singing open the great gates

[middlingalong]

The following day, very little happens, except for Vorreedi mentioning that Yenaro has been arrested (by the civil police, for theft, on charges from a ghem-lord Miles has never heard of, as opposed to by Cetagandan security for treason).

Also, Ivan gets bored - with all the bodyguards Vorreedi now requires for them after the incident at the bioestheties exhibition, the possible spontaneity of going out with his ghem girlfriends is much reduced.

But the next day they get to attend the Singing Open of the Great Gates.

And oh, is there ever singing.

Comments

[isthisart]

"What's it like, having an approximately conventional family?" she wonders.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Um... approximately conventional, I suppose. Very approximately. I'd hardly describe my parents as conventional people."

[isthisart]

"Well, yes, but you have them, at all," says Linya. "I am asking from the standpoint of - not."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah... I've been defining myself my whole life by how I stand out, though," he says. "I don't know how to explain the parts of my life that are normal to someone for whom they aren't."

[isthisart]

"I met my designer once," says Linya. "I was - eleven, almost twelve. She was on Eta Ceta for a speed chess tournament."

[thisvorlunatic]

"What was that like?"

[isthisart]

"We got along, actually. She told me some things about how I was put together that I hadn't found in my general files yet. She wanted to know how her experiment had turned out and I told her it worked perfectly but people around me didn't seem thrilled with the knock-on effects."

[thisvorlunatic]

"What, in fact, was the experiment...?"

[isthisart]

"She was trying to edit out akrasia."

[thisvorlunatic]

"...And the knock-on effects...?"

[isthisart]

"The impatience is, I think, related, and the general disinclination to sit around being ornamental when there are so many opportunities in the galaxy."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Seems perfectly understandable to me."

[isthisart]

"See, this is why I'm here with you instead of there."

[thisvorlunatic]

[isthisart]

Snuggle!

[thisvorlunatic]

Snuggle?

Snuggle!

[isthisart]

"I have read a lot of books, and in most of them people have parents, but - probably for plot reasons - the relationships rarely seem to work out particularly well."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Ah. Right. Well... I don't know. Maybe this is another thing you're better off asking my mother about."

[isthisart]

"I'm accumulating quite a list."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah."

[isthisart]

Linya kisses the top of his head, and puts him off of her lap, and stands up again to resume drawing in midair her pen-related proposal for the fellow on Escobar.

"Is the light from the pen going to bother you when you go to bed? I only sleep four hours a night, and considering the relationship between the time zone we're coming from and ship time I'll certainly be up later than you."

[thisvorlunatic]

"No, it'll be fine," he says.

He doesn't go to bed right away - spends some time idling around on the cabin's comconsole first - but he definitely goes to bed before Linyabel. And gets to sleep without a problem.

[isthisart]

When he wakes up, he will find her still asleep, having changed into a dark blue nightdress and put her hair in a simple single braid that trails off the edge of the bed. Also, she has his head tucked under hers and her arm over his middle and she is mumbling in assorted languages, mostly English. Recognizable words include: "Key. Flower. Aerosolize. Periwinkle."

[thisvorlunatic]

...

Miles decides that no power in the universe could get him to exit this cozy situation prematurely. He snuggles up and closes his eyes.

[isthisart]

"Veracity. Thimble. один. Star."

And with that she yawns, and stretches, and resettles her arm around him. "Good morning. I didn't squish you or anything, did I?"