2023 Three Sentence Ficathon - Post #1

[3sfmod]

Welcome to the 2023 Three Sentence Ficathon!
As of 16 Jan 2023 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.



This post will remain open for new prompts until we hit 4000 comments, at which point we'll open a new one to avoid captcha as long as possible. New fills and comments on fills will always be welcome.


How to Prompt

Prompts should be one prompt per comment, formatted in this way: fandom, character(s), prompt word/sentence

Example: Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi, I don't like sand

Prompts may also be open ended, unspecific, or anthropomorphic, such as:

any, any, I don't like sand
or
Earth geography, sand, I don't like humans very much, either

Prompts for relationships are welcome; a / is used for romantic/sexual relationships and an & for platonic. A prompt that uses both means the relationship can be written as either romantic or platonic, such as:

Star Wars, Anakin/&Obi-Wan, I don't like sand

Prompts may be repeated if they are unfilled; there is no obligation to read through every prompt to make sure yours isn't a repeat. This year's 3SF will stay open for new prompts through Sunday, February 12th.

How to Fill

Respond to your chosen prompt with a short fic of three sentences containing the fandom & characters requested!

Prompts can be filled more than once, as many times as someone has a new idea for them.

Notes & Rules

No, fills do not need to be exactly three sentences! It's more of a guideline. Please abuse grammar and punctuation as much as desired.

3SF is a Choose Not to Warn space. Spoiler and content warnings are not required, though writers are free to add them if they please. If you see something you don't like, just scroll until you do!

A Dreamwidth account is not needed to participate. Anonymous prompts/fills are welcome, or you can use Open ID.

Cross-posting is encouraged; there is a 3SF Collection on AO3 if you'd like to post fills there as well.

Note that the comm is searchable! Tick the 'include comments' button when searching to easily find prompts for your chosen fandom/characters.

And most importantly, have fun! If you have questions, check the Sticky Info post and if they're not answered there, head to the Contact the Mods post.

Comments

[eagleoftheninth]

any, any, 'the miracle is not some magic that you've got / the miracle is you'

Flight to You

[ruanchunxian]

(continuation of this.)

The first flight that Gu Nanting and Cheng Xiao flew together after they got together was to Singapore again.

“Are you going to be okay?” Gu Nanting asked as they paused under the wing of the 787 after completing the walk-around.

Cheng Xiao smiled up at him and nodded. “Of course. I will be with you.”

~*~

It was impossible to not think of what happened the last time Cheng Xiao flew this route, of course, not when they ended up staying at the same hotel. But unlike last time they stayed here, Cheng Xiao’s conscience was cleared now. It did not lessen the hurt that a passenger had died on her plane the last time she flew this route, but at least now, she knew she had done all she could for him, and hoped he was now at peace.

So the next day, Cheng Xiao knocked on Gu Nanting’s door bright and early; she was fairly certain he would already be up. Sure enough, he answered the door fully-dressed.

“Come on,” she said, smiling and taking his hand, “let’s take a walk on the beach.”

Gu Nanting didn’t immediately move, and for a moment, Cheng Xiao froze. She had forgotten. She recalled that Gu Nanting mentioned once that he didn’t like rooms with a seaview, and now looking back, she remembered how he had always avoided any crew gathering that took place on beaches. And who could forget that time he had run into the ocean like a man possessed to drag her out on so flimsy an excuse as swimming being a “dangerous activity before a flight”?

Of course, she hadn’t understood then.

“Sorry, I forgot,” Cheng Xiao said in a guilty voice. Just because he had told her of Luo Yi, just because he had put away her photos in his apartment, just because he had assured Cheng Xiao that he had made his peace with Luo Yi, didn’t mean that the sea didn’t hold depths of terrors and triggers for him still.

“No, let’s go,” Gu Nanting said, grasping her hand more tightly before she could let go.

“Are you sure?” she asked hesitantly as he led them down the hall.

“Of course. I will be with you.”

[last_haven]

Labyrinth, Sarah, acting

Playing a Part (Labyrinth; Sarah)

[kalira]

It doesn't matter what you feel, Sarah's mother said in her memories, with a practised smile and a flash in her eyes, choose your feeling and let it fill you up until it becomes real, my darling.

