3 Sentence Ficathon

[rthstewart]

EDIT!  THIS POST IS NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS,  PLEASE POST NEW PROMPTS HERE!

CaramelSilver isn’t running the awesome 3 sentence ficathon this year, but she said I could do it in her place!!  (Banner courtesy of CaramelSilver and thanks so much!)

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?
You post prompts!  When posting a prompt please format it this way:

fandom, character/pairing, prompt word/sentence.

Only one prompt per comment please.

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 allowed. 

I'm not a member of Dreamwidth
No problem.  You can comment anonymously or through open ID

Can anyone play?
Yes!  Please pimp this to your flist, I'd like as many as possible to come and participate!

I'm cross-posting to LJ but we will keep all prompts and fills here, so they are in one awesome place (and with less spam). 

Here's a link for spreading the word to all your friends and comms (thanks snacky !)


<a href="http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/87903.html" _fcksavedurl="http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/87903.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/rthstewart/20604999/33037/33037_300.jpg" border="0"></a>

How long can it go? 
CaramelSilver kept the 2011 3 Sentence Ficathon up for a month.  I'd suggest closing it on Sunday, April 7, 2013.  How does that sound? (edit:  If we reach 5,000 comments sooner, I'll start a new one).

Are there any rules about cross-posting?
Nope, you can post wherever you want, whenever you want.  Last year, a lot of folks collected their responses together and posted them on AO3 under the 3 sentence fiction tag.

Gosh who are all these people writing such great prompts and fills?
Good question!  Come to the friending meme and introduce yourself if you like.

As  lady_songsmith explains, for the 2011 3 Sentence Ficathon, grim_lupine created a delicious account to archive the 3 Sentence Ficathon.   lady_songsmith has reactivated the archive on delicious for this challenge, so, here is the account (nothing current added yet, though): https://previous.delicious.com/3sentence She asks that if anyone would be willing to help knock down the backlog of the prolific-ness thus far, let her know!!  (She adds:  I know folks are kinda down on delicious with the changes, but, hey, it's an archive already set up with useful tags!)

On the subject of archiving, I really encourage people to collect and post their fills elsewhere.  That way, we can find your work more easily again, redundancy is always good and it's really useful for future remixes and other challenges and gift exchanges you might participate in. I'll start a linking post so that if you do collect all your fills and post them on your own blog or an archive like AO3, you can give give us the link in comments. 


edited March 12, 2013
edited March 13, 2013 to fix box coding problem (thanks to those who helped!) and to add link to friending meme
edited March 15, 2013 to add information on archiving.
edited March 24, 2013 to close post to new prompts. 

Comments

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Historical RPS, Octavian/Agrippa, all we are is skin and bones/trained to get alone (Taylor Swift)

What Holds Us Together

[vialethe]

"You've been hurt," Octavian says, and Agrippa can't quite hear if he's truly concerned or merely annoyed, or perhaps a bit of both, as usual.

"Only a scratch," he replies, looking down at the red line across his arm, though it stings with dust and grit and sweat.

Octavian's fingers are cool as he slides them over the broken skin, pale white (he's always so pale, no matter how bright the sun in the places they campaign) staining red as they go, the two of them mingling into one.

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Historical RPF, Crassus/Pliny, natural as the night (Don Mclean, Winterwood)

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Historical RPF, Octavian/Mark Antony/Lepidus, hatesex

Two Plus One

[vialethe]

"I still despise you, you know," Octavian says, arranging the folds of his toga.

"Thank the gods," Antony responds, still reclining on the couch, "as the feeling is entirely mutual."

I've never liked either of you, Lepidus thinks to say, but he watches the way the other two glare at each other and knows the only response he's like to receive is, Oh, are you still here?

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Historical RPF, Cicero/Catiline, consolation sex

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Greek Mythology/Roman mythology, any god/any Roman version of that god, the ultimate vanity

(I sort of partly stole this idea from K.A. Applegate & Michael Grant's Everworld series, which has the Roman & Greek gods fighting with each other).

