Hello to everyone who signed up to Secret Santa this year! (Also a shout out to the people who have volunteered so far to pinch hit if needed, thank you <3 )

The next step is to make your choices...

Below is an anonymised list of what the 18 people who have signed up have said that they would like to receive as a gift in this year’s Secret Santa exchange (taken from the Details/Description section of the AO3 sign ups). Please can everyone taking part in this exchange reply to this post by 18:00 GMT Sunday 22nd October with:

1) Your AO3 user name /handle
2) Your FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, and FOURTH choices for what gift you’d like to create. We’ll use these choices to help match people up.

For example:
inkvoices
FIRST: THREE
SECOND: SIX
THIRD: NINE
FOURTH: TWELVE

All comments to this post will be screened to keep your replies anonymous. You don't need a DW account to comment. If you have any questions please reply to the questions/comments thread at the top of this post where we will unscreen comments in order to reply.

A few things to note:
- You're not guaranteed your choices, but we WILL keep to your choices as much as possible!
- You have until 18:00 GMT Sunday 22nd October to comment with your choices, otherwise we'll do our best to match you up without one.
- If everyone comments with their choices before the deadline then we’ll try to send assignments out earlier if offline life permits!
- Your assignment will be sent to you via AO3, using the email address you have on AO3. Please check your spam folder and your AO3 account to make sure you receive an assignment.

And onwards to the main event…



ONE

1) In which Liho (or Lucky) turns out to be a Flerken.

2) "Careful! That matter duplicator is still under constr....!" Tony's voice peters out as he takes in the two identical Bartons now standing on the platform, glaring at each other resentfully. (Bonus: duplicate!Clint gets us around that whole farm conundrum...)

3) When Natasha heard that snap-crackle-pop coming from Tony's time machine and felt herself getting sucked in, she knew there was a problem. When she saw the bullet-riddled sign, "Welcome to Tombstone!", she knew the problem was bigger than she'd feared. But nothing prepared her for the sight of Clint Barton, dealing out cards in the saloon, a six-shot by his side.

4) The NYC LARPers have a new mission: Make Hawkeye happy. Kate told them he's been pining after a certain redhead... (AoU non-compliant, please)

5) Any AU (super-powered or not); Multiverse "as if" story; five plus one; remix; or fix-it that you always wanted to write, or may have started but never finished. Anything and everything you decide to write for me will be hugely appreciated! (Consider this a "blank cheque"!)

I love: slow burns; friends-to-lovers; outsider POV; found family (including that dysfunctional lot from Ohio); romcom (including AUs or fake!married); banter; competency porn; pre-Natasha starting at SHIELD; SHIELD fic,; tower shenanigans. Lovelovelove the Fraction!Aja comics vibe, and am fond of Occupy!Avengers working-class-hero Clint. Party like it's 2012, ignore the farm and Vormir as you wish, and feel free mash up MCU and comics beats to your heart's content.

I don't love: threesomes, whump, graphic violence or character death (unless it's in a fix-it and reversed), baby!fic, character bashing.


TWO

1) "Darling, I would burn this world for you." ― Scarlett St. Clair

2) Alice in Wonderland inspired mood board - by cati-creative-corner on tumblr

3) A witch has his work cut out for him when the local fairy population and the local werewolf pack begin having territorial disputes. Can't a guy ever just have a happy Yule?

4) Christmas on the farm

5) Any urban (dark or light) fantasy idea you've got?

6) “I know the look of an apple that is roasting and sizzling on the hearth on a winter’s evening, and I know the comfort that comes of eating it hot, along with some sugar and a drench of cream. I know how nuts are taken in conjunction with winter apples, cider, and doughnuts, make old people’s tales and old jokes sound fresh and crisp and enchanting.” — Mark Twain

Yes, please: Touch starved characters, friendships, kids, fluff, soulmates, winter holiday (Christmas, Hannukah, Yule, Solstice, etc.) themes/situations, all the pets, team as family, Clint being partially/completely deaf, trauma recovery, biting/marking, possessiveness, poly with any mix of the human characters listed especially MFM, pets

No, thank you: Clint as a disaster, Natasha/Bruce, character death, Civil War anything, Loki as a good guy

Absolute DNW: Anti-religion/Religion bashing, abortion, mpreg, infidelity/cheating, current political issues/figures, real people


THREE

1)STRIKE Team Delta SOS: After a job, Natasha and Clint get stranded in the wilderness and must survive until help comes. Choose from: distress at sea, plane crash, extreme heat, extreme cold. (Bonus: cuddles against the elements)

