#Underworld Carnival

[satoshy12]

Danny doesn't own all of John's souls after collecting them as Pokemon.

Danny the tiny child who used John to see the Watchtower: "Sorry, John Constantine, I really don't have all of it."

John to the JL:" See, I told you."

Danny explains: "No, I didn't want like 16% of it. The few demons used it as gum, toilet paper, and similar.

I don't want it.

The rest I won in the Carnival in the Underworld. The super fun place Trigon and others showed me The one time we are all neutral from evil, good, and similar."

[seishinnookami]

A little about me!

If you are reading this, ✨congratulations!✨ You have reached a small writer’s posts! English isn’t my first language, so please excuse my grammar errors and spelling mistakes.

This isn’t the first time i write, but only now I thought about actually publishing them to others. I write poems, love verses, fan-fictions and self written books.

i dabble in quite a few fandoms, like;

-Twisted wonderland

-Hypnosis Microphone

-Nu: Carnival - Bliss

-Obey me!

-Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

-Star wars

-Mandalorian

-Call of Duty

-Bad batch

-EPIC; the musical

And many others. I hope i can make many things for you reader to enjoy! I promise not to disappoint. My iconic character is the ducky you see. Also, none of the arts are mine unless written so! I’ll try to credit as many times as i can.

[timmurleyart]

Remixed in the 90s. 🍋🎶

[theriverbeyond]

THE ANTICAPITALIST MESSAGING IN HADESTOWN TOOK ME SO COMPLETELY BY SURPRISE IN SUCH A GOOD WAY AND I HAVEN'T SEEN ENOUGH PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT IT BECAUSE ITS SO GOOD AND IT WORKS WITH THEIR STORY SO WELL

YEAH EXACTLY Im like... is it all just so obvious everyone decided it's redundant to mention or??? HELLO???

And I was sitting in the audience as one does and Chant was actually the song that reframed the entire show for me -- up until then I was like "aw :') theyre falling in love and are doomed, I should google all these lyrics later" but that song just... I felt like I was being hit in the face w a fish, honestly!!

"In the coldest time of year/ Why is it so hot down here?/ Hotter than a crucible/ It ain't right and it ain't natural"

"In the darkest time of year/ Why is it so bright down here?/ Brighter than a carnival/ It ain't right and it ain't natural"

Persephone's lyrics here are so specific -> a "crucible" is an ancient tool that can be used to create art but also industrialized into mass production, a "carnival" something that is inherently about celebration and festivity and joy but it is also a thing that can be commercialized almost beyond recognition. Capitalism is ravenous and will never be satiafied or sated, it will steal & exploit every scrap of art and joy that it can, then corrupt it all into hollow immitations that it then sells back to you on websites like SHEIN and Disney+.

"It ain't right and it ain't natural" hits so hard in this song because nothing is as natural, or as "right", as death -- so obviously Persephone is NOT talking about the literal underworld to the literal god of the dead. She's talking about how we need to stay warm and safe and dry in the winter, but we don't need fresh summer fruits imported from thousands of miles away. We need to stay cool and safe and hydrated in the summer, but we don't need to steal water from another state to keep the golf courses green. The winter is natural, the cold is natural, seeking warmth and light is natural. What is unnatural is this overconsumption, this never ending, never satisfied hunger.

And then of course you have Hades' parts,

Here, I fashioned things of steel/ Oil drums and automobiles/ Then I kept that furnace fed/ With the fossils of the dead

And wasn't it electrifying/ When I made the neon shine!/ Silver screen, cathode ray/ Brighter than the light of day

And obviously "fossils of the dead" is a reference to Hades being the literal god of the dead, in the ground, in the underworld, and it is also a reference to the modern dependence on oil and fossil fuels, but TO ME it is also about how capitalism relies on the exploitation of workers. In this show, the "fossils of the dead" are literally Hades' subjects. They're the workers of his factory town, and he both exploits them and is fully dependent on them, just like how the furnance of industry/capitalism relies on YOUR body, YOUR labor, it eats you when you're alive and it often continues to eat you when you're dead.

And then like "wasn't it electrifying" -> it's EXCITING what technology and industry does, but the problem is the overconsumption and the overproduction ("Brighter than the light of day") beyond what anyone actually needs or even wants. It ain't right and it ain't natural!!!

Every year, it's getting worse/ Hadestown, hell on Earth!

And the wind is so strong/ That's why times are so hard/ It's because of the gods/ The gods have forgotten the song of their love

Lover, what have you become/ Coal cars and oil drums/ Warehouse walls and factory floors/ I don't know you anymore

And it all keeps building in this song, re-emphasizing that Hades is not who he once was, that he has changed. Which again is not only commentary about consumption vs overconsumption, and how so many things started as wonderful ideas that could save people and help people and help make the world better were corrupted and turned into profit machines, killing machines, etc. "The gods have forgotten the song of their love" UGH

I also think the Themes are magnified because this is presented extremely directly alongside Euridyce's growing desperation, especially with the context that Euridyce DOES, in fact, "sell out" to Hades' promises.

There is no food left to find/ It's hard enough to feed yourself/ Let alone somebody else

Desperation forces her hand, she turns to Hades because he offers salvation, and she ends up just another nameless worker turning the gears of his machine. And I feel this is so similar to how when rich people are like "Just do XYZ", or telling people to bootstrap, or selling quick fixes to desperate people, when the reality is they got where they did due to a combination of luck, pre-existing social/monetary capital, etc, and buying into their promises of wealth will only make them richer and you more dependent and vulnerable.

