#except in the Vale of York

[wordsandrobots]

Dragon Slayer

[I wrote this seven years ago, as part of a series of stories I was playing with at the time. I’ve moved on from working on them, but I happened to look this one up today and it’s not terrible so . . . here it is!] According to the books, Elspeth Drake slew the last dragon in England in 1804 with an enchanted hat-pin. No one paid much attention at the time on account of dragon slaying being a couple  of hundred years out of fashion.

The dragons didn't pay much heed neither.

People imagine dragons are ancient. They imagine big old dinosaurs and because they're dinosaurs, they assume they must've died out. Ancient means extinct, they say. Stands to reason. It's right there in the song – the knights are no more and the dragons are dead.

They're wrong.

Ancient's a funny word, see. Means different things. Could be hundreds of years. Could be decades. I'm ancient. The ground's ancient. But we're ancient in different ways. On different scales. And dragons, dragons aren't ancient like old bones and fossils. They're ancient like rot. They don't sit there, quiet and dry in the rock, they fester away down there like big, fat maggots, chewing on their own tails 'til something makes 'em force a way to the surface.

They're simple things, in their way. All they need to hatch is something horrible. A family burning in the same fire. A whole village, dead of the plague. A war. Nothing complicated, nothing unusual. Sometimes the echo of those things sinks down deep, down into the dirt, down where there aren't any new families to come along and build new houses and there aren't any medicines to heal away what's gone before. They stick there, those echoes, 'til they've gone mouldy and ancient and in the end, out comes that fat maggot, a memory gone sour. An idea gone rotten.

Up and up it comes, clawing through the earth and out it comes and if you're lucky, it'll just drive a few shepherds crackers or make the local parson murder his sister. If you're lucky. If you're not . . . well, mebbe it's best not to think about that.

Elspeth Drake slew the last dragon. Happen she did a good job of it too. But it weren't last dragon. Couldn't of been. Not when they're being born all the time. It were just last dragon to make it to the surface.

Now I've got to deal with the next one. Me, all alone in this big empty field, in the dark, while a whole townful of people it'd gobble up in a day sleeps a couple of miles away. And me without an enchanted hat-pin.

Not that I have much truck with enchantment, mind. All that faffing around, trying to tie what you can do to something you can hold in your hand. I say, if your hand's good enough to hold summat, it's good enough to work with and to blazes with the rest. I never needed a wand in me life and I don't plan to start now.

So it's just me, me hat and me stick. Damn thing, that stick. Only started using it to get a bit of sympathy but these days it's stopped being pretend. Every time I wake up I seem to have a new ache, and another every time I go to sleep. Makes me wonder if I'm still up to doing this on me own. Mebbe I should have got one of the young 'uns to lend a hand . . .

Tch! Pull yourself together, woman. Yer still plenty strong enough to deal with one measly worm.

Stroke of good luck I heard about it though. Sensitive souls sometimes feel dragons and the like coming but I've never been much good at sensitive. Took old Elsie Moon rattling by on the bus to pick it up. Otherwise, first we'd have known about it would've been pitched battles in the railway station or some such nonsense.

That's not going to happen now though. Nothing's getting past me.

Wish the wretched thing would get a shift on. It's blooming cold out here. Pity specifics have never been Elsie's strong suit, otherwise I mighten'tve had to make this an all-night vigil –

All at once, it's knocking against the topsoil, sounding like the crack of doom inside me skull. Two ticks after that, a great whoosh of wind hits me. The grass around me is blown flat – I feel that, even if I can't see it. Same way, I feel the dragon pulling itself into the night, right in front of me.

It's not got a shape, exactly. Not so as you could point to. There's nothing to block out the muddy glow bouncing off the clouds, nothing that casts a darker shadow. It's just there. Big as a nightmare and twice as ugly. Its breath rolls over me, hot and angry. I remember swords in the distance and flaming hay blacking out the sky. I can taste drying blood in back of me throat. Nasty ideas choke the chill from the air.

But I've got me hat. Me dad's tin hat, from back when he were an air raid warden. He stood up to fire, did dad, to fire and worse. I shove that bit of him, the bit of him that was able to do that, between me and the dragon and tell it to lay off mithering me.

It don't take kindly to that.

Ranting and roaring, it comes at me. Doesn't stop to think or plan. All fire and poison and fuss and shouting. Never thinking about what it's doing. Never caring. Nothing to care with. It falls on me like burning fog, like all the worst days of me life. There's so much of it I have to plant me feet and brace against the wretched stick to keep meself upright. Every bone I've got shouts up at the weight of it. Me skin prickles, me eyes water – the damn thing's wrapping itself around and around, squashing the air from me lungs.

I can hear its heartbeat, pulsing strong and hungry. They're coming to get you, it hisses, those men with swords and spears. There are always men like that. The men who want to tear down your world and kill everything you've ever known. They're going to kill you. You're going to die. And even if it isn't them, you're going to die anyway. Because you're old and you're weak and your breath burns in your lungs where it once came easily and your limbs are brambles where they once were oak. Soon you'll be stuck in your bed, a hollow husk, just waiting for your eyes to go dark and your mind to turn to porridge, waiting to turn into a stupid lump of gristle, slick with your own filth and blood. You're going to DIE.

It shouts the last bit, jaws snapping shut around me. I'm in an oven, cooking alive in the stink of other people's half-forgotten terror. Hard to remember I'm still standing in a field, that I'm not walled in with broken timbers and hot coals. You're going to DIE. Hard to be sure which of us is the one thinking that now. I should've brought help. What were you thinking, woman, trying to kill this thing on your own?

YOU'RE GOING TO DIE.

I lift a hand to me head, to press at the pain. Only me fingers knock the tin helmet instead. The metal's still cold to the touch, cold enough to give me a shock. Course it is. There's no heat, not really. Just hot air and most of that's on the inside.

YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!

Of course I am, you daft snake. We're all going to die. We're born dying. That's good and it's bad but mostly it just is. Nowt any one of us can do about it. But let me tell you, it's better than mouldering away like you are, stewing in your own bloodiness. What do you know about dying, or living come to that?

I grip me stick as it roars some more, flapping at me face, shouting about how terrible it all is. The wood is hot with sweat, but it's an honest heat. I push me mind down the stick, down into the ground. I feel me feet from the wrong side for a second and then I go deeper, down into all that muck the dragon pushed up through. You want death, y'great stupid worm? I'll give you death.

I'll give you the death of everything that ever walked this patch of land, the death of every last thing that walked and hopped and flew. I'll give you the death of everyone who ever cared about whatever it was that hatched you. 'Cos that's the truth: you're an anger that's got nothing left to point at. Those men with spears? They're long since dust and bone. What did they ever leave behind? Bunch of gold that got lost? Bunch of swords that rusted away? You're sour milk. No one in their right mind would drink you.

And even if there's someone mad enough out there to let you in, they'll die soon enough. And the next and the next and the next. You'll play hopscotch until you run out of people. And then you'll die too. Die of hunger. No one left to think you.

Dragons'll be around forever. But this one won't be.

It screams at me. You're going to die, it screams. So're you, I tell it and smother it in the truth. I take it by the neck and shove it into the earth, show it everything that were ever lost to the mud. I'm going to die. It's going to die. And tomorrow there will be something new. Mebbe better, mebbe worse. But new. Different. It tries to make me despair over that. I show it why that's hope.

It can't take it. It just falls apart, fire going out at last. I suck down grateful lungfuls of night chill and let the embers flutter down on me. Everything aches and everything's sore but I don't care. This is the good kind of ache, the ache of a job well done. I snort and thump the ground with me stick, muttering a quick thanks to dad's ghost for making me swear never to sell his hat.

The last shred of worm whirls away on the breeze, scattered to join with the rest of the dead leaves. I watch it go and smile into the darkness. Too old, my eye. What were I thinking? I'll be doing this 'til I drop, just you see if I'm not.

According to the books, Elspeth Drake slew the last dragon in England in 1804. They'll need to be updating them now.

[hplovecraftmuseum]

Lady Liberty, the towering statue which stands as a welcoming beacon at the edge of New York City, holds aloft a light of hope for emigrants coming to America to escape their troubles in the rest of the world. She might eventually have symbolized something very different for H. P. Lovecraft. When Howard Phillips Lovecraft married Sonia Greene, he was leaving behind his coddled life as a virtual child in Providence RI. His beloved, but certainly overly protective mother had recently died. He informed none of his friends that he and Sonia were planning to wed. None of them were invited to the ceremony. The Lovecraft's moved to NYC to find financial success and a new life together. For Sonia and Howard Lovecraft New York City offered only failed dreams and depression. Lady Liberty, The Woman In Green in New York Harbour would have stood as a symbol of anything but hope for Mr and Mrs Lovecraft. Like Lady Liberty, Sonia Greene, the woman HPL would eventually marry, was also "Statuesque". In fact more than one person who met her described Sonia Lovecraft with that term. Like Lady Liberty she was also green - or more properly 'Greene'. Howard never succeeded in finding steady employment while in NYC, his wife lost much of her savings and the hatshop she opened in the city failed after only a few months. Sonia would soon suffer a mental breakdown as a result of the pair's troubles and retreat to a rest home in New Jersey. For H. P. Lovecraft the city that may have symbolized his entry into manhood or even 'adulthood' as a husband and the promise of a future as a successful writer of note proved to be a trap and virtual prison. After 2 years of suffering in The Big Apple - native New Yorkers apparently don't care for the term - HPL was invited back to Providence RI by his aunts. His retreat from an obviously failed marriage and his total failure as a "provider" in the traditional husband role of the times, was a turning point in his life. Gone was much of the youthful arrogance we see in letters from his younger days. H. P. Lovecraft slinked back to the city of his birth never to leave it again except for occasional trips to visit friends and to visit cities and towns he read about as potentially interesting to an 'Antiquarian" like himself. Pictured below is a statue of Roger Williams, famed as the founder of Providence, RI. It stands in Prospect Terrace Park. Stiff and uninspiring as it might appear to others, the statue of Roger Williams, founder of Providence, RI would represent a 'welcome home' for Lovecraft. The statue of Williams stands not far from the location of Lovecraft's various residential homes in the College Hill district of Providence and looks out upon the newer glass and steel structures of the city which Lovecraft disliked. For HPL, the antiquarian, a man who fancied himself a loyal subject of The King's colony of Providence Plantations, the Statue of Roger Williams might represent a guardian of the old ways. He gazes out upon the newer parts of the city, rising up from the vale to the West, with a raised hand and might almost be saying to the modern world, "Stayaway!" (Exhibit 480)

[horizon-verizon]

Sansa’s stans are the only group in the fandom that take outside source more seriously than the actual book. When it comes to making theories for her, they will cite anything between interviews of the GOT actors to history of some European queens like Elizabeth of York or Elizabeth I.

Never do they explain how it makes sense to Sansa’s narrative, nor do they use her actual quotes from the books. I understand that they have an ideal ending for her, but it seems that these ideas are completely detached from the books.

While Sansa will have her moment in the book -- just going by her arc in the Vale and being exposed to different personalities and their greed, ambition, etc WHILE being able to use her brain for once -- yes, they often don't use book quotes. That's because they never read the books and only watched the show or just deny what it was written and sought out self-affirming content to be able to produce passionate metas for their vision of Sansa and how she & her arc should be. similar to how Daenerys is maligned and made into the exact opposite of who she truly is invalidate her except reversed.

[lesbiancervidologist]

Mark Gagliardi (Voice of John Peters, yknow, the farmer) and Cecil Baldwin have known each other since they were kids??? And Symphony and Cecil talking about being in college and taking edibles and unknowingly walking into the countryside of Amsterdam???? And Symphony's story about a seagull stealing a scone out of Meg's hand??? And Hal's story about the woman with bread being chased by a hoard of seagulls??? And that photo Meg sent Kevin that got her her internship with the Neo Futurists??? And Meg saying she always looked up to Kevin???? I get so invested in these peoples lives and interactions with each other and i just!! They make me so happy.

[jabithajates]

Please write the essay because I'm quite upset with tonight's episode and if they blow up Jabitha to bring BH back after everything that's happened, I will riot. I need to be talked down because I hate what they did to Jug and Tabi with this.

Oh dude I know. The slightest idea that it could happen is rage inducing and this is basically me talking myself down.

But…we’ve been here before. His hallucinations of Betty in season 5 were a lot more incriminating. That was the time where it was really a possibility that they truly would’ve explored bringing them back: Tabitha wasn’t as established as a character then, she’d only been in six episodes, Jabitha only had one kiss under their belt, and Jughead couldn’t shake his idealism of Betty. Then he confronted it, worked on his sobriety, and committed to Tabitha.

Like in season 5, they also can’t be brought back if the other half of the ship is totally disinterested in him while deeply invested in Archie. Betty hasn’t reminisced about Jughead once in the last two seasons honestly and I can’t see that changing anytime soon. I wish Jughead would move on as seamlessly as she has, he has the right to and needs to.

