Mandat de l'impératrice des Cieux - Imperial Princess Troubleshooter Space Opera Quest

Reminder for everybody who hasn't voted: voting will close in another 12-odd hours from now.
 
Not really, how the ships look isn't really something I'd been thinking about, beyond a general idea of "vaguely cylindrical, stealthy hulls with VLO faceting and sensor blisters (like the EOTS sensor on the F-35's chin)".

...yes, I guess one way of putting it is that instead of plain ordinary dildo-shaped warships, we're running ribbed dildo-shaped warships. :V

*Whiskey is beaten*

Okay, maybe a better way of describing things is that we're using stealth frames like the LRASM missile :V

this is just a cunning way of remaining uncommitted so that the moment someone has a nice design that I like, I'll just steal it and retcon ship design :V

jfc literally worst possible spess ship design you could go for. 0/10 dropping this harder than Zeon dropped the colony on Australia/jk

...But seriously dildoships are bad, and I will never, ever, stop shitting on Honorverse because of it.

Anyway:

[X] Crisis Management

The Empress continues to be a roaring garbage fire, but with some basic non-zero stat in Decorum, I really feel like we need to get her cracking on actually learning to handle disasters. Because from what Kanda's saying, things are going to break one way or the other soon enough.

And on that day Ahri's ability to get shit done will matter a great deal.
 
Scheduled vote count started by Whiskey Golf on Nov 4, 2020 at 7:49 PM, finished with 26 posts and 21 votes.
 
Loyalty
Sandakan
Twenty Years Ago



You crack open the soda can and hand it to Masa, opening your own can. Lord, you're certain this conversation will require beer at the least, but your mum's rules are very particular: no drinking until after dinner. You'll have to make do with cold soda.

Well, like the Lord ordered: Honor thy father and thy mother.

You take a sip, eyeing your best friend, and gesture at him. "Something's on your mind, Masa. Spill it."

"I've been thinking, Johnny. Back then, we didn't have any power. We couldn't do anything. Hypothetically-"

"Hypothetically, of course."

"-hypothetically, since we've never had this conversation before-"

"-we have never hypothetically discussed this hypothetical in the hypothetical past, yes."

"-hypothetically, we've got friends, we've made connections. Hypothetically, if we were to do something… we'd have a chance to do this, Johnny."

"Realistically, we have a hypothetical ghost of a hypothetical chance, Masa. We're warship captains, not squadron leaders, not fleet commanders. We don't have enough power to try anything. Even if we had all of 1st Fleet on our side, there's still the IRG and the rest of the loyalists. It'd be a pyrrhic victory at best. Hypothetically, best case scenario, we might carve out a small fief for ourselves, but that will never last. As corrupt and complacent as it is, the Throne will never tolerate a blatant challenge to its power. Hypothetically."

"If upstarts like us could get away with seceding, it would give the Great Houses ideas," agrees Masa, and you give him a look.

"See, this one you know also. Don't need me to be teaching you."

"Hyung, what if winning wasn't the point? What if the fight itself was the entire point?"

"If you'd asked me ten years ago, I'd have said yes. Five years ago, qualified yes. Today?" You sigh tiredly. "No. We've both got too much to lose."

"Johnny, we're sitting in your dad's glorified doghouse. I'm okay with losing this."

You snort and toss Masa a one-fingered salute, which he returns. "You know what I'm talking about, Masa. You have a kid. Not just any kid, the Heir Presumptive some more. She could do by living what we can't do by dying in a blaze of spite. Yes, I still think your mother's a piece of shit, and your sister's little better. Ten years ago I'd die for the chance to spit in that hag's eye, but I won't if it means Yui dies. Look me in the eye and tell me you're willing to throw away your daughter at a futile shot at revenge."

The Prince of Akasha bristles at your words, and gathers himself to retort at you… and then he sighs, deflating, leaving you with Yui's Dad. "I hate them, Hyung. I hate them and I want to hurt them. But… but not if it means losing my daughter."

"My brother," you say, clapping Masa on the back. "That's right. We're not dying to spite those bitches, we're living to protect Yui. Do we hate that hag and that bitch, sure. But we swore our oaths to the office of the Empress. We can be loyal to an office, and to our oaths, and to our brothers. And you never know: maybe our future Empress is in my mom's kitchen right now, prepping the reunion dinner." You tap your chest, pointing to your heart. "So let's bury all that hypothetical talk, all those thoughts. Let's go as far as we can go, do as much as we can do, and keep your daughter safe."

"And while my royal sister's wish is our command, we'll just have to disappoint her by surviving Pattani, and every shithole she sends us to."

"I'm so proud of you," you say, wiping away a pretend tear. "You've grown so well and become a fine young man, my work here is done. Oh, my baby, leng chai ah, I'm so proud of how I've raised you."

Masa makes a shuddering noise, halfway between a sob and a laugh, and shakes his head. "Hyung, what happened to that firebrand I met, the guy who thought the Empire was rotten and needed to be burned out by the roots?"

