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

[little_lady_d]

What faults women have, they learn from their husbands — from their abuse, their neglect, their infidelity — yet Emilia cannot call what she feels for her mistress a fault. Without their husbands, they might never have met, but what comes next must be of their own choosing. “Come away with me,” she says to Desdemona — if this is infidelity, let her be an infidel, break her troth, and begin anew.

Re: Coming Home (Labyrinth; Jareth/Sarah)

[ultra_fic]

Beautiful! Thank you :)

Re: Simplicity Baffles the Complex Mind (The Big Bang Theory, Penny & Sheldon)

[ultra_fic]

Thanks - glad you like :)

Re: The Other Kind of Dreamgirl

[ultra_fic]

Thanks - glad you like :)

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Lovely!! What an excellent fix-it!

Scum Villain's Self Saving System, Yue Qingyuan (& Original Shen Qingqiu)

[marquisguyun]

/r/relationship_advice

Had to leave my childhood best friend in slavery and wasn't able to keep my promise to come back and save him in time. Found out he was alive years later when he saved my life. Now he's my junior coworker and also hates my guts. I let him get away with murder (literally) and buy him lots of expensive things but it hasn't helped. How do I fix this?

Edit: Suggestions to explain why I didn't make it back to rescue him will be ignored.

Re: Coming Home (Labyrinth; Jareth/Sarah)

[kalira]

Thanks! ♡

Re: Wounded Heart (Naruto; Kakashi & Team 7)

[kalira]

Poor Kakashi has had entirely too many traumas. ;;

Harry Potter, Fred/Hermione

[helsinkibaby]

Hermione’s always been quiet, studious, serious, but when she’s with Fred, she’s anything but; he makes her laugh until her stomach aches, until tears roll down her cheeks and he pulls her against his chest, his own shoulders shaking with laughter too.

Hermione’s always been one for order and control, but living with Fred isn’t like that - they sleep late and go to bed early, he leaves crumbs in their bed from when he makes her breakfast, she’s nearly burned herself way too many times when she’s cooking and he slips his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder and muttering sweet nothings into her ear and yet, she’s never been happier.

Hermione’s kissed other boys, has been with other men, but it’s never been like it is with Fred, the pleasant swirl in her stomach when his eyes catch hers across the room, the goosebumps on her skin as his fingers casually ghost along her body, how she arches against him as their bodies move together and he wrings release after release out of her already sated body - she could spend the rest of her life like this and she thinks he could too.

[little_lady_d]

eee thank you!

沙海 | Tomb of the Sea, post-canon Li Cu & OC

[shadaras]

"Do you ever get scared?" a new university friend asked Li Cu one autumn night, knowing that he would often wander alone into the city's darkest areas without the slightest air of concern.

Li Cu thought about the scars covering his back, how the toughest gangs were nothing compared to the Wang family, and the way he still woke from nightmares of snakes and knives in a cold sweat multiple times a week; none of that would help him pretend that he could become an ordinary student again. Instead, Li Cu grinned at the friend who'd asked him to walk her across campus that night after a study session run too late, and said, "Sure, but there's nothing here to be afraid of."

Star wars, Narnia business.

[adaeze]

You don't need to see his identification.
(We don't need to see his identification).
These aren't the dryads you're looking for.
(These aren't the dryads we're looking for).
He can go about his business.
(You can go about your business)
Move along.

Re: Harry Potter, Fred/Hermione

[ultra_fic]

Very nice :) I actually don't know much about Harry Potter and wasn't even sure who Fred was (I know Hermione because who doesn't? lol) but I still liked the ficlet :)

Re: Scum Villain's Self Saving System, Yue Qingyuan (& Original Shen Qingqiu)

[ilthit]

Definitely keep it silent until you are gravely wounded and then tell him as a dying confession.

Re: Scum Villain's Self Saving System, Yue Qingyuan (& Original Shen Qingqiu)

[marquisguyun]

Yeah, there's absolutely nothing about that that could backfire!

