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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[] Plan: Perfectly Balanced, As All Things Should Be
-[ ] Haruna needs a fucking drink. (-1 Stress)
-[ ] Pass it off to Ishinari. He can handle it.
-[ ] You should probably apologize. Again. To both of them. And make an effort to be friendlier to Nashimoto. You shouldn't let on that you know he's afraid of you, but maybe being friendly and spending time with the two of them will help make things less awkward. (+1 Stress)
-[ ] Give him a commendation for his initiative in fighting the fire and recommend him for extra training off the boat. You know, after he's married his girlfriend so he can take her along. You'll need to send those letters about the legal stuff, though. (+1 Stress)
-[ ] You need some downtime. (-1 stress)

Memes/jokes aside, I think this actually makes sense? We drink a little, we relax, we 'pass it off to Ishinari' but by apologizing to Ishinari and clearly showing trust in him, it shouldn't be too bad? And being shown to care for our men is good.

Plus, all in all, that means that we neither gain nor lose stress! Which I'm sure is perfectly safe. But I think we can manage it?
 
[X] Plan: Perfectly Balanced, As All Things Should Be

As much as managing stress is probably a good idea, doing that at the expense of plot and drama seems much less interesting to me.
 
Also, I do think, by which I mean I've talked and stuff, that hitting 10 Stress now would be a lot less devastating than it would in other cases, like last time. We just acted heroically, and are also sorta in downtime already, so barring complete disaster we could probably have a breakdown and not hurt our career. Now, it'd still be bad, because it's a breakdown, but it's also drama, and if we *do* have a lot more war to go, I could probably make the argument that having a Breakdown now and getting to 0 stress would help open up options later, so that we don't breakdown in the middle of combat. We're in the middle of nowhere on a ship full of dead-end incompetents whose word means nothing if they report us acting odd. So I legit think that breaking down might actually mechanically be the best choice.

Who exactly on this dead end posting would even tell on us? Who precisely who had credibility? Who hasn't broken twice as many regs in the last day as we might in a breakdown. Still bad, but perhaps bad at the right moment.

I'm not going to go that far, because I don't think anyone would follow me, which is why "Perfectly balanced" is a sort of compromise where we actually do things.
 
Breakdowns
  • Informational
    • Hey just to give context, I'm gonna explain how Breakdowns work.

    When you hit 10 Stress, the Breakdown happens. It's really simple.

    First, all the Stress goes away, cathartically obliterated by the Breakdown.

    Then, we give you a series of choices. All of them will have long-term consequences, and they will vary depending on the situation. In a post like this, you might choose between Haruna gaining an addiction, losing a stat point from not keeping up training, messing up a friendship, or entering a new situation unready. In combat, it might be various injuries Haruna would take as the threshold is crossed.

    As a general rule, we will always make taking the last point of Stress a choice on your part. It will not always be a fun choice.
     
  • Informational
    • As much I really really want an stat increase she needs a break and lose those bloody stress, hope we can get another stat as soon as possible instead of 20 threadmarks later urgh!

    [X]Plan DAMCON
     
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    stairmaster said:
    There are other lose conditions besides having a breakdown though?
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    A Breakdown is not a lose condition. It's a consequence that can have repercussions for Haruna and her personal life or career or even bodily health depending on when the Breakdown happens. But it will never end the quest or stop the story.

    There really isn't a lose condition in this quest.
     
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    [X] Plan: Perfectly Balanced, As All Things Should Be

    That's how war is: ride the ragged edge, right up until we can't anymore.

    And Haruna is absolutely the sort of person who would feel worse about having not given every effort short of complete mental collapse than she would about overestimating her own resilience and tipping over that edge anyway.

    ...also, on a more meta note, I feel like a Breakdown is a good bet if we want to radically shift Haruna's attitude towards imperialism and the sort of Prussian "democracy" Akitsukuni presently enjoys in a more leftward direction both socially and politically.
     
    Is there a plan, currently, that does result in a breakdown but does not include indulging her drinking problem? Because I could go for some catharsis right about now, honestly, but the drinking Addiction seems really not like a good thing to have to deal with later.
     
