With Georgia:

I lightly made a final pass with the paint-wand, the fairy working the pressurized air-tank sitting in my hand comfortably as I painted-in the last errant-patch of steel-grey with bright, almost fluorescent red. I sat back as the little girl in my hand quickly turned the dial, shutting off the spray. I looked at her, then back at my work, "I think it turned out good! What you think?"

The fairy squinted, looking over my fingers lazily, "It's... decent," at my offended look, she shrugged, "don't gimmie that look big-G, you're a freakin' giant, the lines may look even to you but to me it's really shakey."

"I didn't see you volunteering."

The fairy shrugged, "It's honestly not that bad, I'm just saying some sailors with paintbrushes could do the linework better."

The frown on my face disappeared, "Alright, you know what? Fair enough," I palmed her over to Anne, who let the little munchkin pass off the tanks and paint-wand to one of her crew.

Chitose chose that moment to come over, from where she'd been talking to Lao.

"Georgia, Lao had some information for me, apparently- what is that?" She said the last in a flat tone, looking at my handy-work.

I quirked a brow, knowing immediately what the grey-haired Tender was getting at but determined to be obtuse about it, "What do ya mean? It's Wondertwin #1! I've only been working on her for the past, like, couple hours." I quickly stuffed my crew-woman down my shirt before folding my arms imperiously.

Chitose gave me an unimpressed look, swiping the air with one hand in a dismissive gesture " Oh, stop it! you know what I meant," she preceded to use said-hand to gesture at my Rigging, "Why is it painted like that?"

The only original coloring was where a white stripe ran down its forehead, the rest having been painted in vibrant shades of blue, red, and yellow.

I grinned, "What? You never seen a parrot before?"

Chitose threw her hands up in the air, "YES! I HAVE! Which is why seeing your Rigging painted to look like one is so surreal!" she lowered her arms, "Just... why?"

I held out my arms beseechingly, "I'm a Pirate! I have to have a parrot! That's the rules!" I already had the gammie eye and the hat! Might as well get the parrot too, right?

God, I hope I didn't get into the circumstances to need a pegleg or a hook.

Chitose put her hands on her hips, tilting her head even as her mouth quirked into a small smile, "Alright, first off, Georgia, you're a Privateer, not a Pirate. And secondly-"

"Why does your Rigging look like the Fruit-Loop's mascot?" Lao said, coming over with the Captured Battleship, taking a moment to watch as the Ta sat down nervously next to Anne to receive her lick of paint, before looking over again.

I huffed, uncrossing my arms and gesticulating wildly, "Why is everyone focusing on the damn paint job and not the fact that I managed to cobble a modern SDV together using parts from ship designs that were young during the Triassic period?!"

Chitose snorted, "I'll congratulate you when you actually get the thing moving again. For all I know if I looked inside all I'd see is a ball of electrical wires and a poorly-drawn picture of a boiler!"

"That's rude, my girls do the best with what they have, alright?"

Hakone, sitting bored out of her mind nearby, piped up, "...What's a parrot?"

...

Sometimes I forgot the girls had the education of kindergartners when it came to non-ship stuff.

"A colorful bird, Georgia copied the plumage coloring-pattern of one for the paint job," Chitose said patiently, before looking at me, "for some reason."

Hakone made a nod of understanding, "Oh."

I rolled my eyes, "I was bored of all the black, white and greys okay? I mean come ON, I am completely monochrome!" I cried, gesturing at my completely boring color scheme.

"Except for your tattoos," Hakone said.

I nodded the point to her, "Ok, fair- but I can't even SEE those!" I made a show of trying to crane my neck to look at my back.

I failed, obviously.

"And your blue glowing eyes," Chitose said, adding on to the exceptions.

I briefly narrowed said-eyes in slight irritation, before opening them wide and adding a sultry tone to my voice, "Aw, staring into my eyes are you ChiChi?" I cocked my hip out.

Chitose, predictably, started babbling, cheeks going red with embarrassment, "That's not-! I-" she stomped a foot, "Why? Why must you tease me like that?!"

I grinned, abandoning the ridiculous pose, "Because it's easy," I turned back to my work, "and it does a lotta damage." I ignored Chitose's pout as I hailed my Captain.

"Hey!" I got her attention, from where she was directing some last-minute setup over the radio, "you ready to start this puppy up?"

I could feel that the small woman that probably passed as my brain nodded, "Yeah yeah, we can give it a go anytime you want."

That reminded me...

"Do these things even have Captains of their own, or is it all just, like, you?" I asked.

I could 'feel' the fairy shake her (No doubt pudgy) head, "Nah, they just have the operators and whatever SEAL's are needed in them," there was a pause, "They're a lot bigger than you'd think, mostly because of the torpedoes, it's honestly more of a midget sub than an SDV."

Chitose chose that moment to speak up, having heard the conversation over our shared channel, "Huh, I don't think any of the steel Ohio's have those..."

"I blame SANLOST," I said.

That got confused looks from everyone, "SAN-what?" Lao asked warily.

I shrugged, "SANLOST: Spooky Abyssal Nonsense Letting Obvious Shenanigans Transpire." The pair of Kanmusu didn't appear impressed, "What? You have a better acronym?" I asked.

Lao finally sighed, shaking her head,"...Not really," before startling as my Wonder-Parrot suddenly jerked to life! Flopping about on the ground for a moment before achieving liftoff, coming to a hover near my left shoulder, "Huh! it actually worked!" The Frigate said.

"Why do you have to sound so surprised? I repaired Anne didn't I?" I pointed at the... Ship... Class? with my thumb.

Oh! Right, Cessex, she's a Cessex on the paper we did, gotta remember that.

"Technically you broke her in the first place," Chitose said dryly, sitting down on a nearby stump as she looked over one of her catapults.

I rubbed my Wonderparrot on her adorable snout as it leaned into my hand, "Hey! WHO exactly was it who stabbed her to death?" "I paused, Or, well, most of her, anyway."

Chitose let out a long sigh,"...me." she mumbled.

I made a show of clearing an ear out with my pinky, "I'm sorry?" I cupped my hand against said-ear, "I couldn't quite hear that, speak up!"

Chitose, still slightly flustered from before apparently, shouted, "AH! IT WAS ME! OKAY?!" I giggled, and the Tender pointed a finger at me imperiously, "Don't act like you weren't a factor!" she said, waving her finger back and forth, "You were there too, and if I remember correctly she put you clean through a wall!" she finished.

"I also was present!" Hakone piped up, wanting to be included as she raised her hand.

Anne coughed, getting our attention from the ghoulish noise that made, "C̵a̴n̴ ̸y̵o̶u̸ ̷s̴t̴o̴p̷ ̴t̶a̴l̵k̷i̴n̴g̸ ̷a̷b̶o̷u̶t̵ ̵h̴o̴w̷ ̶y̶o̸u̷ ̶s̴a̵n̵k̸ ̵m̸y̸ ̴c̷o̷m̶p̵o̴n̸e̸n̶t̴-̶p̸a̶r̶t̴s̴?" she put her hands together pleadingly, "P̵l̶e̷a̷s̷e̴?"

"Sorry/Ah! I'm so sorry!" We said simultaneously.

"Me too!" Hakone added, raising her hand again.

Ta-01, meanwhile had a particularly disturbed expression on her face, she slowly turned to her silent guard, Lao, "I find myself slightly terrified right now."

Lao simply looked over, with an almost pitying look, "First time?" She asked.

"For this Hime? Yes."

"Oh, right, one of Jersey's."

The Ta nodded, eyes turned downwards, "Yes."