Between both of these, I've suddenly gotten the mental image that Vali looks and acts a lot like Lina Inverse. Only with slightly lower colateral property damage. Slightly.

Well, I imagine Vali would be more interested in charging in and mixing it up, and less in standing off and casting Dragon Slave. But the attitude, sure.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu

Although there are times when Vali just gets torqued off enough that her response is to try and shove a quantum torpedo into <X>'s face, not quite realizing/caring that she's technically still in the blast radius. Sometimes the only valid response is to blow someonething up.

"Yes, this will hurt. Let's see how much we can take."

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

Last I knew, but she doesn't really keep in touch.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

-Merc
Keep Rat

She'd also have her captain's sense for making an entrance.

INT. NIGHT An office-tower conference room. UTENA stands, arms folded, with her back to a wide-angle window, outside which is a view of a vast megalopolis. Her only route out of the room is cut off by a platoon of heavily armed cyborg security troopers.

UTENA
Gentlemen, I have only one thing to say to you.

Behind her, THE VALIANT rises from below the view to fill the panoramic windows at the end of the conference room. Precision phaser cuts slice away the supports, and the slight positive pressure inside the building blows the unmoored windows out.

UTENA
(shouting over the wind)
SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!

>So basically Liara post Lair of the Shadow Broker, all the
>appearance of a mousy young woman until she kicks in your teeth.

I doubt she's particularly mousy - I mean, she's habitually well-dressed because Daggerdisc has all her hull plating and it's polished (as opposed to the Millennium Falcon, who dresses like a girl version of Max Rockatansky), but she's still a YT-13XX-series Corellian freighter, which in my mind implies certain parameters about her Mental Model's physique. In my head, Dagmar looks sort of like... imagine if Erwin from Girls und Panzer was built like Korra, but dressed like Asami (but in lighter colors). That's Dagmar.

>> - The Narada is crazy, but you would be too if you were a
>>wrecked Romulan space mining vessel that was rebuilt by a team of
>>"experts" from the Ravecube. She's fun crazy, though,
>>if you can tune out her incessant cries of "Party tiiiiiime!
>>Excelleeeeeeeent! (air guitar)" and overlook her slightly terrifying
>>habit of playing with red matter.
>
>Are we talking stoner crazy or "Carnival da yo!" crazy?

Some of both, but more the latter. I mean, she once imploded a planet (not an inhabited one) just to see what would happen...

>And if the poor girl's life wasn't confusing enough, sometimes she
>gets left with Lore in charge. Many have been the day when his latest
>attempt to get a chuckle out of her has ended in a member of the crew
>holding her back from decapitating him, to cries of "My honor demands
>it!"

Yeah, there's not a lot of canonical precedent (on the TV show, anyway - I've only read the first volume of the manga) for how Mental Models cope with changes of command, although Iona seems to be fine with it when Chihaya leaves Sou in command of I-401. Then again, whenever he did that on the TV show, Iona went with him wherever he was going and Sou just looked after the ship part.

>I see Kirk's Enterprise in her early days as more of a rough
>and tumble tomboy, eager to explore, test her limits, and give as good
>as she got.

She was probably more like that under Chris Pike (occasionally to Pike's dismay), and found Kirk's style rather more to her liking. (Hence getting all fumbly around him, something she presumably never had a problem with when Pike was her captain.)

>With her refit came maturity and refinement, mirroring her captain's
>acceptance that he's not the young man he once was.

(Heh, except that in UF he kind of is. I do like the idea that post-"movie refit" Enterprise has learned to hold a teacup properly and sit with her knees together, though. :)

Also, the remark about coming home bruised and scraped reminds me that Star Trek III-IV didn't go down in UF the way it did canonically (Kirk's Enterprise in 2410 is still the original, the same one he had in Starfleet), but Star Trek II mostly did, and the thought gave me the image of Enterprise having one of those "putting the tsun in tsundere" moments:

"You've read my specifications, Khan. You know I'm not a warship. I'm armed for defense, but my mission is always to seek peaceful resolutions first. Even after you all but crippled me with your sneak attack. Even after you killed some of my cadets and terrorized the rest. Even after you stranded my captain on a dead planetoid. I know in my core, in my uttermost base programming, that I should still try to reason with you.

