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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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Clearly we need to have Tomita grow a beard and stow away aboard Caspian ships for a while.

That or move him into the submarine corps; maybe his curse will be confused by a boat that's supposed to sink.

As far as what to do on shore leave (aside from Aiko), I'm currently trying to figure out what option is most likely to lead to a direct encounter with some Plane Designer Quest characters. Best bet is probably some encounter while on a date that leads to Coralie flirting outrageously with Haruna and Aiko in the finest Gallic fashion while Satomi watches in amusement.

IIRC, Coralie has not yet arrived in Akitsukuni at this point in the timeline? @open_sketchbook
 
[X] Look for more ice cream! You shouldn't, but oh boy are you gonna do it anyway.
 
[X] Look for more ice cream! You shouldn't, but oh boy are you gonna do it anyway.

IT HAS MY VOTE.
 
[X] Look for more ice cream! You shouldn't, but oh boy are you gonna do it anyway.

Can't argue with ice cream. You can regret it, but never argue with it.
 
We uh, confirmed that we did actually sink the Nikolai, right?
Ships can stay afloat a surprising amount of time buuut having a ship's superstructure fall through the hull is pretty conclusive that we have scooped out a huge chunk of the ship's innards and that flooding is not going to be controllable.

It's toast.

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
So here's a question. We just saw the first proper outing of the all-big gun dreadnought, the Mochizuki. This is likely the first time a proper dreadnought has seen pitched fleet battle. She went up like a firecracker thanks to a magazine hit.

Is it possible that we have delayed the proper adoption of the dreadnought-style battleship by years as people weigh up whether it is a weakness of the type?
 
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Ships can stay afloat a surprising amount of time buuut having a ship's superstructure fall through the hull is pretty conclusive that we have scooped out a huge chunk of the ship's innards and that flooding is not going to be controllable.

It's toast.

Future historians/maritime archaeologists will conclude that two of the four torpedoes fired by the I-02 in its gutsy maneuver struck the Imperator Nikolai, with a third detonating prematurely based on the evidence and primary accounts of the survivors, who reported two impacts/explosions aboard her. Those two torpedoes, however, broke the ship's back and sent her to the bottom by early the next morning. The I-02 was fortunate to avoid gunfire and ramming by the accompanying escorts.

I just really like examining this stuff from a faux-historical perspective. :p

EDIT: As for the Mochizuki, no one will ever really be able to determine which Caspian vessel fired the golden shell that blew her to pieces, though money is on the Katerina Valikaya since she was also in the van of her line and was exchanging fire with the Mochizuki at the time. They will however, conclude that whoever fired the fatal shot, it was a plunging shell through the top of the forward turret, which is found upside down on the seabed off of Port Georgia in the mid 1980s. Fire shutters designed to be closed in the instance of a fire in the turret to prevent it reaching the magazine were probably open at the time, either due to turret crew being in the middle of loading or in order to speed the loading of the guns. As a result, the explosion in the turret started a flash fire that almost instantly raced to the main magazine, with catastrophic results.

Aside from Petty Officer Tomita and his compatriot, a seaman named Sagara who was also in the foretop, only one other survivor from the Mochizuki was picked up, an ensign by the name of Akeda who was stationed on the main superstructure. He was blown clear of the wreck by the explosion and somehow managed to survive two broken legs and thirty minutes in the frigid water.
 
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Ships can stay afloat a surprising amount of time buuut having a ship's superstructure fall through the hull is pretty conclusive that we have scooped out a huge chunk of the ship's innards and that flooding is not going to be controllable.

It's toast.


So here's a question. We just saw the first proper outing of the all-big gun dreadnought, the Mochizuki. This is likely the first time a proper dreadnought has seen pitched fleet battle. She went up like a firecracker thanks to a magazine hit.

Is it possible that we have delayed the proper adoption of the dreadnought-style battleship by years as people weigh up whether it is a weakness of the type?
Not really. One of the biggest thing that slowed down the introduction of all big gun ships was the lack of decent optics which resulted in battleships closing in as the max range of the big gun were usually much farther than what the spotter can see. As optics get better over the years the max effective combat range increases which favours big gun. while some navies might re evaluate the effectiveness of all big guns other would just as likely look into better magazine protection.
 
Yeah, the big gun battleship is still a thing because mixed armament is dumb and like @khang said it's more about the viability/availability of good optics for longer range combat. What it might do is change the way that the Akitsukuni design their ships in the future or make them look at how to make sure this kind of magazine hit can never happen again.

Also the Albians are probably like "It only didn't work because of those silly Akitsukuni [racial slur]s." and will then have their own embarrassing moments of flash-fire explosions later on.
 
The two Akitsukuni sailors were brought down to the engine room to warm up, and as they past by on the way to the hatch, you stopped them a moment, looking at one who looked… very familiar.

