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.
 
Last edited:
8-7: Through the Canal
  • Threadmarks
    • "As far as we know, not yet," came the reply. You were relieved, more than you were expecting. Not surprising, though; Akitsukuni was still recovering from the last war. There needed to be more time. It wasn't as if anyone else would be particularly excited to get stuck into something serious again, especially with the Europans. There was still so much to be digested. Submarines, how best to use your escorts, a potential increase in Army-Navy cooperation and (worst of all) airplanes.

    That was it. This group had come very hurriedly from the home islands and there was just as much uncertainty about the war.

    The contingent which had arrived was very officer-heavy, and they seemed rather surprised as the small size of the crew. You reasoned they had probably been informed that the crew would be padded out with local hires, and were unaware that this hadn't been nearly sufficient. Still, you had some much-needed officers and petty officers, enough to take some of the pressure off… Spirits, you might actually get some sleep on the return journey. That'd be welcome. You had enough watch-standers now to ensure everyone would get some sleep, which was frankly a relief. Maybe now there wouldn't be any more stupid mistakes.

    Unfortunately, as much as you wanted to get moving, there were considerably delays getting through the canal. For some reason, a global war was somewhat congesting marine traffic. That gave some time to familiarize the new officers with the ship's particular eccentricities. It also meant time for some more amenities to be brought aboard, like furniture for the officer's mess and the captain's dining room. Soon enough, everyone was settled in, but honestly you were just anxious to get home, get a real posting, see Aiko again. Even if that last one was irrational: she was probably still crawling across the continent somewhere thousands of kilometers to your north, if she'd even made it yet.

    You bought her a nice, light little woven straw hat which you saw just about everyone near the docks wearing. She was always complaining about not having enough hats. You tried one on yourself, but you just looked ridiculous. For her, though, you were certain she'd look radiant.

    Finally, though, your turn came, and the ship crossed along the narrow ribbon of water, waiting at each lock as water was pumped to and fro. Eventually, you made it out the other side and were safely back on your side of the world, just about.

    You had the new officers assembled as the ship got under way, giving all of them a look over--none of them stood out all that particularly and they're all young. A gaggle of ensigns and junior lieutenants probably plucked from whatever postings they could be spared from. Bunch of kids.

    At least they were listening, and were disciplined enough that if they weren't happy about having a woman for a CO, they weren't showing it on their faces. You were briefly almost impressed, but then all at once you noticed their heads turning slightly, their eyes tracking something behind you, and when you glanced you just noticed Cadet Kurasaki disappearing down a hatch.

    Ah.

    "Gentlemen. I see you've noticed our cadet, Officer Cadet Kurasaki Aya. I understand what you must be thinking, and let me make one thing absolutely clear." You paused. You know, for effect.

    "She is here to do a job, just like the rest of you. If any of you consider for even the barest moment that you can get around the regulations in place by the Admiralty, hell, if any of you stare too long, then know that I will come down on you like a tonne of bricks. I will ruin you. You'll spend the next ten years of your career on a transport for Army dogs, your mother will be ashamed to be seen in public. Cadet Kurasaki is not one of the girls you meet in officer's clubs or at parties. She is not a member of the Women's Naval Auxiliary--not that I would condone that either--she is a fellow officer of the Akitsukuni Imperial Navy and you will treat her with all the respect and deference owed to a fellow officer and with all the responsibility that you hold towards those under your command."

    Everyone's eyes had snapped back forward, and a few of the ensigns had a look like somebody had just fired a gun next to their ear.

    "If you think that makes me joyless, you are correct," you added, jerking your chin upwards just slightly to emphasize the medal hanging around your neck. The one you got for bravery in the face of the enemy. "Know that I am not one to be fucked about with. Am I understood?"

    You were.

    ---

    Dinner was a startling polite affair. Everyone was proper and very respectful. The only conversation directed at Kurasaki was related to her classwork and the Navy. One of the ensigns refused to even ask her for the salt or look her in the eyes. As everyone filtered out at the end of the meal Kurasaki paused and looked at you with a puzzled expression.

    "Well! I don't think I've ever met such a cold group of young men," she said in a tone that suggested confusion more than anything else.

    "They're probably still getting settled in," you said, without a hint that you understood what she was talking about. "I wouldn't worry about it."

    Things were thankfully much, much smoother now. While there still weren't enough crew for everything, the circumstances were stable enough that this wasn't much of an issue, nothing that your new cadre of officers couldn't monitor. After a short stop at Katuroa, you'd be on the final stretch and home and off this half a boat. It made the little indignities of it much easier to tolerate, though they were still very much present. At a certain point, for instance, the phones simply stopped working at all, and with no technicians on board to fix it, they'd simply remain that way until you got home.

    There were still signs of the war, though, even this far out to sea. Mostly it was over the wireless, but as you approached Katuroa the ship passed a handful of flotsam, wooden boards and a few empty life rings, which immediately started a storm of speculation. Whether they came from some sunken merchant vessel or the remnants of a battle, no one could say. Which meant, of course, that everyone had an opinion they were one hundred percent certain was correct, and most were convinced it was the remains of some great battleship of one of the Auroic fleets.

    More specifically, as you learned at dinner (you had made it a habit to invite a few officers every evening), everyone was convinced it was a Republican ship, or possibly an Albian one. You had your doubts, considering there wasn't a single battleship in the Dyske East Lydian squadron and the fact that the Albian battlecruiser Ulimaroa (named for the great southern continent famed for its dense jungle) was lurking in the southern Auroric.

    Still, this was not a conversation where facts had any purchase, and the prevailing opinion was that the Crown Pact had likely already won the war and was merely engaged in mop-up operations while the treaty was being hashed out. This view was unsurprisingly championed by Yoshigahara, who had made it quite clear earlier that he was of the opinion that Akitsukuni ought to be aligned with the Crown Pact, and was pleased as punch that they'd carried such a magnificent victory in the war being fought entirely in his own skull.

