◉ Video

[vagabond_code]

Who: Clint Barton
Broadcast: Video from Clint's room aboard the First Breath.
When: Now.

[People of the First Breath, I hope you like Blur's Song 2, because in the last 48 hours Clint finally decided to pick at the the media files on the Atroma network. He's been listening to this song through the speakers on his communication device at what he believes is a respectable volume, and while it hasn't been playing on repeat, it has been playing multiple times an hour for the last little while.

So when he begins this broadcast it's to the sound of a disembodied voice singing Yeah Yeah. Ohhh yeah, and the dying final chord of that same song announces Clint's message like some sort of unorthadox fanfare.]

Where have I heard that song before? Blur, Song 2. It in a commercial or something?

Can't get it out of my head.

But I can get it in there. Which is - great. Got my hearing back a while ago. Pair of working hearing-aids courtesy of Cisco Ramon and Winn --... somebody. Winn and Cisco. Well, and Kate. Thanks, Kate and Winn and Cisco. I'm not trying to make some sort of announcement though - that's not what this is about. I'm just asking, you know that list of books and movies and things on the network? Does anyone have any suggestions? I tried going through it all in order but there are some wacko things in there. That list of Abominations? I dunno.

[He shakes his head and glances off-camera toward where his door would be, but the distraction is momentary.]

Maybe some day, but for now I was wondering if anyone else has read or watched or heard any of the stuff on there, and if you've got any suggestions.

Oh, and Atroma. If you're listening: just one episode of I Love Lucy? That's cold, even for you.

Comments

2/2

[ladybro]

[ wow, she wishes it was something she'd done. so maybe that's where she needs to start. kate drags her fingers through her hair, sighing. ]

I moved back out west. Pretty sure it's for good, this time -- I got a place and everything.

[vagabond_code]

[Oh jeez is that all it is? He lifts his head and draws a breath.]

Well yeah, always sorta thought that was the end-game. You were always meant to be the Hawkeye.

[ladybro]

[ kate scowls. under any other circumstance, clint admitting so might have been nice. might have been touching. but she knowing what she knows -- aw, futz. ]

Kinda had to get out of NYC. [ she puffs her cheeks -- and looks anywhere but straight at him. ] It's not so easy to trade on that name, now, in the city.

[vagabond_code]

Why? What did you do?

[ladybro]

-- What makes you think it was something I did?

[ she'd been trying to break this as gently as possible. but this really sticks in her craw. kate's behaviour during the whole blow-out had been above reproach. ]

[vagabond_code]

Usually when people say some stuff happened, that's what they mean.

[But it's not her, so unless they recruited a third Hawkeye? That really only leaves one other possibility.]

I did something.

[Now that he's said it, this sounds way way more likely. And she'd given the impression it was something news-worthy, so... he's guessing it's an Avengers thing.]

[ladybro]

You did something, yeah. [ to put it mildly. kate first grinds the palm of her hand into an eye socket before relenting, standing tall, crossing her arms over her chest. ] You did something, and plenty of others -- it happened all over again, Clint. Avengers fighting Avengers. Mutants, Inhumans, the Ultimates, it sucked in just about everyone. It happened again.

[ -- kate knows she doesn't need to explain to him what 'it' was. ]

[vagabond_code]

[So lots of blame to go around then. It's probably tough for just about anyone to play hero in the city anymore if all the heroes had turned on each-other again. Last time that meant collateral damage, international incidents, mistakes made in the name of doing good.]

I don't believe it.

[But although he said that, he very clearly did.]

What set them off this time?

[ladybro]

[ us, she nearly corrects him. what set us off this time. because they'd both seen action during this mess -- but so long as she's explaining this part of the problem, she can delay explaining the rest. ]

An inhuman -- just a young guy, really. Except he's supposed to have been able to see the future: who does what, and when, and where. [ frankly, she could at least understand the other side of the superhuman registration act argument. but this one...? ] Captain Marvel and the feds wanted to go all Minority Report.

[vagabond_code]

[He can tell where he and Kate must have stood from her phrasing alone, but even so he figures it must all have been far more complicated than she makes it sound. Standing here right now, Clint hesitates to shuffle himself into the anti-camp. He considers what he'd do if he knew with absolute certainty that someone was about to kill a guy. He doesn't consider for long. There's really no question of whether he'd intervene. In an attempt to coax more details he says,]

Carol and the government vs everyone else? Doesn't sound like a fair fight.

[ladybro]

But unfair for who? [ her laughter isn't happy -- and, indeed, she's turned dead serious. ] Captain Marvel had Alpha Flight, of course. And the Guardians. Medusa and her inhumans, for a while there. Blue Marvel, Storm, Black Panther was all for it, too, before he changed his mind.

[ and because she knows the question is lurking there in the back of his mouth: ] Iron Man, by the way. He was the face of the opposing opinion. Him, the active Avengers roster, Cap, America, man -- you know how these things go down. Everyone gets dragged in.

[vagabond_code]

[This was why the world needed Kate. Her, Teddie, and Billy, they were the foundation for a generation of heroes who could be better than the Avengers as Clint knew them. Unlike Steve, unlike Tony, they could learn from the mistakes of the past.]

Tony and Steve on the same side this time.

[It seemed noteworthy, but he doesn't sound hopeful that that would make things in any way better. Gently, Clint asks,]

Were you there for the end?

[ladybro]

Yeah. [ there enough. kate rubs the back of her neck, shaking her head. ] But you weren't.

[vagabond_code]

[It happens immediately. He misunderstands her, and he believes her without hesitation.]

Do I go down fighting?

[And even though it would probably mean fighting his friends, he still sounds hopeful. Because he's certain he'd be doing what he thought was right in the moment.]

1/2

[ladybro]

Shit, no -- [ usually so collected, kate betrays a moment of (almost bitter) panic. her head shakes; she holds up two hands almost as in surrender. ] That's not what I meant.

2/2

[ladybro]

Clint. [ kate steels herself. ] You're not the one who goes down. Not like that, at any rate. But you do...go away.

[vagabond_code]

Katie, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but making this into one heck of a rollercoaster.

[ladybro]

[ wow, she doesn't even have the heart left to remind him that her name is kate. not katie; never katie. ]

Bruce. It was Bruce Banner. You killed him.

[vagabond_code]

[It isn't disbelief she's up against, but confusion. Her accusation is so personal. She's not accusing a possible future version of him, here. She's accusing him. The Clint that's standing in front of her. And regardless of what she saw, that's not fair.]

No, I didn't.

[ladybro]

You did. [ as truths go, this is a hard one. even she has trouble swallowing it. ] Or you will. Pre-futzing-meditated, Clint. That's the charge they bring against you in court.

[ poor bastard. they even had matt murdock prosecuting. ]