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forbarrayar2017-03-18 02:15 pm
barrayarmods) wrote in forbarrayar2017-03-18 02:15 pm
[ march ii log: ageless beauty ]
Who: Everyone!
What: The skies finally lighten, and so do spirits, but there are still quiet machinations in the dark. The good doctor's fate is finally decided.
When: March 18th - 31st
Where: Barrayaran camp, Cetagandan base & Riverfall Village
Warnings: TBD
Quick links:
Riverfall
Barrayar: Plague / Camp / Missions
Cetaganda: Plague / Base / Missions
First: Special thanks and credit to Vee (veelynn) for lending us her beautiful photography for this event!
TIMELINE
3/19 Art Fair
3/20 York & Ratchet's arrival to the Barrayaran camp
3/22 Raid: Medical Supplies
3/26 Haut Sei's arrival, Eavesdropping Eta
3/27 Eavesdropping Sigma
3/27 - 3/28 Rat Race
3/29 Official reception for Haut Sei
3/30 Mystery Plot
One thing can be said for the month of March: at least the weather's gotten better. By mid-month, while the piled-up snow is slow to melt, the temperatures have now risen to just freezing rather than well below freezing. It's still a pretty cold March, but by this point, anything close to freezing feels like a balmy spring, and they have a nice string of sunny days for the rest of the month.
riverfall
Although their numbers have been thinned by the flu epidemic, Cetagandan patrols still pass regularly through the village, allowing those spying for the Cetagandans to pass along information via dead drop.
Riverfall was hit just as hard by the epidemic as the camp, and by the end of the month, the village houses no more than sixty people. The aid from the outsiders and soldiers in caring for and treating the sick goes a long way, but by the end, there are still a lot of bodies to bury and souls to burn death offerings for. There's an overall somber cast to the village despite the brightening weather.
barrayar
The Barrayarans haven't been hit as dramatically as the Cetagandans, but their numbers are much fewer, and patrols are still thin. Anyone healthy enough is being asked to pull double shifts, stretching their resources where they can, but at least the food situation is improving considerably thanks to both Xav's relief supplies and the lightening weather.
Once seeing both his daughters recover from the flu, Prince Xav leaves camp on the 19th to rendezvous with his transport back to Vorbarr Sultana so he can make another risky attempt at getting off-planet and back through the wormhole blockade. Ezar, as Piotr's aide-de-camp, sticks around -- and so does Negri, of course.
Knowing that it would be safer (if less comfortable) and possibly more useful for the Barrayarans to rendezvous with Micah rather than try to get them back off-planet, Xav leaves Doctor Niadem's fate in Barrayaran hands…and not to great result. Now that the Cetagandans have Micah, Piotr and his general staff -- and anyone in-the-know enough about the situation to provide any advisement -- are still debating what to do about Micah and the wormhole device. They could either try to rescue Micah to their side…or leave them in Cetagandan hands and hope to make contact via one of their informants.
This makes cultivating informants on the Cetagandan side an even higher priority, and if anyone has any ties to outsiders on the other side, personal or otherwise, Piotr wants to hear about it. Any intelligence about the Star Gate Project is vital.
plague
The ill in the camp and Riverfall are recovering, slowly, but the flu is still spreading, reaching its apex, and people are still getting sick. Even as the weather clears up, it's still damp, and many of the sick are falling to pneumonia, a near-certain death without antibiotics. They've already exhausted the medical supplies Xav and Ezar brought with them, and the medical raids went poorly -- only resulting in enough antibiotics for about 20% of the village and camp's combined population.
By the end of the month, though, the Barrayarans are finally beginning to pull through. The camp and village start to recover, with the mortalities over the month total to 58 influenza-related deaths. It's time to bury the death, burn a death offering, and keep on moving on.
camp
Both Olivia and Sonia have recovered from their bouts with the flu, more or less intact despite Olivia's very touch-and-go health for a while. Now Sonia's repaying everyone's visits to her by tending to the sick and helping out where she can. And as the weather warms up and people start to recover, the line for the bath tent starts getting longer…it's still pretty cold, but after lying around in the sickbay tent for a while, few people are going to complain for the chance to wash.
