#let’s just say…. Eliot Fucked Up Big Time

[bunnykitty13]

sorta cleaned up a doodle from earlier this year as a cool down from comms …. back to my melodramatic furry oc roots

[fixated-on-something]

I think about the magicians too much so here are some of my favourite quotes

Silly ones

Julia and Quentin: DO WE NOT AMUUUUUSE?

Julia: We made up that dance and it was TERRIBLE!

Quentin: oh god

Julia: It was so.. white.. and BAD.

Penny: I like your sweater

Quentin: Are you saying that to be cruel?

Penny: No. I like your sweater, I saw no reason not to share

Quentin: Well then, shall we go fuck some shit up?

Penny: Yes.

Margo: Yes.

Eliot: Yes definitely. Definitely yes.

Penny: Agreed. Feelings are bullshit.

Alice: Is that a traveller thing?

Penny: It’s a hearing voices thing

Alice: Well at least it beats whatever you were snorting

Penny: Marginally.

Kady: Ok, Mindslut?

Quentin: I don’t know you EITHER, except that we just summoned a killer MOTHMAN from another WORLD!

Marina: Did you figure you wanted to learn magic at your blow dry last week?

Penny: You’re welcome. (Blows kiss)

Quentin: What does that mean????

Quentin: you really don’t have to try to make me feel better we basically just met

Eliot: Well, I bond fast. Time is an illusion…

Eliot: How about I find you, and I don’t say magic is real, but I do seduce you and so lift your spirits that life retains its sparkle for decades…

Quentin: …yeah that sounds nice thank you

Dream Alice: If you would shut up for 2 seconds this sex dream could pass the Bechtel test, Quentin

Eliot: Once one of them offered to blow me for a spell. It was barely worth it.

Quentin: Is someone being creepy on purpose?

Margo: that is…. Not super consistent with the books

Quentin (genuinely very distressed): no!!! It’s not!!!! And I find that devastating!!! ☹️

Quentin: You can’t possibly want to be a dick more than you want to live!

Eliot: Oh yes very pristine, it’s been taken over by a kiddy diddling mutant.

Penny: The hell are you drinking?

Alice: I don’t know- triple sec?

Penny: What did Quentin do.

Margo: So we are fucked without grease

Quentin: Sounds like us

Eliot: Must be a Monday. Onward to glory.

Penny: Whoa WHOA WE ARE NOT. NOT. Killing a U.S. senator. But we will commit a felony… almost as stupid.

Eliot: IHEREBYDECREE! Rulers… done gonna rumble.

Margo: Ps we still hate you, but it’s the 21st century it shouldn’t be this hard for a girl to get an evil demigod abortion.

Niffin Alice: what’s this bitch doing in my room?

Margo: By agreeing to marry a stranger on the spot?

Eliot: I did it!

Margo: That was different.

Eliot: You’re right. This would only really be equivalent if Ess was a girl, and you found pussy you know, interesting in a ‘sometimes you like Thai food’ kinda way and now it’s all Thai food forever TILL YOU DIE.

Eliot: Hooolyyy shit the walking plot twist returns

Penny: Hi I need something

Eliot: Shocker. Hey Fen look it’s Uncy Penny! That’s right, I knocked her up. No big deal.

Penny: Uh- congratulations?

Eliot: like I needed more people calling me daddy but yes, thanks, we’re… thrilled.

Eliot: I am in way over my head. I’m not even in control of which of my bodies is awake and my sexually aggressive wife- she could wake me up at any moment in Fillory and-

Fogg: There are certain student teacher boundaries which I prefer not to cross.

Penny: “Let’s go hunt the white lady?” People like me get SHOT for saying shit like that.

NOW THE HEART SHATTERING ONES

Eliot: Do you think it’s real?

Quentin: Some of the good parts have to be. At least I hope so.

Eliot: Things aren’t usually worth caring about

Margo: Eliot he’s gone. why are your torturing yourself?

Eliot: Because he’s gone. And it’s my fault. And of all the people in the world who don’t understand, somehow you top the list.

Quentin: Every book every movie… is about one special guy. The chosen. You know in real life, for every one guy there are a billion people who aren’t.

Margo: I'm a king. Not a goddamn princess. A king.

Julia: I think it’s because it happened. And there’s nothing… magic about it anymore.

Emily: I don’t blame myself. Except for when I first wake up… and when I go to bed, and all the time in between.

Then obviously any quite related to 3x05 and pretty much the entirety of The Mountain Of Ghosts

I missed a bunch and these are mostly season 1-2 because that’s when I was taking notes during my rewatch

[fluffypotatey]

Leverage 2x01

Yo ✌️ been some time since I’ve watched this show, but I am here!!!! New season new heists idk what I am getting into

Episode calls itself “the Beantown Bailout Job” 👀 so someone will be going to jail??? We’ll see I guess

the hell is Nate doing at an office??? no heist???? 🥺🥺🥺

no wait y’all they got back together end of s1 right????

the cut off at the finale was a fake out right???? my criminal found family are still in touch with each other right????

NATE IS NOT GETTING AN OFFICE JOB NO

lmao he did a batman (and yes!!! you would have hated it there Natty-boy)

ooooh ok and here we have our new poor souls for the episode 

????

Oh he’s the banker????

What are you doing dude listen to your daughter 

NATE NO

OH SHIT

ok if they hit Nate that will be a little funny

what a way to meet a new client lmao

DAM

OH SHIT

oh no the dad is gonna die

shit

Stressed

Leverage stop stressing me out challenge 

Oh hey! Dad isn’t dead

WE HAVE AN INTRO?????

Oh it’s so dated but I love it

Ok ok I think I see where this is going

Boss is so shifty. How dare you be so judgmental about alcoholics to Nate >:( he has just placed you on his shit list

awwww poor babygirl 🤧 

SOPHIEEEEEEE

SHE IS IN SOUND OF MUSIC

OH MY GOD

OH MY GOD

OHHHHHHH MY GOF

REUNIÓN

THEY 

THEY

REUNION

TO SEE SOPHIE

y’all I’m crying 🤧 so bad 

how dare they give Sophie bad reviews >:((((( 

Eliot 😂😂😂😂

“That’s very….Catholic” HELP 💀

Parker I love you

Hardinson I love you

ELIOT NO

“Not me!” Says the most criminal of them all

“I am not a thief” says the biggest thief of them all

OH SHIT

Sophie what accent was that???

PARKER

WHY ARE YOU A NUN

Hardinson already hacking shit my beloved

HARDINSON MY HACKER MY BELOVED

Eliot looks so excited saying he nabbed a briefcase

THEY ALREADY HAVE A PLAN I LOVE THEM

“What, you think she dresses like a nun for no reason?” “….she’s Parker.” no yeah that’s valid

Y’all we cannot just be 15 minutes in help me

This is such a nice apartment for one guy

Poor Eliot, always the guy (child) caught in the middle of the Nat/Sophie disaster affair

HARDINSON

OH MY GOD

fucking dying Parker the nun and Hardinson the priest help me

“I did look for you” NOBODY TOUCH ME

Parker are you flirting 👀👀👀

They just made his apartment their new office lmao

Love how Hardinson knows how to play Nate

“Oops,” says Hardinson because he, in fact, did see Eliot before he left and sent him to go look for more shit which just so happens to be in mob territory :)

YES ELIOT

LETS GO!!!! FUCK EM UP

Parker I love you

Nate :) it’s ok :) don’t hold yourself back :) help them out :) just this once yeah?

