Rora Raven's Snippet Thread

[Aurora Raven]

Currently writing a Kancolle fic, a Nikke fic, and an original story. I'll post snippets from them here as I complete and clean them up. Maybe one day one of them will be in a good enough state and coherent enough for a story thread of their own.

Snippets may not be written in in-story chronological order, index and threadmarks will show chronological order.

Index of stories and chapters:

Homecoming - Kancolle - In Progress

1. Arc 2 - Mascot Learns CQC
2. Arc 3 - Mascot Goes to Church

 

[Aurora Raven]

Spoiler: Context

This is intended to be in Arc 2 of the story.

Tungsten had been my teacher for almost everything in this new life of mine, but for this, she told me to look elsewhere. I had expected to be directed to one of the cruisers, the heaviest direct combatants we had given our dearth of non-carrier capitals, instead I was told to approach 'the twins'. Apparently when it comes to fighting up close, I couldn't do better than learning from Acasta and Ardent.

I had seen them a few times, our Princess' honour guard, but I'd never talked to them, until now.

They look much like the other destroyers, short, young teenagers in appearance, but I can feel that they're not. I had thought the strength of the Abyss I could feel surrounding them was because they were next to my Princess, that it was her aura I was feeling, but she's not here, and it's still powerful: it's coming from them too.

These two are champions of the Abyss in their own right, if not Princesses for lack of a fleet, still cut from the same royal cloth: Duchesses maybe, or Dames. One of them is striding towards me.

"So you're the new carrier. Not hiding behind Tungsten like usual?" Her whole demeanor is aggressive.

I'm not sure if this is Acasta or Ardent. They look identical, wait, no, there's one difference on their clothes: they both have three black stripes on their upper right sleeve, but the one talking has one stripe on their upper left too.

And, my other sight, seeing the ships behind the people. I can see the pennant numbers painted on their sides, 'H41' and 'H09'. I still don't know which is which though, I can't see any names painted on them.

"Tungsten recommended that I ask you two to teach me how to fight, physically I mean."

"A carrier wanting to get her hands dirty? I'll believe that when I see it," Mocking and derisive, I don't know which one this is, but I don't like her. The other approaches.

"Don't scare her off Ardent, it's good that she wants to learn." She turns to me, stepping ahead of the now named Ardent. "I'm Acasta, that's Ardent, and you've come to the right place if you want to learn how to fight in close quarters. We'd be glad to help." I much prefer Acasta to Ardent.

"Oh, uh, thank you."

"Only polite to introduce yourself too, carrier." As if you can talk about being polite, Ardent.

"I'm Vi—Mascot." I correct myself quickly. "Where do we start?"

"Lots of practice, but we can start by seeing where you're at right now, introducing some core concepts, and imparting a few key lessons, and we believe that nothing imparts a lesson quite like experiencing it." Acasta says, then steps back.

Pain! Shit! What? Someone just punched me in the side of the head. Ardent! Bitch just jumped me in the middle of a conversation.

"Lesson one Mascot: Vigilance. You were distracted, you didn't notice me lining up for an attack. You think the enemy is going to wait for you to finish talking before they strike? Come on. Fight back. The exam has started." Ardent has her knees bent, making an already small target even smaller. She's bouncing on her toes, ready to dodge or to attack.

I don't know how to fight, I've never thrown a punch in my life. Size matters in a fight, right? I'm much bigger, as long as I don't get surprised again, I can do this.

Ardent has grown tired of waiting for me. She dashes forward, she's fast! I try to intercept and swing at her as she approaches. She shifts to the side and dodges easily. I try to evade her strike, but she's faster than me, argh, right in the ribs.

I'm still trying to regain my footing from miserable attempts at a punch and a dodge when she hits me another two times before retreating.

"Lesson two: Play to your strengths, not theirs. A fat bitch like you trying to contest agility with a destroyer? Stupid." Ardent is certainly giving me plenty of incentive to hurt her.

