#and Eliot being willing to kill him?

[independent-fics]

Save me protective leverage team save me.

[augustheart]

leverage fighting supernatural creatures concepts from me and @theboost.

we used fighting kind of... loosely. we also used the concept of supernatural creature pretty loosely. this post is so long i had to put part of it under a cut.

mummy: they have to run a con on a museum at the request of another member of leverage international who has been trying to return a mummy to a burial site for months with no success. parker dresses as a mummy and keeps jumping out to scare people because the entire con hinges on making the mark believe the mummy is legitimately cursed. it gets breanna every single time and eventually she destroys the mummy costume. at the end of the episode breanna sees a mummy shuffling around a corner and asks where parker got a second mummy costume. "what second mummy costume?" parker says from next to her. EPISODE ENDS

werewolf: eliot and hardison are on a road trip together and end up in a small farming town that's terrified of whatever has been causing the deaths of their livestock. a guy with a condition where he's really hairy is being persecuted for being a werewolf. they meet a wise old lady with an adopted daughter who's sick who says something like "you know appearances... they can be deceiving. even in a place like this, not everything is as it seems, especially under the full moon." they uncover the mayor is behind a group that's poisoning the water (maybe by looking at the water under moonlight idk i'm not that kind of scientist), causing the girl's sickness and the deaths of the livestock. as they leave town hardison teases eliot for believing in werewolves (this has been a c-plot the whole time) and then looks out the window and sees two werewolves, the old lady and her daughter. EPISODE ENDS

witches: alice white joins an MLM based on ~divine feminine energy~ so parker can take it down from the inside. it's all based on easily faked "magic" and sleight of hand, and she keeps impressing them by pointing out how they're doing their tricks and then replicating them because hardison had a whole phase where he wanted to learn stage magic or something. they're so impressed they invite her to a ritual but they ask her to bring a virgin sacrifice. parker immediately brings harry ("i'm not a virgin?" "the magic isn't REAL harry"). they get some of harry's blood and start doing shit that can't possibly be faked. it goes wrong because he isn't a virgin and a demon kills the witches but allows parker and harry to live because they're using aliases and not their true names or whatever. somehow this destroys the MLM. EPISODE ENDS

mermaid: breanna meets a girl at the beach who keeps looking at her with big wet sad eyes and telling her about how the fish are dying because of pollution. she is only ever in the water up to her waist. breanna is immediately smitten and they stop the top polluter. they kiss in celebration and then the girl is like "i'm sorry... i can't be with you..." and she dives underwater and we see her tail as she swims away. EPISODE ENDS

ghosts part one: harry meets a beautiful lady because he heard someone crying and wandered down a street looking for them. he promises to help her save her destined-for-foreclosure house that she says has been in her family for 100 years or something. the rest of the team conveniently never sees her but is willing to help. after they save her house she kisses him (he's thrilled) and tells him she'll be right back before going into the house. a car pulls up and an older woman gets out. she's like "oh i can't believe you managed to save it. i really thought they'd destroy this place." harry asks her if she's a friend of the family and she says "it was my mother's before she died [x] years ago." harry goes inside to look for the lady but she's gone. EPISODE ENDS

ghosts part two, this one is insane: it's halloween. a car carrying a murderer crashes into something and the murderer dies while eliot tries to do cpr on him (he was next to the crash site but has no connection to the case) only to pull a charles lee ray and push eliot's soul out of his body and possess him. the serial killer wanders around in eliot's body observing before pulling a gun on hardison because he's annoying him too much. parker and hardison look at each other and Immediately go "serial killer ghost." breanna has had a ouija board tapestry hanging up on the wall that keeps falling down because eliot is trying to communicate with them. they lay it out and eliot explains things to them. hardison asks if they're sure this is eliot and not just another ghost trying to trick them. the ouija board painstakingly spells out "dammit hardison." they decide the only thing they can do is have eliot fight the ghost out of his body. he possesses a willing harry and makes him ragdoll around while he fights him. as the clock strikes midnight because idk ghosts can't stay in their bodies past midnight on halloween because they can only possess you on halloween Or Something eliot pushes the serial killer out of his body. EPISODE ENDS

faerie: sophie is kidnapped by faeries and brought before a jury because she didn't call queen titania back after they hooked up, which means the rest of the team has to go there to save her. eliot is pissed because he can't eat any of the food and they won't let him take stuff back to the human world where eating it would be harmless. harry is absolutely thriving because in a world of doublespeak a formerly evil lawyer is a king. it's revealed he actually has been to the faerie realm to do trials tons of times but they wipe his memory at the end of each one so he doesn't reveal any secrets to humans. they free sophie and bring her back to the human world when she promises to call titania back. she immediately throws titania's number away again. "so needy." EPISODE ENDS

dragon: the team has to infiltrate a crime ring. the crime ring is very dragon themed with dragon tattoos and ranks named after dragonslayers and shit like that. they just assume the dragon is metaphorical but then when eliot passes the test to rise through the ranks he's brought before a chained up dragon and they're like "the dragon will choose if you're worthy!!" he's like "WHAT the fuck." they save the dragon and set it free at the end of the episode despite parker begging to keep it. it says "thank you" and flies away despite never speaking before then. EPISODE ENDS

phantom of the opera: sophie has like a struggling theater she volunteers with and one of the girls there is being stalked by some weird guy. harry immediately asks if this is going to be like phantom of the opera and starts blasting the soundtrack constantly. sophie meets a guy with an eyepatch or a covid mask or something and recognizes him as a former broadway star. he ends up being the stalker. at the end it's revealed he is Literally the phantom of the opera. breanna says something like "okay so eliot and alec saw a werewolf and now we just fought the phantom of the opera. are there any other classic universal monsters i should know about?" hardison says "oh i fought the invisible man." they all turn and look at him. he shrugs. EPISODE ENDS

psychic: breanna dates a psychic who keeps saving her from improbable final destination style accidents. the team becomes convinced she's orchestrating these accidents for some nefarious purpose. breanna insists that no her girlfriend is just psychic and there's a montage like the one in quantum leap set to i want to know what love is but instead of a sex montage it's a romance montage because breanna is asexual. parker is disturbed due to her established understandable emotional turmoil after the future job. they have to help the psychic after she sees her own death. maybe the phantom of the opera is involved again idk. EPISODE ENDS

troll: someone is trying to put tolls on freeways by lobbying the department of transportation. they also keep making people answer really shitty riddles with answers that aren't at all obvious. when they answer one of their riddles right in the final ten minutes they explode. their name is like t. roll or something. EPISODE ENDS

