#completed duologies

[ruins-and-rewritez]

Jesper: do you guys ever wanna kiss Kaz just to see if he can do something other then resting bitch face and scheming face

Matthias: no

Nina: yes

*Nina and Matthias stare at each other*

Nina: I love you but I want to know

Matthias: *stares unbelieving for a moment, then shrugs and nods* fair enough

[aleksanderscult]

In your post about the Darkling where you listed your opinions of him (first impression, impression now, favorite vs least favorite thing, etc) you said how if you had to choose a least favorite quality it would be his grumpiness (especially in RoW). Since I refuse to touch that cursed duology if it’s okay, may you explain what you mean? I know we get some of the Darkling’s POV but that’s pretty much all I know. Could this entire trait of his be a product of Bardugo’s retconning habit or is it something more?

Aha. I see you're practicing self-care too, dear anon. 😌

Here are some examples:

From his POVs we can see that Aleksander is very pragmatic but also bad-tempered and bitter but that's completely understandable.

He has just been resurrected and:

1) Encountered a Saint that he detests.

2) Found his country to be in the worst state possible. Flanked by enemies and ready to attack.

3) Oh and let's not forget that devastating blight! ☝️

4) His captors have treated him like shit and put him under inhuman conditions.

5) Saw the woman he loved live a life that she doesn't deserve, being a shell of her former self and married to a man that he hates and considers worthless.

6) He's all alone. No Baghra, no Alina, no allies, no soldiers. He has to start from all over and has found himself surrounded by idiots (but even so he feels the need to protect them).

The fact that I find his grumpiness kinda annoying is because I as a person have been surrounded by grumpy people all my life so I can't help but find it unattractive and bothersome.

But then again, Aleksander has a really valid reason for being this way. It's very possible that he took this sarcastic attitude from his mother. After all, they had spent so many years together that Aleksander really adopted most of her traits, unwillingly or not. But I also believe he's that way because he has lived for too long.

He's immortal. He has done everything and seen everything, has seen people being kind and cruel, predictable or unpredictable. His experiences have only made him more bitter but that's also because he hasn't seen any positive changes or results from his constant battle against the persecution or how Ravka and the Grisha have no regard for him or don't notice his efforts at all.

Anyway, he's bitter about many things. In RoW he's that way for the reasons I explained in the beginning but, as a whole, he's resentful for a bunch of reasons that include his immortality and its consequences, the loss of people he loved, his strive to be seen and appreciated and the horrors he has witnessed.

[applecidersstuff]

Kaz Brekker is Marya's favorite crow.

Mr. Ghafa adores Jesper and Nina for the chaos they bring with them. Mrs. Ghafa finds Wylan charming and adorable. Colm likes Matthias and Inej because they are the ones with the most conscience.

But Marya choses Kaz.

Wylan can come into his house and find his mother - sitting at the kitchen table and ranting about prices on the stock exchange. While Kaz Breker - the bastard of the barrel - one of the deadliest people in Ketterdam - pours tea into a tiny cup.

Kaz regularly joins Marya and Alys for weekly "meetings." In those "meetings," they discuss the high-class "tea" and how one of the ladies was dressed on the promenade.

Marya teaches Kaz how to tell fortunes by tea leaves. He brings her flowers and little presents every time he visits.

Marya practices human interactions with Kaz. He does the same.

[barrel-crow-n]

harde har har do you have any hc tidbits for our fic?

Kaz fabricates a persona for his time on the Volkvolny. He still goes by Kaz but he drinks and play fights with the crew. He's kinder than Ketterdam Kaz. Nikolai does a complete double take.

