#but we're in the tags now so i will get spoilery even though i just said it doesn't technically matter

[chipistrate]

WELCOME WELCOME!!!

About time I update the intro post Hey Hey! I'm Chipistrate (chip-uh-strate, like chip and illustrate) but you can just call me Chip, I use they/xe, and'm sapphic aroace!

Art tag is #Chipillustrates and talk tag is #Chip Chatter

Also currently EXTREMELY fixated on fnaf, so beware the insanity ahead<3 (so sorry to my ahit moots and followers, ily and ahit still I prommy)

Few things of note:

1. I'm 100% a-okay with fanart! 2. I prefer if you don't DM me unless it's urgent or we're mutuals/friends, if you wanna ask a question then my inbox is open! 3. Also; MY INBOX IS OPEN! I like rambling and answering questions and talking about theories and AUs and characters and really just anything fnaf/other interests related, etc. You can plop almost anything into my inbox and I'll most likely answer it! (it can take a bit sometimes, so sorry! I promise I read every ask I receive!) only thing I ask is to not put anything NSFW in there 4. I do take art requests, but there's never a 100% guarantee I'll draw what you ask! (if your a mutual then you can request AU characters and OCs!) 5.I love all of my mutuals and you're all very cool and I love you all very much even if we don't talk a lot!! I always say 'hey' when I see you in my notifs even though you can't hear me 6. Not a spoiler free zone, but I try and tag anything spoilery! 7. I talk in tags a lot 8. the fnaf kids are my favorite fnaf characters so sometimes I might be a little silly about them 9. I'm just a silly goober all around so if joyous whimsy isn't for you then you might not like it here

AUs and art examples under cut to save space

List of my AUs + small descriptions + their tags

-Year 1/#Fnaf Year 1 AU: first year of Glitchtrap/Mimic1 infecting the Pizzaplex, centered around the characters reactions to everything and character dynamics, like Cassie and Dr. Rabbits dynamic and Vanessa getting used to her new job as Head of Security. Same year as Tonys death, and the most interesting new cast member to note would be Lucia; now 21 and part of the Mega Pizzaplex' security team, investigating the strange disappearances that she believes to be connected to the Mimic. -Welcome to Balloon Circus/#Fnaf Welcome to Balloon Circus: 3 star fam return to the Pizzaplex lot 3 years after Ruin to fix M.X.E.S after they suddenly shut down, and upon arrival, instead find a giant circus. There's a big post with a poster and TONS of information here if you're interested!! -Quests Continuation/#Fnaf Quest Continuation: takes place after the Disassembled Ending. Gregory quite literally stumbles into another Pizzaplex unlike the one from SB, now much smaller with uncorrupted animatronics, Bonnie as one of the band members, Foxy still around, and no security guards out to get him. He hesitantly accepts the band members help in finding his old friend, Cassie, so he can be reunited with her and not keep living on the streets, because after finding him for the first time, the band members are VERY adamant that he cannot go back to that living situation, considering the terrible condition he was in. -Endpoint Security/#Fnaf Endpoint Security: Security Breach swap AU featuring newly uninfected Vanessa as the protagonist and a very much so still infected Dr. Rabbit as the antagonist. Vanessa, barely even remembering having this job and now locked in the Pizzaplex until 6am without any of her keycards or tools, is now accompanied by Dr. Rabbit talking to her through her new fazwatch as she goes on a scavenger hunt he set up just for her to find her keycards and tools to help her survive the night until the doors open, though Dr. Rabbit makes it clear that 6am won't be the end of this shift for her. -Back at it again/#Fnaf Back at it Again: Post PQ ending. Vanessa keeps her job as head of security and Gregory takes up an internship as a security guard, position secured by Vanessa’s recommendation, and the two use their job ranks to continue looking into the mysteries of the Pizzaplex and put Mimic to an end once and for all, aaas well as steal whatever they need to take care of Freddy back home when no one's looking. -Painted Tears Trilogy/#Fnaf Painted Tears Trilogy: Silver Eyes Trilogy inspired AU centering around the MCI looking into the disappearances of Charlotte Emily and Evan Afton, two of their now missing childhood best friends.

(Yeah I dunno how to write short AU descriptions, if you want more info about any of these then my inbox is open!)

