Harry And The Shipgirls: Prisoner of Shipping (A HP/KanColle Snippet Collection)

[SisterJeanne]

And here's a photodump for the Du Chasteler-Potter children:

INFORMATIONAL: CLAIRE'S CHILDREN

Therese Lyra du Chasteler-Potter (The Oldest, the most responsible and dutiful, and primary sibling-herder, Violin):

Spoiler: Ehren's Favorite Niece, The Dutiful Eldest Sister

"I'm so happy that I was able to sibling-sit so Mother and Father could spend a night out to relax."

Jacques du Chasteler-Potter (Therese's minutes-younger fraternal twin, Cello, the 'bad boy' of the family)

Spoiler: The Bad Bishie Boy

"I bet if the Brat Pack distracts Therese enough, I can sneak out to play at the bar downtown tonight..."

The next four are collectively called the 'Brat Pack' or the 'Brat Quartet' since they are all thick as thieves.

In order of age in the photo from left to right, you have ringleader Henriette the viola (who is capable of playing the Violin II score with her enchantments), assistant identical twin mischief-makers Giuseppe the viola and Franz the cello, and last but not least Amélie the violin (her angelic innocent smile hides the mastermind of the Quartet).

Spoiler: The Brat Quartet Plotting Mischief

"Right, here's the plan. Franz distracts Oldest Sister while Henriette acquires Dad's shaving cream to put in her shoes and Gieuseppe stands lookout. Got it team? Do this and Jacques is giving us all the chocolate that we can eat!"

The next one was a shock to the entire family as Yoko was not a European instrument at all. Family debates centered on whether the Koto was born because Claire's family was the Muramasas, Tony had Japanese ties, or because she was conceived the night Claire and Tony played to celebrate the anniversary of the Arashi Clan's founding at Ian Potter's Shrine. Regardless, favorite family compositions had to be reworked to include Yoko.

Spoiler: Toku's Favorite Granddaughter

"It has been far too quiet today, I should be on the lookout for the Brat Pack as I meditate."

Shortly after that, Claire's wishes for some keyboard accompaniment for Mother to go with all the strings were granted at last. Although not quite in the way she had hoped as Johanna was a harpsichord and not a piano, but then Claire does enjoy Baroque pieces immensely.

Spoiler: Johanna The Bach Virtuoso

**Hums happily as she plays Canon in D Major on Harpsichord behind her locked, bolted, and warded door to prevent interruptions and shenanigans**

Finally Claire had a final set of twins. Ludwig, the elder of the two, is the calm, studious bookend to his family's craziness as he plays double bass as the foundation for their antics.

Spoiler: Ludwig du Chasteler-Potter, The Studious One

**Keeps a careful eye on his door as he studies Enchantments For Musical Instruments**

What Ludwig has for calm studious temperament, his twin sister Jeannette makes up for in flighty nervous energy as she plays jazz, swing, ragtime, and other uptempo genres in endless creative variations on her Bosendorfer Grand Piano body. Mother was quite happy to have a daughter who she could do piano duets with at long last.

Spoiler: Jeannette Du Chasteler, The Creative One

"Mou, I'm boooored! Nothing ever happens around here!"

**rolls over on her lid and starts to play jazz idly**

Spoiler: Bonus Information

I just figured out who Jeannette is going to fall for as hard as... well... a falling piano . A certain tenor saxophone spirit from Nashville...

 

[SisterJeanne]

Crossposting my notes on the rings from SB.

Also, these rings were graded as his 'Practicals' for the Enchantment portion of his NEWTs. Which Percy got Outstanding on.

All of the rings are self-repairing, damage resistant, linked to their owner so she always knows where it is (no lost rings!), have a notice-me-not component to avoid embarrassing questions at the office, and can transform back and forth into a plain and unadorned band of the base metal (gold, gold, and cadmium-gold 'green gold' alloy respectively) to go 'low key'.

Each also has a specific custom enchantment crafted to the needs of the owner:

Amisi's was designed to act as an object of consecration for an Egyptian Priestess (which she of course is), so can act as her 'holy symbol' to channel magical prayers through, similar to her ankh wand.

Supprin's can deploy enchanted dragonhide gloves to cover her hands to protect them at a roughly comparable defense level to her power fist gauntlets (which protect the vulnerable entrance to her storehouse facilities). An additional spell cloaks her in an illusion so she appears as a pale-skinned and blonde haired young human woman to be able to wander around without screams of 'Abyssal'.

