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

[(Anonymous)]

Sleeping Beauty (Perrault version), the princess, if her mother-in-law was an ogre, then her husband and children must be part ogre too...

[(Anonymous)]

DC franchise (any), Dick/Barbara, I haven't laughed like that in a long time

[vindoletta]

Any, any, mindless scrolling

Ghost Quartet, Pearl and the Pusher

[ernest]

Pearl looks at her phone so she doesn’t have to pay attention to the man screaming about the apocalypse; she’s too old for revelations or memories, she just wants to pretend to be a soldier fighting a bear in a game that has no stakes because it isn’t real. Just as she selects the sword her phone flies out of her hand and she follows it over the edge of the platform, trying to believe those weren’t claws digging into her back.

When it becomes clear that she cannot climb, she chooses instead to let the train rip through her.

[(Anonymous)]

Leverage/The Hobbit, any, the wrong thief

[elementalraven]

Bilbo crept through the halls of Erebor, trying his hardest look for this Arkenstone while attracting no attention, he stopped to look around a pillar and-

“You walk really quietly,” a voice behind him said, startling Bilbo so badly that he squeaked and almost tripped over himself in his haste to turn around- only to find himself face to face with a blonde human Woman.

The woman quirked her head curiously and seemed to come to some sort of conclusion; in one quick movement she pulled out a big, almost impossibly shiny stone and said: “Were you looking for this?”

[(Anonymous)]

Leverage/The Hobbit, Eliot Spencer, fighting a dragon isn't that hard

Two Feet In The Right Place (Lord of the Rings/Leverage; Eliot, Parker, Smaug)

[fallen_stage]

"Fighting a dragon isn't that hard."

The company of dwarves looked at the human with various shades of disbelief.

"And how, praytell," Thorin says, slowly, deliberately, swelling with banked anger, "could you kill a dragon, where many greater men failed?"

"Because I've got Parker."

~

"You couldn't even make it past a bank vault!"

"Why would I need to bother with petty human doors when I could tear apart your dwellings and fill them with fire?"

"Because that's flashy and flashy gets you killed. In and out, no trace, that's how you get gold."

"Do I look killed, little human?" The great dragon rumbled a laugh, peering down at the little speck with hands on her hips. "Does my gold seem lacking?"

"You look like you're gonna get a lobotomy."

"Then what is a - "

Before Smaug could finish his amused question, Eliot rose from his hiding place in the loose coins, firing his harpoon gun into the beast's burning eye. He didn't even have time to roar in pain with the huge steel bolt burrowed into his brain.

"That," Eliot said to Parker, to be repeated later, "is how you kill a dragon."

[(Anonymous)]

Leverage/The Hobbit, Sophie Deveraux, ent-wives

[(Anonymous)]

any, any, on your third broken window / with your hair full of glass

[(Anonymous)]

any, any, and the crowd in your bedroom waits for a piece of your personal space

Company, Bobby

[ernest]

Everyone in Bobby’s life wants a say in what he does with it, to the point that he can’t even bring a girl home to an apartment he spends hardly any time in without wondering what they’d say about her. When is he going to stop messing around and find someone worth settling down with, and what does he think he’s doing with this girl?

But it’s none of their business and he didn’t invite them into his head or bedroom, so it’s hardly fair for them to have destroyed the mood so thoroughly.

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, "Wow your shorts are like especially gold today." "My mom uses colour safe bleach." "Go Carol."

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, The moon's an arrant thief, and her pale fire she snatches from the sun

Sailor Moon, Usagi(/Minako)

[raisedbymoogles]

The knowledge that she'd been the Moon Princess they'd searched for all that time had hit like a hammerblow, and at the time Usagi had been able to do nothing but collapse to the ground, hiding her face in her folded arms. This is wrong! It was supposed to be Minako!

The feeling never really goes away, even after Usagi lifts her head again and claims her power. Minako isn't the perfect goddess of a Princess that Usagi had imagined, but she is all warrior and all Princess, her power tearing through enemies like justice given form, her words inspiring and commanding the other Senshi in a way Usagi never could. Next to her, Usagi feels like a pale imitation, any light she gives off merely stolen from Minako, and it's only because Minako shines so brightly that she doesn't even seem to notice.

And then Minako shields Usagi in battle like she'd lay down her life for her Princess, or she catches Usagi's hand and says I really admire you, you know? and Usagi's confused/euphoric all over again.

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, We are arrant knaves, all. Believe none of us.

Spider-Verse, the Spider-Cast, "Friendly Neighborhood"

[silveradept]

When it came down to it, though, none of them really were like him. They were all people with spider abilities, but each of their stories were just different enough from each other that while they could relate, none of them were exactly the same. It made many of the things they said to each other both truthful enough and false enough that Miles never really knew what to say and what to believe about any of them, even himself.

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, hop, skip, jump

Roped In (Linda Dale & Gary Preston, the Flame Comics)

[woodmr]

Leaping through flames was nothing to linking clues bound up in an arcane American custom Gary could not quite wrap his head around.

“Oh, it’s easy!” Linda exclaimed and fell to twirling the rope about her with giddy delight.

