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aceinejghafa · 1 year

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From Six of Crows:

“Some people see a magic trick and say, ‘Impossible!’ They clap their hands, turn over their money, and forget about it ten minutes later. Other people ask how it worked. They go home, get into bed, toss and turn, wondering how it was done. It takes them a good night’s sleep to forget all about it. And then there are the ones who stay awake, running through the trick again and again, looking for that skip in perception, the crack in the illusion that will explain how their eyes got duped; they’re the kind who won’t rest until they’ve mastered that little bit of mystery for themselves. I’m that kind.”

This quote says a lot of things about Kaz, but I’m going to focus on one aspect: Kaz doesn’t believe the magic trick. He can’t say “oh that was cool” and forget about it because he needs to know how. He needs to understand how he was fooled, how the trick works, how it fits into his worldview. He can't rest until he figures it out.

Magic is when something happens that we can’t explain. Kaz needs to find the explanation.

But we also have this quote:

“The harbour wind had lifted [Inej’s] dark hair, and for a moment Kaz was a boy again, sure that there was magic in this world.”

“A boy again” — this is suggesting that Kaz’s disillusionment with magic is because of everything that happened to him because of Pekka. Pekka fooled Kaz and Jordie; Kaz failed to figure out what was going on. It seemed like magic, but then it wasn’t. Now, Kaz doesn’t believe that there’s magic anymore. Pekka shattered his belief that things could be inexplicable.

But Inej is the exception to this: she makes him feel like there’s still magic in the world. Kaz can’t explain her (or doesn’t want to).

Now, Kaz often seems to function by figuring out what drives people and using that to his advantage.

“It was a guess. Pekka’s pride in the Dime Lions is plenty predictable. Kid probably has a thousand lions to play with and a giant wooden lion to ride around on.” “How did you even know he had a child?” “I figured it out that night at Van Eck’s house. Rollins wouldn't stop flapping his gums about the legacy he was building. I knew he had a country house, liked to leave the city. I’d just figured he had a mistress stashed somewhere. But what he said that night made me think again.” “And that he had a son, not a daughter? That was a guess too?” “An educated one. He named his new gambling hall the Kaelish Prince. Had to be a little red-headed boy. And what kid isn’t fond of sweets?”

Kaz figures out what motivates Pekka — the explanation for Pekka’s behaviour — and uses that to beat him.

He even does that with his own people, like Big Bolliger at the beginning of SoC:

“You’re lazy. I know it. Everyone knows it. So I had to ask myself why my laziest bouncer was getting up early twice a week to walk two extra miles to Cilla’s Fry for breakfast, especially when the eggs are so much better at the Koperoom.”

That’s how he realises that Big Bolliger is a traitor. He analyses people and figures out how they work, friend and foe alike. That’s why he wins.

But Kaz doesn’t know how Inej works — if he did, she wouldn’t be magic, would she? Kaz trusts Inej to gather secrets for him, even though he can't control her the way he controls everyone else.

And then we have a quote about Inej:

“But what about the rest of us? What about the nobodies and the nothings, the invisible girls? We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns. We learn to wring magic from the ordinary. That was how you survived when you weren’t chosen, when there was no royal blood in your veins. When the world owed you nothing, you demanded something of it anyway.”

“To wring magic from the ordinary.” Inej is talking about herself, but that's what she does for Kaz, too — she shows him the magic in the ordinary. She tells him that not everything is ordinary; not everything can be explained; not everything is a magic trick. Sometimes, it’s just magic.

This is why I am obsessed with Kanej. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

#kanej #kaz x inej #inej ghafa #kaz brekker #soc #six of crows #meta #ish

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anonniemousefics · 5 months

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An idea for fic between Kaz x Inej has been running through my brain for month now . I don’t have any motivation to write it tho so I’m putting it here in case you or anyone else would like adopt the idea into a fic. Here’s the basic synopsis:

Inej has dragged a reluctant Kaz back to her home to attend a traditional Suli celebration that is dedicated to girls in her community becoming women and celebrating 1st love (kind similar but not similar to our worlds version of Valentines). However Kaz doesn’t know the significance of the holiday because Inej chose not to elaborate. (She already knows he feels uncomfortable being outside his environment away from Kerch) However she is overall excited about celebrating the holiday and basically drags Kaz around the entire encampment attending shows, dancing, torturing home with spicy food he can’t handle lol etc. and meanwhile Kaz is a nervous, confused, blushing mess because he can’t for life of him understand why Inej is putting so much effort into participating in every single event at the festival.

(I’m even envisioning for Inej to take him for a smutty tumble in a caravan that’s their staying in that’s right next to her parents caravan and Kaz is a nervous wreck because he’s worried about getting caught lol )

The real reason that Inej wants to do all these things with Kaz tho is because she wants to re write her stolen childhood with happy memories. I keep thinking how Inej’s room back in the menagerie was modeled to be a racist imagining of a Suli caravan, and by being intimate with Kaz in her authentic home with her family is important for her to rebuke her awful time as a sex slave and relive all of her stolen first’s with Kaz.

Kaz is still oblivious to why Inej is acting this way until a female family member (probably Inej’s cousin) explains to him the significance of celebration and helps him put 2 and 2 together. When the celebrations start to die down and Inej slips away from the celebration and becomes depressed that it’s over Kaz finds her and performs a magic trick similar to one the shows they went to during the festival and comforts her by telling her something sweet like

“ it might not matter much, but for what it’s worth, I’m glad that your my first with everything”

Inej the tears up, kisses hime, they have lovey dovey smut again, this time being slow and more intimate.

Inej’s parents being polite but still wary of him because they know of his reputation in Kerch. Eventually they warm up to him because they see how sweet and affectionate he is with their daughter. (I would imagine Inej’s father being more distrustful him at first)

Also one her parents (probably Inej’s mother) implying to Kaz that she heard him and Inej being intimate the night before, teases him about it, and assures him that she’s okay with it

And Kaz being a speechless red blushing MESS!

The end!

I’m with you, my friend, someone should write us this gem for the holidays. Any takers??? Please, we’ve been very good this year 🙏

#six of crows #kanej #fanfiction #kaz x inej #shadow and bone #grishaverse #tumblr asks

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noyoucannotpushthevoid · 11 months

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Redo: Six of Crows Characters Sorted into DnD Classes

It was bothering me how I didn’t actually justify my answers in my post sorting Six of Crows characters into DnD classes. In addition, I want to change my answers. So I’m redoing the whole thing: Starting again with…

Kaz Brekker: Mastermind Rogue with the Urchin background He stays the same. There’s no better class/subclass for him. In fact I struggle to think of any others he could conceivably fit in, and I only draw blanks. Now for the actual justification that was missing from last time. While it is all pretty self-explanatory, that is not acceptable evidence. It’s like handing in an essay to a professor that states your argument and the rest is just, “if you read the story you’ll know why”. And, unfortunately, I have academic standards for myself. So, without further ado, Kaz is the mastermind of the Dregs. Per Haskell can lie to himself (and then get fucked) all he wants. As stated in the book, he is just another puppet in Kaz’s plans. He’s the figurehead to Kaz’s actual government lol. There is very little he doesn’t account for, and always has several back up plans. What is a mastermind if they can’t plan their way out of ANYTHING? The subclass is the main reason he’s a rogue, but per my last post he is incredibly perceptive, thrifty/resourceful, and can do major sneak attack damage. Not to mention, but what’s more rogue than letting people underestimate you, in this case because of his disability, only to prove them wrong at the most opportune time for your plan? Related, but only tangentially, he’s not a master of disguise but he can pull a convincing one together in remarkable time.He is so incredibly well connected through secrets and knowledge (even though it’s Inej whose the one gathering said knowledge, he’s the one who exploits it like a good mastermind. But we’re not talking about his subclass anymore). Going back to the first sentence of this paragraph, he is incredibly hard to get a jump on. Even that initial kidnapping that kicked off the plot of the first book, he was only caught because he couldn’t comprehend what he was looking at, not because he didn’t see it. He is a rogue to the tune of my friend’s whose whole thing is that she’s always watching. If I had to give him a magic item it would be said friend’s PC’s jacket of many eyes if you will, which with expertise makes this PC an absolute legend at nightwatch lmao, and saves us the horror of surprise attacks. That is Kaz for his group. He’s thrifty. Going back to people underestimating him, he is a master of improvising with his cane. And That’s such a rogue (or monk) move, to use just what’s at his availability in a given situation. Because you can go one of two ways with a rogue (typically), which are the complete shadow route (Inej) or a flashier route, and Kaz, arguably, took the latter, it’s all about the kind of surprise of it. That’s for lack of a better way of saying it. Rogues really keep you on your toes. Finally, sneak attack damage. I still have not reread the books again, but I know there were moments when Kaz would attack people from behind while they were distracted; if not, it’s something he’d do. As for his background, criminal’s an option, a hombrewed farmer background could be used, but Urchin is what fits best. While, yes he is and was a criminal, that’s only because he was an urchin before that. His backstory and his development hinge on Pekka Rollins scamming Jordie and him, leading to Jordie’s death, leading to him swearing vengeance. And none of that could’ve come about if he and Jordie were not wet around the ears, unsupervised urchins in Ketterdam.

This is going to be an uholily long post, oops. Regrettably I feel no regret, let’s discuss my favorite character: Jesper Fahey: ONE level in Sorcerer, then multiclasses into Fighter and takes the Gunslinger subclass. He retains the Gambler background. I can see his single sorcerer level coming about in 2 ways, a fun thing with his backstory where he and the DM orchestrate the reveal in the books. Therefore the character arc, and have it be one of his character’s main plot lines. Or, he is like me and a diskier of magic classes. But he tried, didn’t like it, multiclassed at the first available opportunity. Then it was twisted to be useful later on in the campaign. He is just like me fr fr (and Gideon Nav) he sees opportunity to fight, he fights. I love how each character has an object that’s heavily entrenched in their backstories. If they pull a Hunter the Vigil I can see each person’s like one on one prologue centering on said objects (ex: Kaz’s gloves, Inej’s knives, Nina’s kefta, etc). That’s besides the point though. He’s a fighter because it’s the quintessential martial class and he just doesn’t fit into the others. He’s not angry or explosive enough to be a barbarian. On the exact other side of the spectrum, he’s not methodical or practiced enough to be a monk. He’s a fairly straightforward fighter. His complexities lie in his backstory/how he’s played, not really in his class (when i say this bastard is like me fr fr, I fucking mean it). Obviously, because his guns are so integral to his backstory, he took the gunslinger subclass. Regrettably there’s really not much else to it. He evidently talked a lot with the DM, definitely making an argument to start with guns. Gambler background, there’s others that arguments could be made for, but like Kaz none of them really encompass him as a character. Gambling is a huge hurdle for Jesper. It greatly impacts his life, like all addictions do. Therefore it greatly impacts how he acts as a character and his motivations/priorities. Jesper is the kind of character that’s really simple on paper, but comes to life in game.

Matthias Helver: I think I was right on the money with him too. Beast Master Ranger that multiclasses into Oathbreaker Paladin with the Zealot background He’s a beast master because of his wolf, that’s really about it. Regardless, that wolf did mean a lot to him so it should be reflected in his character in some way. That being said, as the campaign continued he decided to multiclass into paladin because he found it more useful (probably right about the end of the Ice Court job. They also definitely started the campaign at level 3 or 4, which kinda recons what i said about Jesper, but not entirely. I also posit (cause I don’t remember how early Matthais was introduced, but he and Wylan were late to the campaign. Cause it’s obvious the other 4 have history and these 2 were introduced later than the rest. Otherwise the players of the other 4 were an established dnd group beforehand and for the new campaign they introduced 2 new players. I’ve seen this happen twice and there is a slight, not detrimental, but slight one or two session divide while everyone gets used to each other)). He multiclasses when he does, cause honestly him being a ranger would come in handy when they were traversing the tundra from the port to the ice court. And then there’s not really any reason for him to multiclass until after he realizes that the next chunk of the campaign is going to take place in Ketterdam, rendering a good bit of his abilities useless. Paladin plays into his backstory, but also into the fact that he’s big and tough. It’s also more fitting to his characterization than a barbarian or blood hunter. This is in the way he gives off the stereotypical way you think paladins are played, as very lawful and uptight if you will. He’s obviously not lawful good, but he is lawful regardless. If he multiclasses when I suggest, he’s at the point where he is starting to learn and break from the ideology he was brainwashed into. So, he would eventually take the oathbreaker subclass. He was a paladin for what he’s learned is an evil order and as his character develops he breaks free of it. The zealot background works perfectly for him, because it’s what he was. In addition it brings in that part of his backstory before he multiclasses. He also starts with a zealous mindset that causes strife in the group. While he’s very much not my favorite character, from a dnd standpoint I adore him. So long as it’s done well and all the players understand it’s not personal and only in game, a character that causes a bit of strife in a group is always fun. Maybe his player is a close friend of the others and has a lot of experience with playing dnd so he manages to play this bigoted zealot in a way that doesn’t destroy the group.