the leprechaun from the leprechaun movies: okay at this point we were really tired and i'd been laughing hysterically for the past two hours. but someone finds his pot of gold and spends it on some stuff like medical bills and the leprechaun shows up and does his stupid bullshit. the client turns to the leverage team for help. they're convinced it's a gas leak until one of them sees the leprechaun not in the client's house. harry accidentally spends one of the leprechaun's coins. eliot keeps trying to fight the leprechaun but his bullshit magic lets him evade all his punches. i don't remember how we said this one would end

bigfoot: closing us out with the one i actually think could happen. they don't fight bigfoot!! they help conserve and protect some natural habitat by faking a bigfoot sighting and scaring off some shady developers (i am now realizing that i am describing a reverse scooby gang)! throughout the whole episode parker has been consistently reaffirming her belief in bigfoot and casually describing bigfoot encounters she's heard about while breanna and sophie try to convince her bigfoot isn't real. she manages to get harry, eliot, and hardison to be on her side. breanna sees bigfoot at the end of the episode but sophie doesn't believe her. EPISODE ENDS

[jomiddlemarch]

Each be other’s comfort kind

In some ways, Jem found being married to Mary née Vance was the easiest thing in the world.

To begin with, if he ever referred to her as Mary née Vance, she cuffed him lightly on the shoulder before she rolled her eyes and then drew him back down for a kiss. 

He’d learned the only place to refer to her as Mary née Vance was their bed.

Which he must refer to simply as their bed, not their marriage-bed or anything of a similar high-falutin’ tone which she would accept from his mother and tolerate from Rilla and would otherwise laugh at almost merrily.

As someone not much given to flights of fancy well before the War had made him watch his friends and fellow soldiers gassed and killed, his brother gone without the chance of a farewell, his mind and body scarred in ways he knew as a physician would never fully heal, he found Mary’s unmitigated pragmatism as refreshing as water in the desert.

It also put his father at ease, as Dad said Mary reminded him not a little of his own mother, though Mary was notably less concerned with the vast quantity of pie the Doctors Blythe could consume of an evening, and her piecrust was arguably the equal of Susan Baker’s, though they’d all agreed not to utter such heresy at Ingleside.

In the privacy of their non-marriage, most ordinary bed, with its soft white linens and goose-feather pillows, Jem was free to tell Mary her pastry was actually better than Susan’s, as she had a lighter hand and her piecrust never once reflected any sense of consternation or outrage over some doings in Glen St. Mary, which could not be said of Susan’s best tarts.

Mary was practical and matter of fact. She had a good head for accounts and was far more intelligent that he, any of the Blythes or Merediths (with the exception of Carl) had ever given her credit for. It was easy to discuss the running of his practice and the economic advantages posed by a move to one of the larger towns, the intellectual stimulation offered by hospital work.

Mary did not worry about leaving Mrs. Marshall Elliott behind and she did listen when Jem spoke of his mother’s broken heart with oblique allusions to Walter’s death and more direct remarks about Shirley’s move to Montreal. Even more, she was willing to allow his mother precedence in ways Faith Meredith would never have countenanced. 

(Who knew what Faith would truly have countenanced? She’d eloped with Bertie Shakespeare Drew shortly after their mutual return from England and had immediately bobbed the golden-brown hair Walter had once referred to as her crowning glory in a sonnet Jem was never meant to see.)

Mary was patient and funny, an impossibly good mimic. She had a seemingly infinite supply of riddles and could curse a blue streak with the fishermen down in the harbor, who respected Young Doctor Blythe all the more for his sharp-tongued wife.

She complained very little, never as much as she ought about what mattered most, and only to the degree she would amuse him about things that didn’t matter at all. 

She was never troubled by his nightmares, by being woken by Jem clutching her tightly, his tears falling onto her neck, salt on his lips when he kissed her.

Mary liked to be read to of an evening, but not poetry. She liked Dickens, which didn’t surprise him, and Eliot, which did. She liked mysteries the best, pulp, which made him chuckle, and Lupin instead of Holmes, but she didn’t press him on nights when anything French was the door opened to memories he couldn’t bear.

She was warm, save for her cold feet. She’d tuck them against his shins and it wasn’t like anything else in the whole world.

She was reliable, steady, quick to take his side. Quick to see his side, even before he did. 

She was pretty and she didn’t count it worth much, without any of the vanity of any of the Blythe women.

She was eminently, exceptionally lovable—except that she was difficult to love.

She shrugged off praise.

She didn’t care for ornaments or nosegays, perfume or sweets or what Rilla called a stunning new cloche just the exact color of blackberry fool. 

She looked after him and their home so well, there was little left for him to do.

He was at a loss, one she was aware of and found entertaining, when Rilla remarked one day how much Rosemary Meredith’s new cat reminded her of Mary.

Then he knew.

Mary liked to have a cup of tea made just so, with plenty of milk.

She liked to end the day sitting with her stocking feet tucked up under her.

She liked to have her hair stroked, even if his hand trembled, which stopped much sooner when he was paying all his attention to the silkiness of her fair hair and the delicate skin at her temple, her throat.

She liked to sleep early on cold winter nights.

And sometimes, when they were together in the shadows, she liked to be called Puss. She liked it exceedingly well.

[teecupangel]

can you IMAGINE a Burn Notice/Leverage type show where Desmond decides to leave the Brotherhood after the solar event (having miraculously survived) and now he's on the run from both Abstergo and his dad (just like old times)

but of course he can't just run and only look out for himself, not with three mentors in his head telling him to fight from the shadows (so not completely like old times)

so it's a problem of the week show where every episode there's a new glowing golden person who has something Desmond needs who also *just so happens* to have a problem that needs solving

it's bloodier than Leverage or Burn Notice though because while Leverage never kills anyone and Burn Notice only kills the problem to death like 10% of the time

Desmond solves a surprising number of problems with stabbing

even ones that you would initially assume could not possibly be solved by stabbing

(when you're an Assassin, every problem starts to look stabbable)

And the Bleeding Effect makes Desmond a one-man con team.

Need someone to act like a rich dude? Use Haytham's bleed for a posh British old money ("I think he's a distant royal family member!") elitist or Altaïr's bleed for an arrogant oil tycoon ("He might have connections to the president, are you sure you want to get in his bad side???"). Planning to style a piece of art? Ezio's bleed makes him become an awesome art critic or a great tour guide.

