dvarapala

[dvarapala]

What caused you to start writing? What was your key point?

munday questions / @thieved

i've always been a story-teller. ever since i was able to hold a pen, i scribbled down everything from to-do lists to thoughts and poems. every so often i find old pages with story ideas from years ago. that's actually how @dvarapala got started. i'd been messing around with my dad - we were telling each other a story about elemental doors and he lost interest in it, but i didn't. so a few years back when i found those pages during our annual spring/summer deep clean moment, i figured: "i can do something with that." so i took the pages, reworked the story, and then got started on the story in dutch. but english always came easiest to me so i brought udyati to tumblr too, which is where she developed the most. i also rewrote her story in english and now i'm a handful of chapters away from finishing the most recent draft.

[dvarapala]

Lo's enthusiasm gets Udyati excited too. Even if the younger of the two has never, ever, seen - nor worked with - an immersion blender before. Soup, though! Soup is good.

@dvarapala

"RIGHT! Okay, I will remember that!" So she and totally not her mun may have forgotten the term "immersion blender", but the enthusiasm remains. Soup!

[dvarapala]

"I am. Very much so." A nod and then: "I'll try my best. Might slip up once or twice but---I'll do my best."

@dvarapala, from here.

"You would perhaps be surprised by how many people try to avoid that fact." A beat, then: "And please don't call me 'ma'am'; just Sigyn is absolutely fine."

[dvarapala]

MAITREYI RAMAKRISHNAN on INSTAGRAM

[dvarapala]

Mairead Small Staid, from "An Improvement in Stairs"

[dvarapala]

𝐌𝐘  𝐀𝐑𝐓: a  space  girl  &  her  pirate .

I’d  only  just  finished  Ud’s  piece  when  I  saw  the  ask  you  sent  me  and  I  just  wanna  say,  while  I’m  insanely  hopeless  at  staying  in  contact  and  answering  messages,  I  think  about  these  two  at  least  once  a  week.  Ud  is  such  an  incredible  character  and  is  insanely  desirable,  not  just  as  an  ally  or  friend,  but  also  as  a  partner.  She’s  incredible,  and  the  connection  between  her  and  Harry  transcending  the  multi-verse  and  all  the  spaces  in-between  makes  me  so  happy.  Happy  New  Years!

@dvarapala        |        @tiderider ​

only  those  tagged  can  reblog,  thank  you !

[dvarapala]

“Ud! I need you to remind me of any dietary restrictions you have.” It’s been a minute, between the magical heroics and the doors and whatnot. “I got a soup blender and I’m going to make it everyone’s problem.”

askbox fun / @starfoam

"...a soup blender?"

sure, why not? slender shoulders rise and fall as the younger of the two quips: "not many, if any. i don't eat beef. that's about it. that's my hard no. anything else? fair game."

[dvarapala]

♡ MAITREYI RAMAKRISHNAN via tiktok ( maitreyiramakrishnan )

[dvarapala]

She's one of the few people who should have definitely already been there, but wasn't, by the time she slips inside. She's hoping for a place at the back. Or maybe a seat in the corner.

But all of that goes out the window the minute Ravi spots her. It's just as well. Maybe if she asks really nicely, he'll tell the teachers that she'd been here all along (when she clearly wasn't).

(It's not that she skips classes often - or at all - it's just that she's had to deal with a... well, personal emergency. Of sorts.)

"Bhaiya!" she beams, waving back. "Fancy meeting you here! How's Career Day treating you so far? Do you want to go home yet? I know I do."

@dvarapala liked for a Ravi starter

The gym is bustling with activity, and honestly, Ravi is trying his level best not to get trampled by a dozen, half-feral high schoolers. Whatever possessed him to volunteer his very limited free time to Career Day? And can it really be called volunteering if he gets paid for it?

He doesn't make the rules; he just works here. Well, not here-here--San Fernando only has one fire station, and it's not the 118.

He strips out of his flak jacket within the first hour of being in the overcrowded, overheated gym. He doesn't see the point in dressing up in full turnout gear, but apparently, it brings in the kiddos, so feeling much like a show pony, Ravi does his level best to smile and charm groups of apathetic teens to try on some gear, take some flyers, and redirect them to the truck outside. He spots a familiar face in the crowd. No way! ❛ Ud! ❜ He lifts his hand to wave.

[dvarapala]

"Gods, you're such a goofball. But I appreciate it. Thank you. Look, even if you pet a cat or a dog out there or something---hellish or otherwise, just wash your hands afterwards. Soap, disinfectant. You don't want to know what happened the last time Amma got an allergy flare up. It was a lot."

"... Yes, ma'am." Immediately serious. "I won't even glance at a hellhound. You have my word."

[dvarapala]

Z bringing back some illustrations they had made of different places that they had been. "Been too long. Are you busy by any chance? I'd love to just.. chill for a bit, if that's alright?"

hanging out with @escapedartgeek

"never too busy for you, z! c'mere, sit down! i just made some chai that we can share."