Morale is still buckling, so amidst all the doom and gloom, Sonia decides to try and bring a little levity to the camp by hosting a makeshift little art show on the 19th. The Princess can often be seen with her old antique camera, taking candids or scenic pictures in the mountains, although she rarely shows her work to anyone else. Tonight, though, she has hung up a variety of her black-and-white photos around the camp for the art fair -- some of the candids are even of outsiders, and Sonia's aim seems to be catching everyone in their warmest, happiest moment. There's no sense of tragedy or despair in her work.
She's encouraged as many of the soldiers and outsiders to contribute anything in the way of art -- stories, songs, performance, or craft, she invites it all. A few soldiers make a surprisingly harmonic little chorus, and some visiting villagers give engaging tellings of Barrayaran legends. Lakshmi shows off some of her embroidery, and Beth and Tucker both bring a little singing to the table, although the majority of Barrayarans probably aren't going to appreciate a cappella Queen. Daryl shoots a mouse and either fails to understand art entirely or transcends to a brand new plane of artistic enlightenment. Also, please don't let Tucker pose nude for you.
It winds up doing some good for morale -- giving the soldiers some other context to focus on besides the war, something of an escape, or a reminder of what they're fighting for and what they long to live to see again. And for the first time, Sonia doesn't feel quite so useless.
missions
The medical assistance provided by the outsiders doesn't go unappreciated, nor without effect. Not every day is a success, but at least they manage to keep the mortality rate from climbing too high.
The medical raids are a near-unmitigated disaster, with every single raiding party running afoul of Cetagandan guards and losing some of their bounty on the way out. They only manage to make away with supplies/topicals/OTC analgesics for 40% of the population, vaccine for 20% of the population, and antibiotics for 35% of the population.
The race to Micah's location in Vorkosigan Vashnoi is a frantic one, but despite the outsiders' efforts as well as Natasha, Byerly and Kaidan's efforts to slow down the Cetagandans, the Cetagandans get to Doctor Micah Niadem first.
Here are the unabridged mission results.
cetaganda
Piotr's attempt at psychological warfare was a total success: Zahal is furious over the severed body parts of his own soldiers discovered around the camp, and even more so over the wholly unintentional but devastating biowarfare that comes with it. That part has Piotr rather tickled.
With full intel on Micah's location in hand, Zahal sends as many able-bodied squads to Vorkosigan Vashnoi as he can, including several exotics. Natasha, Kaidan and Byerly work covertly to try and slow the operation down, but ultimately, the Cetagandans still reach Micah first and bring them back to base -- taking proper precaution to vaccinate them before bringing them in, of course. It wouldn't do for their newest and very valuable asset to suddenly die of some backwater plague.
The Cetagandan base is still pretty thin on the personnel front, but they're managing to continue operations as normal. The announcement of the visit from the Handmaiden of the Star Crèche has every able-bodied person on base in a frenzy as they try to prepare and make the base suitable for receiving her. This is clearly an occasion of great honor as well as face -- if she were improperly received, ghem-General Zahal and Lady Diya would surely suffer for it.
plague
The plague reaches its apex in the Cetagandan base, but with Ratchet and Natasha's help, they were able to synthesize a vaccine for the flu. The quarantine isn't airtight, so there's still risk of infection, and they have to make sure those distributing the vaccine aren't at risk of spreading the infection. Overall, they're able to inoculate about 80% of the uninfected population.
Amai makes a full recovery, despite being dramatically (albeit not entirely unrealistically) convinced she was on death's door every second.
By the end of the month, the Barrayaran flu has about a 30% mortality rate on the Cetagandan base, resulting in about 3000 influenza-related deaths.
base
The quarantine remains in effect until nearly the end of the month, but finally, once the epidemic has died down and the Handmaiden has been vaccinated, Haut Sei Navarr arrives. The base hurriedly puts together a formal reception for her on the 30th, and rather than another party, it is just that -- a clearly ritualized receiving of her presence, so rarely seen beyond Eta Ceta, let alone the rest of the Empire.
