Voice Testing Post

[use_everything]

Canon

A.

[You may find yourself facing large, heavy gates. Behind the bars, you can easily see the enormous, austere residence spread both tall and wide against a backdrop of a lake, stables and a small, private cemetery. The unbridled horse grazing, unhitched beside a carriage, by a liveried servant is in direct opposition to an obviously futuristic lightflier not far from it.

Even the guard that narrows to nervous attention holds both a sword and a strange, small device.]

And you are?

[The voice comes from behind.

Aral, for his part, neither looks, nor feels the part of the lord. Having taken the long way, treacherous and unmonitored paths and foothills back to the residence, he smells of sap, a chemical tinge of smoke and the exertion it took to get back. His green dress uniform had survived in all but the pressed edges, looking as if he'd intended the slight look of disarray and set jaw.

He lifts a hand, stilling the guard from comment on him, and focuses all of his attention on this newcomer.]

B.

[The Counts and Minsters poured out of the building first. The debates of the evening being traded in words so sharp that they might as well have been blows. Aral followed much more sedately, having taken a bit of time to brief his intelligence officer and leave orders for the evening.

It's by chance he stumbled across a stranger, enough out of place to inspire both caution and curiosity in equal measures.]

You seem lost.

Mask or Menace

C.

[It helped to liken the city to a space station. It had the bustle of a large hub.. the rowdy clash and wild fusion of fashions and cultures that defied any easy identification of a trend or perhaps some anthropological hint as to the people - and species... intelligent and alien, the very thought sent his mind into fits of fantasy and planning at once. It was like water, as far as he could tell. Formless, impossible to grip, but could fill the air around you and sweep one far away should he let it. There were colors and layers fitting the ghem Cetagandan... lack of modesty known to the Betans... the maliable gathering of anything adorned by a Jacksonian mindset...

And yet, nothing that fit anything else.

There was only one way to begin. Diplomatically.]

Might I ask a question?

OTHER

[Pick your poison, or let me know and I'll cater a starter to you.]

Comments

[rathercommon]

Oh. Like...terra. Earth.

[ She reaches up and tucks her hair behind her ear, just a little bit flustered - half at her ignorance, and half at the almost warm way in which he'd corrected it. Vorkosigan, she reminds herself. The family that ordered a clone-body for one of its members. Not sweet. ]

That's how you live on other planets. Shaping them to humans' preferences.

[use_everything]

Quite so.

May I ask where your own world is, in regard to space exploration?

[While he could hazard a guess, it didn't mean that there wasn't some wild, new explanation. By god this dimension was maddening and intriguing for its unpredictability.]

[rathercommon]

Nowhere near that. We've barely even broken leaving the atmosphere.

[ Sidestepping his questions - ]

Anyway. How does your navy work, then? Is it a space navy?

[use_everything]

Outside of an honorary relic, almost entirely, yes.

[The bare minimum of an answer without going monosyllabic.]

[rathercommon]

An honorary relic.

[ She says that like she's puzzling over it. ]

That's really amazing, honestly. Do you have much technology that we don't have, then? Like - you know - biogenetic engineering, cloning, laser guns, all that...

[ The cloning is dropped in as casually as it can possibly be. ]

[use_everything]

[The cloning comment passes without note or change on the man's face. A simple lack of guilt? Was it such a common practice?

Instead Aral focuses on the weaponry, as is his wont.]

Laser weaponry is particularly obsolete now. Where a weapon is made a counter is developed.

[rathercommon]

[ Damn. Or is he sidestepping it...? ]

How interesting. What about the other stuff?

[use_everything]

All present in galactic technology. Biological engineering is prevalent throughout to varying degrees depending on planet. At even the most basic level, most natural diseases have been eliminated from humanity through it.

Cloning has been useful for bringing species to new worlds, seeing them adapt and flourish, such as the horses on Barrayar.

[rathercommon]

[ She pushes a little more: ]

Is cloning allowed for humans, too? I just read an article here recently talking about the ethics of it.

[use_everything]

[He walks in silence for some long few moments. For all of the complicated affairs of the galactic empires, Barrayar hadn't truly begun to touch the mess of it.]

The laws vary from world to world, as do the debates upon the ethics. It's a complicated topic.