Fortunately, I think he’ll let it rest soon. For one thing, he’s remembering concrete memories now…one of which is a kiss he and her had when she was lying to him about Archie. He isn’t solely centering her as this savior anymore, these are the memories that he associated with a breakup that he called traumatic. @jabitha-endgame pointed out, how he looks horrified remembering it and then immediately texts back Tabitha “Thank God. I really miss you.” when he finds out she’s coming home soon. I’ve seen Twitter try and pin the text escaping him from the memories as guilt for emotionally cheating, which is funny because Tabitha is the one he’s been centering as a savior now, and I think the show was a subtle way of the show acknowledging that. I also think he’s mainly embarrassed and scared at how godawful his abandonment issues have gotten. He has a pattern of spiraling anytime he’s out of her sight: escaping back to New York, trying to go back to his serpent youth and wrecking a bike, admitted randomly last episode that his worst fear is dying alone like his grandfather. Like calm the fuck dude she’s coming back. Riverdale has made it a theme this season about confronting and overcoming childhood issues. Betty is only a small part of the problem at this point, he has to confront the same abandonment issue he’s had since his first ever scene in season one in order for him to let himself be secure in his attachment with her and accept her love and his love for her. The fact that he was unable to throw the book in the fire last episode is foretelling. Everyone else was readily willing to let go of their past crutches except for him, because like in Vale, he’ll hold onto the past even if it’s harmful and detrimental. Like in Vale, Tabitha’s going to bring this to the forefront and destroy it because they’ll realize out their love is the only thing strong enough to.

I hope I make sense because I seriously feel like him right now.

The crawling infestation has been exterminated before, so they’re fated to do it again. Only thing simmering is the boiling lead up to the ILY, y’all.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazilian Government ‘Absent’ From Search For Missing Journalist And Expert, Indigenous Groups Say

A government that has done little to protect Indigenous lands is now doing even less to assist the search for Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, who've been missing since Sunday.

A trio of prominent Indigenous organizations accused the Brazilian government of slow-walking a search-and-rescue mission to locate missing journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous affairs expert Bruno Araujo Pereira, saying in a statement that with few exceptions the police, military and other authorities have “so far been absent from the search effort.”

Phillips and Pereira have been missing since Sunday, when they did not return from a trip into the Vale do Javari, a vast and remote region of the Amazon Rainforest in far western Brazil.

The disappearance of Phillips and Pereira has captivated Brazil, leading nightly newscasts and dominating newspaper front pages. The broad sense that the government has slow-walked the response, meanwhile, has generated protests from Indigenous groups and pleas from journalists, politicians, actors, television personalities and prominent athletes that the Brazilian authorities finally spring to action.

Phillips is an experienced environmental reporter who has covered Brazil and the Amazon for more than a decade for The Guardian. He has also been a contributor to The Washington Post, The New York Times, HuffPost and other outlets. Pereira is a career employee of FUNAI ― the Brazilian government’s main Indigenous affairs agency ― and an adviser to many Indigenous tribes within the forest.

Phillips is currently working on a book about the Amazon region and tribal efforts to protect the forest and their lands within it. He was in the Javari Valley to speak with Indigenous people.

The Vale do Javari, home to numerous Indigenous tribes and a large number of isolated people who have no known contact with the outside world, has been a hotbed of escalating violence between Indigenous peoples and illegal miners, fishers and loggers in recent years. Pereira has faced threats from illicit actors throughout his career, and illegal fisherman subjected him and Phillips to fresh intimidation on Saturday, according to leaders from Univaja, a coalition of tribes that live inside the valley.

A Univaja leader told The Washington Post it is unlikely that Pereira and Phillips suffered an accident along the Itaquai River, where they were last seen. Brazilian authorities have already opened a criminal investigation into their disappearance, and it’s highly possible that Phillips and Pereira were attacked by illicit actors who objected to their presence in the region.

Continue reading.

[womenofwonder]

RWBY characters races for AUs set in our world.

How I’m going to do this: three things. The first, the city they live in Remnant. This is the least important because that leaves us with only five…maybe six places compared to our world’s hundreds of countries.

The second will be the original of their names, which they’ll have to keep in the AUs, meaning that they need some culture background for them.

The third will be their fairy tale origins.

So to start, Ruby Rose:

She lives in Vale, which is similar to France (I’ll explain why in another post maybe), but technically grew up in patch, a small island off the coast of Vale. I have no idea about Patch’s culture as we hardly ever see it, so I’m going to skip this one. We also don’t know if either Summer or Taiyang was originally from Vale.

We know Taiyang is Chinese from his name, so I’m going to say she’s half Chinese. I also wrote a western au once and really love the idea of Taiyang being an Asian Redneck…so I think I’m going to say Ruby is very, very southern just because that would be adorable.

But if you don’t want that idea I generally see Taiyang being either Asian-American or Asian-French, or Asian-British if your doing a HP AU. Summer is harder to pin down, but Red Riding Hood was originally an Italian fable, so I’m going to have her be Italian or Italian-American.

Weiss:

Weiss is German, although making her simply white America/British would work. I could see her being Russian too in some AU because Atlas fits well as Russia. For American works, Pennsylvania has quite the German population and coal mines, so that works pretty well for her.

Blake is really complicated. From Remment Australia which is culturally SEA (south East Asian), has an English name but parents with a Hindu-inspired names, but neither looking vaguely Indian. I’m going to assume her family are immigrants (as they are in cannon I think) to Australia, maybe even changed their name to help them fit in. Immigrants from where? Well, India is an option, but I like to think Malaysia. They have a large Indian and Chinese population, and I like to think Blake is a mixture of Chinese, Malay, and Indian ethnicities, from Malaysia and immigrated to Australia. And if you think this is crazy or unrealistic, you haven’t seen anything yet. The sheer mix of cultures I’ve seen growing up as an ex-pat is insane. This isn’t too crazy.

For Yang, we already have Taiyang as an Asian red-neck. Or at least I do. Raven and Qrow are going to be a little harder to pin down, but I’m think bandits getting replaced by mafia. Which mafia? I don’t know, take you’re pick. Branwen is Welsh, but I can’t think of a Welsh mafia. Coming from Mistral I would see them as being Triad, not Yakuza because Raven’s gang is famous for being less than coordinated.

If you need a logical reason for Yang having blonde hair, Taiyang could be only half Chinese, half blonde (blonde is race right?).

Either way I see Raven operating in an American city like New York or Detroit.

This would mean Yang is fully Chinese ethnically.

JNPR:

Jaune’s name and inspiration are all French. However his mother does come from Mistral (I think), so I do see him being half Chinese, but nationally French. It’s also funny to imagine him with a French accent.

Pyrrha: she’s Greek or maybe Greek-American with her parents being recent immigrants. Argus seems to Remnent-Greece and her name and fairy tale are greek.

Nora: she should be Scandinavian. I feel like in a MCU AU she’s Thor’s daughter. But she also grew up as a street rat in Mistral, which is hard to fit in our world. Therefore I’m going to have her in America, the great melting pot (and also America seems to be more like Mistral than any other Remnent king with our state system), and she going to ethically Scandinavian but knowing nothing of her culture due to her upbringing.

Ren: obviously Chinese, but I might have him be American-Chinese to fit his story nicely in with Nora’s.

Others:

Coco: we’re all ignoring that she’s based off Coco Channel, so let’s make her a LA girl

Velvet: Australia, because of the accent. Or maybe English because that is her story origin

Fox: he’s difficult, because tribes are pretty rare in modern AUs. But his story could work for various things. He’s one of the few black characters so he could come from practically any African tribe (I’m currently going with Hausa because it’s one of the few I know anything about). His name is based off ‘the fox and the hound’ which is a rare American story, so he could also be from a Native American tribe if you want the AU to be more American-based.

Yatsuhashi: Japanese, this one is thankfully easy.

Sun: Chinese. He comes from a tribe as well, but I can’t think of any nomadic Chinese tribes except the Uyghurs. Making Sun a Uyghur doesn’t make much sense but it will serve to piss off certain people on the internet. And now this is going to be taken down, isn’t it? Oh wait, this is tumbrl. This is anarchy. It won’t. Forgot why I liked this place for a second.

Scarlet: sorry for the rambling there. Anyway, Scarlet is definitely English. “I hope I don’t get sand in my shoes.”

Sage: well, he’s black, but other then that we have nothing to go one. He’s also from Mistral but that doesn’t really work? If Mistral is America as well as China I guess we can make him African American. Or whatever else works best for the AU. He might be Indian too now that I think of it. Or even Maori. Really options are limitless here.

Neptune: Yeah, so probably just American, but does have both a French last name and an Italian first name. So probably ethically American (aka white mutt). Also he lives near a port, I think I’m gonna gone with him being from Tacoma Washington because I am.

Flynt: African American

Neon: Japanese-American because of her meme (it started as part of Japanese pop song on YouTube, the latter of which is America summed up in one invention)

Oscar: Hispanic-American, he just looks it. And I’m guessing he lives in Kansas for obvious reasons. His last name isn’t Hispanic but their could be a lot of reasons for that. Or he could be Native American (Pawnee, Cheyenne, and Osage are all Native American tribes in Kansas).

Penny: well if she’s still a robot she probably stays white, but if you want her human in this AU she might end up being half black as Pietro is, although she also could just be adopted. I guess the later makes more sense, huh? I figure she’s American, with her dad working with a ‘well meaning’ but ultimately corrupt government. Probably living in DC, as that has both the government and the poverty issues.

Emerald: oohh, boy. This is hard. Sustrai is Basque, and Aladdin is a French addition to an Arabian story, she herself is dark skinned with anime features that are super unhelpful for this sorta thing.

I have three ideas. Brazilian, mostly as there’s no South American themed RWBY characters I can think of, and it’s diverse enough that someone looking like Emerald would fit. Secondly, for American centered stories she’s just an orphan with no idea of her ethnicity. Or she could be African, Indian, Pacific Islander, or Hispanic or some mixture between those four. It’s honestly really hard to tell. In my fanfic she’s from Suriname and ethnically 1/4 Indian, 1/2 Creole, and 1/4 Javanese.

Ilia: Sioux (Native American). Ilia means a lot of things in a lot of different languages, and Amitola mean rainbow in Sioux, so I decided to just stick with that.

Mercury: American, white mutt American. I’m guessing New York or Philli for where he grew up, it seems like a place where he’d be comfortable

Neo: the new novel reveals her father lived in vale (btw I haven’t read it, I’m just getting this off the internet) and her mother was a assassin who’s origins aren’t known. She doesn’t really have a fairy tale. So I’m going to go with British or French (thank RWBY thoughts for the first one) although in an American AU she works as just a white American.

Robyn: depends on what Atlas is in this AU, but probably German or American.

Qrow: I already mentioned he’s probably Chinese due to being from Mistral. It’s a bit weird to think of him as Asian, but not as weird as it to think of Raven as white, so I’ll take it. Although I do like the idea of him being American Irish, that’s fun.

Winter: whatever Atlas is in this AU, German or American, although British and Russian would work well too.

Maria: Mexican

Salem: If you want a AU where she’s just a normal person then New England or Italian for her story origin

Watts: British

Tyrian: uh…I have no idea, but he looks white. And he kinda has a British accent? I want him to be southern for the accent tho. Probably just another crazy American

Cinder: her fairy tale is French but her origin is Chinese. Also, Cinderella doesn’t really have an origin, it’s an ancient story with every culture having at least one Cinderella story. So I’m going to say Chinese.

Hazel: American, from the Midwest. He’s darkish so maybe he’s a POC? Part Native American or Hispanic? Idk or really care I can’t stand Hazel

Roman Torchwick: American-Italian, he runs/works for the mafia

Ozpin: American because of the whole wizard-of-Oz-thing or French, because he seems to have come from Vale.

Glynda: American or French for the same reasons Ozpin is

Oobleck: Jewish American (because Dr. Seuss was)

Professor Port: Russian, due to his fairy tale, or English, due to his style

Taiyang: already said he’s a red-neck Asian.

Raven: depending on whether you want her to be white or not, either Chinese or Irish American, like I already said.

Cordovin: Karen

Ironwood: again, depends on Atlas in the AU. Either American or German…maybe Russian

Clover: Irish-American (or German, obviously the ace-ops depend on where Atlas is. I’m just going to do the rest of them assuming Atlas is American because Germany isn’t that diverse)

Harriet: African-American, I guess. It kinda messes with the story because Harriet is supposed to be privileged, which doesn’t really work in this AU, but she’s also obviously black.

Elm: Just normal American, maybe greek-American because of the Aesop fable themes

Vine: Tibetan based on his design

Marrow: either African-American or Pakistani/Indian-American. (I’m personally going for Pakistani)

Klein: english. All butlers are English. It’s a rule.

Pietro: African-American

Johanna: Pakistani or Indian American

Fiona: Jewish-American (kinda random but while she’s obviously white she also needs to be a minority for the Faunus thing to work)

May: normal upper glass American/German

Ghira: Half Malay, Half Indian, from Malaysia but immigrated to Australia later in life

Kali: half Chinese, half Indian, but also from Malaysia

Adam: much like Fiona I’m going to assume he’s Jewish due to him being white but still needing to be a minority. German or American, again, depending on where Atlas is. Or he could be Chinese, even though it doesn’t work with his name, due to the theory that he was trafficked much like Cinder. I’m going with ethically Jewish though

Sienna Khan: Indian

Huh, I actually finished that. I’m pretty sure I was accidentally racist multiple times and apologize in advance,

I’m exhausted and starving and not thinking straight. But anyway, here it is. Your very messy guide to modern RWBY AUs. I swear this was insane to sort out.

