forbarrayar | [ february ii log ]

Entry tags:

[ february ii log ]

Who: Everyone
What: Traitors exposed, celebrations had, sleight hands passing cards under the table. And so begin the preparations for what is soon to come.
When: February 18th - 28th
Where: Barrayaran camp / Cetagandan base
Warnings: Torture (interrogations thread)

Quick links:
Riverfall
Barrayar: Barrayaran camp / Party / Missions
Cetaganda: Cetagandan base / Moon-poetry party / Missions

The harsh weather rages on, which temperatures still averaging far below freezing, and the wind is still strong. But things are a little less dire for the outsiders, and for the exotics -- well, they have their own chills to deal with.

riverfall
Riverfall village is your typical Dendarii mountain village, which means it's small, humble, and mostly poor. This is the most rural of the rural around here, a little backwater even by Barrayaran standards. Most of the villagers live in houses of wood and stone built themselves or by ancestors. Despite the cold, there are plenty of people outside at any given time -- working, mostly, because the daily grind stops for no one, but even the occasional group of children taken over by fits of cabin fever. The village is built up against a rocky mountain face, from the top of which the eponymous waterfall flows into the river that borders the west edge of the village and continues down the mountain. The place isn't exactly hidden, but if you don't know your way around, it'd be hard to find without a native guide.

The villagers are wary of the outsiders at first, even more than the soldiers had been -- the rural Dendarii are as superstitious as they come -- but, slowly convinced of their good intentions, start to warm to them. They're a blunt, hardy people, largely uneducated and tending toward the most extreme of Barrayaran sensibilities, but they are undeniably fierce. The General Count trusts them, so they'll be more or less civil (by Barrayaran standards, anyway), but you might catch the occasional scrutinizing, watchful stare. With Cetagandans in camp and exotics among them, they border on hostile, especially those who are visibly nonhuman. They keep their heads down enough to keep from getting into trouble with the soldiers, but they do not like you at all.

Not everyone in Riverfall speaks English -- Russian is everyone's first language, and only about half the village has any passable command of English. Thankfully, the village's Speaker Yakiv Gura speaks English, if heavily accented. They're clearly stretching to the limit to help the camp, but to the Dendarii, there's no higher act than one in the Count's service, especially when it comes to fighting this war.

barrayar
Even after scoring themselves a little extra food, morale in the camp is at an all-time low. The miserably dangerous weather hasn't let up, food is still heavily rationed, and everyone is still at least a little tired, cold, and hungry all of the time. It doesn't help that they've lost a few soldiers in the last couple of weeks, and in Riverfall, too, some villagers have died of the cold despite their relative warmth and safety, mostly children. This is hardly the first harsh winter they've faced, but that doesn't stop the inexorable loss that comes with it. Some villagers may be somberly putting their loved ones to rest in the village graveyard when the outsiders are in town.

But Piotr finally calls Negri out as a spy sent by his aide-de-camp Captain Ezar Vorbarra, partly to deliver a message and partly to test Piotr, because Ezar loves coy bullshit. However, he does learn that both Ezar and Prince Xav Vorbarra, Olivia and Sonia's father, are en route to Vorkosigan's District with relief supplies from Beta Colony secured by Xav's ambassadorial connections and tireless lobbying. Once Piotr judges it safe to release this information, it bring with it a bit of hope -- and to seal the deal, Piotr and Olivia arrange a celebration of sorts in the village.

Finally outing the ring of reason in the camp helps to bolster morale, too. Vorhalas is interrogated, and the names of his co-conspirators are revealed: Lieutenant Boris Vortala, who killed himself in disgrace shortly after his fast-penta interrogation at ghem-General Zefyst's hand, and their commander Captain Aaron Vorbataille. Vorbataille has, of course, already started to make his escape -- but with the help out of the outsiders, he won't get very far. Once Piotr is satisfied with Vorbataille's interrogation as well, both men are put to execution, but not by beheading as Doctor ghem-Miko: the sentence for treason is death by public starvation and exposure, and in this weather, it doesn't take long. They are publicly and emphatically denounced as traitors with no honor to speak of, sending a very clear message. Although this might seem like a gruesome sight to the outsiders, to the Barrayarans this is simply how it goes, and very few of them are sorry to see these traitors suffer, particularly as Vorhalas was the one responsible for their food shortage in the first place.

