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forbarrayar2017-03-04 05:33 am
barrayarmods) wrote in forbarrayar2017-03-04 05:33 am
[ march i log: we need medicine ]
Who: Everyone
What: New arrivals, desperate times, whispers down the hall.
When: March 1st - 18th
Where: Barrayaran camp / Cetagandan base
Warnings: TBD
Quick links:
Riverfall
Barrayar: Plague / Camp / Missions
Cetaganda: Plague / Base / Missions
welcome to barrayar.
It's the dark of night when you come to in the foothills. Snow on the ground, chill winter wind whistling -- in fact, it's dangerously cold, and all you have is the clothes on your back.. A steep mountain range towers just ahead, its peaks illuminated by the light of two moons. Whatever you last remember, it isn't how you got here, and you feel oddly jetlagged, slightly queasy.
And you're not alone. There are a few other people close by, all looking equally lost and confused. But before any of you have a chance to figure out what's going on, the soldiers arrive. There's a war on, they say, and you unlucky bastards have just been dropped right smack in the middle of it.
With March comes some relief. The first few days to a week are still bitterly, dangerously cold, but the weather starts to pick up gradually over the course of the next couple of months. It only gets barely above freezing, but after the last month, it might as well be a summer's day.
riverfall
The party last month definitely boosted morale, and certainly brought the outsiders closer to the villagers. They're noticeably friendlier toward the outsiders afterward, although they still give the exotics and their accompanying ghem soldiers the evil eye.
Given the village's covert assistance with the war effort and the fact that the Cetagandans found enough data to include the village in its regular patrols, Riverfall has become sort of a middle ground between the two sides. Coinciding visits don't happen every day, but they can provide opportunities for the two factions to secretly meet. Of course, this always carries a risk…best be sure not to be caught by either side's soldiers. Thanks to Negri, the Barrayarans roughly know the patrol schedule.
barrayar
Temperatures are still pretty low by the time March rolls around, and the first week is considerably cold, but it's steadily getting warmer as the month goes on. By the second week, it's just warm enough to start taking baths again -- and boy is there ever a queue.
On the 2nd, a small troop of soldiers arrives, led by Prince Xav Vorbarra, Olivia and Sonia's father, and Piotr's aide-de-camp Captain Ezar Vorbarra, a distant cousin of theirs. They bring with them a load of relief supplies fom Beta Colony, improving not only their food and medicine situation, but some to pass on back to the Riverfall villagers in return for their help. Anyone lurking around at night might see Ezar talking to Negri from time to time as well, and Sonia seems to be getting up to some kind of mischief where Ezar is concerned.
Prince Xav gives Piotr a very helpful tipoff -- there's a Betan biochemist waiting in the occupied district capital, Vorkosigan Vashnoi, to rendezvous with him on his way back off Barrayar. Xav can't stay long; he needs to find another way off-planet, and Doctor Micah Niadem has been laying low in Vorkosigan Vashnoi, but the risk of their presence being detected grows with every day. It may be easier and safer to smuggle them back to the camp than try to get them back off-planet for now -- and besides, their expertise in astrophysics might prove useful. But Xav hasn't yet been able to make contact through the soldiers occupying the city, so Piotr sends his own scouts.
Piotr, with Xav and Ezar as advisors, is trying to come to a decision about what to do about the Cetagandans' wormhole project. There's no telling what the Cetagandans really intend to do with the wormhole device, but disrupting or destroying their project would mean no way home for the outsiders, and…Piotr no longer feels that to be the most honorable option. That, and the idea of this technology in Cetagandan hands does them no favors. But their intelligence on the project is limited -- Byerly will prove to be a useful intelligent asset, certainly, but Piotr is looking for more informants. Any outsiders willing and able to make connections with any exotics sympathetic to the cause would certainly be appreciated by the General.
plague
Early in the month, some of the villagers begin to get sick -- it looks just like a particularly nasty cold at first. It quickly worsens and spreads to the camp, and by the 7th it is evident there is an outbreak of the Barrayaran flu, an influenza variant that has mutated over the last several centuries. Barrayarans have built up antibodies against most strains, but this is a particularly virulent strain, and with a population that has neither vaccines nor modern medicine, it can be fatal. The recent cold snap and limited food haven't exactly fortified anyone's immune systems, either, and in the first half of the month, about half the population of the village and camp come down with the flu at some point.
Although the virus isn't spreading much more quickly than your average flu, it's still a nasty infection, and the symptoms are difficult to effectively treat without proper equipment of facilities. Some of the relief supplies brought by Prince Xav include surgical masks and gloves for the people working triage to protect them from the airborne illness as much as possible. The supplies also include some analgesics and synergine, but hardly enough to go around. Fevers, aches and chills, coughing, vomiting -- they treat them with what they have once they run out of relief supplies. And for the most part, those with the flu manage to pull through and recover -- but if the flu turns to pneumonia, there's almost nothing they can do at that point. Thanks to the tireless efforts of villagers, soldiers, and some outsiders, the first half of the month sees only a 10% mortality rate between the village and the camp, resulting in only 23 influenza-related deaths.
