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Usagi Quest (CK3/Princess Maker) (Sailor Moon)

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Gnarker said:
Ikuko, maybe? Parental perspective, and an adult figure that's less confrontational than a police officer. Plus, it's a chance for her to get involved in Usagi's life and help with her problems.
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I think the only real issue with that is that we need to reveal Minako as Venus. None of Usagi's family know the identities of the other Senshi, as far as I'm aware...


...Actually, I can't recall, has Ikuko met Minako? I know the Tsukino family has met the rest of the Inners (unaware of their true identities), but that was before Minako came back.
 
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[X][Aino] Plan Actually Plan
-[X][Objective] Figure out why the Aino family doesn't want Minako back
-[X][Team] Artemis, Sakurada, and anyone they recommend.
-[X][Preparation] Confer with team to develop a more detailed plan
-[X][Preparation] Remove NDA if possible
-[X][Approach] As Usagi, friend of Minako, and ask to hear the Aino parents' side of the story

[X][Aino] Go as Usagi. Say that Minako is currently staying with us for now, and we want to hear the parent's side of the story. If we are refused at the door, threaten to keep asking to be let in loudly for as long as it takes well in view of the neighbors and any passersby.
 
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[X][Aino] Plan Actually Plan
-[X][Objective] Figure out why the Aino family doesn't want Minako back
-[X][Team] Artemis, Sakurada, and anyone they recommend.
-[X][Preparation] Confer with team to develop a more detailed plan
-[X][Preparation] Remove NDA if possible
-[X][Approach] As Usagi, friend of Minako, and ask to hear the Aino parents' side of the story
 
[X][Aino] Plan Actually Plan
-[X][Objective] Figure out why the Aino family doesn't want Minako back
-[X][Team] Artemis, Sakurada, and anyone they recommend.
-[X][Preparation] Confer with team to develop a more detailed plan
-[X][Preparation] Remove NDA if possible
-[X][Approach] As Usagi, friend of Minako, and ask to hear the Aino parents' side of the story
 
Well, this looks like a more detailed version of what I'd already voted for, so here we go. Ctrl+c ctrl+v go brr.

[X][Aino] Plan Actually Plan
-[X][Objective] Figure out why the Aino family doesn't want Minako back
-[X][Team] Artemis, Sakurada, and anyone they recommend.
-[X][Preparation] Confer with team to develop a more detailed plan
-[X][Preparation] Remove NDA if possible
-[X][Approach] As Usagi, friend of Minako, and ask to hear the Aino parents' side of the story
 
[X][Aino] Plan Actually Plan
-[X][Objective] Figure out why the Aino family doesn't want Minako back
-[X][Team] Artemis, Sakurada, and anyone they recommend.
-[X][Preparation] Confer with team to develop a more detailed plan
-[X][Preparation] Remove NDA if possible
-[X][Approach] As Usagi, friend of Minako, and ask to hear the Aino parents' side of the story
 
I've got a competitive Intrigue check coming up where there's actually some chance of it going either way, in principle.

I need a role for "Errand of Mercy," d10 + 21 + 2 + 2

This is going to be pitted against d10 + 4 + 10 + 3 + 0.5*4 .

...Hm. Critical success on the opposing roll.
10 + 4 + 10 + 3 + 2 = 29, effective 39.
Simon_Jester threw 1 10-faced dice. Reason: Scared, Hungry, and Resolute Total: 10
10 10
 
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ThatGuyWithIdeas said:
[X][Preparation] Confer with team to develop a more detailed plan
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This is the big issue I'm having with this "plan"... because this IS the planing phase, and I'd rather not have a second round of votes immediately after this one if we can help it...

Edit: Roll
Edit: Result: 10 + 21 + 2 + 2 = 35, Effective: 45
:rofl:
Almech_Alfarion threw 1 10-faced dice. Reason: "Errand of Mercy," Total: 10
10 10
 
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Well, since my Blonde and the Badge plan seems like it won't be getting traction, new plan!

[√][Aino] Plan What Plan
-[✓] Go as Usagi.
-[π] Ask "do ya like jazz?"
-[™] Leave without elaboration
 
[X][Aino] Go as Usagi. Say that Minako is currently staying with us for now, and we want to hear the parent's side of the story. If we are refused at the door, threaten to go to the police to report them for child abandonment.

[X][Aino] Go as Usagi. Say that Minako is currently staying with us for now, and we want to hear the parent's side of the story. If we are refused at the door, threaten to keep asking to be let in loudly for as long as it takes well in view of the neighbors and any passersby.

I like these plans and others formated like them. They're coherent and they read like a course of action Usagi might actually take. Bullet-pointed lists, however rational, just feel like they lead us off in the wrong general direction when I'd prefer loose guidelines. I don't really like them even if theoretically the contents of those plans are good.
 
And commentary!

