#mi6 verse

[clochanamarc]

@forjanus asked: [ read ] sender reads to receiver to help them fall asleep

it's a stolen moment of normalcy between them. that's the only way these moments will ever be for them; sneakily obtained, consumed and enjoyed out of the public and private eye. tonight, they curl up under the blankets on her bed, fully clothes, and allow the exhaustion to sink into the mattress. that's what they steal tonight. a perfectly ordinary, mundane bed time. she wears a pair of boxers and his navy shirt. he wears a remarkably stylish linen set that might belong more suitably on a designer catwalk than the ikea bed sheets. but unlike her, alec retains enough energy and focus to actually pick up a book and begin to read it. he's even careful not to turn the pages too loudly, lest he disturb the process of falling asleep. and yet... she knows she won't be able to do so that easily. not without a little assistance.

" read to me? " her head lies back against a mountain of pillows, fingertips lifting to gently trace the seam of his sleeve, the relaxed rise of his bicep. her eyes don't open. but the moment he begins to read, her head inclines to the right, resting against his arm, and the soft, rumbling cadence of his voice begins to carry her to sleep.

[tealeavesandthorns]

The music was coming from a small set of speakers and just above it Maria could be heard singing at the top of her lungs and dancing as she worked.

"I was so lonesome, I was blue I couldn't help it, it had to be you and I Always thought you knew the reason why"**

**Why Did It Have To Be Me - Mamma Mia 2 Soundtrack

[dramatisperscnae]

And here came more information, mostly just confirming what Dick had already deduced but adding a little more detail. Q and Marcus could both block the other out, perhaps even forcibly take control from the other, but not for long. Or at least not forever, which seemed logical enough. That time limit probably got shorter if whoever was being suppressed fought back; it would probably all be down to willpower at that point, Dick guessed.

And then came the hints as to just who they actually were. What kind of civilian needed a secure line to talk to friends? Or a custom-calibrated phone? Outside of global technological regions - which Dick was only really aware of when it came to media like blu-ray discs and video games - why should it matter whether the equipment was provided by an American or British group? Especially when all the base components theoretically came from one of the same three or four plants in the world anyway? That smacked of custom software more than hardware, and that…

Well, it was very clear at this point that Q and Marcus had their own secrets. Dick would certainly never admit to anyone that he was so attached to his own phone because of certain custom features that no one outside of a very small handful of people even needed to know existed. Neither of them struck him as the vigilante type, however. Government agents? Perhaps. Probably best to let that lie for now, though; if he was right, they didn't need to know he'd figured it out.

"Sure." Dick took the phone, flicking through the app's options before he found something vaguely appealing and not ridiculously expensive. Doubtless Q's superiors were footing the bill and it could be written off as job expenses, but that was no reason not to be at least a little courteous. A club sandwich and a piece of chocolate cake would be perfect; courtesy only went so far when this hotel had the best chocolate mousse cake in the city.

Handing the phone back he shrugged. "I can't really blame him for being angry over it. I'm not really a fan of getting manhandled myself no matter who's doing it. Which, I asked him about it but I should ask you too, you didn't get too banged up during that whole thing, did you? I just had bruises, but I figured I should ask…"

"Yes... He's... Currently in timeout." Q admitted a little timidly as he picked up the phone again to check how much charge it had now. "I can suppress him to some extent. The same as he can for me. But like... liquids? You can't really compress them properly? They'll just spring a leak somewhere. So there's a time limit. He's usually not so bad. He just gets very protective and he really didn't like being hit by someone so stupid."

He bit his lip gently. "My phone is a secure line, so I can call my colleagues- my friends really- back home. I can't just use another phone because I need my office in London to calibrate it correctly, I can't really use American equipment without messing with it a lot. And they tend not to like me doing unnecessary tinkering. I'm amazed they get anything done."

He nodded at the reasons given and relaxed a little more, finally looking back at Dick now his panic had settled down. "He's... Yes. Though I'm not sure how much is actually being an ass and how much is just pushing people away- anyway, you're not here to speculate over his reasons for acting like that. Do you want to put in whatever you want?" Q asked as he held out his phone with the hotel's food app open. "And then I can add mine after."

[on-a-lucky-tide]

Simon is left to herd a drunk Nik back to the hotel room.

cw: alcohol mention, horniness.

"Do-o-on't go was-ting your emo-o-tion, lay a-all your lo-o-ve on me-e-e! Hrk, heh heh." Nik tightened his arm around Simon's shoulders as they clambered out of the taxi and Simon had to readjust quickly to avoid getting pulled back into the backseat. When he went out drinking with Johnny and Garrick, it was usually a case of scruffing them by the back of the coat and hauling them ‘round like boisterous puppies, but Nik was the same height, a few pounds heavier due to his bulk, and a damn sight more fuckin’ handsy than the two sergeants. If they got to the hotel without Nik copping a feel and Simon getting a responding boner, then the operation should be considered a success.

"Cheers, mate," Simon grunted at the cabbie, tapping his card against the outstretched machine. He paused long enough to watch the little tick flash up on the screen before shoving his wallet away. "Nik, fockin'... Put yer arm... easy, easy." Nik staggered and Simon placed a hand on his chest to keep him upright, trying not to focus on how nice his damn tits felt beneath his buttoned shirt.

They had been drinking with Mac following a long conference in Westminster. It turned out that the old man, ten years senior even to Nik, was a bad fuckin' influence because they had knocked back enough liquor between the two of them to sedate an amatuer county rugby team.

Simon and Price had sat there, watching the whole thing go down in stunned silence, clutching their pints with the same look on their faces as tourists watching a pride of lions tear apart a gazelle on the Serengeti; one part awe, one part intrigue, two parts horror. Shot after shot, pint after pint; Mac's accent becoming unintelligible and Nik slipping in and out of multiple languages like he'd completely lost track of where he was. When Nik had stood on the table to sing an off-key rendition of KISS’ ‘Made for Lovin’ You’ while pointing directly at Price, the landlord had turfed ‘em out onto the street.

The old man was taking the old-old man back to his hotel, because trying to manage Mac and Nik together was beyond the capabilities of even the greatest minds in MI6, let alone two drunk SAS officers. Divide and conquer was the order of the night.

"I still don't know what you've done-with-me... hrk, brp. A grown-up woman should never fall-so-eas-i-ly," Nik brayed, finding a hip flask from somewhere inside his bloody jacket as they ambled an uneven path to the front door. Simon promptly confiscated it, shoving it into his backpocket. Nik pouted, but soon got distracted by the star-studded sky above their heads, his expression turning wistful as he put one unsteady foot in front of the other. "'Cause everything is new, and everything is you..."

Simon managed to get them through the hotel foyer after scanning the key card, and manhandled Nik towards the lift. "You skipped a verse."

"Shtoh?" Nik hiccuped again, suddenly leaning in close and watching the side of Simon's masked face through his eyebrows. The cold tip of his nose brushed against Simon’s exposed earlobe and it sent a shiver across his shoulders, Nik’s lips and teeth so close to his hammering pulse.

Simon didn't know why he fockin' said it. Maybe he was drunker than he thought. "It's ‘I feel a kinda fear, when I don't 'ave ya near, un-sat-isfied, I skip my pride, I beg you, dear.’"

"You do not have - hrk - to beg me, lieutenant. I would drop to my knees for you at - hic - a word."

Simon shoved Nik into the lift and slapped the buttons, propping the massive arsehole against the mirror with both hands. Nik took his opportunity and placed both hands on the swell of Simon's chest with a longing little groan, palms brushing over peaked nipples as his fingertips caressed the sides. "Ty takaya goryachaya, chto u menya stoyak na stoyake."

"Nik, ya bloody pervert, ya gavaryu paruskee," Simon huffed. He didn’t push Nik’s hands away. It was too late. His jeans had pulled tight at the crotch, his hands braced on the cold glass as he leaned in so that Nik would be firmer.

Nik wriggled his eyebrows as he squeezed, ignoring the intensity of Simon's deadpan stare in favour of enjoying the feel of his body through his cotton shirt. Simon's skin exploded with goosebumps as those big hands swept over his collarbones and shoulders, before swooping down to the dips of his waist. He was thicker where Price was athletic, but damn if Nik's hands didn't made him feel... handled. When those strong fingers slid through the loops of his jeans and pulled him forward so their hips slotted together, Simon had to swallow the needy little sound building in his throat. God, fuck, Nik was hard too. It would feel so good to rut against him like a humpin’ dog—

The lift pinged and the doors slid open behind him. With great effort, he dragged Nik into the hallway towards his room. Unfortunately, Nik had decided to become even more unhelpful, one hand swooping beneath Simon's shirt to the blond scruff of his happy trail with a horny rumble that shot straight to Simon's groin, and he had to readjust so his damn chubby could find a bit of extra space down his right trouser leg.

"The things I would do to you," Nik growled into Simon's neck as Simon fumbled the key card out of his jacket.

"'Mount you just sunk I'd be surprised if you could keep it up, old man," Simon replied, shoving the door handle down with his elbow and falling across the threshold into Nik's room. In three strides, he was dumping over two hundred pounds worth of lecherous Russian onto the mattress, only for said Russian to latch on and drag him down too.

"You are so prickly, lieutenant," Nik murmured, big arms clutching Simon's face to his chest. "But such a - hrk - handsome boy."

"Nik let me ge' m' face out ya tits so I c'n get ya boots off,” Simon said, muffled by said tits and not really wanting to leave them, because Nik smelled bloody edible.

