Three Sentence Ficathon

[rthstewart]

THIS POST IS NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS. PLEASE POST NEW PROMPTS HERE.

You can go ahead and continue to respond to prompts and comment on them here but please don't post any new prompts .

Welcome to the Three Sentence Ficathon!

UPDATE 1 HERE- 2 Feb

UPDATE 2 HERE 6 Feb



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 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 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 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

Can anyone play?
Yes! Please signal boost this to your flist, followers, and any other places you frequent. Come one, come all!
The more people who come and play, the better!

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 manage it. Or we can just cross-post. If you create one, I'll try to post it and everyone can use it.

How long will it go?
Until February 29, 2020. But the entry stays open permanently.

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 wasn't an issue the last 3 times I ran this. 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.  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 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.

Here, have some icons and banners and let me know if you've created your own!

text box you can try to cut and paste

<a href="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/156816.html" _fcksavedurl="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/156816.html" _fcksavedurl="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/156816.html" target="_blank"><img src=" https://i.imgur.com/ECFSgT2.png?2" _fcksavedurl=" https://i.imgur.com/ECFSgT2.png?2" _fcksavedurl=" https://i.imgur.com/ECFSgT2.png?2" alt="" /></a>

the incomparable alexseanchai  made these gorgeous banners

<center><a href='https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/156816.html' _fcksavedurl='https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/156816.html'><img src='https://i.imgur.com/6aN6fhg.png' _fcksavedurl='https://i.imgur.com/6aN6fhg.png' style="max-width:100;height:auto;" alt='Three superheroes running side by side. Captioned "February 2020 3 Sentence Ficathon rthstewart.dreamwidth.org".' /></a></center> <center><a href='https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/156816.html' _fcksavedurl='https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/156816.html'><img src='https://i.imgur.com/BhUEus4.png' _fcksavedurl='https://i.imgur.com/BhUEus4.png' style="max-width:100;height:auto;" alt='Three superheroes standing back to back. Captioned "February 2020 3 Sentence Ficathon rthstewart.dreamwidth.org".' /></a></center>

Comments

[sideways]

Any, any, "tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine".

Fill: Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley

[runespoor]

Ginny pours her secrets in Tom's waiting pages - all her fears, all her wishes, everything that built and knotted and culminated into the entirety of her twelve-year-old self. She pours all the lifeblood of her, and Tom is the best friend she's ever had or could ever dream; the only thing is, well, he's just a diary.

Not for long, he writes sometime in the spring, and pours himself back.

Re: Fill: Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley

[last_haven]

"Not for long" is so beautifully ominous--Poor Ginny really didn't much of a chance against him. One slight nitpick--shouldn't Ginny be 11, since Harry's year should be mostly 12 year olds? Anyway, lovely!

Re: Fill: Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley

[syrena_of_the_lake]

Oh this is chilling and excellent, wow what a finishing line!

Re: Fill: Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley

[kalira]

Oh, this is an excellent juxtaposition of tween angst and then Serious Ominous Happenings~

Re: Fill: Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley

[sideways]

Ahh, that's such a good fill choice for the prompt. Not for long. Chilling.

Re: Fill: Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley

[resnullius_bells]

Perfectly ominous. Love it ^^

Re: Fill: Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley

[scytale]

Lovely and creepy!

Re: Fill: Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley

[(Anonymous)]

perfect!

Re: Fill: Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley

[shallowness]

Oh the reciprocity going on here, and how Ginny's objetivity makes an appearance in the middle makes the ending even stronger.

Fill: Pathologic

[ernest]

“I thought about setting the theater on fire, when I first found out the secret behind it all.” Daniil still won’t look at Artemy, perhaps afraid of what he’ll find in his eyes, but at least he’s speaking his sorrow instead of trying to swallow it back with shot after shot of vodka.

If he doesn’t offer something in return, then Daniil will never forgive him for this moment of weakness once he reaches the cold light of sobriety, so he admits, “There were moments when I wondered if Clara’s ‘rivers of blood’ might not be better than the slow death the Town was suffering through, and moments when all I wanted was to hasten that flood along.”

Re: Fill: Pathologic

[little_lady_d]

oh wow! oh wow! that is really good. i love what a vulnerable confession this is, how it's underscored by daniil being unable to look at artemy, and i love the phrase 'but at least he’s speaking his sorrow instead of trying to swallow it back with shot after shot of vodka.'

