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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

















(Anonymous) 2021-02-05 02:34 pm (UTC)(link)
any, any, role swap

Fill: FFX, Summoner Tidus/Al Bhed Yuna

(Anonymous) 2021-02-05 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
1. Besaid’s Youngest Summoner

They found him when he was too young to remember it, asleep on a white stretch of beach with small waves washing around him, and he grew up as temple orphans do, dodging fiends and lessons, with the song of the Fayth in his head to remind him: all is a dream and one day you will wake from it.

2. The Daughter Returned

Kimahri brought her from Bevelle when she was just old enough to understand what the words High Lord Braska really meant, and she grew up as desert children do, with sand in her hair and grease beneath her nails, honing her anger at a god who promised hope and stole fathers away in sacrifice.

3. The Pilgrims

She led the team that caught him by the Moonflow’s edge, and on the roof of Home, they talked – he of faith and she of lies, she of dreams and he of waking; his eyes were ocean blue in the shifting Pyrefly light, and when he looked to the distant northeast and spoke with a smile of a story in need of changing, she heard herself say: “I’ll let you go, but I’m going with you.”
tiny_ninja: (ffx;; gunner yuna)

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

[personal profile] tiny_ninja 2021-02-06 08:49 am (UTC)(link)
This is so good! ♥
raisedbymoogles: (Default)

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

[personal profile] raisedbymoogles 2021-02-06 11:48 pm (UTC)(link)
i am desperately intrigued by this AU
rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (hope is all we have)

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

[personal profile] rionaleonhart 2021-02-07 11:11 am (UTC)(link)
I love this! Gorgeous work.
deemoyza: (Default)

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

[personal profile] deemoyza 2021-02-07 09:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I love this concept, and your prose is just gorgeous! ❤

Fill: A Little Princess, Lavinia + Sara

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-06 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
The first person Lavinia sees is the last person she wants to see her; who else but Princess Sara, with those owlish green eyes of hers fixed on Lavinia. Lavinia’s always rather thought it made her look like some queer creature out of a nanny’s folk tale - the sort of tales Sara likes to tell so much and has everyone hanging on to her every word, a regular pied piper.

Before Sara came to the school, Lavinia’s place was the very highest, and now Sara will reign unchallenged. How infuriatingly fitting that she be the one to catch Lavinia at her most discomfited.

At least Lavinia didn’t cry when Miss Minchin told her of her parents’ ship being wrecked. She cannot abide the thought of silly, solemn Sara seeing her with red eyes.

They stare at each other for a moment. Lavinia is supposed to--well, no matter. Lavinia is to clear her things out, but she’ll not go to her room until she is sure Jessie is asleep. If Jessie talks to her now, Lavinia realizes suddenly, if Jessie inflicts her awkward fawning on Lavinia - Lavinia would scratch her eyes out.

Sara’s strange, solemn look always makes her look like she knows more than she ought to - an “old soul,” or so they say - and right now Lavinia’s blood runs crystal-cold with the certainty that Sara knows. (Yet what does it matter? Tomorrow the whole school will know of Lavinia’s disgrace. Sara’s forbidden knowledge will serve her very little then.)

It’s rage fueling Lavinia in this moment; making her back stand straight and burning her eyes dry. Rage, and resentment, at the unfairness of it all.

Sara is the first to speak; unusual, for her. Most of the time she’s happy to ignore Lavinia, or otherwise only responds when Lavinia goads her. Sara only acknowledges Lavinia’s presence when politeness demands she does - and for all of Sara’s habits that annoy Lavinia, the ability to turn good manners into tools of--of unavowed aggression is probably the one that makes Lavinia itch for a good screaming match the most.

“I--will you be leaving the school, then?”

Lavinia catches on to that rage and doesn’t let go. (Doesn’t let herself drown.) “You would like that, wouldn’t you.”

Lavinia’s heart is thumping in her chest. If Sara lies, she thinks wildly, if she dares pretend she won’t, Lavinia will steal her French notebook and burn it. She’ll have the opportunity, too, when she’s putting away the younger girls’ school things away after helping them. Since that is now to be part of Lavinia’s-- occupations.

Sara’s cheeks color - a flush of red on her winter-wan skin - and Lavinia tastes the satisfaction as though she’d drawn blood. Sara’s gaze flick to her mouth, and only then does Lavinia realize she’s showing teeth. (Unbecoming; of course, of course. A proper young lady doesn’t sneer, Lavinia, Miss Minchin would say, but that’s no longer Lavinia, is it?)

“Does it matter?” Sara says, and her voice is low, and clear in the quiet corridor.

Lavinia’s lips stretch into a smile. “It doesn’t,” she replies, and walks past Sara with her head raised high.

