With Georgia:

Once Lao got down from the castle via ladder (despite my urging to use the waterslide) we made to leave the park.

I abruptly stopped as we got near the front gate, "Hold on, I got to get some stuff I put in the changing rooms!"

Chitose looked over, "Alright, I'll come with you."

I put my hand against my bosom, shocked, "'Gasp!' you don't trust me alone?!"

Chitose put her hands on her hips, cocking her head, "You don't say the word 'gasp' Georgia, it's a sound you make. And I'm making sure you don't slip away again!"

That was fair, and I, coincidentally, wasn't planning on running off again, so it's not like I was really opposed to it. "Fine, come into the shower room to watch a little girl change, you weirdo." That didn't mean I wasn't going to razz her for it regardless.

Chitose, long used to my... me'ness, simply raised a brow. "Really? I seem to remember it was a certain Submarine peeking into MY booth in the Dry-Docks, not the other way around."

We walked into the girls room, as I went to the locker I'd stashed my stuff into, "You were regrowing your legs like a starfish! That's stuff worth watching don't you think?" I gathered up my old clothes, moving to the small cubicle to change.

When I came out, Chitose was still there, arms folded as a few Cambodian women talked at her in Khmer, I say 'at' because, unsurprisingly, Chitose had no idea what they were saying.

"Alright! I'm good to go!" I said happily, white devil floaty stuffed under my arm and jumpsuit back on. I'd kept the eyepatch and hat on though, as the eyepatch was miles better than that rag on my head had been, and the hat was just awesome.

"Alright, let's go, Hakone, Anne and Diane are probably wondering what's taking us so long!" We left the building, and met up with Lao, who was talking to the Cambodian Commodore we'd met earlier, she sounded quite apologetic.

She turned to me, "We managed to head off a major woman-hunt for you, he was getting ready to call in the army to help look for you!"

I just shrugged, and we went to leave the park. On the way out, I noticed a familiar head of brown hair, it was that pair of sisters from earlier! I wordlessly waved, getting the little sister's attention as her big sis talked to a woman I could only assume was her mother.

Our eyes met.

I flashed my one good eye's bridge light's at her, making an almost imperceptible flash of blue light as I gave her a grin.

I turned back to the road before I could see her reaction.

"What was that?" Chitose asked suspiciously, looking back at the little girl yelling in frantic Khmer at her bemused parents.

"Oh, nothing." I smiled.

We got to the embassy without further incident, though Lao was pulled away as we entered, I walked into the room I'd left the girls in, Chitose close behind.

"Hey, Georgia! Diane finished the paperwork you wanted!" Hakone greeted me by saying.

I walked over and hugged the Battleship's upper-thigh. "Aw, Thanks! You have a lot more patience for that stuff than I do!"

Diane hesitantly bent down and sort of... squeezed my shoulders with her hands. "You are very welcome, Miss Georgia! I find it quite therapeutic actually."

"Ah ah ah! none of that 'Miss' stuff! Just Georgia is fine!" I tutted at her.

The Ta-class shrugged unconvincingly, "Of course."

I pulled away from her as Hakone looked at my hat "Where'd you get that?" She asked.

"Waterpark."

"Why would you need to park water?"

I opened my mouth to explain the concept, when Lao came back in. "Alright! The convoy caught up with us. The Cambodians are processing the refugees as we speak. Everyone else is bedding down for the night in the local barracks. I got a room in the officer's quarters so... Well, I guess you'll all be bunking with me tonight." Lao said the last a bit shakily, glancing in my direction for some reason.

"Oh! we don't want to impose! I'm sure we can find some spare beds in the general quarters!" Chitose reasoned.

Lao just gave her a look, "You want four Abyssal warships to sleep in a barracks full of human guys?"

"I retract my previous statement," Chitose said, wisely.

With Hakone:

I followed along behind mom as we left the building. The last gasps of the afternoon sunlight not doing anything good for the headache that had been building as I'd gone over my forms.

To be honest, I hadn't really put much conscious thought into my capabilities before, so putting it down on paper had required a lot of inner introspection, and an actual inspection! My Captain had been as surprised as I had when the surprise examination revealed a stash of candy in the crawlspace between my stacks! Probably a hold-over from when we'd first met the boys.