[altschmerzes]

✨.🎶.💖 for the fanfic writer ask :)

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

oh gosh oh no now i gotta- hm. okay. this is a slight cheat because it's feedback i recall getting from others numerous times so it's not exactly ME coming up with it out of whole cloth, but i think i do a good job balancing keeping characters in-character with contextualizing them in and having them react to extreme situations and situations of what i've described in the past as 'both literal and emotional emergency.' i keep characters feeling and sounding like themselves (i also think i do pretty good with character voice, both in dialogue and in my preferred third person limited narrative) while also in contexts that tend to pull people out of their ordinary behaviour and reservations.

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

often yes, i do! one time i spent like two and a half hours writing exclusively to the dulcet tones of don henley's 'new york minute' which i think rewired something in my brain. what i've got on loop LATELY is a rotation of benjamin francist leftwich's 'summer,' jukebox the ghost's 'everybody's lonely,' a couple glass animals numbers, bear attack!'s 'carnivore,' juniper vale's 'fractions,' and poe's 'strange wind' which i can only find as a youtube rip. AN ODD COLLECTION. MOSTLY it's been 'summer.'

💖 What made you start writing?

oh gosh i couldn't tell you if i tried, i've always been doing it. i know that sounds cliche or cheesy or something but i have notebooks of stories i've been writing since i literally learned how to hold a pencil. i had a principal when i was a kid once tell me that he'd had a lot of kids who never stopped reading but he'd never had one who never stopped writing. i don't even think i could tell you why i KEEP writing, except that it doesn't feel so much a choice as an intrinsic given. it's like. what made you start breathing, or sleeping, or walking. at a point, i just Did.

[there-must-be-a-lock]

Changing Channels

...if Supernatural was on HBO. 

(Request from @samwisethegr8​!)

[Exterior shot of a fancy New York City restaurant. Sam and Dean are wearing pastel-colored button-downs and white slacks. They’re sitting at a table with two well-dressed women, eating brunch and drinking mimosas.] 

BRUNETTE WOMAN: It was like having a carnival ride in my vagina! 

SAM (looking reluctant and pained): Everything’s got artificial intelligence these days. What ever happened to a good old-fashioned dildo?

BLONDE WOMAN: You will never believe what Mr. Thick did this time. 

[Everyone looks expectantly at Dean.] 

DEAN: Girl, dump him. 

[Castiel comes barging into the restaurant.]

CASTIEL: I don't have much time. Listen to me. This thing is much more powerful than it should be.

DEAN: What thing—the Trickster?

CASTIEL: If it is a trickster.

[The Trickster appears next to their table. He gestures at Castiel, who vanishes in a burst of static.] 

DEAN: Enough. I am done with this “play your roles” bullshit. What’s your angle? 

TRICKSTER: Play your roles out there. Sam starring as Lucifer, Dean starring as Michael... 

SAM: You want us to say yes to those motherfuckers?

TRICKSTER: Fuck yeah. Let's blow this shit up. 

SAM: And if we don't?

TRICKSTER: Then you'll stay here in TV Land. Forever. Three hundred channels and nothing's on.

[The Trickster snaps his fingers. The scene changes. Sam and Dean are wearing robes in a high fantasy style, with matching coronets, standing in the doorway of what appears to be a luxurious brothel. A scantily-clad woman rushes toward them, smiling.] 

WOMAN: Prince Samiel! Prince Deanys! It is an honor, as always. What is your pleasure this evening? Would you prefer to share again, or -- 

DEAN: You gotta be fucking kidding me. 

WOMAN: I beg your pardon. I can, of course, have a selection of our most talented men and women brought out for your inspection. 

[Sam and Dean both make a face. Another man enters the room, looking around furtively.] 

WOMAN: Lord Barys?

LORD BARYS: Princes. This way! You must hurry. 

[They follow, and the man opens another door, leading them into the middle of an orgy. He begins to walk through the room. Sam and Dean are very distracted by the naked people around them.]

LORD BARYS: A messenger arrived this morning from the Vale of Poppies. Your aunt has discovered your secret, my princes, and if you do not flee, she will tell Daemalarys Naelaleos that you slew your half-brother and stole the Sword of Irran from the Great Crypt. 

DEAN: Fucking what now? 

SAM: Hey. Check out sweet tooth over there. 

[A naked man is lounging in a velvet chaise, watching the orgy and eating a bowl of candy. Dean looks around and grabs a fancy chair, snapping one of its legs off to create a stake. He stabs the fat man in the chest with it. None of the orgy participants notice except for Lord Barys, who laughs and morphs into the Trickster.] 

TRICKSTER: You've got the wrong guy, idiots.

DEAN: Did we?

[Sam stakes the Trickster from behind. He falls over. A burst of static. The brothel scene disappears, and they’re back in the warehouse. The Trickster is still down with the stake through him. They brush themselves off and head for the door.] 

Dean: I’m worried about Cas. Where the fuck is he?

[As Dean pushes the door open, the scene changes. He walks out into the middle of an old-timey Western street, and a woman shoves him.]

WOMAN: And stay out! 

[Dean looks back at her, then out at the street. A large horse is tethered to a post in front of the saloon.]

DEAN: Sam? 

[The horse neighs. Dean heads back into the saloon, but before he can open the door, a very large, very angry-looking man bursts through it.] 

MAN: What did my sister tell you, you goddamn moron? Get the fuck out of Skullwood! You and your mangy-ass horse! 

[Dean looks dubiously at the horse. It neighs and stomps a hoof. Dean looks around again.] 

DEAN: Sammy? Where the fuck did you go? 

[The horse headbutts Dean angrily.]

DEAN: Oh, fuck. I don’t think we killed the Trickster.

.

.

.

More here! 

[harmoniarequiem]

MAP OF OURANDIEL 

more commonly known to the world as UNOVA . ourandiel in its own language means “eternal unified soul” & was the name of the kingdom for a long time , but linguistic drift & so on so forth , it became unova . the harmonia family still speaks ourandielan , which to scholars is also known as ‘ ancient unovan ’ . in eindoak , despite the land being part of unova , they call themselves ‘ valeans ’ for the kingdom of the vale ; the oldest known name of unova . 

protected from the north by massive mountain ranges & the south by the ocean , unova also has many invisible arcane barriers that have existed for quite a long time . similar in structure to the pillars surrounding eindoak , except much larger & they’re in the water . spaced far enough apart that ships can pass through if they aren’t activated , but undoubtedly the region’s defenses from foreign attacks are essentially impenetrable . 

there are plenty of bridges & if there isn’t a bridge there’s a ferry to get over the rivers . 

castelia has the largest population of people , with an estimated 4 million people living there ( thats 4 million less than new york city tho ) . opelucid is home to about 800,000 people , but those people include the harmonias , making it the stronghold city of unova . unova’s total population is about 82 million people . there are more cities & towns than the ones mentioned , of course . 

[a-court-of-healing]

Loving you Through it Chapter 3 Jace Herondale X Reader

Three days. Three days of pure hell. It was already terrible to be in your head, but now there hasn’t been any relief, even with your emergency anxiety medication. The morning after he died, you made an early therapy appointment with Dustin to see him that day. He tried to get you to talk about it, but all you could do was talk about frivolous things and pace around his room. He was very understanding and he gave you a homework assignment to try and express your emotions and he gave you a harder assignment: to try and talk to Jace about it. After you could breathe again, you were able to use the navigation rune to find Dean’s body. He wasn’t meant to go on rounds alone, none of us were meant to, especially if you had a parabatai. He shouldn’t have gone without you. He should have waited! The parabatai oath has been on rerun in your head. 

“Entreat me not to leave thee,

Or return from following after thee—

For whither thou goest, I will go,

And where thou lodgest, I will lodge.

Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.

Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.

The Angel do so to me, and more also,

If aught but death part thee and me.”

The guilt and shame won’t leave your system. I was meant to be there, protect him, guide him. You didn’t care if he was the older one. Usually he treated you as an equal, the only time he didn’t was when a) he thought he was right or b) he was angry, but he typically always used to apologize. Why would he go without me? Did he not trust you anymore? Did he think you were too broken to help? Or maybe too fragile and vulnerable right now? He thought you were good as long as you took your meds as you were supposed to, and you have! You have taken it religiously everyday. Right now, it hurts to do anything. You’ve run around with your head chopped off. You needed to take care of the funeral, because you were Dean’s only family. Everyone tried to help, but you demanded to do it. It was the least you could do for him...probably the last thing you’d be able to do for him. Today was the funeral. Most shadowhunters laid down on the pyre with a seraph blade in his right hand over his heart. Then, they would be put in the City of Bones. Some prefer to be put in Idris, but not Dean. He wasn’t raised there. He was raised in New York, and that is where he would stay. Everyone was getting ready, and Magnus and Alec had already arrived. Since you found out that Dean died serving the clave, they made an exception and allowed downworlders to attend. Both Alec and Magnus were concerned about you since you were with them when he was out dying. Joclyn, Luke, and Clary said they would meet us there. You were even surprised to see Maryse and Robert Lightwood here. Then again, you weren’t really that surprised because Dean was an extraordinarily talented shadowhunter. He was well known amongst the ranks, and so were you. You were called the parabatai storm for a reason. Dean taught you well, and so has Jace. You were numb for the most part by now. It was better than feeling. You didn’t want to feel at all, cause Angel knows it won’t be a positive emotion. You got into your lace holow flare sleeve A Line white dress and walked over to your vanity. You put on your perfume and picked up your brush. You started brushing your hair slowly, feeling this hollow hole in your chest. 

“Y/N...honey...it’s time to go.” A familiar warm, comforting voice filled the room. Jace. But I don’t want to go...I’m not ready. You continued to brush your hair and looked at the vanity and pretended you didn’t hear anything. 

“Love...did you hear me?” You can tell that he knows you heard him, but you were choosing not to hear him. 

“I don’t want to go Jace…” You actually answered honestly. That was the most sincere thing you’ve spoken since Dean’s death. You could hear Jace’s dress shoes as he walked across the room. He was dressed in a white vest. It was nice because if he wore a tux, it wouldn’t be Jace, and you could really use the normalcy. He squatted down next to your chair and started rubbing your shoulder gently. 

“Darling, speak to me?” You gasp softly as a rush of emotion runs through you and you shake your head. You began to pick at your nails, trying to cause some kind of pain to cause this agonizing emptiness to go away.  “I’m not ready...I’m not ready for him to go.” He looks down at your hands and notices you picking at your nails and puts his hands on yours and ripped your fingers from hurting yourself. 

“You're hurting yourself love...stop.” He whispered it to where only they could hear.You couldn’t look at him and you tried to pull your hands away so you could keep picking your fingers and he fought you back. He was obviously stronger than you were so it was easy to overpower you. He intertwined your fingers with his and he kissed the back of each hand. It then clicked in your head what you were doing and you immediately felt stupid and you couldn’t help the shame and humiliation that ran through you. You tried to pull away and he wouldn’t let you. 

“I know this is probably the worst time to even say this...but i know...I know you struggle with...um...hurting yourself. Don’t hate him, but Dean might have mentioned it. He was worried about you...I don’t know why, he didn’t tell me specifics. He didn’t tell me your history, he just hinted about this. He was worried about you because he couldn’t always be with you...but I think it’s important for you to know I know…and I’m here for the long run.” He smiled softly at you and panic filled you. How DARE DEAN!! He promised he would never tell a soul. But he did. You shook your head as you thought about it and he waited for you to calm down a little. His thumbs rubbed the back of your hands and he kept his gaze on you trying to gauge your reaction and emotions. There was a knock on the door and they both turned to look and find Alec there.

“I’m so sorry...but...we really need to get going…” You forced a smile and stood up forcing Jace to sit back. 

“Okay...thank you Alec for letting us know! I can’t be late.” You hadn’t realized you seeked out Jace’s hand but he squeezed it in a comforting way, letting you know he noticed and he was still there. 

You all arrive together and you stop dead in your tracks as you look at the front of the room. There on the pyre was my parabatai covered in a white sheet. You must have stopped breathing. When you finally exhaled, everyone was staring at you. You realized everyone was staring at you, waiting for your reaction, and it took every last inch of your being to throw on your biggest smile and walk down the aisle. Everyone took their seats while you took your rightful place next to the pyre. The Silent Brothers began the service and all you could think of was what if I had been there? He would still be alive. 

“The remaining will speak the name of the fallen.” You took a deep shuddering breath.

“Dean Matthew Whitelaw.”

“Ave Atque Vale.” Everyone spoke in unison and you bowed your head trying to keep all your emotions in check. The man leading the precession looked at you and walked to his seat and you walked up to the microphone and began to sing the song that was closest to how you were feeling, “The Next Right Thing.” 

