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eyrieofsynapses · 1 year

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Hey, Leverage peeps. Y’know how Sophie is introduced playing Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth? I (re)read the play recently for a class (yes, I'm a literature nerd who voluntarily takes classes involving Shakespeare, sue me), and it got me thinking.

Because, guys… there's definitely meaning behind that choice. Lady Macbeth's character is an ambitious and manipulative woman who pulls her husband's strings to gain power, only to be consumed be guilt. Sound familiar? Yeah. There’s a lot of parallels.

I'm guessing many of you haven't read the play, so I'll explain the bare bones of what you need to know for the meta. Macbeth is a play about a general/nobleman named, of course, Macbeth. At the beginning, he encounters three witches—they're the origin of the "double, double toil and trouble / fire burn and cauldron bubble" phrase—who prophesize that Macbeth will become king. Macbeth describes his encounter to his wife, Lady Macbeth, who coerces him into murdering the current King Duncan. They work together to kill Duncan, and Macbeth ascends to the throne. He has numerous other people killed to keep his throne safe.

(Trigger warning for suicide mention! Skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to read.) Both he and Lady Macbeth are consumed by guilt as the play goes on, though, and she goes more or less insane and eventually commits suicide. (Trigger warning over.)

If you've ever heard of "out, out, damned spot," that's Lady Macbeth agonizing over the metaphorical blood she can't get off her hands.

So, how does this work with Sophie? Here's the thing. Lady Macbeth is known as one of the characters, if not the character, that coined the "dangerously ambitious woman" trope. She's determined to secure Macbeth's position on the throne, mostly for the power it'll gain her as Queen, and she pulls his strings over and over to get him to murder his way there.

Sophie is, of course, a grifter. Her entire skillset is designed to manipulate people—oftentimes rich and powerful men—to get what she wants. She isn't necessarily ambitious so much as obsessed with stealing artwork and other valuables, but she enjoys the downfall of most of her marks. She luxuriates in the power of making people do what she wants them to.

And yet Lady Macbeth does eventually succumb to the guilt of everything she's done… just as Sophie comes to recognize and regret the pain she's wrought. Remember The King George Job?

"Nate: I know what you're thinking, but it's not the same thing.

Sophie: Oh, no. Of course it's not. I stole from one rich man to sell to another rich man.

Nate: No one got hurt.

Sophie: That I know of. How do I know that innocent children were never used to shift my merchandise?"

(transcript)

In the same scene, she also says this:

"Listen, I know I grifted from filthy-rich wankers who hardly ever missed the money, of being taken for a ride. But this, this whole Moreau business has got me thinking. Keller steals from the rich, too, and a little girl ends up in detainment for it."

She comes to recognize her past wrongdoings via the work she does with the crew, and at the same time begins to redeem herself for it. That prevents her from becoming consumed by guilt as Lady Macbeth does. The theme, however, remains consistent.

It's also fascinating that Sophie refers to Nate as a "white knight, black king" in the very same episode as her initial (awful) performance as Lady Macbeth. White is often associated with purity and innocence, thus implying a “pure knight.” Macbeth himself is a noble and well-respected "knight" (technically general and nobleman, but it follows the same concept) before Lady Macbeth coerces him into murdering King Duncan. This parallels neatly with Nate as a “pure knight,” or an “honest man” (as Macbeth was before the play began).

Then, of course, we have "black king." Black is a color frequently associated with sin, darkness, etc., and thus Macbeth could be seen as a "black king" himself: someone who has done great wrongs to reach his position of power. He’s turned into that “black king” by Lady Macbeth. Nate, meanwhile, is called the "black" chess king. He is metaphorically “corrupted”—arguably, by Sophie and the crew. (Of course, in Nate’s case, the “corruption” is a good thing and leads him to become a better person. But the parallel itself still stands.)

Chess is about strategy, manipulation, and cleverness. Sophie and Lady Macbeth are both very good at manipulating people into doing what they want them to for power's sake. Nate is often referred to as the master chess player, where "chess" is the metaphor for cons. Yet realistically, Sophie is the best at playing "chess" with people. Not to mention that the king is, in many ways, not a powerful piece. It can only move one square at a time, and if it's captured, its side loses. The queen is the most powerful piece on the chessboard. And here's Sophie, referring to Nate as a chess piece.

