He deeply loves all of the crows but would always deny it to whoever asks.
After the auction/confrontation with Pekka in CK he talks a lot more about Jordie to the others.
Cherishes each and every thing the others gift him, but hides them away somewhere so they can't see how much he loves it.
He has a few other tattoos but has to be unconscious before he gets them, so he'll only get them from a tattoo artist he trusts with his life (or Inej is there to watch). Obviously has the dregs tattoo, but then something for each of the crows that's not obvious to anyone but him. So if someone were to see them they'd have no idea what they're for.
Drinks coffee black and whiskey straight. My man does not care about bitterness.
Bought Inej the ship, but leaves small treats or gifts in it for her for whenever she's out on the water. Also pays for the maintenance/dock/crew for the ship.
I know it's more of a fandom thing, but Nina unironically calls Kaz 'Kazzle Dazzle' and he hates it, but that's why she does it.
Thinks of Nina as a very annoying sister but loves and cares for her dearly.
Kept the crocheted lion toy that he taunted Pekka with, as a trophy. But if you accused him of naming it, he would sock you in the jaw. (It never actually belonged to Alby anyway so it's fine)
Personally pays for the Ravkan tutor that trains Jesper in his Durast abilities. He says he does it for the crew's sake and for free fixes on his cane.
Sleeps fully clothed most nights. Occasionally he'll take his boots off, but only after a long day of walking.
Has a variety of canes, but mainly sticks with the crow's head one (he switches out when he doesn't want to be recognized, but they're created and weighted in a similar way to the crow's head one).
The most picky eater of the crows. Whatever the Kerch equivalent of chicken tenders is, that's his meal.
Cat entering her hc era thanks to my maid of honor @x-liv25 . Please go read her TIG headcanons!
MASTERLIST
Kaz once said "you shouldn't make friends with crows," "why not?" "they don't have any manners." I headcanon that he tried to feed a crow and actually be nice to it but it bit him so now he forever holds the grudge
He has a stack of makeup in his desk drawer in case he needs to change his face up a bit for a job and he's excellent at it
At some point, when he was still struggling with finding a job after Jordie's death, he stole someone's purse and found bronzer/contour that he used to draw himself abs to look strong and "hirable".
He doesn't mind touching animals without his gloves
He realized that when he tried to save an abandoned kitten in the rain when he was younger
He felt bad for it because it reminded him of him and Jordie
He saw it as a debt-ish to Jordie to save the kitten
It once brought Kaz a mouse as a gift and Kaz genuinely appreciated the gesture
Kaz POV: "What a distinguished gentleman who knows I'm worthy of great gifts and appreciation"
Kaz knew he couldn't really keep a cat in his line of work, it'd be a weakness, so when it was old enough, he snuck it into Pekka's office and watched the vicious little feline tear Pekka's stuff to shreds
"A cat after my own heart"
When Kaz got the Dregs tattoo, he didn't want the artist to touch him, so he tattooed the logo himself. It was a bit shaky but then he hired a Tailor to fix the edges without touching him
Alternative solution to the bad edges: He fixes them up with stolen foundation whenever he isn't wearing long sleeves or something that would cover it up.
They day he first saw Inej and she snuck up on him, he had a panic attack but hid it well
At this point in his life, he was used to being in control, to knowing everything. Having Inej sneak up on him (and knowing that she could have potentially killed him without him having time to retaliate had she been trained) freaked him out. He felt weak, Kaz Rietveld again.
Kaz spends half an hour every other day locked in his office without his gloves, lathering his hands in hand cream.
Whenever he'd grab someone by the collar or any form of violence with contact, the last thing the victim could think about is why his hands smell nice. Nobody ever lived to tell the tale.
He's a sucker for a good chocolate cake.
He absolutely HATES ice cream. It makes too much of a sticky gooey mess for him.
