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be_compromised2013-07-08 10:29 am
sugar-fey.livejournal.com) wrote in be_compromised2013-07-08 10:29 am
Promptathon 2013
Hello, lovely patrons of the bar! It is now the month of July. Do you know what that means? It’s time for:
The Good Ship C/N Promptathon
of Magic and Joy: Round 2
Are you excited? I know I am!
RULES ON POSTING SUBMISSIONS
(please read before you post! <3)
The Rules. Just follow these three easy steps!
1. Leave a Prompt.
Prompts can be anything--simple or elaborate, words or pictures, songs or poems, lyrics or phrases. Anything that, to you, inspires a C/N fanwork. Use your imagination. Go crazy. All we ask is that you place anything NSFW under a cut or link, use trigger warnings when appropriate, and place anything spoiler-y under a cut with a warning. If you’re posting large images, please be mindful of members with slower Internet connections and place the image under a cut or link. Also, try to be as specific as you can with your prompts--this is often very helpful to those creating the fanwork.
And leave as many prompts as you want. I’m serious. Keep coming back, y’all. We want all the prompts we can possibly get Also, be sure to leave each prompt as a separate comment.
2. Wait a week.
Keep leaving prompts and plan your fanworks! This is a time for celebration and creating all of the things.
3. Submit C/N fanwork like there is no tomorrow.
All submissions should either be posted here or linked to this post via a comment. We will make an official post about rules in the time leading up to submissions. Please read it before posting, as responsible partying is to be encouraged at all times.
Timeline
Prompting starts today, July 7th (or 8th if you’re in my part of the world ;) ), and will remain open until July 17th. Submissions will start on July 17th, and will remain open until August 1.
What we hope to accomplish with all this promptathon-iness:
Have fun, everyone!
The Good Ship C/N Promptathon
of Magic and Joy: Round 2
Are you excited? I know I am!
RULES ON POSTING SUBMISSIONS
(please read before you post! <3)
The Rules. Just follow these three easy steps!
1. Leave a Prompt.
Prompts can be anything--simple or elaborate, words or pictures, songs or poems, lyrics or phrases. Anything that, to you, inspires a C/N fanwork. Use your imagination. Go crazy. All we ask is that you place anything NSFW under a cut or link, use trigger warnings when appropriate, and place anything spoiler-y under a cut with a warning. If you’re posting large images, please be mindful of members with slower Internet connections and place the image under a cut or link. Also, try to be as specific as you can with your prompts--this is often very helpful to those creating the fanwork.
And leave as many prompts as you want. I’m serious. Keep coming back, y’all. We want all the prompts we can possibly get Also, be sure to leave each prompt as a separate comment.
2. Wait a week.
Keep leaving prompts and plan your fanworks! This is a time for celebration and creating all of the things.
3. Submit C/N fanwork like there is no tomorrow.
All submissions should either be posted here or linked to this post via a comment. We will make an official post about rules in the time leading up to submissions. Please read it before posting, as responsible partying is to be encouraged at all times.
Timeline
Prompting starts today, July 7th (or 8th if you’re in my part of the world ;) ), and will remain open until July 17th. Submissions will start on July 17th, and will remain open until August 1.
What we hope to accomplish with all this promptathon-iness:
- A chance to get in the game. Been wanting to jump into the C/N fanwork scene but not sure where to start? Now’s the time. There’s no length requirement on the works submitted, you can focus on drabbles and vidlets and short and sweet projects (or do longer more epic stuff if that strikes your fancy as well). It’s really entirely up to you. We’re just hoping to provide a fun, no-pressure environment.
- Meet new and awesome people. Newbie or lurker? Here is the perfect opportunity to say hello!
- Ship like you’ve never shipped before.
Have fun, everyone!
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But I'm all for it because I'm so sick of all the ship wars. Natasha doesn't belong to anyone :D
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Seriously, I'll give almost any pairing/relationship a chance if it's dealt in an interesting manner. Ship wars seem so silly...
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How classy of them, oh God. Ship wars SUCK. Natasha belongs to herself, and the shipwars are treating her like a prize to be won. F-A-I-L.
I could find several similarities between Natasha and Bucky, Bucky and Clint and of course Clint and Natasha.
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Or maybe not. This is why I don't leave prompts, not exactly miss creativity over here. :P
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Just because something wouldn't work out for me or you, it doesn't mean it wouldn't work out for other people. or, if you or I think something is the right way to do something, it doesn't mean it's the right way for other people. I'm not polyamorous, for example, which is why writing OT3 has been both challenging and interesting. But I see the world through my eyes... and other people see it differently and live their lives differently.
Also, bear in mind that there might be polyamorous people on this comm.
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FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (1/3), PG, no warnings
After a few minutes, Natasha starts to giggle into her tea.
Clint's head pops up. "What?" He's wearing a slightly suspicious smile. "Something funny, baby girl?"
"Nothing," she says, demure. "Nothing at all."
