okay wait let’s do a head count:
(Lord Auditor) Miles Vorkosigan, our host, inherently chaotic, In Love and Weird About It
(Lord) Mark Vorkosigan, nominally the Reason for the Season (dinner party) 1, Making Good Progress In His Therapy, currently also making some choices his therapist advised him against, trained assassin, clone, In Love and Trying Not To Be Weird (Or Decapitated) About It, hyperfixated on his new bug-comprising business venture, doesn’t really get or see the appeal of the whole aristocracy thing
Kareen Koudelka, nominally the Reason for the Season (dinner party) 2, head butter bug wrangler, youngest daughter, enjoys going to college and having premarital sex, would like to continue to do so, not sure how to reconcile her premarital sex-having college student self with her youngest daughter self back home around her family
Ekaterin Vorsoisson nee Vorvayne, the Real True Actual Reason for the Season (dinner party), mother, landscaper, soon-to-be college student, object of miles’s affections (unbeknownst to her and her alone), feeling some real fucking thirst and emotions for miles (recently beknownst to her), widowed out of a terrible marriage by her husband’s untimely and very messy death roughly two months ago, having some Feelings about all of the above
(Lord) Ivan Vorpatril, Would Very Much Like To Be Excluded From This Narrative, meddled in his cousin our host’s love life and is now potentially facing his Wrath, his hot, older ex-girlfriend is now his hot, older ex-boyfriend and the emperor/his cousin is dragging him into/not letting him weasel out of politics about it, just like his mother is dragging him into/not letting him weasel out of being her errand boy throughout her wedding planning for that selfsame emperor/cousin
(Commodore) Duv Galeni, recently engaged, recently promoted, recently involved in making sure his friend’s wedding to the emperor of the planet that invaded and colonized his isn’t ruined by any of his fellow colonized folks being violently mad about the whole colonization thing, a somewhat ambivalent and complicated relationship with mark the likes of which would require, say, a whole novel, one perhaps called “brothers in arms”, to cover, phd in history
DROU&KOU, had some personal run-ins with barrayar’s less progressive mindsets and engaged in some premarital sex of their own back in the day
Delia Koudelka, eldest daughter, recently engaged, wedding on hold until her fiance (see Duv) has successfully prevented the emperor from being assassinated etc. at his wedding
(Count) Rene Vorbretten, just wanted to make a baby with his beloved wife, but now it turns out his grandma fucked the enemy back during the War, so now he might lose his title and his house and his money and his friends and maybe even his wife if he can’t Get The Votes to counter his cousin’s claim
(Countess) Tatya Vorbretten, married a lovely guy, who apparently inherited some of that loveliness, genetically, from the same people who killed his dad, and now her friends are un-inviting her from their baby showers
Olivia Koudelka, middle daughter and apparently the only one of tatya vorbretten’s friends who isn’t terrible
Martya Koudelka, the other middle daughter
(Lord) Dono Vorrutyer, ne Donna, thrice married thrice…..divorced? widowed?……thrice become single once more, big fan of casual sex (see Ivan), engaged in a succession conflict with his very unpleasant cousin, chose a novel approach to the male primogeniture issue
(Lord Auditor) Vorthys, engineer, professor, pastry fan, imperial auditor, ekaterin’s uncle
(Dr.) Vorthys, “the professora”, history professor, ekaterin’s aunt, recently made aware of ekaterin’s feelings re: miles
(Captain) Simon Illyan, no longer in charge of preventing the emperor from being murdered, also no longer in possession of an eidetic memory, recently and pleasantly involved with alys
(Lady) Alys Vorpatril, society lady, widow, mother to ivan, aunt to miles, mark, and emperor gregor, in the middle of planning the wedding of the century, will make this as many people’s problem as it requires, recently and pleasantly involved with simon
(Dr.) Enrique Borgos, a very good scientist, a very bad businessman, recently rescued by mark from the consequences of the latter, dauntlessly attempting to share his hyperfixation (bugs) with the world
also present in the same house, if not at dinner (depending, i suppose, on the level of chaos lois is going for):
8,000+ butter bugs, huge potential, hugely hideous
