#eliot is my favorite character

[ultramarine-00]

I LOVE THE MAGIICCIANNSSSSS

[nixknacks0-0]

@ltwharfy tagged me in this and it was so fun to do, although it took me a hell of a long time to pick characters

make a poll with five of your all time favourite characters and see which character is everyone's favourite. Then tag five people to do the same. I don't have anyone specific, but if we are mutuals then you are tagged, and please tag me in your response because I love seeing what people's favorite characters are!

[anarchypumpkincowboy]

“Kentucky fried chicken” “Kentucky Thunder” “that’s what I said”

[insane-thoughts-oftheday]

So I was talking to someone and the common thought came that Eli Ever is a Latino-coded person, and that is so true and has a relevant context to consider. what I mean is that Eli ever is a canon latina bitch in my head.

Look at him! He and this woman whose name I forgot are the same!! /hj.

I can easily imagine him saying these phrases with a weak accent because I don't think he is completely Latin-american, but he is a very close descendant of the culture

[thathopelessromantic]

i was tagged by @vamppeach to make a poll of my 5 favorite characters so:

i'm very indecisive when it comes to choosing favorite characters or what that even means to me so good luck making sense of this list lmao

this was fun to come up with so if you're also interested i'm tagging: @bookishblerb, @funk-king-sparkle, @detectiveanna, and @fauxxghost

[britneyshakespeare]

1) I wrote a tbr of plays I wanna read in September in the middle of last month and it only took me 5 days to be like "yeah I'm not liking this plan at all and it makes me miserable." Idk how ppl do tbrs. I thought it would be exciting but it actually just makes me feel like I'm doing my chores.

2) Did you know I've read 4 plays in the last year which were written by Thomas Middleton? Why? Why have I spent so much time with Middleton? I've spent more plays with him than any other author in the last 12 months except Shakespeare (duh) and John Ford (whose plays I rented from the library so I had only a month). Like, of all the things I could be doing...

[thelastspeecher]

I'm seven episodes into Leverage and my biggest takeaway is this:

Hardison has two hands

[geeky-nightphilosopher]

Something I love about Christian Kane's characters are;

How soft and gentle they are one minute but the very second his character's hear/see/are told to do something...

His characters become freaking warriors.

[leverage-ot3]

op: #he deserves it#also parker and hardison#they all deserve forehead kisses

@running-in-the-dark: #(luckily he is short so I could actually reach his forehead! phew)

@lindseymcdonaldseyelashes: #i will give him all the forehead kisses#and would also like some in return if it's not too much to ask

glad we are all on the same page

i want to kiss eliot spencer on the forehead

[faorism]

some fans will do anything to act like eliot is perfect and it’s so frustrating sometimes. i like eliot too, leverage is my favorite show, but neither eliot or the show are perfect or 100% aligned with my beliefs. and it’s okay to acknowledge that! everything in canon suggests that eliot is very pro-cop. the show itself is maybe not *as* strongly pro-cop as that one character is shown to be, but they definitely portray many cops as "the good guys" and aren’t exactly saying acab. i love the show but im not going to put it/the writers/the characters on a pedestal.

^^^

re. this post

[airasilver]

Mine’s Eliot but I adore Alec & Parker. Sometimes I love Parker over the boys and Hardison over the other two but it’s mostly Eliot.

I adore all the characters but yeah, Eliot’s my favorite. Who’s yours?

[shinybulbasaur]

Rules: Make a poll with five of your all-time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favorite!

I was tagged by @suddenrundown, thanks for the tag! I was so tempted to put "eliot's baseball hair" but I resisted (also polls don't allow strikethroughs. sad). tagging @michinaranja, @vero-niche, @acidmatze and anyone else who wants to play!

[lindseymcdonaldseyelashes]

One of my favorite things about "The Office Job" is the qualities that come out of the characters when they know they're being recorded

For Nate and Hardison, it's just an annoyance that's preventing them from properly doing the job. Parker absolutely does not want to be filmed, and it's compounded by the fact she's actively being harassed by Gunter

Sophie and Eliot, though? They have to pretend not to love the spotlight. She poses to make sure her best side gets captured. He grins and smooches just for the camera

There really is a reason Eliot can't avoid nearly becoming famous over, and over, and over

[letteredlettered]

Hello!! Firstly, I'd just like to say I've recently discovered your drarry work, and I have been reading your entire catalogue of it for the last week. Pulled all nighters can't stop reading it, reading it. I devoured The Boy Who Lived Twice in one sitting and I couldn't believe how well crafted it was. Blew my mind.

