[open!]

[falsesmile]

Who: Ves (falsesmile) and general!
When: Day 6, afternoon
Where: The Ruined Hull
What: General exploration post!

[ The Ruined Hull has been unlocked! The go-team has been in the area for a while, the stay-team members who are so inclined have probably meandered over here somehow by now -- time to go exploring, but keep an eye on those suit power levels ♥ ]

Comments

[ceruleo]

[ Lance grins, falling into a looser stance. ]

Hey, not like we got much else to do. I'm all ears.

[ Well, they do have to check things out. But he can do that and listen, right? ]

[dendarii]

[ Miles is happy to multitask, certainly. Now to decide on when to start.... ]

Well, you see, I'd failed out of the service academy when I was seventeen. Went off to Beta Colony to figure out something else to do and found a pilot jamming up the docks. I mortgaged some property to buy the ship, and then had to get into smuggling to pay the bill without losing the mortgage.

[ceruleo]

Okay, whoa, roll back. What's the 'service academy'? Like military, you mean? [ He's guessing something like the Royal Academy??? ] And how'd you get the property to mortgage in the first place?

[dendarii]

Military, yes. I'm ... not entirely sure where, but I'm sure I was there. Broke both my legs doing that. And ...

[ He frowns. This is the part of the story that's most tangled for him, given how his cryorevival scrambled his memories. ]

Er. You're not going to believe this part.

[ceruleo]

Can't be any harder to believe than 'I just had some valuable real estate hanging around to gamble with'.

[ Did your dad give you a small loan of a million dollars, Miles? ]

[dendarii]

[ No, but he's a Russian space prince. And so is Miles, though he doesn't quite remember that clearly. ]

I'm a clone of the son of a very important man. Former regent of the Barrayaran Imperium, second in line to the throne after the Emperor himself. Which technically makes me fourth in line, I think. So I tricked them into thinking I had an actual inheritance to trade.

[ In truth, it's really his. Miles does have a clone, but Mark is ... an entirely different case. ]

1/2

[ceruleo]

[ ...................................................... ]

2/2

[ceruleo]

That's.

[ ............... ]

Not the weirdest thing I've ever heard, but it comes pretty close.

[dendarii]

[ Really, Lance? Are you sure about that? ]

Oh? I'd love to hear what beats that.

[ceruleo]

Well, it must seem pretty old hat to you, but, uh. [ he ticks off his fingers ] I kinda found out aliens were real and also evil, then got picked to pilot a ten thousand-year-old cat-shaped war machine—the best and most beautiful one, obviously—who like, started talking in my mind? [ gesturing to his head, but his expression is quite fond ] And then we went into space, through a wormhole, [ making PSSSHHHHOOO noises to indicate flying, natch ] where we met more, nice aliens, found more cat-shaped war machines and then put them together to make a giant robot so we could, you know, fight the bad aliens.

[ A beat. ]

In like, about twenty-four hours...?

[ WHAT HE'S TRYING TO SAY IS, HIS LIFE IS WEIRD SO HE HAS NO PLACE TO JUDGE. ]

[dendarii]

[ Congrats, Lance, Miles just stares. Kind of slack-jawed, in fact. ]

Do you mean to imply you pilot an alien war machine? Shaped like a cat?

[ceruleo]

Yeah! Didn't I tell you I pilot the Blue Lion? [ He grins, crookedly, obviously proud. ] Well, she's actually a lion. Get it?

[dendarii]

I thought it was a title. Or the name of a ship. Not a literal - thing.

[ceruleo]

Well, she's about the size of a football field, but the point stands. Definitely a lion. [ Guess which colour. ]

[dendarii]

[ Gee, he wonders. ]

And you're the sole pilot? Of something that large? No other crew?

[ceruleo]

[ He nods. ] Honestly, Blue doesn't fit that many people--like, about ten? And even that would be a tight squeeze. It's not like she's hollow inside or something.

[dendarii]

Well no, I didn't expect that, but most capital ships have a crew numbering at least fifty.

[ceruleo]

Maybe the castle-ship had staff before, I guess. [ He looks visibly uncomfortable at the admission. ] You'd have to ask Allura, it's hers. [ A beat. ] Anyway, don't think you can just drop your story!

[dendarii]

Right, well. We go caught by the blockade, but I convinced them I was the commanding arm of the Dendarii Mercenary Fleet and conned them into joining me instead. I took over their ship, used it to take over a larger one, used that one to take over a space station ... And it snowballed from here to the entire fleet.

[ceruleo]

[ What the shiznit. He sort of followed that, except-- ]

What does 'Dendarii' mean?

[dendarii]

It's the name of a mountain range on my home planet. I'm rather fond of it.

[ceruleo]

Your home planet? [ He certainly doesn't recognize any such mountain range, and he's pretty sure he studied for Geography, so. ] You're not from Earth?

[dendarii]

[ Miles shakes his head. ]

Barrayar. Of the Barrayaran Imperium.

[ceruleo]

The Bara-what now?

[ This is absolutely not the first conversation he's had with other spacefarers, and in every single one, where an Empire in concerned, it's always bad news. Lance holds up a finger for a pause. ]

Wait, don't tell me: run by evil conquerors out to take over the rest of the known universe, right...?

[ Lance, that is quite an assumption... ]

[dendarii]

[ Um. Well. Miles looks faintly embarrassed. ]

We don't do that any more.