#nate is the Comfort tm

[lightyakami]

how to make your fic easily findable

okay hello everyone! here is my somewhat solicited guide on how to make your fics easier for interested readers to find. 

please note that this is a guide to help you make your fics discoverable, not to make them popular(tm.) it’s also not a guide as to the best way to post fic. you do not need to do these things. doing these things will not make people like your fic more or less than they would otherwise. i do not do all these things, either. my aim here is purely to provide suggestions that will make your fic easier to search for and share.

where to post your fic

post it on ao3 as an individual fic. authors are often hesitant to post short fic on ao3, but readers simply cannot find it if it’s not there. multi-chapter drabble collections are a matter of preference and are absolutely fine to use, but in terms of findability they’re really hard for readers to pass around or put on rec lists. 

you can also post your fic on tumblr. ime fic posted in full is way more likely to be reblogged than an outward link. long fic posted on tumblr should use a read more cut, but at least a paragraph should be above the cut.

should i make a promo post? 

yes. ao3 does not have any features that facilitate promoting fic -- if you don't make a promo post, people will only see your fic if they regularly browse through newest fics or actively search for one of its tags.

what should i put in a tumblr promo post? 

a tumblr promo post should generally contain: 

title 

pairing

name of the fandom

summary of fic

link to fic 

your tags should contain

pairing 

name of all major characters

name of fandom 

the word ‘fic’ (so people who hate fic in the tags can filter it out. be polite!)

other optional inclusions: 

rating (explicit, teen, etc) 

word count 

major tropes

graphics (don’t forget alt text!) 

a sample of your writing (it’s common to grab a ‘best-of’ passage from within your fic, but personally i’ve found you get a way better response if you paste the first couple paragraphs then add a ‘continue’ link at the end.)

tumblr does remove posts with certain keywords from the tags, but honestly these keywords are very minimal. if you’re worried your post might not be added, double-check ‘latest’ and find an alternative phrase if necessary. don’t censor the word. you do not need to repost — tumblr will pop it back in as soon as you’ve removed the word. (it won’t push it back to the top, though, so it’s best to correct this asap.) 

a further note on tags

use the most commonly used tag. look at other people’s posts to find the fandom norms. it is fine to add multiple variations of the same tag. 

this is especially important if the tag is ambiguous. for example: ‘near’ is the most commonly used name for the death note character, but the full name ‘nate river’ should be included as well. take into account that a lot of people use plain searches rather than tag searches. an ambiguous name might be usable as a tag but not as a plain search. top vs latest searches will also give dramatically different results — ‘top’ searches tend to retrieve appropriate results with ambiguous names, but ‘latest’ results won’t.

what should i not put in my tumblr promo post? 

self-deprecating statements. this isn’t a moral statement. people just don’t like to read things if the author is telling them it’s bad

criticism of other people’s work, even if it’s really general. ‘i usually hate hurt/comfort but i wrote this anyway’ is obviously going to alienate the vast majority of your readerbase

anything unrelated to the fic. if people can’t tell whether or not something is a personal post, they’ll be hesitant to reblog. if you want to add commentary, put it in a second reblog. 

what should i include in my ao3 summary? 

this is a bit of a moving target. some readers like fairly detailed summaries. other readers look to tags for content information and prefer abstract vibes-based summaries. my suggestion would be to include the main selling points of your work — the characters, the tropes, and whatever factors make it unique.

at the end of the day, though, basically anything other than ‘i suck at summaries’ is fine.

what ao3 tags should i include?

any major pairings, any major characters, any major tropes. imagine your fic from a reader’s perspective — what tags would they look under if they were searching for something like it? 

also pay attention to whether or not an ao3 tag is canonical. only canonical tags can be filtered on. if it autocompletes, it’s canonical.

for more information on a specific tag, click into the tag to reach the ‘x works in TAG’ screen, then click it again. tags are often made synonyms of specific canonical tags, in which case filters will treat them as if they’re that tag. you can get pretty granular with all of this but basically if you use tags that autocomplete you’re good to go.

you can also use tags to clarify content. (ex. ‘this trope is only a minor aspect of the story.) ao3 used to ask people not to do this, but it’s now explicitly permitted. 

does posting time matter? 

yes. sorry. it does. quite a bit, frankly.  people often overthink this — there are so many variables trying to find the exact perfect time is a losing game — but it is absolutely worth taking into account. 

when should i post?

on ao3: do NOT post between 12AM and 5AM UTC. ao3 has a longstanding posting glitch that will backdate your work if it’s posted between these times. in general: broadly speaking fic tends to do best on sundays and worst on friday. posting on a holiday dramatically drives down traffic. fic should be posted on ao3 when most people would likely have time to read (ex. after the standard workday) and promo posts should be posted when people would likely be looking for fic (ex. commuting hours aka slightly before 9AM and at 5PM.) the majority of tumblr users operate in EST. 

the university semester also makes a massive difference to how much engagement a fic gets — views always shoot up during breaks and plummet during exams. honestly working around this would require delaying your fic so frequently that i can’t see it being worth it, but it’s good to be aware of in terms of the response you’re expecting. 

also the ‘best’ posting time does vary a lot genre by genre so you’ll have to experiment a bit. (personally i’ve found h/c tends to do better midweek, for example.) imagine your fic from a reader’s perspective: when would you likely be looking for this sort of thing? 

anyway don’t drive yourself crazy with this but also don’t shoot yourself in the foot by posting at 2AM EST on christmas morning. do you have a random piece of advice about posting on ao3? please be aware that if you write your fic as a draft, ao3 will backdate the fic to the day you saved the draft and index it accordingly -- it won't show up in the newest fics. multichapters initially posted as drafts will sometimes glitch and backdate every single new chapter. you can correct this by checking the 'set a different publication date' box and manually inputting it.

should i reblog my own promo posts? yes. do this. do it multiple times. make sure you do at least one reblog in the morning, one in the night, and one on the weekend.

i feel like authors are often embarrassed to reblog their own work because it feels self-important but the fact is most people are not reading your blog start to finish. no one will see all your reblogs. tbh you may lose followers for this but this is is a guide on fic visibility, not tumblr popularity. 

please conclude your post now

anyway!! i hope some of this is helpful. again, you don't need to do any or all of this, but i hope it can provide a bit of a framework and some suggestions.

[aardvaark]

Ok so... What's your story for what the rest of the crew was up to during the Broken Wing Job? Who were they after, what happened with the monkey, etc.

ooh this is such an interesting question!! i know i’m gonna give a ridiculously long answer and i’m just gonna have to apologise in advance. there’s a tl;dr in bold at the end! also, disclaimer that i understand it was just meant to be a noodle incident and i respect & enjoy the choice to never reveal what actually happened. the ambiguity and whatever your brain makes up is more fun than any canon answer for something like this. but theorising can be a lot of fun too and i love to piece together the info we DO get!!

well, what we do know about what happened:

sophie grifted a curator to get a statue of a golden monkey

they also needed an actual live monkey: a snow monkey/japanese macaque. which are fairly common in japan, so it’s like extra weird that they’re not stealing some rare or highly sought after animal yk?

eliot had to fight someone (standard tbh) but he seems to have had time to prepare, like either a private meeting turned south or an organised fight

somehow sophie seemed to be receiving a medal and hardison was dressed as though he was a decorated japanese soldier at the same event, also receiving some kind of honour.

sophie & nate burned something at the end, something that nate didn’t know if sophie would be comfortable burning.

eliot met emperor akihito, who didn’t want eliot around his granddaughter (seems like eliot flirted with her or she flirted with him, considering their reactions).

it’s in tokyo, japan - which is unusual for the team. the vast majority of their jobs happen in the US. when they go to other countries or interfere with international politics, it probably starts with a client in the US. eg the san lorenzo job happened bc they were already pursuing moreau, the stork job (in serbia) happened because of american adoptive parents, they interfere with another country’s politics in the scheherazade job bc of a journalist in the US, etc. so i think this probably somehow *started* with an american client and became international.

you made me go through john rogers’ blog to get more info, which is extremely evil of you because i always get sidetracked like 50 times on that blog and end up with a thousand new theories and character thoughts lmao. but from the blog:

VERY interesting information. in the rashomon job, the monkey statue is what eliot was supposed to "retrieve" from north korea for his client, and when he failed to do so, that client sent hitters after eliot and then made him steal the dagger of aqu’abi to make up for the statue. in the two horse job, a flashback to north korea in 2005 has people yelling at eliot "where’s the monkey?!", and since the rashomon job happened around 2005, that monkey is probably the same monkey statue. in other words, this goddam statue has been eluding eliot for YEARS. also, evidently, it must be very valuable and highly sought after.

unfortunately i can’t find the podcast but im thinking "money" makes a lot of sense and that maybe i don’t want to know what her answer was lol. anyway, somehow the con led to gaining cash that they felt it was best to destroy rather than give to the client or keep as "alternate revenue". i guess it was dirty money or perhaps just too easily traceable.

SO!

a US client somehow led to a job in japan where they got a valuable monkey statue and a real monkey, were awarded for something, fought someone, and then burnt a pile of money.

i’m gonna say the fact that there’s a real monkey and a monkey statue is not a coincidence… did they paint the real monkey gold and get it to attack someone who thought it was a statue?? did they claim the statue had come to life??

tl;dr - my best idea is that eliot heard through the grapevine that the statue that had been giving him trouble all those years had surfaced in japan. an old friend of eliot’s tells him that some Evil Guy TM (the episode’s mark) is trying to blackmail him & other retrieval specialists/thieves into retrieving it. the team decides that they will go undercover to steal it and put an end to the saga for good. so they all have to get cover identities and grift because they’d usually do a heist but parker is out. sophie eventually grifts her way into getting into whatever vault the statue is in, then they sell their mark the statue and are paid with lots of cash, they let the mark tell everyone he has the statue, then switch it with the real monkey to make the mark look like a liar or like he was imagining things etc. then they also expose tons of files on other Evil Guy stuff the mark has done.

the mark, however, is so high profile that he was in the same circles as the emperor, and the team had to meet him during the con. when the emperor hears that sophie(‘s alias) took down that Evil Guy who was exposed for lots of evil stuff, he awards sophie and hardison for their efforts. which is a whole thing, because obviously they’re now having to make sure their fake identities hold up under national/international scrutiny - classic "accidentally did so well that we caused ourselves more problems" leverage moment. somehow they pull that off successfully though.

i think the live monkey was released into the wild or returned to a sanctuary, cause i don’t think they’d harm an animal. i believe there’s a snow monkey animal park in japan, maybe it was released there? as for the monkey statue, it seems like it’s too dangerous to keep or even give to someone. like, eliot’s been attacked over it a couple times, you couldn’t give it to anyone who isn’t prepared to get into fights and be hunted down for it. maybe they placed it somewhere hidden in the animal park with the real monkeys.

um so yes this is ridiculously long now and i realise that it’s weird to like, cite sources on this fandom ask lol. but there you go! thanks so much for the question, i had a lot of fun trying to draw connections and figure it out!!

