Post by Heron on May 30, 2021 8:10:08 GMT
USS Orinda was sinking.
The shipgirl had had to doff her rigging to even move, her torn-apart rudder paralyzing to her legs on land. Now her ship, back on the water, sagged well below the waterline. Holes and chunks were torn out of her decking, her keel was cracked, her gun turrets stressed nearly to the point of snapping off the body of the ship. Her torpedo tubes had been shorn off. That was all disregarding the amount of water the ship was taking on.
Orinda the person was pretty torn up too. Blood and oil were smeared everywhere, as if her body couldn't decide if it was human or ship so it bled both. Her left arm was mangled heavily by Volan teeth, and that dratted beast had ripped into the rest of her, too. Orinda's hair was in disarray, her coat was torn, and she could still barely move, even having ditched her faulty rudder.
After action was when the pain set in. When the reality of her injuries caught up with her. Getting shot or bombed or in this case bitten during sortie never seemed to hurt when it happened. Humans...and other things like humans, Orinda guessed, looking around port, might have called it adrenaline. Orinda just thought of it as a fog of war. It wore off, though, in moments like this. After it all stopped, in the calm and the cleanup. The fog cleared and the pain became crystal freaking clear.
And literally everything hurt.
"Whoah, you look rough," remarked USS Costa Rica, battleship, the newest addition to fall through the Mirror Sea to Teragaia and join the impromptu stranded fleet. "It's a shame we don't have Akashi or Vestal here to fix you up. That damage looks bad."
"Indeed," agreed USS Valley Forge, aircraft carrier. Her health always seemed wan and malnourished, but she seemed the picture of life and livelihood next to the battered and perforated Orinda. "I can try to tend your wounds, but I am no repair ship..."
"Make no nevermind of me, but this looks like something only Aeon can fix," interjected a local. "You should go up to the Shrine and ask Him for aid!"
Asherah was exhausted from the battle with the Volantil and was trying to repair what she could, so it was pretty much up to Costa Rica to half-carry Orinda's bleeding form up the mountain. Thankfully, like most battleships, Costa Rica was tall and muscular and didn't struggle with the task.
Once more, the Shrine had surrounded itself with a mote of water, inviting the shipgirls to cross in their own way. Orinda tried not to drip oil on the pristine water, but it seemed to dissolve when it dropped in, in no way tainting the purity of the water.
The Shrine itself looked like a Shinto shrine that was slightly overgrown.
Meow, mew look bad, nya? I have the feline I could pawsibly help mew out. I am a repair ship, after all!
Orinda really could have sworn it was Akashi, if Akashi was just a little more...winged cat?
Spending 5BP on a Puzzle Sphinx and with Sethy's permission, we're showing off the shipgirl mutation a little early! (I'll be holding a bonding with this later.) But no guns here, Akashi's just a repair ship, because Orinda needs maintenance. Worry not, Shrine Attendants! I will be writing Akashi myself. (In stages.)
Sphinx Puzzle Female Akashi -- Heron
Logistics Repair and Regular Maintenance Puzzle Female, Akashi
Speech: #2cc861
Most people think of sphinxes as talking in riddles instead of cat puns, but then there's Akashi, who can't seem to help herself when the paw-sibility of a cat pun or reference just so happens to come along. But that's what makes her an individual, nya? She also sets up shop selling...whatever folks will buy, and you'd better check your items before you pay for them just in case. She's a reliable repair ship but not a reliable merchant, Akashi, and what you spend your hard-earned money on may in fact be cheap crap dressed up to look all fancy and newfangled. And the warranty expires as soon as you pay, so be careful. Mercantile shenanigans aside, however, there's no better hands to be in if one is a mechanical or ship-like being in need of repair.
That's what Akashi was made for, to be a repair ship. In fact, she excels at it. If brought into sortie, she brings three emergency repair plan kits just in case quick repairs need to be done. Mechanical or ship beings in the sortie heal 1% of Akashi's max health every ten seconds during sortie. And just being near her makes the Vanguard Fleet reload faster.
As a sphinx, Akashi's mane is a soft sage green and long enough to be pulled back into a braid that comes to rest over her shoulder. Her ears are oversized and dramatic, dipping and swiveling with her every shift in mood, and just as green as her hair. Her eyes are large and golden, almost seeming to glow, and the pupils seem to be a lighter yellow instead of black. Her ever-present rigging includes a steel mast that rises from between her shoulders and a repair hook that sits behind that so that she can tow limping ships to safety.