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Petals of Carbon Steel -- You're a Pilot, Not an Ace. Try your best.

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[X] Follow Jay
- [X] ... to explain the misunderstanding
Because I want to see Princess God get punched in the face for her nosiness. Not that I actually dislike her nosiness in any way, it just feels like the time for it...
 
[X] Follow Jay
- [X] ... to explain the misunderstanding

I suspect Himegami can get through this much without getting punched, but on the off chance she does, well, small price to pay. I agree with the sentiment that Kana can give as hard as she can get in this case, and honestly I think it'll work out better for Jay in the long run, even if it doesn't work out better for the Jay-Kana interactions in the future. Assuming, of course, that he doesn't end up in the ever expanding list of named casualties.
 
You know, it just struck me that again we decided to have Amani's team take additiional damage so the rest don't have to.

By now it is clear that the girl is cursed. And the curse's name is Sufficient Velocity.
 
Omegahugger said:
You know, it just struck me that again we decided to have Amani's team take additiional damage so the rest don't have to.

By now it is clear that the girl is cursed. And the curse's name is Sufficient Velocity.
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Anything done twice in the navy is tradition, and breaking tradition is a big no-no.
 
If we survive long enough could our protage become squadron leader? And then CAG on his own ship?
 
Oh, right, I should call this:
Adhoc vote count started by Gazetteer on May 1, 2020 at 7:37 PM, finished with 49 posts and 33 votes.
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Gazetteer said:
"What's wrong," he says, "is that she's a fucking ps[y]chopath."
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Missing letter.
Gazetteer said:
You're hardly averse to doing something people need from you[.]
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Missing dot at the end.

Gazetteer said:
"Lieutenant Amani North, of the SRI," North says.

"Charmed," you say.

Jay is less friendly. "I know who you are." His expression is blank as he looks at her.
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Gazetteer said:
"Whatever the outcome, I want to thank you for making the attempt. I... understand that working alongside Special Reconnaissance & Intelligence might be difficult for you."

Jay looks at her, unblinking. "You understand," he repeats.
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Gazetteer said:
"'Brave.'" Jay's eyes flick pointedly to the SRI emblem on her uniform.
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Can someone give me a reminder of the J-Project beginnings and timeline? Having not read the previous quest, I came to suspect that it was an entirely HSE project, especially since several subjects defected to USE and served alongside the SRI. What is Jay's beef with them, then?

And where does he know Lt. North from? Or am I overthinking it, and he just heard the name from Owusu?
 
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Nevill said:
Missing letter.

Missing dot at the end.




Can someone give me a reminder of the J-Project beginnings and timeline? Having not read the previous quest, I came to suspect that it was an entirely HSE project, especially since several subjects defected to USE and served with the SRI. What is Jay's beef with them, then?

And where does he know Lt. North from?
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I had hoped that from Jay's early comments about Owusu, it would have come through a bit clearer but, just using Carbon Steel information first -- this post's timeline shows that the J-Project occurred prior to the Civil War, while Jupiter was under the control of the USE. From the way Jay has reacted toward Milo Owusu and the things he's said about it, it's probable that the project was run by some branch of the SRI at that time. You actually don't know of any J-Subjects who have served in the SRI, and only one who defected to the USE, that being J6, previously listed as dead here:



Jay does not personally know Amani, he just doesn't like being around SRI personnel, even if he knows she had nothing to do with the Project. He has heard the name from Owusu in a previous post, after he confirmed that she was still alive on the station. She also has her name on her uniform.
 
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Gazetteer said:
this post's timeline shows that the J-Project occurred prior to the Civil War
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Ah, thank you. That is exactly what I was looking for.

I didn't have context for it when Jay objected to Owusu's presence, and even later (in the very same update you linked to) when he said he was a part of a secret project, I didn't connect the dots, not knowing what J-Project was.

It's a bit harder to catch things everyone else seems to accept as obvious. :oops:
 
Nevill said:
Ah, thank you. That is exactly what I was looking for.

I didn't have context for it when Jay objected to Owusu's presence, and even later (in the very same update you linked to) when he said he was a part of a secret project, I didn't connect the dots, not knowing what J-Project was.

It's a bit harder to catch things everyone else seems to accept as obvious. :oops:
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I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to make that as opaque as it turned out to be.
 
Nevill said:
Ah, thank you. That is exactly what I was looking for.

I didn't have context for it when Jay objected to Owusu's presence, and even later (in the very same update you linked to) when he said he was a part of a secret project, I didn't connect the dots, not knowing what J-Project was.

