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Princess Maker 1.5: pep!pep!
[ 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, her nursemaid, are there instead, 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 dog, 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 11 stands, smiling at you. A stern-looking shepherd dog sits obediently next to her.
This is your little girl. 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 she'll need a guiding hand, you know. Better she become a princess than go off to war, though—better that she bear the burden of aristocracy than living a life of loneliness wrapped up in duty like her mother, or losing that life on the battlefield like her father. Whether she actually becomes a princess or not . . . well, that's up to fate, isn't it? Fortunately, when she goes to the Lost Continent, she won't be alone: you, as her longtime caretaker (her third parent, really, or her first, if you consider how her family's left her care entirely to you), may accompany her to her new school. You'll be her ally, her support, her greatest weapon; you'll be the one who determines her success . . . or her failure. ]
[ Of course, you're not the only one that thinks your charge can do it: Shira, one of the Queens of your Kingdom, hand-selected your employer's child. She doesn't have a child of her own to send—or rather, to be more accurate, her children are much more interested in local philanthropy than going to the Lost Continent, and besides that, you hear that Emi is against their children going overseas in the first place. Still, Shira can sponsor someone to go to the Lost Continent, so she chooses your employer's family; it seems your charge is a distant relative of her own family, after all. It's because of her that your charge will be able to go at all—in other words, it's your patriotic duty to make sure your charge gets that inheritance. ]
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, her nursemaid, are there instead, 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 dog, 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 11 stands, smiling at you. A stern-looking shepherd dog sits obediently next to her.
This is your little girl. 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 she'll need a guiding hand, you know. Better she become a princess than go off to war, though—better that she bear the burden of aristocracy than living a life of loneliness wrapped up in duty like her mother, or losing that life on the battlefield like her father. Whether she actually becomes a princess or not . . . well, that's up to fate, isn't it? Fortunately, when she goes to the Lost Continent, she won't be alone: you, as her longtime caretaker (her third parent, really, or her first, if you consider how her family's left her care entirely to you), may accompany her to her new school. You'll be her ally, her support, her greatest weapon; you'll be the one who determines her success . . . or her failure. ]
[ Of course, you're not the only one that thinks your charge can do it: Shira, one of the Queens of your Kingdom, hand-selected your employer's child. She doesn't have a child of her own to send—or rather, to be more accurate, her children are much more interested in local philanthropy than going to the Lost Continent, and besides that, you hear that Emi is against their children going overseas in the first place. Still, Shira can sponsor someone to go to the Lost Continent, so she chooses your employer's family; it seems your charge is a distant relative of her own family, after all. It's because of her that your charge will be able to go at all—in other words, it's your patriotic duty to make sure your charge gets that inheritance. ]
ROUND 3 DILEMMAS
FINAL DILEMMA
One family begins to stand out as the belle of the class—the top dog, if you will. Her family holds many many parties and fundraisers, of which many girls attend, even if they aren't rich enough to go—but surely everyone's all friends enough that status shouldn't matter. There, the girls learn of the family's many business endeavors in the Lost Continent: fashion, cosmetics, bakeries, the works!
. . . For some reason, in these parties there are incidents of pickpocketing and thievery, although no one can figure out who did them. . .
At the end of the semester is a grand ball, though there's a bit of a ruckus there: many of the nobles invited are rather unpleasant, insulting and passive aggressive that someone keeps getting invited when there's clearly a rat in their presence. After all, who else keeps stealing things? First the beginning of the school year, now the thief is brazen enough to steal directly . . .
The atmosphere is unpleasant. Then, a fight nearly breaks out—fortunately the girl from the knights families manage to stop it, with another helpfully keeping people away, but the accusations toward the commoner are still widely heard: on top of being a thief, she would have her own gang of savages come around to ruin their livelihoods, to cause disruptions in their lives, to stir mayhem and humiliate them. She doesn't seem to understand what they're referring to, and so they threaten: mark their words, those who strike them will pay with blood—
. . . And then, somehow, the knight's girl calms them down, even to the point of rescinding their words if only so that she would not hear the harshness of them. Rumors and whispers spread throughout the party: it must be true. This girl can make anyone do anything for her.
The party ends before the hour is up and everyone manages to go home . . . but there are rumors that those who had complained loudly and threatened the commoner had their carriages tampered with, resulting in terrible injuries. Several girls won't be able to make it to school for some time, and a few have started entirely homeschooling. . .