“And, with it dawn, what comes then? When it's clear that everything will never be the same again.” You looked at Dean’s body and felt this overwhelming emptiness and grief overcome you.

“Then I'll make the choice to hear HIS voice. And do the next right thing.” For the first time in a long time, tears fell down your face as you finished the song and then led the very last sentence before Dean would be burned. 

“We are dust and shadows.” You held your hands to your chest hoping that you could maybe make this empty feeling to go away. You looked at the first two rows of pews and saw that everyone was crying as you spoke. You looked at where Dean was laid, pulled out your favorite seraph blade, put it in his right hand and stepped back. Then, they set him on fire and you stood and watched as your best friend, mentor, and parabatai burn. 

“Bye Dean.”

[dearevanhansenofficial]

“YOU WILL BE FOUND” NATIONAL COLLEGE ESSAY WRITING CHALLENGE 2021 | DEAR EVAN HANSEN

DEAR EVAN HANSEN “You Will Be Found” National College Essay Writing Challenge 2021

In partnership with Gotham Writers Workshop and the Broadway Education Alliance, DEAR EVAN HANSEN invited 11th-grade and 12th-grade students across the country to write a college-application style essay that describes how they channeled “You Will Be Found” to ensure those around them were a little less alone over the last year, or, alternatively, a moment where they found comfort in connection.

WINNER: Nearly 4,000 high school students across America wrote about impactful ways they stayed connected with others over the last year and we're delighted to announce Maxwell Silverman of Chicago, IL as the winner of the 2021 "You Will Be Found" National College Essay Writing Challenge and the $10,000 scholarship.

In June 2021, Maxwell graduated from Lane Tech High School in Chicago with plans to attend Boston Conservatory at Berklee, focusing on a degree in Musical Theatre.

FINALISTS: Seth Gorelik, Bellmore, NY Mira Kwon, Los Angeles, CA Anna Cappella, Pittsburgh, PA Semira Abdus-Salam, Rosedale, NY Filgey Borgard, Brooklyn, NY Lauren Escarcha, Orlando, FL Kacey Feth, Union, MO Paige Foltz, Stephens City, VA Sarah George, Chesterfield, MO Vincent Gerardi, Hauppauge, NY Ariane Lee, Syosset, NY Allison Lierz, Omaha, NE Megan Luong, New York, NY Kimberly Manyanga, Billerica, MA Orla Grace McCoy, Raleigh, NC Lucy Meola, New York, NY Sunaya DasGupta Mueller, Palisades, NY Liv Ollestad, Issaquah, WA Liana O'Rourke, Downers Grove, IL Isaiah Register, New York, NY Sydney Schneider, Los Angeles CA Ysanne Sterling, Centreville, VA Madeline Wiest, Peoria, AZ Samantha Williams, Providence, RI Laura Yee, New York, NY

FINAL ROUND JUDGES: Kelly Caldwell, Dean of Faculty, Gotham Writers' Workshop Logan Culwell-Block, Director of PLAYBILLder Operations and Community Engagement, Playbill Will Roland, Actor, Dear Evan Hansen Original Broadway Cast Member Crystal Su, Program Manager, The Jed Foundation Ekele Ukegbu, 2019 Jimmy Award Winner

READ MAXWELL’S FULL ESSAY:

Gram·pun·cle [geram-puhn-cuul] n. A gay man who formerly dated your grandmother only to later come to terms with his sexuality but still stay in the family to take care of your mother and aunt growing up.

Alan Palmer was my Grampuncle. When my cousins and I were younger, we couldn’t figure out what to call him. He was our grandpa in terms of age and raising our mothers, but he functioned more as the classic “fun gay uncle”, so we settled on a combination, Grampuncle. While we all had amazing relationships with Alan, mine was special. I have known Alan and his husband, Bill, since birth (making them the first ever gay couple I knew in my life).

Growing up and struggling with my sexuality, I was always able to look up to them to show me that true love really does have no boundaries. I will never forget, in 2015, standing inside the Michigan courthouse beside Alan as he and Bill exchanged vows and got married. They showed me, a young, insecure gay boy, that there was a place for me in the world and that I had a future to look forward to filled with love and joy.

Along with that joy, there eventually came some pain. Alan was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in the early spring of 2020. A week or so after the diagnosis, the world fell into a global pandemic. Those first few months were intense. I heard the horror stories from Alan of how scary it was going into the hospital for rounds of chemotherapy with people who had the Coronavirus sitting in the next wing over. Being constantly in and out of the hospital he was a risk to others, and the lung cancer made almost everyone else a risk to him. With the exception of his husband, he was fully alone.

Alan did not admit to his loneliness and pain. He did not want to feel like a burden, but after talking with Bill and hearing how Alan was truly feeling, my family began to make the hour and a half drive from Chicago to Michigan almost every other week to visit. We brought Alan a pop-up gazebo and some fancy sun hats to protect him (with the radiation he could not be in the sun for more than a few minutes at a time), and we would sit in the backyard just talking and laughing for hours until Alan’s body would give in to the exhaustion and he had to go inside.

As his birthday approached, I racked my brain thinking of something special to do for him. I thought back to a video I saw online toward the beginning of the pandemic and decided to make a “hug shield”. What better gift to give than a loved one’s embrace during the pandemic? Using a clear painter’s tarp, I cut arm holes and taped together closed arm sleeves. It took a good few hours, but I finally figured out a design that allowed for full protection on either side of the hug. On the day of his birthday, we packed up the car and headed to Michigan.

After talking and eating cake, it was time for the surprise. As we pulled the shield out and hung it from the gazebo, Alan did something I had only seen at the courthouse; he cried. I had the honor of the first hug, and as I slipped my arms into the sleeves Alan and I held each other and cried together. He pressed his forehead against mine through the plastic and in between sobs he said to me, “I am so proud of you.” I knew this was our final goodbye. When Alan died the next week, I knew he went in peace. He had felt my embrace through the shield of love.

SEMI-FINALISTS: Bailey Andera, Thousand Oaks, CA Arianna Arroyo, Brooklyn, NY Alexis (Lexi) Berganio, Honolulu, HI Avery Bielski, Los Angeles, CA Henry Boemer, Villa Rica, GA Isabelle Bulmahn, Imperial, MO Jane Butera, Phoenixville, PA Mia Cashin, Norwell, MA Sean Choo, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA Zuri Clarno, Columbus, OH Lydia Corcoran, Apalachin, NY Cody Coyle, Winter Park, FL Anna Dai-Liu, San Diego, CA Alexander Guerrero Diaz, Richmond, VA Isabella Dufault, Irvine, CA Edwin Ellis, Atlanta, GA Laurel Emanuel, Raleigh, NC Aubrey Fisher, Cobden, IL Sunny Fong, Brooklyn, NY Sarah Galatoire, Houston, TX Zhao Gu Gammage, Wyncote, PA Sarah Gomez, Anaheim, CA Rachel Gray, Cleveland, OH Jameson Huge, Chicago, IL Sarah Grace Hutchinson, Alpharetta, GA Catheryn Ibegbu, Dearborn, MI Nicole Jo, Andover, MA Kelsey Johnston, Prince George, VA Gabrielle Kashorek, Avon, NY Samantha Kern, Akron, NY Nicole Kowalewski, Sykesville, MD Anne Lee, Edison, NJ Amelia Lin, Mukilteo, WA Judianne Meredith, River Vale, NJ Rabi Michael-Crushshon, Minneapolis, MN Geneva Millikan, Maumelle, AR Samantha Moy, Long Island, NY Shaakirah Nazim-Harris, Amityville, NY Eleanor Neal, Springfield, VA Sofia Ochoa, Camarillo, CA Basilia Oferbia, Brooklyn, NY Annika Olson, Rathdrum, ID Kaden Polt, Osmond, NE Shreeyamsa Poudel, Federal Way, WA Noah Robie, South Berwick, ME Zainely A. Sandoval Martinez, Dorado, PR Devyn Schoen, Eldred, PA Yusra Shaikh, Edison, NJ Gabrielle Shockley, Egg Harbor Township, NJ Ava Sklar, Brooklyn, NY Mia Sunday, Sammamish, WA Christina Unkenholz, Smithtown, NY Emilia Valencia, Portland, OR Brianna Wallace, Fredericksburg, VA Charles Wang, West Hartford, CT Daniel Joseph Weispfenning, Ridgewood, NJ Jennifer Wheeler, Reading, MA Virginia Zanella, Collierville, TN Alessandra Zepeda Ortiz, Los Angeles, CA Anna Zhang, New York, NY Daniel Zhang, Cortland, NY

[whatdoesshedotothem]

Monday 20 August 1838

4 50

9

fine morning F66° now at 5 ¾ am breakfast – A- had had her bath – off at 7 5 our 2 guides on foot – at Gèdre at the douane at 9 ¼ - detained getting an acquit à caution for the horses to go into Spain – not certain whether it would be wanted now or not – sat sometime at the douane signed my name as usual A. Lister in the book – gave my name Anne Lister de Shibden hall in the county of York which address the receveur copied – the horses were toisés measured and described – Mr. Palesset and Charles our cautions (bordersmen) for the amount = 1200fr. if the horses should not return within 25 days – fine (amende) 500/. each and value 100fr. each horses = 1200/. we latterly left to the douane and went and sat at the auberge – this acquit à caution business takes from ¾ hour to an hour every time – off from the auberge (Gèdre) at 10 5 along the Gavarnie road till 11 12 when leaves this road cross the game by the fenceless wooden bridge of Barilyas near the little hamlet of the same name, ascend the hill and at 11 25 stop a minute or 2 at excellent point de vue of Gavarnie and its pretty green basin, and the cirque and cascade and Marboré just opposite to us – excellent station for a picture – at 11 35 a little higher up the hill stopt five minutes for Charles to drink petit lait at what he called the best in Gavarnie (i.e. the little district) le maison d’Yarré – view from here of Mt. Ferrat d’Ossoue (Ossoo, Charpentier spells it Ossōnne) i.e. of one pic of this mountain – then snow, and then Vignemale – off from la maison d’Yarré at 11 40 – at 12 ¾ good point de vue of Vignemale – just catch its over four pics and below these 3 summits reaching down to Mt. Ferrat – at 12 48 pass (right, on the other side the gave) the 1st cabane – cabane and wood bridge d’Artǐgolĕ – at 1 5 alight at the cabane de Saoussats Dabats – fine narrow savage valley – glad to see it again and clear – shut in east by the Piméné – west by the Vignemale – en face de la cabane (to the north) the tower like pic blanc -  I question that (had we gone as intended yesterday to the top of it (Charles did not know of my altered plan till at Gèdre this morning) it would have served us for a good point de vue of Vignemale – there is a high point, and high rock still beyond that, on the same line of crête, that might obstruct our view? Charles agreed that our labour would have been lost – bright, lovely day – the glacier of V- fine from here (standing at the cabane-door) – but I am strange to this side of the mountain – late and brouillard both evenings of our arriving at the cabane, and on the day of ascent out daylight spent on the Spanish side – here (at the cabane door) valley closed east by the top morsel of the pic de Piméné and its crête down to the summit of the Coumélie – and west by one point of Mt. Ferrat, then the snow – then 2 summits with spots of snow between – a crête and larger rounder summit – then the glacier reaching to the 3 visible pics of Vignemale – and one round lower summit stretching down till it closes our vale d’Ossōnne – on arriving A- ate one wind and the breast of an cold fowl then sketched Vignemale from the cabane door in her little note rough book –

