#oneofthewednesdays

[capinejghafa]

you guard against pain. you guard against joy. but when you allow yourself to be blindsided by love... two worlds make a universe. he's not my weakness. he's my universe.

 - Sankta Neyar 

[i-can-read-to-him]

The Wesper Fic Club's Author Spotlight is a post series that aims to feature two to three fic authors a month, randomly selected from a pool of names put forth on our server. The authors are then asked to answer three interview questions, select up to five of their fics for us to feature, and finally, recommend three fics by others in the fandom.

(Note: Our spotlighted fics are not limited to Wesper, though they tend to be a central pairing in most of our authors' featured works.)

This week, we are putting a spotlight on Ashlynn's writing!

Socials: @oneofthewednesdays (Tumblr) | oneofthewednesdays (AO3)

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Part One: Author Interview

Q: What’s something you haven’t written yet, but want to write in the future?

A:  So, one of my favorite series when I was in high school was The Mediator series by Meg Cabot. I was absolutely obsessed with the budding romance between Jesse and Suze. In fact, I used to write for the fandom back in my fanfiction.net days. Those early fics have been purged from the Internet as far as I can tell. Anyway, I want to write a Mediator AU for the Six of Crows fandom. Instead of zowa powers, Jesper can see dead people. These dead people may or may not include the ghost of his mother. In his first year at university, he ends up moving into a room in a building that used to be an inn back in the 1800s. Wylan is haunting his bedroom. (He was murdered en route to a music conservatory back in the day). Jesper decides to solve the mystery of Wylan’s murder, at first because he is annoyed by his ghostly roommate. He wants to force Wylan to move on so he can have his room to himself. But later Jesper begins to care about Wylan, even falling in love with him. If you have read The Mediator series, you already know how it is going to end…. Also, Paul Slater will be played by Kuwei Yul-Bo. If you know, you know.

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the Grishaverse, where would you go?

A: I would travel to Ketterdam to study at the university. I absolutely fell in love with the description in the book, with its crooked little alleyways filled with bookbinders and apothecaries. It reminds me so much of Oxford University in real life. I had the opportunity to conduct archival research at Oxford as a visiting scholar when I was in graduate school. During my two summers in England, I spent hours nestled in the Bodleian Library, surrounded by stacks of books. The design of the Boeksplein is basically the same, but with more interesting gargoyles. I am also about to begin my career as a university professor, so the University of Ketterdam just seems like a good fit… as long as gunfights don’t break out in the reading room.

Q: Apart from sight, what is your favourite of the senses to describe when writing?

A: I absolutely love writing with sound, especially words with subtle onomatopoeia. I love the rustle of leaves on a crisp autumn morning, and the murmur of the wind through the branches of a willow tree. I draw quite a bit of inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe here. When I was young, I fell in love with his description of a heartbeat in “The Tell-Tale Heart.” His poem “The Bells” is absolutely mesmerizing to me, and I borrow sounds from it all the time. Indeed, Poe talks quite a bit about the importance of sound in creating mood in one of his essays—“The Philosophy of Composition”—and it is something I think about quite a bit when I write. I love to use the ticking of clocks and the dripping of water to stretch silences. Finally, I absolutely love movies like the Quiet Place franchise because they are a study in soundscapes. In another life, I think it would have been really cool to become a foley artist in the film industry.

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Part Two: Selected Works

Sleep No More

Teen | 51.1K | Wesper Modern AU, NYC, Homelessness, Angst with a Happy Ending

Sleep No More is my love letter to New York City. In the opening scene, Wylan wakes up on the 7-train as it leaves the tunnel at Hunters Point Avenue. The glare flickers beneath his eyelids, making it impossible to sleep.  I took the same commute on the 7-train for several years when I was working out at a school in Queens. I would spend over an hour on the train, listening to Crooked Kingdom and other audiobooks on my commute. On one of those commutes, I started to consider the challenges Wylan would face as an unhoused teenager in the city. The story evolved from there to include alternating point-of-view chapters between Wylan and Jesper, and of course, some guest appearances from other crows, as they work together to outwit Jan Van Eck.

