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thatonesongyouretryingtoremember · 10 months

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hiii what does the angela is jane ives reuther mean in ur bio 👀

hiiii🌸💖 thank you for asking anon! I love talking about this topic<2

I've answered this a few times as well as expanded on my theories, so at the end I will explain where more information is.

BASICALLY Terry Ives has one memory of giving birth to her daughter, "Jane" via C-section

and El gets a memory triggered sitting NINA of being birthed vaginally.

This already raises the issue that El is obviously not Jane Ives, but rather that Terry gave birth to a different baby. [this wasn't my find, I believe it was either @/demadogs or @/pinkeoni ]

there are even clues in ST2 that point to this! Terry does not have any reason to believe Kali escaped HNL, so if she was doing all that going out of the way to talk to her daughter who she hasn't seen in thirteen years, why would she send her back to a triggering environment in HNL by herself to fetch Kali? Don't get me wrong, there's a good chance Terry cared about getting the other girl free, but the message was very clear that she wanted El to find a girl who was in the rainbow room, or at the very least to show El the girl in the rainbow room.

so that's where my theory comes in. Terry was either telling El "The blonde one is Jane!" or all that plus "Go find her and bring her home because she's my daughter!"

Even when El says to Terry that she is Jane and that she is home, Terry verbally says "No." which is not part of her normal pattern, but rather something she is specifically saying in the moment. No, El is not Jane, and neither El nor Jane is home either.

so that brings us to why Angela specifically is actualy Jane. First of some technical things and then to the clued.

It is most likely that Jane Ives has blonde hair because her mother retained blondeness well into adulthood. If her hair did change from being light blonde, it would take years for the color to be recognizable as even dark blonde, let alone light brown. As an ex-blonde myself, I had a similar color to the toddler Jane from the memory of Terry breaking in to HNL. By the time I was fourteen, El's and Jane's age in 1986, I had dark blonde hair while my blonde peers retained a light blonde color. This would transition to a light brunette by sixteen.

El, on the other hand, has dark brown hair already at age eight. She likely never had blonde hair at all unless her hair quickly changed in infancy, if I'm remembering this right. Either way, age four to age eight is WAY too quick of time to transition to a completely opposite hair color! (@/henrysglock has a few things on the hair color too, as well as hair color as an indication of the timeline split!) Angela on the other hand has light blonde hair at age fourteen, just like Terry would have. There's a similar thing to be said of her eye color, but I honestly haven't paid as closely of attention.

More the conceptual boy! the thing that makes this theory so brain zappy!

"Jane" as a concept represents everything El missed out on. Phrases like "Plain Jane", which means ordinary person, or simply "Jane" being the catchall girl to "Joe"'s catchall boy, and "Jane Doe", an unidentifiable woman, come to mind. "Jane" is femininity, normalcy, popularity, and ease.

Angela represents all of the same things! El is literally copying Angela so she can try and be all those things!

so not only is El copying Angela because Angela has what "Jane" represents- but she is trying to embody a "Jane" persona simultaneously! SHE IS COPYING ANGELA TO BECOME JANE.

There is also alot more to this theory, including Angela parallelig 002, her being obsessed with the "good dad" version of Hopper El speaks of, her appearance being an opposite/shadowself version of El, her name having "Angel" in it, etc.

all that plus some other explanatory posts that go deeper into it (I'll try and link some) can be found in #angela ives, and #angela is jane, plus I've got some more meme-y posts tagged #angieposting, for more fun :3

I hope this answered some of your questions! yes, when I say Angela is Jane, I do mean it literally. Well, not in like a "her name is Jane" way, but in the sense that the baby Terry gave birth to is actually Angela.

If you have any more specific questions or observations feel free to leave them or post in the tags obviously, I love hearing new input on my fave theory!!

(oh yeah and it's kind of intertwined with timeline theory, so Angela and El are alt timelines of eachother as well. there's more on that in a whole other post though)

IMPORTANT LINK NO. 1

I'm on the hunt for a few others

#angela is jane #angela ives #song says a smart thing #song spouts bullshit #asks #anons <2 #stranger things

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seasaltbaptism · 2 years

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for willow and/or havia: 1-5 for the oc ask meme? hope you're having a good day nina !!!!! <3

hiiii jo jo 🍰💘

havia:

What’s your oc’s most irrational fear? Is there a specific reason this fear came about?

