therookery

Entry tags:

01.

FORM: Sending crystal.
SENDER: Lakshmi Bai
RECIPIENT: Anyone and everyone.
WHAT: Polite requests.
WHEN: After the recent group of rifters arrives back.
WHERE: The Gallows.
NOTES: Tired Queen is tired.

[ There's a little laugh of wonder and then - ] To think I spent all my time hungering after Tesla's machines... [ Clears her throat with the end of that wistful sigh, no time for what-ifs, and she adopts a far more even a tone. Dry, clipped and careful to not muddle her words. Not Tesla's machines, no, but she has heard plenty of poor announcements across radios, to want to make sure that she doesn't do the same. ]

Greetings. I am... Rani Lakshmibai, the, ah.. widower of the King, Maharaja, of Jhansi. [ There's a hesitation, unsure. But like the titles she just gave, she brushes over it quickly. ] I have a request for an individual, who would spend a few hours telling me of this place and its manners, so I might be a better guest of this... Inquisition. I have no more than what I am to receive you, but I can provide honest company in return for yours.

[ pause, and then a moment later. ] And where may I exchange jewels and gold for coin, find a decent cloth merchant and tailor, and whether the weapons the armies here supply are worth the metal they're made from. I prefer a shamsher or talwar, by preference, but any long, heavy blade suffices if its decent enough quality.

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[ Myira laughs along with Lakshmi, unable to contain her own mirth. ] Well, that's true enough.

[ Myira blinks, getting a little flushed in embarrassment as Lakshmi starts to fuss over her. If she had any actual feathers, she'd probably ruffle them. It's embarrassing, but it's a little pleasing to know someone is worried about her all the same. Beneath the cloak, she's wearing little else--this whole clothing and human thing is still new to her, after all. ]

Are you doin' alright since we got here? Things been busy...

Adjusting, as well as any I suppose. But no more than that.

[ But sure for the moment her slightly bigger, but no less feathered companion was in good health, she let her hand drop. ]

Come, let's see how we can help you walk only on two legs. I'm told doing so is a tricky thing.

I guess I'm doin' the same. People seem nice enough at least.

[ As far as Myira it's the least they can do. Being nice to someone after they fall out of the sky into your world is kind of a requirement, isn't it? ]

Oh yah, well. Come in I guess. Ain't much to the place, but it's a cozy nest.

[ Myira steps aside to let Lakshmi into the room. Taking a few steps, she plops down onto the bed she's designated as 'hers,' still looking up at Lakshmi. She purses her lips for a long moment, then asks the with a completely straight face: ]

...So how do I fit in with humans?

Isn't that the question.

[ Comes the distracted answer as she looks around the room - though with nothing more than something frankly assessing to it. Not that there was much to begin with that they were given, but even so, where to start?

Well. The simple things. ]

How are you for clothes?

Well, yeah...

[ Myira scratches idly behind one ear as she leans back on her bunk in a languid fashion. She peers up at Lakshmi, then gives a little shrug. ]

Um. I got my cloak. An' they gave me a couple dresses an' some other stuff but it's all simple.

[ Myira points a finger towards an unhappy pile of off-white linen sitting at the foot of her bed. ]

Of course. Simple... how?

[ Oh please, don't let it be that someone had given her underclothes and she'd been mistaken in thinking that was all her clothes. ]

[ Myira rolls over and starts sifting through the pile. She tosses a few things behind her--small clothes and under things, no doubt. When she finally sits up, she's holding a linen dress that's more of a shift than a proper garment in her hands. It would do but... it's not much. ]

I got two of these an' then all the other smaller stuff.

[ She knows little of... this style of clothing particular. She'd never even bothered to seek dress like an English woman, even when it might have benefitted her to try and fit in. ( A continuing trend, she must admit. But she had the comfort here of not being illegal simply for existing, at least. )

But this remarkably like a underdress from the times she had helped the brothel girls ready themselves. She flicks it out, holding it up. Not so different to what she had been given. Those pieces sat in her room, unused. ]

They do not... dress in a way I prefer. [ Obviously. ] But we can manage something, I think. [ She flicks the dress out - with a clatter of bangles around her wrists. ] Was there anything else you were given? A corset? Petticoats, stockings? Or simply this?

Edited 2018-07-11 16:37 (UTC)

[ Myira is going in completely blind, herself. She nods her head at Lakshmi and points towards the chest at the foot of her bed. ]

Issat what those are? There's some like... longer tube things? Are those stockings? An' some shoes but I been going barefoot. Dunno what a corset is though.

[ She blinks, peers at the bangles on Lakshmi's wrist and her eyes light up. ]

Oh! Those are pretty! I like them.

They're for your legs, and you'll want the shoes when the evenings turn cool and the ground turns to mud.

[ Hum, she fixes her mouth thoughtfully, ] - It's a particular undergarment some of the women here wear. I wouldn't suggest it if anyone offers it, it will drive you quite mad. [ She looks down at her wrist. A crow, she must remember, would steal the brightest pebbles out of the garden for who knows what purpose and she laughs. ]

Maybe after we have you dressed we can find you something. [ Her hand drops, folding the dress up in that practised way mothers do by second nature. Folding by halves, tucking by quarters until it's a neatly stacked pile at the foot of the bed. ] Alright, up you get. Let us show you how to sort this out.

