FoL doggy watches
darthcourt10
Well worn.
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Savato93
It was odd, the difference having company made when wandering the seas.
The destroyer had been sailing with her tentative new flagship for about a week now. It hadn't been too much of a change from her prior routine—she pretty much spent the days sailing across this vast blue plain, occasionally diverting course to bomb schools of fish to eat, and spending the nights resting. The only real change… was that she was doing so while following a scarred Re-class battleship around.
The Re-class was… odd. For a Re-class, at least. For someone who wanted company so badly when they met, she wasn't very talkative. At most, she occasionally checked in with the destroyer; asking if she was okay, if she was hungry, if she needed to rest. It was admittedly a breath of fresh air, having a flagship that cared about her like this. However, she couldn't get more than a sentence or two from the Re-class whenever she tried to chat. From what she gathered from her old fleet, the Re-classes that didn't kill you on sight were supposed to be energetic and sociable. Even if she'd been obviously through the wringer, the destroyer was still expecting her flagship to at least be a little peppy.
But that wasn't the oddest thing about her.
"You REALLY don't want to sleep? Have me take watch?"
The Re-class shook her head. "N-no. No… it's fine. Not tired."
She was insomniac. Lacking a landmass to take refuge, the pair had connected themselves with tethers for the previous nights, to prevent from drifting away from one another as they slept. Or rather, SHE slept—the Re-class was determined to keep watch over them during the night. She said she didn't need to stop, let herself sleep for a little bit, but the bags under her eyes and her lack of energy at all times of the day made it clear she was lying.
But why? Was it paranoia? Nightmares? Simply bad experiences sleeping adrift? Whatever the case, the Re-class was running herself ragged, and in her state that was a bad thing. She couldn't afford to have her new flagship making a bad decision in a sleep-deprived delirium and getting them killed.
"Do you think I'm not good to watch for us?" She said. "That's not true. I've been out here myself for a while. I know how to look out for trouble."
The Re-class shook her head more fervently. "No, no, no… Doggy doesn't understand…" she hugged herself lightly. "When… when I sleep… bad things happen."
That… didn't rule out any of her possibilities. "What kind of bad things?"
The Re-class rubbed her temples. "I… can't tell. Don't know… how to explain."
Wait, she didn't even know herself why she couldn't sleep? This wouldn't do. "Look, you're my flagship. I'll listen to you and follow you around, because you're nice to me, and will protect me. But no sleep is bad for you! You need to get shut-eye before you do something stupid!"
The Re-class blinked. She looked down at the water. "But… I…"
"You don't need to worry about anything. I'll watch over us both! Just rest, let me take watch for tonight. I promise you'll be okay."
The Re-class was silent for a long time. Eventually, she looked back up, at the destroyer, uncertain. "…o-okay."
And so, night came. The Re-class laid on the water's surface, head resting against her tail. Their tether, a cord wrapped around her wrist, bound her to the destroyer with roughly a kilometer of leeway. The destroyer was on full alert; pinging the sea around them with her sonar, scanning the skies with her optics, keeping an ear to her radio for chatter. She said she'd watch over the two of them, and she was damn well going to do just that—she wasn't about to give her flagship a reason to stop treating her well.
For hours, she remained vigilant, scouring the world around her with all her senses. For hours, she found nothing.
And then, at 0315, she heard something. Not with her radio, but her own ears.
Whining.
The destroyer turned back to her flagship, confused. The Re-class was squirming and quivering where she lay, her tail writhing underneath her head. Her face was twisted into a rictus of fear and pain, her teeth grit and tears building in her tightly-shut eyes. "…no…" she whispered, just barely audible over the waves around her. "…please… no…"
Concerned, the destroyer turned and drifted back towards her flagship. Was this what she was talking about? Some sort of nightmare? She wished she could just leave the Re-class be, let her try to work through it, get her full night's rest… but something about her agitation didn't seem right. Coming to a stop next to her, she moved to nudge her with her bow. "Uh… Flagship…? Are you…ok—"
At her touch, the Re-class's eyes shot open.
And she screamed.
This was no natural scream, a girl's simple shriek of terror and agony. This was the scream of a being whose every aspect had been devastated, ripped apart, the scraps shoddily reassembled in the shape of what used to be. Her heart, mind and soul, all violated at the deepest level by something truly, unspeakably wrong.
