Wesper Faerie ✨

inej’s trauma manifesting through disappearing yet she fell for the boy who knows sleight of hand and the trick to not only making the coin appear again, but knowing that it was never gone in the first place

But the argument that "Inej gave up so much and that Kaz didn't gave her much choice when he asked her to join the Dregs" really puzzles me the more I think about it.

From the very first moment when Kaz and Inej share their first actual conversation, Kaz makes his terms very clear. He tells her that the conditions of the Barrel are harsh and that she was expected to do things like killing to survive. I've seen some people say that Inej didn't really have much of a choice because her only other option was staying at the Menagerie.

And I can get that, but it feels unfair to zero all the frustration on Kaz. At that time, realistically, there wasn't much Kaz himself could do about Inej's situation either. Because remember, the Kaz then is not the powerful and wealthy gang leader he is now. Then he was still working under Per Haskel and keeping a hold on the amount of money and valuables they spend. It took him a great deal of convincing to just transfer the ownership of Inej's contract. And even that took a great deal of cash. At that time, Kaz offered her the best he was capable of offering and made his terms clear. And Inej agreed to them.

And then there's the thing about Inej giving up so much and having to kill despite her moral beliefs. I do feel sorry for her, given everything she's been through and the cost it is to her religious beliefs. As a religious person myself, I get it. Completely.

However, it's important to remember that Inej isn't the only person who was forced to kill and hurt people to survive. This is something that applies to almost every member of the Dregs. I'm sure there was a point when none of them wanted to hurt people or take their lives. But even they eventually adapted to survive. (We don't talk about Kaz, his situation was different and a bit more extreme given his age at the time). But isolating the "giving up so much" exclusively on Inej feels dismissive for other characters.

Plus, its not like Inej did all that killing strictly for Kaz. A lot of it was for herself too. To protect herself.

doesn’t matter if you’re trans, cis, or unsure. everyone experiences gender euphoria in the weirdest (/affectionate) ways and i wanna hear about them. tag five of your mutuals or people you just wanna hear from

for me:

singing along to billy joel songs

remembering i do have body hair in the form of a happy trail

cutting my nails and painting them black

tags:

Wearing knee-length shorts

Rolling up the sleeves of my button-downs

Wearing my trench coat for some reason

Singing along to pop punk bands

doing fun grungy makeup

When I look like a true mix between boy and girl

When I understand a concept through a reference, and the person explaining gets it

the fact that I’m going to be student teaching next year (only once a week. Stupid early college program)????

when people affirm that I am as good as I hope I am at things I like

is femme euphoria a thing

i think it totally is

anyways

1. Doing my makeup but especially lipstick, and leaving lipstick marks on cups/things i use

2. dresses that have zippers/buttons/closures of some sort (feels fancier than just slipping one on)

3. my shoes clicking on the floor when i walk

hm: being called pretty/beautiful, people using any feminine terms (im literally cis i just grew up ugly so i had such a disconnect to femininity that i get crazy gender euphoria from people using my pronouns/feminine terms 💀)

my chopped up muscle tee (even tho i have no muscles)

my friend who likes to call me a “lesbian little boy” bc he thinks it’s an insult but my gnc ass secretly loves it

jeans + doc combo IT HITS THE BABY BUTCH URGE EVERY TIME

hm: the like 2 times someone on tumblr dot com has used the they from my she/they like i was kicking my feet i don’t have time to think abt what that says about my gender

jorts. they make me feel SO androgynous

drinking a white monster because on all the pinterest boards that are like "transmasc things" there's always a white monster (i'm not tmasc but it makes me feel less fem)

i have a spider-man bracelet that makes me feel very androgynous lol

hm: i only have one friend that uses my pronouns (im only out to two people) and when they use my preferred pronouns i literally want to start crying it makes me so happy

my clunky black combat boots i looooooooove them so much i feel so cool when i wear them

turning around to look out the back window as i go into reverse and pull out of a parking space (i literally do not know why but it makes me feel euphoric for no good reason)

holding the door for someone AND someone holding the door for me (yes both don't question it 😭)

i just use she/her irl and i think i'm cis-ish but i actually grinned so big the first time someone called me they/them on this site if that counts :D

Ty @awhimsicalwhirlwind for the tag

1. Whenever old people call me son or young man

2. Wearing a swim shirt and shorts combo

3. Halloween

After I got my short wolfcut haircut

Wearing overalls. or loose button down shirts.

