#nimaya-verse

[avani008]

For @panur, who wanted several drabbles in the Nimaya-verse, namely: (1) canon Bhalla finding contentment in the AU he’s been shifted into, (2) canon Kattappa working out the difference in Bhalla, (3) Nimaya! Bhalla bringing about a reconciliation between Sivagami and Baahu and (4) a cracky Nimaya-based AU where Bhalla becomes an artistic Kumar Varna’s muse.

*

It’s the birth of Baahu’s brat that does it. Not that Bhalla is to be accused of any avuncular sentimentality; he would not falter to see the child strangled, and still might if it does not stop screaming—but there is something to the scene before him, Kattappa’s face threatening to split from his smile, Mother forgetting herself sufficiently to disregard the baby spitting up moments after she takes it, Mahen—the brat reaching its tiny fists trustingly (or is that challengingly?) towards Bhalla. The heir to the throne looks to have all Devasena’s mercurial temper, the crown is on his brother’s head and not Bhalla’s own, and yet his shoulders are set low, a bubble of what is not-quite-laughter centered in his chest, and this can only mean—

“I’m happy,” Bhalla discovers, taken aback, and ignores, with some dignity, Devasena’s snort in response.

*

At first Kattappa assumes Bhalla will refuse his request. Why should he not? It is for the royal family to give orders, and Kattappa to obey, rather than the other way around; but despite his fears, the prince is outside Kattappa’s quarters at daybreak.

“Yes?” He demands, not a little impatiently. “What is it? Are we under attack?”

“Nothing of the sort, my prince.” Kattappa kindly pretends not to notice how Bhalla droops with disappointment. “It was only—I wished to ask you a question.”

The prince does a poor job of hiding his surprise—you called me all this way so something so simple?—but holds his tongue, which firms Kattappa’s resolve.

“It has not escaped my notice,” he begins, before he can think better of it, “that you appear….changed, these last few months.” As ill-tempered as ever, but not as prone to the dangerous fits of brooding. Less fond of the company of his despicable father.

Almost—affectionate, in his way, towards his brother.

Bhalla does not deny any of this. Instead he laughs, almost out of surprise. “And here I thought,” he says, “that you were incapable of noticing anything that didn��t have to do with your precious Baahu!”

The bitterness, however slight, in the prince’s voice keeps Kattappa from rattling off another comparison to dogs and their observational skills out of sheer habit. True, Baahu was dearer to him in a way that defied comparison; but Kattappa trained Bhalla as well, and a teacher cannot help but care for his pupils, particularly one as gifted as the elder prince had been.

“Not so,” he says gently, “but as the change seemed to bring you happiness—seemed to have given you peace, I thought it best not to mention it.” Bhalla studies him curiously. “Then why now?”

“Because you are not the prince I knew, and only now did it occur to this fool to ask what had become of him.” Demons he had considered, and gods, too: but in none of his fancies had he wondered what had become of Bhallaladeva. He has been grateful to this new Bhalla for bringing new warmth into the Royal Family, for allowing his Baahu to be King—but not if it comes at the cost of having Bhallaladeva suffer.

The man before him considers. “I am not certain myself,” he says. “I woke up….here without notice. But I wonder—if I found myself here, might not be be left behind in my place?”

A more difficult prospect to arrange a rescue, but Kattappa will not falter. But before he does: “Is he happy there, do you think?”

Bhalla smiles. “I think he must be,” he says with sudden assurance, and for Kattappa, that is enough.

*

Mother, Bhalla decides at last, is being ridiculous.

Initially he assumed that her wrath could only last so long, but weeks have passed, still with her stony silence. She attends advisory meetings only under the greatest duress; she will not so much as answer Baahu even when he asks her opinions on the weather. Bhalla found this mystifying at first, then strangely amusing, and now outright tiring.

Therefore, he decides: no more.

The trouble is that Mother doesn’t seem inclined to cooperate. His initial efforts do not meet with success; and how was he to know that talking to her of his brother’s (and, much as it pains him, sister-in-law’s) positive traits would irritate her? Or that sending Baahu and Mother to supposed meetings where they should be the only two present would only lead to more awkwardness?

“If,” comments Baahu, “you are trying to convince me you aren’t suited for diplomacy in the slightest, rest assured you have been successful.”

Bhalla ignores him; his mental acuity is put to better use thinking up reconciliation rather than insults.