[passionfruit_kisses]

Point of clarification: Does "any god" signify "any deity" or "any male deity"?

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Any, any character/dragon, sparks

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

It took days, but in between scouting across the island looking for a good mast-tree,Eustace practised, over quiet pools where he couldn't possibly start a fire and do more damage. It was probably the best day of his dragonhood, when he was able to illustrate Reep's story-telling, just for him, privately, by drawing pictures in blown, swift-flying sparks.

He rather regretted losing that bit, when he was made a boy again.

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Any, any, manic Mondays

[communi_kate]

"You rescued a krogan team from tunnels no human being has ever entered, saved the life of a rachni queen, and salvaged Reaper tech that may help us win this war. What sort of mission was this?"

Shepard grins, "Round here, we call it 'Monday.'"

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Silmarillion, Varda/Manwe, fire and light

[vialethe]

His mind burns with the flames of wisdom; she thinks she can see the sparks in his eyes at times, and it's from them that she takes the inspiration for her stars, spilling his sparks across the sky.

He smiles when she tells him this ( but does not laugh, he whose smiles are given so generously, but laughs so rarely, knowing too much), and fingers the dark smoke of her hair, so like the dark blanket of the heavens.

"Varda, my love, the light is all your own, and the fire too, I think," he says, and she sees the truth of this, too, shining reflected in his eyes.

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Any, any god(s), they look down at all the twinkling fires (or lights) and are jealous of the mortals.

[bedlamsbard]

All gods were human once -- or close enough to it, for the world was a different place then. Nevertheless, the memories are there, if distant, to do with as they will. Most of them choose to forget, others to remember -- and some to dwell on, preciously and jealously, staring down at those who will never have the luxury.

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Playing Beatie Bow, Dovey/Judah, garnets

[(Anonymous)]

Downton Abbey/Harry Potter; Dowager Duchess of Grantham & Minerva McGonagall; your services are not required.

[mmmdraco]

"If Isobel Crawley is considering a large donation to your... establishment, I should think to make it a matter of public record."

Minerva sighed and looked at the woman who reminded her all too much of herself when Gryffindor placed poorly in the Quidditch standings. "Mrs. Crawley has a niece attending our school this year so I should think the matter of her private meeting with me should remain just that."

Richard III RPF

[rthstewart]

RPF-Richard III; "It's a Tudor plot."

For a Crown

[vialethe]

"You say that about everything, Uncle," Elizabeth says, shaking her head slowly, and he can't stand the way she looks at him, her eyes huge and full of unshed tears; if she began to look at him with fear, he thinks he could not possibly bear it. "What of your wife Anne, was her death a Tudor plot as well?"

His eyes close against the sting of her words, and he knows then that she does not fear him, not at all - but perhaps she should, for he clearly can't keep them safe; not his beloved Anne, not his nephews in the Tower, and even this sweet girl in her sanctuary - all he can do is hope, and pray God he's not yet been abandoned by all.

[lady_songsmith]

anthropomorphic, phone/satellite, missed connections

(yes, I am having trouble getting a cell signal today, why do you ask?)

[pageleaf.livejournal.com]

That one time on that mountain in Oregon, there was a lovely lady who asked Telo to go to dinner.

He told her no at the time (he was feeling so fuzzy, and it would just be easier not to try to connect).

But now he thinks back, still fuzzy and now aging, and regrets come spilling back: What if she would have made me feel clear again?

[lbilover]

Fringe, (young) Etta and Walter, playtime in the lab

[wingedflight]

"This," he says cheerfully, pointing, "is the dive tank that we used on the day your parents first met."

Etta giggles, standing on her toes to peer through the double doors.

"So," asks Walter, "Who wants to go swimming?"

