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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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[jk] The Naval Logistics Design & Procurement Board: Subcommittee on the 20th Century Future Sailor Program

FUTURE SOLDIER FUTURE SOLDIER FUTURE SOLDIER

Okay so, every naval infantryman is going to carry with them a small two stroke engine that powers a small film camera and movie projector. Then you can take the film out of your camera and put it into your squad leader's projector, giving greater shared situational awareness. Projected equipment weight is 300kg.

(I don't think it's going to be this, but I also don't think it's going to be future hiring and roles because that's the purview of the personnel board. This is going to be things like working uniforms... But Haru, she of the torched uniform and rippling biceps, might be able to make significant points in favour of proper fireproof/flashproof kit for sailors.)

[X] The Naval Ordnance Design & Procurement Board Subcommittee for Anti-Aircraft Ordnance: Commission for Consultation and Decisions Regarding New Mount for Anti-Aircraft Purposes

This is probably the greatest good we can do, and I also think the most modern sounding and therefore prestigious posting.
 
[x] The Naval Logistics Design & Procurement Board: Subcommittee on the 20th Century Future Sailor Program
 
Yeah, this is a big part of why I picked what I did. The first is a subcomittee of a minor board, I don't feel like this'll be a spot from where Haruna can dramatically sway Navy thinking (and it's not like they're going to be axing the number of women in the fleet when also trying to hit wartime recruitment targets). Meanwhile, we're about to go into WWI except with dive bombers - high-angle gun mounts are going to rapidly become Very Important(TM) and the Navy will want to see her succeed. Haruna's probably one of the few people on that board who will have fired an anti-aircraft autocannon in anger, and this is a great opportunity to show that men and women working together as a team can provide results in otherwise presumably male-dominated staff postings.

Also it's the most likely project to not either be axed as superfluous or completed within two months, which means we'll be able to go back home to Aiko in the evenings. Fighting a war isn't fun, yo.

Edit: to clarify, ranked strongly in order of importance, I think this is the best choice for the following reasons:
  1. This feels like the option that we'll be involved in the longest, and for Haruna's well-being a shore posting is good. Things like new uniforms tend to be pushed down the priority list if they don't help when the shooting starts.
  2. The prestige of it will help clear a path upwards so that women in the Navy can follow in her wake into staff postings, and thus the actual decision-making apparatus of the Navy.
  3. Very distantly third, it's where Haruna can best be of service to Akitsukuni
 
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I feel like we haven't seen her really give planes much respect as weapons, so I'd worry that she might actually be a regressive influence there.

On the other hand, provisioning for women and nonbinary sailors is going to be important, and having someone there who is interested in having the uniforms be practical rather than obviously gendered is needed, else no one will raise the obvious objections to stupid ideas based on stereotypes. And Haruna is solid on practicality.
 
I feel like we haven't seen her really give planes much respect as weapons, so I'd worry that she might actually be a regressive influence there.

On the other hand, provisioning for women and nonbinary sailors is going to be important, and having someone there who is interested in having the uniforms be practical rather than obviously gendered is needed, else no one will raise the obvious objections to stupid ideas based on stereotypes. And Haruna is solid on practicality.
I went back to try and find her little monologue about how the airplane might obsolete the battleship, and accidentally found that Haruna'd actually have some good feedback for the program:
The other consequences of your actions hit you in a completely oblique way. There was some minor awkwardness when you were brought in to command the test crews trying out the new Naylor pom-pom guns on base, as you'd worked with them with both your light torpedo boat and with the aircraft destruction unit in Joseon. That was fine, just a bit of social tension as you endured the disapproving glares of Miss Clara Rose Sanders's uncle, who apparently was very fond of his niece. You were big girl, you'd be fine.

