#has become thief hacker hitter

[scotchiegirl]

Obviously Nate's father-figure-ness to Hacker/Hitter/Thief is subconscious and rightly so because they're all adults and have adult relationships as well, but I do think that Nate's previous experience as a father does affect how he interacts with his kinda-kids-adult-coworker-family.

For Eliot, obviously, Eliot is Nate's mirror. Eliot is the metaphorical violent foster kid who has a connection with Nate's grizzled mentor persona. They get each other, they understand each other, they're just two fucked up kids from outwardly normal and interiorly fucked up families. They're not parent and child and they never will be, they're too similar for that. They can side-eye each other's references and be a little "girl, what were you doing at the devil's sacrament" with each other's thoughts and they just click.

Nate is a lot more of an active mentor and guide and, yes, father figure to Parker. He defends her ability to be part of a family to Archie so strongly that the old man completely revised his own views. He pushes her to the same level of excellence that Archie did, but for different motives and also provides her with a support system and a soft place to fall.

But for Hardison, Nate's fatherly moments come across far more harshly than with Eliot or Parker. He still feels intense respect for the young man and his skills, but those emotions are more frequently expressed towards other characters and even antagonists than to Hardison himself. It almost feels like Nate is subconsciously uncomfortable with feeling positive mentorly or fatherly feelings towards Hardison.

I'd like to offer the suggestion that Nate is uncomfortable being fatherly with Hardison because Hardison is exactly the son Nate would have wanted Sam to grow up to be.

On a purely physical level, Hardison is the youngest and a male (and mentally has way less baggage to unpack than either Eliot or Parker, making him act more childish on occasion and far lighter than the rest of their little family.) All these things Nate would subconsciously respond to with a distant ping of being reminded of Sam, especially in his grieving state.

But Hardison is also principled, and clever like nothing on earth, and a fantastically hard worker, and sarcastic and funny into the bargain. All things that sound like... Nate. And like Maggie. And as the child doesn't fall far from the parents most times, we can assume Sam would be as well. So by working with Hardison, Nate is almost forced to face that Sam wouldn't have stayed his ten-year-old self for very long. As Nate says in the Cross My Heart Job, he would have eventually become a teenager, and then a young man. And he would have driven Nate up the wall, and probably have inherited all of Nate's "trouble with authority" genes, and maybe, who knows, been good with computers. Much like another young man, a 24 year old genius with a problem with authority and a smartphone.

Nate never stood a chance.

[terapsina]

Now that the writers and actors strike is about to begin being felt (and as we wait for those greedy billion dollar companies who are refusing to negotiate fair pay and conditions to give up) here's 10 of my favorite (all around best) fully finished older series you should definitely check out if you haven't watched.

I mean it, these are the shows with continuously great writing and a satisfying endings that manage to actually deliver on their promises.

-----

1. Leverage - (containing 5 seasons, or 77 episodes) - trailer here.

Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief and Mastermind. Heists and cons. Stealing from the rich and giving to their victims. They provide... leverage.

Meant for anyone who enjoys bad guys being the best good guys, who will burn down the lives of evil CEOs and then gloat in the background. Very satisfying.

Hands down the best example of a found family trope I've ever seen on screen. Barring none.

2. Killjoys - (containing 5 seasons, or 50 episodes) - trailer here.

Space Bounty Hunters. Another case of found family trope. Bisexual space princess assassin. Quippy sentient ship. Green alien goo. Evil lesbians (but like... in a good way). The warrant is all.

More seriously though, it's a story about three killjoys and the bounties they go after. Initially. And then they have to save the entire Quad from some very terrifying... stuff.

Contains one of the best friendships I've ever seen on television.

3. Orphan Black - (containing 5 seasons, or 50 episodes) - trailer here.

Found family trope but with clones.

Low level grifter sees a woman who looks exactly like her kill herself and plans to take over her identity long enough to cash out. Except then there's two other women who also look exactly like her. And apparently they're all clones and someone's killing them.

Enter a global conspiracy. Human experimentation. Lots of clone shenanigans. Some serial killings. And a few murders 💖.

4. Person of Interest - (containing 5 seasons, or 103 episodes) - trailer here.

Okay I'm beginning to see how I might have a found family trope issue.

Former CIA agent gets recruited by a reclusive billionaire computer programmer who developed a... machine that can predict acts of terror before they happen. But it also predicts 'irrelevant' acts of violence that will result in someone's death.

Unless someone interferes.

I'd really like to spoil some stuff to get you all to watch this one. But I'm going to maintain self control and just mention that early on they get a dog named Bear. Bear is a very good boy. Watch it for Bear.

Also for excellent commentary on rights of privacy, government surveillance and what does 'greater good' even mean? But mostly Bear.

5. 12 Monkeys - (containing 4 seasons, or 47 episodes) - trailer here.

The very best time travel show out there. What starts out as a confusing mess of causality basically exploding, by the end of the series all makes complete and total sense.

(when that final timey-whimey loop slid into place and revealed the entire pattern it was like a choir of angels started singing in the back of my head. It was freaking glorious).

Anyway, a man from a post apocalyptic future travels into the past to stop a plague from decimating nearly the entire world population.

He has the name of the man who released the virus and it's supposed to be a single trip. One trip. One bullet. Simple. Done.

Except then things keep escalating, and escalating until time begins eating its own tail and it might start looking like the end of the world might be a better ending than erasing all of time and space from reality.

Because when our guys screw it up, they screw it up GOOD.

And oh yeah... found family.

6. The Good Place - (containing 4 seasons, or 53 episodes) - trailer here.

A self-proclaimed Arizona dirtbag opens her eyes and finds out that she's dead and got accepted in the Good Place. Except that as soon as she arrives the Good Place starts glitching, and she really, REALLY needs to become a better person before she can be found out and kicked out to the Bad Place.

