hakootoko

She stares at Remy wide-eyed through her speech, and then at Luc through his, though she has to admit she perhaps got less out of his.

"Wow, that got serious fast. Let's back up a bit. None of what I said would apply to either Lt Huston or to Casval, because I already know each of them as individuals, and that's what I'd base things on."

"Up to that point, we'd been talking about interactions with strangers, which means that for better or worse we're dealing with gender roles. Not chromosomes; societal norms. For example, if a guy I don't know touches me as a way of flirting, I'm inclined to find that creepy and want to run away. But if I touch a guy as part of flirting, he's going to take that as a sign things are going well. I've done and seen enough flirting in the years I've been on Terminus to know that this holds true for an awful lot of women and an awful lot of men, even though it has zero basis in biology."

"And," she adds with a pleasant smile for everyone at the table, "Just to be clear: I don't like the complications, so I don't date co-workers. So this me hitting on Lt Huston or Casval is never going to happen."

Skipping right over the topic of things going on in restrooms, hoping she can bury it forever.

"I, for one, would like to see this love letter you wrote. I showed you my sketches, Luc. Fair is fair."

"The proper way to chat up a stranger. Not in the shower, I'm sure!" she laughs, "It sounds like those were your 'cohorts' who knew each other well already, but still, I would feel very vulnerable if it happened to me while I was naked, even from someone I knew well."

"So let's see. What should that guy have done instead? Step one: make eye contact in the bathroom mirror and smile appreciatively. Step two: leave the restroom so you don't make the other person uncomfortable. Step three: wait outside where you can make eye contact again when they come out. Then you can tell if your attentions are welcome and can walk up and deliver your line."

"I know. Not at all like what I did in that narrow hallway. But guys and girls are different, and girls hitting on guys is way different than guys hitting on girls."

" 'Inconvenient place and time' is an understatement. I was nervous already and there was no one else in the restroom. Don't you ever worry about a guy getting pushy or angry when turned down, especially after he already does something creepy?"

"Definitely not a situation where I'd be comfortable getting half-naked, with just a flimsy wall between us that he could climb over or under if he had a mind to do so."

"You've been hit on before while washing up in a restroom? Or just after you'd stepped out of one?"

She pauses to think if that had ever happened to her, and remembers something "Okay, I did that once. He and I each stepped out of a restroom at the same time into a very narrow hallway and bumped into each other. He had a nice face and wet hands. Wet hands leaving a restroom is a good sign, I think. So I leaned in and asked if he'd like to dance out on the floor, too."

"It's some guy I saw in back of the restaurant. He had this tattoo on his face. I know I've seen it somewhere before, but I just can't place it, and it made me suspicious. I didn't feel comfortable confronting him or openly taking his picture, so I made a sketch after his back was turned."

She continues to ponder the image as the rest of the team gets back together, and shivers a bit standing around outside without a jacket on.

I would want notifications for all new topics in "IC", but not in "Character Apps". I don't know if it's configurable at that level.

Since Remy had been designated the official second-in-command of the team, Amuthini was texting her while making her way through the crowd back towards the front of the restaurant when the man bumped into her and she looked up and briefly met his eyes. Something about him struck her as suspicious, so before finishing her text she pulls up a doodle app and quickly sketches in the tattoo she saw before she has a chance to forget it. Then sends her text: "On my way back. Wait for me out front."

As she reaches the group she's pondering the sketch on her screen, wondering if she's seen this somewhere before.

Amuthini is genuinely shocked at this admission of compromising safety in the interests of speed. She quickly puts her hand in front of her nose and mouth, hoping no one else notices her expression. She doesn't really hear the second half of Remy's tale as she tries to come up with a milder topic to take her mind elsewhere.

"Okay. Less dramatic I know, but. Last year I was at the flower show in the conference center with some friends, and we were in this long line for the women's room while there was no line for the men's room. Someone brought up this 'potty parity' stuff and said it was okay to use the men's room when no one else was. So I said 'Here we go!' and stepped out of line. But none of them followed. I didn't want them to see me back down, so I went in alone. There was only one guy in there, washing his hands, and he tried to pick me up! In a restroom! No way could I stay in there a second longer. As I ran back to where my friends were waiting in line, they all laughed at me for chickening out."

