White Collar Single Sentence Challenge II is Now Opened

[elrhiarhodan]

Single Sentence Challenge Promptfest is BACK

Think you can’t write fanfic? Think again, because Sentence!Fest is a fun way to get your feet wet. Basically, the challenge is to tell a complete story using one sentence only.

Sounds easy, but perhaps it is not. How would you tell your story if you only had the space of one sentence? Would you use dialogue? Action? Emotion? Observation? Would it be haunting? Poetic? Sexy? Tragic?

The rules are simple: Tell a story using one sentence. It can be as long as you want it to be, but it must make sense (imaginary points will be deducted). It can be as short as you want it to be, but make those words count. Tell a story that will provoke the imagination of your readers – one they will demand to have the beginning, middle and end of from you – that is the ultimate goal. Here is an example:

Neal and Peter have the sex.

Here is a better one:

When Peter finally opened his eyes, it was to see his lover's rapt face as Neal rode him, the rising sun forming a perfect golden halo around his dark head; his savior, his angel.

Capice?

This particular ‘fest will operate like any other. Take a prompt, fill a prompt, leave a prompt. There are no limits – multiple folks can fill any and all prompts. Use them to craft a narrative if you like, but each entry must convey an entire scene within that narrative. All subject matter is fair game, so RPF/RPS is allowed. This fest is unlocked and opened to everyone who would like to write.

Cuz Sentencefest can be a little overwhelming, it will be co-moderated by myself, coffeethyme4me and rabidchild67 .

Prompts will be found in the first comments below - let the games begin.

Comments

10 sentences of dragon!Neal

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Goes with these sentences:

http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6555432#t6555432
http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6563368#t6563368
http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6633256#t6633256
http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6633768#t6633768

Neal and Peter - Imp

After Peter had seen Neal breathing smoke around the coin, sometimes Neal would let him catch him sitting on the windowsill in the sunlight, wings fanned out, soaking in as much sun as physically possible.

Neal and Peter - Irk

"Suddenly I'm a lot less impressed with your ability to break into things," Peter remarked wryly, scratching tiny, kitten sized winged lizard Neal behind his horns, and Neal stopped purring to project an air of fine-be-that-way.

Neal - Pluck

When he first stole the Haustenberg, he pretended it was part of his hoard before he gave it back to Julianna, and breathed smoke into the paint and canvas, and even even years later, it probably still smelled of dragon fire.

Sara - Hoard

The first time she had to recover something from a dragon's hoard, she didn't believe they existed until she walked in and saw it (him?) tail and claws spilling over the sides of the queen sized bed covered in treasure.

Mozzie - On Guard

"Moz doesn't know," Peter's puzzled expression made Neal continue, "what was I supposed to tell him, yes, there really are non-humans among us, and by the way I'm one of them?"

Neal - Hinder

"I'm telling June," Peter tried not to laugh, as a Satchmo sized Neal stalked and tackled his landlady's poor, beleaguered pug.

Peter - Arm

Neal's claws dug into the sleeves of Peter's suit jacket as Neal scurried up his arm, out of Bugsy's reach.

Neal - Dragonfly

As his hoard dwindled, Neal shrank down, down, down, from the size of a room, to the size of a house cat, to the size of a dragonfly, until he thought he was going to disappear.

Mozzie - Wait

He listened to Moz telling him about how he had stolen the treasure from Adler and felt the treasre become partway his, and he could barely wait until Moz was out of the apartment so he could grow.

Neal - Ilk

In prison, Neal used to wait for the brief moments when the guards weren't looking at him, gather up his sketches, and hold them close, a miniature hoard of the kind of things his kind adored, things he had made.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

It was Neal's job to give Bugsy his baths because there was just something about the sight of hi, curled in on himself in the sink, wallowing in his own misery that she just felt the need to inflict on someone else.


Prompts:

Ups
Ugh
Use
Urn

Diana, Peter -- Fight

[sheenianni.livejournal.com]

Diana puts her hand on Peter’s shoulder; “They will be fine, boss,” she says softly, trying to comfort him as Peter just stands there, torn and desperate, helplessly waiting while his wife and his partner remain behind the closed doors with the medical teams fighting for their lives.