Luckily her assigned soulmate was a professor of ethics and moral philosophy.

One of the funniest, most thoughtful and clever comedies I've ever watched. Ever. The characters are delightful and by the time the final minute rolled around I had sobbed my heart out multiple times (which, as we all know, is a sign of the very best comedies out there).

As for the question of whether or not this too contains Found Fami- Yes! Obviously, yes.

7. Avatar: the Last Airbender - (containing 3 seasons, or 61 episodes) - intro here (couldn't locate the trailer but it's basically the same thing in this case).

The four nations lived in harmony. Until the Fire Nation attacked.

It's been a hundred years since the beginning of the war when two kids from the Southern Water Tribe find a boy frozen in ice and wake him up. A boy who's able to bend all four elements... though not very well.

Enter multi-nation flying road trip (thank you Appa, we love you most of all) as they try to find teachers for the Avatar and save the world.

Includes found family (shut up), amazing fight scenes, the most heartfelt and vivid characters ever, and the best example of a redemption arc actually done well.

8. Love Between Fairy and Devil - (containing 1 season, or 36 episodes) - trailer here.

This one gutted me. I'm saying this as a compliment. But it had to be said. Completely destroyed me. I just haven't been the same.

A love story between an Orchid Fairy and the leader of the Moon Tribe that starts out with her accidentally releasing him from millennia long imprisonment and then takes you through the caleidoscope of all possible human emotions (it's a body-swap comedy through the first part, then a romcom, then a dramatic romantic tale, and finally a tragic love story).

But it's such a satisfying slow burn.

And it carries this... humanity through the whole thing that makes it so visceral.

If you're a romantic who's very tired of instalove and characters dropping all their morals because 'ooh, attractive person' then you've got to watch this. Because this story does NOT take the easy road there.

(my more extensive rec for this series can be found here)

9. Star Wars: The Clone Wars - (containing 7 seasons, or 133 episodes) - fanmade trailer here (it was better than any of the official ones).

This series did so much. Introduced Ahsoka Tano, and made us love her. Gave names and faces and souls to the Clone Troopers (okay, it's the same face but you know what I mean), to a point where their endings during Order 66 destroyed me just as much as the ending of the Jedi Order. And somehow made me both love Anakin AND be a million times more angry with him.

There are some arcs in this series that might be a bit weaker. But there were some... god, there's a reason I love Clone Wars more than any other series or trilogy in this universe. And I'm not even a little ashamed to say it.

Must watch for Disaster Lineage shenanigans; for the vod'e; AND for the Jedi (who did their best okay? They always did their best 😭💔).

(and on the subject of found family... do I even need to comment)

10. Nikita - (containing 4 seasons, or 73 episodes) - trailer here.

A rogue assassin that escaped Division - covert government agency that takes recruits out of prison, fakes their deaths and then forces them to become spies and assassins - has come back to take it down. Brick by brick if she has to. With guns and explosives too when that works better.

Contains soooo many cool fight scenes. Is full of incredible characters you'll fall in love with (and hate with) very quickly. And most of all has an incredibly complex relationship of mentorship and friendship between two women that holds both great admiration and betrayal, real care and love as well as rage and hatred, forgiveness, mutual respect and an unbreakable kind of bond that so very rarely involves even one female character on TV, let alone two.

(as usual, found family tropes up the wazzoo).

-----

In conclusion. We all know there's going to be a large space between seasons of our favorite shows now (and some shows that aren't going to survive it). Let's fill that space with some excellent TV we haven't had a chance to see yet.

And direct the blame for the wait towards the right place (i.e. the studios).

[deconstructthesoup]

Some miscellaneous stuff for the Fantasy High Leverage AU:

After getting kicked out, Kristen got taken in by Ankarna and Cassandra, who are living their best country-lesbian vibes out on a farm together---a farm which eventually gets in financial trouble and almost gets shut down by a corporation, which is how the crew learn about Kristen's past before she was a hitter. The farm winds up doubling as a safehouse. (Also, Ankarna wears flannels and has a shotgun, and Cassandra does tarot readings at their stall at the farmer's market on weekends. They also have a little black cat, with no relation to Kalina.)

Despite all the rumors swirling around, the way Fig and Fabian met is surprisingly mundane: when Gilear moved from Portland back to London after he and Sandralynn divorced, Fig went with him, and she got enrolled in the same school that Fabian was attending. The two of them became fast and immediate friends, wound up becoming the most popular kids there due to their combined chaos and the fact that they were kind to those who needed it, and were pretty much inseparable from that point forward. And when Fig introduced Gilear to Fabian's mom, who'd been widowed for a while and was looking for someone stable... well, as much as Fabian complained, it meant that he and Fig were officially siblings. (They learned how to grift from Hallariel, who was a very well-renowned thief in her day. It's how she met Bill, after all.)

Fig is the sibling who's the "bad actor in a theater setting, good actor when she's breaking the law" type, though it's a bit more complex than that. She's amazing at coming up with a character on the spot, building off of the questions that people ask her, and remembering details so none of the information contradicts what she's already said, but she finds scripts "boring and restrictive," and always tries to put her own spin on things... which doesn't always fit well. She does get a little better at following a script of sorts when she's on the crew---at least, she learns to follow the plan.

Kristen hasn't gone by "Kristen Applebees" since she was fifteen---instead, the criminal underworld knows her by "Kristen Justice-Forester," referencing her adoptive moms. Mostly because that sounds generally more badass, but also because she really wants to forget about her old life as the church girl next door.

