rthstewart | Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

Entry tags:

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

(…I suppose I should complete the set)

any, frantically checking someone for injuries (they're hurt, it's bad)

"It's fine, you're fine," Susan says, almost out of habit--it's what she used to say to Lucy when she would fall and scrape her knees. But this is far worse than a scrape knee--Susan doesn't have to be a doctor to know that the spear piercing the nymph's abdomen is bad and that Lucy is woefully far off with her cordial. "You'll be fine. Just--just breathe with me-"

The nymph, Sinope, gasps a breath but her eyes do not see Susan. It's not fair--the fighting was over, the battle won. The hag that speared Sinope like a needle through a bug fell to Susan's arrow with no ceremony, but now Susan can only brush the nymph's hair from her face. Sinope, lovely and kind Sinope, who'd braided Susan's hair yesterday after her bath to help keep it out of the way, who'd sang her and Lucy to sleep with a lullaby the first night in the camp when the noises kept them too keyed up to sleep. Susan had asked her if she'd be a lady in waiting for her and she'd blushed with pleasure.

It's not fair, Susan thinks as she stutters out a reminder to Sinope to take a breath--where the hell is Lucy?--and then, the nymph is gone. Delicate pink blossoms flutter to the ground and the spear falls into the grass with a dull thump.

Susan blinks, but there is no magic cordial to save her, no Old Magic to turn back this travesty and make it right. There is only a gruesome spear and pile of blossoms in her lap.

"You... you didn't breathe, Sinope," she mutters, but only the wind hears.

Oh that's horrible and beautiful together.

Then I have succeeded! Thanks for the comment.

Oh, SUSAN. <3 ;__;

I love what you show of Sinope and also of Susan, who is trying desperately to fix things, but finding everything she can do so desperately insufficient.

Gosh, the last line, it hurts, and it really shows just how in shock she was.

Poor Susan is only a preteen and there is just so little she can do. I respect that the books almost pointedly never wanted to linger on the trauma they MUST have gone through in the fight with the White Witch (and... lots of other stuff, really), but man, did it leave a goldmine of opportunity for the fic writers for angst.

Also, I almost didn't add that last line because I wasn't sure if it felt necessary, but I really wanted to finish that repetition of about the dialogue about breathing. Glad it works though!

😭

Wonderfufl and terrible and oh more poor girl, Susan. You are so young, too young, to have to do this. Terrific fill.

oh no! This is so sad and beautifully written

holy shit you just speared ME through the heart goddamn

you didn't breathe

holy SHIT well done

Oh nooo, that hurts; poor Sinope and poor Susan! (How very beautifully done!)

He's as haggard and tired as ever when he arrives this time, and she rushes over to hug him, but as she pulls away, her hands are stained the same red as his clothes.

"Oh, Zagreus," she says, eyes flicking across him as if trying to gauge where the injuries are, what treatment is suitable, "please, sit down, let me-"

"Please, Mother, don't worry about it; I'll be--" he staggers, the massive gash across his chest draining to the ground, but the smile on his face isn't even forced, "--I'll be back soon, I promise."

I have watched enough of the game to know he'll be fine and she knows that, but that can't make it any easier for her to watch

Breaks my heart every single time ♥

aslj this is wonderful!!

"Fucking hell," Sasuke breathed, and Naruto's stomach sank like he'd swallowed lead, "Sakura!" he shouted, and Naruto bolted after him - a moment later he saw what Sasuke had seen, and bit back a cry.

Sakura was sprawled over a swathe of broken rock, limbs akimbo, and she wasn't moving - Naruto dropped down at her side opposite Sasuke, and it took barely a heartbeat of searching to find the first wound . . . and then the second, the third; a litter of torn skin and broken bones, and Sakura was so still, bright eyes closed and body lax and-

Naruto's breath caught as green chakra slowly, slowly began to seep from Sakura's skin, flowing like water to gather around the worst injuries she bore; he lifted his gaze to meet Sasuke's cool, uncertain eyes, then they both looked down at the woman they loved . . . hoping she could, once more, produce a miracle and bring herself back to them.

😿

I suspect the boys never handle a battered Sakura well. . .

"It's fine," he says, trying to stop Ladybug from discovering where the sword entered and exited him in rapid succession. If he can convince her of this, then he can believe it, too, never mind what his traitorous body believes about physics and Miraculously sharp weaponry.

"Plagg, claws in," he says, dropping the transformation so that Hawkmoth has to stare a child in the eyes as his life leaks out of him, horror dawning on his face as he realizes what the true cost of pursuing his goals is.

Edited 2022-01-17 22:11 (UTC)

😭

Bucky staggers into the shelter, and as Clint takes in the look of him, it isn’t good. His skin is grey, pain etched deep into a frown as he whispers, “Help me!” collapsing to his knees in front of Clint. Clint barely has enough time to catch enough of him to stop his body hitting the ground with a smack that wouldn’t do his injuries any good whatsoever.

He helps him lie down, slipping a jacket under his head, trying to make him as comfortable as possible in the cramped space, hurrying as he does so, so he can start looking for where Bucky’s hurt.

