With Georgia
I came to a stop near Anne, ignoring the squeaking Frigate in the tree behind me, "Hey Anne, you still have those old aircraft spray nozzles? The ones we used for our tattoo's?" I came closer and set down Wondertwin #1, or at least, what was left of the poor thing.
She'd been hit in the ass by a cannon larger than she was. Had it been an HE shell, I'm fairly certain it would have been disintegrated by the round that had killed some of my adorable little froggers.
No, I wasn't letting that go. Though skinning the perpetrator had eased the anger somewhat.
The big ship nodded after a moment of inner reflection, "N̴o̸ ̵r̷e̸a̸s̷o̵n̶ ̷t̴o̵ ̴g̴e̵t̴ ̵r̸i̵d̶ ̷o̷f̷ ̷t̶h̴e̶m̸,̶ ̸r̵e̷a̸l̴l̶y̸.̸ ̸H̵a̶d̷ ̵t̵h̷e̶m̶ ̷i̶n̴ ̷d̶e̸e̸p̷ ̶s̸t̴o̷r̸a̵g̵e̶,̶ ̸l̵u̵c̶k̷y̷, ̴o̵t̶h̵e̵r̸w̴i̸s̵e..." Anne lifted a hand off of her cane, grimacing as she ghosted it across the discolored patch of white skin stretching across her bare midriff, "f̴a̶i̶r̷l̵y̶ ̸c̸e̴r̴t̴a̴i̵n̸ ̸I̶'̵d̶ ̸h̸a̶v̵e̶ ̵l̸o̶s̸t̶ ̷t̶h̴e̵m̷."
I nodded, she'd lost a few compartments entirely along with some of her old boiler rooms. The 16" shell, roughly the same damn size as some rooms, had simply... pushed them out of her. Like a paper hole-puncher.
"W̵h̸y̷ ̸d̷o̷ ̶y̷o̷u̶ ̶w̴a̴n̸t̴ ̵i̸t̶?" Anne asked, some of her fairies already coming out with the compressed air tanks, wands, and hoses.
I shifted back, letting Diane drop the load of... materials we'd piled up that we hadn't used yet. It wasn't much, Anne and Diane had eaten up a fair chunk to 'fill in the gaps' as it were, and 'Miss One' as Diane called her, had taken up most of the rest to cludge the Ru's legs on somehow. But there was enough, to fix my little fish-mollusk-whatever-the-frigg thing.
Well, hopefully, who knew what kinda delicate instruments it had that it now... didn't. There was only going to be so much I could repair with ripped off parts from warship designs older by a half-century.
Fairly certain I could get it running again though.
Chitose hadn't touched any of the stuff we'd collected, which was fair, she'd already done her part helping Diane, and it was my Rigging, my problem.
"Well, I had an idea," I started, sitting down in the grass with my legs crossed as my engineers and spare crew-women came out of me, tools in-hand, "If I'm rebuilding this little bugger anyway," I flicked Wondertwin #1 with my finger, getting a small 'clang', "I figure nows a good time for a paint job! ...To be honest, it's mostly to hide the cracks." I finished lamely.
Anne nodded, before pausing, looking down at her repairs, she idly scratched at one of the flaky weld-jobs.
"Don't pick at it," I said sharply, watching as my fairies began forming work teams, swarming over the parts Diane had deposited like ants.
Anne jerked a little, hand coming away from the weld, "S̸o̶r̷r̷y," she looked down again, "j̴u̵s̵t̴ ̷t̷h̷i̴n̴k̴i̶n̵g̵,̶ ̸I̸ ̶s̵h̴o̸u̴l̵d̷ ̷p̶a̴i̵n̷t̶ ̸t̷h̴i̶s̶ ̷o̸v̸e̵r̶ ̵t̵o̵o̶,̴ ̵r̷i̶g̶h̶t̶?̵" She gestured at the discolored patch.
"You have your own skin-tone?" I asked, before slapping myself, "Duh, of course you do, it's your hull, of course, you'd have the same color."
Anne shrugged slightly, "N̷o̴t̶ ̶n̷o̸r̸m̶a̵l̸l̷y̸,̵ ̵a̸c̶t̴u̵a̷l̴l̸y̸,̵ ̷i̶t̶'̴s̴ ̷m̷e̷a̵n̸t̵ ̷f̵o̸r̸ ̶t̷h̷e̷ ̵a̶i̸r̸c̸r̶a̷f̸t̶ ̶m̸y̶ ̶m̴a̶i̸n̴ ̸h̸u̵l̴l̸ ̴w̴o̴u̷l̸d̵ ̴h̴a̵v̴e̶ ̷h̸a̶d̸,̶ ̴I̸ ̵h̴a̷v̸e̸ ̵t̸h̴e̸ ̴m̴i̴x̴ ̴f̶o̷r̵ ̸i̶t̸,̸ ̷t̵h̶o̴u̴g̵h," Anne replied, standing still as one of the painting crews came out from somewhere on her person, experimentally spraying the edge of one of her welds. The resultant coated patch of skin was too small for me to see from where I sat, but Anne seemed satisfied, and let the crew continue painting over her scarred patch job.
