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

Ghost Trick, D-99, prison times

[azurefishnets]

For the barest instant, as the lock slid home and the bars slammed into place, the prisoner looked out past the bars, past the guard (past the stricken look in the guards' eyes, gods save him from the eyes of those who thought he was more than this, who thought there should be more to this story), past the bricks and mortar and stars, and out into the blackest, deepest depth of space and into the complete and utter vacuum left of his life.

There should have been some rage in him, he heard the whispers later, among themselves when they thought he couldn't hear; some spark in his eyes, some recognition of the vast injustice--a revolt against the mindlessness, against the cruelty, against...whatever had happened that had brought the nation's best to nothing.

Yes, he thought, these considerations slow and remote against the wheel of black void behind his eyes, there really should have been, but others carried his rage and the need for justice now, and he never had seen the sense in doing a job twice.

[astrogirl]

He takes such good care of this vehicle, a voice in your head tells you as you turn the wrench under Kim's calm and watchful guidance, because he loves it deeply, and wants the best for it, and hopes to keep it with him for as long as he possibly can.

Kim flashes you a smile, a real, full smile as you finish and says, "Your hands are so steady now; it's clear that all those changes you've made are really paying off!"

Much of that is thanks to him, another voice says, because of course it's Kim who dumped out all the booze in your apartment, who drives you to your meetings, who brings you lunch when he knows you've forgotten to eat again... and suddenly you find yourself internalizing a new, and startling, and terrifyingly hopeful thought.

[siver]

<3 <3 <3

'because he loves it deeply, and wants the best for it, and hopes to keep it with him for as long as he possibly can.'

You carry that thought and you keep internalizing it, Harry!

[sincereously]

Sara is a prisoner of the Bastille; she is Marie Antoinette in the shadow of the guillotine; she is anywhere but here. She tells herself that there is nothing so strong as rage held in, and so she gets through the drudgery of her days like a princess under a wicked curse, brave and gracious as she thinks a princess ought to be.

But sometimes - when Lavinia sticks out a dainty foot to trip her, when Miss Minchin gives her nothing but cold eyes and colder insults and no supper at all - she thinks of other sorts of princesses, the kind who tip poison into goblets and send their faithless lovers into the maws of tigers, with a hot swirl of joy and shame so fierce she almost shakes with unfulfilled retribution.

[(Anonymous)]

where professors want to get drunk like they're underage students and students want to hold forth like professors

Nice!

Re: Guardian; Da Qing

[presumenothing]

Stamping all over your heart is definitely free real estate, especially for a cat :P heh.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Yesss this is so good!

[astrogirl]

Doctor Who, Doctor/TARDIS, constant

[vialethe]

Star Wars: TCW, Anakin/Ahsoka, sparring lessons

Re: Guardian; Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan

[presumenothing]

………………and now all I can think of is chaos gremlin Zhao Yunlan putting Shen Wei through a game show entitled "Spot the Fake Haixing Holiday!!" Though I'm sure he already does know the correct ones at this point, but obscure holidays can always be found……

[vialethe]

The Mandalorian, Din/Bo-Katan, learning the uses of his mouth

[grayswandir]

Any Jin Yong novel/adaptation, any, snowfall.

[grayswandir]

M*A*S*H, any, midnight coffee.

[grayswandir]

Lord of the Rings, any, palantír.

[astrogirl]

Aww, yes, that is definitely one to keep in the thought cabinet! :)

Re: Pathologic, trans woman Rubin

[ernest]

thank you! i'm proud of her too and want her to accept every good thing the world is trying to give her <3

[last_haven]

Narnia, Lucy/Sea Girl, just leave me your wake to remember you by

[vialethe]

Star Wars: TCW, Anakin/Ahsoka, "Lock the door."

[grayswandir]

Star Trek: TOS, any, turbolift malfunction.

Re: Pathologic, Daniil Dankovsky

[ernest]

yesss! the polyhedron was what really dragged me into pathologic, and i love thinking about the different ways it might appear depending on the observer. and i'm delighted that you picked up on how fragile and teetering daniil's self-image is. love giving this man a hard time, he's my favorite character :D

Re: The Green Knight, no warnings needed

[ernest]

oh, this is a terrific little snapshot, both fearful and determined. very nice!

Castlevania (Netflix series), Trevor/Alucard, Taking a Break

[mad_madam_m]

"So what the fuck do I do now?" Trevor asked, staring at his hands, the right one still marred with the angry scars from his battle with Death. "I'm a killer in a world where they don't need killers anymore."

Alucard took a seat beside him and put his hand over Trevor's, threading their fingers together. "Perhaps you should start with taking a very well-earned rest. You did save the world, after all. A few months of relaxation is long overdue."

Robo & Fiona, Chrono Trigger, Fiona's Forest

[azurefishnets]

The day they laid her to rest no birds sang in the forest; how painful, how silent was the acolytes' long journey to the center, wending past the glorious profusion of verdance to the last vestige of desert, the sandy soil reminding them all it had all begun once and again with a red-haired child soldier, a frog knight, and a princess of a far-a-when land came clambering out of the desert dirt and gifted their Lady with a mechanical man of uncertain provenance and boundless wisdom.

Even birds had sung in the desert, sometimes, filling the barren, dead air with hopeful song when all such had seemed lost, but now the forest arced over them and the wind was still, the air cool and soft and silent against their dry and solemn eyes as they spread in a silent circle around that same metal man now taking Fiona back to the earth she'd caused to grow lush and rich with new life.

No birds sang now; yet as Robo carefully placed the last rocks misted with mossy lichen over their Lady's rest, a bright hope sang in the birds' place for the forest to last long beyond them all, to bring their shared dream of flourishing green and peaceful silence for many generations still to come.

Re: Hadestown, Hades/Persephone

[ernest]

thank you! i love giving them a good connection and reunion, they've earned it.

The Hero Flying Around Saving Face (The Mandalorian, Din/Bo-Katan)

[vialethe]

“Why didn’t you have it already, if you wanted it so badly?” he throws at her like he must long to throw the darksaber, and his face might be blank as ever, but there’s as much anger in his voice as she’s ever heard him unleash.

It would be a lie to say it doesn’t spark something in her, and an even bigger one to say she doesn’t welcome it, doesn’t embrace that fire blossoming up in her gut, doesn’t want to let it burn away the guilt and the shame and just push it onto him instead, let him go up in flames in her place for daring to remind her of what she’d rather forget.

“No,” she says, keeping her face blank as his (not thinking of her sister, the careful mask of her face) as she crowds in on him, satisfied when he rocks a step back, “you don’t get to ask that - not some orphan who’s never even seen Mandalore, not you,” and if that makes his face move at last, she’ll ignore that too.