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

Re: Twisted Team (Naruto; Jiraiya/Tsunade/Orochimaru) x3

[kalira]

Thank you! I think 'intense' is a good descriptor of their baseline, good or bad. >.>

Maiden Holmes, Dong Rushuang

[aroberuka]

“Fei Yuan, I need you to stay calm and get something for me,” Rushuang says right after tasting the tea.

Everyone freezes then starts talking all at once; she tunes them out and licks her lips, studying the aftertaste – no bitterness, if anything the tea had been a little too sweet; must be fast-acting, her mouth is already becoming numb–

“I’ll need charcoal,” she says, “and a lot of water,” and sticks her fingers down her throat.

[last_haven]

Achilles always was afraid of being forgotten, but, man, at what cost? Great fill, thank you for it!

Re: Transformers G1, Rodimus Prime, Draculus, & ensemble

[raisedbymoogles]

I mean how can you not, really. :D

[marquisguyun]

oh no this hurts! love it tho <3

Transformers/Beast Wars/D&D AU, Optimus Prime & Megatron squared

[raisedbymoogles]

(springboards off of this)

Eons after the end and the beginning of everything, Optimus Prime entered the citadel to find Megatron gazing through the Mirror of the Worlds into the mortal world below. He didn't even twitch when Optimus came up behind him to see what had his attention - either he was truly that absorbed, or he didn't care who knew what had captured his interest this time.

"This namesake of yours?" he asked mildly.

"Hmm."

"He's... quite the firebrand."

"Mhmm."

Optimus dared further, laid a hand on Megatron's shoulder and glared when his equal-and-opposite number finally deigned to look at him. "Whatever you're planning," he warned, "don't."

Megatron affected a look of innocence, which was a neat trick when he only had that face to work with. "Optimus," he chided, "I would never break the terms of our peace."

"Mm." Optimus was sure his own face was a study in dubiousness. "See that you do not. War in the mortal realm is one thing; war in ours is quite another."

"You worry too much, old friend." Megatron chuckled, mostly to himself, which shockingly didn't ease Optimus's worries one iota.

Re: Genshin Impact, Neko (cn: cat injury, brief mention of past cat death)

[scytale]

Thank you! <3

Re: New Form (Kingyou Hime; Keisuke/Kingyou-kun)

[elementalraven]

Haha never feel bad about that! It's always interesting to see what people come up with and what kind of fandoms might fit a prompt, plus, it's not like prompts can't be filled multiple times ;)

I just looked that up and what a plot XD

[nasimwrites]

It changed, of course. Just like everything else. Jess and Nick are a little alarmed when they hear that their son has been teaching True American to the elementary school playground, but then they realize it's with juiceboxes and a lot more cartwheels, and they let it go. He makes most of his friends that way, and all his shyness and nervousness around crowds seems to fade away instantly when he's yelling out "One, two three, JFK!"

Ruth teaches it to her classmates when they're probably just a little too young to be playing drinking games, but Cece knows it's less about the alcohol than it is about the ability to just play, removed from the awkwardness of trying to seem grown-up.

They all take True American and make their own rules with it. And it's okay for it to change, Jess is reminded, as they sit on the porch with beers, their grandkids chasing each other in the garden. Ruth's husband is grilling burgers, and Winston's twins are setting the table, and her own baby -- now in his twenties -- is trying not to roll his eyes at his father's clearly misguided health advice. When Jess and her friends play it, these days, it's more of a sitting-down game with some cards thrown in the mix -- but just as much yelling. Some things change, but the important stuff will always stay the same.

[nasimwrites]

He's always been a little too much like a band-aid, seeking out problems to stick himself to. That's what Michelle used to say, in her own words: that he couldn't just let anything be, that he always had to try and carry people. The truth is, Ted likes being a band-aid. But it often results in everyone around him being an open wound.

Rebecca, though. She won't let the band-aid anywhere near her. And when he looks up from the ground outside the karaoke bar and sees the concern in her face, the strength in the arms she always wears bare -- like she's ready to fight--, it occurs to him that he wouldn't mind being carried, just this once, if it's by her.

Re: Transformers/Beast Wars/D&D AU, Optimus Prime & Megatron squared

[elementalraven]

I love how you wrote the back and forth

[nasimwrites]

Caspian had heard the stories as a child, whispered as he was tucked into bed, illustrated in epic words as he looked up at the clear night sky. That was how he first heard of Lucy: the queen, the fighter, the healer. The youngest, and the one who had heeded Aslan's call. She had seemed so Great to him then, a powerful woman in whose hands one could lay one's life, someone whose vision could encompass the entire universe.

That had been how he thought of Lucy back then, of course. Reality, when it happens, is much different. But even within the child-queen he meets, he sees little glimpses of all those things -- when they discuss strategy, when she mentions some anecdote from her old reign, or even when she stares off into the horizon on the Dawn Treader, caught in some memory too profound to share with him.