"Huh, that's... brilliant, actually!" I said, praisingly, "Diane, sit next to Anne, if she's got the paint for it, let her go over your hull-graft too, ok?"
Diane nodded, sitting down next to Anne, carefully tucking her legs under her as she hiked up her turrets, "Very well, should we..." The Battleship looked over to where our captured Battleship sat, somewhat awkwardly as she seemed to be trying to get feeling into her splayed out legs, "should we offer to cover Miss One's welds as well?"
I hummed thoughtfully, "Well, her entire legs are different, that's a lot of paint, to cover all that." I continued looking at her, before turning to Anne, "think you can do a fade? We could hide the weld-lines at least, she'll still have a differently-colored bottom-half, but it won't be as noticeable, at least." I finished.
Anne simply nodded thoughtfully, as Diane, JUST having settled down, made to get up again, "I shall go and make the offer, excuse me, M-Georgia." She did a small dip before scurrying off, I watched her go, wondering when she was going to stop trying to call me 'Miss'.
I had the sudden picture in my mind of me in a fancy Victorian dress drinking tea with fancy little saucers and everything, and snorted rudely, barking out a laugh as Anne looked at me questioningly, "Nothing, nothing," I said, "just thought of something silly."
With Diane:
Ta-01 looked up as Diane approached the Abyssal ship. She quickly scrabbled back, unable to do much beyond dragging herself backward a couple of feet with her arms, weakly helped along by her new legs.
Diane stopped her approach, "Uhm, Miss One?"
"S-Stay away from me, please." The Ta said, settling again now that Diane had stopped, "I j-just... you are wearing my sisters face, I cannot... I can hardly bear to look at you."
Lao, (who had resumed her post after climbing down from a nearby tree) had leveled her rifle at the captured ship's sudden movement, but hearing her words lowered it again, grimacing.
Diane clasped her hands together, a tad worriedly as she bowed slightly, apologetic, "I am sorry, truly, I am, Miss One, but I cannot help my appearance, nor my origin." she straightened, "my hull's predecessor was someone close to you?"
Ta-01 looked at Diane in confusion briefly, before averting her eyes again, "Don't you know? It's her body you inhabit!"
"Yes, but as I have said, she is not I, Nor am I, her," Diane unclasped her hands, using two of her 16" cannons as armrests as she continued, "I doubt that we can truly, completely move past this, for it seems to be something that disturbs you greatly, but I truly do not seek to distress you."
Ta-01 glanced at Diane with a sad expression, "...You even speak like her, as all of us did, when we first Awoke."
"Perhaps a hold-over from the root of our design?" Diane continued as Ta-01's expression turned slightly curious, "I have heard that the likely Progenitor of our shared design was a British vessel of the name 'Barham', my Hime seemed to indicate that was where our particular method of speech was derived."
Ta-01 shook her head, "My body was created by Mae Crizzete, and Awakened by the Hime New Jersey, I have not heard of this... Barham, woman, or 'British' for that matter."
Diane shrugged slightly, "A faction of humanity, I daresay, I am not quite clear on the particulars, myself," Diane shook her head, "regardless, I came to you for a purpose."
Ta-01 glanced at Diane skittishly, "That purpose being?" she dared ask.
Diane waved an arm back, to where the Hime, Georgia, was fixing herself, "Georgia has come to the realization that she could reduce the visibility of our more... crude, repairs," Diane traced a finger over one of the welds on her side, before pointing at the ugly, metallic line melted into Ta-01's abdomen, "I suggested that you may be interested in such a thing, given your... condition."
"You mean the fact that I now have the Keel of the ship who removed mine in the first place?" Ta-01 said, slightly wry, as she continued, "I never cared much for the Ru-Class of Battleship, they are far too rash and crude, but I would never have fathomed I would become so close to Ru-08 as I am now."
She rubbed her knee, as if reinforcing the point.
Diane let out a short laugh, taking the statement as the dry, morbid joke that it for all intents was, "Essentially, yes." She stepped closer, and while Ta-01 didn't outright scrabble away as she had before, she still flinched and leaned away from the outstretched hand, "Come then! I'm sure you don't wish to crawl to her, in the state you are in now," Diane waited a moment, then huffed as Ta-01 stayed decidedly put, "Don't look at me if you wish, Miss One, but let me help you over at least, merely avert your gaze, if it helps." She waited.
Ta-01 gulped, looking at the hand as if it were a viper, before looking into Diane's grey eyes and flinching again. She looked away, "You are correct, I doubt I shall ever truly be able to look at you without remembering my sister, for a long time indeed..."
She reached out and took Diane's hand, letting herself be pulled up, she wobbled dangerously, before being helped to stand on her new legs by the other Fast Battleship.
Ta-01 kept her gaze decidedly off to the side and away from Diane as she continued, "So for now, I shall simply have to not look at you." She finished.