I apologize to everyone that thought this would be a chapter update. I do bring some news, however. I made selection for Surface Warfare Officer in the US Navy. It seems like I will become our dear Bell here. It was a self insert all along. The long con. Joking aside, though, it does mean that this story will be placed on hiatus because I'll be in OCS for the next several months, and a ship possibly immediately following. A more likely event will be this story being scrapped for a heavily revised, shorter version. The revised version will most likely be around the length that this one is currently. Cripplehood was meant to be a fairly long story. As it stands, we're only about a tenth into what I've storyboarded. The rate at which chapters have been released would place this story ending in about, oh, 2030ish. The new story would be a lot more focused on the romance aspect this story was meant to have later. Essentially, turning Cripplehood into a short romance story than the adventure/romance this story was to become. If you like the characterization of Hood here, she will be roughly the same.
I'd also love to hear in the reviews how y'all would like a comedy one-shot called, "The Commander has a Wife." Essentially just a funny thing about what it says on the tin. The Commander has a wife and the girls on base only find out when she has a surprise visit. Nothing dark. He hasn't been cheating on her with the girls on base. Meant as a funny slapstick thing.
Below this author's note is an edited version of the storyboard for anyone who wants to get at least the knowledge of how this story was meant to play out in its entirety, at least in summary.
Hood and Bell arrive at the Azur Lane base with the rest of the girls and sailors and find it in a decent state. Hood realizes that her inhuman strength that came from being a shipgirl is beginning to fluctuate. Later that day, she finds a gray hair in her hairbrush, but waves it off. Bell gathers everyone on base that night and announces to all the men that followed him what the initiative was really about. When some of the survivors of the Arizona realize the girl in the wheelchair is/was their ship, they all crowd her and pick her up and carry her around cheering. Their ship was not truly lost. The few of the old crew that came treat her very well and take care of her the rest of the story, more or less. The destroyers are removed from active duty and the men that followed man the now lifeless hulls instead.
After setting the base up with Hood, Bell sends out a scouting force and locates a sizable Japanese fleet. Orders from Pearl are to engage it. He sends out a force consisting of Pennsylvania, Helena, San Diego, and the four destroyer hulls. He had planned an ambush of the fleet, but his was ambushed instead. Three of the destroyer hulls are foundered and Pennsylvania charges into the enemy fleet to give Helena, San Diego, and the hull of Benson time to retreat under the Benson's smokescreen. All three ships are capable of over 30 knots of speed. Penn is only capable of 21 for short periods. Both Pennsylvania and her hull are lost. She manages to sink two unidentified battlecruisers and a heavy cruiser, while heavily damaging two other cruisers, however, so the Admiralty declares the mission a success. Bell is beside himself in grief at the loss of all those men and Penn. He vows to never let it happen again and finds the discarded blueprints the previous commander of Azur Lane had in the office. The blueprints for a fast battleship. One that would be able to fall back with the fleet should the need arise. He immediately gets to finishing the incomplete blueprints and sets Hood to finding and ordering all the needed parts from Mare Island. To add insult to injury, Hood learns that her friend, Electra, was sunk at the battle of the Java Sea through the newspaper. This leaves her devastated.
Several other sorties were sent out during this time and all were successful, leading the Brass to give him Ranger from the Atlantic for further missions. She's not seaworthy for the Pacific, however, and can only be sent out during good weather conditions, but they have a carrier now. Hood and Bell continue to spend nearly all their time together given their work environment and they slowly come to a comfortable silence between them as the weeks roll by. Bell finishes the blueprints for the fast battleship with Hood's help at the end. Together they name the ship. The USS Georgia. Using the cubes, the dockyard at Azure Base completes Georgia in a matter of days. He writes up the report on this novelty to give to the admiralty. Georgia looks awfully like Pennsylvania and even adopts Arizona as her new little sister. It's adorable all around. Arizona herself manages to form a relationship with one of her old officers. A lower Ensign. Bell and to an extent Hood are now in a situation. Technically, that's not allowed. Hood finds a loophole in that Arizona is technically not a Naval personnel. She's considered USN property, and there's nothing against dating a ship. This solves the issue but leaves Bell a bad taste in his mouth.
Midway happens and Bell and Hood take their fancy new fast battleship to slow the invasion force of Midway so that Fletcher can deal with the carrier force. Big ol 'battle ensues, but more or less the battle happens as it does in history.