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, whiskey, lapsang souchong, rosemary

[alienacat]

Any, any, death by apotheosis

RWBY, Ozma

[ernest]

Ozma knows full well that he is anything but a god, barely worthy of being their champion – but he has the kind of magic that only one other person on this planet can use, and he has traveled through many lifetimes to get here, so by most reckonings he could call himself one. Each life he takes for his own consumes him in turn until neither he nor his host knows where one ends and the other begins but one of them is the corpse of a soul, steering the corpse of a man. The path to divinity is a curse, a reminder that he has still failed in his holy task and may never succeed.

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, I'm not putting bleach in my tea

Imperial Radch, Zeiat & Tisarwat

[(Anonymous)]

“Are you sure, Lieutenant?” Translator Zeiat asked, pushing the little ceramic pitcher – painted with delicate blue fish and filled nearly to the top with not even the most alarming substance the Translator had consumed that day – in Tisarwat’s direction. “The chemical composition is charming, and the flavor is, mmm, what’s the word… piquant, pungent – no, poignant, I most certainly mean poignant.”

“Be that as it may, I value my survival more than my sense of culinary adventure,” Tisarwat said weakly, and didn’t mention for fear of inspiring a dangerous curiosity that this was why she had no plans to interfere with the Translator’s new favorite drink, but she’d be keeping all the vinegar in the vicinity to herself.

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, the more you try to get rid of unlucky numbers, the more what you love disappears without you knowing

Hamlet

[ernest]

Hamlet couldn’t say when he started counting, but it began with matching his steps to his iambs, right foot landing hard on each stressed syllable, and after a while if he spoke in syncopation he’d have to pause and curl his arms around himself to self-soothe. Still, it didn’t get bad until he met his father on the watchtower and swore to wipe away all trivial fond pursuits, and now a madness that is not entirely feigned shows him the ghost in every silence, in the stitches his girlfriend sews.

The play’s the thing (he thinks, he hopes, he prays) to catch both the conscience of the king and his own writhing, all-consuming obsessions, and once the curtain falls and the king rises, he’ll be free of that vicious mole of nature.

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, water evidence

Eliminating the Impossible (Sherlock Holmes)

[woodmr]

“I will not deny that some of the facts appear rather against my client,” Holmes genially answered Inspector Gregson without the slightest hint of concern, which I believe prompted that man to overstate his case.

“Why, everything points to her guilt!”

“I will grant that a lady may quickly change her clothes after traipsing through a thunderous gale to remove all trace of rain from her person, or even her shoes—but I must ask how she kept her hair so perfectly in tact?”

[paxilam]

any, any, dance hall

[ernest]

any, any, i should be better, but i'm worse

Hamlet

[smallhobbit]

Hamlet thought briefly about what his actions were achieving. When he'd begun his plans he'd meant to deal with people better than Claudius had done. Now he'd killed Polonius, horrified his mother, and no-one knew who else would be hurt in the fallout; he wasn't better but worse.

[ernest]

any, any, your body is a machine

[ernest]

any, any, i'm broken-hearted but my beat's in time

[paxilam]

any, any, the post-it note on the fridge

The Sentinel (a very old but dear fandom of mine...) from Blair to Jim

[sallymn]

Hey Jim, don't eat the brownies on the second shelf, I made them for the sensory testing tomorrow and you do not want to know the secret ingredient in each one... at least not yet.

* * * * *

Jim, do NOT eat the meatballs in the blue Tupperware bowl, they're for testing and remember what happened with the brownies? - 'cause I'll never forget and neither will most of the building and next time YOU can do the 'splaining and damage control.

* * * * *

Okay Ellison, it's on, they're TOFU this time and yeah, you are too gonna eat them but not until I'm damn well ready to test you with them - and no whining, Oh Great Sentinel, you ASKED for it!!

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, superb owl Sunday

Based on a true story...

[ernest]

Duo here! That's an impressive 199 day streak you've got there, it would be a shame if something... happened to it. Comment disez-vous « superb owl »?

[(Anonymous)]

Doctor Who, Fugitive Doctor (& other Doctor), I won't regret what I become, I won't remember after all

[paxilam]

any, any, something fishy

Obsidian & Blood, Teomitl

[notapaladin]

He is Ahuitzotl; thanks to Chalchiuhtlicue’s favor, the beasts for which he was named are bound tightly to his soul. As much as they’ve saved him in the past—it turns out that even the fiercest fighter is vulnerable to a man-sized blur of teeth and claws that can spring from any source of fresh water—there are occasional downsides to that. He finds it more difficult to keep ahold of his temper when he’s hungry. His hair is frankly unmanageable. (They are, after all, thorny water beasts, referring to their spiky wet fur.) His teeth are sharper than they ought to be, and he keeps biting his tongue or the insides of his cheeks by accident. Sudden bright lights give him headaches.

And he is absolutely, shamefully ravenous for raw fish.

(“Teomitl,” his wife asks, “what are you eating?”)

(He swallows the rest of his still-bleeding meal quickly. “Just a quick snack!” It’s not technically a lie.)