#wylan himself describes it as attitude so ? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

metalandmagi · 1 year ago

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Hi again....Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks....

I'm going to split them up between my favorite male and female characters, because there's just too many!

I'll start with the boys:

Laurent from Captive Prince- Laurent is my favorite character of all time. Everything about him just comes together in a perfect storm. His humor. His cast iron bitch attitude. The way he puts up armor to protect himself but lowers it when he's surrounded by people who actually care about him. The way his trauma is handled. And I'm fully aware the reason I love him so much is because we see him through Damen's eyes. We start out seeing a spoiled brat, and we learn the truth of him slowly. I can't even find the words to describe how much I love him and why.

The rest aren't in any particular order:

L from Death Note- The first anime character I was obsessed with, because he was one of the weirdest characters I'd ever encountered but somehow he shared all my habits. He sits like I do. He eats tons of sugar, like me. He's bad at social interaction, like me. And (spoilers!) he was one of the first characters with a death that truly impacted me emotionally. I'm totally showing my age, but I will always love this ridiculous trash panda.

Xie Lian from Heaven Official's Blessing- It might be recency bias, but he has skyrocketed to my top favorite characters list. I have a weakness for characters who have gone through hardship and come out smiling no matter what, and damn if that isn't Xie Lian. He really shows the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows in humanity, but he still believes everyone deserves to be cared for. He's also absolutely hilarious, and I love the dichotomy of having this (formerly) insanely strong martial god be so mild mannered and polite (most times).

Izaya Orihara from Durarara- And so begins my love of absolute shitheads. I don't have an explanation for this. I just love the idea of an information broker in a big city who knows everything about everyone and uses it to stir up trouble. And of course I love his flippant attitude that can change on a dime (and his extremely homoerotic relationship with Shizuo). I appreciate characters who always have something up their sleeves.

Wylan Van Eck from Six of Crows- Similarly to Xie Lian, I love Wylan because of the dichotomy of his character. He can be so mild mannered and shy one moment, and the next he's making bombs and threatening to drown his romantic rival in a river. He's also the only YA character I can think of with dyslexia (aside from Percy Jackson characters, who are technically middle grade), and I'm glad that it never gets associated with him being "stupid." Wylan is smart as hell while also being sensitive and creative.

Magnus Bane from the Shadowhunters series- Probably the funniest character I've ever encountered. A chaotic bisexual warlock who insists he doesn't want to help but ends up helping anyway while complaining the whole time? Sign me up. He's fashionable. He's powerful. He's a father of two and a crazy uncle to everyone else. He's everything. Alec is just Ken 😆.

Jim Hawkins from Treasure Planet- My forever boy. The protagonist that aided in my asexual awakening. I loved having a main character in a children's movie that was dealing with his angsty teenage years in a realistic way AND DIDN'T END UP WITH A ROMANTIC INTEREST WHO SOLVED ALL HIS PROBLEMS. He's reckless, but he's also very smart and cares about doing things right.

Fushi from To Your Eternity- (technically more like nonbinary or even gender fluid, but he mostly identifies as male so I use he/him a lot). Another take on an immortal character that I love! I love that we see him learn how to become human from scratch and how he forges relationships with people throughout hundreds of years. I was debating about whether to put Bon or Kohaku on here instead, but I think Fushi and his journey will stick with me longer.

Nico di Angelo from the Percy Jackson series- This is a character I feel like I've grown up with. He was one of the first canonically gay book characters I'd ever seen (this was back when queer characters in YA were almost unheard of, let alone in middle grade books). But Nico was one of my favorites even before the reveal. I loved seeing how he went from a nerdy, hyperactive kid to a brooding pre-teen to mellowing out the way he is now. I'm a sucker for the mysterious side characters that show up every now and then to make the audience wonder if they're really on our side (especially ones with really dry humor).

Now the girls!

(Uh...spoiler alert I guess) Akito Sohma from Fruits Basket- My favorite anime villain of all time. Part of why I love her is because of the build up. For a long time, we only hear about Akito, and we don't know what to think about her. Then we meet her, and she seems...off, but the characters all have different reactions to her. And then we learn how fucked up she is. She's a great example of a character who does awful things, gets a tragic backstory and a slight hint of a redemption arc, but it doesn't change how the audience views her. Her backstory helps you understand her, but you never really forgive her for the shit she's done. She's manipulative, abusive (in every way you can think of), creepy as hell, and yet I still love her because she's insanely entertaining whenever she's around.

Daria Morgendorffer from Daria- This character was basically me in high school, in both looks and mannerisms. I molded my entire personality after her. I love characters with dry humor and I still quote this show relentlessly to this day. Daria was for all the girls who felt like total outcasts because they spent their time reading instead of making friends, but she also showed that you kind of need other people to...well...not be depressed. Also, it might not be explicitly canon that she's asexual, but there is an entire episode revolving around how she's doesn't want to have sex with her boyfriend...so do with that what you will.

Emma from The Promised Neverland- READ THE MANGA I'M BEGGING YOU! My insanely smart, redheaded mastermind of a daughter is such a great main character. I love having a young girl who is cheerful and optimistic while also kicking ass the same way shounen protagonists do. She's so friendly and hopeful that even though the story is super grim, we want to believe she can find a solution to every problem even when it seems impossible. Such a shame we never got a season two...wonder what that would have been like....ha...ha...ha................

Inej Ghafa from Six of Crows- I was trying to keep myself from using characters in the same series, but I couldn't help it. She's just so well written. She's badass. She's vulnerable. She's smart. She puts so much stock in faith but it doesn't make her weak or evil. She ties the group together so well, and she and Kaz are so ace coded it hurts!

Yona from Akatsuki no Yona- I haven't finished the manga yet, but she's another great example of a perfect character arc. Yona starts out as a typical teenage princess. She was never mean or a bad person, but she was selfish in the way most spoiled teenagers are selfish in that she didn't think about the world outside her palace walls or anyone besides the guy she liked. But when she's forced to run for her life, she sobers up and sees the world for what it is very quickly. And instead of relying on others to do things for her, she learns to fight and helps the people of her country the best she can. She's a character who we learn with and grow to love over time.

Kino from Kino's Journey- Definitely one of the most interesting characters I've ever seen, and I mean that in the sense that we don't know much about her at all (until the end of the 2017 anime at least). She is a great example of a solitary character who still loves interacting with people. She's not insanely smart. She's not a badass bitch (she can defend herself and fight because she has to, but she's not a fighter). She's not magical or the chosen one. She's just an average person who wants to experience as much of the world as possible.

Yuuko from xxxHolic- idk what to say about her, she's just the best. She's got chaotic wine aunt energy for days, but she's also got this hidden Dumbledore-esque wisdom and tragedy under her fabulous outfits. I feel like her and Magnus Bane would be best friends.

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games- People who've only watched the movies will never understand. Her dry humor and rough around the edges personality are just so well written, but so many people relegate her as a stereotypical "girlboss" YA protagonist in a love triangle. She's brave. She's funny in subtle ways. She's kind of an asshole but not in an off-putting way. I like Katniss because everything about her feels so genuine. Her love for her family and the way she deals with the world around her are so...real. And I think that's why so many people connected to the series. READ THE BOOKS!

Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter- I don't care if it's cringe, I was fucking obsessed with her in middle school. Again, I'm drawn to characters that have experienced trauma but still come out smiling. I think Luna helped a lot of people who didn't fit in feel more at home in the world. She's fun, she's kind to the people who need it the most, and she's a great friend who helped save the world!

Linda Belcher from Bob's Burgers- This might seem like a silly pick, but I just love her spirit! She's the ultimate mother figure and supportive wife who also has a distinct personality with wants and dreams of her own. So often, moms in cartoons (or anything really) are relegated to being support or a background character for their husbands or kids, but Linda demands a starring role. She loves her kids and her husband and will go to the ends of the earth for them, but they also frustrate her in a very human way. Episode 1 of the new season shows her breaking down in tears because she just doesn't know how to manage the kids, and I think that's something a lot of parents probably go through. I'm not a parent or a spouse, but her struggles and general mom energy feel so real.

