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

5. The emptiness aches, but Susan grows and grows around it, like a wound finally scabbing over. She picks up a brush and her lipstick, goes into business with a friend of hers who has a camera, and gets on with her life. Sometimes she thinks about her brushes, her tools, thinks about how Jill and Polly once sneered at them, and that pain is still there; but she has grown, if only in a crooked way, and she can put the hurt behind her.

It's not enough, but it will do.

6. It's funny, the things that are helpful. It's not the goodbyes she does get, it's not the promises to stay and stay safe, it's not even the hellos. It's this: the quiet of the morning in the bedroom while London shakes itself awake, the warmth on the other side of the bed as she reaches over and grabs onto Grace's nightgown, even the foul taste of Grace's morning breath.

The emptiness is always there, but it feels a little smaller in those moments.

7. With Grace's hand in her own, the emptiness is bearable. She has a tether as she walks in this world while the decades roll on; she feels safe and anchored, even when she's alone.

Complacent, the emptiness ambushes her on the morning she rolled over and found Grace's hand cold.

8. Grace is in the ground, near the plot of Susan's family because Susan knows they would have welcomed her in life, so she knows they will do so in death. Susan is old now, has been for a long time, so she knows this hole inside her as near as a friend, like it is just another mourner here at the funeral. It's funny, but maybe it's tolerable now because this is just one more funeral, one more missed goodbye.

9. But maybe this is the truth: Susan's own goodbye is not long in waiting. One day, she falls in the garden; she's dead not long after hitting the ground, and she knows no pain. More than that, though, she knows no fear--this time, she didn't miss the goodbye.

"salvage", they say

sorry, honey, I still don't want any of these emotions

were Susan and Grace at least happy queers in between these bits?

Sorry, no refunds.

THEY WERE THE HAPPIEST, I PROMISE. They just grew old and died of old age; they had normal, fulfilling lives, and Grace helped reconcile her feelings with the memories of Narnia so they totally both got to visit Narnia, show up everybody but Lucy (who always knew Susan would come back to them; Lucy is faithful, always), and then cruise into heaven looking like the fabulous queens they were.

Oh sweet write that yes good

If I can find a prompt for it, I'll do it.

also, just to be entirely sure I'm clear, you did a really spectacular job with this prompt. most evocative. :)

Thank you! I deeply appreciate it.

You made me want to weep for Susan in both parts, but at least she did experience something other than emptiness if only for a little while.

I promise, she did get to live a mostly normal, happy life until she and Grace died of old age. It wasn't all sadness and gloom; most of her days, especially after she met Grace, were happy ones. They did get to live to be old ladies and even got legally married, so there's decades there.

It's just, the theme wanted me to keep mostly on point. I think I owe these guys at least a happy sequel at this point.

And you completely succeeded. And in answer to Alex's question above, obviously Susan and Grace were Queens of their own realms and lived happily ever after to the end of their days and beyond. it's just a lovely, lovely finish. Thank you for revisiting it. I love both your takes and fills.

Oh, thank you! I'm glad you liked them.

Like, to be really honest, I've had people fill requests and completely not do what I had wanted, so I was mortified that I did that to someone else. I really wanted to try and fix that.

...I mean it's a promptfest. To paraphrase someone whose actual remarks I would link if I could fucking find them again (thanks, ~~DuckDuckGo~~ Obama), some people take the prompt 'death' and come up with people skipping cheerily through fallen leaves, and some people take the prompt 'sunshine' and come up with the glint of sunlight off a gun is the last thing the character sees in this life (and sometimes these two some-peoples overlap), both of which examples I think we can safely assume are not really what the prompter had in mind. But it's a promptfest. That happens. It's inevitable. And further, I'm pretty sure it's the secondary objective.

So like. Worry less maybe? :)

I am an admitted worrywart when it comes to fulfilling prompts. I'll try and chill a little. Mostly the reason I reacted so strongly is because I felt like I went against the nature of the request; also, it was a good excuse to write more.

I knew it was around here somewhere

YES THESE ARE BOTH SO GOOD and lmao i also misinterpreted the prompt and didn't realize until you said something, but it just goes to show how much this works, and how many different and still genuine ways we can imagine her life and the lessons she's learned along the way. And the first part is great on its own, but having the second part really brings it full circle, and shows the greater purpose of her earlier heartaches, infuses the suffering with at least some measure of meaning, so it's not all just senseless tragedy between the happiness she can glean from two lifetimes full of war and loss.

But also just the idea that it's not the goodbyes that matter as much as the time spent, and how a shift of focus can shrink the holes inside of her, that make this work so well.

I think the second part was necessary, because not just because I wanted to actually fulfill the request, but also because I find full circle narratives to be some of the most satisfying to read. I needed Susan to grow, not get beaten down permanently by the sorrow.

Anyway, thanks for commenting! Always appreciated.

I love this. To be clear: no salvaging was necessary, but I and SO glad you wrote MORE! Full disclosure: I’ve been mostly missing from 3SF for a week or so because a dear old friend passed away. And I’m only just seeing your lovely fills now, and I’m sorry for that! Because it feels like, with both of these, you’ve reached into my heart and written all the things I can’t find the words for. So I’ll be back later to rave over the lovely language and perfect character notes and achingly real details later. Because I definitely need to revisit both of these — thank you again.

Three Sentence Ficathon

PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

I FOUND IT

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.

Re: PART TWO; Because I can salvage this, I swear.