(There's something to be said here about how Sophie manipulates Nate both for his own good but also to her advantage, specifically in The First David Job and The Second David Job. But for the sake of keeping this meta at a reasonable length, I’ll leave it for now.)

"But Synapse!" I hear you cry. "Sophie's really bad at the Lady Macbeth speech in the first episode, but she's fantastic in the last one! If she became a better person, wouldn't it be the other way around?"

Fair point, friend, and it's something I've been trying to figure out myself. Here's my proposal:

I'm not an actor, but from what I understand, acting requires you to deeply empathize with your character. Conning isn't dissimilar, but in a way, Sophie knows that when she cons, it is not her. She's hiding everything she is for the sake of deception.

Regular acting, on the other hand, requires you to be exposed about yourself and who you are. You have to be willing to be vulnerable for your audience. And Sophie truly does not know how to be vulnerable, or indeed who she is at all. Of all the characters on Leverage, she's always been the most mysterious about her past and her true depths.

In The Nigerian Job, Sophie claims she's gone to a civilian life and dropped her grifting. She's questioning the very thing that she loves to do, uncertain of herself and where she's going with her life. Her ambition and drive have been, if not lost, undermined. We know that Sophie is a paradoxically compassionate and maternal person just as much as she is a master of the con. When she joins up with the crew, she near-immediately falls into a momfriend role to Parker, Hardison, and Eliot, and she’s an exceptional teacher.

Perhaps she struggles to find kinship in Lady Macbeth's motivation in that first episode. She can't act what she doesn't understand. Plus, she has no outlet for the side of her that desperately wants to do good, and maybe that’s showing through in her inability to embrace being bad.

But in The Long Goodbye Job, Sophie aces her performance when she's doing it for a con. Yet at that time she is arguably far less like Lady Macbeth than she is in the first episode. So what changes? What about the con makes it so much easier?

I'd say it's a few things. Firstly, Sophie's newfound stability. She knows who she is, and she knows that she is not Lady Macbeth. Her desire to teach and support others has a) been discovered and b) is being fulfilled. She's found that her love for manipulation is most satisfying when directed at people who are maliciously uncaring and contradictory to her own morals. Thus, the ways her personality overlaps with Lady Macbeth's can't be destabilized by Sophie's internal war over how much she really is like Lady Macbeth. She knows who she is, and she knows what parts of Lady Macbeth she can relate to and what parts she has to truly act out.

Moreover, she's acting for a con: she knows the character she's playing does not truly represent herself. Her mask is complete, rather than requiring pieces of herself to be exposed.

Compare Sophie's performance in The Nigerian Job to the part of Lady Macbeth's soliloquy she's attempting to recite (yes, I'll explain the bits of the soliloquy that I reference, don't worry):

"Sophie: Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst! Make thick my blood;

Sophie: Stop up the access and passage to remorse, that no… (she hesitates and restarts her line) That no compunctious visitings of nature"

(transcript)

Versus the original soliloquy:

"Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood, Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Th’ effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, your murd’ring ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature’s mischief!"

(Macbeth, Act I, Scene V, lines 45-55; I’ve bolded the lines Sophie recites)

Note where Sophie trips up: she loses the word "cruelty" from "of direst cruelty" first, and then she hesitates on the lines "stop up the access and passage to remorse / that no compunctious visitings of nature / shake my fell purpose". If the latter line is gobbledygook to you, it basically means "stop me from feeling guilty so my guilt can't get in the way of my awful plans."

So where is Sophie hesitating? On the maliciousness of Lady Macbeth, and on her desire to feel no remorse. And what do we know about Sophie? That she is a) still inherently kind, and b) that she does feel remorse for the pain she's caused—or at least that she learns to feel it over the course of the show.

