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

[syrena_of_the_lake]

Star Wars/Narnia, any, the classic Steinbuck novel Of Moles and Mandalorians

[syrena_of_the_lake]

Narnia/Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack Sparrow & Reepicheep, duel of the fates

It was predictable, really

[slowmercury]

Jack took the duel against Reepicheep seriously from the start, which meant that he immediately sheathed his sword in favor of scrambling up a nearby pillar to grab a flaming torch to use as a club and/or portable spark for throwing in the event Jack needed to make a quick exit and it might be advantageous to have a large, distracting fire burning behind him.

Unfortunately, Reepicheep interpreted this as Jack being an honorless coward and a buffoon who had no respect for mice.

Everything went downhill from there.

[adaeze]

Anthropomorphic, marmalade season, kitchen gadgets that get used once a year

[smallhobbit]

Oh good, here we go again, half the cupboard being emptied just to get to the super large pan for making the marmalade, which is always right at the back because it hasn't been used for a year. I really don't know why they have to exclaim 'oh, there it is,' when they finally find it, since it will be in exactly the same place as it was last time - pushed behind the tin which is only used for the Christmas cake, and we've already had the rattle of the drawer being searched for 'the special knife, the one we always use'. As for me, I'm just an over-worked, under-appreciated earthenware mixing bowl!

[syrena_of_the_lake]

Star Trek Voyager, Janeway/Paris, in memory of Threshold Day

[syrena_of_the_lake]

Dune (2021 movie), any, uncomfortable lingering gazes

[primeideal]

Chani has seen Jamis deal death before: swift and elegant, a contrast to Arrakis' slow, cruel pace. Those who fall at his hand have their water restored to the tribe, but no trace of their memories remains even in the Reverend Mothers' visions. So she waits to see the boy-child defeated, to preserve his last breaths in her recollections--but when he survives, she finds that she cannot look away.

[syrena_of_the_lake]

Harry Potter, Ron & Snape, unexpected affinity for chess

Severus and Ron, Rematch

[silveradept]

It is inconceivable to Severus that a first-year Gryffindor is the one who defeated his living chess puzzle, created to fool even the finest of grand masters.

"Weasley," he says, board in hand, no possible room for mistaking this for anything but a challenge.

To his delight, Gryffindor foolhardiness prevails over any speck of wisdom: "e2-e4."

[ravenlilyrose]

Narnia, any friend(s) of narnia, recognition

[mouseyear]

It is in Narnia that Jill first sees Eustace’s cousins. They are depicted in one of the books she picks up before the owls send them out to the mountains. All four of them wear crowns of gold or silver, are depicted riding and bear ancient, medieval weapons. She would not have known who they were if not for the description underneath and Eustace’s later confession about his cousins. The portrait didn’t much look like English children to her, and Eustace’s cousins were younger than him. The portrait certainly hadn’t depicted children. But when they return from Narnia with a much younger Caspian, and they catch a glimpse of the approaching Pevensies, Jill could almost believe the stories. But then Caspian is gone and the Pevensie’s are just children.

It is years later, when she sees Tirian in the room with them, the magic of Narnia seeping through the worlds. And now she is armed with stories and knowledge, and she sees it and believes it for the first time. Peter is firm, commanding and he expects to be acknowledged. Edmund is tense and calculating and he is expecting a trap. Lucy is eager, her fingers twitching and she is longing for an adventure. The magic of Narnia fades but Jill finds herself still able to recognize the people they were in Narnia. She had never realized just how much it had shaped them.

[ravenlilyrose]

any, any, It's been a long day without you, my friend/And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again

FF7, Cloud(/Zack)

[raisedbymoogles]

Alone, Cloud lets himself collapse into his berth. The Highwind is quiescent under his head and it's weird, not to have its engine vibrating gently and faraway in his ears. They've been in the air for a lifetime, it seems.

