It should be a crime that there never was a Leverage episode where Parker had to pose as a professional climber as part of a cover

Had a dream last night that Eliot was sitting in a hospital bed with some bandages and stuff on and said "maybe we provide too much leverage." In a grouchy and sarcastic voice.

Leverage should physiologically torture a guy by convincing him he's stuck in a time loop

Leverage Team Secret Santa

The Leverage team decides to do a Secret Santa one year.

Parker has no idea what to get Nate, "What do you get a guy with a weird controlling people thing??" until someone reminds her that he's also a "functioning alcoholic" so she looks up well-guarded alcohol and steals him a couple bottles of very nice, very pricey, formerly very secured scotch.

Nate gets Hardison some rare Star Wars and Star Trek memorabilia, along with a shirt that says "Age of the Geek Baby."

Hardison agonizes over what to get Sophie, he doesn't trust himself to do clothes (what if she doesn't like them or they don't fit?!) and eventually gets her a sort of advent calendar of ticket coupons. 12 venues, she picks the date, and Hardison will put her on their guest list/acquire a ticket (options are a couple spas and several theaters).

Sophie gives Eliot a set of high end cooking knives and some animal ice packs for post-mission bruises.

Eliot was going to give Parker money but then decided it'd be more fun to make her some cupcakes and hide a golden dollar in half of them. She thought it was hilarious.

I'm rewatching Leverage, and one of Sophie's covers is Carla Crimm, a true-crime novelist from the UK.

Suffice to say, she is who Trent Crimm's ex-wife shall be played by in my head from now on.

We all know that Eliot has a penchant for accidentally becoming famous but if Hardison could would he join a famous D&D live stream just for shits and giggles? Would he make a 12 step plan to befriend the cast of Dimension 20 without raising suspicion and by the end he not only appears in the occasional game but is invited to other shows?

eliot: this is a bad idea hardison you know it

hardison: but have you considered it would be extremely funny and a dream come true?

eliot: it can and will blow your cover

parker: bold words from someone that's been made famous like at least seven times in your career

eliot: dammit parker you're not helping

parker: just let him play his little troll game

Leverage/Psych crossover ideas

Shawn and Elliot are cousins. They havent met because Henry is estranged from his sibling who is Elliot’s parent. Team Leverage does a job in Santabarabra while Shawn and co are in the middle of in unrelated murder investigation. They come within mere seconds of crossing paths several times until finally Parker runs into Lassiter. They both see someone do something dumb and mutter the same thing under their breaths. They hear each other and catch eyes. They have a short talk where they bond over being autistic coded. Then they go their separate ways, fully expecting to never see the other again. Yeah, they thought the other person seemed cool but neither of them are really in the market for more friends

The Leverage team finishes their con successfully and leaves town. Somehow the bad guys manage to learn Elliot’s name. Wait, Spencer? Like the psychic? They look into it and yeah turns out they’re related. They kidnap Shawn to get to Elliot and then call Sophie or rather Sophie’s alias and say hey guess what? We’ve got your cousin and unless you undo the damage you did and give us a bunch of money we’ll kill him.

Elliot is confused at first before he remembers yes, he does have a cousin who is from Santabarbara. Didn’t know he was psychic though. (Not that he’s sure he believes that) So they turn around and head back to Santabarbara.

Naturally since Shawn was kidnapped Lassie and Jules are on the case. (And Gus)

At first their are no leads. They have no idea why Shawn was kidnapped. Then, they find security footage and manage to link it back to the same company whose ceo Lassiter arrested for fraud the day before. They aren’t sure what the connection is, but it’s there.

Then team Leverage gets back to town. They team up with the Santabarbara crew and rescue Shawn. (Possibly Elliot intentionally gets himself captured because it’s the quickest way to find Shawn and then takes the bad guys out while Shawn is standing is standing in the background like “wow my cousin is badass!”)

Sidenote: Shawn gets his kidnappers to spill the beans on what’s going on and they tell him about how his cousin framed a guy for fraud. Shawn recognizes that for the half truth it is.

During the time looking for Shawn Parker befriends both Jules and Lassiter. (She goes with her fbi cover, which Hardison has officially made almost full proof in its authenticity.) or not. Idk.

Gus and Alec would obviously love going undercover together. Alec finally has someone who will go along with his dramatics easily, like it’s any other day. Gus meanwhile is used to working with Shawn and is having a blast, cause its very similar. Obviously it’s different then Shawn and Gus, I mean Alec and Gus just met, but its an equal tug and pull of power. They are both just grounded enough that neither one of them is the crazy one, but neither are either of them the completely normal levelheaded one either.

Maybe at the end, Henry reaches out to his estranged sibling or something. As for Sophie and Nate? Well Sophie can’t get involved because she was already the public face of the con. And Nate is intimidated by chief Vick, but he doesn’t tell anyone that. By the end only Shawn and Gus know that the crew are thieves. Lassiter and Jules know something is fishy about them, but hey, it’s probably just fbi stuff. (Plus Jules reached out to her brother and Ewan said Elliot is a good guy.)

Thanks to @duckapus for kickstarting this idea by your leverage psych crossover post

Consider this: touch starved Eliot becoming clingy as fuck.

But he hates coming off as clingy. So instead he's just like. Conveniently close. All the time.

And Parker and Hardison are like aw. He's like a pet that is too shy to shove up and ask for pets. And they "conveniently" play with his hair or slump into his side or-

Alec Hardison is that you? 

@pink-lightsabre: #nah if it was him he’d steal more money and leave them all in professional ruin#might have been Harry tho

leverage ep where the gang takes down a corrupt restaurateur in albuquerque

CUT TO COMMERCIAL

No that just. No. Does not compute.

