Commander's Rounds Volume 1

Entry 113: The Fourth Estate

"You could just say I'm here to ask the questions everyone's thinking about, but no one has actually asked."

Aoba was sitting across from King George V in her and Alex's living room and holding Matilda as well. King George was as collected as she could normally be found, and Matilda didn't really see any reason to be scared of the fuzzy-eared reporter nor that Aoba had dragged Gridley along to be her camerawoman. Aoba got comfortable, having set up the microphones just the way she needed them. "So, I guess another question I had would be this. There are quite a few child ships already in the port, but you're the first one who has had, for lack of a better term, had to raise one from scratch. I guess what Kansen want to know is what it's like for someone to not be able to skip the early stages?"

King George giggled. "I guess I'd think about the questions I'd ask of someone like Prinz Eugen or Illustrious. The fact that one has to come to terms with immediately is that a baby can do absolutely nothing for themselves, so you have to take care of all of that for some time. But I also have to wonder what it would be like to suddenly have someone who was old enough to do things for themselves, but was equally capable of getting into trouble of many ingenious kinds very quickly." She paused. "Albert tells me that Little Eugen is about as smart as her larger self, which means she may well be clever enough to get up to some rather stressful things."

Matilda yawned, having nothing to add- she lacked the articulate sophistication of her mother at this point, and would not acquire it for some time.

Aoba was the one asking the questions, however. "Aside from your obvious state of motherhood, would you say that the commander has given you any special treatment with regards to duty?"

"With regards to actual duties? No." She said. "I've been working on getting fit enough to be on the waves- my position as Sea Marshal wasn't meant to be a cushy job, just one with responsibilities that I could more easily undertake given the particulars of becoming a mother. Royals can be mannerly, of course, but we can also be rather picky, so that needs to be dealt with from time to time."

The reporter chuckled. "I think there are plenty of stories Kansen could tell about certain admirals being rather childish themselves." She continued. "So, how has the man of the fleet been taking fatherhood?"

"You know, if you wanted to know that, you could probably ask me yourself, if you liked." The commander walked on into the room, causing Aoba to signal to Gridley to stop the recording. The commander blinked. "...Was I interrupting something?"

"Nothing I can't pick up later." Aoba said. "I mean, I'm still pretty new at this sort of thing."

The commander took a look around, seeing the equipment. "...Are you working on trying to produce a news show or something?"

King George smiled as she held out a finger, and Matilda did her best to curl her own tiny fingers around her mother's outstretched digit. "She'd practicing to do that sort of thing, maybe even a little documentary about the kansen at port. You know, when we're not in the field."

"It's my big break, commander!" She said. "I can't just do the small stuff forever. When it comes to that kind of writing, people remember the paper rather than the writer, but people just eat up this kind of war reporting. Of course, I'll be as professional about this as I always have, so the quality will outshine anything else."

The commander raised an eyebrow at that. "Well... I think you may need to be a bit more professional than that, considering your previous publishing record."

Aoba blinked. "What? I've always put the juiciest stuff into my newspaper. You can't argue with that, can you?"

Gridley slowly backed away, not wanting to get herself involved.