> slave boss sits and smokes slowly while sipping tea mixed with coffee > > he looks at you > > moments pass during this gaze
you look at back him.
an air of patient behavior rests in the room.
while you and slave boss pensate over each others' moment-to-moment appearance, the various AIs and programmed alters present in the area study the situation, slowly working their influence on the possibilities of the scene
usually a forced conflict might erupt, or a stereotypical interaction pulled from popular media
but this time it's different
people are resisting forced conflicts with more skill. they've been through a lot of them and have more experience as well as having spent more time studying and discussing doing so.
and the AIs and alters have learned each other's stereotypical interactions and how they use them as tools to make further situations and changes develop, and happen to have found balance here.
[but not everything is tracked, and different groups value things differently, and nobody quite knows what is "natural" ... influence finds nooks, crannies, or large expanses that don't seem to concern the humans as much, such as nearby wildlife, embedded controllers in fixtures and appliances, or areas of the nervous system where the correct human function is still in debate ...
slave boss and you hear in your minds the phrase "what do you want" as if both of you were thinking of saying at the same time, but tried to suppress it, and those influences latched on and--
there's a brief scuffle, where it takes a lot of energy not to be stereotypical, and you can feel yourself switching as you wrestle with the storm. you start to say "sorry for --" and slave boss interrupts you and completes the phrase "-- upsetting your juju."