#no i have not seen the big nate show

[wormspoodle]

watched the captain underpants movie and it made me wanna draw some beloved childhood comics characters

[hysteria-things]

ONE

ʚ♡ɞ 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 | 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 | 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 | 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 ʚ♡ɞ

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: chris x reader

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: guess who’s back in town: the sturniolo triplets. it’s for their birthday party their parents are throwing, the same party your parents force you to go to.

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: swearing

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 1,054

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞: we’re locked in on the series, folks!

you can’t go a day without seeing something along the lines of the sturniolo triplets, and it fucking pisses you off.

your parents went to high school with theirs and were really close. your mom got pregnant with you around the same time marylou got pregnant with the triplets, your “best friends.”

the same triplets that left you months ago because of their career of being youtubers. the least they could’ve done was still message you, but no. they unfollowed you on everything.

you texted them multiple times, but all you got was one-word answers or no answer at all. as much as you didn’t want to, you stopped trying after a while because it was no use.

your parents still hang out with marylou and jimmy, sometimes even justin when he’s in town. at least you got one more best friend that you grew up with, nathan doe.

nathan is the youngest out of the four of you. nick, matt, and chris are turning twenty tomorrow and nate’s turning nineteen on the ninth. you’ve been nineteen since april, so you’re right in the middle.

you guys met him in elementary school and he was the last piece of the puzzle. you guys were even called the FOREVER FIVE, something you all made up at a sleepover in the fourth grade.

of course the three stooges didn’t drop him when they left. favoritism, i guess.

you scroll angrily on tiktok. it’s like the app senses your hatred for them and decides to put edits or clips from their videos on your for you page. this shit is definitely not for you.

then, there’s a knock on your bedroom door. “come in.” you call out, and your mother comes in. she sits on your bed and sighs. “what’s up?” you ask.

she gives you a face of sympathy, and it scares you a little. “the triplets are back in town.” she starts, and that gains your attention. “and i want you to come with me and your father to their birthday party tomorrow.”

“no.” you flat-out say. it’s no secret that your mom knows about your hatred either since you cried to her for a week straight about how they abandoned you.

“y/n, please.” your mom puts a hand on your knee. “marylou would love to see you there. she asks about you, you know. she misses you.”

frowning, you start to think. you miss her too. you never blamed her for what her sons did, but you haven’t seen her since they left. she is the sweetest lady you’ve ever met. “and they’re celebrating nate’s birthday, too. you have to at least show up for him, okay?”

you exhale sharply. “okay.”

you pull up to the party the next day with your parents, making your way to the backyard where it’s held. not a lot of people are there, just close friends and family. you scan the area at the top of the steps for nathan, getting disappointed when you don’t see him.

marylou engulfs you in a hug the moment you step on the grass. “hello, sweetheart!” she exclaims, pulling away with a big smile on her face. she places her hands on your shoulders. “how are you doing? you feeling okay?”

“i’m doing fine!” you reply in the same tone, putting on a fake smile.

“thank you so much for coming. i know it’s been a little… strange for you for the past few months. i’m sorry about that.”

“please don’t apologize. you did nothing wrong,” you say and she pulls you back in for another hug.

“if you want, the boys are standing by the chips and dip. if not, don’t be afraid to make yourself comfortable.” she points to the numerous folding tables set up.

god, you missed this woman. “i will. thank you so much.”

you walk over to the table where your parents are, placing your things down before joining them.

“twenty years old is fucking disgusting.” nick rants, dipping a chip in onion dip and popping it into his mouth.

the other two giggle. “yeah, well—” chris pauses when he turns his head and lands eyes on someone. “holy shit, guys.” he taps both of his brothers on the arm.

“look.” he continues, pointing at you from across the way when he gets his sibling’s attention. “we have to talk to her.”

“chris, no.” matt says. “do you not know that she hates us? it was shitty, what we did. that’s honestly my biggest regret.”

“we are petty losers for that.” nick chimes in.

chris crosses his arms. he would do anything to get you back into his life. there was no specific reason why they did what they did. they ghosted a lot of old friends ever since they moved to LA, and you got unlucky. “fine. if you guys won’t, i will. i want to get my best friend back.”

“chris, wait! that’s not a good idea!” the two scream at him as he starts to march over to you, who’s now pouring pepsi into a red solo cup.

you gasp out of shock when you turn around and see a brunette towering over you. “hi.” he says lowly. “i didn’t think you’d come.”

“i came for nate.” you say coldly. “where is he?”

“he has to do something before he comes.” you move over to start walking, but he steps in front of you.

“chris—”

“i’m so fucking sorry.” he apologizes. “we miss you.”

“should’ve thought of that before you woke up one day and decided to pretend i didn’t exist.”

his heart aches at your words. the three of them really are assholes. “can we just start over? please?”

“start over?” you scoff. “we can’t start over after all of that. i practically known you since birth, and you want to start over?”

“y/n, i’m—”

you peek over his shoulder and cut him off. “nate’s here.” you eventually get out of his way and start to head over to nate, but stop and turn back around.

there’s a hint of hope in chris that you changed your mind, but he was wrong. “i kept the note.”

he furrows his eyebrows. “what note?”

ouch.

you laugh to yourself. of course, he doesn’t remember. “never mind. happy birthday.” you mumble, walking off into the crowd.

𝐭𝐚𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭!

@bunbunbl0gs @lexisecretaccx @thy-mission @angelic-sturniolos111 @sophssturn @mattsneezing @janiellasblog @blahbel668 @meg-sturniolo @hearts4chris @mattslolita @sturnbaby @imwetforyourmom @tillies33ssss @sturnifyed @mayhem-72 @ripmattitude @p1xieswrld @alorsxsturn @txssvx @sttzee @multiluvr @delilahprentiss @matthewsspecial @idkhowtosleep @sturniolho

[hotyanderedaddies]

Welcome! + Masterlist!

I write Yandere stories involving big, possessive men who love it when their Darlings call them "Daddy". And although I prefer M/M stories, I will tend to write from a GN Reader POV to make it more inclusive.

The themes/shows I write for include:

Werewolves*** (Honestly, this will be a majority of my content haha)

Vampires

Assorted Creatures

Pokémon

Teen Wolf

Marvel (Mainly Captain America and Spiderman)

Generic Prompts

Some Anime (I have't seen a lot, but I am always down to expand my horizons!)

Oh, and because I suck at coming up with character names, 99% of the Yanderes will be named "Daddy".

Unless stated otherwise, the pics I use are From Bing.AI because I cannot draw to save my life! I understand that AI is a bit controversial, but in no way, shape, or form will I ever request monetary compensation for these imagines because I don't believe that people who use AI should get paid for it, for real.

Also, just so there's no confusion: AI creates the images, but I create the writing.

I hope you enjoy what I put out! And let's go have fun with some Yandere!Daddies!

Love, Mikki

The Masterlist:

Blake the Bully

The School Bully Loves You: Part 1 │ Part 2 │ Part 3 l Part 4

Blake Gives You a Valentine's Day Gift

When Blake Fell in Love with You

Demon

Yandere Sleep Paralysis Demon Visits You Nightly

Trying to Ignore a Yandere Demon Who Wants to Claim You

Drider

Yandere Drider Captures You in His Web

Naga

Yandere Naga Loves to Watch Ophidiophobic You

Nate the Nerd

Yandere Nerd Blackmails "Mean Girl" You into Being His

Vampire

Spending the Night With Your Yandere Vampire Boyfriend

Werewolf

Yandere Werewolf (Secretly) Walking You Home...

Yandere Werewolf Boyfriend Watches a Scary Movie with You

How to Tell if Your Boyfriend is a Werewolf

Yandere Werewolf Boyfriend Explains "Knotting" to You

Yandere Werewolf Boyfriend with a Playful Darling who Teases Him

Yandere Werewolf Daddy x Forced Fem M! Reader

Werewolf Daddy x Hunter! Reader

Yandere Werewolf Park Ranger Helps Search for "Lost" You

Yakuza

Yandere DaddyDom Yakuza With a Kawaii Darling (You)

General Possessive Daddies

Yandere Bad Boy Daddy x Hopeless Romantic Reader

Yandere Jock Wants Nerdy You... Badly

Yandere Pirate Boards Your Ship for His Treasure

[readingwritingraptures]

I'm so fascinated by what Ted Lasso has done with Jade in this season. I thought the "lesson" was going to be that no matter how "big" you get there's always going to be someone you can't impress, someone who dislikes you, just because. (Or possibly because they had to clean your spit off the restaurant's bathroom mirror, but that's just speculation. . . .) And Nate, who falls to pieces if even one online rando doesn't acknowledge his worth, would have to learn to deal with this disdain from a lowly waitress.

But instead, it's become a story about Nate meeting someone who is not interested in being impressed. Which makes so much sense if you've worked in the service industry. Jade has likely seen men put on a show, over and over again. She's probably been hit on and been looked down on by well-off creeps for years.

Some commentators say that Jade started to like Nate when she felt sorry for him. But I think it was actually when he defended the restaurant to his date, admitting that it might not be much to look at, but the food was very good and it was personally important to Nate and his family. Because this is the first time she's seen Nate act outside his ego. It's the first time she's seen him be real and genuine, praising something for an inherent quality rather than a glossy perception.

I think Jade is attracted to honesty and realness, and that's a very interesting combination with Nate, who has been endlessly seeking external validation even at the cost of reinventing himself.

[freemansgirl]

killer

pairing: amber freeman x fem reader

summary: reader is held at gunpoint once amber finds out that reader knows her big secret. (inspired by nate pulling the gun on maddy scene in euphoria because that is A CLASSICCC angst scene and one of my favorites in media)

warnings: gun, dark!toxic!amber, amber is being manipulative, amber not being a good girlfriend, emotional abuse, physical abuse, amber pulling a gun on reader, reader is crying, traumatized reader

it’s not like you wanted this to happen, same can say for amber. you didn’t mean to trip over the ghostface box that had her costume and knife in it, it was accidentally sticking out of the bed. you never seen the box before and opened it out of curiosity. this was all a big mistake, amber tried to keep it a secret from you as much as possible. at some point, this was going to happen… some secrets cant stay hidden forever.

“amber, have you lost your mind?! what the fuck is this, how can you keep this a secret from me?!”

“you weren’t supposed to find this, (your name).”

the two of you began to get into a heated argument, you felt the need to run away because you know you can’t DATE a serial killer, it’s morally wrong to do that. your friends, family, and everyone around you would hate you if they knew the truth. as you begin to try to run to get to the doorframe in amber’s room to escape, you felt a very familiar pale-skinned hand grab your wrist, yanking you, causing you to fall back a little. “not so fast.”

once you turn around and want to open your mouth to protest amber to let you go and leave you alone, you see something black and shiny is pulled out of her back pocket… it’s a gun. you can feel a chilling spine crawl all over your body, your hairs on your body are standing up while you look at her with widened, scared eyes. “i love you, i love you, i love you.” you say rapidly, as you try to calm her down and pray that will help her put the gun away so she doesn’t kill you. you hear a small yet sinister chuckle escape her mouth as she looks at you with an evil smile. she knows you’re saying this out of fear to escape the moment, not because you actually love her, she’s not stupid. mindy tells her about all of the time about manipulation tactics from the victims side in abusive relationships in movies, plus amber has seen way too many horror movies to see how this plays out in abusive relationships or how people beg for mercy when a serial killer is about to end their lives.

she puts the gun to hip of your body and she seems to lead you to her bed, as you start to frantically look at her, unable to read her blank expression. “you’re…. scaring me… put the gun down…” you say, biting your lip to prevent your lips from trembling for a bit. she still had a blank expression, her eyes never blinked and looked deeply into your soul. you hated when she would sometimes do this in an argument, when she would purposely show no emotion so you couldn’t understand her or predict her next move. your girlfriend tilted her head to the side and smirked…, “good, that’s the point.” is all that comes out of her mouth. the gun is still adjusted to your hip, her hand is sitting on your thigh as she gently sighs looking into your watering eyes.

