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forbarrayar_ooc2016-11-18 09:27 am
barrayarmods) wrote in forbarrayar_ooc2016-11-18 09:27 am
Entry tags:
test drive meme
Barrayar ⚔ Cetaganda ⚔ The Invasion
Have you read the FAQ?
The Village ⚔ The Barrayaran Camp ⚔ The Cetagandan Base ⚔ The Fight
You've been on Barrayar for a while now, and you're finally starting to adjust. Or maybe you're not. Maybe this is all still too much for you – the attacks, the constant raids, living in the middle of a war zone by no choice of your own. But if you want to live long enough to make it back home one day, you might as well do what you can to help the war effort. Besides, where else are you going to go?
The fierce Barrayaran winter rages even to the southern end of the continent, and it's been none too kind to Vorkosigan's District. Temperatures at sea level are well below freezing, and up in the mountains, it's even colder. Several inches of snow already blanket most of the mountains all the way down to the Cetagandan base, and the storm that's just started up is only bringing more down. Visibility is low in the flurries, wind swirling snow everywhere, and God help you if you get lost on your own out in the storm. Nights are cold, these days.
The fierce Barrayaran winter rages even to the southern end of the continent, and it's been none too kind to Vorkosigan's District. Temperatures at sea level are well below freezing, and up in the mountains, it's even colder. Several inches of snow already blanket most of the mountains all the way down to the Cetagandan base, and the storm that's just started up is only bringing more down. Visibility is low in the flurries, wind swirling snow everywhere, and God help you if you get lost on your own out in the storm. Nights are cold, these days.
A recent attack on the Cetagandan base has left half their facilities damaged and in disarray. Raid parties snuck in by night, planting bombs in previously scouted locations for maximum effect. Damage to the base's water treatment plant and organic grow labs have considerably impacted the Cetagandans' food and water supply, and in the chaos caused by the explosions, the Barrayaran guerrillas raided their medbay and made off with a considerable bounty of medical supplies. One man's bane is another man's boon, and while the Cetagandans have reserve supplies to sustain them for now, some of the damage is extensive and the repairs will take time. But in the meantime, the Barrayarans have scored a precious victory as well as equally precious resources.
the village
The Riverfall villagers are used to the harsh winters of the Dendarii mountains, and though they don't have much themselves, they are happy to offer what they can in terms of cold-weather clothing and extra blankets to those allied with the guerrillas. Despite the cold, the hill children are going wild in the snow, and they may try to lure you into their play by sneakily pelting you with snowballs.
Cetagandan allies, however, may not be met so warmly, and at the first sight of ghem soldiers, any children out playing in the snow will be immediately ushered into their homes. Unaccompanied outsiders from the Cetagandan base might have an easier time talking to the hillfolk, but any attempt at digging information about the guerrillas out of them will get you stonewalled fast. A sneaky hill child or two may steal away from their home to approach one of the "bad guy" outsiders to sate their curiosity.
the barrayaran camp
Morale is higher than it has been in a while after their recent victory, and the guerrillas are in high spirits. And do they ever love their spirits – as night falls, most of the Barrayarans gathered around the campfires are enjoying the deceptively named, dangerously alcoholic moonshine they call maple mead. It might start out sweet, but it burns all the way down, and a few glasses of that stuff will tank even the heaviest Barrayaran soldier.
But the storm rages on despite their celebration, and preparations must be made. Clearing as much snow off the tents as possible will help ensure that no tents collapse overnight, the horses need to be tended to, and the officers are always running training drills. Food is in real supply now, but the guerrillas need help foraging and hunting nonetheless. And when night falls, you'll have to find a way to keep yourself warm – it's a good thing there are a cozy ten of you to a tent.
the cetagandan base
The Cetagandans outnumber their guerrilla enemies almost seventy-to-one, so their base has not been completely devastated, but it hardly looks to be the work of a few raiding parties. Nothing is beyond repair, but the water treatment plant has been taken offline, which means that all water is now locally sourced and must be treated by hand with purification tablets. No one in the base will starve, but fresh food is mostly unavailable until they get the grow labs back online, which means that meals are mostly comprised of ration bars and MREs. Morale isn't exactly at an all-time low, but none of the ghem officers seem to be in a good mood.
They won't hesitate to put you to work, either. They need all the engineers and laborers they can get for the grow labs and the treatment plant, and the medbay's inventory needs to be thoroughly audited before they can send a request for more supplies. But if you need a break, it's not too hard to slip away for a little quiet downtime. Some of the lower-ranked ghem ladies might let you participate in some more artistic activities, or maybe some of the enlisted soldiers who are a little more used to you by now might invite you into one of their Cetagandan games of strategy. Or, since the treatment plant only affected potable water, you could appreciate your comfortable surroundings and take a nice hot soak in the bathroom while everyone else is working.
the fight
PVP
You're in the midst of a skirmish with the other side -- maybe you signed up for the battle, maybe you just got caught up in the fight -- but at least it's easy to tell who's on what side. Only one side is wielding swords, and the other guns.
But then you come across someone who doesn't look like they're either -- not one of the rugged Barrayarans or the face-painted Cetagandans, but an outsider, an exotic like you. They must be. So do you fight?
RECON
Maybe you're not on the front lines, but there's plenty more to winning the war than just fighting. You're partnered with another outsider on recon; the ground is cold, and you try not to let your shoes crunch too loudly on snow as you scout, scanning for patrols or supply lines.
Or maybe you're with the Cetagandans, hiking it thorugh the mountains with one of your fellow exotics in an attempt to locate the enemy camp. Except it's damned cold, and there's hidden ice everywhere, and everything is starting to really look the same.