Have to pretend to be smart? Take your pick. Connor has deep knowledge of the flora and fauna of the United States. Altaïr has a more general vast knowledge of the classics, especially of philosophy. Haytham most definitely has an insight into the historical and political situations of every major event the Templar had a hand before and during his time. Other than the arts, Ezio's noble background meant he would have a more religious background so theology is his jam and he can say prayers in Latin. (And the image of Desmond pretending to be a priest then charming his way into where he actually wants to go is so blasphemous I find it funny)

In terms of Leverage, Desmond is pretty much Nate, Sophie, Eliot and Parker all in one. What about Hardison? Well, what use are all these fancy expensive gadgets and security when Desmond has the Eagle Vision? Sure, he can't hack to make cameras go on a loop but he knows the exact blind spots of the cameras. He doesn't know what the red wire does but it glows gold so he just pulls it out and, voila, lasers go offline. When everything else fails, create a blackout and use the darkness to hide.

Letting Desmond loose in 21st century without any support other than his Bleed as a 'third party' against both Abstergo and the Assassins and doing shady things for other people means he's gonna be a more chill version of Agent 47. Lots of pretending to be other people and, as long as he finally covers his scar with concealer and lots of makeup, he'll just be a generic white dude. Just knock out someone with the uniform he needs and he's good to go.

It doesn't even have to be a stabbing. There are a lot of things that can become poison if applied correctly.

AND if we include Edward in his Bleeds (which we can since AC Valhalla did say that he had a dream of being Edward in one of the audio logs), Desmond would have a more in-depth sailing knowledge together with Connor's knowledge which he could probably use to figure out how to sail a boat or a yacht if he needs to and... Darts. Which includes the OP dart: Berserk darts.

But he's not a 'gun' for hire. No, no.

Everyone in the 'underworld' knows of him.

And if anyone asks about him... All they would hear would be...

"You don't find him. He finds you. And when he does, that means he wants something from you and, in exchange for what he wants, you can ask for anything. It will never be money. What he will always ask will be something important to you. Only if you're willing to part with it will he grant your wish."

"That's why we call him the Djinn."

[pocketramblr]

Ask game, please. The leverage cast being isekaied in a fantasy world (vaguely D&D-like). Please.

Ehehehe it's what they deserve

1- Hardison is DEVASTATED because there's no technology he can hack. There's no internet. There's not even computers! And the cool magic doesn't even follow the same rules as his online fantasy gaming, so he can't use extra knowledge from that. Absolutely unfair, especially because Eliot is like "oh yeah I can tell you exactly what that kind of weapon or surcoat means, it's a very distinctive shape/pattern/whatever, (*has a flashback to working at a renaissance fair/medival times type thing where maybe he's trying to kill a customer there, unclear and unimportant*)"

Don't worry, Hardison will be fine and will pick up quickly enough how to hack magic and try to pull a whole Yankee in King Arthur's Court thing, but he's going to complain about it first.

2- Parker steals a box of magic potions. No one is quite sure what the effect of each one will be at first but they manage... Especially because she's willing to test them out on the team at random. (Nate gets covered in a potion of face change for magical disguise. He mentions off hand that Sophie probably would have wanted that one, but Sophie is offended because she doesn't need a magic potion to transform into someone else. Eliot gets covered in something that laters turns out to be a potion of resurrection, though only Nate is aware he actually died for a moment.)

3- Sophie by the way pulls a "I'm actually the Duchess of Erat" grift but turns out everyone is convinced she actually is the long lost duchess, she even looks the splitting image of that portrait of the duchess's mother! (Sophie: how'd you pull off that switch? Parker and Nate, who didn't change the painting at all: uh...... Magic....) The duchess by the way is the niece of the king, who's evil advisor definitely had the child duchess and mother killed years ago and is trying to magically gain sway over the king and kingdom, which means the team is going to need to get some.... leverage

4- oh yeah by the way- Parker is an elf or half elf, and keeps fiddling with her newly pointy ears and delighting in having dark vision, Nate looks human except the eyes, Hardison inexplicably knows dragontongue, Sophie is both sorceress and bard, and whatever Eliot is, people are both scared of him and horny.

5- while they get a grasp pretty quickly about magic and politics and things like that, they never really get the hang of money here- it's all gold coins and such and they have no idea how much something should cost. So when they take clients they usually end up giving way more money than the clients have seen in the last ten generations of their family have conceived of, while also complaining about the standard prices of healing potions. ("C'mon, I could get a lifetime supply of aspirin for half as many gold coins back home." "This is a magical elixir sir.")

[hedgiwithapen]

okay last one! "If you don’t know my options, don’t judge my choices.” any fandom you want! just wanna see your (heartbreaking i'm sure) take on it.

I pick Leverage!

(set during mid s3!)

"Nate, we need to talk," Eliot said, grabbing the team's mastermind by the arm and dragging him to the empty bar. He looked around, making sure the others were out of earshot. Thankfully, they were.

"Alright then, talk." Nate said. Eliot wanted very badly to punch him for how blithe he was being.

"This is too much, Nate. Moreau? Absolutely not. I'm telling you as your hitter, we can't do this. we Shouldn't do this, and we can't."

Nate sighed, reaching for a glass. Eliot smacked his hand. "I'm serious."

"Yeah, yeah. Didn't I get you a train? Didn't we beat a Steranko? We can take Moreau. We have too." He retrieved the tipped glass, and a bottle to go with it. His eyes already looked glassy.

Eliot had had enough.

"Of course. It's your decision, every time, isn't it? Like you know better than the rest of us? We can find another way to keep you out of jail, man. You're so damn worried about your reputation, you're so full of your own damn skill-"

"Eliot," Nate said, steely. "Drop it."

Eliot recoiled.

"No! Not if you're bent on this bullshit. Sophie may not be willing to call you out, but I am."

"You don't get to judge my choices when you don't know the options." Nate took a long drink.

Eliot huffed, seething. "Your options, huh, and what are those? Get the team killed or look bad? I can see how that would be a tough--"

"You're all dead if we don't." Nate said. "At least if we try, we stand a fighting chance."

Eliot stared. "Excuse me," he said very, very softly, the kind of voice that made men who knew him very, very afraid. "What?"

"The Italian. Those were her terms. Six months to take down Moreau. Or it's open season on the team. You, you'd probably be fine on your own. The rest of them? It just takes one guy getting lucky. One cut harness, one rigged safe. A vase with a bomb in it…"

"You lied to us. You kept this from us. We could have --"

"Gone to ground? Hidden, for the rest of your lives? They wouldn't have been very long. Taking down Moreau is your only shot. Our only shot." Nate looked at the bar. "I'd have told you. When we hit five months. Or if the team decided to walk away. But it wasn't… you didn't need to know. That's my job."