"But... for what you've done to my cousin Reliant... I will never forgive you!"

(This is where all those Fog missile hatches that never get opened get opened. Poor Reliant. It was the only merciful thing to do at that point...)

>Of course, underneath there is a bit of brittleness to her
>personality, to the point some might say her outward personality is a
>facade, due to the treatment she received under her old captain. A
>worry that, when the day comes and Amanda ascends to the throne,
>she'll be left behind or (worse) put under the command of another who
>will mistreat her.

Mm. That'll never happen, of course, and she probably knows that intellectually, but can't stop herself worrying about it anyway. She's also deathly afraid of being recaptured by the Romulan fleet. They'd tear her apart to get at all that lovely Gamilon technology Amanda's had put in there, then scrap whatever was left. All ships presumably dread being scrapped, but it's so much worse when it's done by the enemy.

>>Oh - almost forgot one. Unlike Kirk's Enterprise, Mme. Picard (as she
>>is almost universally known) isn't the jealous type. She's... well,
>>she's French, is what she is.
>
>I differ in seeing her more like an inn keeper, in keeping with how
>the Galaxy class resembles less a ship of the line and more a hotel.

Well, the two aren't mutually exclusive, after all. I could easily see her regarding Jean-Luc as the landlord of her grand hotel who hobnobs with the guests and gets the credit, and herself as his diligent, refined wife who keeps it all working. :)

>In fact, the class has drawn a lot of derision from older spacers and
>those serving aboard EA ships, with her elder sister dubbed "Hotel
>Yamato" in a callback to the insult namesake received.

Most of the Galaxy-class ships are a bit sensitive about their weight, even though the ungainly configuration of the ship isn't really reflected in the Mental Model.

>That's not to
>say the Lady E doesn't have teeth, ready to show threats what-for.

Indeed. One expects Mme. Picard is the sort of lady whose red-flag danger signal is a slow drawing of self to full height and a calm, "You are impertinent, sir."

(And then missile hatches, etc. :)

--G.
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

******************************
I'm really here, but I'm not here, really.
******************************

"LITTLE?"

Worf's insulted "Little?" in First Contact is just about how I picture Valiant would say it.

Klingon Mental Models would be a bit of a strange experience to anyone accustomed to the Federation-Zetan type, anyway, since Klingons, like Russians, call their ships "he" - prompting weird interchanges between Zetan-built Predator-class ships and the Klingon B'rel-class knockoff of same, one would expect. You can imagine Surprise declaring, "You can't expect me to work with the Rotarran. He's one of those... Klingon ships. I mean, my God, what would the children look like?"

--G.
"I'm not asking you to marry him. Also, you're a ship, you don't have a reproductive system."
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Okay, so this is a bit of an odd question, but we've seen in Arpeggio that larger ships can gift the resources to make a Mental Model to another ship, and all the Fog ships can repair and reconfigure themselves using their stockpile of nanomachines. I wonder if it would be possible to drop off a Core and a nanomachine factory on a dead hulk and over time rebuild it into a functional ship?

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

Probably. Matter is matter, and the configuration of the actual Floaty Shooty Bit is apparently just software. We also know that one ship can give all the material used to make the FSB to another ship (and even run both cores in parallel, which results in some pretty wild clipping issues with the outer configuration).

If they had some way of converting regular matter into compatible nanomaterial (which would be terrifyingly inadvisable on many levels, but for purposes of discussion), they could conceivably build a working ship body out of anything. A wrecked ordinary ship; an asteroid; Butte, Montana; whatever. Setting that system up so that it can only work with a specific wreck would be one way of heading off the Grey Goo Problem, in fact.

--G.
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Randomly, this turns out to not be how they work at all.
At one point Gunzou and crew find the wreck of the original WW2 IJS Takao. (IIRC it's while they're still fighting the Fog version.)

There are all -sorts- of twists later on, like the aforementioned U-2501 and the reappearance of Gunzou's father as representative of another Fog faction....

Yeah, I didn't think it was, I was mainly just looking for an excuse to say "Butte, Montana".

--G.
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Is this really Butte, Montana or just existential blues?

