Voting is open
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] Break down crying (-1 stress, but you will likely be overheard and it may have consequences for your career)

Changing to swing things back a bit.
Adhoc vote count started by Rat King on May 12, 2019 at 11:46 AM, finished with 64 posts and 18 votes.

Adhoc vote count started by Rat King on May 12, 2019 at 12:10 PM, finished with 77 posts and 20 votes.
 
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[X] Break down crying (-1 stress, but you will likely be overheard and it may have consequences for your career)
 
[X] Break down crying (-1 stress, but you will likely be overheard and it may have consequences for your career)
 
As far as I can see giving in would raise tensions with friends and have knock-on consequences there. Breaking down could get us drummed out of the navy and halt any progress on social equality in the armed forces for, ooh, the next 40+ years perhaps?
 
As far as I can see giving in would raise tensions with friends and have knock-on consequences there. Breaking down could get us drummed out of the navy and halt any progress on social equality in the armed forces for, ooh, the next 40+ years perhaps?

This is absurdly hyperbolic.

I can create an actual realistic picture of how the former happens, but the latter would require huge leaps of logic.

Edit: I mean, do you mean Breaking down as in Stress 10, or breaking down as in, "Crying"?

Because the idea that being heard crying somehow leads to being drummed out of the navy is moon logic.
 
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As far as I can see giving in would raise tensions with friends and have knock-on consequences there. Breaking down could get us drummed out of the navy and halt any progress on social equality in the armed forces for, ooh, the next 40+ years perhaps?
Now that is some tasty fear mongering. Who's your supplier?
 
Like, you want to talk career consequences? If we get found out, we lose a friend in the navy. Friends are allies, and allies (even ones without important connections... yet) are, you know, important for a military career. If we lose said friend, there will be plenty of the "career consequences" you (as in those voting for it think you're avoiding by "giving in."

What friend or what career consequences are you talking about?

The Akitsukini navy won't care about any of this. Abusing the locals is almost expected of any officer stationed here.
 
It came up in ADCQ, but Akitsukuni has a fairly progressive stance on treating what they call war neurosis (i.e it's not cowardice, but a psychological breakdown that isn't really anyone's fault and should be addressed through therapy and other methods). Problem is they don't really get what causes it and think it might be memetically infectious (i.e. leaving a soldier who is suffering from combat fatigue in his unit will make it more likely that other people in his unit will start showing similar symptoms). So a breakdown would not necessarily be seen as career ending.

OTOH it could just mean that women are more susceptible to combat fatigue and so should obviously be kept out of combatant roles. :V Who can say?
 
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.

[X] Give in (-2 stress)

This is it right here. As far as I'm concerned we are at break-point, not approaching it. Haruna is no longer in full control of her actions and must take the most stress-decreasing option regardless of possible cost. We're frankly bloody lucky that we're getting the opportunity to vote on this.

Also, thanks to the usual way stories go in Gaya, I'm 50/50 on whether crying will just result in Min-Seo kissing us better anyway, we might as well get into it.
 
What friend or what career consequences are you talking about?

The Akitsukini navy won't care about any of this. Abusing the locals is almost expected of any officer stationed here.

Okay, so, first. I personally am more swayed by the moral argument about what I want to see, but I think there's a very good argument that we're trading long-term stress for short-term relief, when there's a balanced option that is better. First, for some bizarre reason, partners don't like it when their partners cheat. Having a loving partner is a pretty solid and reliable stress-reliever, mechanically, that we'd then potentially lose access to.

She has a brother (which is how we met her, actually) in the navy. How precisely do you think he'll feel about that? Do you think he'll be a friend and potential ally after that? I suspect not.

Plus, break ups cause plenty of, you know, Stress if they happen.

[X] Give in (-2 stress)

This is it right here. As far as I'm concerned we are at break-point, not approaching it. Haruna is no longer in full control of her actions and must take the most stress-decreasing option regardless of possible cost. We're frankly bloody lucky that we're getting the opportunity to vote on this.

Also, thanks to the usual way stories go in Gaya, I'm 50/50 on whether crying will just result in Min-Seo kissing us better anyway, we might as well get into it.

So your argument is that you think the QMs are operating in bad faith?
 
[X] Give in (-2 stress)
Either Seo-Min is doing this on her own free will and everything is fine (mostly) or Haruna will have an eye-opener about how the military treat the colonials. Either option would interesting to read about imho.
 