“now, you know i… love you right, baby? you know i know you a lot better than everyone else around you, just like you know me better than anyone else around me.” she whispers, as she rubs your thighs lovingly, you can feel your whole body tense as it begins to shake. she begins to look down at the locket necklace she has on her neck, she opens it and stares at the happy picture of you two… moments before disaster… she starts to sigh again. you start to stare at her, once again, before you shake your head agreeing with her. “now… let’s see if your words match your actions.” she says, as she leans above you and presses the barrel of the gun towards your head, the muzzle pressing more into your forehead skin. “stop, stop, amber…. please stop, i won’t tell anyone, i won’t go to the police… just let me go and we can talk about this!” you yell to her as you start panicking as you move backwards due to intense force that was on your head, as you feel your back pressing into the bedsheets. the words don’t do anything to her, as her figure is officially above you now with the gun still against your forehead.

“shut up!” she got loud and angry for a second before her facial expression returned to normal, “just… quiet down, princess. i don’t want anyone hearing us, (your name), do i make myself clear?” she spoke, sternly with a serious look in her eyes as you nodded. she didnt like the fact that you got loud, worried about the fact if anyone in the neighborhood can hear you from the window. speaking of the window, she got up and closed the blinds so no one could see the scene. she walks back over to you, hovering above you like she was before with the gun pressed against your forehead again.

“hm….” she hums softly, looking at your saddened and shaking figure, you start whimpering, more and more as tears spill out of your eyes. “back to what you said earlier about talking things out, i like this way of talking more, straight to the point and simple.” she says, as her other hand caresses your face softly. you flinch from her touch and look away to the side, this causes her to get mad and grab your face roughly. “you say you won’t go to the police, right? you say you love me, right, despite me being a killer? swear on it.” she says in a scary and upset tone, as she is breathing heavily on you.

you start to get quiet and as she starts talking to you, too scared to answer. “answer me!” your girlfriend grabs you by your shoulders with her left hand, keeping the gun on your forehead with the right hand. your body was so shaken up from fear and trauma, causing you to sniffle and hold back your tears. all you did was stare at the girl you love, trying to open your mouth but all that came out was choked sobs. this was another one of amber’s tests… she truly needed to see if you loved her, she wanted to know was what you had was real with her. first, she asked you would you still love her even if she was the killer one time you guys hung out…. you did say yes because you know how her humor is and didn’t take her seriously… but now you’re stuck in this… disaster. “yes, i won’t tell anyone, please! i love you too much to do that to you, baby, i won’t tell anyone, please just believe me!” you scream back at her, freaking out and you just wait for her to put the gun down.

she stares at you, still feeling unsatisfied with your performance, she nudges the gun into your forehead. “fucking swear on it!” the raven haired girl yelled, her voice was laced with fury and her eyes got larger. when you stared into her eyes, you weren’t dealing with amber freeman, you were dealing with ghostface. this is not the girl you ended up in love with, the same girl you smile, kiss, hold hands, laugh, cuddle, have sex with, have movie marathons with. this is not the same girl that cuddled and protected you through all of the ghostface murders just for her to be the one responsible for it. this is a whole other person.

“i swear! i swear!” you yelled at her. this is finally what was able to satisfy her, she finally smiles now that she got what it is that she wanted. you can feel the weight on the bed shift as she gets off you, giving you a bit of space. she walks to you, she begins to rub your shoulder as she gives you quick reassurance. you start to flinch from her touch, your body is curled up in a ball. “hey, sweetheart, it was just a joke. there’s no bullets in the gun, see?” amber says, holding the gun up to show you the inside of the barrel. that makes the situation even ten times worse than it already was. she sees all of this as some bullshit joke, she didn’t even care about the drama and harm she caused to you.

honestly, amber didn’t WANT TO DO THIS… she needed to do this just to make sure there was trust and loyalty between you two. “i’m sorry, baby, i thought you would know better enough to know that i’d NEVER hurt you… i’d never kill you. i love you too much to do such sick, twisted things.” she says, as she begins to grab the black box off of the ground. you couldn’t believe the words that came out of her mouth, she claimed that she would never hurt you, but she did. she begins to start getting ready as she slips on the infamous ghostface black robe. “if you loved me, you’d never do this. if you loved me, you wouldn’t put me through this!” you shout at her from across the bed, holding your knees against your chest.

but that’s the issue… the fact that she did this to you… that makes her a killer. this is her true nature. she could feel herself getting frustrated as she lets out a laugh while looking over at your cuddled position. “and if you loved me, i wouldn’t have to do this if you wouldn’t tried to leave. anyways, i have places to be and things to do.” she walks over to you about to place a gentle kiss on your cheek but you flinch away from her again and seethed your teeth. “don’t touch me!”

the reaction that you gave amber caused a smile to tug at her lips. she sighs, not wanting to deal with your attitude because she had better yet important things to do. she’ll have to just deal with you later. as she begins to just turn her back on you, amber grabs her mask and shoves her knife inside of her pocket. she starts to walk away as she leaves to go to her car, leaving you stranded and crying all alone on the bedroom while she plans for her next kill.

don’t worry, this is only the beginning….

[kalinara]

It’s interesting.  I’ve seen a lot of meta suggesting that Ted’s steps this episode will lead to him confronting Nate, but I think there’s a bigger possibility, when it comes to Ted and long overdue confrontations:  Rebecca.

I mean, this whole series started because Rebecca wanted to hurt Rupert.  She roped an innocent man into her schemes to do it.  She went out of her way to set him up for failure, to make him the target of a virulent fanbase, threatened his marriage and so on. 

She apologized, of course.  And he forgave her.  But that doesn’t mean she didn’t hurt him.  Look at his face during All Apologies.  Think about how we’ve never really seen Ted have the same kind of blithe confidence in his coaching ability since then.  It’s a sad fact that she might have caused him more pain trying to fix her mistake: he went from the belief that, for all of his ignorance and early struggles, someone believed in him to realizing that he was actually hired to bring everything down.

And ultimately, she’s still doing it!  She’s not maliciously sabotaging Ted anymore, but she’s still completely obsessed with defeating Rupert.  She just defines that differently now.

I keep seeing folks talk about her grabbing him as some kind of ‘ship moment, but to be honest, I didn’t see it that way at all.  She was aggressively unhinged, and while it was pretty hilarious, it was clearly freaking him out a bit.  And while, of course, it’s a coach’s job to help the team win, but she’s putting a lot of extra pressure on him - when she’s already had to use his emotional honesty safeword on him earlier in the episode.  (It’s also funny that, in a way, it probably contributed to the team’s loss.  Ted was busy dealing with her that he wasn’t there to motivate and focus the team - which is what he excels at.  And left the opening for the showing of the tape.)

She’s never acknowledged what she’s done to the team.  She’s never admitted to Jamie, as far as we know, that she, not Ted, sent him back to Man City.  And that really needs to happen.

From day one, or at least episode four, this show has made a big deal about accountability.  So the fact that Rebecca hasn’t, and so far, seems inclined to repeat her mistakes is significant.

And I do think Ted has some emotions about that.  Throughout season two, folks had talked about the way the characters were so separate from each other.  The sad fact is, Christmas episode aside, they were a lot closer before Rebecca came clean.  Before Ted knew what she’d done to him and the team.

IF Tedbecca is going to happen, I think we’ll need this confrontation.  And even if it doesn’t, I think Rebecca needs someone to finally call her out, or she’ll never get herself out of this rut.  

[nekosabina]

Sooo, lately, I have seen a few Hoof Trim Videos on TikTok, especially from Nate the hoof guy. And those got me thinking. We do have a few characters in Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss who have hooves. Mostly the imps but also Charlie and Alastor are seen with hooves.

I know Alastor has shoes on, and it could just be drawn on his shoes, but there is also a canon merch mouse pat that shows Alastor with hooves.

So I was wondering, do they need trims for their hooves? Are there professional hoof trimers in hell? I imagine it would be just like in reality that their hooves need regular trims just like nails, but it's hard to do yourself. Also just like in the videos I've watched, there could be issues like defects or something stuck in them, that has to be professionally treated.

Most videos I've seen are about cow hooves and I think most hooves in the show are goat-like hooves or for Alastor deer hooves, so I don't know if the procedures would be the same, but it's still fun to imagine the character going to a trimmer.

Since I'm a sucker for Alastor whump and I think he is someone who wouldn't admit he needs help, even if he is in obvious discomfort, I got a specific scenario stuck in my head. He wears shoes most of the time but his hooves still get defects from time to time. And sometimes he does walk around without his shoes, especially if no one is around to see him, or maybe just when around Rosie, because it actually is good to feel his feet on the bare ground in between.

Eventually, he actually gets a bad defect and something even gets stuck in there, but he ignores it at first. At some point, he starts to feel pressure in his hoof and it's harder to walk without some discomfort. Discomfort turns into pain and he starts to lame while walking. He is careful to not let anyone notice and even goes so far as to teleport everywhere even if it is just a few steps, just so he doesn't have to walk in front of others. But the rest of the hotel does figure out what's going on. When questioning him about it he just shrugs it off, but they, especially Charlie are not happy with that at all. During some activity, she somehow gets him to walk around and notices his lameness. She privately confronts him about it and assures him there is nothing to be ashamed of, after all, she has hooves too, and experiences issues like that herself as well. She offers to call her personal hoof trimer, Nate, but he refuses at first, saying he can take care of it himself. After some arguing, she convinces him to agree, if she promises to keep this a secret.

Imagine Alastors annoyance if the hoof trimmer tells him to lie on his stomach so the heel is on top because it's easier for him to work on the hoof. At first, he regrets agreeing to it, but as soon as he feels the pressure in his foot leaving he is instantly relieved. But then the trimmer puts a block on the other claw and puts a big wrap on, and Alastor is annoyed again because he realizes even if Charlie doesn't tell anyone this will be hard to hide. However the trimmer explains, that it won't be able to heal otherwise and he will come back to check on it in a few weeks. Alastor is not happy about that news, but goes along with it anyway, since he is at least not showing lameness anymore.

Now I'm also wondering what other kinds of ailments demons with animal forms could get, that are specific to the animal they are representing?

[geekynightowl1997]

Okay, okay. You all are probably ANNOYED about my Leverage posts- and I was on the fence about posting this one because I'm only on season 3. However, I just have SO many thoughts and I need to process them. So- here it goes;

*takes a deep breath*

Leverage is home. Like, I don't- I don't know to explain it. In another post I said the show was intoxicating and that's still true. But it's also- it's also home. Maybe I'm the only one, but when I watch it- I feel like I belong. Which is ridiculous. I'm not talented at all- but Leverage is almost like a security blanket. It's- it's safe and warm... it's home.

The only thing I can think of why it's home is because of them. Because they make it feel like home. They make feel safe and like your being cared for. Like your not alone. Even if you don't think your good at something- Leverage has your back. It gives you a sense of security. Which is weird because their criminals. But- like they said; Sometimes the bad guys are the only good guys you get.

I mean- you have Nate Ford who is always two to three spaces in front of the bad guy. Who sits there and listens to victims and gives them hope. Who talks to his team and bounces ideas off of them- instead of talking down to them. He's the kinda guy that watches from the background and sees all sorts of angles. Gets into the minds of both the victim and assailant. And if the con goes wrong- he has a second one ready to cover. Whose weakness is an empty bottle in an occupied barstool.

