rthstewart: (Default)
rthstewart ([personal profile] rthstewart) wrote2022-01-15 12:00 pm

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 [personal profile] 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!



      


















raisedbymoogles: (Zidane - flight)

Re: Disco Elysium, Harry/Kim

[personal profile] raisedbymoogles 2022-02-28 11:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Kim is a good... friend? Boyfriend?

...he is a good egg.
raisedbymoogles: (Zidane - flight)

Re: The Lunar Chronicles, Cinder & Iko

[personal profile] raisedbymoogles 2022-02-28 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Yep! Same username. :D
little_lady_d: (Default)

Re: Clemency for the Wizard King

[personal profile] little_lady_d 2022-03-01 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
this is so on brand. it’s so evocative, for such a short story, you could spin whole worlds out of starlight journeys and impossible locks and of how they all became adherents to the wizard king in the first place, what he has to be released from. and i love the concluding line, ‘perhaps the true magic is in the strength of their convictions’ indeed.
little_lady_d: (Default)

[personal profile] little_lady_d 2022-03-01 07:04 pm (UTC)(link)
twining their fingers together as true tender oh that’s such a beautiful remix of the phrase. and such a beautiful moment! gosh i’m so proud of laertes of speaking his feelings, and of giving claudius that little bit of reassurance. kissing each fingertip, wow that’s good.
ernest: (Default)

Re: Clemency for the Wizard King

[personal profile] ernest 2022-03-02 08:11 pm (UTC)(link)
thank you! the song is so full of potential and hidden corners of the story, and john darnielle has said in multiple interviews and intros to singing it that he can tell the basic story of what's happening, but that he doesn't know what the story means because "i always feel the reader is better qualified to tell me than the other way around" and i just love that.
ernest: (Default)

Re: Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo

[personal profile] ernest 2022-03-02 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
thank you!
schoolsasaint: (Default)

Artemis Fowl

[personal profile] schoolsasaint 2022-03-03 08:59 am (UTC)(link)
Even under the scorching heat of a tropical sun, the rocky shore of the lagoon is a busy place. Typically, Artemis has little to no interest in aquatic lifeforms, even those magically inclined, but his circumstances have changed since first he acquired the Book, manifestly so, and his parents have decided upon a family outing as a means of bonding after their recent years of seperation. And if making the acquaintance - or at least, determining a preliminary hypothesis to the capabilities of the individual pretending to be a mat of seaweed - moves him further from the unseemly displays his parents seem so fond of since their reunion (surely, he would recall such behaviour? surely? he is an observant individual, he would have had to had noticed this kind of behaviour) so much the better for his sanity and all too fragile sense of decency.
ernest: (Default)

[personal profile] ernest 2022-03-03 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
thank you, i love them both very much! and eee, that remix was one of my favorite lines, plus the bit about kissing claudius's fingertips to soothe his panicked look. i'm so glad you liked it!
woodmr: (Default)

Preliminaries (Northanger Abbey, Catherine/Henry, figure skating au)

[personal profile] woodmr 2022-03-04 12:05 am (UTC)(link)

Though it wasn't a world championship, Catherine was still ecstatic to enter the rink for the semifinals, though her giddiness dwindled somewhat when she realized how many challengers were already there practicing. Her coach signaled for an official as she laced up, and when she had finished a lanky skater reached out a hand to help her navigate toward a free spot on the ice, his friendly grin warming up an otherwise unremarkable appearance.

"Sorry, it's a bit crowded today," he commented as they fell into an easy circle around the perimeter, "but Vancouver's definitely the better end of the circuit: and sorry again, the name's Henry, care to tell me your's?"

woodmr: (Default)

Already Dead (Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland, horror movie enthusiast)

[personal profile] woodmr 2022-03-04 12:07 am (UTC)(link)

It should have been crushing to not make it past the second rounds, especially since Belle and James were probably going to advance even higher after their last amazing performance. But Catherine's newer friends were not completely surprised when she ran up to them as they left the rink, phone waving, breathless with excitement rather than tears.

"The next season of iZombie just dropped on Netflix!"


