I'm really enjoying the story. This chapter had a couple of things that felt out of place/wrong - and they were a line apart, which is why I was prompted to write about it.
The first is the Professora being so easy with calling Cordelia by her first name (when it comes out who leaked the photo to Vorlenski). Since at the time of this story it's so recently after Miles & Ekaterin's wedding that Ekaterin hasn't been to Vorkosigan Surleau yet; Aral and Cordelia spend most of their time on Sergyar, and Georg is a fairly recently appointed Auditor, I think it's a bit early in their relationship as sorta-kinda in-laws for her to be so comfortable calling (OMG!)Vicereine Countess Vorkosigan by her first name.
The second is Cordelia saying "it was technically illegal to release a picture taken in the Residence." It seems unlikely to me that any of the Emperors since the end of the Time of Isolation would have made a point of passing an actual law against releasing photos taken in the Residence, and even if there were such a law, there would a procedure for releasing photos that the Emperor (or his Regent) wanted to release (given the way imperial power works on Barrayar, it would probably be a fairly informal procedure, such as Aral saying "sure, you can send that one to Vorlenski"). Now that I'm thinking about it, if by some chance an Emperor had made it illegal to release such a photo, the whole bit about the photo starts to unravel in my mind. ImpSec would have had a cow and paid Vorlenski a not-so-polite visit, and I can't imagine Cordelia not realizing the hassle she'd be putting the guy through. It becomes possible only if Aral lets Impsec know ahead of time that Cordelia is giving the photo to Vorlenski, which gets back to my earlier point of having a procedure for releasing photos.
Hi Cruiser/Bob!!, and welcome aboard the Peaceful Vorkosiverse. I'm delighted you're enjoying the tale (and very happy to get a real comment -- my last half-dozen LJ notifications have turned out to be ******* spambots).
You make good points, but I'm not sure I'm persuaded. I have the Professora being warier with Aral, in just the manner you suggest, but I think her situation with Cordelia is a little different. Remember that Cordelia responds very positively to her first encounter with the Professora, on the night of the disastrous dinner party in ch. 9 of A Civil Campaign : in ch. 10 she says to Mark that "Aral and I had an extremely enlightening talk with Professor and Professora Vorthys--now, there's a woman with her head screwed on straight", and during the proposal scene in ch. 19 Miles sees the two older women exchange loaded looks, and suddenly wonders what they've been up to without him knowing (or Lois reporting). I allude to that somewhere, with a line about both women having enjoyed shepherding manic son and wounded niece towards marriage, and I'm positing that they had more and better contact than one might think. Chalk one up for the Grandmothers' Union, maybe ; for female practicality a la Lois, anyway.
As to the photos, I think you probably are right. At the time I was writing I think I though the illegality of releasing residence imagery was canonical, but checking now I find that the point made is that only ImpSec takes any images, the press being excluded from ceremonial events as they would not be on Beta (see Barrayar, ch.5). So the image of Kou and Drou in their wedding-circle would have to have come from ImpSec 'footage' (not that they'd be using anything for which that term makes sense), and while I suspect that to release it to anyone not in ImpSec would be streng verboten, my use of "technically illegal" probably is erroneous. But as you say, with Aral's connivance it could have been done, and I think I'm still willing to posit that Cordelia got on with it under that cover, seeing an importance to the image that ImpSec wouldn't have done, and bypassing an ImpSec bureaucracy that would instinctively have been like the old joke about Northern Ireland ("Ulster says 'NO'. ... What was the question?").
Always good to be put on one's mettle, though, and all comments are very welcome. I wonder what you'll make of how everything pans out ...
Reading your arguments regarding the Professora & Cordelia, I'm persuaded by them. Having been a while since I read ACC, I hadn't remembered that detail, and well, exchanging vids isn't as quick a way to become close friends, but it's certainly not unreasonable, especially given Cordelia's comments about the Professora having her head screwed on straight.
The first is the Professora being so easy with calling Cordelia by her first name (when it comes out who leaked the photo to Vorlenski). Since at the time of this story it's so recently after Miles & Ekaterin's wedding that Ekaterin hasn't been to Vorkosigan Surleau yet; Aral and Cordelia spend most of their time on Sergyar, and Georg is a fairly recently appointed Auditor, I think it's a bit early in their relationship as sorta-kinda in-laws for her to be so comfortable calling (OMG!)Vicereine Countess Vorkosigan by her first name.
The second is Cordelia saying "it was technically illegal to release a picture taken in the Residence." It seems unlikely to me that any of the Emperors since the end of the Time of Isolation would have made a point of passing an actual law against releasing photos taken in the Residence, and even if there were such a law, there would a procedure for releasing photos that the Emperor (or his Regent) wanted to release (given the way imperial power works on Barrayar, it would probably be a fairly informal procedure, such as Aral saying "sure, you can send that one to Vorlenski"). Now that I'm thinking about it, if by some chance an Emperor had made it illegal to release such a photo, the whole bit about the photo starts to unravel in my mind. ImpSec would have had a cow and paid Vorlenski a not-so-polite visit, and I can't imagine Cordelia not realizing the hassle she'd be putting the guy through. It becomes possible only if Aral lets Impsec know ahead of time that Cordelia is giving the photo to Vorlenski, which gets back to my earlier point of having a procedure for releasing photos.
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You make good points, but I'm not sure I'm persuaded. I have the Professora being warier with Aral, in just the manner you suggest, but I think her situation with Cordelia is a little different. Remember that Cordelia responds very positively to her first encounter with the Professora, on the night of the disastrous dinner party in ch. 9 of A Civil Campaign : in ch. 10 she says to Mark that "Aral and I had an extremely enlightening talk with Professor and Professora Vorthys--now, there's a woman with her head screwed on straight", and during the proposal scene in ch. 19 Miles sees the two older women exchange loaded looks, and suddenly wonders what they've been up to without him knowing (or Lois reporting). I allude to that somewhere, with a line about both women having enjoyed shepherding manic son and wounded niece towards marriage, and I'm positing that they had more and better contact than one might think. Chalk one up for the Grandmothers' Union, maybe ; for female practicality a la Lois, anyway.
As to the photos, I think you probably are right. At the time I was writing I think I though the illegality of releasing residence imagery was canonical, but checking now I find that the point made is that only ImpSec takes any images, the press being excluded from ceremonial events as they would not be on Beta (see Barrayar, ch.5). So the image of Kou and Drou in their wedding-circle would have to have come from ImpSec 'footage' (not that they'd be using anything for which that term makes sense), and while I suspect that to release it to anyone not in ImpSec would be streng verboten, my use of "technically illegal" probably is erroneous. But as you say, with Aral's connivance it could have been done, and I think I'm still willing to posit that Cordelia got on with it under that cover, seeing an importance to the image that ImpSec wouldn't have done, and bypassing an ImpSec bureaucracy that would instinctively have been like the old joke about Northern Ireland ("Ulster says 'NO'. ... What was the question?").
Always good to be put on one's mettle, though, and all comments are very welcome. I wonder what you'll make of how everything pans out ...
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