Besides, the new guns were incredible. Upcalibred from 37mm to 40mm, firing a shell that weighted twice as much at slightly higher velocities. These guns could fire explosive shells on timed fuses for anti-aircraft work, or even highly sensitive impact fuses that wouldn't just pass harmlessly through their canvas. They were brilliant, and you imagined them mounted together as twin guns, or even in threes or fours--what airplane would dare show itself near a fleet equipped with this sort of gun? Just the thought of the delicate little playthings getting swatted out of the sky by the shells made you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

You ended up giving a whole-hearted endorsement of the new gun and even recommended that they be mounted as twin guns, or even in triplets, in order to increase the volume of fire against aerial targets and vary the fuses for moving targets. You hoped they ordered a thousand of them and you got to use them, remembering those awful little Caspian planes buzzing over the landing force, your torpedo boat unable to stop them as they strafed boats and dropped those little spherical bombs all over the place. You'd tried the machine gun, but it couldn't be elevated enough to really be effective, and you'd had to settle for the delayed catharsis of seeing their burnt remains in pictures after Caspian airbases were overrun.
While I have a very strong anti-British bias when it comes to naval matters and an extremely poor opinion of the pom-pom as a long-term viable weapon, she's on track with the important bits - mount medium AA guns in twin and quad mountings, have high elevation, etc. Combine that with Haruna's practicality insisting she'll want to actually test-fire the thing (and thus notice if the gun shakes itself to death under combat conditions), and it should be pretty good.

Anyways, though, she definitely respects the airplane:
As you watched the crew lead the engineers through the starting procedure and started pointing out all the mechanical functions of the engine, you mulled over the words in your head, picturing the little scout that had flown over the battle in its aftermath. It was not impressive. It was an ugly, crude, worthless thing, good only for carrying two men and staring at the ground fruitlessly. You could not imagine this toy being good for much more than putting its pilots at risk.

But what would happen when they attached a camera or a radio to it? That would be the end of long-range scout frigates and patrol boats. A plane that could carry ten passengers could carry an artillery shell and drop it: gone were shore bombardment ships. What would they be like a decade from now? Could the plane of 2646 carry a ship cannon and fire down onto thin deck plating? Could they launch a torpedo at ships before the battle is even joined, past the screening ships? Could they land on a fleeing smuggler and discharge borders?

In that political philosophy book you read, there was a story inside of workers in Burgundy who threw their shoes into the gears of the factory tools that had driven them out of a job, and you hadn't understood why until this moment. You were twenty-two years old, and you felt you might be staring at the machine that made you obsolete.

You wondered if your boots could stop up that propeller.

Come on, let Haruna feel all warm and fuzzy inside :p
 
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While I have ... an extremely poor opinion of the pom-pom as a long-term viable weapon,
Well, either you need to read that Friedman book or I don't need to :D

The pom-pom stopped being the best ship mounted AA gun in 1936, 22 years from this point in the quest, and stopped being the gun component of the best ship mounted AA system only in about 1940. Not that the actual gun is what will matter for Haruna, because that committee is for designing the critically important mount for whatever gun is used (the description sounds like it's going to be more along the lines of a 4" HA mount).
 
Well, either you need to read that Friedman book or I don't need to :D

The pom-pom stopped being the best ship mounted AA gun in 1936, 22 years from this point in the quest, and stopped being the gun component of the best ship mounted AA system only in about 1940. Not that the actual gun is what will matter for Haruna, because that committee is for designing the critically important mount for whatever gun is used (the description sounds like it's going to be more along the lines of a 4" HA mount).

I'd debate exact dates (generally placing things about a year or two earlier than you) but I said long term for a reason :D
 
[X] The Naval Ordnance Design & Procurement Board Subcommittee for Anti-Aircraft Ordnance: Commission for Consultation and Decisions Regarding New Mount for Anti-Aircraft Purposes
REMOVE KITE! Keep the battleship relevant for that much longer! BIG GUN SUPREMACY!
 
[X] The Naval Ordnance Design & Procurement Board Subcommittee for Anti-Aircraft Ordnance: Commission for Consultation and Decisions Regarding New Mount for Anti-Aircraft Purposes
 
[X] The Naval Ordnance Design & Procurement Board Subcommittee for Anti-Aircraft Ordnance: Commission for Consultation and Decisions Regarding New Mount for Anti-Aircraft Purposes
 
Mmmm, I'll switch.

[X] The Naval Ordnance Design & Procurement Board Subcommittee for Anti-Aircraft Ordnance: Commission for Consultation and Decisions Regarding New Mount for Anti-Aircraft Purposes
 
Voting closed.
Adhoc vote count started by Artificial Girl on Apr 4, 2023 at 5:16 PM, finished with 58 posts and 40 votes.
 
9-5: Waiting Room
"Naval Ordnance Design & Procurement Board Subcommittee for Anti-Aircraft Ordnance: Commission for Consultation and Decisions Regarding New Mount for Anti-Aircraft Purposes?" you read aloud, growing increasingly concerned by the length and specificity. "They… want me to help design a flak gun mount?"