Sonia is among the first to get sick, but she sweats it out in five days or so and manages a full recovery. Olivia, on the other hand, falls much more seriously ill. Piotr takes great care not to get sick; the camp is already incapacitated as it is.
camp
Camp morale is still buckling under the weight of crisis after crisis, but the arrival of Prince Xav and the improving weather have done a lot to lighten the mood. Xav and Ezar coordiate to distribute the relief supplies even as the flu ravages the camp and village, never a dull moment . Olivia and Sonia haven't seen their father Xav in over two years, and it's a long-overdue family reunion. Piotr welcomes the return of his friend and aide-de-camp Ezar, and Sonia seems to be getting into some kind of mischief with her cousin. And in a quiet moment here and there, Ezar can be seen talking to Negri.
By the morning of the 1st, Byerly Vorrutyer will have abruptly disappeared from camp.
Piotr is trying to keep military operations running as much as he can while half the camp tends to the sick or fall sick themselves. They'd found the traitors, yes, but Piotr's anger is far from satisfied. The food shortage had derailed their power supply strategy, and it's only further pushed back by this current crisis, so large operations are off the table. But Piotr has never underestimated the value of psychological warfare in this war. He has a few conveniently available corpses for hacking up and planting in the Cetagandan base just to shake things up a little, and anyone who can lift a sword without coughing is qualified. Xav does not approve.
missions
The medical assistance provided by the outsiders doesn't go unappreciated, nor without effect. Not every day is a success, but they manage to keep the mortality rate relatively low.
The infiltration missions to plant the severed body parts mostly go according to plan, although Lakshmi and Nash run afoul of some guards. Between the outsiders and other Barrayaran squads, they manage to plant several body parts, and in doing so, inadvertently spread the Barrayaran flu to the Cetagandans.
The outsiders scouting out Vorkosigan Vashnoi manage to stay undetected by Cetagandan soldiers, although they run into exotics on the other side. They manage to get some information about Micah's location, but very little…thankfully, Byerly passes on to Miles much more specific information the exotics were able to obtain.
Here are the unabridged mission results.
cetaganda
The snow piled up around the base starts to gradually melt over the course of the month as temperatures rise. The new wave of exotics are processed and very gently prodded like every group has been, but they've been treated with the same level of civility. The Cetagandans are generally exceedingly polite, but they are becoming a little less patient with the exotics after the recent bouts of violence and escapism.
Despite the Barrayaran flu sweeping the base, military operations must carry on. Zahal might have lost his informants in the Barrayaran camp, but he knows they've been struggling, and wants to implement some more aggressive tactics to hit them while they're down -- and more than that, the dead body parts of his own soldiers scattered around the base have had their intended effect, rattling and aggravating the ghem-General -- even more so when they realize that this was the means by which the plague spread to the base. Whatever organized strategy Zahal starts to pull together is immediately disrupted by the rapid spread of the virus through the base. With Cetagandan soldiers dropping like flies, military operations all but come to a halt on the base.
However, Cetagandan intelligence gets wind of a Barrayar-allied astrophysicist from Beta Colony, a planet renowned for its cutting-edge technological advances, particularly in the field of wormhole science; they may be able to solve some of the pieces of the puzzle. The Betan scientist is apparently hiding out in Vorkosigan Vashnoi, the capital city of the city. The virus has spread there too; Barrayarans and Cetagandans alike are facing the outbreak, although the native population seems to be faring a bit better. The Cetagandans need help bringing medical supplies, so while they're at it, the ghem-General dispatches a few teams to try and sniff out the scientist's location. Meanwhile, in the R&D labs, some of the exotics who have been promoted to lab assistant are helping the Cetagandans to make some advancements, and they're finally let in on some more details about the project.
plague
A few days into the month, some of the soldiers start to show cold-like symptoms -- and then the outbreak of Barrayaran influenza spreads rapidly throughout the base. Unlike the Barrayarans, the Cetagandans have no antibodies for this strain, and even their advanced immune systems cannot defend them against a totally new pathogen. They are infected even more quickly than the Barrayarans and their symptoms escalate rapidly as well, resulting in an alarming mortality rate. Cetagandan soldiers are falling sick left and right. Triage starts in the medbay, but they have to quarantine off another wing of the building just to make room for the rapidly growing population of infected ghem. The airborne virus is spreading through the base at an alarming speed -- save for Byerly, no one on base has ever been exposed to it. The symptoms are severe and while the Cetagandans have plenty of equipment, they have neither an antiviral nor a vaccine for the Barrayaran flu. High fever, vomiting, dehydration, respiratory and sinus problems run rampant, and though they have plenty in the way of synergine and analgesics, the Barrayaran flu quickly leads to pneumonia in most Cetagandan patients, and with their immune systems so completely unprepared, most patients with pneumonia die within 24 to 48 hours. The triage assistants are, at least, provided with surgical masks and gloves and antibacterial gel by the bucket load to protect them from the airborne illness as much as possible. By mid-month, nearly two thirds of the base has been infected.
The medical staff scrambles to put up a quarantine while also working on a vaccine for the uninfected population on the base. Byerly, being the only person on base who has ever been exposed to the Barrayaran flu, offers a blood sample -- potentially containing antibodies to this strain. Some of the Cetagandans' testing methods are a little ethically questionable, but they're trying to work fast. They're able to develop a working vaccine with a projected effectiveness of 70%.
