04 | CLOSED

[shri]

WHO: Lakshmi Bai & Wren, Herian, Thranduil, Araceli, Ioverth, Kitty, Solas and Teren - ( Also: Flint & Vane )
WHAT: Telling Some Whole Truths.
WHEN: Post-Fade Adventures, some time after her house arrest.
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: Probably really extra.

She sends them just the one note:

I require your presence, together this evening, for a matter of serious urgency in regards to the Inquisition.

महारानी,
Lakshmi Bai

Comments

BIG GROUP

[shri]

— Which she supposes is an ominous enough note in regards to the whole situation that they should come. Completely unhelpful as it was otherwise. The rest... well, that is just a matter of waiting for them, for her to explain, and her self-enforced seclusion to be over with.

She sits on the edge of her bed as they arrive, the door open for them. Simply waiting. But even for indoors, even for a situation like this, she is withdrawn. The orange veils that fall down to her elbows over her head. The skirts hiding her body tucked underneath her. If there is anything off to notice to start with, it's the faint sound of her breathing is laboured, each inhale seems to hurt and draw out longer then it should.

And the hands, sat in her lap, are certainly her hands. They are the same scars, the same bend in her fingers, the white of her nails, always well-taken care of. But they are not the hands of before. The skin pulls tight and thin, to expose the shape of lines. The wrinkles and callouses on them not that of a fighter, but what happens to any set of hands that age, see the weathering of the sun and rain. The little dappling of sunspots on the thin, fair parts, the predictable swelling in any fighter, of arthritis on her knuckles. If there is more, it is hidden firmly away, those veils as ever, serving their purposes.

The indication of each person arriving is given with a silent nod of her head. The veils swaying with the movement. Until they're all there and the last person comes through the door and at last she speaks: "Shut the door."

Her voice, still her voice, clear, but pained on the breath it requires her to take.

VANE

[shri]

She sits perched on the rail of Vane's ship, sometime near dawn. Arrived too early for when she sent the runner to him ( for when he'd both gotten back in from their hither and thither - sailors ), but what else was there to do? She never did like to stew alone. Been stuck in the Gallows far too long to not baulk at the first reason to leave the walls of the fortress. Leave looking at the mess she'd made of too many things that even when they shouldn't, mattered to her.

Her eyes sliding backwards and forwards over crew as they moved around their shift. One foot pressed toes down, heel up, bobbing in an absent twitch of movement up and down. Still and moving, all at once. As she waits for morning to crawl to a respectable time that she doesn't feel she might be bothering most some dreadful hangover.

Bangs the once with the side of her fist, a call to follow it - "It's Lakshmi."

FLINT

[shri]

The bang on his window is late in the night. Very late in the night. Probably later then it had to be for it but, well, she had to creep away from most people's sight and that wasn't exactly easy when she had so thoroughly displeased everything that counted as her higher-ups, and then some.

But if she sailed under Vane, stood to reason that - eventually, she sailed under Flint too, the two were close at least in legend, if not in practicality. But better to place two bets down in the race, and this was all a gamble. She was not going into the chantry circles, no matter what they told her. She could not think of anything more idiotic for her, even if they didn't want to accept it right now.

Nor would she ever accept it. Not for what they were selling it as. Too similar. Too similar to having her legs shot out from underneath her and being told she was being done a favour.

Meant, now that it was truly unavoidable a notion - she was stuck here - she had to start to make these plans. One day, one day, one day. It sits flat to the roof of her mouth as she stays crouched in the half dark of the back balcony of the Walrus. Didn't know his men like she knew Vane's to just go traipsing through and she didn't want to cause more of a fuss then she had to with his crew. A familiar bent to this that she hadn't had seen arriving, half bent in the dark, watching the slide of shapes, making plans.