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

Narnia (Tisroc & the King AU), Aravis/Khalid, broken me and broken them/and you are broken, too/open ears, their eyes are open/makes me call for you

Aravis names him Rahmat, and he grows up to be the splitting image of her brother in all but expression. In no time at all, even the fiercest of Aravis’ slanderers fall silent, for there is no questioning the piercing dark eyes that instantly recall Rabadash Tisroc’s lineage — nor the way his brows draw together when he is angry, or the brightness in his delighted smile (so rare and twisted in Rabadash, but so purely joyful in Rahmat).

Rahmat grows up, and for a long time does not question the miracle of his birth, nor the tale of Aravis Tisroc, builder of bridges, bearer of the child of two Tisrocs, who rode pregnant into battle. Yet he notices the silence from his mother when his father is mentioned, the stormy glare in his Uncle Khalid’s eyes, the way his Uncle Ishamiel steers the conversation away.

A Prince in his position cannot be raised to be naive, and so he learns of the cruelty of child marriages, of the depravity-clothed-in-luxury that once ran rampant in his palace, of the inhuman practices still practiced outside of Tashbaan. Aravis Tisroc allows him to hear every testimony, even from a young age, that he may learn of the plight of his subjects and take part in its resolution. He hears every account, that is, but his mother’s own.

Still, it is not until he is nearly a man, in conversation with his cousins, that he comprehends the terrible truth of his parentage—of his mother’s age upon marriage, and the conditions in which he must have been conceived.

For many months, riding through deserts and gorges among people who do not know him on mission after mission in the Tisroc’s name, Prince Rahmat wonders how many times he has been his mother’s tormentor—his every childish glare and thoughtless comment a reflection of his father’s violence, his very existence the unwanted souvenir of the darkest years of his mother’s life. He wonders at the pain he has caused, and at how he may take it away, and it is so burdened that he returns to Tashbaan—victorious in name but ashamed at heart.

But now, wandering the palace with an adult’s eyes, he accidentally catches a glimpse of his mother’s private quarters—of the long fingers threading through her hair and cradling her cheek, of the low murmur of a Tarkaan’s voice, of how a kiss the Tarkaan presses to the corner of her mouth prompts laughter so carefree that it may have belonged to a girl. It is a glimpse of love, born in the greatest adversity and sustained in secret over nearly two decades—a love that raised Rahmat, too.

It is only then that he sees in himself what his mother has always seen: that the dark fire in his eyes is not cruel, but impassioned; that his brows do not hold a shadow of violence, but stubborn intelligence; and that his smile is not the descendent of a depraved Tisroc’s delight—but the offshoot of a rare blossom none but Khalid Tarkaan’s closest are permitted to see.

NASIM. This is such a gorgeous little piece, after our convo about Dad!Khalid last night. Rahmat is such a sweetheart - the way he worries about Aravis and his parentage as he grows up is so touching, and the little details (Khalid being 'stormy!' Ishamiel changing the subject (does he know?!? or does he just know Aravis doesn't want to think about Rabadash...)) of his expressions and upbringing just make it better.

AND THEN HE COMES BACK AND CATCHES THEM and oh my, I adore it. The way it changes everything about himself in his eyes to see Khalid there instead of Rabadash-!! MY HEART. What a sweet, glorious little might-have-been this is.

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

no subject

AU-of-an-AU - Rahmat instead of Ram

Re: AU-of-an-AU - Rahmat instead of Ram