For All Mankind - Blog Posts

why is this picture getting to me so much

Modern Margo & Sergei

Margo x Sergei Mini Fic: "Whatever It Takes"

... Well, I seem to have stayed up late writing this possibly rather devastating little thing. Um, sorry I guess?

Set during a version of 3x10 in which Margo never got the call letting her know that Sergei and his family made it out safely, and she had to make her decision to defect without knowing.

As he entered the elevator in the lobby of JSC, Sergei felt as though his heart was pounding out of his chest with anticipation. He hoped he was making the right decision, coming to see her unexpectedly like this, but as soon as he was on the ground in Houston, the pull towards Margo was irresistible. Once he was granted permission to make this visit to JSC, no other choice had been possible. He simply had to be here as quickly as he could.

He had wanted to let her know as soon as he and his family were safely out of the Soviet Union. He had hoped to be able to call her when they reached the base in Germany, to tell her the good news, tell her he couldn’t begin to thank her enough, tell her they would see each other again very soon. For some reason that was not explained to him, he had not been permitted to make such a call.

Sergei had hated the thought that Margo might worry for him a day or an hour longer than she needed to. And at the same time, the idea that she would be worried for him – that she cared for him – warmed his heart.

The memory of her at their last parting had scarcely left his mind. It had all happened so suddenly; a shock to both of them. Allowed a brief time to say his goodbye, then, he had gone to her office with some hope, but little expectation. He knew her well enough to know how unlikely she would be to let him close to her, the shock making it all the less likely.

He had longed for nothing more than to hold her tightly, even if only for a moment, and tell her how much he loved her. This he had longed to do for so many years. And as he expected, this Margo had not allowed, either part of it. And yet, while she made the impossible promise that they would see each other again, he had been able to read in her eyes that she knew what he felt for her. Even, he now almost dared to believe, that she felt the same. And as he’d walked away from her office then, he could almost swear that he had heard her let out a muffled sob.

And now, against all the odds, here he was again. He could not wait to tell her that she had been right, after all. Somehow, she had made the impossible happen, for him and his family. She had told him she would do whatever it took; he should never have doubted this. He was here, safe, in the United States to stay – they all were – and he was going to see Margo again in just a few moments.

Sergei exited the elevator and started down the hallway toward Margo’s office. And there she was, heading down the hallway towards him, a look on her face of determination that was familiar to him, tinged with something – was it resignation? – that was unfamiliar.

She saw him then. She stopped dead in her tracks, her face growing pale.

Sergei hurried toward her.

“Margo. I’m sorry to surprise you like this. I wanted to call to tell you as soon as we were out, but I was not allowed. It is done, Margo. My family and I, we are all out, we are safe. We landed here just a little while ago.”

Margo continued to simply stare at him. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her so much at a loss for words.

Then, visibly collecting herself for a moment, Margo looked up and down the hallway, and moved to open a door near them. She gestured for Sergei to follow her into an empty conference room and shut the door behind them.

They stood very close to each other now. At last, she spoke.

“You’re here.”

“I am, Margo. I am here. And I can stay. Thank you so much for—”

Sergei cut off, utterly shocked, as Margo let out an anguished sob and half collapsed, half threw herself, into his arms. She clung to him. He had never seen her overwhelmed, overcome like this. Never even close.

He wrapped his arms around her tightly. He stroked her back, her hair, wanting nothing but to comfort her, however he could. His mind could scarcely process the fact that Margo Madison, the strongest, bravest woman he had ever known, was weeping in his arms. He made his voice soft, barely more than a murmur.

“Margo, I’m here. It’s all right. It’s over. I’m safe now.”

Perhaps it was the wrong moment to say it, perhaps it was a mistake. But he could not help himself.

“I love you, Margo. I love you so much.”

At that, she only sobbed harder.

Growing more and more concerned, Sergei continued trying to reassure her.

“I don’t know what’s wrong, Margo, but I’m here. I am here and I don’t have to leave. I don’t have to leave ever again.”

At last, she pulled back from him a little, looking up at him through her tears.

“You don’t, Sergei, but I do. I have to leave. I was on my way to meet my contact now, and – I don’t – I can’t –”

This didn’t make any sense. What contact? What did she mean? He asked her.

“They know. The FBI, they know about the engine design. It’s either this or prison and I can’t see any other choice I have.”

She rested her head on his shoulder again, tears still flowing, but quiet for a moment. Sergei still didn’t understand. What or prison? What was she planning to do? Not understanding, he nonetheless made her a promise, meaning every word. She had done whatever it took for him. He would do the same for her.

