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?
You weren't sure how to react to this. Yes, you talked to the maid about what you wanted to wear and how to adjust your hair but you didn't… chat to them. Not the way Aiko was doing, not since you were a little kid, and personal maids were different.
This probably went about as well as it could have.
What was the implication behind "industrious", by the way? Just standard snobbery towards people not born into the nobility, more specific classism towards the petite bourgeoisie, or something else entirely?
[ ] Haruna finishes realizing that maids are people too, and that acting like they are furniture is actually really weird.
[ ] Aiko is out of her depth. Haruna needs to fill her in on the basics of how to avoid too many blunders. This probably results in Aiko starting to realize just how out of her depth she is, and maybe even an outside perspective for Haruna on just how weird and unhealthy her little world actually is.
Don't tempt fate. Professional photography seems to have been a bit of a trend among late 19th century Japanese nobility. Pictures from Haruna's early childhood might exist, and if they do, they probably involve overly elaborate costume and ridiculously stiff poses.
[ ] Mother trying to be catty and finding it increasingly awkward as Aiko not only doesn't notice the hidden meanings but is sincere, forthright and incisive with her responses in an attempt to make a good impression.
What was the implication behind "industrious", by the way? Just standard snobbery towards people not born into the nobility, more specific classism towards the petite bourgeoisie, or something else entirely?
[] Haruna worries endlessly about the future and if mother will scheme so as to break her up with Aiko for the family's/appearance's sake
...Opposite of destressing but is what I would do.
That went well, a tentative "keep it a secret and know that it never will be a public thing" familial nagging from your mother is actually kinda great. It is basically a sign she's not going to outright reject this relationship without any further bad thing.
We just need to ensure she doesn't found anything about this relationship is... Bad.
[] Haruna finishes realizing that maids are people too, and that acting like they are furniture is actually really weird.
[ ] Aiko is out of her depth. Haruna needs to fill her in on the basics of how to avoid too many blunders. This probably results in Aiko starting to realize just how out of her depth she is, and maybe even an outside perspective for Haruna on just how weird and unhealthy her little world actually is.
Aiko interacting with Yae was just delightful. Maybe one or both of them can get Haruna to sympathize more with commoners, although she's already fairly decent for her time and upbringing.
[ ] Haruna finishes realizing that maids are people too, and that acting like they are furniture is actually really weird.
[ ] Aiko is out of her depth. Haruna needs to fill her in on the basics of how to avoid too many blunders. This probably results in Aiko starting to realize just how out of her depth she is, and maybe even an outside perspective for Haruna on just how weird and unhealthy her little world actually is.
I like these! I think they could both be really cute, and are logical extensions of what has been going on with both characters.
[ ] Haruna finishes realizing that maids are people too, and that acting like they are furniture is actually really weird.
[ ] Aiko is out of her depth. Haruna needs to fill her in on the basics of how to avoid too many blunders. This probably results in Aiko starting to realize just how out of her depth she is, and maybe even an outside perspective for Haruna on just how weird and unhealthy her little world actually is.
[ ] Aiko and Haruna relaxing in the hot springs and generally having a good time.
Dinner wasn't the disaster you thought it would be. It turned out to kinda be much, much worse.
Mother was her usual self. Poised. Subtle. Refined. The problem was that Aiko didn't pick up on her subtle bullshit. That or Aiko did and just acted like she didn't and you weren't sure which made you love her even more. It had started as the three of you sat down to dinner in the Western-style main dining room (the south dining room was a much more traditional style, but was reserved for family-only affairs and more casual dining) and as the first course (a very rich seafood bisque) was served. The upper classes had rather imported the dining habits of Albian nobility and the Gallian nouveau-riche.
"So, Miss Kishimoto," your mother said, "My daughter tells me you are studying engineering?" This was technically true, since you had told mother that when you had arrived. Still, you felt a touch of nerves--she was obviously fishing for more information on the relationship.
