barrayarmods: (Default)
For Barrayar mods ([personal profile] barrayarmods) wrote in [community profile] forbarrayar2016-12-19 09:43 pm

[ january i log: barrayar ]

Who: Everyone
What: Arrival on Barrayar and what follows
When: January 2nd - January 17th
Where: Barrayaran guerrilla camp
Warnings: None (at the moment)


welcome to barrayar.
It's the dark of night when you come to in the foothills. Snow on the ground, chill winter wind whistling. A steep mountain range towers just ahead, its peaks illuminated by the light of two moons. Whatever you last remember, it isn't how you got here, and you feel oddly jetlagged, slightly queasy.

And you're not alone. There are nine other people close by, all looking equally lost and confused. But before any of you have a chance to figure out what's going on, the soldiers arrive.

They're dressed in weather-worn green uniforms, bearing swords and bows, and they surround you immediately, poised to attack. But they quickly realize you're not their enemy, the ones they call Cetagandans. They're just as confused as you are, but rather than hanging around to puzzle it out, they start shepherding you toward their camp in the mountains while it's still dark. There's a war on, they say, and you unlucky bastards have just been dropped right smack in the middle of it.

the guerrilla camp
It's a few hours' hike through the mountains to get to their hidden camp, set up in a clearing framed by dense, hard forestry and backed against a rock face. Daylight is finally dawning when you make it there. You and your fellow sudden arrivals are ushered to an empty tent on the far end of the camp, just big enough to fit all ten of you. You can't help but notice they've posted guards all around it. You aren't under arrest – they just don't know what else to do with you.

You are able to glean, from hearsay and what the soldiers are willing to share with you, that you are on a planet called Barrayar, and this is their home, and ten years ago they were attacked without warning by the Cetagandan Empire. They've been holed up in the mountains fighting against their invaders ever since, outgunned and outmanned, but scoring little victories where they can. They don't tell you much more than that. Some dialect of Russian seems to be one of the predominant languages of the camp, but for the most part they all speak English too, if with an accent. They're gruff and wary, and if you look a little less – or more – than human, they'll eye you with suspicion, maybe even make obscure hex signs at you that seem intended to ward off evil or disease. But they aren't hostile to you, not unless you start something with them.

the outsiders' tent
It's not in the greatest shape, but if you look around the camp, the rest aren't much better off. It's cramped, but you've at least been provided with bedrolls and heavy wool blankets to ward off the frozen chill, and if you're in need of clothing, they'll provide it, although it probably hasn't been washed in…a while. The soldiers bring you food at mealtimes -- not very good food, mostly tough meat and groats, and they keep you your own campfire, just to keep you warm. They've also hastily dug you your own latrine area at the edge of the perimeter, just behind the treeline. No private bathroom stalls in this outfit, unfortunately. The entire camp seems tense and wary, and the soldiers are alert, but they don't talk much. You could try sneaking past them, but you probably won't get far.

Well, at least you've got each other for company: the outsiders on Barrayar.
dendarii: (frakkingcylon 005)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
Strange. It's almost as though they could be related, eh? Must be the Vorkosigan District look. Certainly Miles has the same fire in his eyes that General Vorkosigan sometimes gets.

"Liability? You? You're no such thing."
vorbratta: (okay okay dolore)

[personal profile] vorbratta 2017-01-08 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
Sonia scoffs, cheeks puffed. "Be serious, Miles. Who do you think is the biggest liability in this camp? And even if not to them, surely to you."
vorrutyer: (handsome)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
He is a master, if nothing else, of the theatrical. Her question gets a mysterious sweep of his eyelashes, a conspiratorial lean in. A lowering of his voice, and an impeccable mutter in the intimate code of Barrayaran French, "A secret."

Then he leans back once more, a small smile hovering around his well-shaped lips. "I shouldn't ever presume, of course," he murmurs. "But you strike me as a woman who can appreciate a secret."
dendarii: (solpadeine30)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 02:48 am (UTC)(link)
He's serious, dammit. And he's not letting up. "You aren't. You're protecting me now, aren't you?"
vorrutyer: (whimsical (but smug))

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
Ah. It is a high price. But something high-priced is being traded for something priceless. Knowledge of the elegant, spare, solemn Lady Ek...Ah, no. No, I cannot say more.
dendarii: (TW_S1_E2_0063)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
[ Miles grits his teeth. Goddammit, Byerly. ]

One question. Not a dozen. It's one piece of info for another.
vorrutyer: (Backpfeifengesicht 3)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
But what a piece of information. Oh, and the story of how you met...
dendarii: (bg046)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 03:33 am (UTC)(link)
-- If you tell me that it might not happen at all!

[ But he wants it so badly, dammit. ]
vorbratta: (tonight you're giving up)

[personal profile] vorbratta 2017-01-08 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
Sonia's eyes alight. Oh, he's all theater, this one, but she delights in it, indulging him entirely and leaning in to meet him. It's good theater. And worth the price of this hard-won sweet -- she'd pay another hundred marks just for five more minutes of this entertainment.

"You presumed nonetheless," Sonia points out, but the corner of her mouth is quirked up in a wicked smile. "But you presumed correctly. Alright, then." She points at Byerly with one slender finger, eyes glittering. "One for one, sugar and a secret. But I get to go first."
vorbratta: (you are the gazer)

[personal profile] vorbratta 2017-01-08 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes," Sonia says, frowning, and draws her wool coat around her shoulders more tightly. The man is relentless. He just...has a way about him. She bites her lip. "But that's not -- it isn't at any risk to me.
vorrutyer: (haughty (and smug))

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
Hm. So then why do you look so hungry?
dendarii: (frakkingcylon 138)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
Because you're still dangling a steak in front of me, Byerly.

