Princess Maker 1.5: avante en garde

[idolpro]

[ When you insert the key and open the door, you'll find yourself stepping outside your home and into the bustling streets of the city slums. You walk down the street, only to hear the sound of a scream—

You rush to the scene: a young woman lies prone on the ground, having just been hit by a carriage. Her tattered clothes indicate her poverty; upon noticing such tatters, the driver simply moves on, and you know this to simply be a fact of this cruel life. But, you can hear something else—besides the mother's labored breathing, you can hear the sound of an infant. You roll her body over and lo—still cradled protectively is a young girl, though she will not be protected for much longer.

. . . Not unless you can help it. None else will—in these slums no one could care less if another child's life is lost—but you can do something about this. With nothing else on your mind, you pick the girl up, carrying her back to your humble abode.

Inside your apartment is a single living space without any doors—you can hear noises of the bustling life outside, as well as other people beyond the thin walls. The girl continues to cry, as though knowing to mourn, and you rock her back and forth, singing softly to your new charge to soothe her to sleep. ]

-

[ Slowly, the scene changes, fading in and out with various silent scenes—the baby cries, and in turn, the upstairs tenants knock at your ceiling; she finds her first words in your song, voice as fragile as the windpipe that carries the sound; a little toddler, she finds an injured bird and carries it home with her; you disagree on the bird's tenancy, and she storms out to run away for a little while as you regret; she returns sullenly with a secret nest built in the alley and ignores everything you say; then the wall becomes opaque. ]

[ In the corner of the room, a young girl the age of 11 crouches, looking away from you. She hums your song to the bird on her finger, which chirps along with her.

You wish you could have done better for your baby girl. But, this is what you love to do and maybe you'll get a gig that pays well enough that you two can move out of this shithole—hopefully. You tried your best to rear her, but with how infrequent you're in the house, working odd jobs in the day and performing at the pub at night, you're not sure anymore. 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, and she's horribly equipped for any of that. Then again, if anything your little tyke is tough, and if anyone could be a rags-to-riches princess, it would be her. Fortunately, when she goes to the Lost Continent, she won't be alone: you, as her longtime caretaker (her one and only parent, if you may be so bold), 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. ]

[ But just how were you able to be sponsored in the first place? . . . The story's rather funny, really.

It was when you and your girl were out and about, shopping in the market; just then, you heard the carriage, and saw it was too close to you and your daughter. You shielded her with your body, unwilling to let her die to the same fate that her mother did—

And then, by a stroke of luck, or perhaps through a miracle, the carriage managed to veer off just in time, slowing to a halt. The driver came to you to profusely apologize, and the noblewoman—perhaps looking somewhat familiar to some of you—steps out.

She took one look at your girl . . . and looked as though she'd just been struck.

She asked you both to enter the carriage, though it was more of a command then a request. With little choice in the matter, you entered the carriage with your daughter clinging tightly to you all the while; this was the first time she'd been so attached to you in ages.

The noblewoman explained herself: She is Princess Gold, the Queen of the Court. She's a professional sportsball player, although she's taken the season off to mourn . . . Her own daughter—who looked just like yours—recently passed from illness, and seeing such a familiar face, so healthy and hale, left Princess Gold speechless.

. . . Yet, through carelessness, such a face would have been dead, you not quick-footed enough and were the driver not able to change course. Princess Gold would compensate you, in any way possible.

This was your chance.

You asked her for some means of a better life for your daughter; you had nothing to your name but a few coins, and you would accept any help at all. After some thought, she agreed . . . on one condition:

Princess Gold would adopt your daughter, legally speaking. You would be assigned as her caretaker. Then, you would take her to the Lost Continent in order to receive her education there. It was the opportunity her own daughter would have taken, were she alive to do so . . .

. . . so, of course, you accepted. After all—this was your girl's chance at a better life. ]

Comments

ROUND 0

[idolpro]

Rebellious temperament.
-3 charm.
-3 intelligence.
+10 diligence.
Moral compass: Neutral.

CHILD'S NAME?

[idolpro]

Submit your charge's name here by the end of Round 1.

Re: CHILD'S NAME?

[deicider]

Diving Chryselephantine Kingfisher

ROUND 1 CLASSES

[idolpro]

CURRENT STATS

[idolpro]

Rebellious temperament.
-3 charm.
-3 intelligence.
+10 diligence.
Moral compass: Neutral.

DECISION

[idolpro]

What classes do you choose to have your charge take? Will you give her free time?

You may choose from Culture class, Martial Arts class, and Math & Science class. If you choose to give her free time, please note what that free time will be dedicated to.

You have 48 classes to schedule for. If you'd like, you may simply note "evenly divided" for 16 classes in each category, or note 50% X class and 50% Y class, etc.

If you note "evenly divided between all classes and free time", that will be taken as 15 classes each/3 sessions of free time.

Re: DECISION

[unbr8kable]

Chrys will mostly be homeschooled because Avante knows many things. The plan is for 1/3 combat training (mainly led by Cardinal and Shrike), 1/3 life skills (gracefully dealing with people would go in here (again Cardinal & Shrike), as would cooking and sports with Gold, street smarts/driving/miscellaneous teen stuff with Nemesis, and so on), and 1/3 free time where about half of it is actual team outings and the other half is left to her own devices so she can have personal hobbies and interests.

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

Re: DISCUSSION

[deicider]

This one again... We should talk about the best use of free time. And a name.

