Scene #8258: Azur Lane: Welcome Wagon

Owner	Pose
Wisconsin	Well it's certainly not PacFleet HQ in San Francisco, and it's not even one of the major forward deployments in their world, but the newly built FOB Bravo out here in Sector Zero is... Good Enough, for now. It's so new some of the tags aren't off the prefab buildings, the rapid construction teams of Seabees and Marine Engineers have done a FANTASTIC job at getting something in place, ready to defend, and more importantly, comfortable for the Kansen. They've really got everything they actually need, seeing as Command is just a radio away. Tonight though, the lights are all on, and there are streamers and balloons and stuff all decorating the base's main galley. WELCOME, CONCORD in bright banners, all lit up. The heady smell of fresh grilling reaches across the base, though you can't escape the other smells of the sea. Salt water and fuel oil also tinge the air, but, again, this is an active base. Wisconsin, for her part, is behind one of the big grills, a traditional "we cut a big fuel tank in half and put a grill on it" style of cookery. Meat, veggies and Other all are on the cook, though the "Other" is being kept away from the food for the organic staff and visitors. A small flock of Fletcher-class Destroyer girls is busy running interference for those arriving, the young Kansen ladies looking sharpish in their chow hall uniforms. In the back, near some large screens showing information about the Azur Lane and the Eagle Union, is a statuesque, white haired woman, in a black and white dress, with an eagle perched nearby. That must be Yorktown. WELCOME TO THE PARTY!
Kukuru	Kukuru arrives at FOB Bravo with little fanfare beyond the usual potential murmuring that might come up when a swirl of ominous, vaguely demonic energy appears in the skies above the base to herald her arrival. Thankfully, the 'skies' in question are just a few feet off the ground when the dark cloud appears, so stepping out of it doesn't involve any sort of actual falling. Instead, she just steps out of it, dressed in her Sunday best on a Thursday! It's the usual white and green dress, and she's got her own bag full of fried snacks in tow to pass off to whoever's ready to take some food offerings of fried shrimp balls, seared broccoli florets, and fried white cheese cubes. She'll figure out their dietary restrictions later, but for now? She's here to enjoy the party and meet some new faces. Those who linger nearby her are going to get pats on the head, of course, and lazy greetings while she busies herself with just lounging around wherever she can find space to park herself.
Ozhira	As Kukuru sets down one of those plates of fried shrimp balls-- aren't there more than she made? The edge of the plate becomes jagged, slanting upward into teeth and then snapping shut around the shrimp snacks. The entire mass turns from the placid white color of the plate into something crimson and fleshy, like uncooked steak. This slithers off the table and onto the floor with a splat. From here the mass stretches up and takes on new definition, resolving into a human shape; a girl in a black blazer and plaid red skirt. Their eyes lift up from the snack counter to the video in the distance near Yorktown, mouth open slightly and showing hints of shark-like teeth. "We are here," well that voice and speaking pattern are familiar enough from the radio, at least.
Shadow	A party. Shadow the Hedgehog does not do parties. Rouge, however, does. And she's made it clear that if Shadow does not get out and be social at least a little bit, he's spending the night locked outside of the Gran Dorado suite they share. Shadow's response was that that would be preferrable, and yet, here they are. "Go say hello, and get some food," prompts Rouge, after the two arrive via motorcycle (with sidecar). Shadow grumbles, but goes to approach Wisconsin. "Hello," he says, from across the grill. "You must be Wisconsin. My name is Shadow." There's no follow up or further dialogue. Shadow just stands there, in front of the grill, looking at her grumpily. Some distance behind him, Rouge rubs her forehead.
Wisconsin	The first of the ship girls that gets a Kukuru headpat is a stern looking young grey haired girl, She sort of blanches at the contact from the other lady, before looking to her and huffing. "Mind the hair, alright?" The young Fletcher scuttles off, the tag on the back of her mess hall outfit reading DD-584. Hmm. That said, two of the other girls sort of scamper over... even as Ozhira makes her monsterous presence known. They don't seem to be afraid of Spagetti Monsters, at least ones that aren't Siren color coded. That's nice. It's a green haired, skinny girl carrying a plate of veggie skewers, and a slightly taller, pink haired girl who's missing an eye, carrying a stack of dirty plates. "Hallo! You can bring the food over to the big potluck table!" chirps Miss Pink Hair, before she salutes, making sure to tuck the plates under her arm first. "I'm Halligan, nice to meet you, but we're sorta busy!" She gets up on her tippy toes, and screeches in the way only teenagers can, when yelling for adults. "MISS YORKTOWN, THEY'RE OVER HERE!" She waves wildly, and then drags the green haired girl off to keep serving guests. Wisky looks up from the grill, and smiles broadly. "Ahoy there! That's right, and it's nice to meet you! I think." She wipes her spatula on her heavy duty apron, and then waves at the grill. "Meat, veggies or other? That goes for your lady friend too!"
