rthstewart | Three Sentence Ficathon 2022 Part 2

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Three Sentence Ficathon 2022 Part 2

UPDATE 14 FEBRUARY 2022 -- 3SF 2022 IS NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS! Do continue to fill prompts already posted but the 3SF 2022 is now closed. We'll be back next year in a new comm (If I can get my act together). Thank you again!

THIS IS THE NEW POST FOR PART 2 OF THE 3 SENTENCE FICATHON -- ALL NEW PROMPTS SHOULD BE POSTED HERE
You may continue to fill prompts (but not leave new ones) at the original Post 1 here but please post new prompts here, not there. And if you're asking, hey is just me, or did this get enormous really fast? Why yes, yes it did. Last year, it took us ten days before I opened a new post. This year, it took us about 5.5 days to get there. So, by all means, go back and fill in Post 1 and post new prompts here!

Also woops, in an indication of how busy I've been with other things, I neglected to post that for a third year in a row the awesome

conuly started a master list of unclaimed prompts and has been updating it as time permits. Obviously a huge task! Thank you!

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!

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any, any, lying on the beach

“It is definitely dead,” Beatrice said about her own body lying twisted at the bottom of a cliff, and then she started talking immediately about sunlight and shrines, but it is the uninhabited dress that Battler sees when he shuts his eyes. Is this casual disregard for her physical form the reason she takes the death of his family so lightly, or the result, or is there something darker behind both those things?

He wonders, too, how long that ruined piece of nature stayed on the sand before the waves took it or the seagulls picked it apart or someone on the island came across it – maybe in a story she can make it vanish with a wave of the hand, but if she expects him to believe there really was a human girl named Beatrice, there must also be a human explanation for whatever happened next.

I don't know the source, but it's intriguing! (°A°)

thank you! umineko is a murder mystery visual novel/game about a family on an island, and eighteen people die in two days as we learn more about how and why they all ended up... sort of awful humans, and about beatrice, the witch of the island who might or might not exist -- and then at the end of the first arc, it becomes an ideological battle between the main character battler and beatrice, to determine whether the murders were actually done by magic or by human means. many things we thought we understood come back in different forms and have to be reassessed in light of new information, so it's a really fun (and occasionally tragic) experience.

Reminds me of Agatha Christie. Thanks for taking the time to explain :D

yep, it's explicitly inspired by and then there were none, and sort of a deconstruction-and-reconstruction of the mystery genre, and there's a few characters who canonically read mystery novels (and one who is arguably cosplaying as philip "panther-like" lombard himself).

ooh once again i think i see the flicker of an utena reference in your umineko fic, and this one is more indirect because it's an image instead of a phrase but the 'uninhabited dress' is such a vivid image, and battler shutting his eyes to see it is such a character note. and the question he asks! is a good question! this whole thing is just so beautifully written and layered, and also don't think i missed the reference in the title, either.

Once the battle in the beach Outrealm has ended, they manage to steal a few hours of fun and relaxation from the day. The setting sun gilds Robin’s form while she lounges on the sand, looking as happy and at ease as he’s ever seen her. Chrom brushes a fingertip along her thigh, marveling at the acres of soft skin that her daring swimsuit reveals to him, and she pulls him into a languid kiss that melts into another and another after it, a far cry from his earlier rushed peck in the middle of the skirmish. He presses her down into the sand and thinks he could sink into this small bit of peace and never leave.

nice chill scene!

Sun, sea and surf above and below - or is that sea, sun and surf, below above and ahead? - either way, Chloe is enjoying the view. There's blue sky, blue-grey sea, golden sands on which she is basking like a cat on hot stone - and Nadine in a shortsleeve wetsuit, doing tricks on the waves.
She hadn't been hard to convince on the Cape Town's a great place for a holiday front - although she did still want to see a lion, and she's heard about a 'Monkey World' that Nadine is definitely not going to escape if she has any say - and the place is already delivering on the promise - in buckets and in spades.

any, any, a christmas valentine

"You don't call, you never write," says River as she wanders out of the corridors and back into the console room.

The continuation of a conversation that the Doctor is distinctly sure he hasn't had yet, makes him frown a bit, and shift one of the dials on the console--a strange blip sounds, followed by a ding (she's always got his back for him, his TARDIS), and he grabs for the laminated card that's popped out, "Will you be my Valentine? Rubbish holiday, I know, but--"

"It's Christmas," she says, while still taking the card and turning it, a half-smile on her lips, "for your present, you're coming with me."