It's a bit harder to catch things everyone else seems to accept as obvious. :oops:
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You joined with Carbon Steel, right? You weren't around during Titanium? A lot of us accept it as obvious because it was established in that, rather than you missing something in this quest.
 
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Update 012: Stories
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    • Follow Jay just to listen: 19

    Follow Jay to clear up the misunderstanding: 11

    Have Cam check on Jay: 2

    Just give Jay space: 1

    SUBJECT J-021: I hate these tests.

    SUBJECT J-006: [no verbal response]

    SUBJECT J-021: Not as much as I hate Dr. Parker.

    SUBJECT J-006: She's listening.

    SUBJECT J-021: Good. I want her to know. Doesn't it make you mad too?

    SUBJECT J-006: No.

    SUBJECT J-021: It should.

    SUBJECT J-006: Why?

    SUBJECT J-021: Everything they make us do, all these tests, never letting us out... most of us are gone. They died, Six!

    SUBJECT J-006: Mm.

    SUBJECT J-021: It doesn't make you mad?

    SUBJECT J-006: [no verbal response]

    SUBJECT J-021: Why do I ever bother talking to you? It's like talking to no one.

    — Transcribed from partial recording taken in secure holding facility, 518 NSC​

    You push yourself out of the hangar, into the Esther Strova's main shaft, just barely in time to see a white-haired figure vanish through a module hatch. The module where his quarters are, specifically. It's not surprising; it's where you might go too, if you wanted a moment's privacy. Oh well, you're following him anyway.

    You push yourself down the shaft, sailing through the passage at high enough speed that anyone in the way will simply have to move aside. Catching the edge of the module's hatch in one hand, you pull yourself into the common area, already empty of Jay or anyone else.

    "Hey, It's Kana," you say, rapping on the door to his cabin.

    On the far side of the sliding door, he's silent for an uncomfortably long moment. "Why are you here? Come to stick your nose in someone else's business, like usual? Entertain yourself?"

    Years building up your armour. Hardening a heart that was never particularly warm to begin with, until you're prepared for a life in the world you live in. After all that, it's amazing, really, the little things that still manage to get through your defences and really sting. "I'm here to see if you're alright."

    There's another pause, this one guilty, you'd like to think. Then the door slides open. Jay isn't any more expressive than he was being earlier, but there's a subtle tension to him that usually isn't there, his body taught like a wire. "I'm not," he says.

    "Yeah," you admit, "that's about what I thought."

    The two of you stay floating like that, each on a different side of the doorframe. Him in his cabin, you in the common area, Jay neither inviting you into the cramped, spartan space behind him, nor coming to join you in the larger, more open one.

    "She said 'brave'," he says, all at once.

    "Lieutenant Priss back there?"

    "Yes. Brave. The conditioning they put us through... do you know what the goal was?" Jay is glaring coldly as he asks, although it's not at you — he's looking into the middle distance, as though at something very far away. His grip on the doorframe is so tight as to look a little painful.

    "To suppress your emotions?" You guess, remembering your last conversation about his sisters.

    Jay nods. "Don't feel, don't question, don't think for yourself, don't want anything. Just obey. Live and die on someone else's command, for someone else. As their weapon. Six was... it was like there was nothing left of her, besides that. And that woman, wearing that uniform, she looks me in the eye and calls it 'bravery'. For Six being what they made her. What they tried to make all of us. The USE put a gun in my sister's hand, and sent her to die, and Lieutenant North has the gall to praise it."

    You think about Lieutenant North, who had called J6 her friend. Who had been so incensed by what she thought was disrespect toward a fallen comrade. The way she'd introduced J6 in the first place, using her full rank. Respectfully, proudly. These things don't speak of the kind of callousness Jay is ascribing, whatever the SRI has done in years past. You feel in your gut that this was a sad misunderstanding, two people misjudging each other through shared grief for a loss they both mourn.

    But... fuck it. You're not here to tell Jay that his feelings are wrong right after learning his sister died, or to be Amani North's friend. You're here to be his. "You said Six was 'still in there'," you remind him. "So, that wasn't all that she was, whatever they tried to do to her."

    "... Maybe. I don't know. It's what..." there's a muted note of pain in his voice that his lack of normal intonation can't fully disguise. "It's what I wanted to tell her. Now I'll never get the chance."

    You let that hang for a time. Then, you offer the only thing you can: "Yeah, it's shit."

    "What?"

    "The situation. Your sister being gone. It's shit. I'd be angry too."

