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

[demigodscum]

ST:Discovery, Michael/Book, dog discourse

ST: Discovery - Michael/Book - Kings and Queens

[vendettadays]

‘What is that?’ Book asked as he stared at the creature standing next to Michael, head tilted up regally and staring at Grudge like it was planning a coup.

’He is a dog,’ Michael reached down and patted the ‘dog’ on the head, ‘and I thought he could be good company for Grudge.’

Book’s mouth fell open in shock and said, ‘Absolutely not! No one will ever be good enough for Grudge. She’s a queen.’

[word_devourer]

any, any, 'Everywhere I go is home. Every town, and every road.'

[idkwriteshitdown]

"Don't you miss your it, your home?" Yaz asked. They were sitting at the door of the TARDIS, Yaz with her legs dangling out, The Doctor curled into her side, the Earth spinning slowly beneath them.
"I've been running for far longer than I've ever lived there," The Doctor said tracing a circular pattern on Yaz's thigh, "everywhere I go is home. Every town, every road- every person."

[demigodscum]

The Witcher, Geralt/Ciri, fatherhood

[demigodscum]

Star Wars, Anakin/Ahsoka, uniforms of choice

[reeby10]

any, any, figure skating au

[ruthchinn]

Rex can't stop staring like an idiot out at the rink, where a most beautiful man is twirling, his fiery hair whipping past. He looks, out the corner of his eye, to see Khodi, but his brother's eyes are on the stranger's partner, her head covered in dark braids. "You're blushing." "So are you!"

[reeby10]

The Witcher, Jaskier & Yennefer, "I think you might be my best friend"

[elementalraven]

“I think you might be my best friend,” Jaskier slurs at her one evening, drunkenly resting his head on her lap as he does so, and Yennefer rolls her eyes, but doesn’t push him off. She sits there as he closes his eyes and falls asleep, and remains there for minutes and hours after, until the first rays of sunlight hit the tiny window of their cramped little room.

“Isn’t that sad,” Yennefer mutters, and gently strokes her fingers through his hair.

[syrena_of_the_lake]

Any fandom, token human in a cast of Muppets

[demigodscum]

It is immediately obvious to David, upon waking up, that while he is lying on his expansive (and expensive) bed, he is most certainly not lying on his expansive (and expensive) bed.

This may or may not have to do with the fact that there are Muppets staring at him, or the fact that Miss Piggy is lying on the bed beside him, or the fact that both he and Miss Piggy are wearing rings resembling (unnervingly so) wedding bands, or the fact that he and Kermit seem to be wearing matching dress suits.

It neither answers nor helps anything that Kermit says, "You may tell yourself, 'This is not my beautiful house,' and you may tell yourself, 'This is not my beautiful wife,' but David — it's the same as it ever was."

[(Anonymous)]

Oz series (any version), Dorothy Gale, silver shoes or ruby slippers?

A Colorful Conversation

[woodmr]

Although usually a polite little girl, Dorothy found herself yawning while the Queen of the Field Mice chatted with her.

“It is your shoes,” the Queen pointed out after she apologized. “Their silver magic protects you from greater harm, but as the red petals stuck to them are merely ordinary things they will continue to work upon you until washed clean away.”

[dawen]

any, any, coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?

Naruto Founders, Tobirama & Hikaku

[dawen]

Hikaku blinked slowly in surprise as Tobirama deftly poured one cup of coffee for Hikaku and one cup of hot chocolate for himself; he didn't even notice Tobirama had had two different beverages going.

"Hot chocolate seems like it would be... too sweet for your tastes," he said, as diplomatically as he could, while automatically accepting the coffee that Tobirama handed him.

Tobirama shrugged, sitting down across the table with his hot chocolate cradled in one hand, and said, "Even I couldn't escape my brother's sweet tooth."

[whynot]

Discworld/Narnia, Death & Aslan, behind schedule

[animus_wyrmis]

THIS IS HIGHLY IRREGULAR, Death said.

On the Table, Aslan said, "I will admit that it's a bit of a gamble."

I AM ONLY ALLOWING IT BECAUSE YOU ARE A CAT, Death said, and brought the scythe down.

[vialethe]

Trojan War Cycle, Aeneas/Cassandra, you say it in a foreign tongue/but you don’t know a thing about the things i’ve done

with apologies to Le Guin's Lavinia....

[betony]

The best visions are those that follow the poet.
Cassandra knows them; Cassandra waits for them; but Cassandra does not understand them, spoken as they are in an unwieldy tongue, all sober balanced syllables that rhyme Aeneas' name with accents of greatness, danger and destiny all wrapped in one, all that she could have wished for him and a thousand, thousand times more.
She hears her own name upon the poet's lips only once, and knows without having to ask that the lines that follow are only one more empty hollow in the history of the world.
(What else, after all, could they be?)

[vialethe]

Narnia, Susan, i’ve had too much to drink tonight/but i wonder if they’ll miss me once they drive me out/i wake up in the middle of the night/and i can feel time moving

Narnia, Susan, criticize the way you fly / when you're soaring through the sky

[snacky]

It was easier to be a Queen, Susan knows.

In Narnia, she was gentle, she was smart, she was beautiful, and most importantly, she had power (and her siblings). In this world, she is but a girl and a young one at that, and her siblings don't seem to understand (or care) what she has lost, don't understand what she'd do to get that back, don't want to help her any longer, not in this world, not like they would have done in the old one.

[vialethe]

Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, you kept me like a secret/but i kept you like an oath

SAB, Darklina

[caramelsilver]

His love for her was loud, bold, for all to see if you knew how to look right. He held his heart in his hand, expecting her to crush it. Instead she took it, and hid it away in secret, some place neither of them could find it, not lost, but not quite found either.