[javimondragon]

Javier was no stranger to elaborate and extravagant festivities, but a costume ball was something he had not personally attended in quite some time. It was always so difficult to decide on a costume to wear to such an event; never having really been one to soak up the pop culture of the world around him over the centuries. Yet, he'd finally managed to settle on the 'Lord of the Underworld' Hades himself as his persona for the evening and freely let the smoke drift from his body as he moved about the ever-increasing crowd of individuals as they flocked in.

"Ay dios los mio... so many people." He mused with a low hum in his throat. He wandered a little farther into the compound before coming to a halt in front of some of the carnival food stalls that had set up shop. The different smells and scents of their deliciously sweet treats and fresh snacks were all but calling his name. As he contemplated which snack to order for himself, he offered passing thanks to individuals that complimented his costume as they passed. "Gracías. I appreciate your words - I tried to be as faithful to his look as possible."

( @darkskiesrpgstarters )

[yukidragon]

Sunny Day Jack - Mafia AU - Family Business

After my last post about the Blouin family in the Mafia AU for Something's Wrong with Sunny Day Jack I wound up going on a little extra ramble over on my twitter (calling it X is too weird for me) about how the family business got started. I figured I'd post it here too to make it easier to read and reference later.

It all started with a small business run by the beautiful Alma Blouin and her husband ???

I'd call him [Redacted] but that alias is taken already, so let's stick with what was written in the family tree, shall we?

I was inspired by Makes me Smile, an engaging story written by Sauce that takes place in the SunnyTime Town AU, that it actually started as a family-run traveling carnival that was a cover for more shady business. The family name and business wound up taking up some permanent roots in St. Valens because of Marceau.

There were more opportunities in that crime-riddled city to do backrooms deals, score illicit substances, and other stuff like that. St. Valens was a city rife with crooked cops and people with dubious morals. Sadly, this hasn't changed in present day. If anything, it's only gotten worse. It just can hide behind a shiny new coat of paint and colorful smiles thanks to the Blouin family taking over so many local businesses under their brand name of SunnyTime LLC.

Lucy Connolly is actually responsible for the SunnyTime brand, which is one reason why she kept her last name even after marrying Marceau Blouin. Since she was young, she wanted to make it big in the city, really clean up the town. She succeeded in making it big, but somewhere along the way she got sucked into a world full of sin and vice where her formally black and white view of morality was blurred with many shades of gray. She's still trying to do the right thing, particularly for her family and people she wants to protect, but sometimes she found it was necessary to do morally questionable things to do it. It was a slow corruption of innocence in a sense.

In a way, Jack gets his more twisted view on right and wrong from Lucy, as Marceau is a bit more up front about how messed up the criminal underworld is and their involvement in it. Jack tries to keep things as "friendly" as possible if he can help it, so to speak.

Marceau started off the business in St. Valens with an entertainment club. You had to know the right signs to get access to the good stuff they didn't show on the menu, stuff that could get you thrown in jail if you didn't have the money to pay off the cops.

One night, Lucy stopped by the club that had suddenly got so popular, thinking it was entirely legitimate, and it led to that fateful first encounter between her and Marceau.

Marceau didn't think he'd be staying in St. Valens long, even if he was trying to take advantage of the place for as long as possible, but Lucy was invested in the city, as it was her hometown. She was friendly and outgoing, and she knew a lot of people there. She grew up with them.

Lucy had a good sense for business, which places would be good to snap up for a song. She knew about the issues with many local gangs and how they intimidated local businesses into giving them a cut of their earnings to not get roughed up. She wanted to stop that sort of thing from happening so that innocent people could live their lives without fear.

Which is why the Blouin family in the present does take care of the citizens of St. Valens and stomp out more unsavory practices like human trafficking. Essentially Lucy wanted justice and went vigilante. (Insert Joker reference/joke here.) When it became clear that not everyone she tried to save was good, well…

That led into her corrupted world view and a more "ends justify the means" approach.

Marceau had been taught to watch his back and stand on his own, not having the best home life. In a sense, Lucy taught him to care more about others, that he could have someone he could trust to watch her back, and he taught her how to not let others take advantage of her and those she cares for.

Really, in the present day, the Blouins own a lot of businesses in a variety of sectors, from entertainment to scientific research to home electronics to weapons manufacturing. They're spread out across not just the SunnyTime LLC brand, but plenty of sub-companies with different names that the average person might not realize is owned by them. The SunnyTime brand has become a known trustworthy across the country and are spreading out slowly internationally.

Well… technically the family business is known internationally, just not in any public circles, and not under any brand name. Marceau alone has committed quite a few international crimes, though no one has been able to pin anything on him publicly. Lucy does a good job of keeping their public facing image squeaky clean, and she won't anyone hurt or take away any of her family.

Now that Jack is in charge, it's his turn to take care of the family and the business. Despite his issues with human touch, both them, and his sunshine, are in good hands.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur @kurokrisps

[claredanko]

robbie robertson pussy has me like ohhh so Carny is a 1980 American drama film about a waitress who joins a traveling carnival. It stars Gary Busey, Jodie Foster, and Robbie Robertson. It also includes an early role for Fred Ward. Frankie and Patch are friends who work for the Great American Carnival, a small-time carnival that tours the South. Frankie does an act as The Mighty Bozo, a character who sits in a dunk tank insulting the crowd, while Patch takes the money and runs the game. Patch is also the show's "adjuster," hence his carny name, working with the owner of the carnival, Heavy St. John, negotiating deals with local officials and representatives of the local underworld to keep the show open. What it takes to keep the show open varies from town to town. In one town, it is making good on a city official's gambling losses on the midway and giving a city councilor a pile of free passes to the carnival. In another, it is compromising to allow the strippers to work, but keeping the freak show closed. In a third, it involves providing an underworld boss's thug with a girl he fancies. He also works to maintain harmony among the carnies. Patch is good at his job of patching together the deals that keep the carnival rolling and keeping the peace on the lot, but never likes being played for a fool.