Caveat: iZombie is a series rather than a movie, but I couldn't resist skater!Catherine geeking out about a show right up her alley.

woodmr: (Default)

An Ignoble Certainty (Sherlock Holmes, Holmes & Watson, case review)

[personal profile] woodmr 2022-03-04 12:13 am (UTC)(link)

Scotland Yard had the extraordinary tendency to demand a report on Lestrade's recent work at a time when a review by his superiors would be most unwelcome; for example, now, when he must explain why he had been so certain that Lord St. Simon's bride was murdered, instead of healthy, alive, and already married to an American from her past.

"This particular case had more than its share of publicity—scandal really, notwithstanding that balderdash put out by The Strand, and the Superintendent is not entirely pleased by your handling of the case," the chief inspector explained before launching into what amounted to an interrogation on everything from the circumstances of Mrs. Moulton's disappearance to when, or how often, Mr. Sherlock Holmes was likely to be consulted in any present or future investigations.

It would not have concerned Lestrade near so much if he did not have the strong suspicion his answer to the latter queries ("I could not say sir, though should the need arise I hope Mr. Holmes would assist us like any loyal subject of the crown,") was likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy before long.


Also inspired by (Anonymous) "Any, any, I wouldn't be so worried if I wasn't always right," (2022-01-19 08:56 pm).

woodmr: (Default)

An Ignoble Certainty (Sherlock Holmes, Holmes & Watson, case review)

[personal profile] woodmr 2022-03-04 12:16 am (UTC)(link)

Scotland Yard had the extraordinary tendency to demand a report on Lestrade's recent work at a time when a review by his superiors would be most unwelcome; for example, now, when he must explain why he had been so certain that Lord St. Simon's bride was murdered, instead of healthy, alive, and already married to an American from her past.

"This particular case had more than its share of publicity—scandal really, notwithstanding that balderdash put out by The Strand, and the Superintendent is not entirely pleased by your handling of the case," the chief inspector explained before launching into what amounted to an interrogation on everything from the circumstances of Mrs. Moulton's disappearance to when, or how often, Mr. Sherlock Holmes was likely to be consulted in any present or future investigations.

It would not have concerned Lestrade near so much if he did not have the strong suspicion his answer to the latter queries ("I could not say sir, though should the need arise I hope Mr. Holmes would assist us like any loyal subject of the crown,") was likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy before long.


Also inspired by atamascolily "Sherlock Holmes (any version), any, annual performance review (2022-01-19 08:35 pm)

woodmr: (Default)

Literary License (Sherlock Holmes, Watson & Lestrade, magazine illustration reaction)

[personal profile] woodmr 2022-03-04 12:21 am (UTC)(link)

"Of course I do not blame you sir, nor require a retraction, I am sure I would not presume to dictate to an author his craft. But for the future, if you could kindly drop a hint to Mr. Paget regarding the illustrations?"

"You have my word Inspector," I promised, regretting once again that I had been every bit as blunt and impolite in my first description of Lestrade as I often accused my friend Holmes of being, even if the resemblance to a rat was unfortunately still accurate.

theseatheseatheopensea: Lyrics from the song Stolen property, by The Triffids, handwritten by David McComb. (Default)

Re: An Ignoble Certainty (Sherlock Holmes, Holmes & Watson, case review)

[personal profile] theseatheseatheopensea 2022-03-04 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
This is great!
woodmr: (Default)

Re: An Ignoble Certainty (Sherlock Holmes, Holmes & Watson, case review)

[personal profile] woodmr 2022-03-04 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks!
atamascolily: (Default)

Re: An Ignoble Certainty (Sherlock Holmes, Holmes & Watson, case review)

[personal profile] atamascolily 2022-03-04 02:43 pm (UTC)(link)
I love it! Thank you so much!!
dawen: photo of the face of a calico cat, with stark contrast between her face and the background (Default)

Naruto Founders, Kawarama & Hashirama, modern AU

[personal profile] dawen 2022-03-07 04:36 am (UTC)(link)
now that that month-long writing event in February is done, I can come back to 3SFs :D
~

Hashirama found Kawarama ensconced on the couch with his laptop open and two binders, five notebooks, and possibly uncountable pens and highlighters strewn about him; he peered over Kawarama's shoulder as he scribbled away at... uh, a new code, maybe, Hashirama eyed two other notebooks - full of verb conjugations and lists of adfixes, it looked like - and the lightbulb clicked: "Is that another conlang?"

"Conlangs are worth learning," Kawarama sniffed, faux-haughty, crossing out something at the top of his page with extreme prejudice.

