#this thing is full of offtop thoughts and my negative opinion about ethan

[fridgrave]

do you ship lanedunn in a enemies to lovers way, enemies who are also lovers way or more like in an AU? tell us tell us

OHOHO WELL-

they are enemies to collegues to lovers i guess? i'm completely ignoring dead reckoning and everything what could possibly happen there, so it's solid post-fallout story (it's hard for me to call it an AU because everything about my lanedunn story feels more right than possible mccruise... creature. sorry for this offtop i just can't trust cruise after the bruh named m:i fallout anymore. this movie sucks in lots of ways including not revealed dynamic between benji and solomon)

FINALLY here we are talkin' about my boys! how did they become a thing?

right in the end of fallout benji falls into a coma with a stroke! :D YES I KNOW but hear me out - he was HANGED TO DEATH (almost) and there's no way someone would just woke up after this and do heroic shit. the loop will strangle you even if you're not hanging anymore bc the knot was tightened with the force of entire body (190 lb or 86 kg in our case) and it cannot unwide by itself. and even after removing the rope man's larynx is damaged and strangulated so it's hardly possible to breathe. what does it means? well, first of all, the hanging scene is absolute bullshit and tom "i will fly at the plane and do hundred of other flashy things because i care about realism" cruise wasted the HUGE potential with whump benji arc (i could tell how good it would be for the plot of the movie named fallout where main character did't get any fallout of his actions but it's kinda offtopic again). secondly, in real world benji after the hanging would lose consciousness immediately because of oxygen starvation which will cause the brain damage (and this causes a stroke)

but we still need benji to disable the bomb, so alright lets add a couple of conditions. he could wake up with ilsa's help and with all of his strength disabled the bomb. this final effort costed him, so yeah, here's coma (also the big part in it has my headcanon what benji had an alcoholism his entire life what caused great damage to the body in the long term). when benji finally wokes up month or more after, he needs a physiotherapy and long recovery, but he's in terrible mental condition again and after sick leave starts to drink again. benji is dissapointed in ethan because he knows: if ethan contacted sloan before kashmir, nothing would happend, but ethan didn't and their mission was about to fail (and millions, if not billions of people including ilsa, luther, julia and benji would die). since m:i3 benji saw ethan as a selfless hero standing against until the end and this motivated benji to be a field agent too. but when he saw ethan just as a venturesome adrenaline junkie without a plan who would risk everything just to be the hero who beats the bad guy and yells "mission accoplished" - benji knew he can't deal with this man anymore. ethan is guilty in benji's stroke as much as lane, but lane never bait him with false promises, friendship and concern which stops to mean anything when ethan needs to show off (oh shit from lanedunn story explanation it turned into ethan roasting post, i should stop)

I WANTED TO SAY what after the stroke benji left imf because of his physical and mental condition and ethan. he started to drink badly again returning to his s*icide thoughts from pre-m:i3 (before meeting ethan), when solomon finally show's up. lane escaped when benji was in coma and with full rethinking about his methods started the syndicate 2.0 - and then he realised what he needs a partner to make world a better place, he can't to carry this alone anymore. solomon chose benji because he saw himself in dunn, and, more important, he saw the potential.

when lane proposed benji to become a co-leader of the syndicate, benji agreed (but he didn't mean it). he still hated solomon and thought lane found him just to "finish the business" - kill him, so suicidal man seized this opportunity. it took a long time for benji to realise what solomon is not going to kill him, what his proposal is real and this guy really wants benji to be a leader with him. and dunn could admit it was... tempting

for the first weeks their relationships were extremely awkward, so mostly they just worked on new system of the syndicate, rebuilding it from the start. benji made for them completely new path what took common people out of harm's way. now syndicate is focused on the powers that be. benji and solomon agreed what the best way to unite people and bring peace on earth is a renewal of proletariat as a class and abolish capitalism

while they worked on it together, they started to come together, learn more about each other and slowly understand what it's, actually, goes very well. when they do not try to kill each other they can find out what they both love opera and reading, what solomon understands benji's references on pop-culture and benji knows exactly what musical solomon is quietly singing the song from when he works with papers. solomon teaches benji to fight, benji helps him how to shoot better. solomon gives him reasons to stay alive and benji reminds him about selfcare and rest (but they both are overworkers). with benji solomon could see the world from different angle, open up and find a relief with all this burden he carried for years alone. they understand each other surprisingly deep and connection between them grew every day

so, when benji was shot saving him, and solomon almost lost him with "i think i don't want to die anymore" as the last words, he realised what he fell for benji