& OPEN NSFW POST ( i. )

[aeneia]

NSFW OPEN POST ( I. )
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[mahalakshmi]

[ When he'd told her that they had received a invitation with what she had come to know as this - planets, kingdom, she was never going to get used to that - equivalent of nobility. Vor, she learned the name. The counts. The ones she hadn't made up her mind about, but had invited him and her by virtue of extension by someone he knew - Miles Vorkosigan. Important, apparently, a high enough family to be able to do that. Her intention, however, wasn't to embarrass him or do herself a disservice of pretending she was anything less than what she was. So she dressed like she had every day she had been queen. She didn't have much of an interest of being like them, but meeting their standards with her own. Any gathering she was attending of this kind of level would be treated like that. She didn't pretend she was other than what she was anymore, not to anyone. She just didn't always say it immediately. Besides, where her stomach was exposed, the scars wouldn't be hidden. The bullet wound through her abdomen, the claw marks at her hip. The sooner she didn't have to explain why she carried the sword that she had cleaned, polished and strapped to her hip via decorative chains and leather, the better. Let them know she was a foreigner, too, save her that conversation nor became her entirely beholden to understanding their laws. Other than causing somewhat of a shock, she stays on his arm, happy to glitter there, and for this she does keep her veil drawn. Her own private barrier to hide any sharp reactions she might have behind it and as the night wears on, takes up a game, anyone she likes the company of, she lets work to draw it away to see her face. The only one that doesn't have to try at all remains Duv. Him and him alone does she keep nothing hidden from. Because she didn't think her regard for him to be plainer. To her, to those that watched him. In fact, anyone and everyone seemed to be able to work it out. Anyone, but him apparently. She was starting to thinking she was going to go mad. The way that she could feel the exact shape of his fingers on her bare back as he guided her to be introduced to this Lord or that Lady or this member of staff. The way he had a half smile at times that he didn't seem to notice he was making. The way when she didn't understand he'd lean in a tickle words of explanation next to her ear and she could feel all the way down her spine. Right up until the one that had invited him, Miles apparently takes pity on her and asks her to dance. Doesn't know how but she can mime the steps enough to pass for what it actually was. Didn't dislike him, not at all, he was quick if nothing else. Quick enough to work out her problem that - Duv is quite thick when it comes to women. Murmured politely to her as he leads her about. Her brow pinches, wondering if she should be insulted, but he hurries along. That from the look of Duv, he had no idea, and she was going to need to be more blunt, and he said so with only affection. That he just wanted Duv to have something good. Right. She settles after that, falling quiet as she follows the rest of the dance through before she turns back to find Duv. Shifting a little, forming something of a battle plan in her mind. Besiegement was best done quickly, no one liked them drawn out. It was a drain on resources, on both sides. She'll have to begin then - as she slips back to his side, smiling up at him as she ever did. Warm, inviting. Content, as she picks another glass off a passing by tray. ] Your night is going well?

[komarran]

[ These events were trying. Always trying. Miles had invited him, both men well-aware that if Duv wanted to continue to climb the military-political ladder, Duv had to force his appearance at social events such as these regardless of what the Vor wanted. It was primarily the older generation that gave him the most trouble though the younger made comments at times when they thought it was on the edge of his hearing. Backhanded compliments at best, that he dressed 'well' for a Komarran.

But he could play this game. He had while on embassy duty and his skills hadn't dulled in that time. Having her with him helped. She was a comfortable weight on his arm or a familiar one beneath his hand when he occasionally shifted posture and rested one on her lower back. Gently, never pressing too hard, and only enough to guide her. There were boundaries there that he didn't dare cross.

When Miles approaches him, he almost wards the man off despite receiving an invitation from him. The last time he had attended an event at Miles' request everything in his life had turned lopsided. Time had helped him to recover however and he relinquishes his loose hold on Lakshmi to watch as the pair dance across the ballroom. As she starts to return to him, he catches an odd look on Miles' face and frowns as he watches the shorter man depart. No doubt planning something. Miles never could sit still for long. ]

As well as can be expected, [ he answers absently though she has his full attention shortly after as he asks, ] Yours?

[mahalakshmi]

[ She takes a slow sip. Courage, now, she'd need it. Or just something like it to do something remarkably reckless. That flat giddy feeling turning over in her stomach. She nods, shifting her veil back since it is just them speaking. Fiddling with the material.

Still playing that game for him at least a little, to be something mysterious, her husband told her once, was to draw people in. The less anyone could figure out about her, the more they would come to see, and the more they came to see her, well, the more they would see him too where she stayed firmly at his side. The chime of her bracelets and bells tinkling against each other as her hands move, here chains connect them from wrist to finger where her rings sit. Each finger adorned and painted in intricate designs on her skin that had taken her hours the day before.