Here's some examples of my more recent pieces/what you can expect from me when it comes to art:

Tried to keep it simple this time around, Thanks for reading and enjoy your stay!

[mmvalentine]

Lover Like Me pt 7 | Feysand

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 ** Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 LET THE DRAMA COMMENCE. See tags for CWs it's a bit spoilery.

I’ve never been much of a club person myself, and as soon as we step into Rita’s, the pounding music and claustrophobic press of bodies reminds me why. Still, I am constantly reeling at how much everyone keeps doing for me- am actually pushing down the discomfort it brings on what feels like a daily basis- and so I’m more than happy to do things they want to do, even if I really don’t.

I follow close behind Rhys while we order drinks and locate Azriel and Cassian.  I’m holding onto one of Rhys’s belt loops because I’m quite sure if I don’t the crowd will swallow me whole. When Mor produces shots, I down mine quickly and chase it with a gulp of my scotch and soda.

“Hell yeah!” Cassian exclaims, and drinks his, too.

“To Feyre and sold paintings,” Azriel says, and Mor and Rhys raise their tiny glasses to that.

“Alright, alright,” Mor says, waving her hands. “Are we all supposed to hang out together all night or am I allowed to wander off and talk to pretty girls?”

“You can wander,” I tell her with a laugh. “Thank you for being here.” She kisses me on the cheek before she goes.

“Come on Cassian," she says, "I’m pretty sure I saw a set of straight/ gay twins on the way in.” Cassian frowns.

“How do you know-”

“I know…”

I lose their voices quickly, and when I turn back Azriel, too, has melted into the crowd.

“And you?” I tease Rhys. “Tempted to try your luck out there?”

“And leave you to fend for yourself?” Rhys asks, in mock indignance.

“I’m perfectly capable on my own.”

“You’re miserable here," he argues, eyebrows raised.

“How would you know?”

“You were drinking before we could toast your own success.”

I sigh, caught out. “I’ve never really liked clubs,” I admit.

“What is it?” he asks. “The noise? The crowd? The lights?”

“The dancing,” I confess.

“The dancing?” he repeats.

“Yeah I just… I don’t like dancing. I don’t really know how, I just feel so awkward out there.”

Rhys cocks his head at me. “What if you’re dancing with someone else?”

“Well that’s worse, then they’re just looking at me flailing around.”

“That’s not-” Rhys cuts himself off. “If I can make it non-painful, would you dance with me?”

“How are you going to making it non-painful? I think you underestimate my lack of grace.”

“Will you trust me?” He holds out his hand.

And I do. I trust him, even though I should know better; I should have learnt my lesson by now that beautiful men who whisk you away and promise you a better life are not worth trusting. Even though it feels like waiting to fall, waiting for the ground to hit me, I find that I do trust Rhys and the home he has made in Velaris. Maybe it’s because Rhys’s friends are lovely, and they trust him, and that makes it feel safer. Or maybe it’s because I want to trust him, want so badly for the world to be a better place than it has seemed so far. Either way, I finish my drink, put my hand in his, and pretend I’m just talking about dancing.

As we slide between moving bodies and find space before the DJ, I feel my heartrate pick up. Anxious, I’m always anxious when I have to dance in front of people. My mother used to tell me that I take myself too seriously, and it’s true that I don’t like feeling like a fool.

“Put your arms around my neck,” Rhys tells me. I do so, shy as my wrists land on his shoulders, and he looks right at me. “Trust me,” he says again, and before I can reply that I do, his hands slide over my hips.

The shock of his touch has my cheeks burning. We're so close I can feel his breath on my neck, and I swear I get a little dizzy in that instant. I drop my gaze, a Latin pop song is suddenly very loud in my ears, and I don’t know what to do with my feet. “I’ve got you,” Rhys murmurs, and with a light tug he’s holding me tight against him as he starts to move. Just a gentle rock, at first, his hips moving with the rhythm and me, pulled with him.

“Okay?” he asks, and I try to loosen up and let him move me. Try to follow his feet, and wonder how he knows where to step. I nod, and Rhys smiles. This close, it’s so lovely that I have to smile back. The noise of the club is dies right down, the crowd barely there. How can I notice anyone else when Rhys is right here? I'm distracted enough that I don't think so hard about where I'm going, and Rhys moves us a little more. I'm lined up all the way down his front, against the hard wall of his torso, and I can feel the warmth of him through my pale satin shirt as we move little sharper, a little deeper into the music, and oh my gods I’m doing it. I’m dancing, and actually this is fun. I relax a little, and put my teeth on my lip to stop myself grinning like an idiot.

