YO! WELCOME to Da Daily Bocch! This is where I draw ol' Bocchi on a somewhat regular basis! I might also ramble about stuff from time to time, but if you don't wanna see that & you're just here for the drawings, the tag for all the stuff I've drawn is "Drawin' Da Bocch" (apostrophe included, all lowercase). Hope you enjoy!
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The Man In The Mirror
Written for the prompt 'Varadha X Mirror'
There was something almost otherworldly about the last prahara of the night in Khansaar. The beginnings of dawn peeked through the folds of the crumpling fabric of the night. The world’s unease tossed and turned as if in the throes of a nightmare. But the first light in the distant horizon was a silent beckoning to awakening. The nightmare must always end. The motions of living must always begin.
Varadha never needed an alarm clock to wake up. The rays of the sun streamed in through his windows to greet him with a cool, comforting warmth each morning. It was the one thing that was constant about Khansaar. It was also the only thing about Khansaar that he enjoyed rather than endured.
As the day progressed, the light slowly turned into a flare of fire, raining hell upon the land. And yet, the tribes of Khansaar fought over it, bled for it, and turned on their own for the perverse pleasure of gashing the land into as many bloodied strips as they could.
Their prize? The pride of one of their own.
Varadha took his time getting dressed each morning. He didn’t like wearing colors other than black. There was a certain degree of security in the opaque coldness of the dark end of the spectrum of hues. And Varadha, his own master, his own protector, and for all practical purposes, his own salaar, needed the oppressive, heat-absorbing black to fortify his defences— to guard himself from those around him who sought his destruction and those who still wanted to tear his heart open and check if it indeed pumped only venom as they suspected it did. How would it be then, he mused, that if they were to someday open his heart, they would find inside it a mausoleum— the place where he had buried Deva, despite the promise he made even as he left the land of his birth forever
Mausoleums were rarely to be visited. They weren’t good for one’s mental health. Pity, Varadha didn’t have the luxury of choice. But still, he was grateful for the mercy of not having to see it. His skin and sinew took care of that.
As he faced the mirror to get dressed for the day, his mind retreated to a blank space; which was just as well, because there was little else to think about but the carnage that had ripped apart Pathran. And with it, a significant chunk of Varadha’s faith in himself.
He tightened the belt around his waist before pulling over the kurta. Routine though the process was, he was meticulous about it each day. For never would he take the dignity of his appearance for granted. He combed his hair back. He applied the kohl to the undersides of his lower eyelids. He wore his shoes, first the left one, followed by the right one.
At last, he opened his drawer for the most precious part of this daily ritual. The nose ring. That coveted symbol of his lineage and royal birth that Rudra so desperately wanted to take from him.
To Varadha, though, it was so much more.
He didn’t lack Mannar pride. He didn’t lack the fire that coursed through the veins of all Khansaari warriors. He didn’t lack the thirst for power.
But he lacked the cruelty of the men who called the shots.
And how could he not? His earliest memories were of camaraderie beyond the bonds of kinship. His first lessons in human nature had been of unconditional love, unflinching loyalty, and unparalleled bravery in the face of unsurmountable odds.
His first brush with himself had been knowing that Deva would come to define him in life and in death.
With trembling hands, Varadha looked himself in the eye and adorned his septum with the precious silver ornament, its weight familiar and reassuring.
Without it, he felt incomplete, lesser somehow.
But his reason was not the same as Rudra’s.
Outwardly, this septum ring was what marked him as his father’s son. But his soul knew that in reality, it marked him as the chosen of Deva’s devotion.
The mirror only affirmed what he knew. But seeing it all the same was Varadha’s way of drawing strength from his slowly diminishing well of will.
Today, however, he would prevail.
Tomorrow would be another day.
If you enjoyed this story, please do let me know what you thought of it! Thank You!
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