Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
keep_nothing) wrote2016-01-12 04:26 pm
keep_nothing) wrote2016-01-12 04:26 pm
App
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan
CHARACTER AGE: 35
SERIES: Vorkosigan Saga
CHRONOLOGY: Directly after the events Barrayar, but before the epilogue
CLASS: Hero
HOUSING: De Chima #007 with Aral Vorkosigan, please!
BACKGROUND:
Roughly a thousand years in the future, humanity has journeyed far into space and colonized several planets with the aid of the Wormhole Nexus, regions of space connected by wormholes and traversible only by interstellar jump ships. Technology has progressed as a whole, but humanity's colonization of other planets has created a situation no less politically, fiscally, or socially complicated than historical Earth. With this in mind, people themselves remain largely the same, and so far, there is no one but humans present in the galaxy.
Beta Colony was the second planet to be settled by humans, even before wormhole travel was discovered. The planet's biome was almost entirely desert, described as "screaming hot," and the colony itself existed primarily underground. Sandstorms occurred from time to time; the largest body of water was smaller than a lake. As one of the more egalitarian-liberal colonies in this Nexus, Beta Colony is well-known for its tolerance and liberal attitude towards all varieties of sexuality; a number of practices considered immoral on many other worlds, such as licensed prostitution (the name of the job was Licenced Practical Sexuality Therapist), public partial nudity (the most popular female garment was the topless sarong) and recreational drug use, which were legal and accepted on Beta Colony. Beta Colony was also highly advanced, relative to most other planets, in many areas of technology (including military fields) and medicine. Many innovations mentioned in the Vorkosigan Saga originated on Beta Colony.
However, not all colonies and planets share the same principles or morals. Enter a woman from Beta Colony ...
Important events from Shards of Honor:
Important events from Barrayar:
PERSONALITY:
Having been born and raised on Beta Colony, Cordelia has very strong principles that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities, and she's always open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values to attain that equality for everyone. This means everything from women serving in the military, believing that everyone should own a comconsole (their computers) and have free access to information and education, even sexual freedoms. In fact, it's an incredible shock to her when she flees to Barrayar, which is so steeped in tradition and feudalism that their government is run by verbal oaths of fealty. She often states that she thinks it to be some kind of imaginary government to be run like that. Through her marriage with Aral, and later with the unfortunate poisoning of her son, she breaks with the Barrayaran traditions she had been attempting to fulfill to fit in on her new home world to produce an end she fiercely believed was better.
One such divergence from tradition is shown in how she unquestionably accepts her son, Miles. Due to the assassination attempt on her husband's life, the antidote to the poison used would destroy the bones of the fetus growing inside her. Rather than accepting her unborn son's fate, she takes the first radical break from Barrayaran tradition and demands to arrange surgery for her c-section and to transfer Miles into what's known as a uterine replicator (which is exactly what it sounds like). After some bumps in his gestation and he's finally given birth, he unfortunately is born with extremely fragile bones and significant developmental delays in general. With Barrayar’s culture, many people, including Miles' own grandfather, views anyone with physical defects as being less than human and unworthy of using up resources; many still practice infanticide even though it's been declared illegal. But Cordelia refuses to hear anything against her son. She rails at Piotr for even suggesting she let her son die, even going to so far to push Piotr in disinheriting him (or at least threatening to).
Cordelia is also fiercely devoted to her family, with just one example described above. Another example of this is shown during the Pretendership of Count Vordarian when he took control of the capital and later kidnapped Miles while he was still in the uterine replicator. When Aral's men found out that he was taken, Cordelia immediately proposes to organize a raid to recover him. When Aral reluctantly refuses, she just up and does it herself without gaining Aral's permission. Risking herself, and frankly the security of Aral's future plans to ending the coup, she steals away into the heart of the coup to recover her son herself. When she gets there, she even goes so far as to order Bothari to cut off the head of Count Vordarian.
