Commander's Rounds

Entry 24-3: Commander's Holidays- The Eve

The run up to the big day was in full swing. Richelieu had managed to rope Saint Louis and a few of her other countrywomen into doing caroling- including Le Malin, who was conscripted as part of some part of unspecified "penance". The commander didn't inquire much further about that. Richelieu did acquire another volunteer in the form of Friedrich, who had managed to dress festive but in her own dark, gothic way- but then, Mama Friedrich was only ever terrifying on the battlefield. She had also managed to recruit Illustrious, who in turn had even managed to convince Taihou to join them, even if she was mainly using it as an opportunity to wear sexy outfits and show off. But she did have a genuinely sweet voice, so she was oddly suited to the season.

The visitations continued, one here, one there. He heard the Fletchers talking about how they had played around with Yorktown and "Big sis Richard", for one thing, which was harmless enough, and this was just the pattern- other ships from beyond the old days seemed to mainly want to just poke their heads in and visit, at the very worst, tease and play with their distant fellows.

To name a few more:

He saw Atago walking around with a deep blush and a daze- Takao explained that Atago had been mercilessly pampered and teased one night by a far earlier Atago.

Trento told him that she was worried about getting everything right for her part of the preparations, but she was soothed to sleep by the late night company of "aunt" Pisa.

Le Téméraire spent one night making friends with a miss Charlemange, who "seemed lost".

And so on and so forth.

The fact that these visitations weren't malign seemed to fit with the season- this was a time associated with reunions and well-wishes. The fact that these living ships were now humanity's most powerful protectors had probably sparked the imagination of the rest of the people of the world. He had once considered that the living ships themselves had some influence over the Wisdom Cubes.

After all, he knew for a fact that the living ships had their own dreams, desires, and ideals, because otherwise, creating the Promise Cubes would have been impossible.

But he put that matter out of his head for now, to focus on matters at hand.

Namely, extracting Honolulu from an embarrassing situation.

Somehow in the middle of the prep, Honolulu had managed to get herself tied up in wrapping ribbons- probably coming from the fact that she had decided to help Sirius. By some freak accident, Honolulu's wrists had been tied up nice and tight to her ankles in a way that was so secure it defied belief.

Ajax was watching, but wasn't taking pictures. "Ah, commander- it's really quite intriguing- those two had managed to accomplish by accident things that it had taken me months to perfect. It's impressive, in a way."

Honolulu glared at Ajax with a blush. "What is wrong with you, Ajax! Get me out of these!"

Ajax smiled. "As soon as I figure out whether you're blushing because you're merely embarrassed or because this is something you secretly like- this is the third year in a row you've been "wrapped", after all."

"Hmph!" went Honolulu.

Sirius gave a swift bow. "I am very sorry master, I was just wrapping things on autopilot and did not mean to cause Honolulu distress. You may feel free to punish me as you see fit."

The commander went to undo the ribbons- they were bizarrely complicated, but he was technically a sailor, so knots were his thing. "Look, we know this sort of thing isn't your fault. There are times when the world seems to conspire against Honolulu here."