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

She's always known the day would come, but suddenly it's creeping up on her faster than she ever could've expected, and Cassandra isn't scared of dying, but she's just not ready.

"I know I should be grateful, for the gift that I have, and for all the things I've seen and done because of The Library," she explains, starting to get just a little hysterical as she goes on, "but there's still so much I want to do, so much to see, and I'm running out of time, and there are so many experiences I still wanted to have, like skydiving and swimming with dolphins... and normal things, like going on dates and dancing all night, falling in love and getting married and... and so many things!"

Jacob could say it was the heat of the moment, the tears in her eyes, the desperation in her voice that made him do it, but that would be a lie, because his heart was truly in the words he spoke as he turned to her then, lifted her chin on his finger and met her eyes; "Cassie, would you marry me?" and thrilled at the realisation that she was immediately smiling and nodding her head in reply.

Sometimes, he still dreams about his family, his real family, who loved him so much the warmth of it still lingers at the edges of his heart even now.

It distracts him from the mission, from the cause, and so, when he wakes, Kylo Ren works hard to force the memories of his childhood away, of the mother who stroked his hair and called him her precious boy, of the father who assured him there was nothing he couldn't do if he put his mind to it.

The dark side is his place now, Snoke is his master, and the Knights of Ren are the only allies he needs... that's what the pain-filled boy dressed up in the black cloak tells himself, but deep down, he knows better, because he can never completely forget being Ben Solo.

I wish it would be possible to teleport. Image how cool this would be.

{grin} I love them...

Rattrap's favorite gambling spot used to be this grimy little dive back in Altihex, where you had to know a guy to even get in. That was the place he perfected the art of cheating at cards - a practice so accepted in such places that it was tacitly part of the game and the only rule was don't get caught.

He's stranded in space and time, danger and murderous Predacons are as common as sunrises, and nobody here knows how to play a decent hand of Altihex poker. But the things he learned sitting at those tables have kept him alive so far, and one of them is this: always have multiple aces up your gauntlet.

Rattrap boards Ravage's ship with his subspace pockets full of sticky bombs, and spends the flight learning all the ship's potential fracture points. Ravage's intentions may be what he says they are, but Ratrap doubts it, and if he's right - then Ravage is gonna learn that he's not the only one who can stack the deck.

"Agatha! There you are . . . what are you doing?" Zeetha asked, clasping her shoulder.

Agatha threw another scattering of grain before the flock of geese and smiled as they honked and flapped their wings, picking through it for the choicest bits - however geese determined such things. "Feeding the geese," Agatha supplied, and glanced up at the looming shadow of Castle Heterodyne, ". . .and trying to figure out if my family did anything to these geese or if they're, uh, regular geese."

They hadn't spat fire or started talking yet, so it was possible they were normal migratory geese . . . who had somehow lit in Castle Heterodyne's gardens without being eaten by anything else . . . maybe.

Ohh, very cool. Loving the vibes on this one.

I love your Gargoyles fic so damn much.

Many of the campers have, accidentally or otherwise, called Milla Vodello "mom". He sees how she delights in it, face warming with laughter as she reassures the childrens' embarrassment or gives them permission to be their "camp mom". The young Razputin is no different, snapping down his goggles once the boy realizes his slip. Milla gives him a hug, gratified that he trusts and cares about her so much.

When Sasha hears Razputin call him "dad" in his raspy voice, the careful angles of his mind gently unfold, and he allows the tears to overflow.

(Only to immediately reassure his son that they're happy tears, and no Razputin you didn't "trigger an underlying trauma regarding the unconscious father archetype".)

I am not there, Patroclus calls, helpless and hopeless and sick with it, the fear clawing at his throat, tearing at his entrails. It is cruel that the fear persists when all other feeling has fled, that he is as vulnerable to the failings of the mortal heart when that heart is still and silent in the corpse Achilles sits beside.

But Achilles does not, cannot hear him. It is not the way of the living to heed the calls of the dead.

Patroclus offers his pleas nonetheless; to hear a ghost would not be the first miracle laid at the feet of his love's feet.

Parker can't explain it—how, after years of working on her own, of trusting no one, she came to trust her little family. How she and Eliot and Hardison all work as a unit better than they ever worked alone—and they were all damn good when they worked alone.

But being unable to explain it doesn't make it any less true, and she trusts her boys as much as—maybe more than—herself, to the point that when Hardison says I have an exit and Eliot says I'm on my way, she's already heading to where they tell her without a second thought.

sign me up

"You ready to take her back in?" Bucky calls over the sound of the boat's motor.

Sam gazes out—the shoreline trundling slowly by on their left, the horizon where the sky meets the sea to their right—and shakes his head. "Come on, Barnes, we've got at least an hour of daylight left. You wimping out on me?"

