Petals of Titanium -- My Life as a Mecha Setting Bridge Bunny Quest

[X] Speak with Lady Perbeck, one downtime
[X] Speak with Guardwoman J6, one downtime
[X] Check on Faiza, one downtime

We need some downtime and to talk to people. Working ourselves to death is all well and good but doing basic work in the infirmary isn't our strong suit.

10ebbor10 said:

Pretty sure that guy wasn't the protagonist?

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I think the way to think of our Mecha pilots is less in terms of 'anime' roles and more in terms of Ck2 Hero Units or something along those lines-potent, yes, but they can be killed.
Hrrrm...

[X] Check on Faiza, one downtime
Yeah, you're going to be pissed with us, and with good reason-perhaps if we had not obstructed you, Ito'd still be alive, thanks to the upgrades you would have made.
But we can make amends, late but not never.

[X] Speak with Guardwoman J6, one downtime
We need your assistance to contact one mechanical engineer by the name of Faiza.

I'm pretty sure non-used votes translate to North getting time to rest/relax and frankly I think now might not be the worst time to catch some Z's/recuperate so we can maintain the Ojou-ness.

Zaealix said:

I think the way to think of our Mecha pilots is less in terms of 'anime' roles and more in terms of Ck2 Hero Units or something along those lines-potent, yes, but they can be killed.
Hrrrm...

[X] Check on Faiza, one downtime
Yeah, you're going to be pissed with us, and with good reason-perhaps if we had not obstructed you, Ito'd still be alive, thanks to the upgrades you would have made.
But we can make amends, late but not never.

[X] Speak with Guardwoman J6, one downtime
We need your assistance to contact one mechanical engineer by the name of Faiza.

I'm pretty sure non-used votes translate to North getting time to rest/relax and frankly I think now might not be the worst time to catch some Z's/recuperate so we can maintain the Ojou-ness.

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They don't. They do make your vote count for a lot less, though, because right now your voting block is a block of one.

Gazetteer said:

They don't. They do make your vote count for a lot less, though, because right now your voting block is a block of one.

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[x] Speak with Lady Perbeck, one downtime

[x] Speak with Guardwoman J6, one downtime

[x] Check on Faiza, one downtime


Another for the three-action crowd!

Gazetteer said:

Fires and hull breaches

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Ha, experienced FTL captains know how to use the second problem to solve the first. It is all a matter of… doors.

"Lady Perbeck is alive, but unconscious," "Significant damages to her Mecha, but nothing unrepairable."

"They've recovered Sub-Lieutenant Ito's Banner,"

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Yay, the character I care about lived.

"Besides: you might run into a familiar face. It's over Iapetus. That's where intel said your mother was stationed last, right?"

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If we are lucky we get a face to face and an idealogical debate. If we are unlucky… we will see her just as she shanks mum.

[X] Speak with Lady Perbeck, one downtime
[X] Speak with Guardwoman J6, one downtime
[X] Check on Faiza, one downtime

Andre thinks for a moment. "If… either of them are severely wounded, it would be greatly appreciated if they could be cared for on another ship -- our med bay is undamaged, but heavily overwhelmed. We have other injured."

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Given the fact that the Rose is understaffed I imagine a lot of the benefits for helping out there is to give the trained personnel time to rest as a lot of things simply need someone watching to insure someone remains stable. This would do wonders for North's reputation as a workaholic, and among the crew.

"Lady Perbeck is alive, but unconscious," Mazlo reports, smiling thinly, some of the stress finally going out of him. He's been wound so tightly ever since the situation with the Strawberry began that you've wondered if he's going to snap. "Significant damages to her Mecha, but nothing unrepairable."

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Well it is good to know Perbeck is alive, and that Mazlo isn't the cliche glory hound who only care about himself.

"They've recovered Sub-Lieutenant Ito's Banner," he says, slowly.

As he continues talking, you watch Anja's entire body go slack, like a puppet whose strings have been cut, and her eyes go horribly blank.

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It is a credit to the quality of the writing that despite never picking any of the Ito interactions that his passing was painful through what little we got of him, and through his connection with Anja.

