Alternately, they may have been looking into this for a while now, and Corwin's raising of I-401 was the final bit of evidence they needed that old ships could be raised and inducted into their Fleet.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

I'm thinking "they" have been working on this for Quite Some Time Now, probably since shortly after they found the group of Fog ships including Kongo and Maya. They wanted more Fog ships, they didn't know about the repair base at Midway, and along comes someone with an Idea both terrible and genius. Abyssal!Fubuki may have been operational for some time before Corwin's attempt to fabricate a new body for I-401. (At the end of The Human Experience Clemson suggests that it hasn't been long, but he might just mean that they're only just now done testing the revenant.)

What I think Corwin did do is create some sort of metaphysical link between Fog ships and their templates, or enhance one that was already there by virtue of the hermetic law of similarity (witness Lionfish). In other words, I think the extended edition of Fubuki's dying-dream is Corwin's fault, but not the fact of Abyssal!Fubuki's existence.

(As pointed out elsethread, we don't really expect Earthgov to get into the occult, but that doesn't mean someone in research and development isn't dabbling in it. Or perhaps the mysterious Russians from "just after the Great Patriotic War", or at this point probably their descendants, have sold Earthgov on a scheme that includes rather more sorcery than they're letting on. Someone developed that control spell, after all, though how they managed to hang any kind of magic off that jumble of unconnected nouns is beyond my understanding of such things. That was a nice touch, incidentally, clever way to amp up the creepiness.)

---
"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.

On a lighter note: his sudden promotion to Admiral means Corwin Ravenhair may have to deal with an influx of Fog-nanotech versions of ship's cats. This is absolutely vital for the story. Honest.

I didn't even recognize it, so much as I connected Fubuki, the "Bukki?" joke from the Not Really threads, and a vague memory of Captain America: Civil War.

It's all pop culture references at EPU, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

Yeah I didn't even recognize it either. I never followed Captain America-related storylines much at all.

If it's a trigger phrase for something conditioned, that raises the interesting (to me) possibility that there was no magic at all involved in the project that created the revenant Fubuki! Perhaps "all" Earthgov has done is raise the wreck, patch it up with questionably-well understood Fog tech up to and including a Mental Model (probably not running on a Union Core, though, but rather some off-the-shelf droid brain that they're comfortable with) and insert some hard-coded imperatives.

The supernatural consequences for the spirit of the ship (whom they don't believe exists), presently living the good afterlife in the halls of the honored dead (which they also don't believe in, probably), are, in this theory, entirely down to Corwin deciding to meddle.

Not necessarily.

We don't know why shipgirls exist. As I recall, even Skuld doesn't know how it works. It's possible that raising Fubuki and restoring it to working condition through purely technological means would have left Fubuki aware of her ship-self, and able to Return into it, the way that Midway and Growler did.

The problem may be entirely the addition of Buran, and the hard-coded obedience triggers - triggers which I'm beginning to think were put in because somebody in Earthforce thinks that Kongo and Maya are too independent, and thus potential risks. If Buran works out for Earthforce, Kongo and Maya may be sidelined in favor of a fleet based on Buran's design.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

Nya-notech ship's cats being mischievous sounds -adorable beyond words-

It does seem like there is more than a bit of psychic... 'Quantum entanglement' between a Fog's Mental Model and or its Kanmusu version. This, if anything might bode even more ill for 'Bucky.'

Speaking of: I see what G did there... a certain nickname plus the brainwashing + the exact same activation words? The one fear I have here is tied to the closing observation... That they may have gone after her old hull specificaly BECAUSE of her being the 'Mother of them all.' It could easily go grimdark for the destroyers for a time before Corwin does the vodoo that He Do so well and saves the day.

Cause... UF.

In the Not Really A Studio Quote threads, there's a series of posts by CdrMike with various shipgirls being cast as Avengers. You should re-read the casting notes for Iowa.

>
>The one fear I have
>here is tied to the closing observation... That they may have gone
>after her old hull specifically BECAUSE of her being the 'Mother of
>them all.' It could easily go grimdark for the destroyers for a time
>before Corwin does the voodoo that He Do so well and saves the day.
>
>Cause... UF.

That seems unlikely. It's more mystical than Earthgov is likely to go in most cases. The only time we've seen them get even vaguely into the magical side was when they tried to get the Amazons mind-controlled into a special military force, and that was less active usage of magical effects, more "they're really strong and tough, we don't care if it's magic or just a good exercise program."

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

I think this might be a callback to a previous part of the story (emphasis mine):

Fubuki was always bright, always cheerful. Ever conscious of her position as the first of the Special Type destroyers, she always strove to set an example for her sisters, to say nothing of the vast armada of younger cousins who followed her epoch-defining class into navies all over the world.

Fubuki may think of the other destroyers based on her design as cousins, but Tashkent clearly has her own opinion of their relationship.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

Not suggesting that Fubuki is a dog who is also a god, or that she can unlock esoteric magical powers by finding specific other destroyers who exhibit them, but the connection lingers in my brain. (Maybe she somehow takes up the mantle of sun god if Balder ever retires...)

>Fubuki may think of the other destroyers based on her design as
>cousins, but Tashkent clearly has her own opinion of their
>relationship.

Familial relationships between kanmusu is a somewhat variable thing. The easiest one is that of siblings - all ships that are directly the same class are considered direct family, regardless of order of construction. From there, it gets a little more wibbly, leaning more on general type/function of ship in their respective navies, and whether or not they defined a new naval function : USS Langley is considered the "mother" of American Carriers, while IJN Hōshō is the "mother" of Japanese Carriers, though it's up to the individual kanmusu to decide if they actually regard their predecessor as a parent, as opposed to just an older relative or distinguished predecessor. HMS Argus is considered "the mother of all carriers", being the first fully-functional flight-deck carrier as we understand them, but not every carrier in every navy considers her their "mom"/"grandparent".

