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Entry tags:
005 | open
WHO: Lakshmi & YOU ( & Sometimes A Magni )
WHAT: Open post for Lakshmi for this month + community outreach + elephant training + the dinner people want to come to!
WHEN: coughs
WHERE: The Gallows & around
NOTES: Just Lakshmi being extra.
WHAT: Open post for Lakshmi for this month + community outreach + elephant training + the dinner people want to come to!
WHEN: coughs
WHERE: The Gallows & around
NOTES: Just Lakshmi being extra.
I. COMPLAINTS BOX
It's, as it goes, a very informal setup. Shockingly informal to the last time she did this particular sort of thing. But it stands to reason the Inquisition can't fix things - and, she the person in charge of fixing those complaints and to hear such concerns, especially - if she doesn't know it. There is only so much she will get passed along from Coupe, Thranduil, Herian and Beleth especially, and what would the leaders in Skyhold know on a street level?
The plan to that end, is simple. She gets help finding a table, a chair, a semi-dry bit of street under an awning, outside of a pub ( a few coins given over to a landlord to afford the space ) a quill and ink, and sits herself down. She wears her Inquisition clothes, not heavily armed, with her sleeves pushed up to her elbows and - the veil gone for the most part. Instead, more distinctive as herself which has more to do with being unmistakeably her, she wraps all her hair up in a red turban. Part pride, the official nature to her own mind of one of her courtiers, but - part knowledge that being distinctive in even such a small way is obvious to even those who can't remember her name if they pass it along. The woman with the red cloth around her head will, and with it, one invitation.
If you have a grievance to do with the inquisition, come and tell it to her.
And she sits there and she listens and she takes notes. Every little thing that is told. The assurance at least, that in her long curling script of Farsi, Hindi and Marathi - no one can read it but her at the present time. For one hour every day, just after lunchtime, so can be found Lakshmibai, a human complaint box.
It doesn't work immediately. It doesn't even work not immediately, it isn't like people here trust strangers, trust someone so outside of themselves, and let alone someone working as part of a figure of authority. Half of it's heckling, insults, jostling to say vile things against her or rifters or that prick that runs the pub that kicked him out. She doesn't respond in anger or violence to it, all the same. She takes the notes down as seriously as she does any other.
Until, eventually, some do come, one or two. A young man annoyed with his shoes because all the good cobblers were busy working for armies. A mother furious that she had to drag her daughters inside when they should be washing clothes because there were so many soldiers about. More things like that. It isn't much, or particularly important, but she talks it through with each person that comes, recording it all in quickly scribbled words.
At the very least, she ends up having a decent repour with the tavern owner.
She know ultimately it amounts to no more than what it seems, the appearance of listening. But it is a start, and one she does gladly - and for someone as able to pick arguments as she is, she does it with little comment and good nature.
But it is still dull work on most afternoons, so if someone passes by that she does know - she is quick to make conversation. A brief wave and call of "How goes you?"II. ELEPHANT TRAINING
For anyone that volunteered for it, Lakshmi knocks on their door for the training and drags them out onto the field.
(Woe to you if you try to ditch, you get the most disappointed look of your life. Like a mother that can't believe you are breaking her heart this way. Do you want her to die of old age and you not do your own part? You shame her, you shame your family, you shame the inquisition. )
And there is a series of drills over the weeks. A great deal of them built around jumping and building upper body strength. Have you ever done a chin up? Well, now you certainly are. Then once she thinks you're strong enough, you have to do it again, in armour. Whatever the preference might be. Building up to get used to latching onto, grappling and scrambling.
But today, today she insists will be fun for anyone that's come along to training.
'Fun' in the case of Rani Lakshmibai, means taking a running jump onto the shield of a crouching soldier, landing mid-stride with one foot and being launched the rest of the distance towards the tree branch and catching herself with both arms on the wood. One second free swinging before she pulls herself up the rest of the way.
The explanation is brief, today we're going to put all the training from everything else together. She isn't totally merciless. Under the street is a stack of hay-filled bags and thickly padded blankets over the top to stop any injuries from the process.
With the brief explanation of today's exercise, Lakshmi shimmies back down the tree and lands with a heavy thump, brushing her hands off and takes the shield off the hand of the person who had demonstrated with her. Hefting it up her arm and latching it to her wrist. The kind she favours is a medium round shield, covering her upper body neatly.
"So, who is game to try it?"III. MY DEFIANT LOVER HAS RETURNED ( DINNER PARTY )
It's not that she's nervous no one will come.
It's that she's made an awful lot of food, and what is she going to do with it all if no one does? Because it turned out you could take the woman from her homeland, but not the homeland from the woman who had been roused in the kitchens by her mother-in-law, who is that going to feed? We are the house of Newalker, we will not be dishonoured by sending people home hungry! That never quite leaves the back of her head when she prepares for anything.
But she has set the room up especially for it too. Her new single room, with the bed, desk, table and chairs, pushed all to the side, and a central floor space completely cleared. Rather, instead, she has laid out a rug across the middle of the floor, cushions around it. Oil lanterns burn fragrant dotted here and there - and on the table that had been in the middle, set to one side, has been ladened with food, so much so it might groan under the weight of it all. All of it smells rich and strong, of spices. How she has afforded that boggles the mind because she doesn't seem to have skimped on a single bit of it. From the dried shredded coconut mixed into the black peppers that sharply taste when bitten into. It stains itself red, yellow, green, and just as she said of it, not a bit of it has meat in it.