The reception for Haut Sei is exceedingly formal, and unlike the relatively lighter air of the party last month, inappropriate behavior is going to be much less generously tolerated here. The exotics are not required to attend, but if they do, it'll be about a four-hour reception with a clear ritual protocol that will nonetheless seem very obtuse to outside viewers. Diya is prominent in the reception, being the only other haut on base, and is in fact the only one truly suited to receive her -- although, unlike Diya, Haut Sei does not appear in public unmasked. As is the custom of haut ladies still in their constellations, Haut Sei travels in a float chair encased in an opaque force bubble -- she can see out, but no one can see in. She brings with her a small entourage of servitors known as the ba, who serve not only as testing grounds for new genetic combinations, but are also genetically engineered for loyalty and service. Ba are not clones -- each ba is a work of art unto itself, each carefully created, and while they are not quite so fey in their beauty, the aesthetic effort is undeniable. All of the ba with Haut Sei are curiously hairless, which seems to be a popular trend in their design among the haut these days.
Meanwhile on the scientific end, the Cetagandans are delving deeper into what is officially referred to as the Star Gate Project. They're working with Satya to build a hard-light mapping device, but in the meantime, they have laid out the most crucial parts needed to build it: high-precision electromagnetic bearings to hold up the Necklin rods and spin them by a magnetic field for reduced friction; high-quality seals and pumps to create the necessary vacuum required for precise jump-plotting; something generating EM shielding to prevent interference, a problem unique to creating a Necklin field of this size and in this environment; and high-precision controls and controls software based on those used in existing jump ships, modifications for which are underway. And, of course, the Necklin rods themselves, which they have yet to figure out a way to fabricate.
And now that Micah is on base, the Cetagandans can finally put them to work in the wormhole lab on some of those elusive five-space math problems.
They're still developing their theory of neural netting and how a Necklin field might directly interact with the human brain without a jump implant. Based on their research so far, this may not actually be much of a problem, but there's another factor they have yet to work out: how to key the Star Gate to an exotics' own home universe. The Cetagandan neurologists have a few theories that they're working with Deanna and Natasha on.
missions
With help from the exotics, they're able to vaccinate 80% of the base's uninfected population. Satya and Pearl, despite their hard efforts, have yet to finish the hard-light mapping device by the end of the month.
A few exotics learn a bit more about Sei and Diya's history, as well as Diya and Amai's plans for covering up their less than authorized experiments. It also comes to light that the haut are planning to open gene therapy trials for any exotics who experienced power loss.
The race to Micah's location in Vorkosigan Vashnoi is a frantic one, but despite the outsiders' efforts as well as Natasha, Byerly and Kaidan's efforts to slow down the Cetagandans, the Cetagandans get to Doctor Micah Niadem first.
Here are the unabridged mission results.
Note: Negri, Amai, Zahal, and Olivia are available for threads by request only. Please hit up Madi (Negri & Amai) or Ammay (Zahal & Olivia) 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: The skies finally lighten, and so do spirits, but there are still quiet machinations in the dark. The good doctor's fate is finally decided.
When: March 18th - 31st
Where: Barrayaran camp, Cetagandan base & Riverfall Village
Warnings: TBD
Riverfall
Barrayar: Plague / Camp / Missions
Cetaganda: Plague / Base / Missions
First: Special thanks and credit to Vee (
veelynn) for lending us her beautiful photography for this event!TIMELINE
3/19 Art Fair
3/20 York & Ratchet's arrival to the Barrayaran camp
3/22 Raid: Medical Supplies
3/26 Haut Sei's arrival, Eavesdropping Eta
3/27 Eavesdropping Sigma
3/27 - 3/28 Rat Race
3/29 Official reception for Haut Sei
3/30 Mystery Plot
One thing can be said for the month of March: at least the weather's gotten better. By mid-month, while the piled-up snow is slow to melt, the temperatures have now risen to just freezing rather than well below freezing. It's still a pretty cold March, but by this point, anything close to freezing feels like a balmy spring, and they have a nice string of sunny days for the rest of the month.
riverfall
Although their numbers have been thinned by the flu epidemic, Cetagandan patrols still pass regularly through the village, allowing those spying for the Cetagandans to pass along information via dead drop.
