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

ST:Discovery, Michael/Book, dog discourse

‘What is that?’ Book asked as he stared at the creature standing next to Michael, head tilted up regally and staring at Grudge like it was planning a coup.

’He is a dog,’ Michael reached down and patted the ‘dog’ on the head, ‘and I thought he could be good company for Grudge.’

Book’s mouth fell open in shock and said, ‘Absolutely not! No one will ever be good enough for Grudge. She’s a queen.’

Aww!

*Laughs* you are in for a trip, Book. And Grudge. I love the tone with which Book narrates this — very skeptical indeed. Thank you so much for writing this! <3

:DDDDD

any, any, 'Everywhere I go is home. Every town, and every road.'

"Don't you miss your it, your home?" Yaz asked. They were sitting at the door of the TARDIS, Yaz with her legs dangling out, The Doctor curled into her side, the Earth spinning slowly beneath them.
"I've been running for far longer than I've ever lived there," The Doctor said tracing a circular pattern on Yaz's thigh, "everywhere I go is home. Every town, every road- every person."

Every person! Love this!

ikr. that part just slotted in so neatly that I had to add it.

This is lovely. I was thinking this would be a perfect prompt for Doctor Who, but I couldn't come up with anything nearly this good. :)

It was honestly my first thought too(not because I'm all in on Doctor Who rn why do you ask). But yeah. The Doctor has been running for so long, going to so many different places, meeting, and loosing, so many different people, she's probably realized by now, that home is what you make of it. Or something like that.

Sam asks him, one evening, when his wandering brings him back to the city. "Why don't you stay here? Jack, there's lots of places hiring hereabouts."
Jack just smiles at the kid who's somehow shot up a good foot while he was gone. "My home, it's the road, and every town along the way."

Oh, now that's very nice indeed!

Edited 2022-01-17 06:39 (UTC)

'Every song I've ever known, carried in my bones. I feel like a lightning strike every time I rock the mic. You can join me if you like or I'll go on my own - I'm Lookin' Up!' :D

Ha! Yeah, I was wondering if anybody would recognize that.

"Where's your home, daozhang?" the little girl asked innocently.

Xie Lian laughed, somewhat sadly but not unkindly. It had been nearly eight hundred years since he had had somewhere he could truly call home.

"I can make a home wherever I travel, for as long as I'm there," he tells her.

"Well," she said, thinking about that, "if you're here right now, you have to be on time for dinner. A-Niang's rules!"

Perfect. :D

Just like the humans, animals, and plants, every town and every road gets analyzed, broken down to its bricks and beams, its circuitry and layers. Disassembly reveals useful pathways, will show functions and structures to work with.

As the protomolecule strives to turn every system it touches into a home, thriving and building and improving, red and black shadows gather in the between: no town there, no road, nowhere.

"...do you miss home?"

It was the question Spike asked everyone, sooner or later, so Jazz had already thought of his answer long ago. "There's bots I miss. Little fuel dives that don't exist anymore. Music acts I ain't heard in a while. But Cybertron, the whole thing? Not so much."

"Too big to miss?" Spike guessed.

Jazz chuckled. "Something like that!" He gestured out at the landscape before them. "Besides, look at what's right here. A sky with an actual sun, endless roads to explore, and the natives here are every bit as cool and creative as the bots back on Cybertron." He got a grin for that, which was what he was hoping for, but it wasn't entirely flattery. "Home's just another stop on the road, my man," he concluded. "And I don't spend a lot of time gazing into the rearview."

The Witcher, Geralt/Ciri, fatherhood

Star Wars, Anakin/Ahsoka, uniforms of choice

any, any, figure skating au

Rex can't stop staring like an idiot out at the rink, where a most beautiful man is twirling, his fiery hair whipping past. He looks, out the corner of his eye, to see Khodi, but his brother's eyes are on the stranger's partner, her head covered in dark braids. "You're blushing." "So are you!"

haha cute!! Thank you :)

Francis baulks at the thought of aiding a rival pair, but he won’t have them come to harm—the ice should be resurfaced before their performance, if anyone will care to listen.

“An interesting speculation,” John says, ignoring Francis’s recommendation as he and James glide out onto the rink.