Musée des Beaux Arts

Teen | 24.6K | Gen with background Wesper, Kanej Friendship, Pre-Canon, Post-Canon, Ableism, Happy Ending

I wrote Musée des Beaux Arts during the Six of Crows Big Bang event back in 2022. I wanted to explore how Wylan and Kaz complement each other as character foils throughout the series. Therefore, the story includes alternating point-of-view chapters, starting with the Queen’s Lady Plague. The title comes from a poem of the same name by W.H. Auden, and I tried to incorporate themes from that poem throughout the story. The poem, in particular, discusses a Pieter Bruegel painting called Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. Therefore, artwork plays a central role throughout the narrative. Each chapter shares a title with a famous painting from the Dutch Golden Age. My favorite chapter is probably the third because I had so much fun writing Jesper. 

Sankta Margaretha and Other Tales Of Sorrow

Teen | 18.4K | Kanej  Hurt/Comfort, Family, Angst, Implied/Referenced Non-con

This was the first story that I ever wrote for the Six of Crows fandom, and it is easily my most popular fic. It follows Mama and Papa Ghafa on their journey to Ketterdam to reunite with their daughter. I had so much fun developing the unique narrative voices for both Mama Ghafa and Papa Ghafa. The Lives of the Saints features heavily in this fic as well. I fell in love with the story of Sankta Margaretha when I first read it, and I wanted to infuse as much of that mythos into the story as possible. It is, at its core, a story about faith and forgiveness. Plus, I got to write one of my favorite interactions between Papa Ghafa and Kaz Brekker. 

Escapology

Teen | 2.2K | Gen  Modern AU, Escape Rooms, Friendship, Humor

Escapology is such a self-indulgent little fic. I am an escape room enthusiast in real life. I have traveled to multiple cities with my friends to complete escape rooms. We have, to date, done thirty-nine rooms together as a team. I wanted to explore the chaotic energy of a Modern AU where the Crows work together to escape an Ice Court-themed escape room. Kuwei is their poor, exhausted gamemaster.  If we ever get our Six of Crows spin-off, I need Netflix to create an exclusive Ice Court escape room in real life. Can you imagine how fun it would be? 

Pas De Deaux 

Teen | 9.7K | Wesper Holidays, Healing, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Post-Canon

I am so fond of this little fic, and not very many people have read it compared to some of the others, but I am not surprised because it was a winter fic that was published well after the winter holidays. It is heavily inspired by the Soldier Prince story in The Language of Thorns, which was in turn heavily inspired by The Nutcracker Suite. Wylan is struggling with less-than-happy memories during Nachtspel, and Jesper helps him make new memories. I started this story writing the kiss at the end, and then had to write nine thousand words to actually get to the kiss.

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Part Three: Author's Recs

Bright Morning Stars by endoftheworld 

Mature | 163.5K | Wesper Hunger Games Crossover, Canon Typical Violence, Rebellion

This is the second story in Now We Are All Chosen Ones. While I would encourage you to read the opening story in the series first, it can absolutely stand on its own as a self-contained story. Jesper has always known that he would be reaped for the Hunger Games. It was only a matter of time. Meanwhile, Wylan is the son of the president, and he begins to realize that he is being watched. Bright Morning Stars keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish, and I absolutely love how the author wove together Six of Crows and the Hunger Games. 

hybrid signal by pyrrhlc

Mature | 110K | Kanej with background Wesper, Helnik  Fairy Tale Curses, Haunted House, Monster Kaz, Hurt/Comfort

Written through the lens of a Beauty and the Beast AU, this is an absolutely gorgeous exploration of not only the love between Kaz and Inej, but also the meaning of forgiveness in all its forms. The worldbuilding is stunning, and I loved how the enchantment transformed each of the crows. There are tragic notes to it, of course, there is an eventual happy ending. 

crystal cut by twosoulsinonehome

Mature | 107K | Wesper Enemies to Lovers, Slow Burn, Figure Skating, Hurt/Comfort

I have reread this fic at least three times since the final chapter was posted in February. It is a figure skating AU. I know nothing about figure skating. However, I was absolutely entranced by the annoyances-to-lovers dynamic throughout the fic. Wylan is a figure skater. Jesper is his coach. Will they kill each other before the end of the season? Or will they kiss each other senseless instead? (Who am I kidding? You already know the answer to that question.)

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Please support our authors by commenting and leaving kudos on any stories of theirs you read and enjoy! Don't forget to also reblog this post and check back soon for our next author spotlight to come.

