Lucifer vs. Vor master post

[vorbarra]

WHO: Lucifer + the whole damn cast + a bunch of unfortunate victims of circumstance.
WHERE: Various.
WHEN: Starting 5/27 and onward.
WHAT: Lucifer has Mark kidnap Gregor. Shit hits the fan.
WARNINGS: There is definitely going to be torture and violence. Will update with specifics.


Table of Contents (roughly chronological)
Initial kidnapping -- Gregor, Mark, Lucifer
So honey, I haven't told you... -- Aral, Cordelia
Secondary kidnapping -- Lucy, Mark, Kel
Hawke vs. Vorhouse -- Hawke, Miles, Aral, Tex, Jim, Spock, Kel
Miles at the hospital -- Miles, Kitty, Tex, Ed, Jim, Bucky, Ken, Kareen, Mark, Newt, Kel
Location: rubble -- Winry, Miles, Ed, Tex
Ruined date and getting voluntold -- Duv, Kasumi, Aral
Torture log -- Lucifer, Dean, Gregor
Assignment -- Lucifer, Mark
Telepathy -- Aral, Tex, Gregor
Wagon circling -- Miles, Winry, Roy, Ed, Yuri
Requests -- Aral, Jim
Rescue -- Lucifer, Miles, Kitty, Hermann, Mark
Hellhounds -- Lucifer, Roy, Ed, Hawke, Mark, Aral
Main fight -- Lucifer, Aral, Hawke
Swamp mingle -- Tex, Hawke, Ed, Winry, Roy, Jim
Post-rescue at hospital -- Gregor, Miles, Kitty, Duv, Cordelia
Following the trail of burger wrappers and tears -- Duv, Nicolas
Hospital threads part three -- Miles, Cordelia
End of the line -- Duv, Mark
Family reunion & oath swearing -- Mark, Gregor, Aral, Tej, Duv, Miles, Tex, Winry, Ed, Simon
Recovery OTA -- Aral, Miles, Duv, Cordelia, Ed, Winry

Comments

[use_everything]

[It's his turn to look down. He doesn't have an easy answer to that... but he's also not sure he can live up to that.

It's one of those silences that doesn't seem awkward until a voice suddenly breaks it.]

It... [A pause, a recovery.] I used to think such things were finite. That a man had only so much that he will use or squander.

We empty ourselves, in duty, war, or politics.

It is in those around myself that I've found that emptiness - what I lack as a person - filled again. What you see is Miles, Gregor, your- Cordelia.

[use_everything]

Komarr. ... I knew one of his family. Though I'm uncertain to the extent of the relation.

[keep_nothing]

... Are you telling me Duv was related to someone in the Massacre?

[use_everything]

[At least this time he can blame the medication for focusing on the wrong thing.]

Getting that high in ImpSec had to have been a hell of a job. Even getting the chance... Nothing short of a strongarm would see it past Illyan..

[keep_nothing]

You're human. You're exactly what I think you are.

[jacksonian]

[ Your mother? His face takes on an uncertain cast. Was that what Aral was going to say? Your mother? Because of a lapse in awareness, where he thought of Mark as Miles for a moment? Or because...because he thinks of Mark as Cordelia's son?

Too much to hope for. Too much to want. But it's a strange thing, realizing that he does want it. Some recognition, some acceptance, a family, with a desperate hunger far more than he's ever felt for food... ]

I don't think I know much about honor, Lord Vorkosigan. I thought I did, but - [ But Ser Galen, I've come to realize, is a man of no honor at all. ] But I think I was wrong. But it seems to me that having them around you, rather than having that honor within you...isn't any sort of lack. I think they're as much a part of you as your own mind.

[ Their loyalty, their decency, is just so...immense, Mark thinks. Not something that can ever be dislodged from his soul, now that it's a part of it. ]

[keep_nothing]

[ She cuts him off before the urge to smack him upside the head overpowers her better sense. Besides, it might worsen his apparent medically-ruined ability to focus. ]

Aral, you talked about Komarr to a Komarran who lost family in the Massacre? The Massacre that you're blamed for?

[use_everything]

[There's a moment of startled, sharp clarity following the hammer strike of his name.]

...

Ah.

...

He.. wished to know. I don't know if what I had was any aid or ill, honestly.

[keep_nothing]

And then I ask the same Komarran to heal you after that discussion. Damn it, Aral ...

[ The curse deflates at the end, Cordelia sagging back in her chair with her hand covering her face again. ]

[failureisntachoice]

[ She wonders if that's her cue. She squeezes Aral's hand once before sliding it away. ]

If you need to sleep, I can leave you two alone.

[vorbarra]

Weak and liable to fall apart if struck the wrong way?

[keep_nothing]

And able to bear more than you think you can with hidden depths you haven't even begun to dig up yet.

[jacksonian]

[ He nods. He shouldn't be asking about Gregor. He knows exactly the answer he wants. No, he's miserable and broken and that's on you, Mark. ]

Is looking Imperial a bad thing?

[dendarii]

It means I don't know. The fact that he's not telling me means it's worse than it looks, but the fact that he's functional... That isn't nothing either.

[use_everything]

[He could see the hunger in Mark's eyes. The absolutely ravenous depths that settled on him. He knew that kind of want, but was unsure or... perhaps still unwilling to point at what it was, yet.]

Hm. That may be the shape of it.

[But it wasn't all that ... easy, either.]

... You do know that it is no simple life to be a Vorkosigan. Moreso leigesworn directly to Gregor.

[jacksonian]

[ And how does it stack up against being a clone-assassin with no escape, no freedom, being trained to destroy a planet I'd never been to to liberate a planet I'd never seen? He wonders what it means, though, that Count Vorkosigan said that. Was that a prelude to a and you're welcome to give it a try, some indication that he hasn't failed any tests in this conversation so far? Or is the next thing going to be, and I think you're not up to it, out of my sight you twisted little dwarf?

He offers an edited version of his thoughts. ]

I'm not...accustomed to living a simple life.

[ghemnotgem]

That would be very nice of you, thank you.

( it's a mess of a place, still, but at least the kitchen is in one piece and absent a hole in it. )

I didn't cook back in Jackson's Whole, but Ms. Cass is teaching me here.

[vorbarra]

I can see why you're saying that, but I feel very far from it right now.

[komarran]

The same could be said for the rest of this house. [ He gestures vaguely around him. ] Basic life skills have never been a priority of the Vor.

[ Meaning Lady Vorpatril fits right in with the lot. ]

[komarran]

Consider yourself lucky. No one close, I'm guessing?

[unwiseheart]

Not even remotely close, which is for the best. There are enough bizarre politics flying around this place without adding Garou ones...

[ Ignoring him bringing his feud with vampires into the mix, anyway. ]

[amadaman]

Of course I don't. You just say the word, boss.

Just let me know if you need anything, okay? I'll be back soon. Koro will stay with you.

[komarran]

Garou? I'm unfamiliar with the term.

[dendarii]

[ Miles can't help but grin at being called boss. Even by a twelve-year-old. ]

I'm sure he'll keep me quite safe.

[use_everything]

No. No, I imagine you are not.

[There's an impulse, scratching at his chest to ask how old he was, where the samples came from, where he was grown and trained. But.. what would he even do with the knowledge? Prevent Mark from ever happening? He found that to taste sour. Wage an expensive war with Jackson's Whole that he would never be able to account for or explain? ... what if he goes back with the knowledge. The understanding the Mark exists though... and doesn't have anything he can do about it.

The conundrum weighs heavily, teetering without any answer. Like a political tangle with no right path. Instead, he asks,]

What do you want to be accustomed to?