He can’t even help himself it’s so funny. He has to speak. He must share his knowledge 

I love how they all are like “yeah of course, Nate. Just one last job. Of course.”

YES HARDINSON AND PARKER FBI DUO BACK AGAIN (they aren’t playing fbi rn but you know what I mean)

Eliot & Hardinson my beloved

“Jimmy Ford’s kid” oh? They know his dad?

Love you Sophie <333333

Ohhhhhh I get it

Wait so is the dad going to die?????

Nate’s fatherly behavior coming out my beloved

NATE’S FATHERLY BEHAVIOR ACTIVATING HIS MOTIVATION FOR THIS SEASON

ok so I just know they did some extra shit we didn’t see which will tie this heist up nicely but AGH I WANNA KNOW

“There’s a problem” oh no! how will this interfere with the heist! i sure hope they have many contingencies 

Oh shit wait ok this is a big problem

“Make this up as we go” oh fuck 

Wait this guy sounds sO familiar

ELIOT!!!! ELIOT DAMGER

man, i sure hope Nate recorded all of that 👀

Eliot will not die 

WHO

NO 

WAIT HE IS FINE THO RIGHT???

Oh ok he’s fine it’s just Sophie

Sophie what are you planning 

Aw poor O’Hare

Love how Hardinson changes his voice for intimidation 

You are going shoot the dad in a hospital. Where the gunshot will be heard. As if no one will catch you. Yeah, sure go for it banker man

HAHA

LMAO THEY DID ROB IT

Awwwwww happy ending 🥰

“Still your last job?” Lmao 

Sophie you fucking liar you do not have a boyfriend

No 🥺 (y’all she doesn’t right?)

NO NATE >:( stop being dumb (ok fine just sniff it like a weird person i guess)

Well at least he paid 🙄

YES!!! APARTMENT OFFICE

THE GANG IS BACK

General thoughts: 

THE GANG IS BACK :D 

My only hope is that they don’t separate ever again in the future. Please. They are so lonely without each other. The fact that a Hardinson looked for Parker 🥺 and how he has probably looked for the rest of them. Just to keep tabs. Also how Hardinson knows a lot about Pakistan through White House emails and Eliot was in Pakistan!!!!! My ot3 heart 🤧(Yeah I am totally believing Hardinson checked the White House emails to keep tabs on Eliot. what about it?)

And how Sophie invited all of them to her show as a way of reuniting them, and her and Parker may have stayed in touch since they seem to have planned a surprise like 🥺 idk just the fact that Sophie and Parker are close gives me the warm and fuzzies

Omfg and the fact that their new office is Nate’s apartment and how everyone just falls into their roles so nicely. Like they never left it. As if it they’re all meant to be together 🫠

Love this show

[clarajohnson]

the magicians s1e12

guys i'm having so much fun with this rewatch (recap reminds me that richard killed his son through neglect and q betrayed alice with the threesome and julia's about to get duped by a fake goddess) um

this kitchen reminds me of the season 4 apartment but i'm having fun so i'm not gonna think about season 4

such a small thing but i have beef with the dude imbuing kady with faith by doing something for her like. i guess we disagree on what faith is!

you can't unring a bell so be certain when you call, julia!

poor penny getting stuck babysitting three neurotics and one alice (not neurotic relative to everybody else In This One Thing)

cannot get over q being the one who initiated it. i just can't.

jesus christ jason ralph is so hot

in 2015 you could sell an audience on the badassery of a line just by including the term patriarchy

please alice drinking triple sec :'''-)

we talk about alice's style being sexy librarian but it reads much more to me as a girl who knows she could fall at any second into twee oblivion so she's styling it in dark colors. i'm waiting for an owl necklace.

ooh! dionysus, okay!

i did NOT remember her hooking up with richard. but. i'm fine with it.

mannnnn i love julia wicker so much she is the epitome of the girl with an inch-thick tough exterior filled with love all the rest of the way through she is so special and good

fucking "didn't think you had that in you" go to hell quentin! oh MY cheating is okay YOUR consensual sex outside of a relationship is BAD! again this is why i hated him the first time around

How I was feeling about Quentin would have got us all killed. :l

i kind of feel like if he was a real person i would have bullied quentin coldwater or at least been very rude to him. sorry quentin!

lol the "janet" "actually it's margo" "this time" joke went over my head last time

I PLANNED MY WHOLE OUTFIT AROUND THAT BOTTLE !!!!!

truth serum is toxic and banned? interesting

"oh i was kind of poking around in the dark with that one" lollll my baby

quentin WOULD always bring up groundhog day. also he's actually stronger than me because if fogg told me i'd been killed in these exact circumstances 39 times i would absolutely lose all hope and try and beat the beast to the punch

penny has chemistry with everybodyyyyy

i'm in love with julia's pier one ass apartment

julia and q's reunion gets me so good !!!!! so bad !!!! "you smell the same" wow you guys should be friends forever for your entire lives and you WILL be!

julia calling god magic "some pretty eclectic shit" like it's a limited run pressing of a neutral milk hotel b-side

cool, useless, kind of gross

julia's destiny is to find a whole new kind of magic. do we think this happens? what is this referring to do we think?

the LOOK q gives julia after "richard gave it to me" so much immediate understanding and shit-stirring delight

it's crazy, like, not crazy but crazy that eliot stays so torn up about mike

"yeah, no, it still sounds bad."

JOSH HOBERMANNNNNNN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

please i did not remember that they were all going to fillory in like fucking ren fair cosplay

MAGIC IS FOR FIXING THINGS JULIA SAYS (also "if fixing things was easy everyone would do it" because somebody needs to fucking validate quentin now and then)

despite my indignation on julia's behalf i do love the choice of isolating her from the academic environment of brakebills, i think it adds a new dimension and texture to her knowledge and understanding and engagement with the world around her and i like that so much

it's fucking crazy that q and jules just... do horomancy. like horomancy is such a big fucking thing the rest of the show and in this ep they just do it!

alice's light bending feels so much like a superpower, it's so rare that they let magic seem that magical but they let it happen there and i love that

margo hanson i love you and your gun forever

the moment jules and q step through the telephone booth always kind of gets me it's so much of what the promise of the show can be it's so lovely

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

now I'm curious, can you tell us more about writing Flourish out of order? what made you decide to try writing it that way? what was agonizing about it??

I think honestly I decided to do it that way as an experiment, because so many other writers say it works for them, and on paper it does seem like a good strategy for keeping your interest focused over a long project. It's something I'd been interested in experimenting with for a while, and Flourish seemed like the right story for it because of the structure.

