ᴍʀ. ᴘᴜɴᴄʜʏ

[wearealsoboats]

disgustingly cute domestic scenes to imagine your otp in:

getting slightly too drunk in the middle of the afternoon and slow dancing to dumb cheesy old music and kissing in a way that’s more laughter than actual kissing, mouths clumsy and hands gripping tight and sunlight slanting over them as they move lazily together 

curling up on the sofa together, feet tucked under thighs and arms around shoulders, watch the kind of crap tv that only airs at 3am because they don’t want to go to untangle themselves to go to bed

hectic mornings when they each need to be somewhere and they’re rushing around each other, ducking into bathrooms and bedrooms and kitchen cupboards, pausing to straighten tops and press kisses to cheeks

going through old photos together and collapsing into laughter every three pictures, and zooming in on ones where they’re pulling awful faces or ones that were taken at just the wrong moment

getting ready for nights out together, standing shoulder to shoulder as they brush their teeth or get their faces ready or style their hair, knocking elbows and hips as they try and hog more space

standing quietly together in the kitchen after long, exhausting days, leaning into each other for support, breathing in the smell of home, fingers carding through hair and stroking down spines, until they feel like they can relax and smile properly again

[fireandwonder]

Somewhere in the Leverage universe, there is a conspiracy theorist trying to prove that a certain minor league baseball player, a Canadian hockey player, and an American country music singer are all the same person. They have a file with various news printouts, and keep trying to upload them to a website, but every time they do, the site mysteriously crashes, threads go missing on discussion boards, and all electronic records of this man have simply vanished.

[ferrisbueller]

[robxhelm]

[onceuponamusing]

   OBEDIENCE is not loyalty.    SERVITUDE is not loyalty.    OBLIGATION is not loyalty.

                  S A C R I F I C E                                         is loyalty.

[luxuriouslively]

[theloyalangel-a-deactivated2021]

That answer wasn’t even remotely satisfactory to Michael and instead had the angel narrowing his eyes in annoyance at the human. He was the Viceroy of Heaven, one of God’s most power angels—if he wanted the information he could simply reach out with his Grace and take it from the humans mind but he’d always preferred a more ethical approach when gathering information. Crossing his arms over his chest he considered what was being asked, a slow smirk replacing his frown.

“Five days,” he answered. “One hour in Hell is five days here on Earth. It’s the same in Heaven, more or less,” he added.

Taking a step back Michael began to make a walk around the room enjoying the space that fit him and his Grace. His back still ached from keeping his wings so tightly enclosed while in the cage and he would need to let them out soon but figured it was best not to alarm the other too much for the time being.

“Something tells me you’re not going to be too happy about that time conversion. Whoever hired you didn’t tell you about that, did they? That means it wasn’t one of mine, no—there’s no welcome party so I doubt it was angels that sent you to me. You’re not a hunter either, you don’t have the look about you which means it was someone who was trying to keep from attracting attention to what they were doing. You know I could simply take the information from you, I could even reach inside of you and find out where it is you’re going after this send you there and wipe your memory of ever being in Hell. I suspect that’s what your employer was hoping for actually.”

[dstinctive-blog]