“You worry too much,” says Baahu, “just like Devasena. All will be well, once Mother sees her grandchild.”

Easy enough to proclaim, less so to believe, and outright impossible to effect when Mother, being Mother, refuses to see the newborn child. Devasena huffs, Baahu seems heartbroken, and Kattappa hangs his head. It falls to Bhalla to take action—as always!—and so he seeks Mother out where she sulks in her darkened quarters.

“Is this,” he asks, “how they will remember the Queen Mother Sivagami? Too frightened even to look upon an infant?”

He retreats before she can retaliate, but the words have their intended effect. Hours later Mother sweeps into Baahu’s bedroom, peering down critically into the cradle.

Everyone else present holds their breath, save Bhalla: are they all so ignorant of Mother’s greatest weakness? Apparently so, by the way no one else seems to notice the softening of her smile as she looks down at the infant, or the manner in which she instinctively leans closer.

“He’ll do,” she murmurs at last, and stretches a hand down to the sleeping Mahendra Baahubali, and everyone sighs as one.

Bhalla congratulates himself on a job well done.

*

“Your choice in subjects,” Devasena wrinkles her nose, almost as though she can’t help it, “is contemptible.”

“Inspiration is blind,” replies Kumar Varma loftily, though he’s a trifle unsure that he remembers the phrase correctly. “It strikes where it will.”

They stare at the painting before him together, half incomplete but still clearly showing the elder prince of Mahishmati. And whatever she might think, Kumar Varma is not to be faulted if Prince Bhallaladeva provides the most fitting subject to immortalize in paint—that it also irritates him is an unanticipated blessing.

Devasena sighs, forbearing to roll her eyes. “If you must, then—though I don’t suppose you could work in a wild beast preparing to pounce and tear him to shreds?”

[avani008]

5+ HEADCANONS ABOUT IT for Nimaya!verse Bhalla

(I’m mashing up both prompts if that’s ok—the other, FYI, was more about Nimaya! Bhalla and his niece)

1. One child, Bhalla thinks crossly when news comes of the Queen’s condition, is more than enough, particularly when the first is as wretched a brat as Mahendra—but since when has Baahu ever heeded his brother’s sage advice? Certainly not when it comes to his beautiful wife (or, for that matter, his opinions on fashion, politics, and the sheer simple joy of smashing a bull’s skull under one’s fists) and the child is brought into being.

Bhalla despairs, visions of Mahendra in duplicate  filling his mind, but he surprises himself when confronted by the newborn by taking to it. It’s quieter, at least, than Mahendra was at that age, and the excuse of minding it saves him from the doldrums of listening to paupers’ petitions more than once.

2. Devasena, wary as ever, eyes him unhappily whenever he holds his niece, clearly suspecting him of dashing her brains out at the first opportunity, but Baahu is as trusting as she is not.

Instead he only raises his eyebrows at Bhalla, who is balancing the baby in the crook of his elbow, and drawls: “You grow more like Mother by the day.”

“Humph,” replies Bhalla.

3. Which is an entirely ridiculous claim. He does not sing to the child, or babble nonsense in that ridiculous falsetto she uses, or be altogether too easily manipulated by the slightest coo.

(Save for that one time. And that one other, but at least Baahu wasn’t present to look smug, so that it doesn’t matter.)

4. All too soon it becomes clear Shivu will not follow in his footsteps after all. He harbors vague hopes of teaching her the way of war—the proper way, not that soft-hearted drivel her parents preach—but she is a quiet girl, finding more joy in philosophical debate or political manuscripts than using any of the prodigious strength she’s inherited. There can be no question which of the royal children is best suited to the throne. So much the better, Bhalla reckons, even if it does mean he will have to train up Mahendra to be the next Commander-in-Chief if it kills them both—as it might well. He does not mind. He is dreadfully pleased and proud of her slightest achievement, so much so that he wakes up one morning and realizes:Almighty preserve me, I’ve become old Kattappa, all over again.

5. He wonders sometimes what Shivu might be been in this world his presence disrupted, but never for long: somehow, he can never quite rid himself of the conviction that she might never have come to be, and a world without her is not to be endured.

(For the sake of keeping Mahishmati’s fashion industry from becoming an eyesore, if nothing more.)

