Title: we grow forests in our bones so our memories can't find us
Author: findthesea
Characters: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanoff, Maria Hill, Phil Coulson, Nick Fury, Jasper Sitwell
Warnings: None
Word Count: ~21,000
Summary: She was Natalia Romanova, she became Natasha. He was Clinton Francis Barton, he became simply Clint. This is their story. (Aka the first meeting of Clint Barton and Natasha Romanov.)

Read here @ AO3.

The deadline for Secret Santa is fast approaching on December 5th and we’d love to hear from people who’d like to volunteer as beta readers and pinch hitters! Some of you have already expressed interest, but we’re coming to the crunch now and this is where we’d like to check who’s actual available and what you’re happy to do.

PINCH HITTERS

We will be automatically assigning pinch hitters to anyone who doesn’t submit their gift by the deadline of December 5th, which should hopefully give you more time and organisation than last year. If people then do manage to submit their gift by an agreed extension your pinch-hit would be assigned as a gift to the community as a whole, but no less appreciated! We will let you know after midnight has crossed all the time zones when a pinch-hit is needed (on Sunday 7th Monday 8th at the latest) and ideally we’d like your pinch hit back the following weekend, the 12th to 15th December.

If this sounds like something you’d like to do please comment to this post with:

Type Of Gift: gift type you’re willing to pinch-hit for, such as fic, fanmix, art…

Absolutely Not: Things that are an absolute no for you, such as anything triggering, character death, certain ratings, things that you will not do.

Kinda Like: If we get as many pinch hitters as have showed interest we can match you up a bit so you get something you think you’d be good at or would have fun with, so what are your strengths or likes? Genres, AU, comics…? No guarantees, but we’ll try!

BETA READERS

We have a post discussion on beta readers and how to ask for them along with a beta directory HERE, but to make things up to date, friendly, and easy can people who are happy to volunteer to beta read Secret Santa works comment to this post saying BETA VOLUNTEER and then anyone can just comment back or PM our volunteers.

If you’re unsure of how to approach a beta reader remember it’s a creative exchange. Beta readers do it for the fun of it and to help you :) And if either of you think that the other’s style isn’t for you that’s absolutely fine and you can part ways with a smile. You might want to tell your prospective beta reader: how long your fic is, your deadline (if other than the 5th December), the rating and any warnings or triggers, what you’re stuck on if there’s something specific or even general like you’re worried about your grammar or an action scene.

GRAPHICS MAKERS

Comment if you’d like to be involved in making banners, icons, or participation gifts, with your email address. The industrious and creative frea_o will round you up and get you going. Of course if you’d just like to create some Secret Santa or seasonally inspired icons, advertising banners, or anything else do feel free to share!


To all our volunteers: THANK YOU!
To all our bar: have fun and enjoy!

The deadline for Secret Santa 2014 is fast approaching on MIDNIGHT DECEMBER 5TH (that’s midnight in whatever time zone you live in) so here’s the RELEVANT INFORMATION THAT YOU REALLY NEED TO READ. Paying attention to this post will make the lives of you, your mods, your pinch hitters, and your graphic makers so very much easier. If you have any questions at all about anything please just ask, even in a PM or an email if you’re shy. Thank you :)


Submitting Your Gift

Send them to be_compromised at hotmail dot com

The community rules (how to warn, plagiarism, and other rules) and the exchange rules apply, so remember to read them and follow them. This is an anonymous gift exchange, so please don’t post or upload your gift elsewhere until after the reveals.

The following header should be used exactly – just copy and paste it as it is and replace the capitals with the relevant names– and for ALL gifts.

<!-- <b>A Gift From:</b> <user site="livejournal.com" user="YOUR LJ NAME HERE"> --> <b>Type Of Gift:</b> (Fic/Artwork/Vid/Fanmix/Icons/Wallpaper/Gift Basket etc) <b>Title:</b> <b>A Gift For:</b> <user site="livejournal.com" user="GIFTEE's LJ NAME HERE"> <b>Rating:</b> <b>Warnings:</b> <b>Summary/Prompt Used:</b> <b>Author's Note:</b> LJ cut text(s) (if you'd like something besides the default):

FIC should be submitted as an email attachment as either a Word or .doc or plain text or .txt file. If your fic is longer than will fit in a single LJ post, or if you would like it to be posted as chapters, please indicate in BIG CAPITALS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE A BREAK HERE kind of thing. All fics MUST be html coded if you want words to be bold or italic etc. There is a guide to html on livejournal here and feel free to ask questions before you submit. Otherwise your fic will be posted as submitted.

ART/GRAPHICS should be submitted as attached files, NOT links to already uploaded works. To keep you anonymous we will upload them to the community’s photobucket account. Please specify if multiple art should be in any particular order, any blurbs or captions etc.

VID/MIXES also need to be anonymous. Please submit the actual work or a link to a privately shared file and we will upload it to a community media account anonymously. Cover art should be submitted as per art/graphics.


Problems

If for any reason you think that you won’t be able to submit by the deadline of FRIDAY 5TH DECEMBER you need to let us know as soon as possible. We don’t yell, we just want to make sure that everyone who participates gets a gift and that everyone taking part in all capacities has as few worries as possible.

If you can’t submit by the deadline a pinch hitter will automatically be assigned. If you then manage to submit by an agreed extended deadline the pinch-hit will become a community gift. If you don’t let us know by the 5th December deadline that you can’t submit we will assume that you have dropped out. If you don’t submit by the agreed extension we will also assume that you have dropped out. In both of these cases the gift for you will be reassigned as a community gift and we will rely on your pinch hitter. Once assumed to have dropped out we will not be able to accept late gifts as part of the exchange. (We weren’t as strict last year, we know, we’re sorry but Santa’s elves are short on logistical magic this time around.)

If you'd be happy to pinch hit (which is to adopt requests that otherwise will/may not be filled) we’d love to hear from you over here at our pinch hitters post.


Banner Blurbs And Submission Comments

EVERYONE MUST COMMENT TO THIS POST with the following information by DECEMBER 5TH even if you have submitted or if have an extension or if the Avengers turned up on your doorstep to make you a memeber. We need this to double check who has submitted and to make banners. All comments are screened.

We need to know:

My gift is for: (your giftee)
My gift type is: (fic, vid, mix, art etc)
Title: (yes even if you haven’t finished it yet, we need this for the banner)
Banner Blurb: (we really don't want loads of detail, just an idea of the theme or tone of your gift so that we can tailor our gift banners. Something like 'snow, sad' or 'pirates AU' or 'dark fic'.
Submission: (this should be I have submitted OR I have an extension until X date OR this is a pinch hit submitted/due on X date


What Happens Next

We will start posting gifts on December 15th. Once all gifts have been posted we will have the reveals, at which point there will be a master post and an AO3 collection for this year’s exchange if you want to cross post your work.

And we get to appreciate lots of wonderful gifts :)