Midnight 5

[pilfered_words]

SO TIRED. Not sleepy, just tired. Fortunately, I have nothing planned from 6pm tomorrow to ~11pm Saturday, and the 11pm thing is just sleeping over at Y’s house. (Y being my boyfriend. He has a thing until then.) 

 

I’ve been reading Clint!fic tonight. I’m sure the sub-sub-genre has a real name, but I think of it as Clint!fic. The specific Clint!fic was @jhscdood‘s Landslide, at first, but then I moved directly to still officially lost, which I had read before, but apparently never left feedback on. Oops.

 

What do I actually mean by Clint!fic? Well, fic about Clint Barton, obviously, but that’s not enough for a special category. I guess, Clint!fic is about Clint learning to be part of an organization, a partnership, a team, a friendship, a relationship. Mostly, Clint!fic is either about Clint joining SHIELD, or Clint recovering after the Battle of NY and all associated mindfuck. Or both. Lots of both.

 

I love Clint!fic. For one thing, it’s a niche that only seems to attract good writers. For another, it seems to lend itself to long, detailed fics with plenty of characterization. And it tends to hit all my loyalty-friendship-humor-sadness buttons. 

 

The minor downside is that this means I read a lot of stories with very similar plots, and often very different characterization. Which means I a) have to reread the whole thing after every update, and b) often reread older, finished stories, because something in a newer story reminded me of the older story.

 

Wait. That was supposed to be a downside.

 

Anyhow. My goal is to bookmark every Clint!fic there is on AO3, or at least the ones I like. Part of the problem, of course, is that I didn’t used to use my bookmarks, and many of these fics have disappeared into the mists of memory. But sooner or later they will resurface, and then…