hell of a party

[middlingalong]

Ivan must be drunker than he thought he was. He could have sworn he knew his way around Vivienne's parents' house, since she wanted to introduce him last week and showed him the place, but maybe they have a... secret... upstairs... bar? where Vivienne's room is supposed to be? And most certainly was last time he checked? He's never going to find the sweater she sent him up looking for here, anyway. Why is there a secret upstairs bar in Vivienne's parents' house?

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

"Great," says Miles.

[dream_me_up]

"You're very enthusiastic about warp drive," says Lalita.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Wormholes," he says, "close."

[isthisart]

"Not often, but when they do, if there isn't an alternate route, planets can be cut off. This is why Barrayar underwent its period of low technological access."

[warpfairy]

"Oh no. But it opened again?"

[middlingalong]

"Yeah, Komarr's our front gate. With a five-jump garden path."

[dream_me_up]

[middlingalong]

"This bar just loves throwing people at me who find me unexpectedly entertaining, doesn't it."

[dream_me_up]

"Do most people not find you entertaining? I think you're a riot."

[middlingalong]

"I mean, I get along! I am a popular guy, including with totally normal people who aren't elves or genetically engineered or anything. But you, and - and -"

Blink, blink.

"Uh, Bar. Do alts have to look the same? I mean, beyond things like elf ears and - height and stuff."

They do not.

"Ah-huh."

[dream_me_up]

"...What, do you know an alt of me?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"...Mark?" says Miles, incredulously. "I... oh God, I can actually see it. Sort of."

[isthisart]

"Bar, can you by any chance just tell about this sort of thing?"

They are not quite alts. But they're something very like it. If pressed I would say that Lalita is Mark's "half-alt".

"Ooookay."

[dream_me_up]

"And what is Mark up to at the moment?"

[isthisart]

"Things Ivan doesn't want to dwell on, with Miles's alt, Stalas."

[dream_me_up]

[middlingalong]

"Why is the concept of not wanting to dwell so difficult?"

[dream_me_up]

"Sorry," giggles Lalita. "That does sound like a me, though."

[thisvorlunatic]

...

Miles is now envisioning things he could perhaps have done without envisioning.

[warpfairy]

"I think I want to meet this person. When they're done."

[dream_me_up]

"Me too."

[warpfairy]

Isabella snorts.

[isthisart]

[dream_me_up]

[thisvorlunatic]