I'm a native Russian speaker and also studied Russian (particularly Soviet) history extensively. So if anyone has any questions regarding that for Black Widow related things, please feel free to ask!

Also, may I very kindly point out that her name is Natasha Romanova, not Romanoff? (Because that's the male ending!) As far as I understood she only introduces herself like that to Americans as more a personal joke. Sorry, I'm just being nitpicky :P

On the "ova" v. "off", I think they used "off" in the film, for whatever reason (and it could just be that the folks making the film didn't think it through)-- I'm pretty sure I saw it when they flashed her file on the computer when they were looking at the footage of her and Clint on the helicarrier. That's why I had gone with "off", since it seemed to be the move!canon version. But yeah-- I had heard it's not correct grammatically, true.

Edited 2012-06-30 02:12 am (UTC)

Ooh, very awesome. I may indeed end up asking you things :D I have books and what-not myself, but never hurts to ask.

I have actually seen different takes on that - her name absolutely is Romanova in Russian, but English doesn't have gendered last names. I can see her switching to English-style for, say, her English-language visa and for SHIELD purposes using English (might be easier to get them to say her name correctly, might be part of her divorcing herself from her past, because she seems determined to appear American unless people know her history, or she chooses to divulge it). Obviously, I'm not saying you are wrong! Because that'd be, uh, dumb. But I think names and spellings are part of what Natasha does, and how shifts them means things and conveys what she wants.

Does that make sense?

Edited 2012-06-30 02:16 am (UTC)

PS. I think this is a great idea!

Alll the support group-ness! *facepalms, laughing*

Me too! :D

Pphhhff. My muse wouldn't even let me eat breakfast this morning. I had to put chatty!Clint in a box while I scarfed my eggs and coffee.

He wasn't happy about it.

I've written 10K words in the last two and a half days, I'm suffering serious caffeine crash, and I've forgotten what it's like to have a conversation without the word 'feels' in it.

Oh, I'm perfectly fine, why do you ask?

:D

Oh, wow, you're on fire. Go you! But, oh, god, I know the feeling of "CAN'T EAT, NEED TO WRITE" or even just plain forgetting about things like 'food' until you get stuck in fic and are all 'oh, yeah, blood-sugar is crashing, whooooops'.

*cheerleads*

I'd love to beta work for you.

Oh, thank you for the offer! I actually already have friends who beta for me, and we have some good relationships going there, but thank you so much anyway. :)

According to AO3 (http://archiveofourown.org/users/samalander) I've written 115,034 words since May 6 and am stalled on my WIPs.


Irons I currently have in the fire:

• A Nat/Clint Buddy Comedy in Baltimore that has been stalled forever and is having all kinds of tense issues:
  The packet is red, with a sticker across the front that proclaims its security level. Natasha eyes it warily, where Coulson dropped it on the table. Clint is next to her, and his steady breathing is something she thinks, not for the first time, she could lean into, if she needed to.
  
  She never plans to need to.
  
  “You,” Coulson tells them, “are a young couple, living in a suburb of Baltimore called Columbia.”
  
  Natasha loves these briefings. The red of the packet belies that this is a recon job with the possibility of assassination, and something about that always lights the smouldering fire in her belly - the idea that she might not have to kill anyone. Or maybe the idea that she’ll get to.
  
  “Mr. Carl Pennington,” Coulson continues, and Natasha snickers. Clint always gets the stupidest cover names. “From Iowa. You’ve had some trouble in the economy, but after graduating from the University of Maryland with a BA in - oh, criminology! - you and your girlfriend here decided to move in together. As we speak, Carla Rivas, the administrative assistant to Dr. Robert Cartwright of the Johns Hopkins biophysics department, is eating a rather iffy tunafish sandwich. She’ll be out for at least a week, probably more, and your temp agency will be placing you in her position.”
  
  Natasha is not laughing at the idea of Clint as someone’s secretary, but oh god, the mental images she’s conjuring. They involve sweater vests. And bow ties.
  
  “You,” Coulson turns to her. “Ms. Noelle Martin. Graduated with a BA in Russian language and literature from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County - sorry, you couldn’t both be flagship kids - and since the massive amount of debt you racked up keeps you from a top secret clearance to get in with the government as you want, you’ve scored a choice job as the brand new Hot Girl Trainer at the Hopkins rec center. If we know your mark - and we do - he’ll be switching his services to you within a few days of your accidentally meeting him.”
  
