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Lieutenant Arisukawa Haruna

Balance Stats
❁ • Work / Life • ❁
❁ • ❁ Warrior / Princess ❁ • ❁
❁ • ❁ Radical / Respectable ❁ • ❁


Tactical Stats
Gunnery 0, Navigation +2, Command +2, Technology -4, Personal -2, Strategy +3

Stress: 3


PLEASE READ THE QUEST RULES BELOW

You collectively vote on the actions of Arisukawa Haruna, the first woman to serve openly in the Imperial Akitsukuni Navy.

This quest is set in a universe which is much like our own circa 1910, but with different politics, cultural norms, and ideas about gender and sexuality, as well as some unusual and advanced technology in places.

We are using this quest to explore themes like breaking the glass ceiling, divergent outlooks on gender and sexuality, colonialism and imperialism, and the place of royalty.

Content Warning
This quest goes some dark places.

There is violence, often explicit, often unfair, often against undeserving targets.

There are not always good options forward. The protagonist is not necessarily a good person.

There is implied content and discussion of sexual harassment and assault.

This is a world where people are often racist, sexist, queerphobic bigots. Sometimes, even the PC and the people they are friends with.

Voting Rules

We will tell you if write-in votes are allowed. If we do not say that write-ins are allowed, they are not. This is to prevent people from unrealistically hedging their bets.

You may proposal other options in a non-vote format, subject to approval, on non write-in votes.

We will tell you when a vote allows approved voting. If we don't say the answer is no, pick an option. We like making people commit.

Discussions makes the GM feel fuzzy.

Game Rules
When we ask you for a roll, roll 3d6. You are aiming to roll equal or under the value of your stat. If you succeed, Haruna gets through the situation with no real difficulties. If you roll above the target value, Haruna will still succeed, but this success will cost her something or add a complication.

Whenever Haruna loses something or faces hardship from a botched roll, she takes Stress. The more Stress Haruna has, the more the job and the circumstances she's in will get to her, and it'll be reflected in the narrative. Haruna must be kept under 10 Stress: if she reaches 10 Stress, she will suffer a breakdown and the results will not be great for her.

Haruna loses stress by taking time for herself, by making meaningful progress on her dreams, and by kissing tall, beautiful women.

Meta Rules
Author commentary is in italics so you know it's not story stuff.

Please don't complain about the system or the fact we have to roll dice. We've heard it before, we've heard it a thousand times across multiple quests. We're not going to change it, and it wears at our fucking souls.

Just going "oh noooo" or "Fish RNGesus Why!" is fun and fine. Complaining at length because you didn't get what you want less so.

If you have a question, tag both @open_sketchbook and @Artificial Girl. If you only tag one of us, you will be ignored. Seriously, we both write this quest.

And yes this is an alt-history type setting with openly gay and trans people, ahistoric medicine, and weird politics. Just... deal, please?

This quest employs a special system called Snippet Votes. Please read this post for more information.
 
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[x] The daughter of an ancient noble family, whose unwillingness to give up masculine ambitions after her transition has become socially difficult. (+Prowess & Tactics)
 
[X] The daughter of an ancient noble family, whose unwillingness to give up masculine ambitions after her transition has become socially difficult. (+Prowess & Tactics)

I have no faith in SV's ability to play politics, as opposed to straightforward "smash enemy".
 
[X] The dutiful child of a New Independent representative in the upper house of the Diet, who pushed the idea. (+Diplomacy & Strategies)
 
[X] The rebellious daughter of a noble-turned-capitalist family, escaping a suitor after her for her wealth. (+Strategy & Subterfuge)

I do so enjoy the archetype of the rebellious princess (and permutations thereof).
 
Vote tally thus far:
Adhoc vote count started by Arbit on Nov 6, 2018 at 6:49 AM, finished with 78 posts and 47 votes.
 
[X] An enthusiastic but less than competent officer, chosen by the Admirality with the hopes that her failure will end such talk permanently. (Hard Mode)
 
1-2 - Graduation
Spring in Akitsusuni is always lovely. The weather is cool and clear, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom and the Imperial Naval Academy graduates the class of 2535. You are standing with the rest of the cadets in formation, glad that it is not warmer today. Even with the gentle springtime sunlight, you can feel sweat trickling down the back of your neck.

"Ladies of gentle birth do not sweat," you can remember your mother telling you when you were young. "It is not seemly." Well you had done a lot of unseemly sweating over the last four years and now here you were, twenty-one years old in sharp, clean Navy whites waiting to be called up to receive your naval commission and to have the silver bellflower crest, representing the Imperial family, pinned to your shoulder boards. It had been hard, something you had anticipated. Many of your classmates had laughed at you behind your back and despised you for intruding into what they considered a male world, even if you were technically a princess of the Imperial blood. You had had to work twice as hard and do twice as well to get the same recognition any of them did. You had lived alone in an empty dormitory that had been set aside specifically for 'women cadets' of which you were the only one.

