I do understand the concerns about Ono's reaction to instant pop-up, but that's part of what I'm trying to defuse in the physical aspects of the introduction.
The surprise appearance will cause a moment of shock, which gives a brief moment to set the tone. Stepping back and sitting down on the floor is a non-confrontational gesture, with a psychologically submissive aspect. It should drain the tension that might lead to an immediate physical attack, although it's likely that it will be followed up by an emotional lashing out. Placing Mami out in front with a somewhat hesitant bearing, and the likelihood of her sitting to place her on an equal level with Ono (rather than continuing to stand, and being an overbearing presence), should defuse the high-end emotional backlash. After that point, Ono should be at a low simmer, which is really the best that can be hoped for in this situation.
I, on the other hand, do not think that any kind of gesture can defuse the tension sufficiently to communicate at the level we need to.
You're right that physical positioning will help her contextualize us in terms of threat and standing between the parties involved, but you're extremely wrong that we want that.
I said this earlier, but we need our words to have Gravitas, to have significant weight. If we want to put it in conversational roles, it needs to be clear that we lead, the others follow, and that we speak with authority on MG subjects because we are an authority on MG subjects.
We saw this in action when we met her: she was respectful of Mami and paid little heed to Sabrina because that's how we chose to present ourselves, with Mami leading introductions and making the leadership decisions, and Sabrina slightly more physically distant.
However, I don't think that we should play by the conversational structures she expects. I think we should act in a way that breaks all her expected convention and establishes a new paradigm for our future meetings, after the expected blowup or other difficulties are done.
Part of why she feels slighted is that she got the structure of our team wrong and still doesn't know it - it's less a network of girls who coordinate and fight together and more a combination of a problem-solving team and a social support structure. All of Mami, Homura, and Sabrina have ended up in tears while supported by another at some point. So the distance she thought she could maintain and the equality she expected from the start both won't exist for a newcomer, although it can be established.
Much of that will go out the window when we invade her personal space against her explicit non-consent and present an entirely new set of things she has major issue with. But I hope it serves to illustrate that holding this conversation to expected social convention won't do us much good, because part of why we're here is to establish a new way she and Sabrina and the others expect to meet and interact.
Likewise, with Onmur's and SWB's thoughts, Mami being the voice in this conversation will likely be much better in showing we care, because Sabrina just doesn't do "subtle caring" very well at all. If you want someone to recognize the real concern you have, let Mami do the talking; Sabrina will just screw it up.
I think we're perfectly capable of doing the Madoka, but let me get the other point of contention out of the way first.
Kine, Mami isn't any better at subtle caring (not sure that's the phrase I'd use tho) than we are. Where exactly in her lonely last two years has she had a chance to develop this skill? Mami is best at professional interaction, at establishing or fitting in to role relationships, and at diplomacy/detente with strangers. She isn't good at getting others to open up when they don't want to, and has in fact experienced a number of failures at this in both canon and PMAS canon. I'd suggest her if I thought there was a sure way to make this work, as a confidence booster. But as things are, while she might do a great job at the initial presentation, this is a conversation where failure of some sort is inevitable. And the moment that happens Mami at best turns to us with an
I don't know what to do and at worst loses a lot of confidence over another social failure to support someone, this time when Sabrina was counting in her.
I think Mami can play a big role here, but as someone who is led. We have to be
stubbornly kind and
stubbornly patient here, and as I said earlier, I
do think we can pull a Madoka, if for no other reason than that Sabrina does what we vote for. But I also think Sabrina has it in her - we kind of did with Kyoko, refer to the too nice comment, and Homura was reminded of Madoka after seeing us in action for good reason. And well...
It's in our metaphorical genes, no?