He also probably has a sensitive throat so he doesn't really eat cold/frozen stuff or drinks
Once he made a deal with Nina which resulted in him going to a café to buy her a pumpkin spice latte. Once he sniffed Nina's, he quickly bought another one for himself and chugged it before he could get back. Obviously he did that in a dark alleyway so that nobody could see him and use it as blackmail.
Once he used (obviously stolen) paint to decorate his very own set of cards.
He then made another elaborate plan of his and managed to auction them off for a grotesque amount of kruge.
Probably forged DeKappel's signature on the back of each with perfect precision
For those that forgot, DeKappel is some famous painter in the series. Kaz stole a DeKappel oil painting from Van Eck.
Help I didn't realize how fun HCs were, I could make a thousand of these
he'd be working at his desk or whatever and see one skitter across the wall and decide to go for a walk
jesper: it's? storming outside?
kaz: and?
won't admit to being afraid of them, wont even acknowledge their existence
inej, who obviously is the only one who really knows: just a heads up, i saw a lizard in the kitchen
kaz: i don't know what you're talking about of course there are wizards in the kitchen, that's common knowledge
and jesper, who probably really likes reptiles but isn't aware of kaz's aversion, brings him a gecko he found outside
jesper: i'm going to name it godzilla brekker
kaz, trying to escape: why brekker?
jesper: it looks just like you. look at that scheming face
one time during Family DinnerTM at wylan's place, a lizard found its way across the dining room ceiling, and kaz just got up and left without a word. jesper and nina blamed each other, claiming the other had "finally done it, you've broken our old man" . and kaz is just in the living room casually flipping through whatever coffee table books wylan and jesper would display
probably something with lots of pictures of reptiles
Sexuality headcanon: that boy is full on homosexual.
Gender headcanon: I go back and forth between male and demi-boy.
A ship I have with said character: Kase. 100%. Chase and Kaz. Kaz and Chase. You can pry this ship from my cold dead hands.
A BROTP I have with said character: obviously Oliver, but also Skylar. The three of them were the ultimate friend group in Mighty Med.
A NOTP I have with said character: I just... can't ship him Bree... it doesn't sit right with me.
A random headcanon: he has a TikTok account and is low-key famous. His more popular videos consist of him recording the reactions of the rest of the Elite Force when he called them beautiful. (He posts a lot of wholesome shit like that.)
General opinion I have of character: I love Kaz with my entire being and would give my first born child to get more content with him in it.
For the character meme/ask thing: how about the head of the murder nerds - Kaz Brekker?
Listen dude, ‘head of the murder nerds’ is literally my favourite way of referring to Kaz in the history of ever god bless you for bringing this to me. Also yes, yes let’s talk Kaz...
general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life (i tried not to let this happen but it did anyway and now I have just accepted my fate) hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would banghogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuffbest quality: he’s a crafty bastard and this comes in handy at times, you know... worst quality: *represses feelings to the point that they all basically vanish and he forgets that other people have them too and that they can be hurt* (okay, like, I know I listed this as ‘worst quality’ and theoretically it is if you’re talking about like...from a person POV from a character POV though...I kinda love it? And I love it so much I’m going to bore you with a long waffle about the head murder nerd you never asked for but are getting anyway:
I enjoy the commitment to Kaz’s character/personality, frankly. I think it’s easy for characters (especially male characters) to be written in this sort of style, to the point that it’s probably a trope, bad boy on the outside with a heart of gold. Kaz doesn’t have a heart of gold, I might give him one of like...super rusty iron...with holes in it...but it’s definitely not made of gold.
Kaz is a ruthless prick at the start and he’s a ruthless prick at the end and I for one appreciate that. I think....For the most part...what you see with Kaz, is what you get. (Obviously not on the Plots and Schemes part because there needs to be some air of mystery about him. He’s dramatic that way. It’s required for his aesthetic) But in the sense of ‘this is who and what I am; you don’t like it? I don’t care. Deal with it.’ Which is...Refreshing. There’s no hidden reason behind the ruthlessness, he’s not trying to cover anything up (not in the typical sense of ‘my cold, sarcastic exterior masks a tender bleeding heart I’m too afraid to admit to sense anyway) He just is.
