rthstewart | Three Sentence Ficathon 2021

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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

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

<a href="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/166704.html" _fcksavedurl="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/166704.html" _fcksavedurl="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/166704.html" _fcksavedurl="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/166704.html" target="_blank"><img src=" https://imgur.com/f3B21LX.png?2" _fcksavedurl=" https://imgur.com/f3B21LX.png?2" _fcksavedurl=" https://imgur.com/f3B21LX?2" _fcksavedurl=" https://imgur.com/f3B21LX.png?2" alt="" /></a>

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

This is lovely!

"What's that meant to be advertising -- a remote webcam-activation service for stalkers?" Melanie asked, barging into Georgie's recording studio with blithe assurance of her welcome (which was fair enough; the little 'recording' button Georgie'd rewired to do a Braille display along with the red light hadn't been on and Georgie was always game for a distraction from rehearsals).

"A new true crime webcast from some American newspaper," Georgie said, slipping her headphones down around her neck and spinning her chair to face her girlfriend, hands outstretched to meet Melanie's own questing fingers; "It is a bit pretentious, isn't it?"

Melanie snorted: "God, can't you just imagine Jon reading it in that-- that voice he uses for statements?"

"Yes, and now I'll have that stuck in my head all day," Georgie grumbled.

"The horror of it all. Let me see if I can give you something better to focus on," Melanie said, and let Georgie guide her in for a kiss.

Ooh, I love this!!

Ooh, I love this!

Ghost Trick, Cabanela, “If I can still breathe, I’m fine.”

(From prompts here)

Ooh, interesting!

I love this!

Lazulis is seven years old when she speaks her first Word, a small, insignificant Word, nothing more than a spark on her tongue. She's proud of it anyway, running off to demonstrate to anyone and everyone her first true taste of the Power that holds their empire together.

But her younger sister is not impressed: "I already know that Word, and three others as well," Jadis reminds her, "Maybe I should be our father the Emperor's heir instead."

Spring is a time of rebirth, of the world awakening again, of Persephone rising, and she loves it. She loves the reunion with her mother, with the world above, loves walking barefoot in the grass and sewing seeds of life in the fields.

But spring turns into summer, long days full of blazing light and heat, and the Queen of the Underworld longs for her King, spending her nights restless and aching for his touch.

Summer turns to fall and the days grown shorter and Persephone finds joy in the harvest, blessing all those who reap and gather and prepare for the winter months — just as she prepares for her return to Hades.

I love this concept, and your prose is just gorgeous! ❤

Ooh, intriguing! Gogo's true power! I'd love to see Setzer's expression at the end. :)

Oh, this is cute! I love the idea of a Relm & Gogo creative team. :)

When she firsts sees the child in the snowy woods, a deep chill takes hold of her, a cold that has nothing to do with the wonder of her endless winter.

She knows his name before he speaks it — Edmund, says a voice inside of her head, a voice that sounds like hers used to, a voice she barely remembers — and when she sends him off, full of the Turkish Delight that now binds him to her, she knows who he will bring.

It won't be long now, for her at least, and she feels a twinge of regret for her younger self, mixed with relief that this nearly endless life will finally be over and she might find some peace.

They say the Pirate King is the greatest pirate ever known, that she is a master of the seas, they say she has the loyalty of even the sea goddess herself.

As the two of them lie entwined beneath the seas, Elizabeth tells her lover of these rumors, and a wicked look appears in Calypso’s eyes.

When the Pirate King finally returns to her ship, smug and sated, her mouth tastes like salt.

This is really cool and interesting! Also definitely sounds like Jadis

The witches in the north are the children of Jadis — who their fathers are no one knows, not even the witches themselves, and the rumors are that the White Witch killed them all when she no longer had need of them — they are like her in that they are wicked, and cold, and use their magic cruelly, to destroy and enslave and bring misery.

But there are witches in the south as well, witches who are daughters of Narnians, of Archenlanders, of Calormenes, who have a different magic in their veins - a magic born of the warmth of the sun, and the warmth of knowing love, a magic of beauty and wonder, a magic that can bring healing and growth, and can rise against the magic of the norther witches.

