Note by author Grathryn

Two new, and currently not in my list, ships
Alan Hawkins - Titanic
Rosa Harrison - HMS Belfast (Note, she's not Falkeno's Belfast, though she bordered similar issues)

Regarding the snippet in a snippet with the AU meeting of DD6, that's its own universe that might be a spin off from somewhere, not sure what might occur with it, just wanted to put that in

10647. Congratulations to HMS Zealous and HMS Mars on opening the Dapper Lioness Pub in Plymouth. Normal rules for shipgirls and military personnel drinking there apply
10647a. Yes Zealous is the one manning the bar while Mars cooks
10647b. They also have several variants of the Gargle Blaster on hand, no we didn't ask where they got them from, probably the same place as O'Bannon found hers for at least one of them
10647c. For those attempting a little 'local flavour', be aware some of the drinks, particularly those made with produce from the Wilders' farm, have side effects including temporary intangibility and fairly insane sugar highs
10647d. If anyone is interested, the Devonport Bards do live shows at the Dapper Lioness

Wiping down the last of the wooden tables, Amaya stretched with a groan and looked around with her hands on her hips. Everything was ready, after saving her pay for months (beyond what was already held back to grow) except for what she needed to help with the bills at home, she had managed to buy up some land on Devonport's grounds and build a proper navy pub. She had been worried about food, until she had found out that Sara O'Lowry – HMS Mars of the Minotaur-class cruisers had actually wanted to be a chef before Awakening as a shipgirl, and was good at cooking.

"That's the last of them Fraulein," a German accented voice sounded from behind her, causing her to turn and see a brunette with blue eyes that stood a bit taller than her wearing the German navy uniform.

"Thanks, Karlsruhe," Amaya responded. "Are you sticking around to help with the opening or are you going to enjoy the Oktoberfest?"

Karlsruhe frowned slightly. "My sisters wish to see what your city has to offer of the Oktoberfest, but we do plan on returning to help with the opening."

Amaya nodded. "Then get going, just be back for five if you're interested in helping out." She grinned at the cruiser girl. "Things go well tonight you'll probably be having an extra tip from me, in beer or whatever you're interested in."

Karlsruhe snapped a salute. "Jawohl," she responded crisply, only to get an amused look from Amaya as the destroyer girl waved her off.

Shaking her head in amusement, Amaya smirked as she made her way behind the bar to check on the drink stocks, trailing her fingers gently over the polished wood. As much as she liked modern pubs, there was something more… homey about the older style. Oh they had the modern conveniences, but wood, leather and the pictures of the docks and the ships, including her and her sisters' hulls made a better feel, something for a tired person to enjoy relaxing in.

"Let's see…" she murmured, turning to the shelves and fridges. "Tap ciders all ready, bottles in the fridge. Got the beers, stout, lager, bitter and ale ready to go while wine is in the bottles along with spirits and ready mixers," she continued picking a check list up from the bar and running through it as she tagged each set of drinks. "There are soft drinks to cut things or for the younger crowd, along with the main brands there and Sara's in the kitchen so that'll be taken care of. I've got money ready for the till so we've got some change tonight and the card readers are ready to go, so unless something pops up, we're ready." She frowned slightly, giving the place another look around. "I wonder if O'Bannon will be glad of us taking some of the pressure off her or if she'll see us as competition?"

"Well it's not like we're going to be stealing her customer base," the Irish lilt of Sara's voice sounded as the redhead came out of the kitchens. "I mean she hardly competes with Houshou and the others over in Japan or scattered in other ports, we're just letting them have a place to go local to us whenever they're in our area rather than having to go down the coast or over the ocean." She smirked. "If anything, it's the local pubs that need to watch out, at least if we go for being open to the public as well as the military."

White hair done up in two fluffy tails, Valeriya sighed as she looked around the Dapper Lioness for a place to sit. The place was packed, a dull roar of conversation mostly covering the sound of the group on stage, which she recognised as Blake (HMS Blake), Jennifer (HMS Zodiac) and Nora (HMS Zest).

Making her way through the crowd, and dodging a few of the German shipgirls dressed in older style clothes, mostly short sleeved blouses with below the chest waistcoats and knee skirts as they moved around carrying plates of food or trays of drinks around, she pressed through to the bar, nodding to Amaya as she found herself a place to sit next to a taller girl with blonde hair tinting towards red or brown.

"That's a bit of a different look for you, isn't it?" the blonde asked, turning to reveal her face, two dark red 'claw mark' tattoos under each of her blue eyes. "Jane Beaumont, or HMS Swiftsure, if you prefer ship names, by the way. I've seen you around with the other destroyers, but I don't think we've ever been properly introduced."

