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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

















harmony_lover: (Default)

Re: wait nope, not done

[personal profile] harmony_lover 2021-02-05 05:01 pm (UTC)(link)
This is amazing! I love it!
harmony_lover: (Default)

Re: Just Don't Say a Word

[personal profile] harmony_lover 2021-02-05 05:12 pm (UTC)(link)
This is amazing. So gorgeous! I love Lucian in my heart of hearts, and you've captured them beautifully here!
harmony_lover: (Default)

[personal profile] harmony_lover 2021-02-05 05:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, my gosh, I love this! Such vivid visuals and hinting at so much. It really is a whole story in a tiny space. :)

Re: Gogo & Relm - "Palette Swap"

[personal profile] azurefishnets 2021-02-05 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Relm & Gogo as the dual artists of better less irritating versions of the Andy Warhol paintings is an hc I am here for! Chocobos! Maria! Owzer, eat your heart out.
little_lady_d: (while there's music and love and romance)

[personal profile] little_lady_d 2021-02-05 05:45 pm (UTC)(link)
All her life Sister Mary believed in a better world — she preached it, prayed for it, kneeled for hours in front of an altar of it — but that better world came after death. Jim Culver knew the dead like the back of his hand when it danced up and down his daddy’s trumpet, and dark music flowed from him like smoke from a cigarette — the Final Rhapsody, the End of Days —

“A better world ain’t coming,” he said, but he said it with a smile over Velma’s coffee, and Mary knew she had an ally. “Let’s see what we can make of this one.”

(Anonymous) 2021-02-05 05:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Scarlet Heart Ryeo, Wang Yo (3rd Prince), vulnerable

(Anonymous) 2021-02-05 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Wang Yo's (Jeongjeong's, he is king Jeongjeong now) hand wavers when he aims an arrow at Un's forehead and treacherous memories flash in front of his eyes.

Him and Un playing hide and seek together when Un was only seven. When Un pulled a prank on Jimong and then immediately ran to Wang Yo to proudly brag about his accomplishment. (he was twelve). The preparations for the demon exorcising ritual, when they ran around recklessly just messing with each other.

Wang Yo almost puts the bow away, but then he remembers that the only alternative is to end up like his fourth brother.
No, he can't (he is afraid to) end up like Wang So; cast away (free). He can't allow himself to be weak now (vulnerable).
Jeongjeong releases the bow string and the arrow mercilessly sings through the air.

Scarlet Heart: Wang So and Jimong

(Anonymous) 2021-02-05 06:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"But, your majesty… It appears that she did sent you letters…" The royal astronomer quietly points out and when his eyes move to the pile of unopened letters from Jung, a lump rises in Wang So's throat.
He thought that she didn't love him anymore, that she decided to spend the rest of her life in the country with Jung.
(And he didn't blame her for that, couldn’t blame her for that; not her, not after everything she has been through in the palace.)

He takes the letters and with trembling hands forces himself to open one. The lines wiggle and blur and his eyes sting the more he reads and the more he reads, the more he feels like the world is swimming out from underneath his feet; like a part of his heart is being violently ripped out and a gaping hole of painful emptiness is replacing it.

And just when he finishes reading them all and feels completely hollow, dried and empty, Jimong's hand lands on his shoulder.
"Your majesty…there is something important I haven't told you about Hae Soo...and her origin."

little_lady_d: (these eyes telling you ...)

[personal profile] little_lady_d 2021-02-05 06:06 pm (UTC)(link)
It doesn’t feel real. It doesn’t feel real but nothing’s felt real, not since he dragged himself from that ditch, dragged himself from his death before the world went dark and dragged the darkness with him. It doesn’t feel real, but João‘s here holding him, whispering to him, “We got our happy ending, love.”
ladyjax: (Default)

Re: Family Debt

[personal profile] ladyjax 2021-02-05 06:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, thanks so much. In a nutshell, the premise of Motherland: Fort Salem is that a witch in Early America named Sarah Alder saves herself and every other witch in the fledgling country by pledging them to the US military. Magic is channeled through their voices.

Abigail's family, the Bellweathers, are High Atlantic - top of the social heap but their distant ancestors were enslaved Africans and I remember either reading or listening to a piece by the show's creator where he stated that some of the strongest magics that Sarah Alder found were in the seed songs of, you guessed it, slaves. They literally form the backbone of magical canon in the US. That and some other stuff around the Bellweathers formed the basis of this ficlet.

little_lady_d: (bubbles!)

[personal profile] little_lady_d 2021-02-05 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Lady Lambdadelta tastes like konpeito and cotton candy, like a toothache you tell your parents doesn’t hurt so you don’t have to go to the dentist; the great Bernkastel tastes like plum tea and miso popcorn, like the guts ripped from a fish still flopping along the boardwalk, like a chance you never had and missed, anyway. The girls giggle and flirt, sugar and spice and everything nice, and between them birth worlds and bring worlds to ruin.