2) Red In Her Head: A subtle trigger (word, sound, smell, touch, event) sets off a progression of dormant Red Room programming within Natasha. Clint is the first to notice, maybe even sooner than Natasha herself, that something is off about her. (Bonus: this is what Natasha references to when she tells Clint she knows what it is to be unmade in Avengers Assemble)

3) The Chains That Bind: After a rather long stay behind enemy lines, Clint and Natasha are finally rescued, and, after a prolonged stint in medical, get sent to rehab. But nobody really gets what it was like and the only one left to confide in is each other. (Bonus: H/C cuddling/sex/I'm-there-for-you-moment)

4) Bullseye: Natasha accompanies Clint on one of his hunting trips. She learns more about him there than in two years of partnership on the job. (Bonus: first-time hook-up)

5) Lucy In The Sky: That drink was spiked with something other than Roofies, and now Clint has to help Natasha sit out the effects of an unknown drug. (Choice: good trip vs bad trip, Bonus: no help from outside)

6) Lock It Up And Lose The Key: After Loki, Natasha shows Clint how to deal with 'being unmade'. (Bonus: unorthodox methods)

Yes Please: whump 'em babies. I love H/C, but there's gotta be enough Hurt to justify the Comfort. Nat whump prefered. All forms of Clintasha are great, sexy times are good times.

No Thanks: threesomes, F/F, M/M are not really my thing. Also, sorry, Clint's fam, but you're a no-no in this. Avoid extreme fluff.


FOUR

1) Post-WS Clint/Nat/Bucky recovery/relationship negotiation fic

2) Epistolary, mixed media and/or outside POV fic

3) Sex worker AU (any type. Camboy/girl, stripper, sex club, stereotypical street corner hooker)

4) Lucky (or Liho or Alpine) as match-maker

5) Established couple actively seeking out third for fun times/actual relationship and all the negotiation that requires.

6) Clint Barton, collector of strays (Natasha, Bucky, Kate, Lucky, Liho, Wanda, America, Steve etc etc. I just love the idea of Clint unwittingly being the glue that binds everyone together.)

Yes please: friendship, poly, relationship negotiation, AUs, magical realism, ladies!, worldbuilding, PINING, smut, slutty Clint Barton. I'm also very much in the mood for canon-adjacent stories where folks are Avengers or SHIELD agents but MCU storylines don't really feature. So, y'know, just spy and/or superhero shenanigans.

No thank you: canon compliance past Civil War (Black Panther folks are fine though), Barton farm (unless they're Barney's family), Loki, Darcy Lewis, Clint/Laura, Clint/Coulson, Bruce/Natasha, kid fic, character death, character bashing.


FIVE

1) Natasha has acquired a cat (or multiple cats) and things get interesting.

2) Clint really doesn’t want to dress up for this party or event-like thing - could be a holiday thing but doesn’t have to be.

3) Things go horribly wrong when someone decides to cook something supposedly simple.

4) After the events in Avengers, healing from the trauma of having Loki in his head isn’t as easy or simple as Clint had been hoping.

5) Someone is having a very bad day - someone (or multiple someones) tries to make it better.

6) “Is it me, or is this circus haunted?”

Yes Please: Deaf/hard of hearing Clint, banter, sass, humor, hurt/comfort, fluff, smut with feelings, team as family, Infinity War/Endgame Never ever happening, comicsverse, movie/tv-verse, mash-up of comics/movies/tv, fix-its, canon divergence, polyamory, friends-to-lovers, 5+1, romance, domestic, angst with fluff, Clint/Natasha, Clint & Natasha, Clint/Bucky, Clint/Natasha/Bucky, Natasha/Bucky, Kate Bishop, Kate/Yelena, Kate/America, Barney Barton, Lucky, Alpine, Liho.

No Thank You: unhappy endings, animal harm/death, permanent character death, cheating, non-con, terminal illness, Infinity War/Endgame without a fixit for both Natasha’s and Loki’s deaths.


SIX

1) Natasha keeps setting up Clint for dates, but somehow he always messes it up. Could it be he's not telling her something?

2) Black Widow movie divergence where Clint & Nat are on the run together. Does Nat want to find her family? Does she get contacted by Yelena first? Do they want to go looking for someone else?

3) Bucky/Laura/anyone you would put on a OT3 wake up one day in Clint & Natasha's bed, friends of them who have been dating for ages. What happened the previous night? Why are they all cuddling? And where are all their clothes?

4) Thor takes the Avengers on vacation to Asgard, and the cultural differences create all sorts of misunderstandings and funny situations. Truth serum, animal transformation, accidental marriage, sex pollen, the sky is the limit!

5) Natasha visiting Clint at the farm while being on the run post-Civil War.