Reports from those soldiers and outsiders who were in the village at the same time as the Cetagandan field science team present the General Count with another troubling problem, however: the implications of the Cetagandans building a device that could control this phenomenon are terrifying, particularly to this threadbare resistance movement. But sabotage seems hardly a worthy solution, either. This is the only lead they have on sending the outsiders home, and so many of them have already put their lives on the line for the cause of a planet that otherwise nothing to most of them. There would be no honor in robbing them of their only chance to return home. But whether they should continue to allow the Cetagandans to proceed with their research or try to find a way to copy their plans themselves, a dubiously possible venture at best, weighs heavily on his mind. It only complicates his strategic concerns further, but by his military orders in the next couple of weeks, at least one thing is clear: he wants Cetagandan bodies.

camp
Morale is critically low among the soldiers, particularly after a few casualties during a recent skirmish with a Cetagandan patrol, but spirits definitely begin to lift with news of relief. The soldiers are now more or less accustomed to the outsiders' place in the camp, and they're even starting to become a little friendlier toward them, particularly those who've been involved in the war effort. They might invite outsiders to play card or dice games with them, or share a conversation over an admittedly meager meal, or better still, bond with them in the true Barrarayan form: over a lot of alcohol.

Negri has more or less built himself a niche in the camp, and doesn't look like he's going anywhere any time soon. But he isn't the only spy around. They desperately need a man on the inside, particularly with the troubling news about the wormhole device, and right now, that man is Byerly Vorrutyer. Starting next month, Piotr is sending him on assignment to infiltrate the Cetagandan base under the cover of a cowardly collaborator.

party
By the time they have the party on the 21st, the villagers have warmed up to the outsiders a little, but they don't really bond until the party. With what little they have to share, they scrape together as much of a feast as they can: not much, but by this month's standards, any hot meal prepared with fresh ingredients seems absolutely decadent. And because this is Barrayar there is, of course, plenty of liquor, that Barrayaran moonshine maple mead not the least among them, and there's no shortage of wine or vodka, either.

The hillfolk light lanterns all around the village and raise large tarps to cover the open center of the village where they usually hold gatherings. Inside, protected from the wind and lit by the bonfire and braziers placed around the perimeter, it's actually almost warm. Every villager who's ever laid hand to an instrument seems to gather there to play music all night long, an energetic mix of lively folk music and raucous drinking songs. Anyone with any musical talent would be welcome to join them as well. There's plenty of dancing, too, very little of it formal or complicated, but everyone's having a good time for the first time in weeks, maybe months, and the mood is infectious. By the end of the night, morale seems to have risen overall, and people in camp have something real to look forward to. The partygoing visitors are put up in warmed tents within the tarped village center or in the villagers' homes where they have room. Come morning, they'll head back, but for just one night, it's almost like there isn't even a war on.

missions
Outsiders have been assisting with moving supplies between the camp and Riverfall all throught he rest of the month, and it mostly goes smoothly. Vorbataille is caught on the 20th, although he and Vorhalas aren't publicly executed until a few days later, when Piotr is satisfied with the intelligence he's extracted. By the time he gets Vorbataille's name out of Vorhalas, the traitorous Captain has already fled -- but thanks to Carolina, Duv and Zarya, he's dragged back to camp for his interrogation.

That evening, Maine and William have the misfortune of encountering a dragon -- Darkstalker is on a mission with a Cetagandan patrol, and they run right smack into each other. A fight breaks out, but ultimately Darkstalker and the Cetagandans come out on top, and the outsiders and Barrayarans are forced to retreat -- but not before managing to kill a Cetagandan soldier or two, just barely escaping with one of the bodies.

Miles finds himself in a terrible position when a guard patrol shift goes horribly wrong in a skirmish against some Cetagandans, resulting in the death of their squad leader and a very ugly aftermath.

Zarya, William, Beth and Miles are in Riverfall with some Barrayaran soldiers on a supply run when a Cetagandan field science team arrives with a few exotics in tow. This is a rare chance to learn more about the Cetagandans' scientific exploits, and among other things, they find out that whatever it is that brought them here, the Cetagandan scientists are convincede it has something to do with the wormhole that collapsed 700 years ago.

The unabridged mission writeup is here.

cetaganda
The Cetagandans are a notoriously tight-lipped bunch, but they're blowing away most of the smoke surrounding their wormhole science research. As has been alluded, they're currently working on a device to harness the phenomenon that brought all the exotics here in the first place, and hopefully find a way to send them all home with it. They invite any exotics with scientific expertise to a series of interviews about neurology, astrophysics, and mechanical engineering. None of the advisement they receive helps to solve one of their most critical problems -- that of generating a Necklin field to match the one that must have surrounded each exotic -- but it certainly puts them closer to their goal, particularly in the area of neurology, and they're hardly going to stop there. But it's clear that the mathematicians and astrophysicists on base don't have sufficient expertise to solve the most complex equations before them. But on the brighter side of things, in the interest of this scientific exchange, they're letting the lab techs help a little more beyond just grunt work.

