Hello everyone

[toothpastepancake]

I'm so glad this place exists because Tumblr is... not the place for these ships, apparently. But Nahla's office is certainly open for ANY cadet (or long lost cadet parent) who may be interested it seems...

Discussion!! What is your favorite aspect of Nahla/Caleb's relationship, if you ship them?

I could go so many places with this personally, but I think my favorite aspect of it is the depths of Nahla's obsession and the fifteen years she spent looking for Caleb only to then find Caleb and... never let him go. I imagine she must have spiraled pretty hard for at least a few of those years, particularly as Caleb grew older I suspect. I love how her entire life at the starting point of the show--her entire long life--is this one boy. Even the job she does, the place she lives, the friends she has? Connected to Caleb in some way, because that's where she was going to send Caleb if he hadn't run away. And she leaves it all behind INSTANTLY at the very first utterance of this boy's name in combination with the words "found" and "alive." I think she loves what she does now that she's teaching at the academy, and that she gets to help people and be around kids again in a closer mentorship role... but it's still very much the Caleb Mir show for her. "If anything happens to your son you'll be doing me a favor." I love how odd she is about him <3 

If you don't want to answer that, what do you think Nahla was up to during summer break? Joke answers allowed.

Comments

[merydian]

Yayyy Nahleb community!! I just love how horribly intertwined Nahla and Caleb's lives are. So much of what Caleb is is because of Nahla, and so much of Nahla's latest chunk of life has been rewritten around Caleb... a boy she knew for less than 5 minutes! It's also just fun how blatantly inappropriate and boundary-less she is with him. Imagine bumping shoulders with Nahla like that??? God I wish that were me.

[figureofdismay]

yesss i also love how odd about Caleb she is, and frankly how weird he got about her in return because i do feel like they got mutually bonded? Things like Caleb going to Nahla directly about his room mate situation and hanging out in her office, the whole vitus reflux vibe etc, made it seem like Caleb received this unhingedness from her and decided it was fine and good actually lol.

tbh part of the draw for me with Nahleb is the parallel with other ships.... Helen/Will from Sactuary that I was obsessed with for a while when that was on back in 2010. There are a ton of parallels between Helen and Nahla, both immortal and powerful, both collect a lot of strays and one special protege. Also Will's mother was killed in the course of an Abnormal investigation Helen was doing when Will was 8 and she kept track of him for 30 years to be ready to offer him a job as her successor, because she knew he was Special. Which is insane if you think about it lol.

Also reminds me of a ship i had from a book series i was reading in middle school, Briar and Rosethorn from Tamora Pierce's cirlce of magic series and its sequels. as an adult obviously i know there are many, many issues, Briar being so young, the fact that Rosethorn/Lark is subtextually canon etc. But as a kid reading these books, i was Convinced that briar/rosethorn would be a thing when he grew up, they were just SO bonded. 100% ready to die with her, wildly jealous of anyone else she gave attention to level bonded. Briar was also a 'street rat' kid living as a thief as a part of a gang since he was 4-5, with secret special powers, who was about to be sentenced to hard labor after being caught stealing for the 3rd time when the mage people rescued him. So I think about Briar a lot when working with Caleb's backstory.

anyway, if they didn't want us to ship them they should have told oscar winner Holly Hunter not to do the "oh no he's hot" thing when she re-met grown up Caleb lmao!

Also the totally missing boundaries are fascinating. They're very explicit about the Caleb is not her son and Nahla is not his mother. But they're still each other's closest connection, as a couple of loners. And for all Nahla plays the outgoing, silly fae creature, she is a loner imo. It's like protective camouflage. It's not just guilt from her either, she knows how brilliant Caleb is, and i wish we'd spent more with Caleb's feelings (about many different things fr!!) but i think he's drawn to how seriously she takes him? like, she's the first person in a long time who doesn't see "criminal" or "dumb dangerous kid" so that's got to be thrilling for him even tho he associates her with the worst of Starfleet intervention in his life...

but the again. quite simply the chemistry is there (unlike with tarima i fear 🤐). both the lack of personal space and the extreme awareness of it imo. chaise lounge scene you will always be famous lol.