Inej Ghafa: Here’s where some things change drastically. She also multiclasses, from an Oath of the Ancients Paladin to a Soulknife Rogue. And she likely trades off levels between the two. She maintains the entertainer background I couldn’t let go of the fact that her religion is a massive part of her character, yet is completely neglected in what I gave her last time. Shame on me. So she would start as a paladin, take the oath of the ancients at 3rd level then multiclass into rogue at 4th (this is where she starts the campaign, so they start at level 4). She is very entrenched in her religion; it is something that keeps her going even in the worst of times, but she’s not really a healer. Therefore she’s not a cleric. She is not a fucking support character; in flavor maybe, otherwise absolutely not. Oath of the ancients is her subclass because her religion is a long standing one as well as (i don’t know jackshit about this subclass, so don’t quote me on any of this) ancients implies multiple, and she worships multiple saints. Rogue is pretty straightforward. She’s sneaky, she’s honestly the stereotypical rogue. Soulknife might not seem so straightforward. My justification though is, as per my first draft if you will, her primary weapon is knives, why not give her unlimited knives? I see no argument against this. Plus this allows her to keep knives as her main weapon, but also deal a good deal of damage. In addition, she probably gets so many surprise attacks, so she can exploit the fuck out of her sneak attack. She’s played dnd before and she knows how to game the system. Finally, she was quite literally raised as an entertainer. I am making her routine acrobat, even though it’s not listed. It’s the most fitting background for her backstory.

Wylan Hendriks: Soooo, 2 levels of bard, because he deserves Jack of All Trades for how quickly he learned to make bombs despite disliking chemistry. Then multiclasses as an artillerist artificer with the Noble background. He’s got to have a little bard in him. As well as, he really should get Jack of All Trades, chemistry is a bitch and a half. Besides learning a heavily chemistry based skill absurdly quickly, he also adapts to each major change in his life fairly smoothly. In addition to both of those reasons, he’s stated to have tried his best to be the best in everything else to hopefully win back his father’s love and compensate for his inability to read. Even if he doesn’t like chemistry he’s pretty darn good at bomb making, and making things in general, if my memory stands. So it should stand to reason that he be an artificer. Like Kaz though, he fits into this class, mostly because of a subclass. In this case the artillerist subclass. It’s a subclass all about bombs and projectiles, and so is Wylan. He’s this class because he has to be to survive. Regardless, he’s constantly working on various experiments in order to help the group out in combat or tough situations, or, y’know, ruin his father’s life. He really adopts this role and class. He becomes great at it, just like pretty much every other subject he’s been faced with. Finally, his background really can’t be anything else. The whatchamacallits are the closest Ketterdam has to nobility, so with a bit of tweaking to account for the fact that they aren’t true nobility it’s the most fitting background. Afterall he was not “kicked out” that long before Kaz took him under his wing. As I said in the last post though, it would probably be flavored as a disgraced noble or something.

Nina Zenik: Way of Mercy Monk that multiclasses as an Order of the Ghostslayer Blood Hunter. Her change comes in the form of her background. I know she wasn’t in the field for long, but I feel like the soldier background is far more fitting than the cloistered scholar one. Most of my reasoning stays the same. Her being a heartrender really impacts what classes/subclasses she would fit into. For example, she is a way of mercy monk because the abilities of the way of mercy, particularly the dual hands of harm and hands of healing parallel her heartrendering abilities. She can use her manipulation of the human body to do both great harm and great good, just like a way of mercy monk can. In general monk is a very fitting class for her because most monks come from a specific monastery where they likely grew up and learned. It’s not the same, but her situation being raised in the little palace parallels this quintessential part of the monk class. After taking parem though, she multiclasses. Her abilities were a threat before, but they were controlled. Parem not only makes her even more of a threat, but it gives her abilities a more terrifying and feral, for lack of a better term, quality. Heartrending, especially after parem parallels the abilities of a blood hunter incredibly well. Both are based in fucking with the body, and lends the user and ability to manipulate a creature’s most basic functions. After (and when I say after, I'm typically including when she was on it as well. As in after she took it) parem her abilities start to come with a drastic cost. To use your abilities as a blood hunter, particularly to push them further and therefore make them stronger/more effective, you take damage yourself, and not necessarily a small amount either. Not only does Nina’s abilities take a greater toll on her after parem, but while she’s on it she’s wasting away even if she’s getting this incredible boost in her powers. Blood hunters are known to take on aspects of what they hunt, almost becoming the monster in order to successfully hunt the monster. For her, following parem she becomes monstrous in her abilities, though that also makes her much better at them. As for the ghostslayer subclass there are several reasons: it’s age as an order and the type of creatures the order focuses on. Nina’s abilities are still her own, but they’re bastardized and warped because of parem. Again though, they’re still fundamentally her initial abilities, which she developed as a part of a long line of grisha. The order of the ghostslayer is the oldest blood hunter order. The ages parallel each other, as well as though the order has a lengthy history, one doesn’t become a blood hunter until later in life, after something horrific drives them to it. This is just like how parem drove Nina, later in life to her new abilities. Ghostslayers also primarily hunt the undead. Nina’s new abilities allow her to manipulate the dead, so there’s another connection in the focus of abilities. I changed her background because she is a very active extroverted character, not the type you’d see huddled away doing research. Her dream was to be in the field, it’s what her entire childhood culminated in. Yes she was cloistered away in the little palace, but it was learning how to be a soldier, so she can have that leeway and take the soldier background.

Kuwei Yul-Bo: Pyromancy Sorcerer with the Inheritor background He stays the same because I have not remembered anything new between that initial post and now. His abilities are his father’s every relevant part of him he inherited. And he has that vague relation to fire that I cannot remember the context for for the life of me lol.

#long post #six of crows #kaz brekker #jesper fahey #inej ghafa #matthais helvar #nina zenik #wylan van eck #kuwei yul bo #dnd

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steponmeinejghafa · 1 year

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Face In The Crowd Pt.2

Summary: After Inej introduces you to Kaz, he’s tentative about you. However, after he sees you practising magic before a performance, he’s convinced your intentions are nothing but pure. He notes how deft you are with your hands, and how quick you are with vanishing without a trace. So, he has a job for you, with none other than Inej Ghafa herself.

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While the glasses clinked and drunkards sang down below, Kaz was busy scrutinising you after Inej decided to introduce you both.

“So…” said Kaz, his stony gaze on you. “A street performer, Inej? Really?”

“Kaz, she has potential,” sighed the Wraith. “Besides, her and I are now friends, so I thought it’d be nice for you to meet.”

“Hm…” he replied. “How do I know you’re not Pekka’s spy?”

“Kaz!” Exclaimed the Suli. You, however, smiled at him warmly, which caught him off guard.

“Pekka Rollins has wronged me in quite a few ways, Mr. Brekker,” you said calmly. “I’ve got my life pledged to no one.”

“Interesting,” he replied. “Steer performers are known for their ability to swindle.”

“And club owners are known for their ability to intimidate,” you shot back. “Seems like that isn’t working on me, Mr. Brekker.”

“I guess you’re already intimidated enough, as someone who’s basically sidewalk filth,” he replied.

“Kaz!” Inej exclaimed, horrified.

He shook his head and dismissed you both, which you shrugged and did, waiting for Inej to exit before closing the door.

“I’m so sorry, Y/n, he’s just like that—“ Inej apologised profusely, but you smiled and shrugged it off.

“That’s okay,” you laughed. “I’m used to that insult.”

“You shouldn’t be,” said Inej.

“I am,” you replied. “It’s part of my job.”

All your friend could do was give you a side hug and slink away. However, on you her touch lingered, and you savoured it, that strange feeling.

About a week after that ordeal, you sat in one of the booths at the Crow Club, practising some tricks, unbeknownst to the watchful eyes nearby.

Kaz noticed your smooth movements, how you made even the simplest trick so deceptive. He noticed how there wasn’t a single fault or flaw in your performance, and silently applauded you for it.

He limped over, his usual sour expression on his face as he said, “The tricks are not bad.”

“Thank you,” you smiled, before gesturing for him to sit. “I can also vanish without a trace. That’s usually my finale trick.”

“Are you��are you really with no gang?” He asked incredulously.

“No,” you shook your head. “No one needs a street performer.”

“But I do,” he replied, convinced of your true nature. “How would you like to prove your worth as a Crow?”

“Depends on how much I get paid,” you replied. “Don’t forget, I’m basically surviving on twenty kruge a day.”

“This is a several hundred kruge job,” said Kaz. “I need someone good with their hands, and someone who can vanish without a trace.”

You made a card vanish and reappear, looking up at him sharply, “Can’t Inej do that by herself?”

“She can, but not alone,” he replied. "You just have to punch your way in, and stand guard while Inej steals what I've asked her to."

"You need me to punch or wound the guards? Why? Can't Inej just Wraith her way in?"

“No. Because of personal reasons.”

You thought for a moment, hands working away at a card flourish, before you said, “Fine. I’ll do it.”

“Good,” said Kaz, putting his hand out for you to shake, and you took it, smiling at him.

—Time Skip—

The plan was easy. Distract or—should it come to that—beat up Pekka Rollins’ men, while Inej steals a DeKappel. In and out, no casualties.

“You okay?” She asked, noticing your fluttering hands whilst you both stood atop a building right across Pekka’s office.

“Obviously,” you laughed, but the tremor in your voice gave it away.

“Look, don’t be scared. It’s just one job, in and out,” said Inej, placing a hand on your shoulder. Again, you felt that odd lingering sensation, which turned into a searing blush on your cheeks.

“Fine,” you said. “I’ll probably just have to punch my way in.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Good luck!” She grinned, before vanishing in a blink.

“What the—“ you muttered to yourself before sliding down a pole discreetly, onward to Pekka’s club.

You snuck in behind a lone guard, catching him in a sleep-inducing headlock fast enough that he couldn’t warn his comrades. Carefully and quietly you placed him in an alley, where no one could spot him.

You saw his friend coming out of the club, and immediately crept behind him, soundless in a way which Inej would’ve been impressed with.

From your pocket came a chloroform-soaked handkerchief, which you placed over the man’s nose and mouth, holding him back with an arm around his neck, waiting patiently till he, too, like his comrade, fell asleep.

You walked into the club, heading over to the guard and asking him where the restroom was. He showed you upstairs as the restrooms were otherwise occupied, and you thanked him before entering.

Hastily you dashed down the corridors, avoiding the patrolling men and simply knocking out the ones who dared intervene.

When you reached Pekka Rollins’ office door, there stood a line of guards, all of whom attacked you in a trice. With an astounding speed and rush of adrenaline, each one lay bloodied and bruised on the floor, while you sustained only a bruised lip, bloody nose, and cut brow.

You didn’t stop to wonder why Inej could’ve just crept in without your intervention, but later you remembered Kaz telling you he wanted Pekka to know how weak his men were. Hence, he’d asked a simple street performer to take them all out.

Back at the Crow Club, you sat with Inej and waited for one of the worker boys to bring you a drink. You doubted Kaz had thought his plan through, and just wanted you to punch your way in when Inej could've just done a quick job of it.

Inej came downstairs and saw you sitting in sweaty clothes and with a wounded face, so immediately she dragged you back upstairs to patch you up.

"Inej, I'm fine--" You protested, but she wasn't hearing any of it.

"I'm going to murder Kaz for making you do this," she muttered, dabbing disinfectant on the cut you had on your brow, earning a wince from you. "Sorry."

"It's fine, Inej. I'm used to getting beaten up! I'm sure everyone who stays in the Barrel is," you laughed.

"No," she grumbled, checking your nose foYr any other damage besides the bleeding.

"Fine," you rolled your eyes playfully, while she packed away the things.

All of a sudden, you both realised how close you both were, and cleared your throats awkwardly as you shuffled apart.

"So..." said Inej, once you both had gotten over the awkwardness, "Shall we have a drink?"

