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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any, any, truth is a violent force

The faerie lord’s voice rippled with glamour, but she trusted in the necklace of rowan berries that lay underneath the collar of her homespun tunic and the nails of silver cleverly sewn into the seams of her sleeves; though he may have come under the guise of friendship and aid, she did not trust him or his kind: They were fickle and capricious and often cruel; they did not care for the lives of mortals, who were but mayflies to their unending years—and so she refused his offer.

The faerie lord leaned close to her, his inhuman eyes scrutinizing her face for a long moment; she held her back straight and met his gaze evenly, obstinately; she would not be cowed by one of the Folk, however lofty and revered he may be among his people, and she would not accept an offer of aid from one who would trap her in a cunningly-worded promise as soon as he would lift a finger to come to her people’s aid.

Something flickered in his eyes—something she might have called respect, if she had been looking into human eyes—and he drew back from her, tall and terrible in his beauty, his eyes glittering as he said to her, “I hope you have chosen wisely, mortal.”

“How could they ever accept Edmund as their king? He betrayed them all!” the Sparrow cried. “Even Aslan!”

“No, Sparrow,” the centaur said gently. “It was King Edmund’s folly that guaranteed Aslan’s triumph over the Witch. If Aslan had not died on the Stone Table, all of Narnia would have fallen again to the Witch’s power, and the spring of new hope would have withered into another long winter of despair. King Edmund was the traitor who saved Narnia, and ever after he ruled justly and fairly, and he was renowned for his wisdom, discernment, and compassion—for he remembered how he had erred and been judged harshly by those who had been quick to condemn his actions.”

The Sparrow twisted her head in thought and said after a moment, “I suppose he was very noble, then, to rule so justly over those who had judged him.”

“He was indeed,” said the centaur. “And all of Narnia felt keenly the loss of his wisdom and counsel when the Kings and Queens of Old disappeared.”

“But the Kings and Queens of Old didn’t have magic, everyone knows that; that’s just a fairy tale!” the young Squirrel exclaimed, his tail lashing back and forth in his fervor.

The Leopard looked at him sharply and said, “Fairy tale or not, it is said that the Queen Lucy spoke and danced with the trees; have you ever seen the trees speak or dance, you who make your dwelling among them and run along their branches?”

The Squirrel’s tail drooped, and the Leopard said primly, “Then it was magic.”

“They say that High King Peter was given Rhindon by the Lady of the Lake, who stepped from her waters to place it in his hand, and that that was the evidence of his coming kingship, for it had long been foretold that the one who was bestowed the sword by the Lady of the Lake would be the one who would lead Narnia to freedom from the Witch’s control,” the naiad said with authority, “and my foremothers bore witness to this, for it was their lake that the Lady dwelled in.”

“No, no, you’ve got it all wrong, as usual,” the dwarf interrupted, “for my people say that High King Peter drew Rhindon from a stone, and that that was Aslan’s test to determine if he was worthy of being High King, for it had long been foretold that the one who drew the sword from the stone would be the one who would lead Narnia to freedom from the Witch’s control; that is what my forefathers witnessed, for it was they who placed the sword in the stone.”

“You both are wrong,” the dryad said definitively, a rustle of leaves punctuating her statement, “for my people say that High King Peter was given a crown of oak leaves and acorns by the Lady of the Wood, and that her gesture was the sign of Aslan’s favor, for it had long been foretold that the one who wore the crown of oak would be the one who would lead Narnia to freedom from the Witch’s control, and my foremothers witnessed the High King’s coronation, for it happened in their grove”—and at this all three set to arguing more fiercely.

“Has anyone got a signal?” Susan asked, holding her phone above her head as she crunched to and fro through the snow; her fingers were going numb, and the coats (what era were they from, anyways? The 1940s?) in the wardrobe really were not meant to be worn in the snow.

Peter shook his head and shoved his phone into the pocket of his pants—the denim was quickly becoming sodden from the snow drifts—and caught Lucy’s hand as she began to tromp off into the trees on her own; and he looked up at the snow-laden trees that crowded around them as far as the eye could see and asked, “Where do you think we are?”

“Nowhere good,” grumbled Edmund. “What kind of place doesn’t have mobile service?”

If you asked any Narnian whom it was who led the Narnian Resistance, they would say that it was Peter, Wolf’s-Bane and Knight of Free Narnia, but in truth it was Edmund who directed the gathering of intelligence and presided over meetings planning the Resistance’s strategy against the Witch and her Secret Police; Peter was merely the face of the Resistance, the elusive agent who led the raids on the Secret Police outposts and thinned their numbers, infamous throughout Narnia and the hero of all Free Narnians.

Lucy was a field agent (and it was the cause of many rows between the siblings—Peter could often be heard thundering his disapproval when all four were gathered together for meetings held behind closed doors), and she worked closely with the faun Tumnus—who had first recruited her, and then her siblings, to join the Resistance and weaken the Witch’s hold on Narnia—determining which of the trees could be trusted and encouraging them to wake from their long sleep and join the fight against the Witch.

Susan often joined Peter’s raids on the Secret Police outposts, hiding in the shadows and loosing arrows into any who dared break through his guard, and she often went on missions alone, too, taking her targets down silently, such that rumors began to spread of the deadly Resistance agent who melded with the shadows; but she greatly preferred overseeing the task of conducting refugees to the Resistance’s headquarters and safehouses, guarding their flight and tending to their wounds, and all who met her marveled at her compassion and care.

