#helnik cameo

[jomiddlemarch]

I wish you would write a fic in which Mary Phinney has a good time (either facetiously spoken, or seriously) in the Grishaverse!

“The War is over, Mariy,” Jedediah said, leaning back in the rudely made chair as if it were the Tsar’s golden throne in Os Alta, his legs crossed at the ankle. His kefta was unfastened, the panels hanging loose at his sides, the white linen shirt he wore beneath it open at the throat, and if she didn’t know better, she’d think him responsible for the empty bottles of kvas and medovudhka that were scattered across what passed for a yard behind the field hospital. “You can relax and stop scrutinizing the horizon for any errant Fjerdan warriors. They’ve all gone home. It’s only us still here.”

“You’re awfully certain for a Healer who was up half the night,” she said, with only half her usual bite. She’d been up as well, signing the documents that were left behind after the last few patients had been taken away, most of them waving. Sergei and Katalin had between them conjured a rainbow and a shower of almond blossom, an impressive feat given that they’d both been brought in nearly dead and had spent the majority of their convalescence at each other’s throats before they admitted they were in love. “It doesn’t hurt to be cautious. There could still be a sneak attack—”

“A sneak attack?” Jedediah laughed. “You spent too much time with General Kirigan’s deputy Ivan. A sneak attack here is as likely as an otkazat’sya flying or the Tsaritsa scrubbing out a bathtub.”

“Still,” she said. 

“Still, what? Can’t you believe it, that it’s over?” he asked, gentle instead of mocking, with that tenderness that had once been a rarity, now common enough she’d half-wondered if merzost were involved and what the cost would be. “That we could be happy?”

“Those aren’t the same thing,” Mariy said. Yes, General Kirigan and the Sun Summoner had prevailed and were now assembling a new Council in Os Alta with Prince Nikolai, the Fjerdans and Shu-Han battalions had officially surrendered and retreated to their homes, and Mariy had just that afternoon received a much-handled, travel-stained note signed with Nina Zenik’s distinctive scrawl announcing her safe arrival in Ketterdam and reunion with Matthias, complete with waffles and missing even the faintest hint of herring, but Mariy couldn’t quite accept that meant happiness.

“No? Well, that’s a relief,” Jedediah said. 

“What?”

“That you aren’t so easily satisfied,” he replied. “That it will take more than the absence of brutality and terror to give you joy. I’d begun to wonder, you see, all that calm imperturbability in the face of sheer horror, that indomitable fortitude you’ve drawn around you like a queen’s mantle. Or a Sankta’s consecrated veil. It was very worrying.”

“You were worried? About me?” she said.

“Naturally,” he said. “My own flaws are myriad and obvious, for all that I’m a Grisha and a frankly exceptional Healer, if I may be excused any false humility. You, on the other hand—”

“I’m just as flawed,” she said.

“Not at all,” he said, serious for once. “But I’m glad you need something more to be happy. I only wonder, what will it take?”

“To be happy,” she repeated.

“To let me see Mariy Olnhauskaya having a good time,” he said. He waited and she was quiet, looking at him watching her, his regard so acute and suddenly so ardent, his dark eyes impossibly lovely. “Don’t you know?”

“I have a few ideas,” she said, shrugging and then flicking the fingers of her left hand. The vine that clung to the roof burst into bloom, the heady fragrance of white yasemin filling the air, the scent of a ballroom or a boudoir, a well-tended, walled garden behind a brick house whose windows were all lit to gold.

“But you’re a Healer, Mariy, Corporalki,” he said, startled and then quickly curious, entirely as she’d expected. “What you did, that’s a Durast’s ability and to be so finely wielded—”

“I dabble,” she said. “For fun.”

“You dabble,” he said, standing up and plucking one of the blossoms from the vine and offering it to her. “I don’t believe it. You’ve never dabbled in your life. What else can you do?”

“You want me to show you?” she said as she took the flower, letting her fingers touch his longer than necessary, letting her gaze drop to his lips. In the next instant, she was in his arms.

“Later,” he said. “I’ll hold you to it.”

“As long as you hold me,” she said and he smiled before he kissed her. And then Mariy Olnhauskaya was indeed having a very good time.

#prompt fill #tortoisesshells #mercy street #shadow and bone #crossover #phoster #post-war life suits them #romance #humor #helnik cameo #mercy street pbs #mary and jed as Grisha Healers #Ivan

[kanejbr3kker]

What I want instead of SoC 3

don't get me wrong, i'm sure that if leigh wrote soc 3 it'd be great, but i honestly really don't want her to make it cause:

-we all know someone's gonna die and it'll probably be kaz or inej which means it'll just hurt even more

-rule of wolves was the most perfect end to the grishaverse and i feel like adding another full novel would kinda ruin it

-a lot of people have only read soc, but since the third book would be set after kos, people who only cared about soc would have to go back and read shadow and bone so they could read kos so they could read soc 3

what i want instead:

-a collection of novellas about the crows! any or all of the following:

-the heist thing that zoya brings up at the end of row; i don't feel like it's enough to be a full book but it'd be fun to see (also if it's a novella no one will die so bonus points)

-early kanej!!!! i NEED to see kaz teaching inej how to pick locks and giving her her first knife

-kaz and inej stealing the dekappel cause they just bring it up so casually throughout the books and i want to see it actually happening since yk it's their first date

-nina, inej, and jesper becoming friends; their friendship is so great and i would love to watch them first getting to know each other

-wylan before he left van eck's house; obviously the main reason wylan got kicked out of his dad's house was the fact that he couldn't read but jesper also joked about him sleeping with one of his tutors and it's never really confirmed or denied and i just need to know

-post crooked kingdom kanej; i've read too many fanfics about their long distance relationship and now i just need it to be canon

-wesper just chilling in van eck's house after crooked kingdom and occasionally breaking the law (basically what they hint at during the crows cameo in row)

-something helnik related i really don't care what

-kanej anything

(:

#kaz brekker #six of crows #grisha #grishaverse #inej gafha #kanej #wesper #helnik