When he sees her again, many many lifetimes later in the True Narnia, she is all of it -- the Lucy of the stories, the Lucy he knew, Lucy as all she could be.

Transformers G1, Huffer (narrator)

[raisedbymoogles]

The thing is, the 'Cons aren't wrong - most of us just aren't fighters. The Ark mission was supposed to be a survey mission, hunting out new sources of energon. All this stuff with the Nemesis chasing us down, all of us landing on an alien world, fighting the war here instead of back home - that wasn't ever the plan.

So, we became fighters. We learned to charge in like Ironhide, pull dirty tricks like Jazz, be smart like Prowl. To fight for something, like Optimus Prime. It's not just our lives we're fighting for. It's everything.

But I'm gonna complain about it the whole time, just saying.

[nasimwrites]

She did not know how to tell him; how to explain what she had seen when she had opened the pantry door and entered another world. She tried, many, many times, agonizing over how distressed he was, feeling terrible for having had the time of her life while he thought she was kidnapped.

But he would never listen, and if he ever asked questions he never stayed long enough to hear her answers. As the months passed, she felt herself shrinking in her own house, becoming one with the floors and walls, watching him as he went about his chaotic, self-absorbed life, dreaming of forests and new friends and wild adventures.

She grows tired of opening the pantry door and hoping, against all reason, to be "kidnapped" again. So tired, in fact, that she decides to pack her bags and kidnap herself.

[gold_pen_leaps]

Dean had been telling himself that it had just been the whole, y'know, atmosphere of Purgatory: between the bouts of violence, sometimes the only comfort was a hand to hold.

After a few months since escaping Purgatory, he had to admit to himself that was a wussy excuse – if he wanted to hold hands with Benny, or whatever, that was no one's business but his and Benny's.

Dean expected him to be surprised, but all he did was smile, and gently squeeze Dean's hand in return.

Re: New Form (Kingyou Hime; Keisuke/Kingyou-kun)

[kalira]

True, true. . . As I like to prove by filling some prompts repeatedly. XD

Right? The friend I shared it with unwarily (she asked what fandom I was talking about writing for. . .) had a hilarious commentary for me when she read it. XD Oh yaoi plots. . . Never change your batshit levels. XD

Re: Peter

[nasimwrites]

my heart </3

[nasimwrites]

omg!! There are some Little Women parallels when you look at it this way...

Scum Villain's Self Saving System, Shen Qingqiu & MtF!Luo Binghe

[marquisguyun]

Shen Qingqiu's mind reeled with the implications of what his disciple had just shared with him. System?? What happened to the plot??

Would The Protagonist still grow up to form a harem of beautiful sisters if he--or she rather--was a sister herself? He supposed there was no reason why not, but how relevant could Shen Qingqiu's encyclopedic knowledge of Proud Immortal Demon Way really be if something of this magnitude could be changed?

The Luo Binghe of PIDW had been a stallion protagonist, a male power fantasy. Shen Qingqiu's White Lotus was not, and he'd apparently dismissed every contrary sign.

Smiling reassuringly at Luo Binghe--his Luo Binghe, his sweet girl--Shen Qingqiu vowed not to make the same mistake again.

Re: Scum Villain's Self Saving System, Shen Qingqiu & MtF!Luo Binghe

[marquisguyun]

Also thank you OP for the opportunity to write a little for an old plotbunny without having to commit to a full fic 💜

Re: Scum Villain's Self Saving System, Shen Qingqiu & MtF!Luo Binghe

[ilthit]

Awwwh yeah, who knew? Shen Qingqiu was straight after all.

Re: Scum Villain's Self Saving System, Shen Qingqiu & MtF!Luo Binghe

[raisedbymoogles]

so, is the utter disregard of the fourth wall a feature of canon or just a for-this-story thing?

Re: Scum Villain's Self Saving System, Shen Qingqiu & MtF!Luo Binghe

[marquisguyun]

It's a feature of canon! Shen Yuan died and ended up in the webnovel Proud Immortal Demon Way as Shen Qingqiu, Luo Binghe's teacher and the villain of the story! Shen Qingqiu thinks he knows how the story goes, which causes tragic misunderstandings later when he thinks he knows what Luo Binghe is thinking. So here the plot of SVSSS is derailed bc Shen Qingqiu isn't going to be as focused on what happened in PIDW!

Final Fantasy VI

[anonne]

Locke nodded towards the ornate implement, and suggested, "I'll take that one?"

Edgar paused as he buckled his armour, saw what Locke was looking at, and said, "You will not – that's a priceless Figaro heirloom. Anyway, it's not a combat knife, it's a letter opener – I've no idea how it ended up in the armoury."

Re: Scum Villain's Self Saving System, Shen Qingqiu & MtF!Luo Binghe

[marquisguyun]

Lmao he's something 😂 I guess that's one sexuality crisis he can avoid... Makes you wonder how Luo Binghe manages to make him aware of her as a potential love interest tho