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bao3bei4 · 3 years ago

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fan language: the victorian imaginary and cnovel fandom

there’s this pinterest image i’ve seen circulating a lot in the past year i’ve been on fandom social media. it’s a drawn infographic of a, i guess, asian-looking woman holding a fan in different places relative to her face to show what the graphic helpfully calls “the language of the fan.”

people like sharing it. they like thinking about what nefarious ancient chinese hanky code shenanigans their favorite fan-toting character might get up to⁠—accidentally or on purpose. and what’s the problem with that?

the problem is that fan language isn’t chinese. it’s victorian. and even then, it’s not really quite victorian at all.

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fans served a primarily utilitarian purpose throughout chinese history. of course, most of the surviving fans we see⁠—and the types of fans we tend to care about⁠—are closer to art pieces. but realistically speaking, the majority of fans were made of cheaper material for more mundane purposes. in china, just like all around the world, people fanned themselves. it got hot!

so here’s a big tipoff. it would be very difficult to use a fan if you had an elaborate language centered around fanning yourself.

you might argue that fine, everyday working people didn’t have a fan language. but wealthy people might have had one. the problem we encounter here is that fans weren’t really gendered. (caveat here that certain types of fans were more popular with women. however, those tended to be the round silk fans, ones that bear no resemblance to the folding fans in the graphic). no disrespect to the gnc old man fuckers in the crowd, but this language isn’t quite masc enough for a tool that someone’s dad might regularly use.

folding fans, we know, reached europe in the 17th century and gained immense popularity in the 18th. it was there that fans began to take on a gendered quality. ariel beaujot describes in their 2012 victorian fashion accessories how middle class women, in the midst of a top shortage, found themselves clutching fans in hopes of securing a husband.

she quotes an article from the illustrated london news, suggesting “women ‘not only’ used fans to ‘move the air and cool themselves but also to express their sentiments.’” general wisdom was that the movement of the fan was sufficiently expressive that it augmented a woman’s displays of emotion. and of course, the more english audiences became aware that it might do so, the more they might use their fans purposefully in that way.

notice, however, that this is no more codified than body language in general is. it turns out that “the language of the fan” was actually created by fan manufacturers at the turn of the 20th century⁠—hundreds of years after their arrival⁠ in europe—to sell more fans. i’m not even kidding right now. the story goes that it was louis duvelleroy of the maison duvelleroy who decided to include pamphlets on the language with each fan sold.

interestingly enough, beaujot suggests that it didn’t really matter what each particular fan sign meant. gentlemen could tell when they were being flirted with. as it happens, meaningful eye contact and a light flutter near the face may be a lingua franca.

so it seems then, the language of the fan is merely part of this victorian imaginary we collectively have today, which in turn itself was itself captivated by china.

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victorian references come up perhaps unexpectedly often in cnovel fandom, most often with regards to modesty.

it’s a bit of an awkward reference considering that chinese traditional fashion⁠—and the ambiguous time periods in which these novels are set⁠—far predate victorian england. it is even more awkward considering that victoria and her covered ankles did um. imperialize china.

but nonetheless, it is common. and to make a point about how ubiquitous it is, here is a link to the twitter search for “sqq victorian.” sqq is the fandom abbreviation for shen qingqiu, the main character of the scum villain’s self-saving system, by the way.

this is an awful lot of results for a search involving a chinese man who spends the entire novel in either real modern-day china or fantasy ancient china. that’s all i’m going to say on the matter, without referencing any specific tweet.

i think people are aware of the anachronism. and i think they don’t mind. even the most cursory research reveals that fan language is european and a revisionist fantasy. wikipedia can tell us this⁠—i checked!

but it doesn’t matter to me whether people are trying to make an internally consistent canon compliant claim, or whether they’re just free associating between fan facts they know. it is, instead, more interesting to me that people consistently refer to this particular bit of history. and that’s what i want to talk about today⁠—the relationship of fandom today to this two hundred odd year span of time in england (roughly stuart to victorian times) and england in that time period to its contemporaneous china.

things will slip a little here. victorian has expanded in timeframe, if only because random guys posting online do not care overly much for respect for the intricacies of british history. china has expanded in geographic location, if only because the english of the time themselves conflated china with all of asia.

in addition, note that i am critiquing a certain perspective on the topic. this is why i write about fan as white here⁠—not because all fans are white⁠—but because the tendencies i’m examining have a clear historical antecedent in whiteness that shapes how white fans encounter these novels.

i’m sure some fans of color participate in these practices. however i don’t really care about that. they are not its main perpetrators nor its main beneficiaries. so personally i am minding my own business on that front.

it’s instead important to me to illuminate the linkage between white as subject and chinese as object in history and in the present that i do argue that fannish products today are built upon.

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it’s not radical, or even new at all, for white audiences to consume⁠—or create their own versions of⁠—chinese art en masse. in many ways the white creators who appear to owe their whole style and aesthetic to their asian peers in turn are just the new chinoiserie.

this is not to say that white people can’t create asian-inspired art. but rather, i am asking you to sit with the discomfort that you may not like the artistic company you keep in the broader view of history, and to consider together what is to be done about that.

now, when i say the new chinoiserie, i first want to establish what the original one is. chinoiserie was a european artistic movement that appeared coincident with the rise in popularity of folding fans that i described above. this is not by coincidence; the european demand for asian imports and the eventual production of lookalikes is the movement itself. so: when we talk about fans, when we talk about china (porcelain), when we talk about tea in england⁠—we are talking about the legacy of chinoiserie.

there are a couple things i want to note here. while english people as a whole had a very tenuous knowledge of what china might be, their appetites for chinoiserie were roughly coincident with national relations with china. as the relationship between england and china moved from trade to out-and-out wars, chinoiserie declined in popularity until china had been safely subjugated once more by the end of the 19th century.

the second thing i want to note on the subject that contrary to what one might think at first, the appeal of chinoiserie was not that it was foreign. eugenia zuroski’s 2013 taste for china examines 18th century english literature and its descriptions of the according material culture with the lens that chinese imports might be formative to english identity, rather than antithetical to it.

beyond that bare thesis, i think it’s also worthwhile to extend her insight that material objects become animated by the literary viewpoints on them. this is true, both in a limited general sense as well as in the sense that english thinkers of the time self-consciously articulated this viewpoint. consider the quote from the illustrated london news above⁠—your fan, that object, says something about you. and not only that, but the objects you surround yourself with ought to.

it’s a bit circular, the idea that written material says that you should allow written material to shape your understanding of physical objects. but it’s both 1) what happened, and 2) integral, i think, to integrating a fannish perspective into the topic.

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japanning is the name for the popular imitative lacquering that english craftspeople developed in domestic response to the demand for lacquerware imports. in the eighteenth century, japanning became an artform especially suited for young women. manuals were published on the subject, urging young women to learn how to paint furniture and other surfaces, encouraging them to rework the designs provided in the text.

it was considered a beneficial activity for them; zuroski describes how it was “associated with commerce and connoisseurship, practical skill and aesthetic judgment.” a skillful japanner, rather than simply obscuring what lay underneath the lacquer, displayed their superior judgment in how they chose to arrange these new canonical figures and effects in a tasteful way to bring out the best qualities of them.

zuroski quotes the first english-language manual on the subject, written in 1688, which explains how japanning allows one to:

alter and correct, take out a piece from one, add a fragment to the next, and make an entire garment compleat in all its parts, though tis wrought out of never so many disagreeing patterns.

this language evokes a very different, very modern practice. it is this english reworking of an asian artform that i think the parallels are most obvious.

white people, through their artistic investment in chinese material objects and aesthetics, integrated them into their own subjectivity. these practices came to say something about the people who participated in them, in a way that had little to do with the country itself. their relationship changed from being a “consumer” of chinese objects to becoming the proprietor of these new aesthetic signifiers.

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i want to talk about this through a few pairs of tensions on the subject that i think characterize common attitudes then and now.

first, consider the relationship between the self and the other: the chinese object as something that is very familiar to you, speaking to something about your own self vs. the chinese object as something that is fundamentally different from you and unknowable to you.

consider: [insert character name] is just like me. he would no doubt like the same things i like, consume the same cultural products. we are the same in some meaningful way vs. the fast standard fic disclaimer that “i tried my best when writing this fic, but i’m a english-speaking westerner, and i’m just writing this for fun so...... [excuses and alterations the person has chosen to make in this light],” going hand-in-hand with a preoccupation with authenticity or even overreliance on the unpaid labor of chinese friends and acquaintances.

consider: hugh honour when he quotes a man from the 1640s claiming “chinoiserie of this even more hybrid kind had become so far removed from genuine Chinese tradition that it was exported from India to China as a novelty to the Chinese themselves”

these tensions coexist, and look how they have been resolved.

second, consider what we vest in objects themselves: beaujot explains how the fan became a sexualized, coquettish object in the hands of a british woman, but was used to great effect in gilbert and sullivan’s 1885 mikado to demonstrate the docility of asian women.

consider: these characters became expressions of your sexual desires and fetishes, even as their 5’10 actors themselves are emasculated.

what is liberating for one necessitates the subjugation and fetishization of the other.

third, consider reactions to the practice: enjoyment of chinese objects as a sign of your cosmopolitan palate vs “so what’s the hype about those ancient chinese gays” pop culture explainers that addressed the unconvinced mainstream.

consider: zuroski describes how both english consumers purchased china in droves, and contemporary publications reported on them. how:

It was in the pages of these papers that the growing popularity of Chinese things in the early eighteenth century acquired the reputation of a “craze”; they portrayed china fanatics as flawed, fragile, and unreliable characters, and frequently cast chinoiserie itself in the same light.

referenda on fannish behavior serve as referenda on the objects of their devotion, and vice versa. as the difference between identity and fetish collapses, they come to be treated as one and the same by not just participants but their observers.

at what point does mxtx fic cease to be chinese?

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finally, it seems readily apparent that attitudes towards chinese objects may in fact have something to do with attitudes about china as a country. i do not want to suggest that these literary concerns are primarily motivated and begot by forces entirely divorced from the real mechanics of power.

here, i want to bring in edward said, and his 1993 culture and imperialism. there, he explains how power and legitimacy go hand in hand. one is direct, and one is purely cultural. he originally wrote this in response to the outsize impact that british novelists have had in the maintenance of empire and throughout decolonization. literature, he argues, gives rise to powerful narratives that constrain our ability to think outside of them.

there’s a little bit of an inversion at play here. these are chinese novels, actually. but they’re being transformed by white narratives and artists. and just as i think the form of the novel is important to said’s critique, i think there’s something to be said about the form that fic takes and how it legitimates itself.

bound up in fandom is the idea that you have a right to create and transform as you please. it is a nice idea, but it is one that is directed towards a certain kind of asymmetry. that is, one where the author has all the power. this is the narrative we hear a lot in the history of fandom⁠—litigious authors and plucky fans, fanspaces always under attack from corporate sanitization.

meanwhile, said builds upon raymond schwab’s narrative of cultural exchange between european writers and cultural products outside the imperial core. said explains that fundamental to these two great borrowings (from greek classics and, in the so-called “oriental renaissance” of the late 18th, early 19th centuries from “india, china, japan, persia, and islam”) is asymmetry.

he had argued prior, in orientalism, that any “cultural exchange” between “partners conscious of inequality” always results in the suffering of the people. and here, he describes how “texts by dead people were read, appreciated, and appropriated” without the presence of any actual living people in that tradition.

i will not understate that there is a certain economic dynamic complicating this particular fannish asymmetry. mxtx has profited materially from the success of her works, most fans will not. also secondly, mxtx is um. not dead. LMAO.

but first, the international dynamic of extraction that said described is still present. i do not want to get overly into white attitudes towards china in this post, because i am already thoroughly derailed, but i do believe that they structure how white cnovel fandom encounters this texts.

at any rate, any profit she receives is overwhelmingly due to her domestic popularity, not her international popularity. (i say this because many of her international fans have never given her a cent. in fact, most of them have no real way to.) and moreover, as we talk about the structure of english-language fandom, what does it mean to create chinese cultural products without chinese people?

as white people take ownership over their versions of stories, do we lose something? what narratives about engagement with cnovels might exist outside of the form of classic fandom?

i think a lot of people get the relationship between ideas (the superstructure) and production (the base) confused. oftentimes they will lob in response to criticism, that look! this fic, this fandom, these people are so niche, and so underrepresented in mainstream culture, that their effects are marginal. i am not arguing that anyone’s cql fic causes imperialism. (unless you’re really annoying. then it’s anyone’s game)

i’m instead arguing something a little bit different. i think, given similar inputs, you tend to get similar outputs. i think we live in the world that imperialism built, and we have clear historical predecessors in terms of white appetites for creating, consuming, and transforming chinese objects.

we have already seen, in the case of the fan language meme that began this post, that sometimes we even prefer this white chinoiserie. after all, isn’t it beautiful, too?

i want to bring discomfort to this topic. i want to reject the paradigm of white subject and chinese object; in fact, here in this essay, i have tried to reverse it.

if you are taken aback by the comparisons i make here, how can you make meaningful changes to your fannish practice to address it?

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some concluding thoughts on the matter, because i don’t like being misunderstood!

i am not claiming white fans cannot create fanworks of cnovels or be inspired by asian art or artists. this essay is meant to elaborate on the historical connection between victorian england and cnovel characters and fandom that others have already popularized.

i don’t think people who make victorian jokes are inherently bad or racist. i am encouraging people to think about why we might make them and/or share them

the connections here are meant to be more provocative than strictly literal. (e.g. i don’t literally think writing fanfic is a 1-1 descendant of japanning). these connections are instead meant to 1) make visible the baggage that fans of color often approach fandom with and 2) recontextualize and defamiliarize fannish practice for the purposes of honest critique

please don’t turn this post into being about other different kinds of discourse, or into something that only one “kind” of fan does. please take my words at face value and consider them in good faith. i would really appreciate that.

please feel free to ask me to clarify any statements or supply more in-depth sources :)

#x #-__- another fandom essay sorry

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theflashdriver · 3 years ago

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Asymptote (A Silvaze FanFic)

Amy Rose was used to her expertise being recognised; she’d been central to saving the world enough times that the world itself had taken notice. The hedgehog was known for her surprising strength, her hammer had drawn the awe of many, and while she wouldn’t call herself brave, others were rather quick to. She was a talented babysitter, decent chef and accomplished floral arranger. There was however one skill she held that was rarely called upon, so much so that she couldn’t recall the last time that proficiency had been sought.

Miss Rose was stood in the combination living room and dining of her Station Square flat, staring at a wall that had been close to blank less than an hour prior. The pictures of her friends that had been hanging there were newly replaced, their mounting nails used to hoist a cork-board that had previously been hung on her bedroom wall. Photos, shopping lists and little notes to herself had been, for the most part, removed. Now red string connected countless thumbtacks, which themselves held up a variety of pictures and notes.

Eggman was a blue blur’s most common adversary, but no one was better at catching Sonic than Amy Rose. It all began in the right corner of the board, where the romantic had tacked her present best guesses as to her lover’s location- rural Eastern Spagonia, the beaches of Adabat or the verdant runways of Greenhill. The three locations were, admittedly, quite spread out and in themselves weren’t specific to even a town or city, but that was the reality of tracking him.

Amy had first narrowed her selection based on a call with Tails, asking if the boy genius had seen him. She’d long learned to pick up on the stutter that indicated his lying, but she hadn’t heard such in the fox’s voice when he claimed not to have seen Sonic for three days and that he’d last been sighted chasing the sunset toward Apotos. That immediately ruled out Angel Island, the fox would have joined the hedgehog if they were heading up there to see Knuckles, and the three-day period suggested Sonic would no longer be in the mentioned country of white stone.

From there, Amy had taken to social media and scrolled through the major websites and the forums. Though Sonic himself did not really have an internet footprint, having lost or broken every single mobile phone Tails had given him, the hero’s sightings often drew the attention of people who did. Pictures would be taken, more typically than him stopping for a photo people check their phones only to find he’d photobombed an image while running by. Others would post about just seeing him or just being too slow, often accompanied by blurry photos.

From all that gathered information, Amy had pieced together his rough movements over the past week and categorised them. While the Blue Blur wasn’t presently in any of her predicted locals presently, his movements suggested he’d be heading for one of them-

“Amy?” A serious voice, sounding from the kitchen, interrupted Amy’s train of thought, “Are you sure this is entirely necessary?”