If your memory is good or you've read the author's notes recently, you'll know that Flourish began life kind of as a stunt -- a bunch of people on Tumblr were laughing at Rudy Giuliani, as one does, and saying that "landscaper next to the dildo store" should become the new fandom trope to replace "flower shop next to the tattoo parlor." I often get ideas by hearing something stupid and thinking, okay, but if you did want to do that for real, how would you? And I got really hooked on this idea of Quentin running this super nerdy, Ivy League sex shop, and Eliot, who comes from this canonically working-class background, struggling to find some kind of balance between his origin story and his artistic temperament in a way that was more complex than just fucking off and pretending to be someone else.

But that was really all I had, going in! There was absolutely nothing like a plot involved. I knew it would have to take place over a year or more, so I kind of broke it out seasonally and did a bunch of research about gardening in Pennsylvania specifically and the landscaping industry generally (my Kindle Unlimited algorithms were bonkers for a while). I noodled around with the concept of plants and blooming where you're planted. I came up with a huge, detailed backstory for the Waugh family, since I knew it was going to have to be his connection to his family that drew Eliot there at all, and I knew I really liked the idea that Eliot and Ted became garden buddies before Eliot and Quentin were really a thing. I had a general sense that there was going to be a culminating conflict between Julia wanting to leave the business and Q feeling betrayed by that. And at the point where I signed up for the Big Bang, that was more or less all I knew, and I thought, okay, maybe what I do is just put these characters in rooms and let them bounce off each other until I figure out what I really want the story to look like.

And honestly, that part wasn't too disastrous. I wrote a lot of the Eliot stuff first, since I had a stronger sense of his conflict, and I let Quentin's Whole Deal emerge gradually -- which is why I think his arc is a little more messy, but you can get away with messy in Quentin's case, it's Quentin.

I got to the point where I had about 30k of fiction and I was like, okay, I get this story, I can explain it to myself. I wrote an outline. And that's where I fucked up, because what I should have done is backed up to the beginning and wrote like I always do, filling in the gaps chronologically and editing completed scenes where necessary. But I was still into this idea that I was Letting the Story Lead Me or some fucking thing, who knows, and I started just tackling scenes from my outline whenever I thought of something cool to do with them.

And that was a disaster, because what I should have realized about myself is that for me, the pleasure of writing is in the momentum of it. When I write, I do generally have a sense of what the third act will contain, but the fun of it is kind of -- building the deck or laying out the game board. I spend a lot of time setting up People With Problems, and then as I'm actually writing, I'm solving their problems, and the biggest component of that is letting them talk long enough to figure out what they think their problems are, which is rarely what I think their problems are, but to me the most interesting thing about any human being is where they're wrong about themselves. So as I write, I'm always using the things these characters say and think to build the conflict, I'm basically starting out with my story and learning as I go why they're not already doing what I think they should do -- what I will eventually get them to do.

This may all seem a little abstract, but trust me, there's a click that happens when the story shifts gears and I'm no longer setting things up, but now I'm writing to address what's in motion, not to Create Problems On Purpose anymore, but to drive those problems to a head and then solve them. And with Flourish, I never felt that click, I was never able to Win the Story, because big chunks of the first act still weren't in place until very late in the process.

And on a practical level, it meant that certain late things were supposed to be a bigger deal, but I wrote it so slowly and with such frustration that I just didn't have time to set them up as much as I imagined I would -- Quentin's contentious relationship with Marina was supposed to be a thread, and when I wrote the later scenes it was theoretically resonant that Julia says "you both made me carry this as a secret from the people I love, you both let me down." But then the way the story evolved, that just got squeezed out because there wasn't an organic spot for it and I didn't have time to create new scenes for it. So stuff like that, where if I'd been writing Act Three with complete knowledge of what actually had and hadn't happened earlier, I'd have approached it differently. And that was super frustrating and made me feel like I was fucking it up.

In retrospect, I do like Flourish a lot. I think I made the story work, mostly just through brute force. But when I look at it, I can definitely see the seams, where the transitions seem abrupt and random, where certain things still look to me like responses to events that never actually happened in the story. It's fine, it worked out mostly. But I truly never enjoyed writing it in the way I usually enjoy writing, and I absolutely think it's because I didn't have a strong, completed first act pushing me through to an ending that felt like a justified payoff to Page One.

Anyway, thanks for the ask, this was cathartic! And, uh, people should read Flourish, which I think is a pretty decent little novel about taking the hand you're dealt in life and trying to turn it into something you're proud of. It's so AU that I think even if you've never seen a Magicians in your life, it's completely readable.

[prerodinu]

Artem was exhausted, setting up deals always made him so, plus he never actually slept good away from home. He always sent Katia to do things so he didn't have to worry himself half to death.

Now that he was noticing the time, he was worried. Castor hasn’t called and he wasn’t expecting a glowing review but he was expecting SOMETHING at least by now. He noticed that Dacian and Aurel were busy and that was fine. He had enough time to call Katia to let her know and give her approval.

She didn’t care just like he didn’t. Money wasn’t s big deal to them at least not currently. Maybe in millennia they could worry about it.

“Probably being a menace.” Castor was a particular brand of warmth. He talked a lot and not always when he should but Artem trusted him and that was enough.

It was only when Toshiro scaled him, looking for the window that he realized what was happening.

Artem was slow to get outside, blinking several times as Castor came up behind Wyatt with a sheepish smile on his features.

“Hey Artem!” He was gonna wave but a glare from Aurel who was standing behind Eliot kept him from saying much.

“You can say his name. Castor. It’s respectful. Just as your name is Wyatt and I won’t be insulting you either by calling you an asshole who needs to get laid.” He grasped onto the back of Toshiro's shirt shoving him behind himself. He wasn’t going to let the other get hurt cause Castor couldn’t remember details.

“Now, Toshiro and I were getting to know each other and I don’t particularly care for others insulting my own or Toshiro. Or interrupting me when I am getting to know someone as handsome as Toshiro. So Wyatt-” Artem laced his fingers with Toshiros leaning himself against the doorframe with a slow-growing smile.

“Shall we talk like adults, so I can make you a lot of fucking money and solve that vampire problem? Or you wanna burn the forest down which I’m sure is going to go well since it’s spelled to protect Toshiro and the pack even if it was your brand of magic I don’t think murdering an Alpha or attempting to would get you anywhere safely out of here.” He raised an eyebrow before his gaze went around to everyone who seemed to be gathering now to watch whatever was going to happen.

♚ — @prerodinu ;; in which Wyatt does nothing normally.

   Toshiro was attempting to balance Pack duties on top of negotiating with Ceto and Chyrvin, on top of court duties, on top of his restless wolf that wasn’t communicating very well with him on what the damn problem was–when he felt a jerk in the Pack bond and was suddenly filled with anxiety. It took him a whole two seconds, in which part of that was him physically climbing over Artem to get to the window to figure out why. 

   “Where is your witch?” Toshiro shot at the Alpha behind him before yanking the front door open and heading outside. He got a whole of two steps out of the Pack House before Wyatt shot a ball of fucking light at him and took out one the support beams on his house. Toshiro dodged to the side, rolled across the ground before it fell on him and quickly climbed back up to his feet. In that time Elliot had come running out of his own house and was currently looking like he was going to maul Wyatt. “What the fuck Wyatt?” 

