#i love the season 5 relationship between eliot and hardison

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

“So... all those times I pushed Hardison off a building and he was all “aah!”... he wasn’t just being funny?”

Leverage S05E05 The Gimme a K Street Job.

[greaseonmymouth]

leverage s5 revised episode order

so it's my understanding that it's pretty much general consensus that s5 is setting up the ot3 endgame, showing us throughout the season how close they are and how well they work together and establishing their relationship the best way they can without the network realising, right? we see this in how they do historical episodes, always pairing Nate and Sophie but they've paired Parker and Hardison and Parker and Eliot, and in the present they've done Eliot and Hardison enough times. and so the finale, The Long Goodbye Job, is the final dot over the i to make that clear - Eliot, Parker, and Hardison die together in the fake scenario because anything else would be anathema, and they skip off into the sunset together as a three person Leverage team while Nate and Sophie skip off together as Out Of The Game, For Good

The Frame Up Job and The Rundown Job support this by showing us how well Eliot, Parker, and Hardison work together, how flawless a team (how thoroughly established an ot3) and by showing us Nate and Sophie as a thoroughly established married couple disgustingly in love and bickering and on the same wavelength

now I propose (and not just because of Eliot's haircut in The Rundown Job clearly indicating this episode should've come later in the season) that The Long Goodbye Job was not intended to be the series finale, and that The Frame Up Job and The Rundown Job were supposed to form a two-episode series finale directly following The Long Goodbye Job. soft epilogues, if you will

points to consider:

in both of those episodes, the other half of the team does not appear and is not even mentioned. it's not like the Girls / Boys Night Out episodes, where the episodes are mirrored and the team is working on related problems, and is then reunited at the end - these are entirely separate episodes featuring two independent teams

Vance to Eliot: "Hell, your girlfriend's already out of her cuffs." Nobody corrects him. Not Parker, not Hardison, and not Eliot. Ok this one doesn't prove episode order I just love this subtle ot3 confirmation moment

Sterling, to Nate and Sophie: "Now I know where you are. Call me. I'm hiring."

this was already funny as is, and we're presuming this is because Sterling hasn't found out where the team relocated to after Boston, but imagine if this is actually after The Long Goodbye Job? Sterling let them go. Nate pushed him and he came down on the side of thieves, and he let them go, and then couldn't find them but now he has and his frustration with the case and Nate and Sophie's casual disregard and the final 'I'm hiring'? It's been a couple of months since The Long Goodbye Job and this is the most fun Sterling has had in ages

but the ot3 half ok. so The Long Goodbye Job tells us that they die together and they live together, and they continue Leverage as a 3 person team. Give it a couple of months and they're in DC and they face a real life and death moment - and they live together.

and also, you get Eliot telling Vance "I work with them now" and then he limps bloodily off into the sunset squished between Hardison and Parker like the three of them are off to have some incredible sex

listen I just think season 5 makes so much more sense if we consider those two episodes as the episodes establishing the happily ever after epilogues after The Long Goodbye Job

also in Leverage: Redemption the very first episode we find out that Nate had a shady stash of paintings and materials and whatnot so what if that is actually a hint that Nate and Sophie did actually get back into the game, with Sterling, until Nate passed away and Sophie clocked out?

[reflectingiridescent]

From codependency to freedom: Sophie's journey with love

I think about that shot of the original crew in front of the black book in the finale: Sophie between Parker and Eliot; Nate between Parker and Hardison. Between each pair, they will compensate for Nate and Sophie's departure respectively. A rewatch of seasons 4 and 5 shows how they slowly were increasing the ot3's roles in the cons and decreasing Nate and Sophie's.

It's a necessary and bittersweet moment.

Leverage bookends seasons but always leaves the door open. There was always more story to tell about their development as a family. There was a season 6 bouncing around the writers' minds, and that's not what we get in Leverage: Redemption, but the story picks up organically. Because Sophie's at this impasse. She's lost her life partner, and Eliot, Parker, and Hardison have been enough for each other for nearly a decade. Longer than they ever worked together with Sophie.

They do not need her.

I argue that the ot3 doesn't need each other either, not if you compare it to the beginning of s2 where the reunion was very cute but also codependent and unsustainable. But while they consider Sophie to be family, she is not in their ot3 family unit. They helped each other get over their grief. Sophie stood alone (more on that later).

They do not need Sophie anymore and haven't in a while, but they want her badly.

And that's it. That's the point. "I didn't choose the others. I picked you," Nate tells Sophie in The Lonely Hearts Job, about the way the crew began. In season 5, he chooses her again, over his self-violence. He comes to call the crew family, but he commits further to Sophie like the ot3 does.

Leverage: Redemption begins with the ot3 choosing Sophie, for the first time since they met, out of want and not need. It ends with her choosing them under the same circumstances.

This choice is made (quite beautifully) through the lens of Sophie's identity, which has always been her central conflict. But Sophie could run any crew, be a grifter anywhere, go back to directing at several theaters. She specifically chooses to be with this team, run this crew, stay with her family, take on this challenge, here and now.

In The Stork Job, Sophie tells Nate that she finds it preposterous that anyone would ever leave their personal life up to chance. She learns to loosen hold on her close relationships, and in return, she gets something real. But real love is also a choice after a certain point. Sophie chose to stay with Nate over and over again. She chose to stay with the crew. She chose to leave the crew and be with Nate. But before that, she lets Nate go ("someday, with or without me"). His response is to commit to her even more.

After Nate dies, Sophie does need the ot3 (this puts her at a loss that is uncomfortable for her, because she knows on some level they do not need her in return, and I think this is one of the reasons why she stays away). I think it's important that she gets to a point where she realizes she doesn't need them (that's when she seriously considers the theater at the end of the season), then comes in and chooses them.

I think it takes Sophie quite a long time to realize what to do with this new dynamic. It's always been harder for Sophie to be a friend than a lover. She loves Nate, and he loved her, but they were always playing tug-of-war because that was their relationship. The tension in opposite directions stabilized each other. They came to enjoy it. They grew around it and into each other. And there's nothing wrong with that because that's what they wanted and that's who they were.

But the love between Sophie and the ot3 is different. It's platonic, for one. But it's never going to serve as a tether. If we look to s1 as a parallel, we can kind of look at it as Sophie jumping off the building in The First David Job, harnessed, with Parker clinging to her, unharnessed. Except the roles are reversed. It makes sense that Sophie would grasp for something to tether her at the beginning of Redemption, and why even as she walks into Bligh's building, she's still planning on leaving. Even grieving, Sophie has learned that she can't lean on her past for too long to help her in the present, in the future. Her past is an enigma, even to her. She nearly lost herself before.

But this is Sophie, who continues to use a name that is not hers because she chooses it, who has defined the past decade of her life as something she has chosen. She's a bit phoenix-like, rebirthing herself into similar shapes but with a wealth of experience on the inside. And during the months during Redemption, she once again enters the next act of her life. Keeps the name, keeps the people. Acknowledges that she's not the same.

When she takes off her ring, she untethers herself from Nate. She doesn't need that stabilizing tension to be herself, to take that next step. Their story will always exist because she carries it. She doesn't have to live it for two.

I'm reminded of Sophie and Parker's conversation in The Grave Danger Job about feeling alive and falling in love. Someone pointed out (@alinaandalion? @wistfulwatcher?) that in The Jackal Job, Sophie revisits it. And Sophie does fall in love in Redemption - with herself, this new self; with her profession, her craft; with Leverage's mission; and yeah, with her family.

I find it extremely telling that we get acknowledgements from everyone but Sophie in the og series that this crew is their family. Hardison claims them from the beginning. Nate says it to their faces in a quite emotional moment in s2. Archie clarifies it for Parker in s3, and Eliot has that one phone call asking if he'd ever leave these people behind (also s3? I forget).

Sophie comes back at the end of s2 after everyone on the team acknowledges that they need her. Need continues to drive her until the end of the og series. Need isn't bad. Parker and Hardison exchange something similar in The Grave Danger Job. But where would Sophie have been if they didn't need her? We never find out.

In The Harry Wilson Job, Harry calls the crew (Breanna included) Sophie's family to her face. They never talked about it. He just came to understand it after hanging out with them for a few months. Sophie not only does not correct him (passive acknowledgment), but she also says it right back to him at the end of the episode (active acknowledgment).

That doesn't mean that she's not insecure about it. She finds that the mantle of who she was (both Sophie and Sophie-Lara) when she and the family-crew worked together, when they needed her and she needed them, is a little heavy. She even admits that Harry was assuaging that weight for her a little bit, but his departure (however short-lived it turns out to be haha) is expected and not devastating. She chooses to stick around with the weight of herself, accepts her family as support and not burden.

That is a terrifying choice to make, especially for someone with her history, to commit to people who are grown up, who do not need her. But the Sophie we see at the end of s1 Redemption, earnest and whimsical and just a little bit free, owns that choice (and paperwork!) with open arms and bare hands, much like she did on that rooftop at the end of og s1.

I am so excited to see where she goes from here.