By the way, it's interesting that Lady Macbeth's bit about "take my milk for gall" is excluded too, because it's sort of like her saying "turn any motherly feelings/kindness I feel into cruelty." Compare that against Sophie's maternal attitude. It's probably not massively significant, given that there wasn’t a need for more than a couple lines for the writing of the show, but I find it interesting.

Now, compare this to Sophie's performance in The Long Goodbye Job:

"Sophie (wonderfully): Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood. Stop up the access and passage to remorse."

(transcript)

She's completely on-point. I'd say this is both because she's doing it for a con and doesn't feel internal conflict over it, but also because the marks deserve no mercy. The Black Book is full of people who have done awful things in the name of greed. Why should she feel guilt over dethroning them?

TL;DR: Sophie plays a character who simultaneously parallels and contradicts her. Lady Macbeth is manipulative and ambitious, much like Sophie, but also cruel and malicious, which is not very Sophie-like. Yet Lady Macbeth does eventually go crazy from guilt and remorse—and Sophie also has to learn how to deal with her guilt.

This is why Sophie struggles so much in her first performance: she’s questioning her identity in relationship to her similarities with Lady Macbeth. At the end, however, she’s become confident in who she is. She’s also learned to use her skills to destroy those who take advantage of their power to hurt others, rather than good men like King Duncan.

In fact, she’s dethroning people who are greedy for power… people who are not so dissimilar to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth themselves. Sophie has become their antithesis.

Damn, but this show is good.

#leverage #leverage meta #sophie devereaux #macbeth #shakespeare #suicide mention #so apparently SOMEONE in the writers’ room was a Shakespeare fan #also they pulled Gina Bellman partly because she IS a trained Shakespeare actress #and according to the commentaries only a trained Shakespeare actor #can mangle Shakespeare THAT BADLY #because you have to know what you're doing in order to MAKE IT bad #which I find mildly hilarious #anyway don't worry if you don't get Shakespeare #because like. holy shit sometimes it takes a lot of mental legwork to get your head around it #buuut the further I get in the more I understand why his work's so beloved #(and yes. a shockingly large chunk of it is dirty jokes)#(trust me the whole thing about his stuff being So High Brow is bullshit)#and it makes COMPLETE AND TOTAL SENSE #that it would be the Leverage writers of all people who'd be into that #because there's a lot of similarity between how Shakespeare's characters function #and how the way they act and talk reflects their motivations and who they are #to the way the Leverage crew is written and acted #*shrug* I just think it's Neat okay #anyway! now I need to go write actual essays #oh joy. *sigh*#wish me luck

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rotisseries · 9 months

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i think the most tragic thing in the byler fandom is that I have not seen any celebrity secret relationship aus 😔

#this is another “why don't you people like aus” post I guess lmao #“why is st*ddie so popular?” well you see those people write about a Variety Of Things. we have. fantasy. and spiderman #ok no I'm joking I know there's people writing a lot of aus I know this because they're sitting in my marked for later haunting me #(very sorry to the tumblr user writing the 1930s au and the other one writing the dirty dancing au I'm especially haunted by those 2)#I just have not felt as passionate about byler. in months. and am not reading my marked for later #so anyway I know there's aus. it does feel like we're still lacking some fundamental ones though. LIKE A GODDAMN CELEBRITY AU #do you know how bad I'm craving a good celebrity au rn #someone's probably written one I could probably go find one I just don't know what sort of tags to try #bc it could be like. band au! or actor au! or celebrity au! or twitch streamer au! like idk how someone would tag it #especially since I'm open to a variety of Known By The Public aus #I literally just need an au where they're famous sorry #stranger things #byler

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hanzajesthanza · 11 months

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me whenever the short story "something ends, something begins" is mentioned, or not even mentioned, but i have an opportunity to mention it myself