Bugsy - Win

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Of course, maybe the real reason June didn't want to bathe Bugsy was that he sometimes escaped and shook himself, bathing his would-be bath attendant.


Prompts:

yak
yam
yes
yet
yew
yon
you

Neal/Kate -- Ash

[sheenianni.livejournal.com]

During one crazy Halloween night together, their talk got somewhat morbid and Kate told him that she absolutely hated the idea of being shut into a coffin, even after death – and now Neal and Mozzie stare at he remnants of the plane, she’s gone and there are not even the ashes that he could scatter into the wind.

Sara/Neal -- Jewels

[sheenianni.livejournal.com]

“I bought them,” says Neal quietly, “I swear, I even have the receipt” – and still standing by the draw with the jewels clutched in her hand, Sara nods tightly; she puts them back and turns around to face him, and though she hasn’t made any accusations yet, she nevertheless says: “I’m sorry”; and while she doesn’t regret being engaged to one of the world’s most famous ex-cons and art thieves, on days like this, she wishes it wasn’t so damn hard.

Peter, Neal -- Innocent

[sheenianni.livejournal.com]

„You’ve done this before,” says Peter flatly, and ignoring Caffrey’s protests, he grabs his anklet and cuts it, robbing his former CI of other options than to run – because Keller has completely outsmarted them, and while Caffrey is far from innocent, Peter refuses to see him convicted of El’s murder; he still believes in true justice, and after today, that belief is the only thing that he has left.

yew

[ursula4x.livejournal.com]

Peter found his Robin had fled, but sure as a bloodhound, he found him leaning into the curve of a yew tree, his brown hair as smooth as sable, his blue eyes had drawn the light from the stars, his pale skin was pearl, and his body held the tight grace of a fox dancing in the moon light; when Peter was done kissing him, there was no rose as red as those cherished lips.

Sparkle Glow Hollow Blossom

[ursula4x.livejournal.com]

Marjoram made a beautiful fair folk home beneath the hollow of an ancient oak, and she harnessed a shooting star to make every corner of her pretty home glow and sparkle, but for Peter, it was all dross, for his eyes filled with his Marjoram and his joy made flowers blossom even in winter.

10 sentences more dragon!Neal sentences, and I think this verse needs a name

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Goes with these sentences and the others linked at the top: http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6864680#t6864680



Kate/Neal - Wonder

She took him back to her place, and he could smell the sweet, aromatic smell of dragon smoke, and that night, they pretended to each other that they were human, but he let her wake up next to him in his true form.

Kate/Neal - Tuck

She was just starting out, and so was he, and they could fit together on one pillow, and he would tuck her in around her few bits of jewelry, her head would peak out of the blankets, and when the smoke bilowed out of her nostrils, she looked like fire itself with her glossy red scales and gold horns.

Kate - Vital Signs

He had never met an honest dragon before, a dragon like her who wasn't a thief, who the only thing she lied about was her human face, and it almost, almost was a violation to bring her over and help her fill her shrunken hoard with stolen wealth.

Neal - Egg

"So did you actually hatch out of an egg, or something?" Peter asked, and Neal shrugged, but that night, he opened the drawer and pulled out the thin, fragile, shimmering egg shells and set them on the counter just to see them for a while.

Elizabeth - Need to Know

It was a relief when he had an excuse not to show up for dinner at the Burkes, because ever since Peter found out about him, he kept watching Elizabeth when he was over, like he just couldn't figure out how not to tell her that the man at their table wasn't human.

Neal - Long Con

Bugsy ambled up the stairs, his tiny paws thundering like dinosaur feet, and Neal stood up with a wicked grin, let his human form slip away, and stuck his nose in the doorway, his long, sinuous tail trailing out behind him until it bumped into the far wall.