[lbilover]

Jeremiah, Kurdy and Mister Smith, God has a message

[hildigard_brown]

Kurdy watched as Smith disappeared into the swirling snow. He had refused to let Kurdy go with him, insisting that God's message told him he had to go alone. Kurdy knew better than to follow, but he sent God his own message: 'You'd best watch his back, since I can't.'

[lbilover]

Lord of the Rings, Frodo/Sam, I had to let you go to the setting sun

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you're listening out there beyond the great seas. But I had to leave you at last to the sunset like the great Elves - I always said you had something Elvish to you, and after Shelob it got worse. You weren't made for this world, Master Frodo, you were made for all that beauty beyond the Havens and the limits of our Shire; maybe I'll join you there some day, after I've sown all my seeds here, and planted all my roots and the winter comes and takes me away, like.

[betony]

Greek Mythology, Aethra + Helen, I wake every morning and pray that I could hate you

[metonomia]

This city is nothing, for all the horse-lords love it so, and she is nothing in it, not quite a slave, not quite a royal prisoner, not quite a maid, nothing like a friend. She helps the littler princesses with their sewing and watches Astyanax sometimes, and avoids Helen. She wouldn't be able to stand facing the woman who tried to do something to break free of this whole cycle.

[betony]

Greek Mythology, Hecuba (& Odysseus), vestiges of kindness
(bonus: in the version of the fall of Troy where she isn't...turned into a dog somehow, Hecuba is given to Odysseus as a slave, and yet, in the Odyssey, he never mentions her once. What happened there?

Those Unbroken

[vialethe]

She's still dangerous, of course - a woman who was a Queen can never be just a woman again, but is always something more, the crown on her head never quite invisible - and Hecuba is more dangerous than most, by far, for she remains unbroken, and bitter to the bone.

Still, he can't help feeling something akin to pity for her, though he knows she'd not thank him for it, would throw it back in his face like so much refuse.

So when his captives are brought aboard his ships for the journey home, he unlocks her fetters himself, and looks the other way as she walks (of course she walks; her pride, more than her age, will not allow her to run) away, and tells himself she would be more trouble than he needs on his voyage home in any case; all he wants is peaceful sailing.

[betony]

Greek Mythology, Galatea & Pygmalion, Aphrodite's final gift was a mind of my own

I Was Looking for a Breath of Life

[tiny_white_hats]

And I was made to love you, but some mornings I'll watch the birds take flight and think that maybe I hate you instead. You fashioned me from stone (but it's the goddess who breathed my life into you) and then you fashioned yourself as my maker, my lover, and my master, as if I was still nothing more than your greatest masterpiece, the one woman you could never hate, as if you still held the power to shape me and create me and to make me stand tall. But when Aphrodite gave me life, she gave me thought, and when I leave your bed in the mornings, I can't watch the birds without thinking that maybe, just maybe, freedom would make me feel real.

[betony]

Greek Mythology, Baucis/Philemon, contentment

[ar]

She cares not for the hour of her death, nor the manner. There is nothing to fear from that eternal spectre, even as she grows old and her limbs weary of their work. Such things are minor eventualities; with Philemon, constant friend and beloved husband, at her side, the realm beyond life does not feel so unknowable.

[betony]

Greek Mythology, Nausicaa, the day she leaves to have her own adventures

[betony]

Greek Mythology, Ariadne (/Dionysus), Corona Borealis

You Are Remembered

[vialethe]

She sneers when word of Theseus's excuse reaches her ears (overlooked and forgotten indeed!), but Dionysus strokes her face with sadness in his eyes, and leans to whisper in her ear.

"I will never forget."

Her crown, hanging in a shining bright arc over the world below, is the proof of his words, more immortal than any of them.

[betony]

The Perilous Gard, Kate Sutton/Christopher Heron, the ditching and the drainage

[betony]

The Sherwood Ring, Richard Grahame/Eleanor Shipley, oblivious to every overture

[betony]

The Sherwood Ring, Barbara Grahame/Peaceable Drummond Sherwood, too clever by half