“It is, trust me; I know Sonic better than anyone. He’ll only stop under two circumstances,” Amy responded in kind, “The first is if he’s tired; but if that’s the case he’ll be even harder to find and won’t pay half as much attention. We need to entice him into stopping and food’s key to doing that. He never realises how hungry he is until the scent of something tasty hits his nose, he gets too distracted running. Set this up right and it’ll be the perfect trap!”

“I understand that but…” Something clattered in the other room before, hopefully, being caught, “Wouldn’t it be more efficient to work together? First on the baking, and then on the tracking?”

“We’re burning daylight, Blaze!” The pink hedgehog shouted toward the kitchen, intentionally being overly theatrical, “If we waste time on a single task, our information might become outdated. If he makes it somewhere without people, it’ll be way harder for us to find him.”

“As long as you’re certain it’s what’s best…” A certain discomfort was plain in the usually stoic cat’s tone.

Sinking further still into the sensibilities of a detective, she called back, “We’ll get him, we’ll catch him before he even knows he’s caught!”

The Sol Emeralds’ guardian was the one who’d called upon Amy’s particular Sonic-tracking expertise. They’d bumped into each other in a middle of a street market, the feline looking like her usual frustrated expression was only slightly improving upon their reuniting. New to this world, the royal feline had got herself lost while pursuing two distinct individuals, one of which being their mutual ally in blue. Though Amy hadn’t been able to simply tell her where Sonic was, as the princess had requested, she had sworn to help her find him.

Was she taking this all too seriously and, simultaneously, not seriously enough? Of course, she was. But she couldn’t help bouncing before she threw herself back to stare from the couch, taking in the vast theorist’s collage she’d created. The chase offered by her darling Sonic was key to his appeal, her pursuit of him had generated experiences she surely wouldn’t have received otherwise. By following her beloved not only were there opportunities to see and be with him, but she so often ran alongside the excitement hot on his heels.

Of course, information regarding her darling wasn’t all that littered the cork-board. Connected with green cord were the details that Blaze had provided regarding her greater reason for traveling dimensions. A robot by the much too normal name of Jonny had been sighted off the coast of her island but when she’d gone to investigate, she’d found an interdimensional portal out at sea. This was apparently bizarre as the Sol Emeralds, and the sceptre that controlled them, were presently safely stowed beneath the castle. That meant, the machine had found another way to disturb reality and cross dimensions.

That was why Blaze was looking for Sonic, for someone else who could match the machine’s speed and aid in its destruction. She also had some grander fear about this robot teaming up with Eggman but that was a little more confusing. Admittedly, Miss Rose thought Blaze was going a bit overboard, it was just one robot after all, but the princess’ seriousness and Amy's own selfish want to see her beloved again had led to their current circumstance.

Comfortable with her board’s completion, Amy turned to her key tool for locating Sonic. Sat on the coffee table was a well-maintained box of red-backed tarot cards. While detective work was all well and good, divination had more often than not granted Amy the key pieces of her Sonic hunting puzzle. A simple reading, three cards, would initially suffice. Past, present and future- just to see if they’d find him today. After that, perhaps she’d draw a card for each location to determine the odds of his appearance.

She claimed the cards, quickly shuffling them in her hand. Three cards were dealt onto the table in face down position, the matching floral patterns of their underside being put on full display. A certain tension hung in the air of the otherwise very neat and comfortable room. Despite the light overhead, and the relatively bright colours of the space, the excitement that came with the occult Amy dabbled in tended to conjure dark images in her imagination. The larger box of other goods on the table, including candles, often bolstered that, but alas, she was too pressed for time to enjoy and share her theatrics.

She flipped over the far-left card. The past was embodied by the temperance card in an inverted position. If the temperance was representative of Blaze, its inverted position made sense. Normally the card represented patience, balance, wisdom and looking ahead. Blaze brought balance to her kingdom, she looked out for her people. It being inverted however suggested conflict relating to those factors, a conflict that had driven Blaze from her world. Not to mention, its inverted position matched the princess being out of place in the bustling city of what to her was an alien dimension.

Confident so far, she turned over the central card. The lovers lay before her, in its upright position. That wasn’t surprising, that card had frequently represented the rosy hedgehog herself and her quest for her beloved. Its standard meanings of commitment and partnership all made sense, in addition to its common association with crossroads in life- a choice of three was directly before her after all. Alternatively, Amy supposed the implied new partnership could refer to herself and Blaze, this was admittedly the most they’d really hung out… even if the princess had been sequestered in the kitchen for most of that time.

Finally came the moment of truth, the future’s card would tell all. Would they find her beloved today? Or would their hunt be prolonged?

Amy’s nose wrinkled as her eyes landed upon what she’d flipped. The first of the major arcana, number zero, the fool in its standard orientation. That wasn’t a good sign.

Immediately, the pink hedgehog visualised their plan falling apart. Something stupid was set to happen, they’d set off for Apotos or Spagonia only for Sonic to turn up in Station Square the moment they left. Perhaps her beloved was even set to visit her this afternoon, only to miss her. But staying here and just waiting for him to arrive was stupid! Blaze wouldn't accept that and she’d be a fool for trying it!

Her fingers raked through her quills. The prior two cards had represented Blaze and then herself rather well, not an action they’d take. Was the fool meant to depict an individual they’d meet soon? In name alone the fool was a bad omen for their quest, but it represented a new beginning and inexperience. It also was a sign of beginner’s fortune and having faith in the future rather than the difficulties of starting. While there were ways in which the card could represent Sonic, there were better cards for that purpose. No, this was someone else. But who was the fool? Maybe the robot that-

A thud at the door pulled Amy from her thoughts and pulled her eyes to the door. She had called Cream upon meeting with Blaze, both to reunite the pair and because she knew a larger crowd would more likely draw Sonic’s attention, but they were set to pick up the rabbit while on their way. Besides, she didn't fit the fool card.

Tails was in his workshop, Knuckles was surely up on Angel Island and everyone else was undoubtedly busy. Perhaps this really was her tarot in action and the fool was set to represent all the work she’d done only for Sonic to show up on his own. Then again, she couldn't help but wrack her brain for who else the fool might represent.

Feeling a twang of suspicion, Amy rose to her feet and made for the door. She peered through the peephole, only to get an eyeful of an individual stood much too close to the door. She was immediately met with a set of bright yellow eyes, not staring back through the one-way window at her but just toward the door. A sun kissed muzzle, bordering on being sunburnt, was also just in view and the bottom of white quills, messy and bedraggled, were visible just above the eyes. Only one person Amy knew fit that combination of features, one she knew about as poorly as she knew the feline struggling in the kitchen.

Undoing the latch, Amy pulled open the door and revealed a rather dirty Silver the hedgehog. A musk best described as industrial encroached upon her nostrils, surely sweeping into the flat. He smelled of petrol, fire and sweat, not a good combination. His boots were a perfect microcosm of his entire state, worn within an inch of falling apart and marred by filthy stains.

He stumbled forward, having clearly been using the door to hold himself upright, but he caught himself on the frame before he could breach her abode, “H-Hey, Amy. Is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything’s fine,” Her brow arched, “Are you okay, Silver?”

“W-What? Me? Yeah, I’m fine,” He stammered, “Can I come in?”

Despite what he’d said, Silver very clearly wasn’t fine. The more time she spent scrutinising him, the more she picked up on things like the exhausted look in his eyes and his bandaged right shoulder. A wheeze kept slipping his breath and he wasn’t nearly a good enough actor to cover it, he looked totally exhausted.

Amy stepped back and pushed open the door further, revealing the cream carpeted interior of her flat’s living room, “Boots off at the door, make yourself comfortable.”

The damage he was set to do to her couch curled Amy’s toes but watching how he tumbled into its comfort did prompt a small smile from her. Come to think of it, she reckoned she really did know hedgehog about as poorly as she knew the cat in the other room. He was psychic from the future with a strong sense of justice. She was a pyrokinetic from another world with a frankly ludicrous drive.

Was it coincidence those two had jumped into her life today? Did they know each other? Well, everything happened for a reason, and she had divined a so-called fool arriving. Did he fit that role? Its implied meaning of a fortunate future did somewhat fit him, but his current state implied the future was dire.

“This place is really nice,” Despite how the rest of him looked, his eyes were gleaming with an exhausted curiosity as he scanned the space, “Do you live here all the time?”

Amy took in her abode again. She kept the place clean, but it certainly wasn’t worth gawking at. The couch was made of white faux leather, it was just a little something she’d picked up second hand and was littered with heart shaped cushions. The coffee table was similarly cheap and made from a dark wood, it often doubled as her dinner table. Sure, the pictures she’d hung up were nice and she took pride in her floral arranging, but neither feature was truly special. Come to think of it, the pictures weren't even hanging right now, they were on the floor, replaced with the cork-board.

“Yes…?” She slowly replied.

“Wow,” He almost whispered, drifting into a world of his own, “It’s incredible.”

Amy approached, hopping up onto the left arm of the couch rather than actually sitting on the right seat next to him, “Silver, are you sure that you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just amazed. It’s all so normal, so comfy…” He struggled to bite back a yawn as he pointed across the room, “What’s that board thing for? That’s a lot of string.”

“Oh, just tracking down Sonic. That’s what the cards are for as well,” Amy replied, gesturing to the coffee table before inspiration struck, “Have you seen him recently?”

A look of dread widened the tired hedgehog’s eyes, “Is he missing?”

“No, he just likes to run here there and everywhere. You know him,” She responded, not sure that Silver really knew him.

“Oh,” Tired relief reclaimed him as he sunk back into the couch, “No, sorry.”

How much Silver knew and how well he knew it had always been an enigma to Amy, but not one she'd ever spent much time on. As far as she knew, no one else had ever seen the future the hedgehog claimed to come from or even what he was doing in the relative past all the time. Every so often he'd just sort of show up, but never like this. Always just in the nick of time.

Her fresh train of thoughts left Amy with a certain curiosity, “How did you know that I live here? Is my flat some sort of important historic site in the future?”

“Oh, uh, no. Your flat’s not really…” He winced, “The way I found you is sort of tied to the whole reason I’m here. There’s something I want to ask you about,” The hedgehog reached into one of his overlarge quills and drew a small rectangular object from its depths, “Do you recognise this book?”

Amy did have to squint at it, the tome was battered and burnt around the edges, but its form gave way to a cringe inducing line of thought, “Is that my diary?”

“Yes,” He bluntly admitted, “Well, it’s the diary you went on to write in the future I was last in. I don’t think you’ll write it exactly the same in this timeline, because, well, just because you know I find it,” He quickly elaborated, seeming to catch her hard stare, “Does that make sense?”

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t explain why you have it, Silver,” Amy slightly relaxed, “For your sake, I hope you haven’t read it.”

“O-Only the first page, the one that explains that it’s yours and where to return it. It's how I found my way here,” Amy wasn’t certain she believed that, but the hedgehog kept talking, “It is also what I wanted to come back and ask about. You wrote on the first page that no one else should read this book, but I need to.”

Amy wasn’t stupid, but she wanted to properly hear the truth, “How do you know you need to?”

“I did flip through the pages, I noticed that there’s an entry for almost every day…” He seemed to catch himself, biting his tongue for a moment before acquiescing to path of logic, “Up to a certain point. It’d be really useful for letting me know when certain things happen, yours is the only journal I’ve found,” Amy immediately understood the implication, now bolstered by the hedgehog’s own uncomfortable expression, “I really don’t like talking about this stuff with you guys, I thought asking permission would be easier than this. I just didn’t want to do something wrong.”

A dejected look has claimed his face, though he wasn’t meeting her gaze anymore. Instead, the hedgehog’s eyes were upon the roughed-up tome in his lap that had drawn out. Tenseness was obvious in his shoulders; did he even have a plan for if she said no?

Amy felt her face soften. Though she didn’t know Silver, it was hard to picture others in his position going to this sort of effort. It was undeniably endearing, other serious individuals like Blaze or Shadow surely would have just read the book and went about their business. The psychic had instead taken a more innocent route and through it Amy felt like she already knew him better than she ever had before, much better in fact. It was sort of strange, despite this being the first time they’d really spoken at length, and it being under implied dire circumstances, Amy felt comfortable sat speaking with him.

“You did the right thing, Silver. I suppose, if it’s to save us all, I’ll let you read my diary…” She couldn’t help but smirk, a fresh idea had bloomed in her mind, “But I have a few conditions.”

He looked up at her, the initial spark of excitement in his eyes, “Conditions?”

Given the news she’d just received of her future demise, part of Amy wanted to rush him to read the book and use its contents. Another part however, a much smaller yet louder and more cunning part, couldn’t help but see the potential in her present situation. In the short term, the hedgehog’s flying capabilities would likely prove useful for finding Sonic. In the long term though, well, a partner in crime capable of psychically grabbing her beloved would be useful. That and well, Amy did want to maintain a little bit of privacy.

Amy leaned in, ignoring the stench, “Well, I have a few in mind. First of all-

The kitchen door swung open, the loud hum of the oven fan tore away Amy’s attention. In the doorway, a pink apron still worn atop her long coat, stood Blaze the cat with a black tray in hand. The muted yet disgruntled look on her face paired perfectly with the strong scent of smoke flagging from her direction. Amy immediately understood what had happened.

“It’s no use, I concede,” The feline approached, placing the tray on the coffee table. Twelve muffins, three of them mostly crumbled but all of them burned black, filled the receptacle, “That’s the third batch. I’ve tried everything, even just scraping the burned layer off of them. They’re just ruined. Can’t we just buy food on the way?” She pulled the apron over her head, steaming to herself as she folded it up, “Who were you talking to? I thought there was someone else in here.”

Amy blinked, “Isn’t it obvious? Silver.”

“Sorry, what's obvious?” He turned back from staring weirdly at the far wall.

“Oh? Who’s that? Someone who can help us?” Blaze asked, not so much as looking to the psychic.

By Blaze’s phrasing, it was as if she thought Amy had made a phone call despite the psychic being sat directly in front of her. Silver was acting weird too, not so much as introducing himself, but Blaze was being truly bizarre. It was as if he wasn’t even there.

“Silver,” Amy pointed right, straight at the hedgehog.

Blaze followed her finger but looked all the way to the far wall, “I don’t get it, what are you pointing at?”

“Amy?” Wearing a look of utter confusion, the time traveller pointed back at the hedgehog in red.

The pink warrior’s patience was wearing thin, “What are you two doing, is this some sort of joke?”

“I’m not doing anything?” They simultaneously responded, Silver’s tone carrying concern while Blaze, further fuelled by her failed baking endeavours, was beginning to crack and show aggravation, “You’re acting really strange Amy.”

“You two don’t… see each other?” Amy finally vocalised, “You can’t even hear each other?”

“There’s someone else here?” Silver asked.

“How long has he been here?” Blaze almost simultaneously followed up.

She turned to Blaze, “He arrived while you were in the kitchen,” Then to Silver, “She was in the kitchen when you arrived,” Then down at herself, starting to feel more than a little crazy.

Now both of them were just staring at her, Silver looking confused while Blaze was bewildered. Tentatively, the pink hedgehog reached out and poked Silver’s head. He was real, she could feel his fluff and filth, but the effort only served to double his confusion and brought Blaze’s head to tilt. Seeing a dark smudge left on her white glove, Amy had an idea.

She held out her forefinger to the cat, “Can you see this, Blaze?”

“See what, it’s just your finger?” Blaze didn’t blink.

“The dirt,” Amy mumbled, but quickly recognised that the princess couldn’t see it. Testing further, she pointed to the cushion beside her, “What about the couch? The seat next to me is dirty, right?”

Silver shot up to sit straight, seeming to notice what he’d done. Black stains marked both the white faux leather and the red cushions he’d been lounging on, “Oh, no. I’m sorry Amy.”

“Don’t worry about it Silver,” Intrigue was starting to fill the hedgehog’s heart now, just why couldn’t they see each other? “There’s a mystery afoot!”

Glancing to the seat next to her, the cat seemed to notice something, “I don’t see dirt but,” She stepped around the table, closer to the seemingly oblivious Silver. A frown solidified on her brow, signalling realisation, “It’s like I can see the outline of someone sitting there, the impression on the couch...”

Amy thought fast, working her way through the senses, “What about the smell, you can smell him can’t you?”

“There’s only one thing I can smell right now,” Blaze gestured to the muffins but her gaze was fixed on the couch, “But I can absolutely see his outline, there is someone sat there. I believe you.”

Another thought was sparked, “Silver, can you smell the burned muffins?”