While being a complete badass and knowing her own mind, Cordelia is rather socially inept. Even on her home planet of Beta Colony, she worried about the social aspect of herself; when everyone around her seemed to be finding their soul mates, the older she grew, the more panicky she got about being left out. As she herself put it, "quite pathetically anxious." This ultimately lead her to fall for a man (before she met Aral) that only used her for sex and then to weasel her out of a promotion. She had no stomach for another lover after that. And then even on Barrayar, where she knows nothing about the social cues or faux pas, she's suddenly expected to be a high-class Vor lady who is to be an example to those under her new social caste. All of which leads to some, ahem, awkward conversations when sexual behavior is discussed. Or not discussed as the case may be. Who knew that it wouldn't be an open topic of conversation like it is on Beta Colony?
Despite her social shortcomings, Cordelia is an intelligent woman and keenly observant of other people. Having been the Commander for the Betan Astronomical Survey, she often described how she had to keep a bunch of Betan intellectual prima donnas working together for months on end. She learned how to coax them along, finding out the topics and goals important to them, and learning how to string them along just long enough to get the mission done. Using this skill, she finds out the true meaning behind the Barrayaran invasion of Escobar before knowing all the details, able to deduce it from what little she had in the way of snippets of conversations or bare, sparse facts that Aral had let drop. When she escapes Beta Colony and heads for Barrayar, she manages to convince person after person in telling a tall tale in order that they might help her and be none the wiser once she left. She applies this in Barrayar too, picking up the political cues and alerting Imperial Security to turn their sights onto Vordarian, even before ImpSec had the chance to put him on the "short list" of candidates ready to spring a coup.
POWER:
None of these powers are canon. I'll be making a powers/permissions post for her powers so that permission can be asked/communication can happen before Cordelia uses any power on another character.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[ The viewscreen turns on showing a woman frowning at some point just below and to the right of the screen, staring in apparent discontent. Her copper hair is pulled back with a clasp at the back of her neck, and she's wearing what looks like baggy tan fatigues with a patch over one breast, obviously some kind of uniform, but she looks comfortable in it. For those more keen-eyed, they'll be able to tell she's a taller woman, her head much higher than the back of the chair she's sitting in.
Her frown deepens as she finally reaches out to the same spot she's staring at, fiddling with ... something. She also begins to mutter her frustration aloud. ]
What kind of tech is this anyway? I thought they said this network was reliable, but it's worse than even the most rudimentary comconsole in back-country Barrayar. Is this thing even on?
[ She taps a few things into the settings she's fiddling with before finally glancing at the viewscreen, eyes widening when she realizes it is in fact on, frown lightening to a more pleased look. ]
Ah! There we go. I had a devil of a time getting this substandard thing to work right. Anyway, slightly related, I wanted to know if there was more proper technology here? From what I've heard so far, it's all on this network, but what I've found is frankly alarming.
Like your space program here. Do you really use rockets to get into space? How are you planning to jump through wormholes with a rocket? That's like the equivalent of strapping a fire-fracker to your feet and wondering why your toes were blown off. And the—
[ She cuts herself off with a sigh. She shouldn't start out with a tirade. ]
Anyway, my point is, if anyone could help out by pointing out where I can get a good comconsole around here rather than relying on this ... laptop ... thing. I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
[ She glances off to the side again, reaching to turn off the video function. Only she seems to fiddle some more before she frowns hard again and suddenly the viescreen shakes violently before blacking out.
She ... may or may not have just hit the damn thing. Stupid inferior tech. ]
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
A test post thread with Miles and Gregor set in MoM
FINAL NOTES:
Cordelia will be arriving in her Betan Astronomical Survey fatigues, and will be bringing a small stunner (pretty much a taser) that's good for only a few charges before she finds a way to recharge it, and a small boot knife which is just fairly pretty, functional, and sharp.
CHARACTER NAME: Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan
CHARACTER AGE: 35
SERIES: Vorkosigan Saga
CHRONOLOGY: Directly after the events Barrayar, but before the epilogue
CLASS: Hero
HOUSING: De Chima #007 with Aral Vorkosigan, please!
