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]

Miles receives a pen-note.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I couldn't begin to estimate. 'Lots' and 'not as lots but still very lots'."

He checks his pen.

[middlingalong]

Isabella fessed up she can read minds. She's dodging the 'alien' thing, but I'm not a hundred percent on Bothari, are you?

[thisvorlunatic]

"Fuck," says Miles. He shows Linya the message and replies, He'll hold it together while he's got little me to take care of, but I'd better get down there. See you soon.

[isthisart]

"Do you want me along or should I stay up here? I can't imagine I'd improve Bothari's mood but if you need me..."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I need your scanner; having you along to operate it is optional but... would be appreciated," he admits with a heavy sigh.

[isthisart]

"Should we try to... act less married?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"That may be a lost cause," he says, smiling wryly.

[isthisart]

"Well. I will not blurt it out first thing, anyway. Nor carry you down the stairs." She collects her scanner and puts Miles down that he may proceed without her help.

[thisvorlunatic]

Down they go.

And downstairs, Little Miles persists. "Well, why just people from Vulcan and Betazed then?"

[warpfairy]

"It's not strictly about what planet you're born on. I've been oversimplifying. Oh, hello," says Isabella, with perfect calm, as her alt and alt's husband come down the stairs.

[isthisart]

Nika is very distracted by her newly appeared alt. "You're pretty," she tells Linya.

"Thank you," says Linya.

[washed_in_blood]

[isthisart]

"Did you finish taking apart your thing?" Nika asks.

"It's very much apart, now! Next I'll figure out how to put it back together. I thought I'd come down here in between steps."

[washed_in_blood]

[thisvorlunatic]

Less Little Miles wishes rather desperately that he had some kind of telepathy so he could coordinate with Linya without being overheard. Damnation. The last time he saw that look on Bothari's face, it was just before Elena Visconti shot him.

Fuck it. Forward momentum, right?

"And I brought my surprise," he says. "See, Miles, we met somebody earlier who has magic blood that heals people. I've had a lot of my bones replaced by now, so I didn't jump all over it right that second... but if it fixes the rest of mine, I figure maybe it'll fix yours too. How's that sound?"

Little Miles stares. "You mean I could run around and fall down and not go to the hospital?" he says incredulously. "Yeah!"

"Well," says Less Little Miles, "I'll go first. To make sure it works."

[isthisart]

"I brought my medical scanner to check."

"Why do you just have one of those?" Nika asks.

"I got it to tell apart people who look alike. You've seen a bunch of those today, haven't you?"

Nika giggles.

[warpfairy]

"The blood doesn't work instantly, but it should have noticeable results if it's going to help at all within the first half hour or so."

[thisvorlunatic]

"All right," says Less Little Miles. "Here goes. Linyabel, take a new baseline, just 'cause?"

[isthisart]

Okay, so are they trying the pretending not to be married thing...? She does her best to look professional about it when she takes her reading. "Done," she says.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Thank you."

And dose number one of magic blood.

"And now we wait, I guess. Sorry it isn't very exciting-looking magic."

"You better not be fibbing about the magic," says a scowling Little Miles.

"I don't know for sure about it, but as far as I know, there's no good reason it shouldn't work," says Less Little Miles. "My word as Vorkosigan."

This actually succeeds in shutting Little Miles up.

[warpfairy]

"I've tried it a couple of times myself before," says Isabella. "For injuries, but it's really amazing stuff."

[isthisart]

Linya monitors Miles's condition. Her scanner beeps occasionally.

"Can you make it stop beeping?" asks Nika.

"Sure." She makes it stop beeping.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Anyway, now that we're on the boring part," says Less Little Miles, "how about a game of Strat-O, Miles-Five?"

"You better not let me win," warns Little Miles.

"I wouldn't dream of it," says Less Little Miles.

"All right," says Little Miles.

Less Little Miles procures the game from Bar, and - knowing that Bothari won't want to put the kid down for a second - sits at a table, where Bothari will have room to sit down across from him with Little Miles in his lap.

[washed_in_blood]

Less Little Miles is so very right about that. Down he sits.