Castles of Steel - Lesbians Good, Imperialism Bad

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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​


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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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open_sketchbook said:
There's not a lot of deniable ways to kill somebody in a submarine whose crew compartment is smaller than your average office cubical, without killing everyone on the submarine...
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Who's saying anything about denying?
Lighting a matchstick is enough to kill everyone.
And someone might even be prepared to die for the glorious revolution.
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Ninja'd by OP.
It looks like the only way we are going to get out of this in a reasonably sane condition is via playing as agent peacock and barreling people over so hard that we might get mistaken for a short, victorious Vor.
 
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I understand your concern, but two things.

Firstly, we're not going to end the quest suddenly by blowing you up in your tiny sub because you decided to talk to the guy who has been steering it for more than two months with you. That would be shitty storytelling.

Secondly, Haruna is pretty sure in-character that even if Ota would throw his life away in an instant to kill her, he wouldn't want Kwon caught in the blast radius.
 
I feel like Haruna could both contribute and learn a lot from an honest conversation like this one, with such divergent contributing perspectives. I'm inclined to, ironically, the subtle approach because of that. The stress-relieving option might shut it down completely, and it feels too soon to just jump in and offer help. I like the Diplomacy option's intent of participating as part of the crew, but between it and the Subterfuge choice, I just prefer the latter's style (and, yes, I like its better odds).
 
Wow. Ok. That was a great episode- I love a hero as a protagonist, and the immediacy... :)

So, just analysis for now. What do we want to happen- ideal outcomes?

[ ] Casually join in and compliment the taste in poetry. No need for anything too forceful, right? You want to be part of the crew. Just Lieutenant Arisugawa and no one else. (Roll +Diplomacy)

From the way the poetry seemed to be in Akitsukuni and different than the conversation color, this isn't immediately tipping our hand that we understood what was just said. So, diplomacy to slowly introduce the idea, ideally defusing the tension caused by them having just talked treason directly in front of an imperial princess. Who can kill them or have them killed pretty much at will, now.

I don't know where this takes us, which is kinda saying it puts the ball in their court. It's good for lower-level, personal relationships with them, in that we, too, are not free to do as we wish because we are in the Navy and a junior officer. So for the next few years, politics isn't something we can really do much about.

[ ] Hey, you're not a little people. Maybe you can offer to help in some way… though that would be putting yourself in with the subversive elements. Yikes. (+2 Stress)

This is... a few things. Most likely to get a positive response out of them- if they think we are on board with their causes, they are going to be personally loyal like no others. This will require ongoing action though, not a one-and-done thing. Also cuts the 'about that treason you were just talking' tension quickest. Also the most likely to make the relationships politically centered, and reinforce heirarchy over them by getting them to buy into it.

Basically I think this might forclose being friends.

Plus personal risk and conflict with family, but those are more classic rebellious heroine tropes.

[ ] Don't offer anything, just vent. Maybe gripe about how you only get half the vote that Ota does? They'll know you don't care what they're talking about, hopefully, though it'll probably shut down this avenue of discussion for them in any case. (-1 Stress)

This feels like it might come across as "fine this time, don't do it again where I can see it" sort of thing from boss to subordinates. Eases our stress, probably pushes those two to talk outside of the sibmarine in the future, which carries a lot more risk for them.

[ ] Nothing now. But maybe next mission, talk to them about your concerns in Akitsukuni, and go through some of the same stuff. Maybe they'll learn to trust you, even if you have to manipulate them to get there. (Roll +Subterfuge)

See what they say when we start feeding their own arguements back to them through our lense? Definitely the most flexible from our perspective- we can abort and return to status quo mostly, or adjust on the fly. It keeps the treason stuff as a trump card, and probably lets us understand any discussion they have in response without them knowing. Is definitely trending towards the 'betrayal of trust' side of subterfuge, also would be harmful to chances of actually having them as friends.

[]le You did still have a duty to report this. What if Ota went for you next, or one of your cousins? What about your brother? He was still a communist agitator, and he might lure Kwon into doing something terrible.

Ends the plot, gets them both killed, probably gets us another medal and set of stories in the press. Outright betray, I'd feel.

[ ] Write In (WE WILL BE HEAVY WITH THE VETO ON THIS ONE)

If I were to write in, it would probably be something along the lines of thanking Kwon, in Joseon. Thank him for believing in you and giving you a chance. Then forgiving ota for his brother, telling him about how it felt from the other side of that act. Then asking them how they wanted to move forwards.
 
