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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Perhaps she should have known that it would not be so easy; that even her training would not be enough to predict all ends. But Jessica had been proud, and she had loved Leto too fiercely to not try.

But the girl was born with an iron will and the painfully sincere, open heart of the Duke -- utterly unsuited for Bene Gesserit interests -- and the boy was born quiet, thoughtful, with a mind that hummed with potential that could not yet be fully comprehended.

The day would come when she would have to offer one to the gom jabbar. And she knew which one would survive.

Leverage/EGS, Eliot Spencer & Arthur J Arthur, Off the books talk.

"Well?" Susan asks, and it comes out colder than she means for it to, as she shoves her feet into her best pair of heels. "Aren't you going to ask me to stay?"

Edmund watches her, like always, through her dresser mirror, and the heat of his gaze forces her to look away. It's hard to think of anyone else, like this.

"How could I?" he replies -- so gentle yet so bitter, all their rage condensed into three words.

Any, any, lapis lazuli and jade

The Talking Beasts of Narnia are not the same as the dumb beasts of our world, of course. It would be rude to assume anything of the kind. But it would also be ignorant to assume that there is no connection at all -- after all, Aslan exists in all worlds, and no one remembers this more than beasts, talking or not.

In the years following the terrible train wreck, people often stopped to look at the scars the accident had left. Sometimes they were family members of the victims, or survivors, or employees of the company surveying the damage.

But no one could quite explain why, at least once a day, animals of many different kinds who by all appearances had no reason to be there would stop at the site. They would arrive alone or in small groups, and after a few long minutes of making no movement or noise at all, would leave as immediately as they arrived, leaving stunned human spectators behind them.

There are a couple surprised squeaks, at least one outright squawk, and a general exclamation of sudden interest when a small egg patterned in, mostly, lichen greens splinters apart; the occupant who comes tumbling out, half his previous home now thoroughly disintegrated, is striking even among his color. He's licked by leaping flame along headknobs, tail and wings, while his limbs and belly are splashed with an almost dewy hue and somehow, his sides look harmonious where the dueling shades meet - he's not bronze, and that's reason enough for some to snub him, but there's a fair amount of well-earned head turning as he begins his search. It takes minutes, and the investigation of three separate groups of white-robed candidates, before he hones in on half a dozen of the class's burlier boys standing together; it's one of these lads, a very junior hold guard from Paradise River, all obvious muscle and middling brown hair cut to a brutally short hard prickle, who gets a gentle but decisive nudge from the fire and dew blue and, it's said both quietly and later, melts to a soft expression never before seen on such a determinedly stoic face.

(wow, it's really cool to see my fill being used as the inspiration for a prompt! I hope you don't mind that I used this to continue that au)

Jadis has to admit that after a lifetime of being followed by suspicious eyes and furtive whispers, it is kind of nice to now be the only one among the four of them who can go outside without a disguise. After all, when people believe humans are the only intelligent beings that exist, what else can she be?

She does feel a little sorry for Tumnus and Maugrim (who can only go outside when it is dark) and Aslan (who can’t leave the house at all) but she can’t deny the relief she feels, or the freedom. And perhaps, deep down, there is also some vindication; at least her friends now finally understand a little about what it is like to be her.

Of course, this can only last so long. Apparently, the country they are now in is ruled by a power hungry and merciless Prime minister (which is somewhat like a king) and his equally ruthless and frighteningly competent siblings, most of whom hold positions of power that Jadis has never even heard of. Professor Kirke (as the man who owns this house introduced himself) told them that the Pevensies have eyes and ears everywhere in the country and that it would be better for all of them if they didn’t discover the existence of Jadis and her friends.

And then Professor Kirke left for urgent business (though not before teaching Jadis and Tumnus how to use a device called a “telephone” and telling them to call a certain Ms. Plummer should he not return in two days) and the four of them have been alone in his house ever since.

All of this is rather ominous, but Jadis can’t say she isn’t used to it; the threat of an attack by Telmar has loomed over Narnia for as long as Jadis can remember.

It’s still a bit ironic that the four of them should be sent off to hide with the Beavers for their safety (though Jadis thinks, sometimes, that they were probably all too glad to be rid of her), only to end up in an equally dangerous situation.

