#leverage hc

[evasleveragefanshit]

Okay, here’s my favorite crack leverage headcanon:

The reason everyone ignores Hardison and just makes up identities on the fly is because they know they have to get there first if they don’t want him to stick them with the most ridiculous names imaginable.

I mean it’s already basically canon! The way Eliot grumbles about getting named *insert dr.who/ appropriately geeky reference*

But then we get to the other half of this theory. It’s a game. They’re all trying to one up Hardison. Nate says it’s immature and refuses to admit he’s playing but also took first place with “Gnar Slabdash”

[aardvaark]

in Leverage, in the background of some scenes you can see ads for or clips of another Dean Devlin production, The Librarian movie series. seems like The Librarian movies exist in the Leverage universe. BUT! at the end of the first david job, sophie’s storage unit contains the Judas Chalice, which is the titular arrifact in "The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice". it’s not an actual artifact irl. so there’s kinda 2 possibilities in my head at the moment:

sophie stole the prop, and considers it so precious that it’s stored amongst her stash of very real, very old artifacts. she’s like the worlds biggest Librarian fan.

the plot of The Librarian movies & tv show are real in the Leverage universe, and the movies are dramatic retellings of real events. sophie owns stolen cursed artifacts because of course she does.

(notably, sophie is seen holding & blowing into the judas chalice right after admitting that she has the real second david… you know, her big betrayal? the reveal of her judas kiss? etc etc)

[morganbritton132]

I love how each member of the Leverage crew reacts to other people in their field because it’s like:

Nate & Sterling: respected rivals

Sophie & Tara: besties

Parker & Archie: father figure

Eliot & Quinn/Mikel: partners with flirty undertones

Hardison & Cha0s: mortal enemies

[cobra-creampuff]

fic where losers on the internet start calling Jamie "Barbie" because of his hair and the fact he dares to wear pink sometimes, and Jamie is like Very On Purpose taking it as a compliment ("she's everything, right there on the box innit") and like he's not fronting exactly but it is clearly taking at least a little effort to not let it feel like the insult it's meant as.

until Roy gifts him the Olympic soccer Barbie + a custom England uniform for her. then it's pretty easy.

[alittleleverage]

Leverage as a show about found family but even deeper than that found Self, or finding the Self through found family & Sophie's arc of finding peace in Being Sophie rather than her past self, past selves, of creating the version of herself that she feels the most comfortable in even as she is constantly changing. We never find out her "real name" and that's because it doesn't matter- when she takes all her masks off at the end of the day her past self is one of them, Sophie is her true self because that's the self she chose!!

[waitingforsecretsouls]

Fëanor and succession

"High princes were Fëanor and Fingolfin, the elder sons of Finwë, honoured by all in Aman; but now they grew proud and jealous each of his rights and his possessions. Then Melkor set new lies abroad in Eldamar, and whispers came to Fëanor that Fingolfin and his sons were plotting to usurp the leadership of Finwë and of the elder line of Fëanor, and to supplant them by the leave of the Valar; for the Valar were ill-pleased that the Silmarils lay in Tirion and were not committed to their keeping." - The Silmarillion, Chapter 07: Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor

„Though after the rule of the Noldor was committed to him [Fingolfin] by Manwë (in place of his elder brother and father) he took the name of Finwë.“ -Morgoth’s Ring, The Later Quenta Silmarillion (II)

"He [Fëanor] claimed now the kingship of all the Noldor, since Finwë was dead, and he scorned the decrees of the Valar." -The Silmarillion, Chapter 09: Of the Flight of the Noldor

"As he [Fëanor] said with some justice: ‘My brother’s claim rests only upon a decree of the Valar; but of what force is that for those who have rejected them and seek to escape from their prison-land?’" -The Peoples of Middle - Earth, Chapter 11: The Shibboleth of Fëanor

"Therefore even as Mandos foretold the House of Fëanor were called the Dispossessed, because the overlordship passed from it, the elder, to the house of Fingolfin, both in Elendë and in Beleriand, and because also of the loss of the Silmarils." -The Silmarillion, Chapter 13: Of the Return of the Noldor

