#faorism meta

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GEE CKANE I FUCKING WONDER WHO KNOWS ELIOT AND HE CAN BE HIMSELF WITH AND IS UP TO HIS ABILITY. IM FERAL. and okay okay there isn't someone special out there for him....... bECAUSE THERE ARE TWO PEOPLE RIGHT THE FUCK HERE MADE SPECIAL FOR HIM. [interview with image transcript in alt text]

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we also literally see parker and eliot make this choice in the rundown job, in the train. the nod they shared. the splitting of ways. not knowing the outcome but both (not only eliot) deciding to protect hardison even if it costs both their lives.

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interesting thing about the pool scene. from waist up, moreaus goons are in all black suits, eliots in a button up with the collar open, and only hardison breaks the flow: back suit jacket, but a pale shirt. he is one of them, he is amongst people who he flows with, his disguise is aligned.

but pulled back and from behind, everyone (including hardison)'s black suits fade together. eliots bright blue jeans mark who he is, his difference, held apart from the rest, no longer uniform

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im feeling real the call is coming from within the house vibes rn, so im going to be kinda nasty for a hot minute because you actually were the reason i came across this post in the first place. my friend and i were so aghast at your racializations of hardison in a fic, that they had to see who the fuck you are. and your own ignorance highlights why this response is kinda bullshit.

incorporating race is absolutely something that fandom needs to be better about doing. absolutely. but up your attempts at doing so show how stomach churning poor follow through can be, where i would have preferred you not give an attempt at all. because in the fic in question, you use the wildly outdated term "ebonics" to refer to hardisons exaggerated speech that he codeswitches into occasionally. my friend and i spent fifteen minutes trying to decipher your implications in the line: "He’s young, or maybe (hopefully) just black, is the first thing."

i did not read your evil!hardison fic, because i didnt trust your ability to write an entire fic focused on him. that said, i felt like a got enough out of this hc post:

so! i think there's some good points here (perhaps!) about what hardison would look like with a possessive god complex, as opposed to him being a thoughtful provider building homes for the people he loves. and yes, "ownership" is a very contentous topic in the Black community, given how white supremacy has subjugated Black capital. but whatever analysis i would give you credit for—and any brownie points you could get from naming the racialized aspect—is immediately wiped when you fucking compare hardison to a goddamn overseer. you know, like an enslaver overseeing enslaved people? you imply here hardison, a Black man, would be a kind master to his employees. which is just so vile to be casual about.

attempts were made, i can say about your posting and writing. but i don't at all respect it, because you still have so much to really pull together to not be offensive about things.

which gets back to this post. you say your saw weirdness. why the fuck didn't you name it? no, really. did you actually see it or are you trying to save face now? you're not welcome for the labor i (nonblack latinx) and my friend (Black) had to go through to process this post. don't rely on others to do the work of naming racism and antiblackness; do the work yourself, or just don't reblog if you can't give commentary.

and, because i have been nasty and might as well be petty: honestly, there's just so much more work you need to do if you want me to trust you with handling race in fandom when you out here posting shit like this:

you're the fucking issue here too.

Well, a realization just hit me. Don't know if this is true of not, I don't remember the timing.

Eliot said he didn't hit cops in the OG show. Well now that makes sense. His dad is Black. What do Black parents teach their kids when it comes to dealing with the cops? Part of The Talk. Just do as they say, not that that always work.

He would have at least heard that talk with other foster kids, or teammates, if not given it himself.

And why would he stick to that? Because his dad was upset with him and he was still trying to be a Good Boy in one way.

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absolutely wyll romancing astarion. spoilers below!

as i learned when i noticed someone had options i didn't get during the camp celebration night, there is precise pathing in wylls romance to avoid a bug(?) WHICH HAS YOU NOT HAVE HIM IN YOUR PARTY WTF that had me restart at the door of the underdark

i also definitely missed some subtle dialogue cues for wyll, while it's always very obvious what will seduce astarion let astarion seduce you.

it also doesn't say in the link above, but another person said asking wyll about his eye also breaks the romance. might have been an earlier patch, but i decided not to test it

you miss out on astarions lovely snippy comments and i miss his voice so much

maybe i am just so desperate for wyll interactions, but i feels other companions' reactions are prioritized above wylls? i hear SO much more from karlach, but astarions comments were definitely frequent or at least very memorable

im going to write a post about this, but unlike other companions who have persistent dialogue options, astarion does not until later on the game, and as of post-grove without romance path, wyll doesn't either. what astarion does have is the permission to feed on you. it was a delightful chore to always tell him he can. there was something somewhat transactional about it. and like people in other reblogs shared, it implies that wyll is kinda just relieving some tension even tho he knows (with a passed insight check) there's something fake about astarions approach. i really like this dynamic for how messy it is

astarion calling you darling and dear all the time 😭

wearing the bloodless condition with pride was so hot to me.......

