Maxine ducks instinctively, hugging Notebook-chan close to her body. What's going on??? She wanted a peaceful world, not this! Her body feels awkward, not quite what she's used to - she looks down and sees the notebook - squashed against her breasts??? She's wearing a completely different outfit too - 

A squishy weight presses against the back of her neck. 

<Focus, Maxine! You're in the middle of a battle! You've got to awaken your powers!>

Maxine lets out a high yelp and then grabs the squishy thing on her neck, pulling it out in front of her.

It is an incredibly cute pink tentacle monster! It wiggles at her in a way that is somehow a smile.

<You have to use your secret heritage! It's not too late to make a difference! Those monsters are going to destroy the whole city if they win!>

It swirls around her waist and gives her a firm hug. <You can do this, Maxine!>

Maxine blinks and makes a "bwuh" noise.

A stray shot from one of the monsters misses one of the shipgirls and blasts apart the rocks on the shore fifteen meters away from Maxine. Chips of rock spray into the air, whizzing past her face and through her hair.

Maxine screams really really high and long! 

Then she looks down at the beach in front of her and sees a couple fragments of shrapnel that seem to have... deflected off her body???

She looks down at herself again, and sees a small scratch across her left arm where a piece of shrapnel skittered across her... metal plating and embedded itself into the tentacle creature in her arms? 

The tentacle creature squirms, and the shard of shrapnel falls out of it. 

<Don't worry about me, I'm amorphous! Listen! Listen as hard as you can! You've got to awaken your inner heart!>

Okay??????

She listens as hard as she can, still hugging the tentacle creature and her diary to her chest.

[Keep that screen up, Morrison! I need those zeroes out of my sky, and my fighters are chasing them in against you and Fletcher.]

[Roger, Lexi!]

[Let's see how that Nu likes my sixteens. Nola, handle the Is.]

[Evasive action! I'm under fire from the cruisers!]

Wait, she can hear them?

There's a distinct crackle-y undertone, like static - 

Wait, she can hear radio?

<Yes! You're doing it! Just like I said! Now go out there and kick some ass! You can't be touched, remember? Just do your best and I'll look out for you!> 

A sense of warmth and adoration and affection radiates from the bundle of tentacles in her arms. 

- Right, Battle Angel! She can still lose, but - she's guaranteed to survive. 

She has no idea what she's supposed to do but she's going to stash the diary in a bookbag and vanish it and then, uh - 

It seems ridiculous but she's going to run down the beach towards the water and splash into the shallows and, uh, is she going to have to swim? 

As she steps into the water, it turns out she winds up stepping on the water, and as soon as she has both feet wet, and more than an inch or two of water under her, she gains a sense of propulsion. Her feet contain screw-propellers? Somehow? She can just intend to go forward, and her body skates forward on the water. It's like wearing jet-skates, almost.

The more-numerous type of monster seem to be turning a hail of lighter gunfire toward the tall, silvery-haired girl. Something in Maxine seems to insist that that's a heavy cruiser? And the monsters attacking her are destroyers?

The tallest woman there, a battleship according to Maxine's new senses, pounds into what seems to be a carrier, which staggers but keeps sailing.

In that case she is going to... skate towards the... destroyers??? 

<Um, tenta-chan, can you help???>

<Just toss me in the water! There's a bad girl out there, and I'm good at grabbing bad girls!>

Somehow the telepathy comes across as if tenta-chan is waggling her eyebrows.

She drops Tenta-chan in the water and skates towards one of the destroyers. If she doesn't suddenly develop new powers she will just punch it she guesses???

Tenta-chan swarms forwards through the water almost as fast as Maxine, getting bigger and denser as she goes. 

Nola turns and sails around past the destroyers as best she can, bombarding them. They keep managing to dodge enough of her fire to stay afloat, though she does land several good hits. She winces at a strike from one of the cruisers, then briefly scowls at the sky as a pair of tiny planes strafe her.

Morrison won't let that stand. Several quick bursts of anti-air rounds punch through the sky, and the little planes plummet into the water.

Fletcher darts past the destroyers, getting in between Nola and them, and starts shelling one as fast as she can.

Wait what's that on her radar? It looks like a shipgirl, and has a bit of the radar profile of a ship, but mostly not? Huh? Whatever she is, she's steaming directly for the combat zone, accompanied by... a small kraken!?

[Unidentified vessel and kraken, this is the USS Lexington. You are entering a live combat zone. Identify yourself immediately.]

This is such a stupid idea but it's what she's doing!!!!

[Uh, this is the USS Maxine and her pet tenta-chan and we're here to help!]

She speeds up as fast as she can go. It is so weird to skate on water. Sucks to be you, Jesus! 

There has never been a USS Maxine on any registry. And this ?shipgirl? has no transponder, and has the radar profile of a rowboat, but she's steaming out here as fast as a destroyer. 

What.

The Ri-class takes advantage of Lexington's moment of distraction to score a hit amidships.

[Keep it together, girls. Nola, Missouri, focus fire on the light cruisers, Morri and Fletch on the destroyers. Lexi, take your sky back.]

[Maxine, this is Admiral Powell of the US Navy. If you have any armament, direct it at the destroyers. Try to restrict their movements if you can, which will ease the targeting situation for the rest of my 'girls. Stay alive out there, because I have quite a few questions for you when you get back to shore.]

[Roger!]

<You heard the lady, Tenta-chan!>

She and Tenta-chan should be able to corner one of the destroyers together, right?

<I'd rather grab a cute girl, but this works too!>

Tenta-chan breaks off her course for the Ri-class and instead goes for the closest destroyer, spreading out to flank it together with Maxine.

Somehow, two of the I-class destroyers sail right into tenta-chan, and where they get caught in her tentacles. The experience of grappling them is a bizarre superposition of wrestling a shark and lashing her tentacles around a tar-covered and frigid ship as though she's a kraken.

With tenta-chan holding them still, Fletcher and Morrison punch holes all through one of the destroyers.

New Orleans quickly sinks the other grappled I-class.

With the anti-air screen cut in half and distracted across the channel, Lexi swiftly bombs the Abyssal carrier, leaving it smoking, bleeding oil, and listing to one side. Her fighters strafe the cruisers.

Missouri chases the heavy cruiser with her heavy guns, not managing to land a hit yet but keeping her busy enough to stay out of the other fight.

One of the remaining destroyers sails straight for Maxine, firing at her the whole way.

She's untouchable!!!!!!!!

Shells splash to either side of her as she charges in. She doesn't seem to have weaponry, so it's time for MAXINE SUPER PUNNNNNNCH!

She slams into the enemy ship with a wild haymaker, then kicks it in the side for good measure.

Abyssal hull goes crunch, the destroyer tilts onto its side and starts sinking slowly, and Maxine's knuckles sting a bit.

[Did you just punch an Abyssal!? What? How? Missouri Lexi can I?]

[No. Keep shooting.]

<Go Maxine! You can do it!!!>

Tenta-chan lets the holed destroyers sink beneath the waves, and once again surges towards the Ri-class, driven on by some instinctive urge.

Maxine turns her attention on the closest remaining destroyer, and charges! 

<Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!>

The remaining destroyer wheels around and flees Maxine.

And runs directly into a hail of Fletcher's five-inch shells. The magazines swiftly develop a few holes and then explode, and the I-class sinks.

The heavy cruiser sees a mini-kraken approacing her, and tries to avoid both tenta-chan and Missouri at the same time. She steams an evasive course, weaving back and forth as best she can.

New girl makes no sense, but tenta-chan's kraken impression is hemming the Ri in enough that she can clip her with her sixteens.

Fuck those heavy shells hurt. She zags hard away from Missouri, which unfortunately brings her closer to tenta-chan. She pours fire into the tentacle creature to try to discourage her approach.

Tenta-chan quite obligingly explodes!

... Then reforms, even denser and wrigglier, and wraps her tendrils around the Ri-class. She doesn't seem to be put out at all.

<Take this!>

A surge of pink energy flows through Tenta-chan, and Maxine gets a sensation of fullness across the link as experience points bleed from the cruiser, weakening and slowing it. 

Maxine will - become an escort for the heavier ships? Probably the smartest thing to do! If she can just keep the gnats away they'll win this, right?

The heavy cruiser keeps struggling in tenta-chan's grasp, but grows steadily weaker. Her shots ping off of Missouri's armor as the battleship closes.

The two light cruisers fire on the pair of Fletchers, who dodge what they can and weather the rest.

Lexington puts another bombing run into the carrier, and it sinks.

New Orleans pours fire into the heavy cruiser alongside Missouri.

Tenta-chan is in her element, feeding off of the heavy cruiser's levels eagerly. Her aphrodisiac slime doesn't seem to be doing much, but it's the thought that counts, right?

After all, bad girls who struggle need to be taught their lessons.

Maxine is going to go threaten those light cruisers some! Let's see if they're fast enough to keep from getting comboed.

This Ri is certainly struggling, but the only lesson she's learning is that the Americans are weird and better defended than expected, and that she's not going to get to report back to her Princess about this.