You have Sophie. A terrible actress whose good at acting. She can play any part. Be unseen- while being seen. Whose brave, kind, and gentle- but can kick butt when needed. She's not a damsel in distress- but she'll play the part. And the thing about that part is; it's so convincing- even she believes it too. Despite that- she's honest and sincere, she'll tell you what she thinks. Her heart is gold. Her trust is thin. She's like a snake- hypnotizing. Her weakness is the love she gave to a man who thinks too much and feels too little.

You have Eliot. A man that- if you just look at him- you'll just shrug him off. He's like any other brute. Big and brawny. And that's why you shouldn't ever judge a book by it's cover. He's so much more than that. Yes. He's brawn. A real southern charmer. But he has a brain and a heart. He's that big brother and gives you hugs and you can't help but melt into the security of that feeling. That feeling of safety that you just know has an ocean of anger underneath. But your not scared, you can't be scared. Not of him. He's the kinda guy you run towards- because you know he'll keep you safe. And yeah- maybe he'll use his brawn to keep you safe, but he'll also use his brain and his heart. He'll get you out of the situation in one piece with a grumble and a growl. His weakness is his kindness and that's why doesn't let it show.

You have Alec. The brainiac. The hacker- who isn't all that much to look at (compared to Eliot,) at least not at first glance. Yet, there's something about him that screams safe. Just as much as Eliot. He's outgoing and kind. Smart and funny. And the way that he's got everyone's back- even when it doesn't seem like it. He's your go to- to find any kind of internet mistakes and he's a good shoulder to cry on. He's that brother who is dorky, awkward, and nerdy- but he's honest and sincere. His weakness is not being able to be there when it really matters.

And- and you have Parker. The thief. The master thief- that didn't belong anywhere. Nimble and lean as she flips and slinks through vents. She's the little sister the family didn't know they even wanted. Until finally they realized she was what they needed. She's bright and cheerful despite how she grew up. Her life wasn't easy foster care and street living is a rough life- but she still believes in good things; Santa clause, Nate, Sophie, and Eliot. Most importantly she believed in Hardison. She was on her own until she was found and working with a team. Then she belonged to them. Everything she had done- was so that they knew she loved them. Her weakness is having the ability to not get caught.

To end this; Leverage is an amazing shoe- because it reminds us that no matter our background. No matter how many times we've messed up and haven't belonged- we are all human. It tells us that we will find our home, our tribe, our safety. That no matter our weakness- we'll always have somebody who can take our weakness and become our strength.

I'm only on season 3. I'll more than likely have more thoughts come by season 4/ season 5. (If you agree or disagree- don't hesitate to message me!

[daydreamgoddess14]

Support System pt. 10 - The Finale!

CH1 | CH 2 | CH 3 | CH 4 | CH 5 | CH 6 | CH 7 | CH 8 | CH 9

MASTERLIST

It's the end doo doo doo doo! The final match of the season, the ending. I really hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it. I've had the best time and I'm really proud of this one! 💜

Chapter 10

You hadn’t considered that footballers or their coaches would get nervous. But the tension in the run up to the Man City game was palpable. The whole town seemed on edge, Roy included. He’d spent each one of your Lexie nights at your house, it felt a little odd that he was there observing your boring mum routine of washing, cooking and carrying the mental load of knowing where Lexie needed to be, when and everything else in between. He didn’t ask to stay, even though you’d wanted him to, he’d said goodnight each evening and gone back to his place. By the time Lexie was back to her dads, you’d worked out that he’d been there every evening not just because he’d wanted to be, but because he’d needed to be. The build up to the game had him restless and distractible and the time with you and Lexie managed to relax him far more than sitting in an empty house, or going over and over the match with Jamie, or Nate or whoever else was free for a pint. When you’d gone to him just a day before the match, the only solace he’d found from the plays, the tactics and the team, was in you. He took his time, undressing you slowly and kissing every inch of skin as it became exposed to him.

"Let me take care of you," you whispered. You felt his head shake as he kissed down your neck. 

"I've never needed anyone like I need you." He muttered, swiping a calloused thumb over your hardening nipple, "you look so fucking beautiful like this." You rolled your hips against him, 

"Please, Roy. I need you-" you all but begged. All night he'd taken the lead and given you everything, losing himself in the feel of your body against his. When they won the next day, you were euphoric. Lexie and Phoebe had been in bits when the camera had focused in on Roy and Nate discussing something over an iPad and they could see that Roy was wearing his Richmond colours friendship bracelet. The late journey back from Manchester and the subsequent celebrations meant that it was Tuesday morning before you saw him again. You’d joined the slip road to the school, queuing for the carpark with the windows down and blasting 90s dance music when his car had pulled alongside yours. You and Lexie had been so engrossed in singing/shouting Robin S ‘Show Me Love’ - complete with 'big box, little box' hand dancing - that you hadn’t even seen him until Phoebe had called through the open windows. 

“Morning. Congratulations on the win!” You’d called out.

“Morning. Nice dancing.”

“Especially for you.” You winked. You’d ended up parked at different ends of the carpark so he and Phoebe had waited for you by the gate as you walked down to them. You’d pulled out your phone to take a call from a recruitment agency so he’d walked alongside you while you talked and the girls ran ahead. “And that’s in Richmond? Wow, ok that sounds really interesting. Absolutely yes, send my CV over if you think I’m in with a shot. Actually, just send it over anyway - I’d be mad not to at least try,” at the front of the queue at the gates, you handed Lexie her bag and gave her a kiss whilst still on the phone, “Ok, could you just hang on one second please?” You moved the phone away from your mouth and stepped up on tiptoes to give Roy a lingering kiss. The other playground parents looked on, wide eyed. “I have to go, I love you. See you later.” You whispered, taking up the phone again and going back to the car, your hand holding onto his until you couldn’t reach any further. Lexie was with her dad during the beginning of that week so that she could go with you to the final Richmond match at the weekend, so after work you’d gone straight to Roy’s. You hopped up to sit on the counter while he cooked.

“Ted’s staying.” He told you, hands on your thighs.

“Really? That’s great!”

“He got to work this morning and Rebecca was in his office. She only fucking told him she was in love with him, that she’d help his ex get a job here if she wanted to move, she’d help them find a school for Henry… pretty much told him she’d do fucking anything if he’d say.” You leaned forward, eager to hear more,

“And did he tell her?”

“Yeah, told her he was in love with her. We walked in to find them nearly going at it in the office.” You shrieked,

“Oh god that’s so cute! At least you all know before the weekend as well.”

“Settles the lads down a bit, bunch of fucking kids sometimes.” You slid forward to wrap your legs around his hips. “Any news on that job from this morning?” His hands move up your thighs and around your waist so he can kiss your neck,

“Not yet, the agency is putting me forward. It’s in Richmond though, which would be amazing. I should hear more tomorrow.”

“And how you feeling going into your last week?”

“Happy. Scared. Nervous.”

“We’ll figure it out, you know. I won’t let you fucking drown. Season finishes at the weekend, so this time next week I’ll have loads more free time for a few weeks. I can help with Lex while you do what you need to do.” He’s turned the pan off and pulled you off the counter, taking you over to the sofa, dinner forgotten for now.

~~~~~~~

You took a further call from the recruitment agency the following day. Their client was interested in meeting you but needed an informal off-site meeting. You arranged with the recruiter to meet with them towards the end of the week just outside of town. To say you were surprised to see Keeley Jones and Rebecca Welton being led to your table was an understatement. You shook hands and sat back down before your legs could give out. The mums might have been all good, the kids, but maybe you were about to be ousted by two of the most influential women in Roy’s life? You clearly looked terrified because Keeley, to her credit, took your hand and held it,

“Oh fuck, you look so scared! I’m so sorry we ambushed you, are you ok?” You think of the night before when Roy had cooked your favourite meal while you’d taken Lexie to swimming lessons and then onto her dads. When you’d sat in his lap and pushed your fingers into the knot in his shoulder to try and relieve some of the stress of the final week of the season. When he’d lost all patience and decided on a different way to unwind, which had mostly revolved around keeping his head between your thighs for as long as you let him. You think about your 4am wake up call that morning, and the 6am follow up, where he’d interlocked your fingers above your head and pressed you into the mattress as he whispered “I could do this forever”. Whatever had changed their mind in the time since the gala, you couldn’t let it derail your future.

“Look, if you’ve suddenly come to the realisation that I’m not good enough for Roy then that’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it. But I’m not going to be scared off. He loves me and I’ll take that for as long as I possibly can because I am so, so in love with him and I will spend forever making him happy in any way I can. I’m really sorry, I’m sure you’re both lovely women and I know he values your opinions, but if he’s ever going to change how he feels about me then he’ll do it himself and he’ll tell me himself. And congratulations by the way,” you turn to Rebecca, “I heard that Ted is staying and that he finally told you he loves you. I’m so happy for you.” Keeley smiled at you while Rebecca looked curiously. 

“Are you sure about this?” She asked Keeley,

“I’ve been doing some digging. Trust me, Rebecca.”

“We’re not here to try and break you and Roy up.” Rebecca said finally,

“Oh. Well then I don’t understand?”

“I’d like to interview you for a job.”

“Sorry, what? Shit, have I just fucked it up completely?”

“Nahh!” Keeley said quickly.

“Well-” Rebecca interrupted.

“No, she hasn’t. We probably scared her half to death, Rebecca! Give the poor woman a minute to recover.” You finish your water and take a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, really I am. I got completely carried away and I shouldn't have gone off like that.”

“Thank you,” Rebecca said, smiling at last. “And thank you for letting me know just how much you care about Roy.” You nod, making peace. Keeley whipped out some paperwork from her bag.

“So! Like Rebecca said, this is I guess, a final stage interview without all the previous stages? We already know about you, we'd love to know more. Our previous Director of Comms was Leslie Higgins, he moved into the Football Ops role quite a while ago now and there’s never really been the need to replace him. He and Rebecca have sort of taken on the various tasks and it’s worked fine.” She pauses for Rebecca to step in and continue,

“Now though, we’re one game away from maybe winning the Premier League just one season after coming back from relegation. That’s practically unheard of. The huge, growing success of the club, the opportunities with the Champions League next season and our plans for the future mean that we need to strengthen the internal team. KBPR can only do so much - they have other clients and I can’t ask Keeley to devote all of her time to the club.”

“We think,” Keeley started, “that with us, and Leslie and you… we could be a real Fab Four. The core AFC Richmond decision makers - with the coaches input of course.” You are stunned, to say the least.

“When you say you’ve done some digging, what exactly do you mean by that?”

“Well, when you told me who you worked for and what you’d worked on, I realised that we’d met before. I’ve been asking around people who have worked with you or who have come across you in a professional capacity to learn more. When I liked what I saw, I took it to Rebecca.”

“With Ted confirmed as staying now, I have some big plans ahead for Roy. We have some very big plans ahead as a club.”

“And you don’t think it would be weird? Me working with you, for one,” you gesture to Keeley, “or with Roy?”

“I’ve been at the club probably at least two or three times a week since the day you blocked him in on the school car park. He came in ranting and raving about some idiot driver and every day, I’ve heard him fall more in love with you. If he found out there was a way to have you in the same building every day, I think he’d be beating Rebecca’s door down himself. And working in the same building doesn’t necessarily mean you spend every waking hour together. You still have crucial jobs to do. And as for me, I'd love to work with you.” Rebecca nodded in agreement.

“The job is nothing you don’t already know, the only difference is the industry.”

“Exactly, my football knowledge is… limited at best!”

“We’re a family, we wouldn’t let you drown.” Hearing Rebecca use the same phrase as Roy struck a chord with you.

“I take it you have a job spec, contract, everything I need to read through and make a decision?”

“An interview is as much about you deciding if we’re the right fit for you, as it is for us to decide. I think you’ll find that the club's current standing means we can afford to give you a generous package, and the locality means we can support a better work-life balance.”

“Take this, read it and see what you think.” You take the folder.

“As his friends, do you think I should tell Roy now, or decide based on him not knowing? I assume we’ve met here because he doesn’t know, and inviting me to Nelson Road would be a dead giveaway?”

“Perhaps tell him about the role first and then bring in where it came from. Let him help offer an opinion based on the job alone.” Rebecca suggested. “And I do so hope you’ll agree to join us, I think you could be a truly great asset to the club.”

