[ march ii log: ageless beauty ]

[barrayarmods]

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.

Comments

[protocol]

[ Wash had been able to put some clues together -- he knew it would affect the line of succession, and drastically, knew the Vorbarras were the Imperial line. He'd guessed that something or the other would happen to Sonia, to her sister, but ah, dead before Miles is even born, that's a reality that's hard to face, after coming to know her, after growing fond of her.

The color drains from his face when he understands just what Miles is saying. All traces. All traces. And Sonia surviving it all, only to die after . . . ]

How many? [ God. How many died. He's heard enough about some of the other Vor families to know how sprawling they can be. ]

[dendarii]

[ It's not as bad as Wash is picturing. But ... it sure ain't great, either. Miles can fit them all on one hand. ]

Ezar survived and went on to succeed him, after my grandfather won his civil war and dismembered Mad Emperor Yuri. [ Okay, so Piotr didn't do that alone, but still. ] Prince Xav will live. Piotr, my father, and Sonia's son.

[ And a few minor cousins scattered about, surely, but these are the ones he knows about for certain. Sonia will technically live through the day, but ... ]

I had an uncle and an aunt who perished. My father was a second son, you see. But at the end of the day, he and Piotr were the only two Vorkosigans left alive.

[protocol]

[ Not as bad. Still fucking terrible. Those are names he's vaguely heard, people who've been to the camp even if he's never met, but of course Wash remembers the names, can slot them into place. Xav had seemed a good man, from afar -- and Yuri, this Mad Emperor would be the one that Miles had mentioned before. Trying to distract himself from the evident tragedy of what he's just heard just by trying to slot new information into place isn't. Working very well. He keeps picturing Sonia, wrecked after so many of her own family dead, nursing her own wounds.

That's a lot of family dead. And still, as terrible as it all is, Wash still mostly focuses on the people he knows, on individuals. And right now, that's just Miles, standing in front of him, suddenly seeming even more improbable than Wash already knew him to be.

Another breath. He lifts a hand to Miles' over his arm, squeezing faintly, apparently he's York, now, apparently the contact is good, he'll think about that later. ]

What a damned mess you were born into, Miles. [ He nearly says Vorkosigan. He decides against it -- there's a softness to his voice, despite the words. ]

[dendarii]

[ And here Miles hasn't even gotten into the circumstances of his own birth. His existence as he knows it is fantastically fragile; he's not just being narcissistic by being certain he can't exist outside of the very specific circumstances that created him. So many things about him change at even the slightest alteration.

He stops when Wash squeezes his arm to look up at him. It is comforting to have contact. Helps him from falling back into his old head, though this part is all old history. Was old history. ]

I'm surprised you didn't catch on sooner. How else does a man like me become heir to someone like Piotr? He literally had no other choice.

[protocol]

[ Well, he honestly didn't think Piotr would live that long. A general that wins a war from this kind of deficit, who was as key to all of it as Miles insists? There doesn't seem to be a shortage of knives in the dark on Barrayar -- not to mention, as ambitious as Miles is, as much and as far as it seemed to climb, to someone who isn't quite so familiar with the intricacies of succession, it really hadn't seemed nearly so improbable.

It does make sense, though. He'd drawn the line well enough, when it came to what happened, but still. Hearing it makes it more -- real. Now he has an image to attach to the idea of Sonia's eventual death. Damn his memory. ]

I had a few pieces. I knew it would be terrible, I'd guessed at some of the deaths that must happen, but. [ Drawing a line between the dots, as accurate as he knew it must be, is a whole lot different to having everything spelled out. There's more, he needs to press further, now that he's already here, now that Miles is sharing this much. He squeezes over his hand again. ] How does it happen?

[ A massacre. Such a particular word. Makes it sound like it might've all happened together. ]

[dendarii]

[ Ha. Piotr has tried to kill Miles far more times, and Miles would never think to extend his ambitions in that direction to begin with. Vorkosigan's house rarely has knives turned against itself, save in self harm.

It's almost a relief to tell this story compared to Dagoola IV, though there's no joy in this telling either. Just less personally awful. ]

Yuri sent out his death squads with no warning at all. Targeted gatherings when he could, individuals when he couldn't. He'd intended to catch everyone at Sonia's son's first birthday party. Only sheer luck kept Piotr and Xav away, and my father alive.