“There are muffins burning?” Nope, he clearly couldn’t, but then he was already filthy.

“The tray that Blaze put down on the coffee table,” Amy gestured in its direction, “Can you not see it?”

He squinted at the table, “There’s nothing there… but the door did sort of open weirdly just before this all started? Was that her? I thought it was a really strong wind.”

“Yes, but before this gets even more confusing, I should introduce you two,” Amy stood, positioning herself adjacent but between them. She extended her hand right to the hedgehog, “This is Silver, he’s a psychic hedgehog,” She then extended the left toward the cat, “This is Blaze, her name is accurate.”

That prompted a sigh from the feline, but she extended her own hand in Silver’s approximate direction, “Please tell him it’s a pleasure to make his acquaintance, despite the oddness of all this.”

“Silver, she’s reaching out for a handshake. She says it’s nice to meet you,” Amy summarised.

“Oh, I’ve never done one of those before,” He reached out, using the right hand but entirely missing her, “It’s nice to meet her too!”

Foreseeing further issues, Amy intervened. She took them both by the wrist and brought their hands to meet. To be honest, she’d half expected the appendages to phase straight through each other, but they did manage to meet. Their hands met perfectly, their respective fingers neatly curling around the underside of the others hands and their thumbs perfectly slotting in above. From the moment they touched, it was all so perfectly smooth.

There was something odd about their expressions once contact was held, a certain wistfulness hung in their eyes. For a moment, Amy thought they might be able to see each other. During the handshake, Blaze squinted at the exact angle to look at Silver’s head, while Silver was perfectly looking up at her.

Blaze’s words dashed that hypothesis however as she let go, tracing her fingers across her palm, “As strange as this is Amy, we do have a more pressing issue on our hands than me being unable to see him.”

“You’re right,” Amy conceded, but then countered, “But Silver really could help us. He’s from the future.”

“The invisible psychic hedgehog I can’t see,” Blaze was wincing as if struggling to process that new piece of information, “Is from the future?”

“Well, anything can sound crazy if you use the right words. You’re a pyrokinetic princess from another dimension,” Amy huffed back.

“Another dimension?” Silver chimed in, sounding confused but staring down at the hand that had been holding Blaze.

“It’s complicated,” Amy waved him off, “Look, I think Silver can help us find Sonic, he’s trying to make the word a better place,

“I’ll help you find him, sure,” He shrugged, “I figured that might be a condition for reading your diary.”

“He just agreed… not that you could hear him,” Amy explained.

“If it’ll make up for lost time, then I suppose this might be worthwhile,” Blaze’s eyes drifted to her burnt muffins, “Please thank him for his future assistance, on my behalf.”

That gave the pink hedgehog an idea; she drew the least destroyed looking muffin from the tray, “I think I know the perfect way to thank him, Silver?”

“Amy that’s-

The conniving hammerer cut her off, “Hold out your hand,” The hedgehog did as instructed and received a very burnt muffin, “That’s one of Blaze’s muffins, just as a thank you.”

“I-It’s floating, you’ve proven he can pick them up,” Blaze relayed, “But you shouldn’t let him-

Before Blaze could finish, the hedgehog took a massive bite. While from Amy’s point of view it all looked normal, if a little gross, she was more curious about how Blaze saw it. Would the food vanish once it entered his mouth? Or would she be able to see it inside him?

“He’s done it…” The cat sighed.

“Can you see the part he bit?” Amy enquired.

“I can see the hole in the muffin,” She grumbled, "But not where the missing piece has ended up."

"I can't see any of it," Silver reconfirmed, his mouth sounding full.

“Drat,” Amy grumbled, in hindsight realising the alternative would trap Blaze with an even grosser perspective, “Sorry Silver, it was just another-

“This is so tasty!” He shouted, beaming and he started to wolf down the rest, “Are there more of them?”

“There are but-

“What is he saying?” Blaze cut in.

“Um,” Amy watched as he finished the muffin and took on a look of abject comfort, “He liked it.”

“Don’t lie to me, Amy,” Blaze growled.

“No, no, I mean it. He was asking for more,” She insisted, but was certain her face was betraying him.

“I was!” He insisted aloud, even though Blaze couldn’t hear, “But, I get the feeling I shouldn’t. You’re going to look for Sonic today, right? I bet they’re for him.”

“Um, yes,” Not wanting to incur the princess’ wrath further, Amy seized her opportunity, “They were meant for Sonic. We should probably keep the rest for later.”

“Alright, but if there’s any left I’d love them,” He grinned, only for Blaze tap her foot.

Evidently, having to use the pink hedgehog to communicate was wearing on the cat, a quick fix was needed. A few thoughts drifted through Amy’s mind, each of them surely more foolish than the last. One idea stood out to the hedgehog though, one draped in fantasy.

“Maybe you two should kiss, that might break the spell,” Amy half seriously suggested, paralleling their current conundrum with that of a fairy-tale.

Silver’s brow furrowed seriously, “Do you think that would-

Silver kept speaking, but Blaze’s harsh tone overpowered him, “I can’t even see him, I’m not kissing him.”

A jeering smile broke onto the light red hedgehog’s face, “So you would if you could see him? I didn’t think my description was so appealing.”

A wave of heat flared from the feline, fists balled at her sides, “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Oh, did it just get hotter?” The hedgehog asked.

“Wait, you can feel that?” Amy replied.

Blaze, seeming to catch her hot temper, folded her arms and turned away with a dower look on her face.

“Yeah,” He nodded, “It feels way more comfortable.”

“Well, if it works one way…” Amy hummed, “Silver, do something with your powers, just as a test?”

The hedgehog pitched the diary into the air before psychically grasping it, bringing it to hover in front of his nose.

Amy turned to Blaze, “Can you see that?”

“No,” Blaze stoutly responded.

Amy gestured for him to stop, then suggested, “Maybe you should try using your power on her instead?”

“I can be gentle but,” Amy caught the frustration on Blaze’s brow, matching the psychic’s concerned look as he lowered the diary, “I’d rather not unless she’s sure she’s okay with it.”

It was weird, something like that had happened a couple of times. Outside her proposing they should kiss; they’d barely interrupted each other. When they’d been holding hands, they’d known exactly where to stare to look the other in the eye. Now it seemed that they were almost attuned to the other’s emotions. It was as if they were in sync.

“Okay, I’ve got a different idea then,” Amy wanted to test that aspect further, “Here’s a random question. Silver, what colour is Blaze’s fur?”

“How am I supposed to know that? I can’t see her,” He initially complained, only to shrink under Amy's insistent stare, “Uh, purple I guess?”

“Blaze, Silver has quills on his forehead,” Amy exposited, “How many are there?”

Annoyance still wrinkled the princess’ brow, “Amy, what are you-

“Just guess,” She insisted.

“On his forehead?” Blaze processed the question before shrugging, “Five.”

“Okay something weird is going on,” Amy concluded, “I mean, it already was, but it’s really weird. You both answered those questions perfectly.”

“We did?” They simultaneously responded.

Amy couldn’t help but bounce with excitement, “Yes, you totally did! It’s like you’re in perfect sync or something,” Something about even just seeing the two side by side seemed to match in Amy’s mind, “I have another idea, let’s test if you two can see each other another way. Maybe once you have, you’ll be able to see each other normally,” She pointed to the left couch cushion, “Blaze, can you sit there?”

Once she took that spot, the scheming girl snatched up her phone from the coffee table and threw herself down to sit between the two of them. It was a flip phone, one of the first tails had ever made, but it served her present purpose perfectly. Flanked on either side by bewilderment, she held up her phone and tried her best to angle the lens to catch the pair.

Simultaneously they both went to ask, “What are we-

“Smile for the camera!” She cut them both off, too excited by her new idea, and snapped the picture the moment they’d turned.

The final image was a little cheesy, Silver and Blaze looking rather bewildered in the direction of the camera while Amy herself was posed perfectly and beaming straight at it, but it would suffice.

She turned the phone to Blaze, “Can you see Silver in this?”

“No,” She flatly replied.

Disheartened, Amy leaned toward her fellow hedgehog, “Silver?”

“I just see me and you,” He shook his head.

“Well, that didn’t work…” Amy pouted.

The rosy hedgehog was still most perplexed about how this had all come about. Them being invisible was odd enough, but why the muffins? Amy was pretty sure the diary was invisible to Blaze too, she hadn’t seen it when he’d floated it nor mentioned a floating diary at any other point.

“You could see the muffin floating when he was holding it, couldn’t you? Even though he couldn’t,” Amy confirmed to Blaze.

“Yes?” She responded.

Amy snatched the book from Silver’s lap, “Hey, I need that-

“Shush, it’s technically still mine,” She held it toward Blaze, “Can you see this?”

“No,” The cat responded, but reached out and successfully touched the tome., flinching back as she made contact

“Well, at least you won’t be able to read it. Hold onto it,” Amy instructed, before reaching to her left, “Silver, here’s another muffin. Don’t eat it,” He pouted, but did take it, “You two can tell where the other is now, because of where the objects are, right?”

Silver nodded vigorously, but Blaze was more thorough, “I can but, I could already by the shape of him against the couch, I assume he can do the same?”

“Right, but if you two were walking about, you’d have no idea where the other is,” Amy explained, “Put those down and both of you pick up a card,” She gestured to the coffee table. Silver drew the fool, Blaze picked up the temperance, “You can still see the cards, can’t you?” Both of them nodded, “So it’s not as if objects vanish when you pick them up…”

As she thought harder still, Amy’s gaze drifted to the cork-board. Sonic could be anywhere by now, they had to hurry. That threat pushed her to form a hypothesis.

“I think that, because Silver arrived holding the book while you were holding the tray, neither of you can see those objects. It’s the same with the dirt on him. That means if the other person holds something neither of you were holding before though, you can both see it,” Realisation struck Amy, “If I get you both a new set of clothes then you’ll be able to at least see most of each other!” Then it hit her again, “But you still won’t be able to talk to each other…”

“If I had Sol emeralds with me, I’d attempt to use its power to sort all this,” Blaze grumbled.

“Silver, do you have a Chaos Emerald?” Amy enquired.

“I used one to get here, but it stayed in the future. Can’t have more than seven of them around,” He confessed, “I know where a few should be though?”

That was all the motivation Amy needed, they’d exhausted their options here, it was time to be a proper leader.

“Okay, then it’s settled,” Amy sprung to her feet, turning to the two, “I’ll go get you two fresh clothes, that way you’ll be able to keep track of each other. Then we can go find a chaos emerald, based on Silver’s knowledge. We can try to use it to make you two see each other, then go after Sonic together. Either way, odds are we’ll need the emeralds later, so it’s a perfect plan!”

Both of them got as far as saying, “I’m not sure the clothes are-

But Amy cut them off, “You can use this to talk till I get back,” Pulling open the coffee table drawer, she set a board and planchette down, “It’s called a Ouija board, usually it’s used to communicate with spirits, but I guess it’ll works for invisible people to?” Both of them looked completely muddled, but that wouldn’t stop her, “You two stay here, if you think of anything else that might work just do it. I’ll be quick!”

And with that final say, Amy left the two invisible individuals to their own devices. She rushed out and along the hall, bursting into her bedroom. Her closet was torn open, its contents made to scatter across the floor so that she could more easily pair disparate articles.

Admittedly, the pink pursuer rather lost track of time picking new outfits. When she exited her bedroom with her arms were laden with two full options for each other them. Admittedly, she wasn’t sure anything she had would actually fit Silver, but it was worth a shot!

She’d made it halfway down the hallways when the first sign of a change became evident to her, Amy heard chatter coming from the living room. Though that brought her to a halt, she couldn’t quite make out the words. Now tiptoeing, she rushed to the end of the hall, just far enough to peer out from behind its wall.

Her angle wasn’t great, the couch was against the wall she was looking around, but that didn’t subdue Amy’s surprise at what she saw. They were hugging. The cat’s head was stop the hedgehog’s right shoulder, her arms were around his back and her hands buried among his quills. She was crying. It sounded like they both were? What had happened in the minutes she’d been away?

This meant they could see each other, didn’t it? No, it had to mean more than that. Something else had clearly happened.

“Oh,” Amy couldn’t help but exclaim, but it wasn’t enough to pull their attention away from each other, “It looks like you two found each other.”

#silvaze #Silver the Hedgehog #Blaze the Cat #Amy Rose #sonic the hedgehog #Sonic 06

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leverage-commentary · 4 years ago

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Leverage Season 2, Episode 10, The Runway Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

[Silence]

John: Marc?

Marc: Hi, I'm Marc Roskin, Producer and Director of this episode.

John: I'm John Rogers, Executive Producer, and the one with the Guinness, so you have no excuse for missing that cue.

Albert: And I'm Albert Kim, I'm the writer of the Runway Job.

John: Here we go. And this is a great opening sequence, what- is this a set Marc Roskin? How did you create this incredible look?

Marc: This is the largest girls school uniform factory on the west coast, and they-

John: So this is some sort of internet connection where you order school uniforms or-?

Marc: It was very hot. No, this was-

Albert: Strangely Marc knows a lot about girls’ school uniforms. I don’t know why, but-

Marc: Yes, this was an actual working factory. A lot of the background workers are some of the factory employees who knew how to operate the machines. It was right across the river, really close, and they opened their doors to us just like everybody did in Portland.

John: I love the fact that we wanted to do a fake sweatshop, so when we shot in there, when they saw the hours they shot the workers in the fake sweatshop, we're like, ‘These hours are horrible. How can you people work under these conditions?’ And Albert, since we’ve just seen someone collapse with these- this great shop, which, actually, I believe was the pitch. How did you come up with the idea for the episode?

Albert: Well as you know, I'm quite the fashion icon in the office, so it was quite natural for me.

[Laughter]

John: Yes.

Albert: No, I knew that I wanted to set an episode in the fashion world because it seemed like a fun environment to get into, and lots of great visuals and scenes with models and fashion designers and runway shows. So I knew the area was there, and then so the trick was coming up with a sympathetic victim, and then, as always, a credible villain and threat. So I did a little research and finding the victim wasn't too tough, because the real- in the real world, the fashion industry has sort of been dogged by allegations of sweatshop abuse for a while, so having the sweatshop victim came fairly easy. Finding the threat required a little more research, but as I dug into it, I found that it was actually a real world connection between sweatshops and global clothing counterfeiting, which is controlled by the Chinese Triads.

John: It's interesting because a lot of people talk about intellectual rights and stuff in new international treaties and people immediately think of movies, television, digital rights. A lot of it also involved intellectual rights on clothing.

Albert: Yes. Clothing counterfeiting actually counts for more of the income of these Triads than illegal narcotics trade. So it’s a huge billion dollar business for them and right then, sort of, the pieces fell into place for the elements of the episode.

John: And now these actresses are, Marc?

Marc: That is- um-

Albert: Jen.

Marc: Cathy Vu.

Albert: Cathy Vu and Jen Hong.

Marc: On our left and Jen Hong, and they were great though local Portland actresses. And they knew how to speak some Mandariarin and it worked out great. This was actually, in the shooting order, Jeri Ryan's first episode working with us.

John: Yeah, it's really interesting because, you know, the crew- the cast was genuinely kind of freaked out by Gina not being on set, and so a lot of the weird vibe you get on this episode is from ‘there's a new person’ and of course Jeri became great friends with everyone and really fit in, but it was a really interesting vibe the first couple days on set. It really felt like, yes, Jeri’s a new person here; we don't quite know how to handle it.

Marc: But we had to play it like she was already part of the team because we shot these out of order.

John: It does help that really you don't make her part of the team until the end of the previous episode.

Marc: Right.

John: This is almost a cold relaunch.

Albert: And we played that in the episode, too, so you sort of everyone's tentativeness around her worked well for the dynamics within- the character dynamics within the story as well.

John: And this is, again, this wass also a scene we added just to- It was interesting, we really wanted to make sure that everyone understood that Sophie- Because originally there was going to be a giant gap between episodes, we wanted to make sure everyone understood Sophie signs off on this. You know, audiences were very attached to Gina Bellman - rightfully so - and we did not want them to think we were shuffling her off and bringing in a new actor. We listen to you. Not a lot, not really.

[Laughter]

John: But we do listen to the bigger screams. Also love the callback there that Hardison screwed up in the Ice Man and that's what motivated this entire- this entire replacement.

Marc: We always like to bring up Hardison's screw ups; blowing up offices and whatnot.

John: Blowing up offices. But it's interesting that this is one of those trios where you just kind of park the camera and, you know, they have the dialogue, just let them run; let them do 4 or 5 versions, get the hell out of their way.

