ruhi

a writer, when the foresaker muse returns to haunt me.

[theramblergal]

she/her. hindu. mahabharata enthusiast. queer and adorer of the madana mohana. in too many fandoms to count. complex emotions and relationships are my jam. the women of the epic have my heart. ask box is always open!

find me at: ao3 | pinterest | wattpad

[theramblergal]

The Case for Building Instead of Picking

Most platforms hand you a menu of premade characters. SweetDream hands you a blank canvas. You're not picking from someone else's imagination, you're building from your own, looks and personality and voice and history all the way down.

That's the purpose that makes it worth it. The companion you end up with feels personal because she literally is. And thanks to the quality of the chat and the visuals, the person you imagined is the person who shows up at sweetdream.ai.

[theramblergal]

Pradyumna and Mayavati should be Weird about each other, actually. Because you mean to tell me neither of them would have complicated feelings about each other?

Imagine the woman you think is your mother comes to you with romantic intent and when you’re horrified by that she tells you she’s not your mother and you’re not her son and all your life has been a lie.

Imagine the man, more like boy, really, who Mahadeva said would be your consort reincarnated, is who you have to raise. He calls you ‘mother’ and not Rati in that fond voice that you last heard millions of years ago. He is your husband but he’s also your child and they both exist at the same time.

And she’s the only one who knows all the aspects of your life and she’s the only key to your childhood so she’s the one who knows you best but she also lied to you your whole childhood and you can’t tell if you love her or hate her or want her.

Just. Them being Weird about each other.

[forgetmcnotts]

TV APPRECIATION WEEK 2025 || DAY 1: First TV obsession

CASTLE (2009 - 2016)

[theramblergal]

Anon game for authors

1. What is the first book you ever tried to write and what was its name?

2. What do you love and hate about your own writing?

3. Who is your favourite character from your own book or from an epic you love?

4. What would you love to try next a new story, a genre, a specific idea burning in your mind?

5. Do you wish to publish your work and why or why not?

6. What is the scene or character in your book that makes you feel terrible the one that haunts you?

7. Who is your least favourite character from the epic and why do they unsettle you?

8. Leave a message, advice, or motivation for writers who want to start writing now or dare to publish in the mythological or historical genre.

1. Eh, what exactly do I count as my first? I tried to write a story when I was in second grade, me and my best friends travelling to some magic land. I remember that story pretty clearly for having written it a decade ago lmao. But if I were to say when I began writing in earnest, I really wanted to write this mega-series on the Pandavas. I'd started off with their childhood in Shatashringa. It never went beyond two chapters, I think. I don't remember the name.

2. I really enjoy my writing! I'll go back and reread and laugh. Particularly, I like the emotionality of my writing. I love slowing it down and exploring the smallest things. I don't like how long I take to write, though. I used to be able to rip out 1k in under two hours. Now it takes me 5 hours across 6 days.

3. Ooh, hard one. Lila, my OC, will always have a special place in my heart. But from the Mahabharata, it has to be Arjuna. Though Krishnaa is almost also in first place. I really can't pick between the both of them.

4. Man, I have so many ideas that I don't think I'll be able to write them all in this lifetime. I would like to write a non-Mahabharata longfic, but at the same time, I also have so many Mahabharata-specific ideas. Two things I've been thinking about recently is my Nakula-Madri fic and also one on Ekanamsha. Ooh, and another on Pradyumna and Rukmini.

5. I mean, I usually write to publish my stuff. There are some stuff that are for my eyes only (and maybe a few loved ones, if they're so inclined), but those are far and few in between. Why? 'Cause I love hearing what other people think. Validation maketh the writer.

6. I can't name one specific scene/character that haunts me at the moment, since I'm not in the middle of any longfic. But all my unwritten works haunt me. The scenes paint a vivid image in my head; however, writing that down is another issue. I'm probably subconsciously afraid that the written word isn't going to match up to the brilliant scene I've written in my head. Which is a problem I'm currently dealing with.