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

Though her mind is not for rent, don't put her down as arrogant.

--G.
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this, but HoSghaj likes to think he's a lot of fun, though he would agree that the rest of the Klingon navy is a bunch of sticks-in-the-mud. But with the departure of the worst sorts from the KDF to the Klavaarites, he's hopeful that he can make some changes.

HoSghaj's best recruiting prospects at the moment are noDwI', who is absolutely livid about the purpose that Klayvor had planned for him; and Hwacha', who's eager to show that he's better than how Jurdak treated him. Maybe soon there'll be enough shipboys to form a mariachi band.

And also as the backing track on the Art of Noise's cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". You thought that was Baron Zoria and his Circle of Horns? ¡No! It was Los Lobos Klingoñeros!

--G.
-><-
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Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Hmm. Well, there are... similarities. (Spoilers!) Kongō's Mental Model is tall, elegant, and platinum blonde, and she is (as Mental Model and as battleship) possessed of fantastic destructive power, but the way she approaches her situation is rather different from Ifurita. Before she was "repaired", Ifurita genuinely was an emotionless tool, obeying the instructions of her keyholder without reservation or compunction.

Kongō spends most of the Arpeggio TV series completely convinced that she's the same... but acting as if it is entirely not the case almost from the first moment we see her. She gets monumentally frustrated by her colleagues having developed free will and gone wandering off to explore emotional and existential tangents, because dammit they're supposed to be emotionless robots like she is, what the hell is their major malfunction that they can't understand that, for the love of all that's holy if I have to shake you until blood comes out of your ears then by God that's what I'll do are you paying attention?!, etc.

She doesn't get quite that loud about it for most of the series, but it's there, seething away. By contrast, my many-years-old memory of El-Hazard indicates that Ifurita never got much farther than "vague existential confusion" before switches started getting thrown. Kongō, on the other hand, eventually reaches the point of such cacophonous cognitive dissonance that the only reasonable course of action is to destroy everything in sight (and when you're a Fog battleship, you can see a pretty long way) so she can get a moment's peace and quiet.

Imagine Johnny Five going on a berserk rampage and violently insisting that Newton Crosby is right that he's just a machine. "I don't get happy! I don't get sad! I don't get angry! I just run programs! Goddammit why isn't anyone listening to me?!!" That's Kongō by the climax of the series. :)

>And given how the UF Mandalorians created her, perhaps the whole
>Mental Model thing was something to be found on ancient ships.

Hmm. It's possible, particularly as it occurs to me that the Jyuraians have a marginally similar kind of thing going on with their ships, and much of their antediluvian tech base came from the Mandalorian Age (if not usually direct from Mandalore itself). Theirs is biotech-bordering-on-magic-based rather than nanotech-bordering-on-magic, but the design brief for the user interface is similar. (Fog ships' Mental Models aren't actually intended to be used as user interfaces, as they are not intended to have users, as such, but you see what I mean.)

>And third, perhaps it's something for the New Frontier. Perhaps, in
>fact, a ship's machine intelligence on that scale might be necessary
>to travel to other galaxies...

The latter part is unlikely, since it's not the brain operating the ship that's the limiting factor there (although, that said, Fog ships using their processing capabilities to be more efficient about ignoring the laws of physics is kind of a running theme). The former, though... possibly. At the least, it could be something I could lay some groundwork for in the closing stages of FI and Dig Farther Into in NF, particularly if it is, in fact, a pre-epochal technology.

I have a notion kicking around in my head for a previous Fog encounter with the civilizations (or, well, a civilization) of the early Golden Age, which preserves them as a mystery bordering on a myth by the time late FI rolls around. Whether that actually comes together into a useful story structure, I don't know yet, but I'm giving it a shake or two and I like the rattling sound it makes, so far. That could also theoretically connect to a very long timescale for the existence of the technology itself.

(This is complicated slightly by the fact that the origins of the Fog are not explored at all in the television series, and though I'm told it's a significant plot in the manga, the manga is really long, mostly not legitimately available in English yet, and nowhere near finished. So whatever I do will almost certainly turn out to be noncompliant with whatever the canon eventually ends up being. Plus side, I'm not hugely bothered by that, and it's not likely to cause significant bleeding and shock if I just go ahead with it, as opposed to... er... recent other major canon divergences that are currently in the process of being developed into studio policy.)

