fandomhigh | Practical Diplomacy, Friday, January 11, 2019

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practical diplomacy

Practical Diplomacy, Friday, January 11, 2019

"Another peril of diplomatic life is having to attend local cultural events and pretending to be impressed," Anakin shouted over the sound of drums and some sort of weird horn thing that was being played with great enthusiasm and very little skill by the troupe dressed up in some form of local attire in the Danger Shop behind him. "Today I have five different scenarios that you will have to work through while maintaining a proper diplomatic expression--not laughing, not saying 'ew', and not saying no to any of the weird requests they will make of you."

The drummers behind him got even louder. You lucky, lucky students.

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Ready for anything!

Prince Sidon

Trevor Belmont

Breq

Vette

Lana Beniko

Nell Ingram

Theron Shan

Jack (Two)

The loud band behind you, of course! You must either play the drum or dance with the women without making an idiot of yourself. The dance involves a loooot of hip shimmying.

One of these days, maybe Muzu would understand that Sidon was far better a diplomat than he'd ever give the prince credit for, but, until then, he supposed it didn't hurt to continue brushing up on his diplomatic skills, which, really, weren't even skills so much as his irrepressible ability to actually be genuinely thrilled and excited about the most mundane, or the strangest, or the most bizarre things anyone could throw at him.

He didn't need to pretend to be impressed when nearly the smallest little thing actually impressed him in some way, after all.

However, he'd had more than enough dancing already today from ballet class, thank you very much, and he knew he could very well keep a rhythm and give those drums a good pounding. Clearly, they liked it loud, and that he could do, and with aplomb!

Breq smiled at Sidon, as she joined him with a drum.

"I'm not sure I'd manage that dance very well," she said.

Sidon grinned back, as energetic as his drumming, as he raised his voice a little over the booming of the band to respond. "I feel much the same!" he agreed. "I'd rather leave that to those a bit more capable," Vette, perhaps, though he was trying to be good about noticing too much, ahem, "though I think you'd rather be better at it than I, Breq. Unless we were to move this performance to the water, but that would be quite different, I should say."

"Possibly." Breq smiled. "But not like Vette." She looked in her direction. "I admit I'd like to see you dance in water though."

Hey, Vette was so game for this. Dancing? Hip shimmying?

Check this out.

Okay, look, her shimmy game wasn't as great as it could be, but at least she followed along with some measure of enthusiasm.

The drums were loud, yes, but rhythm wasn't a bad thing, and Lana could get into this.

She nodded to one of the musicians and did her best to play along. She all good, but she wasn't half bad.

Nell wasn't ready to do any hip shimmying, but she was able to join in on a drum.

The scene changes to a cooking show, hooray! You are on a local cooking show! The host is making some kind of fish dish (the fish is bright blue and has three heads) and is speaking to you rapidly in the local language (that you don't understand), then handing you an enormous machete!

Please don't kill the host or yourself with it.

Edited 2019-01-11 16:29 (UTC)

ON the one hand, it was a cooking show, and Sidon did not do cooking. On the other hand, though, the cooking involved fish! And a machete! So Sidon figured he could put a few things together there, beaming at the host as the machete was being handed over, bowing in appreciation. "What a fine blade!" he offered, chuckling in a self-effacing way for his poor understanding of the language, but wanting to offer something in his own, before turning his winning grin at the host and gesturing, with a questioning tilt of his head, toward the fish.

He made a few small cutting motions with the machete in the air, gesturing at the fish with his free hand, adding in a few encouraging nods to prompt the host to confirm his assumption on what was to be expected of him, lest just going for the head and preparing the fish as he assumed would be needed would be a terrible breech in decorum, prepared to play the big, bumbling, clueless foreign dignitary to help smooth things over if it got a little rough around the edges.

Breq could cook acceptably well, and she had faced stranger dishes than three-headed fish. She made sure to smile at the host, then neatly chopped the fish into thick slices.

"... Can I just take off with this? No?"

Well, darn. But Vette could chop up the fish easily enough, at least. Three heads, huh? Were... were they keeping those? Setting them to the side? Maybe they needed that head, there...

Eh, she'd just cube the whole thing.

Lana accepted the blade with a nod, then indicated on the fish where she thought she ought to cut and looked up in question at the host. "Here?"

Well, Nell had never seen a fish with three heads, but she was more than capable of preparing the fish for cooking. With a nod of her head and a smile she did just that.

Taking pictures with babies, hooray!

Except that when they hand you the little tyke (a small Twi'lek), it starts to scream and kick you and nooooo one is helping you out. The photo they take will be on the screens of every person on this planet in fifteen seconds....and smile!

....really, now. Did anyone expect to hand Sidon a wee little Twi'lek and have him not completely melt into goo over it, kicking and screaming or otherwise? He had to chuckle as he tried to get a grip on it with one arm while he tried to distract it...quickly!...with a waggling of his fingers and a little bouncing and a soothing rumble of his voice as he said, "There, there, now, little one, it's quite alright! Look over there, now! Your biggest smile, you can do it! I believe in you!"

