Monday, January 27th, 2014.
You know what time it is.
Reinforcements and supplies and planning personnel for the new dockyards have arrived. Let's introduce the new ship girls.
Four new destroyers:
Wakaba (若葉), or "young leaves" or something. I think it's got something to do with the young leaves that sprout from a tree after winter, something like that, if my Japanese cultural understanding holds true, as limited it may be. She's easily the most nonchalant - while she wears a straight up suit and tie, ignoring the skirt and pantyhose, she doesn't really wear it properly, so she makes me wanna go over to her and fix up her tie that she just lazily hangs around her neck. I'm surprised it hasn't fallen off by now. At one point I actually did go over and tighten her necktie for her, and I thought she'd tell me not to, but surprisingly, she didn't mind. She's always chill, and it's like she literally doesn't give a shit about anything. She just does what she's told. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, but I'll keep tabs on her.
Hatsuharu (初春), or "beginning of spring", I'm pretty sure. Where the fuck do I start with her? Physically, she's quite attractive, I won't lie, but the fact that she walks like she's got a peg up her ass and holds her fan around all the goddamn time like some English aristocrat from the motherfuckin' sixteenth century pisses me off somewhat. That, and the first time she greeted me, I didn't understand a word of what she said. Well, I'm exaggerating, I did pick up the general sense of what she was conveying, but apparently the others told me that she talks in a really archaic type of way - like medieval Japanese, or something. Like, when she talks, she addresses herself as "we", not "I". Like, what the absolute fuck? I've met some people who address themselves in third person, and while that's weird, I'm sorta used to it. But calling yourself "we"? What the hell? At the very least she's cooperative - she knows what I'm talking about, which is all that really technically matters, so long as she understands the orders that I give her. But still...I don't think I'm looking forward to working with her, because if I can't understand most of what she's talking about, not too sure if we can really get along that well...
Akebono (曙), or "daybreak". Cool name, shitty attitude. As soon as I put my hand out to shake her hand like I've done for everyone else when I've greeted them, she instantly looks me in the eye and says "Don't touch my hand, you fucking shitty Admiral". Like, whoa, okay. If that's how it's gonna be, then I mean...whatever, I guess. Sazanami seemed pretty happy to see her, and I found out later that they're ship sisters, so that's great. I don't really know what to do with her, though. She's totally uncooperative, she hates my guts for no apparent reason that I can see, and she avoids me at all costs. Seems like she's one of those people...
Kiyoshimo (清霜), or "clear frost". Seriously, these names're pretty cool if you translate them to English, wonder why our ships can't be named like this. By far the easiest to work with - she's lively, she obeys orders, and she's hyper-friendly, not just to me but to everyone. To the point of annoyance, but that's a fault I can easily overlook, given the problems I have with the other new destroyers. She looks quite cute with how her long gray hair covers a small part of her face, I think it really suits her. The one thing that's kinda strange with her's that I saw her staring at Kirishima and our new battleship (I won't spoil) during dinner at the mess hall from the destroyers' table. Like, not just a listless stare where you're not really meaning to stare at someone, but the intent, almost longing stare, the kind that just screams "Oh I SOOOOOOOO wanna be them". I've seen those kinds of stares and gazes back in high school, so trust me on this, I know what they are when I see 'em. I can only assume Kiyoshimo really looks up to the bigger girls, presumably mainly battleships, but I have yet to confirm.
Our new light cruisers:
Yahagi (矢矧), but it doesn't seem like it has a direct English translation. Probably like Takao, who's named after a natural landmark or something. Very professional and courteous, like Takao, except her uniform doesn't seem as professional. But I'd imagine it's easier fighting in Yahagi's uniform than it is in Takao's - but they don't seem to mind either way. Her ponytail is amazing, though. As I've mentioned in my previous entry, I dig long black hair, and while Kiyoshimo's was certainly impressive, it doesn't stand a chance next to Yahagi's. I was tempted to ask if I could run my hand down her ponytail, but I refrained because I don't wanna seem fucking creepy on day one. I have no qualms with her whatsoever. Gorgeous, obedient, and professional - now that's a rare combination.
Kiso (木曾), again one of those names taken from a landmark - this time, I actually know this one off the top of my head. Kiso's the name of a river somewhere...dunno where exactly, but I've heard of the Kiso River, so I'm pretty sure that's where the name comes from. Anyway - her eyepatch's pretty badass, not gonna lie, I really like it. Makes her look sharp, which is how she acts, too, so the eyepatch complements her attitude even more well. Looks like she's the aggressive-friendly type, the kind who's not afraid to give you a hearty handshake, which is what she did for me. I think we'll get along just fine.
Our new heavy cruisers:
Suzuya (鈴谷), again named after a river somewhere, I think. Oh man...I thought Wakaba was casual, she doesn't hold a fucking candle to Suzuya here. She talks in so many goddamn contractions that I actually have a hard time following what she's saying, even though I'm supposed to understand casual Japanese better. Ugh, the irony. Also, she's super clingy...I don't know why. Has she taken a liking to me? I have no idea what's going on. What the hell makes these girls behave the ways they do, anyway...she always wants me to praise her or something, and it's actually getting kind of annoying, mainly because I don't have a reason to praise her yet. I don't really know what I should do with her, to be honest...
