IC Contact Post (MoM)

[idontwanttoknow]

Hello, you've reached Lieutenant Lord Ivan Xav Vorpatril. I'm sorry if my absence inconveniences you. Leave a message and I will return your call as soon as I can.

Unless you're Miles. Leave me alone, Miles.

Comments

text; june 10th

[ghemnotgem]

May I ask a question?

( she has run out options here, and an ivan is at least a known quantity. )

[idontwanttoknow]

Sure. Is something wrong?

[He may not actually be her husband, but that doesn't mean he's going to abandon her.]

[ghemnotgem]

Beyond the fact your cousin seems to be under the belief that he is Prince Piotr Miles Vorkosigan? No.

Is your family normally like this? The kidnapping, the half exploded house. This. I understand the kidnapping, conceptually, but it's one thing after another.

[idontwanttoknow]

Uh. You saw that, too?

Nah, all that's just Miles. Things calmed down for Tante Cordelia and Uncle Aral after Gregor came to power.

[ghemnotgem]

I ran into him. It was odd -- I could smell that he was attracted to me, when he hadn't at all before. And he didn't smell like anyone he normally has sex with, either.

Oh. Good.

( now she knows who to avoid. )

[idontwanttoknow]

He didn't smell like--

You can smell that?

[Why didn't he know that?]

Did he smell like someone else or...not himself?

[ghemnotgem]

Oh yes! Rish is much better at it, she can smell whether someone's telling the truth or not.

Someone else on top of smelling like Miles. It's like-- someone with day-old perfume. It lingers.

[idontwanttoknow]

Wait, so it's not your superpower? You can just...smell it?

So not only is Miles not Miles, he's sleeping around?

[Well, Ivan can't exactly blame him for that, but it's still really weird.]

[ghemnotgem]

That's right. My powers are not as useful.

Or with people that aren't his usual partners, yes.

( tej also thinks it's weird. but then again, everything about being here is weird to her. )

[idontwanttoknow]

I mean. Mine aren't either.

[Yes, he wants her to feel better.]

Huh. Well. Maybe it won't last. Hopefully he's back to his old self soon.

[Things Ivan never thought he'd say. Of course, he'd never imagined that miles could get even more obnoxious.]

[ghemnotgem]

Really? I'll share mine if you share yours.

Kitty, too. Although NOT KITTY reminds me of Star.

( it is working, even if things are weird. maybe that's just a side effect of eventually being ivan xav. something to keep in mind whenever she sees ivan xav again. )

[idontwanttoknow]

I can turn invisible. And I have a psychic link to Gregor, when we choose.

...wait, Kitty? Really? Who are Not Kitty and Star?

[ghemnotgem]

I can nullify powers and change things into gems and jewels by touching them. What's it like, having a link to the Gregor?

( completely useless in the grand scheme of things. )

Really Kitty. NOT KITTY is whoever's replaced Proper Kitty -- she's very emphatic about that point. Star is my eldest even sister.

[idontwanttoknow]

The link? Like having a door in the back of my mind that nobody ever opens. It's quiet, really.

I hadn't realized Kitty was replaced, too. Huh.

Wait, even sister? As opposed to...what?

[ghemnotgem]

That must be nice.

( imagining if her family had a way into her head isn't something tej wants to consider. if they were alive and here, that is. )

She's going around calling herself something else. And having difficulty texting.

As opposed to an odd-sister, of course. It's a joke between the Jewels and the rest of us kids.

( tej isn't expecting that pang of loneliness at the loss of her odd-siblings; she thought the months would have made it easier. )

[idontwanttoknow]

He's very respectful. I'm just glad it's not Miles.

That's so weird. Things like that seem to happen an awful lot around here, don't they?

The Jewels? And I thought all siblings could be kind of odd.

[ghemnotgem]

Could you not count on the same from him? He's not what I expected from someone who's your cousin.

( or any of his relatives. thank god. tej much prefers middling officer ivan xav vorpatril over the gregor and the coz. and viceroy vorkosigan, too. )

The Jewels. It-- would be easier to show you, if I could. You met Rish back on Komarr. It's not about oddness! It's about numbers. Ruby was the first, Erik the second. So all the Jewels are odd, and all the rest of us are even.

[idontwanttoknow]

Oh no. Have you met Miles? I mean. Clearly you have. But he's incapable of getting out of messes on his own, and he has no sense of privacy. Being in the same room as him gives me enough of a headache; I can't imagine having a psychic link to him.

So if they're already called the Jewels, why are they called the odd siblings? Is there something that makes them particularly odd?

[ghemnotgem]

Is he as exhausting as he sounds? I wasn't sure if it was just the implications of our conversations or something else.

( is that a bad thing to say about one's family? )

The Jewels are what they are, the odd-siblings is just what my family calls them. As an inside joke.

They're unique. I won't say -- I can't say more without Dealing for it, but. One day you'll find out.

