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.
vorrutyer: (whimsical (but smug))

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 01:10 pm (UTC)(link)
What you do for love.
vorrutyer: (is this dude handsome)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
That...surely isn't the whole truth. True, it's certain she isn't a true hill-maid; he's never met hillmen before, no, but he's heard enough parodies of the accent that he can place her as not-from-here. (One of By's favorite satirical programs portrays the former Regent as having a Dendarii hick accent. It's fond, truly.) No - not Dendarii, that accent. But not Vorbarr Sultana...

It was thinking of that satire that helped him place it. She doesn't speak like a parody of the Viceroy of Sergyar; she speaks like a parody of his wife. Betan-inflected, this girl. Which makes her...What? Sister to the other Vor lady? Handmaiden? Servant-girl? Cousin? Mother? (You never could tell with Betans.)

"You strike me as more of a city girl than a country girl, it's true." He touches his chin, and offers, "Of late, there's been a trend towards trousers and tunics as formal-wear." Influence of the new Empress. "Silk, with daring décolletage, in the most gloriously jewellike shades. With your complexion, you'd look stunning in such attire."
dendarii: (solpadeine112)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 01:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Would he have? It seemed ridiculous just a few moments ago. But for love? He ... he just might kill a man. Miles swallows. ]

Tell how I met Ekaterin then.
dendarii: (support)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 01:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It's slowed him down, anyway. ]

Even so, they are important. Thank you for telling me.
vorrutyer: (condescending aka default)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
On Komarr. You, staying with a luscious young wife - her husband, a bore by all accounts, shed no tears for him, meeting with a deadly breath-mask accident...As if by magic, wife is transformed to widow. Presto-changeo.
dendarii: (frakkingcylon 138)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 01:37 pm (UTC)(link)
That's too much. He had to have done something.
shri: (» we said our dreams will carry us)

[personal profile] shri 2017-01-08 01:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She'll settle for that, anyway. Because she's talked a lot, but she's still managed to dodge who she is - so, well, that's the important bit. But granted since he doesn't know about the Half-Breeds and think the Arthurian Knights just a myth? She probably doesn't need to be so wary.

Still, better safe than sorry.
]

I hope only to save others the same fate. It is why I must return. Though... [ soft, subtle. ] ... I imagine your place is here, in this war.
dendarii: (solpadeine130)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 01:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The actual answer to that is, of course, hell no. And he grimaces before he thinks to lie and agree. Ah, well ... better to stick close to the truth. ]

I want them to win, of course. But I need to get back to responsibilities of my own. I can't live here long term.
shri: (» now we've become the ghost)

[personal profile] shri 2017-01-08 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She notes it - so far as it's just about anyone's expression when it comes to war. At least for the battle-mad and the unknowing. ]

I don't understand. How is this not where you live? Should it not be your only responsibility?

[ Either because she still hasn't really grasped space travel, or -- well, that he says it is his home and when a war is upon it, he doesn't throw down everything he has in loyalty to the cause?

.... Alright, she's biased on that latter point.
]
dendarii: (eidetics 163)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 02:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He would, okay. He basically is. Just - in ways that he can't possibly explain. ]

My fleet is several wormhole jumps away from here. And this is home, yes, but I haven't lived here in years.

I'll help while I'm here but I can't stay.
shri: (» our hands are tied if we stay)

[personal profile] shri 2017-01-08 02:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[ blink, blink. ]






... A wormhole? Is that some kind of other term of a storm at sea?
dendarii: (TW_S1_E2_0447)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 02:03 pm (UTC)(link)
No, no. They're more like gateways in space. It's the only way to travel between planets.
shri: (» now we've become the ghost)

[personal profile] shri 2017-01-08 02:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Right, of course, other planets. Jupiter, Mars, those such things.

[ She's trying really hard right now. ]
dendarii: (cocky lil bastard)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 02:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Quite a bit further out than that.

[ A pause. Ah, there's a quick way to prove that right now. ]

What planet do you think you're on? Earth?
shri: (» we said our dreams will carry us)

[personal profile] shri 2017-01-08 02:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She clears her throat. Frowning at him as she tries to follow along with what he's seeing, and ignore that strange feeling of vertigo that comes with the knowledge that she's not on earth. ]

It is the only planet I have ever stood up, if that's what you mean. [ It's uneasy, with what he's saying. There are two moons, she has seen them with her own eyes and she cannot deny it but... her mind has yet to truly comprehend what that means, easier to think this earth but a strange one than to think she is so far beyond her own home. ]
dendarii: (abject apology)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Sorry about trying to burst your bubble, then. Miles smiles sympathetically. ]

You've been outside, right? And seen the moons? I assure you that this is not Earth. We're billions upon billions upon billions of kilometers away from that planet.
shri: (» we are dancing through the smoke)

[personal profile] shri 2017-01-08 02:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I have seen them.

[ It's moving liquid, slow, unsure, depths below her. The more he says it, the more he makes it real and the more she might rip her own lungs out in screaming someone take her back. It is easier to not think about - not simply because it's hard for her to get her thoughts around such an idea.

But that she cannot just steal away from this war and this camp on a ship, a train, whatever strange new device the British have scarred into lands this time - and find her way back. To Devi, to see if Galahad has saved Tesla. Her eyes shut, pinched frustrated line as scowls with the heaviness of that thought, diverting her face back to the fire.
] And I return through - through these... wormholes?
dendarii: (solpadeine111)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Miles nods. If she can even get back to an Earth he recognizes ... He suspects that even if she could get a ship out of here that she would not find her way home. ]

Just so. Though you will have great difficulty getting off planet now. The Cetagandans are surely blocking all access.
starsneverpay: (Default)

[personal profile] starsneverpay 2017-01-08 02:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Well now. Isn't she a curious look. Elsa's smile widens, gaining more satisfying gleam as she watched the other woman who had answered to her. Her eyes move from the her hair that is more pink than any bubblegum she's ever seen and then to her enormous muscles and body, one that would definitely put Amazon Eve into shame.

"That so, darling?" She huffs with a cheerful tone, shaking ashes off her cigarette. "But then again is it really a surprise? Have you seen the state of this camp? It's a miserable sight. No wonder the food is the same."
vorrutyer: (attentive)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 02:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[ By is watching Miles closely. Very closely. ]

Ah. So if he'd done something, you'd have killed him?
dendarii: (frakkingcylon 233)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 02:48 pm (UTC)(link)
It's a stronger possibility than jealousy.

[ He seems to be very much considering it as a possibility, though. ]
vorrutyer: (hmmmmm not bad)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh? And what would justify a light bit of subtle assassination of a fellow Vor?
dendarii: (frakkingcylon 105)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know. They'd have to try assassinating me first at minimum.

[ And even then he's not really on board with it. After all, Miles has faced assassination attempts since before he was born. ]
vorrutyer: (haughty)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-01-08 03:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Mm. Surely that can't be it. Surely there's something that you consider unforgivable. A sense of honor like yours - you must be content to act the executioner to the dishonorable.

[ Like your father before you, and his father before him. ]
dendarii: (eidetics 42)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-01-08 03:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Miles finches bodily at that. ]

I won't rule it out completely. Especially not knowing the circumstances. But you have an interesting image of me and my family, Byerly.

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