Now, all of this is to say, your prose has this elegant straightforwardness that is so succinct, so clear and so evocative. Your dialogue is absolute *perfection*. What are your influences? Books or authors you feel made an impression on you? I'd love to know what you read, because god I love what you write.

Thank you! I'm so glad you like my fics.

Jane Austen is a huge influence. Whenever my prose feels indistinct and overburdened, I return to her. She says things extremely sharply and cleanly.

Sarah Rees Brennan was a huge influence on me in terms of POV. I tend to write a very tight third person, so tight that the reader can generally see things the viewpoint character cannot. Check out the first book of The Demon's Lexicon series for one of the best examples of this I've read.

I spent a lot of time with Robin McKinley as a kid. I don't think that our styles match very well; she can do an ethereal, fairytale tone that I've kind of given up on. But what I loved best about her was that she could do that tone but then write something incredibly down to earth. I would check out Beauty or Deerskin for my favorite examples of this.

I actually also came into the style I write now writing for Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS) fandom. While most of the stories I wrote in that fandom didn't have very sharp dialogue, I remember writing a story (a WIP still languishing on livejournal, sadly) where I realized I had "found" my voice and style. It was extremely dialogue-heavy. BtVS was famous at the time for its extremely fast-paced, idiosyncratic, snappy dialogue. The dialogue is now considered dated, and the creator is a douche, but imo it's still great writing, especially the early shows. I still go back to it sometimes to figure out a conversation with multiple people, or to work on my humor.

As for authors that have made an impression on me, I'd check out George Eliot. My favorite book is Daniel Deronda. It has wonderful dialogue, especially for an older book. Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Hugo all made pretty big impressions on me as well; I think these big, hefty books with really big ideas really influenced my language, even though I would by no means call my style 19th c.

I'd also check out Rainbow Rowell. I wouldn't say she influenced the style I write with now, because I had it before I read anything by her, but she's one of the few contemporary authors I read and think, "Yeah, I'd write it like that." I think anything by her is a great read that can give you a lot to think about in terms of style.

In my mind, Sally Rooney is a little like Rowell in terms of a cleans style that packs a sharp analysis. I'd call Rowell more comfortable, funny, and genuine, while Rooney is a bit aloof and literary. I actually don't like the stories in her books very much, but I found Conversations with Friends particularly refreshing in terms of writing style.

C.S. Pacat's Captive Prince series also left an impression on me. It has a clean, simple style, with a narrator who doesn't see everything the reader does. And I also did learn a lot from the use of the word "said," in those books--it was something I already knew! and yet.

I think some fanfic that made a big impression on me is The Paradox Series, by wordstrings (Sherlock/John, Sherlock BBC), Spice, by eimeo (Kirk/Spock, Star Trek TOS), Children, Wake Up by hollycomb (Kylo Ren/Hux, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Tarnished Gold, by prim_the_amazing (Shen Yuan/Luo Binghe, Scum Villain's Self-Saving System). The styles in these fics vary, but each bowled me over at different points with how beautifully something was articulated or how spectacularly a scene was crafted. I think about Spice all the time in particular.

I'd also say that if you're thinking about dialogue in particular, I also love both Oscar Wilde's and Tom Stoppard's plays.

If you are a writer, I did write a series on writing dialogue. Check out the tag "lettered writes dialogue". The first post is here.

[randomfoggytiger]

get to know your moots

Thank you, @sixhours!

What's the origin of your blog title? "I need a random Tumblr handle that will work. Love tigers; but that's my only clear idea." You could say my planning was... foggy at best.

OTP(s) + Shipname: Mulder and Scully (or MSR.) Unbeatable.

Favourite colour: Red! Neutral and blue-based ones, specifically.

