fandomhigh | Diplomacy, Monday, September 26, 2022

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diplomacy

Diplomacy, Monday, September 26, 2022

"Hopefully your weekends were not entirely stressful," Anakin said. "I had a very nice visit with my eldest son, so that can serve as proof that not all family relationships are terrible forever. Today we are going to learn the art of diplomatically setting boundaries."

Since this was Anakin, this should go well.

"The first rule is to not stab people."

Anakin.

He smiled. "I'm kidding. Sort of. Remember that 'no' is a complete sentence, but sometimes people follow up your no with giant guilt trips to escape personal culpability for making you uncomfortable. That's what we'll work on dealing with."

That sounded not fun at all! Enjoy, kids!

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Saying no.

Liberty Hazlett

Gray

Charlie Gale

Alara Kitan

How do you get someone to take the no gracefully?

Things had taken a sharp turn from bad to even worse somehow, yesterday, before everyone had left, once she finally made some time to talk to Just alone like he had asked ~~albeit entirely handwavey because ugh brain~~. And what he had to tell her had been so...absolutely unbelievable and upsetting that she almost wasn't sure she could do anything but curl up in her bed and cry for a week straight. Not even seeing her mother and Zo and Hope could make up for the news Just brought with him, although he'd hugged her and comforted her over it, it was clear that he supported it and agreed with it and thought it was a good idea.

And Libby was just...

...well, devastated, really, and it was the only thing she could think about, but she didn't exactly want anyone to know she was upset and so she tried just go back to her classes like nothing had happened, like nothing was wrong, like there wasn't a whole new dark cloud hanging over her shoulders right now with the weight of decision and guilt. And she tried to focus on the subject at hand, especially since, really, it was relevant, and it really was too bad that sometimes 'no' had to be more complicated than just 'no' and don't even get her started on guilt trips...

This was all terrible, and she wished she'd have just said 'no' to getting out of bed that morning...

Vi hadn't been around for Libby's morning argument with her bed, but there was a definitely vibe in the air, so she shifted closer. "Your friend was pretty cool," she said in an undertone.

Of all the little things that Libby was grateful for right now, actually, it was that Vi hadn't been around to see what a complete mess she'd been since talking to Just yesterday...

But, for now, she was trying to put on a brave face, so she met Vi's comment with a soft smile. "Thanks," she said. "I think so, too. Zo is...pretty awesome, actually."

And she desperately wished she could have stayed, and that Just hadn't completely ruined what little time they did have together while she was here.

Even if she hadn't had Steph to keep company, Vi had wanted to give Libby her space for the weekend, rather than risk bringing her down with her her own mixed feelings.

"It's good to have friends like that," she said quietly. "I'm glad you got the chance to see her."

Libby managed to pull up a faint smile at that, sorting through all the more...unpleasant things that had happened over the weekend, and just trying to focus on all the ones that almost made it all worth it: bouncing baby Hope on her knee and making her laugh, her mother brushing and braiding her hair, Zo belting out David Bowie karaoke on the stage at Caritas...

"Me, too," she said softly. "I've really missed having her around. And I know she was really excited to get to see this place, too..."

Given she'd recognised Vi right away, she'd figured Libby had been telling stories about the place. "Was it everything she expected?"

Gray--or, well, Sloth--was definitely picking up some stuff from Libby that he didn't normally get from her, in the 'should have stayed in bed' vein, and he was concerned about that, and her, but also, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't a little bit excited about getting to participate in one of those Real High School Experiences: passing notes.

Everything okay?

There. That wasn't, 'Hey, so I can sort of kind of read part of your thoughts sometimes and yours are worrying me.'

Well, even if he couldn't read them outright, they were still being broadcasted pretty broadly anyway.

To the point where she just sort of stared at the note that Gray had passed her for much, much longer than it should take to read two words scribbled on a piece of paper, but it got hard to read with tears swimming in your eyes as you tried to figure out how to respond.

She was tempted to tell him everything was fine, but she had enough guilt right now without having to add Lying to Gray to it.

So, finally, she wrote back, and sent it his way:

No. :( Not really.

I can't really talk about it, though.

Not yet, anyway. It was still a little too rough, too raw. She needed to try and process it more.

Gray scribbled back (sorry about his handwriting, Libby, but in his defense Roman was not even his second alphabet), OK, I'm not gonna push, even if she was now almost crying, great job, Gray, but if you change your mind you know where to find me. If I'm awake. And if I'm not awake we can take a nap about it. :)

Because if anyone knew that sometimes you just wanted/needed to shut off for a while, it was this guy.