    Jay sags visibly, body going slack where he floats in the doorframe. "I'm less angry than I am... tired, now." You give him a moment to gather his thoughts and continue. "I'm sick of losing sisters. You'd think we'd all be used to it by now, but..."

    It's not exactly something anyone is going to get used to, obviously. "Tell me about her," you say, trying to distract him into a more bittersweet kind of mourning.

    He cracks an eye open. "I did."

    You shake your head. "No. Tell me something specific. A memory that isn't complete shit. There must be something."

    Jay thinks about that. You start to wonder whether he's really going to answer, when finally, he does. "This was near the end. Not that long before they broke up the Project. There were eleven of us left by then, but it was only a handful of us who were considered for the... 'combat prototype'. Six. Nine. Me. Thirty-Two. We all knew it was going to be Six, though."

    "Why?"

    "Her conditioning only fucked her up in ways that they wanted. I was an insubordinate little shit. Nine would just go completely despondent for days at a time. And Thirty-Two..." he trails off, trying to think about how to describe her.

    "A 'fucking psychopath'?" you offer.

    "... Right," Jay allows. "That is what I said before. But it's really only okay for the rest of us to call her that. So... don't."

    "Right, sorry."

    "This story is about her, too, I guess. She was the last of us to arrive. Number thirty-two of thirty-two. And when she first arrived, she was shy. Quiet. Could barely get a sentence out without stammering. That just boiled away over time, especially after Three died. She just... likes hurting people a little too much. Had violent outbursts more and more over the years. Not usually against the rest of us." There's a defensive note about this last. Almost protective.

    "Against other people, though?" you can't help but ask.

    Jay shrugs. "Some injuries. Killed a lab assistant with a scalpel, once." There's no sympathy there. Not that you can entirely blame him. Anyone who actually worked on this project probably had it coming.

    He continues. "This was a hand-to-hand session. In-gravity. Six against Thirty-Two. Thirty-Two was better, just generally. It's her 'attitude' that made that not matter so much for the project's aims. So, she wins, gets Six out of the circle. The instructor doesn't like something about her technique, though. He makes them do it again. And again. And again, can't remember how many times total. Six didn't complain, for all that she only won one of these bouts in five — she never complained, and hand-to-hand wasn't her strongest suit to begin with. Thirty-Two, though... she starts getting frustrated. Mad, even. And eventually..."

    "She snapped?" You've worked with the type before. You think briefly of Ohara, although you're hardly going to make that comparison out loud.

    "Yeah. She threw Six I-don't-even-know-how-far, right into a shelving unit. Far enough for it to be scary for a moment, before the medic said Six was fine. Thirty-Two felt awful about it — we could all tell. She could barely look Six, or any of us in the eye." Jay cracks a small, affectionate smile as he says the next part: "Six, though... she just looks straight at Thirty-Two and says: 'Point.' Like it had just been a normal throw. That tells you what you need to know about Six."

    The fact that this is a memory he thinks of as not complete shit makes you wonder how bad some of his memories of that place got the rest of the time.

    "Thanks, Kana."

    You're caught off guard for a moment, until you can switch gears enough to respond. "You know me — occasionally useful."

    "Right," Jay says. "Occasionally." His hand raises. It looks as though he might reach for you, until at the last second, he just puts the hand into his jacket's pocket.

    Well, that's a workplace complication to consider another day.

    /////PoCS\\\\\

    You get your supplies. Spare parts, provisions to replace what was lost — even the assistance of a stealth scouting vessel.

    "We would assist you with the ship-board repairs," Lieutenant North had said. So very prim, so very above-it-all with her coolly professional smile. Even as she'd twisted the knife: "But... we are down a few technicians ourselves. As I'm sure you understand."

    Ugh.

    Still, it means you can all get the repairs you need. Or, most of them.

    "You know, your unit isn't actually outfitted for close-range engagements, Himegami."

    "And yet, here I float before you: A living woman."

    Yorke glares at you. "You mangled the arm mechanism."

    You shrug, smirking. "What can I say, Mr. Chief Mechanic, Sir? I do what I have to. Words to live by."

    Yorke scowls, and buries his head back in the bowels of your Pennant's chest torso. You keep smiling, leaning over the side of the unit, orientated perpendicular to him. "We don't have a bottomless well of parts, Kana. We have replacement internals from the SRI — same design as a USE Banner, in this case. But we have to improvise new armour reinforcement panels, after a point."

    Oh, right. Tanking Ohara while you were trying to keep Kitty out of the worst of the fighting. It's not as though you could have seen this specific outcome coming, but... well, it's a machine. And if you push a machine hard, it fails sooner than it would have. Yorke's right about there not being an endless supply of spare parts available.