Two minutes into their performance, the worst happens: John’s ankle snaps and James wails, falling to his knees in a compelling display of loyalty and despair upon the unsafe surface. Francis can only watch from the boards, and while it’s unsportsmanlike to gloat, he can’t help but consider how different things might be if they’d heeded his warning.

he can’t help but consider how different things might be if they’d heeded his warning.

This is very cool, I like how the tragedy of the original "translates" into this AU!

Thank you :D I giggled a lot when I saw this prompt and writing something this cracky was immensely fun!

Oof that's a hard lesson to learn on listening to warnings! Thank you :)

"I don't know why you're insisting I join you for this," Madara said, sliding onto the ice with a graceful twist, one hand wrapped around Tobirama's wrist, "you know I'm not-"

"I've seen you keep your feet in a spin when someone Anija's size threw himself at you," Tobirama interrupted, arching a brow, "and make a goal in the process. I'm not asking you to learn jumps or anything too complicated, but you will be fine with a step sequence and a few basics. More than."

Madara made a grumbling sound and Tobirama laughed, skating backwards and beckoning his boyfriend to follow.

I actually have a big ice skating AU sprawling through my notes - maybe someday I'll even write it. XP

haha how cute!! Thank you :D

Thank you! X3

Jon tucks her arm in his as they skate slowly around the deserted rink, and then he smiles at her when he says, "I'm not going to show you our routine."

"I know, and I'm not going to show you ours either."

"I am going to kiss you, though," he continues, and Susan doesn't respond, just tugs him in closer to hurry that up.

Rivals! In! Love!! Yessss they're so damn cute, and yes, Jon needs to hurry up with that already, enough skating around the point!

Jon is gathering his courage!!!!! Olympics be damned!

Though it wasn't a world championship, Catherine was still ecstatic to enter the rink for the semifinals, though her giddiness dwindled somewhat when she realized how many challengers were already there practicing. Her coach signaled for an official as she laced up, and when she had finished a lanky skater reached out a hand to help her navigate toward a free spot on the ice, his friendly grin warming up an otherwise unremarkable appearance.

"Sorry, it's a bit crowded today," he commented as they fell into an easy circle around the perimeter, "but Vancouver's definitely the better end of the circuit: and sorry again, the name's Henry, care to tell me your's?"

Sweet! Thank you for filling my prompt :)

You're welcome: NA figure skating AU sounds like fun, though I'm not sure where it would go past the opening meet-cute. Definitely an intriguing world to set any story in.

The Witcher, Jaskier & Yennefer, "I think you might be my best friend"

“I think you might be my best friend,” Jaskier slurs at her one evening, drunkenly resting his head on her lap as he does so, and Yennefer rolls her eyes, but doesn’t push him off. She sits there as he closes his eyes and falls asleep, and remains there for minutes and hours after, until the first rays of sunlight hit the tiny window of their cramped little room.

“Isn’t that sad,” Yennefer mutters, and gently strokes her fingers through his hair.

AWESOMESAUCE!!!!

Well done!

thanks!

Ahh this is so sweet and perfect!! Thank you <3

I'm happy you liked it :)

you write them so well :D

Any fandom, token human in a cast of Muppets

It is immediately obvious to David, upon waking up, that while he is lying on his expansive (and expensive) bed, he is most certainly not lying on his expansive (and expensive) bed.

This may or may not have to do with the fact that there are Muppets staring at him, or the fact that Miss Piggy is lying on the bed beside him, or the fact that both he and Miss Piggy are wearing rings resembling (unnervingly so) wedding bands, or the fact that he and Kermit seem to be wearing matching dress suits.

It neither answers nor helps anything that Kermit says, "You may tell yourself, 'This is not my beautiful house,' and you may tell yourself, 'This is not my beautiful wife,' but David — it's the same as it ever was."

omg, this is amazing

Hee, thank you kindly.

XD XD XD Bravo!

*bows and flourishes*

What did my monitor ever do to *you*? Ah, such brilliance. <333

*Blows you a kiss*

But where does that highway go to?

The bottom of the ocean, where there is water to be removed. *Nods firmly*.

You didn't say "and I have the best icon possible for making this post".

I squeed shamelessly!