Okay, so, first. I personally am more swayed by the moral argument about what I want to see, but I think there's a very good argument that we're trading long-term stress for short-term relief, when there's a balanced option that is better. First, for some bizarre reason, partners don't like it when their partners cheat. Having a loving partner is a pretty solid and reliable stress-reliever, mechanically, that we'd then potentially lose access to.

She has a brother (which is how we met her, actually) in the navy. How precisely do you think he'll feel about that? Do you think he'll be a friend and potential ally after that? I suspect not.

Plus, break ups cause plenty of, you know, Stress if they happen.

I know about her brother. However , I think you're severely overstating his ability to affect Haruna's career. He's a long ranking commoner, Haruna's a princes. He doesn't have the influence or connections to affect Haruna's career in any meaningful way.

Edit :
I'm not adressing the rest of your argument because it's based on reasonable assumptions (though from other quests that @open_sketchbook has written, infidelity does not appear to be treated as a serious relationship ending issue.)

The main reason for the choice I make is because "career consequences" sounds like it'll mean yet another shore or logistical position, which I'm not particularly interested in.
 
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[x] Give in (-2 stress)

Unwise sex has never let us down yet.

I don't see it having career implications. Soldiers fuck locals all the time and Haruna makes no particular secret of being a silk girl.
 
I know about her brother. However , I think you're severely overstating his ability to affect Haruna's career. He's a long ranking commoner, Haruna's a princes. He doesn't have the influence or connections to affect Haruna's career in any meaningful way.

I think lacking allies hurts the career. I'm not arguing that somehow losing him as a friend and ally will mean we never get promoted and die a Lieutenant, just that you're ignoring huge swaths of problems in voting for Give In, problems which outweigh the advantages... especially since we have an option that avoids a capital B breakdown.
 
I think lacking allies hurts the career. I'm not arguing that somehow losing him as a friend and ally will mean we never get promoted and die a Lieutenant, just that you're ignoring huge swaths of problems in voting for Give In, problems which outweigh the advantages... especially since we have an option that avoids a capital B breakdown.

You're talking about a low ranking commoner. As allies go, he's great as a friend and support, but for the sake of messing with the navies internal machinery, basically worthless.

There are good reasons for your vote, but you're weakening your case by dramatically overstating this issue, which makes the entire thing seem like fearmongering (though you're hardly the only person to do that).
 
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You're talking about a low ranking commoner. As allies go, he's great as a friend and support, but for the sake of messing with the navies internal machinery, basically worthless.

A friend is never worthless.

And while he may not be politically powerful, he probably knows a guy who knows a guy. :V

EDIT: Also the middle-class is getting politically more powerful and Hideaki and people from his sort of background are becoming increasingly more prominent in the naval officer corps, so FREE SHRUGS I GUESS, you assume what you want.
 
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Also, I'm absolutely sure that the up and coming middle-class officer corps will never become important or powerful in any way. I mean, it's complicated by the fact that I'm in the Discord with the QMs and that's, like, knowledge that makes it complicated to talk about for various reasons?

So I don't know what to actually share.
 
Also, I'm absolutely sure that the up and coming middle-class officer corps will never become important or powerful in any way. I mean, it's complicated by the fact that I'm in the Discord with the QMs and that's, like, knowledge that makes it complicated to talk about for various reasons?

So I don't know what to actually share.

Well, I'd certainly suggest that you'd avoid making vague implications based on secret information (or the appearance of having secret information), for the point of supporting your argument.
 
Well, I'd certainly suggest that you'd avoid making vague implications based on secret information (or the appearance of having secret information), for the point of supporting your argument.

Okay then, here it is stated outright.

The class and the generation of officers that he's a part of, specifically middle-class officers with skill and talent, well, they are, to quote a QM "a huge part of the young up and coming officer corp." Now, none of this means that Hideaki himself will become personally important and rise in the ranks. I suspect he will, since he's been introduced as an important character and is close to us, thus allowing the QMs to show off the generational class changes in the navy.

I would posit that in the long-run, having him as a friend and ally is probably good for our career.

Edit: I've gotten the go-ahead, in that a QM has said that she tries not to say anything here that couldn't be figured out by/while reading the story. So.
 
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[X] Protest

I forget, has Aiko been hooking up with her roommate since her and Haruna been a thing? Either way its not the monogamy issue I'm voting against its the hella uneven power dynamic between her and Min-Seo and we don't know if its what she wants or if its what she feels is expected of her.
 
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