Ooyodo's ring also serves as her personal self-inking jitsuin seal to apply official stamps as needed when generating paperwork. Percy enchanted it so she can 'copy' her jitsuin seals to it so she will have any identifying seal needed always 'to hand' and if and when she gets official permission from the JMSDF can do the same with her office's inkan to do so in a professional as well as personal capability.

 

[SisterJeanne]

A.N. Forgot to crosspost this informational

Anyway, here's my notes and character sheet on Toku. Enjoy!

Masamune-no-Tokunotakai (Masamune of the Warrior's Virtues)
Physical Form: 1510s Katana in the Sōshū style

Spoiler: Toku-chan's Physical Form Notes

Very close examination of her blade will reveal that her nioi martensite crystal matrix in the pattern-welded steel forms the kanji for the Seven Virtues of Bushido (in order hilt to point Chu-Duty, Meiyo-Honor, Yu-Courage, Makoto-Sincerity, Jin-Compassion, Gi-Rectitude, Rei-Respect). When she channels one (or more) of the Virtues, the matching kanji flare to life magically (in order pale pink of a cherry blosssom, blood red, brilliant flaming orange, pure gold, emerald green, ice blue and a deep indigo purple).

Otherwise she is plain to the point of austerity in her fittings with a simple square iron tsuba etched with Hachiman's dove her only ornamentation.

The apprentice signed his work as 'inspired by Masamune in a dream' and recorded the date of her forging as Eishō 8 (1511), 7th day of the 7th month.

Spoiler: Toku-chan's avatar at War and Peace

(This is a good picture of her blade unsheathed, incidentally. Note how plain her fittings are with a very subtle humble aesthetic))
Her avatar is on the slightly low side of average for a Japanese female (5'1") and dresses accordingly as a miko (she will occasionally wear a kimono for a specific role in a festival, but 98% of the time she is haori and hakama). The only 'not ordinary' part of her avatar's appearance is that her eyes are blue-green (depending on the light) rather than the expected brown for a Japanese female.

Spoiler: History up to the Hunt for Norimune Sidestory

Masamune-no-Tokunotakai was created by a senior apprentice of Masamune as a commission for a Takeda Clan daimyo who wished to curry favor with the monks of the Tsurugaoka Hachimangū temple in Kamakura. Accepted and hallowed by the priests, she spent the first century of her life as a display blade that was shown to the public and occasionally used for demonstrations of kendo and kenjutsu by a senior monk. Because of the combination of Hachimangū's neutrality during the Age of Warring States combined with not even the most desperate bandit wishing to attack a temple dedicated to the Protector of Warriors with no few retired samurai becoming monks there in gratitude for their survival resulted in a surprisingly peaceful life with no combat seen.

Upon manifesting an avatar in 1611 at the age of 100, Tokunotakai humbly petitioned the temple masters to be accepted as a shrine maiden, which was granted. For the next five centuries she stayed at Hachimangū, where she served as a miko, as well as learning the (theoretical) arts of war as a student and then as a senior instructor for kendo and kyudo. Unlike all of her sisters, she restricted herself to one location and has never seen actual combat.

One of the high points of her life was in 1627 when Miyamoto Musashi accompanied by his sword (and Toku's sister) Masamune-no-Musashi visited Hachimangū on his second musha shugyo pilgrimage, and Toku took several kendo lessons from the peerless swordsman before he left to resume his travels seeking the Way of the Sword. This impacted the impressionable young Masamune greatly between his teachings of the Way of the Warrior, his quest of continual self-discovery and self-improvement, and the fact that his disciple was the first sister she had met. Toward the end of his life, the aged sword saint requested that Musashi deliver a copy of The Book of Five Rings to Toku (signed 'to a promising novice-follow The Way in all things') after his death, which is one of Toku's most prized possessions.

(Toku is one of Japan's biggest Miyamoto Musashi fangirls ever and one of her secret regrets is never having a chance to be used by The Master or fight alongside him as he wandered Japan seeking challenges and evils to vanquish)

However, dreams of heroic adventure alongside loyal comrades who a katana could respect as a fellow warrior only go so far when one believes that her duties restrict her to the shrine where she serves loyally. Worse, although the monks would have willingly granted Toku permission to go on her own musha shugyo to hone her skills and find The Way, Toku felt that it was not her place to ask for a change of duties and her superiors in the temple did not know of the dreams that she kept to herself.

