-he grumbles about celebrating his birthday, but every year, Jesper and Inej go halvsies to book a whole day of the most challenging escape rooms they can find, they’ll even make road trips with Kaz to surprise him. Then, by the end of the day, Kaz is grinning like a kid because he got to spend the entire day solving complex puzzles for fun.
I don’t know how to express this well but I really like how flowers and ribbons are motifs that Bardugo emphasizes especially in Kaz Brekker’s backstory and Nikolai’s life which I feel are sort of foils of each other. Both of them mask their feelings for their crush - Nikolai with humor and Kaz by not addressing them at all. While Nikolai came from wealth and Kaz from destitution, I feel they both desire the same simple things. To have their loved one safe and to maintain some sort of power but not abusing their power (Kaz taking Haskell down) (Nikolai trying to choose a rightful leader). They both have a sense of moral and justness that they cling to.
Kaz remembers the detail of Saskia’s red ribbon. It’s a symbol of his lost innocence, childhood, his love for life and others. I thought it stood out because this was a detail disclosed to us in a flashback but Kaz didn’t verbally share it with us , the readers. It is only when he repeats this detail to Pekka when we realize this red ribbon is personal to him and deeply affected him. Kaz is a deeply sentimental person at heart and he is still a child hurt by the loss of losing everything that made him happy. He lost the red ribbon. And you see why he is so deeply vengeful. He remembers everything he lost.
For Nikolai. he seems to have this sort of fetish . Well I don’t like fetish word. But obsession with Zoya’s ribbon. It’s Something that signals his crush on her throughout the book.
Geraniums, Inej’s mother’s favorite flower, comes up a lot. And right after Inej talks about Kaz and how he won’t give her flowers. But obviously Kaz is this man who is providing for her. He gives her a ship. He thinks of what she wants. We do get a flower moment in CK when Kaz dumps the geraniums into the canal and swoops a cloak around Inej like a phantom in the night. It’s sweeping. It’s romantic and over-the-top.
Not sure about other flower moments but it is mentioned quite a lot in the books like the blue irises for Alina as a symbol of the Darkling’s manipulation and Mal’s care for her.
I love how flowers symbolize the thought and care that the partner shows for the other. I guess that’s usually what most people use flowers for in books but I like how its mentioned consistently through different relationships in the books.
i made @gratzi-the-artist model for me so i could get the lighting and pose right it turns out drawing hoodies is HARD
headcanons:
•there was a solid week once where matthias only texted in gifs cause he thought it was “hip”
•kaz sleeps with socks, jesper is appalled jes can put up with a lot of crap from this guy but that is TOO FAR
•inej has the highest spice tolerance in the group and matthias and kaz can barely handle any spice without a few glasses of milk
•nina spends a lot of the car rides adding clothing items she’s nerving going to buy to her cart (asking matthias his opinion on most of them as she goes)
•matthias’s guilty pleasure is trashy westerns
•wylan has the most aesthetic instagram out of the group and nina is proud but also feels betrayed???
•wylan listens to owl city
what should i draw next for this au? share your thoughts and ideas (or personal headcanons) in the comments!
•the car is matthias’s mini van (the only car that will fit all of them comfortably
•inej likes to open up the sun roof while they drive
•kaz and wylan get super invested in cutthroat kitchen (the only decent show on the motel tv after 12:00) and end up watching it whenever they can find it at their stops
•kaz considers being a food critic for a whole two seconds before a) he remembers he doesn’t eat enough and b) a woman’s fake nail ends up in the salad
•inej takes over driving for kaz at like 3 AM after a long sleepless night in a super sketchy room and forces him to sleep because it looks like he’s wearing really messy eye black
•nina continues to document all their adventures and now has a photo album labeled “kanej <3” that she shared with inej
•nina and matthias making waffles in the little hotel breakfast bar waffle maker
•jesper eating froot loops without milk while the others watch in disapproval
i love hearing from you guys so share your thoughts and headcanons too! ♥️
•Jesper is the one to steal all the hotel shampoo and conditioner, etc
•Nina honks much too often so they try and keep her out of the drivers seat
•Inej breaks her hairbrush at one of the motels so she and kaz make a midnight grocery store run and come back with a hairbrush, chips, and $2 fuzzy socks with crows on them
•Wylan and Kaz end up watching cooking shows together in the motel room
•Inej hands kaz his food while they drive (he pretends to be annoyed by this)
•they go out for a nice sit down dinner one night and upon taking the first bite, Jes exclaims, “I FORGOT WHAT REAL FOOD TASTED LIKE!!!”
•At one of the motels they all sneak out to the pool after hours, Jes is in the pool, kaz is on a chair with a book, and the rest are all squished in the hot tub
•Matthias snores super loudly and they make a game of trying to quiet him without waking him up
•Matthias is the best speller out of the gang (he competed in spelling bees as a kid)
•Kaz taught Inej how to drive (she got a ticket in his car once and he’s never let her live it down, it’s become a joke between them)
Make sure to comment thoughts, ideas, personal headcanons, and what you want to see next!
Can’t believe I haven’t drawn the dregs yet. Gotta love these kids!
Commissions open! PM me for details!
[ID: A black and white drawing of Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa. Kaz is a tall boy with sharp features. He is wearing a dark suit and long coat, leaning on a cane and staring off to the side. Inej is a petite girl wearing a dark tunic and caplete. She is holding a knife and looking straight ahead with a serious expression. END ID]
