#byerly vorrutyer

[unbizzarre]

Byerly Vorrutyer visiting Ivan’s apartment’s

I adore these two character’s interactions 🤭

Creation notes:

- finished the linework and got really worried I’d fuck it up when I painted it so I made a photocopy and painted that instead of the original copy which was drawn on watercolor paper… unfortunately printer paper is not the greatest paint absorber so apologies for the lumpiness.

- also idk I messed up drawing byerly’s outfit. The shirts details are pretty but a little off from what I was going for and somehow during painting the pants now look like harem pants. (Outfit was supposed to be an attempt at a barrayaran folk-style suit/vest with a cut blending early 1800s suit silhouettes with open sleeve folk shirts. It didn’t quite work out.)

Here’s linework and a bonus doodle of instant groats:

Examples of the Greek folk bolero’s I was going for :

Similar shaped jackets exist in Albanian / Bosnian / ottoman folk styles

[mouseinamushroomhouse]

VS character doodles

[thirdwifeofriversong]

if someone told me, last summer when i was reading shards of honor, that a VORRUTYER would be one of my favorite characters, i would’ve laughed in their face… but that was before i met dono

[vorkosigankinkmeme]

Sometime during A Civil Campaign Ekaterin decides that her mourning is clearly not acting as enough of a deterrent to marriage-hungry men, and asks Byerly (who she judges to be a. not really interested, b. up for some recreational lying, and c. not compelling in her any complex feelings she doesn't want to look at yet) to play at "covertly" courting her. Miles/Ekaterin endgame, with lots of Ekaterin&Byerly friendship. Optional Ivan/Byerly or Byerly/Ekaterin/Miles

thanks! always good to have more By. I've crossposted the prompt to ao3 as well.

[qwanderer]

By Vorrutyer is such a character tho

Like

Especially in contrast to Miles, from Ivan's perspective, because it's like, well yeah, if I have a cousin who just goes and gets into the most outlandish insane trouble and then shrugs it off as another day working for ImpSec, well, yeah, that's just how Miles is, but if my... old friend has a cousin who does the same, what the fuck? What the fuck, Byerly?

It kinda underscores how wild the whole concept is if you aren't already used to it.

[trellwords]

unless you play it good and right — 38,000 words, Ivan Vorpatril/Byerly Vorrutyer, post-CVA mutual pining fake dating ft. undercover ImpSec mission at a seaside casino resort.

“Um.” Ivan colored under By’s gaze. He was pretty sure that behind the dark glasses By was staring at him like he’d grown a second head. “It’s just—I usually bring girls here.”

In which there are an undercover surveillance job, an old enemy, and Byerly Vorrutyer’s broken heart.

[incorrectvorkosigan]

Ivan: For a long time that’s how I thought you people had sex, you know, just like, bashing your crotches against each other.

Byerly: Oh I know. I remember.

Ivan: Like you were born a perfect lover.

Byerly: No. I spent years honing my craft.

Ivan: Honing your boning.

Byerly: Indeed.

Ivan: And now you spend your nights hunting unwary straight boys, turning them like some gay were-creature…

Byerly: Don’t be silly. There’s no such thing…

Byerly: …as a straight boy.

[highladyluck]

Finally, someone asking thee question:

[trelldraws]

spotify | download

By didn’t make his living through charity. But he did make his living through a weird sort of loyalty. And, somewhere underneath the persiflage, camouflage, and just plain flage, he was high Vor of the highest…

A(n electropop & alt rock) fanmix for Byerly Vorrutyer, ImpSec informant.

[14 songs | 48 minutes]

Poker Face – Lady Gaga

You’re the Reason I’m Leaving – Franz Ferdinand

I Get Around – Dragonette

No You Girls – Franz Ferdinand

Look What You Made Me Do – Taylor Swift

Helpline Operator – The The

911 – Lady Gaga

Night Work – Scissor Sisters

Gossip – Night Club

Honest Feedback – Saint Motel

Freak Like Me – Night Club

The Spectator – The Bravery

On a Roll – Icona Pop

Talk Too Much – COIN

[elena1701a]

I hadn’t thought of this, but it seems entirely plausible.

Komarr/A Civil Campaign Spoiler

I just realized that the reason Byerly was ‘courting’ Ekaterin in ACC was because ImpSec wanted a set of eyes on her private dealings. They didn’t know that Miles would marry her so quickly and probably wanted a more controllable/neutral pair of eyes on her behavior.

Miles says during his conversation with Allegre that ImpSec was never happy that Ekaterin was involved without being part of any chain of command. And Allegre asks Miles not to talk to Ekaterin until after his analysts can “evaluate her place in this.” I always thought that this would be a desk jockey looking through information, but now I think it’s By nosing around to see if she’s talking to any of the Conservative party.