Riverfall was hit just as hard by the epidemic as the camp, and by the end of the month, the village houses no more than sixty people. The aid from the outsiders and soldiers in caring for and treating the sick goes a long way, but by the end, there are still a lot of bodies to bury and souls to burn death offerings for. There's an overall somber cast to the village despite the brightening weather.
barrayar
The Barrayarans haven't been hit as dramatically as the Cetagandans, but their numbers are much fewer, and patrols are still thin. Anyone healthy enough is being asked to pull double shifts, stretching their resources where they can, but at least the food situation is improving considerably thanks to both Xav's relief supplies and the lightening weather.
Once seeing both his daughters recover from the flu, Prince Xav leaves camp on the 19th to rendezvous with his transport back to Vorbarr Sultana so he can make another risky attempt at getting off-planet and back through the wormhole blockade. Ezar, as Piotr's aide-de-camp, sticks around -- and so does Negri, of course.
Knowing that it would be safer (if less comfortable) and possibly more useful for the Barrayarans to rendezvous with Micah rather than try to get them back off-planet, Xav leaves Doctor Niadem's fate in Barrayaran hands…and not to great result. Now that the Cetagandans have Micah, Piotr and his general staff -- and anyone in-the-know enough about the situation to provide any advisement -- are still debating what to do about Micah and the wormhole device. They could either try to rescue Micah to their side…or leave them in Cetagandan hands and hope to make contact via one of their informants.
This makes cultivating informants on the Cetagandan side an even higher priority, and if anyone has any ties to outsiders on the other side, personal or otherwise, Piotr wants to hear about it. Any intelligence about the Star Gate Project is vital.
plague
The ill in the camp and Riverfall are recovering, slowly, but the flu is still spreading, reaching its apex, and people are still getting sick. Even as the weather clears up, it's still damp, and many of the sick are falling to pneumonia, a near-certain death without antibiotics. They've already exhausted the medical supplies Xav and Ezar brought with them, and the medical raids went poorly -- only resulting in enough antibiotics for about 20% of the village and camp's combined population.
By the end of the month, though, the Barrayarans are finally beginning to pull through. The camp and village start to recover, with the mortalities over the month total to 58 influenza-related deaths. It's time to bury the death, burn a death offering, and keep on moving on.
camp
Both Olivia and Sonia have recovered from their bouts with the flu, more or less intact despite Olivia's very touch-and-go health for a while. Now Sonia's repaying everyone's visits to her by tending to the sick and helping out where she can. And as the weather warms up and people start to recover, the line for the bath tent starts getting longer…it's still pretty cold, but after lying around in the sickbay tent for a while, few people are going to complain for the chance to wash.
Morale is still buckling, so amidst all the doom and gloom, Sonia decides to try and bring a little levity to the camp by hosting a makeshift little art show on the 19th. The Princess can often be seen with her old antique camera, taking candids or scenic pictures in the mountains, although she rarely shows her work to anyone else. Tonight, though, she has hung up a variety of her black-and-white photos around the camp for the art fair -- some of the candids are even of outsiders, and Sonia's aim seems to be catching everyone in their warmest, happiest moment. There's no sense of tragedy or despair in her work.
She's encouraged as many of the soldiers and outsiders to contribute anything in the way of art -- stories, songs, performance, or craft, she invites it all. A few soldiers make a surprisingly harmonic little chorus, and some visiting villagers give engaging tellings of Barrayaran legends. Lakshmi shows off some of her embroidery, and Beth and Tucker both bring a little singing to the table, although the majority of Barrayarans probably aren't going to appreciate a cappella Queen. Daryl shoots a mouse and either fails to understand art entirely or transcends to a brand new plane of artistic enlightenment. Also, please don't let Tucker pose nude for you.