Eliot shook his head. "Your job," he repeated. "Well, mine is to keep this fa--this team safe. Don't make it harder."

"Are you going to tell them?" Nate asked.

Eliot hated his answer. "No. You're right. Knowing would throw Hardison off. We can't have mistakes, against Moreau. But I'm telling them when we finally run at him. They'll need to know then. " He looked at the ceiling, hypocrite that he was, he took the bottle from Nate, and didn't tell him anything more.

[clarajohnson]

the magicians s1e5

being concerned about the fate of the friend who nearly permanently incapacitated you in a mind prison is sooooo babygirl of quentin

the way that q and julia (and like i'm guessing the other first years in the main cast? but not a given) are like, only probably 22 at this point. literal children.

traveling is such a neat concept one point to the magicians for that

i'm constantly shocked by s1 margo she's very sweet very shallow and not so acidic. also her outfits are shit. i'm so looking forward to no-bullshit heart of gold high king margo with her unbelievable fillory wardrobe.

(eventually) killing ted coldwater is one of the evilest things this show does

eliot wouldn't wear a bowtie. i know this. i should have run the magicians.

circling back to julia being 22 YOU MIGHT HAVE YOUR UNDERGRAD DEGREE AT THIS POINT DON'T PLAY HOUSEWIFE FOR THIS MAN

"if magicians could cure cancer why would anybody have cancer" "because we like secrets" this episode laying a lot of groundwork for fandom hand-wringing in the future

everyone here is so babyfaced and yes i'm talking about margo again

every julia scene makes me more and more nervous knowing how close we're getting to reynard. also more excited because we're closer to best bitches but mostly nervous.

margo's welters outfit i say yay yippee hooray hooray hooray

you know the physical kids are the main characters in this show because they all have fun character-specific welters uniforms while the nature students are wearing fucking maroon tunics

who knew you had it in you !!!!! you're so right margo we should get married

julia's s1 arc being like, ooh i'm a magic junkie is so embarrassing but you have to remember that their like Main Poster for this season used the literal tagline "magic is a drug" and it's like oh yeah they thought this would be harry potter for adults with stick and pokes

love the entirety of kady and penny's relationship being open and honest communication, excellent banter, and routine sex that is apparently consistently unbelievable. also very clear and pure love.

"you slept with me two days ago" "you're welcome"

this show really does villains well, they're always kind of polite and basically unstoppable, these facsimiles of civility that intend to turn you inside out and you can really only stop them by a miracle

eliot doing his best impression of a man who cares about alice >>>>

"what if i could fix him?" (narrator: he could not fix cancer puppy)

there seem to be two types of magic in this show: there's very involved tutting and there's a kind of... i don't know, like, magic that seems more like strong-willing things to happen. like some of it is about doing the right steps in a very specific order and some of it is about wanting it badly enough.

"get ready for the first spanking you won't enjoy" "that actually sounds kind of hot" they are my best friends

god alice/margo had so much potential

"penny i think you were in fillory" LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[onyxbird]

I posted 4,114 times in 2022

That's 1,685 more posts than 2021!

198 posts created (5%)

3,916 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@bostonbakeddeans

@icannotreadcursive

@vickyvicarious

@party-gilmore

@original-missif

I tagged 3,371 of my posts in 2022

Only 18% of my posts had no tags

#q - 1,500 posts

#dracula daily - 370 posts

#leverage - 350 posts

#eliot spencer - 221 posts

#mr. quinn - 164 posts

#leverage aus - 159 posts

#the sandman - 126 posts

#cats - 111 posts

#leverage ot3 - 81 posts

#alec hardison - 69 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#con of showing this post to my friend: we currently live on opposite sides of a large country--prohibitive to attempting joint puppetry. 😢

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

A ridiculous Leverage AU concept popped into my head last night that's cracking me up. So first, it's Leverage OT3 having teamed up as a criminal crew without meeting Nate and Sophie. I'm picturing it in like a cyberpunk setting, but could potentially just be a canon-adjacent setting where the OT3 joined forces without Nate's influence, still pursuing crime for personal gain.

They've become a force to be reckoned with, a target of law enforcement and other criminal elements alike--probably clashed with at least pieces of Moreau's organization more than once--but no one has been able to touch them. Everyone with any connection to the criminal underworld knows about the genius Hacker Hardison and his cyber-crime empire, and everyone knows about his two closest lieutenants: a incredible Thief and an unstoppable Hitter, known only as "Parker" and..."Baby."

Some know only that much, and, when meeting the crew, many are prone to guess that the dainty blonde must be "Baby," and thus the glowering brunet must be "Parker."

The slightly better informed know that the Thief is "Parker" and the Hitter "Baby," but aren't 100% sure which is which.

The truly well-informed folks in the criminal underworld know who is who and enough of their reputations that although "Baby" is spoken of in hushed tones, since they know of no other name for the most elite Hitter in the business, no one dares to even think of calling him that to his face. That can get difficult for people who have to do business with him directly or discuss matters involving him with Parker or Hardison. None of the three ever offer any alternatives. (Every so often a newbie criminal comes along and decides to crack a joke about the name, often some variation on "putting Baby in a corner" and is quickly warned by their peers that 1) you do not joke about Baby--he could kill you with a blade of grass and is known to materialize in the most unexpected times and places--and 2) that specific joke has been made a million times already.)

Behind the scenes, of course, the trio's partnership is quite egalitarian, and Eliot's name is used freely, but 1) neither Parker nor Eliot is comfortable being the face of their organization, while Hardison is happy to LARP his nerdy little heart out as an evil overlord, and 2) Eliot had reasons to not want his real name spread around too much and made the tactical error of giving Hardison a little too much freedom in deciding what to call him in front of people.

Nate eventually does come on the scene, finally disgusted enough to break ties with his "lawful" but corrupt organization and willing to turn to the criminals he used to chase to cut a deal. His boldness at asking for a meeting in addition to what they knew of him as an investigator piques their interest, but they're disappointed when he stumbles in unkempt and still fairly inebriated.

He gains their interest back when, even in his drunken state and having never laid eyes on any of them, he sweeps one look around their temporary HQ, immediately clocks Parker as THE Parker despite her just standing still next to Hardison, and, by process of elimination, turns to Eliot and says, "So, you must be Baby."

895 notes - Posted January 12, 2022

#4

Dying to know how Van Helsing "signed" his phonograph entry in all-caps. Did he just suddenly bellow his surname into the phonograph at full volume in case Jonathan wasn't sure who was speaking?

(I'm also not at all clear on why VH is leaving notes by phonograph rather than just writing a note, but at least the "how" of that is fairly obvious.)