   “You don’t have a doorbell.” He shrugged. 

   Shrugged–Toshiro was going to rip his throat out with his fucking teeth. 

   The Witch took a few steps forward, rolling his index finger and thumb together on his right hand, the other tucked behind his back. He inclined his head slightly and let his daze dart around, lingering a few minutes on Elliot. “I think you’re working tonight. Maybe keep the murderous look to a minimum or I’ll stick you on upstairs cleanup.” He shifts and drags his gaze back over to the man behind Toshiro. “You Artem? Had a visit from one of your dogs, fucking annoying chihuahua with a rambling personality.” 

   He’s closer now, enough that Toshiro’s wolf is telling him to go for his damn throat. He can feel a growl forming in his throat, claws digging into the palms of his hands. Wyatt meets Artem’s gaze, completely dismissing the angry rat dog near him. “What fucking Vampire are you trying to make a deal with me over? Because if it’s one fucking Reid, I’ll burn this damn forest down with you in it.”

   And Toshiro finally lunges for him.

[thirteenashmctrash]

okay so i have gained a new species of spore for my collective brainrot and i have found the perfect selling pitch to drag everyone i care about down with me. if you know the show this is hilarious. if you haven't watched it pay attention:

the show's called leverage. you know how there's those crime serials that aren't good at all but we've all watched a little too much of at least one of them even though they are blatant copaganda which is morally terrible? take your favorite one of those, but remover the copaganda. all the characters are criminals but their only victim is capitalism. every cop in the show is stupid at best and blatantly corrupt to a disgusting level most of the time. there is just as much genuine and intelligent social commentary as this premise demands.

i sense i already have you hooked. i can make this better. stick with me for a minute on this: the character dynamic is a muppet movie but also the Scooby gang

stick with me here!

You have Parker, who fit into the Scooby gang as Scooby and would be played by Gonzo. her crime thing is that she is a cat burglar and she is very good at it. her skill with it is borderline slapstick (hence Scooby) and she is very autistic coded and misunderstood (hence Gonzo)

You've got Eliot, who is the Shaggy and is played by Sam Eagle. He is the brute force of the team and he wants you to think he is all serious and grimdark. but he loves making the employees and victims of their capitalist targets aware of unions and he is a big himbo. i say he is shaggy because he plays Parker's straight man, he has the second most cartoonlike abilities, and he has a passion for cooking

Hardison is Velma as played by Kermit. he is a geeky hacker with a passion for orange soda and he is the heart of the team. he gets overlooked as leader even though he is the driving force of everything they do. like Velma. he also has that trademark Kermit brand of slapstick and deadpanned humor in balance.

Sophie is Daphne as played by miss piggy. she is basically the world's best grifter, she usually the front man interacting with the target the most. she has that crazy streak and the self defense capacity that miss piggy and Daphne (when she's done right) both have. she also has the confidence and style.

Nate is Fred and he is the human character. Fred has "let's split up gang" and Nate has "then we have to steal *fill in the blank with something comedically unfit to finish the sentence*" Fred and Nate are both flat characters with the main trait "i think I'm the leader but my smart friend does all the work" and the main interest of "trapping and screwing over capitalists" he mainly gets to call himself the leader because he's the idea guy and he has an apartment. his role in the muppet analogy is the peak of my pitch if you're still here. because while this is definitely not the Christmas Carol, Nate is the human character because he is Ebenezer Scrooge if instead of being a capitalist, Scrooge was an alcoholic and instead of character growth he was just steadily losing his mind. his moral compass and general intelligence are on a roulette wheel that is spun at random intervals lasting from seconds to the occasional few hours. also he and Sophie have divorced parents of grown children syndrome and the other three are said children. in vibes, of course, they aren't actually related.

if anyone stayed with me through all of that you should seriously watch it. even if i sound like i pulled this all out of my ass. it's so good.

it's an actively anticapitalist, copaganda free crime show where you get to see fun characters beat up every thing bad in society and fuck it all over. it balances fun comedy and wild characters with serious topics and moments in a way that is very natural and genuine. it also has one of my favorite autistic coded characters, a positive and healthy relationship that develops in a way that feels natural to the characters (as well as a rockier one if you're into drama) and it is in the midst of what looks to be an actually well handled revival series with the original cast. i haven't caught up yet but I'm so excited for it. the original had 5 seasons and the revival is waiting to be renewed for season 3.

please go watch leverage. it's so good and it deserves more fans. also i want more fic and that next season

[neighbours-kid]

sterling doesn‘t know. at the end of 515 he doesn‘t know that nate and sophie retire

he catches on to the con early, much earlier than we‘re explicitly told. when nate shoves him and turns him around so eliot, hardison and parker can enter the server room unseen, sterling gives nate a look, and he knows. he lets it happen, let‘s nate win this one time. he lets nate have the one big score

when they go down to the garage to hand nate over to his lifelong sentence in a secret prison, sterling asks him i don‘t suppose you‘re done and nate just goes what do you think? and then sterling asks about his acting skills and they talk about sophie

he knows sophie is picking nate up. sterling lets them go. he accepts his role as trojan horse when nate pushes him and lets it all play out. nathan, you and i are not the same, we don‘t believe in the same things. and yet. he lets them go. because in the end, justice is always easy

but he doesn‘t—sterling doesn‘t know. despite knowing nate for the longest time, or maybe because he‘s known nate for the longest time, he does not even remotely consider the possibility that nate might ever retire. it‘s just,,,, ridiculous to even consider. nathan ford, the nathan ford? retiring? psshhh never

so sterling goes on. does the work, plays Mr Agent Man at interpol and tries to not think too hard about what letting nate and sophie go means. what it says about him that, this once, he chose their side. that, after all, justice is always easy, and nate is always right, in the end. he packs that away, deep down, better not examine that one, better not think too hard about it

sterling does the work. climbs the metaphorical corporate ladder in the firm as he‘s always done

and then, like it always does, his senses start tingling. works his current case and Something is making him pay more attention. a familiar name maybe, or a routing number he thinks he might‘ve seen before. or maybe it‘s just,,, A Vibe that this particular case has. so he does the job, investigates, does what he‘s good at, excellent at

and a blurry security photograph, eleven espressos and a redacted number of scotches later, he‘s sure. and maybe despite himself, he spreads out the file and smiles. there it is again, finally. took him long enough

so sterling makes the call, files the plans, gathers the agents, gives the briefing, and off they go

but. they‘re not there. not them. sterling arrives at the scene of the crime con and it‘s just three. he shows up, having mentally rehearsed his entrance and the perfect delivery of the hello, nate, and he‘s just,,,, not there. there‘s eliot, glaring at him while finishing off a goon, ready to drop him and put all his angry attention on sterling. there‘s hardison, sticking his head out the van, glaring too. clearly still not forgetting or forgiving about the offices. and there‘s parker, obviously dressed like she played the part of the roper and exuding a confidence after a heist well planned and executed he‘s so far only seen on one face before. so sterling simply stops dead in his tracks

no. that‘s just,,,, wrong. and he‘s disappointed, almost. and very tired all of a sudden. and before eliot is even halfway across the lot, he just turns around and walks away. this is not what he signed up for. where‘s the fun in hunting these thieves if neither nate nor sophie are there to be prickled by his presence. fuck that. fuck the job

and so sterling retires. if nate ford can retire from being a fucking con artist then he can retire from interpol. and so he does. spends some time with olivia. takes a trip that isn‘t work related for the first time in ages. and by the gods he is bored out of his skull. and one day olivia tells him if he doesn‘t find something to do, she‘ll sign him up for some random ass activity for retirees (he‘s not that old, olivia, sweetheart, please)

and late one night over a glass of scotch he‘s mindlessly zapping through the channels on the tv. until he stops suddenly on a rerun of old magnum pi episodes. he used to be obsessed with this when he was younger. and nate teased him about it endlessly

now there‘s an idea

and so he pulls up some pages on his computer and the next day tells olivia he‘s got a new job, he‘ll be back for dinner, he‘s gonna go look at some office spaces downtown

