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

[smallhobbit]

The plants have long stood by and watched as they have been destroyed, but now the moment has come and they are out to get their revenge. Long tendrils are wrenching chainsaws out of the wielders hands; flamethrowers and those applying them are dowsed; and clipboards and laptops are being snatched and thrown to the winds. The wilderness is marching and planted areas are turning on their planters.

[smallhobbit]

The first day I pretended that I had simply received a tree and there was nothing within it, but for the next three days I barred the doors and shut the curtains so that I couldn't see. On day five I started to feel hopeful - for who can reject those lovely rings. But now, two days on I am a jibbering wreck; soon I shall be leaving this house forever, with no forwarding address - I never want to hear from them again!

[topaz_eyes]

Any, any, simplicity baffles the complex mind

[elementalraven]

Susan puts on the ring and the world twists out of existence. She blinks and she is standing in a hallway, a small girl looking at her with shock in her eyes- a little way behind her: a man, in front of him: a hulking guard in gleaming armour, on the floor: five others.

Susan doesn’t hesitate: she draws an arrow, sets her jaw, and shoots- and down he goes, the slit in his helmet no match for Queen Susan of Narnia.

[scytale]

OMG YES YES YES this is beautiful!

I love the details, and "the look of intertwined hope and fear on his visitor’s face." and the note that Relius recognizes Telius's handwriting, and also, "copied in a hand he knows as well as his own and has never seen turned to such soft sweetness as the verses within."

And Teleus, making the first move with poetry, and then Relius pressing forward (the last line, omg)--and how it all truly feels like a moment in a long friendship already filled with intimacy and respect.

The Pureblood Pretense (murkybluematter), dubious reading material

[octahedrite]

Rigel Black reads ridiculously widely, Aldon knows, and he's a near-expert in half a dozen fields while being a genius at potions; it might make a lesser man jealous, but Aldon has nothing but the purest admiration for Rigel's boundless intellectual curiosity. He doesn't need to be an empath to read the utter glee the younger boy is radiating as he sits by the fire with a fat tome. But then his blood goes cold as he sees what he's reading -- he immediately seeks out Pansy and starts plotting an intervention; the world as they know it cannot survive if Rigel applies his prodigious talents to necromancy.

[maidenjedi]

The Defenders, Matt Murdock +/ Jessica Jones, breakfast food

[caramelsilver]

Narnia, Edmund, smoking

[maidenjedi]

What If...?, any, a confab of that character's variants to discuss their love lives

Re: Narnia: The Dread Pirate Shasta? (AU)

[cofax7]

Russum was unimpressed with the new boy, Ardeeb, who knew almost nothing about sailing and refused to look anyone in the eye for the first several days. Despite this, Captain Nikami insisted that Russum show the newcomer about and keep him out of trouble.

This was less fun than Russum had hoped: Ardeeb was quiet, inattentive, and jumpy. He didn't know how to duck out of the way when the sailors ran through to adjust the sails, got blisters on his feet from the hot deck, and barely responded to his own name.

"You needn't bother," said Ardeeb sullenly, after Russum had wasted a whole turn of the glass showing the other boy how to tie the four necessary knots every sailor needed to know. "I know you'd rather not."

Russum shot him a sharp glance; Ardeeb had barely spoken for the first three days, and only now was it clear that he spoke with a distinct and well-bred Calormene accent. Russum had been to Tashbaan, had carried vegetables and crates of chickens through its market for the ship's quartermaster: he knew what high-born Calormenes sounded like.

"Where are you from?" he challenged, looking around to make sure no one was watching. He had been cossetted on the Wave-Rider as a boy, but as he grew, he was treated more as a member of the crew and less as a pet. Loitering and gossiping on a busy ship was a good way to find yourself scrubbing the scuppers. "And don't tell me some fishing village, either: you're no peasant."

The Calormene boy bit his lip. He had the Calormene complexion, but with delicate features and a light--if wiry--build. Russum had noted the calluses on his hands from riding and swordplay, and his excellent balance; despite the rough waters of the Calormene Bight, Ardeeb had never once fallen on deck. "Kidrash," he finally said, his eyes looking everywhere but at Russum's face. "My -- my brother went north with Prince Rabadash but didn't come back, and I want to find him."

Russum pondered. There had been some story about Prince Rabadash in the markets, something about a raid gone wrong, but he had paid little attention. Still, looking for a missing brother: that was a worthy quest, even a noble one. Maybe this Ardeeb wasn't such a sullen waste of space after all.

"All right," he decided, and clapped the other boy on the back. "I'll help you out, if you promise not to be such a pill, and maybe we can figure out together how to find your brother. Deal?"

Ardeeb's face brightened, and he let his breath out in a whoosh. "Do you mean it? I--I--I could use a friend." He put his arm out in the Calormene way, and Russum clasped it.

Of course, on a small ship with almost no privacy, it is nearly impossible to keep some secrets. Happily, by the time "Ardeeb" was discovered to be Aravis, she had become inseparable from Russum, and the crew had long since adjusted to her presence. Indeed, there was a long history of female sailors in the less-than-legal naval community of the Eastern Sea, and after a few grumbles, life on the Wave-Rider went on much as before.

