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)]

any, any, flow down like silver

Hamlet, Claudius/Gertrude, pre-ship

[ernest]

When her brother-in-law- returns from his two year tour of the continent his hair is long and he has gotten handsome; Gertrude had already started to pay more attention than she should before he left, but then Claudius was still mostly a boy and still becoming himself.

Without thinking about it she reaches out to touch his hair, which is just as soft as she imagined as it flows through her fingers, and it is a while before she notices how very still he has grown, but she is unwilling to let him go because they both know it can never happen again, so she lingers.

A week later, he’s cut it short again.

[grandmemester]

any, any, don't you come here and say I didn't warn you/About the way your world can alter/And oh how you try to command it all still/Every single time it all shifts one way or the other

[ernest]

“We must do something,” Goneril’s fear blurts out, “and in the heat!” She and Regan have made the mistake of thinking about what might happen instead of defying their circumstances for too many decades, and now their father’s unpredictable moods have ended in two banishments which his pride will not allow him to revoke.

They can neither turn back the clock nor stop its relentless march forward, but they can agree to meet the changes as they come, arm in arm, and even then its gears grind them up without mercy.

[vialethe]

Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, when is a monster not a monster?/oh, when you love it

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

[betony]

Aleksander would be wary of the Sun Queen even without the warnings of his mother and sister; as long as he can remember, he has heard the stories of how she stopped a war between both her peoples, how she wrested control of Shu Han and Ravka from untrustworthy royals into her own hands, how she has turned the fields and frozen wilds alike into endless, exhausting summer. The peasants pray to her with the fervor that true fear brings about, and the few short hours of nightfall they are allowed are considered a rare blessing.

But when he is marched past members of the Second Army, and laid down at her feet, she is the only one to reach out a hand to help him, and he thinks--he wonders--in all the stories told of her monstrosity, no one had thought to mention that she might be sad.

[anonne]

any, any, I thought I'd never say that word

Spook (MI5): Lucas North

[smallhobbit]

"That's defenestration!" Lucas North called as he left Harry's office, "which is a word I'd never expected to say."

"What's happened now?" Ros Myers asked.

"I simply threatened to throw Lucas out of my window," Harry Pearce explained, as he too came out of his office, "if he didn't leave me in peace immediately!"

[vialethe]

Trojan War Cycle, Aeneas/Cassandra, forgive me, lover/for i have sinned/for i have let you go/but you’ve been every now and then on my mind

[betony]

She does not think of him when the city falls, when she cradles the statue of the goddess and weeps, when she is forced onto the boats and retches in horror; she does not allow herself to steal southwards where she knows he will be, guiding his father and son and followers to the boats.

He would be angry for it, if he knew, but he doesn't; and besides he is not a thought for these dark hours, but for the brief respite that follows.

Aeneas is a dream, and Cassandra will not drag him down into her doom.

[vialethe]

Narnia, Pevensies, no one can know/what we started with the light we stole

The Pevensies in England

[animus_wyrmis]

They are children again, English children in the countryside, small and young and sent to bed by eight o'clock. Yet there is something else about them, too, which Professor Kirke recognizes and draws out: the knowledge and experience and grace of a lifetime ruling in Narnia that lies sleeping inside them. It appears in the tilt of Susan's head, the confidence in her walk; in Peter and Edmund's long conversations in front of the fire and talent on horseback on the horses Polly has stabled with him for years; in Lucy's bright laughter when she says, "I think He would want us to go outside," on that moonless night when shooting stars arc across the sky.

[vialethe]

Shadow & Bone/SoC, Inej/Kaz, you’re a bandit like me/eyes full of stars/lusting for the good life/never thought I’d meet you here/it could be love

[vialethe]

Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, and tell me if somehow/some of it remained/how long you would wait for me/how long i’ve been away

[vialethe]

Shadow & Bone/TGT, The Darkling/Alina, my eclipsed sun/this has broken me down/my twisted knife/my sleepless night/my winless fight

[vialethe]

The Mandalorian, Din/Bo-Katan, the way she shows me i’m hers and she’s mine/open hand or closed fist would be fine

[vialethe]

Bridgerton (book series), Francesca/Michael, the old widow goes to the stone every day/but i don’t/i just sit here and wait/grieving for the living

[ruanchunxian]

Sometimes, when it was too humid and hot to sleep, Michael would lie awake, and think of her. Running away seemed like a good idea at the time – it was still a good idea, even if in these sleepless nights, Michael couldn’t help but dream of what it might be like, if he had stayed and allowed them to be of comfort to each other; in fantasies when he could convince himself that she would let him be her comfort, Michael imagined that her smiles would be enough to warm even the coldest of Scottish winter nights.