          it doesn’t take a math genius, or a hardison, to calculate the simple equation that’s being presented, but the solution is like a punch in the gut. for every hour he’d spent down in that place wadding through demons & playing around with blood sigils, for EVERY HOUR down there ----------------------’ five days? ‘ he doesn't mean to speak. it’s a low tone, almost a whisper of disbelief. his memory is taking him on a ride through each foot fall, attempting to measure distance traveled for an average time, but what he comes up with makes his heart sink a little in his chest. it was TOO long, maybe a month, maybe more? the team, what would they think? would they have tried to find him, would they think the worst? or would they just assume he’d gotten tired of being a team player, chalk it up to him going back to a more LUCRATIVE business. of course sterling hadn’t given him a proper timeline, but it was a hard pill to swallow because there’s no telling now if he’d even have believed the guy...demon, whatever the hell he was. he needs to get to a phone, needs to make sure none of his team got into something dangerous looking for him, he took certain precautions in that regard. the last thing he needed was sophie or hardison coming face to face with any of his precautions. ‘ don’t strain yourself, you can cut the two-bit sherlock holmes routine ok. I don’t understand half the words yer saying & I’ve got a headache starting that would put a grizzly down. ‘ eliot didn’t care for being circled, & he didn’t care for THREATS or ultimatums. his hand itches to reach for the solid hilt of the dagger, but something tells him that it wouldn’t quite have the same effect on this guy as the demons. ‘ i’m sure you can do a lot of things. or whoever locked you in that cage wouldn’t have gone through so much trouble. ‘ it wasn’t that eliot owed sterling shit, he damn sure didn’t owe him his silence since he’d sent him into the pit of the twilight zone, but he didn’t discuss his jobs. he just didn’t do it. ‘ something tells me that’s not how you want this to go down. seeing as how I just SAVED your ass back there. ‘

[abetterthief]

           she’s never been the type to feel off balance before. in a physical sense, she’s always had control over herself. she’s never wavered or been unsteady & she HATES that this is the job that makes her feel unsteady on her feet. even if she’s moving perfectly throughout the restaurant, she feels like she’s barely present for it. like she’s somehow on autopilot & someone else is taking control. if she had a choice, she wouldn’t have went back and sat back down at the table. if she had a choice, she would’ve found eliot & ended the con right there. if she was the person she was years before meeting nate and the rest of the team, she would’ve done just that the SECOND she felt uneasy. her self preservation skills would always win, even when she knew that she had people by her side. she’s so focused on eliot’s comment on the coms ( and the way that his voice makes something inside of her feel at ease ) that she barely hears the mark comment about how he wants a few of his own guys to play & she’s nodding and smiling like her life depends on it – probably because it does.    

              ❛ perfect. ❜ she can hear hardison rattling off instructions to nate about SOMETHING that sounds more interesting than focusing on the way williams is looking at her like he wants to drop his entire facade of ‘charming nice guy’.  ❛ i’ll meet you there, then? i have to handle some business before i can make my appearance there. ❜ the last thing she wants is to go with him to the game. being in a car with the guy, even if they somehow managed to keep eliot a close distance behind them, made her feel sick. the restaurant is a good distance away from williams’ house ( which they did on purpose ) and she doesn’t feel bad about limiting their time to comb through his house. her self preservation skills were practically screaming at her that she needed to get out & fast.  ❛ i had a lovely time tonight. ❜ lie. such a big lie that it feels heavy in the air when she says it. she hears sophie on the coms, voice quiet & comforting – as always – telling her to stay in character as she leaves and not to look like she’s running out. williams says the same to her & he looks RELAXED and more focused on the game he’s going to go play than on her. it’s a nice change.    

            ❛ i’ll be out of here in two minutes. williams is calling his friends now and they’ll be at that address as soon as possible. he looks eager. ❜ her voice is quiet as she talks into the coms, her back to williams as she walks out. 

[dstinctive-blog]