    For the sake of argument, even though I am fighting a losing battle, having a breakdown now, during guranteed downtime is almost certianly better for us than potentially having to choose between a breakdown and something else going horribly wrong, potentially in a combat situation. We can't avoid it forever. We can't keep riding the edge for an eternity. We will have to make the choice at some point and it will be a hard choice later.

    So let's do it now, when we basically run this joint and can effectively keep our shit covered and keep the impacts to the career to a relative minimum.
     
    [x] Plan I WILL DO IT ALL
    -[x] Haruna is conscious that she's drinking too much, and tries to stop.
    -[x] Handle the paperwork yourself, make sure everything is perfect. (+1 Stress)
    -[x] You should probably apologize. Again. To both of them. And make an effort to be friendlier to Nashimoto. You shouldn't let on that you know he's afraid of you, but maybe being friendly and spending time with the two of them will help make things less awkward. (+1 Stress)
    -[x] Give him a commendation for his initiative in fighting the fire and recommend him for extra training off the boat. You know, after he's married his girlfriend so he can take her along. You'll need to send those letters about the legal stuff, though. (+1 Stress)
    -[x] Keep up intense exercises and training. Hit the books. (+1 Stress, +1 to a stat)
     
    thepsyborg said:
    Is there a plan, currently, that does result in a breakdown but does not include indulging her drinking problem? Because I could go for some catharsis right about now, honestly, but the drinking Addiction seems really not like a good thing to have to deal with later.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I was going to suggest mine, but I honestly like @Rockeye's right now.

    [X] Plan Break Down And Dry Up
     
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    I WILL DO IT ALL scares me. Just because we're voting for breakdown doesn't mean "full steam ahead, let's jump straight in the deep end of the crazy pool and see what happens!"

    [X] Plan Break Down And Dry Up
    -[X] Haruna is conscious that she's drinking too much, and tries to stop.
    -[X] Pass it off to Ishinari. He can handle it.
    -[X] You should probably apologize. Again. To both of them. And make an effort to be friendlier to Nashimoto. You shouldn't let on that you know he's afraid of you, but maybe being friendly and spending time with the two of them will help make things less awkward. (+1 Stress)
    -[X] Give him a commendation for his initiative in fighting the fire and recommend him for extra training off the boat. You know, after he's married his girlfriend so he can take her along. You'll need to send those letters about the legal stuff, though. (+1 Stress)
    -[X] You need some downtime. (-1 stress)

    That should _just_ hit 10. Tsuda earned his commendation. I was torn between paperwork and social for the last point of stress, but decided that if our breakdown affects the stuff we're trying to do I would rather not fuck up the paperwork. This may or may not be a terrible decision, but it'll be an easier one to pretend never happened years later.
     
    thepsyborg said:
    Is there a plan, currently, that does result in a breakdown but does not include indulging her drinking problem? Because I could go for some catharsis right about now, honestly, but the drinking Addiction seems really not like a good thing to have to deal with later.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I kind of feel like it's the reverse: it'll be easier to deal with the drinking problem later when we aren't under constant stress with few methods to relieve it.

    Although, as far as methods to relieve stress, I just read the sidestory and had an idea:

    [X] Haruna decides to remedy Akitsukuni's lack of good yuri bondage porn and starts writing her own, with the thought of maybe submitting it to a magazine under a pen name.
     
    The Sandman said:
    I kind of feel like it's the reverse: it'll be easier to deal with the drinking problem later when we aren't under constant stress with few methods to relieve it.
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    I need to look up the exact rules again but my understanding was that when a Vice becomes an Addiction you stop losing stress for indulging it and start gaining stress for not indulging it, meaning if we want to have "get drunk" as a -1 Stress option after the next traumatic event it is critical that we not let it hit Addiction status.
     
    thepsyborg said:
    I need to look up the exact rules again but my understanding was that when a Vice becomes an Addiction you stop losing stress for indulging it and start gaining stress for not indulging it, meaning if we want to have "get drunk" as a -1 Stress option after the next traumatic event it is critical that we not let it hit Addiction status.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    This assumes of course that the Breakdown doesn't come in the form of a catastrophic failure in Haruna's personal Twelve Steps Program.
     
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