Gradually Toku began to fall into a rut of training 'less skilled' students as a routine rather than seeing them as opportunities to nurture someone to be proud of. Likewise, never being challenged in her spars caused her start to coast by. As well, while she had met several of her sisters when they visited Kamakura, they had other duties and rarely visited her-although she kept up a long running and warm long-distance correspondence with her family. Worse, because of the Shogunal laws against dueling, Toku was never really challenged by any of her sisters or any other peer opponent and began to lose The Way as her belief in her superiority shifted to arrogance. By the late 1850s, Toku was very much backsliding with a entirely too overblown sense of herself.

The good thing about falling into ruts, though, is that one can be kicked out of them. In 1864 said kick came when Colombe d'Aubigny du Chasteler, Muramasa daughter of Norimune, arrived at Hachimangū, seeking information about her father (and unknowingly coming to the temple where Norimune had been consecrated to Hachiman alongside Toku).

Toku was already privately irate about the disruption to her 'nice safe cozy world where she was superior' by the Opening of Japan forcing the temple authorities to discuss what this meant and what changes must be made. Colombe poured gasoline on the fire of Toku's arrogance and anger by accidentally addressing the Masamune as a servant thanks to poor Japanese skills (plus Colombe's genetic Muramasa Smugface being seen as arrogance by the gaijin). Toku responded in kind, the argument escalated, and the match to the ensuing dumpster fire happened when Colombe bluntly told Toku that she needed to stop playing with herself and get laid to start pulling the stick out of her ass.

Incandescently furious at someone talking to her in ways that she had not been talked to, Toku drew herself and demanded that the gaijin either get on her knees and beg for forgiveness, or draw her sword so Toku could avenge the insult with Colombe's life blood. Colombe, who by this point was quite annoyed with 'Miko Punchable Face' and had correctly pegged Toku as an arrogant prissy bitch, drew herself in turn and told her to come and get some.

The fight did not go Toku's way. Blinded by her hubris and arrogance (and not having been seriously challenged since Miyamoto Musashi beat her in a spar in 1627), she sadly underestimated the abilities of the much younger tsukumogami, who was highly skilled on the battlefields of Europe and Asia where she had spent a century and a half fighting for her life as she searched for her father. Worse for Toku was that while her experience was all academic in controlled and regulated duels for points or to first strike, Colombe was a graduate from The School Of Hard Knocks, where there were no rules and no points for second place. Colombe managed to lock Toku's blade, then cheap shot her with a knee to the groin. While Toku was shocked at the blatant foul, Colombe took the opening presented to hit Toku with a powerful Indian lightning punch spell. Toku dropped like a sack of rice and in more pain than she had ever experienced with her arrogance and pride in tatters waited for the death blow.

It never came. Instead Colombe looked at the gasping Masamune and sheathed her sword, then requested access to the information she desired. Weeping bitter tears of shame and humiliation, Toku retrieved her true body and sheathed herself. She then froze as she saw Hachiman in the guise of an aged monk stride from the central shrine to challenge Colombe.

Toku watched in shock as Colombe fought Hachiman, got beaten into the ground, and picked herself up to keep fighting over and over again. Even with a shattered left arm, coughing up blood with multiple broken ribs, and her eyes nearly swollen shut, Colombe refused to give up, screaming that "she could not lose, she had to find her father" as she staggered to her feet one more time and leveled her rapier to continue to fight.

Finally utterly spent, Colombe just could not go on and Hachiman helped her to her feet, telling her sadly that the time was not yet right to find her father and giving her a prophecy to sustain her until she could fulfill her sworn oath to wait until the prophecy was fulfilled before returning to Japan. As Colombe slowly descended the stairs from the shrine, visibly heartbroken but unwilling to compromise her honor to pursue her goal, Hachiman turned to Toku.

Sadly but firmly He asked her "who has a better understanding of The Way of Bushido, the miko who studied it her whole life without acting upon it, or the gaijin who had never set foot in The Land of the Gods before this year, and yet refuses to compromise herself or quit fighting for what she sees as right no matter the cost to her?" Toku looked at the figure of Colombe and responded quietly, "She does, she has the spirit of a true samurai that I am lacking." Hachiman nodded and spoke again. "Understanding of your failure is the first step upon the Way and none may succeed without it. One day your steel shall cross hers again here, and only the one who has lived the Way shall prevail. Prepare yourself for that day."

