"I see," Ami said. "I had believed he understood me better."
Our biggest handicap to counter our hivemind-ness is that we don't live in this world and aren't getting subtle impressions from actual people.
"Hazō," said Serious Ami, nodding without a smile. Hazō had proven unable to keep up with Effective Ami and Mari had made it clear that the boy was too emotional to be useful. Serious Ami could at least offer him the balm of social conformity, even if it was ridiculous and a waste of everyone's time. She still would not offer an apology, of course.
Ahaha that's not a good category to be placed in. I feel a sudden urge to imitate Orochimaru and get so strong it no longer matters that we're so hopelessly lost here. Do actually people actually think like this? Did growing up middle class mean I missed out on a boatload of etiquette training?
Hazō was standing on the far side of the heavy oak monstrosity that was the Gōketsu dining room table. The desired seating arrangement was clear; Mari at the head of the table to moderate, Hazō to her left and Ami to her right. The messaging was interesting; the room was lit with candles instead of those lantern seals with the pompous name. The table settings were black-varnished wooden chopsticks and bone-handled soup spoons on ivory rests. Serviceable, no ornamentation. The kind of thing one might see at a midscale restaurant; they looked out of place in the large stone room with its elegant wall hangings that showed landscapes on the east and west walls and the Gōketsu crest on the north. Mari might as well have whispered in her ear: We care little about appearances and more about effectiveness, yet this situation is significant enough that we have to spend time on this conversation.
Each placemat had a storage seal at the center, another at the top, and a third just beyond that. Presumably each contained a single course and the seals would keep them hot or cold until the diner was ready. We are a major clan with significant resources. It is inefficient to annoy the head of a major clan, or to reveal that you think he's slow. Normies still put stock in social niceties even though they're stupid and a waste of time.
Also if this is how jonin think no wonder Shikaku seriously considered us as potential masterminds. This is going to get more prevalent as we get stronger, but Ami's ascribing higher level moves to something we'd think nothing of. Which means we probably need to consider it in the future. Sigh.
Also omg Ami got so played. She's been built up so much as this hyper-competent social-spec that it's kind of incredible that Mari made her see exactly what Mari wanted her to and she suspected nothing.
Hazō considered her for a moment. Strangely, he had deactivated the Iron Nerve, allowing her to see his true feelings...and there was no delight at her pain. The rage was gone, replaced by nothing more than acceptance, perhaps closure.
"Get out," he said calmly.
Danger-Mitigation Ami studied him for a moment and then turned and left. Neither of the others moved. I am confident enough in your good sense that I feel no need to ensure you do nothing inappropriate on your way out.
Ami is such a hypocrite if she allows this to harm our relationship with her past the immediate future - especially with the reasoning Mari gave. She does not get to start a rumor about pregnancies and then disrespect us to our face and expect us to accept it because it mildly benefits us through benefitting her, and then allow our
response, which we kept private, to ruin all this.
I would expect a period of hostility/distance for a month or two, but we've made plenty of mistakes (@killbox 1 and 2, Naruto), so we should avoid being like Naruto and actually forgive her instead of letting this . Even if we hate when she does this, it's good for us - imagine if an enemy does this to us one day.
On the plus side, we now know Ami can't model Hazo perfectly.
(Side note - I really don't like having to do this, but given that Ami's a foreign ninja who we don't really have power over, appearances have to be maintained I guess. To be fair, since we do our best as being respectful, we're not like the hypothetical clan heads who are assholes and still demand obsequiousness.)
Also, Mari's kind of terrifying. Probably in the top 10/20 people in Leaf even if she isn't actively training. Since she's not an active jonin, we don't see her as much, and it feels a little weird to be the clan head and person-in-control when she's a jonin 10 years older than us. I'm sure we're interacting with her at home fairly often and she has strong emotional bonds at this point, but I kind of wonder what her perspective is. Does she get any benefit out of helping us - like does she enjoy it, or love us, or is otherwise bored, or is doing this to prevent what happened to her?
[X] Mari Interlude
- unfortunately voting is closed, I believe?