Nik let out a dramatic sigh and flopped his arms out either side, and Simon slipped away to remove his boots and jacket. His hands hesitated as they rose to Nik's belt, noting that alcohol had clearly done little to dampen his spirits. Simon swallowed thickly and pulled back. “Need a slash,” he murmured as he fled into the en suite for a bit of a breather. When he released his cock from the confines of his jeans, it bobbed up eagerly towards his stomach. So much for a fuckin’ piss. Simon braced his hands against the sink and closed his eyes, willing himself to think of anything but Nik’s big hands sliding down its length as he sat across that warm stomach, feeling all that core strength and fur between his thighs, maybe that clever bloody mouth swallowing him down after he fucked Nik’s tits, and.. “Fuck sake.”

Think of Mac. Wrinkly ballsacks, false teeth, old man smell… anything.

Simon looked up quickly when he heard the sound of the minibar opening and the first notes of music from the television. “Nikolai,” he grunted in exasperation, tucking his now semi-erect dick back into his boxers as he headed back into the main room to corral the captain’s bloody boyfriend into a glass of water and a kip.

“The night is young,” Nik said as Simon approached him, thrusting a bottle of beer into his hands. “And, perhaps, I can convince you into a few more poor choices before it is over.”

Simon stared at the bottle and then Nik’s broad grin. He drew in a deep sigh and unhooked the mask from his ear. “Fine. But when Price gets ‘ere, you’re dealin’ with the bollockin’.”

“Deal.”

—

Mac had fallen asleep on the cab journey back to his hotel and Price had half carried him to his bed, staying long enough to top up a glass of water and make sure the old man didn’t suffocate face down in his sleep, before heading back to his own for what he thought would be some shut eye, maybe some sloppy head from a horny Russian if he was lucky. As he stepped out of the lift, he heard the low thump-thump of music from down the hall, and it only grew louder the closer he got to his room.

The sight that met him when he tapped the key card and opened the door would live with him as a fond memory until the end of his days. Nik and Simon were half undressed, jeans and socks on the floor, Nik’s shirt unbuttoned, as they bounced enthusiastically on the bed, sheets and pillows dishevelled. The music playing from the television was some corny pop track from 2014 — "Oh, don't you dare look back, just keep your eyes on me." I said, "You're holding back." She said, "Shut up and dance with me!” — and they were both crowing along to the lyrics, the remains of the mini bar toasted at the ceiling.

“Bloody muppets,” Price said through a fond chuckle as he closed the door. If they ended up in a pile of semi-naked bodies, occasionally waking to press lazy kisses to whatever patch of skin was closest, and Simon’s room next door remained empty for the night… well, brass didn’t need to know, did they?

[cicerfics]

31 and 42 for Bond or Q please 💜

31. If they had a tumblr what would it look like?

Q: A comprehensive list of 'tech doesn't work like that!!' moments from mainstream media, along with EXHAUSTIVE explanations of why this particular Hollywood scene is TOTALLY impossible/implausible.

Bond: ~Vibes~. Aesthetic blogger. Artsy shots of different locations around the world. Nature pictures. Beautiful sunsets and birds soaring majestically over the ocean. Zero text.

42. 3 comfort items

Q:

-A threadbare stuffed cat that he's had since childhood. Shh. Don't tell! Bond only gets to meet this cat after they've been dating for like six months, and Q preemptively tells Bond that if he makes any jokes about it, he (Bond) will be exiled to the couch for the next 6-8 business weeks.

-Some type of leaf collection Q made as a child. It was probably a school project. Students were asked to collect like 20 different leaves, press them, and label them. Q did 100 different types of leaves, and wrote detailed descriptions underneath about the genus, the tree's role in their biome, etc. etc. He put sooo much effort into it. Too much, probably. The teacher was like, "Haha, maybe calm down a little? Meanwhile, I probably need to speak to the headmaster about skipping you ahead a few more grades??" The other kids probably made fun of Q for being a tryhard. Q didn't care! He loved collecting those leaves and making his little booklet!! He's still proud of it!!

-A photo album containing pictures of every pet he's ever had. Per my animal-rescuer-Q headcanons, he's had at least 15. Most have since passed on to the other side, but Q still treasures his memories and pages through the photo album very often.

Bonus: A postcard Bond sent him once, ages ago. He'd been flirting with Q outrageously, right before heading off on a mission. Q rolled his eyes and firmly turned him down. Bond pouted. Q cited regulations. Bond argued that life was short (especially his!) and Q was being really dumb by refusing to let Bond take him to bed, just because of some nonsensical MI6 rules. Q argued that insults to his intelligence were not the most compelling prelude to a seduction he'd ever heard, and for heaven's sake, hadn't Bond ever considered poetry? Bond made a joke about blunt instruments (wink wink!) and said he didn't know any poetry anyway. He went off on his mission. But a week after he left, Q got a postcard from Bond. It was a painting of a huge, glorious sun. On the back, Bond had copied out some verses (including the last few lines!) from To His Coy Mistress.

Bond:

-An old arithmetic textbook published in the 1940s. It belonged to his father, and he used it to teach tiny!James math. Bond can still smell his father's cologne whenever he so much as looks at that book.

-His father's straight razor.

-His oldest and most decrepit pullover which is soooo comfy and broken in exactly right.

Bonus: A tiny origami frog. Once, Bond woke up in Medical (horribly injured and after being unconscious for nearly 24 hours) and found Q sitting beside his bed. Q had turned to origami to self-soothe, and he had feverishly created a menagerie of tiny animals while he sat vigil at Bond's bedside. Q quickly swept all the animals away when he saw Bond was awake, but Bond stole one. He keeps it safely tucked away in his flat (even though he'd like to carry it with him as a talisman), just for the reminder that somebody cares about him enough to sit at his bedside.

[flowersforzoe11]

Alex Rider tv series S1E5 Reviews

spoilers and thoughts below :)

okay!! Kyra is very cool all of a sudden !! can't wait for her and Alex to team up (plus it's nice albeit weird that he's not so alone in the tv-verse)

yassen gregorovich the man you are

god i love Alex's ingeniuty (the graphite on the keypad). very book series-coded

OKAY THE HITLER BIRTH YEAR PULL WAS INSANE ALEX ILY (also Kyra saying "make sense faster" was so perfect. exactly what Alex needs to hear every day of his life)

i will say the biggest strength of the show vs the books is that you get to see into what other characters are doing (like Yassen or the MI6 hacking scene). very much enjoying all of the plots running together

the kyra/alex hacking scene is so good??? no notes

also i love how smart everyone is. James blasting the music was perfect and it's nice Alex's buddies here are all competent (poor book Alex was the only one operating with any brain cells in 75% of his interactions)

i will say it forever, yassen is perfection. as away-from-the-book as it is, i love his presence in the tv show sm

STOP YASSEN SEEING ALEX IN THE FLESH FOR THE FIRST TIME IS CRAZY!! LIKE IMAGINE SEEING THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE REINCARNATED AS A 14 YEAR BOY IN YOUR PLACE OF WORK (also, "another time, maybe" was awesome). and him turning back omggggg i loved every bit of this scene to pieces

if Alan Blunt has no haters then i am dead BUT him reading Parker Roscoe like a book was actually so good

"Michael Roscoe would never quote Hitler" i'm dead

okay things are getting really real omfg. there are so many things that i *hope* they do in the rest of the season but i will keep them to myself until the inevitably happen/don't happen

finishing thoughts: i think it's a good thing i haven't read anything before Never Say Die since like 2019(that being 5 years ago is crazy. anyway). even though i've read every book at least three times (and let's be honest, i've probably read Snakehead and Scopia 10 times a piece), having a fuzzy memory on the events of Point Blank helps me not focus too hard on the differences between book and show which increases my enjoyment for sure <3

[miwhotep]

The way they talk about the importance of information here really reminds me of the Spectre James Bond movie and a similar speech. Also, the story seems to be more focused on the MI6 now. I stand by my theory that we will see the Spectre criminal organization, the MI6's greatest enemy in the Yuumori-verse, too!

[actuallytalldumbass]

@ravensprophet just gave me courage and that kickstarted my brain for another idea so here ya go

Alex Rider Baby Driver au??? (SLAY) (in case you didn't watch Baby Driver it's about a young Getaway driver (called Baby))

Alex as Baby (obviously)(omg his codename would be Cub😭)( he's a speed demon for sure)(tho Alex would NOT be quiet like Baby, he'd mouth off a lot and prolly get punched a few times)(assuming Alex would be 14 then the heists that would take place would take place before the movie)(or it could be still following the movie events AND THEN IT COULD BE ALEX GETTING FREE OF SCORPIA (Doc / The heist groups being SCORPIA?)

The other criminals that join the jobs could be AR villains?? (They dont really like baby in the movies so it would fit)

Who would be Doc? It could be someone from SCORPIA if we're going that way. Ooo it could be Yassen (Doc forcing Baby to be his driver and dragging him into the criminal world. Then at the end of the movie helping baby get away)(that seams very Yassen-like (with him killing Ian and basically kickstarting Alex's fall into the intelligence world. And then trying to protect alex in the end by not shooting him)(or if we're going the TV verse, then training him and saving his life by shooting Nile)

Joe would be Jack

And Deborah could be Sabina(or Kyra) if you need a romantic relationship

Or it could be platonic with Tom

Or it could be just Alex wanting to free himself on his own too XDD

Doc/ the heist groups could also be mi6??? If you wanna go the opposite direction. Blunt being Doc (tho I'm not sure how much I like that since Doc gets kinda 'redeamed' at the end and I'm not gonna excusing Blunt)(So I think Yassen is better for the job)

Tho if its mi6 one heist crew could be the K Unit

Or the K Unit being a heist crew could be added without mi6/ Blunt being Doc (just cause it would be cool and you could make either Nice K Unit or Shit K Unit)

[basim-ibnishaq]

It makes me happy to know that tv!verse yassen didn't have to go through the absolute heartbreak of finding out when he was still a broken, lost kid, that john was mi6, thinking john betrayed him, didn't care for him, that he'd secretly been laughing at him the whole time, that he never had a friend in john and he was still completely alone - at least tv yassen knew he had a friend, had someone who wanted him to be okay and survive

It makes me happy but god it makes my heart break for book yassen even more

(counter point though is that tv yassen had to find out the man he knew as his friend and the only person who really cared about him in years was dead)

[amomentxofhappiness]

ooc // as you probably noticed, had a massive surge of productivity! I blame it on christnas cheer (and a change in attitude). Ill be re-adding old muses with a twist and new muses. Here's the short (?) list:

Ivan Koch Baquero - daniel brühl, 40s, boringly straight. Either film director and snob as hell or MI6 operative and also snob as hell. catalunyan mom, german dad, italian grandparents. the man can talk more languages since age 3 than you in your fifties.