"See?" Rhys says in my ear. "Not so bad right?"

Rhys steps back from me suddenly. Before I can be alarmed, he turns me round, catches me with my back against his chest. I laugh as I land, I sway in his arms and his fingers splay across my hip so he can keep us moving.

"I think this is cheating," I say.

"Nonsense, you're a wonderful dancer."

He curls around me, my hands land on the arm that’s folded over my waist and I lean into him. I can’t help it, it’s so delicious and he doesn’t seem to mind. It’s seamless, it’s easy when he’s doing all the work. I still feel like I’m clumsy on my feet, that my hips don’t move smoothly like his do, but this is the first time that I understand why people like this. When I feel the cold tip of Rhys’s nose on my shoulder, I break out in goosebumps.

He spins me back around and this time he’s holding my right hand, elbow loose as his steps nudge me back and then forward. I'm about to ask him where he learned to dance, but when I meet his eyes the question dies in my throat. The way he's looking at me... it's almost more than I can handle. He leans his forehead against mine, and I'm breathless. I close my eyes, try to remember how to work my lungs.

Rhys pulls back, and when I open them again he's grinning at me. So I grin back and keep dancing with him, and when he twirls and recatches me I just feel so happy. I’m warm like whiskey, and I am so acutely aware of every place our bodies touch. At the hips, and at our hands, and where his fingers press into my lower back. I’m glad of the excuse of the dance, and my inexperience, to cling tighter to him, savour the moment. The crowd sighs, and the liquor spins in my head.

“You’re kind of amazing, do you know that?” I tell him. I don't know when I got so brave.

“I’m not the one who just sold thousands of dollars worth of art,” he says back, white teeth flashing in the coloured lights. I shake my head.

“You just… you are though,” I say. Rhys gives me a strange look, that I can’t quite comprehend.

The song ends and as the next one begins, faster and more electronic than the last one, but we're still standing still. I don't want to leave his arms, not right now and hell, maybe not ever. Is this okay? I think. Am I allowed to like this? To want this? I feel the stroke of his thumb in the small of my back, even though we've stopped dancing. I find myself staring at his lips, they way they're slightly parted, and my fingers have found the edge of his collar at the back of his neck.

Rhys looks as if he is about to say something, when suddenly Mor appears beside us.

"You guys!" she shouts over the music.

"You," Rhys responds, less enthusiastically.

"Are you just dancing with each other?"

"What's wrong with each other?" I ask.

"You're supposed to be meeting your new lover," she tells me.

"My who now?"

"Anyone!" Mor says. "What about Tarquin? He's cute, and he's into you!"

Rhys snorts. "You can do much better than him, Feyre darling."

"A lover like you?" I tease.

His gaze snaps back to mine then, an unexpected intensity in his eyes.

“No,” he says. Snarls it, so angry that I am shocked.

Hurt, actually. Is the idea so repulsive to him?

As quickly as it had come, it vanishes. He looks away, and when he speaks his voice is light again.

"A lover nothing like me, if I can help it."

"Here here," Mor mutters, and scans the crowd as if she could pluck a suitor from the writhing mob.

Rhys's words ring in my ears, but I can't think about it right now. Not here, where it's so loud I can barely process my own thoughts. Rhys's hands are still on my waist, but I slip out.

“Do you want another drink?” I yell.

“Sure,” Rhys shouts back. “I’ll come with you.”

“No, you stay,” I tell him. “Dance without a weird hanger-on-er.”

“You’re not a hanger-on-er,” Rhys grins, but he steps back and starts dancing with Mor anyway, and I watch them for just a second before I head toward the bar.

“Two scotch and sodas please,” I tell the bartender, and while he’s making them up I lean against the counter top and turn Rhys's words over in my head.

A lover nothing like me.

I can't think about this.

Since I've moved into Velaris I think it's been fairly obvious that he's my favourite. I just thought maybe I was becoming his favourite, too. Is that stupid? Why would he like me better than his childhood friends, his family? Why would he like me like that?

A lover nothing like me.

I can't think about this.

