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rthstewart ([personal profile] rthstewart) wrote2021-01-30 02:31 pm

Three Sentence Ficathon 2021

We have now opened a new post, for new prompts! Please leave all new prompts there. You may continue to fill existing prompts here. If you didn't get a prompt filled here, feel free to post it on the new post!





Welcome to the Three Sentence Ficathon!
2 Feb. 2021 See important edit below regarding where to find unfilled prompts.


What is the 3 Sentence Ficathon?
This is an open exchange where you answer a prompt with a fic consisting of only three sentences. It's open to all fandoms and you can post and fill 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 happens after that?
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

I'm really overwhelmed by all the prompts and how much there is and how fast it goes. I can't read 1,000 prompts and fills. It's too much. 
I hear this a lot and it keeps a lot of people from participating.  The 3SF is big and it moves fast, especially at first. 
I get overwhelmed, too, and I'm hosting the thing. With 2020 and 2021 sucking so badly you don't want something that's supposed to be fun cause you anxiety.  I have a couple of suggestions for managing the 3SF volume. 
  • First, really, you don't have to read every prompt and fill on every page.  You can start at the last page of this and just go forward, or back a page or two.  It's fine.
  • You can come and go as time and energy allow, you don't have to participate the whole time, and it drops off quite a bit by mid-February.
  • Even after the 3SF and new prompting end, people fill prompts all year long.
  • You can fill an already filled prompt and you can can leave a prompt that's already been prompted before.  People do it all the time. 
Always make sure you're looking at top-level comments only, not threaded. That helps a lot. Your screen should look like this.




But shouldn't I read everything to see if someone already prompted the same prompt I want to leave if someone already filled it? 

No.  Prompt as many times as you want, as much as you want.  It doesn't matter if someone prompted the exact same prompt.  Go ahead and prompt again!

I left a prompt and no one filled it.  Can I prompt it again?
Absolutely!

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 be able to post and share it.  Feel free to cross-post this entry. If you create your own banners or icons, let me know and I'll share!
Please share the 3SF with your followers, friends, and any channels and comms you are active on.  I'll post on fandom calendar, Tumblr, and Twitter, but I don't have many connections in other spaces such as Discord.


How long will it go?

The 3SF closes to new prompts on February 28, 2021. The entry stays open permanently and people post fills all year long.

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 boils down to reader beware.  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.
Some posters do include warnings and spoiler tags in subject lines or include spoiler space, but they don't have to do so.

Why is 3SF split among several posts?  That seems confusing.
It is confusing and we always lose momentum once we have to move to a second post. The reason is because at 5,000 comments to a single post, DW installs a human test CAPTCHA, which is a pain for users.  So, once this entry gets to the upper 4,000 comments, I open a new post.  If you've been waiting until things slow down to participate, when we open a second post is often a good place to join.

If I have questions, what do I do?

I'm rthstewart everywhere, here, Twitter, Tumblr, gmail and AO3.

A special thank you to [personal profile] conuly  .
Last year, Conuly started logging all unfilled prompts.
This year's (2021) unfilled prompts are here.
Last year's (2020) unfilled prompts are here.
Conuly asks that you not reply, as they want to be able to edit and add more prompts to the list.
Conuly does this just because they are an awesome person but should you want to write them fic in thanks, you can find a birthday wish list here.

Here is the 3SF 2021 Friending Meme to show of your new DW account.

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

















Re: Dracula, Mina/Lucy, AU where vampire Lucy survives

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Aw, thank you! :D

Re: Dracula, Mina/Lucy, AU where vampire Lucy survives

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 09:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much! <3

Fill: FE4, Lene/Ares

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-04 09:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"A girl's gotta eat," Lene shrugs. Her hand comes to rest on her almost-naked hip, her bracelets clinking against her skin - he noticed when he watched her, her form is good, full of feints, but precise - good footwork too, her legs -- she'd make a decent swordmaster.

She smiles as Ares cocks his head, lovely and blade-bright; "tell you what, mister mercenary, hang around and maybe I can dance for you."
fallen_stage: Kuja standing in the wind, facing down Bahamut (Default)

Fairy Ring (LoZ: Ocarina of Time, Malon/Link)

[personal profile] fallen_stage 2021-02-04 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
One thing Malon learned, was that the Fairy Kid would dance anywhere.

Not just at dances, or festivals, or when Malon sang, but just walking along, or tapping a foot at the table, or even wiggling when helping her milk the cows.

