Question Meme

[playfreebird]

Neji just passed 10,000 comments. Clearly this is a sign I'm allowed to question meme again.

Ask me questions! Then I ask you questions! We talk.

Comments

[fraternalorders]

Anything new relationship-wise...?

[playfreebird]

Actually, since the last time... yes. Neji's starting to feel a little more comfortable with Itachi. I wouldn't say friendly, but particularly since the skills game I think he's starting to feel that Itachi... doesn't... dislike him? Or hold being on Iolite against him so much. That makes it significantly easier to relax talking to him.

I guess it's not a huge shift. He doesn't feel closer, really. But when he's a little more relaxed, and it's easier for him to appreciate Itachi as a person when he's not tense and thinking that Itachi doesn't like him because he doesn't like ponies.

Reverse?

[fraternalorders]

It's sort of similar to Neji. He doesn't feel closer to him, but he's a bit more comfortable and less inclined to be irritable at him because of negative associations. Though things could get awkward again if/when Sasuke tells Itachi about the execution order. Not that he'd consider Neji a direct threat to Sasuke in Aather so much as it's just.....awkward.

If Hinata ended up in Aather what team would Neji want to see her on?

[playfreebird]

Oh dear god. A team that's absolutely not like Iolite. She can be on Coral. They can do her nails... 8(

Or, well, Neji doesn't know Coral well enough to say that, but I don't know that there's a team he'd want her on per se. He'd have a list of teams he didn't want her on, though. Iolite, Carnelian, Emerald... luckily already enninja'd teams. So safe on that account. He also wouldn't want her on Ruby. Or Turquoise (though again, already ninja'd) considering how they did with Sakura, and how overwhelmed she'd be with them.

He'd probably pick Tiger's Eye since he knows them alrightish, would expect them to take care of them, and trusts them not to do stupid or self-destructive things for the most part.

How would Itachi react if Kisame showed up?

[medpacksapunch]

...What did we not talk about in my question meme...

[playfreebird]

...

Good question. :|a

[medpacksapunch]

...Neji and Sakura get trapped in a terrible fiction trope, which one are we trapped in?

[playfreebird]

...Sakura gives up on Sasuke and gets a new personality and boyfriend!

idk badfic.

What fairy tale princess is Sakura?

[deadofknight]

Any new relationship developments?

[playfreebird]

Nothing major, really. Though in this recent thread, Neji kind of wondered what would have happened if he'd been caught with Ace when the mistletoe was around.

Probably less unpleasant than Sasuke. 8(a

reverse?

[deadofknight]

Hmm... No big changes, I think? Ace is getting a bit more comfortable and a little less hyper-aware of not letting slip that he is a terrible person. Neji's reaction to his choice to give up compassion after that one Green Knight game helped with that a lot. There've been a couple threads in the past while where Ace has started to...relate to Neji a little more? I'm not sure if that's the best way to put it, but it's a big deal for Ace because he usually has a hard time really getting other people's emotions and thought processes and tends to either ignore what he doesn't get or make a concentrated effort to understand and empathize.

That one thread on the beach I think where he and Neji talked about feeling unhappy about the power cap/lacking skills was a moment where Ace totally understood Neji's feelings without having to put in a lot of effort. It's not something he's used to having happen or experiencing so it was super weird for him but...not bad...? It was effortless in a way he doesn't remember happening anywhere else. Mostly it sort of cemented for Ace that Neji's friendship is something he wants to hold on to.

What Neji's heart might look like if you were to run one for him?

[playfreebird]

I have joked that if I ever run a heart game with Neji, it would be like secretly an angry birds mini game. Full of birds! You can throw them at obstacles to break things! (Or possibly make friends with them.)

That worked better before he remembered his fight with Naruto.

More seriously, I think most of the easily accessed portions of Neji's heart would seem kind of unlived in. He's been in Aather long enough that on some level he's prepared for a heart game, and also I think he naturally observes a little distance/neutrality with people. So people would come into his heart, and probably find something along the lines of what we see of the Hyuuga house, but very unused. Sort of hotel-like, almost. Moving further in, that would change some. Probably the dojo where we see him with his father and uncle and Hinata after he gets his seal would feature in there somewhere.

...

idk, angry birds. :|

Reverse?

[fallinflames]

:|a I'm slacking on my comment count.

State of the Neji?

[playfreebird]

Neji is... okay. No really big dynamic changes in him lately. He's kind of settling and he's established a certain comfort zone. Some of his CR is moving into weird places, but not in ways that are upsetting him. He's pretty stable.

He's less driven to win than he was, I guess, though he still does want to. I think some of it is because the games feel so... non-competitive to him at times.

Anything you want to know specifically?

[fallinflames]

Hm...not particularly. How's he doing with the ninjas lately?

[playfreebird]

Ah, well, as I said to Itachi, better with Stealth.

Good with Sakura, though that's all awkwards at the moment because of the kissing. Still, they've been trending in a friendly, respectful direction. Neji does feel a little less... hm. He sees Sakura as a little less capable than she was because of the skill game--she made some mistakes in the skills she accepted and how she dealt with them. It's made him feel that he has to be more responsible for her in their relationship. Buuuut... overall, they're good.

Sasuke is MORE AWKWARD. They kissed, and Neji revealed some stuff he was keeping quiet. On the other hand, they more or less agreed to fight in the future. So Neji's interested in that.

How's Spitfire doing?