Shadow	"Char my serving until it is as black as my dead heart," says Shadow, arms crossed. "(He actually wants Medium Rare,)" mouths Rouge over his shoulder. "And the vegetables as well, that I may better watch the life slowly drain from the bodies of our foes." "Just the meat for me, thank you, and point me at wherever the diet sodas are," says Rouge. "We're also fairly new, and thought we'd come make an appearance."
Kukuru	Ozhira, too, gets a ruffling of the hair when she slips out of Kukuru's food pile, as though she's simply used to the strange girl-shaped monster appearing out of her things in such a way. "It's a nice party, right? Everything smells so nice..." She hums softly after saying that, breathing in all the smells for emphasis and letting out a relaxed sigh at those familiar scents. There's also some unfamiliar ones, too, coming from the motorcycle that Shadow and Rouge came in on, and she eyes them curiously briefly before getting her attention snatched by Pink Hair. "He-llo there~ Oh, sure thing. I'm Kukuru. Ku-kuru. Nice to meet you, Halli." Beaming at her and that somewhat more brusque Fletcher, she waves at the two before bringing her stuff to the indicated table. After that, she finally joins Wisconsin, Shadow, and Rouge at the grill, bobbing her head idly from side to side even though she already looks rather drowsy. "He-llo, Wis-ky. Thanks for having me and Ozhi and..." She pauses, peering at Shadow more closely. "Did we meet once? I forget." Naturally, her hand goes for his head for the standard hair... Fur... Ridge-thing ruffling, and then for Rouge's as well. "It's nice to see you again either way.. Oh! Yeah, I'll take mine nice and bl-rare, please. I guess I should have some veggies, too, huh?"
Ozhira	Ozhira receives headruffles from Kukuru, which transforms their somewhat blank expression into a happier one for a moment, red eyes closed, "Yes. We think so, too." Their posture goes all Weird when they turn at the waist, though it's mercifully short when the legs catch up to what the torso just did and the girl turns around completely, "We smell. Meat." Their eyes glance from Wisconsin to the various destroyers milling about as servers. The head tilts in consideration. With little warning, the black blazer and skirt outfit expands and turns itself inside-out, replaced with the same uniform worn by the assorted Fletchers. A pillbox cap even emerges from their hair. Like this, they fit in a lot better, though it's unknown if the beast did this consciously or not. Because they just trot right up to the meat side of the grill and crouch down, placing the grill's cooking surface at eye-level. They stare, unblinking, at the cooking foods until, suddenly, a hand raises and points, "That one. That one is perfect. We desire it." Without otherwise moving, Ozhira's face tilts up, "Hunting barbecue. We do like it. It is tasty. Thank you."
Wisconsin	"Right, one meat and veggie skewer for the MOODY BOY." Wisky grins, and flips a few mushrooms and onions onto a chicken and bacon skewer, and then sets it on the grill. "This should be be done shortly. And... welcome to the Concord! Though I suppose me saying that might be a littl' outta line." A grin, and a wink, and she tosses her braid over her shoulder... The sudden transofmration of Ohzira gets a few of the girls to titter and flutter and gets the Johnston to harumph as she passes, but no one is actually... mad it seems. Just a little.... that's weird, okay? Wisky, however, promptly hands over the lamb and pepper kabob Ohzira had been eyeing up. "Here you go, Miss Ozzi." And then Kukuru makes her request. Wisconsin considers, and then gets her a beef and shitake skewer, and barely flame kisses it, before handing it over, mostly still raw. "So, nice to see plenty of you here, but I know it's a big group and lots of busy people and all that." Yorktown is slipping her way over, carrying a little tablet, and taking pictures with her... well, its looks like a chunky holo-info-thingy. Not quite a cell phone, nor a tablet. It's military built, whatever it is.
Shadow	MOODY BOY takes the skewer once it's done, and bites into it messily, as if he has some vendetta against the skewer and is finally claiming some long-awaited vengeance against it. Head ruffles. Shadow looks affronted, and endeavours to put on a silent look of offended offendedness. Rouge, though, leans into it. "Well now aren't you the touchy sort... you planning anything besides head-ruffles with those hands?" she asks Kukuru, a slight smile on her face. "Wait, I remember the both of you," says Shadow to Kukuru and Ozhira, perhaps in an attempt to change the subject. "You were there at the base when I was awakened." "I don't think either of you made your wish," he adds.
