rthstewart | Three Sentence Ficathon

Entry tags:

Three Sentence Ficathon

UPDATE! EDIT!
We're running into the Dreamwidth comment limits so all new prompts should be posted here Keep responding to and filling already posted prompts here, but all new ones should go to the new thread!

Someone did this banner for me a couple of years ago. It's great, isn't it? ~~If it was you, please step up and take a bow!~~
It was

st_aurafina! Thank you again!

caramelsilver ran one last year on Livejournal and I did two over here a few years ago. We'll keep it open until January 31, 2019 which should give everyone time to play a little. This is a delightful part of the online fandom community.

What is the 3 Sentence Ficathon?
This is a challenge where you answer a prompt with a fic consisting of only three sentences. It's open to all fandoms and you can post and answer as many prompts as you like, as many times as you want.

What do I do first?
You post prompts! When posting a prompt please format it this way:

fandom, character(s), prompt word/sentence.

Only one prompt per comment please. So, for example,

Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi, I don't like sand."

What else?
You answer other posters' prompts in three sentences (or more if you can't stop yourself) and fill as many prompts as you want, as many times as you wish. If you see that a prompt you loved has already been filled, go ahead and fill it again! Multiple fills of the same prompt are allowed and even encouraged! (We get really fun stories going this way).

Can I still post if I need more than 3 sentences? Or should I just abuse grammar in ways the English language never contemplated?
Yes. Yes.

But I'm not a member of Dreamwidth
No problem. You can comment anonymously or through open ID

Can anyone play?
Yes! Please signal boost this to your flist, followers, and any other places you frequent. Come one, come all!
The more people who come and play, the better!

Can I spread the word?
Yes, please. I'd love to create a nifty banner with an embed code but I fail at it. So if you create one, I'll post it and everyone can use it.

How long will it go?
Tentatively, we'll close it on January 31, 2019.

Are there any rules about cross-posting?
Nope, you can post wherever you want, whenever you want. A lot of folks collected their responses together and posted them on AO3 under the 3 sentence fiction tag. 3SFs are a terrific prompt for remixes and could be helpful for Yuletide bears, too.

What about spoilers, content warnings, triggers, pairings, ratings, tags, and squick?
I thought about this. It wasn't an issue the last 2 times I ran this but times change. In my experience, this typically gets too big, moves too fast, and the stories are too short for content warnings and ratings. You should assume spoilers are fair game and that the initial poster and responder have opted to use no content warnings or tags. I've found personally that I can skim by stuff that, from the prompt, I can tell isn't my favorite flavor of delicious cake. Use your best judgment and be prepared to skip over things that aren't your thing.

And here, have some icons!

I'll start things off...

Edit to add on 12/18/2018 Please check out this update here. And this friending meme if you're so inclined here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Star Wars; Obi-Wan Kenobi; “I hate sand”

It was penance of a sort... that or irony, and Obi-Wan still wasn’t sure which. His old pupil would have laughed at the sight: a Jedi master, nearly naked in his barren home, beating sand from his robes in futile rebellion against the ever-encroaching desert.

He would have laughed even harder at the look on Beru’s face when she appeared with an ill-timed gift of bantha milk and wild honey, but Obi-Wan had never approved of his padawan’s weakness for ribald humor.

I love the bantha milk and honey, funny.

Oh yes, Anakin would have thought it was hilarious. And then Vader would have ruined it all. Bah. But it's nice that Beru is being... neighborly.

LOL yes

I apparently also have a weakness for ribald humor. :)

Obi-Wan has lived on Tatooine far too long for his liking. He despises all that sand, though not because it's coarse and irritating, ever-present. He hates the sand because it reminds him of all he's lost, all he's never been allowed to have.

Poor Obi-Wan

His life is hard, man!

SOB. So much angst. of course, I personally think Obi-Wan is a lying bastard who deserves it but still. SOB

He needed some Force ghosts popping in and going "Oh, Obi-Wan, no" more often, imo.

Oh...oh...my heart. :(

Ahhhh, quick Qui-Gon, pop in and keep him company!

He had agreed to the exile and felt it was a fair punishment for his role in Anakin's downfall. No one told him the endless clicks of sand would amplify every feeling of loneliness, doubt, and regret. In the middle of the night, Obi-Wan listened to the sandstorms howl and wondered what he hated more; the sand itself or the fear he would never find atonement on this arid rock called Tatooine.

"Aaah yes, Luke, that sand gets everywhere including your underwear, and for the first eight years I lived out here I hated every second of it too."

"What Master Obi-Wan is saying, Master Luke, is that he's no longer wearing any - "

"Yes, thank you, Threepio, I got it."

Edited 2018-12-12 20:47 (UTC)

Ahahahaha!

Thanks!

LOL!

:) Thanks!

After two days of running for their lives, they finally collapse in the safety of their apartment. Anakin’s long frame pins him to the couch and his cheek brushes against Obi-Wan’s like sandpaper; neither of them got the chance to shave during the ordeal. He starts to shove his apprentice away, but he doesn’t completely hate the sensation and Anakin looks so tired.

