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, I am coming home to you / with my own blood in my mouth

At night, Ellie can still hear the strains of 60s music, can still feel the alcohol heating her blood, can still see hints of yellow and blond in the corners of her dreams. Sometimes, she smashes all the mirrors in those dreams and reaches through the broken glass, ignoring the way the jagged edges slice her skin. A time will come, she thinks, when she will reach far enough to grab hold — and maybe (maybe) she will finally pull Sandie into a brighter future.

This is gorgeous, and I love all the imagery <3 And gosh, those mirrors.

Chu Wanning dragged his body up the long--too long--stairs to Sisheng Peak. He paused a moment to shift the weight of his unconscious disciple on his back, choking on blood as he tried to catch his breath. It was only a matter of time before his injuries became truly mortal, he knew, but as long as he was able to carry Mo Ran to safety, he didn't care what became of himself.

I don't know the canon, but oh no, please don't die, Chu Wanning! ;_;

He's half of the main pairing of the novel so he'll be alright eventually, no comment on what he might go through before that tho :')

He knows it the moment she tries to brush past him with her head down, a creeping wrongness that burrows deeper into him when he catches her arm and her face turns from him, for he’s never known Susan not to hold her head high, come what may. It chills him, despite the warm Tashbaan winds; even as he takes her chin in gentle fingers, even as her defiant eyes meet his, shining, all delicate pride on the verge of shattering.

The blood marking her lip tells its story more clearly than Ed could ever want, but the more he looks, the more he sees: the loose strands pulled from her perfect coiffure, the seam of her dress pulled slightly askew, her hands clenched into fists so tight he fears she may harm herself, and it’s all he can do to temper his own rage, to swallow his revulsion in deference to hers and ask, in the steel-smooth voice of justice, “What has Rabadash done to you, Su?”

It's admittedly been forever and a day since I've read Narnia, but I remember Edmund being my favorite, so it's a pleasure to see this here, and in the steel-smooth voice of justice -- lovely, along with to temper his own rage, to swallow his revulsion in deference to hers, and both such wonderful character notes.

And oh, Susan. ;_____;

He is, unsurprisingly, my fave too - except on the days when Susan is instead. It's lovely that it worked for you even though it's been so long, thank you!

In the end, she comes back, but it's all wrong.

Chrom lays wheezing on his deathbed, bones weary and brittle with age, and suddenly she's there, and he thinks at first it's a trick of his dying mind. His failing eyesight makes out the white of her hair and the haunted look in her eyes, and he's not sure who between them is looking at a ghost.

This is beautiful, and also, how could you. :D

I love all the imagery, too ,and the contrast between the white of her hair and his (presumably white) hair, and the haunted/ghost!

Every moment is an ending, Aglaya thinks, but that doesn’t stop her from tightening her grip on Commander Block’s hair and pulling him closer to her core, where she crests the shadows with a silent scream. “What do you think, Bachelor,” she asks, and he startles and pulls his hands from his own pants, wincing only a little at the reminders of his injuries.

“Yes, I think Alexander has done very well,” he says, short of breath, and as if he can’t help it, he lifts his fingers to his lips to taste himself.

I don't know the canon, but this is great. :D

thank you! this is a remix of a fic i wrote last summer that explores each of them as couples and then as a threesome, and Sax Rohmer #1 is on the playlist i made for them, so as soon as i saw the prompt i knew i had to revisit it :D

Glory, Odysseus whispers in her ear, glory and the gods. He thinks that might make sufficient excuse from the years he's spent from her side, twenty years gone without nothing to show but a stranger of a son and an olive bed that's remained intact against all reasonable expectations, two decades choking on guilt and grief and gruesome horrors all of his own doing.
She turns, though, to face him as she traces his lips with her thumb; "Blood," she says gently, "makes for the best lies"--and he knows, as ever, Penelope knows him all too well.

I didn't expect this prompt for this pairing, but omg, I love your take on it. :D

twenty years gone without nothing to show but a stranger of a son and an olive bed that's remained intact against all reasonable expectations, two decades choking on guilt and grief and gruesome horrors all of his own doing.

I love the weight of those words and the indictment here. And oh my at the end -- this mix of tenderness and understanding, all wrapped up in darkness and pain, and following attempted deception. Beautiful and messy and tragic. <3

Re: Greek Mythology, Odysseus/Penelope

betony - 2022-01-23 04:30 (UTC) - Expand

Awww, Penelope. She knows him way too well for that to work - she'd have to, to have married him. The fact that he thinks he has "nothing to show for it" is just heartbreaking.

Re: Greek Mythology, Odysseus/Penelope

betony - 2022-01-27 04:28 (UTC) - Expand

gore/blood warning kinda

She knocks on your door, jaw aching as it forms the words, “I love you.”

You pry open her mouth; she’s chewing through her own flesh with her new, razor-sharp teeth. She offers the dark ruby-red to you like it is truly a gem, a gift in return for the curse you gave her—- you bite, and hope it will stain your tongue forever.

Omg, gory. :D I like how much history you work into it, and oh my, that last line, disturbing and darkly passionate at once.

Re: this is a bit gory

swirlsngirls - 2022-01-23 16:19 (UTC) - Expand

"You've been fighting again," Charlie says when he stumbles through the door past midnight, reproach in her tone and her glare so judgemental that it feels uncomfortably similar to the way Rachel's always looking at him.