BACKGROUND:
Roughly a thousand years in the future, humanity has journeyed far into space and colonized several planets with the aid of the Wormhole Nexus, regions of space connected by wormholes and traversible only by interstellar jump ships. Technology has progressed as a whole, but humanity's colonization of other planets has created a situation no less politically, fiscally, or socially complicated than historical Earth. With this in mind, people themselves remain largely the same, and so far, there is no one but humans present in the galaxy.
Beta Colony was the second planet to be settled by humans, even before wormhole travel was discovered. The planet's biome was almost entirely desert, described as "screaming hot," and the colony itself existed primarily underground. Sandstorms occurred from time to time; the largest body of water was smaller than a lake. As one of the more egalitarian-liberal colonies in this Nexus, Beta Colony is well-known for its tolerance and liberal attitude towards all varieties of sexuality; a number of practices considered immoral on many other worlds, such as licensed prostitution (the name of the job was Licenced Practical Sexuality Therapist), public partial nudity (the most popular female garment was the topless sarong) and recreational drug use, which were legal and accepted on Beta Colony. Beta Colony was also highly advanced, relative to most other planets, in many areas of technology (including military fields) and medicine. Many innovations mentioned in the Vorkosigan Saga originated on Beta Colony.
However, not all colonies and planets share the same principles or morals. Enter a woman from Beta Colony ...
Important events from Shards of Honor:
- Cordelia Naismith, Commander for the Betan Astronomical Survey, is exploring a new planet when her base camp is destroyed by Barrayaran soldiers. Later, she finds herself alone with one, a Captain Aral Vorkosigan who was in command before his crew staged a mutiny.
- Cordelia bargains with him to bring her and her injured botanist to the supply cache the Barrayaran military has set up on the planet. He agrees, and he also aids her in burying a coworker who died in the attack. Over several days, Cordelia was impressed by Vorkosigan's help and leans towards romantic feelings for him.
- They arrive at the "supply cache", which is actually a large depot, and begins to suspect that the Barrayarans had larger plans for the planet. With Cordelia's help, Vorkosigan regains command of his soldiers. Now aboard Vorkosigan's ship, she reveals her assumption that Barrayar intends an invasion, which Vorkosigan acknowledges. She's also shocked when he reveals his Barrayar's true intention: an invasion of the planet Escobar.
- Also in the middle of all the political talk, Vorkosigan then proposes to her. Cordelia does not accept or refuse his proposalat this point, despite feeling the same.
- Meanwhile, her Betan team that escaped the attack sneak up on Vorkosigan's ship with the help of the mutineers that were left on the planet. Cordelia, instead of joining her team and fleeing, helps clears out the mutineers before Vorkosigan can event mount an offense. Finally, she flees with her shipmates to warn Beta Colony and Escobar of the Barrayaran invasion.
- Months later, now a Captain in the Betan Expeditionary Force, she goes to Escobaran space as a decoy ship and successfully distracts the Barrayaran ships so the transport ships following her could deliver a devastating new Betan weapon to the Escobaran defenders.
- She's captured and very briefly tortured by the sadistic Admiral Vorrutyer of the Barrayaran forces, then unexpectedly rescued by Vorrutyer's slightly unhinged henchman, Sergeant Bothari (who recognizes her form the new planet months earlier), who kills his master by slicing his throat before he can rape Cordelia.
- Vorkosigan, now a Commodore, hides the pair in his cabin so they cannot be captured for the murder of Vorrutyer while preparations for the Escobaran invasion continue. While hiding, she overhears the conversations between Vorkosigan and Crown Prince Serg Vorbarra of Barrayar, and realizes what a sick fuck the Prince really is.
- The new Betan weapons drive the Barrayaran invasion back with heavy losses, including the death of Prince Serg. Cordelia deduces a political secret that would plunge Barrayar into a generation of civil war if it ever got out: that the whole Escobar invasion was staged to assassinate Prince Serg.