[avani008]

Tumblr-Exclusive Fic Index

Baahubali

Hitopadesa, 6 years later

Hitopadesa, 1 year later

Snippets from the future of “Amukha” and “Nidhana”

Amarendra and Devasena watching a teenage Mahendra flirt (badly)

Nidhana! Mahendra’s first steps

Four years before and eighteen years after Nidhana

A reformed Bhalla reflects in the future of a Nidhana AU

Sivagami POV, after the end of Chapter 2 of Nidhana

Two more things that never happened to Amarendra Baahubali

Dhivara, one year later

Nidhana-verse, four years before Chapter 1

Nidhana-verse, Bhalla, two years before Chapter 1

Nimaya, one year later

Kathaavali, Chapter 14, the darkest future

Kathaavali, Chapter 14, the brightest future

Vilomita, Amarendra/Devasena courtship x 2

Vilomita, Amarendra/Devasena happily ever after x 4

Bidaai, one month later

Amarendra/Devasena in Marsa

Five Times Amarendra Tried to Kiss Devasena in the Nidhana Verse

Five Things Amarendra Never Told His Mother

Five Things Avantika Wished She Could Be

Five Times Nidhana-verse Mahendra Sneaks Away

Five Decision Sivagami Regrets

Five Things We Never Learned About Bhallaladeva

Fic and Graphic, Grandmama Baahu backstory

Sumitra, Poetry Fic Meme

Devasena, Poetry Fic Meme

Amarendra, Poetry Fic Meme

Kumar Varma, Poetry Fic Meme

Bhallaladeva, Poetry Fic Meme

Sivagami, Poetry Fic Meme

Sivagami and Baahu Canon Divergence AU

Sivagami & (Grand)mama Baahu Drabble x 2

Amarendra/Devasena, Mamihlapinatapei

Devasena & Sivagami, Strikhedonia

Sivagami & Mama Baahu, Capernoited

Five Things About Varuni (Nidhana-verse)

Shakti & Mahendra, Vanmost, (Asi-Verse)

Bhalla, Storms

Mama and Papa Deva, Latibule

Devasena & Jayasena, reunion in the rebel camp

Devasena, Five Kisses That Never Were

Sivvu, Five Things She Learned

Five Things Kattappa Left Out of His Story

Amarendra/Devasena, Happiness

Sivagami & Bhalla, Gamble

Gopu & Mahendra, post-Nidhana

Bhalla, Nimaya-verse drabbles x 4

Three Promises Devasena Broke and One She Did Not

Three Ornaments Mama Deva Valued, And One Weapon She Had

Three Ways Sumitra Did Not Die, and One Life She Never Lived

Three Lives Sivagami Saved, and One She Destroyed

Three Letters Grandmama Baahu Sent, and One She Never Did

Three Names Mama Baahu Considered Giving Her Children, and One She DId

Three Ornaments Devasena Valued, and One Weapon She Mastered

Three Ways Sivagami Did Not Die, and One Life She Never Lived

Three Ways Avantika Did Not Die, and One Life She Never Lived

Three Promises Sivagami Broke, and One She Kept

Three Secrets Sivagami Kept, and One She Revealed

Three Conversations Sivagami and Devasena Should Have Had, and Once They Should Have Stayed Silent

Three Times Baahu and Bhalla Laughed Together and Once They Wept

Baahubali/Devasena, missing scene discussing the three-arrow trick

Multiple 3+1 fills, Devasena

Multiple 3+1 fills, Mama Baahu

Multiple 3+1 fills, Mama Deva

Mama Deva, Fairy Tale Fusion

Mama Baahu, Fairy Tale Fusion

Devasena, Fairy Tale Fusion

Fic and Graphic: Amarendra/Devasena, Remington Steele fusion 

Fic and Graphic, Devasena, modern AU/Abhinav prequel

One Sentence Fic Index Post - various fics, often AU, for most of the main characters (Now expanded to include non-BB fics/characters, too!)

Headcanon Meme - Not an official fic, but collections of head canons each on various characters, mostly in the Baahubali Universe.

* Also check out the Pongal Prompt-a-thon Index Post, which lists even more of my Tumblr-only fic, as well as the amazing things my friends wrote which should not be missed!