Oh my. There goes Obi-Wan, playing hard to get.

The Expanse (TV); Drummer; behind every great man is a better woman

It wasn't really about her damned injury, she allowed Ashford to be the face of the Behemoth garnering the goodwill of the inners - she had other priorities.

Let men like him and Holden do all the talking and explaining while it was those like her and Nagata that got done what needed done, she thought just as the lift came crashing down.

"Now I know why you don't need to carry a gun," she called up to Nagata, "oh, that's a pretty trick."

Edited 2018-12-11 01:29 (UTC)

Oh I like this so much. Two of my very favorite space ladies (Plus Bobby and Chrisjen and Anna). I loved Drummer so much in the show and can't wait to see how it plays out out. That whole sequence had me on the edge of my seat.

Yes yes yes!

I love Drummer. Nice one!

Star Wars; Leia Organa, Amilyn Holdo (or Leia/Amilyn); non-linear thinking

The situation was desperate, as always: Stormtroopers were methodically searching the area, the Rebels were scattered and time was running out — so naturally Amilyn stopped to visit the Obroa-Skai Archaeological Museum, where she wandered in ever-widening concentric circles further and further from the exit.

“We either need cover or we need to keep moving,” hissed Leia, only to be shushed by no fewer than a dozen curators; Amilyn promptly stopped in her tracks to point at a poorly lit diorama labeled THE CLONE WARS: The Evolution of Combat Armor.

“How about cover that we can move in?” asked Amilyn — and Leia had to take a deep breath and remind herself that it didn’t matter how Amilyn came up with her escape plan, or whether Leia could follow her reasoning... just like it didn’t matter that the curators looked at Amilyn’s interest with approval, and no one shushed her.

Leia is not paid enough for this shit...though I think she secretly enjoys it. ;)

Oh yes, perfectly, Amilyn doing what Amilyn does and everyone else just plays catch up. Thank you!

Oooh, I really, really liked it, especially the rapport between Amilyn and the curators, and how well you captured her... not even strangeness, more like detachment and being very much introspective/hidden into herself - because I think this is part of her nature we also see in TLJ clashing badly with Poe's personality.

This is fantastic!

Leia always prided herself on analyzing all every available action and the myriad of outcomes that could come from each. This leads to that leads to the next. Until she felt the soft lips on her own, and the world no longer seemed to operate in a series of logical lines.

AWWWW. Amilyn to teach her the ways of non-linear thinking. Thank you! (Also, I'm very fond of corvids and so love your icon and your name!)

Thank you! My wife actually came up with the name...as crows are my totem. :)

Narnia/MCU; Rilian, Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (or Rilian/Bucky); “They've promised that dreams can come true - but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too.”

When the King of Narnia dreams, he feels his arm cold as ice, as stone, as metal torn screaming from the earth. He clenches that raging, deadly hand against the orders whispering and marching through his head.

When he wakes, Rilian is freezing from the sweat of nightmares; it’s pure peace, though, for them to be Bucky’s rather than his.

You are SO good at this, Meto. I was searching for prompts for this OTP and kept thinking of Hamlet. It's great how the cold, raging hand actually provides peace. Our poor tortured boys.

Hamlet is the best link for them I do think! Understandable yet extreme angst lol

Seconded!! This is amazing!!!!!

ASOFAI; Sansa Stark, Arya Stark; masks

For Arya, the mask had been held in Winterfell whenever Mother insisted that she be the perfect little lady, while Sansa had been true to herself in that setting. The years passed, though, and Sansa learned the value of a mask to hold to all others, cloaking her intent as well as Littlefinger ever had. Arya, however, found that she could let the wolf be seen, even as she crafted a number of masks for use as needed.

YES! Perfect. That's exactly it.

Thank you!

Yesss. I love the image of Sansa all cloaked and Arya in plain sight but also in disguise.

Thank you!

Very nice!

Thank you!

Lovely!

Thank you!

*gasps* Wonderful! You crammed so much canon in so few words how???

+beams+

Thank you. THis is the best kind of comment!

Narnia; Susan Pevensie; there’s no problem with Susan

Edited 2018-12-09 20:10 (UTC)

"Susan is interested nothing nowadays but lipstick and nylons," said Peter with a frown - "She likes subtle schemes and secret codes and mysteries. She's fascinated by trades and travel and trampling injustice; and most of all, she likes disappearing at important moments - Susan! - oh, there you are -"

"I'm always where I most need to be," she snapped in reply.

*clappyhands*

I love it!

I'm always where I most need to be

This is great!

that's my Susan! Wonderful!!

Eeeeexcellent!

Crabby - rightly crabby! Susan! I love it!

Ahahaha LOVE.

*fistpump of vindication*

Perfect!

Perfect.

Matron’s frown was audible through the scratchy connection, and Mrs. Pevensie sighed. “There’s no problem with Susan,” Matron repeated, trying in vain to elicit the inevitable question of where the problem did lie (it was Lucy, of course, riling the rector or inciting rebellion in the refectory, it was always Lucy), but Mrs. Pevensie cut her off with “Then you must not be looking closely enough. Whatever Lucy is up to, Susan is in up to her neck, but she’s far more careful about not getting caught.”

