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

[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."

[isthisart]

"I don't know about all the Vor. Unless you think pens would make a particularly good peace offering to the ones who are inclined to need such things? Because that might add it up."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Not sure. Some of them, maybe. Others would probably find a way to get offended."

[isthisart]

"Then certainly not the entirety of the Vor. Some of them will just have to buy their pens. But not all of you." She kisses Miles on the top of his head.

[thisvorlunatic]

He gazes adoringly up at her.

[first_loyalty]

[isthisart]

"Lucky me," says Vorsoisson.

"I'd like to think so."

"Is it hard to use?"

"I don't find it hard, but I designed it. Drawing should be simple, and so should any program operated principally by pointing at things - learning the gestures to input text might take longer. You can have it do voice recognition if that's easier, since it does pick up sound just fine."

[first_loyalty]

"Could you - I don't know - offer a pointing-operated virtual keyboard?" wonders Madame Vorsoisson. "As a stepping stone?"

[isthisart]

"That's a good idea - I switch alphabets pretty routinely, but if the main customer base will be using Barrayaran Cyrillic all the time - I'll make a note of that for an update. There is a virtual keyboard but it's there to troubleshoot finicky custom gesture recognition and it's not too accessible -" She makes a note of this suggestion.

[first_loyalty]

She smiles. "I'm glad I helped."

[isthisart]

"I appreciate it. This is half of why I'm giving away the first batch - feedback from people who know better than I do what people who aren't me need from pens."

[first_loyalty]

"Very sensible."

[isthisart]

"But I talk too much about pens - what do you do with your time?" Linya wonders. Mostly of Madame Vorsoisson and not her husband.

[first_loyalty]

"Oh - I don't think you talk too much about pens. Pens are interesting. I don't do anything nearly that interesting," she says. "I garden, when I have the time - we have a young son, just a year old."

[isthisart]

"Nikolai, right?" says Linya. She did her homework. "What do you grow besides him, though?"

[first_loyalty]

She smiles uncertainly.

"I, um - have an interest in native Barrayaran vegetation... I know it's mostly not known for its beauty, but I think it has potential. I have a bonsai'd skellytum I inherited."