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♣️ The Third Tibideaux ♣️

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it’s very funny that I was like. I am NAURT convinced by the cas/gab/mc polycule 😒 <- ended up with this as my canon

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I love when ppl get a crush n they're like pls no lmao

When he realises he's starting to like her and he also still likes Gabriela and nooooooo

Also alt versions

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The last time a @playchoices LI got me twirling my feet

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Proletarian Revolution is Inevitable. Here's What This Means For People Whose Kinks Can Be Linked To Wealth-Related Power Dynamics In Class Society

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Endings are Hard. But so are Beginnings.

Hi all!

I'm Lil. I'm showing up on tumblr under my own name for once because I was one of the writers for Blades of Light & Shadow 2 and 3 as well as being the designated lorekeeper. (I also worked on Cursed Heart 2 (and was the facial reference for the Fae version of Longclaw, hence the icon), as well as Kiss of Death and Murder at Homecoming, and I was the lead writer on Villainous Valentines and the Blades Tabletop Guide.

I was one of the many people who were laid off by Pixelberry when the Cursed Heart team was dissolved over a year ago now. But my final contribution to PB canon, Blades of Light and Shadow 3, officially finishes its wide release today. The layoff was traumatic for a lot of reasons, but it did offer me the strange silver lining of getting to be on both the brainstorm team for Blades 3 and being the person who wrote the initial drafts of the book. I was not the book lead, to be clear, but I'm honored to have gotten to work for Emi and to have been gifted the absolute privilege to act as an archaeologist in the world of Morella and beyond in Blades 2 & 3. I especially loved writing the lore tablets and found objects like Nifara's letter, Kade and Tyril's poetry and songs (and Kade and Bakshi in general, my beautiful bards), the Old Gods, Mal and Tyril's romance routes, and both Mal and Raine's mental health journeys.

Since I wasn't the lead, not everything I wrote made it in, and there's some stuff that even ended up on my own personal cutting room floor for Blades 3 (mostly due to length). I got nostalgic over the weekend, and found a longer version of one of Tyril's poems that I thought y'all might like to see, so I've included it below as thanks for everything y'all have given the Blades team. You are what made the sequels happen, especially Blades 3.

Because I figure you might be looking for more stuff like Blades now that we've come to what I dearly hope is a bittersweet but satisfying end, I did want to shout out the art I was consuming when we were working on Blades 3:

Not Another D&D Podcast - If you're a fan of Dimension 20 (and who isn't?), you know the brilliant work of Emily Axford and Brian Murphy, but Jake Hurwitz's hilarious and heartfelt himbo fighter Hardwon from Campaign One was my direct inspiration for the voice of Nithrax. (Wanda Maximoff was Midys's, if ya couldn't tell. An autistic queen.) But truly pick any of NADDPOD's campaigns (or Dungeon Court), and you'll have a great, hilarious, and surprisingly poignant time.

Transplanar RPG "The Second Stranger" Show and Podcast - Mercer? Lee Mulligan? Iyengar? You know them, you love them, but I guarantee you've never heard someone like Transplanar's Dungeon Master Connie Chang. His work is poetic, visceral, and wickedly funny in a way that is, might I say, otherworldly, and her cast is magnificent. "The Second Stranger" is an all trans, POC led actual play show about a group of misfits who have to save their world's gods before they can save the world. It is also shippy (and gay) as fuck. Truly, if you wanted the Blades gang to be a polycule, this is the show for you.

Baldur's Gate 3 and The Dungeons & Dragons Movie - the new and worthy additions to the canon. If you haven't tried 'em please do.

Anyway. The poetry is below the cut (please be nice. Tyril is a baby writer.) and I'm feeling some kind of way so if you have lore questions (or questions in general), feel free to drop 'em in my inbox and I can try to answer them. They'll be non canon answers and I can't talk about PB's internal processes in detail, obvi, but I did hang around with the fire with Kade a fair time so I know a thing or two. (And if you like any of my recommendations, I'm always up for chatting about them!) P.S. Don't worry about me. I actually work at Chapters now, and my first book was high fantasy as well (primarily Norse and Celtic mythology). I'm also working on a new indie game with some other Pixelberry layoff casualties including some incredible artists, the head writer of the Cursed Heart, The Crown and the Flame, and It Lives series. (They are the same person can you imagine???), and the writer who gave us that scene at Joaquin's apartment in LoA2. (You know the one.) We hope to be able to tell y'all more about it soon.

Thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart. It has truly an honor and a privilege to work for these characters. And for you.

[A behind the scenes note, I always told myself that translated Morellan Elven/Elvish tends to lack the full poetry of the original because they have more words for things than the human tongue does. Part of this is just that we were working with only a few references from Book 1 and added as we went, but i also liked the idea that a culture this old (and a culture partially founded by a storyteller) would be difficult to translate to a younger language like Morellan. So if the poetry's bad, I blame the imaginary translation.]

This was originally going to take place in Tyril's second 30 diamond premium (when they're resting in the Elements.) MC has just asked Tyril for another poem.

--

Tyril: I have one other that is somewhat presentable. But Kade said the scansion was simple.

Raine: Kade... has opinions. And bar tabs. If he wants me to tolerate one, he needs to manage the other.

Raine: He also may have meant it as a compliment. He's a translator, remember? He appreciates ease.

Tyril: But he's correct. It is simple.

Raine: There's nothing wrong with simplicity, Tyril. Simplicity can be elegant.

Raine: The stars, the sun, all of nature is simple. Would you blame them for what they are?

Tyril: You're better at this than me.

Raine: Maybe you're just inspiring me.

Narration: You bring Tyril's hand to yours, kissing each pale blue fingertip.

Raine: Tyril. Read it to me. Please.

Narration: But he doesn't read. He doesn't have to. Every word is a whispered caress along your shining skin.

Like blood and water (s/he) is Eternal and ephemeral. A mystery few can solve, a puzzle box to be opened. How like a statue s/he stands, too proud and too strong to let the cracks show. Let me be your mason, O great Light, great Patron I will honor your wounds, fill them with pearls from the Sea and diamonds from beneath the earth. That hallowed earth Yawning wide to call me to your quiet, cold embrace. Give me but a word and I will follow. I wait And wait And wait And hear Nothing. This time interminable, this torture endless I search for you everywhere but the undiscovered country Hope is a fragile, dangerous thing, a candle in a tempest. I find the flame in each new face, each new question, begging Have you seen (her/him)? They ask me to describe you, your hair, your skin, your frame But the words turn to dust on my tongue. There is nothing. Nothing to define the wonder of you. You are not copper nor marble, clay nor precious gold. You are a river, an island, a forest ever growing beyond my reach. Lungs burning, limbs aching, I pursue. Begging the stars to return their (daughter/son) to me. Forgive me, my Uluin, my world, my love. Forgive me.

Narration: Tyril pauses, his bright eyes sliding to the floor.

Tyril: See? Simple. Unfinished.

Raine: Yes. Exactly. Simple. Perfect. Even when unfinished. Because that means there's more story to tell.

Narration: You gently bring his gaze to yours, soft and clear like first snow.

Raine: There is nothing to forgive, Tyril. Nothing I haven't done myself.

Narration: As promised, he kisses every scar, every fear you've ever had. They do not disappear of course. That was not his aim.

Narration: Instead they are immortalized, perfect and true in the night sky of your love.

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Some of y’all only romance the white male LI’s and it shows

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the old gods ✨

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Aerin Valleros Prince of Morella I completely forgot about Blades so now I replaying from book 1 lol. So here's Aerin because apparently I'm still obsessed with him

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Rare RJ TRR art

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I wanted to draw my BOLAS MC and all her girlfriends in a cutesy style

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In honor of book 2 dropping this month, my MC Ophelia and Kieran from TCH. Commissioned from the extraordinarily and amazingly talented @oh-so-youre-a-nerd ✨😍💗✨

Can’t wait to be with Kieran again 🐦‍⬛🖤

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champion of my fate

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redrew that one cg in ch13 bc it made me mad

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No longer you

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Nia Ellarious

day 3 @bladesappreciationweek

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nia & mal by @kura-marty for day three of @bladesappreciationweek