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#mal oretsev headcanons
magravenwrites · 1 year
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Dating Mal Oretsev would include:
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Gif not mine
Requested: yes
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You were best friends with Mal, way before either of you admitted your feelings for each other.
He likes to let other people know that you’re his, even if he isn’t that big on pda.  He likes to always be touching you somehow, if only to know you are there safe with him.  Whether that be holding your hand or having his arm slung around your shoulders to keep you close.
Saints help anyone who tries to hurt you.  He is very protective.  The type of man that will turn absolutely feral if anything happens to you.  
He freaks out if he hears you've been hurt. “Saints, you’re bleeding, what happened, who did this?!” // “Relax, Mal, it’s just a paper cut.”
Proceeds to take care of everything for you.  Gently placing a plaster over the cut and pressing a kiss over it.  Lots of cuddles and kissing to make you feel better (but only after throwing the offending piece of paper on the fire).
Literally, there is nothing he wouldn’t do for you.
He's a big softie and a complete romantic.
But he loves to annoy you, always teasing and pulling pranks.  He thinks you look cute when you're angry.
One of his favourite things to do is pull at your hair to wind you up.  You respond by tugging at his earlobe in retribution.
He pays very close attention to your likes and dislikes.  And adores gifting you things he finds on his travels.
Your favourite flowers?  You can expect a fresh bunch on your table every week just so he can see your smile.
He enjoys teaching you tracking skills.
And you enjoy pretending you're a worse shot with a rifle than you are, just to get him closer as he stands behind you, his chest to your back, and his arms holding yours as he helps to line up your aim.
When you get into trouble and you manage to shoot a man from a fair distance away, he is so surprised.
“Have you been able to shoot straight this entire time?!”
Quiet times with Mal are the best.
You don't have to have to say anything or be doing anything in particular.  Just enjoying the peace with each other.
He likes it when you use his shoulder as a pillow.
He likes it even more when you let him lie with his head in your lap, one of your hands in his, and a book in the other, as you read to him.
He likes to absently trace shapes onto the back of your hand.
He loves looking up at you as if you are his entire world.  There is nothing but the beauty of you filling his vision and the sound of your tranquil voice filling his ears.
He is completely enamoured by you.  He can't help but stare at you from across the room.
He hates when he has to leave you to join the First Army.
Makes you promise to write to him and spray the pages with your sweet perfume.
He also makes you promise to be careful.
“Don’t do anything stupid without me.” // “How can I?  You’re taking all the stupid with you.”
Lots of forehead touches and kisses.
“I’ll always find my way back to you, I promise.  You’re my True North.”
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A/N: This is my first time writing headcanons so I hope they're not too bad.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it 💛
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@agqrtz @for-bebbanburg @axe-does-writing @make-me-imagine @solinarimoon
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witchthewriter · 1 year
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𝐃𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬
⤷ gender neutral, ambiguous race, and any size reader. Requests are open, thank you for reading!    
Warnings: book & show spoilers
a/n: I’m trying to write the characters as a mixture of the book and show. Some of the characters act quite differently in the books and it’s a bit difficult to pin point their personality, but I hope I do them justice. Thank you for reading xx
ᴹᵃˢᵗᵉʳˡᶤˢᵗ      
𝑺𝑭𝑾🌿  
𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲: Everyone is settling down into their own homes. I don’t care what is canon and what’s not.
𝐊𝐚𝐳
・Likes things to be in their place. If they aren’t where they left them than he goes into a bit of a tizzy
   “Y/n! Y/n I specifically left them right here and they aren’t right. Here. Where have they gone??”
  “No, you moved them because you thought they were too vulnerable sitting there. Look in the third shelf down to your left.”
*Does what you tell him to do* *is embarrassed* *thanks you but not above a whisper*
・You have a lot of nice things in your home, but the most expensive things are usually the jewels and the jewelry that Kaz has gifted you
・He has a lot of the same clothing, so when you open his side of the closet there’s just ... black ... oh and grey
・His cane is never too far from where he is
・Despises the idea of getting a pet
・And you have to beg and beg
・But none of it worked
・So you had to come up with a plan. It was quite manipulative but hey, how else would you have caught Kaz’s attention?
・The dog you have now was once a puppy who had “accidentally” followed you home
   “How did it follow you home? We live in Ketterdam, there are a million homes here.”
“I guess it liked...me...”
・He ordered it out
・But you didn’t listen and somehow, the pup had wiggled its way into Kaz’s heart
・He swore he wasn’t going to pick up any poops, but that too was a lie
𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚
・Once settled in, she comes to realise that she really enjoys the finer things in life
・Big bed, silks, many many pillows
・A big bath with hot water straight from the tap
・She adores a long hot bath, lots of bubbles, with lavender and chamomile, candles, and a good book to read - or just to lay there and soak
・She hates waking up early, but is the first one to crawl into bed (she just really likes being in bed)
・Has her own drawing nook - a desk near a big window where she can get natural light. Many types of pencils, quills, inks, etc. She draws people, memories, landscapes, dreams
・Her drawings are framed and are all over the house
・There’s also a library; a room with a cosy corner that has all kinds of books; fiction and non fiction - historical, religious, fantasy etc
・Oh and she adores having the fire going. She wants it on even if it’s barely even cold
・But she hates chopping wood, so when you tell her that it isn’t cold enough for a fire, she’ll go outside and use The Cut to get the wood.
・Loves when you braid her hair; loves it even more when you give her head a lil massage too
・She fusses over you whenever you’re sick. Making you soup, remembering remedies from her upbringing in the orphanage.
・If you burn yourself, cut or have any other injuries, she is constantly checking on it to make sure it doesn’t get infected
・She doesn’t mind doing the laundry - if it means you’ll fold afterwards
・There are a lot of different oils, perfumes, bath products, hair products all over the bathroom
𝐍𝐢𝐤𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐢
・Yes, he is used to being treated like royalty
・But he’s also experienced life on a ship - and that isn’t pretty (at all...it’s quite awful)
・Yet he has seen his destiny as being a ruler, so the biggest change in both of your lifestyles is ... you
・You would have to learn how to live during court
・You couldn’t just leave your chambers in your pajamas (I mean ... you could but drama would start at court most definitely)
・Both you and Nikolai obviously share the same chambers, and actually you both have your own wing in the castle (So I guess you could just stay in your pajamas if you wanted)
・It’s basically having your own home - or huge apartment
・The majority of the decor is white with gold trimmings and accents. Nikolai said you could change whatever you want
・The castle is never quiet, and there are always people coming and going, but your chambers are very very quiet.
