For Barrayar mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
barrayarmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
forbarrayar2017-02-18 03:21 pm
barrayarmods) wrote in forbarrayar2017-02-18 03:21 pm
Entry tags:
- !event,
- #barrayaran camp,
- #cetagandan base,
- #riverfall village,
- *amai ghem-soren,
- *diya d'zefyst,
- *gail ghem-estif,
- *olivia vorkosigan,
- *piotr vorkosigan,
- *sonia vorbarra,
- agent washington | protocol,
- daryl dixon | pigsfeet,
- kaidan alenko | standsentinel,
- lakshmi bai | shri,
- lapis lazuli | mirrortide,
- lavernius tucker | lovernotafighter
[ 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.
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)
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.
no subject
[ Which is more than she wants to say, she never wants to say much of herself. It is no one's business than her own and she regrets it immediately as she can't help but stand her ground on it. Said now. Shoulders ready for what blow came. ]
no subject
[ Well. Possibly a less selfish motive than she'd originally thought. Satya's brow furrows, a flicker behind it betraying her curiosity winning out over her silent anger. There is perhaps reason to her after all. ]
And where is it that you come from, that your people are so subjected?
no subject
I am the Queen of Jhansi. [ The letters she had curved in the glass to Dixon, but she's rather gotten used to people having no idea where that is. What that means. This woman in front of her looks nothing at all like what she knows of her own home. Most didn't. They spoke of things she didn't understand any more than they understand of her. ]
no subject
[ She knows it, any child growing up in India knows the historical significance of the city. She's also well-acquainted with who the last ruler was before the British empire claimed their country.
She takes the woman in with new regard, tinged by a measure of dubiousness. ]
They have not known a queen in well over a century. Not since Lakshmibai. India stands together as a democracy, where I come from.
no subject
A hundred questions that all want to come at once - what of Hastings, the Knights? The United India Company? How long will it take? How long must she fight? When will they be overthrown, send England and their vicious dogs packing back to their homes and -
( Did her Arnand grow up, did he take the wife she promised him fondly one day, he would and find some measure of peace even after it all? )
Who she is, right now, is irrelevant. Doesn't bother with confirming it either way. Rather, she's incensed, her sickness and wariness and even the rage forgotten, the only thing that mattered and she has not had word of anything like home for years, not properly. Not since she poured over the trade routes with Galahad to seek proof of Lord Hastings guilt. Just had to swallow on the knowledge that they controlled every state now. ]
When? When is this to happen? Is it in your lifetime?
[ When is that, how far? How long must she fight? ]
no subject
Satya does not allow herself to be shaken, however. She remains calm, though the anger ebbs, leaving only her own strange curiosity in its place. ]
Our independence? No. It would have been in the time of my great-grandparents, or further.
no subject
What year?
no subject
[ A commonly known day of celebration. But she doesn't know it, or pretends not to. Satya is no longer precisely sure what is going on here, but it is certain that she will not leave without answers of her own.
Her eyes narrow. ]
Who are you?
no subject
But that means nothing, nothing to the surety that it would happen. It would, she could make sure of it, she would give all of herself to that cause and in the end - her eyes only glance back to her briefly. ]
You have already named me.
no subject
And now is when surprise takes hold of her expression, a quiet still shock that settles through her as realization sinks in. The woman in front her, bloodied and battle-hardened, now suddenly seems to make much more sense to her given the context. ]
Lakshmibai. You...are The Rani?
[ A figure of legend. There are statues in her honor. Yet she stands here, aged far beyond what history says should be possible, but alive. ]
no subject
The anonymity allowed some freedom, truth be told, the same as why she had not hurried to inform Galahad. ]
That fought the English at Jhansi, Kelpi and Gwalior.
no subject
Nothing of what she knows, save that she thinks she understands. Fighting for the freedom of their people is what the Rani of Jhansi is famous for, but could she say her people would be what they are had they not known British rule? Even now they maintain some of their customs, traces of the old Empire.
And they are strong, now. A global power. None could deny that. No, things had happened as they were meant to, and she composes herself after a moment, though her expression is a bit tighter now. A bit more aware. ]
You are well-known for it.
no subject
Am I? That is not my place to say.
[ Not so much humility, but understanding. It was not for her to decide what her legacy would be, it was only for her to try and do what she could. The rest, the rest was history's choice. ]
... Are they... has there been peace since they left?
no subject
[ She presses closer still to the cage, nearly close enough to touch now. To register the strangeness of the wear on her, the odd way she seems both a woman in her prime and barely held together by an unnamed something. ]
Your people have built a Utopaea. A city of light to shelter those left in the ruins. The world looks to us as a beacon of hope, of restoration. That is our legacy.
no subject
A hundred, hundred wounds, a thousand, thousand deaths and none of them leave her half so weak as knowing her homeland is safe.
It feels like that now, like she cannot breathe, like her body is aching with its own weight. The way that at first, it feels like nothing but a weightless dizziness and then it everything at once, burning and searing even in places she had not been struck. The walls of her cage cool something that feels so feverish within her. That longs to rip free and taste that future for herself that will not be kept in here, and now. Must tell herself, it is an effect of the sickness, of her being without the blackwater so long at the encroachment of death that makes her feel so free. Her arm braces her as she leans in, her breath slow.
She needs to hold steady, to hold fast, she cannot give into that wave that yanks down, now. She must wait, wait to see them all. She takes one breath as if to force herself to keep doing it, then again. That is the trick of centuries, Sir Bors murmuring as they looked over the walls in preparation together, you just keep breathing. Breathing to take it all in, because there aren't words, they would be paltry murmurs that come from a foolish tongue in this moment.