1,042 notes - Posted October 4, 2022

#3

It seems like a lot of modern vampire fiction implies or outright shows that a vampire can drain an entire adult of blood, either completely or enough to kill them, in one meal (and they feed frequently). And then here's Dracula implying that 3 adult vampires are going to share a single small child.

I mean, I know people talk about portion sizes in the USA being excessively large, but the vampires of Sunnydale/Bon Temps/etc. are apparently taking this to the extreme.

1,494 notes - Posted May 16, 2022

#2

Dream of the Endless is back in his cage for Halloween, and he is not happy.

I, on the other hand, am delighted by how well the design carved up, particularly how clearly Dream's eyes glow.

I ended up decreasing the width of the binding circle a bit to fit better on the pumpkin without shrinking Dream and the cage down any further, and the chains are a little chunkier to be carveable with the tools I have, but overall the concept translated onto the pumpkin very well.

I think it looks even better in person--it's hard to capture well on a phone camera.

1,706 notes - Posted October 31, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Suddenly tickled by the idea of Death giving Dream a mobile phone (whatever magical version can get service in the Dreaming) to facilitate him keeping in touch with his one (1) human friend Hob. (And maybe even making more friends? Hint, hint, little brother.)

She assures him she's taken care of everything. The only thing he needs to do is give this sequence of numbers to Hob (or any other human he wants to be able to contact him). He'll know what to do. Death has already set up everything else on the phone--she even set a ringtone for him!

Dream has never cared enough about human telecommunications to know what a ringtone is, and he's too distracted by insisting that he doesn't need a phone--he and Hob have managed fine for centuries without one--to think to ask about it.

He realizes this was a mistake only later, when he's looming dramatically and impressively over someone as Lord Morpheus, and suddenly music begins to blare:

🎶 "Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream! Make him the cutest that I've ever seen..." 🎶

(It gets through an entire verse before he figures out where the music is coming from.)

2,406 notes - Posted August 14, 2022

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[gremlinbean]

Eliot being willing to kill Rand for upsetting Parker? Incredible. Good for him

[trivalentlinks]

by "I'm curious to know if anyone has thoughts on this?", I'm not sure if "this" means whether Eliot can excuse murder, or whether fandoms often change characters to make them more consistent/compelling.

For the latter question, I think definitely yes. I think it happens less in fandoms like Leverage, where the original characters are already so consistent and compelling.

(There are small things. In my longfic, I made Hardison tip so generously that Quinn jokes that if they all tip like that, he should switch careers and just become a delivery guy (he first meets Hardison while pretending to be a doggie day care worker delivering Megabyte to Hardison (Hardison sees through the disguise but tips him anyway))

... even though Hardison canonically tips delivery people terribly. And I did that because I just think tipping generously would be more consistent with Hardison's character, lol)

but yeah, I think it happens a lot in every fandom.

I found it quite extreme in MCU fandom (my other main fandom), but maybe that's not fair because between dozens of films and TV shows and literally hundreds if not thousands of comics, the characterization is so all over the place that pretty much everything is close enough to some version of canon.

-

If you meant whether Eliot can excuse murder, I think Eliot is undeniably willing to murder for his team, but it does make him uncomfortable. The offers to Parker in the Future Job (which I think was 100% genuine and not an empty promise) and to Nate in the Big Bang Job were offers that hurt to make, and in the latter case, hurt to carry out.

He's also, as seen in the flashback with Vance you mentioned, clearly willing to kill people for his country, and that doesn't seem to make him uncomfortable. He's also happy to joke around with Shelley about them killing that guy with the peanut allergy together. Maybe it's different when it's in service to his country's military interests (to which Eliot is clearly, despite everything, still loyal).

But taking this in a different direction, I think usually "can excuse" something, means can excuse when other people do that thing.

In this sense, I'm definitely on Team Eliot Can Excuse Murder. Like, I'm pretty sure we're meant to believe that Shelley, Vance, Mikel Dayan, and Quinn have all murdered people and probably still do and Eliot, knowing this, is fine joking around with and being generally friendly with them.

(will probably also delete this when this post self-destructs if not sooner)

I just typed out a thing justifying my "eliot can excuse murder" joke post and realised that, actually, I can justify canon eliot doing that - because it's uncomfortably implied he still gets his hands dirty with people like vance, even as late as the S4-S5 break - but arguably fanon eliot is actually a bit different, and 95% of the time that's the eliot I'm playing with.

my guess is that the fandom collectively took the canon and sort of smoothed over and tweaked bits to make a more consistent or compelling story, but I'm not super sure, and I haven't engaged with any other fandoms this heavily before. I'm curious to know if anyone has thoughts on this?

(this post will self-destruct or lock down once I feel it's gone far enough; my apologies, but I'd like to keep the circle small and the discussion chill.)

[firebirdsdaughter]

You have to know…

… Eliot was absolutely down to fight all six of Sterling’s guys injured, even if Nate hadn’t come up w/ that plan. Would he have succeeded? I like to think he’d’ve at least had the willpower to get Nate and Hardison out of there, based on my interpretation on part of how he held out against Quinn, although maybe not himself.

[yoyomarules]

Thinking a lot about this post and Eliot Spencer and the tough conversations, the arguments, about his limitations.

Eliot waking up in a room he takes too long to identify as one of their safe houses, head pounding. There’s a gauze dressing on his forehead, a bandage expertly wound around his right arm, his left in a sling. Hardison at his side, laptop open on his knees but with that slow pulsing dot of light on the back that means it’s in sleep mode. Parker in the window seat, knees pulled to her chest, the tension coming off her in waves even though she’s perfectly still.

‘You’re awake,’ Hardison says, closing the laptop. ‘How’re you feeling?’

‘Like I got kicked in the head a few times,’ Eliot grumbles. His throat is parched.

‘Yeah,’ Hardison says. ‘Getting kicked in the head’ll do that to you.’

He reaches for a glass of water, helps Eliot sit upright a little so he can sip at it.

‘Where we at with the job?’ Eliot asks.

‘Don’t worry about that,’ Hardison tells him. ‘You oughta rest.’

‘But did you get the patent?’ Eliot pushes.

‘Eliot, it’s fine.’

‘But we only have today to—we need to get back in there.’ He tries to sit up further but Hardison’s gentle hands guide him back down again.

‘You ain’t going anywhere; you look like you walked off the set of The Mummy; lie down.’

‘Fine, then you two need to—’

Hardison’s hands still rest on his shoulders, though he’s being careful not to apply any pressure. ‘It’s done, okay?’