Which isn’t to say that he’s shallow or simple or boringly written in fact it’s the opposite. There’s an interesting relation between how starkly and simply Kaz is presented. In a lot of ways he’s one of the most simply black and white characters around. He’s deepened, he’s explained, he’s explored, he matures, he grows, he learns, he suffers, he triumphs, he experiences, but the core of who and what he is never really changes. Kaz Brekker is introduced to us as Dirtyhands, the Bastard of the Barrel, the monster wearing a boy’s skin and Kaz Brekker leaves us as Dirtyhands, the Bastard of the Barrel, the monster wearing a man’s skin. He’s never undermined, he’s never softened, his edges are never dulled for the sake of watering him down to make him more palatable. Kaz isn’t palatable, Kaz isn’t, arguably, all that likeable either and yet, and yet...
I think it’s fascinating because, idk about anyone else I can only speak for me and the way I read these books, but I kept waiting for the transformation. I kept waiting for the moment of realisation. I kept waiting for him to shed his armour and prove to us all that he was really just a squishy, sappy sod deep down with issues he was masking with cold sarcasm. I kept waiting for the switch, the sleight of hand, the trick with him - and the trick was that there wasn’t one. He does care, he does feel, he is human (probably) but he’s still him.
He’s still ruthless, still cold, still removed, still withdrawn and distant because that’s who he is. It’s who he’s always been, it’s a fundamental part of who he’s always going to be and that makes him interesting. Because I think one of the things authors enjoy doing is character building with a focus of starting with something old and creating something new. Something shinier. Something better. Something that fixes all the flaws it once had and ta-da! Perfect!!
And dude I was waiting for this to come allll the way through CK. Because she’d set it up! We had everything we expect!! We had the broody, withdrawn, grumpy, traumatised, aloof sarcastic bastard male character; and we had the softer, warmer, female character and they were very obviously Love Interests, and they had Moments and Lines that were so obviously going to be paralleled later, we had, “I will have you without armour, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all.”
I was ready. I was waiting. It was all there!! So obvious!! The armour was going to come off, torn off, shredded off, in a dramatic moment of Character Growth and Transformation and he was going to kiss her and it was going to be like: I am changed. I am a Good Man now, I am Better, you have made me better, you have made me realise what I want to be and I’m going to declare these feelings by kissing you in a dramatic fashion with a romantic sunset and some fancy explosions in the background.
AND WE GOT APPROXIMATELY NONE OF THAT. ZERO. NIL. NOT A SINGLE SOLITARY SAUSAGE OF IT AND I LOVE IT. (we got some, fine, don’t get pedantic on me but it was nothing like what it was built up to be and that’s GENIUS. how does one sell a literal anti-climax and not only get away with it but making it literally perfect for both the characters and the ship. inspirational tbh) The thing is that way of working was too easy, would have been too rushed and far too...easy. This story is not easy. This story is hard. This story is having pretty much nothing to begin with then having even that taken from you and clawing your way back to something because dammit I have worked for this and sweated for this and bled for this and you will give it to me or so help me you will suffer me for denying me. Point is nothing is given; nothing is easy, and happy endings are...not always what we think they are.
The Dramatic Romantic Sunset Kiss ending, while very fluffy and probably crowd-pleasing doesn’t entirely suit...either of these characters at this moment tbh. Because they’ve been through a lot and they have grown and they have changed and they are closer but...They’re not ready. And I think it...takes something to admit that. It takes something to let characters be who and what they are and not force them to be what you’d like them to be for the sake of a ship or a nice neat ending tied up with a bow that will make everyone happy.
And I think that’s the thing I enjoy most about Kaz: that he refuses to be anything other than what he is. Kaz is cold and cruel and ruthless and flawed because these are flaws, flaws that stem from...a fairly rough childhood tbh. They aren’t little mars to be gently wiped away with the handkerchief held by the doting female love interest (which Inej...also conveniently refuses to be, bless her existence) and I like that they remain relatively intact by the end of it.