"I wouldn't know, miss," the delivery boy said, stepping away from your doorstep and running off down the road. You shut the door and smoothed the letter out, reading the details. The subcommittee was run by a Captain Tomita Masaki, who you'd never heard of but apparently Vice Admiral Fukunaga knew him and thought well of him, so that spoke well of his character. You were pretty sure.

Thankfully, being in Tokei meant that reporting on time was not going to be a problem. So the next morning you donned your uniform and hopped on the streetcar to head for Admiralty Headquarters. It was strange, to be commuting again but even with the war over the uniform you wore seemed to attract no attention. Maybe the black winter uniform didn't stand out as much as the summer whites--or maybe the idea of a princess in uniform just wasn't interesting any longer? Part of you felt a little disappointed.

While the Admiralty Headquarters terminology was typically applied to the fancy, new, Western style building made of brick, the headquarters itself actually encompassed a multiple block campus all enclosed with a layer of walls and fences that overlooked the bay and housed all of the important offices for the running of the Navy.

Your orders helpfully specified which office you were to report to, and so after presenting your identification to at least three sets of sentries, you finally found yourself at what would be your posting for the next… however long this took. It was a modest building that wouldn't look out of place in the business district. Like many of the buildings on the campus, it was new and in Western style and had electric lights, which was fantastic. Inside, the furnishings seemed brand new and everything smelled faintly of fresh paint.

You headed upstairs to the second floor, and into the suite of offices that were indicated by your assignment.

Your first impression was that the room you were in was the waiting room to be let into the actual office you'd be working in; it was an open space with a closed off office at the opposite end. It slowly dawned on you that, no, this was the actual space, it was just only half-furnished for some reason. There were chairs, pushed up against the walls, but not desks.

There was a set of doors to the left that led into what seemed to be a pair of meeting or conference rooms--the blinds were open on the half-wall windows that looked into the rooms and you could see long conference tables and chairs and autumn sunlight filtering in. One of them was occupied by three men in various states of repose, all of them smoking like chimneys and talking across the table.

The officer at the end of the room likewise had the blinds open and there was a man in naval uniform bent over some paperwork. The door had a paper sign taped to it: Captain Tomita Masaki.

Another person in the uniform of a yeoman stood awkwardly next to the doorway. You guessed they were the man's secretary, but it was hard to say because they lacked a desk. Or anything else that marked them out as having much of importance to do with their time, for that matter.

You still weren't terribly sure but you were almost certain that there were supposed to be more desks here, and without them you didn't exactly know what to do with yourself. If there was a desk, maybe with a little nameplate with your name on it, you'd at least have somewhere to go and look useful. Maybe you should just report for now?

You waited for a moment, then finally stepped towards the yeoman, who came to attention immediately--they'd been watching you attentively since you entered. You had the feeling that he'd done this a few times today already.

"Ma'am?"

"Lieutenant Commander Arisugawa. I'm here to report to Captain Tomita."

"Of course, ma'am. If you'll just wait here for a moment--" You were doing your best not to look too confused, but apparently they picked up on it. Which was unusual, since normally you had a good grasp on it.

"They've just finished the building last week," they said apologetically. "We're still waiting for the furniture and other supplies to get here. It was supposed to be yesterday, but the quartermaster has told us it'll actually be tomorrow," and that said, they knocked politely at the office door, then stepped inside. After a murmured conversation you were ushered inside, the door closed behind you. You came to attention, hat tucked underneath your arm.

"Sir. Lieutenant Commander Arisugawa Haruna, reporting as ordered."

"Welcome, Lieutenant Commander!" Tomita said with a weary smile. "It's good to have you here. When I heard from Vice Admiral Fukunaga that you were sitting around with nothing to do, I knew I had to have you for this project. It's a vitally important one for the future of the Navy and the defense of our homeland and based on your record I'm sure I can trust you to put your all into this one."

"I look forward to it, Captain."

"Unfortunately, we're not quite going yet--we still don't have all our office supplies, as you can see, but we're going to have that sorted in no time," he continued, gesturing for you to sit. You did so and he turned away to look at the chalkboard on wheels that sat next to his desk. On it were scribbled various notes and lists, including what you assumed to be the names of the committee members.