[pale-silver-comb]

So I know absolutely nothing about Leverage except what I've been seeing you post lately and I have to admit you're making it look tempting to watch! Can I ask what are some of your favorite things about the show/reasons you would suggest people watch it? And is there really a poly relationship that is canon?

Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I am going to do my best not to just “asdfghkjl” at you and answer coherently.

In a nutshell, Leverage is about 5 people. 4 are criminals (Parker, Hardison, Eliot and Sophie) with different and unique skill-sets and 1 is an ex-insurance investigator (Nate) who, at one point or another in his career, has tracked down (or at least attempted to) the other 4. The whole show is essentially: man reluctantly reforms 4 criminals to use their criminal powers for good and 4 criminals move into man’s life and stubbornly refuse to leave because, goddammit, now they have morals. 

I’ve got a lot of favourite things about the show but the main ones are as follows:

1. Found family. And I’m not talking about loners who come together to fight crime and happen to co-exist to the point where they realise they happen to have found themselves a family. I mean, Nate and Sophie are the Drunk Uncle and Wine Aunt who somehow become Mom and Dad to 3 beautiful criminal children. Mom and Dad love their criminal babies and the kids love them (as well as each other, but we’ll come to that in a moment). You get amazing family moments such as: Mom and Dad packing the kids lunch before sending them out to kick corporate greed’s ass; Mom and Dad giving the kids ridiculously expensive and personal Christmas presents causing their most Grumpy Kid to go very very quiet and soft as he runs off to gleefully play with his new murder toy; the kids interrupting Mom and Dad’s big Movie Style Kiss to ask if they can please keep their new underground layer and huffing and puffing when Dad tells them no.

2. Found family: the OT3 edition. To answer your question, the OT3 is indeed canon, confirmed by the creator. Now, usually, “confirmed by the creator” infuriates me because most of the time it’s a way for a creator to be seen as “progressive” without doing anything to actually be progressive. That isn’t the case here. The OT3 are built up carefully and while it is obvious the creators didn’t originally intend for all 3 of them to become a relationship in the romantic sense, by mid-season 5 we are given a very clear picture of where Parker, Hardison and Eliot are heading in their relationship. There aren’t any kisses at the end to signal this but there are solid marriage vows in not only one but two episodes. (And by marriage vows I mean literal equivalents of marriage vows: “for better or worse” and “’til death do us part”. I’m not even exaggerating). The OT3 also doesn’t need explicit romantic narratives to convey how much they love each other. Their love is laced through the whole show, from the way they teach each other things to the way they respond to each other and work as a unit. The way they fiercely protect and admire each other. Like someone once said, if you need characters to kiss or say I love you to let the audience know they love each other, you are writing them wrong. 

Aside from that, each of the parings in the OT3 are just. Gah. They are so well done, with friendship being the solid basis for them all. The creators never expect the audience to assume anything about them or fill in the gaps. They give us their relationships on screen and reference many things off-screen to show us how these relationships continue to build in between episodes.

Hardison and Parker are a canon couple and date in the show: it’s approached slowly and they are so goddamned sweet. They are basically every fluffy slow-burn trope with a healthy dash of mutual pining in the mix. They are basically that quote “love is patient, love is kind”. (I would like to add their romance never becomes the focus of the show or overrides the importance of any other relationship they have with the other characters, especially Eliot.)

Hardison and Eliot are the Old Married Couple and from day one are already bickering and looking at each other/making comments that are found in every UST fic ever (not to mention Hardison has a very good knack for making Eliot grin like a little kid, when usually he’s basically an Angry Little Chef Man). They argue, they play, and love each other plain as day. 

Parker and Eliot are more subtle but every bit as wonderful. They have an unspoken connection and understand each other on a level no-one else can. Parker and Eliot are not good with giving themselves over to affection for different reasons (and Hardison plays a central role in helping them realise it’s okay to want it and have it- that boy has endless patience) but there is something so beautiful in the way the two of them come together on their own and develop their own special bond that works for them. Parker and Eliot are that trope where the characters don’t need to speak to understand each other perfectly. They just do. Their love language is a lot of the time non-verbal but speaks volumes. (Parker also likes to annoy the hell out of Eliot and Eliot....just.....lets...her. Because he’s soft. The softest, grumpiest boy.) 

I could go into so much depth for each pairing and their dynamics as a 3 but that's for another post.

3. Subverting stereotypes. There is the occasional hiccup in the show regarding stereotypes but ultimately, Leverage gets an A+ when it comes to writing characters and making them 3 dimensional people who are not defined by certain characteristics or events. Nate could so easily fall into the White Man Pain trope where he uses the trauma of losing his kid as a reason as to why he is entitled to act like a dick. Nate is a dick but he doesn’t use his pain to excuse it and I appreciate that. Hardison is a black man who is soft and nurturing. Easily the most empathetic and patient of the group. He’s nerdy, an actual genius, and has the biggest heart of all the characters. Nate is maybe the glue but Hardison is definitely the heart. Media’s usual aggressive, amongst other, racist stereotypes can fuck right off. Parker is canonically autistic (I am sure this was confirmed by one of the creators) and she is not defined by it. It’s not written as some kind of singular personality trait. It’s part of what makes up Parker but it’s only one facet of who she is and not once is her actions, thoughts or feelings treated like a joke. Sometimes people don’t understand why she does and says the things she does but it’s met with patience and fondness over the course of the show. Equally, it’s not met with over-caution. Parker is just Parker. No-one tries to change her. The other nice thing is Hardison, who always makes sure Parker knows she’s amazing because of who she is and not in spite of it. Finally, Sophie is in her 40s. She’s not treated like she’s past her prime. Ever. She’s sexy, smart and never is she pitted against or compared to Parker (who is younger) for anything. Sophie is amazing and there’s never even a conversation of “I may be older but I am still *insert adjective typically associated with younger women here*”. Sophie is possibly the first female character I’ve ever seen who isn’t just unapologetic about her age but has never had to apologise for her age. It’s a non-issue and that’s that. The women on the show are written so well, right down to secondary characters and it’s beyond refreshing.  

4.) It’s just fun. The show has a “monster of the week” type format. Except instead of a ghoul or a ghost, the monster is some corrupt wealthy and powerful individual or organisation. The show draws on real-life individuals to do this and therefore closely parallels real-life people and events. It addresses important political, economical, social and environmental issues while at the same time remaining fun and light-hearted. The characters constantly get the chance to play dress up and by GOD do they have fun with it. You get to watch Eliot beat up bad guys in the most delightful of ways, usually after a witty non-sequitur and with a weapon you’d never think could be a weapon. The dialogue and back and forth between the characters is everything. And finally - my favourite thing- the team can never resist striking a dramatic pose after they’ve taken down the bad guy, making sure the bad guy sees them. I mean, they COULD just walk away, satisfied they’ve taken the person down, but nope. They gotta be dramatic bitches 24/7 and pose like they are models for every single month of this year’s Criminal Calendar.  

5.) Competence Porn. So. Much. Competence Porn.  

Honestly, I could list a thousand reasons for why Leverage is amazing but to list them would to be spoiling so many amazing moments you’d get to discover for the first time on your own if you do choose to watch it. It’s the kind of show you can watch with an eagle-eye and sink your teeth into. But it’s also the kind of show if, you would prefer, put on in the background for something entertaining while you do something else. Each episode is about the job at hand but it’s made up of so many moments between the characters that show how much the creators and writers care about them. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll do whatever it is you do when something Soft and Wonderful happens that makes your heart melt. I am so beyond grateful for Leverage. It’s everything I always wanted in a show. Nearly every show I’ve watched in the past 10 years has disappointed me in some way, usually either because the writers run out of steam or characters who I love are treated poorly or given some kind of unnecessary “shock value” arc. Leverage doesn’t do that. Leverage is what it says on the bottle. Fandom isn’t something I joined because I needed canon fix-its. Fandom only enhances and celebrates an already excellent canon. 

[takaraphoenix]

Now that I finished my Leverage rewatch, I do have some things that I would simply love to see in Leverage: Redemption season 2.

For one, McSweeten, actually on screen. The name-drop about him made me giddy in season 1 but it would be so lovely to see him again. Also because I really love Hardison and Parker’s FBI personas.

Since Jack Hurley was in season 1, it’d be amazing if we could have Peggy in season 2? I would also like to know if those two are still together and might have gotten married? Does Peggy know about Leverage? Is she a part of it?

I’d like to meet at least one other Leverage team too, by the way. The original show ended on them taking it international and season 1 of Redemption confirmed that there are other teams but... we never met any of them. I’d like to see an episode where maybe one of the newer teams is in over their head and needs help from the OG squad, or something like that. Perhaps a big fish so big they’d need more than just one team.

And something that definitely still needs to happen is for Harry and Breanna to meet James Sterling. When Tara joined the team, she got to learn to hate Jim. Hating Jim Sterling is a vital part of being a member of the Leverage fam and both Harry and Breanna are still owed that too. I know he was mainly a foil for Nate, but honestly it could actually turn into quite a heartfelt episode around the team’s feelings for Nate if we brought James back.

