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]

"I'm trying to figure that out. You have whipped cream on your nose."

[alicornucopia]

Nika rubs off the whipped cream and licks it off her fingers. "Now I don't. Do you want me to get my Miles to help figure it out?"

"Miles can't come here," Tiny Ivan says.

"Not by himself. I'd have to get Bothari."

"But the garden stops being missing if you go."

"Oh."

[thisvorlunatic]

"There's ways around that now that there's two of you," says Miles. "If one stays and holds the door and the other one goes. But I don't think the other Miles would be much help to me here. I bet he doesn't have nearly as much experience writing notes as I do."

And... let's just not think about Bothari. Let's just. Not think about Bothari at all.

[alicornucopia]

"Okay," says Nika. "Hmmm. I think most everybody else is busy. You'll have to do it yourself. But you have all that experience, writing notes."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yep," he says. "I just need a little time to think, is all."

[middlingalong]

"'Kay." Nika drinks her cocoa. When she is done with it she goes over to Big Ivan.

"You're his Ivan, right? So you don't have a Nika, either."

"Uh - yes," says Big Ivan.

"What happens to you?"

"Nothing much, really. I get dragged along on Miles things sometimes but often I can go long periods avoiding that."

Nika sighs at him. "Do you like it that nothing much happens?"

"Yes," says Ivan, "actually, I do."

"Well, okay, then."

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles, meanwhile, writes.

[alicornucopia]

Nika, through despairing of Ivan's life choices, climbs up on the stool next to him to peek.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Excuse me," he says, moving the half-finished note away from her. "It's not polite to look at a letter someone's writing without their permission."

[alicornucopia]

"But I'm gonna deliver it."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yes," he says. "I deliver a lot of letters working as a courier for Uncle Simon, and I'm not allowed to read hardly any of them."

[alicornucopia]

"Isn't it about my little brother, though? Not about - Uncle Simon things."

[thisvorlunatic]

"It's about your little brother and some other things I thought of that I want your parents and Uncle Simon to know about," he says. "There are a few Uncle Simon things in it."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh," sighs Nika, and she climbs down and gets Big Ivan to deal her in on whirligig.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles resumes writing.

Mother, Father (and Simon, and miscellaneous ImpSec analysts I'm sure):

Hello from the year 2998 standard. How's the Komarran Revolt going? Is David Galen dead yet? If he is, assuming these events hold true in your world: (a) he isn't, and (b) shortly he's going to scurry off to Jackson's Whole and clone me for nefarious purposes. Lord Mark turned out astonishingly well, given his childhood. I can only assume he'll do even better if you manage to rescue him nice and early, although given Lord Mark, that may not be a perfectly safe assumption.

By the way, if David Galen's son should grow up and one day decide to join the Imperial Service (approximately thirty seconds after you started letting in Komarrans, as far as I can tell), he will be an impeccably loyal officer. You couldn't ask for better. No need to worry about activating your retirement, Simon. You are right in this as in all things, Da.

What else should I tell you...

It would be a very, very good idea to let me know who Elena's mother was, and how, before any trips to Beta Colony I might take when I'm seventeen. You might consider telling her, too, but I'm the one whose stupid decision will be averted by this knowledge. Around the same time... have a care for Grandda's health. Not that I think there's anything much you or anyone could have done differently.

I am safe and well, having survived all of my miscellaneous childhood adventures and then the ones that came after. You may not find this an adequate reassurance after little Miles learns to run, but it's the best one I've got.

There's more I want to say, but I'm hesitant... I have no more secure method of communication available to me at this moment (sorry, but who memorizes what the standard ciphers were when they were five? Not even you, Simon, I bet) and a lot of the things I could tell you will do more harm in others' hands than they will do good in yours. Also, I have a moderate suspicion that this letter will be read by a four-year-old before it reaches you.

Not to mention that I have no idea just how much of my past will closely resemble your future, because in my own world, I have never had a sister.

All my love,
Lieutenant Lord Miles Naismith Vorkosigan

After signing, he gets out his grandfather's seal dagger and imprints the Vorkosigan seal in blood next to the signature. That should get them to pay attention. It should be a match for little Miles's, but little Miles's handwriting, vocabulary, and knowledge base would not be up to producing this document, not to mention the fact that little Miles has probably never been within spitting distance of his grandda's seal dagger.

[alicornucopia]

Nika observes the seal dagger with interest but doesn't comment on it.

"Should I go bring that and get my Miles now?" she wonders.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'm... not... sure," he murmurs, contemplating the folded note.

[alicornucopia]

"Well, you could send Ivan, if you'd rather, but I don't see why you would."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I don't know if I want to meet your Miles. I don't know... if I'd do him any good by it."

[alicornucopia]

"If there was another me I'd want to meet her."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'd want to meet another of me. I'm less sure that I would have wanted to meet another of me when I was five. I only remember a little about being five..."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh." Pause. "But won't he be mad if I don't show him the magic bar?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Maybe. I don't know. Do you think so?"

[alicornucopia]

"Maybe. It's a magic bar."

[thisvorlunatic]

"It is, that's true," he says. "Well, if you want to go get Miles, then in the finest Vorkosigan tradition you can get your Cousin Ivan to hold the door for you while you go do that."