princess maker - Heart Soldier Senshi

[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

Re: DISCUSSION

[crossmyheartandhope]

What're you thinking?

[dragonheartedgirl]

[ MY BAD, THERE ARE THREE OPTIONS. ]

My first thought is we can make a public campaign in the areas outside of the capital to try to change peoples' thoughts about Plague Bringers--similar to how we used good deeds and charity to improve Joy's image in town, we could try to win the hearts of the people by claiming to all be Plague Bearers, and working with Joy to do so.

Our second option is to go undercover and attempt to lure them out by posing as potential buyers--nobles from another city or another country, even--and seeking them in the cities beyond.

They're both risky options. For the first, there may be people who would like to hurt us, the way they'd like to hurt those Plague Bearers behind the wall--they might even try to turn us over to the authorities to ship us off to the border. With our abilities they'd only be able to torture us, not kill us--but that in itself would still be an unideal outcome. As for the second, well. That presents its own obvious danger and sliminess.

Our third option, and perhaps the most dangerous, is to join the military--all of us together--to try to raise an insurrection from within the ranks of the army. If we have the support of the military and the plague bearers alike, then even if the nobles didn't like it, we could do as we please. [ pause ] Undoubtedly, though, this option would require the most bloodshed.

[ she. she doesn't seem too bothered by that, though..... ]

[ferociousfuckingnerd]

[...Ohhhh boy.]

For option one, the problem with that is how very anti-plague the people of the capital can be. They're not above violence, we've already see that. We can do it, but we should be prepared for, er... getting stoned.

The third option, we probably couldn't bring Joy to the military. The consistent response we've got from the military is that our friends are willing to help us, but there's only so far they can go. We only have three weeks, we'd need a lot more time to convince everyone.

Option 2... I think we could pull that off.

[dragonheartedgirl]

We know that the capital civilians are hostile to the plague bearers, however beyond the capital--I didn't have that impression. It might be doable. If they realized that Plague Bearers aren't people they need to be afraid of, we might stand a chance.

... However, it might be a larger problem than we have the time to handle. If there was only one thing we could successfully accomplish in the time we're here, and nothing larger at stake, no--systemic problem--then simply finding and eradicating the slavers would be sufficient.

But I worry, about the world that we'd be leaving behind then--for the people behind that wall, and the children who will continue to be born and shunned--for Joy herself, even.

[ferociousfuckingnerd]

...We have to make sure Joy becomes the princess. If she's in a position of power, she can turn the tide, she could do something about the council that's controlling the king and stopping any progress, she could make a real long term difference.

We can make a start, and light the spark of revolution, but she has to be the one to finish it.

We need to ask her which plan she wants.

[puzzlekeeper]

This is my thought as well.

Regardless of our actions here - as long as a King sits upon the throne who won't do anything about the situation, or even hear the people's grievances, our success will be limited.

What this Kingdom needs is better leadership. If Joy still wants to meet the Prince...

[ We just raised a hero, didn't we? ]

[ferociousfuckingnerd]

The king sitting upon the throne isn't the problem - well, it's not the whole problem, it's the council that we need to worry about. They're the ones controlling him and inhibiting any progress he actually does want to make, we need to make sure Joy can do something about them.

[puzzlekeeper]

[ ... ? This is BRAND NEW and very relevant information. ]

What did you manage to learn since we were split up?

[ferociousfuckingnerd]

We know that the king is kind, but ineffective, and built the wall around the city to protect the plague bearers. We know that not everyone who's identified as one has access to that protection, it's an experiment they're doing and people surround the gates hoping for admittance and refuge. There are protestors against this, a lot of the people outside the barrier don't want 'plague' in their city and think the king is a coward, they say he has to be stopped from helping them. There might already be a revolution in place, for the worse.

The military is protecting who they can, but we've seen more than once the townspeople trying to stone someone they thought they could get away with it.

[dragonheartedgirl]

Certainly, Joy needs to have the last word in this. This will be her world when she's gone. I don't want to force her hand into anything.

However, I don't know how I feel about forcing her to marry the prince, if we can't be sure that his heart is good. Is he like his father? Or is he like the nobles?

[ferociousfuckingnerd]

He's ten, Hiryuu-san. He's going to be like a ten year old, and our daughter is strong-willed enough to convince him of what's right if he doesn't already know. She's a hero, after all.

