rthstewart | 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

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Any, any, something bigger than us holding us together

The front door of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes threatens to fall off its hinges as Hermione slams it behind her and George winces as he turns to his twin, who is looking rather too cheerful for a wizard whose girlfriend has just stormed out of the room rather than give into the temptation of hexing his bits off.

“I don’t know why she puts up with you,” George mutters because it’s far from the first time that those two have rowed, their usual playful banter taking on a distinctly caustic air. “One of these days, you’ll go too far.”

“Not gonna happen,” Fred says jauntily, “because Granger and I, we are meant to be, we are held together by a force greater than both of us.”

“What?” George asks as he fights the urge to roll his eyes, “True love?”

Fred’s eyes gleam as he makes to follow Hermione, throwing back over his shoulder, “Nah, mate - we both want the last word.”

Well, when he puts it that way, Fred and Hermione do seem likely to last. Very fun. :)

The Changeling has told the Haruspex that she sees two hands directing his feet and the Bachelor’s to different ends. That was three days in and he was already too tired for this nonsense and speaking to the girl for longer than a few minutes always gives him a headache, but now that they’re almost at the end he thinks he understands what players she was referring to.

She was wrong, though; the Powers That Be weren’t splitting Artemy and Daniil up, but pushing them together, so he follows suit and pulls that ridiculous dandy close enough for a press of lips and fingertips.

ooh i like this, it fits the weird mysticism and metafiction of the game, and i love the changeling being the voice for it but artemy seeing the heart of it. but mostly i love that the powers that be are pushing the dolls together and making them kiss.

thank you! clara actually has a line in classic about two hands holding the bachelor and the haruspex, but the powers that be pushing the dolls together was all me (and the subtext of the game, tbqh)

The thing is, the 'Cons aren't wrong - most of us just aren't fighters. The Ark mission was supposed to be a survey mission, hunting out new sources of energon. All this stuff with the Nemesis chasing us down, all of us landing on an alien world, fighting the war here instead of back home - that wasn't ever the plan.

So, we became fighters. We learned to charge in like Ironhide, pull dirty tricks like Jazz, be smart like Prowl. To fight for something, like Optimus Prime. It's not just our lives we're fighting for. It's everything.

But I'm gonna complain about it the whole time, just saying.

Éowyn had come to expect the Elf-lord’s presence in the Houses of Healing: Glorfindel had come to Minas Tirith as part of Lady Arwen’s entourage, just ahead of Lord Aragorn’s coronation, and he had sought her out immediately, wishing to meet the woman who had fulfilled the prophecy he had spoken long ago of the Witch-king’s demise; and the time he passed at her side grew each day, from aiding with the healers’ ministrations, to singing softly to ward away her nightmares, to helping her walk through the gardens when strength at last returned to her limbs.

And as the weeks had spun into months, something between them shifted, subtle but unmistakable, and Éowyn wondered at the impossibility of it; but even so, she could hardly mistake the tenderness of his actions, or the joy and unfettered love that now grew in her heart, slowly displacing the shadows that had shrouded it for so long.

Their love was impossible, but it was there, a green and growing thing well-nourished by the hope in her heart and the gentleness in his, and she delighted in the wonder of it, that an Elf and a woman should be brought together thus and that love should grow between them, its roots anchored in the deep places of their hearts.

t is one thing to be loved, and to love in return. If they were only ordinary men with ordinary lives, Acatl would have been content with that. But perhaps that very ordinariness would have spelt their doom; perhaps he would have walked out with their first argument, or perhaps Teomitl would have found other, more pleasant people to give his heart to.

They are not ordinary men. He is the High Priest of Mictlantecuhtli in desperate love with the Master of the House of Darts; Lord and Lady Death smile upon their relationship, and their arguments decide the fate of kings. With a single word, he can twist the order of the world; with a single smile, Teomitl can do the same. The power they balance between them is as terrifying as it is intoxicating, and sometimes he wonders whether he can handle it. Whether it would be safer after all to go back to his cold, lonely bed.

But then...

“You have chosen well,” say his patrons.

“The boundaries of the world are safe,” say his priests.

“I’m listening,” says Teomitl.

Yes, love on its own is a fine thing. But the way their love has benefited the Fifth World? The way that Acatl knows, thanks to that same love, that when Teomitl is Revered Speaker they will never fear again? That’s something else entirely.

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

no subject

Harry Potter, Fred/Hermione

Re: Harry Potter, Fred/Hermione

Pathologic, Artemy/Daniil

Re: Pathologic, Artemy/Daniil

Re: Pathologic, Artemy/Daniil

Transformers G1, Huffer (narrator)

LOTR, Éowyn/Glorfindel

Obsidian & Blood, Acatl/Teomitl