His flaws aren’t argued away by the narrative, they’re not easily cured by the loving touch of a female love interest. They’re raw and they’re ugly and they’re present and they’re constant and they force you to accept him this way or not at all. They don’t get excused. They don’t get diminished. They don’t get gently brushed to one side because oh that was just a moment that made him a bit not nice and we don’t want to linger there. They are him, an aspect that has to be considered and counted and weighed when judging his character; it’s a package deal people, the novels just don’t let you cherry pick bits and pieces here and there, this is it, this is everything, all cards on the table, take it or leave it.
Kaz Brekker is a monster. Kaz Brekker is cold and distant and withdrawn and cloaked in armour he’s not ready to remove yet that isn’t prised from him to try and discover some hidden golden heart beneath. There is none. There’s just cold, hard iron and bitter venom. What’s on the surface is what’s underneath too. And I love it. ship them with: Ineeeejjjj obviously. brotp them with: Alllll of the Dregs, actually, it’s all kind of fascinating?? The way he interacts with each of them. needs to stay away from:....erm...himself?? About the only truly dangerous thing to him tbh. misc. thoughts: I, ahem, I think I’ve had...more than enough thoughts on Kaz for one day. Yes. Anyway. *gently sets the mic down and scuttles off*
I'll do Kanej because despite having read the books, I'm honestly not really familiar with Mal's character and therefore not likely to write something accurate.
Also sorry not sorry this is half angst because it's Kanej
First of all, they both think the other deserves someone better/more suited to them;
Inej knows that Kaz needs someone who'd be willing to be with him despite not being able to touch. He needs someone with patience and who wouldn't mind waiting forever for him.
On the other side, Kaz thinks Inej OVERALL deserves someone better than him, someone who would be able to hold her, comfort her, kiss her...
Despite that, if Inej ever gets approached romantically by another man, Kaz will beat him up later, threaten the dude's mother, then frame him for a murder Kaz committed and get him sent to Hellgate, far far away from Inej
Inej doesn't ever worry or get jealous over Kaz speaking to other girls because she knows he wouldn't be interested in a million years
Ok so we all remember when Inej said “I will have you without armor, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all.” and Kaz didn't budge, basically a silent painful rejection
Inej said that because she 99.99% knew that Kaz wouldn't instantly take off his "armor" for her
She WANTED him to "reject" her because her goal was to go hunt slavers, far far away from Kaz
Sure, they could send letters, but they could never be genuine in the letters lest someone intercepts them and finds out Kaz's weakness
As long as there wasn't an unspoken "rejection" between them, Inej wouldn't feel completely free to leave after the whole Ice court heist and all
Obviously she will still love him, but she needed a way to let go of that attachment enough to go and follow her dreams
Inej thinks about Kaz every single day since she left him
She's always reminded of him in every single thing she does or thinks;
"That's exactly what Kaz would say/do"
Inej goes to visit Kaz in Ketterdam whenever she passes by with her ship
Whenever she leaves again, Kaz sends her off with a pair of gloves or a coat of his
After the events in Rule of Wolves, when Zoya tasks Kaz with finding the heart of St. Feliks (I think that's the name?), Inej was the first person he asked for intel. Since she travels around so much she surely heard something
Of course, when he's going outside of Ketterdam for jobs or other stuff, Inej is the one who takes him on her ship. He wouldn't trust anyone else
Inej once said a few affectionate words in Suli to him and Kaz immediately searched through all of his contacts for someone to translate it for him
Inej once stole a wealthy slaver's fancy watch and brought it back to Kaz;
Not because Kaz needed yet another one but more as a symbol that she was still what Kaz made her.