Phil Matthews - adam brody, late 30s, early 40s. Half brother to Ben, nerd, works a job he hates but is dealing with it. Less boringly straight.

Paula Rogers (no relation to Steve)- alycia debnam-carey, late 20s early 30s. Black belt that made some cash profiting on her looks & the exposure she received competing. She gives ted talks and does pro-bono works with underpriviliged girls. Has her own dojo and did a good job hiring her lawyer & investment company. Shes not a millionaire by any means but lives comfortably and does the odd tv spot / tv show, thinking of branching into acting (def was part of the cob.ra kai series in some shape or form). Oh she's bi af.

Lucas (Lou) Dreyfus - alan ritchson, early 40s, what a man. Pan af. Former military, by the book (not a reacher rip off but more like a jack ryan one ngl, i like spies, not even sorry).

Zeus/Henry richardson - jeffrey dean morgan, looks early 50s, over 5000. The OG Daddy TM. Based ob my own canon from my olympus blog /fables comics and greek knowledge (nerd alert). He's a judge, has his powers, do not fuck with his kids (whats left of them anyway)

Henry's main (non-zeus) verse - he's a Judge in the NY Criminal court. Before this he was the district attorney. he's a widower (and a bit of a ladies' man since his late 40s but he just hadn't found the one). he's not into kids (=anyone under 35) but apparently he has 'daddy' energy and young women keep hitting on him. he has two kids Gwen (Jennifer Morrison FC, has a career in the military a& ) and Jack (Jamie Dornan, also a muse here). Jack was his late wife's child and he adopted him when Jack was 3 and they married. Gwen was born shortly after. He's dedicated and determined, a bit playful and is trying his best to de-toxisize himself. He also babysits his pre-teen granddaughter an awful lot (Jack's daughter with his late with Magda) so that Jack can go do whatever he wants. He has some investments and lives comfortably.

Teddy potter - nicholas galitzine, late 20s early 30s. Bi leaning to gay afm industrial designer. Currently unemployed. Still living with his dad and feeling terribly bad over it. Been through some things and dealing with all of them.

Ted lupin - jensen ackles, early 40s. Fubar boi since almost birth, till doesnt understand why both of his parents had to go off and fight in a dooned battle against evil incarnate. Loves his grandma, his godfather and his uncle draco. Hates hia godfathers ex wife g weasley and her entire family. Feels guilty for his hs girlfriend's death (manpain im sorry he was created in 2012) and needs copious amount of therapy. Instead he takes copious amounta of beer. Tried to get clean multiple times, failed in all of them. Needs a +1 that says "i can fix him" to be dependant on and revolve his life around them. Bi af though it took him a decade to accept he liked d*ck.

[anincompletelist]

HELLO :D

thank you @bigassbowlingballhead @magicandarchery @sunnysideprince for the tags hehehe I have never done this before but I thoroughly enjoyed trying to make sense of the ones you guys posted skdhkjhsf <3

I have..... far too many wips so I won't be doing all of them BUT have some recent ones --

+

well known MI6 agent continues to cross paths with a very beautiful but annoyingly persistent guy who seems to have similar goals but won't quit causing chaos and wrecking his plans long enough to talk about them

2. runaway prince discovers freedom, hair dye, magic, and found family (among other things)

3. infamous underground boxer takes a keen interest in the pretty blonde guy who keeps coming back to watch his fights

4. a/b/o-verse guys defying stereotypes about their classifications (this could apply to several wips, to be fair)

5. one of them just wants to sell books and the other just wants to give people killer tattoos and these two things should not go hand in hand (but of course they do) (eventually)

6. vampire hotel

7. trauma healing through orgasms (so, so many)

8. conversely, trauma healing through reassurance that it's ok if there's a lack of orgasms

9. an anonymous chat room for the world's elite turns out to be not quite as anonymous as alex had been hoping for (who'd have thought earl grey would be the catalyst for so many existential crises???)

10. a prince and a president's son try to find LOVE (separately and then together) on an ISLAND !!!

+

OK BRAIN NOT WORKING WELL TODAY SO THIS IS WHAT WE'RE WORKING WITH SKJHDKSJHD

no pressure tags!: @firenati0n (I beat you to it so I get to tag you HA) @wordsofhoneydew @nocoastposts @kiwiana-writes @eusuntgratie @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @sparklepocalypse and OPEN TAG FOR ANYONE ELSE AS I SAID BRAIN NOT WORKING (it's just the ao3 error message up there fr sorry friends)

xx

[denimbex1986]

'Andrew Scott’s success did not arrive overnight. His has been a slow and steady ascent from supporting player to leading man. But his status is now assured: at 47, the Irishman is among the most talented and prominent actors of his generation, on stage and screen.

Dublin-born and raised, Scott first took drama classes at the suggestion of his mother, an art teacher, to try to overcome a childhood lisp. At 17 he won his first part in a film, Korea (1995), about an Irish boy who finds himself fighting in the Korean War. By 21, he was winning awards for his performance in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, for director Karel Reisz, no less, at The Gate. He arrived in London, where he continues to live, at the end of the 1990s, and worked regularly, with smaller parts in bigger TV shows (Band of Brothers, Longitude) and bigger parts in smaller plays (A Girl in a Car With a Man, Dying City). By the mid-2000s he was well established, especially in the theatre. In 2006, on Broadway, he was Julianne Moore’s lover, and Bill Nighy’s son, in David Hare’s Iraq War drama, The Vertical Hour, directed by Sam Mendes. In 2009, he was Ben Whishaw’s betrayed boyfriend in Mike Bartlett’s Cock, at the Royal Court. He won excellent notices for these and other performances, but he was not yet a star. If you knew, you knew. If you didn’t know, you didn’t know. Most of us didn’t know; not yet.

That changed in 2010 when, at the age of 33, he played Jim Moriarty, arch nemesis of Benedict Cumberbatch’s egocentric detective, in the BBC’s smash hit Sherlock. The appearance many remember best is his incendiary debut, in an episode called “The Great Game”. When first we meet him, Moriarty is disguised as a creepy IT geek, a human flinch with an ingratiating smile. It’s an act so convincing that even Sherlock doesn’t catch on. Next time we see him, he’s a dapper psychotic in a Westwood suit, with an uncannily pitched singsong delivery and an air of casual menace that flips, suddenly, into rage so consuming he’s close to tears. Such was the relish with which Scott played the villain — he won a Bafta for it — that he risked the black hat becoming stuck to his head. In Spectre (2015), the fourth of Daniel Craig’s Bond movies, and the second directed by Sam Mendes, Scott played Max Denbigh, or C, a smug Whitehall mandarin who wants to merge MI5 and MI6, sacrilegiously replacing the 00 agents with drones. (If only.)

There were other decent roles in movies and TV series, as well as substantial achievements on stage, and he might have carried on in this way for who knows how long, even for his whole career, as a fêted stage performer who never quite breaks through as a leading man on screen.

But Scott had more to offer than flashy baddies and scene-stealing cameos. His Hamlet, at The Almeida in London, in 2017, was rapturously received. I’ve seen it only on YouTube, but even watching on that degraded format, you can appreciate the fuss. Scott is magnetic: funny, compelling, and so adept with the language that, while you never forget he’s speaking some of the most profound and beautiful verse ever written, it feels as conversational as pub chat.

Another banner year was 2019: a memorable cameo in 1917 (Mendes again) as a laconic English lieutenant; an Emmy nomination for his performance in an episode of Black Mirror; and the matinée idol in Noel Coward’s Present Laughter at London’s Old Vic, for which he won the Olivier for Best Actor, the most prestigious award in British theatre.

The second series of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s phenomenal Fleabag, also in 2019, proved to a wider public what theatregoers already knew: Scott could play the mainstream romantic lead, and then some. His character was unnamed. The credits read, simply, “The Priest”. But social media and the newspapers interpolated an adjective and Scott became The Hot Priest, Fleabag’s unlucky-in-love interest, a heavy-drinking heartbreaker in a winningly spiffy cassock, and an internet sensation.

Fleabag began as a spiky dramedy about a traumatised young woman. Scott’s storyline saw it develop into a bittersweet rom-com, brimming with compassion for its two clever, funny, horny, lonely, awkward, baggage-carrying heroes, lovers who can’t get together because, for all the snogging in the confessional, one of them is already taken, in this case by God.

It was the best and brightest British comedy of the 2010s, and Scott’s fizzing chemistry with Waller-Bridge had much to do with that. The ending, when she confesses her feelings at a bus stop, is already a classic. “I love you,” she tells him. “It’ll pass,” he says.

Over the past 12 months, in particular, Scott has piled triumph on top of victory, and his star has risen still further. At the National, last year, he executed a coup de théâtre in Vanya, for which he was again nominated for an Olivier. (He lost out to an old Sherlock sparring partner, Mark Gatiss, for his superb turn in The Motive and the Cue, about the making of an earlier Hamlet.) For Simon Stephens’s reworking of Chekhov’s play, Scott was the only actor on stage. On a sparsely furnished set, in modern dress — actually his own clothes: a turquoise short sleeve shirt, pleated chinos, Reebok Classics and a thin gold chain — and with only very slight modulations of his voice and movements, he successfully embodied eight separate people including an ageing professor and his glamorous young wife; an alcoholic doctor and the woman who loves him; and Vanya himself, the hangdog estate manager. He argued with himself, flirted with himself and even, in one indelible moment, had it off with himself.