Meanwhile, the genetics project that seems so strange and arcane to the exotic carries on, largely behind the scenes, although Diya is increasingly at odds with her husband and even some of her senior staff, particularly the precocious Amai ghem-Soren. But there is very real purpose behind it -- and far more than just one -- and Diya d'Zefyst is a woman of great ambition. And more than anything else, she is haut.

Unfortunately, the relative peace on base is abruptly broken when Daryl, Lakshmi and Wash all manage to escape in a wild breakout attempt on the 25th. York and Ratchet are left behind, and as a result, some of their privileges revoked. They're now being watched a little more closely as a result.

base
Overall, despite simmering tensions under the surface and the miserable weather, life on base seems to be going more or less smoothly around them. The Cetagandans have had some recent victories against the Barrayarans, so morale is high. Unfortunately, after the breakout they begin cracking down on security with the exotics -- going back to treating the exotics a little more like they did when they first arrived. They aren't under guard, but after the 25th, they are being watched.

They still maintain that insistent veneer of civility, however, breaking only in cases where they feel the need or security risk is significant enough. The ghem on base remain overall cordial and courteous to the exotics as they ever were, which is to say considerably and always with a touch of smug superiority. With her success at the party earlier this month followed by her performance in the moon-poetry garden, the often-sequestered Amai ghem-Soren is seen more around the base.

moon-poetry party
The moon-poetry party is about three hours long and steeped in ceremony, each participant taking their turn to recite. This is, apparently, not a recitation of one's own work, but rather selections of classical Cetagandan poems, and in so referencing something culturally ubiquitous, each makes a statement in its mere selection and juxtapositions. If you pay close enough attention, you might notice that each participant has very subtly coordinated their outfits to further complement the theme of their recitation. Although there is a definite dignity to the party, it doesn't take much to pick up on the fact that this is yet another arena ghem use to try and socially one-up one another. Among the participants are both the Chief Medical Officer Colonel Faro ghem-Naru and Doctor Amai ghem-Soren, whose performance was especially well-received, the theme apparently being something about subtle passions.

missions
The science interviews with the exotics go more or less well, although not quite so hopeful as the Cetagandans were hoping. They do, however, learn some things about FTL travel in other worlds as well as other kinds of neural implants.

On the evening of the 21st, York, Natasha and Kaidan accidentally bear witness to what is clearly some kind of travesty: clearly a human being, but both overgrown and underdeveloped, and exhibiting powers of hydrokinesis and psychic empathy, referred to only as a ba.

On the 23rd, Jasper, Lapis, Pearl and Darkstalker accompany some soldiers and a field science team to Riverfall village, coinciding with a visit from some outsiders and soldiers. They encounter some outsiders while there but also pick up a bit on what it is the Cetagandans are doing -- that the Necklin field problem still remains their biggest problem, and they've been getting conflicting orders from the higher ups lately.

The unabridged mission writeup is here.

Note: Negri and Zahal are available for threads by request only this round. Please hit up Madi or Ammay respectively if 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Well. He's not entirely sure what else to say. Haggard at least sounds kind of cool and tough. Really, she'd looked half dead.

He makes a face at the thought of the Cetagandans taking the blackwater. He'll have to thank Daryl personally for getting that back. ]

Mmm. You looked near to death, to be honest. Have you had a chance to take some then?

Some, yes, once we escaped.

[ Paranoia ran deep, sometimes. Her hand shifts up, and where she's dressed in only her underclothes, the phial is sitting there against her collarbones. Her fingers closing around it slowly. Her thumb pressing against the coat of arms at the back, not hers - hers were a red flag set with a fly whisk and drum.

But Sir Bors. Grey-eyed Sir Bors, that worn in scar on his forehead, with his leg blown off by canon fire, Sir Bors, surrounded by the bodies of the Purebloods he had killed. Sir Bors, telling her, that at over a thousand years old, if she takes this up, one day, she too will feel tired.

Looks back up at Miles then, blinking the memory out of her mind and smiling at him. ] I didn't dare do it in their cells, I was sure they were watching me at least a little. Though it meant my age.... has caught up with me, it seems.