When Kaz bought her the ship, he made the captain's room look like a better version of her room at the Slat so that she would always have a reminder of him and the Crows
Because her "magic slippers" got burnt while scaling the incinerator in SoC, Kaz got her a nice pair of more practical boots and commissioned yet another Fabrikator to modify the soles and make them excellent for climbing
Kaz made Wylan work on cannon blueprints until they were perfect and had them installed
He basically went all out with that ship
Inej got a little tattoo that said "the Crow" with "The Wraith" under it on her back despite her issue with branding
She didn't get it as a label, she got it as a reminder of who she was
"the Wraith" was everything the Menagerie's Suli lynx wasn't. For Inej, the tattoo was a symbol of her strength
Kaz didn't know
He found that out when one day, she came to visit him and was wearing a backless top;
He'd gotten (stolen) a necklace for her and she asked him to put it on for her;
At first Kaz was really hesitant but he *GASP* took off his gloves, and gently brushed her hair out of the way and that's when he saw the little tattoo
This man FROZE and didn't even realize his UNGLOVED index finger was tracing her bare skin along the lines of the tattoo
When he realized it he quickly stopped and hurriedly clasped the necklace around her neck
He still isn't over his touch aversion, but he's doing better. He still quickly stepped back though, putting some distance in between them
He noticed the faintest flush on Inej's cheeks and that's how he knew she still loved him, he felt relief in knowing so
These days, amongst Kaz's men, the Wraith is a myth. They don't know that Inej is gone, they think she's always there in the shadows, spying and reporting back to Kaz
Only the OGs know the truth
To Kaz, this was a way of forever having a piece of her within the gang
I hope these are to your liking!!! It's hard to write Kanej without angst
not proofread (no headcanons are ever going to be)
Kaz had to learn to force himself to maintain eye contact in dire situations, but prolonged eye contact still secretly freaks him out.
When he was getting his first pair of gloves, he went through dozens of stores to try each possible pair on but the types and textures of fabric freaked him out
So, he got a specific type commissioned and it has a little subtle fidget thing on the side of the index finger that he can access and touch with his thumb
He fired the first Fabrikator he commissioned for his cane because the ridges on the crow head didn't feel right under his hand and it freaked him out
Nina keeps trash talking his haircut but she doesn't know that he purposely wants the sides very short because when he's doing something alone, he's always running his fingers over the strange but comforting texture of it
(Idk how to explain it but if you've ever felt short hair on a boy and how it feels you'll understand)
I can just imagine that Kaz, like a lot of other autistic people, has an atypical rhythm/pitch when he talks
He always has to be doing SOMETHING with his hands or another limb of his
In certain situations where he can't afford to be seen fidgeting, he runs his tongue repeatedly over the roof of his mouth
He's super obsessive over plans and order and perfect timing
He always has a set schedule and doesn't feel too well if he doesn't adhere to it
This could also be from the way he grew up but he doesn't really understand relationships (both platonic and romantic)
He doesn't really know how to act like himself around other people (not that he'd want to lmao but still)
Like that one scene at the beginning of the book when Inej was there and he just randomly took of his top and started washing himself with a washcloth in front of her, not even caring about her presence
Inej said she didn't know if she should feel insulted or flattered that either he felt comfortable enough with her or just didn't care about her
In reality Kaz just doesn't know social norms and couldn't really tell if it was a normal thing or not
He did it anyway because he couldn't stand another moment of being (I don't remember well, was he bloody or just covered in dirt? doesn't matter) dirty and had to be clean ASAP
He doesn't like washing with hot water
Now that he can actually afford it he's really picky with food because of their textures
Back in the day with Jordie he had to eat whatever he could find but he hated it at first and didn't eat anything until he fainted from starvation
He HATES cooked fish. Hates hates hates HATES it. He'd it it raw if he wasn't scared of getting sick. The texture when cooked is just so... dry and weird for him. Nuh-uh.
On the other hand he LOVES rare meat. It's perfect for him.
In the winter his skin gets dry under those gloves
He freaked out because of how his dry ass fingertips felt and nearly had a panic attack
As of that day he lathers his hands in hand cream to make sure they're nice and smooth
Overall he just really hates any abnormally textured surface that he's not used to / doesn't feel right to him
I hope it's to your liking! Thank you so much for requesting.
