Rule courtesy of Falkeno
Rule 9793. Portsmouth Naval Dockyard isn't haunted, will you please stop screaming!
It was Halloween in Portsmouth and the base was alive with festivities, the bases smaller ships dressed in adorable costumes, the larger ones in costumes that varied from acceptable to borderline nosebleed prompting, it was a textbook scene of a Halloween party, right up until the blood-curdling screams had drowned out the sound of the monster mash. Now at first most had presumed that it was some good quality sound effects to build the spooky atmosphere, right up until a stream of white-faced shipgirls and sailors sprinted into view, with looks of terror in their eyes!
"What is going on?!" Graham demanded as he pulled a random form out of the train of terrified party goers, finding his choice to be Royal Sovereign in a rather 'revealing' Pirate costume.
"G-gg-ghost!" Sovereign stammered, looking back in fear "It, it had white skin, like bone white, and a really old outfit, like what Queen Elizabeth's costume, and, and, it was like half of it wasn't there!" she explained the terror in her voice noticeable before she turned and continued running in fear, leaving Graham and most of Portsmouth in confusion, it sounded like a prank, but the fear seemed genuine, so either there was someone needing a beating, or less likely, there was a ghost running around the base.
"Alright! I need volunteers to check this out, Victory, Warrior and Minerva are in charge since they know the base like the back of their hands, any takers?" Graham asked pointing to the figures dressed as Horatio Nelson, the sexy warrior, and the Greek goddess respectively. What Graham didn't notice as he divided up the volunteers between the three, was the figure in the suit sneak off in the direction of one building in particular, she had a hunch about this, and she was willing to bet money on her theory, after all, Belfast knew a thing about monsters, and this wasn't one.
...
As Belfast entered the room she was looking for, the first things she noticed was the smell of old wood and the sound of the building's ventilation system, but then she heard a different sound, the sound of muffled crying, coming from behind the wooden structure that the building had been constructed for in the first place. Slowly Belfast crept around the structure until she found what she was looking for, the white-skinned, semi-translucent figure, dressed in the remains of a Tudor vintage dress, who was sitting on the floor, crying.
"Hey, there" Belfast greeted quietly, causing the figure to jump in surprise as she turned to face her; giving Belfast an idea of what had caused the panic amongst her colleagues, the girl had only half a face, the rest of it was translucent, like the rest of her body.
"Who, who are you?" The girl asked nervously as she pulled her legs tighter into her chest, clearly, she was more scared of Belfast, than Belfast was of her.
"My names Belfast; Bel for short, don't worry I'm not going to hurt you" Belfast explained as she moved closer "and I know who you are, you're Mary Rose" she added, receiving a surprised look from the old Carrack in question.
"How did you?" Rose asked, only to receive a smile from the cruiser.
"Well, when Royal Sovereign said you were wearing a Tudor like dress, I got suspicious, but it wasn't until she said half of you was translucent that I knew for sure" Belfast answered as she sat down next to Mary Rose.
"Yeah, I really scared them didn't I" Mary Rose noted, receiving a nod from Belfast "Its just that it gets lonely being on my own, and with it being Halloween I thought I could mingle without being noticed, but I guess this was a bit too much!" she exclaimed as she held up her completely translucent left arm, Belfast however simply looked at the poor girl, at all the damage her body reflected, and then an idea blossomed in her mind.
"Hey, I might have an idea to fix your 'ghost-like' issue, you want to try it?" Belfast asked already thinking about how best to put her idea into action.
"You think you can fix this?" Mary Rose replied, pointing to her left arm, receiving a nod from Belfast "Well it's worth a try" she noted as she got to her feet followed by Belfast.
"Here put this on, there are people looking for you, pretending that they're Ghostbusters!" Belfast explained as she gave Mary Rose her jacket as she led her out of the room.
"Whats a ghostbuster?" Rose asked, prompting a chuckle from Belfast as she made a mental note to lend the girl some of her film collection.
...
Admiral Graham stomped through the repair building, first, he had this whole ghost saga, then he'd managed to lose a visiting cruiser, and now someone was breaking into the repair bucket supply; finally, he reached the repair bath's, only to find Belfast pouring a repair bucket over a figure he didn't recognise, who was lying in one of the repair baths.
"What the hell are you doing!" Graham demanded, prompting the figure to jump in surprise, and a sigh from Belfast; Graham was furious, Belfast was meant to be the sane one, and yet here she was doing something crazy.
"Ah, Admiral, Allow me to introduce Mary Rose, formally the ghost-like figure that terrified everyone; she's sorry about that by the way" Belfast explained, before gesturing to the pile of empty repair buckets "And I would like to apologise for 'borrowing' some repair buckets, but I need them to fix Mary's problem with being partially see through" she continued as the anger drained away within Graham, as reasons went this was a good one.
"Carry on" Graham sighed as he turned and headed back to his office, he had an announcement to make, and a list of rules to update.
