Isabel noticed the change the moment it happened - how could she miss the sensation of stepping out into a cold front despite having been on her way to grab a bite to eat already? Her gait slowed, gaze drifting up to a sky that didn't seem changed from before, and the land still responded to her confusion, but… it wasn't her land, just land that happened to be hers now.
"Well, this is a pain," she muttered, pulling out her smartphone and continuing to sedately follow the road as she checked the news. Her brows rose steadily as she skimmed over various reports, apparently going back years, of demon ships rising from the depths to attack the coasts and islands around the globe, and of the response by the personifications of warships rising to fight against them.
Despite personifications existing, there clearly weren't any Nations around if her unconscious claiming hadn't even garnered a token challenge. Others were still a toss up, not that she could rely on them when they might not even recognize her for what she was.
Well, at least she could get herself some food while she thought over her options -
Wait. No Californian personification, no personal bank account. And like hell Isabel was going to sink to stealing from her own people.
(Tourists didn't count - they paid for the experience, damnit!)
She checked her wallet, hoping that her two hundred and something in at-hand cash would last her until she could figure out how to get home or for someone back home to notice her missing and drag her back themselves. It was certainly a better option than trying to break into her own government offices just to fudge her own existence and history to cover for a job.
Isabel's face twisted momentarily, wondering if she'd just jinxed herself for that thought.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Isabel thought the summoning chamber was a bit much, but she couldn't fault the people for trying anything that had made it work for the other countries, as well as things that hadn't worked as well. She probably would have gone through a similar list of layouts and rituals if she thought it would bring back even one of the ships needed to fight this war.
Honestly, she wasn't even sure this was going to work, but the thought had stuck to her ever since she'd seen the looks that sometimes got into the Japanese shipgirls' eyes when their time between the end of their old service and the start of their new came up, or when fights with the abyssals were discussed. It was a look she'd once felt in her heart, back when she'd been unsure of her place in the world and felt she hadn't been good enough to stand tall with the others like her.
She'd built more than a thousand merchant cargo ships of both the Liberty and Victory classes back during the war. She'd built them faster and cheaper than anyone, with the full knowledge that they were meant to be disposable and easily replaced after a few years, if they hadn't sunk before then due to enemy submarines. Several had stood out among their sisters for what they'd accomplished, but all of them had brought critical supplies, people, or weapons to where they needed to be.
How many had she never thanked for their service?
Well, in her world, she hadn't had to worry about them being people, she conceded to herself as she sat down at the edge of the pool, gazing into the depths of the water. She didn't think her world was going to see the Abyssal threat, but if they did, she at least would have the critical information needed to get girls out on the waters that much sooner, before so much of the US Navy and shipping capability was lost.
"...you know, I don't even know if anyone will hear this," Isabel began, huffing in amusement. "I just figured I might as well practice in case one of you ever comes back and decides to punch me in the face for doing to you what I was always afraid of having happen to me.
"I don't have any authority over any of you girls, 'cause I just built the ships and sent them out to where you were assigned so you could be commanded by actual military people. And I get that after winning the war and even fighting in some of the following wars, all of you are tired and want to keep sleeping. But… people are hurting. People are dying. And maybe it's not so bad here, but in Japan, in England, in the Mediterranean, and all along the coasts of the pacific and atlantic and indian ocean, people are being starved slowly as they're cut off from supplies and food sources they need to survive.
"And while some of those countries have gotten their ships to answer their calls… they aren't the US Navy. They aren't you girls. I can't demand anything of you after all the work you've all put in, but even if just one of you were willing to come back to us, it would mean a lot to us… and to me."
Isabel closed her eyes and sighed, elbows resting on her knees and chin in forehead resting on the back of her clenched together hands. "This isn't even my world to defend, but I still have to ask, even if no one's listening right now. Please, help us out one more time."
"You only had to ask, ma'am."
Isabel jolted up, now eye-to-eye with the young woman standing at ease in the middle of the pool before her. Her light brown hair was tied back into a curly ponytail, her skin bronzed in a natural suntan, and her green eyes were warm as she waited for a reply.
The state frowned slightly, looking over the woman before her identity clicked. "...Lane Victory?"
The woman beamed, saluting. "That's me, ma'am - retirement was nice, but if people need me to run supplies and refugees, well, I don't think I mind another few laps about the Pacific."
Isabel huffed a laugh and smiled in turn. "You do realize I won't be in charge of you, right? You don't have to call me ma'am or sir. My name is Isabel."
Lane Victory frowned briefly, lips pressing together before she nodded. "Alright ma'am - Isabel."
The state got to her feet, offering a helping hand to the shipgirl. "By the way, you'll be working with some Japanese shipgirls. Will you be alright with that?"