In the next months, when she’s alone in her room without fire under the roof, kept awake by knots in her stomach and the noises in the walls - after she’s superbly, stupidly refused Jessie’s fumbling attempts at charity - Lavinia will wish many things different; but never this one moment, this final, meaningless victory.
violsva: Dottie Underwood from Agent Carter, in prison (Dottie)

Re: Fill: A Little Princess, Lavinia + Sara

[personal profile] violsva 2021-02-06 10:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I love this.

Re: Fill: A Little Princess, Lavinia + Sara

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-07 01:25 pm (UTC)(link)
thank you!!
theseatheseatheopensea: Lyrics from the song Stolen property, by The Triffids, handwritten by David McComb. (Default)

Re: Fill: A Little Princess, Lavinia + Sara

[personal profile] theseatheseatheopensea 2021-02-06 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Nice! The swapped roles really work here!

Re: Fill: A Little Princess, Lavinia + Sara

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-07 01:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! I had a lot of fun writing this.
conuly: (Default)

Re: Fill: A Little Princess, Lavinia + Sara

[personal profile] conuly 2021-02-08 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
Never liked Lavinia before, but now - poor her.

Re: Fill: A Little Princess, Lavinia + Sara

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-09 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
She's awful, and it was pretty fun how this situation justifies her sense of entitlement, in the sense that powerlessness and death are unfair no matter what. :D
sincereously: night sky above mountains (Default)

Re: Fill: A Little Princess, Lavinia + Sara

[personal profile] sincereously 2021-02-09 04:48 am (UTC)(link)
This is such a fascinating swap, seeing into Lavinia's mindset about being forced into Sara's canon position - she's holding tight to her anger and her dignity, in a very different way than Sara did. I'd honestly love to see more of this AU!

Re: Fill: A Little Princess, Lavinia + Sara

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-09 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! I had a lot a fun writing it - I'm very fond of Lavinia, and I've always been interested in the way she's a foil to Sara, and tbh I too would love to read more of this AU! ("no writing, only reading" alas)
eagleoftheninth: (Default)

Fill: Nobilis: The Game Of Sovereign Powers, Genseric and Jenna

[personal profile] eagleoftheninth 2021-02-09 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)
writer, muse

When Jenna starts telling one of her stories, there's no way of telling how it's going to turn out. Half the time it'll be philosophical and deep, full of hidden truths, and soul-troubling in ways that human languages don't really have words to describe. Half the time it's pure absurdism filled with pop culture references. The really hard bit is trying to determine which any given tale is.

Genseric writes them all down, just in case, even the ones about fictional bees, robot popes, and thinly-veiled expies of the Smurfs. He keeps a notebook and pen on him at all times—he can never predict when and where she'll show up, after all. He supposes that being an enemy of the world is one of those jobs with irregular working hours.

(When a notebook is full, he adds it to the teetering stack beside his bed in his tiny, shitty apartment. "Possibly I should buy an actual bookshelf," he admitted to her once.

She'd made a 'hmm' sort of noise, eyes as wide and guileless as voids full of falling stars could be, and opined "I'm not sure an Actual bookshelf would be a very practical idea. It would eat all the books, which would be a waste, since it wouldn't even be able to digest them. Then the next thing you knew, you and half Suzhou would be made of lined paper and covered in terrible handwriting!"

It was months before he figured out what that had been about.)

It's frustrating, often, being friends with her. And he's under no illusions that it's safe. The one thing she's always been perfectly clear about is that she's...what she is. She's out to destroy the universe, and he's got no idea why she's taking time out from that to tell one random human any of her stories and secrets. (No solid idea, at least; just worrying intimations, the sort that nag at him sometimes in the pit of the night.)

But, even with all that...here they both are. It might be the smarter option, but he finds he doesn't want to break off their friendship. And while he knows most of the Nobiliser community would point to that as a sign of Excrucian influence on him...

...really, he's pretty sure that the reason he's still here isn't because of any kind of void-magic-brainwashing.

Really, he's pretty sure that the reason he can't be really scared of her is less to do with her than him. With how he can never stop trying to figure things out, never quit wanting to know more.

"So, this is a rough one," Jenna says, toying with a glass of wine she won't drink under a sky cacophonous with fireworks, and Genseric does what he suspects he'll always do; he picks up his pen, and prepares to listen.
Edited 2021-02-09 16:51 (UTC)
eagleoftheninth: (Default)

FFVIII, How Rinoa Caraway's Entire Life Totally Lost The Plot

[personal profile] eagleoftheninth 2021-02-16 09:53 am (UTC)(link)
Rinoa's not a soldier. She could be, though—that's what's so frustrating! She could have been a soldier last year, except—she's a Caraway, and obviously General Caraway's daughter needs to join as an officer, not a private. And you need to be eighteen for that.

(Besides. Her father is...protective. He's still kinda hoping that she'll decide to serve her country by taking up diplomacy instead. It's an honourable path, she knows that, but she knows herself too, and she would never, ever make it as a diplomat, or as a spy like her mother. She's too blunt, too honest, too straightforward. She doesn't have the correct sort of mind to tell pretty lies and hide her true intentions.)

