Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

[rthstewart]

This post is NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS!  PLEASE POST YOUR NEW PROMPTS HERE, IN POST 2!  Do continue to fill prompts here but please put all new prompts in Post 2.

 

Welcome to the Three Sentence Ficathon!

Here's a Friending meme!

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 at bit after about 2 weeks and especially once we open a new post because this one is approaching 4,500 comments.
• 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.

Here's my attempt at a text box that might go horribly awry.

<br /><a href="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/172142.html" _fcksavedurl="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/172142.html"><img src="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/file/71907.jpg" _fcksavedurl="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/file/71907.jpg" alt="" title="3 Sentence Ficathon 2022 Banner" /></a>




How long will it go?
The 3SF closes to new prompts on February 13, 2022. The entry stays open permanently and people post fills all year long.  (There were a bunch of new posts to the 2021 3SF this week!)

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 (and much more). 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, protect yourself, 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 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.

 

Here, have some icons and banners and let me know if you've created your own!



      

Comments

[animus_wyrmis]

Leverage, any & Hardison, "I'm glad you're okay," said by someone who has just been badly beaten up, to Hardison, who is perfectly fine

[dariaw]

Hardison watched, unable to help, from where he was tied to the chair, as two dozen trained operatives attacked Eliot.

He couldn't believe they were naive enough to think that two dozen would be enough.

"Glad you're okay," Eliot grumbled when he finally, bloody and bruised, came to untie Hardison; Hardison just pretended to be all innocence as he planned several contingency methods for getting Eliot a head and chest CT without Eliot complaining.

[harmony_lover]

A Discovery of Witches, Ysabeau and Phillippe, I love you beyond time

[loveandrockmusic]

Narnia, any book, missing moment spanking

[harmony_lover]

A Discovery of Witches & Chronicles of Narnia, Witchy!Jill and Susan meet Diana Bishop.

[alexseanchai]

any, frantically checking someone for injuries (they're hurt but it's at least one of minor and already tended)

Modao Zushi/The Untamed: Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian

[wearing_tearing]

"Wei Ying!" Lan Wangji rushed to his husband--despite running being prohibited in the Cloud Recesses--and almost body-checked one of the junior disciples who was currently standing beside Wei Wuxian as he frantically checked him for other injuries.

"Lan Zhan, I'm okay, it was just a scratch," Wei Wuxian promised, as if there weren't bandages wrapped around his arm, and then let himself be hugged by Lan Wangji when Lan Wangji pulled him close.

"Be more careful," Lan Wangji said and mentally added, I cannot lose you again.

[alexseanchai]

any, frantically checking someone for injuries (they didn't notice they're hurt)

Avengers MCU, mostly Clint and Bucky

[peaceful_sands]

Bucky is watching as Clint and Natasha board the quinjet, Clint’s talking a mile a minute and Natasha’s expression is clear – she’s putting up with it because while he’s talking, he’s alive despite the pallor of his skin and the blood trickling down the side of his face, but she’s worried. Clint gives a quick greeting to everyone already on board and starts to make his way to the pilot’s seat, slipping away from Natasha’s grip with the experience of years.

Bucky’s not so easily evaded and smoothly blocks his way, guiding him instead into a seat and bending in front of him to start checking him over, relieved that Natasha is already bringing the emergency first aid kit before heading for the pilot's seat herself. “Hey Bucky, what’re ya doing? I need to get us out of here,” Clint’s voice is quiet - it’s strange how much he accepts this kind of thing from Bucky when he doesn’t from other people, almost like he thinks Bucky is the one he needs to be worried about. Carefully Bucky tries to move his hair, looking for the damage to see how bad it is, ignoring Clint’s frown and confused, “Buck?” He finds the point and feels the flinch as Clint pulls away sharply, “What are you doing?”

Bucky holds his bloodied fingers in front of Clint’s face, seeing the shock in his eyes and seeing as he pales further – the shock or is it just the injury, Bucky can’t be sure but he cleans the wound as best he can. Natasha has got them in the air and Steve’s moved to his side to help look after Clint. Bucky’s decided it doesn’t look too bad, but there’s plenty of blood and it’s clear the adrenaline is wearing off and finally, finally Clint knows it’s real as he lets his hand reach out for Bucky, resting against his thigh as he allows Bucky to finish the cleaning and patching.