I feel like Haruna wouldn't want to start a revolution in her own country. Historically revolutions have been messy and kind of a shit show. I can see her supporting peaceful movements or civil disobedience, but I don't see any sympathy going toward communists and terrorists. She has seen the aftermath of when these people decide a suicide bombing is the best way to strike a blow against the tyrants. It doesn't matter how just your cause is, that kind of asymmetric warfare is designed to use non-combatants as human shields.

She also isn't a sneering imperialist like her shitty cousin, she wants to create change and rock the boat a bit but not capsize the whole shebang. Subterfuge, while manipulative, allows us to better understand the feelings and emotions of our crew. These men are being completely honest with each other with no filter, that is something almost impossible to get as a royal princess.

I think I can sum up Haruna's feelings with this quote, "My country, right or wrong. If right to keep right, if wrong to make right."

[ ] Nothing now. But maybe next mission, talk to them about your concerns in Akitsukuni, and go through some of the same stuff. Maybe they'll learn to trust you, even if you have to manipulate them to get there. (Roll +Subterfuge)

This seems the most in character and safest choice in the long run.
 
I'm all for subversive elements. This country needs a lot more of them. Even for those of you not viewing full communism as the optimal end result, please keep the following in mind: historically, the left are the only ones likely to confront a growing fascist movement with any degree of effectiveness. Mainstream liberals and moderates will fail to take the threat seriously. The mainstream right will view them as harmlessly crazy or perhaps even useful rather than a problem until it is too late. The left will see them for what they are and confront them wherever they appear. Where fascists have won, it has been because the far left wasn't strong enough to defeat them. Where fascists have lost, it was either the left that beat them back, or the material conditions just weren't there for them to have won in the first place.

To get there and have it count for anything at all, we need a left that has left beyond narodnik-style individual terrorism and instead moved towards a politics of international working class solidarity that is willing to stand up for every oppressed group, such as women and people currently being colonized. Well, guess what? Our tiny little sub has the right set of people in it for some of those insights to be on the table. Where it goes from there is another, harder question, but everything has to start somewhere.

Within the context of reforms on the current society and electoral strategies and such, that's still the kind of left we want. One that will speak up for the colonies, won't throw trans and non-binary people under the bus in imitation of Europan prejudice, and won't freak out and declare revolution if they win 10% of the vote. A socialist movement of that type could easily evolve into a social-democratic electoral party that could help lead this country into a better future.

Getting Haruna moving left will be damn useful. It may not be how real, lasting and fundamental change happens, but she's got connections, prestige and visibility. She's the most powerful tool that we, the gayaverse quest players, have to directly influence the direction Akitsukuni politics takes going forward. A lot of us spend a lot of time worrying about it. Lets do something about it.

It makes some degree of sense in character, too: In a relatively short amount of time, she has faced a great deal of institutional discrimination, seen the realities of imperialism and the plight of colonized people, gotten about as good an idea as is currently possible just how bad things would be under the Purity Club's rule, and now been spending her days listening to all this interesting and at times quite sympathetic radical talk. Frankly, given the ways we've had her act thus far, I'd be shocked if she wasn't rethinking quite a few things right now. This is the sort of situation in which a lot of assumptions and ideas from her very weird, sheltered upbringing, her society as a whole and the indoctrination at the naval academy are probably being re-examined pretty heavily.

More cynically, this is the potential nucleus of an independent power base against the captain if it comes to it, not to mention how much the extent to which she is on good or bad terms with her crew impacts her day to day happiness, well-being and even survival. Getting and staying on good terms with these guys is useful for those reasons too.
 
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Your point about leftist movements being more aware of facist threats is negated by the reality that Stalin was shocked that Hitler attacked, refusing to believe his spies before the assault and being shocked into inaction for some time afterwards.
 
lucarionape said:
Your point about leftist movements being more aware of facist threats is negated by the reality that Stalin was shocked that Hitler attacked, refusing to believe his spies before the assault and being shocked into inaction for some time afterwards.
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Eh. Extrapolating from the opinion of Stalin to literally every leftist movement ever is a bridge of three too far.

The leftish movements in Germany proper certainly noticed the incoming threat.
 
In the case of Germany, not really. The conservative side were pretty willing to make common cause with Hitler, for a while.
 
lucarionape said:
Your point about leftist movements being more aware of facist threats is negated by the reality that Stalin was shocked that Hitler attacked, refusing to believe his spies before the assault and being shocked into inaction for some time afterwards.
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To be fair, IIRC he initially made common cause with Hitler after Munich left him without any hope that the British or French would do a damn thing to help against the Germans.

And I think Barbarossa was more a matter of refusing to believe Hitler would attack right then, not a belief that he never would attack.