"oh, wow," she breathes as she thumbs through several illustrations. "that---all of that looks amazing!"

z is so talented! it always makes her smile. not for the first time, udyati takes a moment to make a secret little wish because she wants z to get all of their heart's desires, and then some.

"wait, wait," she says, then, "where's this one from?" she points to an illustration that looks much more cosmic than the others. "can i go there too? it looks so... sparkly!"

[dvarapala]

Haiku

by Karen Yuan

Have we met? The way we navigate this far, tired planet is the same

[dvarapala]

the same goes for @starfoam too. lo deserves everything in life and udyati vc: the fact that lo is not, in fact, getting everything she deserves in life makes me want to throw baby knives.

[dvarapala]

every single time ud comes to the realization that no one has wined and dined @moonsromance yet, she gets angry all over again to the point of (internally) stomping her feet on the ground like a little kid, because vi deserves all the romance; he deserves a good man who loves him for all he is and can be. he deserves to have good times. he deserves to be the one pursued instead of doing the pursuing.

[dvarapala]

"No, you can't. My mom is allergic. To hounds, hellish or otherwise; to all animals with hair, really. Sucks, yeah, but that's how the cookie has crumbled."

"Wait----- you can train a hellhound like a dog?!?!"

[dvarapala]

Udyati scrunches up her nose. "You're a goober but I love you too." She lightly touches Em's nose, almost like a boop but not quite. "This is probably why you are the prank master out of the two of us."

Well, that, and Udyati never quite has the energy to come up with all of those shenanigans herself the way Em seems to.

Xe has a gift.

"Do we have anything else on the docket today or can we just chill?"

@dvarapala cont. from x

"i love you too." the look on her face can only be described as impossibly fond, yet udyati's eyes narrow anyway. "now, what did you do?" she asks, and when em doesn't respond - she sees the twinkle in xer eye and the grin that's threatening to break free any minute now - udyati repeats her question: "em? what did you do?"

"Reminded you that you're the best and I love you!"

Em explodes into a fit of giggles. After getting xer breath back, xe reiterates, hands raised in the air,

"Really, that's all I did. I just wanted to see how you'd react if I took that approach. I promise."

And Em doesn't make promises lightly.

[dvarapala]

his praise coaxed forth a smile rarely seen, bright and radiant like the sun, blooming on her lips like the neela kurinji - a purplish blue flower that bloomed only every twelve years or so; a shrub that took it's time, adapting to any and all environments.

so, too, would she.

if she knew anything with utmost certainty, it was this: harry hook would not steer her wrong. not now, not ever.

❝ yes, ❞ udyati murmured, almost immediately, like it was a no-brainer. like she didn't even really need to think about it. like there was only one place for her - by his side. (his and uma's and gil's and the other pirates, certainly, but by his side, most of all, was where she belonged.) ❝ like i said, ❞ her smile was still present as she held up a pinky finger, half jokingly, half serious; she'd swear, if he wanted her to, ❝ i will be here, right by your side, for as long as you'll have me. ❞

we'll be fine. we can adapt to a hostile environment.

❝ you and me, ❞ she mused, then. ❝ that sounds nice. i like the sound of that. ❞

for a moment, udyati didn't say anything. then she made a face as a thought came to her, unbidden. ❝ you know what the weirdest thing is about all of this? the people here think that we don't know. that we can't see what they're doing. it's like hiding behind the curtains except your feet are sticking out from underneath. ❞ perhaps not the most graceful of analogies but it got her point across. ❝ they're all like: 'oh, we want to help the isle!' but then they never actually follow up with concrete plans and actions to take. they want the pat on the back without doing the things to earn it. they want---hm, how do i say this properly? ❞ sometimes words were hard. especially if a tongue mastered more than one language. ❝ they want change, they say, but not at the expense of their comfort. ❞

this was quite the roundabout way of getting back to his question, but she got there in the end. wanna shake things up with me?

❝ quick question--- ❞ there's nothing but warmth and boundless affection in her voice. ❝ ---how exactly does one go about shaking things up in a place like this? ❞

his upper lip curled back in a soundless snarl, teeth bared with a mixture of disgust and anger. the isle might have been a cesspit but at least he could see the shit for what it was. auradon dressed their streets, buildings, and people in gold and sunlight to distract, but beneath the shine and the pearly white smiles, auradon was rotten and the people in it had traded their freedoms and their values for false security. a gilded cage was still a cage.

harry met udyati's warm gaze as she spoke. to conform to auradon's idea of personhood felt like it would be a betrayal, not only to the isle or to uma, but to himself. how could anyone bend themselves into a shape for others just to be digestable? he could already see the way that the others were changing, how easily they slipped into the new world, shedding their skins to become something unrecognisable. he was pleased that udyati had no intention of following their lead.

❝ that's what i like to hear. ❞ harry praised, his expression shifting into one of pride and satisfaction. ❝ it's me and you against the world now, ud. you wanna shake things up with me? ❞ // @dvarapala , continued from here .