Winter would've done the same thing, except with crosswords; focus all of his attention onto some poor sheet of newspaper as if it personally offended him. Ridiculous men.
Later that day, she realizes that remembering Winter in these everyday contexts doesn't hurt. They make her happy, instead of mournful (though she'll always miss him), and that's... a relief.
--
Clint gets them out of the party at Tony's in record time, all open-friendly-casual charm. He noticed the problem even before she had time to signal to him.
(He checked in with her, first, before starting to maneuver them out. Winter wouldn't have. Winter was her superior officer and, more importantly, he knew why a set of tango music was a problem she couldn't deal with.
Natasha isn't sure which method she prefers, when she's swimming along the edge of a panic attack.)
They drive home in silence; half-way there, Natasha accepts the hand that's been extended across the center console since he got into gear.
She hugs him, when they get home, and he holds her tight for a moment before letting her go.
"Talk, or RED?" he asks, and Natasha smiles. It's such a Clint way to put it.
"RED." Clint throws off a casual salute, and Natasha ducks into the bedroom to change.
--
Clint's newly back from the hospital (training injury), using her as a pillow while Top Gear drones on at half-volume in the background. (He says it's comforting. She thinks he's ridiculous.)
He was regaling her with other, worse falls during his time at the circus, but he's fallen quiet.
"You remind me of him sometimes, you know," she says.
He blinks up at her, the 'who?' as clear as a spoken question.
"Winter," she says.
If anything, his brow knits more. "Why?"
She hesitates, and skips the full story in lieu of a smile. "You get funny when you're trying to make me feel better."
Clint makes a low, deep noise at the back of his throat, sounding like any old man. Her smile turns into a grin. "I'm always funny, Romanoff."
"Right," she says, tilting her head over his, running her fingers through his hair. "My bad."
FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (2/3), PG, no warnings
Things are rough, but he's back, he's alive, and Steve's still buzzing with it. Natasha, if she were being honest, is still buzzing with it.
Clint's handled it well. She shouldn't be surprised by how well he's handled it, but she is. He and Winter (James) aren't friends, and might never be, but Clint treats him with the wary friendliness he would towards any unknown who hasn't proven themselves worthy of his trust.
At first James was sort of amused by him, then suspicious when he realized Clint and Nat's relationship, but Clint's passed some sort of test. So James is back to amused, big dog being amiably generous with Clint's suspicion because he doesn't think it can touch him. Natasha thinks that after 80 years, even the hardest head should learn some basic survival skills.
But it's not her problem.
So it takes her an embarrassingly long time to realize something's wrong.
"Clint," Natasha says, when she finds him on the roof of their apartment building after a search through their apartment turns up nothing and a call to his cellphone proves it to be out of batteries. She's home late. It's nearly midnight and Clint's still staring over the city, illuminated only by the roof-light.
He looks over, like out of a dream. "Oh," he says, and then stands off the lawn chair, a little stiff. "Oh, sorry, I must've—"
"You must've what?" Natasha asks, walking to meet him. "You've been up here – I don't know how often."
"I've been thinking," he says, eyes widening at her anger.
"And when I'm gone on a mission, do you think here all night?"
"What? No! I go inside when I get cold. C'mon, 'Tasha."
"C'mon, Clint," she parrots back at him, before sighing. She's angry, but mostly because she was scared. And she's tired. "Tell me what you're thinking about," she says, softly.
Clint's frozen for a long moment, then he nods. "I will. Not now, but after we get some sleep."
That's the best she's going to get, so she accepts it.
FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (3/3), PG, no warnings
He watches her over them, clearly turning words over in his head.
"I'm not... jealous," is how he starts, awkward and abrupt.
Nat sets her fork down and swallows, watching him patiently.
"You're going to be mad at me."
"Clint. Why would I be mad at you?"
He rubs the back of his neck. "It's going to sound like I'm putting words in your mouth. And I'm not, I just – don't know how to explain it better."
"Okay," Natasha says. She hesitates; she doesn't want to lie with false reassurances. "I'll listen with that in mind."
He nods in one abrupt jerk. "I'm not jealous of you and James," he says. "Not in the way where I think you're going to leave me, or that you don't love me, or – any of that. I mean, I was married and divorced, and I'd still look out for Bobbi if someone did that to her." He breathes. "I just... if I'm lucky, I've got a third of my life left, and if you're lucky – we don't know how long you could live. Any of you. And I just feel... I can't be there, I can't promise to stay with you, and I just feel – kind of unimportant?"
"Clint," Nat says, over the lump in her throat.
"You're angry at me," Clint guesses, not meeting her eyes.
"I'm not angry at you," she says. "You idiot."
He smirks a little at the inconsistency, eyes flicking up to meet hers, and she laughs slightly.
"You mean a lot to me," Natasha says.
His face falls. "Yeah," he agrees, quiet and non-committal.