I try to shove it away, to take back out later when I'm alone and sitting in the quiet. I'm wondering whether it will be weird now if I go back out there and keep dancing with Rhys, when my phone buzzes in my pocket.

I pull it out, and feel a flash of guilt when I see Tarquin’s name. In all honesty, I had forgotten we were supposed to meet him here.

Tarquin: We just arrived, are you guys here?

I bite my lip, and text back. I really should have put more effort in for the person who made this whole night happen.

Feyre: Yeah, I’m just at the bar!

I pay for my drinks and take a sip, supposing I should wait for Tarquin to find me before heading back to Rhys. I scan the room and don’t see him, although it’s dark enough that I’m not sure I’d recognise him unless he were fairly close.

“Feyre.”

I spin, expecting to see umber skin and gold jewellery. The smile is already half way formed. But it’s not him.

It’s Tamlin.

I have a drink in each hand and a frozen expression on my face. In the throb of the music, I hadn't recognised his voice.

I’d like to say that a million thoughts run through my head in that second, but embarrassingly, it’s just blank. I cannot think of one single thing to say, I have no words or even emotion except for shock. My brain tries to reconcile here, this club, the people who brought me; with him, the past, a life I had thought I’d left behind, but was clearly so very close behind me still.

“Tamlin,” I whisper.

“Oh so you haven’t got amnesia,” he says lightly. “Then it’s strange you’ve forgotten you’re mine.”

That’s all he says before his hand grips my elbow and I’m being dragged through the room. The drinks slosh out of their short glasses and it’s only the icy cold splash on my hands that prompts me to set them down on a tall table as I’m pulled along.

“Tamlin stop,” I say, and my voice comes out stronger than I thought it would. “I don’t want to go with you.”

But he’s so much bigger than me, and I trip along in his wake. I think, at least we’re in public. At least he can’t do anything to me while there are witnesses.

But then he shoulders open a side door and my heart drops into my stomach.

I try this time, really try to twist out of his grip. I fall to the floor, trying to surprise him with the shift in weight. I try to grab onto the frame of the door, I try prying his fingers off my elbow.

It doesn’t work.

Tamlin hauls me out into the alley and slings me against the wall. I shrink back, ashamed that I do but my body is so afraid of him.

“How did you find me?” I breathe.

“You forget Feyre,” he says, mockingly, “that I am very well connected. When your little painting sold, it went instantly onto the Instagram of an art dealer who worked for my father. Tagged the location and everything. All I had to do was pretend to be a fan and ask where around the gallery where I might be able to find you. It didn’t take long. A prick named Eris told me.

“And then I saw the painting in person and I thought, that looks awfully familiar. Looks like something that was in my house last time I checked. So it seems someone is a thief as well as a little slut.”

“You can’t steal what’s already yours,” I retort.

“Which is why you’ll be coming home with me without a fuss,” Tamlin replies smoothly.

“I’m. Not. Yours,” I growl.

“The fuck you’re not. My car’s parked out the front. Now walk.”

“No.”

“I said walk.” And this time something hard and very cold presses into my belly. I look down to see a gleaming silver pistol between us, and that’s it.

It’s over.

Just like that, the life that was just starting to crystallise around me blows away like gun smoke and it’s not that I shouldn’t have trusted Rhys, it’s that I shouldn’t have trusted any of this. That it would last. That it would be stronger that Tamlin.

I think that some people who spend time with bad people become very hard and untrusting. They don’t let anyone in and they don’t love. I’ve had the opposite reaction, somehow. After my parents died, after my sisters were awful, after Tamlin started to change, all I wanted was to be loved. All I wanted was to believe in goodness and for things to get better and I wish… I wish now that I was that first kind. The cold, untouchable kind. Better too discerning than not discerning enough, no?

I close my eyes against the tears that spring up, but Tamlin knows. He can see it in my face.

“See,” he croons. “You can be reasoned with after all.”

The pistol moves, now that he knows he has me, and I turn to walk with him. What else can I do?

I take all of one step when a dark figure steps into the alley behind us, and then Rhys is here. Rhys is here.

Rhys is here and there’s no witty one liners or taunts, there’s just his shadow in my peripheral vision and then the incredibly loud crack of two hits. Fast, one after the other. And it takes me a full minute to process what has just happened- Rhys has punched Tamlin square in the face as he’s turned, and then kicked the pistol out of his hand. Before Tamlin can recover, Rhys has scooped up the gun, emptied the bullets and tipped the pistol into the nearby dumpster with a frown of distaste. And only now that Tamlin has been disarmed do the words come.

