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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Ooh, i like this one:
[] Haruna finally decides to play a board game, discovers miniature ship battles.
And an updated CAT vote, of course:
[] Among her talks with Nurse Miyoshi, Haruna mentions occasionally missing the cat from her first posting and the occasional comfort it provided, prompting Miyoshi to see if therapy cats (and fine, therapy dogs as well) would help her patients
 
[] Haruna finally decides to play a board game, discovers miniature ship battles.
[ ] Improbably, another officer at the hospital has a small collection of saucy Gallian novels.
c a t
[] Among her talks with Nurse Miyoshi, Haruna mentions occasionally missing the cat from her first posting and the occasional comfort it provided, prompting Miyoshi to see if therapy cats (and fine, therapy dogs as well) would help her patients
 
[] Someone tries a new form of war wearyness therapy which involve a form of group therapy to help foster a renewed bound of camaradie among the soldiers, Haruna feels surprisingly accepted in it.
 
[] Haruna witnesses a flag officer berating someone with war weariness and accusing them of cowardice.
 
chriswriter90 said:
That seams somewhat out of character given that this version of Imperial Japan seems to recognize that cowardice is completely different from shell shock/war neurosis.
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KInda?

Akitsukini seems to be going with the plan to send people to the hospital for a few weeks, and then back into battle. But what would the reaction be if they don't want to go back? If the doctors can't fix them in a few weeks?
 
[] Someone tries a new form of war wearyness therapy which involve a form of group therapy to help foster a renewed bound of camaradie among the soldiers, Haruna feels surprisingly accepted in it.
[] Haruna gets caught in the middle of a food fight.
 
[] Haruna finally decides to play a board game, discovers miniature ship battles.
[ ] Improbably, another officer at the hospital has a small collection of saucy Gallian novels.
[] Among her talks with Nurse Miyoshi, Haruna mentions occasionally missing the cat from her first posting and the occasional comfort it provided, prompting Miyoshi to see if therapy cats (and fine, therapy dogs as well) would help her patients
 
10ebbor10 said:
KInda?

Akitsukini seems to be going with the plan to send people to the hospital for a few weeks, and then back into battle. But what would the reaction be if they don't want to go back? If the doctors can't fix them in a few weeks?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
From what we've seen? Let them.
The problem is that people self-impose. They drag themselves back to war.

One common issue with PTSD is how it often manifests as being too well adapted for war. Reflexively diving for cover, twitchy reflexes, etc mainly harms their ability to live a normal life, but don't tend to be TOO detrimental on the battlefield. They can't relate anymore to people who hadn't known war first hand.

If they refuse to go back to war instead of fighting to go back to war, odds are good they'd be combat ineffective when they do get back to the front.
 
4-10: Not Your Girl
  • Threadmarks
    • You liked the nurse, at least. She was friendly, warm, and understanding. It helped. Made you feel like you weren't just fighting the doctor, even if you still didn't think you needed to be here. You didn't have any kind of war neurosis, honestly. It… did help to talk to people, though. And to feel like other people understood. Even the knowledge that other sailors and soldiers who were men had the same feelings as you did about the war felt like an immense help. It wasn't just you.

    You started to leave your room on the third day, settling into the common room with your books or strolling the gardens. You even started to socialize a little with the other patients, even if most (actually, all) of them were Army. One of them, Lieutenant Aoba, became a regular shogi partner. Neither of you were very good, but it was a way to pass the time.

    Like you, Aoba thought being sent here was absurd. He'd had a three-month long stint at the front, mostly manning an artillery observation post, and he told you without bravado that his sleep problems were because he missed the white noise of distant guns. You talked with him about your own experiences once or twice, particularly the way you had felt on the deck of the I-02, directing the deck gun's fire against an enemy escort, which he compared enthusiastically with directing artillery by telephone.

    "Nono, the delay is the fun part. So you call for an adjustment, and then you get to count. We'd get out our watches and count it out. Battery Stamp, 75 seconds. Battery Sparrow, 89 seconds. Pretty much always on the dot."

    "Sounds like torpedoes. We'd time the run and wait to hear an explosion, see if we got the target since once you fire your fish you want to make sure you're nowhere near the surface. The Caspian escorts were fond of shelling. And ramming, if they could get close enough."

    "I really miss it. I hope the lads are okay." He said, wringing his hands. "I don't know who they got to replace me. Some kid, probably." AOba was younger than you, and so the idea of him calling anyone kid was… well, you had to do your best not to smile.

    "I know the feeling. My senior petty officer was wounded in the last engagement and I haven't been able to find out how he's doing." It felt calming to be able to be open about how you were feeling. It was a sort of frankness that you weren't used to. It was, nice though.

    Privately you thought maybe Aoba really did need the time here. He flinched every time an ambulance backfired outside, and one time the sound of a kettle whistling sent him diving to the floor of the common room, where he hugged the carpet until two of the orderlies gently coaxed him back to his feet, shaking and sweating.