Sarah wasn't sure what she felt, but she chose triumphant defiance - a familiar skin to pull on; a favourite from her plays to an audience of the dog and the trees in the park - and held her head high as she faced the Goblin King.

"My power as great!" Sarah cried, and felt her chosen emotion filling her, knowing it was spilling from her and ensnaring her audience, and the Goblin King stepped to her tune and played his part, and Sarah was lost in the dizzying power of it even as she forged her own path steady under her feet.

[last_haven]

Labyrinth, any, magic creeps into the mortal world

She's Got the Sight

[slowmercury]

Now that Sarah's home, she Sees magic everywhere and most of it is completely unrelated to the labyrinth where she battled for her brother. Now the thunderstorms splatter rainbow colors onto the streets where the raindrops fall and the cracks of thunder carry the ringing sound of hammers; a tiny silver dragon lives in the gym and brings Sarah gossip in exchange for fish; an old man in a blue hat with no face nonetheless stares at Sarah until she throws salt at him and he backs away, hissing.

Sarah picks up Toby and sets out to see it all.

[elementalraven]

Narnia, any, if Narnia was created by Loki (Norse mythology)

Laughter and Challenge (Narnia x mythology; Jadis, Loki)

[kalira]

"This is my domain now!" Jadis cries with all the force of the deepest winter winds, watching ice creep over the lush lands, her heart fierce with gladness . . . even if those who dwell in Narnia are not bowing, not cowering the way she had anticipated - the way every people she has faced before have done.

White Witch, eh? Not like she knows of winter, is it, nor when our Lord returns with all his fire. . . - Jadis hears the whispers and rages, but no matter how deep she buries them in snow, no matter how the winds scream, no matter how sharp the ice or how chilling the stone she wraps them within, they will not stop.

Jadis' fingers curl around her wand as something whispers through the winter wind, and she whirls to see a man with hair like flame striding towards he through the snow; tall and lean, wrapped in fur and brightly-dyed cloth woven with intricate patterns that are impossible to follow with the eye, he walks as though the deep snow is of no concern, steps light. Jadis lifts her chin, eyes narrowing.

"Really?" the man said, his lips tilting into a sharp angle, his eyes - Jadis cannot quite tell what colour they are; first seeming red as his hair, then pale as the snow, then green as the spring leaves that will never again be seen in Narnia, not while she reigns - glinting. "Truly? This," he gestures with a dismissive flick of his fingers, "is your best, little mortal queen?"

"My best?" Jadis bares her teeth, lifting her wand. "You wish to see my best, insolent wretch? I am not a mortal and this is my Narnia!"

The man laughs, and Jadis brings her wand down in a sharp slash only to-

A hawk tumbles through the swirling snow and circles her, rising into the sky. You challenge me, little . . . mortal . . . queen? Bar me if you can and claim my land!

[elementalraven]

Narnia, any, if Narnia was created by Persephone (Greek Mythology)

[last_haven]

"It wasn't always this way," Mister Tumnus says softly as the snow and wind hauled outside the door. "We Narnians knew winter, yes, but only when Her Majesty left us to return to her husband's home. But, oh, no nation in the world knew spring like Narnians. When Her Majesty would return, there would flowers everywhere and the river Lethe would flood its banks to wash away harsh memories of her absence."

Later when they talked to Mister and Missus Beaver, they sighed--both of them were too young to have seen the spring, but they also had stories to tell, that had been passed down in their families. But, Mister Beaver did add a particularly startling detail when he said "there sure was a lot less blooming ghosts, I'll tell you that much!"

The children paused and Peter needed a moment to pluck up courage to ask "ghosts? Are there ghosts here in Narnia?"

The Beavers both nodded vigorously. "Oh, aye. Some real wraiths haunt these woods, which is why I was in such a hurry to try and find you lot."

"Oh, but there are some very nice ones," Missus Beaver added at the looks on their faces. "Many of the newest spirits are perfectly lovely and even some of the old ones remember us and try and keep us safe."