"Oh, yes." Aiko was a little distracted at first--she had a devil of a time figuring out which spoon she was supposed to use but you pointedly picked up the correct one while she glanced at you and she picked up on it immediately.
"Electrical engineering, actually," she continued. "Last month we visited one of the power plants for Tokei. Really cool stuff! It's no wonder we need that train line between Tokei and Seto with how much coal we use a day to keep the lights on. It'll be easier to just run a coal train up to the plant and unload it then having to move it off of the barges or cargo ships in the harbor too, I think," she continued without a care in the world between sips of soup. "We're also learning about alternating current."
"Fascinating," your mother said and you smiled.
"I don't really get any of it," you admitted, "I just know I press a switch and we have light."
"It's simple, really," AIko said, beaming. Spirits, she was so pretty when she was being a nerd. "Electricity flows in circular motions called circuits. It's like a train line: one train is always arriving at the station as the other leaves, so a block on the line stops every train. When you're pressing the switch, it completes the circuit between the wires carrying the electric current and the wires for the light bulb, so they get power. The filament in the light bulb doesn't let electricity through easily, so the resistance is converted to heat, but the vacuum inside the bulb prevents it from burning even at very high temperatures. So instead it glows and we get light."
"Oh. That's really neat, I had no idea," you said, and meant it. That the filaments were heating up explained why bulbs got so hot. And why old ones seemed to take forever to turn on or flickered all the time. And the vacuum must be why lightbulbs *popped* when they burn out.
"I mean, that's a simplification. There's a lot of math, because you need to ensure the proper amount of electricity and resistance is present within the circuit… it's a bit harder to explain."
"Don't worry about it." You said. Guh, she was so... It wasn't really that your girlfriend made you feel stupid, but more that you admired how damn smart she was. You could do mathematics and geometry and so forth but… electricity might as well be magic.
"How illuminating," your mother said with one of her little smiles and Aiko laughed.
"Illuminating! I get it. Hee." Spirits. Her laugh was really pretty too. Everything about Aiko was pretty, it was infuriating distracting. You were staring at her hands, and you had just realized that, and you were trying to figure out if anyone else realized that but it wasn't like you were going to stop they were lovely and wonderful and she was so skilled with them-
"Haruna," your mother's voice broke in on your idle thoughts and you realized that you had a spoonful of soup halfway to your mouth. Probably had for a few seconds now.
"I hope everything is well with you. I worry about you in that cramped ship full of nothing but men…" You mother started.
Aiko gave an earnest nod of agreement. "The men don't bother me, honestly," She said. "I know that Haruna can handle herself. I'm more worried about the Caspians."
"I-It's fine, really," your voice trembled a little more than you wanted and you mentally did your best to clamp down on the roiling memories of watching men slide off the deck of a burning ship into the frigid sea to escape the flames and the helpless feeling that came when you realized that the Mochizuki had vanished from the surface of the seas. The smell of burning cordite and the thunder of cannon and the screaming and crying of men struggling in the water...
"It's stressful, of course," you said as you collected yourself. "But we're doing our duty, so we don't let ourselves think about it." Which was a lie. You thought about it constantly and you were pretty sure everyone else did too, especially after your talk with Aiko.
"Of course. A woman should not let her thoughts linger on the duty of her station." Your mother said solemnly, raising a napkin to her lips. Oh, gross, come on mum! Why are you like this???
Aiko, of course, was blissfully unaware, so you ate quietly a while.
"So, uh, what brings you… to… your house?" Aiko stumbled, breaking the awkward silence.
"Oh, I was just stopping by to air the place out." Your mother said smoothly, despite the fact that you could clearly see that was horseshit. "I'll be leaving in the morning."
In the background, you saw servants suddenly start to move to pack up her stuff. God, that must be boring, just listening in on this inane conversation for cue like that. That was weird, wasn't it?
"Oh! I hope we didn't disturb you…" Aiko sounded tentative. She was too good for this world. Too good for you, specifically. And also completely failing to pick up on your mum's subtlety.