[crow-talks-hockey]

Comfort - an 829 fic from Cale's POV

Cale blamed himself for every mistake, it was just part of who he was. It had become a real problem, flooding his mind even during games. Cale hated it with a passion, but the only thing that ever seemed to fix it was… well, Nate. They’d been going through a bad slump, painfully close to a six-game skid. Nate had powered him through all of it. Even when Cale had gotten off a bad shift and had simply put his head down trying to regain his breath (the panic in his mind not helping, of course), Nate had come over and acted casual as he took his hand out of his glove and held Cale’s. No one else would have noticed how Cale then magically seemed to sit up more attentively, but he was glad for that. Even when Nate had gone as far as to make it look like he was explaining some play when in reality he was saying something encouraging. Cale couldn’t have loved him more for it if he’d tried.

 It was the night after their fifth straight loss when Nate had walked in and found Cale anxiously twiddling his thumbs, leg bouncing out of control, staring at nothing. Cale could barely breathe, he didn’t even notice Nate was there. Cale couldn’t think. He instinctively drew away from Nate when the forward sat next to him. Nate rubbed soothing circles on Cale’s back, unspeaking. “Cale,” Nate began softly.

“Hey,” Nate said a bit more firmly, catching Cale’s attention, “it’s okay. Just breathe.”

No. He wasn’t okay. He couldn’t just breathe. Cale’s mind was in a scramble, his chest hurt and it felt like his heart was being squeezed by a cruel and unrelenting hand. And the worst thing was he didn’t even know why he was feeling like this. They’d taken worse losses. None of this really even mattered. So why did it hurt so damn bad? Cale stared at Nate, eyes pleading.

Nate took his hand in his own, just like he would during a game. “You’re here, right now. That’s all that matters. Just focus on me, okay? Focus on breathing. Can you do that with me?”

Cale nodded and Nate moved the defenseman’s hand onto his chest, taking rhythmic breaths so that Cale could feel the rise and fall of his chest. They sat like that for a while, Nate being patient as Cale’s mind finally cleared enough for him to think. Nate smiled when Cale finally moved his hand away because it had gotten pins and needles in it. “See? It’s okay, it wasn’t your fault,” Nate expressed and laid down, pulling Cale with him.

Cale flopped over to face him, hand still clasped in Nate’s. He closed his eyes and took a shaky breath in, thumb moving repeatedly over Nate’s knuckles. “Thank you.”

Nate smiled a bit sheepishly. He nodded and gazed lovingly at him. “Yeah… I owed you, you know? You forget how kind you are.”

“What do you mean?”

Nate laughed, oh, how Cale loved that laugh. “‘What do you mean?’ he says. Cale, you’re oblivious sometimes, did you know that? You’re more of a leader than you think. Give yourself some credit.”

Cale shook his head. Says the future captain… he thought. Nate stared at him in disbelief. “I can’t believe you. Y’know what, get over here,” Nate said and pulled Cale in for a kiss.

Cale grinned, cheeks flushing. Nate shoved him dramatically away and pointed accusingly at him. “That’s a prove-you-wrong kiss by the way. You’re fucking brilliant, Cale. Like seriously. No one is better than you, you’re not even human out there.”

“Tell that to our losing streak, Mister Competitive himself,” Cale remmarked with a mischievous smile, anxiety finally fading away into playful banter.

Nate wasn’t buying it. He waved his hand with disregard. “It’s all of our fault for that shit. Not just you, stupid. Also, I’m gonna tell Sid you said that and he won’t have it. No one takes that title from him, not even me.”

Cale eyed him speculatively and nodded sarcastically. He sat up and put his hands up in false surrender. “Yeah, yeah. Sure, Nate. I was very convinced that when you called the other team quote-un-quote ‘fucking douche canoes’ that you weren’t just as competitive as Sid. Or when you literally fell off the bench in frustration, or all the times you’ve scored purely out of spite against Saint Louis—”

“Fine. I get it, I get it…” Nate replied in defeat, before adding, “we did make a hell of a comeback after I called them that though—”

“You’re insufferable.”

“You love me.”

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

They’d laughed again, and the next night they’d broken the slump. If Cale was being honest, it’d been glorious. It was like the world was back to normal after that, even though Cale still cursed himself after every little mistake. However, that didn’t seem to matter much when Nate was there ironically enough. Nate had told him that pain often didn’t last as long as he’d expected and he’d been right. All Cale had to do was look at Nate to know it. They could overcome any mountain, reach any peak. They could rely on each other and that was all Cale needed to know that he’d be okay. That they’d find a way, no matter the storm.

[schrijverr]

Hold Me Together

Chapter 4 out of 4

Eliot gets hurt on a job and then sick. Hardison and Parker waste no time to jump in to care for him and it becomes harder and harder to say no to their care when it’s just so nice. After he has a nightmare, they’re there for him and feelings come to light.

AKA Eliot has a terrible time physically (and partly emotionally), but gets lots of cuddles and two partners in the end

On AO3.