"She means that you shouldn't have tried to dodge that. You couldn't, and it left you open for more. It didn't hurt much did it? You're slower, but you're tougher. Take the hit, grab her after she commits, then you've won." Thank god for Acasta.

Ardent brings her rigging out, four guns, bigger than mine, but still not particularly scary. The two quadruple torpedo launchers are the real threat, or they would be if we were on the water. She can't use her weapons here, what's the point of this? It's not like she has any particularly sharp parts of her rigging to use as improvised melee weapons. Maybe she's just getting into it, my rigging sometimes comes out when I'm excited about something.

She's more cautious now, making several fake starts, daring me to try and lunge at her again. I won't fall for it, she can't hurt me without getting close, and when she does, I'll have a chance. I just need to be patient.

"Hate doing this, tastes like shit and stains everything." Then she starts exhaling thick, black smoke. That's not natural smoke: there's way too much of it and it's spreading too quickly. It must be more Abyssal bullshit. She disappears into it and it soon covers me too. I can barely see a few feet in front of me.

I take a few steps back, trying to make some distance, give myself a little more time to react when she attacks, but it's not much help with visibility this bad. I'll have to make do, the plan hasn't changed: wait, grab, don't let go.

She sprints out of the smoke with a right hook to my jaw and a knee to the groin. I try to catch her, but I'm too slow and she disappears back into the smoke before I can grab her.

I'm fine, that hurt, but she didn't actually do much damage, I'm not anywhere near out of this fight.

She came from my left, which direction will some come from this time? I try to listen for the sound of her footsteps on rock, but I can't hear. The smoke must be muffling it somehow, which doesn't make much sense, but I've learnt that when it comes to Abyssals, the concept often matters more than the physics, and a smokescreen is meant to conceal. I'll have to make a guess and be ready to be wrong.

She came from the left last time, I'll be ready for an attack from the right.

From the left again! I was guarding my right and out of position, she pushes my arms away, further to the right, as she slams several rapid fire punches into my bottom left ribs, where my kidney would be if I still had them.

She knows exactly how many hits she can get in and pulls back moments before I can pull her in.

This is infuriating. Nothing she's done has actually damaged me, but it's clear that she's in control of this fight. Trying to predict her was a disaster, fine, I won't try to be clever, she's faster and more skilled, so I'll put everything on my armour and my mass. I can take a hit, and I only need to get lucky once.

She attacks again, I backpedal and with more luck than skill, manage to catch her arm in the crook of my left elbow. Yes! I close it tight and wrap my right arm around her torso.

"Got you!"

She kicks at my legs, but I can take it. I shift my left arm to hold on to her torso as well, completing the bear hug. I'm probably not doing it right, and it's an awkward hold, but I have the strength advantage to make up for it. I could crush her torso like this and she has no way out; I've won the fight.

"Yield." I'm smiling.

"Heh." Why is she also smiling?

Something hits me in the back of my knees. I'm falling! I try to catch myself and release Ardent as I do. Someone just jumped on my back, Acasta! She pulls something tight across my face. I try to inhale, but am stopped short, clear plastic blocking my nose and mouth. I try to get Acasta off my back, but I can't reach properly, and she keeps dodging my flailing hands.

I try to reach for my face instead, rip whatever this is off, but Ardent grabs my arms and holds them down. I can overpower her, I just need a bit more time, I need air!

I can't break free. I feel weak. Oxygen… I…

I don't feel the need anymore. My arms fall to my side, my legs collapse, I fall face down onto the ground.

Ardent isn't holding me, Acasta has stepped off me, but I still can't get up. Nothing is responding.

"You forgot lesson one, Mascot. You were so focused on Ardent that you forgot about me entirely. This is going to take a long time if you forget a lesson less than five minutes after being taught it." Acasta continues calmly, as if she didn't just take me down in a matter of seconds right when I thought I'd won.

