rthstewart | Three Sentence Ficathon

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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.

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I love this thoughtful dynamic, thank you!

C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series, any, a flower arrangement indicating grudging respect within enduring enmity

On AO3

Theirs is a relationship that no one quite understands and never will. Leliana makes sure of that as she guards their relationship against prying eyes.

Josephine knows many things about her. The right touch to make her stop and rest beside Josie in her bed.

Just as Leliana knows a great many of Josephine's secrets in turn, what secretly delights her in clothes or foods; she knows that Josephine enjoys the honor of being her friend and secret keeper.

Leliana turns in their bed tonight, gently reaches over to caress her cheek before kissing Josephine softly.

These are the secrets she will guard and take to the grave.

She'd been sorry for him, at first, and flattered, in a girlish, teenaged kind of way: flattered that such a good-looking, tragically charming boy would pay attention to her, touched that he'd opened up to her, that he'd showed her his heart, that he'd called her friend, the only one he had; she must have fallen for him, somewhere along the way: why else would she have agreed to give him her soul, when he'd confessed with a voice (his butter-soft voice, shaking with artful tears), that without the gift of a soul his own would be devoured?

And so she fell, though she's no angel, and she stays fallen; his letters beg for her forgiveness, promises of jewels and tearing the world down if she ordered him to, but he's a liar, her demon lover; she paid the price for the knowledge with her soul and her blood and almost her life, and she'll not soon forget the lesson - but he took everything she could give him and still he persists, and so she thinks - she gave him her soul; maybe she stole his heart back, that blackened, ice-cold thing he never knew he had.

She will not break it; she still dreams of his kiss; but oh, she wants to make it bleed.

Just for you, rth...

May 1965 - London

He was surrounded by Lions everywhere he looked--from the paintings hung on the walls to the sculptures scattered around the room--but it was the Lion of Knidos that currently caught his utmost attention.

"Have you given up the research of Gryphons and Dragons in exchange for Lions?" asked a familiar voice from behind, startling Eustace as he hadn't heard anyone approach.

"For now," he answered as Edmund stood beside him to admire the massive marble statue. "As you may remember, you advised me to avoid occupied cities the last time we met over my research. Please note that I have taken your advice; I shan't need a rescue from the British Museum."

The other man turned away briefly, eyes sweeping across the expanse of the hall for the museum's latest exhibit before returning his gaze back to Eustace. "Are you so sure about that?" Edmund's voice was grave and given how the former king knew things that others would not--thanks to his current, somewhat hazardous occuputation--it was hard not to believe anything he said.

For a brief moment, Scrubb was disconcerted. "Well, I think..."

"I have heard tales of people getting lost or trapped in the depths of the collections." There was no mistaking the amusement in the older man's eyes. "Peter, for instance, couldn't find his way out fast enough after somehow ending up in a room that contained paintings of boats at sea."

Eustace sniffed. "No fear of that for me. After the journey on the Dawn Treader, I'm rather impervious to boats and water."

Edmund smiled. "So what kind of research are you doing about Lions?"

"I'm trying to decide if Aslan belongs to any of the current subspecies we know about or if he's unclassified. Given his unusual growth rate every time Lucy's said she seen him, I'd like to know if that applies to other lions as well."

Edited 2018-12-26 23:20 (UTC)

How lovely!

♥!

"-turn on you, he will, you have to know that! He's a monster, he'll- he'll devour you like he did that-"

Kei slipped away again even as he heard Sho's high, stubborn voice cut in across his brother's, face twisting. No; monster he may be, and he wouldn't deny Shinji's claim, but . . . not the children, not Sho, he would never.

“Though of course Aslan couldn’t be so easily categorized,” Lucy is quick to add. “He’s no tame Lion, but there will always be people who try to domesticate all he is into something easy to swallow.”

“I don’t know, Luce – put a box in front of the Lion and he’ll try to sit in it same as any housecat,” laughs Edmund.

He should probably try finesse, but Miles still isn't great at that, being both a teenager and (he thinks) the most awkward of the Spiders, so he swallows, glances sideways and then down and says, "So, you know "Liv"?" (and he can't help himself; he does the scare quotes with his fingers).

But May doesn't seem offended or surprised; she just shakes her head, chuckles humorlessly, and stares blankly for a moment, lost in an old memory, her fingers playing over the web shooter she's adjusting.

"We worked together -- I always told Peter she should have been my arch enemy," and Miles lets a surprised laugh escape at that, but he feels awkward (and a bit disappointed) when she doesn't elaborate any further, handing him the web shooter instead.