“This doesn’t taste like Bern,” says Lambda, and, of course, she’d know.
Edited 2021-02-05 19:04 (UTC)
fallen_stage: Kuja standing in the wind, facing down Bahamut (Default)

[personal profile] fallen_stage 2021-02-05 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I saw ff9 and knew i had to try, then i saw it was for the black mages and bobby corwen and i was like shit i cant Not write it!

I'm happy you enjoyed it! I adore the black mages and i wanted to capture their perspectives and feelings. mr 288 really is a great leader, but i wanted mr 33 and mr 111 to take initiative too. im glad i got the tone right!

im particularly proud of the "weird box" part, haha. i figured, well, since they dont know a lot, and its a container for a bird, well... my first thought was like a treasure chest, and then "box" came very easily. after that i was put in mind of the hobbit and its riddle about "a box without hinges, key, or lid".

of course the title is a pun, both about brooding an egg and ruminating in deep thought, since they're concerned about the egg. :>

(Anonymous) 2021-02-05 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)
ASOIAF, any, snowball fight

(Anonymous) 2021-02-05 07:38 pm (UTC)(link)
ASOIAF, any female character, crown
ladyjax: (Default)

Star Trek: Discovery, Jett Reno, Michael Burnham, For Science!

[personal profile] ladyjax 2021-02-05 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Michael looked from Reno to Stamets to the transporter tech and then back to Reno. The Chief Engineer looked bored, Stamets annoyed, and the transporter tech desperately looked like they wanted to be someplace else.

"Tell me again exactly Tilly said," Michael said. She loved her former roommie/current acting First Officer dearly but when science was involved sometimes she had more enthusiasm than sense. "And then tell me if we can get her back. The last thing we need is for her to end up someplace she's not supposed to be."

"Last thing she said was, and I quote, 'Woo hoo, let's try a slingshot!'. Then she had ol' Phillip here," Reno motioned with thumb towards the tech who cringed, "hit the transporter controls just as Tilly tapped her personal transporter. And yes, we can get her back but considering said slingshot sent her all the way back to Federation headquarters, we best get on it. Oh, and when we get there, Admiral Vance would like to talk to us about unauthorized transporter experiments." Reno shrugged and grinned. "Guy's really got to work on his sense of humor."
Edited 2021-02-05 19:46 (UTC)
ilthit: (Default)

[personal profile] ilthit 2021-02-05 07:55 pm (UTC)(link)
<3 <3 <3 Thank you, that was wonderful.
ilthit: (Default)

[personal profile] ilthit 2021-02-05 07:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I love it, thank you! I want to read their whole horrible adventure.
ilthit: (Default)

[personal profile] ilthit 2021-02-05 07:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Henry Lascelles, money
ultra_fic: (Sunshine)

Re: Obsidian & Blood, Acatl

[personal profile] ultra_fic 2021-02-05 08:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know the fandom, but I still enjoyed this - thank you :)
ultra_fic: (Clouds)

[personal profile] ultra_fic 2021-02-05 08:17 pm (UTC)(link)
LOVE! Thank you :)

Fill: FFX, Summoner Tidus/Al Bhed Yuna

(Anonymous) 2021-02-05 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
1. Besaid’s Youngest Summoner

They found him when he was too young to remember it, asleep on a white stretch of beach with small waves washing around him, and he grew up as temple orphans do, dodging fiends and lessons, with the song of the Fayth in his head to remind him: all is a dream and one day you will wake from it.

2. The Daughter Returned

Kimahri brought her from Bevelle when she was just old enough to understand what the words High Lord Braska really meant, and she grew up as desert children do, with sand in her hair and grease beneath her nails, honing her anger at a god who promised hope and stole fathers away in sacrifice.

3. The Pilgrims

She led the team that caught him by the Moonflow’s edge, and on the roof of Home, they talked – he of faith and she of lies, she of dreams and he of waking; his eyes were ocean blue in the shifting Pyrefly light, and when he looked to the distant northeast and spoke with a smile of a story in need of changing, she heard herself say: “I’ll let you go, but I’m going with you.”
ultra_fic: (Moon)

Re: A Beautiful Fiction (The Expanse, Avasarala/Bobbie, S5 Spoilers)

[personal profile] ultra_fic 2021-02-05 08:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow. Don't know the fandom, but still, wow.
ultra_fic: (Moon)

[personal profile] ultra_fic 2021-02-05 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh, I love this.

Re: A Fairy Tale

(Anonymous) 2021-02-05 08:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! :)

(Anonymous) 2021-02-05 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
any, any, nicknames