Three Sentence Ficathon 2021

[rthstewart]

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>

Comments

[silverwill]

Heaven Officials Blessing, Three Tumors, Friendship

[last_haven]

In Caspian's school books, the Pevensies weren't human--they were made into fairytales, discredited as bedtime stories, to the point that even as a child Caspian recognized propaganda even if he didn't know that was the word for it. He discarded the teachings entirely by the time he actually meets the legendary monarchs, and yet, meeting them, talking with them, touching them, he discovers what those stories had been talking about.

Lucy dances and the trees wake from their slumber like returning spring, flowers blooming on her brow like a crown; Edmund claps his shoulder and he feels blistering summer heat and hears flute pipes when he speaks, like ancient bacchanalias. Susan moves like rustling leaves in the wind and her comforting hand on his cheek feels like the kiss of the first frost. But it's in Peter's eyes and Peter's sword that Caspian sees the cold finality of winter, the unstoppable will of an avalanche and the end of cruel years when he duels. Caspian knows then that even fairytales contain truths in them.

Happy birthday!!!

[wingedflight]

(Hope when you suggested Gordan Korman, that included I Want To Go Home)

Chip should have known the boys were up to something, not only because they were always up to something but because their giggling had been particularly noticeable this morning, but he still was in no way prepared for what awaited him in the cafeteria at breakfast: balloons and streamers galore, a ginormous candle-laden cake, and a huge banner that read HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY, CHIP!

Bewildered, all he could manage was a mumbled, "I-I'm nowhere near fifty... and my birthday isn't until November...?" before it finally clued in that the entire camp was assembled--with two notable exceptions.

"Webster! MILLER!"

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, diamond dust

Re: Let freedom ring

[acequeenking]

Oooh what a lovely coda to the end of the series! Gorgeous

[wingedflight]

loooooooool

[kingstoken]

Star Trek: Lower Decks, Tendi & Rutherford, "It wasn't supposed to do that, was it?"

[acequeenking]

Oooh! I love this! It feels like the sort of gentle scene-turned-suddenly-jarringly ominous that the original series really excelled in!

The Queen of Every Beggar’s Son

[vialethe]

“We don’t say that sort of thing here, though you could not have known,” Susan says, though her barbed smile and glacial tone say quite well that she believes otherwise, and the Telmar Ambassador should have done his homework before daring to set foot (and presumptuous mouth) in a land populated by, among others, the very Rats he’d just inadvertently insulted.

“Rats don’t marry as humans do, and raise their children communally in any case, so such a thing does not exist,” Nielle informs him from her perch on Susan’s right shoulder, one small paw stroking her whiskers as she ponders the expression.

“Unless, of course, you meant ‘bastard’ in the sense of ‘a rude, unpleasant personage with little dignity and less honor,’” Jacques says from her left shoulder, his slender body quivering with suppressed rage, “in which case, I believe it is quite clear to whom at this table the phrase may apply, sir.”

[(Anonymous)]

Lan Wangji rarely spoke in the years after his mother died; there was no point, when simple recitation of the rules and accords of the Lan were all that was needed.

Losing Wei Ying showed him how short-sighted he had been, to waste those years of silence that might instead have taught him the right words to say. With A-Yuan he would not make that mistake; for Lan Sizhui there would be no empty silences.

[lonespark]

Great job!

[syrena_of_the_lake]

Narnia, Aslan, not a tame Lion

(wingedflight - yes this is absolutely about your twitter post with the rhyming game)

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, lemonade and iced tea

Hunger Games:

[word_devourer]

I understood it properly, then, what they'd meant when they said that it was all spectacle, the way they turned the fury and hatred of the Districts into nothing more than a game, forced the people they killed to make friends with their killers, to beg for scraps in the vain hope of survival.

The Games were a delusion, dreamed up and enforced; even if I were to win, what could they possibly give me to make up for this?

I wanted to wake up.