・Nikolai doesn’t snore but does talk in his sleep
・It’s nonsensical, but it’s usually about the dreams he’s having
・You have servants that come and clean up after both you and Nikolai
・When Nikolai is finished for the day, he trots up to your shared wing and slumps against the door once it’s closed
・He sighs undoing his buttons, but you like to be the one to do that
𝐈𝐧𝐞𝐣
・Still very quiet around the home, so you get used to seeing her in different parts of the house in a small amount of time
    “I swear, sometimes there’s two of you!” You once grumbled, while cleaning up a broken tea cup because she popped up out of nowhere
・Doesn’t like loud sudden noises, so you live a bit from civilisation. Not too far though.
・She gets on really well with cats
・You’d end up adopting two kittens that were the only survivors of a litter
・They were tiny, covered in fleas and skinny as can be. But you both fed them, bathed them and made sure they survived
・One is called Umbra, and the other Sol
・You both take on the styling of the home. Inej quite likes the cottage-esque look. However she does want to honor her heritage and there are a lot of colourful cloth that drapes across the ceiling
・Inej had Jesper insert a rod that holds a long silk cloth so that she can practice her acrobatic skills
・Jesper visits as often as he can, and is usually found hung over in the spare bedroom
・As does Nina, who likes to ask what’s for dinner hours before dinnertime (usually an hour after eating lunch)
・You own the land, with Inej’s name not involved - you didn’t want her to feel tied down. And that she could leave whenever she desired
・Although it’s Suli culture to be travellers, Inej said she did want to be apart of the deed and you were more than happy to change it
・Inej doesn’t sleep very often; she knows when her body needs it but other than that, she really cannot get to sleep
𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐚𝐬
・Loves the feeling of a cosy home
・Has actually gone off to cry because living with you in such a lovely, warm, safe environment made him overwhelmed with happiness
・I have this feeling that you would be the type of person to rescue animals and Matthias has to put on this ‘No we barely have enough to feed ourselves, we can’t look after these animals,’ but his stance changes so quickly
・So you have about five dogs so far
・But you still go into town and feed as many as you can
・Matthias thinks he’s in charge, but after a few months together he comes to realise that you will always be in charge
・He actually really enjoys gardening
・Has those well-planned and established herb gardens. The ones that are held in perfect square timber raised beds
・Matthias absolutely threw himself into gardening. Bought books about it, spoke to the elders in town about how to perfectly grow herbs. He was both fascinated and in need on something to focus on after the tragedy he had endured
・You encouraged him, but said he had to promise not to make a mess inside.
・Is a very loud snorer, and hogs the bed, as well as the sheets. It’s just easier to sleep underneath him - not that he would notice. Once his head hits the pillow almost nothing can wake him until morning
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐲𝐚
・Safety; that’s what she wants, that’s what she desires most
・A place that she can let her guard down and not have to worry about being used
・She doesn’t like uninvited visitors, and has special locks on all the doors so no one can break in
・When you introduced the idea of a guard dog, she was apprehensive.
  “What if it can sense ... the darkness in me?”
“There is no darkness within you, Genya.”
・So you got a Cane Corso, a beast of a dog. That scared even Genya the first time she saw her.
・Is a very light sleeper, but once getting your pup, Genya let it sleep on the end of the bed
・Even now, after your dog, Neith, has grown to full size, she still sleeps at the end of your bed (you know exactly when she jumps up and when she leaves because the bed moves...significantly)
・When days seem especially difficult for Genya, you like to leave little notes around the house, reminder her of all the things you love about her
・She likes to wake up before you and move the hair from your face and just watch you sleep
・Isn’t the best at cooking, so you usually take up that job. But she does bake pretty well. Very good at making tea cake 
・Knows a lot about healing so you have a lot of herbs, spices, flowers, vegetables that aren’t for eating per say, but for when someone is sick or wounded 
・Genya hated mirrors for a while, until you helped her get over the change in her appearance. You helped her on the road to confidence and self love. 
・You’re both still involved in helping the Grisha so you see Zoya, Nikolai, Tolya, Tamar etc 
・Genya doesn’t really like having people at the house though. It’s her sanctuary where there are no reminders of The Darkling or the nichevoya
𝐌𝐚𝐥
・Wants a simple life
・Doesn’t care for anything fancy, so you’d be the one to arrange everything
・I can see him as a farmer
・Out in the country, living off the land, but never taking too much and giving back
・We know from the books that he ends up running the orphanage with Alina, living a simple life. Looking after kids who need a home - and I think he would do that whether he was with Alina or not (and in this case...obviously not)
・He would be content with a slow life with you
・But he also wants to be of use to the community; to give back
・So you spend your days finding jobs for people who need them - with the help of Nikolai. You do the paper work while Mal meets the people and waits with them until a horse and carriage arrive
・You also have a huge vegetable garden that you allow the community to use as they please
・In thanks they give you something; knitted blanket, baked bread etc
・You have cows, goats, sheep and horses
・There are stable hands that tend to the horses. Usually the young people from the village (both boys and girls alike)
・The milk isn’t just for you and Mal but you go into town and give it to the people who need it most
・You don’t live far from the village. In fact you can see your neighbours just by looking out the window. They may look far, but really it’s only a ten minute walk
・You also teach people how to read and write
・Mal is absolutely head over heels in love with you
・Always makes sure you feel protected and safe
・Is actually very sensitive and feels things deeply. That’s why sometimes he has to take time to process his emotions alone
𝐙𝐨𝐲𝐚
・We know that Zoya is destined for greatness, hence she would end up living in a castle
・But if not a castle than a quaint chateu will do
・Is a stickler for mess
      “There is no reason for there to be so much untidyness!”
・Has a lot of pictures/drawings/paintings of her family up around your home
・She always needs the bed to be made every day; if you’re the last to get out of bed than you have to make it
・You see a different side to Zoya; yes a softer side but also the undone, sloppy version of her. She actually didn’t let you see her like that until a month into living together
・If you snore she makes you sleep on the couch
・No. pets. She’s the one who wears the pants in this relationship and her decision is final
・Until you start feeding an old cranky cat who doesn’t stray far from your home. You name him, but keep him a secret and sneak him inside when Zoya is away
・She pretends not to notice and lets you have your hidden pet
・Although you’d think there would be servant or maids, that’s not the case. You and Zoya split the chores equally; she doesn’t want another person touching her things
・She actually colour co-ordinates her clothes; they’re in colour order and when she’s especially stressed she’ll do the same for yours
・When clothes are folded, they have to be folded neatly- 
・Is a very, very good cook. She makes these pastries with goats cheese inside that are to die for 
・Has a vanity with ridiculous amounts of make up. When she has a bit to drink she always wants to give you a makeover 
・Takes her coffee and tea very strong 
     “What’s the point of polluting it with milk and sugar?”