7. I.. not sure? Like, I really don't like Karna, but I wouldn't say he unsettles me. He's also a compelling character to explore; I may rarely or never write on him myself, but I'm not beyond reading fics on him. Dhritararashtra is infuriating, but again understandable. That's the thing about the Mahabharata is that everyone has reasons to do what they did, and to flatten them out into bad and good strips away the nuance of the rich tale.

8. For writing: just put it to paper. You have an idea, a scene, a phrase, a character, anything? Put it to paper. Make it exist. You can make it better once it exists. Write it down, edit to your heart's content, dream more, add more, subtract if you need. Just so long as it exists outside your head. (I am trying to practice what I preach.) For the mythofiction genre specifically: your interpretations of characters and scenes may be different. That's cool. Don't be afraid to express them. Don't be afraid to write the characters because they're larger-than-life. Focus on one aspect of them, then practice, practice, practice as they say.

[quietwingsinthesky]

the dynamic between two people who love a third person so much and come to understand each other because of that is so important to me. you would put them first, and so would i. you understand why we have to save them from themself. i trust you with their life, and so, that means more than if i trusted you with mine. the love doesn't have to be the same, but it's powerful enough that you understand why you're not the only satellite drawn into their orbit.

[brainstreams]

[livingtheparadoxlife]

New SAB TV Mahabharata is really leaning into the absurdity of having a 100 guys running around the palace. Not even Duryodhan gaf.

[zeherili-ankhein]

Please share instances I wanna know the shitfuck that's happening on it cuz I have no idea lol

Also like this is one of the most valid questions when you come accross Mahabharata. Like tfym at one point 100 toddlers were rolling around the palace probably crying all at once 😭🙏

[krishna-priyatama]

Wait is this the new show called Hastinapur ke veer ?!?!

[krishna-priyatama]

Ok I just saw a clip of the show AND HELP-

Little Duryodhan is like main Yuvraj banane wala hu aahe jaake Raja banunga aur *gestures to his other brothers* tum sab banoge mere mantri-

Little Dushasan asks Bhaiya itne mantralaya bhi hai kya humare paas 😭😭😭😭

He calls Chitraverma and Chitrasen Chi-Chi 😭😭

Gestures to two random boys , tum dono sambhaloge Griha mantralaya

Dushasan says Bhaiya ye humare bhai nhi sevak hai 😭😭😭😭

This whole serial is a clusterfuck

[theramblergal]

Bro this is comedy gold 🤣

Someone's leaning into the sheer insanity of the fact that Duryodhana has 99 brothers lmao.

[theramblergal]

You don't live in India ?

Love your posts on the Pandavas

I do not, I'm in the US currently. But I have lived in India for over half of my life. Half-and-half, I should say.

Thank you! I'm hoping to get back to writing on them, it actually feels like it's been a long time since I've written stuff for the Pandava family.

[theramblergal]

My first crackfic (of sorts)!

I'm too exhausted to describe it, so I'll just post the summary here:

Saanvi, Krishnaa's well-meaning niece, posts to r/advice, as one does, about her aunt and her boyfriend, believing her aunt is cheating. The internet tries to help. The internet (and Saanvi, and most of her family) do not know about the other four.

You can read it here. I've used a bunch of AO3 work skins, which took me forever to do. I hope y'all enjoy, lol.

[khashanakalashtar]

Masterpost of AO3 Skins

Multipurpose

How To Change Text When the Cursor is Hovering Over by La_Temperanza

Another Changing Text On Hover by mackerel_cheese

Linked Footnotes by La_Temperanza

Making Complex Shapes / Hover-Over Effects / Choose Your Own Adventure / Changing Ao3’s Preset Headers: Author Notes, Chapter Titles, Fic Titles etc / Invisible Links+Link Aesthetic / Interactive Elements / Animation/ Retroactively Appearing Text by InfinitysWraith