SH:7/ML/E/21/0172

all the bergers away on our arrival – but we had taken some of their milk (always kept in a sort of drain made exprès with a stream running thro’ it) and had just wrapt up a franc in a written paper to be left in the compartment of drain we had taken the milk from when a berger came broche to to one of the bergers here before, and who went with us as guide – Charles measured the cabane inside – 2 umbrellas long and two + 4 pouces broad – not much space for ten of us to sleep in – En route again at 2 35 – the vale d’Ossōnne running east and west not far from its origin west, throws off 2 branches, southwards – the cannau de Lourdes leading to the Port de Plat d’[aow] (Plāh d’aow) which we passed on the 7th going to the V-      and the Plāne à combe ([coorn]) the easternmost of the 2, and leading to the Lac de la Bernatoire – the range of mountain forming the north side of the vale d’Ossonne, and on which rises about mid length the pic blanc is called on its south side towards the vale d’Ossonne, the mountain d’Ossonne or as Charles pronounced it Mountain d’Ossonne, and on its other north side Sowgué (Sowgay) – off from the cabane de Saoussa[t]s dabats at 2 35 – turned by and by (left) up the Plāne à coone [combe] – passed the cabane of the Spanish berger who carried our baggage on the 7th, and at the top looking down upon the very pretty little lac de Bernatoire at 4 35 as according to A-‘s watch, my watch would have indicated – but I had sometime before discovered that it had stood since 2 35 – very pretty little round deep lake exactly filling the bottom of a crater-like contorted rock basin between the two crêtes of rock forming the port or brêche perhaps about a couple of hundred feet high north and south, and rising into a high rock range west, and a high pic close over the lake east and its rock range stretching out towards the port de Bouchero – the crête of the whole of this rock-range separates France and Spain .:. ½ the lake is in French ½ in Spain – too cold for trout – no visible outlet for the water – the rock-basin hoary and bare of vegetation except a little on the west side along the talus of debris along the bottom of which (having descended to the waters’ edge on the north side)   we wound ½ round the lake to the south side up which we went by a little narrow zigzag scarcely visible track to the top having made this little trajet (from 1 side of the lake to the other) in ¼ hour – fine look down upon masses of rock Spain and the Port de Bouchero road en face, the fine rocks above which we had not been to see when just under them in passing from Gavarnie – coldish strongish south wind at the top of the port – it was 4 55 when we paid off our berger whom we had had since 2 35 and began the descent upon Bouchero – A- walked till 6 from which time she rode almost all the rest of the way – I walked till 6 ½ - then mounted for ¼ hour then walked all the rest of the way – very fine day – at Bouchero at 7 10 .:. from the cabane to the port 2 35 to 4 35 = 2 hours rounding the lake and stopping 20 minutes Descent from 4 55 to 7 10 = 2 ¾ hours so that we had taken in all 5 5 hours from the cabane de Saoussa[t]s dabats to the hospice at Bouchero – walked about the house out a little till about 8 – then supper – soup but made with too much oil, that we could not touch it – 4 or 5 eggs fried with a little fat bacon – we could have eaten more but unluckily no more to be had – good bread of which we both ate pretty well and Eaux-bonnes cheese of which A- ate a little – the water excellent – I had a [joram] of boiled milk of which I daresay I drank about a quart and left the rest for Charles who had a little colique this evening – I had felt my stomach far from well – it has been more or less derangé these 3 weeks – our room much better than we expected – largeish – one window about 2ft. 6in. high by 3ft. wide – 2 doors – nor glass nor frame – the woman brought at 1st lighted splinter of fir-wood, and on our asking for a candle brought  a little lamp which hung up against the wall – and as it must be hung up (would not stand) and we could only find one nail near the winds’ [edge] head of my bed, we were obliged to place our table accordingly – we had 2 beds each having a mattress over the pailasse, and sheets, coarse linen but clean – of course, nor baldaquin nor curtain – the great store seemed a large old kist forming also a high seat or table, in our room from which our good but dirty-looking landlady took sheets, cheese and all – all ready and room cleared at 8 ¾ - lay down with our things on A- taking off only her habit and shoes and stockings and I taking off my shoes and gaiters and cincture – very fine day

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 2, Episode 9, The Lost Heir Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Peter: This is Peter Winther, the Director of episode...

John: 209.

Peter: 209.

John: John Rogers, Executive Producer.

Chris: Chris Downey, Executive Producer and Writer of this episode, entitled The Lost Heir Job.

John: There you go. Chris, where did this episode come from?

Chris: Well, there was a different episode, very different episode, that didn't come together, and uh, I called Dean, Dean Devlin, our Executive Producer, and I kinda asked him, ‘What kinda bad guys are you thinking about, we haven't done?’ And one of the things he said was, ‘How about an evil lawyer?’ And me being—

John: And you used to be an evil lawyer!

Chris: And me being a former evil lawyer, I thought okay, I can work with that. And it kinda sprung from there.

John: The uh, Peter, uh, this is a lovely affecting scene. Is this in our hospital set that we get enormous mileage out of, or are we in a hospital today?

Peter: Ah, no this is the hospital set that we redesigned to look like a different hospital set.

John: Nicely done. This is very touching. Peter, let me ask you, this is the first episode of Leverage that you've directed, and there's Peter Reigert as the evil lawyer.

Peter: Yes.

John: When you're coming onto a new show to direct for the first time, what's your prep? What do you do?

Peter: Well, you know, first of all, you read the amazing script by the writers. And yeah, I cried, I laughed. Yeah, then you do the normal stuff, you location scout, you find anything that you need to find, and you kinda work with—I mean luckily for me, like a lot of the guys that worked on Leverage, I've worked with before, whether it's through the Dean Devlin world of Independence Day and Godzilla, so...

John: And Librarian, you directed the first Librarian.

Peter: And the first Librarian.

John: A big thing about this episode is- Uh, and that's London. A big thing about this—

Peter: We went to London.

Chris: If you can't tell, there's Big Ben right there.

John: Ah, we like to assume that whenever we find Sophie, she's standing in front of the most recognizable landmark ever. 'Who's dead?' I love that reaction by the way. This was a challenge. This was the first episode where we knew that we needed a female grifter for the team; we had to introduce her, we wanted to check in with Sophie, and kind of establish why we were going to introduce a semi-permanent character. A lot of struts and bolts had to be thrown up here.

Chris: Yeah, yeah.

John: That was the real challenge. We had to have a scene that made us not think this relationship was broken, but that she wasn't coming back.

Chris: Well, I mean, the hard thing is when you're introducing a new character who's gonna take over, you wanna make sure that the audience understands that that character has been approved of by the character that she's replacing.

John: Yeah, to a great degree you need—it's weird—you need Gina's character to be the initiator of the replacement in order for the, you know-

Chris: And there's kind of a story about the Mary Tyler Moore pilot, that I heard from Jim Brooks, who wrote- the great Jim Brooks, apparently when they tested the Mary Tyler Moore pilot, the audience initially hated the Rhoda character.

John: Really?

Chris: Absolutely hated her. And the network said, 'You gotta get rid of her.' And Jim Brooks re-shot a scene in which Phyllis's daughter, Phyllis the neighbor upstairs, hugs the Rhoda character, just gives her a hug in one of the scenes. They tested again, went through the roof. And what they realized was, all they needed was someone on the cast that the audience liked to give their approval of this character. And Dean really was the driving force here because he said, 'We have to make sure that the audience buys into this.'

John: Yeah, a lot of shows replace people in between seasons, but coming up with a substitute person in the middle of the season has—I've never seen it successfully done.

Peter: Until now.

John: Until now. And this is interesting, this was tricky, is, essentially we talked about bringing the Tara character in, we'd beaten out the backstory of the character, given it to Jeri Ryan, so, you know, she could consider it, and consider signing on, and then we originally were talking about her coming straight in, and then realized we'd need at least—particularly since this episode is kind of a classic Rockford mystery—that we needed to throw a little spin on it.

Chris: Yeah, this episode doesn't have a— doesn't really have a con in it, but what— and I think this was your idea, John—was to make Tara's presence in the episode the con. That she cons the rest of the team.

John: At least engaging so we could get ahead with the story rather than the audience like, 'Wait, who's she? Why am I watching her?' Instead it's- we're playing this as if she could be a character on a, you know- And you stage this beautifully, by the way, putting her on the same side of the table, you know, really locking in for the audience who that is. And we know that most of the audience thought ‘Oh, they're gonna take this lawyer character and corrupt her.’ And the twist worked right up until the end; it was nicely done.

Peter: And especially when you see Jeri Ryan come in, you assume that something's gonna happen with her. So the whole game is to make it seem like she's just playing this part. Nothing else.

John: TV audiences have seen a lot of TV; it's very hard to fool a TV audience.

Peter: Yeah, exactly. They're like, ‘Ooh, she's a special guest, there's something significant's gonna happen with her.’ So we have to keep clouding that and make it seem like nothing's happening with her, and she played it great.

John: Yeah, this is just the guest star, yeah.

Peter: Just the guest star, that's it.

Timestamp: [5:00]

John: That's a nice shot of the bar I don't think we've done before, with the light coming in, like it's 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

Peter: And this is Anna Campbell, by the way. She actually is a local actress, and she did a terrific job. She's on Mad Men, as well.

John: Oh yeah!

Chris: Was she on Mad Men? Wow.

John: That was a great vic scene, by the way. That was really- when I was watching this the first time, I'm like, wow, dragging away the nice young woman, helping the old alzheimer guy, this is a dark one, man. You know what? I hate that guy. And getting Peter Reigert was a stunning bit of casting.

Chris: And that we have to give credit to Tim. Tim, who has lots of friends who are terrific actors in New York, and he suggested Peter, who, you know—I didn't even think was on the list of our casting people to even consider. Peter Reigert of course, you would know from Animal House, played Boon in Animal House, and my favourite movie of all time, Local Hero, which I asked him about incessantly about during the week of filming.

Peter: Yeah, see, Chris was stalking Peter, pretty much. On the weekends, Chris would track him down and keep asking him stuff.

Chris: [Laughs] There's not a frame of that movie I didn't ask him about.

John: The, uh, this is a nice conversation, the whole way that she digs in here, and the way she gets very righteous. And what we're kind of doing here, is making her be the way Nate Ford used to be before his fall. And that was—that's pretty much how this worked.

Peter: And it was very interesting. She was like, she had a hard time of it, because she's used to playing very strong, independent, powerful women, and not naive at all, and that's who she is as a person too. So she was really going and taking a risk by playing this person.

Chris: She was- she was very—and she said, 'Is the audience gonna buy, me, you know, an adult woman in—'

John: Paragon of virtue.

Chris: Yeah.

John: But you know, that's a role that people played in the 40s and 50s all the time. You know, this is very much kind of our take on a classic con, classic con movie. Ah, and that's 'we never let Vicki Vale in the Batcave.' That was my big beef from the original Batman movie, is, 'No one must ever know I'm Batman! Except for the nine or ten women who've wandered through here at any given time.' C'mon man, that's the whole point.

Chris: This is a tricky scene too, to do, because you- Uh, Peter, maybe talk about the kind of emotional—you gotta cover a lot of emotional ground here.

Peter: Well these scenes, I mean, it was interesting for me, being the first time I've done these episodes. They've all done, you guys have done these informational scenes in front of the screens before. This scene scared the hell out of me, 'cause how much, like the explainer scene can you do, you know? And uh, but it was great because, the way you guys wrote the script, we could play the comedy of him getting busted, going there, and then lead into it. So it took a little bit of the curse of trying to explain it, you added some comedy, and like—

John: I also like how you've got them appearing around him at first, so he has to keep turning and looking.

Peter: [Laughing] Yeah, exactly.

Chris: And these little, kind of, photoshopped shots look great. I mean it really does look like he's in London.

John: And what's a lot of fun about the—and they're tormenting him, this is very much the family vibe. What's really kinda fun about this is, you know, we dread these scenes as writers too. And the fans love them.

Peter: Oh no, I know, it is. But that's because every time you do a little twist on it, you know, and this scene had a lot of emotional beats; there's the fun of teasing him, and then they find out she's not coming back, which you have to really then transition into a big emotional moment there, and then he's gotta rally everyone back, and now they gotta get it.

John: Yeah it's like three or four emotional beats in one one scene, yeah.

Peter: So it's really tough. But it turned out really well, I thought.

John: And then you let the screens go to black, to show their mood. That was a nice choice. I'm sure that was totally intentional.

Peter: Oh yeah, exactly. I'm a genius like that. I'm an accidental genius.

John: You are. And, uh, Eliot knowing this is not a good idea; everyone knowing this is not a good idea, and...what was I gonna say? Oh, that's the key to these scenes also, is, get somebody pissed off in it. Someone in one of these informational scenes has to either not like the con, or not like the—

Chris: By the way, I need to interject, this is one of my favorite montages ever. This is an industrialist, and I think there's a picture of a, of like a drum of oil—

John: Look, there's a drum of goo poisoning children, and then an oil well fire, and him drinking a whiskey. [Evil laughter] I like, also, that this is a magazine called Lawyer Monthly. Is there a Lawyer Monthly? Is there an evil Lawyer Monthly magazine? I would like to get a subscription to that. And again, this was kind of the thing that we were learning, is that, you know, the lost heir, and the lost will, is a crime trope from the 1600s, that has been done on a lot of different crime shows, a lot of different con show, and so the fun is taking it and finding the variation that fits your show. You know, that's one of the great things about working in a genre that has a long history. To a great degree, you're almost like—it's more like what your variation on this theme is than the actual theme itself.

Peter: It's your homage.

Timestamp: [10:00]

John: It's more than an homage, it's uh, you know. Homages are more accurate.

Peter: Yeah it's more like folk music, you know, like—

John: You're supposed to put a little spin on it, you know, and your spin adds to it.

Peter: Yeah, you're updating it, that's what it's all about.

John: Exactly. God this is a long informational scene.

Peter: I know.

Chris: This is a big one; it's a lot.

John: We gotta do the character beats, we gotta do the—and that was the other thing we found, is, you know, that you can hang out—even in like, really fast moving episodes—you can hang out for half an act in this room.

Chris: Yeah. I mean, that's what we learned.

John: As long as there's emotional beats, or you open it really strong, and, you know, uh, taking away alzheimer dude's only hope really lands it. Now this is amazing. Where are we here, guys?

Peter: Uh.

Chris: Well, we're at a jail that was built outside of Portland, and then they ran out of money. So it's basically been just sitting there, and really, this whole act was designed because we knew we had this jail. And here is of course, we wanna introduce—

John: The 'pan up legs' shot.

Chris: The pan up from the pair of legs.