Captain Tomita Masaki
Commander Akamine Saburo,
Lieutenant Commander Hirabayashi Shou, Naval Air Service
Senior Lieutenant Nishihara Eiji
Foreign advisor??? (Underlined, with multiple question marks)​
Lieutenant Commander Arisugawa Haruna
Uyeno Sei, Liason from Ohara Airworks

"Ohara? Is that the Army's pet aircraft company?" You asked.

"That's the one. She's apparently a ballistics engineer, has a good technical understanding of aircraft and their limitations. Don't worry, she was in the Navy before she put away her swords." Ahhh, so that was how it was. You nodded.

"Well, that means we can rely on her, then," you said. "...I don't mean to be impertinent, but my orders weren't very clear about what it is the committee will be deciding."

"Oh, it's very important work for the next generation of ships, to protect them from the rising threat of aircraft attack," he began confidently. That confidence drained over the course of the subsequent words. "The upcoming vessels will be equipped with specialized anti-aircraft weapons, not unlike the ones you served on during the war, and decisions need to be made regarding their positions, crew, ammunition storage, sighting, and so forth."

"And we will be making our recommendations on those issues?" you asked hopefully, and his face, almost imperceptibly, fell.

"Ah, well you see, it is quite a tall order, which is why we will be concentrating our efforts specifically on one of the most critical aspects regarding the mounting of the gun, which is to say, the mounting of the gun so that it is capable of high-angle fire…"

You were on the committee to decide the requirements for an angle bracket.

"Very good, sir."

---

Ah, it's one of those assignments. Well, you're Haruna, and Haruna does not half-ass anything. The only decision is how many additional asses you will be assing this.
Below are three options. If you take 1, you'll stay +1 on the Life on the Work-Life Balance (that's right the mechanics are back!). Each additional one you take moves you 1 toward Work. This is a vote by plan!
[ ] Go into the records from the Caspian War and track down every single instance of an aircraft going down from hostile fire, especially ground fire. Work out the common elements. Become an expert.​
[ ] Dig into the foreign experience. The Europans have been at war for months, have they developed any sort of mountings or other technology that might be useful in this application? You'll need to pore over newspapers, reports from your embassies and attaches, and try to collate it all into something useful you can present to the committee.​
[ ] Every committee you've ever seen on affairs like this end up making lots of little prototypes so they can show a physical example of what they've devised and have a solid, material thing to show to the admirals. Nobody on the list looks like the kind of person who knows how to do that, so you should learn so you can be useful.​
 
[ ] Every committee you've ever seen on affairs like this end up making lots of little prototypes so they can show a physical example of what they've devised and have a solid, material thing to show to the admirals. Nobody on the list looks like the kind of person who knows how to do that, so you should learn so you can be useful.

This and one other, I think.
 
Wasn't Admiralty Headquarters in a castle? Or was that a different building?

Uyeno Sei, Liason from Ohara Airworks
Another crossover! Not as elaborate as the previous one, but totally understandable given the amount of effort that went into it, and still extremely fun. Worried about our reputation with her though; while the end of the wedding would have hopefully saved it, she didn't start with a good impression due to the disaster in Joseon.

This and one other, I think.
+1 Work seems reasonable, yeah.

[x] Go into the records from the Caspian War and track down every single instance of an aircraft going down from hostile fire, especially ground fire. Work out the common elements. Become an expert.
[x] Every committee you've ever seen on affairs like this end up making lots of little prototypes so they can show a physical example of what they've devised and have a solid, material thing to show to the admirals. Nobody on the list looks like the kind of person who knows how to do that, so you should learn so you can be useful.
 
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Haruna's about to learn that this is the angle bracket from hell. Inb4 someone tries to create a Minizini mount :D

Tbh, not sure which of these are best? The ballistics engineer from Ohara Airworks can probably get us in touch with some people who do tool and die stuff, and thus can whip up prototypes fairly quickly, but it'll help to understand the mechanical limits of what can be built.

My concern with the first one is that it could lead to survivorship bias(.jpg). We're looking at all the planes that were shot down, but that might just tell us that "X type of AA guns are good at Y engagement profile", but ignores that it's not so useful against Z engagement profile. Then again, Haruna's a smart girl...

The second one seems like it could be covered by getting a foreign advisor to the program? There hasn't been a huge gap between this war and the last, AIUI, so it's not like there'll be an incredible amount of new technology.
 