Favourite game: ...Hm. The Sims 4 if it were good; Professor Layton because it's a complete experience; Animal Crossing: New Leaf/Nintendogs/Super Smash Brawl for my nostalgic younger self.

Song stuck in your head: Now the Super Smash Brawl theme.

Weirdest habit/trait? As a child, I ate sand and crayons and dental picks and ice and fake plants and etc. The impulse still lingers.

Hobbies: Writing meta, reading (getting back into this), listening to YouTubers dissect movies/tv/books/drama.

If you work, what's your profession? The small family business~

If you could have any job you wish, what would it be? Hm. Ballet dancer or nonfiction writer. Probably too lazy to be the former. ;)))

Something you're good at: Dissecting human emotions/motives? Maybe? Making food smell good. Writing rather well (when I have something to write about), though it doesn't have a higher education polish.

Something you're bad at: Communication, in-person. So awkward-- which is my own fault, and something I'm working on!

Something you love: Chocolate. Ice water. T. S. Eliot's poetry. Cold, nippy mornings (rare where I live.) The smell of a cold, green environment. Swimming (bad at it, though.) Ketchup. A song that doesn't depress me.

Something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: Season 8 of The X-Files, probably. So much good that ties directly back to the first seven seasons; so much bad that can be easily ignored without changing its own canon.

Something you hate: Misinterpretation. Uncharitability. Immovability.

Something you collect: Stickers, when I was a little child. Have a sticker book (Bugs Bunny on the front, I think) filled with them, dating back to kindergarten. 00s made the best stickers.

Something you forget: ...Everything. If there aren't photos, it didn't happen. I'm dead serious.

What's your love language? I used to think it's Touch-- though that's incredibly important-- but I've come to the realization it's quality time.

Favourite movie/show: The X-Files. Good Will Hunting (most parts.) The Last of Us, Beauty and the Beast 1987, Frasier are new gems. I prefer watching people watch TV/movies than watching 'em myself.

Favourite food: Steak? No, it's chicken. Can't go wrong with chicken.

Favourite animal: Dogs and rabbits. Dogs because I adore them (and they adore my sister), rabbits because I owned two lovable, cranky ones.

German Shepherds and Flemish Giant rabbits should rule the world.

What were you like as a child? Shy, quiet, mischievous. Always up a tree or running away from home. If I did something I thought was clever, I'd look at the ground and try to hide my smile.

Favourite subject at school? Until middle school it was reading or grammar. Soon after, my interest in everything faded.

Least favorite subject? Chemistry or calculus. Biology and regular math and algebra are cool, though.

What's your best character trait? I took a quiz once and got Humor. Mine is naturally facetious. >:DDDD

What's your worst character trait? My limited patience (which bleeds over into a short temper.)

If you could change any detail of your day right now what would it be? To get rid of the ant infestation out in the grass.

If you could travel in time who would you like to meet? I would like to observe Marilyn Monroe, as a shadow.

Recommend one of your favourite fanfics (spread the love!): I have a list here, but today it's gotta be @o6666666's Escondido, California.

Tags if you want to play~

@baronessblixen, @dd-is-my-guiltypleasure, @welsharcher

@agent-troi, @amplifyme, @laurencem, @illaisland, @halfali3n,

@virtie333, @television-overload, @brenayla, @nachosncheezies,

@leiascully, @catharsisxf, @numinousmysteries, @frogsmulder,

@suitablyaggrieved, @loubetcha, @storybycorey, @rachg82,

@spooky-jordan, @borogirl, @jessahmewren, @skelavender,

@unremarkablehouse, @thefinalpaperheart, @redteekal,

@sigritandtheelves, @lesbianagentofnothing, @kiivitaja,

@unremarkablehouse, @freckleslikestars, @pianogirlxf,

@justice-for-queequeg, @scullysmywife, @xf-cases-solved,

@muldersfingers, @is-on-its-way, @sarie-fairy,

@lilydalexf, @thescullyphile, @teenie-xf, @touchstoneaf, @ellivia,

@trusttnno1, @settle-down-frohike, @thursdayinspace,

@sagan-starstuff, @b0oker18, @singeart, @bakedbakermom,

@slippinmickeys, @pookie-mulder, @thatfragilecapricorn30,

@deathsbestgirl, @calimanc, @goodshipsmulder, @vincentsleftear,

@aloysiavirgata, @pennyserenade, @dreamingofscully,

@xxsksxxx, @writingwell, @trans-spidey, @scullys-scalpel,

and anyone else who sees this and wants to give it a go~

[bambi-kinos]

