grommile
nasty-minded old cynic
- Location
- NERV-Mercia
- Pronouns
- Traditional/Animate
Rebuild still went with spectacle, having Asuka in Unit 02 arrive by combat airdrop.
[Evangelion] Doing It Right This Time
Hah! If this were a subreddit, an acronym-lookup bot would swing by and highlight your comment on the merits that it spells S.N.A.F.U. Something that if made into a spinoff thread would bookmark immediately.
I'll continue lurking now.
- Location
- The Midlands.
Which did admittedly look pretty damn cool.
- Location
- Really? This field is required?
From what I've been told while Germany's infighting never got to assassinations, the leaders of the various branches frequently did get up to shenanigans to the point of deliberate sabotage. The one I've heard about specifically is that the head of the Luftwaffe hated the head of the Kriegsmarine so much that he absolutely refused to provide any planes for the Graff Zeppelin, so even had it made it out of port it wouldn't have had an actual air wing to fly off of it. My understanding of it is that for whatever rivalries American services have with each other, they aren't about to actively sabotage things. Most problems come about as a result of conflicting needs competing for resources.
The F-35 project as a whole is basically just an example of the bloated nonsense that the American military R&D system has become. Pretty much no military project that I'm aware of in the last 20-30 years has produced vehicles that are much value because people keep tacking on new requirements and contractors know they don't need to actually put their noses to the grindstone and make good products. To wit: the Gerald R. Ford on paper sounds like an amazing ship and there haven't really been design shakeups for it that compromise the core purpose. But now that it's launched we see that the contractors cut corners basically everywhere to the point where the ship barely functions.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
Yup, that was Goering, who was not only Luftwaffe-CoS, but also 'Reichsmarschall', an office specifically created for him, basically the head of all police and military forces. That coupled with his raging ego and his jealousy of the Heer(Army, officially Wehrmacht was the entirety of the military, but they get used synonymous a lot anyway) and Kriegsmarine let to him prioritizing the Luftwaffe above the other branches, leaving esp. the navy in the dust. iIrc, it contributed to many loses of the Kriegsmarine in the the Battle of the Atlantic, e.g. the sinking of Bismarck. Not sure about the 'no planes for Graf Zeppelin' part, but it certainly wouldn't have been out of character.
As I understand it, the highest echelons of the Wehrmacht were a bunch of nutjob egos all vying for 'glory' for their respective branch/army(group)/fleet etc. all while having conflicting responsibilities, unclear authorities, in-build rivalries from overlapping commands etc. That was by design, since it meant that no one commander could amass the power and influence to threaten Hitler, but it also let to a total clusterfuck in the field.
That's my impression as well.
If I look at one of the most amazing planes to come out of WW2, the B-17. That thing was called the 'Flying Fortress' for a reason: There's so many stories of those getting shot to ribbons over Germany, losing two of the four engines, leaving half the fusselage across their flight path and even getting the tail shredded and still making it back to Britain and landing safely.
Meanwhile, the F-35 apparently has trouble even getting off the ground.
Though let's halt this derail before I start to actually rant and/or staff feel the need the need to intervene.
BlackAeronaut
Scaring people witless since 1980
- Location
- A state of mind where it is always ****ing Monday.
Actually, it performed quite well. The Military.com article has a little more info on the matter:
C-130 Carrier Landing without Hook
During 1963, a KC-130F aircraft made history by landing and taking off from the aircraft carrier; USS Forrestal (CVA-59). The crew successfully negotiated 29 touch-and-go landings, 21 unarrested full-stop landings, and 21 unassisted takeoffs at gross
In fact, all landings were performed without an arrestor hook. This was such a big deal that some guys painted "LOOK MA! NO HOOK!" on the nose of the Herc. What this means is that you can go ahead and install an arrestor hook on the Herc... but chances are it won't be needed.
The thing to keep in mind is that the C-130, in its original incarnation with no embellishments whatsoever, was completely and fully intended to work out of small, primitive air strips with little to no support mechanisms/personnel. This is the Military Airlift version of a bush plane. They may be slow and a bit on the small side, but we're never gonna get rid of them because they are disgustingly versatile birds.