astarion starts off strong in act i, cools off in act ii, and then boy when you complete his quest in act iii it's just so lovely.

people have spoken about wyll being underwritten. not sure for the wyll romance, but comparing astarion romance to wyll as a mainstay companion (during a tav/shadowheart run), it's definitely doesn't have the same punch as astarions emotionally imo. like,, the emotional resolution between cazador and dad/aldur ain't the same. (i personally wished ravenguard was less a set piece for all we had to go thru to find him since act i. because bruh the daddy issues there are SO real. i desperately wish that wyll reacted to the contents of his father's vault 😭)

astarion would absolutely hate being pushed into leadership (def npc in his own life energy, so he can observe others and react rather than being the one to be decisive) while wyll is the origin who steps up to the challenge

imo there is no way to play origin astarion as companion accurate while trying to impress wyll. you are forced into the noble/heroic actions or else wyll absolutely will disapprove.

meanwhile, there was only one thing i absolutely had to do where wyll that felt ooc, which was allow astarion to kill the gur hunter. (in my playthrough, i long rested immediately after the fight and astarion started the romance then. which. was so fucking depressing and wonderfully tragic in retrospect.)

in my abandoned playthrough, i was also flirting with gale and karlach with astarion. it was honestly bizarre to see how sincere, tender, and kind astarion is as origin. wyll, on the other hand, is absolutely that sincere, tender, and kind

THAT SAID i like the rp of occasionally dropping the weight of The Blade Of Frontiers and allowing himself to (as @lesbianralzarek brilliantly described) be a cunt sometimes. this ultimately is one of the biggest draws for me. i adore literal prince wyll and i cannot wait to carry on thru the romance to see him at his peak dreamy. however, im still struck with the line from companion wyll for why he hid his connection to mizora. something like, his is a tale of two men. he wanted you to know the blade, and not the shadow from the past. and like. UHDNDNDKS i really loved rp'ing from his guy who might not usually do something like this and not usually with a guy like astarion, and he doesn't see himself as a full person deserving of letting loose and living outside the grand persona. growing just a tad bit morally gray (or just a touch impolite tbh) on the small things felt like a natural way to allow the shadow to be lit

the other major reason is more ymmv: i am deeply interested in the exploration of trauma, and knowing what i know about astarions backstory, i am missing that as part of the relationship from what ive seen so far with astarion origin. like, the man says "dont touch me" hundreds of times thru a playthrough when you switch to him; having that be reflected in the rp (in terms of him not wanting to have sex after act ii for awhile) moved me. again, idk enough about wylls romance (other than the dance scene on my tav which RIP at me having to break the poor man's heart over rejecting him) so maybe my opinion will shift!

and the most important reason: romancing astarion means playing with wyll, and he is so good and sweet and i just wanna look at that man for hours on end and you should too haha

Wyllstarion people, is it best to romance Wyll with Astarion or romance Astarion with Wyll? Who has the most extra content?

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the way it happened was that first they three were crew and then parker and hardison became friends, then hardison and eliot became bros before somewhere along the line eliot and parker quietly became companions. after that, they were so intertwined as partners them three together that one day they look at each other over a meal eliot prepared, in a home hardison built for them, after another successful leverage heist led by parker, and they are just... them. in love and in trust and til dying days.

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once, on a mountain, they confessed to one another: what makes them them is that they would leave a dead man behind to save their own lives.

then, in a train tunnel about to face the end of the world, there is a nod. an agreement struck deep and true and together. this time, they are the only ones who can do the job because they know they may die but it's an easy choice, for them.

hardison tells parker in that tunnel (and later, eliot once they are all curled around each other under sheets and the weight of what could have been) that she can't do that again, she can't. he can't. hardison needs them.

but eliot and parker are who they are because they can make the call. and they would. any and every time. eliot knows this for sure. because for all your intentions, you can only make the promise to be there for one person at a time when push comes to shove. that parker would make the same choice as him is why he loves her and why she loves him. because they alone would break their oath (that they change together) so that the man they both love—and the world he treasures—may yet live.

[inspired by this post]

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never noticed before that in the rundown job, parker? parker never doubts them. eliot tries to send parker and alec off on a plane. alec (rightfully so) freaks out, recognizing the batshit apocalyptic level of chaos they are in. but parker... she believe in them. don't need luck when they got each other. always. that's why she becomes the new mastermind. because her trust in her partners, in them.

