under pressure from the US and the Dutch had, being utterly dependent on the British good will both in Europe and in Asia, no choice but to join in as well.

The Soviets had much more urgent destinations for their steel, like tanks and ammunition to remove the invading Germans from their country.

The morale being that when you're dependent no imports, you better make sure the countries you import from don't have reason to close the tap. Because, for instance, you try to conquer your neighbor (who is much more popular than you) with the supplies you provided, and publicly announce that you want their colonies as well.

 

[ex143]

Oh yes. It's a sad statement that the fact that Inazuma rescued US and British sailors after Java Sea was highlighted because it was so damn rare on the IJN side and her captain caught a certain amount of grief over it by his navy. While the USN committed a few dubious actions, mostly of the 'not accepting surrenders' variety, overall it fought a much much 'cleaner' war than Japan did. No slave labor killing POWs, no mass executions, no massive abuses of civilian populations.

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And Kancolle is where I learned about Inazuma's actions. Before that, I knew about the war crimes... not so much about the individual redemptive(ish) actions.

 

[wildredlifer]

The saddest thing is Ikazuchi was right there with her sister doing the same thing but gets barely any mention.

 

[Guardian54]

The saddest thing is Ikazuchi was right there with her sister doing the same thing but gets barely any mention.

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The "Spoiled Admiral Maker" is less cute than "Hawawa", despite the latter ramming one of her mostly-sisters (the Akatsukis were product improved Fubukis after all) to death.

 

[Skywalker_T-65]

Chapter 42​

It was only with a small, distant part of his mind that James Thompson felt Sara clutch desperately at his arm. Heard the words of his crew, Sara's Captain barking orders, filled with disbelief. No. The majority of his attention was focused on what stared him in the face, and that he smelled even from the carrier's high island. It was--it was--

My god, I knew it would happen and I still can't believe it.

It was a painful memory. It was a reflection of newsreels from the past and the Abyssals from the future. Only instead of Arizona or Missouri burning at their moorings, it was California. Instead of ship girls sailing to greet him, it was a battered and flame-scarred motor launch. P-40's flew circular orbits above the harbor, joined by Sara's Wildcats. But the Japanese were long gone.

They wouldn't be back.

"Admiral?" A voice broke through Thompson's--well, his shell shock.

Shaking his head, the Admiral turned to look at Sara's captain. The older man grimaced, his own eyes swimming with a chaotic mix of emotions. "You need to go see Admiral Richardson, sir. Admiral Halsey already went chasing the Japs."

"Of course he did," Thompson forced a smile on his face, carefully burying his real feelings. Bull Halsey would get himself killed and Enterprise sank, if he tangled with the Kido Butai alone. "I'll head down to meet him, thank you. Keep in contact with Thach...don't want to be jumped in harbor."

"Will do, sir."

Squaring his shoulders, the time-traveler sent the sharpest nod he could before leaving the bridge. Sara was right by his side the entire time, her blue hair brushing against him with each step. The carrier's arm had not left his since they had entered Hawaiian waters...and he didn't mind. She was his support and he was hers.

Always had been.

"Ad--James," Sara's voice was weak. Weaker than it had ever been. "What are we going to do? All that we did, everything that you planned..."

A soft sigh escaped his lips, as Thompson shook his head. "We knew this would happen, Sara. Nothing we did could stop it."

"But...Cali and the others..."

Gently rubbing a circle against Sara's arm, the Admiral could only shake his head again. He didn't need to say anything. Because he knew why, why the strong and brave woman by his side was so scared. It was one thing to prepare for war or understand it was coming. It was another to actually see it. He had been much the same when the Abyssals first came.

"Don't worry, Sara. Even if it takes years, we'll get back for them." A smile he didn't really feel crossed Thompson's face, even as he felt a bit of him die inside. "They'll pay for this, you know that."

After all, he was talking about killing friends.

"Admiral..." Perceptive as she was, Sara picked up on that. A little of her normal personality shone through, the carrier pulling her Admiral to a stop. Green stared into green, her eyes searching his for--something. "You don't want to fight, do you?"

Thompson blew out a sigh, "No, I don't."

"They're your friends."

"They are." What point was there in denying that?

Sara didn't respond to that. Vocally.

Her arms just wrapped around Thompson's torso, gently hugging the Admiral to her chest. There wasn't any need to say anything. Because as Thompson's own arms wrapped around Sara, they both understood each other perfectly. The Admiral who, despite the anger he felt, couldn't bring himself to hate old friends. And the carrier who would follow him into hell itself, without complaint or question.

They were beyond needing to speak to each other.

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​

"You look like hell, sir."

With a little more strength in his words, Thompson looked at his counterpart. Richardson's uniform was sooty, his glasses missing, and his face covered in grime. Lines were quite visible under his eyes. By any measure, the man was a walking wreck. Yet his eyes were sharp as ever and his shoulders were unbowed.

"If I am going to be removed from command," Richardson's voice was dry, the Admiral not even bothering to hide whatever he felt. "I will do the most I can to help my boys recover first."

"I don't think you will be." Thompson meant every word he said, too. "Honestly, you did everything you could. No one knew this would happen."