And with the new GRF-class carriers... They might actually look into this once again, because those be some big-ass ships. And a Herc is big enough that you can send out an entire fighter jet in pieces, ready to be assembled. I think the only reason why they don't do it is because it'd put the C-2 Greyhound out of business, and that would only leave its close cousin, the E-2 Hawkeye, to keep that particular line going. (Its basically the same airframe, just very different applications.)
All of the issues with the F-35 stem from the fact that the Department of Defense wanted something that was absolutely impossible, and should have been dropped after the moment the USMC said they needed VTOL capability no matter what. The reasoning behind all of this was that they wanted to create a one-size-fits-all air superiority fighter with only minor differences across all branches of the service, and something like 90-99% parts commonality between them.
It would have been less expensive in the long run (and been better for the country as a whole, because holy hell JOBS JOBS JOBS!) to have a whole new series of aircraft for each branch of the service, and push for commonality of the internal components. Because you can't have an aircraft be a tank buster like an A-10, then turn around and be a super-interceptor like an F-14 (substituting long range fire-and-forget missiles for actual speed and maneuverability - a fatal mistake they ALREADY made once before with the F-4 Phantom), and then turn around again and be a stealth light-bomber like the F-117.
This would be one of the few things I would blame the Clinton Administration for. They were so hot on cutting military spending that they cut deeply into the meat and bone in a lot of places with little concern to the knock-on effects beyond how much it would cut from the Federal budget.
- Location
- The Midlands.
Yes.
You understand, of course, that I can't confirm or deny anything because it would completely spoil the pay-off.
grommile
nasty-minded old cynic
- Location
- NERV-Mercia
- Pronouns
- Traditional/Animate
we have been given a seasonal rating as part of the inevitable april fools nonsense
- Location
- The Midlands.
The wordcount jokes are kind of fun, though. And I wish I'd had the energy to come up with something as good as @MisterHalt did for his fic today.
Dantalion
Insight: 365
- Location
- A Guest Room at the Brass Embassy, dying of Frenzy
- Pronouns
- Any
Poisson d'Avril, or 'April fish', is a french April Fools Day tradition dating back to around 1564. At the time, supposedly, the start of the French calendar was April 1st, but King Charles IX made a proclamation moving the start of the new year to January 1st, to mixed approval. The end of Lent also coincided with April 1st at the time, and thus people were forbidden from eating meat, but the consumption of fish was tolerated, and often sent as gifts for New Years.
Those who were fine with the new calendar mocked those that weren't by sending them fake fish.
Chapter 7 Part 3
- Location
- The Midlands.
I suppose you must have a lot of questions, said Kyoko, once they'd both calmed down a bit.
I was about to say the same to you, she replied. But since you brought it up... Was that other voice what I think she was?
So far as I can tell, yes. She showed up around the right time at the least. I would ask her, but she's not much of a conversationalist even when she's not sulking because I hit her with a vase. She laughed, a little bleakly. You know, I bet there are people with schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder who'd give real money to be in my position right now.
Hah! Imagine that: Evangelions being used to improve people's mental health.
Quite. Speaking of which... There's no subtle way to ask this, but what in God's good name happened to you? I saw flashes of things when you first connected, but none of it made sense: There were Angels I know can't have happened yet, and then...
And then the world tried to divide infinity by the square root of minus one and it just got weirder from there? Asuka exhaled to expel the LCL from her mouth and took a long drink from her water bottle. Better make yourself comfortable, because this is gonna take a while to explain.
One thing I don't lack for at the moment is time, so carry on.
It did indeed take a while to explain, even skipping over the bits she wasn't comfortable talking about. Asuka stuck to the bare facts as far as possible, but Kyoko picked up on that and started to ask some probing questions. There's a lot I'm not ready to talk about yet, Asuka admitted. But... it got bad, near the end. Piloting was my whole life, and when Shinji or Rei started to do better than me... Well, I started to spiral.
I don't know who I despise more, Kyoko said quietly, half to herself. SEELE for setting you on this path, or Erich for letting them.
Guess that solves the whole 'got remarried while he thought you were dead' problem, then.
