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Aircraft Design Company- Matsura's Planes Are Always Fastest!

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Character Sheet
  • Informational


    • ​
    Stress
    0​
    Office Stress
    0​
    XP
    5​

    Matsura Asuka
    Head Designer for Ohara Airworks
    Age 24 (Legally 25)
    Year 12 AF (After Flight)

    Design Stats
    Aerodynamics Engineering - +2
    Structural Engineering - +2
    Chemical Engineering - +1
    Mechanical Engineering - +1
    Ballistics Engineering - +1
    Electrical Engineering - 0

    Personal/Political Stats
    Social Skills - 0
    Politics Skills - 0
    Importance - 2
    Income - 1
    Investments - Ohara

    Resources
    Power - 0
    Wealth - 2

    Designs
    Type 1 Series - Military Variation (Designated T1M1)
    Type 2 Racer (World Speed Record October 1910-April 1911, 180kph)
    Model 2 Scout (Designated T1M2)
    Navy Scout Prototype (Drowned Rat)
    Dive Bomber B1M1 "Duck"
    Machine Gun Carrier R1A "Dragonfly" (World Speed Record May-July 1911, 200kph)
    Naval Rescue Water-Landing Supply Plane NR1M0 "Dolphin" (World speed record 240kph)
    Rhino Demon Train Hunter
    The world's first airliner
    The world's first pulsejet airplane

    Assets
    Slide Rule
    Computator (1 Reroll per Routine)

    Languages
    Albian
    Gallian

    Familiar Vices
    Drinking
    Prostitutes
    Dancing

    Family Life
    - Engaged to Arita Yachi, formerly the leading Ace in the Imperial Army. Designated #1 Cutest Army Boy, he's having some serious problems with PTSD right now.
    - Taking a second try at dating Mikami Kiho, ex-dockerwork from the south.

    Upgrades
    - 3 XP to upgrade a stat.

    Ohara Airworks
    Start Up, Imperial Capital, Akitsukuni

    Owner
    - Mr. Ohara, Rich. Aircraft Enthusiast. Business guy.

    Engineers

    Kibe Koume, 26, Office Manager
    Tiny & angry, Kibe went to school in Albia, picking up the language, the religion, and a fuckload of swear words. Speaks Albian.
    Mechanical +2, Ballistics +1
    Office Manager: If Kibe is not assigned to a team, the Office Stress is reduced by 1.

    Sakane Jun, 26, Second Team Leader
    A soured patriot, Sakane is married and has a young child being raised gender-neutrally. His two brothers who fought in the war.
    Structural +2, Aerodynamics +1
    Team Leader: If there are any additional projects, Sakane will lead them.
    Joinery: Sakane has training in the traditional Akitsukuni carpentry art of joinery, creating complex self-supporting joints with no fasteners or glue. When working with non-monocoque wooden spars or ribs, +1 Structural.

    Tezuka Kenji, ???
    A stoner with occasional flashes of insight. Nobody really knows what he does, but he's probably useful?
    Aerodynamics +2, Chemical +1
    Flashes of Brilliance: Each natural 10 rolled by any team Tezuka is assigned to gives +1 forward to the next research roll.

    Hasegawa Morio, 26
    A hopeless nerd with a photography habit, mostly on account of developing his own film, Hasegawa seems to do nothing but work and stack card houses, but somehow has an incredible attractive boyfriend. Speaks Gallian.
    Chemical +2, Ballistic +1
    Silent Workhorse: Hasegawa can work on two different projects at once for no cost to Office Stress, providing they use different stats.

    Kawamura Yosai, 25.
    Serially successful womanizer and incredibly attractive, Kawamura doesn't seem to have much of a personality outside of seducing women. Well, except for that time he seduced Asuka, which nobody talks about. Speaks Dyske.
    Structural +2, Electrical +1, Social +1
    Easily Distracted: If Kawamura is working on the same team as a female or non-binary employee, the team is at -1d10.