She's not holding anything to my face anymore, why can't I breathe? I try to call for help, but I can't inhale to do it. Acasta rolls me over, so I'm facing the sky. It doesn't matter how much I try, nothing responds. I can only move my eyes, all I can do is look at her.

"Without oxygen, your boilers flameout in a matter of seconds, without boilers, your turbines stop, you don't have hydraulic or electric power, let alone propulsion. In other words, you're paralysed." Acasta explains.

Radio! I can call Tungsten! No, my radios don't work, there's no power. I can't breathe in, can't move any of my limbs. My crew are in chaos, nothing works: not the communications, not even the lights. For all my efforts, I can just about move a finger.

"Lesson three is 'Don't fight alone'. That's especially applicable to carriers like you. If you're alone, something has already gone wrong and it's probably time to retreat. Outnumbering the enemy is a big advantage, and one that can cascade into an insurmountable one as long as you and your allies work together to pick individual enemies off."

I try to focus on Acasta's lecture, her steady words, as if nothing is wrong. Nothing is wrong. This was just training. They can fix me. They have to be able to fix me.

"Fair fights are for losers, gang up on them, bring them down, then kick them whilst they're down." Ardent interjects and accentuates her point by kicking me as I'm down.

"I hope you'll remember these lessons Mascot, they'll save your life. Maybe I need to carve them into you." Acasta crouches over me, pulling out a knife. A knife shouldn't be able to hurt me.

She brings it closer, letting me get a good look.

It's a brutal thing: near a foot of dark metal, roughly hewn out of a larger piece. Sheared sides ground down to a handle, and a seven inch blade with sharp, cutting edges, ending in a piercing point. The bastard offspring of a commando dagger and a scrap metal sword made in a shed.

"This is one of my prized possessions. It wasn't easy to make it, but it's more than proven it was worth the effort. Abyssal steel; carved out of the armour belt of one of Tirpitz' girls. Twelve inch thick battleship armour, strong and hard enough to get through any ship's skin, especially yours."

She made that out of a battleship's flesh? I hope that poor girl was dead, not just paralysed like I am right now, screaming inside whilst this little psycho cut her apart.

"You may be a capital, with far more horsepower than me, but for all that you're an 'armoured' carrier, your skin is still fairly thin, which means even with my meager strength, I can do this."

She presses down, her horrific weapon cutting through my skin, leaving a shallow wound in my chest, a tear in my hull.

"I could cut your machinery apart right here."

She stops, pulls the knife away, then brings it to my neck.

"Or carve off your island."

She lingers for a moment, then steps away.

"'Course, whilst I might need a special knife with my dainty hands, a battleship, well, they don't need weapons, they've got it built in. Have you ever seen it? A battleship ripping a ship's boilers out of her chest? Crushing them in front of her? It's a terrible way to die: paralysed, helpless, irreparably crippled without a full rebuild.

If your bridge is gone, your crew can fight on. If your arms are gone, you can kick, or run away. If your legs are gone, you can fight, or drag yourself away. If your boilers are gone, you're done, it's over.

Guard. Your. Boilers.

The lesson is over for now, go get patched up, and do better next time." She starts walking away, is she just going to leave me like this?

Ardent bends down over me.

"Just so you know, if Acasta wasn't there and you'd actually caught me in that hug, I would have blown my own magazines and sent us both to the Abyss. I've sunk for Glorious before, many times, I'm not afraid to do it again." There's no fear in her, only fanaticism and absolute belief, surety that if she sinks, she'll come back. She gets up and walks away.

Body desecrators and suicide bombers… the company I'm in.

Acasta looks back at me.

"Your boilers and fuel are still hot, your crew will be relighting your boilers right now. You'll be fine in a few minutes." She leaves, following Ardent.

At the start of this, I thought Acasta was nice, the good cop to Ardent's bad one, evidently, all cops are bastards. Tungsten could have warned me about them. I'll be having words with her when I can move again.