Toward the middle of the month, Amai catches the flu and is laid low for about a week. Diya and Zahal take great care not to catch it -- Diya seems particularly absent lately.
base
Paranoia of infection hovers over the entire base, but some of the Cetagandans are concerned with another upcoming event: the arrival of the Handmaiden of the Star Crèche. What the Handmaiden of the Star Crèche actually is or does seems to be rather vague to the exotics -- she seems to play some role in genetic politics -- but it's known that she's haut, like Diya. The Cetagandans are scrambling to prepare for her arrival with considerable worry about resolving the flu epidemic before she touches down. The Cetagandans are about as close to cultural panic as they get right now. Diya received personal notice from the Handmaiden of the Star Crèche herself.
Starting on the 1st, Byerly Vorrutyer joins the exotic ranks as an undercover agent, looking not only for information but to potentially recruit exotics sympathetic to the Barrayaran cause.
Meanwhile in the labs, the Cetagandans have been letting the exotics get a little more hands-on with their research. Natasha, York and Symmetra have risen a bit in the ranks and are brought in on more specific projects. The ghem ladies are, surprisingly, now looking for volunteers to work in the gene labs too -- personnel shortage, of course.
missions
Even though a few of their own fall prey to the illness, the exotics' medical assistance does wind up being quite helpful, particularly with development of the vaccine. Meanwhile, eavesdroppers are doing their usual business and digging deep in places they shouldn't -- particularly where Amai and Diya are concerned.
The exotics that accompany the Cetagandans to Vorkosigan Vashnoi manage to stay undetected by Barrayaran soldiers, although they run into exotics on the other side. They are able to get some very detailed information about Micah's location, which Byerly passes back to the Barrayarans via Miles.
Here are the unabridged mission results.
Note: Negri and Zahal are available for threads by request only. Please hit up Madi or Ammay respectively for you want threads with either of those NPCs. You can also request a thread with Village Speaker Yakiv Gura if you want, in which case hit up Madi.
What: New arrivals, desperate times, whispers down the hall.
When: March 1st - 18th
Where: Barrayaran camp / Cetagandan base
Warnings: TBD
Riverfall
Barrayar: Plague / Camp / Missions
Cetaganda: Plague / Base / Missions
welcome to barrayar.
It's the dark of night when you come to in the foothills. Snow on the ground, chill winter wind whistling -- in fact, it's dangerously cold, and all you have is the clothes on your back.. A steep mountain range towers just ahead, its peaks illuminated by the light of two moons. Whatever you last remember, it isn't how you got here, and you feel oddly jetlagged, slightly queasy.
And you're not alone. There are a few other people close by, all looking equally lost and confused. But before any of you have a chance to figure out what's going on, the soldiers arrive. There's a war on, they say, and you unlucky bastards have just been dropped right smack in the middle of it.
With March comes some relief. The first few days to a week are still bitterly, dangerously cold, but the weather starts to pick up gradually over the course of the next couple of months. It only gets barely above freezing, but after the last month, it might as well be a summer's day.
riverfall
The party last month definitely boosted morale, and certainly brought the outsiders closer to the villagers. They're noticeably friendlier toward the outsiders afterward, although they still give the exotics and their accompanying ghem soldiers the evil eye.
Given the village's covert assistance with the war effort and the fact that the Cetagandans found enough data to include the village in its regular patrols, Riverfall has become sort of a middle ground between the two sides. Coinciding visits don't happen every day, but they can provide opportunities for the two factions to secretly meet. Of course, this always carries a risk…best be sure not to be caught by either side's soldiers. Thanks to Negri, the Barrayarans roughly know the patrol schedule.
barrayar
Temperatures are still pretty low by the time March rolls around, and the first week is considerably cold, but it's steadily getting warmer as the month goes on. By the second week, it's just warm enough to start taking baths again -- and boy is there ever a queue.
On the 2nd, a small troop of soldiers arrives, led by Prince Xav Vorbarra, Olivia and Sonia's father, and Piotr's aide-de-camp Captain Ezar Vorbarra, a distant cousin of theirs. They bring with them a load of relief supplies fom Beta Colony, improving not only their food and medicine situation, but some to pass on back to the Riverfall villagers in return for their help. Anyone lurking around at night might see Ezar talking to Negri from time to time as well, and Sonia seems to be getting up to some kind of mischief where Ezar is concerned.
Prince Xav gives Piotr a very helpful tipoff -- there's a Betan biochemist waiting in the occupied district capital, Vorkosigan Vashnoi, to rendezvous with him on his way back off Barrayar. Xav can't stay long; he needs to find another way off-planet, and Doctor Micah Niadem has been laying low in Vorkosigan Vashnoi, but the risk of their presence being detected grows with every day. It may be easier and safer to smuggle them back to the camp than try to get them back off-planet for now -- and besides, their expertise in astrophysics might prove useful. But Xav hasn't yet been able to make contact through the soldiers occupying the city, so Piotr sends his own scouts.
