What do y'all think about the idea that we ask/beg Mari for a social stunt? She's the social spec. Much like Roki, she could probably craft one for us.
Maybe "When rolling rapport, add (1/3) of your highest crafting stat." Or "when rolling Presence or Intimidation, add the AB of your Resolve stat."
We really need to get that Asuma Clan Head Training.
What do y'all think about the idea that we ask/beg Mari for a social stunt? She's the social spec. Much like Roki, she could probably craft one for us.
Maybe "When rolling rapport, add (1/3) of your highest crafting stat." Or "when rolling Presence or Intimidation, add the AB of your Resolve stat."
We really need to get that Asuma Clan Head Training.
Noburi sat quietly in the corner, trying to look like an indefatigable, ever-reliable Gōketsu pillar of support. The person Akane had been. The person the clan needed right now. Not the person he actually was, hurting and confused, and not sure exactly who he was angriest with.
Mari looked exhausted. Her perfect makeup did nothing about the slumped body language she was only willing to show in front of family. Kei looked remote the way she did after too much time using the Frozen Skein, when the answers didn't come and she had to be yanked out by (very gentle, non-contact) force before she risked overstaying her welcome in that scary inner world. Snowflake mostly looked anxious, though there was a spark of happiness in there at being invited to participate in a Gōketsu council that lifted Noburi's heart just the teeniest bit.
Hazō actually looked almost cheerful after his day of sealing research. The flame of anger inside Noburi burned a little brighter.
"Thank you for coming," Hazō said. "I know this was short-notice, but I really needed to get ahead of the latest crisis. Hopefully, I caught it in time to prevent the worst of the damage, but I have no idea how to handle the rest, and I'm going to need your help."
Mari sat up a little straighter. "You mean you made the announcement this evening? I'm pretty sure the worst of the damage has been done already, but thank the Sage that nightmare is over. What did you tell them?"
"Tell who about what?" Hazō asked. "My priority's been making Yuno doesn't tell anyone. That's what I've called you guys to follow through on."
Yuno? Well, he was too late for that. Yuno had already told Noburi. Told him that her broken instincts were backed by a real-life god now. Told him that his years of work trying to set her free had gone up in smoke, just like that. Told him that Hazō had put his seal of approval on the whole thing. He would hear Hazō out, because that was what reasonable, level-headed people did, and the clan needed Noburi to be reasonable and level-headed more than ever. But if Hazō couldn't provide a damn good reason for why he'd pushed Yuno with all his strength instead of pulling her back from the edge…
"I fail to see Yuno's relevance to the latest crisis," Kei said. "I assumed the purpose of this meeting was to optimise damage control for your inexplicable failure to rescue your and the clan's reputation while the wounds were fresh and the rot spirits had yet to take hold."
"I was going to get to that later," Hazō said. "It's important, sure, but not next to saving our family from danger–and spiritual danger is every bit as bad as any other kind."
Noburi exchanged glances with the others. They were all thinking the same thing–even him, Yuno's Sage-damned husband–but with both Kei and Mari around, this was one job he didn't have to take on himself.
"Not important?" Kei repeated in a voice that made the ice-blasted aftermath of Hazō's epic sealing failure look like a caldera. "Hazō, the Nara have been fielding inquiry after inquiry with regard to your declarations of Jashin worship. Some have sought information on Jashin, since it is unprecedented for a Leaf clan head to publicly confirm a claim of heresy, and a handful of intelligent shinobi seek understanding before condemnation, in case the obscure religion of Jashinism is in fact somehow compatible with the Will of Fire in the same way as the Church of Youth. Many more question whether the Nara are aware of the truth of the situation, and indeed whether our continued trust in you indicates a willingness to tolerate or even embrace a heretical faith. I myself, already in an uncomfortable position due to my deliberate and public violation of certain religious norms proclaimed by the Hagoromo, combined with my incompetence at feigning devotion to the Will of Fire, have been led to condemn Jashinism in the most extreme terms before I had a chance to coordinate with you, creating an inescapable contrast with your inaction. Ino navigates this battlefield more deftly than I ever could, and it is just as well, since as your lover she is somehow expected to be aware of the detail of your religious inclinations."
"What are you talking about?" Hazō demanded. "I was facing a psychotic demigod who thought I was on his side and would blatantly kill me on the spot if I turned him down. Obviously I'd say whatever kept me alive long enough for him to leave. How could any sane ninja do anything else?"
