#inksplotch

@yourfriendphoenix

Dare you to make your oc

This somehow turned out to be really really inspired, albeit, extremely inadvertently. Again, el esta un doodle para mi fin de semana (pardon me showing off my terrible Espanol (again, your resident dreamer, trying a lot of different things)).

A YouTube channel comprising of three of the people I've literally adored and followed through the years started today, as a rebellious force, speaking truth to power in this day and age. The channel, is named 'The Red Mike' l 'लाल माईक (in Hindi, since it is primarily, a Hindi news channel) '. Red being a symbol of the previous news organisation they hail from, and being a symbol for the following, so beautifully spoken by them:

"लाल रंग है, इंकलाब का,

लाल रंग है, उम्मीदों का,

लाल रंग है, प्रेम का,

लाल रंग है, जीवन का,

लाल रंग है, मेरी मां की बिंदी का।"

It goes like this,

" Red stands for revolution,

Red stands for hope,

Red stands for love,

Red stands for life,

Red is the colour of the vermillion that adorns my mother, in all her maternal glory"

Ugh! The mandatory taglist remains:

@chaanv @vidhurvrika @melancholicmonody @bleedinknight @shaonsim @ambidextrousarcher @carminavulcana @demonkidpliz @paneerlajwanti

Also, here's the skeleton:

Hello everyone!

We’re a virtual bookclub dedicated to tumblr user ink-splotch’s book series, Leagues and Legends.  Participants can read the book and participate in a Discord server to discuss the series. The author describes the genre of the series as “semi-realistic fairytale adventure, coming of age, a school story, weird death obsession, a pot of lies, everyone is traumatized, cute gays.”  We are starting the second of three books, Echoes of a Giantkiller next week.  If you haven’t read the first book yet, you can definitely catch up and join us.  All books are FREE and can be found here. Both rereaders and first time readers are welcome.  And you can be a member of the Discord even if you’re not reading the series with the book club.

Schedule November 26 - December 2 | Echoes of a Giantkiller, Chapters 1 - 4 December 3 - 9 | Chapters 5 - 8 December 10 - 16 | Chapters 9 - 13 December 17 - 23 | Chapters 14 - 18 December 24 - 30 | Chapters 19 - 22 December 31 - January 6 | Chapters 23 - 27 January 7 - 13 | Chapters 28 - 32 January 14 - 20 | Chapters 33 - 38 This schedule has everyone reading around 60 pages a week.  Reading ahead is fine, as is falling behind.  If you haven’t read the series before, then you can read the first book and catch up, there are appropriately spoiler free zones.

Why should you read it?

The writing style is poetic, the characters are maybe a bit too real (in that when they are in pain, you will feel it), the messages are insightful.  It’s a deconstruction of fairy tales as much as it is a story about people.  It’s a story about finding a family, about finding who you are, a story about what it means to help people, what it means to help yourself, it’s a story about what it means to be a hero. Does it have representation?

Yes! All of the main characters are POC, the vast majority of the characters are disabled, many of them autistic (as well as the author).  There are a lot of queer characters including gay characters, lesbians, an intersex character and a trans woman (the last two are in the second and third books).

Fandom: Mahabharat (TV 2013) | The Mahabharata

Source: Draupadi-Satyabhaama Samvaad Parva

Prompt by: @chaanv

Note: This is a conversation between Krishna and Satyabhaama, after they return from their visit to the Pandavas in exile. While enlightened by Draupadi's love and devotion towards her husbands, Satyabhaama is still rattled by the events that had led to the exile. The portrayal of the characters and the conversation herein is entirely the author's perception of human behaviour, based on the chapter linked above.

Taglist: @chaanv , @vidhurvrika , @melancholicmonody, @bleedinknight, @ambidextrousarcher, @demonkidpliz

Caveat: Posting from my mobile since my laptop has taken a trip to hell.

_________

Satyabhaama feels a tranquil turbulence within her once she leaves the abode of the Pandavas. Her conversation with Panchaali has been a very detailed one. And her return to Dwaravati, is unusually contemplative.

“Do not worry for them, Satya,” Krishna’s voice drifts into her thoughts, almost as if it were one of them.

“It isn’t the Pandavas that I’m worried about, or even thinking about, for that matter.” Satyabhaama replies, in a voice louder than intended. Krishna knows better than to speak to his currently preoccupied spouse.

***

“I really don’t understand, Jiji,” she confides in Rukmini, on one of the following days, “her endurance is superhuman.”

“She really has sufferred more than you and I, Sister,” her sister-wife says, in a manner of resignation.

"Her circumstances are vastly different,” Rukmini continues, “much like Queen Damayanti of yore.”

So different, Satyabhaama thinks to herself.

***

“Would you have wagered any one of us, Arya?” she eventually asks Krishna, out of nowhere, on one of their nighttime walks in the gardens of their palace.

The answer is quite what she expects, silence.

Satyabhaama, for her part, is in no hurry. There are times when her husband is human, and just as vulnerable as anyone else on God’s green earth.

