#leverage headcanons

[evasleveragefanshit]

Okay, here’s my favorite crack leverage headcanon:

The reason everyone ignores Hardison and just makes up identities on the fly is because they know they have to get there first if they don’t want him to stick them with the most ridiculous names imaginable.

I mean it’s already basically canon! The way Eliot grumbles about getting named *insert dr.who/ appropriately geeky reference*

But then we get to the other half of this theory. It’s a game. They’re all trying to one up Hardison. Nate says it’s immature and refuses to admit he’s playing but also took first place with “Gnar Slabdash”

[my-beloved-lakes]

Headcanon: Hardison, Eliot and Parker's lock, key and guitar pick necklaces have a built-in GPS tracker in them in case something happens and one of them goes missing.

Maybe Hardison and Parker got their necklaces (and put a tracker on Eliot's) after a job went wrong and Hardison and Parker got kidnapped. Maybe Eliot almost wasn't able to find them on time because the earbuds were broken so he decided they needed a backup option for tracking them. Hardison made sure to set it up so it would be easy for Parker and Eliot to pull up the tracker on their phones.

It's not 100% foolproof but it's better than nothing and it's saved their lives a few times.

[make-me-imagine]

Headcanons: Flirting (Eliot Spencer)

Headcanons: How does he flirt, does he like being flirted with, etc.

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Gn!Reader

Requested By: Anonymous

Warnings: Nothing really

-

Eliot Spencer is a shameless flirter (is that a word? idk lol)

He is not afraid to flirt with you in front of other people, but he doesn't always do it. Just when he can't help it.

And it always gets called out by Hardison if he over-hears.

He is not the type to use pick-up lines, but he does compliment you in flirty ways.

If you are wearing a new perfume, he will notice immediately.

"It suits you, you should wear it more often."

"That color brings out your eyes."

They come off as kind compliments, unless you know him. It is him flirting with you, because he likes how flustered or blushy you get when he compliments you.

He will fix your hair, shirt collar/outfits, or wordlessly adjust your crooked or backwards necklace, just to be close to you. It's his way to flirt in an almost intimate and personal way.

Eliot will let his fingers brush against your skin, or if your shoulders or arms brush he will delay in pulling away.

EYE CONTACT

He is a sucker for eye contact.

If you catch him staring at you or watching you, he will not look away. He will keep is eyes locked with yours and smile softly.

You will almost always be the one to look away first, which only makes him smirk proudly for flustering you.

I know I said he doesn't use pick-up lines, BUT if you are ever on a con and he has to approach you, he will use the worst best pick-up lines, just to throw you off.

Sophie warns him not too, afraid you might break character, but he can't help it.

"I don’t believe in God sweetheart, but if I did, you’d be the answer to all my prayers."

"Have we met before?" "No, I don't think so." "Must have been in my dreams then."

"If Angels don't walk among us, then I don't know how you exist."

Also flirts by teasing you.

If you are wearing a new style for a con, or using a new accent, he will tease you, and when you get pouty or annoyed he will chuckle and console you "It's okay, it's cute."

The flirting does not stop when you two are in a relationship it only get's more obvious.

But he also uses more flirting techniques like bringing you candy/deserts, coffee/tea, flowers, whispering things in your ear to catch you by surprise or fluster you.

He's also not afraid of using suggestive comments here and there, that makes you choke on your water. (He waits until you take a drink on purpose, he's a menace)

Even though Eliot is very confident, charming and flirtatious, if you flirt with him??

eliot.exe has stopped working

He is so caught off guard that he just kind of stutters, unable to think of what to say.

He's the one who is supposed to make you blush and get all flustered, what is happening???

Hardison and Breanna think it's hilarious when this happens, and they tease Eliot about how he is no longer big bad confident Eliot Spencer.