Ozhira	If the Beast's costume change was weird, the shipgirls gathered here might not be prepared for what comes next. A kebab is offered. Rather than accept it with their hands, Ozhira's mouth opens. Wisconsin gets a very good look at pointed, triangular teeth. The entire upper and lower mandible detach and shoot out, snapping closed around the skewer an inch or so above where Whisky's hand holds it. The whole thing is yanked out of her grip as the Devourer's jaws retract back into their face. There's a snap as the skewer itself breaks, but at least Ozhira is making an attempt to chew like a human being. Their mouth doesn't move when they speak, indicating the speech is coming from elsewhere when they answer Shadow. "We only wish, to get along. Concord is our home. We want to like those who are here."
Kukuru	Shadow's affronted offendedness does nothing to deter Kukuru's ruffling at first. She just seems pleased to see him there at all, although she does give him space once it seems clear he might not be too into it. "Oh yeah... We were there with Doctor Eggy. Um... Wish?" Somehow, it might not be too surprising that she's completely forgotten about that. Rouge seeming to enjoy the head ruffling, meanwhile, gets even more for her trouble. "Mhm! Every member of the Concord family gets these whenever they want. And you want.. More than that?" Kukuru is practically beaming at that as she steps right on over to give her big, yet gentle hug with more of that comforting head stroking. "Any time you want, okay? Even if it's early in the morning or late at night, you and Shadow and everyone else can call and I'll be right over for this." Ozhira's transformation gets a pleasantly high-pitched squeal from Kukuru as she dotes on the transforming mass for a bit longer. "Aw, that looks so cute! Just be careful not to get that caught in any doors." She warns gently, gesturing at their skirt before turning back to Wisconsin to get her skewer. "Thank you! Mhm, it's nice to see a bunch of new faces around here, too. The Concord's always been one big family, so having more of us around just makes things so much nicer." She explains with another pleasant hum, biting into her skewer before long and having to remind herself NOT to just cram all of it into her face at once. She needs to savor this food first and show good manners at this party! Spotting Yorktown, Kukuru flashes her a (jagged) toothy smile and peace sign with the skewer still partway in her mouth.
Wisconsin	The food is all delicious. Or as least as tasty as Navy Issue rations can be. Fresh rations, at least, there's that going for them. It's amazing what good technique can do for food, and there's little better than Heat and Salt and Time for stuff like kebabs. That said, there's a vague look between Yorktown and Wisky, and they... sigh a bit, at the antics that are going on here. Two... well. Whatever Ozhira and Kukuru are, and Rouge and Shadow... (Commander said we had to play nice with the locals, Wisky.), is 100 percent the look from Yorktown, but Wisky's is pure Midwest Nice Mom. "Well, that's all just super special. Heck. Careful though! Don't get splinters in your mouths there... or... whatever you've got there, Ozhira. The stocky native lady puts a hand on her hip, and then points at the group with her tongs. "Right, Ya'll ask some questions, if you got em. I'm HAPPY to answer." She pops the top on a bottle of soda... but those with good sniffers will clearly tell it's NOT soda. It's something high octane and fizzy. Carbonated fuel oil and kerosene? Hmmmm.
Shadow	"Alright, well, don't say I didn't offer," says Shadow to Ozhira. "I don't have any reason not to get along, as long as nobody here gets in my way," he adds. Rouge is busy with the hug. "Aww - aren't you precious. Hey, why don't you swing by our place later? We've got a board game night we're doing." Shadow stiffens. "We have enough players," he protests. "We have the two of us, you suck at Carcassone, and Omega cheats by counting tiles," says Rouge. "I want some company and some variety." Shadow decides to deal with this by ignoring it. "Questions - is everyone here some sort of... ship?" he asks Wisconsin.
Ozhira	The Beast is not particularly picky when it comes to food, judging at least by how they seem to also be eating the skewer itself with some amount of crunching and snapping. When Whisky opens her bottle, Ozhira's head tilts, observing her when she drinks from it. After a moment, the creature lets out a short, pitched chirp not quite like that of a bird. A curious tone. They're distracted by Kukuru's praise, returning the kind words with a shockingly genuine little smile with the skewer's pieces sticking out between their teeth. It is mysteriously not the Disaster Smile that Ozhira is typically known for. Her gaze shifts to Shadow, eliciting another-- completely different-- chirp but no further words. Instead, they turn to Rouge when she starts talking about games, "What are these things? We do not know them." Their attention turns back to Wisconsin and Yorktown, "Everyone here. Smells like metal. Oil. Machines. We recognize this. Machines, we have hunted before. You are not, human. We are not either." Their posture straightens, the last remnants of their skewer completely gone, wood and all, "Let us get along, too."
