me, the bastard of the barrel, explaining to anyone who shows minor interest in me how you shouldn’t tap your pockets to make sure your money is still there because it tells us bastards where the money is!! Don’t be a pigeon, be a crow. Spread awareness
I’m rewatching the Hunger Games, which means you all have to see as I throw yet another HG AU into the world. No, there are not enough already.
Kaz Brekker won his games at 13 years old. He’d volunteered for his brother, Jordie. Jordie had been 17, just about to age out of Reaping age. And yet, his name had been called when those papers were drawn from that stupid glass bowl. Kaz’s name had been in there 53 times, Jordie’s only 10. Despite being the runt of the litter, even in the Barrel District, Kaz had volunteered. And he’d won. He fought like a wild dog, with his nails and teeth. When they pulled him out and crowned him Victor, he’d thought at very least that he’d be going home to his brother. That all of it would have been worth it. He arrived back home to an empty house and an unmarked grave. He’d torn the house to pieces, leaving hardly more than its four walls intact. It had been home for a Victor, and Kaz hadn’t felt like he’d won much of anything. He became a mentor after that, and a good one too. But the Capitol never did quite trust him.
Inej Ghafa won her Games the following year. She was Kaz’s first tribute; although she had not technically been born in his District, her name had been reaped all the same. She had refused to fight, those first few days in the training center. Kaz hadn’t forced her. But he showed her what would happen to her if she chose not to fight. Recordings of the Games were kept for tributes to study, and he had not spared her any detail, had not allowed her to look away from the screen. She agreed to learn how to use a knife after that. She spent most of her Games hiding. Well, maybe that wasn’t the right word. She was not hiding, not out of fear, she was stalking. Tributes would fall with silver knives sticking from their throats, knives that had seemingly come from nowhere. She’d suffered at the hands of the Capitol after being crowned Victor. No one could deny the Capitol their darling.
Jesper Fahey was Kaz’s second tribute. A farm boy with a knack for shooting. There were no guns in the Games, that’d make it too easy, but he could shoot an arrow well enough. Kaz trained him hard, even harder than he’d trained Inej. Because while Inej could rely on her ability to disappear, Jesper was difficult to hide. The Capitol enjoyed his charismatic jokes, which helped Kaz get him enough sponsorships to win him the Games. The life of a Victor didn’t suit him and his father, but the gambling halls kept his mind off the memories.
Nina Zenik was the District One tribute during the following year, which happened to be a Quarter Quell. She was trained to kill since she was a child. They’d supressed her powers before letting her loose in the arena. It would be unfair to put a Grisha against Otkazat'sya. Not that she’d needed luck. A begrudging alliance formed between the careers, just like every other year. But this year was different. This year, the last two standing, regardless of district, would go home Victors. She’d taken a liking to Matthias Helvar, despite the fact that he seemed very keen on betraying her, and was determined to win with him by her side.
Matthias Helvar was the District Two tribute during the Quarter Quell. He’d been trained to leave no survivors, regardless of District. The Quarter Quell would allow two Victors, and he was determined to go home with the second District Two tribute. He didn’t know her, but she was Fjerdan, he didn’t need to know her. Allowing Nina to watch his back, he’d planned to betray her once the numbers had dwindled. He hadn’t calculated falling for the District One tribute. They were both crowned Victor, and became mentors in their respective Districts. Matthias avoided Nina as much as he could, the guilt of losing his district partner to save the life of a Grisha weighing heavily on his shoulders.
Wylan Van Eck was Capitol-born through and through. He had grown up oblivious to the struggles of the Districts. But when he had been deemed a disappointment by his father, he was forced into becoming a stylist for the Games. He worked with the tributes from the Barrel District. As a stylist, he was forced to watch the Games, watch the violence and brutality. He’d watch alongside Kaz as the tributes fell. If the Bastard of the Barrel was feeling particularly charitable, he’d tell Wylan when to close his eyes and avoid the worst of it. He wanted the Games gone, but with a Gamemaker as a father, he didn’t have much of a choice but to do what he was told, unless he wanted to end up in the arena too.