Trips by vortex manipulator are the absolute worst, but seeing the Ponds is an excellent present, could cover multiple centuries, even.

nice!

any, any, we ride alone

Mac doesn't think about what has to happen, instead, he focuses on the last time he saw Toby's grin, and how alive she was. If Cross never starts down his road, Mac will never meet Cross, and will certainly never meet Toby--and even though he is leaving her behind, she is alive, and if he doesn't leave--well, that's not a chance he's willing to take.

Crossing through the anomaly, he listens; in the distance is the roar from the T-Rex, and Mac smiles a little, as he knows the circle is about to complete, time has a way of catching up with you and he's not fighting it anymore.

“We ride alone,” Nate says firmly, climbing on the terrifying black beast he calls his own and taking off, determined to leave the newly formed team behind.

The others follow suit: Sophie leaves first, mounting her proud gold and silver dragon with all the poise and grace of a queen taking to her throne, shooting the others one last enigmatic smile before they fly off; Eliot and Parker launch at the same time but in opposite directions, marked with a brusque nod from the former and an unnerving look from the latter, and soon enough both the scarred green dragon (but with the soft eyes) and the small and sleek one (this one of a light, undetermined hue) are but specks in the sky; last to leave is Hardison, who mutters a quick: “Let’s go Lucille,” as he pats her dark blue scales, but soon enough soars higher than the clouds- and for a moment it truly does seem over.

But their departure doesn’t take: neither riders nor dragons are ready for this to be their last adventure, and so it is only moments later that Nate, the only one stubborn enough to keep flying onwards, finds four dragons blocking his path- and his escape out of their lives.

any, any, shared pain is lessened; shared joy increased

They found their balance eventually, the three of them: Rose, the Doctor, and Jack (or Team TARDIS, as Jack and Rose had taken to calling them, much to the Doctor's annoyance). And as they found it, they all discovered things: Rose discovered that the nightmares of Jimmy Stone hurt less when she left her bed and went and sat between Jack and the Doctor on the couch in the library instead of staying alone in her bed; Jack discovered that when he had flashbacks to things he couldn't remember he could go to find Rose or the Doctor and they could cook or work on repairs of play a game and he could talk and they would listen or he could not talk and they would fill the silence and slowly he'd feel human again; and the Doctor discovered that as he told his human companions more about his planet and his people, the remembering hurt less. And they learned other things too: that a laugh brought more joy when others were laughing too, that if you stopped hiding your joy and shared it with your friends, their joy would bring you only more joy, and most of all, that together they were stronger, happier, and hurt less than they ever had when they were alone.

this is very sweet <3

Despite her follies, her heartbreak, her frankly terrible choices, Huei had been her sister-in-law. She’d borne Neutemoc five healthy, happy children. And now she was dead, having given herself in sacrifice to Chalchiuhtlicue to escape the judgement of the Underworld, and there was a hole in the air where her place at the table had once been.

Mihmatini knew she wasn’t the only one feeling it. The children had been inconsolable all day; even Necalli, who bid fair to take after his uncle Acatl, was silent and shaky and close to tears. Neutemoc had barely spoken a single word in weeks. Acatl...well, he was always quiet, but now there was an edge to it. He’d tried to save Huei. He’d failed.

Finally, it was too much to take. Carefully, without quite looking at either her siblings or her nieces and nephews, she picked up another serving of now-cold meat and said aloud, “Do you remember when she made these?” Huei, for all her skills in other areas, had never been able to roast anything without charring it to a crisp.

Neutemoc made a face. “Unfortunately yes. Ah, but her baking...”

Sniffling, Mazatl added, “Mama made the best maize cakes.”

That set Necalli and Ohtli off, and even Acatl managed to unbend himself to share his own stories. Huei was still gone. Nothing would change that. But for the moment, she lived on.

Any, any, sacred dance

There are unexpected complications to becoming Revered Speaker. The new septum piercing, for instance, which itches abominably and hurts when he sneezes. The difficulty in finding any actual privacy for longer than an hour. The part where he’s expected to have concubines, which wouldn’t be so bad except that he has no idea what to say to women who are trying so painfully hard to fawn over him. The sycophancy in general, really. Is it too much to ask for honesty from the people around him?

But at the moment, the worst part is that the Revered Speaker is expected to lead sacred dances at certain festivals. And he...well.

“Again,” says his instructor with a sigh as the musicians begin drumming anew.

He has to learn the steps eventually, right?

Any, any, water mirror

“Look at yourself,” She of the Jade Skirt whispers, and Teomitl can do nothing but obey. He is acutely aware of Her presence behind him as he’s been aware of nothing else in his life, even though all She’s doing is standing over his shoulder as he kneels to peer down into Her crystal-clear waters.