Albert: And this scene is really our version of: the kids are wondering where mommy went. You know, so it's like they are a little uncomfortable, it's a new family dynamic, so they're on the phone with her.

John: Yeah.

Marc: Right. But of course, they don't want dad to know that they are speaking to mom.

Albert: Yeah.

John: Yeah, and that's a- that actually started in Ice Man, where they are calling and not telling Nate. And we continued it all the way through where they just don't feel comfortable letting Nate know. And that was a nice little moment with Beth, you know, just ‘I miss you’. It's not often we crack the shell on Parker, that's part of the advancement of the character, to show that she's comfortable in the family, even if she’s not comfortable with other humans. And these two actors the- not those actors, that's stock photography- but the two actors playing the bad guys are?

Marc: Grace and what's her last name?

Albert: Grace Hsu and Tom Choi.

Marc: Grace was a Portland local, she was fabulous; and Tom came from Los Angeles. They did a really great job.

John: The con here is kind of convoluted. It's interesting, just watching this, is the idea that we really had to come into the fashion show from- the fashion industry is one of those industries where if you're inside it, you know everything. We had to constantly figure out, what does the audience need to know in order to understand what we're doing without overexplaining it?

Albert: Right. Again, this is a case where research helped. I mean, to actually looking into what happens during fashions shows. It's based on a real life event, Fashion Week, which normally takes place in New York though there are regional ones all around the country where there are big showcases for new designers as well as opportunities for the stylish designers to bring out their new lines and things like that. So we knew we had an event that was tied to a specific time which helped; it gave us a very limited time frame. And then, again, researching into how the Triads operate and what their connection is to the clothing industry. All of that just helped flesh out the con.

John: I love the Parker giving her instructions on how to be photographed, you know Sophie gave her instructions three weeks ago for some other con. And this was kind of fun, creating the idea for how do you create- in modern media, how do you create the illusion of an actual human existing for some period of time, object permanence to a great degree?

Albert: Right.

John: So you figured out how to- you know, my wife watches a lot of fashion TV and it was kind of backing up: how do I actually know who the hell any of these people are? And it was because of the fashion shows and magazines. Cover both of those and you're done. And DVRs have certainly been a boon. And also this, printing off one magazine it's actually easier than we made it look.

Albert: Yeah.

Marc: Oh yeah.

John: There's actually a service that prints off short runs of magazines that you can use if you're say doing a trade show or running a con.

Albert: This was all done on location. Beautiful house. This beautiful house in- was it in Clackamas?

Marc: Yeah, just outside of Clackamas.

Albert: It was great. It was a huge mansion that worked perfectly, and we ended up recreating the mansion later when we blow it up.

John: Also that what they're doing there, where they are looping, that's exactly what it looks like at Electric Entertainment - it’s basically just a laptop and a mic in the kitchen and that's how we finish up these episodes. No, but it was fun to be able to say, ‘Oh well, put the words on her mouth when we’re on her back, just like we do with actors.’

Marc: Right.

John: Presently, Tim Hutton delivers no more than 50% of the dialogue you hear per episode. We put the rest in his mouth later with a cunning Tim Hutton imitator. Yeah, this is to close off the sale that she's locked in.

Marc: Yeah, just to continue the sale.

John: Now Marc, you directed a bunch of episodes by this point, coming into this, right?

Marc: Yes.

John: And what was it like having a new human on the staff?

Marc: It was interesting. We- it brought a new life to it, and was interesting to see how everybody worked together. And she was just trying to get a feel for everybody and, you know, she was really easy going and said, ‘Listen, if you want a different performance, please, I'm here to help you guys.’

John: ‘Who likes to do this style? Who likes to do that style? Is that head writer really drinking that much in the middle of the day?’ Basic questions.

Marc: What is that smell coming from his trailer?

John: It's shame. It's the smell of shame. This scene was actually not in the original shoot, right? We wound up- this is one of the scenes that was: how much do we explain to the audience? Do they explain what Fashion Week is or isn't? And when we kinda looked at the first cut, it was like, you know what? I know because I watch it on Saturday morning on fashion TV, but we gotta make sure we establish the rules.

Albert: Right. Just a little more explanation as to how the fashion world works and where the con is going; just another step in the process.

John: And an excuse to get Aldis in orange.

Marc: Exactly and have Aldis in orange and Eliot in mascara.

John: That's eye makeup, that's not mascara.

Marc: Sorry.

John: Don’t. Please. Please, I don't want that phone call again, don't make that mistake.

[Laughter]

Albert: What's great about that factory, even this part of this set was also in that factory.

Marc: This was just another portion of it.

John: Wait, so all the dresses and stuff, did we bring those in or those were-?

Marc: Yeah, we just put up the bolts of fabric and some employees.

Albert: We spent a lot of time in that sweatshop.

John: Yeah. As one does.

Marc: As one does.

John: I love, by the way, in this episode, just watching what Kane is doing behind her during this scene. I'm- he's making a lot of interesting choices for Eliot there. Especially with the card snap coming up. And this was a lot of fun, too; this was a lot of the fun of the show is learning all the rules and idiosyncrasies of each industry.

Albert: Sure, that's part of the formula is figuring out what's the interesting world you can look into and then diving into and explaining to the audience how these worlds work.

Marc: Well it's funny, cause she needs to explain it to her teammates on the show.

John: And the card! I love the card delivery.

Marc: And the card the bam, yeah, you get to explain it to the teammates and explain it to the audience as well.

John: We’re really replicating what we’re doing in the room. Which is, one person knows the field pretty well and they explain- I remember when we did Iceman and we were talking about getting the serial numbers off the diamonds and Chris Downey was like, ‘I'm not following’ and I went, ‘It's like getting VIN numbers off a car’. ‘Oh, ok perfect!’ And that wound up in the script. Also this was fun having somebody who didn't know how the earbuds worked; it kinda reset the rules for the audience. And some beautiful- how did we get all this beautiful Boston stock footage?

Marc: Some we bought, some we shot.

John: You actually went out and shot a lot.

Marc: I did. Myself and Dave Connell spent a couple days running around the great city of Boston.

John: Now this is your directing debut, isn’t it Albert?

Albert: It wasn’t my debut, but it was probably the longest sequence I've done.

John: And it's just naked backs.

Albert: It was just tedious, grueling labor to just have to order these models around to take off their clothes and take off their shoes. No, it was great, it was. We already had the set, we finished the big scenes in the set, so Marc let me take a few people out and just get as much fun behind the scenes stuff you can, so that’s kind of where we ended up.

Marc: You and Norbert, right?

Albert: Yeah, Norbert. That was one of his first days there.

John: I love the hair. Whose idea was the Swiss Miss hair?

Albert: Well the other thing about this episode was hair, makeup, wardrobe, obviously had a field day with it. They were really excited about being able to put their best foot forward on a lot of this stuff, so they were able to-

Marc: Yeah, they really had a good time.

John: I also love the fact that Hardison is basically using CIA technique of human intel signals and analysis on the PA’s on a fashion show to figure out who’s in charge without actually figuring it out. It's a lot of fun, and our friend Apollo Robbins helped us out with the envelope slip, and it helps that Beth is very good-

Marc: This girl is great; she was a lot of fun, this girl, Caitlyn, Caitlyn Larimore. We- she read for us a few times on other things; we just knew there was gonna be something for her eventually.

John: So really, if you're looking to act, you should get out of whatever little LA or New York, whatever little hick town you're in and move to Portland because that's where you're gonna get some work.

Marc: Move to Portland; that's where it's gonna happen.

John: This actually hacking into the printer is something we've done before. A favorite trick of Apollo is to print stuff out in your office when you don't realize something is about to happen. And then the slide-

Marc: That wonderful calligraphy on those envelopes was my mother in-law’s.

John: Really? That's great.

Marc: Yes, Louise.

John: We didn’t pay her did we?

Marc: Oh god no.

John: Alright, just making sure. We are a cable show.

Albert: But she ends up featured as a featured extra in the episode, too. She's in the fashion show; you'll see her later staring down Parker.

John: Mother-in-law? You got your mother-in-law on tv?

Marc: That's right.

John: Wow, you're the best son-in-law ever. This actress- actually nice shot. We wound up repeating that character later. I remember we were kinda restructuring; we were like, ‘Oh, we can just use her again, that’s fine.’

Albert: I remember watching her read, and she was great at it, so we decided to, rather than use a separate character for a scene later on, just, you know, bring her back. And she wound up doing that scene later when they approach the security people.

John: Just some love for the extra, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ A little something from Eliot just for you.

Marc: Just a little.

Albert: Well he had to know that if you're gonna do a fashion episode, one with lots of models, that Eliot was gonna be right in the thick of things there.

John: Yeah. And the overheard- How did you stage this? The overheard conversation is a staple of the show and the bane of all directors everywhere.

Marc: Yeah, we didn't have a lot of time on this day, but we figured out a way; just keep her in the background, eventually a couple close ups of her ears perk, and soon they'll drag her in deeper.

John: Now each one of them is doing a specific person. I can't remember, he's doing-

Marc: Lagerfeld.

John: He's doing Lagerfeld. She’s doing Donatella Versace. I can't remember the British guy that Hardison is locked in on, cause I remember Aldis actually had pictures of him. I’m trying to remember...

Albert: André Leon Talley from Vogue, who is the legendary creative director of Vogue. And he's sort of channeling him. But yeah, again, during the course of research-

Marc: I got my ladder shot in there, by the way. I'm just two for two on-

John: On having ladders in your-

Marc: Yeah.

John: That's good; that's excellent.

Albert: This whole set was built; this was the whole fashion show.

John: We actually built this in the museum that we shot the finale for 207 in, right?

Marc: No, this was just an empty warehouse.

John: Did we have permission?

Marc: Yes we did.

John: Good. Cause sometimes we don't; sometimes we just build stuff and then get the hell out before the cops show.

Marc: Yes, we used a lot of fabric to hide things.

Albert: But the beauty of it is, if you go to real fashion shows, it's kind of what it is. The highlight of fashions shows are supposed to be the clothes, so they keep the surroundings very minimal, and that's- that's always the idea of a fashion show. So luckily for us, it's fairly easy to recreate realistically as a set.

Marc: A lot of times it's just a wedding tent and a runway and chairs.

Albert: Well anyone who's watched Project Runway can see what it's like. It’s just a runway and some folding chairs.

John: I thought we built- that's interesting. Where did we go back to the museum for? I can't remember; it's gonna drive me crazy. Whose idea was the buckles?

Albert: Buckles was something I came up with in the script when I was trying to figure out how to explain what a poor designer Gloria is.

John: What's the one thing nobody likes a lot of?

Marc: Buckles.

Albert: So it became a little joke that someone that- someone, I think it was Chris actually pitched the joke about ‘pilgrim chic’ which we put in there, and found out later that that's actually kind of a real thing. If you make up any kind of joke in the fashion world you'll find out eventually that it's a real thing somewhere.

John: Yes.

Marc: This was actually the workers rec room, which was pretty much an open area room and-

John: You're kind of ruining the whole sweatshop vibe with, like, ‘They had a rec room.’

Marc: Yeah, they had a rec room and basically we've pretty much four walled it.

John: Yup.

Marc: And, you know, put in-

John: Which means?

Marc: To put up a wall to close it off.

John: So this is a bigger space behind him.

Marc: Yeah, it's actually pretty much the same size, but it's just a platform where they had their lunch table set up. But we liked the ability to have shots like that where we can look down onto the floor, it was always-

John: And then shoot back up.

Marc: It was always something that I know that you guys mention, that we wanna have more connection with our victims. So we placed that shot-

John: It is tricky, particularly when we’re doing complicated ones, you can lose track of that vic that's in the opening, and we really tried this year to tie it back a little bit more.

Albert: Yeah, it was interesting. I had a conversation with another writer just the other day about - who works on a crime procedural - and they have the same issue about how to connect with their victims. It's much harder for them because usually their victims are dead. So they show up in the beginning dead, and they can wrap things up with the relative of the victim at the end. If you notice, what a lot of crime shows do is they have flashbacks, so then you get to learn the personality of the victims through the flashbacks.

John: Oh, interesting.

Albert: So we don't do that, but our victims are alive so there are opportunities, like in this scene, to reconnect with the people who we’re working for and establish what our emotional stakes are.

John: And this is also one of the places where we sort of set up- and if you watch what we did with Jeri’s character, and sort of the difference between Sophie and Tara Cole. Tara Cole is a short grifter. Sophie is never gonna push it, she's never gonna try to get the big payout. And Tara’s job is to get in and get out with as much money as possible, so this is one of the times where we really sort of set up how she needs to adjust. Though when you look at the back half, we don't really change it that much. The team doesn't really change, it's- she kind of adjusts herself to fit in the team a bit more. They wind up using her short term push just as a different sort of batter.

Albert: Whereas personality-wise, there's something you told me I remember which helped make everything click which was - Tara is really kind of a guy’s girl. You know, she's the kind of girl who sits around and watches football with the guys on Sundays. Sophie is very much a girl's girl; she's out there doing the shopping and fashion and all that stuff. So that kind of distinguishes the two characters. Although they fulfill the same role within the team, they're very distinctive in terms of their personality.

John: But that's also from when we originally created the show. A lot of these characters have slightly different personalities, and the actors brought other personalities, and we realized as long as that job was fulfilled in the team, you can range pretty widely within there. How did you shoot- where the hell is she?

Albert: She's supposed to be-

Marc: Tashkent, right?

Albert: Tashkent. So-

John: Uzbekistan?

Albert: Yes.

John: Oh right there you go. Of course. ‘Cause Tashkent is in Uzbekistan. Who doesn't know that?

Albert: Right.

Marc: And yes, so we shot Gina on a much later date, during a later episode, and just one green screen and some stock footage behind a little wind machine and there you are.

Albert: And camels.

Marc: And some camels, yes.

John: As one has in Tashkent.

Marc: In Portland.

John: Oh no, we went to the Portland zoo see, I was hoping you'd give them the whole speech about sand, and yeah. That's a little bit of jealousy, a little bit of- and that was another thing, too, to make sure that Sophie wasn't just a character that you checked in with once a week. She had to have her own little arc that whenever you went to her she had a distinct attitude about the team. Yes and the reindeer gag, which I really foolishly insisted on keeping in the script because it was my favorite bit.

Albert: It was brilliant; it was great; it was all John.

John: That's mine. Whenever you see a joke that doesn't quite work and seems kind of doomed but we keep, that's usually me diggin in at the table, particularly if it's absurdist. Now did we put banners up or is that digital?

Marc: Digital. Those were digital banners on the building. Do our little whip pans to Eliot and whip back.

John: Just to establish, yes, he's with a model. Where do you think he was gonna be? And he’s out.

Marc: And he's angry he has to leave the model.

John: The- and again, it was interesting to, sort of, know that we had to plot out these arcs on the back six, and figuring out exactly, like, how do we show trust and acceptance? And, you know, you can do it in dialogue, but you don't want people talking about their intentions. And the ear bud became kind of an interesting metaphor; it goes in and out of use over the back six and even with Eliot we wound up using it.

Marc: Yeah, it's like the chief asking for your gun and badge.

John: Yeah, exactly. And it also solved the problem later when you know it’s- she shouldn't have heard X.

Albert: Right.

John: And that's a big problem on the show is in theory, if they can all hear each other’s conversations... Whereas a lot of cop shows, a big chunk of the time is, ‘What did you find out from witness x, Billy?’ What did you find out about witness y? Alright now let's put it together.’ They know. Now how did we do this blow?

Marc: Now that wass digital smoke, and that is a model.

Albert: Green screen model.

Marc: Yeah, we modeled the windows and actually shot it in our parking lot right here in Highland, in Santa Monica Boulevard.

John: Now we built- we do builds on the- building’s blowing up is better with models. The cars we've found we can do just digitally, but the buildings really look great with the model.

Marc: But we still use the model for the car as well. We just don't have the time or the money to do full explosions, you know, we do just a little aftermath with some debris and smoke.

Albert: Especially when it's someone's real house.

Marc: Yes.

Albert: Don't want to-

John: Generally they kind of frown on that, of just blow out the windows.

Albert: Because last year we did, Marc and I worked on another episode where we blow up a warehouse. And it was an abandoned warehouse, so you blow out the windows and break the glass, so it's not such a big deal.