There it is. The pointed stress placed on her name. On Mosi's family name -- many had sided with the pretender following the civil war, but few did so in quite such dramatic fashion as Dame Nalah North, an obscure knight who rocketed herself to infamy in the Holy Empire by personally defeating several Imperial guardsmen and wounding the Emperor's own son early in the retreat to Saturn. And fewer still had defied the will of the emperor quite so brazenly as Dame Nalah's late husband, who, when offered a chance at survival, had refused to denounce his traitor wife and deliberately placed himself in line for the firing squad. The General on Mars had wanted to spare him -- a gifted and respected accountant, and the kind of bureaucrat the Holy Empire had needed desperately, at that point in the war. Instead, the general had been humiliated in front of his own troops and the Martian populace alike.

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I wonder how much of this is Mosi internally justifying the actions of her side versus how things went reality? Regardless the fact that she views her father in terms of her mother is certainly insightful.

Mosi is unbelievably fortunate to be alive, let alone having any career at all after that. Looking into Chavez's cold eyes, she is struck by that familiar feeling of being a mouse in a den of cat's. Infuriating, given how far she's pushed herself to escape that.

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Hah! The other side would have to be idiots to throw away a pilot with excellent potential, and more importantly drive enough to work herself to death in pursuit of the elimination of an infamous enemy ace.

"I'm telling you you should," Green says, with a shrug. "Besides: you might run into a familiar face. It's over Iapetus. That's where intel said your mother was stationed last, right?"

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Ugh they're totally using Mosai as an expendable pawn to make up for their poor showing. Also I suspect if Mosai succeeds in her goal Amani will be torn between revenge for her mother, and a desire for her sister to survive so she isn't alone.

Although if that does happen... it is too bad the quest narrative limits Amani's role to being a bridge bunny, and what else she works on in her free time. Because while it is cliche Amani overcoming her second guessing, and desire for an optimal soultion by drowning it white hot anger would certainly be something else.

Tragically, among the dead this time is Petty Officer Nowak, and, while it seems everyone is reasonably certain that the young girl didn't die in the battle, Faiza has disappeared. The Petty Officer was the one who was looking after the girl, upon your suggestion, and with her gone, the only other person who knows about Faiza's forays into the maintenance shafts is Guardswoman J6. Last time you had any contact, you had the impression that Faiza still holds a dislike of you from your first encounter in the mecha bay. It still might be a good idea to check up on her. Who do you manage to speak to?

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So Faiza has lost her father, presumably her mother, and the one person on the ship who was willing to give her a chance? Seriously the kid has terrible luck.

You have three points of downtime to spend this time. I will not make you buy a conversation with Anja at this point, that is going to happen automatically. Votes will be counted together, please select enough options to use up all your downtime -- just picking one will only make it harder to tally the votes.

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The occasional free action when it makes sense based upon relationship depth, and narrative events numbs the pain a little bit.

[ ] Speak with Lady Perbeck, one downtime

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Considering the Good Countess has lost both of her original subordinates, and based upon her previous action with North lacks anyone else to talk with.

[ ] Speak with Guardwoman J6, one downtime

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I'm voting for this as J6 interests me as a character, a little interaction bit of interaction that isn't dramatic, and maybe even build a connection with someone with the influence alongside motivation to give Faiza a foot in the door in regards to acquiring official certification.

[ ] Check on Faiza, one downtime

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We should pick this action if for no other reason than the fact that it appears nobody else is doing it, and if Faiza is in as bad a mental state as I suspect at the very least get her focused on a concrete goal instead of doing nothing.

[ ] Volunteer for extra duties doing basic scut work around the infirmary, two downtime

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As I noted before this will probably build up North's reputation among the average spacer.

[X] Speak with Lady Perbeck, one downtime
[X] Speak with Guardwoman J6, one downtime
[X] Check on Faiza, one downtime

[x] Speak with Lady Perbeck, one downtime
[x] Speak with Guardwoman J6, one downtime
[x] Check on Faiza, one downtime

Kid needs help, and J6 knows where we can find her.

After thinking about it , I'm changing my vote to this.

[X] Check on Faiza, one downtime
[X] Volunteer for extra duties doing basic scut work around the infirmary, two downtime

J6 probably has something profound to say, or maybe works as a career advancing path, but... she's not an essential conversation partner. Faiza is the most important choice here. We know where she hangs out, but with her appointed minder Nowak dead in battle, checking on how she is falls to North, for her own sake and everyone else's.