》 hmm, , havia has few fears, rational or otherwise ; the biggest one being the destruction of her child & homeworld, however an irrational fear that she was teased about back at the temple in her padawan days was an issue she had with saying her name aloud at night ( outside the temple ) . in her village it was said that a man wanders the streets and alleyways at night , lurking from the tops of trees reaching a long clawed hand to snatch up names spoken carelessly into the night ; taking your identity and switching places with you , returning to your home to live out your life with your family & friends as you rot away in his cave. albeit , shes grown out of this fear mostly, but during her years wandering the galaxy alone and out of the company of friends and her master that very fear has crept back , hiding just behind her eyelids at night, prompting her to snap them open at sudden noises.

Is your oc picky about food? What kinds of foods do they like and dislike? What do they consider a comfort or “safe” food?

》 she likes to say no, but she is indeed picky. as a padawan she missed the sweet fruits of her home world , she missed the food hauled from the rough seas , she was not used to meals laden with cattle meat & usually stuck to greens and fruit when at the temple unless the meat was specified. she likes the savory slow cooked juiciness of one specific animal found only on her home world / safe meal would include this large crustacean looking creature with a tail and head resembling a fish , and sides including various sauces and hand made breads ,,,, she can replicate it fairly well with the right ingredients but it doesn’t hit the spot the same way as her gram’s cooking.

What does your oc’s voice sound like? (Or, if you have one, what’s their voiceclaim?) Can they sing, whistle, or roll their rs? Do they have any speech impediments or notable dialects/accents?

》 ok! so for havia she’s got a voice that’s very pretty but biting! she’s not cold or anything, but her voice is very firm, mid tone and has an ever so slight gruff to the end when she’s speaking to people she doesn’t really care for? it smooths out to a gentle tenor ? ? when speaking generally? if i had to pin a voice claim to her i’d say neytiri from avatar or kida from atlantis ! ; she can hum but she cannot really sing aurebesh songs , native songs from her village she’s quite good at singing & sung them to baby ash’la when she was in her tummy. they can roll their r’s and has a bit of an accent when speaking basic / common.

is your oc good at keeping secrets?

》 LMAO YEAH, shes great at keeping secrets ( because she forgets them ) but seriously she will die with a secret if she feels it’s worth dying for and isn’t the one to gossip around, you can trust her to listen and keep your secret no matter what happens.

What kind of clothes is your oc most comfortable wearing?

》 soft threaded types , loose fitting . she doesn’t enjoy tight clothes that constrict movement, quite comfortable showing skin if it means she keeps cool as she runs very hot. silks and cotton are ok but hand threaded things are very near and dear to her heart.

#* oc: havia #HAHA :’) these were fun ty!#anyways havia is always fun to flesh out! i’m thinking about making her from a semi harsh semi forgiving planet #since i’m making up my own species bc why not #i think half the year it’s very warm and dry and the other half it’s warm and rainy / stormy.#the people there are humanoid for the most part but have sharper nails and teeth ( also more durable ) and can see much better in fogs ect.#idk about two hearts but their rib cage and lungs are bigger and their heart is bigger than a humans to better suit a more #athletic / active lifestyle #i’m debating on keeping the ears humanoid or longer like a bat for better hearing #but they can hear things at a higher frequency than humans for fishing ect .#anyways #havia is great and i love her and tysm for asking about her #[ willow chilling in a closet ] i’ll come back to her later she’s resting #* answered #tmema

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liberty-barnes · 3 years

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Unpredictable Little Brat

Kaz Brekker x Reader

Request: hiiii! can you do something with kaz always being surprised by reader? like she's the variable that he never sees coming and he falls in love with her unpredictableness? thank you!!

Warnings: lots of heist talk cause SoC, kaz being much more comfortable with touch cause trust, love, and time

Word Count: 1.2k words

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

A/N: accidentally went a little bit overboard with how much I wrote here, but I got INVESTED, OKAY? Also, I'm gonna need season 2 to come out soon cause I'm running out of GIFs to use

Masterlist | Miah’s Comeback Sleepover

Kaz smiled as the lock finally made the long-awaited clicking sound, opening with no problem. Amateurs. They think their outer protections are so strong that they don’t need more than a basic lock.

Wylan was behind him, looking nervous as always, but one thing he’s good at is spotting the valuable items in a merchant’s home, so Kaz asked (read: forced) him to come.

