Stardust: Meeting the Captain

Stardust summary: To win the heart of his beloved, a young man named Tristan ventures into the realm of fairies to retrieve a fallen star. What Tristan finds, however, is not a chunk of space rock, but a woman named Yvaine. Yvaine is in great danger, for the king's sons need her powers to secure the throne, and an evil witch wants to use her to achieve eternal youth and beauty. Together, the two of them journey back to Tristan's hometown in England, falling in love, defeating enemies, and forging friendships along the way.

What's happened right before now: Tristan (Armin) and Yvaine (Annie) are captured by Captain Shakespeare (Hange) on his flying pirate ship. He interrogates them in a threatening manner, but when Tristan lets slip that they're from a parallel world, the captain pretends to throw Tristan off the ship to make it look like he was killed and drags Yvaine to his quarters, where they find Tristan safe and sound.

Here's a clip that shows the scene (plus what happened immediately before): youtube…com/watch?v=dKSAKBEI4w0.

Hange pushed her glasses up her nose and grinned at Armin and Annie. "So, that went well, I thought." She took both their hands and eagerly dragged them to a room that looked like a kind of workshop. "Now, tell me news of my beloved England. I want to hear absolutely everything."

Annie frowned, head still reeling from the drastic change of circumstances. "Hang on. I can't believe your crew fell for that. And where did you get that mannequin from?"

Hange shrugged. "Oh, it works every time. An ounce of bargaining, a pinch of trickery, a soupcon of intimidation, et voila, the perfect recipe for a towering reputation without ever having to spill one drop of blood." She shook her head with a laugh as she tweaked the knobs on the burettes to release a few drops of brightly colored chemicals. "Ever try to get bloodstains out of wood? Let me tell you, it's a nightmare. And with Levi—that's the shorty with the scary face—being the clean freak he is, I'd never get any experiments done because he'd make everyone on this ship clean it until all traces of blood were gone. It's just better all-around to avoid it."

Armin nodded with an uneasy look on his face. "Right. I still don't understand how they won't recognize me."

"We'll cross that bridge later," Hange dismissed cheerfully. "Now. I want you to tell me all about these horseless carriages I've heard about."

"Horseless carriages? Do you mean automobiles?"

"Is that what they're called? Moblit, did you hear that?" She was beside herself in excitement.

"Yes, Captain, I heard," the tan-haired man nodded distractedly as he scratched a few notes on a pad and stopped the dripping from one of the globes.

"How can they run without anything to pull them?"

"They have this thing called an engine—"

"Fascinating. How does it work?"

"Well, there's a chemical reaction called combustion—"

"Oh! We know about that! We've—"

"You've," Moblit interrupted pointedly.

"—created many an explosion in here," she continued on, unfazed.

"Well, it's the same mechanism, but in a controlled environment, see?"

Annie raised an eyebrow slightly as she watched the other three in the room get into a deep discussion about thermal reactions. She'd never seen Armin look so animated. While she didn't know about these things in nearly the depth of the other three, she had listened in on enough talks by renowned minds over the millennia to know what they were talking about. During her spare hours when she was the only star out, they were sometimes one of her more interesting pastimes. That didn't mean she was particularly interested in it right now, though.

Just as she was about to wander off on her own to explore, the wall next to her slid open to reveal a petite, strawberry-blonde woman with fight in her honey eyes. "Hange!"

"Petra!" The bespectacled woman bounded over in glee. "You'll never hear what I just learned—"

"Not now, Hange," Petra interrupted. "We make port in half an hour. Have you even started disguising them yet?"

"Pshaw, that's why I have you." She flourished to the two blondes. "Armin Arlert of Wall and Annie, this is Petra, one of the best weather witches in the business."

"Weather witch?" Armin echoed.

"It's more like weather divination, really, since actually messing with the weather has such far-spread repercussions," Petra explained. "I read the air currents and cloud formations and talk to the birds to direct Erd, our navigator, on which way to go."

"Among other magic," Hange added proudly.

Petra rolled her eyes, but couldn't hide the fond smile for her Captain and friend. She set her eyes on Armin. "How much do I need to disguise him?"

"So his own mother won't recognize him."

Petra sighed and circled Armin, scrutinizing him with a practiced eye. "I don't have anymore potions for dying his hair or eyes, and we don't have time to whip up more."

"That's fine. Wouldn't want to steal his best features, now. Just work your magic while Moblit and I work the kinks out of this circuit over here."

"Right. We've got no time to waste. First and foremost," the small woman declared with a clap of her hands, "we've got to get you both some new clothes." She walked over to another wall and with a complicated series of knob twisting and lever pulling, a walk-in closet the size of half the ship appeared.

Petra smiled proudly at their awe. This closet had been one of her and Hange's more successful collaborations of magic and engineering. She pulled out a measuring tape and sent it to take Armin's measurements. "I hope you aren't too attached to the clothes you were wearing," she called back as she flipped through the racks of men's clothes.

"Oh, no, not really," Armin responded distractedly as he watched the measuring tape fly off to circle around Annie. Fascinating.

"Howlingly parochial, weren't they?" Hange chuckled, making the boy flush bright red.

"So very small-town errand boy," Annie agreed with a smirk as Armin glared at her.

Before he could open his mouth to retort, a crisply pressed white shirt with long peasant sleeves appeared in front of his face. "Don't mind them, Armin," Petra soothed. "Change into this in that lavatory over there, and I'll get to work on your hair."

His eyebrows scrunched. "Hair?"

"Yes, hair. Now go on. We don't have much time," she shooed with an encouraging smile.

Annie frowned as she watched him bashfully take the clothes and disappear. That creeping red on his face was annoying.

"Now, I've got some lovely dresses over here." Petra pulled Annie into the closet with her. "Just find something you like, and I'll fix it to fit."

"No, thank you," she declined stiffly. "I'd be more comfortable in my own clothes."

"Darling, you're wearing a bathrobe." Annie's cheeks flared. She'd forgotten about that. "I'd love to see these dresses get some use," the slightly taller woman pressed. "I keep trying to get Hange to wear them once in a while, but she says they get in the way of her tinkering."

"Well…." Annie looked over at the array of fabric hesitantly. "I suppose I could try…."

"Wonderful!" Petra beamed. "You can use the lavatory after Armin's done. We don't have a lot of time, so just take the first one you like. You can always switch it later."

"Okay." She nodded and waded into the sea of dresses. Once Petra had disappeared, Annie smiled a little. She'd always seen the people below array themselves in fine clothes like these, and now she had the chance to see if it was as fun as they seemed to think it was. Funny how things changed.

I chose Hange to be the captain instead of Erwin just because I thought the personality was a better fit. I think in my original plan, Erwin was actually supposed to be the ruthless prince (Septimus), one of the primary antagonists, so he wouldn't have been part of this little Survey Corps crew anyway. While Erwin isn't a bad guy in Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan, I thought his ruthlessness and craftiness were a good match for Septimus.