Thinking about eight year old Benji finding a copy in his local library and lying in fields of wheat in the sunshine to read it.
And at the same time sixteen year old Ethan buying a battered copy in a second hand bookshop and curling up in the attic on a stormy day to read it.
And both are entranced, reading as the day passes and the light falls.
And they go to sleep dreaming of fighting evil and saving the world. Glittering jewels and mighty battles. Friends to stand by their side. A great love that lasts beyond death. And a figure in their dreams that is just beyond their reach but always leads the way.
They wake up and go about their day, sighing that the story isn’t real and there is no way to be a hero in their world. How can they possibly have a life like that?
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
I keep meaning to write a fic exploring Luther and Benji’s friendship
Because Luther doesn’t trust anyone except Ethan (not surprising) and yet in MI3 he already trusts Benji (just like Ethan)
In MI4 he’s not around and yet I wonder if he knows Benji is with Ethan? I know he barely acknowledges Benji at the end but that is very much Luther’s way.
In MI5 he’s trusting Benji on a mission with Ethan and he answers Benji’s call for ‘assistance’ while on another mission.
When Brandt asks for help to save Ethan and Benji, when Brandt mentions they’ll kill Ethan Luther has a ‘good luck with that’ look on his face - but there’s a brief moment of worry when Brandt mentions Benji.
They work so smoothly as a team in Fallout.
And in the end, when everything has finally caught up with Luther and he is dying, it’s Benji who looks after him alone in London.
We don’t see much of their friendship but it’s my belief that Luther took Benji under his wing just like he did with Ethan and extends his protection and affection in his joking, off-hand way to Benji. And Benji adores him.
Luther does look after Julia and stays in contact. He has that conversation with Ilsa. He looks after the people Ethan cares about. So I think he looks after Benji for Ethan and cares about him for Benji’s own sake, because Benji is so lovable.
I was going to say I wish Luther had had a chance to see Benji as team leader. But I think he’s already had a chance to see Benji work in that role in teams already and he knows Benji will be great.
To accompany the Storage Locker one I wrote yesterday, I wrote this about Benji
The Gifts
Benji doesn’t keep things
He gives them away.
Benji adores giving gifts to people - the look of surprise on their face, the joy, or the laugh, and then seeing them use it. It makes him happy, right back to the days when nothing seemed to make him happy.
He has a nice little flat and a nice collection of things and trinkets and possessions of his own but he could lose them all tomorrow and only be very annoyed. His treasures - books, equipment, his heart and soul and love - go to his friends.
When he was a kid, he was told off for giving too much. Don’t give all your toys away! And stop loving so much, it’s unsettling.
There’s no one to stop him now. Gifts to all, with a little note. A necklace to Ilsa. A new gun to Jane. Spy gadgets to Brandt. Coffee and time and support and games and and books to Luther, who accepts them all and gives back his protection.
And the one Benji gives most to is the one who needs it most.
Ethan Hunt.
Nothing big. Coffee on a cold day, a message scrawled across the cup. A shirt when Ethan has none. A clever little device to save his life. A scribbled note left in a jacket pocket. A pen. A notebook. His friendship. His affection. His love. His life.
And Ethan accepts each gift - from a simple plastic pen to the most expensive piece of equipment - with a sudden look of joy - intense and sharp and quickly restrained. But he smiles and says thank you and it means more than the most effusive praise from others. Ethan likes the notes, the messages of support, the jokes, the warnings. Benji sees his eyes linger on them.
More than that, he needs them. No one else needs Benji’s gifts so much. No one else would tuck the coffee cup with the message carefully into their duffel bag.
Ethan doesn’t have much. That’s deliberate, Benji knows. He doesn’t allow himself to have much. But he will accept Benji’s gifts, no matter how small. And it makes him happy. Benji would give it all to see happiness in Ethan’s eyes.
So he gives and gives. All that he has. All he will ever have. He gives it all to Ethan. It’s all worth for it, for Ethan.
I've been thinking of Benji in general a lot again recently, especially focusing on Benji getting shot, as I am a hurt/comfort enjoyer.
The logistics of where Benji was shot/ the injury it gave him have been perplexing me. I'm genuinely looking for input here on what others think, not critiscising how it was shown in the movie (btw)
From the placement of the material over his abdomen used to stop/ slow the bleeding, it looks like he was shot here ⬇️, right? BUT isn't that too low for the bullet to have caused his lung to collapse? Like that's below his ribcage right?
