>Maybe I should've set a tonnage limit instead, so that one of the
>candidates could've been DESRON 6.
>
>No, that would be silly. And logistically unwieldy. :)

But, he reminded himself aloud, adorable.

For those of you who aren't familiar with them, here is DESRON 6. Clockwise from the Admiral's left arm, we have:

- Hibiki, the quiet one, who - though not yet refitted into her postwar Soviet-spoils-of-war form, Верный (Verniy, "faithful") - has many stereotypically Russian mannerisms, including stoicism, a habit of saying "Хорошо" (Khorosho, "excellent"), and - in a lot of fan art - a high tolerance for distilled spirits.

- Akatsuki, the self-conscious eldest, who is a bit obsessed with growing up to be, and occasionally dips into the delusion that she already is, an Elegant Lady. Actually the phrase she uses is "elephant lady", because she's not really terribly bright. Voted "most likely to stand on her dignity at inopportune times".

- Ikazuchi, the rambunctious one. Probably going to end up in jail someday, but for some epically awesome reason. In a lot of artwork she's depicted with a moéfang. When I was a kid I used to mis-hear one of the lyrics of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" as "some of them want to be of use". That'd be Ikazuchi. Her catchphrase is "Go ahead and rely on me more." She would also appreciate it very much if you did not pronounce her name "Kaminari".

- Inazuma, the sweet, shy, and sensitive one. Hates it when Ikazuchi and Akatsuki fight, which they do basically all the time. Sort of what Ui Hirasawa would be like if she didn't have her confidence. Often depicted in fan art as a glassy-eyed psychopath, a meticulous bureaucrat (since she's one of the available starting ships, and so often ends up being used as the fleet secretary), or sometimes both. (One fan comic I've read involves her everyone-flees-in-terror catchphrase being, "It's time for an audit." :)

The four of them are the personifications of the IJN's Akatsuki-class destroyers, which were an improved version of the Fubuki class (and not actually identified as a separate class in the IJN's official paperwork).

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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