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

[middlingalong]

"Oh. ...Do you want her basket? I don't know if she'd give you her basket."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I don't want her basket. She can keep her basket."

He might want the ImpSec report on her basket, but six-year-old Ivan is unlikely to be able to get him that either.

[middlingalong]

"Okay," says Tiny Ivan.

Big Ivan sets up another round of whirligig. Tiny Ivan loses this one.

Tiny Ivan says, "If you want to know stuff about Nika I could just get her."

[thisvorlunatic]

"The garden is only temporarily missing. If you ran off to get her it might be here again when you came back, and we wouldn't be here anymore, because we're in this place and not in the garden."

[middlingalong]

"Would she come if you yelled from the doorway?" Big Ivan inquires.

"Probably," says Tiny Ivan. "Should I yell for her?"

Big Ivan looks at Miles.

[thisvorlunatic]

"...sure," says Miles. "Okay."

[middlingalong]

Tiny Ivan goes and opens the door. "NIKAAAAA," he calls. "COME SEE THIS THING."

"WHAT THING," calls back a girl's voice.

"IT'S JUST A THING, C'MERE."

"OKAY FINE JUST A SECOND."

Tiny Ivan waits patiently for somewhat longer than a second, and then in toddles a cute little Asian-looking girl. She trips on her way in.

"Where'd the garden go?"

"It's missing," says Tiny Ivan.

"Gardens don't go missing," says Nika. "They aren't socks. Who are these people?"

"They're named Ivan and Miles!" says Tiny Ivan. "And they're cousins, too!"

Nika squints at the people thusly named.

[thisvorlunatic]

"...hi, Nika," says Miles.

Somehow he suspects tiny Ivan's lack of curiosity is not going to hold here. (They aren't socks. Yes, this is an acceptable Vorkosigan sibling.)

[alicornucopia]

"I bet," says Nika, "that you are the one named Miles, aren't you."

[thisvorlunatic]

"You are right," says Miles. "How'd you guess?"

[alicornucopia]

"It wasn't hard. Are you a time traveler?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"N...o," he says. "Not personally, let's say. This place made part of my cousin Ivan's friend's house go missing the same way it made your garden go missing, and he got me to come look at it, and now here we are. But I know I can't be time-travelling from exactly your future because I never had a little sister, basketed or otherwise."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh."

[thisvorlunatic]

On reflection, he's not going to tell her that he's never particularly felt the lack.

"I do all right," he says instead, hoping this strikes the right balance of reassuring without insulting.

[alicornucopia]

"Who taught you how to walk?" she wonders.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I figured it out by myself," he says. "With some interference from my parents."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh," she says again, pensive. "Well... except for me is it the same?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"I dunno," he says. "What's everything like for you?"

[alicornucopia]

"Besides me and Miles and Ivan who you already found there's, um, there's Gregor, and there's Elena sometimes - and Mama and Da - and Bothari, and Droushie, and Kou, and there's Aunt Alys. And Grandda. And horses."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Horses, huh? Grandda's horses? Has he taken you to see the maple trees yet?"

[alicornucopia]

"No-o, I've only been to see Grandda twice. But maybe next time. Your one of Grandda met you? I haven't convinced mine, yet."

[middlingalong]

(Ivans play unobtrusive whirligig.)

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah. He even gave me a horse," says Miles. "But he named the horse Fat Ninny."

[alicornucopia]

"I want a horse and I'm going to name my horse Magic because it's going to be the best horse and I'm going to dance the horse," Nika says. "Fat Ninny is a silly name."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yes," says Miles. "It is a silly name. Grandda is a little complicated about me. I guess you know that already, if you've been trying to convince him to see your brother."