Gaudy she had heard a woman mutter behind her back. Lakshmi had merely nodded to her the once and laughed to herself. They had never seen a Muhgal, had they? Or her when she married, she supposed. ]

Well enough. It is nobility. They will dress themselves how they like, but they become much the same, after a time.

[ A muttered opinion only because there is no one else near them, shared with him alone as she takes another demure sip with her eyes lowered to the glass. ]

Don't tell them that, all the same, they like to think they're dazzling me.

[komarran]

[ He had long since gotten used to how glamorous Lakshmi preferred to dress herself. It drew more attention than he liked, but it clearly brought her comfort. Familiarity in a glittery package. Any danger associated with her arrival had long since passed and while she stuck out in any crowd she was in, no one had any reason to attack her. Any secrets she held lost their relevance over a thousand years ago.

He felt some remorse that he was dragging her through this. She had been royalty back home, but that didn't mean she wanted to dabble in what passed for nobility on Barrayar. ]

They often think that with any foreigners they speak with. [ He shrugs and reaches to take his own glass from a passing tray to take a large drink from. He didn't get drunk at these events, but the temptation was always there. ]

Do you enjoy these parties?

[mahalakshmi]

[ The only secret she had to tell, was the only one they would never draw from her. Tucked in around her neck, hidden away under the folds of material covering her now. Everything else - well, it was fair game for someone to believe, but they were all saved much frustration from that. No one after all, would believe a story about a time travelling Queen. ]

I would hate to ruin their game. [ Her head turning away into the material, muffling the laughter there. Far be it from her to speak ill of their hosts.

His question though, makes easy opportunity to step in close. Wine held in close as she leans to murmur to him, letting her words brush close. ] I did, when they were... more so. This is devoid of... much of what I am used to. It all seems to be an excuse to stand in a great room and get drunk.

[komarran]

[ He can feel her breath on him though he makes no move to close that last bit of distance. A secret of a sort though he has not hidden his opinion of Vor much like they haven't hidden their opinion on Komarrans. ]

The term Vorishly drunk is used frequently for a reason. Your parties lacked nobles acting brazenly after a glass of wine?

[mahalakshmi]

[ She reaches up lightly, picking at a fleck of dust she sees on the cut of his suit, brushing against it lightly. ] If they did, we at least had music and performance to distract the rest of us from it. Such events are to be of patronage in one form or another. This is merely... excess.

[ It's not just a feigned distaste for anyone's behalf, there's a genuine recoiling from the idea of it. Glittering, she might be, her own vanity and pride on display quite openly, but it meant paying those around her, enticing others to those that had made her so. ]

[komarran]

[ Duv shakes his head at that. That was his initial impression of these damn parties too, but he's learned since then. The dancing, the music, even the drinks -- simple, but they served a purpose. ]

Not quite. If they didn't have an outlet of some sort, a neutral place to wheel and deal, internal fighting would be greater than it already is with the different political factions. [ He shrugs as his gaze shifts to scanning the crowd. ] This serves a purpose if you look beneath the surface.

[mahalakshmi]

And they use the drinking to excuse whatever insults might be inadvertently slung?

[ But put in that light, well, she could forgive it some, even if it still wasn't what she liked at all. ] Tell me what you are seeing then?

[ Through his own looking glass, then, bemused as ever with his observations. Not just that he taught a great deal, she quite enjoyed his humor. Liked its bleakness, it was calming in its way. Her fingers still resting on his shoulder, waiting there patiently for him. ]

[komarran]

I see two Vor families taking the opportunity to let out aggression outside of the Council chambers, [ he says and motions towards two men speaking across the room. Their body language is closed and tense, each one trying to get the upper hand through veiled insults. ]

They have disputes over trade and where their borders lay, each family claiming to have documents that support them possessing more than they do.

Whatever they say here will be excused by morning as drunken fervor.

[mahalakshmi]

[ She's barely watching them, more watching the curve of his mouth as he talks in flicked gestures. Miles had said obvious but - ] Mm? [ she flicks her gaze, back up to his eyes. ]

I suppose that's better than out and out battle. But isn't that the point of the council chambers?

[komarran]

[ Oblivious and he continues to be, his gaze still locked on the pair of Vor. ] They share other disputes there in more subtle tones. It took me years to understand this planet and its workings along with a great deal of studying.

[mahalakshmi]

[ It was almost comical at this point - did she need canons? Apparently, yes. Her head tilting in a sigh, that she keeps light. Nothing too much, merely like she was tired. It had been a long night, after all. ]

Oh, I can see why it would take that long.

[ Since apparently subtle hints did not always work so well on him. She bites her tongue at that. ] Well, at least I can take solace that they would completely miss my own, then.