I can't believe I got taken down by fucking clingfilm

 

[Aurora Raven]

Spoiler: Context

This is intended to be in Arc 3 of the story.

In the time since the Mascot Learns CQC, Mascot's whole fleet has been sunk and she has run away to land.

I honestly have no idea how Phoebe became a Catholic. We're not even a Catholic country. Apparently she got into it whilst undergoing cancer treatment. I suppose facing death isn't the worst time to find God. She's recovered now, though kept her new faith.

She's not even all that public about it, the first time I found out was when she asked us not to take the Lord's name in vain. She's slightly more relaxed about it now, though I still do her the courtesy of not using Jesus as a swear when she's around.

She's one of the few people who doesn't look at me like I'm a monster, the least I can do is be tolerant of her faith and show interest in something she is passionate about.

Which is how I find myself walking to church with her.

She's enthusiastic about it. I don't think many people are even slightly receptive to her faith, even if she's not pushy.

"It's not a service or anything, and I picked a quiet time, so there definitely won't be a bunch of people, you're fine with one or two right? We can leave if there are too many, just tell me if you're feeling the urge too much.

It's a shame about that, we've got a really great community here and they'd love to meet you, I'm sure you'd all get along great. Maybe you'll be up for a meet up in the future."

Doubtful, I can barely walk along a busy street and keep control, let alone interact with a bunch of humans. Meeting her community is going to end in a lot of dead churchgoers, followed by me being hunted down and killed by Shipgirls.

"Maybe some other time." Still, I won't shoot her down, even if it'll never happen.

As we arrive I pause outside the church gate, Phoebe looks back at me.

"Something wrong?" she asks.

"I'm not going to spontaneously combust if I set foot on consecrated ground right? I was never that close with God, and that was before I was subject to a dark ritual and turned into a demon." I say hesitantly.

I'm only half joking. I don't consider myself religious, but the world of the last few years, not to mention my own intimate experience with the Abyss, has rather forcefully made me reconsider the existence of the spiritual and supernatural.

She sighs and turns to face me.

"You're not a demon. You haven't tried to tempt anyone to sin, you don't serve Satan. You're one of God's children, and there's no power in the universe that can change that. Here..." She pulls out a silver crucifix necklace from her shirt and holds it out to me. "You're not repelled, hold it."

Taking it into my hand, it's just a necklace, my skin doesn't start sizzling.

"See, no burning, you'll be fine, now come on." She crosses the boundary and looks back at me, beckoning me forward.

I take a hesitant step and place one foot on holy ground. Nothing happens. Another step and my whole body is within the boundary. Nothing happens. I feel slightly ridiculous for worrying about it now, but who knows how these things work.

"Ok, I guess I was just being silly." I try to laugh it off.

"Mind you, you might be possessed by a demon. A voice in the back of your head tempting you to the sin of wrath and urging you to commit murder does sound pretty demonic. We can talk to the Father about it, maybe an exorcist could help you."

Jesus Christ…

She actually believes this stuff. I keep my face neutral as we enter the church itself. It's not particularly large, several pews, an altar, stonework walls, and stained glass windows. All in all, it looks like every other church I've been in. There are only a couple of other people inside aside from the clergyman..

Phoebe goes ahead to talk to the Father and the other churchgoers, I hang back by the entrance. I can't help but feel like I'm intruding.

They're approaching me now. It's only two people, I can handle this. I force a smile.

"Hi, you must be Victoria, I'm Mary, this is Norman. Phoebe told us you were coming." She extends a hand and I shake it in what must be the limpest, weakest, handshake in the world. I can't risk the slightest force when touching a human. Introductory obligations complete, I return my hands to my pockets, where they won't hurt anyone.

Mary is short, blonde, and wears glasses. For all that she looks mousey, her demeanor is extroverted and forward, bubbly like a puppy. I can see why Phoebe and her are friends. Norman is brunet, more reserved, and far taller than anyone else in the room, must be at least 6 ft, likely even two or three inches beyond that.

