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Leverage Season 3, Episode 13, The Morning After Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Frakes: Welcome to The Morning After Job. Jonathan Frakes, Director.

John: John Rogers, Executive Producer.

Chris: Chris Downey, Executive Producer and Writer.

Frakes: And our star of the week, Mr. Spencer Garrett.

John: Did a great job.

Chris: Aw, how fantastic. Now, now, uh, Johnathan, then tell us where- where’d you first work with Spencer?

Frakes: He was on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation with the late, great Jean Simmons.

John: With who?

Frakes: C’mon, don’t start with me.

[John and Chris Laughing]

Frakes: And, uh, so I hadn’t worked with him in about 20 years, and then two episodes in a row. I did this show with him and a show called Good Guys with him. And he was just perfect. This burned out hockey player.

Chris: He really is.

John: He’s got a great range.

Chris: Yeah, he plays-

John: He also played a lot of stuff in this.

Chris: He plays a lot of stuff. He plays rage, obviously. Plays fear, he plays arrogance.

Frakes: He’s a wonderful leading man, too. He’s got a great old ‘40s face.

John: Yup.

Chris: Now is- I guess his mom was an actor? Uh, I believe so.

Frakes: I wish I could pull her name. Yeah, still is.

Chris: Yeah, I guess-

Frakes: The Duchess, he calls her.

Chris: Yes! [Laughing]

John: That’s like if you’ve ever- everyone who watches the show knows Mark Sheppard. Mark Sheppard fills up a room.

Frakes: Yes.

John: You go to Mark Sheppard’s house to have dinner, and his father’s there and Mark Sheppard is wallpaper.

[Chris Laughing]

Frakes: That’s right. Oh, his father’s the actor of the family.

John: Mark Sheppard’s father is just- fantastic, giant, British presence. Just really great. Um, what was the inspiration for this episode? Which is what I always ask during the credits.

Chris: Um, well, you know, it’s always-

Frakes: Tell the DVD story!

Chris: [Laughing] Oh, well, there is- there is a movie called The Morning After.

[Frakes Laughing]

John: Which is, uh, Jane Fonda.

Chris: Which is Jane Fonda- which, I believe she was either nominated or won an Oscar for. Uh, in which she wakes up next to-

Frakes: You sure that wasn’t Klute?

Chris: She’s a blackout drunk who wakes up next to-

John: Might’ve been Klute.

Chris: Wakes up next to a dead guy.

John: Yes.

Chris: And, uh, I actually tracked it down on VHS. It was not-

John: Wow!

Chris: Not very, not very helpful.

John: What, uh, what Russian- Russian grocery store did you find that in?

Chris: [Laughing] I don’t know. I don’t know where it was. Somewhere out here. Some, uh, you know, video stores that divide things by cinematographer.

[John Laughing]

Chris: Which is a great thing out in LA. Um, and, uh, I- I guess just the idea was- in doing what we call a gaslight episode.

Chris: These are kinds of throwbacks to Mission Impossibles where we put somebody in a situation.

John: A tightly controlled situation, yeah.

Chris: A very tightly controlled situation where we’re- you know, the team is controlling all the information, trying to find something that is everybody's worst nightmare. And waking up next to the dead girl you picked up in a bar is every dude's worst nightmare. So that was-

John: You’re generalizing a lot there.

Chris: Well it's one of the guys-

Frakes: Just saying.

John: Just saying.

Frakes: Some.

Chris: -worst nightmares.

John: They came quick, that's all.

Chris: Yes.

John: And a little Order 23 actually.

Chris: Yes.

Frakes: Ooh there she is. The Italian is back!

John: The Italian is back.

John: The lovely Elisabetta Canalis proved to be a wonderful young woman, really charming and really found this character. This is great.

Frakes: And luckily for us, found her American accent.

[Laughter]

Chris: Yes.

John: No, the sort of surliness between the two of them was a lot of fun to play. And it was kinda fun because we debated naming her, and her just being The Italian was this kinda throwback to the 60’s spy movies, and it gave her a hook into the character, because her job is to just torment him.

Chris: Yes.

John: She's an outside force. She’s weather, so to speak.

Frakes: She's weather, but she was also very game, she loved this.

John: Oh yeah. Well this- nevermind the finale, we duct taped her to a chair!

Chris: Yeah.

John: And she's like, “No, no, duct tape me! I have no problem.” And we blew her up and we shot bullets at her, she's fantastic.

Chris: And we hadn't seen her in a while this season, so this was a really important scene.

John: It was a good reset cause we'd originally had another episode that might have popped her up and reset the story in the middle but it didn't work out with the story structure.

Frakes: It was smart to pepper her through the season, cause she's sort of a part of the family, and if you don't see her enough, you forget that.

Chris: Yes.

John: And we also were in another situation where we were not sure where the summer break would fall again.

Chris: Right.

John: We didn’t know which episode was gonna wind up being the one we went out on. And this worked out, this was our new format, sorta putting the desk/table down there.

Frakes: This is actually a good call. The L.

John: Yeah, this- well it gave us the thing we had first year; it allowed us to shoot down that table, everyone’s at business, they're at work.

Frakes: Yeah.

Chris: Yeah leaning forward, engaged. When they were sitting in those couches, they tended to, like, sink and disappear.

[Laughter]

Frakes: Well it also does something to you physically as an actor; you have to sit more erect and your posture has to be-

John: We also shocked them, we put electric current through these seats just to wake them up.

Chris: And John I have to give you credit, I think you're the one that sorta pioneered the flash back and forth briefing scene. We kinda tend to do these-

Frakes: It was here. This was the one.

John: No, there was another episode where we did it on the first, and-

Chris: We did it in the first season, and what we typically do is we kinda unload all the exposition and then we start the con, and-

John: Yeah I actually like this, and whenever we run into - in the writing room - a really chunky first or second act, this is the first tool out of the toolbox.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Like can we crosscut in time, as we plan, as we execute.

Frakes: As we lay the plan and exposition.

Chris: And it makes it so much more energetic and dynamic, and I think this is the way we’re gonna do it a lot in the future.

John: I'm trying to remember the first episode we did that in.

Chris: I think it was Juror #6 Job.

John: Yes! Where, as he explained what he was doing in the chess game-

Chris: As he explained the assignments we zhoomed to the people doing the assignment, and we zhoomed back to the next guy.

John: Yeah. There's nothing- there's no law that you have to obey linear time in television. And also this character is based on- at least his violence is based on Terry O’Reilly who is my favorite Bruin.

Chris: Oh, sure.

John: And one of my favorite things is you can go on YouTube and find fights of Terry O'Reilly on YouTube, and they're just unspeakable [laughs].

Frakes: So that's who she’s referencing in this next beat with Spencer, yeah, “I know you from-”

John: Yeah, exactly.

Chris: And this is great, we shot this at the convention.

Frakes: We discovered this location, we shot the shit out of this location, it's so easy.

John: It's the convention center. It's doubled as the airport a couple times, it looks like an airport!

Chris: Yeah, and our special effects people put a plane in the back.

John: Yeah.

Chris: And John and I love this-

Frakes: Boom! Boom! Boom!

John: Now wait-

Chris: That's a beautiful-

John: Beautiful zhoom, but how was-

Frakes: Well I had to out Dean Devlin, Dean Devlin!

John: How was he in sight line for that, I just realized that?

Frakes: That's how the camera works!

Chris: They saw him, they 're up high!

John: That's a great shot by the way, look at that eye. Just one eye peeking over it's a great shot, it's beautifully done.

Frakes: And there’s from Aloha Air, they're there, they're in the airport.

John: Yeah, it's amazing if you tightly constrain your shot how much business you can put through it.

Frakes: Given the number of extras we’re allowed.

John: Our 20 extras turn into 40. “Now take off the stewardess uniform! Now put on a skirt! Now walk through again!” Yeah.

Frakes: “Change luggage! Another ticket!”

John: And that's- by the way, a great bit there that Beth does, just deciding to poke out while he's making the phone call.

Chris: Yeah.

John: She's really working on being a Doctor Who companion in this episode, she's really working the cute-

Chris: And there's the great Gerald Downey.

Frakes: Gerald Downey.

Chris: Who is not my brother!

Frakes: Another recurring member of the family.

Chris: But I feel a member of my TV family, certainly.

John: Yes, it broke our scheduling that we were not able to get both FBI agents. But we did establish that he was off doing- that he was doing very well.

Chris: Yes, doing well.

John: And it really started from throwaway joke in the first season-

Frakes: Oh he had the pentagon job, the pentagon translating job?

John: Yeah he was doing-

Chris: Doing krav maga in Quantico.

[Laughter]

Chris: Which is an Israeli martial art.

John: We did- first season we wanted to start establishing the bigger world in the Leverage universe, and those guys happened to be the first two. And we just loved the actors so much that we started feeling bad for the characters.

Chris: Yeah.

John: So we made the plot point that they start doing better every time we interact with them.

Chris: I think we kind of talked about in the arc of the overall series, every time the Leverage team brings them in and sort of hands these bumbling FBI agents a collar, that they move up the ranks until the final episode you see them being sworn in as director of the FBI.

Frakes: What about your buddy Michael Mahon, you gonna give him some love?

Chris: Oh let me give some love to Michael Mahon. I cast him on King of Queens - twice - as sort of an oily lawyer businessman.

Frakes: Oddly enough, something we use around here!

[Laughter]

John: That is in the Leverage wheelhouse.

Chris: And I knew in conceiving this character of the fixer lawyer that he would be perfect, and he was.

John: This, by the way, was so old school and one of the fun things about doing this show is we are taking absolutely Mission Impossible old school, and take parts of the conversation and cut them together.

Chris: Yes.

John: Which you can do fairly seamlessly with electronic technology now-

Chris: Yeah we're not taking any liberties with technology like that.

John: No. Yeah, it's just fun, it really is, there is no difference between this and some dude cutting up reel to reel in Mission Impossible.

Frakes: What has she got? Bam! Recorded the whole thing.

John: Yeah. Exactly. No problem, great little mini gloat there. This was the cut, what are we gonna do, how are we gonna do it, and we bounced.

Frakes: And you do it.

John: Yeah.

Frakes: Did get us through this exposition of Act 1.

Chris: And there you go, and we're gonna set up-

John: And there's our-

Frakes: Our UPM.

Chris: Our UPM.

John: UPM, James Scura.

Chris: Who is known as the-

Frakes: The Frenchman!

Chris: Yeah, I think the Frenchman.

John: He's the Frenchman.

Frakes: He's the assassin.

Chris: Long-haired bearded guy.

John: Now he is the assassin this episode, he is married to Kari Whurer-

Chris: Yes.

John: Who is the assassin in the other-

Chris: The Reunion Job.

John: The Reunion Job! so in our heads they're like a very bad Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

[Laughter]

John: In the Leverage-verse they're the kind of B-level assassins that always try to get each other jobs. The Leverage-verse is a cruel place.

Frakes: Never too soon to do the 360!

John: Never too soon.

Chris: And this is a great 360.

John: I'd like to- oh and if you're playing the Leverage RPG, I'd like to use both those characters, I'd like to say. She's great as the groupie in this and it's fun, another thing that she could not have done in the first season, but we've established: Parker can do the short con. She's gotten those skills. She can't do the long con. You know, but Aldis in theory can do the long con, but he always goes over the top- pardon me: Hardison always goes over the top. And Eliot’s the next best.

Frakes: She knows a bar!

Chris: Knows a bar right near her place. And here we land on: boom!

John: Yeah right there, nice timing on that turn and we popped to him. When a girl like that says she knows a bar? You go to the bar.

Frakes: Go to the bar, yeah.

John: You go to that bar, yeah. Nice shot through the- oh wow that is a pretty shot.

Chris: And some nice closing time music from Joe LoDuca, our composer.

John: Yeah, really nice. Then and- good drunk by Spencer Garrett.

Frakes: I gotta say he pulled it out, he really did.

Chris: He did.

John: Again, we talk on another episode-

Frakes: You're afraid of going full tar. But you can't go- gotta go full drunk.

John: Never be afraid of going full drunk. You know what a good thing to do if you're playing drunk, by the way? Is, as an actor, close your eyes and spin for 30 seconds, and then start the scene.

Frakes: Oh good technique.

John: That is- that really helps, good for your physicality.

Frakes: So you're one of those guys who pulls their nose hairs when they wanna cry, too?

John: No, if I were playing drunk I would just get drunk. I'm playing drunk now and I'm drunk. Oh this was a lot of fun, we've been wanting some stereography for ages.

Frakes: Now where does this come from? It's a color combo thing?

Chris: Well our research showed a lot of terrorist groups use- actually use photographs to send coded messages. When you decode the photograph it breaks down into language.

Frakes: When you break down the pixels?

John: Yes, when you break down the pixels, they break down to the binary code, the binary codes are different enough, as soon as there's a difference, it’s encryption.

Frakes: Oh look at Beth here!

John: She's great, digging in on this.

Chris: She's awesome here.

John: And I like them-

Frakes: Setting the con, rebuilding Nate's apartment.

John: Yeah exactly. First time we’re in Nate's bedroom. I don't know why there's a praying mantis in there.

[Laughter]

John: It's really disturbing, I'm not gonna lie to you.

Frakes: I gotta say, there's not just one praying mantis as you recall. There's a callback.

John: Yeah, and take the picture, always take the picture. And yeah, you can see the pictures in- the books in theory that are on his shelf.

Frakes: Never been done before.

Chris: No, dosing the glass? First time.

John: Just the little roll, that was a nice shot.

Chris: Time tested.

John: And then play to the camera: I'm done, I'm done, and now we go. I like Gina in these black outfits.

Chris: Yeah.

John: I just noticed that we started putting her more in these black outfits this year and it was nice. Well it's black and black because now we have Nate in thief gear, it’s very iconic.

Chris: Yeah, and if I could be a little pretentious for a moment, and I'll indulge myself.

John: Please, go ahead.

Frakes: You gonna talk about the mise en scène?

Chris: I'm gonna talk about the color scheme.

John: Oh alright.

Chris: We talked about colors being important here and we kinda used red as the color of rage, which is our character’s- our bad guy's fatal flaw, so you'll see red play a lot in his scenes, and some of the other scenes.

John: That's actually- we talk about how different writers approach stuff, a lot of times Chris is the guy in the room who will ask like, “OK, what's this bad guys problem? What's his fatal flaw? What's his emotion? What's the hook?” Everyone writes from different places.

Chris: This guy has a temper, and that's his weakness.

John: And sometimes it just-

Frakes: I didn't think that was too pretentious.

Chris: Thank you!

John: No, and it wasn't too pretentious at all. Great makeup! Great makeup by the makeup department here, fantastic. The little bit of blue there, the marks on the neck. That's an act out.

Chris: That's an act out!

Frakes: You wanna come back and see what happened to Beth.

John: I would like to know, I would like to know. A little disturbing, I have to admit. I'm fond of Beth, so that's a little disturbing.

Chris: And Spencer's fantastic here, he is really just going through all of what you would do.

John: And we do our flashback here rather than later, no it's a nice bit of work. This was a complicated little episode.

Frakes: Different pieces.

John: Unlike most episodes where there's only one timeshift, there's three. There's the shift forward in the set up, there's the shift back in this exposition, and at the end there's the standard flashbacks.

Chris: Well you had to flashback here because you wanted the audience- you didn't want the audience thinking she's actually dead for very long. And you knew that they were gonna key into that.

John: Also making sure like, well why wouldn't he check her pulse? Well-

Chris: He did!

John: We’re making sure he can't.

Frakes: He did that's why she put the piece of leather on her wrist.

Chris: And now who do you call? And this is the question guys ask each other. Who are you gonna call in this situation?

John: Your lawyer! Gotta call your lawyer.

Frakes: You got your guy, right I've got a guy. Gotta set that call.