Peter: We had a slow motion version, but I didn't [mumbles] time to shoot. It was a little, a little too much.

John: It was a little buttery.

Peter: Yeah, you know, I've got, I like buttery though.

Chris: But the happy accident was that, like, whatever that stuff was in the air that was blowing—

John: Gave, like, a view.

Peter: I had a guy there, he was sorta—

John: You just had a big thing of pollen?

Peter: Yeah. We did it in the Patriot actually once, where it was like, we had—it was all this stuff and there was no really apparent reason for it, but it was up in the air.

John: Looks really pretty.

Peter: Yeah, exactly. That's the reason.

John: 'Put some more schmutz, put schmutz in the air. I want schmutz, Peter.'

Peter: Yeah, pretty much.

John: And this is again, you know, outside our character, different attitude, lot of fun. And not being able to tell the truth—this is another thing where we—

Chris: This was Guys and Dolls, it was when we were breaking it, this was- we're gonna see if we can corrupt her.

John: And that was the idea, is originally, you know, we didn't know how Tara was gonna come in, and who the character was. We talked about a Guys and Dolls variation, where we would corrupt the character, and then realized that would take too much explanation, and wouldn't be approved by Sophie... but we used every part of the animal.

Chris: Yes.

John: Wow, Chris wound up really rocking those 70s sunglasses this season. He really looks like he's come out of um, Grand Theft Auto there. Ah, this shot.

Chris: Oh this guy. This guy, uh, is this actor, Tobias Anderson, is a local actor in Portland, and is just fantastic. As a matter of fact, when we were looking—when we were doing this shot, right here, I went up to Tim afterwards and I said, ‘I wanna—can we do Chinatown? Can we remake Chinatown with you in the Jack Nicholson role, and him as.. not Walter…

John: Walter Huston?

Chris: The Walter Huston role, 'cause he really just had that perfect, kind of patrician accent.

Peter: And he was the last guy I saw, like, cast. Everyone else I was like, ‘eh, I dunno’, and then finally he came in.

John: This was kind of a recurring theme this year, to. We were really busting on the whole white collar, minimum security jails, 'cause I'm like seriously man, if you steal a billion dollars, your ass gets sent to the pen. Why do you get a vacation? It was also probably tied into the fact that at this point, we were working fourteen to sixteen hours a day, and a stint in a white collar jail sounded really good to me. I was like 'so I can't work at all, I gotta sit in there and be in jail.' Oh, this was my favorite character we did all year. This is very Rockford, this is Jimmy Joe Meeker.

Peter: I have to say, when he first came in with that blue suit, I wasn't too sure about it, but [snaps fingers] his character, he totally pulled it off, like after the first scene I'm like 'Okay, I get it, I totally get it.'

Chris: Well the thing is that in the cons, essentially when Nate is in these roles, his job is to get under the skin of the mark. I mea,n that's really what it is, because that's gonna lead the mark to make bad decisions, so that's what— there was actually more to this whole sequence too, where he actually—

John: This sequence, he gets dragged out outside and beaten up.

Peter: Oh yeah, yeah, because he's that irritating. Or the suit was that blue.

John: And also, you haven't done a Rockford homage until you had the gut punch.

Peter: And this was my first shot on Leverage; right here, this is where we started.

John: Oh really, great, nice. Look at this production value in Portland, wow.

Peter: And I have to tell you, these guys are the right guys to start your career on Leverage with, these two guys, because they are so hilarious–

John: It's really just, roll the camera and get out of their way, isn't it?

Peter: It's roll the camera [laughs] and like, let the guys play.

John: Look at that!

Chris: Look at that, isn't that a great-? Look at that shot. I mean, this pristine jail. Yeah, I mean the key we've found with them was to give them a funny attitude to play. If you find an attitude for them to play, it doesn't really matter what the script is, they know what to do.

Peter: Right, you just give them, like, guidelines and a goal at the end, and where to start, and then you roll. And these guys just go—especially these two together are like, amazing.

John: And nicely enough it's a happy blend, because it's not totally improv, they really do go off the dialogue, but there's always a little twist right at the end.

Peter: Absolutely.

Chris: Oh, but boy, him playing the traumatized prison guard just killed me.

John: Yeah, just the panic—he does panic very well. [Chris laughs] And again, Hardison, Hardison always goes over the top, always a little up.

Peter: But his over the top works, because every time I was watching him I was 'he's almost–he's not quite over the top, he's just at the edge of it, he keeps it right there.'

John: Well, cause the whole point is to make you so uncomfortable you're distracted. That's a lot of—

Peter: It's all sleight of hand.

Timestamp: [15:00]

Chris: And also to sell to him the idea that to go to maximum security prison would be the end of his life.

John: Is an unspeakable nightmare, yeah. Oh, I forgot, that’s our nurse, right, that's, um...

Chris: Yes, uh, in the picture.

John: We shouldn't say her name actually so she's not stalked, but yeah. And this is a lovely ventilation shaft scene, um, really, you can't go more than two episodes on Leverage without a ventilation shaft scene.

Peter: You would think that when people make buildings they would, like, stop making ventilation shafts, because that's how everybody steals the stuff, you know what I mean?

John: Well they tend to make them small, but Beth is very small.

Chris: By the way, she's just adorable in ventilation shafts, just the childlike wonder that she has.

Peter: Just goes together.

John: I also love that Hardison's managed to find Orangina even in a prison. He's just found an orange drink, even there.

Chris: And this is Doug Brookes, who was great also.

John: Yeah, he's the other guard here.

Peter: He was hilarious. I mean there was so much stuff—this was one of— I could have shot this for three day straight, this scene, because we were cracking up the whole time.

John: And what's really interesting here is, this is something that if you're going to shoot comedy, don't over complicate comedy. Your best friend on a comedy shot is a locked off comedy shot. It's just like—you see how often we just go back to this wide right here? 'Cause all comedy plays—well that's a Woody Allen rule, comedy plays on a two shot. And this is all attitudes and reactions. You know, there's no fucking camera movement, yeah, exactly.

Peter: Because you see two different reactions in one shot that's why it works.

John: Oh, and he's so hurt. He's so hurt.

Chris: And I love him yelling ‘clear’, I mean he just digs in.

Peter: And then usually, as you guys know, we just roll the camera at him and he just keeps talking. We'll keep rolling for another two minutes, he's got—he will never stop, we have to cut.

John: I love that this is what was—this is the worst frameup in history. I remember we were pitching this in the room, we came up with stuff like, like an M16 he'd assembled out of bed parts—

Peter: But it's the tone of the show, you can get away with it.

Chris: It's all he needs, it's a Nazi armband and a picture of Hitler.

John: But why the picture of Hitler??!!

Peter: But what about the first Nazi armband they gave me? It was like, yellow and white, I'm like...

Chris: Kudos to the wardrobe department, who quickly, maybe a bit too quickly, sewed a Nazi armband when we needed.

Peter: Maybe they didn't sew it; maybe they just had one.

John: But this was also, it's pretty amazing when you think, alright we're a cable show, we're in Portland, our wardrobe department had to come up with all these prisoner outfits, because random outfits are much easier, people often wear their own clothes when they're extras. All the uniforms, all the prisoner outfits, on like half a week of prep, by the time they get the script and everything, you know for blocking. And, the bookending scene.

Peter: And I will say, Tim's suits, they pulled out of their derriere as well, because that was kind of a last minute addition, and they went to some pimp store, and found it in Oregon.

John: There's a pimp store in Oregon?

Peter: I think so.

John: Wow, I wouldn't think there'd be enough pimps to support a mini culture like that.

Peter: I mean if you look at his jackets, there's like a little button that you can hang it on from the back on, it's like, really a great jacket.

John: And she's being great, she's really selling the whole innocent lawyer. There was a moment, when we were doing this, watching the dailies, I was like 'I'm gonna miss this character'. I kinda like Jeri as this—

Peter: As the earnest...

John: Yeah, as the earnest lawyer, because she usually plays so aggressive. Because she's a very good looking, powerful woman, and, uh, it was really great. That suit's magnificent. 

Peter: Yes.

John: And this is another one, when our guys—the only way to put pressure on our guys is, things are moving too fast, they're constrained in time and space, you know, it's—

Peter: Here's one I love; I love this shot. Whoop, and then—

John: Aaand, that's.. you're right, there it is.

Peter: The button—

John: And ripping out the pages, and here, here's what I love about Reigert here, if I may, and we wrote it a little like this, but really, most of our bad guys are like, 'what the hell are you doing here?' Reigert has, in theory, been an evil dude for thirty five years. He has buried a lot of bodies. This Papadokalis—this Tim Hutton character is not gonna throw him.

Chris: No, that was really the key, the key was for him to underestimate him for the entire episode, and this, this scene to me just epitomizes the whole episode. These two guys—

John: This is one of my favorite bad guy scenes, absolutely.

Peter: And these- we put them on opposite sides of the table for obvious reasons, but then these two guys really just—again, it was like the prison scene, but in a different way—these guys really, I mean, ad libbed, and played off each other the whole time. And it was pretty amazing, it was fun to watch.

John: That's a lot of craft at that table, right there.

Peter: A lot of craft. And it really worked, there was like, they were kinda playing with each other on an actor level, and on a character level at the same time, and it worked both ways.

John: Kinda trying to one up each other a little bit in the scene. That's a great set—what is, what offices were those?

Peter: That was a real lawyer office.

Chris: Yeah, I mean we—

Timestamp: [20:00]

John: Look at that deadpan, just that total dead-eyed—

Peter: Yeah and it's great, it's really like a fire and ice kinda scene, because Jimmy Papadokalis is all over the place, and he's like this, and Peter's just cool as ice.

John: And that's another thing, and you'll see it—we kinda found the rhythm as we went into the back half of second season, the bad guys get progressively scarier. And more competent. I like to think that the Leverage crew has cleaned out all the easy white collar dudes. Like in their first year, they got all the easy marks.

Chris: Well, I gotta give credit to Peter Reigert, I mean, he so inhabits this character. I remember being on set and people talking about, ‘I think this guy's killed people before’. Like, literally, when people debate about the backstory, you know you've hit a home run.

John: Now this one I like, is that we go out, and we're strung and we have no answer, and you're watching Nate Ford play chess here in his head. He's putting the facts together, he's doing detective work. And again, this is the thing we mention in a couple of the commentaries, a lot of second season was realizing, criminals are like detectives - they know crime, they can put stuff together. And Nate Ford was a detective, so you know, when he throws this together, it's using the available facts in a convincing way. And he's reading Reigert.

Chris: Yeah.

Peter: And the way Tim plays it, he was really brilliant in the scene, because you really feel like he's making this stuff up as he goes along. You do. I mean, you're like—like I'm watching, like we were watching and we were like, like what's he gonna do now? It was, like, it was amazing.

John: How is he saying the words, they seem fresh.

Peter: Yeah, and you just get sucked in, he's like, I mean he's—those looks, those blue eyes he's got man, they're just a killer.

John: And that's, again, structurally, this episode really is, we need X information, we do a mini con in act two to get X information. That information is not what we think it is, therefore we have to change the plan in act three. In act four, the violent ramifications of that changed plan comes to the fore. It's the template, it's the one comforting blanket...

Peter: What I love about this episode—besides 'I directed it'— was that I really felt, even when I was watching it, as a fan, later, I was like 'I don’t know how they're gonna defeat this guy', you know, like he's not gonna get ruffled.

John: He's a good bad guy.

Peter: And even like, in the scene that's about to happen, when she comes in, it's like, he doesn't buy that for a second either.

John: That's a big difference on shows, is, uh, a lot of times for us it's not are they going to defeat this guy, because meta structure—again, TV audiences have seen a lot of TV—it's how. This is one of the few times it's like 'I don't really know— I dunno if they're gonna do this.'

Chris: Well, I mean, that's what was so nice about introducing The Lost Heir Con, fairly deep into the show, I mean you know, there could have been an episode where that came out of the briefing scene, but because it became a development...

Peter: Right, because a lot of the episodes I saw, like that— they figured out the con at the end of the first act—

Chris: This is the con, this is what we're gonna do.

John: And that's really tricky, 'cause we really know we're not a detective show, because we have broken some episodes where there's like an investigatory first and second act. We always wind up throwing out those outlines. You know, it's gotta be a weird mix of investigation first and second act—

Chris: Well...

John: Because you do. If you introduce the con too early, you run out of steam.

Chris: But I think what we learned here was, that what the audience wants at the end is a twist. And you can give them a detective twist if we put it, like with the Tara character, if there's a con shell around it.

John: Yeah. You could easily do this as a private investigation episode, on any other show. 'Bye bye. Out. Get out.' And Parker's utter inability to act now.

Chris: 'Are we gonna go get meth?'

Peter: Dude, the meth line, we were all in tears. And there's like four different versions, and they're all awesome, and uh, yeah.

John: It's really hat-rific in there today, look at that. That's one, two, three, that suit's really a hat. [All laugh] Uh, that's three hats in there. And I remember breaking this, and going over like, women's names, or what we could possibly do, we had to look up and see uh, what had been, what could wind up on drivers licenses, when the drivers licenses were digitized—

Chris: Well the tricky thing here was, and you came up with it, was finding ways to bury the colorblind... because if you kinda like, if they they keyed up on colorblindness here, really we're tipping the ending, and it was just, trying to find a way to throw it in.