Marc: Yeah, we did a little damage to the Prison Break set on that. What they shot was-

John: I remember, because I pulled up the day you were shooting that, I was like ‘I hope I haven't missed the blow.’ I was a quarter mile away and my windshield shook and I'm like OK, that was a little bigger than we anticipated’.

Albert: But this was a house with six kids was it?

Marc: Six kids, yeah.

Albert: So it was-

John: So blowing it up wouldn't have changed it all that much.

Albert: Probably not. Actually that family was incredibly neat.

John: And this is a lot of fun. And again, this is where, if you pay attention, we never tell you Tara’s backstory; if you pay attention all six episodes, you can figure out exactly what Tara used to do before she became a con woman. The information she knows, the way she puts stuff together, you’ll figure it out. Also the yelling. This was a lot of fun, because Eliot would be annoyed in this situation, and Chris Kane is never funnier than when Eliot is incredibly annoyed.

Marc: That’s right, and it's usually with Hardison.

John: Yeah. Thank you, I don't know how you make this show without phone cameras I really- we couldn't have made this show in 1978 this would've been a lot harder.

Albert: Or earbuds.

John: Or earbuds. Well earbuds we could've got around, but- no earbuds might have made our life easier, actually.

Albert: This was another thing that came up in research, actually, when I wrote a book about the Chinese Triads, and it is actually true that they're signature weapon is a meat cleaver. We looked at a few pictures of them, they're pretty impressive; they are really big and they have engravings on them, stuff like that. I've also looked at way too many pictures of victims of the Triads.

Marc: Yeah, missing fingers, and hands, and arms.

Albert: But that, again, it just added another fun element, knowing that there was, in reality there was a signature weapon that they use, and gave Eliot another fight scene.

John: Of course they'd be fancy meat cleavers, you're not gonna just pick a meat cleaver at Tesco or the kitchen section of Best Buy; you're gonna get one specially made. This was a lot of fun, too, something we haven't done in a while, which was watching Eliot figure out his fight space. You know, control access doing the math in this head. You know, it's always a little easier if no ones around him, just so he can tear people around a little easier. Fun stunt. Jerri did this, right?

Marc: Yeah, she was really nervous about doing her first fight with us, but she was a trooper; she did a great job.

John: She actually killed that guy. I feel a little bad about that, that's the first time we've admitted that, but you know. This was one of my favorite fights, cause we don't do a lot of weapon fights.

Marc: Yeah.

John: And it really reads well; the cleavers read real. Also we do a nice fight style with Chris here.

Albert: We did use cleavers back in the first season with the Wedding Job.

John: Oh that's right, we had the kitchen thing.

Albert: A kitchen thing. But it was a different kind of fight; it was a one on one in an enclosed space. This was an open space with multiple attackers ,and again, different props to use. So like, you saw the mannequin dummy there, and the rolling carts, and things like that, and so it ended up being a really fun scene.

John: And again, thank god for the surveillance culture - the fact that there are so many traffic cameras. Although you may bitch about privacy, it really helps us.

Marc: It really, really helps us.

John: This was interesting. This- I forget how this came up, I think the fact he had two IDs, but they had only checked one. I had a friend who was a Mountie- and remember, we were talking about my buddy who had done undercover up in Canada, and gh said the problem was, the guys got the fake, ran up records on fake Canadian IDs and you never knew the original crimes. Yeah. ‘Hey, how does Tara Cole know how to handle a meat cleaver?’ You’ll find-

Marc: Yup.

John: There you go, and that's a nice hit. And the head butt. I love the head butt, I'm sorry, man, that's a great way to end a fight.

Marc: She gets to take part.

John: Also, there's a lot of really nice hair flipping around in that fight scene, I gotta say.

Marc: I love-

John: I don't know whose looks better.

Marc: It's like a [Unintelligible. Sounds like ‘Germat’?] commercial.

[Laughter]

John: And that's, again, one of the problems with having a really uber competent team is, ‘OK they would have run this guy's background. What is the one loophole we could find that Hardison could screw up?’ You know, it's not screw up, it's nobody’s perfect.

Albert: It's just overlooked.

John: That's the trick, it has to always be some sort of fair play thing. Not a mistake, not just a ‘I didn't look in that drawer.’ This is a legitimate loophole.

Albert: Look how great this location is, though. It's everywhere; there's stuff everywhere. We really would not have been able to duplicate this on a set.

Marc: No.

John: What? No?

Marc: Never.

John: I love that he keeps the voice up here. That killed me here the first time I saw the dalies I was like, ‘Is he still doing Lagerfeld’?

Marc: Jack Bouvier.

John: Yeah the fingerless gloves are really the pièce de résistance there. There's a lot of stuff there that could be on anybody, but the fingerless gloves really digs in.

Albert: Again, that's straight out of the Lagerfeld book.

Marc: Tim went for it.

John: Are those glasses actually rose tinted?

Albert: Yes.

John: Yes they are, that's magnificent. And the evil speech of evil: ‘Listen, I'm just a businessman. I have obligations.’ You know, in his head he's keeping many people employed back in China. You know, and he's a copy fighter, he's like those electronic freedom foundation guys who doesn't believe in copyright.

Albert: He's a hero, really.

John: He is a hero.

Albert: Of his own story, but-

John: Exactly, he just happens to interact with our story.

Albert: Exactly.

John: And this is actually a cue, this is a hint to where Nate’s- This winds up being the first episode of the second half of the season. This is kind of a hint of where Nate’s arc is going for the season, where he's getting so addicted to control and not losing and beating the bad guy, he's starting to make poor decisions. And he makes a series of remarkably poor decisions through the back six that really just the competence of the team protects him from.

Albert: He's kind of like those football teams that keep pulling it out in the 4th quarter and just decide that's just what they have to do. So they don’t mind coasting through the rest of the game or even, you know, getting down and behind before then.

John: Yeah it's- it's the mental discipline, and something that Parker says later on in the season which is, ‘Be the Nate Ford that we came back for.’ The mental discipline that made him legendary and which they count on is starting to slip. And it's not because of the booze, it's because of what he's substituting the booze with.

Marc: Right.

John: This is me drinking my Guinness, by the way.

[Laughter]

Albert: It's not your Guinness, it's what you’re substituting for the Guinness.

John: No, no, this is my Guinness; I'm actually drinking.

Albert: Oh ok. It's actually another Guiness that is substituting for his Guinness.

[Laughter]

John: It's, again, a Guinness that's somewhere else that I would like to be drinking. Some bargaining, trying to get them to take Eliot instead of Jeri.

Marc: That wasn't something he planned for.

John: No, no, and it's interesting, and again, this is all trust issues. She kind of volunteered herself for this position, she’s, you know-

Albert: The trick is, part of the whole episode was really the character dynamics. Because it was a new character, because it was a new team member, even though she'd been introduced in the episode beforehand, this is really the first full con they run together as a team. So it was a very tricky thing, and so I had the outlines of what the broad strokes would be, but this is the point when you go to the show runner and you say, ‘John how does this work, exactly?’ And then John takes over.

John: We stare at the ceiling and- that's what the writers room is for. And this is great, we actually wound up paralleling this shot. You created this shot for this episode, Marc; we wound up paralleling this argument in, like, two other episodes. There's actually a similar version of this shot in the first half in the season finale, where it's like, we are now sitting judgment of Nate Ford, and we’re a little distrubed that we’re not feeling very comfortable here. Yeah, and this cutting pattern replicates, and it’s interesting, and it's because we have editors working over certain episodes that make certain choices. And those are I think the names of-

Albert: They were real Electric Entertainment employees.

John: ‘Maybe I want to meet...’ Yes. Hardison is the most hard done by character; he never gets what he wants. And that, again, is one of those things where this episode was shot in 6 ½ days.

Marc: Yes, there's my mother-in-law.

John: There you go; she's a lovely woman.

Marc: A lovely woman.

John: Are you checking the list of actors to pick her name up? That's not good.

Marc: No, gosh no.

John: You know, we had four different ways this scam works. All depending on exactly how this shooting schedule worked out. And I remember I had to sit down with my wife and I was like, ‘Alright’, cause she's big into this, I was like, ‘Exactly what is the timing and choreography on a fashion show?’ And there, the thing with the dresses and they're all transported across town. So it was a good lesson for writers is, the great thing about TV is you're shooting every week; the really great thing about TV that will also drive you crazy is, you learn how to have a bunch of choices. Because sometimes the world decides not cooperate with you, and you can't shut down production for two days and just go- You've worked on big films, you've seen this. Like, ‘You know what? We're just gonna take a day off and find the right location.’

Marc: Yes.

John: No. Not so much.

Albert: The scene coming up with Parker in the gown. This is really, if you think about it and you say that you're gonna do an episode with the Leverage team involved in the fashion world, kind of the promise of the premise is you're gonna get Parker in a fashion show. In a gown, in a fashion show.

John: Right, because she's the one person who would despise it.

Albert: Right, and you kind of have to deliver this scene.

John: This was also shot later, and it was interesting because we don't usually get Parker and Eliot- you know, Parker and Eliot in a two-hander. And if you go back, you can see in the back half of the season when we- especially when we saw how it worked out in The Lost Heir Job, it became kind of a little more standard that we go to this partnership. You also see it pop up in the bottle show, the bar show, what the hell did we call it?

Marc: Bottle Job.

John: We called it The Bottle Job, that's right.

Marc: The problem with doing these two-handers is he can get her to laugh and break.

John: Yeah, Chris can crack Beth up. Him doing the dirty dresses on the floor line, Beth I think broke character maybe ten times because we are in the basement shooting that day.

Marc: And this is the dress that Nadine our costume designer built.

Albert: Yeah.

John: It's a pretty amazing dress.

Marc: A beautiful dress.

John: The thumb drive of intent. Thank you thumb drive, for giving us a short hand so audiences know what we're doing.

Marc: Yes, so she basically- you'll see that all of the Andre V, that's the Andre V character, has a touch of yellow in it.

John: That's right. Nadine created a unified theme for the fashion line - the fake fashion line that we were doing.

Albert: She created an actual line.

Marc: Yeah, so she created a whole line and there's a touch of yellow in everything and as you’ll see when we get to the runway-

John: Where's this dress? We should auction this dress off.

Albert: Nadine probably has it.

Marc: It's actually in my car.

John: Oh no. I wish I didn't know that.

Marc: And then Dave Connell carried it with the lighting design as well.

John: Oh that's great, that is great. It's like we do this for a living.

Marc: Almost.

John: I love that Parker does the most- the little slide across the spot; that's a lot of fun. And now, did you shoot this at night? You had how many days on this set?

Marc: I think we did this-

John: You had the day, which was the warm up and then-

Marc: I think we had this location for two days.

John: That's not bad.

Marc: That's Jeffery Gilbert who played Andre V; he was just great. And I love Parker with the moves.

John: With the big head turn.

Marc: Just for a moment she thinks she got it under control, of course.

John: No, not so much. Walking is hard; walking in those heels is hard.

Albert: Walking in heels is hard.

John: I also love the little improv- it wasn’t in the script, but I remember seeing it in the dalies - she cracks her neck.

Marc: Yes that was definite Parker move. And I know this had to be- the scene coming up had to be a John Rogers line, where it's written that Andre V is banging his head repeatedly against the wall.

[Laughter]

John: Well, yeah, because I do that in the writers room.

Marc: And they said, ‘We gotta move on.�� I said, ‘No, I need to get the guy banging his head.’

John: Trust me, have some sympathy. And this is where we pay off the idea that Tara has heard about this team, and now believes she's given Nate one clue as to what she’s gonna do and she's desperately hoping they're as good as they think they are, and she’s doing the set up to this, she's setting up this beat. It was tricky, because we did actually play- she does actually look like she's selling the team out here, and if you're watching the DVD, you are watching all the way through the seasons. aAnd we did go back and forth on how loyal would she be to the team. And it really is the fact that one of the reasons you watch the show, or at least I think one of the reasons you watch the show, is the family vibe.

Albert: Absolutely.

John: And just having somebody who wasn’t into the family vibe in the middle of it, it might've been interesting from a writing standpoint, and we’re all fans of the show who write the show, it wasn’t interesting from an audience standpoint; it felt a little overly clever, a little constructed. But we do it just enough that we can get she's part of the team, but she doesn't buy into Nate’s bullshit, and as a result her actions in the finale make some sort of organic sense. And the van, oh, the van.

Marc: Gotta have the van.

John: Not anymore.

[Laughter]

Marc: Well-

John: No the- and this, again, we had like four variations how this particular con worked. Who did those designs? Who did-? We have a lot of actual fashion designs floating around in this.

Marc: I think Nadine.

Albert: Nadine and her team did pretty much everything.

John: They sketched them up and sent them off to Derek to do the computer graphics.

Albert: They did the sketches, they did the buckles sketches, they designed the clothes. Like I said, this was a real- this was a field day for the wardrobe and makeup and hair.

Marc: For the glam department.

John: That was nice, too. Cause the thing we originally missed, that having him hand him the badge, it’s a nice touch. Again, the trick when you’re doing- Some of the endings we stop and explain a lot, some just kind of unroll, and you have to make sure you set up all the pieces. And a lot of times when you're running and gunning and shooting, that stuff goes away.

Marc: It does. And so much of it is like, you get to a certain scene like, oh my god, in the flashback you're supposed to see that happens later.

John: Do you break those off separately when you shoot these or-? I mean, I know you, kind of, barely read the script.

Marc: A lot of times they are within the scenes and god bless Suzanne, our script supervisor, she just, she-

John: She's the best. She's actually the best I've ever worked with.

Marc: She's the gatekeeper, yeah, she’s amazing.

John: A Script Supervisor’s job, in case you don't know, if you're watching, is to sit next to the Director with a copy of the script, with special notations that they go to school to learn, to track what is in every shot, what the angles are, what the sizes are, who’s crossing, who’s walking in from what direction.

Marc: She's basically- she's keeping score and she’s the directors best friend, or worst enemy.

John: You will hear a lot of directors, even really experienced directors say-

Marc: As well as an editor, because, you know, an editor just gets a hard drive of footage, and if he can't decipher her notes, then he's gonna struggle as well.

John: I've seen really experienced directors, guys who are famous, they will finish and will turn to their script supervisor and go ‘What do I need?’ Cause they're watching the coverage while the directors watching the-

Marc: And we do a lot of different things and as a director, you're watching performances, and you're making sure you're hitting all the right emotional beats, and you know, when we do certain scenes where we have multiple characters, or you’re doing a 360-

John: We have a five-hander here.

Marc: Yeah, or doing a 360 and the camera’s going around and around, you need someone to be keeping score for you.

John: I like the physicality, by the way, watching this again, of watching Tim does with his face when he’s with the character and when he's just dropped it, and all of a sudden that kind of fake character, the wardrobe doesn't matter if he's just pissed, and you know he's dug in.

Marc: As soon as he's pulled off the glasses-

John: It's Nate.

Marc: It's Nate.

John: Great job.

Marc: And we haven't even had him say that, when Tom, later on, you know, points that out, you're not even who you say you are, he, like, looks at him in a certain way.

John: Yeah. No, nice call. The- oh yes, this was, again, interesting, is one of the things that really depends on the speed with which these guys can rip this stuff off. You know, in one of the original versions we were talking about where the dresses are actually transported- right after the fashion show, the dresses actually are driven across town and are put in a private closed viewing for the buyers. They won’t let anybody else close to those dresses because even with photographs, they can be knocked off within a matter of 48-72 hours. Which is stunning, which is what you're trying to fight when you're trying to fight piracy. And hung by his own sin, which is one of the rules.

Albert: There's always a rule. Yup. Going back to the wardrobe and hair and makeup departments, the other thing you don't end up seeing is that they went through a lot of their own iterations of what- before what you see on the screen. They did a lot of tests, they did a lot of different looks. If we had time, we could probably show all these other test photos they took, and different hair configurations, and make up, and at one point they did this whole sort of Kabuki look, but we decided that might've been a little too fashion forward for this show. They really went all out.

Marc: They went all out.

John: Did you say fashion forward?

Albert: Sure.

Marc: And some of them were just based on the element of time, you know, we wouldn't have time to change actors over to a certain style, and-

John: Yeah, cause I mean, that's the thing, is when the difference between shooting Parker as Parker, and shooting Parker as Parker as fashion model, is two hours to change that character's look.

Albert: At least.

John: At least. And the walk of victory.

Marc: Dun dun dunnn.

John: This is nice, this is- I, you know, I always love the 60s, 70s call back; it's a nice style choice. Also, you've got that great street to shoot down. Where was that? Was that outside of-?