    But, you were in combat and he wasn't. And he's being a dick about it. So you won't give him the satisfaction of being right: "Sure, sure," you say, pushing yourself off and away from your Pennant. "I'll take it under advisement, the very next time I'm being shot at."

    Yorke mutters something under his breath. It's probably for the best you didn't hear it.

    /////PoCS\\\\\

    USE military ration packs are not, ordinarily, something you get excited for. They're shelf-stable, self-heating sludge claiming to be food, with the nutritional-content to very technically back that claim up. What they're not though, is a meal-replacement bar chased down with a room-temperature water pouch and a bone-density pill. So it's miles ahead of the way you've all been eating since you lost the bulk of your provisions.

    You dig into the contents of something audaciously labelled 2 EGG, SCRAMBLED, and try to convince yourself that you're enjoying it.

    "So, do you know any of the prisoners, Pirate?" Azara asks.

    "Why would I?" you shoot her a bemused look. "I don't know every pirate in the system."

    Azara shrugs. She's still got a bandage where her left eye used to be, but it's balanced out by her still grinning her head off, the same as ever. "Right, but like... Pirate. We ran into a crew of pirates. Randomly! And you knew one of them. So, like..."

    "Coincidence," you tell her.

    "We don't believe in coincidence, Kana!"

    "Don't quote my favourite book back at me. I saw them when I came in — I don't know any of those idiots."

    Azara snorts, before gulping down a mouthful of COFFEE, BLK. As far as you can tell, it tastes exactly like all coffee does — vile. "What makes them idiots? You used to do what they did too. Were you an idiot?"

    Yes. Absolutely. "It was a good idea for exactly as long as I was doing it. And not a second longer." You keep your face straight as you declare it. This delights Azara about as much as you'd hoped.

    It's a moment later when Azara speaks again. She changes the subject, examining her COFFEE pouch as if it might have something to tell her. "Thanks, though."

    "For?"

    "Kitty. You brought her back." She still doesn't meet your gaze.

    You feel oddly self-conscious, all at once. "Well," you say, shrugging, "we can't keep losing squad leaders. Someone will start expecting me to do the job, eventually."

    "Oh, don't worry," Nazaret says, drifting over to your alcove, "Kana, darling, no one is ever going to want to see you as a squad leader."

    "Wow!" Azara says, grinning up at them, "cruel!"

    "But true," Naz says, with mock-gravity on their fine-boned face.

    "Are you just here to insult me?" you ask, glancing at Nazaret dubiously.

    "Yes," Naz says. Then thaws a little. "Also, to say I'm glad you're still around to insult."

    "Was there ever any doubt?" you gesture with your empty 2 EGG tube, dismissing the notion.

    Naz doesn't smile. "Shit's gotten scary, Kana. And there are people who give a fuck what happens to you, you know. Despite all your best efforts."

    "Don't worry," Azara says, "I'll be up and at it by the time we catch up to those zealots from before. Anything comes for Kana, I'll be there and see it coming."

    "Unless it approaches from your left," you say, making Azara spit out a cloud of COFFEE in a giggling fit.

    Nazaret sighs. "You finished that book, right?" They ask you.

    "Yes," you say. "Got something else in mind?"

    Naz nods. "Sure. I'll send it to you. Let me know how you like it."

    You work with good people now. Not scum like Ohara, or fair weather allies only in it together for as long as the money's good and the work's easy. You're even happy here, sometimes, fighting alongside people you want to stand with, doing something worthwhile.

    Sunny's face swims up from your memory — you find yourself wondering, unavoidably, who is going to join him next.

    /////PoCS\\\\\

    Article:
    You have more battles ahead, but also some time between now and arriving at the shipyard where your target is undergoing repairs.

    How do you spend it?

    I'm done being experimental here. We're going back to plan voting, which I'm most likely going to stick with for things like this.

    Pick three options from the following list:

    [ ] Azara ropes you into gambling with your squad
    [ ] You see if Cam feels any better about this fight than the last one
    [ ] You see if Ryan thinks any better of you, now that you've fought pirates together
    [ ] See whether Owusu has any hard feelings toward your crew as a whole
    [ ] Take Nazaret up on their book talk request

    Additionally, pick one option from the following list:

    [ ] Redeem yourself a little to your superiors by acting as a go-between with the captured pirates
    [ ] Help keep the uneasy peace by coming to an "understanding" with Lieutenant North
    [ ] Throw Yorke a bone by doing something for him, you can't piss your mechanic off all the time
     
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