Thank you for your refreshingly honest comments about Yoko Ono. I find people’s sycophancy towards her and refusal to examine her behaviour a bit sickening, to be honest. There’s clearly an unspoken rule that Yoko is off limits, which is very strange, given that no other person or subject is. Anyway, what I would like to ask you is this: to what extent, if any, do you think Yoko was herself a victim? Did she simply find herself surrounded by bad people who manipulated her (the Sams, John Green, Fred Seaman, etc), or did she seek those people out to do her bidding? From what we know of the plan she made at the start with Tony and the fact that Dan Richter (a very unsettling character in the whole sordid tale) was an old friend who she brought in as part of that plan, I think the latter. But most people on here think she’s great and that she couldn’t help being mentally ill, so hey, maybe it’s just me and my cynicism that says she’s every bit as wicked as her ex-employees claim. What do you think?

When it comes to how Yoko is treated, there's genuinely a lot of nasty history there so fans on tumblr try to tread carefully. It's not an exaggeration that Yoko faced a lot of horrible racism when she was with John and there were even moments when John had to shield her from physical harm. And she was a lightning rod of criticism for lots of other reasons. Once John died she was essentially put in the role of "grieving widow" and boy howdy she milked that forever but it also meant that people were suddenly less willing to criticize her because they didn't want to add to her troubles.

Not to mention John and Yoko worked very hard to network with up and comers once they realized old hands like Ray Connelly wasn't going to play ball with them since they were too experienced. They created a lot of journalistic careers by making the right friends in the 1970s. Many media personalities feel indebted to them and would happily throw themselves in front of a car if Mommy Yoko and Daddy John don't suffer even a whiff of a papercut. When you read Eliot Mintz's book you realize that John and Yoko very deliberately targeted emotionally vulnerable people with empty lives and no strong parental figures so that they could become a quasi-family to them. That's what happened to poor Mintz, John would scream racial slurs at him (because Mintz is Jewish) and Mintz would just kind of. Stand there and take it while John screeched and squalled trying to pretend he was still a bigshot and not a drunkard in his 30s abusing his personal assistant. So much of the public bubble you've noticed is a result of John and Yoko's recruiting tactics. Celebrities usually get a level of protection but John and Yoko cynically courted and elevated the right people to wrap themselves in adamantium.

Fans try too hard to handle her lightly as a result of all the heat she took after marrying John, especially since a bit more is now known about her life and how she grew up and how her dad didn't treat her very well. I also think that there's an element of disbelief, like Yoko's crimes are insane and outlandish, no one wants to believe that they are true. And I know from personal experience that if you try to bring outlandish but true things to someone's attention about their favorite celebrity, you immediately get screaming and hysterics. Cult think is strong.

I don't think Beatle fans on tumblr necessarily buy in to excuses about mental illness and trauma but I do think that they're scared of being criticized or being accused of racism if they're too hard on Yoko. Tumblr users are uniquely vulnerable to that sort of thing because of this website's history and demographics so they take the easy route. I don't really blame them tbh, you never know when something is going to blow up in your face and who wants to court that trouble? There's no benefit to talking about Yoko's problems and abuse of John and Sean in depth since most people are just here for the fanart.

But to move on to your question: I think Yoko was an experienced con artist and manipulator with a genuine artistic vision but I also think she got in way over her head. Yoko's thing appears to have been that she and Tony would scam John with art pieces and that's why they did insane shit like making a contract to split the earnings they got from John 50/50. Get him to buy some plastic crap (that was quite literally all the rage in the 60s "zomg plastic!!!!") and then take the money and run. But I think Yoko sensed early that John was an easy mark and that he was someone she could pump and dump. I think that Yoko started seeing dollar signs and pursued John to get a bigger and bigger payday, she was chasing that dragon.