[petrolandchlorine]

missy beckett headcanons

disclaimer: i love missy but really don't care for spider or like the ship. anyway, here are my headcanons.

she was friends with harper and amerie in primary school and became friends with sasha in year 7.

she has adhd.

she was sports captain in primary school.

she is age champion at every athletics carnival.

when she was growing up she got compared to zoe a lot because the two of them are in the same year but zoe likes reading whereas missy likes sport more (missy still likes reading too but not as much as footy).

she's young for her year (ignoring the fact that she's on her P-plates in year 11; for some reason when i was writing jbyam i thought sasha was the one driving so headcanoned sasha as older so for all intents and purposes sasha is older).

her favourite sport is rugby league but she also likes soccer and afl. she follows the matildas, the aflw league and the indigenous all-stars.

she has two brothers (including jai) and three sisters. her brothers are both older and her sisters are all younger.

when she's in her mythology hyperfixation quinni gets her into angeline of the underworld and she loves it. there's another book book signing that they go to together.

her most played song on spotify is little things by jessica mauboy. she also listens to country music (and beyoncé because ofc).

her dad comes to school sometimes and does cultural activities with the indigenous boys. malakai in particular is close with her dad.

she does weaving sometimes and can make things like baskets and jewellery (here is some info about traditional weaving).

jai doesn't like or approve of spider (he's not a dick about it, just doesn't trust him especially because of how he treated malakai in s1).

she's a sport/house captain in year 12 (also she's in whichever house is the red one because usually all the sporty kids get put in the red house).

that's all i've got so far, might add to this later or make headcanons for other characters.

[elliehopaunt]

Ben Whishaw (“Paddington”) and “Happy Valley’s” Sarah Lancashire are set to join Keira Knightley in Netflix’s upcoming spy series “Black Doves,” Variety can exclusively confirm.

More details about the series, which was written and created by “The Lazarus Project” showrunner Joe Barton, have also emerged.

A story of friendship and sacrifice, “Black Doves” is set during Christmastime in London. It revolves around Helen Webb (Knightley), a politician’s wife, doting mother — and professional spy. For years, Helen has been passing on her husband’s secrets to the Black Doves, the shadowy organization for whom she works. But when her lover Jason is assassinated, Helen’s life is turned upside down and only her old friend Sam Young (Whishaw) can keep her safe.

Helen and Sam set out to discover who killed Jason and why. But Sam, a suave, champagne-drinking assassin, also has problems of his own. Out of the game since his last job went wrong, he soon realizes his past is coming back to haunt him.

“Together, they set off on a mission that will lead them to uncover a vast, interconnected conspiracy,” reads the logline. “One that links the murky underworld of London to a looming geopolitical crisis — and leads them to question the cost of the moral choices they’ve made.”

Lancashire will play Helen’s enigmatic spymaster Reed.

Joining Knightley and Whishaw in the six-part series, which began shooting in London last week, are Andrew Buchan (“Carnival Row”), Omari Douglas (“It’s A Sin”), Andrew Koji (“Warrior”), Kathryn Hunter (“Andor”), Sam Troughton (“Chernobyl”), Ella Lily Hyland (“Fifteen Love”), Adam Silver (“The Diplomat”), Ken Nwosu (“Look the Other Way and Run”) and Gabrielle Creevy (“In My Skin”).

“I started writing the scripts for this show over last year’s Christmas holidays, fuelled by turkey sandwiches and discarded bottles of cream liquor,” said Barton. “To be now going into production with a cast and crew full of people whose work I admire so much is unbelievably exciting and I couldn’t be more thrilled to get to see this show come to life.”

“Black Doves” is produced by Joe Barton’s Noisy Bear and Elizabeth Murdoch-founded Sister (“Chernobyl”) for Netflix. Barton exec produces for Noisy Bear alongside Jane Featherstone (“This Is Going To Hurt”) and Chris Fry (“Giri/Haji”) for Sister and Keira Knightley. The series is directed by Alex Gabassi (“The Crown”) and Lisa Gunning (“The Power”). Harry Munday (“Kaos”) is producing.

[satoshy12]

Constantine Carnival of the Underworld!

Because John has sold his souls so many times. It's barely worth anything. So The ones who had it, started to use them like coins and money in a carnival. They started to do once a year about Constantine. Get his Soul to win Prices or Sell his Soul for Food and similiar! JL The Hero Phantom , Danny about to leave to Constantine Carnival with Dani and Val. It's family day and the place is a no Battle Zone.

As he was asked about it by the Heroes. Danny:" You can win parts of John's soul by playing games like throwing rings or balls, or selling his soul for an ice cream." John:" But my plan to make them fight for my soul! When I do so no one can take me!" Danny:" Even a wet Sock is worth more then your Soul at this point. I have no idea what they plan to do with you when you die. But the parts of your souls I now have will give me 4 ice cream scoops."

[chicken-delight]

my carnyconda dont

my carnyconda dont

my carnyconda dont want none

unless you got Frankie and Patch are friends who work for the Great American Carnival, a small-time carnival that tours the South. Frankie does an act as The Mighty Bozo, a character who sits in a dunk tank insulting the crowd, while Patch takes the money and runs the game. Patch is also the show's "adjuster," hence his carny name, working with the owner of the carnival, Heavy St. John, negotiating deals with local officials and representatives of the local underworld to keep the show open.

