Three Sentence Ficathon 2022 Part 2

[rthstewart]

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.

<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

Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Lambo

[quillsshadow]

Lambo transforms easily, thoughtlessly, as unplanned as a lightning strike. He's applauded and petted for it - at first. He never really understands why that changes, but it doesn't matter after he finds a new home with Tsuna-nii.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Hibari

[quillsshadow]

All the school knows that Hibari Kyouya must be a shapeshifter, one of the powerful elite. There are whispered arguments over what his form must be, which of the birds in the trees is secretly the Head of Discipline, and the assumption is that he bites to death anyone he hears discussing it because of his love of privacy.

It isn't because the small omnivore helps him to finally unlock that power that Hibari follows him; it's his unquestioning acceptance of Hibari's choice to be a small seed-eater instead of the swift predator everyone expects.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Ryohei

[quillsshadow]

Ryohei wants an EXTREME transformation! But when he tries to picture what that EXTREME transformation should be, he gets distracted by thinking about boxing - boxing animals - animals boxing - and then he is flame, and -

Ryohei bounces with pride, discovering that kangaroos are EXTREME!

Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Mukuro

[quillsshadow]

Mukuro doesn't know for years that shapeshifting is something impressive, because to the scientists who'd used him, it hadn't been. Shapeshifting was something known, and they'd wanted something new from him.

Shapeshifting his projected self while his original body remains the same is new, he learns eventually; new enough that the Vindice themselves are unprepared for it.

Re: Friends at the Table (Marielda), Maelgwyn & Samothes

[ernest]

thank you!! i love maelgwyn and he's such a fascinating character: he has and causes so many problems, but at the end of the day he's just a boy who loves his fathers and his grandpa. and eee, thank you, i really liked "swings Samothes's hammer in time with his loss."

Re: Merrily We Roll Along, Frank/Beth

[ernest]

thank you! you know i love writing tumbling memories and breathless run-on sentences, and a reverse chronological musical about Regret is the perfect place for both those things.

i can't actually take credit for that last sentence though; it's from a different sondheim show about regret and missed opportunities and an idealized past yelling at you to fix things before it's too late. however, i will gladly take credit for its placement here, right when frank needs something small and concrete to keep him in one place.

Re: Hamlet, Claudius, major character death

[ernest]

thank you! i like using seasons as a motif and couldn't resist a mirrored structure like this, so it was incredibly self-indulgent but i'm also glad the darkness and tragedy hit the way they should.

Re: Hamlet

[ernest]

yes, exactly, hamlet contains multitudes! and even with the idealism of what actors are capable of, he's also being a little selfish and using them to his own ends. he's just very good at seeing tools he can use and taking advantage of other people's weaknesses, he cannot change this.

The Numerical Clue (Dr. Watson & Sherlock Holmes)

[woodmr]

“Holmes, if what you say is true, the thief has committed the same error that lost the Battle of Ulm!”

“Whether the Russian army was truly late due to a miscalculation between the Gregorian and Julian dates I leave to military historians. Our task, like Napoleon’s, is to exploit the enemy’s weakness to ensure victory.”

[mouseyear]

They try, when they return from Narnia. Lucy has an easier time of it. She is still a child and slip ups can be attributed to a child’s imagination. But Susan is older, nearly a woman. She is expected to be practical, logical. England tells her she can’t do so many things and Susan draws into herself blends in in a way that Lucy never gets the hang of.

[mouseyear]

As a water creature the Octopi fall squarely within Lucy’s domain, but as a Talking Animal they are Susan’s. And the Octopi teach both girls how to hide in plain sight, they help them cultivate their intelligence and escape even the most steel traps.

[mouseyear]

As insects, the Spiders entered hibernation at the beginning of the hundred year winter, only occasionally venturing out to find food and to reinforce their webs. They don’t answer to the call of battle, fight on neither side and that along with their rather horrifying appearance means they are not well received by the new Kings and Queens but eventually they do end up back in the fold. They are fundamental in taking castles without a long drawn out siege and teach Susan the art of Web Reading.

