FADE RIFT [INBOX]

[shri]

ＬＡＤＹ ＬＡＫＳＨＭＩ
( Lady Lakshmi, Bai Saheba, Rani Lakshmibai )

ＶＯＩＣＥ | ＡＣＴＩＯＮ | ＮＯＴＥＳ

Unavaliable To All:

• 30mins around dawn
  
  Only to Voice:
  
• Hour training morning and evening
  
• Any time she's gone riding.
  
• When she's in the field.
  
  Only to Book:
  
• When she's otherwise in a meeting, leave a message.
  
• Very late at night or early in the morning.
  
  Other:
  
• She usually takes her morning meals in the mess hall with everyone else.
  
• Her days are usually spent in Kirkwall seeing to either her personal business or Inquisition tasks.
  
• She has a bath twice a day, every day.
  

Comments

voice.

[rathercommon]

Hullo. Erm - Lakshmi?

[shri]

Yes, child?

voice.

[villieldr]

Your Majesty,

( is that all she has to say? nope, nope, she's continuing. )

I've completed a prototype of the sword.

[shri]

[ whyareyoulikethis.jpg ]

That is wonderful news. [ She genuinely sounds utterly pleased. ] When may I see it?

[dissono]

( shortly after this, delivered by a runner. )

LAKSHMI

Requisition orders have been submitted to base operations. Imagine they will not object to someone making the job easier if there's anything on it you can supply faster. First list to be delivered to the infirmary directly. Second list delivered to my research workspace. Prioritize accordingly.

GERVAIS V

( the first list is easy to decode; for potions and pastes related to fighting infections in open wounds, and similar. the second is more to do with the preservation (and examination) of corpses and dealing with smells. )

[shri]

[ There is - some three days later. A runner that returns, a crate with him and the note. The lists he had given return with it, some things have been scratched off, others have been left unchecked, some circled. She couldn't get everything... but do what she could regardless, and to the letter of his instructions. What goes to his research lab, what goes to the infirmary. ]

GERVAIS V.

I found what I could. The others, I have included a list of dealers I procured that might have them, but unwilling to talk to a Rifter, or might have it in the future but did not currently.

LAKSHMI लक्ष्मी

action.

[villieldr]

( A knock at Lakshmi's door. Not necessarily expecting her to be there; she has a note prepared, for the likelihood of Lakshmi not being available, which might be preferable in some ways, but certainly feels the more cowardly route.

She waits, patiently, and then knocks a second time a few moments later. )

[shri]

[ It's by the second knock she's unravelled herself from working - not that it is accomplishing anything really, just half mad reorganisation of the same details like she might this time, procure different results from it. But the words come up the same, the people she needs to talk to, come up the same. ]

A moment -

[ Half distracted rearranging her saree before she comes to the door, who knows who it could be. Some pride in presentation, as if they couldn't say she was a spirit or a demon if she dressed well, and go to the door - ] How can I -

[ Magni...? ] - Did you need something? [ S Q U I N T . ]

[villieldr]

Manu.

[shri]

Saawariya?

[ It's a pleasant little hum in response, and in the background is the scratching of the quill to paper. ]

crystals;

[wythersake]

Have you seen these enchanted books they're pushing now?

[shri]

[ And - far more sedated than she had ever been. ]

Seems presumptuous of the creators of such things to believe everyone can read.

crystal.

[ipseite]

( petrana had not answered lakshmi's crystal message, that very extensive public debate on procreation, but that isn't the same as not having been aware of it, or listening, or thinking on it. it is days, even weeks later, that eventually— )

Forgive me if I'm forward; you left children behind, in coming here?

[shri]

[ There is a creak when she speaks, a faint cough. ]

I did. Not forward at all.

action at the evening bell, here is my answer to your question, i'm in your inbox

[assistente]

[After being thoroughly turned around and confused and led down a path by a firm and certain hand, an unassailable reassurance: Salvio has accepted a dinner invitation.

So at the evening bell, promptly, he has found the door where he needs to be, and he is holding a jug of water (a jug? is it inappropriate? should have brought a waterskin instead, easily transportable?) to his chest. Rather than hold the jug by its handle, he has his arms wrapped around it, in a tight embrace. The cool of its contents is of little comfort.

He stares at the door. Quarters. His own room is one of the shared dormitory spaces, his only roommate a blonde Rifter with wary eyes. Griffin. A curious name. Young. They have not talked much, save for the few times that Salvio has been hopelessly struggling with some task and she has come over and took an object from his hands, or corrected him, nicely but firmly.

--Wait, why is he thinking of the Rifter girl? Hastily, he unwraps one arm from around the jug and knocks at the door.

There. It is done. If the woman does not answer within a few moments, he can leave.]

:VVV

[shri]

[ He has no such luck. The knock is replied too, coming, footsteps, and the door swings open. ]

Messer Salvio, I presume?

