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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The Dice System
  • Informational
    • Hey, I'm going to need two rolls: a Work roll (1d6) and a Warrior roll (4d6).

    A reminder how the system works:

    Balance
    In navigating the personal and political sphere, Haruna relies on three paired stats that change when they are used. They are…

    Work/Life: How much time and energy Haruna is dedicating to her job, versus how much she is dedicating to herself and her loved ones.

    Warrior/Princess: How much Haruna is dedicating to agitating for command and climbing the military ranks, versus the time she is spending in political pursuits.

    Respectable/Radical: How well Haruna is keeping with the demands of high society, versus how much she is living for herself and breaking the rules.

    These stats will have a non-numerical range, formatted as such: "All Work, More Work, Balanced, More Life, All Life"

    With some regularity, Haruna will be asked to roll a Balance roll to see how she is handling ongoing events in her life, or to use her image in the moment.
    • If she is balanced, she simply rolls three dice. If any die is a 5 or 6, she succeeds.
      • If she's more invested in the thing she's rolling, she adds +1 or +2 dice, respectively.
      • However, if she's invested in the opposite of the thing she's rolling, she rolls -1 or -2d6 to the same proportion.
    Voting options will frequently allow Haruna to adjust her Balance, but you will not always have a chance to adjust!

    Her combat stats will change too, but we will get to that when it becomes important!
     
  • Informational
    • Now I know how guys can read our onboarding email and then ask how to log in despite it being right there...
     
    7-13: Panic! At the Trade Show
  • Threadmarks
    • Obviously, spies acted totally normal and just talked to people. It was a party. Talking was permitted at parties. You could handle parties. You'd been going to parties your whole life. This was no big deal whatsoever.

    *It suddenly struck you how long it had been since you had to actually do anything for work.*

    Still, this was easy. All you had to do was go over there with Aiko at your side and talk to her about something innocuous, Navy-like, and which Aiko would find boring. Hull forms or something. Then, you could smoothly transition to something that Aiko would find interesting, like fire control computers. Easy! Aiko liked electronics and stuff, so fire control computers would probably be right up her alley. You had this in the bag, this could only go perfectly.

    Gently, you nudged your way towards Miss Lucchesi, who was studying one of the displays about the tonnage of merchant shipping launched in the last four years and how it displayed the triumph of Otrusian Socialist Management and the Power of Labour and blah, blah, blah. Dull stuff, but you guessed merchant shipping was cool for someone who worked in the industry, so to speak.

    Then again, it was the display closest to the door, so it also had the best airflow and was by far the least muggy part of the room.

    Lucchesi was a slender, dark-haired woman with a pair of prince-nez spectacles perched on her nose and a few streaks of early gray in her hair. Maybe she worked too much?

    First part was easy. Just make contact.

    "Hello. Enjoying the party?" you asked, hoping desperately she spoke Gallian. Fortunately, you hope pays off, though she was clearly awkward in the language.

    "Hello, um… sorry, who are you? Nobody told me I'd have to speak to people." She seemed utterly confused by the fact that you were talking to her. Which was odd because she'd been announced and was just lingering at the edge of the party. Didn't people go to parties to socialize? Even if you didn't want to socialize?

    The response caught you off-guard and you found yourself a bit on the back foot. Hurriedly, you tried to salvage the situation. You could feel Aiko next to you--she seemed to likewise radiate a bit of discomfort at the whole 'being dragged over to talk to a stranger' thing.

    "Oh, I'm Haruna Arisugawa, of the Akitsukuni Navy--I've just heard of some wonderful work you've been doing and wanted to introduce myself," you said as pleasantly as possible. Thankfully almost a month of speaking mainly Gallian between yourself and Aiko was having an effect, you felt quite comfortable..

    "My work? What about my work?" That seemed to confuse her more--and she didn't bother to introduce herself in return or ask about Aiko. Why were Europans so rude? "I can't imagine anyone cares all that much about mechanical calculators."