“Alright, valuable things only, we have ten minutes to get everything and get out before the guards make their rounds so let’s speed this u-”

He was cut off by a giggle coming from the centre of the room.

“Too late, Brekker. Better luck next time.”

She waved cheekily and tugged on the rope around her waist, immediately being pulled up by one of her girls, leaving him grasping at nothing but wind.

A quick sweep of the house told him it was devoid of any and all valuables and he stomped out of there angrily.

The trip back to the Slat was a tense one. The crows knew better than to say anything, especially Nina, given that she’d come so close to joining their crew.

The Hearts were -as their name implied- a group of Heartrenders that made their home in the Barrel after the Ravkan civil war. They’re all women, all insanely good at their job, and all free of any indentures whatsoever. Their leader, commonly known as the Queen of Hearts, was the biggest pain in Kaz’s ass.

Case in point, she wasn’t even supposed to be here. According to the intel they’d gathered, the whole crew was supposed to be away on a job in the warehouse district, far, far away from the Merchant he was about to rob. And the worst part is, that’s not even the first time it’d happened! It seems like whatever he does, he can’t predict anything about that woman and it’s starting to get on his nerves.

He went straight to his office, not bothering with socialising or torturing the idiot who fed him false info (he’ll give him the night to get out of the Barrel, or else) and let the door slam shut behind him.

“Fuck that pretentious little Heartrender.”

He said, under his breath, as he took off his coat.

“I’d tell you to take me to dinner first, but that’s such a good offer that I might skim over the specifics.”

Well of fucking course.

He turned around. She was sitting in his chair, twirling one of her knives in her hand, a gift from a certain Suli girl.

“You’re insufferable, you know that?”

She only grinned.

“You’re just mad that I’m ahead on this month’s betting pool. Five successful heists to your four, better get say goodbye to that De Kappel, cause it isn’t gonna be yours for much longer.”

He groaned and ran a hand through his hair.

“You’re not supposed to be ahead! I planned everything meticulously, spent hours on those plans, and somehow you still won.”

He sat in the chair in front of her, the one usually reserved for anyone he was doing business with, or more accurately, anyone he was financially destroying. The irony of this was not lost on him.

“Mhm, valid effort on your part, but you forgot to account for one thing.”

He lifted his brow as she set her elbows on the desk, resting her head on her crossed hands.

“And what’s that?”

She smiled.

“Me, obviously.”

She got up and rounded the desk, leaning against the front at barely a foot’s distance from him.

“You see, that’s your mistake. You plan everything. You research, and predict, and plan, and have so much confidence in your plan that you forget to leave space for the unpredictable. AKA me.”

He snorts.

“I always leave space for you. I literally had to buy a bigger bed for you, if that’s not making space, I don’t know what is.”

She rolled her eyes as he took off his gloves.

“How do you think they’ll react?”

He shrugged.

“Well, I don’t think Inej knows all the details, but she knows that we’re friendly so it shouldn’t surprise her…”

She spluttered.

“Friendly? Oh, we’re friendly, now?”

He smirked.

“Just a little taste of revenge, my love, don’t worry. Moving on, Jesper will be pissed that he didn’t know but he’ll get over it. Wylan will most likely ask you all kinds of questions, the curious idiot. Matthias will have a heart attack, which should be fun to watch, I assume that at least half of my whiskey shelf will be gone by the next morning. And Nina… Well… Nina��ll have a field day, that’s for sure.”

She smiled happily and he took her hand, intertwining their fingers. Sometimes it still surprised him that they’d managed to do so much progress in just two years.

“I’ll finally have Nina Zenik on my crew.”

He hummed.

“You’ll also have men on your crew.”

She shrugged.

“You handle the boys, I’ll take care of my girls.”

He pulled her in until she was standing between his legs and hugged her thighs, resting his head on her stomach. Her hands immediately came to rest on his head and he felt a calm wash over him.

“I think they’ll mostly be pissed at themselves for not figuring it out. I mean, two years, really? And I’ve been beating your ass at betting pools for like a year and a half, if I was anyone else, I’d be dead.”

He smiled against her stomach.

“They’ll be too busy being happy to have another boss to care about the specifics, especially cause your girls are gonna sing you high praises. Soon enough, they’ll start worshipping the ground you walk on.”

She pulled his head up until they were looking into each other’s eyes.

“Well, I am a Queen, after all.”

He nodded.