Piotr, with Xav and Ezar as advisors, is trying to come to a decision about what to do about the Cetagandans' wormhole project. There's no telling what the Cetagandans really intend to do with the wormhole device, but disrupting or destroying their project would mean no way home for the outsiders, and…Piotr no longer feels that to be the most honorable option. That, and the idea of this technology in Cetagandan hands does them no favors. But their intelligence on the project is limited -- Byerly will prove to be a useful intelligent asset, certainly, but Piotr is looking for more informants. Any outsiders willing and able to make connections with any exotics sympathetic to the cause would certainly be appreciated by the General.
plague
Early in the month, some of the villagers begin to get sick -- it looks just like a particularly nasty cold at first. It quickly worsens and spreads to the camp, and by the 7th it is evident there is an outbreak of the Barrayaran flu, an influenza variant that has mutated over the last several centuries. Barrayarans have built up antibodies against most strains, but this is a particularly virulent strain, and with a population that has neither vaccines nor modern medicine, it can be fatal. The recent cold snap and limited food haven't exactly fortified anyone's immune systems, either, and in the first half of the month, about half the population of the village and camp come down with the flu at some point.
Although the virus isn't spreading much more quickly than your average flu, it's still a nasty infection, and the symptoms are difficult to effectively treat without proper equipment of facilities. Some of the relief supplies brought by Prince Xav include surgical masks and gloves for the people working triage to protect them from the airborne illness as much as possible. The supplies also include some analgesics and synergine, but hardly enough to go around. Fevers, aches and chills, coughing, vomiting -- they treat them with what they have once they run out of relief supplies. And for the most part, those with the flu manage to pull through and recover -- but if the flu turns to pneumonia, there's almost nothing they can do at that point. Thanks to the tireless efforts of villagers, soldiers, and some outsiders, the first half of the month sees only a 10% mortality rate between the village and the camp, resulting in only 23 influenza-related deaths.
Sonia is among the first to get sick, but she sweats it out in five days or so and manages a full recovery. Olivia, on the other hand, falls much more seriously ill. Piotr takes great care not to get sick; the camp is already incapacitated as it is.
camp
Camp morale is still buckling under the weight of crisis after crisis, but the arrival of Prince Xav and the improving weather have done a lot to lighten the mood. Xav and Ezar coordiate to distribute the relief supplies even as the flu ravages the camp and village, never a dull moment . Olivia and Sonia haven't seen their father Xav in over two years, and it's a long-overdue family reunion. Piotr welcomes the return of his friend and aide-de-camp Ezar, and Sonia seems to be getting into some kind of mischief with her cousin. And in a quiet moment here and there, Ezar can be seen talking to Negri.
By the morning of the 1st, Byerly Vorrutyer will have abruptly disappeared from camp.
Piotr is trying to keep military operations running as much as he can while half the camp tends to the sick or fall sick themselves. They'd found the traitors, yes, but Piotr's anger is far from satisfied. The food shortage had derailed their power supply strategy, and it's only further pushed back by this current crisis, so large operations are off the table. But Piotr has never underestimated the value of psychological warfare in this war. He has a few conveniently available corpses for hacking up and planting in the Cetagandan base just to shake things up a little, and anyone who can lift a sword without coughing is qualified. Xav does not approve.
missions
The medical assistance provided by the outsiders doesn't go unappreciated, nor without effect. Not every day is a success, but they manage to keep the mortality rate relatively low.
The infiltration missions to plant the severed body parts mostly go according to plan, although Lakshmi and Nash run afoul of some guards. Between the outsiders and other Barrayaran squads, they manage to plant several body parts, and in doing so, inadvertently spread the Barrayaran flu to the Cetagandans.
The outsiders scouting out Vorkosigan Vashnoi manage to stay undetected by Cetagandan soldiers, although they run into exotics on the other side. They manage to get some information about Micah's location, but very little…thankfully, Byerly passes on to Miles much more specific information the exotics were able to obtain.
Here are the unabridged mission results.
cetaganda
The snow piled up around the base starts to gradually melt over the course of the month as temperatures rise. The new wave of exotics are processed and very gently prodded like every group has been, but they've been treated with the same level of civility. The Cetagandans are generally exceedingly polite, but they are becoming a little less patient with the exotics after the recent bouts of violence and escapism.
Despite the Barrayaran flu sweeping the base, military operations must carry on. Zahal might have lost his informants in the Barrayaran camp, but he knows they've been struggling, and wants to implement some more aggressive tactics to hit them while they're down -- and more than that, the dead body parts of his own soldiers scattered around the base have had their intended effect, rattling and aggravating the ghem-General -- even more so when they realize that this was the means by which the plague spread to the base. Whatever organized strategy Zahal starts to pull together is immediately disrupted by the rapid spread of the virus through the base. With Cetagandan soldiers dropping like flies, military operations all but come to a halt on the base.
However, Cetagandan intelligence gets wind of a Barrayar-allied astrophysicist from Beta Colony, a planet renowned for its cutting-edge technological advances, particularly in the field of wormhole science; they may be able to solve some of the pieces of the puzzle. The Betan scientist is apparently hiding out in Vorkosigan Vashnoi, the capital city of the city. The virus has spread there too; Barrayarans and Cetagandans alike are facing the outbreak, although the native population seems to be faring a bit better. The Cetagandans need help bringing medical supplies, so while they're at it, the ghem-General dispatches a few teams to try and sniff out the scientist's location. Meanwhile, in the R&D labs, some of the exotics who have been promoted to lab assistant are helping the Cetagandans to make some advancements, and they're finally let in on some more details about the project.
