ICYMI: I finally finished writing Sleep No More this past weekend. It has been over two years since I first started writing this fic on my notes app on the train to work. Before the Six of Crows fandom, my longest ever fanwork was approximately 3,000 words. Now, 51,000 words later, my NYC Wesper AU is finally done.

If you haven't checked it out yet, you can find it here.

@ibroughtyoumybullets / Sleepy Sunday (1960) by Vincent Giarrano / @vonnegutism / Alejandra Caballero / @thiscuntkills

if you think the posts i make are bad you should see the thoughts i am thinking. in my mind

I’m a real tough kid, I can handle my shit

Did you listen to TTPD? What are your thoughts? And favorites?

DID I LISTEN TO—

I’m not gonna scrounge up pictures of me at the Fearless Tour in 2009. I’m not gonna cite the sacred texts. I will spare you.

All of that to say, I’ve been listening nonstop. I think it’s one of her darkest, most intriguing, most unflinching works yet.

My favorites right now are “But Daddy I Love Him,” “Down Bad,” “Guilty as Sin?”, “Fortnight,” “Clara Bow,” “I Can Do it With a Broken Heart,” and “I Look Through People’s Windows.” 🤍

"Have you got a brook in your little heart"

by Emily Dickinson

Have you got a brook in your little heart, Where bashful flowers blow, And blushing birds go down to drink, And shadows tremble so?

And nobody knows, so still it flows, That any brook is there; And yet your little draught of life Is daily drunken there.

Then look out for the little brook in March, When the rivers overflow, And the snows come hurrying from the hills, And the bridges often go.

And later, in August it may be, When the meadows parching lie, Beware, lest this little brook of life Some burning noon go dry!

About the AO3 "No Guest Comments for a while" warning

If you're not following any of AO3's social media accounts you might be in the dark as to what kind of "spam comments" have engendered this banner at the top of the site:

These spam comments have been posted about a great deal on the AO3 subreddit for the past couple of days. Initially they comprised a bunch of guest (logged out users) bot comments that insulted authors by suggesting they were using AI and not writing their own fics. Some examples, from the subreddit:

But it then escalated to outright graphic porn images and gifs being posted in comments, again by logged out 'Guest' accounts. Obviously, I'm not going to give examples of those, but between these two bot infestations, AO3 has clearly decided to act and has temporarily closed the ability to post comments for users who are not logged in with an AO3 account.

Unfortunately, this means that genuine readers who don't have an AO3 account won't be able to leave comments on fics that they enjoy.

If you are a genuine reader who doesn't yet have an AO3 account, I strongly suggest getting yourself on the waiting list for one. More and more AO3 authors are now locking their fics down to registered users only - either due to these bot comments or concerns about AI scraping their work - which means you're probably missing out on a lot of great stuff.

Hopefully guest commenting will be enabled again at some point soon, but I suggest not waiting until then. Get yourself on that list.

Wait times are going to be longer than usual at the moment, due to the current Wattpad purge [info on Fanlore | Wattpad subreddit thread], but if you're in line, then your invite will come through eventually.

Update: There's now a Megathread about this on the AO3 subreddit.

"Inej is the mom fri—" *loud incorrect buzzer noise* Wrong. You are looking for Matthias Helvar.

losing the idgaf war badly (I want to be in love and to have someone be in love with me)

Shamelessly spamming your inbox as well! Why do you think Kaz takes off his shirt in front of Inej? We know he likes to get a rise out of her (“something about the furrow between her brows was so satisfying”). Do you think he realizes he’s making her blush? Would you consider doing an analysis of your favorite parts of Kaz’s first POV in SOC and the CK bathroom scene? thank you so much!!

Hello and welcome to episode three of DK Finally Gets It Together And Answers Her Asks Because It's About Damn Time (working title)

Episode One - Episode Two

Hi, thanks so much for the ask and sorry that I've taken an eternity to get back to you, but yes absolutely let's talk!

