rthstewart | Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

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Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

This post is NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS! PLEASE POST YOUR NEW PROMPTS HERE, IN POST 2! Do continue to fill prompts here but please put all new prompts in Post 2.

Welcome to the Three Sentence Ficathon!

Here's a Friending meme!

What is the 3 Sentence Ficathon?
This is an open exchange where you answer a prompt with a fic consisting of only three sentences. It's open to all fandoms and you can post and fill as many prompts as you like, as many times as you want.

What do I do first?
You can start 3SF by posting 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."

Open ended and anthropomorphic fills are popular too, such as:

Any, Any, "I don't like sand."

or

Earth geography, sand, "I don't like humans very much, either."

What happens after that?
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

I'm really overwhelmed by all the prompts and how much there is and how fast it goes. I can't read 1,000 prompts and fills. It's too much.
I hear this a lot and it keeps a lot of people from participating. The 3SF is big and it moves fast, especially at first. I get overwhelmed, too, and I'm hosting the thing. With 2020 and 2021 sucking so badly you don't want something that's supposed to be fun cause you anxiety. I have a couple of suggestions for managing the 3SF volume.

First, really, you don't have to read every prompt and fill on every page. You can start at the last page of this and just go forward, or back a page or two. It's fine.
You can come and go as time and energy allow, you don't have to participate the whole time, and it drops off quite at bit after about 2 weeks and especially once we open a new post because this one is approaching 4,500 comments.
Even after the 3SF and new prompting end, people fill prompts all year long.
You can fill an already filled prompt and you can can leave a prompt that's already been prompted before. People do it all the time.

Always make sure you're looking at top-level comments only, not threaded. That helps a lot. Your screen should look like this.

But shouldn't I read everything to see if someone already prompted the same prompt I want to leave if someone already filled it?
No. Prompt as many times as you want, as much as you want. It doesn't matter if someone prompted the exact same prompt. Go ahead and prompt again!

I left a prompt and no one filled it. Can I prompt it again?
Absolutely!

Can I spread the word?
Yes, please. I generally fail at creating banners and embed codes but if you create one and make it really idiot-proof, I might be able to post and share it. Feel free to cross-post this entry. If you create your own banners or icons, let me know and I'll share!
Please share the 3SF with your followers, friends, and any channels and comms you are active on. I'll post on fandom calendar, Tumblr, and Twitter, but I don't have many connections in other spaces such as Discord.

Here's my attempt at a text box that might go horribly awry.

How long will it go?
The 3SF closes to new prompts on February 13, 2022. The entry stays open permanently and people post fills all year long. (There were a bunch of new posts to the 2021 3SF this week!)

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 and archive warnings, triggers, pairings, ratings, tags, and squick?

I thought a lot about this. It boils down to reader beware. In my experience, this typically gets too big, moves too fast, and the stories are too short for content warnings and ratings to even apply. It is too big for me to moderate in this way. You should assume spoilers are fair game and that the initial poster and the responder have opted to use no content warnings or tags. This means AO3 content warnings for dubcon, violence, canon character death, underage, etc. COULD be present (and much more). I've found personally that I can skim and scroll by stuff that, from the prompt, I can tell isn't my favorite flavor of delicious cake. Use your best judgment, protect yourself, and be prepared to skip over things that aren't your thing. In this format, the obligation is on you, the reader, to protect yourself from triggering content.
Some posters do include warnings and spoiler tags or include spoiler space, but they don't have to do so.

Why is 3SF split among several posts? That seems confusing.
It is confusing and we always lose momentum once we have to move to a second post. The reason is because at 5,000 comments to a single post, DW installs a human test CAPTCHA, which is a pain for users. So, once this entry gets to the upper 4,000 comments, I open a new post. If you've been waiting until things slow down to participate, when we open a second post is often a good place to join.

If I have questions, what do I do?
I'm rthstewart everywhere, here, Twitter, Tumblr, gmail and AO3.

A special thank you to

conuly .
Last year, Conuly started logging all unfilled prompts.
This year's (2021) unfilled prompts are here.
Last year's (2020) unfilled prompts are here.

Conuly asks that you not reply, as they want to be able to edit and add more prompts to the list.