    Electric kettles weren't allowed in the common room after that. They sounded too much like incoming shells. That meant having to go to the canteen for hot water for tea, but you thought it was a small sacrifice, all things considered. While you were having some trouble sleeping, you didn't think that you were really suffering from any kind of mental or emotional trauma. Hell, some of the men here were practically catatonic and did nothing but stare out the window all day. You felt guilty, taking up a bed that someone who actually needed help might need. You reminded yourself that it wasn't your fault--it was the higher-ups who thought you might be disturbed from your brief experience.

    On day five, there was an inspection. You weren't required to turn out for it--you were a patient--but it meant the doctor and several other men in uniforms leading some other asshole through the ward by the name of General Higashikuni. The name was familiar--again, one of the many extended families that you were somehow related to. So technically your cousin, even if you'd never met him before, and you vaguely recalled some impolite stories about him. He was a sour, broad man with an equally broad moustache in a general's uniform and your brief run-in with him was unpleasant.

    You were in the common room with Aoba, playing your millionth game of shogi (Aoba was talking about getting two more people to play a different game with you. He'd learned to play a Cathayan game called mahjong on a pre-war deployment and was eager to get more people to try it) when the gaggle of bigshots entered the room. The doctor was explaining something.

    "--This is the common area of the officer's ward, where our patients can socialize with each other, read books, listen to music, and so forth. We find that helping them maintain a sense of normalcy is important to a speedy recovery. Naturally, they're free from regular discipline here--no saluting required, undress uniforms and so forth--" The general let out a rough scoffing noise and glared around the room.

    "No discipline? How are they supposed to be ready to go back to the fight without discipline? When they're busy playing games? Bah." He didn't sound happy about this at all. "What's their motivation to get better if they get a holiday to sit on their asses and listen to Western records all day, hm?" The record player had been cornered today by an aficionado of Alleghanian ragtime and the energetic music had lifted the sunny spring day into something close to pleasant before the general had arrived.

    And then he spotted you, and said something quietly to the doctor. You didn't hear it, but you could imagine. You tried to ignore the feeling of being watched creeping up the back of your spine and reached out to move one of your pieces. Aoba was developing a rather ambitious attack and you needed to focus on fending off his attempts to put you into check.

    "Your move," you said, then looked up as the general and his entourage suddenly loomed up next to your table by the window.

    "Playing games? With a woman?" The general's already sour face was positively dark with anger. You privately hoped that he'd just have some kind of attack and drop dead right there, considering the vein in his forehead. He wasn't speaking to you, though. He was focusing in on the poor lieutenant sitting across from you, one hand on the piece he intended to move.

    "Ah…" Aoba's hand twitched, halfway to a salute out of reflex, immediately pale, eyes wide. "I-I ju-"

    "Look at this man," the general was talking to the doctor now. "There's nothing wrong with him! Nothing wrong at all!"

    "Sir, I understand that's what you may think but war neurosis is a real affliction that's been documented in Akitsukuni and Western medical journals--" The doctor, who you had thought a bit of a prat, was now doing his best to stand up for his patient. That earned him some points but it was clear that he was outmatched by the general.

    "Western medical journals? It's a Caspian plot to sap our men's will to fight, that's all it is," the general continued, thundering loud enough that everyone in the room was staring and trying to pretend they weren't. "This man should be back at the front where he belongs! If he's not a coward!"

    "General! No one wants to be back at the front more than our patients. Most of them argue very strongly not to be sent here--" Spirits help him, he was trying.

    "Then why are they here, eh? That's the problem with eggheads like you. Bespectacled little pencil-pushers making cowards out of good soldiers! Cowards who are too busy flirting and playing board games to get back on their feet!" He seized Aoba by the collar and pulled him up to stand, as the poor man sputtered and tried to get a sentence together.

    "S-Sir, I--"

    The general slapped him and it felt like all the air had gone out of the room.

    "All these men should be at the front, and if they can't do that, take the honourable way out. It's a disgrace--" He said, as he stormed out of the room. It felt like everyone was frozen, you included. Aoba's legs went out from under him and he collapsed to the floor, sobbing. You hesitated, not sure how to responded, then knelt and tried to help him to his feet.

    One the doctors came back in, looking shocked, and took stock of the room. You really wanted him to say something reassuring right now. That the general didn't have authority here, that he'd never come back, to dispute what was said.

    But the words must have failed him, because he turned and left again.

    "Fuck that asshole!" Someone said. "Put a new record on, the old one ran out." At some point during that, the record had finished. A moment later the music started again. It was bright and cheerful but it didn't do anything to lift your mood.

    "You're not a coward, Aoba," you said quietly. "You're not." He kept crying though, weeping until finally one of the orderlies gently led him out of the room.

