Scorched application

[antivillain]

Out of Character Information

player name: Merry
player journal: halflingmerry
playing here: Remus Lupin (lumenrelegandus)
where did you find us? eisdamme
are you 16 years of age or older?: Yes

In Character Information

character name: Clint Barton
Fandom: Marvel's The Avengers (movieverse)
Timeline: Arrived in Anatole mid-"cognitive recalibration": having just fought with Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) during the raid on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, while under Loki's mind-control. Tasha beat him soundly. He thinks he's half-dreaming about being strapped into a chair in a detention cell, feeling like the worst detox ever, with Tasha telling him it's gonna be okay. Instead, he wakes up not strapped into a crappy apartment with one of Stark's gizmos bleeping at him.

Update for reapp: He remembers his last time in Anatole - because he arguably never left? (See "Anything Else")

character's age: Childhood doesn't count, so where do you count from? [If trying to guess by looks: probably early 30s, but hard to gauge 'cause his face is more aged (skewing older) but he's in exceptional physical shape (skewing younger).]

powers, skills, pets and equipment: Hawkeye is a master-level archer. He has exceptional aim, seen "send[ing] an arrow into moving targets with pin point accuracy". Supranormal spacial awareness, split-second calculation and anticipation are demonstrated by shooting "an enemy warrior off a fast moving vehicle while looking the other way." ^[199999] His precision is not affecting by arrows having different attachments (grappling wire, explosives, etc. from his trick quiver) so he's adaptable. (Also see: he's shown sometimes using his bow as a shortstaff.) He can fire arrows with supranormal rapidity.

Other skills include hand-to-hand combat, both armed and un-. He's extremely advanced as he's shown as a formidable opponent to Black Widow. Of course she beats him, but it takes her whole minutes longer to knock him out while she's on her feet than it takes her to pwn a roomful of mafiosos while tied to a chair. He's a valued S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and a veteran espionage operative, whose training, while (paraphrasing Tasha) not covering gods and magic, probably does include other forms of weaponry and tactics. He can also pilot small aircraft.

Equipment: sadly, his trick arrow quiver and collapsible recurve bow are not going to make it to Anatole with him. No guns or knives either. He was stripped of weapons by Tasha before they strapped him in to sweat out Loki's brainwash. All he's got from home is his S.H.I.E.L.D. jumpsuit. (Which has the appropriate pockets/flaps/etc. for carrying such things around should he manage to pick up new ones later. It also has at least one spare bowstring sewn into it: see below.) He can rough it with really basic, possibly self-whittled, bow and arrows for a while.

Update: He's back with awesome Tunnelmen-crafted gear, including a replacement recurve bow and trick quiver. (His giving them the design was part of the payment.)

Mist-influence: His "near-perfect" aim has become more perfect; he has enhanced, exceptional detail recognition, distance vision, and dead reckoning. Like most predators, he may not be able to spot you if you're camouflaged and motionless, but if you try to sneak at all, he can pick out movement instantly.

canon history: [Movieverse, a.k.a. Earth-199999]

Barton became a soldier/Black Ops agent in the military arm of S.H.I.E.L.D.. He was close to his recruiter and mentor, Nick Fury—a closeness which doubtless saved Barton's ass over the Black Widow debacle. He was assigned to assassinate Natasha Romanoff. Instead, he voluntarily blew his cover, joined her side in a shoot-out, and became her self-assigned partner. Successfully recruiting her to S.H.I.E.L.D., with her inimitable skill set, helped too. He wasn't promoted, but he wasn't fired.

For a while, Black Widow and Hawkeye were the A-team. Assignments separated them more and more, as could only be expected. Last time (arguably) they saw each other was before Barton was deployed to New Mexico as part of the security force protecting a mysteriously immovable hammer that had stormed itself into a crater. When its owner fought his way in to collect, Barton had him in sights and waited for the kill order from Agent Coulson; but was told to stand down. (Without contest. He'd been rooting for Thor.)

Barton was relocated to a S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility on security detail for the Tesseract. The thing started radiating fit to blow the place to bits. In staying behind as rearguard, Barton was among the first to find out why: Loki of Asgard swooped down, killed almost everybody, and then started… recruiting. Starting with Clint.

After bodyblocking Fury when the ceiling came down, Barton stayed with him long enough to make sure he was covered before going for Loki. Without difficulty, Loki disarmed Barton. Then Loki paused, looked him in the eye; said, with approving wonderment, "You have heart!" and stabbed Barton through it.

…Or did he. Not stabbed through the heart. Not with the spear. The spear stopped at Barton's chest. But what was inside the spear went in, and through, and…

It felt as near as can be imagined to flash-freezing inside-out. The ice seized the heart, spread through the veins, to every nerve ending, encasing the brain, crystallizing the eyes.