----- Hi, It's me, Anne <3 I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Feel free to request <33

#inej ghafa #shadow and bone #inej ghafa x femreader #jesper fahey #nina zenik #wylan van eck #fluff #kaz brekker #injury bonding i guess-

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irresistiibles · 1 year

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was that amita suman? oh no no, that was just inej ghafa, a canon character from the grishaverse. they are twenty three years old, use she/her, and are aware that they are not actually from washington dc. too bad they can’t stray from this city for long.

how long has your character been here

i think it’s only been a few weeks but inej is a fast learner and doesn’t want to look like she’s behind the curve or an easy target so if anyone asks she’d say it’s been nearly 8 months and she’s been settled for a while

what is your character’s job

uhhh lemmie get back to you on that i cannot imagine she’d be doing some normal chill job if she knew kaz was here so i will edit this when i figure it out!

where has your character been pulled from in their fandom

okay after season 1 of the show for now? i own the first book and season 2 comes out in like two days so we’ll see how long this lasts take it was a grain of salt tbh i’m figuring it out and this could change as i plot/consume more of the media

has any magic affected your character

nope!

any other info!

so! i have only watched the first season of the show so far but i have the first book and will be hopping on it! i know they’re pretty different but i’ve already looked some background stuff up for the sake of knowing the character so def don’t feel like you need to worry about spoilers or anything if we’re plotting please inform me! some standard inej info now! it is just some general vibes because this was an impulse take after i watched the show in two days and lost my mind but though i am figuring her out i am very excited to write her!

she grew up as a traveling performer with her family doing acrobatics

as a teenager she was captured and sold to a pleasure house known as the menagerie and was stuck there until kaz bought her contract. after that she joined his gang as a spy for them

she’s skeptical of people but not rude. if anything i would say that despite her life and circumstances she’s relatively friendly. she’s reserved but she wants to trust and wants people to be good and can be a very good friend if she decides that you’re someone trustworthy

stubborn and sticks to her beliefs! good luck trying to change her mind it’s not gonna happen especially when it comes to her morals and her beliefs!! is not here to just follow what everyone’s saying and i love that for her

she is reserved though. she’s not the sort to naturally talk to strangers and she’s certainly not chatty. she typically learns from watching people rather than conversation, and clearly it works because she’s gotten

very stealthy and can move without really making any noise at all. has a tendency to accidentally sneak up on people

always has several knives on her and will stab people if necessary. she tries to have her limitations, but she is very protective and will do what she has to do to keep the people she cares about alive and then will feel bad about it after

is frustrated to be here when there are things she considers to be important back home but also has some peace in being far far away from the menagerie

#hw: intro #there is a chance i start the book by tomorrow #just cause i need more of the crows #( intro && inej )

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coffeeandcalligraphy · 1 year

Note

have you read any good books recently? :)

YES! I’m back in my ~reading era & have read 25 books since August which is a huge flex for me!!! Out of the 25, I’ve really particularly loved:

Lore by Alexandra Bracken (YA contemporary fantasy) - this was the first YA spec book I’ve read in a loooong time and it was such an easy primer for getting back into genre & helped me a lot with figuring out how to worldbuild!

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury (YA contemporary fantasy) - this is another YA spec book that was so great getting me back into the genre!

The Marionettes & Wicked Souls by Katie Wismer (Adult dark fantasy/paranormal romance) - these are probably my two favourite books of the year and are part of a series! These books cured my 7 year reading slump haha and are the reason I’ve read SO much since August. Fast-paced, well-written, compelling characters. Everything a Twilight/YA 2010s vampire fan has dreamed of but for adults!

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (YA fantasy) - this one had such an interesting, specific world!

Once More, With Feeling by Sophie McCreesh (Adult literary fiction) - this was such a great nothing happens vibe. It could be too nothing-happens-y for people but for some reason I can’t stop thinking about the narrator even months later!

Tides by Sara Freeman (Adult literary fiction) - the beginning half of this is what I’d call a perfect novel! Last half fell off for me but I LOVE the opening so much & recommend folks read it if you’re looking to write more third present

Six of Crows & Crooked Kingdom (YA fantasy) - so late to the game and okay maybe these are my favourites of the year too! I’m absolutely obsessed with these books now hahaha special interest UNLOCKED. I got my sister onto these books too and we are absolutely unhingedly obsessed. I would die for Inej!!!

What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer (poetry) - SUCH a good poetry collection! Really reflective and quiet which is some of my fave types of poetry

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (YA contemporary) - read this for a class and cried for 20 minutes on my bed after I finished it!

The Glass Witch by Lindsay Puckett (middle grade paranormal?) - LOVED this book! It was so cozy & a quick read, I finished it in one sitting. Really great mother-daughter dynamic here

Bitterblue by Kristen Cashore (YA fantasy) - this was the fifth or sixth reread of this book for me but the first reread since I maybe was 15? And it was my favourite time I’ve read this book. It’s everything I want out of a book, tbh! It’s meditative with a lot of tiny quests that all come together at the end (SO SATISFYING) & I love the audiobook narrator so much! So fond of Bitterblue as a character too and was pleasantly surprised by a lot of what happened since I knew who the characters were but couldn’t remember how large of a role they played in the story (I’m referring to Po lmaooo).

That’s just a few, I’ve read a lot of good stuff this year!

#asks

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thedelusionreaderbitch · 3 years

Text

Kaz Brekker x alkemi Reader - Strange Truths

A/n: This was so fun to do and me being an Alkemi really was happy with this request! Thank you! I'm so sorry it took so long though!

Warnings: None? Needles?

Request: ok ok so i have an idea- a kaz brekker x alkemi reader where kaz accidentally drinks one of the reader's newest chemical (prolly cause jesper slipped it into his drink) and it makes him super flustered and vv talkative and the reader has to keep him in their lab until they can finish the antidote and kaz tells the reader he likes them right after he takes the antidote so the reader realizes he's actually serious-

I do not own six of crows or shadow and bone or you!

Most people underestimated alkemi's but once they did it once they would not do it again. Kaz Brekker knew that alkemi's could just be as dangerous as a squaller all the way to a shadow or sun summoner if they were powerful enough. To be fair, very few were that powerful but most could kill you slowly and far worse than a heartrender so...

But you were a very powerful alkmei- one of the most powerful to ever live and that was why you are part of the crows. You can fight just fine, but the dregs had seemed to be getting very creative with their ways of killing to getting information and this was all thanks to you.

Though not all appreciated your talents.

Nina has grown up thinking that the alkemi's were weak was a part of those few, Inej just didn't understand you, Jesper understood but was still trying to come to terms with his own Grisha powers, Wylan thought you were amazing and Matthias was just flat out scared.

But that all changed when one day you poisoned a whole army.

Oh, Kaz was just... Happy? No one really knew, but sometimes he just seemed a bit more satisfied about how things were going with you around. Unfortunately for you, that meant he had to spend a bit more time around you trying to come up with more ideas. And that would have been just fine if it weren't for the fact that you were falling helplessly in love with Dirtyhands.

Ya, fuck.

Lately, you had been conjuring up something new in that lab of yours in the basement of the Slat. It was almost like a truth potion but not quite, it was to make it easier to get information out of its victims but not enough to notice.

Officially it was finished and you were going to go tell Kaz but you realized today everyone was going to be at the Crow Club. Just your luck that you hated socializing.

You sigh but you quickly grab the elixir and start running to the Club. Being late to a meeting was never really your foreté.

Finding finally the Crows even with the sea of people around you spot them when you meet Kaz's eyes. Of course, you had to meet his eyes. You go and sit down beside him as everyone had already decided on their drinks.

"Y/n's getting them this time since she's late!" Jesper grins in triumph as you just roll your eyes. It doesn't matter you guessed he was almost always going to be the one late so you figured it wouldn't matter if you had done it this one time. Besides, it would give the sharpshooter (and his boyfriend) a break for once.

Getting up from your seat you walk towards the bar and ask for everyone's drinks. He hands you them and you talk to the bartender as you walk back towards the group.

"I'm your waiter for one time only, don't get used to it."

Kaz just clears his throat and starts talking about a plan that's really in reality just a decoy because of Inej's intel there would be Dime Lion spies in the Crow Club today.

And why not take that to your advantage?

Suddenly Kaz stops talking and you lift an eyebrow at him. He just shakes his head and the others just shrug their shoulders and start a different conversation.

For a bit, you do engage in conversation with the other Crows but Kaz just seemed different? Like he was trying not to burst out talking or something?

"Dirtyhands, you good?"

Instantly his face flushed a bright pink and he stutters out;

"Ya-ya fine. Totally fine, everything's good. Go back to whatever I guess. Just leave me alone and do your work you shouldn't have even asked, so can you please-" He cut himself off and flushed (what you didn't even know was possible) red even brighter.

What the- You always called Kaz Dirtyhands as more as a nickname than a mean term almost like a term of endearment. Although he didn't know that he never had even blinked when you used the little nickname more than necessary so why was he now?

Also to add to that fact, was that you really never called him Kaz. It was mostly to keep yourself in check so you didn't get used to him too much. It was more like reminding yourself that you both weren't on a first-name basis even if you already were.

Narrowing your eyes, you can see that his pupils are slightly dilated and that he's bitting down on his tongue really hard to stop himself from talking. This wasn't just Kaz Brekker flustered, there was something else going on here. And you had to figure at fast before the Dime Lion spies did, or if they already had.

"Brekker, I need to you answer me honestly okay?" You lower your voice and you soften your tone like you would with your targets to get information out of them. You didn't like doing it, but it was the price to pay for his safety.

He just bobs his head up and down trying not to say anything.

"What have you ingested today?"

"Just the drink. Not anything else, being that I forg-" He cuts himself off from his whisper-rant covering his hand over his mouth.

"You haven't eaten today!" Accidently you raise your voice and the anger and concern shine through your usual stone-cold tone.

Kaz widens his eyes and gives you a look to shut the fuck up. He was still the Bastard of The Barrel after all.

Wait, now that you think about it...

You reach into your pocket for your newly brewed elixir and when you take it out it almost confirms it for you.

The lid is open.

Oh, fuck maybe it's better not to cure Kaz because you might just die after this.

It all made sense now though; talkative, flustered, overused & exaggerated facial expressions, looseness of the tongue. Those were all symptoms and you hadn't even noticed.

Well... At least you knew it worked and it was effective. Very effective... Fucking hell Kaz really is going to kill you now.

Grabbing onto his coat sleeve (being extra careful not to touch his skin) you drag him out of the crow club away from the prying eyes of everyone and the shouts of 'what the hell!' From your friends.

Quickly you drag him to the basement of the Slat where all your potions, bombs, machines, elixirs, poisons and most importantly supplies are.

"You can sit there." You point at a chair in the back of the room that basically had a view of everything.

"You better make me an antidote or I swear to-"

You cut him off before he says something he'll regret later. "Go sit your ass down Dirtyhands and let the real Grisha do their magic."

He flushes again and walks over to the chair but not without muttering under his breath how Grisha cannot do magic. And how their abilities work and etc.

By the saints! Now you really didn't want to reverse that chemical elixir, he just sounded really cute. But who the fuck are you kidding? This is Kaz Brekker we're talking about and you just thought of him as cute.

Welp, this is getting interesting.

Quickly you mix some ingredients together trying really hard to go as swift as you can. No one could see Brekker like this it would kill his reputation.

You look down at the antidote and you curse under your breath. This was going to need a needle. Oh fuck, you might as well just die right there.

Hurrying over to your cabinet you quickly go through the vials wondering what size you would need till you found the perfect one. It wasn't very big, and because it was fabrikator made he wouldn't even feel a pinch. But at the same time, it would hold your elixir even if it was a very tiny vial.

"Brekker, your gonna have to put your arm up for me."

You don't turn around knowing that this probably could be your death right here in your lab. At least Kaz Brekker will kill you so at least that's memorable. You sigh, Kaz Brekkers Alkemi was killed by Dirtyhands himself.

"Why?" Most of the time Kaz would just raise his eyebrow at you but because of the fun chemicals that he had in his body that was not the case.

"You might want to roll up your sleeve as well." You say nervously turning around so the needle was visible.

"Because I'm going to have to use a syringe."

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?!"

You slowly walk over and you shake your head.

"Sleeves up."

Kas just grumbles while putting his sleeves up you can tell he's uncomfortable. Now looking back at it you didn't really know how many barrel rats have had needles before, and if they did it probably wasn't good.

"What's your favourite colour?"

He snaps his eyes to meet yours and that's the moment you press the needle in his skin.

As you thought before he didn't flinch but he looked like he wanted to kill you with that stare but his eyes seem to soften with your worried stance.

"It didn't hurt did it?"

Kaz just shakes his head and you sigh in relief. "There shouldn't be any after-effects but I might just check in to see just in case."

He's almost out the door when he stops just at the entrance.

"Your eyes."

You whip your head around to meet his dark eyes.

"What?"

Slowly he comes away from the door frame advancing on you and he shakily takes off a glove and presses his hand against your cheek.

"You asked me what my favourite colour was."

You have convinced yourself that at this moment you have stopped breathing. Nothing else matters but you two of you in this room. The feeling of his hand on your cheek sends butterflies everywhere in you. And you can't stop to think about how beautiful and terrifying those brown nearly black eyes are.

"Boss!" There's a shout from upstairs and he quickly pulls away putting his glove back on.

"So I'll be seeing you around Brekker?"

He rolls his eyes. "You know you can call me Kaz right?"

You laugh as you herd him through the door knowing that he has business to attend to.