Emily. She’s the one thing from season 1 that I absolutely need back. She needs to become a recurring character, I want to see how her and Breanna’s relationship unfolds. I mean, she could have been a one-off flirt. But Breanna took her to the celebratory dinner with the entire team at the end of the episode and that’s... kind of a big deal, honestly? I’m expecting a pay-off from that.

I also do think that Redemption needs to feature another “love story of the past as told through flashbacks with the main cast in the roles” episode, for one because I love them and they’re my favorites so that’s a selfish wish, but also because the original show had one Hardison/Parker episode and one Eliot/Parker episode and Redemption gave us a wlw episode with Sophie, so I do think that the logical conclusion would be a mlm centric episode where Hardison/Eliot take the roles of the lovers.

Another take on the Boys’ Night Out/Girls’ Night Out formula. I always had a lot of love for that because it established the fact that they do have a social life, even friends outside the team, it was a chance to bring back recurring characters and... seriously, an entire episode about four women, two of them leading characters, and just about them.

One of the thing I love about Leverage, and always have, was that this team of 5 had 2 women in it. That’s... one woman more than most others would have done heck that is one woman more than Marvel and DC do when they have teams of 6 or 7 characters... So the fact alone that we have multiple women, even in a relatively small cast, getting to see them be badass together, it always delighted me.

And even beyond that; Breanna is still rather new to the team, I’d like to see her get some bonding time with Sophie and Parker. It’d be great if Maria would be part of this episode too, considering she is Eliot’s first serious relationship - so to see her interact with Eliot’s family without Eliot around would be great. This could also serve to bring back Emily and show that Breanna/Emily is an actual thing. Personally, I would also love to see Tara come back for a cameo because I have a whole lot of love for her, but I guess that might be asking too much.

While on the other side, this would be a great episode to bring Hardison in, since he’s only been in a limited amount of episodes so far, that’d make it feel all the more special. And give Harry a chance to bond with Hardison and Eliot. His main focus so far has been Sophie and they’re not subtle in the romance they’re setting up there, I think the teasing between him and Breanna is nicely established and we’ve had Hardison and Harry work together before, but I really don’t have much of a grasp for the dynamic between Harry and Eliot so far.

And I think that’s a shame, because one thing Leverage absolutely exceeded in was very easily establishing the exact dynamics between all five leads, individually, within the first season. And Redemption only introduces 2 new characters; the majority are already established and have established relationships with each other, so I think it’s a bit of a shame that the individual dynamics for Breanna and Harry with everyone don’t feel as fleshed out after this first season.

That’s it, that’s essentially my wish-list for a season 2.

[tempestaurora]

i feel like leverage ot3 as cannon is a fandom thing because its clear in these new epsidoes its no romance between all three i've watched them all and i just don't see it

here's the thing about leverage ot3: it's canon by word of god, but is not canon in the text.

i think john rogers who was a head writer or creator or something i cant be bothered to google it, confirmed them as in a relationship back when leverage season 5 aired, and then made repeated comments about them ever since in relation to being canon.

but yeah its literally not on the screen. they're obviously devoted, they're family, they care about each other a lot - but its not in the text that they're in this relationship. which sucks because you get stuff like this:

but then you don't actually get confirmation ON SCREEN. eliot promised his devotion to parker and hardison. he has not been shown to be in that relationship in the new season, not in the brief moment between hardison and parker other than to say "get a room", or in hardison's leaving. it could've been confirmed in any number of tiny ways, from hand holding to kissing a cheek to a brief "i love you". but as of episode 7 there's a hint that eliot is in a relationship (and i can't see hardison calling him 'hun' i just can't), which makes me think that all of this ot3 canon stuff was one creator pushing for it but never actually making it into the show.

which means its not canon

i just

did you though buddy???? did you though?

[echo-bleu]

WIP Headcount (2)

The WIPs from other fandoms that are in diverse stages of being abandoned. This is my WIP graveyard, which I’m going to dig into to see if any of the dead rises again.

Part one about my Shadowhunters WIPs here.

I’ll do it in inverse chronological order of fandom and put it under a cut because it might get rambly. Fandoms: Roswell New Mexico,The Gifted, Leverage/The Librarians.

Roswell NM

I left the fandom brutally and left too many WIPs unfinished. Almost six months later, I think it’s time to admit that unless season 3 pulls me back in (and it’s unlikely) I won’t be coming back to them. Which is a shame, because while I honestly can’t say I like the show at all anymore, I liked my WIPs.

Power Through:  I don’t know. There’s potential, I had a pretty good plot in mind, I still love the Gifted (unlike RNM) so I at least really like the world this is in, but also... It’s been too long. Going on the maybe list.

still, there were mornings: I liked the idea of it, as a fix-it for s2 and also as a soulmate concept, but it’s not going to get any further.

our hands clasped so tight: Damn, I liked this one. If there is one fic I want to finish, it’s probably our hands. It’s going at the top of the maybe list.

down to breathing: A 3+1 still missing 2 parts... but then the two existing parts stand alone fine. I only had a bit of the last part written and it wasn’t all that good.

Complicated Truths: I still like the idea of it, and it’s maybe the one AU that is the furthest from canon. So. I might try to start again. Or I might reuse the idea for something else.

setting fire to our insides (for fun) sequel: I wish I could say I’d write this, because I hate leaving it like this and so many people have asked me about the sequel, but I know it will never see the light of day. So I’m sorry about that.

Untitled Leverage AU: It was a fic I plotted out and started for the Big Bang before realizing that it would have to be far longer than I could manage. I wrote about 6k but it didn’t hold my interest. The plot is really nice though, so I want to say it’s up for adoption? If someone really wants to write a Leverage AU but doesn’t have any good ideas, I’ll give you mine ;)

The Gifted

The fandom is sadly long gone, and I left 3 WIPs unfinished.

All We Stand To Lose: I think we can consider this one abandoned. I know I won’t go back to it. I need to be in a specific mood to write that kind of angst and I don’t think it will ever come back for this fandom.

If You're Still Breathing: abandoned too. If I ever do the rewatch I’ve been saying I’ll do for about a year and a half, maybe I’ll find the drive to finish it, but honestly, probably not.

The Underground is still my longest and favorite fic overall. I’m really sad that I’ll never write the last part that I plotted out, but it’s also more of a slice-of-life fic so it stands quite well as it is. I’m considering writing an epilogue to tie up loose end and feel like I’ve properly finished it, because leaving it like this has been bugging me.

Leverage/The Librarians

I haven’t actually written anything for this fandom in ages, but I’ve also not given up on it. It seems to be one that I can actually come back to fairly easily, as I have several times before.

Every Chance We Get series (blind & autistic Eliot, autistic Parker, canon adjacent AU and eventual Librarians crossover). Rereading this, the backstory is a lot more dramatic and angsty than I’d write now, especially for a story leading to a disability. I don’t want to just scrap it all but I’m also not sure what to do with it tbh. There are parts I really like, so I want to finish and post them eventually, and I don’t want to end up rewriting everything cause that would be way too much work. I’ll try to find some kind of middle ground.

Every Chance We Get has one more chapter to go. It’s based on the Two-Horse job and, I think, mostly written, but I got stuck because I don’t actually know anything about horses. That was a year and a half ago, but hey, I can do this.

All that remains is set during the two David jobs, and it has 4 chapters and another 5k of unfinished snippets. I probably need to scale it down and just finish it instead of trying to give it a whole plot (I’m always a little too ambitious with WIPs).

Everything we fought for is not super advanced and also needs to be rewritten, probably. But it was a fairly important part of this series where the crew find out about Eliot’s health issues so I’ll need to write it properly.

The Limits of Endurance probably needs to be split in two. There’s the San Lorenzo Job, which I might have to scrap or rewrite because too much plot, and the Carnival Job, which could work as an episode coda much better. That one is probably close to done? I’m not sure.

I have about 2k (each) for pieces set during the Radio Job and the Rundown Job. I need to do something with them. I think I really need to scale it all down and accept that they’re all snippets rather than full fics so I can finally post them.

I planned a whole thing post Leverage s5 with the OT3, but unless the new show pulls me right in, it’s unlikely to see the light of the day. I might write a short thing instead about polyamorous queerplatonic relationship negotiations.

Then the Librarians crossover. I have quite a bit and none of it really makes sense as a standalone, which is annoying. The first part, Those Left Behind, is all posted. I think Daring to Dream could be posted as is, it’s angsty and the start of an Eliot/Cassandra friendship and eventual relationship (where Eliot is also in a queerplatonic relationship with Parker and Hardison). I think it needs a different title though. I might post it today actually, so that it’s done.

What was meant to be the second part of Daring to Dream should be written, I think, but I don’t have enough yet to want to go back to it and I’d need to rewatch the Librarians.

No Going Back is about Eliot and Jake and their father. It’s maybe 2/3 written and I’d really like to finish this one.

The Best of a Bad Situation is set after the Ice Giants episode of the Librarians and it’s h/c and I really love it, but there’s still quite a bit of it to write. And I also need to scale it down.

The Shape of Things to Come is a fic I like, it’s angsty in an intimate way and it’s 26k, but even if I scale it down too, there’s still a lot to write. And it doesn’t really make sense without all the fics that come before, so I can’t really just start posting it. I’ll get there, eventually.

