STRANGE, WHERE WERE YOU WHEN WE STARTED THIS GIG?

[maskormods]

WHO: All diplomatic imPorts that have signed up HERE.
WHERE: The capitals of Mexico, South Korea, and France. UN-attending imPorts will be placed in Davos, Switzerland.
WHEN: January 26th.
WHAT: Democracy in motion as imPorts attempt to use their skills of persuasion to convince each government or organization to lend the imPorts - and America - their help. Players may also use this log to play out the long flight over, planning, and other associated activities.
WARNINGS: None anticipated; let us know if we should change this!



Depending on their assignment, all imPort diplomats will find themselves either in Seoul, South Korea; Mexico City, Mexico; Paris, France; or for UN attending imPorts, Davos in the Swiss Alps. They will be housed in the American Embassies and regardless of their Registration status, will be treated as American citizens. UN-attending imPorts will be housed in a hotel close by. Their accommodations will be that of an extremely luxurious hotel, and they will be provided with anything that they should require, be it books on the art of rhetoric, access to state of the art computers and laptops, food or drink. They will also be provided with boardrooms in which the teams may convene to assemble a strategy. Don't be distracted by the free drinks; this is a task that will require clear minds!

After one night of preparation, on January 26th, each team of imPorts will meet with either the government of their assigned nation or the UN. They will be placed at a podium in front of a room full of politicians and diplomats, and will be expected to state their argument. They will be allowed to have an opening speech before each assembly asks each group three questions.

When either the opening speech has been concluded OR the question has been answered to each player's satisfaction, please put QUESTION NEEDED in the subject title of your comment, and we will deliver the next question.

Just remember: an invasion is coming! Even if acquiring the alliance of these governments and organizations do not help with the imPorts' immediate predicament, it will impact the future of the game at large!

Get ready, our silver-tongued imPorts, and good luck!

Comments

[vorbarra]

[He has a moment of odd deja vu in which he recalls Aral training him this way. It's been many years since then; now Gregor does all this without needing to reflect. He doesn't even look at his notes, he just transitions on cue, naturally.

It's a modified version of the face he'd presented a moment ago that she'd laughed at. Not quite so above-it-all, but there's solemnity instead, and a faint note of imploring. Of empathy. His normal quiet tone is suddenly an invitation to listen closer instead of just his reserve.]

Preventing imPorts from being treated as weapons protects not only us but all of you, all of your families, so that we may not be unwillingly used against you. It is my fervent hope that we may all learn to recognize the inherent humanity in each other, regardless of species, and unite in defense of it, not to attack but to preserve.

[A short pause.] I'm trying to distill several points into one message. I don't want to go on too long. [Which is purely Gregor being disinclined to speeches and not any calculation about attention span.]

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty, though, takes that as a concession to attention spans, and she nods her approval. Nods her approval, really, of the whole enterprise - the look he sports, the speech he gives, everything. ]

That's good. The look is good, too. That's...respectable without looking slappable.

[ She gestures - ]

Trustworthy without relying on the privileges of your nobility. Relying on Greg rather than on Vorthys. Which seems to me a more solid foundation.

[vorbarra]

[ Respectable without looking slappable. He snorts at that description, but can't deny it.

He doesn't look uncomfortable at this comment simply because Gregor never looks uncomfortable unless he deliberately lets it occur. ] Even though I'm not really sure who Greg is, without being Vor? [ A wry smile. He likes and trusts Kitty enough to get that bit of honesty out of him, which is even truer than she knows. ]

[rathercommon]

[ She smiles back at him, tilting her head slightly to the side. ]

Even so. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that you get much more out of the identity you make for yourself than the one people give you. It took me a long time to learn how to be Kitty, rather than the-commoner-Kathleen-Jones. But God, I was a lot happier once I figured it out.

[ And she spreads her hand, and prompts him: ]

What have you figured out so far about Greg-not-Lord-Vor-Thing?

[vorbarra]

[The identity you make for yourself versus the one people give you... What a profound sentiment tossed out there so carelessly. Gregor's going to have to think on that one later. He also absently wonders what poor Kitty is going to do when she can't make jokes on his last name anymore. Vorthys lends itself to them so much better than Vorbarra.

At the moment, he's not at all prepared to be quizzed on how he defines himself apart from being Emperor. (For that's the question she's unknowingly asking, and he's well aware.) It takes Gregor several long seconds of silence to even start to formulate an answer.]