*Grins* I gotta have something to surprise my audience with. <3

how. HOW. did I forget I have this icon? HOW?

And why is my brain going, "You know what I could really go for? Mark Hamill/Frank Oz"?

I love your brain and your icon <333

This is a work of art, thank you for blessing us

Thank you! Believe me when I say I had too much fun writing it.

"Now this is quite interesting, panel: if I were to say that someone was abusing the franking privilege, where would you expect to see the evidence?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen Frank in years!" Fozzie says, as the klaxons sound once again, either for the obvious answer or for the terrible joke; nobody knows at this point with Fozzie.

Sandi and Kermit exchange long-suffering looks between themselves, knowing full well the audience tunes in to hear the depths of awfulness that Fozzie's jokes trawl as much as they do the bits and pieces of knowledge that the rest of the panel discusses after the klaxons die down.

*BWAHAHAHA*

That seems like the only way to get Alan Davies off the show for an episode while he's still able to crack wise.

Fozzie might rival him for worst score of all time in his run, and enjoy every moment of it.

Oz series (any version), Dorothy Gale, silver shoes or ruby slippers?

Although usually a polite little girl, Dorothy found herself yawning while the Queen of the Field Mice chatted with her.

“It is your shoes,” the Queen pointed out after she apologized. “Their silver magic protects you from greater harm, but as the red petals stuck to them are merely ordinary things they will continue to work upon you until washed clean away.”

any, any, coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?

Hikaku blinked slowly in surprise as Tobirama deftly poured one cup of coffee for Hikaku and one cup of hot chocolate for himself; he didn't even notice Tobirama had had two different beverages going.

"Hot chocolate seems like it would be... too sweet for your tastes," he said, as diplomatically as he could, while automatically accepting the coffee that Tobirama handed him.

Tobirama shrugged, sitting down across the table with his hot chocolate cradled in one hand, and said, "Even I couldn't escape my brother's sweet tooth."

Matt quickly swiped his palms on his jeans before opening the door.

"Daisy Duke?" John asked.

"Right. Because last time I said that whole-

"Yeah."

"Yeah. That's... funny. Come in!" He stepped back hastily to let John enter, shut the door as John looked around appraisingly. It was a bit of an upgrade from the last place; this one at least didn't have mice that regularly nibbled at the wires, and the fire alarm had only been erroneously pulled three times so far this month.

"Nice place."

Matt makes a face. Better than a trash heap is still a dump. But John's being nice, so he should be nice, which means he should wipe that weird look off his face and-

"Coffee!" he blurts out. "Or tea. I have milk. For the... I got it this morning so it's fresh. Or hot chocolate! Because yeah, Farrell, let's have hot chocolate when it's 87 degrees outside. That makes so much-"

"Matt?"

Matt focuses, visions of John passing out from heat exhaustion after being force-fed copious amounts of Granny's Best still dancing through his head.

"Ya wanna calm the fuck down?"

"Sure. Yeah. Absolutely," Matt says. It's just a date, he reminds himself. Just a date. He can do this.

Then John takes off his leather jacket and Matt gets a good look at the white T stretched over barrel chest, and he knows that all bets are off.

Discworld/Narnia, Death & Aslan, behind schedule

THIS IS HIGHLY IRREGULAR, Death said.

On the Table, Aslan said, "I will admit that it's a bit of a gamble."

I AM ONLY ALLOWING IT BECAUSE YOU ARE A CAT, Death said, and brought the scythe down.

I know nothing of Discworld, but I love this very much.

This made me cackle with glee. I love the loophole very much. Of course Death has special rules for cats.

HAHAHAHAHAH!

That's brilliant.

This is HILARIOUS and 100% spot on

hahahaha, love it

LOL, amazing.

giggling out loud irl, well played!

Excellent! Of course he gets a (small) pass because cat. XD

:DDDD So great!

Hee! :DDD

Trojan War Cycle, Aeneas/Cassandra, you say it in a foreign tongue/but you don’t know a thing about the things i’ve done

The best visions are those that follow the poet.
Cassandra knows them; Cassandra waits for them; but Cassandra does not understand them, spoken as they are in an unwieldy tongue, all sober balanced syllables that rhyme Aeneas' name with accents of greatness, danger and destiny all wrapped in one, all that she could have wished for him and a thousand, thousand times more.
She hears her own name upon the poet's lips only once, and knows without having to ask that the lines that follow are only one more empty hollow in the history of the world.
(What else, after all, could they be?)