When it comes to the people Yoko was surrounded by, it's another case of her walking in with her eyes wide open but not realizing how completely in over her head she was. She very deliberately surrounded herself with con artists just like her because she thought it would be easier to control John and fortify her power over him. There were outliers like John Green/Charlie Swan where she believed his bullshit (the man is a masterful con artist) but she was convinced that she was much smarter and savvier than she really was and that she would see through any scams. She was blinded by her pride and never realized just how many rides she was taken for. Like IIRC Charlie Swan helped someone fence a fake painting to her that she paid millions for lol. They realized that she was an easy mark specifically because of her conviction that she was a worldly and experience player. Reader, she is not.

You can see this mindset during her life with John, they were hiring people off the street to work for them and never noticed they were being robbed blind. Like she and John were hoarders to the Nth degree, they bought all those extra condos in the Dakota specifically so that had storage units for all the useless shit they bought. Hundreds maybe thousands of shirts, pants, dresses, coats, scarves, jewelry, never worn and never catalogued, never looked after. Paintings and ancient artifacts stolen from Egypt on the black market, Yoko may have purchased as many as two different Egyptian mummies. Those people that they brought in from the street learned quickly that they could steal whatever they wanted and John and Yoko would never notice. A few of them were caught but there was one case where someone lifted 5 Hermès scarves from Yoko and she didn't notice for over a month and then dragged her heels on filing the police report. Because the Hermès scarves were not actually important since she had dozens of them in the storage apartments. I imagine the staff that stayed on learned quickly that they could steal freely so long as they were smart about it. God knows that's what I would do lmao.

But the point is that Yoko knowingly took in people who were willing to steal from her because she thought she could outsmart or control them, she had no idea how to defend against complicated tactics like "I'll put this in my bag and walk out with it at the end of my shift." I have the feeling John took the theft a lot more seriously than she did. Not that he was willing to do his bit and look after their collection of high end junk, I can't imagine what all their expensive clothes looked like after 10 years in that storage unit since neither of them protected them from pests.

Yoko willingly took these people on and invited them into her home. She and John thought they could use the likes of Charlie Swan and Fred Seaman and the Sams the same way they used journalists like Jann Wenner. What John and Yoko did not realize is that journalism is Hollywood for ugly people, that journalists are uniquely deficient in character or backbone and that journalists are always on the look out for a new Daddy and Mommy to pat them on the head and say "good job son!" Journalists and Hollywood actors are the same, they have holes in their chests were Mom's love and Dad's pride should be.

The problem for Yoko is that the scam artists she hired were extremely skilled, experienced, and ice cold. I love Charlie Swan's book Dakota Days and I believe every word of it (I can repost my review of it if you like) but especially because he coldly shows how childish and self absorbed John and Yoko really were. While they were faffing around doing rich people shit like flying around to random cities based on one guy's bespoke numerology, Charlie Swan grew up having to work for a living before getting into the astrology business. He knew what it was like to work difficult jobs for little money and even attended university and earned a degree in a time before universities became diploma mills. He was savvy and educated and lived an entire life before meeting John and Yoko, got spiritual fulfillment and assurance from his magickal practice. Charlie Swan did not have a hole in his chest where Mom's love and Dad's pride should be. Which meant he simply could not be manipulated the way a journalist can be manipulated. And Yoko Ono could not comprehend this and could do nothing about it. Nothing she said or did had any power over Charlie. She couldn't do anything to him and he frequently scammed her out of millions all while laughing up his sleeve. She thought she could control him but the truth is he had her completely under his thumb. Kind of amazing actually.

The thing that has always baffled me about Yoko is how easy it is to kick her around and stand up to her. John Lennon too as a matter of fact, I don't understand this handwringing and moaning and fear around his "great wit." I grew up on 4chan, I know people who could turn John inside out with a well placed photoshop. It's genuinely baffling to me that Yoko and John were not savagely and relentlessly bullied. They should have been. It lead John and Yoko to develop inflated egos where they thought they were genuinely intimidating. They never realized how pathetic and easily taken in they were because everyone else found it more useful and lucrative to scam them. It's fascinating that Yoko willingly brought these people into her life with John and never once realized that there was a problem.