Still, at least for now Jadis doesn’t have a giant target on her back, and she determined to enjoy being in a place where, for once in her life, what she was born as isn’t something to fear.

oh nooo, this is perfect and wrenching - the steady progression from her awe at a tiny life, to her overwhelming fear, to the reminder that she doesn't matter, augh, you can just feel her getting smaller and smaller through this. thank you very much, i love to cry!

oh my god, the tattoo! every time i get to that bit of the closet scene i am contractually obligated to yell "hamlet, that's really tacky!" at him, but since the heart of tragedy is inevitability, not only are the deaths unavoidable, so is prince hamlet's approach to mourning ;)

Oops, sorry about that. I just couldn't see Gertrude being allowed to simply enjoy time with her new little boy.

thank you!

Any cadet could tell you that outer space is soundless — that the holograms of explosive battles where percussion rocked the ship were just that, holo-dramas, with no root in reality. If you waited to hear the danger, you’d be waiting forever, so mech pilots learned to watch for other signs on their readout screens, even though their suits were never soundproofed.

You know that, but you can’t help but stop and strain your all-too-human ears, can’t help but ask aloud where no one can hear you scream, “Is that … singing?”

Thanks!

yesss, i love how it begins with what everyone knows, and the other ways people pay attention to danger, and then the second paragraph turns it on its head with just a tiny bit of doubt. this is great!

oh man, i hadn't even thought about how the fear of being caught would continue even after they're legitimate, that must be so nervewracking for her. poor gertrude

any, any, inside an elevator

If asked, she'd say it was a crazy whim that led her into Stars Hollow Books one day after dropping in on Rory, but the truth was a little different - Paris Geller followed a boy; still, it was a genuine accident, a complete coincidence, when they both reached for the same book at the same time, his hand landing on hers like some ridiculous movie meet-cute, the kind of which Paris never expected to happen to her.

Jess stared at her so intensely she felt she was burning up from the inside but couldn't seem to mind at all; "Please tell me you're not one of those girls who expect me to be a gentleman and let you just have the book, because in case you didn't get it already from the last time we met, I don't exactly do backing down any more than you do."

Paris' heart swelled and confidence grew ten-fold on realising he remembered her and that he was smiling at her even as he threatened to snatch the precious book away; "I'll let you have it, if you promise to read aloud to me sometime," she said, tilting her chin like a challenge - the look on his face was worth a thousand books.

"Lois, I am so sorry I'm late, but I can explain," said Clark, not for the first time in his life, probably nothing like the last either, as he skidded to a halt in front of her, hands already raised in some kind of surrender.

"Seriously, Smallville, don't even bother," she said, rising from her chair, shaking her head, arms folded firmly across her chest, "because I'm pretty sure I heard them all before anyway."

She moved to storm past him, but he quickly grabbed at her hand, keeping her there, turning her to him so she had to look at him as he produced a perfectly wrapped gift from behind his back; "I had to pick this up from the engraver and there was a delay, but happy birthday," he told her, smiling not only because she looked so happy with her present, but more so because - just this once - his explanation for where he had been and why he was late actually got to be true.

any, any, a collection of rocks

Yes - I think the fear that something would slip out would continue to haunt her.

don't worry, i wouldn't have prompted this if i didn't want to cry a little, and you absolutely delivered :D

(also, i see that you've subscribed to my journal, but i'm not at all active on dreamwidth, except once a year for the tsf - lizardrosen on tumblr and twitter are a much better bet, and i'm ERNest on AO3)

LOL! Wonderful :)

Surely dear cousin Maria could plainly see the trouble in presenting herself so freely to Mr Crawford with Mr Rushworth standing by, and how can it be so that cousin Julia does not see she makes as bigger fool of herself with her own childish behaviour for attention's sake?

Cousin Tom has always been so kind and reasonable with her, it is so difficult to be cross with him, and yet he acts in ways so ill-befitting his position and that would surely cause great pain and frustration to her uncle, Fanny can hardly bear it.

There are times when she wonders if she is the only one at Mansfield Park to have retained her common sense, as they all have grown from children to young adulthood, except perhaps for dear cousin Edmund, who is always steadfast and true, but as to the rest, Fanny does often wonder, with a tired sigh, if all hope might not be lost!

any, any, did I say that out loud?

I don't do Tumblr, but I've followed you on Twitter - you should recognise the icon!

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Three Sentence Ficathon 2022 Part 2

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memorial

Dragonriders of Pern via SouCon MUSH's Xanadu Weyr, me again

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Re: Hamlet, Claudius, major character death

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Re: Original - Stitch Diplomacy - k'Relik and Sheila

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Use Your Words

Not a Super Excuse

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Re: You Have Suffered Enough (3SF Meta, Ruth's Journal)

A Family of Fools

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