Hah. That was never going to be a problem even without all this... Well, all this this. I suppose he didn't tell you we were separating once the Contact Experiment was complete?
No. And to be scrupulously fair to Papa, he already had to explain delusional psychosis to a four year-old. Having to explain divorce as well...
True. Although he could have done me the minimal courtesy of waiting until my body was officially dead before... Then again, that girl: Anya, I think her name is? I'm pretty sure they'd met some time before the first time you two came to visit my body in hospital.
Asuka pinched the bridge of her nose. Mari's right. We work in a goddamn soap opera. Although... is it bad that I feel a bit better about the whole thing, because it means Papa didn't start screwing her after you became one of her patients? I mean, I'm still gonna tear him a new asshole for cheating on you, but putting the moves on her when he dropped off last year's model... that's even more fucked up than the thing with Gendo and the Akagis.
What, Naoko and Rits...? Oh, Christ. He didn't!
He did. And boy is there a story there...
Asuka gave her mother a brief account of what she knew and suspected about Gendo's relationship with both women, and Rei. I'm not surprised she's sworn off men, she concluded.
Me neither. Gendo would have that effect... Hmmm, maybe I should see if Yui's interested? Although that might make things between you and young Shinji a bit awkward...
Asuka couldn't quite contain an undignified squeak. Mama!
Thought so. Naoko then?
! Asuka replied, not even bothering to try to contain it that time.
There was a pause, during which Asuka gave very serious consideration to climbing out of the Entry Plug and running for the nearest lifeboat.
Oh, my. To her mixed horror and relief, Kyoko didn't sound scandalised... just surprised. And slightly amused. How very Heinlenian of you, darling.
Asuka banged her head gently on the controls. Robert Heinlein was a total pervert.
You're not wrong. But, joking aside... You like both of them, in a more-than-friends sort of way?
Yes. I knew I had a crush on Shinji, I just didn't want to admit it. Rei... Well, that's more complicated but I kinda had a bi panic moment when I saw her in a really nice party dress. And the reason it's more complicated is because I'm pretty sure she's got a thing for Shinji, but I got a really strong hint she's interested in girls and... yeah. So long story short, I went out and bought myself a copy of The Ethical Slut for research purposes.
Good choice. It's probably a bit out of date these days, but when I was at university I knew several people who swore by it. Kyoko paused, as if searching for the right words. Asuka, it's not for me to tell you who you should share your heart with, or even just your body. But if you choose this path, you're choosing a difficult and complicated one that few others will understand or approve of; you shouldn't let that stop you, but it's something you need to be prepared for. Besides that, all three of you have been through hell backwards, and it might be a long time before they're ready to be part of a couple much less a triad. Maybe not ever, in the latter case. But if it's what you truly want, I think you owe it to yourself to try. And I really, truly hope it works out for you three.
Asuka felt the tears coming on again. Thank you, Mama.
The comms window popped open. "Asuka? We just got telemetry set up out here," Misato informed her. "You might like to know your synch rate peaked at 93.8% a few minutes ago!"
"Holy crap!"
"That's pretty much what we said. Whatever you're doing, keep it up. But not right now, because you've been in there like half an hour."
"Alright. I'll start the shutdown procedure." Sorry Mama. Talk to you again as soon as I can.
I'll be here. And Asuka? I am proud of you. For all of it.
Not even the fact that Kaji had forgotten to delete the SMS history, leading her to find out his petname for Misato back in college, could put a dampener on Asuka's good mood.
(See? I told you I'd found a way to concentrate better.)
I was about to say the same to you, she replied. But since you brought it up... Was that other voice what I think she was?
So far as I can tell, yes. She showed up around the right time at the least. I would ask her, but she's not much of a conversationalist even when she's not sulking because I hit her with a vase. She laughed, a little bleakly. You know, I bet there are people with schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder who'd give real money to be in my position right now.
Hah! Imagine that: Evangelions being used to improve people's mental health.
Quite. Speaking of which... There's no subtle way to ask this, but what in God's good name happened to you? I saw flashes of things when you first connected, but none of it made sense: There were Angels I know can't have happened yet, and then...