"He picked up a brother, a sister-in-law, and a niece, and grew old before his time taking care of them," you snark, though your tired tone and fond smile robs your words of a lot of their bite. "What happened to that clueless playboy I met?"

"He picked up a wife, a daughter, and a brother, and learned to live for other people," says Masa fondly. He pauses thoughtfully, but whatever he would say is interrupted by your mum yelling to you: "Boys! Dinner time!"

"Mum, we're having a heart to heart talk about stuff!" you yell back to the house.

"You've had enough time to talk! Come inside now, we're tossing the yee sang!"

You sigh and shake your head. "Coming!"

Masa snickers. "Good grief, Johnny. You're how old and your mom still treats you like you're twelve?"

"Excuse me, you also behave like you're twelve when you're with my mom. You ain't got room to talk, boyo."

You both step out of the shed-doghouse, and head inside. This time next week, you and Masa will be in Pattani, doing your best to avoid dying in service to an Empress you disdain. But that's later. Next week is for disappointing Her Majesty.

Tonight is for your family.
 
once again deadly decadent courts are horrible especially for interstellar nations. everyone is thinking we have some plan and so does Ahri when the both of us are completely clueless and are actually earnest in trying to be good leaders.

Goddamnit where is that good life choices meme?
 
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Okay, I think I've hit on WHY I find malay amusing.
It's Whiskey's fault.
MORE ACCURATELY, I'm pretty sure the first encounter was with Saltmeister Johnny firing off a stream of it in anger, and while I don't understand a lick of it without translation, I generally can pick up from context what the person is feeling. It also helps that the malay bursts tend to be for emphasis like 'DAGNAMIT!', but something about that, somewhere between the used for emphasis and the whole 'I am upset/angry/have strong feelings about this matter' I think that's what cracks me up.
And again, the precedent of someone erupting in malay in fustration probably also helps I think.
Now here's hoping that doesn't count as being racist.
 
This time next week, you and Masa will be in Pattani, doing your best to avoid dying in service to an Empress you disdain. But that's later. Next week is for disappointing Her Majesty.

Tonight is for your family.

and that ladies and gentlemen is why we serve, even if we hate our own government, we serve. not for the assholes in charge, but for our brothers and sisters to either side, and our families at home.

Salt Admiral is salty about the empire?

I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

Here are your winnings from the casino sir
 
Only the malaysians and singaporeans will understand what's going on in the background of this snip, haha :p

Basically for the Chinese New Year, on the new year's eve you have the reunion dinner and you toss yee sang, which is a very SEA thing; I'm given to understand yee sang is not a thing in the mainland.

The reunion dinner is meant to be family only, and your friends come and visit you on the next day. Note how Masa, Sasha and Yui are here at Johnny's mom's house, with his family, for the reunion dinner...

Okay, I think I've hit on WHY I find malay amusing.
It's Whiskey's fault.
MORE ACCURATELY, I'm pretty sure the first encounter was with Saltmeister Johnny firing off a stream of it in anger, and while I don't understand a lick of it without translation, I generally can pick up from context what the person is feeling. It also helps that the malay bursts tend to be for emphasis like 'DAGNAMIT!', but something about that, somewhere between the used for emphasis and the whole 'I am upset/angry/have strong feelings about this matter' I think that's what cracks me up.
And again, the precedent of someone erupting in malay in fustration probably also helps I think.
Now here's hoping that doesn't count as being racist.

Actually, Johnny has mostly been dropping more Hokkein than Malay, it's Yuimom and Yuigrandma who speak Malay, since they're Malay-Japanese foxes :V (Evidently we can gather that Yui is not actually truly Malay on account of eating bacon, the same way Johnny is being an apostate.)

...honestly his mom might forgive him for that, she's a convert aand she remembers the taste of bacon and lap chong and siew nyuk and cha siew, but she'll never forgive him for turning his back on Yahweh. :V
 
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And there are a lot of people that are something in between.
 
Found this quest a while back entirely because fluffy tails and started going through it slowly. Took me too long to catch up with real life interfering and losing the tab once or twice, but I'm glad I stuck it out. I don't think I'll vote much but I'll be reading for sure.
 
losing the tab once or twice
ngl that's happened to me more times than I care to admit, so I have to actually find back the thread via my sig :V

I kinda regret going for french instead of Mandate of the Celestial Empress but eh what do, it's been 2 years, it's far too late to change it now lmao :p It's like one of my betas questioning "wait, why is there malay, why is yuimom calling her Sayang, since when have they been Malay" and I've had to put my foot down and say "the time to bring this up was last year fam :V"

Glad you liked it. Will update before christmas. Fucking covid workload ree

I wish this year wasn't cucking me so hard :(
 
I kinda regret going for french instead of Mandate of the Celestial Empress but eh what do, it's been 2 years, it's far too late to change it now lmao :p It's like one of my betas questioning "wait, why is there malay, why is yuimom calling her Sayang, since when have they been Malay" and I've had to put my foot down and say "the time to bring this up was last year fam :V"
I blame Quebec. Or Vietnam. :V

Either way, more delicious MSG can't possibly be bad.
 
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