Atago (愛宕), named after a mountain, like Takao over here. Takao was super happy when she saw Atago get off the chopper that delivered all the new girls and didn't wait to run over to her and give her a big hug. Put a smile on my face, not gonna lie. The thing is, they look nothing alike. Takao has short black hair and has a short skirt, but Atago has long mane-like blonde hair and a long skirt - and their demeanors are completely flipped - Takao's strict, stern, professional, and Atago is casual, laid-back, and always smiling. Every time I've seen her and run into her today, there hasn't been one goddamn time that I haven't seen her not smiling. And on top of it all, normally most of the people you see who smile all the fucking time get pretty old after a while and you get tired of them smiling all the time really quickly. Well, maybe not everyone, but as a military man, I don't have the patience to deal with that. But it works with Atago. She's the rare kind of person who can smile all the time and get away with not seeming annoying. Very strange, but I won't complain.
Our new battleship:
Hiei (比叡), again named after a mountain somewhere. She really reminds me of a combination of Kiso's and Atago's attitudes, aggressive, tough, and casual all at once - kind of weird but it works. Kirishima was real glad to see her, no doubt, but for some reason Hiei wasn't as thrilled. She really does look the tomboy, though, which gets really confusing because I've seen her act like a normal girl would. I dunno...we haven't had the chance to talk a lot, so I don't really know everything that's going on. Hopefully we will, she seems like a nice girl, and she's our second battleship, to boot, so obviously she's gonna contribute a whole lot to our fleet's overall firepower.
Unfortunately we didn't get any additional carriers or submarines, which would've been nice, because torpedo volleys and long-range aerial bombardments and enemy fleet detection that the subs and carriers can provide are pretty damn essential. I'm going to have to model future mission profiles around my current fleet's strengths and hope that the enemy fleets don't exploit what weaknesses they have.
Today I didn't give out a mission, but instead stocked on lots and lots of training and drilling in order to familiarize our new recruits to the rest of the fleet. Suzuya was definitely bummed out that she'd have to train immediately right after arriving, but it's gotta be done so that we don't get any more Samidares or Kirishimas or Murakumos. And I'll be damned if anyone ends up at the bottom of the sea due to lack of training.
While they were off doing that, as I mentioned before, a few contractors and planners had come to help with the initial construction of the new dockyards. Houshou, Mamiya, Irako, and I walked them through what we had planned out, and the contractors and planners took it from there, which was nice of 'em. Took them a couple hours, but they got the dockyard construction started and left us with ample building supplies to finish the project from there. Honestly, can't complain. It went a lot better than I'd expected. Too often I'd request a service like this back in America in the Navy or the Army, and the brass would send me shit to get started and expect me to finish the job on my own. You can imagine how I developed a knack of being creative to get my job done - so the fact that I didn't have to pull my brain outta my ears to think outside the box in order to figure out how to build a goddamn bathhouse is really nice. With everyone working on this for a couple hours at night, we should have this done before the weekend.
So that took up a lot of the day - inducting the new girls into the Okinawa fleet, getting the morning paperwork done and confirming to HQ that we had received the new reinforcements (they sent an email this morning saying that I shouldn't expect more reinforcements for quite some time, which is kind of a bummer, but we certainly have gotten a lot more ship girls in a short amount of time), discussing construction plans with the contractors and planners, and getting more of my comprehensive report done. In fact, I can finish it tomorrow, so I'll stick it in front of the next entry here.
Shouhou came in earlier tonight into the office as I was working on the report, still wearing her combat-ready uniform, with some sweet rice crackers and hot raspberry tea. Ever since she'd joined the fleet, we hadn't really talked a whole lot. I'd just notice her sometimes in the halls or outside training, but we just never...got to know each other, for a lack of a better phrase, and for no particular reason either. Just, it seems we both had our own agendas and they didn't line up until now. So I asked her how it's been going for her, and she said it's been alright. She'd made good friends with Souryuu, the standard carrier, which makes sense since they're both carriers, more or less.
Well, that was what she said at first. As we talked a bit more, eventually she confessed that the reason why we'd never really talked like this before wasn't accidental or coincidental; it was because she had been avoiding me. So I asked her, like, why were you avoiding me? And she said that because she had been told that I would be American before she was transferred here, she was very uncomfortable with that. Not scared, not frightened, not angry, just...uncomfortable. I asked if that was because of the whole World War II thing, and she didn't say anything, so I'm assuming I hi the nail on the head with that one.
So instead, to change the topic, I asked her why she'd come to give me some snacks and tea if she was avoiding me - that is, if she still is. She said that over the past week or so that she'd been here, she'd been talking with the other ship girls, and they've apparently told her that there wasn't anything to be afraid of in regards to me. With the exception of Murakumo and the others that don't really hold me in high regard, the other girls told me that I wasn't at all like what they thought would turn out to be. I was American, yeah, but they had told Shouhou that I wasn't scary and I shouldn't be someone to avoid like she had been doing. So she took this excuse to deliver me some snacks and tea to try to have a little talk going. Something like that.
I did ask Shouhou why she chose to fight in a uniform like that - and perhaps more especially, it's frickin' January and it still gets pretty freezing outside, even inside the base. Shouhou said that she didn't mind, that ship girls don't really feel temperature changes as much as regular humans do. It's not like the ship girls can die of cold - well, if it gets too cold, it gets hard for them to move around in the first place, but that's like, we're talking about negative forty or something degrees Celsius before they have to start worrying about that. Overheating, more of a bigger problem, but even then.
I'm just gonna go straight to sleep after finishing this entry. Surprising, 'cause usually I'd finish the day with a couple anime episodes or playing through a bit of games on my Steam library - but today's been busy. Not frustrating, not overly exhausting, but just busy - just one of those days where you wanna go straight to sleep.
But hopefully with this fleet, we won't have to worry about taking casualties as bad as we've had before. Just hopefully, knock on wood.