Here, have some icons and banners and let me know if you've created your own!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

any, any, (you have made it this far) it's time to end this story

Take It Back 2021 - Miracle of Sound

He had nothing; no Blue Lion, no functioning armor, no Shiro or Allura or Coran or any of his teammates to break him out this predicament with a well-timed wormhole, or a confident roar, or a strike across Lotor's chest possible only with skill he did not possess.

His bayard was too far away, and besides, in this tight space of an engine room, there wasn't much a sniper rifle could achieve.

Lance unclipped the other bayard from his belt, one he had not dared wield, and as it grew weightier in his grip, he raised the red and white broadsword towards Lotor's serene, smiling face, and declared with a grin the beginning of a fight he was not confident he would win.

A/N: OP THIS SONG IS A BANGER THANK YOU FOR LINKING IT

YOU'RE WELCOME THANKS FOR THE FILL

As the Bastion rumbles to life, the kid walks away, and I watch him go; can't help wondering what's going through his mind right now.

Next I see of him, he's sleepin' up against the arsenal, no weapons on him, everything put away nice and neat.

Way I see it, he's earned it after everything that's happened; we're getting a bit tired of living through a story worth telling.

awww, definitely earned it. thanks for the fill!

“Beatrice, it’s okay, I understand everything now. Don’t you know you’re allowed to rest?” Battler shakes her shoulder and when she doesn’t respond he knows it’s up to him to tell the story of who she didn’t want to be so that she can walk away from herself.

thanks for the fill, this is very sweet.

thank you very much! i love battler and beatrice and their complicated relationship

'it’s up to him to tell the story of who she didn’t want to be so that she can walk away from herself', if that isn't the whole game right there. it took battler long enough to get there, but he understands her heart now, and you portray his understanding beautifully.

thank you so much! i love battler, even though it takes him a long time to figure out what he's doing

You have come so far, and your prize - your brother - awaits . . . don't you think it's time to close this book, end this story?

Sarah isn't sure what the voice is, or who - has heard it floating through her mind since she first stepped into the Labyrinth - but she listens as she looks across the mad room at the figure who has been responsible for her adventure and her troubles and . . . perhaps it was only what she had asked him for, in truth, that he had given.

"What if I don't want to leave?" Sarah asks aloud, and returns the Goblin King's smile as he stretches out a hand.

don't know the canon but thanks for the fill!

"The best thing about comic books," Calvin said, as he opened the box to let the orange tiger out, "is that they're always just a bunch of origin stories layered on each other without ever truly ending."

"What took you so long?" Hobbes asked, stepping back onto the floor, as Mina clapped her hands over her mouth to avoid screaming in delight.

"Sorry, old buddy, just had to make sure she wouldn't take 'Catch a tiger by his toe' as a challenge."

awwwww!

All stories have an end.

Auron sees the anguish in Jecht's eyes as they approach, how he turns to look over his shoulder at Yuna and her party, Jecht's son and Braska's daughter repeating their mistakes and hoping for a different outcome.

"You're late," Jecht says, and it's all Auron can do to bow his head and reply, "I know."

weh! ;_;

Trifle smashes against the shale, tureens tip their contents, and Thomas reaches the end of the table.

The captain is sharing the story of the cow with the officers, but his steward’s presence gives him pause; he peers down at him with neither pride nor shame, only indifference.

“And that is where the story ends,” the captain says, as Thomas rests against the tablecloth and lets his eyes flutter closed.

Oh noooo! :'( You've totally captured this heartbreaking scene!

<3 :'(

(Thank you!!)

re: captain - what a jerkface.

Paha! Quite XD

The kid looks at him with those moony eyes through that shaggy hair, and John's fingers itch to swat the mess outta the way and... well, and do things that ain't exactly kosher in the state of Denmark. But his life is not an alternative romance, it's an action movie, and any daydreams he had about taking things further with Matthew Farrell belong right back at the Fire Sale, when he was baring his fucking soul in the car to a goddamn stranger and practically begging for the kid to tell me that all his cuts and bruises were sexy in that damn tunnel. Now it's time to go back to reality, and that means quiet nights in front of the tube, not Matt Farrell in his bed.

and here I was thinking this was a hopeful prompt, you managed to find a depressing angle, good job XD

Oh, really? I read it as very sad. *shrugs* But uh, yay me? (Thanks for reading it.)