I'd expropriated one of the suckers, which was only fair. and was happily sucking on it as we entered the barracks, as mum explained what a 'waterpark' was.

"So, humans go to a park that's mostly shaped bodies of water, just to lay in the water and swim around? We do that all the time!" I exclaimed. Honestly, that sounded boring.

"Nah, what you do is float, humans swim. And subs like me I guess." Georgia said, "There's also the slides, which are really fun!"

"S̵l̶i̶d̵e̶s̷?̷" That was Anne, looking on curiously behind me, as she ducked under the doorframe.

"Yeah! You know how a ship is launched normally, right? by getting slid down a ramp? It's like that! But humans do it for fun!"

"But isn't that dangerous?" Georgia looked to me, and I struggled to explain, "I mean, what if the weight is off? The slide could break and the whole ship would crash down!"

Georgia simply waved away my worry, "Nah Nah! Outside of some really, REALLY fat humans, there's no danger of that on a waterpark slide! They have pretty generous safety allowances in the design. I assume so anyway."

Well, that was a relief! Though I was fairly certain I wouldn't be trying one any time soon. I was coming to realize that what was safe for a human and what was safe for an Abyssal were completely different things, I bet they couldn't even stay operational under even light enemy fire! Goodness knows from what I'd witnessed they didn't have any armor worth mentioning, maybe even less than a Destroyer if those men I'd beaten up down-river were any indication, I hadn't even been trying to hurt them!

Well, until one hit Georgia of course.

I was taken out of my thoughts as the Kanmusu Frigate, Fam Nu Laow (which I still thought an odd name), opened the door to the place we'd be sleeping in tonight.

It was... small. But then again, it was really only meant to house one person, and there were six of us. There was a single bed, a fairly large bed, but still...

"I um, I guess I'll take the floor, then?" I offered, I wasn't about to make mom sleep on the floor, wait, Georgia didn't sleep! Then again, there was Chitose...

"...I'll go and get a couple of mattresses," Laow said, before scurrying out of the room.

"Aw, and here I was hoping for one big 'ol cuddle-pile!" Georgia said.

"That's probably what she's afraid of," said Chitose, leaning her launchers against the wall before sitting down on the bed, "You know, that reminds me..."

Georgia turned to her, "Yeah?"

Chitose waved away Georgia's look, "Ah, Sorry, it's just a weird dream I had last night, I don't remember much of it, but I could have sworn I saw you cuddling with Lao."

Georgia gave the oddest look before she replied. "Y-Yeah, that's pretty crazy. You gotta stop eating before bed! It gives you funny dreams, like that dream, which you had, that wasn't real, at all."

The Frigate in question chose that moment to come back, huffing as she tossed two mattresses and a ball of bedding unceremoniously on the floor. "Man, that was bulky!" She gestured at her unloaded cargo as she bent down to take off her heels, "pick what you want, but I call dibs on the bed."

We chose our sleeping arrangements, Diane and Anne would share a mattress while Chitose would sleep with Laow on the bed, and while Georgia didn't need to sleep, she said she'd lay down with me for a while, at least till I was asleep. Which I appreciated, I liked hugging something while I was drifting off.

"So, tomorrow we start off, right?" Georgia said, plonking down on the edge of her mattress, scratching under the chin of part of her rigging, which for its part, was making a crooning noise in response.

Lao nodded as she put her shoes down next to the door, "Yeah! Once we get up, we'll meet with the Cambodians escorting us out of the City, then start off upriver. The Mekong goes clear into Southern China, but we'll turn off into the Tonie Sekong river before we reach the Laotian border. That'll get us almost into the Pleiku Province before we have to start footslogging again."

"Man, it's a good thing there are so many rivers in this place! Can't imagine how long it would take to get that far on foot." I said.

"Well, if we needed to I guess we could take vehicles for some of the way, but some of the paths we need to go on to get over the border itself? Yeah, if we were human there'd be no way to do that in heels." Laow agreed with me, rubbing at her stockinged feet as she sat on the bed.

We got ready for sleep, which in our case, didn't mean much other than throwing the covers over ourselves. We didn't really need them, we were always cold to the touch, and temperatures didn't really bother us, but it was nice to have something fluffy pressed up against your hull.

Even nicer when mum laid down next to me, letting me wrap my arms around her as I snuggled in close, "Night Georgia." I said.

"Night 'Kone," She replied.