          there wasn’t anyone in their line of work that would call parker’s exit anything resembling SMOOTH. but, williams didn’t seem any the wiser for it. eliot couldn’t blame her. as much as his instincts were burning to get her out of there, he was sure hers were screaming even louder. she was a thief after all, when it came down to fight or flight, well she & eliot would choose different paths there. he watches williams order himself another scotch, opening his phone, getting settled in. good. that gave nate & sophie a little more time.  ‘ he doesn’t look like he’s in a rush to get out of here.  but that game does have him itching under the collar.  i’m going to catch up with parker & then we’ll head over to help with the prep. ‘   well wouldn’t that  be nice, a little help  for hardison. hack the private network hardison, set up a legit poker game in like zero minutes hardison.   eliot has to close his eyes & find his center, a deep breath the only thing that keeps him from SNAPPING at the child on the other end of the com. this stress wasn’t hardison’s fault, even if he was compounding it by being completely  obnoxious. ------------------williams is still waiting for the drink he ordered when the hitter slips out of the dining room. the same waitress from before gives him the universal sign signaling her shift ended soon, & while he’s not got the time of day to give her, his ego doesn’t mind. the grand entryway leads to stairs so gaudy they belong int he 80′s, they’d take him to the ground level, but he has a weird feeling that’s not where his missing thief took off to. instead he banks left to the service stairs & jogs to the top. he’s barely winded when he hits the roof & there’s no SURPRISE that the lock has already been picked.  he slips through the access door quietly, but gives weight to his steps, his boots crunching over the dark sand they’d treated the tar with. the breeze from the desert is warm, the skyline of the city stretching out in a beautiful vista. he catches her eye on his approach & slips his earbud out. sophie’s comments about williams’ terrible taste in art making their way to his front pocket. ‘ we can’t make a habit out of this. ‘ he means taking out the com, but he also means them. ‘ you did good down there. he was eating out of your hand. ‘ they were going to have to play the happily married southern couple again soon, & he’d be lying if he tried to tell himself that there wasn’t a part of him looking forward to it. that was the PROBLEM. ‘ what’s going on parker? ‘

[hotgirlsbeinghot]

[luthienne]

A mournful vision, splintered, of a garden of broken statues. Your bones ache on the brink of morning. You split open. I am warning you and I warned you. You disarm. I tell you and I told you. You undress. You divest. You come undone.

Alejandra Pizarnik, from Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962-1972 (tr. Yvette Siegert)

[uuuhshiny]

Just little things I like, P4

Part one, Part two, Part three

[difficult]

only people that i like can touch my hair

[theloyalangel-a-deactivated2021]

The place was as secure as it was going to get and in all fairness Michael knew they wouldn’t need to salt the doors or any of the typical things one would do to keep out a demon. Those precautions wouldn’t work on Lucifer anyways and any angel warding would result in his own banishment rendering such actions and precautions fairly useless and futile.

Stepping back from the human Michael rolled his shoulders, the heavy wings he kept concealed still with his Grace settling more comfortably against his back. Freedom felt good, the cool air of Earth nothing short o refreshing after his time in Hell where everything was endlessly hot and the cage too small to properly relax. It was a torture of the worst kind for any angel, much less one with the wing span and Grace that Michael had.

“My brother won’t raise a hand against us now that I am free,” he explained casually as if dropping his connection to Lucifer was no big deal. To him it wasn’t, everyone knew who he was—the great viceroy of Heaven, leader of God’s army, vanquisher of the snake. They were all titles Michael loathed but they were exactly who he was, what he was. “We will be safe here and when you leave I’ll be sure you have protection as well. Now, I believe we have things to discuss—starting with who asked you to free me?”

Michael needed to know because no angel would use a human and that’s precisely what was done here. It was a good move, Hell wasn’t expecting for someone such as this man to come walking in the front gate and right down to Limbo. The plan had worked and was worthy of admiration but he would hold off until he had the details on who had concocted it in the first place.

[dstinctive-blog]

‘ things to discuss? ‘ repeating words & answering with a question. it was a STALL. he can almost hear nate’s voice in his head saying something along the lines of sloppy, but maybe he’d forgive him given the circumstances. there was a part of eliot that wished he had nate’s brain on this one, because he was almost certain that the kid standing in front of him was claiming satan as his brother. either that or eliot was getting his wires crossed. it had been a very long time since bible study, or going to church every sunday, so there’s no connection to be made, no figuring out exactly who this guy was claiming to be without just coming out & asking. so sue him for stalling, but there were just a lot of pieces on the board & the hitter felt like he didn’t even know what game they were playing. the answer that he finally settles on is the same one he’d give anyone asking about who contracted a job with him. his professional reputation was very important to him, the name ELIOT SPENCER meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but nobody could accuse him of not being discreet. ‘ I have a very strict rule on privacy where my clients are concerned. someone wanted you out of that cage. my advice? take the win. ‘ it takes all of his strength not to ask about the whole brother thing, simple was better here, the less information exchanged between them the better. it was quickly coming time to wash his hands of all this & return to the real world. real world... ‘ you wouldn’t happen to know how long a few hours down there is up here would ya? ‘ he was just glad his exfil plan was the train back to boston, he’d given himself a three day window there, with no way to measure how long the job would take it had been the best bet. 