Interested in joining our server and getting to know our community? Feel free to request an invite via the @i-can-read-to-him ask box.

[sparrowmoth]

➵ Fic edit for Musée des Beaux Arts by @oneofthewednesdays

“About suffering they were never wrong, the old Masters: how well they understood its human position.�� —W.H. Auden Six portraits of life and death in Ketterdam featuring the interwoven stories of Wylan Van Eck and Kaz Brekker.

My edit. Please do not repost without permission. Credit: "Trouble" by Ron Hicks, “Léonore 4” by Marta Bevacqua (edited), "Anguish" by August Friedrich Schenk (edited), Unsplash, Pixabay, several paintings named in chapter titles above.

[endoftheworldhere]

Thank you so much for being one of the creators who has made being part of the Six of Crows fandom truly special. I have spent the last several years refreshing my Ao3 update feed like a lunatic around 9:00 AM on Sunday mornings because I knew there would be a new update to your AU. You have been so very generous in your storytelling. But you have also been generous in supporting other writers. I know that within a few hours of posting an update you will always leave a comment, and it makes me smile every time. This is not something you have to do. But it has brightened my day on so very many occasions. And this is what the executives at Netflix fundamentally misunderstand about storytelling—it is not about the bottom line—it is about how story brings us together. Thank you, thank you, thank you for making this fandom feel like home. No mourners, no funerals. 💕🪶

Ashlynn you’re gonna make me cry 🥺😭🥺😭 I have appreciated meeting you and everyone else who’s engaged with my fics and discovering so much wonderful fan content. Show or no show, we’ve made a create community and I’m so happy to be part of it. No mourners, no funerals 💕🪶

[jackwolfes]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for being one of the creators who has made, and continues to make, this fandom truly special. Not only are you incredibly generous with your talents, you also understand the heart of fandom: community. Please know that I am so very thankful for the fandom spaces you have helped nurture. I would not have met some truly amazing people without those spaces. Any time you need someone to beta read, you know where to find me. No mourners, no funerals. 💕🪶

🥰🥰🥰

don't send this as if i'm going anywhere because i absolutely AM NOT, you can pry my little wesper blorborinos from my cold dead hands 😌 fr though i love & appreciate you (and all the other people that i've met in this fandom so far!!!) so very much darling! you're a treasure and a gift!

[crowpricorn]

🥝🍒🍓

thank you for the questions!! 💗🫶🏻

🥝 What’s your favorite trope/AO3 tag to write?

I think friends to lovers has to be one of my favorite tropes ever! I also generally prefer to write AUs rather than canon verse / post canon fics, but that's mostly just me being insecure about my ability to convey how I see and feel certain characters and dynamics. amongst aus, modern aus and fantasy-ish aus are my favorite

🍒 What’s your favorite character dynamic to write? (Can be romantic or platonic, specific or general!)

I love to write the crows' various friendships in any shape they come into! I mostly write romantic fics, but I love to throw platonic relationships in there and I'd love to write something entirely friendship-based one day (& I'm kinda writing a crows childhood friends au but there's also going to be crushes so I don't think it counts) (plus it could be a way to start writing canon verse fics)

🍓 What’s a fic you’ve written you feel is underrated?

considering, I'm fairly happy with the response to all my fics BUT when I first published it I was very sad that my pjo au was not getting much traction (it is) (it has many hits and comments and kudos but I got greedy and thought it would have deserved more) (based on: it's my personal fave)

[astrhae]

🍍 What kind of AUs do you like? Are there any AUs you hate or just generally have beef with?

thank you for asking 💙 i'll write any AU that allows me to masquerade the fic as an AU when actually it's a 20k character study and an essay on the meaning of life akdkssdk (my wesper hanahaki AU is a prime example of this)

i've been told that i'm incapable of writing a simple AU fic: as much as i love reading fics where an AU is just a different way to get two characters to kiss, i'm drawn to writing AUs where the AU can act as a tool to crack a character open in ways canon can't or doesn't --- and those are also my favorite AUs to read! currently writing a wesper regency AU that's an excuse for me to explore first meetings (not just the first meeting, but the way you meet someone for the first time over and over again as they change and as you change and as you know them better)

i can't write, and i don't usually read, AUs that involve one of the characters falling in love with a ghost because of my complicated relationship with the concept of ghosts and such in the culture i grew up in, but i do love fics that explore a character's ghosts!