- She's transferred to the ship's brig where she unfortunately injures herself greatly when the ship is attacked. The ship manages to retreat from Escobar space and returned to the secret base on the planet where she met Vorkosigan.
- Held as a prisoner of war on the planet, Vorkosigan visits her and proposes again, but explains everything that happened, the political secret, etc. She unfortunately cannot accept his proposal since political tensions are high because of the failed invasion.
- On her way back to Beta Colony, other believe that she's been tortured by Vorkosigan and had her memories suppressed. Desperate to keep the political secrets she's learned, Cordelia refuses to let herself sleep, developing insomnia, stuttering, and a nervous tic, which further leads others to conclude that she had also been brainwashed and sent back as a spy. When she arrives home on Beta Colony, the authorities were determined to "cure" her, forcing her to flee.
- She manages to reach Barrayar, where she then marries Aral Vorkosigan. (Hooray!!)
- The dying Emperor Ezar Vorbarra of Barrayar appoints Aral as Regent-Elect for his grandson and heir, the four-year-old Prince Gregor. Aral, who was next in line of succession after the Prince, at first refused, but Cordelia convinces him to take the job.
Important events from Barrayar:
- The current Emperor is dying. Now married, Aral Vorkosigan and Cordelia are expecting their first child as Aral begins his Regency in place of the five year-old heir, Gregor Vorbarra.
- Cordelia began to establish friendships with Princess Kareen, mother of Gregor, and her hand-servant Droushnakov. Kareen assigns Drou to work for Cordelia so she could learn more about how to be a woman soldier. when informal combat tournaments began at Vorkosigan House, Cordelia decides that Drou should be allowed to take part in the battles. Learning experiences soon followed, and the men learned that she was in fact a very capable fighter.
- Aral's Regency work begins to get complex, and assassinations are attempted. Soon afterwards, Cordelia meets Vidal Vordarian, and their conversation is troubling that she directs Imperial Security to move Vordarian to his "short" list of assasinators.
- Aral also has to deal with a young Carl Vorhalas, who broke the law by accidentally killing a friend; Aral declines to pardon him and he is executed. Carl's older brother Evon then tries to assassinate Aral with poison gas in revenge, and Cordelia and their unborn child are caught in the attempt.
- The antidote to the poison, while quite effective, was a powerful teratogen that attacked the bones of their unborn son, Miles. In a radical procedure for Barrayar, Cordelia decides to transfer the fetus to a uterine replicator, an artificial womb, and undergoes an experimental treatment that might repair some of the damage to his bones.
- While Cordelia and Aral were recuperating, Count Vidal Vordarian attempts a coup to seize power. Young emperor Gregor is rescued and reunited with the Vorkosigans. The group splits, and Cordelia, Gregor, and various retainers then escape into the mountains to avoid capture.
- After Cordelia rejoins Aral, they learned that the replicator containing Miles had been captured. Without proper maintenance, the fetus would die in two weeks, but Aral could not bring himself to mount a rescue when there were greater concerns.
- Cordelia convinces her bodyguard Droushnakovi and Bothari, now an armsman to Aral's father, to help her rescue Miles and as well as Gregor's mother, Princess Kareen.
- Cordelia and her party are captured when they try to sneak into the palace via a particularly secret escape route created by old Emperor Ezar. They overpower their captors and execute Vordarian; Princess Kareen is also accidentally killed.
- They return with the replicator, barging in on Aral's meeting with Vordarian's officers and interrupt by rolling Vordarian's severed head across the conference table like the badass she is. Needless to say, the coup falls apart soon after.
- Because of Kareen's death, the Vorkosigans are given guardianship of Prince Gregor, and Cordelia is given charge of Gregor's early education. She realizes that his education will have far-reaching consequences for Barrayar.
- Because of his exposure to the antidote, Miles Naismith Vorkosigan was born with extremely fragile bones that tended to break under any stress, and his growth was stunted. Because of Barrayar's prejudice against so-called "muties" (though Miles is genetically healthy), babies with birth defects were traditionally killed.
