Okay. I think normally Morgane’s the one that does these things by talking to you directly, but you know, the usual happens, so I figure I’d give this one a shot instead.
This isn’t titled one of her Fireside Chats since it’s me talking, but psst, little robot, you might as well archive it under that!
So I thought about what to title this for a lot. In the end I settled on “normalcy.” It’s a pretty common question that gets brought up in private quite a bit to Mike. I shouldn’t say comment. Maybe observation? Here. Let me show you a bit from the latest performance analysis.
“The shipgirls go out there and fight giant monsters and happily go home and display no signs of psychological duress. Emotional satisfaction remains consistently high, in-group bullying or infighting is nonexistent, and petty squabbles are rare and tend to be resolved more or less immediately, if not within the day.”
These assessments tend to end praising Mike’s leadership abilities, but he’s always writing back and telling them that it’s not him. He didn’t do anything. You have the girls and their wonderful personalities to thank.
I’ve got a few things to say about that, since I definitely think Mike’s an important part of it. But I do think we’re pretty different from what you see on television or in other entertainment. We’ve talked about this before. Whoever sent us down here had an eye for maturity, and we’ve got this theory that you don’t get to be a shipgirl unless you’ve got what it takes.
But, I think we’re this way because we have the baseline, and we put the effort into it. Mike’s a good example of this. The things we do well, he tells us that we do well. The things we don’t do well, he’s always very careful to say that while it’s this thing or that thing that we didn’t do well, he’s not at all disappointed with us. There’s an intuitive sense of understanding and appreciation for everything we do for each other, and we let each other know that.
I really think this mindset is what sets us apart. We can tie something concrete to our identities. People here don’t really think of themselves as being “nice” or “mean.” Rather, it’s more like “The DD girls can count on me to climb a tree and fetch their kite” or “Marby knows she can trust me to tell her what I think of her depictions of me in her erotic novels starring all of her friends” or “Langley knows I sometimes forgets to bring the dish back if I get hungry late at night so she leaves the kitchen light on.”
So, yeah. Here’s an easy thought exercise for me.
Good morning, Ari! It’s a good day, isn’t it? What would you like to do today?
I’d like to be even more happy today than I was yesterday!
How do you want to do that?
I’m going to be more helpful today!
How are you going to do that?
Well, I need to get out of bed first –
Hmm, okay, I think some of the girls stayed up pretty late last night. I wonder if they managed to clean up the lounge. I’m going to go check it out.
What are you going to do once you get there?
I’m going to make it nice and tidy so the others can enjoy that space!
Why do you want to do that?
Seeing my friends happy make myself happy! Duh.
There you go. Thought process over. Time to do stuff!