Neal - Veiled Threat

"I just don't like the way you keep... touching me, no, you don't get to accuse me and then pet my head and expect me to coo," he snapped, but the real reason he stopped letting Peter see his true form after Moz stole the treasure was because he never have told Peter about why he grew and shrank, but he didn't want to learn the hard way just what his friend could find out online.

Sara/Neal - Withdrawal

He woke up next to her sometimes, covered in scales, the bed creeking under him, and she would already be awake, stroking the softer scales right behind his horns, or at the base of his wings, and his hoard, his half of the Nazi treasure, would feel just a little smaller and farther away.

Peter - By the Book

"You know," Peter rumbled with just a tiny bit of real menace, "I looked it up, there's a federal prison that knows how to deal with dragons, you screw this up. I'd love to see you try to escape from that."

Neal - Out of the Box

"You know what that place is like?" Neal bared his teeth, "I looked it up too, they give you a little lump of copper and put you in a terrarium, stick you on a shelf, and you are not that cruel."

Peter and Neal - Divide

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Neal pulled the aluminum foil off the pan, cut Peter a slice, and set it in front of him, and when Peter popped the first bite into his mouth, he dropped his fork to his plate, "Hey!" he sputtered, "you stole this pie, from me!"


Prompts:

Friend
Lend
Bend
Fend
Mend
Blend
Tend
Intend
Pretend
Contend
Commend
Offend
Extend
Transcend

Jones/Neal -- Wash

[sheenianni.livejournal.com]

It has been a crappy day, they’re both totally exhausted and Jones can’t imagine doing anything more than taking a quick snack and then falling on his bed to sleep, despite the fact that he and Neal haven’t spent a night together for almost two weeks; then Neal persuades him to take a shower beforehand, and suddenly, there are two of them in the cramped space – then Neal begins gently washing his body with a sponge, starting with his neck and shoulders and progressing to his back, his stomach, his ass, his tights and – oh my god; they’re still really too tired to do anything more than some kissing, but when Neal later falls asleep in his arms, Jones knows he wouldn’t exchange this for anything in the world – he only wishes the remaining eight months were already over and this secrecy could finally end.

Neal -- Blend

[sheenianni.livejournal.com]

As a child, he perfected the ability to fade into the background, but it was never enough; when he realized that, he learned to run, to con and steal – nowadays, Neal still has the ability to blend in, but more than that, he wants to be seen and heard – after all the years, he doesn’t want to be invisible anymore, and it may be self-destructive, but he can’t stop; not even with Agent Burke following his trail.

Neal -- Tend, On Guard

[sheenianni.livejournal.com]

The guy was a new inmate, and he didn’t yet know how things worked there; so now Neal waits on a bed so that the medical officer could check him over and tend to the small gash on his arm while they’re calling an ambulance for the new prisoner; when the guy – Frank – finally returns, he apologizes to Neal, and Neal smilingly ensures him that there are no hard feelings; by the next week, Frank already likes him like everyone else, and Neal is pleasantly surprised when he discovers that Frank has some sort of artistic background; so sometimes, they end up discussing the German expressionists and their influence on current artists; Neal also knows that if something was to happen to him again, he now has one more person to guard his back.

Adler -- Blunder

[surreal-44.livejournal.com]

Continued from the Reverse World series: Kramer -- Help (http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6828328#t6828328)

He'd been too desperate for an inside man, too careless in his choices, and he was stuck with Fowler, a man torn between his thirst for vengeance and his duty to the law, and Keller, who was showing some murderous tendencies that was bound to leave a trail, and after the phone call from Keller on his blunder to get rid of Caffrey (Adler wanted him out of play, not dead -- not yet, at least), Adler knew he had to call in a cleaner: Julian Larssen was good at that sort of thing, and he needed someone just as dangerous and smart as Keller to fix this mess.

Diana, Jones - You're sick take III

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

"I'm fine, really, it's just van sickness," he said, but Diana just handed him a bowl, ordered him to lie down in the back, and crushed the headphones down over her ears.

Diana, Jones - You're sick take IV (I like this prompt, can you tell?)

