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!



      


















kalira: cartoon representation of Kalira (pale skin, long brown hair, fangy smile, with thumb and two fingers raised), wearing a black tank top and cardigan, on a galaxy in ace flag stripes/colours (Default)

[personal profile] kalira 2022-01-15 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
any, any, merfolk
ruthchinn: (Default)

[personal profile] ruthchinn 2022-01-15 07:32 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm pretty sure this isn't from my side of the family," Bo says.
Brian's eyes are wide. "...you know, Nari's scales might be my fault."
Neumia keeps splashing happily through the waves.
kiestan: Image of a female character wearing a light gray hoodie, whose white hair goes past her shoulders. She has pale blue eyes. She's framed by a circle filled with pale pink. (Default)

[personal profile] kiestan 2022-01-16 04:15 pm (UTC)(link)

<3

scytale: (Default)

[personal profile] scytale 2022-01-15 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
The stories said the merfolk were beautiful: a glimpse of a glimmering tail flicking out of the waves or a distant silhouette on the beach could shatter a man's heart with longing, and afterwards he would yearn for the shining scales and the taste of the sea, and neither food nor the touch of a mortal man could satisfy him.

The stories said the merfolk were terrible: sometimes they granted a sailor's wish and showed him wonders beneath the waves, but often they called storms, sunk ships, feasting upon drowned men and making jewelry of their bones; they had no souls, and to them a mortal's life was as brief and meaningless as the foam upon the sea.

But on the day he left his love's coral palace, he learned by himself that they
could weep.
Edited (minor edit!) 2022-01-15 20:53 (UTC)
elementalraven: (Default)

[personal profile] elementalraven 2022-01-15 08:53 pm (UTC)(link)
This amazing! Beatifully written. I love the merfolk how you describe them, the different sides to them: both wonderful and dangerous, and I loved that the final sentence really makes the story.
scytale: (Default)

[personal profile] scytale 2022-01-15 08:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! <333
kalira: cartoon representation of Kalira (pale skin, long brown hair, fangy smile, with thumb and two fingers raised), wearing a black tank top and cardigan, on a galaxy in ace flag stripes/colours (Default)

[personal profile] kalira 2022-01-15 09:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Oo, this is so evocative and breathlessly engaging. đź–¤
scytale: (Default)

[personal profile] scytale 2022-01-16 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you! <3 (And thank you for the prompt!)
theseatheseatheopensea: Illustration by James Marsh, cover of the album Missing pieces, by Talk Talk. (Missing pieces Dodo.)

[personal profile] theseatheseatheopensea 2022-01-15 09:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Beautiful and heartbreaking!

(Also: I love your icon!)
scytale: (Default)

[personal profile] scytale 2022-01-16 12:21 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you! <3 (I like yours too! What a beautiful bird! :DD)
theseatheseatheopensea: Illustration of The vain jackdaw, by Harrison Weir, from Aesop's Fables. (Vain jackdaw.)

[personal profile] theseatheseatheopensea 2022-01-16 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
Yay bird icons! <3
eglantiere: (Default)

[personal profile] eglantiere 2022-01-17 10:12 am (UTC)(link)
i love the break in the last line, the very mundane and horrible end of it. neither beautiful nor terrifying, just - this human sadness...
swirlsngirls: side view of a light-skinned woman with wavy brown hair. Part of it is being lifted to the side by someone else’s hand (Default)

[personal profile] swirlsngirls 2022-01-28 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
i love the phrase “glimpse of a glimmering tale”, that alliteration is nice /gen
scytale: (Default)

[personal profile] scytale 2022-01-28 05:17 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you! <3
undeadrobins: (DCU: Nightwing (don't know Dick))

DCU, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd

[personal profile] undeadrobins 2022-01-15 09:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Dick always likes to say that, as superheroes (or vigilantes, whatever), they've seen everything that Gotham can possibly throw at them, but he's forced to amend that theory the day he and Jason leap into the harbour after a suspect and find themselves surrounded by merfolk; there's a redheaded one who seems especially keen to become friends with him, much to Jason's amusement, but he can't help himself from staring at the razor sharp talons where their fingers should be and shuddering a little.

They only have a few more minutes of air left, even with their rebreathers, but it's enough for some brief sign language conversations assuring them the merfolk mean no harm to the people on land; in fact, as they hand over the suspect the boys had been chasing, they offer to keep an eye out for any more like him.

Dragging themselves and the suspect out of the water, Jason is the one who speaks out loud first: "I'm totally not writing up the report on this one, Golden Boy; it's all yours."
kalira: cartoon representation of Kalira (pale skin, long brown hair, fangy smile, with thumb and two fingers raised), wearing a black tank top and cardigan, on a galaxy in ace flag stripes/colours (Default)

Re: DCU, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd

[personal profile] kalira 2022-01-15 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Fun! The things they come across. . . XD
mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)

Teen Wolf, Stiles, Time to Update the Bestiary

[personal profile] mad_madam_m 2022-01-18 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
Stiles scrambled onto the shore, coughing up saltwater, trying to suck as much oxygen into his poor deprived lungs as he could. He still wasn't totally positive how he was even alive right now, given that about five minutes ago, something had been actively trying to drown him.

Werewolves, werejaguars, evil fox demons...he really shouldn't be this freaking surprised that mermaids were real, too, or that they were assholes.
kalira: cartoon representation of Kalira (pale skin, long brown hair, fangy smile, with thumb and two fingers raised), wearing a black tank top and cardigan, on a galaxy in ace flag stripes/colours (Default)

Re: Teen Wolf, Stiles, Time to Update the Bestiary

[personal profile] kalira 2022-01-18 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
*laughs* Oh, poor Stiles . . . but no, that shouldn't be surprising. XP
mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)

Re: Teen Wolf, Stiles, Time to Update the Bestiary

[personal profile] mad_madam_m 2022-01-18 04:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I mean they've been through everything else at this point; what's one more supernatural creature
swirlsngirls: side view of a light-skinned woman with wavy brown hair. Part of it is being lifted to the side by someone else’s hand (Default)

Kevin Can F**k Himself, Patty & Allison

[personal profile] swirlsngirls 2022-01-28 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
A mermaid, Patty thinks as she watches Allison’s blond hair sink underwater and rise up again, along with a luminescent tail in a color that reminds Patty of dragon scales.

But what kind of mermaid has sharp teeth like glass shards when she smiles and sinks them into her husband’s neck?

I’m going to kill Kevin, Allison had said; this is not the way she expected her to follow through.
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.
priama: (Default)

Naruto, Kisame Hoshigaki/Konan

[personal profile] priama 2022-04-10 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Kisame raises his fin over the foam, sea water splashing to the sides and against the shore where the human kneels.

"Do you want to touch?" He asks her, watching how coral colored eyes widen as to make sure she has his permission, before reaching for his limb.

Thin and curious fingers run down the length of his fin -and then back up- and she hisses out a curse when she cuts herself on his hide, bloody fingers shoved in her mouth; Kisame laughs.