Three questions.
vorrutyer: (actually maybe unsmug)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
He offers her a bow. "I'd not dream of having it any other way." That is not, truthfully, a lie; he wants her to start so he can get a sense of the gravity of the questions he can get away with. No good leading with what is your role in the war effort if all she's going to ask is do you think I'm pretty. Not that he thinks she'll ask that. She's deliciously, refreshingly frivolous in a way that does his heart good, but she's not stupid. She won't ask something with a foregone answer.

"Ask away, milady."
vorrutyer: (explaining everything (badly))

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 03:48 am (UTC)(link)
Six. Fifty percent of my original asking price. Your odd little businessman clone would be proud.
dendarii: (cunning plan)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
It's only fifty percent because you set it unreasonably high to begin with. But fine. Six questions. And if you short me on the information, you'll get shorted on answers too.
vorbratta: (it takes a little vanity)

[personal profile] vorbratta 2017-01-08 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
Sonia positively beams. Oh, good. She's guaranteed herself at least another five more minutes of entertainment, and she didn't have to spend a single mark on it. She leans back with a thoughtful tilt of her head, twisting her hair around a finger.

"Where are you from? Vorrutyer's District?" Sonia peers at him in honest curiosity. He'd arrived with the outsiders, certainly, but he's the only Barrayaran she's met thus far. "You're clearly a city man, but your clothes..." Well, they're about a hundred years out of date in the wrong direction, and Sonia's not sure how she feels about them yet. "I don't recognize the style."
Edited 2017-01-08 04:14 (UTC)
vorrutyer: (haughty)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
Ekaterin Nile Vorvayne Vorsoisson Vorkosigan.
dendarii: (frakkingcylon 104)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
[ What a beautiful name. Miles closes his eyes a moment just to picture her. Tall, dark haired, somber, gardener ... Ekaterin. ]

I've not heard of either of those family names.
vorrutyer: (warmth)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
"Well-spotted." He touches a hand to his heart, bowing his head in acknowledgment. "On both counts. Born and raised in Vorrutyer lands, but a glad resident of Vorbarr Sultana since I was seventeen. And this style, I'll have you know, is all the rage at the moment. Not like your look, which - if I might critique - is terribly out of fashion."

He mitigates this not-quite criticism with a crinkle of his eyes which - well. Which projects warmth. Warmth which is rather unfeigned. Hang him, he's simply damnably charmed by her, is all.

"The same to you. Where are you from?"
Edited 2017-01-08 04:22 (UTC)
vorrutyer: (haughty (and smug))

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, are you certain? Think back to earlier.
dendarii: (bg046)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, yes, you mentioned --

[ Wait. He goes pale. ]

-- the man I supposedly murdered.
vorbratta: (a hundred and twelve)

[personal profile] vorbratta 2017-01-08 05:06 am (UTC)(link)
The warmth is mirrored in Sonia's smile, because for all they're gleefully playing one another, he really is turning out to be good company. She rests her chin in one hand, one eyebrow raised, looking amused.

"Then fashions in Vorbarr Sultana must have changed wildly in the last ten years," Sonia says, a touch dryly, because Vorbarr Sultana's been under occupation since she was thirteen. "And you're mistaken. This right here is haut couture among the Dendarii hillfolk."

A small smirk, a tilt of her head. Her hair tumbles down over one shoulder. "Vorbarr Sultana," she says, and it isn't a lie -- Xav and his wife had taken her uterine replicator back to Barrayar for the uncorking, for the Emperor-her-grandfather's benefit. And then, even more truthfully, "I miss it."
shri: (» how to win what they all lost)

[personal profile] shri 2017-01-08 08:15 am (UTC)(link)
It doesn't seem to surprise her much. Just - perhaps she had been hoping. "Men often don't. They hold certain... notions as absolute." There's a pull there - that she says it, isn't a shock. More just -- mildly irritated, a roll of her eyes that comes common. Of course they don't. They are men, and in her experience, they are... particular about matters. The assurance she remembered as a child that even though it was more common amongst the Marathi and Rajput for women to fight, that it had to be ascertained her learning such wouldn't inhibit her feminine graces.

Nevermind going to England, and their notions of what a woman should be. Those corseted dolls, like fine porcelain that shipped across from China. She saw them and did not envy them.

For she is but a woman, and it is but 1886. "They can be fragile about them. It is best to let them hold onto them at times..." she coughs, eyes gazing around the -- well, men of the camp that move. A polite little murmur. "Then do what you wish otherwise."
shri: (» that you know by name)

[personal profile] shri 2017-01-08 08:37 am (UTC)(link)
[ She shakes her head, and she hopes that is answer enough to leave her be for awhile. ]

Save your words, we all must serve as life dictates us. [ She flicks her fingers in dismissiveness. ] As I said, the details are not pleasant.
shri: (» we are dancing through the smoke)

[personal profile] shri 2017-01-08 08:58 am (UTC)(link)
[ She laughs along with it - far be it for her to tease. ]

Not better, [ insisting, as she works, the look on her face almost enough to count as demure.

Except for anyone that was looking at her too long. It's done mostly to hide the teasing smile.
] merely different.

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