#ravenscar-secure-facility

[momachan]

"Catastrophe, from start to finish. Inexcusable, stupid, bloody shameful catastrophe. No one to blame. I hold the smoking gun-- the accusatory fingers point my way. Still, we all make mistakes-- don't we? Even demons. The only difference is, I've paid for mine. Two years in Ravenscar Secure Facility for the Dangerously Deranged. We all paid. Anne-Marie took holy orders. Benjamin got his stutter. Lester got his junk habit. Ritchie went into computers. Judith went to work with abused children and Frank went off biking around the world. And, just as the demon promised, hell took them, everyone. But, like I say. We all make mistakes-- and the demon was finally telling me his name. Nergal. Nergal. This is where we started it and this is where it'll finish."

John Constantine, Hellblazer Vol. 2: The Devil You Know. "Newcastle: A Taste Of Things To Come."

[talentforlying]

@beyondthescully: meta about those criminal records scully is 1000% going to look into — SEND META TOPICS.

constantine's criminal record with the british government is file #A571B, and he knows it by heart because he's spent years mind-tricking arresting officers into avoiding it so he doesn't come up against more trouble than he wants to deal with. it doesn't help much if someone researches him independently, when he's not aware they're doing it, but if he does know, he puts a little glamour down so that their eyes simply skip over it when they look him up.

i wouldn't say that he's afraid of people looking up his record, per se, but he certainly dreads it being brought up, since it lists him being convicted of the murder of a child + a nightclub full of people — which, obviously, tends to get a very strong reaction from anyone who didn't hear the real story of newcastle from him ahead of time; we all know that he inadvertently damned astra to hell by summoning (and failing to properly name or bind) the demon nergal to save her from the terror elemental she accidentally created, but without that important context, it reads horrifically — and because it includes the fact that he was committed to ravenscar secure facility in lieu of prison time, which tends to kill people's trust that he's telling the truth about the supernatural and knows what he's doing.

speaking of which, the newcastle incident was highly publicized across the UK at the time (1978), and continues to raise huge red flags when people go to look him up in government databases, but since it was pre-internet, there are no news articles online other than ones that were digitized later and mystery of the casanova club murders / what happened to mucous membrane? (his band) blog posts on conspiracy & occult fansites. it's kind of an urban legend these days, since constantine is now the last survivor of the original crew and band and his name is notorious in occult circles, but you'll never get him to talk about it unless he's being forced to defend himself or he trusts you with his fucking life, and good luck with that second one.

US databases will also include a murder conviction from new york in 2000, when he was framed for the death of a top gangster, sentenced to max security, and later cleared, but since he was cleared, under new york law, that record is now sealed and can only be seen by federal, state, and local law enforcement. unfortunately, that one's an azzarello storyline so i plan to rework the fuck out of those events, because fuck azzarello.)

[greatkinglulu]

M and Q for the letter asks!

I can't answer asks for some reason so I'll leave the answer in the comments

[neil-gaiman]

Ahoy, sir.

I know full well it's not going to sound great, but it's a question and you might have the answer, so here we go. It's about Johanna Constantine in Sandman.

I saw a tweet you wrote about Johanna being her own character - it was, i believe, in response to her being cleaner than John. You said she can be cleaner for the simple fact that she isn't John, or at least she isn't a gender-swapped John.

I have a question about that. If she's a different character, why is there so much that she takes from John ? Why giving her a Newcastle (even if it's not quite the same), why not modernize or reinject a version of her story with Pandora's box ? I think it's awesome to see a modern version of Lady Johanna, but I wonder what were your ideas behind keeping so much of John's in her episode, and why she wasn't push more into what makes her character different - money, sure, but also henchmen, guns and magic instead of tricks, to name a few.

I know how it sounds like - I met a few fans ever so annoying about the casting. I'm not trying to complain or bash the work you and so many talented people put behind the Sandman. I like this serie, I want more, I like Jenna Coleman as well as I'm thrilled by a Johanna Constantine in modern setting. I'm just curious about how she was thought about.

I also know you must get a whole lot of asks of the type, and i suppose it ends up souding like I'm asking for some justification. I'm not, I'm just curious - and if it seems to mean anything else, note that I'm sorry and that it's not what I meant.

Thanks, anyway, for all you do and have done, and for your attention ~

Because when you move the life essence of a character from universe to universe you keep some things and you change others. I grew up with DC Comics having Earth 1 and Earth 2, and a Batman and a Superman and a Flash on each. Both Batmans were Bruce Wayne, both Supermans were Clark Kent and Kal-El, but one Flash was Jay Garrick and one was Barry Allen. And these were ways of solving problems of time, of dealing with three decades of continuity. The John Constantine in Vertigo who was in his mid-thirties in 1989 is now a pensioner. And the Morpheus of that world escaped in September 1988.

In those terms, the TV version of Sandman exists on Earth-Sandman, a world that starts three decades on. It's not beholden to 1988 comics continuity, but it uses it when it wants to. The person holding the Constantine life essence in this world is Joanna. She didn't sing in a punk band in the 1970s. Her Astra Logue went to Hell, but it wasn't Joanna's fault in the way it was John's in 1979 in Hellblazer 12. She didn't spend the time in Ravenscar Secure Facility from 1979-1982.

She's smart, not grubby, a lot more like the original dandyish John Constantine who showed up in Swamp Thing in 1984 than the unshaven wreck of a man he became.

And we will get to see a lot more of Lady Johanna in Sandman, if we get future seasons.

Does that help?

[secondgenerationnerd]

Hi, been a minute, but was thinking about this:

Lucy and Zachary? They absolutely bonded over their weird ass childhoods. The others obviously didn’t have “normal childhoods” but these two definitely took it to a new level! Even beating out the Atlantean!

Nonhuman babysitter? Killer Croc and Etergan are huge softies for these two.

Unconventional parents? Lucy fondly recounts her mothers discussing robberies, while Zachary notes he thought “slut” was a normal pet name for partners.

Deep knowledge on concerning topics? Lucy and Zachary have had multiple conversations about poisonous plants. She supplies him with fresh nightshade.

Knowing damn well which parent they got their attitude from? Hello, Harley and Zatanna 😂 (Lucy got Pamela’s blunt sarcasm. Zachary got John’s inability to keep his foot from his mouth.)

They also understand what it means to have a parent (or parents in Lucy’s case) that get overlooked or looked down on.

On one mission, the team ended up at Ravenscar Secure Facility. Zachary knew what had happened here and had issues keeping his cool. Lucy clocked it and asked “Mom or Dad?”

When Zachary asked what she meant, Lucy broke her teammates’ hearts, “You look at this place the way I look at Arkham.”

The few times YJL has had to visit Arkham, Lucy cannot hide her hatred for the place. She called one Warden out when he made a comment about her mother teaching her manners.

“Well, my MOMS were more concerned with teaching me not to save a man’s feelings. Especially ones that like to grab ass.”

*condescending smile* “And who are your mothers, young lady?”

“Drs. Pamela Isley and Harleen Quinzel.”

Overall—they aren’t BFF’s but they definitely have a good respect and love for each other.