[maidenjedi]

LOTR, Goldberry, Ringbearer

[maidenjedi]

Hawkeye, Kate Bishop & Yelena Bulova & Maya Lopez, training

SAB, Darkling/Alina

[caramelsilver]

She feels like a junkie around him - the yearning, the need for him to touch her. His touch made her feel alive, warm, useful, for the first time in her life. She wanted that feeling all the time, she wanted him, all the time, he made her shine.

CQL, JC & WWX, canon MCD

[shadaras]

"I didn't— This wasn't something I ever thought could happen," Wei Wuxian said inside Jiang Cheng's head, which was awful for so many reasons—not the least of which was that Jiang Cheng had just watched his shixiong fall to his death—that for the first heartwrenching moments Jiang Cheng thought he was hallucinating from grief.

But no, Wei Wuxian kept talking, spilling out an increasingly panicked story about golden cores and demonic cultivation which was so tangled and familiar that—just for a moment—Jiang Cheng thought he'd be able to close his eyes and wake up from the worst dream he'd ever had to hear Wei Wuxian babbling about cultivation theory by the docks back home, like nothing had ever happened at all.

"I never meant to haunt you," Wei Wuxian said, voice full of helpless anguish, as Jiang Cheng turned away from the cliff—where Lan Wangji still knelt, frozen—and forced himself to walk towards the collapsing puppets Wei Wuxian had once controlled. "I only wanted you to live the best life you could."

Digimon 02, Kaiser!Taichi AU, A Bitter Reunion

[moon_blitz]

Taichi took a deep breath and held it for a moment, staring down at the horrified face of his sister. "O-Onii-chan?" she asked shakily, taking in his long cloak and cracked goggles perched like a mocking crown on his head, which he wore to remind himself of the child he used to be and the reason why he had turned his back on everything.

"Hikari, I never wanted it to come to this; I never wanted to leave you behind," he said sincerely, trying to hold in the pain - he had decided to take over the Digital World to protect everyone from the threat of another evil Digimon (like Diaboromon, who had almost started a world war, like Apocalymon, who had nearly destroyed both worlds, like Millenniummon, who had taken a Chosen Child down before being defeated), to protect her from the grief and anger that had slowly been festering inside him.

She didn't believe him, he could see it in her eyes, and so he sighed and tapped Greymon's shoulder with his boot, signalling his partner to prepare himself for a fight. Greymon, at least, would always stand by his side.

SAB, Darkling/Alina

[caramelsilver]

In the twilight space between waking and sleep, in the state where she forgets all the terror, she imagines a life where they can be together. She sees the years unfolding, the world changing around them, but they stay the same, they stay together, they thrive together. In the dawn of her waking mind lives a dream of a life she can never have, but still yearns for, an exciting life with him.

[ruthchinn]

It's from the series Re-Entry / Journey of the Whills by flamethrower, which is account-locked on ao3. It's a Star Wars fic, I can't say much more without going into spoilers.

Re: Nirvana in Fire

[(Anonymous)]

This is so lovely and definitely a very Lin Chen move. I love the image at the end, both Lin Chen and Fei Liu just quietly waiting for Mei Changsu to join them.

[ruthchinn]

Ella listens to thunder crash from the sky. Above, light flashes in sharp spikes and branches, but the electricity doesn't reach where they are on the beach.
"Say, is this a good time to learn to throw lightning?"

[caramelsilver]

Shadow and Bone, Alina, dark! or Grey!Alina

Re: Surely this job should have gone to someone else

[goodbyebird]

Yay, thank you! And yes, they would all be needing ticky tocky bombs in them *g*

Yellowjackets, Shauna/Jackie, Shauna/Jeff - a rather loose interpretation of the prompt

[sdk]

Jackie puts you in red for the party, a dress that barely reaches your knees, a flirty hem that flips up easily with the cold night's breeze. (Or with her boyfriend's hands as you straddle him, chilled fingers rounding your thighs, shoving aside the panties you stole from her room when she wasn't looking.) She paints your face, powder for your cheeks, a dark line for your eyes, but red again pressed to your lips (and smeared across his neck as your bury your face there, clutching him tight and trying to be so, so quiet).

"You look beautiful," she says, standing behind you in the mirror.

(You hold his face in your hands; her brown eyes blink back at you.)

"Shut up," you say, eyes flicking down. But you stay still as she brushes down your dress, smoothing the fabric along your hips.

("Tell me you love me," you ask, hating how much you need it. He complies in breathy moans as he thrusts inside, a delicious pain radiating through your body.

"I love you, Shauna," he says again and again, but the only voice you hear is hers.)

[ruthchinn]

"Then I seek the Law of Surprise, farmer." Geralt declared. He had thought for many a year that he and a few others would be the only witchers left after the fall of Kaer Morhen, but a child born under Fate's eye might do well too.
The girl waiting with the farmer's wife when they arrive is a welcome sight indeed.

Re: Digimon 02, Kaiser!Taichi AU, A Bitter Reunion

[elementalraven]

:(

[elementalraven]

Fate's eye twice ;)