faderift | ( closed ) don't go chasing waterfalls

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( closed ) don't go chasing waterfalls

WHO: Lakshmi and Magni
WHAT: fancy meeting you here
WHEN: i have commitment issues
WHERE: the Gallows
NOTES: nudity, idk

( A long day at the forge, and her skin feels leathery with sweat and grime. It will be better after bathing, softened and human instead of its current state, which leading her to suspect that she could be reasonably mistaken as some sort of oddly shaped wyvern. Soot is smeared across her neck, jaw and cheek from thoughtlessly touching her face, or pushing her hair out of her eyes when her braid was in need of re-doing. In the Gallows, with these baths present, this is an indulgence she allows herself daily, soaking away the battering done to her muscles as much as the dirt clinging to her skin.

She has been in the bath only a short while, and slowly sinks below the surface, savouring the feeling of hot water rising over her skin until she is completely covered.

Holding her breath, Magni stays submerged for long moments. An old habit from childhood, disappearing into mountain rivers and competing to see how long she could hold her breath. Thirty seconds, a minute, and she is comfortable. A pleasant mental exercise, simply being in the space and enjoying it. Two minutes, three. This is something she does often, still, and eases the tension from her. Four minutes, pushing into five and then six—

before she feels the searing burn in her lungs. She will need to keep practicing to get to long, bursting back above the surface. )

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Magni makes a quiet, thoughtful sound, as she keeps writing. "So the grip... should not be..."

She is thinking, and when she is thinking she doesn't care for speaking, moreso than usual. Speaking can lead to as many miscommunications as not speaking, perhaps more. She prefers to listen. It is the matter of her brain moving from through to thought as swiftly as a darting sparrow that leads her to neglect verbal offerings this time, instead gesturing with one fist alongside and over the other, as though grasping the hilt of a two-handed blade.

A shorter grip, for a weapon of swiftness and precision. A longer blade might disrupt the fluidity and balance.

Water threatens to roll down her arm from her hair, and she makes a sound of quiet displeasure; sets the towel down so the paper and pencil can rest someplace dry, as she retrieves the leather string she had been using for her hair and ties it up with literal consideration for the good of her hair, and as soon as that is done, goes back to sketching.

She lets her work with no interruption. Her quiet to herself. After all, she had come here to bathe. Taking the moment to dunk her head under the water backwards, scratching at her scalp with her short nails to shift the sweat from the day's work. Feeling the oil soften her skin, releasing old aches, even if she'd never quite been able to breath as deeply after that all too fatal shot, it at least loosened it all enough to not hurt so much.

Its when she's done, and sees Magni reaching to tie her hair back that Lakshmi clicks her tongue, a brief shake of her head. "Let me." if they are both moving in from this, then it meant nothing but being helpful.

The clicking tongue gets her attention, and she looks towards Manu, bemused, eyebrow quirked. Am I a horse on the lunge? she almost asks, instead entrusting her expression to convey the amusement and faint incredulity.

Her hand falls from her hair - still partially braided, tangled from said braiding. The sweat of the day's labour has been washed away, but the brutal effect of the forge's heat baking her hair through the day leaves it far too dry and ready to tangle at the slightest thing.

Her focus turns back to the sketch. "Is the edge hooked or serrated?" She assumes not, assumes it would be smooth as a standard blade, but assumptions in this could be foolish.

"More a like a stiletto blade." is the response as she pulls herself out of the water. The water running down her body as she did. Letting it drip a moment to track as little as possible.

But mostly sodden anyway, she moved around to kneel behind her - and it takes no more than a brush before she realises how miserable her hair is. What a mess. She touches it briefly, feels it's dried out tangle and admonishes soft in Hindi. She certainly hadn't noticed it before, but there was a dozen things to notice before.

She reaches for the oil, slathering it over her fingers, and for the wide toothed comb. "What did you do?" and despite the clipped words, her fingers are nothing but gentle as she begins to pick apart the braid.

She might not understand the word, but she does understand the tone, and looks over her shoulder very slightly.

"What did I do?" Quiet, prompting, because she thinks Manu is talking about her hair, and yet... her hair isn't that bad.

(It is. It really is.)

"You sound horrified, Manu."

"I have seen rats keep neater nests than this."

Its a grumble, fussing almost as she begins to pick it apart. Then once the braid is loose - the leather tie wrapped around her wrist for safe keeping - she loosens it with a shake of her fingers against her hair. Shifting it in brief motions.

"Do you do nothing for it?" admonishing, she reaches for the oil, letting it drip into her palm with the thick smell of jasmine and lilies. Maybe not as great as her home but pleasant enough. Once it's coated, she begins again against her hair. But this time, smoothing through it, soaking it through with the oil. No doubt, she'd smell it for days after this. But at leaat it would soften it some.