"Valeriya Nakamura, JMS Hibiki," Valeriya responded before blushing slightly. "This… isn't my preferred hairstyle," she added softly. "My sisters were the ones that did this for me." She indicated her twin tails. She sat silent for a moment, leaning on the bar before turning back to Jane. "Thank you, by the way… for what you did for Inazuma in the war. For helping me when she sank."

Jane frowned briefly. "You mean rescuing her crew, right?" she asked, getting a nod from Valeriya. "They earned it. Japan might have decided to join with Germany and try to establish an empire of its own, but both your sisters' crews proved they were still human in spite of the war by saving Pope, Exeter and Encounter's crews unlike that bastard Arrizumi."

Valeriya looked at her seat mate, cocking an eyebrow. "You don't think Hacchi should be blamed for that?" she asked softly. "I've heard several that do without meeting her."

"No, she shouldn't, no more than any of the death camps' spirits should really be blamed for what happened there. War makes monsters of us all, and having met some actual monsters…" Jane sighed, shaking her head. "Besides, even with that, you're talking about things back in the war, something sixty plus years past, even with the memories, logs and fairies for crew; we're not the ships from back then." She shrugged, swirling her drink absently for a moment before taking a sip. "Though I do wonder with all the alternate worlds we've found whether there was one where things were slightly different again and your sisters survived the war."

Ikazuchi sat on a bench in Mikasa Park chewing worriedly at her nails, the packet of food she had bought earlier lying forgotten beside her. This would be her first time of meeting her three sisters since becoming human. Sure, their hulls were preserved further down the park along with those of HMS Swiftsure and USS Atlanta, but all she could think about was how she had lost them, Akatsuki to Atlanta's guns which in a quirk of fate didn't demolish the destroyer, then Inazuma to Bonefish, though Swiftsure, Whelp and Wizard had saved her, only to capture Hibiki at the same time. Then there was her, the only Akatsuki that stayed with Japan throughout the war, in spite of a near miss at Guam where Harder had nearly sunk her.

She was so caught up in her own thoughts that the first warning she had of the others arriving was the three of them crashing into her, taking her off the bench and onto the ground. "W-what?" she managed "I-Inazuma, H-Hibiki… A-Akatsuki?"

"Did you really think we wouldn't want to see you, sis?" Inazuma asked, giving Ikazuchi a squeeze that made the other brunette squeak as breath left her lungs.

"B-b-b-but t-t-the war?" asked Ikazuchi, "What about all the times we fought?"

The trio shared a look as they sorted themselves out and got back onto the bench. "We never blamed you," Akatsuki said softly. "If I hadn't used my spots, Atlanta might not have known I was there."

Hibiki nodded. "Yeah, and my crew went to help Inazuma's when I was captured, it was nothing you did, it was my bad luck. I might be a phoenix, but that doesn't mean I'm able to see things happening."

"Besides," Inazuma added, giving Ikazuchi another squeeze, this one a bit gentler than the last. "Did you never think there was a reason why several of those battles we, and our adopted families, aimed more to drive you and some of the others off rather than destroy you?" she asked. "You're family, and your actions helping me rescue those sailors won you more respect than most. Hell, I know several of the Umbrals were hunting I-8 to give her commander and crew a taste of frontier justice."

"They got her as well," Hibiki commented. "And when they found her again last year, they helped her cleanse the blood off her decks and purge her commander from her crew list."

Ikazuchi looked between the trio, her eldest sister in an American uniform, her twin and second elder in British and for the first time since she'd heard they were coming, let go, bursting into tears as she flung herself into her twin's arms, the other pair quickly joining the circle.

"You know, Atlanta," a blonde woman said, watching the quartet. "It's honestly a shame Harder didn't manage to catch Ikazuchi, at least then she would have had one sister. That or we should have gone for capturing her in one of those battles with her."

"I don't think anyone expected us to capture the other three, Swiftsure, much less get the full set. "Still, it's good to see they're still family even now."

"Vodka for you, Valeriya?" asked Amaya as she reached the pair, drawing Valeriya from her thoughts.

"Not tonight, Amaya," she replied. "It's Oktoberfest, it should be beer." She paused for a moment and grimaced. "But… I don't know what beer is good."

Jane shifted slightly. "Try a pint of Korev lager and see how you go, worst case you don't like it and you can try something else."

Valeriya blinked at Jane for a moment. "Lager…" she trailed the somewhat unfamiliar word around her mouth, "is beer?"

