Jul 10
seen from Moldova
seen from Maldives
seen from China
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Poland
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Sweden
seen from United Kingdom
seen from France
I like how much Nílan's voice gets noticeably softer when he's speaking with Vriden Gerr compared to literally everyone else. I know he gets teased about it. (The idea of him getting teased about it reminds me of that Alistair and Wynne dialog -- except it would be Safia. I know she's invested in whatever bullshit is going on with Nílan and Vriden Gerr)
When I initially finished The Dying World, I was a bit disappointed that Nílan's romance locked me into staying on Gacane. I felt Tahoma definitely would've wanted to go home to Teer Fradee with Nílan. On my second playthrough, I'm realizing uhhh no the fuck she wouldn't and I'm a fake Vriden Gerr fan.
I think the turning point for my Vriden Gerr in particular is when she returned to Gacane and communed with her. How she felt her agony and violation as if it were her own, and I thought 'of course she wouldn't leave, im dumb asf'.
Tahoma could never leave her after that. Gacane's suffering is hers now, and she will spend the rest of her life seeking to soothe her. I'm sure there are days where she weeps for Teer Fradee, when the heaviness of it all weighs on her. But she has her purpose here, and she's not alone.
(Irrelevant image, Tahoma just looks cute here)
The trio as youngins. What if i died. I cant think about how they all grew up together for too long or else I lose my mind
Nílan, despite his constant shit-talk of the regnaise, comes off to me as so desperate to try and find the goodness in these people. I always kind of saw him as quite naive, hence me calling him pure of heart sometimes. He talks shit, yeah, but his actions show a different story. And he's kinda like that with everyone, even Vriden Gerr, who he is incredibly close to. That's just how he is.
Even with his prickliness, he places trust in strangers so quickly, he really really wants people to just be fucking normal and not be pieces off shit -- like he wants to be proven wrong about these people, and he is let down like 80% of the time. He is pure of heart.
I just post bulllshit man
I think about my Vriden Gerr and Nílan quite a lot – and how Sheda lowkey haunts their narrative. Like every single day. And because I am a normal person, I like to think of their relationship as ever-so slightly unhealthy. Like I do with most dynamics! They are in love, they are soulmates, and it’s beautiful and lovely and all that – they trust each other more than anyone else in the world but god. They are terribly, TERRIBLY codependent.
Tahoma (My Virden Gerr's actual name) and Nílan have been with each other for their entire lives essentially. It’s been them and Sheda against the world and whatnot. Tahoma never even considered a world where their trio wasn't intact and together. They had this feeling of invincibility that comes with being young, you don't think about death as something that would happen to you or someone you loved.
Then they lost Sheda.
Sheda was the reasonable one in my playthrough. Tahoma absolutely deserved the nickname “Vriden Gerr”, as loving and accepting and whimsical as she was, she was so so passive and went about life like a grassblade swept by the wind. Things usually work out in the end, just approach it with open arms. Nílan is Nílan… next point.
It was always Sheda who gave the push for Tahoma to take action or reigned Nílan in when his passion proved tumultuous. She was the leader in my playthrough, and she was their mature protector who kept them alive and well. And Nílan and Tahoma watched as she withered away into nothingness. It was so wrong to see her like that. Not even taken from them in battle, as a fiercr and proud protector. Just reduced to a husk.
If Nílan were the roots of the tree, clinging to the earth– and Tahoma the leaves swaying in the wind and collecting sun, Sheda was the trunk. The base of it all, holding them together.
Sheda was taken from them so quickly, Nílan and Tahoma both realized their own mortality – and the others’. They cling to each other more desperately as a result. Nílan takes any time Tahoma disagrees with him so personally because she is all he has. And Tahoma isn’t much better, she would trade her dignity if it avoided conflict and kept her friends – most notably, Nílan – safe. Their relationship begins to strain because of this up until they finally return to Teer Fradee and separate.
Nílan imploding was sort of expected, he becomes rash and reckless. But the crew expects that. Tahoma, on the other hand, who's become quite the diplomat and appears incredibly level headed and capable to her crew (she mimicks Sheda – which is something Nílan notices and is unsettled by) absolutely falls apart. It is nearly immediate, she just stands at the ship's deck and stares off in the spot on the port where she lost sight of him IT’S REALLY BAD. And it heavily conflicts with the image of herself she portrayed to her cool new foreign friends.
Getting the two of them back home was her main motivation for all of this– the heeling to these despicable strangers, the politeness to people who considered her less than person. She debased herself for this dream of Teer Fradee – that she and Nílan (who she knows she loves now) could go back home together. Part of her also deluded herself into thinking that things could go back to the way they used to be. But the continent changed her, and it changed him. Even her island has changed. There was no going back. Her old life died with Sheda. She was just the last to accept it.
Tahoma spends those months at sea without Nílan just a damn wreck. She feels abandoned and she feels stupid. She spends all this time mimicking her dead friend and using all she'd learned from Sheda to curry favor with these foreigners who aided in her death. She's polite to people who dehumanized her and her people, she avoids casualties for people who would shoot her down on sight. And she didn't think about how it might affect Nílan to see his last link to his old life betraying herself like this because, in the end, she was doing it for him. To get them home. And now he's left her. Stepping foot on her island, while its a great relief, and her hearts soars when she sees her mother again -- it still feels like half of her is somewhere else.
I can go on about their reunion later, my rambling has gone on long enough.
I'M GETTING CUTENESS AGGRESSION