  Natasha rolls her eyes, but she’s honestly more pleased with her assignment than Clint is with his. Hers will involve kicking some graduate students across the floor and being drooled over by men old enough to be Fury’s father. His will involve collating. She wins, and he knows it, but it barely makes them even when she factors in all the times she’s had to play a stripper or a prostitute. Though not for SHIELD. They’re good about that, and she doesn’t want to think about it.
  
  Coulson hasn’t stopped. “Your mark is Dr. Robert Cartwright. We have reason to believe that he’s developing a dirty bomb for HYDRA
  
• A document that just says "Imposter Syndrome, or, Six Times the Avengers Thought they Didn’t Fit," Which I'm not sure what it was going to be anymore.
  
• A partner fic to my Natasha back story which right now is called "Bucky Feels" and just has pieces of an outline.
  
• An epistolary fic called "Clint Goes Deaf" which was supposed to deal with the fallout from his getting injured, but I got mad at it a few weeks ago.
  
• A file called "Angst Vomit" which appears to be letters from the Avengers to Steve after he dies in the comics.
  
• A doc called "Clint Recovery" which was, in theory, going to be about Clint recovering (wow) without having sex with anyone.

IDK which of these I'm going to work on, but if any sound interesting, let me know.

I really like the snippet you posted. I'm a sucker for mission!fics, especially where their all cozy and undercover and being awesome and such.

Also, your "Angst Vomit" file name is cracking my shit up. I may have to steal that....

Can we also discuss how my marvel_bang is going to be the length of a god damn novel?

Yes, yes we can! :D?

Well, you know I love this idea. My brain is currently bouncing back and forth between screwball comedy and really dark and twisty things. And rope. O_o

But I also have to percolate on ideas for awhile, and I'm probably several days away from being able to actually be coherent (still in post-fic recovery period.)

Mmmmm, roooooooope *coughs* And oh, man, I know the 'brain is bouncing between different modes' feeling, too. Which ends up with me that I don't write in either of the moods, because I can't settle.

Ahahaha, yeah, I don't blame you on that! I need to go and catch up with date!fic. Sadly my own fic-recovery period seems to be 'start blankly at things for a night. then next day, write ficlet'.

*cheerleads and sends flowers for recovery*

SO. SIXTEEN WIPS. WHICH REALLY SHOULD BE SEVENTEEN. OR MAYBE NINETEEN. Because so far the 'Natasha joined Clint's circus instead of turning to contract-killing post-Red Room' fic is still in my head without any real words to it, and there are various ideas for ficathons that are bubbling away, so really it could be over twenty and ahahaha, oh god, what the hell.

And they keep turning all LONG AND EPIC in my head. I have a Supernatural!AU bubbling away (and I may have broken out my season one DVDs and be watching For Research) where Clint and Natasha hunt ghosts and monsters and are incredibly BAMFy and competent, and SHIELD is a shadowy organization who provides hunter-support for a select number and there are silver bullets and speaking of Latin (or however Natasha would know how to do various rituals, given if she's been trained due to Red Room dabbling in black magic, it's not going to be Western European/Catholic based) and Clint shoots things with his bow and they cruise around in Nat's red Cadillac, because I now cannot see her with any other cat. And oh, the fic wants a sequel where one of Nat's Red Room sisters turns up and *headdesks*

There is the post-canon aftermath fic, where both Clint and Natasha heal and learn and adjusts, and end up moving in together (finally, three years after they got married for a joke), which is going to be long and tricky to write, because they are both messes.)

And there is the 'Clint hunts Natasha' fic which is actually more 'InterPol asks SHIELD for help, and Clint and his team have to go after two Red Room girls - Natasha and the OC Olya, whom I adore - and they have to take the women down without the other know it' which is...long and complicated and requires a ton of research and OMG, what (I mentioned the start of this in my fic Congratulations on Your Birthday) (and I have fears no one is going to read it, because there's going to be zero UST with Clint and Natasha, because this is just a job, and they only meet at the end, and they are professionals, and also because Natasha is not the most dangeorus of the pair, but Olya. Because Olya is picking off InterPol on a revenge kick while Natasha is just being her professional self and no longer involved, so I'm messing with the whole 'this job is the most important ever' trope and *headdesks*).