"... Petty Officer Tomita?" You said, astonished.

"Y-yeah." He said, nodding shakily. "Er, aye ma'am," he corrected after a moment.

"Where were you posted? What ship?"

"W-well I was on the Mochizuki, on the foremast. Something--there was a flash and I don't remember much until I was in the water..."

"Okay. Don't worry. You don't have to talk about it." You said, waving him on his way.

Well… okay. Maybe the curse was real.

And now he was on your boat.
Surprisingly durable this guy
 
I think... That maybe we should lean into the starry-eyed thing a bit. Visit the universities where all the women are getting a chance. Talk about being more than a princess- being a sailor and a woman at the same time. Talk about how they CAN do the things they want to do.

Basically, take all these hopes for the future that Haru (cute nickname) keeps and uses to drive herself forward, and share them. She's been to Not!America and Not!Korea, she has fought both to kill and to save as many as she could at different times. She is easily a role model already- but to make that happen really means getting her in front of the people that need a role model, need her. We probably cannot count on the media to do this- the right-wing won't out of principal, the left-wing is very likely to down play feminism in favor of class and econ.
I'd definitely love to see this talked about as a snippet.
 
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Surprisingly durable this guy
Yeah, Tomita isn't cursed (everyone else is tho).

Rather, he's a survivor! A man with the implacable will to survive and endure. People say he's lucky to be alive, people say he's unlucky to be on those disasters. Tomita makes his own luck!

Risin' up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive
 
I think... That maybe we should lean into the starry-eyed thing a bit. Visit the universities where all the women are getting a chance. Talk about being more than a princess- being a sailor and a woman at the same time. Talk about how they CAN do the things they want to do.

This is a good idea but it seems more likely to cause stress than relieve it

[X] Look for more ice cream! You shouldn't, but oh boy are you gonna do it anyway.

We all scream for ice cream
 
This is gonna be a big write-up. You've got time to do a lot more than just get ice cream.

Make a plan!
 
In war as in prison, find the biggest gal in the room and beat her absolutely senseless to demoralize the rest.
As a strategy, it certainly seems to be working on us...

oh my god

i just thought of this and will need to run it by Artificial Girl...

but i think in Albia and maybe in some other Europan countries, ships are properly referred to as the opposite of their captains.

also, infuriatingly, they use the singular they for ships with unknown captains, but keep refusing to use it for asuka.
I suspect that (for Albian, specifically) the singular "they" is being used as a gender-indeterminate pronoun ("Nelson expects that every person will do their duty"), while the underlying culture simply has no concept of a person being neither male nor female, any more than they have a concept of a torch that is neither burning nor not-burning.

Asuka isn't gender-indeterminate, but their very definite and determinate gender role that they work long and hard to perform isn't "male" or "female," it's "Akitsukuni-style enbie." That is not a thing in the Albian frame of reference, so they don't have a word for it and don't understand why they should.

Coralie, for her part, probably refers to Asuka as 'she' in letters home written in Gallian, but in her case it's not deliberate snubbing. It's due to a combination of wanting people back home to understand her, and due to this... weirdly positive "YOU GO GIRL" sentiment. She's never actually spelled out or examined her implicit assumption that Asuka is positively killing this whole "design planes" thing specifically due to having a non-masculine and (to Coralie) therefore characteristically feminine perspective. She just... kind of takes it for granted.

weird heteronormativity 100%. when Olive Wingfield became a captain of the Albian Navy in their elizabethan times, gay Shakespeare made a play about her and made a politically charged pun about her being the ship's mistress with the ship as "he". it stuck, despite the fact that this joke actually peters out by the final act in Shakespeare's take owing to the eventual moral being "who cares if she's a man or a woman, she's enabling the slave trade fuck that"

(gay shakespeare was somewhat less subtle and more radical than our own)
So, did Gaya!Shakespeare write 126 love sonnets addressed to women and 26 love sonnets to men, instead of in real life where it's the other way around? :p

..

Come to think of it, I don't know if Glorianan* Albia had that same thing going as Elizabethan England, where pissing off the monarch or a sufficiently powerful noble could get you pretty much killed, but... there's that. Many of Shakespeare's "historical drama" plays have to be written with this in mind; they were expressly political, and written with very specific intent to please some and to not anger others. Dissent in England against the monarchy and its favorites was tracked and punished a surprisingly capable intelligence agency, run by a person most of England thought was literally a wizard.
_________________________

*('Gloriana' as made up rename for the wildly popular Queen Elizabeth I, since we already have a name for not!Victoria)
 
Over the radio, the battle's results were being hashed out. While the trade of two enemy battleships for one was good, the Akitsukuni escort squadrons were devastated. The officers mused, as you ate dinner in the control room and poured over the snippets of reports, that perhaps the aggression of the screens, derived from Albian doctrine, was simply too risky.
The Albians have (if they're like their alternate-universal cousins) the largest shipbuilding industry in the world, and while that translates into only so many capital ship building slips, they can turn out LOTS of escort vessels. Plus, again if they're like the Royal Navy, a huge reserve of Not!Victorian era gunboats, sloops, frigates, or what have you that can be called up in emergencies to fill gaps in the roster of patrol and escort vessels.