The two Ho-class light cruisers split up, trying to keep away from this strange melee shipgirl while firing on her.

Maxine is somehow just incredibly hard to get a valid firing solution on!

She goes after the closer ship at her maximum speed and sees if she can overtake.

Meanwhile, tenta-chan just keeps draining away. The empathic link sings with satisfaction and joy as her tentacles redouble in strength, leaving the Ri-class pretty much helpless.

Nola catches one of the fleeing Hos in a quick salvo, leaving it listing and taking on water.

Morri and Fletcher fire on the other, which turns to avoid them and winds up losing ground to Maxine's chase.

Meanwhile, Missouri puts hole after hole into the weakening heavy cruiser.

Here we go!!!!

Maxine darts into the light cruiser and kicks it in the teeth!

The cruiser's hull crumples a bit, and it starts taking on water at the bow. A couple teeth break.

It seems that the XP from tenta-chan's level drain went into enhancing Maxine's durability a bit, so far.

The cruiser turns sluggishly away and tries to escape.

She has no idea what she's doing but the bullies at her middle school always stopped picking on her when she started hitting with her elbows. 

Schoolyard fight tactics go!!!!

This dents it a bit more, and with a bit of care to avoid hitting Maxine, Morrison and Fletcher fill the cruiser with holes, eventually holing the fuel bunker, and the whole thing goes up like a firecracker in Maxine's face.

Nola's light cruiser has sunk as well, so she comes about and heads for the Ri, helping Missouri send her back to the Abyss.

Maxine staggers back from the cloud of smoke coming off the light cruiser and coughs a few times. She seems unscratched, but she felt that in her chest and all of a sudden she's a lot less certain of her invulnerability. 

She looks back over her shoulder at tenta-chan.

<It's okay!!> Tenta-chan sends, with a tentacle waggle that's somehow a thumbs-up. <You're doing perfect!>

Yeah, she's going to fall back for now. It's starting to strain plausibility that she hasn't taken a hit, and she doesn't want to test her narrative sense too badly.

Conveniently, Missouri is just putting the last holes in the heavy cruiser, who sinks.

[Seas appear to be clear.]

[Nothing on sonar.]

[Skies are clear as well.]

[Well done, girls. Let's go home. Admiral will want quite the report about this fight.]

[Repair baths are warmed up and waiting for y'all. You can give your reports after a soak.]

And with that, the shipgirls all sail back into the channel, heading for a port north of the big city.

Oh! The fighting's over!

Okay, she'll just follow the... ship girls...? To wherever they're going. 

Tenta-chan lets the heavy cruiser sink, and rejoins her owner, swarming up from the seas to wrap around her neck again like a scarf.

<You did such a good job, Maxine!>

Maxine lays a hand on Tenta-chan's squishy bulk, blushes,  and smiles. Tenta-chan's actually really cute. 

<Aww, thanks.>

As Missouri leads the way back to the base, Morrison zips up alongside Maxine. She's a petite girl, with short black hair that fades naturally to red at the tips, and a red scarf around her neck.

"How'd you manage all that? You were like pow! And wham! And the were like crunch! And then they sank! It was so cool!"

"I honestly have no idea. I just kind of did my best! I've never, um, been a ship before. Or a girl. Or a... ship girl?" She ducks her head and blushes a little. A cute girl is talking to her!!!!!

She runs a hand through her hair. Okay, okay, be cool. "I just think that if you have, um, the power to help, you kind of have to, you know? We - I mean, me and tentacle-chan -" she pats the beastie around her neck. "- could help, so we tried our best. I don't have guns like you do, so it was down to fists and feet."

"Wait, you've never been a ship before? Is that why I don't recognize your name? I mean I don't remember everyone there are just so many but you're really cool so you seem memorable enough that I should remember you! Wait you don't have any guns? None? Are you a civilian ship? But you shrugged off that explosion and I know I saw some shells deflect off your hull so you have to be armored which means you probably aren't a civvie ship so you're military but you said you've never been a ship before! I'm so confused! This is so cool!"

She grins wide. "I'm sure our Admiral will figure you out. She always knows what questions to ask."

"I'm used to being human. And a boy. And then, uh, a magical talking diary gave me powers, and as part of that I changed a lot! I'm honestly still not used to this all. I take it this is the United States? Is there a Canada in this world? I guess I'm technically a HMS if I'm a boat here, but I was kind of confused when I talked on the radio originally. What were those monsters you were fighting?"

Tenta-chan squeezes her reassuringly.

Morrison's speaking style continues to be as rapid-fire as her guns. "Oh wow are you a trans girl? I know a few trans girls on base including our Admiral it's so cool that you can just change and be you properly like that that's awesome and magical talking diaries are even cooler! And yeah Canada still exists but they don't have a lot of shipgirls yet. The monsters are Abyssals they're awful and mean."

She takes a breath. "You should probably get our Admiral to tell you the story. She explains it better. Or maybe we can do storytime while we're in the repair baths. Are you coming to the repair baths with us, Maxine? You should you should!"

"Yeah, I guess so? Glad to hear there's still a Canada. And yeah, sure, if you'll have me!" 

She frowns. "You know, probably there'll be some fuss about immigration or something, I'm Canadian and I don't think my old ID is going to work..."

She appears a purse, fishes through it, and comes up with her wallet, black leather with the zipper starting to come off. She unzips it and flips through - only to be confronted with a complete absence of ID, cash, or cards. 

Right. The contents of her wallet don't have sentimental value. Great. 

"Uh... It appears I don't in fact have anything in my wallet."

She telepaths bewilderment to Tenta-chan. She was really expecting to find something in there!

Tenta-can squeezes softly. <Don't worry, it'll all get sorted out! Trust the process!>

<Okay.> 

She looks sheepishly at Morrison. "Do you suppose your admiral could help me with that?"

"Oh definitely. Shipgirls don't appear with human IDs or bank accounts either, so we're used to that by this point. Your case is maybe weirder than that, but I know she can handle it. She's got a lot of friends all across the Navy, and in other branches too, so she'll get it sorted out."

"That's a real relief to hear. I should be able to get settled okay, then." Trust the process... 

She rubs the back of her head. "So where are we, anyway?"

"Puget Sound, approaching Possession Sound and Naval Station Everett, north of Seattle."

"I've heard of Seattle before! Never been, though."

She shifts back and forth from side to side, testing out her jet skates a little more. This is actually kind of fun! 

"Oh, by the way, I don't think I've introduced my pet, Tenta-chan. Tenta-chan, say hi?"

Tenta-chan awkwardly raises a tentacle in a little wave. <Um, hi!>

"Oh wow are you psychic that's so cool! How's this work how's this work...?" <Hi?>

<Um, hi.> Tenta-chan kind of wriggles in place. <Sorry, I'm kind of shy around strangers.>

She curls up small and gives Maxine a little psychic nudge. <Um, help please?> she sends privately. 

"I think Tenta-chan would prefer if I do the talking," Maxine says. "I can really feel the anxiety radiating off her. It's kind of cute, honestly."

Reminds her more than a little of herself, honestly...

"Oh no! I'm sorry, Tenta-chan! Yeah, you can totally do the talking, Maxine!"

<It's okay!> Tenta-chan squiggles for a moment then settle back on Maxine's shoulders. 

"If Tenta-chan has things to say I guess I'll relay them, then."

Maxine looks out over the water. "Is that the base coming up over there?"

"It is!"

Naval Station Everett is a large complex in the city of Everett, with a narrow, artificial stretch of land jutting out into the Sound, capped by a pair of long piers, along with a few more closer-in along the shore. As Maxine gets closer, she can see people milling about handling various business, along with what looks like a restaurant, among the various other buildings.

Standing at the end of the outermost pier, arms clasped behind her back, is a tall woman with purple hair tied back in a ponytail that flutters a bit in the cool sea breeze. She's wearing a naval uniform with quite a lot of shiny stuff on it, and all the 'girls — Missouri, Lexington, and Morrison especially — brighten visibly at the sight of her, so she's plausibly Admiral Powell.

[USS - er - HMS Maxine reporting as ordered, Admiral!] 

Maxine waits for the other girls to make their landings, then skates in and settles lightly at the end of the pier, a respectful distance from the Admiral. For some reason she knows how to salute smartly? So she does that. Her body seems to settle at attention naturally, too, as if she'd been doing that for years.

"At ease." Admiral Powell salutes sharply in return and then drops it. She shows no sign of having heard Maxine's broadcast.

Morrison leans over toward Maxine, a sheepish grin on her face. [Um, Maxine, the Admiral doesn't have a radio in her head like we do.]

Maxine flushes, and falls to at-ease, dropping the salute.

"HMS Maxine reporting as ordered, Admiral." Whoops. She clearly needs to get used to this ship-girl thing.

She smiles, intuiting what just happened. "Welcome to Naval Station Everett, Maxine. Well fought out there. I'll let the other shipgirls show you around, especially to the repair baths, in just a moment. Judging by the combination of accent and prefix, I'd wager you're Canadian?"

