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

[shinon]

Final Fantasy IX, Garnet, birthright

[anonne]

She found that her reaction to the horn changed: she went through quite a confusing sequence of emotions, looking at the little sharp point that casually protruded from Eiko's head. At first, it had almost repulsed her to see something so abnormal, and to note that nobody else seemed to have such a reaction: they all treated the little girl as if she was the same as anybody else. Then, when Garnet came to understand her own past, she wondered whether it might have been a strange attraction to something that should have been hers all along, or an envy of some kind; and she became determined to look at it without flinching away.

[shinon]

This is so good! Garnet having messy feelings about her origins, and deciding to put in effort to stop letting that mess affect Eiko, feels super real and packs a lot of punch.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, that’s fascinating. I love it.

Final Fantasy IX, Garnet

[aestivalis]

Her name is Garnet Til Alexandros XVII, heir to the Kingdom of Alexandria and proud daughter of Her Majesty Queen Brahne. She is well-bred, well-versed, well-spoken and spoken well of. She has no siblings, and nor will she ever. She is a princess, and must always remain aware of her hands, her shoulders, the straightness of her limbs and the shapes of her smiles. She is sheltered—cloistered—and knows she must at least try not to resent the walls around her.

And when she is lonely, which she too often is... she sings. It is a song she does not remember being taught, and a comfort she is too afraid to question.


Her name is Dagger. She is the one who chose it, and she will wield it as her weapon. It is the name that will see her safely delivered to Lindblum, and the name she will turn against her mother's enemies to finally return things to the way they used to be. To the way things were before mother's eyes became cold, before father had left them both behind, before that strange man had appeared at court, before she'd begun dreaming of storm-tossed seas and—but there had never been a time before then, had there.


Her name is Sarah, and finally, she is home.

Re: Final Fantasy IX, Garnet

[shinon]

Oh the progression here is just marvelous. *_*

Re: Final Fantasy IX, Garnet

[(Anonymous)]

This is beautiful. <3

[raisedbymoogles]

Garnet-as-queen is as ungovernable as Garnet-as-princess had been biddable. As Dagger, she'd had a taste of freedom that she was loath to give up, even if it meant torn gowns and ruined gloves and driving her poor, longsuffering General to utter distraction.

"Didn't you climb trees and catch oglops as a girl?" Garnet asked her once, dangling upside-down from a tree limb like a monkey schoolgirl.

"...yes, your Majesty," General Beatrix admitted reluctantly, but couldn't resist adding, "When I was a child."

"But I never got to do things like this as a child," Garnet pointed out quite reasonably, "so I'm going to experience them now. It's my right."

"As Queen?"

Garnet closed her eyes, stretched her hands toward the ground. "As an ordinary girl."

[shinon]

Yes!! This is delightful and exactly what she deserves.

[aestivalis]

NO, I LOVE THIS ONE T_T

At first I wasn't sure if I could buy in to Garnet the rascal, but then you put it into her own words so neatly ("quite reasonably", even!) and suddenly it was like nope, never mind, this is perfect actually. It's what she deserves.

[raisedbymoogles]

I mean, she did engineer her own kidnapping before she ever met Zidane, so it was in her all along really. ;)

[aestivalis]

VERY true. I should know better than to underestimate her!

[(Anonymous)]

Excellent! :D

Final Fantasy IX, Garnet (because apparently I need to write for this prompt twice!)

[aestivalis]

"Your Majesty," Beatrix says, brow furrowed, "Have you taken a fall?"

Steiner reacts as he always does, with a great deal of clanking and bellowed cries of, "She's wounded, Her Majesty is wounded!"

But Queen Garnet knows exactly what it is they've both seen—the bump upon her forehead, that has been slowly forming since those first days she set foot within Madain Sari—and she has already spoken to Doctor Tot about what will happen as the horn continues to grow; "I'm not wounded," She assures him, firm and gentle, "I'm healing."

Re: Final Fantasy IX, Garnet (because apparently I need to write for this prompt twice!)

[shinon]

Beatrix and Steiner's reactions, lol. The thought of Garnet getting her heritage back in such a real and tangible way is lovely!

Re: Final Fantasy IX, Garnet (because apparently I need to write for this prompt twice!)

[(Anonymous)]

This is so lovely, especially that last line.

Duty

[fallen_stage]

As queen, Brahne Raza Alexandros XVI had many responsibilities. She was her country's leader, alongside her husband, which meant that no matter what, she had to consider her people above her own personal feelings. Any action she took would be seen, be considered, influence politics even beyond her own borders. Queen Brahne could not afford to be careless.

And yet the fact remained, her beloved daughter was dead.

Such a tiny thing, in her arms, too much in shock to weep. The girl was the very image of her father, with his dark hair and pallid face. Garnet could have been sleeping, were it not for the lack of pulse.

