#leverage au

Meng Yao:

Lan Xichen:

Nie Huaisang:

Nie Mingjue:

Jiang Cheng:

I said I wasn’t gonna draw it… I lied to myself

I may have rewatched ‘The Rundown Job’ for the first time in a while and it’s just the best episode with the trio dynamics and the focus is on one of my favorite fields of research, so I had to reference THE leverage ot3 pose from that episode.

This goes with my silly rambling Leverage AU, I probably won’t draw more but I need more people to see and understand just how Eliot-coded Mira is (and how fitting Rumi and Zoey are as Parker and Hardison)

Also here’s an extra that’s just Rumi with a cool mask added, Parker doesn’t wear masks and truthfully I don’t think Rumi in this setting would either, but I just felt like drawing a neat mask

naturally, chaos and shenanigans ensue. all of which somehow leads to eliot saddled with parker, the thief-cum-farmhand he did not want or hire, who will not leave because his barn's loft and rooftop are so much more fun than a warehouse, and I love love love warehouses, don't you?! who insists on riding on the roof of his tractor, poking every bruise he gets—some that come from her poking—and keeps attempting to "be his alarm clock" (somehow sneaking into his bedroom to sit cross-legged on his bed crunching dry cereal).

when the next storm barrels through and brings another stray—a tech geek whiz kid with a smart car that ain't so smart after going 3 rounds with freak weather—at least it's to his doorstep this time, so eliot's slightly more prepared for handling a stranger in his space. progress.

what he's not prepared for, of course, is falling in love with them both.

it's canon that Maggie had no idea IYS denied Sam's cancer treatment, that's the only reason she stayed friendly with Blackpoole. So au where instead of letting his life fall apart, putting together the team, and then taking down Blackpoole, Nate decides to echo current events and just. Fucking shoots his boss.

and Maggie has no clue why.

maybe he succeeds, maybe he doesn't, either way he goes to jail for this (he was not planning to get away with it). And Maggie's just lost her son, now her husband's an (attempted) murderer and in prison, she's on her own and has no answers for any of this.

So she goes looking.

she might not directly have Nate's contacts and experience, but he had to have talked about these cases, she knows who a few of these people are through him. But she also has her own connections through the art world - like, Parker and Sophie at least have to be talked about by appraisers, collectors, people who work with the things they steal. And she has Sterling, who while still probably not helpful for breaking the law at least likes her more than he likes Nate and might be able to get her some more information. Like why the fuck Nate did what he did.

And she's not a mastermind, she's not Nate's level of manipulative and three steps ahead of everyone else, but she doesn't need to be. She's smart and charismatic and quick to put pieces together (the fucking button camera scene). So. She figures it out.

And then she has to decide what to do about it.

She's not going to be able to exonerate Nate - he shot a man in broad daylight and fully admitted it. She might be able to break him out of prison if he's up for being on the run, but that's a matter of hot debate between the two of them right now. (She could totally do it, especially with the team, she and Sophie are just waiting for him to stop being overprotective.)

(side note: nate's face when he finds out his ex wife and international criminal not-technically-an-ex are running a team together while he's stuck in prison? priceless)

but what she can do is protect other kids like Sam. Seek out corruption, find the people being hurt, and with her team, stop the people responsible from ever doing it again.

here we have a late submission for day 6 of zukki week 2024: heist au (click for better quality)

@zukki-week

more thoughts under the cut

The only people who are really worried about Fox is everyone who used to be in the Guard. They’re incredibly disturbed at the abrupt change in their older brother. Gone is the scheming criminal mastermind that blackmailed half the senate into giving clones rights. He doesn’t steal anymore, and doesn’t even think about heists. Doesn’t murder senators that threaten them. Not even pickpocketing.

mini disclaimer this isn't meant to be like a 1x1 parallel to leverage, one there is just way more people but it's also more just in the spirit of it sort a thing and a few general parallels

update: here will be my tag for this au

pretty much all pre-game is canon, up to just the reason BB approaches robert

they end up not being affiliated with SDN, ultimately. i think maybe at most SDN maybe hires them per the pheonix program still but its not for the oh-so-benevolent task of helping reform and rehabilitate.

i think, BB, wittingly or not, ends up using robert and the z-team for something in the place of like dubenich. however she doesn't go like weird psycho on them later. which is why i'm leaning towards more unwitting participation like didn't anticipate fully what it is SDN or some other org needed.

BB however does have a lot of shit to figure out still so like yeah

did however still use the suit (and ergo vengeance on shroud) as the big drawing point which robert is pissed about, especially if it means they still habe their hands on it at first so robert is flying without it for prob even longer

regardless, robert robertson III is obviously the nate ford. he is the straight man, the white knight, the Good Guy (tm) in a group of criminals

who is more 'but i know what you can all do' than robert tho and who else could wrangle unruly super-powered villains for good?

almost all of them have crossed paths before, but mostly robert (as mecha man) catching them and just general criminals-crossing-paths. so none of them are friends enough, or not enough to be like synergy level.

robert, immeditely after the job-gone-"bad" that burned them all, ends up being exposed (accidentally or otherwise) as mecha man.

look they've all been caught or chased by him one point or another, they have a begrudging respect even if they're pissed. like they knew he was a hero but not the current mecha man.

everyone still wants that cookie (aka: robert)

they work to take down both the red ring, but also maybe a super shady version of the SDN in this au?

to be continued as i finish the game and ponder this more.

bonus: some random quotes that i think would fit so well to capture the vibe:

Blonde Blazer: Which is why I need you. Robert: No. I'm not a villain. Blonde Blazer: Villains I got. What I need is one honest man to watch them.

Sonar: Every man for himself, dude. Prism: Go ahead! I'm the one with the merchandise. Invisigal: Yeah, well, I'm the one with an exit! Robert: And I'm the one with a plan. Now, I know you children don't play well with others but I need you to hold it together for exactly seven more minutes.

Malevola: I don't trust these guys... Robert: Do you trust me? Punch Up: ... Of course. You're an honest man.

Flambae: I'm an honest citizen now... Robert: ... I'm not [cue brief, but intense eye fucking that can only happen between two people with a past]

also yeah i am making flambae, robert's sophie!!!

Invisigal: I can't even tell how many guys are in the room, how can you tell who's who? Robert: Haircuts, Invisigal, count the haircuts. Invisigal: I would have missed that. Robert: What? Invisigal: Nothing!

The Family Business Job

Author: mittensmorgul | Artist: Hectatess

Posting on Sunday March 22

What do you do when you like a man? How would you catch his attention? If you were Dean Winchester, you’d cook him a Michelin-quality dinner and try not to let anything incriminating slip out. For the second date, you’d stumble your way into a conspiracy to dismantle a corrupt network involving the highest levels of government, a broad swath of the tech industry, and a possibly insane anarchist weapons dealer. If you were Castiel, you’d warily accept that dinner invitation, have a surprisingly wonderful time, and then hope everything won’t completely fall apart when your past lives collide like a couple of runaway trains by the opening minutes of the second date. Let’s see how these incomparably successful criminals and con men handle what comes next…

Keep reading for a sneak preview!