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]

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?

[use_everything]

Not anymore likely than swearing would make everything smooth and perfect immediately. It is an important aspect of it to make it true in the eyes of Barrayar and is a code of conduct. Rules that make things work.

[There's a pause here, and an odd expression crosses into something... lighter than where it had been.]

Frankly, Cordelia and Miles have already called family and are ready to declare war on any world that doesn't acknowledge it.

[jacksonian]

Is it some Betan thing?

[ That's intended to be something of a peace-offering, or an excuse-offering - it's all right if you don't feel the same way; you don't have that Betan sentimentality. But it comes out a little confused, a little dazed, half a request for information. He doesn't entirely know what he is - he's not Barrayaran, exactly, and not Komarran, and not exactly Jacksonian - but he's definitely not Betan. And the Countess' and Miles' enthusiasm towards him - their instant forgiveness and acceptance - it must be cultural, right? ]

[use_everything]

[He mulls over that a moment. If just to feel at those lines and compare them to others he's met and had dealings with.]

No. It is very much the quality of their character. Being Betan merely gives them means to show it.

[jacksonian]

[ A hesitation, and another offered excuse. ]

I don't really understand it.

[use_everything]

[It is a little stiff, a little awkwardly delivered.]

... I believe I am coming to understand a bit more clearly. In this case, at the least.

[jacksonian]

[ He swallows hard. Does that mean...? ]

You mean - you understand their desire for...a bigger, uh, family...?

[use_everything]

Ah. [It wouldn't be fair to say yes blindly there... Cordelia had some ideas about size that was both indulgent and overwhelming at the same time.] Not always, but in this case, yes.

[jacksonian]

In this case.

[ In my case. In the case of...me. In a way, that not always actually makes him feel better - in some way - because, well...It isn't just a desire for some child. Any child. Taking whoever. Even if they're a twitchy, nervous wreck of a would-be assassin. He...understands it specifically in Mark's case.

He looks down at his feet and chokes out: ]

Um. And does understanding the desire extend to...uh...sharing it?

[use_everything]

[That WAS the question, wasn't it? It wasn't security. If Mark was going to carry out any programming, it would have either happened already or had a specific trigger. It could be dealt with if it came up. And whatever conversation had taken place between minds in that uncanny silence just moments ago, it had no subtle sign from Gregor of anything but his own approval.

Gregor, Miles, Cordelia, all those with the greatest of rights to doubt or shy away certainly wouldn't, even having tested in the most extraordinary circumstances. Which left.. him, again.

Could he still with the question of his line still open, that Mark could shun everything to do with him? An adoption where the child decided just as much as the parents did.

Could he do it again? Meet another child, fully grown, and wearing the scars of a life he, as he is now, from the time he is now, really couldn't change.

The answer was surprisingly simple... not in the twist of his stomach, the thick throat or racing heart. Not in the whirl of thoughts, logic, arguments and counters...

But a memory. The flash of sympathetic pain when he'd seen the tears the hellhounds had rent in Mark's side, anger, fear, urgency. He already had the answer days ago.]

I - [He stops, frowns slightly. No, this needed to be clear.] It does.