TheGrape said:
I can't tell if Usagi actually channeled some form of magic through her eyes or if she's just making eyes at Minako.
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:D

I'm not sure Usagi can tell either. It wouldn't be the first time her eyes accidentally started glowing when she got intense with someone, though it might be the first time it happened in civilian form.

Blueshift said:
I think this plan is a good start. I'm very hesitant to expose her secret identity, especially early on. Flashing the Crystal Millennium card isn't a bad idea, though if they weren't even willing to talk to their daughter in the first place, might not be a great opener (but might be a decent option once we get them settled down to talk). We will want to have some explanation. I'm tempted to just hint that Minako was kidnapped as a part of a Dark Whatever plot, but was recently rescued (which might be problematic in the long run but could get them to start patching up their relationship in the short run... maybe).
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That's... actually not bad. That might work as an explanation to get our foot in the door.

SuperBigMac said:
I may just be acting overly paranoid, but I definitely prefer having a cop on hand, rather than being a middle schooler all on her own. Even if we're likely better off alone if things get S.H.O.C.K.E.R.y, I feel that having a cop might prevent something wacky happening entirely.
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I disagree with this. If something wacky happens, it will tell us something. Any such initial attack not specifically prepared with Senshi in mind is likely to fail, and then we'll know that something is very wrong in the house of Aino. Which will let us advance the plot meaningfully, rather than ending up at an impasse.

I do, however, like the idea of saying Minako was caught up in a DK plot. I don't know exactly how I'd word it, but I'd want to tell the truth while leaving the opening there for the Ainos' to think "she was kidnapped" rather than "she ran away to fight demons."

Something like... She got involved in a DK plot that saw her end up on the other side of the world, and it's only been recently that the British government got everything handled, thus leaving Minako free to come home.

Which is all true, but highly misguiding.
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I have absolutely no compunction about lying to the Ainos. They're going to have to earn their right to the truth by proving they actually give a shit, a proposition which is somewhat in doubt at the moment.

DocMatoi said:
oh, genderfluid mina? genderfluid mina for good little readers?
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Well, Minako seems comfortable with being a boy while a boy and seemingly with being a girl while a girl. Notably, she also seems to be entirely comfortable with the prospect of being a boy when she's a girl at the time, and shows no clear sign of discomfort at the idea of turning into a girl when she's a boy at the time. At least apart from stuff that any teenager who was entirely cis would probably be blushy and awkward about, anyway.
If that's not genderfluid, I sincerely don't know what is.
Haruka'd better watch her tailfeathers at this rate...
thats the most dysphoric thing ive read in a good bit
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DocMatoi said:
Not from the moment the person wakes up, though.
Minako is pretty blatantly describing that on some days, waking up as minako feels fundamentally incorrect. Which is about as dysphoriac/gender fluid as you can get in the '90s level understanding of gender
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Notably, she's casting the jealous glances at Makoto, so we may have actual height dysphoria here, in and of itself, rather than gender dysphoria.
It could be gender dysphoria disguising/presenting/explained to her friends as height dysphoria, but it could also just be that she's genuinely comfortable with whatever bits and just doesn't like being five foot two.
Hell, maybe it's a holdover from Shukra being taller and more imposing in stature than her reincarnated self, or at least than her reincarnated self at fourteen.
SuperBigMac said:
I... Honestly don't know if that reads as genderfluid to me. I'm 6'5" and always hitting my head on door frames, especially when I ride the bus, so there are many times when I want nothing more than to shrink a good six or eight inches. Though mostly that's my kyphosis (scoliosis but forward/back rather than right/left) speaking.
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As I allude to above, Minako's height dysphoria and genderfluidity may be unrelated. It's just that as a boy, she doesn't have height dysphoria. For all we know, if she were 170+ cm tall like Makoto, she might not have that problem as a girl either.

ShiftingSandLand said:
I feel it's less Genderfluidity and more...a dissatisfaction for aspects of her life that are not as much of an issue when she is "Master Fives".

I.e. her height, gender norms, etc. She dislikes her height, she dislikes that she can't do some things as easily or as accepted as when she is transformed, etc. It's not so much "I wish I was a boy", so much as "I wish I could do those things without needing to transform."
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Then again, she doesn't seem nearly as uncomfortable with the idea of spending a lot of time as a boy as we might naively expect. And given that by this point she's probably spent something like 1000+ cross-dressed as a boy in public (most of her arcade time, for years) and very probably 100+ hours in public as "Master Fives" with the Compact (her arcade time since becoming Sailor V)...

...If she's not feeling weird about that, not only when she's specifically transformed but when she goes back to being a girl, and given that she chose to start doing it again after all that time away when she didn't...

I think that genderfluidity (as in "sometimes I feel like being a boy, sometimes I feel like being a girl, I don't feel any need to commit to one of those and stick to it") is a pretty good description for Minako.