There you have it. I really wanted to put a Vinland Saga character on the list, but Thorfinn, Canute, and Askeladd are all so well written I couldn't decide on one, so I had to leave them out 😅

#asks #this list is so all over the place lol

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iriswords · 2 years ago

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Blood of the covenant-Part 1

It is a universally known fact that the Crows love Wylan. Here is a four-part story of four adjectives to describe their attitude towards Wylan.

This can also be found on ao3 right here.

All parts can be read independently. Check the pinned post on my dashboard for more information concerning the rights on this story, and the other things I have written.

Part 1 - Protective

I. Kaz

Kaz was used to hate, he was used to scorn. Those feelings came easily to him, almost as easily as breathing. The man he hated the most was, of course, Pekka Rollins, but Kaz found Van Eck came close second in the competition for Kaz’s hate. He certainly came first when it came to scorn.

You see, Kaz hated Pekka Rollins but he didn’t despise him. Pekka was smart vicious, but the only time he had been pathetic was when he had believed Kaz on his son’s death. Van Eck, on the other hand, had always been utterly pathetic. A child trying to play the adults’ game. A full-grown adult who had been incapable to care for his kid.

Pathetic.

Locked as he was in Hellgate—the place certainly fit his loathsome personality—he could do no more harm, only wallow in his misery. But Kaz was nothing if not thorough, and making sure Van Eck would never be a threat anymore was a matter he intended to deal with. That, and the fact that he liked to brag every once in a while, and would surely revel in Van Eck’s rage at seeing him.

Getting a pass to Hellgate proved to be of no difficulty. Kaz went alone, at night, his cane clicking on the empty corridors’ floor, loud and ominous. Normally, Inej would have come with him, would have been his shadow and managed to be more terrifying than him, but she was away at sea, busy terrifying other criminals, ones who deserved her attention much more than fallen Jan Van Eck ever would.

Van Eck was slumbering in his cell when Kaz stopped in front of him, and Kaz took vicious pleasure in watching him startle awake and hit his head against the wall when he banged his cane against the metal bars of the cell. The man’s eyes narrowed when he spotted Kaz standing in front of his cell, his lips curling up in a disgusted snarl.

“You,” he spat. “Have you come to taunt me?” He let out a laugh that he must have meant to be bitter. It sounded, in Kaz’s opinion, more broken than anything, and he didn’t bother hide his smirk.

“I have,” he admitted. “You are a pitiful sight, after all, as I knew you would be. How does it feel, to know a group of half a dozen teenagers ruined your life? How does it feel, to know you really aren’t as smart as you thought you would be? Better yet, how does it feel to have been bested by the son you spent years belittling?”

Van Eck snorted. “He may have fooled me when I interrogated him, but I unlike you it seems, am not delusional. I know he was of little use to you, and dumb as he is he will not make it far. He will dilapidate the familial fortune before he can even begin to comprehend what he has done.”

Kaz contemplated him, all his emaciated and ratty glory. What a sight. He was far from the wealthy merchant Kaz had known, but his eyes still held the familiar gleam of hate and disgust Kaz had always seen him direct at Wylan.

“It had always baffled me,” he said as he took out his lock-picking tools from his pocket and set onto opening the cell, “how you could be so blind to your son’s cleverness. And now it baffles me still, how you can bear such contempt for him when you are the one rotting away in a miserable cell.”

“You tricked me,” accused Van Eck.

“That I did. It doesn’t mean you are innocent.”

The cell opened, and Van Eck frowned. “What are you doing?”

Kaz stepped in, and closed the door behind himself, though he left it unlocked. He saw in Van Eck’s eyes the moment when he thought of lunging and make a break for it, and took a knife out of his sleeve . It glinted in the feeble light coming from the corridor, and Van Eck paled upon seeing it.

“I find it more agreeable to chat when we are not separated by a cell door. Don’t you?” Van Eck did not answer. Kaz stopped in front of him, looming over the sitting man. “I am not here to taunt, Van Eck. I am here to ensure you will not come bother me again.”

Van Eck smirked. “You cannot keep me in this cell forever.”

Kaz smiled his Bastard of the Barrel smile, the one that haunted his enemies’ nightmares. The one that marked him as a ruthless monster.

“I cannot ensure you stay in prison for the rest of your life,” he agreed. “Even I do not have that power over the Merchant Council. But I can make sure you don’t leave the prison alive. Guards here are not very careful to what happens to the prisoners, you see. No one will be able to stop me. No one will even know it was me.”

Van Eck stared at him with terror in his eyes. “What do you want?”

“I am not one for unnecessary murder, Van Eck. Yours will only be necessary if I think you a threat. When you come out of prison, years from now, remember this night, and leave the country. I do not care where you go, so long as you leave. But be careful, for if you do anything that displeases me, I will hunt you down and I will kill you.

“That includes trying to contact Wylan again. You have hurt him more than enough already. And despite this, he still believes in people and in the world, he still tries his best even though you tried to make sure he would fail forever. He has already achieved more than you ever will, and it is only the beginning. If I hear you contacted or even tried to contact him again, and trust me I will hear, I will ensure you wished I had killed you tonight.” Kaz turned away from Van Eck. “Pray to Ghezen you haven’t traumatized Wylan enough for him to be affected by the fact that you still live. If I think he will be more at peace with you dead, I will not hesitate.”

He left without another word after having locked the cell. The sound of his cane on the ground, he was sure, would stay with Van Eck for the rest of his life.

II. Inej

Wylan had never actually been abducted before. When he had still lived with his father, Van Eck had kept him well-guarded, at first too scared for his son’s security, and then, when he had stopped caring about Wylan, too scared about what Wylan could reveal about him. During this period of his life, Wylan had never left the house much anyway, so opportunities for him to get abducted had been rare and few in between.

The only experience he had to some semblance of abduction had been when Dregs disguised as Dime Lions had taken him to his father, but that had been staged and thus didn’t count as a proper abduction, in Wylan’s modest opinion about kidnappings.

Things changed this morning. He had been out in the Barrel, on his way back from the Slat, where he’d had a meeting with Kaz about an ongoing job. He hadn’t been paying attention to the streets around him—his first mistake.

When he had first come to the Barrel, he had been so scared of being abducted, assaulted, killed, or raped that he had tried to pay attention to everything and everyone around him. This had faded with time, as more and more people associated him with either Kaz or the Merchants Council, two entities most would rather stay away from if possible.

Wylan had been deluded into a false sense of security, and he was paying for it now. A hand had shot out from an alley as he passed before it, and he had barely had time to struggle against his aggressor before he was dealt a blow on the head, effectively knocking him out.

He woke up to a cold, damp room not unlike the one he had been held in by his father in the church. His hands were bound with thick, rough rope behind his back, and his ankles had been similarly tied together. The position left him slumped on his side, putting an uncomfortable pressure on his left shoulder. His head throbbed with vivacious pain, and his neck and scalp were partially covered in something damp that must have been drying blood. A sob threatened to shove its way through his throat, and Wylan took a deep, careful breath through his nose to force it down.

Everything was going to be alright. If his blood was still damp, it meant it couldn’t have been that long since he had been taken. (He refused to believe it meant he had bled out a lot). Jesper expected him back for lunch, and Wylan had left the Slat at nearly thirty past eleven. He would go and complain to Kaz for not releasing Wylan for lunch when Wylan inevitably failed to come home, and when Kaz would tell him Wylan had left the Slat already, they would come to the conclusion something had happened to him.

And they would come to him.

Right?