Barton could see and hear and think and speak and act everything from that moment on—he was aware of it while it was happening—but he also wasn't. He wasn't him. He was the parts of him that suited Loki's purpose—the inside knowledge of S.H.I.E.L.D., the situational awareness, the tactical mind, and of course, of course, the aim—and the autonomic brain left alone so he could stay alive without Loki's constant attention, and enough of the personality (such as it was to begin with | shut up) that he could interact with others as needed…

But okay. Here's the killer. It wasn't a "watch helplessly while your body follows someone else's orders" deal. His mind and self didn't remain intact just imprisoned or removed. They were overwritten. Enough of Barton's real mind, enough of his will, had to be left inside that he wouldn't just be a slave, but be a contributing agent. He wouldn't only carry out Loki's plans: he'd do his best to improve them.

Barton remembers the details only vaguely. Hazily. Through an ice-sheet. Kinda like a dream.

Except… the one thing he can remember with perfect clarity… was how he'd felt at the time. Doesn't matter how often anyone tells him he'd been brainwashed—how well he knows he'd been hijacked and enslaved, knows he hadn't really been at the wheel, knows it had been Loki working through him. But at the time, it had felt like Barton himself was completely in control. If he'd felt paralyzed, or like a passenger just looking out the windows of the eyes seeing his body do things without him, that would be horrifying at the time but far preferable afterward. 'Cause now, he remembers feeling completely willing. He had felt a[n iced-over] tunnel-vision kind of calm, clarity, and righteousness. While killing colleagues. Fellow soldiers. Fighting Tasha.

He felt like he'd done it all willingly.

Luckily Tasha's always been better at hand-to-hand than he is. …Luckily she's always been better at lots of things than he is.

So here he is: back alone in his own head at the wheel. He has no idea about the Avengers Initiative. He's heard of but not met its [other] members. Unless you count being ready to shoot down Thor. The only one he's experienced his history with is Tasha—who, if you're willing, may be about to have a familiar conversation with him, 'cause the last thing he remembers is their helicarrier fight. But anyone she points out to him as an ally, he'll treat as such without hesitation. Doesn't matter if he remembers for himself; he'll take her word implicitly.

(Pretty much, if she debriefs him about the end of the movie, he won't need any canon updating to treat his castmates the same as if he'd experienced it for himself.)

Update: This has in fact happened!

personality: He has about four expressions. Any given person on any given day probably sees up to two of them. Someone who gets to know him incredibly well may promote the nuances to call it six. It's not like he started as the most extroverted kid in the first place. But nowadays you couldn't call him emotionally repressed. More like the emotions really just aren't there anymore. Well, not for most things. Most of the things that would invoke feelings for most people over the course of your average week, he just can't invest in—they aren't such a flippin' big deal. You can tell when he's feeling something 'cause he gets even less expressive. Maybe Fury's ever seen him cry. But he's just kind of in… in a permanent focus zone. It works very well for the job. And since joining up, with absolutely no remorse about it, he's been the job and just about nothing else.

…But that's become a less comfortable place to be since being forced into Loki's zone. And feeling (revoltingly) comfortable there.

Might be time, here in Anatole, which he can think of as a prison all he likes but works rather differently from the familiar ones—not least because he welcomes this one and feels he deserves it—anyway, maybe in Anatole it's time to try changing that. Try… y'know… having feelings—his own ones—again. Might make it less easy for someone to put in theirs.

Or maybe being uncorked from Loki will uncork other things else too and it'll happen in spite of himself.

why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting? He'll feel like he's serving time for what he did under Loki's control*. Anatole might actually count as something of a relaxing vacation in his headspace. He'll be a very diligent contributor to society: apply to the alliance, be out in the front lines during action events, mingle with the Ruins/Hunting Grounds crowd when there isn't one; and definitely shoot things with Katniss (whom he'll admire for her mad skillz without any kind of mechanical augmentation). He may also join the bad magic magic bad crowd—if in the privacy of his own prejudice.

*Note to self: after arriving, when he finds out Loki's here, first reaction may be "Ah, so that's why I'm here" and go try to kill him.

Writing Samples

Network Post Sample:
Main: Arrival
(First draft: poss. Broadcast Mind on Scorchedbox)
Bonus: Dead weight test drive: (a) Hamato Leonardo, (b) Loki, (c) Natasha Romanov, (d) Thor, (e) Captain America

Third Person Sample:

New one for reapp/reentry!

Anything else? REAPPING! Barton was assumed lost in the Mist, but in fact he got intentionally(?) lost in the undercity, cloistering himself with the Tunnelmen. He got to know their technology incredibly well, paying for it by offering himself to them as a guinea pig for all sorts of devices—both as utilizer (see how they handle) and as subject (see what damage they inflict). Once he realized he couldn't and/or wasn't meant to and/or was too late to kill Loki, he decided to reenter "training", self-styled, to get a handle on and find a place in this new world. He's back aboveground now not sure he's found it, but at least feeling more secure. And, in technology and clothing, has gone quite native. …Which means I'd like to steal some Hansel & Gretel looks for him; but if that's any kind of an issue I can get rid of the specific icons. Please let me know!