barrayarmods: (Default)
For Barrayar mods ([personal profile] barrayarmods) wrote in [community profile] forbarrayar2016-12-20 10:13 am

[ january i log: cetaganda ]

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


welcome to barrayar.
It's the dark of night when you come to beyond the foothills. Snow on the ground, chill winter wind whistling. A steep mountain range towers overhead, its peaks illuminated by the light of two moons, and the foothills behind you ascend quickly into rocky mountain faces. 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 fitted with what look like futuristic tactical vests and armed with some kind of energy weapons that look deadlier than not. They surround you at gunpoint, dealing orders in intelligible English, but with some obscure, unplaceable accent, and their faces are colored with vivid paint. It quickly becomes apparent, however, that you are not the people they at first assumed -- something about Barrayarans, the barbarians in the mountains. The one who seems to be in charge steps away to murmur into what looks like a wristwatch-like communicator. After a minute or two of inaudible conversation, the officer steps back in. He orders his men to escort you all back to their base. As long as you cooperate, that's all that will happen.


the base
You are taken back to a military base of considerable scale and some serious fortification. There are two rounds of guard checks to go through, both taking what must be a lot longer than usual, and it's cold out. You are ushered past the guard checks into what looks like a barracks building, but relegated to a bunk on one end. They seem to have cleared the immediate area, with guards posted at the door, but there's audible activity beyond the short hallway in front of the door. They make it clear you are not under arrest, that you are merely being detained until they have ascertained the situation -- the word quarantine is used, but it doesn't seem to be of a medical sort. Either way, the only people who come to the bunk are those cleared by the guards, and they all seem much more interested than hostile.

They answer your questions with the very basic facts: the people who hold custody of you are the military service of the Cetagandan Empire, and the planet you are on is their Ninth Satrapy, and they're currently at odds with some of the native population. They won't say it outright, but it's clear they have no clue how you came to be here or why, but it's clearly of great interest to them. For the most part, the Cetagandan soldiers are civil, if at times distant and aloof, but if you look a little less -- or more -- than human, they'll eye you with visible curiosity, perhaps even some kind of appreciation.

At daylight, a few women in lab coats and the same face-paint as the soldiers come to the room to escort you across the base to the nearby medbay, two or three at a time. The medbay is an intimidatingly sterile and state-of-the-art facility, all gleaming chrome and polished glass and crisp holo displays. You are taken in one at a time for a physical examination -- they have to make sure you haven't brought any foreign contagions into their base, after all -- but the military physician isn't the only base personnel in the exam room. You hear the word exotic tossed around a few times until they realized they're talking about you. They call you the exotics.


the exotics room
For a military bunk, it's in surprisingly tasteful design. The room sleeps a dozen soldiers, so you even have a little bit of room to yourself, and while the furnishings are relatively spartan, they're hardly uncomfortable. If you're in need of clothing, the soldiers will bring you base fatigues – no rank insignia, of course, but the make of the textile is surprisingly fine.

You're served food at mealtimes, a combination of shelf-stable meal rations and what seems to be fresh food, all prepared with unusual artistry for a military base. There's a sophistication to the preparation that seems more like it belongs in a four-star restaurant than a military base. If you have any special medical needs, they'll do their best to attend to them -- and their medicine seems impressively advanced.

Soldiers and scientists alike come to the room every so often to ask you questions, more like interviews than interrogations, but behind the civility there's a burning intellectual curiosity. They seem intent on knowing as much as you'll tell them, and then some.

The nearest bathroom is at the end of the hall, and while they seem to have cleared the area of all other personnel, showers and baths are scheduled, and any trips to the restroom are chaperoned. The guards, while not hostile, are certainly not interested in letting you escape. You could try sneaking past them, but you probably won't get far.