#it is my FAVORITE... if i may bestow such a title... but it's like the witcher fandom's best kept worst-forgotten secret #i love jokes i love in-jokes and i love non-canon presents and silly imaginings that will never be real #im sorry the bouquet looks a little cheap at least it is of white roses which is what yennefer had #i was too busy focusing photoshopping a folk vest on elmo's little body #because i wish to eat a third donut #witcher memes #the witcher #story: something ends something begins #the witcher books #i mean sesb just has some of my favorite favorite moments of all time #''course i know. that's why i don't get married' top 10 dandelion-est dandelion moments #nenneke being their officiant... AUGH #ciri having teenage angst (intense revenge fantasies) so much she almost couldn't enjoy her parents' wedding #GERALT CALLING CIRI HIS DAUGHTERRRR #(which doesnt even happen in the saga if you can believe it!)#yennefer healing ciri and dirtying her dress...#ciri #yennefer #geralt of rivia #dandelion #geralt and yen finally getting hitched and dandelion giving a toast (or roast ?)#wishing the couple a great wedding night for which yennefer kicked him in the shin... so in character i love it

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twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat · 2 months

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ari omg i saw ur ace!gojo rb... 😞ace!stsg is so important to me they r both sooooo

ALEXIS MY LOVE MY LIGHTHOUSE MY SAFE HARBOUR <333333 .. you Get it. you understand.

obv it’s just a self-indulgent comfort hc let’s be clear but like. it makes sense.. in my brain… let it be known that every single one of my gojo fics are written w ace!gojo in mind 🤞 he just gives me those vibes and by that i mean the Voices told me. they speak nothing but the truth.

also have you seen this loser’s colour scheme…. whole ace flag just walking around. he knows what he is!!

phdjshdjs NO BUT GENUINELY ace!gojo is one of my favorite jjk hcs Ever and ace!stsg in general is very good and real…. i remember making a post once that was like. the sashisu aroace pipeline… and it was just demisexual (sugu) -> demiromantic asexual (gojo) -> aromantic asexual (shoko)….. they mean the world 2 me T_T aaa at some point i’m gonna have to write the explicitly ace!gojo fic myself i think….. making my own food 🍳🍳🍳

alexis i’m genuinely so so happy that you see the Vision btw ilysm we are holding hands in my brain <33 imagine him sneakily buying one of those ace rings… none of his coworkers know what it is except shoko and he loves it. calls himself the undercover ace and makes the most insufferable puns known to mankind…. he Cannot be stopped 😔😔😔

#”dw guys… i’ve got an *ace* up my sleeve ;)” ”please die.”#<- <333 he’s so good.#i like to hc frequently sexualized anime men as ace just for the sake of being a contrarian #but with gojo it just comes so easy……….#i picture him as being the kind of ace who has no actual interest in having sex but makes enough dirty jokes that literally no one knows #(cue that one jjk light novel where he implies he likes being tied up 🤨🤨)#BUT i think the idea of a sex repulsed gojo is rlly funny….. everyone is like ohhhh here comes gojo. known fuckboy. and he’s like NO!!!!!#idk i just like him 😭 TY FOR LETTING ME TALK ABT HIM ALEXIS ILY ALWAYS #how r u doing btw?? i hope school isn’t being 2 mean :((( and that you’re resting properly!!!#sending you lots n lots of sunlight and warm tea and flowers 🌷🌷☀️☀️🍵🍵💐💐#ask tag ✩#alexis !! ✩

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starlooove · 9 months

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#torn between this nigga is such a loser #and this nigga was high asf when he said this #if Tim Stans weren’t so annoying i could make pothead tim jokes in peace #but instead of it being funny they’ll be like he’s so badass he’s high all the time or whatever #like there’ll always be that feeling of adoration under #but also it’s so funny that y’all wanna act like tim can’t take care of himself #but he is usually shown eating extremely healthy with the exception of zesti #and for the spleen angst to exist he HAS to be careful with himself bc he’s literally immunocompromised #so it’s also funny if he’s just. the pinnacle of good health #like his room is dirty but he also has a specific workout and diet plan he follows religiously #Billionaire Boy Tim Drake says NO to vape #‘you don’t wanna end up like my father 💔’#(disclaimer his fathers death had nothing to do with drugs we don’t know why he said that)#lame ass

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thatgirl4815 · 2 years

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Transitions & Tension

I know we’ve all been praising Mile and Apo for their acting this episode, but I want to jump in and say that what’s impressive isn’t only their execution of immense tonal shifts but the speed and at which they execute these shifts. Their mood changes are seamless rather than choppy and divided. Not only does it make the scenes more entertaining and realistic, but it also makes them feel whole.

