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

Tales of Xillia 2, Julius

[aestivalis]

I killed my own aunt, the mother of my half-brother, and hid that truth for almost twenty years. I waited every day for the chance to kill our father; the father who killed my mother through his weakness, his vanity.

Now that same brother stands before me, blade drawn, and it only seems right that things are going to end this way—and if it means Ludger might break free from the things we Kresnik's have done to one another, it's more than I could ever hope to deserve.

MCU: Endgame - Clint (and Natasha)

[peaceful_sands]

Natasha might have died with the delicate chain he’d given her around her neck, but she'd left a chain around his heart that he didn’t think would ever loosen. Clint sometimes wondered if there would come a day when he didn’t ask himself repeatedly what she’d think. Would he ever not run through a plan and consider the things she’d taught him without the heartache of not hearing her say them out loud.

Falcon and the Winter Soldier - Sam and Bucky

[peaceful_sands]

“Next time it might be dragons, you know,” Sam said as they crossed the street, “Dragons, I mean you never know, right?”

“Can’t be dragons, ain’t no such thing as dragons,” came Bucky’s unimpressed reply.

“Pretty sure we used to say that about wizards… and aliens… and gods… and talking racoons… and you know, walking trees. Oh yeah, time travel too.”

Bucky sighed and walked faster, silently praying that Sam wasn’t calling down some sort of ill-fate on them all.

Marvel, Natasha, Clint & Bucky

[peaceful_sands]

Natasha frowned as Clint said, “Don’t worry. Seriously Nat, there is absolutely nothing to worry about. Bucky and I have got this.” Bucky nodded and Natasha sighed defeated for the moment.

“I don’t know why you worry so much, Natalia,” Bucky said quietly, smiling at Clint’s enthusiasm as he suited up.

“I wouldn’t be so worried, if I wasn’t always right and with you two, I can pretty much guarantee that I’m always right.”

(post Hawkeye series) Yelena and Clint

[peaceful_sands]

She stood barely believing what she’d learned. He hadn’t killed her sister. More than that, they’d been close, she could see in his eyes just how much Natasha’s death was hurting him even now. She couldn’t hurt him, make him pay, because he was already paying and more than that, she realised now that as they’d fought, he’d avoided every chance he had to hurt her seriously. He knew their whistle; Natasha must have told him that, must have told him about her.

She turned away, feeling the last of her rage at him fade away, leaving her alone again. With nothing. Without that rage, she truly had nothing, no sister, no family and now no purpose.

“Yelena,” his voice was quiet, loud enough for her to hear, but the sound wouldn’t carry, this moment was just between them. She wasn’t ready to face him again.

“Yelena, when you are ready, if you ever want, I’ll be there, just get in touch.” She sniffed back a tear and didn’t acknowledge his words. “If it helps, I can make the offer in Natasha’s memory, she wouldn’t want you to be alone, or I can make it because I’ve been in a similar place, I can understand more than most.”

“I have friends,” she said, keeping her tone sharp, hoping it hid how brittle she was feeling.

“You have a family, Natasha was family so when you’re ready, we’ll be there. You don’t have to be left behind again.”

King Lear, Edmund

[ernest]

People pity Edmund for all the wrong things: poor thing, he was born to be a bastard, of course he’s rough and lecherous, just look at his mother, just look at his zodiac, of course he couldn’t help being a slut. But he knows that if anyone made him weak to the flesh it was a father who knew he could get away with it and didn’t care which maid’s life he ruined in the process; and if anyone made him bitter it was a society that told him he’d never amount to anything and made him itch to prove them wrong.

Love is a scam, of course, but it’s all he wants, and if the heat of bodies is what it takes to silence his desire, then he will keep seeking it out, one dishonest kiss at a time.

Tiger & Bunny, Barnaby/Kotetsu, Stairs Are Hard

[mad_madam_m]

Kotetsu collapsed face-first on the couch, bound and determined not to move for a month.

Bunny kissed the back of his head. "Come on, old man, let's get upstairs to bed."

"Don't call me 'old man,'" Kotetsu grumbled—never mind that he felt every single day of his age right now. "And I'm not moving."

The couch dipped with Bunny's weight. "If you sleep on the couch, you'd better not wake up complaining about your back."

"I'm going to wake up complaining about everything no matter where I sleep," Kotetsu said into the couch cushion. "My bones are hurting."

Bunny sighed and lay down beside him. "Then I guess we're sleeping on the couch tonight, because I'm not carrying you upstairs."

Kotetsu grinned and lifted his arm so he could cuddle up against Bunny properly. "Can't sleep without me, Bunny-chan?"

"I didn't say that, old man," Bunny said. "I find the couch perfectly comfortable, and I don't want to walk all the way upstairs either."

"Heh. Keep telling yourself that."

Re: Tiger & Bunny, Barnaby/Kotetsu, Stairs Are Hard

[cornerofmadness]

I loved this. I'm feeling Kotetsu right now

Gargoyles, Elisa & Xanatos, Judgment

[mad_madam_m]

"Goliath, I know you want to take the fight straight to this guy's front door, but we can't do that," Elisa said. "He's going to be expecting it."

