application for Exsilium

[laisa]

» PLAYER INFORMATION
Player NAME: Gazebo
Current AGE: dinosaur
Player TIME ZONE: US Eastern
Personal JOURNAL: violentgazebo
IM & SERVICE: n/a (I have violentgazebo on AIM but I'm almost never signed in; AIM doesn't like the machine I use most often)
Player PLURK: violentgazebo
Current CHARACTERS: Anders (Dragon Age)

» CHARACTER INFORMATION

Character NAME: Dr. Laisa Toscane

Canon & MEDIUM: the Vorkosigan Saga (a series of mainly science-fiction but rather genre-blurring books by Lois McMaster Bujold)

Canon PULL-POINT: partway through the novel Memory.

(Specifically, an indistinct point between chapters 5 and 9; we learn in chapter 9 that Laisa has had a meeting with the prime minister and other Barrayaran officials to discuss the Trade Group she represents, but this doesn't happen onscreen and the POV character Miles Vorkosigan isn't involved, hence the indeterminacy of timing. I'm taking Laisa from just after that meeting; as soon as she heads back to the Komarran embassy, the Exsilium transporter will nab her.)

Character AGE: She's 29. (I base this on a remark by Miles to Galeni in chapter 12, that Laisa is "almost thirty"; and while Miles may not have any business knowing the exact age, Galeni should have corrected him if he were off by much.)

Character ABILITIES:

" 'She's a Komarran. From the Toscane family. After she took a doctoral degree in business theory on Komarr, she went into the family transhipping concern. She's now stationed in Vorbarr Sultana as a permanent lobbyist with the trade group representing all the Komarran shipping concessions, as sort of an interface between them and the Imperium. A brilliant woman.' "

(Memory, ch. 4)

Laisa is a human with no superhuman powers or neural augmentations. (The former are unheard of in the Vorkosiverse, but the latter are not.)

She's highly intelligent -- thanks to a confluence of nature and nurture; her parents are astute executives, to say the least (see History, below), and she's had the best education their considerable wealth can buy. At the point from which I'm pulling her, Laisa has already completed her doctoral work (in "business theory", we are informed) and has gone to work for Toscane Industries. Recently she's taken a position as full-time lobbyist for a Komarran trade delegation to Barrayar, representing a consortium of Komarran shipping concerns of which Toscane Industries is only one player. As such, she's putting down roots and sending out tendrils in the Barrayaran political scene, centered in the capital city of Vorbarr Sultana, where she resides and her delegation is headquartered.

At various points in canon, we see Laisa exercise skills relevant to or stemming from her business background; while not all of these are experiences she's had at her Exsilium canon pull-point, it's strongly indicated that these are all skills she acquired through her education, her work with Toscane Industries, and her advocacy in the Komarran trade delegation to Barrayar, so I intend to retain them for RP gameplay. These include:

Public speaking
Lobbying and advocacy
Management
Intelligence analysis
Policy writing and analysis (economic policy, public policy -- for Komarrans, the two are practically synonymous)
Diplomacy
Ballroom dancing (accomplished enough for partnered dancing at social events, which is why she learned it; she is by no means a competitive/professional dancer)
Forensic accounting (cf. Cryoburn; note however that she has ImpSec forensic economic analysts at her employ in that situation, and see below note on expertise.)

Overall, Laisa has more experience working with briefings and statistics other people have gathered, less experience actually gathering that sort of information herself. She has developed remarkable judgement in sifting what's important from what isn't, and in spotting inconsistencies or lacunae, in the reports prepared by colleagues and subordinates. She's also good at personnel selection and development, with an eye to increasing the ratio of useful to pointless information.



Character HISTORY:

Some detail on Laisa's personal history.

More detail on the history of her home planet, Komarr, and its status in the Barrayaran Imperium.

The relevant factors are these: Laisa is, as characters often remark (though never to her face) "one of those Toscanes". It's a status not readily analogized. The planet of Komarr was colonized by a corporation, and its system of government shows it. Komarr is run not by representatives but by shareholders. The more shares you own, the more your vote counts. At the time in which the Vorkosigan Saga is set, 300 years after humans began to settle on Komarr, shares -- and therefore political power -- are concentrated in the hands of a few prominent corporations which are family-run ("family firms"). The members of the families in such a position of ownership are generally known, both galactically and on Komarr itself, as oligarchs.