Wylan makes it as far as the foyer before his legs give out from under him. He wobbles, stumbling, and Jesper tries to catch him, to break his fall, but they both end up sinking to the floor. The tiles of the entryway are cold even through the thick fabric of Wylan’s trousers. He presses a hand to his mouth like it can staunch the guttural cry that escapes his lips as his body starts to tremble and doesn’t stop.
The trial is over. His father will rot in jail for the rest of his life.
“Ssh, you’re okay. I’ve got you,” Jesper murmurs, pulling Wylan into his lap and gently rocking him. “You did so well, my love. It’s over now.”
Wylan just turns his head and sobs into Jesper’s shoulder, clinging to the lapels of his jacket like a small child. He cries until his throat is raw and his head is pounding, until his eyes are red and stinging. Through it all, Jesper holds him, murmuring gentle words into his ear and pressing kiss after kiss to his forehead. They stay on the cold, tiled floor until Wylan cries himself out, body finally falling limp with exhaustion.
“Come on, darling. Let’s get you upstairs,” says Jesper, coaxing Wylan to his feet and then scooping him up into his arms. Wylan lets himself be carried, wrapping his arms around Jesper’s neck and burying his face in the warmth there, his favourite place to seek comfort.
Once in their bedroom, Jesper helps him out of his staid mercher black and into soft sleep clothes, pulling back the covers on their bed and encouraging him under.
“Thank you,” Wylan says when they’re both safely tucked under the duvet.
I'm in the middle of rewatching Shadow and Bone, and I still can't believe that a group of ragtag criminals outsmarted a whole lot of trained Grisha.
Inej killed that inferni in the time I take to tie my hair.
Jesper brought Ivan to the floor despite him wearing a bullet-proof kefta.
And Kaz? That badass hot bitch has audacity!
He met the Darkling, roasted the hell out of him by saying that his girlfriend ran away because she was sick of him, made him cry, evaded his cut with a magic trick, knocked out his Materialnik, and stole his carriage.
Six of Crows fans, i love you guys, but i have something to tell you;
you can have a least favourite crow.
You do not need to like them all the same amount or even like them all, you can dislike one of them, you can dislike more than one of them. you do not need to like them all, the fans being annoying saying you "need" to like them all or you're a "fake fan" are wrong and that's never been how being a fan of anything has ever worked.
(when a child starts crying in public)
Jesper: *tries to make the child laugh*
Wylan: *tries to play a game with the child to make them calm down*
Inej: *gives detailed instructions to the parents*
Nina: *cries with the child*
Matthias: *ignores the child*
Kaz: *is the reason why the child is crying*
Do you ever think about the like ... intimacy implications(?) of Inej wearing Kaz's gloves to climb the incinerator? Like she gets inside of a part of him, a part no one else has seen. She understands him better because of it, sees just how the gloves are made. She can't touch him but touches the thing that's closest and most intimate to him. She finds what keeps him sane and returns it to him. It's nearly erotic without being sexual, don't you think?
Hello and welcome to episode 4 of DK Finally Gets It Together And Answers Her Asks Because It's About Damn Time (the title's growing on me)
Ep One - Ep Two - Ep Three
As always sorry for how long it had taken me to get to this ask but thank you very much for sending it, let's talk!
YES
Y E S
Y E S
I in fact think about this an awful lot. For me, there are two specific details about Inej putting Kaz's gloves on that feel very intimate and the first is her own hesitance to do so. She talks about how she knows that Kaz would tell her to just get on with it but that she feels as though she's violating his privacy by taking them - I don't have my book on me but I'm pretty sure she says it feels like going into his rooms and rifling through his belongings without permission. The second thing that feels incredibly intimate to me when I read this scene is that when Inej notices that the gloves are unlined and have thin slashes in the fingertips she realises that this is so he can maintain contact with cards or coins or so on when pickpocketing and performing slight of hand and she describes it as "touch without touch". TOUCH WITHOUT TOUCH.
INEJ WEARING KAZ'S GLOVES IS TOUCH WITHOUT TOUCH. THEY ARE SO CLOSE AND YET THEY ARE SO FAR AWAY FROM EACH OTHER and I'm pretty sure that it's after this scene once they're on the roof together that Inej says it's the first time they've touched skin on skin (though please correct me if I'm wrong) so this is the closest they've ever got to touching before!!!!!!!!!!
I may simply melt into a puddle thinking about them