“The Queen of Hearts that managed to steal my cold, dead one. Does that make me your King?”

She scratched at his scalp and he fought against the urge to close his eyes.

“Obviously. I can’t be a Queen and have a bastard for a husband. You’ve officially been promoted.”

He looked at the ring on her finger, stolen on the last job the two did together, secretly, of course.

“Shouldn’t I only be promoted once we marry?”

She shrugged.

“Po-tay-toh, po-tah-to. Either way, you went from bastard to King, be happy.”

Her smile was radiant, happy to finally come clean with their relationship, and Kaz felt himself be taken on that happy high.

“You know, it’s quite ironic, this thing.”

She frowned.

“What do you mean?”

He grinned at her.

“I pride myself in meticulously planning every single aspect of my life, yet I fell in love with the most unpredictable little brat in the world. Very ironic indeed.”

She bent down until their faces were almost touching, giving him space, always giving him space in case it was suddenly too much, then kissed him softly. It felt like home, like safety, like belonging.

“Call me a brat again and I’ll give you a boner every time you’re negotiating something.”

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

That last line is cause the other day, I had a thought of Heartrenders being able to create awkward boners. You know, since a boner’s really just the blood travelling to the penis so yeah, had to put it in there.

Anyway, if you liked it don’t forget to like/reblog/comment/send me an ask or dm ranting about it, I really love hearing from you guys.

-Love, Miah <3

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

Taglists: (if your name is striked through it means for some reason tumblr wouldn’t let me tag you)

PERMA TAG

@adriannajackson123 @evermoreholland @inlovewithmobtom @andycanbeemotional @officiallyunofficialperson @lost-in-the-stars03 @jeezkiddo @a-singleboat @parkersbliss @highlydisfunctional1 @inthecornerchair @harishaanne @anjalika03 @peterspideyy @lozzypoz321 @mendes-marvel @sovereignparker @sofyluv17 @dracoswhore007

SHADOW AND BONE

@thegirlwiththeimpala @olkathechaoticfox @iloveinej

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thatfantasynerd10 · 3 years

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Hiiii everyone, here are some of my thoughts on the Shadow and Bone show<3 Spoilers!

IT WAS SO GOOD I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT OMG

As a book fan, somewhere inside me, I'd been afraid that the show would mess things up. This was especially because it's a blend of two different series, which take place in different timelines. BUT HONESTLY, I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG. The way they've incorporated the Six of Crows characters into the plot of Shadow and Bone is perfect. Everything fits in together and makes total sense. So if you're a book fan who's skeptical about the show, I 100% recommend it.

The characters are EXACTLY how I'd imagined them while reading. Not just their appearance, but their voices, their mannerisms, their relationships with other characters, their expressions, IT'S ALL THERE. The attention to detail is truly astonishing.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED HOW THEY STUCK to some of the amazing dialogues from the books. The "There are no others like us, and there never will be"?!?!? and the "Fine, make me your villain"!?!? and the "I'm sorry it took me so long to see you, but I see you now." ??!?!? and the "I'm beguiling you!" and THE "No Mourners, No Funerals" (I may or may not have cried) AND MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE "You and I are going to change the world."

I live for the representation in this show. Alina being half Shu, Inej and Zoya being Suli, Jesper being Zemini and bi, Nina being plus sized, Kaz having a disability etc all shows how well thought out the casting was. Seeing someone who looks like you play the lead of a show can be so empowering. They also did the whole facing racism thing so well. The scenes where Alina was bullied or told to stand at the back of the line or called names for what SHE LOOKED LIKE were such raw examples of racism.

The friendships and relationships were my favorite part. Jesper being goofy, adhd mess, him and Inej being THE MOST ADORABLE BESTIES!!!, the "Jes? IT'S SULI FOR FRIENDSHIP.", him calling Kaz 'boss', Kaz's brooding and pretending to not care about the Wraith, Inej's worshipping Alina, Alina and Genya's friendship, AND DARKLINA?!?!?!?

All the darklina scenes were perfection :') there horseriding and Aleksander saying YOU ARE GRISHA, YOU'RE NOT ALONE to Alina because she was always made to feel like an outsider. The wishing well scene was so sweet uggghhh. Also the War room scene uhm uhm ;)

ABSOLUTELY LOVE ZOYA NAZYALENSKY, SO ZOYA CRUMBS WERE WHAT I LIVED FOR. I love how she says "She's Suli" when someone makes a racist assumption about Inej. This really reminded me of the Row scene where the Suli woman says "I see you" to her. Also the "your tracker friend also liked it when I put him on his back" was SUCH A Zoya thing to say lmaoo....also watching the destruction of Kribirsk after reading about how much Liliana meant to her was heartbreaking.