Ships: Thiefsome

Warnings: Nightmares, PTSD, accidentally threatening Hardison with a knife, eliot's low self-esteem (i promise it has a happy ending, he's just going through it TM) and flu

~~~~~~~~~~

Never Let Go

Eliot had let himself get too comfortable, he had let Parker and Hardison see too much. He had been weak and let his guard down, when he knew he couldn't afford to do that. They were still asleep next to him and he had to make sure they were done, that he was gone. He couldn't stay here. When had he gotten so stupid?

Oh, yeah, when his brain was sick and his defenses slightly lowered, which they had immediately used without even realizing because they knew him so well. Though, not much had been necessary with how easily he had folded to their care.

He would need to change that, he knew it would have been better to pull away before they got too close, but he had let himself forget.

How stupid.

In the past he had been beaten and broken, he had been built up only to be pulled apart again and he had survived it all, he just didn’t know if he would survive this as well. Hardison and Parker were different. They were his equals, they knew him but didn’t fear him, they cared for him like he was fragile instead of a blunt instrument to be pointed at an enemy.

It was strange to have that sort of relationship with anyone, he had forgotten what it was like to have friends in the time since he had left the military, though that couldn't compare to this. He had no good family to compare it to, but he imagined it would feel like this. Which was where the root of his troubles laid.

Because he was an idiot, who had broken his first rule and second rule: 1. Don’t do repeat jobs with teams, 2. Don’t get attached to people you work with. He had gotten swept up in doing good, changing the blood that stained his hands and in that, he had found himself deeply in love with two of his teammates, who were too good for him to go near and also together.

His life was a mess and he needed to get a grip. Easier said than done of course, but not impossible, though it would hurt. Not that he wasn’t used to the pain.

Still, when Hardison blinked awake and smiled when he saw Eliot also up, he couldn't help but think that this was going to be the worst pain he’d ever been in. Hardison rubbed his eye and said: “Hey, man, you’re awake before me. That’s weirdly old but new. How you feeling?”

“Better,” Eliot replied, glad his voice sounded just hoarse, but was completely present.

“You’re talking!” Hardison sounded genuinely excited about that and on Eliot’s other side Parker woke up, wondering out loud what the fuss was about. “Eliot’s talking,” Hardison reported happily and Eliot felt a bit like a painting on display as he waved at her with a “Morning.”

Parker’s face lit up and she wrapped her arms around him as she yelled: “Your voice! I missed it!” and yeah, this was going to hurt so much.

He awkwardly patted her on the back, careful to not pull her into a hug like he wanted too as he went: “Yeah, yeah, whatever, still feel like shit, but better. Don’t get too excited.”

“How much better do you mean, because we promised Sophie to keep an eye on you and she in turn will keep Nate off the job until you’re back up to strength,” Hardison said, “and your voice back isn’t you feeling amazing.”

“I’m fine.” God, he was really just going straight back to Eliot Spencer, team hitter and tough guy, even after all they’d seen. He knew they were thinking the same thing, because Hardison was raising his brow and gearing up to say something and Eliot always gave in when Hardison tried to convince him, so he had to be first. “Obviously I’m not fine-fine, but better, I think I can watch some games and stay awake fine. Ya happy? It’ll take me a day more to be up, about three to be able to go back out there.”

“Eliot is honest about his hurt with us,” Parker said excitedly. “Our plan is working!”

“Yeah, about that. What plan?” Eliot asked, faintly remembering them going on about a plan before and never getting the details.

“Our plan to teach you how to be taken care of. You have many skills and that isn’t one of them, but that’s okay I learned too,” she smiled.

“Wait what?” he asked, still confused, but Hardison just shrugged and Parker wasn’t answering any more questions, instead asking him if he felt good enough to make pancakes with chocolate chips, because she had missed them.

And he was feeling well enough to do that, he just had to sit on the kitchen stool that Hardison had gotten for him when he had broken his foot. It was to get them away from him, so that they would stop lying in the same bed as him, he told himself, it had nothing to do with Parker’s hopeful little face, of course not.

It turned out, he wasn’t as back on his feet as he had hoped and making breakfast had wiped him out, so he and a bunch of blankets had relocated to the couch and he tried not to feel too much like a burrito as he laid there watching back some of the games.

The good thing about lying on the couch was that Hardison was at his desk typing away instead of on his laptop next to him and Parker was dangling in the rafters instead of fidgeting near him. The distance was what he wanted. It was good.

He tried not to miss their closeness too much.

He also fell asleep somewhere between lunch – which was a sandwich that Hardison had made that had been surprisingly okay – and dinner.

When he blinked his eyes open slowly and found himself curled up on the couch, his head was practically in Parker’s lap as she ate popcorn. Too early for popcorn, came to his mind without his permission. The tv had been taken over by Hardison, who was entertaining Parker with blue prints from a museum somewhere. Hardison had been thoughtful enough to put on music in the background so that Eliot’s subconscious wouldn't have pegged anything as changing and woke him up.

God, these two were going to be the death of him. And he wouldn't have it any other way, they just didn’t need to find out. Ever.

Parker noticed he was awake, because she greeted him: “Hello there, sleepy head.”

“Don’t call me that,” he growled back as he got up, because that was easier than admitting to himself that he thought Parker adorable and wanted to bury his face against her thigh again.

“Why?” she asked innocently. “You’ve been sleeping a lot, way more than you ever do. And you get a funny face when you’ve just woken up.”

Eliot felt at his face frowning. “What face?”

“I don’t know, a face,” Parker shrugged. “Oehh, Hardison, is that a motion sensitive rotating laser grid?”

“Hell yeah,” Hardison smirked, zooming in on the model of the laser grid and pulling up the specs for her, while Eliot still tried to figure out what face Parker had meant. He hoped it wasn’t anything open or vulnerable, something that would give him away. Fuck, he needed to think about his face when he woke up now.

Hardison must have noticed him thinking, because he grinned: “That’s your worrying face. Don’t worry, Parker meant nothing back, ain’t that right, mama?” Parker nodded. “You just squint a little and look a bit grumpy, man. It’s cute.”

“I’m not-” Wait what, rewind and roll. Cute? Did Hardison just call him cute? Him? Cute? No, no, no, no, that- that was absurd, but Hardison confirmed it yet again: “Oh, sorry, is the great Eliot Spencer not cute? You look like a grizzly bear after his hibernation, okay. Live with yourself, it’s your face.”

And before he couldn't reply or process that, Parker gasped: “Like a teddy bear! Eliot is a teddy bear.”

“I’m not a- shut up!” he groused, trying not to smile. Only Parker could ever see him as a teddy bear, as something soft and to be cuddled instead of a killing machine, a weapon. Aaand there went his good mood. He had a mission. He couldn't take that innocence from her by letting her associate with him.

He got up from the couch, needing space between that soft comfort and himself right now. He blinked away the dizziness and gruffly said: “I’m going to make dinner.”

“Don’t forget the stool,” Hardison called after him and he rolled his eyes in return, trying not to feel touched and failing.

Dinner was quick and easy, because Eliot didn’t have the brain power for much more, which was a pity because he had intended to hide away in the kitchen. He still managed some time, but he was back on the couch with them quicker than expected and he hated himself for how he couldn't bring himself to mind that much.

Once dinner was done Parker got up to put away their plates, while Hardison pulled up a movie as he said: “We’ve been meaning to watch The Godfather, tonight as good as any.” Eliot gave him a look and raised a brow. “What?” Hardison asked defensively.

“The Godfather is a good movie, but it’s an old one,” he shrugged. “Old movies are slow and Parker will get bored no matter how good it is.” And why did he know this again?

“She has ropes here, she’ll be entertained enough if she can watch it upside down,” Hardison said, like it had happened often enough. “Right, mama?”

Parker clambered over the back of the couch and settled down besides Eliot as she grinned widely at him: “Right.”

“If you say so,” he shrugged, wondering why she had never climbed away when he was there. She usually annoyed him though, so maybe this was something she did to avoid annoying Hardison, because she didn’t want to create friction between them and it didn’t matter when that happened with Eliot, but since he was sick, she would let up? He didn’t want to let his mind linger and decided to just focus on the movie.

He had been correct that Parker would get bored quickly, she wriggled around a bit at first, then climbed over Eliot to sit in the middle.

Eliot tried not to let it hurt a bit and hated himself for that little pang anyway. Hardison was her boyfriend, he had no business feeling hurt that she wanted to sit next to him. So, he shuffled to the side and she seemed to settle down for a moment as played with Hardison’s hand.

It was harder to focus on the movie after that and he tried to keep his eyes on the screen and not watch how Parker’s little hands weaved easily between Hardison’s, how he was completely relaxed and this was apparently normal, tried not to focus on how much he wanted his own hand to be held.

Still, Parker soon grew bored with Hardison’s fingers and turned to him. “Can I braid your hair, Eliot?”

“Su- No.” Hehad to catch himself before he could give in, that was too intimate and something she did with Hardison, he was trying to create distance. She shouldn’t be asking him that.

She looked sad with his rejection and he almost caved, but managed to stay stubborn. He ignored the look he got from Hardison in the background as Parker back flipped of the couch and disappeared above them. He was watching a movie, this was normal. He was fine, it was all fine.

By the end of the movie he was also dropping off slightly, but he was oddly proud of staying awake through the entire thing, even if he was leaning heavily against the armrest and was trying to fight against his blinks.

Hardison appeared in front of him with an amused smile: “You need to go to bed, man.”

He let out a little discontent grumble, but got himself into a sitting position. He still felt heavy and lethargic, however, and he accepted Hardison’s hand when standing up. The walk to his bedroom was made with minimal support though, his ankle was getting much better and he knew how dangerous it was to lean against Hardison’s warm side.

So, mostly independently he got to bed and cocooned himself, trying not to feel too watched with Parker and Hardison in the room.

Once he was all settled in Parker jumped on the bed. He let out a tiny squeak and he would later deny that ever happened, but it was enough for Parker to giggle and poke him. He batted her hand away and frowned – frowned, not pouted – as he said: “Stop it, Parker.”

“Ahw, grumpy,” Parker teased, poking him again, before making herself comfortable on his bed.

He suddenly remembered that, oh yeah, they had been cuddling up to him for the last few nights and that had been really comfortable, but something he also really should be putting a stop to, because that was not friend behavior. He nudged Parker and said: “Hey, you have your own bed.”

Immediately her head poked up from under the blankets and she said: “But I like sleeping in your bed and you didn’t have a problem with it earlier.”

“He can have a problem with it now, mama,” Hardison told her, before turning to Eliot and asking with his eyes if there was something wrong.

And there was a lot wrong, but not what Hardison was looking for. What was wrong was the fact that Eliot wanted them near him, that he wanted them to cuddle up to him and see the parts he hid from the world, even if that would mean they wouldn't see him as invincible anymore, even if they wouldn’t want him to have their back anymore, because having them close soothed aches inside him he didn’t know he had.

That was also wrong, because he knew it was selfish to want that. To want them. They needed his protection and by god would he give to them, even if that meant keeping his distance, because what they had was good.

Good was hard to come by in this world.