[vialethe]

Narnia, Peter, no, i cannot seem/to get a moment’s peace/if there’s a man like me/his birch ain’t my tree

Narnia, Peter, I know what's good / and I'll die that way

[snacky]

He does not want to go, to leave Narnia behind, to leave all that he loves and all that he's ever wanted, to leave the place that has brought him joy and grief and peace. He sees Susan's face, catches her eye, knows she's feeling the same, knows her heart is shattered just like his, knows neither of them will ever be whole, or right, again.

So he turns and faces the Lion, takes a deep breath and says softly, "No, I'm afraid we'll be staying right here."

[whynot]

Moana, Hei hei, the night is dark and full of terrors

[raisedbymoogles]

Heihei's world ends at the end of his beak. Food keeps turning to rocks or dirt when he pecks at it, the presence of humans is restricted to the occasional hand, and all else is shadow-on-shadow, the domain where Chicken Gods do battle with Chicken Monsters and thereby keep the Chicken Monsters at bay for their devoted followers.

Then comes the day the shadow is burned away by endless light, and Heihei beholds an unbroken horizon for the first time: and he is overcome with terror, for the Chicken Gods have abandoned him.



I will beat the 'Heihei is blind not stupid' drum until the end of my days.

[whynot]

X-Files, Mulder/Scully, kids these days

[ruthchinn]

Vlad Taltos series, any, not-elves

[whynot]

The Golem and the Jinni, Ahmad, above us only sky

[whynot]

The Secret Garden, Mary/Dickon, I'll always come home

It's been a while since I read this story sorry if I'm wildly off character /shot

[last_haven]

There is a war and then a draft, Dickon cannot escape it. When news reaches Mary, he doesn't see hide nor hair of her until the night before he's called to training. She arrives like a thief in the night, looking as wild as any animal he's ever kept with only a thin shawl falling off her shoulders to keep her warm, but still her hands burn his as she clutches him.

"You must come home," she murmurs and there's none of the spoiled little empress she'd been as a child, not that he ever knew her to be such. They both know that he is not to be commanded, but still, she has run across the moor in the dark new moon night and he doesn't think even he could resist her. Her voice burns like his father's cheap whiskey and he smiles as he presses a kiss to her knuckles.

"Aye. Tell me once more and I don't think even the angels could stop me coming back."

Her eyes are wide as she leans forward. "Then come home to me," she says once and her lips burn like whiskey too, sealing the promise, like a fool swearing himself to a fae princess.

He will come back now; she's laid her spell and he'll crawl back if he has too.

[whynot]

music video for Hayley Kiyoko's "Girls Like Girls", Coley/Sonya, the world opened up

[trinityday]

MCU, Steve/Bucky, ghost stories are about coming home

Out of Time

[word_devourer]

The street feels wrong; the fashions are different, half the buildings replaced, the remaining similarities to the place they remember only driving the differences deeper.

They've each spent decades dead, a pair of ghosts who've finally found their way back to where they started, but this place isn't their home.

At this point, the only home that matters to them isn't a place; it's each other.

[whynot]

music video for Modjo's "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)", the OT3 in the video, naps

[ruanchunxian]

MCU, Katy Chen & Kate Bishop, archery

[whynot]

Sophie's World, Sophie Amundsen, we are getting out now

[rthstewart]

More of this by ruanchunxian 

Shang Chi, any, New Year

[ruanchunxian]

Nine months after that Qingming Jie, after Ba has gone back to his Ten Rings, Ge has gone back to parking cars or something? in San Francisco, and Xialing has gone back to her club, the Xu family group chat lights up with a message from Ge:

Spring Festival in SF? Katy’s family wants to meet you all.

The group chat was so named only semi-ironically and, at Ba’s insistence, includes Mattias? The jury’s still out for Xialing on what she thinks about that. And yet, Ba almost never texts, he’s a dinosaur in that way. Of course, allowances must be made for a thousand-year-old man. Mattias prefers the voice message function as well, one-hand and all that. Still, it was a way to keep in touch.

And as a condition of Ge and Xialing’s promise to keep in touch, Ba has also promised to start using the Ten Rings and the ten rings to help people rather than cause more destructions in the world, and from what news Xialing has caught over the last few months, it seems he’s keeping to that promise. That doesn’t change the fact that Xialing doesn’t remember the last time she really celebrates Spring Festival, though. After Mama died, there is never any celebration at the Ten Rings compound, and after she runs away, the holidays are only a reminder of what she has lost, of how her mother, father, and brother all have abandoned her in their own ways.

Xialing texts back: Are you sure that Katy’s family wants to meet us?

Ge: Of course, what are you talking about??

Xialing: It just seems like an odd bunch, Katy and her family, Ba the immortal warlord, you, me, and our adopted brother the machete-armed assassin. Do they know what they’re getting into? What do Americans even do for Spring Festival?

Ge: They’re Chinese-American, and pretty much what we do for Spring Festival, I guess.

Xialing: And what do WE do for Spring Festival?

There is a long pause. Then, finally:

Ge: We come and see me in SF, because I’m too broke to travel halfway across the world again.

Later, when Ba has sent Xialing a voice message telling her of the time and date his private jet – because of course he has a private jet – would pick her up (without any consultation of whether such time and date suits her, but then she supposes they must take baby steps), Xialing can’t help but think to herself, this is either going to be a disaster, or the most awkward Spring Festival ever. Whichever it will be, it probably will still beats spending the holidays alone.