The Women's Equality League is important to you. Really! Haruna is out there doing her part for the women of Akitsukuni and the least you could do is help mimeograph pamphlets and sort letters and so forth. The last election had actually been a surprise for the leadership of the WEL because they hadn't expected to win
any seats and now they had them. Which meant that it would be easier to get more since they would automatically be on the ballot for both men
and women, and not risk being shunted off by the shifting wind of bureaucracy. You'd… found some of the slogans and outreach work they'd done to get that a bit distasteful, a little too pandering to husbands and fathers and stuff, but they had to get their foot in the door.
It just meant a
lot on top of work, war work, and school once the summer ended, which it would. You were already winding down towards the resumption of classes and you were trying very hard not to think about it. Even if you really wanted to get back to class at the same time.
That evening's meeting of your local WEL chapter involved a few of you sitting around reading letters or stuffing envelopes with form letters and flyers urging supporters to be ready for the next election and to participate in local politics however they could. Which meant you had plenty of time to sit and listen to people argue specific policies or fret about the war.
Along with yourself, Chizu, one of your other roommates was a member. Surprisingly, Mai had quietly asked if she could come along, too, last month and had quickly joined in, though she didn't talk much. She was embarrassed still, you thought. She was practically the only really 'working class' person in the room--the rest of you were university students, housewives, or the professional 'new women' who made up so much of the accounting and banking business (among others).
Tonight's gathering was small, at least. There was you (of course), Mai, Chizu, your friend Konomi from school and a couple other university girls and some older women, and between you two giant bags of letters that had piled up in the party offices you'd be sorting out. The WEL got something like four hundred letters a
day after the election.
You were meeting in one of those older woman's houses. Her name was Shinmen Yuu and her grandfather, like a lot of the people who now made up the professional and upper-middle class had been a samurai and she still lived in the big, fancy house he had owned here in the capital. Her husband also lived there, supposedly, but you never saw him. Usually he was pulling late hours or otherwise busy. Yuu said that while he supported her political work, he didn't like getting involved too directly in what he called "women's business."
"That's a very old-fashioned way of looking at it, isn't it?"
"I think it's very modern."
"Very
western, you mean."
"Please, we talked about this."
"Either way, isn't that separation just a way to control women?"
"Look at the West, they've been separate for hundreds of years and women do everything--they can be chairpersons of big corporations, hold political office, even form governments.
Prime Ministrix Helen Henrietta Tennant leads the most powerful country in the world!" Konomi said, carefully enunciating the name. Probably to call attention to her skill in speaking Albian, the show off.
"We… We really can't count on men to look out for our interests. I like this. It's like, uh, unions, but for, like, being women. My dad's a union man." Mai said.
"What about your mum?"
"Her too! She minds the house, of course, but she makes food and helps organize the wives and such when there's gonna be a strike." Mai was quite proud of her family's history of labor agitation, apparently.
"The point is that if we're separate, isn't that just the way things
used to be? What if men and women worked together? I mean, like to get on the ballot, why don't we just keep that going?"
"It's different now! We might be separate but we've got equality."
"Remember, a man's vote counts for two of ours--that's not equality!" You said, throwing another letter in the low-priority pile. It was just a misdirected 'write to a representative' letter, so at some point somebody would pass it on.
"Well said--look, here's another for the hate mail pile. Ugh." Mai said, holding it away from her like it had a bad stench to it.
"Don't they have anything better to do than send us angry letters about how we're shaming the country?" Chizu asked, exasperated.
"Better than this one. It's… mother would call it 'lurid' if she saw it." Konomi said, blushing intensely.
"Is it any good?" You asked, curious.
"Ew! NO!" She said, throwing it away from her. You glanced curiously at the photo before it was spirited to the trash. Yeah, it was gross and unpleasant.
"Spirits, why do men like this shit? The women always look miserable." Yuu, said, wringing her hands like the photo had left a residue. Surprisingly, she had quite a liberated streak to her, and wasn't afraid to talk taboo topics, which the younger girls very much appreciated.
"It always really freaked me out." Mai said quietly.
"Yeah, exhibit A why I stay the hell away from boys." You said, throwing a due bill into the 'Money Stuff' pile.
"Not all men are like that." Yuu said. She was quite happy in her marriage. "Too many, but there are some that are worth it."
"I'm not particularly interested in rolling those dice." You insisted. You were your own person. You weren't going to give up your dreams to become part of some man's household. To basically become his
property.
"Yeah, it's… Aiko, I dunno if cutting men out of your life entirely is healthy." Konomi said. "I… spirits, I wish I could love men. I tried so hard. I don't know why you're throwing it away."