"Yes, ah, ma'am? Apologies, I'm not very familiar with naval procedure. Up until just before the battle I thought I was a human boy, but that has changed kind of abruptly. I don't think I come from this world's Canada."

She takes a breath, instincts helping her maintain a proper military bearing. "Yesterday referent to me, I came into the possession of a magical notebook claiming to be a messenger of the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed. It offered me a selection of powers and a free trip to another universe. I agreed to the deal, and that's how I came to be in this body, outfit and I-believe universe."

She nods. "While you were out there, we checked the registry. There's never been a USS Maxine in the US Navy. Failing that, we branched out to the RN, RCN, and RAN, with no hits there either. So your not being a shipgirl yesterday is far from the most surprising thing you could say. Magic, power-granting notebooks are certainly new, but I live in a world where the summoned spirits of lost warships gallivant across my base, weighing a hundred pounds or thousands of tons depending on the circumstances, eating most of a crew's worth of food at every meal. I have had to adapt on the subject of magic. I'd like a full debrief after you've had some time to rest up in the repair baths, but that can wait. I'll have someone run you a short form so we can get identification and the like started for you as well, since I presume you didn't land with any identification that works here.

"For now," she steps to the side and gestures onward toward the base, "I'll get out of the way of your R&R."

Maxine breathes a sigh of relief. It's as Tenta-chan said: she just has to trust the process. 

"I don't know how any of this works, but I'm sure I'll be able to follow the other ships' examples," Maxine replies. "Thank you for your consideration."

And she will follow whichever direction the other ships are headed, still with Tenta-chan wrapped around her shoulders.

"Welcome to Everett, Maxine," Nola says with a warm smile.

She leads the way around the base, pointing out restaurants, stores, offices, the quartermaster, the shipgirl dorms, and then finally the repair baths. A low building next to the dorms, the repair baths have frosted windows, but otherwise appear from the outside just the same as any other building on the station. When she opens the door, however, a cloud of steam billows out, along with a smell that strikes some visceral chord in the shipgirl part of Maxine, the metallic scents of iron and bauxite filings in the water touching some need within her. This is healing and relaxing, her instincts say.

Inside, there are steps leading up to a raised wooden floor with benches lining the walls. In the middle of the room are three baths: a large one the size of a swimming pool and two smaller ones the size of hot tubs off to the side. As the door clicks shut, the shipgirls — who'd all dismissed their rigging when they stepped onto land — start pulling their clothes off and tucking them into cubbyholes on a nearby wall.

Morrison and Fletcher are the first to make it to the baths, as usual, sinking naked into the almost-shimmering water of the main pool with happy sighs.

Oh NO.

She sets down Tenta-chan down for something to do that is not "immediately take off her clothes too." 

<Oh my god oh my god oh my god naked girls I barely know ->

<Maxine, if you didn't expect your desire for a pet tentacle monster to land you in this kind of genre of world I don't know what to say to you.>

She takes off her hat and unslings her messenger bag, trying her best to conceal her rapid breaths. <Yeah but, all at once like this???> 

Tenta-chan radiates warmth and affection. <Don't worry! It'll all be perfectly fine. They know trans girls just like you and I'm sure you'll do fine. This is obviously a strange place, so go make friends in it! It's practically home turf for you!> 

Okay okay okay don't panic. 

She can manage this. It is just a locker room. She'll just keep her eyes to herself like she has done in locker rooms before. It's not like they're going to pick on her, right...?

She awkwardly starts to disrobe, and then abruptly realizes that she still has her dick.

<I still have my dick, tenta-chan!!!! I thought it would go away!!!>

<Aren't you just learning interesting things about yourself today?> 

Tenta-chan hugs Maxine's bare leg. <Go on, just get in one of the hot tubs. You'll have the whole thing to yourself.> 

Lexington has slipped into the central pool as well by this point. "Oooh, the water feels lovely."

"Aren't you going to join us, Maxine? What's taking so long?"

Missouri chuckles. "Not everyone's as fast as you, Morri. Give her a moment."

Maxine blushes furiously, but strips off. Hiding her breasts with one arm and her crotch with the other, she slinks over to one of the hot tubs and slips into it alone. 

The water is really hot, but it's better than standing nude in front of everybody! 

Tenta-chan considers for a moment, then decides against joining Maxine in the bath. 

However...

<Um, excuse me?> She sends to Missouri. <Maxine's feeling really unconfident in her body, as you can probably tell, even though she's gorgeous. And I'm not sure how to exactly help her - going and hugging her about it right now seems like it would just aggravate things.> Tenta-chan curls her tendrils together. <Do you have any ideas?>

When Morrison sees Maxine getting into a hot tub, she gives her the most adorable, hopeful, wide-eyed, pouty expression she's ever seen.

Fletcher looks up, instinctively drawn by some sense destroyers share, spots Maxine way over there, and promptly joins Morrison in pointing a weapons-grade pout at Maxine.

<I'll nudge things along if Destroyer Eyes don't manage it,> she sends back, slipping into the pool herself, Nola beside her.

"Now you've done it," Lexi says with a laugh. "No one on base can resist the cuteness of pouting destroyers."

And indeed, the two destroyers are dangerously cute, pouting up at Maxine like that.

... She really really really doesn't want to go over there, but she's going to anyway. They clearly want her to, and... it's important that she fit in. Her instincts are telling her this is the right thing to do, even though she's blushing INTENSELY. 

She takes a slow breath, and a small bikini appears on her body with a swim skirt. It's a little easier to get out of the pool wearing it, and then she's able to come over to the main one and slip into the water and very carefully not look at any of the various places her eyes are tempted to go. 

"Yay! Ooh, that's such a cute bikini! But yay!"

"Welcome to the main pool, dear. You've got nothing to worry about, you know. You're easily even more of a stunner than we are, and we're already quite gorgeous."

OH NO COMPLIMENTS

She ducks her head and blushes. "Um. Thank - thank you?"

It super doesn't feel like she's earned that. Despite the fact that she's, um. Like this now. Somehow she knows that the compliment is sincere but that's only making her blush deeper. 

Her instincts... seem to be of two minds about this! She is terrifed as heck but the pool feels incredible to a sense she didn't even have five minutes ago and something's telling her that looking wouldn't necessarily be so bad and that's just aaaaaaaaaaaa because oh my god has she put herself in literally a hentai -

She can't help herself, she glances back at the tanned shipgirl. It's hard to converse without looking!

Missouri's lower regions are thankfully hidden by the water, but even with a single glance Maxine gets an eyeful of her bare breasts. She blushes even deeper, and her gaze slides away. "Um," she says. "What - what's your name again?"

"Missouri, dear." She smiles warmly at Maxine, giving a quick but blatantly appreciative glance to the blonde's own bikini-clad curves.

Holy shit she's being checked out by a girl!!!

She blushes really hard. "I, um. Thank you, Missouri. I'm... really still getting used to the being-a-girl part and, um, being tossed directly into a bathhouse like this is..." She searches for a word. "Intense."

Gosh it's strange to hear her own voice so melodious and sweet. She's absolutely unreasonably pretty and she doesn't know what to do about it. 

<I think she might be into you!> telepaths Tenta-chan from the locker room where she's lounging in the steam. <Go get her, girl!>

<Aaaaaaaaaaa???> Maxine telepaths back.

<Don't worry! Just be yourself! You're better than Isabella Valentine any day of the week!>

Affection and reassurance radiate off of Tenta-chan.

"Understandable. You expected a nice, easy shakedown cruise, but you got thrown into a storm."

She sighs in relief as the repair bath soaks into her tired hull, and stretches, arching her back.

"Tell us about yourself, Maxine. You said you're Canadian?", New Orleans asks as she lounges.

"Yeah. Albertan. It's all oil and gas out there, and pretty conservative for Canada. I was in university for computer science and slowly failing my courses due to ADD..."

She sighs. The memories aren't very happy.

<Give yourself some credit. You were a girl and didn't know it, which made you really socially isolated and made you feel like you were somehow bad, too. Looking back at your memories I'm pretty sure you were straight-up depressed. It's not your fault you were struggling.>

<You can read my memories???>

<Er. Sorry? It's because you're my owner, the telepathic bond goes deeper for us. I can't really help it.>

Maxine looks over at Tenta-chan. "Tenta-chan says that I shouldn't be so hard on myself, because I didn't know I was a girl and that made me... kind of depressed. I don't know if she's right, but... It wasn't so bad? I had friends in high school, a little dungeons and dragons group... And there were some people at the university computer science club who were okay... It was really more of a games club though."

Nola nods. "That tends to be the story for the trans officers I know on the station. They have a few friends, but an inexplicable malaise holds them back until they crack their eggshell and realize they're trans. Gets in the way of so much."

"... crack their eggshell?" Maxine tilts her head. "That's an interesting expression." 