"Beer can be lager, ale, malt or stout depending on how it's brewed. A lot of people also put bitters in, though that's something of a sub-sub grouping, it's actually a type of ale," Amaya's lips quirked upwards. "My dad's a brewer, so I picked up a few things. Some of my stock is actually things his company brewed," she said before moving to pour Valeriya a glass of Korev from a bottle and placing it in front of the white-haired girl. "That's two-fifty for the pint, Valeriya, and a bit of advice, you're more used to vodka, so these will probably slip up on you because they're a lot lighter than you're used to, have some water and food after a couple of glasses, it's a trick we tend to use to soak the booze." She gave Jane a wink as Valeriya dug out the money.

"Hey, Titanic, right?" a female voice drew Titanic's attention to a tall brunette with a pint of something in her hand and dressed in an off-colour British navy uniform. "Mind if I join you for a minute?"

"I have no problems with that, but I'm already taken," he responded.

The young woman quirked a smile at him, "So am I," she admitted. "Anna Howell, HMS Umbra," she introduced herself as she sat, offering him a hand once hers were free.

Titanic shook her hand. "Alan Hawkins, you already know my ship name." He gave her a look as she sat back slightly. "What can I do for you?"

"A couple of things, first, do you know what's going on with your brother and Upholder? I haven't heard much beyond the admiral giving him a tongue lashing over it even though it's been a fair while. I think Upholder's a bit put out with me over my pointing out I've been covered worse than your brother was then, plus, you know, being stuck in a video game for a year didn't help." She shrugged slightly before leaning back a little. "Though, duties and all can make spending time a pain to arrange, which actually brings up the other point. Undine's still moaning about not having a boyfriend in your league," she commented with a smirk. "Know anyone I could suggest her trying meeting?"

Alan frowned, thinking back. "I think the Admiral made him apologise to her as part of the punishment, but I think they're mostly still avoiding one another. As for Undine, I don't know of any."

Anna shrugged. "Eh, it was worth an ask, kinda hard to find traditional gentlemen these days, what with everything." She gave him a small smile. "I'll let you alone, since I think your girlfriend is getting served and mine is waiting on me." That said, she rose, nodding to him as she claimed her drink and headed off into the crowd.

"Well this is a turn up for the books, I thought you were avoiding me to avoid memories, Bel," Angela commented as she found herself a spot near the subdued Town-class girl drinking in a corner. "You here for your band or because of your sisters dragging you along?" she asked.

Belfast looked up at Angela somewhat disgruntled. "Why do you think I'd do that, Devonport?" she asked sourly.

"Angela," Angela responded, "We're off duty right now, and honestly?" she asked arching an eyebrow. "I've heard about your reaction to certain events coming up, this is where that was fixed so I'd imagine the memories are worse here than anywhere except where it happened."

Belfast growled, clenching one hand into a fist at the reminder of her mining. "You weren't there for that, you don't know what it was like, especially not to go out and find your sisters were dying left and right of you."

Angela nodded slightly, accepting the rebuke. "True, but keeping on with your head there won't help your sisters survive now either," she pointed out gently. "While none of my fleet of the time died, I am still Devonport's embodiment, so I still do feel like a mother, even to Warspite, I remember seeing a three hundred young girls going out bright eyed and bushy tailed, more than a few of them never came home and some only returned physically while being as bad as the abyssals that now haunt the waters mentally and emotionally."

She paused to sip her drink, meeting Belfast's eyes. "I may not be as strong or encompassing as Ly is, but I remember seeing and feeling the bombs from the Blitz, even if who I am now wasn't alive then, and neither were you." She tapped the table with one nail to make the point. "Don't sink yourself so completely into Belfast that you reawaken the demon she became during the war. You have her class sisters, and the Minotaur and Ontario classes are practically the children of your class, not to mention every ship that is built at a dock can be considered a sister to every other ship, in a way." Angela gave Belfast a slight smile. "Even you can call every ship built both here from your repairs and at Belfast, even if Birmingham and Gloucester didn't give you the ability to call these docks a family home."

Belfast shook her head. "I don't deserve it; I was a monster and I—"

"Bullshit," Angela interrupted. "You were hurt badly, and you lost yourself to war for a long time, but you're not a monster now and now matters more than then. Besides, what would you call Admiral Glenn? She's one of very few humans able to stand up to abyssals directly. Her nieces are just as bad, at least when it comes to demons and undead, they have no mercy or compassion. Umbra stalks the dark places with a cleaver as big as she is and back in the war she took pleasure in stalking Italian shipping, as several of her sisters did. The difference, Bel, is that they already knew how to keep themselves, they have something both then and now to bring them back from that abyss." She stared straight into Belfast's grey/green eyes. "You fell, you were a monster in combat, true, but even then most of the time there was someone that could call you back. You only properly slipped towards the end, and you saw what you were before you fell too far to recover."

