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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

















sheenianni: (Default)

Wren (Girls of Paper and Fire, book 2 spoilers) (Sentence abuse here we come)

[personal profile] sheenianni 2021-02-01 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
She's been trained for this from birth, and so she pushes the feelings into some abandoned corner of her soul (Bo, Hiro, Eolah, Zelle, Aoki's family, mother) - she goes on and does what's necessary, because they're the weak side, the losing side, and Wren doesn't need her father to tell her they how much they cannot afford to lose the war.

Lei is different, though, and Wren admires that about her - Lei's inner strength, her bravery, her genuine kindness, her incredible pure heart no matter what new cruelty and tragedy the world tosses at them.

- "You're just as bad as them", Lei screams at her - and Wren sees the tears, the haunted horror in her lover's eyes, and then she finally shatters; she grieves for losing Lei's love, she trembles as the doubts she suppressed plague her mind, she cries because nothing she does will ever give Lei back her peace again.
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)

How Ginny Got Away

[personal profile] silveradept 2021-02-01 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
The tabloids had been afire when Ginny had accepted a Quidditch coaching position at a university in the United States, clucking their tongues at her "succumbing to the lure of riches" and mourning the loss of one of the top prospects for coaching England's U-21s to a championship. At least one had insinuated that she was chasing a cute boy.

The pay was nice, the challenge was interesting, but the best things about that posting were that Ginny would always be at work if her mother tried to call on her and that international Howlers and Owls were more than Molly could afford to send.
vialethe: (Lion in Winter)

Re: Bridgerton, Eloise & Penelope

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 09:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Aww, they're such lovely friends here, and of course Eloise would never push Penelope if she didn't want to share.
vialethe: (Eowyn)

Re: The Silmarillion, Túrin [cw: canon incest]

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, ouch. That one hurts. (by which I mean to say you did a terrific job, of course.)
rymenhild: Manuscript page from British Library MS Harley 913 (Default)

[personal profile] rymenhild 2021-02-01 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I've been sure of this since Unkindest Tide.

--

Dean may be the Count, but Marcia keeps Goldengreen running, with plates of sandwiches and words to the pixies and the emigrés from Lily's pond. She lives quietly, lets herself forget for decades on end what she's hidden inside herself, under her feathered hair and her circles of fairy ointment. But the roses that grow within her are the strongest and oldest of all, and no Firstborn's blast can shake them.
sheenianni: (Default)

[personal profile] sheenianni 2021-02-01 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Harry Potter, Ginny, Leaf on the wind (watch how I soar)
vialethe: (Ophelia)

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Will's so sweet, I like that he doesn't want to seem creepy by asking about perfume! This is a lovely little bittersweet look at lost love.

Fill: The Untamed, Nie Mingjue (+subtext)

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-01 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
In times not of war, Nie Mingjue appreciates the beauty of a well-crafted blade (Nie Huaisang looks the same, when he tilts his head and tuck a smile in his eyes as he lets his gaze stroke down a fan), and war games (this, his brother protests doesn't count), and especially writing letters to his dearest friend, long with details and suffused with humour; the Sunshot campaign cuts through his free time, turning any moment stolen away from the war effort into a vice, the mere suggestion of which makes Nie Mingjue recoil - if even writing to Lan Xichen on the run was at all a good idea.

Nie Mingjue's second is a good man, a smart man, with sharp humor beneath gentle eyes and the ambition to earn the position that his father's conduct refused him, and Nie Mingjue is glad to have him by his side, and allows himself to imagine writing so to Xichen.

Someday after the war, when Meng Yao is in Lanling, Nie Mingjue will have reason to write to him, as well.
sheenianni: (Default)

[personal profile] sheenianni 2021-02-01 09:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Any, any, the softest hug
sheenianni: (Default)

[personal profile] sheenianni 2021-02-01 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
any, any, feeding the monster
vialethe: (Default)

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
So cute! It is a very flamboyant waistcoat, isn't it.
sheenianni: (Default)

[personal profile] sheenianni 2021-02-01 09:51 pm (UTC)(link)
any, any, blink and you miss it
svgurl: (gilmore girls: rory/jess)

Re: A Different Day in New York

[personal profile] svgurl 2021-02-01 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Omg, I love this. You packed so much into three sentences and I love the throwback line. I could easily picture it in my head and it made me squee.

Thanks for picking and filling my prompt! :D
siver: (Default)

[personal profile] siver 2021-02-01 10:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Trails of Cold Steel, Alfin & Elise, a needed hug

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-01 10:05 pm (UTC)(link)
The Untamed/MDZS, Jin Ling, wishing he could inherit Yunmeng instead of Lanling
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)

The Boggart, Ron and Hermione

[personal profile] silveradept 2021-02-01 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
"The Burrow has a boggart," Ron said, leading Hermione down the hallway toward the bedrooms.

"Why are you so certain?" Hermione asked him, before it became clear to her.

"Ronald Weasley, what did I ever do to you that you ran off with that stuck-up girl and left me all alone?" the late Molly Weasley screamed at her child.
violsva: Geoffrey Tennant from Slings and Arrows, offering a skull (have a skull)

Original; CW: well, zombies.

