AUs wanted!

[jorizo.livejournal.com]

This is highly unorthodox of me (but hopefully not inappropriate) to be posting so very publicly. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

I've been on some sort of an AU kick recently. It's all because of sarea_okelanis awesome campAU Wet Hot Avengers Summer http://sarea-okelani.livejournal.com/407093.html (I don't know how to make the title a link ): . I've been scouring this bar as well as AO3 for more AUs but it's proving difficult to find ones to my liking since up until very recently, I didn't really like AUs at all. All I seem to find are variations on the theme of superspies and assassins. Which is fine but not what I want.

So what I want is for you, fellow shippers, to give me links. I don't care what the AU world is as long as it's got Clint and Natasha in love by the end of it. With each other. I'm sure many of you are far more organised than me and have actually bookmarked stories you like or can remember if something you've written fits into my description of what I want to read. 

Also whats the policy on prompts here? Cause my head is filled with stuff I want to see our lovely OTP in but I lack the ability to write those stories myself.

Comments

[jorizo.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah I read the professor/student one ages ago. Back in my lurking days so no comments then. But it was pretty awesome, read parts of it at work even since I couldn't really stop reading it. And I'll definitely take a loot at the recs. Thanks!

[hufflepuffsneak.livejournal.com]

Well our promptathon concluded a while back, but I know we had a Friday chat about AUs. There are plenty of recs in the comments http://be-compromised.livejournal.com/145752.html

ETA: Bob got there first!

Also, if you squee and meta in Friday chat sessions you never know what will turned into a fic (or an icon).

[jorizo.livejournal.com]

Just looking through the recs :) Gotta say I love how helpful people here are. 15 minutes and already two people have offered me assistance!

[hufflepuffsneak.livejournal.com]

This bar is a very friendly bar. I second all the recs on this thread- and if you still need more we have a fanwork: au tag on the side. :P

[shenshen77.livejournal.com]

I just read this lovely High School AU by samalander, Naked Pantomime in the Dark (http://archiveofourown.org/works/441665), which was recced here before. The other parts in this series are also lovely, I especially loved the last one.

I wasn't really into AUs either until I read a couple of really good ones in this fandom, as there are incredibly talented writers here, who manage to keep the essence of the characters while transporting them into a whole different setting... And that is just one of the reasons why I love this bar :)

[jorizo.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Seems promising.

As for the amount of talent here, I'm with you. I really hate badly written fiction, whether it's published or unpublished like the stuff here. And I hate when I read a summary and think I might like the story only to find out the author has about as much skill (or less, if possible) as someone (whom I shall not name) who has sold millions of copies of something that makes me want to burn books (something I'm very much against). But that doesn't happen on this bar. Everyone is just so dang good.

[shenshen77.livejournal.com]

Totally and utterly agree with you here! On all of the above, even the impulse to burn books (which I abhor with a passion, having grown up in Germany where this actually happened big time in a really dark time...)

Unfortunately, that happens a lot on ff.net, where the summary sounds really intriguing and then you read the first sentence and it's already riddled with typos or the writing is even worse than what ma little niece can come up with (and she wrote on her FB wall that she was so happy that she excepted Jesus into her life... she wanted to say accepted, I believe ;)) But yeah, here there really are no bad writers, which I as a reader truly appreciate and honor :)

[franztastisch]

My absolute favourite AU ever: Two for the Show by mousie tongue
After her uncle is taken, young Natasha Romanov ends up in state's custody at a group home. She can tough it out alone... but somehow fellow resident Clint Barton becomes the reason she doesn't have to.

And No Light in this Valley by trysts
Wild West-ish AU: It was a good way to end a bad year, Clint figured.

[shenshen77.livejournal.com]

Those are both fantastic! The feels <3333

[franztastisch]

I KNOW RIGHT? Two for the Show is almost my favourite thing I've ever found through this pairing. Gahhhh. And No Light in this Valley! Oh man, everybody is so talented.

[jorizo.livejournal.com]

Added to the growing number of open tabs on my browser. Thanks!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_samalander/]

Bows and Catapults (http://archiveofourown.org/works/499158) is one of my favorite AUs, wherein Clint and Natasha meet as two orphaned children.

[jorizo.livejournal.com]

I'm just reading Naked Pantomime in the Dark and it's really good!

[jorizo.livejournal.com]

Read Bows and Catapults last night and it was super good. Thanks for recommending it!

[bailey1ak.livejournal.com]

I read a great one a while back by daxcat79 called The Neighbor (http://daxcat79.livejournal.com/75934.html).

Think it even has a sequel now... I need to find time to read that as well. :)

[jorizo.livejournal.com]

I've read that one and it was very good. The sequel too.

[inkvoices]

Hello, hello, hello! I second all of the recs above, they're all fantastic! I'd also say take a look at the AU fanwork tag on the comm, the all the things friday AU edition that a few people have pointed to (I recced a bundle of things on there), and the general fic recs tag on the comm is worth wandering through.

Public posts are fine. Especially for recs <3 As you can see, we all love to join in with stuff like this. We're chatty ;D

I don't think we have a policy on prompts? We had the HUGE promptathon over the summer and the Secret Santa (posting coming up soon) involved prompts. Maybe have a look through those, because I know a lot of us are working on prompts off there. Feel free to poke us into faster action, lol. In general, the all the things friday posts are places of discussion, recs, and prompting welcome as well, although that's usually centered on a weekly theme. Any discussion post or creative support group post is prompt territory - there's a recent one here for NaNo Clint/Natasha writers and I'm sure they'd love for more ideas to be thrown their way! Hmm, really we just throw ideas around a lot, so I guess just join in and chat :D

[jorizo.livejournal.com]

I guess I've sort of felt like since I can't contribute in the way of fics or art or anything creative, I'm not in a position to be active on this bar. Silly, I know and will definitely not think that anymore. Come next possible opportunity, you will be treated (or saddled) with my musings on the kind of band-aids Natasha likes or the kind of undies she really wears (lots of colours and cartoon characters for both) :D

[crazy4orcas.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite AUs is by cybermathwitch -- it's a Dragonriders of Pern (one of my most loved book series as a teen) -- here's the AO3 link:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/470858

[kadollan.livejournal.com]

::clappy hands::

I was just about to reply and rec that one!

[hiddencait.livejournal.com]

OMG I so freaking loved that one!!

[jacedesbff.livejournal.com]

Love. Love. Love. OMT, I love that AU. Like, psychotically.

*slinks off as realizes is totally spamming this post*

[astridv.livejournal.com]

I really liked this steampunk AU by Rhymer: http://archiveofourown.org/works/478190
But the Clint/Natasha is UST (pretty strong UST though, IIRC).

[jacedesbff.livejournal.com]

Um, sorry about the spamming... I didn't used to be all "up with AUs", but there have been some wonderful ones in this fandom. Most of my favorites have been covered, the top ones for me being "Naked Pantomime in the Dark" (I'm a high school Drama teacher - the feels continue to be un-freaking-real :D) and "Brown and Gold", the Dragonrider AU.

I will look around and see if I can find any that haven't been covered here. Such a chore... :-)