"The good detective's right," Xanatos said from the desk, where he and Burnett were reviewing a thick binder. "It'll be best to come at him from the sides. Less likely to see it coming."

Elisa stared at him and suppressed a full-body shudder. "Okay, if you're agreeing with me, I must be wrong."

Xanatos looked up from the paperwork and grinned at her. "Come on, Detective Maza. For all my faults, you have to admit, I'm a pretty good judge of character."

"I don't have to admit anything," Elisa reminded him, and turned back to help Goliath solve their current problem.

Sk8 the Infinity, Tadashi/Adam | Ainosuke, Cake

[mad_madam_m]

Ainosuke pulled a small box out from a bag and slid it across his desk to Tadashi. "Here."

Tadashi very carefully picked up the plain white box and lifted the lid to find an absolutely decadent chocolate cake sitting inside, with Happy Birthday written across the top in silvery-white icing. He sucked in a deep breath. "Ainosuke-sama?"

Ainosuke smirked. "Nothing but the best for my dog. I hope you enjoy it."

Tadashi closed the lid and held the box close, fighting to keep his happiness from showing on his face—well, showing too much. "Yes, Ainosuke-sama."

Re: Gargoyles, Elisa & Xanatos, Judgment

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Heee, that's fun! :)

[ernest]

The sister is born with her eyes wide open, and ever after, she dreams of a woman who is beautiful and kind, but very sad, and she doesn’t know why. The brother wails, eyes screwed shut, and never knows his mother at all, the great tragedy of his life. But he is the one who hears her say that there is good in Anakin, and three decades later he dreams that he can feel it too.

Fondly Remembered (Classic Who, Six & Peri)

[ceruleantactician]

“An 'alien abduction'—l’ll have you know, I’ve never abducted anyone in my life; all of my companions travel with me of their own free will,” the Doctor said contemptuously, then suddenly his face turned slightly red. Peri frowned—that must be the truth serum that their hosts kindly “suggested” they drink kicking in.

“Alright, alright—there may have been a small incident with a pair of schoolteachers...”

A Christmas Carol

[ernest]

Once or twice a year, the Cratchits indulge and share a goose for dinner. It’s always the most incredible mouthwatering thing any of them have ever seen, and it’s always just short of being enough, not that anyone would admit it – it takes an outsider to see it, and an outsider to change the way things are.

The day after enjoying their magnificent and unexpected Christmas turkey, Emily gifts Ebenezer with a perfectly-roasted goose, since they had bought the bird already, and he can’t stop smiling to have received such a gift.

Re: For White Day, Sayaka's sending her a pipe bomb as a thank you gift

[vindoletta]

xD poor Sayaka

Re: Batwoman, Luke & Ryan

[chanter1944]

*giggles* Yeeeeeah, giving anybody poison ivy deliberately is a recipe for a breakup, IMO.

Re: A Christmas Carol

[scytale]

Oh, this is wonderful! I love the exchange of gifts here and the community and care it implies, and oh, the note on the goose just being short of enough.

it takes an outsider to see it, and an outsider to change the way things are.

Oh, so true to the theme of the story, and also, that it's Scrooge the former miser who notices. <3

Re: Matilda, Miss Honey

[chanter1944]

Awwwww. <3 I wonder if this could be a rare male tortie? I saw that you didn't use he or she for said tortie, and my mind jumped to tricolor rarities. Either way *melts*.

Re: Hamlet, Laertes/Reynaldo

[little_lady_d]

cuties! love that it’s laertes showing mercy to rey rather than rey showing mercy with his tickles, and of course that growl in laertes’s voice turns his knees to jelly. good boy!

Re: Hill House (miniseries), Luke Crain

[little_lady_d]

oof it’s been a long time, but you can bet i still caught that reference to the hungry world, and it got me in the throat. luke was already building walls between him and the world before his mother tried to take him and his sister out of it. but he’s also making a world, with him and his sister and the monsters he draws to keep them out of his head.

Re: Sk8 the Infinity, Tadashi/Adam | Ainosuke, Cake

[paxilam]

sweet! but that "dog" makes me curious about the whole thing and fandom as well

Re: A Christmas Carol

[ernest]

Thank you so much! It's such a good theme, and the song in the Muppets Christmas Carol where Scrooge brings the turkey to the Cratchits is one of my favorites.

Re: Hamlet, Laertes/Reynaldo

[ernest]

laertes is the best boy, and he's good at showing mercy (when that's what rey's in the mood for, of course). thank you so much <3

Re: Defenses (The Addams Family; Gomez, Wednesday)

[ernest]

i love! wednesday addams! this is such a terrific family moment for them

Re: Hill House (miniseries), Luke Crain

[ernest]

oh good, i was hoping to get you with that line. it's such a good tragic theme that gets explored so well through the whole show. and yeah, finding a world even as he cuts himself off from it is something he struggles with for his whole life, but it's not all bad. thank you!