She looks up, all flat and hunted and not kept, not at all kept, she will never stay in these rooms. ]
Thank-you, daughter, for telling me such things. [ Meets her eyes, brief. Grief and gratitude held in the same fingers that did not know how to let either of them go. ]
no subject
Why? Why continue to fight? Perhaps it is all she knows, perhaps she is in fact some wrathful spirit of the Rani made flesh, unable to rest, knowing only the battle of liberation and rebellion because that is what formed her image. That is what is remembered, carried even now in the stories of their people.
But it is not then. This is not India, and the fight is so very different. Yet still there is hope. If she truly hopes the best for this people, maybe she can yet be reasoned with.
That one word knocks her argument from her lips.
For the first time in years, decades, she feels suddenly small. When was the last time she heard that word in reference to her? She is no one's daughter, the product of Vishkar if anything. They are not her family, but they formed her, gave her their gift if she would use hers for them. It is an arrangement, an understanding. They are building a better world...
She gave up -- she was taken from -- her family in order to do so. She understands -- she was told, time and again -- what it meant.
Without her, none of it would be possible.
She stares at Lakshmi, blinking once, attempting silently to will that smallness, that momentary vulnerability back beneath her shields where it belongs. ]
no subject
No, it looks, hunted, pressed back where she doesn't think she's looked like that once the whole time they've done traded words like swords. Her hand presses up as she steadies herself, swallowing down on the cough that threatens. Later, later, she could afford to be sick later. ]
This war you speak of... how much will it cost?
[ Is it why you look like I have burned you? Is it why you are willing to accept what they say? Things will explain themselves, she supposes, one way or another. ]
no subject
[ And as she speaks, the mechanical hand at her side curls into a light fist. ]
Nothing that is not worth sacrificing for peace and order.
[ She would not commit herself without a reason, without a promise of something better to come. She is not the naive fool this woman -- Lakshmibai, in the flesh, it still feels strange to even consider that -- believes her to be, and even now she pulls herself back up to her full height.
She will not show weakness. To anyone. ]
no subject
Why it had taken her so long to go to war at all. Why she had pleaded, for so long, in letters and lawyers and good intentions and her husband's memories for the right to protect her people. ]
Be that as it may. But remember, if I am but history to you, then take the lessons from the blood that was spilt, that I have spilt: the United India Company too was called honourable. They would preach enlightenment - [ oh how she has learned how the Cetagandan's favour that word. ] - and ever was it the excuse for their butchery.
[ It's a barely held contempt, but truth utterly as she knows it. But then, she has her own bias. If someone were to tell her that Zahal was a beast in men's clothes, she would happily believe that of him regardless of the truth, so much she loathes them. ]
no subject
[ She gestures even to this cell. Worlds better than anything that would await her as a Barrayaran captive, she's certain. ]
To seek to quench unrest is not a love of violence, but the abhorrence of it. Would these people not be better off with the means to not just survive, but to flourish? To have a place of importance in some grand design rather than be left to starve in the mud and cold?
[ I know what that was, her eyes say, and I would not wish that life upon anyone. Vishkar plucking her from the slums was no mistake, but a demonstration of how high even those of the lowest origins could climb, if given the opportunity to reach their potential.
So she sees it. So they have made certain she sees it. ]
no subject
Rather to hear such things out of the mouth of someone of her home, stings like she'd been struck. Recoiling like a blow to her face. Stepping away and shaking her head, no - that will not be the truth of it. ]
This isn't an unrest that they happened upon or were invited to solve by this land. This is an unrest that they made. They are invaders, they have come to a planet not their own and elected to claim it as their own.
no subject
[ She's not wrong. She's not wrong about that -- Wash's words about the Cetagandans still having the choice to leave this planet in peace and ignoring that option -- and it's difficult to argue that fact. It is fact. Those are not to be argued with.
Vishkar was no different. So there has to be a reason, something to make it worthwhile, and she can't step any closer but her brows furrow down tightly. ]
They are going to make things better, if they would only let them. If you see someplace you can do good, you should. But these attacks, this rebellion, all it is doing is hampering the progress that could be made. Look around you! This could all be theirs!
no subject
[ It's grit, desperate, listen, please, listen to her, please tell her that this isn't the future after all she bled for. ]
They will never see a breath of it. They will kill all that oppose them and call the graveyards peace, but the peace will be theirs.
no subject
[ She thinks of Rio de Janeiro, of the favela. What had Sanjay said? Those who served a purpose in Vishkar's future would find their lives improved. That was key. Those who... ]
Those who become part of a greater purpose can find peace. It is the only way. Discord, chaos, unrest, this can't serve them any better.
[ Both hands have curled into fists by this point. ]
I have known what it is to live in the wreckage of war, Rani. Were it not for people like the Cetagandans, like Vishkar, I would be there still. And it is no life for anyone.
no subject
But it thuds, low, like forgotten music, deep and settled into her, to hear someone say it even and beseaching of her. Swallows on something dry in her throat, watching her face. A future there. Not anyone else's future, but that of her people and when has she ever cared for anything so much as that. Duty - but more than that. As solemn as the prayers she learned in devotion she learned at her mother's hip.
Breaks and breaks and breaks. Damn walls had give out, one day.
And she has been lonely -
Responds then, not in English, but low murmured words in Hindi. Because things this important, she would always hold to her mother tongue. ]
Tell me. Tell me so I may understand.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)