6) Rainy days stuck at home

Yes Please: angst with happy ending, canon divergences, all the fluff, modern settings AUs, missing scenes, bed/clothes sharing, caretaking, casual intimacy, friends to lovers, mutual pinning, first times. I’m only familiar with the MCU settings, but feel free to use whichever!

No Thank You: major character death, rape/non-con, arranged marriage, drugs use/mention, graphic description of violence and wounds, torture, historical/royal/medieval settings, hurt with no comfort, mind control/brainwashing, captivity, sad endings, sick fics, pregnancy


SEVEN

1) Clintasha (or Winterwidowhawk) mammalogists/biologists AU

2) Clint/Coffee

3) Clint getting hurt and Natasha taking care of him and/or Natasha getting hurt and Clint taking care of her

4) Dracula vs Clint Barton

5) Clint gets cursed into animal form, writer's choice. Bonus points if it's not some kind of bird or canine.

6) Clint is a shifter/were and he's kept it secret all his adult life when Natasha finds out.

Please no: permament character death, no references to Infinity War/Endgame, no farm family (except as Barney's family), angst with a sad ending, anything that requires knowledge of MCU canon between Age of Ultron and Hawkeye, explict smut


EIGHT

1) "You don’t have to be insane to work here, but it certainly helps."

2) They say the eyes are the window to the soul.

3) Evanescent - soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence; quickly fading or disappearing.

4) 'And we can lay here one last time
Don't slip away, leave me behind
I'm on my knees, I'm begging you
Don't break the heart
That's loving you'
(Tom Grennan - Don't Break the Heart)

Yes please: Mundane AU, scifi, fantasy or magical realism. And smut. Smut is good, either as part of a longer story or a as a PWP. Kink is more than welcome. Canon is great too, and moving along the timeline for either comics or MCU.

No thank you: Anything related to AOU or the Barton farm and family, and importing comics characters into movieverse fic and vice versa. Also please no crossovers to non-Marvel canons either, no excessive fluff, no marriage or kids. Oh and no Coulson and please avoid Loki. And please no fusions or crossovers with other fandoms either. And as far as Kate and Clint/Kate are concerned, please only comics canon and dynamics. I don’t ship them in the tv show.


NINE

1) Hijinks-y cross country (or cross global) trip to make it home for Christmas (canon or AU)

2) Stranded at a posh ski resort, but [insert your favorite trope here: fake dating, only one bed, whatever!]

3) oh, like it’s MY fault that my love language is acts of service and all I know how to do is kill [but like, lighthearted, yeah?]

4) "I reject the idea that kindness and gentleness and love need to involve a bunch of gentle flowery language"

5) Person A: “Are you sick?” Person B: “no, I’m in love with you!”

6) Any uncommon/offbeat workplace AU

Yes please: enemies to friends to lovers (or just friends to lovers), banter, wintery/holiday related shenanigans, Kate Bishop and America Chavez, mission fics, Natasha interacting with Maria, Pepper, and/or Melinda May. Natasha and Steve or Natasha and Tony friendships are also deeply beloved, especially when she goes to one of them for life or dating advice! The more rom-com tropes, the better :D I love AUs and when comics canon comes into play, but neither are required. Side pairings I enjoy: America/Kate, Tony/Pepper, Thor/Valkyrie, Steve/Maria

No thank you: I do not subscribe to MCU canon post-Civil War-ish with regards to these two! Please no farm fam/Laura, Bruce/Natasha, death fics, ABO/anything particularly kink-based, kid/pregnancy fics, horror/gore.


TEN

1) Natasha doesn’t feel the cold. (Could be that she’s used to it, something that the Red Room did, supernatural AU… go where you will!)

2) The Clint Collects Strays consequences edition - a number of past lovers, friends, contacts, strays etc. of Clint Barton get together to help/rescue him. (Clint may not actually need rescuing, but they're here for him anyway.)

3) Last January I made a new year’s resolution that I was going to be brave and [do X] by the end of the year and now we're in December already. (Where [X] could be to make a change, do something that scares them, a relationship thing like tell someone they love them or to kiss them - your choice!)

4) I've been where you are before, and I know the way out. (From a saying I believe originated with this West Wing quote)

5) Running away.

6) When some people from Natasha's [group of people spread out around the country or world - SHIELD colleagues, freelance acquaintances, online book club, academic linguists chat, unsolved mysteries discord… canon or AU or whatever you like!] decide to meet up over the holidays (any holiday) Natasha thinks, sure, why not? It's not like she has anywhere else to be.

