#ask lightning

that being said, can you give a rundown of all of your gender/pronoun hcs for the Crows

(also, silly goofy idea, he/she matthias on a low dose of estrogen. Do You See The Vision?)

(also ALSO, he/they jesper, only because im he/they and AuDHD and just really like projecting on him)

I would love to! Also omg 87k is it really that long already?

Kaz- he/him- trans man

Kaz first identified that he felt like a boy at around six and started going by 'Kaz' at 9.

Kaz was very iffy to me to write trans because disabled characters often get softened and looked down upon which results in writers writing them as trans in a strange transphobic, misogynistic way. Ultimately I wanted Inej and him to be t4t so I went for it. I have considered potentially writing a fic where he finds out he's intersex, reflective of my own journey.

Inej- she/her- trans woman

Inej always identified as a girl and insisted on it from a very young age, so that's how her parents raised her.

This was me really wanting to see a transfem woman of color. I wrote Inej in this way as a tribute to my girlfriend and her partners, showing that there's so much life to being trans.

Nina- she/they- trans nonbinary but not really big on labels

We see Nina's gender exploration and coming out in 'Womanhood.'

I had already written trans characters in this series who came out young, and I wanted to write some that were a little older (even though they still are relatively young) so I transed Nina!

I still need to fix their pronouns in quite a few fics because they're written out of order.

Matthias- she/he (in that order, reverse order is close to/can be considered a slur. no worries if u have used it before, now u know)- agender

We see Matthias gender exploration and coming out in 'Pretty.'

I really like Matthias unlearning systems of oppression and I see him eventually getting to the point where she's like 'gender is just another system and I want nothing to do with it,' which resulted in me writing her as trans as well.

Jesper- he/him- cis man

It's important to me in that Jesper is a queer Black man raised by a queer Black mother. We get to see so little rep of queer Black characters that having a canon one is amazing. I decided to keep him cis because I enjoy writing the way he explores with gender, sexuality, and feminity as a cis person. I enjoy writing that cis people can interact with these things too.

Wylan- he/him- cis man

Wylan being cis was important to me because I think he gets woobified a lot and headcanoned as trans in a way to show that he's soft and needs to be protected. I think you can write him trans just fine, but that there's also these patterns to who people headcanon as trans and I chose to divert that.

Bonus:

Kuwei- he/they- transmasc, nonbinary, genderqueer

I'll admit I did JUST decide this so I'll have to go change some of their pronouns but I absolutely see Kuwei as a nonbinary shit head (this from a nonbinary shit head). Kuwei gives such transmasc, drinks monsters, queering gender vibes. He's definitely the person to give people sexuality crises.

I LOVE the idea of Matthias on low levels of estrogen OMG I might take this as a prompt and write it. I Absolutely see The Vision.

I love he/they Jesper! I personally don't headcanon it, mostly for the reasons above, but I love when people play with gender and project it onto fictional characters and let them enjoy it (or suffer).

These headcanons really are only for crawling back to you because I love switching things up. I love nonbinary Kaz, I love trans Wylan, I love cis Inej, I love trans Nina, trans Matthias, trans Jesper. I love all combos really.

Oh do I EVER. Most are Kaz focused, but I tried to give you a bot of everyone. Have fun!

you're so easy to love by DancingShadows9174

A beautiful modern polycrows fic in which Kaz decides to get a cortisone shot to see if it'll help with his knee pain. This fucking floored me. I have a lot of medical trauma and I'm also physically disabled with my knees giving me much grief and this fic is not only beautifully written but beautifully understanding. It navigates pain, disability, and the character so well.

i will continue to accidentally give Kaz BPD by DancingShadows9174

A fic series in which Kaz has Borderline Personality Disorder and struggles with the reality of said disorders while dating Wylan. He goes through it in this one and it is quite cathartic but please check content warnings and such. Reminds me of the beginning of my own recovery journey. Navigates tricky topics with ease and expertise.

ANYTHING by DancingShadows9174 tbh, not just the above.

the queen's lady by 19burstraat

In which a monument is being erected in recognition of the tenth anniversary of the Queen’s Lady Plague. Such a monument needs considerable funding and there’s a lot of well balanced canon settings and feelings with a fictional scenario. This one feels like you’ve been placed back in canon with the same characters.

I will love You at 4:15 p.m. next Tuesday by dimtraces

Chaos writing following Jesper with beautiful exploration of adulthood and trying to adult while having ADHD. Polycrows and envelops the feeling of home. Dinner party set on New Year’s Eve. The activist, the everything, in me screams in joy at this work.

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Pentagram by emmyeverafter

Modern au where our crows are all magic and/or a magical creature. Nina has to take care of Matthias even when witches and werewolves have a long history of separation. Very quirky, a little sit-commy, and such a fun bubbly read.

what a mother wants by cameliawrites

You won’t catch Tante Heleen admitting it but Inej borderline scares the fucking shit out of her. Like just imagine when Inej was 15, it was night and Tante Heleen was counting the earnings from last week, she turns and nearly has a heart attack because Inej is just STANDING THERE. In her doorway, just standing there. MENACINGLY.

Heleen asks where the hell did she come from, and Inej just vaguely points right. And she’s about to yell that it still doesn’t answer her question before she pauses, puts the bridge of her nose in between her fingers before he says, “What do you want?” and Inej says, softly, “One of the girls threw up.”