Gorgug's legal name is "Gavin Thistlespring," but he's been going by Gorgug since he was twelve---it was the name of his first ever D&D character, and it eventually became his hacker handle. (This is really because I just needed an explanation as to why a perfectly normal human in a world that's basically ours would be named "Gorgug." I do something similar for Fig in a lot of my AUs---her name's either just "Fig," or she's named after a character from a fantasy series that Sandralynn likes.)

Someone suggested that Kalina is the Sterling equivalent, and I liked it so much that I decided to make it canon---but instead of being Riz's former partner, she's his dad's old partner and mentor who was forced to help cover up Pok's death. She's not necessarily bad, but she does have a very black-and-white view of morality, and she's not a fan of Riz's new, less-than-legal idea of justice.

Adaine still has the Parker rep of being "crazy," but in a very different light. Rather than being a thrill-seeking ball of chaos who's an unpredictable wildcard in every way when the story begins, she's unsettlingly quiet, perceptive to the point where she can predict things minutes in advance, and acts seemingly without morality and with her own skewed logic. As she spends more time with the crew and warms up to them, however, everyone starts to see that Adaine is unflinchingly and unfailingly kind---and that once she actually warms up to you, she will talk nonstop about anything she's invested in, whether it be obscure history facts, thieving tips, or whatever show, book, or video game that one of the others has gotten her hooked on. She's just closed off as a defense mechanism.

Fabian is the sibling with a deep and personal bond with Riz---not that Fig isn't close to him, but Fabian and Riz shot each other when they first met, and you can't beat that. And while Fabian used to have a thing for Riz, he eventually realized that Riz wasn't interested in any kind of relationship, though neither of them fully had the words for it (because, y'know, this story still starts in 2008). Still, though, he considers Riz his best friend and vice versa, and once he's on the crew, he never dates anyone without introducing them to Riz first. And his affections tend to bounce back and forth between Gorgug and Ragh. Or both. Let's just say that Fabian's got the most romantic drama out of any of them.

Riz is still close with his mom, despite the fact that, as a lawyer and former cop, he knows that she probably wouldn't approve of what he does. He just tells her that he runs a private detective agency, which isn't too far from the truth---hell, it's their cover story, after all.

Fabian's father was the greatest thief in the world when he was alive, but that came with a lot of enemies, and that's not something that Fabian wants to deal with---not to mention, he's always been adamant about making a name for himself, and to not just skate by on the Seacaster name. If that means that he has to refer to himself as "Fabian Faeth," well... so be it. He reasons that it's Fig's last name. Not Gilear's.

Fig has never met her bio-dad before the story begins... but she does meet him eventually. There's a whole thing there.

Adaine does not kill Angwyn in her backstory. However, she does get to do that eventually, and it's cathartic as fuck.

[walkman-cat]

Happy STS! Please tell me more about the thieves and their life outside of heists :)?

hihi happy sts(unday)!

these thieves are part of my heist/slice of life story, skyfish! (pictured below, with their roles in the heist team). some of them have names but 2/5 do not yet :')

the grifter (named Nobody) and the hacker (unnamed) live together (they moved in when Nobody was in university)! most of their routine involves an old sing-and-dance of the hacker being a nuisance (playfully) and Nobody acting like he's annoyed and bickering with them :D.

outside of heists, the hacker spends their time hacking for funsies, playing video games, or programming. they don't really leave the house that often unless Nobody's joining them.

Nobody spends their tiem outside of heists mostly working on keeping up the multiple masks/identities they have, and coming up with new ones. they also work as a maths tutor on occasion, but the bulk of their time is making up new characters to play.

sometimes Nobody and the hacker will go out and do cons of their own just for funsies! they've been working together since the beginning and have lots of manoeuvres and joint-disguises they do!

similarly, the fixer (Spencer Spades, but no-one calls her by her first name) and the hitter (unnamed and it's vexing me) have worked/lived together for six years by the start of the story. outside of heists they're temp workers who do odd jobs around the city (which is part of why everyone in the city at least knows someone who knows Spades).

when not working, Spades is either found tinkering with her old skyskiff (still on the fence about that tbh but she's got the greasy mechanic vibes) or gambling.

the hitter, when not following Spades around, usually helps out families in the undernarrows/helps out at the Night Market in the narrows. he likes cooking and loves stargazing, but he doesn't often get to do the latter. he also spends time just training/working out, but since some of the jobs he and Spades take on are stealing-things related, he also gets practice then.

the thief (Snake Eyes) is the newest addition to the heist crew, and probably has the biggest life outside heists. he loves games and, as such, his time for the past four years has mostly been spent at gambling parlours and arcades, to the point where it's recognised by many of the regulars of most of the Narrows' gambling dens. it enjoys card games, loves dice games, and is willing to play anything as long as it'll have a good time (Spades- who gambles for the thrill- has often interacted with Snake Eyes in the past). outside of playing games, Snake Eyes ususally haunts the Night Market and picks pockets (it's how they've gotten by for so long, though he sometimes help out with one or two stalls).

he's also always wanted to be a magician, so he'll practice tricks and sleight of hand if he's idle, but most of his time is spent either gambling or stealing on his own. after he joins the heist crew he starts spending more time with them and it's funky wbwbw!

literally all of them spend their free time either working on things that'll help them in heists or stealing things. only Spades and the hitter really know how to interact with people normally (Nobody doesn't count because her normal is lying about being normal). they're very silly and i like thinking about how they become closer and sillier over time wbwbw!