“We will find another way, Margo. We will solve it, whatever it takes. I’m here and I will help you. You don’t have to go anywhere. Not without me.”

He kissed the top of her head.

At that moment, the explosion tore through the building. The world went dark around them.

Sergei awoke mid dream. It was beautiful. Sunlight bathed him, but the source of light warming his body was his hand intertwined with Margo's. He caressed her fingers, soft skin over delicate bones. The smooth skin and strong fingers of a mathematician.

Sergei rubbed his fingers together, trying to conjure the feeling of her hands and fingers caressing his. Chagrined at his indulgence, he smiled nevertheless. She was the thought behind his smiles these days.

He checked his watch for the time, he had forty minutes. Standing from his desk he stretched his back and then shrugged into his coat. Nodding to remnant staff and security, Sergei made a smooth exit.

He easily managed a solemn facade as he made his way to his appointment, but inside he was beaming. When he began walking to the phone booth, his battle to keep a straight face was lost.

He noted little of his cold surroundings, instead focused on his destination. A smile quirked at the corners of his mouth and his pace quickened. Sergei checked his watch again and adjusted his pace, slowing down.

His mind was buzzing with idle questions: how was she doing, what would she think of his latest record selection, what new detail of her life would he learn about. Other thoughts, pernicious though they were, he shoved aside. He was a practiced and careful party man; he could hold two opposing ideas in his head easily. Yes, the KGB needed him to work Margo for information, but he also wanted to do right by her as a friend.

When he got to the phone booth, he checked his watch again. Stepping inside, he closed the door and waited. The phone startled him from his musing.

He eagerly picked up the phone, “Hello?”

“Sergei! How are ya?” Came a smooth southern drawl.

“Margo! I'm cold, but well. You?” Sergei couldn't keep the smile out of his voice. Pleased to hear from her as ever.

“What record should I expect today,” came an eager reply.

For All Mankind | 4x07 - Crossing the Line

Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison Ania Bukstein as Tatyana Volkova

*insert bat signal*

In For All Mankind's season three episode "All In" there is a sequence that I'm sure you all are not familiar with at all.

Two characters share increasingly intimate moments (especially for them), in an elevator. After a rewatch (I'm sure noone has done this), I think I saw something, but I need more perspectives.

Query: In 1988, does Margo slip out of her shoes for part of an elevator ride?

Please check my math, because it looks like she does. It matters naught, it's just every time I watch I kinda do a doubletake.

Sergei lounged comfortably in his living room. He was seated in a comfy armchair, the fabric of which he idly stroked with his hand.

The warm light from the floor to ceiling windows gave the room a welcoming glow. To bathe in sunlight after so long in the cold–it was a balm to his soul.

Beyond the windows, the backyard stretched out of sight, the lush grass and sprawling oaks swayed with a gentle breeze. Head tilted back, he listened to a lively piece played from a new album bought at a recent trip to Neptune's.

Wrapped in sunlight, music, and safety, Sergei felt at peace.

“Sergei!” He heard Margo call from the kitchen, “Did your mother call about dinner this evening?” She moved into the living room to stand before him.

He smiled, his eyes drifting open to soak in the sweetest light in his life. Margo wore a red dress that hugged her figure and set off the red of her hair. She was a vision.

“Yes, Margo, we are expected at seven,” he replied. He grasped her hand, squeezing her delicate fingers, before raising them to his mouth for a gentle kiss. Margo smiled softly at him and bent forward to replace her hand with her lips.

Keep Reading at AO3

They turned out the lights.

She settled herself under a blanket on the sofa.

Sergei chose to bed down on the floor.

Just before drifting into sleep, Margo remembered something. It hardly mattered, in light of everything else. In light of all the other reasons she had to be angry with him now. But still …

“Sergei. There’s one more thing I need to say.”

“Yes?”

“When I told you to grab that bottle, the ‘and don’t let them see you’ part was implied!”

“Margo. You said it loudly enough that they could hear you.”

Well. Perhaps he did have a point there.

“OK. Fine. Good night.”

“Good night, Margo.”

Chapters: 3/5 Fandom: For All Mankind (TV 2019) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Margo Madison/Sergei Nikulov Characters: Margo Madison, Sergei Nikulov, Original Characters, Irina Morozova Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It, Really quite a mix of silliness with angst and eventual bits of fluff, Elevators Summary:

Canon divergence during 3x03 – everything has happened as in canon, with the kiss and with Sergei asking for the engine designs, until there is a knock on the door of Margo’s hotel room. But it’s not the KGB, it’s hotel staff there to follow up regarding a certain bottle of whisky…

Soft warm light filtered into their bedroom and illuminated Sergei stretched out in bed, reclined against the pillows with the weekend edition of the local paper.