[ He's caused her to think of something terrible, hasn't he. Ah ... He shifts closer, trying to cheer with his presence if not his words. ]

I did see that. [ He risks reaching up to touch a fleck of gray before retreating his hand. ] I rather like it, actually. You look very grave and dignified.

[ Not that she doesn't anyway. But he doesn't mind, really. ]

[ To have him here - it cheers her a great deal. Enough to draw her out where she feels it so easy to curl into herself for a time. Says nothing when he brushes against her hair, the streaks of grey through it. Her hair is thick, and at the moment, unravelled over her shoulder where it hadn't been kept neatly in her sleep. ]

Do I? Any chance it might mean these soldiers will stop grumbling about a woman in their ranks if they think that?

[ Her own attempt to reassure him, she's fine, now. ]

[ It works well enough. He's cheered by the joke, enough to smile again. ]

Unfortunately, given the prejudices around here, that's unlikely. Idiots, all of them.

[ He eyess that mess of hair idly, wondering if he might offer to rebraid it for her. Much like their first meeting. ]

[ She looks down - and she had lectured Zahal on just what she felt about Barrayaran standards when it came to women. ]

I am sure they've plenty to say that my first mission and I managed to be captured.

[ Cringes even saying it, her pride is only hurt some, in the end it had been to protect Maine, to that she did not care what had happened to her. ]

[ Too much, of course. Same as Miles' own failures recently. He can't fail out of sheer bad luck or his own fault, no; it's always representative instead. It's tiring. He hates it already. ]

Mm, well. All the more reason to prove them wrong, Raini. That's what I tell myself, anyway.

I am sure I will, in enough time.

[ She presses her mouth together, a pursed line that might be... being irritated with herself, more than anything. A quiet thing as she slides back to him. ]

You can stop calling me that if you wish. I am not your or anyone else's Queen.

[ Miles blinks up at her at that. He clearly hasn't figured out that particular wrinkle about her identity. ]

Er - I wasn't addressing you as such. [ A pause. ] Was I?

[ She laughs, reaching across to brush her fingers against his hair idly, teasing him at least a little. ]

You were. I've never once lied to you about who I am, I just... did not say it in a way that you would understand.

[ Ah. He can't help the faint flush that rises in his cheeks at that touch; he does them both the favor of pretending not to notice it.

A faint frown at her statement, but then the answer comes to him after a moment. ]

Rani is not your name? ... A title?

Yes. [ Simplest put, the nuances of nobility from a world away now. ] I am the Maharani, Lakshmi Bai. My husband was the Maharaja Gangadhar Rao Newalker of Jhansi. I took the name Lakshmi when we married, as is our custom.

[ best just say it all now, so it doesn't need to come up again. ]

[ Oh. Now that she says it all at once, he gets it. Maharani is a term he's heard before, however rarely. How had he not realized it before? He feels a bit silly. ]

Lakshmi, then? [ A faint question in his tone to make sure he's gotten it right. ] A pleasure, then, to call you by your name at last.

[ She smiles slowly, sadly, as is her want she thinks, these days. Tired, she will sleep again sooner rather than later, for as good as it feels to be up and moving for a little while. To spend that company with him. ]

And to be called such by you. [ At least, he doesn't mangle it as horribly as some of them did. Half the Englishmen in her rebellion she thinks call her boss, just because it's a bit too much for them to manage. ]

[ His closest relatives in his time are Vorpatrils, after all, so he can pronounce her name with reasonable ease. Enough not to mangle it, anyway. Another faint hint of red at that comment. ]

You felt a need to keep your secrets. I understand that completely.

[ More than she knows even now. A faint flinch of guilt; she's told him everything, after all. Would it matter so much if she knew everything in turn? ]

[ Hers had been forced from her in the worst possible way. Her words to Byerly were true, she had rather she had been tortured. Why she thought to give herself up at all, over Maine, because she knew, there was nothing a mortal man could do to her that had not happened a hundred times. Over, and over again. What was the worst anyone could do to her anymore?

She had not expected that answer. Bitter, yes, because she guarded these things close not just for secrecies sake, but to bury the parts of her that had grown up in a time and place that no longer existed. A home burned to the ground. A life and a woman, that had died along with it to leave this behind.

They had dragged it all up, all of it. Zahal, Cetaganda as a whole. Worse, than she could barely control herself through it. Her control that was everything to her. They had taken all of it, held it up, disregarded it like it was just dressings for their party. How sickening such a thing was. Left her there afterwards like an animal curled around wounds, backed into a corner and stripped down to the barest parts of herself.