It winds up doing some good for morale -- giving the soldiers some other context to focus on besides the war, something of an escape, or a reminder of what they're fighting for and what they long to live to see again. And for the first time, Sonia doesn't feel quite so useless.
missions
The medical assistance provided by the outsiders doesn't go unappreciated, nor without effect. Not every day is a success, but at least they manage to keep the mortality rate from climbing too high.
The medical raids are a near-unmitigated disaster, with every single raiding party running afoul of Cetagandan guards and losing some of their bounty on the way out. They only manage to make away with supplies/topicals/OTC analgesics for 40% of the population, vaccine for 20% of the population, and antibiotics for 35% of the population.
The race to Micah's location in Vorkosigan Vashnoi is a frantic one, but despite the outsiders' efforts as well as Natasha, Byerly and Kaidan's efforts to slow down the Cetagandans, the Cetagandans get to Doctor Micah Niadem first.
Here are the unabridged mission results.
cetaganda
Piotr's attempt at psychological warfare was a total success: Zahal is furious over the severed body parts of his own soldiers discovered around the camp, and even more so over the wholly unintentional but devastating biowarfare that comes with it. That part has Piotr rather tickled.
With full intel on Micah's location in hand, Zahal sends as many able-bodied squads to Vorkosigan Vashnoi as he can, including several exotics. Natasha, Kaidan and Byerly work covertly to try and slow the operation down, but ultimately, the Cetagandans still reach Micah first and bring them back to base -- taking proper precaution to vaccinate them before bringing them in, of course. It wouldn't do for their newest and very valuable asset to suddenly die of some backwater plague.
The Cetagandan base is still pretty thin on the personnel front, but they're managing to continue operations as normal. The announcement of the visit from the Handmaiden of the Star Crèche has every able-bodied person on base in a frenzy as they try to prepare and make the base suitable for receiving her. This is clearly an occasion of great honor as well as face -- if she were improperly received, ghem-General Zahal and Lady Diya would surely suffer for it.
plague
The plague reaches its apex in the Cetagandan base, but with Ratchet and Natasha's help, they were able to synthesize a vaccine for the flu. The quarantine isn't airtight, so there's still risk of infection, and they have to make sure those distributing the vaccine aren't at risk of spreading the infection. Overall, they're able to inoculate about 80% of the uninfected population.
Amai makes a full recovery, despite being dramatically (albeit not entirely unrealistically) convinced she was on death's door every second.
By the end of the month, the Barrayaran flu has about a 30% mortality rate on the Cetagandan base, resulting in about 3000 influenza-related deaths.
base
The quarantine remains in effect until nearly the end of the month, but finally, once the epidemic has died down and the Handmaiden has been vaccinated, Haut Sei Navarr arrives. The base hurriedly puts together a formal reception for her on the 30th, and rather than another party, it is just that -- a clearly ritualized receiving of her presence, so rarely seen beyond Eta Ceta, let alone the rest of the Empire.
The reception for Haut Sei is exceedingly formal, and unlike the relatively lighter air of the party last month, inappropriate behavior is going to be much less generously tolerated here. The exotics are not required to attend, but if they do, it'll be about a four-hour reception with a clear ritual protocol that will nonetheless seem very obtuse to outside viewers. Diya is prominent in the reception, being the only other haut on base, and is in fact the only one truly suited to receive her -- although, unlike Diya, Haut Sei does not appear in public unmasked. As is the custom of haut ladies still in their constellations, Haut Sei travels in a float chair encased in an opaque force bubble -- she can see out, but no one can see in. She brings with her a small entourage of servitors known as the ba, who serve not only as testing grounds for new genetic combinations, but are also genetically engineered for loyalty and service. Ba are not clones -- each ba is a work of art unto itself, each carefully created, and while they are not quite so fey in their beauty, the aesthetic effort is undeniable. All of the ba with Haut Sei are curiously hairless, which seems to be a popular trend in their design among the haut these days.