"Brahne." her husband said, "My queen. Please. Think of the country."

A common refrain. One he employed often. One Brahne responded to often. She knew her responsibilities. But, would he really deny her a mother's grief?

"We..." Unlike him to hesitate. That caught her attention. "We have a girl. A foundling. Almost a perfect match. No one outside these walls know yet, my queen."

He couldn't be serious. It was unthinkable. Grotesque. Some tawdry fantasy straight out of a cheap novel. Brahne let herself shed tears at last, felt duty drawing in like a shroud.

"And her?" She croaked past her weeping.

"We can't bury her in the royal graveyard, of course. The newly turned soil alone..."

That was her husband, a small, fond part of Brahne thought. Always careful, always thinking. Could this be her husband? A greater, horrified part of Brahne thought. How could he even think of replacing their only daughter with a double, like a - like a broken vase!

"But we'll give her a grave, in a secret place. We can visit, in secret, of course."

Of course. Like graverobbers instead of parents. An unmarked grave..! Their only daughter! So young, so small, so lifeless!

"Please, my dear. We must act swiftly. No one must suspect the exchange."

The king was too weak to take her daughter from her strong arms. He only had his words, his mind, always his best weapons. Already Brahne could feel her resignation. The death of the princess now would be ruinous. Garnet was already a miracle with her husband's condition, there would be no second heir. Without an heir, their throne was unstable: enemies without and enemies within would seek to dethrone her.

The shroud closed in. Brahne bowed her head over her dead child, gave her the last of a mother's love and tears, before allowing the king to gently take the corpse from her.

"Plant red roses over her." Brahne said.

"Of course, my love, of course."

The new child was a striking resemblance. There were slight differences, here and there, obvious to her mother's eyes. Any other viewer would dismiss those as the changable faces of growing children. Her husband had been right, the girl was as good a match as they could hope for. The girl was quiet and retiring, of course, it seemed she had memory problems from an accident. Truly a providential outcome.

At least her daughter was near at hand, no need to worry about sneaking to visit some lonely haunt. Her daughter had always loved the garden, and newly turned earth was no mystery when planted with a rose garden on the royal grounds. Brahne could visit her daughter for tea every day if she so wished. Even if she could shed no more tears since that wretched night, she had that much.

The girl toddled over to the flowers in fascination, and Brahne's heart ached as she remembered her daughter's steps instead. Would the rest of her life be merely this? Staring after a ghost in her daughter's living shadow?

Instead of being pricked by the thorns, the girl buried her hands in the roses directly. She tore the bloom to pieces, shredding Brahne's hidden heart.

Re: Duty

[shinon]

Whoa, I was not expecting a sympathetic take on Brahne in my inbox this morning. This is a fascinating angle! Super into the shady vibes from Garnet's dad here, and the little ways in which Brahne is vulnerable and disempowered despite the fact that he's the "weak" one.

you activated my trap card (essay on a 20yo viddy game)

[fallen_stage]

[in front of a conspiracy wall]

listen. Listen. ive been obsessing over this game for two decades now and theres so much like, missing scenes ive been trying to fill this whole time.

take brahne for example. she's a pretty simple disc1 villain but. But!! she's a beloved queen in her country, garnet (dagger, i mean) said she was a loving mother. Clearly Brahne was popular, and for a reason! We only see her after going down an emotional spiral, abetted by kuja, and im just, I wanna know what she was like, how she could have been vulnerable to kuja's manipulations. like the game primes us to hate her, sure, but if you look at the text, god, a real tragedy starts to take shape.

we know that the original garnet died, and that our garnet was used as a replacement goldfish for unspecified reasons. we know that the king ordered her horn cut off.

we have so little of the king to go off on, so i thought of him kinda making a power couple with brahne where he's the more cunning of the two, making the hard political decisions. i imagine og garnet got her looks from him, so im picturing a man smaller than his wife, and brahne clearly is a strong woman - look at those arms! i wanted to make the contrast between them, and also show the influence he has on his wife, why brahne could be persuaded at all. really emphasize the thesis of the tragedy of duty versus personal feelings. he really does love his wife, which is why hes going the gentler route of persuasion rather than just taking the corpse immediately. im glad you liked my take on him!

so yeah. brahne lost her daughter, wasn't allowed to mourn publicly, then lost her husband too. her whole family is dead. All she has left is the adoptive daughter she's come to love as her own. then in slinks kuja, who uses garnet's origins to drive a wedge between mother and daughter, and enables brahne's warmongering. i 100% think that brahne didnt care about garnet in favor of her eidolons because her daughter already died years ago; why should she care about the placeholder? kuja exploited brahne's grief and old resentment to further his own goals, and thats why garnet is in line to deck him in the teeth.

"I can hear my daughter's voice"
I wonder who Brahne heard?