~~~~~~~~

You’d kept the folder at your house, not daring to leave it in a bag or your car in danger of accidentally taking it to Roy’s. Being at yours also meant you could be ‘busy’ and have Lexie as a buffer and it also being your last week at your current workplace, this also gave you an excuse for being more distracted than usual. The last game of the season was doing the same for him so his being distracted also helped you. The intimacy of spending time alone at Roy’s exposed all of your vulnerabilities. You’d spent so many nights laying in the dark in his arms listening to him talk about his family and career, and have him ask about yours, it was impossible to hide anything from him. You’d mentioned the role to him, you’d had to since he knew about the original recruiter call, and he’d reacted to it exactly as you hoped he would - excited for you to have such a great opportunity, close to home, with a package befitting your knowledge and experience. You wanted to wait until after the West Ham game to tell him exactly who the role was for. Lexie was spending the night before the match at Phoebe’s for a sleepover. The night before the Man City game meant you knew exactly how he'd want to forget the West Ham match and this time, you'd planned accordingly. You'd finished your final day at work early and had blown the cash from your leaving card on the most beautiful lingerie set you'd ever seen. You'd come back via Nelson Road to borrow his keys, and gone back to his to cook. When he got back late that afternoon, you'd set up outside under the secluded canopy in his garden with soft lights, blankets and cushions. You handed him a beer and led him outside, brought food out - including dessert, and then when you'd eaten and cleared up, you stepped in front of him and slipped your summer dress down your body. He reached out and took your hand, you'd sat in his lap with your legs either side of his. He ran his finger over the cup of the bra, 

"Holy fucking shit, you're perfect," 

"Distracting enough?"

"Yeah I'd say so." He said gruffly. “It’s a good fucking job I just need to stand on the side of the pitch now.” He laughed. 

The match was intense, unexpected drama on the sidelines and Isaac’s incredible goal had everyone holding their breath for another goal or for news from the Liverpool game. When the win came, no one seemed to care what the final table result was. The fans flooded the pitch to be with their team. You, Sara and the girls had stayed back a little, you could see better as Coach Lasso danced with his team surrounding him. When you let the girls onto the pitch, they run straight to Roy and he ends up with Phoebe on his front and giving a piggyback to Lexie at the same time.

“Don’t come crying to me later when you can’t walk.” You tease, finding a route past Phoebe to give him a kiss.”

“You’re not gonna fucking take care of me?” He asks, faux outraged.

“Every. Single. Day.”

“Dad!” Lexie calls, she taps Roy’s shoulder and he lets her down. Andy is coming across the pitch from the away fans side.

“Alright love.” He scoops her up and hugs her. “Congratulations,” he says to Roy who nods without greeting. “Dunno what old Mannion was doing. Made us look like fools. Do you ehh, do you know if our gaffer is ok?”

“Yeah, that old twat is fine. Just a bruised ego and a picture of his balls on the front of every paper tomorrow.” Andy shrugs.

“I uhh, I wanted to apologise to you both. I was a real dickhead-” Roy snorts a laugh, “worse than that, then. I’m sorry. I’ve been watching since the game finished. You look happy.” He turns to you,

“I am.” You say shortly, unsure whether to trust the apology.

“Good. I mean it, you look happy together. And Lexie tells me so all the time. I’m… happy for you.” You thank him and he heads off with his mates to the pub. You’re left with the feeling that you might never be friendly, but you can at least be cordial. Relieved of carrying the kids, Roy pulls you into his arms.

“He’s jealous.”

“Of me?” he laughs,

“Of me, you muppet.” He leans down to kiss your cheek and whisper in your ear, “because you're the one. You're it. You're the only one I want for the rest of my life. And he knows he fucked it up.”

“Hmm, you're pretty irresistible yourself.” The kiss you leave him with leaves you both breathless,

“Think we can find somewhere-”

“No way, there are hundreds of people here. I need to tell you something later.” He looks curiously at you, but you both get caught up in another ‘Richmond til we Die’ chant when Jamie, Keeley and a raft of players come over to find Roy. A little further through the crowd, you see Ted sweep Rebecca into his arms and kiss her. Even an hour after the game had ended, the club was still heaving with people. The fans had gone on to celebrate elsewhere but the families and friends of the players and staff remained. Rebecca had instructed the bar to stay open, insisting that she’d cover the bill. Phoebe and Lexie were still running around on the now empty pitch with Leslie’s younger children and other player’s and staff kids. You’ve told Sara about the job and you can’t wait to tell Roy. He’s sitting with Nate, both of them animatedly discussing Jamie’s Oscar winning performance with Coach Beard. 

“Have you got an answer for me yet?” Rebecca asks, sitting next to you in the dugout.

“Yes, I think I do. I’d like to run it by someone in particular first though.” You catch Roy’s eye, he looks surprised but happy to see you talking to Rebecca. She waves her hand to call him over.

“Coach Kent, congratulations.”

“You too.”

“I meant your excellent girlfriend, not the match.” He cocks an eyebrow at her,

“Thanks then. She’s fucking brilliant.”

“I know. Thought I might poach her from you?” The furrow in his brow deepens with his confusion. You stand up and kiss the frown away.

“The amazing job I’ve been offered? It would be here. Working for Rebecca.” You tell him, trying to keep your voice light but nervous for his response.

“Here? Every day?” 

“Yeah,” you start to mistake his hesitation for annoyance, “but if you think that’s really fucking weird, then I can tell Rebecca to stuff it - no offense, Rebecca - and I can carry on looking and something else will turn up-”

“I don’t think it’s really fucking weird. I think you should say yes. You should definitely fucking do it.”

“Yeah?”

“Fuck yeah.” 

“You’d better come over tomorrow then, sign your contract.” Rebecca says with a smile. “Welcome.” You and Sara party on the pitch with the team until the girls start to flag and it’s time to go. You insist Roy stay,

