So... things as they were...
- The heimen were all armed. That made us feel a *bit* uncomfortable. More to the point, it suggested that they might have been involved with the group that took a shot at Otomo-sama. It also meant that they were... not in keeping with the way the Lion like to keep their heimen, while being significantly more aligned with the way that the Crab keep their heimen. It was also, apparently, a *massive* violation of Imperial law. We knew that they were listening, and so felt that trying to express how crab food compared favorably with Lion food would be a good way to flatter the Crab, and stay on the good side of the heimen (who vastly outnumbered us) - especially when we already knew that the Crab didn't particularly like the Lion food.
- Kaiu-san, however, heard us as trying to build up our relationship with him while tearing down the Lion. He found the style of the attempt objectionable while also disapproving of our complaints about the Lion food, and what it might imply about our relationship with privation (if we are so well-off that we can afford to have spices as a matter of course - unlike the Crab, who spend their resources on the Wall).
Other things about Kaiu-san...
- Sat in the middle during the festival
- Had never thought that he would miss wall food, until he was away from it for all that long.
- Has prodigious stamina when it comes to being able to drink and not fall over
- Can be expected to be at least as intelligent as we are
- He openly challenged us as to whether or not we had a problem after clearly seeing both the heavily armed nature of the locals, and our own discomfort. On rereading... that's an interesting effect... especially since the room had calmed and quieted once the proprietor welcomed him as Crab. There's a good chance that he was offended by our reaction to them as well as by our response about the food, and the fact that the connection we were trying to build wasn't really there.
So... overall, what might he think of us?
- More a courtier than a warrior, without the attitudes that a warrior might have
- Has not known deprivation
* Seeks connection for political reasons, rather than from any true commonalities or sense of camraderie.
- Does not trust Crab heimen even in the presence of a Crab that vouches for him - disrespectful to the ashigaru that put their lives on the line beside their masters
- Disrespectful of the sacrifices in resources that the Crab and others like them make.
How do we counter that/apologize for it?
- Attempting to convince him that he was largely wrong will likely go over badly, for a few reasons - not least of which because we'd be using court skills to do it, and using court skills in an attempt to costlessly gain social advantage is one of the things we know that he's pissed about.
- The fact is, we *have* known deprivation - it's just that in Scorpion lands, spices are cheap enough and easy enough to get that even the heimen eat them regularly - likely the use of vegetables to stretch things helps a lot there in terms of cost. Unfortunately, that was only the surface truth that upset him, rather than the deeper issue. If we are going to actually get anywhere, we need to dig at the deeper stuff.
- Expressing a change of heart might work, if we could sell it right. The only real experience to leverage there would be the combo of our trip in the snow, the attack by the faceless, Bayushi Kimoko's death, our being temporarily suspected of it, our being exonerated, Matsu Ketsui's speech, and our now being the head of the delegation. There's a lot of beef there, but I'm not sure how any of it could be turned to our needs.
- A well-built apology might work, as long as we don't make it sound like we want something out of him, but merely to apologize. This is complicated by the fact that we *are* doing this for tactical/political reasons, at least to some extent. Would be helped significantly if we could come up with a reason for our apology that would resonate.
/*****/
vote augmentation
[x] Bank the XP
[x] Write-in for the letter
"Kaiu-san, you are due an apology, and I write this letter to offer you one. I was disrespectful to you, to Lion cuisine, and to our dining companions. I had not intended to be so, but in retrospect it is clear that I was, and I apologize. I find myself recently taught in the lesson of the Crab - of how an evil and implacable foe leads one to appreciate all that might help one stand against it. It has... adjusted my perspective in some matters. I have some further thoughts on that subject that I would wish to discuss, if you are still willing to share conversation. Respectfully, Soshi Naoto"
/*****/
If he agrees to the discussion, we hand him the quick "They're not affected by Jade, they are affected by the Ward, we suspect they'd be affected by crystal, they can apparently grow claws, take significant amounts of damage before going down, and have no faces" bit, or some variation on it. Getting the tactical info to the Crab would be a Good Thing. Also, they're Crab. They're not going to panic about this in the way that some of the other Clans might have. I'd worry about handing the Yasuki overly-useful trade information, but all of their crystal is for internal consumption *anyway*. Maybe convince them to keep relatively quiet about it, but it'd be good to get this to the Kuni, at least, sooner rather than later.
In more local application, we present it in straightforward, practical terms - not disrespecting him or wasting his time, while hopefully racking up at least some "war against evil" credit. It also gives us something that we *actually* have in common, which might or might not be worth something later on.
Now, this is something of a gambit. I believe that this information needs to be given to the Crab - Duty/Loyalty to Rokugan, among other things, but there are reasons that others might disagree. I'm also just handing it to them outright for uncertain gain in goodwill (especially since I wouldn't plan on revealing sources), rather than trying to gain value out of it. As an example, we could pretty easily hand him a few bits of the info on them, and use that to leverage him into officially introducing us to Yasuki-san, at which point we tell her the rest. He'd likely be a bit annoyed at the power play, but he'd do it. This plan only gets us that intro if he decides that he wants to give us that intro (or if he tells her, and tells her where he got it from, and she decides that she wishes to know more for herself). Still, I think it's decent, given the situation and the available information.
