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[Is it possibly for a mental voice to sound giddy? Because there's a distinct giddy tinge to By's thoughts, for all that his words come out with his normal, lazy, lightly Russian-accented drawl.]

Byerly Vorrutyer here. We're on Earth, pre-spaceflight, although someone who isn't me will need to get a better read on the actual date and location. Linguistically, it's a hodgepodge. I can hear archaic Russian, a whole host of Asiatic and Romance languages, and something else I can't quite place.

If you can "hear" this, check in. We need to know who we've got to work with.

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Armin Arlert, checking in.

Thank you, Arlert. And I'm much obliged for what you said to Yaga earlier.

Of course. It's a criticism I've heard and responded to before. [After all, he's been a Traveler for around 2 years.]

It's understandable. People rarely enjoy being manipulated. But if it's a choice between playing into the Trumps' hands or innocents suffering...

[Byerly very nearly shrugs, before reminding himself that Arlert can't see and the gesture would be meaningless.

He's saying so many things that the Byerly Vorrutyer of Vorbarr Sultana couldn't say, that even the Byerly of Cordonnah Station couldn't, except perhaps to Rish, and it's so damn liberating.]

She seems to be fairly indifferent to innocent lives - not going out of her way to harm them or to protect them. It's... not an unpopular opinion. Worrying about ourselves first.

[Obviously Armin disagrees, at least for himself. He pauses a moment, considering, then securely locks the communication to just the two of them - a change noticeable by a slight mental pressure, and a feeling of distance between this conversation and the others happening on the network. If By is attuned to these things, he may notice that this link feels more secure than any other he's been a part of on the network.]

I don't mean to pry. But I couldn't help but notice that you seem very adept at... I could only describe it as covertcy, or spycraft, I suppose. You have experience doing this sort of thing before? [From the tone, it's clear Armin is fairly convinced that he does - he pays attention, and he's been watching for a while - and that it would take a very fast and very convincing lie to persuade him otherwise.]

[Oh. Oh hell.

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.]

Probably not to most people.

[But Armin is not most people. He gives him an equally rueful smile in return.]

I've been meticulous in observing and recording everything going on with the Travelers for the last 20 months - and you're not the first person I've met with that kind of experience.

Not everyone would see it. But then, you weren't exactly being subtle, either. If you don't want people to know, you should probably have an explanation ready, if anybody else notices.

Ugh. And if you've seen it, probably others will too in time. They aren't all idiots like Zed, after all. [Some of them were idiots like Doujima--no, that wasn't at all fair to the man, who seemed to have a decent enough head on his shoulders, if one overly reliant on taking notes.]

You're right. I don't want everyone to know. A few people like you, that I'm fairly certain aren't from my world or time... is acceptable, I suppose. But on the off-chance that anyone else from home shows up, I'd rather my cover not be completely blown.

Do you have any suggestions for what to tell them? The first thing that springs to mind is that I'm a gentleman detective, out of some ancient novel, which might account for my memory and my organizational skills--but I'm not entirely sure if that might not be too ludicrous. [Hmm.] Then again, since our group contains what is only best described as a frilly wolf-bear woman, perhaps gentleman detective won't unduly strain their credulity.

A detective probably isn't too far fetched. We have several already. [Note that Armin fails to understand, or at least remark upon, the gentleman distinction.] But... if that's what you're going with, you probably want to try to moderate your perspective - and your skills, your apparent experience - to match the cover. At least a little. There are reasons I assumed you were a spy, and not a detective.

...Perhaps an undercover detective? Though I'm not sure if that's a little too close to the truth for comfort. [Armin gives something of a shrug.] It's true that there's probably not much you could say that would strain the credulity of this group too badly - but I'm afraid I'm not really familiar enough to know what other options there might be for a person with your skills. There wasn't really a need for them, in my world.

In other words, a little more Lord Piotr Vorwimsey and a little less Yakov Vorbond. I... can probably do that. Although I'm not sure I'll go so far as picking up a monocle that doubles as a magnifying glass.

... then again, that sort of affectation would be useful in a pinch. I might have very well done such a thing if I were a gentleman detective.

Edited 2015-09-18 08:52 (UTC)

I'm... not quite sure what you're talking about, but it seems like you've got the idea. [Better than Armin does, even, apparently. Not much call for spycraft when there's only a million people remaining, all unified under one government, and the threat is external and unintelligent. Of course, there's a little more need for it than Armin realizes - but he'll get there eventually.

Armin hesitates then, uncertainly coming to the other part of why he approached By about this, besides warning him he was being more obvious than he intended.] I, um. I h-have a question for you.

Mm, I might even layer the deceptions. If they doubt I'm a gentleman detective, I can arrange for them to find out I'm a con artist and common criminal. I wouldn't even be lying if I suddenly confessed I was kicked off the planet for grand theft history.

... not that I committed it. That happened to be my almost in-laws.

Anyway. To quit that digression, what was it you wanted to ask?

...Right. [There's a fair amount there that he'd like to ask questions about, but that he's just going to leave be for the time being.]

You... have a really good memory, right? [Whether this is something Armin observed, or just something he associated with being a spy (thank you, Alcuin) is unclear.] Is it... is it possible to help teach someone else to improve their memory too?

[With all his telepathic skills, an eidetic memory would be ridiculously useful. Usually, he's ask Alcuin to help him - but it hasn't escaped his notice that Alcuin seems to be rather hesitant to teach him when it comes to matters of covertcy. Armin's not sure he understands why, but he doesn't want to press.]

Oh yes. They taught it to us at ImpSec training camp. It's called Kim's Game. Named after some ancient Earth novel. I ended up reading it once. Not bad.

Actually, I was thinking of teaching it to Doujima, too, in hopes of weaning him away from that notebook of his. Do you mind if I teach you two together? Doing it as a competition usually makes it more inspiring.

Competition? [Blink, blink.] Umm, all right.

[It may come across that Armin is not the terribly competitive sort.]

Well, it might make it that way for Doujima.

O-Okay. If that will help.

I'll see if we can all start practicing together tomorrow.

Thank you.

[It seemed all he had left to say.]

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