"Obviously," Kei agreed. "We have all been labouring to promote this understanding, which should be intuitive to say the least, among the general public. You will note a lack of mobs with torches and pitchforks gathering outside the compound. Those less trusting, however, observe your priors to be terrible, not only as a foreigner coming to the Will of Fire only at an advanced age, but because they now recall past acts of blasphemy which were considered too minor to call for retribution at the time, such as the ill-fated night on which you openly accused Leaf's greatest heroes of homosexuality, or more major ones such as the fact that you consorted with Hidan directly in the past and returned with the extraordinary boon of a summoning scroll.
"Then there is your fierce feud with the Hagoromo. On the first day after Hidan's visit, they were in fact all but silent. I nearly dared to hope for the impossible, that this latest claim was too extreme even for them, but it seems they were merely stunned, having previously accused you of many and varied efforts to undermine Leaf's moral fabric, but never gone as far as to suspect you of membership of a cult inimical to Leaf and the WIll of Fire. Now, they have elected to dedicate themselves to the cause, labouring to foreground in public perception the fact that Hidan sought out you and you specifically, implicitly expecting your allegiance rather than demanding it, thereby 'proving' your conversion at some point in the past. Whether they sincerely believe they have finally received an explanation for your iniquities or are merely seizing a unique opportunity, I cannot say."
"Don't get me wrong," Mari said. "I've been on my feet for two days straight trying to fix this mess. But at every turn, people are asking me, 'Why isn't Lord Gōketsu doing the other thing any sane ninja in his situation would do, and saying all this himself, together with a furious denunciation of Jashinism, the second Hidan's out of earshot? Why doesn't he loathe the thought of being forced to blaspheme against the Will of Fire and being associated with that villain's delusions for a second longer than he has to? Why isn't he afraid that people who already distrust him will think he was being serious?' And… I've got nothing. Everyone was paying attention to you the day after, so everyone knows you went out on a day trip outside the village–the day after you came back from a jaunt with Hidan covered in blood. Everyone knows you were away today as well, even if nobody was dumb enough to try to spy on your sealing research.
"We should've taken control of the narrative the very first morning. You should have gone out and told everyone that Hidan's an evil son of a bitch, and you were just playing along out of fear, and you're so sorry for the words that left your mouth, and if Leaf religion demands that you go through some kind of purification ritual or whatever, you will set your business aside and do it that very day because nothing matters more than being righteous before the Will of Fire. I don't know if there's actually a ritual like that–at the very least, Leaf infiltrators don't have to go through one when we get home–but if there is, the Hagoromo would claim you don't get exemption like we do because it wasn't a Hokage-sanctioned mission. If needed, they'd make something up, and it would be awful, like Noburi and Yuno's wedding, but once you got through it alive, that would be you having paid your dues and nobody would get to bring the incident up again. At least until the next time you did something massively heretical."
"But what about Asuma?" Hazō asked impatiently. "He knows I'm not a real Jashin cultist, and that's obvious from the fact that he hasn't lifted a finger against me. Why isn't everyone following his lead?"
"He hasn't said a word," Mari said, "which is the smart thing for him to do. If Hidan comes back and finds out you've publicly denounced Jashin, you might be able to talk your way out of that–ironically, with the same excuse you should be using now, that you were saying whatever you had to because you're no good to Jashin if you're executed for heresy. On the other hand, if word gets out that you've been pretending to be a cultist with the Hokage's go-ahead all along, then Hidan might just kill you on sight. Hell, one of the other Akatsuki might do it instead if they believe it and decide Hidan's religious ambitions are creating a security risk.
"Now, him not chucking you in a killbox is a message in and of itself, but no one's quite sure what it says beyond 'I'm not killing this guy, so nobody else gets to either', which is nice because it protects you from getting assassinated by some random fanatic. There's a bunch of theories, one of which is that you're infiltrating Akatsuki on his orders, and another is that he's turning a blind eye because you're too valuable to Leaf. That's not good for him politically, but as long as he doesn't move against the Gōketsu, which he won't, it's not our problem."
"People are looking funny at me at the hospital," Noburi added. "What are the odds that the head of the clan is a Jashin cultist, but everybody who obeys him is pure as the driven snow? Hazō, I won't be able to do my job if people don't trust me. Literally, I can't be a medic if people think I might sacrifice them to the blood god while they're vulnerable. Even if it's just the dumb ones who believe that crap–in fact, it's worse that it's the dumb ones, because they're more likely to end up in the hospital to begin with."