[ There she stands, all dressed in green. The saree draped around her comfortably, and it is casual, but for entertaining. Her hair neatly pinned on top of her head with flowers, the material clean and bright. The neat drapes of the material on her shoulder that let the pallu fall away and hang behind her. Swaying with her movements as her arm gestures. Stepping back to let him into the small rooms.

But beyond her, is the smell of food, and the array of plates set out. It wasn't quite as extravagant as the rounds and rounds of dishes she'd put before Marcoulf and Magni, but it is nothing lacking. In fact, arguably, too much for just two people. Even so. ]

Just take off your shoes, if you don't mind. I prefer not to have them in my room when I can help it.

[ And so too were her feet bare, as barely as they can be seen when she walks away to let him be about it without her fussing over him. So much as each step is noticeable by the faint chime of her anklets, the clank of bangles as her arms sway at her side. ]

crystal.

[villieldr]

( It has been some weeks since she last spoke with Lakshmi, now. Not for lack of wanting to, but because she knew it would muddle her mind, make her decision harder.

There is a long hesitation as she roles the crystal in her hand, before bringing it to her lips. )

Manikarnika?

[shri]

[ But, oh, how she has missed that voice. Enough that it cracks in the quiet of her study, she snatches up her crystal from her desk. A faint jangle as the chain tumbles from her fingers, cradling it in her palm. ]

Saawariya, it is good to hear you.

a werewolf meltdown intervention;

[villieldr]

Picture this:

Magni, hair still just a little damp from washing, body heavy with relaxation as she lounges on her Rani's bed, lying sprawled across Manikarnika. Head against her chest as she listens to her heartbeat, and her feet hang off the end of the bed because she's just too tall for these lowlander arrangements. She's idly playing with the crystal, frowning at it, not wholly trusting of it. Waiting for another announcement to come, as they inevitably would.

She looks up at Manikarnika, and only one familiar with her would be able to sight the faintly mischievous smile.

"What if I declare that you are my favourite rifter, and challenge contenders to the title?"

[shri]

"You would make no friends, I think." Lakshmi has her eyes closed, for the most part, one hand idly playing with Magni's damp hair, twisting it about her fingers to ringlets then letting it go.

It's only a little that she opens them, but enough to look down and see that smile playing there, slight and telling. Returns in briefly with a laugh, before letting her head fall back.

[notched]

[ Anna's voice is soft, tinged with reverence and madness, ]

I saw you charge after a lycanthrope, like a Hunter.

[shri]

[ There is a stilted little laugh, unsure quite what to do with that. ]

That is a word for it, I suppose. But yes, I fight half-breeds. Lycans.

voice, lateish in the evening

[altusimperius]

[Haltingly,] Lakshmi?

[shri]

Benedict, what can I do for you?

the morning after That Conversation

[altusimperius]

She struck him, and shouted at him, and told him to go away, so that's that-- Benedict has never been treated thus in his life by anyone who purported to care about him, which clearly means Lakshmi doesn't.
At least, this is what he spent half the night convincing himself, smoking and making his way through a bottle of wine, neither of which successfully calmed his nerves, but both of which upped his emotional torment and are making it quite difficult to rouse himself now that the sun is up and people are about.

He'll take a day off, he's decided, burying his face in his elegant coverlet and heaving a self-pitying sigh. Nobody loves him, not even Lakshmi, so he might as well just waste away and die.

[shri]

Lakshmi most certainly does care about, even if he was inclined to get himself killed when she wasn't watching him.

So watch him she must. Inviting herself in of a morning, with a plate of food, drink, and her heavy booted steps which takes no mercy on any lingering hangover. She puts the plate down, and then goes over to that miserable lump in the bed and takes the covers in both hands.

Her small mercy is that she doesn't rip the blankets off him entirely. Just flicks them straight. "Come on. Sit up. I know you've been drinking all night." Can smell it, even if she doesn't look for the bottle. "I've got tea, and something to eat."

A letter delivered by runner

[villieldr]

Magni An Fjorleif O Talonhold humbly requests the esteemed company of her Royal Highness Lakshmibai, Jhansi ki Rani and Official Judgmental Starer and First Eye Roller of the Inquisition, Revered Tormenter of Unwed Adults and Chief Insulter of Leadership, Curator of Hair Care and most fancy blah blah

( here there are some squiggly lines, perhaps in place of coming up with further titles, or maybe to be decorative )

for dinner
tojoin her for dinner

Being pretentious for comedy is tiring, can we meet later?

A letter delivered by runner

[shri]

To (Princess) Magni An Fjorleif O Talonhold, Beloved of the Sacred Duck, Molder of Metal, She Of Few Words, But Most Wicked Tongue, Tallest Tormenter of All Fereldon and Beloved.

Of course. For dinner or would bed do?

