[ catch-all: barrayar ]

[forwardmomentum]

Who: Miles, Ivan and Gregor of the Vor Boy Band feat. Lady Alys and you, probably
When: gestures vaguely at May
Where: Barrayar
What: all Ingress trips to Barrayar, whether it be Vorkosigan Surleau, Vorbarr Sultana, or anywhere else on Space Russia
Warnings: TBD

Welcome to Barrayar, the planet that was cut off from the rest of the Nexus after its only known wormhole connection collapsed, leaving its meager starter colony population stranded. 700 years in total isolation saw the loss of their advanced technology and a regression to a pre-industrial and feudal society, until a new wormhole route to Barrayar was discovered and propelled them from horseback to spaceflight in the space of a single generation. Its terraforming is still incomplete, the landscape characterized by the mixture of imported Earth green plantlife and the reddish native flora of Barrayar. After a couple of generations, Barrayarans are growing more and more accustomed to galactic peoples and cultures, though they're still a little wary of outsiders, and an old and long-entrenched cultural paranoia of genetic mutation means they can be a little hostile or mistrustful of people who bear visible disabilities or who don't look quite human.

Comments

[hostessing]

She watches Ivan expectantly for a moment as if silently urging him to say something more when she realizes no, that's what he wants to start with. Well after his hiding of Elizabeth, she can't say she's too surprised.

"I'm assuming that has to do with him kidnapping you?" she asks mildly. Because yes, Gregor had informed her quite a bit about Mark and Ivan.

[whatdidisay]

"Oh, yeah. I mean I got kidnapped on that trip to Eta Ceta as well, but not by a clone."

Um. Might not have been the best thing to start with his mother.

[hostessing]

That gets her full attention and she pauses to consider what just came out of son's mouth.

When she speaks, it's in an even-paced tone. The calm before the storm. "You were kidnapped during a diplomatic mission to Cetaganda?"

[whatdidisay]

This is Ivan. This is Ivan gently and willingly throwing his dearly beloved cousin under the bus that is Lady Alys Vorpatril. Family loyalty counts where Ivan is concerned, and counts for a lot. But he's taken a lot of hits for Miles and, well, it's his mother.

"Miles' fault. Sort of. They thought I was the brains of the operation, but Miles is the one that dove into trouble head first."

[hostessing]

Miles is a Vorkosigan and with that comes certain expectations. She's not surprised to hear that he had a heavy hand in this, but the look she's giving Ivan tells him quite clearly that he is not absolved of guilt that easily.

"Did you go along with his plan?" she asks, still side-eyeing her son.

[whatdidisay]

How to explain his cousin to his mother, who hasn't experienced it yet. "Miles doesn't really give you an option to go along with it or not. You just have to run after him, making sure that when he does get into trouble there's someone to help pull him out of it. I promised Aunt Cordelia, you know. To try and keep him from getting into too much."

It clearly did not work.

[hostessing]

"Cordelia expected you to keep her son in check?" A small sigh. No, she's not surprised one bit. Miles is fortunate Ivan's been able to do that though she's not keen on what it means for her son. "Did she have you promise to keep yourself out of trouble as well?"

Asked, but she already knows the answer to that.

[whatdidisay]

"I don't know if expected is the right word. She probably knows I can't." As for him getting into trouble? "Oh no, she knows she doesn't have to make me promise that. S'damn hard to do with my cousin around, though."

He tries so hard, Mamere. So, so hard.

[hostessing]

"I suppose it would be expected with his parents." As much as she loves Aral and Cordelia and owes them greatly, she is starting to see quite a bit of them in their son. And not only the good parts. "Please tell me he hasn't been bringing you into trouble since you've arrived here."

[whatdidisay]

"Trouble happens here whether you want it to or not, Miles or not." Like that time they stumbled across a dead body. Or really just, everything about everything else that's happened in the months they've spent here. "Something nice happens? Automatically turns into something terrifying later."

[hostessing]

Her brows furrow as she takes in their surroundings. If that's the trend, she suddenly doesn't feel like they should be anywhere near this 'Vorbarr Sultana.' "Then what's going to happen here?"

[whatdidisay]

"Not sure. It doesn't normally go bad until the middle of the month -- don't ask me why." He doesn't know, and anyway that sort of thing is best left for Miles to figure out instead.

He's just here to do the heavy lifting, Mamere, not the heavy thinking.

[hostessing]

Luckily for Ivan, she wasn't planning on asking. That sort of information she would expect upfront if he knew it unlike the prying she has to do with his personal life.

"Is there any way to avoid it?"

[whatdidisay]

"Not that I've figured out." And believe him, he's tried. That should be a point in his favor, shouldn't it?

[hostessing]

She frowns and tightens her hold on his arm. Suddenly there are several more reasons why they shouldn't overstay their welcome here and she glances up at the sky as if it might come crashing down on them any second.

"Is the ship safe?" Or at least safer.

[whatdidisay]

Ivan, normally the first to complain the moment his mother approaches clingy, allows it -- one of his hands going to cover her's. "Depends, I guess. The heating failed once, and we all nearly froze to death. The captains try, but they don't know their own ship and they weren't expecting all of us to show up."

[hostessing]

"I don't understand how anyone can call themselves a captain and not know their ship or expected crew." The whole system on the Moira was a mess and wouldn't pass for a second in the Imperial Service. "Should we stay here long if things could go awry?"

Which is to say, they should be heading back the way they came, thank you very much.

[whatdidisay]

"Be glad you weren't around for the first few months. I thought Miles was going to take it over just out of sheer aggravation." Now he's not sure if that's better or worse than where they are. Worse, maybe, because once Miles got going he didn't stop. Ivan doesn't expect that to have changed after... whatever it was.

But everything goes fuzzy there, sliding away from under him, and his face wrinkles slightly. "This is Vorbarr Sultana, Mamere." Where else are they supposed to stay?

[hostessing]

With how the ship's been run, she wouldn't be surprised if her nephew would be a better candidate for captaincy. If he's managed a mercenary fleet and was raised by Aral, surely one ship with a relatively small-sized crew would be more manageable. Instead the poor man is working himself into exhaustion with other tasks.

She frowns up at him before she's casting her gaze around at the foreign sites. Similar yet different in so many ways. Surely he couldn't mean that? "I'm not so sure. It's not the one I remember."