But where Rachel's scowl would only make Bass bristle, there's something about Charlie's irritation that hits him harder than the fists of the men outside the bar he goaded into attacking him.

"Sorry, Charlotte, I just—" he begins and falters, unsure how to say 'I don't know how to do this now that the war's over' and 'I've been fighting for so long that I think I've forgotten how to stop'; but maybe she hears it anyway, because her expression softens and she takes a cloth and starts wiping the crusted blood from his face, more gently than he deserves.

I don't know the canon, but this is STUNNING, and I particularly love there's something about Charlie's irritation that hits him harder than the fists of the men outside the bar he goaded into attacking him. and the ending, and ouch at the things Monroe can't say.

When things go well, Zillah fights to unwind and comes home flushed with victory, knuckles bruised and otherwise intact. When things go badly, she fights until she's too tired for what should have been an easy block, and she tastes blood.

There have been so many people in her life -- parents, cousins, friends, lovers -- that have never been able to understand, that have looked at her bruises, watched her wincing after a loss, and wondered why she goes back.

Kasimir inspects the damage to her ribs with careful touches, and holds the bandages while she takes care of her scraped knuckles. He holds out an arm and lets her tuck herself in along his undamaged side, hand resting carefully below the healing wound in his other shoulder, his heartbeat steady under her ear.

"Feel better?" he asks, and she doesn't have to listen for the tension she knows won't be in his voice, the question he understands the answer to without asking.

"I love you," she says as an answer, and he understands that, too.

This is so wonderfully rich and sweet. <3

Nearly a third of her life spent with the Indrillines, playing role upon role, answering to names not her own, complicit in horrors (responsible for horrors; no one who serves an Indrilline is permitted to keep clean hands, and all too soon she had to plan operations on her own, unearth spies on her own, mete out punishments on her own), and in the end she still would have failed if not for Jemis and his reckless tendency toward self-sacrifice, burning himself out as though he can't quite accept that others care for him and will grieve and ache if he's hurt, if he's gone.

She is going home, she is bringing her brother home, and all it cost was handing a metaphorical knife to a man she might love and helping him shove it home between his ribs.

Redshank is her cover name, chosen at sixteen to amuse Lark, but more accurate than either of them knew at the time: her legs and feet are covered in the blood she waded through, and so too her her hands, and her lips, and her teeth; and if some of that blood (that pain) is her own, those drops can never outweigh the deluge of her guilt.

Violet sits in the carriage beside her sleeping brother and bites the inside of her cheek until the sharp copper-penny taste of blood seeps across her tongue once more.

He walks through the city like a ghost, like a shadow. His footsteps sound muffled in his ears. He hears people speak to him—his warriors want to know what they should do now, his noble allies are angry that their promised coup has drifted away like smoke—but they make no impression. Impressions are for the living, and after what he’s done he doesn’t think he deserves to be among their number anymore.

But you turned back, says a voice that sounds like Mihmatini back when she loved him.

But you are alive, says a voice that sounds like Acatl back when he wasn’t cripplingly disappointed in him.

Gods, Acatl. He wants to bleed for that again. He’s been such an arrogant, hard-hearted fool to imagine that it didn't matter, to imagine that removing his brother from the throne to potentially save the Empire would be worth Acatl hating him. Acatl probably hates him now anyway. It would serve him right.

He ascends the steps of Lord Death’s temple like a soul ascending to Lord Death’s throne. When he reaches the top, it takes every scrap of breath in his body to say, “Acatl-tzin, I’ve come to apologize—” knowing it won’t be enough, knowing that nothing can be enough.

“There’s no need,” Acatl says, and it brings him back to life.

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Three Sentence Ficathon 2022 Part 2

no subject

Last Night in Soho, Ellie/Sandie

Re: Last Night in Soho, Ellie/Sandie

Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun, Chu Wanning

Re: Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun, Chu Wanning

Re: Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun, Chu Wanning

Points Towards the Aftermath (Narnia, Edmund & Susan)

Re: Points Towards the Aftermath (Narnia, Edmund & Susan)

Re: Points Towards the Aftermath (Narnia, Edmund & Susan)

Fire Emblem: Awakening, Chrom/Robin

Re: Fire Emblem: Awakening, Chrom/Robin

lead toward the same blocked intersection (NSFW) (Pathologic, Inquisitor/Commander/Bachelor)

Re: lead toward the same blocked intersection (NSFW) (Pathologic, Inquisitor/Commander/Bachelor)

Re: lead toward the same blocked intersection (NSFW) (Pathologic, Inquisitor/Commander/Bachelor)

Greek Mythology, Odysseus/Penelope

Re: Greek Mythology, Odysseus/Penelope

Re: Greek Mythology, Odysseus/Penelope

Re: Greek Mythology, Odysseus/Penelope

Re: Greek Mythology, Odysseus/Penelope

this is a bit gory

Re: this is a bit gory

Re: this is a bit gory

Revolution, Charlie/Monroe

Re: Revolution, Charlie/Monroe

Oxventure: Blades of the Dark, Zillah/Kasimir

Re: Oxventure: Blades of the Dark, Zillah/Kasimir

Toward the Aftermath (Greenwing & Dart)

Obsidian & Blood, Acatl/Teomitl