"With him into banishment went his seven sons, and northward in Valinor they made a strong place and treasury in the hills; and there at Formenos a multitude of gems were laid in hoard, and weapons also, and the Silmarils were shut in a chamber of iron. Thither also came Finwë the King, because of the love that he bore to Fëanor; and Fingolfin ruled the Noldor in Tirion. Thus the lies of Melkor were made true in seeming, though Fëanor by his own deeds had brought this thing to pass; and the bitterness that Melkor had sown endured, and lived still long afterwards between the sons of Fingolfin and Fëanor." -The Silmarillion, Chapter 07: Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor

"One thing only marred the design of Manwë. Fëanor came indeed, for him alone Manwë had commanded to come; but Finwë came not, nor any others of the Noldor of Formenos. For said Finwë: ‘While the ban lasts upon Fëanor my son, that he may not go to Tirion, I hold myself unkinged, and I will not meet my people.’" -The Silmarillion, Chapter 08: Of the Darkening of Valinor

"Fingolfin had prefixed the name Finwë to Ñolofinwë before the Exiles reached Middle-earth. This was in pursuance of his claim to be the chieftain of all the Ñoldor after the death of Finwë, and so enraged Fëanor that it was no doubt one of the reasons for his treachery in abandoning Fingolfin and stealing away with all the ships." -The Peoples of Middle - Earth, Chapter 11: The Shibboleth of Fëanor

"So it came about that to Fëanor the rejection of þ became a symbol of the rejection of Míriel, and of himself, as her son, as the chief of the Noldor next to Finwë: […] So Fëanor would call himself 'Son of the þerindë', and when his sons in their chilhood asked why their kin in the house of Finwë used s for þ he answered: 'Take no heed! We speak as is right, and as King Finwë himself did before he was led astray. We are his heirs by right and the elder house. Let them sá – sí, if they can speak no better.'" -The Peoples of Middle – Earth, Chapter 11: The Shibboleth of Fëanor

"To his sons Finwë gave his own name as he had done to Fëanor. This maybe was done to assert their claim to be his legitimate sons, equal in that respect to his eldest child Kurufinwë Fayanáro, but there was no intention of arousing discord among the brothers, since nothing in the judgement of the Valar in any way impaired Fëanor’s position and rights as his eldest son. Nothing indeed was ever done to impair them, except by Fëanor himself; and in spite of all that later happened his eldest son remained nearest to Finwë’s heart." -The Peoples of Middle- Earth, Chapter 11: The Shibboleth of Fëanor

[couldtransitionsaveher]

ELLIOT SPENCER from LEVERAGE

JUSTIFICATION:

"If I had a dollar for every trans woman I know who enlisted in the military to "man up" and deny her womanhood, I would have around $8, so it's kind of a thing.

As for Eliot, she left home at 18 to join the military and the proceeded to become the most violent, hypermasculine Oklahoman one can picture, living a total commitment to violence — until she learns to cook, which is how she learns that her hands are for more than killing.

Over the 5 original seasons of Leverage, she opens up and becomes the protector of a found family of 5. She's Nate Ford's attack dog at times, but she also learns softness and opens her heart. She redefines herself from killer to hero. She becomes so undeniably one of the good guys and she almost glows with it — but not quite. She has a lot of things she refuses to discuss, much less forgive herself for.

There's a good scene where she and her teammate, Parker, are stuck in a crevasse and she has a great "We're not like our friends" monologue where she talks about the situational ethics of fringe situations and surviving extremes.

She went like 40 years without talking to her adoptive father, to say nothing of her biological parents.

This girl deserves a pink flannel shirt and a backing band for her to perform "I feel like a woman," but maybe being told she's beautiful and she's allowed to be a woman would go a long way to helping her love herself." - @finalgirl-nihilbliss

Reminder: Submissions are always open! Submit here!

[faorism]

[nsfw] its not that he wants to make himself small in the bedroom. eliot likes how solidly he is built, likes what he can do with his muscle. even likes how the growing cushion of fat on his stomach as he ages adds to his presence in the world—literally by protecting his organs, and figuratively whenever his partners rub their palms indulgently over his belly. its not about size that makes him writhe under hardison when the man brackets eliot in with his long arms and legs as he fucks eliot down into the mattress. its not about size when eliot breaks off from riding parkers strap to curl into her protective embrace, even knowing he can't hide from the vibe no matter how tightly he fits himself into her arms. no, it's not about being small. instead, it's about density. mass. the heaviness of vulnerability made manifest as he presses himself into love as hardison and parker press into him. he is crushed between his partners and all he wants is them to squeeze even closer, to make him so dense he cannot be stolen away except by the master thieves he gladly submits himself to. he cannot drift quietly from their love and his devotion to them. people don't realize how heavy a gold bar is until they have twenty-seven pounds laden in their hands, but eliot has experts who know just how to handle him so.