John: I will also say, to a great degree, this is why you wrote the episode.

[Laughter]

Frakes: For these two doing this?

John: You wrote the episode so the boys could be cops.

Chris: The B story in this was an homage to Cops.

Frakes: Bad boys, bad boys.

Chris: Bad boys, bad boys, playing in our heads.

John: Don't sing it! If you sing it we have to pay.

Frakes: Boy did they want to sing it in this scene, though.

Chris: Oh they wanted to.

John: I know, Jesus. People don't know - that's fifty grand, boom.

Chris: And that's a beautiful shot right there.

John: The mirror shot? Really nice.

Chris: As we find her in the bed, and then find him looking at himself in the mirror. Oh that’s great.

John: Now I’d do a cop show with the two of them, just two surly Boston cops? Could do 13 episodes. We should do that show when we’re in the off season.

Frakes: And no time in the hair department!

John: Cause he's in the cap.

Frakes: Hats go on.

John: Hats go on. There you go. Yeah, we could do that in the hiatus show, we just do the cop show.

Chris: Yeah, and this scene here- we had, I guess, a strep throat outbreak during this episode.

John: Yes that’s right!

Chris: And there were a couple of things we didn't get to, and I believe this was shot a couple episodes later, really late at night, like three in the morning, and they did a great job.

John: Yeah, no, and just-

Chris: And I love them putting the hats on!

John: The hats, both turning.

Chris: And we’re off.

John: And it’s interesting, because they still always play the hostility cause they annoy each other.

Frakes: They can barely stand to be in the same room, but they're fantastic together.

John: But the physical mirror is one of those giveaways. There's a great bit in The Underground Job where he comes in for the high five and Eliot's annoyed and he goes, “For morale!” Which is a call back to when they were in the woods, and Chris actually has Eliot break into a smile, you know? They’re not- oh that's great. “Next time you can get a firetruck!”

Chris: I think I wrote that on set, I think that was a replacement.

Frakes: I think you did write that on set.

John: You know what, that's like in Inside where he's like, “That's fantastic, you’re great, can we get out of here?”

Chris: Yeah, yeah, I think that was exactly it.

John: The mocking tone is flawless. And strategizing, these are two people at the top of their game trying to figure out exactly how to handle something.

Chris: It was nice to put the two of them together, you know, kind of reminiscing. It was a nice little kind of romantic beat, here.

John: Yeah, they do have a shared history, that's what originally drew them together, you know.

Chris: Yeah.

Frakes: That's sorta what's hanging over both these characters heads, is their shared history?

John: Yeah, and then in the end of the season it collides.

Chris: But here she's sending him off.

John: Yeah, and she'll always be better at the con. She's always giving him little confidence moments, little confidence beats and Gina does a lot of that with physicality that's not in the script. Great encountering bureaucracy moment here.

Frakes: And this is a funny scene, actually.

Chris: And they did a great job of just underplaying the debate between the two of them.

John: Yeah.

Chris: Just throwing it away.

John: Just the-

Chris: The harried prosecutor.

John: Eliot, once again, not happy with the lack of prep Hardison has done, Hardison, once again, overestimating his ability to pull off the con on the fly.

Chris: This is just them, you know-

John: Bickering!

Chris: Improving bullshit.

Frakes: This is Blake, whose wedding Tim had just been at.

John: Oh that's right!

Frakes: She was fabulous as a lawyer.

Chris: She was great.

John: And they're out. See we've done, we've- oh and now.

Frakes: Oh no, not the convict.

John: If you’re a young writer remember, the much better solution to we screwed up is we succeeded too well.

Chris: We succeeded too well, we convinced them so well that we now have to take a prisoner back with us.

John: There's really no way to go wrong with we succeeded too well.

Frakes: Also, we see the scene doesn't seem too long cause it has the second beat.

John: Yeah that's right, you'd be out by now, you'd be in the car.

Frakes: “Idiot, now we gotta take this guy to the car with us!”

John: And he winds up being a clue path, by the way. Because he's at the same grand jury.

Chris: Yes.

John: It’s actually- this all hangs together pretty beautifully, I gotta say.

Chris: And now here we go, you've found the dead girl in the bed, your substitute lawyer is here.

John: And your lawyer with the gloves, as one has!

Chris: When you’re the fixer lawyer, you have them.

John: You have gloves!

Chris: Yes. And by the way, there’s no-

Frakes: He's been in messy situations before.

John: He's got a wood chipper.

Chris: By the way, I went to law school; there's no class in fixer law.

John: Really?

Chris: I wish there was.

John: Yeah, you would have gone into that instead of the white collar defense law that you were into?

Chris: I would have gone into that. I would have gone into fixer law, that's much more interesting.

John: Isn't that close, though?

Chris: Oh well, not with rubber gloves.

[Laughter]

John: Oh, worst client you ever had? Worst client. I don't think you've said it on the DVD.

Chris: Oh, well, I think it was the guy that looted the trust funds of Holocaust survivors.

John: Wow!

Frakes: Ohhh.

Chris: And he was actually a lawyer, too.

John: Yeah, wow.

Frakes: Here we go, here's the beginning of our cop sequence.

Chris: Oh I love this, this is my wife's favorite scene in the whole episode.

[Laughter]

Chris: She goes, “That guy in the cage, where did you get that guy?”

Frakes: Well I got him going, too! I said, “You can't do enough, try to get into this scene with these guys.” Remember when we were shooting this? I said, “Do anything you can to get into this scene, because they will not let you,” and he said, “Are you sure?” I said, “I promise you.”

Chris: ‘Just try, do everything you can.’

John: You never have to worry on a Frakes episode with him getting somebody to underplay something, that's not- why are there so many praying mantises?! Alright the Irish whiskey just kicked in, I need a little bit more. I love the realization, the head snap that she does here. I adore- “Oh, what the hell?”

[Laughter]

John: Zero to Parker. In .5 seconds with Nate calling audibles.

Frakes: Yeah, and of course we've all got one of these.

Chris: Of course, it's Leverage! You don't have one of these?

John: And of course she does, yeah. Why wouldn’t she?

Frakes: I could use it. This one fits!

John: We never explain that.

Chris: And by the way, it’ll set up a locked off comedy frame, like we talked about in the previous episode.

John: Yes, exactly. Can't go wrong with that. And now they got the call.

Frakes: I had a field day with these guys.

John: Oh yeah.

Chris: What was nice was that Eliot gave Hardison shit for over investing them, and now we can switch it, now all of a sudden Eliot’s the one over invested.

Frakes: Yeah.

John: Eliot has his own soft spots that he’s-

Frakes: Kids! You don't put kids in jeopardy around him.

Chris: You don’t put kids in jeopardy.

John: And that's one of the tricks on the show is making sure- because there's a great saying that every private eye book is a private I - and I'm pointing at myself - book. So it’s very easy to write these characters to be very cool, but without flaws. And so it's very important to constantly remind- each one has their own specific set of flaws that run, that throw a spanner into the works.

Chris: Oh how fun was this?

Frakes: Really fun.

John: Oh guys, how much time did you spend on the cops pastiche, guys? How much money did you spend on this? Two characters?

Frakes: Boom!

Chris: Shot pretty quickly, too, because it’s all handheld.

Frakes: Two characters, two handhelds.

John: These characters are in the plot, how? They're related to the main storyline, how?

Frakes: Derek Sitter!

John: You're not answering any of these questions, are you?

Chris: Derek Sitter and Erin McGarry.

Frakes: They're in the plot because we stopped to save them!

John: Alright, alright, it's a gimme, I'll give it to you.

Chris: And they went for it, too.

John: The dude with the bat.

Chris: Derek especially got thrown into the deep end.

Frakes: His feet got ripped up, his hands. There was real blood by the end of this scene.

Chris: That was real blood, and he was like in character.

John: Yeah. “Sit your ass on the bumper.” That's great; just he puts on the dad voice right there. Just, “I have had enough of this shit.”

[Laughter]

Chris: And there's always the moment in the episode of Cops where it all seems to be calmed down, but there's some moment of disrespect, and the guy jumps back in.

Frakes: “Don’t you talk about my woman!”

John: Oh and down!

Frakes: That's where the blood came!

John: Big takedown by Aldis Hodge, there you go. I love also, by the way, this is plainly in the bartender's view, he's just used to this. He works-

Chris: Locked off comedy frame folks!

[Laughter]

John: There she goes! And by the way, how lucky are we to have an actress like Beth Riesgraf who will get her as in that harness and do that for us? That's not a stunt girl.

Frakes: Here's a cue!

Chris: How great is he?

John: Look at his face light up, there you go, and the hand shake- the awkward handshake. Yeah, that bartender works there, that bartender knows what's going on.

Chris: He knows the deal.

John: Yeah well cause Cora told him

Frakes: He knows who lives upstairs.

John: Exactly, they saved the bar. That's also tied into my theory of the bar where Fitzy, the old guy at the end of the bar, was a contract killer for the Irish mob back in the 50s, and now he kinda just keeps everything calm here.

[Laughter]

John: He seems innocuous, but you watch, he's got dead eyes.

Chris: Oh, but I'm so glad we were able to keep this storyline alive.

Frakes: With Downey?

Chris: Of his flirtation with her, and he’s just so sweet.

John: This is one of the frustrating things about making television, real human beings are attached to roles. And so availabilities! You know, budgets, schedules. You know, we wanted to bring Tara back this year and Jeri got another show and couldn't come back. You know, it always makes you happy when you can kinda bend reality to fit the show.

Frakes: See that look on Downey's face? That's something everyone feels when they finish playing a scene with Beth.

John: They always have.

Frakes: It is.

John: She's a blithe spirit.

Chris: And this is great, this is a great shot right here in the window. This is done- this is a great special effects shot, look at that.

John: Yeah we put the glare in, right.

Chris: Yeah.

John: And also the reflection, that reflection is CG, too, if I’m correct.

Chris: Now the bat he's carrying was once a dog.

John: Yes, originally it was a dog.

Frakes: Budget eliminated the dog and the trainer and the amount of hours we could use them.

John: Turns out dogs are ridiculously expensive.

Chris: It’s crazy, I think dogs- I learned that dogs are more expensive than trains.

John: Yes.

Chris: Trains, apparently dirt cheap in Portland. Dogs? Ridiculously expensive.

John: Nice push in on that to help set up in a static shot that things are changing, that's a nice choice.

Chris: Oh I love this, this is great. And this is the two of them going mano y mano.

Frakes: This is a great scene, this is a Godfather scene, or a Goodfellas scene.

John: Yes, yeah. This is- Tim really enjoys these too.

Frakes: He also loves when a good actor shows up. He loves to go toe to toe with a good one.

John: This was like in Double Blind when O’Keefe-

Chris: Michael O’Keefe?

John: Michael O’Keefe came in.

Frakes: And the three hander you had at the end of the season.

John: Yeah, you can’t get him out of these scenes, cause actors- and they tend to shoot these- they want to go long, they wind up doing the whole scene a couple times, as long as you set up to get the coverage. We’re very lucky.

Chris: It's a great objective, I mean he's gotta convince a guy that he killed somebody that he doesn't remember.

John: Yeah, I mean prosecutors in the south do this all the time.

[Laughter]

John: Well- the letters, the emails, go to the website!

Chris: Oh. “Close your eyes.”

John: What's that? Oh, “Close your eyes.”

Chris: I love “Close your eyes.”

John: What I love is he's trying to get him to remember and what he's doing is hypnotizing him. He's basically planting these memories into place.

Chris: He’s planting memories.

Frakes: He’s closing the blinds.

Chris: Yes, and I have to give Tim credit because he said, “I wish there was a little something more in this scene where I'm doing something to put it in his head.” And I added it later and it really worked well.

John: The choking?

Chris: I added the just closing your eyes and putting yourself back in the scene. Because we talk about the unreliability of memory all the time.

John: All the time, yeah. A lot of times when we’re talking about credit and who did what, and who should get the credit for stuff they show.

[Laughter]

Chris: Unreliability.

John: Memory is unreliable, it’s really- that's why it's safer to default to us. Spencer's great, great way to play this in the closeup.

Frakes: Also a man comfortable with a glass in his hands.

Chris: Here we go, look at this shot! How did we- how many blocks was that?

Frakes: That was four- three blocks.

John: Three blocks on a zhoom.

Chris: That’s great.

Frakes: Three piece, three piece ninja.

John: Three piece ninja.

Frakes: Look at this guy, lost his shoe.

Chris: Hit him with the bat, and wait for the locked off frame- there!

[Laughter]

John: Oh nothing funnier than being taken out of a locked off frame.

Frakes: That's twice in this episode.

John: This was- I remember actually this- when you were writing this, you were in the- you were in the office, the writers room is right next to the office Chris and I share, because we’re a cable show, and we were breaking something else and you came in and you did not have the linkage.

Chris: I needed the linkage.

John: And we wanted- this was one of the ones where we needed to tie it in. And this is why you have a writers room, cause you never know when someone's gonna come up with- oh you know, this is how to do it. It's good to have ten brains. And again you can do a show with these two as FBI agents. We’re just oh so lucky.

Frakes: Blessed.

John: Yup.

Frakes: This is a long shot.

Chris: That is a long shot, right into the back room.

Frakes: From the exterior door, through the bathroom area, and back room.

John: I think we said it- I had fought building this set. I did not want to build this set; I thought we would never be back there. And the number of great long shots we've had moving back and forth between those sets? It's well worth it, worth it.

Chris: Well Jonathan, it was in the bar episode.

John: Yeah, it was in Bottle Job, we built it.

Chris: That was in your job.

John: Yeah, it was in Bottle Job.

Frakes: Alan Smith in the house.

John: Alan Smith is in the back, lurking, drinking. Drinking, Lurking. All those verbs. And- but it was just gonna be a standalone set and then wound up- and then this is also where your experience as a lawyer is handy because I never would have come up in a million years - you need the deposition, he needs to see his handwriting.

Chris: You need his agreement that he made with the government in order to convince the guy that you can make a deal and get him out of this.

John: Yeah, he needs to see the deal, he wouldn't believe any lawyer who didn't have the deal would be the person he could talk to.

Frakes: Red tie, symbolic red tie.

Chris: Symbolic red tie.

John: This was fun eventually-

Chris: Oh and this is-

John: Yeah she plays a great hardass prosecutor.

Chris: Another of my favorite scenes. And this is good cop, bad cop.

Frakes: When she puts on the glasses, whenever she puts on the glasses.

John: It works!

Frakes: You know she's good to go.

John: Those are great glasses, too. The sort of bored, the sort of just move it along here.

Frakes: [Unintelligible] and wiser girl for me.

Chris: And I love the way it was blocked, too, because you had Tim sitting, and you had the great shot to the blinds, and I mean you really had that kind of like Verdict/Godfather kind of feel.

Frakes: It did feel Godfather.

John: When you have three, by the way, you have to change one person's level, that's how you do a three hander. There's actually a great shot in Laura, which is where the actors are stacked up on different vertical levels, and that's how they handle a four hander, and they have people move in and out of those levels.

Frakes: Wow.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

John: I do occasionally know what I'm talking about.

Frakes: You referenced Laura?

John: You know, the noir thing, we’re very heavy into noir this year.

Chris: Here we go!

John: And then they fight! And that's what I love is-

Frakes: He just- this is the beat where Tim goes behind, which is wonderful.

John: But whenever you can make the mark- and Apollo told us this, whenever you can make the mark feel like he's the audience rather than the guy being worked-

Chris: Yes, absolutely.

John: They want to be involved in it, they don't want to feel like you're left out of it.

Chris: You don't feel like you're being conned by two people that are fighting each other and one of them is on your side.

John: Exactly. If they’re working you, you're being conned. If you’re seeing it, they let you do your own work. No, it's really spectacular, yup. And then-

[Laughter]

John: Just the little note to ‘hey this actually ties into the entire plot for the season’.

