( 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]

A thoughtful sound, as she begins to head for the door to the benches where clothes and further belongings are kept, water still rolling off her skin.

"You weren't concerned with the state of my hair last we met," Magni replies. "Perhaps better light makes me more wanting of improvements."

[shri]

Her mouth shuts with a snap, a muscle standing out hard against her skin as her jaw clenches briefly. Working out something tense in herself, in this scenario, in what she deserves for not being more careful in her choices.

"No." And she looks at her, plain and digging and as open as she had been. "You are to me, as you were then."

[villieldr]

She turns, then. Looks to Lakshmi intently, eagle-sharp. The geometric tattoos, black lines and shapes that are feathers and talons and extend across her skin, shine with the lingering water on her skin. Faint dapples of purple and red where blood vessels had blossomed over her skin under mouth and teeth stand out against the paleness of her, the scar across her throat stark and gnarled.

Convenient? part of her wants to ask, before immediately dismissing it as unfair. Now a convenient smith, instead of a convenient source of pleasure. Truth was that they had enjoyed each other and the parting of ways was neither a surprise, nor unusual. That it had faintly stung to wake alone was strange to Magni herself, and a matter she could perhaps put down to pride.

For long moments, she just looks, studies.

"And you, saawariya."

[shri]

She knows better than this, she knows that there is no place for the admittance of herself. Her hands stilling in their movements on her leg, her knee lifted to her chin in the only shield she had against things that had no substance yet struck as sure as arrows. Holding her gaze until she cannot stand it. Until it will surely pull something out of her mouth, the curve of brittle, broken limbs. But she has never looked away from anything, not even when it would have been kinder to do so.

They could have dignity over this. Or rather, she would not give in to what she wanted, how one so slight a word, said just so, could claw at herself. She would not be a contradictory lover falling over herself for the softness of affection she wanted at times so deeply ( had, is the vivid memory, warm, pressing her down, soft at her mouth, sure at her fingers ). When she lets her edge fade, her eyes lowering, at last, in a nod of her head that is acknowledgement for that which has no words. Or perhaps, that she had said the only honest name she had given to the moment, and the least she can do for leaving as she had, was acknowledge it. A reminder that stung like swallowing fire.

"I will see you soon, I am sure."

[villieldr]

A little raising of the notebook might be communication enough - when I have news, when I have questions. A prototype would be necessary, and the testing of it to make sure that the metal was just right for the use. It would be a lie to say that she did not look forward to seeing such an unusual weapon in action.

Standing here will do little good, and she has other matters to see to, which do not involve looking at someone so intently as she knows she looks at Lakshmi. Fascination with queens had not lead anyone to good ends, she was sure. And if it had lead to them, they probably weren't rifter queens. The line of jaw and neck, the sweep of thigh and the curve of back; these were memories only, not invitations.

Without a further word, Magni nods, and leaves.