Three Sentence Ficathon

[rthstewart]

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.

Comments

Goodbye at Avalon (Merlin (BBC)-ish)

[kalira]

Excuse me while I mash up BBC's Merlin with Arthurian legend proper. . .

Merlin stands on the shore, his throat tight and his hands clutching at each other until his bony fingers dig into his palms. The small boat is long out of sight and the water is wide and he cannot hope to follow, not ever; not there.

Merlin turns away, thinking how could you make me do this, you prat, and begins to walk, as he will walk the whole world, until it is time for the Once and Future King to rise, and his sorcerer - his Merlin - to return to his side.

Fill

[lady_katana4544]

on AO3

"I told you no once already."

"I am very, very interested in your hair. And the magical qualities it possesses. Won't you consider my offer, Master Dwarf?"

Ori looked up from his work, took a long look at the drunken Man, who'd foolishly wandered away from the festivities and decided to come up to him; he noted his brothers quickly approaching with the Princes and their guards.

With a sigh, he knocked the Man unconscious with one of the books sitting innocently beside him. He hears Nori chuckle loudly over Dori's annoyed groaning.

"See Princelings? Our brother knows how to defend himself against annoying, drunk humans that might wander into places where they shouldn't be."

[betony]

She sees him first and she thinks: another child of fate you are, born of the gods to great deeds, tales to be chanted over campfires until they're worn thin, you and I, not souls or sorrows but stories and she draws closer, ever closer, though she should know better.

She sees him next and she thinks: how it must pain you to be one of the handful of honorable men within our walls, to keep your vows when even Cassandra does not; to bow to the gods, though you know how they bite; to come so close to temptation and never so much as reach out your hand and she knows she will never understand him.

She sees him last and she thinks the only thing that matters: my Aeneas, my own, I love you.

[kalira]

Oo excellent!

Re: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, William/Drusilla

[kalira]

Oh well done! <3

[(Anonymous)]

Any fandom, any characters/pairing, cold hands

[betony]

In the year '06 he does not write to the woman who'd broken his heart, to humbly renew his addresses; but instead to his friends to crow about his successes with all the appearance of real satisfaction.

In the year '13 he does not lower himself to write to Edward, seeking any crumbs from his brother's correspondents who might reassure him of Miss Eliott's well-being; but instead endures the nightmares that plague him whenever he closes his eyes, where Death claims faithless Anne instead of Fanny Harville and takes her even further from his reach.

In the year '14, though, he can make excuses no longer and picks up pen to paper to inform Sophie that he will be joining her and the Admiral where they should choose to make their residence; fair country, he hopes, with fairer faces to turn his stubborn heart.

Chosen Role (Labyrinth)

[kalira]

Sarah stepped forwards and reached for the bright figure, but Jareth twisted away in a swirl of magic and feathers, borne away on silent wings as she fell-

Sarah woke in her own bed, all as it should be around her, gasping and reaching for something long out of her grasp, for she had chosen her place in the story and now even in dreams all she could do was fulfil her part.

She turned onto her side, shuddering with tears; the worst thing was, she wasn't sure she would choose thus again, no matter the price come due if she failed, or truly fall.

in which odysseus has not a little in common with gen from the queen's thief series

[betony]

"You forgot about me," Odysseus accuses, and Pallas Athena, favored child of Zeus Thunderer herself, is hard pressed not to roll her eyes.

"Do me the courtesy," she replies acidly, "of trusting there is something more to occupy a goddess' hours than keeping watch over a supplicant who can't seem to keep himself out of trouble.

(And if that something is attending the gods' decade-long revelry to recover from the petty aggravations that made up the mortals' war, she hardly thinks Odysseus needs to know it.)

[celeste9]

Star Wars, any, rewrite the stars

[celeste9]

Pacific Rim, Jake/Nate, stupid decisions

Greek mythology, Orithyia

[betony]

Orithyia's hands are always cold, here in the far north, so that they crack and chap in the stinging winds. Her husband brings her lotions and unguents from his travels to heal them, but she sets them aside scornfully; if it is suffering the gods have written in her destiny, as they must have, she will not dull it by accepting his belated attempts at kindness.

Orithyia's hands are always cold, here in the far north, except when her hot tears fall upon them; then, and only then, they are warm.

Re: I never lied.

[ghostwings]

Very nice! I love the poetic format, and how you tied in the meaning of Odysseus' name!

Vagabonds (Inu-Yasha)

[kalira]

"Vagabonds? Us? How- How dare he call my woman such a thing? You will be princess of the wolf demon tribes!" Kouga shouted, his fingers flexing restlessly, held back from going after the unsuspecting farmer, Kagome suspected, only by her hand on his arm.

She tried to stop giggling, because she really should tell him off for that claim again, but his offense was just so funny. "I mean," Kagome said through giggles, looking at Ginta and Hakkaku, who looked almost as amused even if they were trying to hide it, "we do kind of look the part right now?" she pointed out, indicating their dirty, ragged state.

Too Far (MCU; Thor & Loki)

[kalira]

"You won! Victory!" they cry, praising and teasing about his prowess and congratulating him, and. . .

