Video

[fullmetalbrat]

[The video feed cuts in on a blond teenager squinting dubiously at the camera. His eyes widen a moment later when he notices the video display on the screen.] —Is it working?

Uh—hey. Can people really see this? If there is anyone watching, I'm looking for a guy in a huge suit of armor. Goes by the name Alphonse. [He leans closer to the camera, pointing emphatically.] If you see him, tell him his big brother's looking for him!

Now that I've got that out of the way, I got some more questions for all of you. Someone told me that when people leave this world they forget everything about it, but they might remember if they come back. Is that really true? Is there anyone who's left and come back that I could talk to?

I want to know more about this registration scheme they've got here too. I heard plenty about what you get for it, but what's the catch?

And, [he starts, pausing to glance at something laying just below the camera's field of view], what's a "pop star"?

Comments

[fullmetalbrat]

It's a military state that grew by conquering the surrounding countryside. Does it really need explanation?

[vorbarra]

Forgive me, my planet is completely atheist. Well, with pockets of agnosticism, I'll grant. I've no experience with religious discrimination as anything more than a sad historical fact.

[fullmetalbrat]

If you know about discrimination at all, you know about religious discrimination. Someone thinks people believe something stupid or come from somewhere they don't like, and that's all they need to decide they don't deserve to live.

[vorbarra]

I'm actively attempting to combat the discrimination in Barrayar-- well, I am while I'm at home-- and it's given me a keen appreciation for how complex rooting it out can be.

Speaking as another military state that grows via conquest.

[fullmetalbrat]

Huh . . . It's just not the kind of thing I worry about myself. It sucks, but I've got more important things to do right now than figure out how to convince people not to treat each other like shit all the time.

[Really, punching is the only solution he's ever truly tried.]

[vorbarra]

[ It's a good thing you're talking about shapeshifting with Kitty and not this topic, because those're fighting words, Ed.

Gregor doesn't look bothered by them, though, merely sets his chin in his hand. ] And what is it that has you so preoccupied, if I may ask? [ Which is more interesting to him than going off on some moralistic spiel about his goals as Emperor. Gregor strongly tries to avoid those, however true they are. ]

[fullmetalbrat]

Saving my country.

[Flat and simply said.]

[vorbarra]

From itself?

[fullmetalbrat]

From the monster that wants to wipe it out the same way it wiped out another country hundreds of years ago. . . . And the idiots it tricked into following it.

[vorbarra]

... I feel I have to ask how literal you are when you say monster.

[fullmetalbrat]

Do humans usually live hundreds of years where you're from? Of course it's actually a monster.

[vorbarra]

Ah... well, actually, it's possible. Betan lifespan is well over a hundred years, but you can live indefinitely, if horrifically, with brain transplants.

[fullmetalbrat]

Brain transplants?

[vorbarra]

Exactly what it sounds like. With the unfortunate side effect of murder, of course.

[ Deep sarcasm, there, not wholly masking how disgusting he finds the practice. ]

[fullmetalbrat]

[Holy shit

HOLY SHIT]

And that's—that's common? What kind of sick world do you live in?!

[vorbarra]

[ Quickly, ] No, no-- not common. It's only on Jackson's Whole. You have to be both rich and completely morally degenerate. Nowhere else will do it.

[fullmetalbrat]

It's common enough that you know exactly where it's done!

[Back in his day sacrificing people for immortality was the biggest secret on the planet!!1]

[vorbarra]

[ Gregor sort of eyes him. ]

Jackson's Whole will sell you anything you can afford. Everyone knows that. It's not actually performed that often.

[fullmetalbrat]

[Sorry, this kid has no chill at all.]

Once is too often.

[vorbarra]

[ Gregor is just not used to an angry sort of no chill. At least not being expressed that loudly. All of the angry people he knows are deadly quiet about it. ]

Well-- yes. If it ever tried to come to Barrayar I'd shut it down immediately.

[fullmetalbrat]

I bet that works out great for the people stuck in Jackson's Whole.

[vorbarra]

[ His voice quiets. ]

I'm not unsympathetic to that. But I've a duty to right what I can among my own people before I go looking for others' evils. There's an entire universe-- I could hurl all Barrayar at it and not make a dent.

[fullmetalbrat]

[He'd really like to argue—it's always easier when there's someone easy to blame, but he knows enough to hear the truth in what Gregor is saying even if he hates it.]

. . . Isn't there anywhere that's just—good?

[vorbarra]

Places? No. Not wholly. But people... I think there are. You just have to narrow your scope.

[fullmetalbrat]

It doesn't always feel like enough.