What it takes to keep the show open varies from town to town. In one town, it is making good on a city official's gambling losses on the midway and giving a city councilor a pile of free passes to the carnival. In another, it is compromising to allow the strippers to work, but keeping the freak show closed. In a third, it involves providing an underworld boss's thug with a girl he fancies. He also works to maintain harmony among the carnies. Patch is good at his job of patching together the deals that keep the carnival rolling and keeping the peace on the lot, but never likes being played for a fool.

At one stand, Donna, an independent 18-year-old bored with small-town life, strikes up a friendship with Frankie and at his invitation follows the carny onto the carnival circuit. Patch is less than happy with her presence, and would like her out of the picture. To get Patch off her back, she takes a job with the strip show as a "side girl," a backup dancer who does not actually take her clothes off. Patch plants the suggestion with Delno, the carny who runs the girlie show, that Donna wants to "work strong", i.e., be a stripper. When she is thrust onstage, she freezes and a brawl ensues. Afterwards, she covers with Heavy to keep Patch out of it, taking the blame for Patch's setting her up to fail.

Frankie gets her a job in the string joint, one of the midway games of chance, under the tutelage of Gerta. Coached in how the game works, Donna is a big success, learning how to con the marks and get their money without giving herself to them (which is what the rubes really want). After one successful scam, she winds up in bed with Patch and the two of them are caught by Frankie, which puts a strain on his relationships with both Donna and Patch.

While this is going on, a con run by Nails on Skeet, the local crime boss's main enforcer, goes badly wrong. Upset at losing their money, the local underworld's muscle boys wreck the Bozo Joint and kill On-Your-Mark, a carny who has been "with it" for more than fifty years and was planning to retire at the end of the season. Crime boss Marvin Dill comes after the carnival, intending to extort more money than they have already paid him. However, the carnies have had enough of his shaking them down. To avenge On-Your-Mark's death and get Dill off their backs, Patch, Frankie, Donna and Heavy run a scam on Mr. Dill involving the apparent beheading of Skeet.

The movie ends with the Great American Carnival continuing on its way, with Donna her own woman rather than Frankie's girlfriend, Frankie and Patch reconciled, and the implication that in a season or two Heavy will retire and Patch will be the one running the show, hun!

[cronch-rat]

Classic who box sets guide

Ever wondered which stories are exclusive to certain box sets or what limited edition ones exist? Unsurprisingly this is a guide for just that.

This covers region 2 DVDs only. Exclusive to boxset features stories only available in that box set. Special edition exclusives feature special editions exclusive to the box set whilst the regular edition is available separately. Non-exclusives can be bought on their own but may have been released early in the box set or in a limited edition box set. All limited edition boxes contain stories available separately and were released in limited amounts or exclusive to certain places/websites.

Note: Logopolis is only available in the Regeneration box and New Beginnings. Terror of the Zygons features in the 4th doctor time capsule but is the only DVD in that set.

Exclusive to Boxset

The Beginning

An Unearthly child

The Daleks

The Edge of Destruction

The Rescue/The Romans

The Space Museum/The Chase

Earthstory

The Gunfighters

The Awakening

Mannequin Mania

Spearhead from Space (special edition)

Terror of the Autons

Beneath the Surface

Doctor Who and the Silurians

The Sea Devils

Warriors of the Deep

Peladon Tales

The Curse of Peladon

The Monster of Peladon

Myths and Legends

The Time Monster

Underworld

The Horns of Nimon

Dalek War

Frontier in Space

Planet of the Daleks

UNIT Files

Invasion of the Dinosaurs

The Android Invasion

Revenge of the Cybermen/Silver Nemesis

K9 Tales

The Invisible Enemy

K9 and Company

Key to Time

Legacy Box Set

Shada

More Than 30 Years in the Tardis

E-Space Trilogy

Full Circle

State of Decay

Warrior's Gate

New Beginnings

The Keeper of Traken

Logopolis

Castravalva

Mara Tales

Kinda

Snakedance

Time Flight/Arc of Infinity

Black Guardian Triology

Mawdryn Undead

Terminus

Enlightenment

Kamelion Tales

The King's Demons

Planet of Fire

Trial of a Timelord

Ace Adventures

Dragonfire

The Happiness Patrol

Special edition exclusives

Revisitations 1

The Talons of Weng-Chiang (special edition)

The Caves of Androzani (special edition)

The Movie (special edition)

Revisitations 2

The Seeds of Death (special edition)

Carnival of Monsters (special edition)

Resurrection of the Daleks (special edition)

Revisitations 3

Tomb of the Cybermen (special edition)

The Three Doctors (special edition)

The Robots of death (special edition)

Non exclusive

Bred for War

The Time Warrior

The Sontaran Experiment

The Invasion of Time

The Two Doctors

Regeneration

All regeneration stories from The Tenth Planet up to The End of Time part 2

Limited editions

Dalek 40th anniversary set (WHSmith exclusive)

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Resurrection of the Daleks

Remembrance of the Daleks

Third doctor collection (amazon exclusive)

Spearhead from Space

Inferno

The Claws of Axos

The Three Doctors

Carnival of Monsters

The Green Death

Cybermen collection (amazon exclusive)

Tomb of the Cybermen

The Invasion

Earthshock

Dalek collection (amazon exclusive)

same as 40th plus Genesis of the Daleks

and Revelation of the Daleks

Davros collection

all Dalek stories from Genesis to Remembrance

Key to time special edition

[quietlyimplode]

the language of flowers and silent things

Whumptober 2023: Day 6 - made to watch

Warnings: violence/physical abuse

Word Count: 1.8k (image not mine)

Summary: Clint and Barney get separated

A/N: <3

Masterlist

Whumptober Masterlist

.

