Honorverse favorite passages

hanuman wrote:

roseandheather wrote:Here. Have a relief from all the gut-wrenching sadness around here.

...Medusa pursed her lips, thinking for several moments. Then—

“Should I assume Lady Gold Peak sent a recommendation along with her report?”

“She did, Madame Governor.”

“And you’re not going to tell me what it was unless I pull it out of you with a pair of pliers, right?”

Shadow of Freedom

In which Dame Estelle and Khumalo flirt up a storm show us all just how far their relationship has come over the past couple of years.

:sigh:

roseandheather wrote:Whaaaaaaat??

hanuman wrote:

roseandheather wrote:Whaaaaaaat??

Nothing, Rosie Dearest, nothing at all to do with your relentless (and quite scary) passion for Dame Estelle & Augustus Khumalo.

hanuman wrote:Hey, are you well? You haven't been around for a few days.

She'd never really considered it before she was pitchforked into the steadholdership, but once she'd come face-to-face with her role as one of Grayson's autocratic Keys she'd recognized the true reason she'd always disliked politics. She'd been trained all her life to seek decision, to identify objectives and do whatever it took to attain them, knowing that any hesitation would only cost more lives in the end. The politician's constant need to rethink positions and seek compromise was foreign to her, and she suspected it would be to most military officers. Politicos were trained to think in those terms, to cultivate less-than-perfect consensuses and accept partial victories, and it was more than mere pragmatism. It also precluded despotism, but people who fought wars preferred direct, decisive solutions to problems, and a Queen's officer dared settle only for victory. Gray issues made warriors uncomfortable, and half-victories usually meant they'd let people die for too little, which undoubtedly explained their taste for autocratic systems under which people did what they were told to do without argument.

And, she thought wryly, it also explained why military people, however noble their motives, made such a botch of things when they seized political power in a society with nonautocratic traditions. They didn't know how to make the machine work properly, which meant, all too often, that they wound up smashing it in pure frustration.

roseandheather wrote:Yes, yes, I'm fine. I spent most of yesterday *dramatic shudder* packing. My room looks like my closet lost its cookies. At this point I want to feed it ginger ale and saltines and put it to bed if it would make my room uncluttered again!

hanuman wrote:

roseandheather wrote:Yes, yes, I'm fine. I spent most of yesterday *dramatic shudder* packing. My room looks like my closet lost its cookies. At this point I want to feed it ginger ale and saltines and put it to bed if it would make my room uncluttered again!

I'm going to be very sexist now and say that only a woman would turn packing (for what, btw?) into a military operation, complete with strategy, tactical boards, reconnaissance, logistics chain and boot camp. :sigh:

hanuman wrote:And before anyone bites my head of, THAT is the complete and utter truth. I've never known a woman who doesn't behave like that, or for that matter, a man who does, wrt packing. Every man I have ever known figures that a couple of pairs of underwear, a few pairs of not-too-threadbare socks and a few changes of clothing are sufficient.

Aikawa [Kagiyama]... cocked his head as he saw a small, slender woman moving across the floor towards them. She wore the elegantly tailored trousers and jacket of formal Manticoran court dress, and the crowd of Spindalians and off-planet diplomats stepped aside to let her pass. It didn't look as if they even realized they were doing it; it was simply an inevitable law of nature.

"Is that who I think it is?" he asked quietly.

"Of course not. It's the Pope," [Helen] replied sarcastically from the corner of her mouth.

dreamrider wrote:

hanuman wrote:Personally, I don't hold with that nonsense that a show of emotion is a sign of weakness. The opposite is true: it takes a real strong and confident person to expose their feelings that way...

Its a practical thing, inherited from our forebears.

"Too many tears for papa make spearstroke miss sabertooth cornering Wagh." <grin>

"Also make pummeling Wagh for falling asleep on watch lose gravitas."

dreamrider

hanuman wrote:Hot coffee burns, dammit. Especially when you snort it through your nose

You're a funny one, that's for sure.

hanuman wrote:
I'm going to be very sexist now and say that only a woman would turn packing (for what, btw?) into a military operation, complete with strategy, tactical boards, reconnaissance, logistics chain and boot camp. :sigh:

And before anyone bites my head of, THAT is the complete and utter truth. I've never known a woman who doesn't behave like that, or for that matter, a man who does, wrt packing. Every man I have ever known figures that a couple of pairs of underwear, a few pairs of not-too-threadbare socks and a few changes of clothing are sufficient.

Tenshinai wrote:And my friend who is currently doing a walkabout on Greenland, heh, he´s the kind who saws a toothbrush in half just to shave a few grams off the total weight.