#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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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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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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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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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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i cannot put into words how much this had me and my friend cecil rolling. this was so fucking disrespectffffullll and so dirty of hardison like! like!!!! as if eliot hasn't prepared at least one app, three sides, and two desserts for every one of nana's cookouts for the last dozen goddamn years.

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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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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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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 IS mad cute? eliot and billy's matching plaid, carson football tshirt, blue jeans, and judgmental crossed arm scowls. "like father, like son" for sure

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screeching

to archie, parker was his legacy. a perfectly honed tool he let out into the world. perfectly selfish to forever collect things that she wont use for frivolous upkeep of a life outside the very thing (thievery) itself. she lives in a warehouse and accumulates money just to have and steals things when it's tricky for the fun of the heist. and with each successful gain (and there must only be successful gains), archies legacy grows just that bit more. she was trained perfect, she was the perfect thief, no attachments other than in secret appreciation for the mentor who crafted her. she was perfect when she was disconnected. she was perfect when she didnt care. archie can care, archie has a family and grandchildren that he worries about, and he has a reputation he must maintain on both sides of the equilibrium. he can care and have this vulnerability but not his prize, not his best most pressured most radiant jewel. she was perfect when she was archies, nevermind that he likely only calls her in for these rare one off interactions now that shes grown. she was perfect as a perpetual machine working ever forward from the inertia of his instruction. she was perfect and they ruined her because she doesnt want people to die. shes ruined because she is invested, which archie did not teach her. she is ruined because she was made into an image not of his own. his perfect tool, ruined.

CAN YOU IMAGINE LOOKING AT S3 PARKER AND THINKING RUINED. I CANNOT.

meanwhile, nate is only somewhat relieved eliot is not on the roof with archie anymore because that would have led to... a justified dangling off the roof, and that would just put parker at greater risk.

...which is why nate contains himself.

"she was perfect and you ruined her" actually i've changed my mind i think eliot & nate should've gotten 2 quietly push archie leach clean off a building

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trying to determine everything on the crew's lovingly made santa hats and omg they are just so goddamn adorable. [img desc: above and at the bottom of this post are screenshots of sophie, harry, eliot, and bre at several angles receiving their custom santa hats from parker, showing details to try and determine what decorations are on it. ilist what i think is on it below]

SOPHIE: covered in costume jewelry gems (but you know parker switches out at least one to be a real one every year, to keep things fresh). there's a queen's crown in a black emblem, another sparkly crown near the top, many pearls, a couple peppermints, several small snowman beads, a union jack pin, a pair of blue barbie boots (one of them is on top of a blue gem, so it can be easily missed), several curly embellishments with white dots/mini pearls, and of course a big ass old fashion doll head of the queen. there is definitely things on the back as well, maybe a tassel and/or a christmas tree?

HARRY: the new guy has an emptier hat because his is fresh, but he's got one this year which shows he's officially part of the family. he's got lawyer-y stuff right now: a gavel, one set of law books, a set of law books with a man and a girl (presumably harry and becky), something on top i couldnt see, and the cutest fucking scroll that says VERDICT in black and then NAUGHTY in red like a stamp. there's a lot of room for new things!

PARKER: she is not wearing hers because she has one to match her outfit, but she has chosen for herself just lots of money and also a creepy ass elf on a shelf.

BRE: several game controls of various colors, a few ball ornaments, a laptop pin, yellow barbie skates/sneakers, a pair of big headphones, several spirits ruse cards, a dragon, a laptop with a :) face, an action figure of some kind, and i think a gem or two.

ELIOT: easily the most personalized, with very little christmas stuff so its just a lot of him. so. front - guitar, a fucked up santa pin (if human, but maybe it is actually a lion santa??), a foot soldier, with a rolled up flag, a green toy soldier, horse in armor, number seven (font like a jersey), whisk, egg in a bowl, butcher knife, football, black boots, and beer stein. on the right side - a knight with a sword, knight with a mace, knight with a flag, horse in armor, black buttons?, dog tags, football, and binoculars. on the left side - sheriff badge that says HERO, two more green toy soldiers, and a toy tabasco sauce bottle. on the back - a big solider in camo ornament, a boxing bag, boxing gloves, a small pair of binoculars, a small ketchup bottle, maybe a can, maybe a small bottle with a label, another football, and a big wolf. there's a few things i really cannot make out. like the big grey thing on the back, and the white cirles with red and blue dots on the back.

IN ANY CASE. these are fucking adorable and i want parker to make one for me.

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i love that the ot3 are independent enough to encourage the sides of the triangle to have one-on-one time (super healthy triad behavior!), but they are also utterly hopelessly in love and so pretzal-twisted into each others' lives that they still rope the third into helping on the date.

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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*