"Relatedly," Kei said, "I would emphatically advise you to speak to Jin and the others. Regardless of whether they are personally inclined to believe the accusations, they chose to trust in the Gōketsu and accept our dubious and unstable reputation as their own. That you have chosen to ignore the situation in favour of personal interests, despite the fact that the clan's reputation directly shapes their lives as well, may be construed as a betrayal of your responsibilities as their clan head. While this is unlikely to be a tipping point–at least unless they actually believe you to be a Jashin worshipper–bear in mind that the absolute nature of clan head authority leaves them with no practical means of recourse against you other than leaving the clan."
"Wait, what?" Noburi and Hazō asked in unison.
"I have researched the matter extensively," Kei said. "Please believe me that their return to the KEI is both legally possible and potentially cataclysmic. In fact, as a KEI coordinator, it is my role to support them should they choose to embark on this course, though as a Gōketsu I will refrain from actively bringing the option to their attention."
"You should consider the Gōketsu civilians as well," Snowflake added. "While they are less indoctrinated in the Will of Fire than shinobi, and many possess great loyalty to you personally, they are doubtless anxious and in need of guidance from the one man in whose power it is to dismiss these allegations and reassure them that the clan will remain stable and safe from repercussions."
"Is this for real?" Hazō asked. "Are we actually at risk of losing Gōketsu clan secrets to the KEI because Hidan happened to turn up and force me to roll with his preaching? After everything we've done for them?"
"Haru still badly resents you for the yakuza incident," Mari said, "and remember that he was the one who forced you to confess to writing the letter to Akatsuki to begin with. He knows you're prepared to hang out with Hidan of your own initiative. Mio blames us for failing to protect her sister, and is half-convinced that the 'good stuff' we keep back from the adoptees would have made the difference–which, in fairness, who knows? Plus, she's generally in a huge amount of pain and I wouldn't rely on her to make rational decisions. The others have their own bones to pick, and none of it looks like it's likely to blow up in our faces for now, but every incident like this is a little counterweight to everything the Gōketsu have to offer, and they stack."
"I think," Snowflake said, "this is an unfortunate time for them to reevaluate the comparative benefits of being a Gōketsu. The Gōketsu's points of appeal are Uplift and a readiness to bestow the majority of clan benefits shortly after adoption, compared to traditional clan behaviour of forcing adoptees to spend years earning access to the higher ones, if it is granted at all. However, the KEI and the Triple Disaster have complicated matters. Clan adoption is gradually becoming less appealing for both practical and ideological reasons, especially if clans are expected to withhold many of its potential benefits. Yet drastic loss of manpower means clans must adopt more shinobi than before, both to propagate their bloodlines without issue in the long term and to regain their martial power as soon as possible–and clan secrets are of no service to this goal if they are denied to the only people alive to use them."
"In other words," Kei said, "while I suspect the Gōketsu still treat their adoptees better than many, the difference is being eroded. It is not implausible for the likes of Mio to believe that adoption by a different clan was both realistic and would have yielded more valuable secrets which could have ensured her sister's survival, while at the same time not suffering from our chronic issues such as a reputation for unpredictability or exclusionary duality of structure. Needless to say, we cannot allow her to be adopted by another clan now, at least not under a conventional arrangement which would allow her new clan head to command her to surrender Gōketsu secrets. However, as I anticipated this possibility some time ago, other contingencies are in progress."
The room was silent for a while.
"In short," Noburi said, "make the damn announcement, make sure the clanspeople who aren't in this room right now know beyond the shadow of a doubt that everything is going to be all right, and come up with one hell of an excuse for dragging your heels on an accusation of heresy. Is that everything?"
Hazō frowned. "Noburi, are you OK?"
Noburi took a few moments to gather himself. He needed to be calm and even-minded for this, or at least to pretend to be calm and even-minded. Venting his feelings wouldn't get him any closer to finding out why Hazō would do what he'd done, much less how to save his beloved.
"I talked to Yuno last night…" Noburi began.
-o-
I will get to the Yuno scene when possible, and award XP then. In the meantime, voting is open and closes on
While I'm not able to be as active as I'd like (turns out that the last trimester of a pregnancy is busy) I would really, really like everyone to take a step back and look at how we treat Yuno.