1999

IOWA

“You can make this easier on yourself,” the detective tells him.

“They’ve sold you down the river, son, left you for dead.”

He leaves the pile of papers in front of Clint, the pictures making him look up and away.

“I don’t think it was you that did that,” he says kindly, “but I can’t help you if you don’t tell us anything.”

Clint looks away.

“You think about it, and I’ll leave these pictures here, okay?”

The detective leaves.

The dead man in the picture is familiar to Clint, having bashed his face in three nights before.

He pushes it away and closes his eyes, trying to remember.

After he punched him, he was sure he was still alive.

He wasn’t the only one after him, the criminal underworld also searching for Degraves. He knows he didn’t… stab him.

But he knows who would have.

The decision becomes whether he tells them or not.

The cold metal of the handcuffs does not feel pleasant against his skin, and he just wants to get back to the circus, find Barney and tell him about Degraves’ death.

He needs to make sure he’s safe.

He supposes he could give them some information, and there’s no harm in telling a portion.

Especially if it gets him out.

There’s no harm in that, right?

“I didn’t kill him,” he says again to the camera, “but I might know who did.”

It’s not immediate, but eventually the door opens.

The detective stalks back in and stares at him.

“Tell me what you know,” he says.

Clint sits back.

“The carnival, we sell magic tricks,” he starts.

“Magic.”

The man is disbelieving.

Clint’s hands are suddenly free of the handcuffs and he raises them up.

“Magic,” he laughs.

The detective startles, and slams Clint’s hands back into the cuffs.

“How did you do that?”

Clint laughs again.

“Magic.”

Now safely back, the detective growls for Clint to continue.

“It’s mostly low level things, but sometimes we get asked to carry somethings.”

Nervously, wondering just how much to expose, Clint sighs.

“Sometimes, they’re not so forthcoming in what they they have us carry.”

Sitting heavily, the detective motions for Clint to continue.

“Degraves hurt my brother,” he discloses, looking down. “Barney just wanted to know what was in the packages, he wasn’t expecting videos of girls.”

The detective asks Clint to stop.

He leaves the room and comes back with an older man. His demeanor seems stranger, older even though likely they’re the same age.

Clint frowns.

“Jus’ let me go, man. I don’t really know anything.”

Sitting down on the spare chair, the man in a trench-coat crosses his legs.

“He hurt my brother, so I punched him a couple of times, but I didn’t kill him. I think that it was people that he had the videos for. Cause Barney destroyed it, you see?”

Clint omits the rest.

The money Barney had hidden, the thousands of dollars that he’d found. He hopes Barney is at their rendezvous, predetermined locations for safety.

If he’s not, maybe he’s at the circus still.

Clint can feel the slow creep of change coming and it feels harrowing to think of.

All those foster homes.

Then came back Gus, with his safety and the circus.

The Swordsman and all his training.

And now this.

“They say you can’t miss,” the man in the corner comments.

Clint doesn’t like his words, the implication that comes with it.

That he knows him, that he knows of him.

It doesn’t feel right.

“I didn’t shoot him,” he repeats.

“I didn’t say you did,” the man retorts, “but I think you have a certain set of skills.”

Clint shrugs.

“I’m good with a bow and arrow,” he replies.

“And a gun?” the man asks.

“I don’t know? I didn’t kill him, okay? Whatever you’re implying, I didn’t kill him.”

“I’m not implying anything. I’m just wondering what you can do.”

“I just want to go,” Clint mutters.

The man stands.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Clint and the Detective say in unison.

“I don’t think you killed him,” he starts, then turns to the detective.

“And you know he didn’t, so let him go. Follow the big money, and I’m sure you’ll get the real killer.”

His words are cryptic and Clint doesn’t understand.

“I have a job for you, Clint Barton, should you want one.”

He smirks.

“Do the handcuff trick again,” he requests, and out of spite for the detective he does.

The man’s laugh is a gaffaw. Loud and exuberant.

He hands Clint a business card, with the word SHIELD emblazoned on it.

“You’d need some training, but I think you’re someone we might need.”

Clint makes the card disappear; rolling his eyes.

The man laughs again.

“Magic, never have to look far to find it huh?”

He leaves with an exit, and Clint looks expectantly at the door.

“Can I go?” He asks the detective, and the man shrugs.

“Unless you have anything else to say?”

Clint shrugs back.

“Then you can go, but know we will be watching you.”

.

Barney greets him at the base of the steps.

“We need to leave,” he tells Clint, his words rapid and low.

He’s sweating and Clint doesn’t understand.

“Where?” Clint asks, hurrying alongside him.

He knows they need to, he feels the hair on the back of his neck stand, the anticipation that something will happen imminent.

“Do you have your stuff in a go-bag?”

Clint shakes his head.

“No?”

Barney sighs heavily.

“What do you need?”

Clint tries to keep up, Barney’s quick walk back to the campsite too fast.

“Why? What did you do?”

Barney glances back, eyes darting and fear passes over his face.

“Barney, what did you do?”

They reach their caravan and Barney tells him to pack, Clint does so haphazardly, his heart sinking as he realises what packing means.

“Barney, what did you do?”

He glances back.

“Did you kill Degraves?”

Barney shakes his head.

“No.”

He glances around, fear in his movements.

“They know, yeah? They know we took the money, and I…” he pauses.

“Swordsman said to give it back, I said I didn’t have it, we got into a fight, and he said I had to leave.”

Clint turns around.