Regards,
महारानी लक्ष्मीबाई
Maharani Lakshmibai Gangadhar Rao Newalker, Jhansi ki Rani, Bride of the Newalkers, O Talonhold, Bride of Magni An Fjorleif O Talonhold, Official Judgmental Starer and First Eye Roller of the Inquisition, Revered Tormenter of Unwed Adults and Chief Insulter of Leadership, Curator of Hair Care and Pleaser of Talonhold's Smiths.

action, after that one post

[villieldr]

( She wasn't oblivious to Lakshmi's position on things, because being oblivious to Lakshmi's opinion would require being deaf, blind and wilfully oblivious on top of that. Heading back to the room they share most nights (when Lakshmi isn't busy, doesn't need to inhabit a separate space for whatever reason might arise), Magni has just scrubbed down after work and is refreshed, but not especially relaxed.

Better to find Lakshmi and make sure she does not feel quite so nettled (these lowlanders had little notion of how to listen to people and understand them), which is why Magni has a small cloth bag with some berries, and in her hand a couple of pears, a small section of cheese. All local produce that she paid too much for, just so that she could make sure she had it to hand this evening. Worth doing, she thinks.

So as she arrives at their room, she knocks just once, just in case Lakshmi is changing or might want a moment for any reason. ) Rani?

voice. // after the death announcement

[dashing]

Bai Saheba, may I request your presence in my office?

post-death, pre-reveal

[esquive]

He knows which is her room. He's been there exactly once before, with other company, and it's strange - isn't it? How the door seems exactly the same now as it had then though he has no bottle of honeyed wine under his arm and carries instead an entirely different kind of burden.

He stands there some moments and it occurs to him that he could set the bands of leather and bone at the foot of the door or hang it from the latch. He could say nothing to no one. It would all be the same.

Bang bang, says the his fist on the door.

[shri]

She's been tense for days. There has been no word of Magni, of Kitty, since they left, and the Inquisition now cuts itself to pieces under its own foolishness. She has wanted for so little since then, wanted to speak to no one more than she has to.

Thankfully, most have left her alone, to that end. Let a broody tiger prowl her chambers, do her work, and leave. So she isn't expecting a knock on the door? Only one person would at this hour.

"Magni, next time you are -" her eagerness falls away. that happiness so plain on her face at the thought of the other half of her heart finally returned. But it isn't.

"Ricart? Is there an emergency?" why ever else would he be here if there was not one?

action.

[kyrr]

[ She's quiet - even more quiet than usual, a whisper in the darkness as she moves through Kirkwall, buried in black cotton and furs, her hair in braids, her eyes dark. Tofa cannot speak but she can feel, and feel she does, with a burning, lingering pain that makes her feel as though she is weighed down with a thousand chains. Each one is like a whip against her back, each step agony as she trails the floors, knowing where she is going but not wishing to do it.

There is the pain of losing a sister and the pain of losing a wife. Tofa knows only one of them. Perhaps Lakshmi knows both, understands, burdened by more knowledge than anyone should fear to feel.

Pain, so much pain, more pain than seeing her brethren die, more pain than a knife to her throat, steel against her tongue, tearing and ripping -

When she reaches Lakshmi's door she cannot lift her hand to knock. She fears what she might see, what she might do, but she knows that must be done all the same. In life Magni had been her sister and so, in death, she takes Lakshmi as the same; blood without blood, kin without heritage, a shared path that has been broken by grief.

Slowly, she knocks. ]

[altusimperius]

A tap on the door indicates someone's presence, though he doesn't announce himself right away.

letters thats can't be delivered

[villieldr]

Manikarnika,

As I write this I know I can't send it to you. I stole parchment and from a farmhouse we raided so I could send you word that we lived, without thinking that there were no means to send it. A foolish thing, don't you think? Perhaps I'm an Avvar who has been tamed and had my sense addled by lowlanders. I will write you a letter all the same.

These people are strange, but we have fought side by side. Kitty is very brave, to the point of recklessness. I think I see what it is you admire in her: that spirit and passion and sheer will to see the world become better. You are as dramatic as one another. Knowing she is one dear to you and being able do what I can to protect her has been a selfish comfort, but I'm determined to see her returned safely - all the others as well, but especially her.

In the Deep Roads lyrium seas light the way, and the halls are bathed in blues. I can't help but wonder if the Wardens weren't so bent on their own purposes and if they fought more bravely, if these paths might have been reclaimed for the dwarves. I assumed for so long that these old thaigs and paths would be forever lost, but when there are warriors as brave and passionate as you, maybe there are ways to see all people returned to their rightful homes, and things changes for the better.

I miss you. I never have minded sleeping alone, but your absence feels so wrong. I told the others that we could follow the stars to map our path, but I can't remember any names my people gave them. All the stars are a road back to you, and each of them have your name.

I'm coming back to you. Don't give up on me, Manikarnika. I'll always come back.

Yours,

Magni