[X] Every committee you've ever seen on affairs like this end up making lots of little prototypes so they can show a physical example of what they've devised and have a solid, material thing to show to the admirals. Nobody on the list looks like the kind of person who knows how to do that, so you should learn so you can be useful.

I prefer this task as it is the only option that will let Arisugawa Haruna bring a unique value to the team. The research tasks can be easily performed by the other team members. I would also assume that they have already been at least partially fulfilled by the Liaison from Ohara Airworks and the Lieutenant from the Naval Air Service given their highly relevant experience. Professionals should have far more knowledge and expertise on a topic key to their field than can be gained by a relative novice trying to cram in knowledge at the last minute.

Taking only a single task will allow Arisugawa Haruna to either strengthen her relationship with her loved ones and more fully recover from the stresses of her career or take advantage of any new opportunities for extracurricular work that come up. Planning for recuperation while leaving space for further exertion seems to be far superior to going overboard on an utterly unimportant assignment.
 
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Building trinkets for bureaucrats does not impress me as contributing to the project. Bringing real-world experience, ours and others, does. Since I would agree that a foreign advisor would probably be able to address the concerns of the second option...

[X] Plan: First Option Only Plus Input
-[X] Go into the records from the Caspian War and track down every single instance of an aircraft going down from hostile fire, especially ground fire. Work out the common elements. Become an expert.
-[X] Contact other people with field experience and solicit opinions from far and wide as to what's worked and what doesn't.

I'd rather stay where we are on the work-life balance, so just the one.

Edit: Huh, C_Z was right, this was vote by plan. My eyes just seem to have skipped right over that. Changed accordingly.
 
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[X] Dig into the foreign experience. The Europans have been at war for months, have they developed any sort of mountings or other technology that might be useful in this application? You'll need to pore over newspapers, reports from your embassies and attaches, and try to collate it all into something useful you can present to the committee.
 
[x] Go into the records from the Caspian War and track down every single instance of an aircraft going down from hostile fire, especially ground fire. Work out the common elements. Become an expert.
[x] Every committee you've ever seen on affairs like this end up making lots of little prototypes so they can show a physical example of what they've devised and have a solid, material thing to show to the admirals. Nobody on the list looks like the kind of person who knows how to do that, so you should learn so you can be useful.

"Ohara? Is that the Army's pet aircraft company?" You asked.
More like the Army is Ohara's pet service branch. :V
 
Uyeno is back, yay!

I think we can look at this in two ways, either it's an unimportant waiting assignment where we look busy, kiss girl and wait for a ship; or it's a chance to really steal a march and develop AA mount technology that will serve Akitsukuni ships for the next twenty years.

[x] Go into the records from the Caspian War and track down every single instance of an aircraft going down from hostile fire, especially ground fire. Work out the common elements. Become an expert.

This is the one I like for sure, we were brought on for our practical experience of AA work, which we may be the only ones capable of speaking authoritatively on. Making models is highly necessary, but it's also well beneath our dignity. That's what the enlisted are for, we should still have a carpenter's shop on base and those guys can knock out pretty much anything we'd need.
 
Uyeno is back, yay!

I think we can look at this in two ways, either it's an unimportant waiting assignment where we look busy, kiss girl and wait for a ship; or it's a chance to really steal a march and develop AA mount technology that will serve Akitsukuni ships for the next twenty years.

[x] Go into the records from the Caspian War and track down every single instance of an aircraft going down from hostile fire, especially ground fire. Work out the common elements. Become an expert.

This is the one I like for sure, we were brought on for our practical experience of AA work, which we may be the only ones capable of speaking authoritatively on. Making models is highly necessary, but it's also well beneath our dignity. That's what the enlisted are for, we should still have a carpenter's shop on base and those guys can knock out pretty much anything we'd need.
Yeah, if we nail this (and lean on our connections a fair bit), then we could have the Tomita-Arisukawa High Angle Mounting going down in the history books. Of course, we could also end up with the 12.7 cm Type 3's Type B mounting, or the 130 mm Mle 1932, or the 10.5 SK C/33's Dop. L. C/31, or the Cannone da 90/50 Ansaldo Model 1938...

There's a lot of ways to mess this up.

Also, isn't this supposed to be plan voting?

[X] Plan: First Option Only
-[X] Go into the records from the Caspian War and track down every single instance of an aircraft going down from hostile fire, especially ground fire. Work out the common elements. Become an expert.
 
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