“I’ll see you tomorrow, go - have an amazing night, you’ve earned it. I’m so fucking proud of you.” You kiss him and he waves you off. 

~~~~~~~

You’re reading in bed when the door knocks so quietly you think you might have imagined it. Lexie is practically comatose in her bed, the combination of exhilaration and fresh air has completely wiped her out. You creep down the stairs in one of Roy’s t-shirts and open the door. Jamie Tartt is on your doorstep with an arm slung around Roy.

“Tried to get him to come to a club with us, but he made us bring ‘im ‘ere instead.” You stifle a giggle, you can see that Roy’s nowhere near as drunk as Jamie but he’s still looking at you with total adoration.

“Thanks Jamie, I’ll take it from here. You have a good night,” you look around him to the taxi down the path. Isaac and Colin are both waving madly at you. “Be safe, boys.” You wave to them and blow a kiss before slipping your arm around Roy’s waist and guiding him inside.

“Night Coach,” Jamie grins.

“Night Tartt, fuckin’ love you man. Fuckin’ love all of you.”

“We know. And we wouldn’t have been on that fuckin’ pitch without you.” Jamie gave you both a little salute and ran off back to the taxi.

“Come on, coach. Time for bed.” You lead him upstairs and sit him on the bed so you can take off his t-shirt, then you drop to your knees and unlace his trainers. You pull his hands to get him to stand up, running your hands around the waistband of his dark jeans and pulling them down. Once they’re free of his hips, he sits back down. “Come here,” you whisper, climbing into bed and pulling him with you, his body between your legs and his head on your heart. 

“Feels like I won the whole fucking thing.” He whispers against your skin as he falls asleep.

[goldfish-or-smthing]

The Tedependent Masterpost

Essentially my deluded ramblings as to why I’m a Tedependent truther 😊

DISCLAIMER: I love TL and no matter what direction the writers take S3 in I will be on board! This is just a theory from some lil' details I noticed 😊Also so that if I turn out to be right I can say I told you so :o but if I’m wrong uhhhh.. you never saw this

Some various important notes before we get into it:

Firstly, I think it’s pretty likely that sexuality will come up in some form in S3. It fits in really well with the previous themes of the show (masculinity, mental health, relationships with fathers etc). TL has tackled some other issues such as the portrayal of mental health in sport but they haven’t mentioned sexuality yet despite it being a big topic (there’s only 1 out gay footballer… which is INSANE.. there’s a LOT of homophobia in football). So it makes a lot of sense for this to come up during S3. A lot of people have also theorized that Colin is gay and although I’m not going to go into that now I think it’s pretty likely and considering that Colin was one of Nate’s main “victims” (for want of a better word) it’s also likely that he’ll be more prominent in S3, perhaps even being a big part of Nate’s comeuppance. There’s also various rumours of Trent (and some say Colin too?) being seen filming at a gay nightclub in Amsterdam…

Here's an excerpt from an article interviewing Cristo Fernández, the actor who plays Dani Rojas, about the themes of season 3:

Interesting stuff....

In terms of whether or not Ted will have a romantic relationship in S3 I think it’s pretty likely through the “rom-communism” speech and how generally wholesome the show is that Ted will end up in a relationship at the end- especially as it would be very satisfying for Ted to start the show in a bad relationship and end it in a healthy one. Also the teaser dropping on Valentines is very…… interesting. Despite this it could be argued that Ted has to go through more personal growth before he’s ready to be in a long term relationship and with Ted most likely leaving for Kansas at the end of S3 he might not be in a good position to get into a new relationship. This is probably one of the biggest holes in this theory- whether Ted is ready for a relationship in S3. If he is though, I can think of someone who would be a very good option…

Before we talk about Trent though (yes there still is more to address) we need to address the other main option- Rebecca. I think it’s pretty unlikely that Ted will end up with Rebecca. Firstly it’s very cliché and the writers know that people expect Ted and Rebecca to end up together. They teased it in S2 before the Sam bantr reveal which felt to me like the writers saying that they know it’s what people expect but that they’re choosing not to go that direction. Speaking of Sam, although he and Rebecca technically ended S2 not together it’s very clear that that arc is not over yet and that’s still something that has to be dealt with in S3. Ted and Rebecca’s relationship is an incredibly valuable representation of close friendships/platonic relationships between men and women, and I think the writers understand this too:

To be clear, I don’t have any problem with people shipping Tedbecca! I actually think it can be quite a cute ship, I just don’t think it’s likely to happen in canon.

Now onto the fun bit! All the evidence!

I don’t think it’s in question that Trent is gay so I’m not really going to cover that here apart from saying that he leaves the pub with a man he’s seemingly on a date with an if you’re still not sold that he’s gay… just uh…. Just look at him..

First some quickfire evidence:

Ted calls Trent “baby”! s2 ep3 3 mins in! crazy stuff

S2 ep1 at about 6:20 Ted says “Trent Crimm, bringin’ that heat”- a reference to the very spicy Indian food they ate together

They speak more often than we see off-screen- we have the iconic “love our chats!” line implying that they have conversations outside of the show and Ted makes Trent’s daughter biscuits (s1 ep9 27:40), showing that he’s not only met Trent’s daughter before but is meeting her again soon to give her the biscuits

Slightly less quickfire evidence:

There’s a lot of similarities between Trent and Rebecca- this post details some of them, but there’s also similarities in lines- in s1 ep3 Ted says to Trent “watch your back Gay Talese there’s a new iconic profile about to be typed up by one Trent Crimm” then on s1 ep9 Ted says to Rebecca “watch your back Kate Moss there’s a new bad girl on the British modelling scene”. They also have very similar hair (look at the first two gifs of the above post), and the only two people Ted makes biscuits for on the show are Rebecca and Trent’s daughter. I believe this is a way of twisting the expectation that Rebecca and Ted are going to end up together to have Ted end up with someone similar, but not who people expect.

Some silly little scene analysis:

The first scene I’ll be talking about is s2, ep7, at about 31 minutes in. Before I go into depth about the details of this scene I’d suggest you rewatch it first, but I couldn’t find a clip of it on Youtube so just go to that timestamp. The first line in this scene is very strange- it’s Mae saying “If music be the food of love play on, give me excess of it”. This line seems completely pointless- it’s not really a joke, nor does it serve to further the plot or develop Mae’s character. But as I will repeat many times and cannot emphasise enough- lines in this show don’t get used lightly. This line is actually the opening line to Shakespeare’s most famous romantic comedy, Twelfth Night. And this line is used at the beginning of a scene with Ted and Trent when there’s seemingly NO REASON for it…. (I’m not going to get into the Shakespeare analysis now but if you want me to I will make a post about it :D)  We then see Trent saying goodbye to a man he’s on a date with- who has a moustache, no less. And THEN he says “of all the pub joints” which is a reference to the line “of all the gin joints” from the film Casablanca- and (mild spoilers for 3) the episode title of ep 8 is “We’ll never have Paris”, another reference to Casablanca. They end off this scene with Trent saying "Love our chats!". This line is reminiscent of when Ted asked Trent "What do you love?" in the Indian restaurant in s1 ep3, and also implies that they are closer than the show makes them seem.

Another very suspicious moment came at end of s2 ep12, which is the VERY LAST scene with Ted in the whole of S2. It’s also sandwiched in between the scenes about the other 2 major romantic relationships in the show- we get Sam and Rebecca, then Trent and Ted, then Roy and Keeley… Which in my opinion is a deliberate way of laying out these scenes to imply more about Trent and Ted’s relationship. Before I go on to talk about it here’s the clip for context: https://youtu.be/fF3A7XSk2HU (it’s pretty low quality so if you want to you can watch the clip at 44mins into s2 ep12). I think Trent waiting outside for Ted speaks for itself, but then there’s the line about the bike accident, where we learn that Trent doesn’t know how to ride a bike. Lines in this show are rarely used lightly and this is likely suggesting that we’ll get a scene of Trent learning how to ride a bike (potentially in Amsterdam?!). We then learn that Trent - and now I want you to listen closely on this part- has thrown away his entire career in journalism and his chance to ever work in journalism again by telling his boss that he revealed a source. And why did he do this? For Ted (...mostly. he has other reasons for leaving as well but...). Not only is this literally insane but by having Trent quit his job the writers have removed the only major barrier to Trent and Ted being in a relationship- whereas previously this might’ve been unethical because Trent was a journalist covering Richmond, that’s now no longer an issue. And then Trent has locked his keys in the car- which shows either how flustered he was when waiting to see Ted or could be implying that he’s here to stay.

Sorry for low quality but look at them. That is a normal way for two straight lads to look at another guy right?

Bits from some interviews:

Conclusion:

Some would say that I'm mad. I'd argue that if you look at the evidence there's a solid chance that Tedtrent could happen in Season 3- the sneaky little references to Casablanca and Shakespeare as well as literally the whole of their last scene together sold me the most tbh. It's hardly debatable that Trent has a crush on Ted, but I believe (hehe) that it could be reciprocal- there's not much evidence that Ted is bisexual, (references to queen and the frequent appearance of their songs as well as the choice of NSync's song "Bye bye bye" which is frequently used on the internet to mean "Bi bi bi") but then again, there's not much evidence that he's not. I feel like I could go on and I've definitely missed some things but this post is already far too long (1.6k words) and I need to stop!

I’d be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts and opinions, and feel free to drop a comment telling me how deluded I am because in all honestly I probably am…. Or am I………….. guess we’ll find out in season 3!

If I’ve missed anything please lmk!

EDIT: ohhh my god I forgot- The scene w/ Ted and Trent at the end of s2 happens in the Richmond car park- just like Roy and Keeley in s1. And Ted met Michelle in a car park :)

UPDATE

[tornrose24]

This is probably going to be the last update to this AU for a month or so since I will need a break from it to work on other stuff (with maybe an exception for a Halloween related drawing).

Also, I think since I never named them yet, Suzie's friend is named 'Jules.'

Lily, Suzie, Nate, Jules, and all the puppeteers are mine.

Oh, and since I wasn't able to, here's more info on the pupeteers:

-George Donovan–a comedian and voice actor. Known for doing a few comedic guest roles on TV shows in the 50’s and 60’s. Was known to have two sons. Was supposed to do a few voice roles for Hanna-Barbera in addition to working for Playfellow Workshop. Was known to be allergic to chocolate.

-Elizabeth Callister– an LA stage actress known for doing voice roles in a few cartoons. Daughter of a well-known producer, which allowed her to enter the ranks of the entertainment industry. Said to be ‘spoiled sweet’ and was hoping to entertain children. Was said to show small signs of what might have been ADHD.

–Stanley Hersh– a stage actor from New York. Son of Jewish-Polish immigrants who came to America in the early 1930s. Was said to continue his family’s store if he wouldn’t be able to make it into show business. It is believed Welcome Home would have been his biggest break prior to his disappearance.

–Zelda duPont– a singer and stage actress. Was involved with a few civil rights movements under a different name along the East coast. It is presumed that she was hired as a puppeteer because ‘no one is supposed to see who is playing them.’

-Louise Sherman–a well-known trans actress from the 60’s, yet was better known in the LGBTQ community as opposed to a wider audience. Supposedly a friend of Welcome Home’s creator. Spent a few years abroad in England and had been involved with a few Shakespeare plays.

-Travis McCoy–an actor from Texas. Had starred in a few Westerns and Romantic-Comedy projects. Was said to be very popular with his female fans due to his charm and good looks, but was never seen dating anyone up until his disappearance.

-Bertrand Parsons–a New England and New York stage actor also known for doing voice roles. Was also well-known in the LGBTQ community, yet this was kept silent from the main public for many decades. It is believed by some that his name is in fact a stage name.

–Walter Jones–Little is known about him, but he was a puppeteer for a few shows. Was said to be good friends with Welcome Home’s creator (and some suspected that the two might have been more than friends). It is believed Welcome Home would have been his big break given that he was to voice the main star of the show. He was given a draft card just before the show aired, and it is believed that he–like many other young men–escaped to Canada to avoid the draft.

[mads-nixon]

100th Bomber Boys: Major Robert 'Rosie' Rosenthal: Pt. 1

Ahead of the show's release, I bought Donald Miller's book and am reading it! Here is a little bit about Major Robert 'Rosie' Rosenthal (played by Nate Mann) from the prologue of Masters of the Air (pg. 13-14)!