I have a bunch of shorter bits and pieces started in this AU, but looking at it, only one of them really holds my interest, Lonely Roads. It’s a 5+1 of phone calls between Eliot and Jake. Only parts 1 & 2 are written, so there’s quite a bit of work left to do.

I really need to plunge back into all this, but I’ve got too many other WIPs too 😭

[cypresstrees]

I’m sorry I gotta be a party pooper and let an unpopular Leverage opinion into the wild. I know there are a few older posts about this floating around but I feel like we gotta open up the can of worms again in this here Leverage Renaissance bc I’ve been seeing a ton of people celebrating Leverage’s “fully canon ot3″ and holding it up to this golden standard and I think it is really important to acknowledge that the Leverage ot3 is not canon.

Yes, it is near-canon, in that it is implied just about as much as the creators could get away with on TNT circa 2010, John Rogers declared it canon on Twitter, and the groundwork for a romantic relationship between Parker, Hardison, and Eliot is very much laid. And I cannot represent how much this post is coming from a place of love.

But we just do not see explicit representation of a romantic triad the same way we do with the canon relationships of the show (Parker/Hardison, Sophie/Nate). And if your next next instinct is to go “but the show couldn’t do that because of the network” -- well then, it’s not a canon relationship. Canon romantic relationships need to be clearly shown as such, either with an announcement (like Parker and Hardison at the start of season 5) or through obvious interaction that cannot be interpreted otherwise. I would argue that this goes double for non-traditional, queer, and interracial (and specifically, Black/white) relationships (the ot3 checks all of these boxes, incidentally), because, societally, we are conditioned to devalue the validity of these relationships. 

The issue with the proclaiming of the ot3 as canon, imo, is that canonical representation holds a lot of weight, particularly when these characters hold the identities that they do. And if we claim that this relationship is canon, we are lowering the bar for representation -- a lot of shows have been able to intentionally coast on subtext being heralded as representation, particularly with regard to relationships between men, without having to put in the work (or take the risk). 

And the point is that Leverage also did not take the risk. I personally am fine with the fact that they didn’t/couldn’t -- they’ve got plenty of good stuff going on, and who knows if the world was ready to handle a canon ot3, especially given that one of its members is a Black man already dating a white woman. I am very grateful for the relationship building we did get, and find great joy in it. I also think they avoid the shortcomings of many other shows that do what I just mentioned, and do find it very comforting and exciting that John Rogers openly supports the ot3. I just think we should be careful about applauding Leverage for something it didn’t actually do. 

(We also just set up a lot of would-be fans for disappointment when we make this claim, when we could be setting them up to love this super great show.)

And I do think Leverage does a great job of providing subtext and giving us, by the end of the show, a fully formed relationship with all its nuances (exhibit A, The Rundown Job) that can straddle the often fuzzy line between generally romantic and generally platonic. It also does not string us fans along, intentionally not keeping us in a will-they-or-won’t-they purgatory for views. I think these things are rare for shows, and I really do appreciate the way they developed the relationships between Parker, Hardison, and Eliot and John Rogers’ support and understanding of fandom. I will continue to reblog things about how these characters all fucking whipped for each other and it’s super obvious -- practically canon, even. I love that John Rogers supports the ot3. But a fully, properly canon relationship it is not.

tl;dr The Leverage ot3 is not canon, but it is very heavily implied at in a respectful manner by the show, and we should find ways of celebrating that while also being careful not to outright call it canon.

[sleepymouses]

tagged by @littlepetbee, thank uuuu <3 i spent way too long thinking about htis lol,

Rules: pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions, tag a bunch o ppls to do it too (if y’all want to, supes no pressure or anything!)

Natsume yuujinchou  (a teenage orphan who sees spirits/monsters sets out to free the spirits who were bound in magical contract by his grandmother after he inherits a powerful book, aided primarily by a spirit who appears as an exasperated fat cat (who is just as fun as he sounds). Titular character is like my Fave boy in the whole world, he’s so kind and soft despite all the hardships he’s faced, the series has very gentle pacing/character development, and each episode is a carefully crafted lil story that have often moved me to tears, chuckles, or outright chinhands of fondness as u watch natsume slowly find a home in the world and amongst the humans &spirits around him. big focus on friendships, there’s like no romance with any of the main characters, lots of cool different creatures (most of whom arent all that scary once u get to know them), its just literally everything i could ever dream for in a show and it exists! <3)

Leverage (team of modern day robin hoods ruin rich peoples’ lives via  delightfully crafted spy cons to give back to the regular folks the rich people hurt. Extremely good, strong found family vibes, and v cathartic)

Brooklyn 99 (follows diverse cast of character who make up a NY precinct. Hilarious, immensely wholesome & groundbreaking, & probs the most lighthearted crime show besides like psych tbh)

Blackspot/Zone Blanche (spoopy french/belgium crime series set in a small village way out in the mountains surrounded by misty, mysterious and murdery woods. eerie and atmospheric, but also like one of my fave characters (everyone calls him teddy bear) keeps a pet guinea pig at work, so it’s not entirely grim and bleak)

Longmire (a modern western crime drama centering around the titular sheriff and others in their small town wyoming county, well written and lot of chracter development revealed alongside some really good case mysteries bc i love trying to figure out whodunits apparently based on a book series well adored by dads btw)

who is your favorite character in 2? (leverage) ahhh,,, this is hard... Eliot maybe? like Hardison is baby ofc, but i relate to elliot a ton (i think if i was on a team i would want to be the hitter tbh?) and love the subversion of so many action hero tropes that he is, also endlessly amused by how very put upon he is despite all his rad/random skills

who is your least favorite character in 1? (natsume yuujinchou) oh seiji matoba for sure, he can go eat a mouldy tree stump. absolutely evil nasty dude

what is your favorite episode of 4? (blackspot) the end of the road. great opening, didnt end up too devastating unlike a lot of the cases, Hermann was gr8, cool twist i hadnt super expected in the plot which was neat.

what is your favorite season of 5? (longmire) probs 1, walter reeally started to piss me off being Such A Man in later seasons, also me being extremely anxious about Henry and his life choices later, that creepy stalker storyline starting up with Someone and when Someone else in the main cast got died really suddenly and upsettingly later on as well, also when a weird relationship started between some of the characters that i really aint feeling so. before all that happened was nice (also sorry if this is super vague, im trying to avoid spoilers)

who is your favorite couple in 3? (B99) Besides Jake/Amy and Holt/Kevin (bc oviously theyre gr8) uh.. i know it was a long time ago and didnt last very long, but i thought rosa and marcus were really sweet? it brought another layer out to her character, even when they broke up that helped rosa starting to show emotional vulnerability and all, even tho it ended it was still just, idk, i liked them.

who is your favorite couple in 2? (leverage) Does trio count, cos Parker/Eliot/Harding 4 life yo

what is your favorite episode of 1? (natsume yujinchou) i have sooo many faves ahhh!!! i dont think i could pick just one on pain of death, every episode is acrefully cosntructed gem all on its own and i have too many that i love and adore to pick jsut one :((

what is your favorite episode of 5? (longmire) Dog soldier!! ive rewatched that one a ton, so so many good bits, really satisfying resolution of the case despite the shitty system that was revealed, and i rmr getting chills by the end the first time i saw it.

what is your favorite season of 2? (leverage) i guess season 1? just, idk, everything being set up and watching all these grumpies/less grumpies who have no plans to stay together start working together as a baby team, and just the joy of seeing their first heist together with the first plot twist, just.. such a delight, but all seasons that ive seen so far were all excellent, it’s a stellar show

how long have you watched 1? (natsume yujinchou) oh idk exactly, like years and years man... defs the longest out of all on this list

how did you become interested in 3? (b99) i think it was just on netflix way back in season 1 and i started watching it, loved it and never stopped? i think that might have even been before it got rlly popular lol

who is your favorite actor in 4? (blackspot) i dont rlly know any of these french peeps? but teddybear’s one of my fave characters, so hopefully the person who plays him is also cool, in which case hubert delattre (if not, Suliane Brahim does a v good job as the lead)

which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5? (natsume yujinchou, leverage or longmire) um... real torn between natsume and leverage here, they’re both such lovely gems that do found family so, so well.. leverage is a team of modern robin hood-esque spies with brilliant writing and exciting heists and multiple delightful plot twists every episode and great character building and so much catharticism in ruining evil rich peoples lives.

but natsume’s title character is one of my very favorite characters ever, hes been through so much but he becomes the most kindest and thoughtful boy ever, and its so, so soft and gentle in its development of characters and their slow build of getting to know each other and becoming friends, and the interactions with the paranormal world are very rarely entirely malicious/scary, and there’s pretty well no romance, at least like no romance for plot/with the main characters anyways, and there’s lots of female characters who have important roles but arent sexualized/killed off for man feels/exist for romo (which sadly cannot be said about a lot of media, especially manga/anime tbh, even leverage does not win entirely on that front).. its defintiely my favorite anime ever (i dont watch loads, but literally no other one can ever come close to topping its perfection),

i guess tho, leverage is over, and natsume is still technically ongoing, so i guess for that then i have to go with natsume?