[incomingalbatross]

Straw Hats as Leverage Roles

Luffy: Mastermind Captain. NOT the guy who forms plans but he IS the one who sets their goals and who brought the crew together. The one who gets to say "Let's steal an [x]!" while the rest of them pinch the bridge of their nose and try to explain that's not stealable (it is). On the ground, he's good as a hitter and an unexpected natural as a thief. CANNOT grift. CANNOT hack.

Zoro: Hitter. Plain and simple. Does not have a strict no-kill rule but does avoid guns because he's not good with them. Martial arts or (whenever possible) swords.

Nami: Thief and grifter, mainly. A little bit of an all-rounder because she needed to be able to pull off jobs by herself, but her main skills are breaking and/or conning her way into places and getting out with the goods.

Usopp: Hacker. Good with computers. Sniping is replaced by remote-access tricks and his electronic toys. CANNOT grift, don't listen to him when he says he can. Working on his fighting and thieving skills.

Sanji: Hitter and grifter as needed. Likely the one going in to pull other crew members out of bad situations, when they need some subtlety for that. His primary role, though, is still Cook — Luffy's crew requires good and reliable food in every universe. (His cooking can be used in cons but cannot be drugged.)

Vivi: Grifter, primarily. Their friend with legal contacts/resources who has a life of her own nowadays but is willing to help as needed.

Chopper: Backup hitter, but they already have a solid heist team at this point and he's primarily their medic. Generally hangs back unless there's a medical angle to his job, but everyone's teaching him bits and pieces of their skillsets as they go. (He likes hacking, and thinks thieving is cool. Awful at grifting but tries his best.)

Robin: Grifter with a side of everything. Like Nami, she's had to learn to do things for herself, but her main skill is ingratiating herself with other people who will fill the gaps in her abilities. Expert on art and archaeological history, of course — sometimes seems to know the contents of every major museum on earth by heart.

Franky: Hacker. Terrifyingly good at breaking the enemy's stuff or turning it into something completely different. Not good at subtle in quite the way Usopp is, but he knows electronics inside-out. Builds the team so many robots and drones.

Brook: Grifter with a side of hitter — was an excellent thief in his younger days, but doesn't quite have the flexibility he used to! (This team's a little light on thieves and high on grift, but what can you do?) Robin can get what she wants out of people, but Brook can get them to want what he wants. Pulls them in and connects with them, somehow without ever losing himself — he doesn't become the part, he makes them listen to who he actually is.

Jinbei: Hitter, with some experience of grifting and thieving. Was a solid mastermind for his old crew, but they didn't do the same kind of things as Luffy's crew. He's content offering support and the benefits of his experience now.

(Actual schemes are cooked up in group meetings, with Nami and Sanji taking the lead on proposing ideas, Usopp and Robin giving additional perspectives, and everyone else chipping in as relevant. Zoro only argues on questions of the crew's safety. Luffy listens and then gives the final say.)

[lucassinclaer-archive]

i only need super minimal encouragement to talk about this soooooo ty @freetobeeyouandme lmao. been thinking about stranger things heist au again. and it got long into brainstorming territory so just... (waves hand vaguely) thoughts continue under the cut.

legacy families like the byers who never pulled high-end jobs, content in their little pond being small-time crooks incapable of understanding why jonathan, with all his flawless lifts and situational awareness, would try to reach above and start in on the big jobs.

joyce who met lonnie on a job and joyce and jonathan who protect will from lonnie's frustration when will turns out to be an awful thief who doesn't enjoy crime the littlest bit. (he does turn out to be quite the forger when the time comes, though.)

contrast with that the wheelers who are an all-american halfway happy law-abiding family whose eldest, nancy, walks eyes front into a life of crime to protect her friend and finds that it becomes inevitable, a sort of ceaseless need to keep going. who never wanted her little brother involved.

but apparently the wheeler siblings have some sort of crime beacon on them because of course nancy quite literally crashes into her brother trying to take down the same scumbag two towns over she is, although he looks at her like she's crazy when she lays out her plan and man, what her little brother has planned is actually pretty clever and much more subtle than the approach she was gonna take. they have ground rules, but she doesn't try to keep him from pulling jobs. she knows it'd be useless.

dustin is an incredibly bright kid with what may be a slight tendency to go overboard in the name of Science. he loves blowing stuff up every now and again, okay?! and also it's just criminal (heh) what some pharma companies do so he might be breaking into their headquarters and screwing with their formulas and contaminating their experiments until he figures out how to take them down permanently. sue him! (but please don't actually sue him, he hasn't found a great lawyer yet.)

lucas on the other hand was dragged into crime kicking and screaming. not something he ever wanted to do. (will will understand but then lucas kind of loses him when he did it anyway.) mike and dustin sort of kidnapped him into it, basically, when they were all still strangers, dustin and mike barely partners on this one con, and they'd needed a patsy who worked for the corporation they're stealing from. unfortunately they were still young and dumb enough to pick someone actually smart who trapped them in an office until they copped to their scheme at which point lucas demanded proof of their accusations which coincidentally was exactly what mike anf dustin were after. after that they can’t really seem to separate. he's turned into a jack of all trades, lucas sinclair - grifter, thief, hitter... even the occasional hacker. not the greatest at any, but good at all.

(we don't talk about erica who will one day give him a heart attack blowing up his whole carefully crafted alibi.)

steve, the getaway driver who hates his fucking job and is in it only bc there was p much nothing else to do until he finds people who show him there's a way to do it that brings him joy, when he knows what he's fighting for.

robin's a strange sort of grifter, not someone who immediately charms everyone in a room, but who knows how to make herself either invaluable or severely underestimated. she speaks like every language under the sun. like steve she has a certain aimlessness at first but unlike steve it's not due to having no ideas but more of a thing of having no options. until they're offered to her. then she's unstoppable.

max is out there somewhere being a thief different from jonathan, self-made and scared and on the west coast. but if they were to meet jonathan would recognize those gritted teeth and the hard work. it's not natural talent that made her so good at what she does but pure stubbornness.

el, on the other hand, is all raw talent and exploited for it for a long time when she's a kid. it's will who meets her first, who gives her an out, but when it lands him in trouble it's the other criminals who help her get him out. joyce, mike and jonathan develop an instantaneous protective streak for her. lucas isn't sold and dustin is mostly in love with her demolitions capabilities and nancy is hungry for the dirt she has on various government agencies.