Edited 2018-12-09 22:20 (UTC)

Oh Susan. And Mrs. P is so right -- Susan is the one who doesn't get caught.

Ooooh, I absolutely love this!! So much in here - I love the different views of the girls, and how much of their personalities you put in through the convo anout them. And, I looove their mother having this insight!

Nice! (I hope Matron doesn't soon recover from the squashing.)

LOL. Mrs Pevensie is definitely right about that! Susan's just a bit more subtle but can be as troublesome as Lucy. :-)

*grinning*

Cute!

Mrs P knows her daughter very, very well. Both of them, actually. Nice!

Mrs P knows her daughters, all right. Wonderful!

Aaah this is wonderful.

Great fill! Love the very different direction you took with it.
And definitly fits the sisters well.

Lovely!

There is, Susan has always been insistent, no shame nor blame in being a woman, nor an adult, and certainly not in being both at once and acting accordingly; others may scorn her, but others (and whyever would she have a few specific faces in mind?) must grow up sometime. The dictates of British society constrain her actions, it is true, and there is most decidedly both shame and blame to be had there, but those attach to the ones who create and enforce the dictates, not those who only follow them to the letter; she cannot abide their spirit, but no one looks at the pretty smiling secretary, or sees the dagger hidden beneath the gentlewoman's skirt.

Once a queen in Narnia—

I am so happy that you filled one of my prompts! Thank you! I love especially Susan's pride in being a woman and an adult and the (literally) killer lines at the end about the pretty smiles and the dagger beneath. Thank you again, so much for this wonderful insight into Susan, once a queen, always a queen

:D :D :D

She wears her brightest, glossiest red lipstick the day she buries her family: she's mother and fatherless, sister and brother-less, cousin-less, full of they-should-mind-their-own-businesses.

Her hair is primly curled, her gloved hands rest on her knees, her black dress (actually, her mother's, Susan didn't use to have just-black-dresses) is perfectly ironed because Susan has learned (had learned, quite young, as a queen) that if you give people something to focus on, then they won't focus on what you don't want them too.

They talk about her bright lipstick, her shiny shoes, how she doesn't cry, and they don't mention the redness of her eyes and of the tip of her nose, the quiver of her lip: she pretends she can't hear what they say about her the way she used to when she was a queen, the way she has done since she came back, the way she will keep on doing so, head held high, back straight, staring forward, because once a queen, always a queen.

Edited 2018-12-21 11:32 (UTC)

This is a lovely portrayal of Susan. Perfectly turned out, always, and always in control and presenting the perfect face that hides so much underneath. Your visual sense here is so strong, too, with the shiny shoes, the black dress, the bright lipstick, red eye. It's so raw and wonderful. Thank you!

Star Wars & Harry Potter; Amilyn Holdo & Luna Lovegood; astrology

"So why does the astrology professor only tell us about the nine planets, Aunt?" Luna inquired the pink-haired woman sitting beside her.

Amilyn smiled gently. "Sometimes it's hard for people to accept the world is different than what they thought it was. That's why people like you, the ones that dare to think outside what everyone has accepted as fact, are so important to this world, my Luna."

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH, it perfectly encapsulates them both. Thank you for this crossover I’ve been yearning for!

You're welcome! It was fun to write! :D

Aw, this is great :)

Thank you! :)

oooh!

Thomas Crown Affair; all those guys in bowler hats; what did they think they were doing with those briefcases in the museum?

Performance art by the museum, they told him, an ode to Magritte; yes, the suit and hat and briefcase provided were fine work, expensive, but there was a grant.

It had to be the truth, Marvin reassured himself, and he knew that the others he met in the museum that day were telling themselves the exact same thing.

The precepts of small-time actors applied to them all: never work for free, never turn down a job, and never, ever, ask questions.

*applause* Well done!

YES! Exactly what I was hoping for, thank you! I’ve always thought “performance art” but could never figure out how or why, and you’ve done that perfectly. “An ode to Magritte,” the grant and never asking questions - genius.

This is so brilliant; I love it! ♥

Star Trek (reboot), McCoy, I'm a Doctor, not a [any choice here]

Grumbling, he braced himself against the crimson stone of this barely earth-like planet, classifications be damned. Because Jim asked it of him, he reached down from his precarious perch, hand extended to the exceptionally gravid first lady of Kul'tuaur, but he wasn't above sassing the captain.

"Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not an escalator."

*snicker* So good!

McCoy just wanted to enjoy his caffeinated beverage and a quiet morning finishing up some research. Instead, he was greeted to a medical bay full of small, fuzzy balls that seemed to be vibrating, and a particular Captain wearing a shit-eating grin.

"Dammit, Jim, I'm a Doctor, not a zookeeper!"

lol. Jim is a little shit.

But of course!

“I fail to see what you gain from your constant mockery of my thought process,” says the science officer in that cold detached voice that gets on his nerves more than any show of temper could.

“Well, Spock, I’m a doctor, not a diplomat – maybe I don’t always know how to phrase things, but you must know how much I respect your work.”

