[ open post: sonia ]

[vorbratta]

Sonia Vorbarra Vorpatril

every Sonia under the sun

your choice of:

wartime: "canon" Sonia during the 20-year-long Cetagandan occupation

for barrayar: 4b AU Sonia, post-game

wine mom: post-massacre single wine mom Sonia, now Lady Vorpatril, raising her baby boy Padma

alignment swap: bad end AU where Padma dies in the massacre and Sonia goes on a heinous revenge quest after the civil war

visualosities 4b bio kink list

credit: photosynthesis

Comments

wine mom sonia open prompt

[vorbratta]

Ten years after the end of Mad Yuri's War, life finally no longer feels like a war zone. When the last shocks and pains finally wore away, when Sonia's grief for her husband progressed into deeply cherished, if aching, memory, when Vorbarr Sultana finally began to rapidly rebuild itself -- when it was over, Sonia almost didn't know what to do with herself. She'd spent more than half her life entrenched in one war or another, even if she never was too close to the gritty truth of it -- until Mad Yuri's War. The Massacre changed her, the Dismemberment changed her -- she remembers that fraught and furious argument with Piotr over her insistence on participating -- but her dear late sister's work was not all undone. When the dust settled, she was still Sonia Vorbarra Vorpatril, and some things never change.

She had vowed, long ago, never to let loneliness take hold of her and crush her so desperately as it had in her youth. Her late husband, dear, sweet Ivan, had never wished anything but happiness on her, and God, he had brought it in droves. But he is ten years passed now, and Sonia has allowed herself to move on, his memory never far from her mind. She will never remarry -- that honor belonged to Ivan Vorpatril alone -- but Sonia never was in the habit of depriving herself of much-needed company.

The memories of her youth in the war have never quite faded, not as much as the photographs she's kept all these years. She remembers them all, remembers the fantasy of a Barrayar she could fit into that always seemed just out of reach. There are still parts of her that don't fit here, things that sometimes make her wonder if she and Padma would be better off on Beta Colony, but she can't bear to part with what family she has left. And so Sonia finds her own element in the Vorbarr Sultana social scene, not just becoming a part of it but shaping it, because the Lady Princess is a hell of a lot more cosmopolitan than most of her Vor lady peers. It's well known that Lady Sonia Vorpatril, cousin and oddly close friend to Emperor Ezar, throws the best damned parties in the District.

a. party at the imperial residence
Sonia is in her mid-forties now, though she's impossible not to recognize from her youth, her half-Betan genes aging her much more gracefully. She still has that bright light in her eyes, that sunny smile and that wicked look, that same long, tumbling mass of dark curls down her back. But she looks different now, no longer in war-worn village clothes, now dressed in the height of Vorbarr Sultana fashion, as immodestly cut as social graces will permit her, because she lives to challenge every social norm in her sphere of influence. She wears jewelry now that, in retrospect, would have seemed oddly missing on her younger self, and her hair is adorned in fresh flowers.

Whatever the occasion the party is for, it isn't clear, but the Imperial Residence's banquet hall is full of people, talking, socializing, dancing. Sonia seems to be everywhere at once, chatting, laughing, a glass of wine always in hand.

b. city strolls
Sonia loves Vorbarr Sultana. She had hardly seen it for a decade, and it was ravaged by war for so long. Now that it's rebuilding itself, steadily and surely, she spends as much time as she can soaking it in, never tiring of it. They had fought hard for it, and she will bask in their spoils.

She can often be seen walking through the city on idle errands, with or without her son Padma in tow, or visiting her brother-in-law and nephew at Vorkosigan House. She favors the view from the Star Bridge, the bustling city center, the quiet beauty of the Royal Gardens. Really, it isn't hard to find Sonia in Vorbarr Sultana at all, these days.

c. wildcard
go ahead, just fuck me right up

tucker

[vorbratta]

Sonia's not really sure what happened. She'd been saying goodbye to Tucker -- it was hard, even if she wanted him to go home to his son more than she wanted him to stay, but she'd been mentally preparing herself. And then something had gone wrong with the Star Gate, or so she assumes, because there was a crackle of electricity and a flash of light and she could hear, distantly, Doctor Niadem's frantic yelling...

...And then nothing.

At least for a moment -- a moment that somehow seemed to stretch on forever, a kind of shimmering in and out of existence, and then suddenly, she was present again. Awake, alert, and utterly confused. Because this is not the Star Gate ship.