"But I think you much prefer when I call you Dirtyhands."

The blush spreads across his cheeks albeit not as strong this time but at least you know it's not from one of your elixirs.

"Only you Y/n only you."

Words 1799

-thedelusionreaderbitch

Shadow and bone taglist: @kaqua @rika90 @thefandomplace @musical-theatre-obsessed-dumbass @gallysonegoodlung @navs-bhat @sumsebien @dontjudgeabookbythecover

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earlgreydream · 3 years

Text

by your side.

| Jesper fahey x reader | fluff |

for my dyad 🖤 @fitzfiles

cw: mentions of blood, injury, violence, typical ketterdam shit

“Fuck.”

In retrospect, you should’ve listened to Kaz. But hey, hindsight is 20/20. The evening had started out well, giving you false hope that maybe you were going to pull off your bullshit plan— the one Kaz Brekker had explicitly told you was a bad idea.

Don’t rob the general, Aleksander Morozova when he comes through on his carriage.

You’d told Kaz he worried too much. Nina had warned you against it, hearing stories of the vicious grisha trainer. Wylan had objected too— and if Inej hadn’t been off gaining intel, she would’ve as well. Matthias didn’t seem to object too much, having more faith in your ability to carry out the theft.

Jesper Fahey, on the other hand, was gleefully on board with your plan.

He’d agreed to go with you, aiding you in robbing the general. Kaz tried to talk him out of it, but he was certain in his ability to outsmart the infamous grisha.

You’d barely gotten within ten feet of the carriage when shots started firing. You’d vastly underestimated the guard that The Darkling had brought for protection, and now, you were running for cover from bullets.

You definitely hadn’t expected them to chase you and Jesper down, even as you retreated. You swung around a corner, Jesper just a few feet ahead of you.

“What are we going to do?!” Jesper asked, your feet sliding on the rain-damp cobblestone streets.

“We’re going to make a run for The Barrel.”

The two of you made it only a few streets before throwing knives flew through the air around you. You whipped around to get a view of your opponents, Jesper’s guns blazing. Shouts echoed off of the narrow streets as soldiers fell, Jesper’s magic bullets lodged in their flesh.

He was fast, but not fast enough.

A blade cut through the air, launching itself into your torso. Your steps faltered and a pained scream left your lips, your body cracking hard against the cobblestone. Horror wracked through the both of you, causing a split second of hesitation in Jesper.

Jesper managed to shoot the men after you, giving you a few moments of peace.

“Y/N! Fuck. Saints!” Jesper swore, panic rising in his throat like acid.

Blood was quickly staining through your shirt, one you’d stolen from Kaz— crimson staining the grey fabric. The pain was sharp, burning and spreading through the surrounding area, the blade lodged fairly deep.

He ran to your side, trying to pull you to stand. The amount of blood that was pouring down your clothes was making him nervous, especially as your face started to lose color.

“You have to get up. We’re not safe.”

“Jesper,” you gasped as he hauled you to your feet.

“I know, I’m so sorry. We’ve got to run a little farther!”

Jesper was clearly panicking, his fear practically suffocating him as he noticed you growing more and more limp, your blood staining the cobblestone.

You were begging him for help, but he couldn’t take the knife out, not without something to stop the bleeding. Jesper hissed out an apology as he lifted you, realizing you were in no shape to walk on your own.

“M’going to die. And Kaz is going to bring me back to life and kill me again,” you mumbled, slurring your speech as if you’d had a few too many drinks.

“No, no. Do not talk like that. You’re going to be fine! It’s going to be fine!” Jesper said fiercely, shaking you a bit as your eyes threatened to close.

“I’m so sorry, doll, you’ve gotta stay awake.”

You forced yourself to keep your eyes open as Jesper carried you to a safe house, one the crows sometimes hid out in.

“I don’t know what to do, I can’t-”

“Jesper you have to help me. I trust you,” you breathed, wincing in pain as he set you down on a cot.

Sweat had your hair sticking to your forehead, rolling down your skin in cool beads. Jesper apologized as he pulled your shirt off so he could see the wound.

He pulled a medic bag from the closet, one Inej kept in case of situations like this. He was capable of giving first aid, but the stress of the situation was making his normally steady hands shake. Situations you wouldn’t be in, if you had just listened to Kaz. Jesper could be shot by a hundred guns, and not even hesitate in breathing, but seeing you hurt and in pain nearly made his heart stop beating.

Jesper grimaced as his hand wrapped around the handle of the knife, his other hand holding cloth.

“I’m so sorry,” the nth apology fell from his lips.

An agonized scream tore from your chest as Jesper pulled the knife from your flesh, praising the Saints that it wasn’t too deep, and hadn’t hit any vital organs.

“Jes!” You cried, tears rolling down your cheeks.

“I know, I know. You’re doing so well for me, doll. Just a few more deep breaths.”

You sobbed as he cleaned the wound with alcohol, your mind starting to numb from the agonizing pain. You barely felt him stitch the wound— not near as neat as Inej or Kaz would’ve done it, but well enough to do its job.

“You’re going to have a wicked scar.”

“What’s one more?” You mumbled, thankful the worst part was over.

“You’re so brave,” he praised you, now gently cleaning your skin before securely bandaging your middle.

You gave him a weak smile, holding his hand as he knelt beside you.

He gently eased you to sit up, sliding his own shirt over your head, allowing you a view of his dark, defined muscles. They were littered with scars, much like the bodies of the other crows. Your fingertips traced an intricate rose tattoo on his chest, studying the flower.

“I’m going to get you some water. Keep those pretty eyes open,” Jesper said, pressing a rough kiss to your forehead.

You nodded, watching him disappear down the hall of the old and empty house. It seemed like forever before he returned, and your tired— yet delighted smile made his heart melt.

Your injury had truly frightened Jesper, the prospect of losing you causing devastating fear to nearly paralyzed him. He could sense your exhaustion, but the sight of your smile was enough to put his anxiety at ease.

He aided you in sitting up, sliding behind you with his back against the wall. He held the glass bottle to your lips, quietly urging you to drink.

You swallowed, shivering as the cold water went down your throat. His arm tightened around you, a warm hand resting on your bicep.

“How are you feeling? I put some painkiller in the water.”

“A bit better. Sleepy,” you yawned, letting your head rest in the curve of his shoulder.

“You can rest now. Kaz and Wylan are on their way. Then we’re going to take you back to the club so you can sleep in a proper bed.”

“You told Kaz?!”

“I couldn’t exactly keep it a secret. I won’t let him at you. I’ll protect you,” Jesper promised, softly encouraging you to let yourself rest in his arms.

You drifted off, his body warm against yours. You weren’t sure how long you slept, but you were roused by leather gloves wrapping around your knees. Your eyes felt heavy, and you found yourself struggling to open them.

“Jes,” you whined weakly, fearing that the gunsmith had left you.

“I’m here, don’t fret.”

Fingers gently brushed over your cheek before Wylan and Jesper lifted the top half of your body. The boys moved you onto a makeshift stretcher so they could transport you to the Crow Club, on the other side of The Barrel.

“This is exactly why I warned you not to fuck with the general!” Kaz hissed.

“M’sorry, Kaz,” you breathed, your inhales becoming increasingly more painful as Jesper’s sedative wore off.

“Saints. Don’t fucking cry about it, not when we’re carrying you through Ketterdam,” Kaz snapped at you.

“Kaz, that’s not helpful right now.”

It was Wylan that had spoke, his gentle temperament bringing you some comfort. You knew that transporting you like this was dangerous, especially if you were attracting extra attention by crying. You kept your mouth shut, lying still until they got you back to the safety of the flat above the club.

“What the hell happened?” Inej asked, lifting your shirt, Jesper’s shirt, to inspect the wound.

“Throwing knife.”

“Kaz!” You cried as he went toward the doorway, his cane sharply hitting the wooden floorboards.

“I’m sorry,” you breathed when he turned to you, sharp black eyes boring into your skull.

“Just be okay. I’d hate to have to drag you back from the dead.”

And with that, he was gone. You relaxed a bit, knowing that was the most affection you were going to get from dirtyhands. Inej cleaned your wound again, helping you swallow some more painkiller. Wylan went off on a job, soon followed by Inej.

You were left alone with Jesper, who was now dressed and bathed, sitting in a velvet chair by your bedside. His fingers folded in yours, long and elegant, the hands of a Fabrikator.

You were thankful he stayed with you, not needing to be begged. He was happy to sit by your bed, not wanting to leave your side when you were vulnerable. Part of him felt responsible, he should’ve protected you. He wished he’d taken the knife wound instead.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop them in time,” he apologized quietly, lightly squeezing your hand.

“Thank you for saving me.”

A soft smile pulled at his mouth, and he raised your hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to your hand.

“Will you stay?” you asked, tightening your grip on his hand.

“I swear on Sankt Milo, I will remain by your side.”

#earl grey grisha #Jesper #jesper fahey #Jesper fahey x reader #Jesper fahey x reader fluff #Jesper fahey fluff #Jesper fahey oneshot #Jesper fahey imagine #six of crows #shadow and bone #shadow & bone

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lonslibrary · 3 years

Text

3 moments between the crow couples during their time at hogwarts

1. an unknown part of wylan and jesper’s somewhat disastrous amortentia story comes moments after jesper pulled wylan in for a kiss by his tie, causing the rest of their classmates to erupt in cheers and applause so loud that professor snape’s “boys! in the hall, now!” went unheard. minutes later, when they had actually been led out of the classroom to wait for their punishment, wylan finally worked up the courage to meet jesper’s eyes, his face almost as red as his hair. jesper’s grin was radiant. “so. butterbeer and my cologne, huh?”

it took all of wylan’s nerve to not sink into the ground where he stood. “i didn’t know today’s lesson was on amortentia,” he muttered, feeling himself flush again.

it took all of jesper’s will not to kiss the younger again right there where he stood with the way the redhead was looking up at him from beneath his long lashes.

“well, what about you?” wylan demanded, rolling his eyes. “let me guess. cards, pumpkin juice, and galleons?”

“no, actually.” jesper replied, spinning his wand in his hand. “i smell grass. gunpowder. and...”

he took a step closer to wylan who stood still, holding his breath. “...and?” the third year asked quietly.

“exploding elixir.”

wylan’s mind shut down.

“the entire room was filled with the same smell from that day we singed snape’s hair,” jesper snorted. “of all things, we had to mess up the potion that smelled like burnt-”

it was wylan who pulled jesper down this time, reaching up on his tippy toes to meet jesper’s soft lips, the ones that had captivated him from the moment he had walked into the potions classroom and saw his new lab partner for the first time.

“fahey, van eck!” snape burst into the hallway. “does it seem possible to keep your hands off of each other?”

“sorry, prof.” jesper winked, eyes still trained on wylan’s mouth. “guess you can say we’ve got...chemistry.”

wylan couldn’t even bring himself to care about detention.

2. nina stifled a laugh, trying to keep a straight face as she watched matthias scan the inside of zonko’s joke shop. she had just gotten matthias to admit that he enjoyed a drink as sweet as butterbeer, hours earlier at the three broomsticks. “you look like you’re inside the shrieking shack, not a joke shop.” nina snickered at the way matthias perked up.

“whatever the shrieking shack is, i think that there’d be more dignity in such a place than...this.” matthias dropped a dungbomb he had picked up like it had personally offended his grandmother.

“why?” nina giggled. she shook the box in her hand. “not a fan of ton-tongue toffees?”

matthias made a face that looked like he was more than just not a fan. “if it’s anything like those jelly beans you fed me on the train, then no.”

that only made nina laugh harder. “i swear you picked the worst ones! you should’ve seen your face when you tried the rotten egg flavor.”

matthias cracked a smile, relaxing a little amongst the colorful store and his girlfriend’s laughter. he picked up another product, a pink bottle corked at the top. “what does this one do?”

nina lowered her voice, gesturing for matthias to come closer, as if letting him in on a secret. “that one’s a love potion. one drop of it in someone’s drink and they’re yours,” she whispered. “they’ll think about you all day.”

matthias jerked away, putting the bottle back on the shelf. “you can’t be serious. love can’t be made like that!” he sputtered.

“i don’t know, durmstrang,” nina teased. “what if i bought one and slipped some in your pumpkin juice tomorrow at breakfast?”

matthias only crossed his arms, continuing to grimace. “well, that wouldn’t work at all.”

“why not? zonko’s is pretty reliable when it comes to their products.” she said pointedly, looking at the extendable ears on sale.

“because i’m already in love with you.” matthias stated simply.

nina froze, turning to her boyfriend. during her time dating matthias, the hufflepuff had proven to be narrow minded and straightforward as a broom doing any and every thing. it was moments like these she was reminded that this included during his expressions of affection, and nina couldn’t love him more for it.