[wesper-ao3feed]

the music competition

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/mXyZ7CW by canard729 Kaz's scowl is much more than evident by now. Just the sight of his annoyance alone has caused other people to shift their seats away from the pair's table in the library. He stares hard at Wylan, watching him squirm at the prolonged eye contact, before giving a heavy sigh and running a leather clad hand over his face. As much as he'd like to get mad at him for putting them forward into this stupid competition without so much as a word to anyone involved, Kaz knows better than to kick off in the library. He wasn't allowed in for a whole half-term last time - though that didn't stop him from picking the lock and taking books out/putting them back after school anyways. Besides, he can't be mad at the kid for having daddy issues, can he? What would Inej do in this situation? After several long, uncomfortable moments of silence, Wylan is about to apologise when Kaz speaks up again in his trademark rasp of a voice;   "Is there a prize?" Words: 2189, Chapters: 3/?, Language: English Fandoms: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/M, M/M Characters: Kaz Brekker, Inej Ghafa, Jesper Fahey, Wylan Van Eck, Nina Zenik, Matthias Helvar, Background & Cameo Characters, The Crows Ensemble (Six of Crows), Dregs Ensemble (Six of Crows) Relationships: Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa, Jesper Fahey/Wylan Van Eck, Matthias Helvar/Nina Zenik, Kaz Brekker & Jesper Fahey & Inej Ghafa & Matthias Helvar & Wylan Van Eck & Nina Zenik Additional Tags: Touch-Averse Kaz Brekker, Kaz Brekker Needs a Hug, Kaz Brekker is Trying, Kaz Brekker Has PTSD, Kaz Brekker is Bad at Feelings, Kaz Brekker Loves Inej Ghafa, Autistic Kaz Brekker, Jesper Fahey Has ADHD, Autistic Wylan Van Eck, Bisexual Jesper Fahey, Gay Wylan Van Eck, Pansexual Nina Zenik, kaz has sensory issues, wylan has sensory issues, Dyslexic Wylan Van Eck, Battle of the Bands, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, crows attack school, music competition, We hate Jan Van Eck, Kanej - Freeform, wesper, helnik - Freeform, british crows, mentions of sexual assault?, kaz is asthmatic, major L, i project so much on him, most of the crows have anxiety, Alternate Universe - No Powers, grisha dont exist, Bullying, so many tags oml, i think thats it? read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/mXyZ7CW

#wesper #wylan x jesper #wesper fanfiction #wesper ao3feed #ao3feed #fanfiction

[im-someone-i-guess]

My favourite episode is the third episode. There's kaz holding milo, jesper hugging milo, volcra appearance, baghra hitting alina, grishas passing the salt with their grisha abilities, helnik banter, Leigh's cameo and everything else

#grishaverse #six of crows #leigh bardugo #booklover #books #booklr #shadow and bone #crooked kingdom #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #sankta milo #jesper and milo #shadow and bone spoilers #shadow and bone netflix #netflix shadow and bone #s&b netflix

[retvenkos]

There have been rumors that sab is going to include six of crows next season. Any thoughts?

whoo, do i have some thoughts™. 

i should preface by saying, though, that if you are excited, good for you! if you think it’s a concept™, it most certainly is, and if you don’t want to see hate for the idea, then do not read ahead. i have some things to say about the idea, and none are too positive.

let’s get into it...

lol, plenty of spoilers ahead. mostly for the six of crows duology.

✧ *:･ﾟ

first of all, let’s hit it from an obvious, show running perspective.

six of crows is a lot™. there is so much happening in that book, and even more happening in crooked kingdom. not only are there new characters to add and explore, but there is new lore and new places that would all have to be hit. already, i felt like shadow and bone season one went fast. there was a lot to establish, and even more to expand upon, and i think there is so much to cover that trying to squeeze it all in would be a disservice to the characters and the world, which is the exact opposite of what the showrunners want, since they are lining up the grishaverse to be the new fantasy hit.

especially when the shadow and bone trilogy is adding in new places and characters, i don’t see the need for them to shoehorn in the six of crows duology. i’m sure there’s plenty for the crows to do, during these following two seasons. in fact, i’d even be fine if they wrote the crows out of the third season (which would ideally follow ruin and rising) entirely and maybe threw in a cameo at the end to get viewers excited for a six of crows show.

basically, there’s so much to cover, and shadow and bone already hit the ground running. i think that adding in the six of crows story arc would be too much of a time crunch, on the runtime of the show.

✧ *:･ﾟ

secondly, i’m ranting about a couple of characters, and how they are not six of crows duology ready.

the easiest one to talk about is kaz brekker, because book!kaz is dirtyhands kaz. our first introduction to kaz in the boks is him telling an opposing gang member that he can’t kill kaz, because if he does, his girlfriend will burn in a fire, and no matter how fast he runs, he won’t get there in time. kaz is like... “do you smell that? i think it’s her hair burning.”

and this is a more mild transgression of dirtyhands kaz. in the same book, kaz pulls a man’s eye out, he swallows lock picks, and he plans and executes the greatest heist of all time.

compare this to kaz in the show. kaz in the show is just a mean, angry boy in comparison. and this isn’t me hating on freddie carter - he did an amazing job. and this isn’t me hating on the writers either. i understand why they did that.

decidedly, there is a lot™ happening in shadow and bone season one. you don’t really get a lot of time with any one character, and if you do, it’s the shadow and bone characters. the showrunners knew they had to make kaz a likeable character to people coming into the series blind, and kaz brekker is a pretty hard character to like when you don’t get his backstory or even the slightest hint of it. part of what the six of crows books had going for it was the changing point of views, and inej’s trust and feelings for kaz. inej narrates a lot of stuff, and she does it in a more sympathetic way, making us give kaz the benefit of the doubt - especially since inej is such an upstanding character. you get a little bit of that is the netflix show, but you can’t get a lot of it because (1) time constraints, and (2) inej and kaz are actually at odds for a lot of the show - especially the opening bit. literally, their first interaction is a fight.

so, to get newer fans invested in this emo teen, they made him less dirtyhands. this is also fine because these events happen before the six of crows duology.

if we start the six of crows arc in season two, however, there is too much growth for kaz to do in between seasons. we need to see some of that on screen. especially since his plans were a bust, and the most dirtyhands thing he did was with the inferni, and he wasn’t the one to kill the inferni - inej was. (and i love that scene like the rest of you, but there could have been other ways to get inej to save kaz while letting kaz show some more of that ruthlessness.)

and that’s just kaz. admittedly, he’s an easy character to pick apart, but we have to talk about a few more.