"Trans girls who don't know it yet are often called eggs, and realizing it is called 'cracking your eggshell', from what I've heard."

"Not sure where it comes from, though." Lexi is snuggling Morri and smiling across the pool at Maxine.

She glances up, blushes even more. Morrison and the other girl snuggling, um, nude, is... quite the picture. 

"So, uh. Could I... get everyone's names? I heard a couple of them over the radio but I don't actually know who is who except for Morrison and, uh..." She snaps her fingers. "Missouri." 

"Oh, right. USS Lexington," she replies.

"Fletcher."

"USS New Orleans, or Nola for short."

Maxine nods to each in turn, trying her best not to stare. "Lexington, Fletcher, Nola." 

It's a little easier to feel comfortable now that she knows their names, and the water feels amazing... Comforting and healing and satisfying in an alien way...

She nods. "So, um, yeah, hi, I'm Maxine. I'm trying to start a new life, I guess. Notebook-chan kind of gave me a do-over as part of the powers I got. I... I like computers, and anime, and tabletop games. I guess I'm kind of a... sterotypical nerd. Sometimes I roleplay online... I'm big into D&D, even though it's kind of broken balance-wise..."

She looks over at tenta-chan. "And over there is tenta-chan, my... pet? I think we still need to sort that out. Who probably needs a proper name."

Tenta-chan waves blushily and says nothing. 

"You'll be in good company here. I think some folks on base, shipgirls and humans both, are interested in tabletop games. I like to listen to music and dabble in cooking in my off-time."

"Ooh, what anime do you watch? Wait, did your world have different series than ours? Were you further along? Were we?"

"I'd love to chat about computers some time," Fletcher shyly adds, looking down a bit.

"I liked music too, back when I was a boy. I was fascinated by virtual pop divas - vocaloids - because, um... I think because the software could give me a girl's voice and also let me sing. I bought one for like five hundred bucks and then realized I didn't actually have any music production skills." She ducks her head, and looks over at Morrison. "It was 2013 when I left, I don't know what year it is here. I liked Black Butler - I cared so much about that scene where Ciel Phantomhive wore a dress to a party - and also the classics - Naruto, Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note. Oh, and Spice And Wolf was good too, the economics was cool and Holo was very cute and got to have a real role in the story..." 

She coughs. "Um. Yeah, I kind of started an anime club when I was in high school. One of my teachers let me borrow the projector he used for videos in class to screen anime over lunch. Mostly it was episodes of Black Butler and Fullmetal Alchemist. Sometimes I'd screen comedy skits based on anime." 

She glances over at Fletcher. "And, um, Fletcher, if you'd like to talk about computers later I would love to." 

Fletcher smiles softly and lets out a very quiet "Yay."

"Ooooh! It's 2020 here so that means we've got more anime you haven't seen that's so cool I get to show you new things! Ooh, there are so many, and some of the ones you like have more seasons too!", Morrison rapidly exclaims.

Her excitement possibly causes her petite breasts to bounce a bit.

Maxine's gaze flicks down for a moment, and then she looks at Morrison more directly. "Um," she says, her tongue betraying her. "That sounds like it would be really fun?" For some damn reason it comes out of her mouth as a question. 

<Look at you, Maxine! Making friends! You know how to do it, you managed in high school!> 

Tenta-chan gives her a little nudge and wink over the connection. 

She flushes a little at the implication, but manages to hold onto her smile. "I... would really like that, Morrison."

"Awesome! I'll get everything together, and probably some more people, and let you know when!"

"If we manage the schedule right, Sable might even be able to make it."

Oh no, more people?

Still, it's... progress? "Who's Sable?" 

"Oh, just our Admiral," Missouri replies with a grin.

"Missouri, Lexi, Morri, and Flasher (a submarine you haven't met yet because she's out on a sortie) are all dating Admiral Powell, as well as each other."

OH OKAY IT'S LIKE NEGIMA 

Maxine completely fails to keep the expression of sudden wonderment and understanding off her face. "I - see! How many wacky hijinks are usually involved, there?"

"Other than Flasher pranking people once in a while, and the normal shipgirl troubles of eating ridiculously large meals or needing specially-rated trucks if we want a ride into town, not many."

Okay, so maybe not a harem comedy. 

She should probably say that, honestly, it's no fair to apply her genre conventions to actual people.

"Sorry, I just - as a teen I had a real obsession with a particular harem comedy series by the same author who did Love Hina, so I'm starting to wonder if I've been thrown into a, um. Something in that genre. Notebook-chan did say she was going to give me something that would be a... good fit for me..." She runs a hand through her hair. "But it's silly to apply genre conventions to actual people, obviously. I was just kind of, you know, wondering."

"I mean, shipgirls do tend polyamorous at a higher rate than baseline humans, but I can't say if that rate in turn is higher than your world. I know Sable's got a few friends in the state senate working on legal recognition for polyamorous marriages, if that's any help? I know some of the JMSDF shipgirls have some wacky hijinks with an admiral over there."

She shrugs. "If I had to describe our genre, it might be harem dramedy?"

"I see..." Maxine tilts her head. "That would explain the, uh, invading monsters. There's definitely a 'save the world' plot going on too..." She runs a hand through her hair. "It's silly to guess, anyway. And hopefully I'll be able to fix it! I mean, not to sound completely conceited or anything but..." She ducks her head. "I trust notebook-chan not to strand me somewhere with an unbeatable plot, you know?"

"This war can be won. It will be bloody, but it can be won, and you can help. I wonder if you're just partially a shipgirl, or if you'll gain more ship traits somehow." She hums thoughtfully. "You don't have any rigging, and you don't have a proper radar return."

"I dunno, her return isn't much bigger than it was earlier, but it feels a little more solid, maybe?"

"Oh! That's, um, one of my magic powers. It lets me copy the magical heritage of anyone or anything nonhuman I encounter, with the benefits but none of the drawbacks. I don't know if it'll come in more over time or not. I think it did come in a little more during the fight? But that was necessary to keep me from being wounded, so that's another power of mine probably helping it along." She runs a hand through her hair. "I can't be seriously wounded in battle unless it's a very plot-important one, and I think I'm guaranteed to survive any wound taken in battle though that wasn't said explicitly. That's why I was so reckless, I knew I'd be okay."

"Wow, that's a pretty different power."

"Not like we can talk," Fletcher adds with a giggle. "Sparkly shipgirl bullshit, as some of the sailors put it, is just as weird."

"Hah. Still, though, I think we can use that. Can you reuse the power by pointing it at the same shipgirl again? Or a different one?"

"I'm not sure! I didn't really use it deliberately originally, Tenta-chan had to guide me through it because I was panicking. Do you mind if I try now?"

"Go ahead."

She focuses her power - it sort of fizzes - and points it at Lexington. 

Lexi doesn't feel a thing, but Maxine sure does. Something about her feels more solid, more present, in her shipself. She starts to notice a sense of where everyone around her is, now. Is that radar? It shows everyone's shipselves, too.

Lexi's next radar ping gets a different return, too. "Oh wow! Your hull seems to be filling out. You're at least as long as a destroyer now."

"Oh! It definitely did something! I can sense... everyone's shipselves, now. I think it might be radar coming in?" She grins. "Do you mind if I try on the rest of you all? It's supposed to work by my aesthetics a little, so whichever ship classes most resonate are likely to give me more."

"Oooh, yeah!" Morrison nods excitedly.

"Go right ahead, Maxine. We're not going to say no to our pretty, new friend getting strong enough to help us out."

Eep, Missouri just called her pretty!

"Okay," she says to cover her blush. "I'll try."

She points DFEW at Missouri first, and then at Morrison.

Pointing it at Missouri fills out her hull quite a bit more, reaching something closer to cruiser-length, and a brief flicker-into-view of rigging. Very familiar rigging. Iowa-class rigging. The guns look like they're only half-constructed, but they look like similar, at least. Same number, same arrangement, but the main guns seem like they might be just a touch larger when they're finished.

Pointing it at Morrison fills out her boilers a bit more, readying her engines to handle moving more of her full weight.

"Seas was that rigging!? Eeeeeeee!"

"I definitely got the most from Missouri, there. I think that probably means my full shipself would be closest to her." She looks over at Morrison. "It seems like the more shipgirls I draw from, the more the transformation solidifies." 

She looks over at Missouri again, trying not to let her gaze stray too low. She opens her mouth to ask a question, and then pauses and rephrases.

"Missouri, you're a - an Iowa-class, right? I don't know what that means but it's what my radar is reporting. Are there any other battleships like you on the base?"

"She's running a convoy out to Japan with Langley, Alaska, Kimberly, and a few 'girls of the JMSDF, but my sister, New Jersey, is another Iowa. She should be back in a few days," Missouri replies with a grin. "And yes, that brief moment I saw of your rigging looked similar to mine."

"Then I guess I'll wait for her to return." 

Maxine takes a slow breath. She has no idea how to do this...

<She's totally checking you out, Maxine, and she's polyamorous! It's okay! You're allowed to ask!>

... tenta-chan's constant cheerful support is starting to get a little annoying.