[party-gilmore]

And now I'm laughing at the idea of like... Nana letting these idiots slow play it over family holidays for eight fucking years, smacking at The Cousins whenever they'd tried to give the trio a little nudge, saying "They gotta come to this in their own time, no matter how slow we think they're going. It can be a big leap for some people, and we don't want to push anybody into anything they're not quite ready for."

And maybe the last couple years Nana hasn't been sure if they still weren't Together, or if they were and just weren't ready to talk about it yet, so even though she was starting to get nervous about the length of time it was taking she was keeping her mouth shut. Unless they eventually hit ten years, of course. She was willing to give them time, but a decade? A decade was pushing it.

But they were cutting it close.

Anyway let's say that Hardison made it back stateside for a few days for Thanksgiving with the fam and she answers the door to greet him and Parker, and after their hugs she looks around and is like

"...where's your boy, Alec?"

And Parker's face goes all stormy and she closes up and Hardison chuckles, but it's a little bit sad, and he holds out a sealed crockpot and says "Eliot's, uh, doing Thanksgiving with his new girlfriend this year, you know, that whole uh... exciting stage where you want every minute together you can find an excuse for, right? Haha... anyway, he uh, he sent his chilli though, so..." he trails off as he watches his foster mom's face grow tight, a sudden fire lighting in her eyes.

Even the grandkids playing outside who have never been yelled at a day in their life stop with a jolt and go stark still in an evolutionary fear response as the entire house rattles with the force of Nana's resounding

"Alec Ezra Hardison!!! Have you lost your m-"

Holidays At Hardison's Masterpost

[kookicat]

The Stay Down Job

"For fuck's sake, Quinn," Eliot growls. "Let me up!" 

"No," Quinn says, and shifts his weight just enough to let Eliot know he means business. Normally they're evenly matched, but Eliot is mildly concussed at best, sporting a dislocated knee and a wrist that's rapidly swelling to twice its size. "They're safe, Eliot. Stay down," he says, trying for soothing, but the best he can manage is breathless, because Eliot is squirming like an eel under him. "Parker got Hardison out while we were taking care of the guards!" 

"Get the fuck off me, you bastard," Eliot snarls, with enough venom in his voice to make Quinn recoil a fraction. Quinn has Eliot's good arm pinned under a knee and a hand on Eliot's injured arm at the elbow, and he's damn glad, because otherwise he knows he'd be counting teeth. 

"If I let you up, do you promise not to do anythin' stupid?" Quinn asks, and makes the mistake of looking away for a split second when he hears the conference room door open. Eliot uses the distraction to twist his hips, almost throwing Quinn off but the younger hitter hangs on. 

"What in the hell is going on here?" Hardison asks. 

"Are you guys fighting?" Parker adds, and boosts herself to sit cross-legged on the big oak table. 

"Yes!" Eliot snaps, glaring at Quinn through tangled, sweat soaked hair that's just starting to curl. The bruise on his temple is dark and deep and spreading into his eye socket. It looks sore as hell, and Quinn winces in sympathy. 

"No!" Quinn says and relaxes his grip a fraction, hoping like hell he's not going to get thumped in the face. I like this shirt and blood is such a pain to get out, he thinks, and lets go of Eliot altogether when the dark haired man relaxes. "This dumbass wanted to go back for you guys despite the fact he can't walk!" 

Parker hops down from the table and drops to the floor, shoving at Quinn until he moves. She holds out a hand to Eliot. "Everything is fine. Let's go home."

The fight leaves him in a rush and he slumps against the floor, good hand lifting to cover his eyes, because his head is throbbing. "That sounds like a marvellous idea," he says, then peels one eye open to glare at the other hitter. Starting to fuckin sound like him now, Eliot thinks. 

"I'll get the van," Hardison says. It's not Lucille and it's not half as well stocked as her, but it'll get them home. 

"Want me to tag along?" Quinn asks, flexing his fingers, the smirk on his face just the right side of obnoxious. 

"You stay," Parker says and pulls an instant ice pack from her pocket, activating it and handing it to Eliot who presses it against his forehead. "You put Eliot on the floor, you can help me get him up."

"He did not!" Eliot mutters, the annoyance coming through just fine, even if he can't manage much volume, but he also doesn't complain when Quinn grabs hold of his shoulder and helps Parker haul him to his feet. 

They're all sweating by the time Eliot is upright, an arm over Parker and Quinn's shoulders. It's slow going, hobbling to the elevator, and when the doors finally open, Eliot laughs so hard he almost takes them all down. 

"What?" Quinn says, honestly baffled, trading a look with Parker who is just as confused. 

"I won," Eliot says. "There's blood all over that shirt. It'll never come clean." 

"Fuck," Quinn sighs, because the mirrored walls of the elevator show the stains off nicely. "I did like this shirt," he says, "but that doesn't mean you won." 

"Yeah, it does," Eliot insists, as if he's not standing with his weight on one leg, one eye so bruised and swollen he can't open it, with a wrist that's more black and blue than anything resembling flesh tones. 

"It was a draw at best," Quinn says, and cocks an eyebrow. 

"There's duck tape in the van," Parker says, and smiles, like Sophie showed her. "Don't make me use it." 

It's a remarkably quiet ride home after that. 

[sgtjamesrogers]

one line, any fic!

tagged by @novasforce :)

some no pressure tags for- @marnz, @dicktective, @shhhenanigans, @fromcainwithlove, @transhorrors, @antagonistenthusiast, and @spector27.

pick any 10 of your fics, scroll somewhere to the mid point, pick a line, and share it! Then tag 10 people.

i'm only slightly afraid to revisit some of these. and i probably will not do all ten, because some of these don't need to be looked at again.

MASOCHIST - published to lj (!!) in 2010, ao3 in 2011.

"So, this is your big idea of fun? Sitting in the humidity watching snot noised brats play on dangerous metal playground equipment? I think you have the mistaken impression that because I foolishly told you my sob story last night in a fit of insanity that I secretly adore things like frolicking kittens and sparkly vampires."

"Like there's anything actually fun that you'd rather be doing," Luke tossed back at him, making a dismissive noise at him with a crooked grin. 

"I'd rather be having a drink," Reid says in an undertone, resisting the urge to put his head in his hands, feeling a dull ache building behind his eyes.