"Not at all. Like I said, I was planning on leaving tomorrow anyway. I've already been here a week and I do have my own duties to see to back in Tokei."
"Right, of course." You said. After that, mercifully, the conversation turned towards more casual talk and you were finally able to feel like you weren't under a microscope. Even if it was a well-meaning and loving microscope.
---
After dinner you were too worn out from travel and dealing with your mum to want to spend time in the hot spring and so you simply returned to your room (or suite of rooms) where you could change into something more casual and collapse onto a futon for a few hours of lazy, cozy time with Aiko. When you stepped into the bedroom after changing, Aiko had already put on a more comfortable house robe and was going through a box she'd pulled into the middle of the room next to your shared futons.
"What did you find?" You tilted your head and crouched down. It was a simple cardboard box filled with composition books and other childhood knick-knacks and you felt your heart skip a beat as you realized just what it was that Aiko had found in your old closet. You hadn't even remembered they were here.
"Aiko--" You reached out to try and grab the composition book from her hands and she jerked back, grinning.
"No way, I'm just getting to the good part! "Genji felt his heart swell with passion as he saw his two loves embrace each other once again, now that all obstacles to their love were at last removed--" I bet that's not all that was swelling, on Spirits, you wrote this Haruna? You wrote Prince Genji stories? For that dusty old thing?"
"I was fourteen! Now give it here!"
"Nooo, this is spicy stuff. Did you realize how often you have the characters hands tied while they kiss? Just asking for a friend, you know?" A pause. "OH! Is this a poem?!" You wanted to be killed instantly. Lightning from the skies. Poison. Freak Caspian artillery shell. Anything.
"AikO!" Your voice caught, getting a little shrill just as she started to read it out loud.
"No, this is great! 'Oh gentle longing/to be a lily flower/in my beloved's dark tresses'. Haruna you've always had it bad for girls, haven't you?" As Aiko spoke, you ducked your head. Your cheeks were starting to burn. You felt like a glowing light bulb.
"...There was this girl in my class," you tried to explain.
"Uh-huh. Let me guess. She was tall, dark hair, big beautiful eyes… probably a little older, way below your station, and… played tennis?"
"Wait a… wait, seriously, how do you know that?" The girl in question had been the daughter of an industrialist, a child of 'new money' at your expensive and exclusive girl's school. Therefore she'd been completely forbidden to you at the time by your mother as anything other than a friend, at best. Dating had been out of the question. She'd gone overseas for university and you thought that she was back in the country doing banking or something like that now, last time you'd gotten your school's alumni magazine.
"There's a photo of a girl here with a tennis racket." She said, laughing. "Though I just guessed she was tall. You have a type. And like, who isn't below your station?"
"... cousins, mostly." You said.
"Gross."
"These are far, far removed cousins! 3rd and 4th cousins. Mostly. Look, nobility is complicated." You said. "Oh Spirits, they made me memorize some of the Europan houses when I was a kid… I swear, their family trees have loops."
"That seems like a weird thing to have to memorize. Why?" She asked, and you laughed.
"Oh, at the time there was this idea that maybe one of us cadets could bag a Europan prince and it would be legitimizing." You explained. "You know, get us a seat at the adult's table. There was a lot of problems with it, not the least of which was that there would probably be riots both here and there if we handed a precious jewel of Akitsukuni femininity off to some white barbarian."
"Yeah, wow. That woulda gone over well. What made them think it was a good idea?"
"Europan men have a… certain obsession with us. As…" You milled a hand in front of you, looking for the right word. "... objects. The upper class thought that might be appealing enough to bag some second son of a King."
"What? That's weird and, like, gross. How did that happen?"
"Well, uh…" You took a deep breath. "How were your history classes?"
"Boring, mostly. A lot of wars." She said. "Restoring the Empress a bunch of times and stuff."