Once Bucky’s cleaning his own hands and moving to sit alongside Clint, Clint says, “I didn’t know.” Bucky nods, accepting and understanding, accepting as Clint settles a hand on his arm as if grounding himself or maybe he’s grounding them both.

[alexseanchai]

any, frantically checking someone for injuries (they're not even scratched)

Miraculous Ladybug, Adrien + his daddio

[kiestan]

"Adrien," he heard, before arms engulfed him across his shoulders, and his nose got buried in familiar, cologne-scented hair, but before he could hug the man back, the touch disappeared.

His father looked him up and down, his frown stiff, and it struck Adrien with a strange, pleased discovery that he was checking him for injury; after all, he had just walked out of akuma-wrought rubble and dust.

"Father," Adrien began, his own tense shoulders relaxing and a smile growing on his face --

-- except just as quickly, his father turned away, brusquely calling for Nathalie to get a doctor, and that was that, leaving Adrien with only the memory of his father's momentarily worried gaze.

[alexseanchai]

(…I suppose I should complete the set)

any, frantically checking someone for injuries (they're hurt, it's bad)

Narnia, Susan+OC

[last_haven]

"It's fine, you're fine," Susan says, almost out of habit--it's what she used to say to Lucy when she would fall and scrape her knees. But this is far worse than a scrape knee--Susan doesn't have to be a doctor to know that the spear piercing the nymph's abdomen is bad and that Lucy is woefully far off with her cordial. "You'll be fine. Just--just breathe with me-"

The nymph, Sinope, gasps a breath but her eyes do not see Susan. It's not fair--the fighting was over, the battle won. The hag that speared Sinope like a needle through a bug fell to Susan's arrow with no ceremony, but now Susan can only brush the nymph's hair from her face. Sinope, lovely and kind Sinope, who'd braided Susan's hair yesterday after her bath to help keep it out of the way, who'd sang her and Lucy to sleep with a lullaby the first night in the camp when the noises kept them too keyed up to sleep. Susan had asked her if she'd be a lady in waiting for her and she'd blushed with pleasure.

It's not fair, Susan thinks as she stutters out a reminder to Sinope to take a breath--where the hell is Lucy?--and then, the nymph is gone. Delicate pink blossoms flutter to the ground and the spear falls into the grass with a dull thump.

Susan blinks, but there is no magic cordial to save her, no Old Magic to turn back this travesty and make it right. There is only a gruesome spear and pile of blossoms in her lap.

"You... you didn't breathe, Sinope," she mutters, but only the wind hears.

[harmony_lover]

Newsies, Jack Kelly/Sarah Jacobs, thirty years together

[harmony_lover]

A Discovery of Witches, Emily lives

[harmony_lover]

Newsies, Jack Kelly/Sarah Jacobs, chosen names

[harmony_lover]

Chronicles of Narnia, witchy!Jill, finding Susan

[harmony_lover]

Newsies, David Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, stare down the odds

[harmony_lover]

Chronicles of Narnia, witchy!Jill, helping Tirian

oops, not helping so much as...

[wingedflight]

Jill had noticed the inconsistencies almost immediately (it did not take magic to find the holes in Tirian's story, though neither she nor Eustace drew attention to these) and had hoped to confer with Eustace once camp was made that night; Tirian, perhaps more afraid of his new companions than he had let on, did not give them a single moment alone but rather stuck to their sides as though he'd been glued there.

In the end, she had to resort to stealthier ways: a raised eyebrow and a nod to Eustace across the fire, and listening with her magic-tuned ears to the words he spoke beneath his breath, and then sending a whisper of her own on the wind directly to him.

This is no true king of Narnia, Eustace sighed at last, and Jill replied, Then we will save Narnia from him.

[harmony_lover]

Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy/Caspian, reunion in The Silver Chair

[harmony_lover]

Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy/Caspian, finding each other in the True Narnia (TLB)

[animus_wyrmis]

The amazing thing about this Real Narnia was that one could swim for ever -- for hours or days, Caspian thought -- and never get tired or lost or hungry. He had swum east one day, farther than he had ever sailed (for of course this New Narnia was larger than the old, as well as clearer and brighter), and now in front of him was a ship; it was a great, beautiful, sailing ship, sleek and trim, sailing the Narnin lion. Caspian hailed it from the water and clamored aboard. The sailors were strangers to him, but the captain -- the captain had golden hair that curled in a way he remembered, though she was taller now, and dressed in her own Narnian clothes instead of his own. "Lucy!" he gasped.