Something ugly that sounded suspiciously like his father told him they didn’t care enough, that he was nothing more than a tool for Kaz and a passtime for Jesper. A toy soon discarded.

No. They would come, because they cared for him the way he cared for them. Kaz could never quite hide the pull of his mouth when he and Wylan interacted, and Jesper’s eyes were so full of adoration every time he looked at Wylan one would have to be a fool not to know he loved him.

They would come.

His captors came back before.

The wooden door of the room slammed on the wall. Wylan recoiled sharply, and immediately regretted his movement when another burst of pain assaulted his head. The people who barged in all boasted lion tattoos on their forearms, and Wylan lost any doubt this was about revenge on Kaz rather than them being after his money. Why they had chosen him to get revenge on Kaz was beyond him, but Wylan was not in any position to question their choices.

A Dime Lion stepped closer to him and roughly hoisted him up. Wylan could not stifle his groan of pain, and the man snorted loudly. “Won’t hold long, that one. How long do you think it will take Brekker to come running for his protégé?” Another laughed. “Well, he certainly won’t come running, not with that leg of him.”

The Dime Lions did not try to get any information from him. They simply roughed him up, punched him in the guts a couple of times, broke one or two ribs. All in all, Wylan had survived worse. This was nothing his father hadn’t already done to him multiple times. He was scared, but he knew how to handle it.

He waited for what felt like days in the cold room. His stomach was knotted with hunger and fear, and he rubbed his wrists raw trying to get out of the bounds, to no avail.

Eventually, the Dime Lions came back, this time holding crude knives and daggers. “Thought Brekker would react more quickly. It has already been a day.” The woman turned her cruel gaze onto Wylan and smiled. “Guess we’ll have to give him some more incentives.”

Wylan’s eyes widened, and he tried his best to get away from the Dime Lions’ grasp, but hunger and blood loss made him sluggish, and his struggles were easily ignored as two pined him to the ground and another splayed his hand wide.

Wylan was openly sobbing now, his eyes clenched shut as if it would make his tormenters go away. Kaz would have endured it without a word, he knew; Jesper would have cracked puns through the pain. Inej wouldn’t even have let herself get caught. But he was only Wylan, and he sobbed as he felt the blade meet his tender skin.

The blade never cut through. He didn’t realize there was someone else in the room until the Dime Lions’ who were holding him suddenly released him with alarmed shouts, the knife gone from against his finger. Wylan shied away from them and the noise, curling up as well as he could.

A lithe, graceful figure crouched in front of him, her face shadowed by her hood. “Inej,” he breathed.

She nodded, and cut through his bindings. Without a word, she helped him straighten up and stand, providing unyielding support when he leaned heavily on her, courtesy of his broken ribs and likely concussion.

The Dime Lions who had been in the room with him were all sprawled on the ground, unconscious and more or less injured.

“What about the others?” Wylan asked her.

“Taken care of,” was all she answered, before she ushered him towards the door. “Come on, they won’t hurt you anymore. I’ll make sure of that.”

Wylan believed her. His family had come for him.

III. Nina

Nina had never understood how anyone could dislike Wylan. Even Kaz Brekker, the Bastard of the Barrel, had a soft spot for him! And yet Van Eck had not loved him, all because he couldn’t read. Kuwei was jealous of him, though the two of them were making progress in tolerating each other. But what unsettled her most was the opinion the Dregs had on Wylan.

At first, she too had mistaken him for a rich kid who had ran away from home because he thought himself skilled enough to make a life for himself in the Barrel. But she had quickly discovered that was far from the truth, and Wylan was anything but brazen and arrogant the way rich kids were.

She had thought that, with time, the other Dregs would see it, too, would take a liking to the soft-spoken boy who blew up buildings and was not quite as righteous as everyone believed him to be.

Nina and Matthias were back in Ketterdam after a trip to Ravka. They had happily accepted Wylan’s offer to stay at his house with Jesper and him, a merchant’s house being much more comfortable that the cold, humid Slat. Despite this, she often found herself wandering back to the Barrel, paying a visit to people she knew, or lounging at the Crow Club.

Today, she was at the Slat nestled against Matthias. Kaz had sent for them, something about having a job to give them. Wylan had gone with them, claiming he had something to discuss with Kaz, and he had been the first to go in Kaz’s office. That had been half an hour ago, and he had yet to come back down.

Nina and Matthias were not the only people in the Slat’s first floor. A handful of other Dregs Nina had never really gotten to know were there, too, and had been whispering and snickering among themselves since Wylan had walked passed them. At first, Nina had tried to tune them out, but she was rapidly getting fed-up with their attitude.

Eventually, one of them groaned loudly. “What is taking the merchant so long?”

“Maybe we should check he hasn’t murdered Kaz,” suggested another mockingly.

The first one—Nina couldn’t be bothered to remember their names—snorted. “Please, soft merchant hands like his can’t kill. If anything, it’s Kaz who would have killed him.”

Another one snickered. “Must be fucking. It’s the only reason Brekker would have to keep him.”

Nina jumped off the couch before she knew what she was doing, and punched the man who had last talked square in the jaw. He stumbled back with a strangled cry, his hand cupping his jaw, and his companions came up around him protectively.

“What’s gotten into you, witch?” asked one of them.

“What’s gotten into me is that you are being assholes.”

“Is this about the merchant? Come on, Zenik, you can’t possibly defend him.” Nina clenched her jaw and her fists. The men before her stepped back. “I can and I will. If you are all too stupid to see how useful Wylan is, then it’s your problem. But don’t you dare insult him or doubt his worth ever again.”

The man she punched dropped his hand from his jaw. A bruise was already forming on it. “Wait, are you angry because I suggested he and Brekker are fucking? I thought you already had a boyfriend.”

Nina breathed in slowly through her nose. “I am not jealous, you fool. Kaz keeps Wylan around because he is useful.” And because he has basically adopted the kid, but that was besides the point. “You know he is half the reason why Kaz managed to send Van Eck to Hell’s gate? You know he’s gotten the Dregs out of several tricky situations since Kaz recruited him? You know he is smarter than all of you combined? I don’t know why Kaz keeps you around, but I know precisely why he keeps Wylan around.”

“He’s just a rich kid.”

“He really isn’t. He sacrificed himself for the Dregs. You remember when he was all beaten after what happened in the church?” The men nodded hesitantly. “That was not fake. His father really did that. Ask Anika and Keeg. They were there. They beat him up on his own father’s orders.”

A moment of silence passed. The men squirmed uncomfortably. “We didn’t know,” whispered the one she had punched eventually.

“You would know,” she retorted, “if you had paid attention to Wylan instead of insulting him every chance you get.”

She returned to her place on the couch next to Matthias, whose face was somber but proud, and when, twenty minutes later, Wylan finally came down from Kaz’s office, none of the other Dregs on the floor said anything to or about him.

IV. Jesper

The Merchant Council was made up of a bunch of men Jesper absolutely despised. All of them without fail had been born rich and had never had to do anything besides keeping up their father’s business. They didn’t know what poverty was, and obviously thought of Jesper as a thug only because he came from the Barrel.

(He was a criminal, but that had little to do with the Barrel, and more to do with the thrill that came with Kaz’s jobs. That, and his utter inability to stay away from games, which had led to him having no other choice than to resort to crime to keep surviving. Not that any of these men would know what it was like.)

They tolerated Jesper only because they worked with Wylan, whom they tolerated partly because he was his father’s son and partly because he had let them no choice on the matter. They would work with him, or they would mourn he fortune he brought to the Council.

Still, it was obvious most of them looked down on Wylan for his young age and liked Jan Van Eck better, nevermind that he was an abuser.

The point was, Jesper hated Merchant Council meetings, but he would bear them to help Wylan. They had convinced the Council to let Jesper come to meeting after Wylan had spun a lie about his eyes growing tired quickly, which resulted in his inability to read when it happened. It had worked, surprisingly enough, and none of the merchants had belittled Wylan for it. (They belittled him for other things, instead.)