Like in this beloved scene:

The shift happens right in this gif. Kinn’s face falls ever so slightly--without saying a word, we’ve already connected the dots about what he’s feeling. It reminds me of Ep6 in a way. This flirtation between them is a break from the real world. Kinn gets caught up in the moment before reality crashes back in. Porsche’s smiling face brings him joy, but everything about their situation is fragile. Porsche is still Kinn’s bodyguard, and he must assume all of the duties that come with that, but Kinn has never really wanted Porsche in this position (and I don’t think he ever really will). In the first few episodes, it was out of obstinance and annoyance with Porsche’s attitude. But oh how the tables have turned by Ep7. Kinn has acted as Porsche’s bodyguard in previous episodes, and it’s all been leading to this realization that the only way for Kinn to guard his heart is for Porsche not to guard his body. It’s an unwinnable situation though, because regardless of Kinn’s authority, Porsche still has to assume his role, no matter how dangerous it is. Kinn failed to free him from it in Ep6, so the only option now is to keep Porsche close and pray for his safety.

Back to my point: the fact that this one scene--this one gif--can bring all of this context to mind shows just how natural and impactful the transition is. The mood flips as Kinn’s expression changes, but that’s all we need to understand the gravity of this moment. They can flirt and play with each other, but there is always this underlying threat to their interactions--the thought that for all they have gone through together, they could be ripped apart in a million different ways.

(We won’t talk about the fact that this scene also uses three different music selections, each with varying tone, to coincide with these transitions. It’s a risky move to use so many selections, but in my opinion, it works. And Jeff’s soaring vocals of “Why don’t you stay?” as they look at each other??? Yeah.)

Let’s not even get started on the newest installment of The Scene™, because that’s got mood changes galore. Rage, frustration, heartbreak, guilt, forgiveness, desperation, lust, love: all in the span of only a few minutes. Mile and Apo have proven themselves to be phenomenal actors on their own, but they have a unique way of communicating with each other through their expressions alone. Their emotions are almost palpable, and they silently interact in a way that heightens these mood transitions effortlessly and realistically.

From a screenwriting and acting perspective, this final scene is risky. It quickly becomes sexual, but this isn’t a hate-sex moment, as it very well could’ve been. Kinn and Porsche are very clearly sexually attracted to one another, but their coming together isn’t initiated solely by lust; as in both of KP’s sex scenes so far, the physical intimacy is inextricably tethered to the emotional intimacy. As @fleet-off mentioned in one of her posts, television doesn’t show emotionally-invested sex scenes very often, but that’s what makes KP’s so poignant. The tonal transition feel seamless at the end of Ep7 (at least in my opinion) because of these emotional layers they have built up so carefully over the course of the last seven episodes. I personally went into the show expecting the feelings to come after the sex, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the added layer of emotion because it makes everything feel not only necessary, but richer. And I think it’s really difficult to portray a relatively graphic sex scene and make it feel as if it really needs to be there.

Anyways, I go into more detail about how cinematographic features like lighting and camera angle play into these mood changes in this post.

As usual, this post became a lot longer than I intended, but my concluding thought is that KinnPorsche manages to handle transitions in a masterful way that I adore very much. 🙂

#kinnporsche #kinnporsche the series #kinnporsche meta #Update:#I have rewatched the first gif of Kinn at least 1000 times now #His smile makes my heart so happy #He just wants to be with Porsche so badly ugh #I make so many serious meta posts but these tags are the place I can rant #because seriously they were making so many dirty jokes here but my heart couldn't handle the cuteness #PAPA KORN DARES TO INTERFERE IN THIS #Korn must know the toll that Kinn's role takes on him #He seems content letting his other two sons do what they want so long as he has somebody he can count on #I want Kinn to tell him off so badly but also #Can Porsche tell him off?#I'd pay to see that #LET YOUR SON BREATHE #Maybe if you weren't always strangling his emotions then he wouldn't be like that #The main thing I take away from this episode #Is that Kinn is desperate #It piggybacks nicely off of last episode #kinnporsche ep7 #kinnporsche episode 7 #kinnporsche ep 7