THE GENYAxDAVID interaction was everything. They're both such adorable, awkward messes. DAVID HITTING JES WITH A BOOK!?!?!

TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE BEST SHIP OF ALL TIME, HELNIK. Dan and Callahan did an amazing job, their chemistry>>>

My fav scene was probably the ice scene where Nina falls and YOU CAN SEE THE CONFLICT in Matthias' eyes, because he's been trained to killed Grisha all his life, and now he has the chance, BUT HE REALIZES that Nina is human and worth saving!!! brb sobbing

Also they eat waffles together I MEAN

"You're better than waffles Matthias Helvar." "Let's not say things we don't mean , my love." WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE GET THIS SCENE ON SCREEN?!?!

Milo the goat deserves a whole new fan base.

The special effects, the sets, the costumes and makeup were all spot on. The power those Keftas hold>>>>

The voiceovers of Mal and Alina's letters were adorableeee. "When I told you about true north, I was talking about you." and the "It's always just you and me, Alina." :')Show Malina> books Malina for me.

Kaz's scheming and the crows' heists were so badass. Jesper's gun trick thing!!!! Him never missing!!!! Kaz literally tricking the Darkling!!! Inej's knives!!! THE PART WHERE INEJ KILLED THAT GRISHA TO SAVE KAZ WHEN SHE WAS AGAINST KILLING. "We need you Inej, I need you." KANEJ NATION RISE.

They were all such a serve aaaa I'm a simp for the S&B cast. LOVED IT. GO WATCH IT NOWWWW

byeee

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #inej x kaz #kaz brekker #jesper fahey #wesper #general kirigan #alina starkov #darklina #malina #mathias helvar #nina zenik #inej ghafa #helnik #genya safin #david kostyk #six of crows #the crooked kingdom #nikolai lantsov

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cruelangelstheses · 4 years

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the whirlwind girl

fandom: six of crows rating: T characters: inej, nina words: 2.1k additional tags: modern au with magic, first meetings, sexual harassment, could be read as platonic or romantic description: when a drunk man hits on inej at a bar, a stranger comes to her rescue. a/n: HIIII i wrote this for the @sixofcrowszine which has now been shipped so i can post!!! i don’t have much to say except that this book absolutely enraptured me and i love nina and inej and their interactions with each other so !! girls <3 inspired by that prompt that’s like “you were being hit on at a bar so i pretended to be your partner to get them to go away”

read it on ao3

—

Inej isn’t sure why she’s even here.

She’s never been a fan of clubs or bars or similar establishments, especially not at night—too loud, bursting full with people whose inhibitions are hindered by alcohol. Besides, she’s just finished performing, and while the roar of a crowd cheering for her is much different from a bunch of random drunks, it still counts as being around people, and it drains her just the same. She prefers to spend her evenings curled up with a book or hanging out with a couple of close friends, not out late partying.

The whole reason she even came into the Crow Club in the first place is because she knows someone who works here, a funny and good-natured—if reckless—young man named Jesper, who spends about the same amount of time gambling during his off-hours as he does bartending during his shifts. Unfortunately for Inej, it turns out that Jesper, for once in his life, actually isn’t here tonight, even though he’s always here on Saturday nights. According to the current bartender, a slightly older man that Inej doesn’t recognize, he’s on a date, of all things, with a boy named Wylan. Perhaps she’ll text him about it later and ask how it went.

She’s happy for him, of course, but this also means that she has no business being at the Crow Club, so now she’s sitting awkwardly at the bar with a virgin pina colada in hand. She rarely drinks alcohol; she always needs to feel sharp, like the edge of a fresh blade. She knows she could just pay and leave, but it feels weird; she just got here. Maybe she’ll sit and people-watch for another ten or fifteen minutes, then slip out.

As this thought crosses her mind, Inej watches as a stocky, sweaty-looking man, already clearly inebriated, enters the casino...and immediately plops down onto the empty barstool beside her.

Inej takes a sip of her drink and stares down into the glass, pretending to be incredibly interested in its contents, but it does nothing to stop the man from leaning over and saying, “Saw your performance.” His breath smells of cheap whiskey, and Inej has to stop herself from wrinkling her nose.