- Aral's father Piotr also shares this prejudice and has a huge falling out with his son, refusing to acknowledge Miles as his grandson. Cordelia and Aral welcome their son into this harsh world.
PERSONALITY:
Having been born and raised on Beta Colony, Cordelia has very strong principles that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities, and she's always open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values to attain that equality for everyone. This means everything from women serving in the military, believing that everyone should own a comconsole (their computers) and have free access to information and education, even sexual freedoms. In fact, it's an incredible shock to her when she flees to Barrayar, which is so steeped in tradition and feudalism that their government is run by verbal oaths of fealty. She often states that she thinks it to be some kind of imaginary government to be run like that. Through her marriage with Aral, and later with the unfortunate poisoning of her son, she breaks with the Barrayaran traditions she had been attempting to fulfill to fit in on her new home world to produce an end she fiercely believed was better.
One such divergence from tradition is shown in how she unquestionably accepts her son, Miles. Due to the assassination attempt on her husband's life, the antidote to the poison used would destroy the bones of the fetus growing inside her. Rather than accepting her unborn son's fate, she takes the first radical break from Barrayaran tradition and demands to arrange surgery for her c-section and to transfer Miles into what's known as a uterine replicator (which is exactly what it sounds like). After some bumps in his gestation and he's finally given birth, he unfortunately is born with extremely fragile bones and significant developmental delays in general. With Barrayar’s culture, many people, including Miles' own grandfather, views anyone with physical defects as being less than human and unworthy of using up resources; many still practice infanticide even though it's been declared illegal. But Cordelia refuses to hear anything against her son. She rails at Piotr for even suggesting she let her son die, even going to so far to push Piotr in disinheriting him (or at least threatening to).
Cordelia is also fiercely devoted to her family, with just one example described above. Another example of this is shown during the Pretendership of Count Vordarian when he took control of the capital and later kidnapped Miles while he was still in the uterine replicator. When Aral's men found out that he was taken, Cordelia immediately proposes to organize a raid to recover him. When Aral reluctantly refuses, she just up and does it herself without gaining Aral's permission. Risking herself, and frankly the security of Aral's future plans to ending the coup, she steals away into the heart of the coup to recover her son herself. When she gets there, she even goes so far as to order Bothari to cut off the head of Count Vordarian.
While being a complete badass and knowing her own mind, Cordelia is rather socially inept. Even on her home planet of Beta Colony, she worried about the social aspect of herself; when everyone around her seemed to be finding their soul mates, the older she grew, the more panicky she got about being left out. As she herself put it, "quite pathetically anxious." This ultimately lead her to fall for a man (before she met Aral) that only used her for sex and then to weasel her out of a promotion. She had no stomach for another lover after that. And then even on Barrayar, where she knows nothing about the social cues or faux pas, she's suddenly expected to be a high-class Vor lady who is to be an example to those under her new social caste. All of which leads to some, ahem, awkward conversations when sexual behavior is discussed. Or not discussed as the case may be. Who knew that it wouldn't be an open topic of conversation like it is on Beta Colony?
Despite her social shortcomings, Cordelia is an intelligent woman and keenly observant of other people. Having been the Commander for the Betan Astronomical Survey, she often described how she had to keep a bunch of Betan intellectual prima donnas working together for months on end. She learned how to coax them along, finding out the topics and goals important to them, and learning how to string them along just long enough to get the mission done. Using this skill, she finds out the true meaning behind the Barrayaran invasion of Escobar before knowing all the details, able to deduce it from what little she had in the way of snippets of conversations or bare, sparse facts that Aral had let drop. When she escapes Beta Colony and heads for Barrayar, she manages to convince person after person in telling a tall tale in order that they might help her and be none the wiser once she left. She applies this in Barrayar too, picking up the political cues and alerting Imperial Security to turn their sights onto Vordarian, even before ImpSec had the chance to put him on the "short list" of candidates ready to spring a coup.