which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3? (natsume yuujinchou or b99) Natsume for sure, they’re so short its easy to power thru like half a season in an afternoon

if you could be anyone from 4, who would you be? (blackspot) i would probably want to be someone who didnt live in villefranche actually haha uh, it’s a pretty spoopity place.. even some of the characters i do like make some Bad decisions that are v bothersome. Dr. Leila barami seems to have a good head on her shoulders tho, so if i Must be a character here then let’s go with her

would a crossover between 3 and 4 work? (b99 or blackspot) oh god... the cheery upbeat department at the 99 meet up with a grim, misty tiny mountain forest village with bleak day to day life, solving crimes amidst small town paranoia and weird maybe cult-related conspiracies and honestbhly something/s paranormal and menacing going on in the woods?? i just... cant see any of the characters even interacting lol, im just picturing jake’s confused befuddled face when he hears something weird but like x 10000

pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple? (natsume yujinchou) hm... i mean, one of the things i love about Natsume is that there arent really any romo relationships tbh? at least not with any of the main characters in the main storyline (so far), just like the odd one-off of minor characters (and takashi’s adopted parents ofc, but that’s different). so, yeah, i cant really think of one (although i think the big fandom fave ship of takashi and his worst enemy is rlly.. nope, and i dont know what’s going on there? takashi and tanama however, that would make sense, tho it is not unlikely so i cant answer this question with them)

overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5? (b99 or longmire) b99! cos ya know my annoyances with some of the stuff happening later on in longmire lol, b99 just got better n better as it went along, and it’s still going :’)

which has the better theme music, 2 or 4? (leverage or blackspot) blackspot has a real good eerie atmospheric theme which is gr8 and i love it <3 (leverage’s tune is like, elevator music/cheesy jazzy spy tune, which does suit it tho lol)

and idk, anyone bored and stuck at home who wants to do this? no pressure if ur like nah but if u wanna go ahead.... @creepy-friend-of-darkness @anna-wa @rhinky-thingz @rexbasileus @aeolian-harp @warrenkoles @softbrobarnes @damnitttana @cluelesswolf @moondoggiestyle @blloodorangeisthenewblack @my-nail-beds-suck @frankiecolours @savvylikeyeahhh @lake-effectkidx @justhugharry @casualmisandry @j4ya @galaxygalpals @thesecondwarm @dealwright @knipperdollin @curlycombover @kaspbrakeddie (and if i didnt tag u and u still wanna do this, consider yeself tagged)

[halfthealphabet]

Five male characters I love:

I was tagged by @captstjohn thank youuuu!!! 

(I’ll stick to TV to make it easier) 

1. Alec Hardison- Hardison is such an open and caring soul, who is a ray of sunshine compared to the rest of the cast, who are more on the angsty side. I love the subversion of the geek being very socially adept and understanding people. I also love love LOVE his scenes with Parker and Eliot and letting them be vulnerable and he is so supportive and ugh, I just love him. I also love that he’s cocky and immature, like he’s not flawless, he’s this very vivid character, as is the whole cast, and I love that he isn’t perfect. 

2. Landon Kirby- I wasn’t going to put him down cause he was mentioned by the lovely person who tagged me, but he deserves all the love. I love Landon because so often, even on Legacies, teenagers don’t feel like teenagers. Landon feels awkward and I love how awkward he is. I also love that he loves people and openly cares and accepts that he is a bit of a people pleaser but hasn’t lost who he is to other people’s wants and wishes. Oh, and also he’s 100% ace and I didn’t know how much I needed to see a guy on TV be uncertain and nervous about sex but his arc with that was just soooo lovely to me. And his relationship with Raf and Hope are so important to me. 

3. Bellamy Blake- I’m gonna be honest, I don’t really watch The 100 anymore. Just random clips here and there. But I read soooo many fics about Bellamy and Clarke, I need to talk about Bellamy Blake, mother hen extraordinaire. I love that people have found these characters and written happier endings for them, softer stories, allowing them to just . . .exist and not make terrible choices every day. I love Bellamy’s arc, or what I’ve seen of it. S1-S2 he grows so much. He tries every day to be a better person and that takes so much work. 

4. Max Evans- This season of Roswell NM has been rough for me so far and I think the lack of Max is a huge part of that. Tbh I debate between max and Kyle as my favorite guy for this show, but it depends on the day. Max is great because he is so open with his emotions. So often we see male characters struggle with romantic relationships because they struggle to understand and communicate their feelings. Max does not have these problems and it’s so refreshing to me. He also acknowledges his mistakes and tries to atone for them (and does!!!) (he freaking brought Rosa back from the dead???) 

5. Oliver Queen- I don’t talk about Oliver enough cause Felicity gets most of my love but like, his arc is like, the completely reversing his toxic masculinity and that’s so beautiful to me??? Like, he starts out as this guy being alone and killing and not communication and keeping secrets and every season, we see him open up and lose these layers of secrets and embracing the people around him. And he regresses, he closes off, it’s not a simple and straight forward journey. And even though I fell out of love with the show, I admire Oliver’s arc so much. 

Bonus mentions: Zuko, Rafael Waither, MG Greasley, Pacey Witter, Micheal Cordero, Duke Crocker, Nathan Wuornos, Jack Carter, John Diggle, White Josh Wilson, Greg Serrano, Derek Morgan  . . .. I could go on forever lol (if anyone wants me to gush about a character literally all you have to do is ask lol) 

Tagging (if you want): @acelandonkirby​ @lesbianmaxevans​ @yikes-in-the-yard​ @nerdishfeels​ @iamnotfromthisplanet​ @blvckwidow​ @cookiedoughmeagain​ @wonderdoves​ @craashdowns​ @maxortecho​

[augustheart]

leverage for all >:3

i hate this fucking family. i crossed out some of them like best theme (i’m not a music person, so i don’t really pay attention unless it really stands out) but left the majority in because unlike miss 2059 they have multiple sets and a large cast. 

Top 5 Episodes?

The Rashomon Job

The Office Job

The Rundown Job (...even if I have to skip it right now)

The Big Bang Job

The First Contact Job

Pretty much all of them fit here! I have so many move I love (like The Grave Danger Job and The DB Cooper Job and The Long Goodbye Job and and and)! And I really mean that! I keep fighting to narrow it down! Except...

Bottom 5 Episodes?

The Cross My Heart Job (that one fucking scene...)

The White Rabbit Job

The Frame-up Job (it’s good! It’s a good episode! I just...)

That one joke in The Broken Wing Job :(

The Morning After Job

Top 5 Characters?

Parker

Hardison

Eliot

Sophie

Nate gets to be last.

Bottom 5 Characters?

I guess just... most of the marks? They succeed at making them truly disgusting. 

Top 5 Romantic Ships?

Just really the three. With Leverage I don’t take much more than what canon already gave me romance-wise. So that’s Parker/Eliot/Hardison, just Parker/Hardison, and then several tiers down Nate and Sophie. There’s some other generally cute stuff I think could happen between people in different jobs (Amy and Josie, anyone?) or stuff I think definitely happened (see: Tara and Sophie) but. Nothing main.

Bottom 5 Romantic Ships?

Nothing really goes here... I guess the ones that I just can’t see are Sophie with anyone but Nate and Tara and Maggie, similarly Nate with anyone but Sophie and maybe previously Sterling, and (I’ve already made a post about this) just Eliot and Parker is... impossible for me to see. I don’t know why.

Top 5 Platonic Ships?

Everyone. Just everyone :)

Bottom 5 Platonic Ships?

Yeah I don’t know. I barely know what this question is asking me. 

Season Ranking?

Agh this one is hard. Maybe season three, season four, season five, season two, season one? I don’t know!

Character You Relate To The Most?

Parker. Obviously. Autism. Y’know.

Character That Inspires You?

All of them inspire me to be gay and do crime. (For legal reasons this is a joke.)

Character You Can’t Understand?

Best Written Character?

Oh they’re all just written so well! That’s the thing! They’re all written so well!

Worst Written Character?

My instinct is to put Tara here but... I don’t think that’s her fault or the fault of the writers, really. It just happened like that. 

Most Cliched Character?

Probably Eliot or Hardison in terms of bare-bones character jist, but they turn those clichés on their heads, so...

Most Unusual Character?

Parker. Autistic? Woman? Foster care system and abuse survivor? Gets to be in a healthy and very loving relationship with someone (or two someones) without being “fixed?” Don’t see that every day!

Most Inspired Storyline?

All of it. Inspired. I love crime. (For legal reasons this is a joke.)

Favorite Hero?

All of the above?

Favorite Villain?

Moreau is very delightfully slimy. 

Best Person?

Hardison. No further comment. 

Most Influential Character?

Sophie. Her mind. Her power. Her influence. It amazes her sometimes. 

Most Manipulative Character?

Honestly... I could put Nate here. I’m not going to. But I could. 

Best Performance in an Episode?

Oh my g-d Aldis Hodge in The Grave Danger Job... when they let him shine in The Van Gogh Job... damn. 

Most Visually Stunning Episode?

Most Impressive Special Effects?

Character with the Best Aesthetics?