Toku took that advice to heart, looking at her past actions and beliefs in the new and distinctly unflattering light that had been shone upon them, and began to obsessively train and self correct to purify herself for the eventual rematch. Also she realized that the foreigners were worthy peers of Japan, having seen in Colombe that her steel was as pure as any of her sisters' and began to speak in their favor (which put her at odds with a few of her more traditional sisters) along with supporting the Meiji Reformation. Finding that by teaching others she in turn learned, she rededicated herself to teaching along with practice of her martial and magical skills.

During the ride of the ultra-nationalists in the 1920s and 1930s, she subtly worked against the Kamo government by teaching her students that deeds and not country of birth were important, and not all Western thoughts were bad (along with studying English to speak to Colombe). Also seeing the military confrontation coming earlier than most, she stockpiled food, medical supplies, potions, and other vital supplies and worked tirelessly to cast protection charms upon the homes and businesses of Kamakura, which served the town well in the coming war.

Also during this time, one of her students who was assigned to London as a naval attache and that she was exceptionally close to sent her some of Lyra Potter's books about Gentlewoman Adventuress Lady Chastity (actually Colombe with the serial numbers filed off) since he thought correctly that his sensei who spoke about a learning from a blonde gaijin woman with a rapier that struck like lightning would enjoy them as a joke gift. She did and has a set of Lady Chastity #1-15 as an exceptionally guilty pleasure hidden under a loose floorboard in her room.

Toku cautioned against WWII and then during the Pacific War did her best to help the families of Kamakura, donating of her time and magics to ward off disease and starvation and also save who she could. This paid off by both shielding her from the government, whose agents looking into 'The Angel of Kamakura' as a loose cannon got blank stares and misleading answers to their inquiries, and then later from the occupation forces magical and mundane both who were told that she was a simple orphaned shrine maiden and not a tsukumogami of an illegal samurai sword.

After the 1950s with the return of civilian government, she continued to hone her skills and also look to improve herself as both a warrior and as a person by attempting to live up to the Virtues that she embodies (Gi-Integrity and Rectitude. Rei-Respect. Yu-Heroic Courage. Meiyo-Honor. Jin-Compassion. Makoto-Honesty and Sincerity. Chu-Duty and Loyalty.) in both word and deed. Also she deliberately lives a life of simplicity by writing brush and inkstone letters on rice paper to stay in contact with her sisters and not using modern technologies at all.

When Blood Week happened, it caught Toku by surprise. Resolving to protect Kamakura, she dutifully patrolled the town's seafront, but to her quiet frustration the far more tempting nearby targets of Tokyo Bay and Yokusuka Naval Base attracted almost all the Abyssal efforts. The result was minor damage to the town from a single drive-by shelling by a solitary light cruiser fleeing a battle off Yokohama and two separate instances where Abyssal aircraft enroute to Tokyo were intercepted and had to release their bombs in the general area of Kamakura. This rapidly dwindled to nothing upon the arrival of Kanmasu patrols in the waters off Tokyo which protected Kamakura by simple proximity.

Instead of combat against a worthy and evil foe to protect the innocent, Toku instead helped with the wounded, homeless, and refugees from more hard-hit areas just as she did in the Pacific War. Rewarding duty to her spirit, but it did little to soothe her burning desire to serve Hachiman as more than a miko but instead as a wandering hero such as Miyamoto Musashi and Lady Chastity. Still she would not act on (what she thought) were base desires, since she was still blinkered by her preconceptions that she was not free to ask for a temporary release from her duties.

Spoiler: Notes on The Virtues and their relationship to Toku's abilities

As her name and blade implies, Toku is intimately tied to the Seven Virtues of Bushido (Gi-Integrity and Rectitude. Rei-Respect. Yu-Heroic Courage. Meiyo-Honor. Jin-Compassion. Makoto-Honesty and Sincerity. Chu-Duty and Loyalty.). If she is following a Virtue in her life by word and deed, then Toku can channel that virtue to improve her magic (basically it is a bit of a karma meter for her). In terms of power level she is a solid middleweight in the Masamune family mainly hampered by primarily having theoretical vs practical experience for her combat skills.