Swordsman isn’t good but he’s kept them both alive.

“Why didn’t you just give him the money? What’s the big deal?”

Barney motions for him to keep going.

“You don’t understand, little brother, we need the money, better in our pockets than theirs. It’s blood money, they are doing some bad things here. I didn’t understand before, but I do now,” he mutters.

Clint doesn’t.

Swordsman fed them, trained them, given them jobs, then when he’d taught Clint how to shoot they became a part of the circus.

A part of something.

Blood money didn’t matter.

All circus money was built on lies and trickery.

Barney knew that.

This was all they had.

Clint’s heart drops.

He doesn’t want to go.

This is the only home that wanted him.

“You’re jealous,” he accuses.

Barney hadn’t really fit in, not really, maybe that was it.

Clint had seen how his stocky frame had not lent itself acrobatics or anything athletic. Barney had been able to do all the behind the scenes, sets and hard labour.

“What?”

“You’re jealous.”

Angry tears prick at Clint’s face as Barney looks at him dangerously.

“Pack up,” Barney challenges, angrily, “or stay here. I need to go.”

The door flies open and Swordsman stands at the hilt.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he bellows at Clint.

Staring at Barney, Swordsman stands up straighter, there’s two more of the crew behind him and pushes Barney out of the small caravan door.

“Give us the money and you can stay,” he growls softy.

“Otherwise, you’re out.”

He turns to Clint, “do you know anything about it?”

Barney stops fighting.

He looks at Clint and sees his hesitation.

It seems in that moment that he understands Clint’s hesitance, his tears and all his fears at once.

That this is the only place Clint fits, that they’ve stayed the longest, and been happy.

Despite everything, Barney understands.

But he can’t stay.

He has enough money to start again.

Clint is old enough to take care of himself.

He nods.

He puts three fingers up for the sign of love high enough for Clint to see, clenches it into a fist, then throws the first punch.

Swordsman rolls with it and throws the next one.

Clint scrambles only to be held back by two crewmen.

“No!” he shouts.

The fight is one sided, Swordsman’s strength and agility far outweighing Barney’s solidity. He dances around him, picking him off.

“No!” Clint yells again.

“Let me go! Stop!” he shouts.

He struggles hard against the two as Swordsman floors Barney with a right hook and an uppercut.

“Barney!”

Clint’s sweating, almost in tears as Barney is beaten, kicked to the ground.

“Leave,” Swordsman growls at Barney. “Leave now, before we start on your brother.”

Barney stands, shaky legs holding him as his swollen face looks to where Clint is restrained.

“What did you do?” Clint sobs, “why would you do it? Just give them the money.”

Clint knows that he can’t stay here, not now, not after this.

The grief at having to move on makes tears fall harder.

“What did you do?” he sobs at Barney’s retreating form, as he stumbles away, Swordsman pulling his gun and shooting into the air.

They let him go and he falls to the ground, spent from fighting and pushing back.

“Why?” he asks Swordsman.

The man turns to him.

“Nobody steals from us.”

He holds his sword out, the gun sitting on top of it.

“You have a choice now, Barton. Stay or go. If you stay, you’re part of it, protected by us. If you go, you have a day to get your affairs in order. But this will be as far as we go.”

The threat of the sword and the visceral memory of his brother being beaten in front of him, decides for him.

He needs to find Barney.

Clint knows the only thing he needs are his bow and arrow, and his watch. The possessions he owns minimal.

Scrambling away, he runs after his brother in the direction he went, losing him in the darkness.

Hours it takes him to return back to the circus to pack his bag.

He wants to call Gus. Tell him what’s happened but he has no way of contacting him.

Clint sucks down the grief.

His brother gone, his makeshift family gone, and any hope he had, all reduced to rubble.

Backpack full, he takes one last look at the circus and walks away.

.

[hottiemcdottie]

I was re-watching some early episodes and there is more than one time that Monk says, to Sharona or to someone else, that he "can't do this without her."

Big fandom wank below the cut, relevant to no one except Monk fans who ship Monk and Sharona.

When I first got into this show when it aired, I was about 16. I was already a big fan of both Tony Shalhoub and Bitty Schram, and was interested to see them play together. It was very beautiful, of course, clearly a labor of love, and I could overlook some of the silliness of Monk because they were she such a good team. Their relationship was the heart of the show. But Sharona is the real heart of Monk's life, and I'm still not over the fact that they didn't end up together.

No shade to Randy, he's 20/10 a cutie and a hottie and deserves to be happy. Maybe with a girl he'd had a chance to develop a real on-screen relationship with?

I think it was the circus episode where Sharona is terrified of elephants that made me really think about it-- I first noticed in the carnival episode how Sharona looks down and away when he mentions Trudy, and that her face is sad. it's a very good and subtle acting choice on Bitty's part but it says what Sharona is feeling.

Here is this man, this brilliant, damaged man, whom she has brought back to life because for some mystical reason, he heard her when she woke him out of his sleep trying to follow Trudy to the grave. That's not what a nurse's function is-- so yes, she performed the clinical aspects of the job for him (which it honestly seems were minimal given that he never took medication or was physically incapable of caring for himself) but it would be silly to say there was some kind of clinical reason for how she called him back from the underworld and he heard her.

Bear in mind that Sharona was an emergency room nurse before she worked with Monk. Stottlemeyer is the one that saw her and something made him decide that she would be good for Monk. I added something about that in my last fic where Monk asks Stottlemeyer why Sharona and all the captain can do is say, "I saw an angel in that ER that night and I knew if you wanted to live she'd be your best chance."

Now that's just my fluff and was never really explained in the show, but there's no objective reason why Monk ignored everyone else but heard Sharona.

