rthstewart | Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

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Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

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.

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!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

When they hauled the Prime in they expected Ratchet to be unhappy, but even the twins were unprepared for Ratchet's explosion of temper. "I just fixed that converter, you lugnut!" he shouted as Optimus, fresh from battle and clutching his injured side, let Sideswipe ease him up onto the nearest repair berth with a minimum of wincing. "What did you do, charge up to Megatron and ask him for a Simfur Special?"

"Close enough," Sideswipe volunteered, slag-stirrer that he was.

Optimus let a little chuff of exasperation escape through his smokestacks. "Please stop helping."

Ratchet groaned and whipped around to rummage through the supply cabinets. "I told you to take it easy for a few days. I told you to let Superion deal with Megatron. I oughta just not replace your converter this time," he sniped. "See how far you get."

"Apologies, Ratchet." Optimus shuttered his optics, clearly choosing not to argue back, but Sideswipe and Sunstreaker exchanged a communicative look - not even that would be enough to keep Optimus down for long.

Yessssssss. IT FEELS RIGHT. My favorite part is how it's Alina reaching out, Alina making the choices here and coming to terms with herself and what she wants. My heart!!

[I adore your injury prompts and them listed them together had me thinking of the various occasions of a timeloop... so here's a fill for each of them, with one for setup. Warning: this is a wee bit gory and there's character death, over and over...]

Time and Torment

Any other day Goodsir might have managed better, but cursed to relive Carnivale…

No matter what he does or who he pleads with or what course he alters in the day’s events, the destruction is the same, inescapable, and never any less haunting than when he last witnessed it, either from within the flame-licked cocoon of the tents or the detached safety of the quarterdeck.

This does not, however, dissuade Goodsir from trying to break his curse, because if he saves one man, changes one thing and gets it to stick, he might slip the noose of this cruel purgatory—for perhaps he died at Carnivale too, another charred body added to the expedition’s growing list of dead.

-

He’s tried convincing McDonald not to attend Carnivale (once even feigning illness to get him to stay away) but it never succeeds—there’s always something that draws him to the place, so McDonald always dies.

This time, Goodsir’s protestations work; McDonald survives the night without so much as a scratch on him.

The charcoal smear of smoke, visible later on the featureless horizon, vanishes, and the day begins anew.

-

Hickey’s knife drives through waxed canvas, and Alexander cries out; his palm, nicked by the blade, cautions him to move aside before it splits an opening, a writhing pile of bodies spilling through like entrails from a quartered abdomen.

Goodsir pulls the doctor aside, checking him anxiously for additional lacerations, but it is this small one alone, easily mended.

The charcoal smear of smoke, visible later on the featureless horizon, vanishes, and the day begins anew.

-

Goodsir doesn’t get where he needs to in time and finds McDonald sat upon an upturned crate, eyes wide with horror as Carnivale burns. He kneels before him wordlessly, searches to find his stomach bloody from a puncture wound he barely seems to notice.

The charcoal smear of smoke, visible later on the featureless horizon, vanishes, and the day begins anew.

-

Tonight is the last time Goodsir will try to spare McDonald his fate—he does not appear to be an integral cog in the workings of this pernicious device of time and torment.

When the poor man dies in his arms, his final breath painting the air, Goodsir finds his resolve: he will attempt to save the woman next.

The charcoal smear of smoke, visible later on the featureless horizon, vanishes, and the day begins anew.

The image of the line going east and hers stopping so much sooner than his...! </3 It is too painful, but also gorgeous. And her burying her pain in him because she can't be disbelieved when kissing - it's tragic in the very best way.

weh! ;_;

I love the way that long rambling first sentence seems to mirror the endless weariness of the work, contrasted with the all-too-brief reprieve before it all starts over. And the way it's so distinctly Hawkeye even though he's never directly identified. <3

(thanks! :D)

Yesssssss. Love me some Mara Jade!

The images that last line conjures up are just...YES. I love it.

(She's lost but her soul longs to hear him!! Just leave me here to die, please.)

If they *must* have their canon ending, this is the best possible way to look at it - soulmates across lives is just as good as soulbonded in one life, after all.

(and you chose my favorite line for the title, and one I associate so strongly with him. PERFECTION.)

She has to pry the pen out of his hand, some nights, has to remind him that his letters will still be here to answer tomorrow, has to eye him sternly until he sighs and drags the lid of his desk closed.

Some nights he blinks at her, as he comes out of his work-addled haze, wondering if she wants him to do the washing-up, if there's some household chore that he's forgotten in the never-ending flood of letter-writing and paper-grading and class-teaching and letter-writing, always the endless letters.

But no, it's not the washing-up, no, the gleam in her eyes is far more predatory than that; when she draws him close for a ravishing kiss, he feels the firm bulge beneath her skirt, suddenly understanding what her plans are for the evening, and his cares fall away with his clothes as he arranges himself arse-up for her pleasure.

This is amazing (and heartbreaking, ahhh!) and I love the repetition of the charcoal smoke... it works so well! Bravo!! (Please keep the Terror ficlets coming! <3)

Thank you.

Oh, this is glorious, and I may have shrieked out loud just a little bit at seeing Little Princess. :D

(I know I know sorry for spamming but as soon as I clicked post I thought 'okay but you know what would be even funnier?)

Megatron sat up cautiously, ordered his internal diagnostics to run a full scan, and blinked as the report came back completely clean. No maintenance issues, no sneaky little well-meaning Autobot viruses. The Autobot had even topped up his coolant.

"Well," he said. "I'm impressed, Ratchet."