This is always followed by an annoyed and flustered "Shut up Hardison!"

xx

General Taglist: @criminaly-supernatural, @imaginesfire, @onuen, @rexit-mo, @witchygagirl, @alexxavicry

Leverage+Eliot Taglist: @groovy-lady, @aaannabbanana, @peoniarose, @fablesrose, @spuffyfan394, @malindacath, @winnifredburkleismyhero, @that-marvel-simp, @gatefleet, @bthtallmadge2,

[cotyledon8]

💵 leverage agere headcanons

→ it’s never something they officially put a name to, although sophie and nate put an extensive about of research into it in bursts, even as they learn as they go. it’s just something that is sometimes.

→ board games and movie nights are a big thing they try and do sometimes, even as some of them still deny wanting to do such ‘family events’. board games always end up interesting when none of them are what can be called a good loser, or tolerant winner.

→ they never try and assign ages to anything, not wanting to complicate things into being uncomfortable; but there is still that established dynamic. nate and sophie take great delight in looking after their brats, sophie and eliot take turns being the smallest between them, and hardison gloats endlessly about being older than them both. it usually gets him kicked.

→ despite not having an established guideline and set way everything plays out, nate and sophie did come up with a set of loose, yet enforced rules for whenever any of them were feeling small; to drink enough water and eat enough food, get a decent amount of sleep, and that they’ll say something if they start feeling small during a con. it annoys the trio endlessly that they exist; even if the care is secretly nice

→ sophie brings home little trinkets whenever she goes off to do a job, or go travelling somewhere; she brings home gifts and such that always become treasured objects in the house

[wildechild17]

"I've seen Sophie Devareux play a dozen people, drunk" -Sterling, more or less. I couldn't remember the exact quote, but i love that headcanon

Unsolicited Leverage headcanons in no particular order:

- Eliot actually does need glasses and he only suspiciously squints so much at people because he can't see them properly - Part of the reason Eliot didn't tell the group about Moreau in season 3 is because he was thinking about it, but then Nate hypnotised Hardison and Eliot knew, if Nate found out that Eliot has intel and believes it would grant them an edge, it would not be unlikely he'd suffer a similar fate, and he can't have that Not me ascribing more consequences to Schehezarade, that's crazy

- due to a Parker and Con related mix up, Peggy and McSweeten end up going on a date together, with all the miscommunication issues that entails - The interpol pretzel cart shows up at the brewpub before the three are ready to leave the brewpub postcanon. Luckily, Hardison's anti-surveillance equipment is state of the art. The interpol pretzel cart people become regulars at the brewpub and actually start liking the coffee and the staff there, while Parker and Hardison (and the rest of the brewpub staff) keep buying pretzels at the cart with increasing glee, and Eliot absolutely cannot stop them - Eliot buys them too, he just doesn't want anyone to know and is a bit awkward about it, but he and one of the pretzel cart people start swapping recipes, its anyone's guess if those are actually coded messages (they aren't, but Eliot and the interpol agent act as if they are) - Every agency has a different cool nick/codename for Parker, since for all they know, "Parker" is just an alias - None of the agencies have cool codenames for Hardison, since they know his real name and face, and Hardison will die mad about it - Sophie is absolutely the reason Tara left the FBI - Maggie used to have a crush on Sophie - Sterling and Sophie actually met off the job for the first time, kinda went on a date, and got so engrossed with trying to outwit the other that they never actually spend the night together, but the night absolutely ended in something that both only refer to as 'an incident on a job' and only when drunk - Sophie has killed a non zero number of people and Nate will never find out about them - Hardison was part of the group that started the whole Gamestop stock thing in early 2021

[transsophiedevereaux]

"how is Hardison the gamer nerd who doesn't even like to go outside so buff??" Easy. he loves to Just Dance. he has reached Superstar level in wii sports table tennis. he revolutionized Dance Dance Revolution.

[schrijverr]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, as a fandom we don’t do enough with the fact that Hardison is canonically the forger and he made Old Nate. Like he is skilled. And I feel we can make cute OT3 fics with that.