Until Barrayar's conquest of Komarr, the planet was ruled by a 200-member Council -- whose membership was bought much the same way, not as a matter of backstage chicanery but as the recognized and legitimate way of obtaining a seat. That is to say, the Councilors were members of the family firms as well. During the Solstice Massacre, all 200 members were murdered. (Aside from said massacre, the conquest of Komarr was mostly bloodless.) There is no longer a Council. Barrayar has appointed a viceroy with authority over the planet, and given that viceroy the title of Imperial Councilor, an echo of the old Komarran title. By the time of Memory, Komarran concerns are largely run by and for Komarrans, in their time-honored corporate tradition.

The Toscane family has come to especial prominence in the wake of the Barrayaran takeover of Komarr, which saw the fall of some families (most notably the Galens) and occasioned prosperity for those, like the Toscanes, willing to cooperate. The distinction between cooperation and collaboration, while disingenuous, appears to be useful for Komarran and Barrayaran alike at the time of the Vorkosigan Saga, some thirty years after the conquest:

The Toscane family had been notable cooperators after the conquest, hence their premier position today.

"But you can't," Miles maintained stoutly when the subject came up, "properly call them collaborators. I think that term ought to be reserved for those who cooperated before the Barrayaran invasion. No reflection upon the Toscanes' patriotism that they declined to embrace the scorched earth, or rather, scorched Komarr position of the later resistance. Quite the reverse." The Barrayaran invasion hadn't exactly been a win-win situation, but at least the cooperators had known how to cut their losses and go on. Now, a generation later, the success of the Toscane-led resurgent oligarchy demonstrated the validity of their reasoning.

And unlike Galeni, whose father Ser Galen had spent his life pursuing a futile Komarran revenge, the Toscane position had left Laisa with no embarrassing connections to live down. (Memory, ch. 5)

While the plausibility of widespread Komarran acquiescence to Barrayaran rule has been called into question by some readers of the series, nonetheless the novels present us with a Komarr largely reconciled -- in the interest of functionality -- to Barrayaran rule. The trend in Komarran-Barrayaran relations is strongly positive, fostered assiduously by Emperor Gregor Vorbarra and by his Regent before him. Said Regent has had personal interest in treating Komarr evenhandedly, as he's known throughout the galaxy as the Butcher of Komarr for a bloody incident that took place during a Komarran revolt. That being said, Komarr is not without its political dissidents, and native Komarran feeling is not positive toward Barrayarans who happen to be stationed on Komarr itself.

Positing an age of 29 for Laisa at the time of Memory would mean she had not yet been born at the time of the Barrayaran conquest. Her infancy and childhood would have coincided with the period of turmoil and painful adjustment immediately following the conquest. She is her parents' only child. Their concern for her safety would have been high.

As the leading proponents of cooperation with the Barrayaran regime, the Toscanes would have raised their daughter to share their pragmatic viewpoint, continually envisioning Komarr's position in a galactic context rather than restricted to a Komarr-Barrayar rivalry.

The reason for Barrayar's conquest of Komarr is the same reason settlers saw fit to colonize the relatively inhospitable planet in the first place: Komarr controls the only wormhole that offers access to Barrayar. The same wormhole was used by the empire of Cetaganda some 80 years prior to Memory for the invasion and conquest of Barrayar itself; after rooting out the Cetagandan occupation, Barrayar had logically to secure that wormhole, both to prevent itself from descending into a second Time of Isolation from the galaxy at large, and to prevent the possibility of future Cetagandan incursions.

As Miles reflects succinctly in a narrative infodump:

In another four hundred years, the terraforming on Komarr might begin to make it habitable for humans outdoors without breath masks. For now, the Komarrans lived all together in domed arcologies, as dependent upon their technology for survival against the choking chill as the Betans were on their screaming hot desert world. Komarr had never had a Time of Isolation, never been out of touch with the galactic mainstream. Indeed, it made its living fishing out of that stream, with its one vital natural resource —- six important wormhole jump points in close practical proximity to one another. The jumps had made Komarran local space a nexus crossroads, and eventually, unfortunately, a strategic target. Barrayar had exactly one wormhole jump route connecting it to the galactic nexus -— and it went through Komarr. If you did not hold your own gateway, those who did control it would own you.

