[IC] [MoM] AMBASSADOR IC CONTACT

[dendarii]

"This is the office of Ambassador Miles Naismith Vorkosigan. Leave me a message and I'll get right back with you.

Or, if this is an emergency, come bang on my door until I wake up."

He has helpfully provided an address in Nonah for a cozy office downtown. Go ahead, bang on the door; he's in the apartment just upstairs.

Alas, the line produces only static now. But the office is still there, having been donated to whoever the next Ambassador of Nonah will be.

Comments

[dendarii]

Teratogenic damage to my bones due to a failed assassination attempt on my mother. Enough damage to get me called "mutant" back home, even if that's not technically true.

[ From the way he says the word mutant, it's clearly a slur on his world. ]

I've been living on borrowed time my whole life.

[aberranthubris]

[ Charles is happy they're in a phone connection this time, because the surge of sympathetic sadness he feels is rather stark and makes him quiet for quite a while. ]

I wish... there was something to say to a senseless violence like that. I'm sorry to hear that, Miles. I truly am.

[dendarii]

[ Sorry, Charles. Miles is quiet a moment in turn. ]

Mm, well. Being born with these sorts of defects has a purpose, if not sense. I'm making great strides in stamping out the usual Barrayaran response to mutations.

[aberranthubris]

[ There's a soft snort at this end of the line, mildly bitter. ]

The strength of character, that's what you were given in return.

[ Then he pulls himself together, because he knows out of experience that it's awkward being in the receiving end of this kind of spiel. ]

I'm sorry. I understand. Sometimes I just feel this helpless surge of anger that doesn't help anyone. If we'd stop hurting each other, end the circle of violence, just imagine what the world could be like...

[ Then he laughs, softly this time, taking a moment to rub a hand over his face. ]

I swear, I haven't been drinking.