faderift | ( closed ) high above the smokestacks

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( closed ) high above the smokestacks

WHO: Lakshmi, Magni & Tofa
WHAT: return to the Gallows and totally fine not awkward intros
WHEN: a day or two before the event
WHERE: Gallows courtyard
NOTES: none foreseen

Magni alerted Lakshmi that they were approaching the Gallows. Very different from her other arrivals here, when she had no one waiting for her. Marcoulf was a dear friend, but it was different with him. They were not the sorts to wait on one another, when each had work to do. It was more likely that they'd find each other eventually with a bottle of something potent. And, as much as she loves Marcoulf, she has never longed to see him the way she longs to see her Marnikarnika now. She stands at the front of the boat, and the moment they are in reach, a little before they dock, she jumps across to alight at the Gallows. Never has she been so excited to be back in this place, this bustling, miserable city with slaves immortalised against the cliffs.

An owl flaps across after her, and lands on her shoulder, before she looks back to her sister and tilts her head. Excited, eager, come on, Tofa.

From there, to the courtyard. Magni, injuries finally healed, able to move as freely and easily as she had before the Battle of Ghislain, looking around for Lakshmi. Where is she?

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Tofa does not know what to expect from the Inquisition, but the Gallows isn't it.

She looks around at the scale of the city, not letting her eyes get too wide but frowning instead, watching with an intensity that cannot be hidden. This is the world her sister had chosen to become a part of, one that she had chosen to follow her to, and it is so grand and enclosed. She immediately misses the open space of the mountains, the comfort of home and the familiarity of the Hold, but it will pass. She will learn and grow and be stronger for this and will return to her people better, just as Magni will.

Perhaps their people will come, if the Inquisition has need.

Magni's look earns her something of a fond smile, a just-there curl of her lips before she gets out and follows with as quick a pace as she can muster. Her sister is excited and it makes her happy to see it, head tilting this way and that as she waits for this elusive woman to appear and meet them.

Eager to see Lakshmi though she is, Magni is ever-aware of Tofa, knows how jarring these cities are after a life spent in the Frostbacks. Being able to see endless distances, looking across vast lands and breathing in air so cold it seemed to rasp the lungs, and now in Kirkwall, where cliffs and buildings loom inwards. A step closer to her sister, and she sets a hand on her shoulder.

Little one, the gesture says. Gentle, reassuring, definitely playful, before she tilts her head to the side in a silent question. How are you?

It's a lot, all this. She certainly isn't entirely at ease in Kirkwall; that was part of why she had become so lonely, isolated, why Lakshmi had urged her to go home. Good advice, she realised, far moreso than she appreciated.

There's a moment where Tofa gives her sister a sharp, sour little look; the tease is age-old and it doesn't bother her any longer, not really, but she has to cling to pretence. Three inches is not so great a height so be missing, she thinks, but when those three inches make you the shortest among siblings... They seem like a great scale indeed. The hand is an anchor, at least, that soothes the storm of thoughts and emotions that are a tornado in her mind.

Fine. A wave of her hand, a shrug of her shoulder, easy and gentle. Relaxed, almost, with her sister so near. It is large. I did not think it would be so large."

Staring forward at Kirkwall, Tofa feels almost small. That is not a familiar feeling for her, someone who is used to being a towering mountain.

She nods, and her expression becomes more grave again. Eager as she might be to see Lakshmi, she will not underestimate how jarring and strange an experience this will be for her sister.

A gesture between them before she taps over her heart, tilts her head slightly towards the owl on her shoulder, and then she pulls both hands apart, distance stretching wider. We are far from home.

"Our gods watch over us, still, and I am by your side." Not the instruction not to be afraid, but rather, the promise that they will make it through this strange, bizarre place and navigate these tumultuous times together. It will be better for both of them than it had been for Magni alone.

The sheer mass that Kirkwall is will not overwhelm her; she refuses to allow it. Tofa knows that she is strong, in mind and in body, and it doesn't matter if she cannot speak. What matters is that she is going to be strong enough, strong enough for the both of them, to prove the might and honour of Talonhold and what it means for them.

Reaching out, Tofa places her hand on Magni's chest before she motions to them all and taps her chest again, over her heart. It's a soft, intimate gesture, one that she knows her sister will no doubt recognise; You are home.

As long as the two of them are together she will not fear what Kirkwall has to offer. Motioning, she looks out over at the city, no hesitation on her features no. Go. A motion to the entrance, a smirk. Waiting for Lakshmi.

