actuallyclintbarton:

iamshadow21:

actuallyclintbarton:

actualkatebishop:

actuallyclintbarton:

greaseonmymouth:

oh my god that trope it’s the single most RIDICULOUS trope and i’m not sure where it even originated? because it makes ZERO sense for his character. <.< why the hell would an archer be in the vents all the time? ?? (i’ve probably even written it myself once)

but yes. i’ve seen it more in phil/clint fics and tony/steve fics where phil/clint might be background, than in any other fics, but i don’t know man. i’ve also got no sense for how prevalent it is today, as we made the bingo card about 1½ year ago, and i’ve stopped reading tony/steve since then, and i haven’t read much clint/phil either, i guess maybe a handful? so i don’t know. i’m in no way up to date on the current tropes in the mcu fandom…

CLINT IN THE VENTS!  Started as a legitimate character quirk in a fic that I read very shortly after Avengers came out that I can no longer remember.  The logic, in the fic, is that that’s where he goes when he’s super stressed or upset or freaked out, because (taking from the backstory in comics) he had an abusive home life, and then a pretty-borderline-abusive/neglectful life in foster care/group homes, and he would hide as a kid in small spaces to feel safe, and he learned from a young age that people don’t often look UP when they’re searching for a kid, and so hiding in the air vents was the perfect mix of those two coping mechanisms, and he still fell back on them sometimes.  It wasn’t his NORMAL mode of behavior, and it actually indicated that he was REALLY NOT DOING WELL in some way, and it made sense.

But then OTHER fics started using “Clint in the vents” without giving it as much context, and then they started using it as a casual thing, and then it became this huge fandom trope entirely divorced from the original “kind of shitty bad-mental-place coping mechanism from his abusive childhood” context that was the only reason it had made sense AT ALL.

And that is where the “Clint in the vents” trope came from.

That’s so interesting! I mean I could understand it from a crack fic perspective but as a realistic action for his character it didn’t make sense until you explained it, Mat. If you ever find it again, please send me the link! I’d be really interested in reading it.

Yeah, it’s pretty cool!  And I doubt I will ever come across it again, but if I do I will be sure to link you! ^_^

I am about 95% certain that what you’re thinking of is snack_size’s Adaptations series, which according to the notes was written for a kink meme prompt. Also noteworthy, though written some months later, is BobbiMorsed’s do the math, expect the trouble series, which has Clint doing the same thing when just recruited for SHIELD. Both are well worth your time, and both have Clint doing it because he’s fucked-up in some way, grief, hyper-vigilance, history of abuse, etc.

Shadow is amazing with the fic linkage, and Adaptations is indeed the fic I was thinking of! No idea if it’s as good as I remember it, but the context at least makes SENSE, which is all I ask for a ductwork fic at this point.

I hope that it’s as good as you remember! I knew it pretty much immediately, because though it’s been a while since I read it (and though it does have echoes of former Phil/Clint) it’s essentially a Clint/Bruce story, and there is so very little Bruce, let alone with Clint. The other, I haven’t read in AGES, but from memory it’s got a solid big cast and Clint is deftly drawn.

I’m gonna fess up now and confess that I have written Clint-in-the-vents into a story, but he wasn’t living there, he was hiding there so he could snipe new recruits with Nerf darts because he was bored.