What's in a name:

The team leveraging Hardison's first name to get him to take them seriously.

It started with the Grave Danger Job. With Parker's panicked "I need you. Do you hear me, Alec? I need you!" It isn't something that's conscious or anything, but all of them lean into it occasionally.

"Alec, just drop it," Nate stares at Hardison, watching the young man realize maybe he'd been pushing Nate too hard on a topic that was a sore subject. Alec nods grimly and backs down.

"Hardison, how long have you been up?" Sophie asks gently, watching the genius wipe the grit from his eyes, his latest forging project laid out around him. When he mumbles something about not remembering, needing to finish, Sophie catches his chin in a manicured hand and holds his attention. "Alec, go to bed." He goes.

"Come on, man, get off the screen for a little while, let's go get some sun," Eliot pokes him after a long job on top of a new World of Warcraft update. Hardison can't even remember what he said back, something glib he's sure, but he remembers the hesitation in Eliot's voice. "Alec, please. You're gonna fuck up your eyesight before you're thirty, staring at blue light a foot away from your face. Please?" Hardison goes with him. They go to an outdoor gun range. Hardison rags Eliot about them both not liking guns, but listens as his best friend talks him through focusing on targets of different distances. He'll never have Eliot's skill, but it's a quick way to help his eyesight and he turns out to be half decent with practice.

"Alec, I'm serious!" Parker pleads with him, a picture of some conspiracy theory held up in her hands. "I need to know if this is real or not, please. Because it doesn't seem real and then it does seem real and Eliot won't give me a straight answer and Nate won't give me any answer at all, and I need to know if-" if I'm going crazy, she doesn't say, but he hears it now. He lays a hand over hers and explains that it's not real, explains the joke patiently until she understands and can laugh at it and "yes, and" Eliot when that particular theory comes up again.

"Hey y'all, it's Alec," he says, a gun to his head and a phone in his hand, one chance to get it right, to make them understand that this is serious. He can practically hear them all sitting up in the tones of their voices, in the grimness of the rapid fire questions, and he breathes a sigh of relief. They'll come get him. They know it's serious.

Somethin' I'm Good At - Alec Hardison

Watch it on Youtube

Oh my gosh it's finally done!! I've been obsessing over this video for a few days now and ahhh I'm so excited that it's finished and I can share it with people!!

And of course I know Hardison is insanely competent at anything and everything, but this song just fit his personality so perfectly, I had to make the video! No insult towards him, just a fun and silly video that I can't stop dancing along with. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

why am i crying

Me: Tell me what I should draw.  Any character you want to see.

Wife:  Draw Hardison.  As a Jedi!

Me: … okay!

[one hour later]

Me:  What colour would his lightsaber be?  Purple?

Wife: Totally purple.

[ID: Sketch in greyscale of Hardison walking while carrying an unconscious Eliot, who is shirtless and bears multiple injuries, including bruises around his wrists, and on his face, ribs and knuckles, and blood on his face and chest. End ID]

-

I am slowly returning after a long time of being away due to illness during which no arting was possible 😭 This was a commission from ages ago, but the account is now deactivated so I don’t know if the person who requested it will see it. But I hope they do, and even if not, I hope it brings some people (obviously not Hardison or Eliot because whump is afoot) joy! 😊

I think it’s going to take a while to get my art brain back to proper functionality, but hopefully will do soon 😅

so uhhh that trailer huh :)

that sequence in the Gone Fishin' Job where Hardison and Eliot get taken hostage is Really Something because like. Eliot's looking around and he's counting. and he's deciding whether he can risk a fight. and then he looks over at Hardison. at the guns aimed at Hardison. and he goes without a fight. cause he can take a bullet, he can take the risk, but Hardison can't. that ain't ever an option.

My favorite thing about Eliot Spencer is how invested he gets in whatever job/role he’s doing for the con. He has to play a caterer? He will give you a gourmet menu and poach some pears for dessert. He has to play a minor league baseball player? He will hit a home run and he will be excited when the local deli names a sandwich after him. He has to play a police officer? He will make Hardison respond to a call that’s nearby because there might be kids in that house. Eliot commits.

that’s so interesting because he is ALWAYS freaking out at how deeply Hardison commits to his characters.

I think there are key differences in how Eliot and Hardison over-invest in their roles, which is why Eliot fusses at Hardison about it without equating it to what he does himself. (Note: I’m focusing on original series only here.)

Eliot gets over-absorbed because he gets really into what his character does (chef, baseball player, etc.) and loses focus on what the con is trying to accomplish, which isn’t helpful but tends to add authenticity to his individual role. Eliot’s main risk is getting so immersed that he forgets it’s just a con and tries to be that persona rather than doing just enough to fool the mark. He may have some broad-strokes backstory in his head in case someone asks, but his main way to sell his character is just to play the role to the hilt in the current moment. (Prior to the team, he didn’t have a hacker or do long cons, so his main grifting option was to keep things simple, play the role, improv as needed, and hope no one asked too many questions before he finished the job. And be prepared to punch his way out if they did.)

