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PLAYER

NAME: Mel
CONTACT: spotters_guide
OTHER CHARACTERS IN THE PINES:¯\_(ツ)_/¯

CHARACTER

NAME: Clint Barton
CANON: Marvel 616
CANON-POINT: end of issue #15 of Fraction's Hawkeye comics

DOSSIER

HISTORY: "Are you Iron Fist?"

WHAT ARE YOUR CHARACTER'S STRENGTHS?: Though primarily self-taught in most respects, Clint proves himself to be a natural with things like distance and angles used in his trick shots. He's also a more than decent investigator and has held his own with trained spies (has dated them, even) on numerous occasions. Clint's even managed to solve complex issues on the field without understanding the actual science behind them, choosing to follow logic and effect to its end instead. On the other hand, Clint is more than aware of how people tend to view him, with his background, and isn't afraid to play up to that to get the upper hand. His casual, sometimes even dismissive mannerisms in the middle of a serious situation help a bit in that regard. As does simply letting his 'simple' roots shine through.

Clint didn't have the best influences growing up. From his alcoholic and abusive father to the criminal mentors he managed to pick up in the circus, even his brother wound up turning on him in the end. Despite all of this, Clint never stopped trying to be a good person, to find some sort of meaning to his life. He can also be astonishingly earnest and honest. He's actually a pretty terrible liar when it comes to anything personal, and he wants to believe the best in people.

Clint might be hopeless most of the time, but he still manages to inspire some measure of loyalty and dedication in the lives that he does touch. It's easy to get pulled in by his straightforward and honest attitude, and the slightly seedy nature of his past means he's not likely to judge people for their own past mistakes, or where they've come from. As long as you aren't dating him, Clint is an easy guy to like. Even when he is at his most down and out self-pitying.

And while describing Clint as "easy" could be a nice way of putting it, he's never sleazy or disingenuous about his interest. Clint falls easy and loves hard. Despite having split with Natasha, Bobbi, and now Jessica, he still cares very deeply for all of them. Clint is exactly the sort of person who stays close friends with his exes. Just as soon as his exes forgive him for whatever stupid thing he did that ended their relationship in the first place, that is.

WHAT ARE YOUR CHARACTER'S WEAKNESSES?: If Hawkeye's title is "world's greatest marksman" then Clint Barton's should be "king of bad decisions".

Clint's a big picture sort of guy, and he's actually quite intuitive when it comes to that sort of thing, but a lot of times that means he either ignores or completely misses immediate consequences for decisions he makes. He's also incredibly impulsive. The sort of impulsive that goes out to buy colored tape for his arrows, meets a stranger on the street, buys her car and sleeps with her in the span of a half hour. That kind of impulsive. He has the self-preservation instincts of a gnat. These two things are not a very good combination.

Though Clint almost always has the best intentions in mind, most of the time he just doesn't know what the 'best' option is. For one, there's a lot about the world that he still doesn't understand, even after all these years, and not just in regards to formal schooling. He never had a chance to just... grow up like a normal kid, so in a lot of ways Clint's only just starting to do his growing now.

Some heroes could be called self-sacrificing, but Clint is self-sabotaging. Self-destructive. He almost seems to revel in it, except for how he doesn't actually enjoy it at all. Clint didn't get a whole lot of positive reinforcement growing up, and as a result his own opinions of his self-worth are abysmally low as well. He thinks constantly about how the Avengers wouldn't even miss him if he was gone and at one point rather than ask for help dealing with an issue with the Russian mob decides that simply leaving will solve everything. Because unless someone gives him a kick up the butt to get him moving and shake him out of his self-pity, that's how Clint deals with personal problems.

He ignores it until he can't anymore, and then he tries to run away. Or, failing that, push everyone else away instead. In fact pushing everyone away could probably be considered a super power, he's so good at it.

It's also important to point out that while Clint may come across as carefree or even light-hearted at times with his quips and sarcastic comments during even the tensest of situations, he didn't manage to entirely leave behind the darker pieces of his past. For all intents and purposes, Clint came from a criminal background. He has a record, and if he isn't careful he has a tendency to lean more heavily on that side of his life when he isn't depending on a team, capable of turning destructive and even brutal if pushed too far. Because when things start falling apart at home, Clint doesn't go to any of his friends or team mates for help to solve things, he goes to his criminal brother instead. And that says everything about Clint, in a way.

There are two distinct sides: Hawkeye, the hero who saves people and fights bad guys and Clint, the ex-carnie with a record who hurts people and said he was glad when his parents died.

WHAT EVENTS OR CIRCUMSTANCES IN YOUR CHARACTER'S PAST HAVE IMPACTED THEM THE MOST?: Running away to the circus with his brother Barney was a huge one because that's where he picked up his skills with archery that would eventually land him a career with the Avengers. It was also where he was betrayed pretty badly by said brother and his mentors at the circus and eventually left to fend for himself with no real idea of how to go about doing that successfully. Iron Man was a huge inspiration for Clint around that time and gave him the hope and aspiration to one day be able to do something like that himself. You know, the hero thing. Of course his first involvement with Natasha wound up spoiling that debut of his somewhat, but he forgave her pretty easily anyway (because when he loves someone he'll forgive them for anything).

