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

Eve was wiping down the last of the tables at the end of the long Saturday shift in her cafe on Great Western Road when the woman, all long hair and feminine wiles, wheeled in with her dogs, or perhaps children, strangely hairy children if so, and paused, staring at the remainder of the days' sweets — there weren't very many now as Eve had taken most of the ones that were out-of-date but still good to eat to be packaged up for the homeless shelter — before dropping her shoulders and making as if to leave, the children running about on all fours around her wheelchair, so Eve called out before the other woman reached the door, "Our selection is limited because it's the end of the day, but I have some stuff out the back still, if you want something that isn't available," although Eve feared she hadn't heard her until one of the maybe-dogs barked something sounding suspiciously like language, at which point the woman turned towards her, who continued, "I can give you whatever want for free, as you've come in just as I was about to close the doors so I'm not actually required to charge you anything, and the till is off anyway, so why make not make both our lives a little better," and I want you to stay, Eve didn't add, as she had felt a brightness spark in her chest reminiscient of when she first saw her own reflection in that glorious pond soon after her birth — she wanted to look at this woman forever, wanted to touch her face and smile and converse with her, felt drawn towards instinctually more than she had initially been with dear Adam, wanted to smooth the pain lines around her eyes and share their life stories together.

The other woman turned back into the cafe, wheeling around while expertedly avoiding her childrens' paws even as they flocked around her, and looked over at Eve, who did smile but then began rearranging the table's cultery, trying to hide her frantic energy because it felt like she'd just seen, in this stranger's face, a long-lost sister or lover whom she wanted to embrace, "I saw the other day, as I walked past with my son," she indicated outside, and not at any of her dogs in the cafe, "strawberry tartlets on the menu — they are my absolute favourite, but I didn't want to buy any then as he, my son, would have eaten them all — you know how boys are with their insatiable appetites — so I have managed to sneak away for a moment's respite to get some for myself, and perhaps these runts, if they behave, but only if they aren't the chocolate covered ones," she said, indicating what Eve had apparently mistaken for small dogs but where clearly toddlers, each now sitting with rapt attention towards their mother.

One of the children wagged their tail as Eve nodded, smiled, and with great effort managed to walk into the back room, although every step away from the woman felt like that first day when she'd been called away from her own reflection by that voice, ultimately to be lead towards Adam, and had not wanted to leave, yet obeyed anyway, and here there was not even a voice to pull her away, only her desire to please guests as a good host, which lead her to carefully package up four of the best strawberry tarts with extra whipped oat cream, and walk back out to hand the box to the woman, who took one for herself and laid the opened box on the floor, where her dogs, dressed in jumpsuits, dove at the remaining tarts, then she took one of Eve's hands in her own, "I cannot recall ever meeting you before, my love, but you feel so familiar, like my reflection fully seen for the first time and not in some puddle of water; I wish we had met long ago before certain events tied me down," at which point she kicked one of the dogs, who yelped but continued stuffing strawberry tart into its face with its hands, "We could have been goddesses together, but, please, let us become friends; alas, I must go now, my son will wonder where I have been - know I will be back, but until then I hope you will write to me!" She took her hand delicately from Eve's, letting her fingers trail over her palm, and wheeled out of the cafe, the dogs trotting after her on two legs as they licked the remains of the tarts off their hands, and Eve wanted to reach out to her but instead looked at what had been left in her hand — a small, off-white calling card with a name and number on it:

Minerva "Sin" Djöfulsinsdóttir — 666 65000 —

I always write such long sentences for 3 Sentence Ficathon things, and have embraced the liberal use of the em-dash! Also available on AO3 here - https://archiveofourown.org/works/38605464

Edited 2022-04-25 16:25 (UTC)

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

Strawberry Tartlets, Sin/Eve (Paradise Lost)