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

[wallwalker]

Any, Any, You'll dance to anything!

Fill: FE4, Lene/Ares

[runespoor]

"A girl's gotta eat," Lene shrugs. Her hand comes to rest on her almost-naked hip, her bracelets clinking against her skin - he noticed when he watched her, her form is good, full of feints, but precise - good footwork too, her legs -- she'd make a decent swordmaster.

She smiles as Ares cocks his head, lovely and blade-bright; "tell you what, mister mercenary, hang around and maybe I can dance for you."

Re: Fill: FE4, Lene/Ares

[salinea]

Love the things Ares notice/pay attention to! XD

Re: Fill: FE4, Lene/Ares

[runespoor]

There are a lot of things to be noticed! and dancers are surprisingly adept in the arena!

Fairy Ring (LoZ: Ocarina of Time, Malon/Link)

[fallen_stage]

One thing Malon learned, was that the Fairy Kid would dance anywhere.

Not just at dances, or festivals, or when Malon sang, but just walking along, or tapping a foot at the table, or even wiggling when helping her milk the cows.

(They often helped milk the cows when visiting, and Malon welcomed the help, since when they plied the udders there would be twice as much milk in the buckets and three times the cream)

Maybe there was music inside them, the way there was music inside her. While Malon sang to let it out, Link couldn't. She learned that when they were children, and she insisted on hearing, and well. She expected a croak but it was more like controlled yelling. Always a vocal one, that Fairy Kid, if rarely in words.

Tonight the two were in the field, enjoying the moonlight. She had finished another song and needed to rest, but she could see the music moving in Link. They were squirming in their seat on the grass, fingers fiddling with the clover. Malon waited, and she was rewarded. Link jumped up, but took her hands with them, and insisted.

"Link, right now? I can't sing more just yet."

Fairy Kid smiled, shaking their head, and tugged at her hands. Smiling back, she followed their lead, steps coming easily now that she caught their enthusiasm. The night was cool, the moon bright, with the wind blowing and the crickets singing at their accompaniment.

Maybe it was the night, the mood, or the Fairy Kid's subtle magic that gave the cows heifer calves or cured a colicky horse. Either way, Malon became more aware of the night sounds, of the piping of the wind, the harmonizing chirp of the crickets, the lowing of the cows as a baseline. Link pulled her into a dance to the rhythm of the night, smiling up at her the whole time. She basked in the joyous movement, Link's warm hands in hers, and she never felt more graceful.

When the two finished, Link slowing down and music spent, the night sounds returned to their mundane measures. They both sat down, and Malon was surprised to find she was sweating, the wind soothing against her flushed skin. By the look of the moon, they had been dancing for two whole hours. Link squeezed her hand when they went to bed soon after, and Malon squeezed back.

In the morning, the place they had danced had sprouted with a circle of mushrooms.