The older man just snorted, "Like hell. We both knew it was coming, and they still caught us with our pants down. Goddamn Short and his racist sabotage..."

Wisely avoiding stepping onto that landmine, the younger Admiral just looked past his superior and out on the burning harbor. "How many did we lose, sir? Honestly."

Cut off mid-tirade, Richardson let out a heavy sigh. "They didn't tell you, did they?"

"Information is a bit sparse."

Richardson didn't reply, at first. He waved Thompson forward and walked out on Sara's deck instead. Smoke was still thick in the harbor, carried from the fires on Cali and West Virginia. Those battleships were hidden beneath smoke and dull red light, sunk at their moorings just like Thompson remembered. Other than Cali being broken in two, anyway...

"I'm not going to lie to you, son," Richardson's gruff voice had softened. The old man raised his arms, gesturing at the ruin of his fleet. "We lost California. Complete, total loss. I'd be surprised if we could even scrap her."

Cali shouldn't have died like that. Damnit, was that because I changed things?

"Nevada is going to need months of drydock time, Oklahoma and West Virginia are possible write offs," the other man didn't notice Thompson biting his lip, and just continued almost robotically listing off the losses. "Pennsylvania got off with no damage, but Arizona and Tennessee both took hits. Thank god the carriers weren't in harbor."

"Thank god," Thompson weakly repeated. His eyes had trailed over each and every ship as Richardson listed them off, and it didn't get any easier to look at them than it was when he first came into the harbor.

Somehow, he doubted it ever would. He had never gotten used to seeing Mo, had he? And then he had been able to talk to the girl while her hull was salvaged. Here, he couldn't do that. Fuck. He didn't even know if it was possible to bring these girls back now. Could they even risk it, when the possibility of bringing about the Abyssals was there? He knew the girls were still--alive, for lack of a better word. Even when they sank.

But that didn't mean they could risk bringing them back in this wa--

"Utah, well, I should say she isn't a total loss."

What?

Thompson tore his eyes away from the distant form of Arizona, flame scarred as she was, and looked at the Admiral by his side. Richardson stared back, his dark eyes boring into Thompson's green.

"Her hull is, don't misunderstand me. Even if we could salvage her, she doesn't have any military value anymore. Whenever we settle things here, I'll recommend we clear her berth and not one step further." Richardson's eyes narrowed slightly. "However--well, perhaps it is better if you see it yourself. After all, Admiral Thompson, you are our expert on these girls."

"I am..." Thompson repeated, ever so slowly, as if expecting an answer to his unspoken question.

Richardson only nodded at California, as if that answered everything. And in the end, maybe it did. It just wasn't an answer Thompson had expected or wanted.​

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Work. Work. Work. Work.

Mindless hands pulled red-hot metal plates away, exposing collapsed bulkheads. The plate fell back into place, the hands moving to a different area. Arms coated in bandages continued to search, their owner listening for the slightest sound of life. When none were heard, they moved to a different part of California's hull. The fire still burning all around meant nothing. The smoke was completely ignored.

Work. Work. Work.

Grey eyes were cloudy with unshead tears. Strands of soot-blackened grey hair fell in front of them, yet no effort was made to move them. Why bother? The only thing that mattered was finding survivors. Any sign of life, human or from her daughter, was the only thing that mattered. Nothing but that. Nothing at all.

Work. Work. Wo--

"Utah."

The voice shattered the mindless mantra, as USS Utah pulled up. She hadn't even realized that her legs had carried her out towards the harbor. Where a battered launch floated alongside California, carrying two Admirals. Both very, very familiar to her.

"My god, I didn't think it was possible..." the younger of the men, green eyes wide with shock, stared at her.

"You can see the problem, I'm sure." The older looked at his counterpart with tired brown, daring him to say anything.

Utah wouldn't give him the chance, stumbling on unsteady feet. "Admiral...Thompson?"

As if someone had struck him, the young man turned his full attention on the battleship. "Utah. I--I'm sorry. For what that's worth, I'm so very sorry."

Richardson didn't know what Thompson was saying. Utah did. And while, at one point, those words may have stoked the anger that had never left...they just brought tears to her eyes now. She shook her head, slowly sailing up to the launch. She couldn't be angry. She knew that Thompson had done everything, everything, he could. Without breaking what trust he had with the Navy.

She understood that, if nothing else.

"Have you been out here the entire time, Utah?" Admiral Richardson's rough, damaged, voice echoed over the sound of men working at saving what was left of Cali.

A short nod, "Yes, Admiral. I--I have to work. I have to."

What was left unsaid, was that her idea of 'work' was something that would kill anyone else. Utah's hands were coated in blood and burns. Her arms were blistered from top to bottom, her hair torn and smoke-stained. Her dress was ruined, almost exposing her in how damaged it was. And her eyes...her eyes were haunted and sunk back in her face. The battleship looked like she was a step from death.

And maybe she was. She didn't care if that was the case.

It would be what I deserve, after I killed American pilots and sailors. I betrayed them, because I couldn't see past my anger. What kind of battleship am I? What kind of training ship am I? A woman, a ship, who kills her own men...