The crew are kind of scared of Kaz because of his scrappy and cruel fighting techniques

Kaz kind of unnerves Nikolai but Nikolai doesn't let it show

Kaz wins all the drinking games because he has a scarily high drinking tolerance

Tamar teaches him how to fight with swords and axes and stuff

Tamar teaches Kaz how to spin and twirl his weapons

Kaz and Tolya recite poetry to each other (the crew groans)

Kaz insists that the hates the dog that is a part of the crew but one time Nikolai saw him napping with it

Nikolai loves to annoy Kaz and Kaz just walks away from him

Nikolai and Kaz scheme away in Nikolai's captain's headquarters

Kaz gets told about all of Sturmhond's ruthless acts and loves it then is disappointed when he finds out that Nikolai always throws up after doing them and doesn't plan to recreate anything

Kaz also does ruthless things on the sea that scares the crew into respecting him a lot more but he doesn't throw up after doing them, and is completely unaffected

Kaz does magic tricks for the crew

[mercurialskiies]

since finishing vicious a year ago, i have convinced around two-three other people to also pick up the book and read it

spreading the word, as intended

[discountsoysauce]

Because I am notoriously awful at actually writing the things I'm thinking about, here is a list of ideas I have but probably won't get around to writing any time soon

[newtness532]

im just going to put my book aside for now and pretend that didn't happen and that everyone is happy and most importantly alive

[blackcatsnstrawberries]

When you're done your current read (we all know what it is) please do yourself a favour and pick up The Shepard King Series by Rachel Gillig.

It's filled with magic, compelling characters, adventure and a dash of love. I couldn't put either book down. It's a completed duology, but honestly I wish there were more!

Book 1: One Dark Window

Book 2: Two Twisted Crowns

[kaatiba]

I haven't really thought about religion in Rivener but I just thought of something too amazing not to include. So Wren's not religious, she hasn't had the time or space to think anything about it, but Kai is.

His shifter clan specifically have something like patron saints, holy figures, mythologized or mythological ancestors, who they speak to and call on for comfort, and they are—

Sister Sorrow and Brother Bone and Mother Solace (and Father something, undecided). And they came about in response to the Cataclysms that broke the world.

[heartrender6]

confession time: i thought nikolai in the books was a douchey sleazebag and i hated him and nothing the show did with him made me like him more 💀

[ruins-and-rewritez]

I like to think that since Wylan can't read but he's good at numbers that Jesper is good at reading but bad at math

[aleksanderscult]

How Aleksander felt in RoW carrying that book and duology:

[remwigmore]

Wolfpack is up for preorder!

The sequel to my verdant-yet-feral solarpunk novel Foxhunt, Wolfpack is crammed full of yearning, adventure, friendship, and, as one friend put it, Puritan names for the solarpunk age.

(stunning flawless cover by @layaart​ ) Wolfpack is:

even gayer than Book 1 somehow

even more trans too

full of found family for terrible people ... but maybe they can get better??

also full of opportunities to say ‘Orfeus, no’ in a soft yet appalled voice

It’s also a tiny bit like the Star Trek movie about whales or Titan A.E.? Which is to say I hope you like rewilding!! Wolfpack, out January 12th!

[lilisouless]

Remember when the grishaverse fandom was so desesperate to have a bland self insert that they tried to make Nina x Nikolai a thing? because i do

[serenanymph]

19 and 26!

Thank you for the ask!! From the writer/artist ask game

19. What are some things that inspired your stories? Real events? Maybe a dream?

Would you believe me if I told you Beast was inspired from a sports anime. Would you.

Okay so story time: when I was hyperfixating on said sports anime around the end of 2021 I somehow discovered that the author had once drawn a silly fake poster for a fantasy au. Of course this was what my brain latched onto and then I desperately rifled through ao3 for fic but most of them were oneshots and none had the specific concept I wanted. So for a while I played with the idea of writing one myself.

That idea promptly ran away from me, combined with another au idea, stole more characters from other anime, two from a game, made them all ooc and created several ocs for good measure. By the time I was chatting with my friends about it I knew I was done for. And here I am, nearly two years later, trying to wrestle the first draft of the second book into shape. For a five-book series.

26. What are your favourite books?

Okay honestly I have no idea because I have read a lot of books and I don't tend to hyperfixate as strongly on them as I do on manga, but!! I will say PJO was my entire childhood, and I think the fandom I got most into for a book series recently was the Grishaverse series. For a while I was obsessed with a really niche book series called Rebel Skies (though it's still unfinished), and as for standalone books, Alice Oseman's Loveless and Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land were literally life-changing. If you're trying any of these books try the last two

[the-ocean-is-scary]

Roshan is definitely the guy I would meet freshman year and instantly befriend.