    Koide Hatsu, 24.
    One of the few female graduates of an Akitsukuni engineering school, Koide is brilliant and incredibly driven, but her first job at Akibara was both humiliating and exposed her to an abusive coworker. Her father is a rich businessman with factories in Joseon, and she's engaged to Ken from Castles of Steel. Speaks Joseon.
    Mechanical +2, Structural +1
    No Sleep: If you let her, Koide will work herself to death. She can work a second project for no Office Stress, but all her stats will be reduced to 1 for the routine.

    Kobayashi Ayao, ???
    Disowned heiress of the Kobayashi family, all Kobayashi wanted was a career and to be a modern woman. For her trouble, a cousin threw acid on her, scarring her face, neck, much of her torso, and her left arm. Despite appearing serene and above it all, she's actually an avowed communist activist and baseball player.
    Aerodynamics +2, Social +2

    Adachi Ren, 24
    Adachi learned chemistry from her father, one of the most famous chemical engineers in the country, rather than through formal schooling. She's married, has a kid, and takes spirituality very seriously. Yes, you did the math right, she had Yuki when she was 17. It's 1912, folks.
    Chemical +2, Electrical +1
    Young Mother: Adachi will cause double Office Stress if she has to work multiple tasks.

    Uyeno Sei, Ballistics Engineer, 31.
    The oldest member of the crew, this is Uyeno's second career. Her first was as an officer in the Imperial Navy with specialized technical training: her very promising career was cut short by her transition. Her work in a naval arsenal on machine-guns landed her the job here. Briefly dated Satomi (the age range is a bit creepy but again, 1912), she's missing a piece of her ear and is deaf on that side, from an exploding cannon. Recently returned from Varnmark from experimental surgery, she's known for her skill navigating gendered bureaucracy.
    Ballistic +3

    Mi Kyung-Jae, 23
    A recent graduate of the Imperial College of Heijo, Mi is from the recently annexed territory of Joseon. For those keeping track at home, that means he's a Korean national living in Imperial Japan in 1912. We haven't seen much of his personality because he's rightfully terrified of everything around him. He has a specialty in endurance engine design and modification. Speaks Joseon.
    Mechanical +1, Chemical +1
    Endurance Engines: Mi has an excellent understanding of metallurgy and tolerances. Any engine he works on gains +1 Reliability if a 16+ is rolled.
    Pulsejet Wizard: Mi is now one of the world's leading experts on the pulsejet engine. He can be given his own project to custom-craft pulsejet engines, and he gives +1 to any pulsejet-related project.
    Joseon National: Mi does not have security clearance to work on any top-secret projects.

    Miyoshi Shigeri, 23.
    A non-binary person and admirer of Asuka's work, they were in an support role in the Army before joining the company.
    Structural +1, Mechanical +1, Aerodynamic +1
    Mechanic: Miyoshi has some experience repairing and refurbishing aircraft. They get +1 if assigned on the clean-up phase.


    Other Employees
    - Ohara Satomi, 22, Mr. Ohara's niece and the company test pilot, Ohara is a general lesbian disaster. She's good at flying planes, driving cars, and kissing girls. She's bad at being patient, being respectable, and sticking to literally anyones conceptions of gender roles. Deeply in lesbians with Coralie D'Amboise.
    - Fujkikawa Sotatsu, old, modelmaker. He's an old man and toymaker and we don't see much of him because he locks himself in his workshop a lot. He's friends with Kawamura?

    Assets
    - Engine Test Rig (Allows engine tweaking and optimization.
    - Wind Tunnel (+1 Aerodynamics)
    - Rapid Prototype Lab (+1 Clean Up)
    Expanded Cast

    Akitsukuni Industry
    - Homura Mohoko: Head Engine Designer for Kobayashi. First female engineer in the country. A lot of sex appeal.
    - Okumura: Head of Akibara aircraft design.
    - Yamanaka Hajime: Kobayashi engineer. Young and eager.
    - Igarashi Masazumi: Kobayashi engineer. Reserved and experienced.
    - Admiral Akibara Toru: Imperial Navy Admiral. Maximum nepotism. Maximum douchebag.
    - Lt.Cmnd Akibara Shinzo: The above's son. A hottie but very forward.