[personal profile] violsva 2021-02-01 10:07 pm (UTC)(link)
The first generation zombies chose it. They knew, or thought they knew, what they were giving themselves, and they welcomed the excuse, the freedom from blame, as they set the world on fire—and it isn’t a consolation, for the rest of us, that they quickly regretted that choice.

For the rest of us, trapped in decaying bodies, unable to speak, trying to communicate with people who immediately try to kill us in response, desperately hoping for an end to the pain that never comes, even when put through everything that would have killed you before, even when torn apart, feeling the pain of every shred of your former body no matter how separated it is from your shambling central mass—insanity is a blessing, when it comes, and makes us truly like them.
fullupwithfire: a clock face with keys at each number place instead (pic | show them a crack)

Oxventures, post-Unreal Estate, Merilwen & Corazón

[personal profile] fullupwithfire 2021-02-01 10:15 pm (UTC)(link)
The small, dark hole they find in the corner of an unused bedroom turns out to be nothing after all, just an empty tunnel that leads to a half-covered spot in the bedroom Dob had set himself up in. Merilwen reemerges to share the news, still a little sulky that she had to resist the urge to go curl up on the beddings and make herself comfortable, and pauses as the emptiness of the room registers.

The others have moved on or, more likely, gotten distracted, leaving Corazón alone, sitting on the ground and unmoving, despite the dripping paintbrush still in his hand. His eyes are wet, and instinct takes over as Merilwen's worry for her friend spikes all over again. She slinks forward instead of changing shape as soon as she's clear of the confines of the hole, until she can get her paws up on Corazón's leg, meowing softly at him.

He startles, clears his throat and sets down the paintbrush, clearly preparing to cover for the moment she's caught him in. She climbs into his lap before he gets a chance, nuzzling against him, and waits patiently until he gives in and starts petting. It only takes a few more moments after that for him to break and scoop her into his arms.

"This never happened," he mutters into her fur, barely loud enough for her to hear him over her own purring, and she nuzzles into his shoulder until the dampness on his cheeks starts to dry.
silverwill: (Default)

[personal profile] silverwill 2021-02-01 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Yessss! :D

Go Legendary Angler Estelle!
silverwill: (cute)

Re: Fill: The Untamed, Nie Mingjue (+subtext)

[personal profile] silverwill 2021-02-01 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
this is really lovely (and with that dramatic irony anvil at the end. Off)

Thank you!

Fill: The Untamed/MDZS, Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian (cw: war, necromancy, implications of torture)

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-01 10:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian are nowhere near Wen Ruohan when the monster is vanquished, and they don't get glory for it, but no matter; everyone knows that if the Sunshot campaign ends, it's because Wei Wuxian's demonic cultivation drowns out the sun until its last rays are smothered by the night.

Returning to Lotus Pier isn't easy. Jiang Cheng wasn't naive enough to think it would be - his childhood home is no longer quite ruins, but it will be long until it's returned to its former bloom and living people outnumber ghosts. It'll be hard work, and tearstained nights he knows before they've hit him he'll never tell anyone about, but he's never been scared of effort, only failure. The nightmares when he passes too close to the nook the Wens tortured him in taste like the latter, but he can't afford to slack off, not when Wei Wuxian seems even less able to return from the war than Jiang Cheng himself.

It's different for Wei Wuxian; what Jiang Cheng lost in the war - the horrific violation that hollowed him of his golden core - he regained, somehow made stronger for the ordeal. The new powers Wei Wuxian returned with won them the war and the respect of sects who'd have been all too happy to deny YunmengJiang the epithet Great, but they're not so easy to shake off.

Wei Wuxian plays with corpses and Jiang Cheng wouldn't care if he wasn't also playing hooky, wouldn't care if not for the other sects turning squeamish, turning their eyes to what is firmly YunmengJiang business - the Jiang sect's motto covers rule-breaking, and didn't Wei Wuxian win the war?

--wouldn't care if it didn't feel like Wei Wuxian drifting, drifting, and the other sects whispering as if another would-be monster was threatening them.

In the twilight, the songs of Wei Wuxian's dizi grow sharper and Jiang Cheng's mouth runs dry with excuses.
sandinmyboots: (Default)

Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake, Jessie

[personal profile] sandinmyboots 2021-02-01 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I love how you played on the double meaning of avalanche/AVALANCHE here - it makes the feels hit all the harder ;~;
alexseanchai: Katsuki Yuuri wearing a blue jacket and his glasses and holding a poodle, in front of the asexual pride flag with a rainbow heart inset. (Default)

Re: The Fall of the House of Agreste

[personal profile] alexseanchai 2021-02-01 10:36 pm (UTC)(link)
ouch

—'her' Nathalie or 'her' Ladybug?
alexseanchai: Katsuki Yuuri wearing a blue jacket and his glasses and holding a poodle, in front of the asexual pride flag with a rainbow heart inset. (Default)

Re: Miraculous Ladybug, Viperion

[personal profile] alexseanchai 2021-02-01 10:37 pm (UTC)(link)
…valid
sandinmyboots: (Default)

Re: Fill: Final Fantasy VI, Terra & others

[personal profile] sandinmyboots 2021-02-01 10:39 pm (UTC)(link)
This is so tender and sweet! I love how you've folded Terra's growth in her relationships with her magic and the party here - cooking as survival, as intimacy, as magic. I feel like I'm watching one of her WoR cutscenes!