    ---

    It was the same day that the doctor apparently thought you were well enough to let Min-Seo attend to you again. When you returned to your room, feeling despondent, she was there making the bed and trying to be useful. Now that she'd had a few days away from the front to get cleaned up, she looked almost like a completely different person. And it did not escape you how attractive that completely different person looked, even if she was a bit scrawny.

    "You can stop, Min-Seo. You are not my servant." You said. "We both know it."

    She frowned, and kept working. "So you going to rat me out?"

    "No! I am not going to tell anyone else. Our secret." Spirits, you were so clumsy in Joseon. It was like trying to speak with a child's vocabulary.

    She sighed in relief, dropped the pillow she was fluffing back on your bed. "Thank God. I wasn't sure how much I could pretend to do in this room before somebody got suspicious. You're infuriatingly neat, you know."

    "I try. So, what was your plan? Hope I played along until..?" You sat down and indicated for her to do the same. Talk on the same level.

    "Until it didn't work, and then come up with something else. It's what I've done as long as I can remember." She said softly. "I don't really have anywhere to go back to, but I figured you might be able to get me farther south. There might be work in the cities. To a certain value of work."

    "How do you mean?" You didn't quite understand her turn of speech.

    "There's always work where there are soldiers." She said simply. Oh.

    "I hope it doesn't come to that." You said, not really sure what else to say.

    "Wouldn't be the first time. What is this place, anyway? I'm not really sure what's going on, and I haven't really been able to talk to anyone. A hospital, right? Being treated for the head wound?"

    "It is a hospital, but it is for…" You tried to figure out how to articulate the idea of a psychological injury in your limited vocabulary, and it wasn't coming to you. For some reason, your Navy dictionary didn't have many psychological words. "... they think the war made me crazy."

    She laughed, for the first time since you met her. "They're going to need a bigger hospital. Nobody stays sane in a war. My father was never the same after his time."

    "You father was a soldier?" You asked, curious.

    "Yes. Fighting you." Min-Seo said pointedly. "Guess how well that went for him."

    You didn't know what to say to that.

    "So, is there… anything I can do?" You asked, finally. She shrugged.

    "Move the front line up a hundred kilometers so I can have my town back? Bring my brother back? Convince everyone to leave?" You shrugged helplessly. "Yeah. Look, I don't know why you give a shit, but all I need is to know what's going on so I know when to jump ship, okay? It's not like you're going to be here to 'protect' me in six months, or tomorrow."

    "I--" You started but she was still talking.

    "You're a strange one for an Aki, Lieutenant. I mean besides being a woman. Most of you don't even acknowledge we exist, let alone worry about keeping us alive or safe." The language barrier made it tough, but you could have sworn you were being condescended to. "You're probably better off looking for a wife somewhere else, though. Wouldn't be the first Aki to want to take me away from all this."

    "That is, uh, I-" You stumbled terrible. That wasn't your intention!

    "It's fine, I'm honestly rather flattered, but I'm not that desperate yet. I have an aunt down south and she'll have a place for me to stay. Unless you're, like, a princess or something that can promise me a life of endless luxury." She laughed, apparently thinking that was a pretty funny joke she had just made.

    "Well, I-"

    "You'd have asked me five months ago, I might have answered different." She laughed again. "I have a bit saved up now, fortunately."

    From selling brass, you figured.

    "Well, uh, let me know if you need anything." You said, completely out of your depth.

    More snippets!​
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Let's do something wild and remember we have an actual support network and not all decisions need to be made by us.

    [ ] Ask Aiko what she thinks you should do to help Min Seo. Be completely open about the story so far.
     
    [ ] Try to read a book on introductory electrical.. stuff so you can try to impress Aiko


    That general is a diiiiiick.
     
    Okay just gonna head one off at the pass here.

    [] At the most narratively hilarious moment, the fact that we're royalty gets out to Min-Seo.​

    We're not going to do this. It would be a cheap beat and undermine a lot of the dynamic here.
     
    That didn't go quite how I expected, but in retrospect it makes sense. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking of Min-Seo as a full time victim without any agency of her own who exists just for us to save her, but that completely erases how successful she's been at figuring out what she needs to do to get through her awful circumstances. For all that we've really helped her out sometimes, she's been doing a pretty damn good job of saving herself to the extent that her circumstances permit, and that's something to be respected. It's also easy to forget that we are at best a less personally odious face on the same force that responsible for virtually every bad thing in her life. It's no wonder that we didn't see some kind of outpouring of desperate gratitude.
     
    Himmelhand said:
    That general is a diiiiiick.
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    He's modeled after another such general, a certain George S. Patton of "Battle fatigue is a plot by the Jews to sap the fighting strength of our men" fame.

    We have the Akitsukuni the WW2 American treatment for combat stress reaction, so we might as well give them the same dickish officers too.
     
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