Lane Victory nodded. "I remember us making friends with Japan, m- Isabel, you don't have to worry about me getting in a fight with them."
Isabel sighed in relief, letting go so she could turn back to start walking the route back to the on-site barracks for overnight residents. "I guess we can talk to the admiral tomorrow and see about getting you caught up on anything you might have missed since you were sunk… before I forget, no one here actually knows I'm, well, not entirely human."
"They don't know you're California?" The shipgirl asked, making Isabel tense briefly before she let herself relax.
"Yeah, and I'm hoping to keep it that way for now. The amount of explaining I'd have to do would be a pain, and honestly, I don't know when my friends back home are finally gonna get around to tracking me down, so I don't want to raise people's hope around having me to do nation stuff." Isabel shook her head slightly, glancing back to Lane Victory. "I guess you heard most of what I said then, if you know to use that name."
"Some of it, at least," The shipgirl admitted. "But I'd know the hands that built me even if you hadn't said anything about it. And honestly, after seeing zombie ships rise from the depths of hell like a B-grade thriller, I don't think meeting a personification of a landmass is any stranger than being a woman who used to be a cargo ship and movie stand-in."
Isabel laughed. "Man, I cannot wait to get the rights to make the movie for this when I get home. I'll make it B-grade just for that comment alone, and everyone will watch it anyways because it'll still be that good."
A growl came from the shipgirl's direction, and Isabel smoothly shifted her orientation to take them towards the kitchens instead. "I think a midnight snack for you is in order first; you cool with chatting while I whip up a few dishes for you?"
Isabel didn't need to look to see the light flush across the shipgirl's face. "I think that'd be more than welcome right now."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
The admiral stared at the shipgirl brought to his attention just as he'd arrived in his office for the morning news and paperwork that needed to be done before he assigned the on-site shipgirls to their assignments of the day. He then looked to the woman who had purportedly done what the entirety of the US military had been trying to do for years unsuccessfully, at a loss for words.
Eventually he found his voice. "You… asked nicely?"
"Well, I mean, a lot of them already served for a war or three depending on how long they were able to last. I figured, even if none of them responded to me, maybe they'd hear me and be a bit more willing to consider it when you guys tried again?" Isabel's mouth twisted, head tilting. "If I were in their place, I might be tired of fighting too, so I just went with what I might want to hear if people were asking me to come back to fight."
"She said that Japan and our other allies in the pacific and further on were struggling to get supplies and people moved to where they needed to be," Line Victory spoke up. "That's what I was born and built to do, and I lived long enough to see the abyssals attack Hawaii and the other island countries across the world, so I know how serious a threat they are. You all asked for fighters, and I can't blame you for that when the world is at a stalemate, but she asked for someone who could help people. That's why I came back, sir."
The admiral exhaled and rubbed a hand across his face. "Don't get me wrong, I am elated that we got even one girl back, as it proves that we aren't an exception to the rules of this new war. But a cargo ship… you do know that neither Japan nor England has managed to get any of the few supply ships they got back to successfully store the supplies they've tried to get them to carry as part of convoys, without even getting into the nightmare of logistics it would take to haul actual people?"
Isabel thought she must have been gaping, because that was not what she'd expected to hear. She knew China had had hammerspace capabilities, and she knew that the ship girls in general were storing their crews and fuel storage somewhere, with air carriers also holding their aircraft, so she'd just assumed that the girls could haul around other things in their ship selves as well. Maybe she should have been more aware of the potential issue, as even though she was a state she was hardly able to pull off any of the little or not so little tricks the others could.
Line Victory's expression hardened. "With all due respect, sir, that's not going to stop me from trying. Even if I can't hold the same capacity as one of today's cargo ships, I can protect it better, and if necessary I can ruin the days of the abyssals that try to sink me. All I ask for is your support going forward."
The admiral looked back to both of them, the calculations he was running through his head obvious to Isabel - the cost of losing the support of the first American shipgirl versus the potential drop in morale if the experimentation should fall through without results. "Even if I had the ability to be picky, I'd still take the chance to see if we can get an extra edge on the abyssals. Consider yourself on board; the girls outside can show you around the base and get you caught up on the daily routine while I call up the others and update them on all this."
He'd raised his voice for the first part of the last sentence, allowing Isabel to catch the several quiet squeaks just outside the door.
Line Victory lifted her chin in pride, a smile upon her lips. "I won't let you down, sir."
The admiral nodded in dismissal, and Isabel almost felt for him in how long it was going to take to explain to everyone just how they'd gotten their first shipgirl to come back.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
"Was it weird for you to get used to being human?" Lane Victory asked during lunch, the other shipgirls having been successfully distracted by updates on their friends back in Japan so they weren't listening in.