"Come have a seat, we have tea and coffee.." Mary invites me over to the back of the church where there are some amenities. "You can take the sunglasses off in here"

The overly large and dark shades have become a fixture of my face every time I'm outside of my house. I look like a prat with them on, especially indoors, but anything less doesn't block the glow of my eyes.

"You sure?"

"You don't need to hide here."

I take my sunglasses off, seeing the place in unfiltered full colour. Norman flinches a bit, Mary doesn't, even as her eyes widen. I can see the reflected blue glare of my eyes in her glasses.

"Your eyes are certainly rather unique."

Hardly, I share them with countless others across the seas.

"Yeah, they stand out quite a bit now. My eyes used to be brown, my hair too. Maybe a bit boring, but I was happy with them."

They tell me about their lives and general situations, I share some of mine, sanitised. They lap it up; it must seem an exciting adventure to them. It's clear they've never been confronted with Abyssals, Shipgirls, or the war in general, insulated as they are in the most middle class of counties.

"That must have been so scary for you. It's terrible the things that happen out there, but you're safe back here now." Mary coos after I finish a story.

Their sympathy is sickening. I've been here an hour, long enough to be polite and a genuine effort, I don't need to take this anymore. I make my excuses and leave with Phoebe.

"Thanks for coming, I know that was hard for you." At least Phoebe is appreciative.

"Their sympathy is misplaced, I don't deserve it. It's offensive to the people who do. The 'terrible things that happen out there', I am the 'terrible thing'." Contempt is leaking into my voice, my ability to act depleted.

"You're doing that self hate thing again. I thought you were over this." Phoebe sighs.

"Don't dismiss this. I've killed a lot of people. No, I've murdered a lot of people. Not because they were a threat, or because I was ordered to, because I could, and because I wanted to, and I enjoyed it."

"We've all done bad things, it's what we do going forward that matters."

Is she serious? We've all done bad things? This is ridiculous, I'm a mass murderer, how can she sweep that under the rug?

"Saul persecuted Christians before he found redemption as Paul. None of us are beyond saving. We learn, we regret, and we do better."

God damnit, here we go again.

"I don't regret what I did, I think about it fondly, still. I didn't have a moment of clarity and redemption, the only reason I'm being 'good' is so I don't get killed. My motivation is entirely selfish. I appreciate your kindness, but you're not grasping the enormity of my sin or the blackness of my soul." Perhaps a little dramatic, but I'm feeling dramatic right now.

"I can't change your mind, Victoria, I can't make you forgive yourself. It's not my place to either, just, remember that you didn't choose this, you're a victim in this too."

That's not true. I remain quiet.

We continue walking. Eventually, I break the silence.

"You said I didn't choose this." I start.

"Yeah."

"I think I did. I think I did choose this, to become this." I confess.

"What are you talking about?" Phoebe is confused.

"When I was… In that ritual, when I was melting, dissolving, when my body was falling apart and I went to that place, I was so scared. I begged, and cried, for anybody to save me, for anything. 'Please, I don't want to die, I'll do anything', and then I didn't die, I became this instead.

I wasn't alone, you know. There were two other people with me, dragged into that ritual chamber. They died screaming, there was nothing left of them, and they didn't come back as something else. I alone walked out of that ritual.

Maybe I accepted a deal, maybe I wasn't brave enough to die as a human. Maybe those two men before me were strong enough, brave enough to keep their humanity to the end, and I wasn't."

"You were under duress…" Phoebe starts, but I cut her off.

"Do you think the Abyss cares about legality? It knocked, and I let it in. It offered me life, and I accepted, and now I belong to it." My voice grows more rapid and uncontrolled as I recall the moment I sold my soul.

She stays silent, I've done the impossible and managed to shut her up.

"I don't think there's any coming back from where I've been, Phoebe. Thanks anyway, I'll see you some other time."

I walk away.