Prior to the Events (the capital letter seemed appropriate) that occurred when the gang were twelve and met a feral child in the woods, they played Dungeons and Dragons with the passion and dedication of tiny bishops, which is to say, there were a lot of rules that could not be broken, and an awful lot of canon.

"Uuugh!" Will said again, impatiently, sliding dramatically back into his chair and coming to rest with his chin upon the table and his hands on his temples, massaging them dramatically as he had seen his mother do many times when she came home from work after a long night.

"I can only read so fast," Mike snapped, but the rest of them groaned as well when he dove to the floor and picked up another monster manual from the bottom of the pile.

Seras hesitated; part of her wanted to step up the way that both Master and Sir Integra suggested that she should, but. . . It wasn't who she had always felt she truly was - and Master had stopped pushing quickly, teased her but let her stay tethered to him and protected her as though she were a child and. . .

"Stop fussing, little police girl," Master slipped out of the shadows near her desk, patting her head, "you'll grow up when you are ready to free yourself." he said with a glint to his wicked smile that looked rather like fondness, despite his disdain for weak, lesser vampires.

Looking up -- and up and up and up, the woman was a giraffe -- at Tahani, Eleanor knew instantly she was going to fuck this up, and not for a silly reason like not finding her soulmate attractive, because she was in fact smoking hot, but because she was going to be way too smart for Eleanor to get away with this.

Tahani's accent spoke of places that Eleanor had never been (but Real Eleanor surely had, and Tahani would know if she lied) and she was already trying to talk about charity or morality or something, Eleanor had stopped listening when Tahani pulled her into a hug and she got distracted by her breasts.

Behind her, Eleanor could tell Michael was beaming (she could practically hear his excitement, gross) and she felt like she had to say something, anything that might be smart, so she said, "So how about that... New York Times?" and to her great surprise and delight, Tahani didn't seem suspicious at all -- instead she started talking about some editor who was a close personal friend of hers, so Eleanor allowed herself a small celebratory fist pump behind Tahani's back.

*That is a quote from Keats, that old devil.

"I mean, angels are quite scary, didn't you read the Bible -- what am I asking," Michael trails off, but still he waves his arms widely in a gesture he's seen Eleanor use to express embarrassment or frustration or possibly a desire to fly (he thinks she probably likes flying but that she'd definitely overstuff her bags and shove her seat into the knees of the person behind her, losing a lot of points).

"You already said," she answers, barely listening, "lots of eyes, wings, whatever, I still want to see it!", and her eyes are so bright with interest it's as if she's looking straight through him in that terrifying, beautiful way that she has.

He swallows and scratches the back of his neck and thinks that he's actually started to like this body, although not any of the substances it wants to exude (constantly!), and then he stretches up and out into a dimension he's been ignoring for a little while -- it does feel good to stretch his wings, even though Eleanor starts to scream (he did try to warn her).

Harlock sighed, tracing a fingertip along the edge of Tochiro's abandoned desk before sinking into a chair, head bowing. A bright flicker of light startled him and he jumped, turning his head just as another flashed through the windows.

". . .are you creating a storm outside the ship? In space?" Harlock demanded, bewildered.

If you will insist on brooding so dramatically, my friend, Tochiro murmured in his mind, then you must have a stormy night.

Toph is always excellent. ;) (She's so much fun too, oh man.)

Thank you! I love both of them, and honestly most of the friendships from ATLA including theirs. ^.^

Sometimes Beebee wondered what Poe did before Beebee was built -- surely he didn't run around without a backup plan all the time, or how would his fragile, squishy body have survived?

Of course, nowadays most of the time Beebee was Poe's backup plan, and although Beebee was very resourceful, and indeed the smartest BB unit that Poe had ever met (so Poe had said, and he never lied to Beebee on purpose), he worried that one of these days his backup plan wasn't going to be enough.

Poe always said they'd go down swinging if that was the case, rubbing that spot on Beebee's head that somehow felt especially nice, and even though Beebee was a bit confused by that ancient metaphor, he thought the two of them would be okay as they kept swinging at the same time.

AMAZING. Also, I did google this, and a.) omg, of course Worcestershire sauce is what Spike would put in his blood (yuck! and yet...), and b.) this blog post had me giggling from start to memorable close,

Choosing to serve this mixture on a sweet, glazed donut dials this up from “culinarily questionable” to “downright masochistic,” and the combination is not something I will ever prepare or serve again.

Damn, those Wal-Mart donuts, though.