nina zenik? yeah, let’s talk about her. the six of crows nina we knows has a lot of guilt over what she did to matthias - even if a lot of it is repressed. she has a slew of complex emotions over matthias, and it’s all been fermenting inside of her for a year. point is, in the show nina still thinks what she did was right, and she hasn’t had time to question that inside of herself. sure, in the books she still posits that what she did was justified, but there’s a bit of uncertainty there, caused by the acidity of guilt. i want to see that war inside of nina. it makes their love story all the more compelling.

and while we’re talking about helnik, let’s just cover matthias helvar real quick, because, personally, his character needs that time spent in hellgate, now more than ever.

i’ve already mentioned my beef with aging up matthias is a few other posts, but why don’t i reprise it?

matthias is an incredibly complex character, and part of what makes his change earnest is two things - the struggle he continues to feel throughout the duology, and his age. now stick with me.

part of matthias’ struggle is that he is still that little boy whose family were killed by grisha. in the books, matthias is only 18. that seems mature, but by all accounts, it most definitely isn’t. he doesn’t know anything about the world. he has been training to be a religious soldier, where he was heavily indoctrinated. what has matthias truly seen of the world? likely, very little.

furthermore, because he’s only 18, how many expeditions has he been on? sure, matthias has seen grisha tried for their “crimes” and he has been training against grisha since he was a boy, but do you think they’re putting eleven year old matthias out there, against full grown grisha? my bet is he only started truly hunting grisha when he was 14.

when he meets nina, he hasn’t been hunting grisha long, and he’s young enough to where we could truly see how him being smitten with nina could impact his thoughts.

matthias in the show is played by a man who is 27. no hate, this isn’t ageism, but if he’s been hunting grisha since he was 14, he’s been hunting grisha for 12 years. he has gone out on numerous expeditions. hell, in the show they give matthias a large amount of credit for capturing nina. it is sO much harder for you to buy the “nina is a beautiful grisha and has changed my life” storyline when he’s 27, almost 30. furthermore, this matthias has seen way more grisha trials. the concept that he doesn’t know that grisha aren’t given a fair trial is just absurd, at this point. furthermore, you add on the fact that he’s been indoctrinated longer, and it makes his story all the more difficult to grapple with.

on the one hand, i understand that they aged everyone up (which i was happy about, for the majority of characters. kaz, i am once again looking at you). on the other hand, it puts a huge strain on matthias’ character, and if they were to try to juggle the six of crows plot with the shadow and bone plot, so much nuance would be lost and the majority of new fans would not understand people liking matthias. you would risk alienating his character (and nina’s, by effect) and that is not what either character (or actor!) deserves.

they’ve already made it so hard for us to buy the “nina changes matthias” storyline - even though they’ve made him a tad sweeter and more likeable - and if they try to fast track it, it’s going to fall through.

i think matthias needs his time in hellgate for some soul searching and some struggle. with matthias, the only way out is through, and we need to have time for that to happen.

inej and jesper are a little less difficult to juggle since they’re are done pretty well, but i don’t want to see their complexity and nuance fall through (especially jesper’s) because the show is doing too many things at once.

basically, the crows are currently in their fledgling state, and if they were to be thrown into the six of crows storyline, it would not be nearly as fulfilling.

✧ *:･ﾟ

finally, i just want to say that the overall genre and theme of six of crows and shadow and bone are completely different. i feel like there would be far too much dissonance in the show. you could already feel it in season one, but because alina fears being kidnapped and then she goes on the run, it works. six of crows, though, is a completely different show and i think it would be odd to shift from ~life aboard sturmhond’s ship~ to ~breaking and entering in the ice court~.

✧ *:･ﾟ

anyway, those are my thoughts, anon. surely you didn’t ask for this, but you received it, anyway.

#shadow and bone spoilers #s&b spoilers #spoilers #grishaverse #asks #kaz brekker #matthias helvar #i'm only tagging those two because i really only talk about them

[battlestar-royco]

IT'S BEEN 84 YEARS. LET'S TALK ABOUT NETFLIX'S SHADOW AND BONE.

8.7/10 ⭐️

spoilers for everythingggg under the cut! i'll be discussing its merits as an adaptation vs as a show, characters and plots, and the overall aesthetic and magic/world.

SHOW VS ADAPTATION:

i say this as someone who knows all the books very well and has been in the fandom for nearly a decade, so i'm biased. but. s&b functions better as an adaptation than as a standalone show. alina's plot moves so well, and satisfyingly renders so many iconic scenes and sites from s&b. the worldbuilding is also pretty easy to fall into, with a forgivable amount of voiceover/infodump. and, hurting budget aside, i mostly liked this visual interpretation of the gv.

(sidebar: the in-universe racism... doesn't work. i tried to view it in good faith but imo it was very heavy-handed. if it was framed like, "wow it's a SHU WOMAN saving the world!!!" it might've been better, but it's just racism without recompense. and it's a terrible look to make other characters of color racist. i just. why?)

as for the crows, however... i'm just not sure how strong they'll be for new viewers? i totally understand why they were included, and i really like certain connections the show made between the two series. it was a great decision to introduce the druskelle in the first Cut scene, and showing nina as a ravkan spy.

the new crows stuff felt in character, but i think the show is at its height when it sticks to the books. the first couple episodes switching between tgt and proto-soc gave me whiplash, but luckily it got more organic as it progressed. if i didn't know and love all the crows before going in, i wouldn't be that invested in them based on season 1. aside from a couple fantastic scenes, it really felt like the writers were trying to make fetch happen for like 4 episodes before they figured out what to do with everyone. plus, ravka is such a different vibe from ketterdam--tonally, sartorially, technologically, etc they didn't totally feel like the same world. it was pretty jarring. although i prefer the duo to the trio, s&b is alina's story and she is That Bitch who walked so the crows could fly. so i didn't hate their inclusion but the shoehorned content did at times disservice both plots, imo.

CHARACTERS:

way too many, which is yet another consequence of smushing everyone into one season.