What is a gentle smile on most people counts for a grin on Magni, and she runs on a few paces, until she reaches the Gallows courtyard where she's expecting to find Lakshmi. Can't see her yet, but there's a bustle of people coming from the boat and others going to take the boat back to Kirkwall proper. The owl that was on Magni's shoulder flaps off a short distance to perch atop some wooden crates, and Magni's gaze follows it. Not a pet, Jalo, but free to go as he will. Certainly he is not wild, has been trained to carry messages and the like, but she does not expect him to be dependent as some Orlesian lapnug.

The moment of thought distracts her from paying full and proper attention to her surroundings, not quite so watchful for Manikarnika as she should be.

The meeting felt like it was going to go on forever.

Or maybe that was her impatience due to the face she knew Magni would be arriving, and soon. Everything matters little to that detail. For she could tell herself she would be fine, that she would be amongst those that loved her, that such a place was always better - and what claim had Lakshmi upon her? None, less than none. Save a mouthful of convictions and hands to hold her with.

But there she is, and it's the only sort of affirmation she needs. A smile sharp as teeth, as she lengthens her stride to weave amongst the people milling in the courtyard of the Gallows.

Lakshmi doesn't see them, or even Magni's companion. What she sees is Magni, and she barks clear and loudly the once - "Talonhold!" To get her attention, there, a good foot shorter than her Magni, but proud down every inch like she was the giant in the situation.

Or maybe it's that when she's close enough, she doesn't even stop to think that the height different means anything but a very precise action to level it out. She snatches Magni by the collar and yanks her firmly down. To in far easier reach with the simple expectation that Magni will go along.

And laughing into her mouth, she kisses her. Firm and sure and unrelenting in how she missed her. Hello, Magni.

The voice catches her attention even more than the name, and her smile brightens when she sees Lakshmi. Immediately drawn down, and playfully retaliates by wrapping her arms around Lakshmi’s waist and hefting her up, so that Magni stands straight and tall and Lakshmi is held just a little higher, so she looks up to her. Or, rather, would look up to her if she were not focused still on that greeting, drawing the kiss out for long moments before she eases back.

“Manikarnika.” Very quiet, content, and entirely distracted.

There's a brief moment where Tofa is reaching for her daggers, seeing a woman rush at her sister with such great speed - she is not yet so trustful of the Inquisition that she might let something like that slide. It's the embrace that makes her pause, though, eyes flickering wide for a moment before she realises, ah. She knows who this must be, suddenly, and she feels an intense rush of awkwardness.

It seems like such a private thing, done so publicly, and she turns her head away, frowning.

She will not do her sister and her lover a disservice by forcing them to have a witness to their reunion. She is patient enough to wait until Magni is prepared to introduce the two of them, when they are done with their hellos.

Shockingly private done shockingly publically, and if she had more to care about - a title that meant something beyond pride, enemies that very particularly wanted her dead, she might even be subdued for once. Might stop how her arms hang so tightly even when her feet lift off the floor. But she can at least take some comfort that in the days after a battle as horrendous as Ghislain, that she is neither first nor last to be worried about someone who has finally come back.

That is less about kissing, and more to do with taking long, deep, relieved breathe, laughing, bright, into Magni's mouth before she pulls back, peering down at her for once. Eyes lidded and warm, carding her fingers lose through her hair, bumping over the tight braids laced to her crown.

"Saawariya," she sighs it long, still tracing, still mapping, some task of making sure. "Do put me down, you can carry me off later."

Smile warm and gentle as the morning sun, Magni lets her forehead rest against Lakshmi's jaw a moment before she complies and sets her down. Aware, in the last couple of moments, of her neglected sister. While her hand stays at Lakshmi's back (keeping contact, staying close) she reaches out with her other hand to Tofa, beckoning her closer.

"Tofa an Halvor o Talonhold, my sister." Come here, be with us.

Oh, did no one realise how bad it was going to be for Magni to be relied upon to do introductions? Did no one consider this?

"Lakshmi Bai, Queen of Jhansi. My—" well, she doesn't have a word for that, and just sort of looks to Lakshmi, perplexed, before she looks back to Tofa and offers an awkward shrug. I told you about her, the shrug says, although still unhelpful.

"Your Mistress." It's laughed, more than anything, as she's put down. Because - well, it's easier than say dig into Magni's side over the notion first your father is Thane, and now you tell me you have a sister? Perhaps repayment and punishment for neglecting to mention this bit of information, especially ahead of time.

Rather, the girl looks dreadfully awkward. Couldn't imagine why, of course. But if this was Magni's family then -

Lakshmi drops, in greeting, to touch the dirt in front of Tofa's feet, then lifts her hands, to press palm to palm. Briefly, bowing her head over them, eyes lowered with. "I am honoured to meet you, Tofa an Halvor O Talonhold."