These dreams and fantasies were indeed beautiful when he could bring himself to get lost in them, but inevitably, eventually, he would be snapped out of them by the buzzing of mosquitoes, and then all he would be left with were linen sheets sticking to him like guilt; sometimes he thought he had ran away and stayed away, because here, oceans away, it was easier to pretend that John was still alive and Michael was still coveting his wife, and hate himself for it, than to face the terrifying reality that his dreams of making Frannie his own could actually come true, and he was simply too much of a coward, preferring to hide here than be back there, throwing himself at her feet.


(It's been a while since I read the book so ignore anything that seems off.)

[presumenothing]

any, any, in the right stories, the house and the haunting are the same.

quote from post by chetungwan

Sharp Objects (tv series)

[swirlsngirls]

In the right stories, the house and the haunting are the same. Marian’s ghost follows Camille up the stairs and Amma walks in line with her, so close that Camille wonders if she can see her too; Amma falls sick, and Adora feeds her the same medicine she fed Marian. Camille takes it too because she does not belong here and she is bad and she deserves it and it should’ve been her who had died and now it will be and the cycle of the secrets this house keeps will be over and she can save Amma—- and her steps do not resound on the hardwood floor as she weakly fights her way to Amma, telling her to escape for once and for all, and she wonders if she has already become a ghost.

[rionaleonhart]

The Last of Us Part II, Ellie and Jesse, becoming friends.

[loveandrockmusic]

Dark!Narnia, Any, There are no bargains between lions and men. I will kill you and eat you raw.

[driftbending]

As Edmund lay in the dark, the only sound he could hear was the drumming of his heart.

Then a soft thunder of a creature’s footfalls coming closer and closer. Its presence looming ever larger, taking up so much space it was hard breathe.

It was Aslan.

The great lion was at Edmund’s feet. Slowly, Aslan made his way up Edmund’s body. At last, he hovered over him, his hot breath and low rumbles making Edmund shiver with fear.

Still, he met Aslan’s eyes. They held anger, betrayal. They held a great stone table, the great lion himself tied down and motionless as the dead. They held the cries of his sisters, of battle and bloodshed. They held the witch, a cruel grin on her face.

Terror struck Edmund. Terror and sorrow, for the lion had shown him a future he did not want.

Tears fell from his eyes though he could not look away from Aslan. I’m sorry, he thought miserably, the words stuck in his throat. I’m sorry.

Aslan growled, then roared.

“For there to be forgiveness, there must first be a sacrifice,” the lion’s voice seemed to say and at once Edmund understood.

When Aslan opened his great maw and bent down, Edmund closed his eyes and waited to be devoured.

[(Anonymous)]

Final Fantasy VII/Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Aeris and Sephiroth (or / if you prefer), the Cetra as Laputans more interested in their gardens than the myth of empire.

[(Anonymous)]

Final Fantasy VII/Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, any, Wutai does not rely on simple mortal forces to repel invaders.

[(Anonymous)]

Final Fantasy VII/Laputa: Castle in the Sky, post-game Sephiroth, He doesn't remember what the world was before but the sky is very peaceful.

[(Anonymous)]

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night/Laputa: Castle in the Sky, any, Dracula's castle is a flying one.

[raisedbymoogles]

any, any, sword & sorcery AU

Pride and Prejudice, Elementary

[(Anonymous)]

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

For the higher-born they prefer such accomplished young women to have some skills in spellwork, though of course this much be of the more book-learned sort that runs households with grace and Mends in necessity to keep up appearances in times of lower funds; elemental magic is the wilder sort, unbecoming of genteel young ladies of good breeding and delicate sensibilities.

Elizabeth Bennett, second-oldest of the many Bennett sisters and one of those genteel young ladies herself, was fit to call down a storm the like of which would wash Meryton - indeed all of Hertfordshire - clear off the map when Mr Bingley hurt her sister.

[raisedbymoogles]

any, any, Warring States period AU

LoZ:BotW, Whisper Campaign

[(Anonymous)]

"Do you know what they say about you, Zelda?" her father growls - "they say that you are heir to a throne of nothing," and all the Princess can do is bow her head, fold her hands white-knuckled into her sleeves and swear - yet again - to work harder at her training.

Mother, Grandmother - would you have taught me more if you could? I wish you were here now-!

But she was all alone with no-one to guide her, her father consumed by the fighting that raged all around them and dragging her along as proof that he should remain shogun over all, that her family retained the blessings of the Goddess. Zelda, in the most private recesses of her thoughts, wondered if they hadn't lost the Goddess' favour long ago, and if her failure was only the most blatant sign.

[raisedbymoogles]

any, any, faerie AU

Transformers G1, What Goes Unseen

[(Anonymous)]

"Jazz, stop!"

Jazz froze, the tip of one pede just on the verge of crossing the threshold of an ancient, tumbledown doorway. "Prowl what the frag," he hissed, balancing mid-stride with effortless grace and an annoyed ripple through his field even as he flicked out a scan for pressure plates or tripwires he'd somehow managed to miss.