That day, the meeting was stretching out, and Jesper was growing increasingly frustrated and annoyed at the old men who slowed things down only for the sake of complaining and making it more difficult on Wylan. He would have snapped already, had he not known it would only stress Wylan further.

A knock at the door of the room they were reunited in interrupted the tedious discussion.

A man opened the door, and looked around the room. “Mister Van Eck,” he called, “someone is asking for you. I know you are in a meeting, but it appears to be an emergency, and the woman has promised it would be quick.”

Wylan glanced at Radmakker, who nodded, before getting up and following the man out of the room, leaving Jesper alone with the rest of the Council. Said Council had apparently forgotten Jesper even existed, and one of them—Jesper couldn’t be bothered to remember his name—sighed, shaking his head.

“I know Jan is a criminal, but his son is a pain to deal with.”

“Don’t be so unkind on the boy,” replied Radmakker. “He is young. It is normal that he wants to change things. He’ll see the reality of the world soon enough.” “Still,” someone else agreed with the first. “It’s a shame Jan is in prison. He, at least, knew what he was talking about. I don’t understand how he has let his son become so weak and ignorant about business.”

“He must have tried,” scoffed another, “but the boy was too stupid or weak.” “Wylan is smarter and stronger than all of you,” said Jesper before he could think. Everyone stopped talking and turned to him. A heavy silence fell on the room for all of two seconds before Jesper spoke again. He had started this, he might as well finish it. “Wylan is smarter and stronger than all of you, and he is doing his best considering Van Eck was an abuser and a piece of shit who taught him nothing about business.

“Might I remind you Van Eck nearly lost the Council millions of kruge, while Wylan has done nothing but enrich it with clever and thoughtful propositions since he has entered it? Might I remind you, too, that he is the only merchant Kaz Brekker is willing to deal with, considerably increasing the Council’s wealth and power?

“You speak of weakness, but you have never had to do a single day of labor in your lives. You bask in your comfort, too afraid to risk losing it to offer any real reform. You are scared of the Barrel and you are scared of change, because you know both could bring you down from your privileged positions, and you deem Wylan weak and ignorant because he isn’t afraid like you are and it threatens you.”

Stunned faces met his speech, and Jesper leaned back in his chair with a satisfied smirk. It was the moment Wylan chose to come back into the room. He stopped on the threshold, taking in the tense and stupefied atmosphere of the room.

“Did something happen?” he asked.

Jesper smiled blindly at him. “No. Nothing at all. Shall we resume the meeting?”

It only took another ten minutes to resolve the problems the merchants has been unnecessarily raising, and if that night Jesper kissed Wylan even more passionately than he usually did, it was no one’s business.

V. Matthias

for the sake of this story and because I decided so, Matthias is alive

They were at the library. That, in itself, was unusual. But Kaz had needed them to get information that had been left at the library by one of his informants—he had needed to find others, since Inej was not in Ketterdam as often anymore—and Wylan was the one who looked the most like he belonged in the place, despite not being able to read. Wylan had looked slightly upset when Kaz had announced the mission, but he had relaxed when Kaz had added he wouldn’t need to read anything, and that Matthias would come with him.

Matthias, if he was honest, had a soft spot for the kid, though he wouldn’t admit it to anyone. Wylan was arguably the gentlest and kindest of them all, but his determination and cleverness never ceased to impress Matthias. Thus, when Kaz had bid him for the mission alongside Wylan, he had not protested as he usually would have. (For which Nina had endlessly teased him.)

The walk to the library had been pleasant, Wylan talking passionately about a chemistry project he was working on while Matthias tried to understand with his meager knowledge about the topic what exactly the younger boy was talking about. Needless to say, he failed miserably but the thrilled gleam in Wylan’s eyes and the wide grin on his face were worth the effort.

The boy hunched on himself when they entered the library, the way he did whenever he tried to make himself invisible, either because he felt threatened or because he felt ashamed. Matthias would have liked to reassure him but he had never been very good with words—except with Nina, with whom they flowed easily—and he was certain his attempt would have been more awkward than anything.

Wordlessly, Matthias guided Wylan to the section where Kaz had said the information would be. The aisle was empty but large, and they decided to split to look for anything that might be the information. As he set to work, Matthias cursed Kaz for not having given them more precision on what form the information would be given in.

He was painstakingly flipping through books for a lose piece of paper when he heard it. A masculine voice rang clear in the aisle, the whisper nearly a shout in the silent library.

“Well, if that is not the last person I expected to find in a library.”

Matthias nearly dismissed it as a casual conversation starter when he remembered that he and Wylan were alone in the aisle. Farther down the aisle, a man as tall as Matthias had stopped next to Wylan who, backed up against the shelf, was hunched in on himself.

“Have you finally learned how to read?” asked the man. Wylan’s lowered head, his posture mimicking that of a grounded child, was answer enough and the man sighed theatrically. “Of course not, you haven’t. You’re the only student I haven’t managed to help, you know. If that’s not a testimony to your failure, Wylan, I don’t know what it is. Such a pity Van Eck is in prison. He, at least, knew how to discipline you.”

Wylan was now trying to make one with the shelf, his bag held against his chest to tightly his hands where white. Matthias moved in quick strokes and pushed the man away from Wylan.

“How dare you speak to him like that?” he snarled as quietly as he could.

Annoyance passed on the man’s face, but whatever rebellion he envisagea for a second was quickly dismissed after a glance at Matthias’s stature.

“Look,” he said, “I don’t know who you are, but this is none of my business—” “It is, since you are insulting my friend.”

The man laughed mockingly. “Your friend. And did your friend tell you he cannot do what every children can?”

Matthias stepped forward, shielding Wylan from the man, who fell back a step, eyes widening in panic.

“I know, if that’s what you’re talking about,” said Matthias, “that he cannot read. And I don’t care. Because it doesn’t make him any less brilliant. In fact, he understands music and numbers better than any of us can, and I have never been met with such genius before. What I wonder is, how brilliant do you think you are?

“How insecure are you, that you resort to humiliating a boy who hasn’t done anything wrong to you? To insult him and degrade him when I am certain he has always tried his best with you? To blatantly ignore the fact that, even if he cannot read, he is one of the most brilliant people of his generation? You must be feeling really low about yourself, if the only way to feel confident is to bring down other people to your level of misery. Get out of my sight, and don’t even think about insulting Wylan ever again, or I swear you will regret it. And Fjerdans always honor their promises.”

The man threw a last glance at Wylan and left promptly, nearly tripping over his own feet in his haste. Wylan, when Matthias turned back to him, was teary-eyed, cheeks red with shame. He refused to meet Matthias’s gaze until Matthias crouched before him.

“I’m sorry I didn’t intervene before that.”

Wylan shook his head. “It’s not your fault.” A tear slipped down his face and he wiped it away angrily. “He’s not entirely wrong, though.”

“He is,” said Matthias forcefully. “I meant everything I said. It doesn’t matter, whether you can read or not. It doesn’t take away your intelligence, and knowing how to read doesn’t make people intelligent anyway. Your old tutor is the living proof of that.”

Wylan chuckled wetly, and wiped a couple more tears, less angrily this time. “Thank you. Let’s find this information, now.”

It was Wylan who found it (no one else would have been brilliant enough in their crew), in the form of a tiny ball in a material that would apparently dissolve when put in water—Matthias hadn’t understood everything to his explanation but it didn’t take away his pride. And if he made sure to show his affection to Wylan a bit more after that, well no one made any comment about it, not even Nina.

Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

#six of crows #crooked kingdom #leigh bargudo #fanfic #fanfiction #my own work #writing #creative writing #wylan van eck #kaz brekker #jesper fahey #nina zenik #matthias helvar #inej ghafa #writeblr #writing community #soc spoilers #my writing

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bookishdream · 4 years ago

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Could you do a Kaz x reader where the reader have to "cheat on him" (not in relationship but like she goes to another gang) because someone's threatening her and when he discovers she was just trying to protect him and the gang she dies

A/N: Hi! Thank you so much for a request, I've been wanting to write some angst for a really long time! I hope it is as hurtful as you wished, enjoy xx

TW: angst, blood, killing

kaz brekker x reader

Your hands were sweaty and shaking. You crossed your arms on your chest in order to hide that. You didn’t like being threatened, especially by some amateurs. But it wasn’t a threat against you, it was against your family in Novyi Ziem. You had to use your whole will power to not kill them right there and then.

“Why do you think I’d do anything you want me to?” you asked snapping your gaze between a woman and a man in front of you. “You don’t know anything about me and my family you assume I have.”

“Oh, y/n, but we know everything. For instance, your little brother is playing as we talking on your vast field, your parents are watching him with so much love in their eyes,” woman with blonde hair spoke first, describing the scene so vividly that you almost showed an emotion on your face. “maybe they have already forgotten about you? Maybe your mother is pregnant so they could fill a blank you left in their home.”

“Shut up, you think you’re so smart, aren’t you?” you snapped, face blank and mind filling with memories from times when you were as young as your brother was then, playing on the exact same field. “I will never betray Kaz, and you should know that.”

“Oh sweetie,” the guy beside walked closer to you, you made a step, in order to make some distance between you and them. “we’re not asking you to betray him, we’re asking you to leave this silly gang and join us, Pekka Rollins would be really happy if you did.”

“You two are much denser than I thought, if you think I want to make him happy.”

“You don’t have a choice.” Blonde said, making you shiver. “We have someone who would be pleased to kill this little family of yours. I don’t think you want them dead, even though they think you are, in fact, dead.”

You started to think about that. Crows were your friends and you love them. Inej and Nina always found various ways to make you cheerful when your day wasn’t the best, Jesper taught you how to use a pistol and flirted with you like his life depended on it. Wylan was like a sun in rainy days, even if you loved them, you also loved this boy and his stupid jokes. Matthias was funny to tease, he always was saying how awful you and the girls were, but you could also see this little twitch of his lip corner when he tried to suppress his laugh. And there was Kaz, your beginning wasn’t the pleasant one, you nearly killed him when you saw him for the first time, and in revenge he left you in the Barrel for the whole night, all alone. But after that, you started falling for him, and you fell hard. You couldn’t exactly point out when that happened, but you were sure you’d anything to save him from himself. He had tough personality, he cared only for money and how he could invest it to get the whole city only for himself. But he let you do that with him, barley sleeping and when you did it was in the same bed. Arm-length gap but you always were less exhausted than when you were sleeping in your own bed. You loved him and the rest of the Crows, but you loved your family more. And you knew what you had to do.

“Bitch.” You murmured. “Fine, whatever. Just stay the hell out of my family. And the gang.”

“We knew you’d make a right decision. Pekka will send money to Per Haskell in order to buy your contract. You won’t regret that.”

“I already do.”

After that day, you were about to start living with your new gang, family, like Pekka had said to you the previous day, he’d also told you to not worry about your parents and brother, that they were safe as long as you were working with him, willingly.

You wouldn’t call this willingly, but you guessed it was enough to prevent your family from any harm coming from Pekka and his stupid gang. You hated being here, you missed the Crow Club, late night talks with Inej and Nina, and helping Kaz with buying new ships. You wanted nothing more than to escape, but you couldn’t. Kaz and Crows could fight and kill, whereas your family was vulnerable, they couldn’t even hurt a fly. You spent the whole evening in your empty room. Window with grids making you shiver, you felt like a prisoner you were.

“We have a job for you.” The blonde girl who captured you came in, like it was her cell, not yours. “Behave and perhaps we’ll get rid of those grids.”

You wanted to punch her, you didn’t even know her name, it wasn’t even relevant, your hand was itching. You took a long, calming breath and looked at her, frowning. “I thought it was another week until you’d trust me enough to even open my window.”

“You’ve been here for two weeks. Plans have changed, we need you right now, so cut the attitude and come with me.”

You rolled your eyes and went after her, going up the stairs and leaving the place Pekka’s gang lived. You took another deep breath, smelling the awful scent of Ketterdam, smoke and money as Kaz used to say. Gods, you missed him.

“Where are we going?” you asked, falling into step with the girl, there were only the two of you, you assumed the rest will be somewhere where you were going. “What’s the job?”

“Can’t you just shut up? You’ll know when we’re there.”

You really wanted to punch her, still you said nothing, you wouldn’t get anything from her. It was dark on the city’s streets, buildings high enough to cover the moon, didn’t let its shine to light up the roads. You were annoyed and cold, your hair was swaying with the wind, goose bumps poking on your skin.

“Here.” Blonde said, handing you a pistol. “If you kill someone from ours, you’re dead before you take your last breath.”

You rolled your eyes, hiding your gun into the pocket of a coat you had. The metal was cold, making your hands even colder than they were before. Now when you had a real gun, not only your knife, perhaps you’d be able to escape. But where would you go? You were sure Kaz knew where you were, perhaps thinking you betrayed him, that thought only made you feel guilty in your guts, he trusted you and you chose people who you hadn’t seen for years over him. You had to escape, the cost didn’t matter.

When you came to the place, you saw a guy from Pekka’s gang and Kaz. Both of them were talking, but members of both groups had their guns or blades taken out. The Dirtyhands had his black coat, and his walking stick, as always. Jesper also was beside him, hands on his gun belt, ready to take them out and fire. You were more than sure that Inej was also there, somewhere on the roof or in the shadows, waiting and prepared to fight.

“We have men everywhere, two on roofs, one behind the bridge. All of them have guns pointed on you and your previous friends. I hope you know what that means.” The girl said, eyeing you. You only nodded, worrying too much about the Crows to even snap at her. “Good, now go and wait for a signal.”

You did as you were told, you hid somewhere behind a building, trying to recall every piece of information you gathered while snooping on guards or using the fact that they didn’t always close your doors. You had to find someone and tell them, you couldn’t waste any more time.

You poked your head out, searching for Matthias or Wylan. You doubted Nina would be here, since she was still working in the pleasure house. You were sure Wylan was there with his explosion ready to, well, explode. You cursed under your breath, when you couldn’t spot any of them, panic getting out of you with frustration. Someone from the Dime Lions would notice you’re not somewhere where they could spot you.

You crossed the narrow lane, as you noticed Matthias, you whistled hoping he would look into your direction. He turned his head and spotted you, anger on his face visible even in the dark. You cringed, knowing you’d get beaten up.

“You’ve got some nerve,” He said, his voice low. “after you started working with them, you have the audacity to come here.”

“Listen, I didn’t have a choice,” your voice so close to start begging him for forgiveness. “It was about my family.”

He looked at you wordlessly, confusion painting his face. Of course, he didn’t know you had a family, why would he. After a second, the ire came again. “You’re lying.”

“I'm not, I want to help you.”

“Oh, so now you did that to help us?”

“Matthias, I’m begging you, just let me tell you what I learnt.” You pleaded, your voice small. “Pekka wants to kill you as you’re standing, he has those new guns that can shoot you from really long distance.”

“What?” he looked alarmed, “We have to tell Kaz. Come.”

You let out a breath, it wasn’t the best look he sent you, but at least he didn’t leave you here. You told him everything you knew, he listened but his face still didn’t have pleasant expression.