Isabel shook her head. "I was always human, so I never really had to get used to that; I represent the people of the state more than I represent the land it's on, honestly. The gold rush, on the other hand? That was a long couple of decades to grow up in. What about you, then?"
The shipgirl frowned, gork tapping against her half-finished plate. "I just… I knew there was a chance I could be called back, because the soldiers stationed with me wouldn't stop talking about Japan's shipgirls up to the day I sunk. But the only calls I ever heard were for fighting ships, and even now that I'm back, I might not even be able to do what I was built to do…"
Isabel grimased, reaching across the table to rest a hand on the other woman's own. "Honestly, I had no idea that that was an issue for cargo shipgirls when I was talking to you. This shipgirl thing is newer to me then it is to you, which is saying something, and I knew a guy back home who could do the pocket space thing so casually… I guess I just assumed that you girls were like the personifications I know and could pull off some of the random nonsense they could, and for that, I'm sorry for getting your expectations up."
"Ma'am, I would have come back even if you had known, because it was you asking," Lane Victory replied. "Because you were the one thinking more about the people who needed to be saved than getting the ability to punch out more zombie ships. I still think there's got to be something obvious people are missing, but until then, I can help the people here by giving them hope that their big shots are just around the corner."
"Because of course people only know about the big warships with lots of kills and not the Victories and Liberties that kept the war effort rolling as smoothly as they did," Isabel grumbled. "Will you be okay doing photo ops and interviews, though? I know you did a lot of films, but that was before, and I don't think morale will be helped much if you suddenly go camera shy on everyone."
Lane Victory blinked, expression slacked briefly, before it scrunched back together in thought. "...I think I'll be alright. I guess I can't know for sure until it happens, but the thought doesn't bother me the way the other girls said it did to them."
"If it helps, I've never really been on film myself," Isabel offered, smile turning into a grin and then a laugh at the wide-eyed stare that got from her lunch companion. "Just because I'm me doesn't mean I'm some sort of movie star, despite what I might say to everyone else. I've scripted a few movies and helped with filming or effects, but back home… it's sort of taken for granted that we don't tell people what we are. Way back in the day, it made us targets for the superstitious and the greedy, and in modern times, most of the others just assume that we'd either end up celebrities or witches, probably both."
The state shook her head. "I think the people who would be against our existence are the sort of people who get offended at anything that differs from their small boxes of how they think things should be, and that they're a louder and smaller minority then the others think, but the shit I'd get into if I tried anything just isn't worth it."
"I'm sorry things are like that where you're from," Lane Victory replied. "What do you do normally, then?"
"Electronics, mostly," Isabel replied. "Focused on programming and coding, but I also do hardware stuff sometimes just to stay in shape on that front. At home I do a lot of gardening - I have ten acres of land down in Monterey with a bit of everything that can be grown in the area and then some. I trade gardening tips and plants with Sue - New Jersey - during free time between the state meetings to discuss inter-country trade and politics."
"I don't think I've ever gotten to see a garden…" Line Victory replied, gaze unfixing itself as she looked out past the wall. "I think I'd like to see one. Are we allowed to leave base?"
Isabel hummed, looking to the other girls, who were just finishing their own lunches. "Hey, are you guys allowed off base in your offtime?"
One of them looked over to them, a few grains of rice still stuck to her cheek. "The admiral says it's okay so long as all our exercises for the day are done! Are you going to go get clothing? Oh, we should have a shopping trip!"
The other girls cheered, and Line Victory looked somewhat put out by the abrupt change in plans. Isabel laughed and replied quietly, "Don't worry, I'll find you a good place to explore once they're distracted."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Though a lot of things about being a person while still being a ship were still confusing to Line Victory, the priorities of the military weren't a shock to her in the least. She wasn't a fabulous carrier or speedy destroyer, or even a crafty little sub capable of striking deep in enemy territory and getting back out again alive. So when the admiral called her into his office to explain that the intended announcement of her arrival was to be kept quiet for the immediate future, she didn't feel much in the way of disappointment or betrayal.
If Isabel had been there, Line Victory imagined she would be offended on the shipgirl's behalf, and the thought made her lips twitch briefly into a smile.
"I understand, sir," she replied, thinking on how the secret of her existence now hinged on the hope that she hadn't already had her image caught on camera and put on social media. Isabel had said that no one would guess she was a new shipgirl without her rigging and with the other girls too distracted to make it obvious to any onlookers, but the wry expression on the state personification's face as she said it said she didn't entirely believe what she was saying.
Well, she supposed she would just be surprised at some point when her face ended up on the news cycle.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Barely a week had passed by since she'd first arrived in this pool, and yet here she was again, hopefully to see if she could help Isabel convince another girl to join the cause. Line Victory could not remember the short time between her sinking and her reawakening, but she knew that she hadn't been entirely alone, and she knew she hadn't been the only one listening.