Page Dividers by Linwelin

Email

Nonspecific email window by La_Temperanza

Basic Gmail by sunsetcurbed

More Gmail by DemigodOfAgni

Texting

You don’t need to code iOS, because 221b_ee made a generator for it

inspired by iOS by CodenameCarrot and La_Temperanza

Another version of iOS iMessage by Azdaema Codes

Retro iOS by Azdaema Codes

iOS, Android by gadaursan

iOS, Signal, and WhatsApp by lordvoldemortsskins

WhatsApp by ran_a_dom

WhatsApp by etc e tal

kakaotalk by beherrscht

LINE by noliteobdurare

LINE chat by ran_a_dom

Social Media

Facebook Messenger by ran_a_dom

Facebook post by BluebeardsWife

Tumblr by phyripo

Tweaks to that by Aposeopesis

Instagram by gadaursan

Instagram DMs by xslytherclawx

More Instagram DMs, including light and dark modes, by monarch_v

Incredibly comprehensive Twitter by gadaursan

Display case of gadaursan’s work by Fluffycorn_njst

More Twitter by starskin

Update by starskin

Yet More Twitter by etc e tal

Twitter, Reddit, and LiveJournal by aerynevenstar

Examples

Twitter mockup inspired by aerynevenstar by TheBrookesNook

Reddit by spookedcroon

Update by jinsake

More Reddit by knave_of_swords

Yet more Reddit (2020 version) by timstokerlovebot

SnapChat by Azdaema Codes

More SnapChat by starskin

Twitch Chat by Ultraviollett

4Chan by anonymous (cw: slurs and discussion of pedophilia in the live example)

Amazing Discord by unpredictableArtist

Slack derivation by me

Another Discord by Heterochromia_Mars

Tweaks by junietuesday25

Unspecified forum by fencesit

BlueSky post by anon

YouTube comments by LupaMoe

Blog post by intherainex

LiveJournal by sesuntaMew

bubble by me

Writing

Notebook Lined Paper by La_Temperanza

Post-It Notes by La_Temperanza

Letters and Stationery by La_Temperanza

With parchment backgrounds by allollipoppins (you can leave off the MDZS symbols)

Online newspaper article by ElectricAlice

Example

Simplified newspaper by Anubis_2701

Newspaper Article by lordvoldemortsskin

More documents by hangingfire

Online journal by enigmalea

Screenplay by astronought

Script or screenplay by Ninjabunny99

Screenplay on an actual piece of paper by junietuesday25

Shooting Script by Walzer

Calendar by Linwelin

AO3

AO3, including comment section by lordvoldemortsskin

AO3 header by ElectricAlice

Comment and Kudos buttons by La_Temperanza

Complete fic-within-a-fic by cheju

Gift fic email by rileys_words

Fandom Specific

Disco Elysium by SarunoHadaki

Blaseball by facingthenorthwind

Fire Emblem by gadaursan

  Tweaks by Clover_Zero

Deadpool’s Thinking Boxes by La_Temperanza

Homestuck extended by unpredictableArtist

Star Trek PADD by duskyspirit

Example

Incredibly expansive Among Us by Umbry2000

Another Among Us by mystyrust

S-Class by unpredictableArtist

IDOLiSH7 Rabbit Chat by associate

A3! LIME by associate

Runescape by fennfics

Nameless: the one thing you must recall by sqbr

Minecraft by Ultraviollett

Final Fantasy XIV Linkshell by Pent

Honkai Star Rail by Pent

Rain Code by faish

Ace Attorney by QuailFence

Other

Wikipedia by styletests

Scoreboard by revanchist

Google search by gadaursan

Yelp reviews by kiwiana

Amazon reviews by kiwiana

Silent film intertitles by Kitsune_Scribe

Zoom chat by mystyrust

Replika AI chatbot by FaeriMagic

Cards Against Humanity by L56895

Most can be found in the collections (also check the bookmarks) A Guide to Coding and Fanworks, AO3 Useful Workskins, and/or AO3 Social Media Workskins. If you’ve written a skin, add it to these collections!

[theramblergal]

Gurllll how are you!??? I feel like I haven't interacted with you in ages????

Also did you watch Krishnavataram? I haven't watched it yet but I've been given very mixed reviews..the visuals are stunning tho—

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Anu! It has been a long long while. <3

I did watch Krishnavataram! It's an eh watch. The visuals, the music, the dances are all very gorgeous. The women look absolutely stunning. Kanha's appropriately smitten. Very little disparaging, though that one "You might be Yadulakshmi, but I am Haripriyaa" dialogue was not it.

