How long had he been doing this? Four months, maybe? With most of that used up by Infiltrating. And he'd been found out already. This is what comes of not keeping strictly to one's cover persona. But dammit, By had been that person publicly well over a third of his life and it had been nice to act as something other than a parody of himself in his early twenties, because nobody here was likely to be from Barrayar or his time period and if they were, well, everyone knew that Traveling changed people. It could even take a dissolute leech--if highly witty and fairly handsome one--and turn him into someone not entirely useless.
He could have tried to be the public Byerly of Jackson's Whole. Less useless--still handsome and witty--but with the faintest hint of corruption at the edges, the attitude of a man who would commit grand theft history and with impunity. He'd done a credible job of it in the liminal spaces, he'd thought. If nothing else, it had been a believable aging up of a persona he'd already grown out of.
And then they'd been dumped into the Jaunt and in the giddy realization that he was himself and he could finally put all his accumulated skills to work--
And he'd proceeded to be exactly himself.
Ugh, he could just imagine the lecture Lady Alys would be giving him for this. And she'd be right to.
... it's at this point that Byerly realizes he's been psychically silent for far too long.]
Re: [open] -> [private]
How long had he been doing this? Four months, maybe? With most of that used up by Infiltrating. And he'd been found out already. This is what comes of not keeping strictly to one's cover persona. But dammit, By had been that person publicly well over a third of his life and it had been nice to act as something other than a parody of himself in his early twenties, because nobody here was likely to be from Barrayar or his time period and if they were, well, everyone knew that Traveling changed people. It could even take a dissolute leech--if highly witty and fairly handsome one--and turn him into someone not entirely useless.
He could have tried to be the public Byerly of Jackson's Whole. Less useless--still handsome and witty--but with the faintest hint of corruption at the edges, the attitude of a man who would commit grand theft history and with impunity. He'd done a credible job of it in the liminal spaces, he'd thought. If nothing else, it had been a believable aging up of a persona he'd already grown out of.
And then they'd been dumped into the Jaunt and in the giddy realization that he was himself and he could finally put all his accumulated skills to work--
And he'd proceeded to be exactly himself.
Ugh, he could just imagine the lecture Lady Alys would be giving him for this. And she'd be right to.
... it's at this point that Byerly realizes he's been psychically silent for far too long.]
Is it that very obvious?
[His mental voice is extremely rueful.]