[ Okay, Piotr was probably too much of a grumpy nerd to want to attend, but Xav had legitimately been late, per family lore. ]

[protocol]

[ Her son's first birthday party. She survives that? God. It might've been kinder for her to die there. In a way, Wash does find this easier to listen to than watching Miles lose his anchor to reality altogether, than to watch him slip into something horrible. A breath, and he nods. Files that information away with the rest.

God, Sonia. She does deserve so much better than that. Surely the rest of her family does, too, as little as Wash might know about them. ]

Thank god for sheer luck, then. [ He closes his eyes a moment. Another breath. ] How much does she know?

[ He assumes it's none of this. He'd still like to know how much. ]

[dendarii]

[ His answer is likely immediately obvious from the shudder that goes through him. He trusts Sonia (shut up Byerly) but that doesn't mean she gets everything. Or much of anything. ]

Very little. That I am her great nephew and that I am close friends with her grandson. No names, of course.

[ Barrayaran patronymics being what they are, even telling her Ivan's name would be entirely too much. ]

And not a word about this massacre. I want to stop it, not dangle the blade over her neck. It's vital that secret never reaches the ears of any native here.

[ The political ramifications are hideous. Barrayar still needs to win the war, after all, and Yuri needs to stay alive right up until he starts to go mad. Arguably right up until his dismemberment. ]

[protocol]

[ Okay, okay. That puts all the information he just learned into a context, that means that Wash can try and file it away, yet again, try not to linger on it. Try. That's difficult, with a memory like his, but he is practiced. He nods. It's good she doesn't know that much. It has to be that none of them can know.

But, still. Back on track. He shakes his head, turning back to him, a brush of his hand over Miles' and a faint squeeze as he moves back towards the log to just sit back down again. He might need to sit down. Sonia, at her son's first birthday . . . ]

You still shouldn't have told her.

[dendarii]

[ Just in case you thought this invasion was an isolated incident. Barrayar's history is hideous.

Miles reluctantly lowers himself back down to the log, his gaze distant but not dissociative. He's just thinking. Slightly regretful. ]

I know. But - she was the first. And I was desperately tired of lying to all these family members I'd never met.

[protocol]

It's not that she's not trustworthy. She's just --

[ A heavy sigh, leaning forward, elbows on his knees. She's good. Too good, well-intentioned, and those are the kinds of people you can never fucking predict, can you. ]

What if she thinks there's someone she can tell anything? [ Tucker, goddamn Tucker. Her sister, maybe. Paranoid what-ifs, Wash has got them. ] What if there's ever some damned threat to your life, Miles? What if it's from your grandfather? What if she thinks she could save you by telling him who you are?

[dendarii]

[ Miles pales. The problem with being a good - though fucking flawed - person is that he doesn't always consider those ramifications. Not with Sonia, who he's not trying to lead or manipulate into doing what he needs them to do. But that ... Miles could see Sonia doing that. And just as innocently upend the whole scheme. ]

If Piotr wants to kill me, I'm already dead. [ Bitterness is preferable to fear, so he settles on that. ] My identity would not save me even if he believed my story.

[ He's grimly, entirely certain of that fact. Too certain. ]

[protocol]

[ Wash doesn't doubt that, either. That'd been one of the first things Miles had told him about himself, after all, not even that damned long after he'd learned his name. My own grandfather tried . . . ]

Idiot. [ Nudging him in the side, but there's a fondness, there, no sharpness to it -- he's gotten most of that out now, at least, as frustrated as he still is with Miles for making the mistake to begin with. He's already made it. There's nothing to change.. ] That's what she might do. Not what I would.

[ And leaning back slightly, with an overly dramatic, heavy sigh. Of course he's going to save your fucking ass if Piotr wants you dead, Miles, are you kidding. ]

And surviving after that would still be easier without more people knowing your secret.

[dendarii]

[ It takes Miles a moment to realize what Wash is saying here. To jump from Sonia saving his life to - Wash? Jumping in and saving him? Which really shouldn't come as a surprise by now, but Miles still turns his head slowly in disbelief. ]

You have people of your own that you need to save. If things sour with Piotr, I don't have any other options. Focus on the people you can help.

[protocol]

[ Wash just looks completely and utterly unimpressed. Really. ]

Miles.

[dendarii]

Don't Miles me. You're a survivor, aren't you?

[protocol]

Sure, I'm a survivor. I'm all that's left after everyone else is dead. [ There's a slight coldness to his tone, here, because fucking really. ] I picked up after just about all of their bodies, I got to see their corpses face-down in their own blood, got to destroy them, too, because you can't leave that kind of tech out there for people to scavenge.