Chris: Yes. And worked out nicely in the end.

John: Yes! Yeah, absolutely.

Chris: And she looks great in that power suit, boy.

John: I will say that we didn't have the absolute ending con written yet, that was the great thing with you coming in like, “What do we need to have in that office?” and I'm like, “I don't know yet! we haven't written the finale!” we wound up cobbling the entire finale together, the plot of it-

Chris: Oh I mean it was all planned from the beginning, right John?

[Laughter]

John: Oh c'mon we don’t lie to them. They’re well past that by now.

Frakes: Oh wait, how do you tell these guys are cops?

John: Shoes.

Chris: They got cop shoes!

John: This is actually based on a thing that used to happen to me in New York. When I used to go to Times Square I'd get mistaken for a detective, cause I wore cop shoes.

Frakes: You still do.

John: I don't still-

Chris: And paramedic shirts!

John: Not paramedic shirts then. But when I lived in New York-

Chris: Were you ever mistaken for a paramedic for your shirt?

John: No.

[Laughter]

John: Oh you know, people gave me a television show and everything, you've had pilots, you know what the process is like. Your own show, top lining, Jonathan, you know.

Frakes: Ohhh.

John: Anyway, yes it's cop shoes are a dead giveaway.

Chris: There we go, here's our action act, now this is where all hell’s gonna break loose.

Frakes: Dave Connel again, props.

John: Yeah, that’s a beautiful light. That looks like the verdict, too, right there, very nice. Yeah, we grabbed this on the fly was her trying to maneuver him. And a lot of that is playing the catcher, she's kinda just put people in play in different locations.

Chris: Yeah, and that was also tricky here was, since everyone was more or less in the same location, it's just keeping track of who was where.

Frakes: Who could see what, and who would hear what.

John: I don't think this foyer actually existed originally, we kinda cobbled it together like, “Oh, remember the other times you've seen us walk through here? This is here. You just haven't noticed it before.”

Frakes: “It's a little bigger than it used to be.”

John: Yeah, exactly.

Frakes: Big enough to shoot in now.

John: Yeah, exactly. Now that's a beautiful shot, that's a movie shot right there. And then look! “I trust you, that person is the antagonist and you're my friend.”

Chris: And here we go!

John: And he's not good. Let's face it, he’s not a good assassin.

Frakes: Oh that slow mo.

Chris: Oh that was good.

Frakes: Remember this night, Chris?

Chris: Oh god, how many times did we do the windows?

Frakes: We had to walk away.

Chris: Yeah, we had to leave.

Frakes: Went over to the bar and shot a scene and came back.

John: Nice slide slam by the stuntie, by the way.

Chris: Oh she did great.

John: Nice work. And then Gina dodging squibs all over the place.

Chris: Yeah, this is fantastic.

Frakes: This is actually a good sequence.

John: This is a great sequence! This is act four- by the way, you can do this, this is not magic; hacking this is eminently doable.

Chris: Yeah, clone the phone to track them.

Frakes: That's the bump!

John: Yup.

Frakes: I have a bump.

John: You have a what? John, please, no.

[Laughter]

John: The- oh he's shooting the candles, now he's just angry, now he's not getting the job done now he's just- yeah.

Chris: Well we are gonna explain that it's not his chosen profession, he got the job from his wife.

John: That's right.

Chris: Who sent it over to him.

Frakes: Now’s the moment I've been waiting to ask, I have both of you in the room. I was on the set with Chris Downey, who I've done two shows with now, who I've learned to trust.

John: Yup.

Frakes: I’ve been in many rooms with you, we've had many conversations. I said to Downey “Whose idea was this with the wire and the water running down the wire?”

John: The water dripping down the wire? That’s mine.

Frakes: Did you get that?

Chris: I said that!

John: I'm sure Downey said that. He knows, because he had read the script that I had originally wrote it in for a movie that will never get made and he was like “I love this bit!”

Chris: I love that - it’s an awesome bit!

John: And we wound up just turning the lights off cause the flicker was too tough to do.

Frakes: Believe me, what we went through to get the water down the wire.

John: I know, and then, but this is one of those things where you're like, “Oh, we'll be able to do it in post.” And it turns out no, you can't do it in post. But-

Frakes: We got bad information.

Chris: It was supposed to be a strobe fight.

John: Yeah, it was supposed to be a strobe fight. But you know what? This is just as great.

Chris: This is great.

John: This is great. He's Batman.

Chris: Aaaaand-

John: And the locked POV, and- boom!

Chris: There we go.

John: And down. Yeah, and then the spinning flashlight.

Frakes: Dean Devlin did this?

John: No, Marc Roskin did this, and shot the hell out of it, really nice.

Frakes: Do you remember us in here with these wires and the water bottle in the ceiling?

Chris: Yeah, I know.

[Laughter]

John: Yeah, that’s- by the way, why I wrote it in a movie. Cause it’s a sequence that you need, like, movie time to do. You can’t do that on a TV show - that's fucking crazy! I don’t know why the hell you thought you could do it in that episode.

Frakes: I said to Chris, “Whose idea is this?” He said, “It’s Rogers! It’s Rogers! It’s Rogers’ idea! It’s great, it’s gonna work!”

Chris: I did. I loved it.

John: I did, I was wrong, I was drunk. Don’t trust me, that only ends in tears.

Chris: I thought it was great.

John: Oh, that's so sweet. You actually had a kiss, originally.

Chris: I originally had a kiss, but you said that was too much.

John: You know, I just don’t think she’s physically intimate enough for that. But if she’s gonna kiss anybody, it's him.

Frakes: Bam!

Chris: Oh here we go- boom, great stunt.

Frakes: Rockford.

Chris: Gut punch.

John: There you go, not afraid to use the bat.

Frakes: Worked better than that dog would have worked.

[Laughter]

John: That would've been like- where's Hardison?

Chris: The dog was supposed to jump out and attack him.

John: Now he’s really pissed, he’s blowing up the offices.

John: He's just having a bad day!

Chris: He's really going crazy on Pottery Barn.

Frakes: Everything that explodes.

John: “Maybe shrapnel from a vase will get in your eye and you'll die!” It's just- he's shooting blind now.

[Laughter]

Frakes: “You don't think I brought enough bullets! I’m French!”

John: “I’m French!” Maybe he's got-

Chris: Why do we think he's French?

John: I don't know! I don't remember. Oh, lovely overhead shot. Oh, and the French hate to get wet, there you go.

Chris: They don't like to get wet when they're shooting.

[Laughter]

Frakes: “That's it, I'm done, I'm wet.”

Chris: We had-

Frakes: “You turned the water on, I'm leaving. It’s bad for my gun.”

Chris: We had a little bit here that also helped the finale, cause we had Eliot come in and- I thought he did- he played this really nicely, saying this is the way Moreau does things.

John: Yeah.

Chris: Which I think, people are paying attention, kind of helps foreshadow the end.

John: Here is the thing. We did know that Eliot would know Moreau from the beginning of the season. And so there is a lot of stuff during this season that you can go back and watch now that you'll see it indirectly.

Frakes: You can attach it to him.

Chris: That was a little clue right there.

John: And then him panicking, as one does.

Frakes: That’s it, I don't trust any of you, I'll take my chances.

John: And it was interesting, at one point somebody asked, “Why is he running?” Somebody just shot you up, man! You're gonna run, absolutely.

Chris: He's gonna he's not gonna give up Moreau; he’ll take his chances in jail.

John: And that was one of those great times, too, “How the hell do we get him out of there? Wait, is there an elevator in that hallway?”

Frakes: Yes!

John: Yeah, and we never shoot it, we never use it, but it's been in that set since day one. Or day one of this set, which is season 2.

Chris: Now we gotta figure out where we’re all gonna go.

John: They gotta call an audible, ok.

Frakes: Glasses off, now she’s gonna get this.

Chris: Now she's all business.

John: Glasses on is a role, the glasses off is Sophie using her giant brain.

[Laughter]

John: I don't remember what the- yeah there you go, and that was great cause we get to do the whole everyones coming up with a plan and they're in different places.

Chris: And he's gonna drive. Cause now that they're back to being bickering brothers again.

Frakes: Bickering brothers, exactly.

John: Now the danger’s passed, they can go back. I remember we wrote Eliot particularly brutal in that fight too, it's just- this is what he does when other people aren’t around.

Chris: Right.

John: He moderates his violence when there's other people around, but when they're not, he's as ruthlessly efficient as one can be.

Chris: Mike Mahon, again, as the fixer lawyer.

John: “Where the hell were you?” And here's the-

Frakes: This is a good scene, I like the cutaways in this scene, what he sees and how he's been conned.

John: How he's perceiving it.

Frakes: Yeah.

John: There was an interesting new story today where a guy got conned out of between 6 and 20 million dollars by computer consultants. He brought his laptop in and- allegedly, the people examining the laptop told him he was the victim of a giant conspiracy and they got him to pay. He had a lot of money, he had inherited a lot of money, and got him to pay a ridiculous amount of money for 24/7 computer security. And they did it by controlling information and convincing him that he was the subject of a conspiracy.

Chris: Oh, so kind of a gaslight.

John: They gaslit him! They did the thing we do.

Chris: Teah.

John: And, well, they're real con people they're turned out- but anyway, what's interesting is how- when we do our research, how far you can drive someone in a tight situation with little information, you know, you really- all you have is what you see.

Chris: Yeah, and now he plays this- I mean, again, we talked about how many shades that Spencer has to play in this episode, and here it's just panic and rage all in one.

John: All at the same time.

Chris: And we did it a bunch of times and he brought it every single time.

Frakes: Oh he did bring it.

John: And great shit eating grin by Beth there, that's a nice- this is a big part of what Dean calls the gloat, is the part of the episode where you have to make the bad guys suffer. We must gloat and the bad guy must suffer.

Frakes: Schadenfreude. [pronounced shoo-den-freud]

John: Is that the word for it? Schadenfreude [pronounced correctly]. I like [shoo-den-freud] cause he's about to start shooting people.

Chris: Here's our guys.

John: And of course they would be, of course you wouldn't question two cops who were arresting him.

Chris: No, the guys going batshit in court, two cops in the hall are gonna go grab him.

Frakes: Good thing they were there.

Chris: And then, “Moreau wants to talk to you.” Now he's really gonna lose it.

John: And then go for the gun.

Frakes: I never use a gun, slow mo.

John: Nice lock. And the taser, which we pay off in the season finale.

Chris: Oh she loves the taser.

John: She loves the taser. She's beginning to realize she loves the taser a bit too much.

Chris: She is a little self aware.

Frakes: Right here she realizes it.

John: And the neck crack.

Chris: And there’s a smile!

John: I love the neck crack, she just enjoys tasering people, that's just a good day for her.

Chris: And remind people that Eliot doesn't like guns.

John: Exactly. Although we did not know at this point whether we were gonna do the gunfight. We talked about saving the gunfight for season 5 and we wound up using it here, because we had never had a villain that was so tightly tied to him before, so it made sense.

Frakes: This is funny, this is a oner.

Chris: This is a great shot, what a great shot.

John: And a great how to tell a story in one shot. Conservation of energy and momentum.

Frakes: Few producers will let you do it; Dean did.

Chris: Now where did she- did she stop and buy the bow? I know people have asked me that, but she comes prepared with a green bow wherever she goes.

[Laughter]

John: I think she has gift wrapping in her car.

Chris: She has gift wrapping in her car!

John: Cause she likes to give people little gifts. Sometimes it's their own wallet.

Chris: Oh, and that's great.

John: And this is- this became kinda an iconic shot in the show just the three [unintelligible] just, you know, her enjoying it too much. This was a big fan favorite.

Chris: And now-

Frakes: Here it comes.

John: And now the showdown. The place is trashed, and this really-

Chris: Oh and I gotta give credit to our- Becca Molino, who just dressed this office, and I love- you'll see it in the backshot, but the kind of Warhol-like shot, that lithograph she did of-

John: Oh, of him, yeah.

Chris: Of him, it was great.

John: Him at the height of his fame as a hockey player, yeah, really nice. And this is a great- this is a great screw you scene. Now what's interesting is there's a reason her back is to you later in the scene. We shot- we wrote two pieces of dialogue, one where she lays in that they're going off on their own, and one where we laid in that she was working for Moreau.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Because we had not broken the season finale at this point, and we were kinda in the writers room-

Frakes: Luckily we shot her facing away!

Chris: Yes we did. Lucky we made that call.

John: But to be fair, this is a thing- you know, in a writers room there are multiple humans and you don't always- you know, it's nice when creators say, “I knew what was going on from moment one.” On 99.9% of shows, that's bullshit. And we were in a dead tie in the room at this point, like is she working for Moreau or isn't she? And so we pushed. We pushed the bet to the finale which was two weeks later, we were breaking it then.

Chris: Well ultimately it just didn't get us anything. I mean her being in cahoots with him kind of meant that it split the focus on the bad guys, and what was she doing that was different from this big bad guy?

John: Exactly, we got down into plotting the first half of the season finale-

Chris: It sounded great as the ending of this! Oh my god!

John: This was the summer season finale, this was fantastic.

Chris: And here was great this was another- Derek Frederickson, our-

John: The fifth Beatle.

Chris: The fifth Beatle does a great job here.

John: And again, absolutely true. Great way to transmit information if you're trying to overthrow the government, or plan some sort of insurrection, do that. Don't mention you heard it here though, don't tell the FBI that. Tell them you picked up on Boing Boing or Cory Doctorow, something like that, an already known subversive human.

Chris: And now he says sayonara to-

John: Yeah, this is, again, one of those places where Nate- the Nate of first season wouldn't have made this speech. Nate’s been to prison, Nate’s a hardass, Nate’s a thief, Nate plays by his rules now, and is cut loose in thief world. And now she makes the phone call.

Chris: Boy, good call that her back was turned, huh?

John: Well it gave you a nice silhouette.

Frakes: It’s a better shot.

Chris: Jonathan, you must've known that we were gonna go back and change it, right?

Frakes: Unfortunately you added this last scene.

John: What do you mean unfortunately?

Chris: Well, we were a little short.

[Laughter]

John: Things happen.

Chris: It was so fast paced. But I think it worked.

John: Yeah, what was this scene? Cause the sounds off when we watch these.

Chris: Oh this is the- you know we don't have to go after Moreau. This is just kinda reiterating to the audience that this is a war of choice, not of necessity. That now that The Italian is out of the way-

Frakes: Yeah, you've chosen to be in it and we haven’t.

Chris: Yes, yes.

John: Which is why later on we have him then saying, “I'm asking you,” instead of him bullying them into it.

Chris: Yes, exactly.

John: And this a part of the fact that Nate’s hubris is- when Nate’s in the game, he loses track of the goal line, he just needs to win. It's what made him a good investigator, but not necessarily the best guy to lead a crew.

Chris: And I gotta say, to go out on the summer season, I would prefer to go out on our guys than on a bad guy.

Frakes: Yeah, fair enough.

Chris: So it kinda worked out, even though we were a little short.

John: Also I like the fact we had Sophie start drinking this year. She never really drank a lot, but you know, she's a thief. To me, they are a lot like stand up comics. They work in bars at night, you know, they hang out that way. That's a great- that's the last image of the summer, right there.

Chris: That’s it.

Frakes: Damn.

Chris: Frakes!

Frakes: What fun.

John: What a pleasure!

Chris: What fun. I had to wait two seasons to do this.

Frakes: To get back. Because the first time we worked together, The Wedding Job- too funny.

[Laughter]

John: Too funny, let’s not rehash.

Frakes: That’ll never happen again!

John: There you go, alright say goodnight to the folks.

Frakes: Thank you for coming.

Chris: Thank you.

John: Put another DVD in, they get funnier as we get drunker.

[Laughter]

Frakes: Can we watch one more, dad?

