Description 

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Anahi is a tallish Indian woman with dark brown-black eyes and long black hair often kept twisted up on her head, or in a braid that falls below her waist. It is a rare day when Anahi hasn't polished her exterior to a mirror-shine before stepping out her front door, often seen wearing fine fabrics and a large amethyst brooch on a hand-dyed emerald green cravat. Anahi's current outfits almost always include steel-toed and heeled boots, glimmering as she strides through Saint Denis.

To most she is a very formal woman, passing out 'Misses' and 'Misters' even to the chagrin of some of New Alexandria's most down-home cowpokes. To her clients, she is surgically precise with shredding their current outfits down to the bone, and lavish with praise when they choose something more suitable. To her friends, Anahi navigates her defensive formality with gifts she knows will be of use, presenting her inner affections through more expensive/more numerous presents or acts of service.

Early Life 

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Anahi was born in 1880 in Calcutta, India, to British cotton magnate William Shaw and his dutiful wife, Chaaya. Chaaya named her daughter 'Anahi', a playful alteration of Anahata, the heart chakra, and the Prakit word 'Anadi', meaning 'without anxiety'. Anahi, her cousin Piya, and her brother Pranesh (both three years older) were inseparable playmates up until the other two's early teens. Pranesh began learning the family business, and Piya's family moved to America, leaving young Anahi to entertain herself on the Shaw family estate.

William Shaw ran Shaw Cotton Textiles (SCT); the family business, plantation, and inheritance from his father. SCT was a thriving textile industry for over half of the 19th century under the eye of Anahi's grandfather and William's early years -- that is, until the British Raj's misuse began to wear down India's previous standing as first in the textile industries. In the years that followed Anahi's birth, the SCT weakened considerably, forcing William to instead forge political ties to keep his business afloat. In the desperate effort to 'make friends', Pranesh and Anahi were shipped off to London for business and education respectively. Due to her stunted social skills, Anahi was not as successful as her brother's affable nature. She learned that keeping an aloof front to her schoolmates was safer; the more untouchable she presented herself, the more she collected admirers who would shield her from harm. Alas, Anahi's schooling would go unfinished, as she was called back to Calcutta at age 17 by her father's next scheme...

Enter Nedry Griffith, inheritor of an East India Company family fortune and sufferer of the British Raj imperial boredom. He held a small position within the Government; barely pencil-pushing, but lucrative. In this bored blonde man, William Shaw saw salvation. In exchange for a sizeable investment, Nedry would take Anahi's hand in marriage, to ensure the fate of Shaw Cotton Textiles. After an appropriately lengthy courtship and engagement, Nedry and Anahi were wed in 1899, shortly after Anahi's 19th birthday.

Their marriage never reached the honeymoon. On the third night of their five-day wedding celebration, Nedry suffered a fatal accident and died in the young couple's marital bed, leaving Anahi a widow. Barely too late for the marriage to be annulled, The Griffiths were forced to bequeath their two-day daughter-in-law Anahi with a third of Nedry's estate, which was quickly absorbed into the SCT, securing its future for the next five years. Anahi, now the family embarrassment, was secreted back to London to continue her studies.

She would stay hidden in London until a year later when Pranesh died from a cobra bite while on holiday. With her younger brother Surjan just a child, Anahi saw opportunity to use her education and 'family ties' with the Griffiths as leverage. She persuaded her father to allow her more agency within SCT's London office, quickly whipping its lackadaisical employees into shape and extending SCT's lifespan an additional two years. This success under her belt, Anahi's next persuasion was easier to swallow: Allow her to travel to America and spy on the cotton industry there.

Happy to spare himself the long trip from Calcutta and offload his widowed daughter, William gladly agreed to Anahi's plan. Within months, she was packed up, and sailing to New Alexandria, where a cheap but serviceable cotton mill was said to exist in Lemoyne. She was to secure a mill for transport, and perhaps even a little plot of American land to expand the SCT into stronger footing. Once this was done, Chaaya and William were already in the works for Anahi's next possible suitor...

Present Life 

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What her parents didn't know is Anahi never intended to go home. Sure, she was a Shaw embarrassment now, but what about a disgrace? As soon as her feet touched the Saint Denis docks, Anahi swore to find a way to utterly ruin her reputation to the point that no man would ever touch her, and her family would never ask her to return.

As of yet, the plan to disgrace herself has gone poorly. She works as a tailor in Ashley's Tailor Shop, and has recently joined the folds of the Leone Family. With occasional visits from Saanvi (Piya's mother and family busybody) to keep an eye on Anahi, she keeps her head down. She waits for the opportunity to ruin herself, and be rid of the Ghost of Nedry, whom Anahi is convinced haunts her journal.

Anahi's current social circle is tight-knit, with a small handful she trusts with her most innermost secrets, and outside of that she keeps as a shield of friendly bullet sponges. But even to those she unveils herself with, she does so with high defenses and caution - spinning her personal truths as family stories or deflecting emotions too big for her to handle.

After the fires, there have been some dramatic changes to Anahi's life.
The scattering of the Leone Family lead her to have to seek safety from The Cards on her own. Having taken shelter with Abilene Morgenstern and her friends, Anahi learned that her social circle was much wider than she thought it to be. Anahi has since broken ties with Ash Smith, starting her own tailor shop (Ānahāta Sōnā), and joining the ranks of the judiciary.

Affiliations 

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Ānahāta Sōnā, Shaw Cotton Textiles, Ashley's Tailor Shop, The Leone Family

Quotes 

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• "Mercy."
• "No." -- in response to a client's questionable outfit choices.
• "No." -- in response to red/black color combinations.

Trivia 

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• As mentioned above, Anahi detests outfits with red/black combinations.
• She often keeps her hair up, because if she let it down, it would fall to mid-thigh.
• Favorite sport is Frogstomping.
• Favorite flower are Bloodflowers.
• Anahi is uneasy around scarecrows, due to an incident with some cultists in Rhodes.
• It's rumored that the SCT didn't make off with all of her late husband's riches. Anahi's amethyst brooch has 'Griffith 1807' etched into the back of it, and there is a British National Bank ledger on the desk in her room...