"The problem is when they stay here too long," Mister Beaver huffed. "They begin to forget everything except that they shouldn't still be here. They get angry and then they get mean. But, until the ice melts, they're trapped here." He pounded his little furry fist against the table. "That's why we need to get you to Cair Paravel! When we do, you lot will melt the ice blocking the path to the Underworld and call her, so that she can send the ghosts to where they belong!"

Each child had their own reaction to this: Susan nervously repeated "The Underworld?" while Peter asked "Melt the ice?" and Edmund said "Cair Paravel?", but Lucy was the one to focus in on "Call her?"

Mister Beaver nodded and did his best to explain everything, Lucy still had to ask "but how do we call her?"

"Why, by calling her name of course! How else do you call someone?"

"But, what is her name?" Edmund asked, annoyed by all this nonsense and very much starving for a piece of that Turkish Delight again.

The Beavers, however, paused and nervously shared a look. After a moment, they nodded and scrambled around their home, locking windows and shutting doors, even putting out the fire so they could shut the flue (and in the process of all this, coincidentally stopping Edmund from running off entirely). Only once every entrance was bared and the lights dimmed did Mister Beaver lean across the table and whisper "Her name is Persephone."

The moment the word left his mouth, each child felt a swell of dread and awe wash over them for reasons none of the could explain--the effect was so powerful that Edmund forgot about his hunger for Turkish Delights for a moment. Maybe it was because the moment the name hit the air, every window and door rattled violently, or maybe it was the way a dried flower in one of Missus Beaver's picture frames briefly revived, its colors bright and vibrant before abruptly wilting.

It was only after all this did Mister Beaver speak again, although he looked just as rattled as them. "She's the Lady of Ghosts, the Spring Maiden, and Queen of the Underworld. The White Witch might have shut her into her husband's home for now, but when you call her back to us, there won't be any fighting or war. Her Majesty will fix that witch, right quick, and spring will return again."

[elementalraven]

Narnia, any, if Narnia was created by Hestia (Greek Mythology)

[ruthchinn]

Four monarchs of the Golden Age enter the ruined castle, long after their time, long after their reign was well established for their successors and the Lady sent them back by the light of a lantern. Cair Paravel was once a thriving place, full of bustle and life, the best of Narnia coming together at the home of its human rulers. There are no satyrs nor dwarves nor beasts-who-speak left to hear the Pevensies wind delicately through the empty halls under cracked rooves that let in sunlight.

Susan picks her way through hazardous steps down to the kitchens. There's something flickering down here where there should be naught. She gasps. It's the little lamp in its own alcove above the stoves and the ovens, the one that used to be kept and tended carefully, a symbol of home from which all the other fires down here were lit. Somehow, it still burns, candle-light warming the old stones and empty surfaces into something kinder, a hearth remaining in this structure for someone else to bring back to fulness and joy.

[elementalraven]

Narnia, any, if Narnia was created by Jadis

[elementalraven]

Narnia, any, if Narnia was created by Tash

[elementalraven]

Narnia, any, if Narnia was created by a dragon

[elementalraven]

Narnia, any, if Narnia was created by a siren

[elementalraven]

Narnia, any, if Narnia was created by … (any god/creature/character/etc)

[elementalraven]

Asoiaf, Jaime/Brienne, knightly adventure

[celeste9]

“I suspect this won’t be the sort of adventure someone’s going to write a song about,” Jaime says, Brienne riding beside him, guard and companion both, a better choice than he likely deserves.

“It isn’t meant to be an adventure,” Brienne replies, her words serious as usual, but Jaime thinks he can spot a trace of amusement in her eyes regardless; he likes to think he has gotten rather good at reading her tells.

“No, just one last ride in freedom before my punishment,” he says with intentional dramatics, hoping she will smile, but he can’t be surprised when she frowns instead, reminded that she is his jailor on the way to the Wall.

Still, though the thought is admittedly sobering, Jaime knows his is a kinder fate than he should have been offered, and if this is the last bit of time he will have with Brienne then by the gods he will make her smile before they arrive.


(it's 4 sentences, I have failed...)