Robin looks at her husband, at their friends and comrades, at their assembled children who came so far to protect them, and she knows. It’s time for her to lay down her life and protect them with a smile on her face and conviction in her heart, striking Grima from this world forever, even if Chrom can’t accept her decision. It’s time to end this story for good.

Bandstand, Davy/Jimmy, love will come and find me again

any, any, come and heal us too / we never could find you

Sirona - Miracle of Sound

Meshi comes home limping and whimpering in pain, serious-looking bite marks covering his neck and legs. Neko smells fox musk and blood on him, and she can guess what happened even before he tells her he ran afoul of a fox at her den.

Long ago, when Neko was bitten by a dog, Hibiki treated her wounds with water and a sharp-smelling leaf paste, all the while murmuring magic words to take the pain away. She wrapped Neko's wounds in soft, clean cloth, and Neko was all better when she took the cloth away.

Neko can't do those things. She doesn't know how to make the leaf paste, and all the cloth in the shrine has long rotted away -- and even if she found some, her claws would not be able to wrap them.

She scolds Meshi for his recklessness and cleans his wounds with rasps of her tongue, licking away the blood and making sure there is no dirt or debris. Then she orders the other children to bring him fish and his favorite orange crabs, and when the children depart, she curls against Meshi and rumbles her deepest purr, the way she would in the nights when Hibiki started to cry. Her purr isn't as magic as Hibiki's words, but it will have to do.

Even though Meshi interferes with her naps and duties, she keeps him close over the coming days. If she doesn't, he will try to run off or scratch at his wound.

She finds his bites very worrisome. Most of the time, bites heal, but sometimes they turn black or red and start oozing a foul-smelling liquid. When this happens, children can become very sick, and there is nothing Neko can do but hope that they get better.

This generation's Meshi is a lucky child, though. His wounds heal without a problem, and soon he struts around the shrine as if he was never injured, bragging about how he beat a fox. She swats him hard on the head when she catches him at it; he shouldn't encourage other children to do dangerous things. The next time a child gets into trouble, they may not be so lucky.

Neko does not want to be impatient, but she hopes Hibiki will come home soon. Sometimes it is very hard to take care of the children on her own.

don't know the canon, but wah, kitties!

Thank you! <3

(yes, as in fanfic for the Mountain Goats song)

The adherents of the Wizard King, those whose faith has never faltered, come on bended knee to petition for his release. Even the bit roles have a part to play, and now is the time for they who study the way of the blade to travel by starlight and slip the locks that should have been impossible to overcome. They speak of the kindness of the cracks of his face, and how a touch or a look can be enough to heal if you believe – and oh, how they do – so perhaps the true magic is in the strength of their convictions.

this is so on brand. it’s so evocative, for such a short story, you could spin whole worlds out of starlight journeys and impossible locks and of how they all became adherents to the wizard king in the first place, what he has to be released from. and i love the concluding line, ‘perhaps the true magic is in the strength of their convictions’ indeed.

thank you! the song is so full of potential and hidden corners of the story, and john darnielle has said in multiple interviews and intros to singing it that he can tell the basic story of what's happening, but that he doesn't know what the story means because "i always feel the reader is better qualified to tell me than the other way around" and i just love that.

Narnia AU, Jadis, a different sort of Queen

(Take it as literally or cracky as you want!)

"The sexual innuendo is disrespectful," Jadis said as the song finished and the disembodied voice resumed its spate of falsely cheerful inanities, "but it's true that my rule would automatically remedy the follies of your world's native leaders, and your gunpowder and guillotines have great entertainment potential. Nonetheless, I fail to see why I should waste time on common musicians and their caterwauling rather than secure one of your nuclear missile launch sites as a power base for my inevitable conquest."

"The thing is, your Majesty, the problem with conquering the world is that then you have to rule it, and that's a lot of work," said the sweating woman whose 'car' Jadis had commandeered at wand- and knife-point. At Jadis's raised brow, she gulped and added, "It's much more efficient to get rich and famous and pay other people to cater to your every whim. People fall all over themselves to do stupid shit for their idols, and if you're rich enough, you can buy your way out of just about any trouble."