Like Hardison needing to make a fake in a genre, not a specific painting and having Eliot and/or Parker pose for him.

Or make it sexy (semi-failed) where he’s like “pose naked for me” and his partners are like “sure weirdo (affectionate)” and he thinks it’s going to be sexy, but live nude drawing isn’t really sexy, but it can be very intimate, so it’s still nice and he gets emotional about how much they trust him and how they can be vulnerable with him.

Or Eliot has banned screens and Hardison is pouting about it, but then he finds a notepad, so he settles in on the couch and observes Eliot and Parker being domestic and starts sketching them. (Maybe Eliot later finds the drawing and gets emotional about it, because this is how Hardison sees him, not a murdering monster, but this soft, happy cook).

Or he makes a little drawing of Parker and gives it to her, because he’s sappy. And he doesn’t expect anything of it, because Parker is more of the money as a gift kind of person, but then they need emergency cash, so he goes into one of her safes and it’s in there on pillow in a nice frame surrounded by diamonds, because that little drawing he made her is as precious to her, like im crying that is so soft.

Anyways, Hardison is the forger! The possibilities are endless!!!

[evasleveragefanshit]

I wanted to talk about The Broken Wing Job and a thing I noticed about Parker.

I think we all know that Parker is definitely Autistic-coded, though to exactly what extent that was directly intentional depends largely on who you ask.

What I noticed is Parker's initial hostility toward Amy. She gets upset because Amy is trying to be friendly towards her in a way Parker interprets as insincere.

I think a lot of Autistic people can relate to the experience of being suspicious towards people who act friendly, especially if it might be insincere, because social interaction can be filled with invisible landmines. This can result in people who do the opposite of masking. Basically, seeing conversation/ friendly overtures as a type of conflict and refusing to play the game. Rather than try to figure out the rules for optimal conversation (and risk getting them wrong and being ostracized), they just skip to choosing to make things as uncomfortable for the other person to avoid trying and failing.

I think we see Parker do this a lot throughout the series. I mean, her first instinct when she feels social conflict while grifting is literally to start stabbing. She never masks to make the team more comfortable, even when she learns how to play the game to grift.

So, when it comes to The Broken Wing Job, Parker acts as weirdly as possible. See: "Best meal I ever had was in French prison." I see this as her trying to communicate 'I am not like you' in an attempt to get Amy to acknowledge the communication barrier and leave her alone.

HOWEVER, as the episode goes along, Amy not only accepts all the strange Parker gives off, but shows Parker some of her own strangeness back. (See: all of the people watching).

Amy met Parker on her level and communicated in a way Parker understood.

This is really important because even her teammates sometimes fail to do this. They don't always 'get' Parker, and because of this they can sometimes dismiss her. I think Eliot and Sophie are the worst about this.

Sophie gets Parker sometimes, but as a grifter she relies on the rules of neurotypical interaction, and can sometimes get frustrated with Parker, or try to get her to do it the "normal" way.

Eliot out of all of them is the most stereotypical man out of all of them, and as such he has a strong tendency to enforce this worldview. He does this to Hardison, at least originally, when he sincerely does not value computer skills because he deems them "geeky/ nerdy". Similarly, he is the one who most frequently chides Parker to get her to be less weird. That said, he tends to speak straight forwardly, say what he means, and honor his word. So out of all of them, he may be the one she understands the best.

Anyway, that's all.