Marc: That was right outside of the actual warehouse location.

Albert: Across the river.

Marc: Just across the river from downtown Portland, so it was really close; you know, had a nice overpass.

John: Looked like that section of T that’s elevated.

Marc: This, again, is supposed to be in Asia, which was actually just another area of the warehouse again.

John: And then that's a kind of an iconic shot for this show now. That's nice, the Jeri Ryan era, as the fans call it. If you go on the boards and see the fans arguing over which six episodes are the best in the giant ouvre of Leverage ouvre. And she pays a horrible horrible price for her treachery.

Albert: Those are real working steam presses, and I can tell you from having been there, they were ridiculously hot.

[Laughter]

Albert: I didn't want to be anywhere near it. I was like, ‘Wow, Gloria is really a trooper going through this.’ She had to learn how to operate it; it had, like, foot petals and things.

John: This is why it's good to be a writer, is, we write horrible things and then the directors and actors go live there, while we occasionally- Sometimes we venture from the hotel room to go visit the set.

Marc: At times.

John: But it's for the best if the writer isn't there; just causes trouble.

Albert: We can go pose and take pictures with the models; that's when we show up on set.

John: Yes. And then this is actually based on, there's a bunch of factories now that are owned by the employees that were taken over. Some car factories, some- there was a big thing in South America for a while of the workers seizing foreclosed factories and opening them up as co-ops.

Marc: I did not know that.

John: Yes, there you go. Anything we can do to undermine the infrastructure of capitalism of America in Leverage we try to, we try to.

Marc: Now this is a happier factory, it's brighter.

John: Brighter colors.

Marc: Yeah, it's brighter colors, there's sound.

[Laughter]

John: I love that. I love you sitting in the director’s chair like, ‘Alright, now make it the happy sweatshop.’

Marc: How else can we make them happy?

John: Lunch breaks.

Marc: Lunch breaks! Sandwiches. Sandwiches make everyone happy. Everybody’s happy with a sandwich.

John: There you go, and milk, that's delicious. Look, and we saw that particular extra was unhappy earlier.

Albert: That's right.

Marc: She was.

John: There you go; really sold it. And again, it's interesting because, you know, you shot two years of this now, and you understand the vics aren't a big part of actual screen time, they are on in the opening, they're on in the closing. Those actors are insanely important, because it means you have to like them really fast, and if you don't like them really fast, you know, it won’t pay off.

Marc: Yeah, and they have to keep up because, you know, it's not like we get a lot of time to do rehearsals, and so some of the crux of the episode can be in their hands.

Albert: Oh yeah, the emotional core of the story always hinges on the victims and their choices.

John: And sometimes those scenes with Tim Hutton in the bar, that's the entire reason you're gonna care about this episode. And this is a lot of fun with- this is when we- again, we really track, if you watch the back six episodes where Tara Cole feels in how she's getting the money. Happy about getting the money, ambivalent about getting the money, not caring so much, you know. She never doesn't care, cause that's just wrong. And now, it's interesting, Tim and I had a nice conversation about this particular phone call, cause he called me about this and he's like, ‘I'm not sure where we're going with this.’ I'm like, ‘You know that moment when you've had an argument with the wife and you've realized you've said the wrong thing and you can never take it back?’ And he's like, ‘Oh yeah.’ and I'm like, ‘That one right there.’ And it's one of my favorite little Nate/Sophie scenes and they're not even in the same room. Because it's, you know, it's- banter is fun, relationships are hard.

Marc: Right.

Albert: Oh I like that. Banter is fun, relationships are hard.

John: And, you know, end of day, unless you show a couple of these scenes every now and then, you don't buy these relationships as real. And that's why I think one of the reasons the Eliot/Nate relationship feels very grounded is, we give opportunity for Chris Kane and Tim to kind of dig in on the fact that they don't always agree, those characters.

Albert: And you gotta give somewhere for the characters to go. That's the thing about a scene like this, at the end it gives them somewhere to go after here.

John: That was great. Thank you so much, guys, that was a lot of fun. The episode was fantastic.

Albert: That was The Runway Job.

Marc: Thank you.

John: Anything you wanna say to the nice folks before we move onto the next one?

Marc: Stay tuned.

[Laughter]

John: It's a DVD, I don't think they’re gonna wander off-

Marc: For the season.

John: Oh for another season, that's right. Season 3. Albert anything you wanna say?

Albert: No this was great, this was, I think, my third episode working with Marc. Third, that I'd written. Kind of fourth.

John: Kind of codependent.

Marc: Yes, yes.

Albert: We are, but I've learned that one thing: banter is fun, but relationships are hard, so we gotta keep working on it.

Marc: That’s right.

#Leverage #Leverage TNT #Leverage Audio Commentary Transcripts #Audio Commentary #Transcripts #Parker #Alec Hardison #Elliot Spencer #Nate Ford #Sophie Deveraux #Season 2 #Episode 10 #Season 2 Episode 10 #The Runway Job

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lovemesomesurveys · 3 years ago

Text

10,000 Questions part 3 created by tater-tots

Do you use bar soap or liquid soap more often? Liquid.

Do you know of anyone who celebrates Holi? I don't think so.

Can you recommend any graphic novels to read? I don't read graphic novels.

What's the last character you dressed up as? (for Halloween, a play, cosplay, etc.) Young Eddie from It a few years ago. It was a very simple, last minute thrown together thing with stuff I had and I wore it at home just because.

Do you enjoy watching anime? If so, what's your favorite show? No.

Who is your favorite Poke'mon? I liked Jigglypuff when I was a kid.

Do you suffer from motion sickness? Yes.

Are you capable of seeing different situations from multiple perspectives? I believe so. I think I'm pretty understanding and openminded.

Have you ever gotten your tongue stuck to anything before? No, ow. Well, closest thing is it feeling kinda stuck to the roof of my mouth whn I wake up due to dry mouth. Ugh, I hate that.

Where's the weirdest place you've ever found something that you lost? Just in a random spot not anywhere near I would expect to find it.

When you play tic-tac-toe, are you normally the X's or the O's? X's.

What's the weirdest flavor soda that you've ever tried? Those weird, fun ones you find in some touristy shops like ranch flavored and whatnot.

If you were a crayon, what color would you be? A gray or black one.

Do you find it easier to talk to people in person or online, and why? Online or through text. It's easier for me to express myself that way than verbally and in person.

What is an example of a dealbreaker in a relationship for you personally? Someone treating me like shit.

If were able to save one item from a house fire, what would you choose? That would be so hard.

Do you own more winter scarves or fashion scarves? I don't own any scarves.

Where is the last scab you picked located? My right knee.

Where's the strangest place you've had sex? Virgin here.

Do you have any cavities? Yes.

On a scale of 1-5, how comfortable are you in your own body? (most days) Zero. I'm very self-conscious, insecure, and uncomfortable with my body and how I feel.

How often do you give others the middle finger? That's not something I do, to be honest.

When's the last time you had an ear infection? I don't recall.

Would you rather spend time at the beach or in a pool? Beach of course.

Have you lost any permanent teeth? Yes.

Do you know anyone who is missing a finger? No.

Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? How fast were you going? No.

When's the last time you blew bubbles? Uhhh. I have no idea.

Were you a prankster as a child? Nah.

Have you ever ran a red light? No. I don't even drive.

If you could have a gift card to anywhere, where would you want it to be for? Boxlunch, perhaps.

If your car horn could make any kind of noise, what would you want it to do? I'd just leave it alone. I don't see myself even using the horn. It would be quite rare.

What is something that you would never post on social media? Nudes.

Do you prefer coffee, tea, or hot chocolate? Coffee. I was hooked on hot chocolate this past winter, though.

Do you tend to wear one-piece swimsuits, or two-piece swimsuits? I don't wear swimsuits, period.

What's the speed limit on your street? I think for neighborhoods it's 25mph.

What did you last stub your toe on? I don't have that issue.

When's the last time you slammed your finger in a door? It's been a very long time, fortunately. That is excruciatingly painful.

What flavor of lemonade do you think is the best? I'm not a lemonade person.

What happens to "that other sock" in the laundry? It's a mystery.

Do you use more paper towels or napkins? Paper towels.

Do you use your dinnerware set more often, or paper plates & plastic utensils? I prefer paper plates and plastic utensils.

Have you gotten anything good in the mail recently? Yeah.

How close is the nearest beach to you? About 3 hours.

Does your home have a basement? Nope.

When's the last time you built a fort inside or outside of your home? Not since I was a kid. My cousins and I did that a lot.

Have you ever forgotten to apply sunscreen? Yep, and definitely paid the price.

When you had substitute teachers in school, were you troublesome or did you behave yourself? I was always the good kid, regardless.

Are you the type of person who will help elderly folks? If I can.

What does your favorite beach towel look like? I don't have one, actually. As a beach lover, I don't have a beach towel. I don't have a need for one, though.

Have you ever gotten your fingers stuck in one of those Chinese finger trap toys? It always felt like they would get stuck.

What's the neatest pool floatie you've ever seen? They have a lot of cool ones now.

Out of your family members, who has the next birthday coming up? I'm up next in my immediate family.

Do you tan naturally or do you fake-bake? I get a tan if I'm at the beach, but that's really the only time cause that's the only time I spend a significant amount of time outdoors. I don't "fake bake."

Are you double-jointed anywhere? My thumbs are.

Do you wish you could sometimes clone yourself? Ew, no. One of me is more than enough.

When's the last time you saw a stray dog or cat roaming through your neighborhood? I see a couple cats roaming around all the time.

How often do you vacuum and dust your house? I personally don't do the vacuuming or dusting, my mom does.

Do you have a television in your bedroom? Yep.

When's the last time you drank something from a straw? I drink all my drinks from a straw.

Would you be interested in learning how to surf, if you don't already know how? Nooo.

When's the last time you got caught up in a spider web? I've never been caught up in one.

Would you want Oompa-Loompas or Minions as a part of your workforce? No.

When's the last time you jumped on the bed? When I was a kid.

Do you know anyone who celebrate Purim? I don't even know what that is.

Where is your birthmark located? My right elbow.

Have you ever had to use a pair of crutches? Well, no, as a wheelchair user.

Does anyone in your life use a cane or a walker? No.

Do you sneak snacks and drinks into your bag/purse when you go to the movies? Yes, ha.

What type of dance would you be most interested in learning? I don't dance.

Do you know anyone who is legally blind? Yes.

What's the last thing you were discussing via a group chat? Planning a trip with my mom and brother.

What's the best way to remove yourself from an uncomfortable conversation or situation? Pfft, I'm so awkward don't ask me.

Is English your first language? If not, what other language(s) do you speak? Yes. It's the only one I'm fluent in.

When's the last time you got a haircut? It's been like 3 years since I've had it professionally cut.

How many piercings do you have? Where are they located? Just my earlobes.

Who are some of your favorite singers? I have a few.

What's something that goes great with peanut butter? Chocolate.

What color is your hair? Dark brown.

What's your favorite dog breed? Labs and German Shepherds.

How many tattoos do you have? What are they of? Zero.

What's the last thing you got for free? Food.

How much do you weigh? I'm not exactly sure, but I'm underweight.

Chicken wings - flats, drums, or boneless? Boneless all the way. And no, they're not just nuggets. Don't argue with me on this. There's most definitely a difference.

Who last gave you advice? What was it regarding? I've been receiving unsolicited advice lately from some who don't know a thing about what they're talking about and it's pissing me off.

What's the last unnatural cold you've dyed your hair? I was dyeing my hair like fire engine red for a few years until the pandemic happened and then I fell off track. Last summer I chopped my long hair to a choppy pixie cut kinda style and now my hair is completely my natural dark brown color. I miss my long, red hair, but I just couldn't keep up the management of it anymore. I didn't have the energy or motivation and it just got so knotted up so easily. I do want to dye it red again someday, though.

Do you play any sort of instruments? No.

Has your family ever had a family reunion before? Yeah, we used to have big family get togethers all the time on my mom's side but they started dwindling over the years and now it's been awhile since the last one.

What color are your eyes? Brown.

What's the last thing you got hit in the face with? I accidentally hit my own eye.

Who is the last person you secretly felt like punching in the face, and why? Myself, probably.

Are you someone who constantly makes lists? Yes.

What are some of your family's traditions? We have our holiday traditions like dinners and whatnot.

How tall are you? Like 5'4.

Do you know any good line dances? No.

What's your favorite sport that involves a ball? I don't like any sports.

Do you believe that gingers have no souls? Why was that ever a thing people said? I never understood that. So mean.

What's your favorite color? Pastels, rose gold, sea foam green, coral, yellow.

When's the last time you visited a cemetary? Several years ago.

Have you ever been thrown into a pool with all your clothes on? Nooo. I can't swim and I'm in a wheelchair, so that would be a really cruel thing to do...

#personal #text #survey #surveys #10000 questions part 3

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silvers-hero-vault · 4 years ago

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all the memories remain

read under the cut or on ao3

After gaining back his memories during the confrontation with his other version, Vision tries to figure out what happened in the time he has no recollection of. He discovers that the world has changed and moved on, but still, he tries to find a place for himself again.

WandaVision spoilers!

Warnings: none, some mentions of canon-typical violence

Words: 4.796

AN: I wanted to explore what white Vision could do after taking off in the middle of the fight, never to be seen again.

This is set in the same 'universe' as my other WandaVision fix-it "You thought my name's Ralph?". the stories aren't directly connected though so you don't have to read the other fic to understand this one.

Tag list (wasn't sure who to tag so I tagged the people who interacted with the post were I asked if anyone would want to read this...) : @satans-bae-and-queen @queenlovett @bi-tiger @thoughts-and-travel @andi0017 @synagtala @friedchickening @awesomedeepstudentmilkshake @spacetummy @sidninkoutek @evenstar06 @rainyfestivalshoepainter @thatoddgirl777 @data-is-my-favorite-android @feluciasynthezoid @i-kno-who-i-am @marvel-starwarsfangirl

After the memories had streamed back into his consciousness, the pain and death, but also the joy and friendship and overall the love that he had experienced with Wanda by his side, he had spared the other version of him one last glance before taking off through the round window in the ceiling.

He didn’t know where he was going at first, just that he needed to get out of Westview, away from the humans that had stripped his memories from him and tried to make him into a mindless weapon. The ones that had tried to make him kill Wanda, the one that was so prominent in his memories and the person that he had loved so dearly until everything had fallen apart.

While he rifled through his memories one location came up again and again, often in connection to Wanda but there were other people. Memories with the other residents of the house that he had spent a considerate amount of time in. He remembered faintly that there had been a fight, later on, that drove them all apart and he found his memories drawn to himself and Wanda once again. They were in a dark street and suddenly he remembered the pain slamming through him, saw the spear pressing up through his upper body.

With a shake of his head Vision let go of the painful memories. For that was his name, Vision, and he would keep it, if only for his memories sake. The name felt strange and not like his but at the same time it felt right and through his contemplation he came to the conclusion that he would stay with the name after all. Because it was his, like always had been and always will be.

Another look through his memories, this time more careful to stay away from any of the painful ones, he found what he had been looking for. The location were so many of them, the avengers, had lived. The avengers compound. He still knew the exact location of the compound and he changed his flying route to lead him towards the compound.

Vision didn’t know how long it took him to reach the compound he saw so clearly in many of his memories, but when he arrived, it was to find only ruins. Another look back at his memories told him that this was the right place, but he didn’t remember its destruction. The last memory he had of the compound, the building had still been intact. But now, hovering above the debris, he realised that it looked more like a battlefield than the place where once people had lived together to form an alliance against the threats that humanity faced.

He decided that he had to go somewhere else, get information on what had happened and he was sure that such information could be provided through the internet. Surely something as large as the destruction of the avengers compound would have reached the public. There must have been official statements what had happened to the place that earth’s mightiest heroes had called their home.

Of course, he could have just checked in that moment, needing no actual computer to access information, just like he didn’t need it to know what the ship of Theseus was. The knowledge for that was easily accessible for him, just like any other information he desired.

But for some reason, Vision felt the need to find someone who could answer his questions first, before he resorted to getting those answers himself.

He made his way towards the city of New York, just like before flying high enough that he wouldn’t be detected before he reached his destination. Even though there was surely still a fight in Westview happening, he didn’t dare risk to be sighted by the military or someone who would contact the right authorities. He at least needed this opportunity to find out what had happened in his absence before they could take him captive again. He didn’t plan for it to happen, but if it did happen, he wanted to have the answers to his questions by then.