"And you think this presumptuously named band might aid me in such an endeavor?"

The woman shrugged, damp hands shifting on the steering wheel of her cramped, inelegant, and odiferous vehicle. "It's a place to start?"

AMAZING

Thank you! :)

The PERFECT choice of Queen!! And being an idol would suit Jadis so well, really.

All shall love her and despair! ;)

Oh my god, what a concept! and Jadis is definitely in character, lol

Thank you! :)

This is amazing lmao and so in character somehow!

Thank you! :D

Excellent.

Thank you! :)

Smothered in shrubbery and chest-high flowers and surrounded by bees and butterflies as he is, Edmund hears the melodic tinkling of bells long before he sees her.

Her carriage, covered in leafy vines and drawn by four perfectly white winged horses, pulls to a stop just in front of him and the door flings open with such force that Edmund sneezes from the pollen that is released as a result.

Even her elaborate pink and green dress, decorated with as many leaves and petals as it can fit, cannot disguise the beauty of the woman who steps out– and as Edmund stares at the gleaming gold of her hair and the sweetness of her smile, he misses the poison that blooms in her eyes.

Oooh. Cancerous overgrowth and sweet poison instead of scouring winter -- I love it!

thanks!

This land has magic, but not the right kind, not the sweet kind that she breathed and bore and had, in the end, torn into the great working.

Jadis who is queen will just have to send out her children to change that. Send out her daughters, less than yet of her, with a shadow of her strength for such things, let them dance with her sons, flyt the short, brief, deadly dance, and settle over the land like a swarm.

Jadis as queen of a swarm of intelligent (possibly parasitic?) social insects would make for a terrifying version of Narnia.

Once upon a time, a young lion made a bargain with a fairy queen, and he bargained poorly. The Emperor foresaw the disaster that would befall his son, but he could do nothing about the bargain struck without risking that he would be the one in cold iron, his empire destroyed at the utterance of a single word.

She admits this one is going to be a lot more fun to watch try and wiggle out of his contract than the others were.

Ooh, intriguing!

Castle, Castle/Beckett, murder by trope

Bandstand, Donny, I am a soldier, I have seen worse sights than this.

Star Wars X-wing series, Kettch, the triumphant return of a legend

"Nope. Nuh-uh. Not happening," Face protested, and then, "Wait, didn't that thing get blown up or something?"

"Miraculously, it survived." Piggy held the - rather raggedy-looking, admittedly - Kettch puppet out for inspection. "You're the only one qualified to handle him. We all agreed."

"I notice 'we' didn't include me."

"It did include General Antilles, however."

...well, he couldn't argue with that. Face accepted his fate and took the puppet from Piggy. His friend gave him a satisfied, squinty-eyed nod.

"And thus," he pronounced, "the mantle is passed."

(A/N: KETTCH OMG YES)

Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, i’d be appalled if i saw you ever try to be a saint

He saw her move among them in a way he could never do; the people flocked to her, wanting to be near her, basking in her sun. They loved her, sat her on a pedestal, called her a saint - it made him feel sick. It made him want to keep her for himself, lock her away, forget the key - her, a saint? No.

You are here!! you are here!!!! Also fantastic fill because Vialethe needs those Darklina prompts filled. And best of all, you are here to fill them!!

Oooh! What a welcome! Thank you! I'm sooo excited for this! And I'm so glad that it still exists! <3 <3 What fun the next weeks will be <3

Oh, he knows her far too well - especially her reluctance to even BE what she is - to think of her as a saint, it's true! I love the bit about wanting to lock her up and keep her for himself, especially.

(It's funny, I very much expected this prompt would be picked up in the other direction, Alina laughing at the idea of him wanting to be a saint - but this works just as well!)

And I'm SO GLAD you've arrived!! Yay.

I'm so happy you like it. You must excuse me if its shitty writing, it's been years since I've written something that isn't an academic paper and in norwegian. So I'm a little rusty, but I'm here to fill all your prompts ;)

It is not AT ALL shitty and I am thrilled someone else is interested in my endless Darklina prompts, much less you!! I remember being introduced to the glory of 3-sentence ficcing on your journal like a decade ago now, and here we all are.