And various Red Room fic that I want to write, but on the other hand, my Red Room is pragmatically malevolent and has calculated on the style of emotional abuse and childhood brainwashing needed to control the girls, and that kind of cold-blooded practicality freaks me out.

And there is the daemon!AU, where all the characters have their souls outside their body in the form of opposite-gendered (usually) animals (Natasha has a daemon in the form of a Siberian cat called Ilariy - Clint's daemon is a red-tailed hawk called Winona) and-

And, and, and.

And oh god, I need heeeeeeeeeeeeeelp.

where both Clint and Natasha heal and learn and adjusts, and end up moving in together (finally, three years after they got married for a joke)

I swear I just dropped my Diet Coke while reading this. I need this in my life like WHOA.

I WILL PLAY. I shall whine about how I've several brilliant(at least to me) ideas that come to me when I'm at work, or in the shower, etc etc, and I'll write down little scraps of them or something, but when I sit down to actually write anything, I get bupkis. White blank page/swelling rage etc etc. Sigh. Nothing ever seems WORTH writing once I start actually trying, and I really want to write stuff for this pairing but nothing is meshing waaaaaaaah.

CO-SIGNED. I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate all the ideas that arrive at work, and you get all of the words and it's all BRILLIANT, and then you get to your computer and...nope. Words gone. It sucks.

<3 you'll crack it one day! And I find it sometimes worth just writing down something that you think is crap, leaving it for a little while, and then coming back and polishing. For what it's worth, anyway!

You know we can't squee over your writing until you actually publish it, don't you?

*raises eyebrow significantly*

I've published things!

:D?

Just not...everything *facepalms*

UGH THIS SHIP I HAVE TOO MANY FEELINGS.

Right now I've got three WIPs:

1. Mr. & Mrs. Barton (or, Why Natasha Sends Jennifer Aniston an Annual Apologetic Fruit Basket) --> essentially, Clint and Natasha were the inspiration for Mr. and Mrs. Smith, because Coulson once got a little drunk and chatted up a Hollywood screenwriter in a bar.

2. Future chapters of if you let me through the door we can let the world in (http://thoughts-to-ink.livejournal.com/627.html#cutid1) --> there will be action and team bonding and some Clint whupping because I'm MEAN and maybe some Tony/Steve because all the cool kids are writing it, I guess?

3. Budapest fic, because I think it's obligatory.

ALL THE FEELINGS. ALL OF THEM. This shiiiiiiiiiiiip, I can't even.

...ahahahah, oh, god, the first one sounds hilarious. And wheeeeeeeeeee, for the second :D :D :D

Budapest probably is obligatory. And, hell, we could have an entire writing 'fest about Budapest, and all come up with wildly different ideas of what went down. Can't wait to see yours.

I want to do a MI4 crossover. You know how they ask Renner's character what his secret is? Well I want a fic where the team gets captured and the bad guys are terrified of Barton because they know who he is, and Nat rescues him, they kill everyone and the team just looks dumbfounded.

I still need to see MI4. One day, one daaaaaaaaaaaaay.

I can answer questions about malaria! That's what I've spent the last few days researching both at work (I'm a pharmacy tech) and at home. If anyone needs fun diseases to write about (because I'm sure EVERYONE says "Malaria! Yeah!"), I can help!

I need the kind of encouragement that uses a hammer to smash every other place on the internet and tapes my hands to the keyboard!

I'm sure malaria will crop up! There are missions, after all. :D

The internet is a terrible place - so full of shiny, shiny, shiny distraction.

Just discovered this comm and ... omg, it's going to totally destroy the one second of free time I had that wasn't already taken up with the internet.

A creative support group is an awesome idea - I've got a WIP I'm posting on FF.net and I tend to write slowly and hit writer's block a lot. And the Clint/Natasha fics I follow on there are updated so quickly, that I feel guilty for my readers lol.

Yes, yes it is. It's the best kind of shiny crack.

ooh, good luck! I know the feeling well.