“Nor are you a cruel man, Doctor perhaps you could find it in yourself to respect me as well as the ways I can serve you,” and yeah, the man has a point.

Star Wars Rebels, Hera, Being the team mom was hard some days

The Ghost crew all stare at the new list of Ship Rules, guiltily avoiding catching anyone else’s eye, for this is a shared punishment and for their collective crimes, Hera has put the Holonet password behind 12 layers of personal encryption

*No clipping toenails in the lounge (Zeb, this means you especially);
*No, Sabine, you may redecorate the common areas without Captain’s express, written prior approval;
*Anyone who doesn’t put the toilet seat back down will be cleaning the head (and the landing gear, exhaust systems, ventilation, and Chopper wheel housing) for the next month;
*Since someone (Ezra, I know it was you) ate all my frozen chocolate cream, there won’t be any more on the ship until we eat all the fermented, curdled thala-siren milk… and so on.

As they peruse the very long list, Sabine muses, “I could try to splice through…” but Ezra shakes his head and points at the final warning: “If anyone even tries to hack my security, I’m cancelling our premium channels and it will be basic cable until Coruscant Prime goes supernova.”

Kanan made the grave error of assuming the rules didn’t apply to him.
“Hey, the exhaust systems look really good!” Ezra commented, making a grave error of his own. “Which rule did you break?”
“Not that it’s any of your business,” Kanan growled, “but I’m about to break one more.”
Ezra swallowed. “No strangling your apprentice?” he guessed with a weak grin.
“No delegating my own punishments to my apprentice under threat of further punishment,” Kanan corrected.
“That’s oddly specific,” laughed Ezra. “So what’s the punishment for breaking that rule?”
Kanan’s answering grin was positively feral. “Worth it.”

Edited 2018-12-10 00:10 (UTC)

HEE! Great!

Sabine wrinkles her nose at the smell coming from the galley, just foul enough that she knows she should investigate, in case it's a toxic leak or something corrosive.

Turns out, it is both toxic and corrosive; Zeb is sitting on the counter using a trowel to dig into the enormous tub of greenish fermented, curdled thala-siren frozen milk (and it's the disgusting imitation "lite" variety, not even the real thing -- Kanan bought it on sale and it's been in the freezer ever since).

"I'm taking one for the team," Zeb says with a grimace as the frozen slime drips from the trowel.

BWAHAHAHA

LITE, even! Omg, everything about this is glorious.

Hera didn’t start to doubt her plan until it was too late: Chopper caught her in the act, and his electronic gloating drew the rest of the crew like mynocks to a power coupling.
“You’re eating someone else’s personal stores—” began Sabine, her voice an odd mixture of awe and outrage.
“Yeah, my dip-a-chips!” interrupted Ezra.
“and you’re double-dipping!” Zeb finished, and there was no mistaking the glee in his voice.
“In my blomfruit salsa.” Kanan delivered the final blow, and Hera’s resistance crumpled.
“Fine,” she relented, “I’ll relax the rules a bit.”
Kanan crossed his arms. “I don’t know... Chop, what’s the penalty for store-stealing?”
Chopper grunted something insufferably smug.
“You’ve already had a tune-up,” Hera muttered back.
“And for double-dipping?” Kanan asked.
Chopper whistled low and long.
“Traitor.” Hera glared at the droid.
“Hey, you made the rules!” Kanan winked at her. That was the last straw.
The list came down, of course, and a new box of dip-a-chips and a new jar of blomfruit salsa appeared in the ship’s stores, and Chopper got his tune-up. Hera let everything settle back to normal before locking Kanan out of their shared quarters while he was in the shower. Without his clothes. Or a towel.
Chopper warbled a question.
“Just long enough to get the point,” answered Hera as she tightened the last bolt on the last bolthole where Kanan could possibly hide. “And until Asohka gets here. And no, I don’t think Jedi can make themselves invisible.”
She straightened in satisfaction. Kanan had neglected to factor in the most important unwritten rule of all: the Captain of the ship always gets the last word.

Oh, perfect!

oh gawd. I adore Chopper's voice. And Hera always wins. Always.

I love it!

Heeee! I love this. Space Mom Hera is one of my favorite sides of Hera.

This is awesome! Thank you!

Expanse, any, fire

Jim remembers reading in one of Father Ceasar's real books with paper pages about how humankind once thought of fire as a gift. The faded red and orange illustration with flaking gold leaf on the edges was of Prometheus delivering life-giving light and warmth to shivering humans in the cold dark; the next page, a lesson in the perils of defying authority, was stark black, white and red, with Prometheus chained to a rock and Zeus' eagle tearing his liver out.

In space, Jim thinks Zeus was right to mete out punishment for fire is the enemy, not the lifesaver, as lethal as the cold and dark of the hard vacuum outside the Roci's hull and he feels only relief when the suppression system cycles from the worrying yellow of malfunction to soothing green and hears Amos call, "Looks good, Cap!"

Edited 2018-12-10 12:55 (UTC)

What a great look at Jim's thoughts! Thank you!