Genderfluidity doesn't have to be motivated by being dysphoric with being one's assigned birth gender, after all, right? And Minako's stated original reason for presenting as a boy was the comparatively trivial "everyone thought my high scores were a boy's and was wondering who that boy was, so I decided to be that boy," not something like "I hated the way people treated me as a girl." Surprisingly casual, all things considered.

Trondason said:
... We did, didn't we?

Shapelin Gym had a Shapeshifting Ray that they used to make people taller and more muscular. And as far as I know, there were no real downsides besides the fact that they used it until they were REALLY big.
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Well, it did involve a lot of infrastructure and life energy cycling and might play interestingly with "being a Senshi."

But it's certainly a possibility if we can track down people who understand the broken systems. Such as that engineer youma who's apparently gone off the grid, and/or Jadeite, and/or Ami in her copious free time.

Trondason said:
I just wish we were able to do small social things without an action. Like, you know, asking our allies about stuff. There's a lot of stuff it feels like we should have gotten a chance to ask about, but has never really came up, and there's really no way we can make an action dedicated to it
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True. Then again, there'd be a lot more to this than just "asking" if we wanted to do something actionable, as opposed to just finding out whether something is possible.

Also, in some cases, the allies in question aren't actually in contact with us. I don't think Usagi's actually even met Jadeite directly outside of the Night Market raid since the Shapelin Gym battle.

Spart117MC said:
Here's my take on the lead plan.

[][Aino] Go as Usagi. Say that Minako is currently staying with us for now, and we want to hear the parent's side of the story. If we are refused at the door, threaten to keep asking to be let in loudly for as long as it takes well in view of the neighbors and any passersby.

I want to run the full gamut of school drama anime intervention techniques before escalating to the police or the talking cat.
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There IS something to be said for letting Usagi indulge her long-dormant crybaby skill set.

Especially since she's now strong enough that if she starts pounding on a door it might just smash off its hinges Ranma-style and not gonna lie I would find that hilarious.

Almech_Alfarion said:
This almost sounds like a trap of "perfect plan with perfect rolls" to come out in one turn with a "best" resolution. I guess nothing for it but to see how it goes, but at this point I'd almost prefer a more drawn out arc as long as the outcome ends up being a "best for everyone" compromise that no one really likes but that we all can live with.
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I mean, it may well be that there's actually not a lot of overlap between the 'good' resolutions and the 'fast' resolutions.

For example, suppose we wanted to convince the Ainos irreversibly that Minako is dead and that any blonde girls who look a lot like her (Minako and Usagi both) are actually magically shapeshifting duplicates plotting to destroy their lives, no matter what anyone else tells them.

We could probably pull that off in like ten minutes given our current ability suite. It'd be fast.

It wouldn't be a good outcome, though, since it would not only burn Minako's bridges (conceivably unavoidable, though we have no proof that it's unavoidable), but also betray Minako's trust greatly.

Conversely, if the Ainos are just garden-variety normal people who've let a mix of Japanese cultural values and short-sighted bad choices turn them into extremely bad parents, then it may be possible to genuinely convince them to reform and be good to their daughter, which would be a wonderful and welcome turn of events, but would probably involve a lot of time and ongoing emotional labor.
 
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Simon_Jester said:
Surprisingly casual
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Honestly, if this is enough to be considered genderfluid, then basically everyone I know is genderfluid. In my experience, very few people will vehemently say no when asked "would you swap genders?" And at least a few of my friends list "being treated differently" as a point of interest.
 
SuperBigMac said:
Honestly, if this is enough to be considered genderfluid, then basically everyone I know is genderfluid. In my experience, very few people will vehemently say no when asked "would you swap genders?" And at least a few of my friends list "being treated differently" as a point of interest.
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I'd like to switch for the sole reason that I think women are by default more attractive, and as such I'd be more attractive as one. I got nothing wrong with what I am, but better is better.
 
Trondason said:
I'd like to switch for the sole reason that I think women are by default more attractive, and as such I'd be more attractive as one. I got nothing wrong with what I am, but better is better.
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Yeah, basically the same reasoning I've got. I've had a lot of bones get broken in my life, but transforming into a body (female, animal, whatever) where those injuries didn't happen would be an immediate upgrade over my current form.
 
Trondason said:
Endy is though. He even has a Space Phone, we can just shoot him texts whenever
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Yes, but at that point the information we can get relayed is a bit limited.

If you wanted to know "hey, does Jadeite know how to build a machine that would make someone four inches taller with no side effects," I bet you'd probably get a text back a day later saying "he asked who wants to know, who he's supposed to be using this on, and exactly what you'd consider to be a side effect." And the conversation would turn into a whole thing and if you wanted to get anywhere, as in actually accomplish something with information rather than just having a little bit of information, it'd wind up becoming something equivalent in scope to most of our actions (that is, a few hours of Usagi's time).