Creative support group <3 Tagged! Because I, at least, am going to need to be able to come back here with the awkward questions. Or if there are multiple posts or whatever. I love the 'fans: assemble!' -ness of this comm :D

The actual fic that I am meant to be working on is my marvel_bang fic, aka the sequel to The Child Takers. It's growing into a monster :S

But then I keep having those nagging ideas that won't go away. No idea if I'll end up writing them all, but:
- the one crossed-over with Firefly that I rambled about the other day.
- the one labelled 'epic spy fic' which may be about some real life stories I read about the court system for people accused of terrorism and lots of undercover work
- the one in which Clint loses his hearing
- the one about all the mess the Avengers make in the film, and not just New York. Such as somebody like the Forestry Commission wanting to know what the hell Iron Man, a guy in a cape, and a guy that parachuted out of a plane did to a load of their acres. And the people that have to deal with it.
- the one where Natasha drags Clint on a road trip after the film
- Five People Tony Stark Never Built A Suit For (And One Person He Did)
- and something noted as 'Clint/Natasha epic epic epic!' I have no idea what that one means, heh.

Ooh, re: Firefly/crossover-fusion-thing. I have one of those myself! Which I've got a ficlet published from. And oh, if you finish yours, that sounds fun. (And while we have some things similar, we also have some things different, which is awesome for different takes on the same concept).

...actually all of these sound very, very, very shiny ideas. *shamelessly encourages*

*laughs* I'll play!

I have four, maybe five ideas, even though right now I really, really need to focus on my Torchwood big bang case story that I have to post in ten days. Before doing my Torchwood beta work today I wrote about 350 words of a Bruce/Natasha friendship scene, using head canon from Indebted. *sheepish look* I then killed my brain after doing the rewrites and had to look at pretty Clint/Natasha pictures before being able to function again.

I tend to just have random plot points written down in a notebook so my writing ideas are kind of in one place. Whether these get expanded on is a different matter, as my brain may be completely dead by July 9 when I post.

1. Torchwood/Avengers, cuz anything and everything can be crossed with Torchwood in my world. :P
- post-Miracle Day/Avengers movie
- inspired by one of my Twitter peeps
- SHIELD calls Torchwood cuz it's an alien threat

2. prompt from the Noir ficathon Just how good a liar can a decent man be?"
- I just have a few points for this one, including Clint being a reporter and Natasha being a mob boss' dame, which means it may never come into being

3. workerbee73 asked for Nat!crush fic and gave a prompt, which aurora_0811 helped expand and I'm going to try and fill
- I have a partial outline for this one and just had a brain wave of Clint "dating" Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird, aka his ex-wife in the comics
- I really, really want to write this one

4. Natasha/Bruce friendship fic, cuz I haven't found one of these yet, although I'll admit I haven't been looking very hard
- Bruce notices that Natasha's moods change according to whether Clint is around or not
- I have a partial outline for this as well
- it ends with Natasha asking Bruce if he will stand witness for her and Clint. Bruce agrees.
- I really want to write this one as well

4a, maybe? 350 word scene where Natasha shows Bruce where she and Clint live, which is why she doesn't live at the Tower unless Clint is out of town. Part of it's taken from the head canon that Clint and Natasha live in a factory a la Indebted, and they've been in a relationship for seven or eight years, since she turned 18.

If anyone would be willing to help bounce ideas, or beta for me once I'm done something, I would be very grateful. I'm looking to focus on 3, 4, and 4a at the moment. I just need to finish up my Torchwood fic then I'll be free to roll around in the Avengers sandbox some more.

BOBBI! Sorry, I have a Bobbi in my headcanon, too, and I'm very fond of her (Clint's first wife, in my headcanon - they met in the army, married too damn young, fairly amiable divorce, and now she's a kickass biologist. No idea what to do about the superhero aspect, but movie!verse isn't exactly the same as comics!verse, so, la), so :D! I've discovered a need for Bobbi-in-fic done well, so yay. (I also....have an idea myself of a "look at Clint's serious/important relationships" fic, of which there are three - a guy in the circus, Bobbi, and Natasha. So far it's just a concept)

And oh, my, SHIELD and Torchwood would be amazing and hilarious and really interesting. And GOOD LUCK re: big bang. I can never do them, so I'm always faintly in awe of those who can. Go you!

I have a few wips and they jump between super!depressing!angsty and Despicable Me levels of OMGSOFLUFFYI'MGOINGTODIE... some many never get finished, but such is life.

I'm currently halfway done with a fic for daxcat79 where Clint is jealous of a super awesome Bruce/Natasha friendship. Because Clint is emotionally stunted and can't just say "Hey, I like you". Instead he just gets annoyed and sulks a lot.