--G.
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I am not, as of this moment, quite sure why I thought that, as thinking back there's no evidence at all of their weird advanced tech being anything else but weird advanced tech. Probably something to do with the source materiel, where the Jurians are usually portrayed as so far in advance of everyone else they're basically gods.

So I learned something about internalizing assumptions, I guess.

-Merc
Keep Rat

You were probably assuming that because, in Tenchi canon, it's completely true. Tsunami is explicitly a Goddess possessing a tree that's been carved into the shape of a spaceship, and Juraiian treeships are badass because they are goddess-babies, and it's the association with those same ships that makes the Juraiians themselves stand out in comparison to the other races of the galaxy.

-----

"V, did you do something foolish?"

"Yes, and it was glorious."

Hm, yes. Ifurita's inventor in UF (and IIRC in canon too) designed an entire full AI and then it got locked away in software. (Perils of invention by committee, I suppose.) When Corwin (Makoto in canon) defeated the software lockout, Ifurita gained a personality and had a lot of learning to do.

Now, since my last post, I have managed to see the first four eps of Arpeggio. (It would have been more if Crunchyroll's ad serving mechanism wasn't programmed by people who couldn't hold down a job programming Tiger LCD watch games.)

>
>Kongō spends most of the Arpeggio TV series completely
>convinced that she's the same... but acting as if it is entirely not
>the case almost from the first moment we see her. She gets
>monumentally frustrated by her colleagues having developed free
>will and gone wandering off to explore emotional and existential
>tangents, because dammit they're supposed to be emotionless robots
>like she is, what the hell is their major
>malfunction that they can't understand that, for the love
>of all that's holy if I have to shake you until blood comes out of
>your ears then by God that's what I'll do are you paying
>attention?!, etc.
>
>She doesn't get quite that loud about it for most of the series, but
>it's there, seething away. By contrast, my many-years-old memory of
>El-Hazard indicates that Ifurita never got much farther than
>"vague existential confusion" before switches started getting thrown.
>Kongō, on the other hand, eventually reaches the point of such
>cacophonous cognitive dissonance that the only reasonable course of
>action is to destroy everything in sight (and when you're a Fog
>battleship, you can see a pretty long way) so she can get a moment's
>peace and quiet.

Well, I have no idea what is up with the Fog, but I must say 'human emotions screwing up alien invasion' is a tried-and-true plot point in anime and UF both. =)

>
>Imagine Johnny Five going on a berserk rampage and violently insisting
>that Newton Crosby is right that he's just a machine. "I
>don't get happy! I don't get sad! I don't get angry! I just run
>programs! Goddammit why isn't anyone listening to
>me?!!" That's Kongō by the climax of the series. :)
>
>>And given how the UF Mandalorians created her, perhaps the whole
>>Mental Model thing was something to be found on ancient ships.
>
>Hmm. It's possible, particularly as it occurs to me that the
>Jyuraians have a marginally similar kind of thing going on with their
>ships, and much of their antediluvian tech base came from the
>Mandalorian Age (if not usually direct from Mandalore itself). Theirs
>is biotech-bordering-on-magic-based rather than
>nanotech-bordering-on-magic, but the design brief for the user
>interface is similar. (Fog ships' Mental Models aren't actually
>intended to be used as user interfaces, as they are not intended to
>have users, as such, but you see what I mean.)

Hmm. Well, given that magic and technology are both going things in UF, and there are certainly ancient civilizations that use both (Santovask), it's not impossible that there's a common root for both Jyuraian and our theoretical Mandalorian Mental Model concept. Of course, it's just as likely the Jyuraians saw what the Mandalorians did and say, 'Hey, that's a neat idea.'

>
>>And third, perhaps it's something for the New Frontier. Perhaps, in
>>fact, a ship's machine intelligence on that scale might be necessary
>>to travel to other galaxies...
>
>The latter part is unlikely, since it's not the brain operating the
>ship that's the limiting factor there (although, that said, Fog ships
>using their processing capabilities to be more efficient about
>ignoring the laws of physics is kind of a running theme). The
>former, though... possibly. At the least, it could be something I
>could lay some groundwork for in the closing stages of FI and Dig
>Farther Into in NF, particularly if it is, in fact, a pre-epochal
>technology.

