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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hitori Togusa Oh, Objection, there.
Hitori Togusa Your brother is brilliant when it comes to the right topics. You cannot be an idiot and shoot that well.

[Come on, let him pick on his brother without having to explain himself for it]

Nyardyn Mewzunia Surely you're not telling me that shooting well and intelligence have any sort of correlation with each other?
Nyardyn Mewzunia You're the one that chose Barbarian for him, after all.
Nyardyn Mewzunia He needs only to yell loudly and hit things with a large club.
Nyardyn Mewzunia Even a simpleton can manage that much.

[He is, of course, mostly joking. Mostly.]

Hitori Togusa Wait, you really don't think there's a correlation?

[Oh no, jackpot, Togusa is not letting this one go.]

Hitori Togusa No no no, we've hit on something far more interesting here. Have you ever gone to the shooting range before?
Hitori Togusa Surely Fynn's dragged you out there a time or two?

[Here we go.]

Nyardyn Mewzunia Fynn has tried, but unsuccessfully.
Nyardyn Mewzunia But let me stop you there, Togusa. Are you going to make the argument that my brother being able to shoot well /and/ his fluid intelligence run parallel to each other, rather than what is more simply attributed to superior hand-eye coordination?

Hitori Togusa Hand-eye coordination, at its basic physiological level, is correlated with intelligence. There's some brain neuronic common linkage there.
Hitori Togusa And especially if you've seen how he shoots, then yes. He's spent his time on tactical analysis, situational awareness, and shows a lot of intelligence and competence there.
Hitori Togusa He started younger, it's been a hell of a lot of work for me to even try to approach his level.

Nyardyn Mewzunia Then I think the issue is that we're referencing different sorts of intelligence.
Nyardyn Mewzunia For instance, I trust him to shoot well, and to take apart my car's engine and put it back together again, if the need arises.
Nyardyn Mewzunia I do /not/ trust him to participate in any sort of verbal repartee or debate, without it spiraling into disaster and repetition.

Nyardyn Mewzunia Be honest with me; would /you/?

[For a second, Togusa almost just follows him right into the trap. But, as his thoughts are often going these days, he is thinking right back to the shooting range, and the illegal gun hiding in his apartment, and Fynn's advice on the matter.]

Hitori Togusa I would.
Hitori Togusa Can he very specifically do your job? No. But that's why you're there and he's here. Can he keep his cool and think straight and even argue his perspective on something when the situation calls for it? Definitely. Which might be why he flies off the handle so often when it doesn't matter.

Nyardyn Mewzunia You would?

[There's a pause, because really, Togusa? You'd let Fynn take the proverbial stage when it comes to arguing about important matters on the fly? Acting reasonably, speaking rationally, empirically?

He wonders if something has happened recently to spawn such an opinion.]

Nyardyn Mewzunia Flying off the handle is not often considered a desirable trait, you realize.
Nyardyn Mewzunia Emotion can get in the way of his critical thinking; I've seen it happen more than once in the past.
Nyardyn Mewzunia Still, I think we're straying from the point. I mean to merely say that motor skills does not always an intelligent man make.

Hitori Togusa True about emotion versus critical thinking.
Hitori Togusa And I would only partially agree with your other point. For only slightly higher than average physical skills, individuals can get away with not having the intelligence to carry it out.
Hitori Togusa But the truly skilled fighters and shooters and even ball players out there are also highly intelligent.

[Ardyn is cognizant enough to keep to the argument at hand, despite how much he wants to say that no one pays a professional ballplayer for being intelligent. Practice, repetition, willpower. These were the true defining traits of such individuals.

Instead:]

Nyardyn Mewzunia Very well. I will concede to the other half of your point; though I should say it's more accurate to think of it as an indication rather than a guarantee.

[Besides, now he's curious.]

Nyardyn Mewzunia But more interestingly, I didn't realize you thought so highly of my little brother. I've never seen someone come to his stalwart defense so quickly.

Hitori Togusa I think highly of you both. I respect you both a lot. If you must know.
Hitori Togusa So weird that someone's sticking up for a colleague?

[Togusa pauses for a second and thinks of the other people in the Department and their level of interpersonal skills.]

Hitori Togusa Okay, so maybe not out of Detective Gabranth, but at least half the guys are driven out of respect for each other and the job.

Nyardyn Mewzunia To be so quick about it when the conversation was in the vein of a joke? A bit strange.
Nyardyn Mewzunia Or do you really think I believe Fynn to be an idiot, I wonder?

[Fynn has his faults, and Ardyn is quick to point them out; but at the same time, he's more than aware of his merits as well, though he's less inclined to inflate Fynn's ego by speaking of them.

Brother will be brothers, after all.

(Also, pointedly does not remark about Gabranth in any way, shape, or form.)]

[Okay, since we're doing brutal honesty hour here, Togusa will go right ahead.]

Hitori Togusa Uh, really? Yes. You're quick to call out idiocy whenever you see it, among your students or colleagues or anyone, really.
Hitori Togusa It should make sense that you treat your brother differently, but when you're making the same sorts of remarks about him?
Hitori Togusa Keeping in mind this is coming from an only child and I might Just Not Get It.

[lord, Togusa sounds like a student of his, thinking like that; but then again, he was one once, so maybe it isn't all that surprising.]

Nyardyn Mewzunia I call out idiocy when I see it, that's true; Fynn is not exempt from this. If anything, as his brother, I'm more liable to let him know.
Nyardyn Mewzunia But I'm not so blind to ignore merits or otherwise redeemable qualities when they're just as clear.

Nyardyn Mewzunia That being said, it's a two-way street. You should have heard some of the things he's called me over the years.
Nyardyn Mewzunia One learns to take it all with a grain of salt.

Hitori Togusa I suppose I get that.
Hitori Togusa Sakakura's a hothead, I'm a stick in the mud, but we only call it out because we care.

Hitori Togusa You like that with your friends, too, not just your brother?

Nyardyn Mewzunia Friends are usually granted more leeway than family.
Nyardyn Mewzunia But to answer your question honestly, I can be. Anyone who's truly my friend will understand my own brand of humor.

[Of slightly patronizing, sometimes criticizing humor, he means.]

Hitori Togusa I'll have to keep that in mind.

Nyardyn Mewzunia Do you ask out of disapproval? Or just trying to get a more accurate sketch of my character, Togusa?

Hitori Togusa Figuring out where you stand is interesting.
Hitori Togusa Like I said, I've got no room to talk, only child, all my family's back home.
Hitori Togusa It's a little different with me and Koutarou. More of a mutual-self-deprecation dynamic than seriously teasing each other.

Nyardyn Mewzunia Being an only child means there wasn't a younger sibling always pulling at your sleeve.
Nyardyn Mewzunia Or elder ones always talking down at you.

[But. He'll not go down that route on a public forum, so he steers in a different direction.]

Nyardyn Mewzunia Indulging in "mutual self-deprecation" takes humility; this trait isn't always the most prevalent in the Izunia family.

[Which, in a way, is a compliment for Togusa.]

Hitori Togusa I disagree; real humility isn't just a lowering of one's self, it's having an accurate understanding of yourself and your abilities.
Hitori Togusa There's no self-deception in you,
Ardyn.

[Wow, the use of his first name? It's noted, but not commented upon. (Not that he minds at all.)]

Nyardyn Mewzunia My, I may choose to take that as a compliment, you know.

Hitori Togusa You can try your best to look like you're proving me wrong. I know better.

[annoying flippancy turned up to 11]

Nyardyn Mewzunia Whatever you say, Togusa.
Nyardyn Mewzunia I'll not be one to argue the point with you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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