"Right. Okay, so, there was that big one in the 2100s…" You said, trying to dumb it down to what you figured was the public school level.
"The Warring States period, yeah. Hachisuka wins, becomes Shogun, Akitsukuni is one country, out with the Ichthysian converts, he gets assassinated, then there's like, five little kids or something like that? An Ophirian samurai? Some guys from Cathay show up that can't feel pain? I kinda lost the plot at the end there." She summarized. That was… pretty good. Fuck, she was smart.
"Yeah, okay, cool. So, you know how midway through the war Hachisuka suddenly has like, ten thousand muskets and just walks all over all the competition?" You said.
"Yeah, bought them off the Burgundy traders, right?" Aiko was from the city they used as a port, so maybe it followed she knew about this.
"Right. Well, look, Akitsukuni has never exactly had a lot of natural resources, unlike, say, Joseon, hence the colonies. But at the time…"
"Nothing to sell, huh? So how did we afford the guns?"
"Well… No. There was something to sell. Akitsukuni has always had more mouths to feed than fields to plant. So… they sold them young women. Girls, sometimes." You said. "Tens of thousands of us, to buy guns to fight a war. They shipped them around Lydia and back to Europa. As toys." Learning about this was one of the reasons you'd resolved to learn to fight for real. Not for show like your mother, but with guns and ships and knives. You'd had nightmares.
"Oh spirits. That's terrible. I've never even heard of that." She said.
"Not our proudest moment as a nation." You said sheepishly. "It's not something the government would want to talk about in the public school curriculum, obviously."
"I thought this was when the Europans were on their big equality kick, though?"
"Just because they gave women certain rights didn't mean that they saw us foreigners as real women. Or real people, even. " Your vehemence on that point surprised you a little. "They enslaved Ophirians, remember? This modern economy was built so we wouldn't have to use our people as currency again. We're going to stay independent--that's the duty of the Empress, to make sure that these things don't happen and that Her people are well taken care of, no matter what circumstances arise."
Your tea arrived, and you thanked the servant by name. You were trying to make an effort now.
"Thank you, Hyo-Rin." The young woman, maybe the same age as Aiko, bowed to you, then retreated from the room without a word.
"Anyway--where was I?" You asked, but Aiko was looking at one of your books again.
"Can we read more of your bad teenage poetry instead? That's somehow less depressing than this." Aiko went to open to a new page, and you hit her with a pillow.
---
The next morning was nice. Relaxing even. Though, breakfast had you feeling tense when the two of you shared a table with your mother again. The conversation was polite, of course, and tinged with your mother's usual barbed subtlety, but most of it seemed to be aimed at gently teasing you about banging in your childhood bedroom. And poking at Aiko as if to make sure she was really going to take good care of you. Thankfully, it seemed to you that Aiko hadn't picked up on it. Or you thought that, until mother finally left and the two of you were alone again.
"...I don't think I got most of what she said," Aiko said with a frown. "I feel like she was trying to say something but it was getting lost in translation from like, Imperial Princess to normal person."
"Hey, I'm a normal person," you protested weakly. This was one of those little things that reminded you that no, Haruna, you were NOT a normal person. At all.
"Haruna, you grew up with multiple houses the size of some neighborhoods. You're not a normal person," Aiko said with a deadpan look.
"Hey--!"
"Not that it affects how I love you, but no. Seriously."
"Okay, fair." You conceded. "But you know a perk of dating a not-normal person?"
---
"HOT SPRINGS!"
"Private hot springs." You said. "No having to share with anyone."
"This. is. Amazing." Aiko was wide-eyed staring at the spring. As there were no men present, the dividing wall had been lifted away, so you had the entire thing to yourself. The water was clear and clean and just the right temperature… basically, it was perfect, as if your family would settle for anything else.
"Hot springs are the sure sign of a right and proper society," you mused. "They're what separates us from the animals. To quote the great philosopher--"
"What about those monkeys that hang around them?"
"They're what separates us from the barbarians, then."