I wasn't sure what you'd do with this prompt, but the 'foreign tongue' part felt like you, and oh my god, you delivered!!! What a wonderful interpretation, of her reading the Aeneid - that she loves how much it makes of him in an almost girlish way makes me want to cry - and then herself being "one more empty hollow in the history of the world" OUCH. How are you so good at this?!?

Foreign tongue to me at once makes me think of Latin --I am the worst classical mythology geek who didn't take any Classics courses in school, ha! (But the way Cassandra appears in the Aeneid to be horribly carried off and then...disappear indefinitely NEVER sat well with me, so I definitely wanted to grump about that too) Thank you for the lovevly prompt!

Narnia, Susan, i’ve had too much to drink tonight/but i wonder if they’ll miss me once they drive me out/i wake up in the middle of the night/and i can feel time moving

It was easier to be a Queen, Susan knows.

In Narnia, she was gentle, she was smart, she was beautiful, and most importantly, she had power (and her siblings). In this world, she is but a girl and a young one at that, and her siblings don't seem to understand (or care) what she has lost, don't understand what she'd do to get that back, don't want to help her any longer, not in this world, not like they would have done in the old one.

Of course it would be Susan who'd feel specifically that lack of power so acutely - Peter and Ed are male, and Lucy's still too young in England to really feel the difference that comes with being a woman. But Susan sure would, and you captured it beautifully here.

I have always headcanoned that it was what bothered Susan the most -- the lack of power, agency, and respect in England. And it made her determined to live her life the way she wanted.

Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, you kept me like a secret/but i kept you like an oath

His love for her was loud, bold, for all to see if you knew how to look right. He held his heart in his hand, expecting her to crush it. Instead she took it, and hid it away in secret, some place neither of them could find it, not lost, but not quite found either.

weeps

I love the idea of her hiding his heart somewhere even she couldn't find it again - that idea that they were so close to making it work out right, but some irreplaceable part went missing at the last moment, oof.

(And I'm very pleased you read it the same way I did as to which one of them was keeping it a secret vs an oath!)

It had been a secret for her, and he knows it — the way she felt, the time they spent together, the connection they had that no one else could ever have, could ever hope to have or understand.

But she — she was and his prayer and his oath. "It will be better, Alina," he murmured as he pulled her into his arms, "I promise you that."

Ah, I love his twisted, romantic, soft heart (if only for her). That promise that it will be better...it's so dark and chilling even while it's hot. And of course, you know better than anyone that's just the way I like them!

He is NOT a tame lion, lololol. He has a soft spot for her, but he's still all fucked up.

lol, there are no tame lions here!!

He's not himself when he's all fluffy - what's the point of a character called 'The Darkling' if he's not all fucked up? His being Alina's monster on a leash is what makes it hot.

Right? He's always going to be monstrous in his own way. Or else he's no fun lolol.

Narnia, Peter, no, i cannot seem/to get a moment’s peace/if there’s a man like me/his birch ain’t my tree

He does not want to go, to leave Narnia behind, to leave all that he loves and all that he's ever wanted, to leave the place that has brought him joy and grief and peace. He sees Susan's face, catches her eye, knows she's feeling the same, knows her heart is shattered just like his, knows neither of them will ever be whole, or right, again.

So he turns and faces the Lion, takes a deep breath and says softly, "No, I'm afraid we'll be staying right here."

OM Goddess, Snacky, YES. This is STUPENDOUS

Thank you! <3

I knew if anyone took on this weirdo prompt it would be you or Ruth! (Sidenote, I'm surprised you didn't go with a Caspian angle, knowing you!)

YES PETER YOU TELL THAT LION. Who could possibly contradict him if not the High King?? I love this, and love that at some of his reaction is triggered by Susan's pain as well as his own, by that protective instinct of his.

I'm a well-known weirdo, so here I am. And there is a Caspian angle but it's not explicit because I know not everyone likes that!

He doesn't like to see Susan cry, so it just gives him the courage to speak.