John: No we can't!

Frakes: C’mon!

John: You gotta direct another show!

Frakes: I wanna watch the whole season tonight!

John: Alright we’ll put them in, fine.

#Leverage #Leverage TNT #Leverage Audio Commentary Transcripts #Audio Commentary #Transcripts #Parker #Alex Hardison #Elliot Spencer #Nate Ford #Sophie Devereaux #Season 3 #Episode 13 #Season 3 Episode 13 #The Morning After Job

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spicywarl0ck · 11 months

Note

Hello! I'm FINALLY remembering to send a DADWC prompt! OK, can I ask for Fenris/Male Hawke, number 6: “Nothing in your past will ever stop me caring about you and loving you for who you are”

Thank you for the prompt. This one sounds familiar, but I can't remember if I answered this already or not xD So I just wrote it again for @dadrunkwriting <3

“Venhedis.” Another bottle hit the wall, leaving a stain of dark red liquid against the stone. It wasn’t the first one, according to the pattern that slowly began to build on the wall, the glass shards of the bottle laying on the ground beneath it and reflecting the light of the torches.

Fenris must have burned through Danarius' fine wine quicker than he thought.

“Am I disturbing?” Hawke asked with a raised dark brow, amber eyes warm as the fire got reflected within them though.

A pair of large green eyes looked at him, lips pressed into a thin line, and brows arched in surprise. The gauntleted fist flexed momentarily, shoulders easing their tension when he took an almost inaudible breath.

“Hawke.” he tried not to sound surprised or embarrassed, yet… a little note in his voice and a slight flush on the olive-coloured skin told him more than the elf would have most likely wanted him to know.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t think you’d come by at this hour.” he coughed slightly, avoiding his gaze for just a second before his posture eased up again. “Is there anything I can help with?”

“If I am honest… I thought there might be something I can do for you.” Garrett answered; Fenris's puzzled expression told him this was not the answer he would have expected.

“You know… finding out your sister is still alive and all of that… it must be overwhelming,” Hawke added, watching the elf's expression darken.

“I am still not sure Hadrianna spoke the truth… She was desperate to save her life.” Fenris's eyes momentarily darted down to his gloved fist, clearly remembering how he drove it through her chest to crush her heart. Yet, there was no joy on his face.

“I just wanted to let you know… I understand why you did it.” Garrett said quietly, knowing better than to touch the spiked and broody elf at the moment, which was why he kept his distance. “She tormented you, right?” he asked softly.

“I really wanted to spare her….” Fenris's voice echoed across the room, fist clenching while he still looked at it, shoulders slumped. “I really did, but… I just… I couldn’t…” he didn’t finish the sentence, his voice heavy with guilt.

“It’s alright.” Hawke was on his feet within a minute, his arm stretching out hesitantly but soothingly. “I understand,” he added, stomach tingling when Fenris looked at him. How had he never come to realise how beautiful his eyes were?

//Oh whoa, slow down, bad timing, Garrett// he told himself in his thoughts, trying not to look too much like an idiot when his lips twitched into a warm smile.

“She… did many horrible things to you when you were still a slave, right? I think it’s only natural that you want your revenge somehow. I know you gave her your word and broke it, but… I also think it shows what kind of man you are feeling guilty about it in the end.”

“How can you stay as calm as that?” The elf asked him in return, dark eyebrows furrowed in thought. “You watched me killing her… how can you still believe I won’t do the same to you?”

“Because you are a good man. And nothing in your past will ever stop me caring about you… and loving you for who you are.”

Hawke spoke those words without realising what he had said initially, only for him to slowly grasp it when he saw Fenris's eyes widen. He had just made a complete idiot out of himself., and there probably was nothing he could do to undo it.

“I.. uh… You know what… Don’t mind me.” Hawke scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. “I actually just checked on you… and you seem to be fine, throwing your wine bottles…” he added, just before cold metal brushed over his bearded cheek, followed by a pair of soft lips against his.

“Shut up,” Fenris whispered against them before he claimed them in a long kiss, sweeter than anything he would have thought, causing a wave of butterflies to rumble in his chest. “I love you too,” he added softly, his warm body pressing into his and making him feel all content.

#dragon age fanfiction #dragon age #prompt #dadrunkwriting #dadwc #fenris/mhawke #fluff #malehawke/fenris

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melancholymirth · 4 months

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❛ don’t you know how sick with love i am for you? ❜ garygarygarygaryga

prompt

But the feeling was mutual; and it hadn't been long since either of them were sick with longing. However, it was unfair to compare...

V's affections might have awakened at a crucial turning point, but Garrett had been struck by a case of love at first sight, and as horribly cliche as that sounded, it was horribly true for him. Worse, he had to choke it down, put on a strong façade, bear it through indefinitely, all for V's sake—and V had set down his barriers from the beginning, barring any such affection anyway. It was clear at the time that V felt, if anything, tolerance toward the demon who'd come unannounced, and he had no qualms with giving Garrett reminders back then. There was to be physical distance, and emotional, too; it was all for the mission, everything they were doing and stomaching, all for the greater good. There could have been no time for romance, and the ruined streets of Red Grave certainly weren't any place for it.

But none of that mattered because V fell regardless, and Garrett had fallen long before. Both were expert at stifling their emotions. V had been naïve about it from the start, but Garrett—poor Garrett! Toiling away in the hot sun for weeks on end, exposing himself to many a peril for a duty self-imposed to a man who could not reciprocate but, rather, shunned him with icy glares, sharp warnings, and deliberate space. V might have been able to justify his actions then—he was marred with bad experience, after all—but now that he had hindsight to torment himself with, and a bottomless love, he could not say that he was at all proud of the way he treated a man, a devil, who was only ever giving and protective and loyal, who put V first and held his word of honor until the very harrowing end. And all of that sacrifice and pain, for love? Because of it? Because he was sick in his heart from feelings unrequited? Because he was sick enough to go to war with V and die for him?

"Sick," he called it? He was festering with it!

The lesions and sores he bore on his soul now as a result of everything he did and lost and felt, for one frail, cold-blooded sorcerer, were sincerely beautiful. None of it deserved, none of it belonged, but Garrett was only happy to bear the burden and the plague, and to see him now a fulfilled man who would still sicken himself, go to war, and die for V was as much sweet as it was bitter; and the sorcerer he'd taken as his scrawny mate felt so sorry now, because he had single-handedly put that good man through a world of bad. Maybe all was forgiven now, a small handful of years and a legal marriage later, but V would not soon forget. He likely never will. And maybe, a little somberly, he put his incessant spiraling to rest just so that he could try a feeble smile, and pulled himself close, his head beside Garrett's, so he wouldn't watch green eyes mist.

The embrace, however, was as full and as warm as his heart, and his arms were as tender as they were grasping when they wrapped around a demon so sweet and soulful. "Garrett, I—" His voice broke, wanting to betray him and destroy him in that one breath. How could he possibly answer? There was no need for any of this: the reminder, the guilt, the knot in V's throat. He didn't rightly know what spurred his beloved to say such a thing, but it hadn't mattered now. V was such a sad man; perhaps sad where Garrett was sick. He shut his eyes, and how wet they suddenly were. "I'm sorry. Yes, I know, I always know it. Don't—"

'Don't' what? 'Don't leave me'? 'Don't ever ask me that again'? Don't...make me feel this way? No, don't.

It was impossible to finish.

#astarablaze #// Didn't expect me to come at you with knives out eh???#// Joke's on me too I'M CRYING LIKE A BITCH.

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theluckywizard · 10 months

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hiiiii Lucky what if something Fade heist to rescue Hawke related + "No more dreaming like a girl so in love with the wrong world" and/or "Well, did you miss me?" from the Florence prompts?? 👀 Happy Friday and have fun!!

So this started for @dadrunkwriting Friday two weeks ago and then I got SUPER INVESTED and have been working on it ever since. I've popped an ambient song link in for effect! Illustration by me :)

Summary: The nightmares Rose had of Hawke following Adamant prompted her to develop a recurring dream with Solas, one she's had hundreds of times. It's safe. It's always the same. But something isn't right this time. And the dream will never be the same again. (Flangst, extra angst)

Characters: Rose Trevelyan, Garrett Hawke

WC: (buckle up!) 5075

Rating/CW: Explicit, sex!

Ambient Music - Olafur Arnalds - Dalur (loop it for full effect)

The intense clarity that the Anchor gave my dreams had always been tolerable– at least until Hawke stayed behind in the Fade. I could only live through so many iterations of watching the man I love get impaled and crushed by the Nightmare. So many dreams replaying the moment I left him behind. Listening to Hawke tell me in a dozen different ways that I’d abandoned and betrayed him, that he never actually loved me. Watching him end his own life out of hopelessness. In my grief and desperation I begged Solas to teach me some manner of control.

My subconscious had become unbearable and I needed to master it.

So he and I crafted a dream I could safely retreat to each night, a prison, or fortress of sorts to keep me safe from such intrusions. He’d asked me to choose a familiar place, where each detail was etched deeply into my memory. He had me choose activities to pursue within the safety of the setting, something to pass the time until I returned to consciousness, where my darkest thoughts were under stricter control.

I’ve dreamt of my quarters at home at the estate hundreds of times. It’s my refuge. Jigsaw puzzles and knitting. Playing my lute in my pillows piled high by the window. It gives a sense of peace I could never hope to find in Skyhold, where I’m haunted by ghosts of my decisions and the cost of war. Haunted by memories of Hawke.

The wards Solas taught me to set keep all of that out.

I pick at my lute, singing a tune in Antivan as rain rolls in from the Waking Sea and washes down my window. My voice is always sweet in my dreams, never needing warming up or clearing. My velvet pillows hug me while I lounge back into them. Everything is in its right place.

But there’s something strange across my room.

Something that doesn’t belong.

On the center of my bed is a yellow cactus flower.

My lute slips and clatters in a twang of strings on the floor as I’m assaulted by the memories, how a yellow bloom would grace my cot each evening in the Western Approach. I stand and approach the flower with the caution its alien nature merits.

“Maker’s breath,” I mutter, crawling onto the bed and picking it up. I spin the fragile bloom against my nose, the petals like satin, the fragrance familiar, flooding my chest with warmth. If I’m losing my grip on my recurring dream, at the very least this is a welcome intrusion.

But I check the wards to make sure I’ve activated them properly before slipping into the safety of my dream. The wards are live. I examine the flower, brushing it over my lips, attempting to divine meaning from it. It’s a fond memory of a different time, of a great love I didn’t understand or appreciate. But the warmth gives way to torment, as considering the flower cleaves my heart, the grief falling like a greataxe as I recall how I’d failed to tell him how deeply I’d felt before being scooped around the waist by Alistair and flung back through the rift.

And then I wake myself, because Maker, I can’t do this all over again.

The next night I’m welcomed by a platter of too many cheeses, partially picked over with all together too much fruit for a proper cheese deity. It sits precariously on the edge of my nightstand. And this time I laugh when the tear sneaks out the corner of my eye. No amount of grief could sully the ridiculousness of that memory.

After that it’s a book of Antivan smut on my window seat, The Fires of Satinalia, open to a picture of the Contessa and Signore della Verga canoodling in a dark alley. I’d given it away after we’d collected it from his effects, the thought of looking at it without him there to incite my blushes and horrified snorts unsupportable at the time. It prompts a wistful smile now.

It goes on for weeks, mementos of Hawke tucked around my room. I learn to look for them, like my own mind is pranking me elaborately. A bronze statuette inside my lute case. A purple bathrobe draped over my breakfast chair. A bottle of Garbolg’s Backcountry Reserve and two cobweb covered glasses on my nightstand. A scarlet scarf in rose imprinted damask with a tattered fringe on my dressing table. A wild sketch of quaking undead imprisoned in a livestock wagon on my desk.

I don’t know how or why it’s happening. But the joy it provokes has me awakening with tears in my eyes.

Perhaps I no longer need my prison of a dream.

Tonight when I arrive in my bedroom there’s nothing. I search everywhere for the treat, combing the room in an ever increasing state of agitation. I’ve gone blithely straight to sleep for weeks to see what happy little treasure I’d find next. Disappointment sets in, aching behind my sternum as I sit on the edge of my bed bent over my knees, hugging my head in my arms. The rims of my eyes gather up my tears as I realize how much I’d come to depend upon the trinkets, on the whimsy of my own tenacious subconsciousness to muddle through the day.

Ambient music - Slow Meadow - Hurricane

There’s a sound competing with the insistent drum of the rain on my window, the sound of wooden puzzle pieces clicking into place on the table behind me. I straighten, my breath frozen in my lungs. Peering anxiously over my shoulder I see a giant of a man hunched over my table on an elbow, pushing puzzle pieces around and sorting them, his hair tied up in a familiar, darling little tail like it used to be.

“Hawke?” I inquire, guarded, bracing myself for some horror or other when he responds. He pushes back from the desk to stand, the rolling chair sliding a little farther than he means it to and turns to me. The last time he’d fixed his gaze upon me, he’d held me tightly between him and his shield and fearlessly pronounced his love as the Nightmare drifted closer. He’d instructed me to go– to stop Corypheus. He’d pressed his lips to mine in a final desperate kiss. I consider all the twisted dreams I’d had of his face, this beautiful face and how they had crippled me with sorrow and guilt.

And yet this feels strangely real.

The brightness of his eyes pierce me, his lips turned slightly at one corner in a subdued little smirk, waiting for my reaction.

And as for that, I am tear-streaked astonishment, my eyes hazy and overwhelmed, my mouth agape. Closing the distance between us in a few steps, I pick up his hand with a determined curiosity, assessing the weight of it, the thickness of his palm, the way his fingers are too big to thread completely between mine.

His arming doublet is ragged and frayed over an equally tired linen shirt, and he's got a scruffy beard that looks as though it’s been maintained with a dull dagger. I reach up and feel his lips with my fingers, and they're as soft and full as they ought to be. I trace the lines across his forehead, then his brows and cheekbones. Hawke clutches my face gently, his thumbs brushing over each of my cheeks in that delicate way of his, like I’m a freshly plucked cactus flower he might accidentally crush.

“Well did you miss me?” he asks quietly, his gaze, deep as a summer sky, joined to mine with customary intensity. I collapse against him, shoving my arms under his unfastened doublet to wrap them tightly around him, letting his shirt catch all of my tears as they fall, failing to restrain the jerk of my sobs in my ribs. I feel his lips pressed firmly against the top of my head as he folds me into the thickness of his arms.

It feels too real. I’ve become too adept at this dreaming business.

“Uh– Rose?” he inquires, his voice perturbed. I glance through the glare of my tears to realize that my bedroom is dissolving around us, my carefully constructed dream slipping away under the weight of my own overwhelm. Everything gives way to a hazy amber light that holds us gently, like the golden glow of an emergent sunrise, promising another chance. There’s nothing but us.

I tighten my hold on his middle, afraid that if I let go the dream will collapse completely, leaving me alone to be followed by the unlimited void of his absence. Perhaps I could unburden myself of the feelings I’ve held close for months– the ones I’d barely understood until confronted with the prospect of losing him forever.

“I know it doesn’t matter now,” I start, speaking with my ear pressed against his chest, “but I was a monumental idiot.” I hear a laugh escape through his nose softly above me, lips buried in my hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you how deeply I felt. I didn’t know until it was too bloody late.”

“That’s all right,” he says, a surprisingly soft, humorless response, kissing his way to my forehead, his hold tightening.

“It’s not all right,” I argue with more intensity than I mean to. “It’s not. I pushed you away because how much I felt terrified me. And then– and now– you’re gone.”

“I’m right here,” he says firmly, gripping me by the shoulders, bearing down on me with a determined gaze. “I’m here. I’m alive.” I look at him, shaking my head at the tricks my mind is playing on me, wishing that I’d been able to keep a grip on this bloody dream of mine. Wishing Solas was around to help me fix it.