plague
A few days into the month, some of the soldiers start to show cold-like symptoms -- and then the outbreak of Barrayaran influenza spreads rapidly throughout the base. Unlike the Barrayarans, the Cetagandans have no antibodies for this strain, and even their advanced immune systems cannot defend them against a totally new pathogen. They are infected even more quickly than the Barrayarans and their symptoms escalate rapidly as well, resulting in an alarming mortality rate. Cetagandan soldiers are falling sick left and right. Triage starts in the medbay, but they have to quarantine off another wing of the building just to make room for the rapidly growing population of infected ghem. The airborne virus is spreading through the base at an alarming speed -- save for Byerly, no one on base has ever been exposed to it. The symptoms are severe and while the Cetagandans have plenty of equipment, they have neither an antiviral nor a vaccine for the Barrayaran flu. High fever, vomiting, dehydration, respiratory and sinus problems run rampant, and though they have plenty in the way of synergine and analgesics, the Barrayaran flu quickly leads to pneumonia in most Cetagandan patients, and with their immune systems so completely unprepared, most patients with pneumonia die within 24 to 48 hours. The triage assistants are, at least, provided with surgical masks and gloves and antibacterial gel by the bucket load to protect them from the airborne illness as much as possible. By mid-month, nearly two thirds of the base has been infected.
The medical staff scrambles to put up a quarantine while also working on a vaccine for the uninfected population on the base. Byerly, being the only person on base who has ever been exposed to the Barrayaran flu, offers a blood sample -- potentially containing antibodies to this strain. Some of the Cetagandans' testing methods are a little ethically questionable, but they're trying to work fast. They're able to develop a working vaccine with a projected effectiveness of 70%.
Toward the middle of the month, Amai catches the flu and is laid low for about a week. Diya and Zahal take great care not to catch it -- Diya seems particularly absent lately.
base
Paranoia of infection hovers over the entire base, but some of the Cetagandans are concerned with another upcoming event: the arrival of the Handmaiden of the Star Crèche. What the Handmaiden of the Star Crèche actually is or does seems to be rather vague to the exotics -- she seems to play some role in genetic politics -- but it's known that she's haut, like Diya. The Cetagandans are scrambling to prepare for her arrival with considerable worry about resolving the flu epidemic before she touches down. The Cetagandans are about as close to cultural panic as they get right now. Diya received personal notice from the Handmaiden of the Star Crèche herself.
Starting on the 1st, Byerly Vorrutyer joins the exotic ranks as an undercover agent, looking not only for information but to potentially recruit exotics sympathetic to the Barrayaran cause.
Meanwhile in the labs, the Cetagandans have been letting the exotics get a little more hands-on with their research. Natasha, York and Symmetra have risen a bit in the ranks and are brought in on more specific projects. The ghem ladies are, surprisingly, now looking for volunteers to work in the gene labs too -- personnel shortage, of course.
missions
Even though a few of their own fall prey to the illness, the exotics' medical assistance does wind up being quite helpful, particularly with development of the vaccine. Meanwhile, eavesdroppers are doing their usual business and digging deep in places they shouldn't -- particularly where Amai and Diya are concerned.
The exotics that accompany the Cetagandans to Vorkosigan Vashnoi manage to stay undetected by Barrayaran soldiers, although they run into exotics on the other side. They are able to get some very detailed information about Micah's location, which Byerly passes back to the Barrayarans via Miles.
Here are the unabridged mission results.
Note: Negri and Zahal are available for threads by request only. Please hit up Madi or Ammay respectively for you want threads with either of those NPCs. You can also request a thread with Village Speaker Yakiv Gura if you want, in which case hit up Madi.
A.
Tucker hadn’t said it, but he was pretty sure someone had.
Standing at the mouth of the sickbay tent, he took a deep breath before slipping in. Sonia wasn’t supposed to get sick, and he tried not to think of standing in a graveyard with a woman crying while they lowered a coffin in the ground, but he couldn’t help it. Nope. Shove that back down. She’d be fine. Fuck yeah, she’d be fine.
And right now, he was going to make sure of it.
“When I said you were hot, I didn’t mean like a fever.” He sat down in chair next to her, a smile on his lips, water in his hand that he passed over to her. “Feeling any better?”
no subject
"No," she says frankly, still tiredly smiling, and starts to push herself up so she can take a drink, because she probably does need it. God, though, her head hurts when she moves. "I keep feeling like I'm going to throw up."
no subject
He moved to stand next to her bed, helping her drink while holding the water as he made an effort to step back for a splash zone in case of vomit. And if she puked, it was only a matter of minutes before he would be joining her in sympathy gross.
"Just in case you ask, totally not one of my kinks." He went back into the chair, leaving the water with her. "Have a lot of visitors?"
no subject
As soon as she's sitting upright on the bedroll she's shivering, even as she draws the blankets back up around her as much as she can. Fever chills. Ugh. She does manage to take a few good sips with Tucker's help, and it does feel nice and cool going down.
"Thank you." She gives him a smile, much dimmer than usual and a little glazed, but genuine all the same. "A few, yes. Everyone's been very kind." She pauses to turn her head and cough into her elbow. "I finally met your friend Wash."
no subject
Though, he wondered if there would be a later if she had talked to Wash. The look of concern that slid into his eyes was difficult to hide when he wasn't sure what kind of wingman the Freelancer-slash-C.O. could be. Fuck.
"Sooo, did he take credit for my ass being this perfect? Because his laps are no fucking joke." Please don't fuck this up for me, Wash. Please don't fuck this up for me!
