Tuesday, January 14th, 2014.

I've decided to start adding in the days at the beginning of each log from now on. I keep forgetting which day it is. Goddamn first world problems.

Piano maintenance guy came in today and tuned and fixed the piano in the office. Flew in in a Little Bird from the mainland, along with some building materials for Houshou's soon-to-be izakaya (how the fuck did they even order that without me knowing? I need to ask 'em). I didn't know what his name was, so I just called him piano-fixer-guy, literally that in Japanese, and he didn't seem to mind. Probably 'cause I'm American and it's pretty obvious to natural Japanese speakers that my Japanese is pretty rough, even if I have a fundamental understanding of how to speak it. But the piano's fixed, so my confidence in HQ's ability to fulfill what I request's pretty high. This means that they're showin' the Moebius Armament a lotta attention, even if it's something as trivial as fixing a goddamn piano.

You know how long that woulda taken if I were still back in America? A month. You'd be lucky to get something like a piano fixed if it got done within a month. USA USA USA, am I right?

Today was a bit light on the paperwork, and Error was busy with Akashi and Ooyodo managing miscellaneous stuff around the base, so I hung out with Batsubyou a bit. I don't know what Error did with the bag 'a catnip I bought her that came in the other day with the motherload 'a supplies they shipped in, but I had to make do without it, and luckily Batsubyou liked me well enough. I mean, if he (she?) didn't like me at all, he woulda never come into my room last night. I watched that video of Dubstep Cat when it first went viral, so now whenever I hang out with cats, I have a bad habit of emulating said Dubstep Cat and take their paws to wave around like a DJ. Obviously Batsubyou didn't know what the fuck I was doing and thought it amusing that I was shaking his paws around like crazy. At least he didn't get pissed off.

I've never really been frightened by animals. My dad was bitten by a dog on his right hand pretty badly when he was a kid, so he's always had a bad time around dogs, though now that he's older he's gotten over it (mostly). He still has the scars, though, they never went away. I guess you could say that those scars're like the last remnants of his fear of dogs, but then again not really. My mom's got a bit of a beesting allergy, so she's always been extremely conscious of it. Yeah, when she gets stung, her body'll throw a fit by making her vomit and stuff, but it's not like other beesting allergies where people outright drop dead when they're stung, but even still, my mom'll blow a hole in our house if that's the only way to get rid of a bee in the house.

You think I'm kidding, and the thing is, I wish I were. She shot a fly in our house thinking it was a bee once with a .500 Smith & Wesson and left a big-ass hole in our glass sliding door that leads out to the backyard. It was fun having to deal with all those neighbors and policemen who came to our house investigating what exactly that gunshot was all about while my mom had to deal with almost full deafness in both ears for about eight hours. We were just glad she didn't actually kill anyone doing that, and since then she's been a bit more calm.

But still.

I don't love animals as much as other people do. Maybe it's 'cause we've never owned pets in my household before...for obvious reasons. But I would be lying if I said I didn't like being around them. To me, it's cool being around a cat or a dog who's also cool with you. It's different than being around another human being who's your friend. It's a silent kind of mutually accepting relationship, you and that dog, or cat, or whatever pet or animal's hanging out with you, and neither of you have to say anything to acknowledge the other. It's awesome. And on those dark, rainy, stormy nights, or maybe on a day that you're not really enjoying too well, that pet just being there can make all the difference.

There was this one time one of Marine Corps regiments...I think it was the 5th Regiment, if I'm not mistaken...that had to stay a few night aboard the George Washington. They had a squad trained in the usage of bomb and attack dogs, and they brought their dogs aboard too. All my men who were big dog buffs or liked animals literally spent all day playing around with them, even though technically speaking they're not allowed to, but the Marine guys were chill. One of those dogs managed to find its way into my room one night - I don't know how - and just walked right in like he owned the place. I thought it was one 'a my men comin' in to talk to me about something, but when I saw the dog, I got up to take it back to its sergeant, but he just jumped up onto my bed and just sat there, lookin' at me like, bitch, lemme stay. So I stared back at it, like, a'ight, do what'cha want.

What am I even talking about?

Then, Batsubyou hopped up onto my shoulder when I took off my military uniform cap and sat on its belly right on top of my head. I dunno what made him think that was a good idea, but he stayed there for the rest of the day until nighttime, when Error came to take him away. I guess he likes it there. It's not bad for me either - makes me feel top-heavy, but it keeps my head nice and warm in this winter cold.

Imagine Murakumo's reaction when she walks into my office to ask about my orders for 'em later that day and she finds me doin' the Gendou pose from Neon Evangelion with Batsubyou the cat sitting on my head purring like a badass.

How does a cat purr like a badass? Is that like asking how many licks it'll take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?

But Murakumo givin' me a real strange look was the least 'a my worries. Error is positively jealous that I'm able to hang out with Batsubyou the cat like we're best buddies somehow. She tried pulling him off my head, and trust me, I tried to get him off too, but the one time we did manage to get him off my head, he jumped right back on. Then again, the fact that he literally clawed himself in place on my head, meaning that he dug his claws into my scalp and face, wasn't really exactly what I call pleasant.

Let's get to the important shit now that I've wasted a couple pages talking about cats and animals and Batsubyou and Error slapping me to convince him to get off my head. I analyzed the info my ship girls brought back from scouting out Sector B yesterday, and it matches up with all the info that HQ's sent me in regards to enemy profiles and other battle intel. Plus, they also managed to figure out some of the patrol routes for some of the enemy destroyer squadrons on the outer perimeters of the Sector. It'll help with the containment blockades that the UN fleet's established around Sector B. I sent them out at 1300 Hours today on another scouting mission, and they came back at around 1800 Hours with basically the same info. I'ma send them out there one last time, and if they don't find anything new, I'll send them deeper into Sector B to see if they can scout for some new data.