The Magicians(TV) + What We Do In The Shadows(TV), Benedict Pickwick, somewhere else

[lonespark]

After the anguish, and despair, and agony, he's expecting emptiness, but instead there's rushing wind, and a door, and a room.

Then another door, another room, and a puzzled-looking woman who says, "Memo, why did you come through that door, looking like you've been using the youth preserving cream?"

"I don't know what part of the underworld this is," Benedict tells her, "But I'd be pleased to offer you my cartographical services."

[intrikate88]

Kim has been busy, but Kim is always busy; last year it was school sports and krav maga lessons and friends and volunteering and saving the world and a 4.5 GPA and SAT prep, and this year it's kickboxing and debate club and student government and college applications and then college visits and an after-school job and tutoring and more perfect grades and student newspaper and saving the world.

"Haven't seen you in a while," Shego calls to her, backflipping off of a wall and then crashing fully into Kim, the two of them rolling together down a flight of stairs and Kim flinging out an arm that just happens to keep Shego's head from hitting the floor. "I know there's plenty of competition when it comes to dastardly plots, but Kimmy, we used to see each other at least twice a month," she adds, and Kim can't fully ignore the forced glibness of it or the tightness in her own chest when she ducks under Shego's punch.

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, still she haunts me phantomwise

His Dark Materials/Narnia

[wingedflight]

"First a world with only humans and no daemons," said Lyra in awe, "and now a world without humans, and only daemons--how strange!"

"No humans here, not for a long time," agreed Mrs. Beaver sadly as she set the fish and chips down in front of Lyra, "But you're here now, and that's one more than we had yesterday!"

Re: But You Are Not Her (Holden, Amos & Alex)

[vialethe]

I have been watching! We discussed our thoughts on the believability of Drummer's polycule a few episodes ago, I think.

I loved Naomi's storyline in this book because she is so amazingly badass - not in an upfront, beating people up or shooting down ships way, but in an endlessly determined, resourceful way. Dom Tipper has been absolutely killing it, in scenes that have to be very hard to do with no other actors to play off and react to. She's really been the standout of the season.

[wingedflight]

oooo

Milly & Tilly & Pancakes!

[silverwill]

“It’s an All You Can Eat Pancake Hour Tilly! We have to go!” Millium cheered enthusiastically as she dragged her not-too-reluctant sister into the shop, where she proceeded to order for the two of them and declare an eating competition then and there.

“Very well,” Altina agreed after taking a single bite of her first soft fluffy delicious blueberry pancake. “I look forward to seeing how my specs compare to yours.”

It was the last All You Can Eat Pancake Hour that shop ever had.

Artemis Fowl

[wingedflight]

For a minute, the only thing Artemis Fowl can do is stare. The boy is... just a boy: soft eyes, friendly smile, ill-fitting suit--essentially an embarrassment from beginning to end.

"Foaly," he says carefully, "how did "rehabilitate your reputation by making you sympathetic to the audience" turn into... whatever that is?"

[cofax7]

Any!

Re: Oh hey finally someone who agrees with me that Molly Weasley is terrible and Arthur's an enabler

[conuly]

They're not "the worst", but only because the Dursleys are in the running.

Also, yes, this fic!

TAZ Balance: Merle Highchurch. 'Raise Dead: Material component, a diamond worth 500gp'

[word_devourer]

Well, yeah, it's kind of a funny feeling, right, because he's a cleric, but he's serving a god who he's a hundred worlds away from, tending to a crew of people who don't care that much about healing; I mean, you kill them, they just wake back up at the end of the year, so you kind of start to wonder what he's really doing there.

And how does Merle handle that?

Well... I think he focuses on doing the good he can for the people who need it, and he makes sure that when he doesn't have anything he needs to be doing, he can still find somewhere to kick back and relax for a while.
--
Side-note: I thought it was specifically diamond dust. It was not, but I was already halfway through.