So here is this man; this brilliant, damaged man who so obviously loves Sharona so much, but with the mess of his illness in place he can never express it fully or offer her the support she offers him. At the time of the show, it can't be a partnership of equals (even if Sharona told her mother that Monk is her partner, not her boss). He is much too preoccupied with solving the problem of Trudy's murder to be able to fully express anything concerning Sharona, even as his body language and his eyes and even his words indicate it.

That's why it comes out of him the way it does-- "I can't do this without her" because he doesn't have words to express how vital she is to him. And he doesn't have the capacity at the time, even if he recognizes it somewhere in his consciousness, to understand what effect he's having on Sharona.

Monk does tell the coma guy he recognizes that Sharona is lonely, and more importantly, that he recognizes he is jealous-- that he doesn't want Trevor to take Sharona away from him.

Even more important, though, is that we so rarely hear or see Sharona react to all of this. It's all down to the physical acting when it comes to hearing about Trudy (and though she grieves his loss with him you can see it hurts her to hear about it all the time when she's right there next to him). Sharona never complains about it. She yells at him sometimes about not doing what he needs to, but she never complains about always, always being second place to a memory.

And Monk never notices that she never complains about it.

And Sharona never complains that Monk doesn't notice.

She just let him make his home in her. She made him part of her family because he needed it, and he was so unwell at the time that he couldn't recognize it.

So to my original point about the circus episode really being eye opening about Sharona's feelings: she had the right to be angry, but the sheer hurt that Bitty Schram infused that performance with was so heartbreaking. Sharona is more than angry; she's devastated that he could be so callous to her when she is on call for him 24/7 with no reward beyond not enough money. She cries more than once in this episode. The personal aspect of their relationship is challenged in this episode and it's an indicator of an emotional intimacy beyond employer/employee. That intimacy is written into the show anyway, but it's at this point that we really see what it is in practice.

Sharona legitimately walks away from him. She finishes the day with him when it happens and she walks away from him. A bonus funny moment: when Sharona says she'd marry the Elephant Man before she'd marry Monk, he looks back at her like "we'll just see who you marry, won't we?" as he leaves. Also, marriage is an interesting topic to bring up between employer and employee.

And Monk, being both a man and an anxious person, has taken for granted that Sharona understood his feelings for her and never expressed them. This is why he's so upset that she won't talk to him. He does love her and care about her, but there's so much mess in the way from his mental health that he doesn't remember to show her the empathy that would prove that love. And if there's anyone on earth who has the right to expect some empathy from Adrian Monk, it's Sharona Fleming. It would also be major progress for him.

When she's on the phone with him, those expensive and perfectly-matched tulips in front of her with that blank card, that's more function of their personal relationship, because she takes the time to explain to him that he can't just say the word "sorry" and everything be okay. I don't know employers who send their employees expensive, perfectly-matched flowers. Even with the blank card, because he lacks the words to express himself, it means a lot.

And he has to learn that it isn't what Sharona was afraid of, it's that she was afraid at all, and he scorned her for it, which she never does to him. Dr. Kroger was right to tell him he had to figure it out for himself, so that in the kitchen when he does start to get it, he makes another step forward in progress, and that is always good.

Because eventually he has to be shown that he can do this without her, however much he doesn't want to. Tony Shalhoub made sure to show in season 8 when Sharona came back that he was never really over her leaving him.

I look forward to seeing Sharona in the Monk movie.

[vocaloightmares]

as this is a clear reference to a scene in the Super Wings: Maximum Speed, this also reminds me of how I envision the Super Wings entering the battlefield against Ringmaster Layla, who is unleashing a powerful spell I will currently refer as the "Grand Tragedy" (name's probably not gonna be used in the story of TW itself cause this is just a personal name for me to remember the spell she casts all over Earth that puts everyone to sleep and experience their greatest nightmare)

Lance, donning his Kid Wing attire, throws the tip of his sword up in the air to signal the 30+ Super Wings to start blasting off from World Spaceport to go across the world to eliminate traces of Layla's spell. TW is commanding the Teen Troupe on her own cause, for symbolic purposes, Lance was requested by one of the TTs to contact the SW after a long time. It's been a decade he interacted with them, and a lot has changed so it was time Lance got out of his own illusion like TW, who ran to Akumu and Inei's residence after a terrible argument with Lance and a brief resignation from TT; will explain that in Part 5 of the TW lore but before I forget as I typed this: Lance is reminded of his impact on the world, inspiring many like his assistant director who saved the SW from the Pavere Carnival's wrath. He then breaks down in front of the SW, who comfort and thank him for not only his troupe's debut, but his contributions as a Legendary.

Anyways, got sidetracked from that future emotional moment: the Teen Troupe and Super Wings are working together until one of the members of the latter group fell unconscious. Layla's spell is gaining the upper hand, and the fight becomes a frantic escape as more members of the SW and TT fall to the ground and sleep, entering the psychological underworld of Layla's sick spell.

______________________________________________________________

now rambling done, here's a sidenote from the S8 trailers: the car on the billboard is strikingly similar to the Honda Urban EV concept car below

[veliseraptor]

October Reading Recap

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: vol. 3 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. Still in the territory of a part of this book I remember fairly well, and while the whole underworld arc is good it's not my favorite part of the book and mostly I come away from it going "Rong Jiu has rights." which is true! and I do think Meatbun knows it actually but it still hurts how his arc goes here. Me: continually getting too wound up in the fates of side characters and distracted from what's going on with the mains.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to moving into the next parts of the book, which I don't remember as well. Though I know it's a while before it gets really painful, aka what I'm most excited to reread.