"Haru. Less talking, more hot springs." Aiko insisted, her clothes already half off. You tried and failed not to stare. Uuuuuh, her back muscles did the thing when she flexed to take off her shirt oh noooo.
"Right. Yes. Springs. Right. Hot." You started to undress, trying not to look like you were hurrying too much. The Imperial dignity and all that.
"You dork." She was standing there in the cold winter air. No clothes. Holding her hand out towards you with that stupid, attractive grin of hers. "How come I'm the only one naked, Haru?"
"I have to fold my clothes, Aiko--" You had struggled out of your house robe and were trying to leave it neatly folded on one of the shelves but before you could finish, you felt Aiko's arms catch you up into a carry and she stepped off the edge and into the hot spring.
You were pretty sure you saw stars.
As the pair of you settled into the water, you found yourself leaned up against Aiko, tucked under her arm. She tucked her chin over the top of your head and sighed quietly.
"Damn. I needed this." She didn't normally swear--you were a lot alike in that way.
"Me too," you said in a quiet voice, content to rest against her for now. You didn't want to leave her side right now, anyway. Not when so soon you'd be back aboard the I-02, cold and cramped and smelling like diesel all the time. Just being out in clean air was a relief.
Oh. That was something to ask about.
"How's the local baseball team been doing?" There. Something to talk about.
"Haruna, you know that you don't play baseball in the winter, right?"
"...I do now." That was kind of disappointing, but it made sense. "Too cold."
"Too wet. Back home, it's been raining for like, a month straight." Aiko said. "And the Tokei teams are a mess. Everyone's drafted."
"Oh." Yeah, that made sense.
"Yeah. Guess we hope the war's over by spring, or it's going to be a weird season." You said. "It's a season, right?"
"Yeah. Rumor back home is that they're gonna have a bunch of ladies playing because all the boys are in the Navy or the Army now. All the ones without jobs at the shipyard, anyway," Aiko said with a sigh. "Kinda makes me glad Hideaki is already in. He's not gonna get drafted and he's an officer. Wish I knew where he was, though."
"I get that. We can't say, though, you know. In case somehow a Caspian got hold of the mail or whatever," you sounded more flippant than you felt. Seizing mail skips could be a huge boon. You heard the ones making some of the more dangerous runs around the colonies had corvettes tailing them now. "I can look into it, though. It's not a state secret or anything."
"Though you are." Aiko said with a giggle.
"I'm not normal, remember?" You said. "Well, that, and everyone thinks that if I get captured it'll be a huge thing. Though… not much risk of that in a submarine…"
She shuffled over closer and put an arm around your middle. "Right. Because you can dive under the waves and disappear and be safe."
"Exactly." Yep. Totally not because escaping from a sinking submarine was almost impossible.
That brought the mood down a little. You waved a hand to summon a servant and got her to set up a phonograph for some music. Something to take your mind off this.
"Hey… Haru?" Aiko said, after a long listen to a peaceful orchestral arrangement.
"Yeah?"
"You know that stuff we talked about yesterday? The… um, slave stuff." She said awkwardly.
"I thought you didn't want to dwell on it."
"I don't! But it…"
"Yeah, it gets in your head. When they told me about it I was a little too young, and I hadn't quite realized it had stopped. Scared me something feir-"
"Isn't it a little odd your house has servant girls from Joseon?" Aiko blurted out.
"I don't see why. It's not like we don't have Akitsukuni servants too, but, you know. It's cheap labour, and they're hard workers. And even if they're cheap they get way more money here than they would back home. Trust me, they're better off here. I've been there. Joseon is like we were a hundred years ago, it's so poor. They don't have… anything…"
They don't have anything but their bodies. They don't even have their country.
"Oh."
Your Akitsukuni servants usually came from families with long lines of ancestry that had served Imperial households for centuries. There was a certain pride in the position that most transplanted Joseon girls just didn't have-- come to think of it, you didn't know how they got here. You never thought about it. Like, ever. They were just… servants. Blending into the background like the furniture, like wallpaper. Like things, not like people.