You took out your gun, making your way behind the dumpster, hiding in shadows. You tried to calm your nerves, but the adrenaline had already kicked in. Matthias and you startled when you heard a shot, then another. You sent yourselves a knowing look, taking a step closer to the place where Kaz and the other guy were talking. Jesper had his guns out and Kaz was looking at the boy in front of him with disgust. You saw one of the Dregs were bleeding, you lifted your gun, targeting the closest one from the Dime Lions and fired. The bullet hit the girl in her stomach, making her stumble and fall to the ground. You hid yourself behind the wall and waited. Matthias sent you a look and you only lifted your arms, not knowing what to said.

After that, guns started firing, screams were everywhere. You saw the blonde girl that came here with you, standing with her pistol, aiming Kaz. You shot without looking, trying to hit her in an arm, you heard her scream and saw how the gun was laying on a ground. You looked up and saw that Kaz was looking at you, his face blank and unreadable. Jesper beside him, shooting people and screaming at Wylan to explode. The sound of explosion came from the roof, exactly where members of Lions were, you let out a shaky breath and made a step into the fight. Matthias fighting with his fists, slowly making his way toward Kaz, you tried to help him clear the path by shooting few people either in their heads or legs.

Your hands were tired, your head pounding but you were fighting hard, you had to make this in order to confess Kaz the whole truth. When you were close to him, he locked his eyes into yours.

“We have to talk.” You told him, lowering your tone. “Please.”

“This is not the best time to talk, y/n” the way he said your name made you shivered. It wasn’t an intimate way, it was with so much poison in only one word. “Why aren’t you fighting with your new gang?”

“Kaz, please, I’m trying to help.” You voiced, your eyes burning with sweat that slowly dripped from your forehead.

“Whatever.” He smacked an opponent with his cane, you only heard the sound of cracked bone and a loud thud when the enemy fell to the ground.

You two were fighting as you had before Pekka came into your life. Kaz understood you without any words, knew exactly where he should cover you because you couldn’t. Your movements were precise, keeping people away from Kaz’s vulnerable leg. You were fighting in a harmony, you kept your focus on people you had to kill, you shot them without any hesitation. When your bullets ended, you took out your knife and started stabbing everyone who wanted to stab you.

“I– “you paused, feeling a pain in your abdomen. You looked at Kaz, but he was looking at your lower stomach, you placed your gaze there and you saw blood. A lot of blood, then you felt pain, you stumbled, but Kaz placed his hand on your waist, slowly letting you fall on the ground. Your whole stomach was on fire, slowly burning you with its flame.

“Don’t you even dare dying here, messing my coat with your blood” he said, caressing your cheek. You chuckled, tasting blood on your tongue. “Don’t even think about it, y/n.”

“I’m–, please forgive me, Kaz” you murmured, hoped your words were understandable. “I was trying to save my family, but you’re my family too.”

“Y/n, I forgive you, but I’m begging you, don’t close your eyes” his voice filled with regret, eyes burning with anger, but you knew it wasn’t toward you. “Keep your eyes open.” He yelled at someone, but you couldn’t understand either it was Jesper or Matthias.

“Tell them I love them” you started to give up, your eyelids slowly closing. “I love you, Kaz Brekker.”

“Y/n, please don’t leave me” he tried to keep his voice from cracking, but he failed.

But you didn’t hear that, you had your eyes closed, hand that was laying on your stomach, now laying on the ground. He carefully removed his arm and got up. He spotted a blonde girl, smirking and looking at him, she slowly lifted her pistol, mockingly swaying it. She winked at him and still with a smirk, she left. Kaz made a promise he would kill her, he would do it for him. And for you.

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sunshine-stars · 4 years ago

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I probably won’t end up writing this but I’m having so much fun with the jatp six of crows au so:

SPOILERS FOR SIX OF CROWS AND CROOKED KINGDOM

Reggie is Nina

They’re both bi

Love food so much

Wear red

I wanna see him with heart render powers but hate having to use them cuz his parents always fought and used them against each other ouch

I can’t describe it but it just FITS

Dates Matthias (WHO WONT DIE IN THIS CUZ I LOVE HIM)

Willie is Jesper

Adhd

I would love to see him with Jesper’s cocky attitude

The guns omg

Gay

I can see him having trouble with gambling cuz he always think that this time he’ll get it right

(OMG THERES A MUSIC VIDEO ON YOUTUBE WHERE THAT LINE IS ABOUT JESPER AND ITS AMAZING HERE)

Suppressing his powers - prolly doesn’t realize he’s a powerful ghost in jatp and doesn’t realize he’s a Fabrikator

And it just fits that his mom died when he was young and he has a dad he always feel like he’s disappointing ouch

Hopelessly in love with Wylan

Alex is Wylan

Blonde lol

Gay

Idk if he’ll have dyslexia simply cuz I don’t and I don’t want to represent it wrong so I’ll either not include it or do tons of research about it

Realistically I could write him with a stutter instead cuz I have one but idk

Dad doesn’t accept him because he’s gay and maybe dyslexia and treats him like he’s stupid and worthless ouch

It just kinda seems like Alex would’ve had a rich snobby family

I project onto both of these characters

Dating Jesper

Or wait maybe Alex should be Matthias idk I’m just brainstorming rn

Ofc he’d still have anxiety and he’d just make a lot more sarcastic comments than does in the books

THE BANTER BETWEEN HIM AND WILLIE

Julie is Inej

BADASS SPY JULIE OMG

Also tell me Inej isn’t a lil bit gay cuz her and Nina obviously flirted in the books

And Julie’s bi so it fits

She seems like she’d be the most religious out of all of them

Cuz cross and stuff and just imagine Julie praying to the saints after her mother died and just ouch

After losing her mom she walked away to the next town and got kidnapped and ouch

But in this they find her in Fijerda and are just so amazing

Imagine her saying “I will have you without armour, or I won’t have you at all” to Luke

Dates Luke

Luke is Kaz

Ik this seems weird but hear me out

Ran away with older brother cuz parents didn’t accept his love for music and other reasons

Why am I making everyone run away in this omg oh well

Then older brother dies ouch

So Luke completely turns to music and closes himself to get by and joins the Dregs and ends up at the top

But he’s less closed off and scary as Kaz cuz I just can’t see that but still a bit less Luke like

I feel like Luke would actually be scary smart but the impulsiveness and puppy dog ness just gets in the way so people don’t realize that

Dates Kaz

Bobby is Matthias

Gremlin done with your shit energy

I can see him with backwards ideals in Fijerda and coming to Kerch and just being like what everything I learned is wrong???

DOESNT DIE IN THIS

I don’t have a lot of strong reasons for this but I can feel it

Dates Nina

Carrie

Matthias’ sister

Goes to Kerch with him

Same everything I learned is wrong???? But has a harder time accepting it

Insecurities

Enemies to lovers Flarrie

Flynn

Went on a walk with Julie and got captured with her ouch

But they stayed together the whole time

Just awesome dynamic with Julie

Enemies to lovers Flarrie

Anddddd more plot stuff

It’d be more lighthearted than six of crows but more heavy than jatp

Ya know how the original crew was Kaz Inej and Jesper

Instead it’ll be Kaz/Luke, Wylan/Alex, Nina/Reggie, Matthias/Bobby, and some Carrie

Kaz is the same

Wylan/Alex runs away/gets kicked out a lot sooner and Kaz recruits him sooner

Nina/Reggie is the same but a bit more with them than at the start of six of crows

Matthias/Bobby and Carrie get freed by Kaz a lot sooner

Matthias/Bobby and Nina/Reggie HATE each other and can’t stand to be around each other but eventually fall in love

Matthias/Bobby is constantly annoyed with all of them but needs them to survive but secretly is fond of them

Carrie joins in sometimes

Inej/Julie and Flynn come in a lot later and Kaz/Luke saves them before they go to the brothel

Jesper/Willie goes to Kerch a bit later and Wylan/Alex recruits him instead of the other way around

They obviously do the heist

And they have a lil band

ALEX/WYLAN PLAYS DRUMS AND FLUTE

Wow I got carried away with this

Any feedback is really appreciated!!!! Feel free to make suggestions or whatever!!!