(Memory, ch. 5)

Laisa is a child of that domed world, raised to accept its realities. Accepting Barrayaran rule is to her no more morally compromising than being sure to take an oxygen mask with her when on Komarr and leaving a dome.



Character PERSONALITY:

Laisa has a knack for socializing and networking. Her success in those areas owes much to her genuine friendliness. She sincerely enjoys making friends, cultivating acquaintances, spending time with people, learning about their cultures and their history. Her curiosity is not feigned. It would be silly to say that she isn't aware of the value of the connections she makes in high places, but I don't believe that is her primary concern as she establishes herself in Vorbarr Sultana. Rather, I believe that she's always had a strong sense of herself as a valuable connection for others to cultivate, being "one of those Toscanes". When she's dealing with people who have power or privilege, she's confident that she brings as much to the table as she stands to take away. She's never had to be a social climber or a breaker of glass ceilings. For Laisa, there was no ladder to climb, no ceiling to break. She's always known that failure is a possibility, and she's seen cautionary examples, but the misfortunes of the previous generation are a step removed from her immediate experience.

It's possible that, as described, she sounds too good to be true. In part, I think this could be an artifact of her purpose in the author's overall plan for the Vorkosiverse: Laisa will eventually marry the Barrayaran emperor and her marriage will be a living symbol of Barrayaran-Komarran unity; her husband's reign continues the strategy of diplomacy and social reform that began under the regency of Aral (and Cordelia) Vorkosigan, who were our hero Miles' parents and were the protagonists themselves of a couple of books in the series; Laisa, like Gregor, needs to be fundamentally a Good Person in order for the optimistic arc of the Vorkosigan series to work. More, I think she's been written to be what Gregor needs and what Gregor deserves; and as the author has put Gregor through quite a lot of trauma over the years, and as Gregor is a good person, of course he needs another good person to be his life partner. Being a good person is important in the Vorkosiverse.

But I don't think Laisa qualifies as a Mary Sue. She's good at what she does, and she tends toward the choices that the Vorkosiverse embraces as morally good, but she's not good at everything, not without a learning curve (see her adventures in Barrayaran etiquette, where the best Miles can say for Laisa is that she "never makes the same mistake twice"), and she's absolutely a product of her environment, with biases and blind spots to match. From the moment we (through Miles' skeptical POV) meet Laisa, she's presented as biased and willing to use rhetoric for the advancement of her cause -- and her cause, even when she's talking about the good of an entire planet, is of course inextricably bound up with what benefits Toscane Industries.

She provides a useful contrast to another Komarran character, Duv Galeni (born David Galen, scion of those Galens as Laisa is of those Toscanes), who had featured prominently in a couple of Vorkosigan Saga novels prior to Laisa's introduction into the series. Galeni's family lost everything in the invasion, and his father became an embittered terrorist. Galeni himself chose to assimilate fully into Barrayaran society, changed his name to a Barrayaran equivalent of the original, went to university on Barrayar and majored in Barrayaran history; he then became a professor of Barrayaran history -- only to leave academia when Barrayar began permitting non-natives into ImpSec (the Imperial intelligence corps, basically). At the time of Memory he's a well-established career officer in ImpSec, and being groomed to become the first Komarran head of Komarran Affairs. He's also attempting, rather rigidly, to court Laisa Toscane.

(Laisa thinks they're just friends. Galeni explains to Miles that he had an internal timetable for their courtship, and was waiting to declare his interest until they'd known each other six months.)