[rathercommon]

Mm. And what does your world believe?

[use_everything]

[He glances at her from the corner of his eye. It's an odd topic to narrow down on, but there's no reason he could lay finger upon that would tie to him specifically. Personal for her, perhaps?]

In law... [He frowns, and shakes his head.] There's hardly much.

In practice, Barrayar has a narrow, dangerous view upon mutants and an undiscriminating view on what that word encompasses. We'd only just recently been delivered such advancements as uterine replicators. It hasn't necessitated the debate yet.

[rathercommon]

[ She frowns very slightly. That seems...incompatible with what Miles had told her. Is this man lying? He doesn't seem like he's lying. His manner is too casual.

Well. They're getting near the coffee shop; Kitty points to it, then leads him inside. Just so she doesn't seem like she's pushing that issue so hard: ]

Does your world lack technology, then? And what would you like to drink?

[use_everything]

[Whatever answer might have come was seized by Aral looking over the menu board, brows drawn and a little flummoxed.]

Coffee. [The answer was at length and worth the cautious air of someone who want quite sure if it existed amongst the "fraps" "lattes" "steamers" or if it was some bizarre cultural antiquity to have a plain cup.]

[rathercommon]

[ She glances over at him, and then up at the menu - and realizes that, right; of course he wouldn't have the same knowledge of all these different permutations on the coffee drink. God knows she didn't when she first arrived. For a moment, she considers explaining them, then decides that there'll be nothing gained by it. He'll learn in time, and the probability of him taking offense at her presuming to instruct him is not inconsiderable.

So, instead, she nods. ]

Sugar? Cream?

[use_everything]

[There's a flash of some mild gratitude as he inclines his head towards her.]

Neither, if you please.

[rathercommon]

Sure.

[ Of course he drinks his coffee black. A serious drink for a serious man, it seems. She steps forward and quickly orders: black coffee, dirty-chai-latte-with-a-shot-of-hazelnut-syrup-and-another-of-caramel-syrup. (Her taste in drinks is quite horrifying.)

She comes back and hands his drink to him and gestures him towards a table as they wait on hers. ]

You didn't quite answer my question about technology.

[use_everything]

[Each to their own, even if he can't quite fathom it. He takes a sip of his, and then another, appreciatively, before answering.]

Hm. I wouldn't call it a lack, but there's quite a ways to go.

[rathercommon]

Why is that? It sounds like that's not true in other parts of your home universe.

[use_everything]

That's a simple question, but a complicated answer.

I can abbreviate to your level of interest.

[He leaves the implied question there, watching her curiously. What HAD she heard to prompt that first reaction?]

[rathercommon]

[ She lifts her chin. ]

It's relatively high.

[use_everything]

[He takes another sip, mulling it over. Well, his job would be teaching, fairly soon, after all. How to explain the situation to someone who's world has barely crept outside of its own atmosphere?]

It requires knowing a little about how space travel works. Specifically, the distances are unimaginably long. Merely reaching any world that was not Earth would necessitate travel times longer than most civilizations have existed. Shortcuts, known as wormholes, allow that travel time down to mere months.

Some galaxies have multiple wormholes within them. Barrayar had one. Nearing 700 years ago, during early phases of colonization, that wormhole collapsed.

[rathercommon]

[ A nod. Lines up with what Greg had told her. Okay. So he's not lying about this... ]

That must have had enormous effects on your culture. I can only imagine how strange it must have been when you reestablished contact.

[use_everything]

Quite enormous. Without fuel, replacement parts, the ability to make polymers or alloys, electronics, and even in the beginning simple forging... the Firsters were forced to reinvent civilization and technology as everything they had come with decayed and fell away.

Eighty years ago, we made contact again. In my childhood, I knew of people who still remembered what it was to think of the first settlers as a myth and contact as a pipe dream. Of course, by contact, were summarily invaded by an Empire who spends more on a single state event than we have in our entire global budget.


Which brings me to the answer at last: we have highly advanced technology in defense, transportation and the medicine associated therewith. Everything that is not a necessity is a luxury, and its representation reflects it.

[rathercommon]

What are your politics like?

[ Her gaze is steady. The attempt to look airheaded is completely forgotten; she's too interested in what he's saying. ]