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iceyrukia · 4 months

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posts that attract the “see reverse racism is real!!” crowd

#ic.text #p sure those two people were joking around omg #and people make those jokes dunking on blue eyed people because of their own fixation with their own eyes colors + weird white people who #fear monger about the ‘decline on the white race’ ( yes even tho light colored eyes are not exclusive to white people)#or on this Website where people who don’t have brown/black eyes go in exaggerated detail on how their eyes change color in the sunlight #or with seasons etc etc #it’s not discrimination and anyone with a brain knows blue eyes ≠ nazi #but I will say that there are indeed white folks who do not mix with others and are obsessed with their children having blue/heeen eyes #passed down to their kids #which hmmmmmm it’s one thing to look at yourself and appreciate wha you see and then there’s this weird fixation with treating children #like dolls for you to look at or carriers of your legacy and having rarer colored eyes ya know #also it’s payback for calling people with brown eyes ‘poop colored eyes’ which can sound like a mircoqgression just like how poc #have ‘dirty’ skin like pls have some self-awareness

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theguardianace · 5 months

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I really really want to like being home. i really do. i love playing with my puppies and being able to cook my own food and having a break from school. i love having little crafts to do and being in a place so familiar. and my brother and parents are so funny and i do genuinely love being around them! it just sucks because my sister actively bullies me and i have no idea why. i can't even exist around her without the risk of getting blown up at. god forbid my toothbrush is in the bathroom.

#i dont have enough fingers to count the number of times she's thrown my toothbrush in the trash or in the hallway #“you're making the bathroom dirty” im literally existing in a space. its all put away. its clean youre just mad im home #i cant have any personal belongings not in my room and my door has to be shut 24/7 #i dont think ive had a genuine conversation with her since. probably 2016.#she also likes insulting me but those are lowkey kind of funny #best she can do is “it's diseased and stupid and disgusting and i hope it dies”.#jokes on you you sound like a kindergartner and its/its does not affect me bc i am genderqueer. i like not being perceived as a girl.#get a better hatemail game girl #but like . super genuinely i do not know why she has beef with me

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eriquin · 10 months

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The Prophetic D&D Game, Part 5

Since ao3 is down and I'm bored, I might as well post the next part of this, too. I figured out where it's going but it'll take a while to get there.

(master post)

Part 5:

It was a full month later before they had a player miss a Hellfire meeting. Jeff had an orthodontist appointment after school, getting his new braces adjusted, and wouldn’t be able to make it. So Eddie put away his Cult of Vecna notes and set out the character sheets for the mystery game instead.

“Looks like we’ll be delving deeper into the murder of Lady Grace,” he said. “I leave it up to you all. Do you wish to continue playing the characters you played before, or trade around for new ones. Maybe give Grant a chance to read through them all?”

“No way,” Mike said, grabbing at Joe’s character sheet. “It’s paladin time.”

“Dude, you were just saying how he’s the worst paladin,” said Dustin.

“The worst paladin is still better than the best bard,” Mike said. “Oh, look at me. I’m so special. I’ve got a little lute and druid spells.”

Dustin whipped off his hat and smacked Mike with it. Gareth had to put himself between the two of them and use his elbows to keep them apart.

Eddie leaned back in his throne and grinned at the chaos. “I take it you’re going to continue to play Maya, Gare-bear?” he asked.

“Yeah, probably,” Gareth said. He got an evil grin on his face. “Unless you have a character sheet for Quinn hiding back there.”

The smile disappeared from Eddie’s face. “No,” he said flatly.

“Aww, don’t want anyone playing your little Marty Stu?” Gareth teased.

“What’s a Marty Stu?” Lucas asked. He was looking between the character sheets for Sadie and Caleb, with Grant leaning over his shoulder to read them as well.