Sergei contemplated their lazy Sunday morning with joy in his heart. As open and cloudless as the sky outside their window, he rejoiced in their time together. The woman he loved would be at his side in only a moment.

Margo interrupted his reverie when she entered the bedroom with two mugs of coffee. Sergei sat up smartly from the bed and lifted the blanket to allow Margo to slide back into the warmth under the covers with him.

Handing him his mug, Margo harrumphed when she saw the discarded section that featured news of the asteroid orbiting Mars. He set his mug aside and snatched the paper away from her, holding it out of her reach.

“Nyet, Margo,” he chided as Margo clicked her tongue, “Work can wait.” Sergei braced himself; Margo did not like to be handled.

Keep Reading on AO3!

October 1971 | July 2003 Working the Problem

For All Mankind | Sergei + looking at Margo

Piotr Adamczyk as Sergei Orestovich Nikulov Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison

Mwahaha... My hack fraud-ery continues!

An excerpt from my little fic Sergei Serenades in Seclusion:

The mixed CD had “MUSICAL EDUCATION” written with no accompanying track list. Margo pressed play on her stereo and began skipping through the tracks. The music and lyrics emitted by the speakers jumped genres and moods representing an interesting variety of music.

Margo’s brow jumped and creased as she recognized each track. Not all were familiar, however.

She landed on a truly unfortunate country song where the cowboy crooner uttered the phrase:

If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me.

Margo’s brow creased incredulously and wondered at the ceiling, “Dear God.”

Read more here!

I recently rewatched THE scene from "Brazil" and was struck by how sad and resigned they both were. This "palate cleanser" of a fic under the cut is an interpretation of that scene. I've tried to lift their soul crushing sorrow a little (or made it worse?). My media literacy has grown so much reading fiction and analysis, but I'm just dabbling here. I got the urge to play a bit as I am not a creative writer (especially of the quality within FAM fandom-y'all rule).

(And a warning; Google translated Russian contained below!)

Sergei observed that there was a brief moment when Margo's gaze turned inwards to consider his gambit to escape Irina and the KGB that his spirit lifted. She was letting the idea take center focus. He didn't know if his heart would fare better with the limbo of her pause, or the finality of her answer. When her eyes fell to her hands and then back up to meet his gaze, his spirit fell back to Earth. He met eyes filled with regret.

Sergei knew then that they would never have more than what they’d had in the past. They were in the past. Unable to keep the disappointment off his face, his features soon matched hers. Resignation banished any further thought of Brazil.

They would never get the dream of blueprints over a shared kitchen table. Of kisses freely shared over clasped hands. Of working together on their shared passion. It was all beyond their capacity to realize.

He watched as her eyes wetted with unshared tears. Wanting to spare her the pain of explaining what he knew she felt she needed to do, he reached forward to cover her hand with his. She had learned too well in Moscow how tenuous matters were. He let the dream fade and focused on the present moment. They only shared the comfort of moments over their long association, and if this was to be the last, he was going to make it count.

When her hand rested on his and she returned his smile with her own half smothered version he stood up and tugged on her hand to do the same.

With only a brief hesitation she climbed to her feet. Margo wouldn’t meet his eyes at first, so he gently nudged her chin up with his hand. His heart ached in his chest but it would not fail, encouraged by the softness of her skin and her gaze as she met his eye. They always did seem to be on the same page.

He brushed along the curl of her hair, enjoying the feeling of her closeness. Taking a beat he nodded and pulled her into an embrace. She folded into his arms with a soft exhale. Having her in his arms again was almost too much after so long, but he couldn't help but feel lighter and a bit more whole. They both reacquainted each other with the warmth of their embrace. With a tightening of his hold on her, Sergei dared to push a little more.

“я бы хотел, чтобы ты меня поцеловал,” he said quietly into her ear.

Margo flushed brilliantly and closed her eyes. She eased back from him and shook her head at his incorrigible nature. A small smile flitted across her face. Sergei’s own smile quivered as he watched her face transform.

Opening her eyes, she brought one hand to his chest and the other to stroke his cheek. He leant into her cool hand. He felt his spirit soar higher and with Margo’s soft sigh, he knew she was lifted too.

Margo leant forward and pressed her lips to his. If this was their last moment, it would be a good one.

