#the idea of benji trying to figure out how to slot himself into the ethan/luther dynamic in a way that makes him useful

[renegadecreation]

this is a bit off topic from the post by @rebeccasteventaylor that inspired it, but as far as Ethan and Benji and skillsets go -

kind of fascinated by the idea of Ethan always having been a bit of an adrenaline junkie but getting into more dangerous solo stunts with no one around for miles after m:i1 in a bit of a nihilistic moment. and then the nihilism passes, but he can start to see the utility of having these extreme skills on missions and so he keeps pursuing them (ADHD lateral thinking curse strikes again). and then things start to snowball, because he has such a specialized ability that the really crazy missions with really tight timelines are all funneled to him, and sometimes he misses just being a really fit linguistics/theater/drama major with a talent for voices.

and as far as Benji goes - being in the field during GP and knowing they have no one to call for help with specialized tasks must have been a great impetus for wanting to build out his own skillset. and he probably enjoys the idea of being the person Ethan is most likely to call in a pinch too, and being able to distinguish himself from Luther as more of a jack-of-all trades (i can imagine him hearing that Luther went scuba diving at the end of GP and thinking oh, i'd better learn that too).

they match each other so well as a combination of breadth/depth of knowledge, and then Luther's been there all along to provide Mariana Trench levels of technical depth that neither of them have the time or inclination to pursue. the perfect trio ^^