TO LOVE A BEAST - published to lj for the lurebigbang in 2010.

And then there’s the gentlest of touches through his hair, long nails just lightly skimming his scalp. That’s so nice that Luke makes a contented little noise, burrowing back into the arm that supported him. The arm the supported him. Luke sat straight up, suddenly wide awake. Reid’s arms still held the position Luke had been lying, almost across his lap, supported by one arm like a child. He looks at Luke a little sheepishly, letting his arms fall into his lap.

QUALITY PROGRAMMING FOR CHILDREN 101 - first fic published only to ao3 in 2011.

“Jack, we talked about this.”

“No, you talked about this, using your patented long winded, ‘beat around the bush and also my head’ style of conversation, all I did was grunt noncommittally when you finally finished,” Jack responded with a smile at Eliot as he clapped along, and generally had the time of his two year old life. It was almost enough to make David feel guilty about outlawing Barney, except when he looked back at the tv and saw the wide moving mouth and crazily spinning eyes, and nope, absolutely no regrets.

SAME OLD LANG SYNE - published very, very pre-catws, if you can believe it.

The Soldier is gone now, but this man who wears James's skin, he's still not Steve's Bucky either. He no longer has the urgent need to dispatch with Captain America at any means necessary, but neither does he retain any of the memories before that long and terrible fall. It ties Steve in knots that Bucky doesn't even remember his own favorite color, or how he liked his burger cooked, or the way he used to wake Steve back in their Brooklyn; yanking the blanket off him with a mischievous grin and pulling him by his ankles to the end of the bed, where he'd meet Steve's grumbling mouth with his own. 

A BEAST OF BURDEN. - published 2013.

"Fuck it," he says finally, ripping his side of the blankets off of himself and stalking over to the door and slinging the door open hard enough for it to bounce back off of the wall protector. The kitten automatically scurries in, leaping up onto the bed of the bed, and Louis follows it like he's approaching the gallows. He flops face down into bed, and falls almost immediately asleep.

When he wakes up, sleep grit in his eyes and mouth and reaches over to check the time the lockscreen of his phone is himself, asleep with Audrey Hepburn perched on top of his head, but that's honestly par for the course at this point.

KEEP BURNING ME UP (WITH ALL OF YOUR LOVE) - published 2014

"But you don't have paprika," she says, eyes closed.

"I have paprika," he groans, like he knows what's going to come out of her mouth next.

"But not real paprika," Barbara answers with a satisfied smile, as if that settles it.

SHOULD'VE BEEN HOME YESTERDAY - published 2/2020, in progress.

The lamp is tragically grotesque, with four taxidermied mice holding miniature instruments clustered around the stem leading upward under the lampshade; a splash picture of a mountain range. Roy thinks that one of the mice has a mustache. 

“But wait, look—“ 

Roy gave the pull chain a tug, and a muffled speaker hidden on the base plays a tinny ‘ Born To Be Wild ’ by Steppenwolf. He grins at Jason’s immediate revulsion; it’s almost cartoonish in the pout of his mouth as Roy sings along tunelessly, using the purple gatorade in his fist as a mic. 

AIN'T THAT A KICK IN THE HEAD? - published 6/2022

“I… can’t get over how good your quads are, dude,” Chris whispered finally, clearing his throat. “You could really crush somebody’s head between these.” Adrian slid back down over Chris’ hips, beaming. 

FOR THE LONGEST TIME - published 10/2022, in progress.

With the pack safely in his back pocket again he crouches and curls one firm hand around the back of Hughie’s neck, kissing him sweet and deep. 

“See? You wanna taste like that every day?” 

Their lips brush as Butcher speaks, and Hughie feels his body starting to light up again. 

“Mmmmaybe?” He sighs out, just barely opening his eyes and giving Butcher a malevolent grin. “You better kiss me again so I can be sure.” 

[darkfinch]

so what do u think happens After the confrontation

like is this an au where eliot drops off the face of the earth

is everything canon except like. no one trusts eliot. they don’t want to keep him they can’t risk getting rid of him either way he’s going to be their downfall?

or is it an entirely different story from there. they’re doing the cons but the team aspect isn’t there to nate it’s like when sam died. you’re still together, going through the motions, but chasing a ghost.

or do they somehow forgive eliot??

all i can think about is him finally having to Talk and Explain and all he can say is “i work for damien moreau. you really think i do anything he doesn’t tell me to?”

and hardison or someone is like. “uh. u don’t work for moreau anymore. we just took him down. right??” and eliot just kinda looks empty like, it’s the line from the big bang job but more “the worst thing ive done is work for damien moreau. i will never be clean of him”

ok so i honestly think that this au only works if, by the time we hit season 3, eliot's more loyal to the team than he is to moreau. like, he starts in season 1 as 100% moreau's dog, uninterested in being anything else (unaware that that's even an option) and reporting back on everything he learns.

he gives his payouts to moreau. he tells moreau about the team's backgrounds. he comes home from having his satisfying light-and-happy homecoming job moment and immediately gets called away to kill someone.

and then like...as the team grows closer, as they turn into A Little More Than A Team, eliot just starts...noticing. how they treat him. like, moreau's good to him, obviously, moreau's better than he deserves, but there's this massive ever-widening gulf between moreau's good and the team's good. and it feels like maybe moreau's treating him worse and worse until he realizes that it's just...that he's got the team to compare and contrast it to and so it Feels worse.

like, it feels bad to have people poke you in the shoulder and joke around with you and tell you that you don't have to let this guy beat you up just for a con because they'll Work A Way Around It, We're Worried, it's the tap out job and you're fine with it but they Care about how it might Affect you...............and then fly down to san lorenzo and have moreau take his anger out on you. get sent to do things you don't really want to do anymore but don't really have much say in. and he's still loyal to damien, he still wants to do what he's been told to do, but it's getting harder and harder to go back to damien when he's called.

so there's a turning point (maybe mid season 2?) where it changes from "eliot's grifting the team because those are his orders and he's loyal to moreau" to "eliot's grifting the team because those are his orders and he can't find a way out of if that wouldn't end with the team dead or him dead or both"

and they Care and they Notice things, so when he comes back fucked up from some errand damien's asked him to run, they notice that, too. and they extend a million little olive branches over two and a half years. and eliot Can't tell them, so he doesn't, but he does end up...talking around it, a little. not so much that they'll Know or that they'll think it's something they can Fix, not so much that they get "i'm conning you" vibes, but that they know there's Something. that there's Someone.

he asks hardison to help him hide some money and won't say why. he has weird ominous talks with nate about what nate might ask him to do, if a job ever got rough, if a con ever went too far. testing boundaries. has late-night chats with parker abt guilt and fault and being bad. asks sophie for really weird, general advice, no eye contact, about relationships and grifting and won't elaborate on anything.

so by the time we get to s3......he's already wanting a way out and can't find it and can't imagine that he'll actually get it. and then they're going after moreau, and he can't find a way out of That, Either, and he spirals a little more visibly than he does in the show. he's gone for long stretches of time (trying to convince damien that they're not a threat, that they don't need to be taken care of, that they won't actually get to him). he's panicking.

all this is to say: by the time the team Finds Out, eliot's 75% loyal to the team, instead, and along with all the betrayal and fear and disbelief etc comes the sound of a thousand weird little puzzle pieces falling into place. like, they didn't Know, but they Knew. and once some of the anger's subsided, it's like...oh.

he's been asking for help. this whole time he's been asking for help and knowing he can't have it. this whole time he's been watching them pull miracles out of nowhere, taking down people too big for the law to touch, and asking for advice, and he's still a fucking horrible person, it's a betrayal and it's horrible and their mental image of eliot has all of this awful shit overtop of it now, but. it lines up.

so the san lorenzo job still needs to happen. and they can't trust him, but they can help him.