This is pretty much the state of the relationship between Fubuki and Tashkent - Tashkent recognized Fubuki as the progenitor of their particular ship design, to whom they all owe their existence to, but she doesn't send her chocolates and a card on Mother's Day.

--- Philip

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart -- Fan Meta Discussions

Complicating the situation further, many of the later Japanese carriers would point out that while Argus was the first operational carrier-as-we-know-them, Hōshō was the first that was built specificially for the role (Argus, Langley et al. were converted from existing hulls--Argus was laid down as the ocean liner Conte Rosso for an Italian contract, while Langley, like Vestal, was a converted fleet collier).

(Hōshō herself, being a modest and retiring soul, would just as soon they not make such a fuss about it, but her personality has a tendency to inspire fierce loyalty in those she's spent time looking after. :)

Connected to the above, a lot of it has to do with individual personalities. HMS Dreadnought (1906), for example, is the undisputed technological "mother" of the uniform-heavy-armament battleship, to the extent that her name is the generic term for all battleships built along her lines, which is to say pretty much every battleship built after her--but her personality is so resoundingly un-maternal that no one ever thinks of her as the mother of anything.

>This is pretty much the state of the relationship between Fubuki and
>Tashkent - Tashkent recognized Fubuki as the progenitor of their
>particular ship design, to whom they all owe their existence to, but
>she doesn't send her chocolates and a card on Mother's Day.

HMS Coventry (D118) does, and Fubuki wishes she would stop. :)

--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.

No idea. I went looking on Google Images* so I could get an idea of what a tokin looked like, and the only thing that seemed vaguely relevant was Aya Shameimaru, a Touhou character who wears one, and was depicted as having black wings in one game.

Peter Eng
--
* - I had to search 'tokin' and 'hat' to get past a lot of photos of computer chips.

It may well be that Someone is also checking into trespassers in Her realm.

Useful, but it doesn't explain why something out of Japanese mythology would be fluttering around Asgard.

>It may well be that Someone is also checking into trespassers in Her
>realm.

If so, Teleute would probably consider it perfectly reasonable to drop in herself, instead of sending somebody or going in disguise. I've no idea if there's any actual relationship between them, but I can see her treating Corwin like a nephew regardless of that.

Peter Eng
--
I had to search through UF: Twilight to make sure I got her name right.

Her gift applies to all the Einherjar, and to date she hasn't shown any signs of having A Thing against Corwin. It's all about Anthy in her world. Everything she's done that sits outside her official duties to Asgard - the recall, hitting on Corwin, bringing Akio as her plus-one, attacking Anaximandra, murdering Clef - all of it is about svartelves in general, and Anthy in particular.

As far as I can tell, there's no motivation for her to cripple Asgard's defenders. In her mind, she's defending the purity of the Aesir from a race that is purely malicious and evil. (And yes, working with Akio would seem to be an irrational way of going about it. She hasn't been on the road to Rationalville for a while now, and that may have been the case before the Fallen Prince started whispering words in her ear.)

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

If it helps, the time when Freyja was personally and directly responsible for anything to do with Einheri affairs was a very long time ago. The daily blessing that revives and restores those who died or were wounded (or, as we've seen, partied their asses off :) the previous day/night is still called Lady Freyja's Gift, because it's traditional, but it hasn't actually come from her in ages. In the modern age it's fully automated, part of the World-Engine's program--it happens regardless of where she is or what she's up to.

For background: There was a time, long ago, when there were two separate places in Asgard where the honored battle-fallen went: half of them went to Valhalla, which was ultimately ruled by Odin, and the other half to Fólkvangr, which was Freyja's domain. This dates back to the time before the pantheons of Asgard were unified, when Odin's Æsir and the Vanir (who, as their name suggests, are native to Vanaheim) were rival bands of gods. This was ultimately resolved by a war, at the end of which the surviving Vanir joined the Æsir. (You can tell which modern-day Asgardian gods are Vanir because they have pointed ears and the OG Æsir do not, assuming no shapeshifting is involved.)

Since that time, Valhalla and Fólkvangr have been basically the same thing. Technically, half of the honored dead who come to Asgard are still allocated to Fólkvangr, but in practice this basically just means that their ID numbers end in F instead of V. (A bit amusingly to the old-timers, in the old runes these are both the same letter, ᚠ.) They all go to the same (meta)physical place, they're all called Einherjar (a name originally used only for those who went to Odin's half), and they're all under the same department of the celestial bureaucracy.

TL;DR: The 25th-century afterlife for warriors is sort of like modern-day Major League Baseball. :)

--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.

And bureaucracies being the same no matter where you go, I can't help but picture that this scene has played out at least once:

"Sir, this is the 'V' line, but your form says you're an 'F,' so you need to be in the next line over."

"But when I got here, they told me this is the line I was supposed to be in. I've been waiting for over two hours to be seen!"

"Sir, I don't know who told you that, but your form clearly says you're supposed to be in the 'F' line, so I need you to move aside so I can help the next person in line."

"THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! I WAS THE RIGHT HAND OF CHARLAMAGNE HIMSELF!!!"

"Alright, sir, I'm on break. *slaps down 'Back in 5' sign and walks away*"

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

I can rest a little easier knowing Akio can't get at Corwin and company that way, at least.

Excellent writing and plotting as always, chief.