Thor looks after the slim dark figure of his brother, slipping out of the room all but unnoticed, slightly mussed, slightly bruised, perhaps favouring his side - Thor hadn't meant to strike so fiercely at his ribs, but he moves so quickly, and always seems so unshakable - and casting only a single, dark look behind himself as he disappears.

And Thor has to wonder . . . because this victory feels like a loss.

[last_haven]

He knows his craft, his tools well enough to know that he can wait this out and this silly business will soon pass. That is not what he worries about; he knows his mother's fury and penchant for revenge and he quickly learns to pity a mortal princess who falls from grace with parents whose hands and voices are crueler than he could have guessed.

The effects won't last long, so he has to work fast; as long as the dart holds sway, he can always tell his mother that he couldn't resist.

[yuuago]

[Hetalia, Denmark/Norway. Late January, 1658; not long before the march across the belts.]

Norway barely acknowledges Denmark, who gasps upon taking his hands, exclaiming that they're freezing, that they're like ice, how in hell did he get like this, Nor wasn't out there very long, was he - but not to worry, he'll find a way to get him warm.

His mind is elsewhere, not listening as Denmark keeps going on: his thoughts are outside, where the wind is knife-sharp, and the cold sinks into the bones, and it feels deep enough to crack the teeth and frost the lashes and freeze the straits so solid that a whole host could cross without resistance.

"Have ourselves more to worry on than this, don't you think?" Norway says as he squeezes Denmark's hands, which are no warmer than his; and though his partner smiles it off and links their fingers together, he can see a flicker in his eyes, an acknowledgment of what surely must be impossible but – nevertheless – is quite a horrible thought.

A New Queen (Greek Mythology)

[kalira]

"You cannot!" Demeter said, aghast. "You are not trying to tell me- It's impossible." she snapped.

Persephone was no longer a maiden who quavered to her mother's temper, or tried to justify herself with trembling, hesitant words, however, and she stood tall as she met Demeter's eyes, wearing a sweeping spring green gown, a belt of her own flowers, and a crown of silver set with precious stones.

"I love my husband, mother, whether you would it be so or not," Persephone said, and her voice was light and soft as ever, but strong and sure as only befit a queen, "and I will take my place as Queen of the Underworld."

[ghostwings]

Aravis does not forget the gods of her homeland; she does not forget Zardeenah's cool, quiet presence which laid upon her like a mantle during the prayers of her youth; she does not forget the goddess's blessing which was surely what caused Aravis and Hwin to meet and, together, forge a fate far from the captivity of the bridle or the bridal bed.

There is no one else to perform the proper prayers and rituals with her here in Archenland, and there are many in her new homeland who distrust anything Calormenian, so she worships her gods alone, quietly--a single candle in her chamber and murmured prayers in solitude rather than a proper shrine and song.

The home of her youth is distant, now, and she dwells in a land that still seems strange to her, in many ways; yet when she looks up at the stars--the gemstones sewn into Zardeenah's cloak--she sees the same constellations; surely her goddess is no farther from Aravis now than she was before; as long as Aravis does not forget Zardeenah, surely Zardeenah will not forget Aravis.

Fill

[lady_katana4544]

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.

[ghostwings]

Final Fantasy X, any summoner & any fayth, dreaming together

[ghostwings]

Final Fantasy VI, any, unreliable memories

Passed On (Tiger & Bunny)

[kalira]

Tomoe smiled softly, watching her sleeping husband, crumpled sideways on the couch in a way that had to be straining the bandaged ribs revealed by his lack of a shirt.

"Take care of him, my love," Tomoe said quietly, bending to brush an insubstantial kiss to his brow, "and let him take care of you."

She moved away with a sigh that was more contentment than regret as Barnaby entered and instantly spotted Kotetsu, a soft look coming into his eyes as he moved to gently nudge Kotetsu awake, drawing him away into the bedroom as Tomoe returned whence she had come.

Bleeding Heart (Kamisama Kiss)

[kalira]

Tomoe froze, clawed fingers crumpling the paper in his hand. Send my love to your new lover, it read, in a familiar spikily elegant script.

Whirling in a flurry of silk and foxfire, he flew over the miles to the small house, only to stop just inside the doorway, his senses overwhelmed with blood; a small, elegant figure sprawled gracelessly across the floor, her kimono sodden crimson and her chest-

Tomoe turned, meeting a wide, sharp, angry grin, then dropping his gaze to the shredded, still-bleeding heart in Akura's outstretched hand.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Caspian (and Lucy)

[autumnia]

"By the Mane, I am nothing like that!" the Telmarine King declared, rising from his throne and pointing an accusing finger at the screen. "I was much younger than that when I was crowned, my hair is of the wrong color--" he paused briefly as golden-haired Lucy nodded in total agreement, "--and to suggest my relationship with your Majesties--and in particular with Queen Susan--was not as honourable and respectful as it truly was.."

Caspian flushed deeply and after taking a deep breath to calm his anger, he thought it was wise to not relive his journey in the third film to seek the Seven Lords.