Meanwhile on the scientific end, the Cetagandans are delving deeper into what is officially referred to as the Star Gate Project. They're working with Satya to build a hard-light mapping device, but in the meantime, they have laid out the most crucial parts needed to build it: high-precision electromagnetic bearings to hold up the Necklin rods and spin them by a magnetic field for reduced friction; high-quality seals and pumps to create the necessary vacuum required for precise jump-plotting; something generating EM shielding to prevent interference, a problem unique to creating a Necklin field of this size and in this environment; and high-precision controls and controls software based on those used in existing jump ships, modifications for which are underway. And, of course, the Necklin rods themselves, which they have yet to figure out a way to fabricate.
And now that Micah is on base, the Cetagandans can finally put them to work in the wormhole lab on some of those elusive five-space math problems.
They're still developing their theory of neural netting and how a Necklin field might directly interact with the human brain without a jump implant. Based on their research so far, this may not actually be much of a problem, but there's another factor they have yet to work out: how to key the Star Gate to an exotics' own home universe. The Cetagandan neurologists have a few theories that they're working with Deanna and Natasha on.
missions
With help from the exotics, they're able to vaccinate 80% of the base's uninfected population. Satya and Pearl, despite their hard efforts, have yet to finish the hard-light mapping device by the end of the month.
A few exotics learn a bit more about Sei and Diya's history, as well as Diya and Amai's plans for covering up their less than authorized experiments. It also comes to light that the haut are planning to open gene therapy trials for any exotics who experienced power loss.
The race to Micah's location in Vorkosigan Vashnoi is a frantic one, but despite the outsiders' efforts as well as Natasha, Byerly and Kaidan's efforts to slow down the Cetagandans, the Cetagandans get to Doctor Micah Niadem first.
Here are the unabridged mission results.
Note: Negri, Amai, Zahal, and Olivia are available for threads by request only. Please hit up Madi (Negri & Amai) or Ammay (Zahal & Olivia) 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.
TUCKER AND MILES
"We - have to pick up something extra while we're in there," he says, rather breathlessly. Presses himself to a corner, peeking around it for more guards. "Medical too."
no subject
Watching people he cared about falling ill had a way of doing that to a person.
"Wait, what?" Extra? That wasn't exactly in the mission briefing, and the furrow of his brow showed his displeasure at the surprise. Not that he was saying no but last minute plans were always a pain in the ass, uncoordinated and usually just enough to send a plan into fiery wreckage. "Like, it's in the same place? Because in case you didn't know, we're a little leaning towards 'we're fucked' side of the scale here." He pressed against the wall, wishing he knew more about the layout of this stupid place, just so he felt a little more confident about this shit.
"It better be the best porno mag in the goddamn galaxy or a cure to cancer, but I'm not sure we should be staying here for a second longer than we need to."
no subject
He grimaces a little at Tucker's painfully accurate statement. The man is right - they really can't waste any extra time now that they've sounded the alarms. Does he dare put the whole mission at risk just for his own needs? "It's important," he says after a moment. "At least - if it's in the same area, we should grab some. But not if we can't find it easily." There, that's a good compromise, isn't it? No reason not to grab extras if they happen to be in the same area, but no jeopardizing the mission unnecessarily.
no subject
But, either way, Tucker was on board for that compromise. However, a single important question still eluded him, so he asked, "What the hell is it?" After all, it was difficult to know what to look for when he wasn't told. Although coming back with extra medical supplies would pretty much be flipping the bird to their first mission, and he down with that, too. Simple egotistical pleasures.
He thought he heard another group of guards run buy, and he held his breath, eyes seeking out Miles. They'd have to leave this hole soon; he knew it was just a matter of minutes before they were found out. Shit.
no subject
Might be worth it to have another pair of eyes searching, though. Miles sucks in a breath to tell him - just as the guards run by. He clamps his mouth shut again and hunkers down. Lifting his gaze to Tucker in turn, then glancing towards the door on the opposite end of the hall. There. He thinks that might be it. If they dash now, they might be able to make it ...
no subject
Hey, at least he knew enough to keep his mouth shut now, keep from bitching when there were seemingly endless footfalls sounded, all hunting for them.