Bell no longer considers Hood a nuisance anymore, nor just his secretary. He actively asks her what her opinion is on certain things and values her input now. Hood is happy that she is finally being treated as an equal and now she's in a generally good mood for a while. She gets too caught up in her happiness, however, and kisses Bell. He isn't ready for this and immediately rebukes her. This dampens Hood's mood and isn't helped when her friend Enterprise shows up to base for repairs. Enterprise has lost both her sisters and is now the only carrier in the Pacific active. Hood and Enterprise have a heart to heart and help each other heal from the scars the deaths of their friends and family has put on them. Bell overhears them and solidifies in his mind that these are people, not weapons.
Hood and Bell attempt to apologize to each other at the same time. Hood for the kiss and Bell for not treating her as he should. They both laugh it off and begin to carry on as they were before. For exemplary service, Bell is promoted to Admiral and is given the non-commissioned USS New Jersey as the flagship of a second fleet he's to form with the new ships he's been slowly acquiring. The destroyers by now, too, have become more or less surrogate daughters to our dear admiral and Hood. Most of the officers on base at this point poke fun at them both for being like an old married couple with how they fight and take care of the destroyers. It's been almost two years now. It's late 1943. Have the destroyers except for Benson always been this tall?
Hood has a panic moment when she finds gray hair and realizes that she's gained a few pounds over her tenure. That's not supposed to happen. She nearly has a panic attack before Bell laughs and just says that's how humans are. Hood is overcome with joy at Bell's off-hand comment about her being human. The two have a cute moment with each other before really getting down and figuring out what's happening since shipgirls never change. The slight height increase of their little girls was not really noticeable and written off, but now it just adds to the mystery. Bell guesses that without their hull, a shipgirl slowly reverts to being a regular human. Hood and Bell have a neat philosophical debate on what makes someone a human and about creation and whatnot. They conclude that what makes you a human is emotion and the capacity for empathy.
More months roll by as Hood and Bell grow closer together and feel weight begin to lift off of them as the war seems to be drawing to a close. They've split the responsibilities of commander between each other for ease of workload. Hood acts as a mouthpiece for Bell, commanding the task force led by New Jersey, and Bell commands the task force led by Georgia. They participate in the battle of Leyte Gulf and everyone gets the fun fictional battle between Yamato and Iowa class New Jersey featuring Taffy 3. Of course, our main girl Hood comes out on top.
Bell and Hood celebrate with each other in the office with a bit too much champagne. They both wake up naked on the couch in the office covered by Bell's overcoat. Instead of freaking out they both just snuggle closer to each other and wonder about the next thing to do. They decide together that they'll figure it out when the war ends.
The war ends several months later in 1945. Hood and Bell scramble to get paperwork completed and show up for the surrender aboard the Missouri. While there, they slip up and reveal that they're together to Admiral King. He accuses them of fraternization and with a ship.
Halsey saves the day by explaining that it's a good thing that Hood is a secretary, and not an officer, then. Nimitz later also says that he read all the reports that Bell had been sending him the past few months. A secondary facet and function of the Azure Project. The debate on whether they are hardware or people. Nimitz says that he and the Brass agree that just like officers and enlisted, when they are attached to their ship they are owned by the Navy. However, should they pass a five-year contract and release their anchor and relieve themselves of their hull, they're as free as any other American after a short readjustment period for their inhuman abilities to fade.
Hood is astounded, but all Bell says is that he remembered what she said those years ago. About how he promised he would get them all a home. None of them would end up like the first Missouri in the looney bin.
The story ends with Hood and Bell together having adopted Laffey, Cassin, and Downes. The destroyer trio are now in their teens and are as big of menaces as three teenage girls can be. The three of them do their best to be good sisters to their baby sister, Penny; an adorable blonde-haired toddler that's as human as anyone else.
Hood and Bell reminisce a little bit, but they are excited about what their future holds with each other. So long as they have each other, hand in hand.
So there's an abridged storyboard for y'all who just wanted to see the ending. I would've posted the real storyboard but that is filled with footnotes for myself that make no sense to anyone but me. Also has some stupid inside jokes for myself. So, I just wrote a slightly more coherent summary, instead.
I know it's not the same as having it written out. The emotion is more or less removed, but the content is technically all there. Just no nuance. Like, at all. The romance short version of this story would encompass the romance part of the story and remove essentially all the rest. Her getting to Pearl and meeting Bell, them being cold to each other, then warming up, falling out, warming back up, getting together, and having their deserved happy ending.
Thank you for all the reviews. I really do have the most engaged readers I've seen for a story.
I genuinely hope everyone who's done their best to support this story gets their deserved happy ending, too.