The flight to New York didn’t take as long as the flight from Westview to the remains of the compound had taken him. The streets were full of people, but there weren’t as many as he would have expected from the city that was known for never sleeping.

The usual buzzing of the city that he remembered was now missing and somehow the people all seemed sorrowful, as if something was holding them down and away from how they would normally go about their day. But at the same time there seemed to be a happiness permeating from them, as if a good thing had happened. A good thing he had no knowledge of.

Vision landed on the sidewalk near his destination. Immediately, several people turned around to him and he could hear the shocked whispers of the people that were standing near or passing by. He remembered that he had died, so the people must think him dead and therefore impossible to stand in front of them. But at the same time another pressing matter occurred to him. Not only was he dead in the public’s eye, his appearance had changed as well. He had seen it when the other version of him had given him back his memories, but had not yet realised the impact the white colour of his new body would have.

He remembered being able to change his form at will but even as he thought about doing it, Vision knew that it wouldn’t work. He remembered that he had done it before, but he couldn’t remember how he had done it. Wasn’t sure if he could still do it, with only a few pieces of his original body remaining.

He still knew how he could change the arrangement of his atoms to phase through things but he could not tell how he had changed his appearance before. It might have been connected to the mind stone, but that was gone now. Not a part of him anymore.

Noticing once again the crowd that had started to gather around him, Vision paid his inner contemplation no further mind and he started the short walk towards the tower he remembered as the former headquarters of the avengers, before they had moved into the compound and further away from the city.

As he reached the tower, he took flight again and flew up onto the roof of the building. He knew that the avengers had lived in the higher levels before moving out so he would have a greater chance of meeting someone there.

Everything was empty. There was only little furniture to see from where he was standing and everything of the interior was dark and unwelcoming. It seemed unlikely for anyone to be here. A quick look through all the windows inside told him that he was right. There was no one here. Thinking back, he had not expected anyone to be, but he had still been urged to check. In case he didn’t remember something vital that would have told him that there was someone still living here regardless of all the things that he remembered and the fact that they had all lived in the compound after Ultron.

Still, Vision entered by phasing through a window, because even though he wouldn’t find a person to answer his questions, he was still inclined to check if anything of value had been left behind. Upon entering he found that the floor had been cleared of most furniture and the rest that remained had been covered with white sheets. There were no indications that anyone had been here in a longer period of time.

Vision took a few more steps inside, his gaze wandering over the ghostly appearance of the furniture under the sheets and the dark shadows that resulted from he low lighting of the room. After he finished his round through the room, he determined that he wouldn’t find answers here, and therefore had to result to the solution he hadn’t wanted to go to before.

He closed his eyes and with a mere thought, he obtained the information that he had needed. It had been over every news channel and multiple other ways of communication. The avengers compound had been the place of a large battle against an alien army. A battle far greater than the battle of New York had been. Not much more was to be found about the incident as it hadn’t been covered sufficiently by the media.

Another detail caught his attention. The date of the most recent reports. They all had the same year attached at the end. 2023.

Almost on reflex, he teared his eyes open and took a step backwards, not taking any more information in. He looked back at the memories he had obtained with the help of his other self. The last he remembered was the stone being ripped out of his forehead. That had been in 2018.

The conclusion that came to him had been inevitable, but all the same he didn’t want to believe it in the first moment.

It had been five years since he had been killed by Thanos. He was missing five years of information which explained his inability to find any of the avengers. He didn’t even know if they were still alive.

Even though he knew he wouldn’t like what he would find, Vision tapped into the information he had at his disposal again, looking for answers.

He found them immediately, the news of the dead heroes and the return of everyone who had disappeared was still plastered everywhere, taking over every news headline and front-pages of newspapers and magazines. He found himself among the dead heroes that were mourned by the public, but he wasn’t the only one.

Tony Stark, the famed Iron Man, and his creator, was among the fallen. As well as Steve Rogers, Captain America. The Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff had also lost her life in the fight for the rest of the universe.

As Vision took this information in, he decided to find anyone of the remaining avengers that he could find. He knew he had no where to go, but maybe one of them could help him find a place again.

He couldn’t go back to Wanda. Well, he could, but he didn’t want to burden her with his presence. The last time he had seen her, he had tried to crush her skull and then he had left while his other self and Wanda had faced the current threat against them and Westview.

He searched the internet again, for any information were any of the avengers could be at the moment, but there was no forthcoming information. SHIELD was no more, which meant that he had no idea where to find Fury, one of the only people who could know where the others were. He would not go back to SWORD, given that they were the ones who took him apart and put him together again and took his memories and everything that had made him Vision away from him.

His search didn’t give him any results, but he remembered faintly of having visited the farm were Clint Barton lived with his family. If he had any luck, the archer could be found there.

With a new destination and something that could have been called hope, Vision took of and started towards the next place that he hoped would give him answers.

***

Everywhere he went, Vision found places fallen into decay and disarray where he remembered a normal house with residents living inside. All the streets that he found abandoned, he remembered to be full of live and laughing children. All the overgrown gardens he remembered to be well cared for in the past.

The difference between what he remembered the world to look like from what felt like a week ago, compared to how it looked now as he passed over the streets of countless cities and small towns, was unsettling at best.

The Barton farm was not how he remembered it either. The last time he and the others had visited on behalf of Clint’s daughter, who had insisted that all of them visit for her birthday, the farm had been well cared for. There had been small messes all around, but it had been caused by the children that left their things lying around everywhere. Now, the house had been overgrown by the plants that had already started to make their accent up the outer walls of the house five years ago. The garden looked like no one had cared to maw the lawn in a long time and the windows were all dull and covered in grime.

After touching onto the ground, Vision started to walk towards the house, slow steps taking him nearer and nearer to finding out if there would be someone at home. If not, he wasn’t sure were he would go next.

He climbed the steps in front of the veranda and took a few hesitant steps towards the door before carefully nocking on it. He could hear sounds from inside, muffled voices and silent music. With only a moment to brace himself, the door opened and before him stood Clint Barton.

He looked worn out and wary, older. His hair had changed too but he wasn’t able to point out what exactly it was that had changed. The archer didn’t move after opening the door, didn’t say a word either. It seemed to Vision as if the man had been momentarily frozen in shock.

It took a moment before he recovered and Clint took a step backwards, his eyes widened slightly as he seemed to register what he was seeing. Then his brows furrowed, a frown marring his face.

He seemed uncertain when he asked: “Who are you?”. The question sounded more like a statement and Vision took it as such.

“I think you know.”, he said, then he paused. His voice sounded different than in his memories. Only slightly, but enough to be noticeable.

The man in front of him still seemed shocked, but the frowning had lessened and Vision interpreted that as a good sign. “Why do you look so different?”

Vision looked down at his hand, noticing the white pallor once more. He had nearly banished that part from his mind, assured by his memories that this was not what he looked like.

He looked up at Clint again and looked into his eyes. His gaze then wandered over the archers shoulder, seeing the living room and behind that the kitchen. He could see Lila sitting at the kitchen table, talking animatedly with Laura, Clint’s wife.

It felt like he was intruding and he suddenly remembered the children he had seen in Westview, Wanda’s children. He shook the thought from his mind and, remembering the question, he met Clint’s gaze again.

“I’m afraid that’s a rather long story.”

Clint shrugged. “I mean, I have no idea what is going on, but you could come in and tell me.”, he stepped aside and after Vision had passed the threshold, he closed the door behind them and continued talking. “And by the way, I know someone who might be able to help fix your looks a bit. No promises of course, but I could give him a call.”

He nodded without turning back to him. His gaze wandered down to his white hand again. “I will give it some thought.”

***

Vision spent one day in Clint’s house. He told the archer what he remembered of the things that happened. Waking up in the capsule in the temporary SWORD basis, being send out to eliminate Wanda and the other Vision, gaining back his memories and leaving Westview.

In exchange, Clint told him what had happened in the last five years. After Vision had been killed, Thanos had succeeded in his plan to eliminate half of the universe’s population. Some of the avengers had been left behind and after five years, Tony figured out how to travel through time, which resulted in the avengers fixing everything and bringing the dusted back.

Followed by that had been a grand fight, the one that had found the compound destroyed and afterwards, there had been a funeral for Tony. Steve had gone back in time to get the stones to the locations they had come from, but he never returned and wasn’t actually dead, just old.

He spent the night there and in the morning, he thanked Clint for letting him stay and answering his questions. Afterwards, Vision left the small farm behind again.

He made his way back to New York, back to the empty tower. He had decided that he would stay there until he was able to figure out what he would do next. He had played with the thought of returning to Westview, but he had abandoned it again. The other version of him was there and he wouldn’t dare to intrude on his and Wanda’s life.

Wanda. She was the one who was most prominent in his memories, even though he was unable to forget and remembered every instance of his life, she was the one he saw when he closed his eyes. He knew what it was, of course. The last time he had been with Wanda before the stone was ripped out of his forehead, they had wanted to settle down together. Deep down, he still wanted to, but he also knew like that wasn’t an option.

He didn’t know what had happened in Westview after he had left. If they had won the fight or if the other witch had overpowered Wanda. Or if Tyler Hayward had managed to turn things in his favour. But at the same time, he believed that Wanda had won, because she is powerful, always had been.

As he paced through the compound and watched the streets of New York City underneath him, he wondered if the other Vision and the children were still there. If they were safe again. He hadn’t been in there long and back then, he had only been driven by orders, without a single thought of his own. But now, looking back at everything and with all his memories at his disposal again, he realised that he would like to go back. To go back to Wanda, the love of his life. Still, after everything that happened, he felt like he couldn’t.

All the same, Vision made his way to Westview again, not to go back to Wanda, but to see how things had turned out. The feeling of not knowing what went down in the town was one he could no longer tolerate.

Just like before, the flight to Westview happened without any noteworthy occurrences and he reached the town just as the sun began to rise up over the horizon. The deep orange light drenched everything in a golden light and the silence seemed to echo around him.

Belatedly, he noticed that the red barrier that had separated Westview from the outside was gone. The town sat in the tranquility of dawn as if nothing had ever happened. As if there hadn’t been a fight and as if the town hadn’t been trapped inside an energy field for days. Thinking about what had happened here while floating slightly over the street while moving forward, Vision realised that he didn’t even know what exactly had happened here.

He had his orders, at first. Obliterate Vision and Wanda. Nothing more. Then, when the other Vision had helped him gain back the memories that had been locked away from him, he had spent all his time trying to sort of the whirlwind of memories, thoughts and emotions inside his head. He only knew one thing, he had recognised Wanda’s magic everywhere. It had been all around him, filling up the air.

Now it was gone, he couldn’t feel her power around him anymore. He wasn’t sure if it was for better or worse that the possibility of meeting her here was very slim. Ever since he had the time to become better acquainted with his memories agin, he had walked a very fine line between wanting to meet Wanda again and fearing that seeing her would make everything worse for her. It was as if, deep down, he still had a bit of hope that one day, Wanda might come back to him and that they could start anew when that moment came.

But his logical thinking stopped him from really believing in it. His mind told him that it would be better for her, and possibly for him, when they stayed apart. She didn’t have to know that he remembered everything again, that he remembered her.

The sun had risen a bit higher when he turned towards Sherwood Drive. The golden light drenching everything in its colour had gotten lighter and the first birds had started to chirp. As he neared the property, he wasn’t sure if he was at the right place. A quick look around told him that, yes, he was on the right street and the house that he was nearing was number 2800, the house Wanda had lived in.

It couldn’t really be called a house anymore. It was nothing more than the foundation were a house was supposed to be. It looked like it had never been build.

The memory of how he purchased the house pushed itself to the forefront of his mind. It was one of the memories he hadn’t taken a closer look at. He had known that it was there, but it hadn’t been important until know.

He had bought the home as a surprise for Wanda, even before they had officially decided to settle down together. When they were in Ireland, everything had felt so right between them that he already knew that she would say yes, even before he had asked her. So he had purchased the house and it was supposed to be build soon after the bought it. And when Wanda had said yes to his proposition, he knew that he had made the right choice. But their bubble of happiness hadn’t lasted long as a spear was plunged through his chest and everything they had hoped for fell apart.

A smile ghosted over his lips when he thought back to writing his little message to Wanda onto the property deed, drawing a heart around it.

Noticing how far the sun had risen over the horizon, he shook himself out of his memories and faced the present again. 2023. The house didn’t exist and Wanda had trapped a whole town inside a magical barrier that no one could escape from. He had tried to kill her.

If their was one positive thing in all of this, it was that he hadn’t succeeded in killing her. If he had, he was sure that he wouldn’t have gotten his memories back.

Once again he made himself focus on the present. Nothing was left for him here, which would mean that he should go back to the tower, or find somewhere else he could stay. But he decided against it, making his way towards the town-square. If anyone who had been tasked with cleaning everything up was still there, they had to be in or near the town centre, where they could overlook everything.

One person was already outside and talking on her phone when Vision reached the town-square. The black woman, wearing a blue SWORD uniform, pacing back and forth in front of the cinema.

He hesitated to approach her, the SWORD logo on her shirt holding him back for a moment, but he couldn’t remember seeing her when he woke up, so he decided that she was probably to be trusted.

She turned towards him as soon as she saw him approach and his steps didn’t falter on his way over to her. She lowered her phone and her eyes went wide, possibly because she was realising who he was.

As soon as he was in hearing distance, she spoke up. “What are you doing here?”

He stopped where he was and looked a her for a moment. She didn’t seem scared like he would have expected, just confused. It seemed like he would be able to have a proper conversation with her after all.

“I do hope I am not interrupting. I had left so fast during the fight and I wanted to check if everything was alright here. Did you apprehend the ones that gave me the order to kill Wanda and my other self?”

The woman in front of him pocketed her phone and looked at him with an expression of disbelief. She seemed stunned and didn’t say anything for several minutes before she managed to get out of her state of shock. She shook her head slightly and blinked a few times before looking at him again.

“I’m sorry, do you mean Hayward? He was arrested.”, she paused for a moment and Vision waited. It seemed like she wanted to say something else and was searching for words. “What do you mean with ‘your other self’? You mean Vision, right?”

He nodded. “Yes, I know I look different but I am just as much Vision as he is.”

She shook her head and corrected him. “Was. He and the twins, they aren’t here anymore. Wanda had created them with her magic and she needed to let them go in order to free the town and pull the barrier down.”

He turned the words over in his head. When he came here, he had thought that Wanda would have left with Vision and the children, began a life somewhere else. But this put things in another perspective entirely. Another question came to mind then, one that had been present since he had been at the foundations of the house. “Where is Wanda now?”

The woman snorted and shrugged her shoulders. She seemed more relaxed now than she had moments ago. “She left, I don’t know where to.”

He frowned. It was not like the Wanda he knew to just leave and let others sort out a mess she had created. She would have wanted to help. The woman seemed to see his hesitation and took a step forward, holding out her hand. “I’m captain Monica Rambeau.”

He took the hand and shook it. “It is good to meet you, captain Rambeau. I am sure you know who I am.”

She took a step backwards again, letting her hand sink back to her side. “Actually, I’m not sure. Are you Vision or not? Because I saw the other Vision yesterday and he definitely looked different than you.”

He nodded. “Ah, yes. I apologise. I am Vision, just as much as the other was Vision, maybe even more than him. My body has been taken apart and rebuild by SWORD, as far as I can tell, but I am still me. I posses all memories of what happened before my death five years ago.”

Captain Rambeau let out a slow breath and averted her eyes from him for a moment, then she nodded. “I take it someone filled you in on what happened.”

She waited for him to confirm her statement and as soon as he nodded, she went on. “There’s really nothing you could do here anymore, everything’s organised already. We’ll still be here for a few days though, to overlook everything.”, she hesitated for a short moment and her voice seemed to have softened when she continued. “Do you have a place to stay?”

He hesitated and gave her question some thought before answering. He had a place, theoretically, but he knew that he couldn’t stay in the tower for too long. Surely someone would start to use it again, sooner or later. And he didn’t know what to do with his time either.

“Theoretically, I do, but I am not sure for how long I can stay there.”

She took out her phone and started to type something. When she was finished, Captain Rambeau looked up at him again. “Would you like to work for SWORD? Well, for me actually, but it would be under SWORD’s name.”

He nodded, not needing to think about it for long. He needed something to do and he could help. Even though it was SWORD, captain Rambeau seemed like someone he could trust. “I would, yes.”

A smile spread over he face and it made her look younger, but at the same time she didn’t loose her professionalism. “Great, meet me here later. I can give you the details by this afternoon.”