[schoolsasaint]

It may be that clever minded Athena hears her prayers and blunts the edge of her brother's words, or it may not.

Cassandra offers her her fervent thanks and gratitude regardless - woe to her a thousandfold should she anger another of the gods with a lack of proper acknowledgement of their largess, and as daughter of her father, overlooked and ignored as her words are, she can more than provide suitable offerings.

Even year after year into war, even as the camp outside the walls grows to be a city, even an enemy of her king and people - but he hears her, and her words, and he listens, and the man who is no one (for is that not how he had introduced himself?) takes a tight-lipped heed.

SAB, Darkling/Alina

[caramelsilver]

He was her demon, never far from her mind, sighing, or laughing og shaking his head at everything she does.

"Now, really Alina, are you sure you should do that?" her demon whispers, and she shudders. She shudders and does it, because if he doesn't like it, it must be the right thing.

Shadow and Bone, Darklina

[caramelsilver]

Sometimes she wished she never met him, never found her gift, never left her whole life behind for this new Grisha world. In her mind, if she never met him, she never would be Grisha, and if she wasn't Grisha she would never have met him. And if she never met him she wouldn't know that the world would light up and sing when he touched her, and make all other feelings feel lacking.

Brightness (Naruto; Sasuke/Naruto/Sakura)

[kalira]

"C'mon!" Naruto urged, an arm sliding over Sakura's shoulders and the other curling around Sasuke's waist. "It's a perfect day! For staying in and cuddling in bed all day, right?" he wheedled, tugging at them before letting go and practically bouncing back over to the bed.

Sakura took a last look out the window at the gloomy, grey day, then glanced at Sasuke; he arched a brow, tilting his head towards the bed, where Naruto was perched in the middle waiting for them with a sunny smile.

Stuck (Supernatural; Sam & Dean)

[kalira]

"We've . . . been in worse situations." Sam said, tugging in frustration at the metal unfortunately securely wrapped around his wrists - and his brother's.

"Have we, Sammy?" Dean demanded, his shoulders pressing back firmly against Sam's. "Have we really? And stop moving, damn it, this is hard enough without you squirming." he snapped, and Sam opened his mouth to protest - Dean had certainly not been still - when he realised the metal he could feel sliding along his wrist was a thin bar - definitely not part of the chains.

Sam shut up and held still and hoped Dean could get the damn manacles off, whatever it was he was using.

Beru Lars

[marquisguyun]

Beru Whitesun Lars had never left Tatooine, not even in her dreams.

She'd always been more of a practical soul than a dreamer, anyway. Her ambitions were achievable, if uncertain on as harsh a planet as Tatooine. She wanted to marry a good man, raise a child, and hopefully have more water than they needed to survive. Owen was much the same, a hardworking and dependable moisture farmer like her father.

Luke was different; he had stardust in his blood. She knew he would leave Tatooine someday, but she hoped he'd at least visit her and Owen from time to time. There would always be a home waiting for him under the twin suns if she had anything to say about it.

[elementalraven]

this is lovely! Cassandra deserves some happiness

Re: SAB, Darkling/Alina

[vialethe]

Ha! Probably for the best, Alina, though I can't help but think he's going to catch onto that real quick and start using reverse psychology...

Re: Shadow and Bone, Darklina

[vialethe]

Ah, that last line in the crux of it, really. That knowing how good life could be with him makes life without so much worse in comparison - it works so, so well. The world singing when he touches her is such a lovely description.

Breath of the Wild, Zelda

[raisedbymoogles]

Everywhere they go, there are ruins.

Zelda's travels take her to the four corners of Hyrule, and while it does her heart good to see the thriving settlements, they are tiny embattled islands in a vast ocean of wilderness. The road networks are all but gone. The outposts, the watchtowers, so many towns... nothing more than rotting wood and crumbling stone, now, all the gravestones their inhabitants have had for a century.

She hasn't wept for them, yet. But every time she comes to one of those places, she whispers an apology - if I hadn't failed, you would still be standing.