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be-gay-do-heists · 3 years

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hello yall :) the holy month of elul started last night, which is typically a time for contemplation, so since it is impossible for me to stop thinking about leverage, i decided to write an essay. hope anyone interested in reading it enjoys, and that it makes at least a little sense!! spoilers for leverage redemption

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Leverage, Judaism, and “Doing the Work”: An Essay for Elul

When it comes to Elul and the approaching High Holidays, Leverage might seem like an odd topic to meditate on.

The TNT crime drama that ran from 2008-2012, and which released a new season this summer following its renewal, centers on a group of found-family thieves who help the victims of corporations and oligarchs (sometimes based on real-world examples), using wacky heists and cons to bring down the rich and powerful. In one episode, the team’s clients want to reclaim their father’s prized Glimt piece that had been stolen in the Shoah and never returned, but aside from this and the throwaway lines and jokes standard for most mainstream television, there’s not a ton textually Jewish about Leverage. However, despite this, I have found that the show has strong resonance among Jewish fans, and lots of potential for analysis along Jewish themes. This tends to focus on one character in particular: the group’s brilliant, pop culture-savvy, and personable hacker, Alec Hardison, played by the phenomenally talented Aldis Hodge.

I can’t remember when or where I first encountered a reading of Hardison as Jewish, but not only is this a somewhat popular interpretation, it doesn’t feel like that much of a leap. In the show itself, Hardison has a couple of the aforementioned throwaway lines that potentially point to him being Jewish, even if they’re only in service of that moment’s grift. It’s hard to point to what exactly makes reading Hardison as Jewish feel so natural. My first guess is the easy way Hardison fits into the traditional paradigms of Jewish masculinity explored by scholars such as Daniel Boyarin (2). Most of the time, the hacker is not portrayed as athletic or physical; he is usually the foil to the team’s more physically-adept characters like fighter Eliot, or thief Parker. Indeed, Hardison’s strength is mental, expressed not only through his computer wizardry but his passions for science, technology, music, popular media, as well as his studious research into whatever scenario the group might come up against. In spite of his self-identification as a “geek,” Hardison is nevertheless confident, emotionally sensitive, and secure in his masculinity. I would argue he is representative of the traditional Jewish masculine ideal, originating in the rabbinic period and solidified in medieval Europe, of the dedicated and thoughtful scholar (3). Another reason for popular readings of Hardison as Jewish may be the desire for more representation of Jews of color. Although mainstream American Jewish institutions are beginning to recognize the incredible diversity of Jews in the United States (4), and popular figures such as Tiffany Haddish are amplifying the experiences of non-white Jews, it is still difficult to find Jews of color represented in popular media. For those eager to see this kind of representation, then, interpreting Hardison, a black man who places himself tangential to Jewishness, in this way is a tempting avenue.

Regardless, all of the above remains fan interpretation, and there was little in the text of the show that seriously tied Judaism into Hardison’s identity. At least, until we got this beautiful speech from Hardison in the very first episode of the renewed show, directed at the character of Harry Wilson, a former corporate lawyer looking to atone for the injustice he was partner to throughout his career:

“In the Jewish faith, repentance, redemption, is a process. You can’t make restitution and then promise to change. You have to change first. Do the work, Harry. Then and only then can you begin to ask for forgiveness. [...] So this… this isn’t the win. It’s the start, Harry.”

I was floored to hear this speech, and thrilled that it explained the reboot’s title, Leverage: Redemption. Although not mentioned by its Hebrew name, teshuvah forms the whole basis for the new season. Teshuvah is the concept of repentance or atonement for the sins one has committed. Stemming from the root shuv/shuva, it carries the literal sense of “return.” In a spiritual context, this usually means a return to G-d, of finding one’s way back to holiness and by extension good favor in the eyes of the Divine. But equally important is restoring one’s relationships with fellow humans by repairing any hurt one has caused over the past year. This is of special significance in the holy month of Elul, leading into Rosh haShanah, the Yamim Noraim, and Yom Kippur, but one can undertake a journey of redemption at any point in time. That teshuvah is a journey is a vital message for Harry to hear; one job, one reparative act isn’t enough to overturn years of being on the wrong side of justice, to his chagrin. As the season progresses, we get to watch his path of teshuvah unfold, with all its frustrations and consequences. Harry grows into his role as a fixer, not only someone who can find jobs and marks for the team, but fixes what he has broken or harmed.

So why was Hardison the one to make this speech?

I do maintain that it does provide a stronger textual basis for reading Hardison as Jewish by implication (though the brief on-screen explanation for why he knows about teshuvah, that his foster-parent Nana raised a multi-faith household, is important in its own merit, and meshes well with his character traits of empathy and understanding for diverse experiences). However, beyond this, Hardison isn’t exactly an archetypical model for teshuvah. In the original series, he was the youngest character of the main ensemble, a hacking prodigy in the start of his adult career, with few mistakes or slights against others under his belt. In one flashback we see that his possibly first crime was stealing from the Bank of Iceland to pay off his Nana’s medical bills, and that his other early hacking exploits were in the service of fulfilling personal desires, with only those who could afford to pay the bill as targets. Indeed, in the middle of his speech, Hardison points to Eliot, the character with the most violent and gritty past who views his work with the Leverage team as atonement, for a prime example of ongoing teshuvah. So while no one is perfect and everyone has a reason for doing teshuvah, this question of why Hardison is the one to give this series-defining speech inspired me to look at his character choices and behavior, and see how they resonate with a different but interrelated Jewish principle, that of tikkun olam.

Tikkun olam is literally translated as “repairing the world,” and can take many different forms, such as protecting the rights of vulnerable people in society, or giving tzedakah (5). In modern times, tikkun olam is often the rallying cry for Jewish social activists, particularly among environmentalists for whom literally restoring the health of the natural world is the key goal. Teshuvah and tikkun olam are intertwined (the former is the latter performed at an interpersonal level) and both hold a sense of fixing or repairing, but tikkun olam really revolves around a person feeling called to address an injustice that they may have not had a personal hand in creating. Hardison’s sense of a universal scale of justice which he has the power to help right on a global level and his newfound drive to do humanitarian work, picked up sometime after the end of the original series, make tikkun olam a central value for his character. This is why we get this nice bit of dialogue from Eliot to Hardison in the second episode of the reboot, when the latter’s outside efforts to organize international aid start distracting him from his work with the team: “Is [humanitarian work] a side gig? In our line of work, you’re one of the best. But in that line of work… you’re the only one, man.” The character who most exemplifies teshuvah reminds Hardison of his amazing ability to effect change for the better on a huge stage, to do some effective tikkun olam. It’s this acknowledgement of where Hardison can do the most good that prompts the character’s absence for the remainder of the episodes released thus far, turning his side gig into his main gig.

With this in mind, it will be interesting to see where Hardison’s arc for this season goes. Separated from the rest of the team, the hacker still has remarkable power to change the world, because it is, after all, the “age of the geek.” However, he is still one person. For all that both teshuvah and tikkun olam are individual responsibilities and require individual decision-making and effort, the latter especially relies on collective work to actually make things happen. Hardison leaving is better than trying to do humanitarian work and Leverage at the same time, but there’s only so long he can be the “only one” in the field before burning out. I’m reminded of one of the most famous (for good reason) maxims in Judaism:

It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to neglect it. (6)

Elul is traditionally a time for introspection and heeding the calls to repentance. After a year where it’s never been easier to feel powerless and drained by everything going on around us, I think it’s worth taking the time to examine what kind of work we are capable of in our own lives. Maybe it’s fixing the very recent and tangible hurts we’ve left behind, like Harry. Maybe it’s the little changes for the better that we make every day, motivated by our sense of responsibility, like Eliot. And maybe it’s the grueling challenge of major social change, like Hardison. And if any of this work gets too much, who can we fall back on for support and healing? Determining what needs repair, working on our own scale and where our efforts are most helpful, and thereby contributing to justice in realistic ways means that we can start the new year fresh, having contemplated in holiday fashion how we can be better agents in the world.

Shana tovah u’metukah and ketivah tovah to all (7), and may the work we do in the coming year be for good!

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(1) Disclaimer: everybody’s fandom experiences are different, and this is just what I’ve picked up on in my short time watching and enjoying this show with others.

(2) See, for example, the introduction and first chapter of Boyarin’s book Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man (I especially recommend at least this portion if you are interested in queer theory and Judaic studies). There he explores the development of Jewish masculinity in direct opposition to Christian masculine standards.

(3) I might even go so far as to place Hardison well within the Jewish masculine ideal of Edelkayt, gentle and studious nobility (although I would hesitate to call him timid, another trait associated with Edelkayt). Boyarin explains that this scholarly, non-athletic model of man did not carry negative associations in the historical Jewish mindset, but was rather the height of attractiveness (Boyarin, 2, 51).

(4) Jews of color make up 20% of American Jews, according to statistics from Be’chol Lashon, and this number is projected to increase as American demographics continue to change: https://globaljews.org/about/mission/.

(5) Tzedakah is commonly known as righteous charity. According to traditional authority Maimonides, it should be given anonymously and without embarrassment to the person in need, generous, and designed to help the recipient become self-sufficient.

(6) Rabbi Tarfon, Pirkei Avot, 2:16

(7) “A good and sweet year” and “a good inscription [in the Book of Life]”

#leverage #miko speaks #jewish stuff #jumblr #leverage redemption #spoilers #lr spoilers #leverage redemption spoilers #written for a non leverage audience because i want my rabbi to read it alskdjflaksdjf #elul

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kiingocreative · 3 years

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The Structure of Story is now available! Check it out on Amazon, via the link in our bio, or at https://kiingo.co/book

Performance coach Tony Robbins says that the quality of our lives depends on the state we live in every moment of every day. That state, whether we’re happy, sad, frustrated or excited, depends on three things:

• Our physiology — the way we move our bodies, the way we breathe and what we do with our face.

• Our language — the words we use, whether spoken out loud or inside our own head, to describe our experiences.

• What we focus on — the things we see versus the things we block out or fail to notice.

Today, I want to zone in on that final piece, because what we focus on is key, and it will in turn affect the way you move your body and hold yourself, and the language you use. I see this play out so much around me in general, and in the writing community in particular.

At any given time, the things we focus on determine how we feel and what we make of a situation. And what we focus on, in turn, is governed by the questions we ask ourselves every moment of every day.

Take your writing journey for instance:

If someone leaves you a negative review, do you ask yourself whether this means you’re a failure and your work is a failure? Do you ask yourself how dare that person belittle your work with a bad review? Or do you ask yourself what you can learn from this? Could you ask yourself how good it is that this person was honest in their feedback, so that readers with similar tastes won’t buy your book—and therefore not spend money on a read they might otherwise dislike and rate negatively too?

See how different questions would illicit different points of focus, and therefore different states? Some are more conducive to a positive mindset, whilst others tend to nurture frustration.

‘Why’ Questions: The Endless Loop.

And so it goes that by asking lousy questions, we get lousy answers. Because our brain has this tendency of taking any request we give it and processing it, regardless of whether or not it’s good for us. It’ll scour through the recesses of our mind and go on and on until it finds an answer.

‘Why’ questions are the worst, because there’s often no clear answer, or more than one possible answer to them, and it sends our mind on a chase to find as many possible reasons, processing like a headless chicken, often going around in circles, leaving us ruminating.

Take our example again: What if you asked yourself ‘why is this person leaving me a bad review?’

Now unleash your brain on that one, and let it roll with it—you may get:

• Because they didn’t like the book.

• Because my book is terrible.

• And if my book is terrible, then that makes me a terrible writer.

• Maybe I should just stop writing.

• Who was I to think I could do this?

• I’m clearly not good enough.

• Or maybe they left a bad review because they’re an idiot and didn’t get the brilliance of my work.

• Clearly they’re a moron.

• Maybe I should track them down and tell them just that.

• Maybe I should rally everyone I know on Instagram to shame that dimwit for leaving that review.

• …

… this can go on, until it loops back to the top and starts again. Sounds familiar?

What kind of state do you think you’d be in from obsessing over those disempowering, angering questions, never able to get closure because the loop has no logical end?

Empowering Alternatives.

My own experience of asking myself lousy questions, and my interactions with others within the writing community, have left me convinced that writers need to start asking themselves more empowering questions.

Because the way we tend to ask questions to ourself—those that breed anger, and resentment, and self doubt—ultimately only bring us back to two fears that sit at the root of it all: the fear that we’re not good enough, and the fear that we won’t be loved (or appreciated, or liked). These fears can be crippling. And that can’t be good for anyone’s art anywhere.

I’m writing this today to give you some more empowering alternatives. Some that I have used along my journey and have helped me improve.

Here are four examples:

#1 — gearing up for success:

• Instead of: ‘Why are other writers so much more successful than I am?’

• Ask yourself: ‘What I can learn from other writers to become more successful myself?’

There’s a lot of comparison out there. We know we shouldn’t fall into the trap of it, but it’s easier said than done.

If you see fellow writers thriving with their writing, their social media strategy or their exposure, try modelling what they do that is working and find what, from that, works for you.

Better even, reach out to people and ask them for advice—most people will be more than happy to share, and it’s a great way to build a network!

#2 — boosting sales:

• Instead of: ‘Why am I not selling books?’

• Ask yourself: ‘What I can do to increase my book sales?’

It can be discouraging to have published something, and to see your sales figures stalling. If you start wallowing in self pity through disempowering ‘why’ questions, you’re bound to start spiralling.

Instead, make a list of what you could do to help your sales along.

Here are some ideas that come to mind:

• Seek out book clubs and put your book on their radar. See if they’d been interested in reading your book and having you for an author Q&A when they’re done reading the book.

• Look into running promotions on Amazon (like discounted eBooks).

• Go local! Reach out to your local community and spread the word (cafes, local bookshops and libraries, local Facebook groups and communities etc.) and give them a chance to support a local.

• Contact your old school or university and enquire about showcasing you and your book as an alumni success story.

• Build genuine connections with fellow writers, avid readers and book bloggers. These relationships are a fantastic way to increase your reach and spreading the word about your book—and as a result, improve sales.

• Offer to do a read and review swap with a fellow author, where you read and review each other’s book.

• And so on.

If you start asking your brain to think outside the box, it’ll do just that!

#3 — the writer’s life:

• Instead of: ‘Why can’t I be a full-time writer and have financial security from writing?’

• Ask yourself: 'How is my present occupation helping my writing?’

• …And then ask: 'What can I do to increase my revenue from writing?’

This is one topic that’s been crossing my mind a lot, and I suspect many of us out there have pondered it at one point or other. If asked the wrong way, this question can send you spiralling into a frustrated state.

I don’t write full-time at present, and I have had my moments of daydreaming hours away, wishing I could live off my craft. That never led to anything very productive.

What I have found helpful however has been to focus on what my day job enables me to do with my writing:

• It takes away the pressure of earning a full income from writing.

• It gives me time to write and experiment with my craft in different forms.

• It enables me to look into ways to monetise my writing at my own pace.

• And that’s made for much more exciting trains of thought!

#4 — social media guru:

• Instead of: ‘Why can’t I manage to grow my Instagram reach?’ Or ‘why is social media sapping my energy?’

• Ask yourself: ‘What can I do to create a healthier balance when it comes to promotion efforts?’

Social media is a tricky one. It has incredible benefits if leveraged the right way, and it’s an amazing tool to get yourself and your work out there. In fact, I recently wrote a piece on the immense value of joining Bookstagram for writers.

But it can also be a drain, because the mechanisms of social media are built on the principle of addiction. It’s literally designed to suck you in and make you crave more, and fear that you’re missing out and not doing enough.

To avoid falling into that vicious circle, I’ve found it much healthier to ask myself how I can find the right balance to achieve what I want with my social media presence whilst also keeping my sanity. What this ends up being will look different for different people. If you’re unsure where to start, think about what you find challenging about maintaining your social media account, then what you find helps with your peace of mind, and try to find a middle ground somewhere in between that meets your needs.

Ask and thou shalt get.

I’m a firm believer in our ability to manifest our reality—at least to some extent. If you focus on all the wrong things, then your reality will look challenging and bleak.

If you train yourself to look for constructive ways forward and to get yourself excited about making the journey smoother for yourself, then finding that sweet spot that works for you can be a fascinating journey.

And that all starts with asking the right questions. Finding the right point of focus. Writing can be a wonderful, yet at times confusing and challenging journey. So do yourself a favour: where possible, take away those mind blocks that stand in your way!

Different questions about your writing journey illicit different points of focus, and therefore different states. Some are more conducive to a positive mindset, whilst others tend to nurture frustration.

#writingtips #screenwriting #creative writing #writers on tumblr #writers #writing #writerblr #writing advice #writing community #writing resources

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petersthree · 3 years

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Okay so I’ve seen a lot of conflicting responses to Buddie this episode, from it being clear to people that they’re getting together, to thinking the writers have unintentionally messed things up to thinking it’s purely queerbait.

And I get the different responses, I do - tbh I’m somehow in two camps, where I simultaneously believe it’s a slowburn but I also think it’s bait. And those are two very different opinions to have and it got me thinking about why we have these different responses as fans to the possibility of a queer ship (namely two men who would presumably be bi/pan) being canon.

While people talk about how it’s just people wanting two characters to kiss or entitled fans - sure, that’s existent in every fandom, but I think there’s also a very real fear from queer fans who don’t want to get their hopes up and I d on’t love how the conversation has shifted to calling queer fans stupid for having hope, so I kind of wanted to break it down into 3 aspects that I’ve noticed:

How writers portray bi characters and why that makes fans hesitant to have hope

What queerbait actually means as a concept

How much “slowburn” has changed in procedurals

1. How writers portray bi characters

Something I’ve thought about a lot are the bi characters I’ve seen on TV - Darryl (CEG), Sara Lance (Arrow), Lucifer (Lucifer), just to name a few. These are great characters imo and I think you’d have a fun time watching but a thing to note is that all these characters were established as bi within the first season of their respective shows and they all fairly quickly fell into a clear romantic ship as well (with the exception of Sara as she spanned multiple shows). It may have taken time for them to say the word bisexual, but it was still clear these characters were queer fairly quickly on. You could maybe argue that Lucifer was a slowburn, but then (while it does not take away from him being bi/pan so do not use this as an excuse to be shitty about him) it’s a m/f ship which is still not the point of my post, to find a m/m or f/f ship that has that same treatment.