I saw someone who has a fic masterpost on Tumblr and leaves most of it there because, I kid you not, they consider most of their fic to be "too weird for AO3" which is just not even a concept that exists, I promise you.

honestly if someone found the line where a fic was genuinely too weird for ao3 i would applaud them. on par with the first time humans made a space craft capable of escape velocity.

AO3 was created for fic that was literally too weird for any other hosting service.

one day. ONE DAY i will write that test fic for the 'restricted technologies and trade secrets' clause of the ToS#and then we'll see who's laughing when chapter three of '5 times Hardison explained the DeCSS algorithm to the team + 1 time he didn't'#gets yanked from AO3 for being the one that's weird enough to unambiguously violate the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause#ao3 (shinelikethunder)

They don't talk about it.

But there's no way Nate should know those things. No way the client could have told him, no way he could've figured it out on his own. Not when these things were nothing more than fleeting thoughts from the mark. But Sophie notices him quietly go for the scotch behind the counter and rub at his head in pain with extra vehemence some days despite the latest con having no personal connection to him.

They don't talk about it.

But someone should've recognized Sophie on that con. There's no way she could have that many characters per con. No way none of those diplomats didn't recognize her from any of her previous cons. Not when she didn't change any more than her clothes and accent. But Nate notices her features seem to flicker at the peace and safety of home when she thinks he isn't watching.

They don't talk about it.

But no one could've survived that. And certainly not looking the way he does. There's no way he didn't come out of that fight broken and bloodied to all hell. Not when instead he walks out with a purposeful stride and only a clenched jaw, rolling his shoulders. But when he's cooking and accidentally burns himself, Parker notices the unmarked skin left behind.

They don't talk about it.

But not all vents are human sized. They all saw the size of the vent cover as she exists with a grin. There's no way she could've fit in there. Not when the human body can't bend that way, a way that even the greatest contortionist can't bend. But some days Hardison notices as she seems to stretch and bend before his eyes when she's feeling relaxed and safe enough.

They don't talk about it.

But that's not how computers work. There's no way Hardison could access that kind of thing. Not when he describes how he did it like that. Not when he does it so quickly like that. Not when he says he's taken berries and the next thing they know he's recreated a colonial era journal to perfection. But Eliot swore he shoved a glass of water at him, not more goddamn orange soda.

They don't talk about it, the thing lingering over their heads as they conduct each con, the unacknowledged thing between the five of them that's a little deeper than just a desire to take down the rich and powerful.

They aren't perfect, they all know that- sometimes they're too good with their covers, sometimes they have to shift gears as the con unfolds before them, but somehow things always seem to work out.

But no one asks about it, so-

They don't talk about it.

OMG. I just had the funniest thought. Imagine Eliot, Parker, and Hardison being in a situation that requires them to talk to each other but someone is listening and then suddenly Hardison starts speaking Klingon. Parker joins in immediately, whoever is listening scrambling to figure out what fucking language they are speaking and Eliot stubbornly refusing to "speak geek" and not cooperating at first but finally, begrudgingly starts to also communicate in Klingon.

The Leverage crew definitely has grifts named after them by this point

Something like "Parker's Landing" and "The Hardison Gambit" and "Spencer's 7-Layer Dip"

And I think that's beautiful

I need Leverage: Redemption to do a tree law episode please and thank you

Okay but think of the comedic potential of the Leverage OT3 having been together for years by the time of Redemption, and at one point the others find out.

Breanna would be like "oh my god how did I not see that". Sophie would go "oh that explains a lot of things". (And yeah, it would also be on board for her to know, but one, it's been established that unconventional relationships are kind of a blind spot for her, and two, Parker is weird enough and Eliot's act is good enough that it would help throw her off the scent.)

(Harry wouldn't care much probably.)

And the possibilities of how it could happen. Like. Hardison is up in space, Eliot and Parker are doing something for a con, they see someone coming, Parker is like "quick, let's make out", and throws herself on Eliot. Eliot is like "no, not the lips", but he goes along with it, and then when they're in the clear, he's like "why do you always bite my lips? you didn't have to bite my lips", to which Parker replies "I was playing a character. Clara is a lip biter", and Eliot goes on an angry rant about the whole thing, but also the others overhear it, and Breanna checks in like "Eliot always says it? how often do you guys make out on cons?" and Parker goes "Eliot's not talking about the cons."

OR Parker is upset by something, and leaves the room, and Eliot goes after her, and when he doesn't resurface for a while Breanna goes after him, and they're kissing, and Eliot shouts at her to get out, but she's like "Okay. This is not cool. Eliot, you're super scary and I can see you're pissed at me right now, but I gotta call Hardison," and they're both like no, you don't have to do that, but he's already on call, and Breanna tells him everything. Eliot is facepalming and sighing the whole time. Parker is just like "what? they had to find out eventually." And then Breanna finishes, everyone is dead silent, waiting for his reaction, and Hardison is like "So y'all wasted my time with this? [five-minute rant about how busy he is]" Breanna is flabbergasted. "So Eliot makes out with your girlfriend and that's your reaction?" So Hardison just goes "Damn sis I better damn hope that when my girlfriend is upset our boyfriend would go and comfort him. Get yo act together." He hangs up, camera cuts to Breana, her face frozen while trying to process the information. Then she just goes "HOLY SH-" [commercial break]

Saw this ad out of the corner of my eye, somehow thought it was Sophie for half a second and now I need an episode of Redemption with Sophie on the trashiest dating show imaginable