[elementalraven]

Asoiaf, Jaime/Brienne, they save each other

[elementalraven]

Asoiaf, Jaime/Brienne, sparring

[elementalraven]

any, any, OT3

Hades, PZA

[(Anonymous)]

"Our prince," says Achilles, "reminded me of you: kind and gentle, putting all at ease."
"Our prince," says Patroclus, "has far more in common with you, I think: in particular that determination of his, burning so hot it catches others alight in turn."
In the end they agree that in this, as in most things, Zagreus is both, and still more.

[elementalraven]

any, any, sedoretu (https://www.everything2.com/title/sedoretu)

Star Wars, Luke/Mara/Leia/Han

[sincereously]

Somewhere in the evening, while they were working out the logistics for a tricky run, Han looked up from the endless piles of flimsi, a weirdly soft look on his face as he said, "You gotta admit it all worked out pretty good, right?"

Mara's first instinct was to ask where the hell that came from, but she looked across the room and understood - their Morning wife and Chief of State smiled triumphantly down at her datapad as she worked yet another crisis out, her feet in the lap of their Morning husband as he chatted to the twins over a grainy holo connection about an old Jedi artifact he'd just found, and they themselves sat together with their handwriting overlapping on scratch-sheets and all their belongings comfortably strewn together - a scene Mara could never have imagined when Han had first casually asked her what she knew about sedoretu and she had been half-waiting for the trap to spring.

After all these years - after hundreds of dejarik games and sparring matches and rescues in battle, after thousands of kisses - Mara finally had it in her to grin back at him, and throw her arm around his shoulder, and say, "You know what, this time I think you're right."

[elementalraven]

any, any, polycule

SVSSS, Qijiu + Jiuplane + pre-Moshang, polycule

[marquisguyun]

Note: This is long, but it let me get rid of a plotbunny!

.
.
.

"Qi-ge!" Shen Qingqiu called as he barged into the sect leader’s office. "We have a problem. By which I mean it's Qinghua's problem, which means it's my problem, which means it's your problem."

"Of course," Yue Qingyuan agreed readily. Most problems involving members of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect were his in the end, but it meant a great deal to him to be asked to help Xiao Jiu and his other lover. "What's happened? How can I help?"

Shen Qingqiu sighed. "Qinghua has a high-ranking demon courting him, and he has feelings for this demon. He is also unaware of both of these points, and I will not be making him aware until I'm positive this ice demon will treat him well."

"I see," Yue Qingyuan said, narrowing his eyes as he ran through the implications of this news and the recent intelligence he'd received concerning the Northern Demon Realm, which, he noted, had for the most part come from Shang Qinghua.

"I knew you would," Shen Qingqiu said with a satisfied smile that never failed to make Yue Qingyuan smile back.

[elementalraven]

any, any, harem (or reverse harem)

FF7, Aerith/Sephiroth/Zack/Cloud

[raisedbymoogles]

"You shouldn't have come after me," Cloud says, the first thing he says once he's got enough of the Mako out of his system to be capable of speech. "Wasn't worth the risk to Sephiroth - hey!"

"So much for being gentle with the invalid," Sephiroth mutters for the next bed over, Zack muffling a cackle in the chair beside him.

Aerith ignores them both, straddling Cloud's waist and clasping his face in both her hands. "Listen, you," she scolds. "I've never chosen between any of my boys and I refuse to start now. You are worth it, and so is Sephiroth, and so is Zack - got it?"

"...yeah. I got it."

[elementalraven]

Narnia, any, Atlantis

[elementalraven]

Narnia, any, elemental magic

[arveldis]

A bit over three sentences!

The magic finds them in the third year of their reign, when Peter has begun to resemble the man he will become, and Susan’s hair has grown past her waist in a river of black silk, and Edmund has become quieter (not least because of his changing voice) and more perceptive, and Lucy has needed her wardrobe altered too many times to count to accommodate her willowy growth.

The magic shows in Peter first—Peter's voice, which has always commanded the attention and respect of the room, carries further now, aided by the stirring of the air; and he often stops mid-task to listen to something the others cannot hear, the wind whispering in his ear the tidings of the broad skies and wind-whipped mountain peaks; and when he cries to his army in battle, his voice carries on the wind, and the enemy is frozen by the power of his cry.