"Clint." Natasha gets up out of her chair, and rounds the table. She pulls Clint's chair out of the back of the table with a screech and while he's still staring at her sits in his lap, looping her arms around his neck. She buries her face in his neck for a moment, breathing him in and letting her composure settle, before leaning back. "I'm a selfish person," she says, meeting his eyes. "I share my food with you, I share my thoughts with you, I share my apartment with you." She breathes. "I will hold onto you as long as I can, and no one will take you from me. Okay?"
He nods, small and uncertain, but she can see he's thinking about it. Maybe she'll have to say this again later. Maybe she'll have to say it a hundred times.
She can do that. It's true. He's important to her, and he needs to know it.
For now she kisses him, distracts him before he can think of some way to refute her words.
--
It's a month later, and she's with Steve and James at an ice cream parlor, because Steve insists he will die without regular malt shakes.
("It's real medicine," James informed her, serious, the first time Steve said this.
In-jokes have apparently always been confusing.)
Steve's ducked out for a phone call, taking his shake but leaving his fries. Natasha's appropriated them.
James watches his waffle cone diligently, working to plug any leaks before they start. He finally starts in on the ice cream, like it's a job instead of a dessert, all about defying gravity's forces.
Natasha starts to laugh, silently, left arm across her stomach.
James grins at her from across the table, and switches to take a casual bite of the ice cream, then winces hard. He steals Steve's water to wash away the worst of the headache.
"You don't need to laugh at my pain," he tells her.
"It's not that," Natasha says, though to an extent it is that. "It's just – Clint does the exact same thing, and I don't think of you…" she waves her hand. It's not like she and Winter were always dignified, but she doesn't associate him with ice-cream headaches.
"Does he now," James says, lightly. Natasha settles down to listen. "I was thinking, actually – maybe we should all go out sometime?"
Natasha smiles, after a moment. "I'll have to ask him, but... yes. I'd like that."
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (3/3), PG, no warnings
And then James. Reminding her of Clint. With a silly everyday thing, and then suggesting they should all go out! I am sooooo going to hug that line (I do OT3 them and I'll pretend things can go that way in this 'verse, as I obviously have no idea if you intended it that way or not, but, can I pretend? :D :D But even if they're "just friends" (so demeaning to friendship, friendship can be such deep and honest, profound connection), I still ADORE THIS WITH ALL MY HEART because you've written it with so much thought and consideration and treated characters fairly and there are no cheap, done-to-death jealousy ploys and tropes.
Also I love this:
"I'm a selfish person," she says, meeting his eyes. "I share my food with you, I share my thoughts with you, I share my apartment with you." She breathes. "I will hold onto you as long as I can, and no one will take you from me. Okay?"
and James being an ice cream dork was THE BEST.
THANK YOU THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!!
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (3/3), PG, no warnings
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (3/3), PG, no warnings
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (3/3), PG, no warnings
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (3/3), PG, no warnings
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (3/3), PG, no warnings
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (3/3), PG, no warnings
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (3/3), PG, no warnings
The little bits of each man that reminds Natasha of the other, those seemingly simple things that mean so much more.
Clint's explanation of why he's not jealous really kinda broke my heart.
"I will hold onto you as long as I can, and no one will take you from me. Okay?" -- oh, Natasha, how many ways can you say "I love you" with actually saying the words?
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (3/3), PG, no warnings
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (2/3), PG, no warnings
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (2/3), PG, no warnings
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (2/3), PG, no warnings
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (2/3), PG, no warnings
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (2/3), PG, no warnings
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (1/3), PG, no warnings
Wah I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. I always love how you manage to tell so much with not many words. Love love love that. You set things up very subtly, with Winter would've done the same thing, except with crosswords; focus all of his attention onto some poor sheet of newspaper as if it personally offended him. Ridiculous men. and other everyday references, and things of which life consists - small things. I admit that I didn't catch the reference to tango (is it something from comics, or something you came up with for this story, it's clear that certain set of tango music is upsetting and I love how Clint knows it, I love that Winter knew it too, and both would have done the same, assure that there's a way out of this situation for Nat).
"You remind me of him sometimes, you know," she says.
He blinks up at her, the 'who?' as clear as a spoken question.
"Winter," she says.
If anything, his brow knits more. "Why?"
So he knows about Winter and it's such a normal remark, normal thing for her to compare them, because they're both important and loved and just.... RIDICULOUS GLEE OVER THIS. OH GOD. <333333333333333333333333!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (1/3), PG, no warnings
Thank you for pointing out the tango thing! I'll have to clarify it for when I post it to AO3 (once I have enough distance to edit it properly, aha). In some versions of comics canon, Natasha was in Stalingrad during the siege. Tango music was used as a form of psychological warfare against the invading Nazis, blaring constantly (24/7) on the radios except for occasional intermissions to remind the Nazis they were all going to die. So this Nat, while a soldier for Russia at the time, still has some pretty bad associations with it.
:DD (I am responding to each comment because it's easier to get the words straight in my head that way, haha!)
Re: FIC: Nobody's A Contestant (1/3), PG, no warnings