Even then it was only by the grace of your cousin, Her Imperial Majesty, the Empress. She had been the finger on the scale that had allowed this experiment to even take place. You had been determined not to let her down and here you were. Graduating. You thanked your ancestors and the spirits, thanked your family. You would not waste this opportunity that is being given to you. Another cadet is called forward. The one next to you. He steps forward, salutes, fingers barely touching the brim of his peaked cap, then steps back.

Arisugawa is the name of your family, a cadet branch of the Imperial family split off two generations back. Your mother is the Empresses' first cousin, your grandmother the Empresses' aunt and your great-grandmother was Empress herself. Which makes you a 2nd cousin, if you recall correctly. The youngest of the cadet branches, not that it made much of a difference. Closer to the Empress, but lacking some of the gravitas of the families that split off in the 2000s.

The grave looking man in the vice-admiral's uniform takes another step, his aide carrying the box of carefully arrayed insignia behind him. He looks you in the eye for a long moment and you can tell that he would rather that you were not here. He clears his throat.

"Her Imperial Highness, Cadet Arisugawa…."

First name?
[ ] Write in!

Diplomacy 11, Strategy 10, Tactics 10, Prowess 10, Subterfuge 14, Technical: 8

Please vote for a given name for our girl!
 
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[X] Haruna
I agree completely, I just wish to try to staunch the flow of carrier enthusiasm for now, as the time has not yet come for it.
Who said anything about carriers? Right now, just a seaplane tender would be revolutionary. Of course, so would submarines, switching to all-or nothing armor. Heck, all-big gun battleships might not even be a thing, yet. And New Alleghany and Taxcoco might not even have a blue-water navy right now. (And Gallian pre-dreads are an object lesson in What Not To Do When Building A Warship)
 
[X] Haruna

Who said anything about carriers? Right now, just a seaplane tender would be revolutionary. Of course, so would submarines, switching to all-or nothing armor. Heck, all-big gun battleships might not even be a thing, yet. And New Alleghany and Taxcoco might not even have a blue-water navy right now. (And Gallian pre-dreads are an object lesson in What Not To Do When Building A Warship)

We are firmly in the realm of the pre-dreadnought at the moment. I don't think that the all big gun battleship exists yet except maybe in the mind of some enterprising Naval designer who hasn't sold the idea to anyone yet.

This is the state-of-the-art battleship and pride of your country's navy currently:



 
Huh.

Gonna need to remember that for reference when it comes to Aircraft Design Quest when it comes to dealing with the Navy.

Is steam turbine propulsion a thing? It ties into some of the same general advances in engine design and fluid dynamics and materials that influences aviation, so if aviation is ahistorically ahead I might expect to see turbine propulsion on ships whose armor and gun layout is just, uh, a bit behind the curve.
 
Is steam turbine propulsion a thing? It ties into some of the same general advances in engine design and fluid dynamics and materials that influences aviation, so if aviation is ahistorically ahead I might expect to see turbine propulsion on ships whose armor and gun layout is just, uh, a bit behind the curve.

Neat. Maybe the Torpedo Ram sees a slight resurgence with the advancing engine tech and lacking armor/guns.
 
On the one hand, Haruna...
Kanmusu as captain is quite hilarious...
On the other hand, Satsuki...
She would have what it takes to show those male pigs in human clothing...
 
Of the names suggested so far, I think I prefer

[X] Haruna

(Of course, this is simply because there's a battleship with that name... I am easily convinced if anyone can motivate any of the names to one such as me, whose knowledge of japan and not!japan amounts to approximately a pigs fart and a few memes)

We are firmly in the realm of the pre-dreadnought at the moment. I don't think that the all big gun battleship exists yet except maybe in the mind of some enterprising Naval designer who hasn't sold the idea to anyone yet.
I think the all big gun battleship was one of the things that made Dreadnoughts special (the other being her having a more effective propulsion system, making them scarily fast battleships by then-current standards? My knowledge of naval warfare history is... limited)

Gonna need to remember that for reference when it comes to Aircraft Design Quest when it comes to dealing with the Navy.
Keep in mind that this is currently a few years before ADQ. We might see a few inventions in the time in between.
 
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I think the all big gun battleship was one of the things that made Dreadnoughts special (the other being her having a more effective propulsion system, making them scarily fast battleships by then-current standards? My knowledge of naval warfare history is... limited).

Exactly this re: all big gun battleship. It also concentrated all of that armament in turrets on the main deck instead of using barbettes. I don't know much about the propulsion but I can do some research
 
[X] Haruna

It fits, both as a battleship name, a mountain name, and our protagonist's name.
 
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