With a causal disregard for her own health, Utah had thrown herself into finding survivors. First Cali, then Okie, then Virginia...she was going to work her way to all her daughters. It didn't matter that she hadn't slept and that her body was falling apart.

Work. Ari told me we all have our duty. This is mine. My burden to bear and my regrets to carry.

"Utah..." Admiral Thompson's voice lacked the roughness of Richardson's. His uniform was neatly pressed and his eyes sharp, yet she saw pain behind his eyes. "I know what you feel, believe me. But throwing yourself away like this isn't the way to help it."

At one point, Utah might have wondered how he understood how she felt. Yet, she heard his words and saw the same pain reflected in his green that she knew to be in her grey eyes.

"You do, don't you, Admiral?" Utah's voice cracked, as she felt a tear trail down her blackened cheek.

"I do. If you'll let me, I can help you. Try to, at least."

And maybe he did understand her. Sara had told her, once. He had the same regrets she did. The same feeling that he had, or would have to, kill those precious to him.

Maybe no one else could understand her quite like the time-traveling Admiral from the future.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that. Not now."

Yet, Utah shook her head. Sorrow filled her every action, as she began to sail away from the launch and toward's Okie's shattered hull. She knew that men were trapped below her decks. Her daughter had begged her to help them.

"I have to keep working. I can't stop. Not now, not when I can still help."

As she sailed away, Utah heard a soft sigh from Richardson. Followed by words that, perhaps, he didn't mean for the battleship to hear while tears flowed down her face.

"I told you, Admiral. She refuses to rest." Richardson's voice carried even over the sound of men hard at work.

Thompson's didn't, but Utah could never not hear his words. The first man that had ever spoken to her. "I understand why, sir. Give me some time...I can get through to her."

Maybe you can. I still won't stop. Not until I can look Joseph in the eyes, and tell him that I'm sorry. That I lo...that I need him to forgive me. If I can't do that, I can't face my daughters either.

---

Not what I would call a fun chapter...but this marks the end of Pearl and Arc 2. Next will be the interlude, then a little time skip back to Schreiber.

I don't know when that will be. I'm in...a funk, to be honest. Leaving aside SB- and I'm not posting this there, not right now. I may not even bother. -I...may not be a teacher. I may get back from the high school tomorrow with the knowledge I won't teach and have to make do with a default history degree. Those on the Discord know exactly what I've been going through.

Maybe I won't have to do that, but there's a non-zero chance I will.

And, if that does happen, I--well, I'll probably need a couple days to absorb it before I write again.


...I guess it made it easier to write Utah, here. If nothing else.
​

 

[CV12Hornet]

Well. That's painful. And expected, but still painful.

Poor Utah. Honestly, the best thing Thompson can do is somehow get her to talk to some aviators, and any battleships he can contrive to get near her. Sympathetic as he is, I don't think Thompson'll be enough on his own.

 

[Becquerl]

Oh shit, that's not good. I hope things tomorrow don't turn out bad.

 

[landcollector]

Any sign of life, human or from her daughter,

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It would likely be a cold and empty comfort to Utah I suspect, but at least Cali wouldn't have felt much when her magazine went up.

Maybe you can. I still won't stop. Not until I can look Joseph in the eyes, and tell him that I'm sorry. That I lo...that I need him to forgive me. If I can't do that, I can't face my daughters either.

Click to shrink...

Hm. Even if he blamed Utah, he's likely forgiven her. No, the true condition here is Utah being able to eventually forgive herself.

Maybe I won't have to do that, but there's a non-zero chance I will.

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For what it's worth, we're pulling for good news for you Sky.

 

[Mega1987]

Damn....

The feels....

And..... We're closing in to the fall event.... And it was noted to be the battle of surigao strait.


That's right... More Feels for the ships who were wasted as decoys, shredded due to being T-crossed and did little to nothing due to the lack of communication...


The worse of all.... Fall event is just a part of a big event as everyone expect winter event will continue on what fall event finished on the surigao strait...

 

[newwriter]

I don't know when that will be. I'm in...a funk, to be honest. Leaving aside SB- and I'm not posting this there, not right now. I may not even bother. -I...may not be a teacher. I may get back from the high school tomorrow with the knowledge I won't teach and have to make do with a default history degree. Those on the Discord know exactly what I've been going through.

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I am worried. What happened? I am not on the discord. I hope for the best.

 

[AlphaDelta]

I am worried. What happened? I am not on the discord. I hope for the best.

Click to shrink...

TL;DR: Real Life issues plus unpleasant people.

Not what I would call a fun chapter...but this marks the end of Pearl and Arc 2. Next will be the interlude, then a little time skip back to Schreiber.

I don't know when that will be. I'm in...a funk, to be honest. Leaving aside SB- and I'm not posting this there, not right now. I may not even bother. -I...may not be a teacher. I may get back from the high school tomorrow with the knowledge I won't teach and have to make do with a default history degree. Those on the Discord know exactly what I've been going through.

Maybe I won't have to do that, but there's a non-zero chance I will.

And, if that does happen, I--well, I'll probably need a couple days to absorb it before I write again.


...I guess it made it easier to write Utah, here. If nothing else.

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