Hardison and Parker were good, them together were good. Eliot was a destroyer, he didn’t fit into that good. He would only ruin it, so better to not belong to it and ruin what tried to hurt them, because that was what he was good at.

So, yeah a lot was wrong, but nothing he could tell them or solve. He could only push them away and hope they would see for themselves that he was no good for them without it hurting too much, which he knew was an idle hope.

He must have been silent too long and he didn’t know what to say anyway. He also had no clue what his eyes had looked like during that time, but Hardison said: “It’s okay if you don’t want us here, but we don’t mind. It’s nice to be able to know you’re okay, you had us worried these past few days.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, because he hadn’t meant to worry them. Mentally he kicked himself, he shouldn’t have slipped up so much, he should have fought the sickness more, he shouldn’t have allowed himself to be so weak. They shouldn’t have had to worry about him, worrying about the team was his job.

“Hey, hey, hey, I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but that guilty look in your eyes is a no,” Hardison interrupted his thoughts. “You can’t help getting sick, man. This is the opposite of your fault, so don’t go around with those self-blaming baby blues.”

“I- uh- sorry?” he tried, because he didn’t know how else to make it right. Parker understood, luckily and she hugged him again. “It’s alright, Eliot. Forgiven.”

And it felt more like a relief than it should. It drained a bit of tension out of him and he yawned and blinked heavily as he was reminded of the sleep that had brought him here. And later he would blame his lack of control on the sickness still in his body that he burrowed his head into the crook of her shoulder instead of pushing her away, which they both took as a sign that it was okay to get comfortable in his bed for the night.

When they were all settled in, he was quickly fading off to his dreams, the last thought he had was that tomorrow, tomorrow he would start pushing them away again.

However, the night wasn’t as peaceful as he had hoped and the respite from his mind along with the unnatural amounts of rest he had gotten were finally catching up. The nightmare was new, but familiar, it was how he woke up that was different.

There were people around him, voices. They wanted something from him, he could hear it in their tone, someone was touching his shoulder. They wanted him.

He shot up and twisted his body, pinning whoever had touched him under him as he got a knife out of a hidden place near his pillow, pressing it to the intruder’s throat as he growled: “What do you want? Who send you?”

“Eliot?”

It was quiet. Eliot blinked and Hardison came into focus underneath him, wide eyes and trying not to move as he looked at Eliot, hoping to find recognition.

God, it was Hardison.

He was threatening Hardison.

Gentle and kind Hardison.

He was a monster.

Horrified he dropped the knife on the floor next to him, quickly scrambling back off the bed and into a corner of the room, trying to create as much space between him and Hardison as he could. He tried not to look, not to put himself in that moment where Hardison checked himself over, but he couldn't help but watch as the hacker gently rubbed his throat before assuring Parker that he was fine.

Fuck, he was assuring Parker he was fine, because Eliot had threatened him and there was a good possibility that he would not be fine after that.

He knew he should have fought more, should have protected them from himself. He knew, yet he had given in again.

Weak.

Pathetic.

Eliot Spencer was better than going soft. Eliot Spencer knew better than to keep others close. Eliot Spencer was dangerous and shouldn’t be trusted around fragile, pure things. He knew all that. He knew himself.

Yet he allowed himself to forget. He had allowed himself to forget that under Eliot was The Eliot Spencer. It had been easy to pretend his stained past wasn’t there when Parker poked his bruises with a grin or Hardison rambled on despite him threatening him, because both trusted him enough not to hurt them.

And he had broken that trust.

Not only had he broken that trust, but he could have hurt Hardison, could have killed him even. And for what? For a bit of comfort he shouldn’t even have been seeking with them? Because he was a little bit under the weather?

Because he loved them and was too selfish to leave.

He was a selfish man and he could have gotten Hardison hurt. He could have gotten Parker hurt too, they were just lucky he had snapped out of it as quickly as he had. He should know better than this, he was cutting it off right now, before this could get worse, before it went wrong. Like it had nearly gone.

He curled up more into the corner of the room where he had hidden. He was shivering, the chills still hadn’t left him yet, but it was less than he deserved anyway. He wanted to disappear from that corner, never face the other two again, but he also couldn't leave without facing their wrath, because they deserved to get a chance to be mad at him.

Their footsteps were gentle as they came closer, but he knew from experience that said nothing. He curled up a little closer into himself. If he were less of a coward, he would face their wrath head on, but he didn’t think he could recover from that, so he allowed himself a little shame and hid.

The footsteps stopped, but no one touched him. Of course not, he thought bitterly, why would they want to be anywhere near you?

“Hey, man, it’s okay,” Hardison said softly and Eliot wanted to laugh and cry at how not okay it all was. How could Hardison sit there and try to comfort him when he’d just threatened him with a fucking knife.

“I have a blanket,” Parker offered. “You’re shivering. You were just getting better, we can’t have you getting cold. I’ll put it on the ground here.”

And, fuck, he didn’t deserve that kindness and he wasn’t sure if the right move was rejecting her and not taking the blanket or pleasing her by taking it and with it comfort he didn’t deserve. In the end his need to punish himself won out and maybe if he rejected her, she would let him go like he deserved.

So, he stayed in the corner shivering, trying to find solace in the fact that both were still breathing even if this might be the last night he heard it.

Parker made a small hurt noise and Eliot didn’t need to look to know that she was giving Hardison those big questioning eyes she always had when she didn’t understand the actions of other people and, by god, if Eliot wasn’t going to miss that.

“Talk to us, Eliot,” Hardison said, voice too gentle for the entire situation. “We just wanna know what happened?”

“What happened is that I threatened you with a knife, Hardison,” Eliot gritted out, still not looking, but feeling the weight of what he’d done on his shoulders as he pushed his head between his knees, bowing it to the floor like Atlas.

“Yeah, I was there for that,” and only Hardison could have joked about that. “What I meant is why? What set you off.”

“…nightmare,” he admitted softly, hating how something so small and stupid has set him off.

“Wanna talk about it?” Parker asked. “I sometimes get nightmares and it feels better when I talk about them, though it took me a while before I was comfortable, so you don’t have-”

“Why?” Eliot cut her off, but he couldn't keep it in any longer with the way they were treating him.

“What do you-”

“Why are you being so nice to me?” Eliot cut off Hardison this time, but the words were coming out now and he couldn't stop them. “I just threatened you, Hardison. I could have accidentally killed you and you’re being so nice about it. I don’t get it. This- this isn’t how it’s supposed to go. It’s all wrong!”

He finally looked up to see both of them looking at him. They were taken aback, unsure, but most of all they were concerned and that was wrong. They should be mad at him.

Parker cocked her head sadly and said: “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

And Eliot had always been weak for her and with a broken voice he explained: “You’re supposed to be mad at me. Why aren’t you yelling? Or kicking? I- I nearly hurt you. I’m a monster. You’re supposed to hate me. This is the part where you hate me and tell me to go. I just can’t understand why you’re being so nice to me, when I don’t deserve it. Never have.”

There were tears coming out of his eyes, finally unable to be stopped and he hated himself for being weak, for looking so pitiful when it was Parker and Hardison who should be crying, not him. He couldn’t see their faces through the tears, but he was certain they were disgusted with him now.

A large hand touched his shoulder and he flinched away slightly, bracing him for the hurt. The hand stilled and he looked up in confusion, tears still rolling down his cheeks, but good enough to see clearly again.

Hardison looked concerned and sympathetic and a bit hurt, but not as Eliot had expected. He didn’t look hurt for himself, but for Eliot and he had no clue what to do with that.

“Just hurt me,” he begged softly, trying to get the situation to a place he understood.

“I- I don’t want to hurt you, Eliot,” Hardison told him, agony in his voice. “I don’t. You woke up from a nightmare and had a trauma response, I’m not hurting you for that. Of course not. You would never hurt me.”

“How do you know that?” It was a provocation and Eliot should know better than to think that worked on Hardison when Hardison didn’t want to.

“Because I saw your eyes,” Hardison explained, still that mix of hurt and compassion that Eliot wanted to disappear in despite how much he hated it. “You didn’t recognize me, but the moment you did, you were horrified.”

“And what if I hadn’t recognized you?” Eliot voiced the fear that had been gnawing on him ever since he had woken up, the what-if that would haunt him forever. His voice was no longer confrontational, he couldn't. Not about this. Tonight he could have accidentally killed Hardison and nothing they said could change that.

“You would always recognize Hardison,” Parker spoke up, she had the blanket in her hands and was inching closer to him. She softy wrapped it around him and said: “There isn’t a world where you don’t know us.”

She said it like it was a fact, like that was a normal thing to tell a person. Heck, maybe for Parker it was normal, maybe she said that shit all the time, just not to him.

Of course not to him. He had nearly killed Hardison, he was a threat and not someone to be wrapped in a blanket and comforted – even if the blanket was nice, he had been so cold and this helped a bit. She shouldn’t be so certain of that.

“Knowing someone isn’t enough,” he gritted out, slightly bitter.

Parker pouted and frowned stubbornly, before trying something different: “Okay and what if it hadn’t been Hardison? What if it was someone send after you to kill you? What would you have done then, if such a person had woken you up? Even now, when you’re sick and injured. Would your reaction be to kill?”

And she was right that the instinct to murder anyone who woke him up despite their intentions had faded years ago that didn’t mean he would just fold. He had folded enough. Now to make that clear to her.

“…Parker,” he tried to find the words. “I nearly hurt him. I couldn't forgive myself if I ever did. I’m dangerous, you guys shouldn’t be here. You have each other, you’ll be fine. I can’t be putting you in danger like this.”

Hardison stepped in, because it was obvious in Parker’s frustratedface that she had a lot of things to say, but no way of saying them. They worked together like that. Well. Without Eliot.

“He, first off, is right here, so you can stop with that. Second, you’re not denying that Parker is right, so stop beating yourself up over it,” he began. “Third, I’m fine, you didn’t hurt me and you weren’t going to. End of conversation. Now, why the hell are you talking about this like you’re going to disappear on us? We want you here.”

Eliot remembered them arguing about being his nurses.How they had pushed him to say what he wanted, because needing something was different than wanting something. And he had known that. They wanted him here, despite it all. They wanted him.

The tears started up again and he couldn't help it.

“I’ll never leave you,” he chocked out around a silent sob.

“It’s okay,” Parker told him as she sat beside him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. The action felt like something out of a book or movie, but it was still Parker like in her flat tone and he couldn't help but lean into her shoulder as he cried.

On his other side appeared Hardison, a warm presence that radiated comfort he didn’t deserve. He had tried so hard to show them that they should run, because he had discovered that he was in too deep to do so himself, but they were still stubbornly at his side.

So, he cried. He cried for them and their kindness that no one had taken. He cried for what he had managed to protect in them. He cried for how he’d hurt them. And finally he cried for himself. After all these years, he cried for Eliot Spencer. For the man he could have been and the one he had become.