Some writers have done it - like for Valencia in CEG, or Petra in JTV - when they saw that fans read them this way, but trying to find those characters were few and far between, and when I looked at popular queerbait ships (whether or not they actually are queerbait) it’s usually ships where the characters are largely viewed as bisexual. A lot of times this also comes with pushback from both straight and to be frank, other queer fans as well. Straight fans don’t always see the signs that queer fans do, so to them a queer character who hasn’t been explicitly clear from the start comes out of nowhere. And what I’ve seen from certain queer fans are concerns that people aren’t appreciating the canon queer characters in a show - and I think there is a conversation to be had about that, but I don’t think the response should also be about then demanding less representation for people either.

If we go back to 911, people talk a lot about how it has canon queer characters, which it definitely does - Michael, Hen, Josh, Karen, and David are all canonically gay/lesbian and that’s awesome, and we absolutely should talk about fans (white fans in particular) ignoring these characters. It also does not change the fact that none of these characters are bisexual and that is the representation people are looking for. Both of these things are true - these characters are often under appreciated in canon AND people deserve bisexual representation. They don’t contradict each other and to act like one negates the other does a huge disservice.

And even if a character was made bisexual in the canon text we don’t get that slowburn. This may be true for things like Leverage, or LOK, but there’s also a real fact of censorship that affected these shows and the fact that general audiences may not understand the queer text tjat the writers intended. It doesn’t make the writing any less wonderful or the ships any less poignant or beautiful or important, and there’s ofc shows like She Ra that made this more obvious (or the.....mess that was Supernatural that made it. Half true?) but these are still real things that should be acknowledged on why people are so hesitant to call it slowburn - because it’s something most queer fans haven’t SEEN DONE, because m/f ships will get that care for slowburn when it’s done but it’s not done for m/m or f/f ships in that same capacity.

2. What queerbait is

This one’s fun because I don’t think many people understand what it is, but queerbait is very dependent on the intentions of the writers/creators/etc. - which tbh can be hard to gauge, because a genuine intention that ended up not happening or someone baiting fans or someone trying to support all ships and not be rude all have very different intentions but to a fan who only sees bits and pieces of this person on social media, it can be hard to gauge.

Honestly with how much the 4th wall gets broken because of social media now I’d personally say we’ve probably moved into a different definition of queerbait - unintentional vs intentional - because we’re at a point where a show knows what ships are popular and at what level of excitement fans are for it - but that being said, there’s still a clear spectrum of intent. And imo? I don’t think 911 has that intent of queerbait - whether it’s a slowburn or they have a different vision for buddie that I (probably) won’t agree with remains to be seen, but this show usually treats its storylines with care. Are they perfect at it? No, definitely not, I definitely think that they’ve dropped the ball a few times (especially with just how many characters they have lmao), but they also clearly do their storylines with earnest and with genuine care for these characters.

Is 911 getting them together? I want to say yes. I don’t think this was always the plan, just something that they decided along the way, but I also don’t think that changes anything about the ship. A lot of people point to Tim Minear being vague about the ship, or the actors and their interpretations, but 1. We have no idea what they’ve been told about Buddie moving forward and 2. No show runner is going to spoil their show that much. 911 may be keeping quiet because they have a different plan for buddie, sure, but also maybe because they’re still figuring out how exactly they want to do this and/or they want to make this slowburn and don’t want to give it away.

3. Slowburn in procedurals

I feel like this is something that procedurals have started shying away from, but slowburns used to be very common - Bones, Castle, their ships didn’t get together for literal years, but that’s just not something that many shows do nowadays, even for m/f ships. Even things like Deckerstar will have the characters get together after ~3 seasons and explore the relationship onwards, whereas a few years ago, y ou’d pr obably be watching a sh ow and it’d take them 7 seasons to get together. My assumption for this is that shows are afraid of getting canceled, but there’s been a pretty big shift in getting a couple together after say, 6 seasons to now getting them together about halfway through the show. I don’t think either one is bad or good - in good writers’ hands, either can be amazing - but that shift has made it so that a lot of younger fans in particular, I think, don’t fully recognize slowburn when they see it.

911 as a show tends to run pretty fast - it kind of has to with its depth of characters they have - but when they do have slower running storylines they really do make use of that as well. Bobby’s addiction is something that’s always going to be present in his character, May’s suicide attempt was brought up again front and center after 3 seasons, even Chim’s dynamic with the Lees was brought up again and it was reinforced again that they’re his family. There are certain storylines that have to be continuous and aren’t a one and done type of thing, and that includes Buck and Eddie, especially if you want to establish them as queer to a general audience who doesn’t think about these things.

And honestly, despite my fears, I think they are laying groundwork there. We have Buck learning to be more confident in his relationships, we have Eddie ready to date and learning to follow his own heart, we have Buck and Eddie both establishing that Buck is family and will always be there for Christopher. These are pretty big steps to do for a ship and we’ll obviously have to see how the show goes forward but they’ve already insinuated Eddie and Ana are breaking up, I’m sure Taylor and Buck may last a season and be over, but we do have to see what this next season brings. Do I think they’d say this? No, definitely not.

tl;dr:

911 is a show with good viewership, but there’s always a possibility they can’t continue with their season and then their promises would feel like a lie. Or they may still be hammering out the details as this season hasn’t been written. Or they may just simply not want to spoil their show, or they don’t want people criticizing a story before it’s finished, all of these could be reasons. The showrunners, writers, actors, ultimately they owe nothing to us as a fandom to potentially spoil their series, or do something, change it or their schedule for it, and get accused of bait.

But it also doesn’t change why fans are wary of this storyline either, and I wish people would have more nuance and compassion for fans who are worried about queerbait (whether they think it’s not queerbait and dislike people worrying about it or if they do and are calling people idiots for believing it). There’s a lot of reasons why fans are wary and don’t want to have hope, and it’s not necessarily about 911 specifically as it is a pattern of writing seen in other pieces that have fans worried. These things can all coexist and I wish we as fandom in general could acknowledge that, because pretending that they don’t and criticizing each other/people’s intentions or knowledge when they have certain expectations also doesn’t do much to help.

#warning this is long so if you read this bless you #but also i wrote this forever so maybe give a read?#it gets into buddie more specifically at the end so bear with me lmao #buddie #911 fox #fandom #queerbait #janie overthinks media #buddie meta #911 on fox

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miss-choco-chips · 3 years

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Drink and make merry, my friend (you'll be gone come morning)

Day four: historical- pirates // sci-fi- space

There are three pirates chilling in the dungeons. None seem overly concerned about the fact that they’ll be hanged come morning.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Bartholomew H. Allen. Bart for the friends. ‘The red nuisance’ for everyone else. Wasn’t the first time he’d been inside this very same prison cell; probably won’t be the last. The guards stationed in front of his door were the quickest on their feet, so maybe they’d have a minimum chance of catching the fucker should he escape again. Probably not, but the Arch Duke had been particularly displeased the last time he’d weaseled his way out of their prison, so they had to at least pretend to try.

He’d been unconcernedly chewing on dried meat for hours now. How did he manage to smuggle it into the cell, no one knows, but after he bit the first few hands that tried to take his treasure away, the general consensus was to let him be.

Similarly, anyone who held any notions of spending a fun afternoon with the only woman among the sea bandits was quick to be corrected, either by a broken hand or a kick that stole the air from their lungs like it was gold from a ship’s treasury.

Her name? Cassandra Sandsmark. She did not fuck around, and really, considering she would be dead by that time the next night, it was’t worth it to punish her for ‘prisoner misconduct’. That was why they left her be. Not because she scared their balls back into their bodies. The fact that she was Princess Diana’s wayward niece and, death row or not, the noble Lady would murder them all for even breathing in her direction, was a notable plus.

The last pirate, well… He’d chosen to spend his last night on earth doing push ups. It was probably better to leave him to his own devices.

Conner Kent. Whether or not he had any relation to Crown Prince Kal was anyone’s guess, but they did look startlingly similar; something the younger man had taken advantage of to avoid capture multiple times in the past.

To catch any of them wasn’t an easy task. The fact that they were all there thanks to the same man was beyond amazing.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

An auburn haired boy ran through busy port streets, his form almost a blur between passerbys. Jumping over crates, avoiding street vendors, sliding over banisters and landing at the very last step of any stair in his way, the youngster made a truly astounding escape.

Tough luck his opponent had accounted for that.

Just as he was rounding that last corner separating him from the port (and his freedom), a foot struck out. Quick thinking saved him from face planting on the disgustingly dirty streets, but his surprise and momentum cost him precious seconds of stumbling.

The swords pointing him from every direction when he straightened weren’t as threatening as the lone young man standing behind the National Guard, unarmed but from the cutting edge on his glare. Without breaking eye contact, the runner threw both hands up in surrender.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The guards barely even glanced up when the servant girl let herself in, softly pushing the trolley. They did, however, when the scent of food caught their attention.

“That for us, pretty lady?”

Blushing, the girl looked at both men from under her brown fringe.

“The… the prisoners…”

Elbowing each other, they smiled, sharks smelling blood in the water as they eyed the delicacies on display.

“It’d be a waste to let people who are gonna be fish food by this time tomorrow eat such an amazing feast.”

The girl hesitated again, her duty to feed the prisoners at war with the populace general unwillingness to disobey their military enforcers.

“Come on, pretty lady”, the other one edged on. “Who’s gonna tell the higher ups?”

Something flashed behind her beautiful blue eyes, and she nodded, gently pushing the trolley in their direction.

From within their cells, the three pirates watched in silence.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

If anyone were to ask, he’d been minding his own damn business when shit went down.

He had only wanted a beer. Really, life just wasn’t fair to wanted criminals.

It was just his luck that his crew chose this particular tavern to drink and make merry. Though, Kon supposes, it wasn’t their fault either. How would they know that the Lavender Throne pirates favored the same establishment?

He’d only been a member of the Renegades’ crew for about two months now, but he already knew how this fight would turn out. He was easily their best fighter, and the Lavenders were all about the same level of well trained; so here he was, alone in a circle of enemies, fist held high and feet doing their best not to trip over fallen crewmates.

Or maybe not so alone. A smaller back pressed against his, and he could see from the corner of his eye how the men trying to get his blind spot fell like flies. Not one to doubt his blessings, he doubled his efforts.

When things died down, Kon relaxed, marveling at the fact that just two of them were enough to deal with a full tavern of enemies. The bar maidens started to rise from under the tables they chose to hide behind, and Conner was about to turn around and thank his surprise saviour, when the feeling of cold metal against his neck stopped him in his tracks.

Uniformed men started bleeding into the room, dragging unconscious pirates away. When one approached him and his mysterious capturer, he almost felt the man behind him shaking his head.

“This one is high risk. I’ll take him myself.”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

“Are you sure? There’s plenty enough for all of us”, asked Dumb Guard Number one again, words almost unrecognizeable under his chewing.

The girl, sitting primly in the chair they oh so gentlemanly had offered for her to wait on until they finished their impromptu dinner, shook her head.

Dumb Guard Number two didn’t need to be told twice and snagged the last piece of bread.

“Is it just you two for the night?”, she asked, apropos of nothing.

The more sharing of the two nodded. “Yeah, until the morning shift guys come and take them away to the plaza for their sentence.”

She whistled softly.

“Seems kind of mean, having only you two to guard three of the most wanted pirates of the last few years.”

The second one smiled a bit. “Nah, we got dealt a nice hand. We get to eat and laze around, and as good as they are, they can’t weasel their way between those bars. No excitement here. The day guards are the unlucky ones here.”

“How so? Aren’t them, like, a lot more? Seems like it’d be easier, sharing the weight of it.”

“Yeah, but Lieutenant Drake will be with them, ‘s going to personally oversee the executions. Can’t exactly slack off with the favored son of Archduke Wayne breathing over your shoulder, now can you?”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

“Cassandra!”

“Go! I’ll hold them off!”

The older woman, holding desperately to the other’s hand, made a sound of profound distress.

“But-!”

“Donna, just go! If they catch you- just how much do you think Diana is going to suffer?”

“It’s the same with you! We can run together, there’s space in the spare boat”

They were running out of time. She knew convincing her older sister figure to leave her behind was not going to end well or happen quickly, so the blonde pirate shot a look to vice captain Artemis. They both knew Donna was just too important to risk like this, her relationship to Diana recognizable enough to use her as leverage against their Princess. Cassandra, as beloved as she was by the women who took her in, had spent the better half of her childhood hiding her real identity and running amok where few would be able to point her out as Princess Diana’s protegeè.

Ignoring her mistress’s screams, Vice captain Artemis’s arms went around her waist, lifting her clear off her feet and dragging her away, her strength forcing Donna’s hand free of Cassandra’s arm.

Soon, Cassie stood alone in an empty ship, sword in hand as she watched the sun setting over the horizon, the distant figure of dozens of escape boats a mere shadow in the distance.

When the sound of boards and then feet hitting the deck reached her, her hand tightened on the sword’s hilt, but she didn’t turn to see.

“It was a bold move. Brave, though.”

The words made her startle, spoken so closely to her ear, the approaching presence absolutely unnoticed until that exact second.

Breathing in deeply, Cassandra spun on her feet, sword raised. Her enemy was already a few feet away, safe from her board attack. His cold stare clashed with her feral growl, an ice prince facing off against an amazon fighter.

No other soldier dared approach them, as the sound of their clashing swords echoed in the quiet of the night as thunder.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Just as a distant clock was about to point both arms to its highest point, both guards fell asleep. Literally fell, face planting in the dirty prison ground.

Sighing tiredly, the young serving girl rose to her feet. Walking towards Dumn Guard Numer 2 (stopping only barely on her way to nudge Dumb Guard Numer one to the side, so he wouldn’t drown in the puddle his face had landed on), she crouched down and took the keys from his belt.

When she stood again, all three pirates were on their feet near their doors, waiting.

“Who’s first this time?” asked the youngest, voice vibrating in his excitement, smile bright.

“Me, for sure”, crowed Conner, hands on his hips.

“What are you talking about? I made him fight for it. Drew blood, even.” Cassandra, proud smile and raise hand, threw back in challenge.

To all their surprises, the maiden went straight for Allen’s door.

“What? Me?”

“What the fuck?”

“Are you seriously telling us IMP is the one who gave you the most trouble this time?”

The girl shrugged, but a small smile could be spotted under her calm facade if one cared enough to look for it (which they all did).

“I had to chase him all through Star Port city. I was tired afterwards. The two of you made me fight, but it wasn’t nearly as exhausting.”

The boy jumped out of his cell as soon as the door was opened, fist raised in victory.

“Yessss! Free booze!”

“It’s a stupid bet”, the girl shrugged at the other two’s upset frowns. “None of you are an actual challenge, after all.”

“Oh, shut up, asshole. Get us out of here before those dumbasses wake up.”

Before long, all three pirates and the young castle maid were running through empty streets towards the port.

“The ship is ready for you to take. I made it look like you stole it from a very drunk, very unsuspecting crew of beginners.” As they all ran, she… he, took his hand to his head, snatching away the brown wig. Hair, black like a raven’s wings, fell over his icy blue eyes.

Cassandra, keeping pace with him, accepted the disguise. “Where to, after?”

“There’s instructions on your next mission already written down on the back of the map, on the captain’s cabin. I left the key to the cellar as a paperweight over it, so there’s no way you’ll miss it.”

Behind them, the other two boys crowed in delight. Bart even makes a small little jump, never slowing their pace.

“Is it fully stoked?”

Turning to look at the bigger man over his shoulder, the maid-turned-criminal rolled his eyes.

“Half. I do need you all lucid enough to do your chores. But whatever you find along your way that doesn’t slow your progress on the mission, you can loot for yourselves. There’s an empty treasury on the right side of the ship just for that.”

Another jump, this time from the other pirate. The two running ahead shared an exasperated, though fond, look.

They reached the promised ship before long. It sat there, beautifully tilting this way and that thanks to the gentle waves reaching shore.

They stopped there for a second, the three pirates facing their rescuer.

“Will you be alright? Won’t anyone suspect?”

He shook his head, hands demurely raising his dress a slight inch from the ground in a small courtesy.

“Caroline Hill has a perfectly solid cover, and there are lots of people who’ll vouch for her if she’s ever suspected for tonight. Also, the guards chosen for the night shift are known for slacking off in their duty. Falling asleep close enough to the cells for one of you to snatch the keys and free themselves won’t be too much of a stretch for anyone to imagine.”

They smiled back at him.

“Do try to catch some sleep before going back there as Lieutenant Drake. You’ll need your beauty rest to give a convincing ‘I left those criminals in your care and you LOST THEM?!’ show.”

“The laughable state of the kingdom’s military is perpetually infuriating to me. Don’t worry, I’ll be believable. And I can use this as an excuse to fire the most incompetent guards in the history of ever.”

“Do you ever do anything without at least two different reasons and multiple plans banking on it?”

“Why would I, that just sounds like a waste of my time. Now go, run off, before someone sees four people hanging by the port and gets curious enough to remember faces.”

“When will we see you again?”, asks Conner, hand catching his friend’s shoulder before the man in the dress can turn around and leave.

“This mission should last a month or so, and after you hid the objective in the safe place I designated for it for me to pick up later, you’ll need to scatter. I’ll catch you again soo after that, so in total… maybe two months? Three if any of you give me an actual challenge, but I’m not holding my breath for that one.”

“Bastard. See you soon.”

“Make sure to take us drinking next time, Tim. We barely see you now that you have to play good lawful boy with your dad.”

“Only if you idiots take good care of the ship. The Red Bird is a delicate lady and I’ll hang you myself if there’s even a scratch on her beautiful shell.”

“It’s almost as if you care more about a bunch of wood and metal than us.”

“Because I do. Now fuck off.”

[In which Tim is a privateer (Basically a pirate with papers. As the name suggests, privateers were private individuals commissioned by governments to carry out quasi-military activities; in this case, Tim does illegal things for the greater good. As a military agent, he’s hiring himself lol) and the other three are pirates working for and with him, because they like to help him do good things and they also get a chance at fighting people, drinking and looting treasure outside their missions. Tim catching and then freeing them is how they exchange information or he gives them his orders.]

#my writting #core disaster week #day 4 #historical-pirates #pirates #privateers #tim drake #kon el kent #bart allen #cassie sandsmark #humor maybe?#action i guess #a little bit at least #no angst #that's for sure #weird if you know me lol

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chaosintended · 3 years

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Honest thoughts about Leverage: Redemption

Here is a list of thoughts I had while watching the show (not necessarily in chronological order).