"Did he get all dramatic and shit? He does that, you know."
no subject
"Oh, a little. But it's not exactly cheerful in here, either." She catches that look and gives him a reassuring smile. "He didn't say anything bad about you, you know." A beat. "Were you expecting him to?"
no subject
"Look, he's one of my teammates -- he's a friend, and friends always have dirt on each other." Especially when they were called in multiple times to look at certain rashes and determine just what they could be (only one of which was from razor burn, for the record). But hey, that was just trust, and trust was important.
Besides, she knew about Junior in abstract terms. How much could Wash have told her? And shit, really? He was an open book; much like his situation with his kid, you either accepted him and his family, or you didn't. The loss wasn't his.
"How about this: you can ask me any three questions and I'll answer them, whatever they are." He smiled, confident and bright as he leaned back. The best part? Maybe the fever would burn away the memory of whatever embarrassing shit he was going to inevitably wind up spewing. "Do your worst."
no subject
"Three questions? Oh, that's..." She grins wanly and coughs out a laugh. "I suppose I have to ask them all at once. Alright..."
She slowly lowers herself back down on the bedroll, though, because sitting up is just giving her a headache. She regards him thoughtfully through lidded eyes.
"Hmmm." Admittedly, it's a bit hard to think right now, and she wants to make good use of these. A bit of mischief glints in her eyes for a second, but then she seems to change her mind and asks, "What do you do? I mean, I know you're all military and on the same squad, but I don't have the faintest idea what you actually do, besides march around with guns. What kind of military are you? I mean, it seems like you've been through...a lot with each other." She has to stop to cough and catch her breath. "I want to hear about what you do."
I hope this is okay? THIS WAS HARDER THAN I THOUGHT! He kinda explained...nothing?
Tucker found himself a little surprised by the first one, not expecting the need for a clarification on all around general badass. Teeth chewed his bottom lip as he sat back, mulling it over in his head because how did you explain it? Fuck, even where to start was a dilemma; this went back far. Too far and it was so damn convoluted even the people who lived it had problems following it.
“So…shit.” He rubbed his hand over his head. “I’m going to give you the cliffnotes version because it gets pretty stupid, okay?”
Deep breath. “So, it started at a stupid canyon with two bases and supposedly two separate armies: Reds and the Blues – I was Blue, which was waaaay better. I was there with Caboose and Church, and the other side had Sarge, Grif, Simmons, Lopez, and Donut. We thought we in a war with each other, but it was a bunch of bullshit; we were just Simulation Troops for the Freelancers, who are super dramatic pains in the asses that tended to get stuck with us for some fucking reason. Wash is one, Carolina, Maine, but there were others: Tex, Wyoming who was a fucking dick. Once we figured shit out, it was more or less getting wrapped into crap we never asked for. I was gone for a lot of it – I’m a diplomat for the Sangheili army on account of Junior – but I was there to help them take down Freelancer before we got stranded on Chorus and got roped into their war, too.”
He shrugged again. “I mean, don’t get it messed up: we suck. Well, the rest of the Reds and Blues do; I’m pretty awesome. But we keep on winning because luck or because no one figures we’ll do the shit we do, so I like to think that we have a pretty good thing going.
”We’re never going to be Freelancers, but it’s cool; we don’t need to be. And the Freelancers, they’re…well, Carolina and Wash, they’re pretty much us now. Kind of like family.” Totally like family.
Tucker smiled. “Does that clear it up?” It didn’t. It couldn’t. But it was better than nothing.
TOTES FINE
"Not really. But I think I'm getting...a picture." The picture, maybe not. But a picture. But she did, at least, catch onto a few details. The parts with Carolina and Wash, about them being family. That's meaningful. "I didn't know you were a diplomat."
<3
“Huh? Yeah. It was a bit on the boring side, but the travel and time spent with my son was cool.” He wanted to sit on the bed with her, but the threat of vomiting kept him at bay. Shit.
“I mean, it made sense considering who my kid is.”
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She blinks in momentary confusion, though, looking up at Tucker. "Who...is your son? I mean, other than being your son."
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Oh, Sonia. He smirked a little. "Is this your second question?"
Nothing like leaving her in suspense.
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She blinks at his question, because for a moment she'd entirely forgot they were playing this questions game. She narrows her eyes and purses her lips in mixed thought and suspicion at him, a sort of funny expression on her in this state. Hmmm.
"No," Sonia announces decisively. "I'm saving this for later."
She's almost certain she can squeeze that answer out of him later. She doesn't think he could resist any opportunity to talk about Junior. It's really very charming, actually.
Sonia taps her lips with a finger, carefully considering. She can't just ask any question. She has to make it good. It's not often you get a blank check for someone else's honesty. A horrible little smile creeps onto Sonia's face.
"What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?"
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And even moreso, it was just really hard to answer: it was hard to embarrass him. Being pregnant with Junior wasn't even really negative to him anymore, not with the son he got out of it. One of his boots rested against the side of her cot as he leaned the chair back onto two legs, thinking.
To have embarrassment one had to have shame, and Tucker wasn't exactly brimming with that.
