[Mail call] 2017/02/22

Website was down for most of the day. It’s up again now.


“Do subgirls actually ride their torpedoes into battle?”

They could, but why? STEC can probably drop them close enough to the site and they have equipment that massively boosts swimming speed.

For starters, if you think about it, the one advantage of the subgirls is that they can approach things stealthily. Riding a torpedo in might be kind of badass sounding, but I’m not sure what purpose it’d achieve. Not to mention, when do you hop off the torpedo?

[Mail call] 2017/02/22

Sometimes silly questions are silly. Here’s a Lori holding a torpedo.

[Mail call] 2017/02/21 – On names and shipgirl operations

“Having just returned from visiting the Lexington museum in Corpus Christi, which also has small sections about both CA-30 and CL-81 Houstons and miniature of CV-8 Hornet, I had a question regarding ships in WWII that share names. Are you planning on doing anything to differentiate them in name, or will they just have the same name in the same way that John or Mary are common names?”

You guys have seen this one, but it’s worthwhile to post it again to illustrate my point. This is really a matter of identity.

[Mail call] 2017/02/21 - The ol' Name question

Here, Pennsy is obviously trolling Sanny. Those are (probably) cosplay pictures, but the general point is pretty clear. Even if all those are different “Pennsy’s” (which they aren’t), Pennsy is a Pennsy is Pennsy. Putting on a funny hat doesn’t make Pennsy not a Pennsy, and putting on a swimsuit doesn’t make a Pennsy more Pennsy.


“Where’s Pacific’s next major event?”

Taiwan went well. Probably the Chinese ones next. Zero’ll be coming to the US for AnimeBoston. I’ll probably put up an announcement soon regarding that.

Oh, do you mean in-universe? No comment. 🙂


“What happens when a shipgirl goes on a mission?”

This is sort of an unusual question, but I’m going to guess at what you’re actually asking.

On the mission itself, the shipgirl does whatever the mission objective may be. Generally, on your standard counter-Abyssal run, you’re looking at a very simple thing of eliminating the Abyssal in question.

The shipgirl is generally kept in touch with Avalon through a number of ways. Satellite image, two-way communications, and the like. I mean, the shipgirls themselves aren’t dumb. This isn’t like Pokemon where Mike has to tell them to fire on the enemy or run away or whatnots. He might have to remind a few girls to back off or to fight at optimal range, but that’s a comparatively rarer event.

Though, of course, STEC does watch the shipgirl’s performances. There’s plenty to be learned from each shipgirl’s way of fighting, and plenty of ways to improve after. In addition, a chance to observe the Abyssal fleet in action is always a good one, since the more you know and understand what the enemy’s capable of, the better you are at beating them.

[Mail call] 2017/02/20 – Pam

Well, Raleigh really is something, isn’t she? 

Even when she’s like that, she still tries her hardest. Poor girl tired herself out, and I’m probably going to have to scold her a bit for it, but I’m proud of her. She smiles through everything no matter what. I kinda want a nap, but seeing that smile is all I need to keep going if the day’s tough. 

Oh, life’s been going fine so far. I’ve taught Shaw to handle most of the simple cuts and scrapes that happen, so that lightened my workload considerably. Shaw’s always been my little angel. She picks up things very quickly, and is eager to try them out. I think it’s only a matter of time before she’s able to run things all by herself. Wonder what I’ll do then. Maybe I’ll finally get to lie around the pool and actually lifeguard, heh…

My requisition for more medical supplies just went through, so I’ll get to reorganize all of my stuff when that finally delivers. I’ve actually been putting it off, so this’ll be good. It’s important to make sure we have adequate supplies of the things we need, AND of the things we might need. You’d be surprised to hear how fast we can run through stock…

Oh, and tell O’bannon that I know she’s been in the supply room. It’s annoying to find stuff tampered with all the time. Confuses Shaw to no end too when she decides to look around in there.

Don’t worry, I haven’t been slacking off on my fighting skills either! Dolphin’s been kicking the rust off of my TDC skills, and I still go to practice daily like all the other subgirls. I ended up with a 80% hit rate yesterday. Not bad for a medic, right? Now if only I could catch up with Narwhal’s record…

Maybe then you’ll send me out more, yea? I wouldn’t mind throwing a few punches myself. 🙂

[Mail call] 2017/02/19

“Why is this called mail call and not daily updates?”

Why should it be called daily updates? What if we can’t update every day?

I mean, this thing’s halfway between what I randomly post on our forums every day and a way to formally answer questions. I also use it to throw out content on reasonably regular occasions.


“Question. Just what is the conventional military of the world doing? I get that STEC is supposed to be this super secret organization, but why not get the world to engage in a massive military build-up to counter the Abyssal invasion?”

This question pops up fairly regularly, and I’ll answer it with a few notes. In short, there’s no advantage right now to make this stuff public knowledge and a number of shortcomings.

  1. See vol. 1’s reasoning for keeping things a secret. Not many ways to hurt the things short of shipgirl, and your unappealing options are:
    1. lie to people and tell them that the weapons work when they don’t.
    2. don’t lie to people and tell them that the weapons don’t work.
  2. STEC doesn’t want to raise world tensions when the Abyssals haven’t struck in force. If there’s a military build up and the Abyssals don’t show, it’s pre-emptively depleting resources and political will that could go towards fighting the Abyssals.
  3. Current Abyssal activities are contained.
  4. No practical benefit to STEC’s own operations since they don’t really need the massive infrastructural and logistical supports of the other branches of the military.

I can go on, but those are a few examples.


“Could you send me the cubs fan Chicago please?”

Sure.