[smallblueandloud]

#leverage #go darryl #I love this post #and I love the idea of this not only continuing well into hardison's forays into #the one-man business of fixing the world entire #but also providing a solid basis for his logistical approach to the entire project #because it turns out coordinating refugee crisis support and connecting small pro bono firms with activists in need #is really not that different from coordinating the transport chain that time they needed #to get Darryl's pet snakes all the way across the country in a hurry when he got a sudden promotion and had to relocate #or connecting assorted baby siblings in need with the older siblings who are most likely to know how to help #and all of THAT is honestly not that different from keeping track of multiple stock markets #in order to make a ton of money on the split-second delays in their communications #it turns out hardison is just really good at logistics! who knew! #(everyone. everyone knew. his nana was convinced he was going to end up as CEO of a massive wholesaler or something.) (via @aethersea)

Completely useless Leverage  question I get distracted wondering about:

Does Hardison run like a giant group chat of Nana’s former foster kids where they coordinate who gets her what for Mother’s Day and her birthday? Is there like a spreadsheet involved? Are there arguments at 0:01 on the day after her birthday that NO, DARRYL, YOU CANNOT SIGN UP TO BE THE ONE TO GET HER FLOWERS AGAIN THAT IS CHEATING.

(Obviously any current foster kids who want to participate get first pick and a  budget Hardison sets aside for each of them. He also gives them like a spreadsheet of ‘a heartfelt card has a 99.3% success rate of making her tear up, if you wanna ensure 100%, draw her a card yourself.’)

[leverage-ot3]

okay I absolutely get and adore harry being oblivious about ot3 developments, but consider:

after breanna makes it explicitly clear she’s queer in the card game job, harry starts Researching™

he’s trying to be good, be better. he likes this girl and wants to be there to support her and be her friend, someone she can trust. it doesn’t help that she’s around the same age as his daughter, who barely wants to associate with him anymore

he learns breanna is queer and dives into researching. watching TED talks in his spare time. reading ebooks on his phone in between playing roles in a con (bringing a physical book is less convenient and he doesn’t want to wave around the fact that he’s researching like he’s trying to be performative about it). he reads about legislation and book bans and wonders about how they could work their magic through a con to fix those things. he reads about asexuality and recognizes the flag colors from the sticker on breanna’s laptop, which he files away for later

he learns a lot! he has been peripherally aware of queer stuff- it’s kind of hard not to be in the 2020s, but now he is much more informed on a lot of issues. he has memorized at least 50 different labels and terms and has an index of resources in his head (and on his phone) if anyone might need them. he wants to understand the people he loves and cares about, whether it’s breanna or one of his daughter’s friends, or anyone in his life that is queer and he doesn’t know it yet. he wants to be ready and prepared to support them!

he learns about sapphicness and bisexuality and intersex rights and the gender spectrum. he learns about karyotypes and stonewall and other queer history. he learns about kink (blushing, but still reads because it’s important!) and relationship diversity… which leads him to discover the term polyamory

he tries not to actively apply the terms he has learned on the people in his life because he knows it’s wrong to assume things about other people. BUT. harry spends a few days reflecting on parker, hardison and eliot’s interactions and wonders. he thinks about the long hugs and lack of personal space and near telepathic communication not just between parker and hardison, but parker and eliot AND hardison and eliot. how parker knows how to make eliot take care of himself, how he knows when she forgets to eat because she’s so hyperfixated on planning a con. how parker jumps on his back for fun and no matter what, he always catches her. hardison’s absence is felt when he’s gone, deeply by the both of them.

it could just be a deep friendship, he knows. they have been working and living together for over a decade, of course they would be close!!! maybe they could even be queerplatonic! (another new word he learned!)

but. still. he quietly observes, watches closely, and thinks.

[faorism]

every once in a while, when it's a quiet moment between him and one of his partners—could be anything from a stake out to a long drive in lucille to the warm moments between making love and sleep—eliot will turn to them and say, tell me something i don't know.