I do want to talk to Perbeck... but Perbeck was brought in unconscious. To the infirmary. Talking to her isn't really essential to me, just verifying that she's alright, which will happen in person even if the doctors run North ragged and she can't get so much as a "hello" in. And Perbeck is pretty stable emotionally, and definitely understands the concept of burying your emotions in work for a while.

The infirmary... is severely overworked. Even with medics from the other ships sent over, they could use more hands. And North's set of hands, however long she ends up spending in the infirmary, takes the pressure off of some other overworked Med-Tech. Maybe they can get something else done. Or maybe they're dead on their feet (can anyone be dead on their feet in zero-gravity?) and the chief medical officer yells at them to go take a nap. It would suck majorly if Perbeck had some lingering head trauma thing and everyone was too overworked to notice in time when it flared up or something. Worst case scenario, but... well. It happens; ask any doctor.

And it isn't unseen effort, because it might also do double-duty as career advancement. Docs from the Imperial Thorn or some other ship will be over there, and nothing stands out more than some random (and eyecatching) ensign who clearly isn't a med-tech but is still helping out. There is also something to be said for having staff around who are pretty, regardless of gender. Hiring practices discourage that sort of thing because it always causes huge amounts of trouble, but there really IS something important about having at least one person around who can give suffering patients something to focus on other than their own misery. But I'm probably way overthinking it at this point.

So sign me up for some horrible medical drudgery. Yay?

[X] Speak with Lady Perbeck, one downtime
[X] Speak with Guardwoman J6, one downtime
[X] Check on Faiza, one downtime

I'm going to hazard a guess and say that the reason Perbeck survived where Ito did not is because we actually talked with her. If I remember correctly we never once chose an option to interact with Ito, and that factored into his death.

Of course, this could just be me grasping at straws so whatever.

NuclearConsensus said:

[X] Speak with Lady Perbeck, one downtime
[X] Speak with Guardwoman J6, one downtime
[X] Check on Faiza, one downtime

I'm going to hazard a guess and say that the reason Perbeck survived where Ito did not is because we actually talked with her. If I remember correctly we never once chose an option to interact with Ito, and that factored into his death.

Of course, this could just be me grasping at straws so whatever.

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I figured ito sacrificed himself, that idiot

Honestly though, I do hope we're done with the procession of "By default, you are utterly crushed and barely limp away from your unshakable foes with your skin mostly attached, but by doing well, you can negate a small portion of your defeats!" By now.

Because at this point, it's strongly feeling like a hopeless setting, where our side deserves to lose because the actions of two to three competent characters can't stem the tide of heroes the other side can dish out in every engagement.

Or worse, that it's the same batch, and that taking a fast ship was completely pointless because the other side is faster and has more units to begin with.

NuclearConsensus said:

I'm going to hazard a guess and say that the reason Perbeck survived where Ito did not is because we actually talked with her. If I remember correctly we never once chose an option to interact with Ito, and that factored into his death.

Of course, this could just be me grasping at straws so whatever.

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I'm fairly certain that Perbeck's survival compared to Ito boils down to a mecha designed for rapid bursts of acceleration being better at protecting the pilot from a shockwave than any mecha when a melee weapon penetrates the cockpit.

Alectai said:

Honestly though, I do hope we're done with the procession of "By default, you are utterly crushed and barely limp away from your unshakable foes with your skin mostly attached, but by doing well, you can negate a small portion of your defeats!" By now.

Because at this point, it's strongly feeling like a hopeless setting, where our side deserves to lose because the actions of two to three competent characters can't stem the tide of heroes the other side can dish out in every engagement.

Or worse, that it's the same batch, and that taking a fast ship was completely pointless because the other side is faster and has more units to begin with.

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Personally, I haven't really felt like it's all that hopeless. We've lost something (many things) every engagement, but the enemy has lost more each time except maybe the first time when they sprang the ambush. The circumstances feel dire, like each time we fight we're that much less capable of fending them off, but we also end up stronger shortly afterward, too. The second one gave us the Lily and the third gave us a whole fleet. The Rose itself might be heavily damaged, and we might have lost some people, but our side seems to be coming out ahead so far.

Basically, I kind of get what you're saying, but it doesn't seem that hopeless to me.