1. Okay, what's going on? I don't see Nate and the backdrop is gloomy. I have a bad feeling about this.

2. He's dead??? He's fucking dead???

3. Are... are they not going to tell us how he died (nvm i later figured it out)

4. Yay Parker and Eliot and Hardison together:)

5. We really need more ot3 content.

6. Do the heist! Do the heist! Yessss!

7. I like new guy. He has the right amount of desperation and confusion.

8. Breanna!!!! She's amazing!!! I'm also getting huge queer vibes from her so lol. Especially in the Spirit's Ruse episode, when she said the game made outsiders feel at home? She literally said 'for the way they love'. Fingers crossed.

9. C'mon Sophie, you can do it!

10. Hey, it just hit me! They're still calling her Sophie!

11. Nooooooo Hardison don't go!!!!!!

12. Food trucks all over the world? Damn, that's good.

13. Man, am I glad to see Parker's still Parker. She's my emotional support thief.

14. How DID she steal that pearl tho

15. Wait that's it??? That's the end of the season??? Already??? I need more episodes!!!!!!!!

Overall impression:

First off, I would have to mention how glad I was to see that Leverage was getting a revival!

Honestly, I like the original series much, much better. Not that the revival is bad, the original seasons were just that perfect. It felt more emotional and intimate in a way. This new season feels a bit... too casual? I don't know how to say it, but it somehow lacked the emotional component that had gotten me hooked originally. This may be just me, though. I didn't read any reviews or anything, so I have no idea.

The stuff they pulled off was amazing. I liked the thing with the corrupt building maker. Kinda reminded me of The White Rabbit Job. There were little callbacks to the original seasons, too, so that was great. Also, that scene where the new guy asks Eliot and Hardison if the paintings in the cabinet are stolen antiquities and they just point at the other one like 'it's in that one, duh'? Perfection.

I really wish we could have seen more of Hardison. Sure, Brianna could do his job just as well, but I really missed his quips and nerdy references. It wasn't the same without Eliot saying 'dammit Hardison'.

Oh, another thing I wanted to point out was Eliot's action sequences getting more fast-paced. At least, that's what it looked like to me. I might be wrong. It felt like his punches (and head-butts) were faster than they had been in the old seasons. Also more sound effects. I'm undecided on whether I like this change or not. It definitely makes him look cooler, but I kinda liked the un-superhero movie-like style of the old days.

The last point I want to talk about is the found family dynamic. It was the reason I was drawn to this show in the first place (and, I suspect, why a lot of tumblr people like it). A bunch of thieves and con-artists coming together to form a tight bond? It couldn't be better. To see the way they began to trust and maybe love each other, with all their broken pieces and rough edges, was incredibly heartwarming. I was glad to see that Hardison, Parker, and Eliot had been living together all these years, and that they kept in touch with Sophie. Can you imagine how they must have supported her after Nate's death? Now, in this new season, with the dynamic already established, there weren't a lot of new emotions and revelations bubbling to the surface. That was where I was disappointed a bit. Also probably why I felt like the show was too casual. The addition of the new guy was a fresh turn, but I would have liked it if he had a bit more of a backstory. More episodes would have helped in this case.

So, all-in-all, pretty good season, but it could have been better.

#leverage #leverage: redemption #parker #parker leverage #eliot spencer #alec hardison #leverage ot3 #nate ford #sophie devereaux #beth riesgraf #christian kane #gina bellman #leverage redemption #my opinion #just my thoughts #please don't take offense #tv #tv shows #tv recommendations

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charmingwords23 · 3 years

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Thoughts on the Game Boy Incident. AKA: Proving James’s Innocence

If you’re like me, you’ve been confused at some point by the events of QOTS 2x11. In this episode, Teresa and Kelly Anne are hiding from Camila at Kelly Anne’s family’s cabin. Then, Camila’s men - led by her mole in the police department (Denny) - show up and ambush them. During the chaos, Teresa discovers a tracking device in the Game Boy that was a gift to Tony from James. The implication of this scene is that James tracked the Game Boy and turned over her location to Camila’s sicarios, seemingly to get her killed.

Again, if you’re like me, you may have found this development confusing considering earlier in the season this man had quite literally shoved his gun toward her, told her to run, and run off into DEA gunfire to spare her. It’s confusing considering earlier in the same episode he had earnestly asked her to come back with him and promised to protect her - knowing that would surely be at odds with Camila’s intentions. It’s confusing considering in the episode after this he intentionally misses his shot at her from close range - something he later tells Guero he did because he would “never hurt her.”

All these actions are of a man who does NOT want to hurt Teresa. These are actions of a man who has had multiple opportunities to cause her harm, or at the very least, stand by while she’s injured or killed, and has passed on all of them in the name of trying to protect her.

So then how does it add up that this same man - sandwiched between protective and self-sacrificing events - would give up her location to Camila’s hit men?

My theory: He didn’t.

It sounds crazy at first. After all, we saw the tracker in the Game Boy! But let’s examine the evidence. Here’s what we know about the context of this event and the inferences we can draw from each:

James gave Teresa the Game Boy and some money for Tony. The money was stolen from Camila’s bag and blamed on the man who worked at the horse race. James says Camila won’t know unless Teresa tells her (2x02). We can conclude from this that the tracker was James’s idea and Camila knew nothing about it; he never told Camila that Tony existed, and Camila didn’t know to ask him about the tracker later in the season or else she would have demanded he activate it as soon as Teresa ran off.

Teresa tells James that Camila framed her and that she’s leaving. James asks her to come back with him and promises to “fix” it and “protect” her. Teresa declines and requests that James not be the one who comes after her. He doesn’t say anything but her name, but as she walks away, he has the opportunity to kill her right there - after all, she’s “betraying” Camila - but he doesn’t take it. (2x11) We can conclude that James doesn’t intend to kill her. After all, this would have been an easy shot and a way to get back into Camila’s good graces.

James meets with Camila in prison. Camila says James should have “drug her back by her teeth” and James deflects and says there are “more immediate threats to deal with.” Camila pushes him to “find Teresa” and he continues to argue that they “don’t have time for that right now.” Camila then makes comments about how some other men will “take care of Teresa,” how James “can’t save her now,” and how he “crossed” Camila already once to protect Teresa and she won’t let it happen again. (2x11) We can conclude from this that even Camila can tell James wouldn’t kill Teresa, even if ordered to, so she’s going to find someone else to get the job done.

So the lead-up all points to James lacking the desire and the will to hurt or kill Teresa. Now let’s look objectively at the order of events at the cabin:

Camila shares a phone call with her police officer mole, Denny. Denny says the El Lobos brothers (the sicarios) are there. He says James told him he had a “line on” Teresa and now the mole and the Sicarios are waiting for his call to tell them where she is.

At the Cabin, Agent Loya from the DEA and his partner show up. His partner is (coincidentally?) the woman who is having an affair with Denny.

While Teresa and Loya talk, Denny and the sicarios show up and instigate a firefight.

In the midst of the firefight, the Game Boy James had given to Tony breaks and Teresa finds a small tracking device chip hidden inside it.

This seems pretty damning at first glance. It seems James really has sold her out despite spending so much time leading up to this demonstrating the opposite. But what comes next? Do the subsequent episodes show that he has, indeed, changed course and is now prepared to kill her because of her betrayal of Camila? Nope.

When James comes face to face with her again, guns drawn, he initially lowers his first. (2x12)

James tells Teresa that he and Camila had trusted her, and Teresa asks him “Is that why you put a tracking device on Tony’s toy? Because of trust?” He doesn’t respond - only asks again where Camila is. He never denies adding the tracking device, but that’s a different accusation than using that device to turn her location over to Camila. (2x12)

He stands 15 feet away from her and fires off a sloppy shot in her direction. (2x12)

James admits to Guero that he missed that shot intentionally and that he would never hurt Teresa. (2x13) This seems a pretty big turnaround for a guy who allegedly gave her location to assassins two episodes ago, no?

And then perhaps the most confusing piece of this situation to reconcile is the brief argument James and Teresa have about it in 3x02.

Teresa: “Camila was trying to kill me and you betrayed me.” / James: “I didn’t betray you. I was protecting you.”

Teresa: “I don’t trust you.” / James: “You don’t trust me? You’re only alive because of me.”

Teresa: “You put a tracking device in Tony’s Game Boy and sent sicarios after me. Do you not remember that?” / James, with furrowed eyebrows: “I tried to make Camila let you go. That’s why I wasn’t at the cabin. She didn’t trust me to kill you.”

Teresa: “Why should I believe you?” / James: “Since the first day we met, I’ve been trying to keep you alive. And whether you want to believe it or not, I’m still trying to.”

Through all this, a few questions come to mind:

WHY would James say he’s been trying to keep her alive since the first day they met if he was the one who knowingly gave her location to sicarios (literal hit men)?

WHY would James go from protecting her, to trying to get her killed, to protecting her again in the span of one episode?

WHY was Denny, the mole from the police department, even relevant to the scene at the cabin? What purpose did he have, and why not just have the sicarios taking their orders directly from Camila? Why would he be the middleman?

The theory then is this: James did NOT give Teresa’s location to Denny and the sicarios.

James instead spent this episode (off screen) stalling and obstructing. Denny and the sicarios found out where Teresa was because the DEA found her, and the police officer either got that information from his capacity in law enforcement or from his connection to the DEA agent who was Loya’s partner. The sicarios showed up at the cabin not because James told them where to go, but because Denny found the location himself.

Let’s revisit some of that evidence:

Denny said James had a “line on” Teresa and was supposed to call back to let them know her location. If James had tracked the Game Boy, it wouldn’t take more than a minute or two to look up her location and then send that information to the sicarios. Why would this step possibly take so long that it would require James to spend so much time following her trail, tracking her down, communicating regularly with Denny to let him know his progress, etc.? Unless he was purposely stalling.

Why was Denny even there? Story-wise, he served no purpose and the story could have and would have been exactly the same if James and/or Camila were communicating with the sicario brothers directly. Unless...his presence was vital because he is the only one who could have gotten Teresa’s location from someone other than James: the DEA.

James specifically says “I didn’t betray you” in 3x02. When confronted with the Game Boy offense, he never admits to giving up her location. He says he tried to make Camila let her go, he tried to protect her, and he wasn’t at the cabin because Camila knew he wouldn’t kill her. This is consistent with his scene with Camila in the prison in 2x11. In fact, James likely has no idea that she thinks he tracked the Game Boy to her - he knows Denny found her, and he would have little reason to think she assumed something else. His face scrunches up for a moment when she brings up the Game Boy - like he’s confused about why she’s even mentioning that. Would he really claim he hadn’t betrayed her if he had given up her location from the tracker in Tony’s Game Boy? I don’t think so - that break in logic just doesn’t add up.

The only question remaining then is why did he put a tracker in the Game Boy at all? We may never know, but I would assume he did it as an insurance policy like the master of chess he is. Maybe it was insurance because he didn’t fully trust Teresa in the early days and wanted to have something on her as leverage (I have my doubts considering he never told Camila, alluding to the conclusion that even then, he wasn’t trying to hurt her nor use this against her) or maybe it was insurance so he would have a way to find Tony (and/or Teresa) if there was ever trouble and he was needed.

This show has an insane pattern of trying to paint James as suspicious and then ultimately proving that he was innocent all along and had remained loyal to Teresa. They did it at the end of season 2 when they revealed he had purposely missed his shot at her in 2x12, they did it in season 3 when they made him look like a mole and then revealed the mole as Kelly Anne, and they even squeezed it in again at the end of season 3 when they wanted to make him look shady and like he was going back to working for Camila before revealing he was really turning himself over to the CIA to spare Teresa. Framing James as betraying Teresa and giving her location to assassins only to later reveal it was never him who did that would be very on brand.

So in conclusion: James did put a tracker in Tony’s Game Boy, but he did not give that location to Camila or the sicarios. Instead, Denny found that location from his capacity in law enforcement and/or his relationship with the DEA agent. Teresa assumed James’s tracker led the sicarios to her, and James assumed Teresa knew it was Denny who led them there, not him, and has no idea she thinks he is directly responsible for tracking her and sending the hit men. Everything either of them has said or done in reference to this situation supports these conclusions.

Here’s hoping this is addressed in season 5! Imagine how easily it will fit in… Tony has recently been killed, James has recently returned from whatever he was doing with the CIA, and both will surely come up in conversation. Teresa will be determining if James is trustworthy after everything; imagine this situation is brought to light as the final, definitive proof that since the first day they met, he’s been trying to keep her alive. It can be the final nail in the coffin of the “James is suspicious” narrative and we can put the “can we trust him?” arc to rest. Season 5, please deliver!

#jeresa #james valdez #meta #Queen of the South #qots #James is INNOCENT!#theory #Sorry this is so long!

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lukeios · 4 years

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The plot holes of Eldarya

Hello wonderful people of Eldarya fandom! Along with some other players we have prepared a little something for you: The list of all the plot holes in the first season of Eldarya.

The list has over 2000 words in total. I am so, so proud of us and I would love to give special thanks to @aokane-eldarya who wrote probably over 1/3 of this by herself! Everyone who participated is tagged, so make sure you check out their blogs!

And of course, before we start: this is not an attack on Beemoov - it’s merely a critic of their writers. More under the cut.

@kyriechristeeleison

- Chrome surviving Leiftan's attack. Leiftan isn't an amateur killer and wouldn't let him stay alive.

- Game said Leiftan never kills children and yet the next episode he tries to kill Chrome.

- Chrome saying he contacted Leiftan, event though the other episode informed us he "summoned" him.

@cintanna-rants

- A plot hole between Valkyon's spin-off and the game. In the spin-off, he dreams about his mother even though in the game he couldn't have seen her at that point.

- During the Leiftan & Erika vs Lance fight in the last chapter, Lance acts like he thinks Erika is just a simple human, yet in chapter 26 he fainted precisely because he discovered she was an aengel and thought he knew why Leiftan wanted her.

- Leiftan “sacrifices” to tell Valkyon about Lance’s weakness (a neck injury). None of this is mentioned in the last battle nor ever again. Why did Leiftan sacrifice for then? What was the point of making him betray his pact with Lance and risk his life if that info doesn’t matter?

@aokane-eldarya

- Leiftan threatens Lance to kill him, as well as all the other members of his race, if he hurts Erika: not only does he do nothing when Lance kidnaps Erika (while we have the proof in episode 30 that Leiftan is still able to subdue Lance), but Valkyon is the only other dragon in existence.

- By extension, he didn't react as expected (if we refer to his personality) to the story of the potion.

- Leiftan who is the demon of the crystal: he was able to act normally while having a part of his mind threatening the Oracle, which is absurd (nonrespect of the principle of the cost of use of magic ). During his imprisonment, Miiko talks about the fact that the corruption stopped suddenly and Leif explains that he stopped because Erika suffered from it. If Leiftan had had the power to stop the corruption caused by the Naytili crystal (and therefore, by someone other than him), he would have done it immediately since he knew from the start why she was suffering. In any case, it was not Leiftan who stopped corruption, it was the use of the Fenghuang flute.

- Leiftan tells Erika that he did it all for her. But the fact is that he started acting before Erika arrived on Eldarya and she doesn't think it's strange.

- In the spin-off, Leiftan says he will respect that Erika doesn't follow him, suggesting that he will pursue his goal. In the end, as soon as Erika holds it against him, he decides to abandon his projects and accept his "mistakes". The funny thing is that it's been weeks, even months that we know what Erika thinks, he could have given up before.

- Episode 30, the "Lance VS Erika and Leiftan" confrontation. The writing suggests that Lance doesn't know Erika's race, which is wrong. It will also be noted that Lance didn't think of using the dragon spell that had allowed him to imprison Leiftan the time he came to destroy the crystal.

- In episode 15, the history teacher tells us that the daemons refused to sacrifice themselves.

- Then thanks to Fafnir, we learn that, in reality, Lilith and her supporters were for the sacrifice, Dagon and his supporters were against; they killed each other.

- Episode 30, Erika says that she and Leif must sacrifice themselves because their ancestors refused to sacrifice themselves.

- It will also be noted that hundreds of dragons sacrificed themselves for the Blue Sacrifice, but that it lacked just the equivalent of a daemon / aengel for the vegetables to be nutritious.

- Erika who doesn't remember that Dagon was one of the daemons invoked by Naytili

- Leiftan had a redemption. When he died, there was a white feather. Leiftan should have fought with his angelic aspect and not only with his demonic aspect.

- Depending on the situation, the terms aengel and daemon are used either to denote the same thing or to denote two different things.

- Lance refers to Erika and Leiftan by saying "the aengel and the daemon", even when Erika says to her "I am a daemon".

- Ezarel fights with a foil, a training weapon that cannot hurt. He uses it as thrusting and cutting weapon whereas it is only a thrusting weapon.

- The Guard sends civilians to unprotected villages; Lance just had to go there to use them as leverage.

- Lance, who is experienced, attacks by arriving by sea, a disadvantageous position because exposed, to arrive on a beach in a basin with only one narrow exit, with then the optic of crossing a meadow also exposed. The Guard decided it would be funnier if it got stuck on the beach itself.

- Lance is ready to negotiate: he agrees to allow the Guard to evacuate the faerys on Earth (The same faerys he wants to destroy). The famous faerys which are not there because evacuated in the villages. It will also be noted that suddenly the total population of Eldarya is reduced to only the inhabitants of the Guard.

- Lance donated ingredients for two gates: two gates to evacuate hundreds of people. I thought it was too expensive per person.

- Lance sent Enthraa, a mermaid who can't get out of the water, to kill Erika and Miiko ; Erika and Miiko thought it would be a good idea to be within the range of Enthraa.

- In episode 30, the hamadryads meet around the ancient tree of Yvoni. The same tree that had burned and the remains of which had been removed.

- One day, Leiftan and Lance released a monster who swallowed all the knowledge of the library. We still don't know why.

- Everyone knows that the dragons have sacrificed themselves. Even Lance. It was while reading books in the library that his hatred developed, suggesting that there is information that we don't have about the Blue Sacrifice. We still don't know this info: Lance just seems to blame the faeries for letting the dragons sacrifice themselves, nothing else.

- How did Lance and Leiftan become partners? We don't know. Why does Leif say that without him Lance is nothing? We don't know.

- How did Ykhar know that Leiftan was a traitor? Where did the hostage go?

- Ykhar and Chrome who tell an experienced killer that they are going to report him.

- Chrome who says that Leiftan manipulated him to join him whereas, in a previous episode, Leiftan reminds Chrome that it was he who called him.

- Some members of the Guard speak several languages, but no one can read the instructions on a package of pasta. And since Erika seems to have no idea where the language is located, it must be a package of alien pasta.

- Ewelein was to give us a gift. We are still waiting.

- The faerys had recent humans books, like Twilight. Ykhar didn't know what television was: yet, her favorite book was Barjavel's " The Night of Time", in which we talk about television.