A quiet sound of surprise. "Is Torvald not in there? He's very houseproud."

So flat and even and serious, though a slight smile plays at the corner of her mouth, Magni making no particular effort to rein it in. Even less effort is directed towards such a notion when the scent of florals catches her attention. She closes her eyes for a moments, inhales, remembers - the scent ignites the scratch of nails down her back, and the taste of salt on her tongue, flesh under her teeth.

Focus. "Doing anything for it will be little good. I remain in the forge."

She doesn't do anything so much as squeal - in disgust, but she does freeze.

No, there was not rat. She was teasing and Lakshmi tugs at her ear in a playful pull. don't you dare. No rat, she instead keeps going. Until the hair is loose to a point she can thinks she can put a brush to it.

She starts at the bottom. A woman with so much hair knows to work through knots. So it's small, as she begins, still remarkably gentle. Little, small gestures. Working the knots out, from the end up. It might take a little but - she could hardly leave it like this.

"You ought to, if you do not want to snap off from being so dry."

The ear pull is accepted, deserved repercussions, though she uses the blunt end of her pencil to gently tap Manu's knee.

"He must be looking for cheese," she concludes, and proceeds to write cheese for Torvald in her notes. How certain is the fair lady that there is no rat?

And then she makes a quiet sound of acknowledgement, continuing her sketching as she tries to grasp how this weapon will work. She should do something, yes. "I do not have time."

This time, it is the paper that is tapped. Work is more important. Work is what she is good at.

erg. her noes crinkles. How utterly dreadful a thought. She had no love of the thinga even when she had luxuries a plenty. But there was a particular hatred of them now that she'd had since Whitechapel, the damn awful things. Always in the floor and roof.

"You have time here. A few moments when you brush it out is surely not so much." though it hadn't stopped her taking it by fistfuls in the shudder and sprawl of their bodies.

On the plus side, there is no rat.

On the negative side, she can't guarantee the Gallows is entirely free of rats. If she felt eagles and hawks were meant to be pets - which she does not - she might consider it an opportunity for hunting.

Another quiet sounds. Magni wiggles her fingers, demonstrative, and rakes them through the ends of her hair. It snatches at one point, and she goes to just pull it through, with a sound of inconvenience.

Before she can get too far, she gets a firm, square rap on the knuckles with the back of the wooden comb. "Then you best find me again when you cannot loosen it again."

She chases the hand off before it can ruin her good work. A shift forward, as she realises she might be here for a little longer than she thought. Settling comfortably forward, closer to her. Falling silent for awhile as she works out the hair, section by section.

Then, "Lakshmi. My name is Lakshmi. I have you another... Earlier."

Finally, Magni actually stops what she's doing, turns around enough to look at Manu. Not Manu, though— Lakshmi. A sharp flick of her hand, to catch Lakshmi's wrist, if she can, and still the hand seeing to her hair.)

The sharp gaze flickers, a study of her face. Briefly lingers at her mouth, but focused on her eyes more than anything else, leaning in very slightly to look at them carefully, intently.

"Lakshmi." A slight smile - very slight. Guarded and curious in the same moment. "I am still Magni." She tilts her head a little to the side. "This new name... less sweetened on my tongue."

So far.

She stills, tense and holding, as the hand finds her wrist. Not so much because she finds Magni a threat. But it is the reaction she has to suddenness as much as silence.

Holds, again then, as she speaks, as she looks. Or rather, it seems, she inspects. What she'd find is the same and different. As proud and as bare as she had been before. Because that ran deeper than skin, then the trappings of her body. It was bone and blood. It was soul and dust and ash.

A thin breath, a place between she had indulged in for the night but - "Nor will it, I suspect. For it is the name of Rani Lakshmi Bai. The Queen of Jhansi."

Firm, and she hopes an understanding. It was pleasant, to be Manu again for awhile. More than pleasant, tongue and teeth and a freedom to do nothing else but put away her concerns, the creeping sense of hopelessness, to be no more than Manu again.

But it was never the whole of her. Never what she was.

"Rani Lakshmi Bai, Queen of Jhansi." Her voice scratches over it, a little, and she smiles—

Not widely, or toothily. The smile is small, but it is warm, as she releases the wrist slowly, gently, and holds out her hand in offering instead. Varmas had always impressed on her the importance of proper introductions. This made things a little more interesting. "Good to meet you."

As close as they are, it is easy to remember heels digging into her back, and the scratches that have left their marks on her even now. Even before Manu laid out her full name, repositioned herself as a queen rather than a woman of some liberty, she had no intention of making eyes, leering, being obnoxious with craving attention. Now it was to be firmly set aside.

"I hope you think the weapons I craft worthy of a queen."