Hardison doesn’t forget he’s playing a role. The part he overdoes is building an “interesting” (often meaning complicated) role and tending to over-act, which tends reduce the authenticity of his performance. The obvious example is “The Ice Man Job,” but it’s the same thing with the overall con in “The Gold Job”–he’s thought out every backstory detail and how to deliver it to the mark, but he lays on the perfectly constructed backstory too hard without reading when to dial back the complexity or exposition. (Prior to the team, it’s implied that he did most of his criminal activity on-line rather than in-person, so the exhaustive planning and documentation was his practical grifting approach.)

If you assign Eliot to be a chef, he’s gonna be a chef. He’ll get distracted from the con by the fact that they’re running out of onions and he just can’t get the flavor of this sauce quite right, but everyone around him will believe he’s a chef. If you ask him where he went to culinary school, he’ll glare at you and maybe throw out some sparse details (trusting Hardison to back it up if anyone tries to check it)–dig too far, and he’s probably gonna be relying on dodging questions or having Hardison in his ear feeding him backstory details.

If you assign Hardison to be a chef, he’s going to have thought out and documented every detail of his backstory, researched his character’s favorite recipes so he can discuss them in detail, etc. You ask him something–anything–about his character and he’ll answer in such detail that your head will spin. But if you tell him the kitchen’s down to its last onion and ask what he wants you to do about that, he’ll be caught completely by surprise and flummoxed about what to do (unless Eliot is in his ear telling him who to send on a supply run to and what menu items to scratch in the meantime).

@onyxbird, I love this distinction, thank you!! What I’m hearing from your lovely meta is that Eliot gets so stressed about Hardison overcompensating. if you want to lie, stick as close to the truth as possible, don’t give out too many explanations, and act casual. BE casual. But Hardison has to constantly prove how smart he is, how prepared he is, how well he fits in–so he automatically stands out. Online you need receipts all the time, but in real life you can trust non verbal cues.

Can I point out?

Oh no

The difference is Hardison is just making up characters. It’s fiction to him, here’s what a millionaire diamond smuggler would be like, here’s a fun adventure story to tell.

But Eliot is discovering different people he could have been. In another life he could have been the minor league baseball star, the country singer, the chef, the gym teacher. And just for a little whole he gets to be that other person, maybe a better person, maybe a happier person. Of course he gets wrapped up in it, and of course it’s hard for him to have to stop being that version of himself. What if things had been different. What if he hadn’t done what he’d done. What if he could just be this instead.

@mj–spooks

@gnar-slabdash how very fucking dare you be so so correct and break my heart like this 😭😭😭

I want to point out also that when Hardison has No Time To Prepare– like mile high job, or bank shot job, he does great! he goes with the flow, a little nervously, but he grifts solidly. A little awkward, but normal-human-levels of awkwardness, people go “oh yeah, Teme the violinist is just Like That” he gets the mark’s company to throw him a birthday party! he wins a court case! It’s only when he has time to plan ahead of time that things get a little iffy– the difference between a stilted, scripted skit and solid improv. you assign Hardison to be a chef, and you get a mess. but If Someone needs to be a chef and Eliot’s not there and you shove Hardison in the kitchen, I believe he could make it…at least long enough to channel Eliot, shout ‘who put raw onions in this?’ and run while everyone’s distracted.

Parker and Eliot may not be huggers, but they have their exception. (Yes, it was just an excuse to have the OT3 hugs.)

YES.

Meanwhile Parker and Eliot have their own brand of affection which usually consists of sitting or standing very close together rather than hugging. Hugging is for Hardison. Hardision draws them in for those hugs like he’s catnip. Sometimes Eliot resists Parker too, just like how he sometimes pushes Hardison away when it comes to hugs (not that she ever moves far)

but it’s definitely A Thing that’s theirs, that grows and evolves into their own unspoken language of trust and affection, and it’s BEAUTIFUL

(gif made for public use)

What if Hardison naming his van Lucille is a shout-out to watching Fresh Prince of Bel-Air after school and, like a lot of latchkey/lonely kids, forming an attachment to Uncle Phil while daydreaming about being wanted and loved and chosen, the way a lot of kids in the system feel.

source

"hurt people hurt people", you've heard it before,

but also, healed people heal people, safe people save people

Leverage 5.03, "The First Contact Job"

Michelangelo’s David. The most famous statue in the world. Sculpted between 1501 and 1504, commissioned by the city of Florence. Like all sculptors, Michelangelo made small scale models, or, well, what’s commonly known as Maquettes, first.

