symphony

[isthisart]

The day of the party approaches. Linya learns a Barrayaran-original solo piano symphony, adds some flourishes of her own where the composer has marked that it may be played "freely", memorizes the whole thing, and arranges to be playing it on the grand piano when party guests file in on the day of. She smiles and nods at them and takes note of how they arrange themselves in the room; there are thirteen minutes in the piece unless she decides she needs an extra three (if there seem to be a lot of stragglers; if there isn't a good path to the people she wants to meet and around the people she wants to avoid) and takes the repeat at the end to prolong it.

She doesn't wind up taking the repeat; the end of the symphony without it has her playing the final chord when Lord Auditor Vorthys is nearer than anyone she's hoping to evade. She counts out the beats, holds for a moment longer, and then lifts her hands from the keyboard. She has decided that given her choice of titles she's going to address this particular guest as -

"Professor Vorthys."

Comments

[isthisart]

"The optics are fantastically complicated, though. I'm talking to a consultant with holo engineering experience and we think it's doable, but it's still months off."

"Can't it just draw out of the other end?"

"I think that might defeat the purpose of having it shaped like a fountain pen, and anyway it does need to be able to project from both sides regardless."

[first_loyalty]

(Madame Vorsoisson smiles and nods slightly at 'might defeat the purpose'.)

[isthisart]

"The fountain version will probably come in other colors, too. Maybe a wood-like finish, or a few choices of same."

[first_loyalty]

"Very appropriate."

[isthisart]

"So," says Vorsoisson, "it does whatever a comconsole does?"

"More or less. It comes with a program that can translate most standard comconsole software into pen inputs, and it comes with a basic package already installed. But it won't produce sound except through earbugs - not included because so many people already have a compatible set - and of course comconsoles can't do the freehand drawing and don't network with each other as cooperatively."

[first_loyalty]

"'Of course' they don't network with each other as cooperatively? How cooperatively do your pens do it?"

[isthisart]

"The pens are all the same, and dozens of people make comconsoles - if I have competitors later then this will presumably be less true, but for the time being the pens can securely talk to each other as much as their operators want without the setup rigmarole of consoles. If Cordelia has her pen on her person - or if it's upstairs, even - then I can send her a 3D drawing or whatever else I like without having to do anything more complicated than identify who I want it to go to. Getting the pen to talk to the household network so I could do things like talk to my manufacturer about Vorsoisson's pen was more complicated."

[first_loyalty]

"I see..."

[isthisart]

"One eventual possibility is that people who live in rural areas and are unconvinced of the point of other technology will find a handful of pens per village useful partly for that reason - they may not want to talk to Vorbarr Sultana, let alone Beta Colony, but they might want to take pictures of their children to show their neighbors."

[first_loyalty]

"That would be ... nice," she says.

[isthisart]

"I think so. It depends on being able to drop the price point, but I'm optimistic."

[first_loyalty]

"If you are, then I am too."

[isthisart]

"Thank you."

Vorsoisson snorts quietly.

"Tsipis, our business manager, is optimistic too - things in general cheapen over time, and of course I have the option of pocketing as little as I care to from my own research and development involvement," Linya tells Vorsoisson.

[first_loyalty]

"Do you mean you're designing these things mainly by yourself? It's an amazing thing to be doing," says Madame Vorsoisson.

[isthisart]

"I already had my own pen developed in its current form when I married Miles, for personal use," Linya said. "Most of the software in the others is the same, with a few features most people won't want or need removed. All I had to do was make sure the design still worked with more scalable materials, and find a manufacturer - Tsipis has been invaluable - and teach them to make the pens, and come up with a tutorial and make particularly sure that the network and data formats popular on Barrayar were best supported."

[first_loyalty]

"Oh."

[pythbox]

"But you did still design them yourself?" asks Professor Vorthys.

[isthisart]

"Yes. In a workshop originally intended for making cunning electrical sculptures. Over the course of several years."

"So it's Cetagandan technology, then," says Vorsoisson.

"It's my technology, and both I and the pen were developed on Eta Ceta. But everybody who owns a pen presently lives on Barrayar, and this will probably be the case for at least another year or so until I can invest in offplanet distribution attempts."

[first_loyalty]

"Barrayaran enough," says Madame Vorsoisson.

[isthisart]

"Cordelia's particularly pleased that Barrayar will get to be ahead of the technological curve," Linya mentions.

"Why?" wonders Vorsoisson.

"You'd have to ask her to be sure. A sense of fairness? The fact that she got the second pen ever to exist?"

[first_loyalty]

"Those both seem reasonable to me."

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles wanders by at this point.

"Linya," he says, kissing her hand, and then turns to the other participants in the conversation. "My Lord Auditor - ah - ?" He surveys the two unknowns with a querying eyebrow.

"Ekaterin Vorsoisson, Tien Vorsoisson - Lord Vorkosigan," supplies Professor Vorthys.

[first_loyalty]

Madame Vorsoisson curtsies.

[isthisart]

"I've been showing off my pen again," Linya says, putting her hand on Miles's shoulder when he has finished kissing it. "Professor Vorthys and Madame Vorsoisson both want fountain pens, like you, but Vorsoisson's going to get a silver one in the mail."

[thisvorlunatic]

"At this rate you'll be supplying the entire Vor caste with free pens," says Miles. "Fountainoid or regular, according to taste."