Which is to say, your ficlet is perfect and an utterly delightful spin on 'onward [food] engineers', and also Dawn should definitely not be allowed unrestricted access to the kitchen again - she doesn't seem to know quite when to stop, which is how she ends up several questionable ingredients Over the Line. (Your last line just kills me - this is really like a fill and a sequel fill in one, and I love how the horrific momentum builds through the second half ('not after what she did to Willow's Brazil nuts' indeed, heh).

Thank you. <3

"Yes," Data says, "but the concept seems deeper than rules or philosophy -- I am curious how it can best be defined for you."

Worf grumbles, he thinks, and ends up throwing his hands up in frustration, saying only, "It is!"

"How does a fish define water?" Picard says to Data, after Worf stomps off to answer a call, and Data tells him that the metaphor helps (much to his own surprise).

Oh, ow.

I had the sense that even the dead people still moved on the family tapestry, but I suspect those who are sundered from it, disgraced and (as Regulus puts it so keenly) 'snipped', are rendered still without even the echo of an imprint of themselves to vivify the familial past.

You do so much just with the contrast of 'mercifully dry and warm' - it conjures up that chill cavern and all the undead horrors waiting unmoving in the lake (the bodies of the dead enchanted at a hair's trigger of touching water for drink to writhe into a mockery of living motion, not eyes but hands grasping, grasping to pull you down and drown you-!) - and then suddenly Regulus is through, has emerged out from life into beyond and connection he never had secure in life.

and suddenly all the holes in his past are colorful people; not flesh and blood, perhaps, but at last their best selves.

This is exquisite.

Thank you for the gift of this; wow.

"But, but, but..." Faramir stammered, for the Two Towers (extended edition) had rendered the eloquent and gentle warrior and scholar as speechless as he was immune to the temptation of the Enemy's Ring.

"So much for that 'I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway,'" Sam agreed now reconsidering his previous "handsome is as handsome does" assessment.

He managed the remainder with his typical equanimity until the final affront befell during the Home of the Horse Lords documentary when his runaway charger galloped right out of the camera frame, causing Faramir to sputter, "I ride better than that... don't I?"

Edited 2018-12-27 02:16 (UTC)

Gaara swiped a hand across his brow with a frown, fighting the impulse to pant. It wasn't so very hot in the new greenhouse, especially for him, but. . .

He slipped out the door into the familiar harsh, baking heat of the desert that was his home and breathed a shallow sigh of relief at the shift out of the oppressively wet greenhouse, amazing as it was.

Well, that first line punches me in the feels and gets right to the heart of something very true (and then twists it very sad and Not Right but ow, I can see how she gets there.) I like the juxtaposition you set up here: the arrival of this stranger and the color that comes with them in their coat that also opens up the vision that Cosette might get more than nothing, might yet steal herself a doll and hope and momentum to act on what she wants - this also opens her eyes up to tearing. It implies that she'd already got herself hope, enough to be vulnerable to feeling its loss.

And oh, that closing is very sweet: "leave together for a humble home where crying is permitted but neither of them need to" - oh yes.

Thank you for the gift of this. <3

omg, thank you so much! I invite you to join Team Hot Chocolate for Cosette, which is a tag I and some friends on tumblr came up with while reading the Brick together. And that's such a great point about Valjean bringing some color into her life. There's a bit in the book where it says she had tried to love other people but everyone rebuffed her -- "It was not the faculty of love that she lacked, alas! It was the possibility" and like you say, this shift opens her eyes up to tearing (and what a great phrase, I love it!)

Thank you again, and I'm so glad that you liked my little fic.

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Page 170 of 202

Three Sentence Ficathon

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Fill: Magical Diary, Mary Sue/Damien [SPOILERS]

Last Battle AU, possibly Rthverse (forget 3 sentences...)

Re: [Narnia] that's how the light gets in

Re: [Narnia] that's how the light gets in

Off Limits (Moon Child)

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work and play (Spiderman ISV, May and Miles gen)

now there's an app for that (Stranger Things, Will and Mike gen)

Innocence (Hellsing)

reboot #218 (The Good Place, Eleanor/Tahani)

philosophy will clip an angel's wings* (The Good Place, Michael/Eleanor)

Stormy Night (Captain Harlock)

Re: Important Visitor (ATLA)

Re: Important Visitor (ATLA)

that mad game (Star Wars, BB-8 gen)

Re: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawn Summers (cheaty 6-sentence fill)

strength to do it, knowing (ST:TNG, Worf, Data, and Picard gen)

Re: Harry Potter

LOTR, Faramir, what the hell?

Humidity (Naruto)

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