[jamiesfootball]

Hiiiii i saw your doing the ask game and the Leverage au??? Ooooo I would like to know more please!!!

also I hope you’re having a nice dayyy :)

Hullo!

The leverage au is the thing I'm not writing except that I have, in fact, written a smidgen of already (see 'leverage au' in the tags below for more). The gist of it being that Ted, in an effort to save Henry, did some hinky stuff and fled the States with Beard at his side.

Once in England, they set up shop as a sort of consulting group. The kind that finds the right people and brings them together to fix problems for people who just need a little extra help. From the other side of the law.

Ted and Beard - sort of duo/split the mastermind role between them, with Beard originally doubling as tech support with code scripts he got from less-than-savory contacts

Rebecca - Grifter. Former Mrs. Manion but she assures everyone that once she's on the grift, no one will recognize her (she is correct)

Roy - the hitter. Old. He's been looking for a way out for a while, and since his niece was born he's shifted into mostly doing retrieval work

Keeley - Jewel thief, mostly, but she'll steal anything. She'll nick the wallet from your back pocket, then send you flowers and chocolate at the hospital after she's tased you and stolen your Rembrandt.

Jamie - originally brought in to act as extra muscle, and ended up being trained under Roy - though with strict supervision. Most of the team (except Keeley) were wary about whether or not he was a good fit for the team.

So my idea for the fic is that the story opens with The First Second Job, which is the original team gets together / they kill it job. From there the new talent - Keeley, Rebecca, Roy, and Jamie - make a loose agreement with Ted and Beard that they'd be okay staying on retainer for other jobs he might have lined up.

Unlike the OG Leverage team, there are a few snags along the way:

There is no big score that ends up paying for the whole team. There is a reasonable score on the first job, which lends to decent retainer that Ted can use to keep these four going along with them. Beard cautions him about using the same people every time, but ultimately goes with it.

This also leads to the awkward 'invoicing-of-clients' thing, which becomes more of an issue the longer they work together, as each of them is secretly a bleeding heart.

Jamie and Roy. Having two hitters on the team sounds good in theory, but in practice is a struggle, especially when they come from two different schools of thought. Roy is a threaten first and the last resort is that you hit them fast and you hit them accurately - you don't prolong the fight. Except Roy isn't that fast anymore. Jamie is, but Jamie....has issues. It's clear that wherever he's been practicing his craft, it's been a 'hit fast hit hard and fuck not getting hit back, just mow them down' sort of lesson.

(He learned from his dad. If that wasn't clear.)

The lack of a hacker on this team gradually becomes a bigger and bigger obstacle going forward.

Nate is this universe's Sterling, of a sort, and starts sniffing them out.

Rebecca, it turns out, does have a sort of secret agenda going, mostly involving her ex-husband Rupert.

Ted, it turns out, also has a secret agenda, mostly to do with why he left the States in the first place, and these people are essential to that part of his plan.

Keeley doesn't have a secret agenda, but she's also not really believing that this is all going to last and she's ready to bail at a moment's notice.

Roy can sense that something fishy is going on in the air. He doesn't know what, and his senses can't tell who it's coming from. He's. Really disappointed in these people.

Jamie had no agenda. He is the last to know that everyone else saw this coming : (

Now that is not to say this will be a bummer! There are lots of found family moments and bonding and people caring about each other and general seriousness! But the more I plot this out, the more the tone shifts to a more realistic-feeling world than the one OG Leverage resides in.

Right now the overarching plot would be a sort of extended version of Leverage season one, building towards the reveal that both Ted and Rebecca have conspired to create a scenario in which the team helps them achieve their goals. Then everything goes to hell in a hand basket.

Then they work as a team to get out of trouble. Together.

Even in my head this feels like it's going to be a loooooong plot. I'm already writing another loooooong thing. Which is why I tell people I'm not writing it.

Except for the parts I've written.

[displayheartcode]

NEW LEVERAGE TRAILER DROPPED

July 9th!

In this new iteration and new world, the Leverage crew have watched as the rich and powerful continue to take what they want without consequence. Grifter Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman), thief Parker (Beth Riesgraf), hitter Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane), and hacker Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge) have watched the world change over the last eight years.Since their last job, it’s become easier–and sometimes legal–for the  rich  to  become  richer  and  the  powerful  to  squash anyone  who  gets  in  their  way. To  address  the changes in the world around them, the team finds new blood in Harry Wilson (Noah Wyle), a corporate lawyer who is looking for redemption after realizing he’d been sitting on the wrong side of the table for his entire career, and Breanna Casey (Aleyse Shannon), Hardison’s foster sister who has a knack for computers, robotics, and getting into trouble.

[onyxbird]

A ridiculous Leverage AU concept popped into my head last night that's cracking me up. So first, it's Leverage OT3 having teamed up as a criminal crew without meeting Nate and Sophie. I'm picturing it in like a cyberpunk setting, but could potentially just be a canon-adjacent setting where the OT3 joined forces without Nate's influence, still pursuing crime for personal gain.