Well, at least you've got each other for company: the exotics on the Ninth Satrapy.
mirrortide: (093)

[personal profile] mirrortide 2017-01-03 03:12 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm not. There's just something wrong with my form." Lapis hopes that her gem isn't somehow cracked, but with it being on her back, there's no way to tell.
infailtration: (2519159)

[personal profile] infailtration 2017-01-03 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
"Your form's cold. Come here, I'll show you." Does she not know what cold is...? He's figuring from her appearance that she's another alien, so it's possible they don't have cold weather on their planet.
mirrortide: (093)

[personal profile] mirrortide 2017-01-03 03:27 am (UTC)(link)
"No, it can't be cold. Gems don't feel weather. We're not affected by it." She explains, with a small gesture of her hand. Her shivering is absolutely telling another story. A very, very uncomfortable one. She's absolutely not going to get closer to him.
infailtration: (pic#10657601)

[personal profile] infailtration 2017-01-03 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
"Gems?" She's clearly a person. A cold person. York stands, pulling the blanket off an unoccupied bed and holding it up. "Look, just put this over your shoulders and you'll feel a little better. I promise."
mirrortide: (084)

[personal profile] mirrortide 2017-01-03 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm not putting that on my body." It's not happening. Nuh uh, no way. Lapis actively takes a step back, away from the offending piece of cloth.
infailtration: custom art by <user name="thebutt">, PLEASE DO NOT TAKE (7-3)

[personal profile] infailtration 2017-01-03 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
"It's not going to hurt you," York insists, very confused. In a way, this is an excellent distraction for him.
mirrortide: (086)

[personal profile] mirrortide 2017-01-03 03:41 am (UTC)(link)
"I know it's not going to hurt me, it's a piece of cloth. I don't want it on my body." Come closer with it and she'll deck you, she swears on the Diamond Authority.
infailtration: (pic#10119113)

[personal profile] infailtration 2017-01-03 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
"...okay, I'll bite. Why not?"
mirrortide: (086)

[personal profile] mirrortide 2017-01-03 03:43 am (UTC)(link)
"Because I don't need it, and I don't want it. I don't need some human made piece of cloth."
infailtration: by <user name=martienne> (pic#10657597)

[personal profile] infailtration 2017-01-03 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
"I don't think they're humans, if that makes you feel any better.

Look, do you want to stop shaking? Your hands and feet are probably going numb, right? Little tingling sensations?"
mirrortide: (093)

[personal profile] mirrortide 2017-01-03 08:53 pm (UTC)(link)
"They look human enough for me." Which probably says a lot about Lapis. "I'm fine." She's not. "I don't feel any tingling." Because her hands and feet are already numb, honestly.

That's what she gets for walking barefoot. In a crop top. With her midriff out for everyone to see. In the middle of winter.
infailtration: (pic#10657628)

[personal profile] infailtration 2017-01-03 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
"So do you right now." Besides her coloring, which is neither here nor there. She's not whatever she used to be and she's going to pay for not treating her different body right. York is generally pretty patient but he's not feeling himself so when he speaks again it's very frank. "In this weather, you're going to lose things if you don't warm them up. No more pacing around without your feet, you know." Probably not as long as she stays inside, but York doesn't trust her to have that kind of sense, either.
mirrortide: (014)

[personal profile] mirrortide 2017-01-04 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
"Why would I lose my feet?" That seems. Odd, honestly. And has nothing to do with pretty much anything, she's sure. "I don't look anything like a human. This is just a projection. It's just for convenience." She'll turn slightly, jabbing a finger at the shiny blue rock between her shoulder blades. "That's me."
infailtration: (pic#10119114)

[personal profile] infailtration 2017-01-15 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's more than a projection right now, I think. This place has changed some people." But he peers at the stone between her shoulder blades. That's what she meant, hm? "Pretty."
mirrortide: (014)

[personal profile] mirrortide 2017-01-16 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
"Not me. My gem is intact, which means that whatever this," she motions at their surroundings, "is? It'll pass soon enough." It has to? Because Lapis honestly doesn't want to be fleshy and organic, because that is unbelievably scary.
infailtration: by <user name=martienne> (pic#10657597)

[personal profile] infailtration 2017-01-19 10:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay. York can tell she's determined, at the least. "What are you going to do until it passes?"