She squares her shoulders. "Um, Missouri... Could I ask you a personal question?"

"Please do~," she purrs.

Her voice is nice. 

"Um. If it's not too much to ask, how does the... polyamory situation with all of you... work? I've never met anyone who was polyamorous in real life before."

Oh, is Maxine going where she thinks she's going? Oh good.

"It runs on communication. Lots and lots of communication. We're all dating each other, and we make a point to talk with each other before bringing anyone in seriously. Flings, brief romances, and friends with benefits are all fine to enjoy casually, however."

Oh gosh. 

"Communication, huh..."

She considers for a long moment..

"Okay, then, um. I should tell you that... one of the things I wished for was... a chance to meet someone, in the new world. I was very lonely in my old life. And... I can't help but notice the looks you've been giving me. I don't know anything about dating so I have no clue what I want to do about any of that, though." She looks over at tenta-chan. "Tenta-chan is all 'go get her, you can do it!' but I don't even really know what I want, yet, except to not be alone."

Missouri smiles tenderly and nods. "I understand, Maxine. I'll say it plainly, then: I think you're beautiful, and I think I'd like to get to know you better. I think you'll have a hard time winding up alone, here at Everett, Maxine. May I kiss you?"

Oh wow.

She ducks her head. "Um. Only if you really want to?"

"I really do," and she glides over, cups Maxine's cheek, and presses a sweet kiss to her lips, her naked breasts squishing gently against the blonde's.

Maxine freezes stiff as a board, not even really managing to kiss back. Her whole brain is occupied with OH MY GOD HER NAKED BOOBS ARE TOUCHING MINE.

She moves as docilely as a kitten when Missouri touches her cheek, and her lips half-part, but it's blatantly obvious that she hasn't got a single braincell for processing right now.

And then Missouri pulls away, smiling gently, still cupping Maxine's cheek. "Oh, you sweet thing. You've had a hard, affection-starved time of it, haven't you?" She strokes her cheek softly with her thumb. "We'll have to work on getting you used to affectionate touches."

In Maxine's head, something goes clunk. 

"Yeah," she says. "We really really will." 

And she leans in and kisses Missouri back. 

There's still, distantly in a corner of her mind, something going "ohmygodohmygodohmygod" but it's less important than getting this right. It's like her entire brain has suddenly focused on the fact that Missouri wants her. 

She could genuinely have sex. No fucking way she messes this up. 

Missouri leans in and meets the kiss, deepening it slightly, and cups Maxine's waist with her other hand. A happy sigh spills from her lips.

Maxine stiffens a little again at the gentle touch, but then shifts in and kisses back. 

Her skin sings beneath Missouri's hands. She feels... very pliable.

While those two are distracted with each other, Lexington shifts Morrison around in her lap and starts making out as well.

Fletcher sighs and smiles and nestles in against Nola, enjoying a quiet snuggle.

And Missouri just keeps kissing Maxine, savoring the moment, until...

Knock knock.

Missouri looks up and over at the door. None of the other shipgirls bother to move, though Morrison and Lexington pause the makeout.

"I suspect that's a Yeoman with your ID form," Missouri says.

Maxine is all at sea right now. There's been SO much kissing and Missouri is practically sitting in her lap and the water feels SO good.

"I - I guess I - I'll go get that," she stammers. So much for trying to be smooth. 

She hauls herself back up out of the water and heads for the door.

At the door is a yeoman with a clipboard, a nametag on her uniform identifying her as Yeoman Michaels. Michaels holds the clipboard out to Maxine. "For you, Miss. If you get this filled out, we can have some of your identification today, and the rest tomorrow," she says, a faint blush dusting her cheeks as she salutes Maxine and locks eyes with her.

The clipboard contains a bunch of very basic name/height/weight questions. They're clearly used to shipgirls not having normal human backstories.

Something tells her to use the rank, not the name. "Thank you, Yeoman." She salutes in return and accepts the clipboard. "Do you have a pencil to go with this?"

She points at one tucked into the clipboard.

"I don't have a formal rank yet, so for the moment I'll just settle for saying thank you. I'll have this filled out for you as soon as I can."

She smiles slightly and takes the clipboard back inside, where she sits on one of the benches by the lockers and starts going through the questions. 

She... doesn't actually know her current height and weight, come to think of it. She doesn't have a last name she's willing to use either though.

It feels right to thank notebook-chan, so she can be Maxine Quill. And she has Size Difference, so she'd better put down "variable" for height. Gender is definitely F. She can find a scale somewhere for weight. Hair color gets a "variable, currently blonde" and eye color gets a solid "blue." 

The questions about her ship class can get filled in with her best guess, which is that she might eventually become an Iowa-class with time to develop, and her current status of radar return and tonnage as reported by her own sensors. She notes that she is not yet able to summon rigging, but seems to be armored, sea-worthy, and radio and radar capable. 

In the free answer space she mentions that she has a suite of various magical effects generally easing her life, which makes her body unusually variable among other things. Details available on request; she doesn't want to accidentally share something that could be an important military secret. 

She looks back at the girls in the pool. "Um, do any of you know where I can find a scale?"

Maya pulls one out of her hold and sets it on the decking. "Be sure to concentrate on being more girl than ship when you do that. I've got a spare if you break it, though."

"Alright." 

She focuses as best she can, trying to fold away her ship heritage a little - after all, weighing several thousand tons is definitely a disadvantage in everyday life - and steps on the scale.

It flicks to the right and stops at one hundred and eighty-two pounds. She's lost weight.

She steps off the scale and puts it down on the form. "Thank you, Missouri."

Missouri tucks it away with a smile. "Gladly, dear."

She finishes filling out the form, then bites her lip.

A quick-change back into her civilian clothes later, she pokes her head out the door to see if the yeoman is still there.

Yeoman Michaels is still there, yes. She's standing at ease, waiting patiently.

She hands over the completed forms. "Here you go. Do you have an ETA on the resulting ID?"

"Military-issued photo ID later today, you'll just have to stop by this office," she hands Maxine a card with an address on base, "for the photo. You'll also get a phone and banking details. Broader spread of governmental IDs over the next day or two. And Admiral Powell would like to see all of you for debrief when you're all done resting up."

Probably best to keep her personal phone independently of any phone the military gives her. She just nods and accepts the card. "Thank you, Yeoman."

It's a little tempting to stick around and see just how far Missouri's willing to go, but, uh, she definitely does not want her first time to be in a hot tub surrounded by a half-dozen girls. 

She pauses, tapping the card in her hands. Why the hell not?

... She wants it to be more personal than that, she guesses. 

She looks back at Yeoman Michaels. "I'll go ask if everyone's ready to proceed." She steps back into the bathhouse, where she casts her gaze over the girls still relaxing in the bath.

"The Yeoman outside says that if everyone's done resting up, it's time to go debrief to Admiral Powell." 

Lexi disentangles herself from Morri, who whines a bit. "Oh I suppose. Nice job answering the door with a tent, by the way." She snickers fondly, getting out of the pool and getting dressed, gradually followed by the others.

With a tent? What?

- oh. Oh she was wearing a skirt. And Missouri was kind of... kissing her a lot...

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

<Why didn't you warn me?> she asks Tenta-chan. 

<I don't see how that's embarrassing?>

Tenta-chan's confusion is palpable over the link.

<... Okay, I think that we need to have a conversation. Later.>

She looks over at Lexington. "Um. Oops."

"No worries. Michaels has walked in on us in a lot worse states. She's chill."

Everyone's dressed at this point, and Missouri kisses Maxine on the cheek as she walks past.

Worse states, huh...?

That and the cheek kiss return the blush to her face in earnest.

She scoops Tenta-chan back up into her arms, and hugs her close. It helps.

Tenta-chan takes up her usual place on Maxine's neck, and snuggles in softly. 

<Alright, it's off to see Admiral Powell!>

Maxine follows the group, tagging along with the rest of them. <She seems decent so far. Let's hope this works out well.>

Missouri and Yeoman Michaels lead the way first to an out of the way office where Maxine's photo is taken, and then everyone piles into Admiral Powell's office.

The nameplate reads "Sable Allison Powell, Adm." Her desk is covered in reasonably tidy stacks of paperwork, and the woman herself is sitting behind it.

She salutes once more, and holds it. "HMS Maxine reporting as ordered, Admiral."

She salutes crisply and drops it. "At ease, girls. Have a seat. Missouri, you start us off?"

"Certainly, Admiral. I was leading a patrol of the sound with Morrison and Lexington, when an Abyssal raiding party was sighted at oh-nine-thirty-seven, consisting of a Ri-class heavy cruiser, a Nu-class light carrier, two Ho-class light cruisers, and four I-class destroyers. We engaged immediately, with New Orleans and Fletcher sortieing to assist us. We were moderately outnumbered, and the battle was not going as well as I'd like, when Maxine appeared on the shore at the lighthouse and sailed out to join us. Between her and tenta-chan, the battle tilted back in our favor."