DCU comics, Dick Grayson, fear

Most people either thought Dick had no fear, from the way he threw himself into everything with his whole heart or just thought he had normal fears, like losing his family(again) or the end of the world.

But Dick had been through those fears, conquered them, stood on their dead corpses, and persevered to the other side.

Dick's fear was more insidious, and one he'd never been able to even face, his own darkness and his own capacity to do exactly what his villains did.

(Also on AO3.)

---

Robin knew no fear; the worst that could have happened had already happened, and there was nothing else for him to lose.

The wounds his parents left behind never mended, yet instead of dwelling on the sadness of their passing, Dick honors his parents through the love they taught him.

It's a tricky business, though, this love: the more he comes to cherish the people in his life, the less he can bear losing them, and so he runs himself ragged attempting the impossible feat of protecting everyone – otherwise it's on him when he does lose them in the end.

(technically the same person so I hope it's okay I write it like this)

Dick Grayson had never feared anything, always ready to crack a joke while fighting either solo or with Batman, also known as The Man Who Never Cracked A Joke While Fighting.

Until Dick Grayson got shot in the back of the head...

Ric Grayson, tough as nails as he appeared to be to his new friends, not remembering a life with this Barbara Gordon and Bruce Wayne and even Alfred Pennyworth, oh, he knew Fear, he woke up with it and went to bed with it, with that single thought: what if the shooter would try again and this would hit another part of his body?

Edited 2018-12-14 14:16 (UTC)

Hugs! Love this one, you did a great job! (keeping my promise to spam you)

the version that takes place when Bruce is dead, yadda yadda.

The ring is yellow. "I think you’ve got the wrong guy," Dick tries; smiles and wants to spin it as a joke, but with the cowl on, it comes out strange – heavy, like no acrobat should be, .

"People are scared of Batman," the ring’s metallic voice replies.

very nicely done!

Harry Potter; the Dursleys; there was a hidden message in their miserable Christmas presents

"Ugh, why would you keep this rubbish?" Ron wrinkled his nose at the worn down and stained box.

Harry shrugged, "At the time, it was MY rubbish so that made it worth keeping. Suppose I can throw the lot out now, though."

"Hold on just one moment," Hermione leaned over Harry with a pensive look. "Can you put these in order? By the year you got them? I think...I think there's something more here."

Oooh, this is excellent — and tantalizing! Of course Hermione would be the one to find a pattern.,, and now I want to know what it could be!

Intriguing!

Oo, intriguing! I'm terribly curious! (And I wondered at the references a couple of times in canon to the Dursleys' awful presents in Harry's trunk.)

I really like this! :D

OH YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE IT THERE.

Oh, nice!. I am SO wanting to know what she's seen, and more who among the Dursleys was trying (consciously? unconsciously?)to break through some unknown barrier to send a message!

Very interesting!

Harry's Christmas presents looked like the cast-off clothing pile left after a rummage sale. A used sock, a holey pair of trousers, a shirt with no buttons and one sleeve. Only when he packed to finally leave Privet Drive for good did he notice item was marked with a tiny 'JP.'

My heart! The tenderness and compassion concealed mixed with and concealed by grudging, miserly behavior — I can absolutely see this from Petunia. Wonderfully heart-wrenching!

Thank you! I feel like Petunia had to care more than she let on to keep Harry around for so many years, even if she was terrible at showing it.

Aww, that's so perfectly bittersweet...

Thank you!

This says so much in so little! I love it ♥

Edited 2018-12-15 17:59 (UTC)

Thank you! I'm really enjoying this challenge for that reason...I usually write long, not short. So this is a great practice and all around so much fun! I'm glad you liked the story! :D

lovely!

Thank you! :)

Awww! Sad that they couldn’t treat him better, but sort of nice that he gets his father’s castoffs.

Miraculous Ladybug, Marinette, puns

"Ugh, how people can like Cat Noir's puns? Have they /heard/ them?" Marinette frowned at Ayla.

"I heard you make three puns this morning only" her friend smiled.

"The difference is that mine's are funny."

Edited 2018-12-13 03:32 (UTC)

Hee! :D

Oxford Time Travel series (Connie Willis); Polly and Sir Godfrey; the moment he guessed

Had we but world enough ant time, this coyness, lady, were no crime. An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; Two hundred to adore each breast, But thirty thousand to the rest; An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart. But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near.

Oh Sir Godfrey.... *sob*

Oxford Time Travel series; Eileen; her memories go both ways

Star Wars: The Clone Wars; Ahsoka; "I felt you leaving / before you'd even gone"

She doesn't need to look him in the eyes in the hologram. Ashoka has only been back to having Rex at her back for a short time, but she knows he knows her intentions. It's why he asks her to wait for him, to protect her, and yet, it's why she tells him no.

Ohhhhhh. Kids. T___T So many feels, so few words.

I feel like they kind of grew up together... and just have that vibe of understanding each other.

On AO3

He'd known something had gone badly wrong even before the away team had come back. There had been many reasons why Rex had asked her to wait for him.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the kid of Kanan, but he'd gone to countless battles at her side with many of his brothers now gone. His body might be aging faster than he'd like it to be, but he still knew how to shoot a kriffing blaster.