There had been so many points in his life where he could have turned out differently. He could have not signed up for the military, he could have died, he could have stayed with Moreau, or never even said yes to him in the first place, he could have scoffed at the Dubenich job and walked, he could have stayed away after, not signing up for another job.

But he didn’t think there was a way he could have not loved the two idiots sitting next to him on the floor in the middle of the night after he had woken up from a nightmare and threatened one of them with a knife.

Maybe Parker was right, maybe there wasn’t a world where he didn’t know them. He wanted to believe in that. He wanted that. God, he wanted that so bad.

He grabbed their hands and checked their pulses, remembering the nightmare that had caused all of this in the first place and sighed with relief when he found them beating steadily. He had known already, of course, but feeling it was better.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Hardison asked softly. And normally the answer would be no, Eliot didn’t do well with talking about it, he put it in a box and pushed it down, but talking about it with them seemed different. Better.

“I- I was running through the woods,” Eliot said. “Siberia. There were people running behind me. I didn’t know who, but I knew I had to get out. There was a building. A shed. Not optimal, but a good spot to fight back or hide, better than the cold forest anyway.”

He took a deep breath. He had forgotten how hard it was to share and his voice was raw from the sickness and the crying.

“Then you were there,” he admitted. “I had given you a head start and held whoever was chasing me off long enough and you had hid, but I had led them right to you. I hadn’t even known you were there until I found you, like you hadn’t existed before that moment, but suddenly you were there and I- I couldn't turn back-”

A chocked off gasp escaped his mouth and the tears started up again in full force as he said: “They killed you. They killed you and I did nothing.”

The arms around him tightened and a hand found itself in his hair, that was really a weakness he should be working on, but it was nicer to just let it relax him now.

“We’re safe,” Hardison whispered. “We’re safe and okay. You protected us. All these years you made sure we were okay and we are. You did good, Eliot. Relax. We’re safe. You saved us. We’re okay, you’re okay.”

Eliot let himself float on those words, the reassurances and the praise. He hadn’t earned it, but he was going to cling to it while he had it. Fuck, he was in way too deep. He should be running right now, he should be far away before he got too attached.

“Please don’t leave me.”

And it was too late. He knew that, but he had never admitted it out loud, but now he had in the most pathetic way possible after he had done everything to make sure he didn’t deserve it. He had gotten between them when he was injured, then when he was sick, he had attacked Hardison and rejected Parker’s blanket offer and then he had cried and made them comfort him. And then he’d said that. He’d be lucky if they only kicked him out.

“Never,” Hardison promised much to his surprise and Parker assured him again that Hardison always kept that promise.

“Come back to bed with us?” Hardison asked. “You don’t have to sleep if you don’t want to, but you’re still sick and cold and you just had a traumatic experience. You shouldn’t be sitting on the floor, promise we can still cuddle.”

“You also had a traumatic experience,” Eliot pointed out fruitlessly. “And I don’t think you should be offering to cuddle me in front of your girlfriend.”

“Don’t be silly,” Parker piped up. “I can be your girlfriend too, then it’ll be okay. You can also be Hardison’s boyfriend if you want to.”

“Parker, maybe not now. This is a later conversation,” Hardison said, but Eliot could hardly hear him over the rushing in his ears.

She- Parker- Could she do that? Well, she was Parker and could do anything, but still… unless he was gravely mistaken, she had just asked him to be her boyfriend and Hardison’s boyfriend and all he ever wanted but knew he could never have. And that was okay, he could live with that. But now there it was.

Like tonight hadn’t happened.

It also sounded like Hardison had known about it, that they had talked about it. Suddenly the comments about his ‘baby blues’ and their closeness made more sense, how they had gotten closer and closer until Eliot could never run away. He just didn’t understand why.

They were perfect and good and he was naturally drawn to them, because they were everything and he was nothing. He was nothing and still they wanted him. It just didn’t make sense. He was broken and wrong and bad. They should be backing off as fast as they could, not running towards him with open arms.

“I only ruin things,” he offered, because it was true and he had to be sure they knew that before he would even consider accepting the offer.

“Bullshit!”

“You don’t ruin food, or jobs and you give great hugs and know feelings and stuff,” Parker protested. “You never ruin things.”

“But-”

“No buts, Eliot,” Hardison had pushed away the fury that had appeared when Eliot had talked. “Unless you tell us right now that this is not something you want, we’re getting into that bed and cuddling you to death. Talking we can do tomorrow, but I’m not letting you walk around thinking you only ruin stuff, because you don’t. You help people. You save them. You save us. You’re our Eliot and don’t think we’ll ever let go.”

“That would be nice,” Eliot said quietly, because he had gone soft for these people and he couldn't deny them anything. And maybe he didn’t believe them yet, but they were promising forever and maybe during forever he could.

Their smiles were blinding and there was a strange sense of pride that he had caused those smiles as they carted him back to bed.

This time there was no blanket barrier between them, instead Hardison cuddled up behind him and pulled him into his chest until Eliot’s back was fully pressed against the hacker, while Parker wiggled into his arms, resting her head on his chest as she tangled all their legs together.

It was comfortable and warm and Eliot had never felt more safe in his life. He couldn't sleep yet, not after all that had happened, but he could lie there and be content and that was more than enough for him.

~~

A/N:

This fic was gonna be a one-shot I hope y���all realize that. I wanted him to confess all the way back in the hotel, but then the road trip yearning vibes caught me and I was like ‘wait a minute… I can work with this’ and now we’re here. Fics get out of hand, shit happens.

Ok, idk if any of you read The Teddy BearJob by Kerkerian, but Parker comparing Eliot to a teddy bear owns my heart and soul, bless u. I just had to throw it in there <3

Eliot:Oh, no I’m a threatening monster who should be punished, they must be so scared of me :((((

Also Eliot:*is curled up like a sad little meow meow in the corner of the room, shivering*

Maybe this is me projecting my own issues around crying, but I really love making tough characters break down in tears bc they just can’t take it anymore. Guilty pleasure, if you will. There’s just something cathartic about seeing someone break and being held together despite it all.

[singledarkshade]

Scarred By Time

Author’s Note: I'm procrastinating writing something else so I ended up picking this up once more. Another chapter will hopefully appear at some point. Hope you enjoy. Part One can be found here.                                ********************************************* Part Two The building sitting at the edge of the city loomed above them as they walked towards it from the parking lot.

Everyone had heard of TM Consultancy these days. It was a think tank which had a reputation for creative brilliant solutions to problems most people would dismiss as unsolvable. They had appeared from nowhere about two years ago and quickly built their reputation.

Sara Lance looked at the three people standing with her at the entrance, Ray Palmer, Nate Heywood and Zari Tomaz, three people who didn’t normally work together. She knew them through some mutual friends and the bar she hung out at some weekends.

“What do a scientist, a historian, a hacker and a martial arts instructor have in common?” Sara asked thoughtfully.

Ray grinned at her, “I think we’re about to find out.”

Sara watched the main doors open before them. Swapping confused glances, they walked in and looked around the spacious comfortable almost empty reception area.

“Good morning,” the woman who stood waiting for them said as they moved closer, she had long chestnut brown hair with storm-grey eyes. Her face had a pleasant but neutral expression while she held a tablet in her hand, “Miss Lance, Dr Palmer, Mr Heywood and Miss Tomaz, it is a pleasure to meet you. Dr Hunter is waiting for you. Please follow me.”

They stared when she turned and walked through the wall behind her. Looking at one another again, they shrugged and followed the woman. All cried out in surprise and pain when they walked into a solid barrier.

“Gideon,” a man’s annoyed voice came making them turn to see Rip Hunter, owner of TM Consultancy standing inside an elevator. He was tall, with sandy hair, neatly trimmed beard, intense green eyes and was dressed head to toe in black, the only part of his body uncovered was his face despite the fact it was the middle of summer but the thing that especially caught Sara’s attention were the leather gloves he wore.

The woman reappeared asking innocently, “Yes?”

“Stop it,” he stated before turning to them, “My apologies, she has currently developed a rather childish sense of humour since her recent upgrade.”

Sara could see the others as bemused as she was, “What?”

“Gideon is the AI who runs the building,” Hunter explained, obviously trying not to laugh as Gideon crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him before disappearing back through the wall once more, “Follow me and we can discuss why I’ve asked you here.”

“Thank you for coming,” Hunter said as they filed into an office decorated in neutral colours with a long dark wooden desk in the middle and the sun shining through the wall of windows, “I’m sure you’re all busy so I’m not going to waste too much of your time. The reason I asked you here is to offer you a job.”

“What?” Sara spoke up.

He gave a slight smile, “All four of you have very specific skills which would be useful in order for us to expand our business.”

“What work exactly?” Ray asked thoughtfully.

“We find solutions for problems that others can’t,” Hunter replied, “Each of you have the skills I am looking for to expand the team.”

Sara frowned before challenging, “Considering my skills, what job do you expect me to do?”

“You’re a leader, Miss Lance,” he said, “I want you to manage this team.”

“What wages and perks are you offering?” Zari asked, “Because we all currently have pretty good jobs.”

Hunter smiled slightly again, Sara wondered if he knew how to smile properly, before he told them, “Gideon has emailed you a copy of your contract as well as details of all monetary compensation.”

“And you can’t give us any specific details of what we’ll actually be doing?” Nate demanded.

Hunter mused for a moment before nodding, “I’ll send you some write-ups of our previous cases, but there is information that you will not be privy to unless you are working for us. I will say that your days won’t ever be able to be called boring.”

With that the meeting was over.

 Rip stood in his office watching from the window the people, he had hopefully just hired, leave the property to consider his offer, stunned that he’d made it to this stage. ‘Time’ had confirmed that all those that were needed would be in the right place when required and Rip had been concerned that something would go wrong. It had been a long five years, three of which he’d spent alone and two more building up a business so that he had a way to bring the team together.

“I still do not believe that hiring them is a good idea,” Gideon’s voice made him turn to find her standing at his side.

“We need Sara to recant her wish now John and Mick have managed to capture the Djinn,” Rip reminded her, “But in order for her to do that then she must know about the fact she made it. If she’s working here, then we can ease her into the information. The other three will help with finding the information to convince her it’s real and not some kind of joke.”

Gideon rested her hand on his shoulder, the sensors in his clothes letting him feel her touch, “Then we need to get back to work.”

“Yes, we do.”

“Although,” Gideon noted, “You have not yet eaten this morning.”

Rip rolled his eyes, “I will get something just now.”

Gideon nodded, “Excellent. I will have something waiting for you in the dining room. I’ll meet you there.”

With that she disappeared, and Rip looked out the window once more at the four people walking away.

Part of him hoped this worked but he also knew if it did, then he would leave Gideon again.

And he hated that thought.

                                 *********************************************

