Iowa trudged along, the ghosts in her hull moving too and fro with an eerie spine chilling feeling.
Beneath the thick fog beyond her cruel spectres danced sinisterly. She gasped, trying to get a bead on the unknown foes, but they danced cruey beyond her vision.
"Who's there!" She cried out, but sinister giggles were all that greeted her.
"Show yourselves!" She raised a turret, pointing the 12 inch guns from phantom to phantom, the thick fog closing in.
A figure danced closely and she cried out, pulling the trigger, noticing with alarm that her turrets had disappeared.
Banking to the right she put all her horsepower into her screws, churning the seas hard to escape the fog that was closing in on her, but the thick black waters beneath her grasped her screws and pulled her ever deeper, the whispers turning into mocking tones.
Though the words were foreign, she understood the meaning of the whispers. Cruel bitter jabs informing her failures as a design.
The black waters began pulling, bringing her closer to the fog, the thick boom of foreign guns breaking the cackle of the voices.
The thunder of guns.
The knocking staccato of naval rifles.
The knock on the door grew louder
Iowa bolted upright, realizing with slight disgust that she had fallen asleep dressed and following the nightmare a cold sweat now permeated her still dusty clothes.
She stood up hesitantly before deciding that it's ruder to ignore a visitor than to answer the door a bit disheveled.
So she opened the door, finding herself slightly disappointed by the outcome.
Stewart stood as stoic as ever.
"Iowa"
"Stewart".
"I was requested to ensure you eat this morning."
"Thoughtful".
Stewart said nothing instead turning professionally and heading back to whichever soldier shaped box Iowa suspected they stored the girl in. Iowa briefly considered staying in her room to spite the destroyer before a low grumble emanated from her stomach.
The loud bustle behind the counter were the only signs of life in the eating area, though were Iowa honest with herself it was a relief to not have to confront and disappoint any more curious ships.
Sliding up to the counter with her plate Iowa gave her best warm smile to the cooks behind it before eyeing the stacks of pancakes and eggs eagerly.
Iowa paused briefly, plate in hand, as she recalled how much food he human body needed dredging up memories of the men in her own mess hall she grabbed several sausages a few pancakes and a scoop of eggs. Glancing up to give thanks to the cooks she found herself with a few odd stares at her plate's contents and herself. She gave a polite and definitely not awkward smile before scraping a few eggs back into the tray, clearly she had taken too much.
She poured herself a tall glass of coffee before going off and finding an isolated table.
Settling down with her pancakes Iowa found that the breakfast was wonderfully delicious but gone all too quickly and despite her earlier reservations about quantity the plate did little to ease her hunger, even after cleaning the food off of it as well she could without licking the thing.
Iowa was now stuck in a loop. She wanted, no she needed more than she had taken but clearly she had already been pushing the limits of what was considered a polite quantity of food to take. As well getting seconds in of itself was rather presumptuous. Instead she elected to sip on her coffee, clutch her stomach sadly while silently cursing social norms.
She was interrupted in her thoughts by a curious girl peeking her head in. The new girl was an advanced destroyer, similar in construction to the one with the summer tan and ridiculous straw hat. This one however had forgone the hat and seemed less sunkissed.
The girl's expression was cautious until her eyes locked with Iowa, then she smiled warmly and went to grab her own breakfast.
Once again Iowa's desperate efforts to ignore the pain in her stomach were interrupted, this time by the loud slam of a pair of trays the girl had carried in. Each one brimming with food and beverage.
Iowa regarded this tiny angel with awe and gratitude.
Until the girl started eating. From both trays.
Iowa's bliss faded into anguish once again.
The girl offered a syrup and crumb encrusted hand to the battleship.
"Oo eh eh fhankz"
"Pardon?" Iowa
The girl swallowed with great effort. "USS Franks. You can call me Fran, its uh- the best i could do with the name." she exclaimed sheepishly
Iowa stared at the messy hand briefly before noting that she herself was still wearing the remnants of a bathroom on her face. "USS Iowa," charmed.
The girl's eyes went wide. "Oh! You're that limey cruiser that the Navy has impersonating Iowa." The girl look slightly relieved at her revelation ,"glad to meet you, Haggard told me all about you." she smiled, shoving an entire pancake into her mouth and offending a great deal of the battleships sensibilities.
"I'm American!" Iowa defended fiercely.
"Oh! Sorry, I thought I recognized most of the cruisers we had in the war, "probably just got sunk before I was around, no offense!"
Iowa opened her mouth for rebuttal but just sighed and sipped her coffee. While the destroyer ate in peace
"Not hungry?" the girl asked observing Iowa's now virtually sterile plate.
Iowa looked up.
"You don't eat much for a cruiser." Franks observed.
"I-" Iowa began before a loud groan escape from her stomach, sending her face into a deep crimson, "I'm famished actually."
Franks looked confused "then why don't you go eat."
Iowa's blush continued to try and cover for her awkward antics, "I already got too much, the cooks seemed offended." Iowa pleaded as she clutched her stomach.
The smaller of the two glanced down at her own plates. "But everyone here eats a lot. You just got back didn't you? They don't mind if you get more food, Vinny ate so much her first day back one of the cooks was crying."
"It sounded like they minded…"
The girl gave her a blank look then shrugged.
Iowa paused.
The girl rolled her eyes before standing up, returning with a pair of even larger trays brimming with a beautiful plenty of food that she thrust in front of the battleship. "Here."
"Thank you." Iowa muttered sheepishly, eying the tribute happily
In contrast to the escort's voracious appetite, Iowa acknowledged both the existence of and importance of knives as a utensil, breaking off and eating moderate portions of food, though at a much slower rate.
"Can I ask you a question?" the girl look concerned.
Iowa looked up, wiping her mouth in great contrast to the rest of her face "of course."
"Haggard said you were sad about something, why were you sad?" the girl asked concerned.
Iowa avoided the girls serious expression as she searched for an answer "When I was briefed on my return I was" she paused, again searching," I was led to believe I would be used in a role that would have enabled me to make up for past failures. Then was told my expectations were incorrect."
The girl gave a sympathetic look, "that's sad".
Iowa nodded.
"I-" the girl began shyly, "I was really excited when I got back to make up for things. In the war I got attacked by a battleship along with two of my sisters, we didn't sink. But It-it was terrifying and the whole time we knew our sisters to the south were going through an even awfuller time."
The girl paused
"When I got back I also found out i-" the girl blushed and looked away "the battleships scared me too much to fight with them. Even the ones on our side."
"How did you get over that?"
The blush increased "they transferred me to a base where anti submarine warfare is the primary mission."
"Oh. So no battleships."
Franks nodded, the deep crimson on her face remaining.
Iowa smiled "that helps more than you think, thank you Franks."
The all too familiar form of Stewart entered the cafeteria with her usual professional gait, eliciting bitter thoughts from Iowa.
"Franks" she greeted, "Iowa."
"Stewart" Iowa acknowledged.
"The Commander would like to meet with Iowa."
Author Shennanigans:
Yes Iowa is still wearing a plaster facemask, to be honest I just didn't explicitly state she showered and found it funnier this way.
Also yes, Iowa will eventually stop feeling sorry for herself I promise her character is more than self pity. Probably
There maaaaay be a ship (heh) in the future, if there is it has already been decided, for maximum tsun.
As a general question, I wrote this story in two parts, but broke it up to help with flow and to be more consistent. Would people prefer i put effort into longer stories or more frequent updates? Even if the longer stories are a bit more jumbled or the shorter updates break things up a bit more than they should.