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

When Neal answered Peter's offer for a ride home with a panicked "Can't leave, the clown will eat me," Diana and Clinton high fived each other behind his back and readied themselves for the next round in the Youtube war.

Fend

[ursula4x.livejournal.com]

Peter Burr sighed as he watched the sheriff tap the ale he and Robin were waiting to sample..."Do you ever wish you were human, Robin?", but Robin shuddered and made a hex to fend away the curse Peter invoked..."I don't really like to steal," Peter Burr confessed, but Robin had already flitted to taste the fine fall drink and heard him not.

Spitfire: 10 MORE dragon!Neal sentences

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Previous installments:

http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6555432#t6555432
http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6563368#t6563368
http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6633256#t6633256
http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6633768#t6633768
http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6864680#t6864680
http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6869544#t6869544

Thank you to ursula4x for the 'verse's new name. Hereafter I won't be linking backwards, but all future installments will have "spitfire" in the subject line.



Neal - Glass Slipper

Neal remembered offering to wear the anklet and trying not to smile too widely at the thought that the first time he took his true form, it would slip right off.

Neal - Smother

Neal glanced down at the anklet Peter was staring so pointedly at, shrunk small to fit around his scaly leg, and took his human form, "I know, I have no idea how it does that, I think it's using my magic, it isn't fair," and Peter decided right then that this was Neal's real problem, he didn't understand the meaning of the word fair.

Peter and Neal - Stuck

A few weeks before Adler kidnapped them both, when Neal was less than a foot long from tail to nose tip, he transformed in front of Peter to better ignore him and curled up in the other man's briefcase while Peter glared, but then Peter forgot he was there and packed up to go home, and Neal realized his mistake.

Peter, Neal, and El - Snuck

The scrabbling came from inside the briefcase and Peter peaked inside and blue slitted eyes scowled sulkily back.

All - Magic

It was something he had learned about as a hatchling, when he wanted to stretch his new, spindly wings, that they could never let humans see them, because if humans remembered dragons, they would remember dragon slaying too.

Mozzie - Loose ends

"What the hell!" Neal bolted awake and Sara threw the sheet over him, and Moz marched inside as Neal tumbled out of bed, taking human form as he fell, "What is that thing?" and Neal wanted to yell at him about learning to knock, but the wide-eyed revolted expression on his buddy's face stopped him cold.

Mozzie - Good till it's gone

"Moz, get a grip," Sara pushed his head down between his knees and hushed his protests that Neal wasn't even human, his ravings that this was just insane, how could he trust him, "you're just pissed because this is he one conspiracy theory you didn't consider."

Mozzie - Hell

"And you, what are you?" he demanded, voice high and squeaking, "are you a dragon?" his voice climbed higher, "and the Suit, is he a unicorn?" but she just rubbed his shoulders while Neal slithered into the closet to hide.

Neal - Blue eyes

He wore his suit like armor, his scales, wings, tale, and teeth hidden away, and he smiled at Moz and put a hand over his shoulder, which his friend threw off as soon as it touched him, "nothing's changed," Neal murmured, "I'm still a lying bastard."

Neal and Sara - Whimper

Moz left, staggering away like he was drunk with shock, and Neal turned back to her, swallowing, and she shrugged, Neal's head hung.

Spitfire: another ten sentences

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Peter, El, and Neal - Help

Distracting his wife shouldn't be this easy, Peter thought guiltily as Neal crawled on his belly across the kitchen floor, but he kept talking until he saw a flash of blue and silver slipping out the door.

El - Heal

She didn't know, which was why a few months later, when Mozzie came in babbling about dragons and Neal, and something about Peter the unicorn, she called Neal, and asked if she should call 9-1-1.

Neal, Elizabeth, Moz - Slight

Neal came right over, enduring the subway and the smell of stale urine rather than wait for Peter to pick him up, and when he came in, he guided Moz forcefully to the couch and sat him down, "Well, I can assure you that Peter is definitely not a unicorn," he joked, and Elizabeth just snorted.

