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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[X] You have a cashier job at a hardware store, of all things. At least you have relevant experience, but sometimes it honestly feels like you're still stuck at home working for your dad. You feel trapped there. And they make you change all the lightbulbs because you're tall and you 'know electricity'.

[X] Yada Azami, a nice older lady who is out here living on her own for the first time ever. You don't know why, but you think her husband died or something, and you're not sure where her kids are, or if she even has any. She's been doing work as a seamstress, and has filled her side of the room with materials to sew uniforms even after her shift.

[X] Something really complicated that only you could do. The Navy wanted these little pocket torches for night use, but the only factory that made small lights are making signal lights now, so you had to put together the components yourself. You assembled, tested, and approved each one, but half the time the parts you got didn't work so you had to bend, file, and adjust each piece until it did. They wanted six a day, and you could barely manage it.
 
[X] You have a job at a movie theater selling tickets, helping people find their seats, and dealing with complaining patrons with the biggest forced smile you can muster. Last week someone complained that the ghost story film scared their three year old and you wanted to ask them why the hell they brought a three year old to see a horror picture.

[X] Watanuki Mai, a single girl in a bit of a complicated spot. She's a late bloomer who was midway through figuring herself out when the conscription papers landed in her mailbox, and the Army left her in Tokei by the time it was all said and done. She has a job working for the trolley lines, and has some modest little boxes of leather scraps she uses to make straps for helmets and boots.

[X] Something really complicated that only you could do. The Navy wanted these little pocket torches for night use, but the only factory that made small lights are making signal lights now, so you had to put together the components yourself. You assembled, tested, and approved each one, but half the time the parts you got didn't work so you had to bend, file, and adjust each piece until it did. They wanted six a day, and you could barely manage it.
 
[X] You have a job at a movie theater selling tickets, helping people find their seats, and dealing with complaining patrons with the biggest forced smile you can muster. Last week someone complained that the ghost story film scared their three year old and you wanted to ask them why the hell they brought a three year old to see a horror picture.

[X] Watanuki Mai, a single girl in a bit of a complicated spot. She's a late bloomer who was midway through figuring herself out when the conscription papers landed in her mailbox, and the Army left her in Tokei by the time it was all said and done. She has a job working for the trolley lines, and has some modest little boxes of leather scraps she uses to make straps for helmets and boots.

[X] Something really complicated that only you could do. The Navy wanted these little pocket torches for night use, but the only factory that made small lights are making signal lights now, so you had to put together the components yourself. You assembled, tested, and approved each one, but half the time the parts you got didn't work so you had to bend, file, and adjust each piece until it did. They wanted six a day, and you could barely manage it.

I was amused by changing lightbulbs at the hardware store because we know electricity but I think Akio would have looked for something else first and got it. Watanuki Mai fits the quest themes best. Torchmaking drills some of the key practical skills of her field and will complement the degree.
 
[X] You're helping sort paperwork for a small local factory. They make buttons for uniforms. It's very important and extremely boring. The overabundance of patriotic posters telling you how important the work you're doing is for the war effort doesn't help.

[X] Inaba Chizu, a fellow student, though she's a third year at Tokei U studying economics. She seems really patriotic, but you're pretty sure she just really hates the Caspians, because you think she might be a communist. You try not to look too closely in case it gets you in trouble. She's got a sanding bench out back for woodworking: like a lot of women from rural areas, she's carving stuff for the Army. In her case, handles for ammunition boxes.

[X] Something a bit more time consuming, packing rifle cleaning kits. Oh, it was easy work, you just grabbed one of everything from the boxes and putting them in a little cheap canvas bag (probably sewn by another girl just like you somewhere else), then throwing them in the last box. The problem was you needed to do a hundred and fifty a day, or they'd give the boxes to somebody else. With a dozen fiddly little bits each, none of which you understood, that took time.

Secret Communist roommates are the best. As is having a part-time job without pushy grad students. And rifle cleaning kits is the best balance between free time and the social currency it gets us.
 
