Plot help with a Vorkosigan AU concept?

[lotesse]

(feel free to link to anyone who might have thoughts ect)

I've been kicking a Mirror Dance AU concept around, but I can't get the MilSF plot elements wrangled enough to begin. I want Cordelia to go with Mark; tweak Aral's health status a little and it's more than believable. That's not the problem. It's the Jackson's Whole plot that I can't get into focus.

My three drivers for the AU: First, getting Cordelia up and out of Barrayar is a thing I wish the canon had done, at least once. Reunite her with Arde Mayhew and let her kick ass and take names across the stars, now with her experience as Lady Vorkosigan and the backing of an Imperial force behind her. Let her out to play with Lily Durona. Second, I want poor Mark not to go through being raped and tortured again. It's not needed, it's redundant and OTT; it's something that upsets me a lot about MD, otherwise one of my favorites in the series. Let Cordelia save him, as she couldn't the first time. Third, I admit I want to play with woobie!amnesiac!Miles more; the depths of his self-doubt, when he doesn't have his name, is interesting, and I'd like to bounce that off of more of the long-term Saga characters.

But dealing with the Bharaputra plot! The kidnappers will still show up at the Durona Clinic; that's based on Miles escaping and having been seen, I think?? and wouldn't be impacted by changes in events on Barrayar. I have no idea how to manage the crisis at that point. I'd like Cordelia to refuse to chose between her children, and sacrifice neither -- she's a Kirk, let her win the Kobayashi Maru. If Mark is taken, I want him retrieved ASAP, happy and intact. I also need to figure out how to rescue Lily Jr, and I'd like to find a way to still trash House Bharaputra in the end. I like the idea of letting Taura commando her way through great achievements, given her backstory; I've also been thinking that the Arquas could be useful, as according to ImpSec their house was known for successful human subject retrievals.

MilSF isn't my forte as a reader/writer, but I know this fandom has a lot of active plot junkies. If anyone wants, it would be great to poke around the concept.

Comments

[sophia_sol]

alas my only thoughts on the subject are "yes please I would like to read this" which is perhaps not the most helpful to you in this moment!

[melannen]

Same here! My memory of the relevant plot bits isn't great, because it's not one of my go-to rereads, because of what happens to Mark. But I would like to subscribe to your newsletter! (I also really like the idea of retconning the Arquas in early.)

[lotesse]

I will confess to you that I have made a safe!cut of Mirror Dance. I listen to the VS a lot as audiobooks, it's really comforting -- except those parts of that book, and a few other Mark bits that are similarly uncomfortable. I made myself an audio edit that somewhat clumsily just hacks those bits out, so that I can continue to interact with the text without constantly being ready to cringe.

[legionseagle]

I agree you don't need raped and tortured Mark, but you need Mark to be the rescuer not the rescuee for his arc to work. How about Cordelia rescues Miles, while Mark unexpectedly takes down House Ryoval?

[lotesse]

I'm confusing my Jacksonian Houses, maybe. House Fell is Ours, Houses Ryoval and Bharaputra are baddies. Hmm. If I think about it, I've got 3 potential villains: Baron Ryoval (is his name Ry Ryoval? the sadist), Baron Bharaputra (Vasa Luigi, the slavemaster), and Baronne Bharaputra (Lotus Durona, the narcissist). All connected to Fell, or the Duronas, by blood.

I would actually love to sic Cordelia on Lotus. She deserves more than she gets in canon, imo.

The problem is that I just don't think Mark is suitable for physical combat. In Brothers In Arms, I think, he tells someone that he hates the adrenaline rush, he wants to work in a safe box with information. There's no way he gets out of House Ryoval without being damaged, and I don't want that. But I want to pay off his arc, as you mention. I can give him an additional intelligence coup -- let him find the footage of Miles' fire escape? -- but I'm not sure it's big enough, compared to tearing off Baron Ryoval's ring hand.

[lotesse]

Continuing to think -- without Mark on the ground, I don't know that any of Ours have leverage to take down House Ryoval, and they're only going to kidnap a short Vorkosigan guy out of the Clinic. The Duronas I could see having leverage against Lotus, though. Maybe the end result of this AU is that it's House Bharaputra that's wiped out, not House Ryoval? (Mark's driving motive ever after thus becomes the abolishment of sex slavery, via investing in virtual-reality tech or sexbots??)

If I could find a way for Cordelia to throw the Bharaputrans against House Ryoval, annihilating two enemies at once, it would be very *her*. And very Vorkosigan, too, with Aral's campaign against Escobar/Serg.

[staranise]

I think that if you bring Cordelia in, what she's automatically going to bring in are allies and a larger strategy. Mark has a narrower focus and a more limited sense of reach; he understands money, alliances, manipulation, and brute force. Cordelia's arsenal, meanwhile, includes influence; she understands when you need to take a gamble and reach out to someone, trusting and hoping that they'll come to your aid. So while Mark understands who the power players in Jackson's Whole are, Cordelia's the one who'd be able to talk some of them into doing something improbable and crazy.

Also, I'm already cackling SO HARD at Mayhew laying eyes on That Woman again.

[lotesse]

Agreed on this. It's actually pretty easy to have Cordelia just fix everything, get it all done no fuss no muss -- but I'm not sure that's the best direction. She gets her own way far too much in canon.

Of course, I'm maybe underestimating the psychological issues present as an arc element in all of this. It's not like getting them clean out of the Hole makes any of them any less messed up -- and there's plenty of that. Maybe the real villain is the parenting mistakes we made along the way?

[staranise]

Well, the other thing is, Cordelia doesn't do subtlety. She's pretty used to smashing her way through things—pointing two forces at each other and letting the fine details sort themselves out. So while she allows you to add new layers of complexity to the plot, she is not the person who'd resolve any of it. "Oh hai here's your enemy's head. Also I lit the palace on fire. Good luck!" She's had Aral as her cleanup crew for decades; how will she do without him?

And hmm, it might be interesting to see how Miles had perceived that trait his whole life. I wonder how much his frenzied need for control and autonomy is linked not precisely to being disabled or anything, but his unhappiness with the outcomes his mother produces in situations that matter to him. Not to blame Cordelia, just to say... I wonder if this will make him look at their lifelong dynamic any differently.

[oracne]

I think you could give Taura a whole subplot - perhaps helping to rescue Mark, or taking down House Bharaputra.