( closed ) don't go chasing waterfalls

[villieldr]

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. )

Comments

[villieldr]

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.

[shri]

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."

[villieldr]

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.

[shri]

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.

[villieldr]

"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."

[shri]

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.

[villieldr]

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.

[shri]

"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.

[villieldr]

"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."

[shri]

"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."

[villieldr]

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.

[shri]

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."

[villieldr]

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?"

[shri]

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.

[villieldr]

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.

[shri]

She was asking for it, wasn't she?

Which isn't much of a consolation as she realises what's about to happen, and promptly does. Yanked under the water with a shocked noise that is drowned in the splash of water. Immediately trying to work her way free - oh no you don't.

[villieldr]

Lakshmi is quick, strong and controlled from what Magni remembers. The thing is, Magni is also very strong, and her arms catch around Lakshmi's waist and scoop her into a somewhat absurd bridal carry, as she bursts over the surface of the water, and braces.

"Rinsing?" She offers, helpfully, her hair clinging to her neck and her shoulders.

[shri]

This was not - what she expected. ( But that isn't not unenjoyed, is an utterly different problem ). Her hands reach up to grip tightly to her shoulder, coughing up the water she'd briefly swallowed. They'd been something like this, before, hadn't they?

But they were both grown, and things done in the dark didn't have any sway right now, they couldn't. Magni deserved better than a liar and a wanted criminal and a vicious mouthed Queen.

( It will have to do, to privately enjoy the way she holds her, even now. )

Rather she fixes with a solid challenge and uses where her hands grip to push her body up, firmly pressing down on Magni's shoulders. "Rinsing." She responds. Snatching for one of the buckets floating nearby - sweeping it through the water to fill it, and lifting it to dump it over Magni's head.

[villieldr]

She doesn't have quite enough time to say "hm?" before she is spluttering under the rush of water, and compliantly, helpfully, drops Lakshmi like a sack of potatoes.

"Rinsing," she echoes, with a shrug, as she starts to take some steps towards the edge of the bath, and wrings her hair between her hands to dry it.

[shri]

She splashes back down into the water like a lead weight. Catching herself as quickly as she could. Pushing her feet against the floor of the bath to balance again. Laughing richly for it, "I wasn't done. The oil is richer than that. Scratch your nails against your scalp and shake it about."

It was frankly a dangerous thing to invite her closer again - so she refrains from that for the moment.

[villieldr]

Looking over her shoulder, Magni has one eyebrow raised, before she takes a couple of steps back and cooperatively sinks below the water. Her hair billows out, and she rubs her fingers through her hair, gently scrubbing her scalp. She's down there easily for a minute, just easing her fingers through, before she emerges again.

She casts Lakshmi a questioning look - enough?

[shri]

No, not quite, and there is nothing for it, then and she steps forward, crooking her finger. Come here. She'll show, then. That ought to not be too much, and there is a comfort even to it. Sharing something practical to herself. To who she might be, when she is not lying through her teeth to the other woman.

"Down. You are far too tall."

[villieldr]

The gesture if somewhat familiar, vaguely enticing, and Magni considers for a few drawn out moments before nodding and complying.

Although—

"Short people often think so."

[shri]

Her eyebrows lift, head quirking - oh really?

"Mm, but it certainly makes us skilled in putting those taller on their knees." It's dry, slipped out more teasing than she probably has the right to be after ... well, everything. But she leans in, threading her fingers against into Magni's hair. Different, she makes sure, not intimate. Merely firm, sure. Soldiers fingers, that she begins working in tight circles from the front of her hair backwards. Not scraping harshly, but working in a particular pattern that is something just the pads of her fingers, sometimes her short cut nails on skin. Stopping only around her ears, following the curve of them.

[villieldr]

That gets a look. Not just a look, no, that specifically justifies the italics.

Magni doesn't need to bite her tongue, because her brows raise as well, and her mouth quirks with a smile, and they say quite enough on their own. Euphemisms and references are implied.

But, she behaves, complies, and tilts her head back to make it easier.