[ She fishes for the pile she had thrown away. Small clothes and all. Looking for the socks in particular, and laying them out when she finds them. ]

Eh, mud is just mud. It comes off with water. Besides mud don't get on trees so mu-- [ Trust a raven not to worry about mud and forget she has to walk like the rest of them now. Her face turns a little darker with an embarrassed blush. ]

Oh yeah. Well. I guess they'll be useful. [ The notion of having her own jewelery makes Myira happy again in an instant, though, and she beams like a small sun. ]

Oh, grand! I'd love to have something like that. [ She pops up to her feet, shedding her cloak as she goes. Tattooed across her upper back, shoulders, and even a little of triceps is a pair of feathered wings. If she had come by this tattoo by the usual means, it would have a been a long, detailed, painful thing with each feather picked out and almost looking as if might flutter or fluff with the breeze. She rolls her shoulders, then crosses her arms across her belly. She watches Lakshmi set out the socks with a curious, avian tilt of her head. ]

...Do stockings go on first?

[ If this truly was her daughter, she would get in trouble for that - but she is dealing with a crow, trapped in a human's body. Which does a great deal for helping her remember her patience at the idea of just being covered in mud and not washing it off.

Bathing was next on the list. Someone was getting woken up a couple of hours after dawn tomorrow whether they liked it or not. ]

Indeed.

[ She passes them to her, at least glad she didn't have to nag her about getting dressed - and the markings are interesting, to say the least. Casting her eyes over them, and it's not shocking exactly. Her hands were still so darkly stained with the henna of her home. Markings of her own that tinted each finger and swirled up her hands. ] One after the other.

[ Myira takes a moment, tongue sticking from the corner of her mouth, to navigate the intricacies of putting on stockings. She manages it, though, tugging them up over her knees with a triumphant grin. She runs her hands across her covered legs and tilts her head up to look at Lakshmi. ]

They feel kinda strange, but I think I'll get used to it. What's next?

[ She casts her eyes over the remaining pile of small clothes, looking uncertain. ]

[ She fishes out the petticoat, smoothing her fingers across the waistband. Before dropping down and holding it open for her to step into it. ]

This goes under your dresses. It will give you a sight more warmth in the winter. Stops the dress from being too thin. Or immodest, as they might call it.

[ and once she's in it, she works it up her body. Looking for the button to clasp the thing and tugging that little to make sure it was settled properly before doing it up. ] Every woman such as I see wears this manner of under clothes. If a little different.

[ Myira deftly steps into the circle of the petticoat and wiggles her hips a little as it's worked up and buttoned in place. She glances downwards and stretches after a moment, swishing the petticoat from side to side to get a feel for the garment. ]

Alright! So... Under the dress...

[ She mumbles the last bit, half to herself. Gotta make sure she remembers all of this. ]

[ The shift shirt goes next if she remembers it right - or was it supposed to be before the skirt? Oh, shoot. No matter, no matter. She fished it out of the pile. Finding the sleeves and neck hole and holding them. ]

This next. There you go.

[ And - right this was supposed to go before the skirt. ] Forgive me, this isn't exactly how I dress either. This is supposed to go before the skirt. But it does not matter so much, you can tuck it in just the same.

It's alright!

[ Myira seems amazingly chipper about all this. She wriggles her way into the shift and doesn't bother tucking it into the skirt, instead letting it bunch and flare awkwardly around her hips and waist. ]

...Is there anything else? This is already a lot.

[ She sways a little, watching her skirt move. Clearly this has to be all humans wear normally, right?? ]

[ She laughs. ]

Do you know, that was what I asked the first time I had to dress this way. [ Welcome to why she doesn't. ] No, not yet.

[ Now she reaches for that linen dress. Not so thin now, with the skirts and stockings underneath. Lifting it up to drop it over Myira's head. Tugging it down over and around her. That's a little trickier to get to sit right. Not quite sure how they managed all the layers anymore than she supposed an English woman knew how to fold the pleats of a dupatta.

Fiddling, little by little under the under shift was sitting somehow a little better. Ought to do for now before she stepped around the back to tug at laces, to make it form to her a little better. ]

Really? Ughhhh.

[ Myira wrinkles her nose but lets Lakshmi put the dress over her head. She shimmies a little to get it to fall right. This feels like a LOT of layers if you ask her. THere's a faint wheeze as the dress is laced a bit tighter. ]

...Can I just dress like you instead? This seems like a lot of work.

[ Gripe, gripe, gripe. ]

[ She laughs, shaking her head. ] I am wearing seven yards of material. It is not easier, it is just different. Clothes are clothes, they take time to get used to.

[ But there, done, - not the worst jobs she could have done. ] I shall make you a deal. Tomorrow we will go to pick you out some light armour. That usually comes with trousers, and I dare say you will be a sight happier in them. [ She steps back, admiring her own effort. She was a sweet-faced thing. Perfectly handsome. ]

But you have to do your best to adjust to this in the meantime.

[ Myira lets out a little huff and looks Lakshmi up and down. ]

...Yeah but yours looks prettier. [ The aesthetic, Lakshmi. The aesthetic. ]

Oh! That sounds nice. I mean, this is okay but it seems like a lot to wear all at once't. [ She swishes the skirts back and forth for a moment, then grins. She just lights up whenever she smiles. Complete, unrestrained happiness. ]

...I might get used to this though, really. Do you think I need armor? That seems like it might be kinda heavier.

[ She'll tweak your ear for that Myira. ]

It can be, but I am not about to stick you in full plate. Besides, when I start training you, this won't do.

[ - Because that is what has been decided. Apparently. Without asking. ]

[ She deserves it, to be fair. ]

Training? What are we training?

[ Training is learning and learning is fun! ]

[ The smile is more a grimace. ]

Riding, knives, how to defend yourself. How to mind yourself around human nobles and commoners alike.

[ The latter Kitty didn't need, but it was a similar sort of itinerary of activities. ]

Those sound pretty important...

[ Myira purses her lips. Those are all things she needs to know if she's going to be human for a while. And Lakshmi seems pretty nice over all. ]

Alright. When do we start?

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shri - 2018-07-31 13:29 (UTC) - Expand

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