[X] You have a cashier job at a hardware store, of all things. At least you have relevant experience, but sometimes it honestly feels like you're still stuck at home working for your dad. You feel trapped there. And they make you change all the lightbulbs because you're tall and you 'know electricity'.
[X] Inaba Chizu, a fellow student, though she's a third year at Tokei U studying economics. She seems really patriotic, but you're pretty sure she just really hates the Caspians, because you think she might be a communist. You try not to look too closely in case it gets you in trouble. She's got a sanding bench out back for woodworking: like a lot of women from rural areas, she's carving stuff for the Army. In her case, handles for ammunition boxes.
[X] Something really complicated that only you could do. The Navy wanted these little pocket torches for night use, but the only factory that made small lights are making signal lights now, so you had to put together the components yourself. You assembled, tested, and approved each one, but half the time the parts you got didn't work so you had to bend, file, and adjust each piece until it did. They wanted six a day, and you could barely manage it.
 
[X] You have a job at a movie theater selling tickets, helping people find their seats, and dealing with complaining patrons with the biggest forced smile you can muster. Last week someone complained that the ghost story film scared their three year old and you wanted to ask them why the hell they brought a three year old to see a horror picture.
[X] Watanuki Mai, a single girl in a bit of a complicated spot. She's a late bloomer who was midway through figuring herself out when the conscription papers landed in her mailbox, and the Army left her in Tokei by the time it was all said and done. She has a job working for the trolley lines, and has some modest little boxes of leather scraps she uses to make straps for helmets and boots.
[X] Something really complicated that only you could do. The Navy wanted these little pocket torches for night use, but the only factory that made small lights are making signal lights now, so you had to put together the components yourself. You assembled, tested, and approved each one, but half the time the parts you got didn't work so you had to bend, file, and adjust each piece until it did. They wanted six a day, and you could barely manage it.
 
[X] You have a cashier job at a hardware store, of all things. At least you have relevant experience, but sometimes it honestly feels like you're still stuck at home working for your dad. You feel trapped there. And they make you change all the lightbulbs because you're tall and you 'know electricity'.
[X] Inaba Chizu, a fellow student, though she's a third year at Tokei U studying economics. She seems really patriotic, but you're pretty sure she just really hates the Caspians, because you think she might be a communist. You try not to look too closely in case it gets you in trouble. She's got a sanding bench out back for woodworking: like a lot of women from rural areas, she's carving stuff for the Army. In her case, handles for ammunition boxes.
[X] Something really complicated that only you could do. The Navy wanted these little pocket torches for night use, but the only factory that made small lights are making signal lights now, so you had to put together the components yourself. You assembled, tested, and approved each one, but half the time the parts you got didn't work so you had to bend, file, and adjust each piece until it did. They wanted six a day, and you could barely manage it.
 
[X] You have a cashier job at a hardware store, of all things. At least you have relevant experience, but sometimes it honestly feels like you're still stuck at home working for your dad. You feel trapped there. And they make you change all the lightbulbs because you're tall and you 'know electricity'.
[X] Inaba Chizu, a fellow student, though she's a third year at Tokei U studying economics. She seems really patriotic, but you're pretty sure she just really hates the Caspians, because you think she might be a communist. You try not to look too closely in case it gets you in trouble. She's got a sanding bench out back for woodworking: like a lot of women from rural areas, she's carving stuff for the Army. In her case, handles for ammunition boxes.
[X] Something really complicated that only you could do. The Navy wanted these little pocket torches for night use, but the only factory that made small lights are making signal lights now, so you had to put together the components yourself. You assembled, tested, and approved each one, but half the time the parts you got didn't work so you had to bend, file, and adjust each piece until it did. They wanted six a day, and you could barely manage it.

Communist roomie paired with the ability to be pushy about people not hassling her for being a communist.
 
[X] You've been working at the school over the summer, assisting a grad student assisting a professor. You were hoping to do science stuff, but all you do is carry things and make tea. You're doing your best to please the professor because he'll be teaching you soon, but the grad student is a bit… he's not good with boundaries. You're glad you're so much taller than him.

