dissonance

[isthisart]

Dr. Cheung's at a funeral all day, so Linya decides to go up to London and see if Miles is out of his Mood.

Security has decided to be deeply unhelpful today. She is currently showing them various forms of ID and repeating in a slow, patient voice that she has been here before, there is not more than one of her, and she promises she is not there to assassinate her husband or whatever fool thing has them skittish today. Perhaps she shouldn't drop in while the captain's missing; it seems to make them worse. But she got in before while he was missing...

Comments

[isthisart]

"It's okay."

She sighs.

She strokes his hair, just the once, not beyond the bounds of what she might be moved to do for even a particularly deceptive brother-in-law who'd just had a nightmare.

[thisvorlunatic]

He smiles sadly at her.

[isthisart]

She is tempted into one more pet, and then she goes and sits on her chair again.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles sighs and looks at his hands and sits up, lest he fall asleep again.

[isthisart]

Since Galeni is still asleep, Linya is politely not singing. She has instead been passing the time...

braiding her hair.

She unties her most recent effort and finger-combs out the braid and starts over.

[thisvorlunatic]

[isthisart]

Braid, braid, braid.

"Apparently Galen stole Mark nine feet of some lady's hair from a collector," she murmurs. "To practice on."

[thisvorlunatic]

"And what did Mark think of that?"

[isthisart]

"He can see why you like braiding."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I wonder if he can. ...I suspect so."

[isthisart]

"Can - see why you like it? Is it very complicated?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Reasonably complicated, yes."

[isthisart]

"Well, now I want to know."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Well... there's the 'your hair is soft and nice to play with' aspect, and there's the 'spending time with my wife' aspect, and there's the challenge aspect, and there's the accomplishment aspect."

[isthisart]

"The challenge and the accomplishment are separate?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yes. They're - complementary, but differently enjoyable."

[isthisart]

"Mm." She sighs. "I imagine he and his nine feet of stolen hair didn't exactly bond, though."

[thisvorlunatic]

"But I suspect he would've been able to extrapolate that part, at least to some degree."

[isthisart]

"Probably. Although given how startling he finds the concept of - friendly physical contact - I'm not sure it was a significant degree."

[thisvorlunatic]

"The concept, or the practice, though?"

[isthisart]

"I was getting at something like - the first-person apprehension of the phenomenon more than either of those per se."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Hmm." He falls into a contemplative silence.

[isthisart]

Braid braid braid. She's trying to give her hands something to do, not get a pretty result. She drops it, untied, when she reaches the ends of her hair and shuts her eyes. "I am so bored."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Me too. We could name some more little Vorkosigans to pass the time," he suggests.

[isthisart]

"Right. What's Ninon's middle name, hm?"