[mouseyear]

It is Han that introduces them to the holonet of the Pre-Empire Era. It is Han’s first videos that introduce them to who their father was before he became the monster of their nightmare. And apparently he was a hero - someone Han looked up to. They meet their mother as she gives a rousing speech to the senate, one that makes them want to support her – even though they are a generation too late and she is dead besides. Their parents are strong – just like they are. And, knowing what they know now, the twins make plans to visit Naboo. There may not be any family left but if the world had turned out different, if perhaps it had been just a little less cruel, the planet and it’s people would have been their own.

Talking to oneself *cough* the TARDIS

[mouseyear]

"I didn't intend on this happening!" he protested to the happily chirping TARDIS as he changed the little one’s diaper.

"No really I didn't! It just sort of happened." The TARDIS was being snarky with him, he knew.

"Yes, well I thought I'd end up with a companion. No! A baby does not count! Whatever, fine a baby counts. But I thought the companion would be a pretty woman like they usually are! Or maybe an old man, or a couple or, heck! Even a dog! Just, anything but a baby!" The Doctor sighed and looked down at the child helplessly.

The baby had grabbed onto his finger and was attempting to nibble at it. The Doctor supposed the kid was probably hungry. "I do not concur with that sentiment! A baby makes everything difficult, what am I even supposed to do with it? Please tell me I don’t actually end up leaving it with strangers." The Doctor silently agreed with the TARDIS as he left the pilots room to scrounge up some grub for the little person, the baby was kinda cute.

[mouseyear]

The most important thing he learns in his life is that he cannot protect anyone. The outside forces of the world were far more powerful than he was. Friends were cautiously made and quickly let go of when they were inevitably separated. Perhaps this helplessness was why he clung so tightly to his mother. One day they would be separated and he had to memorize every nook and cranny of her face, know exactly what she would say to any situation and know the candace of her voice long after he had last seen her.

As a child he is truly helpless but as he grows older his obsessive protectionism doesn’t change. Even as he grows older, gains some small bit of control over his surroundings and is able to stay with those he loves, the helplessness he knows sticks with him and contributes to self-destructive tendencies. He clings so hard he doesn’t realize when he clings too hard and crushes the people he values.

[mouseyear]

He doesn’t see the imagination in his cousins anymore. He doesn’t see wasted intelligence anymore either. The pointless optimism he once saw in them is long gone now. Perhaps it is only because he has known them in their element – but all he can see in them is grief now.

[mouseyear]

She first sees him from across the courtyard, talking with the men chosen for this mission as they wait for the commanding officer who had requested them. She herself is standing with the women as they speculate on what this new team was to be, she has never met any of them before and thus she needs to make bonds with all of them, but for some reason he is the first to stand out. He is handsome, she supposes but she rarely gets caught up in looks anymore, perhaps it is the eagerness with which he talks to his companions, they way he draws the people around him in – she is not the only one enchanted, she notices and is instantly jealous. He would lose that innocence soon enough on the frontlines, but she’d protect it as well as she could.

[mouseyear]

The Kings and Queens of Olde quickly make their way from history to stories. The Great Battles become legend and the Golden Age myth. The Kings and Queens become stories with lessons, and then nothing but fluff, but they persist nonetheless.

[mouseyear]

Working with any of the Pevensies is odd. You’ll be standing in front of Peter, his voice stern but young and blink and in front of you is a man with a golden crown and a real, medieval sword and shield instead of a gun. Another blink and the vision is gone again and you can almost forget it until the next time it occurs.

Edmund is easy to ignore – until he has a problem with the way you are doing things and then he is impossible to ignore. The moment you attempt to dismiss his concerns due to being much wiser and older than he, you blink and in front of you is a man with a silver crown, presiding over a court with glasses perched upon his chin and you fall silent. The vision is gone a moment later but you can never summon up enough courage to go through with your original plans.