It's over. Isn't it? Sephiroth is dead; so is Midgar, and they may have failed there but the Planet as a whole will survive. Reeve told them to stay the hell out of the rescue efforts, that the remnants of Public Safety will take charge of the survivors. I happen to know for a fact none of you have slept in the last 48 hours, he'd told them through Cait. Go and rest, for the gods' sake.

Cloud knows Reeve's right. He can feel exhaustion dragging at him; there's only so much even a Fullcure can do about that. But his dry eyes won't close and his head aches with the effort of trying to relax. He'd faced the monster Sephiroth had become and cut it to ribbons with Zack's sword, avenged Aerith and Zack and Nibelheim and everyone else, it couldn't be more over if Cloud had dumped Sephiroth in Hades' cauldron himself; yet there's a restlessness he can't shake, a certainty that there's something else he could be doing, something he's forgotten.

Well - there's lots of things I've forgotten. Right... Zack?

Even now, with his brain intact as it's ever going to be, even having seen the marks on the inside of those tubes in the mansion basement - he can barely remember Zack. Black hair, a scar, a smile. Overwhelming strength tempered by kindness. Had they been friends? Part of Cloud is convinced they were. The more cynical part of him is sure that's just wishful thinking; Zack was probably just being kind to an obvious failure and Cloud had just read too much into it, as usual. But in the end, Zack had dragged Cloud across two continents to Midgar, had died so that Cloud could live.

Cloud closes his eyes, not to sleep, only to pretend the other man can hear him. One day I'll be able to ask you directly, he tells the empty spaces in his head where Zack had once lived. And I'll tell you everything that happened. Everything that you made possible.

...thanks. For everything.

[ravenlilyrose]

Star Trek: TOS/TNG, any, meeting your heroes

[ravenlilyrose]

any, any, The Department for the Regulation of Temporal Incidents

[primeideal]

(Animorphs)

YOU CREATED A UNIVERSE, the--a?--Ellimist intones, like they're facing an Electorate war-crimes tribunal. THAT IS NOT SOMETHING TO TAKE LIGHTLY.

[I'm sorry,] says Elfangor, lowering his stalk eyes.

"Well, I'm not," Loren says with her mouth-sounds. "You said it yourself; anyone else who had taken possession of the Time Matrix would have done something even worse."

[ravenlilyrose]

any, any, Karaoke

It's a No (A Man Who Defies The World Of BL; Mob/Kikuchi)

[kalira]

"Oh! Let's join them!" Kikuchi said, pointing, and Mob looked, only to-

"Oh, uh, no, I. . ." Mob faltered, then winced as his boyfriend almost pouted at him with confusion. "I can never go back there." he whispered, thinking of the humiliating end of the matchmaking outing he'd joined at that karaoke.

Kikuchi eyed him curiously, but when Mob opened his mouth to try to explain, he only shook his head, smiling, and squeezed Mob's hand, pulling him away from their friends instead.

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, accidental use of family words

Sister (Naruto; Sakura & Naruto)

[kalira]

"Aww, come on, nee-chan, that's-" Naruto broke off suddenly, then cringed, and Sakura folded her arms, eyeing him.

". . .yes, you have to," Sakura repeated, and tapped his nose, "but if you're good for your checkup I'll take you for a treat after." she promised Naruto, with a grin as he peeked up at her warily. "Or what kind of sister would I be?" she added, and Naruto was frozen for a moment before he caught hold of her hard enough to make her ribs creak; Sakura hugged him back just as hard and pretended not to have seen the tears in his eyes.

[ravenlilyrose]

Harry Potter, Marauders, Classic Rock

so a hundred years ago I wrote in this Marauder Rhombus rock band AU? And now they like me are old.

[marginalia]

It’s been twelve years, but Sirius would still recognize that voice anywhere, even coming out of a tinny phone speaker while the absolute infant in the queue ahead of him - okay so she’s probably sixteen, but still - says “he’s like, so old, but he’s hot.”