Belfast was saved from answering Angela's claim by the appearance of her sister Birmingham phasing through a few people to plonk a tray of drinks down. "Here, sis," she said brightly. "You look like you want something stronger than beer; this is supposed to be really strong." She placed a smoking, metal tankard in front of Belfast, who looked at it curiously for a moment before looking back at her sister.

"I don't want to know," Belfast muttered eventually before taking a sip and immediately yelping. "Cold!"

Giving the tankard a look, Angela shook her head. "Probably dry ice. That looks like it might be some sort of gargle blaster, so I hope you've a designated driver or a place to stay girls." She turned to Birmingham. "I'd also suggest taking it easy on the phasale, drink too much and you might end up intangible when you don't want to be." Nodding to the pair of them, she got to her feet and moved off to talk to others.

Belfast closed her eyes and groaned. "It… it's not just then," she admitted, drawing the pair's attention back to her. Taking a breath, she let it out slowly. "Look, I don't like talking about my past for good reason… as Belfast… I was a monster, yes Epona, her sisters, my surviving sisters and the Minotaurs and eventually Lions could pull me back, but every time I faced the Nazis, every time I lost one of my sisters, it got a bit worse, a bit harder to come back from, until I found out about the nukes and the death camps and looked in the mirror because of them." She took a long swallow of the drink, shivering and not just from the intense chill of it. "But there's also Rosa Harrison, the girl who…" She swallowed again, looking up at them with tears starting to form in her eyes. "Who saw her entire family murdered and who nearly committed suicide several times. If-if I hadn't Awoken, I wouldn't be here, maybe it'd be better if I wasn't, at least I could have sent my family's murderers to hell before seeing them again."

Birmingham gasped in horror at her sister's blunt words before moving to hug her and winding up on the floor as she turned intangible at just the wrong moment.

Reaching over the table, Angela took Rosa's hand. "I doubt any of us blame you for wanting to see your lost family again, Rosa," she said softly. "Quite a few of us have lost people to something, but don't forget you've still got people that care about you, you're their sister or mother or daughter and your family, I'd hope, would rather you live for more than just revenge."

"You're my sister, Bel," Birmingham said as she managed to hug Rosa. "I don't want to lose you, nor do our sisters."

"So you don't mind helping out again?" Amaya asked looking around at the three remaining girls at the bar, her sister ships Nora and Jennifer and the cruiser girl Blake.

Jennifer smirked at her. "Free food, free drinks and extra pay on the side? As long as we sort things out before hand and we've got cover for things I don't mind at all. Girls?" she asked her companions.

Nora nodded slightly. "Sure beats getting shot at, gives us a chance to improve our rep, and hey, big thing, you're our sister." She leaned over to squeeze Amaya's hand. "You think we wouldn't help family after everything else we've been through?" she asked.

"They're right, Amaya," Blake added her tuppence. "Give us a heads up if you want us to help out, we'll do our best to help you out."

Amaya sighed in relief, closing her eyes briefly. "Thanks girls," she said, looking round at the three of them.

Valeriya groaned as consciousness returned with the dull glow of sunlight through curtains. Shifting around, she blinked the blur out of her eyes and shook her head slightly, finding it a bit lighter than usual, but not aching or rattling. Another blink made her sit up sharply as she realised she wasn't in her usual room while at Plymouth, quickly followed by the relief of realising she was still wearing her leggings and blouse from the previous night.

Looking around, she spotted her other clothes and shoes on a chair not far from the bed while a note rested on the bedside table. Picking it up, she scanned through it.

Valeriya,

I didn't know what your plans were last night nor where you usually stay, so I brought you back to the apartment complex we Minotaurs live in. I used the pull out bed in the lounge if you're wondering, and only undressed you enough that you weren't going to overheat.

You should probably give your sisters a call, if you want them to pick you up, the address is below. As for essentials, the toilet is left out of the bedroom, the kitchen is to the right, there's bread and jam or fruit in the fridge and cereal on the work surface if you want something to eat. There's some cartons of juice next to it if you want a drink.

I should be back around noon if you haven't left by then, if you do, send me a text on the number below so I know not to expect you to be around.

Jane.

Closing her eyes, Valeriya sighed. On the one hand, at least she had been safe sticking with Jane, on the other, no doubt her sisters were going to tease her something rotten when they found out she had spent the night at Jane's apartment, even though it had been entirely platonic. She wondered if it would be worth just not mentioning anything as she reached for the phone. At least they couldn't say she hadn't let them know, since it was likely Jane had let Sally know.