At any rate, holding off on voting for now because I'm not sure what I want Haruna to do.
 
Watch out Ota. You're going to like us whether you like it or not!
 
I'm completely in favor of offering to help.

Or otherwise trying to get on their good side. Becoming friend.s Building a power base.

We've seen the ugly side of our nation; we should work to change it.
 
I don't think we should be too quick to throw ourselves upon the gears or try and make friends; we just heard Ota directly talk treason against the entire monarchy while trapped in a metal coffin with a member of said monarchy. The subterfuge option is best; if we indirectly show that we care about the same issues they do, they're more likely to actually accept our help when we offer it.

As a moderate, I think our personal politics should support social change, in particular a much softer touch with Joseon and more equality for women, without advocating wholesale revolution and throwing the monarchy out of power. Once we see how discreetly showing our hand to these guys plays out, we can decide whether we want to provide active assistance or passively support them in whatever ways we can.

I will note that we are currently blazing the trail for women in the navy. If that strange new officer ("a woman- can you imagine?") starts voicing radical opinions like Ota's, they may well decide that seawater just isn't good for the female brain or some such tripe. "Spending too long at sea turns them communist, don't you know!"
 
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CthuluWasRight said:
I don't think we should be too quick to throw ourselves upon the gears or try and make friends; we just heard Ota directly talk treason against the entire monarchy while trapped in a metal coffin with a member of said monarchy. The subterfuge option is best; if we indirectly show that we care about the same issues they do, they're more likely to actually accept our help when we offer it.

As a moderate, I think our personal politics should support social change, in particular a much softer touch with Joseon and more equality for women, without advocating wholesale revolution and throwing the monarchy out of power. Once we see how discreetly showing our hand to these guys plays out, we can decide whether we want to provide active assistance or passively support them in whatever ways we can.

I will note that we are currently blazing the trail for women in the navy. If that strange new officer ("a woman- can you imagine?") starts voicing radical opinions like Ota's, they may well decide that seawater just isn't good for the female brain or some such tripe. "Spending too long at sea turns them communist, don't you know!"
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Or we say nothing, and maybe report Ota later on. Remember, they don't know we can speak their language, yet. So it's best to keep that ace up our sleeve, and well, after we dock, then he can be dealt with. Either by a long chat, or with him being dragged off by MPs.
 
Night_stalker said:
Or we say nothing, and maybe report Ota later on. Remember, they don't know we can speak their language, yet. So it's best to keep that ace up our sleeve, and well, after we dock, then he can be dealt with. Either by a long chat, or with him being dragged off by MPs.
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...I'm not feeling the betrayal angle. For one thing, it's rather pointlessly mean-spirited and it helps our cousin, who we hate with a burning passion. Secondly, it sort of closes the door on any sort of resistance for the next little while, and this is a pretty crucial window to turn things around, while the country's at least semi-democratic. And lastly, we don't need stress, and we definitely don't need guilt plaguing us in the quiet moments. And believe me, if we do this, it will.
 
[X] Nothing now. But maybe next mission, talk to them about your concerns in Akitsukuni, and go through some of the same stuff. Maybe they'll learn to trust you, even if you have to manipulate them to get there. (Roll +Subterfuge)
 
CthuluWasRight said:
...I'm not feeling the betrayal angle. For one thing, it's rather pointlessly mean-spirited and it helps our cousin, who we hate with a burning passion. Secondly, it sort of closes the door on any sort of resistance for the next little while, and this is a pretty crucial window to turn things around, while the country's at least semi-democratic. And lastly, we don't need stress, and we definitely don't need guilt plaguing us in the quiet moments. And believe me, if we do this, it will.
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And you want to risk the guy deciding that Kwon is just a traitor, and as such, an acceptable sacrifice one day?
 
[X] Nothing now. But maybe next mission, talk to them about your concerns in Akitsukuni, and go through some of the same stuff. Maybe they'll learn to trust you, even if you have to manipulate them to get there. (Roll +Subterfuge)
 
[X] Hey, you're not a little people. Maybe you can offer to help in some way… though that would be putting yourself in with the subversive elements. Yikes. (+2 Stress)
 
[X] Nothing now. But maybe next mission, talk to them about your concerns in Akitsukuni, and go through some of the same stuff. Maybe they'll learn to trust you, even if you have to manipulate them to get there. (Roll +Subterfuge)
 
Night_stalker said:
And you want to risk the guy deciding that Kwon is just a traitor, and as such, an acceptable sacrifice one day?
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Oh for fuck's sake, we've already been explicitly told that "and then Ota blew everyone up, quest over" is not just gonna happen out of the blue. Stop fearmongering.
 
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