#NIA IS INCREDIBLE

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

This is a very, very good book.

[bedtimegiraffe]

Here are all of the Blades breakups!!!

To paraphrase MC, maybe I'm bad so other people don't have to be. (And I do love it because I love angst and heartbreak and what they can tell you about a character)

If you want something very different, here are all of the proposals.

Aerin

Imtura

Mal

Nia

Tyril

Valax

Characters I believe are genuinely okay: Aerin (I'm just as surprised as you are), Imtura, and Valax. I think Mal and Nia are getting there. Tyril I have concerns for.

[mynarco]

there's lots of love to give!

happy birthday you absolute lifechangers

[wifeiy]

a single ? can hold so much raw energy and power

[normal-thoughts-official]

god but the way i'm loving nia's arc. she was always kinda whatever to me but they put pure pussy into her book 2 arc. the shadow as a physical manifestation of everything she has ever repressed. shadow as the parts of herself that are considered ugly but that are part of what makes her human - are part of a whole that is supposed to be together and that you can't cut off without causing great suffering (for her and the world at large). and this repressed part also being, at the same time, self love. being putting herself first instead of constantly sacrificing her own life for everything (even to tell stories, for fuck's sake). being allowing herself her feelings, being mad and not trying to please everyone else. feeling good. and the confirmation that shadow nia was nia, it was impulses and urges that nia's always had, but she repressed for so long they just had to come bursting out. all that in a character who's a (arguably?) brown woman. like... nia is the perfect fucking archetype of femininity, from her appearance to her behavior. and no woman, particularly not a brown woman, can ever put herself first. if they ever defend themselves, they're irrational and angry. if they ever put themselves first, they're selfish. they're supposed to live for others, in service of others, and nia has been told that in no uncertain terms by the temple. she was, quite literally, raised to sacrifice herself. to ignore her own needs. to not be human. and so the shadow represents everything that people demonize in her - that people demonize in women of color. and her arc is about accepting those parts. not trying to be palatable for the sake of some idealized version of femininity that only exists to oppress her. not giving a fuck if she's considered mean or angry or out of line. taking and not just giving. she kept referring to her shadow self as stronger, and i don't think it's because she meant that she was physically capable of defending herself better. it's because, with the parts nia has repressed, she is able to defend herself, because she allows herself to. that's why this is the version where no one needs to look out for her, the version that's stronger, in her head. it's not about physical strength, it's about being able to say enough

and knowing that the proposed solution is for her to accept these parts - to allow herself her humanity, to only be made whole when she is able to be a little mean, a little selfish every once in a while - that the entire point of this book is that there's no good and evil and black and white, that shadow and light are supposed to go together, just makes it so much more satisfying. it's such a good arc and visual metaphor and i'm not sure if they meant for it to be a metaphor for how WoC are always painted as aggressive if they step one toe out of line or not, but it certainly works as one, and works also as a depiction of her abuse. if her abuser was the temple of light, then of course shadow is self love. it's learning to defend herself. to trust her own instincts. to not hide who she is anymore. fucking mwah

[raspberryzingaaa]

Tearing my cloak at Jonathan's musings on the crucifix he was given and how it's a beacon of hope for him in the midst of this terrible fear and loneliness.

[owl-with-a-pen]

This was by far not the first time that Brainy had spent the night with Nia Nal.

There had been many-a routine patrol that had led to this precise scenario in the past – of returning home in the early hours of the morning only to conclude that the logical course of action would be to cut travel time by simply spending their night together. Or, more accurately, what was left of it. Brainy was often expected back at the DEO well before sunrise and, with that in mind, Nia had offered her assistance by telling him to think of her place as a ‘safe crash space’. Somewhere he’d be welcome whenever he needed it, even if sleep was rarely a need he was compelled to satisfy.

He felt as though he might need it now. By the time they’d left J’onn’s place that evening, Brainy had to admit that he was starting to feel… off. His realignment had taken its toll in ways that were becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. He’d already diverted several background processes to mitigate any physical side effects, but there was only so much he was able to do before even that began to fail him.

In short, his head was pounding.

He hadn’t wanted to disclose such information to his friends, certainly not Nia. She had been through enough strife already, having contended with the most unsavoury aspects of his psyche, parts of himself he had never wished for anyone to see. The cold and calculating mentality that clouded his own judgement whenever his ancestors were given free reign over his mind. It was a … self-preservation tactic, one he hated with every fibre of his being, that he wished wholeheartedly that he could take back. But… it had happened. And now, it was over. And somehow… Nia had still accepted his affections. Had invited him home, to her bed.