Oh thank you so much! If anything this has really gotten my creative juices flowing, and I'm having a blast filling all your prompts!

Oh gosh, yes the years really have flown by haven't they? It's also so great, but a little weird, that something I dreamed up on my journal years ago has gotten so big and still so very loved. <3

It is honestly my favorite event of the year, and I've made so many friends and written so many new things because of it. I am eternally grateful. <3

Narnia, dragon!Eustace, the hoarding impulse

Forever after, it will hit him at the oddest times - standing on the deck of the Dawn Treader with Reep and Caspian and Lucy and even Edmund, if he’s being honest - or much later, with Jill and Puddleglum and Rillian, tumbling out from beneath the earth.

The urge to grab them all, to gather them into him with arms grown longer for the purpose, folding them into his great wingspan, where he can hold them, defend them, protect them -

Hoard them, some nasty little voice whispers in his head, sibilant and sharp, and so he shakes himself mentally, and pulls his hand back from where it hovered over Jill’s shoulder, nearly touching - let her be free then, he thinks, let her fly on her own.

Oh this is so sweet!!

Oh, what a brilliant interpretation of the prompt! Nicely done.

Ohhh, I love this!!

This is stunning!

My heart <3

The Folk of the Air, Jude/Cardan, combat/I’m ready for combat/I say I don’t want that/but what if I do?

The Hobbit, Smaug, the tactile pleasure of treasure

He does not fall into slumber so much as a daze, so much as a contemplation. Smaug rolls this way and that, flicks his tail and licks his paws so they will stick to the gold as he walks to another pile, slithers to another haul of the same glinting, enchanting treasure. It is his, and his only.

Edited 2022-01-16 12:03 (UTC)

this is great!

He's such a cool hoarder dragon lol, <3

Bandstand, Wayne Wright, These people wouldn't know real sacrifice if it slapped them in the face.

Narnia, Peter /& Lucy, I want a space to watch things grow/but did I dream too big/do I have to let it go

She grew up watching him fill the empty spaces in her life, keep her family whole, keep them safe and together. She put her whole life in his hands, trusting him to hold it, trusting him to keep it, trusting him to save it. It never, even once, occured to her that it was too heavy a burden, not for a second did she think he could fall.

ooooh I love this!

Oh I love this for Lucy!! It's such a perfect summation of how she sees Peter, as the larger-than-life figure who will always make everything okay for her, and who would never let her down. It's so sweet and trusting and totally her, even if poor Peter probably felt that pressure quite keenly.

Oh this is so lovely a look at not only Peter (perhaps from the one of his siblings who always expected and trusted him to handle everything) but Lucy as well. ♡

This is a wound her cordial cannot fix and unless they amputate the limb the only thing that will grow here is the raging infection. The young soldier nods when he hears the news, and at least Lucy can hold his hand through the pain. At the last moment she cannot bear to look and buries her face in Peter’s chest.

Awww, poor Lucy! I love that Peter is there for her, to shield her and be her bulwark against the things she can't quite face, in the end.

Thank you! Eventually she'll grow enough to face this kind of loss unflinching, but in the meantime she really does need Peter by her side.

aaah lucy being a war medic, facing wounds her cordial cannot fix. and she's still there to support the wounded, and peter is there to support her. good for them!

thank you! this is something she has to learn about, and she also has to learn that she doesn't have to do it all alone.

Jane Eyre, a self-sufficient ending

The house was snug and secure against the biting wind. Diana sat in one chair, her book in her lap. Mary and I, warm in our respective seats, Mary in the facing chair and I at Diana's feet, listening as Diana read St. John's latest letter from India aloud. Afterward she sighed and said, "I am glad, for his sake, that he has gone; but I wish it were not so far. At least you have not left us, Jane. Will you read for us?"

My German was no so bad, now, that I was embarrassed to read for them. The fire crackled. Reader, I was content.

I love this!

I love this so much. The older I get, and the more I reread Jane Eyre, the more I am convinced this is the ending that should have happened.

