Honor Among Thieves Notes (And Other Things) (Sort of)

[compacri]

 Alright, one of the many fic related things I've mentioned I'd like to do this year is rewrite my first fic, but... better. At the time, it was way too much for me, and I can finally recognize that, especially considering there was a lot of plot involved, even if it's "just" a missing scenes fic. After all, there's a lot untold here, since we only get to see things from Nate's point-of-view. 

One of the things that changed is that there's no way Honor Among Thieves can be one single story, since although these stories are connected in a way, they don't belong together. They'd do better as standalone stories that are part of the same series (bless AO3 for the feature). It's also the first time I'm really trying to focus on a plot and writing something longer (because I have no problem writing short things and all my fics are on the short side, after all. If this is a challenge, then I want it to be a challenge, damn it). So far, one of the fics should be a multichapter, with around four chapters. Sounds good, right? I'll try to write the whole thing before publishing, but no pressure.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this. There's something about writing for ourselves-- because little to no one will be interested in it, which is okay, really--that's so freeing I can't even describe it. It feels good to do this for me, to explore my views on canon. And, speaking of canon, it also made me think a lot about characters/things I don't usually think about, such as:

Victor Sullivan: listen, no one can convince me this man likes most of Nate's friends. No one. He wasn't all that found of Sam to begin with, and it wasn't much better with Harry. I don't see it being different with Chloe, especially a younger Chloe. I can easily see him trying to warn this doofus he calls a son about the sort of woman Chloe is and the sort of trouble these sort of women get people like Nate into (and Sully, a much younger Sully), Nate doesn't listen. 

So, of course, when Chloe gets in touch telling him that Nate's in trouble and in a Turkish prison, he isn't surprised. Relieved, because at least he knows now what happened to the damned kid, but he definitely should've seen it coming.

But then again, I don't think Sully's feeling towards Chloe are personal, either-- unlike with Sam and Harry, for example. She's gorgeous, fun and way too smart, if you ask him. She's also the sort of woman Sully'd go to easy peasy for some fun, but whenever he hears the name Chloe, whenever she's around, well, Sully knows it's trouble. Thankfully, nothing really happened-- until it happened. 

She does grow on him as time passes, as Nate and her become actual friends, as she grows older and gets actually smart, but then again, it isn't as if Chloe's the same person since Shambhala either, is she?

Elena Fisher: there's a huge difference between Elena's work in Drake's Fortune, Among Thieves and Drake's Deception. Between Drake's Fortune and Among Thieves, it's obvious, but I don't think I've ever really thought about it until now, and it might because I'm about to major in Journalism but: my guess is that Elena's show was cancelled between Drake's Fortune and Among Thieves, and, honestly, it feels like one of those shows that only had a couple of season. Fun experience, and I headcanon Elena liked having her own show much more than she actually being a reporter-- not that she disliked being a reporter, though. She still got to travel, cover amazing stories, and stuff, but there's something about having your own show, y'know?

That being said, I can easily see Elena being super happy about her job. It matters, y'know? Sure, it isn't the same as hosting a show, but she's doing something that's changing the world. That's helpíng other people to have better lives. How can she not be happy about that? So, it isn't the same, but it's good work. She likes it. Plus, she still gets to travel and go on adventures, it's just a different sort of adventure. It's still exciting, even if it isn't as lighthearted most of the times. I also don't think she's working for the same company either. 

I don't know how much changed in Journalism from 2009 to 2021, but if I'm correct, Elena'd be working much more when it came to her story than she'd be when it came to having her own show. Chances are she were writing, directing, producing, etc, etc, because all these jobs are now produced by the journalist themselves, instead of having their own team. I personally have settled on Elena being sent to Serbia to cover the things Lazarevic had been doing, and, after the bombing, she was sent home. Since they had never retrieved the body, she started doing some investigation, which, eventually, led Elena to Nepal. 

Thing is, by the time we meet up Elena in Nepal, she'd be producing one news story in particular, and wouldn't be working as a foreign correspondent in itself.

Now, in Yemen, she's doing something similar to what I thought she was first doing in Among Thieves-- at least, that's what I caught when Sully called her a foreign correspondent. My impression was that she was covering Yemen news in general, and not just something in specific, which was Lazarevic's case, and I do wonder, could it have something to do with the break up with Nate? Or PTSD? Both? Because, y'know, moving to the other side of the world just so you don't have to think about how your stupid husband walked out on you is probably... very effective. Until his best friend/dad calls you saying they need an easy and quick way to get into Yemen. Plus, I doubt Elena wouldn't have a story to tell. 

(And now I'm thinking about an AU where Nate wasn't involved in it per se-- or, or, or: if he was, he was still in jail at this point), but that Chloe is Elena's contact in Lazarevic's camp, and she's the one that confirms it and can find proof to her, but then again, I don't think Chloe's the sort of person that'd ever work with journalists, even if she does end up liking said journalist. Eventually.)

I could write much, much more for this but I actually need to stop at some point. And actually work on my fic. Plus, this is too long as it is.