MAL/ALINA/DARKLING: first and foremost, and i PROMISE i'm not saying this just to be a hater, but there needed to be less malina. i'll be the first to say that show!mal really has what book!mal wants. the new pre-fold scenes were so good. li and renaux have amazing chemistry, and their laughter over stolen grapes was a highlight. his stag plot was also good. THAT SAID, there were way too many keramzin flashbacks and malina parallels like.. 🤢🤢why do they want us to love mal so much. for what. they only needed the teacup scene but they clearly thought they were doing something with micro-aggressions and that meadow shot they showed like 6 times. knowing mal's original character, and how they scrubbed his show counterpart almost to the point of flawlessness, he's just never going to be my fave even though i do respect what they did with him. also, why were there like 5 fake deaths for this dude? boring.

the darkling was great. ben barnes knows what the fuck he's about, and he funneled manipulation and charisma into every scene. as for the backstory: at first i really wasn't feeling it, but i eventually did warm up to it and i'm so glad they showed it because oh god the cut and the creation of the fold were SO FUCKING ICONIC. also, love love love the baghra development. WE LOVE TO SEE OLD WOMEN/MOMS WHO AREN'T "EVIL"/"CORRUPTED" BY THEIR MAGICAL POWERS!!!!!!! BITCH! it didn't have to be 12 minutes long though.

i honestly don't have much to say on alina. jml was excellent in her role and very true to the book. without her book narration she feels much more consistently written.

TRILOGY CHARACTERS: i really felt the lack of genya and zoya. genya's character and actress are perfectly layered and effective, even though their roles are relatively minor. i'm so looking forward to her razrushost moment, but i wish they'd laid more groundwork for it. (and i hope throw out the wig and just dye her hair next season.) also like. WHY KEEP THE IRRELEVANT MEAN GIRL/DARKLING THIRST PLOT FOR ZOYA??? AFTER ALL THE EFFORT THEY PUT INTO IMPROVING MAL? they sacrificed so much for malina at the expense of other characters. finally, it was interesting how they decided to kill marie. i love the tailor magic flex. but also they clearly just did that to emotionally manipulate us and connect the crows so. hm.

CROWS: speaking of! the crows storyline felt a little like filler. honestly i wish they waited to roll crows into later seasons. i'd prefer little foreshadowings about them, a la the druskelle cameo or the references to nina and matthias. introducing the crows so soon makes the ice court heist feel less special. the recruitment was super tight and pragmatic, so this felt a little fluffy/fanservicey. kaz also comes off as sooooo old again. especially without the vulnerability of his book counterpart, he just seems like a 40-year-old in a 20something body.

i was pleasantly surprised to find jesper my favorite crow. like wow.... second amendment rights for jesper fahey only!! i like all the crows but book!kanej are my faves by a long shot. they felt a bit stiff tbh, like the actors were a little uncomfy with each other and/or their exposition-heavy lines. however, the one scene that felt EXTREMELY kanej to me was when they killed that dude in the church holy fuck oh my god. WE STAN AN ANGSTY BATTLE COUPLE WHO ARE BOTH DEAD INSIDE. highlight for sure.

and i actually kinda loved helnik? i know helnik is controversial for very valid reasons, but i thoughy their dynamic was fantastic and they were among the strongest performers. it was much less overwhelming than the constantly interweaving kaz/inej/jesper imo. they need to fire their location scout though. those green screen mountains and beaches were um. interesting.

aesthetic and magic:

i really hope they get a bigger budget for costumes, cgi, and sets next season! the keftas are serviceable, but they look a little cheap at times. i will also never forgive ANY of the crows' hats. it's mostly just a personal aesthetic thing but god i fucking hate them. the darkling was best dressed, but in general i liked the ravkan look more than the kerch. why were the crows always in the most elaborate getups? why couldn't they just chill in their waistcoats??? they never seemed relaxed in the way alina and co did; the clothes never felt worn or broken in.

favorite sets: the darkling's room, the crow club, all the grisha tents, the matthias/nina ship, the church where inej killed the squaller, outdoor fountain where they told the story of the black heretic. the lighting was almost always right for each scene, and there was so much detail in every one of them.

THE MAGIC WAS SO COOL! my greatest beef is alina's light--it often looked so fake, and it washed out jml. oftentimes it was fluorescent or blue, and it was used as a forcefield or orb. it's supposed to be sunlight bro. what is so hard about that? the darkling's magic looked good, other than the fold. i've always imagined the fold more like a huge black fog rather than a literal wall. so that was a bit game of thronesy, but not terrible.

and can we talk about the amplifiers? amplifiers are my personal favorite gv lore but season 1 barely gets into them. they never mention the bear zoya slew, nor do they establish the unique strength of the stag, sea dragon, and firebird. BUT THE ANTLER COLLAR FUSED INTO ALINA'S SKIN WAS SUPER DARK AND MACABRE AND I KINDA LIKED IT? ALTHOUGH I HAVE TO WONDER HOW TF IS SHE GONNA SLEEP???

if you made it this far, thanks so much! that's all i have for today.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone spoilers

[booknerdateen]

The Grishaverse Series

A mini dramaticness before we begin

Also note: there are spoilers so beware

It all started with Six of Crows. I read the book either last year or a few years ago. The news came when Shadow and Bone was being adapted into a show. So, I decided to go down the rabbit hole and read the trilogy before I watched the show so I can get a more depth of the world and all that. I finished the books with eight days to spare. A few days after I finished the season, I went to Barnes to get the other books. I already had Six Of Crows, but y’all can never have too many copies. Soon, I reentered the world of the Crows. Finally at last, I was able to read Crooked Kingdom (one of my best friends been dying for me to read CK). After the catastrophe of CK’s ending, I delved into King of Scars. I didn’t really know much about Nikolai’s duology besides it being about him, Zoya, and Nina. With the annoying ending of Scars, I started Rule of Wolves the next day. I started this journey from Alina and the Darkling to the Crows and their hiesting to seeing Nina’s happiness and Nikolai and Zoya dealing with their demons-figuratively and literally. So, here we are reaching and end of an era for me. I am glad I got to read an amazing series of this world.

The Grisha Trilogy

Aright yall!

I went into the trilogy not knowing much, besides the teaser trailer knowledge

I went in trying to not be biased about the Darkling cuz Ben Barnes

Did it affect me, yes yes it did

Although I don’t like Darkling

Some of y’all hate me for this but I ship Darklina

Yes yes, they toxic, but man you can’t convince me Darkling and Alina had that amazing chemistry in the first book

Not counting when Alina found out bout his true intentions and all that

I didn’t understand why we hated Mal until half way through Siege and Storm

I’m not Malina, but I can understand why we ship them

My amazing love of my life, Nikolai/Stormhund!