Hawke bends and kisses me forcefully, like he’s out to prove something, a sturdy kiss that I could never doubt. He pulls back and looks at me again as if the gesture should signify something.

But a kiss from Hawke is in keeping with everything else I’d let into my dream lately.

“Do you know how hard it was to break into this blazing cage of yours?” he asks, clearly annoyed with me, his fingers weaving in my hair. “Maker, Rose. I thought you’d know right away.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, stupified by the line of questioning.

“I found a way back to you, just as you asked. I– broke into your dreams to find you. Maker, I’ve wandered into the dreams of so many– but they won’t bloody well listen! And yours is the only one locked down like a proper vault. And you know how awful I am at lockpicking!”

His words force a flinch out of me as I grapple with it.

“You’re my subconscious,” I whisper past him as if I’m alone. He just shakes his head, exasperated. “You’re everything I’ve desperately wished for.” Hawke looks like he’s going to argue more but then holds back.

“Everything?” he asks with a sheepish smile. “I thought you knew better than to say things like that to me, Rose.”

“I’d like nothing more than for you to actually be here.”

“I am here. Rose– the trinkets I’ve been leaving– I was trying to prove to you that someone was tinkering with your blazing dream. That it wasn’t your mind. That it was me. I’m here. I’m alive in the Fade,” he says and then picks up my hand gently, stroking his fingers over the glow at the center of my palm. “And I need this beautiful hand of yours to escape.”

“Hawke–”

“I didn’t think it would be such a blazing chore to convince you.” He pulls a hand from my cheek to run it back into his hair in frustration, scratching his forehead as if to think of a new plan.

“It’s– you?” I ask, doubt still tugging at my mind in every direction.

“Maker, yes. And I’ve been looking forward to this for ages, you goose. Seeing you. Holding you.”

“How?” I ask, but Hawke bends to kiss me again gently, grazing his lips across my face until they catch mine and linger, the question in my mouth evaporating. Basking in the warmth of breath, in the give of each other’s hungry mouths, desire awakens within me, rapidly filling every interstitial space inside of me until it spills forth. We can’t be close enough, not like this.

In the time I’ve gone without him I’ve nearly forgotten the little details: his scent– peppermint salve and leather and sweat– the squash of his embrace, the energy and rhythm of our kiss. Hawke’s gentleness belies his fervor, but I can feel it in the intrepid way his hands tour over the curves of my body. He draws my knee up outside his hip with a hand under my thigh, sliding a leg between mine, his eager length pressed against the heat growing in my core. But there’s nowhere to go– my room has melted away into this lovely, yet shockingly inadequate stew of light and feeling around us.

“Could you perhaps dream us up a bed? A desk? A wheelbarrow?” he asks, beaming, bending to nudge his nose against mine. “Or perhaps that delightful window seat of yours?”

I’ve never lost the dream before though– and I’m not sure I can retrieve it.

“Couldn’t whatever is beneath our feet suffice?” I ask, a little desperate. He looks down at the amber nothingness and chuckles, because gravity is still fixing us to some manner of floor and then regards me like I’m mad or I’m giving up too quickly.

I close my eyes, attempting to journey again and draw the details from memory– the deep bench by my window with dozens of pillows. The velvet cushions. The lambswool blanket I always tuck around me to keep away the familiar creep of cold through the window. The rain streaming down the panes of glass. The evergreen forest emerging from a bank of fog.

Hawke laughs in wonderment as it all materializes before him.

“That’ll do,” he says, lifting me lightly across the partially imagined room to the window seat, a facsimile of the very place I’d first become acquainted with the Champion. Where I’d read the polished, scrappy account of him carving a place for himself and his family out of the unforgiving black cliffs of Kirkwall.

Rapturous, he eases carefully onto the window seat, scooting us over so my knees have somewhere to settle and he kicks his feet up. Astride him, my face is just above level and even beholding him at this distance, I’m still unsure if he’s real or not. The Fade is still a foreign place to me even after two trips. But my desire to make love to him, to tangle up our limbs and breath, to be filled by him is as real as anything, and I push his frayed doublet off his shoulders which he wrestles out of and then tosses into the amber ether.

“Ah, shit. I’m never getting that back, am I?” he says with a cheeky smile, but he’s too preoccupied by me to be bothered. I bend to sweep my open mouth against his, the steel of his erection against me stirring an arousal that aches with over a year of longing. I slide all ten fingers over the fine hairs across the center of his abdomen and then the coarser hairs of his chest under his shirt and he obliges me by stripping it away.

His right side is marred by a ragged scar I’ve never seen and I'm not sure that I would have conjured it up. It hooks around from the back like the rake of a talon, though it’s been long healed and I follow it with an inquisitive fingertip. He slides his hands up under the comfortable nightgown I’m always wearing in my dreams, grazing up the length of my thigh, his thumb finding the inside of it, pressing into it.

“It was a terror. Got me without my armor on. You know how they can be, jumping out of the ground like a bloody nuisance,” he explains, prompting the full weight of the revelation to fall into place like an impossible comfort.

“It’s really you,” I whisper, holding Hawke’s face as the astonishment takes hold.

He nods and dives in for another kiss, deep and unbridled. His gentle hand continues over the rise of my hip bone and onward until it lingers at the swell of my breast and then the hardened tip, our breath catching simultaneously. He gathers and lifts the sheer gauze of my nightgown up over my head and I lean back so he can exalt my skin, every curve with his mouth, his beard sending chills tickling through me as it grazes across my flesh. He pauses to wrap a lock of hair around his finger and tugs lightly.

“You cut your hair,” he says in a playful callback. I glance down at it, my hair now only reaching just past my breast.

“Only a little. You grew yours out,” I point out.

“No sense cutting it in this cursed place. Easier to tie it back.”

“I always liked it longish,” I tell him, leaning in to delve into his grinning mouth again. We grind this way, his hard into my soft, gasps and moans alternating and crisscrossing as we remember the shape of each other. Separating briefly to rid ourselves of the last remaining barriers between us, we converge again, Hawke sliding into my silken depths like a missing puzzle piece. I wrap my arms around his neck and hold him like this, his breath bathing the skin of my cheek and neck in warmth while he's sheathed to my very limits. I tuck my fingers into his tied up hair to clasp his head against me and whisper ‘I love you’ against his ear. He pulls back with a smile.

“Say it again,” he says, insisting we look at one another. I feel a little timid under such direct scrutiny, but I lift my gaze to oblige him, restraining my smile.

“I love you.”

“From the depths of your soul?”

“Well let’s not be hasty,” I laugh against his mouth. He looks at me from an inch away.

“You’re a horrible wretch.” The banter feels like sparks inside me. “And I love you. From the depths of my soul.” We take a moment to drink each other in, his survival and return relaxing the knot in my heart that’s been there since that unspeakable day. Hawke smirks again, that glimmer of ever brewing mischief gracing his smolder. Maker, how I missed this man.

“Can we get to it?” I ask with a saucy glance.

“Oh, are we not? I have to inform you that you are at least seventy five percent in charge right now, Rose.” I tilt my head to scold him with a nip on his nose and then grip him tightly within me, drawing myself off of him languorously, sinking down again. We fall into a rolling cadence, consecrating my treasured window seat with the force of our yearning.

It feels like another first time, a better one.

He handles my hip on my right and gently works his hand over my breast on the left as our pace gains intensity, rocking and churning in euphoric tandem. I drop my head back so he can press his lips to the underside of my jaw, leaning back to feel his full length pressed against my front, my pleasure gathering like a shimmer at the edges of my vision. Grasping me by the chin, Hawke fixes his eyes to mine, glossy and bright with unspilled tears, raw with emotion. Whatever he’s gone through, he’s been alone in the Fade for months, and if what he says is true, everyone else he’s encountered in dreams has ignored and dismissed him. I cradle his face in my hands to kiss him sweetly, earnestly, hoping the gesture adequately expresses my trust in him.

He clasps me against him, gasping and panting against the line of my shoulder, muttering my name, raking his teeth over my skin. We grow tacky and then slick with emergent sweat as we toil, clinging, claiming one another all over again.

My cries are practically bucked out of me and by his smolder and his breathless smile, I can see he’s waiting for me to trip over the edge of my climax before he allows himself to follow. As I lose control, my thrusts grow longer and sloppier, a tide of pleasure washing me away, overpowering my nerves until I fall limply back. Hawke catches me and pulls me to him, cursing as he shudders into me again and again, his fingers digging deep into my flesh until they suddenly relax and he draws me back into my mountain of pillows, a gorgeous pile of mush beneath me.

“Let’s do that again. Backward and inside out,” he gasps, his glazed eyes smiling ecstatically into mine.

“Backward, inside out and in a wheelbarrow,” I add, covering his face in kisses and then nestling down against him, reminded of the divinity of his cuddle. Soft and satisfied, he slips out of me and I fall to his side to settle into the crook of his arm with my leg draped over him lazily.

“Feels like we’re trapped in a glass of Cabot’s finest,” he says glancing about, then returning his look to me. He presses his lips into a sheepish smile as he stares up into the amber brume above us. “I was a little worried you’d forgotten about me to be honest.” His eyes are gently inquiring, and I catch his meaning.

“I could never.”

“What about–”

“It didn’t take. Not for long.”

“After all my hard work?” he teases me. I glance away, recalling how the Well of Sorrows had been the fracture that ultimately drove Cullen and I apart, how painful it had been in the aftermath desperately trying to retrieve something from the tatters of our relationship. How it’s muddling along as a stiff working relationship, our friendship still drifting somewhere outside our grasp, lingering feelings and history complicating our attempts to reclaim it. Hawke notices the slight withdrawal and presses his lips to my forehead.

“I suppose you read that ridiculous emergency love letter I wrote you.”

“It was ridiculous. And perfect,” I tell him.

“It was slapdash at best.”

“Addie thought it was the most romantic thing she’d ever read.”

“Maker, you let other people read it?”

“Well, you were dead. I didn’t think it mattered!”

“I’ll have my revenge eventually, you monster,” he threatens me with a mischievous look, stroking my shoulder. The letter remains folded around his scrap of scarf in my desk in Skyhold where it sat while the heaviest revelation gnawed at me daily.

“Did you really dream of me all those years ago? Pulling you from the dark?” I ask. Hawke looks down at our laced fingers, shockingly timid again and then back at me.

“I did.”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“It would have seemed like an absolute ploy to get you into bed!” he protests. I wobble my head, acknowledging it. “Or worse, shockingly creepy.”

“Fair enough,” I say. “So are you going to tell me about it?” He lets out a long exhale like I’m in for a story and pulls me back on top of his chest again.

“I dreamed that I sat at the bottom of an abyss, hopeless and miserable. And you came down to me, that hair of yours drifting behind you, hand blazing with a green glow I didn’t understand at the time. I felt impossible lightness in that moment. So much that I chased it in all the years that followed.”

“And this is why you have a thing for redheads!?” I poke, tickling his sides in playful shock. He wrestles me under control with a smug look.

“Well I had a thing for you but I didn’t know how to find you except by your bloody hair. Nobody’s hand lit up like this. I didn’t even know you were real really. Imagine my reaction when I heard rumors that a woman stumbled out of the Fade with a hand marked by the Maker. And then again when Varric starts sending me the details.”

“But you didn’t come to Haven.”

“They would have made me Inquisitor! You know this. So I waited. And I had other reasons to come of course, but the burning curiosity I had about you had me rushing to Skyhold.”

“That whole time,” I snort to myself, “you knew something I didn’t.”

“I may have wanted you for years, but it was only in the abstract sense. It felt like a ridiculous fantasy. And then I met you,” he says. I ride his falling chest down as he sighs wistfully.

“Well it certainly explains some of your Maker forsaken brazenness,” I tease him, remembering his dogged and ultimately successful attempts to win my affections. Hawke grins and squishes my cheeks between his hands and draws me down for a smooch.

“You did save me, you know. You prodded me right out of that festering hole I’d been hanging around in for years. Like the dream– better than the dream,” he says. “But now I think it may have been more literal. I think you’re meant to come to the Fade to find me.”

The thought is overwhelming, but I pull myself together. “All right. Tell me how.”

“I will– but there are things I need to tell you first.”

“I have things to tell you too.”

“I know about Corypheus. We can have matching tankards engraved. ‘I killed Corypheus and all I got was this lousy mug.’”

“Do you remember the bargain I made with Flemeth?” I ask him and he perks up, tensing slightly.

“To drink. So… you drank? But what?”

“I drank from the Well of Sorrows. It made me– well I wouldn’t call myself a pawn exactly, but I’m subject to the will of Mythal. Of Flemeth.” “And I thought I got a raw deal with that witch. Maker. She’s– Mythal?” he processes momentarily and then looks at me again. “Are you all right?”

“It was another bargain. I was able to call upon her dragon to fight Corypheus at least. But who knows when she’ll call in more favors.”

“That’s not what I asked– are you all right?”

“Well, I hear a lot of voices now.”

“Rose,” he breathes, worry and sympathy and shock commingled.

“But I don’t understand them, so there’s that at least,” I add. He turns onto his side to face me and holds me tightly against him.

“Maker, what’s becoming of us,” he whispers, the lines in forehead deepening with distress. I burrow up against him, wishing we could simply merge. It would be easier that way.

“What did you want to tell me?”

“Might be easiest to show you,” he says, though he looks strangely anxious, like I might push him away again. Hawke releases my hand and holds it above us, snapping his fingers so that a flame the size of a lit candle manifests above his fingertips.

“Maker, Hawke. You're a mage now?” I ask. He waves it away again. He concentrates on the same hand and incants softly and the blue-green shimmer of a barrier flickers into being around us.

“Being in the raw Fade for a prolonged period has its effects. I learned a fair bit from the spirits in here. And I knew some from my father and Bethany. It’s surprisingly intuitive. At least the basics,” he says. “Not that I didn’t burn myself once or twice. But lucky for me, basic healing spells are easy to learn.” My finger finds the scar from the terror again and he catches my drift. “Yes, I healed that one myself. There’s a reason it’s rather monstrous.”

“Well it’s certainly the most interesting one,” I remark, brushing my fingers over it. I let slip a sigh I’ve been holding since Adamant, reality scratching from the background. “I wish I could just stay here.” Hawke scolds me with a look.

“If you stay here, I’ll be stuck in this odious place forever,” he says. “But I’ll come each night and we’ll make a plan. You’ll have to memorize the pieces and write them down when you wake. And you’ll have to find the others I contact. I’ll go to Bethany next since she’s already at Skyhold. And Varric doesn’t even dream so that will be on you to convince him.”

“Of course.” I press my face against his chest, relaxing into the cushion of his muscles and the safety of our complete intimacy. He’ll return. I lift my face again to confirm it.

“So you’ll be back?”

“If you’ll have me,” he says with a surprising degree of trepidation. I smack his chest and kiss him because it’s absurd. “I mean it Rose. There’s one last thing I have to tell you and you might change your mind.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Every love has its limits,” he says, his eyes lingering on me, the weight of whatever he’s about to tell me bearing down.

“Hawke. You’re making me nervous.”

“I’m nervous,” he says. “I’ve had to– I’ve had to do things. To survive in here. To contact you.”

“Do things?” My insides tense into a knot that claims me whole and then it tightens when he looks away, swallowing.

“Well. I’ve changed,” he says, frowning. I shake my head at his vague explanation. He’d already said he’d become a mage.

“I don’t care. All that matters is that you’re here.”

“It’s not just me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not alone,” he says, and the meaning twists inside me again, prompting me to look. He couldn’t possibly mean–

But when I search his eyes more deeply, beyond the sky blue devotion, I feel it. The gaze of a perfect stranger staring back. The gaze of something that isn’t him.

Hawke is an abomination.