[X] Inaba Chizu, a fellow student, though she's a third year at Tokei U studying economics. She seems really patriotic, but you're pretty sure she just really hates the Caspians, because you think she might be a communist. You try not to look too closely in case it gets you in trouble. She's got a sanding bench out back for woodworking: like a lot of women from rural areas, she's carving stuff for the Army. In her case, handles for ammunition boxes.

[X] Something really complicated that only you could do. The Navy wanted these little pocket torches for night use, but the only factory that made small lights are making signal lights now, so you had to put together the components yourself. You assembled, tested, and approved each one, but half the time the parts you got didn't work so you had to bend, file, and adjust each piece until it did. They wanted six a day, and you could barely manage it.
 
[X] Watanuki Mai, a single girl in a bit of a complicated spot. She's a late bloomer who was midway through figuring herself out when the conscription papers landed in her mailbox, and the Army left her in Tokei by the time it was all said and done. She has a job working for the trolley lines, and has some modest little boxes of leather scraps she uses to make straps for helmets and boots.
 
I wonder if it would be possible to enlist some help with things like bending and filling down components and then Aiko spot checks/adjusts the circuitry.

Spirit of industrialism and stuff
 
A1-2: A Day In The Life
  • Threadmarks
    • You pushed the door to your room open and, as best you could, tried to navigate the pile of boxes, baskets, and bags on the floor, swearing as you step on one of Mai's leatherworking tools and kicking it across the room in frustration. Honestly, it was more your fault than hers: all she had to her name was two changes of clothes and some writing supplies, while you had all your notes and books still sitting in baskets, unpacked and mostly unstudied over the summer. You cast a quick look over the shelves on her side of the room, then decided you didn't have time for this.

    "Mai! Did you take Isami's stupid magazine?"

    "Which one?" Mai replied, sliding open the door on the opposite side of the room that opened on the interior courtyard. It had once been a pretty little garden but now with the war on, it had been turned into something of a communal kitchen garden to supplement rations. Mai had a kerchief around her head and her hands still had damp soil stuck to them--she must have been doing the weeding or something.

    Mai herself was actually a little shorter than you with a build that suggested gracefulness, though she still seemed pretty awkward most of the time. It didn't help that her hair was still boyishly short, something she did her best to hide using scarves, hats, and other subterfuge. Sadly, hair only grew so fast, and she had related to you that it was only standing in line with the other conscripts, watching them have their head shaven one by one by an Army barber, that she'd realized fully who she was.

    "I dunno, Illustrated Women's something," you replied. You didn't bother with the local fashion rags: you had the hookup from your Tokei U friends who subscribed to the Gallian and New Allegheny magazines. The style over there this summer was short dresses that showed off plenty of calf which seemed much nicer to you than the conservative ankle-length skirts still in vogue in Akitsukuni. According to your friends, designers here were actually mandated by the government how short the skirts could be, for whatever reason. It was probably the Albians. Or maybe the Dyske. They hated fun. Too bad it wasn't a Caspian thing or else you could use the war as an excuse to show off your legs.

    "...I was reading it last night, but I left it in the common room. Maybe someone else picked it up?" Mai said, reaching up to scratch her chin before she remembered that she had dirt on her hands. "I know Yada-san was collecting stuff for the combustible waste collection this morning… She'd ask before throwing anything like that out, though, right?"

    "Yeah, of course!" You said with a giant smile. Those magazines were 100% on fire right now. You turned back to the main room. "I think Yada-san has it, Isami!" There, that was out of your hair.

    You decided to try and get two more flashlights done now to save you work tomorrow: you had an extra-long shift on Saturday, as that was government payday. The theater you worked at was within walking distance of Yutani Arsenal, the big cannon-making plant, so it tended to get flooded at shift change and then again after supper when the workers would bring their families down to see a picture.

    "How's the garden?" You pulled your boxes of components out onto the engawa along a cushion so you could make use of the natural light and get in a little conversation with your roomie, who has bent over the greenery and neat rows, back at work. You liked Mai--unlike you, she had grown up in a rural town and was used to growing vegetables wherever there was space, so she took the lead on the kitchen garden.

    "Good. These cucumbers are ready, we should do something with them for dinner. And these eggplants are ripe, too…"

    "... and I'm gonna be at the theater." You said.

