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

[middlingalong]

"And if it looks like it's going to you'll improvise, I imagine."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Naturally."

[middlingalong]

"Am I likely to be dragged into it?" sighs Ivan.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I have no idea."

[middlingalong]

"You could warn a fellow, you know, it'd make me a little less resentful about it."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I will give you all the warning I possess to give, Ivan."

[middlingalong]

"That's more or less the problem."

[thisvorlunatic]

He sighs.

[middlingalong]

"Right, well, I'm off to try to find something decent to read, maybe work on my report."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Have fun."

[middlingalong]

"I will at least attempt not to have any disasters. Fun's debatable, there's no girls who aren't married to you, or anything to do, around here." Pause. "Speaking of the girl who is married to you and things to do - and you did promise not to decapitate me -"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yes, Ivan?"

[middlingalong]

"How not-standing-very-still-on-a-shrine does she get?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"None of your business."

[middlingalong]

"I don't mean anything by it. You know that, right?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Define 'mean anything by it'."

[middlingalong]

"I'm not asking because I have decided to explore my voyeuristic streak or anything, I am very curious about what haut-ladies are like when they are not standing very still on shrines receiving presents, and - I am genuinely kind of concerned for you in the long run, like I said before you snapped at me, before."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I think I-in-the-long-run will be fine. I-in-the-present am also fine. My wife is... really kind of adorable, in addition to beautiful and brilliant."

[middlingalong]

"There's - adorable and then there's -" Ivan shakes his head.

[thisvorlunatic]

"And then there's...?"

[middlingalong]

"There's girls who smile and they're completely elsewhere and there's ones who smile and mean it, and I can tell most of the time, with regular girls, and I have no idea about the standing-very-still-on-shrines kind."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Linya means it."

[middlingalong]

"And you know that she's not just a clever actress using you to abscond from her planet or worse because?"

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles sighs.

"Because she just - makes more sense this way. There's not much extra she's gaining by being adorable at me instead of, oh, asking for a ticket to Beta Colony on the next commercial jumpship. If she's running some kind of political long con, then I may as well hand in my silver eyes because I have been thoroughly fooled."

[middlingalong]

"Okay."