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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Also, this may be a moment that Haruna, many years later, regrets. We don't know how much RL history will be exactly followed: for instance, the current Empress, at least as long as she reigns, seems rather more opposed to Purity Club sorts of things than, for instance, the later Hirihito in OTL. But that could be a changing of the guard. We can't know--and I hope honestly that actions can change the course of events--that there will be a Depression roughly in the 1930s, or that the Purity Club will rise to power. Based on what I know of Japanese History, I'd say that the Purity Club sorts are in a worse spot, and democracy in a somewhat better spot, than they were in 1905/etc OTL.

All of this is a preamble to say that, if they do take control in a violent or semi-violent coup, what we just did will be hauled out and used either to cashier us or, if we've gained ranks at roughly the same speed we already have--that is to say it's a long term concern rather beyond what this Quest will likely reach--try to isolate us and give us the closest thing to Shit Detail you can give an actual, no-shit Admiral of some type.

They'll drag it out, and every other incident they can, and bundle it into a package and deliver it to our doorstep, and it will smell of rotten eggs.

******

That said! It was really, really fun to throw anarchist insults at quasi-Russian monarchists! So, totally worth it, I say.
 
[X] Lead a pack of coastal subs to raid smaller Caspian ports and lay mines. (Useful and daring, if without glory.)
 
while votes are important please remember your QMs love commentary. it keeps us alive and inspired to write more. this update took hours to write together.

:)
 
[X] Travel north to attack stragglers steaming back to rally with the Caspian fleet. (Tense, lone wolf action.)
 
[x] Travel north to attack stragglers steaming back to rally with the Caspian fleet. (Tense, lone wolf action.)




I know wolfpacks aren't a thing yet, the song is still awsome and somewhat fitting.
 
I'm curious who builds the navy's ships is it Akibara or is there another large manufacturing firm. I'm also curious what the events of the war will do to flesh out the north of the country. With the adventures so far in the quest we know how the south is (hot and moist) and the newly acquired territory on the mainland. However all we know about the north is that the country has bases on some disputed islands that may or may not belong to Caspia to enforce trade tariffs. Also the island outpost at some point will be supplied by the big boy we built over in aircraft design company. Other than those bist of info we know nothing

P.s. I can't wait to see the story's cross over more and more with reactions to the new planes that we will be seeing
 
[X] Lead a pack of coastal subs to raid smaller Caspian ports and lay mines. (Useful and daring, if without glory.)
 
Moist Bread said:
I'm curious who builds the navy's ships is it Akibara or is there another large manufacturing firm. I'm also curious what the events of the war will do to flesh out the north of the country. With the adventures so far in the quest we know how the south is (hot and moist) and the newly acquired territory on the mainland. However all we know about the north is that the country has bases on some disputed islands that may or may not belong to Caspia to enforce trade tariffs. Also the island outpost at some point will be supplied by the big boy we built over in aircraft design company. Other than those bist of info we know nothing

P.s. I can't wait to see the story's cross over more and more with reactions to the new planes that we will be seeing
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Akibara does a lot of shipbuilding, but there's also a state-owned firm. Kobayashi and some other companies make engines, guns, and other parts. Also, a solid third of the ships were ordered from Albian shipyards rather than being built local.
 
[X] Lead a pack of coastal subs to raid smaller Caspian ports and lay mines. (Useful and daring, if without glory.)

The Laurent said:
Also, this may be a moment that Haruna, many years later, regrets. We don't know how much RL history will be exactly followed: for instance, the current Empress, at least as long as she reigns, seems rather more opposed to Purity Club sorts of things than, for instance, the later Hirihito in OTL. But that could be a changing of the guard. We can't know--and I hope honestly that actions can change the course of events--that there will be a Depression roughly in the 1930s, or that the Purity Club will rise to power. Based on what I know of Japanese History, I'd say that the Purity Club sorts are in a worse spot, and democracy in a somewhat better spot, than they were in 1905/etc OTL.

All of this is a preamble to say that, if they do take control in a violent or semi-violent coup, what we just did will be hauled out and used either to cashier us or, if we've gained ranks at roughly the same speed we already have--that is to say it's a long term concern rather beyond what this Quest will likely reach--try to isolate us and give us the closest thing to Shit Detail you can give an actual, no-shit Admiral of some type.

They'll drag it out, and every other incident they can, and bundle it into a package and deliver it to our doorstep, and it will smell of rotten eggs.

******

That said! It was really, really fun to throw anarchist insults at quasi-Russian monarchists! So, totally worth it, I say.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

For what it is worth, the Purity Club will get trashed in the upcoming elections, retaining only 9% of the seats, a steep fall from the previous 23%.

EDIT: Added the vote.
 
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There's a big part of me that wants to see some sort of reverse of 'The Russians Are Coming!' so we should go for the small ports to have a chance for that.

[X] Lead a pack of coastal subs to raid smaller Caspian ports and lay mines. (Useful and daring, if without glory.)


