fandomhigh | Practical Diplomacy, Friday, January 13, 2017

Practical Diplomacy, Friday, January 13, 2017

Anakin came into the room in a cranky mood today. "Today we're going to talk about slightly more...domestic disputes. Like how to explain in small words that your shampoo is not their bubble bath."

Guess whose daughter had been experimenting...

"Or perhaps more suitably," Obi-Wan said dryly, "Negotiating a roommate agreement."

"Or that," Anakin said, running his hand through his weird-feeling hair. "What are your absolute nos? Hitting the snooze alarm more than four times in a row? Eating fish in the room? Talking at all?"

"In diplomacy, it is often wise to discuss one's needs frankly, but carefully," Obi-Wan said. "Whether you are in a dispute, or you merely anticipate disputes to come. We would like you to write down five things you would request of a roommate, and then find a partner. Discuss your needs and whether they can be accomodated."

"I've found it helpful to have both needs you need and things that would just be nice to have," Anakin said, which might be news to Ahsoka and Obi-Wan. "Makes you appear more reasonable when you compromise on things you didn't care about that much to start with."

"That is certainly one possible approach," Obi-Wan said. "I wonder what yours will be?"

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Uncompromising.

Hyacinthe

Khadgar

Isabela

Ahsoka Tano

Ada Miller

Gratuity Tucci

FN-2187

Mara Jade

Thorin

Yeah, Anakin's hair looks weird.

Ahsoka was definitely not smirking at Anakin's hair. Oh no, not her.

Mara was absolutely smirking at Anakin's hair.

Requests. Whichever. Five things you want to have when you're in your room that you'd like your roommate to respect.

Khadgar didn't think he had a lot of demands, but once he covered basic cleanliness and not staying up until all hours of the night, it wasn't so hard to make a complete list.

Hyacinthe was rather at a loss for a list of demands. He'd spent his entire life living with his mother until coming to Fandom and Roscoe was hardly a difficult roommate. He wasn't entirely certain what to ask for.

1. Do not be rude to guests.
2. Keep the space clean (not neat but clean)
3. Contribute, either with skills or funds
4. ???
5. ???

Isabela had started writing a list, honestly she had! But somehow it had rapidly turned into a story involving repressed men in robes arguing over shampoo and resolving it with a highly inappropriate use of said shampoo.

Hadn't Anakin and Obi-Wan missed her?

Ahsoka wasn't really sure where to start, since she and Peridot mostly kept out of each other's way, and her main experience with friction in shared living spaces was, well, at the front of the class. Oh, wait, she had one.

1. Don't blame other people when you shed hair in the 'fresher.

Ada...didn't have a roommate, and didn't plan on asking the school for a new one. Cosima had been amazingly accommodating of Ada's medical needs, but she didn't want to play the odds on that happening again. So she wasn't really trying too hard with this.

1. If you eat the last of something you replace it.
2. Agree on some warning system if the room is occupied.
3. Let the other person sleep.
4.
5.

It was a work in progress.

Tip had spent several weeks living in a small car with an alien and a cat, and she'd only gotten mad enough to throw punches once. She was all over this.

Rule one: when something pisses you off, talk about it first, don't sit around and let it fester and be mad about it. That was really her only major thing. Also, label your condiments when they are things that might likely kill your roommates if they eat them. Oh, and ask before touching each other's stuff.

She was pretty sure anything else she could totally live with. Seriously, cohabitating with a Boov made you real used to dealing with other people's idiosyncrasies.

FN-2187's list was just the first five infractions regarding barracks space that could get a stormtrooper cadet sent to punitive duties.

Mara had preferences about privacy, of course, but she was prepared to be relatively flexible in her negotiations.

Pair up and see if you can come to a fair conclusion for sharing a hypothetical room together.

Ada was there with her list, and sure, she'd negotiate.

Or try to take you for everything you had. One of the two.

"So," Tip said. "Pretend new roommate. What are your preferred rules?"

"I only came up with four," Ada admitted, "Since I don't got much experience with roommates."

"If'n you eat the last of something you replace it. Please don't mess around with m' de-humidifers an' other stuff for m' health problems. Let the other person sleep. An' we gotta come up with some sort of easy warning system for when th' other person needs th' room."

"Oh hey, I hadn't even thought about food," Tip said. That was one thing you didn't typically have to think about, living with someone with a vastly different digestive system.

Though J.Lo had once eaten all her dental floss.

"Those sounds pretty good. Though your first two would fall under my 'don't touch each other's stuff without asking'."

Ada's digestive system was vastly different! Just... not on the surface.

"See, my family would say all 'stuff' is communal, but that's 'cause there's so many of us that no one's got much 'special' stuff," Ada laughed. "But sure. 'Don't touch each other's stuff without asking' covers a lot."

"Maybe 'keep a clear path around th' door'? I ain't messy, but I ain't always neat."

"I do keep my things pretty neat," Tip admitted. "I'd probably get kind of annoyed if a mess ended up on, like, my side of the room too often. But then I'd just tell you and ask you to clean it up." She tapped her first item. "I'm pro 'communicating your concerns right away'. You know, so long as you do it nicely and don't just yell at each other all the time."

Only one of which was known as the Great Negotiator. Guess which one.

Edited 2017-01-13 15:56 (UTC)

True story: one of my college roommates would hit the snooze button every 8 minutes for up to three hours. I DID NOT KILL HER. And my husband's college roommate ate sardines from a can every morning for breakfast in their room. Mmm.

I once lived in an apartment where two of my roommates had rabbits. One of them had the sex of their rabbit wrong, so we went from two rabbits to ten rabbits extremely quickly.

It was adorable! Until the kitchen ended up swarmed with fruit flies hatching in the rabbit food. And neither roommate took responsibility for cleaning up after the baby rabbits. And the male rabbit ended up stuck in his cage all the time humping a stuffed whale.

I spent a lot of time hiding in my room that semester (which, thankfully, I had my own of).

One of my college roommates decided to use her bathtub for a worm composting setup. We did not know about the worm composting setup for a long time but when we found out it explained several things, such as:

a) why she seemed to never shower
b) why she periodically was caught going through the trash (for the rest of us's compostable scraps)
c) the smell
d) why earthworms were occasionally found in other parts of the apartment

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Practical Diplomacy, Friday, January 13, 2017

Sign in 1/13

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Listen to the lecture

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Write up your list of demands!

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Negotiate!

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Talk to Anakin and Obi-Wan

OOC

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