"So what I'd never do again is give in to the social pressure of going alone while others stay behind. The next time, I literally dragged a friend along with me, and we both came through fine."

"I guess the customers are doing more than just cooking their own meals tonight," she yells to the cooks as she pulls out her phone to access the fire suppressor system remotely. Now if only they haven't changed the codes in the two weeks since she left Terminus maintenance.

StatusSpending Hand-held computer boost to make that result +3

Current FP: 2/3

Amuthini looks at Neli out of the corner of her eye while smiling, not exactly suspicious, but not knowing the other woman well enough to say Ahh. She takes hold of the wrap and takes a sizable bite out of it, chews, and swallows "Mmm. See, a team trust-building exercise, just like I said."

"I also like your answer to Rockwell's question. What can be the harm in asking for a place that's already been destroyed to be visited again by Kaiju? And it's a chance to 'go home again'."

"That's, uh..." Amuthini begins and pauses to think of a good way of putting it. "Can I interpret that as 'Where would you like to go on vacation while on Earth?', because wanting to be deployed somewhere in particular is like wanting that place to get destroyed by Kaiju..."

"I'd like to go to Greece for vacation, on a little island where there's sun and swimming and boating. With pristine air and water, and fresh food. And I'd learn scuba diving."

Amuthini finishes putting together a lettuce wrap that she would eat herself. Though maybe it's too spicy for the others. She hasn't learned which of her teammates are spice-wimps yet. She holds it out vaguely in the direction of Amelia and Neli, but if neither of them reach out their hand to take it, she'll turn to Grant.

Amuthini rushes down the narrow alley between the restaurant and its neighbor towards the service entrance. Pulling a spanner out of her pocket, she quickly closes the gas main at the panel on the outside of the building. Then to make herself heard over the sound of the fire coming through the open doorway, she yells at the kitchen staff cowering in the alley "Did any of you hit the fire suppresser on the way out??"

"Perhaps you're overthinking it, Remy," Amuthini breaks in after looking back and forth between the two. "I thought it was a trust-building exercise, like falling backwards and having someone catch you. But you'd know better than I. Word is you and Luc have been seeing a lot of each other out-of-hours," she adds with a knowing grin.

She waits to see if Luc takes the food Remy offers him before making one of her own.

"I guess the closest that comes to mind is how long it took me to realize that girls don't fix machines," Amuthini says while gauging the other women's expressions. "At least where I grew up. And rather than stop, I chose a society with a different normal."

"My father did well with his little repair shop, and decided to send my older brother and I to an English-only Christian pre-school to get a leg up on the international language. My memories of those idyllic days were watching my mother cooking and my father repairing after I came back from school and switched out of 'English mode'. After father died we fell on hard times, and my brother and I each did what few jobs we knew how to do in the repair shop. Because we were already established in the English school they kept us on after we lost the ability to pay, until we graduated primary school at age 14. My family couldn't afford any of the girly luxuries for me, like dolls and fancy clothes, so I didn't really associate with the local girls. And all of us at the English school absorbed European notions of equality from our textbooks as if it was totally normal. Public high school was quite a shock, and I quickly hid the fact that I could fix things, and while a girl studying math and physics was abnormal it wasn't quite as taboo. After my first year at university, I jumped at the chance at an internship on what was to become Terminus, both because it wouldn't cost my family anything and because it would allow me to do what I wanted."

"Wow. That sounded really negative. More than I meant. I had a great childhood and learned widely. You don't need to be rich to be happy." 

"Why, thank you, Luc!" she interjects, surprised that of all the people present he should be the one to compliment her on her drawing.

While listening to Grant's response, she spreads a bowl of beef brisket on the grill in anticipation of trying all the dipping sauces.

"I wouldn't advise it, Rockwell. Think of what it entails: the station is spinning for gravity, which means when you're outside on the hull, Terminus is always the ceiling."

"It's not easy to walk on a ceiling for kilometers. Sure, we've got EM boots and gloves, but those take quite bit of getting used to. After very slow progress and frequent mistakes, your muscles are going to be screaming in pain and you still won't be anywhere near the goal. That's why whenever we need to move around outside we either lift off and land or take the subway. All those subway lines were originally exposed tracks so we could move material."