His wiggling fingers pointed toward the crowd whether the baby was following them or not, as he turned his head and flashed his own biggest and brightest smile, just in time for the flurry of pictures to begin. At least he knew he would look good in the shots, and, if the baby followed suit, all the better. And, if it continued crying through the whole thing, well, it would be a humorous shot at the very least, because hatchlings would be hatchlings, and it couldn't be helped, and he hoped perhaps one day it was something its mother would pull out to embarrass it teasingly with its peers.

Edited 2019-01-11 17:34 (UTC)

Okay, you know what? Vette was perfectly fine with being handed a screaming, kicking Twi'lek child. She smiled brightly at the little kid, and then started cooing at it, softly singing a song she only remembered bits and pieces of in Ryl.

Bounced in place and took one of its hands and held her lekku in as reassuring a way as possible and... ow, her heart, a little.

Way to make her homesick, Skywalker.

Oh, Force, a child?

Lana took it awkwardly, then startled a little as it started to kick. She reached out frantically with the Force, trying to sooth it. If nothing else, she could always put it to sleep, but hopefully a bit of calming would do the work.

She tried to calm herself, too, in case the child could sense it, and smiled as best she could.

Crying, kicking babies were not a novelty to Nell, and she was able to deftly manage this one with at least a reasonable facsimile of a smile.

You're at an award ceremony and being shoved towards a huge rack of traditional clothing--lots of very tall hats and long, drapey capes -- backstage. You have five minutes to get changed and then present the award for best new musical act to a band with a name made up only of consonants!

Ask for assistance with both the getting dressed and the pronunciation without offending anyone or looking like an idiot for needing the help!

Ah, the self-effacing charm at work yet again! Which whenever it came to clothing, was never too much of a stretch, and Sidon, his bright smile never dulled even by sheepishness, bowed his head slightly to someone helping out, and offered his apologies. "Begging your pardon," he said, "but I fear such marvelous and stunning garments are beyond the ken of my people's much more humble and simple accouterments. I trust you can lend your knowledge of such things to assist me in ensuring that I am sporting them properly and doing them the fine justice they so richly deserve? I can hardly believe I have been graced with such an honor as to don them myself! And this band...such a wonderful name! Though there's nothing so beautiful in my own clumsy language. Perhaps, if you don't mind, correct me if I'm getting this wrong? I would so hate to mar their moment of well-deserved glory with a fumble of my own incapable tongue." And he tried the name with careful caution. "Am I getting that right?"

People, he found, were far more tolerant of a fool when that fool was just so gosh-darn nice.

"Huh." Vette was so not a hat person. But she was rifling through the capes anyway, because those seemed fun, and was babbling away with whoever was closest, hoping beyond hope that one of them would say the name of the band so that she wouldn't have to ask about it.

...

"My mouth doesn't work like that."

Crud.

Hats and caps? Lana was Sith - she had this.

"What do you think?" she asked someone nearby. "Are these flattering enough for - I'm terribly sorry, I really want to do them justice, could you go over my speech with me once again, please?"

"Gosh," Nell said with a sweet smile. "I can't say as I ever wore such fancy clothing before. I wonder if one of you'uns would be willing to help me out. I wouldn't want to make anyone look bad or offend anyone by messing up. And maybe someone could help me make sure I get this here name right? I sure want to make sure I honor them and all of you'uns correctly.

Sometimes the best way to not look like an idiot was to say you were an idiot in a polite way and let them help you.

You are a judge at a local food competition, where every meal has been made with an ingredient that you aren't allergic to--you just loathe.

You have to judge 30 different dishes where that food is the star ingredient. What will you do?

This was easily the one that Sidon was likely to have trouble with...if only because his diet was already restricted quite enough as it was. But, on the other hand, he did have experience with trying all sorts of food around here that he pretended he didn't mind, though, really, he rather wished he'd never have to eat it again.

So his solution was incredibly modest bites and to find something about the other ingredients in the dish that he enjoyed so that his praise was not necessarily false, it just avoided talking about the star ingredient as much as possible. And there were a few standout where he could also use the phrase, "Why, I hardly knew [ingredient] was in it at all! What a masterful way to truly transform the familiar into something extraordinary and exceptional!", which helped a little, too.

Hey, there were plenty of foods out there that weren't Vette's favorites.

... But she ate them anyway, because she'd spent most of her life not sure when the next time she'd be able to eat would be. And she even grinned her way through the lot of it. She'd just give the prize to the one that made her mouth want to die the least.

Lana used the Force to dull her sense of taste. Was that cheating? Well, what nobody knew wouldn't hurt them. She could judge based on audience reactions and presentation.

When you grew up in Nell's church you ate what was put in front of you whether you liked it or not. And you'd best do it with a smile on your face. Nell tried small bits of all the dishes and picked the one that seemed to showcase the food best.

You won't get him to dance in your place.

All of these examples based on RL things my friends have had to do overseas. The students are welcome to pair up and tackle the activities, or mod them solo!

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Practical Diplomacy, Friday, January 11, 2019

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Yay, Activities!

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Talk to Anakin

OOC