Ah yes, "all that he's ever wanted." I should have known that what Peter really wanted was THAT D. Can't blame him.

I MEAN!!!!!!

THIS IS SO GOOD

Yay! <3

There is a moment when Susan thinks it might go either way, when she is caught between the Lion and her brother and does not know which was it will go. And then Aslan laughs -- laughs! -- a deep rumble and says, "Very well, Son of Adam. Very well, Daughter of Eve. Narnia will rejoice to have you again, but England will mourn, and your brother and sister will bear a great burden there. Will you help them bear it?"

(I don't know how this AU ends but I kind of hope it involves Caspian spending some time in our world, walking upside down on the bottom of the globe)

Yes, Caspian - and perhaps Polly and Digory coming back into the Narnian end of things a bit sooner, too? There are so many possibilities here and they are all good ones!

Peter hasn't even had a moment to feel the relief of Aslan's laughter, of he and Susan being allowed to stay in Narnia, when he suddenly feels the weight of his decision and what that means to Edmund and Lucy.

"Of course we will." There was no need to even ask -- whatever he can do, it will be done, and he knows Susan feels the same without even looking at her.

But he cannot be serious for long, not when he the delight of staying in Narnia hits him, and he runs off, unable to keep the news to himself.

(I assume there will be some world hopping at the very least!)

There’s always a twinge of sadness when he thinks on it but still, Peter can laugh when his English wife is so curious about his very much in the past Narnia lover. “Oh, of course she was never mine, it was never like that. A Tree, and especially a Birch, is for herself alone, and if you are very fortunate, she deigns to be with you, for a time, and then the water and the earth and the sunlight call her back and,” he shrugs a little, “and all that remains is a memory and shards of silvery white bark on your pillow.”

Yesss omg this is great.

PETER!

The line about the water and earth calling her back is so beautiful! The whole way Peter describes the relationship, as something cherished but ephemeral even while he was in it...it's both very Narnian and very Peter, in particular. It isn't his way to cling to things, is it. And the bark on his pillow!! I knew you'd do a beautiful job with this one, thank you for proving me right.

Aw, this is so lovely.

Moana, Hei hei, the night is dark and full of terrors

Heihei's world ends at the end of his beak. Food keeps turning to rocks or dirt when he pecks at it, the presence of humans is restricted to the occasional hand, and all else is shadow-on-shadow, the domain where Chicken Gods do battle with Chicken Monsters and thereby keep the Chicken Monsters at bay for their devoted followers.

Then comes the day the shadow is burned away by endless light, and Heihei beholds an unbroken horizon for the first time: and he is overcome with terror, for the Chicken Gods have abandoned him.

I will beat the 'Heihei is blind not stupid' drum until the end of my days.

yes. YES. yes.

The night is dark and full of terrors and it is his job to do something about it. Moana was very nice to him, he needed to protect her. The only way to do that was to follow her when she went off on her adventure. He didn’t much like the mean man who threatened to eat him. If Maui would eat him than he might eat Moana too!

X-Files, Mulder/Scully, kids these days

Vlad Taltos series, any, not-elves

The Golem and the Jinni, Ahmad, above us only sky

The Secret Garden, Mary/Dickon, I'll always come home

There is a war and then a draft, Dickon cannot escape it. When news reaches Mary, he doesn't see hide nor hair of her until the night before he's called to training. She arrives like a thief in the night, looking as wild as any animal he's ever kept with only a thin shawl falling off her shoulders to keep her warm, but still her hands burn his as she clutches him.

"You must come home," she murmurs and there's none of the spoiled little empress she'd been as a child, not that he ever knew her to be such. They both know that he is not to be commanded, but still, she has run across the moor in the dark new moon night and he doesn't think even he could resist her. Her voice burns like his father's cheap whiskey and he smiles as he presses a kiss to her knuckles.

"Aye. Tell me once more and I don't think even the angels could stop me coming back."

Her eyes are wide as she leans forward. "Then come home to me," she says once and her lips burn like whiskey too, sealing the promise, like a fool swearing himself to a fae princess.