parker will usually tell him secrets. the bits of history that only exist between her, bunny, and now eliot. there's a lot from living on the streets, when she was young. she tells him about training with archie; eventually, she tells him what it felt like. she tells him about loneliness and not understanding and frustration and how her hands hurt when she wants to flicker them around; when he asks her why she doesn't let them, she says to ask another night. that's too big a secret to share when another's been revealed already. he does ask, and she does answer. once, she says in a shaking voice, i love you and hardison so much, and parker feels silly because duh eliot knows that, hardison knows that, but eliot heard something deeper than she could express, so he held her tight and kissed her hair as she shivered through the weight of her confession. after sharing with eliot, sometimes parker feels comfortable enough to share with hardison, peggy, sophie, or a client who needs to know they are not alone in the mess and hardship of the world. much later, the fact that parker has shared something once makes it easier to tell her shrink as she gets on SSRIs, which she seeks out after confessing to eliot that even if it had been based on a lie to grift hurley, maybe there was something to her treatment at the second act rehabilitation center that she missed. occasionally, she'll tell him about art. he listens just as patiently as anything else she decides to divulge and she loves him all the more for it.

hardison infodumps. parker didn't press eliot for what he meant the first time he asked; hardison did. eliot had shrugged, anything you wanna share. hardison nips out a testy, so if i go off about (he paused thinking of something that would surely turn eliot off) optimal simcity street design strategies, you wouldn't mind? eliot didn't back down, even when hardison went into a two-hour spiral that branched into different iterations on the concept, including rollercoaster typhoon. eliot made a few comments here and there, asked some clarifying questions now and again, but otherwise let hardison rail on. the next time, the question was framed as what you working on? but the effect was the same. eventually, hardison stopped hesitating and started looking forward to these monologue sessions. hardison doesn't think anything of them other than he's got some quality time with his partner, until one day on a job with some leverage international trainees, eliot manages (elle woods style) to untangle the lie at the heart of a condo scam with a few pointed questions about the plumbing. when one of the trainees asked how the hell he knew that, hardison expects to hear over the comms how eliot once dated a plumber or an architect; instead, eliot scoffs, you met my partner. genius knows a little of everything. which is when hardison remembers once infodumping about sprinkler systems. eliot gets the tightest of hugs when he gets home for truly listening to hardison.

[my-beloved-lakes]

Headcanon: in like a bunch of years, when Parker, Hardison and Eliot are all sooper old and senile, they get sent to a nursing home. Cuz let's be honest, senile Eliot, Hardison and Parker would be too much for poor Breanna to handle on her own. After a little while of being in the nursing home, they realize that the people running it are actually scamming the residents and the families of the residents out of tones of money, so they decided to run one last job and take down the evil nursing home people.

When Breanna finds out what happened she's angry because "damnit, now I have to move you guys to another nursing home, again." But she's secretly proud of them.

(They got kicked out of the last nursing home because they were causing too many issues and stealing too many cups of Jello.)

[geeky-nightphilosopher]

Parker definitely cried watching Inside Out

Eliot Spencer definitely cried when he saw Ratatouille

[make-me-imagine]

Ways he says and shows he loves you (Alec Hardison)

Headcanons: Ways he says and shows that he loves you.

Pairing: Alec Hardison x Gn!Reader

Requested by: Anonymous

Warnings: Brief mentions of physical affection (hugs/kisses)

-

Alec isn't really shy when it comes to expressing love to his partner.

His giving love languages are words of affirmation, and acts or service

So he will always tell you how he feels. Reminding you how important you are to him, and how much he loves you.

"You're the most important person in my life. "I love you more than anything"

"More than orange soda?" "If I had to choose between you and Orange soda, I'd choose you"

"More than Star Trek?" "Well now don't push i- OW!"

He is very supportive, and the best hype-man a boyfriend could be lol

"You're doing great babe!" "That was awesome!" "That was hot" "You're amazing you know that?" etc.

When his words fail him or he isn't sure exactly what you need to hear, he does things for you.

He will bring you coffee, tea, water, food or snacks.

He'll run you a nice bath after a long day, or bring you a blanket or pillow to cuddle with on the couch (unless you want to cuddle him, in that case he is ready and willing)

If you are so busy and overwhelmed, he will help you with the tasks he can, to take some of the stress away.

He is alway a shouder to cry on, or an ear when you need to rant about something stressing you out.

He shows you he loves you by giving you the attention you need and deserve.