(maybe parker's the one to ask it out loud. "do you need us to steal you?" "please. please.")

SO YEAH I THINK UR RIGHT eliot is of course assuming they'll want nothing to do with him, once this is all said and done. and. YEAH they do sit down, and they do make him talk, and maybe nate's like "what were you planning on doing, after we took him out" and eliot's just completely blank. like. he just hasn't thought about it. he didn't think he'd get that far. i work for damien moreau. there isn't an After. i'll never be clean of him.

anyway i think they DO keep him, against all odds, and they have to rebuild that trust piece by piece, but all of this is contingent on eliot being an active participant in the san lorenzo job and having previously shown a million little moments of "please god get me out of this" etc

[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. 

[fluffypotatey]

Leverage 2x02

This show is so good why did it take me so long to come back T^T

Tap-Out Job they say… wonder if that’s bdsm or boxing. ELIOT EPISODE???👀👀👀👀please 🙏 please be an Eliot episode

ooooh Nebraska

IT IS BOXING

idk shit about boxing but my guess is that there’s steroids involved

Oh he looks drugged

Yikes

He’s fine

Maybe dead

Probably dead

God this intro 😂 so cheesy I love it

Oh so he’s still alive

Hmmmmm plant closed, Rucker something…..dots connecting

Ok so Rucker is a big deal wrestling ceo? He want a monopoly 

Awww Eliot geeking out over boxing 🥺🥺🥺 he better play. I want him to. For reasons

He’s been teaching Parker 🥺

Rip Hardinson

“Pilates or yoga?” Nate is so good at playing the ditzy asshole. Like he already is an asshole so it’s fun to see him play it up for cons

Hardinson talking about his special golf balls is so sweet but I have no idea what some of the words he is saying means but please keep talking sweetie

Rucker talking all polite but oh you can feel the anger in it 😂😂😂

ELIOT

YESSSSSSSSSSS YESSSSSSSSS

Jesus Christ what the fuck Rucker

YEAH ELIOT FUCK THEM UP

Parker’s little disguise 😂😂😂

Sophie :( chicken fried steak is good

“I can see you’ve had some training.” “…..some.” yeah some is right 

That’s a nice headshot, Sophie

Awwww Eliot 🥺 he needs to stop acting all soft and nervous I wanna squish him

ELIOT EPISODE! ELIOT EPISODE! ELIOT EPISODE! 

Sophie >:( pork rinds are good

ELIOT MY BELOVED!!!! He needs to stop being so sweet 🥺 Hardinson watch out

“White people doing white people things” 💀💀💀

Ok and how are they gonna steal a concert 🤨

Jesus, dude can’t you be nice :(

HEEHAW??????

Hardinson needing to check his name tag 💀💀💀

is that how tv works???? <- genuine question 

JIMMY YOU SNITCH

JENNY YOU SNITCH

ah shit

Tank, aka the dude who almost killed Mark. hmmmmm ‘spicious

oh come on, Rucker, playing your cards so soon??? you are going to let the con men know you know????  rookie mistake

Ok wait were they actually going to hurt Sophie >:(((((

Ugh Nate stop doing that!!! You didn’t have to let them know about Parker or Hardinson (BUT HE DOES IT BECAUSE HE CARES AND I KNOW THAT BUT NATE!!!!!)

Rucker really wants Eliot lmao

Rucker >:( 

Yessssss I believe in you Eliot (<- just wants to see him fight)

Ok uh, Eliot, I don’t trust this gym 

“I can take the punishment. It’s what I do.” Eliot what the fuck does that mean?????

I swear if they try to drug Eliot

BET IT ALL????? RUCKER????

Rucker that doesn’t sound legal

IF HIS WATER IS DRUGGED IMMA CRY

man I’m stressed

I want Eliot to win actually 

HE IS BLEEDING

NOOOOOOOOOO

I FUCKINH KNEW IT

is Tank dead????? 

OH SHIT 

ELIOT NO

NOOOOOOOOOOO HE IS SO SAD

of course he’s running lol

Ok but what if Tank isn’t dead and this was all a ploy

IS IT??????

I fucking knew it

PARKER

AND A SAX???????

I fucking knew the bet was through Hardinson!!!!!!

“Where’s your cousin Jinny now?” I LOVE HIM

AWWWWWWWWW happy ending 🥺🥺🥺🥺

YAY SHE LIKES PORK RINDS

General thoughts

ELIOT EPISODE!!!!!! It’s kind of sweet how we sort of know when each episode will focus on each character. Like Eliot is when they go rural, and Nate is if there are children. So I can now check off boxer after horse girl with Eliot ✅ and it’s interesting how can still see a strain on Sophie and Eliot’s dynamic but this time doesn’t have to do with betrayal but just understanding now. 

And ough the way Eliot plays the skittish dude who works under Nate out of debt for the com was just *chef’s kiss* I would have fallen for that persona instantly if he played THAG on me. The way this team would have conned me so bad if I was their target lol 

But yeah, this episode was so fun and I can’t believe I was fooled into the “Eliot got drugged” scene because these guys are smart!!!!! They would know he would play this and they just pretended like Rucker fooled them and AGHHHHH 🤧 lmao on to next episode 

[aberfaeth]

good evening and welcome to another episode of casey’s nonsense leverage crossovers: the ted lasso edition

(this was entirely born out of my desire to see ted and nate interact because holy shit can you imagine)

rupert mannion is a world class asshole richer than god who skirts responsibility at every turn. there’s no way he hasn’t done something to put himself on leverage’s radar.

they plan to run a scam around the club but then there is a messy messy divorce and the club isn’t his and they have to back up and regroup

now the plan is to figure out a way to sell him a part of the club that he will think is legal but in a way they can twist it to make it illegal

what i’m saying is sophie and parker are the milk sisters. from then on i’m not sure about plot but let’s be real this is about the DYNAMICS babey!

keeley is in love with sophie devereaux RIGHT AWAY. rebecca is weirdly jealous of this but then she realizes that sophie is incredible and now rebecca is also in love with sophie just a little bit

nate has no fucking clue what to make of the human hallmark card that is theodore ted lasso. he is trying to find the evil in this man and he just can’t do it. he wants for nothing. bribes don’t work, threats don’t work. one day he hears ted talk about his son in a way that feels achingly familiar and the next day there’s a little box of biscuits presented to him and ted has this look in his eye like he knows. nate hightails it the fuck out of there

roy kent eliot spencer. that’s all.