I love Jane Eyre so much but every time I reread I find Rochester harder to take.

Yes! Rochester makes me more angry every time I reread. And St. John, too, in some ways, although at least he's not a liar - he's very straightforward about who he is. He's just too controlling by half, imo.

Little Women (any version), Laurie/Jo, what might have been

She's sitting by the fire, juice from a piece of orange dripping down her chin unnoticed, a manuscript balanced on her knees, not paying attention to either as she looks over at her husband, deeply engrossed in a book.

Of all men in the world, she could not imagine another that she could be this calm and comfortable with, just so very content to be as she is and know that's perfectly fine with him.

When he looks up from his reading and smiles at her, Jo wonders how she ever thought for a moment that refusing Teddy's proposal was the right decision - how awful the outcome of that terrible decision might have been if she hadn't been so quick to change her mind!

Aww, this was delightful! I love the details and I especially love that they've matured in their marriage so they can be calm and peaceful around each other, going against what the predictions were.

You always do such a good job with this ship and this was awesome as well. :D

He finds her in the attic.

“Are we playing bandits?” he asks, laughing only for a moment before his nose twitches and his face wrinkles up. It’s a valiant effort but in the end he succumbs.

“You’re the only person I know,” she says as she hands over a spare bandana, watching him tie it over his nose and mouth against the dust as she had, “who always sneezes in sets of three. Do you suppose it might be a witch’s curse?”

“You know, I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion…”

But the teasing light dies from his eyes as he trails off, and the glimpse of Teddy-that-was fades along with it. Before her stands Laurie, My Lord, neither Her Laurie nor Her Lord, if ever he was either. He might be trying to smile, she can’t tell behind the mask.

“What are you doing up here, Jo?” he asks, looking around at the mess of half-emptied trunks and rag bags.

“My fine young troupe of actors have an appointment with the boards,” she tells him, but her voice sounds tired rather than grand. “We begin dress rehearsals tomorrow and I’m short several costumes with no time to sew new ones. Marmee suggested I raid our old treasure trove.”

“I see.” Laurie sits down tailor-fashion across from her and pulls a basket towards himself, looking into it for only a moment before his eyes are drawn back up to the rafters, the window, the writing desk. He shakes his head, his well-ordered curls dancing around his face. “I haven’t been up here since…”

“Yes,” Jo says curtly. “Since.”

He bows his head over his basket but it turns out to contain only several sets of doll clothes and he soon sets it aside, watching her as she shakes out a faded old purple dress with a sound of satisfaction. “This will do for little Sarah, she’s playing a brave young peasant girl who gets lost in the woods and has to survive by her wits. Most of the other parts are fairies and goblins, that sort of thing, at first she’s afraid of them but in the end they all band together to break a powerful enchantment.”

She sneaks a look up at him, sees that his eyes are crinkled over his bandana and looks away again before he asks, “Did you write this one, Jo?”

“I did.” She smooths her palms over the fabric, noting moth holes alone the lacy edge and adds, entirely failing in her efforts not to sound defensive, “We did Shakespeare in the fall.”

“I was there,” he reminds her, and she’s meeting his eyes before she knows if the feeling in her chest is astonishment or dismay as he orates: “‘O, you should not rest between the elements of air and earth, but you should pity me.’”

He has a fine voice and he’s learned to use it to great effect as it has deepened with age but as she stares the gravitas falls from him. The bandana has slipped down around his neck and she watches the blood rise to his cheeks, a peek behind the curtain to remind of the little boy he once was, her boy, and she leans in to tug on a lock of his hair, teasing, “You’d make a fine Viola, you know.”

He scowls and smooths his hair back, the light from her flickering candles playing across the line of his jaw, showing stubble and stubbornness both familiar and alien; lines she has always known and lines that have etched their way into the fabric of him when she wasn’t there to watch.

She stands and begins to fold up the purple dress but he catches hold of the hem, holding it gently between finger and thumb. “Was this Meg’s?” he asks.

“It was.”

He hums, and holds on to it a little tighter. “Was this the one that you…”

And now she feels the heat rise to her own face, feels the twist behind her heart that she used to think was valor and hears the snappishness of her own voice as she fires back, “The one that I what?”