"Fuck, I don't even know. Being pregnant was kind of embarrassing then but I don't feel like it is now, you know?" He tapped his finger against the corner of his mouth. "Hmm, one time I was at this chick's place and her boyfriend came home early so I hid in her closet until he was asleep and ran out of there naked and all the way home. But fuck, that was just a show for everyone who got to watch me, lucky bastards."
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Meeting someone with so little shame is sort of refreshing on Barrayar, where sometimes the preoccupation with propriety can be stifling. Sonia lies there thinking, idly shivering, and draws the blankets up to her chin.
What's the hardest thing you've ever had to do springs to mind. What's your biggest regret, or maybe what frightens you the most. But none of them taste good in Sonia's mouth, and she finds that more than wanting to know all these darker things, things she doesn't need to know right now, she would rather see the rest of Tucker's light before digging up shadows. So instead she smiles faintly and asks, "What's your ideal date?"
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Oh, no, he didn't hide the fact that he was screaming during all that; that shit hurt. And his scar was always that reminder of just how badly it hurt, and the subsequent coma after. But she wasn't asking about that, about Junior and what he meant when he left that door wide open. Even sick, she was smart.
He smirked a little. Fuck, he wanted to hold her hand again.
"Ideal date?" He blinked once, before looking up, thinking. "Well, I mean, I know how I want it to end, bow chicka bow wow." The leer was a little curbed with a small waggle of his eyebrow, but that lasted only a few seconds before he sat back and hmmmed. "Dinner, somewhere good. Like, really good. Then back to my place for my favorite movie. There's totally no talking through it, unless you can find a way to distract me." Which, in a movie full of people dying, would be a little difficult, but not with her. She could easily do it.
"Yours?"
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Still, she's interested in his answer. Tucker is an interesting person, despite what others might think -- and maybe what Tucker might let others think. The second that catch phrase comes out of his mouth, though, she bursts out laughing -- sincere delight, but it quickly turns to coughs and she has to stop to breathe so she can listen to the rest.
(It's okay, Tucker. She shares your priorities.)
"That sounds nice." Sonia's still looking a little glassy-eyed, but the smile is real. It's just something nice to think about. A welcome distraction in her current hell. She treasures those little slivers of normalcy. She laughs a little, lightly this time, at the return question, turning one hand palm out.
"I...don't know, come to think of it. I've never had the chance to go on an actual date. I was still young when I left Beta, and...dating isn't really in Barrayar's cultural lexicon."
So instead she turns over onto her side as much as she can, gathering a mass of blankets under her arms so she can rest her chin on them and gaze at him with upturned eyes. "I want to hear more about yours. What kind of dinner? And what is your favorite movie?"
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When she laughed, he laughed, and the whole thing just felt like the mood was lighter even in a med tent. Shit, it just felt good to laugh in general, when so much other stuff was tossed up, fucked up, wrong; it felt like springtime, when maybe this could get better. Maybe...maybe the epidemic wouldn't be so bad.
Or, at least, that's what he wanted to believe.
Fuck it. He reached out and grabbed that hand, threading his fingers with hers as she moved over. He'd have to set his palm on fire after to get rid of the germs, but what a small price to pay. "How the fuck haven't you gone on a date?! You're a fucking princess; people should be lining up for miles. What do they do, keep you in a cave until it's your wedding da--nevermind. I'm sure that's exactly what they do, isn't it?"
How the hell would Tex and Carolina have dealt with growing up here? Shit.
"Um, I don't know. Probably something universal, like chicken or Italian or pizza. Everyone loves pizza; if you don't, you're clearly Satan. ...You do have pizza here?" Because if not, he was talking to the kitchen people about recipes. Contrary to popular belief, Tucker could cook. "And my movie? Fuck, there's only one movie worth watching, done by the illustrious, talented, and genius: Quentin Tarantino. It's a little quiet film called 'Reservoir Dogs'.
"Warning: there's no dogs, but there's a lot of badass scenes and one of the greatest monologues about tipping ever."
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She laughs hoarsely. "Barrayar's crazy about arranged marriages. Olivia only got to pick her husband because I made sure no one else would want to marry her."
And eventually somebody's going to decide it's time for her to be married off, too. Ugh. She shrugs. "Here it's not dating, it's courting. And don't you let anyone try to tell you they're the same thing."
Dating, for instance, doesn't require a third party. But she listens as attentively as she can, smiling, if a little drowsily, because just talking to Tucker makes her smile, sometimes. He's funny -- and they all need the levity. He makes her laugh. That's a good quality in a man, she thinks. "Beta has pizza. Barrayar is...more about pirozhki than pizza. But I've never heard of the film. What century is it from?"
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"So, let me guess, no one can know about this date? Our secret?" His hand squeezed her's, but the real question was, "What is the difference anyway?"
Courting. Dating. Isn't courting just the Shakespeare equivalent to dating, with more flowery language and the slight scandalous chance of seeing a chick's ankle? Sounded about right to him.
And wait-- "Pirozhki? What the fuck is that?" His food expanse had always been slight, and while he could cook, he didn't have a lot of chances to try other things. This? Sounded odd. Neat, but odd. "Look, get me some yeast, and I'll make us a pizza, okay? I mean, there has to be some way to make it here, right? And why the fuck aren't we at Beta right now?"