“i’m in love with you, too.” she declared, slipping her hand into her boyfriend’s. she had always liked...brooms. “now, come on. i want to see if we can get kaz to fall for a trick wand.”

3. all inej had wanted was a quiet place to study that wasn’t the library. she liked to practice with her wand for transfiguration, and magic wasn’t allowed in the library. she had been wandering the school for an empty classroom or quiet corner when the room of requirement had appeared at the end of a hallway, exactly moments before she was about to give up and return to the gryffindor common room. she was only half surprised when she opened the door and saw kaz, but like always, kaz hadn’t seemed surprised at all when she entered. he sat on top of a desk with his cane leaned against it, wand out, in the middle of a silent spell. inej let her eyes trail over his robe perched on a chair, his gloves off and set aside in a rare moment, and his uniform sleeves pulled up to his elbows.

“first time here?” kaz asked, not looking up from the book in his lap. his rough voice echoed slightly in the large room as inej scanned her surroundings. the room was empty besides a couple of desks and chairs in one corner, a cluttered pile of objects in another, and a big wardrobe that looked ages old. a fireplace on the wall kept the room warm, and a small chandelier hung above inej’s head.

“guess i didn’t require much until now.” inej shrugged, pulling a desk and chair of her own towards the center of the room. “you?”

kaz closed his book, finally looking up at inej. “i come and go when i want.”

inej wanted to know more about what had revealed the room to kaz in the first place, but she redirected the question away from kaz himself, knowing it was unlikely he would answer. “get anything out of it?” with kaz, it was all about gain.

kaz drummed his fingers on his desk. inej tried not to stare. “some crying first years with who miss their mums. i think i’ve witnessed a bit of every couple in the school’s snogging.” he pulled out a handful of extendable ears from his robe pocket. “snape’s planning something. don’t know the details yet, but something big.”

inej nodded. part of her expected kaz to leave, speak with his silence as he tended to do, but he continued to sit and look at inej, book in lap. inej knew him well enough to recognize that while it wasn’t exactly an invitation, kaz wasn’t saying no to a conversation. she could’ve started with a less risky question about snape’s plans, or asked for the names of the couples in their year, just to know, but inej was curious about other things.

“and how did you find this place, kaz?”

“the de kappel painting.” he said casually. “i needed a place to hide it.”

inej froze, taken aback by kaz’s answer. or more accurately, his willingness to answer. “so it’s true?” she questioned, hoping her voice didn’t give away her surprise. “the gringotts vault rumor.” she had half believed them to begin with, knowing kaz’s abilities but never his motives. still, kaz had never confirmed it with anyone as far as she had known.

“true enough.” kaz reopened his book, attention back on the page. inej inwardly sighed. the satisfaction of knowing kaz trusted her enough to confirm the gringotts rumor didn’t last long. figures kaz wouldn’t want to talk much about himself.

“but that’s a story for next time.” kaz flipped a page, the slightest start of a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

next time, inej turned over in her head. she tried not to smile as she opened her own book. she could work with next time.

author’s note (pls read!) this is my first time on tumblr so idk how to use it too well but i’m overwhelmed by all the nice responses so thank you all so, so much. i see everything!! idk if there’s like poll mechanisms and stuff on tumblr (argh help) but i wanted to gauge what everyone would like next—im deciding between six of crows x pjo or shadow and bone x harry potter, so comment below what you’d like to see first (: i’d also love to hear abt any personal requests so my dms (is that what they’re called here?) are open for suggestions. no promises, but lmk if there’s something you want to read. feel free to get as niche as you want, respectfully! ok ik this is super long god bless your soul if u actually read the entire thing but finally, i just wanted to introduce myself—i’m lynn, this is my library and i dabble in most fandoms! my goal is to get at least one piece of writing out every month, so if you’d like to read what i write, follow along! OK im finally done, i swear. thank you again for the tremendous support. unbelievable. happy reading!

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hamliet · 3 years

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The Crows Summon the Sun

Or, Hamliet’s review of Shadow & Bone, which gets a 4.5/5 for enjoyment and a 3.5/5 in terms of writing.

The true heroes of this story and the saviors of the show are the Crows. However, the problem is that the show then has an uneven feel, because the strength of the Crows plotline highlights the weaknesses of the trilogy storyline. But imo, overall, the strengths overshadow (#punintended) the weaknesses.

I’ll divide the review into the narrative and the technical (show stuff, social commentary), starting with narrative.

Narrative: The Good

It’s What The Crows Deserve

I went into the show watching it for the Crows; however, knowing that their storyline was intended to be a prequel, I wasn’t terribly optimistic. And while it is a prequel, the characters have complete and full arcs that perfectly set them up for the further development they will have in the books (which I think should be the next season?). Instead of retreading the arcs they’d have in the books, which is how prequels usually go, they had perfect set up for these arcs. It’s really excellent.

Jesper, Inej, and Kaz are all allowed to be flawed, to have serious conflicts with one another, and yet to love each other. They feel like a found family in the best of ways. Kaz is the perfect selfish rogue; he’s a much more successfully executed Byronic hero than the Darkling, actually. Inej is heroic and her faith is not mocked, yet she too is flawed and her choices are not always entirely justified, but instead left to the audience to ponder (like killing the girl), which is a more mature writing choice that I appreciated.

Jesper is charming, has a heart of gold despite being a murderer and on the surface fairly greedy, and MILO THE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT GOAT WAS THE BEST THING EVER. I also liked Jesper’s fling with Dima but I felt it could be better used rather than merely establishing his sexuality, like if Jesper and Dima had seen each other one more time or something had come of their tryst for the plot/themes/development of Jesper.

Nina and Matthias’s backstory being in the first season, instead of in flashbacks, really works because it automatically erases any discomfort of the implications of Nina having falsely accused Matthias that the books start with. We know Nina, we know Matthias, we know their motivations, backgrounds, and why they feel the way we do. It’ll be easy for the audience to root for them without a lot of unnecessary hate springing from misunderstanding Nina (since she’s my favorite). Matthias’s arc was also really strongly executed and satisfyingly tragic. Their plotline was a bit unfortunately disconnected from the rest of the story, but Danielle Gallagan and Callahan Skogman have absolutely sizzling chemistry so I found myself looking forward to their scenes instead of feeling distracted. Also? It’s nice seeing a woman with Nina’s body type as a romantic and powerful character.

Hamliet Likes Malina Now

Insofar as the trilogy storyline goes, the best change the show made was Mal. He still is the same character from the books, but much more likable. The pining was... a lot (too much in episode 4, I felt) but Malina is a ship I actually enjoyed in the show while I NOTP’d it in the books. Mal has complexity and layers to his motivations (somewhat) and a likable if awkward charm. Archie Renaux was fantastic.

Ben Barnes is the perfect Aleksandr Kirigan, and 15 year old me, who had the biggest of big crushes on Ben Barnes (first celebrity crush over a decade ago lol), was pretty damn happy lol. He’s magnificantly acted--sympathetic and terrifying, sincerely caring and yet villainous in moments. Story-wise, I think it was smart to reveal his name earlier on than in the books, because it helps with the humanization especially in a visual medium like film. Luda was a fitting (if heartbreaking) backstory, but it is also hard for me to stomach knowing what the endgame of his character is. Like... I get the X-men fallacy thing, but I hope the show gives more kindness to his character than the books did, yet I’m afraid to hold my breath. Just saying that if you employ save the cat, if you directly say you added this part (Luda) to make the character more likable (as the director did) please do not punish the audience for feeling what you intended.

I also liked the change that made Alina half-Shu. It adds well to her arc and fits with her character, actually giving her motivations (she kinda just wants to be ordinary in a lot of ways) a much more interesting foundation than in the books. Also it’s nice not to have another knock-off Daenerys (looking to you Celaena and book!Alina). Jessie Mei Li does a good job playing Alina’s insecurities and emotions, but...

Narrative: The Ehhhhhhh

Alina the Lamp

Sigh. Here we go. Alina has little consistent characterization. She’s almost always passive when we see her, yet she apparently punches an officer for calling her a name and this seems to be normal for her, but it doesn’t fit at all with what we know about her thus far. Contradictions are a part of humanity, but it’s never given any focus, so it comes across as inconsistent instead of a flaw or repression.

I have no idea what Alina wants, beside that she wants to be with Mal, which is fine except I have no idea what the basis of their bond is. Even with like, other childhood friends to lovers like Ren/Nora in RWBY or Eren/Mikasa in SnK, there’s an inciting moment, a reason, that we learn very early on in their story to show us what draws them together. Alina and Mal just don’t have that. There’s the meadow/running away thing, but they were already so close, and why? Why, exactly? What brought them together? The term “bullies” is thrown around but it isn’t ever explored and it needed to be this season. If I have to deal with intense pining for so many episodes at least give me a foundation for their devotion. You need to put this in the beginning, in the first season. You just do.

A “lamp” character is a common metaphor to describe a bad character: essentially, you could replace the character with a lamp and nothing changes. Considering Alina’s gift is light, it’s a funnily apt metaphor, but it really does apply. Her choices just don’t... matter. She could be a special lamp everyone is fighting over and almost nothing would change. The ironic thing is that everyone treating her like a fancy lamp is exactly the conflict, but it’s never delved into. We’re never shown that Alina is more than a lamp. She never has to struggle because her choices are made for her and information is gifted to her when she needs it. Not making choices protects Alina from consequences and the story gives her little incentive to change that; in fact, things tend to turn out better when she doesn’t make choices (magic stags will arrive).

Like... let’s look at a few occasions when Alina almost or does make choices. For example, she chooses to (it seems) sleep with Kirigan, but then there’s a convenient knock at the door and Bhagra arrives with key information that changes Alina’s mind instantly despite the fact that Bhagra’s been pretty terrible to her. If you want to write a woman realizing she’s been duped by a cruel man, show her discovering it instead of having the man’s abusive mother tell her when she had absolutely no such suspicions beforehand. There’s no emotional weight there because Alina doesn’t struggle.

When she is actually allowed to carry out a bad choice, the consequences are handwaved away instead of built into a challenge for her. Like... Alina got her friends killed. More than once. I’m not saying she’s entirely to blame for these but could we show her reacting to it? Feeling any sort of grief? She never mentions Raisa or Alexei after they’re gone, just Mal, and I’m... okay. They were there because of you. Aren’t you feeling anything? Aren’t you sad? The only time Alina brings up her friends’ deaths is to tell Kirigan he killed her friends when they were only there because she burned the maps. She yells at Kirigan for “never” giving her a choice, but she almost never makes any, so why would he? Alina has the gall to lecture Genya about choices, but she herself almost never has to make any.

Which brings me to another complaint in general: Alina’s lack of care for everyone around her when they’re not Mal, even if they care for her. Marie dies because of her (absolutely not her fault of course) but as far as we know she never even learns about Marie. She certainly doesn’t ever ask about her or Nadia. Alina seems apathetic at best to people, certainly not compassionate or kind.

The frustrating thing is that there is potential here. Like, it actually makes a lot of psychological sense for an orphan who has grown up losing to be reluctant to care for people outside of her orbit and that she would struggle to believe she can have any say in her destiny (ie make choices). It’s also interesting that a girl who feels like an outsider views others outside her. But the show never offers examines Alina’s psychology with any depth; it simply tells us she’s compassionate when she is demonstrably not, it tells us she makes decisions when it takes magical intervention to do so. It’s a missed opportunity. This does not change between episodes 1 and 8, despite the episodes’ parallel structures and scenes, which unintentionally reinforces that Alina had little real development.

Inej and ironically Jesper and Kaz embody the concept of “mercy” far better and with far more complexity than Alina does. The Crows have reactions to the loss of people who even betray them (Arken, etc), learn, and course-correct (or don’t) when they are even loosely involved in having strangers die. They’re good characters because they change and learn and have their choices matter. When they kill we see them wrestle with it and what this means even if they are accustomed to doing so. Jesper can’t kill in front of a child. Kaz wonders what his killings do to Inej’s idea of him.

Narrative: The Mixed Bag

Tropes, Themes, Telling vs. Showing

So the show’s themes in the Alina storyline are a mess, as they are in the trilogy too. Tropes are a very valuable way to show your audience what you’re trying to say. They’re utilized worldwide because they resonate with people and we know what to expect from them. The Crows' storyline shows us what it wants us to learn.

Preaching tells, and unfortunately, the trilogy relies on telling/preaching against fornicationBad Boys. It’s your right to write any trope or trample any trope you want--your story--but you should at least understand what/why you are doing so. The author clearly knows enough about Jungian shadows and dark/light yin/yang symbolism to use it in the story, but then just handwaves it away as “I don’t like this” but never does so in a narratively effective way: addressing the appeal in the first place. If you really wanna deconstruct a trope, you gotta empathize with the core of the reason these tropes appeal to people (it allays deep fears that we are ourselves unlovable, through loving another person despite how beastly they can be), and address this instead of ignoring it. Show us a better way through the Fold of your story. Don’t just go around it and ignore the issue.