But beyond that, the storyline is not all that good. It tried to do too much, imo. Including Vrindavana, the Syamantaka mani tale, that all was to be expected because it's Bhama Jiji's tale. But pushing parts of the Mahabharata, the Parijaata leela, Tulabharam and Narakasura vadha in what was less than 45 minutes—it became a full on khichdi.

They clearly tried to show Bhama's character arc but it felt a little too rushed. They should've spent less time on Vrindavana, maybe.

(Also Kanha looks goofy asf in his half-armor during the Narakasura vadha scene. Like why chop off the bottom half just to show his abs lmao. Armor's supposed to protect you, not show off your physique.)

So it's fine as a one-time watch but not much more than that. Definitely listening to the songs on repeat though, haha.

[krsnaradhika]

Chat after a convo with @theramblergal I realized that if there's a common name for our man Kanhaai and the prasadam he gives us, it's holy snack. Both holy and snack. Both of them.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[theramblergal]

This is why we gotta plead with Yami Jiji to save us. Or who knows she might be too busy laughing to do anything.

[theramblergal]

Every time I write a realistic-modern AU of the Mahabharata, it always sticks in my mind about whether or not the characters know about the epic itself.

'Cause I lift names and relationships directly from the texts without much concern, lol, and wouldn't it be freaky if you were named Bhima and you had four brothers with the same names as the Pandavas from the epic, and your mother is called Pritha, and you're in love with a girl called Krishnaa who has a twin named Dhrishtadyumna?

Like, are they direct reincarnations? If they're not, how do they cope with the fact that one of their culture's biggest epics is basically their personal life? If the Mahabharata doesn't exist in that AU then how different does Indian culture turn out?

Too much meta for a crackfic, sigh.

[isbergillustration]

Prideful Awooing

[theramblergal]

Vishaka finds her by the stream. 

Her feet are barely immersed in the stream, yet enough that she can feel the running of the water against her feet. It shouldn’t feel anything like him. 

Yet—yet. It does.

The memory rises unbidden, as it is wont to do.

The tender, almost-ticklish skim of his fingers against her feet. His fingers stained a deep red from applying alta. The curve of his brow when he looked at her.

The world shades darker for a moment. Radha burrows her fingers into the grasses, grounding herself in the physicality of the force her fingers exert, letting the memory ebb and flow through her. Inhales, sharply. Exhales, for as long as her lungs will let her.

Once it is past, she opens her eyes again.

Vishaka is now seated by her, the reed basket she was carrying set beside her on the ground. The contents spill over: sweet-smelling jasmine buds, earrings, armlets and necklaces with shimmering lapis lazuli inset, rings of various precious stones, a freshly plucked red hibiscus.

Vishaka takes her braid and begins to undo it without any words; Radha shifts backward just enough that Vishaka doesn’t have to strain her arms while braiding. 

They sit in silence, the sounds of nature the only thing in Radha’s ears.

(She doesn’t have to strain, or imagine, to hear his flute.)

There is some sort of a hesitation underpinning all of Vishaka’s motions, Radha notices after a short while. A longer-than-normal delay when shifting her hair. A sharp, almost inaudible sigh every few minutes.

While Radha debates whether or not to call her out for it, she blurts it out.

“Kanha’s coming soon.”

Radha knows she hears the words, registers it even. But for a moment: the birdsong is louder than anything; the susurrus of the stream overpowers her hearing. Nature is all she can—all she will—hear. 

(The curve of his sly smile. The way his peacock feather danced in the wind.)

She has to breathe before she can speak.

Eventually, she says, while Vishaka is steadfastly placing the jasmine buds in her newly-braided hair, “What does Indulekha think of that?”

Vishaka stills for a second. Then continues.

“I think,” her voice is very light and little more than a whisper, “That she will go to him this time.”

Radha thinks back to the last time he had visited Vraja. It had been well over four years ago.

Indulekha had come to her in the forest that time, followed by a few other of her sakhis.

—

Radha heard Indulekha long before she came into view. The sharp clink of her bangles, the echoing step she carried with her well into adulthood; it all announced her arrival.

She came to stand in front of Radha, staring down at her. A few paces behind, Lalita, Tungavidhya and Sudevi all reached the pair, panting slightly, worry lining their faces. But they said nothing.