Why does Kaz take his shirt off in front of Inej? The fact that Kaz takes his shirt off in front of Inej is kind of a strange one because it implies feeling a level of comfort around each other that neither of them are emotionally prepared to admit that they have - it's not that long ago (in fact I think it may have just been the previous chapter?) that Kaz told us "to say he trusted Inej would be stretching the point" and yet here he willingly removes his gloves and his shirt in front of her, a massive concession to his ability to be more vulnerable in front of Inej than he is anyone else. I think it's possible that, as you said, he enjoys getting a rise out of Inej however I aslo think this could be interpreted as yet another self-deprecating habit Kaz has collected around Inej to convince himself away from caring about her. I've talked a lot about the way his language separates them and famously the sarcastic delivery of "my darling Inej, treasure of my heart" to offend her even though the words represent, at least to some extent, his genuine feelings because he knows it will elicit a negative response (in this case pointedly referring to his cane and wishing him a long trip down the stairs before Inej herself slides down the bannister) and therefore he can somehow justify ignoring his feelings for Inej's because he had some kind of 'evidence' that she doesn't reciprocate. This is a damaging mentality to both of them, in Kaz with the evident self-deprecating qualities of the action and in Inej the belief that Kaz sees nothing in her except her monetary value to him (I believe the quote is something along the lines of "she was an investment no more no less" and is borne in Inej from the multiple times Kaz refers to her as such in his efforts to distance himself from her, unintentionally presently a massive and damaging misunderstanding of her trauma and the dehumanisation she went through - "bought her, and then sold her again and again"). the scene when Kaz removes his shirt in front of Inej is told from her perspective and we know she sees absolutely nothing beyond the practicalities of the moment as being any kind of vulnerability or romantically charged because she wonders what Kaz would think if she undresses and started washing herself in front of him, and comes to the conclusion "he'd probably tell me not to drip on the desk", and arguably this has a similar impact on her to the idea of being an "investment" rather than humanising terms because from her perspective he is acting exactly as he would if he were alone and with the way she's been treated and the kind of responses trauma and ptsd can cause in people this could to her feel like an extension of the dehumanisation tools that were used against her, effectively she may believe that he's willing to remove his gloves and shirt in front of her because he doesn't acknowledge himself as actually being watched by anyone - or at least not anyone of importance. Whilst this is obviously not Kaz's intention with the action I do wonder whether it's possible that it is to some extent another way of distancing himself from Inej. When Kaz removes his shirt Inej looks away from him, embarrassed, and pretends to study some of the papers on his desk. She comments that she had "lost most of her modesty at the Menagerie" but that there were still "limits". I think there's every chance that Kaz knows she will look away because she's uncomfortable with immodesty and the general vulnerability of the scene, as well as any relation she could reasonably find to her ptsd in this action, and that he is once again forcing himself to come up with this 'evidence' of her disinterest in him so he can bully himself into ignoring his feelings for her. I hope this made sense maybe it's just a rambling mess...

Also:

I have written an analysis of the CK bathroom scene so I will link that here

And when I was doing that series where I analysed my favourite quotes from each chapter I didn't get very far in because the posts took a long time to put together but I did cover chapter three (Kaz's first POV) split into a few different posts :)

Also, I'm back on my analysis nonsense right now so if y'all would like to see that series come back let me know, because I did have fun putting them together they were just also time consuming and I had a lot of other stuff to do at the time

Thanks so much for the ask! Sorry I took so long to respond, and the same to everyone else with questions in my inbox right now, but thanks for sending them in and thanks for reading this post - and don't let it put you off sending more asks if you'd like to! I am working my way through them, I promise :)

people telling you they reread your fic is the biggest compliment you could ever receive. there are thousands of stories out there begging to be found, to be explored, but your story meant so much to someone that they came back to it eagerly, they went over every word again. to love is to return and loving a fic is rereading it. thank you to all readers and rereaders <3333

real

kanej author recs | apropensityforcharm

Notable/Favorite works:

by what did here befall me (you were the word of war)

After five years of battling slavers on her own, Captain Inej Ghafa is running low on resources, money, and spirit. But when her crew takes an unusual captive on board, she's faced with a rare opportunity: she's going to kill Dirtyhands, the legendary Bastard of the Barrel. Of course, Kaz Brekker has no intention of going quietly.

Rating(s): M / Quirks: Developing Kanej, Canon divergence, Enemies to Lovers, Pirate!Inej, Barrel Boss!Kaz, Captivity, Angst with a Happy Ending, Inej's POV (Primarily)

don't let it burn, don't let it fade

On her first trip back to Ketterdam, Inej learns three things about Kaz Brekker. The first: Kaz Brekker makes a terrible sick patient. The second: It has been nine years since Kaz was last hugged. The third: Pet names are a powerful weakness.