Each guest is greeted by her - and not so far from her, Magni as well. The tall Avvar woman easily dwarfs her as she hangs behind Lakshmi. Between them, even if it not direct nor spoken directly of, that familiarity between them that they can stand so easily in small spaces together with more than comfort in the exchange. The hand that settles on Lakshmi's waist or how Lakshmi in return will place a hand on her arm as she passes. Though in her greetings, Lakshmi makes no comment or acknowledgement, rather too busy playing hostess. Dressed as immaculately as she set up the room, the saree discarded for the warmer months, and her anakarli dress and the matching white dupatta are thicker to keep her warm. Her long black hair pinned up atop her head and set with flowers. The gold shimmering at her brow, ears, fingers and ankles against the white material. The anklet chiming with her step that makes each movement distinct. The bindi on her brow has been remarked deeply over the usual small dot that was long ago tattooed on. Tonight its a half moon below it and a broader circle, both done in a deep, deep red. Just the same, her fingertips have all been stained the same colour, and with a bigger red circle in the middle of her palms. Thanks be to the Dalish woman she met that taught her what they used to stain skin here.
She is herself, tonight. No more, and no less, the sort of woman she had once been, as when a guest arrives, she neither bows nor curtsies to them, to welcome them in. Rather after they have taken their shoes off ( she meant it, don't you dare track dirt into her room ), she drops to touch the ground in front of their feet, before rising up again. Her hands pressing palm to palm, for a moment, before she gestures past her as she steps aside. "Please, come on. Will you have something to drink?"
[ ooc: feel free to hop around and do different things in this as much as you like, it's a dinner party after all! ]IV. WILDCARD
Got something you want to do? Please feel free!
I.
"Hi. This is the community outreach thing, right? How's it going so far?"
She doesn't want to bother someone who's working, but there don't seem to be any feedback-givers nearby just as present.
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Cosima she knows in passing at least, Herian's... lover? She thinks, isn't sure, and it firmly isn't her business anyway.
"Miserably, but that is expected," Lakshmi says it with a laugh. Expected is to say, makes it easy to deal with.
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The laugh, at least, encourages her to ask. Cosima loves Herian, but it's occurred to her recently just how many friends she's made and lost in Thedas. Lakshmi isn't the only one who could use someone to talk to.
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She leans back with a sweeping open armed gesture, inviting her as close as she likes.
"Though I should not like to complain too much, I did invite this."
Which twitches in the corner of her mouth, teasing in that dry manner she always did. All warm, perhaps, but a little dark for it. "I do believe we've not been acquainted personally before - you are... Sir Herian's...?"
The ring, she remembers, curled around Herian's finger. But she didn't know enough of their customs to be sure of it's exact meaning.
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She smiles, almost unconsciously warmer, as she speaks of Herian. It's strange to think she has so few people to tell, anymore, but she really is happy in this at least.
"It's nice to meet you," she adds, before lingering over it too long. "The elephant thing was really impressive."
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Typical of her, really. For all her hounding, it was more than just that, it genuinely makes her happy to know it. To know that there was still love to be found in all of this mess.
"He is a magnificent creature, isn't it?" Rather than big noting herself overtaking the beast, there is something she'd much rather talk about. "I could hardly let our enemies keep him."
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Instead of dwelling on that, though, she says, "I didn't even know there were elephants in Thedas, though I'm not a naturalist, really. It's great that you rescued him, though. I wouldn't wish the Venatori on anyone regardless of species. Where's he staying now?"
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"Nor did I. I wish I could have seen them under... Better circumstances. But even, for just a moment, to see something of my home?" she didn't know how other rifters dealt with it. But Lakshmi had half destroyed herself in grief over being cut from her homelands so completely, that anything, anything at all warmed her. "I left him with the armies there. The Inquisition did not have the facilities here to keep him."
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"If I don't show something similar when they do it, it's because ruling trains to express so very little when people do unexpected things."
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"But not so. We are not cut out to do anything, by own merit alone. I did not dream as a little girl to be a Queen. I swung my swords with the other children. I wanted to climb elephants, and hunt tigers, and eat sweets my father would not let me." She chuckles. "But life had other plans. When I was younger, I too... wore my heart on my sleeve. I could not hold my tongue, even when I should."
You know, like she held her tongue now - the woman who mouthed off to every commander here, Herian including, in a moment of frustration.
"But... we do as well as we can, no matter what. I am sure you could rise to it, as well as any task. All that is required is practise."
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For all it's lightly said, she's seen too many people come and go. She thinks briefly of Ruby, and how important her welcome had been; Cosima's been here longer without her than with, by now, and it seems strange.
"I planned to be a scientist, and I guess I still am in a way, but my field of study doesn't exist here, and the things I'm studying here didn't exist at home. You can't foresee everything, wherever you come from."
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It snaps her attention, immediately, looking up at Cosima with far more keenness, whatever she was discussing gone to a far more important point.
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"He is, isn't he? It is a shame you could not see him. He is a little like you, right now. Excited, eager, always something new. He makes such wonderful weapons, though it is a waste for his abilities."
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"Oh yes, that is the same. Believe me, you should never get Tesla started on Edison, he rants for ours about the man. Something about the man's notion of currents." Pacing about, waving his arms, pausing to tinker and then straight up with a burst of and another thing-!
"But I do. We have helped each other many times over the years. He is a man... who knows his own mind, and his own beliefs, and makes no bar of them one way or another, simply follows through on them." She thinks of him so well, so very well, even if she did not always understand his affection for the Knights and their ilk, he still never waivered in his way.
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She really does miss electricity, even if magic sometimes fills in the gaps here in Kirkwall.
"How did you two end up meeting?"
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"That might be best for him to tell, should he ever come." Oh, how she misses her Tesla. He could make her such guns. "He arms my militia, is the short of it. He supports my cause for change within the Empire."