・Is the last to fall asleep and the first to wake, but she stays in bed for 20 minutes because she likes being so close to you 
・Whenever guests come over she is the perfect hostess. But if they overstay their welcome she won’t hesitate to tell them it’s time to leave
𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫
・IS SO DRAMATIC WHEN GETTING READY
   “This outfit worked better in my head”
・Wanted to have multiple mirrors in the bedroom so he could “see himself at all angles” but you told him “the fuck we are”
・He relented ... not without whining
・But Jesper’s clothes do end up EVERYWHERE
・He’s awful at picking up after himself in the clothing department
・But he does keep the bathroom really clean ???
・Even if it’s shaving or after a bathe, he’ll make sure it’s exactly how he found it
・Hates weird smells so he sprays perfume everywhere
・Liked the thought of living in the city to be close to the rest of the crows, so you accepted
・But you made him promise not to do anymore gambling -
・Your home is like an escape for Jesper
・Likes to go shopping with you. He likes picking out things so that you can match (you’re against it at first but ... also submit to it)\
・He always knows how to make you laugh, so whenever he forgets to do a chore he can wiggle his way out of it
・Will do all the grocery shopping and any errands you don’t want to do
・Also loves candles, especially scented ones but has been banned from having them burning unless you’re home too ...
・Moves around a lot in his sleep and has whacked you a few times
・Misses you whenever either of you are away. Keeps a piece of your clothing to smell
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠
・Although he spends a lot of time at the Little Palace, he wanted a place where it was just you and him. Where he wouldn’t be disturbed by questions or problems.
・A lot of his focus is on his plans, but he keeps maps and the like all in one room
・He wants to keep the bedroom for ... bedroom activities. As well as all the other rooms for their proper uses
・Aleksander doesn’t want his ambitions to hinder your domestic life
・He hates overhead lighting
・Prefers candles or lamps
・Always buys you new clothes, new shoes, new accessories etc. Wants you to have the best of the best 
・And he gets headaches very easily so you have tinctures and remedies on hand as well as around the house
・He prefers the quiet, and too much noise overwhelms him
・Pets aren’t really his thing ... maybe a bird though, but it wouldn’t have to make much noise
・He does love horses though. And would spend hours on them if he could. Just galloping away, far from his troubles.
・Has a maid that comes and cleans the house
・The only time you’ve seen him truly peaceful is in sleep, but that’s only when the nightmares haven’t started 
・He wakes up a lot during the night and doesn’t want to wake you. But you’ve told him whenever that happens he’s more than allowed to wake you up. Being in your arms help him go back to sleep
・100% lets you steal the blankets, without ever complaining 
・He’s more likely to remember things than you are, so he makes/buys you a calender and writes down everything you’d need to remember 
𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐚
・Isn’t very tidy. There are a LOT of food crumbs (especially in the bed)
・Her hair is actually very long, she just keeps it up and out of the way, so you get to see Nina with her long hair down
・But you also find a lot of Nina’s hair ... everywhere
・She does like when you give her head scratches - a lot of golden retriever energy
・You’ve actually been collecting it to prove to her how much she sheds
・Is always hungry and asks if you want to get food nearly every hour and a half
・She’s not that bad of a cook, but you aren’t much better. So a lot of your food is bought rather than made
・Always makes sure you’ve had something to eat though, especially after a long day or after a big gig with the crows 
・You, Nina, and Inej have a close friendship; so Inej likes to ... appear ... in your house
・Most of the time it’s because of an injury. So you keep your storages stocked up just in case.
・But other times it’s for a sleep over! Eating, all sleeping in the loungeroom, telling each other stories and secrets
・You invite Jesper and Wylan aswell... and have asked Kaz but he always declines. Well actually he doesn’t even decline he just doesn’t say anything or show up 
・Is a heavy sleeper when you’re in the house. But when she’s alone she can barely sleep
・Always kisses you when you walk through the door and before you leave. It’s become a ritual and if it isn’t done then it’s bad luck
・Learns your little quirks. Like if you like your sandwiches cut diagonally or straight 
・Nina is very romantic
・She loves going on little dates with you. And always makes sure you have time for a date. At least once a month. Even if it’s just going out to eat and then taking a walk underneath the night sky
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lassieposting · 1 year
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S&B Characters + Sleep Headcanons
Aleksander Kirigan doesn't get a lot of sleep. He claims it's because he's an incredibly busy man, and that's often true - long hours are basically part of his job description - but in truth it's just as likely to be any of a dozen other things keeping him from his bed; nightmares, occasional merzost headaches, intrusive thoughts, the ghosts of fuck-ups past, the relentless stress and worry of trying to keep Ravka's borders secure with dwindling funds and forces. Over the centuries he's learned to bury himself in his work to avoid his demons, and he's become one of those people who's perfectly functional on four hours of sleep, considers six a lie-in, and will sporadically go days at a time without sleeping when he's not doing well.
For most of his life, he's been immensely wary of falling asleep beside a lover - there are few worse ways to discover your bed partner was just out to kill you for bone jewelry than waking up mid-assassination attempt. If he's keen enough on them to not have them leave after a casual encounter - say, Zoya - he'll usually stay with them until they fall asleep, and then get up and go quietly do some work or read until morning. He's willing to adapt, though, for the right person - Nikolai and Alina can both settle him enough to stay with them all night. The trick, as it turns out, is playing on his touch starvation; on the rare occasion he finds someone he can actually trust, he likes to be held, and affectionate little gestures like playing with his hair or scritching his stubble or massaging his shoulders will melt him and flick his OFF button real fast. He's surprisingly cuddly, though he'll swear blind that he just gets cold easily and Alina and Nikolai both run hot.
Nikolai Lantsov is very tactile and affectionate in general, so when he's sharing someone's bed, he likes to cuddle. Like most soldiers - and kings who have survived more assassins than anyone should ever have to - he's a light sleeper, but he also drops off easily, the legacy of learning to get his head down wherever and whenever he can in an active warzone. He likes to sprawl out over or wrap himself around his lovers, and he does a lot of idly playing with hair or repetitive stroking up and down random stretches of skin, almost like he's self-soothing by comforting someone else.