My corset belt

Jesper: I feel like Jesper would be a die hard Shrek fan. Like he grew up watching the pro-shot and will shoot anyone on sight that says they don’t like it. He views himself as Donkey and Kaz as Shrek (even tho Kaz would rather die than be in a musical, let alone Shrek) He also looooooves the Cats Jellicle ball revival and has seen it at least 15 times

Wylan: Obviously his favorite musical is Hadestown. Hands down. He knows all the music by heart. I also feel like Wylan is just an encyclopedia of musicals and loves them all. I think he would also be a huge fan of Children of Eden and listen to lost in the wilderness 24/7. There’s also a part of me that believes he’s a huge classic Disney channel fan (which is one of the things him and Jesper bonded over) like he loves High School Musical and Descendants.

Matthias: he’s not very adventurous and I don’t think he’s looking for any niche musicals. I think he would LOOOVE the notebook. But he’s also got some of the classics on his playlist like Wicked, Oklahoma, and Fiddler on the roof (HEAVY on Fiddler) He also hates Hamilton and Lin Manuel Miranda all together. He finds Rap unnatural and very off putting.

Nina: I just KNOW my girl is jamming out to Heathers and Ride the Cyclone. I think she’s the type to put on a production of Heathers in her basement and then cast herself as all 3 Heathers. Her alarm to wake up in the morning is My Dead Gay Son. Now ik my girl is just dyingggg to play Jane Doe in Cyclone but she also can’t wait to be in Space Age Bachelor Man. She loves casting everyone in shows and I feel like she would randomly send messages on the gc of who people would be in a musical. Ex of a text she has sent:

Hello my beautiful children! Thank you all so very much for Auditioning for Ride the Cyclone! I pondered for many hours who would fit what role best and I think I have outdone myself! Without further ado, the cast list!

Jane Doe: yours truly

Ocean: Inej

Ricky: Wylan

Mischa: Nikolai

Noel: Jesper

Constance: Brekker

Karnak: Matthias

Inej: I think she would just adore Waitress. She loves the fact that the whole production team was all Women and I think there are parts of Jenna that she really relates to. I think she would also just really love Suffs and everything it stands for. She’s absolutely furious that it’s not still on Broadway. She even started a petition to keep it open when they announced they were closing. I also think Pippin is near and dear to her heart because the Circus spectacle of it really reminds her of her childhood.

Kaz: ok now Kaz is like really pretentious and claims he hates musicals but every so often he gets caught listening to Phantom of the Opera. I just KNOW he relates to the phantoms astronomical levels of yearning. He also has a love/hate relationship with Sweeney Todd. Like he loves how creepy and violent it is but also the character Sweeney pisses him off. He would think that Sweeney was unorganized and that his plan was always doomed to fail.

In case you are having trouble deciphering the secret messages in the letters, here is my solution that I’m 99% confident is right!!

First, you need to get the decoder sheet out of the envelope near the end of the book, it’s the safe harbor sheet music on some see through paper. To decode each message, you must look for these specific dashes around the music notes. It can be hard to tell which dashes are the correct ones, so below is my decoder sheet with the dashes circled. If you look at the words that are relatively “under” the dashes or within the circled parts when you lay this sheet over a letter, they should create a secret message. Make sure the little icons in the corners are lined up properly when you overlay it. The left side is for Kaz’s letters and the right side is for Inej’s letters. You can find the solutions that I got under the image :) let me know if you guys got anything different!!

*When I say 1st letter, I mean the 1st letter on the Club Cumulus paper*

Kaz 1st letter: dreamed you returned, must avoid trap

Inej 1st letter: can we set a trap of our own making?

Kaz 2nd letter: trust me to protect you, use their ships

Inej 2nd letter: I’ll return to ketterdam and to you, no mourners