I looked at the clock a bit blearily, it was afternoon now, and Chitose and I had a fair amount of empty bottles and plates around us. Ship-People, no matter the color-palette, apparently had one hell of a tolerance for alcohol, I was starting to feel a bit... Tingly, however.
A contingent of our fairies had disembarked, much to the initial alarm of the bar's other patrons, and had brought their own tin mugs and canteens, sitting around on our table as they caroused and drank, using a human-sized shot glass as a tub-sized punch-bowl. We had to put our hands down to act as a wall between two groups of them as some of my drunker ensigns tried to start a fight with some of Chitose's aircrew. As they calmed down, another woman, a teenager really, finished singing some anime-song I'd never heard of, to polite applause. I clapped along with the crowd for a moment, grabbing my glass again, before pausing in thought.
"Wonder what songs they got on that thing." I gestured at the karaoke machine, Chitose followed my gaze before shrugging, daintily sipping at her... 17th? Glass of wine.
"Why don't y-you go find out?" I bet you'd be a good singer... That Abyssal flange would be good for Western country songs I bet." I snorted, and to the Seaplane Tenders surprise, got up out of my chair.
"Georgia, I was joking don't actua- Ah, nevermind, there she goes..." I made my way to the stage as the young woman left it, the people there, mostly local youths, got out of my way in a hurry, once they noticed me. And soon I was on the stage, looking over the song selection as they looked on nervously.
...Then I remembered that I can't read any of this crap. Especial drunk with one working eye.
"Ah-hah!" I shouted, as I found the language selection, after a few minutes of fumbling around blindly with the menus, I selected English. "And there we go! alright, what do we have here?"
They had a pretty wide selection, most of the artists had some weird squiggly line name, but there were a few I recognized, like A-ha, Eminem, Nickleback for some reason, even an artist called Naka-Chan, who from the cover art I was fairly certain was a Kanmusu, though it was probably some J-pop rubbish... One band caught my eye with its ship-like name. "The Dreadnoughts?" I looked more closely at the song's title, and I let out a laugh. I picked the song and stepped back, getting the mic ready as I took one more big gulp of fortifying courage-juice.
watch?v=J3SmAaOOLck
The music started up, violin and drums happily blaring as I got ready, Chitose was looking on in mild secondhand embarrassment as Hakone cheered me on while she continued her meal. Countess simply gave me a thumbs up. OHCRAPHERECOMESTHELYRICS- I stumbled at the start of the song, not prepared for the speed the lyrics were going at across the screen. My voice, made louder by the human mic, made my Abyssal-flang a bit more noticeable.
-wefoundhh-her smoking merrily, In the Balmoral Hotel!
And w-we knew she was our only One-eyed Northern Belle-
At that line, I pointed at my eyepatch theatrically.
-With Shamus up the mizzen-mast And Willie at the head
Oh, we set to sea A 1, 2, 3! A new fine wench in the captains bed!
Chitose put her hands over her face, trying to merge with the table she was on. Hakone started to bob along to the music, smiling happily as she crunched into a lobster claw, forgetting that you had to crack the shell off first. My crew, from the table, started cheering wildly.
The Kraken rising from the depths below! 'hic' H-He never counted on Mary, from the snoooooow! Then I gave the sailor's prayer, me boys. We roared out in the rain!
The sea was rolling merrily. Round the shores of Bowen Isle Ah, the Swedish B-bugger sang a song.
That made dear Mary smile!
And below the sea A 1, 2, 3! The monster heard our sad refrain!
The Kraken rising from the depth below! He never counted on Mary from the snoooooooow!
Hakone had started singing along, pounding the table, luckily missing any of the fairies below, who scrambled out of the way, this seemed to cause a chain reaction, as people, mostly the young men and some Vietnamese who knew enough English to understand me, and even a few who didn't, began to pound their tables along with her to the beat of the song. Some of my crew at the table even got out a camcorder, the little black-mailing buggers.
W-With arms the size of houses. They knocked us to and fro. 'hic' We cursed out as the Kraken. Made to drag us down below!
And the last thing that I saw before I screamed our last good-bye.
Was the redhead whore! That we adored! With murder in Her one good eye! -I pointed at my intact eye, which got an amused cheer.
The Kraken rising from the depth below! He never counted on Mary from the snooooow! God rest your one-eyed soooooooouul!
She was Mary, the one-eyed cherry from Dawson City, we loved her soooooo. Oh, Mary, the beast was angry And you stood ready With a mortal bloooow!
Hakone and Countess got up and clapped frantically, and they were soon joined by some of the patrons as I bowed theatrically. Before stumbling slightly and deciding to make my way back to our table for the next singer.
"I-I can't believe you actually did that Georgia." Chitose moaned from her position, hands folded over the top of her head, face-first against the table as if to hide from the world.
"Hey, it was your idea, excuse me~ I swiped some crawfish out Chitose's bowl, popping them in my mouth before she could react.
"Hey!"
It was now almost five.
Chitose had gotten a call earlier, when she was still mostly understandable. Apparently Lao had straightened things out with the police, and had gotten us all a room in the Chan Navy Guesthouse down the street, we obviously weren't going anywhere for a while, so Giang's father took the boys to go check it out and drop off Duc, as it was getting a little late, leaving us to wallow in food, booze and each other's fine company until he got back. Our crew had retreated back inside of us after doing a full shift rotation, which took longer for Chitose, who had more lasses to cycle through.