He cared about her too much to not let her go anywhere without him, that he was in love with one of his greatest friends in this damned galaxy; perhaps that was the problem at the root of it.

There was love between them, but they hadn't made any promises to each other.

Harry Potter; Herpo the Foul; experiments in hatching a basilisk

Trial 1: Failure, the toad refused to stay put on the nest and the egg got too cold and died.

Trial 2: Failure, used a paralysis spell on the toad and the egg began to grow satisfactorily, but then abruptly sank in on itself and oozed bloody fluids when the rooster got into the hutch and crowed in alarm; clearly some kind of pharmakon relationship exists between chickens and this offshoot, which I must research once I get the blasted thing to hatch.

Trial 3: Failure, put a silencing charm on the rooster but was interrupted by neighbors coming over to complain about sudden flood of spiders moving from my yard to theirs and the toad escaped before I could renew the paralysis spell; am beginning to think I won't ever get anywhere unless I remove the neighbors; must check notes to see if I have any experiments that need a pair of fresh human souls.

OMG this got better and better, I love the progression in hatching, with Herpo all unknowing and constantly more frustrated, and finally comtemplating harvesting the neighbors’ souls just to hurry up and get on with it LOL (and for future experimentation, of course, because science)

Herpo's really too early for the scientific method, but I figure breeding monstrous creatures is probably more similar to livestock breeding in general, where one needs to keep careful track of bloodlines and such and therefore comes pretty close to a trial-and-error experimental method just without our particular theoretical framework behind it. And alchemists were certainly known to perform experiments that at least theoretically touched upon souls. :)

Oh, this cracked me up. "Herpo the Foul" indeed. Paralysis charms and fresh human souls. How delightfully horrible.

Thank you!

Oh man, yikes and fantastic! Excellent format. And hey, science! Only being reasonable. . .

Herpo is extremely reasonable! Ask anyone! (Just maybe not his neighbors...)

Welp that escalated quickly xD I love the format, too!

Thank you!

I have a feeling the real estate value suddenly took a dive... Great story! :D

Yeah, it's not the best neighborhood anymore... *wry*

Oh, it's great, the perfect balance between horror and humour! :D

Thank you! :)

Apparently when a baby basilisk is first born, it is ravenously hungry. Who bothered to remember that little nugget of magical creature information? Not Herpo, at least, not in time to save his first two fingers.

Whoops! Well, hopefully he noted that down for his successors.

Yes, but it took some effort. ;)

Star Trek; any; future scholars trying to decipher Kirk’s logs like another Voynich manuscript

The stardates are the only accurate part, they think; the only sensible part by far now that they've broken that part of the code. The rest, though: sentient stone, a stolen brain, super men, aging heroes, the veil, a god, many gods, an apotheosis, the days when nothing happened, days into hours, hours into days, a planet reborn and a friend besides...

...Nonsense, all of it; a code uncrackable by modern minds.

. . .that is excellent. Naturally it all looks too insane to be true with the distance of not having seen it. XD

Right? And I didn't even cover the half of it!

Oh excellent! I was hoping someone would fill this!! It's just too incredible. Makes no sense, unless you lived it. (or watched it!)

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed!

YES, this exactly! I love the tentative conclusion that the stardates are right, the litany of increasingly implausible events, and the scholars just throwing up their hands in the end - so well done, and quite fun. Thank you!

You're very welcome -- I'm really glad you enjoyed it.

I figured the calculation of stardates wouldn't change much, once these scholars knew what they were looking at, but.

This is lovely - when you line up so many of the fantastical events like that, well, poor scholars.

Thanks! And I know, right?

It would be perfect as a code. I pity this codecracker. And I also kinda want to see them decipher it. Imagine the AU where it IS a code. Imagine the gritty/politically sensitive/highly unapproved missions that would have required it.

Omg, this is so unbelievably perfect...

Oh, this is just wonderful!

I love this! I'm certain that is exactly how the captain's log would read to ones not familiar with Kirk. XD

It had taken six years, three full-time professors, four part-time assistants, endless pots of coffee, probably a little too much alcohol, and enough delivery food to feed a small planet. And in the end, it was all for a science-fiction novel. For years after the final translation, the Kirk manuscripts would be debated fiercely; where they a great find or a great disappointment?

Twin Peaks, Laura/Josie (or Laura & Josie), truth and lies

Twin Peaks, Audrey & Johnny Horne, sibling love

Chronicles of Narnia; Susan Pevensie; she met the Witch first

The white Lady is beautiful - she looks strong, self-contained, safe, and Susan hasn’t felt safe in a long time.

But, “Come into my sleigh, lovely girl, come to my House and I will make you a Princess,” the Lady says. And Susan knows she is still far from safety.

Oh Susan, you clever, clever young woman.

eeeeeeep

Oooh, lovely and chilling. I love the reasons that Susan finds the Witch attractive, how the confidence and security draws her — and how she’s wise enough to see the trap before her! This is terrific.

Thank you! I feel like I could have filled this a bazillion different directions - May have to go back and do another!