 Gideon had been watching her Captain carefully over the past few weeks since he’d made the decision to contact the Legends in this version of the world. John had managed to track down the Djinn who had tricked Sara into making the wish that created this reality, trap it and it was currently being stored in the Waverider under several layers of security both technological and magical.

Although she knew that this was what Rip had been working towards for many years, she feared him succeeding because Gideon would lose him once more.

She never used her hologram and turned her cameras off whenever he was in the shower or changing because Gideon knew Rip hated anyone, even her, seeing the scars that covered every part of his body.

The reminder that to give the Legends time to defeat Mallus after they had blundered in without a proper plan, he had been ripped apart by the energy from the time core.

“Gideon,” he called, letting her know he was dressed.

Turning her camera and hologram back on, Gideon smiled to find him dressed and heading out the room.

“Yes?” she asked as she followed him to the elevator.

“Have we received a reply from anyone yet?” he waited as Gideon sent the elevator down to the sixth floor so he could have breakfast.

Gideon shook her head, “I’m afraid not, Rip. However, it has only been a few days and the remuneration package you are providing may be giving them pause.”

“Should I have offered more?” Rip frowned concerned.

“From what Mr Constantine has said,” Gideon noted as they walked the corridor to the dining room, “You may have offered them too much.”

Rip rolled his eyes, “Money has never been something that has meant much to me, not since I was a child, and I stole whatever I could get my hands on. The Waverider always provided what I required. I probably should have had Mr Rory work out those details.”

“His economic knowledge is quite surprising,” Gideon noted.

Gideon gently touched his hand and Rip took a hold of it. She was relieved he had agreed to let her put the sensors in his clothing, Rip needed physical contact of some kind and would never accept it from Mr Constantine or Mr Rory.

Gideon knew from when Rip and Miranda had been together how much just a simple touch of his hand or kiss on his cheek from his wife, comforted and made him smile.

Rip turned to her and rested his other hand on her cheek, “I’m fine, Gideon.”

“I’m not,” she whispered, leaning into his touch, “Because the closer we get to fixing the mess Miss Lance made with her wish, the day I lose you again draws ever nearer.”

Sighing, Rip shook his head, “I’ve been dead a long time, Gideon. It’s just going to take this time.”

“Captain…”

“I’m at peace with my decision,” Rip told her, “I only wish it didn’t mean leaving you once more.”

Gideon closed her eyes and turned her face to press a soft kiss to his palm, “We have time before that moment comes, Rip and I will treasure each moment.”

 “Have you found anything, Mr Constantine?”

Swearing John jumped, “Make a noise, Gideon before you appear.”

“I am constantly monitoring all parts of this facility,” Gideon noted with a roll of her eyes, “I am always here.”

Shaking his head and muttering under his breath, John pulled over the book so she could see it properly.

“I think I can summon the corporeal version of ‘Time’,” John told her, “But what do we do then? We can’t threaten him to keep Rip alive after we’ve fixed things.”

“I am aware of this, Mr Constantine,” Gideon replied sharply, “However, I will not allow Rip to die again without trying something to save him. This way we have a chance to find out what we can do.”

John shook his head, “I know, Gideon. Look,” he closed the book, “I need to collect some stuff to do the summoning so I will start gathering them up. And we can work on what we offer.”

She nodded, “Thank you.”

“He’s my friend too,” John reminded her, “And I won’t let him go without a fight.”

Gideon gave him a soft smile before she tilted her head, “The Legends have replied to the job offers. I will leave you to work while I report this to Captain Hunter.”

As Gideon disappeared again, John mused over everything. It was only a few hours after he’d been resuscitated into this world that Gideon asked him to find a way to help her save Rip after he saved the world.

He knew Rip and Gideon were close, but the past few years a lot of the time John could see how close they truly were. Gideon had implanted every piece of clothing Rip wore with sensors allowing her to physically interact with him. John had been a bit weirded out by it at first but realised after a while that it was good for Rip.

John smiled slightly, thinking back to anytime he saw Rip and Miranda together. How she would always place a hand on his arm, or lean into him to look at something, she’d brush a kiss to his cheek whenever she left the room or would simply sit on Rip’s lap without even acknowledging him.

It always made Rip smile and relax, Gideon knew this too so, as always, was looking out for her Captain.

                                 *********************************************

 Sara stood with her arms folded as she stood just outside the TM Consultancy building.

“You know,” Zari said as she walked up to Sara’s side, “We only get paid if we go inside and work.”

Shrugging Sara asked, “Don’t you think this is a little odd?”

“A little,” Zari agreed, “I nearly passed out when I saw the salary we were being offered. Not to mention the bonuses for completed jobs.”

Sara nodded, “I know what you mean. It…” she hesitated, trying to find the words, “The job is amazing and so much better than the one I was doing but there is just something odd about it and Hunter.”

“His dress sense screams that,” Zari laughed, “Do you think he knows the all black outfit makes him look like a stick-insect?”

Sara chuckled, “It’s the fact every part of him was covered other than his face I found odd.”

Zari shrugged, “Maybe he just doesn’t like the cold.”

“We’re in the middle of summer,” Sara sighed, “Never mind. We’re due in ten minutes and I don’t want to be late on my first day.”

They started towards the gates and Sara mused over everything. There was something strange about this entire thing and she intended to find out what reason this guy had for hiring them. The money he offered them all was incredible, far more than she expected ever to earn with her qualifications.

Reaching the reception, they found Ray and Nate were already there, sitting on the plush couch just to one side of the desk.

“We were told to wait,” Nate told her, “I don’t think the computer likes us much.”

Sara and Zari took a seat as Zari asked, “Why?”

“Just the look she gave me,” Nate replied.

Ray shook his head, “You’re imagining things. She was very pleasant, and this time didn’t make us run into a wall.”

Zari chuckled, “Come on, that was a little funny. And the fact she’s an AI with a sense of humour, this job won’t be boring.”

“Boring is something I’m not expecting,” Sara mused.

 “Are you ready for this, Captain?” Gideon asked softly as he stood in his office watching the video screen showing the four people waiting in reception.

Rip shook his head, “Honestly, no.”

Placing her hand on his back, Gideon whispered, “You don’t have to do this.”

Turning Rip took her hand, “I do. This world isn’t real. It is missing those who will step in and save it from dangers that normal people cannot.”

“Why is there no other way?” Gideon asked.

Sliding his arms around her, Rip drew her in for a hug, “Because there isn’t. Sara recants her wish, the world goes back to how it was…”

“And I lose you again,” Gideon sighed, her head resting against his shoulder, “Only this time it will be forever.”

Rip closed his eyes before he reminded her, “I made my choice, Gideon. I never wanted to leave you and I don’t but…”

“But?” she pulled back and looked at him with large eyes.

He let out a slow breath, “I can’t be selfish, Gideon as much as I want to. The world is wrong, and I made a deal to fix it. I made a promise.”

“You are far too honourable sometimes, Captain.”

Rip sighed, “You are probably the only one who has ever thought that.” He gave her a smile and rested his hand on her shoulder, “Let’s go meet our new employees.”

“I hope you ensure to remind them that I don’t take orders from them,” Gideon told him, turning on her heel towards the elevator.

Rip smiled and followed her.

 The ding of the elevator made Sara jump to her feet along with the other three.

“Good morning,” Hunter greeted them, wearing basically the same outfit as he had been on the day he’d ‘interviewed’ them, except his polo neck was blue not black, “I’m glad you all decided to take up my offer.”

“Well,” Sara spoke for the group, “It was a hard offer to say no to.”

He gave a slight smile and handed Gideon who was waiting at his side the tablet he had been holding. Sara stared, feeling the others stunned looks as well, when the AI took it.

“How did you do that?” Ray demanded.

Hunter glanced at Gideon before replying, “Executive level clearance.” He turned and headed to the elevator frowning as he turned back to find them staring at him, “Please join me and we can start the tour.”

Sara took the lead and walked into the elevator with the other three joining after a moment.

“Before I show you your offices,” Hunter said as the doors closed, “I want to confirm to you the areas that are off-limits no matter what. These are the top two floors which house the apartments used by myself, Mr Rory and Mr Constantine. None of us will be happy if you wander into our private rooms. Secondly is the basement.”

“Keeping the bodies down there?” Zari asked with a chuckle.

Hunter gave her one of his slight smiles before replying, “Just filled with so much junk it’s dangerous and I don’t want any of you to get lost down there, it could take days to find you.”

                                 *********************************************

 John went through his checklist for the summoning spell. It had taken him a month to get everything together with Gideon constantly checking on him.

He had avoided the Legends since Rip had brought them in, it was just weird that they didn’t know him, and he knew Mick was also avoiding being around them. The former thief and Bounty Hunter had taken to working in a Think Tank, amazingly becoming their security expert with enthusiasm. When they’d joined Rip and started creating the business, Gideon had gone about reorganising the building so that it worked both for their business but also for a place for the three of them to live.

“Please tell me you’re ready, Mr Constantine,” Gideon’s exasperated voice preceded her hologram appearing.

John smiled to himself at her irritation, “I take it one of our new recruits has annoyed you.”

“Mr Heywood insists on calling me ‘computer’,” she snapped, “Honestly it is only due my promise to Captain Hunter that I have not retaliated.”

“Sorry, Gideon,” he sighed, “I’ll talk to him. Because the last thing we need is Rip to deck him for disrespecting you.”

A sweet smile touched her lips and John, not for the first time since he’d been woken in this new world, realised how little he’d understood just how self-aware and ‘human’ Gideon was.

“Before that though,” John pulled out the spell book, “Lock the door and we can try the spell.”

Gideon nodded and John heard the click of the lock as he pulled out everything he required for the summoning.

“Okay,” he took a breath, “Are we ready?”

“Whenever you are.”

John started the summoning spell, feeling the enormous power he was bringing into the room but it wasn’t the first time he’d interacted with something powerful and held his nerve.

Finally a man stood in front of him, or it looked like the shape of a man but John couldn’t quite see the features or anything other than a slightly grey shape.

“Not many people are brave, or powerful enough, to summon me,” the voice echoed off every corner of the room meaning John was in no doubt this was ‘Time’, “Why have you done this?”

“Rip Hunter,” John said, “I want to know what is needed so that he will survive once he gets the wish recanted.”

‘Time’ tilted its head, “Rip Hunter is dead. I was only able to return him to life because of the wish. He knows this.”

“He does,” John replied, “But he deserves something more than to die again once he fixes things for you.”

“He does,” ‘Time’ agreed, “But I could only give him life in exchange for another.”

“Then take mine,” Gideon spoke suddenly.

John spun to her, “What? No?”

“You are an AI,” ‘Time’ mused, “Offering your basic immortal life for a human?”

“For him,” Gideon replied, “Yes.”

‘Time’ moved to her, “Do you understand what you are offering?”

“I do,” Gideon nodded, “And I want to ensure if I do this then he is completely whole once more.”

“Gideon,” John snapped, “Rip would never agree…”

“Your offer is accepted,” ‘Time’ interrupted John.

John frowned, “No, wait.”

“The offer was made without guile,” ‘Time’ told him, “Without deceit. It was given freely and has been accepted.”

With that said ‘Time’ disappeared.

John spun to Gideon, “Rip will never agree to this.”

“He does not need to know until after Miss Lance has recanted her wish,” Gideon told him.

“And you think I’m not going to tell him?”

Gideon nodded, “I know you will not.”