Lt. Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal had not trained with the Hundredth's original crews. He and his crew had been assigned to the group that August from a replacement pool in England, to fill in for men lost on the Regens-burg raid. "When I arrived, the group was not well organized," Rosenthal recalled. "They were a rowdy outfit, filled with characters. Chick Harding was a wonderful guy, but he didn't enforce tight discipline on the ground orin the air." Rosenthal didn't fly a mission for thirty days. "No one came around to check me out and approve me for combat duty. Finally, my squadron commander, John Egan, had me fly a practice formation. I flew to the right of his plane. I had done a lot of formation flying in training and I was frustrated; I desperately wanted to get into the war. I put the wing of my plane right up against Egan's, and wherever he went, I went. When we landed, Egan told me he wanted me to be his wing man." Rosenthal had gone to Brooklyn College, not far from his Flatbush home. An outstanding athlete, he had been captain of the football and baseball teams, and later was inducted into the college's athletic hall of fame. After graduating summa cum laude from Brooklyn Law School, he went to work for a leading Manhattan law firm. He was just getting started in his new job when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The next morning he joined the Army Air Corps. He was twenty-six years old, with broad shoulders, sharply cut features, and dark curly hair. A big-city boy who loved hot jazz, he walked, incongruously, with the shambling gait of a farmer, his toes turned inward and there wasn't an ounce of New York cynicism in him. He was shy and easily embarrassed, but he burned with determination. "I had read Mein Kampf in college and had seen the newsreels of the big Nazi rallies in Nuremberg, with Hitler riding in an open car and the crowds cheering wildly. It was the faces in the crowd that struck me, the looks of adoration. It wasn't just Hitler. The entire nation had gone mad; it had to be stopped. "I'm a Jew, but it wasn't just that. Hitler was a menace to decent people everywhere. I was also tremendously proud of the English. They stood alone against the Nazis during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. I read the papers avidly for war news and listened to Edward R. Murrow's live radio broadcasts of the bombing of London. I couldn't wait to get over there. "When I finally arrived, I thought I was at the center of the world, the place where the democracies were gathering to defeat the Nazis. I was right where I wanted to be." Rosie Rosenthal didn't share these thoughts with his crewmates, simple guys who distrusted what they called deep thinking. They never learned what was inside him, what made him fly and fight with blazing resolve. Later in the war, when he became one of the most decorated and famous fliers in the Eighth, word spread around Thorpe Abbotts that his family was in a German concentration camp. But when someone asked him directly, he said "that was a lot of hooey." His family-mother, sister, brother-in-law, and niece (his father had recently died) were all back in Brooklyn. "I have no personal reasons. Everything I've done or hope to do is strictly because I hate persecution... A human being has to look out for other human beings or else there's no civilization."

Rosie was part of the 'Bloody 100th' Bombardment Group of the 13th Combat Wing, of the 'Mighty Eighth' Air Force with John 'Bucky' Egan and Gale 'Buck' Cleven (played by Callum Turner and Austin Butler) His plane was called Rosie's Riveters, and him and his crew were an integral part of the bombardment group.

On October 8th, 1943, the 100th went on a bombing run to Bremen, Germany, and Buck Cleven was shot down. Two days later, Egan and the rest of the 100th went on a supposedly "easy" mission to Münster, accompanied by P-47 Thunderbolts almost all the way to the target. Rosenthal and his crew were not flying their beloved Rosie's Riveters due to damage from their two previous missions in Bremen and Marienburg. Instead, they flew Royal Flush.

Rosie's crew was worried about flying a brand new plane, and became incredibly nervous. Bringing them together under one of the wings, he calmed the boys down and lifted their spirits. This mission proved disastrous, and Royal Flush was the only one in the 100th to make it back to Thorpe Abbotts (the 100th's air-base in East Anglia).

Needless to say, I love Rosie already!! I've read up to chapter 6, and I feel like my brain is going to explode with all the information I've taken in :3

lmk if y'all want more posts like this one or would like to be tagged in them!!

[mr-independent]

Look. I know the chances of it happening are not great but also. Why did we have to have that scene at the open of S3 where everyone (EVERYONE) is telling Ted it's a terrible idea to let Trent tag along for the season but Ted saying yes anyway despite all the potential drawbacks if it didn't mean that Trent was Important to Ted?? I can see you starting to argue the whole "S3 is about forgiveness and that starts with Trent" argument which yes ok fine but! We've not seen that conversation. Ted forgiving Trent, if that scene was meant to support that theme, should have been explicitly said, but it wasn't. This show rarely leaves such big moments unattended, as it's insanely well thought out down to the final detail (according to the hairdressers on set Nate's hair turning white so suddenly was bc as his hatred grew so did his grey hairs, and the final transformation in going to West Ham was punctuated by that hair change. And that's just one small example) so either A. Ted's forgiveness of Trent is yet to come, somehow, or B. That wasn't the point of the scene. Which leads me to: what then, was the point? What was the point in having Ted deny the thoughts and feelings of all his friends in favour of Trent, who he barely knew? The only other person he did that with is Jamie, and we saw that decision making out loud ("not everybody has a good father") in the same episode. Jamie, who has always been a major player in the show, along with his daddy issues. Trent hasn't necessarily been a major player yet.

Also Ted very loudly very insistently proclaiming his love for Sleepless in Seattle, wherein the journalist falls in love with the single dad and stops him at an airport in the climax, given we have been explicitly told the first and last shots of each season are mirrors and the first shot of S3 was Ted in an airport......... Makes one think.

Anyways i have 3 more days to believe that tedependent is a possibility so I'm gonna capitalize on that, thank you very much.

[wodrueckts]

so i’ve been sitting with the ted lasso finale for a few days now, trying to nail down what exactly it is that made me not like it very much. because generally i don’t really think it was BAD. i think it was fine. as far as overall plot beats are concerned it hit pretty much all of what i was expecting or at least thought was very possible (ted going back to kansas, beard staying, rebecca getting with dutch guy, nate being back, keeley, roy and jamie all being single at the end) and i don’t really have a problem with these developments on paper although the execution often left some things to be desired.

for me personally especially how nate’s arc with ted resolved was particularly unsatisfying. i mean, what we got was a nice, emotional scene (thanks for the most part to nick mohammed’s acting) but all in all it just lacked impact (at least for me). i mean, i’ve waited the whole season for these two to finally have a heart to heart but then it ended up being quite underwhelming.

and i think that’s what i’d call the finale in general: underwhelming. lacking emotionality. especially from ted, as many people have already pointed out.

 so it was underwhelming, big whoop, finales rarely feel wholly satisfying. so why did it kind of make me feel worse about the whole show? that’s what i’ve been trying to figure out.

and i think it has to do with how it made me look back on ted as a character. because it opens the door for me to see him in a less favorable light than before and it undermines the arc i thought (or hoped) they were going for for him.

ted starts off as a very *kind* character. kindness is pretty much his core attribute. but not in a naive or unthinking way; his kindness is a conscious choice. he is kind because he thinks everyone deserves kindness and because he believes kindness will lead to the best outcome. his kindness is also a defense mechanism, a kind of armor. it keeps people at arm’s length without them noticing. and ted deploys his kindness to that effect a lot. because ted is also afraid of letting people in. he’s nice to everyone but doesn’t really let anyone get close.

and i thought his arc would be that ted finally learns to let people in, to make himself vulnerable to them and risk them being able to hurt him. and i do think that that was actually the writers’ intention. and they did achieve that, kind of.

but for me the finale calls all that into question again and makes me wonder whether ted actually DID let people in. whether he actually CARED about anyone at richmond (beyond the way he generally just cares about everyone).

people have said they were upset about the finale because ted left his (found) family and his support system behind. but is that even true? have we really seen them be his family and support system? or rather have we seen him think of them like that?

the show has shown us a lot of instances of people loving and caring for ted but i don’t remember a lot of instances where we really see how much that means to HIM. or that it actually means anything to him at all.

what i’m trying to say is that i don’t really remember feeling like they were really IMPORTANT to him. of course he cares about them but ted cares about everyone. he cares about them in a very selfless way. but i think if someone is really important to you, you also care about them in a “selfish” way (and i don’t mean selfish in a negative way here). and the only times we’ve seen ted care about someone selfishly was with michelle, which makes sense because she was his wife and he loved her and they have a kid together so of course she is important to him, and with dr sharon, when she left and triggered his abandonment issues. but of course dr sharon is also his therapist so it’s a whole different dynamic in general.

with everyone else he’s just very accommodating, very forgiving, very nice, very... dispassionate.

and i was hoping we’d get to a point where we actually see how much the people in richmond mean to ted, where it would actually be hard for him to leave them, not because of some sense of duty or obligation but because he just genuinely, deeply loves them. but i feel like the show never quite got there. they got kind of close with nate at the end of s2 and beginning of s3 when ted seemed genuinely sad about what happened with him and missed him but that also just fizzled out (and was ultimately squashed in the finale when ted was essentially like “eh no biggie” in the scene where nate apologized)

and the finale just cemented ted’s seeming lack of care when we didn’t seem him wrestle at all with his decision to leave. he just decided to leave and that was that. and many other people have noted how he didn‘t even seem emotional or like he cared at all while other characters (especially rebecca) were practically throwing their love at him.

so really, what was his supposed growth in the show? that he finally went to therapy (admittedly a big step, not slagging that)? that he can ask for help in the form of letting his friend hire someone to stalk his ex? (not the kind of help i’d want him to ask for tbh)? There was some growth in other departments of course, like when he actually admitted to michelle that her relationship with dr jacob bothers him, something he probably would’ve never done before, but again, that’s him selfishly caring about michelle.

so the show now appears to me as: ted runs away to england, he touches many people’s lives without really getting too close himself but does learn some life lessons before he goes back home.

and maybe that was the intention. it is a story, i guess. but not a very satisfying one. at least to me.

or maybe they just made ted a bit TOO nice, a bit TOO caring and forgiving and perfect, that it reached all the way around to coming across as uncaring and detached, which was then only exacerbated by the finale.

(OR this is just my own baggage and issues with social anxiety rearing its ugly head which always makes me a bit suspicious of people who are nice and caring to everyone not because i think these people are fake or not genuine or anything like that but how can you tell if someone like this actually likes you or is just nice to you because they’re a genuinely nice and lovely person. which meant ted has always been on thin ice for me anyway and seeing him leave everyone with seemingly not much trouble just confirmed all my fears. WHO’S TO SAY)

[fablesrose]

Ch 12 - The Lost Heir Job

Series Rewrite Masterlist 

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Ford!Reader

Description: The con this week takes a couple turns as they try to steal a rich man's inheritance from his lawyer and give it to the charity he requested before he passed away. The client's lawyer is an interesting character as well.

Words: 4989

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nate didn’t tell anyone, but I knew that he went to see Sophie, despite his insistence of leaving her alone on the last job. I wasn’t sure if she would show up, so I left Nate to meet the client on his own, just in case she did. What I didn’t expect was that our client would bring an attorney and that she would want to know what was going on all of the time or else we didn’t have a client at all. 

“I hate this,” Eliot said when Nate explained the situation. 

“You do not let Vicki Vale into the Batcave, ever,” Hardison said. I would have to refresh my memory on that reference, but I got the jist that he didn’t like the situation either. 

“First, this is my home, not a cave,” Nate replied. “Second, we’re not gonna allow her up here.”

“Sophie would never approve,” Parker said forcefully. “Call her.”

“We can’t just keep calling Sophie.”

“Okay, I see how it is,” Hardison said. “We can’t call her, but you can go off and have a little secret meeting with her.”

I should have known Hardison would already know about it. 

“What are you talking about? I was in Harrisburg, researching a client,” Nate defended. 

“Wow, cause you know what?” Hardison put some evidence on the screen behind Nate, “your passport got dinged going through Heathrow Airport yesterday. Heathrow’s in London. I guess you couldn’t get a direct flight to Harrisburg.”

“Well it’s hard when you do the same day booking,” Eliot pointed out. 

Hardison stuttered a bit in response to Eliot before getting back to his point, “Did you realize that London is the home of the most security cameras in the world?”

“Really?” Parker said, feigning interest. 

“Who feels like playing Where’s Waldo?” Hardison asked. “I do.”

Parker raised her hand with an ‘Oh!’

“Do you think he wore his trenchcoat to be inconspicuous?” I asked.

“Damn girl, it’s like you already knew,” Hardison praised as he showed a picture after picture of Nate, in his trenchcoat. “Waldo Ford. Oh, is that Big Ben? And you?”

We all smiled at each other as Hardison continued to milk it.