Him revealing himself as the prince, omg

Nikolai planting a kiss on Alina and her hitting him afterwards, love it

Tamar and Toyla are amazing!

I actually didn’t realize they were Shu until King Of Scars

Do I see why they betrayed Alina and used her for the Apparat (who needs to freakin die!), yes

Should they’ve, no but I see why though

Harshaw is me half the time

I love him teaming up with a random cat and called him Oncat pure wholesome

Alina going back to the Palace to start the Second Army and understandably putting a whole in the cafeteria ceiling, yes bruh

It’s not the cafeteria but I can’t remember what it’s called so hush

I thought she was gonna murder someone with that cut

Zoya declaring her alliance to Alina

Alina being sus about Zoya….I get that

Genya’s iconic “I am not ruined, I am ruination” I freakin love that!

Nikolai putting his father in his place and potentially exposing the king to r*pe

I freakin lived for that!

I did suspect that what happened between him and Genya, but it was more implied until R&R

Deaths=man, we lost some amazing peeps

Founding out Mal is the third amplifier, blew my mind

Mal dying=was not having that

Mal resurected=didn’t think it had worked, but it did

Darkling being stabbed and killed by his own knife by Alina…..wow

I didn’t like that

Sorry not sorry

I thought it felt a little rushed when that happened

I’m still confused on how he died

Overall: 9/10 I loved it

Six of Crows Duology

I don’t remember what happened in this book when I first read it

I longing to live to be part of the Crows

I love their friendship

Reminds me of my friends

“Compromise. I’m sorry does the trick and uses fewer bullets”

I’ll probably do a post about my favorite lines of the books

Oh yes, so I read SoC after watching S&B

Reading Nina and Matthias’ parts with the shipwreck and all that and it being the same as their scenes in the show

I loved that

Well vice versa it should be….show being line for line like the book with them

“Please, my darling Inej, treasure of my heart, won’t you do me the honor of acquiring me a new hat”

I actually texted my mom that but reworded it as a way of asking her to get Taco Bell breakfast after her PT

It worked

Wesper, Kanej, Helnik=yesssss

My cinnamon roll Wylan

Jesper, Inej, and Wylan hijacking a fjierdan tank=high speed chase but with teenagers

The 180* that Van Eck and Kaz kept doing in the end, omg

Van Eck being a total evilness, man I wanted to smack him

Inej almost giving up on escaping

Kaz pushed Wylan against the wall about to kill him

Jesper’s father being afraid of Little Jesper being killed cuz Jes being grisha

Speaking of that, I did not see that coming

Kaz and Jesper getting into a fight and Wylan and Kuweii being the only ones concerned

Jesper Llewellyn Fahey

Jesper kissing Kuweii thinking he was Wylan

Wylan being broken-hearted

Them making up ahhhhh

The auction….that’s it that’s the only thing

Matthias being shot

Him going to Nina to say he loves her

Chapter 40= I tossed the book and dramatic screamed (not actually screaming)

Omg, Wylan finding out his mother aint dead but in a rehab place bruhhhhh

Kaz reuniting Inej with her parents

Kaz’s small steps of touching people again

Overall: 10/10 I’m biased about this duology

Nikolai Duology

Nikolai transforming into darkling creature at night is the equivalent of a werewolf turning at night (depending if we do every full moon and all that)

Nina burying Matthias’ body 😭

He found peace

Nina being the best necromancer grisha

Nina wanting to choke the ever living death out of Brun

Genya and David being married

Nadia and Tomar being married

David threating the monk

The monk 🤦🏾‍♀️

Wait no, the “Starless Saint” Cult 🤦🏾‍♀️

Nina mentioning about the Crows, mentally not verbally

Kuweii setting a tree on fire

The fold universe is very confusing

Sankta Eve…whats her name betraying them all to bring Darkling to life

Zoya being amazing as always

The Apparat really needs to die

I cannot stand that dude

The attenpted assination on Nikolai and Princess Shu (I forgot her name)

Isaak willingly to take Nikolai’s place while he in the fold

Isaak falling in love with Princess Shu

Or should i say “Princess Shu”

Isaak deserved better

Darkling ressurected 🙄

Nina and Hanne 💜

Freakin Brum I swear

Ramus deserved to die

Alina, Mal, Misha, and Oncat cameo

The Crows cameo!

Inej cameo in the end!

“Captain Ghafa”

Darking decided to give a redemption

Why….just why

Zoya turning into a dragon, that’s my zoya!

Nikolai turning into darkling creature to risk Ravka’s future

Brum being exile

Mwhahah

Hanne tailored as Ramus bruhhhh

I feel like Hanne is a trans coded character, I’ll go depth in another post

Freakin fjeirda in general

Fjeirda soldiers bowing down to “Sankta Zoya”

Nikolai stepping down the throne

Giving the throne to Zoya!

Queen Zoya

David’s death….I was not prepared for that 😭

Inej suspecting Alina to be actually Alina to Nikolai

Nikolai brushing her off as an old friend from the country

“I need Stormund to send a message to Kaz Brekker. I have a job for him”

Not word for word but ya know

Six of Crows 3??!?!?!! Ahhh

Overall: 8/10 loved it!

#booklr #bookish #bookworm #bookaddict #books #bookaholic #bookstagram #book review #booklover #booknerd #book #booksofinstagram #shadow and bone #the grisha trilogy #grishaverse #siege and storm #ruin and rising #six of crows #crooked kingdom #king of scars #rule of wolves #bookstack #its the book life #booklife #booklbr

[thegirlintheredchair]