[independent-fics]

Love the tiny continuity of Eliot getting his elbow hurt in the beginning of “The Top Hat Job” and still holding his elbow after the elevator fight. I just feel like they always make characters seem unhurt after like on injury.

[predvestnik]

Amazing things happening in this household in reference to this observation. It's super interesting, and different interpretations* for why he reacts like that can be drawn.

I've mentioned what I consider in my portrayal regarding Childe's education, and language barriers are definitely present, potentially causing moments like the one Sam and I played about above.

Generally speaking, Childe is intelligent, he learns fast, but it also means he is a self-taught in multiple fronts so, when it comes to language, it can end up in miscommunication. Or funny little conversations.

[archersgoon]

the good ending to any hypothetical celie story would be her giving up on the idea of that one big love shes on the grind for

[hazelcephalopod]

While I’m ok with -and actually really like- the backstory Redemption gave Eliot I do agree it doesn’t totally meet up with the implied backstory from OG Leverage. However I have a way to remedy the issue as I see it -actually I have several but I’ll just mention this one I think is kinda interesting. This one is pure hc because it contradicts the stated canon.

Eliot is adopted at a young age, from an abusive home. Perhaps as a young child he was left badly hurt at the hospital and his to be mom bonded with him and decided to foster and later adopt him. Not perfect, but I think it gives better connectivity between the OG and sequel series.

[cobra-creampuff]

i also love that the entire team routinely purposely riles eliot up just to see the difference between him being mad at them vs him being mad

[ll-again]

I absolutely love this man, but can we please talk about how he looks like Noah Wyle retired from acting, grew a ZZ Top beard, and moved out to the sticks to become the kind of hick who goes to tractor pulls?

I laughed so fucking hard at this

[aardvaark]

expanding on that post about sophie devereaux backstories, grift ones and real ones and the things in between:

a year or two after they meet, tara and sophie are somewhere near drunk in a hotel room after a con, high heels thrown against the wall, dresses unzipped and halfway off. tara asks for her Story. the Story. and maybe she wouldn’t have asked if she were sober or maybe tara is simply a little too bloody brave sometimes, a little too determined.

so sophie tells her about a father in the military, a mother who died young, a family that moved houses, towns, regions, countries, all the time growing up. about lying to impress kids at every new school. about desperately doing almost anything to fit in for the months or year she’d stay in that area. about sweet talking her way out of a few little crimes here and there, cash that she would certainly never steal from her rich friends’ parents’ wallets, some driving rules she broke when she was too young to even have a license, yet old enough for a cop to encourage her flirting. sophie tells tara that her father died when she was 19, and the grief had led to recklessness. she made a mistake on a too-ballsy grift. she would’ve gone to jail. instead, she faked her death (for the first of many times) and never looked back. it’s the only funeral of hers that she didn’t attend.

and then, tara told her an equally untrue Story in return.

when sophie is duchess charlotte prentiss, her husband william asks far too many questions about her past. of course, charlotte has a Story. all of her aliases have Stories, even the ones she only uses for a day - they all have birthdays, childhood pets, first kisses, people they love. so she tells him that her parents died in a car crash when she was 16 and instead of going into the foster system, the authorities figured she was old enough to become an emancipated minor. she tells him how it was difficult at times, incredible at others, and sad and exciting and embarrassing and bittersweet. she weaves a damn good tale about charlottes life, if she may say so herself - one that’s just painful enough for william to stop asking questions. it works perfectly. but when she tucks astrid into bed that night, and the little girl looks up at her with big round eyes and asks if ‘charlotte’ misses her mummy and daddy and says that she’s sad for ‘charlotte’ because she knows what it’s like to miss a mama… sophie freezes. there’s a lump in her throat and goosebumps on her skin. she blinks down the tears and recovers just enough to fake a smile and kiss astrid’s forehead as she leaves the room. lying has never hurt like this before. it takes all her strength to shut it down, shove the emotions in some tiny box in her head that she simply refuses to acknowledge. she decides, then, that she has to leave this house as soon as possible.