- Oluhua said that it was not possible to use Leiftan's blood to transfuse Feng Zifu, without explaining why. She was not on Leiftan's list of traitors, so we still don't know what Oluhua knows.

- Miiko announces to us that there is a ritual acting as a lie detector. She must have forgotten its existence when she had to find the traitors of the Guard.

- Erika learned to understand the familiars. She quickly forgot about it.

- Erika is described as a high school student in the CGU. In the story, she is around 23-24 years old since she finished her studies.

- the Guard claimed to be able to detect dragons. Lance and Valkyon are proof that this is not true.

- Nevra, as a vampire, is able to smell blood from a small cut. Her sister was unable to smell the blood in Ykhar’s room.

@lukeios

- (Death TW) Ykhar's death and her body looking pale after 2-3 days in the room. Total disregard for research. The body should be in stage 2 of decomposition.

- The clothing and armors. Dressing a warrior into an armor that shows stomach - the most vulnerable part of the body - is somehow inappropriate, even for a fantasy setting. If they had other clothing used for battles OR the game would be pure fanservice - it would be ok.

- For some reason Lance's sword from The winter illustration seems like too much. It looks too broad, like a piece of a metal wall. It doesn't seem like it would be useful in a fight - it seems way too hard to use that thing than it would be necessary. Mind you - if something like this is happening in a fantasy setting, an explanation is mandatory. Is the sword extremely light? Is it made of a material that is changing shape? This point isn't exactly only about the sword. Beemoov keeps on throwing things at us without a proper explanation and if the explanation is even present, it's not explored enough.

- Our pet is killed in episode 30. Does it change anything in the page section of pets? Is the exploration frozen? I don't think so.

@waywardpeachworld

- Stealing food from Earth for many years without a way to preserve it. Not making a connection with any humans because "they are evil".

- Miiko told the MC there are humans in Eldarya who are searching for her. Where did they go?

- The potion fiasco. What happened to all the photos of the MC? Aren't her parents wondering "who is this girl who looks like us?" in the albums? (according to an anon, the potion was able to erase any proof of her existence on Earth. No photos were left. Thanks, Anon! )

-They can make very powerful potions that literally erase somebody from the memory of everyone who had known them in a different realm but still cannot make a “potion” to preserve the crops they steal.

- Ez's crimes were mentioned once and never again. This information seemed too important to just be left alone.

@glassmoonfortuneteller

- How at the beginning of the game, they mentioned us several times Erika’s special eye color (purple with golden light) and how this was an important clue to know what kind of faelienne she is. It’s never mentioned again even after we found out she’s an aengel. Apparently it wasn’t that relevant.

- How the guard has a portal to Earth near the HQ facilities but Erika never seemed interested in it to go and see it for herself since she arrived at Eldarya, especially since she was determined to know everything about the portals when she still had hope of going back to her world during the first episodes.

- When Lance kidnapped Erika, she finds out Enthraa is a traitor and that she’s working for him. After she’s rescued and goes back to the HQ, she doesn’t say this to the other members. They found out about it only when Enthraa ambushed Erika and Miiko in later episodes and gets killed.

- How food was rationed and limited at the beginning of the game, but in later episodes this doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore.

- How Lance said he found out about the sacrifice of the dragons in the library archives, but during Erika’s history classes in the HQ they said there weren’t any records about the blue sacrifice and all they knew was passed down through generations through oral traditions and tales. If that’s true, then Lance and Valkyon would have known about it since they were kids with adults telling them about the stories of the creation of Eldarya.

- What happened to Marie Anne after she was captured and purified of the faerie blood? She’s not mentioned again after that.

- Humans in Eldarya were mentioned once, and that’s it.

- How Erika is characterized as a very kind and empathic person but didn’t seem affected when she found out Ykhar was killed.

- How Leiftan was the one who killed Ykhar since he was with Erika and the other guard members in Memoria the whole time.

- Alajea’s fear of water is not a thing anymore.

- Why Erika took Valkyon leaving with Lance as a betrayal, she was right there when that happened and saw that he did it to protect her.

@nelielombrelune

- Miko told us dragon’s ingrédients were necessary to open portals, but later she finally said those weren’t really “dragon” stuff but they called it like this because, you know, everything there is a mess.

- Humans were supposed to be a threat on Eldarya (Miiko mentioned secret societies like Illuminatis, Templars or Freemasons but we’ve never heard about them anymore)

- There is no real food in Eldarya and the Guard has to open portals to Earth to steal foodstuffs for Eels survival. They don’t know how to cook and eat raw pasta in the firsts episodes but a few episodes later they throw tea-parties where Karuto & Erika bakes crepes and cakes.

- In episode 20, Leiftan says he's been waiting for Erika for years. Except that he does not seem to know who she is, nor her species or where she comes from, how she came here, nor her connection to the Oracle...

- When we’re in Ashkore PoV he said his ancestors killed the daemons

- Once upon a time we had to choose a “job” (infirmary, library, and I don’t remember the third one), but we never hear about it in the next episodes.

- On the illustration where Leiftan saves Erika from falling off the cliff, his wings are white, he’s got only 2 and his horns have disappeared

- In episode 30 Lance calls Erika “the human” though he knows she’s an aengel

- What about the war ? Lance killed his brother, Erika and Leiftan sacrificed themselves and then what ? Did Lance just leave after all the time he tried to destroy Eldarya ?

- “In episode 29 Miiko (I think it was her) says that they will have enough water for everyone because they filter rainwater but in episode 19 someone has said that it barely rains in Eldarya...”

@momiyi-chan

- Three enemies of Eldarya (Triades, Illuminati, and Templars) are mentioned but never make any appearance. It is said the Templars are trying to get MC to rescue her. Where are they?

- Until episode 20 the Guard was looking for the pieces of the crystal, that were scattered on Eldarya. That was never mentioned again. Crystal became irrelevant.

- Who taught Naytili to corrupt the crystals? Leiftan and Lance were very interested in learning that skill, but it was never touched again.

@hsakurausasuke

- Mary Anne is still rooting in prison. It's like she disappeared.

@velleitxs

- Erica cannot decide if she is an aengel or a human with the blood of an aengel

@susymei

- Episode 15, we never learned the consequences of telling or not telling the Guard, that Ashkore was stealing food in the HQ.

- Ashkore doesn’t kill Huang Hua because Erica likes her, and yet he wants to kill her few episodes later.

- Episode 26. We can kind of flirt with Lance. There is some tension on the cliff (if you pick right choices) and he protects us from the heat of the volcano. The episodes afterward completely forgot about those choices - it’s like Episode 26 never happened.

@valethari

- The episode in which Gardienne becomes a mermaid to go back from the Kappa Island to the HQ: She almost drowns and her S/O saves her and carries her up the stairs to the infirmary effortlessly and princess-style. When Colaïa was the one in the dungeon and Karen, Alajéa and Gardienne tried to bring her to the sea again, they said she was SO heavy because her tail is pure muscle, and between THREE people they had a lot of trouble carrying her.

Well, that was pretty long! Thank you for reading all of those! Have a nice weekend guys and stay healthy <3

#eldarya #beemoov #leiftan #lance #ezarel #valkyon #nevra

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ugdohyun · 3 years

Text

let’s get it 😤

mun info

name/alias: ej age: 18 + pronouns: she/her/hers timezone: est (gmt-5? 4? wtf is daylights savings???) discord: cozyboy#6004 little trivia fact: tbh i’m a k-hiphop/rnb junkie so watch me pretend like i can rock lol

character info

character name: nam dohyun age: 25 zodiac sign: cancer (meh, is this even accurate? tbd) group/band/position: singer & rhythm guitarist for CTRL info links or quick points about your character: half-baked stats and bio are up. apologies for the messy messy bio; messy me was racing against the app deadline lmao. so instead, here are way too many tldr points about the boy:

background

born to a borderline chaebol mother and a borderline b-list rockstar father who really shouldn’t have gotten married at all; but it’s a shotgun wedding made possible by the conception of ~yours truly~

his dad is quite literally terrible and among many things, a serial adulterer. the man leaves (more like kicked out at last...) when dohyun is no older than ten. nam is actually his mother’s last name, which he takes thereafter

does dohyun have daddy issues, you might ask? ermmm well, let’s just say he doesn’t even know or remember the man well enough to hate or miss him so it’s whatever

spoiled growing up b/c his family pities how he’s fatherless. but probably they’re more worried that if they don’t ‘love him enough’ (read: expensive gifts and lots of nagging) dohyun will end up like his good-for-nothing father *shudders in rich grandparent* ... but he just plays this weird leverage game with them to do whatever he wants, running around with his ragtag bands and whatnot

in reality, there’s a lot of gaslighting in both directions. an implicit cloud of blame and pity looms over dohyun’s head, like ‘damn if u didn’t pop into ur mommy’s womb, none of this would have ever happened.’ idk, he’s a living reminder of the most shameful thing that’s happened to this family. everyone’s hoping that dohyun’s not like his dad but deep inside, they kinda believe he’s fated to suck anyways...

prime piece of evidence no. 1: why the hell is he doing this rockstar thing ??? dohyun realizes it’s pretty shitty to do this to his mom and whoever else but... it just feels right. ‘music is my life’ yadada but it’s also just fun, and he thinks he’s pretty good at it. the continued chain of success and unexpected fame from his various musical stints seem to agree. sure he had to burn some bridges and breach a whole lot of trust with his family to get where he is but come on -- they thought he was going to be a huge bust anyways, no? just meeting expectations!

personality

dohyun can be... other-worldly. 4d, sure. he’s in his own realm a lot of the time. like everyone else around him is on one orbit? he’s on a one-man spaceship vibing on another. doesn’t mean he’s clueless though; he’s actually extremely perceptive (just cancer things... or the result of sussing and being sussed out by his family his entire life) but will pretend like he doesn’t notice things b/c it’s more convenient to not care

often told he has a natural charisma which helps as as a performer, i guess. but more than likely it’s just (1) his face (ngl he knows he’s pretty) or (2) people stick around b/c they want to see what wack ass shit he’s going to do or say next. definitely a bit of a showman in that regard. anyways, he’s probably a fun guy to be around?

his whole ‘larger than life’ public image is not fake per say, but dohyun in intimate settings is more of a grandpa soul than you’d think. gets very excited and also very existentially tired about things rather quickly. probably an introvert at heart who is way too talented at being an extrovert

funky antics and ‘cool kid’ vibes largely hide the fact that he does have aspirations / desires (he’s serious about his music and what he’s doing in the indie scene; ctrl is hitting big and he’s seemingly getting places) as well as really dark thoughts and insecurities shh

super open guy without actually being open. definitely that guy you think you know really well until you really start to think about it... and realize you really don’t know him at all. damn. he’ll often listen to others and lend them a shoulder to lean on or pour them a shot, but will never seek it out for himself. really his upbringing has made it difficult for him to receive affection or care without being skeptical af or feeling like he’s being pitied

he’s got a lot of growing and soul-searching to do / i’m still figuring stuff out and would love for u all to be part of it <3

wanted connections

umm page to come eventually but some quick ideas i’d like to see for dohyun:

ctrl bandmates! so many fun dynamics and moments we should figure out -- very ready to make all the other bands jealous heh

a real trooper friend and confidant who doesn’t give up on him, even when he’s being a little dodgy shit

a squad to just set hongdae on fire with -- not literally but figuratively. like live for the nights you won’t remember ayy

exes, flames, 'are we just friends?’, one-sided(?) crushes, and any variants. dohyun is entranced by the idea of love but is trash at it in practice (genetics, right? an empty excuse for his actual rship problems lol). definitely breaks hearts but gets his own smashed way harder so it’s even, okay?!

i really dig a good childhood friends trope; whether that’s like friends to lovers(?) or enemies or rivals or ‘how the hell are you two friends’ or whatever

someone he keeps running into in the most awkward or embarrassing situations only

someone who sees through his bs; and vice versa

musical collaborators, rivalries, mutual fans, anything really; “um i think i liked you better on stage / you are not what i expected” moments?

an antagonist. sorry this is vague af, but point being: i’m good with ‘negative’ plots too!

i swear i’m better at this 1-on-1, so please! let’s chat it up!

#UG.TALK #//ooc

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leverage-ot3 · 4 years

Text

notable moments from The Beantown Bailout Job

leverage 2.01

(see link for a video on this episode that captured literally all of my reactions and will undoubtedly capture yours too)

Manager: You found that stolen Monet in Florence, saved your company a $25 million payout. That identity-theft case, you saved $15 million.

nate sees .00005 seconds of normal life and yeets the hell out

- - - - -

(The lobby is teaming with people when Nate walks in. A sign shows that Sophie is starring in The Sound of Music. He sees Parker at the ticket counter)

Parker: Picking up for one.

Ticket Agent: Last name?

Parker: Parker.

Ticket Agent: First name?

Parker: No. Just one name.

Ticket Agent: Great. I hope you enjoy it.

(Parker turns to see Nate across the room and smiles)

Hardison: Parker?

(Parker looks to her right to see Hardison. The sound of Eliot’s laughter from across the lobby draws Hardison’s attention)

Eliot (to women): All right. After the show, then. I'll see you.

(Eliot turns and sees the others. The all meet in the center of the lobby)

Nate: Eliot.

Parker: Nate.

Hardison: Parker.

Eliot: Hardison.

Eliot: So, how have you...

Nate: Good. Good. Great. You?

Eliot: Fantastic. Six months of traveling. Did a couple of big jobs.

Hardison: eah. Me, too. Great off time. Well, I bought an oxygen tank. Cool, nice.

Parker: Yeah, super. I've been really super, too.

Nate: Yeah, she didn't tell me that you guys would..

this is that dinner scene from shrek 2 right???

also, parker’s lil smile when she sees nate, hardison’s big smile when he sees parker + hardison says parker and eliot says hardison = ot3 acknowledging each other

- - - - -

Hardison: I didn't know you could sing.

Sophie: You know. Not as well as I act, but, yeah.

Hardison: Oh

- - - - -

Sophie: Uhhgh…

Hardison: Yeah, you know, I'm sure the reviews will be...

(Sophie hands Hardison her phone)

Hardison: …on the news website already.

Parker (grabs the phone): Really? Wow. "Never before has a production of 'The Sound Of Music' made me root for the Nazis. (Hardison gestures something like ‘WHY’ to Parker and she gestures something like ‘JDJSJSJ SORRY’ back)

POOR SOPHIE LMFAO

- - - - -

Sophie: No. No, no, no. Stop it. There is nothing you can say that's gonna make me feel better.

Parker: I know what could make you feel better. We should steal something.

Nate: No, no.

Sophie: Yes! We could do it together.

Eliot: I like this. Get right back up on the bike.

Parker: Bike of crime.

Nate: Didn't you earlier tell me how great your new lives were?

Parker: Yeah, well, I stole the Hope Diamond.

Nate: What?

Parker: (Everyone looks surprised. Eliot looks like he is going to say something.) And then I put it back. Yeah, 'cause I was bored. Didn't care.

Hardison: I spent three days hacking the white house e-mail. No buzz.

Nate: See?

Hardison: But we are doing some pretty hinky stuff in Pakistan. Hinky.

Sophie: Look, I'm miserable. They're miserable. (to Eliot) Okay, what have you been doing the last six months?

Eliot: I was in Pakistan. (Parker grins)

Hardison: You see what you did? You took the world's best criminals, hitter, hacker, grifter, thief, you took us, and you broke us.

Nate: No, no. I-I, what I did, I taught you how to help people. That's all.

Parker: Exactly.

Sophie: Yeah.

Eliot: This is the problem, with being the good guy. It gets under your skin.

Sophie: Look, Nate. You have to have some poor, little lost soul somewhere who needs a little extra-legal aid.

Nate: Look, we all agreed that we'd just move on.

Sophie: Yeah, but we're... We're thieves.

Nate: Not me. Look, it was great. It was fun. It was wonderful while it lasted, but I was drunk most of the time, to be honest with you. And I… A little crazy.

Eliot: Yeah, but you were good.

Parker: You were the best.

Hardison: We were the best.

Parker: Yeah.

Nate: Listen, really, I owe all of you. And I'm very proud of what we did. I-I really am. But I got my life back, and I intend to keep it that way. And I am not a thief. (stands up) It was great to see all of you. Good night. (leaves)

BIKE OF CRIME + also bruh let them have their found family, nate

- - - - -

(Nate enters the dim room and looks around. Behind him, the Thug opens the door and comes at him with a knife. Nate sees the reflection in a pot lid and turns to block the blow. Sophie comes in behind the Thug)

Sophie: Oi! Does your mother sew? (headbutts Thug) Stitch that.

(Thug runs out of the condo. Nate runs out after him, but Thug gets away. As he reenters the condo, Sophie hits him in the head with a cookie sheet and Nate falls to the floor)

Sophie: Ah! Bugger

she tried, your honor + her tough talk and then AH BUGGER

- - - - -

(the next morning, Nate wakes up on the couch to the sound of Parker eating. Parker is wearing a Nun’s habit, smiles and moves away. Sophie comes downstairs wearing Nate’s shirt)

Nate: That's my shirt.

Sophie: Yeah. I stayed the night to make sure you were okay. You what? But don't worry. I didn't look under your bed. I know that's where guys keep weird, kinky stuff.

Nate: There's nothing under my bed.

Parker (opens cupboard): This is all coffee.

Nate: Get out of there! (sees Hardison and Eliot at the table) What are you guys doing? (gets up) Come on, get out of here. Get all this stuff out of here. You're planning something. I know it. Come on. Get out of my house.

...

Hardison: Look, nobody else is gonna help that guy and his little girl. Okay, that's what we do. We help people. By the way, I compared Sophie's description of your attacker to the accident footage from the security camera.

(Hardison pushes a few buttons on the laptop and zooms in on the Thug’s face to begin a facial recognition search through various cameras in the area)

Hardison: Do you realize, on average, people are caught on security cameras 13 times a day? ATM cameras, traffic cameras. It's crazy, man, but we can track him. We can. Well, I lost him in this.

Eliot: Yeah, well, I found this empty briefcase belonging to a Matt Kerrigan at that intersection.

...

Eliot: Yeah, well, the problem is, these two cats went down to the safety deposit boxes.

Parker: Which is the only room in every bank, with absolutely no cameras.

Hardison: Which means we up, baby. (puts on a priest’s collar) They tried to kill Kerrigan for what was in the briefcase. We're gonna steal it back.

Eliot (laughs): She was dressed that way 'cause she's doing a con.

Nate: What, you thought she was dressed like a nun for no reason?