Re: Fill: Pathologic

[cestlamorte]

Oh my god, I love this. The line about how Daniil won't forgive him for his own moment of weakness is PERFECT and god, Artemy's line is scary as hell and also heartbreaking. Fantastic.

Gray Sky Morning (Chronicles of Narnia)

[edenfalling]

"There was a war in our homeland, so terrible and great that entire cities were destroyed by weapons hurled from the skies like thunderbolts," Susan said as she leaned against the parapet and watched the gray Eastern Sea; in the corner of her vision, Rabadash shifted as if thinking better of asking a question, and when he stilled she continued: "Our parents sent us away to keep us safe; now we have no way to ever see them, or our childhood homes, again."

"I never knew my mother," Rabadash said, placing one hand beside hers on the parapet, close enough to feel the heat of his body on hers but not quite close enough to brush skin against skin, "and my feelings for my father, may he live forever, are somewhat complicated, but to be torn from home with no keepsake nor painting to help one remember is a fate many brave men would quail to face; your strength, my lady, is as that of the white mountains of the uttermost West, which hold up the vault of the heavens."

His voice was matter-of-fact, as if stating a self-evident truth instead of paying a flowery compliment.

Yes, Susan thought, I could marry him.

But aloud, she said only, "Perhaps I will come to Tashbaan this spring, so that you may show me your home." And turning her hand palm-up, she laced their fingers together: a little knot of warmth against the chill, eastern wind that gusted in from the sea.

Re: Gray Sky Morning (Chronicles of Narnia)

[alexseanchai]

oh ouch

Re: Gray Sky Morning (Chronicles of Narnia)

[ernest]

this is lovely and gentle and sad. i love the warmth hope that starts to grow between them at the end.

Re: Gray Sky Morning (Chronicles of Narnia)

[rthstewart]

You are SO GOOD at this. Love it so much. I just adore these takes on Rabadash -- clever and manipulative as well as just a terrible person. Because Susan must have seen something in him.

Re: Gray Sky Morning (Chronicles of Narnia)

[vialethe]

Oh, Susan. I love the detail that it's his voice being matter-of-fact that got to her; all the more so because we know Rabadash, and know it probably wasn't because he genuinely believed what he was saying - more likely he just couldn't be bothered to inject emotion into it!

Re: Gray Sky Morning (Chronicles of Narnia)

[sideways]

This captures the spirit of the quote so entirely.

Re: Gray Sky Morning (Chronicles of Narnia)

[(Anonymous)]

oh this hurts, and I love it!
oh my brave wonderful girl, you deserve so much better.

Fill: Original fiction

[tomakeanoffer]

You laugh softly, leaning on her and pressing your face into her shoulder because despite hating this, all of it, you never hated her.

She leans on you, her heart heavy, her body tired and even though she hates this, all of it, she never hated you.

The house burns around the two of you, all heat and light and the end of a world or two.

Re: Fill: Original fiction

[wintersday]

Oh, ouch. I love the tired, melancholy acceptance here, and the hints of something darker.

Re: Fill: Original fiction

[sideways]

Ah! Bitterest-sweetest.

Time for Talking (Castlevania (Netflix); Alucard & Trevor)

[kalira]

"Talk to me." Trevor says flatly, thunking a bottle down on the table as he drops into the chair almost uncomfortably close to Alucard - he can feel Trevor's warmth, they're so near to one another.

"I won't drink that." Alucard says, nodding towards the bottle he must have found somewhere in the castle's cellars with a curled lip, looking away.

"It's not for you." Trevor says, and he looks back, brows rising. "It's for me. Talk to me . . . and I'll talk to you. But I won't do it sober." he adds wryly.

The Silmarillion - Anairë, Nimloth

[ladybrooke]

There was always another ball held in Tirion, one where elves from the city decked themselves out in glittering jewels and mingled with those who came from out of the city, and one where nobody ever discussed or even hinted at their despair.

Anairë hated them with a loathing only surpassed by her loathing for Morgoth - 'Why,' she raged in the quiet stillness of her own home, 'does no one wish to admit their despair or work together to fix matters, instead only wallowing in fake happiness?'

Then on the heels of the latest releases from Mandos, there was relief in the form of the last Queen of Doriath, who abandoned her jewels on her dresser in favor of loud reminders of the despair of the Sindar and smiled sharply, full of threats to those who would silence them, at Anairë's words.