‘You got it?’

Parker and Hardison glance at each other.

‘No,’ Hardison says, after a moment. ‘I mean the con’s done. I blew my cover when I came in after you.’

There’s a silence.

‘You came in after me,’ Eliot repeats.

‘Yeah.’

‘What the hell were you thinking?’ he demands.

‘I was thinking I’d save your life,’ Hardison replies, and his voice doesn’t rise but it’s cut through with frustration all the same. ‘You’re welcome, by the way.’

‘That guy Meyer hired as security’s a stone-cold murderer, Hardison!’ Eliot says, and his voice does rise. ‘He could’ve killed you!’

‘Yeah, and he would’ve killed you!’ Hardison snaps. ‘He’d’ve killed you ’cause he recognised you and “put down the Eliot Spencer” looks good on a hired gun’s résumé! And don’t tell me you had it handled,’ he continues, as Eliot opens his mouth to speak, ‘’cause you didn’t have shit handled. Why didn’t you say your shoulder’s still acting up, huh?’

‘Shoulder’s fine,’ Eliot says automatically.

‘That’s crap, man, and you know it.’

‘Okay, sure,’ Eliot says. ‘So I was a little slower than normal. That don’t mean you blow the whole con.’

‘I’d make the same choice again,’ Hardison says. He jerks his chin toward Parker. ‘We both would, every time. Wouldn’t even hesitate.’

‘Hardison,’ Eliot growls. ‘We made a promise to that family.’

Hardison shakes his head. ‘We didn’t promise you’d die for it.’

‘So that’s it?’ Eliot asks. ‘We make even more of a mess of their lives and then fuck off, is that how this goes?’

‘We got options,’ Hardison says. ‘We already spoke to Tara; we’ll let things settle down, try again in a few months with new faces—’

‘He’s gonna be on the lookout for a scam, and in the meantime he could—’

‘I don’t care.’

Eliot glances across at Parker. She’s still got her arms wrapped around her knees, but she’s turned her face toward them for the first time since he woke up, and her eyes are red, her words raw.

‘Parker, this is our job,’ Eliot says.

‘I don’t care!’ she repeats. ‘I don’t care how many people lose their money or their home or—or—’

‘You do,’ Eliot protests. ‘You do care.’

‘—I’ll steal it myself if it means we don’t have to lose you!’ And then she’s on her feet and shaking herself and heading toward the door. ‘I need a minute,’ she says.

Eliot watches her go, stunned, and then turns to Hardison. ’You gotta talk to her.’

‘No,’ Hardison says. ‘You gotta listen to her. You know she’s blaming herself for this? ’Cause she didn’t plan for your shoulder and she was so focused on cracking the safe she didn’t realise you were in trouble.’

‘Well, it ain’t Parker’s job to get me outta trouble.’

‘It’s her job to try to stop you getting into it in the first place,’ Hardison says. ‘And this was way too close.’

‘I’m telling you, I woulda been okay—’

‘You would not have been okay.’

‘You saying I don’t know my own limits?’

‘No, I think you know your limits just fine,’ Hardison says. ‘I just don’t know that you’re telling us your limits.’

Eliot stares at him for a long moment and then takes a sip of water. Then another.

Hardison watches him. ‘There something you wanna tell me right now?’

Eliot sighs and rubs a hand over his eyes, kind of hoping Hardison might forget he asked. But he’s sitting there expectantly, watching, watching, and Eliot squirms under his gentle scrutiny until he can’t help but admit, ‘It ain’t just the shoulder.’

‘What else?’ Hardison asks, voice carefully neutral.

‘It’s…lately I’ve been…’ He sighs again. ‘It’s like I still know how a fight should go, right? How I can beat ’em, easy. Long as I’m at a hundred percent.’

‘How often are you at a hundred percent?’ Hardison asks quietly.

Maybe it’s the head wound, but it feels like hours pass before Eliot confesses, ‘Less often, these days.’

The words hangs in the air between them. Hardison’s face shifts between devastated and scared and maybe just the smallest bit relieved, and he says, ‘Okay. So we gotta… we just gotta figure out around that, okay? More time between jobs, more cons where you’re just grifting—’

‘Hardison, c’mon; we can’t—’

‘And we have to know when to pull the plug. And look, you’re right—no one knows your body better than you do. So you have to tell us if something’s too much, ’cause I’m with Parker. We can’t lose you, man. We won’t.’

And it’s not like Eliot’s not aware of that fact, after seven years working together and two of those together-together, but he still swallows hard before answering. ‘If I agree to tell you when I need you to come in, are you gonna listen to me when I tell you to stay put?’

‘I mean, yeah,’ Hardison says. ‘Unless you’re obviously being stupid or some Estonian merc is actively at this moment attempting to bash your brains in. Or both.’

‘He was Latvian,’ Eliot mutters.

‘Okay, well, let’s say any Baltic state,’ Hardison suggests.

He rolls his eyes. ‘Fine.’

Hardison seems, if not satisfied, then at least willing to let the conversation drop for now. Eliot pulls at a loose thread on the bedspread. ‘I think I gotta apologise to Parker,’ he says.

‘Yeah, you should.’

‘And I guess I gotta thank you, huh?’

‘I know,’ Hardison says. ‘This must be awful for you.’

Eliot looks him in the eye and says it with a little more force than necessary. ‘Thank you.’

Hardison grins. ‘No problem.’ He leans over and kisses the bit of Eliot’s forehead that isn’t covered in dressings. ‘Get some rest, all right? We’ll be here when you wake up.’

‘Yeah,’ Eliot says, letting his eyes drift shut. ‘Yeah, I know you will.’

[glassfullofsass]

My Big Bang Job hot take is that we talk so much about Eliot's shootout and pretzels that we overlook the train. Which, don't get me wrong. The shootout is Very Important and Very Worth Talking About and Pretzels is...well. It's Pretzels. But, the train scene is hugely important, in the moment and later on.

At the same time that this is happening:

This is also happening:

Literally at the same time. Eliot's firefight is inter-cut with Parker and Hardison working on the bomb.

It's a heartbreaking and tragic scene for Eliot, but it's not just about Eliot. He's making a choice to use guns to kill other men with guns-some of whom he used to work with. It's huge. But he's not making the choice just because they're shooting at him. Eliot is making this choice because this is his part in taking down Moreau. And Eliot always, always does his part so that the rest of the team can do theirs. Eliot is trusting that Nate is going to get the Italian to safety and stop Moreau from leaving. Eliot is trusting that Parker, Hardison, and Sophie are going to find the bomb and prevent it from being used.