They've become a force to be reckoned with, a target of law enforcement and other criminal elements alike--probably clashed with at least pieces of Moreau's organization more than once--but no one has been able to touch them. Everyone with any connection to the criminal underworld knows about the genius Hacker Hardison and his cyber-crime empire, and everyone knows about his two closest lieutenants: a incredible Thief and an unstoppable Hitter, known only as "Parker" and..."Baby."

Some know only that much, and, when meeting the crew, many are prone to guess that the dainty blonde must be "Baby," and thus the glowering brunet must be "Parker."

The slightly better informed know that the Thief is "Parker" and the Hitter "Baby," but aren't 100% sure which is which.

The truly well-informed folks in the criminal underworld know who is who and enough of their reputations that although "Baby" is spoken of in hushed tones, since they know of no other name for the most elite Hitter in the business, no one dares to even think of calling him that to his face. That can get difficult for people who have to do business with him directly or discuss matters involving him with Parker or Hardison. None of the three ever offer any alternatives. (Every so often a newbie criminal comes along and decides to crack a joke about the name, often some variation on "putting Baby in a corner" and is quickly warned by their peers that 1) you do not joke about Baby--he could kill you with a blade of grass and is known to materialize in the most unexpected times and places--and 2) that specific joke has been made a million times already.)

Behind the scenes, of course, the trio's partnership is quite egalitarian, and Eliot's name is used freely, but 1) neither Parker nor Eliot is comfortable being the face of their organization, while Hardison is happy to LARP his nerdy little heart out as an evil overlord, and 2) Eliot had reasons to not want his real name spread around too much and made the tactical error of giving Hardison a little too much freedom in deciding what to call him in front of people.

Nate eventually does come on the scene, finally disgusted enough to break ties with his "lawful" but corrupt organization and willing to turn to the criminals he used to chase to cut a deal. His boldness at asking for a meeting in addition to what they knew of him as an investigator piques their interest, but they're disappointed when he stumbles in unkempt and still fairly inebriated.

He gains their interest back when, even in his drunken state and having never laid eyes on any of them, he sweeps one look around their temporary HQ, immediately clocks Parker as THE Parker despite her just standing still next to Hardison, and, by process of elimination, turns to Eliot and says, "So, you must be Baby."

[leverage-ot3]

@original-missif: #i love how much work leverage puts into humanizing their more recluse characters#how much eliot and parker especially get to step away from everything they're good at and become whole#and how much loving fun is poked at eliot throughout the series to soften the knife sharp edges of his personality#so much love is shown in giving the thief hacker and hitter talents outside their criminal specialties#the dichotomy of how eliot is with the team vs how he is with anything related to Moreau 🤌🤌

@laser-tripwires: #of COURSE he's nervous#stage fright!#plus. y'know. the Horrors.#this is the worst half a year of eliot's time with the team#he's counting down the days til he has to confront the worst demons anyone can have AND NOW he has to sing

@lemissingmask: #but imagine if Moreau saw THAT#it might bewilder Moreau into retirement#his most lethal former employee now sings stunningly well#and then he goes to San Lorenzo and cuddles a puppy#leverage#I love Parker’s 😱 you ARE nervous!#turning the knife in the wound of his embarrassment#with that perfection of shocked expression

@trash-nerd: #love that parker is just. scandalized by this info as well like.#meanwhile eliot is and has been having A Very Bad Time bc yknow. the whole. moreau thing. kinda fair.#plus i like that its one of the v v few things eliot does privately and is just That Nervous abt doing it in front of An Audience

Leverage S02E06 The Studio Job.

[unloneliest]

talking about a role swap/somewhat darker au of original leverage with @asterlark & having an absolute ball in this bitch

parker (aka p@rk3r) as a hacker/architect of plans/manipulator of systems. in canon she's already a brilliant mathmatician, and the biggest change in this au is that rather than getting involved with getaway driving/car theft in upper elementary/middle school, she starts learning to code & hack. whether or not she continues her education past middle school, her learning is in her own hands & it's a choice she makes. she's still very isolated and singular, but somewhat less so than in canon—as a hacker, she's somewhat more able to find other people who are strange like her.

hardison as a grifter/fabricator/with some complimentary digital skills, though it's not what he specializes in. he goes by alec in this AU. much like this alternate parker, he just had slightly different formative experiences and landed on a different specialization—the people skills he mentioned learning going door to door with a foster family, his background in theater tech (is that canon?). creating a believable person out of nothing becomes the game for him, and a tool. he connects so well with others in canon, and that's the key unchanging piece here.

eliot as the thief. we see a bit of that with how he presents himself in the pilot as a retrieval specialist—but this eliot would have a big key difference from canon. he comes from a similar background of violence, but he got out before getting too involved with moreau. and that means he trusts his own judgement in a way he doesn't in canon. he trusts himself to discern others' trustworthiness and moral character. this is an eliot who can fight, but chooses not to—not just with guns. he looks, moves and behaves very differently in some ways, but is exactly the same in others. an equally high level of body control and awareness is required of both hitters and thieves, but with different ultimate goals/specifications—different form due to different function.

sophie is annie croy (of the beantown bailout job) in this au, and she's the hitter of the team. she's rougher around the edges, but equally as canny & insightful. she's very commanding; intimidating in the way the canon glimpse of annie croy is. she has canon hardison's grift difficulties as the team comes together—prone to overdoing it—in part because she knows she can just shoot her way out if things go sideways for her. she has none of eliot's qualms with killing, though.

in this AU, nate's not on the team. the treatment was approved for his son, but did not succeed, and he and maggie still divorce. in this AU there's no initiating event to drive nate's moral split from IYS, so there is no split, and one of the things he throws himself into in the aftermath is his work. but there's no one left he's close to who could keep him from crossing lines, the way we see him behave at his worst in canon. the nate of this AU is not a pleasant or good person.

