idolpro | Princess Maker 1.5: Heart Soldier Senshi

Princess Maker 1.5: Heart Soldier Senshi

[ 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: Joyous Dark Firestorm Starling, one of the Queens of your Kingdom, hand-selected your employer's child. She could not send her own child to the Lost Continent, of course—she has her own inheritance battle to face within the Kingdom and sending her own child out is essentially forfeiting that battle—so she's selected theirs to sponsor. 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. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

With the help of several, the sportspuck bake sale would be a success; the commoner's guardian is able to become a coach! Sportspuck is available as a sport at school now.

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:

Well . . . Your daughter sure did use Charm at that dang party. But it was important, you must have seen that—still, the rumors have only spread, and you come home one day to find the windows have been smashed and the words "GET OUT WITCH" and "DEVIL" have been painted on your door, along with various insults and curses.

A certain school doctor has taken to, brazenly, declare that the rumors are true and that they were a victim—well, that's not exactly untrue, but it seems your sponsorship is on the line here, as the school doctor threatens to send word to the Kingdom. . . unless you meet their demands. At least school's not in session right now, but this really is a dilemma . . .
Though maybe not as much as this is, for your daughter at least: during an afternoon of sportspuck, there was an outbreak of violence. It seems several locals are against your charge joining in on account of being a witch, but several are really into her witchery and want her to be their final sportspuck weapon. The trouble really started, though, when your daughter was trying to get a hold of Kingfisher, to try to explain herself; the conversation got messy and your daughter said something that was apparently offensive enough that Kingfisher headbutted her and ran away. Then, several sportspuck players wearing gold came, aggressing your daughter; your daughter's fans aggressed them back, and a fight broke out.

Your daughter is now suspended from sportspuck, and she's deeply depressed over everything. Some days, she doesn't even want to get out of bed.

What, if anything, should you do?

Doctor + Witchcraft Dilemma:

Northstar doesn't like the doctor and doesn't like that he's the only doctor around, so she's going to learn what she can about medicine and also try to become a doctor with the goal of eventually stealing his damn job.

Since all the doctor really needs is a Charm Pet and not a wife, Hurricane will agree to go with him in place of their daughter. After he's stayed with the doctor and his family for some time to do his bidding (softening some of the absolute dickery where he's able), they'll arrange for one of these situations to be "caught" by a servant.

During this whole time, of course, there will be not even a whisper of Charm usage from either Nari or the rest of HSS. When the situation comes out, HSS will loudly decry that Hurricane was the witch all along, using his magical influences on the family and their daughter, and that he's sullied the family name. They'll disown him and proclaim that the doctor, a devout lover of Satan, willingly opened his home to such dark influences in return for material gain.

After that, Hurricane will lead the knights - or whoever joins the witch hunt - on a wild goose chase all around the country.

Northstar will explain to Nari that while what Hurricane is doing is pretty dishonest, they're only doing this as a last resort, because of how bad things have gotten. They love Nari very much and want to protect her from people being angry at her and accusing her of being a witch. In less dire circumstances, you should try to just tell the truth and do things honestly. She'll stress that this isn't Nari's fault and she shouldn't blame herself. She'll also explain how what the doctor did, and what he asked for, and why it was important for him to be taken out of a position of power so that he couldn't use that position to hurt other people.

Sports + Friendship Dilemma:

Because Nari had gotten suspended from sportspuck and is super depressed about it D.Va is going to see about getting her own sportspuck team together, because Nari had taught her how to play last semester. She’ll also be teaching the rest of the household to play, so they can join in too. In addition, we’ll be pulling Nari out of school to homeschool her, because that place is just bad news bears and those horrible little girls can’t be the only kids in the kingdom. It might take a bit of time and effort, but I’m sure we’ll find some boys and girls who are local to the area for her to befriend and play NEO SPORTSPUCK with. And, in the same vein, they’ll also make sure she continues with her volunteer work and making connections with the local people, getting to know them and learning the problems faced by the country from the ground up.

They'll encourage Nari to write a letter to Kingfisher explaining how she feels, and see if they can't mend the relationship. In the meantime, they'll encourage her to find new friends, as well, so that even if it's irreparable, she isn't stuck just beating herself up over it.

D.Va and Northstar will also give Nari another conversation about using Charm, telling her that she shouldn’t ever use it until she’s older. They'll talk to her about hypothetical times and places to use it to try and make sure she has good judgment for it, but she's totally forbidden from actually using it until she's much older. Like, 30.

They're really not happy about taking Hurricane instead! In a fit of anger, they kill Hurricane.

(he's not actually dead—all blows phase past him like holograms, although he feels a little tired after that knife swipe and will need to lie down for a minute. there's an "I'm dead" sticker on his forehead now.)

Of course, that doesn't mean you can't decry Hurricane as the witch! You do, but the doctor turns it around on you—after all, they're a trusted member of the community, the doctor. They point to Northstar's work as trying to undermine them, and they paint Northstar as a witch whose cures are actually curses.

Good news: there's definitely a witch hunt!
Bad news: you're the witches!

Nari is suuuuper unhappy about Hurricane dying over this. She's definitely not going to try to pull a stunt like this.

If there's one silver lining of all of this, it's that Nari was somehow made an innocent. They blame you, the caretakers, for influencing her; you're put to prison, but at least she isn't.

. . . Of course, this means you can't really get a NEO SPORTSPUCK team. Also, it seems a lot of the kids have been arrested following a noble-instigated trial, wherein evidence is shown of Kingfisher's family—not her herself—being responsible for the uptick in crime, being responsible for ruining so many nobles' lives, etc.

Incidentally, the evidence also incriminates the nobles that bring it forth: it's witchcraft, surely. So, you're joined by two families in prison. . .

Nari locks Charm away, to never use it—it's only cursed her. As far as she's concerned, she really is a witch.

Still, she holds her head up high. You taught her many lessons, and she won't fall into despair; although she can't bring herself to become a princess after she's brought ruin to her household, she'll only use her strengths for good, now.

. . . The school is closed down now, for various reasons. Nari runs away to join the military, but when they discover who she is, they ship her back to the Kingdom; there, she takes her exam, and she even manages to get one of the highest scores. She passes, to become one of the legitimate heirs to the Lost Continent—

—and she comes back to the Lost Continent, only briefly, to free you from your prison. Though, by that time, it seems the whole continent is on fire . . .

You may now proceed to Endgame.

Edited 2020-09-28 07:13 (UTC)

Uh... Wow, a lot happened?

It's a shame about that particular sportspuck team, but... if she really likes maybe we can find another, since she seemed to like it so much. As for Charm... [ takes a deep breath, frowning. ] I- I don't know. Forbidding it seems... hm. [ man, she doesn't know. ]

[ also, she's glad she had been right about the stupid parties of those terrible little girls. ]

...I think we're like way past that point.

Pretty sure we're gonna have to go off the grid.

If we do that then I think we forfeit our horse in this race. I wonder if one of us could throw ourselves on the stake for her and then just tell her never to use it again. We did warn her about this.

...

So one of us claims to be the one that was actually using Charm, the entire time.

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