And then the world tried to divide infinity by the square root of minus one and it just got weirder from there? Asuka exhaled to expel the LCL from her mouth and took a long drink from her water bottle. Better make yourself comfortable, because this is gonna take a while to explain.
One thing I don't lack for at the moment is time, so carry on.
It did indeed take a while to explain, even skipping over the bits she wasn't comfortable talking about. Asuka stuck to the bare facts as far as possible, but Kyoko picked up on that and started to ask some probing questions. There's a lot I'm not ready to talk about yet, Asuka admitted. But... it got bad, near the end. Piloting was my whole life, and when Shinji or Rei started to do better than me... Well, I started to spiral.
I don't know who I despise more, Kyoko said quietly, half to herself. SEELE for setting you on this path, or Erich for letting them.
Guess that solves the whole 'got remarried while he thought you were dead' problem, then.
Hah. That was never going to be a problem even without all this... Well, all this this. I suppose he didn't tell you we were separating once the Contact Experiment was complete?
No. And to be scrupulously fair to Papa, he already had to explain delusional psychosis to a four year-old. Having to explain divorce as well...
True. Although he could have done me the minimal courtesy of waiting until my body was officially dead before... Then again, that girl: Anya, I think her name is? I'm pretty sure they'd met some time before the first time you two came to visit my body in hospital.
Asuka pinched the bridge of her nose. Mari's right. We work in a goddamn soap opera. Although... is it bad that I feel a bit better about the whole thing, because it means Papa didn't start screwing her after you became one of her patients? I mean, I'm still gonna tear him a new asshole for cheating on you, but putting the moves on her when he dropped off last year's model... that's even more fucked up than the thing with Gendo and the Akagis.
What, Naoko and Rits...? Oh, Christ. He didn't!
He did. And boy is there a story there...
Asuka gave her mother a brief account of what she knew and suspected about Gendo's relationship with both women, and Rei. I'm not surprised she's sworn off men, she concluded.
Me neither. Gendo would have that effect... Hmmm, maybe I should see if Yui's interested? Although that might make things between you and young Shinji a bit awkward...
Asuka couldn't quite contain an undignified squeak. Mama!
Thought so. Naoko then?
! Asuka replied, not even bothering to try to contain it that time.
There was a pause, during which Asuka gave very serious consideration to climbing out of the Entry Plug and running for the nearest lifeboat.
Oh, my. To her mixed horror and relief, Kyoko didn't sound scandalised... just surprised. And slightly amused. How very Heinlenian of you, darling.
Asuka banged her head gently on the controls. Robert Heinlein was a total pervert.
You're not wrong. But, joking aside... You like both of them, in a more-than-friends sort of way?
Yes. I knew I had a crush on Shinji, I just didn't want to admit it. Rei... Well, that's more complicated but I kinda had a bi panic moment when I saw her in a really nice party dress. And the reason it's more complicated is because I'm pretty sure she's got a thing for Shinji, but I got a really strong hint she's interested in girls and... yeah. So long story short, I went out and bought myself a copy of The Ethical Slut for research purposes.
Good choice. It's probably a bit out of date these days, but when I was at university I knew several people who swore by it. Kyoko paused, as if searching for the right words. Asuka, it's not for me to tell you who you should share your heart with, or even just your body. But if you choose this path, you're choosing a difficult and complicated one that few others will understand or approve of; you shouldn't let that stop you, but it's something you need to be prepared for. Besides that, all three of you have been through hell backwards, and it might be a long time before they're ready to be part of a couple much less a triad. Maybe not ever, in the latter case. But if it's what you truly want, I think you owe it to yourself to try. And I really, truly hope it works out for you three.
Asuka felt the tears coming on again. Thank you, Mama.
The comms window popped open. "Asuka? We just got telemetry set up out here," Misato informed her. "You might like to know your synch rate peaked at 93.8% a few minutes ago!"
"Holy crap!"
"That's pretty much what we said. Whatever you're doing, keep it up. But not right now, because you've been in there like half an hour."
"Alright. I'll start the shutdown procedure." Sorry Mama. Talk to you again as soon as I can.
I'll be here. And Asuka? I am proud of you. For all of it.