hardison is a big football geek. he genuinely can’t grift around the team because he’s too excited but like it works very well because he can feed nate information about any of the players without looking it up

parker is WILDLY good at football. she’s never really played before but she’s so agile and has such good coordination that she ends up “what like it’s hard?”ing at least three grown men at the sport they play for a living

the truth comes out, eventually. everyone takes it surprisingly well, save for a bit of smugness from jamie who thought something was off about the crew almost immediately and has to be banned from saying i told you so.

parker and beard hit it off. the entire team is in love with sophie now. keeley and hardison share tips on how to take care of your grumpy idiot and hardison teaches her some hacking stuff because she already has the coding base from her PR work. ernie lounds beware

ted sees nate and hardison interact one single time and then pulls nate aside to be like You Know You Really Ought To Tell That Young Man You Appreciate Him More and nate is just. who ARE you. but then that night nate thanks hardison for some benign task he does every other week and hardison gets this huge smile on his face, beyond amused, like. coach got to you, huh?

eliot and ted bonding over the heartland, and food. eliot teaching phoebe and nora how to really knock someone’s teeth out. eliot finding that he’s fine running, but he’s sort of stellar in goal, and bonding with zoreaux over that

and heaven help whoever makes trouble for afc richmond. because nate ford does not pull his fucking punches when it comes to people he cares about. and that includes these idiots now

[llocallesbian]

line without a hook | k.s

NO KATHY SLANDER WILL BE TOLERATED OVER HERE. nope. she deserves the absolute world.

“Y/l/n.” You answered the phone groggy, glancing at the clock. The blurry red lights blared in your face as you sighed, rubbing the sleep from your eyes.

“Hey, y/n. I was just calling you to see if you could let Eliot know he left his wallet at home. I figured he was in a rush when he got the call a little while ago and he’s not answering bu-” You eyes finally focused on the time, squinting at them. 5:52 am.

“Kathy, what are you talking about?” You could hear a little commotion in the back, like she moved a pan or something.

“Is there not a case or a victim or-”

“I didn’t get a call Kathy and I always get the call first. So no, there isn’t a case.” There was a pause on the other line and you could definitely hear her scoffing through the phone. “I’m pretty sure he just went out for something-”

“Or with someone.” She finished for you, although that’s not what you were going to say. “What time did Elliot leave work yesterday?” You sat up in your bed, fully awake now.

“Kathy, I can’t-”

“Y/n, please.” Her voice cracked and you didnt need to see her to know her lip was quivering. You tried not to crack. Elliot was someone you worked with, he was your friend and you loved him but that didn’t mean you could lie to Kathy. Kathy and you were great friends, occasionally going out, helping her with the kids. It was great to have someone as a friend you didn’t work with. It was refreshing. You couldn’t lie to her.

“He and Olivia left around 6. I think they said something about going to the bar.” You told her what you recalled hearing and she sighed. Kathy leaned against her kitchen counter, the phone clutched tightly in her right hand.

“Yeah, well, he didn’t get home till around 1 and bow he’s leaving early and lying-” She paused, wiping the tears that were slowly falling down her face as she came to realization.

“No, Kathy. He wouldn’t cheat on you. Especially with Olivia. They’re best friends, that’s all.” You tried to reassure her but she wasn’t having it. Running a hand through her hair, she scoffed.

“Yeah, Right.” Then the line went dead. You looked down at the phone before tossing it on the bed and flopping back down. You laid there for a moment, contemplating on whether or not to go back to bed. You groaned loudly as you pushed the covers off of you, getting up and walking towards your closet. “Goddamn Stabler!”

“Y/n?” Kathy opened the door to find you, dressed in sweats and a big bag of McDonalds. “What are you doing here?”

“We’re friends, Kathy. I’ll be here for you, even at 6 in the morning.” You took in her appearance, an old white shirt with small pair of plaid shorts. Her hair devilish, like her hand had run through it a million times. Her eyes were slightly puffy, face was a shade of light pink, she looked heartbroken. Beautiful. But heartbroken. “I even brought breakfast.” You held up the bag and she opened the door wider, letting you in before closing it.

“You didn’t have to-” You shook your head, heading towards the couch.

“Don’t even do that.” You glanced at her before placing the bag on the table and taking a seat on the sofa.

“Now come on, come eat.” She smiled slightly before taking a seat next to you. You had begun eating in silence, you occasionally looked at her, thinking of something to say.

“I want to believe he wouldn’t do it but the truth is, I don’t even know my husband anymore.” She sighed, placing the breakfast sandwich she was eating bag down on the paper. “I love him, I will always love Elliot but I deserve better. I want someone who is there for me, I need someone I can depend on and Elliot just isn’t there anymore. He loves her.” The tears welled up in her eyes and you reached out to her, wanting to comfort her but she shook her head, pushing your hand down. “I don’t need pity, y/n. Okay, i’m not sad, i’m mad. I’m angry.”

“Kathy-”

“I’m angry that I stayed this long. Angry that I was so blind and i’m tired. So tired. I have no one and I-” You grabbed her hands, leading her to face you. You watched the tears stream down her face momentarily before grabbing her head. Your thumbs coming up to brush the tears from her cheeks.

“You have me, Kathy. I’ll be here for whatever. You wanna scream, cry, yell, break stuff, i’m here. You wanna work things out with Elliot. I’m here for you. Whatever you decide, I’ll be here. I love you, okay?” She nodded, her eyes tightly closed as she enjoyed the comfort of actually being touched. Her eyes fluttered open, the small smile the danced on your lips being the first thing she noticed. Then the adoration in your eyes, the way you looked at her like she was the only person that mattered. Her eyes flickered down to your lips then back up as she leaned in slowly. You breath hitched as she came closer, so close that you could feel her breath on your face.

Next thing that happened was her lips on yours. Kissing you softly. It stayed like this for a few moments. Her hands rested on your knees while yours stayed on her cheeks. Your eyes fluttered open as her tongue swiped across your bottom lip. You wanted to grant her access. You wanted to explore her. But this was wrong. You pulled back, shaking your head. You missed the warmth of her lips. “Kathy, no.” You whispered as you looked into her eyes, her eyes that seemed to be all the colors of the ocean at once.

“Y/n, pl-” You heard a door upstairs open resulting in you jumping back quickly, so quick you almost fell off the sofa.

“You’re hurting and vulnerable, it was an accident.” You rushed out in one breath before Maureen came downstairs, a grumpy look on her face. “Hey there babes, I brought you guys breakfast.” She smiled softly at you before coming over to give you a hug, you held her close for a moment before joking. “You have to stop growing, practically taller than me.” She chuckled before going through the bag.

“You have to get to work?” You nodded, glancing over at her mother who was looking down at her lap.

“Yeah, kiddo. I’ll see you soon though.” She nodded obviously believing your lie. “See you, Kathy.” You mumbled, not wanting to make things more awkward. Quickly rushing out to your car, you got in and slammed the door. “I am so fucking screwed.”

am i gonna make this a series? hell yeah. because hear me out, yall should write about kathy. also there is probably a bunch of errors in this but yeah. i hope yall are doing good