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awhhhh thanks (fic in question here). and what would kinda curly haired envy would i be who launched a 100k+ fic series on a fic about eliots hair without putting in a few quick observations before bed:

the reason his hair looks especially good at the baseball stadium is because of sweat. in the og series, there are a few other moments that clearly the stunts had him drenched. i think of the dead giveaway that was the tap-out job: there was no way with all that was involved with the mma fight choreography, that the straightening was gonna keep. i expect his hair burst into near ringlets because between takes, his hair air-dried a little before the next attempt. my hair does the same thing under similar conditions.

i feel his biggest issue—even above the damage from late aughts blow outs, which all looked crunchy—is that he is stripping the oils out of his hair. likely from over-shampooing and under-conditioning. he can also be doing things "right" by seeking out products at the pharmacy marked for curly; while those can yield some improvement (ie pantene which i used at first), those are still made with harsh chemicals. for comparison, i use shampoo a couple times a year (usually during the summer), but i co-wash daily. but on the end, he needs more build-up to balancing out his very thirsty hair.

the only time ive seen his hair look remotely greasy is in the park for the big bang job. but that felt to me more a sadboi thing than a perpetual issue just based on what makes it on camera.

i also think its ckane not getting how to treat his hair because theres one picture of him at an awards show in the ugliest outfit ever with horrible color tinted hair which looks like fucking straw.

i speculate his hair looks better on average in lev:red for a couple reasons. better techniques and technology from hair & makeup developed over a decade between shows is one. i think as he ages his hair might be thinning some, wherein his hairline stays put but he loses some of his volume; if so, the lower hair density might be doing him favors. still! we know his underlying texture is the same because of the hurricane job, although he's wearing a beanie 😔

ok I need to know: has Eliot Spencer tried the curly girl method and how did it go? because I am convinced that his hair is naturally curly and I need them to stop straightening it/brushing it out. every time it gets wet, it gets wavy and I just… ::fans self:: imagine if his hair looked like this ALL THE TIME

FURTHERMORE, what am I supposed to do with the knowledge that sometimes this man puts tiny little beads in tiny little sections of his hair just because. he likes to feel pretty.

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yes, he looked at sophie's reaction to the white roses, but this is his expression as he watches parker's reaction to her carnivorous plant. the intensity as he tracks whether he read parker right. is. so much.

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what if we've been wrong about eliot being the kinda guy who thinks don't shit where you eat logic of not dating your crew? eliot has consistently been shown he is willing to sleep with folks close to the con: kaye lynn (the studio job), mikel dayan, maria shipp, tabatha delavega (the low low price job), and lupe the hot "nun." he expresses attraction to tara and (obliquely in s1) arguably sophie. the only reason he stops flirting with maggie is because she's nates ex and bro code. then theres paul orozco. (shelley is a gay but they were incompatible so just a friend.) and obviously he had his toxic epic whirlwind that was life with moreau, the definition of squatting down in one's dining room.

imo a person who would use that phrase earnestly wouldn't get this close to people involved with their work (kaye lynn is a very damning example since they made out in the middle of the job). like, not to the extent of rejecting parker and hardison on just that premise? maybe you can argue that after something like moreau (and yes, yall, im not giving the option for no m/e here), that wrecked his comfort around True Crew versus the Person Of The Week

(tbh i think out of the three, if hardison had been older, maybeeeee he would have some reservations. but there's nothing canon to say that; i just think any queer person who is in a dnd group or WoW guild would learn to pause over messing with dynamics)

thoughts?

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i do not clock into the wyll.starion dead dove channel's deader dove subthread near daily for someone to tell me i don't understand dark!fic because i pointed out their antiblackness. the GALL.

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true friendship is that your red string corkboard is attached to my red string corkboard

its just me and my red string corkboard that has a string running from “eliot believes he can’t be redeemed” to “robot bodies” against the world

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hardison being picked on by his partners is *chefs kiss, wherein the chef is eliot, and parker is watching waiting her turn*

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so is the lonely hearts job secretly an ot3 episode... not for significant ot3 moments but for how it highlights all these sweet moments between the three sides of the triangle, like, look at how much silliness and joy they bring to each other's LIVES.

also, eliot's smile is absolutely over how he's about to cook the most stupidest order of steak ever, but he will do it because he LOVES hardison.

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true love is all these ridiculous little faces at each other during this little bickering. i love them? i love them.