With all that in mind, the school decides to take a semester to renovate, thanks to the many donations from almost everyone but especially one family. Well, at least on the surface it's renovations: there are, however, rumors that the Lost Continent program might try to go on pause due to how unruly the savage locals are. Perhaps the Lost Continent is lost for a reason. . .
At least sportspuck is still open. Even the savages love sportspuck.
In any case, there are a few things most pertinent to you:
Your child is angry. She doesn't think what she's doing is good enough. She wants to make change, more change, real change; she wants to do something more than subtly diffusing situations and pettily pickpocketing mean nobles at parties and conducting parties to hint to other nobles that they should pressure the knights into doing something. Your charge doesn't understand how knights could execute someone so in need of help; is this what her parents were doing before? Could things even change if she became princess? Just how does school help her, anyway, if she's spending her time being homeschooled?
Maybe she should quit.
What, if anything, should you do?
DECISION
Re: DECISION
We encourage Juniper to use her best judgement on which former classmates would be agreeable allies. Then it's just a matter of convincing those noble and common families to join us in our cause. Ideally, the amount of influence in this alliance will hopefully get the rest of the peerage and gentry on board so they stop treating the commoners like shit.
But we’re not opposed to using a strong hand to defend our position. We’ll kick their asses.]
Re: DECISION
You make a plea to Queen Shira, who understands; her heart goes out to you, but at the same time that you speak to her, you find out from a courier who's also come from the Lost Continent:
Chaos has erupted on the Lost Continent, with a number of murders and declarations of witchcraft. The school has been forced to close down, and it's possible there are many citizens who have been lost to . . . well, the Lost Continent. Many nobles have withdrawn their support of this project, declaring that the savages are incorrigible, and colonizing the Lost Continent is not a worthy cause.
. . . Yet your daughter would not abandon those people. Not the citizens of your Kingdom, and not the citizens of the Lost Continent. She swears to the Queen that she will return—and the Queen accepts it.
It's a little moot by this point, but your daughter does take her final exam, and she passes with flying colors. Queen Shira declares her to be the legitimate heir to the Lost Continent, and grants her the support and power to return to that land one day, in order to bring good change to the land.
Naturally, she'll have to finish her education first—she's only 12, after all—and you can't be there to support her any longer.
But don't worry—she'll take all the lessons you gave her to heart. She'll be just fine on her own.
You may now proceed to Endgame.
DISCUSSION
Re: DISCUSSION
Re: DISCUSSION
"I don't feel like a goddess right now."
Re: DISCUSSION
But you wanna help people. That counts for a lot.
You don't have to be a princess to change things. Pretty sure there's enough people around to help you do that, just gotta find 'em.
Re: DISCUSSION
Is it okay?
Queen Shira sponsored me, though. . ."
Re: DISCUSSION
The crown's supposed to protect their people.
Re: DISCUSSION
She says it with a bitterness that might be a little heavy for an eleven year old.
"What should I do. . . ?"
Re: DISCUSSION
There are girls from your old school that'd side with us if you asked, the kinda kids that actually care about helping people. Not to mention the commoners who want better lives. As for the bad apples...
[grins]
Moxie's taught ya enough to recognize those, yeah?
With enough people and influence on our side, we can ... kindly ask the assholes to step down. Or not so kindly, depending.
Re: DISCUSSION
". . . Do you think we can do that?"
Re: DISCUSSION
You're smart and brave... not ta mention you can go toe to toe with anyone in a fight.
[he's very proud]
We're with you, and I'm sure Queen Shira will be, too. We're backing you up all the way.
Re: DISCUSSION
Re: DISCUSSION
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What if we've put Juniper-chan in danger?
Re: DISCUSSION
So we gotta trust that she's strong and smart enough to change things for the better.
Re: DISCUSSION
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I think she'll have the commoners and some of the nobles on her side. The knights, at least.
Re: DISCUSSION
I'm just worried that she's going to get hurt.
Re: DISCUSSION
I get that your worried for her, but sometimes you have to take the risk to make things better.
Re: DISCUSSION
We don't know if any of that's true for her.
Re: DISCUSSION
If ya got something else in mind other than us telling her to keep her head down and ignore all the bullshit, I'm all ears.
Re: DISCUSSION
Re: DISCUSSION