It’s the kind of thing that could have been indulgent showboating, a drama-school exercise taken too far, more fun for the performer than the audience. But Scott carried it off with brio. In the simplest terms, he can play two people wrestling over a bottle of vodka in the middle of the night — and make you forget that there’s only one of him, and he’s an Irish actor, not a provincial Russian(s). An astonishing feat.

For his next trick: All of Us Strangers, among the very best films released in 2023. Writer-director Andrew Haigh’s ghost story is about Adam (Scott), a lonely writer, isolated in a Ballardian west-London high-rise, who returns to his suburban childhood home to find that his parents — killed in a car crash when he was 11 — are still living there, apparently unaltered since 1987. Meanwhile, Adam begins a tentative romance with a neighbour, Henry (Paul Mescal), a younger man, also lonely, also vulnerable, also cut off from family and friends.

Tender, lyrical, sentimental, sad, strange, and ultimately quite devastating, All of Us Strangers was another potential artistic banana skin. At one point, Scott’s character climbs into bed with his parents and lies between them, as a child might, seeking comfort. In less accomplished hands, this sort of thing could have been exasperating and embarrassing. But Scott’s performance grounds the film. He is exceptionally moving in it. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor, losing to his fellow Irishman, Cillian Murphy, for Oppenheimer. Earlier this year, he made history as the first person to receive Critics Circle awards in the same year for Best Actor in a film (All of Us Strangers) and a play (Vanya).

Finally, last month, the title role in Ripley, a new spin on the lurid Patricia Highsmith novels. That show, which unspools over eight episodes on Netflix, was a long time coming. Announced in 2019, it was filmed during the pandemic, at locations across Italy and in New York. Scott is in almost every scene and delivers an immensely subtle and nuanced portrayal of Highsmith’s identity thief, a character previously played by actors including Alain Delon, Dennis Hopper, and Matt Damon in the famous Anthony Minghella film The Talented Mr Ripley, from 1999.

The fragile almost-charm that makes Tom Ripley such an enduring antihero is there in Scott’s portrayal, but so is the creepiness, the isolation, the fear and desperation. His Ripley can turn on a smile, but it quickly curdles. Filmed in high-contrast black and white, Ripley is a sombre, chilly work by design, but doggedly compelling, and not without a mordant wit. Again, critics swooned.

So the actor is on a hot streak. Later this year he’ll appear in Back in Action, a Hollywood spy caper, alongside Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx, above-the-title stars with dazzling, wide-screen smiles. But could they play Chekhov single-handed? They’ll need to be on their toes.

Before our shoot and subsequent interview, in April, I had met Scott briefly on two previous occasions, both times at fancy dinners for fashion brands. Compact, stylish, dynamic, he is impishly witty and charismatic: good in a room. Also, obliging: the second time I met him, he took my phone and spoke into it in his most diabolical Moriarty voice for a wickedly funny voice message to my son, a Sherlock fan.

At the Esquire shoot, on an overcast day in south London, Scott again demonstrated his good sportiness: dancing in the drizzle in a Gucci suit; generously sharing his moment in the spotlight with an unexpected co-star, a local cat who sauntered on to the set and decided to stick around for the close-ups; and entertaining the crew — and hangers-on, including me — with rude jokes. At one point, while for some reason discussing the contents of our respective fridges, I asked him where he kept his tomatoes. “Easy, Tiger,” he said.

At lunch the following day, upstairs at Quo Vadis, the restaurant and members’ club in Soho (my suggestion), the actor arrived promptly, settled himself on a banquette, and we got straight to business. It’s standard practice now for interviews published in the Q&A format to include a disclaimer, in the American style: “This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.” (Well, duh.) In this case, we talked for close to three hours. Inevitably, paper costs being what they are, and Esquire readers having busy lives, some of that verbiage has ended up on the cutting-room floor. But not much! I’ve tried to let it flow as much as possible, and to keep the spirit of the thing, in which we toggled, like all good performances, between light and dark, comedy and tragedy.

In early March, a month before this interview took place, Scott and his family suffered a terrible and unexpected loss: his mother, Nora, suddenly died. He went home to Dublin to be with his dad, Jim, his sisters, Sarah and Hannah, and their family and friends.

As an interviewee and, I suspect, as a person, Scott is thoughtful, convivial and solicitous: he doesn’t just answer questions, he also asks them. He is not above the occasional forearm squeeze when he wants to emphasise a point. He seems to possess a sharp emotional intelligence. Perhaps one should expect empathy in a great actor, but in him it seems particularly marked.

Before we began talking, there was some studying of the menu. Scott wondered, since I eat often at Quo Vadis, if I had any recommendations. I told him I had my eye on the pie: chicken, ham and leek. “Why would you not have the pie?” wondered Scott. A good question.

So, how was your morning? Where have you come from?

This morning I’ve been at the gym, Alex.

Are you working out for a specific reason or are you just a healthy man?

Just trying to keep it going. Exercise is so helpful to me. I don’t know if you know, but my mum died four weeks ago.

I did know, and I’m so sorry.

Thank you. So, yeah. Just trying to keep it going. They say your body feels it as much as your mind.

The grief?

Yeah, the grief. My friend said a brilliant thing last night. She’s been through grief. She said, if you think of it like weights, the weight of it doesn’t decrease, but your ability to lift the weights does. So, if you go to the gym and you’re completely unpractised you won’t be able to lift the weight. But the more you get used to it, the more you can lift. There’s a slight analogy to grief. I’m just learning about it.

Have you been through grief before?

Not really. A little bit, but not to this extent. And it’s a strange thing because, obviously, I’m in the middle of having to talk a lot [promoting Ripley] and making that decision of whether to talk about it or whether not to talk about it. I’m finding myself talking about it, because it’s what’s going on, and without giving away too much of it she was such an important figure. It feels right. It’s such a natural thing.

Is it helpful to talk about it?

I think it has to be. I feel very lucky with my job, in the sense that, all those more complex, difficult feelings, that’s what you have to do in a rehearsal room; you have to explore these things. So strange: a lot of the recent work that I’ve done has been exploring grief. With Vanya, and All of Us Strangers. So it’s odd to be experiencing it this time for real.

I wasn’t planning on making that the focal point of this piece, so it’s up to you how much you feel comfortable talking about it.

I appreciate that.

Was it unexpected? Did it happen out of the blue?

Yes. She was very alive four weeks ago. She just deteriorated very quickly. She got pneumonia and she just… it was all over within 24 hours.

What sort of person was she?

She was the most enormously fun person that you could possibly imagine. Insanely fun and very, very creative. She’s the person who sort of introduced me to acting and art. She taught me to draw and paint when I was really young —that’s another big passion of mine, drawing and painting. She was amazing with all of us. My sister Sarah is very talented in sport, she’s now a sports coach. And my sister Hannah was very artistic and she’s an actor now. So, she was really good at supporting us throughout all our different interests. What I say is that we’ve been left a huge fortune by her. Not financially, but an emotional fortune, if you know what I mean? I feel that really strongly. And once this horrible shock is over, I just have to figure out how I’m going to spend it. Because I think when someone else is alive and they’ve got amazing attributes, they look after those attributes. And then when they die, particularly if they are your parent, you feel like you want to inhabit them, these incredible enthusiasts for life. She just made connections with people very easily. I feel enormously grateful to have had her. Have you had much grief in your life?

My mother died, during Covid. She had been ill for a long time, so it was a very different experience to yours. But I think they are all different experiences, for each of us. I don’t know if that loss would be in any way analogous to yours. But like you, I love art and books and music, and that’s all from her. Last night, I watched a rom-com with my daughter, who is 14. And I don’t know if I would like rom-coms so much, if it wasn’t for my mum.

Love a rom-com! What did you watch?

Annie Hall.

Did she like it, your daughter?

She absolutely loved it. She was properly laughing.

Oh, that’s great!

And she’s a tough one to impress. But she loved it, and my mum loved Woody Allen. My mum can’t recommend Woody Allen to my daughter now, but I can, and that’s come down from her. So it goes on.

That’s what I mean. Your spirit doesn’t die. And I’m sure you went to bed going, “Yes!”

I did! It was a lovely evening, it really was. Tonight we’ll watch something else.

Are you going to watch another Woody Allen? Which one are you going to watch?

I thought maybe we’d watch Manhattan? More Diane Keaton.

Or Hannah and Her Sisters? That’s a good one. Insanely good. Yeah, it’s amazing that legacy, what you’re left with. My mum was so good at connecting with people. She was not very good at small talk. She was quite socially bold. She would say things to people. If she thought you looked well, she’d tell you. She’d always come home with some story about some pot thrower she met at some sort of craft fair. Being socially bold, there’s a sort of kindness in it. When someone says something surprising, it’s completely delightful. My mother sent me something when I was going through a bad time in my twenties. It was just a little card. It said, “The greatest failure is not to delight.” What a beautiful quote. And she was just delighted by so many things, and she was also delightful. And like her, I really love people. I really get a kick out of people.

I can tell.

But there’s a kind of thing, if you become recognisable, people become the enemy? And it’s something I have to try and weigh up a little bit. Because people are my favourite thing about the world. I think it’s part of my nature. My dad is pretty sociable too. And so it’s weighing that up, how you keep that going. Because certain parts of that are out of your control: people treat you slightly differently. But this phase, the past four weeks, it still feels so new. Just thinking about legacy and kindness and love and the finite-ness of life. All that stuff.

Big stuff.