John: But that's one of those times where writing is really, we describe it as making the license plates, you sit in the writer's room for six hours, staring at the ceiling, until the answer comes, you know and just throwing out crap.

Peter: Yeah but it was a great 'gun in the drawer' kinda thing, you know, where it's like, he really—

Chris: He saw it up there, it landed visually, he mentions is—

Peter: Yeah, it's right in front of your face, and then it comes back later and no one sees it coming, and that's the best way. I always hate shows where it's like, suddenly they come up with a magic answer, and it was like, we never saw it. Here, you put it in front, but it's all sleight of hand.

John: There's a—Dean Devlin's father had a great thing, which is 'there are no drive ups in the third act', and we have the same thing. There's no new information in the fifth act. You're not allowed to give anything new, it has to be something, a version of what we've already seen.

Chris: That's a nice transition, too.

John: Yeah it is, a nice whip over to her. And there was actually an original scene, another scene in this, too, where he's kind of talking her into doing this? But the fun—it turns out this is much better, just knowing that somehow he's conned her into this.

Chris: The audience, you should know, this episode was eight minutes long when we finished it, and we kept—and it was a real hard thing to edit it down—

Timestamp: [25:00]

John: Oh, there's a lot of good scenes on the floor, in this one.

Chris: But I still feel like in the end, the final edit was the best edit. I mean, you've really like- when you get into it, you find out that you really didn't need all this stuff.

John: Yeah, a lot of the other stuff were grace notes.

Chris: And the eating stuff was Peter's—Peter likes eating scenes. [All Laugh]

John: All actors like eating scenes.

Peter: They do, it gives them some—they need business.

John: By the way, that's one of Spielberg's tricks.

Chris: Really?

John: One of Spielberg's tricks is to show, if he wants you to like people, he shows them—he shows them cooking.

Chris: That's interesting. Well, I guess it also shows how little, you know, disregard he has for everything.

John: And this was another trick, was to figure out a way to involve the lawyer character in the con, in a way that didn't violate the character, and the idea is, we were sitting there, 'but she's supposed to be scrupulously honest,' and we realized, well, we use that, that's the point.

Chris: And also it answers the question as to, wouldn't this guy just ask for a DNA test? Well, we always find—

John: Oh that's right, that was the big argument in the room, is, how do you get him to not want a DNA test?

Chris: Well, you convince him it's the worst possible option. Ah, and this is a great scene, too.

John: And, a couple months afterwards, it was in the news, a way to fake DNA tests. We killed ourselves, we killed ourselves to figure out some way to get him to not ask for the DNA, and then a couple months later in the news there was a way about how to fake it.

Peter: They probably saw the episode and —

John: Yeah, I sent them all the research. This is a very classic, this is, we could stamp a Quinn Martin production on this scene.

Chris: He looks like the, uh, actor here, who I'm gonna look up his name quickly—

Peter: David.

Chris: Is it David?

Peter: I think so.

Chris: Yeah. He— right out of a Quinn Martin production.

John: Actually I — He could play in Spencer as the, uh, the heavyset Boston sargeant that's his buddy, yeah. And this is, a good, uh, good showdown on the docks scene. This was originally an alley, in a parking garage,

Chris: Yeah, wasn't it, it was a parking garage, and what was—what led to you guys scouting out here?

Peter: You know what, it was just, for me, I'd watched all the episodes, and I just felt, you- There was this whole river thing, and in Boston there's a river even though, you know- 

Chris: It worked great.

Peter: But I just wanted to open it up, you know, give some size to it, and I dunno, the parking garage, there was no good alley parking garage in Portland. So, we went into this scene. And it opened it up a little bit, 'cause we were in a lot of rooms, up until then.

John: Yeah, there's that whole, that whole second act, to a great degree, is prison, lawyers office, and that's a good- you know what, any act break where a dude's aiming a gun at you is a good act break.

Peter: It's always good.

John: You know what, I'm gonna—I'm gonna stand by that. Now, what happened is, people were wondering, how did Eliot see this guy? This is Eliot's job. Eliot's job is to walk the perimeter and beat the hell out of people.

Peter: He showed up with them in the car, and then like, got out earlier—

John: They dropped him off so he could— now this is great.

Chris: This is great, there we go.

John: This is not CG. [Referring to Eliot chucking a rock at a guy's head.]

Peter: This is not, this is real, and this was- this was Christian's idea, you know, to throw the rock, because we had played softball that weekend, and he was shortstop and he was so good and then he came up "Dude, you saw how good I was at shortstop, right? I can do that, I can throw that." And he kept it in frame and everything.

Chris: And his, uh, his baseball skills become in evidence later in the season, I'd say.

John: Yeah, exactly. This is also a nice fight, because it really showcases something that Kevin Jackson really tried to do this year, which was, all of Eliot's fight style, because he's, you know, he's fast, is getting inside your reach and just working the ribs; it's not big kicks, his job is to get in there, break your ribs, and make you lay down. Yeah, maybe break an elbow, uh, and this was also great. We had to figure out how to get a time constraint on it, having him shoot the tires out, it was just a nice bit of work.

Peter: Yeah.

John: We should have used the Hyundai Genesis for this, though. Why the hell didn't we do that? Oh, we shot the tires out, that's right. That's right, you can't really do an endorsement for a car that you shoot.

Peter: Right, exactly.

Chris: Aww.

John: Aww, this is fantastic.

Peter: Oh, this is the best.

John: And Reigert's acting—

Peter: And by the way, we were in a mad rush right now, because the sun's going down.

John: Yeah. And just, gimme the gun. There you go. Thank you. Boom. Oh god!

Peter: And he's so blasé.

Chris: [Laughing] He says thanks!

John: Ahh. Dude, he has so put a bullet in a junkie, like in 1985 in an alley.

Peter: We had a great moment there, too, where he drives off and the guy's left in the dust. But it's really extra.

Chris: And I can say that this episode, in the earliest versions, one of the earliest nuggets of it was this fourth act, which was a race to the courthouse. It was one of those things we always knew was, there was gonna be Eliot and Parker, racing to the courthouse, and cops trying to shoot them, and it was the gauntlet.

John: Yeah, and that's, again, very simple goal, one goal per act, you can make—

Peter: I just love, like they think 'Oh I'm gonna put on some shades, no one will recognize us.' 

[All Laugh]

John: And this, this is really my favorite Eliot-Parker run in the entire two years. Because it's one of the times that we're really reminded of the fact that they are the two most dangerous people on the team, and then when they're not with the others, they can sometimes allow themselves that.

Timestamp: [30:00]

John: You know, they pretend to be normal humans around Hardison and Nate and Sophie, because they know they're not supposed to be, you know, like, not supposed to enjoy this. And now a good gloat from Reigert, that's nice.

Peter: Yeah, exactly.

Chris: 'Crawl under a rock.'

John: Yeah, so the entire thing was us sitting around like, what are the three or four locations, if you're trying to get to the courthouse, you know, what could the possible obstacles be? And I think this, this whole run was uh, I think this one's mine just because I did the key bit, remember?

Chris: Yeah the key bit, I think that was gonna be something with a ball bearing at one point?

John: Yeah, we played around with it, and just um, it was... oh, it was jury duty. It was like, the only thing that's keeping you from getting into a courtroom, really, is a metal detector. I love this push in on the reverse by the way,

Peter: Yeah, this was great, this was like, we really blocked this out big time, but then Mark shot-

John: There you go!

Chris: Oh, that's an iconic shot.

John: Yeah it is. And what's kinda interesting there is, he's not looking forward to it, and she's smiling, she genuinely is looking forward to it. And there's our naive lawyer, completely hung, and we've just said this girl is not part of it.

Peter: But this is the scene that, like, I think people really believe that she really is that person, and really is naive. She really sells—

Chris: Yeah, she did.

John: She sold the hell out of it. Now, she was—you know what, you get a new actor to come to your show in the middle of your season, it could be a disaster in a lot of ways. Jeri was nothing but a professional, and she was sweet and she's funny as hell, seriously, it couldn't have gone better.

Peter: And so, so prepared, you know when she's so prepared, you can play around a little bit.

John: You know what, this also comes from - my mom, when I was eight, we flew down to see friends of hers in San Antonio, she was taking kielbasa from this deli in Worcester with us—

Peter: This is already a good story.

John: But we go through the x-ray—it was one of the first times they'd had an x-ray machine—so there are three, uh, tinfoil wrapped cylinders that looked like explosives in my mother's luggage. And I remember at eight, like the guards just descending on us.

Peter: I love that. That's like, let's be blatant shall we?

John: You know what, television is not [???]

Peter: No, no, no. But here's what's great about Peter in this scene - he really made everyone around him feel nervous, like he was like really doing that thing. He did like, you know, acting-directing, you know, which I always love.

John: Okay—THERE, THE CATCH!

Chris: The catch! By the way, after he did that, he came up to me—because I wasn't there for this—and he said 'You gotta call Rogers and tell him I caught the bullet.' I mean he was like a little kid, talking about that.

Peter: He did it on three different takes, he caught the bullet.

John: He did it on three takes without—and she tasers him without looking. And the little smile...

Peter: Loves it. And then she gives him another one as she bails.

John: And just the look back to him, like, 'What? What? I'm supposed to not do that?'

Peter: 'I just went to the dark side for a second.'

Chris: And just one little *zzz* jolt on the way out.

Peter: It's so great with her, 'cause she's so sweet looking, and then she's got this little dark side which is awesome.

John: And that was the other thing, you really see that coming out in the back half of the season. Like from here on—it was nice because things had slowed down and we were like, 'Alright, what are some beats that we haven't hit in a while? Oh that's right, Parker's crazy.'

Chris: Yeah, she's crazy. That's a beautiful entrance too, that sweeping camera.

John: Great courtroom. Was this the same courtroom we shot yours in?

Chris: Same courtroom we shot in.

John: Nice. But they're not in Belbridge, they're in Boston proper.

Peter: It is the best, it's like the peacock, you know, he's totally got his mirror out, and—

Chris: Well that, I'll tell you where that was from, Gerald Shargel, the great mob lawyer. I remember there's a famous story where he was doing a mob trial and opened his briefcase before he was about to do a cross examination, and it was all hairbrushes. [Peter laughs] it was like, there was not one file folder...

John: Yeah, you think anybody else is gonna wander in here, no. She’s—and now we're doing our courtrooms. Oh, look at that. Was that a federal courthouse?

Chris: It was a former federal courthouse, and you know, I said this, I think, in the earlier one, there are, in a lot of American cities, there are beautiful federal courthouses built in the twenties and thirties. And then, you know, they decided 'no, they don't work for us anymore', built brand new federal courthouses with your tax dollars, and these things are sitting there—

John: Just sitting around empty.

Chris: Just waiting for television shows to arrive.

John: We could do a courtroom drama, we could just live in this place, yeah.

Peter: And by the way, Jeri feeling very at home in a courtroom because of Boston Legal. She was like, she had that down, but in a different way. She was playing, more of an innocent...

John: Yeah, not the shark. No the, uh, and then the show becomes a courtroom drama. The show really is, like, four different episodes, you know? There's kind of an early Rockford, then there's the gauntlet—

Chris: And then becomes a courtroom drama.

John: —and now it's Perry Mason.

Chris: It really is, that's it.

John: Except Peter Reigert is much more formidable than Hamilton Burger. Hamilton Burger, a reference only five of you will get. Oh no, and now he's really starting to get pissed off. No it was interesting, we actually played around a lot with, like, how evidence is admitted, and what the...

Chris: Yeah, you know me, I get very...

John: No, it was interesting, it was one of the few times that I've been, ‘I wanna make sure I get this right’. And you were explaining that what is allowed as evidence is pretty much up to the judge. 

Chris: It is, yeah. I mean, this was all, I vetted this, this is pretty much all on the level. 

Timestamp: [35:00]

Peter: What I love about this scene is like, on one level, we have no idea how he as a character, Tim as a character, is gonna, like, pull this off, because we're not thinking about the color blind thing. But on another level, Tim is like ad-libbing a lot in there, and so the actors are also like, they don't know what's gonna come at them. So everyone's like on their toes, which worked really perfectly for the scene, because you really had to listen to everything he said, because everyone had to react to it. And all the actors, including the judge, the local actors, they all rose up and like, really handled it well, and it makes the scene work terrific. 

John: This was interesting, I just, looking at these shots, because this is not a designed courthouse but a real courthouse, a designed courthouse would have more gack on either side on those sight-lines. You know, there'd just be like high risers, or wouldn't be quite so deep, you know.

Chris: But this was, I remember, there's a few times when you're watching, you know, filming something, when you're like, this is something special. And there was a take here where it was like, between the two of these guys ad libbing, that was really something special. And I remember the three of us looked—it was you, me, and Dean—were like, wow, that's it.

Peter: No, it really was.