Parker. Very practical. Very good for moving. (But I think visually I’m probably closest to Hardison.)

Favorite Song?

Best Writer?

John Rogers we love you and we’re thrilled you’re here. 

Favorite Theme?

5 Words You Associate _____ With?

[optimisticsprinkles]

Bored?

Check out my AO3 Bookmarks. Literally everything I’d recommend is there. Some of it is other fandoms, but the majority is Reylo. :D

You have no idea the treasure trove I found the day I searched for Rated G stories tagged Humor under 20k words, sorted by number of bookmarks. It was a smorgasbord of yay.

---------------------

Non-Reylo Fandoms

(descriptions in case you want to try and branch out)

Good Omens - Originally a book, now a Netflix show. A lazy angel and demon have been friends since Adam and Eve. They’ve spent millennia phoning in their duties on Earth, and they end up working together to save the world because they actually like the world.

Teen Wolf - The main character, Scott, gets turned into a werewolf. His best friend is a geeky human, Stiles, who is amazing at researching supernatural things, and these two have to work with a grumpy scowly tragic-backstory born werewolf (Derek) to find and stop the bad werewolf. Stiles saves Derek’s life a lot, and other things happen over a bunch of seasons and other characters matter, but Stiles and Derek are a very popular ship despite both being straight in the show. The pairing appeals to me because I love awkward geeky smart boys, and who can resist a talkative cheerful type getting together with a grump?

Yuri!! on Ice - The anime can be found streaming online, but it's basically about a gay relationship forming on the backdrop of men's figure skating. Yuuri is a shy bespectacled Japanese athlete, and Victor is his sexy, effervescent, Russian idol who takes a break from figure skating to coach Yuuri. Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts, though the only onscreen kiss was censored (hidden by a character’s arm) so you don’t actually see it. It was revolutionary for depicting a healthy romantic relationship between two men instead of playing it for humor, drama, or fanservice.

Leverage - A show about con artists conning criminals and scammers out of stuff. It’s very unbelievable but fun mostly because of Hardison (hacker), Eliot (hitter), and Parker (thief). I honestly felt nothing for the team leader (Nate) or grifter (Sophie) characters, who acted kind of like the mom and dad of the team, but I LOVED the other three. Parker in particular is amazing (it’s never stated in the show, but she’s supposed to be on the autism spectrum). She’s so quirky! I’m still deciding which fic plotlines I prefer for this fandom, but there are a few really funny ones.

Descendants - Four kids of Disney villains are taken off an island where villains are exiled and go to school with the kids of Disney heroes. The movies are arguably enjoyable, depending on your preferences. An interesting dynamic in some of the best fanfiction is pairing all four of them together romantically. Polyamory isn’t my thing, but several stories are well-written enough (and plot-driven enough) for even me to enjoy.

Merlin - Magic in Camelot is punishable by death, and teenage Merlin (who is basically made of magic) ends up as Prince Arthur’s manservant. Shenanigans ensue. Merlin saves Arthur’s life a lot but keeps his magic hidden, and Arthur isn’t very nice at the start of the show. Merlin and Arthur have a destiny and are “two sides of the same coin” and that lends itself very well to them as a ship, especially soulmate stories. Also, Merlin is a clumsy geek and secret magical badass, and I am here for that.

Once Upon A Time - I didn’t get past season... 5? 6? So I might like other characters, but until then the best character was Rumpelstiltskin, and he also occupied the role of Beast and thus his true love was Belle, and I like that pairing. :D He’s such a great badguy, and Belle is a librarian. Come on, y’all. LIBRARIAN! Squee!

James Bond - In the Daniel Craig movies, Q is a hot geeky guy in glasses and that is 100% my weakness. James Bond is not my type, but I found some stories that focus more on Q and play him up as a kind of mad genius, Bond’s equal in the same way Merlin was Arthur’s equal.

[somebodyhelpthenotdeadfreds]

5 current OTPS

@owlettica tagged me in this, like, WEEKS ago, so I’m finally getting down to it. I tried to pick across a few different shows, because honestly, I have like two or three OTPs per show.

1. Constangreen (LOT): LOVES OF MY LIFE. Currently, this is the ship I write the most for. Disaster bisexual magician John Constantine meets disaster Time Bureau agent Gary Green. 

Kissing in their FIRST EPISODE WHEN THEY MEET. 

Open seduction over a DnD game same episode. 

A CUT SCENE WHERE GARY ASKS JOHN OUT ON A DATE AND JOHN AGREES. 

“Did Constantine get you to squeal?” pouty lips and wistful eyes “I wish.”

They did a thing to question Gary’s virginity (then totally banged after an evil unicorn attack)

They’re beautiful soft nerds and I want them to be happy together.

2. Hannigram (Hannibal)- I mean....c’mON Y’ALL. Three seasons of delicious tension, they’re jagged puzzle pieces that fit together perfectly. They need each other, they complete each other no matter how much they fight it at first. I will never be over the ‘with my hands’ bit, or the meeting in Florence, or that gorgeous finale. One day we’ll get season four and confirm they’re living together in Cuba with a dog, occasionally killing a rude person. Living their best lives like Gomez and Morticia Addams.

3. Villanelle (Killing Eve) - MY GIRLS! This is my most recent obsession, and I love them for a lot of the same reasons I love Hannigram. But Villaneve just has a more - sensuality to it? I know, crazy, because Hannibal is like THAT, dial on sensuality turned all the way up. But while Hannibal and Will, it’s the eye contact and communicating through murder and words, Villanelle and Eve TOUCH each other quite a lot. They both know what they want and aren’t afraid to GO FOR IT, either of them, and I’ll never be over ‘sorry, baby’ for making me melt into my couch exploding into excited giggles. (sidenote, Villaneve and Hannigram crossover fic coming in the near future!)

4. Nygmobblepot - ....I have a trend in my ships, I know. Look, these assholes are unhealthy in all the ways and yet - it’s for that reason alone they deserve each other. I shipped it in season one, harder in season two, season three made Oswald DECLARE HIS LOVE. Listen, they need each other because no matter how often they try to kill each other, there’s love there. And if the show ends without a truce between them and a partnership, that’s a damn shame.

5. Eliot/Hardison/Parker (Leverage_ - LEVERAGE, MY COMFORT SHOW. After three dark ships, let’s lighten it up with the best OT3 ever. Hitter, hacker, and thief, and they just work together so well. It’s an even partnership and relationship, and I love how they stick together and support each other through all of their endeavors and heists. They’re so sweet, my heart melts with them.

I’ll tag @agentmarymargaretskitz, @wavebider, @kingjem, @storm89, and @conner-anthony. And anyone else who wants to do this!

[pale-silver-comb]

Aloha! You did it, you made me watch 5 seasons of Leverage in about a week. Thank you, I love them all and miss them already. Where is my spin-off with the OT3? Where? I do have a question though, what do you think are the living arrangements for the team? We once see Parker's storage unit and it is pretty clear at least Parker and Hardison live above the brew pub. Did they ever talk about moving in together? Did I miss something? Do I have to watch it all from the start? What a hardship ;-)

Asdfghjkl!!!!! I feel like I’ve collected a family of new Leverage fans in the past three weeks AND I’VE LOVED EVERY SINGLE MOMENT OF IT.

Also. A week????? Bloody hell. That’s dedication. I miss them too. I’ve started watching it all again for that very reason.

Oooh oooh oooh! I do have thoughts about this.

I think Parker and Eliot would still have separate living spaces to start with. Even if Parker lives with Hardison above the Brew Pub on the main, I think she’d still need space sometimes. Whether that be something similar to her old storage unit or just sleeping in the air vents of the Brew Pub every so often. However, by season 5 I feel she’d be pretty settled on the whole. Mostly because I never imagine Hardison would have asked her to move in. Hardison gets Parker and he’s always respected her boundaries and let her move at her own pace. So I imagine when Hardison bought the Brew Pub, he bought it with Parker and Eliot in mind (see: those sweet, sweet high ceilings and large air vents/A WHOLE PUB FOR ANGRY LITTLE CHEF MEN TO COOK IN ‘TIL THEIR HEART’S CONTENT) but with no pressure. Parker probably moved herself in one day. Or stayed the first night and never really left. Much to Alec’s delight.

Eliot though. Eliot I imagine takes much longer. Post-canon. Despite establishing that this thing between them is, indeed, a relationship relationship, not Hardison/Parker + Eliot for as long as they all shall live, I think Eliot would still be…slow moving. When they first get to Portland, Eliot will have had his own place, I’m sure of it. There’s no way he clocks that the Brew Pub is for him (and I’m sure Hardison planned it that way).  

However, we all know this soft boy has dreams of running Hardison’s pub until his dying day. He’s fooling no-one with that “I guess this is my life now” act. He’ll never admit it but he sees himself as an old man in that pub, with an equally old Hardison and Parker to bicker with and feed. It sets his little heart aglow (not that he’d ever admit that either.) However, Eliot’s probably not thought about settling down with anyone but himself since Aimee. The thought probably scares him, just a little. Not because he’s scared of committing to Parker and Alec or that he’d ever let them down, but because he honestly thought he’d never get this. He took “happily ever after” off the table long ago and now here’s the two most wonderful, infuriating people he’s ever met offering it to him. Just like that.