Yeah, it’s big stuff. And it’s very interesting, talking about grief. Because it’s not all just low-energy sadness. There’s something galvanising about it as well. I don’t know if you found that, too?

One of the things about someone else dying is it makes you feel alive.

Yes, exactly. Even though we have no choice, it does that. It’s that amazing thing, the year of magical thinking.

[Waiter approaches. Are we ready to order?]

We are.

I think so. Are we two pie guys?

We’re two pie guys!

We’re pretty fly for pie guys.

Are we salad guys? Tomato, fennel and cucumber salad?

Yeah.

And chips, maybe?

Listen, you only live once.

So, the year of magical thinking…

You know, when you’re walking along, are you allowed to have a surge of joy? Or are you allowed to just stay home and… It’s extraordinary when it gets you.

Like a wave of emotion?

I had one on the rowing machine today. I’m glad of it, though.

That was sadness.

Just loss, yeah. Just loss.

So, there’s two ways to do this. You can choose. We can do the usual interview where we start at the beginning with your childhood and go all the way through to now. That’s totally fine. Or, I can throw more random questions at you, and see where that takes us?

Random!

Shall we random it?

Let’s random it.

OK. That means I might sometimes read questions off this piece of paper.

Reading takes just slightly away from the randomness of it, Alex…

That is a very good point. You are quite right. But I don’t read them out in order! They’re just prompts.

[Sardonically] Oh, I see!

Talk me through what you’re wearing.

Oh, this is so old. What does it say?

[I peer at the label on the inside of his shirt collar. It says Hartford.]

What colour would you call that?

I’d call it a bit of a duck egg, Alex, would you?

I’d go with that. And it’s like a…

Like a Henley?

And these [pointing to trousers]?

Mr P trousers. And a pair of old Nikes.

And sports socks.

When I am off duty, I think I dress slightly like an 11-year-old. You know, when you’re just plodding the streets, I wear, like, a hoodie and trainers.

And you have a chain round your neck.

This is a chain that I bought in New York. No, maybe I bought it in Italy. It was a replacement chain. I’ve worn a chain for years. Sometimes I like to have it as a reminder that I’m not working. When you’re in character, you take it off. Because when you’re in a show or a play, they sort of own you. They own your hair.

They own your hair!

Or sometimes you have to walk around with, like, a stupid moustache. Or, worse, chops. Actors fucking hate that. Like, nobody suits that, I don’t think. Right? I’m trying to think of someone who suits that.

Daniel Day Lewis, maybe? He can carry it off.

He’s got the chops for chops!

What’s something about you that you think is typically Irish?

It goes back to that people thing. When I go home to Ireland, I’m aware that people talk to each other a lot more. And I think there’s a sense of humour that Irish people have that I love. And I suppose a softness, too, that I love. Those are the positive things. And then the guilt and the shame is the negative stuff.

Catholic guilt?

Catholic guilt. I feel very strongly, though, that I’ve worked to emancipate myself from it. There’s a certain unthinking-ness to guilt. Your first thought, always: “What have I done wrong? It’s gotta be me.” That doesn’t benefit anyone. And with shame, I don’t feel shame anymore. I think I probably did before. But in a way, it’s an irrelevant thing for me to talk about now. The thing I prefer to talk about is how great it is not to have that anymore. Rather than how horrible it was. The thing I feel enthusiastic about is how there are so many beautiful and different ways to live a life that aren’t centred on the very strict, Catholic, cultural idea of what a good life might be. Namely, 2.4 children and certain ideas and a very specific life.

Are there positives to be taken away from a Catholic education?

The rituals around grief, I think, are really beautiful, having gone through what I’ve just been going through. And the community that you get in Catholicism. Because that’s what Catholicism is about, in some ways: devotion to your community. The amount of love and support you get is to be admired. It’s the organisation that has been the problem, not the values. Random question number 16!

When’s the last time you were horrifically drunk?

Good question! I was in New York doing press recently for Ripley. And I met Paul Mescal. He had a negroni waiting for me. Love a negroni. And then we went dancing.

Are you a good dancer?

I’m pretty good, freestyle. Slow on choreography but once I get it, I’m OK. I love dancing.

I love dancing.

Do you really? Do you do, like, choreographed dancing as well?

No! But I’m a good dancer.

Do you have moves?

Oh, I have moves.

Ha! I love that!

It’s so freeing, so liberating.

It totally is.

And it’s sexy and fun.

Exactly! It’ll get you a kiss at the end of the night.

It’s sort of showing off, too, isn’t it?

But it’s also completely communal. It connects you with people. Also, you can learn so much about someone by watching how they connect with people on a dance floor. How much of communication do they say is non-verbal? An enormous amount.

If you didn’t live in London, where would you most like to live?

I suppose Dublin. I do live a wee bit in Dublin. But one of the things I feel really grateful for is that I have sort of been able to live all over the place. I lived in Italy for a year, during the pandemic.

You were making Ripley?

Yeah, we were all over. Rome, Venice, Capri, Naples… A bit of New York. I’d love to spend more time in New York. I was very lucky recently to have my picture taken by Annie Leibovitz. We were outside the Chelsea Hotel, and this woman came up. [Thick Noo Yawk accent, shouting]: “Hey, Annie! Why don’t you take a picture of this dumpster? It’s been outside my block for two months! Take a picture of that!” There’s something about that New York-iness that I love. It still has such romance for me.

How old do you feel?

Really young. I don’t have an exact age for you. Thirties?

Some people feel in touch with their childhood selves, or almost unchanged from adolescence. Others seem to have been born an adult.

That’s really true. I think of playgrounds for children: you’re actively encouraged to play, as a kid. “Go out and play!” And I hate that at some point, maybe in your mid-twenties, someone goes, “Now, don’t play! Now, know everything. Now, turn on the television, acquire a mortgage and tell people what you know.” I have to play for a living. It’s so important, not just in your job, but in life. It’s a great pleasure of life, if you can hold on to that. Talking about my mum again, she had an amazing sense of fun.

She was a funny person? She made people laugh?

Absolutely.

That’s important, isn’t it?

It’s really important. I think having a sense of humour is one of the most important things in life. It’s such a tool. And you can develop it. My family were all funny. Laughter was a currency in our family. Humour is a magic weapon. It separates us from the other species. Like, I love my dog. I think dogs are amazing. And he can have fun, but he’s not able to go, “This is fucking ridiculous.” He’s not able to do that! So it’s a real signifier of your humanity, in some ways.

Also, being a funny person, or someone who can connect with people through humour, that’s how we make friends.

I think actors make really good friends. Because you’re in the empathy game. And because you’re making the decision to go into an industry that is really tough, you need to have your priorities straight: “I know this is tough, I know the chances of me succeeding in it are slim, but I’m going to go in anyway.” It shows a sort of self-possession that I think is a wonderful thing to have in a friend. Also, actors are just funny. And a lot of them are sexy!

Funny and sexy: good combination.

I know! Not that you want all your friends to be sexy, that’s not how you should choose your friends.

Oh, I don’t know. It’s not the worst idea.

It’s not. But I think it’s something to do with empathy. And it’s a troupe mentality as well. You’re good in groups.

It’s a gang.

I love a gang. Do you like a gang?

I do. Magazines are like that. A good magazine is a team, a great magazine is a gang. And the thing we produce is only part of it: you put it out there and people make of it what they will. The process of making it is the thing, for me.

Oh, my God. That’s something I feel more and more. Process is as important as product. I really believe that. You can have an extraordinary product, but if it was an absolute nightmare to make then, ultimately, that’s what you’re going to remember about it. You make good things that are successful that everybody loves? That’s lovely. But also, you make stuff that people don’t respond to. So, if you have a good time in the process, and the attempt is a valiant one, and there’s a good atmosphere, if it’s kind and fun, that’s the stuff you hold on to. One of the reasons I love the theatre is you don’t have to see the product. You just do it, and then it’s done. It’s an art form that is ephemeral. There’s a big liberation, too, in discovering you don’t have to watch any of your films if you don’t want to.

Have you watched Ripley?

I watched Ripley once.

And?

It’s a lot of me in it! Jesus!

Is that a problem?

I find it hard to watch myself. I do. There’s something quite stressful about looking at yourself. Have you ever heard yourself on someone’s answering machine? Horrific! You’re like, “Oh, my God, that can’t be me. How do they let me out in the day?” It’s like that, and then it’s your big, stupid face as well. Mostly, I have a feeling of overwhelming embarrassment.

On a cinema screen, I can’t even imagine. Your face the size of a house!

The size of a house, and there’s 400 people watching you.

Nature did not intend humans to ever experience this.

That is so true. It’s not natural.

I mean, even mirrors are to be avoided.

Maybe looking in the sea is the only natural way?

Well, Narcissus!

Yeah, true. That didn’t turn out well. I’d love for that to be a tagline for a movie, though: “Nature did not intend humans to ever experience this…”

But equally, nature didn’t intend the rest of us to gaze upon you in quite that way. We sit in the dark, staring up worshipfully at this giant image of you projected on a screen for hours. Is that healthy?

Without talking about the purity of theatre again, when you’re in the theatre, you, as the audience, see someone walking on the stage, and technically you could go up there, too. There’s not that remove. It’s live. There’s a real intimacy. That’s why I feel it’s the real actor’s medium. Your job is to create an atmosphere. I always find it insanely moving, even still, that adults go into the dark and say, “I know this is fake, but I don’t care: tell me a story.” And they gasp, and they cry, or they’re rolling around the aisles laughing. It’s so extraordinary, so wonderful that it exists. I really do believe in the arts as a human need. I believe in it so deeply. During the pandemic, our first question to each other was, “What are you watching? What book are you reading?” Just to get through it, to survive. It’s not just some sort of frivolous thing. It’s a necessity. As human beings, we tell stories. Expert storytellers are really vital. No, it’s not brain surgery. But, “Hearts starve as well as bodies. Give us bread, but give us roses.” I love that quote.