    Oh. You were used to people just naturally talking about whatever they did when you asked at the parties back home. You were only just now realizing that might have been because back home, you're royalty, and they desperately wanted to keep talking and not seem awkward. That didn't seem to be a factor here.

    You had to think of something else, quick.

    "I just think they're neat." Nailed it. Right? "My friend Aiko actually studies electronics and radios…"

    "Ehhh?" Aiko said. "What is it--What are you talking about, Haruna?"

    "Ah, Miss Lucchesi is a designer of mechanical computing devices…" You had to salvage this somehow. You had a job to do, damn it.

    "Oh, that's fascinating, I'm sure. I've heard some of them are using electric power these days--the really big ones, I mean." Yes, perfect.

    "Well you have to, when they get to the size of things like gun tables--there are so many different factors and variables to account for with a computer of that size." They were talking about the gun table. Maybe if you just let them talk shop a little, some juicy details would fall right into your lap. You were a genius.

    "It's really something. We have a smaller one I use in my courses at university and--" Aiko was saying. Your mind wandered for a moment as they began to descend into dense mathematics. With half an ear on the conversation for relevant information, you scanned the room, just sort of getting the lay of your surroundings. A lot of people were gathering around somebody at the edge of the room, with a bit of respectful distance, and you worked out after a moment that it was the police official. People seemed genuinely interested for some reason?

    Ercole Lettiere was the name you heard a few people mention. From what you'd gathered he'd been doing a brisk business dealing with corruption in the Party and fighting organized crime's influence with local labor organizations. Just another cop, you supposed. He had a crowd of admirers all vying to speak with him, and reporters with cameras were taking pictures. The nice man who had asked you for a cigarette was among them, though he was having a hard time getting close enough to ask whatever question it was that he needed answered, considering the crowd. He fumbled inside his jacket's pocket--probably trying to get out his notepad or something.

    You turned back towards the conversation as you heard voices start to get… heated? Oh no.

    "I tell you, radio has some utility in the realm of wireless, ah… what is the word, communication! But it can't replace telegraph or telephone. Such a thought is absurd! Don't tell me they have you reading that hobbyist, von Karolus in your university classes!" Lucchesi said, heated.

    "Hobbyist? He's one of the pioneers of wireless communication in the field! Broadcast radio is going to revolutionize the world--it's the future!"

    "It's a fad, nothing more. You would do well to focus your studies elsewhere--look, you're a bright young lady, I just hate to see you throw all that education away on something like this--"

    Oh dear. You should probably step in, or else this was going to end in violence-

    Someone screamed and the sharp staccato of gunshots hit your ears. *You moved before you even knew what was happening.* Without thinking, you grabbed both the women next to you by their arms and bodily shoved them down onto the floor and threw yourself on top of them.

    "Down! Get down!" Was that your voice? For a moment you felt cold, Joseon mud. It was between your fingers, seeping into your boots and covering your face as you pressed as flat you could.

    Still, your first priority of getting Aiko to the floor was achieved: she was tall, that made her more likely to get hit. Now you needed to identify the shooter… you turned to where the screaming was to see the large man in the suit, the one you'd given a cigarette, backing away with a small, automatic pistol in his hand, still leveled at the screaming crowd. At least one person, maybe more, looked like they were hit. People were yelling, the crowd jostling as people stampeded away from the scene of the violence. *Why had you left your pistol in the hotel room?*

    You were shockingly close, and he wasn't looking.

    ---

    What do you do?​
    [ ] Absolutely nothing. Now is not the time for heroics. This isn't even your country.​
    [ ] You had the absolute perfect opportunity to disarm him. You knew jujutsu, kendo, a half-dozen other ways of fighting unarmed and were used to fighting people bigger than you. Though maybe not this much bigger?​
    [ ] At the next display over, maybe three or four meters distant, a woman was fumbling ineffectually for something in her purse. A pistol, probably, though she didn't look very suited to using it. On the other hand, you had training, so maybe if you moved quickly...​
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] You had the absolute perfect opportunity to disarm him. You knew jujutsu, kendo, a half-dozen other ways of fighting unarmed and were used to fighting people bigger than you. Though maybe not this much bigger?
     