"An EVA could be a good team exercise. Get out in an inherently dangerous environment and learn caution and attention to detail. We could take a trip out to The Pile. Once Terminus was massive enough to generate its own weak Lagrange point we started piling old rocket boosters and shipping containers there. They'll get broken up eventually, when we run low on other recyclables. But for now they're bumping around among themselves in a way that makes The Pile a risky obstacle course for even experienced pilots."

Still clearly embarrassed by the admission, Amuthini stammers "No, no, it's not what you think."

"I just like to draw fanciful pictures of people I know, but I never share them with anyone. It would be too awkward. And I guess I shouldn't. People will draw the wrong conclusions."

Amuthini frowns a bit at this as she thinks it over, and waits for someone else to go first. But as no one else is going first, she pulls out her phone and brings up an album of pictures, then passes it around the table. She keeps her eyes on her plate as she eats her piping hot pork belly with rice and each of the others take a look at her phone.

In the album are beautifully rendered sketches of her teammates: Luc as an 18th century French nobleman at a ball, Remy as a bullfighter swinging her red cape as the bull charges, Grant as Gilgamesh stripped to the waist and wrestling the fiery bull of heaven, Sam holding a microphone on stage in mid dance step with a handful of other pretty lads. After that are works-in-progress, with the same subjects, singly or doubly.

"I guess we shouldn't put our new teammate on the spot like that as soon as she walks in the door. I'm Amuthini. Welcome to the team, Neli!" she says with a smile.

"Since Hudson decided not to join us, I guess this is safe to ask everyone: What do you hate most about life in the military?"

While waiting for an answer, she flips over the slab of spicy pork belly on the grill in front of her, making sure it's well blackened on both sides and then reaches for the scissors.

"No way. If you don't sing, then you have to pick up the check," and she holds up a glass to clink with the group as a contract.

After long days of serious training and another new recruit, Amuthini suggests they spend an evening out to relax and get to know each other better. She tells them to dress casual.

The restaurant she takes them to turns out to be Korean, or at least pseudo-Korean, given that Korea has been cut off from NATO for over a decade. Inside they get seated at a round table which is a gas grill with a strip of table around the edge. After asking if any of them hasn't been here before, the waiter gives the introduction. "We bring out whatever you ask for on the menu raw but spiced, and you all cook it on the table in front of you. Over there is the salad, rice, kimchi, and dipping sauces bar. And you're in luck! Tonight is karaoke contest night! Everyone gets the chance to try to sing in Korean, and we have prizes for the most entertaining performance and the singing that most sounds like Korean. Good luck!"

Amuthini laughs "I wasn't expecting that last part! They never did that when I was here before." She orders several portions of meat and vegetables off the menu to start, and the waiter asks for drinks. Amuthini has iced tea. Then she leads whoever follows over to the salad bar to load up a plate of things to go with her BBQ.

I went to game advertisements and there was nothing there. Then clicking on list view made them appear, and clicking on grid view kept them. I swear this worked properly last week.

When I click on "My Games" and look at "Recent activity in my games" the posts are not in time order. It would be handy to have them sorted by time, with the newest at the top. Is there a setting for this?

Yep, working now!

Along similar lines, on the old site I used to follow games I was applying to but not yet a member of, and they would show up in my game list so I could back and peruse it as it got more posts. I tried that last week and the game didn't show up there.

THE REST OF ASIA

After the founding of New Warsaw in 1995, the USA was up to its old tricks of supporting dictators against communist insurgents, but with a revitalized communism it didn't do the USA much good. Much of SE Asia was lost except for areas where Islamic militants held off the communist forces. But the new communist countries aligned with China against New Warsaw and remained neutral in the NATO / New Warsaw wars that followed. North India was a battleground for over a decade between communists, Islamists, and democrats. Japan held out against the tide of communism while South Korea was overrun from the north and China was reunified.

After the Day of Red India split in two, with the People's Republic of India along the Ganges and the Republic of India in the center and south. The Chinese block of countries (including PRI) stopped communicating with both NATO and New Warsaw.

With the coming of the truce between NATO and New Warsaw in 2018, both groups were reaching out to possible allies, and the RoI and Japan allied with NATO after having spent years fighting their communist neighbors. The sharing of POH technology with these countries has led new markets and resources available for the West. But the Chinese alliance still maintains its silence, and neither NATO nor New Warsaw knows how many Pacific islands are even still inhabited.