The trilogy offers highly simplistic themes at best--bad boy bad and good boy good, which is fine-ish for kid lit but less fine for adult complexity, which the show (more so than the books) seems to try to push despite not actually having much of it.

Alina and Mal are intended to be good, we’re told they are, but I’m not sure why beyond just that we’re told so. Alina claims the stag chose her, but in the show it’s never explained why at all. Unlike with Kaz, Inej, Jesper, and hell even Matthias and Nina, we don’t see Alina or Mal’s complex choices and internal wrestling.

Like, Inej’s half-episode where she almost killed the guy they needed was far more character exploration than Alina has the entire show, to say nothing of Inej’s later killing which not only makes her leaps and bounds more interesting, but ironically cements her as a far more compelling and yes, likable, heroine than Alina. We see Inej’s emotional and moral conflict. We can relate to her. We see Kaz struggling with his selfishness and regrets, with his understanding of himself through his interactions with and observations of Inej, Alina, the Darkling, Arken, and Jesper.

We don’t explore what makes Mal or Alina good and what makes them bad. We don’t know what Alina discovers about herself, what her power means for her. We are told they are good, we are told she knows her power is hers, but never shown what this means or what this costs them/her. Their opportunities to be good are handed to them (the stag, Bhagra) instead of given to them as a challenge in which they risk things, in which doing good or making a merciful choice costs them. Alina gets to preach about choices without ever making any; Inej risks going back to the Menagerie to trust Kaz. Her choices risk. They cost. They matter and direct her storyline and her arc, and those of the people around her.

Production Stuff:

The Good:

The production overall is quite excellent. The costumes, pacing, acting, and cinematography (for example, one of the earliest scenes between the Darkling and Alina has Alina with her back to the light, face covered in his shadow, while the Darkling’s face is light up by her light even if he stands in the shadows) are top-notch. The soundtrack as well is incredible and emphasizes the scenes playing. The actors have great chemistry together, friend chemistry and romantic when necessary (Mal and Alina, the Darkling and Alina, Kaz and Inej, Nina and Matthias, David and Genya, etc.) All are perfectly cast.

The Uncomfortable Technicalities Hamliet Wants to Bitch About:

The only characters from fantasy!Europe having any trace of an accent reminiscent of said fantasy country's real-world equivalent are antagonists like Druskelle (Scandinavia) and Pekka (Ireland). When the heroes mostly have British accents despite being from fantasy Russia and Holland, it is certainly A Choice to have the Irish accent emphasized. The actor is British by the way, so I presume he purposely put on an Irish accent. I'm sure no one even considered the potential implications of this but it is A Look nonetheless.

The Anachronisms Hamliet Has a Pet Peeve About:

The worldbuilding is compelling, but the only blight on the worldbuilding within the story itself (ignoring context) was that there are some anachronisms that took me out of the story, particularly in the first episode where “would you like to share with the class” and “saved by the horn” are both used. Both are modern-day idioms in English that just don’t fit, especially the latter. The last episode uses “the friends we made along the way.” There are other modern idioms as well.

IT’S STARKOVA and Other Pet Peeves Around the Russian Portrayal

Russian names are not hard, and Russian naming systems are very, very easy to learn. I could have waved “Starkov” not being “Starkova,” “Nazyalensky” not being “Nazyalenskaya,” and “Safin” not being “Safina” as an American interpretation (since in America, the names do not femininize). However, “Mozorova” as a man is unfathomable and suggests to me the author just doesn’t understand how names work, which is a bit... uh okay considering a simple google search gets you to understand Russian names. They aren’t hard. I cannot understand why the show did not fix this. It is so simple to fix and would be a major way to help the story’s overall... caricature of Russia.

Speaking of that... Ravka is supposedly Russian-based, but it is more accurately based on the stereotypes of what Americans think of Russia. Amerussia? Russica? Not great.

The royals are exactly what Americans think of the Romanovs, right down to the “greasy” “spiritual advisor” who is clearly Rasputin and which ignores the Romanov history, very real tragedy, and the reason Rasputin was present in the court. The religion with all its saints is a vapid reflection of Russian Orthodoxy. The military portrayal with its lotteries and brutality and war is how the US views the Russian military. The emphasis on orphans, constant starvation, classification, and children being ripped from their homes to serve the government is a classic US understanding of USSR communism right down to the USSR having weapons of destruction the rest of the world fears (Grisha). Not trying to defend the Soviet Union here at all, but it is simplistic and reductive and probably done unconsciously but still ehhhh.

However, I’m not Russian. I just studied Russian literature. I’ve seen very little by way of discussion of this topic online, but what I do see from Russian people has been mixed--some mind, some don’t. The reality is that I actually don’t really mind this because it’s fantasy, though I see why some do. I'm not like CANCEL THIS. So why am I talking about this beyond just having a pet peeve?

Well, because it is a valid critique, and because it doesn’t occur in a vacuum. The Grishaverse is heralded as an almost paragon for woke Young Adult literature, which underlines itself what so frustrates me about how literary circles discuss issues of diversity and culture. Such praise, while ignoring its quasi-caricature of Russia, reflects a very ethnocentric (specifically American) understanding of culture, appropriation, and representation. All stories are products of their culture to various extents, but it bothers me on principle what the lit community reacts (and overreacts sometimes?) to and what people give a pass to. The answer to what the community reacts to and what it gives a pass always pivots on how palatable the appropriation is to American understandings and sensibilities. There’s nuance here as well, though.

I'm not cancelling the story or thinking it should be harshly attacked for this, but it is something that can be discussed and imo should be far more often--but with the nuance it begs, instead of black/white. But that’s a tall ask.

#s&b #hamliet reviews #shadow and bone #six of crows #kanej #jesper fahey #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #alina starkov #malyen oretsev #the darkling #darklina #malina #aleksander kirigan #netflix shadow and bone #s&b review

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crows-and-crumbs · 3 years

Text

Kaz Brekker angst for the soul

Tw: violence, death, illness and everything Kaz Brekker related

Once, after the books I like to think Kaz begins to ✨process his trauma✨, he was on a job by himself because he couldn’t ask Jesper and Wylan, not now, and Inej was out catching slavers and no-one else were good enough damn it… he ended up getting thrown in the harbor with a gunshot wound in his stomach

And in blind fear, adrenaline pumping through his body, he’s able to pull himself out of the water and into the street

He set for the only place he knew he could get help, no questions asked, and headed for the Van Eck manor, bleeding and soaking wet

He stumbled once, and fell to the floor in some alley, but the fear of passing out was so fucking strong he pushed himself pack up

Last time he passed out in an alley he had woken up in reapers barge bodies everywhere, but he was alive, he was alive damn it

Jesper obviously has half a heart attack when he enters the dark hallway, ready to shoot the intruder, but instead finds Dirtyhands sloshing harbor water all over his carpet

“Saint Kaz you decide to water the floorboards- shit that’s a lot of blood boss- Kaz!?”

Kaz barely get’s a word out before he’s on his knees, blood spilling from his mouth and white hot pain shoots through him

Jesper calls for Wylan, frantically trying to help, while also not touching, but he can’t

And Kaz just grabs his shirt, gloved grip weak from blood loss, and croaks with what’s left of his voice “I’m alive, I’m alive, please- Jordie” and then he passes out

Jesper and Wylan are both freaking out, but they get Kaz to a room, and they go out in the search for a healer but it takes so damn long

The wound ended up getting infected and he got really really sick.

Inej arrives as soon as she gets her hands on Jespers letter

Kaz is not well, come to Ketterdam -J

He was so delirious with fever that whenever he felt faint or dizzy or like he might loose consciousness, he’d grab the nearest person (which was almost always Inej) and just frantically whispering “I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive”

And this is like threading stormy waters for the old crows, they’d never seen Kaz like that, and they’re all speechless because they’re seen the painful truth of Kaz Rietveld

And they stay with him as the fever burns through him and he blabbers on about mechanical dogs and Kruger and coats and magic coins

And there’s so much explaining to do once he wakes up fever free

#soc #six of crows #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #soc jesper #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #kaz brekker angst #angst #whump #Soc whump #Kaz brekker whump

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terapsina · 3 years

Text

Okay, let's talk about the Crows.

Also known as the best part of this show. But let's be honest, I'm extremely biased because I never actually read the Shadow and Bone trilogy, just the Six of Crows duology and so I have a really special place in my heart for those Ketterdam Crows.

So I've seen a lot of people being a bit unhappy about the changes to the way some of the Crows are presented. Mostly that Kaz isn't quite as brutal.

And I get it to a point. He is different. But it makes sense to me for two reasons. One, because in the show we don't have a way to look into his head and see what's happening behind the exterior of the Bastard of the Barrel (so they need to convey how much he cares about Inej and Jesper through other means, like him using the deed to the Crows Club as collateral to pay off Inej's indenture, like Jesper already knowing about Kaz's brother).

And two, because they're younger here. They might be aged up but they're also younger. I don't think Kaz has fully established his legend yet. But they added enough elements to show that he's well on his way there.

Now if by the time the Ice Court heist comes up he's still not the Dirtyhands everyone's afraid of, then I'll be disappointed. But so far I've got no quibbles with this.

Plus the part where he pulls a magic trick to escape the Darkling is priceless.

Then there's Inej. I love Inej. She's the soul of the crew already. But she's not The Wraith yet either. And I LOVED IT.

I loved how they included Inej's relationship with her faith and how important it is to her. And how it's so anathema for her to kill but how she does it, first to save Kaz and then to protect her friends (and potentially her parents and her brother) from retaliation.

Also I just loved watching her work. Like that scene where Inej walks just behind the night guard's back and stays out of the line of his peripheral vision the entire time? So. Cool.

And of course her removing all the weapons scene. That was so many knives. I love that trope. It just wouldn't be right to not use that trope with Inej so I'm so glad they did.

And Jesper.

My god, Jesper was perfect. He was funny and a complete mess and AMAZING with his guns.

And if Inej is the soul of the Crows then Jesper is the heart and he fits in that spot so well. And him constantly getting excited when they were about to pull a heist, or steal the Darkling's personal carriage, or when he literally watched Alina hide in THEIR carriage trunk, was so adorable.

Also him saving all their lives while in the Fold was BRILLIANT. And his his cat and mouse game with that Grisha (who's name I don't remember) was really fun to watch (and him knocking the guy out just as soon as he was about to say the 'thing' was just a great tidbit too).

Oh, and I also really enjoyed the side story between Nina and Matthias. Which was a slight surprise because I actually didn't like Matthias as much in the books and I liked him a lot better here. Which is strange when that part was exactly like it was in the book.

And Nina just... she sounds SO MUCH like how I imagined her to sound that it's almost weird. And I think I really like the slight alteration to her character background to make her into a spy. It fits her really well.

So yeah. I love my Crows and I can't wait until we get a full set of them and Wylan shows up and they actually all start working together. It's gonna be brilliant.

#six of crows #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #jesper fahey #nina zenik #matthias helvar #shadow and bone #shadow and bone spoilers #sab spoilers #s&b spoilers #terapsina rambles #terapsina watches s&b #terapsina's shadow and bone rambles #terapsina's six of crows rambles #terapsina's book rambles

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musicallisto · 3 years

Note

hi love! congratulations on such a wonderful milestone! i’ve been following you for ages so this is almost as exciting for me haha

could i please get a 🍨 for the grishaverse/six of crows? (whichever you feel fits!) i’m straight female who is an istj, slytherin, and 6w5! i also took the grisha quiz and am apparently a alkemi (but would i truly want to be grisha? the jury is still out on that). im 5’7 with blonde hair, brown eyes, and glasses. i’m a sagittarius sun, pisces moon, and aquarius rising!

i’m pretty independent, and believe no friendship demands blind faith. i’m probably too selfish (which i don’t see as a bad thing, personally), and can be quick to anger.

HOWEVER! i’m not all angst. i’m introverted, shy, & frankly bad with emotions (both feeling and expressing), BUT i also love to laugh, and will not stop talking to you about things i like once we’re friends.

i love that first sip of coffee, the silence after it snows, and the stars on a clear night. i’ve had multiple concussions from sports (which tells you all you need to know about my self-preservation skills) but i will take a day in bed reading or watching various franchise movies over adventure most days. i also lovelovelove listening to music — specifically classical!

thank you so much in advance !! and take all the time you need, this is a fun celebration so i wouldn’t wanna stress you out :) congrats again!!

hi! here’s your vanilla milkshake! (also - please come off anon because first of all, you’ve been following me for a long time? my heart melts. but ALSO! you sound like the most amazing and fascinating person and i adore your personality.) i thought of going for a shadow and bone character to diversify a little bit - but who am i to resist the call of kaz brekker?

no words can express my excitement at being able to use an actual gif for Kaz.

we all know Kaz and we all know his emotional turmoil. expect the slowest of slow-burns; expect to even wonder if the candle is lit at all.