[cameliawrites]

I am so curious about your wynej grief bonding oneshot!

Inej received the news in the morning, and she did not leave her room for the rest of the day.

She did not even leave her bed, not that anybody came around to witness that fact. She made sure of it. She had locked the door, latched the window, and drew the curtains shut before she allowed herself to crawl into the open maw of her bed in the Van Eck mansion, hoping that the thick, goose down comforter would simply swallow her whole. 

The bedding offered no such mercies. The world moved on around her in all its commonplace cruelty. If she strained to listen, Inej could hear the shouts of the merchers’ children playing hopscotch and trading penny-candies throughout the Geldin District, the occasional clop-clop-clop of a carriage drawn across the cobbled streets. She tried not to listen.

By the time the sun sank low enough to blot out even the last dash of light that had crept persistently through the crack between the curtains, there was hardly any of Inej left to notice anything at all.

[capinejghafa]

Honestly the best fic writer I have seen who tackles Inej and her dad's relationship is @oneofthewednesdays : Of Songs and Suli Proverbs series... which you should totally check out.

jesper fahey and colm fahey's dynamic is lovely and iconic even, but we, as a fandom are heavily sleeping on the relationship between inej ghafa and her dad. it is heart wrenching and beautiful and severely underrated and we don't realise how much her dad her shaped her into the person she is, even when he could not be with her in this essay i will-

[capinejghafa]

kanej + post-canon & “that’s the laugh”

short story by @oneofthewednesdays (under read more :D)

It took two weeks for Inej to finally summon the courage to ask Kaz the question that had been plaguing her since that morning at Fifth Harbor. During the day, she slowly remembered the girl she used to be—the girl who let her eyes drift shut when her mother massaged warm oil in her hair. Each time her father pressed a gruff kiss on the crown of her head, she remembered staring up at him on the hirewire. She remembered thinking he had hung the moon. 

But long after her parents slipped away for bed, she would lie awake, staring past the gossamer curtains at the glimmering waters of the Geldcanal. She could see the full-bellied moon reflected in the water. Watching the boats drift lazily past, she imagined the attic of the Slat awash in moonlight. Had Kaz left the attic window open for her? Whenever she remembered that morning, she remembered the feeling of her body braced against his—the cool touch of his fingers, intertwined with hers. She remembered the way his eyes had softened before he said something strange. 

“That’s the laugh,” he had murmured.

For two weeks, she repeated his words over and over in her head until exhaustion finally claimed her. 

But now, she was walking side-by-side with Kaz through the warehouse district. He had turned up on the doorstep of the Van Eck Estate earlier that morning, intent on ensuring the Wraith was well-stocked on her maiden voyage. He had greased the palms of the foreman of a warehouse that stocked arms and munitions. The foreman turned a blind eye as they wandered up and down rows of muskets and heavy cannons, pausing occasionally to examine the merchandise. Whenever Kaz turned away, she would chew on her bottom lip, certain that the question would spill from her lips unbidden if she didn’t keep them firmly clasped. 

But Kaz noticed. He always noticed. 

“Something is bothering you,” Kaz observed. “Am I bothering you, Inej?” 

She might have mistaken his tone as casual if she didn’t see the way his bare fingers clenched around the head of his cane. He was as nervous as she was—perhaps more so. It was a rare glimpse of the boy beneath the façade. At the realization, she couldn’t help herself. The corners of her lips turned up in the softest of smiles. 

“There was something you said that morning at Fifth Harbor,” she confessed slowly. “Something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.” 

Pulling her mother’s shawl tightly around her shoulders, she turned to face him.  Pale morning light was filtering through the warehouse window, casting half of his face in shadow. His jaw tightened, but he gave the barest nod. Go on. Finish the story. 

“That’s the laugh?” she asked.

Her words hung between them, suspended in the air like dust motes dancing in the early morning sun. They were an echo—the memory of a moment so fleeting sometimes Inej was certain it had all been a dream. For a long moment, she thought he wouldn’t answer. His eyes remained flat, the eyes of a shark sliding through dark waters. But then his gaze slid to the head of his cane. He stared down at his clenched fists as he spoke. 