Eliot: It's Parker.

...

(Nate walks away)

Sophie (to Eliot): So, you going?

Eliot: I'm not going anywhere. The man has 700 sports channels.

Sophie: You want to see what he's got under his bed?

Eliot: N-no, I do not.

Sophie: Icky

- - - - -

(Parker opens her Bible to reveal a lock duplication kit with a depression in the plastic of the master key)

[Flashback]

(Parker takes the key from the Bank Manager’s pocket as Hardison talks, pressing the key into the form before replacing it into the Bank Manager’s pocket)

Hardison: And the children... The children thank you. They will send you a card just as soon as we buy them tiny pencils. And teach them how to spell. It's a two-step process, you see.

[Bank Vault]

Parker: Superglue and a heat-activated polymer to set it. Seven seconds, instant plastic key. (hands Hardison the Bible) Shake it.

Hardison: What?

Parker: Shake the bible.

Hardison: This is even more wrong.

(Hardison: takes the Bible and begins shaking it while Parker picks box 5076)

they’re so competent ugh

- - - - -

Hardison: I did look for you. For six months.

HE LOOKED FOR HER FOR SIX MONTHS

- - - - -

Parker: I think people are like locks. Really complicated and frustrating. But you can't force them. You have to take time and be fiddly.

Hardison: Fiddly?

Parker: You learn to be patient, and just wait until you hear the...

(the lock opens and the door swings wide)

- - - - -

(Hardison is sitting on the couch going through some paperwork and working on a laptop. Several boards have been set up with information about the case)

Nate: Now, this is not "gone." This is "more."

Hardison: Yeah, I, uh, I scanned the documents in Leary's box, but I wanted to print out a few pages.

Nate: I asked—I asked Eliot to get rid of this stuff. Now there's more stuff.

Hardison: Did you? Oh, we-we crossed, but didn't see each other. He didn't tell me.

Nate: Oh, that's how you're gonna play this?

Hardison: Oh, man. Look... (stands up and sniffs)

Nate: What?

Hardison: Is that... What is that aroma? That's that apple shampoo that's open.

Nate: You've been up in my shower, rummaging around?

Hardison: Man's in a strange bathroom, he's got a lot of time to kill... Nate, Nate, Nat-

I CANNOT

- - - - -

Nate: Grew up in the same neighborhood. The O'Hares are mobbed up. These are all mob businesses you're talking about here.

Hardison: Mob?

Nate: Where's Eliot?

Hardison: Oops.

Nate: What?

[Warehouse]

(Eliot is going through boxes when his phone rings. He answers)

Eliot: Yeah, Hardison. This is the third place I checked. It's all the same. What do you mean mob?

Thug: Hey!

(three men approach, one of them the Thug, who has his nose bandaged and is carrying a baseball bat)

Eliot: Oh, that mob. (hangs up)

hardison’s “whoops” followed by I HAVE TO WARN MY BOYFRIEND + in this episode we have eliot using a baseball bat as a weapon which is yet another piece in the continuation of eliot using things as weapons that are not supposed to be used as weapons

+ he apologizes to the guy that just had a nose job for beating him up and punching him in the nose he’s baby

- - - - -

(Nate opens the refrigerator to find it full of Hardison’s orange soda)

Nate: Seriously?

(Nate turns to see the island covered in food and dishes)

Nate: You know, guys, there is a dishwasher here.

Eliot: You're out of ice.

he literally can’t get rid of them + also I WONDER whose orange soda that is

- - - - -

parker robot dancing in the 80s jacket and looking DIRECTLY at eliot lmfao

- - - - -

Nate: What? Sophie, how do you catch mob guys?

Sophie: Ah, two glasses of Chianti and a story about my grandma in Sicily

- - - - -

Nate: Well, yeah. I mean, if you have a body in the trunk of your car, you're gonna drive under the speed limit, aren't you?

Parker: You know, when you're sober, your metaphors get creepier

- - - - -

eliot and parker sitting next to each other? cute

- - - - -

Hardison: Mr. Leary, I'm Detective Costello, with the Massachusetts State Police. This is Detective Costigan. I believe you met with our chief, Lieutenant Bonanno

more aliases to keep track of

- - - - -

Parker: We're investigating your colleague Matt Kerrigan's (air quotes) "car accident."

Leary: So you don't think it was an accident?

Hardison: Of course not. She did the finger thing. You got that. Everybody gets that.

Parker: Did I do it right?

Hardison: No. No. This guy just... (pulls picture from his pocket)

~ a few moments later ~

Parker: I did it right, didn't I?

Hardison: It was perfect.

Parker: I knew I did it right.

Hardison: It was beautiful execution. Absolutely.

Parker: Just like you taught me. I did it. (she smiles brightly)

Hardison: Yeah. Yeah, you did it. I like it. Yeah. (gives her a thumbs up)

SHES LEARNING IM SO PROUD OF HER

- - - - -

Eliot: Hey, this detonator - If I'm around the corner, is it still gonna be in range?

Hardison: Should be. I haven't worked out all the kinks yet. Sometimes the things just go off.

Eliot: Whoa, whoa, wait. Hey. I thought you said this thing was safe.

Hardison: Mostly. Mostly safe. I was very specific. Sometimes the frequencies get messed up.

Eliot: What frequencies, man? Huh? I got these things in my pants.

Hardison: Like, you know, a garage-door opener, a car alarm.

(a car alarm chirps then goes off, making Eliot jump. He moves away angrily)

Parker: What are the odds that Eliot's crotch will actually explode?

Eliot: Damn it, Hardison! (stalks off)

chaotic ot3

- - - - -

Sophie (shows passport): Annie Kroy.

O’Hare (grabs passport): Name's familiar.

Sophie: My family does business in North London with Terry Adams, and a couple of other organizations. We handle the money.

Nate (getting up): Yeah, see, what they do is they clean the money.

some people think that annie kroy is sophie’s true identity. I think, if anything, it would be her duchess alias but can you IMAGINE mob child sophie??? also, hi. im jackie and I wholeheartedly believe annie kroy has killed a man.

- - - - -

(Eliot is parked outside of the bank when Leary comes out, looking at files. Eliot hits a remote and the sound of gunfire fills the street as the squibs go off. People scream and Leary dives for cover. Eliot laughs and closes his window.)

chaotic eliot

- - - - -

Leary: And for that, the government hunts them down like dogs. People like me, we took billions from the banks. Billions. And what did the government do when they finally caught us? They wrote us a giant check and begged us to make it all better.

that’s disturbing

- - - - -

(Parker uses a taser on O’Hare and Hardison pulls up a recorder)

I think that was the first time parker tasered someone and we love to see it

- - - - -

Nate: So, how did you do it?

Eliot (gets up): Detonator, (holds up remote, reaches into his shirt and pulls out ketchup wrapper) ketchup.

Nate: Ah, the classics.

Sophie: Oh (hops happily), I love a good death scene

- - - - -

parker in a nun costume smelling money and saying “ahhhh” is certainly a mood

- - - - -

Leary: I was tricked. I was tricked. It wasn't me, you understand?

Bonanno: Somebody tricked you into bringing a briefcase full of evidence of your own crimes straight to the police? Come on, Mr. Leary. Nobody's that smart. Get him out of here

THEY ARE T H A T SMART

- - - - -

Zoe: Thank you. There are wolves in the world. But sometimes they're the good guys, I guess.

I didn’t like that whole metaphor because it felt kinda cliche but whatever, they ARE the good guys

+ bruh why is hardison wearing glasses??? him and eliot will sometimes wear them and honestly I don’t know who actually needs them and for what at this point ???

- - - - -

(Nate enters the condo to find that Hardison has installed five of six large monitors on the wall and is working on the last one)

Nate: Whoa, whoa. What are you doing there?

Hardison: I'm running this cat 5 cable to the--

Nate: Oh, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. No, I don't want to have these monitors in my apartment. No.

(Parker opens the door and walks in carrying a large painting)

Parker: Coming through!

Nate: No, these must go. What? No! Parker, no! Not that paint--I don't ever want to see that painting.

Parker: (shaking the painting as she talks in a funny voice) “Hi, I'm old Nate, and I live here, too."

Nate: You can't just break in here and start hanging--

Hardison: Oh, yeah, yeah. For repairs or renovation, your landlord has full access to your dwelling. It's in the lease.

Nate: What are you doing reading my lease?

Hardison: I bought the building.

Nate: You bought the... You're my landlord?

Hardison: Yeah. (holds his hand out for a fistbump) Yeah.

(Nate looks away, then hears the sound of a chain saw. He turns to see the end of a chain saw come through the wall)

Nate: No, no! No! No!

(Part of the wall falls to reveal Eliot holding the chainsaw and grinning. Nate coughs and both Parker and Hardison put their arms around him)

CHAOTIC OT3 + THEIR TIRED DAD

#leverage #leverage 2.01 #leverage 2x01 #the beantown bailout job #leverage season 2 #season 2 #notable moments #mine

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tbhwhocaresanymore · 4 years

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Nancy Drew 1x16

Oh my God you guys it has been so long since I have been able to watch a show that is so well written that has clearly been planned out from the beginning where the viewers have been able to theorize and have it pay off and Jesus Christ it is GLORIOUS. If I ever write for a show I would want to work with these writers on a show like this.

Before anything else let me start off gloating that I started calling Nancy as Lucy and Ryan’s daughter back around episode 9 or 10 and I am so fucking vindicated right now, I have been riding an otherwise unattainable high nonstop for the past three days. @kat--writes is this how you feel when you accurately predict things??? Because it feels AMAZING.

For the rest of the episode first can I just say how horribly tragic Lucy Sable is? Kudos to the writers because it was a stunning plot twist that I never saw coming but for some reason it’s almost worse than a murder to me? If for no other reason than how it has affected and will continue to affect everyone around her. Ryan who is now going to be even more guilt ridden about not getting to the ice cream parlor on time, Karen and Josh trying to avenge a murder that never even happened, Tiffany Hudson who died for nothing, Nancy who will be forever wondering if her mother slipped and fell or if she really did kill herself right after Nancy was born because if anything will give you an abandonment complex it’s that.

And hearing Carson say what happened that night with Lucy (PHENOMENAL acting by the way, maybe best scene of the season so far) makes rewatching the earlier episodes, especially 7/8 where Nancy was accusing Carson of murdering Lucy so much more tragic. This girl who he and his wife clearly cared for and felt sympathy for, begging him with her last words to take care of her daughter, knowing he looked away for less than two seconds and probably spending weeks if not months if not years questioning if he’d just looked up a half a second sooner if maybe Lucy would still be alive. Seeing Lucy’s daughter, his daughter, accuse him of murdering Lucy had to be a gut punch and it gives his character so much more depth. I just hope this doesn't put too much of a strain on his relationship with Nancy because they have finally gotten to such a good place and as far as Carson is concerned Nancy is his daughter, and he wasn’t trying to lie to her about Lucy. All he was trying to do was respect Lucy’s dying wish and protect her from the Hudsons. I mean he was willing to go to prison for murder before admitting what happened on the bluffs that night, that should count for something.

Moving away from the Shakespearean levels of tragedy for a moment.

God I fucking KNEW Owen was shady I have known it since the beginning. Granted I do not have absolute confirmation yet BUT: him being in his car outside the Claw when he said he would be out of town, holding a piece of Lucy Sable’s skull? (As far as the skull goes though, loved that bit of Bess/George/Nick teamwork to casually hide it from the cops.) Creepy bastard, thy name is Owen. I have no idea how it will play out yet but I hope to God that it will. But also that is going to be a bit of a blow to Bess, finding out her cousin is whatever he is, and also Nancy who literally just had sex with him.

Speaking of.

Much as it pains me to admit, the writers are clearly taking several steps away from Nancy x Nick for the moment, probably to give Nick x George a fighting chance. Side question. Why is Nick sleeping on a couch when he has over four and a half million dollars? Like he could afford to build a house with that much money. But I digress. I think it will be good for George to have a love interest who is A her own age and B not married, especially someone who she already had a good friendship with. Maybe since Owen is a Confirmed Shady Motherfucker the writers will either keep Nancy single for awhile or pair her up with Ace because their chemistry is off the charts. And as long as we’re on the romance topic, Bess. BESS. My sweet queer daughter. Where are Lisbeth and Amaya? Last time we saw Lisbeth they admitted they were kind of falling in love and slept with each other, last (and first) time we saw Amaya I fell in love and she and Bess had more chemistry than a high school sophomore. GIVE ME MY ON SCREEN BESS ROMANCE DRAMA WRITERS. And am I the only one who finds it a little bit weird that Bess is apparently so good at other people’s relationships when she has never really had one before?

I’m going to take a quick minute to be sad about Nancy x Nick so if you don’t like that you can skip this paragraph. NED NICKERSON. How the FUCK can you be so totally fine with Nancy sleeping with Owen when you two are clearly soulmates and you never liked him anyway? After the inevitable Owen betrayal possibly one of two things will happen with Nancy. She will regress and start to push people (read: love interests) even further away than before, OR she will finally really start to open up to Nick and they will find their way back to each other. Admittedly the second one is unlikely since Nick and George literally just got together but you never know. Just as long as Nick doesn’t cheat on George with Nancy because those two are finally friends and are really good friends to boot, and also George deserves way better especially post Ryan Hudson affair debacle. Maybe she and Nancy can bond over having shady not good for them older boyfriends.

On the topic of Ryan being Nancy’s biological dad every time George complains about Nancy asking favors I want her response to be “you had sex with my dad” every time.

Now we will talk about the promo for the as of now untitled next episode and also what the rest of the season and possibly season 2 have planned.

In episode 17 Ryan will clearly be Going Through Some Stuff, and will also find out that Lucy was pregnant. Whether he realizes she had the baby or thinks it died with her remains to be determined, but that shot of Nancy with a busted lip and her hair cut off in a car being driven by Ryan makes me think maybe he snaps and kidnaps her? It’s a bit of a stretch but it would certainly be interesting. I think we’re also going to see more of the Aglaeca coming after Nancy for not paying the toll, because for a minute we can see Nancy sort of choking and putting her hand to her throat like she’s about to throw up again. Maybe it’s going to keep coming after Nancy until they finally let the Aglaeca have Owen, or maybe its going to try to kill Nancy as punishment for saving Owen. I don’t know but I can’t wait to find out.

For the rest of the season/next season there are a couple threads not related to Ryan finding out Nancy is his daughter. There’s the new detective but I’m not talking about him. Joshua Dude, Lucy’s brother. He is still out and about wherever he is, and does not know his sister killed herself. This will probably not exonerate Ryan in his mind as Ryan’s family is part of what drove Lucy to suicide. Maybe he will come back and decide to sort of take revenge on A the Hudsons or B the town of Horseshoe Bay as revenge for what they did to Lucy. (Sort of like the Black Hood from Riverdale but you know, well done.) There is also Everett Hudson. Last time I checked he had just been arrested for sinking the Bonny Scot and racketeering and insurance fraud and stuff, what the hell is he doing at a yacht club? I can only assume he got out on bail so maybe we will see Nancy (possibly together with Ryan) work to put him behind bars for good. Maybe Carson Drew will finally leverage some of that dirty laundry he has on the Hudsons, or better yet that Grecian urn thing Ryan has will finally be put to good use. And then in the future although there is zero proof of this I still want A for George to become clairvoyant/psychic like her mother and B for George and Bess to be cousins. I don’t think I’m asking for too much here.

Finally, because of how much of a staple character he is in the books I refuse to accept that Chief McGinnis is gone for good. My very being rebels against it. But before you scream at me about how different the show is from the books (those two or three of you who have read the books anyway) even if he were an original character I would want him to stay. He is a fantastic character, he was just starting to get depth, I adore his relationship with Ace and on top of everything else he’s good Native American representation.

I ALSO WANT VICTORIA TO COME BACK. I HAVE NOT SEEN HER SINCE 2019. WTF WRITERS. YOU CAN’T JUST MAKE ME FALL IN LOVE WITH A DYSFUNCTIONAL PSYCHIC ALCOHOLIC MOTHER LIKE THAT AND THEN ONLY PUT HER IN TWO EPISODES.

Dead Lucy should also continue to stick around, maybe she can teach Nancy how to hang from ceilings or they can bond over how much Everett Hudson Sucks. It’s just that Lucy spent all this time trying to show Nancy that she is her biological mother, and for her to move on after sticking around for 20 years right after Nancy learns the truth? It would be too - and I fully recognize I have used this word too many times but I am going to use it again - tragic.

The wait for April 8 is going to be an agony unlike any other but at least after it comes back there will only be six episodes left, and so it is very unlikely the show will go on another hiatus before the season is up. Let me know what you guys think will happen in season 2/the rest of season 1.

#Nancy Drew #Nancy Drew cw #George Fan #Bess Marvin #Lucy Sable #Dead Lucy #Ned Nickerson #the haunting of Nancy Drew #Ryan Hudson #Carson Drew #Nick x Nancy #Nick x George #Nancy x Owen #sorta Nancy x Ace #if you squint

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caligobeltrao · 4 years

Note

I for one would love 2 hear ur thoughts on the hannibal novel 👀👀 - bloodybrahms ☺

ahhh thank you BB!! <3 I’m gonna throw it under a cut bc I know people aren’t gonna want my ramblings clogging up their dash lol.

Edit after I’ve written it: Holy shit this turned into a monster but tbf I did say I was going to rant. I think I miss writing college essays...

Also, I would like to note bc I’m about to bitch, I do still love Hannibal and Clarice and all of the franchise. Hell, I even love book Hannibal because I’m garbage and want to be special. So yeah. It’s a fond bitching.

Okay where to fuckin begin man... This novel was a fucking Shit Show, my dudes. It was like baby’s first fanfiction.

Let’s just jump in, shall we?

So by now, having read both Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, I know Harris injects of lot of sexual shit into his novels, fine whatever, but the amount of pedophilia is insane. Like, Red Dragon with the grandmother threatening to cut his dick off by holding it in between scissors????? And then we have Mason Verger, worst human on the planet. Like jfc I’ll go into him specifically more later but just. Men. Why does it always have to be sexual.

Like that time Clarice wasn’t wearing a bra and she wanted to prove to Paul Krendler she wasn’t wearing a wire so she flashed him her tits?? Unnecessary, Harris. Bullshit on all counts.

Next, poor Ardelia Mapp. So he clearly wrote out her accent in Silence, which frankly reads racist since to me it seemed like he did it every time a character of color was met but he didn’t for Clarice’s Southern accent except for this book when she was talking to Ardelia. Now, that’d be a cool way to show how close they are, sure, but it just... She didn’t show up enough to warrant that reaction from me, plus all the other casually racist shit he throws in.