The plan that won and got us into whatever shit Noburi is rightly about to blast us for had the word 'minion' in the title. Titles don't get considered in plans, but the content of the plan fit the title pretty well.
We cannot think of her as a minion. We shouldn't think of anyone as a minion. It's honestly just fucked up. People aren't minions. That plan was about manipulating her by leading her towards a conclusion through the considered and tactical dispensation and concealment of information, not putting our cards on the table and collaborating with her, our friendly ally, to achieve a good outcome.
Read that again: we can't even interact with our friendly allies without being a manipulative shit.
Doing anything beyond treating her and all the other members of our clan as valued, respected, and loved will fuck us every time. We are not good at socials. We are good at being earnest and open and getting people to believe in our ideas and goals.
We really need to stop taking obvious Ls. If we wind up in a situation where the social strat of 'explain our perspective on a situation to someone, explain what we want to happen, and explain why we want that to happen' is the only possible play, then we need to hand that shit to Mari pronto, or at least get her input before we try.
And this is fine! As in real life, openly communicating with people you trust is going to work 95% of the time and probably way, way better than anything else. But Sage almighty, the play with Yuno was to:
Ask that she keep all this in the clan: talk about it with Mari and Noburi, but otherwise, keep it quiet.
Our ultimate goal is and always has been Uplift. For everyone. This means that as many people as possible live full, long, happy lives.
Explain our honest feelings on Jashin: we disagree that murder is good but we will take all the help we can get on the way to Uplift. Jashin seems content to help us out, and we think that this might be because Hidan under-serves the Birth aspect of Jashin, but if it turns out that Jashin just wants us to commit mass murder, we will say no because it's wrong.
Honestly, we might eventually need to kill Jashin if Jashin is real and opposed to our goals.
We love Yuno. We need her help as a clanswoman and a sister to achieve the goals of the Goketsu and the family.
Actually - is Uplift her goal? Does she believe in it? Isan was a lot closer to our ideals in a lot of ways (civilians were treated well) and we think that a world where no one is treated badly and everyone has the opportunity to thrive would be something she'd be passionate about. But if it isn't, we still love her and want to support her. Family means unconditional support.
Does this make sense to her? Even if she doesn't agree, can she see where we're coming from?
We're in a tight spot politically because we need to balance not getting murdered by Hidan and not alienating everyone in Leaf. Can we brainstorm some ideas for managing that?
Instead, we're in a massive mess from which we need to extricate ourselves, both on the personal side and politically.
But at the very least, please, can we try to treat Yuno like family? Every time we've tried to manipulate her, it's blown up, and every time we've treated her with respect and kindness and like she's the member of our family that she actually is, she's responded incredibly well.
Again: these are easy, unforced Ls and we can avoid them by playing to our strengths.
Not to be salty, but I don't see why the Hazoupilot didn't handle the announcement on his own. It doesn't require some clever planning such that player agency would be violated by Hazou coming up with something on his own, it's just a pro-forma declaration. We didn't actively vote not to do this, nor even, I think, packed Hazou's schedule so densely he couldn't find the time. And it sounds like Mari et al. were pushing for him to do this, such that he'd need to repeatedly and actively ignore it; especially since this issue should've been much more glaringly obvious to him than to us.
Indeed, it kind of seems like the exact situation for which we voted to have the Hazoupilot to begin with?
And it sounds like Mari et al. were pushing for him to do this, such that he'd need to repeatedly and actively ignore it; especially since this issue should've been much more glaringly obvious to him than to us.
Is this not worldbuilding? IDK how seriously they take religion in Leaf. It sure doesn't seem like it's that serious. They seem like deists to me, hardly any mentions of organized prayer or church or religious phrases in the language besides a "thank the kami" here and there.
So from a player perspective it doesn't seem like this is the sort of thing that needs immediate denunciation from Hazou's mouth. But it looks like the worldbuilding is such that that is not the case. Which is a gap in player knowledge.
@Inferno Vulpix I appreciate your detailed analyses on the Oro situation! Most of my disagreements have already been mentioned, but one that I don't think has come up (at least at the time I'm writing) is that Oro learning about Primordial Sealing (PS) massively affects how useful and interesting we become to him which is a NOT good. On the one hand, he's less likely to kill us, but like you outlined he already is disincentived to do that right now.