Moz, Neal, Elizabeth - Need to Know

"You going to leave me hanging here?" Moz yelled, somewhere between panicked and indignant, "You going to let her think I'm crazy?" and Neal sat down next to him and smiled at her like a little kid and pressed Peter's number on the speed dial of his phone and handing it to her before taking his true form.

Elizabeth, Neal, Moz, and Peter - Where There's a Will

She started yelling, and he was getting really tired of all the yelling, and under her voice, he could hear the scratchy mechanical sound of Peter over the cell phone speaker, "Hello, El- what-" Neal slipped into his human form and pried the cell phone out of her hand and tried to shush her.

Peter, Neal - Countermeasures

"Why is-" Peter began, but Neal cut him off, "Moz found out, he told Elizabeth, I kind of need you to pick me up here."

Elizabeth - All In

Elizabeth grabbed the phone away from him, "He's huge, he- he took up the whole living room, I don't know how he did it, but it has to be fake, right, I mean a dragon?"

Neal - Fright

Over on the couch, Neal put his head in his hands, "Peter is not a unicorn, Moz, where do you get these ideas?"

Elizabeth, Moz, Neal - Blight

"You knew?" Elizabeth shouted, and five seconds later, Moz yelped, "you told the Suit?" and Neal wondered if anybody in the entire city had figured out how to knock.

Neal and Moz - Heart

"It's not like I'm the first dragon you've met," Neal said, "I mean, there was Wilkes," but Mozzie wasn't reassured.

Spitfire: 10 sentences in which Peter is definately not a unicorn

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Avery - Tight

Aside from his own bonds and some cash, Neal had never been much one for keeping things in his stash printed on paper (painted on canvas, on the other hand...) but Avery absolutely knew how to defend a hoard, and Neal wondered if the slimy piece of crap could smell the scales under his skin the same way Neal could smell Avery's.

Neal - Right

Avery was the first dragon Neal ever dropped the dime on, Wilkes was the second, because Neal found he was that cruel, sometimes, for certain people.

Neal, Peter - Light

Peter walked through the door and kissed his wife, and eyed Neal, sitting calmly in the middle of the storm, hands in his lap, and when he caught the man's eyes, Neal dropped his head, then picked it up again with a smile.

Peter and Moz - Health

"Mozzie, you can't tell anybody," Peter tried not to groan, "nobody wants Neal getting sent back to prison for breaking you out of a mental hospital."

Elizabeth - Glow

She poured herself a glass of water and leaned back against the counter, feeling her heartbeat slow down, and she figured it was all going to hit her again sometime that night, when she was trying to sleep, that yes, there were actual dragons, and she had seen magic in her own Brooklyn living room, and her husband had known about it for more than a year, "So," she said, trying to sound nonchalant, "are there other magical creatures out there, more magic?"

Neal - Spark

There were stories they told amongst themselves of the kinds of creatures that had roamed the world, when they hadn't been alone in the world, when magic had been everywhere, and everyone had taken it for granted, but dragons had been the only ones in the end that were able to hide, blend in and shrink down, and he didn't know if the stories were true or if it had only ever been humans and dragons, so he tilted his head towards her, "Not anymore."

Peter - Taking Account

The door clicked closed behind them, leaving Neal standing warily on the back porch as Peter advanced on him, mouth tight, eyes squinted together, "I found out something else while I was researching dragon-proof prisons," he said coldly, "about how a dragon's size is dependent on the size of his hoard, Neal, do you want to explain to me how you're suddenly big enough to fill up the whole living room?"

Neal - Unfinished Business

When a con was blown, there was a hot feeling, then a cold one, and then a horrible, crawling sensation that left him stuttering "I... I... I..." for just a moment, just enough to blow it the rest of the way.

Peter - Fight

"I know you stole the treasure," Peter growled, but then his tone softened, "Neal, you still have a chance to come clean on this, leave an anonymous tip, and I guarantee the Bureau will stop investigating," it was a shame, Neal thought that Peter couldn't really promise that, and it was a shame that the treasue wasn't his to surrender, and when he thought about it, he could feel himself shrinking.

