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

[tehsharkie]

XD Thank you!

Re: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spike

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Thank you
*hugs*

[countlessuntruths]

Rose hears voices, sometimes, in her sleep: the doctors, the nurses, her aunts talking to her as if it was with her, as if she was awake, as if she could laugh at them and with them and promise to come back soon, she just had to run to the store, go pick something up, always rushing, always fast; she no longer remembers how many days (months? years?) she's been asleep.

She knows there are other patients because her aunt Flora always brings flowers and she brings enough for every single one of the patients and their families, and her aunt Flora always tells her about them as if they were her friends, telling her about how Ari was doing so much better in her physical therapy sessions than just yesterday (even though it was a shame because she had been a ballerina, and now on a wheelchair, poor, poor dear) and about Linda and her husband, their next door neighbors, about how Linda came every single day after work to read to her bedridden, terminally ill husband ("he hasn't had chemotherapy for a while now, so his hair is starting to grow and he keeps joking he's going to grow a beard!"), about her 'roommate' Blanche and how her mother ("well, stepmother, dearest, but we mustn't judge") wasn't coming anymore, so she and her sisters tried to keep the 'poor dear' company as well.

Rose listens and she wonders where are all these people, wonders if they're as trapped as her inside her own mind, wonders how much longer she'll have to sleep because no matter what she has tried, she simply cannot wake up, and she wonders how long will she have to stay like this, because nothing, nothing works and it's already starting to feel as if one hundred years have gone by.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Hee! This is great!

Re: I never lied.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Oh, neat!!

Re: Oh look, my favorite mantic mythologic creatures! have a double fill.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Yay! This is great!

[thenewbuzwuzz]

One lonely century, she discovers she enjoys listening to the sailor-people, when they haven't been turned into slobbering fools by her voice; of course, many are still perfectly dull of their own accord, as her sisters are quick to remind her, but some... some surprise her, over and over, like this one.

"omg, that's amazing. :) tell me EVERYTHING," she types and, when the screen stays still (like the surface of the water after they stop struggling), she worries despite herself -- did her voice seep through and glide along the airwaves after all and wash away his mind, what if he was in a stream of tumultuous traffic, what if she wrecked him -- and adds, "are you ok?"

"Just thinking. where do I even start :D" he answers, and she feels like singing out in joy; and she can sing -- he won't drown.

[nyctanthes]

I'm glad you enjoyed! I'm not the fluffiest of writers, but wanted to be sure a prompt with "snowman" wasn't a total downer. :)

[dragonofeternal]

Kingdom Hearts, any, "I've been awake / To see the day devour the night"

Re: Homestuck, Vriska [spoilers, cw character death & violence]

[dragonofeternal]

hahah this is fine..... By which I of course mean OUCH MY HEART!!! That last line is painfully beautiful and sweet.

Re: [Miraculous Ladybug] the true story here was too simple to see

[primeideal]

Aww. :)

[primeideal]

"We met him, the Luke Skywalker, but he was real humble, didn't get in our way--"

"He wasn't the Luke Skywalker yet, he was just some hick at a bar."

"Everyone's someone," she insisted, ignoring her beloved's never listen to your crazy grandmother face, "and he was a real hero, even then."

[candlesinthewell]

Oh, this is good – concise and effectively unnerving. I love it.

Harry Potter

[primeideal]

The dead people in Regulus' family history sat unmoving in the tapestry, where no charm could enchant them and their eyes couldn't follow him around the room. He had expected death to be boring, a snipped thread indicating his place in the lineage, weighed down by all his ponderous ancestors.

But when he emerges somewhere mercifully dry and warm, he finds himself unbounded by space and time, and suddenly all the holes in his past are colorful people; not flesh and blood, perhaps, but at last their best selves.

Re: Fill: Fallen London, The Iron Republic (i.e., a place where laws literally do not apply)

[candlesinthewell]

Thank you, and I’m glad it worked for you despite not knowing the canon!

Welcome to Night Vale is not a bad comparison, actually, in terms of people going about their everyday lives in a very strange and dangerous place – though most of the Fallen London universe is not as surreal as WTNV. The Iron Republic is a different animal entirely: a place founded by revolutionaries and devils (and revolutionary devils) who decided that it was a good idea to overthrow all laws, including, like. Gravity. (Law in this ficlet was meant not as a place but as a concept.) In fact, I’d say these three sentences are not quite bizarre and disjointed enough. And your limerick, in addition to being great, is entirely in keeping with the spirit of the place.

Re: Welcome to PHU, Del

[candlesinthewell]

Thank you for the information, and even if the creepy tone isn’t there in canon, I love anything to do with dreamscapes and dreaming.

Avatar: tLA - Zuko

[sheenianni]

The white bits of cold bite into his skin, irritating and unwelcome as everything about this place.

Uncle Iroh joins him on the deck. "We're getting closer to the north. Prince Zuko, you should put on a warmer cloak-"

"I'm fine," Zuko snaps at him. He stares at the unfamiliar thin white layer on the ship's railing, feeling a new wave of shame, humiliation and rage.

His uncle notices his glance and smiles. "They say no two snowflakes are the same. There is some beauty in these designs-"

Without thinking, Zuko calls up a fireball and tosses it at the railing.

"Zuko!"

The fire burns and Zuko is hit by a flash of horror - fire, pain, a terrible memory - and then a different, more rational spike of fear as he realizes the wood could catch on fire -

Luckily, his fire merely melted the snow and make the railing warm to touch.

Zuko scoffs. "Just some frozen water. Fire is superior." He hides his hands in his pockets and tries to calm his beating heart.

"My nephew-"

"This weather is a nightmare. Let's get this over with so we can go back to the Fire Nation."

He rubs at his fresh scar and turns on his heel, heading back to his cabin.

[liquidtears]

ABsolutely LOVE it!!

Re: Harry Potter

[ernest]

This is beautiful and hopeful. I love the contrast between the two paragraphs, and "but at last their best selves" is a great phrase!

OP

[(Anonymous)]

!!!

Ohhh, this is good...so good I even heard it in their voices and everything!

[alchimie]

Perfect.

[ernest]

Thank you so much! I'm a fan of unnerving.

Fill, The Hobbit

[lady_katana4544]

On AO3

"Knowing that you're in love with someone else is scary. It will overwhelm your senses and change your desires."

"Did you know immediately that Uncle Bilbo was the one for you?"

A weary Thorin shakes his head slowly as he looks from the fire pit towards an eager Frodo, who waited impatiently for his answer. Beyond the little boy, he could see his sister, Balin, Bilbo, and Dwalin watching them quietly.

"Nay I did not immediately know. My heart opened so slowly that I did not realize that I had fallen for Bilbo until he stood between Azog and myself in the Misty Mountains. I quietly acknowledged the feelings in my heart when we were in Beorn the skinchanger's home."

Frodo sighed softly and smiled as he climbed into Thorin's lap and hugged him as Bilbo came over to them.

"I'm glad that you two found each other, Uncle Thorin."

"I am too little one. I am grateful to have both of you in my life," Thorin answered as smiled at him and Bilbo.

[ernest]

This is such a terrific take on the Sleeping Beauty story, and all the characters we get to see a tiny bit of are just wonderful! Thank you so much <3

Re: [Miraculous Ladybug] the true story here was too simple to see

[alexseanchai]

♥