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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


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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This was great, thanks for writing!

[x] The Otrusian government, and how it turned socialist.
[x] Potential vacation spots you could bring Aiko: pretty islands in the Superum Sea? Secluded coves along the coast? Romantic mountain vistas?

First one because political education, second one because Aiko is a cute, and the negative stress will very likely be worth it.
 
[X] Plan Botes
-[X] The Otrusian navy, it's composition and recent history.

I tell you what people, I am absolutely starving for compositional and doctrinal details of naval forces in Gaya. The first Dreadnought ever built exploded! It blew up first time out! Submarines have demonstrated their worth! What is that going to do to shipbuilding programmes?! Do countries decide a Dreadnought is too many eggs and too much ammunition in one basket? Do we see gigantic predreadnoughts with turbine engines?

Sketch and AG have set up the most compelling early 20th century naval alternate history scenario I've ever seen and then spent a year talking about lesbians.
 
I don't imagine that we'll be able to get an in-depth look at the ship, or really any photos, but if we have an excuse of treating Aiko to Otrusian seaside cuisine, we might be able to catch a look or two and pass on some first impressions.
 
Espionage time! I cannot say I saw that coming. Those intelligence spooks seem to be on the ball.

Looking forward to this - but what country is Otrusia again?
 
I don't imagine that we'll be able to get an in-depth look at the ship, or really any photos, but if we have an excuse of treating Aiko to Otrusian seaside cuisine, we might be able to catch a look or two and pass on some first impressions.
We can probably tell a reasonable amount about a ship by just looking at her. If we can see her go through some evolutions that would be nice, if we can time her raising steam that might be something we can work into an estimate of engine specs. All of this can be done while playing footsie with Aiko in a cafe above the port. If we can get onto her so much the better but I'd avoid doing anything outright illegal.

We can definitely be cheeky though, play up the dopey foreigner to get places we arguably shouldn't be.
 
Yeesh, I wanted to vote for two, but how does Haruna always have too much stress?

[X] The Otrusian navy, it's composition and recent history.
 
I'm kinda wondering how we stack up against the Spaghettis in terms of naval strength and air strength, or at least their colonial force projection.
 
... we're spying on Italian Navy.

Fucking hell. The intelligence department must be more inconsistent and head-up-it's-ass than the one in Lord Admiral K's run of Rule The Waves.

Unless somehow they figured out how to get a good navy, in which case we should investigate for time-travelers.
I mean, they did have a revolution. If anything can change the direction of an institution, it's radical regime change.
 
"How was analytic geometry?" you asked.

"Fuck." Aiko replied, muffled by the pillows.
That's quite impressive, really! Sounds like Aiko is doing well.
war in the fractured states,
Is this the Not!Balkans or the warlords over in Cathay?
"It's ragtime," said Clara (Rose Sanders), "or at least, they're trying. An attempt was made."
Where's Gaya!Irving Berlin when you need him?
"Wait, really?" You reached out, trying to get hold of it and unable to manage it. The Atlas games were a recently started show of international cooperation and friendly competition. Amateur only, of course. They showed off all sorts of bits and pieces of national pride, from track and field athletics, to fencing and rowing, even auto races.
I heard they might be adding airplane races and painting this year.
"I'll make sure not to cause any international incidents, sir."
Of course not.

That's Asuka's job. :V

[X] The Otrusian navy, it's composition and recent history.
the first Dreadnought ever built exploded! It blew up first time out!
Wait, the Juggernaut blew up? When did that happen?

So far we know that we and the Caspians have hunters, and that New Allegheny was holding trials for something that sounded very much like it would be turned into a hunter, but given that the first aircraft Asuka designed was a replacement for an Akitsukuni copy of an Otrusian design, Otrusia might not have any native-built aerei da caccia. They certainly didn't have the pressure Akitsukuni or Caspia did to make one right the hells now.
 
I've got a bit of time, and have made it to my computer, so I'll do one of those mega-quote-posts.

"How was analytic geometry?" you asked.

"Fuck." Aiko replied, muffled by the pillows.

Calculus is a no-fun zone.
Actually it's not that bad once you get it but I've gotta take another one and I took the last one a year ago so I've forgotten everything

"Liaoning threw in with Dyskelande, apparently. I'm telling you, that's our next war." somebody at a nearby table was muttering, the paper laid out over the cards they'd been studying a moment before. "Could be any day now. We're going to have to keep the Cathay communists down and the Westerners out."

Huh; was there much communist support in the 1911 Chinese revolution, or is that new to the Gayaverse? I don't remember Communism being mentioned until the ROC, but it could just have been elided as unsuccessful.

More rumors swirling about the Cathayan court intrigue that continued to build around the increasingly ailing Emperor.

Interesting; I'm not sure if this was mentioned before. For context: IRL the Qing Emperor was very young, though his ailing grandmother, who was actually in charge after she sorta-did-a-coup because her son, the previous emperor, was too reformist too fast. I wonder what's different here, and if we'll still see the republican revolution in 1911; it happened pretty spontaneously, and beyond the Qing's collapse being more or less inevitable, there's no reason not to push it a few years either way, and the Emperor's death is as good a time as any to rebel.

You never thought you'd say this about a person, and even just thinking rankled against most of what you stood for, but she was rather too opinionated for a woman. She tended to spout off at every opportunity even when it was a situation where really, the polite thing to do was to just be quiet.

Would Clara Rose's behavior be seen as impolite in Akitsukuni if she were a man, or is this internalized misogyny on Haruna's part?

"the inherent eroticism of the sea."

I had a really stupid joke sexualizing waves for this but I forgot it. I don't think it's that big a loss.

