rthstewart | 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

Greek Mythology, Persephone, the world blooms/for the last time

"I'll see you next spring," her mother says and Persephone's smile turns a little wry and wistful under her veil.

Her mother is still hopeful, still dreaming that humanity will come back to them. But Persephone knows the truth; Mother Gaea is tired beneath them and no seed will ever take root in her soil again.

Persephone turns and enters the Underworld, knowing that she will never return, but that is alright--it's finally time for her to stay at her post, on her throne, from here until darkness ever after.

I love how achingly bittersweet this is. Mother Gaea is tired beneath them and no seed will ever take root in her soil again — I love it.

I'm starting to think 'bittersweet' might just be one of the biggest themes in any of my writing. I'd never thought of how often that word fits my works, but eh, it's something.

Thank you for the comment.

Oh this is beautifully sorrowful; a quiet 'ending' rather than one with a bang, as part of the natural flow rather than a Final Battle forcing it.

That makes me think of that quote--"we deserve a soft ending". More like they're going to sleep than vanishing into the hereafter. Sounds peaceful.

Thanks for commenting!

Oh yes, that's a perfect way to put it! And . . . they, both of them understand that the end of things is natural and peaceful, more than most, so it's easier to . . . let it be so.

Oh this is so sad and tragic. Truly apocryphal.

It's the end of an age for them, but Persephone already knows all about endings--she's not afraid.

Thanks for commenting.

I like how Persephone is at peace with death, having so much experience with it, as opposed to Demeter, who still has hope. It makes me wonder what's happened in this world!

Maybe it wasn't necessarily the End Times that made humans vanish; maybe humanity took to the stars as Gaea stopped producing. Maybe the gods will leave with the humans, drawn along by their persistent faith in old gods. But Persephone and Hades won't follow--if you think about it, a dying planet would really just mean an expanded kingdom. Maybe humans will change the mythos to say that all souls travel back to Earth and live under Hades and Persephone's reign. Maybe Demeter is right to have hope for humans, but maybe not for seeing her daughter so often.

Anyway, I'm babbling which means I should go to bed. I'm glad you enjoyed it, thanks for commenting.

"Are you sure, my love?" Hades asked, his arms still folded around her waist, and Persephone tilted her head, leaning back against his broad chest.

"They deserve this. They deserve an ending." she said softly, snuggling into him for a moment and then stepping out of his embrace. Persephone drew a deep breath and spread her hands wide, letting the power of spring fall from her fingertips for one last time, bringing blooms to a dead world.

A heart wrenching fill for a tragic prompt. Thank you

Thank you.

This is lovely - whether Persephone is giving an 'end' to the blooms themselves, or the world, or humans - it doesn't really matter, because it is the end. And I love Hades gentle support of her, where he quite literally has her back.

Thank you~ I'm glad you liked it. (I actually had the Earth from another fandom in mind when I wrote this, where it has been ravaged and nearly destroyed, inhospitable to any kind of life, but flowers are beginning to cover the surface again after.)

Persephone tries, but her seed takes no root: the soil too hot, the seas too poisoned.

Her mother weeps, weeps the whole way down underground as she follows Persephone down for the first and final time; she is the first Olympian to go to the final kingdom, but not the last.

Hades' arms fold around his wife the second she crosses the Styx for the last time; he, like she, sheds no tears, for they are long-used to the pain of being barren.

Edited 2018-12-20 02:39 (UTC)

Oh, I love the way you tied their own childlessness into this (at least that's how I took the last line)! It makes so much sense. And it's very right, in a way, that Demeter is the first one to follow her down.

Oh, this is beautiful but so painful too, feels like in a quietly inevitable sort of way. And the way Hades and Persephone handle the pain of it differently because it's their bailiwick already. . .

The red circles of the poppies seep across the fields like the bloom of her blood when he thrust into her for the first time, her futile screams echoing off fathoms of lightless stone. The petals of the asters and chrysanthema recall the ragged flesh of her nailbeds as she sought in vain to dig her way back to her Mother; the cardinal-flowers and anthuria drip like tears of blood; the bee-balm shoots up a dozen little arms waving for help in vain.

For the final time she turns her heel on a world whose very rebirth makes sport of her agony.

Poor Persephone! The imagery here is very sharp and effective - her trying to dig up through the earth is especially haunting. Thanks for the fill!

Three Sentence Ficathon

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Last Spring

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tw rape, blood, injury

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