He sees—himself. Just himself. There’s his curved nose, his high cheekbones, his dark eyes. His hair is growing out, thick and dark and still too short to do anything with. He doesn’t look like a warrior or a prince or a future Revered Speaker. He just looks...normal. Ordinary. Mediocre, hisses a voice in the back of his head. Mediocre, even with Jade Skirt’s patronage.

He blinks back an unruly tear, and his eyes are jade from lid to lid.

He tilts his head, and an ahuitzotl sitting across from him mirrors the motion.

Over his shoulder, Chalchiuhtlicue smiles.

Any, any, skyscraper

They think she only goes there when she's sad or wants to be alone, but they're wrong.

Parker always loves to be high up in the world, not just for comfort or the rush of power and freedom, but because it is her place in the world, making her feel even more right and in-tune than even her makeshift family can.

With a hundred floors of high-rise underfoot and nothing but the wide open air above, she is anything she wants to be and everything she ever dreamed of being, sky high and smiling, always smiling.

Nice!

Any, any, crystal

She finds it in a thrift store, totally by accident, not even looking for anything special, but the second it catches her eye, she can't look away, has to reach out a hand, let her fingertips touch the cool glassy surface of the perfect crystal orb.

It's just an ornament, nothing more, nothing less, and yet, the second her hand makes contact, Sarah knows that's not true, not even close.

A crackle like electricity, like... pure magic, and within the crystal she sees those beautiful mismatched eyes and that smile, the face that haunts her dreams in the best way, and she knows the sign she's been waiting for has finally come - time to go home to the Underground.

Any, any, celestial globe

Edmund has watched his father try to plot the past and futures of everyone around him like points on a map his whole life; and he’s finally sick of it. It’s even worse than a map; even the four-dimensional chess of drawing connections over the surface of a globe, like Edmund would do if he believed in fate and other nonsense, would imply some degree of agency. No, the Duke of Gloucester uses an orrery to claim that the stars control their character and the most anyone can do is trace the path that’s already been set out for them, so Edmund counters by tracing one of his own.

I really like how you portrayed the division between Edmund and Gloucester, even down to their belief in fate vs. free will.

thank you! it's such a fascinating division, and i love how self-righteously edmund declares "now gods, stand up for bastards." because no one gets to decide what he does but him.

Any, any, cabinet of wonders

The world is unexpected, wide and awe-inspiring, he thinks--not unlike a cabinet of wonders. And even if it's cold out here, even if it's bleak and hopeless, even if it hurts... there is still so much beauty to cherish, to treasure--to look at with the eyes of a child. He would like to describe it, to write it all down--but even if the cold gets to him, even if words fail him, it will be all right: he will cradle it in his heart, like a keepsake, like a memory, and, perhaps, a bit like a dream.

Any, any, earth, metal, water, wood, fire

Earthbending was splintering into so many specializations: metal, lava, wood, gems, sand, and many more things. She'd thought that water and fire would have stayed more static, but it looked like the tribes and the Fire Nation were both innovating as many new ways of working with their element as they could. Even though she'd brought peace, it felt like everyone was only waiting for another excuse to start fighting each other again.

Any, any, plum blossoms and cherry blossoms

Any, any, unexpected betrayal

Quenami was supposed to be the loyal one. Tizoc had appointed him, after all, and he knew where his power ultimately derived from. He would never do anything to jeopardize that, and that was why Tizoc could trust him. Quenami had helped him to the throne. Had brought him back to life (oh, the other High Priests had helped, but they would have gotten nowhere without Quenami and everyone knew it.) He was very possibly the closest thing the Emperor could have to a friend.

And so Tizoc was smiling as he accepted the bowl of spiced chocolate and raised it to his lips. It had been a dreadfully long time since he hadn’t had to fear poison.

“What do you think, my lord?” Quenami’s voice was soft and smooth as always, a balm to his soul.

He took a deep draft. “Wonderful.” It was wonderful, rich with vanilla and honey and chile. There was an odd spice he couldn’t place, though, so he opened his mouth to ask Quenami what it was—

And then he blinked, spots swimming in his vision. The room seemed to spin before his eyes. The guards, he thought frantically, fetch my guards—but he couldn’t say it, because his tongue was too thick and heavy in his mouth. The cup slid from his useless fingers to smash upon the floor.

“Yes,” murmured Quenami, “it is.”

Any, any, I don't feel like celebrating my unbirthday today

I don't feel like celebrating my unbirthday today.
Maybe tomorrow, or maybe next week
Or any day really, which doesn't seem quite so bleak
For the sun is not shining and the skies are so gray.
No, I don't feel like celebrating my unbirthday today.

