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

[vialethe]

Narnia/GoT, Susan/Jon Snow, family that I chose/now that I see your brother as my brother

[vialethe]

Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, you assume i’m fine, but what would you do if i/break free and leave us in ruins/took this dagger in me and removed it

Re: The Earth Weeps (Naruto; Hashirama & Tobirama)

[kalira]

Thank you so much! I gave myself . . . more sorrowful feelings than I anticipated while I was writing this one, and I'm pleased to hear that comes through even if it is unfamiliar. ^^;

[vialethe]

Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, and though it’s true/sometimes you’re the bad guy/you’re still mine/and I want you

[vialethe]

Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, when my time comes around/lay me gently in the cold, dark earth/no grave can hold my body down/i’ll crawl home to her

[vialethe]

The Mandalorian, Din Djarin/Bo-Katan Kryze, know what it is to grow/beneath her sky, her punishing cold/to slowly learn of her ancient misery

[vialethe]

Narnia, Cor, Let your lion heart cleave the waves/brother, you will return

[kaminagi]

"Mmm, this is lovely," the princess says, sipping from her goblet, "jasmine green tea, with pomegranate juice, very, very nice."

"I suppose you deserve it," the royal scholar replies, carefully holding an ice pack around her injured hand, "that was quite a punch, one blow knocked him down, I'm impressed as always."

"I won't have pompous, condescending ministers insulting my betrothed when he's every bit qualified to be the royal university's chancellor, and at least I decked him in private," she tells him airily, and the scholar tries to hide his blush behind his own goblet of punch.


I almost thought the prompt said richly deserved plums and then finding reasons to drink nice fruit beverages wouldn't go away.

Re: #sorrynotsorry

[vialethe]

SYRENA YES.

Re: Onwards (Bastion)

[raisedbymoogles]

awww, definitely earned it. thanks for the fill!

[animus_wyrmis]

Narnia, Corin, princes have all the fun

Cake (Girl Genius; Agatha)

[kalira]

"And does her highness feel better now that there is cake?"

Agatha paused, then drew her fork slowly out of her mouth - she hummed with pleasure at the richness of the cocoa in the icing across her tongue - and inspected the plate before her. "Mmmaybe. Is there more?"

Like Some Holy Rite (WoT, Moiraine/Liandrin)

[vialethe]

“Haven’t you wondered,” Liandrin says, in a voice that’s low and anything but hollow, one finger tracing down the arc of Moiraine’s cheekbone, cold as steel, “a pretty, cossetted little spy like you - what it feels like to be used, to be completely helpless in the power of another?”

It washes over Moiraine like a tide; the one power sparking just below Liandrin’s skin, the red-hot wash of her rage, barely contained, the deep, trembling core of fear it hides, and - Yes, she wants to say, wants to give in, wants to drown under that poisoned weight. But - she is a spy, after all, and well used to veiling her feelings, so there’s no lie in the blue of her eyes when she opens them and lets the word never fall from her lips like a sneer, rather than the regret it is.

[vialethe]

A much better ending for them both, as they deserved!

[kalira]

any, any, richly-deserved plums

Because of the added note on this. X'D

[kalira]

Fabulous; well done your highness! ;)

. . .ahaha, whoop - and . . . brb off to prompt that now.

Best Seat in the House

[word_devourer]

"I apologize for the inconvenience," he says, "but I'm afraid there has been an unexpected adjustment that leaves me incapable of joining you at this time."

Data's is satisfied that, if nothing else, the request he has been forced to deny is at least minor; he is of course required to take the path that will result in the least harm, and if his understanding of human culture is appropriate, to leave his current position would be to break a significant taboo.

Spot purrs gently, asleep on his lap, and Data observes him, wondering whether the steady positive feedback of his brain at the gentle weight is appropriate considering the fact that he was not designed to enjoy proprioceptive feedback.

Re: Narnia, Lucy

[animus_wyrmis]

The trees inside the garden were so tall that Lucy wondered that she hadn't seem them over the walls, yet not so tall that she couldn't have plucked their fruit. And from every direction came that smell, like sun-warmed fruit in midsummer, only the fruit was riper and sweeter than any she had known. The greatest tree, in the very center, had apples -- but what apples! Lucy had never seen nor smelled such apples. They were large and bright, and there a light seemed to shine from them which reached into the deepest shadows of the garden. You knew if you bit into one it would be just ripe enough, crisp and tart and sweet all at once. And in front of it all was Aslan. "Oh, Aslan!" Lucy said. "Is this truly real?"