(They often helped milk the cows when visiting, and Malon welcomed the help, since when they plied the udders there would be twice as much milk in the buckets and three times the cream)

Maybe there was music inside them, the way there was music inside her. While Malon sang to let it out, Link couldn't. She learned that when they were children, and she insisted on hearing, and well. She expected a croak but it was more like controlled yelling. Always a vocal one, that Fairy Kid, if rarely in words.

Tonight the two were in the field, enjoying the moonlight. She had finished another song and needed to rest, but she could see the music moving in Link. They were squirming in their seat on the grass, fingers fiddling with the clover. Malon waited, and she was rewarded. Link jumped up, but took her hands with them, and insisted.

"Link, right now? I can't sing more just yet."

Fairy Kid smiled, shaking their head, and tugged at her hands. Smiling back, she followed their lead, steps coming easily now that she caught their enthusiasm. The night was cool, the moon bright, with the wind blowing and the crickets singing at their accompaniment.

Maybe it was the night, the mood, or the Fairy Kid's subtle magic that gave the cows heifer calves or cured a colicky horse. Either way, Malon became more aware of the night sounds, of the piping of the wind, the harmonizing chirp of the crickets, the lowing of the cows as a baseline. Link pulled her into a dance to the rhythm of the night, smiling up at her the whole time. She basked in the joyous movement, Link's warm hands in hers, and she never felt more graceful.

When the two finished, Link slowing down and music spent, the night sounds returned to their mundane measures. They both sat down, and Malon was surprised to find she was sweating, the wind soothing against her flushed skin. By the look of the moon, they had been dancing for two whole hours. Link squeezed her hand when they went to bed soon after, and Malon squeezed back.

In the morning, the place they had danced had sprouted with a circle of mushrooms.

Fill: Star Wars Prequels & OT, Shmi & Anakin

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
1. Two suns throw two shadows before her child as he walks away; she folds grief close to her heart, and doesn’t let herself fear where his path will take him.
2. There is no violence in the Force, just still stone and rushing water, but he can hear the pain in his mother’s breathing as she slips away; if this is what the Force demands, he wants no part of it.
3. After the pyre burns low – after his son gives him one last nod of farewell and slips back toward the sounds of celebration, when he’s alone in the deep forest of an unfamiliar moon – another hand finds his; he remembers, like he’d never forgotten: the feeling of fingers worn from work and care, the pull of a needle through thin worn cloth, something stitching him back together.

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-04 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
the yearning is real. 🥺 This is lovely - quiet and secret and full of things unsaid.
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)

Swing Your Partner (The Magnus Archives)

[personal profile] edenfalling 2021-02-04 09:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Clowns to the left of him, jokers to the right, and here Tim is (is he Tim? he thinks he used to be Tim), stuck in the middle with an... with probably an axe, so there's nothing left to do but swing.

Plastic warps into Sasha's face -- except it's not Sasha's face, because he can't remember Sasha's face, because something stole her even more thoroughly than Grimaldi stole Danny -- and Sasha's voice says, soft and high and desperate, "Please, Tim, it's me, Sasha; you're hurting me!" until his sharp weight on a stick (a hammer? a macuahuitl? why does he know that word? is it a word?) splinters her to shards of silence amidst the calliope's song.

This is the fifth time he's killed his best friend since the world went mad; he doesn't think he can take much more.

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-04 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
The Untamed, Wei Wuxian/Jiang Cheng, One day I'll come back if the door's still open

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 10:05 pm (UTC)(link)
lotr, the fellowship of the ring, a fellowship of women (genderbent or including canon women)

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 10:09 pm (UTC)(link)
(the same anon) or trans
frausorge: my arm in a black opera glove (Default)

[personal profile] frausorge 2021-02-04 10:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you very much!

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Narnia, any, dimension hopping

Obsidian & Blood, Acatl/Teomitl

[personal profile] notapaladin 2021-02-04 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
They sit on the steps of the Great Temple and watch the sun go down, and Acatl looks sidelong at him (golden in the sunlight, gold as the imperial regalia) and thinks, There is my future Emperor.

Teomitl's promised to be patient, to bide his time--to let Tizoc-tzin reign a few more years, no matter how cruel and craven the man is--and Acatl wonders, even now, if he can trust him or if he'll spend those years looking over his shoulder, praying that his former student's ambition doesn't break the Empire apart.

Then Teomitl turns and smiles at him--turns and, gods, takes his hand,--and he decides that, for once in his life, he'll take the risk.