Not even the fact that Kaji had forgotten to delete the SMS history, leading her to find out his petname for Misato back in college, could put a dampener on Asuka's good mood.
(See? I told you I'd found a way to concentrate better.)
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okay, that was cool.
One thing I'm not completely clear on: did Kyoko have a split personality or something similar prior to the Evangelion experiment? It sounds like she did.
Also, the comment about the workplace being a soap opera is too true.
One thing I'm not completely clear on: did Kyoko have a split personality or something similar prior to the Evangelion experiment? It sounds like she did.
Also, the comment about the workplace being a soap opera is too true.
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Nice update, yay!
Though if you're willing to go back and edit @Jake I think putting a line of space between each paragraph would make it more pleasant to read.
That said, Kyoko being Good Mom and still snarking about everything, and the discussion Asuka had about her dad whom she loves (since she's defending him) but she's angry at even while understanding how hard it was for him to try explaining things... It was an excellent conversation.
Though if you're willing to go back and edit @Jake I think putting a line of space between each paragraph would make it more pleasant to read.
That said, Kyoko being Good Mom and still snarking about everything, and the discussion Asuka had about her dad whom she loves (since she's defending him) but she's angry at even while understanding how hard it was for him to try explaining things... It was an excellent conversation.
Norr
Misophist
- Location
- Any chair
As far as I understand it, the sane Kyoko got into the Eva just fine, and an insane copy was left in her body. When the insane Kyoko hung herself, shee too appeared in the eva, so now there's two of them.
- Location
- The Midlands.
Good question. That would certainly be an interesting twist on her canon background, but for the sake of this story I lean towards "probably not". The second voice is, so far as anyone in-universe can tell, a result of leftover junk data/soul energy/whatever the proper term is coalescing into a separate entity after the majority of Kyoko's soul was sucked into Unit-02. When her physical body died, the entity somehow transmitted itself and/or was attracted to the Core of Unit-02.
Yui, who came closer than any other person on NERV's payroll to understanding how any aspect of the process really works (which isn't saying much), would have dismissed this outcome as completely impossible and will be really confused when she finds out it happened anyway. But that's what happens when you try and reverse-engineer technology created by a precursor race who do six impossible things and round it off with breakfast at Milliways because they've nothing else to do on a Sunday afternoon.
- Location
- Belfast
Obligatory "This is getting out of hand!"
Still, even for a disembodied person existing in a giant biomechanical robot's head Kyoko's situation is strange...
As long as it's not to your own detriment.
- Location
- The Midlands.
It doesn't involve narcotics, if that's what you're worried about. I would post a photo if I had a working camera at the moment, for I have created a distraction-free writing workstation out of a clapped-out and temperamental but still mostly serviceable Windows 98 laptop and a few other bits I had lying around. No web browser, no messenger notifications, not even Freecell to distract me!
.IronSun.
I don't descriminate, I hate all of you equally.
- Location
- IN UR BASE, PUNCHIN UR DOODZ
Sounds like the anti-ADD cubby my 1st grade teacher stuck me in at the back of the classroom.
Sir Plusse
Overly Vicious Quester
- Location
- Kansas
Long as you get stuff done and don't burn out, there's no problem.
Yeah, see, if you put me in one of those I probably would've spent most of my time looking around the class, staring at my classmates, playing with my school supplies, getting yelled at to stay in my seat as I repeatedly tried to wander off, or just flat-out falling asleep.
ADD does not combine with complete lack of interest in the subject material very well, and trying to force someone in that situation to pay attention is doomed to failure.
- Location
- Brazil
Gotta admit, first time I looked through that word I highlighted in Kyoko's line, I first thought it was "Helenian", as in Ancient Greek, but I guess it wouldn't quite fit because Asuka actually wants everyone involved to be on it safely, consensually, not incestly and on the same level of power.
I do not actually know who this Robert Heinlein was, but by the comment, he sounds... QQly.
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- Location
- The Midlands.
Well, that was not something I was expecting to be told today.
Robert A. Heinlein - Wikipedia
Short version? He's a very influential but controversial figure in English-language SF literature, who occasionally let his sexual fetishes influence the plots of his mainstream works in ways that many modern commentators are not comfortable with.