You thought of Kwon. You thought of the girl in the blue dress. You thought of the sick feeling in your stomach that had refused to leave for a week after the scene in front of the palace in Joseon.
"Oh." You weren't sure what else to say. "But… we're in Joseon to help make things better…" The comforting line the government always took when the leftists started asking too many questions about how things were being done across the sea. "It's an economic partnership…"
Aiko just stared. This was too much, too big to think about.
"Han-Bi, more music, please."
"Haruna." Aiko's voice was quiet. It reminded you of how Hideaki got sometimes. Or her father.
"What do you want me to do about it! It's already so much!" You snapped. Fuck, no, that's not what you wanted to do. You heard the sound of servants scattering away in the background. Fuck.
"I don't know." She sounded frustrated.
"I'm sorry, I… Aiko, I'm already putting everything I have into this. I have to be perfect. For us, right? So we have a place. What more can I do?" You said. Your life was so far out of your control now, you didn't need this. You couldn't't take this. You sat in a tube waiting to die and you had to do it perfectly or you'd ruin it for every single woman in your nation.
"Just… maybe take a step back and try to see that things aren't the same for you as they for everyone else?" Aiko said.
"It's not like-- like it's my fault. It's just how it is!" You didn't want to fight about this with your girlfriend. You wanted to relax. You wanted to feel better about having to go back to the shitty, cramped world of the submarine. Was this a fight? She didn't sound angry. She sounded concerned. Worried, maybe?
"I'm not saying it's your-" Aiko protested, her expression only getting more worried.
"I didn't ask to be born into my family or any of this…" And that wasn't. Really true, was it? If you had the choice, you would prefer to keep this life. Maybe it'd be nice if your family was closer or your father was less distant but your life was good.
"No one does, Haru. And I'm not saying it's your fault at all. Because it isn't." Aiko swallowed, then her brow furrowed. "Haru, I love you. I really love you. You make me so, so happy. I just…" she waved a hand, tried to find words. "This trip has been amazing--good food, amazing house, hot springs."
"But?" There was one of those in there. You could feel it.
"But you live in a bubble! You don't really get how hard my dad has had to work to get where he is or how hard I had to work to get the grades I needed to get into a good school. Or how well my brother had to do on his own exams to get into the Naval Academy."
"I--I had to fight to just to take those exams!" you protested. You knew what hard work was. You'd done plenty! You'd fretted over your studies like anyone else, on top of writing letters and talking to politicians and pushing for it every day. How much more could ask a sixteen year old to do? How much more could they ask you do to do now?
"You did. I respect that. You are really smart and that's part of what I love about you. Still… your dad is a minister in the government. Your mother is an Imperial princess. Your grandmother was the Empress. You have tea with the current Empress. If you were a man, would it have been hard for you?"
No. The answer was no and you hated it. You could have done anything but fail the entrance exams and still gotten in. Even then, you sometimes wondered if there were some people who hadn't even had to take them, considering what poor excuses for officers they were.
"...No," you admitted in a quiet voice. You felt an ache in your chest and pulled yourself closer to Aiko so you could feel her arms around you.
"I'm sorry," Aiko's voice was was soft. "I know it's not easy to think about. And… I didn't want to upset you, but I had to say something. Because I love you and I want you to use that awesome mind of yours, and those connections of yours too."
"To what? Throw the war for Caspia?" That wasn't fair. That wasn't fair. "Sorry," you added, too late.
"I don't know. Maybe there's nothing to do yet." Aiko sighed quietly. Her breath against your hair was comforting and warm even if this conversation sucked. She was… Spirits, how could you describe her?
"Yeah. It's not like Caspian Joseon would be any better." You said bitterly. Maybe worse, if you thought about it. They didn't even have the sort of vague Lydian kinship the politicians would cynically invoke.
