uncountable Miles

So I had this conversation with my little sister--

No, she's not my older sister. Why does everybody think that? I am way more mature than her. Shut up.

This conversation, it was about Miles Vorkosigan, you know, Lois McMaster Bujold's best brainchild. We were punning about Miles' multiple identities (birthed in Brothers in Arms, and reaching their absurd peak in Mirror Dance), and Mikke said something about how, what was it...."Miles' little story about there being a dozen of them raised in a clone-creche is likely to have Admiral Naismith urban legends popping up for years."

So this made me imagine the best and most entertaining candidate, poor Ivan Vorpatril, on a mission in a galactic bar somewhere far, far away from Barrayar, encountering his very first Admiral Naismith impersonator (five foot six with grey eyes and brown hair and an energetic disposition; wearing grey and whites of the wrong hues, also sporting a beret). The impersonator is a genially expansive sort, and Ivan (bemused and amused and annoyed), buys him drinks and draws out all of not-Naismith's tales of galactic heroism, many of which are outright fabrications (accurate accounts of Naismith's career, of course, only sound like ridiculous lies). In the same scenario, Miles would have ended the experience with some sort of challenge, or a confrontation--a joke, a story, a reveal--but Ivan prefers to dodge the bombs, so he just leaves.

Months later, he's telling the story at some dinner party of elites with very high security clearances (probable guests: Miles, Ekaterin, Gregor, Laisa, Alys, Simon, Galeni but probably not Delia, maybe Vorthys; maybe also Mark, but if so, he has to grimace over this story, because to him, imitating Miles is less fun, more death deep-fried on a stick)--

--and mikke says: "Dinner parties are always good. They allow people to choke on wine."

Right. Thanks.

Anyway, we think Miles would be all indignant--okay, I'm just handing it back over to mikke:

mikke: miles would be like WHY DIDN'T YOU DO ANYTHING
mikke: and ivan would be like do what, exactly?
mikke: and miles would be like well at least did you report him to impsec?
mikke: and ivan would be like oh, fair
mikke: ivan would be like he's way too tall though
mikke: and miles would be like thanks, ivan.

Anyway, we wish someone would write this fic. I wish Mikke would write this fic, but she won't. Anyone?

The Sentinel: no, he's just outside, looking in

Mikke and I were also chatting about The Sentinel, which I have been forcing my poor darling mikkeneko to watch, because I love her, and The Sentinel is thing of beauty:

mikke: although it depends on who's writing any given episode, I'm surprised at how mellow Jim is towards Blair
mikke: he puts up with a lot of crap from him
ceru: in my head, I like to smooth it out and sort of assume that's the baseline
mikke: blair thinks of jim as a guardian angel
mikke: and jim thinks of blair like a cuddly security blanket
mikke: it's cute!
ceru: hee hee
ceru: it's true
ceru: Blair gets scared when people shoot at him
ceru: I mean, he's still totally functional
ceru: he's extremely brave
ceru: but you know, he's a grad student
ceru: he has a normal, healthy reaction to danger
ceru: I appreciate that
ceru: no macho shit about it
mikke: one of my favorite Blair moments is when blair is hiding behind the vending machine in the siege episode
ceru: he's very secure in his masculinity
ceru: probably because he gets laid a lot
mikke: doing meditation and breathing exercises to try to calm himself down
mikke: lol
mikke: in a way I think fic for the sentinel has an advantage over the show
ceru: somewhere along the line I think we find out he used to have panic attacks as a kid
mikke: because it's a lot easier to portray senses other than sound and sight in a written medium than a visual one
ceru: and it is canon that he's has massive amounts of therapy
ceru: probably just because he and his mom are all into the head trips
ceru: rather than in reaction to trauma
mikke: yeah, I sort of got that impression about his mom
ceru: yeah
ceru: oh god, she's hilarious
ceru: Blair is a Jewish neo-hippie witchdoctor punk anthropologist who has definitely smoked things on expeditions
ceru: he has piercings and hair down to his shoulders
ceru: he's certifiably weird
mikke: yes
ceru: oh, and tim leary might be his dad
ceru: no one's sure