More details are exchanged, and further breakdowns are given, over the next several minutes.

Finally, Admiral Powell turns to Maxine. "So, you appeared out of nowhere — quite literally, the security cameras on the lighthouse show you simply appearing in the space between one frame and the next — and saved my girls. You have my thanks.

"What can the Navy — as well as I personally — do to thank you? Also, how long are you planning to stay in this world, and can we do anything to convince you to extend that?"

Maxine nods. "More than anything else, an understanding of and place in this new world would be ideal. I don't have any form of multiversal transit on from here - my transit was a one-time deal. I expect that there will eventually be a way onwards for me, but I expect it won't be easily available to me while the war's still on. And by then the situation may be quite different, ma'am." 

She looks over at Missouri. "The shipgirls have given me quite a warm welcome, here, so with your permission I'd like to be able to stay and interact with them more. I believe that this will also have benefits for the Navy as well, ma'am, as I expect to learn at twenty times the rate of a dedicated mentor whom I'm emotionally attached to. I would also like opportunities to interact with other shipgirls, particularly Iowa-classes, so that my mimic power can continue to develop my own shipgirl form." 

Maxine surpresses the urge to fix her hair. "I believe also that if I form close emotional bonds with your shipgirl complement, it will effectively reduce the amount of time they require for rest and relaxation, as I have another secondary power that compresses time when I am performing purely social interactions with people I care for deeply. Having met them, I believe such bonds are..." She glances at Missouri. "Very possible."

"Oh really? Well, we're expecting Jersey back in a few days, and giving you a chance to interact with all the shipgirls based out of Everett or passing through here shouldn't be any trouble. Does it take long? Any effect on the shipgirl you're copying from?"

"No to both, at least in our experience so far."

"I'm not going to turn down another shipgirl joining the fleet. Not a chance in hell of that. We'll commission you with an initial rank of Lieutenant Commander. You'll be integrated into the patrol rotation starting tomorrow, and you'll be assigned quarters in the shipgirl dorms. Who've you tried the power on so far?"

"Me, Lexi, and Missouri," Morrison chimes in.

"Plus whoever she pointed it at when she first landed. As yet unidentified."

"Be sure to try Fletcher and Nola today. I wouldn't say no to your trying the power here, if you don't mind."

She hums thoughtfully, a small grin stretching across her face. "As for your thoughts on relationships, I'm certainly not going to stand in the way. I might even want to get to know you a bit better myself, if the opportunity presents itself."

Well that's a surprise. Though maybe it shouldn't be one given the fact that this woman is apparently in a haremlike situation with half her command. "Thank you, Admiral. I'll make sure to attempt the power on Fletcher and Nola as well." 

She takes a moment to consider, then - "I believe I should also note that in battle, I can only take serious injuries when it would further my storyline, and I'm fairly certain I can't be permanently killed. I can still lose, but I have a measure of untouchability. This is why I was willing to be so reckless in the combat by the lighthouse, despite my lack of armaments."

"Well," Sable replies with a grin, "aren't you just full of surprises? It sounds like if I help you get your shipself fully constructed, I get an extremely hard to kill flagship. That's a good deal if I've ever heard one. Try that out on Nola and Fletcher now, then."

Maxine nods, focuses, and aims the power first at Nola and then at Fletcher.

From Nola, the power feels like tapping a well that's already dry, or dabbing a sponge against the bottom of an empty bucket. From Fletcher, about a third of her AA guns.

"It functioned for Fletcher, but not Nola," Maxine reports. "My AA guns are starting to come online. I don't know if they're fire-serviceable yet." She raises an eyebrow. "It must have been Nola that I targeted with my power when I appeared on the shore, then."

"That makes sense. Hopefully you get a lot from Jersey, Kimberly, Flasher, and Nautilus, and hopefully the JMSDF sends several of their girls back this way on the return trip, at least for a bit. All else fails, we send you on the next convoy out to Japan and you get to copy every shipgirl they've got."

Just then, Yeoman Michaels returns, carrying a stack of papers and a small box. She salutes, Admiral Powell salutes in return, and then things are handed off and the Yeoman departs.

"Oh, good news. We've got the immediately available things right now. This is your military ID, phone, and banking information. Debit card is in the folder with all the boilerplate from the bank."

She hands it all to Maxine. "Congratulations, Lieutenant Commander Maxine Quill, you're now a legal citizen of the United States, and an officer in the Navy."

She accepts the package and tucks it away into Dressing Room space for later. "Thank you very much, Admiral." She smiles. "I'll be looking forward to meeting the rest of the shipgirls on base."

"I'm sure they'll all be looking forward to meeting you as well, once they return. Dismissed. Go get some chow, and get the girls to give you more of the history at some point tonight."

She salutes. "Yes, ma'am!"

Then she looks expectantly at the other girls to see if they know which way it is to the mess hall.

The other girls all salute, Sable matches it, and everyone drops their salutes.

And then Morrison's grabbed Maxine's hand and started dragging her off. Yes, she probably knows exactly where the mess is, and she's intent on getting there very quickly. The other girls follow in their wake.

She will absolutely let herself be dragged off, then! Morrison's enthusiasm is pretty infectious.

And shortly they're at the mess! Morrison points how there are always different options, always a few different ones every day, and that because they're shipgirls they can eat as much as they want! She piles her own tray with five chicken-fried steaks, six bowls of mashed potatoes, and three bowls of fried veggies. The other girls are all grabbing similar amounts of food.

She has never had a chicken-fried steak before in her life, but she is willing to try two of them! And a big bowl of mashed potatoes. She'd like to test her new appetite carefully and not overdo it - it's possible that needing to eat a lot is parsed as a drawback by her powers. 

Morri leads the way to their usual table, and everyone sets everything down and starts digging in. "That was so cool, how you're filling out more and more of your shipself like that!"

"It really is quite impressive. You've got quite the unexpected powerset."

"Aw, thanks. Theoretically I'd be able to copy the monsters as well, but I didn't want to do that in the middle of combat in case it confused all of you - looking like an enemy ship isn't smart in the middle of a battle." 

She considers getting out Notebook-chan and introducing everyone, but it's the middle of a meal and the last thing she wants to do is get food on her by accident. Instead, she tries the chicken-fried steak. 

It's really, really good. "Mmmmm, that's tasty. I can see why you girls inhale these."

"They really are. Way I understand it, the Navy put out a call for some of the best chefs in the country to all start working on base and in town. They care a lot about keeping us well-fed and happy."

"That's very decent of them. The ID process seems very straightforward as well, and the repair baths are... very themselves. Do they treat you like royalty in other ways, too?"

Tenta-chan swirls down Maxine's back to settle in her lap under the table.

"Game systems and other rec stuff on base for R&R, but that's most of it."

Maxine nods. "That makes sense." She takes another bite of her chicken-fried steak. "How are the quarters?"

"Really comfy!"

"And big enough to handle six- and seven-foot tall battleship girls."

"I'll be looking forward to seeing them, then." 

She looks over at Morrison. "So you said you wanted to watch anime together? I've got a few things to sort out myself, the paperwork and getting settled into my quarters, but I'd love to see what's come out in the last seven alternate-history years."

"Definitely! I've been keeping everything in the rec room in the dorms, so just meet me there when you're ready! Want anyone else to join in with us?"

She looks sidelong at Missouri. "Um..." Why is it so hard to ask to do a social event with the girl that she was JUST KISSING. "Missouri, naturally, and I wouldn't mind seeing Fletcher there either, if she was willing to come along... She seems shy and I'd like to reach out to her if I can. And anyone they'd like to bring?"

"I'd love to, Maxine."

"I think I'll have to bow out, hon. But thank you much for the invite."

"Um, sure. Thank you."

"I'll probably join in as well, although... minor caveat: I have a thing about touch. I'm curious about you, Maxine, but I don't know you well enough for that yet, so expect me to have one of the other girls in the cuddlepile between me and you most of the time."

Everyone keeps digging in and enjoying their food.

Morri kisses Lexi's cheek and then gets up to go get seconds.

"I wasn't expecting a cuddlepile in the first place, so, uh, completely acceptable, Lexington." She looks over at Missouri and smiles. "Once I'm done my paperwork, then." 

She looks back and forth between Missouri and Morrison. "I know my girlfriends. You're probably getting a cuddlepile," she says with a headshake and a fond snicker.

"I... Alright." She turns her attention back to her chicken-fried steak. "The admiral said that you should fill me in some more on the history?"

"Let's go back to the dorms for that. Don't want to remind anyone of their trauma."

She eats the remaining half of her sixth hot dog quickly, then gets up, heading for the dessert counter. "I'll grab a couple things for the road. You can too, if you'd like."

"Oh, yeah..." Maxine falls silent. Maybe not the best conversational topic. 

She finishes her second chicken-fried steak and then comes along with Lexington.