Tell me about playing Hamlet. Was it what you expected it would be?

It’s extraordinary. Loads of different reasons why. From an acting point of view, there’s no part of you that isn’t being used. So you have to, first of all, have enormous physical stamina, because it’s nearly four hours long. Our version was three hours, 50 minutes. And you have to be a comedian, you have to be a soldier, you have to be a prince, you have to be the romantic hero, you have to be the sorrowful son, you have to understand the rhythm of the language, you have to be able to hit the back of the auditorium — there are just so many things about it that require all those muscles to be exercised. You know, it’s so funny that we’re talking about this today. Because at the beginning of Hamlet, it’s two months since his dad died. His mother has already remarried, to his uncle! What are they doing? I mean the idea that next month my dad might marry someone else is so extraordinary! So, Hamlet’s not mad. Of course he would wear black clothes and be a bit moody. The more interesting question [than whether or not Hamlet is mad] is, who was he before? I think he’s incredibly funny. It’s a really funny play, Hamlet. And it’s a funny play that deals in life and death: the undiscovered country from which no traveller returns. It’s about what it is to be human. And what it’s like to be human is funny, and sad. The language is so incredibly beautiful and it’s also incredibly actable. And it’s also a thriller.

And a ghost story. It’s supernatural.

It’s a supernatural ghost story. And because the character is so well-rounded, I always think of it like a vessel into which you can pour any actor or actress. So, your version, the bits you would respond to if you were playing Hamlet, would be completely different to mine or anyone else’s. It can embrace so many kinds of actors. So Richard Burton can play it or Ben Whishaw can play it or Ruth Negga can play it or I can play it, and it’s going to bring out completely different sides. Did you do much Shakespeare at school?

I did. I studied Hamlet.

I remember Mark Rylance said…

[The waiter arrives with our pies and we both take a moment to admire them before breaking the crusts… The following passages are occasionally hard to make out due to enthusiastic chewing.]

You were about to say something about Mark Rylance. I saw his Hamlet in… must have been 1989, when I was doing my A-levels. He did it in his pyjamas.

I’ve heard. He came to see [my] Hamlet. He said, you feel like you’re on a level with it, and then in week four, you plummet through the layers of the floor and you’re on a deeper level. He was exactly right. Something happens. It’s just got depth.

Does it change you? Do you learn something new about yourself, as an actor?

I think because it’s such a tall order for an actor, it’s sort of like you feel you can do anything after that. Like, at least this is not as hard as Hamlet. You know you have those muscles now. We transferred it from The Almeida on to the West End. So, we did it loads of times. That’s a big achievement.

How many times did you play him?

One hundred and fifty. Twice on a Wednesday, twice on a Saturday. Eight hours [on those days]. Even just for your voice, it’s a lot.

We keep coming back to theatre. Is that because you prefer it?

It goes directly into your veins. It’s pure. You start at the beginning of the story and you go through to the end. When you’re making a movie, it’s a different process. Your imagination is constantly interrupted. You do something for two minutes and then someone comes in and goes, “OK, now we’re going to do Alex’s close-up, so you go back to your trailer and we’re going to set up all the lights and make sure that window across the street is properly lit.” And that’s another 20 minutes, and then you try to get back into the conversation we’ve just been having… And so the impetus is a different one.

The Hot Priest…

What’s that?

Ha! I watched Fleabag again, last week. It’s so good. But The Hot Priest, he’s a coward. He gets a chance at happiness with the love of his life and he doesn’t take it.

Well, not to judge my character, but I suppose there’s an argument that he does choose love. He chooses God. That’s the great love of his life. Whatever his spirituality has given him, he has to choose that. Is there a way that they could have made that [relationship] work? Of course there is. We’re seeing it from Fleabag’s point of view, literally, so of course it feels awful [that Fleabag and the Priest can’t be together]. But I think we understand it, the thing that is not often represented on screen but which an awful lot of people have, which is the experience of having a massive connection with somebody, a real love, that doesn’t last forever. I think somebody watching that can think, “I have my version of that. And I know that I loved that person, but I also know why we couldn’t be together.” And that doesn’t mean those relationships are any less significant. It just means that they are impossible to make work on a practical level. Not all love stories end the same way.

Annie Hall.

There you go! La La Land. Love that movie.

The Hot Priest is damaged. There’s a darkness there. Journalists interviewing actors look at the body of work and try to find through lines that we can use to create a narrative. It’s often a false narrative, I know that. However, that’s what we’re here for! Let’s take Hamlet, and the Priest, and Adam from All of Us Strangers, and, I guess, Vanya himself, even Moriarty. These are not happy-go-lucky guys. Ripley! These men seem lost, lonely, sad. Is it ridiculous to suggest that there’s something in you that draws you to these characters — or is it a coincidence?

That’s a really good question. I think it can’t be a coincidence. Like, even when you said “happy-go-lucky”, right? My immediate instinct is to say, “Show me this happy-go-lucky person.” With a different prism on this person, there would be a part of him that’s not happy-go-lucky, because that’s the way human beings are. If we could think now of a part that’s the opposite of the kind of part [he typically plays], a happy-go-lucky character…

How about the kinds of roles that Hugh Grant plays in those rom-coms? Yeah, the character might be a little bit repressed, a bit awkward at first, but basically everything’s cool, then he meets a beautiful woman, it doesn’t work out for about five minutes, and then it does. The end.

[Chuckles] OK, yeah. I’d love to have a go at that.

Wouldn’t you like to do that?

I would! I really would.

Why haven’t you?

I don’t know! It’s weird. That is something I would really love to do. Because I love those films. There’s a joy to them. It’s something I would love to embrace now. When I was growing up, as a young actor, I did want to play the darkness. With Moriarty, I was like, “I’ve got this in me and I’d like to express it.” And, conversely, now I think the opposite. I know that’s a little bit ironic, given I’ve just played Tom Ripley. Ha! But I have just played it, and I have spent a lot of time in characters that are isolated. And I was in a play [Vanya] that was one person. I don’t feel sad doing those things. It’s cathartic. But I would love the idea of doing something different.

Also, you don’t strike me as a person who is especially morose.

No! No, no, no. I’m not. But again, we all contain multitudes. My mother’s legacy was so joyful. Not that she didn’t have her soulful moments, because of course she did. I mean this as the opposite of morbidity, but it doesn’t end well for any of us, it really doesn’t. So bathing in the murkier waters, it’s wonderful to be able to explore that side of you, but also the opposite is true, the idea of joy and fun and lightness is something I’m definitely interested in. Like a musical! I’d love to be in a musical. I’ve just done a cameo in a comedy that I can’t talk about yet. It was just a day, with someone I really love, and it just lifted me up. But of course, there’s the stuff that people associate you with, and that’s what brings you to the table.

You played a baddie really well, so you get more baddies.

Yeah. You have to be quite ferocious about that. You have to go, “Oh, wow, that really is a great film-maker, that’s a lovely opportunity…” But how much time do you have left and what do you want to put out to the world? I feel like I want to be able to manifest what I have within me now. That’s a wonderful thing to be able to do. It’s such a privilege. And I feel so grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given. But why not get out of the hay barn and play in the hay?

Ripley has been well received. Do you read reviews?

I read some of them.

Why?

I’m interested in the audience. You know when people say, “You should never care about what other people think?” Of course I care what people think.

Ripley is excellent, but it’s quite gruelling to watch. Was it gruelling to make?

Yeah.

Because you have to inhabit this deeply unhappy person?

Maybe not unhappy. But very isolated, I think that’s key. It was hard. There was a huge amount of actual acting. Doing 12-hour days for almost a year. I’m not necessarily convinced you should act that much.

Ripley is himself an actor. He puts on other people’s identities because he doesn’t like his own. He doesn’t like himself. Some people think actors are people who don’t like themselves so you pretend to be other people, assume other identities. Or maybe it’s that actors are hollow shells. When you’re not acting, there’s no one there. No you. Sorry to be rude.

No, it’s not rude at all. I totally understand it. But I find it to be completely the opposite of what I’ve learnt. The essence of acting, for me, the great catharsis of it, is that you’re not pretending to be somebody else, you’re exploring different sides of yourself. You’re going, who would I be in these circumstances? Some of the darkest, most unhappy people I know are the people who say, “I don’t have an angry bone in my body.” Then why do I feel so tense around you? People who have no anger… I remember I used to have it with some religious people when I was growing up. People proclaiming that they’re happy or good or kind, that does not necessarily mean that they are happy or good or kind. That’s the brand they’re selling. I’ve always liked that expression: “fame is the mask that eats into the face.” How do you keep a healthy life when you’re pretending to be other people? You do it by going, “I’m going to admit I have a dark side.” It’s much healthier to shout at a fictional character in a swimming pool [as Moriarty does in Sherlock] than it is to be rude to a waiter in a restaurant, in real life.

You find that therapeutic?

Yes, you’re still expressing that anger. I think it is therapeutic.

So playing Tom Ripley every day for a year, were you able to exorcise something, or work through something?

Well, that’s why I found Tom Ripley quite difficult. He’s hard to know, and a harder character to love. If you think of Adam in All of Us Strangers, you go, “OK, I understand what your pain is.” What I understand with Tom, the essence of that character, is that he’s somebody who has a big chasm that is unknowable, perhaps even to himself. We’re all a little bit like that, we’re all sometimes mysterious to ourselves — “I don’t know why I did that…” — but to have empathy for someone like that is difficult. You know the boy in your class who gets bullied, and it’s awful, and you try and understand it but he doesn’t make it easier for himself? That’s the way I feel about Tom Ripley. It’s a thorny relationship. Your first job as an actor is to advocate for the character. That’s why I hate him being described as a psychopath. Everyone else can say what they like about him, but I have to be like, ‘Maybe he’s just… hangry?’ So you have to try and empathise, try and understand. When we call people who do terrible things monsters — “This evil monster!” — I think that’s a way of absenting yourself from that darkness. Because it’s not a monster. It’s a human being that did this. You can’t look away from the fact that human beings, sometimes for completely unknowable reasons, do terrible things. And that’s why it’s interesting when people talk about Tom Ripley. They say, “Have you ever met a Tom Ripley type?” The reason the character is so enduring is because there’s Tom Ripley in all of us. That’s why we kind of want him to get away with it. That’s [Highsmith’s] singular achievement, I think.