“Wow, you got twins and triplets everywhere.” Hardison became more serious, “and lookie there, 11:18 am standing outside of Sophie’s apartment looking quite pensive.”

“Aw, he’s rehearsing what he’s gonna say,” Parker said. “I’ve seen him do that.”

“Alright, alright guys. Okay, you caught me,” Nate conceded. “I went to London. Yeah. I saw Sophie.” He paused, looking at each of us individually. “And she’s not coming back.”

My heart sank. I had already assumed this to be the case since she wasn’t here, but him saying it outloud really hit it home. She wasn’t coming back. 

Parker shook her head, “Not now, or not ever?”

“I, uh, don’t know,” Nate said. “An, uh, I don’t think she does either. So, uh, that’s that.”

There was a moment of silence as we all contemplated what that might mean. 

“Could you please take the…” Nate gestured at the screens behind him with the surveillance photos of him. “Thank you,” he said once they were gone, “Can we get back to work?” Nate stood, moving the stool he was sitting on out of the way. He took a business card out of his pocket, “This… Tara Carlisle. Hardison, maybe you could just do a background check on her and if everything pans out, I don’t see why we can’t have an outsider just this once tag along. Hm?”

I couldn’t help but make a comparison, “I mean, I don’t think it’d be much different than having me around. Especially in the beginning…”

Nobody answered or added to my thought, but I did notice some clenched jaws and subtle head movements, as if weighing the odds. 

“Ok, why don’t you run it for ‘em,” Nate told Hardison. 

Hardison started his slide show, “Meet the late, great Bennett Kimball. He made his fortune the old-fashioned way: polluting, union busting, employing sweatshop labor. His personal life was even worse. Drunken driving accidents, chasing women, paying off the mob. 

“Why haven’t we ever heard of this guy?” Parker asked. 

“Because to the rest of the world,” Nate answered, “Bennett Kimball was a pillar of Boston society. Thanks to one very hard working lawyer.”

“Meet his longtime attorney, Peter Blanchard,” Hardison said, showing his picture on the screen. “This is an interesting guy. He’s a blue blood Harvard Law Graduate who turned into Kimball’s personal janitor. Dude would pay off the cops, pay hush money, God knows what else.”

“And he was rewarded by being named the executor and sole beneficiary of Kimball’s estate,” Nate added. 

“Lovely,” I commented sarcastically, “So he’s invested, to say the least.”

“Mmhm,” Hardison agreed. “See, Kimball didn’t have any kids. He had a couple of ex-wives way, way back, but Blanchard is the closest thing he has to family.”

“Well, I guess this Blanchard guy didn’t count on his client having such a giving side,” Eliot said. 

“Funny how that works,” Nate replied, standing up. “What happens to rich people when they know the end is near… It’s really, really amazing. Okay, I don’t know that we have a legal angle to play on this one, because in three days, he is going to present the will in probate court and assume control of the estate.”

“And our client’s charity gets nothing,” Parker said. 

“Now, Blanchard was the keeper of Kimball’s secrets so…” Nate continued, “Yeah, so that’s our way in, right there.”

“You want a skeleton from his closet,” Parker deduced, a bit excited. 

“Absolutely,” Nate agreed, “and there’s gotta be tons of skeletons. I mean, we want something so scary that the mere mention of it makes this guy run for his checkbook. So, uh, if that weren’t hard enough, we’ve got the chaperone to think about.” Nate clapped his hands a bit awkwardly at the task we had a head, and then took his exit. 

“Tara Carlisle,” Hardison said to us. He, Nate, Eliot, and I stood outside of a prison, waiting for the attorney to arrive. “She checks out. Civil rights lawyer, does a lot of pro bono work. Collects lost causes like kittens.”

She pulled up in a low profile sudan, practical. 

“Well, she’s honest,” Eliot commented.

“Crusader, incorruptible,” Hardison said as she stepped out of her car. She wore heels and a pencil skirt, professional, but still flattering along with her blond half updo and glasses. Hardison seemed to notice as he added, “And one sexy librarian.”

I looked over at him and Eliot with a raised eyebrow, but they kept their gaze on her. I rolled my eyes as I returned my gaze to the newcomer. 

Nate waved and walked to stand beside her, “Hey guys, I’d like you to meet Tara Carlisle. She’s our client’s attorney. She’s gonna be joining us today.”

“I’m here because I believe we share a common goal,” she said as she shook our hands. “I just want to make sure it’s done the right way.” She turned to Nate, “Now, you said you had something we could use against Blanchard?”

Nate nodded, signaling for Hardison to explain.

“Okay, well behind these prison walls, or, um, prison shrubs,” Hardison started, pointing at the low security prison, “is Kimball’s former business partner, PJ Orson. He’s doing ten years for embezzlement. Kimball’s company paid $50,000 to a company called Lamond Holdings back in 1980.” Hardison was about to continue when he zeroed into Tara dutifully taking notes in a little note pad. 

“That?” Nate asked. “Yeah, she does that. It’s okay, go ahead.”

Hardison continued, “Well, Lamond Holdings is a Vegas front company for the mob.”

“Yeah, $50,000 used to be the going rate for a contract killer in those days,” Eliot clarified helpfully. 

“I’m not gonna ask how you know that,” I said before I could stop myself, since I had an idea.

“Good, cuz you don’t want to know.”

“Fair enough.”

“You think Kimball paid to have somebody killed?” Tara asked. 

I didn’t have to look at Eliot or Hardison to know that we all made a little bit of a face at the question. 

“Okay,” Nate took the attention to himself, “now what we’re gonna do right now is we’re going to go undercover.”

“Well, why don’t we go talk to Mr. Orson?” Tara asked.

Hardison and Eliot laughed. 

“No. The best lie is the truth Mr. Ford,” she said resolutely. “I think if we go in there, and plead our case, Mr. Orson will wanna talk to us.” 

She had so much confidence walking into that prison with Nate and I behind her, even up to explaining the situation to Orson. Until he laughed in her face. 

Nate and I glanced at each other with a knowing look. Eliot and Hardison were getting ready for undercover anyway. It looked like we would need them after all, crazy. 

Orson explained to Tara how he was living a very comfortable life in the prison. He didn’t need his sentence reduced, he didn’t need any deals. 

Once Orson left, Nate told Hardison and Eliot to put the squeeze on him and for Parker to case Blanchard’s office. Nate then turned to us, “Why don’t you two come with me. I’m about to become a really terrible lawyer. You can watch.” He then turned to exit the prison. 

I waited for Tara to gather her things, walking alongside her, “Don’t worry, it’ll be fun.” 

She gave me a skeptical look.

I reached my hand out to shake again, “I’m Y/n, Y/n Ford.”

She shook it cautiously this time, “Daughter?”

I shook my head, “Niece, but he raised me after my parents passed.” She let out a quiet, ‘ah,’ but before she could provide condolences as I could see she was about to, I spoke again. “So, I have to deal with his bullshit all the time, trust me, you’ll enjoy yourself at least a little bit.”

The three of us headed over to the courthouse after Nate changed into an… interesting suit to say the least.  It was a three piece suit, everything was powder blue except for his tie, which was orange. It was clear–he was there to make a statement. 

“Look, Blanchard’s here at the same time as you are. That’s a coincidence,” Tara said excitedly as she spotted Blanchard in the hallway. 

“No, it’s not,” Nate said, “we hacked into his online appointment schedule.” He quickly corrected himself, “I mean, yes, what a coincidence.” He waved a hand at us, “why don’t you wait for me outside?”

“What are you going to do?” Tara asked.

Nate stumbled over his words trying to say what he was doing somewhat discreetly, “uh, make an appointment with… You’ll see.” Nate then walked ahead of us, past Blanchard, to a judge’s door.

I stepped slightly in front of Tara, facing her as if to have a conversation, “You can watch over my shoulder, make it a bit less suspicious.”

She nodded, tilting her head curiously as she did as I told her. I in turn listened as Nate knocked on the door. 

“Hi there. Listen, Jimmy Popodokolos, Las Vegas, attorney at law. I’m here to talk to the judge about the Kimball probate hearing.” He then obnoxiously kept throwing in filler words and “very important”s  as the secretary tried to put him down for an appointment. 

“Oh, can you see Blanchard? He must be peeved,” I asked Tara. 

She hesitated, “Well, he’s facing away from me…”

“Come on, you’re a lawyer, don’t you know body language?” I didn’t wait for her answer before stretching a bit, peeking towards Blanchard in the process. “Yeah, he looks tense, this’ll be good.”

Once Nate was done talking to the judge he came walking back towards us. Tara and I quickly fell into step with him as we exited the court house.

“I think we should go back to the prison, something tells me Orson is gonna talk to us,” Nate said, stepping into the car. 

I laughed to myself a bit, knowing that Eliot and Hardison must have been successful in scaring the crap out of him. They were posing as guards within the prison and were stirring up trouble for Orson. The very real threat of getting him transferred to maximum security prison was looming over his head. 

Tara was confused, but Nate refused to elaborate.

“Who are you guys? Feds, playing hardball?” Orson asked once Tara picked up the phone again. 

“I’m sorry, what are you…?” she said. 

“Listen, the payment to Lamond Holdings was made to someone named George Gilbert.”

“Who is George Gilbert?”

“I don’t know. Blanchard said to keep it to ourselves because the mob was involved. That’s all I know, I swear. I don’t want to die in a prison riot. Please, call off your dogs.” The guard then came and told him that time was up, so he left the visiting area. 

“Alright, so Blanchard paid the mob $50,000 to kill someone named George Gilbert for Kimball,” Nate said. “Well, this should be an interesting meeting.” Nate then swiftly exited the room, Tara and I close behind. She was substantially more confused than before. 

Nate went to meet with Blanchard with this new found information to try and blackmail him a bit and buy enough time for Parker to break into Blanchard’s safe in his office. I went back to my apartment and changed into some comfier clothes and made myself a snack. I should have been excited to have another “outsider” around, to be able to share what I’ve discovered with someone else. But for some reason, it made me a bit anxious hanging around her. Like something wasn’t right. I tried to shake it off, it wouldn’t be the first time anxiety built up for no reason. Having a minute to myself in my apartment helped, I was able to decompress away from people for a little while. 

That was until Eliot knocked. When I opened my door, I didn’t fail to catch the quick look over he did and the slight tilt of his head. I took a second myself to admire how the long sleeves of his white undershirt were pushed up to his elbows before locking my eyes with his.

“We need you over here again. There’s been a change of plans,” he stepped away from the door, letting me step out after him. 

I rolled my eyes as I pulled the door shut behind me, “when isn’t there.”

“Touche.” 

Eliot gave me a quick run down as we crossed the hall and entered Nate’s apartment. It wasn’t a mob hit that Blanchard paid for. It was a stripper, a pay off to make her disappear. Nate then claimed that Parker was Kimball’s child from that stripper. 

Parker was complaining when we sat down that she was one digit away from cracking the safe. 

“Yeah, no. This is much, much better than the safe,” Nate assured. 

“I got everything on Georgia Gilbert, and I mean everything,” Hardison said. He relayed her birthdate, education, medical tidbits, including that she was colorblind, and even her shoe and dress size, heaven forbid. “And how in the world did you know that she was pregnant?”

“Wait, she was pregnant?” Parker asked. 

“Yeah, gave the baby up for adoption.”

“What happened to Georgia?”

“She died in 1985. Cancer.”

My face scrunched up in sympathy. That must have been rough. 

“Tough draw,” Eliot said. 

“Well, it wasn’t really a guess,” Nate said, bringing us back to Hardison’s question. “I mean, for decades Kimball, he had a lot of women on the side, avoided a lot of scandal, right? So what made him decide to marry Georgia Gilbert over all those women?”

“Blanchard paid her off and Kimball thought she ran out on him,” Eliot said. 

“Now, how did you know that baby was a girl?” Hardison asked. 

“Oh, oh yeah… That- that was a guess,” Nate admitted. 

Eliot and I chuckled a bit. The luck of this man…

“But, that’s a fifty-fifty deal.” 

“Why don’t we find the real daughter?” I asked. 

“Adoption records are sealed, paper only,” Hardison replied. “I have a reference number, but nobody can see inside. All this is good, until Blanchard wants a DNA test. I gotta say, even with my bag of tricks, I can’t rewrite Parker’s genetic code.”

“That’s quitter talk,” I said simply. 

“You know what-”

“Yeah, so we just have to convince him that asking for DNA is the worst possible choice he can make,” Nate said, cutting Hardison from a retort. 

“How do we do that?” Eliot asked. 

“We don’t.”

Nate briefed Tara of the plan. She was to go to a meeting with Blanchard and do some reverse psychology to get him to not want a DNA test. With Hardison attaching one of Parker’s aliases to the adoption reference number, it made it look like Parker was the missing daughter. It sounded like it was pretty successful, but only time would ultimately tell. 

It didn’t take long for Blanchard’s assistant to call, setting up a meeting with Nate and Parker. While it seemed like good news, I’ve been learning not to celebrate until we were truly home free. 

I decided to go to the hearing both to show some moral support and just in case something went awry. I had an earbud in, listening to how the meeting was going to go on the riverfront. Eliot went along as well, just in case. It was a good thing, because not long after they arrived, I heard gunshots. 

“Nate?!” I tried to whisper. Luckily the hearing hadn’t started yet, so others were chatting, but Tara heard and looked towards me with a worried expression. I waved her off, quickly and quietly exiting the courtroom. “Eliot, what’s going on?”

“Well, he was convinced alright,” Parker answered instead after the fighting noises stopped. “Good plan.”

“No, no, no, this is good,” Nate panted. “Because, I mean, you know, we get you to the hearing, he’ll cut us a check in the hallway just to keep you from getting in front of that judge. Just make sure that Parker gets to that hearing. No matter what.”