“Yes, Indu?” Radha asked mildly.

Indulekha made to drop to her feet beside Radha, but clearly thought better of it, and folded her arms.

“Kanha is coming. And unless you come with me, I’m not going to see him.”

Radha looked up at Indulekha. Indulekha looked at her. 

“No.”

“No?” Indulekha’s voice was disbelieving.

“No.”

“Why not?”

Radha inhaled softly. “A no is a no, Indu.”

“But why?” Indulekha pressed. “He’s here, Radha. Yes, he’s not here with us forever, but that’s only more reason to cherish what limited time we do have with him.”

Radha pursed her lips, and the leaves rustling was the only sound for a while.

Indulekha stared at her, and as the moments passed and it became more evident that she wouldn’t say anything, she threw an incredulous look at their friends.

Radha caught the motion, and her eyes shifted to the women behind them.

Lalita’s face was carefully neutral; Tungavidhya’s eyes were on the ground; Sudevi was watching them with an expression mixed with sorrow and love and regret.

Indulekha gestured to them. “Do you see what this does to us? Every time he comes? Every time you refuse to, Kishori? We follow you everywhere because we love you. But this costs us. Is our grief nothing to you?”

Radha sucked a breath in.

“It is not nothing.”

“Then why won’t you come?” It was a tired and helpless question.

Radha looked out at the forest. Rabbits ran across the green floor; squirrels scampered up the trees. For a moment, she envied the animals and plants their simplicity of life. What did it mean, to be love incarnate, if it could not be easy? Love was supposed to be easier than breathing.

It really wasn’t.

“You know, he asks after you. Every time he comes, Gaurangi, he looks off into the distance. It’s obvious he’s thinking about you. This—whatever you’re doing, you’re doing it to him too,” Indulekha waved her hand, frustrated and hurt. “Digging your fingers into the wound doesn’t hurt just you—it wounds us too. And him. You’ve made a shrine of your grief, Haripriyaa. Why do you worship at its altar when the object of your affection is actually here?”

Suddenly, everything was too still.

Radha did not breathe. 

Something gave way in Indulekha, and she sank to Radha’s feet. 

Tears in her voice, she asked again, “Why don’t you go to him?”

— 

Radha pulls herself out of the flashback, while Vishaka tenderly slides clinking bangles onto her arm.

Indulekha, despite their argument, stayed true to her word and stayed with Radha the whole time he was in Vraja—she sat in silence and anger and grief, but she stayed, regardless.

Finally, Radha says, “I think I have an answer to Indu’s question.”

Vishaka responds gently, “What is it?”

Radha rearranges her thoughts. Then, speaks: “It is a kindness we do each other.” We. As though it was not just her, it was him too. “The wound has been sewn together, at last. I do not think we have the strength to re-knit it together if it reopens every time we see each other. I have negotiated with my wounds and rearranged my life to accommodate these griefs, and I would rather live with the life I have right now than try to figure out new ways to bear this existence waiting for him.”

A breath later, she finds she has more to say.

 “How can I live, knowing he’s just out of my reach? Endlessly waiting to see him? It’s not the hundred years, Vishaka; that, I can endure. I cannot see him once every five years and spend the rest of the time yearning for him. I do not want to live like that. What is a hundred years to once every five years?”

Vishaka’s cool fingers rest on her forearm. Radha is pulled out of her thoughts to see the glimmer of tears in her sakhi’s eyes.

She shifts herself towards Vishaka, places her fingers under Vishaka’s chin, and tenderly tilts it up to meet her gaze.

“He is everywhere,” she says softly. Casts her gaze about the world around them. “In all of it. Every part.”

The latticed light through leaves: the residue of light lingering after him; the gentle whistling of the air: the tinkle of his jewellery; the grasses swaying: his peacock feather dancing in perpetual ecstasy; the solitary dark cloud floating above them: his neela-megha-shyam complexion; the amber ring on her finger: the yellow of his favoured garments.

“And he is nowhere.”