So; she's not a soldier, and she's not here as one. She is armed, as a failsafe, but she's not supposed to get involved in any actual combat—or any actual spying, for that matter. She's here to be secretary and gopher and tea-maker to the real officers and diplomats and intelligence, to get some firsthand observational experience of how the machineries of state and military work on the ground. Balamb is in a precarious position right now, a sort of civil almost-war, divided between Garden and the rebels. Galbadian influence could tip the scales to one side or the other. Either way could prove helpful to her country—or utterly disastrous. It all depends on picking the right spot to apply pressure.

And she means to obey orders and stay out of trouble. She really does. It's not her fault that Angelo goes missing—and her bosses are such jerks, they can't get it through their stupid sexist heads that Angelo's a proper war-dog not (ugh) 'Princess Caraway's pet'—she's Rinoa's partner and she has to get her back and if nobody will help her then fine, she'll do it alone!

So really her actions are totally justified and not at all a flagrant disregard of the chain of command.

And then it turns out that Angelo's been dognapped by the rebels. And then the rebels take Rinoa prisoner.

And then it turns out that the rebels are led by a bunch of kids her age.

Like...she was told they were ex-Garden students, but there's a difference between being told that and actually knowing?

And, also, they're...weirdly likeable. It seems that Angelo was less 'captured' and more 'taken in because we thought she was a stray or someone's lost pet and also Zell and Selphie are both suckers for a fluffy puppy'. And then Rinoa's capture was pretty much an act of panic. So now they're in this awkward situation where they don't really want to keep her prisoner and clearly don't really know how to do it right but also can't afford to just let her go.

And Zell and Selphie really are suckers for a cute dog. And Quistis is cool and smart and elegant. And their leader...Squall is grumpy and annoying but the more time she spends around him the more she can tell that he's overwhelmed and permanently tired and wants very much to do the right thing but isn't sure how anymore?

(Also; he's cute. Like, not just hot, the hot is obvious. He's actually cute.)

And then she gets to hear how the rebellion actually started, and why. Rinoa—and her bosses—had assumed it was something to do with a bunch of Garden kids realising that hey, training kids for battle from age five is kind of messed up! Like, okay, the other countries aren't squeaky clean either, Galbadia included, but Galbadia hasn't had a military draft since the war with Esthar and even then they didn't draft tiny kids!

But it turns out that's...part of the reason, yes. But not anywhere near all of it.

"It's the Matron, the Headmaster's wife," Squall explains.

(Galbadia had not paid much attention to Edea Kramer, except in the form of jokes about how a guy with Headmaster Cid's looks had landed such a knockout. Rinoa remembers her mother, the lovely songstress who watched and listened and learnt everything without ever being suspected of being any kind of danger, and she thinks; sexism is one hell of a blind spot.)

"She's a Sorceress. And she's gone mad."

What.

"She's using SeeD and Garden to do something and I wish I could believe it was as simple as world domination."

WHAT.

At that point there's really no choice, Rinoa thinks.

So that's how she goes AWOL and joins Squall Leonhart's rebellion against the sorceress.

She's probably going to get declared a traitor to her country at least but she stands by her actions. They all made perfect sense.
Edited 2021-06-16 12:26 (UTC)
wallwalker: Venetian mask, dark purple with gold gilding. (Default)

Re: FFVIII, How Rinoa Caraway's Entire Life Totally Lost The Plot

[personal profile] wallwalker 2021-07-09 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)
This is such a neat idea!

Obsidian & Blood, Acatl & Teomitl

[personal profile] notapaladin 2021-03-03 03:56 am (UTC)(link)
A novice priest of Huitzilopochtli and the Emperor’s least warlike (and therefore least favored) brother are as far apart as an ant is from the moon, but now a priestess has gone missing and it’s not as though Ciquacen Acatl can ignore that, not when everything he sees in the stars says a great calamity is coming, so off he goes to the calmecac to find someone who might know more than the useless scraps of gossip he’s picked up from his brothers. He doesn’t find anything so useful as an eyewitness, of course, but when Ceyaxochitl hears he’s on the case she bids him wait while she fetches someone she insists will want to help.

“This,” she tells him as she ushers in a young priest, “is Teomitl. He’s swearing there’s been foul play and we’ve arrested an innocent man.”

“You have,” the boy snaps. He can’t be more than eighteen, proud in the way of the young, and he barely bows at all to Acatl-tzin. “My lord,”--the respect is honest enough, at least--”I saw Elueia before her disappearance, and I don’t think the Jaguar Knight came to kill her. Not with the way she was acting.”

He gestures for someone to bring him paper and ink and a reed pen. He’ll want to take notes. “Tell me everything you saw.”