"Probably. Although given how startling he finds the concept of - friendly physical contact - I'm not sure it was a significant degree."

"The concept, or the practice, though?"

"I was getting at something like - the first-person apprehension of the phenomenon more than either of those per se."

"Hmm." He falls into a contemplative silence.

Braid braid braid. She's trying to give her hands something to do, not get a pretty result. She drops it, untied, when she reaches the ends of her hair and shuts her eyes. "I am so bored."

"Me too. We could name some more little Vorkosigans to pass the time," he suggests.

"Right. What's Ninon's middle name, hm?"

"Hmm, girl's names... Axia, Akilina, Arisha, Olya, Rada, Sura, Rosal, Petya, Teka, Inna, Zina, Tsila, Varya, Coralie, Tamsin, Sandrine, Soraya, Luva, Yana, Esfir, Kira, Davina... I'm not filtering these by any kind of aesthetic preference, I'm just listing everything that springs to mind. And I keep gravitating back to two-syllable probably-Russian-derived names ending in A. There are rather a lot of them, it turns out."

"I like a lot of those. Especially Petya and Teka and Tamsin and Davina. Well, aesthetically, anyway," she says, glancing at the light fixture when she mentions "Davina".

"Tamsin's quite nice. It might be worth a first-name slot all by itself. I can always come up with more... Stasya, there I go again... Amarante? Edmee? Camille? Chantal? Eloise? Elaine? Licienne? There, now I'm on probably-French-derived names mostly ending in a silent E, that's new and different."

"Amarante's nice. Ninon Amarante flows really nicely. Ninon Amarante and Tamsin - Stasya? Tamsin Petya?"

"Ninon Amarante is lovely. Tamsin seems harder to find a middle name for... let's see what happens when I pair it up with as many of the other options as I remember. Tamsin Axia, Tamsin Rada, Tamsin Rosal, Tamsin Luva, Tamsin Soraya, Tamsin Esfir, Tamsin Davina, Tamsin Chantal, Tamsin Elaine, Tamsin Eloise... none of those are running away with me, but they're mostly decent. I seem to be fond of the ones that end in consonants. Rosal, Esfir, Chantal. Should I generate another list and see if any of them work better?"

"I think Tamsin Rosal works well, but if you don't like it, sure."

"Tamsin Rosal is pretty nice. It has rhythm."

"Aral Adri Vorkosigan, Tamsin Rosal Vorkosigan, Ninon Amarante Vorkosigan - aaand Something Antoly. Hmmm."

"What order do we want them in? Boy-girl-boy-girl seems simple. I think we considered Casmir Antoly and Loren Antoly... still can't decide."

"Boy-girl-boy-girl seems good to me, if we decide we want that many, maybe Adri'll be a pint-sized terror, one thing that is known not to reliably carry to half-haut children is the part where we're nice calm babies... Well, if we can't pick between those names let's think of something we like better than either."

"Sure," he says gamely. "Hmm... Ilari Antoly, Berin Antoly - Byron Antoly? - Valentin Antoly, Vincent Antoly... Rav Antoly... I have to say, Loren and Casmir are still beating most of these. Hm. Kir Antoly? Kiril Antoly? Isay Antoly? Makari Antoly? Terenti Antoly? Elya Antoly? Lias Antoly?"

"Kir's good. Makari's not bad either, but doesn't work as well with Antoly, I think."

"I like Elya, but Elya Antoly sounds a little odd. Casmir Antoly, Loren Antoly, Kir Antoly, Elya Antoly, Lias Antoly. My options have multiplied, not narrowed. Help."

"Kir's my favorite."

"I'm not sure it's mine. I'm being indecisive again. It's very unusual."

"I'd make a joke about it being out of character but I don't think it would be funny."

"No, probably not." He snorts. "Maybe I'll ask Mark for an opinion next time he interrogates me."

"That'd be almost cute." She pauses. "Does the name tradition thing apply to everyone? If Mark has kids one day and decides to abide by the tradition does his firstborn son get named Aral Something too?"