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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] That'd be lovely, actually. And it might keep my mother distracted.

Since we're more the frontline type getting influence through him would push through a lot of healthier polices and we could report back on how his invention goes in an impartial way.
He would be a good guy friend in the rich merchant class, hope we explain to Aiko upfront.
Also future allies should things turn fascist.
 
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Ah, I know men like him. He looks for no love because he's married to his work.
It would be nice to have a kindred soul to partake in that most beloved tradition of military people the world over.
Bitching.
We could bring Aiko! She's in university, she'll definitely have something to complain about. University students always have things to complain about, especially about old farts who don't know that the future is coming whether they like it or not!
 
[X] That'd be lovely, actually. And it might keep my mother distracted.

Will I finally have a quest were we have a purely political marriage? I cannot wait!
 
[X] Perhaps, but I don't want to entertain this charade further.

Doing more of these "dates" will probably start hurting her mentally in the long run.
 
"Now, I'm not going to be the worst about this and ask if you would like to spend the night at my flat, much as it'll disappoint my father that I didn't even try, but I do want you to know I enjoyed myself. You're a wonderful conversationalist. What do you say we do this again sometime?"

[ ] That'd be lovely, actually. And it might keep my mother distracted.
[ ] Perhaps, but I don't want to entertain this charade further.

If we say no, do we keep Aiko as a contact or would Haruna never speak with him again?
 
[X] That'd be lovely, actually. And it might keep my mother distracted.
I may just be too optimistic but this frankly sounds more like just... a new friendship??? A relatively benign release valve for all the high-class verbal fencing and footwork as Haruna put it in the update? With a side bonus of hopefully heading off Haruna's mom from pushing any...less pleasant 'dates' on her
 
I find the pressures that were historically on people who weren't heterosexuals to marry anyway, and the mindset they had about it really interesting to delve into. It's not really something that's addressed or looked at very often, even though it was a fact of life for a lot of people throughout history. But at the same time doing so in something as immersive as a quest makes it really frustrating. Just let her be gay everywhere, Haruna Mom! Ugh.
 
[X] Perhaps, but I don't want to entertain this charade further.

Going back to doing gay things sounds about right to me.
 
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If she were literally any other person I would vote to end the charade. But she's a princess, and the first of her kind, and keenly aware of that. I suspect she would be as horrifyingly self-sacrificing as needed to...to live up to that role, to leave as broad and smooth a wake as she possibly can for the current dozens and future thousands of women who will follow her.

If she's very, very lucky, things will turn out relatively okay for her. Most likely, they'll be frequently awkward and occasionally miserable, but she will succeed in making a difference. Just always wondering if it was enough of a difference to be worth it.

I dunno, maybe I'm a horribly cynic, but it feels like the natural direction for her.

[X] That'd be lovely, actually. And it might keep my mother distracted.
 
[ ] Perhaps, but I don't want to entertain this charade further.

Going back to doing gay things sounds about right to me.
You have to include the X for your vote to count.
If she were literally any other person I would vote to end the charade. But she's a princess, and the first of her kind, and keenly aware of that. I suspect she would be as horrifyingly self-sacrificing as needed to...to live up to that role, to leave as broad and smooth a wake as she possibly can for the current dozens and future thousands of women who will follow her.

If she's very, very lucky, things will turn out relatively okay for her. Most likely, they'll be frequently awkward and occasionally miserable, but she will succeed in making a difference. Just always wondering if it was enough of a difference to be worth it.

I dunno, maybe I'm a horribly cynic, but it feels like the natural direction for her.

[X] That'd be lovely, actually. And it might keep my mother distracted.
Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding, but... you're deliberately choosing what you think will make her miserable?
 
Hmm...

I'm going to call this

Plan Strategic Shipping

[x] That'd be lovely, actually. And it might keep my mother distracted.


Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding, but... you're deliberately choosing what you think will make her miserable?

Personally, I think this will ensure less horrible misery by instead creating a charade that requires only a small amount of effort to keep going. I don't think terribly highly of people like Haruna's mother (I'm all too familiar with the type) and while I'm sure the Lady only wants what's best for her daughter, the method of going about it makes me relatively displeased.

The solution in my experience is to pretend to give what they want while not actually acceding the point and minimizing the suffering in the long run by acquiescing to small doses of minimal annoyance and conducting your own operations in the background to manipulate the battleground into your favor without acting too openly. You can never be complacent and have to constantly be searching for ways to reposition effectively, but it's doable, and doesn't have the risk inherent with being paired up with random people you have no real control over.
 
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You know I like this guy
[X] That'd be lovely, actually. And it might keep my mother distracted.
 
[X] Perhaps, but I don't want to entertain this charade further.

If we are going to hang out as friends, let's be clear it's just friends.I appreciate him but it sounds like further action on maternity leave, beyond currently promised, would require kids being on the table.
 
ngl, being forced to choose between heteronormativity and obscurity is... not great.

[X] Perhaps, but I don't want to entertain this charade further.
 
[X] Perhaps, but I don't want to entertain this charade further.

I'm more conflicted here than I thought I would be. This could be useful, and he knows and (mostly) accepts where we are coming from on the subject. He's really not too bad a guy (though he'd seemed overly pushy and forward in ADQ) and could be a potential friend. However, going along with this leaves a really bad taste in my mouth and the path of least resistance thereafter runs in a direction that I would prefer not to follow. It could be an interesting story, but it's not the direction I would prefer for Haruna's life to go.
 
[X] That'd be lovely, actually. And it might keep my mother distracted.

I actually like him as a person, though not necessarily a romantic partner. Would be a lot more tolerable to be forced on dates with him where we can actually talk about our interests than awkward blowoffing.
 
[X] That'd be lovely, actually. And it might keep my mother distracted.

I know enough people to know that the best tactic against overbearing Asian parents is to humour them on the surface as a cover for doing everything else fun under the sun. There'll be consequences though, such as the time draining act of keeping the charade and how Aiko/others might interpret this to Haruna's detriment. But hopefully Haruna's smart and lucky enough to preempt the misunderstandings.

The charade is the cost of (temporary) freedom. That's very valuable because outright defiance will usually trigger lockdown on freedoms. At least this guy isn't a Purity Club fanatic, who knows what the next marriage candidate leans? Haruna's made it clear that she's not interested and Shinzo understands, so no harm there.
 
Haruna has said she's not interested, but Shinzo's still selling the idea of marriage regardless. He stopped pushing, but that's still his goal here.
"Well… let's not be too hasty on that front. As much as I lament the politics involved, I have to admit it's a good move for our families. The youngest cadet branch of the Imperial family and the most powerful industrialists in our country? We could weld together a rather impressive alliance there, don't you think?"
This is his position. He's not thrilled about the idea of marrying a woman who doesn't want him, but he like the idea politically, so he's befriending her and trying to tempt her with the advantages it offers instead.

Going along with this does not stop Haruna's mother or Shinzo from wanting the marriage or pushing for it. They are still going to do those things.
 
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