Bucky laughs and slings his arm around Sam's shoulders, presses a scratchy kiss to his cheek. "Hey, you're the captain."

"Damn right," Sam says, and starts back out to sea.

Sam's wings don't open, and he's going too fast, he's going to—

Something slams into him from the side, and the momentum takes both of them through a window in a shower of glass, and they go skidding across the floor to a stop.

Sam coughs and rolls over to see Bucky slowly crawling to his feet. "Thanks for the save."

Bucky smiles grimly and hauls Sam to his feet. "Hell of a time for a wardrobe malfunction, yeah?"

"You're telling me."

"It's not that I don't love it, Lan Zhan, it's - it's great! It fits well, and I mean, nobody does layers better than Gusu Lan, but - it doesn't feel right, and I can't - I mean, I could try another one but -"

A single pale finger pressed against flapping lips, gentle pressure softening the abrupt motion.

"The clothes are decoration; if Wei Ying does not like them, Wei Ying does not like them - explanations are unnecessary."

You - It's another night of your existence and you can't sleep. Your body aches, your mind blurs, your bed is soaked in sweat.

Electro-Chemistry - It's the speed, sweetheart. And the alcohol. Great for keeping you up and moving, not so great for sleep.

Encyclopedia - The average healthy individual needs an average of seven to nine hours of sleep per night to be functional. Poor sleep, such as interrupted sleep, lack of deep sleep, or other sleep disorders can make one feel less rested.

Endurance - If you weren't such a mewling weakling you wouldn't have to rely on stimulants and let the booze do its job.

Logic [Trivial: Success] - Alcohol caused this in the first place.

Electro-Chemistry - And sobriety would make it worse!

Volition [Medium: Success] - You could choose it anyway, push through until in a year or two you can sleep deeply.

1. What about now? I just want to sleep.
2. That sounds scary, I'd rather be a drunk.
3. [Endurance - Formidable 13] I'm ready to dry out.

Ancient Reptilian Brain - Afraid that decison's out of your hands, long since you woke up from the primordial muck.

Limbic System - These habits are long since ingrained in you, Harry.

1. [Volition - Medium 10] I'll deal with this in the morning.
2. That sounds scary, I'd rather be a drunk.
3. [Endurance - Formidable 13] I'm ready to dry out.

Volition [Medium: Success] - Putting off the decision is easy; promising to actually consider the problem is the hard part. I'll hold you to that.

You - Great, another thing to look forward to in the piercing light of morning. For now at least you roll over, trying to find a gentle spot for your kidneys, and drift as you think of something that might be good tomorrow.

Esprit de Corps - There's always Kim! He never lets you down.

Electro-Chemistry - You still have his handkerchief don't you?

You - You do. You shuffle your hand in the coat on the floor and pull it out.

Perception (Smell) - It's full of the Lieutenant's scent. A pine-forward aftershave.

Electro-Chemistry - It's enthralling.

Volition - It's soothing.

Empathy - It's comforting.

You - It's no nightlight or downer, but it's as good a soporific as you can get right now. Your sleep is no more deep, but it is less turbulent, like floating quietly in a cloudy sky.

Edited 2022-01-26 03:48 (UTC)

:D Very wise of Agatha!

What is this but impossibility? To stand upon a mound of the dead and forgotten, the unmourned who rot without veneration, without remembrance; truly have there ever been any more bold or more desperate?

Wen Qing does not know if this will last, but every day of survival they steal away from themselves is another day for hopes spilled like seed from loose fingers to grow.

<3 <3 <3 This is so perfectly them and also just so poignant - how MUCH it means to Parker that she trusts someone as much as or even MORE than she trusts herself <3

Thank you!!

AWWWWWW

I love this SO much! THe banter, the idea of them just watching the sunset in a boat, I just love it so much - thank you!!

It could have gone badly in so many different ways that Rodimus can't count them all. 'Seducing the enemy commander' is not without precedent, admittedly, but seducing the Herald of Unicron of all mechs and getting his equally terrifying lieutenants in the bargain has to set a new record for insanity. But if insanity has led him here, then he's okay with maybe never being in the same quadrant as 'sane' ever again.

It helps that he likes pain.

'Here' is on the Decepticon throneworld, on the Decepticon throne, having spent enough time on his knees before it and its occupant that he's been judged worthy to share space in it for a little while. So he's seated on Galvatron's lap, Cyclonus straddling them both; he's lost track of Scourge but knows he's around, that those claws are coming back into play at some point in the near future. Right now he's got enough to focus on: Galvatron's calling the shots but Cyclonus is doing most of the work, hurting him with the kind of care and attention that stand him in such good stead as an interrogator. He's not quite smiling but his optics glimmer with pride and a kind of dark affection. The same is echoed in Galvatron's low laughter in his audial.