    Character Families
    - Matsura(?) Mizuko: Asuka's sister. Was paralyzed in an accident in Asuka's first flight. Lives Elsewhere and is married now. Can't forgive Asuka, even though she's tried.
    - Adachi Motoki: Adachi's husband, an accountant. Legally blind.
    - Adachi Yuki: Adachi's 7 year old daughter and wannabe pilot. Very adorable.
    - Yachi's Brother: Exists.
    - Sakane's Wife: Exists. Drives him a bit crazy, but he loves her.
    - Yachi's Brother's Wife: Exists. Is statistically likely to be pregnant.
    - Lt. Coralie D'Amboise: Gallian pilot in exile. Satomi's girlfriend. 25. Accomplished bisexual duelist. She flew in the war for a single day, and for her troubles got a hole blown in her cheek and had her left arm paralyzed.

    Akisukuni Army & Ex-Army
    - Lt. Torio Tanaka: Yachi's former observer as an enlisted man. Was jumped up to fly Ducks and lost a leg on his first mission. A trained painter, married to Torio Saya.
    - Captain Amari Shiro: A Dragonfly pilot who ended up flying as Yachi's partner. Kind of delightfully twinky. They sorta slept together at one point, which wasn't great. He lost his previous boyfriend in the April Offensive and turned his plane into a shrine. He was shot in the gut and is still recovering.
    - Major Izuhara: Logistics officer, Imperial Army, this bespectled officer stood up to the Caspian Crown Prince and accidentally kicked off the Akitsikuni-Caspian War. The guilt was so much that, after almost a year of running Army procurement, he shot himself in a phone both.
    - Captain Nakai Sekien: Army scout pilot. First person to drop a bomb from an airplane, later head of the Duck Squadrons.
    - Captain Teshima: A Desk pilot that fought with Yachi. Lost an arm in the process, took over for Major Izuhara after his death. Seems cheery despite it all.
    - Captain Nashio: A real piece of shit dude and probably a rapist, he's also a war hero as the second-highest scoring ace on the Akitsukuni side. He was a young shitty kid in way over his head but it's no excuse.
    - Lt. Kinjo: Kind of a dumb lump and Nashio's friend, one of the desk pilots. Dead at 19.
    - Lt. Okazaki: Yachi's friend from before the war and pilot, he died in a spin in his dragonfly. His death probably hit Yachi the hardest.

    Westerners
    - Rose & Antoinette Sears: Pioneers of flight. Sisters. Black in 1910s not!America. Yikes.
    - Timina Guasti: Famous aircraft designer from Otrusia. Likes big planes and green.
    - Prince Protasov Vasilyevich: Crown Prince of Great Caspia. Real dick. You gotta hand it to him though, a decent flier.
    - Count von Zeppelin: Invented rigid airships. Runs a successful airline business. Damned impressive.
    - Bennhold: Aircraft Engineer. Experimenting with metal aircraft.
    - Aileen Middlemiss: Albian reporter for the Artimis Times. Well meaning and oblivious.
    Available Tech
    • Materials: Wood, Duralumin, Molded Wood, Wood & Silk Composite, etc
    • All engine mounts
    • All wing types
    • Basic reinforcement
    • Wing warping and ailerons
    • Basic water radiators
    • Flying Wings
    • Semi-Monocoque design (requires at least half the slots have frame pieces)
    • Valved pulsejets
    • Basic weapon mounts and turrets
    Tech not Yet Developed
    • Custom engines
    • Monocoque construction
    • Cantilever Wings and associated tech
    • V and T tails
    • Tailless designs
    • Aluminum and titanium
    • Cellulose surfacing
    • Any kind of radar
    • Weapon accessability mods
    • Interruptor gear
    • Geared propellers
    • And Maybe Other Stuff
    Akitsukuni
    Island Nation

    Government
    Constitutional Monarchy
    - The democratic portions of the government are dubiously legitimate.
    - The head of state is the Empress of Akitsukuni. She gives her blessing to newly formed governments.
    - The Navy and a small number of families have undue influence on politics.