Mistress. Tofa turns her head and finally lets her eyes drink in the two women and she feels herself soften from her embarrassment. It means she can actually look at the woman her sister is enamoured with properly, tilting her head and drinking her in with an idle sort of amusement, something like a smile ticking at her face before she finally moves closer so that she might introduce herself.

Lakshmi's greeting shocks her - she wasn't prepared for it, and her eyes flick to Magni in shock for a moment before she breathes out and motions for the woman to stand up. She can't communicate unless Lakshmi is looking at her, and she tries to get her attention to make that possible, looking a little pained and hopeless before she signs to her sister, trying not to feel her shame rise up and clog her throat.

She cannot introduce herself properly. How mortifying.

I am glad to know her.

Her gaze lingers on Lakshmi, before the lowered gaze and her familiarity with Tofa's challenges prompt her to look to her sister. Gently, she sets a hand at the small of Lakshmi's back, what she hopes will be understood as a subtle prompt.

"Tofa says she is glad to know you." And, because she realises she really hasn't actually given either of them much help with this, "she stands rightly amongst the bravest and most skilled of Talonhold." Not just the hunters, but all of their Hold, although she's not in a rush to describe the brutality of what happened to Tofa so lightly.

She signs as she speaks, so that Lakshmi can see the movements, the tilt and shaping of her hands, and perhaps begin to learn them.

It takes her a moment, to understand, to look between them and begin to wonder, to follow along. Then - as she had done many times before when pressed with something others might decry or ask sharp questions of.

Lakshmi bows her head, understanding with it - and carries on as if there was nothing particularly out of the ordinary with any of it, and does her best to make do. This was her family, now, and family must have support and safety above all else. "And I, you. I am happy too..." Until she realises, as she watches Magni's own hands, and the impulse to do it herself rises up.

There she clears her throat, polite as she might. "It might be... hard, for me to use such a voice back for you - " and with it, Lakshmi offers her own, and perhaps, a commonality to some degree, the wounds of Ghislain finally healed.

But they would not bring the last two missing fingers and side of her left hand back.

It is not something she needs to be embarrassed about, Tofa knows that; her Hold had worked with her for years on understanding that there is no room for shame when the loss of her tongue had been done in battle. Learning to live without a voice had not been an impossible task - she had not been particularly loud or vocal, much like her sister - but it is painful at times.

Meeting strangers is one of those times, and she glances to Magni, suddenly nervous, feeling like she's swallowed something.

Shaking her head, she begins to make signs with her hand, glancing at Lakshmi's fingers before she turns to Magni. She should look at Lakshmi in the eye, she thinks, tilting her head down, but she also knows she has to ensure her sister's understanding before she can make sure that Lakshmi herself understands.

We will make it work. Her fingers flex, unsure, nervous. Sister, please. Shall we walk?

The tension in Tofa, the way she moves her hands, catches and keeps Magni's attention even more sharply than usual. "We walk," she says in agreement, her tone enough to illustrate that part of what Tofa said, as she stoops to make sure she has gathered all their things.

"She says that we'll make it work," Magni explains to Lakshmi, as she shoulders a pack. And then, she looks to Tofa. "Maybe we put all your things in my room, and then we see to your accommodation."

Generally speaking, Magni has never been the one to provide someone with a tour, or context. She is always the outsider entering a situation, and there's a great many cues that she is probably missing in the grand checklist of ways to look after someone who is brand new to a situation despite her experience as the new person. (Sorry everyone about this elk masquerading as a human.)

( she can't believe she's in love with this elk. )

"We will," she was family now - and everything that was, everything it wasn't, and simply as it's mean, Lakshmi will do her damndest to that end. Magni's people were her own and that was the end of that.

"Why don't we... " there is a shift, pausing, and she realises its hard to know when she is being spoken too or not. She taps her fingers - well, there were conversation methods she knew through fingers. But they were quite different. "... before we go. Here. When you want only my attention, please do this." She forms the gesture with her fingers, curling them around. "Then I will know it is me."

Tofa looks between Magni and Lakshmi before she softens, breathing out gently.

It's a kindness, to be before someone who is making an effort to be considerate of her ailment. She lifts her hands and begins to move them, shaping them into the same motion Lakshmi had made - a name sign, something she recognises. She knows that it's something simple and recognisable, and she appreciates that more than any kind of hand sign or word could ever be able to express.

Turning to Magni, making her sister's name sign, she motions.

I will help carry. A nod. And then we can talk more.

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( closed ) high above the smokestacks

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