Also, the deaf thing. This isn't the first time that Clint's been deaf, not by a long shot. Which is why he's already coming into things this time with the communication skills to more or less get by despite the handicap. No, the first time he lost his hearing was when he was a kid and his father beat him badly enough to basically knock his hearing loose. He eventually got his hearing back, but by then he'd already learned basic ASL as well as lip reading. He also learned some... not necessarily emotionally healthy problem solving techniques from his brother around that time, whoops.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOUR CHARACTER?: Sometimes? A whole lot of nothing. Clint's a pretty instinctive guy, and a lot of the times he really doesn't think before he acts, just rolls with the punches and hopes he doesn't break too many bones while he does it. He'd like to think he's doing the right thing most of the time, but he can't always be sure. Mostly he just tries his best and hopes for something other than the worst.

WHAT IMPRESSION DO OTHERS TEND TO HAVE OF YOUR CHARACTER?: Human Trashcan.

Clint's life is a mess and he doesn't appear to be in any hurry to fix things. In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs it would be safe to assume that he focuses predominantly on the physiological ones when it comes to motivation. Self-actualization isn't something Clint's ever going to bother trying to reach. As long as he's got food and beer and somewhere to sleep, he's perfectly content to wallow in his own filth. He'll absolutely never reach out to someone for help, he's terrible at relationships, and he's kind of dumb on top of all that.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES THAT IMPRESSION DIFFER FROM WHO YOUR CHARACTER REALLY IS?: The trashcan is on fire.

Okay, so a lot of that is true, even if the reasons behind it really aren't. He is a human tragedy, but honestly he's a whole lot more self-aware than anyone would really give him credit for. A lot of his issues are self-sabotage wrapped in pretty little packages of low self-worth. He doesn't really see himself as someone worth the effort to fix things. He doesn't think he deserves to ask for help, or worries that asking for help will finally send his friends running (like they should have done a long time ago). He ruins relationships because he knows he will eventually anyway. Also, he's not nearly as dumb as he'd like you to think.

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER HANDLE CRISIS OR ADVERSITY?: Crisis or adversity in his job? By literally throwing himself off a roof with no safety net. He doesn't really pay attention to the limits of being human in this job, he throws himself all in. And usually comes back with bruises and broken bones to show for it but, eh. He's used to it by now really. In his personal life though? If he can't handle the issue on his own (and by "handle" I mean he makes one really poorly thought out and half-hearted attempt) his first instinct is to bury his head in the sand or run away.

He's a really big fan of running away from his problems instead of facing them, to be honest. I mean, he was one of those kids who actually made good on the threat of running away to the circus so I guess he started young.

WHICH 5 THINGS WILL YOUR CHARACTER REMEMBER UPON ARRIVAL, AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THEM?:
1. He's the superhero Hawkeye and he works with the Avengers.
2. Learning archery with the circus.
3. ASL and lip reading (though he won't remember why he already knows these things, yet).
4. The fact that he stole his dog Lucky off some Russian mob types in tracksuits.
5. He has a protege named Katie that is Too Good for him.

Four of those things are pretty big and intrinsic parts of his life (yes the dog is that important, how dare you suggest otherwise). The ASL and lip reading is honestly just because trying to communicate with him otherwise would be nearly impossible in the beginning.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU FEEL WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER?:


SKILLS, ABILITIES, & PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES:

Clint is fluent in English and Italian, as well as vaguely proficient in ASL. He's also very skilled at reading lips.

You wouldn't think it from the magnificent wreck that Clint has managed to make of his personal life, but when it comes to battle, tactics, and leadership Clint has both experience and ingenuity on his side. While most of this was primarily self-taught in the school of Hard Knocks, Clint has successfully lead two different super hero groups to date.

You know how some kids talk about running away to the circus when they're young? Clint actually did it. Not only that but he wound up becoming a headlining act for a number of year, The Amazing Hawkeye. Part of this act involved aerial and acrobatic tricks, and Clint's maintained this ability, even after leaving.

He didn't really learn how to fight until he joined the Avengers, but he quickly made up for that delay by being taught a variety of martial arts by none other than Captain America himself. To say that he's proficient now would be a vast understatement.

Hawkeye is known as the world's greatest marksman, and that's not really any sort of exaggeration either. While he was in the circus, Clint caught the attention of two men, Trick Shot and the Swordsman, both of whom began to teach him their craft (I think you can tell pretty easily from their names who taught him what).

Though he favors the bow and arrow, Clint is just as skilled a marksman with guns, throwing knives, bolas, boomerangs, even playing cards and coins. If you can throw it, Clint can turn it into a dangerous weapon, basically.

In his days as the Ronin, Clint proved himself to be just as talented with a sword, nunchuku-turned-bo-staff, shuriken, etc. At one point Clint was even asked to take over as Captain America, since he was one of the few who could actually handle the shield.

On the other hand at the end of the day Clint is just a plain old human, so his sturdiness is... questionable, really. He gets beat up a lot, falls off buildings, breaks bones, and more notably, has recently lost his hearing (he's not very good at this whole self-preservation thing to be honest). So that's gonna complicate things a bit.

INVENTORY:

• wallet with drivers license and Avengers ID
• clothes: purple chucks, worn jeans, white t-shirt, purple hoodie
• Avengers pager
• costume: black boots, black t-shirt with purple chevron, black combat pants, tinted sunglasses, arm and wrist guard
• custom bow with quick release quiver and trick arrows
• two broken ears
• the best dog in the whole wide world, Lucky

SAMPLES

PROSE-HEAVY: i can't think of anything funny sorry guys
DIALOGUE-HEAVY: this shit is going to be impossible for him until we get cell phones tbh