Lucy is just a girl, easy to dismiss, easy to belittle but when she argues you blink and instead of a child is a woman with a golden tiara, fire in her eyes and hands on a sword. You blink again and the vision is gone but you decide it is better to agree with her after all.

She is poise, she is grace, she’ll punch you in the face – but only if you deserve it. Susan doesn’t give one visions like her siblings do. She doesn’t need to, a calm enough presence it is easy to go along with her. But when you hear the news, and look to the elder daughter, it is not the Susan you know that you see. Instead it is a woman with a silver tiara with blood on her hands and tears running freely down her face. But then you blink and Susan is back – poised as ever, collected as ever, her hands the pale white they have always been and her cheeks as dry as always.

[mouseyear]

Diplomacy is delicate work and not everyone is suited to it. Some were suited for only certain parts of it, and Edmund was certain that was the true reason why Aslan had given Narnia four rulers instead of one.

He was good at riling up their enemy, convincing them to take risks they would never without his goading, manipulating the room to paint the enemy as cowards.

Susan enchanted them, she was an expert in convincing them not to pay attention even as her own focus wavered.

Lucy was the one finding common ground – she was the negotiator, the logical one. When Lucy was done and the contract written up it was handed all the way up to Peter.

Peter knew contracts, and he read them carefully for loopholes and tricks. Thank goodness for that, all the contracts required his signature anyway and if that meant Edmund didn’t need to read a long boring document then that was just fine with him.

[mouseyear]

It is Edmund that Jill meets first out of all the Pevensies, and he marches into the room with hand outstretched to say ‘hello’ to her. She thinks for a moment he is about to stoop to press his lips to her hand but instead he merely shakes it firmly, a twinkle in his eye. She is surprised by how very normal he is. Eustace had told her stories of his time in Narnia with his cousins and Edmund just doesn’t fit the picture Eustace or Caspian described. But he is perfectly gentlemanly and Jill supposes that is all she could really be expecting.

It is Lucy she meets next, the girl skips into the room and Jill sees the otherness in her. Lucy is too old to be as jolly and carefree as she is and she skips as if she expects to fly. Yes, Jill thinks as she shakes Lucy’s hand, she can see Narnia in this one.

Jill meets Peter at her first friends of Narnia meeting and at first she expects him to be like his brother – a perfect English gentleman. But instead Peter surprises her by kissing her hand instead of shaking it and calling her ‘Lady Jill.’ He smiles too much for his age, like Lucy and when he dances he seems to be flying.

She does not meet the fourth for a very long time. She knows that the siblings are arguing with their sister but she does not know specifics or details. So it is a surprise when she meets Susan at a party, one she herself had only reluctantly attended. She recognizes Susan instantly, despite having never seen her – she matched exactly all the different descriptions she had heard of the woman. Susan is clearly not in the same boat as Jill, she appears to love the party and Jill hastens to introduce herself as a friend of Narnia. She watches as Susan’s face, covered in makeup (as if she’s trying to hide) twists and feels as the woman’s hand is yanked from her own. Susan turns and walks away from Jill without another word and she doesn’t look back as Jill stares.

[mouseyear]

It’s not like what he expected battle to be. They didn’t tell the whole story in school and Peter knew that, and the military minds of Narnia had attempted to prepare him – they didn’t sugar coat it like school had. But he doesn’t think anything could have prepared him for the chaos of an actual battle. He scarcely knows what is going on around him and Gem as they ride above the chaos. And he doesn’t for a second believe he is safe.

He feels so far away, he should be out there, fighting, instead of up here, watching the battle with an almost birds eye view. It isn’t like what England taught him to expect, but the advisors had prepared him well and the reality is not unexpected. And as he rushes into the battle, his heart racing he finds that the battle itself is not what he is afraid of.

Aslan leaves them on the top of the cliff looking down as the last of the Witch’s army is routed. It looks as a dance to her mind as she scrambles towards it, barely held back by the hand on her shoulder that swiftly makes its way into her own. The battle will be over before they get there and they mustn’t hide away on the cliffside.