This moment is about the team working together and towards the same goal, even though their tasks are different. For every body Eliot tallies up, we see Parker and Hardison deciphering the stakes of what could go wrong if they don't diffuse the bomb properly.

Sure, both scenes are important to the storytelling and moving back and forth between the two means that the rising action/peak/falling action all kind of happens simultaneously, so from a mechanistic point of view, it's really just sensible.

But because we keep switching back and forth, we get to see Parker and Hardison take on this big, dangerous, literal explosive, concurrent with Eliot using guns to kill people.

And of course you have Parker watching Hardison, seeing him make plans (not just decisions) under pressure. She's looking at him and seeing that he's there in this moment with her, willing to put himself at huge risk just to protect the world around them.

There's two episodes that this points to, for me. Both of them, coincidentally enough, involve trains. And getting on them (or not, as the case may be). Hmm. Funny, that.

Up first, The Gone Fishin' Job. Eliot watches Hardison make the decision to put himself at risk to stop the militia. Eliot was going to get Hardison to safety and come back, but Hardison said no. Hardison said they couldn't wait. Hardison walked back into that camp with a cigarette and half a plan.

Eliot wants Hardison safe, and he knows Hardison isn't one for violence and danger...but Hardison is ready to face that fear for his own safety in order to stop the militia. And anyways, he's got Eliot by his side.

The Gone Fishin' Job happens before The Big Bang Job, but not by much. What this means is that Eliot knows Hardison can be trusted to take on these physically dangerous threats. (oh shit is THIS that moment that Eliot comes back to when he says he and Hardison will go see Moreau? fuck that's another meta entirely).

Parker doesn't get to be with them in this episode. She's the one that has to do her part on her own. She doesn't get to see Hardison make the decision.

(bonus screen cap b/c oh look, what's this? a train and Eliot disarming a guy with a gun? what a coincidence)

AND THEN. Then you have The Rundown Job. (brb gotta cry for a minute).

Okay. The Rundown Job. Every other scene is these three making the decision to stay. Making the decision to save one person. Then, making the decision to save the world. At great risk to themselves.

There's something about that. Something about the three of them saying, over and over again we are the people who are here and we are the only people standing between the world and vast destruction.

Eliot knows they'll take the risk because they've taken the risk before (oh, goddamnit, we also have to rope in The Inside Job. fuck, alright I'm not doing a whole section on that. Suffice to say, Eliot has seen Parker make the decision to put herself at risk in order to protect both a singular person (Archie) and then the population as a whole), but at first he pushes back because he is afraid for them.

Then of course it goes back and forth. Eliot realizes he needs Parker (I do [know why you bring a cooler to a robbery]) and Hardison (you gonna punch the screen?) in order to find the terrorist and stop him. But Hardison gets cold feet because this is much bigger than he realized.

Parker doesn't really get to that point. She's ready to walk away when they've handed the gunman over to the authorities, but when it becomes terrorism? When she's presented with the task?

Like any other job, she says. She's on the train.

There's this parallel, you see, to The Big Bang Job. When Hardison says "he's on the train and we're not" and Parker says "I am."

They've done this before. Big scary bomb on a train? Parker and Hardison need to defuse it, and there's a gun that Eliot needs to address at the same time? They've got this. They've done it before.

Also, in a very clear parallel, Hardison is able to limit the damage with what he has on hand (including his own knowledge), but he needs Parker and her tools properly shut it down.

(And here, I realize I've lost the plot. I was meant to be talking about the train scene from The Big Bang Job, but I was about to go down a rabbit hole of The Long Way Down Job, because this is the moment where Eliot and Parker look at each other and know that this is where they come in. They can handle danger and loss in a way that Hardison can't. Of course, this points us right back to The Big Bang Job. This isn't Hardison having to leave the dead husband behind. This is when Hardison has stepped up. He's there, he's kneeling over a bomb, figuring out how to stop it, but this time the answer is just out of reach.)

I've maxed out my images/post, and got thoroughly sidetracked, but my point is in here somewhere.

Parker and Hardison disarming the Ram's Horn bomb is something we should talk about more.

[seawitchkaraoke]

Hate hate HATE when people talk about redemption and forgiveness like they’re the same exact thing, they’re not, pls guys, if you defined what you mean by these terms before arguing about whether a character (or a real life person but let’s stick to fiction) deserves redemption we’d all be so much better off.

Forgiveness is something OTHER characters do. Some characters are very forgiving and will immediatly forgive their enemy, even when they’ve barely shown an inkling of changing or even being willing to change. Some characters will not forgive their enemy no matter how much they work at becoming a better person.

Redemption is the process through which a character becomes a better person. They realize they fucked up, they change their behaviour, they work at being better every day. Redemption isn’t ever really done, you can’t just be like “okay, great, i killed one person, now i saved one person, i am redeemed” that’s not how it works. It doesn’t matter whether everyone (or anyone) forgives the character. It matters that they are working hard to be better.

And so a lot of complains about a character getting redeemed too quickly are actually about them getting forgiven too quickly, but that should really be a complaint about the character doing the forgiving. But like. Some characters simply are really forgiving (like Adora in She-Ra, yeah she forgives Catra way too quickly, but to be fair, it tracks with who Adora is). Of course for the sweet spot, it helps to have several characters, some of which can be immediatly accepting and forgiving (example Aang in Avatar) and others can yell at the redemption arc character and only forgiving him later once he’s done more work to prove he means it (Katara).

But the redemption itself doesn’t hinge on the character being forgiven. You’re not done, once everyone has forgiven you, you gotta keep going, keep working. “But this character doesn’t deserve redemption” doesn’t really makes sense bc redemption, unlike forgiveness, isn’t something you’re given, it’s something you do. And it’s usually not something you’re ever fully done with. I mean, yes, in real life, you’re eventually kinda done with redeeming yourself from, say, yelling at your friend that one time, but you still need to not do it again. I don’t mean you gotta keep apologizing every single day, but redemption isn’t over, in the sense that there’s no set time after which you can do it again and not expect it to be fine or expect your friend to have forgotten that you’ve done this before too.  A huge part of redemption is simply Doing Better and you’re not ever done with that. And when we’re talking about fictional redemption arcs, it’s usually murder or smth anyway so yeah. You don’t just forget you did that

“Deserving” redemption only makes sense in the sense that, yes, these are fictional characters so in a way the writer IS “giving” them the redemption. Real people do redemption. Fictional characters are given redemption, bc someone’s gotta write them doing it. But I’m gonna say it, there is absolutely no action a character could do where you could not still write a very satisfying redemption arc. Because you write the character. No one is a villian in their own head, everyone has their reasons and you can always find some opportunity, some breaking point that makes them rethink, that makes them even just hesitate and the moment you have that you can write them changing and write them becoming better. Not necessarily forgiven by their victims, but redeeming themselves? Yeah.