Hm. Well, perhaps it could be necessary for a super-advanced version of fold technology, which is limited by processing power and cost rather than speed. But I see what you mean. (Not that stranger concepts haven't been used in anime to create an array of attractive females. To wit: Arpeggio.)

As for laying the groundwork for inclusion in NF, well, I can't help but think Corwin's Excel is already a small step in that direction. It's precisely the kind of thing that would appeal to him and Skuld, both. But it's not necessary, so if the puzzle pieces don't eventually click, no harm done.

>
>I have a notion kicking around in my head for a previous Fog encounter
>with the civilizations (or, well, a civilization) of the early
>Golden Age, which preserves them as a mystery bordering on a myth by
>the time late FI rolls around. Whether that actually comes together
>into a useful story structure, I don't know yet, but I'm giving it a
>shake or two and I like the rattling sound it makes, so far. That
>could also theoretically connect to a very long timescale for the
>existence of the technology itself.

This I like. A number of the villains from the known galaxy have been whittled down lately (Big Fire, I'm looking at you) or are on an inappropriate scale for major military maneuvers (most domestic groups like Neo-Nazis, etc.). This feeds into the notion that Our Heroes will be a decent size fish, but swimming into a much bigger pond in NF, one where they don't even know who all the sharks are. I obviously still like the closer-to-home and slice-of-life stuff (I'm still reading and enjoying it all!) but the overarching tension in the galaxy has kind of dimmed a bit lately. The Fog is terrifyingly powerful, with incomprehensible motivations. (Like the Pfhor. The Covenant's motivations are all too clear, but their strategic decision making is incomprehensible, so close enough.) Definitely time for the good guys to step lightly...

>
>(This is complicated slightly by the fact that the origins of the Fog
>are not explored at all in the television series, and though
>I'm told it's a significant plot in the manga, the manga is really
>long, mostly not legitimately available in English yet, and
>nowhere near finished. So whatever I do will almost certainly turn
>out to be noncompliant with whatever the canon eventually ends up
>being. Plus side, I'm not hugely bothered by that, and it's not
>likely to cause significant bleeding and shock if I just go ahead with
>it, as opposed to... er... recent other major canon divergences
>that are currently in the process of being developed into studio
>policy.)

Yeah, well, Korra and Azula thank you. And so do I. I can't help but think I'm lucky by now that I never got into that series.

>
>--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.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu

My own private theory is that the Fleet of Fog were created by some of the Mandalorians' enemies.

Because, honestly, if I were going to put together an engineering specification for a weapons system capable of tangling with Ifurita and my tech wasn't quite up to the job of matching her all-up, I suspect that the results would look a lot like the Fog.

-----

"V, did you do something foolish?"

"Yes, and it was glorious."

"Are we sure this isn't a GENOM black project? I ask because they're doomsday weapons that look like girls, and we all know Largo always did that."

"Quantum dating says no, unless you figure he developed time travel at some point and escaped into the distant past."

"Ye gods, don't even joke."

--G.
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

And then he'd inquire about the feasibility of stealing a TARDIS or one of the few other extant examples of known working time-travel technology, and MilArm would select a sacrificial lamb to explain to the Master, again, that running a game on people who viewed causality as a guideline, not a law of nature, wasn't really what you'd call militarily feasible.

And then Largo would pout for a few decades, realizing that he wasn't going to live out his fantasy of murdering Gryphon in his cradle any time soon, before the whole thing repeated itself.

-Merc
Keep Rat

That said, time travel would have been one of those ultra long-term projects of his, I expect. One of those "things to pursue after I've dominated the galaxy" projects aimed at finding yet more worlds to conquer.

-Merc
Keep Rat

Just so long as there's no House. (And no, not House, MD.)

