rthstewart | 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>

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

When the young of Cair Paravel pushed their Minotaur Cook to retirement, Susan had expected it would be difficult to find a replacement – after all, in a country where so many of its citizen didn’t need to eat cooked food, it had been impossible the first time around to find someone both knew how to cook, and understood the positive battle plan that was required in Narnian meal planning. Former Cook’s faun and dwarf assistants had taken over the cooking at first, and they were doing an adequate enough job that Susan was contemplating just having a team of cooks working in cooperation rather than one single chef in charge; after all, it was a huge responsibility, cooking for the diverse population of the Cair, and Cook’s departure proved that it was too much responsibility for one person.

Then the fauns and dwarves began to notice little changes made to their meal preparation and the lists of supplies that were being prepared for their troops preparing to go on the road. As the changes were all positive and made the cooking and prepping more efficient, it didn’t seem like whoever was making these changes had any nefarious intents, but soon the mystery of it all bothered Susan enough to set the Rats on finding out who it was. It began to become even more suspicious when her famously efficient Rats failed to locate who had been making these edits and changes to the kitchen’s process. It was beginning to bother Susan more than she liked to admit when Willa wondered out loud, “Maybe the reason we can’t find who it is because the one who is making these changes is also the one doing the looking.”

“What do you mean?” the Queen asked.

“It occurred to me that, though there are no paw prints to prove anything, the edits being made on the meal lists look like they were being made by a Rat or Mouse.”

“You think the reason the Rats have not found who is doing this is because the one doing it is actually a Rat?” Susan asked. “Well, this is intriguing, indeed.”

“Perhaps it is time I get on this mission myself, Queen Susan.”

To Remy’s credit, he evaded Willa’s formidable skills for another fortnight before Willa managed to gather enough evidence to confront him.

“It’s not that I’m not happy with my work with the Mischief, Queen Susan!” the young Rat said earnestly, who was curiously standing on his hind paws, preferring to keep his front paws off the ground. “And I was perfectly happy before with just making suggestions to Cook whenever she asked us to sample her food. But then, you remember that visit from the delegation from the Seven Isles that included their chef – Gaston – “

“ – Gusteau,” Susan corrected, but she was intrigued.

“Yes, him. He said something that I haven’t been able to shake off since.”

Of course Susan remembered. Gusteau, being a quite famous chef in the known worlds, had wanted to visit the Narnian monarchs’ kitchen, and at first, Susan had been hesitant. After all, their Minotaur Cook tended to strike fear in the hardiest of warriors, and that was even before considering what other Humans usually thought of the idea of all the Rats, hair, and feathers in the kitchen. But Gusteau had been delighted to see Cook, and with Cook’s food. “Anyone can cook!” he had declared, taking the fact that this particular cook was a minotaur in strides.

It had moved Cook to tears that a celebrated chef had so loved her food. However, it was clear that Cook was not the only one so affected.

“Remy,” Susan said, making a decision, “the changes you made to the kitchen these last few weeks had been quite clever. You seem to love cooking – “ and food, but then, he was a Rat, that was a given – “how would you like to work in the kitchen from now on?”

Remy’s eyes widened, which would be quite alarming if one was not already in familiar and constant proximity with Rats. It was clear that such a job would be a dream come true to Remy, but nevertheless, he looked towards Willa.

“It would be splendid, actually, to have a Rat actually cooking in the kitchen,” Willa said. “He knows the Rats’ taste and would season things properly.”

“Well then,” Susan declared, “it’s settled. If you do well, Remy, I might see what that you become the new Cook.”

Edited 2021-02-04 02:24 (UTC)

Oh Ruan this brings tears to my eyes. Oh Remy And Willa's -- well maybe the Rats can't find the cook because the cook is a Rat is just delightful. Remy is a noteworthy to successor to the formidable Cook. Thanks so much for this wonderful, wonderful slice of domestic life.

<3
I was quite sad to see Cook off but the idea of she just had one too many encounters with puppies stealing steaks is also very funny to me :D

(not the anon who left the prompt) wow this is amazing! How love how seemlessly you integrated these to worlds, and wow Remy would fit so well in Narnia

Thanks! And yes it is such a seamless crossover!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is brilliant.

<3 thanks!!

This is deliciously delightful!! Hopefully this means less offal if anyone unintentionally upsets the new Cook in charge. :-)

Yes, less offal and more comfort food with lots and lots of butter :D

Three Sentence Ficathon 2021

Uhm...not 3 sentence I guess. Also, rthverse

Re: Uhm...not 3 sentence I guess. Also, rthverse

Re: Uhm...not 3 sentence I guess. Also, rthverse

Re: Uhm...not 3 sentence I guess. Also, rthverse

Re: Uhm...not 3 sentence I guess. Also, rthverse

Re: Uhm...not 3 sentence I guess. Also, rthverse

Re: Uhm...not 3 sentence I guess. Also, rthverse

Re: Uhm...not 3 sentence I guess. Also, rthverse

Re: Uhm...not 3 sentence I guess. Also, rthverse