The Lion goes roaring down the hill after he leaves them and she is left with a feeling of helplessness as she stares down into the battle below. It is in Narnia’s favour now and it still looks horrific. Her brothers are down there now, and she is hesitant to join them. No one had been preparing her for battle, not in England and not in Narnia. She thinks she can stop an enemy but she does not know whether she is ready to.

[mouseyear]

In England it is not proper for a lady to practice something so barbaric. So instead she watches. She attends every competition and practice range she can. Her friends think there is a boy on the team who has caught her eyes. The boys think the same thing. She lets them think what they want. She just wants to see a bow in action again.

They are ancient weapons here, not worth learning by most. She wants to learn again – she would have to learn again, her skill learned by muscle memory. This time she will learn by knowing the theory. Or she would. If it were proper.

One of the boys approaches her one day, as they are finishing, and as their conversation ends she is left with the impression of plums. At school later, he finds her and he asks if she would like to learn. As she would, so very much, but it is not proper.

Something of the longing must have shown on her face though, because the next day the boy asks again, this time asking her to bring her friends along with her. She brings Peter, if the boy has any awful thoughts in his head they will flee at the sight of her older brother. The boy is not fazed and the two of them spend a nice afternoon at the archery range with Peter calling taunts at the sidelines. In Narnia she would have shot off his hat for them. Here she cannot be certain not to hurt him and so bites her lip and adjusts her grip and hits the bull’s eye three times in a row.

The stupid swords from the Voyager Movie

[mouseyear]

The sword was an old Narnian one, Lord Bern told them it had been entrusted to the seven lords by Caspian IX. It didn’t make sense. How did Caspian IX get The Sword of Eawal anyway? After the discussion, Caspian handed Eawal over to Edmund who took it graciously, still pondering on how the Telmarines had managed to get a hold of these swords and which ones they had.

How long had they been in Telmarine hands? Had they been found by the Telmarines or were the previous holders of the swords murdered? Lord Bern said that the swords had been given by Aslan to protect Narnia. Which was true enough, but the way the Lord said it… It was as if he believed Edmund hadn’t been there when the Sword of Eawal was given to Narnia. Had they stolen it right out of Cair Paravel’s ruins?

"Caspian… That is an ancient Narnian sword." Edmund was sure to approach the topic gingerly once they were back on the Treader.

"Yes, just as the First Lord said. Given to my father by Aslan." Caspian sounded so eager, so happy. Edmund almost didn’t continue, and perhaps in another life he wouldn’t have.

"Caspian… Did your father even believe in Aslan?" Caspian just stared at him for a bit, and Edmund almost continued before Caspian shook off his thoughts.

"I guess he did! Everyone always told me he was a good king, I guess now I know why!" Edmund found himself treading carefully, aware of Lucy’s gaze on them both.

"Caspian… your father was a Telmarine. He… oppressed Narnians." Caspian was oh-so-quick to defend his father.

"My father thought the Narnian's were extinct! He was a good king."

Edmund doesn't even have to try to refute that statement, Lucy does it for him. "But they weren’t. And everyone knew it too. Why else avoid the forest? A good Telmarine king is still a Telmarine king." Lucy’s voice was soft in the cabin, knowledgeable and oh-so-right.

"So what? The first Lord lied to me? Is that what you two are saying?" Caspian sounded accusatory and Edmund didn’t really blame him. He took back over the pain of the conversation from Lucy.

"I'm saying that is the story he was told. I know that sword Caspian. It's the Sword of Eawal and I was there when Aslan presented it."

[mouseyear]

Like her cordial, Lucy’s dagger was treasured as a memorial to her legacy throughout Narnia’s years without her. It was kept secret, kept pristine, and kept ready for her return. Like the rest of the Four’s belongings, Lucy’s dagger was acceptable to use up until the moment a daughter of Eve came from Spare Oom. The Lady Jill was given the dagger to use each time she came to Narnia and it travelled with her into the stable. With no need for weapons in Aslan’s Country it remains where she first shucked off extra weight before the waterfalling upwards.