    [X] You had the absolute perfect opportunity to disarm him. You knew jujutsu, kendo, a half-dozen other ways of fighting unarmed and were used to fighting people bigger than you. Though maybe not this much bigger?

    A big chonky mob hitman is intimidating but probably not going to stand up super well to getting jumped by a trained soldier from behind. Even if that soldier is a tiny Akitsukuni lady.
     
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    [X] You had the absolute perfect opportunity to disarm him. You knew jujutsu, kendo, a half-dozen other ways of fighting unarmed and were used to fighting people bigger than you. Though maybe not this much bigger?
     
    Artificial Girl said:
    von Karolus
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Oddly enough, I'm not able to find anything on this person. A new figure?

    10ebbor10 said:
    What's the difference between green and blue colors?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Blue is *Warrior*, green is *Life*

    [X] You had the absolute perfect opportunity to disarm him. You knew jujutsu, kendo, a half-dozen other ways of fighting unarmed and were used to fighting people bigger than you. Though maybe not this much bigger?
     
    samdamandias said:
    Oddly enough, I'm not able to find anything on this person. A new figure?


    Blue is *Warrior*, green is *Life*

    [X] You had the absolute perfect opportunity to disarm him. You knew jujutsu, kendo, a half-dozen other ways of fighting unarmed and were used to fighting people bigger than you. Though maybe not this much bigger?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I was looking for a name for a radio pioneer and found a picture of Georg von Arco and August Karolus together and smushed them into one person on the fly.
     
    [X] You had the absolute perfect opportunity to disarm him. You knew jujutsu, kendo, a half-dozen other ways of fighting unarmed and were used to fighting people bigger than you. Though maybe not this much bigger?
     
    Must say, quite brilliant use of the colored * to denote what we rolled for. Appreciated. (Now I need to figure out what to vote for...)
     
    Oh, is this updating regularly again? That's wonderful!

    Anyways, an assassination attempt at the party we're at is hilariously unlucky. Poor us, and poor Aiko. On the bright side, this might end up with us and Lucchesi becoming friends, hopefully. (Especially given the fight between her and Aiko, come on!)

    [X] You had the absolute perfect opportunity to disarm him. You knew jujutsu, kendo, a half-dozen other ways of fighting unarmed and were used to fighting people bigger than you. Though maybe not this much bigger?
     
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    [X] Absolutely nothing. Now is not the time for heroics. This isn't even your country.

    Let's not get shot please.
     
    [X] You had the absolute perfect opportunity to disarm him. You knew jujutsu, kendo, a half-dozen other ways of fighting unarmed and were used to fighting people bigger than you. Though maybe not this much bigger?

    Clearly nothing can go wrong and only everything can go right!

    Plus, we might get another medal or something! Shiny!
     
    [X] You had the absolute perfect opportunity to disarm him. You knew jujutsu, kendo, a half-dozen other ways of fighting unarmed and were used to fighting people bigger than you. Though maybe not this much bigger?
     
    If he's enough bigger he might throw us off his gun arm even though we get the technique right. Is there anything we can use as a weapon to even things up? A wineglass perhaps?
     
    [X] You had the absolute perfect opportunity to disarm him. You knew jujutsu, kendo, a half-dozen other ways of fighting unarmed and were used to fighting people bigger than you. Though maybe not this much bigger?

    This might go poorly, to be fair. But it is rather important that the guy shooting people is stopped before he either shoots more or escapes. And frankly, I'm skeptical about trying to take a gun that we only suspect is there out of someone else's purse in the middle of an active shooter situation. Seems like a good way to get mistaken for another hostile, exacerbated by the likely language barrier.
     
    [X] You had the absolute perfect opportunity to disarm him. You knew jujutsu, kendo, a half-dozen other ways of fighting unarmed and were used to fighting people bigger than you. Though maybe not this much bigger?
    -[X] That said, opening with a kick to the groin is just common sense. You're a solider, not a fool.
     
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