    Economy
    Developing Mixed Market
    - Most industry is controlled by a small number of wealthy, family-owned companies.
    - The state provides most contracts to industry. Consumer good market is anemic.
    - Exports are few, mostly cultural.
    - Imports are raw minerals, food, oil, and expertise.
    - Currently suffering an economic crash after the last war.

    Politics
    The Diet is currently ruled by a Constitutional Nationalist government. It has a system of nonlocal proportional representation, with representatives appointed by the party in accordance to their share of the vote.
    - Constitutional Nationalists: 50%
    - Purity Club: 9%
    - New Independents: 26%
    - Fairness Association: 11%
    - United Communist League: 2%
    - Monarchists: 1%
    - Assorted Fringe Parties: 5%

    Demographics
    Akitsukuni is mostly very ethnically homogeneous. Around 5% of the population are various minorities, most from nearby countries. Roughly .1% are westerners here for business or in advisory positions.
    - Population: 55 Million
    - Religion: Mostly Kodo. Roughly 2% of the population follows western religions.
    - Wealth: Most wealth is concentrated in the top 5% of the country. Nearly 20% of the population lives in conditions indistinguishable from peasantry.
    - Urbanization: Heavily urbanized for a small economy: 35% and rapidly growing.

    Military
    At Peace
    - Imperial Akitsukuni Navy (IAN): The 6th largest in the world, and the most experienced.
    - Imperial Akitsukuni Army (IAA): 150,000 highly experienced soldiers, and a considerable reserve.

    Aspects
    - Poor Resources: Aluminum costs +1.
    - Damn Akitsukuni Engines!: Engines have -1 Reliability.



    The Main Character Of This Quest Is Nonbinary And Uses They/Them Pronouns.

    I Am Putting This Here Because The Next Person To Misgender Them Is Getting Yeeted Into The Trash

    Also here's the Gayaverse TV Tropes page, because why not.​
     
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  • Informational
    • [X] Nah, I think I'll stay here and find something else to do.

    Switching back indecisively. My first impulse was probably right. @CthuluWasRight makes good points.
    Adhoc vote count started by brmj on Dec 7, 2018 at 11:16 PM, finished with 10725 posts and 70 votes.
    Click to expand...
     
    I am curious, then- stay apolitical, rely on visibility to stay un-disappeared, publicly support the coming regieme, or cultivate alternative power bases?

    As far as the supporting bad people arguement- if any of these planes are ever built, than 4/5 of the civilian models will be used for this purpose with or without our say-so. This is a chance to get out in front of that and think about it too.

    ...I will admit I am arguing against the 1930s version of the probable government rather than the 1910s. When did it get bad secret-policed wise IRL?

    Oh!

    And this may be the first step in 'asking' us to 'pay for fire protection', in which case the next request to chat may not be polite.
     
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    Glau said:
    I am curious, then- stay apolitical, rely on visibility to stay un-disappeared, publicly support the coming regieme, or cultivate alternative power bases?

    As far as the supporting bad people arguement- if any of these planes are ever built, than 4/5 of the civilian models will be used for this purpose with or without our say-so. This is a chance to get out in front of that and think about it too.

    ...I will admit I am arguing against the 1930s version of the probable government rather than the 1910s. When did it get bad secret-policed wise IRL?

    Oh!

    And this may be the first step in 'asking' us to 'pay for fire protection', in which case the next request to chat may not be polite.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    The point that swayed me was that these guys aren't an alternate power base, just the illegal wing of the same one we are worried about, or near enough as to make little difference.
     
    Glau said:
    I am curious, then- stay apolitical, rely on visibility to stay un-disappeared, publicly support the coming regieme, or cultivate alternative power bases?