I find reading the Ripley books quite unpleasant. It’s a world I really don’t want to spend any time in. I read two of them preparing for this. She’s a great writer, but they’re horrible characters; it’s a depressing world.

I agree. That’s what I found most challenging. Where is the beating heart here? How much time do I want to spend here? And when you do, well, it took its toll. It did make me question how much time I want to spend with that character, absolutely. That’s the truth.

The way you play him, he’s very controlled. You didn’t play him big.

I think it’s important to offer up difference facets of the character to the director and he chooses the ones he feels marry to his vision. And those are the ones [Steven Zaillian] chose. And he executed those expertly.

Are you a member of any clubs?

Yeah, I’m a member of the Mile High Club. No, no…

That’ll do nicely.

OK, that’s my answer.

What’s your earliest memory?

Do they still have, I think it’s called a play pen?

Sort of like tiny little jails for toddlers? What a good idea they were!

I remember being massively happy in it. My mother used to say she just used to fling me in that thing and give me random kitchen utensils. I don’t know, like a spoon. I’ve always been quite good in my own company. I really remember being left to my own imagination and being very happy.

Do you live alone now?

Yeah.

Is that not lonely?

Of course I’ve experienced that but, ultimately, no. I don’t know if that’s the way I’m going to be for the rest of my life. But I certainly don’t feel lonely. I’ve got so much love in my life.

Would it be OK if you lived alone for the rest of your life?

Yeah. It would be OK. One of my great heroes is Esther Perel.

I don’t know who that is.

Esther Perel. She’s a sort of love and relationships expert, a therapist, and she’s a writer. A real hero, I think you’d really dig her. She talks about relationships and the mythology around them. The difference between safety and freedom. She talks with real compassion about both men and women; she talks about this idea of what we think we want, and what we really want. And how there’s only one prototype for a successful life, really, or a successful relationship. Which is: you meet somebody, da-da-da, you fall in love, da-da-da, you have kids, da-da-da. And that prototype just can’t suit every person in the world. There are some people who live in the world who might see their partner every second Tuesday and that suits them. And to be able to understand and communicate your own preference at any given time is really the aim. To be able to say, “At the moment I’m happy in the way I am, but maybe at some point…” I’ve lived with people before, and maybe I will again, but at the moment it feels right to sort of keep it fluid.

The difficulty, of course, with relationships, is there’s another person with their own preferences. Maybe you’re OK with every second Tuesday, but they need Thursdays and Fridays, too…

But isn’t that the beauty of love? That you construct something, like a blanket. You stitch all these things together. One of the things about being gay and having a life that ultimately is slightly different from the majority of people’s, is you learn that you can create your own way of living, that is different and wonderful. A homosexual relationship doesn’t necessarily have to ape what a heterosexual relationship is. That’s a very important thing to acknowledge. I mean, of course, if you want to do that, that’s brilliant. But you don’t have to. To me, the worst thing is to be dishonest or uncommunicative or unhappy or joyless in a relationship. It’s much more important to be able to have a difficult conversation or a brave conversation about how you feel or what you want. So many of my gay friends, I feel very proud of them, really admiring of the fact we have these conversations. It seems very adult and very loving to be able to acknowledge that the difference between safety and freedom can be real torture for some people. How do I love somebody, and still keep my own sense of autonomy and adventure? That’s a real problem. That’s what Esther Perel says. It’s one of the biggest causes of the demise of a relationship. That people coast along, they can’t have that conversation, and then the whole bottom falls out of the boat.

I wasn’t necessarily going to ask you about being gay. One tries to avoid labelling you as “gay actor Andrew Scott” instead of “actor Andrew Scott, who happens to be gay”. But since we’re talking about it already: because you’re famous, you become a de facto spokesperson for gay people. People look to you for the “gay opinion.” Are you OK with that?

I’ll tell you my thoughts on that. If I talk about it in every interview, it sounds like I want to talk about it in every interview. And, of course, I’m asked about it in most interviews, so I’m going to answer it because I’m not ashamed of it. But sometimes I think the more progressive thing to do is what you’re saying: to not talk about it and hopefully for people to realise that if you had to go into work every single day and they said, “Hey, Alex! Still straight? How’s that going?”… I mean, being gay is not even particularly interesting, any more than being straight is. But I understand, and I’m happy to talk about it. I suppose it depends on the scenario. I just don’t want to ever give the impression that it isn’t a source of huge joy in my life. And at this stage in my life, rather than talk about how painful it might have been or the shame, or not getting cast in things [because of it], actually, I’m so proud of the fact that I’m able to play all these different parts and, hopefully, in some ways it demystifies it and makes people — not just gay people, but all people — go, “Oh, yeah, that’s great that it’s represented in the world, but being gay is not your number-one attribute.” The problem is it becomes your schtick. Frankly, I feel like I’ve got just a bit more to offer than that.

Two reasons I think you get asked about being gay. One is just prurience — you’re famous and we want to know who you’re shagging — and the other is that identity politics is such an obsession, and so polarising, and we hope you’ll say something controversial.

I think that’s right, I think that’s what it is. But sometimes people think there’s just one answer, in 15 characters or less. That’s something I resist, slightly.

All of Us Strangers is about loads of things, about grief, love, loneliness, but it’s also very specifically about being gay. To me, anyway.

Yes, it is.

I thought, in particular, that the scene with Claire Foy, where your character comes out to his mother, was incredibly moving.

Isn’t it extraordinary, though, that you, who is not a gay person, could find that so moving? There’s no way you’d find that moving if it was only about being gay. I always say that coming out has nothing to do with sex. When you’re talking to your parent, you’re not thinking, “Oh, this is making me feel a bit frisky.” Anyone can understand that this is about somebody who has something within them — in this case, it’s about sexuality — that he hopes is not going to be the reason that his parents don’t speak to him anymore. And I think we all have that: “I hope you still love me.” And the great pleasure about All of Us Strangers is that it’s reached not just a particular type of audience, but all types of people. And I love they’re able to market it to everyone. Usually they do this weird thing where they pretend the film’s not gay…

Right. There would be a picture of a woman on the poster.

Exactly. Someone who’s playing the neighbour! But now you’re able to market a film with Paul [Mescal] and I, and the fact is that that’s going to sell tickets. I know there’s a long way to go, but that is progression. Before, that wasn’t the case. This time, no one gave a fuck. Nothing bad happened. The world didn’t explode. Family didn’t collapse.

Identity politics question: there’s an opinion now frequently expressed that gay people ought to be played by gay actors, and so on. What are your thoughts on that?

The way I look at it, if somebody was to make a film about my life — it’d be quite a weird film — would I want only gay actors to be auditioned to play me? I would say that I’m more than my sexuality. But there might be another gay person who feels that’s incredibly important to who they are and how they would like to be represented on film. How do we balance that? I don’t know. I don’t have an easy answer on that. I think it’s a case-by-case thing.

You’ve played straight people and gay people. You’re Irish but you’ve played English people and American people. I would hope you would be able to continue doing that.

The question I suppose is opportunity, and who gets it. It was very frustrating to me, when I was growing up, that there were no gay actors.

Well, there were lots of gay actors…

But not “out” gay actors. Now there are more. Representation is so important. So I think it’s complicated, and nuanced. And talking about it in a general way rather than a specific way is not always helpful. It depends which film we are talking about. Which actor.

You were spared the curse of instant mega-fame, aged 22. Would you have handled that well?

No. I think all that scrutiny and opinion, it’s a lot. Now I’m able to look at a bad review or somebody saying something really horrible about the way I look, or even someone saying really nice things about that, and go [shrugs]. Before, when that happened, it was devastating. But I survived and it was fine, and I got another job and I was able to kiss someone at a disco, so… Whereas if you’re 22 and you don’t have that experience behind you, you go, “Oh, my God. This is horrible, what do I do?” And also, there’s much more scrutiny now, so much more. I think that must be really hard. Social media is a crazy thing, isn’t it?

I think it’s a horrible thing, on the whole.

That thing you were saying about cinema, about how it’s not natural to see yourself, or other people like that… The amount of information that we’re supposed to absorb and process? Wow. You wake up in the morning and you’re already looking at it.

They used to say that the fame of TV actors was of a different order because they are in your home. People felt they knew the stars of Coronation Street in a much more intimate way, while movie stars, Cary Grant or whoever, these were much more remote, almost mythical creatures. People who are famous on Instagram or TikTok are in the palm of your hand talking to you all day.

And it’s so interesting what people on social media choose to tell you about their lives, even when nobody’s asking them any questions. Like, is that person insane? It’s a very dangerous thing. I find it troubling.

Do you think things are getting better or are they getting worse?

That’s such a good question. I have to believe they’re getting better. I don’t know what that says about me.

It says you’re an optimist.

I think I am an optimist.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever put in your mouth?

Fucking hell. Do you know what I don’t like? Any food that you don’t have to put any effort into eating.

Give me an example.

Custard.

Yes!

I don’t mind ice cream, because it’s got a bit of texture. But I don’t like mashed potato. I don’t like creamed potatoes, or creamed anything.

Risotto?

Absolutely borderline. So if it’s got a little bite to it, it’s OK. But baby food. Ugh! Makes me feel a bit sick.