It falls upon Susan second, igniting in a brilliant burst of flame that springs from the tip of her arrow as she practices archery, and the fires in the Feast Hall that evening dance and leap as she passes by; and the warmth that she has always carried in her bearing and gestures now falls upon all whom she turns her glance on, marking those who have the favor of the queen.

It reveals itself in Edmund third, in the flowers and saplings that spring from his footprints when he walks in the woods, and in the vines that circle his brow, twining about his crown; and when he stands in the silence of the woods, he takes counsel with the most ancient and wisest of all the trees in Narnia, whose roots reach into the foundations of the world.

It spills from Lucy last, swirling about her feet as she dances in the lapping waves before Cair Paravel, and the water of the sea twists about her, and her skin shimmers with a silver sheen in the sun, like that of the Sea People who hearken to her; and when she kneels in springs, streams, or seafoam, her ears are filled with the burbling speech of all the naiads, merfolk, Sea People, and river gods who dwell in Narnia’s waters.

[be_themoon]

battlestar galactica (2003), kara/lee, i did it all to make you love me and to make me feel alive

[be_themoon]

narnia, susan/edmund, and the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up

Never Gonna Love Again

[vialethe]

“Was it not good enough for you, Su?” he asks - demands, really, and he knows he’s going too far, feels the shame of it even as he backs her against the door of her bedroom, and she lets him, even though his teenage frame is too slight to be a true obstacle to her, not here and now. “Was I not good enough?”

He’s close enough to breathe her in as he says it, as it spills out before he can bite it back; close enough to watch the shadow of her lashes sweep down, to note the tiny line between her brows, the way the white of her teeth catch the crimson of her lip the way he aches to do, before she says, “Don’t you dare ask me that, Edmund, not ever again.”

have I told you lately that I hate you

[vindoletta]

Drunken Sailor (sea shanty), drunken sailor/Captain's daughter, any.

Mischief Managed (Drunken Sailor; drunken sailor/Captain's daughter)

[kalira]

Absolutely too surprising and entertaining to pass up!


"What- Oh," Robert cringed, clinging his head, "what . . . oh fuck." he interrupted himself, eyes wide and his location sinking through the pounding in his head.

Joanna laughed, kicking her feet - legs bare beneath the drape of her light sleeping gown, and Robert swallowed, watching them; god, the Captain was going to have him whipped, he-

"Hush, I've been trying to get you here for months, silly," Joanna said, light and teasing, and brushed her fingers over his cheek, kissing his temple, "come sober next time, hey? And we'll tell Daddy the men were playing a prank on you, dumping you in my room, if you don't get out before he sees you." she finished with a saucy wink.

[vindoletta]

Any, any, femdom

Hades, Megaera/Zagreus

[red_smear]

She asks him, are you a prince, and he says no - her big toe hooks through the ring of his collar, delicate, commanding. Her foot follows gravity down and she asks, are you a god, and he says, no Meg, the weight of it sloughing from his shoulders - relief wrenching at his chest.
He kisses her ankle, chest to the ground, and says, whatever you want Meg I'm whatever you want.

[vindoletta]

The Hunger Games, any, how is Panem and Snow's presidency seen by future historians?

The Rise and Fall of the Panem Republic

[silveradept]

The last President of Panem is a disputed fact. Most official records claim Coriolanus Snow was the final President, while most of the records of the officially unacknowledged District 13 say that Alma Coin was officially the last President of Panem after Snow's deposition in the riots following the 75th and final Hunger Games. In this paper, I propose, based on contemporaneous accounts and transcripts of the provisional government that would eventually become the United District Council, that neither Coin nor Snow was the last official President of Panem. Instead, by the assent of those present in the provisional government, Katniss Everdeen was elected President before executing both the man who had ordered the murder of her sister and the slaughter of countless thousands in the riots and the Hunger Games and the woman who intended to take over for Snow and then rule as an equally authoritarian and murderous despot as soon as she could kill the Victors that were supporting her in the rebellion.