"Are you alright?" he says to me. Cross over in three steps. Voice low and urgent, eyes searching. I nod, and wonder if I'm going into shock. His fingers lift my chin and he's looking me over.

“Rhysand you shit,” Tamlin spits.

“Tamlin, you fucking coward.” Rhys rounds on Tamlin, and his face twists with fury.

“You know, you’ve always been a bully but now you can’t keep a woman around so you threaten her with a gun. I didn’t think my opinion of you could get any lower but here we are.”

Tamlin laughs. “What are you going to do, Rhysand? Lecture me about violence and then hit me again? This is why no one ever takes you seriously.”

Rhys ignores the jibe. “What’ll it take to get this through your head?” he asks instead. “She. Doesn’t. Want. You. So just leave her alone.”

“She doesn’t know what she wants,” Tamlin says.

“She is standing right here,” I hiss. “And what I want is to never see you again. Please. Please. Leave me alone.” My voice breaks on it, and I don’t care that I’m begging.

“No.” Then he lunges, reaches for me, and Rhys steps in.

The fight breaks out now, really and truly this time, and oh it is awful. The sound of knuckles against bone and soft tissue is a sickening, wet thud that won’t stop coming. I go to call for help, ring Cassian or Mor or the police, but I’m trying to use my phone with one eye on the fight and my hands are shaking so badly. I don’t understand this male thing, this bloody and snarling tangle. I feel so painfully helpless, as the dial tone in my ear rings and rings, but I don’t dare run to find anyone. It’s like if I’m not here to witness it, anything, anything could happen, the worst could happen and if I stay then at least… at least… but this is where logic fails me, I don’t know what I’d be good for but at least Cassian is picking up now.

“The alley,” I gasp. “They’re fighting, I didn’t know what to do, come quick.”

“Which door?” Cassian says, and his words are short and sharp.

“Side door nearest the bar. Do I call the police?”

“No. They’ll side with Tamlin, they always do.”

“Okay. Just.. just hurry Cassian.”

“I’m almost there.”

And then the call disconnects, and I’m just left there staring and useless while Rhys and Tamlin make each other bleed.

I can’t tell who is winning, whose punches are landing. Everything is just a mess and there’s a part of me that wonders if I should try get between them, if I should try pull them apart. Another part of me is quite sure that if Tamlin has no qualms about sticking a gun in my stomach, I’m not a likely barrier to further injury.

Cassian, Azriel and Mor burst through the door at that moment, and I sag against the wall with relief. They shoulder their way into the fight, and haul the two apart. Azriel pushes Rhys behind the three of them, and Tamlin stumbles back, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.

“If it isn’t Rhys’s little friends come to save him,” Tamlin taunts. “What the hell are you doing here, Morrigan? Still trying to be one of the big boys?”

“Shut up Tamlin, I’ve beat your ass before,” Mor says, sounding bored. I’m instantly so impressed.

Tamlin’s eyes cloud over, and he bares his teeth.

“You’re on the wrong side,” he says, and the laughter is gone from his voice. “All of you. Protecting a fucking criminal.”

“I told you, I can’t steal my own paintings,” I say. I swear, the adrenalin is making me babble, I don’t know why I’m even talking. But Tamlin smiles a dark smile.

“Not you, sugar,” he says. “This one.” He looks at Rhys. “I have a restraining order, you may recall. One that you are now in violation of.”

And I’ll never know how he does it, but at that moment there’s a bleat of sirens and a police car is blocking the entrance of the alley. They’re coming toward us now and unbelievably, pulling Rhys into handcuffs. I try to catch his eyes but his face is impassive and selfishly, I want him to reassure me.

"You have the right to remain silent."

I blanche.

“Feyre, did you call the police?” Cassian, eyes wide. I shake my head, back and forth trying to make it make sense.

"No, I…"

“Anything you can say can be used against you in court.”

“Feyre did you call them?”

“No, you said not to, so I didn’t!”

“You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice. You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning.”

“Rhys, Rhys are you alright?” Mor now, calling over the shoulder of the police woman. He finally looks up, and he looks much calmer than I feel.