Re: Best Seat in the House

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Perfect! Data would totally do this! <3

Dress Up Your Pet Day (Inception; Arthur/Eames)

[kalira]

"But darling! It's Dress Up Your Pet Day! I thought you'd like that!"

". . .you know what, fine. Have fun." Arthur said, eyeing the suit jacket in Eames' hands, and then their cat, clearly fuming, his tail lashing. "Your funeral."

Okay actually that holiday was January 13th, but the thought made me giggle.

So Bitter and So Beautiful (S&B, The Darkling/Alina)

[vialethe]

“I’ll always leave you,” she says, fever-hot and desperate against his skin, like a threat; like a promise.

And she does, time and time again, for years, for decades, for long enough that he forgets to wait for her; long enough that he’s surprised somehow, just a bit, every time she comes back sharper-edged, leaner, a little less left of her to be honed.

“You’ll always come back to me,” he tells her, her face held between his hands, shadows blurring her lines, and smiles at the flare in her eyes; a promise, a threat.

Appreciation (Naruto; Kakashi/Shisui)

[kalira]

"You have very sexy hands, love." Shisui said, toying with Kakashi's fingers - long and graceful, steady and sure - and grinning as Kakashi's eye widened and his cheeks went rosy pink.

"The blush is pretty cute, too." Shisui added, leaning up and kissing his cheek.

Re: Narnia, Lucy

[elementalraven]

Another one!!! I love it so much

[Miraculous Ladybug] will you mari me

[alexseanchai]

"One more thing," says Chat Noir to the reporters assembled for the official story of Hawkmoth's defeat, and turns to Ladybug, fishing out a box large enough it might take the world a few heartbeats more to realize it means the same as a small square box does when someone on one knee holds it out to another: "Be mine, ma belle?"

No wonder Adrien made off with Marinette's two-centimeter pink satin ribbon—there's enough length here to go twice around her wrist, enough width to be plainly visible on camera, and the knot securing the copycat Chat Noir collar bell is loose enough she'll have no difficulty repurposing the ribbon for something more everyday—but also, no fair.

"No fair," Ladybug says, sitting on Chat Noir's conveniently offered knee so she can balance her open yo-yo on her knee and get out her own surprise even while he's tying on her engagement bracelet, "I wanted to ask you to marry me, ma fleur!"

Chat Noir blinks down at the silk corsage: a vivid red rose blossom ringed with little marigolds and buttercups, with myrtle, olive, and rosemary to wrap around his wrist. (There may be a half dozen 'officially licensed imitations' in stock on the website of 'the artist Ladybug commissioned', as of an hour or so from now when Marinette makes the listing go live.) "You're the best part of my life too," he says, sincere enough it takes vast willpower not to just kiss him breathless on camera, "and that is the best pun I've ever heard."

"I knew I should have gone with chou à la crème de la crème," Ladybug says dryly, producing a cream puff from Tom & Sabine's, threaded onto kitchen twine.

There: now the photos announcing the superheroes' engagement will show them kissing less passionately and more full of laughter.

(Adrien's engagement ring is slim rose gold with a small princess-cut diamond, and his wedding ring will be a plain rose-gold band; Marinette, unwilling to wear rings that might catch on her sewing or need removed to wash her hands before baking, instead got her ears pierced for what she isn't admitting is the first time, the silvery starter studs serving as her engagement earrings, and at their for-family wedding ceremony Adrien will exchange those for mother-of-pearl; they've already been asked why these don't match, and plan never to explain why they do.)

[idkwriteshitdown]

The Doctor looked up from her drink as two pair of shoes stepped into her vision, a wordless question forming on her companions face as she looked down at her sitting in her blood covered shoes and dust covered face. She opened her mouth to speak, and closed it again, and The Doctor watched as Yaz, untouched by the horrors of the universe, sat next to her.
"Tea makes everything better," she said, and then as an afterthought, "and biscuits."