    There were dissenters. Junior Lieutenant Chibana figured it had to be a Dyske vessel, for the simple reason that they were 'morons, all of them', who couldn't be trusted to navigate a rowboat on a pond, let alone a naval squadron on the opposite side of the world from their homeland. Not that the Republicans were any better, of course. Really, you suspected he just wanted everyone to be angry.

    Cadet Kurasaki didn't think it was a battleship at all and was of the view that it was probably just a merchant vessel. Sadly, this view did not take much purchase with the rest of them, who mostly politely nodded and didn't make eye contact and went back to hotly debating which warship it was and the exact way in which it had met its demise.

    You considered making the mistake of asking why everyone was so confident in a Crown Pact victory, especially with Albia joining the war, but fortunately Lieutenant Mihara committed the error for you. You were quickly bombarded with an encyclopedia's worth of data about demographics, land area, wealth, men under arms, and technology. The Crown Pact had everything going for it; the best officers, the latest doctrines, the most wondrous technologies, and the surest leaders. By contrast, Otrusia was a socialist disaster, Hesperia was a bankrupt backwater, and it was claimed that the Gallian army was filled with traitors passing intelligence to the Dyske.

    Albia's presence on the side of the Republics was completely disregarded; sure, they were the largest empire, but their hearts truly wouldn't be in it, would they? They were a monarchy themselves, merely temporarily embarrassed in their choice of allies. Besides that, they were clearly a navally inclined nation whose army wouldn't be able to stem the superior Crown Pact forces advances on the continent.

    Further, as one young Ensign kept insisting, even if the Crown Pact weren't already razing Lutetia to the ground, New Alleghany would surely join the war on their side. When you asked why, utterly flabbergasted, the boy stated with absolute confidence that the country was positively overrun with Dyske settlers, who had taken all the jobs and made it effectively a puppet state of the Empire. He'd clearly read it in a newspaper once or something, and the instant agreement of most of his peers had cemented this factoid for life.

    Mercifully, dinner ended sooner rather than later and you didn't have to suffer the ignorance of children for long.

    The next morning you were a day out from Katuroa and the lovely port of Waiākea on the Big Island of the Katuroan island chain, and their main port. While part of you thought a night on shore would let off some steam, you were really of the opinion that letting off steam was a mistake. You needed to get home as quickly as possible, which meant no time for delicious, delicious roasted pork and laying around on the sand. You were just finishing breakfast and listening to the stimulating conversation to be had in the officer's mess.

    "Why the fuck is it called Big Island?" Chibana complained.

    "Well, have you looked at the island?" Mihara said, gesturing to the chart someone had spread on the table.

    "Yeah?"

    "It's big!" he exclaimed, arms held outstretched.

    "Fuck off. I mean, it just doesn't sound like a real place, does it? It sounds fake."

    "Everywhere sounds fake, if you think about it," one of the ensigns added. "Like, place names are generally kinda weird, especially translated."

    "What are you talking about? Places in Akitsukuni sound real," he said glumly.

    "Hey, aren't you from Yamashima?" Mihara asked slyly.

    "It's not the same, there's a mountain!"

    You were saved from the rest of the conversation by the sensation of the engines pitch changing--you were slowing down. You rose to your feet to begin the climb to the bridge, but a sailor stepped through the door and saluted.

    "Captain, there are what look like shipwreck survivors to starboard. Miss Kurasaki ordered us to slow to pick up survivors and sent me to come inform you."

    You felt a moment of warm fuzzy pride.

    "Very good, thank you. Inform her that I'll be up directly."

    --

    Once on the starboard bridge wing you examined the survivors that had been mentioned to you through your binoculars as the ship turned around them, bleeding off momentum so that you could lower a boat. There weren't many of them, five or six of them at most, which was hard to say since half of them were in the water clinging to the improvised raft they were all piled onto. All of them still wore lifejackets and the remains of uniforms, and from what you could see they were all badly sunburned. How long had they been floating out here? There were weak motions as someone waved at the ship.

    You could only imagine the relief they must feel.

    ===
    ​
    What nation are these survivors from? ​
    ​
    [ ] Albia​
    [ ] Dyskeland​
    [ ] Caspia​
    [ ] Write In: Another of the belligerent powers (Subject to QM veto)​
     
  • Threadmarks
    • I know Albia is Britain, Dyskeland is Germany, is Caspia Russia? And which ones are Otrusia and Hesperia (spain?)? I know that Gallia is supposed to be France here.
     
    [X] Dyskeland

    We did a stint in Manchuria fighting the Caspians, so I think there some bad blood there, and I've had enough of Albia for a while.
     
    Tabascoheath said:
    I know Albia is Britain, Dyskeland is Germany, is Caspia Russia? And which ones are Otrusia and Hesperia (spain?)? I know that Gallia is supposed to be France here.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Caspia is Russia, Otrustia is Italy, Hesperia is Spain if you need equivalents. There's also Varnmark and the Kyburg Union (Varnmark is like, a union between the Swede-Norway union and a more RUssofied Finalnd and Kyburg is the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so unlikely to have a Pacific fleet).
     
    [X] Dyskeland

    I look forward to the ensigns learning that wars are not fought in paper.
     
    [X] Albia

    While i don't like alt Brit losing but it would interesting to see something good come out of it.
     
    [X] Caspia

    Here's your diary back!

    The ridiculous children are fun, as is the Panama hat. Interesting that they stopped in at gay!Hilo rather than gay!Pearl/Honolulu, or rather Honolulu is now on the big Island.
     
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