“It’s a Star Trek thing,” Dustin said with a pile of false confidence. “But it’s called a Mary Sue, see—”

“Jesus Christ.” Eddie put his head in his hands. “Henderson, stop talking. All of you, pick some characters. Quinn is not playable. Gareth, if I hear the joke that I know you’re about to make come out of your mouth, I will eat your favorite D20. I think we all know how that will end.”

Gareth gasped and snatched up the speckled green and black die from the table, clutching it to his hard. “Not Miss Jade the Faithful! You wouldn’t.”

“You told me to get better threats. I have. Maybe I won’t eat her. Maybe I’ll just chew on her for a while.”

While Gareth cradled his die protectively and Eddie made disgusting pretend eating noises at him, the rest of them picked out character sheets. Dustin and Lucas both decided to stick with their characters from the previous run, and Grant wanted to try playing Natalia.

“Great,” Eddie said. “Let’s get started. First things first, we left off with Quinn agreeing to help you figure out who killed Lady Grace. But there’s the downside of him being actively hunted by the town guard. What do you do?”

The players, minus Grant, had a quick discussion. “The alchemist’s house is still safe, right?” Dustin asked. “I mean, Caleb and Joe both made sure to clear out the guard’s records about it, didn’t they?”

“They think they did,” Eddie said. He grinned. “Do you trust that it worked?”

The freshmen looked alarmed at this information, but Gareth rolled his eyes. He leaned over to whisper something to Mike, and then to Dustin, and then gestured for Dustin to tell it to Lucas. After their game of telephone, they all looked at each other and nodded. Dustin spoke up again. “We’re going to tell Quinn to stay here, where it’s safe, while we head back to town.”

Eddie paused for a moment to let them get nervous, and then nodded. “All right, then. Moving on.” He steered them back towards town, and they decided among themselves to go back by a different gate. This was well within his plans, so he rolled some dice to pick which character noticed it first. “Dustin, as you get back to the city, Gaten is almost bowled over by a trio of guards on horseback. They don’t notice him at all—”

“Well, he is short,” Mike said.

Eddie glared at him. Mike shrunk back and grimaced. Eddie continued his description of the scene. “They keep riding through the crowd towards the southern quarter.”

“Oh!” Dustin said. “Maybe they have a lead. We should follow them.”

The rest of the party agreed, and Eddie led them through a series of backroads that dumped them out of the southern gate of the city. He passed a note to Grant, then described the scene. The guards were blocking all passage along the southern road and keeping the crowd back. The party could see Natalia, Grant's character, at the edge of the crowd. They quickly absorbed her into the group and found a quiet spot to catch up on everything. Grant had extra notes about what Natalia had been doing up to this point, and he filled the party in about what he’d witnessed.

“We were investigating the murder of Lady Grace,” he said, “when Logan, the other ranger with me, disappeared. The guards found his body a few hours later.”

“Why are the rangers investigating a murder?” Gareth asked.

Grant barely blinked at this. “Professional interest,” he said flatly.

“How come you didn’t track Logan down when he disappeared?” Gareth asked. “Isn’t that what rangers do?”

“How do you think I got here?” Grant said. He gestured with his hand as if they were standing there in person. “He’s on the main road outside the southern entrance to town. We were by the main wall of the thieves’ quarter, which is in the—” He snapped his fingers and glanced at Eddie, prompting him for a direction.

“In the east,” Eddie said.

“I tracked him through the eastern woods to get here. The guards just found him on the road.” Grant let a smug smile creep onto his face. “I know what I’m doing.”

Gareth held his hands up in supplication. “Okay, I yield. Do you want to fill us in on what you found by tracking?”

Grant looked at Eddie, who pulled out his stack of note cards. “Roll against your wis,” Eddie said as he started to write. Grant rolled well, and he wrote out a little more information than he’d planned. He passed it over to him and went back to watching the game unfold.

#I do not remember what joke Gareth was going to make about Quinn #i remember it was funny #and probably dirty #but i don't remember what the joke was #hellfire club #the prophetic d&d game #stranger things #i don't think this one will be steddie but you never know #that's how all my other fics are going #my writing

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