But more than anything, it would be wrong for someone that she was set so again - to have the truth and not those that had come to save her. Who saw to her. Who were kind to her, despite keeping so much to herself. She must tell something, it was the only way to make it feel right. ]

I put my trust in you, and you did not fail me. It is a small thing to give back.

[ All of her thanks was a paltry thing to say, really, but it was true. ]

[ Did something happen to change her mind over at the Cetagandan base? Probably; he can't imagine it was pleasant. Even without the threat of torture, fast penta would be a humiliating experience if she'd undergone it. And odds are decent that she had ...

He won't ask unless she offers, though. The physical effect seems as though it was bad enough. ]

No. [ His own voice is soft, edged with guilt. ] It is an enormous thing to give back. Even with proof. [ As he has now in turn, doesn't he? And yet he's entrusted her with none of his secrets in turn. A quick glance around; the med tent is never empty, but his corner is as deserted as is feasibly possible. No Negri about. And any medicos are more than happy to stay far away from the mutie.

He takes a breath. ]

I've not been entirely honest with you either.

[ she's about to say something else, but he cuts her off with it, and wary, perhaps - and straight to the conclusion she fears most, that he has been, secretly, a Lycan this whole time - and dismisses it as quickly. It seems unlikely.

Or, she hopes it is.

Rather, she settles her hands in her lap, turns to face him and waits to hear whatever it is he has to tell her. Nodding for him to go on when he's good and ready to. ]

[ It takes him a moment. Even now he's hesitant - even trusting her this much. Lakshmi's secrets are no less dangerous than his, to be sure. But Miles' would have a more immediate effect. Starting with a very unpleasant interrogation session with Piotr.

... Which is different from her situation how? Surely she'd be in much the same boat. That is what pushes him over the edge: he thought that she is equally in need as him. It seems unbalanced. Wrong. She ought to have leverage on him too, it seems.

He pitches his voice low so that only she can hear him. He'll let her guess at the implications of his last name - and his title - before he clarifies. ]

My real name is Lord Miles Naismith Vorkosigan.

[ Titles and all, since she clarified hers. ]

Edited 2017-02-25 12:24 (UTC)

[ It would be a lie to say she understood completely, at first. She doesn't know this planet, but Vor, oh she would have to be an idiot to miss their names. Vorbarra, Vorruyter, Vorhalas, Vorkosigan -

Her eyebrows shoot up. The Count and Countess? Well... that was - to say so much as - She could both understand and not at all why he'd keep that to himself. The kind of thing that means everything and nothing at once.

Her mouth shuts. No, no at the beginning, start at the beginning. ]

You are their family? A brother or - [ with their ages it was... difficult to tell. But, no if they were brothers, they would know each other. ] a cousin?

[ Good. She's grasped some of the implications already, he can tell; he rest he can lay out in greater detail. If she believes him anyway.

He shakes his head slightly at that. If only he were some distant cousin. Then he could claim his heritage immediately. ]

Family, yes. Cousin, no. I am Piotr's grandson. From several decades in his future.

[ How many decades, he's not quite sure. But somewhere between seventy and eighty years, given the state of the war. ]

[ It is strange, it's incredibly strange. It still takes her a minute or two to gather it all together. Lay it out. All the odd holes in the things he had said to her, talked about, always carefully implied but never stated.

Careful as lines on a map really, but she was missing the large picture to give it any relativity. ]

His grandson? Does he know?

[ She'll - get to the second part, in a minute. It's a great deal to process all at once. ]

[ Another fierce head shake. And a shudder. The very thought is still utter terror. ]

Being his grandson would not save me from the interrogation. Hell, it would make it worse. Claiming that relationship, with that sort of ludicrous story...

[ He'd be lucky to survive the resulting torture. ]

[ She opens her mouth to say that he will be glad to meet his own grandson, but closes on it, frowning a little. She cannot say that, from what she had observed of him so far. He treated her fairly, but that was in no small part because she demanded it, forcibly, from just about everyone she met.

Miles was in neither of a position to expect it or the Count a man to bend that easily. ]

I see. [ No, he couldn't, could he? ] There would be no way to talk around his disbelief, would there?

[ Miles just shakes his head sharply at that. ]

I had hoped to prove myself first. Confess afterwards, maybe. But I will not have his mercy if I throw myself upon it now.

[ His gaze goes distant. ]

My earliest memory is of him trying to smother me in my bed.

[ It may not even be a real memory; it may be an informed one based on the fact that he knows Piotr tried to kill him as an infant. But it leaves an impression all the same. ]

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