Tucker followed the gaze and nodded. He waited for a lull, a momentary silence of passersby, and pushed off running, hard. He was fast if nothing else, and he made it to the door without incident, yanking it open before turning and waving Miles over. God, he hoped like hell no one was inside because he wasn’t exactly looking at the moment.
no subject
When the door closes, he turns to survey the room. And - oh thank god, this is right. He relaxes as he surveys the rows of medication around them. And ... then looks a bit dismayed. What they're after should be easy enough to find. His medicine ... not so much. Dammit.
"Go ahead and find what we're after," he says, keeping his tones quiet. "I'll take a quick look around for mine." Maybe he'll find it and just tuck it away. That would be lucky.
no subject
But he remembered the name they told him to get, so he tugged out the bag and started to look for the one familiar word amongst a sea of bullshit. "You know," he muttered, trying not to get too loud when he didn't know how soundproof med rooms were, "it might be easier if you told me what 'yours' was, too, so we can both look for it."
Shelf one, shelf two, shelf three. Shit. "I'm just saying, four eyes might be better than two." And this all-so-important secret could finally be aired out because fuck was he curious.
no subject
Miles wavers abruptly, having to brace himself against one of the cabinets with a clatter of bottles. Shit. He's long overdue for a seizure by now, but he'd been hoping not to have it happen during the mission, of all times. What were the odds? (Not in his favor, apparently...) He manages a faint, gasping cry before his vision blurs into gibberish and he collapses bodily to the floor, convulsing.
no subject
“Holy shit!”
How he managed to not scream it, he didn’t know; Tucker hissed it through clenched teeth as he rushed over to his side. What the – He looked around to see if anyone shot him, if there was some electrical bullshit because this was in-fucking-sane, but nothing.
A seizure. This guy was having a fucking seizure and—
--And Tucker had no goddamn clue what to do.
Okay, well, he had one idea what to do, if only because he saw it in a movie. Dropping to his knees and ripping off one of his gloves, he shoved it the guy’s mouth so he wouldn’t bite off his tongue; the urge to just reach in there and grab it was beaten only by the knowledge that human jaws could clench and he would just bite off his fingers instead. Fuck, fuck, now what? He stuck his hand under his head so he wouldn’t crack his skull open, and shit, he was going to be carrying him back again, wasn’t he? Why couldn’t they just have one freaking good mission?
“Miles!” he hissed. “Miles, c’mon. Come on, come back. Miles! Miles, can you fucking hear me?!”
no subject
But he begins to slow after about two minutes, his limbs slowly subsiding from agitated stiffness into too-relaxed exhaustion. He does not look well afterwards. His skin looks positively gray around the edges, and his already funny looking face is so much mush. Not a good look for him.
He groans softly after a moment, his eyelids flickering. Where is he? What was he doing? The seizure has left him exhausted and blurry, unable to focus on anything. "Who...?" he murmurs thickly, his tongue feeling as though it's made of lead.
no subject
Two minutes. Two minutes could feel like an eternity when sitting in the med room of the enemy while his only mission partner was convulsing. The questions flooded in, anxiety slapping him across the face: what if he didn’t come back from this? What if someone came in? What if they were fucking caught and how the hell was he supposed to get him out of here and why the fuck didn’t he know this was a fucking possibility before they came all the way out here?!
But the eons of time moved finally, and Miles started coming around. Who.
“Um, the guy who is apparently dragging your ass the fuck out of here,” he muttered, breathing finally when Miles managed to say at least something. It didn’t comfort him, really, because who that was practically slurred from a face that level of gray wasn’t exactly helpful. Moving away, he stood up and looked around for something to help. “Tucker. I’m Tucker. We’re on a mission and we aren’t somewhere safe, dude, so help me help you.”
no subject
He tries to sit up again - and looks like he might throw up. That would be the worst reason to get caught here, bar none. A vomit trail telling the Cetagandans exactly where they are. "I know," he mumbles. "Shit. This is the worst timing."
no subject
Nope. Not going there.
And maybe it was the brain slog or something, but -- "You don't exactly sound surprised that you had a fucking seizure," he hissed, looking back at him slowly. Get that vomit out now, because if you puke on me I'm so kicking your ass. "Dude, did you know this could happen? Did you fucking know and didn't tell me?"
