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]

"But they were so cute."

[unmarred]

"I'm sure."

[thisvorlunatic]

Stalas gives Mark a slightly concerned look. Miles catches it, and gives them both a slightly concerned look.

[isthisart]

"What's the issue with small adorable children? Who were, interestingly, from a universe that is just like ours only very secretly magical."

[unmarred]

"I don't want anything to do with small adorable children," says Mark.

[isthisart]

"Well, they've been sent home with all their souvenirs, so you will not have to have anything to do with them."

[warpfairy]

"T'hy'la, do you want to see our picture with Nika, the little us?"

[dream_me_up]

"Sure," says Lalita. He sets Mark down and ruffles his hair and goes over to Isabella.

[isthisart]

It's Linya who produces the picture from her pen: her balancing Nika on her hip with one arm and taking the holo with the other hand, Isabella standing on Nika's other side, Nika gesturing expansively and beamingly. In the background, Mileses playing Strat-O and one Ivan reading to another Ivan are visible.

[dream_me_up]

"Well, that's thoroughly adorable."

[thisvorlunatic]

Meanwhile, Stalas is holding Mark's hand again.

[warpfairy]

"Part of the secret magic business was that none of these children - nor Bothari, the little Miles's bodyguard - were humans, according to Bar. Nika was a secret dragon, little Ivan was a secret firebird, little Miles was a secret unicorn."

[thisvorlunatic]

(Miles briefly gets a look when Isabella mentions Bothari.)

[unmarred]

(Mark gets a look about Miles getting a look.)

[isthisart]

"Large amounts of flying subtext is going on over there. Should we be talking about something else?"

[unmarred]

"I don't know," says Mark. "Should we?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"...maybe," says Miles. "We could talk about, oh, sneaking Mark and Stalas onto Barrayar. For example."

[isthisart]

"Does anyone have a better idea than the duffel bag?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"The duffel bag in question would have to be fairly enormous," says Miles. "I don't really think you could plausibly claim that everyone just forgot they saw you bring it in. We could, I don't know, dress them both up as me and have us all leave as unobtrusively as possible by different exits. With somebody to shepherd Stalas. As long as no one actually sees all three of us in the same room, 'which way did he go and when' is the sort of thing people are pretty willing to have their memories quietly revised about. 'Was she or was she not carrying Father Frost's sack of presents when she came in a few minutes ago' is... less that way. I could easily imagine someone deciding that you were making off with the family silver or some damn thing, and demanding to see in the bag."

[isthisart]

"I believe Mark has already volunteered to go out Vivienne's window."

[unmarred]

"In a sense, I suppose. I'll do it, anyway."

[middlingalong]

"There's a back staircase, leads to a door that goes out near the quail. I could show it to Stalas and he can meet Miles and Linyabel and the Armsman she brought after they go out the front, and then I can go up the back stair again, get Vivienne's sweater, and resume like nothing happened."

[thisvorlunatic]

"The quail that aren't going to try to kill me? Those quail?" inquires Stalas.

[middlingalong]

"The very ones. The quail that will try to kill you are up in the attic."

[thisvorlunatic]

...Stalas cracks up.