John: The, uh, and then now the launch. The whole unraveling, and she's really sympathetic; that was good casting on our part.

Peter: So sympathetic.

Chris: She was fantastic.

John: 'What color?'— that was the moment in the room when we got it. Because we're trying to figure out like, what's the moment? What's the one thing that'll lock it in? Because we were doing the lost heir con, and we hadn't come up with the idea that she was the lost heir yet.

Chris: Yeah that was a fairly late addition.

Peter: And all this stuff that Tim does, where he's like, it looks like he's trying to—but now as a character, he's playing Peter Reigert's character, like, 'Oh I don't really know what I'm doing,' but his character totally does.

Chris: It's the typical like, ‘I'm just a country lawyer. I dunno about you big—’

John: It's very Columbo.

Chris: ‘—you big city lawyers, I mean all I know is this.’

John: 'Pardon me, just one more thing before I leave, my wife's very excited that I met you, I gotta ask—'

Chris: 'Now, maestro—'

John: 'Maestro, when you doing one of these orchestra things? Exactly how long are you playing here?' And that's when we do the revelations of observation.

Chris: Here's where he figured it all out. Colorblindness, trying to play fair.

John: See, if you go back on the DVD, right there, it's right there.

Peter: All those shots are there.

Chris: There was a lot of debate about how much to see of the flowers in that scene, it was—

John: No, because you're focused on Jeri Ryan.

Peter: But the whole thing for me is, you have to see all that stuff, but not see it at the same time. But it has to be there, else you're cheating.

John: I'd forgotten that. That's one of my favorite moments in the room this year, where we're just sitting there, staring at the ceiling, and we've just been beating at this for hours, and all of a sudden, 'what color is my tie?' and you just saw like the walls fall into place, like, bang bang bang bang.

Chris: And a great choice of Tim here to drop the Papadokalis character. Like by now, by now he becomes Nate Ford, lawyer.

John: And sympathetic dad. You know, he kinda, he genuinely, he's figured out that there's a massive tragedy at the center of this, you know? And we had a big talk about, like, redemption and what the- why this guy would try to change, and... lovely. It's a nice little episode. I think everybody dug this one. Yeah. And she's working the hell out of that, look at that, she's tearing up.

Peter: She's so good. No, and she totally gets it, you know, for me, acting's all about transitions; it's all about, that's the most important part, the change. And she really gets it, she's like, really... and Tim really helped a lot, like on the off camera stuff, 'cause he would just start rattling off all this different stuff to help her get there.

John: I gotta tell you, that was kinda cool, when you're up there in Portland, and you're watching, like, local actors get a seminar with Tim Hutton. Because he worked with the girl who played the victim's daughter in the opening one. I'm like, you're a fifteen year old Portland actor, and you're working with an Oscar—

Peter: She, by the way, was fantastic.

John: She was fantastic. Yeah, and you're working with Tim Hutton. I mean, you're not gonna get this anywhere else. No, we loved the Portland actors. We love shooting there, it's a great place. Now, he's losing it.

Chris: Now he's completely unhinged. [Laughing]

Peter: He's suddenly realized. And it's only now that you realize, he's gonna lose. And it took this long, and that's what's great, is like—

John: 'Papadokalis!!'

Peter: Yeah, dude. That was the best. 

[All Laughing]

John: And he's gone, now Nate's gone from the clown to the guy in charge. And it's, yeah, utterly unmanned him. And I love the fact that, if you go back and watch this now, knowing what Tara is, she's running, like, a double con at this moment.

Chris: Yeah.

Peter: But at this point, you would never guess it, because the Papadokalis character is so big, it camouflages everything that Tara is doing, you know what I mean? And uh, and that's what helped it, her performance and Jimmy Papadokalis being so big, makes you not think about it.

John: I like that wink he threw her, too. That moment, it was a really sweet moment. And uh, a little gloat.

Chris: Oh, here's the gloat. Dean loves the gloat.

John: Dean's rules, the villain must suffer, and there should always be a gloat, if you're going for optimal. I love that she kisses stuff when she gets—she kisses money, she kisses—this is her, she gets pleasure from stealing. No other way around it.

Peter: I gave her like, what that was, in the thing, what's in the paper, and then she kissed it, but I wouldn't tell you what it was because it's private.

John: What? Aww.

Timestamp: [40:00]

Peter: I'll tell you after the DVD thing.

Chris: Oh, and he's dragged away.

John: Dragged away! Ruined! That, my friend—

Peter: I love how she perches up there; she's like a percher. She likes to perch on things.

John: Actually, in another episode, you know, we note the fact that you almost never see her enter a room. Usually the camera comes around, and she's just sitting there. You have no idea how she got there.

Chris: And here this really sells that; you think this is the end of the line for her.

John: Oh, special guest star Jeri Ryan.

Chris: This is like, you know, 'I hope you learned from me.' 'I think you learned something from me.' Like, the audience goes, ‘Oh okay, that's the end of Jeri Ryan.’

Peter: That was a good part for Jeri. That was a good thing for her.

Chris: Now this is very much a Rockford scene, because in every Rockford, there's usually a scene with the girl at the taco stand at the very end, when Rockford surmises why what happened happened. And he doesn't really know why, he just, he's taking a guess with his Rockford wisdom, and that's what Tim is doing right here. I felt very much writing this, that this was the quintessential coda Rockford scene.

John: Yeah. And the sort of, you know, the universe is a disordered place, and our job is to bring order to it. And you really have to read Harlan Ellisons—

Peter: I always love that entrance, these guys 'eh, we all happened to come in and enter right at this time.'

John: They wait around for each other outside, they know the effect they have when they walk in. And now the flip. And look at each one of them locking it in in a different way.

Peter: This is the zoinks moment; that's the zoinks moment.

Chris: And there she is, rocking the boots.

John: And she looks a little different there.

Peter: Slightly.

Chris: That's no librarian!

John: This was great. And it was a great way to introduce the character. Because again, the team is hypercompetent, you really have to... there's only so many ways you get a character to come in here and ordinarily, if you're bringing in a new character, as most shows do in the pilot, it’s the rookie story. We can't have this be the rookie story, because we're in the middle of a season. So, you know.

Peter: I just love, I love the interplay between her, Jeri and Beth, it's great. Because like, you know, that's the two girls and she's the biggest defender for Gina's character.

John: Yes, exactly. And they, by the end, they became really fantastic friends over the course of the season. And it really started being a lot of fun just putting the two of them in scenes together, because they'd found a really nice rhythm between Parker and Tara.

Chris: And I think the actors hung out a lot, they had a really nice—

John: They did; that's what I'm saying, they really were very good friends.

Peter: Well, especially because it's such a guys club, you know. [Laughs]

John: Especially since Gina wasn't, by that point, not in the [mumbles] because of her pregnancy, so this—and we had a bigger scene here and this was just a nice look. This is just—

Chris: That smile!

Peter: And that's her like, in her full like, 'Oh, this is gonna be great.'

John: And it was. We had a great time with her. And the turn, and ‘Dad, make it stop’, and there you go.

Chris: 'What did I just do?' That's—we went out on our summer season finale.

John: On that. Exactly. And this wasn't supposed to be the summer season finale, and it turned out to be a great one. It really was a great, solid, sort of back to basics episode.

Peter: It just makes sense, when you're introducing that new character, now it's like, a whole new change, and then you make 'em wait to get the next ep.

John: Uh, anything you want to say to the nice folks before we wrap it up?

Peter: Well for me, I had a great time doing it. It was a great time in Portland, except for the writers on the set—

John: I understand. Nothing but trouble. 

[Chris Laughs]

Peter: Yeah, nothing but trouble. But otherwise, I mean, great cast, great crew, everything was a lot of fun.

Chris: We had a good time.

[nzdzdhs]

Eso de por si le pone un asterisco

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[oopshidaisyy]

March Fic Recs

social distancing = a lot of time to read fanfiction instead of, um. working on my dissertation. i’m doing great!

Packing Nonstandard Equipment by susiecarter Caution: handle with care. The unexpected and unlooked-for (but not, in the end, unwelcome) complexities of banging Clark Kent. Clark/Bruce, 4k, E Note: look no further for clark kent’s hundred prehensile tubular mushroom dicks (hotter than it sounds)

in the bone by patho (ghostsoldier) It all began when Corvo started kissing the Mark for luck. Corvo/The Outsider, 2k, E Note: oh look, it’s the fic that singlehandedly convinced me to buy the dishonored video game, a purchase i regretted once i realised that 1) i am not good at video games and 2) there was no hand kink smut in the actual game. sad

Distance Between by thingswithwings Sam's doing paperwork when aliens come through a rift in space and start attacking New York. Steve/Sam, 11k, T

What I Need I Just Don’t Have by gyzym If you want this choice position, have a cheery disposition. (Or: Tony needs an assistant. Rhodey needs a break.) Rhodey/Tony, 2k, Not Rated

i thought of you and where you’d gone by gyzym Their eyes meet in the reflection of the frosted-over freezer glass, another layer of distance to be splayed haphazardly across the oceans and mountains and countries they keep building between them, and Eames is smiling at him. Arthur/Eames, 1k, T

oistros by arriviste Enjolras has heard all the stories about bonded pairs, but he's always dismissed them as propaganda. Half the work is already done for the oppressive system when they can package your commodification as a fairytale, make you kiss your chains. Enjolras/Grantaire, 41k, E

we live under a halo of held breath by gyzym Eames is wrong. Arthur can juggle. Arthur/Eames, 1k, G

wildest dreams (burn it down) by susiecarter Clark isn't sure why it happens. But the important thing is that it is happening: he's in heat, he can't figure out how to make it stop, and he's not sure what to do except flee to Antarctica. He isn't expecting Bruce to follow him. Clark/Bruce, 11k, M

Lovesickness by idiopathicsmile Inspired in part by tumblr user feferi's post here, specifically: "i am in love with the idea that enjolras is so baffled by his own emotions towards grantaire that he legitimately cannot tell if he has heartburn or stomach butterflies" Modern AU. Joly is a gentleman, a scholar, a med student—and, when need be, a matchmaker. And oh, the need is definitely being. Enjolras/Grantaire, 11k, T

Arms And The Man by copperbadge His best friend keeps cockblocking him, his relationship guru is a computer, and he might be gay. The future is very complicated. Steve/Tony, 14k, E

A Beginner’s Guide to Vulcan Sexual Practice, by Captain James T. Kirk by thingswithwings “It is tradition," Spock says blandly. "Surely you would not ask me to abandon Vulcan tradition." "Uh," Jim replies. Kirk/Spock, 4k, E

Hold Me Down by Elspethdixon, Seanchai Steve takes Tony back to his apartment to recharge and get warmed up following a fight with a supervillain. PG-13-rated shower sex ensues. Steve/Tony, 4k, E

hit me baby one more time by theappleppielifestyle Richie reaches up a shaking hand and puts it on Eddie’s stomach. “Uhhh,” Eddie says. “Is this a bit? Is this a really inopportune bit? ‘Cause I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Richie, but this is kind of an important moment-” “What the fuck,” Richie says, not for the first or last time, and lurches forwards to hug him. (Or, Richie gets stuck in a time loop.) Eddie/Richie, 11k, T

Mistake on the Part of Nature by idiopathicsmile Steve takes in Bucky's betrayed look and Sam's confusion, follows Sam's gaze to the pile of mangled fruit in the trash can. Sudden comprehension fills his face. "Oh," he says. "Bucky found out about bananas." Bucky/Steve, 1k, T Note: sometimes i like to rec a fic featuring a pairing i don’t even ship just to keep you all on your toes

inspired by your laugh to wait for things by gyzym Maybe in Night Vale, where everything else works a little bit wrong, love works a little wrong too. Maybe in Night Vale, where time occasionally stands on end and gravity pulls slightly less than usual every second Thursday, someone like Cecil, a love like Cecil's, could come without any strings attached at all. Carlos/Cecil, 4k, T

Love, Changing Tenses by susiecarter Bruce goes to the funeral as himself for a reason. Not so he can make friends with Mrs. Kent; that part's an accident. And definitely not so he can posthumously fall for Clark Kent, which is an even bigger accident. But it's fine. He can handle it. Until Clark rises from the grave, that is. Clark/Bruce, 17k, T

nice and nasty by firstaudrina Villanelle masturbates about Eve a lot. Eve/Villanelle, <1k, M

Momentum by gyzym It doesn't matter who you are; eventually, everyone's past catches up to them. Steve/Tony, 15k, T Note: i can’t remember whether i’ve already rec’d the first part of this series (ready, fire, aim) but this part is just as good, if not even better

close your mouth (open up your heart) by susiecarter Post-JL, Clark isn't sure what to make of Bruce Wayne, or that he's ever going to be able to figure it out. But maybe all he needs is a little help. Or: five times Clark had conversations with other people about Bruce, plus the time he managed to actually talk to Bruce. Clark/Bruce, 7k, T

Margin of Error by idiopathicsmile Amy had this thing where she did stuff that normally would’ve annoyed the hell out of Rosa, except it didn’t annoy Rosa at all. Which was confusing. Also, annoying. Rosa/Amy, 7k, T