    "Oh. Right. Yeah. Um… I'm gonna. Go back to weeding now." Mai shuffled awkwardly to the next row of vegetables and bent to return to her weeding while you sat down to fiddle with another set of flashlight parts and try, desperately, to make it emit light.

    Maybe Haruna would get one.

    ---

    In the end, you only managed to get one of the lights working. The other went in your box of hopeless cases, which you'd turn back in. They always glared when you did, but electricity was delicate and there wasn't anything you could do about that.

    You'd just managed the rush as theater two emptied and filled again, and now you just had to deal with a few stragglers. An older man and woman, probably a married couple. Also a gaggle of young men in fresh army uniforms and shaved heads who were still standing around talking in the lobby. Talking loudly. You bowed, politely.

    "Excuse me, honored patrons. Could you please move into the theater? The picture is about to begin." You indicated with your hand to the entrance, as if they could possibly miss it in the tiny lobby.

    "Of course, dear--my husband just likes to explain how the projector works when we come here. He's so fascinated with these things, you know." The older woman smiled at you and gently nudged her husband towards the theater with the urgency of someone who has heard how a projector works probably a dozen times in the last year. Sadly, the soldier boys were not nearly as accommodating.

    "It's not like we're going to miss anything. They also show advertisements before the picture starts," one of the young men said with a scoff (and an accent that suggested this was his first time in the big city). "We'll decide when to go in." There was muted agreement and laughter from the others.

    "Besides, pretty girls like you should really be happy to keep the defenders of the homeland company, right?" Another one said, practically leering at you. Ugh. There were always some idiots who thought that being in a uniform, no matter what branch, meant that you'd swoon at their feet.

    Why weren't there cute sailors at this theater, at the very least? Not that you minded the army, but growing up where you had, you'd always been more of a navy girl. The guys looked good in the white-

    Hold on, Aiko. Job to do.

    "I'm terribly sorry, but once the projector starts up we aren't permitted to allow anyone entrance so as to preserve the viewing experience of other patrons. Please enter the theater as soon as possible to ensure a pleasant viewing experience for everyone," you said in your calmest customer service voice, a smile still plastered on your face. Then, you couldn't resist:

    "I do keep the defenders of the homeland company, but I'm afraid my particular defender wears white." They'd assume you meant a boy and leave you alone, hopefully. You were right, of course because who would believe some random college girl working at a movie theater would be dating the Princess. There was a muted grumble-slash-groan from the group of new soldiers ("I knew I should have joined the Navy.") and they finally turned to pile into the theater.

    You headed back behind the ticket booth and leaned against the desk, breathing a sigh of relief. You hated dealing with stuff like that. At least you'd have some free time while the films played and you got ready for the next showing. It was a popular double feature with a patriotic swordplay film about a noble warrior helping to expel the foreigners and their weird religion from Shimazu at the end of the warring states period, while the other was a comedy about a good-natured but dimwitted handyman who ended up in increasingly absurd situations with plenty of pratfalls and silliness that were only possible through the magic of film.

    You'd enjoyed them both of the films the first time, but you'd seen them about two dozen times now and got nothing from it. You were basically mouthing along with the presenters at this point. The gag where the handyman was being chased by his angry neighbors and everyone paused to bow and salute a passing military parade still cracked you up every time, though. It was the fact that the shot lingered so long in the otherwise madcap film, like thirty seconds out of the total runtime. It absolutely felt like that when you were trying to go about your day and an Army unit marched down your street or whatever.

    "Hey Aiko… boss wants you to stand by projector 1. It's overheating or something. I'll take over the booth."

    You shared your shift with Hinata, who'd been there longer and had basically shown you the ropes. They were in some way related to the owner of the theater, though not closely, and their infinite patience dealing with shitty customers was the honest thing that kept you going. You asked them once how they always managed to stay calm, and they told you they'd go out after their shift and take a carpet beater to their futon to get rid of dust. It also helped them to imagine the face of whichever customer had most aggravated them that day, so they said.