He will come back now; she's laid her spell and he'll crawl back if he has too.

music video for Hayley Kiyoko's "Girls Like Girls", Coley/Sonya, the world opened up

MCU, Steve/Bucky, ghost stories are about coming home

The street feels wrong; the fashions are different, half the buildings replaced, the remaining similarities to the place they remember only driving the differences deeper.

They've each spent decades dead, a pair of ghosts who've finally found their way back to where they started, but this place isn't their home.

At this point, the only home that matters to them isn't a place; it's each other.

Lovely!

music video for Modjo's "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)", the OT3 in the video, naps

MCU, Katy Chen & Kate Bishop, archery

Sophie's World, Sophie Amundsen, we are getting out now

More of this by

ruanchunxian

Shang Chi, any, New Year

Nine months after that Qingming Jie, after Ba has gone back to his Ten Rings, Ge has gone back to parking cars or something? in San Francisco, and Xialing has gone back to her club, the Xu family group chat lights up with a message from Ge:

Spring Festival in SF? Katy’s family wants to meet you all.

The group chat was so named only semi-ironically and, at Ba’s insistence, includes Mattias? The jury’s still out for Xialing on what she thinks about that. And yet, Ba almost never texts, he’s a dinosaur in that way. Of course, allowances must be made for a thousand-year-old man. Mattias prefers the voice message function as well, one-hand and all that. Still, it was a way to keep in touch.

And as a condition of Ge and Xialing’s promise to keep in touch, Ba has also promised to start using the Ten Rings and the ten rings to help people rather than cause more destructions in the world, and from what news Xialing has caught over the last few months, it seems he’s keeping to that promise. That doesn’t change the fact that Xialing doesn’t remember the last time she really celebrates Spring Festival, though. After Mama died, there is never any celebration at the Ten Rings compound, and after she runs away, the holidays are only a reminder of what she has lost, of how her mother, father, and brother all have abandoned her in their own ways.

Xialing texts back: Are you sure that Katy’s family wants to meet us?

Ge: Of course, what are you talking about??

Xialing: It just seems like an odd bunch, Katy and her family, Ba the immortal warlord, you, me, and our adopted brother the machete-armed assassin. Do they know what they’re getting into? What do Americans even do for Spring Festival?

Ge: They’re Chinese-American, and pretty much what we do for Spring Festival, I guess.

Xialing: And what do WE do for Spring Festival?

There is a long pause. Then, finally:

Ge: We come and see me in SF, because I’m too broke to travel halfway across the world again.

Later, when Ba has sent Xialing a voice message telling her of the time and date his private jet – because of course he has a private jet – would pick her up (without any consultation of whether such time and date suits her, but then she supposes they must take baby steps), Xialing can’t help but think to herself, this is either going to be a disaster, or the most awkward Spring Festival ever. Whichever it will be, it probably will still beats spending the holidays alone.

AWWWW. Can you imagine Ba showing up at Katy's family's little apartment. Oh gosh, HILARIOUS. And his father is oldest, richest man in the world, his sister is surgely wealthy and Shawn is just, oh yeah sure, come on over, ha ha I'm broke. you can just imagine them all facepalming.

Xialing remembers her first Mid-Autumn Festival away from family — brother gone, mother dead, father gone a bit wrong in the head — she remembers tipping her head back, remembers staring at the full moon, remembers that all she could think of was that stupid poem about moons and beds and frost and missing hometowns.

Now, she gets a text from Ge, asking to fly to America to celebrate with Katy, and to bring the good mooncakes, please, the ones in SF are so expensive and he doesn't know what to bring, but don't bring the durian ones, they'll stink up the apartment. She scoffs and buys two boxes of snowskin durians.

The poem Xialing thinks about is "Thoughts Upon A Quiet Night" by Li Bai, translations here (https://www.24en.com/p/176324.html).

I haven't actually watched Shang-Chi yet, this is entirely extrapolation from my own experiences oops

EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS IS PERFECT

brother gone, mother dead, father gone a bit wrong in the head I love how this rhymes!!

that stupid poem about moons and beds and frost and missing hometowns looool I love this reference. I have a headcanon that, because Wenwu is like a thousand years old and Shangqi and Xialing obivously don't go to normal schools, they probably have a very weird classical education (or at least Shangqi...)

to bring the good mooncakes, please, the ones in SF are so expensive ooooffff, for real

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