I get the "for want of a nail" argument of social interaction.
It would be optimal if we could be friends with everyone, or failing that, distantly polite.
But that argument applies to everyone, everything, everywhere, all the bloody time.
We have to ration our time and energies.
And as much as it hurts the feelings of the young nobles here, they, for the most part, do not have a very high priority.
It really isn't a matter of being friends with everyone
It's a matter of readjusting our social approach and image.
Currently LQ doesn't really social much, she's starting to attend a few parties, but she's transparent in that she not only sees it as a chore but that she expects constant hostility and plotting from people around her. She only goes to social events to poke around for information and maintain the bare minimum social polite distance from most people, she isn't actually
socializing she's just putting up a front for public appearances.
The problem with that is that it is isolating her, if you act like a detached and contemptuous solipsist then people will treat you like it. People can't shunt her out of social gatherings entirely because of her connections, but they can isolate her from social groups within that space, not that Ling Qi tries terribly hard to connect to said groups anyway. LQ relies pretty much entirely on her association to big names like CRX and Meizhen to guard her in that area.
Ling Qi is currently acting like a
Bai, She is copying Meizhen's general mannerisms because she doesn't know what else to do, and she inherits the drawbacks associated with that approach; the Bai operated by force of fear and power, their reputation meant that they could mostly just get away with not caring to engage their various vassals, they made decisions and people followed them. But this also meant that they weren't liked, they were resented, bordering on hated, and when a more charismatic Sun Shao came along and offered everyone a chance to get away and not have to deal with them anymore nearly everyone took the chance to jump ship. The Bai survived that, but it was not a pleasant experience and a lesser clan would not have.
Now Ling Qi isn't nearly that far down, but the point is that
people don't like her because she isn't making an effort to be likable. Sure being a freshly minted noble in a high position means that she starts out on the back foot, but this is not an unworkable position, people ascending to noble status isn't all that uncommon, this isn't a bunch of crusty gatekeepers who view the idea as some form of sacrilege, sure some people will turn their noses up at the idea of a commoner breaking out of their caste, they aren't a reason to write off everyone else though.
This isn't going to suddenly result in Ling Qi flitting about and starting personal relationships with every single person she meets, its a few minor changes to her approach so that she hopefully grows to become more capable and she isn't stuck relying on other people to cover her in the social area anymore. Ling Qi isn't going to start being friends with everyone she meets that's ridiculous, she is hopefully going to actually start socializing with people and stop leaning on her stuck up noble act crutch.
Kinda my point.
It would be nice if everyone could be friends, but it's just not possible, we have not the time, the skill, or the lack of spine to do that.
See, you seem to think that learning how to talk to people somehow makes Ling Qi weaker, that the only people who bother are all peons or something who can't make anything of themselves. Her lack of ability to socialize
is a weakness and while you seem fine with that, I am not.