“Get it off!” Bucky pleads urgently. It’s Clint’s turn to frown, unsure what Bucky means, but he starts by unzipping his jacket and working his way down Bucky’s torso, so he can look and feel for the injury. He’s not finding it quick enough, as he begins to check his legs, but the sweat on Bucky’s brow, the quiet plea for him to ‘get it off’ that seems to be taking all of Bucky’s willpower to express is all the proof he needs that this is real. Bucky is injured and in pain and it breaks his heart, just as it steels his commitment to fixing this, and that is when he sees it, sees as Bucky tenses further as if a wave of pain is flowing through him as he gently reaches up to stroke Bucky’s hair back in comfort he feels the sharp tingle of electricity surging through and then it’s gone again. It’s the arm, “Get it off” is what Bucky had said, he’d meant the arm.

“I’m sorry, Bucky,” he says quietly as he runs his fingers across the shoulder joint, where the arm fixes into the plate on his shoulder. He can feel it now a constant running electrical charge pulsing painfully against his own skin. He remembers the night Bucky had trusted him enough to tell him about the release and how Ayo had suddenly activated it mid fight when he’d been with Sam. He’d promised then never to go near it.

He looks again at Bucky’s face, sees the taut signs of pain, the lip he’s biting, the glazed unfocused eyes and knows he has to do this. If he doesn’t Bucky is going to lose this fight. He leans in close, takes Bucky’s face in his hands and says, “I’m going to take the arm off now, Bucky. I hope that’s what you were asking and I pray this is going to help but please believe me, I’m doing it to help.”

Clint hopes he isn’t breaking Bucky’s trust, as he moves his hands back to the arm and activates the release. The arm just drops away with a solid thunk to the ground below it. He looks back at Bucky’s face again, hoping that he’ll see some relief to the pain there, but Bucky doesn’t look any better, he’s still biting his lip to keep from crying out in pain, releasing the arm hasn’t done anything to help. Bucky barely looks conscious now, his breathing laboured. Carefully, Clint climbs over Bucky’s body, squeezing in on his other side so that he can see directly into the mechanism that’s still fixed to his body and there he can see the mess that’s left – Clint has no idea what any one part of it is, but it’s clear the wires and chips are burnt out, what he assumes is either a power pack or a major processor of some sort is in the centre, still sparking. That’s what he needs to remove and he has absolutely nothing to do it with. The last thing he needs to do is put a knife in there and end up electrocuting himself as well or accidentally joining a currently severed circuit and upping the power coursing through Bucky’s body.

Then he remembers, he crawls back across Bucky, grabs at his quiver and hunts through the arrows that are left. There it is, the one he can use – wooden shaft and ceramic tip. As soon as he starts to move the unit in Bucky’s arm, the sparks get worse, Bucky’s gasping for breath – short and sharp, his pulse frighteningly fast. Tears in his eyes, Clint forces the ceramic tip deeper beneath the unit and twists, flipping it free, Bucky’s body tenses and then relaxes, slipping into unconsciousness, but his breathing is easier and when Clint feels for his pulse again, it’s slowing, steadying already. He turns his attention back to the shoulder, there are no more sparks which is a relief, but some of the wires are still red with heat from the charge, he uses the ceramic tip to sever them, no longer caring about any damage he might cause, he just wants to get anything that might still be causing Bucky pain away.

When he’s finished, he bandages the open unit, covers it to protect any further contamination – he doesn’t know what might happen, whether Bucky can catch an infection but in some way that Clint doesn’t fully understand this is connected into his body, to his brain. Clint isn’t going to risk anything if a bandage or a bit more care might make a difference.

When he’s done all he can, he climbs out of the cramped position he’d been in. He calls in for help, checks Bucky again, his breathing is calm, more like sleep now and his pulse is steady, the sweat from his brow has gone and his features are relaxed. Clint thinks the colour is beginning to return to his skin, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking at this stage.

He settles beside Bucky to wait, he’s done all he can and now he just needs to wait for them to be picked up. He’s repacked their gear, stored the arm ready to be lifted out as well and now he’s just watching over Bucky and waiting.

"Easy, Ezra easy, stay still and hold on, it's gonna be okay..."

Though it sure don' look anything like okay right now. You're tryin' to hold him still, pressin' down with one hand on the hole in his blood-soaked side (please, please not anywhere fatal, you can't lose him, you can't lose any of them) while you try to gently - gently but that sound he makes - prod at what has to be a broken leg, broken in two places you think.

His face is whiter than that fancy frilled collar of his, and smeared with his own blood from your hand, but you can't be botherin' with that right now, there's so much more blood on your hands now as you press down with both, afraid he'll bleed out before Nate and the boys (where the hell are they, where the hell are they?) get here, and you can't pray, you haven't been able to pray for years, but if you though it'd help Ezra, you'd pray to every god in heaven and history... because please god, any god, you can't lose any of them.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

no subject

Narnia, Susan+OC

Re: Narnia, Susan+OC

Re: Narnia, Susan+OC

Re: Narnia, Susan+OC

Re: Narnia, Susan+OC

Re: Narnia, Susan+OC

Re: Narnia, Susan+OC

Re: Narnia, Susan+OC

no subject

Re: Narnia, Susan+OC

Homeward Bound (Supergiant Hades)

Re: Homeward Bound (Supergiant Hades)

Re: Homeward Bound (Supergiant Hades)

Re: Homeward Bound (Supergiant Hades)

Helpless (Naruto; Sasuke/Naruto/Sakura)

Re: Helpless (Naruto; Sasuke/Naruto/Sakura)

Re: Helpless (Naruto; Sasuke/Naruto/Sakura)

Miraculous Ladybug, A Final F You

Re: Miraculous Ladybug, A Final F You

Marvel MCU (post Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Bucky & Clint

The Magnificent 7 (TV) - Ezra and Chris