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

[rthstewart]

Any, any, "dragons live forever, but not so little boys" (or girls)

[candlesinthewell]

Time is a fluid thing, to one as old and still as you – like river-water, passing through claws to slow to catch it. One blink, it seems, and the small creature is there, the new one, watching you with a wonder too complete for fear; you close your eyes, open them, and what had been a child of his kind is older, different in ways you cannot name – and when you look again, your friend is grey and thin as the air in winter, and you can tell he tires of swimming. He sits to rest against your flank, closes his eyes in dreaming, and does not wake; time is a current, swift, but you close your claws around his scattering spirit – careful, careful – and help him out of the river and onto the bank.

[heliopausa]

Wow. So real. :(
I really like the care with the scattering spirit, and the way the bank of the river is left without explanation.

[candlesinthewell]

Aw, thank you! I’m glad you liked it.

[rosaxx50]

Ouch :( Poor dragon, losing his friend in so short a time as a human lifetime. That last line was a lovely conclusion.

[candlesinthewell]

Thank you so much! :)

[desertscribe]

This is beautiful. <3

[candlesinthewell]

Aw, thank you. <3

[rthstewart]

Thank you for this lovely ephemeral fill. With Chinese dragons associated so closely with the rivers if that Country, I found the story very evocative of those roots. The way you use water, air and time all equally fluid, is wonderful, too.

Dragalia Lost

[rosage]

Lowen frowns at Garuda. Growing up suddenly doesn't seem so great if it means growing old.

"Then I'll ask everyone to be your friend, so you won't be lonely when I'm gone," he says, and she ruffles his hair with a breeze.

Re: Dragalia Lost

[heliopausa]

I don't know the fandom, but that's a very poignant moment - lovely.

Re: Dragalia Lost

[candlesinthewell]

This is so sweet. <3

Re: Dragalia Lost

[rthstewart]

Oh,so sad and lovely. I don't know the fandom and didn't need to because this is so evocative and filled with bittersweet emotion. Thank you!

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

[desertscribe]

"I'd love to keep coming out here to play, but Dad said that he'd finally start showing me an' Donny how to track down criminals and maybe take us along on some of his Marshal work, and even without that, I'm going to have to start having to work extra hard in school if I want to be able to get into college in a few years," the boy who wasn't nearly as little as he had been when they'd first met said, choking back a sob which sounded suspiciously like it was a prelude to saying goodbye forever instead of for a few hours or days, and the dragon wasn't having any of that, not yet.

"Then I'll come play wherever you are instead," the dragon said and gave one last laughing blast of flame up into the sky before banking his inner fires as low as they could go without going out, shortening his tail, hiding his shiny dark copper scales under fur and hair of the same color with a few small splashes of white added to the face and feet for dramatic effect, trading his claws for hooves, and, at the very last, folding his glorious wings away out of sight.

When he was finished, the newly made horse shook out his mane and gently nuzzled his boy just like he had always done while in dragon shape, because Comet was willing to give up flying for a handful of decades if it meant getting to stay with Brisco longer.

Re: The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

[candlesinthewell]

I don’t know the fandom but this is great – I love the idea of a dragon becoming a horse to stay with someone longer.

Re: The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

[rthstewart]

Oh! And then they are still together in the J on a spaceship!! This is delightful and I just love Comet and Brisco's run on sentence is delightful.

Fire Emblem: Awakening

[miss_prince]

Lucina was not Marth; though she resembled him in nobility, in chivalry, in kindness -- yet still she was tempered by a grave solemnity that Tiki could not imagine on the Hero King's boyish face, and the rare chime of laughter from her throat was all the sweeter for it.

No, Lucina was not Marth, but Tiki loved her has she had loved Marth, and Lucina loved Tiki as Marth never had, with a fierce, quiet passion that Tiki drank from her lips like one dying of thirst and did her best to repay in kind.

But in the end, like Marth, within a single breath of the vast span of Tiki's life, Lucina was gone, and Tiki retreated from the world to grieve for another thousand years.

Re: Fire Emblem: Awakening

[candlesinthewell]

This is lovely.

Re: Fire Emblem: Awakening

[runespoor]

;______________;

Re: Fire Emblem: Awakening

[rthstewart]

Ouch. Right in the feels. I shouldn't be surprised. The prompt is sad. But this is VERY sad and beautifully written. A single breath and the beloved is gone. And the last line is so poignant.

Fill: Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine

[runespoor]

"Wasn't that the point, Chuubo?" the Headmaster muses, in a soft, cold voice; and with every word he says, his appearance shimmers away into wisps, until Death is standing in his place - finally divested of away of his costume of flesh, done with playing games at last. "You were immortal once - maybe you still are! At least, you would be if you returned to your previous form, that is - but you chose to become an ordinary boy, with barely a few tricks to your name, and so you lived as an ordinary boy in this town. You wanted to experience how humans live, did you not? And your curiosity was never sated; your experience never over."

He pauses. The sudden crash of shattering glass from the room where Chuubo’s friends doesn’t seem to worry him, and... Chuubo hates to think ill of his friends, but it's probably not, with Natalia out cold, no animal for Seizhi to call for help, and Leonardo can barely get along with any of them on the best day, much less days where they’re facing his ex-mentor.

"It is no use to struggle, you should have told your friends. But," he continues magnanimously, "I am willing to help you complete your experience. I am going to kill you, Chuubo; and then you will know."

Chuubo swallows, his throat suddenly dry. “You’re wrong!” he says, more bravely than he feels - he’s just an ordinary boy, not the hero of some tale - and whatever past existence he might have discarded to become this ordinary boy, giant snake, river dragon, or dragon god of screams and flames, it won’t be of help. It never is.

“I became a boy so I would have friends!”

It echoes defiantly, as Death arches the Headmaster’s eyebrow. “Oh?”

The door crashes open as Chuubo tries desperately to stop being lost in the infinity of Death’s orbits, dark, full of stars, and hypnotizing - and in burst his friends, spear-headed by a shouting Leonardo.

“Get away from him!”

“Oh,” Death repeats darkly.

Re: Fill: Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine

[rthstewart]

I became a boy to have friends. So poignant, and then there the friends are! So maybe a heroic ending for them all. Thank you!

Silmarillion - Glaurung

[zdenka]

Dragons are made to live forever, unless they are slain. With a black sword in his vitals, Glaurung still laughs. The grim, dark-haired boy, the shining-haired girl with defiant eyes: he will drag both of them into the darkness with him.

Re: Silmarillion - Glaurung

[rthstewart]

OUCH. This is so impactful and dramatic. Thank you

Re: Silmarillion - Glaurung

[sawthefaeriequeen]

I haven't read this yet, but wow, that image.