princess maker - sensitIV

[idolpro]

[ When you insert the key and open the door, you'll find yourself in a humble cottage, in what seems to be the living room specifically. There are several doors, but a specific one catches your eye: simple in its decoration, the door has a cute little wooden plaque with flowers carved into it. Though the door is closed, you can see through it—as if it's somewhat transparent.

A wooden cradle sits in the room beyond, which is otherwise plain. Inside, a baby sleeps peacefully. When she stirs, calling for her parent, you are there to cradle her back to sleep. ]

-

[ Slowly, the scene changes, fading in and out with various silent scenes—the baby coos pleasantly, giggling jovially when you (presumably) make faces at her; she tries to pick herself up and falls over, but she does not cry; a disagreement between you and her lead to a thoughtful discussion; the young girl carries a large laundry basket to do chores; she buys a pet bird, looking so proud for having earned the money all by herself; then the wall becomes opaque. ]

[ In the middle of the open doorway, a young girl the age of 10 stands, smiling at you. A bird with beautiful plumage rests on her shoulder.

This is your daughter. You tried your best to rear her, and she's been good to you. You know she is capable of anything if she puts her mind to it - even becoming a princess. But you also know it's not easy to become a princess - she'll have to work hard, and she's capable of it but you'll have to guide her hand, most certainly. Better she become a princess than go off to war, though; you could not stand to see your baby girl die on the battlefield. Whether she actually becomes a princess or not . . . well, that's up to fate, isn't it? All you can do is try your best. ]

Comments

ROUND 3 MORAL DILEMMA

[idolpro]

1

[idolpro]

As time goes on, it seems that Hela's lady has developed a cruel disposition. Her army is directed towards those who only dubiously disturb it, mostly people who have offended her or her family in some way -- and not necessarily by having done anything wrong.

Of course, dear Aster Hela is still at her side through all of this, but it seems she's torn between duty and doing the right thing. It might not be a problem you need to intervene in, but...some of the higher nobles are starting to become unhappy with the influence Hela's lady has amongst their children, and by extension, are unhappy with Hela herseslf. What do you do?

DECISION

[idolpro]

Re: DECISION

[kimaris]

- We're going to try our very best to adopt the other girl. Maybe that even just means having her spend the weekdays with us, so that the rich family doesn't Lose Standing(tm), but they're gonna try.

- Vidar will once again tell Aster to follow her gut feelings.

- We'll be trying to investigate the source of the other girl's problems.

- And will try to counsel Aster on rights and wrongs once more, preferably both girls—

Re: DECISION

[idolpro]

You manage to arrange time for the other girl to come on the weekends. Her parents aren't very happy about it, but your family's popularity and renown force their hand -- you're people they'd very much like to be ok with, and this sort of thing is common amongst nobles anyway.

They like your investigations even less.

The counseling goes well, and the other girl seems to become less cruel...just a bit.

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

Re: DISCUSSION

[kimaris]

...I think she might be too young to understand the consequences of this.

Re: DISCUSSION

[forgottenmercy]

[absolutely unhappy with this] ...how should we, ah, try to explain it to her?

Re: DISCUSSION

[mycaringheart]

...A princess... should do what she thinks is right, for the good of everyone. If her lady is becoming a tyrant and Aster disagrees, then...

@ aster

[kimaris]

Good morning. Let's have breakfast together.

[ i don't know if that's actually possible but whatever he's offering it anyway because it feels normal. ]

[idolpro]

Oh! Okay, dad!

Re: DISCUSSION

[bevoted]

........ [ aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ]


She... probably won't want to leave her side. And even if she does, that won't actually stop the problem. [ the problem... apparently. being a tyrant child. ]

Re: DISCUSSION

[mycaringheart]

If this development is a recent one, there must be something that changed...

Re: DISCUSSION

[forgottenmercy]

...I wonder if there is, ah, a way for her to influence her lady to be better.

2

[idolpro]

Aster Hela and her lady grow incredibly close in the time they spend living together, and it gets to the point where they're often seen around town...holding hands.

Gasp horror.

She now refers to her lady in much more affectionate terms -- this arrangement would be considered cute and endearing -- the child of knights befriending and working for the child of high nobility, but...

Well, aren't they too close?

Rumours start to spread, that despite their young age and all common decency that Hela's lady is much more than just her lady -- it seems largely the girl's family is behind this.

Such closeness between children who are not betrothed, such closeness between two girls -- it's a symptom of the plague, and nobody takes very well to the news that the two of them may be dating. They and their friends become the subject of jeers and bullying, and pressure comes down on your families to tear them apart. It's a scandal no one in this town wants to bear, and as the instigator Aster is liable to be declared a plague bearer...the other girl's family, of course, is more than happy to stop their child from ever seeing Hela again.

What do you do?

DECISION

[idolpro]

Re: DECISION

[bevoted]

[ Since the noble girl's family seems set on ruining their daughter's life as well as our own daughter's life, we've decided to go the Spite route.

plan A: dig up whatever dirt we got on the noble family via our investigations and blackmail them into retracting the rumors.

plan B: if they don't retract the rumors we're using whatever dirt we have on them to ruin them. and possibly blame them for the plague, somehow.

plan C: if both of these plans fail we're skipping town and we're taking the noble girl. ]

Re: DECISION

[idolpro]

Congratulations.

You end up skipping town, because everything else you tried just made things worse. And when the mobs came for her and her lady, Aster Hela of course tries to defend her.

But her lady, instead, is the one who protects her. She is captured and burned at the stake, and there is nothing Hela can do about it. She does manage to recover the corpse, crying over it as you escape from town under the cover of night on horseback, the smoke of your home burning to the ground filling the air.

Is this what you wanted?

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

Re: DISCUSSION

[bevoted]

The townspeople can get fucked.

[ that's it that's his entire opinion. ]

Re: DISCUSSION

[kimaris]

[ yep. ]

I only know of people caring when they need a blood-related heir.

3

[idolpro]

Well...you're probably not attending the festival, now.

You stop in a forest clearing in northern New Senteca, in the foothills just south of the mountain range separating Senteca and the continent that lies to the north of it. Hela is absolutely inconsolabe. She spends most of her time whispering to her lady's burnt and charred corpse, cradling it, getting gross corpse juices all over herself -- if only there were some way. If only there were some way to fix her...

She swears she can see her breathe sometimes. She swears she isn't really dead. And maybe she's right...?

You've thrown of your pursuers, but there'll be another search party on your trail soon. There's not much hope left, here.

What do you do?

DECISION

[idolpro]

Re: DECISION

[forgottenmercy]

Vidar is the responsible parent who tries to have a talk with Aster about using this pain and carrying her girlfriend's memory to use it to make the world better/so that no one else has to go through this
persephone looks into necromancy
loki runs off to torch the town on his own out of revenge and spite.

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]