The Autobots' medic had his back to him in what had to be a deliberate show of - unconcern, perhaps, trust was the wrong word - but turned to look at the tyrant as he spoke. "Slaggin' right you are. Now shoo, I have other patients."

Megatron had every intention of obeying - no matter how skilled the medic, he still didn't like lingering in medbays - but as he swung his legs over the side, he couldn't resist adding, "Are you sure I can't tempt you to the winning side? The Decepticons would highly prize a medic of your caliber."

Ratchet sighed, set down the tool he'd evidently been cleaning, and turned to face Megatron fully. "Say that again and I'll be taking back those components I just installed," he informed the Decepticon leader with a look that Megatron knew from extensive experience with medical professionals: that was a look that slagging meant business.

Megatron feared no mech, but occasionally found strategic retreat to be the prudent option, and now was evidently one of those times. With a nod of understanding, he left Ratchet in peace.

The ravens roam the country, seizing the sky and claiming it for their own, riding the north wind in a blur of spells and black feathers, reaching out to the stones and the trees and the rivers--reaching out to the magic. They speak with the world, and they wait, and they listen. And when he calls (the memory of his voice deep and dark and true in their hearts), they fly away from the edge of the sky--they always come home.

He's a fast learner, always has been, and she's a surprisingly good teacher, patient, her hands in his hair both guiding and coaxing. However new this is, however strange and impossible everything about this would have seemed such a short time ago, in the moment his focus is elsewhere entirely. And the first time she gasps out loud, shudders as her grip tightens to the point of pain - that moment he feels satisfaction for the first time since he removed his helmet.

(YES you absolutely need Darklina icons, at least if you're going to keep playing around with me in this dumpster.)

THE NAME THING OH GOD. It kills me and I love it. The way it almost doesn't register for him! The sky being at just the right moment to blend them! Alina not wanting him to leave!! Yes more of all of this, please.

(That song is SO Darklina, I swear)

Ed knowing where to find her! <3

And more than that, his knowing exactly what's upset her - not the arguments or being questioned, but the idea that it's all come to an end. The idea that that's what gets her, and his being so insightful to see it - both fabulous.

He knows Nyx - Max, regardless of how little they use their given names - at this point almost better than he knows himself, knows her old wounds and how close she plays her cards to her chest, how tightly she holds onto herself in fear that letting anything in will mean the end of everything she's worked so hard for.

He knows the words she just said - so seemingly small, so light, as bright and as broken as the slowly dying body of hers he's holding - he knows how much it took for her to say them.

"Hold on," he tells her rather than answer, his thumb against her wrist where it can feel the stuttering fading of her heartbeat. "They'll follow the beacon, they'll come for us. You just have to hold on a little longer. I'm not letting you leave yet."

He'll be brave later, when she's safe. There is too much fear in him now for anything else.

It's nice to think of old Jack having a bit of fun - and I'm quite sure Joy thought so too!

they were hopelessly happy together for at least a couple years, despite illness. i'm always glad they got that happiness

Trifle smashes against the shale, tureens tip their contents, and Thomas reaches the end of the table.

The captain is sharing the story of the cow with the officers, but his steward’s presence gives him pause; he peers down at him with neither pride nor shame, only indifference.

“And that is where the story ends,” the captain says, as Thomas rests against the tablecloth and lets his eyes flutter closed.

:D :D :D Thank you so much!

Your kind comments are really keeping me going <3 <3

I really like this! :D

With Prime down, the halls of the Ark were tense and fretful; the officers bunkered themselves in the security room for nearly two hours, and passersby pretended they couldn't hear the raised voices. At last, the doors opened, and the comm for an all-hands meeting went out. With the exception of those still stuck in medbay either as patients or repair workers, the Autobots gathered in the rec room to behold Prowl taking point, Jazz at his shoulder, and Ironhide, Silverbolt and Hot Spot sitting down, visibly ceding command to the pair.

"We're taking the fight to Megatron," Prowl announced, and the room, recently quieted, roused again in disbelief. Prowl waited pointedly until everyone quieted down again. "And we're not fighting fair. Jazz has the Decepticon base mapped out; I'll let him explain the plan."

Prowl stepped aside, and Jazz, unsmiling for once, stepped forward and began to talk over a projection of the undersea base. The mood among the soldiers began to change again, from tense and shaken to grimly determined. Prowl and Jazz didn't always agree, but when their minds were aligned, nothing could stop them.

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Page 128 of 247

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

Transformers G1, Ratchet & Optimus

Re: Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, breaking you with gentle hands

Time and Torment (The Terror, Goodsir & McDonald) Groundhog Day AU

no subject

Re: Final Fantasy X, Auron

no subject

Re: Star Wars EU Legends: Mara Jade

Re: Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, barefoot in the wildest winter / catching my death

Re: Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, remember me love when I'm reborn

lioness to drowsy lion roars / "'ware claws!"

Re: Time and Torment (The Terror, Goodsir & McDonald) Groundhog Day AU

no subject

no subject

Transformers G1, Ratchet & Megatron

Across worlds to their master (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, the ravens).

no subject

Re: Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, coaxed you into paradise and left you there

Re: Narnia, Susan /& Edmund, no more dreaming like a girl, so in love with the wrong world

original project

Re: lioness to drowsy lion roars / "'ware claws!"

Re: lioness to drowsy lion roars / "'ware claws!"

The Story Ends (The Terror, Crozier & Jopson)

Re: Time and Torment (The Terror, Goodsir & McDonald) Groundhog Day AU

no subject

Transformers G1, Jazz & Prowl