#wandavision #wandavision spoilers #vision #white vision #monica rambeau #clint barton #wanda maximoff #(she is mentioned a few times)#marvel fanfic #marvel fanfiction #post avengers endgame #post wandavision #silversfiction

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simplybakugou · 4 years ago

Text

The Villain -- Ch. 10: Truly Happy

A/N: this is the last chapter (unless I change my mind and try to squeeze in another chapter lmao) but don’t worry, there will be an epilogue posted soon!

Pairing: villain!bakugou x female!reader

Warnings: swearing

Word Count: 3,475

Remember, if you want to be tagged in future chapters, comment below and I’ll add your username to the list!

LINKS TO PREVIOUS CHAPTERS

✐posted 06.07.2020✐

The nurses smiled, bowing as they exited the room after finishing their checkup. You thanked them as they left, touching the bandage wrapped around your head. The back of your skull still throbbed from the staples the doctors impaled in you, making the pain intensify threefold. Other than the injury caused by the baseball bat Natsuya took to your head twice, your body was in one piece thankfully.

As for your quirk, it was completely wiped from your system. No matter how hard you tried to use it, your efforts were wasted. You were quirkless now.

But with the few hours you spent in the hospital, you could only sit around with your thoughts keeping you company. You had come to terms with losing your quirk at this point. As much as you loved your quirk and being able to utilize it to save and assist others, you were thankful that you had lost it over Bakugou’s. You had been given the opportunity to use it for heroism for a short period of time but it was far longer for you than it was for Bakugou. It wasn’t hard for you to recall all the times Bakugou vowed and boasted about how easy it would be for him to be a hero with a quirk so powerful and to see him unable to use it for good broke your heart.

After calling the authorities, Bakugou turned himself in as they arrested Natsuya. You were to give a statement on the occurrences from the night as well as testify for Bakugou along with Hawks and the Hero Commission Center. You felt a tug in your chest just thinking about it. It was difficult to think of the charges against Bakugou as he wasn’t completely off the hook. He still hurt civilians, no matter if it was for show or not but hopefully Hawks and Bakugou handing in the location to the rest of the League and Vanguard would make up for the damage he caused.

Suddenly, the door slammed open, tearing you away from the countless amount of worries piling up in the back of your mind. You flitted your eyes up, taken aback as two strong pink arms wrapped themselves around your neck. You groaned from the sudden contact.

“You’re okay! I thought you were hurt badly!” Mina cried.

You sighed as she pulled away with tears streaking your face. You mustered a smile to reassure her. “I’m fine, Mina. You don’t have to cry.”

She glared at you through her tears. “Of course I do! When the police called me and told me what happened, I couldn’t believe it!”

Before Mina could go on and on about her concerns, three knocks sounded from the door. You and Mina glanced over, gasping at the sight of Kaminari, Sero, and Kirishima waiting idly by with small smiles on each of their faces.

“What’re you guys doing here?” You asked, flustered by the presence of so many people at once.

“Heard the number one hero was hurt so of course we had to stop by,” Sero said with a grin as the three men approached your bed.

You smiled, shaking your head. “How the hell did you guys find out about this so quickly?”

Kaminari gestured over to the TV that you hadn’t bothered turning on. “It’s all over the news now.” You nodded in understanding, not surprised that the media had covered this big a story so quickly.

“So it’s true?” Kirishima asked. “That Yamashita’s the real leader and Bakugou was acting this whole time?”

You nodded again as all four of them stared intently at you for your response. “Apparently he was approached by the Hero Commision to be a double agent. He’s been faking it for all these years.”

Mina rested her hand caringly on your shoulder before anyone else could say anything. “Are you alright? I mean about the whole Yamashita thing. I know how much he means to you.”

“Meant to me,” you corrected. “He meant a lot but I can never forgive him for this or see him the same again.”

“And you shouldn’t have to. He’s an asshole and he deserves to rot for what he’s done,” Sero said, Kaminari and Kirishima nodding along.

Kaminari eyed you nervously as if he were hesitant to speak. “I didn’t want to bring this up but on our way here I heard the nurses talking about it so it seemed important. Y/N, were you hit with the Quirk-Destroying Drug?”

Kaminari, Sero, and Mina all looked bewildered, turning their heads quickly over to you. You smiled, not wanting them to worry more than they already were. “I’m okay though. And you don’t have to feel bad or pity me. I’m fine with what happened.”

“Y/N…” Mina said sadly, wrapping her arms around you once more into her embrace. You sighed, rubbing her back in an attempt to comfort her.

“It’s not good for me to mope around about it. I’ve come to terms with it and there’s nothing that I can do that can change that,” you stated.

“You’re still our number one hero no matter what!” Sero said earnestly, making you smile. No matter what, you would never be forgotten by anyone as the number one hero.

Kirishima’s fist shook at his side after a moment of silence. “Can’t believe that idiot was faking it the whole time. And he didn’t even bother to rely on us, his friends, for help.”

“Yeah, it’s not like we wouldn’t have helped him or anything,” Sero said, Kaminari nodding along.

“But he had to make sure we were all fooled because if any of us slipped up for even a second, the rest of the League and the Vanguard would’ve caught on, and he would’ve been in trouble,” you reasoned, causing Kirishima, Sero, and Kaminari to stay silent, understanding the gravity of the situation that Bakugou was put into.

“Well, it’s not like he didn’t have his moments,” Kaminari said, eyeing you. “He would tense up when a certain someone was the one he had to go against.”

Sero snickered and Kirishima smiled. Even Mina nudged your side but you were just confused. “Who would he tense up around?”

Your four friends burst into laughter and you were still left stunned and out of the loop. Mina patted your back. “Maybe you’re better off not knowing.”

***

Bakugou’s investigation was one of the most nerve wracking experiences you had ever gone through, beating the countless times you had your life out in danger because of your job. Months had passed and he was still under police custody for interrogation and the remainder of the investigation. Throughout the process, Hawks and the Hero Commission Center gave their side of the story, reassuring the authorities that the blame was solely on them.

Everyday news outlets would cover Bakugou’s story, little pieces of news being delivered to the public on a regular basis. As a result, the court found Bakugou not guilty for the damage he had to cause. Instead, they fined the Hero Commission Center for approaching a minor with such a serious and deadly task, even compensating Bakugou’s parents who suffered with the idea that their son had abandoned them.

Along the way, you were called in to testify and provide your report for what occurred during your kidnapping. You made sure not to hold back on describing Bakugou’s wit and valor when he saved you, emphasizing the fact that you would have possibly died if it weren’t for him. Eventually Natsuya’s hearing occurred and the court, obviously, found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison. You shuddered every time you saw his face on the news, disgusted that he was your friend for so long and even your boyfriend for a short period of time.

With the time that passed, you had officially stepped down from heroism for good. It hurt you that you couldn’t do what you loved so much any longer but you knew there was nothing else you could do. Your fellow heroes never stopped thanking you for all of your acts of services that you had done within your time of heroism. Along the way, everyone, including the public, was curious of what you planned to do with the rest of your life. You simply stated that you would use this time to try out news things and discover what truly made you happy.

“And with the sentence of previous Chief of Police, Yamashita Natsuya being released just yesterday, the case following Bakugou Katsuki, famously known as Ground Zero, and Yamashita’s true identity has been closed. The League has finally been dealt with through the authorities and we can all be reassured that these villainous acts will be stopped--” You shut the TV off, setting the remote on the kitchen counter as you continued to cook dinner.

It was all finally over, and with the end of the case your mind couldn’t help but wonder if it was all finally over for good. Despite hearing the case being closed and the conflict being resolved, it felt surreal to believe it was over. So many people had gotten hurt through the actions of the League and Bakugou was a part of this hurt as well, whether it was intentional or he was ordered to do so. Nonetheless, you knew that Natsuya was the real perpetrator behind the amount of pain and suffering he enacted onto people and was too much of a coward to be the face of the League like Bakugou was.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket as you pulled it out, revealing a text from Mina who wanted to inform you about her sleeping over Jirou’s house after running into her during a routine patrol. You sent her a quick reply before diverting your focus to your food, moving to pack the food that you had made for Mina as well for her to eat the next day.

Two sturdy knocks sounded from the door and you stood in place, wondering who would stop by so late in the night. Thinking it was one of your friends, you moved to answer the door, swinging it wide open and gasping at the sight.

Bakugou leaned against the door frame, dressed in all black as per usual. “Can I come in?”

You stood, dazed as you stared at him, taken aback as you weren’t expecting him to pay you a visit. In fact you hadn’t known that he was officially released from custody in the first place. Bakugou waved his hand in front of your face, shaking you out of your trance and thoughts. You cleared your throat, opening the door a little wider for him to come in.

“What’re you doing here?” You asked, watching on as Bakugou walked towards your couch and took a seat.

His crimson eyes looked around the area, finally seeing what your place looked like before he glanced back at you. You felt intimidated under his gaze, the images of your kiss with him and him saving you flashing in your mind. He gave you an odd look once seeing your flustered expression, not thinking anything of it. “I got released earlier and I’ve got no place to go right now. You’re the first person I thought of.”

“But how’d you know where I live?” You asked, plating your food from the frying pan.

Bakugou rolled his eyes. “You think that time I had Dabi burn down this street except for your apartment building was a coincidence?”

You chuckled, forgetting that encounter entirely in the first place. It seemed like ages ago when you had met Bakugou in the abandoned flower shop that was on your street. You could vividly recall the feelings of uncertainty and doubt that you felt about everything that was going on around you. You and your friends were beginning to lose hope after not hearing from Bakugou for ten years. Then with the encounters that you faced with him in the flower shops and Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero faced between Dabi in which Bakugou prevented Dabi from hurting them. Your uncertainty only grew with these encounters but your faith in his innocence increased as well. And here he was, sitting in your apartment as a free man.

“I see you haven’t changed at all since we were kids,” you teased, unpacking the food that you had planned to put away for Mina and deciding to serve it to Bakugou.

Bakugou smirked. “Nothing’s gonna change the way I act, not even having to fake being a villain for a decade or two.”

You laughed, approaching him on the couch with two plates in hand. Bakugou was taken aback, not expecting you to feed him as that wasn’t why he had come to your place. Nevertheless, he took the plate from you and watched as you took a seat beside him.

“So is everything okay? The police and authorities are planning to let you go for good?” You asked, wanting to hear verbal confirmation on what you were hoping for.

Bakugou nodded, taking a bite from your food. He held back a smile that was teasing at the corner of his lips. Your cooking was just as good as it was back when you and the others would stop by your house after school just to taste your food. “I’m good. I’ve been told to lie low from the public for now since it’s gonna take some time for everyone to get used to seeing me in person than on the news.”

You nodded, understanding the circumstances. “And did they say anything about you being a hero?”

Bakugou’s eyes flitted over to you, pausing before setting his plate down on the coffee table. “They said they don’t know yet. I don’t blame ‘em, I mean what civilian wants to be saved from a man who was the leader of the fucking League until a few months ago.”

Bakugou leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as his gaze averted to the table in front of him. He looked solemn, an expression you had never seen on his face. You set your own plate down, concerned with the sudden change in mood in the atmosphere. “I visited my folks for the first time in ten years. I’ve never seen my mom so pissed. Even my dad was mad. And yet my mom cried so fucking hard… I don’t think I’ve ever even seen her cry.”

Your brows furrowed as you could see how visibly distressed he was. “Katsuki…”

He brought his hand up to his forehead, rubbing his temples softly in an attempt to subside his aching head. “As happy as I was to see them, I felt annoyed with them. I was told that they lost hope in me after some time when they found out I was the leader of the League. And it fucking pissed me off. Aren’t parents supposed to have your back no matter what you do? Or am I just being a fucking idiot in thinking that?” Bakugou asked, rambling on to abate the tension he was feeling. He moved his hand down to his knee. “That’s when I realized I was in this alone, that no one was going to back me up. And no matter how many times I thought I was fine with it, I felt so fucking lonely. Until I met Watari, this old bastard that’s been helping me out and the first and only person I had told the truth about what was going on. He was the only one who had faith in me, who didn’t see me like I was some fucking monster.”

His scarlet eyes met yours and you felt a tug in your chest when noticing the pain behind his eyes. “And then I met you after ten years and I learned you still had faith in me. You believed in me when even my fucking parents didn’t. And for the longest time, I felt like everything would be okay.”

You leaned forward, closing the gap between you and Bakugou and enveloped him in your arms. Bakugou’s eyes widened, not even being able to recall the last time he was held like this, with someone attempting to comfort him. “Everything is okay, Katsuki. You finally don’t have to pretend to be someone that you’re not.”

Bakugou blinked away the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes, not wanting you to see him in a position that he deemed to be weak. He let out a breathless and humorless chuckle, his voice cracking slightly. “I just feel like I fucked up and did the wrong thing. I could’ve just been a regular kid and be a hero.”

“But you are a hero.” You pulled away, hands on his shoulders with the same reassuring smile that you always had on your face, the same smile that could make Bakugou fall head over heels for you all over again. “If it weren’t for you, the League would still be around causing havoc and hurting people left and right. But you infiltrated the group easily and did something as a kid that even some adults would never agree to do. You threw away your identity and your relationships, and you have no right to treat yourself like a criminal because you aren’t.”

A single tear fell from his left eye as he stared back at you in awe, unable to believe how you were so selfless and caring. You brought your thumb up and rubbed away the tear. Bakugou smiled back at you and you couldn’t recall the last time you had seen that smile. “I don’t fucking deserve you.”

You shook your head immediately. “No, you deserve more than me. You deserve the world and then some. Thanks to you, heroes will have a lighter workload and not have to deal with so many villains masquerading around as they were inspired by the League’s ‘mission.’ Even when I saw your face on the news numerous times, I never thought ill of you. I only wished that you were okay.”

Bakugou bit his bottom lip, trying to suppress the emotions he was holding in. He laughed once again, his signature smirk back on his face. “Now that the fucker who fucked us both over’s in prison, you’re officially single, right?”

You rolled your eyes, not surprised that he had ruined the moment by bringing up your atrocious ex-boyfriend. “Yes. The fact that you need to ask me that is annoying.”

Bakugou scoffed. “Just wanted to make sure before I did this.”

Before you could question him, Bakugou closed the even smaller gap between the two of you as he gingerly brought his lips to your own. You felt your body relax, your hands traveling around his neck and latching around him. His own hands found their way behind your back, pulling you even closer to him. Eventually he leaned back on the couch, hoisting you onto his lap and having you straddle him. He didn’t want to waste any time, annoyed that you had cut the previous kiss short because of Natsuya.

But unlike the last time, Natsuya was the last person on your mind. All you could think of was Bakugou and his lips moving earnestly against yours. There wasn’t any pent up frustration or any other malicious feelings involved in this kiss. All you wanted was to be in his arms for as long as possible.

This time Bakugou pulled away, peering back into your (E/C) eyes. You smiled, planting a kiss on his temple and pressing your forehead against his. “You’re not running away from me this time. I’m never letting you go, never again.”

Bakugou smirked, kissing you once again. “Looks like I’ll have to try harder then.”

You laughed, pulling away from him and leaning against his arms that were on your waist to hold you in his lap. You cupped his face in your hands. “I love you, Bakugou Katsuki. I’ve loved you for so long. It’s always been you, no one else.”

Bakugou’s felt the heat rising to his face as his cheeks flushed in a pink color. His smirk returned to his lips, pulling you in closer once more. “Damn right. And I love you.” You smiled, kissing him again and again and again.

For months you searched for what you could do with all the time that you had. Retired heroes approached you with various ideas and hobbies that they did once stepping down from their heroic jobs but none of them piqued your interest. You wanted something that could make you truly happy. And you had finally found it.

What made you truly happy was being beside Bakugou Katsuki, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Tagging: @chims-kookies @bokunoheroes-stories @iamthe-leaf @simplysymphonic @mylittlesunshineblog @imyourliquor-youremypoison @sunflowerchild27 @geesshoku @ghoularaki @katsukiwonu @kotakingly @tyongflight @sparkexplosive @minniepresents @thorohdamnson @icy-hot @bikinibrattoms @life-is-not-daijobu

#bakugo x reader #bakugou x reader #katsuki bakugo x reader #katsuki bakugou x reader #my hero academia #my hero academia imagines #boku no hero academia #boku no hero academia imagines #boku no hero imagines #katsukibakugou #bakugo #katsuki bakugou #katsuki bakugo #bnha bakugou #katsuki #kacchan

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