Lexington leads the way to the shipgirl dorms, eating two brownies along the way. Just as she reaches the building, she wipes her hands on the napkin she'd carried them in, balls it up, and tosses it into an outdoor trashcan, all in the same fluid motion that has her swinging through the door.

Inside, there's a small mailroom off to one side, a couple hallways lined with doors, and a large lounge area. A big, U-shaped set of couches stands in front of a large TV with quite a variety of game systems hooked up to it.

Lexi flops onto the couch and puts her feet up on one of the ottomans.

Maxine goes and sits across the U from Lexington, giving her space.

"This is not a happy story. It's better to have a shipgirl tell it to you than one of the humans, because every single one of them is at least a little bit traumatized about it.

"It starts, as best we understand it, with an Abyssal Princess ending up in this world somehow. No one knew what Abyssals or Princesses were until much later, but somehow a Princess appeared. We've got a decent timeline on when it happened, because of a trail of then-mysterious deaths that were later found to resemble what shipgirl guns do to humans, along with a series of very quiet Abyssal cults showing up a month or so later.

"She showed up in a house in the Midwest, killed the occupants, and then made as quiet a path as she could to the Pacific. She eventually set herself up in Guam, and started building up her forces. No one knew she existed for months.

"The first anyone heard of her was when Abyssal raiding parties — much like the one you helped us defeat, but bigger — attacked port cities around the world. They wrecked all the ships, bombarded the ports, and deployed zombie Marines. Normal navies struggled to fight them, because they didn't show up properly on mundane radar, glitching out and only sometimes appearing. It was a slaughter.

"We call it Blood Week, now. Their Marines died as swiftly as the humans did, swifter even, but by then the Abyssals controlled the ocean.

"And that's when someone in the JMSDF, along with some nerds online, figured out how to repurpose the ritual we think was originally used to summon the first Abyssal Princess."

Maxine's eyes grow steadily wider as the story goes on, until - 

"Wait, someone did that deliberately?" 

Lexi shakes her head. "Not deliberately. More like accidentally, we think. Some weeks before the first Abyssal was summoned, an amateur archaeologist found some ancient documents. Redditors started a project of collaboratively translating them, and got far enough to identify that it was a ritual, and how to perform it, but not what the ritual did. That's about when we think those dumbasses in the Midwest got hold of it."

She sighs softly. "A few days later, they translated enough to identify that the ritual was bad news, and put up warnings, but it was too late, we think."

Maxine rubs her face. "Those poor people. It's undoubtably a stupid idea to try a random ritual off the internet, but magic had never worked before then, right? So I can almost forgive them."

A rueful smile and a nod. "Yeah. It's not like anyone seriously thought magic existed at that point. Still, trying a ritual when you don't even know what it's purported to do is a really great way to run into a classic trap of summoning what you can't put down.

"Anyway, After a bunch of workshopping, the Japanese at Yokosuka Naval Base managed to summon their first shipgirls, what they called kanmasu. The first one summoned is Kongou, who manages to single-handedly retake Tokyo and Sagami Bays, fighting continuously for twenty-four hours."

"Wow, that's one tough ship."

"She really is. We all have a lot of respect for Kongou, for being the first of us, and for pulling that off.

"She can hit the Abyssals more easily than the mundane navies can, because we shipgirls are on the same semi-spiritual plane as they are. So she fought without rest for a day straight, until finally the Japanese managed to repeat their earlier trick, and summoned again. They got three destroyers, this time: Akizuki, Teruzuki, and Hatsuzuki. Those three start a patrol across the bays, and Kongou returns to port to a hero's welcome. They feed her and celebrate her, and then she passes out for twelve hours, before waking up, eating more, and relieving the destroyers.

"That's when the UK and US tried to copy the trick. The UK managed it, but the US didn't. There's lots of back and forth about why, but eventually they figure out that it's a combination of reasons, finally developing our current version of the summoning ritual. You'll probably get to see one this week."

Maxine nods. "I'd love to see it, and to learn anythng that can be taught about it. I don't know if my skill hack will help beyond the level you've already got, but... It's definitely worth trying, right?"

"Definitely. We're not going to turn down improved summoning rituals. The secret we eventually figured out was that where the other two navies could reference their monarchs and their hour of direst need, that didn't work for American sailors. We weren't in our hour of direst need, and a monarch's or a leader's orders bounced off our national mythos. Sure, our allies would suffer, but that wasn't our crisis.

"Our national mythos is about individual choice, and about our people, so that's what we had to use in the ritual. It became a recruitment, with a live band playing rock, with screaming sailors in the audience, with hundreds or thousands of people attending. And that worked. We'd managed two summonings through dumb luck before then, but that's when we could pull it off deliberately."

"If the music helps, it might be worth it for me to try singing at one of the summonings. I'd need practice beforehand, but my voice is one of the things my magic's given me an upgrade to."

"Worth a shot," she replies with a nod. "Probably talk to Nola, or Jersey when she gets back. Those two usually lead the band, along with some sailors with rock experience. A magically enhanced voice could definitely give the performance some kick."

Maxine nods. "So the war effort's starting to get underway now as more shipgirls are summoned on a regular basis? And that's why the war's winnable - there's still plenty more shipgirls left to call up, and you think you can outweigh the Abyssals?"

"Exactly. Ton for ton, shipgirls hit harder and fight better than Abyssals do, and we're summoning more of us every week, every month. Eventually, we'll be ready to start retaking their territory."

Maxine smiles. "That's really good to hear." 

She looks down at her hands. "I think I want to go talk to my diary a bit now, to get my head straightened out a bit. It's... a lot to get thrown into a war situation where the fate of the world I know is in the balance. I was honestly hoping for a much more calm and peaceful world, but... If I'm going to be here, I want to fight. I just... need to settle some things out a little. I hope you don't mind."

Tenta-chan squeezes her shoulders affectionately.

"Go ahead. I'll hang out here and game until Morri takes over the TV for your anime sesh."

And she grabs a controller and turns on the TV, starting up a space combat game.

"One last question - which of these dorm rooms is mine?"

"Should be one with your nameplate on the door, midway down that hall."

She points at one of the halls.

Wow, a custom nameplate inside a few hours? Things are sure efficient around here. 

"Thank you!"

And she goes down the hall and lets herself into her dorm room. 

There's a desk, a chair, a wardrobe, a shelf over the desk, a large bed, and room to add more furniture out of one's pay later.

She goes and sits at the desk, and gets out Notebook-chan from her bag. Laying her out on the table with the pen she left clipped to her, Maxine flips Notebook-chan open and smooths her pages. 

Hi again! 

She blushes, ducks her head. 

It's been only a few hours but so much has happened. Are you still there? Is it okay if I tell you about it to help me get my head straightened out?

Hi! I'm fine, and glad to hear from you. Go right ahead! I love hearing about people's adventures, and if I can help you by doing it then so much the better.

So, um. I was kind of hoping for a peaceful world, but when i showed up here I was kind of in the middle of a battle! It was really scary, there was an explosion on the beach next to me and everything! Sharpnel whipped through my hair!

I'm fine, obviously, and really really glad I took Battle Angel. In retrospect more combat powers might have been a good idea. But things are going okay; I was able to copy the powers of one of the ship girls - they're girls but with the powers of ships - and help sink some of the abyssals - they're like evil battleship creatures with teeth. Tenta-chan helped a lot! She's new, I haven't named her yet. I want to talk to her about it, and I want to talk to you about you too because it feels a little awkward to call you notebook-chan and also call tenta-chan tenta-chan. It's starting to be a theme and I don't know if I like it. 

Um. So it looks like I'm in some kind of harem action anime, genre-wise - there's a local admiral with a harem of shipgirls - she's trans too! - but I don't know how it'll go in the long term. I'm turning into some kind of shipgirl myself thanks to Dragon Fairy Elf Witch but it's being a little slower than I expected. 

There's this shipgirl, Missouri, who - she totally came on to me, and kissed me a lot while we were, um, in a pool together. She wasn't, um, wearing any clothes. It was... it was quite the experience. Honestly, worth fighting in a war to get that. I'm blushing so much right now. 

She sets down her pen for a second, pulls Tenta-chan into her lap, and squeezes her. 

<You're doing so well, Maxine. Just breathe. I know it's been a lot, but you've handled it all so well.>

<Okay.> Maxine hugs Tenta-chan for a few moments longer, then lets her go and goes back to writing. 

The Navy here was very prepared for someone to appear out of nowhere because that happens with shipgirls all the time, so I have ID and a dorm room and - all the necessary things. I still need to do a little paperwork but it doesn't look like it'll be an issue. 

I'm still processing a lot. This world... It sounds like a lot of people died to the abyssals before the shipgirls came and helped them. I feel a little guilty about that for some reason? Like... This world might not have had such bad things happen to it if it wasn't for me showing up, or something like that. I don't know if this is a different universe or just the future, honestly. Aside from the Abyssals and the shipgirls everything is the same. I guess I was expecting something more... exotic? Fantasy-ish? But this is... it gives me something to do that matters, and all the shipgirls are... honestly either hot or cute... and Missouri kissed me... 