But also. There’s nothing you can say you’d never symphatise with a character who’s done x or y, simply bc. That action could be in their backstory. Maybe you’ve already been drawn in for 3 seasons and now learn about the horrible thing they did and have been working hard to atone for ever since. If that’s well written, very few people will throw the dvd or the book across the room and decide they hate this character now. (Beautiful example here is Eliot Spencer from Leverage, bc, yeah we get hints from the start about what kind of man he is/was,  but the puzzle of just how bad builds slowly over time and by the time he’s standing in a park asking Parker not to ask her about the worst thing he’s ever done, you can Very Well put the pieces together and conclude some absolutely horrifying shit and yet and yet we’re all still here aren’t we? You wanna punch him in that scene? Or you wanna give him a hug? Yeah me too)

When you say a character doesn’t deserve a redemption arc, what you should say is you can’t and won’t forgive them and don’t think the characters should. And that’s fair! But there’s no action in real life or in fiction that doesn’t “deserve” redemption. Because redemption isn’t something you deserve, it is something you do

[charcubed]

mild Leverage Redemption spoilers in this post

–––

Society if season 2 of Leverage Redemption includes an arc for Eliot being bi, and we find out that part of the reason why he's estranged from his dad is/was homophobia, and it's all another piece of a glacial slow burn to explicit OT3 as s1 seems to have perfectly set up in an ideal world, and Breanna ends up giving Eliot gentle queer-to-queer advice.

I would kill to have some kind of iconic beautiful thoughtful scene where Breanna kind of nudges Eliot in the direction of figuring himself out and being willing to take a leap and accept what Parker and Hardison have been silently offering for 10 years!!! She could be the factor that finally breaks that unaddressed standoff. (Neither Parker or Hardison being that person for Eliot in this sense would make sense, because they can’t push, especially considering how close they are to the Situation and what they know they personally want.)

I think it could be a very interesting and very powerful role reversal of sorts, too… and an illustration of the way The Queer Experience™ differs by generation. There’s often emphasis on how Breanna’s millennial experience influences her worldview (and it’s fucking relatable), and one of those things mentioned in The Jackal Job is that things have improved for us queer people so much in the past couple of decades. “Oh darling girl, you’re so young. You get to live with so much less fear. Things weren’t always that way.” That aspect of Breanna’s character could be brought to the forefront and contrasted with Eliot. 

Eliot, who repressed his bisexuality as a form of survival. Who grew up in a conservative town and was in the military during the height of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Whose few-and-far-between encounters with queerness were maybe shrouded in secrecy and the silent understanding that it couldn’t ever be imbued with deeper meaning. Who was in a profession that denied him softness, let alone queerness. Who is two and a half decades older than Breanna, and got so used to living with those fears that he also fears opening that door even to himself after this long.

Breanna is the definition of secure in her queer identity, and we’ve seen it in action now, too. Having Eliot reconcile with the fact that he’s never had that luxury, for a trillion different reasons across the course of his upbringing and the life he’s lead… and having that be seen and understood by a fellow queer person who’s always lived in much less fear (or different ones), and is a living example of how much better things have gotten, in their shared safe space… and having him open up even a tiny bit in that regard to someone (who isn’t one of the two people his feelings about queerness and love are tangled up in)… I would perhaps cry lmao.

She could give him courage. She could give him simple yet effortlessly earth-shattering advice. She could teach him something in a very unique way. She could even perhaps casually open his eyes to the the idea that yeah dude, polyamory is a thing, and it’s getting more accepted and known by the day. Maybe they even end up having clients who are poly as a gateway to the idea in the realm of Leverage canon!

[screams softly]

Society if we get to have nice things!!!!!!! Is this meta? Is this a fic summary? Who knows I’m just in my feelings

[onyxbird]

A ridiculous Leverage AU concept popped into my head last night that's cracking me up. So first, it's Leverage OT3 having teamed up as a criminal crew without meeting Nate and Sophie. I'm picturing it in like a cyberpunk setting, but could potentially just be a canon-adjacent setting where the OT3 joined forces without Nate's influence, still pursuing crime for personal gain.

They've become a force to be reckoned with, a target of law enforcement and other criminal elements alike--probably clashed with at least pieces of Moreau's organization more than once--but no one has been able to touch them. Everyone with any connection to the criminal underworld knows about the genius Hacker Hardison and his cyber-crime empire, and everyone knows about his two closest lieutenants: a incredible Thief and an unstoppable Hitter, known only as "Parker" and..."Baby."

Some know only that much, and, when meeting the crew, many are prone to guess that the dainty blonde must be "Baby," and thus the glowering brunet must be "Parker."

The slightly better informed know that the Thief is "Parker" and the Hitter "Baby," but aren't 100% sure which is which.

The truly well-informed folks in the criminal underworld know who is who and enough of their reputations that although "Baby" is spoken of in hushed tones, since they know of no other name for the most elite Hitter in the business, no one dares to even think of calling him that to his face. That can get difficult for people who have to do business with him directly or discuss matters involving him with Parker or Hardison. None of the three ever offer any alternatives. (Every so often a newbie criminal comes along and decides to crack a joke about the name, often some variation on "putting Baby in a corner" and is quickly warned by their peers that 1) you do not joke about Baby--he could kill you with a blade of grass and is known to materialize in the most unexpected times and places--and 2) that specific joke has been made a million times already.)

Behind the scenes, of course, the trio's partnership is quite egalitarian, and Eliot's name is used freely, but 1) neither Parker nor Eliot is comfortable being the face of their organization, while Hardison is happy to LARP his nerdy little heart out as an evil overlord, and 2) Eliot had reasons to not want his real name spread around too much and made the tactical error of giving Hardison a little too much freedom in deciding what to call him in front of people.

Nate eventually does come on the scene, finally disgusted enough to break ties with his "lawful" but corrupt organization and willing to turn to the criminals he used to chase to cut a deal. His boldness at asking for a meeting in addition to what they knew of him as an investigator piques their interest, but they're disappointed when he stumbles in unkempt and still fairly inebriated.

He gains their interest back when, even in his drunken state and having never laid eyes on any of them, he sweeps one look around their temporary HQ, immediately clocks Parker as THE Parker despite her just standing still next to Hardison, and, by process of elimination, turns to Eliot and says, "So, you must be Baby."