S&B/SOC, Inej/Kaz, he’s good and he’s bad and he’s all that I’ve got

S&B/SOC, Inej/Kaz, masquerade AU

Silmarillion, any, there wasn’t a right or a wrong that he could choose / he did what he had to do

Silmarillion, any, align my heart, my body, my mind / to face what I’ve done and do my time

Silmarillion, any, I will burn your kingdom down / if you try to conquer me and mine

It might not strictly be magic, but for all that Beverly understands telepathic or empathetic or whatever they are bonds, they might as well be magic. It's not until the Enterprise-D gets new, state-of-the-art brain scanning technology beyond anything she's ever seen before that she gets the first look at one of those bonds in a scientific way. She still doesn't understand it, but at least she can now see where Will and Deanna's brains...overlap, for lack of a better word.

Star Trek: AOS, Enterprise crew, set the world on fire

Kogha deserves every bit of loyalty he has.

any, any, Beware an old man in a profession where men die young.

any, any, hot springs

any, any, unexpectedly meeting a friendly Labrador retriever (no animal death or harm, please)

It took Charley the better part of the day to figure out where the Doctor had wandered off too, which turned out to be a public park, where he was lying in the grass petting a big yellow dog, who seemed quite happy for the attention.

“I used to have a robot dog, you know,” the Doctor was saying in a confidential tone, apparently to the dog. “You’re much softer… and less sarcastic.”

the horse stole the ship....

I almost let the call go to the answering machine. That had been my habit for weeks now, ever since my life seemed to shatter in a million pieces right before my eyes.

Fortunately, I still had a job and enough seniority to take emergency leave except it wasn’t for a family member. It was for myself. I’d been spending my days in my pajamas, watching marathons of Law and Order (every series because I’m just that extra), ignoring my friends and their well-meaning attempts to cajole me into coming outside. It was easier to contemplate the vaugeries of the fictional judicial system than it was to face the wreck of my life.

I turned up the TV; Benson and Stabler were chasing down yet another perp as the phone continued to ring. I blew out a breath and finally picked it up just before the machine kicked in.

I snarled “what?” which assured me that I had salty down pat.

“You really need to get more. Sitting at home alone is terrible for your disposition.”

Benson and Stabler collared the perp as I groaned, “I really don’t want to talk to you.”

Love’s laugh rumbled over the phone line. “You are such a drama queen. C’mon, let me in. I’ve got ice cream.”

The episode I’d been watching ended, smoothly easing into another one. “Fine,” I huffed. “But none of your shenanigans. I’m wallowing.”

“Fair enough.” Love paused then said, “For what it’s worth, I'm sorry it didn’t work out.”

“Yeah, well, she had six cats,” I said with a sigh. “By the end, I still liked the cats. It was probably some sort of sign but whatever. Just get up here. I’ll even let you pick the next episode.”

“Are you still on the Law and Order kick?”

“Don’t judge me.”

Michael and Saru beamed into Starfleet Headquarters, continuing the conversation they'd begun back on Discovery. "I'm not sure why they'd call us back," she said thoughtfully. "We were on schedule with our deliveries."

"No doubt Dr. Kovich had a very good reason to do so," Saru replied sagely. "Once we know what is needed then we can be back on our way."

The walk to Kovich's office didn't take that long. Once they arrived and were granted entry, Michael noticed someone else sitting in front of the good doctor's desk. Kovich rose to his feet in welcome. "Ah, Captain Burnham, welcome back," he said.

Michael and Saru looked at each other before she responded with, "We appreciate the welcome but I am unsure as to why we've been recalled."

"Perhaps, I can clear this up, doctor." The visitor said before he got up from his chair and turned so he could face Michael and Saru.

Saru's gasp matched Michael's. She took a halting step forward and stopped before choking out, "This is impossible." Her eyes darted over to Kovich who was watching them avidly.

"It would seem," Christopher Pike said, "that the impossible is relative."

Narnia, any, this video

“You know he’s a monster, your precious Brekker,” Helene spits at her, the last time Inej sees her, a creeping, sulking shadow of her former self.

“He is,” Inej agrees, she who’s seen Kaz kill without blinking, listened to his voice threatening infants with a smile, watched him grind his enemies down into the dust, particle by particle, just for the pleasure of hearing them choke, “but that means nothing to me.”

Because she’s also seen him fight his demons, struggling to pull the air into his own lungs, seen him drag his friends out of hell with nothing but the strength of his will, watched the sweet boy in his eyes when he looks at her, and it’s that Kaz she thinks of when she says, “It means nothing, because he lets me forget that I’m a monster, too.”

Wonderful. <3

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Three Sentence Ficathon 2022 Part 2

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Silmarillion, Haleth and Caranthir (Haleth/Caranthir if you squint)

Narnia, the years after the Pevensies left

Narnia, the years after the Pevensies left

Narnia, the years after the Pevensies left

Narnia, Pevensies

Narnia, Pevensies

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Close Encounters of the Labrador Kind (Doctor Who BFA, Charley & Eight)

Re: Firefly

Original, Love (personified), unnamed protagonist, Undone

Star Trek: Discovery, Michael Burnham, Saru, Christopher Pike, Consider the Possibilities

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Give Me the Burden (SoC, Inej/Kaz)

Re: Echoes and currents (The Terror, Goodsir/Collins).