[IC Inbox]

[use_everything]

"Messages will be returned in order of priority."

[Text] [Audio] [Video]

Comments

[rathercommon]

[ She hesitates, then confesses: ]

I don't know. Honestly. I think...it was for the fun of killing me, more than to help me. But I'm not sure.

[use_everything]

Ah. [Men like that, they are not particularly the worst of all evils, and it seems the theists view of the devil, a personal tormenter rather than a grand maestro, seems to at least hold for this incarnation. But evil none the less.]

... You should know you have aid available, upon your call.

[rathercommon]

Oh.

[ She looks down. ]

I'm not afraid for myself any longer. I don't think he has any lingering hatred towards me. I'm more worried for Miles. And for Gregor.

[use_everything]

Hm. As am I.

You've volunteered, as I have heard it?

[rathercommon]

Er - volunteered?

[use_everything]

To help assure some safety... or what may be gathered in such circumstances.

[rathercommon]

Oh, yes. Well - I volunteered long ago. But the offer still stands, regardless of anything else that might have happened. Lucifer wants to come after either of them, he's going to have to go through me.

[use_everything]

Have you won against him? [There's no doubt, a certain tactically based curiosity instead in full measure.]

[rathercommon]

Not him directly. But someone a lot like him, who thought to just use his powers against people to hurt them and for nothing more.

[ Her head settles down on her paws, but her face is wary. ]

I don't want to fight. I'm tired of fighting. But if he comes after those boys - [ Who are several years her senior, but still boys - ] I'll smash his face in.

[use_everything]

I believe I am familiar with the sentiment.

[He reaches back over to rub her ears.] With some luck, there may be no need to take up arms.

[rathercommon]

[ She leans up into his hand with a happy sigh. Though: ]

Yeah. And how often do you lot get lucky?

[use_everything]

[He turns attention to just under the chin, just enough nails for a proper scritching.]

Ah, what's the phrase Cordelia uses... "There's a first time for everything?"

[rathercommon]

Mmmmm.

[ Her whiskers twitch in approval of these scratches. And she sighs: ]

Yeah. I guess even you Barrayarans could get lucky. Though it really doesn't sound like it's happened much in your lives.

[use_everything]

A cultural curse, I assure you. Gregor is no exception, he merely covers smoothly. We've evolved to utilize spite and stubborn refusal to roll over in its stead.

[rathercommon]

[ A reluctant little giggle. This is a serious conversation, damn it, don't make her laugh. ]

You know, my people have rather done the same. I think that Londoners and Barrayarans would get along rather nicely.

[use_everything]

Quite likely. Though I'm not sure whose plans for progressive advancement it would botch more.

[He gives it a moment of consideration, humor ebbing just a little.] Do you miss it much?

[rathercommon]

London?

[ She pauses a moment in honest consideration. ANd she gives Aral, strangely enough, more of an honest answer than she's given anyone. ]

I don't miss being afraid. I don't miss watching my country crumble further and further every day. I don't miss...hiding, or miss the loneliness, or the violence...But sometimes I miss the streets I used to know.

[ A pause. ]

Do you miss Barrayar?

[use_everything]

I have... similar witholdings about the whole of it. But my District, I do. The hills and lakes of it, the people.

[rathercommon]

Yeah.

[ She gives a little sigh. ]

London...I love it. I don't like it, though, at all. I actually quite hate it, truth be told. But I love it, too.

[use_everything]

That conflict where you wish to shake every man, woman and child until sense rattles into their skulls and the very air chokes you. But there's no where else you belong or is so needed.

[rathercommon]

Yeah.

[ Her voice is soft, wistful. A moment, then: ]

Though I'll admit that you all do have a government much more just than mine.

[use_everything]

Ms. Jones, a snake could step over that bar.

[rathercommon]

[ Reluctantly, a laugh. Damn it, who knew Aral Vorkosigan was funny? ]

Yeah. Fair enough. But...It's not something I really realized for a really long time. I thought that - you know. My government was the norm. I guess in a lot of ways I still think it is.

[use_everything]

I don't believe 'the norm' is much more than what one knows, honestly. There's as many ways of doing things, from the smallest to the most important, as there are cultures.

[rathercommon]

That's true enough.

[ She thinks about that a moment. Insightful. ]

Do you think it's a bad thing? It seems like it's good if you can remove yourself from your own perspective.