Ooo. . . I am intrigued and I love Susan's implied longing and yet instant realisation that this is not truly what she wants.

This is awesome. So much told here in just a few subtle words.

Super interesting and lovely fill.

Smart, smart Susan. This is lovely.

Susan faces the figure looming over her from the sled, and clasps her hands behind her back like she’s reciting lessons and wants to hide her nerves. “I could be a witch too, if I wanted; it’s about caring for the land and protecting the people you care about.”

“Oh, child,” answers the woman and Susan doesn’t care for that pitying tone that says she doesn’t understand anything.

*_*

You do so well by Susan. I love the implications of this -- that she's not fooled, that she doesn't eat the Witch's enchanted food, and immediately tells Lucy when she finds her again.

Thank you so much! I think she would have been willing to learn from her, right until the moment that the Witch refused to treat her as someone who could ever be a peer.

The Witch takes a different tone with her compared to Edmund, but she definitely misjudges Susan — the danger is still there, but now Susan is on her guard and it’s great!

Twin Peaks, Tammy Preston & Albert Rosenfield, "Agent Preston gets car sick" - hurt/comfort

Artemis Fowl; Artemis, Holly; roommates

The tea chest is on the highest shelf again, which means Artemis is in a crabby mood. This, in turn, means Holly will soon also be in a crabby mood from having to deal with him.

Mulch taps his chin once and then decides that maybe he'd better vacate the premises before either crabby roommate turns their bad mood towards him.

Or, he could just move the tea chest? No? I did this for you and Freudiancascade of course!

Hahaha I figured you did!

I love it!

Artemis surveyed the chart carefully, doing mental physics calculations as he attempted to spin it at just the right velocity to avoid the more unpleasant tasks.

Holly's hazel eyes watched as Garbage Bin, Vacuuming, Dishes, Grocery Shopping, Refigerator, Kitchen, and Mail Sorting flashed by; as the wheel slowed, the ticker dragged into Bathroom and stayed there.

"Ha!" she yelled triumphantly, glancing at that very door behind which Mulch was currently occupied, and Artemis's head drooped in defeat.

Pffft. :D

Voltron Legendary Defender, Keith, desert

[My absolute first time writing anything Voltron related, although I mainlined every episode a couple of months ago! I hope this is okay!]

He doesn't exactly love the desert, but he can appreciate the silence that fills it; so different to the constant noise surrounding him in the Castle of Lions. In the desert, he can be alone, but not lonely; even if the others are around, their voices are lifted high above the dunes.

After a short while, the silence becomes deafening, the privacy turns to abandonment, and he becomes desperate for his home - and his friends - once more.

I love it! It is so like him to see the desert as a double-edged sword. The part about voices lifted above the dunes - so introvert and real.

the privacy turns to abandonment, and he becomes desperate for his home

KEITH. <3

Ohh~ Lovely! Keith is my favourite and I love this introspective sort of uncertainty and dichotomy from inside his head. Feels very fitting.

Keith's hands tightened on the controls as he wrung a little more speed out of the hoverbike, twisting to shift it just enough to one side to slip through the tiny fissure in the rock. . .

He exploded out of it again barely a second later, skimming the edge of a cliff and dodging the scant, hardy trees that clung to the sheer rock face above him. He threw his head back with a whooping laugh, heart singing and light for the first time in months as he let himself go, pushing as hard as he could in the flight.

THAT'S MY BOY. Using the desert to be in his element! <3

Yesss! Keith flying is <3

Keith/flying is my OTP after Sheith, tbh.

I mean. That seems 100% accurate, A+ shipping hierarchy. XP

His dad used to pat his head and laugh it off, telling him that he was imagining things, that there's nothing but coyotes and snakes and mice in the pitch black desert night, howling and moving in the shadows and between them.

But his dad had also said, "You haven't told anyone else, have you, son," and that, like everything else, makes perfect sense in retrospect.

Five, ten, fifteen years later Keith drives into the desert, alone for once, and walks even further into the darkness before he stops and tells to it, "I'm back," and the shadows whisper into his ear again, fast and excited and familiar, their cool touch on his skin like a caress and the infinite stars stretching above them, and this time, after all this time, he knows why.

This is absolutely magic and spooky and lovely.

the shadows whisper into his ear again

Gosh, yes. LOVE how you made the desert its own character and how Keith speaks to it and how his dad KNOWS.

Thank you!

I've always kind of wondered when Keith's dad was going to tell him the truth about Krolia and well, everything...

Oh yeah! I don't doubt he was gonna tell - he loved her. I guess he chewed it over a lot, the right time to say "son, your mom is a superhero alien space babe."

But his dad had also said, "You haven't told anyone else, have you, son," and that, like everything else, makes perfect sense in retrospect. THIS!!!! god i love this, it's so evocative and succinct and says VOLUMES, perfectly encapsulates the history we know is there. And I love that it's still there, that he still the connection with the landscape even after all these years.

Thank you!

I wish we knew more about Keith's dad but alas, that wasn't meant to be. ...And Keith/desert is totally one of the lesser known Voltron ships lol.

omg lmao it totally is though, like that is canon

It's not most people's first place for a wedding, but it is actually Shiro who suggests it, in that sweet moments after the post-Proposal celebratory sex has left them tired, sore, and clinging to one another sleepily.