The council that controls the king is the real problem here. If we're going to stop them from having any influence on the future prince, Joy needs to have access to him.

...We also need to increase her charm to make sure she's capable of public speaking and presenting her arguments well enough to convince the prince, and the rest of the people.

[dragonheartedgirl]

[ HEY, SOME TEN YEAR OLDS ARE SERIAL KILLERS IN THE MAKING OKAY. not to mention bullies]

If he's ten, then that means he's also had ten years to absorb this sort of nonsense. I'm not saying he's certainly a monster--but we can't discount the idea that there may have been damage done already. That boy from your memory also worshiped heroes, and he was certainly not a kind person.

[ferociousfuckingnerd]

[Jesus can you please STOP BRINGING HIM UP, Mori becomes visibly tense at the mention of him, trying to ignore those anxious feelings.]

...People are changed by what they experience, and by those around them. But they need guidance.

His grandfather was a violent monster, but his father is pushing for reform and against discrimination, if the king could come out kindhearted after seeing the violence of his father's regime, then there must still be hope for the prince. And Joy could make sure he turns out right.

This is a choice for Joy. We need to ask her if she still wants to marry him, and explain the risks.

[crossmyheartandhope]

Option 2's probly something that we can handle. But are we really okay, leaving all those other people in the Capital the way they are?

[ferociousfuckingnerd]

[Shakes his head]

No. We need to do something to save them too. But I think...

We only have three weeks, so we need to do something big to really win people's hearts if we go that way. And we would only be able to start a change. Joy would have to be the one to finish it.

We have to make sure she becomes the princess.

[crossmyheartandhope]

You think she could? I mean, she hasn't even met the prince.

[ferociousfuckingnerd]

If the prince won't meet her, then she has to win the festival. She can do it, I'm sure, we need to keep training her. If these stats are important and we're going to be working on a public approach we should really increase her charm, she'll need that to convince people and win their hearts, her diligence is good and her intelligence isn't bad either but we need to really focus to bring those up to par with her diligence.

[dragonheartedgirl]

I agree. She'll need it for charming the prince as well as for succeeding at either of our other goals--whether it's to lure out the human traffickers, or to win the peoples' hearts.

Should we focus, then, on primarily raising her charm, with lesser attention to intelligence and just the slightest to diligence? Or is her diligence high enough that we should focus solely on charm, or charm and intelligence?

[crossmyheartandhope]

She's had plenty of time to work on her diligence. If we really want her to have a shot at marrying the prince and turning this around... maybe you oughtta teach her how to do the princness thing, sis.

[crossmyheartandhope]

...I think we ought to try the first one.

Even if we take out the slave trade, that's not gonna help the people living in the Capital, behind the barrier. If we even want a shot at everyone coming out of this better off, we need to try and get at the root of the problem.

And who knows? If we're showy enough, we're bound to get soe attention from the wrong kind of people, right? Maybe we'll lure them out just by doing our thing out in public.

[dragonheartedgirl]

[ that's a possibility. ]

Perhaps babies and children have been targets before because they're defenseless. However, if we posed a danger to their livelihood, it could drive them to make a move. ... We could lie, and claim that we have a young infant in our care as well? Perhaps even claim that Joy's bird is a an infant Plague Bearer, transformed into a bird.

In either case, if a showy display doesn't work for luring them out, we could try one and then the other, if everyone is amenable. Though I worry that we may not have much time left to do everything.... we simply have to try.

[crossmyheartandhope]

...maybe Mori's got the right idea, though. He's saying we'd need something really big to try and win everyone's hearts.

[dragonheartedgirl]

Then should we focus on the traffickers? Usually, something like that would be huge. However--the fact that Plague Bearers aren't considered humans by most may dampen the effect on the populace.

[crossmyheartandhope]

I do still think there's got to be people out there without powers who'll hear what's going on and stand up for them. There's got to be people who just don't know how bad it is.

If we blow the situation with the traffickers wide open, turn a spotlight on it and take them down... maybe we can show people how bad it really is.

[dragonheartedgirl]

[ okay but if THEY DON'T



well if they don't well just have to take that bridge at that time; hurricane clearly isn't ready to consider the alternative. ]

All right. Then our plan is to have the council investigated while we make a show of blowing this open?