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

Obsidian & Blood, Mihmatini/Acatl/Teomitl

[notapaladin]

Mihmatini loves her husband. Unfortunately, so does her brother.

And equally unfortunately, it’s clear that her husband loves him back. Oh, they haven’t told her any of this. But when one man turns an army around for another, she can connect the dots. Teomitl looks at her brother as though he set the sun in the sky, positively gushing over him whenever he gets the chance. By the Duality, he was willing to kill the Emperor for him. That’s not even considering Acatl himself, whose dour face turns fond whenever they’re in the same room. Who was willing to break vows when Teomitl made it clear it was necessary. It’s positively embarrassing.

Most women would be jealous. Or angry. Or both. She...well, she won’t lie and say it doesn’t annoy her a little—really, she’s not sure which of them has worse taste—but what’s worse than watching her husband’s distracted glances or her brother’s lingering smiles is knowing for a fact that it’s going to continue on exactly like this forever if she doesn’t do something.

And it will have to be her, because for all their flaws, these are men that love her. Teomitl has made it clear in a thousand ways that he’ll never break her heart again, and she doesn’t have to ask Acatl to know he’d move mountains for her. Men like that don’t snap and act on their simmering sexual-romantic tension unprompted, even when it’s so thick she could cut it with a knife.

One night, they’re eating dinner together, just the three of them in a loose triangle around the table. After the third time Teomitl’s fingers “accidentally” brush Acatl’s hand while passing a side dish and the fourth time Acatl smiles at him, her fraying patience snaps.

“Acatl. Teomitl,” she says very evenly.

Her brother blinks at her, probably warned by the tension in her voice. “What’s the matter?”

She considers subtlety—I don’t care what you do on your mat, or Both of you should be happy—but discards it. They’re not quick on the uptake in this area. So what she actually says is, “I have no problem sharing my husband, and if you two don’t start kissing instead of hovering around each other like a pair of courting hummingbirds, I am going to scream.”

Teomitl’s jaw drops. Acatl makes a choking noise. Neither of them appear to be breathing.

“Now,” she continues, “I am going to get up and take a walk around the Sacred Precinct. You have an hour to do—something, I don’t care what, as long as your clothes are back on by the time I return. I said I don’t mind sharing but I draw the line at seeing my brother naked. There’s a gourd full of avocado oil in Teomitl’s bedchambers. Have fun.”

And then she gets up, brushes crumbs from her skirt, and leaves. She’s almost out of earshot before she catches Teomitl’s stunned whisper of, “What the fuck did I just hear,” and it’s too much.

She bursts out into giggles.

Re: Obsidian & Blood, Mihmatini/Acatl/Teomitl

[dariaw]

Ooh I don't know the fandom but this was so terrific!!! lololol, love that she has just had enought of their nonsense

Re: Obsidian & Blood, Mihmatini/Acatl/Teomitl

[notapaladin]

The canon is a rather grim/gloomy noir fantasy/mystery series set in 1400s Tenochtitlan. The fanfic is me grabbing it by the throat and snarling "BUT WHAT IF THEY WERE IN LOVE AND NOTHING HURT." They just have so many emotions! Mihmatini is going to fix everything.