"All this stuff-" you swept your hand over the letters, "- all the votes and jobs and marches in the world won't mean anything if at the end of the day we're going home to men that still
want to control us." This was starting to actually upset you. It seemed so obvious to you! "You think if I marry a man, he'll let me have a career, work long nights on circuits, do all the studying I need to do?"
"Depends on the man. It'd probably be easier to try and normalize married women working than asking every woman in Akitsukuni to stay away from every man." Yuu chided.
"Yeah, there's a lot of guys out there, and at least some of them want things to change too." Mai said.
"We wouldn't have a seat in the Diet without guys like that." One of the new girls, you didn't know her very well, added.
You fumed. This was infuriating. Back home in Shimazu this was… not common, but it was a
thing that women were doing. You'd gotten the idea from Tsukiyama's older sister, who was studying to be a librarian and was really into politics. But here in Tokei it apparently hadn't caught on.
"I just don't understand why any of you would risk it." You asked.
"It's a part of life?" Chizu offered. "If you want kids or a nice family life, or if you like guys, you engage with men. It's not ideal, but few things are, and we can change it."
"So, what, the risk of domestic violence, of martial rape, of being murdered by your stupid jealous husband, all of that is just 'not ideal'?"
"Spirits, Aiko, who hurt you?" Konomi asked, real concern in her voice.
"Nobody
hurt me. I'm not like this because I'm
emotional, I can't believe I have to say that
here. I just know patterns when I see them."
"It's just, this isn't really productive." Yuu said. "Anger is a good motivator for justice, but it isn't justice itself. And all you seem to be doing is making yourself angry."
That triggered something. You knew that this wasn't actually Yuu looking out for her best interests, this was Yuu trying not to question her marriage, trying to protect her ego, trying not to admit that she was
sleeping with the enemy.
"Why aren't you angry? All men do is hurt us, and they don't stop with us either! When women in Europa started making gains, their men just went out and fucked up the new world, started slaving and pillaging. They came
here, they came for
us when they couldn't hurt the women back home!" Learning about what men from the West--what men from
Akitsukuni--had done to girls like you from Haruna had horrified you so fundamentally, it'd stuck in your mind and just kept coming back. It had made the distaste you had for the men around you into real anger.
"I… I don't think that's how that happened, Aiko…" Konomi said quietly. "There's been empires forever…"
"We have to force men to realize that this is going to have to be on our terms. They need us more than we need them. We do all this work to try to claw out a space that men don't want us to have, and then you want me to pick one and go, oh no, this one is special, I'm not going to work against
him-"
"We're working for women, not against men." Yuu said.
"
What's the difference?" You almost shouted. You weren't yelling. You were just… loud.
A silence descended over the group, and you threw another letter irritably into the low priority queue. It didn't really break until the end of the evening, except in small talk.
You were getting your stuff to leave when Yuu came to pull you aside. You were ready for this. For her to tell you to leave and never come back, that there wasn't a place in the WEL for you.
"Aiko, dear… are you okay? How can I help?"
… okay, you weren't ready.
---
A few minutes later, you were back at the low table, back at the spot you'd been sitting a few minutes earlier, except all the letters were cleared away and in its place, Yuu had just placed some tea. You were staring very intently at a small knot trapped forever in the wooden surface of the table, trying very hard to not think about anything.
"Thank you." You mumbled, taking the tea and moving it mechanically to your mouth. It was too hot, but you didn't want to look foolish, so you took a tiny sip and put it back down as fast as possible,
"Aiko… I'm really worried about you. I know that this work can be really stressful. We get exposed to the public's opinion of us, which can include some really awful stuff, but it's important that you remember that this is just a small sample of what-"
"It's not just that." You muttered.
"...Of course not, I'm just worried we're making it worse." She said sagely. "How are things going right now, generally?"
You mulled over the question a while, waiting for the tea to cool more. Told yourself you'd be able to talk once you had another sip.
You reached out, picked it up. Still a bit too hot. You drank anyway.
"I… I'm so busy." You confessed. Once you started talking, it was easier. "I barely have a second to myself. There's these meetings and my job and the war work and… I'm supposed to be studying for the start of the autumn term but I never have time. I feel like I'm… like I'm falling behind on everything, even things that don't have deadlines. Like I can't keep up with life."
"My sympathies. I can imagine it's stressful."
"And… and I'm scared, all the time. Like… there were these men, army guys, at the theater a few days ago, and they… I don't like having to deal with them. Always makes me feel shaky."
"And how are things with your girlfriend? She's in the WNA, right?"
That was a bit of a fiction. You wanted to prove to Haruna's mum that you could be trusted, and this seemed like such a good lie for those purposes. It was so near the truth that it plausibly covered almost any slip-up.
"I… I dunno. She's still posted out somewhere, I haven't seen her in months." You said helplessly. "Her last letter was really short and… I always get worried when that happens."