In a world where he learns PS and we have Earthshaping (ES) at 60, I think there's a high chance he forces us to be his personal blank creation engine operating at max capacity with minimal concern for our priorities and well-being. Asuma won't push back too hard since it's directly contributing to the dragonwar. He wasn't even willing to prevent Oro capturing and killing Keiko which is a much more flagrant contravention of Leaf's laws, his authority, and more politically costly for him.
Oro hasn't really demonstrated an ability or willingness to work pro-socially over long periods of time with anybody without the personal power to stand up to him (S-rankers) except for Kabuto and perhaps Asuma. Maybe Mari or Ami can pull a rabbit out of a hat here. But giving him something he really wants where we're the only permanent supply of the raw materials for it is something we want to put off as long as possible
In this, I refer back to the general sealmaster opinion on drawing paper seal blanks for each other. Namely: they don't ever do it. The seal must be perfectly drawn, to the point where you could spend hours checking over every curve and brushstroke and still only maybe be satisfied that it's flawless. The slightest deviation can cause your immediate demise, and who would trust someone else to draw their seal design better than them?
Hazou gets around this problem with the Iron Nerve, letting him perfectly recreate other people's seal blanks once he gets it right even once, but even then it still gives those sealmasters the creeps. Jiraiya never quite got used to it, even though he was trusted both our bloodline and our character enough to go along with it.
Contrast Orochimaru, who does not know our bloodline (would we even be able to use the Iron Nerve like that on 3D Seals?) and does not trust us as a person. He would have to manually verify every single blank we produce for him, lest he open himself up to calamitous sealing failure. Critically, he wouldn't even be able to do a research project at all without doing many prototype seals, each of which puts his fate in our hands to some extent. Heck, would he even be able to verify them without already-sufficient Earthshaping? What if we made a tiny internal flaw, one not visible from the outside and only visible from the inside if your Earthshaping senses are sharp enough? Could Orochimaru ever be sure that we hadn't done that? Would he seek our help shaping seals if something like that is on the table?
In short, just as I cannot see Orochimaru letting someone else draw his seals for him, I cannot see him letting someone else earthshape his seals for him. Not when the consequence of a single error (which he may very well have no ability to discern) could cost him, even him, his life.
Now, if he has ES 50 and we have ES 60 and he is capable of Primordial Sealcrafting but does not have the viable substrate ES 60 produces, then we also have no problem. It costs us little to chew up some MEW granite into the necessary substrate and provide it to him for further shaping. We could probably extract a reasonable price for these services if we want to, but either way there would be no need to imprison us for optimal material production.
Is this not worldbuilding? IDK how seriously they take religion in Leaf. It sure doesn't seem like it's that serious. They seem like deists to me, hardly any mentions of organized prayer or church or religious phrases in the language besides a "thank the kami" here and there.
It does seem like a thing Hazoupilot should handle. Like we don't vote in his eating and sleeping hours, nor his clan business stuff like paperwork, and this is pretty basic much like paperwork. I expect him to at least issue a notice via writing or something and maybe address the clan members, especially if time is going to be passing that we have no control of.
I might be a little unclear on the timeline but I don't understand if we were really making the situation so much worse why Mari, Snowflake, Kei, or Noburi didn't interrupt us and give us advice.
Especially Mari given she's our eyes and ears in Leaf's social fabric. Like we're being told that this threat is bad enough that we risk isolating us from our allies, the general public, and even our own clanmates but Mari just "let" Hazo walk around making the situation worse even though his inability to read the room is legendary?
The fact that there is a backlash makes sense to me but not that we're seemingly in a situation where every hour counts yet none of the rest of the clan are actually acting like it.
At a more basic level than the Hazoupilot, then? We don't have to actively vote for Hazou to sleep at night or to keep doing his Clan Head duties or to keep breathing; some actions are sufficiently obviously correct that they're taken by default. "Denounce Jashinism", likewise, sounds like it was a blatantly obvious action to take, such that I would've expected Hazou to take it by default.
Fair enough, I suppose it weren't. But in that case, I'm confused about why they didn't push for Hazou to do it, given that they were clearly aware of that urgent issue. Unless, again, the issue is so undeniably blatantly obvious that they'd assumed that Hazou not acting on it was deliberate on his part (to such an extent they didn't even prod him about it), but in this case, I'm again confused about why Hazou didn't act on it.
But in that case, I'm confused about why they didn't push for Hazou to do it, given that they were clearly aware of that urgent issue. Unless, again, the issue is so undeniably blatantly obvious that they'd assumed that Hazou not acting on it was deliberate on his part (to such an extent they didn't even prod him about it), but in this case, I'm again confused about why Hazou didn't act on it.