The practical upshot of all this is that if we're actually serious about using magical means to make Minako taller, while bearing in mind that she's fourteen and therefore probably not actually done growing and also quite possibly under the influence of anatomy-shaping personal magic already what with being tapped into the Venusian planetary magic well...

Well, we'd be grossly remiss if we weren't willing to invest at least a few hours of our time in that project, and therefore it would be unfair to complain that we can't make it happen for free without spending an action.

SuperBigMac said:
Honestly, if this is enough to be considered genderfluid, then basically everyone I know is genderfluid. In my experience, very few people will vehemently say no when asked "would you swap genders?" And at least a few of my friends list "being treated differently" as a point of interest.
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Well, maybe most people you know are a little bit genderfluid, and our society discourages us from acknowledging this. And, one might speculate, so does the practicality that in real life people don't have simple, low-maintenance, complication-free ways to decide to, say, be a boy for an afternoon and then go back to being a girl without raising a lot of eyebrows and running into complications. Minako apparently does have the means to do that.

But then, some people will angrily or vehemently deny such interest, preferring to stay as they are forever, or to switch once and then never look back. And what's remarkable is that Minako has gone back and forth many times, and clearly doesn't feel much inclination or need to make up her mind one way or the other.

Someone else, I think maybe Angelform, said "gendercasual," and frankly that fits what we're seeing out of Minako too.

Given that trans people exist who are consistently uncomfortable with the gender identity that society tried to stick them in, it seems likely that quite a few people really wouldn't want to do that. Maybe not most, but a lot of people in Minako's position would probably choose to pick 'boy' or 'girl' and stick with it unless there were an overriding reason they had to flip. Minako seems not to feel that she needs to do that.
 
Simon_Jester said:
Well, maybe most people you know are a little bit genderfluid, and our society discourages us from acknowledging this.
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And that could certainly be the case, but I'm still saying that we just go with Occam's Razor for now, and let Lunaryon be the one who decides if any of the cast are genderfluid, trans, or anything else. She's already given major hints that the Senshi are all at least a little bicurious if not outright bisexual, which is wonderful. Anything else she brings to the table will be equally as wonderful. I just don't want to see the quest crash and burn because the semantics of genderfluidity turned into a flamewar.

So can we all just let sleeping dogs lie, and Allie the characters to explore their feelings rather than act like armchair directors? Please?
 
Simon_Jester said:
Yes, but at that point the information we can get relayed is a bit limited.

If you wanted to know "hey, does Jadeite know how to build a machine that would make someone four inches taller with no side effects," I bet you'd probably get a text back a day later saying "he asked who wants to know, who he's supposed to be using this on, and exactly what you'd consider to be a side effect." And the conversation would turn into a whole thing and if you wanted to get anywhere, as in actually accomplish something with information rather than just having a little bit of information, it'd wind up becoming something equivalent in scope to most of our actions (that is, a few hours of Usagi's time).

The practical upshot of all this is that if we're actually serious about using magical means to make Minako taller, while bearing in mind that she's fourteen and therefore probably not actually done growing and also quite possibly under the influence of anatomy-shaping personal magic already what with being tapped into the Venusian planetary magic well...

Well, we'd be grossly remiss if we weren't willing to invest at least a few hours of our time in that project, and therefore it would be unfair to complain that we can't make it happen for free without spending an action.

Well, maybe most people you know are a little bit genderfluid, and our society discourages us from acknowledging this. And, one might speculate, so does the practicality that in real life people don't have simple, low-maintenance, complication-free ways to decide to, say, be a boy for an afternoon and then go back to being a girl without raising a lot of eyebrows and running into complications. Minako apparently does have the means to do that.

But then, some people will angrily or vehemently deny such interest, preferring to stay as they are forever, or to switch once and then never look back. And what's remarkable is that Minako has gone back and forth many times, and clearly doesn't feel much inclination or need to make up her mind one way or the other.

Someone else, I think maybe Angelform, said "gendercasual," and frankly that fits what we're seeing out of Minako too.

Given that trans people exist who are consistently uncomfortable with the gender identity that society tried to stick them in, it seems likely that quite a few people really wouldn't want to do that. Maybe not most, but a lot of people in Minako's position would probably choose to pick 'boy' or 'girl' and stick with it unless there were an overriding reason they had to flip. Minako seems not to feel that she needs to do that.
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Minako, specifically, I feel probably isn't Gender fluid

For the specific reason that, until today, she hasn't been a boy FOR A WHILE, and had no real desire to be one, and today she became one for the practical benefit of being Master 5s. She hasn't been a boy for long enough that male puberty blind sided her.

Gendercasual, if thats a term, sure. But to my understanding of Gender fluid, it's the gender they want to be changing, not not minding what gender they are.
 
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