“Who the hell called the police?” Azriel says.

“If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you.”

“Rhys, I’m sorry.” I’m truly panicking now, but it’s the only thing I can think to say. “I’m so, so sorry.”

At this he meets my eyes, and it's a sad, half smile that he gives me. "It's okay," he says.

“If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering at any time.”

Rhys is still holding my gaze. "It's okay," he murmurs again. "Stick with Mor. I'll be just fine."

And then the officer pushes down on his head and he's bundled into the car and the world blurs.

***

MASTERLIST

TAGLIST: @ghostlyrose2 @highladysith @stardelia @feysand-loml @tillyrubes10 @ratabrasileira @live-the-fangirl-life @maybekindasortaace @annejulianneh111 @thebonecarver @rowaelinismyotp @loosingdreams @pitrsattabhaadmeinjao @achernarlight @swankii-art-teacher @sjmships @courtofjurdan @teddytdr @positivewitch @thalia-2-rose @darling-archeron @rapunzel1523 @fairchildjace @hopefulacademia @story-scribbler @fandomstalker27 @realbookloverproblems @dealfea @s-tormwitch @cretaceous-therapod @whenyadoesntcutit @scatterbrainedgirl @whoever-you-choose-to-love @endlessdaydream @themoonthestarsthesuriel @rarephloxes @timesconvert @mis-lil-red @alerialumina

[not-poignant]

Hi, Pia, would you mind sharing a little bit information about your current and future or maybe future projects? Like M&M, the Ef+Gary fic and Daemonos?

Only if youre ok with doing so tho. Thanks x

Hi anon!

There's actually a Mallory & Mount tag already set up so all the posts I've made about it (and there's quite a few!) can be checked out if you scroll down.

There's also an AU fic already that introduces you to the characters here, called Three Choices :D

I'm not comfortable talking in too much detail about the Ef/Gary fic until I know more about it, because I don't like locking things down until I have more, however there's already a playlist, and the title will be Underline the Black. I've said here and elsewhere that it will be omegaverse, and feature Efnisien being sent to a facility to be rehabilitated as an omega. I posted an excerpt the other day in the Discord so I'll post that here too:

Red galaxies fired beneath Efnisien’s eyelids. He was aware of pain all over and thought for a moment he was back on Crielle’s metal table, and he took a breath and held it despite the pain in his chest and his ribs, like he’d been beaten. He was no stranger to that either, and a perverse pride flowed through him, because he was alive, because he wasn’t whining like some bitch omega.

If I go ahead with Underline the Black, which is looking more and more likely, it won't start until after Falling Falling Stars has finished.

Daemonos is literally a project that's 5-10 years away (and with the cancer I have, I might not even be alive then - though here's hoping), it's coming after Mallory & Mount, so aside from a playlist, and like two posts, I'm not really comfortable saying much more than that. It'll focus on demonolatry, but if I say much more that's basically giving away a plot, and I have sadly had people steal my plots before, so I'm just...not really prepared to give much by the way of details, especially since it's so far away in the grand scheme of things that I might get interested in a new project between then and now, and it may never get written!

These days I'm a bit more wary about talking about projects in too much detail if they're like half a decade away, or alternatively, could be spoilery without me realising (i.e. a detail I decide is fine to reveal now, could end up being really handy as a spoiler later on! The Ice Plague went through huge huge changes from concept to execution as well, and me saying 'I'm going to do this' and then doing something completely different risks letting people down! So while I do like talking about future projects, we're talking about a timeline so far off into the future I'm not sure if I'll even still be writing at all, and it becomes more of an existential exercise than a fun one lol)

But hopefully that helps!

[warriorsfireandwater]

You know, without getting spoilery, I actually adore all of the protags. I like how Flamepaw is like, struggling with this legacy and family that he's not even really connected to very strongly. He reminds me a bit of like, Breezepaw and Jaypaw actually. Can't wait to see how his character goes. I'm also interested in Frostpaw because it's so refreshing to see just a normal ass cat who hasn't been getting prophecies since birth want to be a medicine cat and not be instantly talented with herbs and everything. I really am most interested in Sunbeam's potential because like you said, she kinda lacks agency but I think that could make her arc all the more compelling