And I wake myself, because Maker, I’m not sure I can do this again.

#hawquisitor #Hawke x Trevelyan #Garrett Hawke #Hawke in Fade #Fade Rescue AU #Rose Trevelyan #Theluckywizard #In the Shattering of Things #Purple Hawke #Blue-Purple Hawke #Warrior Hawke #Dragon Age Fan Fiction #Hawke x Inquisitor #Flangst #They really missed each other

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ironmanfridgemagnet · 2 years

Text

Sitting On The Shelf - Marcus White x Reader

Part 17 - Halloween Theft

SOTS Masterlist

"Today is a high-alert day. I can't stress enough the importance of being vigilant and cautious in light of the serious threats we'll be facing." Dina warned, hand firmly against her hip as she debriefed you all on how serious today seemed to be.

"Dina's right. So everybody keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Okay? Good." His hotdog costume bumping into Dina slightly as she spoke, causing you to let out a giggle. Trying quickly to hide it behind a cough, Dina still managed to catch it and glared at you.

"Let's watch out for people buying toilet paper, eggs, shaving cream, ketchup, your squeezables, your squirtables everything is a weapon today, okay?" Dina announced, eyes flickering across the crowd she had gathered at the store front; everyone dressed in bright, unusual costumes the only thing the same was the blue vests and the name tags scattered across everyone.

"Dee," you sighed, resting your weight on one leg as you folded your arms across your chest. "Some of those are just household necessities."

"What about guns?" Garrett asked, which you were sure would still be fine. Guns weren't the lethal weapon 'the kids' seemed to use to cause torment over the Halloween buildup.

"Those are fine." Dina confirmed with a slight nod of her head. "Incidentally, that costume is ridiculous. Professor X doesn't drink martinis."

"Yes, but James Bond does." Garrett replied, putting on his best impression of a British accent as he spoke. You loved Garrets impressions; sure they weren't the best but they always managed to elicit a chuckle from you and Jonah.

"Oh, come on, Dina. Stop being the Halloween version of Scrooge, whatever that is." Amy commanded, stomping her staff into the ground before her as she teased Dina. "Oh, Booge! Boo, Scrooge. I just thought of that." A wide smile crossed Amy's face at the revelation.

"Yeah, don't be such a Booge. Put on a costume." Jonah added, using Amy's newly coined word, making her smile just a little bit wider. A loud chorus calling Dina a 'booge' echoed around the store.

"Ooh, peer pressure from a group of people I don't respect. Now, that's scary." Dina chastised, quickly bringing the shouts to a end and a sulk onto your face; you'd wish for once Dina would take part, she'd probably surprise herself with how much fun she'd have. "I mean, I can't believe I'm saying this, but Sandra's the only other grown-up here."

"Actually, I am dressed up. I'm you." Sandra sheepishly admitted, looking away from Dina's piercing gaze as she stared her down at the admission.

"Shut up, Sandra." Sandra muttered to herself, imitating Dina's common use of the phrase.

"Shut up, Sandra!" Dina shouted much louder then Sandra had, resulting in a round of laughter from everyone gathered at the store front.

"Oh, my God, that's so cool. You're gonna be twinsies." Mateo cheered, pointing between the two Dina's with enthusiasm.

"No, we're not." Dina insisted her face becoming dusted with red at her anger.

"Wait, you guys should stand together all day." Cheyenne suggested; whether or not she knew it would get Dina to cave, it would definitely get a rise out of her, which you deemed a step in the right direction.

"I'm up for it." Sandra admitted with a shy smile, everyone cheering her on as they lived the idea of having Dina and Dina for the day.

"Yeah, I'm gonna find a costume to put on." Dina let out a deep, frustrated sigh, stomping away from the crowd to try and find a costume before she got forced into being teamed up with Sandra all day.

"Booge." You and Amy spat, hidden behind obnoxiously fake coughs, making the two of you start to laugh at each other.

"So, looking forward to tonight J?" You asked, trying to make some small talk while you waited for Dina's return.

"Of course, who doesn't love German Expressionism?" Jonah asked, and though you knew his question was rhetorical, you still gave him an answer.

"Me." With a gentle nudge to the side of your ribs, Jonah complained about your disagreement.

"If you don't like it, why do you always agree to come with?" He probed, poking you in your side at the question.

"Because it's you, dipshit." Jonah placed him hands dramatically on his chest, across where his heart should be, stumbling back slightly as though you had greatly wounded him.

"Well, I think-" Jonah began, though he was suddenly cut off by Dina's re-arrival annoyed clearly by a round of gasps.

"So let's keep an eye out for teens, tweens, people who look inappropriately large or small ...are you guys even listening to me? Hello?" Dina asked, the rooms shocked into silence by the 'sexy police officer' costume she had put on - out of everything she could've chosen?

Not that you were complaining; the outfit complimented Dina insanely well, but you never would've imagined Dina of all people to pick such an outfit.

A general hum of agreement came from you and your co-workers, each more surprised then the last by Dina's new look, having been sharply been broken from the trance you had all seemed to be in by her harsh tone.

"Holy shit." You mouthed to Garrett who stood to the right of you, both of you shocked to stillness by the events of this morning; Halloween was always interesting in cloud 9, but this? This was probably the most interesting thing so far.

————————————————————————

"It's a interesting costume." Garrett stated, leaning against the customer service counter, head against palm as he stared at Dina.

"Yeah, you know, what's crazy are those the boots." Jonah stumbled over his words, face becoming redder and redder as he couldn't tear his eyes away from Dina either. "Yes, definitely the boots."

"Really?" You asked, tearing your eyes away from Dina to look between the two guys beside you. "Cause I wont lie, I'm literally just staring at her boobs right now."

"I cannot stop staring at her giant breasts." Amy announced, suddenly appearing beside you at the customer service counter. Shuffling down and closer to Jonah, you stayed atop the counter but gave room for Amy to lean it on as well.

"See!" You cried, defending your previous actions as you were definitively assured that you weren't the only one entranced by Dina's un-Dina-like outfit.

"You know, now that you both say it I'm seeing it." Jonah admitted with faux revelation - of course he and Garrett had been staring.

"You guys, relax. We all think she looks hot, okay?" Amy assured, the four of you still staring at Dina in her police costume as she yelled at a customer.

"Like, seriously, smoking hot." You confirmed, you and Amy nodding at each other in agreement. Dina was good looking - you wouldn't deny that, come costume or her normal uniform - but there was something about the skimpy costume that seemed to have everyone realising it on a different level today.

"No, not me." Garrett defended, forcibly bringing his eyes away from Dina and turning to look at the three of you. "I mean, maybe with another personality in that body, sure, ta-dow, but you got to factor in the Dina that lies beneath."

————————————————————————

"Funny, I've never been, uh never been assigned here before." Jonah announced as the two of you walked up to the Jewellery counter where Cheyenne was already fiddling about with the displays of rings and bracelets.

"I have, a lot." You whined, slipping into the stall shaped counter and pushing yourself up to sit on it. "You're not missing out J."

You had probably worked at the Jewellery counter more than any other department within the store; not that you were complaining exactly. It was easy work, often quiet and you could try on all the bracelets, rings and necklaces while you were there. Not to mention the fact that it required so little effort to maintain that no one would come to check up on you, so you could just go on your phone or - like back when you were in high school - try and get homework done.

It was fun and easy and usually didn't require more then one person to run it for the day. However, on days like Halloween, you could understand why the tacky store jewellery may been seen as more of a priority.

"Jewellery's a real can of worms in terms of feminism, you know?" Jonah stated blankly, seemingly trying to make an attempt at small talk with Cheyenne.

"And how is that?" You asked teasingly, trying on different bangles and shimming more and more up the length of your arm. Cheyenne however, remained silent still, fiddling with items on the counter and minding her own business.

"This is great. This is great, us working together. I feel like we never really had the chance to to to bond, really." Jonah probed, trying to get a response out of Cheyenne while ignoring your question; though you wouldn't be surprised if you got a detailed explanation at some point later on.

"Yeah, totally." She mindlessly agreed, Jonah turning to you with an exasperated look on his face. Cheyenne was always chill and down for a chat, so it was probably the fact her ideal chat wasn't with Jonah that was making her so quiet.

"Oh I'm totally going to enjoy this." You whispered, mostly to yourself, leaning your weight back onto the palms of your hands slightly more.

"Attention, Cloud 9 shoppers." Garrets voice boomed over the intercom, startling you enough to nearly slip from the glass surface of the counter. "I vant to suck your blood and test it for diabetes. At-home insulin kits are now half off. Are you looking for spook-tacular savings? Because Cloud 9 has it all. You can get, um, the...uh."

Garrett's voice suddenly and suspiciously trailed off, the intercom silencing too before quickly crackling to life once more. "Attention, shoppers, I vant to suck your blood. Oh, I did that one. Oh."

"Everybody freeze!" Ah, so that explained Garrett's sudden silence. Dina voice boomed I've the intercom, shoppers and staff alike freezing all across the expanse of the store. "There's been an employee theft in the store. Nobody can leave. I repeat, no one. Can everyone report to the break room for an emergency meeting. Well, sorry, I, I actually just meant the employees. Customers can leave. So unfreeze."

"Well, we best get going." You suggested, Jonah offering a hand out to you to help you off of the countertop.

Walking side by side towards the break room, you leaned in to Jonah's side, hoping that Cheyenne who was only a few paces ahead of you wouldn't hear.

"Chey isn't really interested by your usual sort of conversation J. If you want her to open up, gossip or something y'know - interesting to a normal person - is the way to go." Patting his reassuringly on the shoulder, you dragged him into the break room, slouching down into your usual seat; Jonah on your left, Garret on your right.

Dina once more stood at the head of the room, all eyes on her, with her hands firm on her hips and a scowl on her lips. "At 8:24, a crate of irregular produce was put in the cage to be returned to fulfilment and destroyed. Now it's missing."

"I'm sorry." Jonah interrupted, sitting up straighter in his chair as he began to speak. "Irregular produce? You mean rotten?"

"No, what I'm talking about is lumps, bumps, extra appendages, apples that look like pears, pears that look like guavas." Dina explained, scoffing slightly at Jonah's initial interruption.

"So we're just throwing away perfectly good food because it's ugly?" Jonah asked, his face scrunching in confusion at the revelation - you didn't agree yourself with the practice, but it was corporate policy, which was easier to go with them go against.

"Looks matter, Jonah. You should know that, being the prettiest person in here." Glenn accused, Jonah's face flushing a deep red at the incrimination he was pretty.

"Yeah Jonah, you little pretty boy." You teased, his face becoming even redder, if that were possible, as much of the break room was now giving him their undivided attention.

"I will be interrogating each and every one of you. No one leaves until I find out who did it." Dina commanded, a round of groans coming from everyone in the break room.

"Are you joking? Dina we've all got plans." You whined, head thrown back as a deep groan came from your chest; Dina always had a way of messing up that days that were supposed to be fun within the store.

"No, you can't just keep us here. I'm going trick-or-treating with my daughter." Amy insisted, hoping that it would trigger some kind of emotional response in Dina and prevent her from keeping everyone here until the fruit was found. Did she even have the power to do that?

"Y/n and I are going to a screening of "Nosferatu" at the Tivoli," Jonah exclaimed before meekly adding. "If anybody else wants to come."

"Wow, that sounds really terrible." Garrett said, essentially saying no to the invite, with a scoff.

"It probably will be very terrible, Gare." You whispered to the man on your left, eliciting a smile from him. "But Jonah invited me and who am I to say no? If I asked, he'd come, no matter how ridiculous what I wanted to see was."

"Okay, listen, none of this is my problem. Justice does not stop for your plans." Dina spat, eyes scanning across the break room for any sign of a guilty face over the missing fruit. If it was going to be thrown out anyway, it didn't make sense as to why Dina was so concerned over it.

"Glenn, you're not gonna let her do this to us, right?" Amy cried, turning to Glenn as a last resort to overpower Dina as the store manager.

"Absolutely not." Glenn confirmed, a frown crossing his face at Dina's bossy attitude.

"Interrogations start immediately." Dina revealed before storming out of the break room, going to set up somewhere to interrogate each and every one of you.

"Well, if it's already starting." Glenn shrugged in defeat, groans coming from all around at the notion that you may actually be forced to stay here long after closing to sooth Dina's antics.

————————————————————————

"Topics, topics, topics." Jonah muttered to himself, trying to figure out a good enough conversation starter that Cheyenne would respond to his questions. Suddenly struck with a good idea, at least what Jonah thought was a good idea, he ran around the counter to stand next to Cheyenne. "Oh, uh, who do you think stole the produce?"

"I was thinking, okay, maybe Marcus. He's been to prison before for public peeing." Cheyenne admitted, a mischievous smile curling onto her face at the use of the word 'peeing.'

"Marcus?" You asked in disbelief. Marcus didn't seem like the type to steal, not misshapen fruit at least. "No, I don't think it would be Marcus. Is he even in today? I've not seen him yet."

Suddenly you became wary of the fact that he could be nearby and hearing your conversation, looking left and right to make sure he wasn't there. It wasn't that you didn't want to see Marcus, it was more so that you wanted to make sure you looked good before he saw you.

You'd already thought you'd looked pretty good; the ruffled shirt had a deep v-cut exposing the skin of your chest and had billowing sleeves, the fabric of the shirt stayed tight against you from the brown waistcoat you had layered on top of the shirt, your arms and neck were littered with an array of jewellery (most of which was borrowed from the counter you stood before right now) and the pirate hat you were wearing was slanted on your head.

In your own opinion, you looked more then good, you looked hot. But god knows what Marcus would think.

"Really? I though you guys were doing a couples costume?" The question brought a deep, red blush to your cheeks, but as the words registered in your mind, you grew more confused then anything.

"W-what? What are you on about Chey?" You asked apprehensively, knowing that if Cheyenne had heard some kind of rumour about you and Marcus, it wouldn't be long until the whole store had heard a rumour about you and Marcus.

"Y'know, 'cause you're both dressed as pirates. I thought you'd planned it?" She shrugged off your question as though it was the most obvious answer in the world; at least it wasn't some kind of rumour being sent around the store.

"Well, anyway," Jonah began, taking attention away from the fact you and Marcus were unintentionally matching, and bringing it to him instead. He truest was a good friend. "I was thinking Mary, because I heard that she's drinking again."

"No." Cheyenne gasped, Jonah excitedly nodding along at the fact he had enticed her into some kind of conversation. "Alcohol?"

"I think so, yeah." Jonah's face held a very surprised expression, though he quickly brushed it away, pushing away from the counter and moving next to you.

Dee <3 | Come for your interrogation now. Bring Jonah. You'll know where to find me.

"Come on pretty princess, Dina awaits." You grabbed Jonah's wrist, pulling him alongside you with a brief goodbye to Cheyenne and a promise to return before she knew it.

"I think you're just jealous Glenn called me the prettiest person in the store." Jonah joked, pushing his way through the doors into the back of the store in search of Dina.

"You keep thinking that J."

————————————————————————

"Did I steal the fruit? No." Jonah questioned himself for the umpteenth time in a row. You'd far lost the point of coming here for Dina's interrogation when Jonah was practically conducting one on himself. "Was it an act of civil disobedience that I admire? Yes. Do I know who stole it? No."

"Stop interrogating yourself." Dina spat, hand rubbing against her temple as a scowl settled across her face; clearly fed up with Jonah's antics. It was far clear that neither of you had stolen the fruit, but Dina was too dignified to end the interrogation until it was over on her terms.

"Why are we being... y'know, interrogated together? Everyone else has come in individually." You asked, confused as to why the two of you had been paired together; if anything you'd have assumed you'd be questioned with Amy, to two of you coming to and from work together most of the time - you'd make for an easy alibi and coverup for one another.