    As far as the supporting bad people arguement- if any of these planes are ever built, than 4/5 of the civilian models will be used for this purpose with or without our say-so. This is a chance to get out in front of that and think about it too.

    ...I will admit I am arguing against the 1930s version of the probable government rather than the 1910s. When did it get bad secret-policed wise IRL?

    Oh!

    And this may be the first step in 'asking' us to 'pay for fire protection', in which case the next request to chat may not be polite.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    The argument of 'I'll involve myself with criminals to help them do illegal things because they'll do it anyway' is possibly the worse idea I've heard this month.
     
    Glau said:
    I am curious, then- stay apolitical, rely on visibility to stay un-disappeared, publicly support the coming regieme, or cultivate alternative power bases?

    As far as the supporting bad people arguement- if any of these planes are ever built, than 4/5 of the civilian models will be used for this purpose with or without our say-so. This is a chance to get out in front of that and think about it too.

    ...I will admit I am arguing against the 1930s version of the probable government rather than the 1910s. When did it get bad secret-policed wise IRL?

    Oh!

    And this may be the first step in 'asking' us to 'pay for fire protection', in which case the next request to chat may not be polite.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I would argue in favor of keeping our heads down and building Ohara's brand until we're considered one of the big guys. The powers-that-be will be far less likely to dispose of us if we're the best designer at the best aircraft manufacturer in the country. Publicly supporting the regime means cheering along while it kills people we like, which I'm not down for and will probably get us a divorce from Yachi. An "alternative powerbase" is both very nebulous and unlikely to be a viable option. Right now all the extremist parties seem to be kept fleetingly in check, though that will change when the Great War runs its course and the debts from this one start flooding in. As for when Akitsukuni goes full dictatorship? Well, the whole point of a one-party state is for there to be no "alternative power base". Just keep calm and don't do war crimes.

    Speaking of not doing war crimes, I absolutely call bullshit on your argument that "it's going to happen anyway". I don't know where you got the 4/5 statistic from, but it's worth noting that those aircraft will at the very least not be purpose-built for people smuggling and commissioned by human traffickers. The main reason I mentioned this plane specifically is that it's the first of its kind and one of the fastest aircraft on the fucking planet. That is a smuggling racket's wet dream. It's like responding to the news that the Triads are smuggling people in repurchased Hercules cargo aircraft by giving them a fucking Concorde instead. I absolutely refuse to consider "getting out in front" of possibly the most depraved criminal industry in the world. Seriously. Read Tokyo Vice.

    By the 1930s we'll have even less of a shot at doing anything useful with our Yakuza contacts. Right now they're shaking hands with the government, soon they will be a part of the government. And if they want to try a protection racket on for size, we'll see how far fucking with an essential war industry gets them. Also, I don't know about you, but offering to help someone with a procurement issue seems like an odd way to start a shakedown.
     
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    Whoops, my bad on the misgendering. My apologies, folks.

    At any rate, Asuka seems more like the type to party hard with their crowd, and hopefully whatever it is they find to do includes the whole gang.
     
    Glau said:
    Um. I'll ignore the terrorist jab and in return not accuse you of supporting totilitarian police states.

    My reply would be that a one-off order to civilian front companies would be the least of our worries if we are going to be secret-policed anyways for being prominent and affiliated with the opposition, so either mouths shut and build warplanes as war is glorified, or lay some groundwork to potentially flee the country.
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    I really don't get the idea that the Yakuza are going to become a nucleus of resistance in Militarist Future Akitsukuni that we need to strengthen.

    The thing to remember is that organized crime is perfectly happy with fascist or imperialist oppression of political dissidents as long as it can cut a deal with the fascist or imperialist government. And since both fascists and imperialists routinely cut corrupt deals with prominent private citizens whenever it's politically or tactically convenient, that means they will cut a lot of such deals.