The voice would be enough but the lyrics are something no one else could possibly know, a song scratched on the back of a show flier a hundred years ago, never performed let alone published, and now shot through with the anger and road-weariness they had only thought they understood back then, when he and Remus and the others were little more than infants themselves.

“Give me that,” Sirius snarls, then “sorry, please, I used to know him,” a terrible attempt at an apology as he scrawls down the name of the video account, an impossible thing, a disappearing clue in a dream, Remus alive.

[ravenlilyrose]

Star Wars, any, Tatooine

Beru Lars

[marquisguyun]

Beru Whitesun Lars had never left Tatooine, not even in her dreams.

She'd always been more of a practical soul than a dreamer, anyway. Her ambitions were achievable, if uncertain on as harsh a planet as Tatooine. She wanted to marry a good man, raise a child, and hopefully have more water than they needed to survive. Owen was much the same, a hardworking and dependable moisture farmer like her father.

Luke was different; he had stardust in his blood. She knew he would leave Tatooine someday, but she hoped he'd at least visit her and Owen from time to time. There would always be a home waiting for him under the twin suns if she had anything to say about it.

[ravenlilyrose]

Star Wars, Luke & Leia (& Han), burdens too heavy for ones so young

By the Trees, they never learn -- Star Wars OT

[rthstewart]

After they bug out of Yavin IV and join the Rebel Fleet, Chewbacca wonders if maybe, just maybe, Han, Luke, or Leia would actually talk about their respective horrific ordeals, as a Wookiee would, as any emotionally healthy and adjusted being should. Though he'd pretty much given up on Han over the years, he'd hoped that maybe the other two would exert a good influence and own up to the nightmares they're all having and the screams and crying he overhears when he takes over the Falcon's third watch. But after two hundred and thirty three Kashyyyk years, he's learned that Humans, and especially young Humans, and by the Trees, these three are so young, are terrible at confronting their past trauma, always, always deluded into thinking that, so long as they don't stop, they will never drown.

[vialethe]

Trojan War Cycle, Aeneas/Cassandra, in my head, i replay our conversations/over and over til they feel like hallucinations/you know me, i love to lose my mind

[betony]

It's as they leave Carthage that Aeneas discovers he has begun to forget the beginnings and ends of their conversations--a coincidence so frightful he can only imagine it one last punishment from the gods for Dido's grief. With the years, with the annual smoke and sacraments, he sacrifices one trivial detail after another until he wonders if they might ever have been.
It's in old age that he comes to see this as a gift: in this way, at least, he can learn her anew, can tell himself stories of what might have been and believe them, if only this once.
(A bitter gift on Mother's part; but then again, they always are.)

[vialethe]

Trojan War Cycle, Aeneas/Cassandra, i did not believe because i could not see/though you came to me in the night

[betony]

Would he know, she wonders, the scrape of her nail, the shape of her hips as they rested together in the dark? Might he know the hush of her breathing, the hue of her hair under starlight?
No, no, no, comes the answer, and her heart sinks--
But she would.

[vialethe]

Trojan War Cycle, Aeneas/Cassandra, do you still think i’m beautiful/when you light me in flames/my love is so bountiful

[betony]

"How long will you tarry here among your kinsmen, my prince?" grumbles the Dardanian ambassador; Aeneas imagines he has been instructed to do so by Father, who tires of leading his assemblies alone.
"At least until the marriages of my cousins are concluded," he replies, "only imagine how it would look to slight any of Priam's mighty sons"; but his eyes are fixed on one cousin in particular, the brightest and dearest (and maddest) of them all.
Her hair gleams like dark fire, and Aeneas itches to burn.

[scytale]

any, any, we will find illumination in unnatural light

I don't have ROTT to hand, so some part of the possession sequence might be off.