Last but not least, here are some RPG titles for her: [Shrine Maiden] [Bread Knife] [Precious Cinnamon Roll] [Too Dutiful for Her Own Good] [Lady Chastity Fanclub Member] [Beware The Nice Ones] [Hachiman Fan]

 

[SisterJeanne]

How many seconds until everyone who isn't a tanuki or a Jorogumo comes busting through the doors/walls like Kool-Aid Man, to see what just happened with Columbe & Toku? Because that death scream had to have been heard across the entire manor.

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Unfortunately for the Kool-Aid Man, they didn't hear it thanks to soundproofing spells on this room along with the rooms being about halfway around the castle. Also there was a drunken karaoke party going on in Mother's Study that drowned out the noises from across the castle.

Layout of Colombe's Castle Moulbaix

Spoiler: Reference Photos of Castle Moulbaix

(This is a view from directly south looking at the exterior with illusion charms up)


(Exterior view from the north side, photographer is standing at the edge of the duck pond with oak trees behind him)


(View looking straight on at the NW corner tower which shows the W exterior, E exterior is mirrored identical)

Website with interior photos:URBANEXPLORATION.NL | Chateau de la Foret / Chateau Moulbaix - Belgium

To fill folks in about Castle Moulbaix' layout, the upper floors are in a (rough) hollow rectangle around the two-story entrance hall/ballroom combo with the main entrance on the south side of the castle and a grand staircase leading up to the east and west wings. Colombe's study is on the second floor's NE octagonal corner tower while Hippolyte's study was in the SW tower, The current inhabited living quarters are on the second floor east side between the NE and SE corner octagonal towers. The ballroom is in the north part of the first floor, as is the Billiard Room. The Vanishing Cabinet is installed in a north side 2nd floor room two doors down from Colombe's study (that used to be a maid's room).

The tour Colombe was giving Toku headed down the east side bedrooms/bathrooms then headed west along the 2nd floor south corridor (which has much of the art and Colombe's Ming vase collection displayed). From North to South (West to East) the residential corridor goes Claire's music room (across the hall from Colombe's study), bathroom/bathroom, Ehren's room/Claire's room (across the hall from each other and connected to their private bathrooms), Library (repurposed from a bedroom)/Kasuyu's room (with attached bathroom), Toku's room/Colombe's room (both with attached bath), SE tower (used to be Papa's room, Colombe has restored it 1918-2018, she sleeps in the 'Lady of the Household' private quarters).

Currently about 2/3 to 3/4 the rooms are closed up and mothballed with about a once a decade renewal of anti-dust/maintenance charms by Colombe and Kasuyu. Moulbaix Castle could easily accommodate two dozen family members/guests plus 18 servants at full staff.

The lower floor is again rectangular with the kitchen/pantry in the NE tower, dining and billiard/game rooms south along the east wall (the billiard room is in the SE tower's first floor). The center is dominated by the grand entrance hall with the ballroom directly north of it (along with a utility room and servant's stair in the NE near the kitchen). Along the west side of the first floor, there is a room that used to be a sunroom that Colombe plans to open back up one of these decades. The south side of the west wing on the first floor is a private family chapel (currently mothballed) plus quarters for a resident priest.

There is a hidden stair in the priest's quarters that descends to a hidden room in the cellars where a second hidden door leads to a narrow tunnel and ladder that ends in a hidden (and warded) space inside the (apparent) solid first flight of the marble grand staircase, with a peephole and small very well hidden door that leads into the ballroom. This is the priest's hide that Colombe helped conceal during the French Revolution (she is the only person who knows of it, and she has an emergency supplies 'go bag' stashed here). There are also an extensive storeroom and wine/brandy cellar underneath the east side of the castle.

The north side second floor hall was the servant's quarters, with the main library in the NW second floor tower (which has a spiral staircase to the 1st floor).

Basically the 1500s functional castle structure was adapted into something closer to a Louis XIV-era Chalet in Colombe's youth and then renovated once again in the 1880s-1890s as a noble showpiece.

Eh... The Portrait has no power besides talking.

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Words, expertly applied, can have a lot of power.

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Indeed, especially when you have spent years studying your target to know how to push her buttons to achieve a desired result.

The unexpected revelation that she has a live picture of Hippolyte is more effective--has more emotional punch--than if we already knew that it exists and that he exerts such a baleful influence over her.

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Wasn't intended that way, since I tend to have a very general outline and let the writing flow, but it worked well enough.