Tucker didn't even have to think; the answer rattled off the edge of his tongue just like everything else to do with this American Classic. "It was made in 1992. At the time, it was a cult film, but then it got big and, like, everyone watched it. It was our weekly movie night go-to back in Blood Gulch; we called sanctuary, and the Reds and Blues watched it until Caboose ruined it."
It was also the only movie they owned, in part because maybe he was secretly burning all the other movies that came in. Seriously, who needed to watch anything else when this existed?
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"Mm. For me, I don't know. Depends on how long the war goes on, I guess." Surprise surprise, she doesn't actually like talking about her potential marriage future on Barrayar. She'd always wanted to go back to Beta, to escape the whole Barrayaran system. "It isn't usually as bad as it sounds. Olivia's just -- you know, we're Vorbarras. Part of the Imperial family. But courting isn't the same thing as dating. Courting is something you do with the intent to marry the other person -- dating is just for fun. It's hard to explain. It's all very political."
Except that when she says political, it sounds a lot more like bullshit. Let's move on. She gives him a pale smile. "Pirozhki are like...hm. Like little pies or buns with stuffing inside. Meat, vegetables, that kind of thing." Maybe she could ask a favor of the Village Speaker's wife. She'd be happy to make a few pirozhki for her the Princess, wouldn't she? She tries not to let a little misery creep into her expression and just squeezes Tucker's hand. "I would be back on Beta if it weren't for the wormhole blockade, and...everything."
The war. The fact that if Sonia tried to get off planet, odds are whatever ship she's on would get shot down before making it through the blockade. Ugh. Not her favorite topic, either. So instead she just focuses on the present -- on Tucker, the things he's telling her for which she has no frame of reference, but that's what she likes about it. It's like another fantasy of someone else's reality, like Byerly's Vorbarr Sultana.
"1992? God, that's old." Sonia lets out a little laugh, slightly wheezy. "I don't think I've ever watched anything older than...oh, 29th century, maybe. I wasn't that into film history as a child." She rubs her thumb idly over the back of Tucker's hand and that small little smile breaks into a pale grin, her eyes brightening. "Tucker, are you asking me out on a date?"
They'd been talking hypotheticals until now. Sonia looks positively pleased at the idea, though. It is sort of what she's wanted for years and years now, but her options are so limited, and do not include dating prole boys.
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Which, judging from her comment on the political nature of things, sounded about right. "But then we could have a scandalous affair and it would be awesome, and I could kidnap you out of your room in the middle of the night or some Robin Hood shit." As if he could climb a tower from the outside.
"Sooo, like pot pies? Or, um, shit, what do they call them? Pasties or whatever? Not the ones that goes on nipples, though, but the ones you can eat in your hand." This talk of good food was unfair; it made him want something actually edible in the worst of ways, and his stomach growled angrily. "Either way, it sounds way better than horsemeat, ration bars, and fucking MREs. Ever had an MRE? It should be MRV: Ready-to-Vomit."
His lashes dipped low. "And hey, don't worry; you can show me Beta someday, okay? That place isn't ready for us yet, anyway; they're going to have to stock up on a lot more booze before we hit there."
And fuck it, he brought her hand up to his lips, kissing it. He was going to have to set his lips on fire, too, but whatever. He'd deal.
"Right? It's fucking old as shit, but the movie has aged wel-- Wait, what? Twenty-ninth?" Holy shit, that's beyond even him. His brow furrowed a little and-- Simmons would have some sort of explanation for time something something, but whatever. Maybe they just counted their years differently?
"Fuck yeah, I'm asking you on a date." He smiled, bright in a gloomy room. "Don't make me get all formal about this shit just because you're royalty."
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Dating, though, is entirely more welcome topic. Her face does brighten when he kisses her hand, and if she weren't so sick she might even give him a bit of a girlish blush, though she does scrunch up her nose at the idea of a formal offer. "Oh, please don't. I'm so tired of formal. And you know I've lived in a war camp for nearly half my life, right? I've probably eaten just as many MREs as you have. Maybe even more."
Her pale lips do twist in amusement, though, and maybe it's just the fever, but she does feel a little giddy about Tucker asking her out on a date -- and though she won't say it out loud, it's the formality of merely saying it that she likes. Or the fact that he's asking and he already knows who she is. It's a novelty, but more than that -- something she's been wrongly deprived of all these years. "Well, then I accept," she says lightly, the corner of her mouth quirking up, although so do her eyebrows. "Hasn't anyone told you the year? It's 3224, Earth standard. From what I gather, though, most of you outsiders are from much farther in the past."
Her expression does dim a little at Tucker's projection of the future, though. Of going back to Beta. She drops her gaze and sort of shrugs, though she doesn't let go of his hand.
"That'd be nice. But...the end of the war is probably a long time coming, still. I hope you'll all get a chance to go home before then."
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“Okay, so the date is the one time where you won’t eat a fucking MRV, promise.” The crushing reality of the year was pushed aside; he had no clue if that fucked with everything back home, but he wouldn’t let that bother him. He had dealt with worse odds and possibilities before and still did the most obvious and stupid things to combat it; going home when he didn’t know what “home” was going to be like was just another one of those things.
But for now? This. Something they could both use, something to look forward to. He let go of her hand and stood up, smiling brightly. “You get better, I’ll organize the date, okay? Just make sure you tell me when you’re out.” Not that he wouldn’t already know; he might have been keeping an ear out on how she was doing. It was what friends did for each other right?
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