He's been known to react to things happening around him while still asleep - pulling Alina in against his chest if he feels her shiver, or rolling over to throw an arm over Aleksander and mumble easy, Sasha if he's having a bad dream. He has nightmares of his own - he spent his military service on the front lines, not safe in an officer's tent like Vasily - and he tends to burrow into the closest warm body for comfort, burying his face in Alina's chest or Sasha's shoulder to ground himself. Aleksander will almost always wake up for this and react, reassuring and resettling Niko. Alina, not so much.
Alina Starkov sleeps like the dead. Once she is out, she is Out, and she'll sleep through pretty much anything short of a bomb being dropped on the palace. For quite a while this actually frightens her - she worries she won't wake up in time if she's attacked - but Niko is a light sleeper and Aleksander startles awake if a butterfly sneezes in Novyi Zem, so once they're all sharing a bed she's perfectly safe to conk out like a light. She's always had very vivid dreams, but she doesn't remember them for long after she wakes, so she keeps a sketchpad by the bed so she can draw any ideas or lingering impressions she wants to hang onto after she wakes - a concept for a machine Nikolai might want to build, a kefta design Aleksander would look devastatingly good in, old memories from the war she needs to exorcise, random nonsense that makes no sense outside of the context of her dream. She's usually the last to wake - Aleksander and Nikolai are both military and ridiculously busy besides, so they're often up with the Saints-forsaken sun, but Alina loves a lie-in, and would much rather stay up late than wake early.
Mal Oretsev is used to taking turns on watch with other soldiers, so he tends to sleep in short bursts of a few hours at a time. This poses a challenge once he takes over the Volkvolny - he has a lot of extra time to sleep now that he didn't have before. He spends a lot of it painstakingly working his way through the collection of books in Sturmhond's - his - stateroom. If he's to play the role, he should probably have the knowledge, and he'd rather be able to pull his weight without getting in the crew's way. He enjoys the engineering manuals and seafaring tomes, but mostly uses the ones on statecraft to make himself doze off when his brain doesn't want to shut down and be quiet.
Genya Safin is a paranoid sleeper. Her bed is positioned and angled so she can watch the thin strip of light visible beneath her closed door, waiting for the old king's loathsome shadow to block out the glow from the other side. Long after his death, she'll wake and go rigid at the sound of footsteps in the hall. It takes her a while to actually let David into her bed, but when she does, she realises she finds him comforting, actually - he's so logical and steady that he can talk her down from even the worst of her dreams. He doesn't mind getting up to prove to her that her door is locked, or reassuring her nightly that the old king really is dead.
David Kostyk is That Guy. He talks in his sleep - quadratic equations and theories of immutability and assorted Fabrikator shop-talk. He gets up and wanders around sometimes - usually to and from his desk, but occasionally down the hall. At least once he's gotten up, put on a housecoat, double-checked the lock on the door for Genya, comforted her after a nightmare, and gone back to bed himself, having never really woken up in the first place. This is a known habit at the Little Palace, and has caused plenty of entertainment and consternation - he's "caught" Nikolai sneaking out of the Black General's chambers back when he was still the spare tsarevich, he's wandered into the war room at four-thirty in the morning to explain a prototype to General Kirigan, he's been found ambling about the kitchens barefoot. Everyone who tends to stay up late - Kirigan included - has kindly escorted David back to his own rooms at least once. His saving grace is that he's really quite particular about his pyjamas - they're Durast-made to feel heavy, like a weighted blanket, and he finds it difficult to drop off without the grounding sensation - so at least he's never gone sleepwalking in his birthday suit. He wanders a little less once he starts spending his nights with Genya - if she's resting her head on his shoulder, or has an arm draped over his chest, he seems to be reluctant to move her.
Ivan Kaminsky has night terrors, the kind that wake him screaming and thrashing and completely disoriented, trapped in his own blankets - the legacy of the front lines at the Fjerdan border over a century ago. As a younger man, fresh off the front lines with nothing to his name but a medical discharge from active duty, he'd often find himself seeking out General Kirigan, stumbling into his tent or the Little Palace war room pale and shivering and still in his sleep clothes, all terribly undignified. Kirigan never seemed to mind, really. It was an understanding of sorts, between old soldiers familiar with the lingering spectre of war. He'd give Ivan a cursory once-over - "Evening, Kaminsky." - pour him a drink, and push a stack of papers across the table to give him something to do. He misses it, sometimes, the long nights spent working in companionable quiet. But now the General spends his nights with the sun summoner and the puppy king who's been making eyes at him since he was a skinny princeling, and Ivan spends his with his Fedyor, who has a truly remarkable amount of patience for being woken up at all hours by all the flailing and yelling. Ivan still hates talking about his night terrors - Fedyor is too young to have ever fought in the campaigns that got Ivan his discharge papers, and Ivan is reluctant to place extra horrors on his shoulders - but Fedya would listen, if Ivan needed him to, and in the meantime, he'll regulate Ivan's heart rate and breathing for him, deactivate the fear centre of his brain and flood him with signals telling his brain he's close to sleep, until he really is.
Inej Ghafa likes to sleep in Kaz's office. Back when he first bought out her indenture and took her from the Menagerie, that was where she felt safest. Only one door, locked firmly behind him whenever he ventured down to the rowdy Club below, where the raised voices of drunken men made her feel sick with terror. Two windows, left open at her fearful request - exits, if she needed them. A comfortable leather couch. The scratch-scratch-scratch of Kaz's quill on paper. Jesper used to try to reassure her - no harm will come to you at the Crow Club, you're Kaz's - and a small, wounded part of her took that to heart. If her connection to Kaz Brekker kept her safe, this man who showed more interest in her blades than her body, then she would rest where he could see her, where that protection would be a physical, tangible thing. And he let her. Never complained, though she knows now what he's like about his privacy. Just let her curl up on his Chesterfield. Draped a blanket over her when it was cold.
She's not that terrified girl anymore. She has her own lodgings, with her own possessions, though she still has a nighttime ritual for safety - one final sweep of the building, checking her escape routes, jamming a chair beneath her door handle. But she's quite capable of protecting herself now. All the same, when she is injured or sick or has been summoned back to the Menagerie on business, she'll still climb through his window, breathe out a sigh of relief at the inevitable, unsurprised, "Hello, Inej," and make herself comfortable on the couch for the night.