What began as a soft press of their lips deepened as they wrapped their arms around each other. Echoing so many earlier moments, it was over before they were able to get started.

Margo pulled away with a final caress of his cheek, and she turned back to the work on the table. Not ready to move from this moment just yet, Sergei's hand drifted up to rest on the nape of her neck, his thumb caressing her skin. Margo exhaled softly and reached up to rest her own hand upon his, gently squeezing his fingers. Sergei quirked a smile before stepping closer, gently pressing a kiss to the side of her head.

They both heard Aleida bustling through the house, coming back to the kitchen. With a final caress of her neck, Sergei sat heavily back at the table and gazed up at Margo as she busied herself collecting her papers. Margo was always the strong one.

His eyes took their fill of her, as his hands lay uselessly on the table, longing to hold her.

Aleida entered the kitchen ending their time together, “Are we done here?”

“Enough… for tonight,” Margo replied. Sergei dropped his gaze to his hands just as Margo reached over and nudged him. “We’ll speak again soon, yes?” Her eyes searched his.

“Yes… of course, Margo. Yes.” Was his hoarse reply.

One thing I think a lot about is how, as precious as the handhold was, we weren't shown Sergei and Margo's actual goodbye moment when she left Aleida's house in S4E9. I continue to hold out some hope that we may see this as a flashback in the next season (although if we do I'm sure it will kill me dead). But if we never see this scene, then we can continue believing it included whatever we want, yes? I desperately want at least one, if not both, of them to have said "I love you." I go back and forth about whether or not that would be in character. However, I've decided that the most emotionally devastating possibility is Sergei saying to Margo, "I would like you to kiss me." In Russian. And then it would break my heart if she didn't and break my heart even more if she did.

double sigh

Sigh.

She was the professional, everyone else was just playing at it. Tremble before her competence, intelligence and confidence!

- And we pulled that stupid prank on you. - Wiener schnitzel and sauerkraut. - Yeah, we thought we were so clever. Eva von Braun, right? But you– you just set it aside, and you put your head down and got to work.

FOR ALL MANKIND 1.02 He Built the Saturn V || 3.03 All In

😍

LET MARGO SAY FUCK Margo Madison For All Mankind 1.06, 1.10, & 4.10 (2019-)

+ bonus

For All Mankind (4.01 "Glasnost")

Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison

Gediminas Adomaitis as Kirill Semenov

Margo being cute - S1

Very clever. This will work for us.

For All Mankind | Margo + smiling

"Even Margo's smiling."

For All Mankind - 3x05 and 4x04

Remote in my darkened exile, the days dragged by so slowly, without grace, without inspiration, without life, without tears, without love. Then my spirit woke and you, you appeared again, like a transient vision, like pure beauty’s spirit.

The book Sergei is reading in S2E7

Have we noticed that the book Sergei is reading while packing up in his office to return to the Soviet Union is Henry Miller's The Tropic of Cancer? A book so sexually explicit that it was actually banned in multiple countries. No wonder he quickly hides it under a pile of documents when Margo steps in to tell him about the O ring issue.

Reminds me of New Girl's Jessica Day in the episode "Table 34", after she has kissed Nick:

"He just, like, grabbed me and he took me. He was a man and I was a woman, and it was firm but tender. Yea, I saw through space and time for a minute, but that's not the point."

I'd include other words like: devour, release, and vibrant desire in there somewhere, though.

I would like you to kiss me.

imma just going to spend WAY TOO MUCH time sighing and staring at that middle gif. 😭

O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

Warning! Do not listen while operating heavy machinery! Just about knocked me out with that voice. Woof.

I'd like to propose an alternative soundtrack for FOR ALL MANKIND season three finale. 😁 (Although not QUITE the same vibe, this is so damn cool).

I don't remember this scene AT ALL, but by golly they clearly needed the time to eye-fuck each other a little. Why, show, why?!?!

"THANK YOU FOR COMING"

As if, Margo, he would stay away.

Thank you for coming. Oh. Of course.

Sergei doesn't get a lot of screentime (but all that time with those shithead Stevens brothers?!), but we do get a few diamonds in that short time. Smug Sergei is a definite gem that I love.

Lovingly adoring Margo in an Elevator (3x03)

Drunk Sergei (2x06)

Smug Sergei (2x06, 3x06)

Feisty Sergei (2x07, 2x10)

EVERYTHING ELSE

Sergei + being a smug bastard (complimentary)

Work the Problem.

Why is she dancing alone?! Get moving! Work out your problems on the dance floor!