"Well, I figured individually, neither of you could've pulled this off. But as a team? You've got a good chance of being the culprits." Dina answered honestly, and you weren't sure wether to be offended that she thought you not competent enough to commit such a crime on your own, or happy that you and Jonah had been titled the 'terrible two' of the store.

"Wouldn't it have made sense to interrogate us separately then? See if we give you different stories, try and put us against one another?" You asked; genuinely confused by Dina's tactics but also trying to wiggle your way out of the room while you had the chance as this was clearly going nowhere.

"Y/n," Dina began, crossing her hands in front of her on top of the table in an assertive position. "Completely unrelated, but I'm going to need you to leave the room for a moment."

Standing silently from you chair, you left the room with an apologetic smile in Dina's direction; knowing she wouldn't be able to put up with Jonah's self-interrogation for much longer.

"Do I like fruit? Yes. What's my favourite fruit? Tropical. Be more specific. Mango." Jonah continued his questioning as you left the room, walking as quickly as you could away from the interrogation as to not be called back inside at a moments notice.

Your haste was also greatly aided by the fact you knew a certain someone was working today and you were matching in your costumes.

————————————————————————

"Ahoy there." You said as you walked up to Marcus, the taller man turning around at your greeting; words quickly failing him as he noticed how your outfit matched with his own.

"Y/n Hey! Hi. You look-" Giving him a twirl, you tripped over your own feet, falling into Marcus who happily caught you in his arms, pulling you up to stand properly. "Great. Hot."

"Hot?" You asked, both your faces becoming red at the question: neither could quite believe that Marcus had just said that out loud.

"Yeah." He answered almost breathlessly, both of you surprised by the boldness of his confirmation. "It's a great costume, you really do look good."

"What an honour to hear from you, my dearest captain." Marcus smiled widely at the term of endearment, the distance between the two of you practically non-existent and outfits that could easily mistake you for a couple.

"Aw cute!" Cheyenne cheered from behind you, causing the two of you to quickly break apart and suddenly become very interested in the floor. "I totally knew it was a couples costume."

"Oh Chey-" You began, though were quickly cut off by her asking you a question, her head over-run with the cuteness she'd just witnessed.

"I'll get you a picture." She offered, immediately pulling out her phone and gesturing for the two of you to step closer to each other.

Settling for simply wrapping your arm around Marcus, you moved closer to him, however, the brunette seemed to have other ideas in mind; wrapping one arm around your midriff and another in the bend of your knees, scooping you up into his arms and pulling you close to his chest.

At the sudden motion, you let out a loud gasp followed by uncontrollable laughter, a hand coming to rest against Marcus chest as you steadied yourself.

"Perfect!" Cheyenne gasped, taking a series of pictures of the two of you as Marcus held you in his arms. Shaking your own hat off of your head, you traded it for Marcus more extravagant one, placing it slantedly atop your own head.

As Cheyenne out her phone away, you eased yourself from Marcus's hold, turning to face the man with a glistening smile.

"So how long have you been together?" Cheyenne's innocent enough question had the two of you breaking apart from each other once again; both wearing a bright red blush and stumbling through an answer.

"Will all employees please meet me in the Warehouse for a secret meeting? Don't tell Dina. Secret meeting." Amy, your saving grace, whispered through the intercom, giving you your chance to escape the awkward situation.

"Oh, duty calls. We best get going Chey." Swapping Marcus's hat for your own, you quickly grabbed Cheyenne's hand and began to drag the two of you towards the warehouse for Amy's 'secret' meeting.

"See you around, Captain."

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"We all have plans tonight, right?" Amy asked, receiving an general hum of agreement at the question. "Okay, well, plans or no plans, whoever took the fruit should just give it back, and we'll just tell Dina that it was misplaced. Okay?"

"Great. So who took it? Come on, guys. No one's perfect." Amy probed, hoping to get who ever stole the fruit to fess up before Dina had the store on a lockdown. "I used to shoplift from the mall all the time. Mostly black lipstick. I was going through a phase. But we all do things we regret. So..."

"I'm not even a member of the Sierra Club. I just put the sticker on my bumper." Jonah admitted, playing into whatever Amy was trying to do; hoping it would get someone to confess so you wouldn't be trapped in the store tonight.

"I'm still on my moms phone plan even though I've not lived with her for over a year." You revealed with a shrug, hoping your admission was enough for whatever 'circle of trust' Amy was trying to form.

"I cat fished my school nurse, and she ended up moving to Australia to meet a picture of Michael Fassbender when he was young." Cheyenne admitted, receiving several genuinely interested looks at her admission compared to the rest of you.

"Okay, now does anybody want to confess to taking the fruit?" Amy provoked, hoping that now she had shown everyone did weird stuff and kept secrets, the culprit would reveal themselves.

"I have some questions about what Cheyenne said." Garrett replied, his hand coming to rest against his temple as he dwelled on what exactly she had just said.

"Fassbender?" You asked, suddenly becoming more interested in the whole situation as you took in the depths of Cheyenne's words; it wasn't the weirdest thing you'd heard from her, but it was new and unusual. "Like the Xmen guy?"

"Yeah. Magneto." Garrett confirmed, turning his head to look at you.

"I get it. I'd move to Australia too if I thought it was him asking." You agreed, understanding Cheyenne's teachers otherwise outlandish behaviour; he was good looking, to an almost abnormal degree.

"Fine. Forget it." Amy scoffed, defeated in her attempts to try and find the fruit thief so she could just get home already.

"She works at a smoothie stand on the beach now." Cheyenne continued, explaining the aftermath of her catfishing ventures. "I think she's happy."

Dispersing from the secret meeting, you grabbed Jonah, once again dragging him towards the Jewellery counter with Cheyenne somewhere in tow. As you walked, your phone buzzed in your pocket.

Chai ☆彡| *3 new images*

Deciding you didn't want Jonah to catch a glimpse of the photos, you quickly swiped the notification away before closing you phone and shoving it back into your pocket.

————————————————————————

"And Susie went to Mexico for liposuction, but something happened, and now she has a bunch of bugs in her butt." Cheyenne continued her rant, you shift almost over, but not close enough to ending where you could lounge around the break room and call it a day.

"Gross." You shuddered at the story, weirded out by the whole thing despite it not being the worst thing you'd heard of Cheyenne's friends.

"Wow, I'm really rooting for that story to be true. Hey, uh, what do people say about me?" Jonah asked, suddenly turning the topic of the conversation to him.

"Nothing." Cheyenne answered at the same time as you said "What don't they?" receiving a playful shove from Jonah return.

"Oh, come on, come on. I'm sure you've heard something. It's fine. It's fine. I can...thick skin." Jonah tried to persuade Cheyenne, holding she'd cave and he could hear some gossip about himself since his time beginning at the store.

"Okay, well some people think that you wear a wig." Cheyenne began, Jonah's mouth forming a wide 'o' shape at the accusation.

"And some people thing you have fake teeth." You added, watching as Jonah's face seemed to contort through the 5 stages of grief as each rumour was admitted. "Oh! And there was a rumour you were just face-birthmark Tony post plastic surgery for a while."

"Oh yeah! And some people think that you have a crush on Amy, and some people think that you're a Sea Org, whatever that is." You heard that rumour; in fact you were pretty sure you and Garrett had started both of those rumours. But at this point the Amy one seemed impossible for him to dismiss.

You saw the way he looked at her; it's same way he had looked at you.

"Wait, people think I have a crush on Amy?" Jonah asked, his face dusted pink at the rumour that was apparently well spread thought out the store. It was obvious to everyone but him about his feelings apparently. "What? She's married. That's, I mean not that you can't have a crush on someone who's married, but I mean, you know, yuck. You know, not yuck. I think she's pretty. But she's not, like, pretty-pretty. I mean, she's I don't know. That's insane. Who's saying like, who specifically who's saying that?"

"Just people." Cheyenne shrugged, either not noticing or not caring for the worried tone in which Jonah had rushed out an army of excuses.

"Like, everyone. Me included. But don't worry pretty boy Jonah, it's not like Amy knows." You half reassured and half teased, reaching out to grab the upper half of his arm and squeezing it gently. You didn't remove yourself from him, instead rubbing soothing circles into the exposed flesh.

"It doesn't matter if she knows or not, cause its not true anyway." Jonah defended, folding his arms across his chest and moving away from you as he began to pace back and forth in deep thought.

"Sure." Cheyenne said, nervous laughter escaping her throat.

"Oh my god, PBJ, pretty boy Jonah." You gasped at the sudden realisation; the food themed nickname matching your own perfectly. "I just thought of that."

————————————————————————

Having said your goodbyes to Cheyenne, and having wished Dina the best of luck in her efforts of finding the fruit, you grabbed your things from your locker. Walking out of the store, Jonah and Garrett in tow, you bumped into Amy.

"Do you guys have any plans?" She asked, linking arms with you as you walked in the cold, October night air. You absolutely adored how it got darker earlier in the fall and winter months, the cold and dark nights the perfect excuse to get all cosy and warm.

"We're seeing "Nosferatu."" Jonah told her, having briefly mentioned to you on your way out of the store that Garrett was going to tag along too; something you never would've expected, but after the unusual events of the store today, you weren't so surprised.

"Yeah, I don't know why I'm going, but I'm just in a weird head space today." Garrett admitted, a far off look in his eyes.

"Which is exactly how you want to see German expressionism." Jonah encouraged, his hands tucking tightly into his pockets as the wind blew, making everything feel a little colder then it should.

"Oh yay! Another movie I won't understand anything about. How do I always get roped into it?" You jeered, knowing you'd still go if Jonah asked, no matter how weird or unusual what he wanted to see was.

"Your undying love for me and Jonah has blinded you to the boring ass stuff we do in our free time." Garrett teased, breaking from his trance to turn and face you.

"Uh, do you want to come? Uh, I mean, if you want to. I don't care if you're there. You could be there or not be there. It means nothing to me if you're there, at all." Jonah asked Amy, his over the top clarification only making it seem like he liked her even more.

"Oh! Please come Ames, it'll be more fun with you there." You begged, squeezing the arm the connected you tightly with your own.

"You've charmed me. I'm in." She admitted defeat, pulling the two of you in the direction the rest of the group were walking as you headed towards the movie theatre.

"Incidentally, I'm out." He started, smiling happily as he gestured to the sign that had been hung around his neck all day. "I'm Brexit. How has nobody asked me about that all day?"

"Oh dearest Jonah, what are you dressed as today?" You asked, leaning towards the man as Amy and Garrett let out loud laughs.

"Well, now I just don't want to tell you." Jonah sulked, his eyes not meeting your gaze but instead looking slightly past you at Amy who had a wide smile settled on her face, her cheeks rosy from smiling and the night cold; she looked beautiful.

Oh, Jonah definitely liked her.

"Group trip!" You cheered, breaking the quiet tension that had settled over the four of you and creating small talk as you walked towards the theatre.

Today had been good and you were glad Amy was getting some semblance of mother-daughter time despite Emma bailing on trick or treating last minute. You were glad to be doing anything on Halloween, really, not having ever have done anything other then dress up for the store as your mom though it was a stupid holiday.

Maybe that's what had made you love it all the more; definitely not the cute pictures Cheyenne had sent you that made you and Marcus look like a couple. Not that at all.

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☆: .｡. Tag List .｡.:☆ @write-from-the-heart @despicablylara @whatafreakingloser @flowercrowns-goodvibes @millieb-3199 @lolawassad @catarina-trouxa @falsegodofmischief @thepurplebutterflythings @littleboysmile @sibsteria @quinn-7007 @aashy723 @maeisonline @lizziel1410

Want to be added to the taglist? send an ask to let me know <3

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Hey guys!! I'm not in college this week cause of the train strike in my country atm so I can't get there lol. However, they've got me doing remote learning 😭😭😭 literally evil cause I've only got 2 weeks left (5 days across two weeks) and we've not done proper work for the whole of June.

BUT I'M NEARLY AT SUMMER I CAN DO IT.

anyway, I hope everyone else is having a good week!!

Special thanks to @flowercrowns-goodvibes for the matching with Marcus unintentionally suggestion - literal goldmine of content and I WILL be making a hc list about it because I can't😫😫

Also this part brings us to 100K words of SOTS!!!!!!!!! Thank you for all your continued love and support for me and this series, I wouldn't be here without you all <33

As always, have a lovely week!! I'll see you next time <33

#sitting on the shelf marcus white x reader #superstore x reader #cloud 9 #superstore imagine #marcus white #marcus white x reader #marcus superstore #marcus white imagine #superstore marcus imagine

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vampyrictus · 7 months

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𝑸. 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓...

𝑨. doll's eye.

This is the poison of unchecked vices. You slip into hallucinations. You are wracked with convulsions. The delirium threatens to overwhelm you. What are you running from? You look in every direction, wild-eyed at every turn, seeking some reprieve from what torments you. Each vice brings new consequences, and the price of escape seems too great, and yet you cannot seem to face things head on. If you aren't running from yourself, I hope you find a true way to freedom soon. And if you are running from yourself, perhaps you would do well to realize your pain is not something you can simply escape by avoidance. You deserve healing just as much as the ones you love. Someday, soon I hope, you will know this and feel it and reach inward to grant yourself all the kindnesses you offer others. That is the only true way to peace for ones like us. Oh, and if the pain of it seems too great? I hope that you realize you don't have to do it alone. tagged by: @banedicti ( ty garrett! ) tagging: no one lol

#❛ 𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖓. / about.#the first time i did this he got hemlock lol #this is also disgustingly accurate

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shinywitcheagle · 1 year

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Mini Rant Abt "Wednesday"

WARNING!!!! SPOILERS!!!! DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE FINISHED THE SERIES!!!!

Okay, cause like, I'm actually so fucking mad they did Tyler and Wednesday like that. I would have loved it so much more if Tyler was truly innocent in it all. But who would have been the hyde?? Well, here's my take

Thornhill was the hyde.

Hear me out. Something about her eyes made me think it was her right from the beginning, and it would have been such a unique plot twist. So, how would that have worked? Well, what if Laurel wasn't actually a Gates?? What if her mother had fallen for an outcast, and when she realised she was pregnant with Laurel, she panicked and tried to keep it a secret, telling Ansel the child was his. Years later, however, when Ansel discovered Laurel was not his, he snapped, turning his rage over his betrayal towards Nevermore. After Garrett was killed by Morticia, his mother soon followed. Unable to bear the loss of his only son and the glaring reminder of his wife's infidelity, he sends Laurel to London, paying off someone to kill her. However, the would-be assassin turns up dead, and Laurel is gone.

Laurel is now alone and scared, suddenly having to process the fact of her bloodlines. All this confusion and hurt begins to manifest into Rage, and as she slowly begins to adjust to her new life as a Hyde, she begins to plot revenge. However years of brainwashing at the hands of her father twists her idea of right and wrong, and she develops the plan to take down nevermore, as she believes if it wasn't for nevermore, she would have been able to live a good life.

So thus, Marylin Thornhill was born. A perfect disguise to slip into the walls of Nevermore, and hatch out her plan. Killing and gathering parts to raise Crackstone.

But, why raise joseph Crackstone??

Well, as a kid hearing about Joseph being the Solution to the problem of the outcasts, and then living most of her life on the run, Laurel's memory begins to warp. And her father wasn't telling her that she was a curse, he was telling her that she was cursed. And suddenly, Joseph Crackstone didn't save the Normies from the Outcasts, he saved the outcasts. And maybe he could save Laurel. Save her from the wretched curse that the wicked students of Nevermore had placed on her, and return her to her family.

Like, imagine it.

Imagine that sort of mental torment of a woman whose own mind had warped and twisted itself, because she was only a girl when her whole world was torn apart, and she was suddenly a mindless beast, and she was alone, and her family was gone. And as she drifted in and out, losing herself for days, weeks, even months at a time, only to wake up in some place, with so much blood on her she wasn't sure all of it was from the same place, she had clung so tightly to her only thread of salvation, that she'd forgot what thread to cling to.