[betony]

It is not Attolis' indifferent greeting that warns his Queen that something is wrong, nor the unearthly silence that follows in his wake; but rather the too-bright gleam of his eyes, with all the sharp humor and none of the subtle kindness.
Well, then.
Irene lets her arms fall to her side, and silently begins to beseech the Great Gods yet again for Gen's return.

Fandom is the Queen's Thief

[scytale]

any, any, you will travel a thousand miles without leaving my sight

Beauty and the Beast (Disney)

[betony]

I love this song!
The problem with happily ever afters, Belle realizes, is that eventually they grow too close, too confined, too contradictory to what she had longed for in a poor provincial town; but she knows just as well that an ex-enchanted prince and his servants will need years of work yet to put together what's left of their past lives, and must be reluctant to travel after a decade of living as near-recluses, and so she presses her lips together and hopes to find something there that might render her content. She does her best to conceal her restlessness, always neatly returning her atlases to the library, always pretending to pay attention when Cogsworth drones on about crop rotation, always almost forgetting that once she had craved adventure.
But: "Here," rumbles her husband, pressing the magic mirror into her hands and setting her free once more, "take this and know that no matter where you go, I'll be with you."

[betony]

Any fandom, any characters, Regency AU

An Old World Made New (Shadow & Bone, Darklina)

[vialethe]

When the General asks her to dance, Miss Alina Starkov cannot help but laugh, though she knows her laugh is not at all ladylike, the twist of her mouth too honest and too sour for the taste of the ton. “And what would the King’s right hand - and the most notorious rake in Ravka, I might add - possibly want with an orphan girl from the provinces?” she asks, surprised when he takes her hand in a firm grip despite her protests, the heat of his skin - or, quite possibly, her own - palpable even though her gloves.

“Do you think yourself so unimportant, Miss Starkov?” the General asks, in a voice low enough that she moves closer to hear, into the waiting circle of his arms; close enough for him to murmur his next words against her ear, indecently close: “Rest assured that I believe there is far more to you than meets the eye, and I mean to uncover each and every one of your secrets, sweet girl.”

(Well, this was predictable.)

[betony]

Any book-to-movie fandom, Any, book characters react to their depiction in the movie (or vice versa) (or any historical character complain about their depiction in pop culture)

Howl's Moving Castle, book!Howl/Sophie on movie!Howl/Sophie

[shinon]

"Well," Howl said, very righteous, "We should stop having wars. And I am handsome and misunderstood." Sophie snorted, and was about to say something to puncture his self-regard when he leaned over and added, "But they didn't draw you nearly pretty enough."

[betony]

Robin Hood, Marian(/Robin), daemon AU

springboarding off the Disney version

[raisedbymoogles]

The archer making his bow to the Prince and his entourage looks familiar, but Marian can't quite place him until, while John's distracted, Fortigin shoves his nose under her ear and hisses, "That was Perfilia!"

Marian's breath quickens. The archer's daemon had looked to be a pine marten, not the sleek red fox she remembered from their childhood...! "Are you sure?"

"I'll never forget her scent." Fortigin settles back into Marian's lap, every inch the proper lady's daemon to all appearances, and the two of them endeavored to not look like they were watching the the stranger to the exclusion of all others.

[betony]

Historical RPF, Anne Neville (/Richard III), When you are young, they assume you know nothing

But I Knew You (Historical RPF, Anne/Richard)

[vialethe]

“Ah, Anne,” Richard says, and grimaces, pulling at one shoulder with the opposite hand, as he does more and more often these days. “You say that now, but you may not always feel so - you should have caution, for who knows what manner of man I’ll grow into, at this rate.”

“A good one,” she insists, and tugs at him until he tips into the solar’s window seat with a groan of defeat, where she can climb up beside him to dig her small fists into the knotted muscles trying their best to straighten his frame, “and I will so marry you, you’ll see.”

[betony]

Queen's Thief, Gen & Irene & Dite, Standing by and waiting at your back door / All this time how could you not know / Baby, you belong with me