作者： Morgane

“Hey Morgane, is New York a real character?”

Er, let me answer this with a question that I’ve received.

“It’s good to see the degree of realism you try to put into this. Too often the supporting elements aren’t mentioned at all, and people these days don’t pay enough attention to the tocroaches to realize that we make those missions happen.”

…

So, I think there’s one thing I do want to clear up. While we’re obviously aware of the massive efforts that goes into supporting any military operation, Pacific has fairies doing about 99% of the jobs that would typically be given to rear echelon/supporting elements.

In other words, because there are so few shipgirls available, STEC would be deploying them…

Hmm, let me give an imperfect analogy. In the same way as the USAF would deploy F-22s or B-2s strategically, STEC basically treats the shipgirls in the same way. After all, having superpowers is pretty handy for doing a lot of stuff that’s not just fighting the Abyssals.

That being said, however, at some point, someone has to ask: what sort of things should a shipgirl be used for? That’s where someone like New York comes in. I’ve said elsewhere that she works as part of STEC’s legal department, and have joked that yes, a New Yorker is in charge of assessing STEC’s ethics. However, New York would actually be a fairly good fit for this role, particularly because she’s wary of almost everything.

Or, to put it this way, New York doesn’t quite think that humanity is largely ready to accept the reality that it lives in yet. In the same way as she’s supportive of suppressing all information pertaining to the Abyssals, she’s generally of the opinion that the less chances shipgirls are exposed to the public, the better for everyone (whether it’s national security or STEC’s operational security) as a whole.

So, suppose a disaster like, say, the 1971 LA earthquake happen. Should STEC send shipgirls to help with the relief effort? New York would say no – patrolling the waters to ensure no Abyssal intrusion occurs is far more important. She would argue that the current facilities and resources of the US government should more than adequately meet the disaster. Failures to do so is a failure on the part of government, and not necessarily on STEC or other organizations.

Governor, let me be perfectly clear here. STEC assets are reserved for counter-abyssal operations. It isn’t something you can just “call in” to salvage your own failures in governance.

What about the people? Well. What about them? Look here. See this? My girls just got rid of this that was roaming a few hundred miles off of the coasts of your state four days ago. You want to know what happens when that thing gets to people?

You’ve read the briefings. Good. For homework, here’s the footage again. I want you to remember just exactly what it is that we’re dealing with –

Oh, you had no idea. Of course you didn’t. Most of you don’t. Now get out of my office, governor. That snow’s not going to clear itself.

By the way. Intel division is two doors to the right if what you saw was too much. Go on.

… Now, let’s say we have impetuous shipgirls that decide to go, screw it, I’m gonna go help. Is she actually going to stamp her foot down and stop them? Most likely no. Not without good reason.

This perhaps is the singularly most paradoxical thing about New York. She likes creating (and refining) rules and regulations, but she herself doesn’t seem to pay too much heed to the particular letter of the rule so long as the spirit is followed. As much as she’s a hardliner outwardly, you could say that she’s got a sort of … greasy flexibility that makes her good on the negotiating table.

And, as a last thought, like any good negotiator, New York keeps people guessing. She’d be easier to deal with if you know what her bottom line is, but good luck figuring that out. 🙂

See you next time.

“Is there any particular historical reason for certain of the girls having moles, or just Jeanex’s whims?”

On Iowa & Pacific Shipgirls

I commented on this earlier and much of the design concepts here stand true even to today.

Beauty spots themselves are a little hard to explain, since in different cultures there are different views on what the beauty spot itself symbolizes. In general, though, beauty spots are meant to emphasize a particular “personality.”

Okie’s, specifically, is meant to emphasize “sorrow” – we talked about this in vol. 1, where we just sat down and looked at the history of the USS Oklahoma, and went, man, that’s really unlucky.

Iowa, well, I think we all just wanted to make her a quiet beauty. Again, see the above post for a better explanation for the thoughts that went into Iowa’s design. We think of far more than just the ship, but also the state and the symbolism and everything else that might be associated with a particular shipgirl.

As for Yorktown? That’s a draft. If we do give her a beauty mark, it’d be to distinguish her personality from Hornet and Enterprise. 🙂

“Or, for that matter, girls with half updos and big hair ribbons, like Missouri, Wisconsin, Phoenix and WeeVee?”

Think about it from a girl’s perspective (not saying that November thinks like this – since I do it for him xD), why would you wear a big ribbon in your hair?

Well, you could say that it’s because it’s cute. What do you think of a ribbon, or rather, who wears ribbons in their hairs? Schoolgirls. Cheerleaders. Generally “youthful” or “vigorous” characters.

Or maybe you wear it because it’s a fairly simple way of displaying femininity. We’ve got a couple of tomboyish characters up even in that list, but again, I do want to re-emphasize that they’re young women, first and foremost.

These are just examples of two reasons (both in and out of universe) that contribute to the design of each character. We’re in the business here of making shipgirls, after all.