Hardison is savvy to this though and I think he’d end up building Eliot a separate apartment over the Pub. Or give him a separate room in the apartment they already have. One that Eliot gradually moves into. He’d make it about the Pub and not him and Parker because Eliot needs to do things on the basis he’s helping someone, doing good. He won’t do it for himself. I can imagine Parker getting a little frustrated with how long it’s taking Eliot to move in with them but it’s a good balance because while Hardison is prepared to go as slow as Eliot needs, Parker is always the one insisting it’s silly that Eliot keeps going back to his own apartment when he could stay for cuddles and breakfast. This more or less always convinces Eliot (who is genuinely worried the two people he loves most in the world will die of poor eating habits before anything else).

I don’t think Parker would ever give up her living space away from the Pub. Even if she rarely uses it I think she’d like having the choice. Eliot, though. Eliot may take odd jobs that take him away from Parker and Hardison from time to time, but once he’s moved in he’s there for good. I like to think Hardison buys a huge bed for them all to sleep in but sometimes he’ll wake up and Parker will be sleeping in the air vents or the roof or whatever other small space she can find. Whereas Eliot, while mostly content to sleep curled up next to them, sometimes ends up sleeping on the couch or decides he’s had enough sleep by 4am and goes down to the Brewery to try out new things for the menu. On occasion, Parker will find him and join him there and will silently taste test all the food Eliot makes until the sun comes up. It’s a private thing they share and usually always ends in Parker convincing Eliot to make them all some ludicrous breakfast, like rainbow waffles or “morning chicken”. (It doesn’t matter how many times Eliot tells Parker putting “morning” in front of a food item doesn’t make it breakfast, she never listens, and he always caves.)

The best thing for Parker and Eliot though? The knowledge that one Alec Hardision will always, always be in that bed. Their bed. No matter what, they know he’s not going anywhere. Ever. Will always welcome them without judgement. Just open arms and that smile they love so, so much.

[thieves-never-say-die]

Fic Rec List

A couple people asked me to make a list of some of my favorite Leverage fics and I may have gotten a little carried away. Plastic Pearls, Hearts Wrapped in Clover, and By Paths Coincident are my top 3 all time favorite Leverage fics. The rest are in no particular order and there’s a couple crossovers at the bottom

Top 3

Plastic Pearls by BabylonsFall. 8 chapters, complete

When Parker and Hardison move to Portland to get a change of scenery, they pick a place almost at random. Lucky for them, they end up across from single-parent Eliot . Though the relationship between Eliot and Molly is clearly a little rough around the edges, he's trying his best, and Molly, in turn, has learned to copy his glare impressively well.Neither Hardison nor Parker are looking for anything life-changing, and, frankly, Eliot's had his fill of life-changing events for the next couple of years. (Too bad for them then.)

Hearts Wrapped in Clover by BabylonsFall. 14 chapters, complete

Hardison, Parker, Nate, and Sophie have managed to successfully run Leverage, Inc. on their own, for three years running now. But when the bullet meant for a mark strikes a little too close to home, and outside pressures start threatening the team, they decide to split up, to lay low, running from both the Italian’s threats and Moreau’s attention. Nate and Sophie head out to provide a moving target, Hardison and Parker disappear into the countryside to the very last place anyone would think to look for them. And, just their luck, the neighbor’s even weirder than they are.

By Paths Coincident by Honorat. 31 chapters, WIP

The Librarians discover Leverage International.  Jacob Stone and Eliot Spencer have a family past, but they aren’t the only members of the two teams who’ve met before. Expect whiplash between light and dark.  Set around the middle of the first season of The Librarians and after the fifth Season of Leverage.

Not Eliot’s Dog by Honorat. 3 chapters, complete

Eliot does not have a dog, he DOESN'T, the fleabag just keeps following him around. Hardison’s POV

Three-Card Monte series by Babylonsfall. 5 works

Unrelated Hardison/Parker/Eliot drabbles with a three-part frame

Friendship’s a Habit (We Just Can’t Kick) by BabylonsFall. One-shot

He knew when it started. But he couldn’t put a date on when it became expected. Or when it became less of Sophie needing someone to vent to, and more two people leaning on each other.

2 o’clock in the Afternoon by Babylonsfall. One-shot

It's Eliot's turn to clean the apartment. And, if he's alone, why not dance a little? Not like there's anyone to see.

Finding Forward by thosepreciouswalls. One-shot

“Are we good?” Eliot asks him, before they split up for the evening, after everything. Hardison can’t believe what he’s hearing.

Or: How they found their way back after what happened in the Big Bang Job (s3e15).

Leverage in between by thosepreciouswalls. 13 chapters, WIP

Collection of tags for Leverage, from s04e01 (The Long Way Down Job) and forward.

It’s a Hard Knock Life (Sometimes) by ladyjax. One-shot

When Parker takes in a kid in need, adjustments are in order

The Occam’s Razor Job by Valawenel. 36 chapters, complete

Somebody’s trying to kill the Leverage team.

Light Between Fingers by Chancy_Lurking. One-shot

The thing about having so many magicals, Eliot thinks, is that there wasn’t a good way to anticipate how their abilities will work with one another’s. They’re a deck made of all wild cards, that’s why they work, they have to be hard to classify. Still, the longer you play with the same trick deck, the more you’re supposed to recognize the patterns hidden in the designs.

(Or, the one in where Leverage Consulting consists of a shape shifter, a seer, a fairy child, a empathetic psychic, and kitchen witch, all the very best at what they do. However, as always, being the best earns them a little more attention than they bargained for, of course.)

Hitters Make the Worst Patients by Musingmidge77. One-shot

There's a saying that doctors make the worst patients. The team at Leverage Consulting is pretty sure that title belongs to hitters. Their's in particular. Tag to S3E8, The Boost Job

Solicited Noods by Lynne_monster. One shot

Peggy invites Parker to attend a Fancy Food Festival, and it leads to conversations about cats, a weekend of food tastings, one (1) adorably annoying love interest, and a side of attempted murder.

(Or, What Parker knows about friendship is this. Friends don’t let friends fall into the clutches of international criminals. Unless they're good-guy criminals. Or a bad friend.)

Don’t Send Me Flowers When I’m Dead (Send Them While I’m Still Alive) by ravelqueen. One shot

"Maybe the flowers aren’t for him, since they haven’t exactly been sent to his address (if they had, he doesn’t care, he doesn’t care what it might do to the team, what it would do to Hardison and Parker, he’d be gone)"

Moreau always tries to keep tabs on Eliot. And makes sure to let him know

Crossovers

Leverage/MCU

It’s a Very Distinctive Family Resemblance by copperbadge. One-shot

Eliot Spencer comes from a long line of knife-wielding, long-haired troublemakers.

Leverage/Librarians

Against the Rules by ohHeyThereBigBadWolf. One-shot

You can't die if someone else is wearing your tags. It's against the rules. It's part joke, part superstition, part something else that isn't quite so easily put in words

Brothers Series by zathara001. 11 works

Jake and Eliot run into each other after years of being apart

Prodigal by Silence89. One-shot

“Hey, Pop,” Eliot says, stepping forward.

Jake Stone and Eliot Spencer are identical twins, both living in Portland. It's probably just a matter of time until they meet. But then again, Eliot travels a lot for work.

The Things We Lose Series by butyoucancallmemeg. 2 works

Eliot can’t stop thinking about the kid he met down in that mine - Cory. He’s young, his whole life ahead of him, and he’s going to spend it in a town that’s too small for his big, smart head. He spins an empty shot glass distractedly with one hand, thinking about being eighteen and making big, life-changing decisions - like joining the army right out of high school. Like leaving behind a shitty father, a shitty town, but also a brother who’s really older by about ten minutes - who was still always the little one, somehow.

[neighbours-kid]

Dammit, Dean Devlin.

Once upon a time, there was this little show called Leverage.

It first aired in 2008. It had 5 seasons, 77 episodes, 5 main characters.

I was probably fifteen when I first laid eyes on this little show. I was at my dad's, it was some time after dinner, we were watching TV. And there it was, that first episode. We watched it, it was fun.

Over the course of a couple of years, I kept catching that episode on TV. But only the first one. Never more than that.

I forgot about it and was surprised every time I saw the episode. And I kept thinking, I wanna check this out, this looks like fun.

I think either shortly before the last season aired in 2012, or shortly after, I finally remembered the show well enough to go, okay, let's watch this. I have not been the same person since.

This little show called Leverage is without a doubt the best show I have ever seen in my life, and it is to this day still the only thing that has never disappointed me once. I loved Chuck, but it was not perfect. I had issues with it. I love the Marvel Netflix stuff, I think it's fun. But it's not perfect. I adore NCIS and The Mentalist. Are they perfect? Nope.

But I cannot find one single flaw about Leverage. I love it with all my heart and I would not change one single thing. Well, maybe I would've not cancelled it after five seasons. But even with that....it rounds off so perfectly. The last season, the finale, it is so fucking perfect.