Okay, so maybe the bullet hit the ground at such an angle that caused it to ricochet so it went in lower, but caused more damage as it travelled up through his body. Food for thought about the other organs (e.g stomach, spleen, a kidney) that may have been damaged besides his lung/ pleural cavity. Something like this crude example:
For a bullet to ricochet, the angle has to be reasonably shallow or it will just shatter. The shooting came from two directions and it looks like there is a lot more distance compared to height in direction A compared to direction B. Maybe it's plausible from that direction 🤔
Or maybe that's just the perspective of these shot, with one being from a shooter's perspective and the other being from the team's perspective that makes the angle look so different... much to think about.
Or maybe i'm just plain wrong about how far down lungs go/ the makeshift bandage slipped lower and he was hit directly but righttt on the edge of his lung, around there ⬇️
I know that once bullets enter a body, they can fragment and change trajectory a bit. The bullet or some of it could have found its way slightly higher, just enough to make a hole to collapse Benji's lung. Again. Much to think about.
Oh and I did find it reasonably funny that as soon as he revealed to Grace that he'd been hit, she kind of shoves her hand in the wrong area and he physically moves her hand lower. Girl, randomly hovering your hand over his chest without checking where the wound is won't work, but kudos for trying <3
At least where Benji puts his hand/ where the bandage was placed lines up. Still seems a tad too low for a collapsed lung. Knowing how much thought is put into these films, I doubt the bullet hole placement was random and again, I am no medical expert. I will GLADLY welcome being told that lungs go further down than I thought.
He did once. His home with Julia was packed full of possessions, bright colours, comfortable furniture. A garage full of junk he expected to fix one day.
It all got taken away by the IMF the day he went into Rankow. He could get it back, if he wanted to. Luther has offered to help. (Luther sometimes visits the storage locker where the old belongings sit, looks around, remembers Ethan as he was then, and swears once more that he’ll do anything to stop Ethan losing everything again)
No, it’s easier like this. Living out of a duffel bag and poorly stocked safe houses and warehouses. The fewer possessions, the less he has to lose.
Except - he has a small locker of his own. Just to keep a few precious things he can’t let go of.
The shirt Benji bought him in Casablanca.
The tickets from the Vienna opera house.
A paper coffee cup that Benji has scrawled ‘come back safe, I’d miss you if you were gone’ across.
A broken circuit board that Benji had smashed to free Ethan once.
A page full of diagrams and plans and in the middle, a portrait of Ethan that Benji had lazily sketched.
A vinyl record of Turandot, a Christmas gift from Benji.
A ring that Benji had worn as part of a disguise once, passing it to Ethan as he leaned close and whispered in his ear to cover the action.
An empty coffee jar with a message on the label ‘Ethan, I like you and respect you and enjoy working with you, but if you ever finish my coffee again, I’ll take revenge on you.’
Another note, this one scribbled on a receipt tucked into the pocket of a dinner jacket ‘come back safe, I’ll be waiting. No getting stabbed this time, please!’
He adds a little something every so often. Marks of affection he daren’t carry around with him, but every so often, he goes to the storage locker and sits there, surrounded by the proofs of Benji’s affection (fondness? Friendship? Love?) and just breathes.
Luther followed him, not nosy, but wondering what drew Ethan there so often. He needed to know his man, his brother, to keep him safe.
He stood in the storage locker, the air still disturbed by Ethan, who had only just left, and saw all the signs of Ethan’s love for Benji. He understood. He had sworn that Ethan wouldn’t lose everything again. Now he understood that meant Ethan could not lose Benji. His mission - which he gladly accepted - was to make sure that couldn’t happen. Not while Luther was alive.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Ethan lashing out at a new technician for being incompetent. But Benji (who died) is the ghost in the machine (thought it may be something other than a generator. And Ethan isn’t really lashing out over the perceived errors, but he’s hurting so badly, making even more desperate to reach him.)
Ooh yes! I like that, Benji hanging around desperate to reach him, trying to reach him, and Ethan not seeing it.
Benji’s only form of communication via the machines he once controlled (and now Benji is beginning to wonder if all the mask machines were haunted) but all he can do is make Ethan angry.
Ethan desperately trying to continue as a spy but nothing goes right and Benji used to make it all run so smoothly. And the mask machines don’t seem to be able to create any face but Benji.
The machine is set up and programmed for anyone and then Ethan walks into the room and instead of his latest disguise sitting on the machine, it’s Benji’s face once again.
And Ethan shouts and swears and sends the other agents away, unable to bear to look at that face but unable to destroy it. It looks so real. It looks like Benji, even like this. And Ethan wonder what would happen if he put the mask on…
(And, I don’t want to spoil but if you like this kind of idea, I highly recommend Variable Constant by @itslifetreesworld)