Yes Please: if any of this works for you I enjoy found family, happy or hopeful endings, sass and banter, friendships, hurt/comfort that's heavy on the comfort, intimacy, diversity of all kinds, deaf!Clint, amusing misunderstandings or identity porn, and AUs of all kinds. I enjoy any form of Clint & Nat - friends, partners, queerplatonic, lovers, enemies to friends, poly… it's all good! (Any rating is fine. Some character and relationship tags included only if helpful!)

No thank you: (permanent) major character death, non-con, dub-con, cancer, terminal illness, Thanos. I'd rather not have anything lockdown/pandemic related or anything pregnancy related as a main plot point (background or mentions are fine).


ELEVEN

1) LOKI, preferably bad Loki a la 2012 please

2) Natasha comes first in Clint's life, no matter what

3) Ronin/Natasha

4) Nat has codes like the Winter Soldier, only Clint knows them but Team finds out

5) Outsider POV (envious of C/N, former lover, happy observations, go wild)

6) Constant care - one so distraught the other has to tell them what to do/give orders

Yes, please: missing scenes, extended scenes, fix it fics, jealous/possesive Hawkeye, Dom Clint, Brock Rumlow bad guy

No, thank you: incest, underage, child abuse, polyamorous/threesomes, major Char death, unhappy endings, bodily functions during sex, beta Clint


TWELVE

1) Clint and Nat have shared beds before. It's no big deal. But lately there’s something about one's bleary eyes and mussed hair in the morning that just makes the other one... feel things.

2) ‘Wait, you’ve been hired to kill this guy too?!’

3) Natasha's family can be very nosy. And inconsiderate. And even though Natasha has her own safehouses all over, they just keep finding them and barging in at the most inopportune times. Lucky thing Clint is a very patient man (and also, its happened so often, he's used to it by now.)

4) Someone feels that celebrating the holidays at the beach borders on sacrilegious; the other takes this as a challenge to have the best beach holidays ever.

5) From a tweet reading: "12 years ago I talked to a stranger at a bar for over 3 hours. He said goodbye and nothing more when I left. In the parking lot I got angry. I stormed back in and yelled at him for not asking for my phone number." Only its Natasha, so I don't think it goes as smoothly as that ;) Bonus points if its blends in with canon and Clint's initial mission to bring Natasha down.

6) We had a really bad break up three hundred years ago but neither of us realized the other was immortal until we met today while shopping for groceries

Yes please: mission fics, angst with a happy ending, magical/mystical, AU (with the exception of HS), poly, existing Barton kids are ok (but new Clint/Nat ones are not), fluff, feels, smooshing of different canons (MCU, comics, cartoons, etc)

No thank you: Permanent character death, character bashing, Loki, Brainwashing (unless its recovery from!), noncon, rape, Clint/Coulson or Nat/Yelena


THIRTEEN

1) Early SHIELD: Natasha struggling to fit in/adjust

2) "If either one of you so much as blinks wrong, I will have you shipped off on the longest, most tedious mission SHIELD has to offer." Fury hisses, pinning them in their seat with a look. "Now get out of my sight." (you can alter the sentence however you see fit)

3) Natasha's first christmas with the Barton fam (but make it angsty)

4) Clint and Nat are fighting, but they still have an undercover mission to finish and they're both professionals (mostly)

Yes, please: angst! and hurt/comfort! but give them a happy ending please

No, thank you: no marriage or pregnancies or kids (except the Barton kids), not 100% fluff, just sprinkle some angst in there :)


FOURTEEN

1) clint and natasha are cats. did they get turned into felines from a mission gone wrong? are they together in a neighborhood? a shelter? the wild? is this just a warriors AU? you decide!

2) one's a faerie and the other's a professional mushroom gatherer. modern or medieval or something else altogether...?

3) "Who am I? If this once I were to rely on a proverb, then perhaps everything would amount to knowing whom I haunt." -Nadja, Andre Breton

4) “recently i have been seeing another man. he doesn’t see me though because i sneak behind him.” -WWDITS, Nadja

5) one of them has somehow gotten tangled up in an outer space real estate deal.

Yes Please: soulmate AUs, strong female friendships, other SHIELD characters, 2012 era Avengers tower friendships, Lucky and Liho, general tomfoolery

No Thank You: permanent character death, a lot of smut


FIFTEEN

1). “i will die protecting you. no question about it. i care for you more than anyone else in the universe and even though i act like you’re a pain in the ass i love you so much. you dweeb.”