[abetterthief]

                   she listens to sophie’s instructions, giving the mark what she HOPES is a smile that shows she’s feeling at ease even if every fiber of her wants to run, ❛ excuse me for one second. ladies room. ❜ she keeps her eyes on the exits and maps out a plan, even if there’s no need. she isn’t the type to run anymore. she has people who have her back. she isn’t alone. it’s a mantra that she repeats as she walks towards the back of the restaurant and slips into the bathrooms. she relaxes almost instantly, taking the time to let herself BREATHE as she listens to the plan over coms. a part of her felt like they were making this up as they went along ( which was true of 80% of their jobs – but none of them ever involved a mark that was a walking bomb ). if she said the wrong thing, their entire con was blown and she didn’t like the idea that it was all riding on HER and a poker game. she wants to rewind & be back in the elevator with eliot, back in the moment where things felt okay instead of like she was walking on glass.  

                        ❛ so set up a poker game and give me an address to give him. ❜ she figures that she has a few minutes before williams becomes suspicious and the sound of each of them talking is making her feel more at ease. she pulls at her fingers aimlessly, closing her eyes for a moment. okay, parker. when you go sit back down, focus on your phone for a second and then when he looks interested, tell him that he can join the game for the right price.  ❛ got it. ❜ a quick look in the mirror is all she gives herself before she’s walking back into the crowded dining room, the contrast between the noise & the silence she was just in making her feel uncomfortable in her own skin. she misses the silence of their offices right about now. she hears hardison make a comment about how the marks financials are still messy & for once, she doesn’t care. she’s sure this guy could come up with whatever amount of money they threw at him as a buy in. her attention is on her phone when she sits, only giving williams a SECOND of her attention before glancing back at her phone. when she hears his impatient noise, she glances his way again with an embarrassed expression.  ❛ sorry about all that. i’m playing messenger between you and my husband now. he wants to invite you to join the game. ❜ honestly, she’s never seen anyone’s face light up the way williams’ just did. it makes her stomach hurt.  ❛ there’s a pretty big buy in, of course. usually around 100 thousand. ❜ too much, parker. you’re supposed to start small. the urge to rip the com out of her ears has never been stronger. she may not know all marks the way that nate & sophie do, but she knows this guy. she knows that he likes flashy things and he likes to go big. that’s why when he agrees, she feels TRIUMPHANT.  ❛ great. i’ll have him text me the address so you can meet him once we’re done here. ❜

[dstinctive-blog]

what eliot should be doing is watching the mark, watching the exits, watching everyone in the room EXCEPT parker, but he can’t drag his eyes away from her as she excuses herself to the restroom. the dress is impossible, but she makes it look effortless, totally oblivious to every head that turns to watch her as she passes. disgruntled wives with raised eyebrows sit across from husbands that can’t help sneaking a peek as a leggy blonde walks past. it’s only when she disappears from his line of sight that eliot manages to FOCUS in on williams. there wasn’t much to miss, it seemed like he had watched parker walk off as well, couldn’t blame the guy ( wanted to rip his throat out, but couldn’t blame him for looking ). there are none of the classic signs of nervousness, which sets eliot even further on edge, dinner with a pretty girl was bound to make any man a little nervous, but not williams it seemed. something wasn’t right with this guy. he checks his watch & his cellphone discreetly, but it’s nothing more than a glance. that’s when nate pipes up, so we get williams to invite his private friends, & uh yeah, he’ll be so caught up in posturing & impressing parker that uh, he’ll give us the location of the other girls, yeah. the rambling is a sure sign that something in williams’ place has caught nate’s attention. hardison’s complaints about having to hack whatever it was he was hacking & set up a poker game don’t have eliot feeling much sympathy & he’s about to growl something into the com to that extent, but parker’s clear voice chimes in & silences anything the hitter was about to say. sophie’s soft voice answers with simple instructions & then he’s watching her walk back to the table. ( his attention just as TRANSFIXED as when she’d walked off ). the dinner loses his attention then, the bitter realization that he wasn’t on his game, & that it was parker related sinks like a stone in his gut. nate had warned him, not in any specific way, just in a few monosyllabic questioning noises & a look that made you feel like the guy knew the inside of your head better than you knew it yourself. but it was enough to plant the seed of doubt, & now he knew just how dishonest he’d been with himself. he had no choice but to be professional through the rest of this job, but after than maybe he needed some time. some DISTANCE to clear his head. by the time eliot keys back into the conversation parker has the mark so far on the hook the guy won’t know what hit him. ‘ good job parker, with that much cash on the line he’ll want to have one of his at that table. ‘ he doesn't have to tell hardison to send the text with the address, they’re a good team, they work well together. now if only eliot could keep himself from screwing that up with whatever it was he was beginning to feel toward parker. something he couldn’t risk putting into words.