[komarran]

Ah-- [ He frowns and takes more notice of her at the sigh. Was he keeping her out too long? These parties did go into the wee hours of the morning and they didn't need to be here until it ended. He had put in his appearance, spoken with several that he needed to build relationships and network with.

Leaving now would do no harm to his efforts to climb the social ladder and he'd rather focus on her comfort than drag this out. ] Are you ready to leave?

[mahalakshmi]

[ She steps back from him, nodding the once. It's not entirely a lie, she is tired of it. The half whispers behind her back, were manageable - the ones she heard about him, less so. Already had the one barked conversation out of his hearing that she wore her sword openly for a reason, and it wasn't because she liked to play games about it. ]

There is only so much gossip one can stomach in the evening.

[komarran]

[ He pats her arm lightly in apology. He should have thought about her comfort more when he had asked her to join him this evening. It was trying even for him and he had been on planet for years nows. She was still new.

With that decided, he begins to lead her out. It should be easy enough to commandeer a vehicle to take them back to his--their?--flat. ]

We'll leave them to gossip to the winds. Without their easy targets around, they'll find themselves growing bored quickly. [ A dry joke. He's not oblivious to the comments and whisperings. A younger him would have started a fight over it far earlier in the evening. ]

[mahalakshmi]

[ It does follow, and at least she could trade insults when they came fairly directly. Wasn't young and wasn't a fool, it made it easier than another might. But she was out of practice in dealing with it at anything else but at sword tip. Biting at the proverbial bit to end it the way she likes. ]

If that's the case, I've been remiss. I was informed by one young man that I was the most interesting thing he's seen all year. Here I thought I had made an impression.

[ She shifts though, as they go to leave, tugging up her veil once more, to draw it down over herself where it settles just that little below her chin. Hidden, but only so much. ]

[komarran]

You have, [ it's a quick reassurance. She made a scene whenever she showed up, a strange foreigner that was becoming a permanent feature on Barrayar. For however long she decided to stay, in any case. ]

But as you've pointed out, the alcohol is flowing freely and it's getting late.

[ Meaning their attentions would go elsewhere once they were no longer in sight. ]

[mahalakshmi]

[ She laughs for that, and it's a brief thing as they reach the door, she stops and - when in Rome, as the saying goes. Before they're out of sight of the waiters, she puts what is left of her drink to her lips - most of glass as it turns out, she was a moderate creature - and tilted her head back to scull the rest of it in a long gulp of the champagne flute.

Puts the back of her hand to her mouth to cough quickly before she turned back to him. The glass given back to one of the young servants that she'd procured it from. ] Alright. I am all yours, my keeper.

[komarran]

[ That nickname of hers for him always made him frown. She didn't mean it, he knew that, but the thought that even a tiny part of her would think that true has him wanting to tell her otherwise. ]

I doubt anyone could keep you. You did come armed to a Vor party. [ Thank god dueling had been outlawed. ]

[mahalakshmi]

Given what I have seen of the young men, I know how to use my sword better than they.

[ If only because she had used the blasted thing to defend herself most of her life, and didn't have the luxury of the weapons she had seen them use. Oh, envy wasn't becoming on anyone, she knew but all the same. ]

But I do not mind at all being in your keeping, you know that. [ Or well, she was going to make him very aware how little she did mind at all. ]

[komarran]

[ He declines to mention that many are likely equipped with other weaponry that worked faster than swords. The guards at least were along with those undercover in the crowd to make sure peace reigned. Her sword skills weren't in question, but times had changed and moved forward since she learned how to fight. ]

I'm aware, but it's an insult to you to consider that I would be keeping you.

[mahalakshmi]

[ She blinks a little, she has called him it on and off since the first. Teasing when she wants to be, and when she's frustrated, to keep him at an arm's length when she craved what little space could be afforded, or when he was broaching a topic she did not wish to discuss. That veiled use of nobility. Titles rather than names to ensure some lines that the small space didn't give them.

But sometimes, now she knew, it was simply to call him hers. ]

That truly bothers you so much?

[komarran]

Enough that I would prefer you didn't. If you think I am keeping you then... [ He frowns because what he's thinking of suggesting was far from what he actually wanted. He had grown used to her company, enjoyed having it around his home. But had she stayed too long? Did she think she had no other options? ]

You are free to find another place to stay that's more suited to you if your current arrangements are not to your liking.

[mahalakshmi]

No, not at all - [ Eve if it probably wasn't to his liking either. But oh she didn't want him to think that at all.

She steps in again, where they're outside, waiting briefly, her fingers lifting and they sweep against his jaw. Curling around softly, all smoothed callouses of her fingertips. ] - But it does make me very sure of something.