[unbizzarre]

Byerly Vorrutyer Character Designs

BYERLY VORRUTYER of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga

Tried to go for a rapidly-aging prettyboy with the gothic heavy lidded eyes (idk how to describe the eyes I’m talking about) and a face that reads as male while having something slightly feminine about it. A face that smiles often but is composed, cool. Slightly wavy black hair that is either shortish, chin length, or slightly shorter than shoulder length (I haven’t decided yet 😅)

Designing faces is not my strong suit so I am working backwards from a few references I like. Will probably simplify artstyle, slightly lengthen hair and mix with a dash of Professor Venom from OK KO (for that little bit of haggard twink energy) to creat the final design.

References:

Wardrobe:

Materials: silk, velvet, ruffles lace, detailed embroidery, military piping, sheer cloth, fur — echoes of beautiful luxurious handmade traditional artisan clothing- but all a little to gaudy and cheaply produced - the barrayaran aristocrat version of fast fashion. Androgynous and galactic styles occasionally thrown in to add to mystique

-SHIRTS: silk shirts // shirts with poofy or frilly sleeves // patterned shirts // sheer shirts // velvet shirts // shirts that are tucked in the pants but so unbuttoned the entire chest exposed

- SUITS: velvet suits that absolutely reek of cologne // sleezy yet sharp barreyaran style black suits you might smoke a cigar or play pool in // pastel suit for daytime garden parties

WARDROBE ACCENTS

- bigass fur coat - maybe even almost a midieval king robe

- several offensively knock off fast fashionmilitary style jackets

- luxuriously patterned bathrobe

- see through shawl / wrap / night robe thing

- some gaudy galactic style outfits

- a few sexy or frilly dresses to piss off the family

- a few a casual / slightly more subdued blend of komarran, barrayaran and practical galactic clothing he only really wears at home (stuff he wears when he’s not preforming for an audience). maybe some sentimental pieces. What’s hidden beneath the camouflage.

- some bling: rings and earrings. A few broaches and cuff links probably not that many necklaces

EDIT: here are some reference collages I put together! Note that these references aren’t the exact items that he would have in his closet but rather there are aspects to each piece that I would want to incorporate into his design. Maybe it’s the cut of a sleeve, the silhouette of a coat, the way a robe drapes, the embroidery pattern on some fabric, or the general partied-too-hard vibes of a particular photo of a model.

Bastardized military jackets:

Neglige options / heavier nightfrobe options:

Bigass fur coat:

Shirts (please ignore the long blue scarf in the central image like wtf is that- the rest of the suit is nice tho):

Party vibes:

A lot of these aspects would then be mixed with my own head cannon for the rules/cuts of barreyaran mens clothing (I went to a library and spent a stupid insane amount of time looking through books with midieval, 1800s and 1900s men’s fashions and France, Russia, and Greece- + additional books of traditional folk clothings and textile patterns + several other books of historic military uniforms…. The process and choices were so long that I had to give up and just stop thinking about any sort of vorkosigan related character design for a couple months cuz my head hurt. - I will probably make another post at some point with more annotated collages and possibly some of my own drawings synthesizing the concepts, but uh not right now because I need a nap just thinking about trying to organize it all.)

If you’d like to see a little more of vorkosigan universe costume imaginings here’s my Pinterest board on it (kinda) https://pin.it/2rOoHsq it’s a extremely disorganized and from early hyperfixation days so none of my fashion history research stuff is there (cuz that was all physical book stuff) but uh, you can look at it if you want.

P.S.

If you have any feedback or critiques on the design so far, or ideas for how you think By should look, let me know! I love hearing other people’s interpretations 😊.

Photos of faces you think look like By, pictures of outfits that feel Byerly-ish, or direct quotes from the books about his demeanor or appearance are also welcome!

@starfishlikestoread it’s been approximately a thousand years but I’m finally getting around to that Byerly fanart! Hope you enjoy 😅

[vorkosigankinkmeme]

Byerly Vorrutyer/Duv Galeni

Byerly tries to honeypot Duv.

don't think I've ever seen this pairing before, cool, thanks! I'll add it to ao3 as well.

[trellwords]

silence is golden (you’ve got my hopes up) — 9200 words, ivan vorpatril/byerly vorrutyer. truth drugs/aphrodisiac sex pollen filth + associated complications.

This wasn’t By’s usual flirtation, or even his usual needling. The panic in his eyes had been quite evident by the second sentence, like he knew he was going off-script but just couldn’t stop.

Byerly shows up drugged at Ivan’s flat. Things escalate from there.

[litcityblues]

'Captain Vorpatril's Alliance' --A Review

After reading so much of the Vorkosigan Saga, I should have had a little more faith in Lois McMaster Bujold, but I have to be honest: this one took awhile to really click for me and I'm not entirely sure why. Initially, I thought it was due to the lack of Miles in it-- but then the character of Ivan Vorpatril, here moving to center stage for his very own book, has always been present in the other books. Sometimes it's just a mention in passing, sometimes Miles has to rescue him from the clutches of the bad guys, but one way or another he always seems to be around.

The novel opens on Komarr, where Ivan is recruited by Byerly Vorrutyer who is undercover for ImpSec to find out the identity of a young woman named Tej who is connected- somehow to his investigation and whom Bylerly thinks may be in danger. Not wanting to compromise his cover, he drags Ivan into doing what Ivan is normally pretty good at flirting with women. But, Ivan might have met his match, because initially, she rejects him outright.