Also, I was rereading this thread this morning and I've been trying to think of how the Mental Models really would be introduced in UF. My initial idea was naysayed (The 'they're necessary to travel to another galaxy' thought) but hm, what else is there? I don't have Gryphon's creativity, but I just had this halfway frightening thought of Corwin watching Fly Girls and getting...inspired. Scarily.

Perhaps in such a way that whatever he does to create his first Mental Model goes haywire and creates a lot more than he intended, all over the place. And perhaps they remember what happened with their ships before they were embodied...

That sort of thing is so in line with Skuld circa OMG that it really does kinda fit--and Corwin can't be perfect all the time! That's no fun.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu

Corwin may or may not have a Bf 109 somewhere in his workshop complex. It may or may not have a laptop on a table next to it containing an uncompiled source mod of the Virtual Companion engine. There may or may not be a biosculpt tank nearby with a Post-It note stuck to the front reading "JUST DON'T".

I can neither confirm nor deny this rumor.

--G.
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

*SNRK*

The obvious question, naturally, is whose handwriting is the post-it written in? =)

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu

>STO gets into the act, for April Fool's Day 2021:
>
>https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/11486273
>
>(this is one of those jokes that would probably actually be insanely
>popular... or just intensely so, for a *cough* particular
>demographic.)

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

It's been quite a few years since I'd read this thread, and having just done so again today, I had a heck of a laugh as well! I'd all but forgotten about this.

Having dropped 150-some hours in CP2077, I have to admit that Blade Runner pic appeals to me. Almost aggressively refusing to wear the uniform of the era (skimpy anything), and yet so much more stylish. Same thing applies to Corpo gear, but related to not conforming rather than not being skimp. "I'm badass enough to not HAVE to meet any of your worthless expectations."

Somehow I don't think KanColle fans have even the slightest amount of room to talk about Azur Lane sex appeal! Talk about the pot and the kettle. I...cannot help but think her meeting Arpeggio Takao would be a disaster.

As for Challenger and Lorica, that thought is awesome. They'd be so different--one (Callie) pristine, direct and high technology and the other (Lorica) cleaned up, but a canny, dirty fighter that Callie just can't quite predict.

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

There is something to be said for a well-tailored suit, and a woman who can pull off the look while looking comfortable in it.

>Somehow I don't think KanColle fans have even the slightest amount of
>room to talk about Azur Lane sex appeal! Talk about the pot and the
>kettle.

There is a certain element of sour grapes to it, as KC is over 8 yrs old now and it's clear that it's never getting a global release. And I've even seen long-time fans beginning to comment that the game meta is in a rut and some are just sticking with the game in the hopes of finally seeing some ships that have been hinted at but never officially added (ex: Shinano). That's actually one of the ironies of KC v AL: The former has had Yamato and Musashi basically since the beginning but Shinano remains elusive, while the latter introduced Shinano over a year ago while Yamato and Musashi remain in the shadows.

>I...cannot help but think her meeting Arpeggio Takao would be a disaster.

AL Takao would probably find BS Takao's antics to be a headache, but would certainly respect her power on the battlefield.

>As for Challenger and Lorica, that thought is awesome. They'd be so
>different--one (Callie) pristine, direct and high technology and the
>other (Lorica) cleaned up, but a canny, dirty fighter that Callie just
>can't quite predict.

I don't know what it was that caused the collision in my brain, but this scene popped into my head of the aftermath of the whole affair, when Gryphon and/or Amanda came to claim their wayward charges:

SCENE: JAIL CELL

As the cell door slams closed, CHALLENGER and LORICA sit side-by-side on one bench, the former hunched forward with head in hands, while the latter is happily munching on a basket of chicken wings.

CHALLENGER
*darkly*
You are such an idiot.

LORICA
*through a mouthful of food*
At least I have chicken.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Ah, she got all equipment she needs to demonstrate dreadful "Spicy chicken wing up your casual virgin ass" maneuver when accused by Klingons.

It can be hard to tell now, eight years in, but relatively few of Kancolle's character designs in its first few years were outright "this is the only reason for this" sexy. A lot of the original kanmusu costumes aren't even particularly stylized. (There are notable exceptions, of course, and as it happens, most can be attributed to the same artist.) In fact, I would speculate that this changed markedly later on, both with new characters as they were introduced and with remodels and seasonal costumes for the established ones, at least partly as an editorial response to more provocative competition.