Laisa is everything Galeni is not, and vice versa, even down to their physical appearance: Galeni is tall, dark of hair and eye, and rather thin; Laisa is short, pale-skinned and fair-haired, and has been described variously as "plump", "zaftig" and (in A Civil Campaign) possessed of "a figure that made Miles, for one, just want to sort of fall over on top of her and burrow in for the winter." In temperament as in appearance, Galeni is austere, Laisa is generous. Galeni has made a career quite literally out of assimilating to Barrayaran society as much as possible. Laisa has made a career representing Komarran interests, and in the very heart of Barrayaran political power, where conformity might seem most prudent, she persists in retaining visible signifiers of Komarran identity. Most notable signifiers are her short hair (Barrayaran women wear theirs long) and her habit of wearing Komarran-style trousers and jacket on every occasion no matter how formal (Barrayaran women wear long skirts or dresses). Even Laisa's eventual wedding gown will turn out to have a silk jacket and a "split skirt."

Yet we never see her as combative in this insistence on Komarran fashion. Nor do we see her voice criticism of Barrayaran traditions -- mild surprise, or puzzlement, are the most negative reactions we see Laisa evince when confronted with Barrayaran peculiarities. Indeed, Laisa shares with Galeni a fascination with things Barrayaran, but unlike Galeni's interest, Laisa's seems less motivated by their Barrayaran origin than by their overall otherness. They appeal to her on an emotional level, as in this exchange regarding some antique furniture, of all things:

Laisa was gazing around with obvious fascination at the handmade antiques and subtly colored patterned carpets lining the corridor. Miles strolled along with her to study the elaborate and painstaking inlay on a polished tabletop, a scene of running horses in the natural hues of the various woods.

"It's all so very Barrayaran," she confided to Miles.

"Does it meet your expectations?"

"Indeed, yes. How old do you suppose that table is -— and what went through the mind of the craftsman who made it? Do you suppose he ever imagined us, imagining him?" Her sensitive-looking fingers ran over the polished surface, aromatic with fine scented wax, and she smiled.

"About two hundred years, and no, at a guess," said Miles.

"Hm." Her smile grew more pensive. "Some of our [Komarran] domes are over four hundred years old. And yet Barrayar seems older, even when it isn't. There is something intrinsically archaic about you, I think."

And, not long after:

"Intrinsically archaic seems so . . ." She dropped her voice to a secretive tone -— "intrinsically romantic. But don't tell Duv I said so. He's such a stickler for historical accuracy. The first thing he does is blow off all the fairy dust."

Miles grinned. "I'm not surprised. But I thought you were the practical businesswoman type, yourself."

Her smile grew more serious. "I'm a Komarran. I have to be. Without the value-added, from our trade, labor, transport, banking, and remanufacturing, Komarr would dwindle again to the desperate subsistence -— and less-than-subsistence -— level from which it rose. And seven out of ten of us would die, one way or another."

(Memory, ch. 5)

Yet note, there, Laisa brings these diffuse musings all back around to her reason for being on the planet, to her specific agenda. Laisa is ultimately task-oriented and driven, as Galeni is. They're the two sides of the Komarran coin, and the author does present them both in a very favorable light. Galeni's ordeals throughout the series often put him in a pivotal position to save or protect Komarran interests -- often, too, without hope of recognition for his efforts beyond the classified files of ImpSec.

Remarks on castmates: In this application round, two Vorkosigan Saga characters have already applied. Both are characters with whom Laisa interacts in canon. Ivan Vorpatril she shouldn't know very well at all, given the canon pull-point I've chosen, and she'll have no preconceptions regarding him. Gregor Vorbarra she knows better, and has been establishing something of a friendship with him ... at her canon pull-point. Gregor's and Ivan's pull-points are both considerably earlier than Laisa's. In Exsilium, they will not recognize her at all.

All three of us in the potential Vorkosigan cast have discussed this incongruity of pull-points and we're happy with it; we think it will be interesting and productive for future CR. Laisa is likely to be forthright with Gregor about his future endeavors and their future acquaintanceship. At her pull-point, they haven't yet become more than friends. She likes the Gregor of her time as a person, and as an intelligent person specifically; they enjoy one another's company a great deal; she'll see no reason why she should avoid his ten-years-younger Exsilium self. She won't out him as Emperor of Barrayar unless Gregor's player thinks that would be helpful in some way, and even then, it would not be a purposeful revelation.


» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON:

I think that given the choice, Laisa would request software. The handheld computers that the Initiative issues aren't on par with the comconsoles she's accustomed to work with, and I think that the kind of work she does has required her to use software capable of generating predictive models for business analysis. This kind of concept, in essence.