the charlotte Story is one of many that hardison finds. it’s inevitable, when he has to cover all their tracks so thoroughly, that hardison would stumble upon various old aliases. he only learns about the charlotte one from the job in england - there’s no links between her and sophie, but he destroys a decent amount of excess duchess charlotte prentiss information just in case, and then looks for any other mysterious women who happened to pop up or vanish around that time. he notices that there are some things that all of sophie’s aliases share: their parents are dead, they have no siblings, and their life changed dramatically somehow in their mid-to-late teens (usually with those parents’ deaths, or gaining an inheritance, or moving far away). he knows that these are all pretty standard, convenient details for a fake identity. but he wonders, sometimes. couldn’t she have made up dead siblings? estranged but alive parents? a dramatic event in her early childhood or in her twenties? he doesn’t know if the consistent parts mean anything. he doesn’t ask for her Story - not outright, at least. though for the first couple months of knowing her, he does sometimes enquire about little things here and there. did she grow up with sisters, what was her high school like - that sort of stuff. information is his thing, sue him! sometimes sophie just smiles. sometimes she answers, and he eventually learns that her truths, at least, are very much relative. when he decides that she is family - which is pretty early on, to be honest - he also decides not to ask anymore. he destroys old aliases when necessary, but he never reads more than he has to. he loves sophie and that is enough.

eliot never asks anything about her life. not even the innocent, casual, unthinking questions that sophie is used to from other people: where’d you grow up? did you ever have any pets? i always had to share a room with my sister, what about you? eliot clearly avoids asking her any of it. she’s somewhat surprised by that. sure, he’s polite, but he’s also suspicious both by nature and due to certain unfortunate experiences, so she sort of expected him to interrogate her when they first met.

one night, they’re the last two left at nate’s apartment. even nate had gone to bed and left them there, long given up on shooing his team out at appropriate times. sophie’s been drinking tea and flipping through a latvian phrase book to refresh her memory for tomorrow’s grift, and apparently that 90-minute-a-day sleep schedule allows for eliot to be doing one-handed push ups in the living room at this ungodly hour. too tired to retain any more information, sophie studies eliot instead. he’s a straightforward guy. she decides to be straightforward too. she breaks the silence of the apartment and simply asks - is he ever curious about her Story? eliot pauses a moment. looks her in the eye, quiet. doesn’t brush her off gruffly like she thought he might. instead, he asks if she’s ever curious about What He’s Done. that is answer enough for the both of them. they don’t talk for the rest of the night, each going back to their own activities, but the silence isn’t uncomfortable. on the contrary - the mutual understanding ends up solidifying their relationship.

nate isn’t always so intensely careful about his questions like eliot. well, actually, there were many times back in his insurance days that he very much did ask her questions on purpose. and of course, for five years, he asks after her real name. sophie generally thinks of it as a fun game. she smiles at his useless determination and teases him when he comes back from jail. after a while, though, she realizes that the questions about her Story mostly stopped when leverage formed, and stop completely once he proposed. nate never hears any version of her Story. she’s here now, and that’s all he needs or wants to know - just like how sophie is her real name in any way that matters.

the moment that sophie realizes this is the moment she stops caring about the real Story, the burden of the secret and the guilt and shame of keeping it from her newfound family. in that moment, she understands that what happened back then is just a small drop in the ocean, irrelevant to the life she’s built and come to love. she never tells them the story, and she never needs to.

[archivewriter1ont]

We need their formerly-enemies-now-buddy-assassins/ninjas show now please. Eight seasons, 45 minute episodes of them being THIS and also throwing in memories of beating each other up before they discovered friendship brass knuckles.

Also, it is my absolute most beloved HC that Quin cannot cook to save his life. This obviously makes them better friends, because he will not criticize the food as long as he gets to eat it. When Eliot was feeling down one day and settled on making comfort food (he's got to love Southern cuisine) Quin was politely breaking into his apartment to *borrow* his scissors or something, smelled shrimp and sausage and butter grits cooking, and stopped dead in his tracks.

When he tasted it, he nearly cried.

Leverage 4x18- "The Last Dam Job"