[sticksofthejedi]

How horrible is our relationship now, Neji? XD

[playfreebird]

Less horrible than Jaina might think. But jfc, can Jaina be frustrating.

The last couple of threads in particular have convinced Neji that Jaina is a significant part of her own problem. It's also made him reflect on how Iolite is as a team a bit. She's just seemed both so defeatist (yes, Neji is judging someone for being defeatist) and so... set on wanting things a certain way. Neji's not unaware of Hibari, or Kyouko, or Vincent's flaws. And oh, do they have them. But he's just at this point where he's like... these people aren't going to change, and they're especially not going to change the way Jaina's gone about it.

If Neji was someone else, he'd be like. Okay. I'm sorry to tell you this. You have a team made up of cats. Some of them are friendlier than others. Some of them are feral. Herding them will only lead to frustration and scratches. You just have to deal with them how they are.

...That's not in Nejiese, but that's his IC reaction more or less.

Annnnnnd it's reinforced by the fact that Jaina doesn't seem willing to deal with Neji as an equal. He knows he's younger, but he finds her saying she wants to help him develop (and the fact he said something similar about Sakaya) pretty condescending. He looks at his memories, and sees Kakashi and Gai in the Gaara rescue arc treating him in a way he perceives as more equal and respectful than Jaina does when Gai actually was his sensei, and it's frustrating, and it undermines her point. He feels like she's trying to dictate the terms of their relationship and since Neji is Iolite, his reaction to that is more or less like... "We'll I'm not gonna. I'mma have a sandwich."

THAT SAID... it's a lot of words to say "you're giving me a headache," he doesn't really hate or resent her.

Reverse?

[sticksofthejedi]

One of the things that is a problem on Jaina's side is that...despite being one of the leading characters of a young adult series in which the authors tried to treat their young characters mostly as adults, complete with lightsaber dismemberments, biological superweapons, and so on...Jaina then goes on to go through a phase of "I'm too young for this stuff but circumstances necessitate it" and finally as an adult joins the rest of the older characters in an "anyone who hasn't come of age is supposed to be in training, face a lower challenge rating, and generally needs to be guided" attitude. This is something that is secretly a problem for Jaina and MOST CHARACTERS BECAUSE ANIME AND MANGA. It just has not really been directly addressed since Yellow left.

What it comes down to is Jaina tries to be as unoffensive as possible about it because she GETS IT, it's not fun to be a teenager and have someone tell you that you don't have as much experience/still have some growing up to do. There comes a time, however, when there's trying not to step on people's toes, and there's admitting well, yes, many such as Neji are half her age and should still be developing. From the perspective of a 38-year-old with a culture that actually treats teens as developing and in need of guidance, along with an interest in moral issues, Iolite is worringly Lord of the Flies.

Jaina figured Neji was logical enough that he'd understand when she said she wasn't trying to be mean. She's...kind of disappointed how their conversation went, along with that answer of "no I really am just that willing to stand aside and let things be the way they are, regardless of what you or I want."

But she does take some comfort in the fact that he at least seemed to engage in conversation beyond brief, evasive answers. Since that IS the main thing she'd been prodding him about since hearing about his complaint regarding someone deciding it would be okay to sacrifice his life without specifically consulting him.

What's Neji's current day in the life?

[playfreebird]

I wouldn't say he thought Jaina was being mean. More like stubborn.

But yes, it's understandable that someone from a more realistic canon in terms of development would think that way. Still.

Neji doesn't have a perfectly set schedule, especially since games and events and what have you pop up at random. As a rule, he's at Iolite at dawn and dusk. He sleeps at some point during the night, and doesn't really fuss waking up early since dawn is s bust anyway. At some points during the day he'll train and he'll run/jog. He'll also probably do some walking around. He usually bathes in the evening. Otherwise, killing time.

How is Jaina killing time? Projects?

[fraternaldevotion]

Anything new? I'm curious.

[playfreebird]

I'd say there's more tension than there was. I spent like five minutes debating what word to use there, because it's not precisely awkward, and it's not dislike--he doesn't really dislike Sasuke--and it's not really anxiety because Neji doesn't have a lot of anxiousness in him. In the end, though, it is kind of uncomfortable and tense dealing with Sasuke, and it makes Neji all spiky and defensive, and prone to being a dick.

Which you might have noticed after the whole kissing thread.

But it's like their recent conversation in particular put more energy into the relationship without really giving it anywhere to go.

Reverse?

[fraternaldevotion]

More or less the same. The thing with Neji is that there's no emotional involvement besides the fact they come from the same village and Sasuke doesn't really remember that much about him in the fist place. As a person, Sasuke can see that Neji is more reasonable and logical and that's something he can respect so he doesn't dislike him either. The problem here is that there's no much beyond that because they aren't close at all, but Sasuke sort of said that about them fighting/sparring/anything mostly because . . . it wasn't something he wanted to say or admit, but he wanted it because he's curious about Neji even if he doesn't want to get close to him. Kissing wasn't awkward with Neji mostly because of the lack of emotional investment, but yeah, there's definitely tension there but that not necessarily bad? It's had to explain.

What would Neji do if Gai showed up?

[sirenes]

NEJIII I forget if you've ever done this for me

[playfreebird]

I don't think so!

Neji likes Sayaka. Even if I get dyslexic on typing her name. I don't know that it's a super complicated relationship. She's been friendly with him without overwhelming him or anything, so she's pretty easy to talk to for him. He has some warm and fuzzies for her. idk.

Neji and his cute little girlfriends.

Reverse?