It was a close vote, but thanks this time go to jacedesbff as the winner of March’s Community Banner Challenge for the new shiny at the top of our comm! (There's a slight hitch with a transparency issue, sorry about that, it's being worked on.) I can now reveal that March’s banners were made by the following: Banner One by jacedesbff, and Banner Two by endeni.

Want to know what this month's challenge is? Read on!

Here’s how the banner challenge works: we set you a theme on the first of each month. People then make banners and comment with them to that month’s post – all comments will be screened; comments without banners in them will then be unscreened. (I can’t reply to the comments with banners in them without unscreening them, so anything you want a response to needs to be in a separate comment.) Banners will then all be saved to the community’s photobucket, so don’t worry about hotlinking or broken links. There will be a limit for sending banners in, something like two to three weeks. Then we’ll post all of the banners anonymously and everyone in the community can vote for their favourite (including the makers, but you do only get one vote each). That new banner is then our banner for the following month. Hopefully we’ll keep enough interest to be able to this monthly!

The Rules:
1) Everyone is invited to play, seriously, everyone, the more the merrier!
2) Banners must be safe for work.
3) Banners must have a width of 800 and a height of 350 and preferably be a png or jpg file.
4) We will make your banners anonymous, so please don’t tell or show anyone what you’ve made. Once the winner has been chosen though you’re free to share your banner wherever you like. (So, for example, if you make a banner for April’s challenge you’ll be free to do whatever you like with it from April 1st.)
5) When new films come out (Iron Man 3, Thor 2) please don’t use images from those until we say it’s safe so no one gets spoiled!
6) You can submit no more than 3 banners (for now).

April’s Challenge: It’s the month of April Fool’s Day, so bring on the crack and the crazy, the daft and the silly, the fun and the bizarre; this month’s theme is ‘foolish’.

April Deadline: You have until Sunday 24th March to comment to this post with your banners or links to your banners.

As stated, all comments to this post will be screened. Comments that don’t contain banners will be unscreened. So feel free to post banners, ask questions, give us feedback, and all that jazz :)

Thanks so much to all who participated! We had 28 fics/fanworks in our 2 weeks of posting, and I want to thank each and every person who posted and read and encouraged and flailed. I know I still have lots of reading to catch up on personally, and if you missed anything, check out our handy-dandy Masterpost.

As always, it was an honor and a privilege, my friends. Thank you for being the best bar around. <3

Assassins, Marriage & Commitment

The issue of would and/or how do assassins commit to a relationship is a common trope in the Clint/Natasha fandom. So let’s discuss!

A few questions:
- Would this couple enter into a committed relationship?
- Would they be exclusive?
- Would they marry?
- How would Natasha’s frequent assignments as a seductress (a) affect Clint and Natasha as a couple, and (b) affect her assignments?
- How would a committed relationship affect either/both individual’s performance in the field/battle situations?
- Which partner is more willing to commit?

In my experience, Clint is usually portrayed as more willing to commit than Natasha. Do you agree with this? Do you like it when authors portray Clint and Natasha as being in a committed relationship and/or a marriage? Do you like it when authors portray one or the other as being unable/unwilling to commit?

Share your thoughts and your recs! Recs do not have to be happily-ever-after, btw. Mine tend to be b/c that's how I roll, but anything regarding marriage, commitment, whether or not to commit to each other, etc. will fit the bill. :-)

Recommendations ( Under the cut. )

Let the discussion begin!

Title: the equilibrists [ch28]
Authors bob5fic and workerbee73
Word Count: 2,300
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Language, sexual references.
A/N: This chapter could also be entitled That Chapter Where Shit Starts Getting Real or That Chapter that Nearly Killed Bob And Bee with Its Penchant for Plotty Plotness. ;)
Set after the events of Teenage Makeout/Off the Grid, post movie.

I will do what is necessary.

Chapters 1 - 27
Chapter 28