beatrice_otter (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beatrice_otter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crack_van2011-03-07 09:03 pm
beatrice_otter) wrote in crack_van2011-03-07 09:03 pm
Entry tags:
And They Think It's Hell by Dira Sudis (teen)
Fandom: VORKOSIVERSE
Characters: Gregor, Aral, Cordelia
Length: 3k words
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dsudis, ![[personal profile]](https://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dira
Author Website: AO3
Why this must be read:
Dira Sudis is another of the great authors of the fandom; I'm always so happy to see her name pop up, because I'm sure to get a great fic to read, and this one did not disappoint. This is a missing scene for the end of The Vor Game, but read it even if you haven't read the book--it stands on its own two feet. Emperor Gregor was raised by Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan after his parents and grandfather died while he was still young. Aral was his regent, and they were very close, as were he and Cordelia. But they never told him much about his father Prince Serg, and so when Gregor finds out the truth it's a huge shock that sets off a suicide attempt and the major plot of the second half of the book. But as The Vor Game is told from Miles' POV, we never get to see what happens afterward, when Gregor and Aral and Cordelia are all on the same planet again and have time to talk.
Gregor is young, and unsure, and his world has just been shaken. History makes a difference, and so does family, and trust, and love, and duty, and Dira shows us how much in a poignant three thousand words.
"He hurt her, didn't he," Gregor blurted, because that was the thing he had to know, had been dying to know and not daring to ask for weeks. "They said--on Komarr, they said he was a sadist, a rapist, torturer--he hurt my mother, didn't he?"
Aral looked down at his folded hands. "Probably, yes."
Gregor clenched his fists, years too late, remembering with a sick sinking feeling how delighted he had been by the gift of the air rifle, by the far rarer gift of his father's attention. He had thought that that might be something pure, those few days with his father. He had thought--he had hoped that his father's kindness to him was something separate from his father's cruelty to others.
"I was never told precisely what your mother feared from your father, or in what manner he might have harmed her. When they married, before you were born, he was... he was not yet at his worst, though the signs were there. After she became pregnant your grandfather protected your mother."
Gregor looked up, startled, and then understood. "Grandfather wouldn't risk her miscarrying, you mean. I was worth protecting, but she wasn't."
And They Think It's Hell
Characters: Gregor, Aral, Cordelia
Length: 3k words
Author on LJ:
dsudis, dira Author Website: AO3
Why this must be read:
Dira Sudis is another of the great authors of the fandom; I'm always so happy to see her name pop up, because I'm sure to get a great fic to read, and this one did not disappoint. This is a missing scene for the end of The Vor Game, but read it even if you haven't read the book--it stands on its own two feet. Emperor Gregor was raised by Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan after his parents and grandfather died while he was still young. Aral was his regent, and they were very close, as were he and Cordelia. But they never told him much about his father Prince Serg, and so when Gregor finds out the truth it's a huge shock that sets off a suicide attempt and the major plot of the second half of the book. But as The Vor Game is told from Miles' POV, we never get to see what happens afterward, when Gregor and Aral and Cordelia are all on the same planet again and have time to talk.
Gregor is young, and unsure, and his world has just been shaken. History makes a difference, and so does family, and trust, and love, and duty, and Dira shows us how much in a poignant three thousand words.
"He hurt her, didn't he," Gregor blurted, because that was the thing he had to know, had been dying to know and not daring to ask for weeks. "They said--on Komarr, they said he was a sadist, a rapist, torturer--he hurt my mother, didn't he?"
Aral looked down at his folded hands. "Probably, yes."
Gregor clenched his fists, years too late, remembering with a sick sinking feeling how delighted he had been by the gift of the air rifle, by the far rarer gift of his father's attention. He had thought that that might be something pure, those few days with his father. He had thought--he had hoped that his father's kindness to him was something separate from his father's cruelty to others.
"I was never told precisely what your mother feared from your father, or in what manner he might have harmed her. When they married, before you were born, he was... he was not yet at his worst, though the signs were there. After she became pregnant your grandfather protected your mother."
Gregor looked up, startled, and then understood. "Grandfather wouldn't risk her miscarrying, you mean. I was worth protecting, but she wasn't."
And They Think It's Hell
no subject