Poem: Manners

[shiori_makiba]

Poem: Manners

by shiori_makiba / Ashley Weyer

Word Count: 576 words in 98 lines


Part of the Berettaflies thread of Polychrome Heroics. Inspired by a prompt from thnidu during the July 2016 Thank Muse It's Friday session.

Warning: Reference to soup bigotry

“Manners”

Sora Inoue, formerly Takahashi,

was a polite person.

Everyone said so and had said so

from her earliest memories.

She had had her brat phrases

as a child, a teenager, and young adult

just like everyone.

But as her mother had jokingly

said numerous times,

Sora had been a courteous brat.

To her, it just made sense

to be courteous to others.

It was impossible to go through life

without interacting with other people.

Good manners usually helped make

that interaction go as smoothly as possible.

It did not always go pleasantly.

Because people could be extremely hostile to each other

while exercising perfect manners.

One of the Grandmothers

in her neighborhood as a child

could cut anyone down to size

without a single breach of manners.

Not that she often had to do so.

Generally a polite suggestion

spoken softly to the person

in private was enough.

And even most of her public rebukes

allowed the offender to keep his or her face.

But to look at her,

you'd never guess that little woman,

with her gentle face and white hair,

could with a few well-chosen words

and perfect courtesy strip the skin

off of you.

Like most of the children,

Sora had been both frightened

and in awe of that woman.

But she also wanted to be like her.

For Sora, here was a living embodiment

of that longed for ideal.

Soft and gentle appearance with

a core of steel-hard determination and strength.

The Yamato Nadeshiko.

The road toward that goal was a long one.

And unending because life's choices

and challenges seldom got easier.

But also because in addition to her brat moments,

Sora had to master her own fiery temper.

She felt the effort was well-worth the reward.

Especially after she became a wife and mother.

She loved her husband and children

but they could test her patience

like no other.

Keiichi who could match her in determination.

Keisuke who had unfortunately inherited her temper

along with a equally powerful sense of right and wrong.

Mai who had inherited her father's enthusiasm and curiosity

but hadn't yet learned to temper either with caution.

Tsubasa who would hide herself

behind walls of silence

when speaking might help.

Tsubasa, the child she had so very nearly lost.

Tsubasa the child that so many of their family

back home had decided to treat

as through she had died.

For something as petty as

surviving and developing superpowers.

Sora felt the fury rise again.

Acknowledged it and

consoled herself to have patience.

The time will come to express

exactly what she thought about that cruelty.

But it was the kind of expression

that was best done in person.

And now wasn't a good time

for her to fly across the world.

And she needed to get a

better grip on her temper.

It won't do to let rage

dull her verbal knife.

They could wait.

Right now, her husband and children needed her.

She had a business to run

and countless other things to do

that were far more important.

She finished writing the last of the cards,

checked to made sure each had their gift certificate

to the family shop.

Satisfied that all was present and accounted for,

Sora Inoue headed toward the SPOON base.

She had some soups to thank

for their help and their courtesy.

It was only polite and

Sora had always had

excellent manners.

She just hoped that

they liked sweets.

Notes:

Sora Inoue is the mother of Tsubasa Inoue, one of the victims and new soups spawned by the Berettaflies incident. She was born in Japan and immigrated to the United States as a young adult. Along with her husband Keiichi Inoue, Sora owns and runs Nadeshiko Sweet, a store selling and serving Japanese sweets and deserts, including wagashi, along with a variety of teas.

Yamato Nadeshiko is the Japanese term for the personification of ideal Japanese womanhood.

The nadeshiko is a flower, a delicate frilled pink carnation but it is tougher than it looks because it can grow at high altitude.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Hmm... I suspect Ashley might have a visitor soon then.. that's going to be interesting. I wonder what sorts of sweets?

[shiori_makiba]

Ashley is on her list of people to see. :)

I was thinking it was probably similar to the sampler from Nadeshiko Sweet since Sora knows that most Americans aren't familiar with stuff like sweetened anko (azuki bean paste) or mochi (a rice cake made from pounded short-grain rice).

I know dango (sweet dumplings made from rice flour) and daifuku (glutinous rice cake stuffed with sweet filling, most commonly anko) are in the sampler.

Package also contains arare and senbei both of which are rice crackers which have sweet and savory varieties.

[siliconshaman]

Well, Ashley's cravings for spicy food are tailing off, and given the amount of extra energy she's burning to produce toxins, I should think she has sugar and carbohydrate cravings... [ain't science wonderful, working out what your character wants to eat due to biochem!] So that's probably going to be well received.

Hmm... tempted to write their meeting, but I really don't know about your character enough to do her justice... are you going to write any more from her perspective? Or do you want to borrow Ashley at some point. [which would be ok.] Just given Ashley's weapons grade goth-snark... well, Ashley's reaction might be "Teach me Senpai!"

[shiori_makiba]

I am planning to write more from Sora's POV, mostly her visiting her daughter and the other members of the Hive with the gift and thank yous. She also wants to meet them.

. . . and torn because I do want to borrow Ashley at some point (she's such a fun character - and I just love snark) and on the other hand, it might work better for me to do the meeting from Sora's POV and you do it from Ashley's.

Ashley's reaction might be "Teach me Senpai!"

She couldn't help it. She laughed.

"Sensei, if I am to be your teacher." Sora corrected and smiled. "But if you really wish to learn to make these, I am willing to teach you."

"Seriously?"

"Of course." She won't have offered otherwise.

[siliconshaman]

Well, I was more thinking of the 'polite but cutting' remarks... but yeah, the cakes too! Ashley is finding she enjoys cooking, when she isn't making Meat&potatoes stuff every night for her father.

Also, that sounds like a plan!

[shiori_makiba]

Oh Sora can do the 'polite but cutting' remarks and do them well.

She just saves them for {A} people who need to be cut down to size, and {B} a snark-off with someone who knows they are both being snarky.

Ashley hasn't done anything to deserve A but Sora will probably test the waters of seeing if Ashley can and/or will play along for B.

I'm glad she likes the cooking. It probably helps with the . . . everything . . to have something else to concentrate on sometimes. Especially when it is new stuff.

[thnidu]

Ha! I had to look that up:

In Japan, senpai (先輩) is an upperclassman, someone of a higher age, or senior and kōhai (後輩) is a protégé or junior. The mentor system is found at all levels of education, and in sports clubs, businesses, and informal or social organizations.

[siliconshaman]

It's also an internet meme... a reaction with connotations of 'I'm not worthy' and 'I bow before your awesomeness'.

[shiori_makiba]

That is it.

And the snark part of my brain wants to add a moment before the correction and cooking offer with something snarky. Polite but snarky.

[shiori_makiba]

*nods*

Makes a note to remember to explain both the meme and what senpai means in the footnotes.

Senpai could also be used for Sora since the lessons are informal. I was just thinking that since her children have been making these treats for longer, technically they are Ashley's senpai.

[alatefeline]

Awesome!

[shiori_makiba]

Thank you!

[mdlbear]

Sweet bean paste wrapped in mochi is one of my particular favorites. (I used to work for a Japanese company -- the treats visiting coworkers brought from Japan were wonderful.)

[shiori_makiba]

Cool!