    Furthermore, widespread organized crime tends to contribute to a general atmosphere of corruption, political chaos, and fear among the general public, which in turn lead to more support for fascists. Look at, say, Duterte in the Philippines or Bolsonaro in Brazil for an example of how a fascist can exploit widespread criminality that alarms or even terrifies the general populace as a way into power.

    ...

    So yeah, don't count on organized crime syndicates to suddenly go antifa.

    There have been exceptions to this (e.g. Mussolini being in a state of antagonism with the Mafia, to the extent that a number of first-generation Italian immigrant Mafia leaders helped the US during World War Two by employing contacts in the old country to help the US military organize the occupation of southern Italy). But the general pattern is pretty clear.

    Glau said:
    I am curious, then- stay apolitical, rely on visibility to stay un-disappeared, publicly support the coming regieme, or cultivate alternative power bases?

    As far as the supporting bad people arguement- if any of these planes are ever built, than 4/5 of the civilian models will be used for this purpose with or without our say-so. This is a chance to get out in front of that and think about it too.

    ...I will admit I am arguing against the 1930s version of the probable government rather than the 1910s. When did it get bad secret-policed wise IRL?

    Oh!

    And this may be the first step in 'asking' us to 'pay for fire protection', in which case the next request to chat may not be polite.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Right now is actually a very convenient time for us to get into a pissing match with the Yakuza because we're the leading designer of innovative aircraft for the Army. And one of the few organizations in the country that can plausibly threaten or push away the Yakuza is the Army.

    (If nothing else, by threatening to draft all their goons and get them all killed in the next trench warfare offensive :p )
     
    CthuluWasRight said:
    I don't know where you got the 4/5 statistic from, but it's worth noting that those aircraft will at the very least not be purpose-built for people smuggling and commissioned by human traffickers.
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    Human trafficking? No. Smuggling, yes. You can try to make this only about human trafficking, but let's be honest drugs and weapons are more valuable in this time period and far easier to transport/store in an airplane than a person.

    Simon_Jester said:
    The thing to remember is that organized crime is perfectly happy with fascist or imperialist oppression of political dissidents as long as it can cut a deal with the fascist or imperialist government.
    Click to expand...
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    It's a good point, but I think the modernist/traditionalist divide is driving my intuition. The Yakuza are traditionalists, in the same sort of way as the now-destroyed samurai, but the modernists have the power. So I think that the elements which drove the mussalini/mafia antagonism are present.
     
    Simon_Jester said:
    I really don't get the idea that the Yakuza are going to become a nucleus of resistance in Militarist Future Akitsukuni that we need to strengthen.

    The thing to remember is that organized crime is perfectly happy with fascist or imperialist oppression of political dissidents as long as it can cut a deal with the fascist or imperialist government. And since both fascists and imperialists routinely cut corrupt deals with prominent private citizens whenever it's politically or tactically convenient, that means they will cut a lot of such deals.

    Furthermore, widespread organized crime tends to contribute to a general atmosphere of corruption, political chaos, and fear among the general public, which in turn lead to more support for fascists. Look at, say, Duterte in the Philippines or Bolsonaro in Brazil for an example of how a fascist can exploit widespread criminality that alarms or even terrifies the general populace as a way into power.

    ...

    So yeah, don't count on organized crime syndicates to suddenly go antifa.

    There have been exceptions to this (e.g. Mussolini being in a state of antagonism with the Mafia, to the extent that a number of first-generation Italian immigrant Mafia leaders helped the US during World War Two by employing contacts in the old country to help the US military organize the occupation of southern Italy). But the general pattern is pretty clear.

    Right now is actually a very convenient time for us to get into a pissing match with the Yakuza because we're the leading designer of innovative aircraft for the Army. And one of the few organizations in the country that can plausibly threaten or push away the Yakuza is the Army.

    (If nothing else, by threatening to draft all their goons and get them all killed in the next trench warfare offensive :p )
    Click to expand...
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    It's also worth noting that the Yakuza here are still flexing their muscles. Right now they're still divided into bakuto (gamblers who control numbers rackets and the like with a sideline in loan sharking) and tekiya (peddlers, merchant families who sold shoddy goods and ran smuggling and protection rackets. The Yakuza's Oyabun-Kobun, or "foster-parent, foster-child" organizational structure derives from the way tekiya families were run.)