#sixofcrows is one of my favorite reads of 2021 and it lives up to the hype! Heists, debauchery, lots of sass, nefarious plans, a deadly drug, trilogy cameos (I adored them), forbidden magic and six morally gray /misfits who are all main characters. 💗💗💗 I don’t think that I need to review this book or If i would do it justice so im just going to highlight my thoughts and things I loved while reading it! Here goes: • Finally! The Infamous KazBrekker™. Let’s see what the hype is about!! • Inej is so cool! #POC • I love Nina! • Kaz = demon xD • “Scheming face” • Inej’s backstory! 🥺🥺 Despise Heeleen!!! • He called her an “investment?” • Wow Kaz is insane! That scene with Oomen…too graphic • Okay im in love with all these characters! Wylan is a cinnamon roll • Kaz and jordie! 😥😥 Jacob Hertzoon! I just wanna talk!!! • Biggest Helnik/mathina shipper, after Inej of course 🙋🏻‍♀️ • What in god’s name is Kaz’s backstory! 😰😭 • Did I mention I despise heeleen? 😤 • I have no idea what the plan is anymore but oh my god! Kaz Brekker is a genius!!! • Wylans Fjerdan national anathem performance! 😆😆 • Chapter 35: Matthias!?!? 😲😲 • I don’t need sleep! I need to see if theyre all safe!!!! • There is a tank?! - Kaz's idiotic smile when he sees inej, jesper and wylan thundering from the ice court in a tank dragging the Fjerdan banner! Best ever!!!! 💖💖 • KAZ IS AN OVERTHINKER! 😀 • That cliffhanger! (I devoured crooked kingdom in two days 🙃✌🏼) And that’s a wrap! Also can I just say that I love how @lbardugo portrayed Kaz. I love that his disability is not his entire character and how she normalized it!! Kaz’s cane is not a reminder of his limp. His cane is important to him and he uses it as weapon much like Inej’s knives and Jesper's revolvers. His cane symbolizes his strength rather than his weakness. Just 💯💯💯. Shes a whole queen. P.S. muslimah jersey is from @bintirida.creations and I love how it's warm and soft and baggy cause oversized shirts are  *chefs kiss* (at Islamabad, Pakistan) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWbR9mPgGEv/?utm_medium=tumblr

#sixofcrows #poc

[jomiddlemarch]

There are always things to miss

It wasn’t easy being the second Mrs. Matthias Helvar.

It wasn’t that Nina had expected an easy life when she decided to be a mail-order bride. She didn’t have an easy life in Oskervo, but she had a view of the sea from the window of her small room and the cry of the gulls to remind her the world was wider than Oskervo’s narrow streets paved with oyster shells. She could have stayed there, running the boarding house, retrimming her bonnet with a new red ribbon every year, but she’d seen the advertisement in the paper and had written back an inquiry, telling herself she didn’t have to agree if the letter she received wasn’t to her liking.

The letter that came was very brief, explaining the circumstances Matthias Helvar found himself in, the size of his farm and his need for a helpmeet, a woman unafraid of hard work, big skies, and raising another woman’s child. It was the name of the farm, Fjerda, and the child, Berit, that made her say yes, something about the way he’d written them, the delicate loop of the j, the careful slash on the t and the total absence of the name of his first wife. Nina packed up her things in a carpetbag, bought a sturdy new pair of boots, and sent a reply on the same day. The next was the day she bought her ticket West and the third day was the day she left Oskervo behind.

When she arrived at the station, he was waiting for her with a wagon. She’d worried during the long trip about whether it would be difficult to tell who he was, whether she shouldn’t have said something more than I’ll be the one wearing a yellow bonnet trimmed with a scarlet ribbon, whether he would be one of a dozen men in a dusty coat and a dirt-caked boots. She’d wasted her time. There was no mistaking Matthias Helvar in a crowd, but he was at the station alone, tall, broad-shouldered, his blond hair bright in the sun, his closely trimmed beard a darker gold, wearing his Sunday best and holding his hat in his hand.

They were married within the hour and the ring on her finger was warm from his breast pocket when he slid it on her hand. The minister’s wife Ina, a slight, dark woman with an unusual grace, slipped Nina a small package in a scrap of calico tied with string, and murmured “He’s a good man but you’ll need to be patient” and then in a louder tone invited them to dinner the next time they came into town for the Sunday service. Nina caught her breath when she unwrapped the package sitting on the bench of the wagon, finding an exquisite fichu in white silk Chantilly lace, an heirloom. Matthias glanced at her but said nothing, the reins held loosely in his hands.

He was a man of few words and those he had, he mostly saved for Berit or the dairy cows. Berit was small for her age, with wispy sandy brown curls and hazel eyes; she must have favored her mother, the mother who’d died of the same sudden fever than had made Berit lose the hearing in one ear. She’s not simple, Matthias said and it was all that he said about her, but Nina saw the way he picked his daughter up in his arms at the end of the day and how the little girl rested her head against his chest, how easily she fell asleep when he hummed a melody Nina couldn’t name in his low baritone. It wasn’t easy, sitting with Matthias and Berit in the kitchen after she’d cleared away the dishes and had her hands full of the endless mending, though she was glad of the work, the fatigue from the chores and the baking heat and the strain of seeing the desolate look in both their faces when she turned around and wasn’t Mamma, but only Nina.

If the days weren’t easy, the nights were nearly impossible. Berit slept in the small loft in a small bed Matthias had made and under a nine-patch quilt pieced by her dead mother. After the first night, when Matthias stayed in the barn late and slept in the chair in front of the cookstove, he and Nina shared a bed under a Jacob’s ladder quilt pieced by his dead wife. The bed took up most of the room, but Matthias was a big man and Nina was not a small woman and there was no way they could sleep in the bed without being close enough to touch. She’d expected to do her wifely duty, not very troubled after she saw the gentle way he carried his daughter or the deftness in his hands unhitching the horse from the wagon, but he never touched her. At least, not while he was awake; there were nights when Nina woke in the moonlight to find his arm around her, his face buried in the crook of her neck, his chest warm against her back. She woke to feel his body longing for hers but he never spoke of it and when she tried to, he flushed a deep red and pressed his lips together tightly.

It was not easy being the second Mrs. Matthias Helvar but Nina hadn’t expected it to be. Fjerda was two hundred acres and there wasn’t the money to hire a spare girl. Berit watched her like a hawk and wouldn’t eat anything Nina cooked for a week and then got into all the trouble of a girl twice her age. Matthias frowned when Nina sang the lively songs of Oskervo, when she read aloud from the books she’d crammed into her satchel, when she lifted her hem to show Berit how to dance and when she smiled setting down a dried-apple pie, dolloped with fresh cream, sighing at her first bite. He frowned when she turned in his arms in the night and looked his blue eyes, grey at midnight, and he frowned before he kissed her parted lips, as he pulled the ribbon from her braided hair and ran his fingers through her chestnut curls. He frowned as he said I do like you and it wasn’t easy for Nina to simply nod and draw him back down; it wasn’t easy until he rested in her arms, spent, and murmured Don’t go, little red bird and Nina was not the second Mrs. Matthias Helvar but the one he’d let himself love.