#jatp #julie and the phantoms #six of crows #soc #fanfic idea

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luvutomoonandtosaturn · 3 years ago

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Child of Blood and Salt - Chapter 5

Anya quickly turned to board the Staroverova with the other crows, but stopped short when she saw that Inej was still on the docks. As her warm eyes met the cold ones of Anya she suddenly realized the Wraith had witnessed the whole scene. Anya’s breath hitched and panic set in, a type of panic that only occurs when one's past is revealed, however slightly, to an unknown outsider. An unspoken glace was shared between the two women, they had to get moving anyways until someone else came after them. Dimiti lay on the docs, breathing hard and hardly moving but alive nonetheless. The weight of the Lanzov Emerald was heavier than ever as Anya boarded the ship and gave a look to Kaz that it was time to take sale. The rest of the crows seemed to be busy in their duties of preparing the ship for sale, and Anya prayed to the saints she didn’t believe that none of them beside Inej had witnessed her battle on the docks. All her thoughts after the panicked ones, of course, were occupied by Nikolai’s name. How much she loved him, how much he meant to her and the Ravka, how much she needed to find him. She tightened her pirate hat on her head at these thoughts and set to work securing ropes and sales. Anya learned quickly that her true home was the sea. It wasn’t the farm where she and Kaz had spent the early years of their life, Gryphon Castle where she had been trained, raised, and turned into a ruthless assassin and soldier, not even at the Little Palace where no matter how many friends she made she still felt like an outsider. She was skeptical at first to join Sturmholds crew; she had no experience on ships or being part of a crew. She was adamant not to go, though Tamar convinced her to. She would forever be grateful to her friend for that because it was on the Volkany where she finally felt at home. She learned quickly aboard the ship and quickly rose in rank, becoming a valuable asset to the Stormhold’s crew. Of course, she figured out his secret two days into her first journey on board. While she had not met Nikolai yet, she had her rumors about him as well as Sturmhold and by eavesdropping on a conversation between himself and Toyla, told her that her suspicions had been correct. She almost let her lips form a smile as she remembered when Nikolai had found out she had known all about his supposed well guarded secret. It was late at night at the Little Palace and she, other grisha, as well as Nikolai who had supposedly returned home from Ketterdam, had just finished dinner. Nikolai had offered to walk her to her rooms and they were walking in the dim lighting on the quarters at night. “My rooms are right around the connor.” Anya said look up at Nikolai with a curious look. Nikolai nodded his head. “I hope you sleep well, Lisichka.” And with those words Anya left Nikolai, eyes wide open, in the dark hallway. He was a fool, he realized then, that he thought the cold-eyed, observant, grisha, woun’dt figure his secret out. Their dynamic aboard the Volkany wouldn't be described by Nikolai as necessarily friendly. She constantly fought him on certain moves. She had found his cocky and flirtatious attitude to be an annoyance, which is where she came up with the nickname Lisichka, or little fox. His lips formed a smile as he stood still in shock looking at Anya’s closed door. “Well played Rietveld!” He shouted through the door and finally turned, shaking his head and laughing under his breath. Standing at the opposite side of her door, listening to Nikolai’s footsteps become more distant, Anastasia could never have predicted the things that would happen in her future.

She thought back at the girl she was then, a year ago at the Little Place. Would that girl believe that in just a year she would be wearing what she is now, on a stolen ship sailing to free Nikolai from his power hungry brother? Anya finally pushed her nostalgic thoughts away as she stared out at the disappearing harbor. The winds were strong tonight, she thought, but if it ever slowed down she knew she may have to give it a little push even though she didn’t want to reveal too much about her unnatural power that she had gotten as a result of the experimentation she had endured at Gryphon. She also took this time to survey her ship, she had taken many item’s front of the captain's quarters like a sextant, map, ect. This ship was considerably smaller than her beloved Volkany, but it would just be fine for her purposes. Now all she and the crows could do was wait. They wouldn't be reaching Novia Zem in a few days time and Anya was already starting to get anxious. Usually being at sea would have a calming effect on her, but with Nikolai in harm's way she could hardly relax and enjoy the cold ocean breeze on her face. “There are rooms on the starboard side of the ship,” She explained, turning to Kaz and the others. “And dried food and water below deck. We’ll come up with a plan of attack tomorrow.” “Someone will have to keep watch though.” Inej reasoned. “I can take first watch.” Kaz said with a worried look at the bags under his sisters eyes, when was that last time she slept? He’d thought to himself. “Works for us.” Wylan said, stifling a yawn. “If there's any supplies for explosives, I can whip something up in the morning.” Anya nodded her head at this as Jesper and Wylan took their leave hand in hand. “I can take second watch then,” Inej said “Oh, no that's not necessary,” Anya said “You look exhausted,” Inej said, looking at Anya and remembering the scene she had witnessed at the docks. It was one of the reasons Anya hated using her enhanced powers, along with the memories it brought back up, it echaused her completely. “Get some rest Anya,” she said, laying a loving hand on her shoulder, “You got to be well rested don’t you?” Inej smiled at her, then she walked to her quarters as well. For a while after the three of them left Kaz and Anya stared out at the ocean for a few seconds listening to the small waves crashing up against the boat and they exited the harbor and into the True Sea. “She's right , you know.” Kaz said, cane in front of him. “I know.” Anya replied. So many unspoken things lingering in the silence, so many things she wanted to say. Did he want to say the same things? Had he heard what had transpired on the docks. Had he seen the hump of dead and bloodied bodies, her eyes glowing. And above all these thoughts there was Nikolai, Nikolai, Nikolai, Nikolai. She had to get to Nikoali, and she was so exhausted, and had a pounding headache. The Lantsov Emerald had never felt so hot and heavy agait her chest as she finally lay her down to sleep.

Anya could feel her hair plastered to her skin as she sat stark naked on an abandoned little row boat in the middle of the ocean. It was dark as she frantically looked around at her surroundings but there was no land in sight. She searched for oars, driftwood, anything to get the broken row boat moving. She closed her eyes and frantically searched for a sign of a heartbeat until she caught a slight one close to her. Squinting her eyes she saw the cause of the heart beat drifting in the icy ocean. There was no mistaking those blue eyes, and striking blonde hair. Anya frantically pulled Nikolai on to the row boat, hopelessly holding on to the umstead beat of his head. “Anastasia,” He whispered from his blue lips. His skin was ice cold. “Anya,” he repeated again, raising a cold hand to her cheek. “Anastasia, you have to help me. Help save me. Don’t let me die.” He croaked, tears spilling from his ocean blue eyes that were now a dark, cold, gray. “Please” he pleaded with Anya. “plese zolotse please don’t let me die.” “You won’t!” Anya yelled out, placing two hands over his chest. “You won’t die because I won’t let you.” Tears were now spilling down her face but she felt his heartbeat die down, like it was falling down a rabbit hole, like she was falling, and she couldn't get back to the surface. Lost forever. And just as he was about to be lost from her forever. His featured subtlety and disterbantly changed to ones of an old, sickly, balding man with bad teeth and a big moustache. “No,” She whispered. She was the one who was pleading now. “No, please, leave me alone,” She sobbed out. “You can never hide from me malen’kiy.” Markin Yaroslavovich whispered back. “You can never escape me because I created you, I made you who you are, Anastaisa.” “No!” Anya screamed out covering her head now rocking back and forth , but Yaroslavovich’s words were just as clear and crisp as he was physically inside her head. “You were nothing! Abandoned, a child, alone, helpless, burdened with a great power. I made you who you are, and you can never escape that truth. And who are you now, girl. A runaway, a mistress, a murderer?” “No, no, no” Anya repeated now, noticing how water was flooding into the little boat soaking her feet and legs. “A killer, an unnatural being in the world, and helpless all the same. And now you’ll die like the killer you are, alone, cold, afraid, and with blood on your hands.” That's when Anya finally looked up to find herself just that dreadfully alone, hopelessly afraid, and in an ocean of red blood. There was nothing left to do, but scream.