Wylan Hendriks sleeps curled into a ball. He's spent his share of time on the streets of Ketterdam and that's how he's learned to do it - hugging his meagre bagful of possessions, threadbare blanket wrapped around him and it. In Jesper's room at the Crow Club, he likes to burrow under the blankets; he'll rest his head on Jesper's belly to sleep rather than his shoulder, so even his hair is covered. It muffles the sound drifting up from the club floor or the street outside in the evenings - the shouting, the drunken arguments and bitter insults tossed around like knives, anything that might remind him of - anyway. He tends to turn in fairly early compared to the other Crows - while he loves the music of the city's bars and even enjoys the camaraderie of watching Jesper gamble, closing time in most of Ketterdam peaks at around midnight, and that's about when all the socialising starts to get a bit much for him. The Barrel stays open late, and Kaz doesn't kick out his patrons until the early hours of the morning, so most of the Crows have become night owls by necessity. Wylan uses the hours between making his exit and Jesper finally coming to bed to decompress - compose, play his flute, experiment with chemicals, look at the books Jesper got him, the ones with all the pictures to tell him the fairytales. After a few incidents where Jesper bursting in drunk and noisy left Wylan...a little out of sorts...he's learned to knock, the same pattern every time, before he lets himself in, and it's always easier to uncurl a little and relax with Jesper holding him.
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grishaverse-chaos · 1 year
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I might be in a very small minority here, but I actually really don't want Alina to have a corruption arc in any future seasons of s&b! (Mostly because I hate the trope of victims becoming just like their abusers, and it seems to me that that's where the show is going with her arc)
So here's what I want for her. (Under a cut because it got longer than I thought it would)
I want her to be angry and terrified about her new powers. I want her to be furious that the Darkling gave her his powers - one final act of violation that means she will never be able to forget him, no matter how hard she tries. I want her to be scared, constantly. I want to see her break down in tears after killing the Fjerdan assassin, because she didn't know she had his powers and is she turning into him? I want her to be scared of the adrenaline rush she gets whenever she uses her new powers. To refuse ever to use them again.
I want her to have PTSD. Nightmares. I want to see her wake up in the middle of the night, tears running down her face because she dreamed that the Darkling came back and forced her to train her shadow powers. I want her to reach for Mal only to remember that he's not there anymore - and maybe she wonders, is it her fault he's gone? Maybe he knew that she would turn evil. Maybe, just like the Darkling, she's going to push away everyone she loves.
I want Nikolai to transform into the demon, and Alina to see it and have a panic attack because what if that means the Darkling's back? I want her to talk to Zoya, and ask how she manages to stay so fucking calm all the time. I want Zoya to break down when there's nobody around but Alina, and tell her that even if she seems fine, she's terrified, looking around every corner to check for shadows. I want Zoya to confess that she fears becoming just like the Darkling, and Alina to reply "try having his powers"
I want them to bond over their fear, and each promise to pull the other out if they ever do start becoming like him. I want Alina to retreat further and further from the throne because she doesn't trust herself with power, and Zoya to step forward because even if she doesn't trust herself with power, she wants to test herself, to prove to herself that she is nothing like him.
I want Alina to be completely unstable, to panic every time she's in trouble and has to defend herself. I want her to stop using her Sun Summoning because she's afraid that even that might make her more like him, and I want her to get sick from it. I want her to be on the edge of collapsing at any given moment.
I want Nikolai to not notice a single thing about how Alina's breaking down, because he's busy and has a kingdom to run. I want Alina to scream at him and tell him that he's one of the only people in the whole country who actually gives a shit about her so can he act like it? I want him to look at her for the first time in months and realise that oh shit, his best friend is dying. I want him to write to Mal, begging him to come back, because as much as he wants to be able to save Alina himself, he can't.
I want Mal to come back and tell Alina everything she needs to hear. I want him to convince her that her light is beautiful, that it is nothing like the Darkling's shadows, that she is nothing like him. I want her to bury her face in his chest and break down in tears, because she almost forgot how good he is at saying the right thing when she needs him. I want him to offer to take her away from Court, and her to protest, saying that she can't leave.
I want Mal to stick around, and while he's still there, Alina to tell Zoya about his offer. I want Zoya to tell her to take it, to go while she still can, before the wedding. (And if Zoya's saying this partly because she and Nikolai have gotten closer while Alina's been having her mental breakdown, and she doesn't love the fact that he's engaged to somebody else... well, Alina kind of guessed that anyway. She's happy for them.)
I want her and Mal to run away. Maybe they fake her death, maybe she just leaves. Either way, they don't go back to Keramzin. (That would require them to confront exactly how messed up their childhood had been.) Instead, I want Zoya to suggest something that the Little Palace desperately needs - something she knows the pair of them would be good at.
I want them to start a new orphanage, on the outskirts of Os Alta, for Grisha orphans. The Little Palace simply isn't equipped to handle children who aren't being raised into soldiers, and most Grisha children stay at home now, unless they or their parents want them to learn control over their powers. Grisha orphans, on the other hand, have nowhere to go but the Little Palace - so Zoya and Genya work on creating a school, and the orphans Mal and Alina are raising go there to study every day, then come back home to the orphanage. I want Alina to start using her powers again. Slowly at first - creating little balls of light that she plays with when she's alone. Then I want her to remember how much she loves using her powers, how much joy and euphoria it brings her. I want her to become happy and confident in her powers again, and return to full health. (She won't ever be completely comfortable with the shadow powers she got from the Darkling, but one day she uses them with the kids - making shadow pictures on the wall one evening, and she realises that even with his powers, she can do good. She can make them her own.)
I want the news to spread about this. Do people know that it's the Sun Summoner running the orphanage? Maybe, maybe not. Whether or not they know, the orphanage gets more and more well-known. Otkazat'sya parents decide to send their children there so they can study at the Little Palace. After all, they've heard of the couple that owns it, and they seem trustworthy enough. I want Mal and Alina to recruit a team of Fabrikators to help them build an extension onto the building so there's enough room for all the new arrivals.
I want adult Grisha - rogue Grisha, many of them - to stop at the orphanage if they're in need. Whether they've been injured or fallen ill, they ran out of food, they just need a place to sleep for the night - they come to the orphanage. They know it's safe. Some of them have no home to go back to once they leave. I want Mal and Alina to offer them a permanent place to stay at the orphanage. Almost everybody accepts the offer. Many of them find they have something they can teach the kids - whether that's a special trick you can do with specific Grisha powers, or something else (a dish they love to cook, a sport they played as a child, their favourite place to shop in Os Alta) - the children learn eagerly from each new arrival.