But it is, I promise. It is lit and it seeps into his heart in ways that he doesn’t understand, and frankly, that scare him a little.

He’s never been good at that whole falling thing. He’s more than content to sit above the rest, and leave the tumbling to Inej.

So when he has to face the music and understand that you’re not getting away, and neither are his growing fondness for you? He’s totally helpless. Serves him right for not learning how to fall sooner.

At first, he thought it was mere fascination that drew him to you. Sure, it takes a lot for him to be impressed... but even he has to admit that you are a lot. Not in the lot in the exuberant sense of all these merchants, but assured and strong in your mastery of your powers, and in your quiet competence.

You craft most of the poisons and antidotes the Dregs use, and are unafraid to yield them yourself; you don’t mind getting your hands dirty; you’re reliable, loyal, easy to trust, and, surprisingly to him, easy to befriend as well. Although he doesn’t make a big effort to befriend you anyway; but whenever he goes down to visit you in your clandestine lab, he ends up spending much more time than he originally planned talking to you.

It’s just so easy to forget the grime of the streets above in that peaceful laboratory, with the distant sound of violin and chemical solutions bubbling somewhere indistinct. And your total concentration, as you mix up the poisons and conjure the blasting powders with deadly precision, is a magnificent sight to see.

At first, Kaz is guilty of sending you on missions for him, or confining you to your lab. You don’t mind the work, and understand that it is where you are most useful, but quickly tell Kaz that you are not at his disposition whenever he wants to run his errands; that you are his equal, and that you work for the Dregs because someone must feed these poor children, not because you would blindly give up your life for him.

In other words: you owe him nothing, and you’re not his lackey. And he better understand that quickly, lest you leave and offer your services to a cause that will remember you for more than your craftsmanship.

It’s a wake-up call for him, surely; it’s when he realizes that you have an independent soul, that you know no ties nor bounds, that you are neither a Kerch nor a Ravkan nor a Shu, but truly a citizen of your own heart, and that there is nothing tying you to him except your good will.

And the idea that you might disappear from his life as quickly as you barged in is enough to paralyze him for a good second. But then he regains his composure.

And asks you to stay, please.

(Not for the poisons, not for the magic, not for the money, but for me, he almost adds, but he can’t get the words out, and doesn’t.)

From that point on, you go on missions with Kaz and the Dregs, and no longer for them, standing as tall as the other Crows.

And your relationship with Kaz grows seemingly a little stronger for it. He opens up a little more, sometimes slips in a little something that might even be considered a compliment.

The others have told him time and time again that you are a fun and happy person to be around, and he couldn’t believe them, because all he ever saw of you was the focused and precise Grisha synthesizing arsenic or negotiating contracts by his side. But as he opens up to you, and on the rare occasions you’re both at the Crow House, he listens to you excitedly tell a story to the others Dregs crowded around a greasy table, he understands what they mean.

You are fascinating.

It’s not the Alkemi in you, it’s not your deadly aim nor your rigor with your work... it’s you. It’s in the excitement in your voice when you talk about something you love, and the care you put in making space for Kaz in your busy schedule.

“I thought you didn’t want to see me?”

“I don’t want to see you when you boss me around. Otherwise, you’re not so terrible to spend time with.”

(Which, in your shared language of restriction and shiness, means “I appreciate you a lot and enjoy your company more than I let on”.)

It’s in your relaxed face when you listen to classical music... when you’re working late nights at the lab and start humming along to the piano on a beaten gramophone that Jesper, of all people, stole for you one day - a Romantic Fjerdan melody, nothing to do with the industrial rhythms of Ketterdam, and your feet begin swaying to the music without you noticing.

He just stopped by to bring you the list of what he’ll need to take care of the Ice Court guards... but he’s taken aback, on the doorstep, watching you enjoy the music like a careless ballet dancer. He’s never seen you quite so relaxed...

... maybe that’s when he falls for good.

And maybe you know he’s fallen for good when you stop by unannounced at his office at the Crow House to hand him the poisoned blades he’s asked for... and you find him listening to the exact same waltz you were playing when he arrived.

You never took Kaz for the classical music type - you do a double-take before he looks up at you, his face and lips even, but a glimmer of hope twinkling in his dark eyes.

“You wanted?”

“To see you.”

His brow perks up.

“However did I get so lucky?”

But he gestures for you to step in, to get closer to him, to fill his dull office with your heady scent, both poison ivy and white rose.

Maybe, under the right night sky, with the right alignment of stars, and after the right snowfall on a deserted plain, he will hear the same music again, and this time he will clumsily extend this hand.

Not to dance, not even for you to take. Just to hold it out for you. Just so you know he would go to any lengths to keep you safe.

But for now, you have a heist to plan.

800 follower sleepover CLOSED!

#anon #800sleepover #ship request #six of crows #kaz brekker #kaz brekker imagine #kaz brekker x reader #kaz brekker headcanons #six of crows headcanons

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honourablejester · 3 years

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Shadow & Bone Reaction

Okay, so I watched Shadow & Bone last night. Stayed up until 5am to manage it, so this is going to be muddled, but howandever. Spoilery and involved first impressions from someone who has not read the books below:

Right, so the Ketterdam crew are my favourites. Obviously. This was guaranteed

All three of them, I cannot decide between them

Jesper is a gambling addict which does grind my miserly gears a bit, but he’s also lovely and adorable and quite possibly the most badass person on the show, which is an achievement, and his interactions with Inej are beyond adorable, so I love him with all my heart

That thing Inej said to Alina? Whenever you need it, my hand is yours? That is me for Inej. More on this later

Kaz is a vicious little gremlin of a man with a badly hidden streak of loyalty, and he’s exactly my stripe of guile antihero, so of course I adore him madly

The absolute chaos of them just … accidentally poking their oars into the entire rest of the plot is beautiful beyond belief. They’re just there and mucking things up for everybody like someone threw a bag of spanners into an engine, and it’s beautiful

I was surprisingly really on board for Mal and Alina. Particularly them as kids, this pair of tiny scrappers against the world

I also loved the whole First Army part at the beginning. Like, Mal’s pair of friends, Mikael and Dubrov, they’re adorable (and I fucking screamed later, with the machine gun, you bet), him and Alina in the camp, his friends teasing him about her, him stealing Grisha grapes for her. The show got right in on the friendship and the love there, and honestly I was there for it

The Darkling, on the other hand …

Right. So. I expected him to maybe be … more subtle than he was? I mean, I think everyone’s expecting him to go villain here, so it probably wasn’t supposed to be that subtle, but …

That moment where Alina decides to kiss him. After being separated from Mal, with no communication with her old life, and with Kirigan being all sad and incredibly intense at her at random moments. Like. Long, long before we get to his whole forcibly altering her body to control her moment, I was looking at her kissing this dude and going ‘Oookay, okay lady, that’s, that’s not a good plan. I get that it’s Ben Barnes, do not blame you there, but that’s so not a good plan’

He just kept coming on so fucking strong, you know? The whole intense ‘I’ve been waiting for you my whole life’. He was bleeding desperation and control from the get go. And like, lots of people have those in this show, but where someone like Kaz or Inej feel like ‘I will stab you in the face right fucking now to get out of this alive’, Kirigan is very much, yes, ‘I will swallow your entire city in darkness and give a nice little speech about it to captive dignitaries who I’ll then murder because they shouldn’t have opened their mouths’

There’s more power there than the others, I think, so it feels less like ‘I’ll do what I have to do’ and more ‘I’ll do what I want’

Which his backstory was an interesting show on, yes, how he started out just as desperate as any of them, and then vengeance and black magic ate him. As it does. But still. He comes on too strong

(And the collar. The collar. Not even the massacre later matched that one for me, though Genya’s casual mention of him ‘gifting’ her at 11 came close. But it didn’t match the collar for visceral no. He mutilated Alina to implant a control device within her body. He can die in a ditch with his head covered in pitch and set on fire now. I can’t with him. No)

So, yes. Excellent villain, definitely, I just expected him to maybe take a bit longer to show it?

His minions are adorable, though. The two married heartrenders, Genya and the Durast she has the biggest danged crush on (gotta say, when Kirigan said he needed him for later, I was honestly expecting him to kill him for something, to hurt Genya, did not expect David to be in on the whole mutilating control collar thing)

The show did a lot of work humanising the various factions, so when you get moments like Jesper vs Ivan, round 1, you don’t want either of them to lose, because Ivan has a husband to go back to, and Jesper is Jesper. And then Jesper can’t shoot a pretty man in the face, and we’re golden

(Sidenote one: that scene was badass, holy shit, Jesper was playing with him, it was incredible)

(Sidenote two: Jesper vs Ivan, round 2? Less sympathetic on Ivan’s part)

(Sidenote three: the Ketterdam three vs Kirigan’s everybody was just, god I love them, we’re going to be straight badass all down the line, can you beat a centuries-old shadow sorcerer with a flashbang? An inferni with a knife? A heartrender with a gun while playing with him the entire time? Come to Ketterdam and find out! I love them)

Now. Now. The main thing for me. Inej. Inej and Alina and Kaz

The scene in the Little Palace where Alina shows her power. Ignoring everything that promptly went tits up for everybody. The look on Inej’s face. The look on her face. Hope and faith. From Inej, who’s been so hurt and desperate so far. Oh, that killed me. So much. I was there like, Alina, Alina, it’s not your fault, but you better be worth it, I know you don’t need the pressure but if you have to let anyone down, let it not be Inej. Not her. And Kaz Brekker, you sociopathic mushroom, do not fuck this up for her. Okay? Not this

And then he doesn’t. He doesn’t. He gives up a million kruge and potentially everything he has so he doesn’t have to break Inej’s faith. I loved him there. Right there

And like, he was trying to weasel something out of it. He was still trying to bully Alina all the way to the end, even after she saved his life, because he didn’t want to lose everything, he wanted to have some way to be able to bring Jesper and Inej back with him, because otherwise he was walking back to a city that hated him with literally nothing, since he’d mortgaged the Crow Club on Inej’s debt, and she’d walked out on him anyway, and he’d let her. So he tried to bully Alina, tried to force some way to let Inej come back, without actually forcing Inej. Just, you know, the saint she loved instead, and a woman who’d also just lost everything, and maybe could have used those jewels to stay ahead of pursuit for a while, but that’s not his problem. That’s not his problem

Kaz Brekker is a vicious horrible gremlin of a man, but not to his own, mostly, as much as he can avoid it, and like … did they know in advance what I like? Because that was it

(Him entering the fight on the skiff solely to save the other two, everyone else can die, but he’s going to dive Jesper clear of the Cut and hammer a volcra’s head in to save an unarmed Inej, that was beautiful. Even if I was a tiny bit annoyed at Inej for panicking and throwing her weapons away while outnumbered by flying things. No. Keep them close to stab anything that comes near you, honey, don’t throw them into the darkness. But Kaz saving his Crows was beautiful)

Also, to go back to Inej and Alina, just a little. How much do I love that Inej’s knife saved them all? Inej kissed her knife and planted in the Darkling’s chest, and it did fuck all to him, but then it’s the knife Alina used to take her freedom back and save them all

Inej’s knife freed Alina. Gave a slave her freedom back. Gave her saint her power. Not by killing, but as a tool to break a chain. I can’t. I really, really can’t. Whoever wrote that episode, thank you a lot

You may have guessed, I have feelings about Inej, and Alina, and Kaz, and freedom, and faith, faith in another power and faith in yourself and those you trust, and it’s all tied up in a knife and a debt, and people offering freedom to each other against their own best interests, and I really can’t with them. I can’t. I’m inarticulate over here

Like, this beautiful man did this hideous thing, made this horrible vicious collar, and then all these scared, battered little outcasts and ex-slaves and current slaves gave each other tiny moment after tiny moment after tiny moment that allowed them all to free each other

I can’t

And then Alina gave Inej her knife. The little letter opener that she’d robbed from the Little Palace. The little symbol of two tiny orphans having each other’s backs against the world. Alina gave that back to Inej

Inej’s knives are a whole thing. Kaz gave Inej a job, a way out of slavery, and it’s both joy and horror to her, freedom and damnation, she doesn’t want to kill people but that’s what knives are for, and it’s a freedom she sometimes forces herself to surrender out of trust in Kaz, and then she does kill people, but it’s to save those she cares for, to save Kaz, and then her knife saves them all as a key, not a murder weapon, and Alina, for whom knives are also a symbol of protection, for herself and those she loves, and now freedom as well, gives Inej hers as this tiny gesture that means so much …

And earlier, Kaz stopping her from killing the Conductor, and it was for his own reasons, it was because he needed the man for a job, but the fact that he did that meant that Inej’s first kill wasn’t a murder, an assassination to save herself, but a clean kill in defense of someone else. A kill she could explain to her saints. Especially the one that showed up, because Alina knows all about that

(And when her knives run out, when she’s lost them all on the skiff and is facing death, it’s Kaz who saves her, who pays his debt and preserves her freedom, because he can be trusted with them, with the knives and all they mean …)

And the two things Alina gives them. The knife for Inej, and the jewels for Kaz. A gift for the woman who saved her, and a bribe for the man who threatened her. And it’s exactly what they need. Both of them. It’s freedom and forgiveness and hope for them both. And she had no idea, she just gave what she had at the time. A saint by pure accident, like she’s been all along, but it meant the world. Sometimes all a person needs is one thing. A knife, a chance. A hope

Whoever was writing the thing with the knives, and the saints, and faith in yourself and those around you, you are a genius and I love you

And, like, I should move on. There were other things in the show. Nina and Matthias, I’ve pretty much not mentioned them at all (they are adorable, even as they’re basically Stockholming each other, and then the last episode hit, and everything was good, more or less, for everyone else, so that last fucking punch was a lot, thank you so much), I just …

Knives and faith. Inej, Alina and Kaz. I love everybody, but that was so much the thing that caught me here. That’s what I’m mostly getting out of this show right now

#shadow and bone #reaction #meta #spoilers #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #aline starkov #those three particularly #oof #this show was incredible #i need to calm down

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serene-victory-77 · 3 years

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Why The Crows Being Teenagers Is Actually Perfectly Realistic

There’s a TL;DR are the end because wow I like to rant.