And making sure you know what is making you upset, whether its big or small is valid.

"It's stupid I know" "If it's hurting you it's not stupid"

If you need help with a solution he will talk you through it. If you just need someone to listen, he will give you all the attention you need.

Besides words, he is a fan of physical affection.

So he will show you how he feels with hugs, kisses and more.

Hugs from behind when you are trying to do something. Kisses on your cheek temple and shoulder.

He will sway you back and forth as he holds you tightly in his arms.

Hand holding in public, or an arm across your shoulders.

It's his way of showing you he is always there. And he just loves being close to you.

xx

Sorry its so short

General Taglist: @criminaly-supernatural, @imaginesfire, @onuen, @rexit-mo, @witchygagirl, @alexxavicry

Leverage Taglist: @groovy-lady, @aaannabbanana, @peoniarose, @fablesrose, @spuffyfan394, @malindacath, @winnifredburkleismyhero, @that-marvel-simp, @gatefleet, @bthtallmadge2 (<i'm not sure if you wanted to be added to only Eliot's taglist or Leverage in general)

[krakenartificer]

Who wants a really sad Leverage headcanon?

Was re-watching the Gimme a K Street Job -- Season 5 Episode 5 -- and a couple of things stood out to me.

1) Nate says "Let's go steal some congresspeople", and then sends everyone on the team (except Parker, who's being a cheer coach) out to con one of their targets. But it feels like there's a profound mismatch in who gets which mark.

For the "not like other girls" feminist congresswoman who's inclined to dismiss cheer as worthless and demeaning, you need Eliot to come in looking like a man who very much knows what does and does not count as a sport, and be his tiny angry respect-women-juice self about how regardless of what you think of their choice of clothing they are working as hard as any other athlete and they deserve safety as much as anyone else. But instead they sent Hardison.

For the "Yes I am very busy and important; admire me" chairman, you need Sophie, who is better than anyone else on the planet at making you feel admirable when you're doing what she wants, and scummy and low when you're not doing what she wants. But instead they sent Eliot.

For the "Look I am trying, but I need corn subsidies or I won't be able to do anything else" newbie congressman, Hardison could happily have gone on an infinitely recurring series of fetch quests until he sees the place where they loop around and bottom out and every problem solves every other problem. But instead they sent Sophie.

2) Eliot struggles the most, so Nate works with him the most, but he doesn't help him out hardly at all; he just keeps saying, "So what's your next play?" and then revealing that he's already anticipated Eliot's next play and has all the materials in place to enact it. And of course, they do eventually get the dude on board, and it all works out, but afterwards, Eliot tells Nate, "I trust that some time soon you'll tell me why you had me slogging through all that when you already knew how to hook him."

And of course, knowing what we now know about how season 5 ends, it makes sense that Nate is trying to train the OT3 to work without him, looking for his replacement.

Except.

If the plan is to fuck off into the sunset with Sophie, then why did he throw Sophie into this uncomfortable not-my-wheelhouse scenario?

No, Nate's preparing the entire team to carry on without him. He's forcing them to learn how to plan, learn different ways of approaching problems, to think about bigger pictures and approach them strategically.

...

I think Nate just got the first diagnosis of the disease that's finally going to kill him. And again, we -- the audience -- now know that he's going to live for many years after that initial diagnosis. But he doesn't know that, at this point. He knows he's tested positive, and he knows it's eventually going to kill him, and he has no idea how long he has.

And in some sense, it doesn't matter how long he has. Three months or thirty years, that kind of revelation makes it stunningly clear that taking care of the people you love means making sure that they can take care of themselves.

So that's what he does: he throws them into new, uncomfortable situations where they'll have to grow and support each other without him, so that no matter what happens, they'll be able to keep going. Because he's not a nice person, Jimmy Ford's son, but by God does he know the importance of protecting your family.

[ageofthegeekdotcon]

The more I think about Eliot having autism, it starts to make both more sense and less sense...