To be fair & for comparison, The Last Girl Scout is also a pacing disaster and can bog down at times, it comes with the territory of a big sweeping dramatic narrative. I still don't love it though, I'm having to homework-check myself on the crew of the brigand. There's that lady who does the announcements who was late the first day, Yana and Aaliyah, the bridge crew has the navigator guy(a guy, woah!) and that trans gamer girl and the "full figure" lady, uh and there's the fishgirl security guard? I think that's most of em?

Also, I like Shalikova. She seems to hate absolutely everything and everyone and I just can't help loving her bitter cynicism layered over some sort of trauma. Also there is no fucking way in hell she's not autistic, my headcanon has decided. "Hell really was other people!" Beloved.

Conversely, I don't think I love Genivov much, because she doesn't seem like she respects people's privacy, or desire to be alone I guess. Also she's a total fuckin g*mer. Plus, who the fuck describes another woman as "buxom"????? Yes, give me the angry misanthrope lady instead please ✨

Anyway I adore the Brigand as a setting, it is as comfy and mundane and slice-of-lifey as I'd hoped. Underwater mech ballets to the death and intense ship-to-ship combat is rad, but it's all the more rad for the contrast against the little moments of calm. Sorry I could go on about Unjust Depths literally forever, I'd never run out of things to say about it

At the point where there's a mech battle involving a National Socialist aristocrat pilot screaming her head off at a psychic autistic gay catgirl, I realised that Unjust Depths may be ever so slightly silly

Still, when Murati walks into that cargo depot I'm like TRANSBIAN COMMIE MY BELOVED, HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU I'm also excited that Elena and Gertrude are probably gonna be star-crossed lovers on opposite sides now :)

Anyway this omnibus epub has intermission stuff on the end of 4, and I'm like no reeeeeee keep going I wanna see Aaliyah again!!!

E: Oh man, I think Sawyer was just jealous that Victoria got to live the dream and be taken in like a sad lil animal by mommy domny ten years her senior, lmaooooo

Also that was, definitely the most kitty scritches headpets scene I have ever seen in any fiction. Huh... It was uh descriptive.

ulyana remains the baddest bitch in the seas, her gula conversation is really fantastic.

oh my GOD i need to see aatto and elena rooming together that sounds like the worlds biggest trainwreck

murati eating chips and getting distracted thinking about how important corn is as a crop... she's just like me fr

valya finally getting focus, i'm glad to see it. mysia seems interesting, i'm excited to see where this goes

yoooo aaliyah's log talking about the meeting is so good. gloria IS deeply unserious. tamar talking about the shmii pirates is uh. really something. but more importantly AALIYAH AND ULYANA DATE NIGHT! AALIYAH'S IN LOVE

homa looking forward to dancing with kalika is also very cute