And I want Alina to realise, after a few years, that the orphanage has become a sanctuary for Grisha of all ages. I want her to wonder briefly if that makes her like the Darkling. He'd wanted to create a sanctuary for Grisha. Then I want her to look around at the happy children, at the older Grisha entertaining the younger kids, and realise that she succeeded where he had failed. She and Mal have created a safe place where Grisha aren't being thrown into battle. Sure, some of the children from the orphanage grow up and join the integrated army (the First and Second Armies have been combined into one army. Ravka is stronger together, and that's reflected by the army defending it) - but nobody is ever forced into military service.
I want her to know that, without even meaning to, she has become not only the Darkling's equal, but she has become better than him. She has made the country safer for Grisha. Not him. Her and Mal. She and Mal changed the world. (Again.)
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bones-for-sure · 1 year
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Firebird's Affect on Mal
Mal with bird-like traits/animalistic behaviour.
OKAY, so Mal is the Firebird, right? And I know that the Firebird was never actually a bird, but, and hear me out here. WHAT IF, Mal had bird-like tendencies or even just more animalistic traits. Just picture Mal preening and puffing out his chest when someone compliments him, or specifically his tracking. (subtly, but noticeable if you're looking at him). Alina gets sick once when they were kids, and Mal spends a whole day running back and forth from her room gathering blankets and pillows and food and water until Alina stops him (buried in a mound of the aforementioned blankets and pillows). Or Mal in the military being oddly aggressive and territorial because of the trauma from being bullied in the orphanage, and becoming weirdly testy and hostile towards people who approach his "area".
And of course, because I am, as always, ridden with a severe case of Malkolai brainrot, so: Mal wearing bits of colour and spending ages in front of a mirror "preening" his appearance (essentially dressing up pretty and dolling himself up) before going to meet Nikolai. Mal constantly seeking Nikolai's attention by hovering (or, as Zoya and Alina dubbed it, "fluttering") about the golden King. Mal making a cooing/trilling noise when he's content, discovered when he and Nikolai were laying in bed and Nikolai started running and hand through his hair at the base of his head, which led to a very shocked silence, embarrassed blushing, frantic denials, and a fair amount of teasing (and yes, Nikolai does take full advantage of this discovery and now his hand is almost always on the back of his pet tracker's neck, much to the pleasure embarrassment of Mal). Mal extending his territorial and protective behaviour to Nikolai almost as soon as he met him, much to both parties' confusion and Alina's delight.
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Bruh, I think I may be a genius.
I think I may have solved one of the BIGGEST plot holes of the original Grishaverse trilogy: why didn’t any of the Grisha Mal touched--including Zoya--notice that he was a goddamn amplifier?
(spoilers for the Grisha Trilogy/Ruin and Rising under the cut)
BECAUSE ALINA HAD ALREADY CLAIMED HIM.
SHE CLAIMED HIM WHEN SHE REFUSED THE TESTER’S CALL IN THE BOOKS. SHE CLAIMED MOROZOV’S AMPLIFIER ALREADY, ALIVE, AND THEREFORE INCOMPLETELY OR SOME BULLSHIT WHEN SHE WAS A KID, AND THAT’S WHY HIS AMPLIFICATION DIDN’T WORK ON ANYONE ELSE.
And then when she killed him in Ruin and Rising, she closed the circle/disrupted the claim or something, and that’s why she lost her power, because she had lost her powers to keep him in the first place, so blah blah blah some equivalent exchange bullshit, but my point is that I just fixed a massive plot hole by being sick and sleep-deprived while rewatching season 1 of Shadow and Bone and prepping for season 2.
...Also that Inferni in the show with the blue ribbon in her hair that dies in episode 1 was totally Zoya’s girlfriend and that’s why Zoya in KoS/RoW wears a blue ribbon, thank you and goodnight.
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immortalmuses · 1 year
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will I die? probably. will I go down snarling with blood on my teeth? absolutely.
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idk why but this is so mal and/or alina
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sophierequests · 1 year
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malyen oretsev
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Navigation┃Main Masterlist┃Request
Angst: ☾ ┃ Fluff: ♡ ┃ Hurt/Comfort: ☆ ┃ Smut: ♤
“He could have run, could have wept, could have clung to the sides of the skiff until the darkness took him, but he did none of those things. He stood unflinching before the gathering dark.”
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oneshots
Mal was lying on the ground, mindlessly, hitting the bigger soldier towering over him. Both of them were bloodied and bruised, but you could tell that Mal didn’t stand that much of a chance. You wanted to scream. At Mal, at Mikhael, at Dubrov, at the gaping crowd and at yourself.
you're a fistfight (☆)
→ Mal gets beaten up by another soldier, and the reader is there to fix him up.
“What’s on your mind, Mal?” you asked softly, letting your hand rub circles over his back. He leaned into your touch immediately, letting his head fall onto your shoulder. 
gratefulness (♡)
→ Even though being stuck in the middle of the woods during the holiday season isn't really that festive, some things are still worth to be grateful for.
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stray-kaz · 1 year
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Masterlist
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Fandom works! So much here...
All reader inserts are female.
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Marvel
Bucky Barnes
T.L.C.
Girl Dad
Reds and Whites
Not Even a Candle
Reparations - 18+
Prologue   One   Two   Three   Four
Snow & Ice - 18+
One   Two   Three   Four   Five   Six   Seven   Eight   Nine   Ten   Eleven   Twelve   Thirteen
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Frank Castle
Kiss Cam
A Touch of Crazy
Brothers In Arms
Frank Castle x Family headcanons
Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner
Time and Time and Time Again - 18+
A Baby Shower for Frankie
Two Pink Lines
Two to Tango - 18+
Baby Talk
Paper Ring
Blooded
The Opposite of Soft - 18+
Gone Off Half Cocked - 18+
Butterflies On Fire
A Stitch in Time
Look Where You’re Going
I Do
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Matt Murdock
On Blind Faith - 18+
ONE   TWO   THREE   FOUR   FIVE   SIX   SEVEN   EIGHT   NINE   TEN
Headcanons
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Steve Rogers
I Love You, But... - 18+
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Shadow and Bone
Jesper Fahey
A Better Distraction - 18+ - Completed
One   Two   Three   Four   Five   Six   Seven   Eight   Nine   Ten   Eleven Twelve
Kiss & Tell
A Good Shot
Ruse
Little Lantsov
An Unexpected Prince - sequel to Little Lantsov
Tender
Trigger
Swap With Me - 18+
He’s A Criminal and He’s Mine
Safe Inside, Out of the Rain
Laundry Day
The Law of Loss
You’re The Reason I Hate Champagne
There Goes My Life - An Assortment
One Two Three Four Five Six
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Mal Oretsev
Twice Wounded - sorta 18+
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Nikolai Lantsov
Patched - 18+
All Patched Up - 18+ - sequel to Patched
Monkey in the Air
Daddy and The Fox
To Be His Queen - 18+
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Kaz Brekker
Stray - request prompt
A Murder of Crows - Miniseries
Part One Part Two
Memento Mori - request prompt
Green - request prompt
Love is a Battlefield
Set, Charge, Boom
The Magpie Verses - Completed
Take Off The Mask , Caught , The Crow and The Magpie , Unmasked
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Aleksander Morozova
Trouble Just Walked In - sorta 18+
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Matthias Helvar
Scrubbed Clean
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Tolya Yul-Bataar
Awoken
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Top Gun: Maverick
Bob Floyd
A Soft Landing - 18+
Red Flag Week
Baby. On. Board.