This was the scream of something fundamentally broken.
The destroyer jerked back as the Re-class thrashed on the water's surface, sending gouts of water into the air with her movements, screaming all the while. After several seconds, however, the wild motion and noise quickly came to a stop. The water settled to reveal the Re-class curled up on herself, trembling and gasping for breath. "No more… no more…" she whispered to herself.
"What… what was that!?" the destroyer asked. "What happened to you!?"
The Re-class slowly lifted her head, her glazed eyes gradually coming to focus on the destroyer. "I… I told you. I can't… I can't s-sleep." She whimpered weakly. "Ever. Dreams… full of darkness. Death. Pain. So much pain."
"…I'm sorry." The destroyer said quietly, stunned. "I didn't know… that it was that bad…"
"N-no… no, no, no…" Rising to her knees, the Re-class crawled up to the destroyer, shaking as she pressed up against her side. "You're… you're a good girl… thinking for… my health. It's… it's my fault… for being broken." Despite the tears streaming down her face, she tried her best to give the destroyer a smile. "I'm s-sorry. Sorry f-for being s-such a… a useless…" she never finished her statement, breaking down sobbing.
This was her fault. She pushed the Re-class into sleeping; pushed her right into the nightmares she was trying so hard to escape. Her flagship tried to tell her sleep was bad for her, but she insisted—and now her trauma was out in the open. The Re-class didn't deserve that… not after the kindness she'd shown her.
She had to make it up to her.
And so, the destroyer sat there until the sun rose, unmoving; her flagship lying against her, wailing in anguish. There was no more sleep for either of them, that night—or the next several nights, for that matter. She was here to give the Re-class company, after all—it was only fair that she work overtime, after forcing her flagship to experience… whatever haunted her dreams, once again.
There was a single question burning in the destroyer's mind, throughout all of it:
Just what had happened to her flagship, to turn her into THIS?
…
The destroyer never noticed it, discounting it as just another one among the dozens already present on her flagship's stomach… a long, ragged scar, fresher than the others.
A scar that, minutes ago, did not exist.
It was odd, the difference having company made when wandering the seas.
The destroyer had been sailing with her tentative new flagship for about a week now. It hadn't been too much of a change from her prior routine—she pretty much spent the days sailing across this vast blue plain, occasionally diverting course to bomb schools of fish to eat, and spending the nights resting. The only real change… was that she was doing so while following a scarred Re-class battleship around.
The Re-class was… odd. For a Re-class, at least. For someone who wanted company so badly when they met, she wasn't very talkative. At most, she occasionally checked in with the destroyer; asking if she was okay, if she was hungry, if she needed to rest. It was admittedly a breath of fresh air, having a flagship that cared about her like this. However, she couldn't get more than a sentence or two from the Re-class whenever she tried to chat. From what she gathered from her old fleet, the Re-classes that didn't kill you on sight were supposed to be energetic and sociable. Even if she'd been obviously through the wringer, the destroyer was still expecting her flagship to at least be a little peppy.
But that wasn't the oddest thing about her.
"You REALLY don't want to sleep? Have me take watch?"
The Re-class shook her head. "N-no. No… it's fine. Not tired."
She was insomniac. Lacking a landmass to take refuge, the pair had connected themselves with tethers for the previous nights, to prevent from drifting away from one another as they slept. Or rather, SHE slept—the Re-class was determined to keep watch over them during the night. She said she didn't need to stop, let herself sleep for a little bit, but the bags under her eyes and her lack of energy at all times of the day made it clear she was lying.
But why? Was it paranoia? Nightmares? Simply bad experiences sleeping adrift? Whatever the case, the Re-class was running herself ragged, and in her state that was a bad thing. She couldn't afford to have her new flagship making a bad decision in a sleep-deprived delirium and getting them killed.
"Do you think I'm not good to watch for us?" She said. "That's not true. I've been out here myself for a while. I know how to look out for trouble."
The Re-class shook her head more fervently. "No, no, no… Doggy doesn't understand…" she hugged herself lightly. "When… when I sleep… bad things happen."
That… didn't rule out any of her possibilities. "What kind of bad things?"
