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

[jacksonian]

[ The answer comes from his mouth a little too quickly, before he thinks about it enough: ]

Self-determination.

[ And then he grimaces and looks down at the floor to hide it. He wonders if that sounds like I want you to go away. He wonders if that sounds...like he doesn't want this. But he does. He can't help but realize how much he does. ]

[use_everything]

[Aral leans back in his seat. There isn't offense, a burst of his famous anger, or worse, the slam closed of that narrow window of honesty here. Instead, that heavy, brooding stare remains on Mark.

That one, blurted phrase actually answered the one question he had. Who are you? It made his capitulation to Lucifer make just as much sense as the betrayal. A man who isn't used to options... and a man who desperately wants at least one. He knew that feeling.

The choice Gregor gave him really wasn't much of one at all. Not really. Take our hand or have yours cut off. Stubbornness and spite could make it a decision, but it wasn't really much of one.

At length, he begins to speak, a thoughtful quiet in his low voice.]

I can't offer you much. Barrayar has a way of stripping it. In some ways, I imagine Miles' manic disregard was his only way of fighting that.

But I can give you one for certain...

[jacksonian]

[ He looks up, confused. Can't offer him much? Why is he being offered anything at all? He ought to have things demanded of him now. Proof of loyalty, reparations, apologies. That's the way these things go, right? He's done wrong. So now he needs to make up for it, by ripping out everything he has to give, by doing something to make up for it...Why is Count Vorkosigan talking of offering him anything? ]

Um -

[ He swallows dryly. ]

What?

[use_everything]

[It would be easy to push this one way over another. A slight removal of neutrality wouldn't destroy the choice but deeply influence it. The question was: did he want to. Cordelia and Miles were already taken with him.. but by the idea of him or the man himself? And how did he feel? The question he'd been avoiding himself.]

You are Mark Vorkosigan. A Barrayaran citizen and descended from the Vorkosigan House. That is done. It is law.

The next choice is more complicated. You may remain that, return to the galaxy at large or find a place in the district. I would pledge support. Though I estimate with your talents, you'd call on that little.

[He stops, awkwardly, here. Searching Mark's face for something, anything to go on. This of all things he didn't have practice with, didn't know how to draft his plan. (He didn't expect that first option to feel sour when he laid it out. It was the easiest of them and in many ways, the most humane... but there was no push in his tone.)]

The other is to join the House [Family] properly. There will be politics. There is always politics. It... is what made Miles who he is, and myself who I am. That should be warning enough. But there is much to do.. and [It's slowly spoken, as if he doesn't quite know how to string the words together.] you would not be unwelcome...

[jacksonian]

[ You would not be unwelcome. Mark looks at the face of the man whom he'd feared. Feared and hated seems the more natural phrase, because he'd very often pledged his loathing of Aral Vorkosigan, but it's not right; there's no hatred of the Butcher of Komarr that's truly his, that wasn't just borrowed from Ser Galen. Only fear. But fear is enough, isn't it? Fear even without hatred is still enough to taint and poison things. When a face has walked through enough of your nightmares, when it's dismembered and destroyed you enough times, is it possible to look at it with anything approaching a positive emotion? Even now, even with Aral Vorkosigan halting and even awkward (awkward?), there's still a prickle of fear.

What happens if he joins the House properly? Once this initial phase is passed? Because things won't always be like they are now - Mark understands that well. All of this shyness will fade in time, and their joy to have him; he'll become not Mark-our-new-son-and-brother but just Mark. And then what? Will Aral Vorkosigan be revealed to be casually brutish, the sort of father who does thoughtless injury to a son? Mark only has to look to Miles and Miles' adoration of his father to know that's not true. At least not true for Miles. Will he be kind, doting, overindulgent? Distant? Forceful?

But...a family. A home. People who...well. They might not love him, but they'd tolerate him, at least. Give him a place to lay his head. Give him resources. The only reason to turn that down would be if it came at some high cost...

And he's offering me a choice. Mark rubs uncertainly at his arms. This isn't like the choice before, accept-this-relationship-or-face-punishment. This is a real choice. Neutrally presented. Resources, if he wants to go free, resources if he wants a family. Peace if he wants to go free, peace if he wants a family. No pushing him in either direction. ]

If I chose the second option. Would I...be tied to Barrayar? To your district? Or would I be able to leave?

[use_everything]

Unless both myself and Miles get knocked off before he manages to have kids? [He is aware of the irony in saying this to the assassin raised to do just that. It tinges his otherwise neutral tone.] No. The second son usually is free to pursue a great many options.