Bright light filled the room and John blinked.

Looking around he frowned, before checking the book, “It didn’t work, did it?”

“No, Mr Constantine,” Gideon replied, “What you intended did not happen.”

Sighing John said, “I’m sorry, Gideon. I know how disappointed you must be. I can try again.”

Gideon gave him a sad smile, “It took you almost two years to track down that spell. It is doubtful you will be able to find another in time.”

John sighed as Gideon disappeared and he began to tidy up, disappointed that he’d failed.

[sparklycardigan]

hi, ivy here 💕💕from whatever ive heard abt logan, the nate & logan parallels feel very legit. which brings me to THE QUESTION, which is. nate archibald, as rory gilmore's boyfriend; how do you think that would go?? love u!

IVY, NATE ARCHIBALD AS RORY GILMORE'S BOYFRIEND WOULD BE SOMETHING INSANELY SIMILAR TO DATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (DAN=RORY I don't make the rules 🤷‍♀️) I'm trying to figure out the circumstances of their first encounter now and all I'm coming up with is Dan Dan Dan because it has to be Dan, right? He has to be the initial string connecting them, right? Okay so, Rory and Dan meet while Dan's promoting his book or something (well, we HAVE to fix the mess that is s5 sOmEhoW and if Nate's going to date ;) someone else, Dan has to be with Blair in this au because I can't handle any more of pining!Dan if I tried ), they bond (well duh) and Nate just walks in on their big gifted kid burnout talk(TM) one day in the loft, stands there like 🤔 for a little bit and goes: Sooo, where's the ice cream, there's gotta be some comfort ice cream when this kind of thing happens, right? (this is Nate digging into that Humphrey knowledge pocket and all the tips he learned from Jenny while staying over, he's the pro at these things now). And obviously Rory likes him from the second she hears him utter those words because:

1. She's Dan.

2. That's the most Lorelai way to solve a problem.

The three of them end up playing board games on the floor afterwards (probably getting a bit drunk too because why not?) and Rory and Dan are 💞going through it💞 with the nostalgia and Nate is just sitting there smiling (☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️), picture sweater!Natie (yes, this is me giving Natie the childhood he deserved, who cares if he's in his 20s? Allusion to the birthday party Rory throws for Logan in s7 -> completely intentional because that was epically cute + Logan/Nate parallels)

But like... the relationship relationship would include (these are going to be shamelessly self indulgent headcanons with little to no meta because my brain's incapable of making up layered crossover scenarios rn, adding that to my wip ideas tho):

1. sweater/scarf sharing (Dan knits these for Rory/Nate as gifts Mrs. Weasley style, just... nowhere near that level of skill LMAO, they're all matching for Christmas AND IT'S HORRIBLE but still kinda cute anyways, Dan is an inevitable aspect of this equation obviously, wHat elSe diD yOu thinNk, huh?????🧐)

2. pre-relationship stuff would've mainly consisted of looooong late night talks (to quote ✨Moi✨: "if it's not built on friendship then I'm sorry but I don't want it"), majorly about their privilege and Nate would probably be the first one to mention how guilty he feels about it subtly which would make a couple of light bulbs turn on in Rory's brain which would make her think about it which would lead to her knocking on Nate's door at 2 a.m. begging him to explain it to her because "I didn't realize how much I had because I've never felt like I had too much of anything. And I thought that was the standard. I just... I only ever wanted to be close to people." and he wouldn't get what she's talking about at first (which is Rory accepting all these expensive gifts and embracing certain lifestyles because they came hand in hand with the people that she cared deeply about and... never evaluating the worth and meaning of these events without connecting them to her loved ones) but he would talk about it anyways and she would listen and compare his experiences to her own and realize how different and how similar people are when compared to each other. (which would also help with her "not like the others" complex, Nate isn't someone Rory would willingly hang out with if friendship=love was up to choice.)

3. Widening of perspective my beloved!!!!! Kind of like Natessa just queue in Rory making these crazy colorful charts and diagrams about the history of cinema for Nate and Nate actively studying them (every day for at least ten minutes) while Dan shows Rory how to play basketball back in the loft (one word: disaster) and Blair is all like 😑🤨🙄 in the corner *inserts endless eye rolls* (she wants us to think she hates Rory, in actuality she thinks her knowledge of the bookish world is rather 🎇acceptable🎇 and she loooooves her BFF Paris there's no TV show Gilmore Girls in this version of canon but that was already implied I suppose... I understand this au has a lot of plot holes but for once I don't really care :)

4. Rory. Reading. To. Nate. Before. They. Go. To. Sleep. Just his head on her shoulder while she reads him whatever book she's obsessed with at the moment. (💕🌸💖🌻💕💞💖☀️💕💖☀️💕)

5. Waffles/Pancakes! Friday! (Dan's idea ofc) which is basically Cooking With Dan Humphrey starring Blair, Nate and Rory as the annoyed, the enthusiastic and the confused (but determined nonetheless!) respectively and Dan as the chef par excellence or whatever you want to call it (he has a hat and all). And Milo is a part of this au (circumstances, logic, what what what??????). All of them babysit him (there's a very Rory-resembling schedule on Dan's fridge👀) + Rory and Nate get a labrador (yes, this is just to get Blair kissed by an actual labrador) later on, oh and his name is Newland Archer (the geeky evil energy is insane today 🤭).

[terrainofheartfelt]

i feel like serenate’s break up could’ve been some way better idk like having her randomly kiss dan off screen was very ? and i don’t think they sealed with the william situation very well like nate and serena literally never even have a real conversation about him calling the cops and how it made her feel etc. it was all really rushed imo

I mean…yeah I guess it could be seen as rushed? But like, that’s the nature of the show, it grazes the surface of something substantial and lingers around stuff you’d WISH they had glossed over. Idk.

I think Random Dan Kiss was kind of…supposed to be that way? It wasn’t about a Big Romantic Moment (tm), bc if it was they would have shown it. It was really just two people desperate for comfort falling into a comfortable pattern. But because Dan and Serena are like the least emotionally intelligent people ever it spirals out of that.

As for the wvdw thing. There was some speaking about it at the tail end of 3x21 in the “this is why I don’t tell you things” — she was obviously upset from it, but I think it wasn’t dealt with because Serena wasn’t dealing with it, if that makes sense? She didn’t want to look her pain in the face, so she didn’t. and Nate is tied up in that, because she can’t hide from herself with him. But with Dan, she can wrap herself in an idealized version of herself that she was with him.

I stand by what I said about the serenate breakup making sense to me. I think where the “rushed” comes in for me is that the onset of season 4 minimizes the real reason they broke up (wvdw is a piece of shit and Serena needs to figure out who she is outside of a relationship with a guy after it) in favor of a love triangle to amp up the teen soap plot (and thus again making Serena’s story about the men in her life).

So I think for me, it’s not the breakup itself, but the fallout of it.

[samcroslut]

MASTERLIST

A/N: Hay guys! so this is my masterlist so far, I will be updating it as I go. 

Smut: *

Sons of Anarchy

Chibs Telford

Just Hold Me - Chibs’ comforts his old lady when she’s on her period.

Something I Could Get Used To - You come to TM a lot and get Chibs’ attention.

Another Type Of Drunk -  You’re Chibs’ ex and you love Tig.

Happy Lowman

Irish Visitor - Chibs’ niece moved to charming from Ireland and catches Happy’s eye.

Old Friend. New Love  - Part 2 - Part 3 *- Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6  - Chibs’ old friend comes to visit and catches a certain killers eye.

Juice Ortiz

In Sickness - You’re sick and Juice is trying to keep his OCD under control.

Stressed - Juice is stressed due to the club and it’s your duty to comfort him.

Tig Trager

True - You and Tig are dating and the club want to check if you are true, and things don’t go as planned.

That Time of Year - Tig takes care of you.

I’m So Sorry  - Tig scares the reader, ending with a punch being thrown and slight flirting.

Another Type Of Drunk - You’re Chibs’ ex and you love Tig.

Chicken Wings And Diamond Rings - Based on the song ‘True Love’ by P!nk.

Jax Teller

He Always Won - He cheats and tries to get you back.

Why Are You Wearing My Shirts? - You tell Jax that you’re pregnant.

Herman Kozik

Found Happiness? - You’re Tig’s daughter but have a thing for Kozik.

Shush, Just Shush* - Reader gets hurt (only slight smut)

The Originals

Elijah Mikaelson

300 Years - Part 2 - You think that your husband has been getting too close to a certain girl.

Freshlee/ Omaha Squad

Nate ‘skate’ Maloley

Relax* - You’ve come home from a bad day to all the guys at your house.

Confrontation* - You’re Sammy’s sister and are left alone with Nate, the guy you have had a crush on for years.

Elementary

Sherlock Holmes

Simply Complex - You’re Joan’s best friend that Sherlock has a crush on, and Joan’s trying to set you up.

The Dolan Twins

Ethan Dolan

Show Me Your Darkness - ‘Light is easy to love. Show me your darkness’ - R. Queen.

Lucifer (TV Show)

Lucifer Morningstar

The Devil’s Wife - (ongoing series) You’re his soulmate and wife but when you find him after years of being apart and he has a new life...

[soulhacktress]

Okay so this is my Dan-Story and how I personally relate to it.

I am lucky I am a girl because wlw relationships are viewed differently in society, I would not say inherently “better” because of the fcking fetishization but still. So, I did not have to listen to all that stuff being thrown at me like an insult luckily - at least not in like, grade school. Back then just my sometimes difficult relationship with gender was established by being called a boy by accident and stuff like that and it was the start of not really being able to differentiate between platonic and romantic feelings and of compulsive heterosexuality. I always was a fucking weird kid and I can’t deny that but I wasn’t being called a lesbian as an insult for it - thank god. But the sense that something was really wrong with liking girls as a girl just creeped in later, mainly middle school, but also before. Once, I was staring across a girl who was way more developed than my eleven year old me back then, she was much taller with much bigger boobs, not AT her or anything, just at a place I wanted to put my bag at and she was like mockingly “are you looking at my boobs??” and I was exasperated and quickly explained that no, no, I just wanted to put my stuff down back there. She answered with “Oh, good. Thought already, we had a lesbian in class, haha”. Not to be mean, people who say that stuff rarely have bad intentions and don’t know what kind of impact they can have on a person. But it stayed in my memory so fucking long - because I thought about it, every detail of it. How embarrassing that was. How she could have even thought that. How degradingly she said the word lesbian - was being a lesbian that bad? Could it be that I was a lesbian - no, no, no, that for sure not. I could not be a lesbian, because I was in (comp het) love with my boy best friend from grade school because everybody always said that and so they must have been correct. I pushed this memory away from me - or thought so because clearly it is STILL etched to my mind to this very day. Back then I really did not take this seriously and lesbian was an abstract thing that EXISTED but it was nothing that could happen to ME - until my very best friend, my platonic Phil, the person that accepted me when nobody else seemed to finished a letter to me with a certain sentence. We wrote letters to each other over the internet when we were gone for a few days (we live really close and were together basically all the time and it was barely managable when one was away) and she wrote in one of them that she was just reading “Dracula” and I shouldn’t be surprised when she would call me (the slightly different german version of) “love” or “dearest” in these letters because in the book the women would call each other that all the time but she added, “but don’t worry, I am not in love with you. I am staying loyal to Damon, Ash, Nate and the other boys”. Which left me...confused. It was a possibility AS A NORMAL GIRL LIKE US to be in love with another normal girl? And she was not in love with me - was I in love with her? In retrospect, I still don’t know, to be honest, if I was in love with her. I can poorly differentiate between romantic