One of the things that made Leverage so perfect, were the absolutely fantastic main characters and the development they had over those five seasons. I feel like I could write endlessly about the character development in this show. It's so marvellous and so well done.

You have Nate Ford, the "leader" of the group, this little family. The ex-insurance fraud detective, so broken, so flawed, such a wonderful jerk. He makes sure that the plans work, he is the mastermind behind their cons, their grifts, their thefts. He is the puppet master. Ah, I adooooore him. His alcoholism and control issues were never glamorised, it wasn't sugarcoated, and he was not vilified for it. He grew so much in those five seasons, he changed a lot, and yet he never betrayed his own character. Tim Hutton just smashes this role. I really, truly adore him.

You have Sophie Devereaux, femme fatale, grifter extraordinaire, a character so diverse, so beautifully portrayed by Gina Bellman, from episode to episode different, and yet still only one very complex and wonderfully crafted character. While Nate is the one who makes sure that the plan works, Sophie is the one to make sure that everyone gets out of it alive, unharmed, safe. She is the caretaker. To watch a grifter struggle with identity issues is such a great thing. Watching Sophie finding herself, finding her own dreams and ambitions, finding her calling over those five seasons, was such a treat.

That's the "parents". Then you have the "kids".

Alec Hardison, a motherfuckin' ray of sunshine. Hardison is the nerd, the geek, master of computers, the best hacker on earth, and just an all around joy. Only 22 when they started filming, Aldis Hodge is so fucking young but he plays him like a master. Aldis absolutely acts the shit out of that character. Hardison is such a sweetheart. On my first round through the show, he was definitely my favorite character, I identified with him so much. He was handsome, he was elegant, he had style, he was such a beautifully crafter character, and he still was the nerd and he is still black. You don't usually get that. Hardison is so incredibly kind and loving and all he wants is for his little family of criminals to feel good, to be safe, to feel loved. He gives them a home wherever they go. Aldis Hodge fucking rocked this role and I can't do anything but applaud him.

Then you have Parker, the all around misfit. Usually, in every other show, her character would be dismissed as either the "beauty" just there for the male gaze, or the weirdo who is the butt of every joke. But not with Leverage. Just like the other characters, she is wonderfully portrayed by Beth Riesgraf, has so many interesting layers and we learn so much about her over those five seasons. Parker is the world's greatest thief, she likes money for money's sake, she experienced a lot of bad things, was hurt in so many ways, and came out of it anyway. She found her own family, the people who did not dismiss her as a freak, an outcast, but embraced her being different, maybe a little weird, and loved her anyway. The relationships she builds with the other characters are so very different from each other, so well thought out, so wonderfully done. And what Leverage does so masterfully is that it does not pit Sophie and Parker against each other. It gives you a beautiful friendship between those two women, who could not be different from each other. There is so much love, respect and understanding between those characters. It's so refreshing to see. Have I mentioned how much I love this show already? I fucking love this show.

And then you have Eliot Spencer. Oh, I could cry buckets just thinking about him. I have never in my life seen such beautiful character development. What they did with Eliot over those five seasons is an absolute masterpiece of writing. Eliot -- the hitter, the fighter, the stone cold cowboy, whose fists say more than his mouth -- that guy changes so much. But not just that, he's not just the fighter. He's the "beau" mostly, and not Sophie. And he is incredibly passionate about cooking. You have this knife-wielding, punch-throwing, fucking badass, and he loves cooking. There is so much history revealed over the course of the show and he learns so. fucking. much. He goes from "You all annoy me and I'm just here for revenge and money" to "I will protect these people from this unjust world with my life and I would take on dragons and mountain trolls if it meant that they are safe and protected". Christian Kane is such a wonderful actor and he gives this character an immense amount of depth and he has more than three dimensions. Eliot is a masterpiece. And I love him to pieces. I could write ESSAYS about him. Long, wordy, essays.

You have this beautiful little family of thieves, of criminals, con-men, flawed, hurt, wonderful people. Incredibly gorgeously crafted characters, played so magnificently by all these great, amazing actors.

Leverage has rocked my world and sparked so many different interests in me. I would be a completely different person without it. I have no idea how many times I have watched it through. I spent at least half a year just going through it over and over and over again. As soon as I watched the finale, I put the first season on again, no stops, no pauses. It never got boring, I kept seeing new things, kept making connections between certain things. This show brought me so much joy. I love it with all my heart.

What Dean Devlin and John Rogers created is a show that makes me feel at home, that makes my heart swell with love, that was just absolutely fucking perfect. And still, it got cancelled and the last season ended in 2012.

Two years later, a NATO counter terrorism agent is in the middle of taking down terrorist and stopping a bomb from exploding, when suddenly an arrogant, brilliant, kind of dashing guy shows up, talks about ancient artefacts and curses and mythologies, and helps the agent stopping the bomb.

And with that, The Librarians is born. Or better yet, reborn into a tv show. By whom? None other than John Rogers and Dean Devlin.

What is it? Well, it's a little show that just finished it's fourth season. It's a show about a team of people who would've never found together if they had not been thrown into this adventure. They could not be different.

You have Flynn Carsen, a kind of arrogant, incredibly brilliant and well-versed guy, who is kind of dashing, has a tendency to go off and do things by himself, and is, more or less, the "leader" of the group.

You have Eve Baird, ex-NATO agent, the actual leader of the group, the protector, who sees to it that everyone gets out of the adventures alive. She is the guardian. Eve is a strong, independent woman who don't need no man, but chooses to have one anyway, because that self-destructive, arrogant idiot is so very intriguing, and he genuinely cares about her.

You have Ezekiel Jones, a Korean-Australian, nerd, computer genius, thief and, deep down, a sweetheart. He is more arrogant than anyone, he loves nothing more than himself, and saying his name, but he does have a heart. A big one. And he loves his new-found family.

You have Cassandra Killian, a quirky, pretty, absolutely brilliant young lady, who does not always fit in. She gets excited about things at the wrong time, she is overly hyperactive at times, but so so loyal, and caring, and loving.

And then you have Jacob Stone. The fighter. The brawler. The country kid from Oklahoma. The one you look at and think, that guy has skin like stone, nothing can hurt him, and he has no soft side. You have this tough ass bitch of a guy.... and he is soooooooo passionate about art, about architecture, about literature, about poetry. He quotes some author in every episode. He gets excited about museums and buildings and old symbols and engravings. And he cares so much about these people he only just met, he will protect them with everything he's got. A big teddy bear, a softie.

(Then you also have Jenkins who is just absolutely fantastic and I adore him and I could go on for ages about him but words could not make him justice, so I'm not trying. Also, he is kinda not relevant for my point.)

Now look at those five characters.

Leader guy, arrogant, self-destructive, cares so much but can't really express it, runs from commitment for the longest time, but actually wants to stay, just doesn't know how?

Strong, independent woman who's actually kind of the leader, sees to it that everyone feels good, doesn't need a man, but falls for the one who runs away anyway?

Nerdy, non-white computer guy, who knows he is awesome at what he does, is unconventionally stylish compared to the usual type of this character, cares about his new found family a lot and tries to support them with new ideas?

Brilliant, weird woman but absolutely beautiful in her own way, very caring but can't express it sometime, quirky and hyperactive?

Badass softie with a super specific interest he is brilliant at despite it maybe being considered effeminate in comparison to his other super manly, buff-ness, played by Christian Kane?

Sound familiar?

Nate or Flynn, Sophie or Eve, Hardison or Ezekiel, Parker or Cassie, Eliot or Jacob?

I am NOT saying these are exactly the same characters, far from it. They are all their own wonderful selves. But there are similarities there that I just adore so much. I admit, I think of Jacob as just an alias of Eliot's that he had before he joined the Leverage crew, and he is indeed the very same person. But that's just me, because I love Leverage so much and I miss it with all my heart and having the opportunity to have Eliot live on in something else? I'll take it in a heart beat.

I started watching The Librarians a few weeks ago. I am close to finishing season three now. It took me about two seasons to warm up to Flynn, and I admit I still don't like him as much as I loved Nate. I admit, Ezekiel still pisses me off a lot because of his constant "I am Ezekiel Jones". And yet... I still like them. I still think they are wonderfully crafted characters.

I did not mean to like The Librarians. I did go into this show thinking that I probably won't like it because it's not Leverage. These are not my beloved characters and this is not the best show on earth. But it's a good show. It's a beautiful show. It's lovely.

And I fucking HATE that I like it so much, because I really did not want to love another show. I am so pissed at myself for really liking it.

But I do. And I wish this show all the best. Season four just ended and the campaigning for a fifth season is on its way. I think it really deserves it. I am so on board for a fifth season.

I have one more thing to say.

Dammit. Dammit, Dean Devlin. Dammit, John Rogers. I did not want to like this show. And yet your wonderful show is exactly that. Wonderful. Adorable. Lovely.

I really miss Leverage. I miss it so much. And I wish you'd make a movie, get the gang back together again for one last job. Just one more time breaking the law, no encores.

(Thank you Dean, John, and also Chris Downey, for Leverage. It still is everything I ever wanted from a TV show and still the only show that never disappointed me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You guys are the best.)