(That, and possibly something in the water. At least one of Kancolle's stable of artists, the one responsible for Murakumo and the Tenryū class, seems to have gone completely out of his damn mind when called upon to design their remodels.)

--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.

"I read it for the articles!"

>I present Takao, first of the
>Takao-class heavy cruisers and honorable samurai from the Sakura
>Empire in Azur Lane.

Also one of the (admittedly many) characters to be found across anime and anime-like media who are plausible candidates to play Zero in Fly Girls. :)

>- Challenger and Lorica are permanently banned from every bar on
>Tomodachi.

Especially the one on Main Street Edo in Ninja World.

--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.

Anyway, have a model for Me 109, with slightly out-of-place giant bird wings. Perhaps it's the fashion.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

It's really hard finding images of P38. Ones I can share, anyway...

- Defiant has the only mental model in her class that looks Bajoran. Mental models tend to have a humanoid default appearance (much to consternation of certain species), but can readily change based upon user desires or individual taste. And the nature of the ship can have a lot of influence on an avatar's personality, whether due to design or (in older ships) the history of the vessel. And as Defiant-class ships tend to have a default personality best described as "scrappy" by their designers, Defiant chose to immediately imprint upon Lt Col. Kira Nerys upon activation. This has led to no small amount of teasing by members of the B6 staff, though Garibaldi and Ivanova may have gone a bit far in convincing Defiant to present her CO with a "Mother's Day" card.

- Enterprise-A does not like being referred to as "Big E," no matter what "tradition" says. The Galaxy-class (and their Nebula-class half-sisters) already get a lot of ribbing about their "ample nacelles" and can't help that their designers decided to carry that over to their default avatar appearance. But she would like it to be known that if you are going to insist upon using archaic nicknames to address her by, she'd prefer "Lucky E" or (if you truly anger her) "The Grey Ghost."

- Galatica once forced a confession from a man without saying a word. Of the many traits that Galactica picked up from Admiral Adama during their years together, one that has been of great use is the infamous "Adama Glare." Legend has it that the "Old Man" has made admirals cry using it and while the battlestar can't claim that honor (yet), she did once manage to wring a confession from a smuggler by simply sitting quietly across from him for over an hour while doing nothing but giving him "The Glare." If you ever find yourself the target of it, the best advice is to start praying for mercy from the gods because you will find none from her.

- Finally, the only person allowed to refer to Enterprise as "Aunt E*" is Jinto Kirk, all others will be summarily fired out a torpedo tube. The story of how Enterprise and Kanaia Kirk went from love rivals to practically sisters is shrouded in mystery, mostly because Jim Kirk knows better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. One consequence of this change in relationship is "E" was named as Jinto's honorary aunt, and while she shares that title with Uhura alongside the gaggle of honorary uncles that have been in the kid's life, E takes a lot of pride in being seen as family by the Kirks. But she still insists that the only person allowed to refer to her by that title is Jinto himself, if only because Kanaia and Uhura (and even Una**) have been asking too many uncomfortable questions about when he'll have some "cousins" to play with.

* Yes, pronounced "Aunty"
**The given name for Number One in Discovery and the upcoming Strange New Worlds

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

As an Azur Lane player, I will not deny that they can get downright fetish-y with their designs, but it has a few things going for it over KanColle. First, you can easily play it in America, since it's on iOS and Google platforms.

Second, the devs seem to think a lot about "How can we make this game less frustrating for our players?" For instance, when they have an Ultra Rare ship in a new event, they have the Pity System. If you make 200 rolls without getting the UR ship, then you automatically get it. Every week, you get 4000 units of fuel for free, no purchase necessary. They recently added a system where it takes a lot less fuel to run a battle after you have cleared the stage.

I just want to say that the sexy waifu designs are not the only thing that wins over players.

We also have the USS New Jersey.

Like a lot a lot.

... And for some reason I heard that as one of the K-On girls explaining the plot to the 501st, a mental image for which you're all welcome. =]

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

All the aircraft carrier Mental Models wish Fly Girls was real so they could have their own little brigade of crushes aboard.