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

[rathercommon]

Mm. We haven't got guns where I'm from, either. Not in England, at least.

[shri]

[ RECORD SCRATCH. ]

What?

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty looks around, a bit puzzled by that reaction. ]

What? Oh, I said - we haven't got guns. Most of us haven't, anyways. I think some people have got 'em over in Prague, I've heard, that's what Mr Pennyfeather was saying at one point - but we haven't got any in England.

[shri]

What year is it for you?

[ ?????????????????? ]

[rathercommon]

[ With a little frown - ]

2003.

[shri]

[ No, stop, okay, they're stopping the horse. She pulls again at the reigns. They're talking about this. ]

You lie.

[rathercommon]

[ A flat look at Lakshmi - ]

Why on earth would I lie about something as stupid as that.

[shri]

[ And it's only an incredulous one back. ]

Because I was born in 1826, and I learned pistols when I was your age.

[rathercommon]

[ Huff - ]

First off, I'm not that young - and second, our worlds are just different, I expect. This one's different from what we're used to, after all - so each other's worlds must be strange to us, too.

[shri]

You spoke of Lycans - [ Like that was supposed to mean something, here, and to her it clearly did. No? No, no. No. There is a great deal she can catch onto quickly but - ]

But America and France ought to have - and my homeland. [ Swallows to keep going. ] What of the black coats? [ Shakes her head, maybe she doesn't know them, and her stomach turns over itself, damn near ill. ] The Order of Knights?

[rathercommon]

Order of Nights? [ Puzzled - ] We've got the Night Police. I don't know if that's the same thing, though. Doesn't sound like it.

[ Kitty shakes her head, as casual about this as only the very young and very adaptable can be. ] It seems like there's lots of patterns that hold constant from world to world, but nothing identical. It's like - every world's a recipe made with the same ingredients, but in different proportions and different combinations.

[shri]

[ She falls silent, then - and has quite simply, nothing to say to, because she can only comprehend so much at once. Maybe that was the payment of living so long. Hard to keep track of things so different. Maybe this was what it was like for Sir Bors, 900 hundred years long into a world of gunpowder and artillery and everything he knew, washed away. What of her then?

Because rightfully, she does not even know why it bothers her.

So she says nothing, because what was there to even say? And instead opts for the simplest option, the option she would always take when faced with things that seemed impossible to even come to terms with as easily as all that and gets them moving again. ]

[rathercommon]

Erm -

[ Kitty cranes around to look at her, though. Always poking her nose where it doesn't belong, never knowing how to leave well enough alone, she asks - ]

Are you all right?

[shri]

[ She doesn't confirm or deny to that. A lifetime of not talking about what she thought or felt in any depth come in handy to a keeping a straight face. Or at least, no more than a slight frown.

Rather an easier truth. ] It hardly matters. I am meant to be teaching you, that is all that is important, now.

[rathercommon]

You're not meant to do anything. And this isn't that important.

[shri]

Kitty.

[ Barked, removed. ] Enough.

[rathercommon]

[ Uncowed: ]

Enough what?

[shri]

Some matters are private and need not be discussed. So I tell you, enough. I have no want to discuss it.

[ Like her mounting dread, for one thing. ]

Besides, if you can't respect a horse enough to apologise to it, why should I tell you anything about what I am feeling otherwise?

[ SHE HASN'T FORGOTTEN KITTY. ]

[rathercommon]

[ Oh, not that again. ]

I mean it. You're not meant for anything.

[shri]

[ 'This girl-child will be a Queen, she will bring fame to her husband, his family, and her people. You will be Lakshmi to your people.'

If only it was that easy, easy as washing her hands from it. 'You gave me those things, I did not want them, this is not fair.' ]

You think I do not know that? [ She shakes her head. ] For God's sake, child, give me the benefit of my life.

[rathercommon]

[ With a bit of frustration: ]

Stop calling me child.

[shri]

[ She huffs a laugh. ]

Because you are so grown, are you?

[rathercommon]

[ Stubbornly: ]

I am, actually, yeah.

[shri]

[ rumbles, bemused. ] What is your age? I rather assumed you weren't married yet.

[rathercommon]

Seventeen. [ Well. ] Nearly. What's marriage got to do with anything?