“I almost drowned beneath the Ice Court,” Kaz confessed. “For years, the promise of vengeance kept me alive. But when the baleen started to bubble, all I could think of was you, Inej. All I could think of was your laughter.” 

He paused, clearing his throat before continuing. 

“When you laugh, I remember a time before Ketterdam, before Pekka Rollins,” he said. “When you laugh, I remember a time when I used to believe there was magic in this world.”

Inej could feel her heart fluttering in her chest. All of her doubts—all of her fears—felt like distant memories. She remembered the girl who once doubted that the world could change—that girl was a fool. The realization was so miraculous that she could feel laughter bubbling to her lips. Startled, Kaz’s gaze snapped up. But his eyes softened as they traced the contours of her lips. 

“Thank you,” she said simply, reaching forward to take his hand in hers. 

He closed the distance between them.

[carolinawrenn]

One Need Not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

Emily Dickinson

One need not be a chamber—to be haunted— One need not be a House— The Brain—has Corridors surpassing  Material Place—

Far safer, of a Midnight—meeting  External Ghost— Than an Interior—confronting— That cooler—Host—

Far safer, through an Abbey—gallop— The Stones a’chase— Than moonless—One’s A’self encounter— In lonesome place—

Ourself—behind Ourself—Concealed— Should startle—most— Assassin—hid in Our Apartment— Be Horror’s least—

The Prudent—carries a Revolver— He bolts the Door,  O’erlooking a Superior Spectre More near—

[endoftheworldhere]

I was tagged by @oneofthewednesdays to share my fanfic trope tier list! Like Ashlynn said, it definitely depends on the author and also on my mood, and there’s not a lot I’ll straight up refuse to read--I’ve even read stuff in the green category when someone I trust recommends/writes it, even it’s not something I’d seek out on my own. 

I’ll tag @ptork66 and anyone else who’s interested

[jackwolfes]

For Want of a Nail for a choice of two locked doors:

What might have happened if Wylan fell ill instead of Jesper?

[questions]

oh that is fascinating.

so i think that it would be different right from the start, because wylan wouldn't have gotten out of bed first. jesper probably would have woken first, realised wylan was sick (and get caught up in the fact that he was only outside because jesper "pushed him there"). jesper would be feeling a lot of guilt about the fact wylan got sick and probably spend most of the day hiding/trying to avoid seeing him and thinking about how much of a mistake he is. possibly he'd follow the same "go to barrel > get drunk > fight" relapse plot points in ch11, because this would probably be a proof point for him about the fact that everything he does leads to bad things for wylan, that he's inherently a fuck up that hurts other people, that wylan deserves better, etc etc.

that being said i do think that ultimately the overarching plot would still go on - jan would probably have (a relatively sick) wylan taken out of town when he was too weak to resist. i can see jesper finally getting up the courage to sneak into wylan's room to see him (possibly after kaz talks some sense into him) just for him to have disappeared, and sorta losing his mind.

(if i were feeling REALLY angsty i'd probably have the reunion scene go entirely differently as well, ie jesper would find wylan when he's still really ill and instead of the reunion they DO have in ch12, there'd probably be a really tender first aid moments (and then do what they do in ch12 when wy feels better 👀))

[jazzythursday]

tagged by @fancy-fangs (however many weeks ago) thanks for the tag! <3

Rules:

Make this picrew of yourself

Take this uquiz

Post the results side-by-side

Tagging (no pressure) @sparrowmoth @waterloou @tinyarmedtrex @aphroditestummyrolls @happy-turtle48 @oneofthewednesdays and anyone else who wants to make one!

[savethegrishaverse]

If you haven't seen it in our newsletter already, we are pleased to reveal our official Third Army logo!

Thanks to the talented work of Nathália (@batsybrekker on our discord) and Ashlynn (@oneofthewednesdays on our discord) we now have an official Third Army Logo! Isn't it beautiful?

[sparrowmoth]

Witchcrew, let's go! I'm obsessed with this picrew, it's magical. ✨

Tagging (no pressure): @waterloou @everfairestar @finitevoid @jazzythursday @arobear @kindness-ricochets @oneofthewednesdays @emmy-everafter @sixofcrowdaydreams @magicandpizza @fizzysugarwater @wespertilionidae @nerdlingmerchling @stormkpr @tinyarmedtrex andddd anyone else who wants to do this, consider yourself tagged!