Let the Promptathon Begin!

[sansets]

To join the battle, all you need to do is pick a prompt from below (any prompt, even if it's your own) and write/vid/manip/icon/draw/whatever the most creative bit of whatever you can create! And remember - PLEASE feel free to vid or icon or manip or do something non-written. We love ALL kinds of creative output equally!

When you've written/painted/made it, paste it into the comments here. Once you've done that, you can post it wherever else you want.

You may enter as many times as you like, so long as each entry is completely separate (not a series of linked pieces). Also, please do not link to old work - this should be something new, produced for the challenge, based on one of the prompts.

THE RULES

1. It must fit in one comment, so the limit is 4,300 characters (there's no minimum limit). It can be part of a longer piece that you may post elsewhere, as long as it's something new and based on one of the prompts, but all we want here is the part that you are most proud of. If you make art, if it's larger than 350 px wide, please use a thumbnail linking directly to the piece (directly to the artwork, not a post or site). The thumbnail can be up to 350 px wide, and 300 px high, and should include as much of the art as possible. If it is a vidlet or something else requiring dowloading, like a fanmix, please post the link to where we can download. Feel free to post a teaser image, but please confine yourself to the artwork preview rules.

2. Important! Please use the subject line of your comment to identify the snippet, like so: Title, prompt, rating (i.e. Fandom, Pairing, prompt word, rating system of your choice). For example, I might write: "Staying Awake, One Tree Hill, Lucas/Nathan, rain, R", or "The Sun Has Gone Down, Crossover, Torchwood/Stargate Atlantis, Jack/John, under fire, for all ages".

3. You have one week – the post will close for new entries next Sunday, April 1, at midnight eastern standard time. PLEASE be certain to check the World Time Clock to verify the deadline time in your area.

4. Don't forget that these prompts are only written as character one/character two for convience, NOT because of any requirement to make it a relationship story! Gen and friend are very welcome here. They can be interpreted in ANY WAY, so just imagine the FUN possiblities. You can take one prompt and write it, draw it, icon it, fanmix it, AND vid it. (Although if you have the time to do all of that in the week that these prompts are open, I might just have to kill myself out of jealousy :o) And you can use the characters in a different way each time. Don't be afraid to think outside the box!

5. Please don't post anything but your creations or feedback/feedback replies (to individual stories) here. If you've got any questions or comments, please leave them on this post right here, NOT on this post that you are currently reading. We'd like to keep this purely for the creative output (and feedback on the creations - readers/voyeurs, please do show the writers/artists much love for their creative offerings).

The prompts are right here
Thanks SO much to sageness for coding and lending hosting space on her site!

The prompts using only one character were listed first, followed by the prompts for more than one character. ALL crossovers are under both fandoms, so you don't need to worry about looking in multiple places for your crossovers - those listed under Smallville are the same listed under Supernatural, if you are looking for prompts for a Smallville/Supernatural crossover.

Finally! Warning: ALL ratings are acceptable here, from the things that you would show your aged grandmother, all the way up to to the things that would make a sailor blush. Use your own discretion, and please label your stories, art, and other creative output accordingly.

Thank you kindly!

rules stolen from oxoniensis and her AMAZING porn battle

Comments

Atlantean Morning Tea, Stargate: Atlantis, Teyla, tea, G

[cerriddwen.livejournal.com]

Many Atlanteans do not understand, so caught up in their obsession with their bitter drink coffee. They have never experienced an Athosian tea ceremony; they do not know what it means to experience a properly prepared cup of Athosian morning tea. A true cup takes actual minutes to prepare, an alien concept in the instant culture that pervades so much of the city, the continuous demand of now. It is a ritual Teyla cherishes, a moment for peace. She wonders sometimes if the history of their galaxy could have been changed if everyone had paused to make a cup of tea and drink it together, Ancestors included. It is a silly thought, but when disaster has just been averted, and she's lying alone in her bed exhausted, that doesn't stop her from thinking it.

Teyla finds peace in her tea. She finds serenity. And sometimes, watching people trample around the city of the Ancestors frenetic and unbalanced, she believes her tea a more valuable commodity than any lamented item from earth. Listening to McKay bemoan the absence of Big Macs, however, she thinks so silently and merely aims an eloquent look at Miko, who returns a tentative knowing smile.