Ardelia’s literally there as the wise Black best friend to help Clarice along. She doesn’t feel like her own character, she’s only there in conjunction with her, or doing something for her. She was the fucking valedictorian for Christ fucking sake, she also works at the Bureau but if her department was mentioned it was only once in passing. She was not a full character which fucking blows because she could’ve been so cool.

And real quick before I forget, I hate how she’s treated in the end. I do like she gets a reference and that brainwashed Clarice sent her an emerald ring and a note saying she was okay, but Ardelia was abandoned by her best friend (that she had lived with) with not even a phone call and they will never see each other again and I think Ardelia knows it. It sucks and I’m heartbroken for this woman.

I’m gonna touch a little bit on the racism too. Now I’m white and not the most qualified to talk about this shit, but I do wanna mention it because it makes me mad. There’s just so many unnecessary slurs, any POC is more of a background helper character to Clarice than anything or a foil.

For example, Evelda Drumgo. She starts us off. Badass Black woman who runs a drug cartel. She chooses to shoot at Clarice and risk her baby’s life, and we have Clarice wash the baby off and save his life. Then Evelda’s mother is written as irrational when she slaps Clarice for visiting the baby in the hospital; I get Clarice’s impulse, but that woman just lost her daughter because Clarice killed her. I would’ve slapped Clarice too, even if it was a totally justifiable shot.

The baby himself is used as a foil throughout other parts, most notably to me when Clarice goes to visit Mason the first time. There are two Black boys from a foster home playing in a room with a camera so Mason can watch them, and it shakes Clarice up a lil bit because of the baby, but it says she’s getting more used to it.

Now this is half and half well written and shoddy to me. It’d be a cool moment, if the whole incident wasn’t nearly completely forgotten for the rest of the book shortly afterword. It could show growth, if Clarice had any growth to show.

And then the Romani people who are literally just used and thrown away. Sickening. Also very broadly used the stereotypes we hear which Sucks; the three we meet in any sort of depth are pickpockets, one was already in jail and Pazzi used his leverage as a police officer to get her to do what he wanted and threatened to have her baby taken away from her permanently, like it was just bad. And then the man got killed. Pazzi let him bleed out. Asshole.

The slurs. I could take out all of them and pretty much have the same damn thing. Like I get showing negative aspects of characters and just because a character’s racist doesn’t mean the author is, but with the characters already being as shitty as they are, fully didn’t need it to make them worse. Entirely unnecessary. Racism or the character being racist has no impact on the plot is the major thing, I think. And you can replace that with anything along those lines, like sexist, homophobic, transphobic. It didn’t impact the plot, they can still be shitty, you just don’t need to use them.

This also goes in reference to Margot being a lesbian. And the transphobia holy shit, it was disgusting. Harris had Clarice think something so cruel and unnecessary it’s like my guy why was that even remotely something we needed to hear. We didn’t. I wanted to stop reading because that’s not my Clarice, first and foremost, and second, this is supposed to be the character we LIKE. And now I don’t like ANYBODY in this damn book.

And he treats Margot like shit too, and Barney.

Their friendship was beautiful and great and finally for once something nice was happening in Margot’s life and I was happy reading it, and then FOR SOME REASON Margot goes to shower in the same room as Barney after a workout, which makes no sense, and then Barney tries to force a kiss on her (and he was hard, Harris made that very clear) and she had been sexually assaulted by Mason her brother and ruin the whole damn thing and none of it would have changed any other piece of the novel if you removed it!!!!!!!!! Entirely unnecessary!!!!!! And Barney had the gall to say well I couldn’t help myself like none of that was realistic in the slightest, she never would have went in the same room to shower with him.

Something you need to do is basically get some suspension of disbelief from your reader and maintain and stretch that as you go, right? Well mine was gone at that moment.

Also side note Margot is basically just there to show how shitty Mason is for the umpteenth time. Her whole thing is lesbian sexual assault victim.

Also heavily implied she was a lesbian because of the sexual assault. And we rarely see Judy, her girlfriend, so. Bad. Bad all around.

Circling back around to Clarice and how disappointing she is in the books as compared to the movies. Well, Clarice is also a poorly written character. She’s 1000x better in the movie. Hell, she’s even better in this book than she was in Silence, but that’s not fucking hard.

Pretty much all the characters are so flat they don’t even classify as two dimensional.

Like sure, maybe we wanna say Clarice didn’t really solve much in the first book and was just handed everything because she was a trainee and that’s what Hannibal wanted.

Like if you remember the John Mulaney sketch of Delta Airlines where he’s just going “Okay!” and running to the next place he’s told, that’s Clarice.

Okay so why does she get goaded into all this shit now? She should know better. She should know how to handle herself better. Like she messes up basic fucking shit like clearing a room before untying Hannibal, which was stupid, she seems oblivious to some of the politics at work even though she’s been in the FBI for like 7 years now, she would at least have more fucking contacts than Brigham who died in the beginning and Jack Crawford who died at the end by rolling over in his bed to his dead wife’s side and Ardelia who would be near the same level as Clarice I guess but I still don’t know her damn department???? Like you fucking network.

Plus after her final fall from grace with the FBI, we meet or are told of random side characters that go no where and do nothing just to say “hey look at my special little girl, everyone likes her and looks up to her!!” Why? Because she caught Buffalo Bill 7 years ago and then never got a promotion or even worked with the BAU? Again, it does not make sense. People may pity her? But a random girl in the lab wouldn’t be fangirling. Starling herself said her career had gone nowhere because of the politics and not sleeping with Paul. You need to show me why she’s likable in her actions not others words.

We spend more time away from her than with her anyways but Jesus.

AND HER IN THE ENDING. She was fucking BRAINWASHED????? Bull FUCKING SHIT. He completely ruined anything he even remotely might’ve had in this cluster fuck of a novel.

Case in point, difference from the movie, Hannibal spends weeks (possibly? it’s left purposefully vague and I’m guessing that’s because Harris didn’t know the ins and outs and wanted his novel done) meticulously brainwashing Clarice, he had stolen her father’s bones and she’s so far gone at that point she doesn’t care, and the whole scene where Paul is getting his brain eaten? Yeah, she happily indulges and when he insults her, she asks Hannibal for more. Fuck you, Thomas Harris.

And Hannibal’s a Gary Stu, fucking fight me.

In the movie he either is or he’s tap dancing on that line, don’t get me wrong, but in the novels it’s insufferable because it doesn’t seem earned. The pigs didn’t attack him because they didn’t smell fear on him. No. He’s easily able to drug and brainwash Clarice and take her as his lover. No. Go away. He’s so smart and one step ahead and can manipulate anyone and everyone into doing what he wants and blah blah blah shut up! A character being perfect isn’t interesting even if he’s evil!! We all know he’s never truly in danger because of how Harris writes him and that’s boring!!

And I personally have a pet peeve where the villain is described as a monster or unstoppable. That’s boring and I no longer care about your story. I know 9 times out of 10 your main character is going to find a bullshit way around the impossible and kill it. Or it’s just like a default personality and nothing else is added to it. And that’s Hannibal.

I’m on Hannibal Rising now and, spoiler alert, he’s very bland as a character. (Also Harris switched some details in the novel which kinda annoys me like get your own canon right my man but whatever.) The plot itself is pretty fun? I guess? Like there’s action and stuff and I’m enjoying that. But it’s the same set up where Harris’s Gary Stu always wins, like he was 13 in the book when he killed the butcher. Let. Your. Characters. Lose.

Also even more racist shit but what did I expect really.

Anyways, I have no idea who I’m supposed to root for in the novel because all the characters are just kinda shitty. It really just boils down to Harris not showing any redeeming qualities or actions from any of his characters. I liked Margot for a while out of spite but she never really went anywhere and the way she killed Mason (btw she sodomized him with a cattle prod to get his semen bc side plot and then stuffed his Moray eel down his throat and somehow I still don’t think that’s the worst part of the novel) just. No thanks really.

All the random little side plots were also pretty not great. How many time does Harris have to say Pazzi of the Pazzis? Like I fucking get what you’re going for, even if I hadn’t watched the movie I’d be like, “Oh this dude’s gonna get hung outta that window, dope,” the literal first time. Stop treating your readers like idiots.

And then Margot’s side plot was that the will their father left said she needed a biological heir to inherit because he was pissed she’s gay and we needed the homophobia I guess, so Mason got everything, and she was helping him with the Hannibal shit because he’s pretty incapacitated duh, and in return he would give her his jizz so Judy could be artificially inseminated and they could have a child and get some of her inheritance. I don’t care. It was all very gross, and Mason kept saying shit like suck me off you’ve done it before, I won’t be able to feel it anyway, maybe Judy’ll suck me off you think she’d like that. It’s all gross.

And I guess this is a good a time as any to finally start on Mason. So a great rule of writing to make everything work better and give your story more depth is to give everyone both positive and negative traits right, even and especially the bad guys? Like, rules can always be broken if you’re a good enough writer, but I believe I have established that Harris isn’t quite there yet, to put it nicer than I have.

Mason is one bad trait after another. It’s like when Harris was bored of constantly writing about plain ole pedophilia, he threw a dart at a board of horrible things and landed on topics such as: pedophilia but make it incest, extreme sadism, sadism but against children now, and good old fashioned racism! Fucking Cordell was supposed to collect the children’s tears after Mason would make them cry and put them in martinis for him. Realism went out the goddamn door real fast with this novel y’all. Like a fucking Scooby Doo villain over here.

And he loves talking about being a sadistic pedophile, he will literally not shut up about it to Clarice when she first gets there telling her about his trip to Africa and this portable guillotine he has and just. I get it was probably like trying to make her uncomfortable on purpose because he’s a Freak, but it went way too far if only because it was annoying, not even uncomfortable for me as a reader. I was bored real quick. Get to the shit I actually wanna know.

And it sucks because of the weird, over-the-top way of how he died, I got zero satisfaction from his death. I couldn’t even be like, “Well at least Margot got her revenge,” because that’s not how she originally wanted to kill him!!! She wanted someone else to extract his semen for the insemination but couldn’t find anybody to do it for her, and then Hannibal, whilst tied up, said use a cattle prod and you won’t have to touch him and when you kill him you can blame it on me, and I’m pretty sure even if she hit his prostate right every time and he COULD cum from that alone in addition to how his body is Fucked Up now, it would’ve been a lengthy, gross, and re-traumatizing experience for her because all she wanted to do was avoid seeing and touching her brother’s private parts again, which I think is a totally fair and rational desire.

So I have to live with the fact that she was desperate enough to not lose the house and business because of her homophobic father to go through her childhood trauma again. There’s no place in this book that has a somewhat positive conclusion.

Even the very last bit where Barney has a girlfriend and a ton of cash from Margot, all he wants to do is see every Vermeer in the world right? Well, because Hannibal and Clarice are in Buenos Aires where one of them is on display, Barney gets spooked and has him and his girlfriend leave before he can see it and it ends that bit with he never got to see it ever so he didn’t even complete his dream!!!

Also for good measure, Harris throws in that Hannibal and Clarice enjoy having sex regularly. For no reason. Just letting us know.

I know this seemed like just a bitch fest, because it was, but I kinda sorta enjoyed it? It kept my attention at the very least. It’s really disappointing because like I said, I love the movies, all of them, and have since I was little. To see the original not stand up to that image in my mind is a little heartbreaking. Especially Clarice. She was a strong female role model to me, but turns out she’s... just kinda there. And her ending is that of her no longer being herself and getting that agency taken away from her.

There is a reference to her waking up from a sleep, if she is asleep (that’s kind of how he worded it), that kinda let us draw our conclusions on whether she was just brainwashed into being good for him or if she was willingly going along with this and was in love with him I guess and it felt like a slap in the face. She turned from a hardworking, modest country girl working her way up to the FBI into a female Hannibal. Which on the surface sounds kinda cool because we love luxe serial killers, but that’s not what she wanted or who she was set up to be. And to insinuate that she would even remotely consider choosing that path for herself is at its best an insult to her and at its worst a complete erasure of her background, what little character Harris did set up. It also completely erases my own connections to her, as a girl from a small town myself who has bigger dreams than this and also... a good, strong set of morals. He just tossed that out the window.

Obviously if you’re on this blog, you like slasher x reader shit, and this is a novel with a slasher x a person, right? So why am I so mad about it? Because the whole point of this blog and reader insert fanfiction in general is that you are taken as you are and loved wholly as yourself and that you are worthy of that love (in a fictional setting, not really loving people who are like this, which I think we understand but I want to clarify). She was not taken as she was. He is not in love with her, she is not in love with him. She was transformed into what he wanted out of her. He couldn’t get her to be Mischa, his first plan, so he made her like himself. And the fact that he was so easily able to do it makes me upset, and even more so is that it’s not written like it’s weird or wrong. It’s written like they’re in love and this is a good thing.

He may have been going for the classic “everyone is capable of doing bad things” stuff we see a lot, but we got that from Margot already. And Barney, for stealing Lecter’s stuff and selling it. And Paul, and the entire FBI for turning on Clarice, and the kidnappers, and Pazzi, and random shitty side characters. And none of it was particularly well written or made some sort of strong statement. It just was. And that’s not a good enough basis for a novel.

Anyways, if you made it this far holy shit you’re a saint and I love you, let’s be friends?? <3 Have a good day y’all, thank you BB for giving me permission to ramble.

#bloodybrahms #ask #no joke i spent like 5-6 hours total writing this i had a Lot to say

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cakesunflower · 5 years

Text

Quiet Hours [College!Luke AU] Ch. 8

Chapter 8

WAKING UP NEXT to a girl wasn’t anything new for Luke. He’d done it numerous of times with many girls; those who he’d met at parties, while doing laundry, or even in classes. He would either bring them back to his room or go to theirs, spending the night digging his hips into theirs and kissing them without experiencing anything extraordinary. Then the morning after, there would be either awkward or polite conversation before he got kicked out or did the kicking out himself, and the day would continue on as usual.

This morning, though, that was different.

Luke wasn’t that heavy of a sleeper, but it took his second and sometimes third alarm to wake him up. But this time he woke up to the bed shifting, his eyes still closed as he furrowed his brows sleepily at the movement. The blonde was asleep on his stomach with his arms brought up to hug his pillow, blearily blinking open his eyes before squeezing them shut at the brightness of the room. He really needed to get some damn curtains.

The mattress shifted again, prompting the metallic frame of the bed to squeak, and Luke brought up one hand to rub up and down his face before blinking away the sleep. He pushed himself up while using his right arm as leverage, eyebrows drawn together in a mixture of confusion and tiredness as he looked over his shoulder, sleepily squinting at the girl sitting at the edge of the bed, just a few inches away from where his leg was. Even through his daze, Luke recognized Ophelia as the girl reaching down to put her socks on.

“Gonna leave without saying goodbye?” he spoke, his accented voice deeper and huskier than normal, which caused Ophelia to jump slightly before looking to her right at the sight of the boy now laying on his right side, propped up by his arm to look at her. “Way to make a guy feel used, R.A. Ophelia.”

The hazel eyed girl blinked before a blush overcame her face, cheeks warming as memories from last night flashed through her mind. It’s not like she could easily forget—Luke had left dozens of marks to make it impossible, though not that she even wanted to forget the way his lips felt against hers and teeth bit into her skin. Shit, she had thought it was an amazing dream when she woke up until she saw the boy sleeping next to her and felt the tender skin of her neck and collarbones. They hadn’t gotten past the kissing of lips and neck before Luke had wrapped his arms around her smaller frame and the two had gone to sleep—though Ophelia would never know how he had snuck into the bathroom after she fell asleep for some much needed release.

“I have to get ready for class,” she explained, her tone soft and slightly apologetic. The last thing Ophelia wanted to do was leave—staying in bed with Luke was much more appealing. Then, with a blush and an airy laugh, she gestured to her neck, “plus, it’s gonna take me a minute to cover these up.”

Luke’s eyes flickered to the reddish-purple bruises that discolored her skin, a smug smirk making its way onto his sleepy face as he turned and sat up to face her. He scooted forward to be closer, legs splayed out behind her seated form while he leaned towards her. With a not-so-innocent tilt of his head, Luke inquired, “why would you wanna cover them up?”

Ophelia’s stomach twisted excitedly as Luke got closer, blonde hair a curly mess and blue eyes sunken in ever so slightly from sleep, but the half-smile on his face screamed opposite of his angelic appearance. She stayed still as Luke’s face got closer, his left hand reaching up to push her hair over her left shoulder with a gentle touch, and she felt the scratch of his beard against her neck before she felt the familiar lips press against the skin right below her right ear. Her head tilted ever so slightly to give him more access if he needed, and Luke felt a thrill shot through him at how easily she accepted his action.

She was greedy for his lips and he was craving to taste her.

Ophelia’s grip on her knees tightened as Luke’s teeth grazed and teased her skin, her eyes closing at the breathless sensation he evoked. “I-I need to get going, Luke,” she managed to breathe out only for her lips to part and let out a breath as she felt his tongue poke out.

Luke’s right arm had slid around her front, hand resting on her left hip as he kept her close and smirked against her skin before reluctantly detaching his lips. His gaze dropped to where his mouth had just been, satisfied knowing that there would be yet another mark right there. “Alright,” he spoke, voice low and deep and resonating in the core of Ophelia’s chest. Luke rested his chin on her shoulder, gaze up at the pretty girl as he let out a dramatic sigh, “I guess you can go.”

Ophelia’s lips pressed together to suppress the smile, turning her head ever so slightly to look at the boy that was so close. Her heart was threatening to burst out of her chest because of how he was looking at her, and Ophelia knew she had to leave before she melted right on the spot. She got up to her feet, knees buckling as she glanced down at the still seated boy whose blue eyes were trained on her and lips curled into a sleepy, boyish half smile that showed off a dimple.

As Ophelia made her way towards the door, Luke couldn’t help but call out, “see you later, sweetheart.”

Most definitely.

*****

She couldn’t think straight for the entire day. Ophelia’s attention in class was nonexistent, mind wandering to the head-spinning events of last night and even this morning. When she had returned to the apartment, she was kind of grateful that her friends were already out for the day, taking a quick shower before using ten pounds of foundation and concealer to cover up the hickies that decorated her neck and collarbones. She didn’t want to be hounded with questions from her friends, which was inevitable, especially since they were demanding answers in the group chat.

“I can’t believe you guys didn’t sleep together,” Laurel shook her head in disappointment when the two of them met up for lunch. Isabelle and Tanya were both in class, so the two girls sat in the dining hall around three o’clock to grab food. She held up the fork with pieces of lettuce stuck to it, declaring, “missed opportunity,” before shoving the vegetable in her mouth.