He is persistent though-- and that might be what kept this book from clicking at first, because despite the fact that Ivan's doing his best on behalf of Byerly, you as the reader, kind of squirm a little at the fact that he's following a random woman back to her apartment. Tej, however, invites him in-- not because she's taken leave of her senses or has succumbed to his charms, but to allow her and her companion to ambush Ivan, take him captive, and tie him to a chair.

Ivan spends the night tied to a chair but alerts the women to two men breaking into their apartment, after they stun the intruders, Ivan offers his own flat as a safe house for them and reluctantly, they agree. Ivan soon finds out that Tej and her friend (who is blue and named) Rish are refugees from Jackson's Whole, believed to be the last survivors of House Cordonah who had recently fallen to a hostile takeover from a rival house. (Emphasis on hostile.)

Unfortunately, this means that their enemies have placed a lucrative amount of money out on the market to retrieve any survivors. The men that broke into their apartment work the legal system on Komarr to accuse Ivan of kidnapping the two women and accuse Tej and Rish of illegally entering the planet and using local authorities show up at Ivan's door and start to break in. As the police force their way into the house, Ivan does the one thing he can think of to resolve the situation: he marries Tej and hires Rish as her employee.

After disentangling them from their local legal troubles and realizing that Barrayar would be more secure for both women and provide a greater degree of protection from bounty hunters, being further away from the galactic core, they all head back to Barrayar. Back in Barrayar, Ivan and Tej decide that their marriage is one of convenience and soon as she and Rish figure out their next move (possibly to the planet Escobar where her brother might be), they'll get a divorce. Ivan introduces Tej to his family-- stopping by to meet Miles and Ekaterin, Duv Galeni and Delia, even the Emperor himself before the biggest test of all, Lady Alys and Simon Illyan.

Everyone is.. amused. Ivan has finally gotten married and even though he insists that it's only temporary, everyone seems to be in on some kind of inner joke, except Count Falco Vorpatril, who is not at all amused at Ivan for treating the idea of marriage and it's associated vows so lightly and refuses to grant them a divorce.

That wrinkle in their plans is further complicated by the arrival of Tej's entire family, who managed to escape. While Tej is happy to see her family, it turns out that they have other motives for their arrival. Tej's grandmother, a former haut lady from Cetaganda, knows of an underground bunker forgotten after the Cetagandans had been driven off Barrayar a century before-- the family hopes to find it and use the funds to launch an attempt to restore their house.

As the plotting begins, Tej begins to resent the overbearing presence of her family and starts wondering if life with Ivan might not be so bad after all, because at least, it would be hers. Ivan begins to develop feelings for her as well but manages to get drawn into the heist which goes awry, leaving them trapped in the bunker awaiting rescue. There, they confess their feelings for each other and after being rescued, Tej's family agrees to be Barrayar's covert friend in Jackson's Whole and heads home to start their reclamation process. Ivan is posted to the distant planet of Ylla and Tej goes with him and they both end the book reading letters from home on a glorious, tropical afternoon, planning their future together.

Once this novel got going-- I think probably around the point when Ivan decided to marry Tej on the fly, this one completely flipped for me. It was sort of rough going at first. We were seeing Tej's POV, then Ivan's and it just wasn't clicking the way other books in the series had (though to be fair, Komarr introduces shifting POVs between Miles and Ekaterin, so it's not a radical departure for the series.) In the end, though, much like Ivan with a variety of women over the course of the series, it charms you. It's charming because it works. The relationship between Tej and Ivan never feels forced. There's an undercurrent of 'boy wonder finally meets the right person and grows up' to all of this that really showcases Ivan not being dragged kicking and screaming into growing up and having a serious relationship for the first time, but choosing too.

Overall: I love this series. I love these books. I have yet to read one that I haven't liked. I love these characters. I feel like The Vorkosigan Saga seems to be fly under the radar a little bit, but it probably shouldn't. My Grade: **** out of ****

[leojurand]

oh byerly vorrutyer is here and i already like him a lot

[sparklyandhaunted]

But that had been different. There were ... rules for breaking rules, and Lady Donna had known how to break rules with style and flair. Lord Dono was trying to follow the rules.

Technically speaking, if you were following the rules, you didn’t invite young ladies to your home without inviting one of your older female relatives along; but the Vorrutyers were a short-lived clan, and Dono had no older female relatives left unless you counted his ex-aunt, who didn’t actually talk to people any more. (Byerly had offered to stand in for his mother, and had then challenged Dono to explain exactly why he didn’t qualify as a suitable chaperone. Dono attempted to explain that proper chaperones a) weren’t male; b) didn’t have shadier reputations than the men they were supposed to be protecting the young ladies from; c) didn’t say things like “Well, if she doesn’t go for you, can I have second dibs, because I’ve always been partial to blondes?”; and d) when treated to a full, Betan-gender-theory-inflected lecture on the inappropriateness of objectifying women, didn’t reply, “All right, I’ll just objectify Ivan then, since you’re definitely through with him.”

- We're All Mad Here by a_t_rain