I guess I just feel a little bad that this world might be set up this way just so I could get a lot of cute girls to be intimate with... 

I don't know. What do you think, Notebook-chan?

Wow! That sounds like a lot! Shrapnel flying through your hair sounds scary! I'm glad Battle Angel worked out for you, though. It sounds like a really complicated situation. I'm really impressed that you dove right in and handled the fight, though! That was hard but you did it!

As far as Dragon Elf Fairy Witch, I think it can be reused on different instances of the same species, so it makes sense that you could turn yourself into more and more of a whole shipgirl that way. Also, the Abyssals sound really scary. I'm glad you were able to beat them.

It's really cool that you've met another trans girl already! And harem action anime is a neat genre! And it's really great that you got to kiss a beautiful shipgirl, and that you're meeting lots of pretty and friendly people. It sounds like things are going really well, all-told.

A lot of hearts and sparkles surround that last paragraph.

You don't have to be afraid that this world was created with all these bad things just for you to show up in. The multiverse is really huge, and worlds like this already exist, and are already going the way they're going. The Spirit just picked an already-existing one that you'd fit really well in, and that would meet your needs and wants, as well as it could.

As for the name thing, would you like to pick one together with me?

It's reassuring to hear that the world was picked for me and not created on my behalf or nudged along. 

The battle was so intense! They shot lots of shells at me but just kept missing or bouncing off my shipgirl plate; if it wasn't for Battle Angel, I definitely would have been hurt. I didn't have any weapons, I just sort of ran in and punched and kicked. It worked, sort of, but mostly I think I was a good distraction. I'm a little sad that I didn't take the heavier combat powers; it sounds like this world kind of needs them. 

That said... Thanks to this world being really heavily shipgirl-based, a lot of the obvious inconveniences like not coming with any cash or ID that fit my new body, or any housing, or anything like that were pretty easy to get past, and the shipgirl powers are cool. I can hear radio now! And skate on water! Theoretically my guns will come in eventually, which would be kind of cool, but I'm not sure I should really celebrate having weapons as part of me. I think it's necessary to help out properly but I'm glad I took Undiplomatic Immunity so I don't have to register them or something like that.

There are five shipgirls I've met so far - Missouri, Morrison, Fletcher, Nola, and Lexington. Lexington, Missouri and Morrison seem to all be in a harem kind of setup with the base's admiral, Admiral Powell. Missouri's the one who kissed me. She did it kind of a lot. I was so flushed. We. I got thrust into the middle of a nude bathhouse with the shipgirls. (!!!)

She sets down her pen and takes a long breath. 

This is really embarassing to write about!!!!

I think it would be really unfair if you had to register everywhere you went that you had natural weapons as part of you! I think you'll be okay without the offensive combat powers, though. You've got lots of experienced shipgirls you can learn from, right? And it sounds like you're definitely getting closer to them!

It's okay to be embarrassed! You're exploring things you've never done before! And talking about those things too!

Yeah, they seemed... pretty enthusiastic. I definitely want to get to know them better. We're going to watch anime together and stuff, and I'm going to talk to Fletcher about computers... 

I really hope things go okay. 

I bet they will! You don't seem like the kind of girl who needs a Tragic Failed Romance before her Actual Romance Arc to feel okay with herself, and with how much metanarrative stuff is in play here that's the kind of thing it would take for things to go really badly, I think. At worst you're likely to still wind up friends?

I really hope I don't need a Tragic Failed Romance! I guess people come in all shapes and kinds. Friends would be good too though.

Honestly it feels like trying is super worth it if I'm... going to keep getting the kind of responses I have so far.

I'm really glad things are turning out worth it so far! I bet things will go well.

If you still want to try to come up with a name for me, do you have any name ideas?

Oh! Sorry, I got completely distracted.

Let me see. You could be...

- Rose, from the color of your cover and the floral pattern on it.

- Hope, maybe, because you've given me so much of it.

- Something cute, like Clara or Bluebell or Glaceé

- Something that can be feminine but also can be gender neutral, like Sam or Audrey

- I like flower names a lot, and I like names that have meaning. Lilac? Lily? Daisy? Poppy? Sunflower? I'm not sure most of them suit as much. 

- We could go with a Japanese name like Yuki (snow) or Haruhi (spring sun).

Any thoughts?

Maxine's suggestions all get hearts and sparkles, Rose and Clara especially.

Ooh. I think I like either Rose, Clara, or some other pink flower than Rose. It's hard to pick. I like floral names, and I like names that match the color of my cover, and I like cute and pretty names, and I like names that reference my current Chosen Person's interests. What do you like best?

Between Rose and Clara I think I personally like Clara better because it's less on the nose, but let me try and think of some other pink flowers. 

Peony? Primrose? Crysanthemum? You could shorten Crysanthemum to Anthe, which sounds pretty. 

It feels a little self-centered to name you after my interests. You're a whole person! 

That's really sweet of you! But I get to have lots of names. But hm. I think I'm stuck between Clara and Anthe now.

What my father would say to do in that case is to flip a coin, and then see what you think of the result. Want me to try it?

Sure!

She reaches into her pocket, pulls out a silver piece of eight her father showed her once, and readies it on her thumb. 

She turns it over; there isn't a embossed head, just the Gates of Trafalgar on one side and the spanish imperial seal on the other. 

"Gates, Clara; seal, Anthe." 

She flips it onto the desk, and it lands on the seal of the spanish crown. 

The coin says Anthe. What do you think?  

Anthe it is!

Awww! Alright, then! It's good to know you, Anthe. I think you're really wonderful.

She taps her pen against the page a little. 

What do you know about this world, anyway? Do you know Tenta-chan at all yet? Can I... I really want to talk to someone to help sort out my emotions about, um, Missouri. And you're really good at that. But it feels like I'm taking advantage of you? Because you should get to have a life that's not just listening to things I'm doing. I want to share more and better things with you. Maybe I could learn to sketch! And draw things in you so you can see them yourself. If I could, I'd draw Missouri in you. She's really beautiful. 

I am totally biased about her being the kind of girl who will just kiss me over my wanting to be kissed, though.

I don't really... know her yet? I have the impression she's kind of... free with her affections. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. It does kind of suggest that she might be... into things... 

Sorry, I shouldn't be writing all this, I just meant to ask if you were okay about this kind of thing.

It's okay, Maxine! I come along on these trips because one of my biggest interests — alongside helping people become their brightest and wholest selves — is getting to hear about the adventures of people I've helped. I like hearing about things like this. I'd love it if you sketched things in me, too! Or people!

I don't know anything about this world beside what you've told me, though, nor Tenta-chan.

I'm being such a mess, honestly. But it could be a good mess? I feel safe, weirdly enough. Everyone is so kind. 

I think I'm going to go talk to tenta-chan a little and see what she thinks about things. I... need to settle some questions with her too. 

Thank you for talking to me, Anthe. You're very kind and sweet. 

She pauses, clicks her pen, blushes.

You've helped me see who I really am, and given me so many gifts. And I want to repay that as best I can. Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable? Is there anything more I could share with you? Anything you want to know? I know I just said I want to talk to tenta-chan but it's not right to say goodbye without giving you a chance to be heard. You're so good.

You don't really accumulate troubles or stresses, being a notebook. My biggest worry is hoping my corners don't poke people if they hug me. Just keep sharing things with me as they come up, and maybe draw things if you feel like it. I wouldn't mind helping you keep track of things if you had checklists, but that's just if it would help.

More hearts and sparkles, and several swirling and spiraling flourishes, adorn this and Maxine's message.

Okay, Anthe. I'll do my best. ♡

She draws a few more hearts on Anthe, and then sets her pen aside and closes her gently. 

Away Anthe can go into her pocket space again, so she's safe. 

Maxine smiles slightly, then scoops Tenta-chan up into her lap and squeezes her. 

<So, what do you think?>

Tenta-chan squeezes Maxine's hand with one of her many limbs.

<I think someone has a crush.>

Maxine blinks. 

<A crush? Don't be ridiculous, she's a notebook -> 

<And since when does that matter to you?> 

Tenta-chan's mental voice is warm and amused. <You're the one who asked for a tentacle monster for a pet. You have "the Princess and the Dragon". If you want to make it physical with her, you'll be able to figure it out.> 

Eeeeeeeeeeeep??? 

<But she's a notebook!!!>

<Just because she's not conventionally attractive doesn't mean you're not emotionally close to her. You spilled your heart out to her about Missouri and the rest of the girls with hardly a hesitation. You compliment her whenever she does anything nice or considerate to you. You're drawing hearts in her, and meaning them.> 

Oh gosh. 

<But she's so - so - so innocent! I don't even know if she has the, um, mental hardware to want that. She is a notebook!!!!>

<You could try asking?>

<No way!!!! I can't even ask you about sexual things and you're a tentacle monster!>

<Tentacle pet, please! I'm not a monster!>

<Oh, yes, um, sorry. I didn't mean to insult you.>