Questions Meme

[doesnothappen]

Well, Inara hit 3000 tonight, and Mau hit 13,000 around Halloween, and it's been three months, so hopefully everybody has forgotten how hard I failed at this last time and I'm allowed to play again.

I will try and actually answer questions that anybody feels like asking about either of them, this time! Or about Chance.

Comments

[playfreebird]

I think it's possible he can?

Neji doesn't have a lot of experience with affection, particularly physical affection. I admit that's sort of inferred, but considering that he spent years 4-14 pretty much hating everyone and definitely not seeking out physical comfort and affection, it seems pretty reasonable. What we see of the Hyuuga also tends to be pretty staid and not really demonstrative. When things are going well, we show it by... training together. And drinking tea. So it just becomes, like, a thing Neji isn't sure what to do with. Most of his physical contact in life is either professional or violent. He's fairly comfortable with physical bodies, but it's in a weird way. Gestures of physical affection, at this point, leave him feeling distinctly awkward. He's not sure how to respond to most of them, and there's this sense of them being sort of undirected? It that makes sense? Like they're not a very purposeful interaction. For Neji, there doesn't seem to be a goal. With hugging, it's only a little awkward. Cuddling would be more extremely awkward.

The exception to this, at this point, is sort of the non-human types of affection. I think that's sort of different, and it might sound weird, but there seems to be more of a point to petting Obsidian or Lark than hugging Inara. Not because he dislikes Inara—like I've said, he does like her, and he's generally comfortable with her—but animals are different, and that sort of demonstrably calms them down. And if they cuddle, well, that feels more like being a bed/pillow/whatever. It's probably something that will help him get comfortable with human touching though? :|a Like, a GATEWAY HUG. idk.

Also, Neji doesn't have anything in the romantic direction at all, which is cool and not complaining about that, but if he did, that would push him in the direction of getting more used to it. Sort of headcanon, since shounen manga! But in a way, I think he would feel less awkward kissing than just hugging or cuddling, because it does seem more directed to him, like there's more of a purpose to it, and it seems more active. So if that were a thing that came up, it would also probably acclimate him a little more to physical affection.

For what it's worth, Inara's done a good job clicking with how Neji does understand affection, like making him tea, bringing him water and a towel after training, and telling him to go to bed because he's overdoing things. I don't know if he'd identify it as such, but it's definitely there, and I think just as he gets more comfortable with that, he'll loosen up some more with her. Even if it might be easier to turn into a dragon. >.>

Maybe that makes sense. There were a lot of words.

Most important people for your characters?

[doesnothappen]

It made sense!

For Inara, mostly Jaina at the moment. There are a lot of other people she gets along with or cares about or enjoys spending time with, but Jaina is by far the most significant mutual support for Inara. As I see it, Inara's someone who is completely comfortable drawing other people out and having them confide in her, but who is very, very hesitant to bring her personal problems to other people. She's just barely starting to open up to Jaina in that way, and there isn't anyone else (now that Mal is gone) that she's likely to talk to in the same way.

Mau has a longer list, but the top three are probably Allen, Josh and Cassie. They're his triad of sanity in Aather, Josh and Allen because they kick his ass when he's being crazy and self-destructive, and Cass because he loev her. Mau is kind of terrible at remembering to take care of himself, so he needs people around who are willing to prod him fairly strongly when he does things like fail to eat or sleep. Also he's become more reliant on touch in Aather to provide him with a sense of direction and reality, so being in contact with either of those three keeps him much more grounded than he would be otherwise.

Reverse?

[playfreebird]

Hmm. That's sort of hard since Neji is kind of intentionally dealing with people in a way that mostly keeps them from being important. He feels a certain sense of obligation to Naruto and Sakura because of his memories of them, but I wouldn't call them personally important.

It feels pretty wrong to say that no one at all is important to him, but I don't know that anyone is important enough to stand out.

I fail with him that way, I guess. >.>

How did Inara handle Mal leaving?

[doesnothappen]

Inara wasn't all that attached to Mal when he left, so she was a bit worried and upset, but not enough that she couldn't cover it up fairly graciously. She was also concerned how Jaina would take it. But she's disappointed, because Mal in Aather was substantially happier and more open (and would likely be so until he remembered the battle of Serenity Valley 8D 8D 8D) than he was in her memories, and she was sort of looking forward to getting to know him as an amnesiac before the complications of their home situation got in the way again. I think she'll actually be more upset about the situation when she takes her next memory than she was when he got booked.

What's Neji's analysis of Iolite as individuals? What roles does he see each member as filling?

[playfreebird]

I like this question. He's fairly content with them as individuals, despite their flaws/liabilities

I'd say he kind of sees Obsidian as being like the face of Iolite. Not exactly a leader, but he's been there for longer than most people other than Vincent, and Neji respects him, and he tends to be otherwise well respected. I wouldn't say a mascot either, because that doesn't sound active enough. I don't mean just like a speaker or whatever, and Neji wouldn't always trust him for that because he's not... always... the most rational. I guess he's like. The flag ship.

Kyouko is probably the person whose role he's the least sure of. Other than, kinda being a surly girl. Is that a role though? He doesn't have a problem with her, really, but she's the one with the least clear productive place in his mind.

Spitfire can handle the social stuff. AND HEY LOOK IT WORKED. They won the last game, didn't they? He does see Spitfire as a potential liability at times, though, because he's very emotional, and because Neji sees him as taking on more than he can handle, so that's something that needs to be balanced out.

Jaina is... quite... possibly the moral one. Or the straight forward one. Or something like that.

He kind of sees Inara and himself as filling a similar function in someways, in relation to the team, but doing it differently. Like, he sees both of them as the reasonable voices on the team, but in different ways, that actually might balance out. Inara tends to smooth things over, and be sensitive to people on the team's needs, helps them deal with emotions some, etc, whereas he... does not do that. He's more the critical side of being rational (in his point of view), and the one who has to look at things dispassionately.

Inara is also somewhat like Spitfire, in that she's socially fluent. In a safe way, where I don't use the word safe with irony quotes.

Vincent gets the be the team psycho. Which is a liability in some ways, but useful in others, and Neji realizes that. It's a harder balance than Spitfire in that way. He's smart, and socially fluent in a "safe" way, with irony quotes, and if less moral things have to be done, well, it can be handy to have someone like Vincent around. Neji does see some overlap with his own role and Vincent's that way too, to the extent that if amoral stuff has to be dealt with, it will probably fall to one of them. :|a

Reverse?