Somewhere there's an alternate universe where Cyclonus is interrogating him for real, and there's no affection in it; or any of a hundred universes where Rodimus flings himself into loving them and gets dismantled for his troubles, or ends up ending their sparks which he thinks would destroy him more thoroughly than anything they could do to him. Some-crazy-how-or-other the four of them in this universe managed just the right acrobatic trick flight that got them past all of that and landed them right here: twisted and broken and scarred by the weight of what has come before, but in each other's arms and stubborn about it, loving like stars burn.

And then Galvatron growls mine, torquis and sinks a hard line of dentae into his shoulder, reminding Rodimus how dangerous he still is, and that's what finally sends Rodimus right into flashover.

(A/N: 'torquis' here is a term that refers to a collar or chain around the neck. Basically Galvatron's indulging in some master/slave kink here.)

Kiss him.

Goro jumps over the coffee bar with easy grace, slams that idiot against the wall of coffee jars, smashing their mouths together like Goro could crack his skull apart with the force of it.

Kill him.

Goro slips around to where he's grinding the coffee, sidles up behind him, smooths his gloves hands against that pale neck and squeezes.

Goro did neither. He sipped his coffee. He chatted about nothing. He gave his television smile, maybe a little more teeth. He beat back both feelings for another day.

An arm slung around his chest, and Alucard stiffened and covered his mouth—he hadn't thought he was making much noise, but apparently he was if he'd woken Trevor.

Behind him, Trevor made a vaguely inquiring grunt, probably because he wasn't entirely awake, and gently rubbed his thumb back and forth over Alucard's skin. He said nothing else.

Alucard slowly relaxed into the touch, and the nightmares still flickering at the edges of his consciousness gradually receded, driven away by the reminder that he wasn't alone.

Father took interest in her, because after Mother's death, her older brother froze at the sight of an enemy's imminent approach, whereas she burned rope looped through a steel dart and walked through drill after drill, until she felt naked without the wrap of her weapon around her skin.

After completing her assignment, she returned. At the gate, her brother broke away from his training and fussed over her with relief -- that she wasn't badly hurt, that she didn't leave even though he'd asked her if she would.

Of course she wouldn't. This was family, no matter how broken it had become, and she had sworn she would never watch from the shadows again.

Edmund and Peter had always been different, somehow, but whatever that was, they were both different in the same way. Peter was used to helping Edmund whenever the other boys gave him trouble for being a nancy. Edmund could never decide if he was grateful or resentful, but it was useful to have someone who understood and could throw a punch.

They didn't bring it up much, just furtive, vague words about how nice The Girls had it (their sisters were often The Girls when they talked like this), a dissatisfaction about their peers (boys and girls alike), their parents, nosy neighbors who tutted about "those queer Penvensies".

"This is a girls' coat." Edmund complained, churlish to cover up the fear that somehow The Girls had known, had found him out like a spy from a trench.

"Shut it." Peter said without heat, giving him a look so Edmund knew the excuse for what it was. He could get away with wearing it. Edmund never felt so free with cold legs.

They all thought the animals had to be mistaken, that the Queen was looking for other humans, there's only two girls here.

When Aslan laid his paw on Edmund's shoulder, the weight and brightness was so smothering and blinding that Edmund couldn't decide whether it was agonizing or purifying. When he called Edmund and Peter Daughters of Eve, she wept, and knew.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 207 of 247

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

'Til Death Do Us Part (The Librarians, Jacob/Cassandra)

The Glow of the Past (Star Wars, Kylo Ren|Ben Solo)

Re: Hamilton/History - Alexnder Hamilton / John Laurens [Headcanon: John loves snow]

Re: Stargate Atlantis - Rodney and Radek

Beast Wars, Rattrap

Geese Assessments (Girl Genius; Agatha, Zeetha)

Re: Beast Wars, Rattrap

Re: Gargoyles, Elisa & Xanatos, Detecting

Gee Raz How Come You Get Two Sets Of Parents (Psychonauts; Razputin & Sasha, Milla)

no subject

Trusting Family

Re: Hamilton/History - Alexnder Hamilton / John Laurens [Headcanon: John loves snow]

Sam/Bucky, He's the Captain

no subject

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, Window Dressing

Small Favors [Disco Elysium; Harrier DuBois]

Re: Geese Assessments (Girl Genius; Agatha, Zeetha)

no subject

Re: Trusting Family

Re: Sam/Bucky, He's the Captain

Transformers G1, Rodimus(/Galvatron/Cyclonus/Scourge) (nsfw, pain play, D/s)

Crush [Persona 5; Goro/Protag]

Castlevania (Netflix), Trevor/Alucard, Nightmares

no subject

Always A Queen [q-slur, vague transmisogyny]