He’s looking up at her, chin tipped back to reveal the long pale column of his throat, as though he’s offering himself up. To what, she cannot imagine.

“Was this the one,” he asks again, voice very soft but steady nonetheless, “that you dressed me in, all those years ago?”

She pulls it from his hands and folds it haphazardly, tucking it into the box she’s taking back to the school. “You know very well that it is.”

His hands are folded in his lap, now, fingers twisting around each other, but he hasn’t tucked his chin.

“I wanted…” he breathes in sharply through his nose, then blinks hastily and turns his head, sneezing three times. She laughs, she can’t help it, and the smile he directs up at her is sweet, so sweet in the dying candlelight, that she takes his hand when he offers it to her along with his confession. “I very much wanted to be one of the March sisters.”

“Well…” She pulls the bandana from her face, immediately regretting the loss of its protection against his gaze, however thin. She covers his hand with hers and says, as though thinking about it for the first time, “I suppose that now, in a way, you are.”

“I suppose I am.” His lips twitch, his fingers twine with hers.

“And I was desperate to be the Laurence boy,” she tells him, when the moment has stretched and left with the choice either to grin or to cry. She stoops to snag his fine hat off the floor and squash it down on top of her own head, spinning away when he loudly protests such rough treatment of his brand-new hat.

“Run along now, Dora,” she calls sweetly over her shoulder, “run along and play dress-up, leave the real work to us menfolk!”

He walks her back to Aunt March’s — to the school — over the moonlit fields, their boots crunching through frosted grass, winter’s last gasp before the her younger sister’s triumphal return. She’d lost her gloves again last week and her hands are stiff with cold but her head is warm beneath his hat. It’s a dusty, rumpled mess when she hands it back at the door, trading it to him for the box of costumes, but he bows over it like a knight over his lady’s favor.

She reaches out, gets her fingers under the bandana that still rests against his throat like a cravat in a child’s play. Tugging it up to cover his eyes she turns him by the shoulders, pushing him gently in the direction of his own home.

“Off with you, silly boy,” she calls after him. “Go home to your wife.”

He pulls his blindfold down, turns his hat in his hands, reshaping it carefully before setting it back in its rightful place. The boy transformed into the lord before her very eyes, and to whatever hidden place her Teddy vanishes, there too go her half-formed thoughts of might-have-been.

He lifts a hand in silent farewell and turns his face to his lonely trek even as she turns to shut the door against the chill, the warmth of her self-made life welcoming her home.

Something in his resolute tone made Jo look up quickly to find him looking down at her with an expression that assured her the dreaded moment had come, and made her put out her hand with an imploring, “No, Teddy. Please don’t!”
“I will, and you must hear me. It’s no use, Jo, we’ve got to have it out, and the sooner the better for both of us,” he answered, getting flushed and excited all at once.
“Say what you like then. I’ll listen,” said Jo, with a desperate sort of patience.
Laurie was a young lover, but he was in earnest, and meant to ‘have it out’, if he died in the attempt, so he plunged into the subject with characteristic impetuousity, saying in a voice that would get choky now and then, in spite of manful efforts to keep it steady...
“I’ve loved you ever since I’ve known you, Jo, couldn’t help it, you’ve been so good to me. I’ve tried to show it, but you wouldn’t let me. Now I’m going to make you hear, and give me an answer, for I can’t go on so any longer.”
“Teddy,” Jo said desperately. “Please. I love you, but I can’t - I can’t yet. Do you understand that? I didn’t want to hurt you, because I know you want to marry, but - I need time.”
Laurie’s eyes had lit up as she spoke, though, and he came closer. “Jo. Do you mean it?”
“Yes,” Jo said firmly, though the pain in her chest made it hard to keep going. “I need time. I need - I need to know if I can write for myself, and make a success of my writing, without worrying about a husband, or children, or - “
“No, silly Snodgrass,” Laurie said, his mouth quirking as he lifted a hand to cradle her cheek. “Do you mean it, that you love me?”
Jo’s eyes widened. “Well, of course I love you. Who else would there be, Teddy? You are my best friend - you are everything.”
Laurie’s smile blossomed. “Be my fiancée, then. Do you really think I would try to take your writing away from you, Jo? I’m happy to wait until you feel you’ve had as much success as you need, as long as I know you want to be my wife.”
“That seems horribly unfair to you,” Jo said, biting her lip.
“I’m happy to wait for you, Jo,” Laurie said gently. “And cheer you along the way. Just let me love you in the meantime, and know that you are mine.”
“I’ve always been yours, Teddy,” Jo said, lifting her face to his and gazing at him earnestly. “That was never a question.”
And Laurie pressed his lips to hers, both in answer and as a promise.

Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, I don’t like that anyone would die to feel your touch/everybody wants you/everybody wonders what it would be like to love you

In all his years he never felt what he felt when he was with her. It was like he had been freezing, and in her presence he felt warm again for the first time. She warmed him up, and it was disgusting how it made him feel.

LOL. That he thinks it's 'disgusting' to feel nice and warm instead of cold and hard and dead! He would. I love it.

Narnia/GoT, Susan/Jon Snow, at first chance/I’d take the bed warmed by the body

Bandstand, Julia/Donny, being madly in love with you

Spider-Man (comics), Peter/MJ, "you wear your mask and I'll wear mine / they don't come cheap but they fit just fine"

Wynonna Earp, Wynonna/Doc, travelling light

Gunsmoke, Matt/Kitty, gone fishing

Wynonna Earp, Waverly/Nicole, happily ever after

Narnia/Star Wars, Susan/Obi-Wan, an elegant weapon for a civilized age

“I don’t whip it out for just anyone these days, you know,” he says, trying to sound peevish but, he suspects, failing utterly, for the sight of Susan grinning up at him from his bed is far too pleasant for that.

“I assure you, yours will be far from the first man’s sword I’ve seen,” she says, wicked mouth curved, “so you needn’t be shy on my account.”

He hesitates a moment longer before hitting the switch, the familiar hum overtaking him, an extension of his arm, his will; in the glow of his lightsaber, her face lights like sunlight through leaves in warm, living green, her gaze softer now and dreamy; when she speaks, it’s from a universe away, and chills him to the core: “You look like a knight, somehow,” she breathes, in the voice of a queen.

Oohh this is amazing! I love the knight & queen, plus the innuendos, lol

yesss, this is so good. i loved contributing a bit to this pairing last year and i'm glad it's continuing here.
favorite line: 'her face lights like sunlight through leaves in warm, living green'

I love this pairing SO MUCH. And it's so delightfully salacious and just perfect, that mix of comfortable lovers and Queen and Knight.

Writing an Obi-Wan who wasn't a hopeless flirt just wouldn't feel right, you know??

Holy fuck I LOVE this. It's so them and so sensuous. *Applause*.

Wynonna Earp, Waverly & Doc, saving Wynonna

The Old Kingdom, any & cat!Kerrigor, there is still one bound servant of the Abhorsens

Lirael, called the goldenhand, sat quietly outside the circle.

No simple thing, it hummed with power to her senses, spell upon spell and barrier upon barrier as it barred the way to the creature within, despite the way he was held tightly by Ranna's grip.

The Disreputable Dog might have gained her freedom - or was never truly bound at all - as had Mogget, but here beneath the House, slumbering quietly, there is still a bound prisoner of the Abhorsen.

Ohhh... Lirael would be the one to regard Kerrigor's situation with a critical eye. Lovely!

Thank you!

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Page 11 of 50

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

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Voltron: Legendary Defender

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Onwards (Bastion)

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Umineko, Battler/Beatrice

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Rewriting the Ending (Labyrinth; Jareth/Sarah)

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Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin, Hobbes, and his child, Passing The Tiger (Sort Of)

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Final Fantasy X, Auron

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The Story Ends (The Terror, Crozier & Jopson)

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Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt

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Fire Emblem: Awakening, Chrom/Robin

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Genshin Impact, Neko (cn: cat injury, brief mention of past cat death)

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Clemency for the Wizard King

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Killer Queen

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Sweet Sickly Spring

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Swarm from Charn

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Upholding Her End Of The Bargain

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I Still Need You (Narnia, Eustace/Jill)

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Hobbit, Smaug like a cat with a blanket, except it's gold

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