I have a Team!FunTimes fic going which is just a bunch of little snippets of different adventures they have. Steve likes Broadway. Clint brings home stray animals. Steve tries to get everybody to go to the circus. Clint asks Bruce to teach him science-y things because he never had a formal education. Steve learns tech but pretends to not understand because he likes Tony in Explaining Mode. Thor touches EVERYTHING.

I have angsty Clint backstory fic going.

Super fluffy birthday fic. Natasha doesn't know when her actual birthday is and never cared. Since the first year they worked together, Clint has picked a random day every year to celebrate.

Super angsty Clint sacrifices himself for the greater good (but lives) and Natasha has to wait until he's healed to beat him up for being stupid.

And then there's one I'm almost done with. Fluff and silly. It's Only Tuesday! is the title and I will say nothing more about it. Just... y'know... It's Only Tuesday!

they jump between super!depressing!angsty and Despicable Me levels of OMGSOFLUFFYI'MGOINGTODIE

I feel this. SO MUCH. I live in extremes when it comes to these two.

I love this idea! I've always wanted to talk to someone about my ideas, but never really had anyone to talk to (mostly because I'm too nervous about approaching other writers).

I've got a fic wandering around in my brain that involves a vamp!Natasha and slayer!Clint, of all things. He's sent to kill her and they end up working together to go after a second vampire (coincidentally Nastasha's master and also trying to kill her). It's dark and full of things going bump in the night and, at the heart of it, about two monsters who look at each other and realize they're not alone anymore. I have pieces of different versions here and there (believe it or not, parts have been written on a typewriter), but I would love help to straighten it out and make sure that they stay in character. You know, if anyone's interested.

Edited 2012-06-30 09:33 pm (UTC)

I've got a fic wandering around in my brain that involves a vamp!Natasha and slayer!Clint

I heartily approve of this idea. Like WHOA. Like, I need this in my life. :)

I could use a support group because OMG, this pairing is eating my brain ever sine I saw the film for the first time. Those other times I saw it didn't help my, err, condition. One look at my tumblr and it's clear that Avengers have eaten what was left of my brain. (Also, not everyone on my list shares my level of Avengers - crazy and it's just awesome that this comm exists).

I have several ideas, which may or might not be written, because there's never enough time for writing fics. Sadly. In no particular order,

*a cracky idea where Clint and Natasha are undercover and Tony keeps calling and checking on them

*another cracky crossover idea with Castle, pre - movie, where Rick Castle and Tony get to have a verbal showdown; and team!Castle thinks there's something going on between Natalie Rushman and that guy who might be Tony Stark's bodyguard. There should be some king of weird crime case to solve, and detective Ryan and Agent Coulson should get on really well.

*one with all the songs Clint plays for Natasha or about her, or two of them, because i love the headcanons where Clint plays a guitar and is into country and classical rock. My kind of guy.

*a not to take entirely seriously domestic AU inspired by this (http://vesperass.tumblr.com/post/24760199818/mydoctortennant-sequel-to-x-what-the-hell) (actually, there were several gifsets like that), and I may have challenged myself into writing a monster with that one. Tony gets to be Mama Bear of the team; also lots of team love, which is fun.

*one where Clint teaches Steve about several decades of rock music and other fun stuff Steve had slept through. Team love and Clint/Natasha of course.

So far no major angst ideas yet, but I love hurt/comfort ideas.... those are bound to happen.

Edited 2012-07-01 07:15 am (UTC)

Oh my gosh, a Castle crossover? That would be made of awesome! Have you seen that clip of Nathan Fillion and RDJ comparing Castle and Iron Man? 'I'm Iron Man and you're not.' LOL I would love to see this so damn much. Ahem, no pressure or anything ;)

Actually, I would love to read all of these :D

Yeah, there is no hope for our brains. Oh well!

Edited 2012-07-01 09:16 pm (UTC)

I haven't heard of that film, but I am at the point where I will read anything of yours. I know it's gonna hurt, but I also know it'll be worth it :D

I HAVE A CLINTASHA FIC THAT IS DONE EXCEPT FOR A PARAGRAPH AND I LITERALLY WANT TO THROW MY COMPUTER OUT THE WINDOW. A PARAGRPH. THAT'S ALL IT NEEDS.

/sobs

YOU CAN DO IT! *CHEERLEADS* YOU CAN TOTALLY BEAT THAT LAST PARAGRAPH INTO EXISTENCE!

*also sends all the sympathy, as has totally been there and done that*