Mostly because the first day was explicitly an all-day activity (chakra beast hunt) and the second one implicitly so (sealing research is all-day by default). Hazō was unavailable per the player plan.
Not to be salty, but I don't see why the Hazoupilot didn't handle the announcement on his own. It doesn't require some clever planning such that player agency would be violated by Hazou coming up with something on his own, it's just a pro-forma declaration. We didn't actively vote not to do this, nor even, I think, packed Hazou's schedule so densely he couldn't find the time. And it sounds like Mari et al. were pushing for him to do this, such that he'd need to repeatedly and actively ignore it; especially since this issue should've been much more glaringly obvious to him than to us.
Indeed, it kind of seems like the exact situation for which we voted to have the Hazoupilot to begin with?
Hazōpilot is a tricky balance to keep. There's a spectrum here, from "Hazōpilot automatically solves every issue with the optimal outcome" to "Hazōpilot does nothing". Any time Hazō suffers consequences for his actions, there is a completely understandable desire among the players to cry foul and demand why Hazōpilot didn't fix or prevent the issue without player intervention. "We don't schedule his eating and sleeping, so why can't he handle the <thing> too" is a pretty common refrain. This is especially true when the consequences are in the social or political spheres, something that (as far as I can tell), the players don't care about and wish would simply go away.
We do have Hazōpilot save you from things. A good example would be when you voted to lawyer Orochimaru to death and I had Hazōpilot save the day. I chose for him to step in because the problem was right in front of you, something that Hazō could see, and something that he cared about. The situation with Jashinism is none of those things -- it's a diffuse thing that's happening out in society among people that Hazō doesn't interact with or think about, and it's politics, a subject that barely registers for him at all.
To sum up: Hazōpilot saving you from the consequences of your actions is a balancing act that the QMs try to play fair with. There will be times when we decide that he will step in and times that we decide he will not. I get that people will probably always disagree with our choices when we decide not to have him step up, but we are doing our best to play fair.
Mostly because the first day was explicitly an all-day activity (chakra beast hunt) and the second one implicitly so (sealing research is all-day by default). Hazō was unavailable per the player plan.
That makes some sense to me but I don't understand why Mari wouldn't have told us at breakfast or dinner or something like that. It's not like we were literally gone from the compound for 2 entire, consecutive 24 hour periods.
Hazōpilot is a tricky balance to keep. There's a spectrum here, from "Hazōpilot automatically solves every issue with the optimal outcome" to "Hazōpilot does nothing". Any time Hazō suffers consequences for his actions, there is a completely understandable desire among the players to cry foul and demand why Hazōpilot didn't fix or prevent the issue without player intervention. "We don't schedule his eating and sleeping, so why can't he handle the <thing> too" is a pretty common refrain. This is especially true when the consequences are in the social or political spheres, something that (as far as I can tell), the players don't care about and wish would simply go away.
We do have Hazōpilot save you from things. A good example would be when you voted to lawyer Orochimaru to death and I had Hazōpilot save the day. I chose for him to step in because the problem was right in front of you, something that Hazō could see, and something that he cared about. The situation with Jashinism is none of those things -- it's a diffuse thing that's happening out in society among people that Hazō doesn't interact with or think about, and it's politics, a subject that barely registers for him at all.
To sum up: Hazōpilot saving you from the consequences of your actions is a balancing act that the QMs try to play fair with. There will be times when we decide that he will step in and times that we decide he will not. I get that people will probably always disagree with our choices when we decide not to have him step up, but we are doing our best to play fair.
It seems a bit weirder to me that the rest of the family (and Mari in particular) apparently waited long enough for Hazo's lack of response to start causing a problem before talking with him. What stopped them from just asking him what was going on at any point before this meeting? I would also have expected there to have been a full debriefing or familial conversations immediately after Hidan left given the significance of his visit and past practice of traumatizing Hazo.
Mostly because the first day was explicitly an all-day activity (chakra beast hunt) and the second one implicitly so (sealing research is all-day by default). Hazō was unavailable per the player plan.
Yeah, I think that's what it comes down to. I think I'd be more inclined to err on the side of diegetic coherency over player agency (were I a QM), and the shape the narrative has taken here seems pretty incongruent. You seem to place more value on MfD-as-a-game, with strict-ish rules. That's fair, I suppose.