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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
    • Ato said:
    [X] Just stick to your kimono. If they call you a savage, so be it.

    The politics we expressed earlier already leaned towards national pride so this seems in character.

    As for the racer's name, I suggested Hachi a while back. Which I think means 'bee' in Japanese.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Hm. If we're going for a racer name, I feel like a bee isn't the image we want to go for to evoke speed.

    Maybe Tonbo for dragonfly or Suzume for sparrow?
     
    For the racer, what about including "twin" in the name? Twin Sparrow would sound pretty cool. If Google Translate is accurate, that would be Tsuinsuzume.
     
    I suspect "Tsuin" is just the phoenetic pronunciation of "twin". If you use "double", a reasonable looking translation is "niju ", which ends up with "Nijusuzume" for "Double Sparrow".
     
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    • You looked down at your comfortable clothes again, and at Kibe's frilly dress, and decided in that moment that you weren't going to let some barbarians push you around and force you to hide who you were.

    "Actually, Kibe, I think I'm fine like this, thanks." You said. You gestured to Satomi, herself not much for gender conformity. "If they have a problem with it, they can tell Satomi, if they can catch her."

    Kibe put on her best angry expression (it was adorable) and finally said "Fine. Just get a hat at least. It's rude to be outside without one." and then she strode down the dock.

    Satomi chuckled. "Hell yeah Matsura. I'm with you on this. The only I'm getting into one of those dresses is if the white girl wearing it is very cute."

    You both burst out laughing.

    ---

    You did end up getting a hat as instructed, going out of your way to find a sailor with a sugegasa and buying it off him. The crew staggered back in a variety of western off-the-rack fashions (and you started to suspect that Kibe's dress was probably several years out of date) and all of them looked... well, a little ridiculous. None of the clothes fit very well, and all of them were sweating in the Ganymedean heat under layers of wool. Even Kawamura looked somewhat silly in his bowler cap. You waved to the party as they came in and they shouted various playful abuses back.

    Then it was off on the final leg of the journey. Kibe was clearly annoyed with you, but the Albian lessons continued into various social niceties and means of address. You were... not very good, though you were mostly following conversations alright, and more immersion would only help.

    Finally, the island was spotted. You were coming in in the evening, and the lights of the city swam through a haze of smoke and fog before you as the ship rolled in. You spotted rows and rows of battleships at dock at the edge of the port, dozens of them, and the city slowly came into focus.

    The buildings were huge, brick and stone and concrete everywhere. Six story row houses lined the waterfront, and looming behind them were structures that had to have fifteen or more floors. A massive bridge with huge towers was raising to let through another massive warship of some description. Everything was aglow with electricity and industry.

    Most delightful of all, you spotted a little scout plane buzzing around the harbour and grinned. A MacUilleim Model 3 scout, the airplane the Type 1 was a copy of. You were holding a tube of blueprints for a plane that would render it obsolete.

    The ship pulled up to a dock and the ramp dropped. There was a party of what looked like reporters waiting, as well as some self-important looking man in a top hat spouting welcome sirs and ma'ams to everyone coming off the boat. The crew got little attention coming down the ramp, but the moment you started you ran into a dozen phosphorus bursts as the cameras went off. Right, because you fit the image they wanted for their papers.

    You held your head high and strode down the ramp. The top-hatted man smiled at your approach. "Welcome to you too...?" After a moment's hesitation, he stuck out his hand to shake, and despite your better judgement the looming cameras compelled you to meet the gesture. More flashes.

    A few minutes later, as you were walking down the dock to the cabs, you realized how good a power move it would have been to bow. Smoothly done, Asuka. Really standing up for yourself.

    ---

    You were staying, along with almost everyone else involved in the race, at a lovely and gigantic hotel. You took an elevator to your floor which was large enough to hold the whole party, and the lobby seemed made of solid marble. Your room could have swallowed your apartment whole and your bed was large enough that you could sit in the center and reach out with both arms without touching a side. There was a telephone, just sitting there on the bedside table. The floor had a common area with a fireplace, you had a beautiful claw-foot tub, and there was a swimming pool downstairs.

    It seems you were sharing a floor with some other pilots. Your next door neighbor, as it were, was a tall and beautiful Gallian woman who was wearing what looked like a feminine-cut version of a military uniform in a burnt orange, which threw your brain for a bit of a loop. Your time in Horonai University had taught you their language, but she spoke it even more rapidly than your professors and with something of an accent. When she realized Satomi was your pilot the two of them started having a very animated and mutually unintelligible conversation about flying that mostly consisted of engine noises and hands making turns. There were also some representatives of Lusania-Carvale and some strange Albian-speakers you later discovered they were from the southern colony of Ulimaroa. Most of them kept to themselves.

    The next few days were spent settling in and sending new documents downstairs to fax home. It was bizarre, being on the other side of the world and receiving telegrams from home on just a few minutes delay to clarify some detail of construction.

    A few days in, there was some excitement in the lobby when you and the team happened to be on the balcony eating dinner (western food was good, if quite bland) and you looked over to see a massive procession of fancy cars just outside the windows. They had a familiar yellow flag flying from their bonnets. These must be the Caspians.

    After a few servants opened the door, a tall man walked in. He was dressed in a yellow military uniform adorned in a variety of medals and decoration and weighed with braid, and on his head was perched a peaked cap and a pair of goggles. He had a thick moustache and a powerful build, and after a few moments you recognized him from caricatures in the newspapers. That was Protasov Vasilyevich, Crown Prince of Caspia and amateur pilot.

    Satomi looked at you with wide eyes. "Matsura, we're gonna race a prince!"

    ---

    You have a few days until the race begins and you have to leave the city. You are young, have 6 stress, and you have money to burn. How do you spend your time in Artemis?

    [ ] Write-In (multiple options acceptable!)​
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Plan De-Stress
    -[X] See if you can find Yachi a souvenir. Maybe a model of the massive bridge? Men like architecture, right?
    -[X} See if they have a good bathhouse here. They have to have someplace you can relax and get a massage or something, right? Does the hotel have a masseuse or masseur on retainer?
    -[X] Go out and see the sights, maybe ogle all the electric lights.
     
    As well as destressing maybe see if we can find anything out about the planes our competition brought.
     
    It's votes like these which make me realize how weird I am. I'd have spent all my time working on the plane or poking around the flight field.
     
    Is the Kobayashi girl with us? (I can't remember her name :p) Might be able to destress with her.
     
    We're going to get absolutely plastered, and depending on what vices the other people with us have, we might pick up a new option. Like trashy pulp novels. But since we're in Britain Albia, we really ought to see how scotch whiskey uhisgi cymreig (which would probably usually be called cymreig) compares to good honest sake. And try some Irish Eriu coffee while we're at it.

    This isn't the best vote, and I'll probably change as we discuss this more:
    [X] Get completely, totally drunk on local booze.
     
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