Wisconsin	Wisconsin nods to Shadow. "Well, all the girls you see around here right now, yes. We're all ships. Or rather, KAN-SEN. That's the name of... well, it's a big ol' acronym the Sakura Empire people cooked up to make it sound like Ship Girl in Japanese, far as I can tell." A smile. "I'm patterned off the battleship Wisconsin, Yorktown there is a carrier, my two attaches are Denver and Cassin. They're a cruiser and a destroyer." A softer smile. "All the little kids running around are members of the old Fletcher-class destroyer series. Lotsa them to go around, heh."
Kukuru	"Oh, I'd love to! Board games are fun, and they get even more fun once everyone's gotten plenty of food and drinks in~" Kukuru chimes in pleasantly, bobbing her head lightly from side to side with another humming noise as though she's recalling... Something. Whatever it is, at last she seems pleased about it. The time for questions begins, and Kukuru asks for more meat! Also, actual questions. "I looked at that report you mentioned earlier and..." She covers her mouth as she yawns, then chews on her skewer meat a bit before finally remembering to continue. "You mentioned being ship girls before, and... Sirens? What kind of experiments do they usually do? I mean, if that's what made you, it couldn't be all bad, right?" She sniffs once more for good measure after Ozhira mentions the smell, then eyes the not-soda soda bottles. "Oh yeah... What're you all eating and drinking? That stuff smells... Funny. Does it taste okay?" She pauses, looking towards the Fletchers, then back at Wisconsin. "Is it gonna stunt their growth?"
Wisconsin	A wave of Wisky's hand. "The people crewing the ACTUAL ships out in the harbor are people-people though. I know SOME people are gonna get their panties in a twist over hearin' me say that, but well. We're here to fight and fightin's what we're good at." A smile at Ohzira, and Wisky murmurs. "I... It's gonna take some getting used to, honest. No offese, but you're... well. Where we come from Tentacles are usually the purview of the Sirens, and we try to sink them as hard as possible." A laugh. "But I accept that thought, and I'll say the same." She murmurs in... well it's not English. A First Nations dialect. <We hunt the biggest beasts the world has ever seen, honorbound to strike them down.> A smile at Ozhira. "Feels like you're after a challenge too."
Wisconsin	Kukuru gets another skewer of meat and veggies, nearly raw. "Ah, this? Fuel for mighty warships. Takes plenty of energy to keep us going at combat speed, so... well, we're looking for those resources out here too. In the Multiverse." Wisky wilts a bit. "There's only so much to go around back home, and rather than startin' wars with our fellow Not-Sirens, we're... coming out here to look for materiel." Kukuru's question about experiments gets a frown. "That's... tough to say. The Sirens are... they can alter reality. Twist it. We call 'em Mirror Seas. Lots of crazy shit in there, pardon my French." She takes a pull of her Oxycola. "Mmmm, so. Sometimes girls get lost out there, sometimes they don't come back, sometimes they come back changed. The Sirens are... curious as to why we're resisting them... with their own technology. But they're still coming for us."
Ozhira	"We hunt, all things," Ozhira responds as Wisconsin talks about hunting, in both english and her native dialect. Their head tilts again, though, "We will. Try not to use those around you. If we can help it." The creature nods once. They lean forward a bit, conspiratorially, "We will hunt, Sirens too. We are a monster, after all."
Kukuru	"Ohhh, so there's humans in the regular ships." Kukuru seems to get what Wisconsin's getting at there, nodding a few times in between bites of her own skewered food and ruffling Ozhira a bit more before finally squatting in place and craning her head back. Sitting on the floor is rather tempting right about now, but she's stopping just short of actually doing that! After all... It's harder to get more food from that low to the ground. "Drinking fuel just like that, though... Huhn. That doesn't sound very tasty, but if it works, then..." Furrowing her brow, Kukuru peers at one of those bottles for a while longer before looking up at Wisconsin and Yorktown again. "Have you tried cooking with them? Liiike... Cooking vodka into pasta sauce." She recommends and takes another bite of her stuff, going quiet once more while listening to the explanation about the Sirens and their experiments. It's kind of clear that she doesn't really seem to get most of it, but she is nodding along and genuinely trying to get it! "That sounds dangerous... But they haven't reached out to us yet, so I guess maybe that's why... Um. Hm. It sure would be nice if they'd come to us and talk things through first. Otherwise..." Kukuru sticks her skewers in her mouth, then claps her hands together with another lazy smile.