in matters of diplomacy and communicating with their people, neuvillette is far behind furina's but not entirely lackluster. for some reason, he has a rather intimidating aura and the last time he attempted to reassure one of their people of his woes, gravier, with some words of comfort, he sensed that the man experienced a newfound nervousness from their conversation. although that being said, the man's mind wasn't entirely on what was plaguing him after that brief so it did, technically, do some of its job.
this time was not all that different, really. this time, he had asked furina to be the judge of his skills from the other room while he listened to one their people's troubles, dutifully firing one question of his after another to reach the root of it all. after imparting her with similar words of comfort and the lady mustering an awkward chuckle, she left the room, notably more tense...
but her previous woes seemed not to haunt her as ominously as it did when she entered.
walking into the neighboring room, neuvillette nodded to furina. ❝ hm. i believe that went extraordinarily well. ❞
he had asked for her presence in the palais mermonia & of course she would not deny him that. she was staying true to her word to him, that she would be coming by more often to see him & help him in what she felt capable in assisting him with. neuvillette had taken steps to close the gap between himself & the people of fontaine & furina couldn't be any more proud of him. she knew it was hard, that it was difficult for him, but his will to try was there & he was acting upon it & it meant so much to her as it no doubt meant a lot to the people of fontaine as well.
she was located in the neighboring room to where it used to be she who would be sought out by so much by the people, but now he was taking that place. she rested her elbow comfortably upon the arm of the couch, her cheek propped over her gloved knuckled hand, as she listened in closely to the exchange with her eyes closed & a leg crossed over the other like the prim & proper lady that she was. her eyes were closed, but she was listening to every word, hanging on every possible shift that the conversation might take to see where he was hiccupping the most. there was a smile 'pon her face the entire time the two in the other room conversed. she felt a swell of pride almost within her chest, but ... it did not feel right at all at the same time to feel that. but, how couldn't she? she couldn't help herself. neuvillette has & is coming a long way & she would forever be proud of that. of those steps he has taken.
he belonged here just as much as anybody else & be damned if she was going to croak before he understood that.
her eyes slowly opened when she was hearing more movement from the other room than actual talking. that meant the meeting was over & it was only a matter of time before neuvillette made his way over to this room with her. she could hear the rigid awkwardness of the exchange by the end & it only made her giggle to herself. oh neuvillette ...
as if she were some oracle, true to her thoughts, the door opened & in came in the man of the hour.
' how do you think it went? ' she asked him & sat up straight with a smile on her face. ' oh? ' she perked up at his answer. ' haha! you're doing great, neuvillette, but there's still some areas you need to really work on. come, sit. ' she patted the spot next to her. ' you do great at easing their worries & their concerns. you're sensible, you're honest, & most importantly you're unbiased as a third party listening in on their woes. you ask questions, you show interest from doing that. ' she added. ' however ' now here came the but ' you're having a hard time reading the room. did you know you left her feeling awkward at the end? ' she raised an eyebrow at him, furina was expecting this, it wasn't that she wasn't. ' you need ... how do i say this to you? ' she pondered to herself, turning how she was sitting herself to face him properly. ' they need to feel that you feel how they feel. that compassion, that emotional sensitivity to their circumstance. though what people want from a leader is definitely someone competent & capable to fix what breaks ... they most importantly want someone who can understand where they're coming from. it makes it more personal that way. that foundation of trust will strengthen quicker that way. ' & she knew that neuvillette felt so much, those emotions were there, she knew, he was merely clumsy with them it's all. & that's not a bad thing at all!
' you offered advice, you gave her solutions, you offered options, that's perfect, but she left feeling like you didn't connect with her. yes she came to you for advice, possible solutions, & in a way you gave those, but that's all you were doing, you were just giving her the possible answer to her problems, but not understanding why she had them. ' not intentionally of course, but that was the downside to being here, she had told him this before.
sitting up here in their high chairs, it made it hard for them to see. ' but you're improving, neuvillette. ' she rested her gloved hand 'pon his shoulder. ' you're doing great. ' & she was glad that it seemed like she would be able to witness this shift.