And Heleen’s eye twitches and she sighs and says, “So give her a fucking bucket or something. Get out of my face.” and Inej stands there for a second longer before she says, “Okay.” and walks away. (Bonus if Inej only realizes later how much she used to borderline scare people.)

Thanks for waiting for me to get to this been busy!

OMG I love this so much I see this completely. I see this happening a few times and Heleen can't tell Inej to warn her that she's approaching because that would tell Inej that she isn't aware of Inej at all times, which would give Inej some semblance of control that Heleen would never let her have. Bells are the perfect solution to this and Inej would hate them, would have to get used to being near silent even with them, I can see Inej never risking taking them off even though they would easily be unclasped by just the power dynamic Heleen has over her and resigning herself to learning to be quiet with them. Maybe she figures out why Heleen gave them to her and purposefully makes noise around Heleen but practices being silent away from her and this is a thing that impresses Kaz even more about her, that sets her apart even further.

look is such a used word in this fic ill give u two:

Kaz’s crow hilt of his cane comes to Matthias' chin, forcing him to look up at Kaz.

and:

It’s minimally decorated and kept surprisingly neat but Wylan doesn’t look around much on the whole being terrified Kaz would kill him for snooping thing.

Does each country have their own sign language?

Depending on that answer—is there a difference between a Suli sign language and a Ravkan sign language?

Generally, yes each country has there own sign language. There's a little more about that here but I'll also explain more.

So far I have four fleshed signed languages. First I have Kerch Sign Language or Kerch Gebarentaal (KGT). Then there's Zemeni Sign Language (ZSL) and Novyi Zem Sign Language (Nozlan). Finally there's Ravkan Sign Language or Ravkan Język Migowy (RJM). All of these are based off of real life sign languages. KGT is based off Dutch sign language (NGT) while ZSL and Nozlan are based off ASL and Auslan respectively. Finally Ravkan is Polish based from PJM. These all follow book sources of where the nations are based off so hopefully these connections make sense.

And yes, there is Suli sign language though much of it has been lost and so it is a mix of a language. Suli sign language now is called Suli-Ravkan Język Migowy or written as S-RJM. It is considered a dialect of Ravkan Sign Language. S-RJM, while a dialect, has roots in early indigenous sign language. This language didn't have an official title and was just refered to as 'haath bolo' or 'hand talk/say.' Haath bolo still exists though it is practically extinct and only a few elders know it. Most Suli who sign know a mixture of haath bolo and Ravkan sign, which has- at this point- fully developed into the dialect of S-RJM. Haath bolo here is based on Plain Indians Sign Language (PISL). There's a lot of prejudice about S-RJM complaining that it is not 'proper' sign language, similar to judgement people that use Black American Sign Language (BASL/BSV) face.

A couple more fun facts about these languages:

Inej does not know S-RJM or any dialect of Ravkan or Suli sign. She is late deafened and learned KGT from Kaz in Ketterdam.

All name signs are given in ASL. I do not know the sign languages many of these languages are based on- nor their naming rules so all follow rules of ASL. (Reminder that name signs should only be given by someone from a signing community. I am not deaf but I do have a language impairment and use ASL along with AAC and spoken speech).

(Also please note I am not a linguist. I do study speech, language, and hearing but I don't specialize in linguistics so feel free to correct and/or guide me).

(Another note, feel free to use any of my languages and name signs in your own works to add sign languages to your own worlds, stories, roleplays, and fanfics).

It was the first time she had gotten to leave the house, and when she had seen the first newspaper and the two years that had passed, she had nearly cried.

first of all, love the username.

second ig i don't? like ig i do choose in the long term and I realize that but it sort of just easily becomes a blend of the character so quickly it almost doesn't feel like choosing. Ig I usually go with something I believe fits canon or something I'm focused on irl.

In my Hermitcraft stuff Scar has his irl disabilities in game. In My Hero Academia characters have disabilities that fit things that would go alongside their quirks. Jujutsu Kaisen I write Toge with a disabled mindset and view. Dimension 20 I did a challenge for that and I intentionally jumped around for that series. For that one I intentionally tried to hit commonly misrepresented disabilities and disabilities I am most familiar with. If I don't feel I know a disability well enough, I don't feel comfortable writing about it. I also try to represent things for friends who I know are struggling.

Deaf Six of Crows really just came from me signing with my partner and finally giving them name signs because I talk about them so much and being like 'wait but what if they signed!!!' I didn't have to make them Deaf, I could have made them more like me but I've written a lot of AAC stuff and non-verbal and verbal shutdown stuff. I thought it would be great to explore Deafness and Deaf culture more.

I write using both personal experience and research. I think the emotions and rawness of experiences almost always come from the soul of what I've lived through. Little things like mobility aid decorations and the feeling of exhaustion before even doing something- those are all personal experiences. So are things like learning Deaf tales and having an AAC device shut you out for maintenance. The small picture, the detail, is what I've been through.

Big picture is research. Big picture is knowing the IDEA covers IEPs and 504 plans in America and replicating something similar and Ketterdam and that overarching all of that is Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities and replicating something similar to that in the Six of Crows world to base conflict after. It's knowing disability activists (RIP Alice Wong) and their work so when you start bringing those politics into your worlds they connect in a way that makes sense.

I personally think good stories are a mix of everything. I think a good story has an outpouring of love from all sorts of sources in it and I try to do the same to mine.

Thanks for the question, and for sticking by my longer response.

I hope u enjoyed crawling back to you! I love that modern au and more of it is coming this October.