test drive meme

[barrayarmods]

Playlists by tsarcasm:
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.

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

Comments

[mirrortide]

She'll sit, but she doesn't have to like it. And she'll even make a great gesture of doing so, letting herself more or less fall into the chair and slouch and slump, eyes fixed on Diya.

"I have a better idea. You find a way to turn me back into a Gem. And I'd really rather not wear shoes." Even when she had worn shoes, she hadn't actually worn shoes. She'd just shape-shifted them onto her form.

[eugengineer]

The skin around Diya's eyes tightens, but her smile remains patient. "Perhaps your insistence on your own discomfort is part of your problem," she murmurs with what seems like distant amusement, but it takes a backseat to the impassive wall that is her expression. "We deal in genetics, ah -- what was it? -- Lapis. I'd hardly expect an exotic, let alone one from a race without something so basic as DNA, to understand the vision of the Cetagandan Empire. And need I remind you that we deal in war as well. Stamp your bare little feet all you like. Your small demands hold no water here, as it were."

[mirrortide]

"This isn't the first war I've been caught up in. Gems have been colonizing planets and going to war for longer than your species has existed." And Gems have had over 5,000 years that she spent trapped in a mirror to hone that technology. Lapis might not be part of Homeworld anymore, but she's hardly a Crystal Gem either.

"You want that planet under your finger? Turn me back into the Lapis Lazuli I am. That planet is mostly water, isn't it? You want the Barrayarans subdued? I could do it easy if I didn't have your unfortunately basic DNA."

[eugengineer]

That doesn't escape Diya's notice, but it only shows in the slight purse of her lips. What Lapis wants is well beyond their means, at least for now, because they still haven't figured out what happened yet. But that doesn't mean Diya's lost interest in this conversation.

"How so?"

[mirrortide]

"I'm not a Quartz, but that planet is mostly water. I've taken Earth's oceans before and bent them to my will and that was with a cracked gem. I can take all of their water, organic life needs that to survive, doesn't it?" As Lapis has found out herself unfortunately.

She crosses her arms. "You find a way to turn me back into a Gem so I can use my powers and in return I'll take their water from them. It's not like they can last long without it."

[eugengineer]

Diya lets out a contemplative hum, looking over Lapis in appraisal. Yes, she's sure Zahal would love the notion of being able to crush the Barrayaran resistance all at once. Mm.

"And what then?"

[mirrortide]

"And then I find a way to get home. I don't care about your planet or war enough to stay. I just want to go home." Really, she's had enough of this whole kidnapping business, and if it takes subjugating an entire planet, Lapis has no problems doing that as long as she gets her powers back and can go home.

[eugengineer]

"Mm," Diya hums noncommittally. And just how would she go home? Her kind can't possibly exist here. "I'm afraid it remains to be seen whether such a thing is even possible," she says instead. "You do understand we've dealt only in the human genome. To study your own form...well, that would be a staggering new frontier for Cetaganda."

[mirrortide]

"I don't care what it takes. I want to be changed back into a Lapis Lazuli, and I want to go home. Whatever it is you need to do to figure it out do it." She's useless in this human form, vulnerable and weak, needing to constantly intake energy or die. In Peridots' words, inefficient.

[eugengineer]

God, are all Gems this whiny and entitled? Diya should hope not. But she doesn't say that out loud as she runs the scanner over Lapis's body, opting instead for a very tolerant, "Your demands have been noted."

[mirrortide]

You don't want the answer to that, Diya. Lapis drums her fingers on the table as she's scanned, but as the human in front of her doesn't do anything other than say that her demands are noted, Lapis still doesn't look pleased. Not that she can really do anything other than complain.

"So? What's the verdict?" is the only thing she asks once she's been scanned.

[eugengineer]

Diya looks at the scanner readout -- no doubt totally arcane to Lapis -- and purses her lips at the Gem, her expression otherwise impassive. Her voice is crisp and even as ever.

"You have a viral infection."

[mirrortide]

"A what now?" The word 'viral' doesn't ring any bells, but 'infection' has a little bit of an understanding behind it. Together, Lapis can only assume it's something bad. Which is strange, because she feels absolutely fine.

(She wont in a day or two.)

[eugengineer]

"An infection," Diya repeats patiently, although with the sort of patience one would endure with a schoolchild. "A virus is a microscopic organism that self-replicates in the cells of other life forms. In humans, they constitute a form of illness." She jots something down on a clipboard with a light pen and looks down at Lapis. "You have one."

[mirrortide]

That sounds absolutely terrible, honestly. But Diya seems completely nonplussed about that, so it's keeping Lapis' panic in check. "Okay? If I have one, then why not just get rid of it? Where is it?" It's microscopic, apparently, but with all this fancy tech, there has to be something that can find it.