[This arrangement for their discussion has, as Hakkai and Chikusa are about to discover, a fatal flaw built in. Complex talk and deeply layered, complicated emotional relationships would already be a bit challenging for Ken to grasp in the abstract. But in the context of having such a talk over dinner, a dinner in which Ken is literally watching their food cook in preparation for being allowed to eat it? He's barely even listening, much less understanding.
Tactical errors have been made.
He spends the thirty seconds or so he's able to bring himself to wait poking the meat around in the pan, getting it cooked with a decent amount of evenness - though to a questionable level of doneness - before he picks it up and stuffs it into his mouth. It's only after he's eaten it that he looks up, with only half-heard and half-remembered fragments of the conversation thus far.] Who's Gojyo, byon? [Not explaining the key players in this drama may have been another mistake.] And what's a youkai? [Ken is, after all, not native to Japan, and doesn't have much knowledge of Japanese folklore; he has no context for the word.
Trying to explain things to Ken and Chikusa at the same time is...an experience. It's like trying to explain a concept to a college student and an inattentive eight-year-old simultaneously.]
no subject
Tactical errors have been made.
He spends the thirty seconds or so he's able to bring himself to wait poking the meat around in the pan, getting it cooked with a decent amount of evenness - though to a questionable level of doneness - before he picks it up and stuffs it into his mouth. It's only after he's eaten it that he looks up, with only half-heard and half-remembered fragments of the conversation thus far.] Who's Gojyo, byon? [Not explaining the key players in this drama may have been another mistake.] And what's a youkai? [Ken is, after all, not native to Japan, and doesn't have much knowledge of Japanese folklore; he has no context for the word.
Trying to explain things to Ken and Chikusa at the same time is...an experience. It's like trying to explain a concept to a college student and an inattentive eight-year-old simultaneously.]