Ophelia rolled her eyes, picking up a chicken tender piece with her finger. “I don’t think he wanted to do anything while we were drunk.”

“Oh, please,” Laurel scoffed over the light buzz of the semi-busy dining hall. “I’m sure Luke’s slept with girls while they were both drunk, just like you’ve done. What’s the big deal?”

The hazel eyed girl’s lips puckered as she ran her tongue over her upper teeth in thought, staring at her plate with furrowed eyebrows as she considered Laurel’s words. What was the big deal? It’s not like she and Luke were utterly wasted last night without any control over what they were doing—hell, Ophelia could think perfectly clear; the only thing that was up with her was the reservation she displayed around Luke disappeared with the wine in her system. She and Luke both knew what they were doing when they kissed, so why hadn’t he let it go any further?

A dispiriting knot tightened in her stomach. “Maybe he doesn’t wanna sleep with me,” Ophelia thought out loud, her expression dropping just a bit as she almost sadly dipped a curly fry in ketchup. She knew she couldn’t be mad at someone for not wanting to have sex with her, but the thought of not getting to be with Luke in that kind of capacity was disappointing. Especially after the electrifying events of last night.

“That’s definitely not it,” Laurel snorted, prompting Ophelia to raise an eyebrow at her. Laurel, taking notice of the mildly puzzled expression her friend wore, let out a sigh. “Lia, we’ve only hung out with those guys, like, twice but both times I saw the way Luke looked at you. The girls and I were talking about it last night, even.”

Ophelia’s eyebrows raised, unable to keep her curiosity at bay. “What were you saying?”

An impish grin came over the light brown, short haired girl’s face. “Two words,” she stated, holding up the appropriate amount of fingers. “Sexual. Tension.”

A short, disbelieving laugh escaped Ophelia. “What?” she sputtered out through her startled giggle.

“You can literally feel it when you two are together, what with the eyes you’re always making at each other,” Laurel’s smile turned teasing. “Tone down the eye-sex when others are around, jeez.”

Ophelia nearly choked on the Sprite she was drinking, pressing her lips together as she was suddenly reminded of the conversation she had with Paisley during Homecoming. Her sister had brought up eye-sex as well, and while she at first thought Paisley had been kidding, the fact that even Laurel was bringing it up now meant that there was definitely something going on. Holy shit, did she and Luke really stare at each other like that without any regard for those around them? Ophelia didn’t know whether she should be embarrassed or thrilled.

“We don’t have eye-sex,” she mumbled before taking a bite out of her chicken. Guess she was going for both of those feelings.

“Sure, sure,” Laurel waved her off sarcastically, earning a huff from Ophelia. As she stabbed some more lettuce and pieces of chicken, she questioned, “do you like him, though? Or do you just wanna get dicked down by him?”

Ophelia twisted her lips to the side at Laura’s question, gaze flickering to her friend before propping her elbow up on the table to rest her chin on her palm. She pondered for a moment—did she actually have feelings for Luke or was it just a physical thing? Last night was beyond electrifying and Ophelia was sure that the imprint of Luke’s lips were left on her skin along with the hickies that he planted, and she wanted to feel it again more than anything.

And she became a flustered mess whenever he was around, something that’s never happened to her when it came to other boys, and Ophelia realized that she enjoyed whenever his gaze seemed to be on her, even if it made her even more nervous. But it was the good kind of nervous; the exciting kind, where she was waiting for something to happen—him kissing her being quite the prize.

She still couldn’t believe she basically asked him to kiss her and he complied—but she wasn’t gonna spend time thinking about that. Just that it fucking happened.

“I don’t know,” she finally answered with a breath, sitting up and leaning back in the plastic chair. Ophelia hated the dining hall chairs—they were so uncomfortable. She looked at her friend, taking in the curious expression on Laurel’s face. “Laur, shit, he’s so gorgeous and hot—I can’t think straight when I see him,” Ophelia stated, her tone so whiney that it made the other girl laugh. “But I don’t know if there’s anything there except, like, the potential of hooking up, you know? I wanna hook up, yeah, but if something more comes out of it. . .” she trailed off, watching Laurel’s eyebrows shoot up before she shrugged. “Then I wouldn’t be opposed to that.”

“Well,” Laurel shrugged as well, using her fork to move around the vegetables and pieces of chicken in her bowl. “If he doesn’t want to be with you, then that’s his loss. But if you don’t fuck that six foot tall Australian, I’m going to cry.”

Ophelia’s cheeks heated up but she smiled. “I’m pretty sure he’s six-four.”

Laurel expelled a sharp breath. “Even better.”

*****

Luke didn’t think he could’ve craved someone’s touch as badly as he did Ophelia’s. For fuck’s sake, he hadn’t seen her all weekend—ever since waking up next to her on Thursday morning—and he quite literally let out a groan in the middle of the dining hall when he opened Snapchat and noticed that on her story, she had posted pictures and videos of her being home. So Ophelia went home for the weekend, and Luke was left trying to get the memories and images of her lips against his and his lips on her neck out of his mind.

Thursday night had been spent drinking with the guys and Friday he went out to a party with them. He even ended up with some girl in his bed, and while satisfaction was both delivered and received, Luke found himself not being able to enjoy it as much as he usually would. And, truth be told, that fucking annoyed him. He and Ophelia didn’t even do anything past kissing, yet all he could think about while fucking some sorority girl was that her hands didn’t feel as good in his hair as Ophelia’s did, or she didn’t taste as good either. His subconscious kept comparing the girl and Ophelia, and Luke wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

Hopefully the reason he couldn’t stop thinking of Ophelia is because he hadn’t gotten as far with her as he would’ve liked. Maybe once they slept together, his mind wouldn’t stop reminding him of how there was a hint of green in her hazel eyes and how prominent her cheekbones got when she smiled. Hopefully that was all there was to it. It was an ugly, douche-bag thought on his part but, God, Luke didn’t know what the hell to do.

“Luke, come on, man! They’ve already lit the fire,” Ashton’s voice called out from somewhere in the apartment, prompting the Australian to pocket his phone quickly and pick up his black hoodie.

He walked down the hall as he pulled on the hoodie and ran his ring clad fingers through his curly blonde hair to push it back. His roommates were waiting for him and once he muttered a quick apology, followed them out the door to leave the building. It was the last day of September and as per campus tradition, a huge bonfire was being held in the main courtyard.

Yeah, their campus was always looking for events to throw.

It was a slightly chilly night, perfect weather for a bonfire as the four boys walked down the paved pathway towards the courtyard. As they walked, Luke pulled out his phone and went on Snapchat while absently listening to Michael complain about his digital editing class and some project he had to do. Luke scrolled through the social media account, clicking through people’s stories and eyebrows raising when he came across Ophelia’s story.

She had posted a picture with Tanya, the two girls sitting on the grass and even though it was dark because of the evening sky, Luke could tell it was in the courtyard. Luke bit his cheek as he realized that Ophelia was there, that he had a chance of seeing her tonight. He hadn’t seen her since Thursday morning, since she was gone since then and on Mondays Luke had classes yet when he didn’t, Ophelia was busy in her own or doing rounds. Luke felt almost pathetic for feeling the bubble of excitement at the idea of seeing Ophelia, especially now that he knew what she kissed like, but told himself that’s all that it was. Physical attraction, nothing more.

There weren’t many lights around the courtyard, but the ones similar to street lamps were lit up dully, the darkening sky and twinkling stars providing a perfect backdrop as the large bonfire burned in the middle of the courtyard. It smelled smoky and over the hum of people chatting and music playing, Luke could hear the whispering hiss and crackling of the fire as a few people gathered around with marshmallows at the end of sticks to make s’mores. There were plastic tables set up as well to serve as hot chocolate stations, which the boys immediately gravitated towards.

They filled their cups before wandering around, Ashton informing them that the girls wanted to meet up with them. Luke ignored the thrilled lurch at that, knowing he was definitely about to see Ophelia, as Calum discretely pulled out a flask from the inside pocket of his bomber jacket before pouring some of the vodka in each of the boys’ cups.

The girls were sitting on the grass against the short cement wall that separated the grass part of the courtyard to the paved one. As they neared them, Michael nudged Luke as he smirked, “there’s your girl.”

Luke shot his glasses wearing friend a half hearted glare before following his gaze, eyes landing on Ophelia at the end of their seated line. He took her in, dressed in black jeans and a black twenty-one pilots sweatshirt with her denim jacket on top, and realized that she looked so Goddamn good. The orange light of the fire reflected off of her, shadowing her high cheekbones and making her features stand out beautifully—Luke was floored at the sight of her.

“We’ve arrived,” Calum dramatically announced, catching the girls’ attention as they all smiled up at him. As expected, Ophelia’s gaze met Luke’s as she sipped her hot chocolate, watching as he smirked softly before deciding to sit down to her right. Ashton sat on the other end next to Laurel while Michael and Calum sat cross legged in front of the six, facing them.

“You disappeared on me, R.A. Ophelia,” Luke grinned as he settled next to her, legs crossing at the ankles as he stared down at the brunette. She glanced up at him, legs crossed and hands gripping her cup, her expression unreadable. “Got pretty lonely without you.”

Ophelia quirked a brow, wondering if he was being serious or was full of it. She was sure it was the latter as she let out a light scoff, “really? ‘Cause I heard you were pretty busy the other night.” Luke’s eyebrows shot up, not expecting that at all as he blinked at her in bewilderment. Ophelia brought her cup as she spoke into the rim, “the walls are pretty thin—Tanya can hear you from her room just like I can from mine.”

Luke stared at her, head tilting ever so slightly in puzzlement as he wondered what she was talking about. Her expression seemed indifferent, uncaring, but for some reason Luke could tell that that’s the opposite of how Ophelia was feeling. He just knew. And it didn’t take him long to figure out what she was talking about—that he had slept with someone over the weekend and Tanya heard before telling Ophelia about it.

Truth be told, Luke didn’t know how to feel about that; one on hand, it bothered him that Tanya felt the need to tell her friend about Luke’s business that has nothing to do with either of them. On the other hand, Luke surprised himself as he recognized the bit of guilt he found himself feeling. It’s not like he and Ophelia were together in any capacity, so why did it feel like he was just busted for cheating on her?

Ophelia herself was conflicted about this, because while she hadn’t expected anything from Luke, even after that one night, she still found herself being a bit bitter at the thought of him being with someone else just a night after he had been making out with her on his bed. While Ophelia was okay with having a one night stand every now and then, she didn’t want that to be the case with her and Luke. It was hypocritical, in a sense, and also unfair of her to expect this from Luke, but it was just how she felt. She couldn’t help it.

Luke bit the inside corner of his lip briefly, wondering how to go about this situation because Ophelia wasn’t just some girl. No, he had realized that she was a friend at this point—a friend he couldn’t stop thinking about kiss—but a friend nonetheless. So he tried the lighthearted path of this conversation. “You know you’ve got nothing to be jealous about, sweetheart.”

Apparently, that wasn’t the right way to go because Ophelia instantly rolled her eyes, shaking her head and turning it away from him as she listened in on whatever conversation their friends were having while muttering, “I’m not jealous.” They were already discussing Halloween costumes, even though the holiday was a whole month away.

The Australian was used to Ophelia being cutely nervous around him and welcomed when the wine in her system had her true self coming out in front of him, and he supposed the way she was acting right now was her true self, too. Not stumbling over words around Luke and instead showing him that she was bothered with something that he had done. He leaned closer to her, making sure their friends were busy in conversation as he quietly murmured in her ear, “I know what jealousy looks like, darling, and you’re wearin’ it like face paint.”

A soundless scoff escaped Ophelia as she turned her head to look back up at him, eyebrows raising as her green eyes looked dark due to the lack of light. “You—You’re way too cocky for your own good. And inconsiderate,” she added, causing Luke to blink in surprise. “Next time you have a girl over, keep it down. I like to go to bed without a soundtrack,” she finished, the slight edge in her tone clearly picked up by Luke as she turned her head away from him once more.

She was totally jealous.

Luke didn’t know if he should tell her she had nothing to be jealous about—though, if it was because she didn’t have the right to be jealous or because she did since he couldn’t stop thinking about, Luke was unaware. Sure, he’s only slept with that one girl after he and Ophelia made out, but he was thinking about the latter the entire time. Luke never thinks about someone else when he’s getting laid by another girl, even if he’s trying to forget someone, because he finds it disrespectful to the girl he’s with. Yet there he was on Friday night—fucking Maya while thinking about Ophelia.

It was safe to say Luke Hemmings was confused, and he fucking hated it.

What he couldn’t clarify is if it was because he just wanted to sleep with Ophelia or actually be with her—and if the answer was the second option, then he was screwed. Ever since his ex screwed him over—with his own cousin—Luke’s been against having relationships. He hated being one of those guys, but Gwen had spoiled it for him, stole the joy of something he’d craved. Casual sex with someone who didn’t expect anything more was so much better than giving someone your heart, either hoping they’d take care of it or dreading them crushing it. The latter happened to Luke and he was afraid of putting it out despite the chance of the former happening instead.

Luke took a sip of his drink, the sweet taste of chocolate mixing with the bitter vodka in an appealing combination that both burned and soothed his throat. Glancing at Ophelia, he saw her looking down at her now empty cup, lower lip pulled between her teeth and Luke instantly thought of how he had been doing the same thing to that very lip last week. He would kill to do it again.

Ophelia let out a breath before getting to her feet, everyone’s eyes on her as she said, “my butt’s numb; I’m gonna walk around for a bit.”

Everyone murmured their okay’s as she walked off, feeling someone’s gaze burn in her back and she just knew it was Luke because of how her skin had goosebumps rising on it the way they did everytime Luke stared at her. But Ophelia didn’t turn around as she kept walking, weaving through other students as the smoky smell of the fire and logs burning surrounded her. She tried to think of that smell rather than wonder about the blonde boy that was sitting next to her.

When Tanya had told her about Luke’s Friday night adventure, Ophelia would be lying if she said she didn’t feel a disappointed tug in her heart. Then she felt stupid for thinking anything more could happen between Luke and her that wasn’t a hook up. That’s what Luke did after all, wasn’t it? Ophelia was attracted to him like crazy and she wanted to do more than just kiss him, but she wasn’t sure if she would be able to face the aftermath of them going back to just being friends—or worse, just being neighbors.

She let out a sigh, hands buried in the pockets of her denim jacket as she realized she was on the opposite end of the courtyard, the view of her friends blocked by the bonfire. If Ophelia could see them, she would notice that the blonde she had been thinking about was no longer sitting there. She continued walking, straying further from the courtyard as the smell of the fire grew distant and the songs became quieter, wandering through the dimly lit campus as the sky was now blanketed black.

Ophelia was lost in her thoughts, not realizing she was passing the environmental and communications building, before someone caught her attention from under the glass catwalk that connected the two. “A bit far from the bonfire, aren’t you?”

She paused, startled at the voice before turning her head to the right to see a figure emerging from under the darkness of the catwalk. Ophelia’s eyes narrowed in confusion, before her spine straightened at the sight of Gabe, the rude resident from her floor. Smoke rose from the end of the cigarette he was dangling between his bony fingers, and Ophelia had to suppress a shudder because everything about the guy screamed lecherous. From his paler than normal complexion, sunken eyes, chapped lips and black hair that was more grease than anything else.

Ophelia glanced around, realizing that the bonfire was going on in the courtyard on the other side of the mathematics building to her left, and there was literally no one where she was right now with Gabe. She was frozen for a moment as he approached her from the darkness, and briefly she wondered if she was in some kind of horror movie. The closer Gabe got, the strong scent of weed intoxicated her nose in the grossest of ways.

“Same goes for you,” she responded, taking a subconscious step back. Once again, she was getting bad vibes from this kid, and she needed to go. They were in an open space, thankfully, so escape shouldn’t be difficult. “It’s creepy that you’re here by yourself.”

Ophelia watched as Gabe’s thin lips wrapped around the cigarette, the end glowing a fierce orange as he took in the nicotine before blowing it out. “Who says I’m by myself?” he retorted before jutting his pointed chin in her direction. “My friends are right there.”

Alarm swam in her stomach as she glanced over her shoulder, catching sight of two guys sitting on the black metal bench right behind her, five feet or so away with their own cigarettes. But the distinguishable smell coming from their direction quickly told Ophelia at least one of them had a blunt, not a cigarette. What the hell was up with these boys and lurking in the dark? She was convinced she was in some bad, cliche horror movie.

Looking back at Gabe, she let out a breath. “Uh, this has been fun and all, but I should get going,” Ophelia said, beginning to back away into the direction she had come from. She could feel uncomfortable goosebumps on her skin despite being warm in her clothing, knowing the chills running up and down her spine had nothing to do with the cold weather.

Unfortunately for Ophelia, she hadn’t noticed one of the bench sitting guys had stood up until her back bumped into what she recognized as a chest, and her eyes widened and chest thumped as she began to turn around. But hands gripped her hips to keep her in place and Ophelia’s throat dried instantly as panic flared, that sixth sense women have blaring like crazy in her head. This wasn’t good, I need to get the hell out of here, Ophelia’s mind was racing as she felt the fingers dig into her hips. What the hell was it with some guys and grabbing women as if they fucking own them?

“Oh, come on, Miss R.A.,” Gabe sneered, his heavy military boots thudding against the pavement as he neared her. Please stay away. “Why go back to that fucking bonfire when you can have a good time with us?”

Ophelia didn’t need to be told what a good time signified because the wicked glint in Gabe’s eyes and the way her stomach nauseatingly twisted gave enough of an idea. And while fear was definitely swimming in her gut, Ophelia still managed to clench her jaw before placing her hands on top of the guy’s that was holding her, using her somewhat long nails to dig into the back of his hands as hard as she could. The guy immediately let out a pained hiss at Ophelia’s nails sharply cutting into his skin, letting her go as he tried to relieve the pain in some sort of way.

The brunette didn’t miss a beat as she practically ran away from them, hearing the guy that held her exclaim, “fucking bitch!” which admittedly made her feel proud for what she had done.

Ophelia managed to run around the building that separated the areas of the courtyard and where she encountered Gabe and his equally as creepy friends, her heart thudding wildly and air harshly cold in her lungs. As soon as she turned the corner, Ophelia crashed into something hard, a startled gasp escaping her when she realized it was a person only when a pair of arms wrapped around her waist to balance her.

She was about to push away, having enough of people grabbing her when she didn’t want, when the all too familiar pine scent intoxicated her nose and the deep voice spoke, “hey, hey, you okay?”