and platonic feelings, as I said and we are very close but I can for sure say that today I am not in love with her - if I ever was. But nevertheless, I was confused. As fuck. This was the first time I doubted my sexuality because before I had been in a comfortable comp het unreachable pining friendship love but suddenly I thought about it - how would I have interpreted the relationship differently if she had been a boy? Wasn’t it exactly what everybody said love was? Missing the other person when they aren’t around, wanting to spend every minute together, feeling understood, talking about everything, planning the future together - no doubt if this had been an f/m friendship I would not have hesitated to tell my diary HELLO I AM VERY IN LOVE but could that be? Or have I never really been in love all along? I decided that that was it and that I never had been in love, ever and liked neither boys nor girls. I could not like girls AND boys if I had to like girls for it because as I further learned, that was BAD. My closest friend in school said in middle school sometimes something along the lines “gays are so cool i love gays but lesbians...I just think they are a bit disgusting and I can’t stand it and I would never be a lesbian and I think they shouldn’t kiss in public how about you?” and dumbass me did not really know what to answer so I just awkwardly went along. We talked about this later, way later because we are still friends but this was something I had still in my head and broke down when some other stuff happened because it was a really big thing to me and she did not even remember but I remembered it very well and it became one of the main reasons I developed The Guilt TM. I felt guilty for being turned on by women when I was like thirteen and just got in touch with the internet. This whole thing, these years - twelve to fourteen - was a big trip about sexuality and internet and depression and feeling down and like a weirdo and being an outcast without even being out. It’s getting late and maybe I will continue for more tomorrow but for now I just want to bring up that I started to masturbate to f/f fics and then felt disgusted and guilty as fuck about it and for masturbating in general and tried to turn me straight violently by only reading f/m fanfictions and using this for masturbation only. To this day I still sometimes catch myself in these patterns. My story about bisexuality is a long one and one I never told anybody about because I know... I know there are things that I still have not processed yet but Dans video helped me so much to think about it all and I wanted to tell at least a little part of it. In retrospect it all fits together, like I lived a coming of age book which plot I was to stupid to foresee but here we are and I’m not finished yet.

[vickyvicarious]

I didn't even make that connection but yes. In general I LOVE Sterling fearing that Eliot is constantly teaching his daughter Crime and must be stopped... but like, of all the crew, Eliot does the least? It's mostly just self-defence and mentoring and stuff. He talks about girls with her, gives her life advice. Meanwhile Parker and Hardison need no prompting to teach her how to steal/hack stufd, and Sophie is all over teaching her little grifting tricks (relating them in chess terms to make it more natural to her, similar to how she used thief terms for Parker). (Sterling is actually fine with his daughter knowing how to manipulate people more, he would just like it not to be in service of stealing stuff.)

Nate actually has the least to teach her since she has the Sterling Cunning (TM) already and thinks the same way he does with regard to chess. But he will absolutely gift her books and stuff or explain how such-and-so is a scam if she doesn't already know.

I feel like in this verse she goes to Eliot with stuff that bothers her personally, that she needs comfort or help figuring out a solution or whatever. (Even if Hardison then chimes in on some interpersonal stuff.) The rest she just learns from whatever skills they have to teach her; they still become close but it's slightly less familial for a while.

yes, Olivia's presence is a key detail to the con, and yes, they already know the security is there because she's been put in danger by her stepdad's buyers before.

however I just feel like the intense evaluating gaze from Eliot here may also have to do with her looking visibly uncomfortable and Eliot's Unhappy Child senses going off.

[mindmastered-archive]

I like to examine Nate as a White Guy TM getting into radical politics. Sure, he's marginalized or Oppressed as you might say, but those parts of his identity are invisible for the most part, at least until he begins Leverage. Yes, he’s poor/has been poor, he’s mentally ill, he’s Not Straight (and two of those things are Canon Confirmed) but being a white guy still puts him in a position of privilege, and he does not start off by handling that very well. He does not take into account the kind of danger he puts his team members in, at least at first. His “pushing his team too far” often takes the form of putting the members in dangerous situations that can be made more dangerous by their specific identities. Having Parker grift a rich white guy could put her in more danger as a woman, especially because she’s inexperienced unlike Sophie who knows what she’s doing. Exposing Eliot to more trauma and having him beat people up/get beaten up isn’t doing him any favors. Having Hardison anywhere near police could be potentially dangerous for him. Yes, all of these people have consented to a lot of danger, but because Nate is leading them, he is accountable for pushing them past their comfort zones, their acceptable limits for danger.  

Nate is angry because he’s been thrust back into a position of powerlessness that he worked hard to get out of. His poverty is a lack of power. Being unable to save his son is a lack of power. Nate was no longer used to that level of helplessness by the time Sam died, so when he loses his privilege and can no longer hide his mental illness, he reacts by becoming a radical. His choice to help other people is rooted in self interest (the whole team’s decisions are basically rooted in self interest, and they are never villianized for it, because that’s the point. They’re meant to come together to work towards a common goal). He wants to be the person who helps people like himself, a person he never had. The rest of the Leverage team, despite seeming apolitical, are a radicalizing factor for Nate. He sees in them a potential to do good outside of the bounds of the law and takes advantage of that opportunity. The team was already living their lives far outside of the boundaries of conventional life, and each had radical ideas, but they were not working for change. Technically, Leverage isn’t radical either, or it isn’t effectively radical as an organization, because it isn’t making an institutional change, it’s taking out individual cases of corruption. However, by the end of the series it becomes clear that institutional change is what’s needed, and Leverage is actively working toward that goal. 

Despite Nathan’s clear leftist goals, it is clear he doesn’t know how to enact them. He naturally gravitates toward collectivization as a means for change, but he fails to understand that a single team taking down single cases of corruption will not cause the change he wants. He clearly learns that later, but doesn’t change his approach very much except in certain cases such as forming a Union at the supermarket. As the series goes on, his approach to organizing improves. He is more able to not only account for his team’s abilities, but their well being as well, so long as he isn’t dealing with a mental health episode. The team also learns to account for him when he is unable to help himself. 

Nathan’s biggest pitfalls tend to be his need for power, his inability to see the needs of others, and his difficulty with change. His need for power mirrors the mental state of many of the marks. He longs to return to his lost privilege, but knows that is unfeasible, because he is trying to go against that level of power. He can’t emulate it, even though something in him wants to. His lack of empathy and inability to account for the needs of others undercuts him as an organizer. You can’t lead people in a struggle to meet their needs and not take them into account. As a White Guy who has never been in the same positions as Sophie, Hardison, Parker or even Eliot, he has no clue what they need fairly often, and doesn’t think to ask. This can make him tend toward a sort of class-reductionist praxis that doesn’t really help his team. His difficulty with change restricts him in his goals by closing certain windows for action and/or criticism. He should be criticizing the police as they protect the interests of the rich property owners he despises, and the prison system that sends marginalized people to jail disproportionately. Nate doesn’t understand the extent to which his moral system serves capitalism as a system, and only learns this slowly through experience. 

[singledarkshade]

TM Consultancy

Author’s Note: Just a small scene, I’ve no idea if I’ll add anymore.

Enjoy

                                *********************************************

The building sitting at the edge of the city loomed above them as they walked towards it from the parking lot.

Everyone had heard of TM Consultancy these days. It was a think tank which had a reputation for creative brilliant solutions to problems most people would think as unsolvable. They had appeared from nowhere about six years ago and quickly built their reputation.

Sara Lance joined the three people standing at the entrance, recognising all of them. Ray Palmer, Nate Heywood and Zari Tomaz, three people who didn’t normally mix.

“What do a scientist, a historian, a hacker and a martial arts instructor have in common?” Sara asked thoughtfully as she joined them.

Ray grinned at her, “I think we’re about to find out.”

Sara watched the main doors open before them and they walked in looking around the spacious, comfortable but empty reception area.

 “Good morning,” a woman stood waiting for them, she had long dark brown hair with storm-grey eyes. Her face had a pleasant but neutral expression while she held a tablet in her hand, “Miss Lance, Mr Palmer, Mr Heywood and Miss Tomaz, it is a pleasure to meet you. Dr Hunter is waiting for you. Please follow me.”

They stared when she turned and walked through the wall behind her. Swapping glances they shrugged and followed the woman. All cried out in surprise and pain as they walked into a solid barrier.

“Gideon,” a man’s annoyed voice came making them turn to see Rip Hunter standing inside an elevator.

The woman reappeared, “Yes?”

“Stop it,” he stated before turning to them, “My apologies, she has currently developed a rather childish sense of humour since her recent upgrade.”

Sara could see the others as bemused as she was, “What?”

“Gideon is the AI who runs the building,” Rip explained, obviously trying not to laugh as Gideon crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him before disappearing back through the wall once more, “Follow me and we can discuss why I’ve asked you here.”

  Rip stood in his office watching from the window the people he had hopefully just hired leave to consider his offer.

“I still do not believe that hiring them is a good idea,” Gideon’s voice made him turn to find her hologram standing at his side, “Is this not going against the agreement, Captain?”

“Agreements are made to have loopholes,” Rip smiled at her, “And you know I can always find a loophole.”

She gave him a small frown.

“I made the deal to save their lives,” Rip reminded her, “It was the only choice I had at the time. You agreed with me when I did it. But at no point did I agree not to fix things.”

Gideon rested her hand on his shoulder, the sensors in his jacket letting him feel her touch, “Then we need to get back to work.”

“Yes, we do.”

[stevenstamkos]

"Taylor hall as team dad but only for the rookies" you can take care of yourself, Beau, mikey and nate need me. He just seems like he's so good with the rookies?? Like he has mikey come live with him and is super protective and stuff because that's his rookie ya know? But he's also Cool Dad^tm and let's nate sleep over all the time and puts up with Mikey's drunk blabbering about how pretty nate is

I somehow missed this ask slkgmls sorry

Taylor is not here for any of your tomfoolery Keith. No you can’t get special treatment just bc you’re a goalie. And then Taylor gathers his rookies up and shooes them upstairs bc they’re kind of drunk and he’s absolutely not letting Nate go back to his apartment in this condition. (Lbr tho Mikey and Nate live together in New Jersey duh)

Mikey isn’t a lightweight but he does shots and he does them fast, while Taylor is just sipping his beer thoughtfully. So then Mikey starts blathering on about Nater and Taylor is just like mmmhm and takes a swig of whatever horrible piss-beer he has in his hand. They’re just taking up Taylor’s whole couch but it’s cool, it’s comfortable, Mikey is melting into the cushions but it’s fine