POWER:
None of these powers are canon. I'll be making a powers/permissions post for her powers so that permission can be asked/communication can happen before Cordelia uses any power on another character.
- Nerve disruption: a temporary(!) disruption of the nervous system caused by physical contact with Cordelia, and perhaps graduating up to having a sort of power blast as she continues to use and practice with the power. Depending on the area Cordelia touches, the effects could range from mild to severe; mild effects being loss of sensation, loss of coordinated movements, disorientation (think like a leg that fell asleep or a memory burp), and more severe effects like muscle spasms and convulsions, seizures, or problems with language (think epilepsy, Alzheimer's, or even a stroke). Limitations would be that Cordelia would have to physically touch someone for the power to work, and when/if she gradually works up to a power blast of some kind, the blasts would be much weaker and continue to weaken over distance. The length of the effect can be up to the other player as well; if they find numb legs hilarious, they're welcome to use for comedic effect as long as they want, and similarly if they don't want lasting effects of seizures and the like, they can keep it short as well.
- Power Reflection Field: a bubble-like barrier that will reflect any power that is launched against her without being harmed herself. It can serve as a means of self-defense or counter-attack by reflecting whatever power is projected by their target and turn it back on them. However, it will be useless against physical attacks, unless it is somehow directly connected to the power being used. For example, if someone has a power over earth a la Earthbending, she could protect herself from an actively controlled piece of rock being thrown at her, but she would be useless against a simply falling rock (no active power applied to it). As she evolves with her power, she might learn to try and direct her field onto someone else for protection, though it would leave her vulnerable.
- X-ray Vision: ability to visually penetrate solid objects or even see within objects. Can be used for medical purposes such as, to perceive cancers, tumors, or even blackened lungs the basic human eye perception cannot normally perceive. When she first uses it, it will be weak and only able to see through one wall at a time or some other limited distance. Over time and continued use, she might be able to see through a whole floor of a building.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[ The viewscreen turns on showing a woman frowning at some point just below and to the right of the screen, staring in apparent discontent. Her copper hair is pulled back with a clasp at the back of her neck, and she's wearing what looks like baggy tan fatigues with a patch over one breast, obviously some kind of uniform, but she looks comfortable in it. For those more keen-eyed, they'll be able to tell she's a taller woman, her head much higher than the back of the chair she's sitting in.
Her frown deepens as she finally reaches out to the same spot she's staring at, fiddling with ... something. She also begins to mutter her frustration aloud. ]
What kind of tech is this anyway? I thought they said this network was reliable, but it's worse than even the most rudimentary comconsole in back-country Barrayar. Is this thing even on?
[ She taps a few things into the settings she's fiddling with before finally glancing at the viewscreen, eyes widening when she realizes it is in fact on, frown lightening to a more pleased look. ]
Ah! There we go. I had a devil of a time getting this substandard thing to work right. Anyway, slightly related, I wanted to know if there was more proper technology here? From what I've heard so far, it's all on this network, but what I've found is frankly alarming.
Like your space program here. Do you really use rockets to get into space? How are you planning to jump through wormholes with a rocket? That's like the equivalent of strapping a fire-fracker to your feet and wondering why your toes were blown off. And the—
[ She cuts herself off with a sigh. She shouldn't start out with a tirade. ]
Anyway, my point is, if anyone could help out by pointing out where I can get a good comconsole around here rather than relying on this ... laptop ... thing. I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
[ She glances off to the side again, reaching to turn off the video function. Only she seems to fiddle some more before she frowns hard again and suddenly the viescreen shakes violently before blacking out.
She ... may or may not have just hit the damn thing. Stupid inferior tech. ]
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
A test post thread with Miles and Gregor set in MoM
FINAL NOTES:
Cordelia will be arriving in her Betan Astronomical Survey fatigues, and will be bringing a small stunner (pretty much a taser) that's good for only a few charges before she finds a way to recharge it, and a small boot knife which is just fairly pretty, functional, and sharp.