I went to uncork another bottle of wine, before looking at it blearily.
"H-Hey, Hakone." The Heavy Cruiser looked up from her food, only making a token attempt at chewing before swallowing. "How old are you now?"
"Four, I guess, if you mean since you Woke me I guess three weeks... Why?" I waggled the bottle at her.
"We never did get around t-to Christening you, did we? A ship's gotta be christened tab-be a ship! Them's the rules! Countess too!" Chitose perked up at that, putting her hand up to her mouth as she let out a small hiccup.
"Ahh, Ah, t-that's right! You were proberrly made by My... MAI Krizzit. I doubt she bothered to christen you, 'hic' did she?" Hakone shrugged as she shoveled another handful of food into her mouth. I got up out of my seat and sauntered over to the bar, I got the bar-tenders attention with a wave, before pointing at two bottles of Champaign wordlessly. This had been going on for the better part of the day, and the man wordlessly handed them to me.
I walked (read: stumbled) back, as I held the bottles by the neck like a pair of clubs. "A-Alright girls, outside fer a minute!" They looked at me strangely, before they got up, putting down their plates as Chitose grabbed my shoulder, I turned to look, but she was just trying to steady herself.
"I-I think I got a good one, fer Countess, gimmie a bottle. I passed it to her as we supported each other's walk out the door, where the pair of Abyssal surface ships waited.
"Alright, I'll start this off!" I stumbled up to Hakone, leaving Chitose to wobble gently in place.
"Hear my words! Abyss, Posidon, w-'hic'Who the hell ever'sncharge of the ocean! This boat is a good boat! A Great boat even! And I-I 'ereby Christen her the... GFV Hakone!" I paused, before stage whispering to Hakone. "K-Kneel down a 'sec, eh? I can't reach ya." Hakone did as I asked, bowing down in front of me. I took a steadying breath, summoned up some of my displacement to make sure the bottle would burst...
And then I smashed the bottle over the back of Hakone's head.
There were a few yells from a couple of people down the road, that quieted as Hakone stood up, grinning widely. I smiled at her blearily. "You're a real ship now, H-Hakone." She hugged me, I hugged back, which is probably the only reason I didn't fall over.
"GFV?" Chitose asked.
"Georgia's Fleet Vessel. What? 'hic' It fits." I said. The Seaplane Tender nodded, before looking down at her own bottle.
"Alright, I-I've been... Been looking at Australia's maps, for mountains, and there's a Mount Anne in Tasmania." She looked at Countess. "I-Is Anne a... a good name? Hakone is named after one, so-oo I thought, maybe-" Countess interrupted the rambling Tender.
"T̴h̵a̶t̷ ̴w̴o̷u̸l̸d̴ ̵b̸e̶ ̶g̴r̷e̷a̶t̶,̴ ̷I̵'̴v̵e̷ ̷g̶o̴t̵t̷e̶n̷ ̷u̵s̷e̵d̵ ̶t̶o̷ ̷C̶o̸u̶n̸t̶e̶s̸s̷,̸ ̶b̵u̸t̸ ̶I̸ ̸t̵h̷i̶n̷k̵ ̸I̶'̶d̸ ̸l̸i̵k̷e̵ ̵a̵ ̴n̴a̸m̸e̸ ̵t̸h̸a̷t̴ ̵g̸o̶e̵s̶ ̶along w̵i̵t̵h̷ ̷H̸a̷k̴o̷n̵e̶'̸s̶" The two ships shared a grin at that.
"Then as... Ryūjin, is my witness 'hic', as the S-Seaplane Tender Chitose, namesake 'Thousand years', I name you GFV Anne!" Coun-Anne bowed, as Hakone had done, and a second Champaign bottle burst, contents dripping off the ships hair onto the road.
"Normally for Japanese ships... I'd cuddoff your launching tether widd a silver axe, but I-I don't think we'll get hold of one anytime soon." Anne just nodded, before giving Chitose a hand as we went back into the bar, where a very confused bartender was watching us from his post. I grinned at him, and pointed at two more bottles, this time the worst tasting piss-water I could recognize. He raised a brow, and made a swinging motion with his hand, I shook my head 'no.' He gave me the bottles, and I brought them back to our table.
"Alright you two, now t-that your big girls now, you can try a dr'hic'ink yourselves!" Chitose looked up to argue, then saw my sneaky grin, and quieted down to watch. I un-screwed the two bottles and gave it to the two ships, who cautiously took a gulp of it.
Hakone spit hers out.
"AH! this is horrible! How can you drink this Georgia?" She clawed at her tongue for a moment, before taking a big swig of water to wash out the taste. I just grinned.
"What? You d-don't like alcohol?" Hakone rapidly shook her head as me and Chitose let out a laugh and knowing look, Anne had spit hers out as well, and had the most scrunched-up expression I'd ever seen on her face, like she'd eaten a lemon.
"I guess you'll just have to leave the booze t-ta me and Cheeto fer now huh?" Chitose made a squawk at her mispronounced name as I giggled-
Which was about the time we heard police sirens.
Drunken wholesome shenanigans. Mt Anne is also located in a conservation park, same as the Hakone caldera, so... unintentionally pretty cool coincidence!