It's to the southern witches that Susan and Lucy turn when the need is great.

Reepicheep lives his life as if it were a song — full of dashing exploits, and daring quests, and dalliances with lovely mouse maidens. He is true to his word and full of cheer and compassion for all his friends and foes alike — for though he is deadly with his rapier and always ready for a battle, he truly wishes not to to bring harm, but to bring peace, in any way he possibly.

All of this — his whole life — goes through his mind as he paddles his coracle up the giant wave, and as he balances at the top, ready to go over, he knows more songs await in Aslan's Country.

Omg, this is soooo good!

Susan thinks of all the times she found Edmund in the library of Cair Paravel, absorbed in the tales of Narnia heroes of old as he rummaged through the seemingly endless shelves of books. "I say, Su, this is a far sight better than the poetry we used to learn at school!" he had told one of those afternoons, a lifetime ago.

So when she leads him to a small chamber in Aslan's How, filled with books piled in precarious stacks, she's delighted by the look on his face, especially when she tells him, "wait until you read the ones about us."

(sorry, I can't write my own epic poetry lol)

Thank you! It melts my heart how Catra goes from associating stars with a traumatic situation to something she shares with the one she loves. <3

[this 'verse]

Ladybug doesn't go to school anymore; why should she, when high school science is far too shallow an overview of what she needs to bring Chat Noir safely home, and not a single other thing she might learn there is worth more as knowledge than it costs her in inattention or in lessened dedication—why should she torment herself by going to see where Adrien isn't?

She does go home, though, dropping through her skylight to take armored catnaps when his lonely monologue-soliloquy pauses for him to sleep; anyway, to keep the Miracle Box and her alchemy anywhere else would need first having another place to put them, then reestablishing the spells that ensure no one notices what Marinette is up to unless she permits them. So when Marinette's parents ask for a moment of Ladybug's time, telling her Marinette vanished only hours after Adrien did, asking if it's possible Marinette is following Adrien, or has already found him—Adrien's voice is filling Marinette's ears at that very moment, Chat Noir rambling about the difference in texture between satin and taffeta weaves and wondering about suitability for embroidery mostly to hear himself talk, and Ladybug proves unable to unknot herself from that lifeline for even half a heartbeat, where she merely dares not untie the lid of where she's bottling up her tears.

Grace, ear pressed to the ground, hears the dead weep for the living: oh, their foolish bodies of flesh and sinews, holding onto things that are gone for good. She can do nothing for those who remain, but she can bring flowers to the buried and assure them that they’ve done all they could, and are allowed to rest now.

She can never be sure if they hear or understand her, but their songs grow more graceful in time, and that has to be enough.

Edited (added fandom to title) 2021-02-07 22:29 (UTC)

Yes, perfect. Of course she remembers, of course she's upset - and of course she keeps moving on, because what else was there for her to do? I love her quiet strength, and how she knows that trying again will require bravery.

I like how she misses him more and more as the seasons progress, until she's ready for Hades to, well...harvest in the fall. Ahem. Lovely work, as always.

Edith paused, wiped the sweat from her brow with the inside of her wrist while cursing all dairy products to ever exist under her breath.

"Not as easy as it seems, right?"

"I never thought I'd miss store bought butter when the climate change wars broke out, no."

Edited (Added title) 2021-02-08 19:42 (UTC)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 145 of 222

Three Sentence Ficathon 2021

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And Now a Word from Our Sponsors (The Magnus Archives)

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Re: Narnia, The Problem of Susan

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Re: Fill: Hamlet

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In the cracks of light / I dreamed of you

Re: Fill: FFX, Summoner Tidus/Al Bhed Yuna

Re: Chance, Setzer + Gogo, SFW

Re: Gogo & Relm - "Palette Swap"

the history of the future

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fire in their bones

the bravest of them all

Re: The Song of King Gale (told on the deck of the Splendour Hyaline after the flight from Tashbaan)

rummaging for answers in the pages

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[Miraculous Ladybug] lacking only certain data

Fill: Pathologic

Re: sometimes walking out is the one thing / that will find you the right thing

Re: In the cracks of light / I dreamed of you

Neofeudalist dystopia, part 1