rthstewart | 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

any, any, “this gun’s for hire / even if we’re just dancing in the dark”

Dancing in the Dark - Bruce Springsteen

The four who have made it to the third night do not trust each other not to be the murderer, because U.N. Owen must be among them, but they each believe they’ve found someone who it isn’t, which oddly allows them all to relax.

No one remembers whose idea it was to light candles against the dark; but it was Blore, already holding a bottle of brandy, who said they should simply drink all the liquor in the house since they’d be leaving soon anyway; and Lombard started playing the swan song indictments on the old photograph until it turned into music. They can’t quite forget that they’re all in danger, but they can laugh about it, and dance, and tell old stories until the moon comes down, promising each other that death is for… the other people.

i was not expecting my favorite Christie novel to make an appearance, bravo

thank you! attwn is the only christie novel i've read, but a year ago i watched the miniseries, turned around to read the book twice in a row, and then watched the miniseries two more times, it's just a fantastic story! (umineko, which i've been writing a lot of fills for, is inspired by attwn - a lot of horrible people end up on a murder island and end up dead, only they're a family so instead of not trusting each other because they've just met, they don't trust each other because they know what everyone else is like. also there are witches, and meta-awareness of the story, and sometimes these things are connected.)

Very nice!

thank you!

Acatl heard him coming, of course, but he still looked stunned when Teomitl appeared around the edge of the copper-belled entrance curtain and lifted it to let the noon sun stream in. “What are you doing here?”

Suddenly, Teomitl wasn’t sure this was such a good idea. It had felt like one when he’d set out, and even when he’d had a tense and terrifying conversation with Ichtaca before being allowed to go in search of the man, but...well, his current record of good ideas was somewhat tarnished. After the past week, his nightmares had a new scenario to torment him with. Still, he was here now. Might as well forge ahead. Smiling with a confidence he didn’t quite feel, he held out the fat vegetable-and-chile tamales he’d brought. “I thought we could have lunch. You need to eat something.”

“I don’t need to be mothered,” Acatl muttered, but he took the tamale anyway.

Victory. He stepped back, holding the curtain open. “Come on,” he offered, “let’s sit in the sunlight.”

It was a beautiful day. A little chilly, admittedly, but that just meant he had an excuse to sit a bit closer than he normally would. The last time they’d been together like this had been after one of the worst days of his life, a day when he’d honestly thought Acatl might never speak to him again—ah, but then the man had smiled at him, and it was on the strength of that smile that he was here now. But the man he loved seemed distracted, eyeing him oddly, and finally Teomitl asked, “What?”

Acatl took another bite of his tamale and set it down, frowning. “...I wasn’t expecting...” He gestured wordlessly between them.

“Did you not think I was going to stop by?” They hadn’t seen each other in two days, since his utter debacle of a coup attempt. It had felt like an eternity.

Acatl was staring at the ground as though he found bare dirt fascinating. Finally he said simply, quietly, “I’m not your teacher anymore. You don’t need me.”

Oh. Oh. Teomitl sucked in a sharp breath. “And you think that means I’d cut all ties with you?” he snapped, angrier than he’d meant. “You think that I don’t still want you in my life, Acatl? In any way I can?” He knew he was saying too much, revealing things he’d really hoped to keep hidden, but he couldn’t stop himself. “There doesn’t need to be a reason!”

Silence for a long moment, and then Acatl looked up and there was a smile tugging at his lips and oh no, Teomitl was gone. “So I’m to assume this will be a regular occurrence then?”

“Of course,” he huffed, and shoved half a tamale into his mouth before Acatl noticed he was blushing. “How are we going to hold the Empire together without you?”

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022 Part 2

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And Then There Were None

Re: And Then There Were None

Re: And Then There Were None

Re: And Then There Were None

Re: And Then There Were None

Obsidian & Blood, Acatl/Teomitl