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Jake Seresin
Out of Bounds I, II, III, IV, V, VI - 18+
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Bradley Bradshaw
Jukebox Jive
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Lockwood and Co.
George Karim
Death and Doughnuts
A Personal Experiment - 18+
Stuck in the Middle With You - 18+ - requested
Oh Dear Baby - fic idea from @the-biscuit-agreement​
Oh How Time Flies - sequel to Oh Dear Baby​
Ghosts I Get, People Are Crazy
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Anthony Lockwood
Between a Tree and a Lockwood - sorta 18+
Honey, I’m Home - 18+
Delirium
His Mistake
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The Invitation
Walt de Ville
The Flower and The Serpent - 18+
one    two   three   four   five   six   seven   eight   nine   ten
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Little Women (2019)
Laurie
Sugar & Spice - 18+
one
two
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Zombies (Disney)
Zed Necrodopolis
Awkward Question
Betwixt
Midnight Resolution - 18+
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Leo Grande
Three Day Hire - 18+
One   Two   Three   Four   Five   Six   Seven
A Very Grande Christmas
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Austin!Elvis
Sky High
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The School for Good and Evil
Rafal Mistral
The Sky Is Falling
Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall
Under The Blood Moon - 18+
The Heirloom and The Heir
Evil, Be Mine
You Shall Be Loved
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Rhian Mistral
The Storian’s Favour
Back from the Brink
Bubbles
To Sleep and Not To Wake
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Ben Hardy Characters
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Billy / Four
Hold Me Close, Don’t Let Go - 18+
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The Witcher
Istredd
Chasing Fire - 18+
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One Piece Live Action
Roronoa Zoro
Buoyant
A Book and A Nap
Starless - 18+
First Kiss, Last Kiss
Keeping Watch - 18+
Double The Bounty - 18+ - Part One  Part Two
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Sanji
Tall Blond Pacifier
Sand and Stars
Wind and Rain - 18+
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Monkey D. Luffy
First Blushes
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Usopp
In The Moment
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OPLA Men
Dance With Me
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Christmas Drabbles 2023
Scent of Pine - Shanks
Neatly Tied With A Bow - Mihawk
Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice - Sanji
The Perfect Excuse - Zoro
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Fullmetal Alchemist
Edward Elric
Happy Birthday To You
Rest and Recuperation - 18+
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Tale of the Nine Tailed
Lee Yeon
Need - 18+
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Sweet Home
Cha Hyun-su
Sunshine Part One - 17+
Let Me Do It
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A Shop For Killers
Jeong Jin-man
Breathing
Time - 18+
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Misc.
Ready or Not - 18+
344 notes · View notes
rotzaprachim · 7 months
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jewish rep is so ashkenazi-centric i'm thinking about making a list of everyone from a wider range of minchagim with some more detailed discussion/headcanons, canon, implied, or headcanon. jesper fahey. cinta kaz. arram draper. daja kisubo. garcia flynn. sophia mendes. alina starkov. mal oretsev. cassian andor. ezra bridger. alex stern. the rabbi & the rabbi's cat.
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magravenwrites · 1 year
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Mal Masterlist:
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Headcanons:
Dating Mal Oretsev would include
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witchthewriter · 2 years
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𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫 & 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠'𝐬 𝐬/𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞
⤷ female, ambiguous race & all/any size reader!
ᴹᵃˢᵗᵉʳˡᶤˢᵗ
SFW ✶
・Your parents knew what you were as soon as you were born. There was no hiding your power. 
・The rumors about a babe of 6 months old could bring down power from the moon. The babe could glow, it could float, it could heal. 
・You were unsafe ever since those rumors spread. Somehow people started following your family, they 
・The Darkling had been wishing for you, for centuries. 
・You didn’t know you had a sister. One who grew up in an orphanage. Whose power opposed your own.
・Like two sides of the same coin-
・Whenever you draw on the power of the moon, your eyes glow white. Your hair floats and you’re even able to defy gravity. 
・While your sister was sent to an orphanage, you were given to a family friend. It was too dangerous to have two siblings so powerful, together. 
・However, that family friend died while you were a young teenager. You had to fight for yourself, and you grew wise beyond your years. 
・You had heard about Grisha being treated well in the Little Palace, so you made your way there with the hope you would have a place to live. 
・You had gotten to the gates, but they were destroyed. 
・But he did find you. When you had reared your horse around, and into the woods, you encountered bandits. With ease, you stopped them and took whatever they had. Food. Water. Money. 
・Somehow he found you. It was like he could sense you. 
・It was like coming home when you found each other
・He protects you like you’ve never been protected before 
・Helps you harness and control your power 
・He insinuated you were his soulmate within days of meeting
・Everyone is intimidated by the two of you. No one fcks with either of you because they know the other will unleash hell upon them. 
Relationship tropes
Mutual pining but you try to hide it. He is open with it. 
Hates everyone but you
He loves you and only you
Would destroy the world if it meant saving you
NSFW ✶  18+ minors do not interact pls and thank you
・The Darkling is all-consuming. His sex is the same. 
・There are no other thoughts in your head, no daydreaming, nothing. Just the relentless pleasure that he brings. 
・His hands wander - they roam your body. Drinking in each and every curve, dip, and bump. He loves every bit of you. 
・He is dominant and likes to control the sex. 
・A lot of biting; he leaves marks wherever his mouth goes
・Eats pussy and is the BEST at it
・The Darkling likes dirty talk and will come up behind you and whisper in your ear in front of people. He likes to see you squirm. 