And there he lay, fingers linked across his chest, watching Nia from the corner of his eye as she slept soundly at his side. He had feared she would never find peace lying here with him, that by abandoning her, forcing her into danger just to satisfy his own selfish curiosity, would have amounted to something truly unforgivable in her eye. He hadn’t disclosed exactly why he had done the things he had, and yet she’d still accepted what little he’d been able to offer on their journey home from Shelley Island.

That it hadn’t been him. That he was back.

Brainy only wished he could believe those words as surely as she.

The truth was, he had yet to feel fully himself again - to recapture everything his ancestors had shaken loose. He heard them still, a constant threat at the back of his mind, but their words had no power any longer. His fear and pain had given them full access to his thought tracks, the electric shocks administered to his implants offering just enough of a mental distraction to allow for their escape, to convince him that he needed them. Those mental cages had been locked and refortified a thousand times over since that slip-up, but even that didn’t feel like enough. He would never ­– could never – allow a mistake like that again.

But how could he explain that to Nia? What might she think of him if she knew the truth? Yes, he had admitted once that his ancestors were evil—collectors and world-enders, destroyers. It would be something else to tell her that no matter how far he tried to run, no matter how long he lived, their actions would always be a part of him, in a way that far extended the comprehension of a biological mind.

Would she share a bed with him so easily then? Knowing that his mind housed the potential for great evil, that he alone had evaded the diabolical lineage that stretched back centuries, millennia?

All that and more rested at the tip of Brainy’s tongue, and he so wished that he could divulge everything to her now, to free himself from this guilt. But the day’s events had left Nia exhausted and he could not wake her, could not be the cause for yet more of her pain.

This was his fault, it was always—

His thoughts turned to static when Nia shifted suddenly in her sleep, a soft sigh escaping her lips as she rolled comfortably over to Brainy’s side of the bed.

His heart twisted inside his chest as he watched her. She was beautiful, astounding, her face a fine curve in the moonlight, her lashes fluttering in the midst of a dream well underway. Seeing her like that… Brainy could almost let himself relax.

That was until Nia’s arm slipped out from beneath covers, reaching instead for him.

He couldn’t. He couldn’t risk anything with her. Could not hurt her. Not again. Not…

Brainy held his breath, rolling expertly out from under her wandering hand…

…and directly onto the floor.

The impact was jarring, rattling through his right side where his arm took the brunt of the fall. Had his head not felt like it was splitting in two, he may have recovered quick enough to evade Nia’s notice.

“Brainy?” Nia asked, her voice heavy and sleep laden. “You okay?”

Brainy swore to himself. He sat up abruptly, peering nervously over the edge of the mattress and right into the worried gaze of one Nia Nal.

She stared back at him in confusion, rubbing the sleep from her eyes with the heel of her hand.

“I’m fine,” Brainy said, quicker than he’d anticipated. He cleared his throat so hard he coughed, tilting his chin away from her. “Just – uh – a headache.”

“From the warehouse?” Nia asked, shifting in concern. “You didn’t look so hot when we left the island. Anything I can do?” She smothered a yawn with her fist, pushing herself up from the mattress. “Would aspirin work for you?”

Brainy swallowed down the urge to smile. Aspirin would do precisely nothing to dull this particular pain, but he didn’t wish to discredit her attempt at helping.

“Worry not,” he assured her, bulking his claim with his usual bravado, “I am fully functional. It is nothing to concern yourself with. I-I simply need some air.” He made a swift shooing gesture, causing Nia to blink in surprise, before he made to stand. “Return to your dreams, Nia Nal. I will be back—oh, would you look at that.” Without meeting her eye, he scooped his phone from the nightstand, gleaning through his recent text notifications with feigned interest. He paused, straightening out his stance. “A matter at the DEO requires my immediate attention. I will—see you tomorrow.” He clumsily took her shoulder, narrowing his eyes. “And then we will talk more about what transpired today.”

“Okay,” Nia said slowly, in a tone that suggested she didn’t quite believe his excuse. Brainy elected to play the fool for the time being; at least that way he could leave without any further questions being asked.