I asked them, before they left on their mission while I was debriefing them, if their training was helping them do their missions properly, and they said that the marksman training they were doing with Ooyodo were helpful, since obviously practicing their aim is going to help them out in an actual combat scenario, doesn't take a genius to figure that one out. Then I asked them if my drilling was useful at all, and all of them went dead quiet.

Which is sorta what I figured would happen, given how earlier events've panned out.

I told them that I wouldn't get angry if they spoke the truth, that I wanted to hear their opinion. Fubuki tried to squeeze their way outta it, telling me that my drills were fine as they were, that there wasn't anything particularly wrong with them. She said that they understood that drilling was just another part of their training. But I passed that off. I told that they were telling me shit that they thought I wanted to hear, and that doing that wouldn't work on me. I told them that telling people what they want to hear will almost never help them become better at what they're doing. I learned that the hardy way from one 'a my subordinate officers, a Chinese guy who was sent over from the Chinese army to become acquainted with American protocol and command, and while he was a decent guy and was a fantastic officer, he just kept telling me all the shit that I wanted to hear and at one point it literally felt like he was trying to suck me off. Like, I understand that respect and keeping face is a big part of Asian cultures, and maybe I just don't get it like I'm supposed to because I'm American, and everyone knows that Americans don't know how to show respect to any other culture except for their own, haw haw haw, but I didn't want these girls who're my new subordinates to do the same to me.

Murakumo, who usually isn't hesitant at all to put me on total blast if I say so, said right away that she didn't see the point of my drills. She said that all the drills did was teach them how to march, talk, and salute like a normal soldier in the army. I think I remember some stuff that she said, if I can think of it again...

"Like, why're you drilling us like normal soldiers? We're not normal soldiers! Look at us! Look at this! (she pointed to her head array thingies) Do we look like normal soldiers? No! Then stop treating us like we are! We're ship girls! We're naval personnel or whatever the hell we're called on those official papers!"

"Murakumo, you shouldn't talk to Admiral like that..." Samidare said.

"Shut up, Samidare! Stop trying to cover for him! What's your problem anyway, being all mushy with him like that? Why don't you go be his personal secretary so you can do whatever you want with him?"

The conversation went something like that, and I stood up right after Murakumo said that, and Murakumo shut up real quick. I walked over to her real slow, 'cause in case you can't tell by now, I got super pissed off when Murakumo insulted Samidare like that. Something just snapped. I walked over to Murakumo and planted my feet right in front of her, real close, like barely less than a foot away. She tried backing away, but I ordered her to stand where she was.

I asked Murakumo to repeat what she said to Samidare. Mind you, I said this at first in a real low voice. Around this point, Akashi and Ooyodo came in with a few new reports but stopped dead at the door when they saw what was going on, watching us. Murakumo didn't say anything at first, so I repeated myself again, again really quietly. She refused, and I went ahead and practically screamed in her face to repeat it.

That scream really shook her. I could see it in her eyes, and even if I couldn't see it in her eyes, I could see it in her head array, because they drooped down instantly and kept drooping further and further down the more I yelled in her face.

I asked her, screaming, mind you, if she had a problem with Samidare being nice to me. I asked her if there was anything wrong inherently with the fact that Samidare was being nice to me. I asked her if there was anything wrong with her being friendly and approachable to me, a fucking foreigner sonuvabitch who needed help in adjusting to a life new lifestyle and working with people who weren't American. I ordered her to answer me, and she gave me a really, really, really small no. So I kept layin' the hammer on her. I yelled at her that she could insult me or the way that I conducted things in this base all she fucking wanted. She can blast me about anything about me all she wants. Because honestly, at the end of the day, I'm still her commanding officer, and no amount of slanderous words is ever gonna change that. But if she wanted to talk shit about anyone else on base, especially about someone who's been especially helpful to me in getting me acquainted with the base and helping me with my rough language skills, Murakumo ought'a come straight to my office so that I can scream at her like this one more time. It would save us the time of me hunting her down and yelling at her again.

By the way, just for the record, I know how to yell at people to make the average Joe off the streets shit his pants. Murakumo's head arrays were pointing straight down by the time I was done. You can imagine what she was like besides that.

I really shouldn't've chewed her out then, right before a damn mission. I shoulda known better. Goddamn it.

After I was done with Murakumo, I dismissed them. Most of them left right away 'cause 'a obvious reasons. Murakumo stood there for a minute, wiping her eyes as best she could, and Samidare, who still stayed, tried to comfort her but Murakumo wouldn't let her. She just gave Samidare a real dirty look and ran out. This is the part of the day that I can clearly remember, when Samidare watches Murakumo run outta my office and turns to me:

"C-Commander! What was that all about? You - you didn't need to make Murakumo cry!"

"She insulted you. I won't stand for that."

"Even if it was an insult, that - something like that is trivial! It wasn't worth doing that! Don't you think you just overreacted?"

"Yeah, you can say I overreacted. But I can overreact some more if she doesn't learn her lesson."

"Commander! You don't need to defend me! What's between me and Murakumo is just between us! You don't need to feel like you need to get involved!"

"Then stop me, Samidare. Can you do that? Can you stop me?"

She didn't say anything after that. She looked like she was tearing up a bit as well. After that, she, too, ran out.

So now I just alienated one of the few people on this base whom I can consider a friend and I just made another one potentially hate me for the rest of my fucking life. All because I'm a stubborn motherfucker.

Samidare didn't say anything to me when I made her the flagship of today's mission, and when they returned from duty, she handed me the mission review without a word and left my office. So that doesn't help me at all.

Looks like the piano's fixed, but I broke a lot more things than that.

And this time, I can't call any Piano-Maintenance-Guy to come 'n fix 'em.