Neal - Free Fall

"Haven't we been over this already?" Neal hissed, "What can I do to prove to you that I didn't steel that treasure?" he folded his arms, "I can't can I, because you already decided I had, you decided it the moment that warehouse exploded, and there is no way in the world I am ever going to convince you otherwise, thanks Peter, really."

Spitfire: another set of ten, and ow.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Peter - Blunder

"Oh no, you do not get to put this back on me!" Peter returned, putting his hands on Neal's shoulder and holding on tight, "You do not get to make me the bad guy, I know how that works, and you can't do it this time, I won't let you."

Neal - You

"Peter, I'm not trying to con you," he started, but Peter brought his hand up, and Neal flinched like he thought he was about to be hit, "You said you'd never lied to me, do you really want to start now?"

Neal - Whisper

Neal pulled back, clenching his jaw and wrapping his arms around himself, "And what are you going to do if I don't give you what you want?" he whispered, "I told you, you're not that cruel."

Peter - Castle

"I'll get you one of those little plastic castles for your terrarium."

Neal - Blight

Neal flinched back, "I can't give you what you want."

Neal - Whittle

And he felt like the treasure just wasn't there anymore, like if he took his own true form, he would disappear, like he should have told Moz to get lost a long time ago, like the tightness at the corner of Peter's eyes were unshed tears, and he had put them there.

Peter and Neal - Bright

They walked back inside together, and Neal shooed Mozzie out, with Peter's arm around his shoulders, Peter who wouldn't stop touching him, keeping his hand on him just to make sure he was still there.

Peter and Neal - Wish

Nothing had changed really, Peter just had a little more confirmation, and Neal just had a little bit less of a leg to stand on, and when they climbed out of Peter's car and walked into work, they were already managing to act as if everything was normal.

Peter and Neal - Sunder

"He took my wife," Peter said through gritted teeth, and Neal felt small, and helpless, and incapable, and when the other agents made Peter sit down, and there were no eyes on them, except Diana's who had threatened to handcuff her own boss if he dared rise from that couch, Neal slid into his own true shape and curled into Peter's lap, out of sight in the shadows of Peter's pant legs.

Peter - Stark

Peter knew he should be angry, he should be furious, at Neal, or maybe be grateful that the man was trying to comfort him, he wasn't sure anymore, but he looked down at Neal, the size of a mouse, tail wrapped around his wrist, and mostly he just felt afraid.

Peter, Neal -- Friend, Whisper

[sheenianni.livejournal.com]

I. “I’ve dreamed that friends could fix anything,” says Neal quietly, looking into Peter’s eyes; “Friends maybe,” answers Peter harshly, and if Neal didn’t feel like suffocating before, this would have done it.

II. Then Peter sighs and the anger in his gaze dissipates just the tiniest bit; “Ask me again in a day or two after El pleads your case” – so Neal nods, and whispers a thank you, and despite the cuffs, he dares to hope that there might a way to repair this after all.

Prompts:
Whatever you want
Amnesty
Fifty seventh chance
Snails
Break the unbreakable
Part of you
Pizza
Teddy bear

Peter, Neal -- End

[sheenianni.livejournal.com]

„Peter…” whispers Neal in a half-plea, even though he must know it’s useless; it was all about choices, so maybe it was predestined to end this way – because Neal has chosen to be the honorable thief, which means that Neal wouldn’t betray Mozzie, but Peter has chosen to become an FBI agent so he just can’t let this go; maybe it was always about to end this way; Peter only wishes it didn’t hurt so damn much.

Keller -- Whatever you want

[surreal-44.livejournal.com]

Continued from: Reverse world: Adler -- Blunder (http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/218920.html?thread=6873640#t6873640)


He didn't know who this guy was, or who he worked for, but the one thing Matthew Keller knew was that unlike that son of a bitch Caffrey, he wasn't going to live to see the morning -- he'd offered up jewels, drugs, art, whatever he thought this asshole might want, but in the end, Keller realized that the man's soul was as twisted as his own, and the only thing he really wanted was to kill him -- and he did.