"Not that way," Prowl hissed back, doorwings twitching in sharp, angry little jerks, glaring at what was left of the frame like an angry cat as he strode off around the doorway and the rusty lump of wall poking up on either side. "It's not safe."

"Yeah, I figured! What-"

But Prowl was already around the door and moving off at an angle, and Jazz turned to follow without the faintest idea of the line he'd been about to cross.

[raisedbymoogles]

any, any, fixit

Final Fantasy X

[anonne]

"I've defied Yevon before," said Braska, growing more confident by the second, "and I'll do it again."

"You're just gonna turn back?" Jecht exclaimed.

Braska nodded, his smile slowly expanding as he went on: "I think you're right, Auron, there has to be another way – and we'll be the ones to find it."

[raisedbymoogles]

any, any, necromancy

FFVII, Mother May-I

[(Anonymous)]

"Mother," he whispered, "Mother, please, show me how-" and the knowledge was pouring into his mind before he could follow, sloshing grotesquely and pressing hard against his temples from the inside and he bit his cheek against the pain and pressure.

He held out a hand and pulled, polar opposite to the push of casting but still with the burn of magical expenditure alongside it; for too-long moments nothing happened, his heart beating fever-quick alongside the pounding of his head, and then - and then-

The worn-smooth flagstones bumped. Or, rather, something bumped up against them, underneath them, and Sephiroth's mouth was full of bile even as he reached down with unnatural speed to rip them up and bare the mountain earth underneath.

Professor Gast's shoulders pushed out of the earth, grey with dust and time and decay, clumps of hair falling out along with the loose pebbles dislodged from under the stone, and Sephiroth wanted to scream and laugh and cry all at once - and who was to stop him from doing all three?

-

Aeris looked up, smiling, and Cloud's body wasn't his own, wasn't his own-

A flash of metal above, and Vincent barrelled past knocking Cloud out of the way; steel shrieked against steel, and a shambling figure hit the plinth where Aeris had been kneeling hard enough to collapse over its own feet.

"No," Aeris whispered, pressed between the upright stone and Vincent's protective weight, eyes wide; the thing straightened, unevenly, one limb jerking along a little faster than the other and swaying before reaching some kind of equilibrium.

"I will become a god," whispered in Cloud's ears, as Zack's bloodless, staring corpse swung a borrowed Buster sword down to point at him. "We will travel between the stars together, all of us, with this wretched Planet as our vessel. All those I choose to raise, to keep alongside me. Mother showed me how, Cloud, no matter how long ago the death of the body. Or how brief.

"Aren't you glad I kept you?"

[raisedbymoogles]

any, any, spooky ritual games

FFVII, Games To Play In The Dark

[(Anonymous)]

"This is a bad idea," one of the boys whined, and Tifa didn't bother to look up and see who.

"Then go away," she said, hard but absent, and though they shuffled a little, nobody moved. Carefully, Tifa drew a line across the paper on the floor in front of her - side to side, then another top to bottom. She set her pencil down after writing yes and no on the lines in her careful round letters, sat back on her heels and let out a breath.

"Charlie Charlie, are you there?" she asked, just a little too loud for her normal speaking voice. For a long moment nothing happened, and one of the boys let out a sigh of relief - then the pencil juddered, twitched, and started to roll around in a circle until the worn lead pointed to yes.

Tifa gasped, her heart starting to pound; this was it, something was there! Mount Nibel was full of ghosts and passing spirits, on their way to the sunshine on the other side - maybe one of them had seen her Mama, or maybe this was Mama right now-!

"Charlie Charlie, are you my Mama?" she asked breathlessly; the pencil wobbled again, then started to roll - faster and faster and faster, the paper under it scuffing and starting to curl up at the edges and the air was starting to move and the edges of the paper were starting to catch fire-

A man's deep, dark chuckle echoed around the room under the boys starting to shriek, and the pencil scored right through - No.

[raisedbymoogles]

Hollow Knight, the Hollow Knight, hugs

Start Here, And Be Kinder

[(Anonymous)]

The light had been itching and scalding and cutting and burning, aching and blinding until all Bigsib could do was lash out trying to make it go away. They understood, they did, they were the same after all - they chased the light back to its source while Hornetsib held Bigsib down tight and tight, they and manysibs and Biggest-And-Deepest-Darkest smothering it and pulling it down until the very last sparking itching flaring roar of it went out and would never blaze up again.

Hornetsib was very very angry when they woke up, for scaring her, and then for Bigsib waking up as well; it was okay. She wasn't quite the same as them, but they were still sibs. They reached out and patted Bigsib's arm - the only one they had now, but they were quiet and tired and not hurting with the itching madness anymore, and relieved-and-grateful enough to pat back.

Maybe Hornetsib would want a hug too?