Anya awoke in a cold sweat and sat straight up with a gasp, hitting her head on the beam of the low ceiling in the captain’s quarters. “Shit.” She whispered to herself. Her heart was beating at a rapid pace and her clothes were soaked in sweat to her skin. She frantically discarded the covers off the bed and rested her head on the headboard, trying to steady herself. Her nightmare had seemed so real, so horrifying and she still remembered every detail. In her half-awake and frantic state she quickly looked at her hands and body making sure they weren't covered in blood, but then in a sense she thought to look at the palms of her hands, weren’t they? She pulled her knees to her chest and let her head rest there for a while. The movement seemed so innocent and so childlike and a single tear dripped from her eye as she hugged her knees closer to her body. Where was Nikolai now, in a cell in the same position as herself? Was he in pain, being tortured for information, or was he already dead? She shuddered at the thought of the bastard king laying dead in a cold dark cell. Against her better judgment she took the Lantov Emerald out from under her shirt. She gave a small laugh, it was the first time she had truly looked at the gigantic thing. It was beautiful tho, she couldn't deny that. After a few seconds she quickly stuff the chain back into her shirt, before she did something foolish like try the damn thing on. Finally coming to the realization that she won't be getting any more sleep tonight, she put on her boots and coat and decided to go see if she could relieve her brother from watch duty. If she was up, she might as well be doing something useful. When Anya finally emerged from the captain's chambers, hands in her pockets, she wasn’t greeted by Kaz, but Inej. She stopped short when she saw the Suli girl, but she had already spotted her locking her gaze with her beautiful and kind eyes. “Couldn't sleep?” She asked gensering to a seat beside her look out into the black ocean, Anya had to blink to make sure it wasn’t crimson. She took her seat beside Inej, who was looking out into the sea, a braid of dark brown hair on her right shoulder. “I guess you could say that.” Anya replied. “I get them too, you know.” Inej said still with a steady gaze towards the ocean. Anya tilted her head in confusion. “The nightmares.” Inej clarified, “I get them too. I guess most of us do on this ship.” She gave a small laugh at this. Anya could feel tears building up in her eyes as she was determined to keep looking at the ocean. “If you couldn't mention to Kaz, the, uh, events at the dock, he just doesn’t need anything more on his plate right now.” “I know what it’s like to be taken from your homeland, stripped of your innocence and childhood. And I know you do too. Your secrets are safe with me, no matter how many you end up having.” The two girls finally made eye contact at this and Inej shocked her head slightly. “You two look so alike, it’s amazing. And a little creepy to be honest.” Anya laughed. “My mother always said that we might as well be twins, we looked so alike as children. I remember she gave us both the same outrageously horrible haircut, we were indistinguishable.” “I can’t imagine what it must have been like to meet him. After all those years. ” Inej said her curiosity got the better of her. “I didn’t want to know him.” Anya confessed, swirling her thumbs. “I didn’t want to know him and I didn't want a relationship with him, he swore he wanted the same thing. We were going to go our separate ways. I was in a bad situation with some pirates from the north, a miscommunication, I’ll call it,” Anya winked at Inej. “He came back for me; saved my life really. He was the first person who, just, I don’t know, really cared. Of course he cared in an over protective, angry, self centered way, but, he cared.” Anya finished turning to Inej looking into her eyes. “Kaz Brekker doesn't really care for people that often. He cares for you Inej, more than anything in the world by the looks of it.” “We're going to find him, Anya.” Inej said,

noticing her frantic hand twirling. “We're going to break him out and bring him home.” “He’s never gotten himself into a situation like this. Been kidnaped many times of course, but nothing like this.” Anya said feeling Inej’s worried eyes on her. “I told him not to go, I told him it would be out of the way, but it was such a small mission none of us expected-” Inej reached out and clasped her hand in Anya’s squeezing tight. Anya took a deep breath and lit the ocean air into her lungs. “I’ve already been told he was dead once,” She said, “I can’t hear those words a second time.” “Kaz doesn’t know about you and-” Anya shook her head quickly. “It’s a complicated situation, no one at the palace really does, he’s the king of Ravka, and-” “Secret is safe.” Inej said, giving a slight smile. “Kaz would go ballistic anyways.” Anya smiled as she thought about how her over protective brother would react to her being involved with the King of Ravka. “Saints,” Anya said with a sigh, “I don’t even want to imagine. You should go to sleep Inej, saints know I won’t.” Inej started to protest but Anya raised her eyebrows in defiance. If she wasn’t going to sleep she may as well be useful. Inej finally gave up and took leave from her position to go back to her quarters, but before she left she gave Anya another look of worry and said “I would talk to your brother Anya, broken families don’t often get the gift of being reunited. You and Kaz have been given a gift, I would use it.” Anya laughed again. “Yes Kaz did warn me about your Suli proverbs.” “Your brother is wary of them,” Inej said “ but Saints do not discriminate against those who will not let them in.” “Let's hope they don’t then.” Anya replied as Inej took her leave.

Inej’s advice to talk to Kaz stayed glued in Anya’s head for the rest of the uneasy days of the journey. Anya and Kaz had been adamant, to Jesper’s dismay, to begin the process of planning to break Nikolai out of whatever fortrus or ship Vasily had him stored in. Unfortunately, without the help of Anya’s contacts in Novia Zem, the group of thieves had very little to go on, which did not falter Kaz and Anya’s insistence on creating some sort of plan. On one such afternoon, Inej sat straight up in chair cleaning and sharpening her precious knives as Wylan sat beside her on the deck working on his sketchbook with cautious eyes towards the proximity of him and Inej’s knives. Jesper sat opposite of them tapping with his foot insistently and running an anxious hand on the back of his head. Kaz was sitting at a round table, the whole group gathered around, rolling out maps of the True Sea and Novia Zem. Anya was the only one standing, seeing as she was more anxious than Jesper to sit. For the last two days she was trying to display a calm demeanor especially in front of her brother, whose lingering eyes did no comfort to her nerves. She was staring out a porthole chewing the tip of a quill she was using to pinpoint possible Nikolai locations on Kaz’s maps. “Anya. Anya!” Kaz was attempting to get his sister's attention. “Sorry,” Anya said, coming out of her worrisome thoughts which included a dead Nikolai and a burning Rakva, “what were you saying.” She caught another one of Kaz’s curious looks toward her as he studied her. “We were saying,” he said now annoyed, “could Vasily of stashed Nikolai in the Southern Colonies?” “If it would be a good hiding spot, an unexpected choice.” Wylan added. “No,” Anya said, now turning and setting the quill down, “David was adamant about him being kept on a ship. And it makes the most sense.” “Yes but the True Sea is thousands of miles,” Jesper added from his spot “How in saints are we supposed to find a single ship when we don’t have a location.” “That's where my contact comes in.” Anya said . “She lives in Novia Zem and knows which ships come or go and where. She ought to know something, from there we can search from a more precise location. “And dare I ask who this secret contact you have is?” Kaz said, turning his head to Anya. “She’ll give us the information we need, is that enough?” Anya retorted. Jesper was now casting worrisome eyes between the two siblings who both looked out for blood. He would still never understand how Anya is able to look right into Kaz’s murderous eyes and not flitch. “Well I hope for his majesty's sake that's true.” Kaz said, sitting up from the table. “This is the best plan we’ve got until we get more information,” he said while looking over his plans. “We’ll reach Novia Zem in about twenty four hours, until then review that plan and rest up, this journey won’t be easy.”

#nikolai x mc #nikolai lanstov x reader #kaz dirtyhands brekker #inej gahfas #marry me zoya #tolya and tamar #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #wylan van sunshine

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