・Nips at your earlobe 
・Has a blood kink
・He leaves hickies all over your breasts and neck. 
・The Darkling is also very big, and you thought you couldn’t possibly fit him inside you at first. 
・Will pound you into delirium - sometimes he makes you feel so good that you’ll start babbling nonsense. 
・His favourite positions are cowgirl, doggy, and face-riding. 
・When you’re on top of him his breath hitches in his throat. In those moments he truly believes you’re a goddess
Taglist: https://alaezasmystery.tumblr.com/
999 notes · View notes
lassieposting · 1 year
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Actually. Also. While I'm SABposting.
The whole "Dark & Dangerous Morally-Questionable Immortal vs Safe But Bland Childhood Friend love triangle? Is boring. It's been done to death in every single YA series ever written.
But. Y'all know what could've been super refreshing and highkey entertaining?
Kirigan and Mal getting along.
Like. Mal is supposed to be a promising young soldier anyway, and when they meet, he's just succeeded in hunting down a folkloric magical creature that nobody has caught in hundreds of years. And then he has the sheer brass balls to withhold said creature's location to try and negotiate with someone who outranks him to an almost inconceivable degree.
This is. Probably not a smart career move, because noblemen are petty and prone to pissing contests, and Kirigan could make Mal's life very unpleasant. But it is brave, and Kirigan has been a soldier long enough to both a) spot untapped potential and b) respect bravery when he sees it.
(It's interesting to me that Mal often forgets to salute/call his superior officers 'sir' in the First Army scenes, but he absolutely remembers his manners with Kirigan. He needs this guy to like him, so he can see his bestie.)
And getting on each other's good side would actually benefit both of them - which Kirigan especially would know - being however many centuries old and with strategy as his fucking job.
On Mal's side - he's kind of languishing in mediocrity because he's an orphan with no contacts to give him a foot in the door to promotion. When he applies to transfer to better units where he'd learn new skills or have more opportunities to distinguish himself in the eyes of his superiors, he's shunted aside and overlooked in favour of someone whose father knows the king, because fatcats all look out for each other. But if he applied for the same transfer with a recommendation from the Black General, his potential new CO would take him far more seriously as an option. He certainly wouldn't suffer for having an affluent, influential man at the top of the military totem pole keeping an interested eye on his career.
On Kirigan's side - having Mal around, even infrequently, will settle Alina and make her feel more at home, and she'll know he pulled strings for Mal to boot. He's been intercepting their letters, because Alina writing all about the daily goings-on in the Little Palace is a fucking security risk, and she's understandably angry with him for it, but if Mal has a reason to come by the Little Palace now and then, to report to him on something or other, she can see him in person and won't need to write letters that could so easily fall into the wrong hands. And - well, at some point, Mal will owe him so much that he'll have to be loyal. Because betraying him would cost Mal everything. He's patient. He can wait.
Except. Mal turns out to be likeable, in the salt-of-the-earth sort of way Kirigan sometimes misses from when he was a serving soldier himself, all those centuries ago, and he is full of fun facts about Alina and amusing (for Kirigan, Alina would say embarrassing) anecdotes about shit she got up to as a child. He's gotten used to the intrigue and the backstabbing and the plotting that goes on at court, but there's none of that with Mal, because the boy is a shit liar and has no guile whatsoever. It's refreshing. And Mal has grown up being schooled about battles that Kirigan fought in or masterminded, and he has Questions that at some point he gets to actually ask, and for a minute while they're conversing Kirigan sort of stops being this terrifying Grisha freak of nature in his mind and is just. Another old soldier, like most of the COs he's ever had, telling war stories, and there's common ground, between them.
And like Alina is aware that they've formed a tentative truce for her sake and she is very pleased that they have, and then one day Aleksander makes a comment about how "the boy isn't a complete imbecile, I suppose" and she starts to think he might even like Mal, in his own prickly way,
And then she walks into a room during a fete and sees them talking, and that's lovely because they both look actually interested in the conversation! And she's smiling at them, right up until Mal starts flapping his elbows around and pulling comically horrified faces and she just knows he's telling Kirigan about the first time she ever rode a horse, when the damn thing spooked and took off with her at top speed and dumped her in the - yes, there he goes, pretending to pick pondweed out of the hair he doesn't have - lake. And Kirigan creases up and almost chokes on a mouthful of wine and saints, he's such a horse girl he'll be bringing this up forever and. Yeah she is going to have to murder the pair of them because she will never hear the end of this otherwise
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persuedbybear · 11 months
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Today's Mal Oretsev theory
Mal is not actually cool or popular. He doesn't make friends everywhere he goes, and he's not automatically well liked by everyone.
Alina only thinks he is because that's what she thinks of him. But it is well established that Alina is never a more unreliable narrator than when it comes to Mal.
Think about it. Not counting Alina, when we meet Mal, he has a grand total of 2 friends, Dubrov and Mikhail, and they're not exactly cool kids themselves. They end up being loyal, decent men when it really counts, but before that, they're kind of unlikable losers. Not the trio you imagine being the big men on campus (or base camp, in this case.)
But what about Zoya? She was interested in him. Firstly, she's a Grisha and he's the world's most powerful amplifier. He has a distinct advantage there. Secondly, even if he didn't, do you remember how Dubrov and Mikhail reacted when she just looked at him? That level of hype implies that this is not a common occurrence.
And that's kind of it.
Those are the only times in the books where he is attractive to people without them having an ulterior motive. Alina tells us that other people have been interested (Ruby for instance) but we have to just take her word for it. We never see it ourselves.
Sturmhond likes him, but Sturmhond isn't real, and as soon as the rouse is over, and he can be Nikolai again the relationship is pretty freaking antagonistic. He's never really accepted by any of the Grisha on the crew or at the little palace. He keeps them at arm's length, and they do the same. And the royals and diplomats all see him as too far beneath them to actually be friends.
The only person in the whole trilogy he forms a genuine connection with is Misha, and he's 7.
So yeah, headcanon that Alina is just projecting. Mal likes, and is liked by his wife and his kid. End of list.
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shadow and bone masterlist
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ALINA STARKOV 🌞
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GENYA SAFIN 🗡
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ZOYA NAZYALENSKY 🌌
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TAAMAR KIR-BATAAR 🦉
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MAL ORETSEV 🔭
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TOLYA YUL-BATAAR 🥄
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DAVID KOSTYK 🍉
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