#wednesday #netflix #the addams family #wednesday netflix #wednesday addams #tim burton

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tartrazeen · 22 days

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Back on my Mystic Knights bullshit 🫠

You know how I'm always bemoaning how miserable it'd've been if Vincent Walsh actually left the show for season 2? I don't even know if that's true at this point - I think I read it on a fan site, and I've said it so often to overcompensate for how little I like that idea that it's gotten stuck in my brain 😭

And you know how apparently they would've also had another Mystic Knight somehow, based on the Battle Fury promo toys? One called Liam? Supposedly the Mystic Knight of storm, even though that steps on Ivar and Deirdre's elements?

Okay. So.

Logistically, what does the show lose if they lose Angus?

Comic relief

Slapstick comedy and pranks

Quick temper, quicker to forgive

Being clever and sneaky in a way that does not preclude being dumb at other times

Being a show-off but in like a humble, self-deprecating way (compared to Garrett's bragging)

Street smarts

Rohan's most central friendship and biggest hypeman

Cathbad's fondest torment

Some running directly into trouble out of his own vices lol

Unparalleled loyalty

Someone willing to do the dirty work

The team's second-in-command by the end of the show

That is a lot. It's kind of hilarious how much he was pushed to the front of the show, and how much the marketing kinda just glosses over him as "Rohan's friend." He is tanking the shit out of these plots. 👏🏽

Anyway!

Let's say Angus leaves. Me, making everything angsty, pictured a big fight between him and Rohan: they started talking about Rohan being a prince, then wondering if Rohan was the first-born or not, and then Angus started theorizing who came first, which spiralled into talking about what kind of people Rohan's dad and Lugad's dad had to be to want to be with Maeve.

And I'm gonna say Angus is in the wrong here, 'cause Rohan started the last big fight so it's Angus' turn. He's supposed to know how sensitive a topic 'family' is to Rohan, but he very wrongly assumes that he can keep making jokes about Maeve like they always have. But with Maeve being Rohan's mother, it's not funny anymore. Rohan snaps back. He goes low. He starts picking at the family that Angus never even talks about, saying that as bad as Maeve is, at least she did something with her life. What legacy did Angus inherit?

I'd love for that to spiral into Rohan saying Angus has nothing to show for all the shit he's talking about Rohan. Angus is a Mystic Knight - because of Rohan. Angus gets to walk through the castle - because of Rohan. Angus has a place to live - because of Rohan. Whether or not Angus brings up how Rohan's only lived long enough to "do" all those things "for" Angus because of Angus taking care of him as a kid doesn't matter. That was then, this is now, Angus has wasted his life looking after someone who doesn't need his protection anymore. Rohan's Draganta now, remember? And possibly heir to the Temran throne? What's Angus got?

I want Rohan lashing out in that way where he's physically unable to stop even when he's screaming in his head that he doesn't mean it. And for his part, Angus - after stomping off - does realize Rohan didn't mean it. But that doesn't mean those words weren't said, and after thinking about them, Angus decides... maybe it is time to move on. He's threatened to leave before but always stayed because... well, Rohan's his home. And Rohan needs him. But Rohan - some part of him at least - doesn't agree. So maybe it's time to take that for what it is, see this as some sort of... gift? Perhaps?

It's a bit of an OG Irish Goodbye. Angus maybe leaves a letter - "I'll come back someday. I promise. Love you." - but leaves. All the while, Rohan - who felt the rising dread of Angus being gone for too long after what was said - goes looking for him. Maybe he actually catches Angus, just walking along (maybe leaving Tir Na Nog after returning the mace to Fin Varra). They apologize, they laugh it off, they're gingerly friends again, and although Rohan's breathlessly relieved, the laughter keeps lasting a bit too long with too much silence in-between. And Angus seems to have so much pity in his eyes that he won't explain and Rohan won't acknowledge.

Angus tells Rohan to get something back at the hut. Rohan, refusing to question it, goes off. When he returns, Angus is already gone. Even when Rohan waits and waits. Even after Ivar finds him to bring him back. He only moves when Deirdre and Cathbad have convinced him that it'd be better to wait where it's warm (Rohan's waiting as hopefully as ever but his blood's been cold since Angus left his sight).

It takes days for it to sink in. It takes weeks for Rohan to admit it. Months go by, and Rohan almost purposely stops mentioning Angus altogether, and suddenly gets hostile whenever someone else brings him up. He changes, getting angrier and lost in himself, and decides to focus on playing the part of the legendary warrior instead.

A year goes by.

It's Rohan's birthday. Well - near-ish enough.

A messenger appears with a gift for Rohan, and a letter. From Angus. And it's written as if Angus was just casually telling him about an exciting adventure that morning: he's in another land right now, and there are no dragons there, so some friends tried to make what they thought Pyre must have looked like. The package is a sewn together... turtle-faced dog with bird wings. A toy. Lumpy. Nothing like Pyre at all.

No one really knows how to talk about it or Angus without setting Rohan off, and Rohan says nothing out loud about it. But for how close he keeps it at night, it stays wonderfully clean and cared for.

Enter. 👏🏽 Liam. 👏🏽

I do not like Liam. I do not know - nor care - what his character concept was going to be. Because he is Not Angus and therefore he is Sucks. And I'm gonna take that concept and stick it straight into Rohan's head.

With everything the show loses with Angus, what would they want to regain with a new character added to these other ones?

Can't be too braggy, because that's Garrett's thing

Can't be just 'another childhood friend', because where tf would he have been hiding

Can't be someone who's taken too seriously, because they need a comic relief character

Can't just be passing by; everyone has had a purpose for being here and being involved in this quest

So really, again, what do they lose when they lose Angus?

"🐶💕 i wuv u rohan, you're my best friend"

"🐶🌧️ o no i am in jail"

"🐶☀️ yes i love to help my friends, i am loyal"

Like, basic, basic, basic, basic things like that.

The only way to have someone attached at the hip to Rohan to the point of sharing a hut/life is if they grew up completely attached to each other in the first place (Angus), or they came in instantly starry-eyed over Rohan.

The only way to have someone constantly and humourously thrown in jail is if they knew the risk and went for it anyway (Angus), or they "🐶🌧️ o no" their way into there.

The only way to have someone stupidly and steadfastly self-sacrificing for their friends all the time is if they try to always undercut it with a joke (Angus), or openly treat it as the obvious thing to do.

🙂 Folks.

The Legendary Warrior Draganta is getting a squire.

Very much against Rohan's will.

I want Liam to be somebody who so desperately wants to squire for a knight. Maybe he has his own destiny that says he'll squire for the greatest knight to ever exist, so he's always looking for who that person might be. And then he hears about Draganta ending a two or three-decade long war after getting mystical weapons from the land of fairies, and goes, "🥹✨ It's hiiiiiim!"

Wherever he's from, he goes to Kells to find this warrior. And he meets Draganta - sees Rohan on the battlefield, cleaving through some monster that was summoned. And he's so overjoyed and delighted that he instantly trips over himself to pledge his allegiance. If only Rohan will have him, Liam will be absolutely devoted to Rohan's care.

Rohan: "😠 I don't need a squire."

Wrong. 👏🏽 Answer. 👏🏽

Liam sits outside of Rohan's hut all night ("🐶💕 i am waiting"). Makes breakfast. Sneaks in to clean. Tells him updates on what he's heard from the guards. Rohan ignores him, skips breakfast, messes things back up the way he had it, and goes to talk to the guards himself. Liam tries to tidy up Angus half of the hut - Wrong. 👏🏽 Decision. 👏🏽 So Liam never touches that side again ("🐶💕 obvi very special"). Repeat for weeks.

(we thought aideen was down bad 🙃)

The others can't understand why Rohan doesn't like him. It's not like Liam's some snot-nosed kid or anything. He's the same age as Rohan! Maybe older! And he's an expert with a shield and sword, even better with a shield and hammer. He's squired for dozens of knights that were almost enough to be the greatest ones to ever live - Liam knows how to fight, how to strategize, how to dodge, how to do everything and show the others a thing or two. In training, he knocks them down gently and quickly helps them up, showing them how to counter that move and endlessly complimenting their skills. There's not a cross or even neutral word to come out of him, and he's so delightful that the others are won over instantly.

They wonder if Rohan suspects Liam of being a traitor. Cathbad uses his second sight to check - but Liam is perfectly honest. And no, Rohan says that has nothing to do with it. He's had years of practice of knowing when someone's up to something, and Liam isn't anything like that.

He doesn't elaborate on what it could be. He doesn't elaborate on much these days.

Liam's fine with that - most of these knights are very focused and it seems like they're angry, but all that training and sword work has them burning all that off 🐶💕 Liam just has to prove himself, he tells the others. A warrior like Draganta won't just take the first person who comes along to squire for him.

One trope of these shows is having the "Takes Things Too Literally" character. I don't want that to be Liam exactly. He could be unfamiliar with Kells' culture, but I want his deal to be "Trusts Rohan Too Earnestly." Rohan, after all, is best friends with Angus. And it wasn't an 'opposites attract' sort of thing - they were both little shits; Angus was just a professional at it. 💖 So Liam getting thrown into jail over and over isn't a case of, "Oops, I misunderstood the rules!" It's Rohan actively telling Liam to go do something that sets Liam up to be hauled away.

On one hand, it's good to get some goddamn space from the guy.

On the other...

... Rohan's - just... constantly reliving what he thinks Angus must have felt. That fight they'd had, the one where Rohan went too far, where everything broke, where he thought he'd fixed it again, and where Angus told him to go do something and Rohan did and came back and Angus was gone...

It doesn't feel like Angus, when Rohan tries to subconsciously act it out. Rohan's doing it out of spite and anger. That wasn't what was in Angus' eyes. But that's as far as he'll let himself think about it before he's angry again and withdrawing.

I can imagine that at the mid-point of the season, Deirdre might ask Liam about this. She's worried he's being bullied, in a way. Liam agrees that he is - shockingly aware - and says a good squire carries all of his knight's burdens. That includes those of the spirit as well. Because he isn't stupid, and he knows Rohan is mourning someone. Out of respect, Liam's deliberately avoided asking or learning anything about it until Draganta (I have to assume he only ever calls Rohan 'Draganta') tells him what he's allowed to know. But he can't ignore the signs of it, the empty space, the way Rohan will start to turn and abruptly stop as if he's about to say something to someone he suddenly remembers isn't there. Liam knows. If this is what makes Rohan feel better, he's happy to be of service.

Deirdre: "🤨 That's... I mean - okay, I guess."

Anyway, Liam sticks around and Rohan's got no choice 'cause yadda-yadda vision yadda-yadda fairy yadda-yadda Mystic Knight of Storm. Enjoy the mystic shield. It's an umbrella.

There's eventually going to come a point where the second year passes, and Rohan gets another gift and letter. He disappears with it. He hadn't realized how badly he needed this until it happened. It's Angus casually chatting again, saying he's in a new land, and their dragons are very different from the ones in Ireland. The gift is a sewn... hairy snake. No wings. Big ears. A mane around its head, grander than any horse.

Rohan has never loved anything as much as this. Not since the first gift. He tries to bring it quietly home when - of fucking course - Liam catches up before he gets there (I have to assume that Liam's made a little bed for himself immediately outside of the hut 🫠 As in, Rohan almost has to step over him every morning or faceplant immediately after exiting the flap). And Liam spies the gift, going on about where that particular type of dragon is from and all the ways those dragons interact with the people in that land and... goddammit, Rohan wants to hear more. Much more. Anything about the place where Angus might still be.

So Rohan listens, and Liam is overjoyed at finally having an 'in'.

Liam thinks this means he can strike up another conversation about dragons in general later. Liam is wrong lmao

Another year. Rohan's stopped fighting it; Liam's here, and he might as well make himself useful. It's not friendship, really. It's just a begrudging tolerance and acceptance of an ally against Nemaine. All of her efforts have been to take over the land and have Lugad rule over it. Who's Lugad? Rohan's half-brother. They only learned the other existed recently, and it hasn't been easy having to fight family. Not for Rohan, anyway.

Liam's quiet. But he understands. He's put the pieces together. It must certainly be tough, he imagines. It'd be worth mourning that kind of loss. He never says this out loud, because he sees the others only ever talking about it in hushed, private whispers, like they're afraid to even reminisce about the happier times. As a squire, though, there's a duty to help carry these burdens.

WRONG. 👏🏽 FUCKING. 👏🏽 CHOICE. 👏🏽

Skip through this part: Liam goes to find Lugad, who's been isolated away from the others and possibly even back on his island. Liam successfully makes a friend. Liam more successfully brings Lugad to Kells. Liam even more successfully reunites Lugad with Rohan, who smiles for one of the first times Liam's ever seen.

Liam alludes to having helped Rohan with his great, unspoken loss.

It would not be an understatement to say that is the last time Liam sees Rohan smile. The utter rage Rohan rains down on him is more of a storm than he - the Mystic Knight of Storm - can weather, and Liam finally breaks. Not from what Rohan says, but from the failure of Liam's duty to him, forcing those words to come about at all. When Liam quietly bows his head and leaves Rohan to his thoughts, there's an unmistakable air of pity under it.

Rohan, the Mystic Knight of Fire, is colder than he's ever been.

There's an apology. From Rohan. It takes a day. It doesn't clear the air. Liam waits a few days more to ask what he's wanted to ask from the beginning: who's Angus?

Liam's not dumb. And it's not like the others only ever talked in whispers. And it's not like Aideen isn't chatterbox. Liam knows all about Angus by now, and how shattered Draganta is to have lost the closest person in his life. But he wants to know what Rohan will allow him to know.

The endless patience from Liam wins out, and the last of Rohan's stubborn silence crumbles away. By the time night falls, they've talked about Angus so much that it almost feels like he's there with them.

It's strange to Rohan. Angus doesn't know who Liam is. There's never been a person in Rohan's life that Angus didn't know about; now there is. But somewhere on the other side of the world, Angus had hundreds - thousands - of people in his life and Rohan was here, alone and quiet, lost and cold and empty.

I want to stretch it out. The war against Nemaine is finally won, and perhaps Ivar's chalice is retrieved. He must return to his home with it. He is forever in Rohan's debt, and forever a close friend of Kells.

Deirdre and Garrett have gotten closer, what with Rohan so caught up in himself. Nothing serious, but they are still technically betrothed, and Deirdre seems less and less repulsed by the idea of marriage.

Lugad is an excellent warrior. Liam trains with him constantly. Rohan is the better knight, Liam says, compared to Lugad's raw and unrestrained power, but Rohan knows Lugad is the truer force to be reckoned with. Maeve's slow escape and creep back into power stays off in the distance thanks to this force on their side.

So...

Rohan is alone again.

Another year. Another present.

Rohan doesn't open it.

He asks if Liam wants to sleep inside the hut. It's embarrassing having someone out front in the dirt when there's a perfectly usable bed at the ready. Liam declines the bed but is over the moon about getting to be an Indoor Squire 🐶💕 Rohan stops regretting the offer the minute he realizes Angus' bed will stay safe for a little longer.

He opens the present.

Angus found a massive dragon in this third land. There's a sewn version of it with a smaller version of Pyre to show how big it was.

Rohan puts all the gifts onto the other bed, since it might as well be useful.

(yes that means liam slept outside for like two years lmaooooooo 🐶🛖)

(anyway i'm super sleepy right now. gonna end this here, night-dream about it, and maybe come back with some more)

(i love how i finally have an idea for liam that doesn't make me hate him. istg i would've flipped my shit if season two started without angus. how dare they - he was the best damn part of the show 😡)

Btw, here's the link to the whole thread 🤗

Nope i lied lmao one more part:

#my stuff #good job tartra #mystic knights of tir na nog

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