“Did you, now?” she says without looking at him. Inej works the same job she’s always worked: she performs with her parents as a small troupe of traveling acrobats. Despite their occupation being somewhat unconventional in this day and age—circuses and such just don’t get as much traction as they used to—they manage fairly well. Besides, Inej lives for the thrill of the high wire.

“I did,” the man replies. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see him grinning like a wild dog. “Impressive, if I do say so myself.”

“Thank you.” Inej drums her fingernails nervously against the glass and takes another sip. She can feel her butterfly knife up against her hip, but using it might get her kicked out of the Crow Club—which wouldn’t be a huge loss, really, except that she’d hardly ever get to see Jesper. She already doesn’t see him very often since she travels so much. Or maybe pulling a knife on a guy wouldn’t make a difference here; it’s far from the nicest place in Ketterdam, and Ketterdam is far from the nicest city in Kerch.

Unexpectedly, the man slings an arm around Inej’s shoulders. “What do you say to showing me a few more tricks, hmm?”

This is why Inej doesn’t like bars.

“Um.” She clears her throat, squirming slightly. “No, thank you. Uh, my parents wouldn’t be pleased.”

The man licks his lips. His eyes gleam with bad intentions. “Who says your parents have to know, huh?”

Before Inej can say or do anything else, a brown-haired whirlwind of a girl she’s never seen before marches up to them and says in Kerch, “Hey! Hands off my girlfriend!”

Inej can feel her face heating up. Either this girl has the wrong person, or she knows exactly what she’s doing.

The man narrows his eyes in confusion and reluctantly pulls his arm away from Inej. The girl, pale and curvaceous with bright green eyes, puts her hands on her hips and shakes her head in disbelief. “Honestly. I leave for five minutes to go to the bathroom and come back to find that someone thinks he can just put his hands all over her. I mean, have some damn respect!” At that, she points an accusatory finger at the man.

Alright. It’s definitely the latter.

“I, uh, didn’t realize she was taken,” he says as he looks the girl up and down. “But hey,” he adds with a sly grin, “the more the merrier, right?”

The girl groans. “Classic,” she mutters under her breath. Putting a hand on the man’s upper arm, she leans in and says, quiet but firm, “We’re not interested.”

The man’s eyelids start to droop. Then, a second later, he passes out face-first onto the counter. A few people turn to look in their direction, and the girl feigns concern, gesturing helplessly to the man. “I think he had too much to drink,” she says, which is probably true, to be fair. One of the bouncers sighs and wanders over to grab him.

Inej watches them in silence. It’s not until the bouncer and the unconscious man are completely out of earshot that she turns to the girl that rescued her and says, not unkindly, “You’re a Heartrender.”

The girl hops up onto the barstool previously inhabited by the drunk man. “That I am,” she says quietly, so as not to be heard by the wrong set of ears. Suddenly she’s speaking in perfect Suli instead of Kerch, perhaps to make Inej more comfortable. “But more importantly, I’m the girl who just saved your ass.” She shrugs. “I thought maybe I could get him to leave you alone without having to use my power, but then he got creepier, so I just kind of said ‘fuck it’ and lowered his heart rate enough to make him pass out.”

Inej laughs a little at that. “I bet that’s useful,” she replies.

“Oh, yeah,” the girl agrees, “but I’m also persecuted for it, so...you win some, you lose some, I guess.” She says it casually, but Inej can hear the bitterness behind it.

Inej isn’t a Grisha, but she is Suli, and she knows well the feeling of persecution. “I understand,” she says softly. “And...thank you.” She could’ve handled it—at least, that’s what she tells herself—but she appreciates the gesture, more than she can properly express.

“It’s nothing,” the girl replies, but the faint pink in her cheeks tells a different story. “I have a lot of experience dealing with men like that. I figured I might as well help you out.” She holds her hands up defensively. “Not that I don’t think you could’ve handled it yourself, but…”

Inej shakes her head in understanding. “No, I get it,” she says. “I’m good with a knife, but I didn’t want to use it unless I felt like I had to.”

The girl’s eyes gleam with interest at that. “Nice. Oh!” she says, looking as though she just remembered something important. “I just realized I never even introduced myself. I’m Nina. You’re Inej, right? Inej Ghafa? I know you from your performances. I’ve seen some videos of you and your family online.”