Dark Carnivals: Modern Horrors and the Origins of American Empire by W. Scott Poole. I was so frustrated by this book. I wanted it to be an analysis of horror films and their relationship to American imperialism; what I got was a lot of overwrought prose and repetition of the titular metaphor that was very light on the analysis of the actual texts and heavy on the scathing opinions about what is "good" (politically) horror and what is "bad" (politically) horror. Which, fine, my politics are technically the same as his politics, but it was annoying to read in a book that I thought was going to be more analytical. I had high hopes for this book and it failed them; makes me more hesitant to read his other book about horror and World War I, which I have had on my list for a while. But I liked his book on Lovecraft, funnily enough, so not totally sure what went wrong here.

Paradise-1 by David Wellington. I did not realize that this book was first in a series and I'm a little bit annoyed about it. It was decent horror but it doesn't need to be a series and the lack of resolution bugs me, because now if I want resolution I have to read the next book and I don't think I really want to read the next book. Space horror seems like it would be such a rich land full of possibility and yet I keep being disappointed by space horror. (If, in this case, less disappointed than I was by Dead Silence.)

Remnants of Filth: vol. 1 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. She's done it again! It's a differently fucked up relationship, to be sure, but boy am I already here for it, despite feeling like I know very little about what's going on. Gu Mang is my jam as far as character type, and I really like the dynamic as its laid out as having been previously between him and Mo Xi, and also how it is now. Dedicated friends/lovers turned to bitter enemies turned to one of them fractured to a shadow of himself leaving the other bereft of resolution...mm, good stuff. Can't wait to find out more about what's going on under Gu Mang's surface. Looking forward to reading more of this one and glad that I already have the second volume to go to. (And the rest, technically, but I do like reading cnovels in print when I can more than reading on a computer.)

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Look at me! Reading classic sci-fi knowing only the bare minimum about it. I liked it more than I expected to, and was less bothered by the way the women were written than I expected to. I didn't realize that it was more a string of short stories tied together by a frame narrative than a novel, but it was really fine that I didn't know that going in - didn't affect my enjoyment, I don't think. And I did enjoy it! I might not have read it on my own, but I read it for a sci-fi book club and ended up liking both it and the book club. Not sure I'd give it, like, a strong recommendation, but I'm glad I finally read it. It'll be interesting seeing what echoes/traces of it I can now pick up in other robot/AI-related writing.

Monstress: vol. 5-7 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. This comic is so good you guys. So. Good. I don't really know what else to say here, except that she continues to step up her game even more with every volume, and I don't know how she's keeping all the balls in the air that she is with this story as deftly as she is. I have no idea where this story is going, either, and I can't wait to find out. I don't know. Themes of monstrosity and agency and lack of agency and how to be a good person (or try) in a terrible world. With a whole lot more than that. Also there's gay betrayal, if you're into that.

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. Why do I continue to read Greek Mythology retellings when at best they end up making me go "eh, it was okay I guess"? Not sure. But this was okay, I guess. I liked the same author's Electra better.

Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy. More of a "history of the western world categorized by periods of time in which there were various diseases" which...was not quite what I was hoping for, but it was still a good, solid book about epidemiology and the impact of disease on history. A lot of it was familiar to me (how disease enabled the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and Incas, for instance, but also British colonization in North America), but I did learn some new things, particularly in the sections about Paleolithic/Neolithic diseases. All in all a book I read because I'm particularly interested in the subject but not probably one I'd recommend as the one book that they'd have to read about it.

The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson. I made it a goal in October to read some spooky books and ended up only reading three, but this was easily my favorite of those - and my favorite non-Darcy Coates horror I've read in a while, too. I wasn't totally sure what to expect from this one, and the slow reveal in the first two thirds particularly was very well done. I found myself slightly more compelled by the portions set in the past than by the present storyline, but not so much as to ding the whole book for it. And I liked that the monster was left pretty vague and undefined, too; that's always my preference. Some very gross descriptions and body horror, as a caveat for those who might be interested but are sensitive about such things.

Die: vol. 1-3 by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans. I'm finally rereading (and finishing) this series and...I forgot how much I like it. Not only because the art is gorgeous (and the art is gorgeous) but Kieron Gillen's writing remains as sharp as ever, and the way he is playing with fantasy as a genre is very fun for me as a fantasy nerd. My favorite issue remains the one about The Lord of the Rings, though. I don't know that this one is quite as good as The Wicked and the Divine as a whole, but I'll have to reread that one taken as a whole, too, before making that determination.

And the art really is gorgeous. Stephanie Hans remains a fave.

Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism by Jeffrey Toobin. A decent narrative about the Oklahoma City bombing, certainly competently written, but he interrupted himself a little too often drawing parallels to January 6th, in my opinion, and I don't feel like I took anything particularly new or fresh away from this. Which is maybe an artifact of the fact that I've read a number of better books about the rise of right-wing extremism in the 90s, and this one wasn't one of them, but I'm going to go ahead and damn with faint praise when I say "it was fine."

currently I'm rereading Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey which is a fascinating text in ways that I'm going to need to chew on for a bit, so that I can finally read the sequel. but then a bunch of stuff came in for me at the library, so I'm next probably going to be reading Silver Nitrate by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, and then Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey, and then The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu, and then Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and then Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez. or that's the plan, anyway. we'll see how fast it gets derailed.

also somewhere in there planning on reading more Female General and Eldest Princess and most likely the second volume of Remnants of Filth. I'm trying to spend less time on the internet in general (you absolutely could not tell I am sure) so let's make it a busy reading month instead.