I'm not a bad cook. [Which seems stupid, but his smile has turned faint and genuine, looking down at his hands instead of at her.] It's important to me that I'm contributing. Other people think I'm worthy of being kind to no matter who I am, even when they get nothing out of it, which-- isn't surprising but is feeding something.

[A beat. More quietly,] I can save myself. I found that one out before. And... when I'm allowed to choose it for myself rather than having it foisted on me, I weirdly miss being Vor. What an odd perspective, to have the room to realize that.

[rathercommon]

[ She waits as he builds up all of that, not pushing him forward or rushing him. And in the end, she nods, and asks him, her voice devoid of judgment: ]

Do you miss it for the power? Your ability to just make things happen?

[vorbarra]

Well-- [Gregor laughs a little, self-critically.] It is very satisfying. That sounds awful. But if something was really wrong, I knew I could do something, or more accurately have someone else do something.

But it's not all of it. [He has to go introspective again for a moment to find the words.] I'm... good at it, [he says slowly.] At all of it, the whole farce that isn't a farce. I was raised for it very carefully. Here I must start completely over, and I do enjoy it, but at the end of the day it's not comfortable.

In all honesty, Kitty, I could sooner shed my skin than shed being Vor. [Gregor shakes his head.] It's learning to live in it that I need to figure out.

[rathercommon]

[ A thoughtful nod. But she points out - ]

But that's what you've done back home, isn't it? You've left being a Vor behind.

[vorbarra]

[Oh, right. His cover. But he can still speak truthfully here, ironic as that is.]

I tried to, [he corrects her.] But I couldn't, really. That's how I know I can't do it.

[rathercommon]

Hm.

[ She taps her lip, very lightly. ]

So then...what does being a Vor mean?

[vorbarra]

[He snorts.]

God, Kitty. How am I supposed to answer that? Do you know we run into this with non-Barrayarans constantly? My foster-mother thinks the whole thing is a mass delusion.

[rathercommon]

[ Her lips quirk up in a little smile. ]

Well - is it?

[vorbarra]

[This one he actually doesn't have to think about. He's already thought on it long and hard for years.]

If you mean are we needed, is there something intrinsically valuable in being Vor or in being Emperor for that matter, no. We're an obsolete system. If you mean is it delusional to feel that you owe protection and service to those you are personally loyal to, no to that, too. Parts are delusion-- other parts are necessary.

[rathercommon]

[ She nods. ]

Though...Loyalty is not an inherently Vorish value, is it. Can you be that even if you were just...Vorthys-minus-the-Vor? Thys, I suppose that would make you.

[ She smiles, thinking that's a joke. ]

[vorbarra]

[ Gregor can't help it -- he laughs, a little morbidly. ]

Oh, God. I've done a really crap job explaining this if you think loyalty isn't inherently Vorish. People can be executed for disloyalty. [ He sounds bleakly amused about it. ] Thankfully that doesn't really happen anymore. I suppose I could be loyal without being Vor, but what's the point?

[ Spoken like a true proponent of the religion. ]

[rathercommon]

[ She arches an eyebrow. ]

The virtue without the shackles?

[vorbarra]

Fair enough to call them shackles, but... [ He drifts off, as if looking at something else. ] If I'm determined to see them that way, doesn't that preclude them ever becoming anything else?

[rathercommon]

Mm. Can they ever be anything else, even if you decide to view them otherwise?

[vorbarra]

If it's a delusion, isn't how we see it all that matters? [ he shoots back immediately. ]

[rathercommon]

[ A smile touches her lips. ]

Mass delusion. Sounds as though you'd have to get everyone else to agree.

[vorbarra]

[ Here Gregor had forgotten that she likes being debated with. It's sort of relaxing for him, too, actually. He's used to having to keep these comments to himself, or at least modulate them before they come out, but he's always had to poke holes in everyone else's arguments the second they presented them. He has to be critical, as Emperor. ]

What makes you think they don't already? I'm the odd one out. Not too many Vor flee into the night.

[ And there might be just a hint of real, tired bitterness beneath that comment. Gregor really is the odd one, and being that isolated is wearing. ]

[rathercommon]

Then they agree with each other. I meant more that you'd have to get them to agree with you.

[vorbarra]

Right, but-- maybe I should do the reverse, and agree with them. Not entirely, but enough to be going on with.

[rathercommon]

[ She points at him. ]

Rubbish. That's conformity. No progress is ever made like that.

[vorbarra]

[ Of course. What else was he really expecting her to say? Mildly, ] Isn't absolute rejection of conformity just another form of it?