2) Soulmate AU but make it the silliest soulmate au you can think of. Think angry geese of destiny! (You can also make it an angry goose of destiny au, they're delightful)

3) “we drunk-kissed but you forgot about it and i don’t know how to act around you anymore wtf”

4) The Avengers team 2.0 is going mostly ok, except there's some concerns about the new Black Widow and Hawkeye and their bickering. Clint and Natasha come out of retirement to figure out how to wrangle their mentee and baby sister.

5) Sharon, Maria, and Natasha (or other shield ladies) become bffs by bonding over SHIELD gossip and judging each others love lives.

6) Five times Clint Barton came out of retirement and the one time that he didn’t

Yes please: Go create what you'd like, but I enjoy good natured/gentle teasing, domestic moments, relationship negotiation/getting together, and banter. The team all being friends and especially the ladies all being friends would be very appreciated. I'd prefer something with a happy/positive ending. Endgame didn’t happen unless everyone lived. Characters/Pairings: My big ones are ClintNat and ClintNatLaura, but I’m fond of Clint/Nat/Bucky and Nat/Yelena (I like both platonic and romantic Nat and Yelena). I’m for Nat/any female character. My only real notp is Nat/Bruce.

No thank you: Character death (especially Endgame canon character death).


SIXTEEN

1) Clint and Natasha make a bet about who can seduce the other one first

2) Clint convinces Natasha to take a trip to Disney World with him

3) Clint and Natasha get stuck somewhere hot and are forced to shed clothing (pre-relationship)

4) Clint and Natasha can't stop competing with each other and the rest of the team is starting to get annoyed

5) Natasha needs help choosing a new bed

6) What do you get the spy who has everything?

Yes Please: Create what you feel most drawn to, but I love things like: banter, flirting, sexual tension, and realization/confession of feelings. I'm fine with farm family and Endgame canon, as long as the relationship between Clint/Natasha is at the heart of the story. Characters/Pairings: Clint/Natasha. All other characters are generally welcome.

No Thank You: Character death, major violence/gore, pairings other than Clint/Natasha, non-con


SEVENTEEN

1) Clint stumbles upon a restaurant that is a mafia-front but is clueless (the mob guys know who he is but don't do anything). He drags Natasha back there because he keeps telling her about it, but Natasha knows what's up

2) "'Before you embark on a journey of revenge dig two graves.' Well That's a stupid quote, I'm killing more than two people."

3) Clint/Natasha pet sit for the other.

4) “I’m not drunk. Just a little tipsy.”

5) "It's 9am and we're in a warehouse."

6) character with weather powers creates snow / ice / blizzard / avalanche / etc. by accident as a result of their emotional state.

Yes Please: Competence porn, fluff, silliness, Farm Family/adjacent, Barney Barton.

No Thank You: character death, Endgame compliant, angst.


EIGHTEEN

1) In the MCU world, Clint/Natasha were a (secret?) romantic couple the whole time.

2) Natasha introduces her boyfriend, Bucky, to her best friend, Clint.

3) When the Soul Stone is returned, Natasha comes back to life, fights her way back from Vormir, and lands up on the doorstep of the Barton farmhouse. Clint, Laura, and the kids take in 'Auntie Nat' and help her cope/readjust/find herself again.

4) Instead of modern-day SHIELD agents, Clint and Natasha are SSR agents in the '40s (born earlier or time-travelled, you choose!)

5) Inspired by Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh - they've been a spy team for years and she impresses him all the time, but the first time Clint sees Natasha in a nice dress at a fancy party she takes his breath away in a whole new way and everything changes.

6) Clint and Natasha get a week off from SHIELD duties for Christmas and decide to embrace all the traditions they've never had a chance to enjoy before.

Yes Please: for the most part, I would like MCU-based or total AU fic please (the only comic book stuff I know anything about is the Natasha/Bucky Red Room and romance stuff). Big fan of the following in fic, in general: family, found family, friendship, working together to get out of a jam, domesticity, friends-to-lovers, romance and all it's fun tropes, love confessions, kissing, PG-13 sexytimes, fluff, banter/snark, dramatic rescues, unexpected revelations/turn of events, time travel, alternate timelines/worlds, mundane AUs, canon AUs, everybody lives, happy endings. Other characters I love: Bucky, Steve, Peggy, Tony, Loki, Darcy. Other pairings I love Bucky/Nat, also Bruce/Darcy, Thor/Sif.

No Thank You: anything above a PG-13 rating; graphic/explicit sex, violence, or language above & beyond the level shown in canon; non-con/dub-con; mpreg; omegaverse; incest; underage characters in sexual situations; infidelity; polyamory; unrequested non-canon pairings; unrequested and/or non-canon character death; pure darkfic; unhappy/unhopeful endings; anything about current world issues (wars, pandemics, politics, climate change, etc.).