“Okay, sure, you've said that - but there’s a big difference between learning a conlang and making one, otouto!”
nea: (misc: kissing?)

Re: The Maze Runner, Frypan/Minho

[personal profile] nea 2022-03-07 01:15 pm (UTC)(link)
I never thought of that pairing, but I like that little scene!
nea: (misc: don't panic)

Re: The Walking Dead, Judith

[personal profile] nea 2022-03-07 01:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Ewwww! Judith is actually right, though. Red hearts lose their meanung during a zombie apocalypse, I guess! But also awwwww, for her to wrap it up!
severina: (Default)

Re: The Walking Dead, Judith

[personal profile] severina 2022-03-07 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
LOL I just thought it was a weird take on the prompt, my dark humour showing through!
severina: (Default)

Re: The Maze Runner, Frypan/Minho

[personal profile] severina 2022-03-07 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you!
dawen: photo of the face of a calico cat, with stark contrast between her face and the background (Default)

Naruto Founders, Madara & Izuna & Kagami

[personal profile] dawen 2022-03-10 04:54 am (UTC)(link)
“Do I have to eat that?” Kagami whined, wrinkling his nose.

“It’s good for you,” Madara said absently.

“Besides,” Izuna added with a vicious grin, slopping another spoonful of cooked greens onto Kagami’s plate, “if I had to eat it, so do you.”

Rise of the Guardians, Jack & Cupcake (& a little Pippa)

(Anonymous) 2022-03-10 05:00 am (UTC)(link)
One fine spring, Cupcake teaches her new friend Pippa to make friendship bracelets; together they make a whole set for their friend group, even though most of them are boys.

“It was awfully nice of you to make a bracelet for Jamie’s little sister,” her mom says that summer, “but I thought you made nine – who’s the last one for?”

Jack Frost’s disbelieving, delighted smile at being included, that fall when the first hard frost comes to Burgess, makes all of Cupcake’s awkward answers to her mom’s questions worth it.

Naruto Founders, Hashirama & Tobirama

(Anonymous) 2022-03-10 05:07 am (UTC)(link)
One of the first things Hashirama grew with his Mokuton was a huge peach tree that blood the largest number of enormous blossoms every spring; Tobirama had many childhood memories of napping in its branches with his brothers, when their busy schedules allowed, and it was honestly one of the things he missed most when the clan left their ancestral compound for the newly-built Konoha.

He still visited the old peach tree, though: once every month, missions permitting, to take care of his family’s graves like many Senju did; it was one such visit in spring when all the peaches were in full bloom that it happened.

Every single blossom on Hashirama’s peach tree withered in the same instant, falling to the grass in a blanket of desiccated petals, and Tobirama’s breath caught in his throat – he would have a new grave to care for, now.
sallymn: (merlin 1)

Merlin & Servants

[personal profile] sallymn 2022-03-10 08:18 am (UTC)(link)

It's really very simple, as far as Camelot's servants see it. Things... happen around the Prince's manservant Merlin. Things that don't always - or ever - make sense if anyone thinks about it.

But it isn't the servants' job to think about it, so they don't. No one asks them, after all.

Arrogant Sir Acanor who overworks, derides, beats the stablehands...? Well, no one sees what spooks his horses just where poison ivy grows thickest, did they? And the Court Physician's medical salve for rashes in unmentionable places really does work so much better when ice cold, after all.

So the Court Physician says via Merlin, who delivers it, and who are the Camelot servants to say otherwise to the Court Physician?

Oh beautiful - and oh so aware of it - Lady Vyolette, daughter of the over-indulgent Baron Vyse, who slaps and sneers and screams at the maids..? So sad that she trips and falls in a pond full of muck and weeds, and then doesn't see that huge spiderweb in the corridor that surely can't have appeared out of nowhere just at the wrong moment, can it?

Fat Lord Pettipace and Lady Pleasaunce who gorge on the finest food and wine while ragging and ridiculing those who slave over the feast and get none of it? Oh, such a nasty case of the bilious belly there, oh dear it makes them both so piteously poorly for a miserable day, week or more... and who knows where it comes from?

It isn't the servants' job to know that. All they do know that is when one of their own is mistreated, and they glimpse a faint, angry glow in Merlin's eyes... things happen. Things get better.

The Camelot servants look after their own. And the Prince's manservant, in ways they don't question and are grateful for, looks after them too.