Her hand retreats, (the feeling of fingers warm and brand like), settling back to her work. Taking up the comb once more. How rarely she let anyone near and it comes as a sudden thing, to want it half as much. All past intimacy like a note hanging in the air.

"If you make a blade worthy of any good soldier, then it is a blade worthy of me."

She will never call herself less than what she is, but she will never ask for more than that. Titles meant the effort put into them. No more, no less.

"No warrior can ask for more than that." her eyes slide away, a little clearing of her throat. Back to work and this mess of hair.

Magni makes a quiet sound of approval, and turns back to her notes, adding notes about steel, ideas on how to work it. Making it sufficiently flexible but keeping it strong and effective will be the challenge, and she anticipates a few test rounds.

"No warrior can ask for equal care to my hair and my work," she replies, barely audible. Not really mutinous, so much as priorities, tho. It's not like she's protesting the attention, but it is sort of funny.

And the closeness, that isn't funny, it's just invoking certain temptations that need to be set aside. She has not problem with being the one-time secret indulgence of a Queen who does not wish to acknowledge the event, she doesn't have the delicate ego demanding validation. She does mind having thought of renewing those affections (if you will) surfacing in her mind and supplying enticing imagery, when it is neither appropriate, nor a matter of interest to the other party.

"This one does." It's laughed. Because of she laughs, if she keeps the rest, that shared heat, at an arm's length. Then it will be easier for both of them, surely.

She gets closer only to pull at this section. Letting them both work in relative peace for a few moments more. Her breath slow, distracted only with soft tsks and clicks when she snags on a particular curl of hair. Through her fingers are still light, still careful, even when they reach to her scalp. Running blunt nails against her skin, her back, as she cards through it alternate to the brush. Bit by bit.

"At least once I am done, if you put a brush through it once a day, it should not snare, and the oil should soften it to not be so brittle." Europeans always had such fine light hair. By contrast her own was thick, waved only at the ends from the sheer weight of how much of it there was. She ought to cut it.

A sigh, a warm puff of breath against her shoulder. "I can find you something less sweet, to put in it when you bath. It will stop it becoming so unmanageable." By less sweet, she means less floral.

"Perhaps that is the opinion of the queen, and not the warrior." Teasing, very quietly teasing, and spoken barely over her breath as she keeps working.

That said, once the attention changes from the disentangling to the massage of nails against scalp, Magni can't quite help leaning back into the touch, making a quiet, content sound at the sensation.

"If that pleases you, then I will see it done."

"I ought to skin you for that." She's still laughing, but her work brushing out the knots, at long last, is done. Lakshmi leans back - pleased with her work. Enough that selfishly, she just enjoys running through it.

At least until Magni speaks, and it flushes through her skin. No, no, no business in thinking that way. Detangles herself, her work done. Indulgence she knew better over as she pushes away again. Letting her body slip back into the water. Down over her shoulders again. "When you are done, I will show you how to rinse it."

Lakshmi disappears back to the water, and for a moment she misses the contact, the warmth lingering at her back, though she continues making notes.

"I know how to rinse," she replies, a little dry. How to rinse, please. Dunking herself under the water can't be that challenging. Turning the notebook around, she shows the pages she has been sketching on, a silent request to see which of the sketches she has done look the most correct.

She wades forward when the images are presented to her. The looping drawings that she scans over with a frank gaze - all business. Then after a moment's consideration - she reaches for the pencil from her - not wanting to touch the paper with her wet hands after all - to circle the one most similar to the blade she knows. "That one."

Giving the pencil back, she sinks back down into the water, waving her arms in the water to buoy her in the water. This perhaps was not quite like swimming in the rivers that were so sacred to her life, central to her childhood - but it was nearer than anything she could have in England. "And the state of your hair says you do not. Come. It will not hurt, I promise."

If she were the ridiculous type, and if Lakshmi were still on the edge of the bath, Magni would pick her up, toss her over her shoulder, and leap into the middle of the bath as retaliation.

If the bath were deep enough for that not to endanger them both. There are too many ifs, however, and thus the consideration has to be set aside.

Instead, she moves to set the notebook safely out of danger of the water, and scoots forward to move back into the warm of the bath. "Do you think me afraid?"

And in sureness, Lakshmi looks sharp, teasing, moving a step back further in. Luring her closer, closer, closer. "Most would warn you to be, after all, am I not called a spirit and a demon by so many here?"

It's laughing, head tossed back, proudly vibrant. If she can't laugh at least sometimes, what good was it all anyway.

Is that how it will be?

Magni stops, does not pursue another step, but looks at Lakshmi with her head canted to the side, stays still for a long moment, and then dives under the water. Deep, not very easy to see in the light, and it is with alarming speed that she grabs Lakshmi's ankles and pulls her under the water.

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