Rating(s): M / Quirks: Established Kanej, Post-Canon, Sick fic - Kaz, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Humor

the rust that grew between telephones

"Her hand is sticky with his blood, but her fingers entwined through his are oddly... tender." For two weeks, Inej has been starved of the blood she needs. Kaz offers the solution, but it comes with consequences neither of them anticipated.

Rating(s): E / Quirks: Developing to Established Kanej, Creatures AU - Vampire, Vampire/Human relationship, Smut - Would heavily advise reading the tags first

kanej author recs | alltheworldsinmyhead

Notable/Favorite works:

l'appel du vide

“He was hoping that bringing a famous prostitute on his arm to the saloons and ballrooms of the rich and the powerful of Ketterdam would at least bring him some entertainment if nothing else. But what Kaz did not take into consideration was what marrying a woman like Inej really meant.”

Rating(s): M / Quirks: Developing to Established Kanej, Canon divergence, Marriage of Convenience, Angst with a Bittersweet ending, Kaz's POV

and it's all to come series (WIP) | collab w/ cameliawrites

Kaz and Inej in Lij, together on a threshold on winter and something far greater

Rating: G-M / Quirks: Established Kanej, Post-Canon AU, Fluff, Kanej Children

+ bonus

come to me in red | collab w/ Whitherward

In the middle of a long summer, Inej takes Kaz home to Ravka for a festival, determined to make her parents accept him. Neither of them is ready for what they find there.

Rating: M / Quirks: Established Kanej, Post-Canon AU, Inej's Parents, Trip to Ravka, Suli Culture, Jealousy, Angst with a Happy Ending,

Oh my gosh, thanks guys. :,)

kanej author recs | cameliawrites

Notable/Favorite works:

collision course series (2 fics / Complete)

My dearest Inej— (Nina writes,) —don’t learn too late how sweet it can be. . . . Inej adjusts to Kaz the way that winter adjusts to spring: she thaws, and thaws, and thaws—and then she utterly melts.

Rating(s): T-M / Quirks: Established Kanej, Post-canon, angst with a happy ending, Inej & Nina Friendship, Inej Centric

sonnet 116 series (2 fics / Complete)

In which Kaz & Inej negotiate the particularities of a marriage contract—for the tax benefits, of course, but also for the sake of their undying devotion to one another. (now with post-script)

Rating: T / Quirks: Established Kanej, Post-canon, Fluff, Marriage Proposals/Anniversary

you know what i'm gonna get sappy for a second bear with me

there are a lot of posts and memes for writers about how hard writing is and how annoying it can be and how dispiriting it can feel when we don't make progress the way we'd like to. and those are true, and relatable, and funny! i've been there!

but maybe it doesn't get said enough in the other direction, so I'm gonna say it: I love writing. i love the process of putting phrases together and testing them for cadence and flow; i love knowing that there is a word for exactly the thing I want to convey, even if I just can't think of it right now, and going onto a thesaurus and being like there she is, that's the one!

but more than anything, I love the ritual of constantly asking myself "okay, and then what happens?" and feeling the same sense of delighted surprise every single time when somehow, a part of me I wasn't consciously aware of knows the answer. that experience, where my brain provides me solutions I didn't know it was working on, feels like a miracle every time. and getting into a productivity groove where I keep knowing the answers is one of the best feelings on the planet.

and sure, sometimes I don't know the answer, and it's hard and unsatisfying and see above about how easy it is to joke about how writing's the pits, but... that just makes it even more special when I'm firing on all cylinders, you know?

anyway, yeah. w r i t i n g.

I mentioned this vaguely a bit ago but I think each of Inej's six knives can be argued to all match up to one of the crows. You can probably swap a few of them and some are stronger than others, but:

Petyr: archers, reknowned for his bravery = Inej; 'the heart is an arrow', 'lovely and brave and better...', and it was her first knife, a gift from Kaz

Lizabeta: flowers and gardens = Matthias; the yellow tulips, laid out in the Van Eck garden

Alina: orphans and undiscovered gifts = Nina, who was raised in an orphanage and fought in the Second Army like Alina, and has a very new and undiscovered gift after parem alters her power

Marya: those far from home = Wylan, the runaway; plus his mother's name is Marya!

Anastasia: the sick = Jesper; there are many kinds of sickness, and both were grisha in hiding with their father after their mother's death

Vladimir: the drowned, unlikely achievement = Kaz, birthed (...) in the harbour, emerged to repeatedly achieve the impossible