    They'll become big names when the economic crash hits, and make a ton of money out of Joseon and Cathay, but it'll take until the Second World war for them to get big, when they basically took control of the Japanese government and owned large swathes of the Japanese economy, such that the recession which ended the Post-War Economic Miracle was caused directly by them laundering money through flipping real-estate and forcing the banks to give out huge loans.

    Right now they're still going to be relatively small-time and remain divided into specialized tekiya and bakuto groups based on their history, which will further limit their scope. Within four years, the Not!Yamaguchi-gumi clan will begin as a dockworker's union in Not!Kobe. By 1946 they will be on their way to becoming the largest criminal organization in the world with over 24,000 members. Ironically, their helping to fuck things up in Joseon will be one of the best decisions they've ever made; Korean-Japanese are barred from most respectable professions due to discrimination, and so they're going to make up a massively disproportionate part of the yakuza's manpower within a decade or so.

    Point being: if we're going to stand up to these guys, it has to be now, while they're still isolated and feuding clans constrained by tradition. Once they worm their way into the state apparatus and start confederating, they'll have far too much momentum for us to stop them.
     
    Glau said:
    Human trafficking? No. Smuggling, yes. You can try to make this only about human trafficking, but let's be honest drugs and weapons are more valuable in this time period and far easier to transport/store in an airplane than a person.



    It's a good point, but I think the modernist/traditionalist divide is driving my intuition. The Yakuza are traditionalists, in the same sort of way as the now-destroyed samurai, but the modernists have the power. So I think that the elements which drove the mussalini/mafia antagonism are present.
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    Sorry about the double-post, but first of all, drugs and weapons are nothing compared to the numbers a human-trafficking ring can put up. Demand for drugs is fairly low at this point in time: there's probably some significant demand for opium, but all the really addictive and profitable ones, like heroin and cocaine, either haven't become widely available yet or have not yet had their... Recreational potential fully recognized. The big drug in Japan is methamphetamine, but that won't become big until after the second world war where a combination of routinely giving "shabu" to soldiers as a combat drug and the near-suicidal pace of Japanese corporate life will make it very popular. As for arms smuggling, Akitsukuni is a nation at war whose factories are going full tilt making rifles, sidearms and whatever else you care to name as fast as they can. If anything, the Yakuza would be a net exporter of weapons, and given how war-torn they are both Cathay and Joseon are very much saturated markets as far as armaments go.

    Compare that to a prostitute who will work all day, every day, bringing in money that her owners will pocket 95% of, and unable to go to the police or even try and buy a ticket home because she has no command of the language and no clue where she is. Busting any kind of vice scheme is extraordinarily difficult, this kind of business even more so because the victims have no recourse to outside help and the police honestly won't be that interested. If we give cargo planes to these people, they're going to use them for whatever is most profitable, and that's going to be the skin trade. And we're not only giving them cargo planes, we're giving them planes literally designed to transport people. Hmmmm...

    And traditionalism won't count for diddly squat. Whether it's the mafia forgetting about their entire "don't deal drugs" rule or the "bitch wars" where the old guard of the Russian mob got slaughtered by a significantly larger and more violent group of modernists who had far more flexibility to fight back and make money than the ones who still kept to the code, criminal organizations don't have a great track record of maintaining their traditions when there's money to be made. You have to remember that in the bad old days these guys were lower than dirt: that's why they were forced to create the Yakuza in the first place. Modernization is the best thing that ever happened to them, and even if it wasn't, see how long the traditionalists last when the fascists start giving them a license to print money.
     
    [X] Nah, I think I'll stay here and find something else to do.
     