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There, Tucker. You have your answer finally, if also a little too late.
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Tucker's eyes narrowed darkly and -- "Seriously?! Every few weeks is rare? And you didn't think to tell your fucking mission partner?!" The urge to throw half the shit in this room was strong, barely letting him hold it back, to keep him from grabbing the nearest bottle of pills and chucking it. Goddammit, they didn't have time to fight about this, but--
"I swear to fucking God, dude, if we get out of this alive, I'm kicking your ass." He ran one of his hands over his face. Out. They needed to get out; this shit was botched, and it was more about getting out alive than it was "getting out with everything". Shit. Shit. Right now, getting Miles somewhere safe was the most important thing.
"Look, we'll try to get it next time; right now, we're leaving. Think you can ride on my back, in the least bow chicka bow wow way possible?"
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Fortunate that Tucker is large enough to cling onto. Miles still eyes his back with some skepticism, but really, what choice does he have?
"I didn't think I'd have one today," he says between gritted teeth. "I'll hold on if you kneel down."
He just rolls his eyes at the bow chicka bow wow. Oh, Tucker.
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This was pure running.
Tucker never thought he would be thankful in his life for Wash's strict laps and obstacle courses, but here we are. Forget ever telling him, though, because he knew he'd never hear the end of it. The fucking gloating...ugh.
"Climb on up. I'll get your legs, but we're not going to be able to fight. I'm just going to try to get us the hell out of here so you better hold on like a freaking octopus. Just pretend you're a drunk chick and I'm wealthy, okay?"
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"Your gift for metaphor is astounding," he quips dryly. His tongue still feels as though it's made of lead, but at least he's speaking clearly.
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Pushing his feet under him, he got up, finally standing. There were a few shifts as he tried to get Miles into a more comfortable position, before he took a deep breath. Yeah, they could do this, sure. Totally. It'd be easy, except for the parts where they would inevitably be shot at and he couldn't really see too much aside from what's ahead.
He made his way towards the door. "You ready to do this shit? I need you to watch my six for me, okay?"
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But - right. More important priorities. Miles finds he can twist his head to look back without wanting to throw up too badly, so he nods. "I've got your back," he says. "Quite literally."
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“You should feel special,” he whispered. “I don’t let just anyone ride me, not without at least a date first.”
Tucker could feel his heart in his throat, slamming as he let his hand go against the door and cracking it open a sliver. No one. He saw no one, and fuck were they lucky for that, the one good thing that happened so far. Teeth bit the inside of his cheek, and with a deep breath, he slid out of the room and started hustling them along.
Fuck, he hoped that the bouncing from movements didn’t make Miles more nauseous.
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Anyway - he rolls his eyes again, holding on tightly. And holding onto his lunch for that matter. The bouncing isn't helping, but he's not going to throw up, dammit. "Is it all romance with you?" he mumbles, keeping his voice low as they make their way down the hall. "Is there anyone you won't flirt with?"
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Maybe this wasn’t the best place to talk about things like this, but the last mission wasn’t the place to talk about s’mores, so this just seemed to be par for the course at this point. “Who said anything about ‘romance’?” He moved along the wall, keeping close and trying to hide in as many shadows as he could find. Romance didn’t factor into anything (except Sonia, but that was a whole other thing he didn’t completely understand himself yet). “I just talk about sex.”
Which was, in most cases, superior. He was still waiting for one person to disprove that theory.
“Nope.” He pulled off into an alcove, catching his breath for a second, before moving off again. “The people I won’t touch are back home; you’d get it if you knew them.” There was a grunt as he tried to hitch Miles a little higher up his back, rushing along faster as best he could.
“I mean, we can talk about how I’m pissed at you for not telling me important shit, if you wanna do that instead?”
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He stills a moment, thinking he heard something. Did he? No one's chasing them yet, but there's a definite commotion ... "I know, and I'm sorry," he mutters in low tones. "But you don't understand how dangerous it is. I'll be thrown out of camp if the General finds out."
To mostly certain death, especially if the village won't take him in.
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