"Caspian!" Queen Lucy replied. "I wondered when I would find you. Will you sail with me?"

Caspian would.

[harmony_lover]

Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy/Caspian, Caspian finds himself in England

[arveldis]

It was a strange world that his queen lived in, full of grey—from the cloudy sky to the odd buildings to the cobbled streets—with the rare dash of color, and he wondered how a soul so vibrant could come from such a drab land, fascinating though it was in its foreignness.

He heard a cry and turned to see Lucy running toward him, her book bag banging against her hip, and she seized his hands in hers, exclaiming and laughing in delight, before she threw her arms around his neck and clung to him fiercely. Caspian spun her in a circle and buried his nose in her hair, breathing her in, and when he at last looked up, the world was changed—bright, vivid, more—and Caspian understood: Lucy was Lucy, and no world could change her; rather, she changed it.

[harmony_lover]

The Old Guard, Andy/Nile, charged silence

[be_themoon]

Nile is never sure, these days, about anything. Some things she changed. Some things she didn't. Andy is quiet, even more than before, like a ghost who's just thinking about how to leave.

Am I my sister's keeper?

Andy meets her gaze across the room and sighs, quiet, low.

[harmony_lover]

The Old Guard, Andy/Nile, you are more than your history

Movieverse - the stories they don't tell

[(Anonymous)]

There is a litany of scars that Andy does not have. Nile walks her fingers across unblemished skin, even as the stories Joe and Nicky have filled her with tell her this is where a sword gutted her messily and the axe wasn't sharp enough, her arm hung on with meat and sinew and two arrows through the head, and she got back up, beheading their king.

Beside her, Andy shifts, head turning to burrow under Nile's chin; perhaps there will be scars soon, once Andy convinces them to let her into the field again.

[(Anonymous)]

any, any, peacock blue and peacock green

Peacock blue and peacock green (Sapphire & Steel, Silver)

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Silver smiles and (preening not unlike a peacock), smoothes down his vest. Its particular shade of deep blue reminds him of Sapphire's eyes--of course it does. And while the shimmering bright green of his cravat doesn't particularly make him think of Steel, Silver can still imagine the expression on his face when he sees it (hopefully, a complicated, perfect combination of exasperation and fondness), and he can hardly wait.

[harmony_lover]

Bandstand, Donny/Julia, PTSD

[harmony_lover]

Bandstand, Julia/Donny, going to the movies

[harmony_lover]

Bandstand, Julia & Davy, drowning in memories

[syrena_of_the_lake]

Beauty and the Beast (any version), Beast!Beauty, turning tables

[betony]

The best thing--really, the only thing--that could be said about a curse-gone-wrong at one of her sisters' last elaborate parties was that it really did accustom one to accept anything; why, Beauty had even been able to see the ruination of her father's fleet as a reason to seek out the calm of the countryside, and the thick bristly hair covered her hair to toe as a method of disposing of her most persistent suitors.
Which was why this latest disaster--Father, apparently having gone and found himself lost in a notorious prince's dungeons--did not make her so much as blink an eye; Beauty had found that a roar and an upturned table on her part did much to make any frivolous royal perfectly helpful and eager to please.
And if he should be willing to bargain a stay in his castle for a chance to break her spell at least--well then, so much the better.

[syrena_of_the_lake]

Fairy tale modern AU, Cinderella, overworked project manager

[scytale]

"I'm sorry," Ella's manager says. "The party's only for the engineers."

So it's not a mistake she's not on the calendar invite. Five months working her ass off the project, working late, wrangling twenty uncommunicative engineers into giving project updates, delivering on their milestones, being the one to tell the execs about the delays, gritting her teeth through the looks saying you're not technical enough and what do you even do anyway, and this is the thanks she gets.

Well, that's fine. She's going out tonight anyway; she'll buy herself dinner, and she'll have a better time than any of them.