"It wouldn't be," Aiko said. "I didn't want to make you upset. Or say that it's all on you." She paused, then you could hear a smile creep into her voice. "It's not just you anymore, anyway." Wait.
"What?" What?
"What? You knew, right? They admitted four more women as cadets at the Naval Academy. And a woman instructor..."
"Yeah, I knew about them, but they're- they're years away from service."
"... I wasn't done. And they said there would be eight slots open this year. You already made a change. You're not the only woman in the Navy any longer, you're not the only example. You're…" She groped for a word. "It sounds bad, but you're not that important any longer."
"No. I… I think I like the sound of that," you admitted in a quiet voice. Hearing her say that, having someone else tell you that you didn't have to be so perfect anymore, maybe? That was like a weight lifting off your shoulders.
"So, you go back to your stupid sinking boat and you win this thing, then… I dunno. You're not going to be a junior lieutenant forever, you know. Probably won't be long before being 'The First Woman In The Navy, Super Hot Heroine Arisukawa Haruna' will be the kind of person people go to for newspaper quotes. People are going to respect you, and what you say is going to have some real weight. Hell, they'll be pulling out a chair for you at any political party you want to back."
That… you weren't sure about. Politics was your father's world, and you always kind of resented him for going into it instead of staying in the Navy and being a proper admiral. But… maybe it wasn't just about your fantasies of battleships and command. Maybe after the airplanes came and sunk all the ships, you'd still have a job after all.
"I think the first woman in the navy super hot heroine Arisukawa Haruna has some policy decisions to plan out, just in case." You said. "Maybe about colonial policy."
"Just maybe." Aiko said, kissed the top of your head with an indulgent smile.
"Oh spirits, that reminds me. You know they called me 'the woman' when I started?" You said, and Aiko broke into an incredulous smile.
"Really?"
"Yeah, when I wasn't 'the girl'..." You said with a groan.
"You like it when I call you 'girl,' though," Aiko said with a particularly unfair grin. Before you could open your mouth to protest, she continued. "I'm gonna get pruney if I stay in much longer, so… wanna go back to you room, girl?"
Fuck. You had it so bad for her.
---
The weekend came to an end, and for the rest of the week you had a lot less time with her. She had school. Beside that, the funerals and memorial services were taking up a lot of time. You had three in one day at one point, and one for a father and son at the same time. Then there was the one cousin who'd found Joshua, which was not only sad but also awkward. None of you knew what you were supposed to be doing while some old white guy muttered something about ashes and waved a book at the assembled mourners.
It was not a good time. For a while there, you got home, cried your makeup into a mess, reapplied, and went back out after making sure you hadn't gotten anything on your uniform.
Finally, though, it was over. You spent your last day, the day before New Years Eve (New Years Eve Eve?) with Aiko, lounging about a hotel room until the hour you had to leave, trying to pretend it wasn't happening. Unfortunately, reality was not to be denied.
You couldn't have her accompany you to the docks, so you left her at the door with the longest kiss you could and forced yourself to continue down the hall and to your waiting car.
The boat had seen some hasty work in the last ten days to fix up the leaking issues and address some minor concerns. Thankfully, the rungs on the ladder to the conning tower had been replaced with ones that weren't spaced so far apart, which made it a lot easier to climb to the hatch. You took one last look out at Tokei, gripped in the worst winter in generations, and then you disappeared below.
At least it was warm in here.
There'd been some minor shuffling of enlisted crew and some work on the interior. There were new handholds bolted everywhere, which was welcome when the ship pitched to dive, and new light sockets and bulbs that cast the sub in a brighter and warmer light. There was supposed to be a heater for the shower(aka hose with a shower head), but a notice said it was already broken and the boat was being launched without it. But the thing that most caught your attention was the new station with a little seat in the radio closet.
"What's this thing?" You asked Kenshin.