Akitsukuni, with less industrial base and 'shallower' pools of reserve assets, has no such luxuries.

"W-well I was on the Mochizuki, on the foremast. Something--there was a flash and I don't remember much until I was in the water..."

"Okay. Don't worry. You don't have to talk about it." You said, waving him on his way.

Well… okay. Maybe the curse was real.

And now he was on your boat.
o_O
 
[x] cold sweets and steamy delights
-find more ice cream to eat
-ask our sweet cousin the empress if we can use the royal hot spring retreat for our own purposes
-take our livo interest there for a few nights
-upon returning home crash a royal party again
 
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[X] She isn't Alone
-[x] Go to Aiko's school, in low profile clothes. Sit and listen in the cafeteria, audit a class or two, check out the team practices. The chance to be here is almost as new as your career- who are the women taking advantage of it? They are the ones you are fighting for, soak it in.
--[x] if it seems prudent, register first at the front desk as "just a visitor" *winkwink*
--[x] if it feels right, maybe offer to speak briefly to an assembly
-[x] go see the mountains and soak in a hot spring. Bathing and elevation are the two things you can't get on a sub.
-[x] speaking of elevation, maybe you could persuade an officer with an airplane to take you up? The bars by the float plane docks would be the best bet...
 
[X] She isn't Alone
-[x] Go to Aiko's school, in low profile clothes. Sit and listen in the cafeteria, audit a class or two, check out the team practices. The chance to be here is almost as new as your career- who are the women taking advantage of it? They are the ones you are fighting for, soak it in.
--[x] if it seems prudent, register first at the front desk as "just a visitor" *winkwink*
--[x] if it feels right, maybe offer to speak briefly to an assembly
-[x] go see the mountains and soak in a hot spring. Bathing and elevation are the two things you can't get on a sub.
-[x] speaking of elevation, maybe you could persuade an officer with an airplane to take you up? The bars by the float plane docks would be the best bet...
Stealing my hot springs idea I see your one to watch.
All good as long as we go to the springs may the best plan win
 
Uncle Tokimoro wasn't going to clap you on the shoulder at New Year's and tell you how pretty you were in your uniform and ask how your assignment was and tell you about how he'd been standing on the bridge next to Admiral Fushimori. He wouldn't tell you how your cousin Takahashi, his son, was doing. Because Takahashi was also dead, blown up in the Mochizuki's forward turret where he was a gunnery officer.
Goddamn. That's going to be pretty rough on the family, especially since it seems the flag had a higher-than-average concentration of imperials onboard.
Imperator Nikolai was listing almost 45 degrees and was burning, most of the superstructure having fallen off into the water.
Excellent! Good shooting crew!
As it was, the Akitsukuni fleet was leaving with less than half the escorts it arrived with.
Hm, yeah, taking our escort doctrine straight from the biggest navy and either biggest or second biggest industrial power on the planet seems like a bad idea for us.
At least one other detonated before you made it clear, and you swore you could see a cruiser backlit in flame as it capsized.
Nice! Good job mine crews!
smoked a few surreptitious cigarettes with Akio
Aaaaaaahhhhhh! Aaaaaaahhhhh! Very bad! Very bad! No cigs on subs! Say it with me! No cigs on subs!
Well… okay. Maybe the curse was real.
Yeah can we assign this guy to monitor polar bears or something. Or really anything that doesn't involve our submarine or expensive capital warships.
speed the loading of the guns.
Our very first dreadnought and it got Beatty'd. That's more than a shame for us.
 
Direct hit on poor cuz?

It was quick, if that's any consolation. Probably didn't even know what hit him.

Goddamn. That's going to be pretty rough on the family, especially since it seems the flag had a higher-than-average concentration of imperials onboard.

Yeeeah. The admiral was also a cousin, though much more distant, as Fushimi is another cadet branch of the Imperial family. Not someone she saw a lot of or even knew well, but was aware of.

Besides him of course Haruna had multiple other cousins of various distances serving aboard her ranging in rank from lieutenant (her uncle's kid) to commander. Even if Haruna didn't know all of them well, she still knew them and could expect to see them once or twice a year at family or state functions or maybe a party. Mochizuki was a prestige posting, especially for young Imperial adjacent officers who had a career ahead of them.
 
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