[jacksonian]

[ Coming from a second son who lost all his options...Still. That reassurance doesn't make the decision any easier. He looks up at Aral, face uncertain. ]

I...want to go after House Bharaputra. On Jackson's Whole. Which might come back to make things more difficult if I'm truly a Vorkosigan.

[ Do you want that? More trouble? ]

[use_everything]

[Aral's head lifts a little, grey eyes intensely focused. He'd no love for the Whole, but the proposal was a particularly difficult one.]

Economically? Militarily? You can't go through defamation in a business already that disreputable, unless it was a campaign of misinformation.

[jacksonian]

Both.

[ His eyes fix on Lord Vorkosigan's. ]

And...in other ways. In every way. I don't know...how many resources will be available to me when I go back; it'll depend on that. But I'm going to do whatever is necessary.

[use_everything]

There are ... ways that action can be taken without a name attached to it. It's rarely done on a galactic scale, but it has been done. The trick is the right argument to the right people.

There's a catch to it, though.

[jacksonian]

[ He nods, uncertain, indicating that he should continue on. ]

[use_everything]

Even if you've a hand in every step of it, there would be no glory, no fame, no infamy. It would be the secretive victory of change, rather than the accolades of a knight or warrior. It could not be attached to you at all and you could not claim it, then or in the future.

[jacksonian]

[ Oh. Is that...He wonders, uncertainly, whether that matters to him. He wants recognition, to be fair. He wants to match Miles - or even exceed him - wants his brother to eat his dust, if he's being quite honest...He wants people to respect and admire him. Yes. He wants that very much. He wants people on the street to murmur, there goes Mark... At least - he thinks he does. He thinks he does. But honestly, the only faces he can really picture, the only faces he wants to see alight with admiration, are Miles' and Cordelia's. And...maybe Aral's. ]

I'd like glory.

[ He admits that, looking down. But a moment later, he adds: ]

But if glory is measured against the end of that business, I'd gladly live out my life as a complete unknown. Especially if...if the people I respect would still know.

[use_everything]

Ah. That's an entirely different strategy. The end of a House isn't easy, but it isn't difficult either.

The end of the business practice... That's an entirely different game.

[jacksonian]

[ A hesitation. ]

But if Bharaputra is dismantled - if Vasa Luigi is killed...

[use_everything]

Mm. Say you were an up and coming House Minor looking for a profitable niche... Would you see that as a warning or an opportunity?

[jacksonian]

[ A beat. ]

An opportunity. Unless it...was brutal enough.

[ He doesn't look thrilled about that possibility though. ]

[use_everything]

Possible, but not my preference or my first impulse. We'll have enough diplomatic issues with harboring and hiding anyone rescued.

[He didn't really even think of that as not an option of it. The idea that someone else's son or daughter was there...]

And it will be tracked... Something that messy will make it harder to sway the other Barons.

That part can be handled with good negotiation. What you need to do is to come up with how to make it stick.

[jacksonian]

[ Oh. How to make it stick... ]

If I were rich enough, I could...buy out the business and stop it that way... [ But - ] But there would still be a demand. Someone else would start it up.

[use_everything]

That's the side of it I'm blind to. [He rubs at his chin, considering. Increasing informants into Jackson's Whole isn't a bad idea anyway...]

Think about it. Get me a long term plan, and the rest can happen.

[jacksonian]

[ A hesitation. This is all deviating from the main point, which is: ]

So you don't dislike the idea of me doing that. Even though it could come back to you and to Barrayar.

[use_everything]

[The answer is simple, level. Aral meets Mark's eyes evenly.]

I don't.

[jacksonian]

[ Another little hesitation. ]

I, uh...That's the only real reason that I can...think of. To stay away from all of you.

[use_everything]

Then...

[How is this even done? Normally it would be the Count receiving, but by Mark's age Piotr would be gone (that was still boggling, patently unreal, for as much as his thoughts towards his father were still bitter and sour)]

When you are ready... It doesn't have to be now. I'll take your oath. It will not be like Gregor's. There's nothing binding you but your word and your honor, but they both have high value.

[jacksonian]

[ High value? Your word and your honor have high value... Do they? He's broken his word before, compromised his honor. Betrayed all of them in a vile way, a cruel way. Out of cowardice and fear. It's good that Gregor bound him in an oath he couldn't break. This is...more frightening. The thought that there is nothing to keep him to his word except for his own force of will. Can he do that? Is he equal to that? ]

If I don't do it now...will that delay me becoming - [ This sounds so stupid, he sounds so stupid - ] Part of the family?