We docked just South of the Koh Thom Bridge just as the night began to turn into the dark blue just before dawn, I woke Hakone, who took one look at our position on the bed... And promptly hugged me even harder with a happy smile, the dear. After we extracted ourselves, I kicked the bottom of the top bunk, waking Chitose from within the depths of her lair made of bedding. She rolled out of bed, and by the time she was finished unraveling herself I'd made it to the table, Countess already awake from the noise.
"You have a nice nap Countess?" I said. The woman nodded, folding the blanket before biffing it in the general direction of the bunkbeds. Meanwhile, I'd grabbed another MRE, more to keep my hands busy than out of any real hope of satisfying my hunger. I came out of the cabin, going around to the helm where Lao was talking with the lieutenant from earlier, back to me...
...
...Must. Resist. Temptation...
...
I am weak. "BOO!"
"EEK!" Lao jumped a solid foot, and she scrambled after her helmet as it flew off. When she had it securely fastened to her head again, she whirled on my grinning face, glaring with her star-spangled eyes.
"You JERK! You almost made my boiler pumps cavitate!" I just shrugged, smiling widely.
"You left yourself wide open! Iliterally couldn't resist." Lao huffed, before snarking at the chuckling man behind her in Vietnamese, who had very clearly seen me creeping up on the Frigate exaggeratedly and hadn't said anything.
"So this is the place huh? It seems pretty, small." Chitose joined us then, yawning the last dregs of her tiredness away. Lao turned to answer the question.
"This is just the outskirts, the Town is further North, its... Well it's still pretty small, but they have a Halalmart and a couple other places we can go to, hopefully I can buy us some food there." She rifled in her side pocket, before bringing out a leather wallet. "I make over 3,350,000,000 Dongs per year, plus material expenses, this will probably be my biggest purchase in the past two years." Chitose and I BOTH goggled at that number, before Lao noticed our expressions. "Oh, its not that much in USD, same as any human Commander would make really, but I don't really spend it on anything anyway. I have a lot saved up."
I turned to Chitose. "How much do YOU make?" She blushed as she looked away.
"The Japanese government mostly pays us in benefits, automatic refits when available, any raw materials we ask for, free post-secondary education in whatever fields we want, that sort of thing. We get a small cash stipend to use as we see fit, but... well there's a reason some of us get other jobs on the side when we want to get something special."
"Huh, sounds like a rip-off to me." Chitose just made a 'what can you do?' gesture as the others showed up on-deck.
"Alright people! Ships, Ghosts, whatthehellever, as of right now, we're on shore leave. Well, YOU are, I have to make my way to the government offices and give some of my Cambodian friends in the navy a few calls. Until then, can you try to be inconspicuous? I know you are allies and everything, but if you go into town looking like a drowned version of that chick from the grudge you're gonna cause a panic." I looked down at my tattered overalls, it WAS getting pretty moldy from the time I'd spent underwater, and Hakone and Countess's dresses were barely hanging on to them, frayed and ripped from the hits they'd taken. Of all of us, only Chitose was presentable, in her Kanmusu dock-fresh clothing.
"We have some extra uniforms downstairs, that the kindly lieutenant just volunteered to donate to you." She gave said man the stink eye as she said something in Vietnamese, and from the tone, I couldn't help but think voluntold would probably be a more apt description.
"You got it, Commander! Inconspicuous is my middle name! Just call me Georgia Inconspicuous Ohio! I gave a sloppy salute as I turned back towards the cabin to pick up our new duds, the two other color-challenged ships accompanying me. "Think you'll be able to squeeze into a man's uniform Countess?" The woman shrugged. "Yeah, I didn't think so either, all we can do is try."
"Do these green shorts make my butt look big?" Were my first words to Chitose as I came back out of the cabin, followed by Countess and Hakone. Countess, wearing her full-length pants that only managed to barely pass her knees, the top leaving a portion of her mid-riff bare. Meanwhile, I'd had to cut off the pant legs of mine into a pair of shorts so that I wasn't dragging half of the empty legs behind me. Hakone fit hers just fine, though the men's cut had the buttons on her chest straining a little. I sadly didn't have that problem, damn this pre-pubescent body! At least I could look cute and innocent when I wanted to.
"You look fine Georgia, just... Dim your bridge-lights, would you? that goes for you two as well, countess, you may want to cover your right eye with a rag or something. Glowing eyes aren't a common thing with humans." Chitose explained.
"Alright alright..." We did as we were told, shucking off and stowing our Rigging (I told mine to just wait under the river) and the glow of our eyes went out as Countess covered the speckled armor covering the right side of her face, mirroring my own raggedy eyepatch. My Captain almost immediately jammed her pinky-toe on something. As I heard tiny screams of pain and curses in my head, I listened as Lao laid out our plan for the day.
"Alright, first stop is the government building for me, you can tag along as far as there." She tossed her wallet to Chitose. "The restaurants are close by, as long as you stick together and don't do anything... weird, most people will leave you alone in those uniforms."
"They won't get clued in we're Abyssals from the hair and skin and what-not?" I asked.
"Are you kidding? These are Cambodian civilians, they'll probably think IM an Abyssal, paranoia runs deep in these parts. I'm half-kidding, but I doubt they'll actually think you are Abyssals, simply because you aren't killing everyone in sight, what's more believable? a trio of uniformed PAVN girls with bleached hair and pale skin escorting a Kanmusu? Or a trio of friendly Abyssal ships with a Kanmusu, somehow not killing each other and walking down the road to eat curry in a crowded restaurant? People see what they want to see." I nodded at that, sometimes the best disguises were the most brazen.
"In any case, I'll try and get us a room at one of the local hostels, but we may end up having to spend the night in a field tent, there's a LOT of people coming in, the hotels will be booked solid." I could see that, even now what seemed like, and probably was, thousands of people were streaming off into the town on foot, the trucks steadily offloading from the ferries as they parked in a nearby lot to unload their human cargo. Being guarded by armed PAVN troops as a pair of Cambodian police trucks pulled up in the distance.
"Ah, damn it, change of plans, I'm going to have to take care of this, you'd better save some food for me OK?" Chitose nodded but stopped for a moment to ask a question.
"Umm, I don't know the language, can any of your men help translate? Or?" Lao flashed a look of realization, before speaking into her radio in Vietnamese. She looked back at us.
"I'm calling up one of my boys, he knows Khmer, you know him, he's the father of those two kids your Abyssal friends brought back." She turned away then, marching purposefully up to the brewing confrontation between the PAVN guards and the Cambodian rural patrol.
It was only a few minutes before the man and two boys showed up, coming out from one of the docked ferries. Hakone perked up, waving as they approached, I quickly joined her.
"Giang! Duc! Man whose name I don't remember! Nice to see you again!" I said in good humor, as the man said something to Giang, who squinted for a second before replying in Vietnamese.
"Georgia, Hakone, Countess..." He looked at Chitose, and she gave her name. "Chitose, it good to meeting you again. Dad can no speak English, I'll be translate for him while we goes into town."
Alright! I don't know if they've been feeding you the same crap as us, but I can't WAIT to grab something proper to eat! Let's get going!" I said, and we were off, joining and disappearing into the human wave of refugees.
And with that, three hilariously poorly disguised Abyssals, one Japanese Kanmusu, and a trio of Vietnamese boys/men of varying ages were turned loose on the Cambodian town.
It sounds like the beginning of a particularly long joke, but then I realize, itIS.