"Are you ready for this?" Isabel asked, ignoring the small crowd of soldiers and military-associated civilians who had ended up hearing about this impromptu summoning attempt and decided to sneak a peek for themselves.
"I am," Lane Victory replied, closing her eyes and breathing deeply before opening them to focus on the depths of the pool.
Beside her, Isabel crouched down, her focus as much past the water as into it, and for a moment the shipgirl wondered what her builder was recalling even as she started speaking.
"I'm back again; it's been a rather interesting week since Lane VIctory chose to come see what all the fuss was about up here," Isabel laughed quietly. "The japanese girls have been a blast since they realized they've been making friends with an actual movie star, and I think they've been plotting their own movie when they think we aren't paying attention."
Lane Victory shook her head to hide her smile; she herself was actually very interested in seeing what the others were going to come up with, and the idea of going back into films in her new life actually didn't sound all that bad the more she considered it. But that was for a later time, when the world knew who she was. "There's a lot of things that are confusing about being a woman as well as a ship… food, music, cats, relationships… but I don't regret it at all. I served a long, fulfilling life, both in war and in peace, and even after being sunk by the Abyssals, I think I could have slept soundly knowing I did all I could for my country.
"But then I heard a voice… Isabel's voice. Where others called for fighters to stand against the storm, she called on us to remember the people we were built to protect - not the military or the government, but the people of the United States and her allies. I knew then that my duty was far from over, and that even if I couldn't sink Abyssals without a lot of work, I could still help make sure those who can fight can keep on protecting our people.
"I might be just a Victory, but I still ask… are you all willing to do the same?"
The room was silent but for the slap of water against the sides of the pool. Then came the replies.
"I am," replied the first woman now saluting on the water, her looks similar to Line Victory's own. "SS American Victory, ready for action."
"SS Red Oak Victory," The second woman replied next, similar enough to her sister to be easily mistaken if not for the small differences in the shape of their faces, their haircuts, and their uniforms - where Lane Victory wore white ribbons, American Victory had blue and Red Oak Victory wore red. "Ready for deployment."
The last woman was shorter, and had short cropped black hair to the longer locks of the other three American shipgirls. Despite this, her enthusiasm was the greatest as she replied, "SS Robert E. Peary ready to set out on your orders! Just point me where you need me!"
There was a brief moment of silence as the humans in the room processed this development, then Isabel broke it by throwing back her head and laughing gleefully. Lane Victory was too happy to see her retirement sisters and one of their role models back too soon to begrudge her builder her moment of entertainment.
AN: Since obviously a lot of my choices are gonna confuse people, here are the things you need to know:
1. I know very, very little about KanColle outside of the handful of fics I've read on this site and over on SV. I probably should do a wiki dive at some point to get more familiar with the characters and setting, but for the purposes of this extended drabble / framework, this is what I know and am working with: A) The abyssals are corrupted reflections of ships from WW1 (and possibly WW2?) that attacked many of the island nations and settlements around the world, B) Japan (and England) were first to get their ships to come back as shipgirls to fight against the Abyssals, since weird hell magics kept modern technology from being able to accurately lock on and strike back against the Abyssals, C) at some point other countries also start getting their girls back aside from the US for some reason?, and D) cargo shipgirls cannot actually cargo ship, which is somewhat unfortunate for said shipgirls.
2. I have for a long time liked the idea of personifications in both historical and fictional settings in order to explore worlds from both their point of view, and how the world views them from the outside. Since Hetalia and KanColle are both about personifications, and since both of them have a lot of heavy ties to WW2... I thought it was a fitting choice in order to explore KanColle for the first time.
3. I chose the four I did mostly because A) they were easily wiki'd, since I didn't want to do in-depth searching for more obscure names for a thing I might not even continue, B) all four of them were built in California shipyards and so would have close, possibly personal ties to the personification of said state, even if said personification was from another universe, C) three of the four are actually afloat as museum ships today, and so would have been 'alive' to see the abyss rise up and might have even lived long enough to see the first Japanese shipgirls on the news before they got sunk in Abyssal raids, while D) the fourth is somewhat their 'older cousin' and somewhat role model despite her handful of years of experience comparatively. Of course, E) all four of them are cargo ships, and so story plot immediately shifts from 'what sort of guns can they wield against the Abyssals' to 'what can they being to the fight to reclaim the oceans in general?'
I know that I am extremely nubbish on the KanColle side of things, but I figured I would get this idea out of my head so I could work on other things. Regardless of technical inaccuraties and deliberate vagueness and probably OOC issues... I hope you enjoy this.