Brooklyn 99

Ensemble, 10 sentence fic meme

Jodhaa Akbar

Bakshi Banu Begum, 10 sentence fic meme

5 Times Jalal and Adham were Brothers, and One Times They Were Not

Graphic: Movie Star AU: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Five Things That Never Happened to Ataga Khan

Bakshi & Jalal & Adham, childhood

Five People Bakshi Banu Begum Never Loved

10 Sentences, Jalal, Jodhaa, and Sujamal

Jaidev/Jalal  x2   x3   x4   x5  x6   x7  x8   x9  

Bakshi & Sujamal, Hogwarts AU

Sujamal & Bharmal, Oneirataxia 

Salima & Neelakshi, Psithurism

Bakshi/Sujamal, Post-Canon AU

Five Gifts Jalal Gave Jodhaa

Three Promises Hamida Broke and One She Did Not

Five People Who Taught Bakshi Banu Begum Something

Three Places Rani Padmavati Wanted To Visit, and One She Did

Jalal and Jodhaa, the swordfight scene

Salima, backstory

Jodhaa, just pre-Azeem-O-Shaan-Shahenshah

Fic and Graphic, History AU, Akbar and Elizabeth Tudor Form an Alliance

Mahabharata

Arjuna, Poetry Fic Meme

Subhadra & Draupadi

Kunti & Others

Brihannala & Uttara

Five Scars on Draupadi’s Body

The Mythology Alphabet Fic Challenge Index Post

Bhanumati, Amorevolous

Devaki/Vasudev, Tenderness

Uttar & Uttara, pre-Kurukshetra

Five Things We Never Learned About Sudheshna

Savitri: Five Sentences

Lakshmanaa: Five Sentences

Devaki/Vasudev, Trembling Hands

Rukmini & Draupadi, Friendship

Balarama and Krishna, Good Cop/Bad Cop

Five Things the Pandavas Took With Them Into Exile

Sudeshna & Her Children, Happiness

Bhishmuka & Krishna

Rukmini & Her Mother

Five People Who Visited Bhishma

Five Kisses That Never Were- Karna/ His Wife

Krishna/ Rukmini

Krishna/Rukmini, Celeberrimous

Krishna & Balarama

Five Times Draupadi Trusted Yudhisthira

Flower Meme, Multiple Couples

Three Things Draupadi Learned From Her Mother, and One She Taught Her Children

Three Secrets Kunti Kept, and One She Revealed

Five Times Arjuna Surprised Subhadra

Parikshit’s Favorite Family Member

Three Lives Kunti Destroyed, and One She Created

Three Gifts Radha Gave, and One She Received

Three Letters Rukmini Never Wrote, and One She Did

Three Names Draupadi Wanted to Give Her Children and One She Did

Three Ways Draupadi Did Not Die and One Life She Never Lived

Three Promises Bhanumati Broke and One She Kept

Three Conversations Krishna and Arjuna Should Have Had, and Once They Should Have Stayed Silent

Three Ways Karna and Arjuna Never Met and One Way They Parted

Three Times Arjuna and Draupadi Dreamed of Each Other, and Wish They Made

Three Conversations Draupadi and Krishna Should Have Had, and Once They Should Have Remained Silent

Devaki and Ugrasena, after their release from prison

Vaivasvati (Savitri & her siblings, gen)

Miscellaneous Movies

Om Shanti Om: Shanti, Five Sentences

K3G: Pooja, Five Sentences

Sholay, Radha, Pillar

Sholay, Basanti, Unclaimed

Padmaavat

Untitled and unfinished Padmavati & Mehrunissa fic

Padmavati &/ Mehrunissa, cultural differences

Untitled Padmavati &/ Mehrunissa & Nagmati follow-up 

Untitled Nagmati & Padmavati &/ Mehrunissa follow-up

Another Padmavati & / Mehrunissa followup, after the Compass Rose entry (see link below)

Canon-verse, Soulmark AU

Mehrunissa and Malik Kafur

Five Names Mehrunissa’s mother could have had

Five People who Noticed Padmavati/Mehrunissa Before They Did

Padmavati/Mehrunissa, Hunger Games AU

Padmavati/Mehrunissa, Mahabharata fusion

Pride and Prejudice

The Bennet girls turn into their parents as they age—but not as they expect

Ramayana

Five Sentences: Urmila

Sita and Her Sisters, Nightfall (Now with beautiful art by @allegoriesinmediasres)