    You spent the rest of your shift sitting by projector one, occasionally running to the fusebox. Fortunately, the show was never interrupted, but by the end of the night you were starting to get worried for the thing. It was already two years old, and hadn't exactly been a high-quality piece when it was bought.

    Shift finally finished, you trudged home, head swimming from the summer heat, made worse by the proximity to the projector in the small, stifling projection room. You reached the boarding house, shuffled into the room (Mai was already asleep, face down in her futon). You stepped over your stuff, shifted as much of it to the side as possible, lay out your futon, and you were asleep almost instantly.

    ---

    The next day was packed, five flashlights and the long shift, but the day after that was your day off. You still didn't have a lot of time, because you had to catch up on the shortage of flashlights from the rest of the week, but then you could take a little time to socialize. You tried to do something at least a little productive, and stay in contact with some of your politically-minded college friends.

    [ ] It's just a little informal weekly get-together with some university friends. There was a supposed feminist bent to the whole thing, but honestly you mostly just gossiped about fashion and relationships and food and sex and stuff. It was a fun way to blow off steam and hang out with cool people.​
    [ ] You attended a woman's book club meetings, which was fascinating. It was a nice mix of reading for pleasure and some more politically-minded stuff. The group used to be really suffrage-focused a few years ago, and now it was just generically political.​
    [ ] You're doing a tiny amount of volunteer work for the Women's Equality League, as much as your limited time allows. Given your education, they're having you sort out letters in their office alongside a few other girls, so the party leaders can prioritize their responses. You get to hang out with a lot of really cool women though, and you're learning a lot.​
    ​
    This is the second and final of the Aiko Stat Binary choice: Serenity vs Activism. A low stress Aiko is more likely to be able to take on difficult tasks and hard introspection, while a high Activism Aiko can hold her own in arguments and more effectively stand up for herself and her rights.​
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] You're doing a tiny amount of volunteer work for the Women's Equality League, as much as your limited time allows. Given your education, they're having you sort out letters in their office alongside a few other girls, so the party leaders can prioritize their responses. You get to hang out with a lot of really cool women though, and you're learning a lot.
     
    [X] You're doing a tiny amount of volunteer work for the Women's Equality League, as much as your limited time allows. Given your education, they're having you sort out letters in their office alongside a few other girls, so the party leaders can prioritize their responses. You get to hang out with a lot of really cool women though, and you're learning a lot.
     
    open_sketch said:
    This is the second and final of the Aiko Stat Binary choice: Serenity vs Activism. A low stress Aiko is more likely to be able to take on difficult tasks and hard introspection, while a high Activism Aiko can hold her own in arguments and more effectively stand up for herself and her rights.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    What was the first?
     
    Flashlights got a patriotic bent then I'm assuming?

    [X] You're doing a tiny amount of volunteer work for the Women's Equality League, as much as your limited time allows. Given your education, they're having you sort out letters in their office alongside a few other girls, so the party leaders can prioritize their responses. You get to hang out with a lot of really cool women though, and you're learning a lot.


    [Snippet] Aiko gets into a debate over imperialism, similar to what she pointed out to Haruna with the double standards of Joseon occupation.
     
    [X] You're doing a tiny amount of volunteer work for the Women's Equality League, as much as your limited time allows. Given your education, they're having you sort out letters in their office alongside a few other girls, so the party leaders can prioritize their responses. You get to hang out with a lot of really cool women though, and you're learning a lot.
     
    [X] You're doing a tiny amount of volunteer work for the Women's Equality League, as much as your limited time allows. Given your education, they're having you sort out letters in their office alongside a few other girls, so the party leaders can prioritize their responses. You get to hang out with a lot of really cool women though, and you're learning a lot.

    I can honestly see Aiko as more likely to do the other two on her own. But her academic focus and the identity of her Beau would, I think, push her in this direction.
     
    [Snippet] Aiko "embezzles" some flashlight parts to get Haruna her flashlight.
    [Snippet] Aiko has to pay extra for postage because some romantic sop violated enveloppe weight limits

    On a side note, I'm slightly annoyed that the binary choice has three options. Though ,it's on brand
     
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