If the mods are OOCly comfortable granting this request for a weapon, the way the weapon would evolve would involve the software becoming more and more accurate, perhaps even programming different features into itself. Note that it would never become an artificial intelligence ("sentient weapon" notwithstanding), nor would she be inclined to personify it.

The software could be loaded onto her Initiative-issued tablet, or could come as part of a portable computer/device found in the armory if the mods think that the tablets wouldn't possess sufficient computing power to run it.

A second choice, if the above is too problematic and/or not plausibly available:

Laisa could request a stunner -- a less-than-lethal weapon that stuns the person targeted. She would be familiar with their use, but wouldn't make a practice of carrying one herself, hence she wouldn't have one in her inventory when she arrives. She knows herself well enough to doubt her ability to fire a lethal shot, hence the choice of stunner rather than nerve disruptor or other firearm.

Character INVENTORY:

At the time of being pulled into game, she's just returned from a lunch meeting with high-ranking Barrayaran officials. Therefore:

She is wearing a well-tailored suit and sensible but elegant shoes. On her wrist is a
She has with her a briefcase which contains:
- charts and reports that discuss Komarran shipping concerns and display projections for their future under various scenarios involving Barrayaran-imposed tariffs
- a portable PDA
- a somewhat dog-eared pocket guide to major landmarks and notable eateries in Vorbarr Sultana (you don't even want to see the marginalia)
- a small cosmetic kit with makeup for touch-ups as needed (powder, mascara, lipstick, clear nail polish to stop stocking runs) and a couple of other toiletries (handkerchief, toothbrush and floss, tampons). Basically, the sort of thing any businesswoman might carry just in case to a presentation where appearance matters.

» SAMPLES
First PERSON:

These apartments are surprisingly comfortable. After the briefing I was given on arrival, I might expect something more austere. The island is at war with a larger and more powerful enemy, after all. What's more, I understand there has also been aerial bombardment of this city, not too long ago.

Please don't mistake this for a complaint about the accommodations. Quite the contrary! I wonder why they're so uniformly luxurious.

Do you think this aesthetic represents the Initiative's tastes, or what they feel we'd want? What we have are these very blank white spaces to inhabit. (That's not a practical choice for billeting mercenaries, I could add. It won't wear well.) We're a heterogeneous group, to say the least. The extreme neutrality of our homes could simply be an attempt at pleasing the most people, and offending the fewest. Has anyone found the minimalism less than comforting?

How they see us will dictate how they treat us. I've heard there have been a few significant missteps along the way. They may need a clearer picture of the transport population in order to move forward. Not just the things we say we want, or the things we say we believe in. It's instructive to examine the way we actually live, and what we choose to surround ourselves.

That goes both ways. Have you ever been inside an Initiative citizen's home? What was it like?



Third PERSON:

It could be much worse. It could be Jackson's Whole, or a Cetagandan prison camp, or the hold of some ship bound for home with an objective calculated to profit no one at all.

Viewed through that pragmatic lens, the Initiative Hold has much to commend it. The word ransom has not been mentioned once. Nor have Laisa's parents been mentioned, nor her Aunt Anna, she of the two thousand planetary voting shares. In fact, Laisa is beginning to realize, the Initiative actually has no idea who the Toscanes are, or which of that family its 'transporter' has netted them.

A painfully earnest woman explains at length a story Laisa knows better than to dismiss as fantastical. They're a world at war; they're using technologies they don't fully understand, in the hope of outplaying their enemies the only way they know how. Laisa hasn't yet been given enough information to agree that there can be no bargaining with the United Earth, but she understands that the Initiative is unwilling to bargain with the United Earth, and that amounts to much the same result.

Laisa makes herself comfortable and simply absorbs the story. From time to time, she'll pose a neutral question, when she can get a word in edgewise. Eventually she lets the woman talk, as it appears to Laisa that her informant isn't equipped to handle such interruptions.

When the whole of it has been unpacked, or as much as the woman is able to share, Laisa leans forward across the desk, hands folded, chin lifted. She smiles warmly.

"Tell me how I can help you."


» ADDITIONAL NOTES
None I can think of!