As he turned to leave, however, Nia took his hand. “Brainy, wait—” He stopped himself with some effort, practically bobbing on his feet with restless energy as he glanced her way. Nia’s face was open, worried, her eyes a brown shimmer in the dark. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Brainy forced a smile. “Perfectly,” he lied, patting her hand with little grace. Even he couldn’t deny that the gesture felt wooden to some degree, but under the circumstances he could do no better. His head was still roaring with guilt he could hardly contain, whispers from a dozen buried Brainiacs urging him to let loose a little – set them free.

All he said out loud was, “Sleep tight, Nia Nal.”

Nia didn’t get a chance to interrogate him further than that; he was out of the door in an instant, breathing out a sigh of relief the moment he found himself alone in the hallway. His head continued to throb, pain that pressed so insistently into his jaw that his teeth began to ache.

It didn’t matter that there had been no such alert at the DEO, he would gladly take up a night shift simply to extenuate the noise inside his head. Perhaps he could even steal a few hours for himself somewhere quiet to try and rid of this pesky headache once and for all. After all, he was nothing if not efficient in the art of multitasking.

He knew it would not be that easy of course - his ancestors never were. Today, they had proven that even his strongest defences could be broken. No amount of reinforcement or careful mental manipulation would convince them to surrender the chance at attempting it again. And again. And again.

He would tell Nia, he promised strictly to himself. Tomorrow… when the voices were less persistent, perhaps.

And then… then she could decide for herself whether he was truly worthy of being – as she had called it – the big spoon.

[cuteniarose]

The most P’heer-coded song ever made and I’m not taking any criticism about this

(A.k.a: Nia ffs stop pushing your obsession with soviet cinema onto people no one cares)

Rough and non-rhyming translation done by yours truly because I’m bored and have nothing better to do than sit here and translate songs:

[ Like life without spring,

Like spring with no leaves,

Like leaves with no thunderstorms,

And like thunderstorms with no lightning

That’s how dull the years are

Without the right to love,

The right to answer your call

Or your wordless pained moan (x2)

Alas, misfortune can’t be predicted

Call for me, I will block the blow.

And perhaps I’ll pay for it with my head

It’s not up to me to wonder about the price, my love

The roads of love are not easy for us,

But at least the white moss and clovers show us kindness.

The nightingales are full of bittersweet longing

And the springs are generous as they return to us in the north

The nightingales are full of bittersweet longing

And the springs are generous as they return to us in the north

The land that is so full of separation

Will suddenly wed us itself.

Because we are faithful to the birds of spring

We hear them even in winter, my love ]

The vibes aren’t as apparent unless you know the context, which just SCREAMS young P’heer:

Alyosha is an upper class boy on the run from the government after getting involved in Shit He Should Not Have Gotten Involved In. While spending the night in a monastery, he meets Sofya, who was placed there against her will after the death of her parents and is now being readied to become a nun (her parents left her a big inheritance which she is being pressured into giving away as a donation to the monastery). He helps her escape and they travel together for a while until they reach her aunt’s place, where they part ways until he finds out that her aunt sold her out to the monastery in exchange for a cut of her inheritance. The nuns take Sofya to a nearby skit (remote religious settlement) and Alyosha follows, once again helping her escape but this time taking her with him on his travels. She ends up joining him and his friends as they attempt to get themselves out of the Shit They Should Not Have Gotten Involved In, and taking an active part in the attempt to rescue the kidnapped Anastasia Yaguzhinskaya, the love interest of one of Alyosha’s friends

Or, in other words – Nia once said that they have no interest in any other piece of media besides their multiverse of madness. Nia was, apparently, blatantly lying and did not realise until this exact moment that Gardemarines, Charge!, a four episode movie series from 1987, does, in fact, make them yell incoherently and brainrot like crazy

[malachitezmeyka]

Sometimes I wish I wasn’t 12 when I came up with Suiren and Midori cause why the fuck do both of them have Japanese names

[mrfunnyinthebank]

i think my review of the 2025 royal rumble is that there are moments that are great and worth watching, but you don't have to - and i would say shouldn't, honestly - watch the bad parts for the good parts to make sense

and now that i've phrased it like that, i fear that this was by design to make it the most tiktokable royal rumble of all time

[bitgrls]

shoutout to tragic heroes who spend their entire life trying to wash themself clean of an atrocity they had no control over but were complicit in.