The hazel eyed girl was suddenly in tune with the music playing and chatter of people as she glanced up to meet a pair of familiar blue ones. Ophelia found herself letting out a breath as her hands rested on Luke’s arms, hoping to calm down her rushed breathing as Luke’s arms loosened from around her so his hands were resting on her hips. Unlike with the guy before, Ophelia didn’t feel uncomfortable or on-edge; she welcomed Luke’s touch, if anything. “Yeah,” she breathed out, nodding as she swallowed. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Luke stared down at the heavy breathing girl, expression falling into one of concern as he felt her hands on his arms tighten a bit. His brows drew together as he realized that Ophelia looked rattled, and not the good kind as she did whenever he flirted with her. Admittedly, Luke had been slightly concerned when Ophelia had gone off to wander on her own because even though almost everyone was gathered in the courtyard, the campus was still big and he knew the unfortunate dangers lone girls could face if they were by themselves. He had tried looking for her to make sure she was okay, and by her frazzled state, Luke had been rightfully worried.

“Ophelia,” Luke said, his tone serious and accent thick as the girl glanced up at him. “What happened?”

She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat, her heart falling into its normal pacing knowing that she was with Luke and not surrounded by a bunch of creepy, drugged out freaks. The anxious, concerned expression he wore had her letting out a breath with a slight shake of her head. “Nothing, I just—” she paused, glancing over her shoulder almost out of instinct, feeling relieved when she didn’t see anyone there. Luke followed her gaze, brows steepening in confusion before she looked back at him. “There were just some, uh, guys I ran into. But I managed to ditch them.”

Luke’s eyes narrowed at that, alarms going off in his head because if Ophelia had to ditch them then something more must’ve happened. The two of them were still standing a few feet away from the courtyard, the scent of the fire and wood burning surrounding them and Ophelia briefly thought how nice Luke’s own pine scent mixed in.

“Are you—did they touch you?” Luke demanded, his tone coming out harsh just at the thought of someone touching Ophelia without her consent.

Ophelia exhaled sharply through her nose, thinking she should just lie to Luke because whatever happened, already happened so there was no use in lingering on it now. “I—Yeah,” was what stumbled out of her mouth instead, watching as Luke’s expression darkened as he looked over her head in the direction she had come, his jaw clenching and lips curling slightly as he did so. “But it’s okay, it’s not a big deal—I got away,” she hastily added once she took in the angered glare he wore.

“You kidding?” Luke scoffed disbelievingly, his hands dropping from Ophelia as he moved to walk around her, ready to find whoever the fuck thought it was okay to put a hand on a girl without her giving him permission to do so. “Who the fuck was it?”

Her eyes widened as she felt his grip drop from her and his tall form walked around her, and Ophelia turned to watch him before reaching forward and grabbing his left hand in both of hers. “Wait, hey, stop,” she fretted, feeling his rings against her skin as she pulled Luke back. He looked down at her, eyes ever so slightly widened with lowered brows. “What are you gonna do, beat them up? Let it go, Luke.”

Luke was taken aback, not expecting that as he stared at her with now narrowed eyes. “Some dickhead grabbed you, Ophelia—you want me to just let it go?” he gruffly responded, his accent thick which only caused her to swallow inaudibly. “Fuck that.”

He tried to break out of her grip, but Ophelia only tightened it, surprising them both when Luke couldn’t rid of her grasp. She stared up at him indignantly, the fire behind her shadowing her figure while she saw the way the orange of the flames danced in the blue of his eyes. They almost looked gold, and that made Ophelia press her lips together at the prettiness of them.

“Come on, Luke,” Ophelia almost pleaded, her green eyes widening ever so slightly as she looked up at him. She squeezed his hand, prompting him to glance down at the way her small hands held his large one. It was the first time they made physical contact since Thursday morning, and Luke didn’t miss the warm sparks he felt shoot up his arm. “Let’s just—let’s make s’mores, alright?”

Luke stared down at her in mild disbelief, wondering why the hell she wouldn’t let him go. But then Luke quickly acknowledged how he would rather eat s’mores with Ophelia then go beat some fucker up—especially since she didn’t seem to be put off by him anymore. So loosening his jaw, he nodded and his lips twitched at the sight of her relieved smile before she began pulling him along towards the table that held all the stuff needed for the sweet treat.

Unsurprisingly, Luke’s gaze was fixed on Ophelia as they got to the table that already had a bunch of people around, watching as she reached for a pack of crackers and handed two over to Luke, who took them absently. He worked alongside her to put crackers and pieces of chocolate on a small paper plate before they grabbed a marshmallow and stick and walked over to the burning fire to roast them.

There were logs set up around the fire, many of them occupied though they managed to find one and settled down. It didn’t take long for their marshmallows to roast to their perfection before the two of them were making their s’mores and biting into them. But Luke couldn’t get the alarmed expression Ophelia had worn when she had run into him, and as he held his treat between his index finger and thumb, he questioned, “are you gonna tell me who the guys were?”

Ophelia gave a shake of her head before biting into her own s’more, a muffled yet firm “nope,” sounding as she chewed.

Despite himself Luke let out a short chuckle before looking down at his treat. He knew he couldn’t do anything since Ophelia wouldn’t tell him who the guys were and he didn’t know what they looked like, and while that bothered him, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of solace as he glanced at the girl to his left. Luke didn’t know what happened but at least Ophelia was next to him, happily enjoying her s’more, and she didn’t seem to be as bothered with him as she had been before. He would take what he could get.

tags: @crownedbyluke @irwinkitten @glitterprincelu @softforcal @valentinelrh @sweetcherrymike @meetashthere @astroashtonio @hereforlukescruff @calsangel @captain-what-is-going-on @angelbbycal @babygirlcashton @calntynes @invisiblexcth @soulmatecashton @calumsmermaid @kchillout @thewackywriter @akacalciumhood @calumculture @ohhmuke @empathycth @flannelpunkcalum @poppedpins @novacanecalum @walkedhomealone @calistheloml @gettingjillywithit @hearts-to-the-sky @old-zeppelin-shirt @5sos-stan4lyfe @all-i-want-is2b-loved-by-you @calumthoodsyonce @xhaileyreneex @rosecoloredash @asht0ns-world @cxddlyash @mysteriouslycali @lmao5sosimagines @monsteramongmikey @calteahood @5secondssofssummer @sublimehood @biwriting @findingliam-o @isabella-mae13

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cawsaurus · 4 years

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Adventures in watching The Terror when you’re legitimately face-blind

Re-rewatching Horrible from Supper

Aw, watch Young alive and well, talking with THartnell in the flashback scene

The first time I watched this episode I could tell there was something wrong with (Real) Hickey's face/hair, but assumed that my face-blindness was playing tricks on me and dismissed it.

Ah, yes, the crew filling the boats with *checks notes* cutlery and furniture. Fitzjames notes this, and perhaps inspired by the resource waste that was the Carnival, is against it.

Manson is hopeful that the Little’s party might have dinner ready for them, but is dismissed by a very pessimistic Gibson. THartnell disapproves of this and glares at Gibson, but continues working.

This is the first time I successfully recognized Armitage!!!! He's talking with a Robert Golding (???) who I've literally never noticed before.

Tozer knows well that when you're being pursued by a bear you don't need to outrun the bear, but the person next to you. And he hopes that the person next to him happens to be Hickey. He doesn't seem to think much of him at this point, and yet a few moments later he agrees to join him.

Gibson is also skeptical about the Inuit helping them.

Morfin is looking like shit. Collins rushes to help him carry Goodsir's stuff... which allows him to hear Goodsir as he tells Bridgens about possible treatments for Morfin's illness. Coca wine, huh?

Hickey still can't lie worth shit, but is VERY good at leveraging people's moments of vulnerability. Here he has Gibson be the one to suggest they leave the others behind. Also present: Manson, Tozer, Armitage, Golding. And thus the core group of the mutineers is established.

Gibson mentions there are 40 men in their party, the other 50 were sent with Little to set up an outpost. So there’s just 90 people left? It should be 105.

Tozer suggests they wait until they're on land to leave, so the rest of the group will help them haul the supplies through the ice

Hickey already aiming for rank here

I see 7 men being left behind in the ship

They leave the ship on April 22 1948

Compare Ross the elder riding atop a boat during his march vs Crozier hauling with his crew

Blanky compliments THartnell's eye for reading the ice. In a different world where THartnell lived, would he have become an ice master?

Hickey watches Hodgson consideringly. What does Hickey see? Is this related to Crozier complimenting THartnell?

Shipping aside, I don't think Collins and Goodsir where close before this point because:

COLLINS (When told to open up): I've tried, sir. GOODSIR: Well, you haven't tried with me.

Some excellent active listening from Goodsir. Can recognize some techniques. However he's overwhelmed by Collins explanation. He wasn’t ready for it.

The way Crozier puts Goodsir under his wing ("We share a burden, you and I, keeping this (the secret of the tins)") reminds me of how how he praises THartnell. I get the feeling Crozier is very conscious of how important it is to build relationships with the crew. If only he had had more time I think he could have prevented the mutiny

I like to think that Hickey is gleeful that someone is agreeing with him at last that the dog is being treated better than them. This is probably the point where he gets the idea to eat Neptune. The discord server confirms the men having lunch with him are Armitage and Pilkington.

Hickey catches Goodsir dragging Silna out of the line for food.

Morfin and Tozer are the ones to find out the rescue mission failed. Fitzjames confirms that they only made it 18 miles before dying. I see at least 5 corpses.

Crozier wanted to go with Fitzjames over the ice wall before the others in case there were any other unpleasant discoveries at the other side e.g. Little's party not making it

Crozier asks Little indirectly if he saw the rescue party. He's not going to tell him?

Right away Tozer wants to arm more men. He suggests Armitage, Crispe, Manson, Seeley, Coombs, and lastly Hickey. If you add Gibson, Golding and Pilkington to that list, that's 10 people total that are on the mutineer’s side. Hodgson will later reluctantly join them (11 people)

Crozier is suspicious.

There are only 8 marines left.

CROZIER (pointedly, to Tozer): It's going to be difficult to surprise us on such level ground, hm?

Crozier memorized where everyone was from to be able to use it at key moments. Here he uses it to try and convince Morfin to stay alive.

Morfin commits suicide by Tozer :(

Between the sledge party (~5?), the men left in the ships (7) and Morfin, the body count for this episode is now at 13. Later Hickey will stab 2 people, bringing it up to 15.

THartnell reaches out to comfort Goodsir, but Goodsir shrugs him off

By the way Goodsir is hyperventilating it looks like he's having a panic attack. Thank God Silna is there to comfort him.

Crozier asks THartnell to find out who else helped Hickey get Silna

After Jopson complains about Crozier shaving his job away:

CROZIER: I need to hold a command meeting this morning for Captain Fitzjames ande the lieutenants. I'll let you gather them. JOPSON (with the slightlest hint of sarcasm): Oh, thank you very much, sir.

Jopson is such a little shit, I love him so much.

While the other officers discuss the situation with the tin cans, Hodgson is send out with THartnell and Manson to bury Morfin. He peers down at the little mound under which Morfin lays.

And then he comes back and finds out they had a big talk without him and that Jopson was promoted. A steward! Promoted to lieutenant!

(#OfficePolitics)

And that... that's the moment of vulnerability Hickey exploits.

Hickey doesn't tell Hodgson what happened to Morfin. He asks him. He's most successful when he lets others talk.

Hickey says the food would be divided into "nearly a hundred portions", so there's less than 100 people alive at this point.

HODGSON: God, blind me.

He's so ridiculously Victorian.

Was there ever a more Hickey sentence than "Survival is a nasty piece of business, but we do what we have to do."

I like that Hickey recognizes he's more suited to be a powerful man's right hand man. He likes running things from the shadows.

Why does Hodgson send Hickey with Irving???

Hickey has to adapt here. By his expression I don't think he was planning on encountering those Inuit at that point (and how could he be?) I think he decided to kill the other two on the spot.

#the terror

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jonsa101 · 5 years

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Max Goodwin and Helen Sharpe Addressing Their Situationship Head On.

Y’all I’m so sorry that I’m uploading this super last minute. Last week was so busy for me and this past weekend I got sidetracked by Succession’s season 2 finale. Quick side note; Succession is the best TV show this DECADE!!! As an avid TV lover, I don’t say this lightly. I’m still living off the incredible high/ adrenaline rush from the season finale. NOTHING streaming or on broadcast television compares to it right now. NOTHING!!!! The writing, the cast, the score. It is absolutely incomparable and a fucking masterpiece. If you haven’t already, please do yourself a favor and watch this show!!

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let’s talk about my second favorite show on TV right now and my FAVORITE TV COUPLE. Last week’s episode will probably go down as one of my favorite sharpwin moments thus far. In my opinion, the biggest takeaway you should have from this moment is that this is the first glimpse of Max and Helen talking about their relationship WITHOUT SUBTEXT!! This is huge considering that everything in regards to addressing their obvious romantic feelings for each has been filled with subtext.

Unbeknownst to both of them, a major shift has occurred in their relationship where they both seem comfortable enough to be this direct about their “situationship.” In a weird way, there’s a sense of freedom and liberty in their dialogue specifically when it comes to discussing “them” that they didn't have before and as I was watching their argument/conversation unfold, I couldn’t help but think I was watching a couple finally coming out to the open, freely discussing their relationship. In every sense of the word, this conversation shares the same brushstrokes of the conversation they had last season in episode 17 but the dynamic is completely different. In season 1 episode 17, Max and Helen mastered the art of saying so much to each other about their relationship without saying much at all. Anything more than that would have been inappropriate for the mere fact that Georgia was still in the picture. For this past episode though, this was not the case at all! Max literally has gone from beating around the bush with “What if I want you?” to boldly declaring “I can’t do this without you!” to Helen. Helen has gone from “You’ve come to me with these inspiring completely impossible demands and I don’t know who I’m supposed to be” to “You push me away and expect me to understand and then you need me and use your feelings as leverage?” to Max.

Y’all!!! THE GROWTH!

This is the most direct either of them has ever been when it comes to their relationship and in a sense, the political correctness/politeness has dropped off. Max has no qualms in telling Helen that he needs her and that he essentially wants her to put him first and Helen has no problem shutting Max down and calling Max out on his b.s and his blatant disregard for her boundaries.

Seeing this dynamic between them is such a breath of fresh air and to me makes their unspoken relationship all the more tangible. What I saw Tuesday night wasn’t an argument between two platonic friends but an argument between two people who are deeply in love with each other and are finally addressing said issues in their relationship since the accident.

Quick side note: Can I just say how much I stan Helen Sharpe?! She truly shined this past episode and I have always admired her no-nonsense attitude and her ability to set healthy boundaries for herself with Max. Not gonna lie, in a previous meta last season, I wrote about my worries on Helen taking on Max as her patient again. I didn’t like it for the mere fact that it seemingly looked like she was saying to hell with the boundaries she had previously set for her benefit. There’s a reason why doctors don’t treat their loved ones and as their relationship clearly shifted from friendship to something deeper, I felt her role as his doctor needed to shift as well. I’m so glad that seems to be the case in season 2. Though Valentina is a pain in the ass, I’m glad that Helen isn’t directly over his treatment anymore and more importantly, despite love, I’m glad that Helen continually chooses her emotional and professional well being. It says so much about who she is as a woman and sets the precedent for her and Max to truly have a healthy relationship. Like I’ve always said, Max is the type of person who likes to have his cake and eat it too. Until the accident, everything has seemingly always worked out for him and he’s never had to sacrifice/make tough decisions to get what he wants. If you’re not careful, Max (not maliciously but unintentionally) can clearly take advantage cause most people to bend to his will. He’s done it in previous relationships (cough* cough* Georgia) but Helen is not the one to play with. He challenges her and that’s why they’re so perfectly matched. She’s his equal.

Moving on, let’s dive back into this meta and dive in a little bit deeper into their dialogue:

“I’m not fully here...apart of me is still on that ambulance.”

“I can’t talk to you because I’m trying to spare you. I don’t want you to feel this. I don’t want you to experience this...and it’s not fair.”

What Max says to Helen in both of these moments is incredibly loaded and there two major things that I want to address.

This is a classic example of the Declaration of Protection trope.

The motivation behind his “protection” is two-fold. One is to spare her his grief and the second is him wanting to give her his full self because that’s what she deserves!!!

The Declaration of Protection trope usually involves the main character and a love interest and one of the main complications that usually occurs in this trope is that the person they’re trying to protect usually doesn't need nor have they asked for protection.

This is clearly being played out here and once again goes to show that New Amsterdam has continuously set these individuals up to be endgame. For me, regardless of what anyone says I always trust the narrative and what’s being showcased on screen. Secondly, when you tie these two pieces of dialogue together, this is the summary of what Max was saying to Helen.

Max is conveying to Helen here that he is a broken man. He is a shell of the person he used to be before the accident. He doesn’t want to talk to her because he doesn’t want her to share in his grief and experience his pain. He loves her too much and values their relationship too much to let himself do that. Most importantly, he doesn’t want to bring a shell of himself into their relationship because it’s not fair to her and she doesn’t deserve that. If anything he wants to be fully there! FULLY PRESENT FOR HER because that’s what she deserves.

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t Max trying to jump head in first into a new relationship but this is Max unquestionably telling Helen that their relationship matters deeply to him and that he doesn’t want to bring his brokenness into it. To me, the dialogue makes what Max is trying to convey clear as day and all but confirms it when Helen responds with

“None of this is fair. We just tossed fair out the window. Max when you need me I’m here for you, for all of it.”

This whole conversation is so beautiful because, in spite of what Max just said, Helen reaffirms him and essentially says that she’s all in with him. She doesn’t need his protection. She is here for both the good and the bad and is willing to go on this journey with him in the midst of his brokenness.

Y’ALL!! HOW BEAUTIFUL IS THAT?!

Their first deeply honest, in-depth conversation about their situationship is literally breaking ground for a fully developed and whole relationship in the future. The best thing about it was that it didn’t have subtext and for the first time ever when it comes to them, they got to the heart of their issues! Cheers to that and let's hope we get to see so much more of that this season.

Again apologies that I’m literally putting this out at the 99th hour but it’s better late than never. Lol! Tell me your thoughts! What did you think of last Tuesday's episode? Tagging everyone who wanted to be tagged @abriaashley @bowtothepapergods @lizbeth-perry @liveuncensored @megafriedyouthcollectorblog @grizzee11 @raejustrae @diamonndsannpearls

#new amsterdam #sharpwin

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