#shadow and bone #helnik #au #sarah plain and tall au #mail-order bride #nina zenik #matthias helvar #nina x matthias #romance #still only one bed #cameo by inej #angst #domestic #little house on the prairie feels #fericita-s

[jomiddlemarch]

when there is nothing left to take away

Chapter 10 

So far, Nina could say with confidence that she much preferred naked, sleeping, silent Matthias. The extremely well-dressed, alert, derisive version was giving her the beginning of a migraine and a powerful wish for a shiv; any leftover oxytocin/serotonin cocktail drenching her synapses, conjured by his very nice dick, was completely dissipated. Tsibeya had sent a car for them since his was mostly in need of digging out and then a tow and the whole ride from the motel had been an icy snipe-fest. She rested her head against the window and imagined pushing him off on an iceberg but he kept pestering her with clipped questions about what documentation she was going to retrieve and the where it was exactly and why again no one could have faxed or even mailed the paperwork to his office where it should have been filed properly in the first place…

“For faen, I said, you’ll see soon enough, Matthias—”

“I hate how you talk,” he interrupted.

“You’ve made that crystal clear,” Nina snapped. “But I don’t think I can emphasize this enough to you, follow my lead when we get there or this whole trip will have been a colossal waste of time.”

“And you’ll be headed to prison,” he said.

“No. We’ll be embroiled in a legal battle the likes of which you cannot begin to imagine, little man. I’m the reasonable one at the Grisha,” Nina said.

“Is that a threat?” he asked. “I don’t think you’re in any position—”

“Let’s not talk about threats or what positions we might find ourselves in, shall we? I don’t think it’s going to go in a direction you like.” She really laid into the like, dropping into her lower register and batting her eyelashes. He clenched his teeth and sat up a little straighter. There was a period of quiet, the kind you recognized preceded a bomb but they were saved by their arrival at Tsibeya. The main house was just elegant enough to keep the place from seeming like a hulking mass of stone carved from the side of a mountain and someone had sanded the walk so they could make it in without sliding all over the place. Matthias stood beside her, impossibly handsome in the morning light and Nina chewed at her lipstick, bracing herself. It could be a good day, she told herself. Maybe Petrova would even be back, could talk Matthias’s ear off about aviation regulations and airplane design while Nina did what needed to be done.

“Remember, follow my lead—"

“Chanina! Come in, come in, get out of the cold, you’re going to freeze!”

The great double doors opened and an older woman in a floral blouse, pastel slacks and a smocky kind of pinafore engulfed Nina in her arms; she smelled White Shoulders and cigarettes, which meant it could only be one person.

“Hello, Auntie Tirzah,” Nina said, letting herself be half-way dragged inside, glancing at Mattias to make sure he’d walked in behind her.

“You’re too thin, you’re not eating, I’m getting you a big bowl of kamavaht and you’re going to finish every bite!” Auntie Tirzah said. “And you might introduce me, you were raised better than this, Chanina—”

“Auntie, this is Matthias Helvar,” Nina began.

“Welcome to Tsibeya, Matthias,” Auntie Tirzah interrupted. “So terrible about your car and the roads, you poor thing, we’ll soon have you put to rights. You’ll need seconds on the kamavaht and I have some fresh rugelach, cinnamon, Chanina probably hasn’t kept you properly fed.”

“Thank you,” Matthias said. “I appreciate your hospitality but that’s not what—”

“Auntie, please,” Nina interjected. It was not looking to be a good day. She was going to have to go all in. With Matthias.

“Chanina, what? You bring home a young man and you want me to treat him like a dog? Like less than a dog, a teeny little mouse?” Auntie Tirzah said.

“I’m not—” Matthias tried. She shook her head slightly and shrugged.

“You’re right, Auntie. Let me introduce him. This is Matthias Helvar, he’s employed by the state government,” she said, seeing Matthias’s hunched-up shoulders relax, “and he’s my boyfriend.”

“Of course he is, Chanina. A blind man could see that, what do you take me for?” Auntie Tirzah said. “He’s clearly starving, look how pale he is, a big man like him has a big appetite.”

“I suppose so,” Nina said. Matthias looked gob-smacked and pretty much ready to collapse. She grabbed his hand in hers and gave it a squeeze that said keep the act up and hang in there and wow, you have huge hands and the kamavaht is actually pretty good but the rugelach is better. She wasn’t convinced he got any of it via the squeeze though, so she tugged at him and mercifully he started to walk with her, still holding her hand.

“You have a lovely home, Mrs. Zenik,” he said, clearing his throat as though the words had been choking him. Auntie Tirzah gave a wild laugh and Matthias looked at Nina, startled and apprehensive. She tried to give him a reassuring smile; he might want to put her in prison, but at Tsibeya, that didn’t seem quite as bad.

“This isn’t my home,” Auntie Tirzah said, wiping a tear from her eye, a crazy-laughter-tear that made the crazy laugh just that much worse. Nina found herself wishing Tirzah would light up a cigarette, some kind of normal gesture that would make everything seem less tipping into bat-shit crazy.

“Well, it sort of is, Auntie,” Nina said. “You’ve lived here so long—"

“Chanina, hush—if they hear!”

“I don’t understand,” Matthias said.

“I’m the cook,” Auntie Tirzah said. “For the family.”

“The family?”

“The Morozovs,” Nina said. “From the Grisha, Madama Morozova. And I guess I forgot to tell you before, the artistic director, Aleksander Kirigan, well, he’s Aleksander Morozov Kirigan.”

“Sasha,” Auntie Tirzah corrected. “He hasn’t been back in ages.”

“Maybe he doesn’t like getting force-fed cauldrons of kamavaht,” Matthias muttered.

“Everyone loves my kamavaht, Matthias,” Auntie Tirzah called out. “I’ve got ears like a bat, like a Ikonnikov’s bat, you can’t fool me!”

“I told you, play along—” Nina whispered.

“And what, no one gets hurt?” Matthias answered, at least matching her whisper. “You have to know how bad that sounds.”

“You don’t know from bad,” Nina said.

“You’d be surprised,” he said.

“Not at Tsibeya, I won’t,” she said. “You, on the other hand—just, finish the kamavaht and move on to the rugelach. You won’t regret that at least.”