She's on a planet, that's for sure, but it isn't Barrayar. It's too green, the air tastes wrong, and the towering cliffs all around don't look anything like the Dendarii Mountains. She feels her heart creep up into her throat as panic slowly begins to take over confusion, because something went wrong.

"What -- " she starts to say, utterly dumbfounded, and then she sees the armored person -- soldier, she must assume -- standing not far. It doesn't look like any armor she's seen, and it's such a bright color -- what is that, aqua? -- but right now, Sonia's alarmed enough by the situation at hand and their presence to immediately gather her wits about her. So, naturally, she shifts into demand-some-answers mode, trying to swallow any shrill notes to her voice.

"Who are you? What is this place?"

drift

[vorbratta]

Logically, Sonia knows that it must be something to do with the collapsed wormhole that brought her here -- wherever here is, because it isn't war-torn Barrayar -- even though as far as everyone could tell, the outsiders' appearance was a one-way phenomenon, that has to be it. But when Sonia first finds herself suddenly stranded in a strange place seemingly inhabited by a variety of mechanical giants, she's too panicked to arrive at the logical conclusion right away. She quickly finds that this place isn't exactly friendly to humans, and it gives off an almost Jacksonian vibe of crime and corruption. So naturally, by the time logic kicks in, she's already wandered into trouble.

A few of the giant robots seem to consider stepping on her for fun, but one of them plucks her clean off the ground with some talk putting her up for auction -- some people find these fleshlings amusing, can you believe it -- and Sonia kicks uselessly at the air.

"Put me down this instant!" Sonia demands indignantly, reaching up to try and claw at the robot's grip on her. "You can't sell me! I have rights!"

maybe they're born with it... maybe its maybelline

[toiu]

Getting in a tussle with vampire-controlled zombies was a bit of a rough introduction to New York City circa 1938, but the two of them had managed to come out intact. Having weird sunshine powers certainly helped with the undead - even if Joseph Joestar seemed like he was better at bullshitting in lieu of any actual training. But hey - Hamon was Hamon - and the odd bio-electricity melted through zombie flesh all the same. All it took was some teamwork and creativity to get their pursuers off their tail.

Later the next morning, he seems intent on avoiding doing anything useful, like helping Sonia find out how the hell she got here. This is for multiple reasons: (1) there is breakfast to be had, and (2) he wanted to treat himself after such an eventful night. And so, they would find themselves at a Cafe to eat and discuss what to do next. For Jojo, it seemed to be getting some make-up advice with his meal.

He slaps an advertisement on the brochure of Beauty products, attracted to the bright red rouge featured on its pages. Hey, it's in vogue! He thinks these ladies look beautiful.

"What about this one? Less painted - it says right here."

for wash (chorus au)

[vorbratta]

The last thing Sonia remembers is being on the Star Gate ship, saying goodbye to everyone as they each left to return to their own worlds. And then — a flash. The ship had taken plasma fire from the Cetagandans, and it had shorted out the Star Gate before Wash had a chance to go through. He was supposed to go back home, to make sure Tucker's son was looked after, to finish fighting his own war, but he'd only wound up trapped on Barrayar in the end.

Everything goes white, and there's a dizzying sensation that feels an awful lot like jump lag, and when she comes to, the world is swimming around her so viciously that it takes her a moment to realize that she is lying flat on the ground, the sun beating down on her from above. Barrayar...had they landed back on Barrayar? No — not Barrayar. The smells, the sounds, they're all wrong, and when she finally manages to open her eyes, she sees bright splashes of green on brown earth around her. This place is wholly unfamiliar to her.

She's still reeling from the strange sense of vertigo, her stomach lurching unpleasantly as she pushes herself upright. She's still in the Barrayaran Rangers' uniform she'd stolen away in, still thick in some places with other people's blood. There are floaters at the edge of her vision, and she rapidly blinks them away, trying to clear the strange ringing in her ears. She looks around even as the world still threatens to spin around her, trying to orient herself in her surroundings, and her heart jumps in her chest as she sees Wash nearby.

"Wash! God, Wash, are you alright?" She's already scrambling on her hands and knees towards him. She doesn't know where they are, but Wash had taken plasma fire to his leg before he'd boarded the ship, and while she'd helped him care for it as best she could, it was far from any actual medical treatment.