It will be exciting to see another view of the war, especially the naval scene that was often pretty opaque to the people at Ohara. I could see an Army Dolphin making covert rendezous with the sub or something similar.
 
Shinr said:
For what it is worth, the Purity Club will get trashed in the upcoming elections, retaining only 9% of the seats, a steep fall from the previous 23%.
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Yeah, the election system is rather volatile. A Purity Club victory is possible, but so is a return to Direct Imperial Rule, or surprise communism.
 
[x] Travel north to attack stragglers steaming back to rally with the Caspian fleet. (Tense, lone wolf action.)

This was a great update! I'm tickled by that sprint to the dorms, and OMG her study buddy is going to get a story.

As far as the assignment goes, I have to say it, but I think we should chase Glory at the moment. We are already somewhat a media darling, and the image of the lone Wolf prowling the Arctic seas while the rest of the Navy gets trashed is just begging to be made into the focal point of a narrative- we can be the bright spot that everyone focuses on to keep attention off the rest of the problems. Getting headline kills is important to this.

Plus, reinforcements are 3/4 of the world away for the caspians, so attrition of fleet is as valuable as attrition of bases, I think.

If we can get a photographer to get a shot of us and the captain at the conning tower while under way, and some ships sunk...

"The Wolf Princess Strikes Again!" Would be an awesome newspaper to frame.
 
10ebbor10 said:
Yeah, the election system is rather volatile. A Purity Club victory is possible, but so is a return to Direct Imperial Rule, or surprise communism.
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The real question is whether not!Japan will inherit the post-WW1 style instability that Japan had. The 1920s weren't a good time to be a non-right politician, what with the odds of you being assassinated or driven out by disagreements at the top (with the Emperor and the aristocrats). The amount of political assassination and conspiracies present during the 1920s was kinda absurd.

Japan was playing Russian roulette with right-wing authoritarianism, and when the Depression came, it finally blew its brains out and went from, "Expansionist and grossly colonialist, but still kinda democratic-ish"[1] to, "Right-wing Authoritarian hellhole starting war with everyone and getting in over its head."[2]

[1] So, the kind of terrible that means it has plenty of company from some of the most respected nations of the west.
[2] The kind of terrible that... also had plenty of company (Franco, Mussolini, Hitler) in the West.

******

So yeah, right now it's pretty up in the air.
 
Himmelhand said:
There's a big part of me that wants to see some sort of reverse of 'The Russians Are Coming!' so we should go for the small ports to have a chance for that.

[X] Lead a pack of coastal subs to raid smaller Caspian ports and lay mines. (Useful and daring, if without glory.)


It will be exciting to see another view of the war, especially the naval scene that was often pretty opaque to the people at Ohara. I could see an Army Dolphin making covert rendezous with the sub or something similar.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Exactly what I imagined
I can even see a mission where the sub has to rescue a spy and then meet up with the plane to drop him of.
Also I could see the dolphin used to resupply the sub in some way
 
[x] Travel north to attack stragglers steaming back to rally with the Caspian fleet. (Tense, lone wolf action.)
 
[X] Lead a pack of coastal subs to raid smaller Caspian ports and lay mines. (Useful and daring, if without glory.)

For the crown.
 
One big factor is that Akitsukuni is nowhere near as good at hiding the actual cost of the war from its citizens as Japan was during the Russo-Japanese War, so they're likely to be less unpleasantly surprised when the government is forced to settle for relatively modest gains in the peace treaty. IOTL there were actual riots over the failure to get reparations and the northern half of Sakhalin in the peace treaty, and when coupled with the Triple Intervention after the First Sino-Japanese War helped cement the idea that the European powers and the USA would never willingly let Japan build the sort of empire they themselves possessed.

That should improve the stability of Akitsukuni democracy relative to late-Meiji and Taisho-era Japan.
 
[X] Lead a pack of coastal subs to raid smaller Caspian ports and lay mines. (Useful and daring, if without glory.)
 
Fleet Strength, beginning of the Akitsuni-Caspian War
  • Informational
    • Caspian Far East Fleet
    6 pre-dread/proto-dreadnaught battleships
    5 armored cruisers
    3 light cruisers
    12 destroyers
    Several flotillas of coastal subs
    several flotillas of torpedo boats
    Various auxiliary vessels such as mine sweepers, tenders, mine layers, etc.
    4 siege cruisers, essentially ships built around two huge 20" cannons. Designed more for shore bombardment then for combat at sea, but they can still pack a punch if they bring the gun to bear.

    Akitsukuni Northern Fleet
    5 pre-dread/proto-dread battleships
    1 all-big gun battleship, the Mochizuki
    9 armored cruisers
    5 light cruisers
    14 destroyers
    3 flotillas coastal subs
    several flotillas torpedo boats
    I-02 proto-fleet sub.
    Two torpedo-boat tenders
    1 torpedo ram
    Various auxiliary vessels such as mine sweepers, tenders, mine layers, etc.

    Reinforced by the following forces of the home fleet in Tokei:
    4 pre-dread battleships
    6 destroyers
     
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