in this AU, the team are somewhat less known to be lone wolves—they almost entirely work alone, but not entirely.

parker, alec and eliot get implicated, framed for the same job, when all of what they'd done was solo and none of them did the big crime that they're accused of. and it's a very out of control nate who's investigating the crime that occurred.

they team up in a just-this-once manner to escape the situation they're in, but when things get worse, they reach out to annie croy to join their crew. and the four of them click in a very unexpected way. they have fun together, and they kick ass. things come very down to the wire with nate, though they do succeed. there is no single mastermind, but the group works together in a much more equal way to plan, and it works.

tentatively, they make plans to work together again, & it settles into a more permanent group—one where they help people, much of the time, but sometimes they just do the ruining rich people's lives part without the "for the hyper specific benefit of individuals harmed by said rich people" part. nate is their biggest running villain.

sterling is the inside guy they have, when that's needed. he's the person nate's closest with at this point in time but nate is even acting in a way that's too much for sterling and it's enough to cause sterling to separate himself somewhat from IYS & occasionally work with the team. none of them still like him, but this time it's just because he's still an insufferable person even if they're in alignment.

ultimately, in this au, annie croy both kills nate & fucks maggie, and she's right for that. i support women's wrongs <3

[dailyleverage]

LEVERAGE 2.0

Series / Drama / 16 X 60

The Rich and Powerful take what they want… and the Leverage team is back to take them down!  Sophie Devereaux (The Grifter), Parker (The Thief), Eliot Spencer (The Hitter), and Alec Hardison (The Hacker) have watched the world change over the last 8 years.  It’s become easier – and sometimes legal -- for the rich to become richer and the powerful to squash anyone who gets in their way.  Sadly down one team member, they find new blood in Harry Sullivan, a corporate lawyer who is looking for redemption after realizing he’d been sitting on the wrong side of the table for his entire career, and Breanna , Hardison’s foster sister who has a knack for computers, robotics, and getting into trouble.

In this new world, our team will use their collective skills to take down a new kind of villain. From the man who created an opioid crisis from the comfort of his boardroom, to the woman who prefers to deport workers instead of paying them, to the shadowy security firm that helps hide dangerous secrets for a price... when someone needs help, we provide… Leverage.

[magic-number-3]

Women in REDD

One week ago, Rose Allen was arrested. Again. Three days ago, a 'lawyer' in a bright red pantsuit and a slicked back ponytail makes her an offer; to use her thieving skills to become an asset of a top secret organization. The catch? She would become legally and publicly dead, taking a new identity as one of their agents. The woman makes it clear why she was selected. Rose doesn't have anything, or anyone, to leave behind. But the stranger has also done her research, and knows Rose has an abundance of untapped potential, if only given the right resources and pointed in the right direction This Rose's chance to finally make something or her life. Or more accurately, to make a new one.

One day ago, Rose Allen was announced dead. Agent Jasper is a Woman in R.E.D.D.

Starring

Amita Suman as Rose/Agent Jasper, AKA the Thief

Rhea Seehorn as Agent Snapdragon, AKA the Grifter

Lesley Ann-Brandt as Agent Heart, AKA the Hitter

Indya Moore as Agent Lace, AKA the Hacker

Becky G as Agent Fox AKA the Wild Card

[ourfag]

*cracks knuckles* well,

ed’s obviously something of a legend as a crewrunner, capable enough at sleight of hand and cultivates a very deliberate image of his capacity as a hitter even though it’s not his favorite role—ive got a post from maybe last month somewhere noodling around with his relationship to the grift (i imagine him having an issue with acting similar to sophie’s, but in the opposite direction: he can’t do it unless he feels like there’s an element of fundamental truth-telling involved about himself, so his ability to play roles designed for the mark to feel negatively towards becomes diminished as he unlearns his self-hatred)

he’s a pro with the technical side of b&e but struggles with justifying his right to be there if he gets caught out. this also develops with time as he becomes increasingly confident in his right to be, more generally.

stede doesn’t know how to do a character that isn’t over-the-top. he’s a very good grifter if over-the-top is what the con needs, but his utility more commonly lies in his insights on how a rich mark will operate, the bureaucracy, the social conventions, white collar culture etc etc. harry wilson stuff.

he doesn’t have the physical tactical prowess to be a career hitter, but he also doesn’t go down very easy. surprisingly good at sleight of hand, especially after instruction from ed, but not particularly stealthy. would get stuck in a vent shaft. NOT A GOOD HACKER.

lucius has a lot of thief-adjacent skills but altogether dislikes solo field work. he’d especially like to be as far away as possible from jobs where a hitter is even necessary. his strategy for escaping difficult situations is to simply not find himself in them in the first place but, on the occasion he does, he actually thinks pretty well on his feet. he just hates having to do it.

pete is a plant. pete is the guy who wins the streetside shell game lucius is running to show onlookers it’s totally possible and they all totally have a shot at the money. i think both he and lucius could excel at the kind of online credibility generation and trend manipulation that breanna and hardison do, or at least the creative aspect. i don’t think pete is good with computers. i think lucius is good with computers but doesn’t draw attention to it, because being underestimated has put him at certain advantages before, but also because staring at a screen all the time gives him migraines.

ive previously considered using computer programming as a modern-day analogue to the literacy gap among crew members, and im still keeping that in my back pocket, but im starting to reconsider its use here, bc i think frenchie would be so so great with digital scams. quite frankly i dont know enough about computers to elaborate on the rest of it but he strikes me as the kind of person who knows exactly how many brackets he has open at any given time. phishing he’s definitely outstanding at, and more generally he’s very good at knowing how to communicate with a variety of different marks in ways that reliably come across as credible, relatable, authoritative, whatever the situation demands.