Krishna’s silence isn’t diplomatic. He knows that his favourite wife means to test him, and hurt him in the process, even if He had been the saviour. As if it were on her to exact the answers for Draupadi -

-Questions that were still unanswered.-

“What answer would you wish for me to provide, My Queen?” Satyabhaama feels cornered, probably betrayed, in her own game, by her own hand.

Trust The Trickster to come up with a battle of wit!, she thinks.

“You seem to tergiversate, Husband,” she says sternly.

Another jibe, another barb. Even for all his silence, Krishna cannot stop his lips from curling into a smile.

“This is no contest, Satya,” he willingly gives in. After all, he knew the magnitude of hurt she had felt right after they’d walked out of The Pandavas’ hermitage. Her confabulation with Panchaali had been enlightening.

“I’m bound to ask, Arya,” she doesn’t hide her turmoil either, “Just why does she still have to endure” –

She comes to a grinding halt, before embarking on a much awaited monsoon of a tirade.

“My Love,” Krishna attempts to stem her flow, while attempting to assuage her turbulence, “it was sheer zemblanity,” –

__________

Draupadi’s call haunts him to this day.

Even He, doesn’t know how he had done it. He just remembers her crimson cloth tied around his finger, to prevent further flow of blood from being cut by The Sudarshan Chakra.

“Every thread shall be repaid, Krishne,”

“In vermillion, as bright as it adorns the parting of your hair.

In gold, as lustrous as it adorns your empyrean form.

In blue, as the peacock whose feathers I savour.

In fire, for Your Sire.”

__________

“I’d called out to Everyone, Satya. Each one of You, as she called out to Me.” Krishna’s voice is heavy, and earnest.

“It was too overpowering,” his calm attempts to conceal the minuscule of a tremor in his voice. Only His wives know that he trembles, in his corporeal form.

“Only when I could envision all of You,” he sighs, betraying nothing, “that I knew that I had succeeded.”

Satyabhaama remembers the fatigue, the exhaustion, that had made him age a decade after he had returned from the damned War that had prevented his presence in the accursed Sabha of The Kurus.

He hadn’t been the quite the same ever since. His outwardly gait was disarmingly deceptive, but, she knew, that The Slayer of Madhu had a strengthened resolve. His silences were louder than ever.

“I’ll set everything right, My Love.”

So-

I've been away for the longest time, and well, so far, it seems as if it has been ages since I'd written something here, and @demonkidpliz 's writing kind of prompted me to throw it out here. Not that anyone asked for it.

Goodness, it has been so SO LONG! Just tagging people here for a slight knock. I just, love you all so so much, that I'll probably find my way in here eventually! :D

@demonkidpliz @vidhurvrika @bleedinknight @chaanv @alwaysthesideofwonder @raat-jaaga-paakhi @carminavulcana @pratigyakrishnaki @phandomoftheowl @kalpansh

And anyone else here. Heaven knows I've forgotten such a lot.

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Fandom: Mahabharat/StarPlus Mahabharat

Pairings: Bheema/Draupadi

Warnings: Mentions of War | PTSD | Trauma | Bloodshed

Summary: The Second Pandava deals with ghosts of the War. Alone.

Disclaimer: This is entirely a work of fiction, based on an idea I had while reading C. Rajagopalachari's version of the Mahabharata. But I do have to say this, this has a lot to offer that is different from the Mahabharata that is actually popular. I just hope that this resonates with the readers, and you read this, and find this worth your time and your feedback. Please leave a short comment or a like, whatever you may deem fit. And as always!

THANK YOU!

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Chapter 1:

The Shadows:

“My Lord,” an earnest call beckoned to him in the midst of a dimly-lit Kridangan. The voice doesn’t serve as an intrusion or an offence, since, his pursuit of the arena is more habitual than practical these days. Yet, a phantom lightness in his being bids him to ignore it.

“He might not have heard us, Mother,” another voice caresses his ear, this time from a boy, probably no older than Abhiman-

Vrikodara closes his eyes, in a desparate attempt to stop himself from recalling the name. 

The resignation in the older woman’s conduct seems to register with him.

“Pardon me, Mother,” he says, hoping they had heard him before they left.

Hoping it would stop them.

—----

“I have no use for sparrers, Mother,” he says, much to the chagrin of the widow who had brought her son along for employment in the Palace of the Kurus. The boy’s Father, he was told, was a soldier in the cavalry of Hastinapura. 

“If My Prince may spare us some consideration,” the lady kept her eyes lowered, much to Bhimasena’s relief, “my late husband, once served as a sparrer for the princes and kings in the castle, as did his father before that,”

“The Younger Queen Mother, was kind enough to refer us to you, My Lord,” she continued, breaking the Second Pandava with every word she spoke.

“Mother,” Bheema managed to speak, “I shall be obliged, if you would be kind enough to speak to The Queen,” he turned his eyes towards the boy, “I’m certain, he shall find employment elsewhere herein,”

He left, with folded hands, and his gaze lowered, before the knot in his chest tightened further.

—----