"Didn't you get the paperwork?" He said, and you shook your head. "Not a surprise, everything's been a mess. You're not the signals officer anymore, you've got a new title. Um, electric warfare or something, some fancy bullshit. Point is, you've still got the radio and hydrophone, but now you have…"
[ ] Magnetic Detector: The submarine has a special piece of equipment on the nose called a Magnetometer, and changes in the dials measure the presence of steel objects. I-02 is now the most effective machine in the world for finding mines, submarines, and other hidden things. (Hot sub on sub action)
[ ] Interceptor Antenna: An extra tall radio mast that can be extended while surfaced to pick up distant radio traffic. Perfect for intercepting and listening in on enemy radio signals, which is why the new station seats the crew's decrypting specialist. (Sneaky spy shit)
[ ] Wire Guided Torpedo: They've made a new version of the manually guided torpedo you'd experimented with on the Minisub, and its much superior now. It uses two different wires inside a single insulated case for increased control, you have a pair of buttons at the station and knobs that determine the projected turning angle by regulating the length of the signal for you. (Good old fashion convoy raiding.)
Adhoc vote count started by open_sketch on Mar 18, 2019 at 12:24 PM, finished with 3722 posts and 34 votes.
[X] Interceptor Antenna: An extra tall radio mast that can be extended while surfaced to pick up distant radio traffic. Perfect for intercepting and listening in on enemy radio signals, which is why the new station seats the crew's decrypting specialist. (Sneaky spy shit)
[x] Wire Guided Torpedo: They've made a new version of the manually guided torpedo you'd experimented with on the Minisub, and its much superior now. It uses two different wires inside a single insulated case for increased control, you have a pair of buttons at the station and knobs that determine the projected turning angle by regulating the length of the signal for you. (Good old fashion convoy raiding.)
[X] Magnetic Detector: The submarine has a special piece of equipment on the nose called a Magnetometer, and changes in the dials measure the presence of steel objects. I-02 is now the most effective machine in the world for finding mines, submarines, and other hidden things. (Hot sub on sub action)
[X] Interceptor Antenna: An extra tall radio mast that can be extended while surfaced to pick up distant radio traffic. Perfect for intercepting and listening in on enemy radio signals, which is why the new station seats the crew's decrypting specialist. (Sneaky spy shit)
"It's simple, really," AIko said, beaming. Spirits, she was so pretty when she was being a nerd. "Electricity flows in circular motions called circuits. It's like a train line: one train is always arriving at the station as the other leaves, so a block on the line stops every train. When you're pressing the switch, it completes the circuit between the wires carrying the electric current and the wires for the light bulb, so they get power. The filament in the light bulb doesn't let electricity through easily, so the resistance is converted to heat, but the vacuum inside the bulb prevents it from burning even at very high temperatures. So instead it glows and we get light."
[X] Interceptor Antenna: An extra tall radio mast that can be extended while surfaced to pick up distant radio traffic. Perfect for intercepting and listening in on enemy radio signals, which is why the new station seats the crew's decrypting specialist. (Sneaky spy shit)
To be honest, this sounds the coolest. I mean, sub on sub action is interesting, but...
[X] Interceptor Antenna: An extra tall radio mast that can be extended while surfaced to pick up distant radio traffic. Perfect for intercepting and listening in on enemy radio signals, which is why the new station seats the crew's decrypting specialist. (Sneaky spy shit)
Ahhhhh I love this quest so much. That was such a wonderful way of peeling back those sorts of blinders and looking at privledge- tucked under the arm of her geek/jock girlfriend at the hot springs. It sets us up really well for the future, and the mom talk was... Well.
[X] Interceptor Antenna: An extra tall radio mast that can be extended while surfaced to pick up distant radio traffic. Perfect for intercepting and listening in on enemy radio signals, which is why the new station seats the crew's decrypting specialist. (Sneaky spy shit)
I like sneaky spy stuff! We've been doing pretty well with the torpedos we have and I'm not sure sub vs sub is at all a good idea- especially given the reminder of how hard it is to escape a sinking sub.