[typeberry]

Lore doodles from when I first played thru Crown Tundra

[bedtimegiraffe]

I've been thinking about the Blade of Light/Blade of Shadow lately. Specifically, the effect it has on the wielder.

We know that in Blade of Shadow form, it corrupts the wielder. It's all chaos and self-interest, impulses and intrusive thoughts, rage and pleasure in things you find sickening later. It doesn't eliminate the person you under underneath, Aerin is still conflicted about hurting Nia and he can still have a soft spot for MC if they shared a moment, but it pushes the wielder to act differently than they usually would.

So what if the Blade of Light did the opposite? Made the wielder disciplined, logical and controlled, filled with a gentle and subdued kind of tenderness. Pushed them to act in a way that prioritized their idea of the 'greater good' over the people in front of them.

What if that were the only reason MC was able to kill Nia? The overwhelming Light made it seem like a good idea. And it was, it was necessary to save everyone, but MC would rather watch the world burn than hurt the people they love. What if they needed that change in reasoning, brought on them by magic, out of their control, to look Nia in the eye and kill her?

Then the magic leaves them and MC is left looking at the body of their friend or lover with horror, thinking, "How could I have done this?"

[centaurianthropology]

Can we talk about how extraordinary Fiedra Marrow is?

She lost her parents young. She grew up on the streets learning to be ruthless and cunning to survive. To move in shadows and to prioritize herself over all others.

And yet, when she’s likely scarcely more than a child herself she finds an egg, and instead of cooking it or selling it or doing anything else, Fiedra—who does not need to do this, who cannot afford to do this, who has every reason in the world to turn her back—decides for whatever reason to take this egg into her care. And it hatches into a little baby dragonborn with some birth anomalies, including a complete inability to use his breath weapon.

And Fiedra, who has been taught by the world to be ruthless and selfish, who is a survivor, who can barely care for herself, who is barely into adulthood herself, chooses to care. She chooses to raise this dragonborn because who else would? Crueler people who would use him and turn him into what she’s become, that’s who.

So she raises him, and leads her gang, and then they all get arrested and sent to Rybad Kol where they make their way into running the kitchens rather than being trapped in the laboring pits. Likely because Fiedra is a fast-talker, is ruthless and cunning.

And because she knows what will happen to Crokas if he’s in the pits. Let’s be clear. If the gang were in Rybad Kol for around 5 years, and Crokas is just entering adulthood as a dragonborn when the campaign starts, then he was probably around 10 when he went to prison. He became an adult in prison, and his mother—to protect them both from people looking to stamp out hope—only ever referred to him as her bodyguard. So he became a bodyguard: a massive creature fully capable of incredible violence. But Fiedra still emphasizes his other qualities. She has to use his strength for violence sometimes, but she clearly never wants that to be all he is. They have to survive, but she is most proud when he carries children and the weak. When he uses his strength for kindness. And she did raise a fundamentally kind man, who sits down and cries after performing overwhelming violence. She always looks carefully to see if he has enough before she steals. She always makes sure she takes care of him, and he learned to take care of her in return. He learned that taking care of people IS LOVE and IS FAMILY.

And when she’s finally given the opportunity to be kinder, to make Torm’s Hill a better and kinder community than any she’s ever been a part of, she speaks out. She uses her words to inspire the other commoners around her. She starts to step up and become a leader, just as much as Garen did.

And when someone threatens that new community, who proposes that he simply recreate the old hell with him in charge, she cuts out his tongue. Because Fiedra Marrow understands that the world can be harsh and cruel. And when she is able she will choose kindness, but much as Nia now understands, when a person decides to make themselves an obstacle to a kinder world, that obstacle needs to be pushed aside.

God I love her, and this party, and I wish we could spend an entire long-form campaign with them, seeing them continue to grow and become the leaders of a new and perhaps kinder world.

[wifeiy]

why did this happen to me. riddle me that

[geastherat]

omg,, thank you so much kask!! im hugging you right back!

im also hugging;

@shadyteacup @nia23 @boycock-boycunt-boyslut @burymebeautiful @fluxxdog @silelda @rosedragonblast @damagedghoulette @cumulo-ghoulll

Hug time! Pass this around and hug whoever you think is an amazing mutual 🎉🌹

@emoscot @laismoura-art @scentedcandleibex and the person who sent this ask!