I lightly discuss the general situations they’re all in to explore how they are frighteningly mature and competent, but it’s not particularly depressing or descriptive, it’s definitely lighter than the books

I thought about this post with a joke first: “People who think that Six of Crows is unrealistic because they’re so young clearly have not spent much time with traumatized honors students.”

It’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the point stands.

But I decided that, hm, actually, I could make a point about this. I totally agree with the aging up of the characters in the Shadow and Bone show, but when people straight up say that the books are wrong or unrealistic for having a young crew, I get annoyed, and here’s why (other than me reading the books for the first time when I was 13 and thinking ‘Huh okay, I see it’ and now being lowkey offended when people say they ignore it for being unrealistic):

On Inej

- At first I thought Inej’s wisdom and general demeanor was one of the most unrealistic things in the book

- When I thought about it longer, I was like “Actually, she’s 16, right? I’ve sent some of the most lyrical philosophy trying to help my friends while in high school. My friends have done the same. It’s valid.”

- Frankly, teenagers love hard-hitting philosophical truths. They love repeating what they’ve read or heard in movies and in books and from family stories. They love sharing little bits of wisdom they have come up with

- Inej’s ability to hear and understand philosophy and wisdom that she was surrounded by for 14 straight years and then sit on it and elaborate it for her friends to understand, or even just to piss them off in Kaz’s case?

- Teenagers have that. They do it. So, Inej’s Wisdom passes, to me. It’s valid.

As for her being calm

- You know how everyone jokes that Kaz seems calm on the outside but when you get to his POV he’s like “What the fuck” at the Van Eck house or just straight up “Huh, is this revenge for making tree jokes” at the Djel River thingy in the Ice Court?

- Inej is like that, too. And she gets angry, and she gets confused, or exhausted.

- AKA every quiet kid ever. Like, are you kidding? Have you ever been in a situation in which it’s literally chaos all around you, people are screaming and things are being destroyed (think middle school classroom with bitchy long term substitute and even worse students), and you’re just, calm? You pick up your things, you do what you need to do?

- That’s Inej. Like, what else is she gonna do? She’s smart enough to know that panicking won’t help anyone, and so she just rides it out. Internally she might be like “Why is this happening” but frankly, her being quiet and controlled in most situations is probably a coping mechanism and I respect that

- Pretty sure this is also based on the fact that the Suli have no land for their own and constantly have to keep moving. It might align with generational trauma, I’m sure someone could explain it better than me, but being able to keep your cool while constantly having to change and adapt to new situations, in, say, a country with hellfire politics and no land to call your own? Seems like a hereditary trait that could be useful in Ketterdam, although it’s sad.

On Inej’s abilities

- Simone Biles started training when she was 6 and went to the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships when she was 16, where she qualified in all the events.

- There are videos of people walking over tightropes as young as three years old. We know Inej didn’t start that young, but not only was she naturally talented at it, but she spent a lot of time practicing. I think it’s valid. Plus, some of her family members do some pretty crazy things in her flashbacks, because that’s the whole point of what they do.

- Youngest person to beat American Ninja Warrior was 16 year old Vance Walker

- Inej has a variety of of tools that help her wall climb, and while it’s true that she started young and got good really fast, she already had a history of physical work that would help her, and from what we can gleam from the book, a surprising amount of free time in which she was actively encouraged to learn everything she could.

So that’s Inej! I think her skills are perfectly possible for someone with her history and situation. It’s true that she’s naturally skilled, but that’s not actually all that unusual. And her demeanor and wisdom do fit in with what a lot of teenagers are like and the circumstances she was brought up in

Onto Kaz!

- One thing I hear about is that Kaz is too smart for not having gone to school and also too young to know all that he does

- Do you all KNOW how many self-taught people there have been in this world? The word for people who are self-taught is autodidacts, and honestly a huge amount of famous people apply. Like many, many other people in history (there’s a whole list of them in Wikipedia), he had an vested interest in a field and he learned all he could. Sure, those fields were magic tricks and math, but still.

- Suddenly I have a lot of thoughts

- Okay, think, hyperfixations. That’s essentially what Kaz’s thing with magic tricks was, right? Have any of you ever spent time with an eight year old that clearly really, really loves dinosaurs? Those kids can spout names and facts and identify them by their skeletons and frankly know more than I ever will. Kaz’s was magic tricks. All kids are special.

- Kaz continued working on magic tricks and practicing them for years, so, I think that gets a pass.

- As for the math! Look, a Fact Of Life is that some kids are just Like That, whether it be possibly from neurodivergence or other factors:

- Flo and Kay Lyman are twins with Autism who basically have the calendar of EVER memorized. Kaz memorizing card decks is sensible, and these ladies don’t need to look up anything to figure it out, so Kaz doing sums inside his head seems plausible. His “photographic memory’ isn’t impossible, although the term itself might be incorrect.

- Katherine Johnson who worked at NASA (yes, the lady from Hidden Figures), was so good at math that she was in high school by age 10 and went to college at age 15. It’s true that she had some teaching, but 1. There’s no evidence Kaz had absolutely no schooling, even if it was just at home with books and 2. Kaz was 9 when he came to Ketterdam, and after Jordie died, when he wasn’t surviving, he was learning.

- Human calculator is a term that is applied to children a lot and there’s definitely plenty of videos showing how smart these kids are and them doing mental math easily, which he does in the books

- He had a LOT of pressure on him to figure out all he could, and if he wanted to move forward, he was going to have to learn a lot. He spent hours practicing magic tricks, for all we know he spent hours practicing math too. We know Jordie was a bit of a bookworm too, so Kaz from a young age probably already had a reason to learn. Personally, a lot of my love for books was inspired by my older sibling when I was younger

- Young people are adaptable. Kaz is incredibly adaptable. The term prodigy exists because of people like him through history.

- As for him being rational, there’s no other way to survive. Some of the greatest soldiers in history have been very, very young, and very, very smart. It’s true tacticians are generally considered to be older, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been very young ones.

- A lot of the generals I found were like, 19 years old, but Kaz is 1. not a general and 2. in a place where young people take up the mantle really, really quickly, and frankly it’s been like that for a long time. I still think this passes. This isn’t relevant but William the Conqueror was apparently called “The Bastard”?

- Frankly, underground communities of thieves probably don’t go around publishing their escapades so to me it makes sense that I can’t just look up “famous young thieves” and get anything that makes sense, but I did try

- Y’all I tried to do research on youngest escape artists since I think Kaz qualifies and I found myself in what I think is a magicians forum? It’s from 2002-ish and I feel like I’ve just found a relic. I can’t definitely prove they’re all saying the truth, but some of the people there talk about 10-11 year olds at magic camps, so, it’s not impossible for this to be a skill Kaz learned really young, particularly when he made a habit of following around magicians

- I think he passes the realism check overall

For the other Crows:

- Nina being so proficiently multilingual makes sense to me, because she’s been in the Little Palace almost her entire life with all the best teachers they could afford at her disposal. Some people just click with languages. One such would be Timothy Doner, who spoke 23 languages at 16.

- Nina is a child soldier. She of course can handle the battlefield, although I imagine there’s a degree of trauma that she has to deal with (although it’s true that most of her work was always meant to angle her towards being a spy).

- Jesper was taught to shoot from a young age by Aditi, who was likely incredibly proficient. Plus, there’s mentions of him and his father being on some sort of frontier at one point in the books, so, it’s likely that Jesper got his fair share of ‘being a child soldier” since he would’ve been 15 or younger. Plus, with being a Fabrikator, he gets a leg up

- Jesper’s smart y’all, he just also likes to have fun

- I am a little terrified by the fact that I looked up ‘youngest sharpshooter’ and found out about a 9 year old girl (Addysson “Addy” Soltau) who can indeed shoot guns, but uh, it does prove my point

- Matthias... I haven’t heard anyone really argue about Matthias. He’s the oldest at 18 and again, he’s essentially a religious child soldier. Of course he would be built af and know how to handle himself in a fight, and in a flashback about meeting Trassel, we’re told that he was actually distanced from the other boys and was the biggest and strongest/smartest of the group. Perhaps not compared to Kaz, but still

- We know how Wylan ended up how he is, so I don’t think i have to defend how he’s both a musical prodigy, good at math, and good at chemistry. Plenty of kids who can’t do one thing will immediately gravitate to a different field (think AP math students who can’t write essays, or those kids who could analyse a book and it’s metaphors in class but didn’t understand geometry).

- Granted he took it far but it’s kinda implied that his father ignored him eventually and what else was Wylan going to do

- I don’t really know how he did chemistry while not being able to read the symbols and stuff, but that’s likely because I’ve never had to learn the way he did and also I really suck at Chemistry, but I refuse to believe that it invalidates his capabilities

Final Thoughts:

- They’re Traumatized Honors Students

- People might say that “it’s unrealistic that all the smart ones somehow ended up together” but again they’re traumatized honors students and those gravitate to each other

- Of course the smart ones ended up together, they’re the ones in those crazy situations precisely because they are prodigies. Nina wouldn’t have met Matthias if she wasn’t skilled and a spy, Kaz wouldn’t have known Inej if she hadn’t been skilled at silence (I can’t explain that one but uh ninjas did/do exist and it IS still a fantasy world). Kaz would have never been a leader of the Dregs in a position to find Jesper if he hadn’t been so determined to rise to the top, and Jesper wouldn’t have been in Ketterdam if his father hadn’t thought that Jesper was smart enough to get that chance.

- You know how those fringe revolutionary artists for new eras end up knowing all knowing each other and even hanging out? That’s them.

- I have decided there is a strong basis for Autistic Kaz, someone who is more studied than me should feel free to explore this.

- I read this book a few years ago, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. It’s about this guy’s experiences as a boy soldier and it’s a painful read so I’m not sure I recommend it as a casual read, but he talked about these young kids being able to actually make competent military strategies and handle warfare. It’s an extreme example of what I’m trying to explain when it comes to them being able to handle the brutality of their situation, but it’s true, essentially

- They are definitely serious, but if you think they’re not teenagers I just, disagree so much. They have moments of lighthearted banter, they make light of their situation, they try to support each other Nina covers it so well in her farewell at the end of Crooked Kingdom: The little rescues of laughing at each others jokes or eating together and just supporting each other, is not only a very human thing, but a very teenager thing.

- Scary experiences that shape us happen all the time, and although for most it’s not the things that the Crows experience, picking each other up is a big part of why they do read as teenagers to me. I’ve seen kids be able to seriously converse about things like being questioned by the police, or being left to their own devices for days at a time, or the general impending doom they all feel, and it’s dark, but they’re also going to joke about silly puns 20 minutes later.

- Teenagers aren’t exempt from terrifying maturity and competence

- Finally: Despite all I said, it’s a fantasy story and doesn’t have to be realistic

In the end, everyone can believe what they want to believe, but this is my case for my opinion.

TL;DR The Crows are all prodigies and a lot of their achievements and capabilities are based in reality and there are real people who actually achieved things like what they’ve done. Messed up prodigies gravitate to messed up prodigies, hence how they all end up together. When it comes to their mental state, most of them have been brought up their entire lives in situations that required for them to problem solve and keep their cool even when things are going to hell.

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