The world is the world. He is not here; he is in Dvaraka, or Indraprastha, or Hastinapura, playing the part of the many-faceted god. Politician, kingmaker, husband, father, friend, but not the child of Vrindavana. Not the makhan-chora, not the gopijana-priya. Water flows downstream, the world devolves into more chaos by the second, he is not here. It is a truth of the world.

“So what does it matter,” she murmurs, drifting into herself, “if he is here? We are more than here. We have always been more than here.”

The stream runs on. 

Radha sits by it, feet immersed.

(And he laughs at her for a long moment, then brings the flute to his lips, and begins to play.)

[lordsabove]

Currently wondering about the biological implications of the fact that Krishna's son, Samba,gave birth to a mace

m(ace) 🔥🔥🔥

is this how I was supposed to find out samba gave birth to a wait

a

what

[i-like-to-eat-cotton]

Samba basically pranked a bunch of sages by dressing up as a pregnant woman. The sages got mad and cursed him. Samba then gave birth to a mace(said to be spiked in some versions. Ouch) then ugrasena ordered samba to crush the mace into powder. Which samba did,then threw the powder in the prabhas sea. The powder then washed up on the seashore and became eraka grass.

Later on,the yadavas had a festival in the same area when a fight broke out. And they picked up the eraka grass and killed each other.

Samba is said to have been killed by Krishna himself actually

(imagine the father son angst opportunities of this,ughhh)

[hamaarmaati]

The curse was not just about giving birth to a mace/spiked mace. It was about that mace being the end of his entire vansh/kul.

Also curious to know what was the fight about?

[starryy-berryy]

afaik the fight began unsurprisingly between kritavarma and satyaki.....

kritavarma had fought from the kaurav side, so satyaki and he did not get along because of that, and they began to have a fight over the night attack and stuff, and then pradyumna i think jumped in and the fight escalated...

the kurus are the core problem here as well /s

[hamaarmaati]

And did anyone survive? I mean ofcourse Krishna ji and Balram did. And all the yadav women. None of the kids survived though right? So does it mean the Pandavas were the only royalty left?

[starryy-berryy]

i didnt get it, not survive as in? like all of the descendants of yadu?

from krishna's fam, some ppl did survive, like aniruddha's son, vajra, who wasn't there in the fight i think. also this was just involving the vrishni clan, so other clans did survive prolly

[hamaarmaati]

Oh okay okay. And I've never heard about this Vajra guy. Will look him up. Thanks.

[starryy-berryy]

sureee. also i think the guy was crowned the king of some kingdom by arjun which im forgetting. i think it's indraprastha or mathura in diff versions.

[theramblergal]

iirc Vajra gets crowned in Indraprastha. It's mentioned in the Mahaprasthanika Parva.

Funny how it always comes back to the Kurus lmao. And even more funny is the fact that out of fear of intoxication, wine was banned in Dvaraka for a very long time. But then they go to Prabhasa and the first thing they do is get drunk.

Bringing your own destruction upon you much?

[theramblergal]

Ik I'm being incredibly obtuse, but can I ask you about Matrdayahara? As in the concept you had?

Eeee, that work has given me a lot of trouble lmao. It's a very rich concept to me, but I'll lay it out along with the problems I've been facing with it.

Basically, Nakula is called the most beautiful man of his lineage, right? And Madri is also described to be very beautiful. Also, it was Pandu's lust upon seeing her beauty that essentially killed him. So: you have Nakula, frequently called beautiful, child of a mother whose beauty "killed" both his parents. Obviously, he's gonna struggle with that.

But the problem I see with that line of reasoning is that it devalues Madri so much. She was raped, to put it bluntly, if you see the text's description of it. And to take that, and have Nakula blame his mother for his father's death—it just seems problematic. But also, what conclusions do you expect a young child to draw from it?

Which is the whole point of the work, is now what I'm realizing.

He should be given the chance to work through it, and be able to see that his mother was so much more than her beauty.

The plot of the story is that the twins go to visit Madra for a while. Nakula's not super comfortable with it, but he goes anyway, and in the time period that he's there, he realizes there's so much more to her than what he remembers and what he's told of her. It involves his cousins, and he eventually comes to terms with all of it.

That's the concept, and I'd really like to finish it someday.