And even though she felt like she was definitely on the brink of crying again, it was hard not to smile a little when she read Gray's response, and so Libby looked over at him so he could see that smile and she nodded, before writing back.

Thank you, Gray. If I do, and you're sleeping, then I'll just have to wait and have coffee ready for you when you wake up :)

Gray drew a heart on the note and wrote back, It'll be OK, whatever it is. I promise.

And if it wasn't Gray could stab things until it was. Wait. No. That wasn't how you solved human problems. (Unless stabbing things would solve Libby's problems...?)

Stabbing things might help solve at least a part of Libby's problem, but, if it didn't take care of all of it, it would probably just lead to different problems as a result.

Libby smiled a little more at Gray's next note, especially at the heart, and she was thinking of just leaving it at that, but, she felt compelled to send at least one more back, with a heart of her own, and a I might need to hold you to that promise.

Because it was really difficult to see how it could be, although today was turning out to help her feel like the chances were at least slim, which was better than not-at-all.

He was just gonna ask. I know Mr. Skywalker said no stabbing but that's just class, so, seriously, do I need to stab something? I totally can. He wouldn't be surprised if Libby didn't believe him. For some reason almost no one ever did. So he added a corollary offer of, Or I can make Ray make you food? Would food help?

There was certainly more comfort in food than in stabbing, but if he timed a stabbing well enough, it might give Libby something to do on her Thursday clinic shift that might distract her from her troubles, at least.

Or you could just make waffles. You seem to enjoy making waffles, and I do enjoy eating them.

Please don't stab anything on my behalf, though.

She almost didn't include that last part, but she felt oddly compelled to feeling like she needed to.

Waffles, got it, Gray agreed.

He might still get Raiden to make them.

He also refrained from making any promises about stabbings, but hopefully Libby wouldn't notice that part...

Charlie was tossing over a note as well.

I'm here if you want to talk. We can trade war stories.

Another note meant that Libby was at least bolstered by knowing at least she had some really good friends here, too...either that, or she was really terrible at hiding her terrible mood.

Both, though; it was really both, wasn't it?

The small smile she mustered when she read Charlie's was a little wry; it was hard to imagine her war stories would be quite as bad as hers, but she did know the last thing she felt like doing right now was talking about it...

Thank you :), she wrote back. I think I'm okay, though. It couldn't have been that bad, though. I thought your aunties were really nice! I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to introduce you to my friend Zo or Mama or the baby, though.

She did not feel the least bit bad about not introducing Charlie to Just. She didn't even want to think about what an additional disaster that could have been, especially if him meeting Kurt had been any indication!

They talked to Dean Skywalker about me. And interrogated Graham.

I'm sorry I didn't get to meet your family as well, but it was really crazy. You must have been happy to see your mom and your friend.

I wish we could have had more time. I've missed them both so much> :)

Libby added the smiley face as maybe sort of an encouragement to herself, a reminder. It didn't work very well, but it did work a little bit.

I hope everything is okay with you, though?

Here she was, so caught up in her own stuff, that she didn't even think that Charlie might have been having a difficult time from her visitors, too.

I'm okay. I'm used to them. Though I can barely look Dean Skywalker in the face. And poor Graham. It's all good though. They left pretty happy. For them.

Libby stole a glance over to Mr. Skywalker with a little bit of curiosity before she wrote back, hesitating a little about how much of her own visit she wanted to share.

At least there's that. And it's over now.

Another hesitation, but she did decide to add, before passing it over:

My brother tried to give Kurt a hard time, too, but Zo interjected and they just ended up fighting. Kurt was very understanding, though. I'm sure Graham would understand as well.

It was honestly kind of difficult to imagine Graham getting upset about anything, really.

Maybe if someone was mean to Triumph. She could probably see that.

Oh no! I'm sorry your brother was kind of a jerk, but good on Zo for defending him even if it did end up unpleasant. I'm glad Kurt understood.

She hesitated, then added. I did warn Graham beforehand. Probably should have warned you as well. Sorry.

Oh, no, it was fine! They were very lovely and I was really happy to have met them!

Libby managed to find a little bit of a faint smile as she wrote the next part:

They seemed very concerned that you would be nothing but trouble for me.

Too bad that Aunties weren't aware that Zo had already been there and done that!

I probably will be.

She had to admit it, but at least she knew she'd try to keep Libby out of trouble.

No stabbing!

Charlie did not have difficulty saying no, but she was also very good at slithering out of responsibility.

As people do.

Yay.

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Diplomacy, Monday, September 26, 2022

Sign in 9/26

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Listen to the lecture

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Try it out!

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Talk to Anakin

OOC