The Re-class rubbed her temples. "I… can't tell. Don't know… how to explain."
Wait, she didn't even know herself why she couldn't sleep? This wouldn't do. "Look, you're my flagship. I'll listen to you and follow you around, because you're nice to me, and will protect me. But no sleep is bad for you! You need to get shut-eye before you do something stupid!"
The Re-class blinked. She looked down at the water. "But… I…"
"You don't need to worry about anything. I'll watch over us both! Just rest, let me take watch for tonight. I promise you'll be okay."
The Re-class was silent for a long time. Eventually, she looked back up, at the destroyer, uncertain. "…o-okay."
And so, night came. The Re-class laid on the water's surface, head resting against her tail. Their tether, a cord wrapped around her wrist, bound her to the destroyer with roughly a kilometer of leeway. The destroyer was on full alert; pinging the sea around them with her sonar, scanning the skies with her optics, keeping an ear to her radio for chatter. She said she'd watch over the two of them, and she was damn well going to do just that—she wasn't about to give her flagship a reason to stop treating her well.
For hours, she remained vigilant, scouring the world around her with all her senses. For hours, she found nothing.
And then, at 0315, she heard something. Not with her radio, but her own ears.
Whining.
The destroyer turned back to her flagship, confused. The Re-class was squirming and quivering where she lay, her tail writhing underneath her head. Her face was twisted into a rictus of fear and pain, her teeth grit and tears building in her tightly-shut eyes. "…no…" she whispered, just barely audible over the waves around her. "…please… no…"
Concerned, the destroyer turned and drifted back towards her flagship. Was this what she was talking about? Some sort of nightmare? She wished she could just leave the Re-class be, let her try to work through it, get her full night's rest… but something about her agitation didn't seem right. Coming to a stop next to her, she moved to nudge her with her bow. "Uh… Flagship…? Are you…ok—"
At her touch, the Re-class's eyes shot open.
And she screamed.
This was no natural scream, a girl's simple shriek of terror and agony. This was the scream of a being whose every aspect had been devastated, ripped apart, the scraps shoddily reassembled in the shape of what used to be. Her heart, mind and soul, all violated at the deepest level by something truly, unspeakably wrong.
This was the scream of something fundamentally broken.
The destroyer jerked back as the Re-class thrashed on the water's surface, sending gouts of water into the air with her movements, screaming all the while. After several seconds, however, the wild motion and noise quickly came to a stop. The water settled to reveal the Re-class curled up on herself, trembling and gasping for breath. "No more… no more…" she whispered to herself.
"What… what was that!?" the destroyer asked. "What happened to you!?"
The Re-class slowly lifted her head, her glazed eyes gradually coming to focus on the destroyer. "I… I told you. I can't… I can't s-sleep." She whimpered weakly. "Ever. Dreams… full of darkness. Death. Pain. So much pain."
"…I'm sorry." The destroyer said quietly, stunned. "I didn't know… that it was that bad…"
"N-no… no, no, no…" Rising to her knees, the Re-class crawled up to the destroyer, shaking as she pressed up against her side. "You're… you're a good girl… thinking for… my health. It's… it's my fault… for being broken." Despite the tears streaming down her face, she tried her best to give the destroyer a smile. "I'm s-sorry. Sorry f-for being s-such a… a useless…" she never finished her statement, breaking down sobbing.
This was her fault. She pushed the Re-class into sleeping; pushed her right into the nightmares she was trying so hard to escape. Her flagship tried to tell her sleep was bad for her, but she insisted—and now her trauma was out in the open. The Re-class didn't deserve that… not after the kindness she'd shown her.
She had to make it up to her.
And so, the destroyer sat there until the sun rose, unmoving; her flagship lying against her, wailing in anguish. There was no more sleep for either of them, that night—or the next several nights, for that matter. She was here to give the Re-class company, after all—it was only fair that she work overtime, after forcing her flagship to experience… whatever haunted her dreams, once again.
There was a single question burning in the destroyer's mind, throughout all of it:
Just what had happened to her flagship, to turn her into THIS?
…
The destroyer never noticed it, discounting it as just another one among the dozens already present on her flagship's stomach… a long, ragged scar, fresher than the others.
A scar that, minutes ago, did not exist.