Within minutes of directing them to the scrubbed kitchen table laid with clean mats and blessedly pouring out coffee and then, less-blessedly, virtual tureens of kamavaht, Tirzah began her interrogation with Ruta, the seemingly immortal maid whose hair had been the same iron-grey shade Nina’s entire life, sitting beside her silently, conducting her own.

“So, Matthias, tell us, where did you meet our Chanina?”

Nina opened her mouth to speak even though she’d be sure to be scolded for interrupting. It was true that Matthias had lost the facing-the-firing-squad expression he’d had but he didn’t know what they were up against. How easy it would be for everyone at Tsibeya to tear them to shreds, leaving both of them without any chance of getting what they’d come for—the documents that would either convict or exonerate Nina and the company.

“At the ballet. Where else could I have met Chanina?” he answered, smiling fondly, totally nailing the throaty ch- at the start of her full name. If she didn’t know better, she would have been completely fooled by his adoring boyfriend act.

“She works too hard,” Auntie Tirzah said. “She doesn’t come home enough, don’t I always say that, Ruta? Look at her, fading away!”

“I agree. I say the same thing to her all the time,” he replied, making Auntie Tirzah beam at him. And then, for no good reason other than maybe he wanted to stick it to Nina, he added. “May I please have another bowl of the kamavaht? I’ve never had anything like it.”

“Oh, of course! Chanina, this, this is what you want, a man with a healthy appetite,” Auntie Tirzah said, standing up to ladle out another bowl. With her back turned to them, Nina made a rude face at Matthias who only shrugged and gave her a bland look, then mouthed I know how to be a good boyfriend.

“You like the ballet?” Ruta asked. She was a woman of few words and not easily fooled.

“Not really,” he admitted, making them all laugh, Nina reluctantly. “I lost a bet at work. But as it turns out, I won.”

“Oh, you,” Nina sputtered a little. This was getting bizarre. Where was his stolid intransigence, his rigid focus on the truth, on propriety, on how everything about her was all wrong? Who was this charming stranger with a smear of kamavaht on his upper lip? How was he doing a better job being her boyfriend than she was at being his girlfriend—and how was he doing a better job than virtually every real man she’d ever dated? She couldn’t answer all the questions but she could make a start.

“You have something here,” she said, quickly wiping off the porridge in a brazen display of intimacy. His eyes darted to her lips and she smiled. Until he spoke.

“You always take such good care of me, perle,” he said. Sankta Maradi, if any of this were true… Well, two could play at this game and actually really needed to, if they were going to convince anyone besides Auntie Tirzah.

“You’re worth it,” she said. For some reason, that was what made him flush.

“What was Chanina like as a little girl?” he asked. “You lived here, right? With the Morozovs?”

“That’s ancient history, so boring,” Nina said, waving her hand around. He was investigating the ballet while faking being her boyfriend, an angle that could yield possibly incriminating information and she couldn’t be sure a judge would throw it out when she explained about the pretense. Yes, he might get himself in trouble this way but she wasn’t gunning to get him as a cellmate in Ravka’s Central Prison in Chernast.

“No, it’s not. Not to me,” Matthias said. “Are there photo albums?” He might as well have emerged from a lamp to grant Auntie Tirzah’s dearest wish and she jumped up, muttering to herself about which album he’d like most, heading for her rooms to get the photos. Ruta gave Matthias a keen look but said nothing other than a brief word to excuse herself. That was when Nina turned on him.

“What are you doing?” she hissed.

“You said I should play along and evidently, you decided that meant I’m your boyfriend now. So, I’m being your boyfriend, Chanina,” he said. “I gather that’s your real name? Chanina Zenik? Not Nina?”

“You make it sound like I’m using an alias. Nina’s my nickname, so what?” she said. “You were supposed to follow my lead, not upstage me doing some insane Method acting. What’s wrong with you?”

“Besides eating too much kamavaht? Nothing,” he shrugged. “I’m sorry my acting skills aren’t up to your standards—it’s been a while since I was in Uncle Vanya with the Gjela Players. I thought we were coming here as professionals to politely request financial and legal documents or related items that would explain what in the living fuck is going on at the Grisha,” he said, his voice tightly controlled, each word charged. “Instead of this, this farce.”

“You seem to be enjoying yourself,” she countered. “If there was scenery, you’d be eating it.”

“This isn’t as challenging as Chekov,” he snapped. “Why are we doing this? What possible reason could there be—”

“You insisted on coming with me. I know how they are at Tsibeya, they’d never have handed over anything if they had a clue who you are,” Nina said. “The case you have is pretty damning without the stuff that’s here, you’d ruin the ballet, Kirigan—”

“You,” he interrupted.

“Me, fine, I’m selfish for not wanting to go to prison when I haven’t done anything wrong,” she said. “Even if down the road, the documents came to light, it would be too late. And not just for me, however self-absorbed you think I am.”

“You bring home so many guys they just assume anyone with you is your latest boyfriend?” he asked, the disgust in his tone mixed with what could only, weirdly, be jealousy.

“I’ve never brought anyone home before,” she said. There was a long pause as they looked at each other. Nina could hear Tirzah coming down the hall, doubtlessly carrying a stack of photo albums filled with the most embarrassing pictures of her imaginable. At least there wouldn’t be any of her with Kirigan; he only came in the summers and they’d always sent her away to camp or to visit some other relative by the seashore, not that there was much reason for him to take an interest in a child who belonged to the servants.

“Technically, you still haven’t,” he said quietly.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” she retorted.

“I don’t know. Does it?” he asked like he was genuinely interested in her answer, reminding her of how closely he’d held her in the night. He quickly smiled at Tirzah who sat down heavily right beside him, opening up the album she’d shoved in front of him.

“Here’s our Chanina Naomi, eating her first kamavaht,” she said, pointing to a photo of a nearly naked baby Nina in a highchair.

“Eating it or wearing it?” Matthias laughed, reaching over to squeeze Nina’s hand. He was back in character, she was almost nearly 100% certain of it. When they were alone, she could try to make a plan with him about how to proceed. And ask who he’d played in Uncle Vanya.

#shadow and bone #helnik #ballet au #modern au #nina zenik #matthias helvar #nina and Matthias go to tsibeya #nina backstory #family #humor #romance #faking dating #how many tropes can I cram into this fic #basically daring myself #nina x matthias #there are extensive footnotes on AO3 for this chapter #ballet shoes #cameo from petrova #petrova in ravka spinoff would be my jam