The Sad, Sorry State of Chiyo Shimada (Part 1)

Posted on Sat Aug 12th, 2023 @ 8:58am by Major Chiyo Shimada & Alice Shimada & Captain Taiga Aisaka

1,040 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Starship Graveyard
Location: Shimada Family Quarters
Timeline: After the meeting

Alice had the day off from school, and she was planning on spending it developing her RPG world and coming up with campaign notes for future sessions. Alice had just finished up her breakfast and was settling in for what she was hoping to be a long day of creativity when the doors to the quarters swooshed open and her mother stepped through. Alice glanced up to the surprising sight of her mother back early.

"You're home early." Alice commented. "Just stopping through?"

"Actually, Captain Beurling has agreed to take over for me for a little while." Chiyo yawned. "You're on your own for lunch, sweetie."

Alice rolled her eyes. Given the recent pattern of her mother's behavior, it was a safe bet that instead of being creative, she would be catering to her mother while she acted like a deadbeat, sitting around and watching old anime series from her grandparents' manga library.

"Whatever, mom;" Alice muttered. "Let me know if you need anything..."

Alices eyes returned to her PADD as she heard the swooshing of the doors to her mother's bedroom. It didn't take too long afterwards for the muffled sounds of crying to start emanating from behind the doors. However, Alice largely tuned it out, plugging away at her campaign notes.

Alice didn't really pay attention to how much time had passed. She did observe that the sounds of her mother crying had given way to those of her mother snoring. When Alice finally did lower the PADD, she took a look around the main room of the quarters and sighed, resigning herself to the idea of another week's session in Captain Beurling's quarters. For despite her best efforts to keep the place clean, it was quite difficult when her mother wasn't pouring the efforts she used to into keeping the quarters clean. At the moment the sigh left her lungs, Alice's stomach rumbled, and she looked up at the chronometer and saw that it was 1430 hours and she should probably go eat something.

Lunch was a rather productive time for Alice. She had chosen to eat in the mess hall, and for some reason, the sounds of officers chattering away wasn't as distracting to Alice as the muffled sounds of her mother's snoring was, and after deciding her notes were in a satisfactory enough state of completion to warrant her stopping and picking back up in her quarters, Alice reluctantly decided to start heading back.

As Alice made her way back to her quarters, amending her campaign notes as she walked, she looked up and saw the peculiar sight of Captain Aisaka standing outside, and it wasn't someone else's quarters that she was trying to make a house call to, as Alice recognized the Shimada nameplate mounted to the corridor wall.

"Um... Can I help you?" Alice asked awkwardly as she approached.

"Hello Alice. I've come to see if your mum is OK, but she's not opening the door," Taiga replied softly. Genuine worry and concern could be seen on the captain's face, she could have overridden the door controls but that open didn't feel appropriate.

"Oh, my mom's probably still asleep." Alice shrugged. "She left a note for me this morning that she was heading into work early, and when she came in after breakfast, she cried herself to sleep and has been sawing wood ever since. I could see about waking her if you want?"

Taiga nodded. "Waking her may be a good idea. I'm more than just a Captain, I'm the leader of a community and right now your mom needs someone to talk to," she explained softly.

Nodding, Alice proceeded to input her combination into the door controls, and the doors to the quarters swooshed open. Despite Alice's best efforts, a light odor had begun to take hold in the quarters. Alice had started to notice it whenever she left either to attend school or to visit her mother at work, and she had quickly become embarrassed about it, hence why she had taken up attempting to keep the quarters clean. Alice shot Taiga a rather apologetic look as she beckoned for the captain to follow her over the threshold into the quarters.

Alice made her way towards the doors of the master bedroom and swooshed them open. Stepping through, Alice found her mother passed out without a shirt on, Chiyo's uniform tunic and bra lay on the floor where she had dropped them. Making her way over to her mother's bed, Alice reached out and shook her mother awake.

"Mom, get up." She said.

Chiyo snorted loudly as she twitched awake, evidently startled by her daughter.

"Huh, what?" Chiyo asked.

"Get up, we have company." Alice replied. "And for goodness sakes, put your bra back on!"

When Alice told Chiyo to put her bra back on, Alice picked up her mother's dropped bra and tossed it at her. The undergarment gently struck Chiyo in the back.

Chiyo had been sound asleep. She hadn't been dreaming at all, as the fatigue of waking up with minimal sleep had caught up to her. Which was surprising when Alice jostled her awake saying company was over. At first, Chiyo thought that some of the guys were arriving for Alice's session. However, a glance at the chronometer on her bedside table showed that the time was only about 1505 hours, and the RPG group didn't meet up until at least 1700 hours. So, Chiyo was curious as to who would visit so early.

Ignoring Alice's instructions to put her bra back on, Chiyo changed out of her uniform pants for a more comfortable pair of black capris and slid into a white tank top. Chiyo exited the quarters scratching her crotch to find Captain Aisaka standing in the main living area.

"Oh, hey, Captain;" Chiyo said nonchalantly. "Here to scold me for acting out of line at the briefing?"

The shorter woman shook her head. "Not exactly, let's just say that I'm worried about you. So I came to see how you were doing."

Chiyo sighed. The heavy sigh alone was all Taiga might have needed to know about how Chiyo was doing. Yet, Chiyo spoke up:

To be continued...

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