    Glau said:
    Human trafficking? No. Smuggling, yes. You can try to make this only about human trafficking, but let's be honest drugs and weapons are more valuable in this time period and far easier to transport/store in an airplane than a person.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Um, you do realize that realistically criminals won't always use a flying boat to smuggle literally the exact same things? 100 kilograms of rifles might fetch a higher price on the black market than 100 kilograms of sex slaves, but that doesn't mean it's going to be an either/or question from the point of view of kidnappers and smugglers who are perfectly happy to trade in either of the two.

    Some days, there won't be 500 kilos of heroin to smuggle on the plane. The yakuza will happily smuggle along a Joseon concubine or six instead.

    It's a good point, but I think the modernist/traditionalist divide is driving my intuition. The Yakuza are traditionalists, in the same sort of way as the now-destroyed samurai, but the modernists have the power. So I think that the elements which drove the mussalini/mafia antagonism are present.
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    Except that is not at all how things work.

    The Japanese militarists were in many ways violently traditionalist. The Yakuza are perfectly willing to indulge in various changes to their traditional rules of organized criminal activity and 'modernize,' insofar as a 20th century organized crime syndicate is 'modern' compared to a 'traditional' system of criminal gangs and families.

    The battle lines between real world historical factions were almost never as simple as "tradition versus modernism," and when you start talking about groups that were overtly, explicitly corrupt and opportunistic (like fascists and organized crime), the lines become infinitely more blurry.
     
    IIRC, weren't the Yakuza part of the same guys who encouraged the whole "I bet I can chop more infants with my sword than you." kinda thing?
     
    Ramble said:
    IIRC, weren't the Yakuza part of the same guys who encouraged the whole "I bet I can chop more infants with my sword than you." kinda thing?
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    I'm not really sure. I know the samurai got really bad like that, then the tokogawa had a hugely oppressive secret police, then the meji revolution happened, then an oppressive secret police got rebuilt. So as far as I can tell Asuka is in the best period for civilians until after the second WW?

    I guess most of my arguement- would be summed up as 'yes the Yakuza are bad, but the government is getting to be worse than them, so have an escape route.' Or something along those lines.

    Because basically everything that has been said about the Yakuza transporting sex slaves is (probably) also going to be done by the government, officially, and we have no trouble working with them. Right now our planes are 'only' being used to kill people... Has Yachi told us about the way the woman with the squadron was treated? Or how common that sort of thing is?

    So I'm less than impressed by arguements about how bad the Yakuza are which ignore our current clients. Compare/contrast shows far less difference than you might want. Especially as we know what the military is already doing, but we know very little about what this guy talking to us now is involved in.

    The points about the likelyhood or not of the Yakuza opposing the government or joining it at this point in time is one I think arguable, but again we don't know what the situation is now. Learning more requires a vote to do so.
     
    indeed, asuka doesn't know much about the yakuza, being a rural-born egghead. but out historical meta-knowledge is not far off
     
    Glau said:
    I'm not really sure. I know the samurai got really bad like that, then the tokogawa had a hugely oppressive secret police, then the meji revolution happened, then an oppressive secret police got rebuilt. So as far as I can tell Asuka is in the best period for civilians until after the second WW?

    I guess most of my arguement- would be summed up as 'yes the Yakuza are bad, but the government is getting to be worse than them, so have an escape route.' Or something along those lines.
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    The problem is that the Yakuza aren't really an escape route, they're something else we'd need an escape route FROM, and they're perfectly capable of integrating into and effectively taking over the economy over time, not least by approaching industrial concerns like ours and making deals like the exact one they're apparently planning to offer us.

    Making deals with two devils only works better than making deals with one devil if you're John Constantine, and Asuka Matsura is very very not John Constantine.
     
    guys we can end up having wacky late night hijinks with the fukken' MAFIA

    how cool will that be

    no one is saying we actually have to build them a fleet of fukken' planes, that's like, four updates away

    just that Asuka probably has no idea who they're talking too and that could lead to hilarity, and potential late night car chases and stuff

    and hey maybe we make an oddball friend in the Yakuza

    why can't i have HIJINKS

     
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