--
Feel free to write prompts for your character on either side -- you don't have to choose just one for the TDM! Just label it clearly so folks know. GO WILD, MY FRIENDS
;D
Sonia only answers that with an impish smile and a raised eyebrow of her own. "Both," she says, airily, and wags the cup at him. "You've never had vodka until you've had Barrayaran vodka."
And now she's turning and waltzing off to find a bottle. Better keep up, Tucker.
this is just asking for trouble
Nope. Let's not bring a downer onto this little party, shall we? It was going so well, after all.
"So, what makes Barrayaran vodka so special?" Were people looking at him? People were looking at him. Or maybe her; he wasn't actually sure. Probably both, although he couldn't blame them for staring; he was pretty awesome, after all.
...That's totally why they were doing it, right?
"Is this the part where you get me totally plastered and take advantage of me?" He shrugged a little as he matched her pace. "Because I'll let you know now that you don't have to get me drunk to do that."
sonia vorbarra is made of trouble, i feel sorry for tucker
She neatly plucks an open bottle out from a soldier's hands as she passes him by. "Hey!" he protests, but Sonia flashes him a smile before he can get up.
"His Countship thanks you for your service," she calls back at him, which seems to keep him from coming after them, at any rate. Time to duck away from the big crowds, although, with the weather, not too far from the fires. She grins at Tucker, swinging the bottle by the neck.
"If you want good tequila," she says, very matter-of-factly, "you go to Escobar. If you want good gin, you go to Earth. If you want absinthe, Tau Verde. But if you want really, really good vodka..."
She brushes a bit of snow off a mostly-flat rock and perches on it, shaking her hair from her face. She pours a generous shot into Tucker's empty cup and holds it out to him with a sharp grin. "Fifty-thousand colonists, most of them Russian, trapped in isolation for seven hundred years on a half-irradiated planet. Barrayarans have understandable priorities."
Don't you dare feel sorry for him! Also, sorry this took so long!!
--and that was fucking awesome. Hot chick that could get him some perks? Damn right he was all in. Why couldn’t all the ladies that he met through his rather tumultuous time alive be like this, instead of pulling guns against his helmet and beating his ass into the ground on multiple occasions? (Sister didn’t count; that had been fun in and of itself.)
“Um, just who are you, anyway? Because I can’t keep calling you ‘hot chick’ in my head.” And he should probably know this. He should really, really know this. But not-knowing didn’t stop him from following her, from feeling those stares on his back, from moving through the cold with a slight little stumble to his steps because let’s be real: he was drunk. He was just good at keeping it slightly together.
Tucker leaned against the rock she perched on, taking the cup from her on automatic and bringing it to his lips. She wasn’t kidding about the vodka: it was strong but it was good, different than the whateveritwas he had been drinking earlier, the kind that burned on the way down but didn’t set him on fire.
“I love Barrayaran priorities.” He offered the cup back to her, unless she was going to drink out of the bottle, and then he was going to ask her how she felt about being a stepmom for the best alien kid in the galaxy. “What are you priorities? Other than getting me drunk and taking advantage of me, not that I blame you.” Not that she had to try hard. Or really try at all.
you're right we shouldn't feel sorry for either of them AND DW ABOUT IT!!
"I'm Sonia," she says by way of deflection, amused. Tucker's refreshing compared to the usual Barrayaran soldier, even though he's a little cocksure for her taste -- he reminds her more of the boys back on Beta Colony, where no one had any of those silly sexual double standards, or ridiculous laws about executing men who laid unlawfully with Vor ladies. Seriously, Barrayar, get with the times.
She leans back on the rock and politely refuses Tucker's cup with a little smile, drinking straight from the bottle. True Vor material, this one. "My only priority," she says, hissing in a breath to chase the vodka, "is to have fun. War is scary and exciting and always, always so chaotic -- but when you've been doing it for long enough, some parts of it get very, very boring."
She cocks her head at him, face glowing with a thoroughly entertained grin. "And who are you? Besides one of the outsiders, I mean."
NO GUILTS! NONE!
Oh, he was sure of his cock. Bow chicka bow wow.Yeaaaah, there was stuff she wasn’t telling him; Tucker was strangely perceptive, more than the others around him (even if he, too, had been fooled by Felix but everyone was entitled to an off day. Er, week. Look,. Wash and the Reds had been captured and he was off his game then). Even now, things were starting to click, pieces that made more sense as he started to put them into a puzzle, but the picture was damn near fuzzy because of alcoholic glasses.
She’s important. She’s--
But goddamn, then she was smiling and it didn’t exactly matter anymore, did it? And she was talking about fun and was it meant to sound just that dirty in his head? He watched her drinking from the bottle and Tucker hoped like hell she wasn’t taken.
Who was he kidding? It wouldn’t stop him if she was.
“Dude, tell me about it.” One war seemed to just bleed into another one, all of it connected by thin threads, and he could barely remember where it all began. “I mean, it could be worse: it could be just two different colored teams in the middle of a bullshit made up conflict while stuck inside a pretty empty canyon, but this is pretty bad, too.”
Even if a lot of good had come out of Blood Gulch: some of his best memories, and some of the biggest bullshit - fuck you, Wyoming!. But it would always be better where it was more bitching than any real fighting, better than where people died, like it had been back on Chorus, like it was here. He took another drink, finishing off what was in the cup and fuck all, the world tilted a few degrees.
“Tucker. Lavernius Tucker, lover spoken about in all the legends.” He smiled, leaning up a little. “Blue Team, alien diplomat, and Chosen One, but you can call me ‘yours’.”
Fucking smooth.
if tucker winds up with the outsiders in game he is going to get in Real Trouble
"Aren't you easy." She raises an eyebrow, but she's clearly amused. She takes another satisfyingly stinging drink from the bottle before holding it out, dangling by the neck, grinning wickedly. "Don't you know the girls like it better when you play hard to get?"