[idontwanttoknow]

More exhausting. He's always off getting into trouble and expects everyone else to bail him out.

[It's not bad if it's true. Or about Miles. Or both.]

Dealing for it? What do you mean?

[ghemnotgem]

And do they? I can't think he must like it much, if he doesn't like the fact his parents are unconditionally supportive of him.

( what must it be like, to have such a thing and find it not enough? tej knows she fell short of much of what her parents wanted from her. to have that and to spurn it? she can't imagine it. )

It's a Jacksonian thing. You offer information of equal value to the information I have, and we trade.

[idontwanttoknow]

They do. He usually doesn't like it, and he always takes credit afterwards. I won't pretend to understand him.

Oh. I don't suppose I have anything you'd want?

[ghemnotgem]

So you're normal.

( middling. thank god. in spite of his relatives. )

Well, it has to be equal value. What do you have that could lead people to finding you and killing you?

[idontwanttoknow]

Yes, I am. Thank you for noticing.

What? I don't have anything like that! Why are people trying to kill you?

[ghemnotgem]

I can't tell you! This would be so much easier if you were Ivan Xav, you already know.

( the next text comes a minute or so later. )

I'm a loose end. I can't say anything else, but if I was found here by the people who are looking for me, I'm sure I'd end up just as dead as I would back in the Nexus.

Tell me something about yourself that I don't know. In exchange.

[idontwanttoknow]

[She has another name for his future self? Isn't that a little weird?

He isn't sure he owes her anything, but... it couldn't hurt to tell her something, right?]

I'm an only child. My father died the day I was born.

[ghemnotgem]

( it's how she's keeping you separate in her head, alright. )

I knew that, your father dying the day you were born. Or at least, I figured it -- he was in the database too. ( sorry ivan. ) What was it like, being an only child?

[idontwanttoknow]

You did? Oh. I guess it would have been.

It should've been more quiet. m'mother kept busy, so I spent a lot of time with Miles and his armsman's daughter, Elena. That's even worse than having siblings.

Oh, and Gregor.

[ghemnotgem]

( sadly for ivan, he can't hear tej's laugh in response to that. )

I don't know, I think mine could give your almost-siblings a run for their money. Maybe not Miles, though.

I didn't know you were related to the Gregor. That's not in your file.

[idontwanttoknow]

Miles is terribly fast for his size. Frankly, it's horrifying.

Really? Well. I am. He and Miles and I are all descended from Emperor Dorca.

[ghemnotgem]

So that's how you're all related! I had wondered since the Gregor never specified beyond family. What does that make you?

[idontwanttoknow]

Me? Dangerously close to the Imperium and desperate for Gregor to make some heirs of his own.

[ghemnotgem]

And if I told you he does when I last knew, in the future?

[idontwanttoknow]

It's about time!

[ghemnotgem]

( tej smiles at that reaction, glad that her temporary husband is far more interested in distancing himself from the gregor and his role of emperor than he is taking it over. )

He got married five years ago, I think? To a Komarran woman.

[idontwanttoknow]

To a Komarran woman?

Why?

[He's already thinking of answers to that, of course. Marrying into Komarr might help stabilize things, he supposes. Why hadn't he thought of that?]

[ghemnotgem]

I don't know. It seems like a wise political move, and if they're sexually compatible with each other and don't find each other extremely off-putting, why not?

[idontwanttoknow]

You don't know the number of women Mamere's tried to set him up with. It's not just a matter of someone being off-putting. Gregor is picky.

[ghemnotgem]

Or not wholly attracted to women. I can smell that, too.

I've heard a lot about your mother. Byerly was frightened of her, or thought he'd best be planets away when he found out you married me.

[idontwanttoknow]

I would be surprised by that if Miles hadn't already spilled the beans.

M'mother is terrifying. Byerly had the right idea.

[ghemnotgem]

Yes, he and Miles and Kitty. Not Kitty, I suppose, at least for now.

She and the Baronne might get along, in that case. If she was still alive.

[idontwanttoknow]

That's what Miles told me. Accidentally. Back when he was Betan for a little while.

[This place is so strange.]]

The Baronne? Who is she? errrrrrr, who was she?

[ghemnotgem]

The Baronne Cordonah -- head of my House on Jackson's Whole.

( it is incredibly strange. at least an ivan seems normal in all of it, which tej appreciates. )

[idontwanttoknow]

Oh. Well, Mamere would be very polite to a Jacksonian Baronne. She's very proper and knows all the best people.

[As long as they don't make friends. That would be terrifying.]

[ghemnotgem]

That doesn't sound that bad. Everyone seems to think she's terrifying.

( sorry ivan. )

[idontwanttoknow]

She is!

[ghemnotgem]

I suppose I'll never find out otherwise. Still, she's your mother, how different can you be from each other?

( on second thought -- tej knows she doesn't resemble the baronne. maybe ivan is like that with his mother? )