And I'm sure watching all my friends die has made me incredibly eager to lose even more. [ Don't tell him to leave you if your life's in danger. He'd ask that of his friends, too, oh he knows he would, and he knows it'd piss them off just the same. ] People of my own I need to save? Christ, Miles -- you're fucking one of them.

[dendarii]

[ All right, that was a low blow and he knew it. But the details about their dead bodies makes him shudder visibly. (He will not think about the weight of Murka's head in his hands.) He stares down at the ground stubbornly, not quite ready to concede Wash's point. ]

I don't doubt you think so. [ He still doesn't think he should be in that category, but ... ] You know what I meant. You can't - give up everything else for one person. You have objectives of your own.

[protocol]

We're far too similar for that shit to work with me, Miles.

[ Because oh he knows that voice. He knows the way he looks away, knows the tone in his voice, knows that stubbornness. He knows the way he dodges around it, don't doubt you think so, like he thinks Wash is wrong. He knows that even if he concedes, deep down he's going to keep believing that Wash is making the wrong decision. He knows what it is to value himself so fucking little that he deeply, so genuinely believes that everyone he cares for would be far better off without him, that he wants them go to on without him, that he so often believes they should.

And he's still going to be a raging hypocrite about this, of course. Doesn't mean he can't call it when he sees it, though. ]

I don't think so, I know so. [ He's still hunched forward, his elbows propped up on his knees, and while it's tempting to in that moment he doesn't reach out to him -- but there is something in the look in his eyes, still, determined. Stubborn. ] And of all my objectives, the one right at the damn top is keeping my own safe.

[ Honestly, that's probably the only real objective he ever has. ]

[dendarii]

[ Hypocrites know what they're looking for, after all. All too well.

Miles swallows a bit as he's forced to meet Wash's gaze. Fine then. He'll stare back then, his sharp-boned jaw working under the surface of his face.

But he doesn't speak at first; he can't seem to find the right argument. That's a hell of an achievement, Wash: rendering Miles speechless. It's only after he relaxes his expression in increments that he finds anything reasonable to say in return. Still stubborn, but not unflinching. ]

When did I become one of yours, Wash?

[ An actual question, however tinged with stubbornness and disbelief. ]

[protocol]

[ The last time he saw him speechless was when he'd lost himself for a moment. Wash much prefers this, might take a bit of satisfaction from it. Wash matches his gaze the entire time Miles looks back at him, the entire time he tries to find the words -- and comes up with none. ]

Somewhere between all the secrets. [ He doesn't know which ones. Does it matter? ] Probably around the time we figured out how much we apparently trusted each other.

[ Enough for all this. And no, Wash isn't sure when that happened either. ]

[dendarii]

[ Dammit. He can't very well argue, can he? Not after all of his flowery words about faith and trusting Wash. Curse himself for leaping into this with his usual lack of looking. His shoulders sag, finally, as he concedes Wash's point. ]

Then we're both idiots.

[protocol]

[ And with that, the hardness in Wash's expression does soften. ]

'Course we are. [ Finally looking away, as well, his eyes briefly slipping shut with a quiet sigh, his own shoulders sagging as he looks out across the mountains. He's sure of this, yes, of how much Miles means to him, of how he'd protect him just as fiercely as any of his own -- but it is still more than a little strange. That really doesn't happen to Wash all that often. ] And unfortunately for you, I'm not that easy to get off your back.

[ It'd been quick, too, hadn't it? Maybe not quite to this extent, because god what they've shared this time has certainly made -- a difference. But Wash's been inclined to protect him since after even the first time they talked. Since he told him about his seizures . . . It's probably pointless to try and analyze it, to try and actually answer Miles' question of when, but Wash can't help but try. ]

[dendarii]

[ It's not a literal question, anyway. Somewhere works well enough as long as Miles believes him, and ... well, Miles sort of has to, now. He's got no way of denying it, so he'll begrudgingly accept it instead. ]

Fine, fine. Stay if you like. But it's all your fault now. You've chosen to entangle yourself.

[protocol]

[ Literal question or not, Wash likes to pick at them. Though he really knows there's -- no real answer, for this one. It'd just fucking happened, somehow. ]

I've a habit of getting entangled. [ Damn Chorus. ] Don't tell me this is all just me, either.