What’s your favourite of your own body parts?

Ahahah! What do I like? What have we got? I don’t mind my nose? My eyes are OK. Like, my eyes are definitely expressive, God knows. Fucking hell. I remember I was in rehearsal once, and the director said, “Andrew, I just don’t know what you’re thinking.” And the whole company started to laugh. They were like “You don’t? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Because I think I’ve got quite a readable face.

Which is a tool for an actor, right?

It can be a tool for an actor. But you have to learn what your face does, as an actor. On film, your thoughts really are picked up.

What’s your favourite body part that belongs to someone else?

I like hands. And I like teeth. Someone with a nice smile.

Are you similar to your dad?

Yeah, I am. He’s pretty soft-natured, which I think I am, to a degree. He likes fun, too. And he likes people. He’s good at talking to people. He’s kind of sensitive, emotional. He’s a lovely man, a very dutiful dad to us, very loyal.

Would you miss the attention if your fame disappeared overnight?

I definitely think I would miss an audience, if that’s what you mean. The ability to tell a story in front of an audience, I’d miss that. Not to have that outlet.

Before you got famous, you were having a pretty decent career, working with good people, getting interesting parts. Would it have been OK to just carry on being that guy, under the radar?

Oh, my God, yes. Absolutely.

Would you have preferred that to the fame?

The thing is, what it affords you is the opportunity to be cast in really good stuff. You get better roles, particularly on screen. And I’m quite lucky. I have a manageable amount of fame, for the most part.

Some people are born for fame. They love it. They’re flowers to the sun. Others should never have become famous. They can’t handle it. You’ve found you’re OK with it.

Do you know what I feel? I feel, if I was in something I didn’t like, if I was getting lots of attention for something I didn’t feel was representative of me, I think I’d feel quite differently. I feel very relaxed, doing this interview with you today. I feel like, whatever you’re going to ask me, I would feel self-possessed enough to say, “Alex, do you mind if we don’t talk about that?”

Shall we leave it there, then?

Thank you. That was lovely.'

[laurelins-light]

Its Tanner Tuesday!

Here, have some headcanons specifically about Bill Tanner!

1. Tanner is a big fan of the classics, and he loves watching them on his couch or on his laptop (thanks to a secured server Q setup for him and also uses from time to time) whenever he has any downtime. There isn’t a lot, which is why he tends to go for his favorites and not new movies or shows.

2. Tanner is the go-to person for anyone in MI6 to take care of their animals whenever they are off on long missions or can’t make it home. It’s become such a thing that there’s now a waitlist for his services and Q is regularly solicited to put names at the top of the list.

3. Tanner knows everything. Even if you think he doesn’t know, he does. He decides (along with Moneypenny) what is M’s purview and what is just something to be taken care of with a good bit of blackmail.

4. Q, Tanner, and Moneypenny all like to sync together at least once a week (on the pretext of knowing what's happening in all the departments but really to just bitch about their colleagues). Tanner keeps a running list of material just in case he needs to blackmail Eve or Q into doing him favors later.

5. Tanner used to be a field agent, one step down from double-oh, and no one- barring the old M-knows this until he has to showcase his skills during an attempted MI6 break in one day. No one believes Q when Q tries to tell them all that Tanner really is a badass.

6. In a Q!Holmes verse Tanner is Mycroft’s partner, but he refuses to give Mycroft any dirt on his sibling and Q only discovers Tanner and Mycroft are together by accident and gets very upset until he finds out that Tanner never tells Mycroft anything and it genuinely annoys Mycroft to no end. Then, Q helps Tanner get around Mycroft’s surveillance, just because he can.

7. Tanner’s favorite food is hand pies, because he can eat them whenever and he can make them ahead of time and not have to worry about food during the week. He often brings Q and Moneypenny some since they all work about the same amount and he knows they aren’t eating well enough.

[safaiagem]

Covers for some of my fanfiction series and stories that I've made recently while putting off doing other things:

No Definition: A series of Inception fics following Arthur and Eames and their relationship from the beginning of the Dream program to events beyond the film.

Ten Years Gone: My Teen Wolf Hunter and Demon AU that I worked on for a very long time. It's now complete with eight fics in it.

(Take Away This) Ball and Chain: First fic in the Ten Years Gone series - "When Derek Hale was sixteen years old he lost everything he loved in the fire. Desperate to his family he tried make a deal with a crossroads demon named Stiles. Stiles turned him down and Derek reluctantly tried to move on with his life. Six years later Derek is a hunter and when he receives word that Stiles might have known more about the fire than he let on that night Derek decides to hunt him down. What he finds when he finally captures Stiles is not what he expects and that the two of them might have a common enemy.

Revenge is a Wild Justice: Part one of two monster Game of Thrones fic - An alternate universe where Arya overheard Beric and Thoros talking to Melisandre about selling Gendry and they have enough time to get away. They eventually decide to help and protect the smallfolk during the war as a team. However, their deeds do not go unnoticed by their enemies and, eventually, Arya and Gendry find themselves pulled back into the game of thrones and the fight for the future of Westeros.

Rebirth Is Born of Neither Flesh nor Blood: The last fic in the Ten Years Gone series finished four years after the previous fic was written and eight years after the series was started - Following the incident in Beacon Hills, Derek Hale has started traveling with his sister and with Stiles even though they don't get along that great. His instincts and Laura's are a little messed up after nearly losing each other. They are planning on going on some hunts as a group until things settled down, but Stiles seems uneasy but won't say about what. Stiles is a demon, he often keeps things to himself, but as they move further north along the western coast, Derek begins to get the impression that they are heading into something that could be their biggest test so far.

Needs of the Many: The Old Guard 5 Plus 1 fic technically part of a series I haven't been able to actually start the other parts yet - “A fine justification. I’ve heard it so many times before” were the words Nicky spoke, and they were words he had heard so many times. From Kings claiming that the world would be better if they ruled to murders justifying the mass slaughter of people, evil will use the concept of the greater good as justification for their own horrific actions. While The Old Guard had seen that play out throughout history, this wasn't even the first time someone justified hurting them in the name of the greater good. [5 times someone used changing the world or the greater good as a justification to hurt The Old Guard]

The Saddest Thing About Betrayal: The second and final[?] part of my James Bond/Q Crime AU fic, a sequel written nine years after the first fic - It's been five years since criminals Q and James Bond escaped MI6 and Agent 007, Eve Moneypenny, and they have been hard at work. Now the two of them are focused on breaking down drug cartels, terrorist cells, and trafficking rings and robbing them blind, then leading Moneypenny to round up the stragglers. Moneypenny continues to focus on trying to bring in the notorious criminal duo. However, something comes along that disrupts the careful game of cat and mouse the three of them are playing and is going to change all three of their lives forever.

Sleeping Wake/Waking Sleep: My fic Sandman-verse fic that I actually sat in my drafts for over a year because I didn't like it Johanna Constantine and Hob Gadling separately navigate the complexities of stumbling into a relationship with a traumatized godlike being who is only at the beginning of his journey of connecting with humanity. Needless to say, it isn't an easy road for anyone involved.

The Hour of Separation: Technically takes place in the same universe as Sleeping Wake, but can be read as a stand-alone, my entry in the Dead Boy Detectives fandom, which spun wildly out of control - The problem with solving big, flashy cases and going international is that you become well-known. Word came down about everything the Dead Boy Detectives managed to do in Port Townsend, and they have never been busier. The problem with becoming more well-known is that you don't always draw the kind of attention you want. You might jump onto the radar of someone with a grudge just looking for an excuse.

[patrice-bergerons]

Okay but Bond trusting Dench!M to be the one who kills him--a reverse Istanbul if you will.

Specifically a fic set in an M lives AU where it's now a few years post Skyfall, she has since retired, Bond still works for MI6 but has retired from active service as well; he and Q are in a stable, happy relationship and he and M have grown quite close since then. A set up like in the I could always move in with you verse.

Except, MI6 then needs to run a highly risky and highly off the books mission where if they get caught it will deny all knowledge because the political consequences are disastrous. And Bond volunteers to do it because there is still no one else both as competent and willing to risk their neck as he is without expectation of reward or rescue should things go south.

And he asks Mansfield to help run it alongside Q because Mallory cannot be tied to it in any shape or form and also because he trusts her to choose England every single time if it comes down to a choice between his life and his country.

Because he isn't sure that had it been Q they were sending into the field, he himself would have been able to make that call--not anymore, not again. Q has always been stronger than him, but more so perhaps he doesn't want Q to have to live with that burden for the rest of his life.

So he asks and trusts his oldest friend to carry it for them both instead.

[antisatiric]

GUILTY MINDS GIVE EASIER.

a verse post for mark twain's moriarty the patriot verse !

BASIC INFORMATION ;

name: "mark twain". he was born samuel clemens, but changed his name after fleeing across the atlantic.

age: 26 (post-timeskip).

species: human.

occupation: on-call MI6 agent.

residence: london, england.

birthplace: st. petersburg, missouri.

special abilities: none. low supernatural setting.

other: twain owns only one cat (called whipped cream), but he keeps a good relationship with all of the cats in his neighborhood.

TIMELINE ;

as a teenager, twain was forced to flee from america after having become the target of a religious cult started by his late father. stowing away on a ship to england, twain found himself in an unfamiliar country with no prospects and no way to earn a living, and quickly turned to petty crime as a means of survival.

after he attempted to pickpocket mycroft holmes, the man took him in out of some mixture of pity and interest. he spent the remainder of his teenage years and early adulthood living with mycroft, who also helped him to secure work of his own.

though mycroft was initially reluctant to allow twain into MI6, he offered twain a position on the team when louis james moriarty succeeded his brother's position of "M". this was twain's first intersection with the moriarty family---and it most certainly wouldn't end up being his last.