I love that you wrote it as a poem 💚

Thank you - I was at a loss what to do, and there was a certain rhythm in the prompt so...

Well, I think that was original.:)

any, any, browsing in a bookshop

“Is there anything in particular you would like?”

“Oh, to look at all will be wonderful!”

It was perhaps not the usual place for a newly married couple to spend an afternoon, but for all their inelegance the Tilneys were hardly common readers.

any, any, heading to a place and finding it closed

any, any, a big bowl

any, any, corporate identity theft

“Someone’s ruining my good name, building these shoddy houses that fall apart at the first wind and claiming my firm’s responsible,” Mr. McClinney explained to the private detective, barely able to stay calm enough to finish.

“I admit growing up abroad means I’m often behind the times,” Gary said to Linda after their new client left, but she shook her head with as much puzzlement.

“It’s the first I’ve ever heard of companies playing at Halloween too.”

Oh wow, this is nail biting. I love it.

Thanks! "The Flame" is really obscure for comics so I wasn't sure about posting these entries or not, but then decided they read fine even if you weren't familiar with the characters/setup. I was really intrigued by the "corporate identity theft" idea and think it could drive a lot of great stories.

any, any, divine identity theft

(Divine Cities)

"And so then," Mulaghesh rages--the thing that had once been Mulaghesh, anyway; Shara finds it useful to address this entity as her old friend--"these ghosts tell me that if Voortya's dead, and I'm here, they're going to address me as Voortya and follow me into battle and try to shore up their damned afterlife while they're at it! Now tell me, what am I supposed to do about that?"

Shara had more questions than answers, but she decided her favored earthly approach could hardly hurt the situation when gods were involved. "Cup of tea?"

Oh dear, as good a response as any.

Any, any, you're a fighter, not a lover

Rogue One/Solo, Jyn Erso & Enfys Nest, after Saw abandons her, Jyn becomes a Cloud Rider

Doctor Who, any, crossing timestreams

"Who was that, Doctor?"

He stared at Bill for a long minute, thinking how to explain: how of all the people, human and nonhuman in all the worlds and all the times who'd set foot in this big (but bigger on the inside, yes) box of his, who'd been there when he needed someone and sometimes when he hadn't wanted them, who'd made the lonely life of a travelling however-many (who even knew any more?) years old Time Lord bearable, whose names and faces he sometimes mixed up but never forgot... this one was special, was going to be special, if in several of his past lives which were also yet to be.

And how just seeing, waving at, getting a small, stiff, and even at this age so very very British smile from little toddler Alistair Gordon was also so very, very, timelessly special.

Aww, I love this!

Thank you!

Aaah..

I do like my kidfic :)

Ah, this is absolutely adorable! I love how special and important the relationship between the Brig and the Doctor is.

Thank you - it's always been of my favourite parts of classic Who.

Doctor Who, any, unconventional solution

Doctor Who, any, the simplest solution

The Doctor stared, mouth agape, as Amy stalked back toward the TARDIS, knuckles still red from the punch she'd thrown to defuse the situation.

"You were taking too long figuring out he wasn't going to do it," she said by way of explanation.

"No, no, no, that's not, that's not, that's not my style," the Doctor said quietly to Amy's retreating form, having a small "I'm supposed to be clever and strange and talk my way out of this."

Doctor Who, Rose Tyler, unionizing aliens

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Page 49 of 57

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022 Part 2

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let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality (Umineko, Beatrice, Spoilers for Episode Three)

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Fire Emblem: Awakening, Chrom/Robin

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Uncharted, Chloe/Nadine, post Lost Legacy

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Doctor Who, River/Eleven

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Primeval New World - Mac faces fate

Dragon rider au (leverage)

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Obsidian & Blood, Mihmatini & her brothers

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Obsidian & Blood, Teomitl

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Obsidian & Blood, Teomitl & Chalchiuhtlicue

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Sky High and Smiling (Leverage, Parker)

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A Land Serene (Labyrinth, Sarah/Jareth)

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King Lear, Edmund and Gloucester

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Cabinet of wonders (The Terror, Goodsir).

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Avatar: the Legend of Korra, Korra, the Expanding Power of the Avatar

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Obsidian & Blood, Tizoc & Quenami

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Food for the Heart and Mind (Catherine/Henry Tilney, Northanger Abbey)

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Holding the Bag (Linda Dale and Gary Preston aka The Flame, Fox Features comics)

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Dr Who, Twelve

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Eleven and Amy, "...is sometimes violence."

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