Re: DISCUSSION

[calmthefoxdown]

[ Oh this is the one where we made a Volleyball princess and Silver... ]

[ ... ]

[ Goes to find a volleyball to give her. ]

ROUND 1 DILEMMAS

[idolpro]

CLASS DILEMMA

[idolpro]

Perhaps as expected, a hierarchy has already established itself in your child's class. Only the best of the best are in Class 1-A, all of them most certainly sponsored by the most elite of the elite—but not all girls are made equal.

There's a collection of girls at the top of the food chain, born and bred aristocracy. Below them are the technical nobles—girls from knight families that have titles and lands but not really any prestige beyond the battlefield to speak of. Then there are the philanthropy projects: commoner girls who somehow managed to get into the school despite their lack of pedigree.

Not even halfway through the semester do you enter the classroom to see that the place is absolutely destroyed. The desks have been turned over, the chalkboards have been broken, the windows have been smashed, the doors have been split in two . . . and moreover, everything made of gold, silver, and jewels—the ornaments on the windows, the hanging plates that indicated which classroom this was—have been stolen.

You're not certain who did it, but there are rumors that your charge, with her barbaric friends, are responsible. In fact, several girls would say that they witnessed her and her friends, and one has threatened to have the girl deported.

Your charge looks resigned to this; she refuses to talk to people, and has even gotten violent, according to others.

What should you do?

DECISION

[idolpro]

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

!!!

[idolpro]

It seems one of the knight families is investigating: they ask to speak with your charge, the alleged perpetrator.

. . . Your charge would scream them out and run away. Well, what to do now?

PERSONAL DILEMMA

[idolpro]

Your daughter has...not been returning from class. At least, not immediately. At first you were pleased to see she has friends, but...every day, she seems to be coming back later and later. She seems in high spirits, though maybe a little apprehensive, sometimes? But whatever it is, it's certainly not something bad for her...

But it's still a bit worrying. She won't tell you what exactly she's doing, besides spending time with her friends, and she's reluctant for you to meet any of these friends, even.

More worrying is that there seems to be a local gang problem. Nothing more than vandalism and disruption of the peace and a bit of strong-arming, and certainly neither you nor your daughter are the target of any of that...but the gang is most active around the same time your daughter is out. It's suspicious, if nothing else.

What do you do about this?

ROUND 2 CLASSES

[idolpro]

CURRENT STATS

[idolpro]

Snobby temperament.
Neutral morality.

Charm: 32
Intelligence: 32
Diligence: 96

DECISION

[idolpro]

What classes do you choose to have your charge take? Will you give her free time?

You may choose from Culture class, Martial Arts class, and Math & Science class. If you choose to give her free time, please note what that free time will be dedicated to.

You have 48 classes to schedule for. If you'd like, you may simply note "evenly divided" for 16 classes in each category, or note 50% X class and 50% Y class, etc.

If you note "evenly divided between all classes and free time", that will be taken as 15 classes each/3 sessions of free time.

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

ROUND 2 DILEMMAS

[idolpro]

PERSONAL DILEMMA

[idolpro]

Your daughter doesn't want to go to school!

She's spending all her time being homeschooled anyway, so why not just spend it all at home? Why should she have to go? Why can't she stay here, where her actual friends are, and not at school, where the bullying's getting worse and worse?

But if you drop out, you'll have to go back to your Kingdom, or you'll be stranded here.

What should you do?

PERSONAL DILEMMA

[idolpro]

Fortunately, since there's no evidence, no one was deported. Instead:

One family essentially swept the incident under the rug by paying off the damages, declaring what actually happened to be impossible to discern the truth of; both accusers start trying to get closer to the commoner, not leaving her alone.
One girl is punished by cleaning the school, although another would help clean and yet another would help pay for the damages.

The commoner seems to be discouraged from going to school, entirely avoiding the rest of the semester. Her parent seems to be trying to get a sports class going at school, but they need everyone's support in order to be able to proceed.

The semester passes without further incident, but . . . !?

On the first day of the new semester, the stolen possessions show up in the lockers of three different girls: were they the culprits after all. . . !?!?!

What does your daughter think about all this? . . . Well, she doesn't want to go back to school, after all, but. . .

Sportspuck . . . (That's the important thing to be worrying about here.)

ROUND 3 DILEMMAS

[idolpro]

FINAL DILEMMA

[idolpro]

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:

• Cardinal manages to charm a certain noble. That's not really a dilemma but it should be noted that it was definitely successful and they definitely got a lot of money out of it.
  
• It seems there are just a number of bigoted noble girls, separate from the dirty normal girls interested in sportspuck, that would really rather die than have to share the sportspuck field with your daughter. However, it seems the gang has been a little too good at making their lives unpleasant, as evidenced by the ball. Moreover, it seems there's unrelated violence being attributed here . . .
  
  Kingfisher is confused. She doesn't understand—why is she being blamed for this? . . . Did you do something, family?
  
• Though, at least you managed to get that sportspuck team going, and there are also a number of sportspuck teams cropping up in the area! Someday, you can have Sportspuck Koushien.
  
• Though maybe the worst problem of all is this, for your daughter at least: during an afternoon of sportspuck, there was an outbreak of violence. It seems several locals are against your charge's friend 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 she was trying to get a hold of your charge, to try to explain herself; the conversation got messy and she said something that was apparently offensive enough that your girl headbutted her and ran away. Then, several sportspuck players wearing gold came, aggressing Nari; her fans aggressed them back, and a fight broke out.
  
  Nari is now suspended from sportspuck, and your daughter is shaken over the incident.
  
  What, if anything, should you do?