Her last letter had described some awful evening with the men she was stationed with, and some others from a supply ship. She hadn't told you everything, but you could imagine what was said. You'd talked to Mai about some of your feelings before, and she'd told you the things her friends used to say around her, back home. You imagined it was like that.
"Well, she shouldn't be at much risk, but I understand. My brother is in the Navy as well, a similar situation I think. He's always managed dockyards so he's probably not in active danger, but.. not knowing really tears at you."
You nodded.
"That's probably not helping, huh. Feeling like your girlfriend is in danger helping the men overseas. I can imagine that weighs on you."
You nodded numbly. Yuu looked like she was going to say something, but you could hear footsteps coming to the door, and she held up a hand to pause things and welcome her husband home from wherever he went while the meetings were being held.
Your mind provided you some disturbing possibilities.
"-just give me a moment dear, I'm talking with one of the girls." Yuu finished, coming back into the room.
"Right, the other thing. You mentioned having a brother once, right? In the Navy, I think?"
You nodded.
"Two brothers. My other brother is studying to be a lawyer." You explained.
"How are things with them? With your father?"
You shrugged helplessly.
"I… haven't really written to them since… in a few months." You said. Close to eight now. "I've sent one or two letters to Hideaki but…"
"I imagine it can't be easy, staying close to them with the way you think." She said, and you nodded. You tried not to think about it, it was just…
"Hideaki's only interested in men, though… He's different." Was that true, or were you making justifications? Did that really make him different?
"Let's not dwell on that right now, okay? Have you talked to anyone else about… all this? The way you feel about society? You're one of the more radical members of our little circle, but I've never heard anything like this from you before."
You shook your head.
"I try to keep it bottled up. I was going to talk about it with… my girlfriend, but she… we didn't have a lot of time, last time she was here. She actually had to leave one evening to go on a date with a guy too…" You said. "That's the thing, right? You just have to hold onto it, until you can talk to somebody you trust, but..."
"What I'm hearing is that there's nobody you trust but her, and you haven't seen her in months." Yuu summarized.
You nodded awkwardly. There was Konomi, but you'd sort of made some distance, since you and Haruna got together. There was mum... and dad, but they were so far away…
"I miss her so much." You said.
"I imagine. It probably isn't helping that you don't have anyone else to confide in except a woman whose off across the sea. It must be lonely."
It was.
"I don't know if I can handle this anymore. Being apart from her. I feel like I barely know her. I feel like she barely knows me." You said. "And I want to know her better, I want that, but if… when she comes back, it'll just be for a few days again, and then…" You waved your hands helplessly, to convey the feeling of loss. "Every time I see her it's for a few days or a week and then she's gone again because of her work."
Yuu just nodded sympathetically.
"I'm so tired." You finished. "I just want to be able to be close to her."
"Well, it is getting late. You said you have an early shift tomorrow? You should get home and get some rest. I think you need to think about some things, and how you're dealing with the world right now."
You nodded and got up to leave.
"See you next week, Aiko."
---
Surprise! Haruna, and by extension you guys, don't actually know Aiko super well. She's got a lot of her own stuff going on, and not all of it is great.
Also surprise: you gave Aiko the most stressful life imaginable. Unsurprisingly, she isn't handling it well.
How does Aiko adjust her life in the next week, to try to get things under control?
[ ] Aiko tries to find what free time she can to do some real relaxing. Use that school library card to read some old favourites and make time for herself, so she can look at things with a more objective viewpoint. (Roll Free Time)
[ ] Aiko makes a real effort to do some reconnecting in her life. With her brothers, with her parents, with Konomi. Properly try to be Mai's friend, instead of just her roommate. Stop holding out for Haruna to get back and make everything better. (Roll Serenity)
[ ] Aiko decides she's bitten off more than she can chew with the flashlights. When she takes this load back, she's gonna ask if she can paint helmets or something instead. (-2 Patriotism, +2 Free Time)
[ ] Aiko decides to cut back on her work with the WEL a little, requesting to leave letter sorting early to get proper sleep and reducing what other little obligations she has over the week, like distributing pamphlets. Probably cut down on awkwardness too. (-2 Activism, +2 Serenity.)
AikoQuest will not work much like the main quest. Aiko's stats change rapidly because she's young and dynamic, and finding a balance for what you need in the moment is important. AikoQuest also won't be super short like YachiQuest or SatomiVision was: we're going to be sticking with her for a bit and getting some insight into how life is going for people that aren't hero princesses or rich and connected airplane designers.
Rolls with be classic PbtA style: 2d6+Stat. 7-9 good, 10+ great, on a 6 or less we introduce some shocking twists. Rolls are not without consequence if you fail!
We will also accept snippet votes. As there isn't a strong mechanical system underlying AikoQuest, if you come up with good stuff, it'll probably help our poor girl.