one of the rarer skills he has is the ease with which he adapts to whatever team is on hand—he’s very good at working out what a given crew member’s greatest strengths are and coordinating things so they can take as much advantage of those strengths as possible.

he can shimmy through a vent like it’s nothing, but he’s not as stealthy as jim. good at forging signatures, better at forging documents. don’t ask him to pickpocket unless you’ve got a second person whose job is specifically to distract the mark while he does it.

i remember seeing a clip of samba schutte discussing the backstory he’s created for roach, and one of the elements that stuck with me and i think could apply well here is roach going out of his way to learn skills that make him extremely valuable to a crew as a means of self-preservation. this might not mean honing in on particularly indispensable roles as it does in canon, since in leverage you tend to get every given crew member being specialized in something important, but i think when roach catches himself being significantly outmatched in a skill by anyone else, he makes developing his proficiency in that area a priority. so he’s got all kinds of stuff under his belt, safecracking, lifting, cybersecurity, etc, he knows how to lead a mark around, and he throws a pretty decent punch. unarmed combat is a weak point of his, but he’s a lot like parker in that he’s very good at navigating his way from point A to point B regardless of structural or human obstacles as quickly as possible, especially with a taser. tbh i’d really like to see an early-seasons parker interact with him.

jim is similarly difficult to divert, and they do make a good hitter, but they’re a little awkward on the grift. they and olu are a very very effective team because they complement each other’s weak points. olu’s fantastic on the grift, especially when he’s got a good handle on as many contingencies as possible. he’s also great with picking locks and cracking safes, being more inclined to the careful patience they require than jim, for whom patience is a professional skill they must grudgingly maintain. if jim is confronted with a safe and olu’s not with them, they’re gonna grab it and run.

sorry i just realized how fucking long this is getting these are maybe 10% of my thoughts about this none of it really answers your question and i didnt even cover everybody. FUCK

doodle while i watch leverage

[kane-town]

LEVERAGE 2.0 Series / Drama / 16 X 60

The Rich and Powerful take what they want… and the Leverage team is back to take them down!  Sophie Devereaux (The Grifter), Parker (The Thief), Eliot Spencer (The Hitter), and Alec Hardison (The Hacker) have watched the world change over the last 8 years.  It’s become easier – and sometimes legal -- for the rich to become richer and the powerful to squash anyone who gets in their way.  Sadly down one team member, they find new blood in Harry Sullivan, a corporate lawyer who is looking for redemption after realizing he’d been sitting on the wrong side of the table for his entire career, and Breanna , Hardison’s foster sister who has a knack for computers, robotics, and getting into trouble.

In this new world, our team will use their collective skills to take down a new kind of villain. From the man who created an opioid crisis from the comfort of his boardroom, to the woman who prefers to deport workers instead of paying them, to the shadowy security firm that helps hide dangerous secrets for a price... when someone needs help, we provide… Leverage.

PRINCIPLE CAST

Gina Bellman, Aldis Hodge, Christian Kane, Beth Riesgraf, Noah Wyle, Aleyse Shannon

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

Dean Devlin, Rachel Olschan, Marc Roskin, Kate Rorick

[aiyexayen]

Ask game: 3, 7, 16?

from this ask game

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics? hm. i generally enjoy trying new things a lot, so from the inside at least it's harder to pinpoint this sort of category (outside of writing style analysis). but let's see. i know i tend to favour fix-it post-canon au settings and canon diverging explorations for sure. or else short moments of character study. i definitely favour established relationships (of varying kinds), rare pairs (except for wenzhou which is still such a strange exception i have no good explanation for), and the themes of home and family and belonging. if anyone else has any ideas/insights into things they find characteristic of my fics i'd love to hear it.

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of? i am still and forever proud of my cql/pern crossover au Qiuth with the jiang sect as a weyr, and i actually want SO MUCH to write more in that world and explore more of it. someday when the muse strikes again i sincerely plan on that. going through my posted works to see if there's anything else and sjdlkfsjlk not to be vain but damn i actually like most of my worldbuilding in fics where i've had to do any. XD it's so incredibly obvious how much my writing is just me cooking up my own feasts to enjoy and being glad to share in case anyone else likes them too.

16. What’s an AU you would love to read (or have read and loved)? well in the same vein as above, if anyone else ever dabbled in my (or similar) pern au 'verse i'd devour it. i can think of some other au's i'd love to read or just explore the concepts of in general that i am currently writing for that very reason. but outside of those, mm, i'm not sure if this already exists but i'd love to read a leverage-esque plot modern heist au of shl characters. ooh especially including a crossover with cql characters. that could be really fun. just think of the thematic lines re: growing up an outcast, getting pushed out of society, choosing to be outside of the world/law, disdain for extant systems, compulsion toward justice no matter what kind of person you believe yourself to be/to have become, reluctant heroes, reluctant criminals, second chances, lost and found family, building trust, learning how to function as a team/unit and exploring your strengths and letting others compensate for your weaknesses... oh no, don't let me think about that anymore. fuck. i thought about it. i can't believe i have to write an au now about post-tianchuang zhou zishu finding out jin-wang is responsible for the death of his brother and getting briefly tricked into masterminding a con against him by ulterior-motive zhao jing with a team of assorted criminals including but not limited to: grifter liu qianqiao, hitters wen kexing and gu xiang, thief han ying, hacker wen qing, and communications/gadgets expert wei ying, with appearances from forger xie-wang, informant nie huaisang, and mechanic/driver luo qingyang.