Rama and His Brothers, Accost

Sita & Rambha

Five Scars Sita Has

Five People Who Taught Lakshmana Something

Kala & Indrajit

Indrajit & Sita

Lakshmana & Angad

Angad & Ruma

Three Ornaments Sita Valued, and One Weapon She Mastered

Kaushalya & Dasharata & Kaikeyi & Sumitra, Soulmark AU

Kaikeyi and Sita’s exile

Star Wars

Han/Leia, epistolary 

Five Times Rey Felt Lonely

Rose & Rey, TLJ AU

Multiple Fandoms

Five Headcanons About an AU Index

Platonic Relationship Headcanons Meme Index

An Alphabet of Legendary Ladies

Four Seasons Meme Index

Compass Rose Index

Mythological Character Headcanon Meme Index

3+1 Fics Index 

Trading Places Meme Index

Six Squared Meme Index

Another, Multi-Fandom Headcanon Meme

Baahubali/Jodhaa Akbar Crack Crossover

Baahubali/Hogwarts Crossover, McGonagall and Sivagami  x2

Photosets

Fake Movie Meme Index Post

Shakespeare, South Indian Style: x1  x2

Racebent Arthuriana: x1  x2     x3

Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer

Women of the Ramayan x1  x2   x3

Baahubali Photosets   x1     x2    x3  

Fancasting Meme: Mary Rose Tudor Bala and Ambika Baahubali

Star Wars: The (Racebent) Skywalker Family

Female! Krishna AU

Ramayana Cafe AU

bhaginī       x2

Vaidharbi    Kaushalya     Kashi-yatra

The House of Panchal, daemon AU

Kishkindha Royal Family, Harry Potter AU

Sita, Urmila, Ruma, Mandodari, daemon AU

Lanka Royal Family, Harry Potter AU

Harry Potter AU:      Abhimanyu & Pradhyumna     Arjuna        Subhadra 

                                 Mohini            Krishna              Rukmini      Panchal Siblings

                                 Apsaras

Draupadi (& Arjuna), after the war

Rukmini/Krishna, the shadow of her beloved

Rukmini/Krishna, Bollywood AU

Devaki/Vasudev, half sick of shadows

Sarama, Katiya Karun

Yudhisthira/Draupadi, the rubble or our sins?

Ram/Sita

Shakuntala & Pramadvara

Female! Pandavas

Urmila & Nidra Devi, Soulmark AU

Jodhaa Akbar, Daemon AU

Bhanumati, Soulmark AU

Subhadra, Soulmark AU

Satyabhama, Soulmark AU

Golden Girls AU, Soulmark AU

Jodhaa Akbar,  Jodhaa & Jalal Soulmark AU      

The Mothers of “Jodhaa Akbar”, Soulmark AU

Savitri, Daemon AU

Rama/Sita, Space AU

[avani008]

Nimaya verse - the other Bhalla with Amarsena

Bhalla is woken, rather earlier than he’d like, by the unexpected arrival of the Princess of Kuntala. He scrambles upright, silently cursing his guards–why did they lack the sense to bar a clearly angry Devasena? There is nothing for it; he braces himself for a fight. If she means to murder him, he’ll defend himself to the death.

She storms her way to the bed and scowls down at him. “Get up at once!” she commands. “I need you to talk some sense into my husband.”

A childhood raised by his mother has trained Bhalla to obey that tone in a woman’s voice at once, but: “Second thoughts, Devasena?” He adds a half-hearted leer, because he can. “I’m not surprised you regret your choice, but what would people say–”

Devasena doesn’t even allow him the courtesy of appearing offended. “I might have known,” she snaps, “that you would take your brother’s side!”

On cue, Baahu comes barreling through the doors to Bhalla’s bedroom–by the Almighty, are all his guards blind? Or dead?

“Devasena–” he begins, as though they’ve all met in the middle of a garden, or a courtyard, or anywhere at all that is not the bedroom where their sovereign is attempting to sleep.

“No!” responds his loving wife.

“If you would only listen–”

“If you would only realize that I am with child, not invalid–”

Bhalla has heard enough. “If both of you,” he roars, “would cease your chatter at once!”

Baahu looks over, utterly unconcerned. “Oh, there you are, Bhalla. Whatever are you doing still sleeping? The military drills begin at mid-morning, you know.”

Enough is enough. Bhalla flops backwards onto the bed, ordering his mind to cease this ridiculous dream. Even if it had been….not entirely unpleasant to see Devasena angry at someone other than him. Even if it had been strangely comforting to see Baahu’s face soften with affection once more instead of distrust. 

Bhalla closes his eyes and prepares himself to wake as a king.

[marauderstar]

I love the Nimaya verse

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