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Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: Neon Exodus Evangelion
Topic ID: 299
#0, TCP keepalive
Posted by Gryphon on Aug-13-18 at 12:41 PM
As is so often the case around here, this has been sidetracked by interrupts from other projects, and Life Things, and whatever else. In a couple of years we'll cross that amusing scifi threshold where Near Future things become Recent Past things, thence to fall steadily behind (the original RoboCop, for example, came out in 1987, was set in the unimaginably distant future year of... um... 1990, and is now practically an Edwardian costume drama by modern standards :).

It is, however, still alive, and here is a little chunk to prove it. (Network nerds will know that makes this unlike a real TCP keepalive packet, which is empty.)

Saturday, August 25, 2021
05:18 hrs Japan Standard Time
Ōta, Japan

As they sped south on whatever highway this was, DJ wondered how Misato had managed to round up a Porsche in Japan on such short notice. Surely they didn't rent them at the airport, even to uniformed XCOM general officers. Did the agency have that kind of motor pool? If so, why had no one ever told him about it? He was an MIB operative with, the last time he bothered to check, the effective grade of major. Maybe it was only for generals?

He didn't ask out loud, though, because he knew Misato was expecting him to. Instead, he asked the other obvious question:

"So. Where are we going in such an almighty hurry?"

Misato didn't answer for a moment; all her concentration was occupied by the need (for some values of "need") to make a racing gear change and get around a delivery van. Traffic was light this early on a Saturday morning, but the Brigadier was driving—as she always had, in DJ's experience—like it was a life-or-death battle against impossible odds.

He didn't comment on that, either; just glanced into the tiny back seat to see that Asuka was still sound asleep—dead to the world, despite the evolutions Misato was putting the car through, her head tipped back against the head rest and rocking gently from side to side with the vehicle's motion.

Misato saw him look back, glanced in the rearview mirror, and grinned. "Wow, she's really out cold," she said.

"It's how she handles jet lag," DJ explained. "She'll pop awake when we get where we're going and be fine for the rest of the day. Whereas I," he went on, sounding a trifle annoyed about it, "will most likely burn out in..." He glanced at his watch. "... round about three hours."

"You had 10 hours to sleep on the flight over," Misato observed.

"Mm, that was the plan, on paper," DJ replied. Then, sitting back in his seat with a faint smile, he went on, "But the paper doesn't mention anything about how eh... frisky her ladyship tends to get after a good fight."

"Doooooon't need any more information," Misato said, then paused to dice with a taxicab for the only clear route around a Japan Post freight truck. Then, as if the previous few seconds' conversation hadn't intervened, she said, "We're heading for the Vickers-Mitsubishi shipyard in Yokosuka."

DJ raised an eyebrow. "Shipyard?"

Misato nodded. "Something there it's becoming increasingly obvious we're going to need."


As they drove past Mikasa Park, DJ looked with interest out his window at the grey bulk of the memorial battleship that gave the park its name, then chuckled.

"Poor old Mikasa. In the course of the last century she's gone from being a ship, to a building, to a submarine, and now back to a ship. She must be terribly confused." He kept the ship in sight as long as possible, then sat back and went on, "Shame we haven't more time, I'd rather like to take the tour."

"Maybe next time," Misato said. "Besides, I think you'll like what we're here to see even more."

She pulled the car to a halt in a parking space before a red-brick building that, given its location, DJ suspected of looking older than it really was. Waiting for them there was a slim young man in a white coverall marked with the Vickers-Mitsubishi logo—three diamonds inside a capital V, its arms elongated into stylized wings. DJ was mildly, but only mildly, surprised to find that he knew the man.

"Huh," said Asuka, blinking awake as the car came to a halt. "Are we there?"

"Just about," DJ replied. "Enjoy your nap? Look who's here."

"Makoto!" Asuka said, springing to embrace him as soon as she had extricated herself from the back of the Porsche.

"Good to see you again, Mr. Hyūga," said DJ, shaking the engineer's free hand. "What've you been doing with yourself?"

"Well," replied Hyūga with a smile, "if you'll follow me, I'll show you."

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#1, RE: TCP keepalive
Posted by Peter Eng on Aug-13-18 at 01:00 PM
In response to message #0
>As is so often the case around here, this has been sidetracked by
>interrupts from other projects, and Life Things, and whatever else.

No worries. You write what you write.

>"But the paper doesn't mention anything about how...eh... frisky her
>ladyship tends to get after a good fight."
>

Oh, DJ. I'm surprised you didn't factor that into your plans.

>"Doooooon't need any more information," Misato said

Second the motion, Major.

I'll just sit back and wait. EPU writing is like getting presents in the mail at random times. I never know when one's going to arrive, but it's always good times.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.


#2, RE: TCP keepalive
Posted by Gryphon on Aug-13-18 at 01:22 PM
In response to message #1
>>"But the paper doesn't mention anything about how...eh... frisky her
>>ladyship tends to get after a good fight."
>
>Oh, DJ. I'm surprised you didn't factor that into your plans.

She claimed to be tired! It all seemed to be going according to plan, right up until it wasn't.

... That last sentence applies to a lot of things the Langley-Crofts have done in their married life, though, now I think about it, so yeah, you would think he'd catch on after a while.

--G.
"I feel like I ought to be learning something from this." - Gordon Freeman, Freeman's Mind
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#3, RE: TCP keepalive
Posted by Peter Eng on Feb-28-20 at 02:00 PM
In response to message #2
>>>"But the paper doesn't mention anything about how...eh... frisky her
>>>ladyship tends to get after a good fight."
>>
>>Oh, DJ. I'm surprised you didn't factor that into your plans.
>
>She claimed to be tired! It all seemed to be going according to plan,
>right up until it wasn't.
>

After wandering back to this thread, I concluded that DJ's error was probably in estimating the quality of the fight. Perhaps it's because he didn't have any current data on how EVA fights affect her.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.


#4, RE: TCP keepalive
Posted by BlackAeronaut on Jul-22-21 at 10:21 AM
In response to message #0
Having been stationed on a ship homeported in Yokosuka, I can say that I've visited the Mikasa several times. And unfortunately, there isn't really a whole lot to see in the the old girl - even though everything is pretty well maintained, the sad fact is that it is because there's pretty much not much to maintain. Most of everything is gone, and nothing below the water line is accessible.

The only things of real interest left is the officers quarters and ward room in the aft of the ship, because all the accoutrements and furnishings were left in place and preserved, thus giving one an idea of what a line officer's existence in the Imperial Navy of the time was like. There's also an animatronic diorama that displays the battle where Admiral Togo came up with the Togo Turn.

It's really quite a let down, and personally I blame the USA for her treatment. A ship with such a history as this one deserves to be preserved the same way we've preserved the USS Constitution, but in our anger and righteous indignation, we wouldn't permit that.