Governor Mabrius Gauge tried to remain as impassive and composed as possible when the frustrating call with the Larkinson Patriarch finally came to an end.
The talk had been a disaster. Despite the optimism and good grace he displayed during the actual talk, inside he knew this effort at reconciliation was doomed from the start.
The Friday Coalition had built an incredibly detailed personality profile of the individual known as Ves Larkinson.
While the man's erratic behavior and extremely unlikely successes could never be truly predicted, there were still plenty of data points to chart out his responses to different stimuli.
Using the model constructed by all of the data, it was possible to formulate a conversational strategy that combined all of the most favorable predictive outcomes. Following it should give a speaker the highest chance of attaining his goals of any negotiation.