video

[rathercommon]

Hullo everyone. It's Kitty.

[ Kitty looks a little more normal than she did the last time she made a post on the network, since the last time she made a post on the network she looked like a tiger. She's bright-eyed, cheerful, and has a pair of very elaborate and beautiful earrings. ]

So, I'm taking a class in journalistic methods at the local community college - it's a brilliant class, too, I'm having an excellent time, school really gets much more worthwhile when you get to the college level, doesn't it - and we've been given an assignment to conduct interviews. I know that some of you are willing and happy to help me out and submit to being interviewed. [ Her grin is confident. ] It's nothing too personal, I promise - just some stuff on your attitude towards the locals here, that sort of thing. It'll be fun.

[ This...is not one hundred percent truthful, since the assignment is to interview one person, not the whole community. But, hey, why not do some broad info-gathering, right? ]

Comments

[use_everything]

[There's a wry quirk of the lips that answers that.]

I have my doubts. For one, tradition and good manners recommends a seal crested knife for that kind of job.

[dendarii]

Ah, yes. How could I forget? Nothing less than an artful placement between the third and fourth ribs.

[use_everything]

One wouldn't want more than a decorative splash of blood, after all.

[dendarii]

And too much of a struggle makes for an unlovely corpse.

... Her on my side first, certainly.

[ Though, the wheels are turning further. He needs time to prepare as well. As much time as he can afford himself, given the circumstances ... ]

[use_everything]

[Time is the one thing that they may have an abundance or a matter of minutes.]

The Centralists would need all of us working on it. As long as we swing a majority, we'll have a smoother run politically.

[dendarii]

So I'll need to be up to my neck in it. And have as much experience in it as I can possibly hold.

[use_everything]

[He nods, thinking rapidly. He'll need to be razor sharp, know each of the Counts and how to approach.]

You'll be fighting old prejudices even in the most progressive. We wont be able to change minds... not initially, but we can frame it as better than the alternatives.

[dendarii]

The alternatives being ... what, a lack of heirs? More Vordarians?

[use_everything]

All of that. [Unspoken.. is the unspeakable, the allusions to the worst case that came before Gregor.] More personal concessions as well, bargaining with a few well placed carrots.


Frankly, the groundwork could be laid quite early, should I remember.

[dendarii]

[ Miles' eyes widen at that incredible thought. ]

You'd have twenty years to lay a foundation. Introduce androgenesis early, alongside the usual replicator ...

[use_everything]

Our scientists need something besides war to focus on. Life might not be a poor start for a change.

[dendarii]

[ Miles nods at that, considering what other effects such a thing may have. ]

Perhaps fold in something about women inheriting too, so that we do not have too many sons. Just being able to choose the sex of the child has resulted in an abundance of men in my time.

[use_everything]

[He makes a face at that. He certainly had no interest in making an Athos of their world.]

That will be trickier. ... But there are those who might help. Certainly some of the Countesses would lead to some interesting testimony. The hardest would be those with some vested interest in assuring that women have no rights to protect their own.

[Certain members of the Vorrutyer clan, for example.]

[dendarii]

[ Miles is thinking of just that clan, in fact. And a certain member of it in particular. ]

By all means. involve the Countesses. Perhaps start with permitting them to submit proxy votes for their husband, much as an Heir would. Surely there are enough holes in the wake of Vordarian.

[use_everything]

There's more than enough historical precedent... At least one voting Countess in times of war. But more groundwork laid could not go wrong.

I'd need to be especially careful with the first choices. [She'd be held to the highest of scrutiny, far beyond any Count.]

By your age though, a full generation of time would have passed....

[dendarii]

[ Miles' eyes alight instantly. ]

Mother. Make her your first choice.

[ And let her set the tone for that vital generation's worth of time. ]

[use_everything]

[He pauses... and shakes his head. Not unkindly, he corrects,]

I'm not Count Vorkosigan. [And she certainly could not speak as Countess.]

[dendarii]

[ Oh. Right. He'd forgotten one critical aspect of that plan. ]

Ah. Gran'Da. Never mind then.

[use_everything]

He'll be the worst of them on that plan. Though I'll hear that from home, rather than in front of the Council, thankfully.

... He'll like to be better about the replicators and androgenesis, I imagine.

[dendarii]

[ Miles considers that. It matches up well enough with the old man he knows, but ... ]

He grew to love me in the end, after all. You may make more headway than you think.

[use_everything]

I do keep hope.

[dendarii]

Draft me if you can. I found ways into his heart one way or another.

[use_everything]

Perhaps. [If it's safe.]

[dendarii]

[ It's totally safe, what are you talking about. Miles nods after a moment, picturing his grandfather finding out about .. well, any of this ... ]

I don't know if I'm relieved or not that he won't see the end result.

[ i.e, his grandson marrying the Emperor. ]

[use_everything]

[Aral follows quickly and... hesitates in his answer. The emotions between them are a dark, murky cloud.]

There are many places he was flexible to the changing times... I am not entirely sure that was one of them.