Keith, impossibly, loves Shiro a little more than he did before at the suggestion, and rubs the ring Shiro has placed on his finger.

"Do you think Hunk can get the icing on the cake to match the sunset?" he whispers, and the answer of course is yes - and it matches the red and black in suits of the grooms as well.

OH LOOK, IT'S JUSTICE.

after the post-Proposal celebratory sex has left them tired, sore, and clinging to one another sleepily.
Mmmmhmmm. And I love that Shiro suggests the desert!

Keith, impossibly, loves Shiro a little more
RIGHT? They're the kind of married couple who'd say things like "how do I love you even more</>, how is that possible?!"

YES HUNK, GO HUNK.

Thanks SO much! I wasn't expecting this on this prompt; what a great surprise! <3

This was the first prompt that made me !!!!! on this whole ficathon bc 'Keith, in the desert' was also the first vld thing I ever wanted to write. That being said, I'm cheating! Bc this fill is actually just the first sentences of the Keith fic I've been writing since, oh, season 6. The longer I work on it/sit on it the longer and more unwieldy it gets :/

The sky is red when you walk out of the Garrison the morning after your fight with Iverson, the rising sun slanting in your eyes and your dismissal papers tight in your fist, and you think you've never been happy inside those walls, anyway, not without him.

You walk away from the Garrison without a glance, without a thought, and the sun is warm on your skin.

The desert is immense and it makes you feel small, when you are miles away from the nearest person, the nearest cadet, the nearest instructor who looks at you like your borrowed time has finally run out and they will finally be rid of you, because without Shiro you are nothing, and a simulator score means nothing when the best pilot in the Garrison and his crew are dead. It makes you feel small, and unimportant, and for once that is a comfort: That you can exist without their prying eyes and the expectations you could never live up to, that you can be free here—free to grieve and to rage and to lose yourself, free to become something else.

Sorry this so late - vacation ate me.

Keith in the desert is just hand-in-glove fitting, right? You can see echoes of it in the show ~~the only 7 seasons of it, cough~~ even when he says things like "I like it here, it's quiet" on Olkarrion and so on.

Anyway, oh man! This is so good.

the rising sun slanting in your eyes and your dismissal papers tight in your fist, and you think you've never been happy inside those walls, anyway, not without him.
I just love the rhythm of the words here, and how it goes exactly with the imagery.

The desert is immense and it makes you feel small, when you are miles away from the nearest person, the nearest cadet, the nearest instructor
MY BABY but I love how he uses the desert's immense size to put it all in perspective - if Shiro is lost to space, then he can be lost to the desert now

free to grieve and to rage and to lose yourself, free to become something else.
yessss, a do over, a new Keith. I really love how this happens all withOUT him knowing about his Galraness.

Thanks so much for this beautiful fill! I would absolutely be interested in reading the rest of it, if you ever get to it. :D

Also- the fact that you made this work and made this Keith all in second person POV?! Major kudos.

YES it's just so good for him, even with his lions--like he gets FIRE and SKY and I know and love the parallels between fire and his dad, and reclaiming an element that's taken things from him, but if fire and sky don't pretty much encompass the desert, I don't know what does. He lived there on his own for (an undetermined number of) years, and found peace there, so it's definitely a hardwired piece of his personality for me for sure.

Gosh, thank you for this comment. if Shiro is lost to space, then he can be lost to the desert YOU KNOW WHAT, this is basically what I'm getting at in the beginning, but I don't think I ever even thought to frame it that succinctly, but that's it, exactly. Shiro is lost to the greater universe, but Keith goes inward, for all that he is also in open space, and the desert is definitely a thing alive here, and there's a sure sense of Keith Going To The Desert in the same way that Shiro had gone into space, and obviously we see that it's all connected anyway, but even in the beginning those events are feeding off of each other, shaping each other.

Wrt his Galraness--it's for sure part of why I kept the second person POV (which, gOD, thank you--it's really really nice to hear that it works) bc I was gonna change it! I first started jotting it down in second, and was like 'oh I'll fix it later' but it just flowed in second; and then I got to drop hints about his mother and the Blade and it's a war you don't know you've always been a part of; and I realized I could do that in third as well, but idk, there's a pointedness to it that just didn't come across otherwise.

Anyway, enough rambling at you haha. I think I'm still at denial, but once I make peace with canon this is definitely the first thing I wanna pick back up, so hopefully it gets finished *fingers crossed*

HEY so I know this is a million years later, but I did actually finish this fic! lmao fINALLY.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 35

Three Sentence Ficathon

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

annnd here's a little angst

Re: annnd here's a little angst

Re: annnd here's a little angst

Re: annnd here's a little angst

Re: annnd here's a little angst

Re: annnd here's a little angst

Re: annnd here's a little angst

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

sending love

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

sending love

no subject

[Narnia] learned my lesson too well

Re: [Narnia] learned my lesson too well

Re: [Narnia] learned my lesson too well