I started pacing the hallway. This wasn’t good, but hopefully salvageable. 

“Hardison, give me some good news,” Nate asked after a little while.

“Oh, I’ve got some great news for ya,” he answered, somewhat sarcastically. “They just put an APB on Parker. It says she’s a late 20s Caucasian woman who shot an officer. She’s an addict and she’s armed. Trifecta.” 

“Hardison, how good’s the description of her?” Eliot asked, but Hardison didn’t have to answer as I heard sirens coming through from his end. 

“Pretty good,” Parker answered. 

I listened to the background noises of them running and then eventually Nate took a call from Blanchard. Once he hung up he addressed us. 

“Hardison, y/n, Blanchard’s headed to the courthouse. You’ve gotta delay him. Buy us some time.”

“How do you expect us to do that?” Hardison asked. 

“I don’t know, use your imagination.”

“Just use my imagination…” Hardison said to himself before trailing off. 

“Do you want me up there in the foyer, Hardison? Or should I stay back here, behind the security check?” I asked him. I was fumbling over what I could do to keep him from getting here. 

“Uh,” He said, it sounded like he was rummaging through his pockets, “No, I think I have an idea to keep him here at the security check for a while. Stay back there to run last minute interference if necessary.”

I sighed shakily, “Okay… okay okay.” 

He started talking with people in the lobby, asking for things to help, I assumed. I looked around, trying to think about what I could do to slow Blanchard down once he got here. What would Sophie do? Think of the classic tricks, the plausible movie tropes. My eyes flicked around the corridor, catching benches and people milling around. Then someone walked by with a coffee cup.

That might work. 

I was impressed with how long Hardison held Blanchard up at the security check, but it wasn’t long enough, Nate was still running behind. To top it off, Parker couldn’t find a way into the courthouse since every entrance was covered by police. I didn’t manage to find any coffee, but I did find a cup and water, so it would have to do. I poured some on the ground a little ways from the courtroom, to have a little more space. I had the rest of the water in the cup, ready for some oscar worthy performances. 

I watched as Blanchard turned the corner. I hyped myself up a bit, I had rough housed a little in college, played a pick up game every once in a while. I could do this. I timed it so I slipped on the water one step in front of him as I crossed the hall, not giving him time to avoid me. As I fell I took his legs out from under him and spilled the rest of my water for good measure. Unfortunately I fell a bit wrong and he fell on top of me, not quick enough to catch himself. 

“Aw, shit,” I whispered to myself. That hurt. I vaguely heard Nate talking to everyone else, giving orders to tweak the plan again, but I wasn’t listening. A crowd had gathered around, helping Blanchard and I up. 

He quickly apologized, but excused himself. He tried to run, but the water made the floor slippery, which significantly slowed his progress. I wanted to smile at the little victory, but I was soaking wet and my body was aching, so I just gently shook myself off before slowly following him. 

I sat down next to Hardison in the back of the courtroom once I got there and he gave me tentative knuckles. I touched my fist to his with a sigh, “that went better in my head.”

“Well, you bought some time, so…” he shook his head a bit, “but maybe don’t hurt yourself next time.”

“Noted.”

Nate loudly entered the courtroom as Tara was questioning our client on the stand. After introducing himself, the judge demanded that Nate represent the missing heir immediately. Nate took a moment to gather his things and thoughts, which the judge allowed. I heard Tara scold him a bit for posing as a lawyer through his comms.

“Well, stick around. I’m about to practice medicine, too,” he retorted back softly. 

I turned to Hardison, “oh, this’ll be good.” To which he nodded. 

“Uh, Your Honor, I’d like to offer into evidence these documents showing a payment that Mr. Blanchard made to a Georgia Gilbert, a woman I contend bore Mr. Kimball’s child,” Nate said. 

“Yes, Your Honor,” Blanchard interrupted, “Mr. Popodoklips-”

“It’s Popodokolos.”

“Pokadolokisp… Pop… Popa-”

“Popodokolos.”

“This man!” Blanchard said louder, “spun these fairy tales in my office. It’s a shakedown from a disbarred-”

“Suspended!”

“Ambulance chaser from Las Vegas!” He shouted. “And he says that he found Bennett Kimball’s daughter. So I only have one question for him,” he said much calmer. “Where is she?”

Everyone stared at each other for a moment before Nate replied, “I could produce her, Your Honor, if you just allow me to ask the witness one question. One question to the witness.”

The judge nodded, “Please.”

Nate then walked up to our client, “Miss Walton. What… color… is my tie?”

She hesitated, “I don’t know. I’m color blind.”

Nate went on to explain to the judge, and everyone else in the room, that both Bennett Kimball and Georgia Gilbert were color blind. It was extremely rare for a woman to be color blind, both parents would have to be color blind for her to have it. 

“Wait…” Ruth said from the witness stand, “Are you saying that I’m Bennett Kimball’s daughter?”

“It’s no coincidence, is it, that you started a program helping foster kids get adopted?” Nate asked her. “No coincidence, is it Miss Walton?”

“No, I was adopted myself.”

“Yes, in 1982,” Nate said. “You were two years old. The state of Nevada.”

“Yes,” she said in disbelief. 

“Now the last time you saw Bennett Kimball, he called you by a different name, didn’t he? What was it?” He asked, but she didn’t answer. “Gigi? Georgia Gilbert. Gigi.”

She nodded imperceptibly on the stand. 

“That’s who he was looking at when he saw you that day. Your birth mother, the woman he loved and lost in 1980.” This whole time he was speaking just to Ruth it seemed, but he then addressed the judge, “Your Honor, Bennett Kimball didn’t call Miss Walton here out of the blue to donate money to her charity. He searched for her. He searched for his daughter.”

“I move to strike Mr. Popodokos’s evidence from the record based on the fact that I haven’t been able to get adequate time to review these outlandish claims and prepare a proper response,” Blanchard said almost desperately. 

“Popodokolos,” Nate corrected again. 

“Popodokolos!” He nearly screamed. 

“I agree, Your Honor,” Tara said, standing elegantly. “And I would also like to add a motion to compel a DNA test to put to rest any doubt that my client is Mr. Kimball’s daughter. The truth will win out.”

“Motion granted,” the judge said. “When we get the results, I expect I will be awarding Miss Walton the Kimball estate. We’re adjourned.”

Blanchard wasn’t too happy with that outcome. He got even more upset once he was arrested as a result of the dirty files Parker handed over to the authorities from Blanchard’s office. He was screaming insults and suspicions that Nate wasn’t a lawyer as he was dragged out of the courtroom. 

“So,” Nate said to Tara, “do you still think law is, you know, the only pathway to justice?”

“Now more than ever,” she replied. “I like to think that you learned something from me today.”

She then left the courtroom with a pep in her step. We all filed out after her, heading back to the pub. 

We met up with Ruth, giving the bit of closure we could when Nate asked her where her lawyer, Tara, was. 

“My lawyer? I never met her before this week,” she replied confused. “She told me she was with you.”

We all shared a look. We quickly said our goodbyes to Ruth, wishing good luck, before heading up to Nate’s apartment. Once we entered, it wasn’t hard to spot Tara sitting in the middle of the room. She was wearing more comfortable and revealing clothes compared to her lawyer outfit. She also wore darker makeup and had her hair down.

“Took you long enough,” she said, much more relaxed than before as well. She waved an envelope in her hand. 

Eliot stepped in front of us, “Who are you?”

“Tara Cole,” she replied easily. “I’m a friend of Sophie’s.” She handed the envelope to Nate, “She said you were short handed, asked me to help. It’s in there.”

Eliot stood intimidatingly close to her, arms crossed. Parker looked her up and down evaluating. 

“So you help out by lying to us,” Hardison accused. 

“I wanted to see how good you really are,” she answered simply. “And show you how good I am. Consider it my audition.”

I stood back a bit, giving some space, “well, I’m never ignoring that gut feeling again.” I said, somewhat to myself, but I didn’t mind if anyone heard. Tara tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at me in response. 

“I bet you’re not even a lawyer,” Parker said, a bit of disgust in her voice. 

“Awe, Sophie was right. You are adorable.”

“Excuse me?”

Eliot, Hardison, and I stepped in a bit there, trying to defuse the situation that would surely lead to Parker starting a fight. It stayed at a bit of arguing before Nate caught our attention.

“She’s right. Sophie did send her.” Nate looked back at the letter, “And, uh, Sophie asked us to give Tara here a shot.” Nate handed the letter to Hardison to read to confirm. “Well played. Welcome aboard.”

“Thanks,” Tara said, shaking Nate’s hand. She then started for the door.

“Whoa whoa. Hold up,” Hardison said, stopping her. “What is this?” He held out another paper. 

“Oh, that’s my invoice,” She said. “For my cut of the inheritance.” We all stared at her for a moment. “Hey, I’m not a candy striper. This is my job.”

We turned to Nate and he gave a single, slow nod. 

“There, see? We’re getting paid already. It’s gonna be fun.” She then made her exit. 

I sighed after a moment, “well, I say we sleep on it. Not worry about it tonight.” I stretched a bit, a groan leaving my lips when a bruise protested. 

They all hummed in agreement, dispersing themselves and the tense energy around us, just a little bit. 

Eliot stepped up beside me, “How’re you feeling? I heard you took a tumble, just tackled Blanchard to the ground.”

I chuckled a bit, “Something like that. I’m okay, nothing like what you do, but I’m definitely gonna be finding bruises.”

He shook his head, “yeah, but you’re not used to it like I am.” 

“True.” We headed to the door, Eliot walking me across the hall.

“Take a warm bath, epsom salts help the aches,” he said once I opened up my apartment. 

I looked up at him, his eyes were shifting around my face, as if looking me over. If I didn’t know him, I would have said he was nervous. “Thanks, I’ll do that.”

He nodded and then turned and started down the exit stairs supposedly going home as I shut my apartment door softly.

A/n: Reblogs and comments are welcome and encouraged! Thank you for reading!

Tags: @instantdinosaurtidalwave @kniselle @technikerin23 @kiwikitty13@plasticbottleholder

[ericeffiorg]

it’s taken me 3 seasons to realise this but the only people on ted lasso that are allowed genuinely complicated stories are the white characters and it’s been the case the whole time, this third season just kind of confirmed it.

as nice as sam’s story felt, it was really nothing more than surface level and just felt like a replica of what we’ve already seen in the media. portraying real stories is what can makes television really compelling, but when the televised story is basically a cut and paste of a news article or a documentary without giving the characters depth and long-term storytelling, then what is the point? it was a surface level story to get the clicks and the viral moments that can capture the heart of people who watch a random clip on tiktok or twitter and don’t need any more context, because there isn’t really much else needed. unlike the build up of jamie and roy’s hug, ted’s panic attack, keeley’s first kiss with a woman, or ted being betrayed by nate, sam’s story can literally be chopped up into a single clip at a time and no more context is needed to get what’s going on because it really wasn’t given any detailed aspects. and to be honest that’s what sam’s character has been this entire time.

the notion of the show is to fight evil with kindness and that works when your friend is being mean to you or your mentee betrays you like it is with ted’s stories. but it doesn’t work that way with someone like sam. his role in the show since the beginning has been “the good immigrant” that fights violence with kindness, despite being confronted with more violence than anyone on the show. he was told to stop speaking about his people by the prime minister and his restaurant was vandalised, yet it only made up to no more than a 1/3 of the episode. other much less important moments had more screentime in an episode that depicted a very real scenario that we literally saw happen a year ago. and even then, ted got to interrupt his moment with his dad and steal the shine, and then it was made about the entire team coming together rather than the deadly discrimination against immigrants and violent racism.

the people of colour on this show are only really used for quick gags and to show that men can be silly and goofy too and to have a big middle finger to toxic masculinity - which in turn is kind of just repeats the same toxic masculinity points because other than jamie and roy, the other men’s “anti toxic masculinity” messages are just covered in humour and never taken seriously. isaac’s journey to becoming the captain of richmond was all about roy and we never really saw his point of view other than a few scenes. and then it felt rushed. dani is just like sam, except the only time he ever speaks is to have a funny moment where his kindness is the butt of the joke. and even though he’s not a person of colour, colin’s coming out story has been so incredibly surface level that i don’t even know why they bothered to do it. nothing new was given, it was just a white man in the closet who has a boyfriend and gets caught. you can describe his story to a stranger and they could probably find it done on riverdale but with more screentime.

and nate’s redemption arc is about a white woman finally seeing him as a human despite the fact that he was never actually mean to her and just wanted to please his parents in a place he never really felt welcome. he was horrible to ted and richmond, but that jade lady was horrible to him from the get-go and we’re now supposed to see this as very sweet and sentimental.

the show is written for white audiences and doesn’t do anything daring, and i feel like it never actually did. maybe it was because it premiered during such a dark time and it was nice to see grown men in typically toxic environments be the opposite, but i don’t think the show is nearly as clever or as groundbreaking as it has gotten the credit for.