#viper!reader

🂱 ✧ . ⭒— VIPER!READER whose reputation extends even beyond the barrel in some places, speculated about in twisted conspiracy theories; that she's secretly Grisha, or that she's the daughter of a filthy rich Mercher who was disgraced and in retaliation, killed her entire family and wiped any evidence of them from the world.

🂱 ✧ . ⭒— VIPER!READER who those recruited after her talk about like an unpredictable spirit of vengeance, who only know what those who came before her have been able to tell them; that she didn’t exist in the Barrel and then one day, she just did. that she is Otkazat’sya, but likely more dangerous than any grisha regardless. that kaz pulled her out of a bad situation, and her loyalties lie firmly with him ever since.

🂱 ✧ . ⭒— VIPER!READER was raised an assassin, then planted in pekka rollins' sweet shop as a sleeper cell, where she learned that there were far worse things one could do to a person than kill them. and her salvation came when rumours began to spread about pekka's pretty little escape artist, piquing the interest of a particularly dangerous teenager deep in the barrel.

🂱 ✧ . ⭒— VIPER!READER who is the best bartender in the barrel, and the house favourite at the crow club until her shift ends and she vanishes with a smirk to drag jesper away from the poker table towards a plate of fries in a corner booth where they'll laugh about their last job or the latest buzz in the barrel.

🂱 ✧ . ⭒— VIPER!READER who has long since claimed the window seat in kaz's office to sit in silence while he works, offering the occasional bit of unprompted advice and lighting the scented candles she added to the room to keep out the stench of the city below.

🂱 ✧ . ⭒— VIPER!READER with a secret soft spot for strays -- especially cats -- despite all of her allure and superficial charms, because she understands when their backs arch and their fur spikes, unable to go back to the soft creature they once were meant to be, and only they understand boundaries and solace in solitude the way she does.

🂱 ✧ . ⭒— VIPER!READER whose relationship with kaz brekker is too complicated to label but too ingrained into every part of her life now not to name

🂱 ✧ . ⭒— VIPER!READER who slips into galas under a mask like she belongs and disappears like smoke long before the host realises he's been played a fool

🂱 ✧ . ⭒— VIPER!READER is duality made human. she is soft on the inside with sharper edges than the wraith's knives protecting her from the outside. she is cruel to mankind as it has been cruel to her, but kind to their children though she can't recall that kind of innocence anymore. she's the exploding barrel of a gun at the end of the line and the whisper of deadly secrets in a middle-man's ear down some forgotten alley wreathed in shadows and the tears of forgotten rats. she is everything, and she is nothing. she is a tormented enigma, but a friend all the same.