I guess you could find Poseidon/Neptune kinda erotic if you're into guys?

Victory lap for the war against the Sultanate, you know.

Nice. Socialist and still doing colonialism, even if it is just stealing from the Ottomans.
 
Mochizuki beat her off the slips, if I recall. We're still going with Juggernaut as the Type Name for ships of the line of battle carrying a single calibre main armament though.

I think Juggernaut was completed first, but Mochizuki went into battle first.
 
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[X] The Otrusian navy, it's composition and recent history.
[X] The Otrusian government, and how it turned socialist.

Nuew said:
I had a really stupid joke sexualizing waves for this but I forgot it. I don't think it's that big a loss.

I guess you could find Poseidon/Neptune kinda erotic if you're into guys?
IDK I just asssumed that the dairy ended on a cliffhanger because the Lieutenant just yeeted herself into the water or something.


Anyhow, immense respect to @Artificial Girl and @open_sketch for making this quest both relevant and interesting. There's a sop for everyone: just enough military and alt-historical esotericism to satisfy the nerds without putting off the casual audience, enough slice-of-life for the slice-of-life people... it's a lot of work, making something that can so effectively distinguish itself from the rest, execute it's themes with such deftness.

It's heartening to see someone, even a fictional character, be so humanised, show so many faces and aspects of themselves, demonstrate fallibility for things big and small, and at the same time being actually strong even when they're second-guessing themselves. We can see their struggle, against themselves, against others, against society; their moments of joy and loss, of befuddlement and contentment, of just utterly being done with this world at times.

Haruna and Aiko have really grown on me, and I wish the best for them, especially at the Olympics as the Atlas Games roll up.

Netflix, stop making live action remakes of existing shows and bankroll these two already!
 
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[x] The Otrusian government, and how it turned socialist.
[x] Potential vacation spots you could bring Aiko: pretty islands in the Superum Sea? Secluded coves along the coast? Romantic mountain vistas?
 
[x] The Otrusian government, and how it turned socialist.
[x] Potential vacation spots you could bring Aiko: pretty islands in the Superum Sea? Secluded coves along the coast? Romantic mountain vistas?


Netflix, stop making live action remakes of existing shows and bankroll these two already!

Sadly this is probably too gay and too political radical for Netflix which is very sad since there needs to be more LGBTQ+ shows on Netflix.
 
Interesting; I'm not sure if this was mentioned before. For context: IRL the Qing Emperor was very young, though his ailing grandmother, who was actually in charge after she sorta-did-a-coup because her son, the previous emperor, was too reformist too fast. I wonder what's different here, and if we'll still see the republican revolution in 1911; it happened pretty spontaneously, and beyond the Qing's collapse being more or less inevitable, there's no reason not to push it a few years either way, and the Emperor's death is as good a time as any to rebel.

Basically, you shouldn't assume that everything is exactly parallel to our history. In Cathay, the current emperor was a strong-man reformer in his youth. He just reformed in the wrong direction following the defeat of his country in Gaya's version of the Opium Wars. Instead of modernizing, he doubled down on Imperial traditions, which had a short term benefit of strengthening his regime, but also left it vulnerable to further exploitation by colonial powers in the long run.

He's also like... 113 or so and despite having a clear mind, he is physically deteriorating by the day. And has a couple dozen possible heirs (though only five or six are real contenders) and has been keeping the lid on a nascent Republican movement for at least a decade if not longer.



Would Clara Rose's behavior be seen as impolite in Akitsukuni if she were a man, or is this internalized misogyny on Haruna's part?

Little of column A, little of column B. As a mysterious Occidental foreigner, Clara Rose is much more direct, blunt, loud and immodest than is usually considered polite by anyone in Akitsukuni, but especially so for women.


Mochizuki beat her off the slips, if I recall. We're still going with Juggernaut as the Type Name for ships of the line of battle carrying a single calibre main armament though.
Juggernaut was second.

IIRC Juggernaught was laid down first, but Mochizuki was first off the slips. And then caught a golden bullet in her fight against the Caspian fleet. Juggernaught is also slightly larger than Mochizuki, but then Albia decided to go for broke and make an even bigger battleship so they could keep bragging rights. That one is probably in her working up phase atm and was, iirc, 25K long tons. It's in one of the early updates.
 
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and a poster from the war featuring a heroic officer at the prow of his ship that had been deemed too awesome to take down.
Posters not generally allowable after the war's over?
More rumors swirling about the Cathayan court intrigue that continued to build around the increasingly ailing Emperor.
Oh boy. No way this ends well.
"Yes. Young people."

"Ouch."
Ouch indeed.
Occidental language it didn't use the same alphabet.
It sure doesn't! Though there are a couple others.
It was good practice reading the handwritten form of their characters,
HAHAHAHAHA HAVE FUN HARUNA

More seriously that's extremely impressive if she's reading a diary in Caspian cursive. I can't even read my own Russian handwriting.
"Haruna they want the rowing team to go to Otrusia! For the Atlas Games!"
That's awesome! Let's go Aiko!
"Of course you're going," said the admiral.
Oh. Well, that was somewhat easier than expected.
Intelligence Division, Naval Special Police.
Uh oh. "On the train home" isn't where you want intel showing up to talk to you.
When you arrive, cable the embassy and report that you'll need to see an Akitsukuni tailor for a new uniform jacket."
Ah! Hello Garak!

[X] The Otrusian navy, it's composition and recent history.
[X] The Otrusian government, and how it turned socialist.

Hm. All of these options sound good and we should probably take one of the Aiko ones but the sweet sweet worldbuilding is so tempting.
 
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