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-04 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
The Untamed, Wei Wuxian/Jiang Cheng, liar

Obsidian & Blood, Acatl

[personal profile] notapaladin 2021-02-04 10:37 pm (UTC)(link)
There are many reasons for Acatl, High Priest of Mictlantecuhtli, to hate formal banquets--the heavy formal regalia, the certain knowledge that there is political scheming going on somewhere and it's sure to bite him in the ass--but top of the list has to be the seating arrangements, because he is sharing a mat with the high priests of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc and he hates both of them to a depth unplumbed by any line.

When Quenami, High Priest of Huitzilopochtli, smiles his oily smile and asks how he's been lately, as though Acatl's forgiven him for the time he almost had him executed for treason, Acatl has to resist the urge to drown him in his own soup bowl. No matter how satisfying it would be, it won't help.

The Yet Unknowing World

[personal profile] francienyc 2021-02-04 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Fortinbras stares. All the Norwegians are watching with unblinking eyes.

The echo of Hamlet's voice in his head. 'Absent thee from felicity awhile and in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain to tell my story.'

Horatio looks down at his hands, ink-stained from scratching out the words on the paper he now holds. It shakes.

'Still I am more an antique Roman than a Dane,' he murmurs to himself. Fortinbras leans forward, trying to catch his words.

Horatio looks up, glances over his shoulder at the bier where Hamlet is laid in honour. His eyes fill and he blinks back the tears. Perhaps not such a stoic Roman after all.

'This prince what lies before you was a man, like you and me. He breathed, he thought, he dreamed. He loved, but knew not love in return. For when he claimed that his soul had sealed her election upon one, he said they seemed not to suffer sorrow. He could not understand that he brought them a joy so great, suffering seemed as a far off dream.'

'More matter, less art,' huffs Fortinbras. 'What of my claims to this land?'

And Horatio knows he will spend the rest of his life trying to make the world understand what happened here, and what it meant to him to hold Hamlet as he died.
deemoyza: (Default)

[personal profile] deemoyza 2021-02-04 10:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! I'm glad you like it! :)
deemoyza: (Default)

[personal profile] deemoyza 2021-02-04 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you like this! :D
deemoyza: (Default)

[personal profile] deemoyza 2021-02-04 10:49 pm (UTC)(link)
:D

I love Rinoa's ideals and spirit, and I tried to condense that into a little snippet. I assume from your comment I succeeded. ;) I'm glad you like this! :)
deemoyza: (Default)

[personal profile] deemoyza 2021-02-04 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you like this! I was worried I might've gotten a bit carried away. XD
deemoyza: (Default)

[personal profile] deemoyza 2021-02-04 10:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh wow, so short but heartbreaking. It's nice to see Sabin being introspective, and a quiet reminder that the impact of loss never completely goes away.
ernest: (lemony snicket)

Re: The Yet Unknowing World

[personal profile] ernest 2021-02-04 10:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, I am just agog at how wonderful this is! Horatio is so brave and determined to find the right words for who Hamlet was to him, and Fortinbras just does not get it, how could he? Love how gracefully you wove in lines from the play, especially 'More matter, less art,' huffs Fortinbras.
Thank you so much for writing this!

Obsidian & Blood, Acatl/Teomitl

[personal profile] notapaladin 2021-02-04 11:01 pm (UTC)(link)
No matter how much he loves Acatl (gods, more than he thought it was even possible to love anyone), Teomitl has to admit there are...certain downsides to being intimately acquainted with the High Priest for the Dead.

"You know," he grumbles, "just because you deal with corpses all day doesn't mean your hands have to be as cold as the grave. Come here, I'll warm them for you."

deemoyza: (Default)

[personal profile] deemoyza 2021-02-04 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, this is sad, but so lovely, especially Setzer's acknowledgement that Darill's spirit will always be with him. 💕

And I particularly love the reason Darill liked roses!

Obsidian & Blood, Acatl & Teomitl

[personal profile] notapaladin 2021-02-04 11:21 pm (UTC)(link)
It's simple food--tamales stuffed with duck and chilis--but Acatl made it, so when he offers some to Teomitl...well, of course he'll eat it and be happy even if it turns out to be terrible, because he knows for a fact that it's been made with love instead of poison.

"This is delici--"

And that's how he finds out that Acatl, unlike everyone else in Tenochtitlan and probably the world, has absolutely no upper limit on how hot he likes his chili peppers.