I do like the protags! I said this in the tags but while I was mean to Flamepaw I do LIKE him, there's just not like, enough going on right now to make his arc 'worth it' to me for a POV when we've got The Stuff happening in RiverClan and the buildup to conflict in ShadowClan. There's a liittle buildup in TC and I appreciate that they're actually tackling the mixed feelings around legacy naming but I just wish there was... a little more happening there if we're gonna have a TC pov. I do like him though! I just don't feel like he really has any big plot hooks going on

I love Frostpaw and wish to protect her with all my heart 🥺. I really dig the setup of all the pressure being put on her and love her dynamic with Curlfeather. I'm ALSO glad that she's setup as having a connection to StarClan but not having super overt and obvious communications with them. It's not quite back to OG series StarClan but it feels more grounded and mystical this way.

I like Sunbeam and she feels like she has real opinions and values that come through but I do wish she'd do some things. I actually LIKE romance in warriors when they do it well and I like the way her and her love interest's things play out, it's a fresh dynamic we haven't seen much of. It got a little grating the number of times she was like "Uh oh! I have thoughts about this thing that's happening! I need to act!" and then two seconds later was like "Hm... no, I don't think I will." It feels like she's an inactive participant in the story and it SEEMS like she might be more active next book but there's only so much of it I can take lol. There's a few points where it makes sense given context but added all up it just seems like she's not a very active participant in the plot. She had a few pretty obvious plot hooks begging for her to participate in or investigate and she was like :/ no

[theladyragnell]

Hi it's leverage birthday anon! It's so good! I just finished watching the episodes and idk how far you are so I'm avoiding spoilers but I will say that I'm excited about Sophie's role and also Breanna is incredible. Harry is... surprisingly well suited to the team, I didn't expect to like him as much as I do.

I'm glad they got rid of Nate for obvious reasons but I do miss the edge he brought to the show. I don't think any of the other characters can/should really carry the anger that he did and since he was the proxy for how angry the viewers were/are at the world as it is vs how it should be it felt a liiiiitle lacking. Still really good! Just softer I guess.

But yeah! Overall super excited!! And I hope I didn't spoil anything you didn't already know, I think I stuck to stuff available in the trailers/ep 1 (I have other reactions regarding characters ofc but they're a bit more spoilery so just know I haven't forgotten the trio)

A PSA for you and anyone else reading: I am four episodes in! Given evening commitments this week, there's a chance of me finishing by Sunday, and almost certainly within a week.

I'll put my somewhat incoherent thoughts behind a cut since I don't know if I'll be able to avoid spoilers as deftly! (So if read-mores don't tend to work for you and you care about Leverage spoilers, now's the time to get past this post on your dash.)

On Harry: I really enjoy him too! I think that they're doing a really good and smart job of showing the ways the world has changed and using this new character to do it. Plus I love that he just kind of rolls with everything, while also being something of an outsider to the group with new perspectives on their habits.

On Sophie's role: I am enjoying it, though her taking on leadership of the team is a little bit bothering me because we're not getting as much of Parker being in charge of cons as I wanted. (On a side note, Parker saying she's been the grifter since Sophie left was weird to me--like, I love the flowcharts thing, but also Eliot seemed like the natural choice to me to take up most of the grifter roles, his grifts were always more believable than the other two, even if they'd have had to choose different kinds of cons with his character strengths.) So, a toss-up there for me?

On Breanna: My feelings on Breanna are basically that meme that's like "I want to protect it, I want to tell my friends about it." SO GREAT. Like, do I miss Hardison? Obviously. Is she SO GREAT? SHE IS.

On anger and Nate: Hard disagree here, actually! Like, Nate did add an overt anger to the show, but I just last night watched the episode where Breanna makes a speech that boils down to "The world has been fucked as long as I've been alive, and now that I've got the power to, I'm going to fuck it right back." She is VERY angry. As for the others ... they're angry, but what you're reading as softer edges to the show I'm reading as the weary resignation of people who have been angry for a really long time and who have been trying to hold back a flood and getting pushed back inch by inch no matter how many times they step forward but know they never can and never want to stop doing the work. And it feels really real to me! I've sure as hell been tired after the last five years especially, but I'm also angrier than ever, just a different kind of anger. So I've been really interested in the ways they're exploring that!

Anyway, yes, those are some feelings so far! I am so excited to see all the meta and tag rants Leverage fandom comes up with, it has always been good at that.