[thekeeperofthesilence]

You have no idea who I was before all this started. That guy—kid—he had God in his heart, a flag on his shoulder. Clean hands. I haven’t seen him in the mirror in over ten years. And believe me, I get up every morning looking for him. So you can trust me when I tell you that if you pull that trigger, two men die: the guy you kill, and the guy you used to be.

Eliot Spencer, ​Leverage, season 4, episode 18, “​The Last Dam Job”. (via thekeeperofthesilence)

[wnq-writers]

I realized there was no way out, so I sat down and made myself comfortable in the darkness.

Jacob Holguin (via ironclad)

[theloyalangel-a-deactivated2021]

A smirk settled on Michael’s lips when he the human told him not to leave any bits and pieces of him behind. It wasn’t something he was planning on doing nor was it something he made a habit of doing when he teleported people and he was the best at it.

“I’ll get you out of here, all bits intact, and then we will talk about who it was that hired you to set me free,” he said as he reached out his hand pressing to fingers to Eliot’s forehead moving them out of Hell and to a house he could feel was vacant and not too far away from the nearest entrance in to Hell itself. Lucifer wouldn’t come looking for them, not once he was out and walking on the surface. It would be too much of a risk to chance such a bold move.

“There,” he said stepping back from him again. “That wasn’t so awful now was it?” he asked arching an amused brow at him as he crossed his arms over his chest. There was so much he wanted to ask him but he needed to know that his companion was intact and capable of speaking with him.

[dstinctive-blog]

the kid answers his concern with a smile & self-assured CONFIDENCE that do nothing to ease eliot’s worry. but, he’s already made up his mind. this was the way out ( like it or not ). a skeptical tick of his eyebrow, at mention of discussing the terms of his current employment, is covered by a get on with it gesture. it takes focus not to grab the kid’s arm as he reaches for him, fighting the instinct to snap those fingers coming for his face. he blinks reflexively at the touch & just like that they’re standing in the living room of some empty house. hardison would never believe this. not that eliot ever went into detail about the jobs he did when the team had down-time, but it wouldn’t be easy to bite his tongue on this one. he offers a grunt in response the the inquiry. it really wasn’t that bad, & a quick mental checklist assured him he had all the bits & pieces he started with. ‘ this location secure? ‘ once he knows he’s intact, the TACTICAL switch in his brain flips on. he only sees one door to the exterior, but there are several windows without coverings, they were like fish in a barrel. not that he could say with certainty that a door or some curtains would obscure them from satan...but they would sure make him feel better. the other thing that has him unsettled is the shadows of dusk moving across the ground. when he’d entered hell ( a thought that still makes him want to roll his eyes, & he’d been down there ) it had been just after dark. in his estimation he’d been down there for a few hours, but if what he was seeing outside was any indication, it had been at least a day. his stomach sinks a little at that. just how long had he been down there?