“Really?” Inej says. For some reason, it still surprises her whenever people tell her that they know her from the internet. She didn’t think her family was that popular.

“Of course,” Nina replies. “You guys are really phenomenal.”

Before Inej can come up with an appropriate response to the compliment, she feels her phone buzzing in her pocket. Pulling it out, she chuckles at the name displayed: Mama. “Speaking of my family,” she says to Nina. “Let’s see if I can even hear her over all this Saints-forsaken noise.”

Nina crosses her fingers in support as Inej answers the phone and puts it up to her ear. “Hello?”

On the other end, she can just faintly hear her mother asking her where she is.

“I’m at the Crow Club, Mama,” she says. “I was looking for Jesper, but he’s not here, so I’m coming back to the room now.”

Seemingly satisfied with that response, her mother wishes her safety on the walk back to the hotel and hangs up.

“Sorry,” she says to Nina, slipping her phone back into her pocket. “I should probably be going. I was planning on leaving soon anyway when that guy came over.”

“That’s okay,” Nina says, hopping off the barstool. “I was thinking of heading out soon, too.”

Inej sets some kruge down on the counter for the bartender, then follows Nina out the door and into the cool night air.

“Hey,” Nina says as they stand outside the club, watching cars go by. “Would you want to—I don’t know—keep in touch?” She blushes as she says it, which doesn’t seem standard for her. “I know we didn’t talk for long, but I’m not from Kerch, so I don’t have many friends here, and you seem like a really cool person. I know you travel a lot, but…” She trails off and shrugs.

There’s still that part of Inej that warns her to exercise caution, that just because Nina helped her once doesn’t mean she’s “safe” yet. Deep down, though, Inej can feel the goodness in her. She saw a stranger in trouble and immediately leapt to her defense, even though it could’ve ended badly, even though she could’ve exposed herself as a Grisha in a potentially hostile environment. The least Inej can do is allow herself to trust her, just a little, just enough.

“That would be nice,” Inej says, pulling her phone back out. “I can give you my phone number, and you can give me yours.”

Nina’s face lights up, and Inej knows that this is the right decision. “Great!”

They exchange phones and plug their names and numbers into each other’s contact lists. When Inej gets her phone back, she sees that Nina’s surname is Zenik. It flows nicely, like a stream unobstructed by rocks or logs: Nina Zenik. Nina Zenik.

“Hmm.” Nina taps her chin thoughtfully. “I was going to offer to walk you back to wherever you’re staying, but I don’t want you to feel like I’m mothering you or think you can’t handle yourself. But it’s also a late night in Ketterdam, and that’s dangerous for anyone, let alone a young woman walking by herself. Me as well as you.”

Inej would be lying if she said she didn’t feel at least a twinge of anxiety walking the streets of Ketterdam alone at night. Staring down at the new number in her contacts, an idea presents itself to her.

“We could talk on the phone as we walk back to our places,” she says. “That way you can make sure that I’m safe, and I can make sure that you’re safe. Then, if something were to happen to one of us, the other one would know.”

A flash of what looks like relief crosses Nina’s face before she quickly covers it up. “Good idea.”

Nina’s apartment is, of course, in the opposite direction of Inej’s hotel, so they go their separate ways until they’re out of each others’ earshot, and then Inej calls Nina.

“Wow, I haven’t heard from you in forever,” Nina says.

Inej laughs. “I know. Such an agonizingly long thirty seconds.”

It takes Inej about fifteen minutes to walk to the hotel, during which she learns that the reason Nina is in Ketterdam is because she’s studying abroad for a semester, and that she’s currently attending Os Alta University to be a translator. She tells Inej funny college stories, and Inej tells her crazy stories about her travels in return. Strangely enough, Nina’s voice actually grounds her rather than distracts her. It keeps her mind in the moment so that she never has a chance to get lost in her own head. She doesn’t usually let her mind drift when she’s out and about in a large city, but with Nina, the odds are even lower. It’s comforting. Her voice is a guiding light.

Nina arrives at her apartment first, but she stays on the line with Inej, who reaches the hotel about five minutes later. Standing outside the front doors, Inej promises to keep in touch with the whirlwind girl who bounced into her life so suddenly less than an hour ago. When they finally hang up, her chest feels light.

#six of crows #grishaverse #nina zenik #inej ghafa #ninej #my fics

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