Once, late, when she had finally stolen a moment to engage in her ritual, she did not take her tea in solitude. For her, It is still an odd notion to think of time as stolen. Previously time felt like a steady rhythm, as inexorable as nature, and to cheat it was akin to cheating death. The machines of the Ancestors have shown her how fragile time really is. How fragile everything is. That night, when Teyla sees Miko in the solarium where she keeps her tea set, she startles. Miko tries to apologize and begins to leave. Ordinarily Teyla would respect her boundaries and let her go. But this time Teyla sees the small cup in Miko's hand, white with a bird made up of blue lines wrapping around it, like fingers, and Teyla is tired of drinking her tea like a secret, something to be hidden. On Athos it would have been a violation of tradition to drink the tea alone, a waste, and unheard of to drink it at night. As leader, it would have been her responsibility to oversee that the traditions were respected; she tastes the irony with every sip of her tea. Sometimes it tastes like rebellion. It always tastes like loneliness. So recklessly, she reaches out. Miko looks shy, as fragile as the teapot she carries.

"Stay;" Teyla says, mustering a weak smile, "share." The sentence curves on its own, almost becoming a question. Surprisingly Miko does, setting out her cup with a rhythm and precision Teyla recognizes. They prepare and share a pot almost silently, a small mutually agreed upon ceremony, not quite of Athos, and, she believes, not quite of Earth; Atlantean. Later, she is not surprised to consistently find herself back at the same place, at the same time, and never alone. It has been several weeks that they have met, and Teyla is beginning to find a new rhythm; with Miko, in the pulse beneath their skin, reclaiming the beat between one breath and the next.

"Yes, yes, Elizabeth, amazing opportunity, wouldn't trade it for the world. Despite the impressiveness of our surroundings, I'm just noting that there is still a distinct lack of Big Macs in this galaxy. So you can stop mocking my pain now, major, I heard your pitiful wail when we ran out of popcorn." She realizes that she hasn't been paying attention, caught in reminiscing, when she hears the tell tale signs of a McKay rant winding down. This city has brought her so many things, some wondrous, some less so, but now, solitude is not one of them.

Re: Atlantean Morning Tea, Stargate: Atlantis, Teyla, tea, G

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

This is very beautiful. It moved me so much it actually made me tear up a bit.

Re: Atlantean Morning Tea, Stargate: Atlantis, Teyla, tea, G

[cerriddwen.livejournal.com]

I am so glad you liked it. Writing Teyla can be... challenging, and I'm never really sure how it turns out. But it was really important to me to write something that makes Teyla happy in the end, because of her isolation in canon. Thanks!

Re: Atlantean Morning Tea, Stargate: Atlantis, Teyla, tea, G

[kyriacarlisle.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of Teyla and Miko taking the time to meld their tea ceremonies into something new. And this phrase is gorgeous: reclaiming the beat between one breath and the next.

Re: Atlantean Morning Tea, Stargate: Atlantis, Teyla, tea, G

[phnelt.livejournal.com]

This idea kind of blew up to unmanageable sizes, so some of the bits I wanted to emphasize, well, I was totally worried about them being lost in this mini version. It makes me very squeeful that that bit wasn't lost; at least to someone.

Re: Atlantean Morning Tea, Stargate: Atlantis, Teyla, tea, G

[zvi-likes-tv.livejournal.com]

Yay! Teyla yay!

Re: Atlantean Morning Tea, Stargate: Atlantis, Teyla, tea, G

[phnelt.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And definitely yay Teyla. The world needs more Teyla.

Re: Atlantean Morning Tea, Stargate: Atlantis, Teyla, tea, G

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

This is really beautiful, both in idea and execution. It's so easy to imagine Teyla and her tea a little lost in the culture of MREs and microwave popcorn - but of course she wouldn't be alone in her lostness. Thanks for writing this.

Re: Atlantean Morning Tea, Stargate: Atlantis, Teyla, tea, G

[phnelt.livejournal.com]

They can be alone together. Sometimes I feel like Teyla got this extremely raw deal, in many ways worse than what Teal'c from SG1 did (I don't know if you watch), because she still has her people to account to, but she doesn't really belong to them anymore, and to the gov't back on earth she will always be an alien. I just wanted her to be understood, to have a moment.