My favorite thing about Eliot Spencer is how invested he gets in whatever job/role he’s doing for the con. He has to play a caterer? He will give you a gourmet menu and poach some pears for dessert. He has to play a minor league baseball player? He will hit a home run and he will be excited when the local deli names a sandwich after him. He has to play a police officer? He will make Hardison respond to a call that’s nearby because there might be kids in that house. Eliot commits.

that’s so interesting because he is ALWAYS freaking out at how deeply Hardison commits to his characters.

I think there are key differences in how Eliot and Hardison over-invest in their roles, which is why Eliot fusses at Hardison about it without equating it to what he does himself. (Note: I’m focusing on original series only here.)

Eliot gets over-absorbed because he gets really into what his character does (chef, baseball player, etc.) and loses focus on what the con is trying to accomplish, which isn’t helpful but tends to add authenticity to his individual role. Eliot’s main risk is getting so immersed that he forgets it’s just a con and tries to be that persona rather than doing just enough to fool the mark. He may have some broad-strokes backstory in his head in case someone asks, but his main way to sell his character is just to play the role to the hilt in the current moment. (Prior to the team, he didn’t have a hacker or do long cons, so his main grifting option was to keep things simple, play the role, improv as needed, and hope no one asked too many questions before he finished the job. And be prepared to punch his way out if they did.)

Hardison doesn’t forget he’s playing a role. The part he overdoes is building an “interesting” (often meaning complicated) role and tending to over-act, which tends reduce the authenticity of his performance. The obvious example is “The Ice Man Job,” but it’s the same thing with the overall con in “The Gold Job”–he’s thought out every backstory detail and how to deliver it to the mark, but he lays on the perfectly constructed backstory too hard without reading when to dial back the complexity or exposition. (Prior to the team, it’s implied that he did most of his criminal activity on-line rather than in-person, so the exhaustive planning and documentation was his practical grifting approach.)

If you assign Eliot to be a chef, he’s gonna be a chef. He’ll get distracted from the con by the fact that they’re running out of onions and he just can’t get the flavor of this sauce quite right, but everyone around him will believe he’s a chef. If you ask him where he went to culinary school, he’ll glare at you and maybe throw out some sparse details (trusting Hardison to back it up if anyone tries to check it)–dig too far, and he’s probably gonna be relying on dodging questions or having Hardison in his ear feeding him backstory details.

If you assign Hardison to be a chef, he’s going to have thought out and documented every detail of his backstory, researched his character’s favorite recipes so he can discuss them in detail, etc. You ask him something–anything–about his character and he’ll answer in such detail that your head will spin. But if you tell him the kitchen’s down to its last onion and ask what he wants you to do about that, he’ll be caught completely by surprise and flummoxed about what to do (unless Eliot is in his ear telling him who to send on a supply run to and what menu items to scratch in the meantime).

@onyxbird, I love this distinction, thank you!! What I’m hearing from your lovely meta is that Eliot gets so stressed about Hardison overcompensating. if you want to lie, stick as close to the truth as possible, don’t give out too many explanations, and act casual. BE casual. But Hardison has to constantly prove how smart he is, how prepared he is, how well he fits in–so he automatically stands out. Online you need receipts all the time, but in real life you can trust non verbal cues.

Can I point out?

Oh no

The difference is Hardison is just making up characters. It’s fiction to him, here’s what a millionaire diamond smuggler would be like, here’s a fun adventure story to tell.

But Eliot is discovering different people he could have been. In another life he could have been the minor league baseball star, the country singer, the chef, the gym teacher. And just for a little whole he gets to be that other person, maybe a better person, maybe a happier person. Of course he gets wrapped up in it, and of course it’s hard for him to have to stop being that version of himself. What if things had been different. What if he hadn’t done what he’d done. What if he could just be this instead.

Leverage S03E14 The Boys Night Out Job.

Eliot: "You're lucky I love you am not thinking about you (which I never do)."

Hardison later gets cornered with a lecture on how to believably portray the kind of person who can get away with bossing a hitter like Eliot around in that manner, complete with hand-annotated printouts (Eliot hasn't gotten the hang of Hardison's presentations yet) of illustrative examples selected from among their marks, similar assholes they haven't taken down yet, and Nate's obnoxious con roles. Hardison keeps trying to explain that this isn't necessary (because he was drunk on "prove he could be 'assertive' like Parker would be into" and now realizes that was unnecessary and ill-advised). Eliot keeps interrupting his protests to insist that this is necessary so that Hardison is actually believable "next time." Parker materializes out of nowhere to listen attentively to the lecture, ask odd questions, and agree that Hardison needs to stop arguing and pay attention to this important topic.