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

[swirlsngirls]

The Lunar Chronicles, any, photo

Re: No idea what's going on with this AU, but oh well

[vialethe]

Ooooh yes, I can see that - that Aleks might want to use her/their power to make a world for Grisha only, or raise Grisha up above everyone else, while Alina would be more focused on helping everyone, even people who were not at all grateful for her aid. And to your point about her being feared and hated - god, now I'm imagining scenarios in which she's threatened and he goes feral a la Kaz & Inej. This is some good AU.

[swirlsngirls]

Motherland: Fort Salem or Shadowhunters, any, “she can kick ass”

[scytale]

any, any, the catalogue of ships

[ernest]

Greek Mythology/Hadestown, Hades/Persephone & Orpheus, they need a marriage counselor, so orpheus volunteers

[swirlsngirls]

Any, any, you bear your fangs and drink me

[swirlsngirls]

Any, any, sophisticated, manipulated

[swirlsngirls]

Any, any, “in another life I think we would have been friends”

[swirlsngirls]

Any, any, set a fire in my head tonight

[swirlsngirls]

Person of Interest, any, “it’s what we do”

[azurefishnets]

Disco Elysium, any, the difference between moose and giraffes

[scytale]

"My husband loved an elf queen once," Janet says, piercing the fabric with her silver needle and binding the green thread into a stemstitch for the flowers of her embroidery, "and for his pains, she would have fed him to the fires of hell."

Isabel bristles at the implication -- her own true love is a true and courteous knight, and he will not harm her -- but still, caution makes her ask, "What saved him?"

"I did, of course," Janet says, smiling; she gazes up at Isabel with her odd grey eyes, adding, "But unless you have another lover you haven't told me about, I suggest you learn to sing."

Orlok/Liliana

[scytale]

They wander around the new town they live in, Orlok watching everything with wide eyes; tugging at Liliana's hand, he leads her excitedly to inspect this building or that statue or that tree.

"But you've been here before," Liliana says, confused.

He smiles, squeezing her hand: "I have, but never with you."

Untethered (The Wilds, Shelby Goodkind)

[swirlsngirls]

Toni is unbearably, unapologetically her true self; she wouldn’t live a lie like Shelby does, she’d fight tooth and nail or die trying. But Shelby—- Shelby won’t, she can’t, not when the self-loathing cuts so deep she can barely admit it to herself, not when her family and everything would be lost. She isn’t meant for this, being untethered to the expectations of the rest of the world; she’s not meant to be free, she’s meant to be the good, dutiful daughter and sing in pageants while she hides her tears and forget kissing Becca and lingering desires and plaster smiles on her face until her cheeks hurt—- to keep up her life’s lie.

(And in the moments she is left alone, to beg for God to save her and make her the way she’s supposed to be.)

Not a fill, but a book rec?

[kaminagi]

A comment, not a fill (scytale's is marvelous), I wonder if have you read by An Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton?

If not, it's a retelling of Tam Lin, combined with a "what happened to Isabel?" after the events of Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight. The novel is set in historical Scotland, with Jennet and Isabel are sisters and daughters of a Scottish laird.

Ribbon (Sharp Objects, Camille & Amma & Adora)

[swirlsngirls]

“Good grief, you’d think you three were the ones who murdered those girls, the brazen way you talk about them,” Adora says, putting her hand to her head as if she’s about to faint. “How horrible.”

“If we did,” Amma counters, winking at Camille as Adora fusses with the perfect blue ribbon-tied ringlets of her daughter’s hair, “they’d never arrest us. We’re way too pretty for prison.” Once Adora finishes, Amma and her two friends who follow her everywhere leave, Camille knows she’s right—- no one would even suspect them.

[ernest]

It was broad daylight when Claudius forced his hands to stop shaking for long enough to rid the world of a terrible man: father, brother, husband, king, he filled all these roles with violence and blame, and now he’s gone.

Four months later he watches a murder that feels so much more real in fiction than it did as he was doing it himself, and when he flings himself out of his throne the scene turns red and murky until all he can do is clap his hands together to regain the authority he cannot feel and ask for some light.

At the sound of the sobs he hoped he’d never have to hear again, he runs to take his wife’s hands, waits until his attendants have left the room as she requested, and meets her eyes to be sure she feels safe with him before he asks again what’s going on.

(literally as i was putting the finishing touches on the final sentence i decided to actually listen to the song these lyrics are from, and i'll probably be filling it again later with something that fits the tone!)

[swirlsngirls]

The “deep, dark woods”, the Staff call it, but Laura knows now that that’s a lie. It’s deep, but not the way they say it, not miserably endless like a hedge-maze but vast and boundless, full of green-canopied possibilities. The streams sparkle and burble music, the birds sing her lullabies, and there is only the soft padding of moss under her feet, warmed by rays of sunshine.

[ruthchinn]

narnia, any, loss

[ruthchinn]

Star Wars, Satine & Bo-Katan Kryze, any

[ruthchinn]

any, any, cats

[ruthchinn]

Daredevil, Matt's mom (Maggie), any

[ruthchinn]

Plants vs Zombies, Dr. Zomboss, any

[swirlsngirls]

“I’m so cold”, he tells his mother as a child when it is chilly outside, and she does not acknowledge him or offer a blanket.

“I’m so cold,” he says again when he is running away, but no one listens, and he keeps running and braving the winter until his lips are blue and he is leaving bloody footprints in the snow from cracked feet.

“I’m so cold,” he begs, and by the time he stumbles into a welcoming home to thaw by their fire, the ice has spread to his bones and he is too frozen to be saved.

Guardian; Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan (apocalypse AU)

[presumenothing]

"Thought you'd still be out there trying to save the world," Zhao Yunlan sighs, still leaning back against the wall, but he doesn't need to blink open his eyes to see the slight shake of Shen Wei's head.

Nothing to be done, because turns out they needn't have worried about the unrest brewing in Dixing after all; not even the Black-Cloaked Envoy can stop a second meteor.

"Could I…" starts Shen Wei – asks Xiao Wei, voice soft like an admission, and what a shame there won't be time to invent more names than that but Zhao Yunlan reaches up to pull Shen Wei down beside him anyway because at least there can be this: a warm body pressed against his own, smiling into a familiar silence as they wait for the world to end.