Threesome

Threesome is label often used for fanworks involving three characters in a romantic or sexual situation. If the story focuses on the relationship between the men in a slash pairing, with a female character featuring mainly as an excuse for the male characters to get into bed together, it may be called conduit fic. 
While not all threesome stories feature all three characters equally involved in mutual sexual activities or a mutual relationship, situations in which two characters compete for a third or in which a single character is torn between two love interests are more likely to be labeled triangles. A threesome that is a fan's favorite relationship in a fandom (or that a fan simply enjoys) may be called an OT3. 
Threesomes are not evenly distributed across fandom; some sources lend themselves much more to threesomes than others. Leverage, for example, breaks very naturally into a twosome and a threesome. Fandoms where canon focuses on three main characters (for example, Jack, Will, and Elizabeth in Pirates of the Caribbean fandom) often have many threesome stories, as do some fandoms that would be slash fandoms were it not for one of the characters' being in an ongoing het relationship, such as Peter/Elizabeth/Neal in White Collar. In Harry Potter, nearly every character stars in at least one threesome story, but only Harry/Ron/Hermione approaches the popularity of the fandom's main pairings. 
==Thrupple==
A threesome can also be called a Thrupple , sometimes spelled "throuple."
==Moresomes==
The term moresome may be used for a romantic or sexual situation involving more than three people.
==Frequency==
In a poll run by Penknife in 2009 on her personal journal, the most common threesomes in most fandoms tended to be M/M/F (two male characters and one female character), followed by M/M/M and M/F/F, with F/F/F threesomes generally the least common, for various reasons.Care and Feeding of OT3s (con panel report) by Penknife. (Accessed 9/3/09).Poll on which gender configurations of threesomes respondents had written by Penknife. (Accessed 9/3/09).
On AO3, where tagging threesomes is optional, the Threesome tag and its subtags had 109,852 uses by January 14, 2023. This included the following:
* 30,357 in F/M/M
* 40,612 in M/M/M
* 9,908 in F/F/M
* 4,865 in F/F/F
* 405 in M/M/Other
* 210 in F/M/Other
* 107 in F/F/Other
AO3 has a long history of being slash-focused (see the AO3 page for more details), so these results may reflect that tendency.
==Resolving Shipping Conflicts==
Threesomes were once rare in fanfic, but have become more popular over the years. In some fandoms, they may represent a way of resolving or responding to ship wars by allowing a character to be in a relationship with both potential romantic partners from the "competing" pairings. For example, Tafkarfanfic says about the history of Jack/Sam/Daniel in Stargate SG-1 fandom:
:And lo, the S/Jers were wroth, and some declared Daniel a whiny, needy demon. And the J/Ders became enraged, and declared Sam a castrating bitch-spawn of Satan. Battles broke out across the Internet, and several mailing lists were knee-deep in blood.
:"But wait!" several voices cried out. "If S + J = hot, and J + D = hot, then S + J + D must equal twice the hotness!" For lo, these people had scored above 400 on their math SATs.You down with OT3? (Yeah, you know me!) by Tafkarfanfic, in the ship_manifesto community on LiveJournal. (Accessed 9/3/09).
Likewise, Tarie writes, about becoming a Harry/Ron/Hermione OT3 shipper:
:Until then, I hadn’t been able to decide whether I preferred Ron/Hermione to Harry/Hermione (I hadn’t even contemplated the notion of Harry/Ron.). I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to choose between them and Calliope’s piece showed me that I didn’t have to choose – they could all be together.Stronger Together by Tarie, in the ship_manifesto community on LiveJournal. (Accessed 9/3/09.)
== Threesome doesn't always mean sex ==
Just as the mere marking of a story as K/S or McShep doesn't mean that the story will necessarily include sex, marking a story a threesome may just mean that plot is about the romantic/sexual relationship, rather than that it contains threeway sex.
==Not Everyone is a Fan of Threesomes==
In a 1987 zine, a fan explains why she doesn't care for threesomes, or moresomes:
== Notable Threesome fanworks == 
=== Fanfiction ===
* Between Friends, believed the first published Kirk/Spock/McCoy story, and therefore, probably the first threesome story, was printed in Obsc'zine 4 in 1980.
* One More River, a 1983 novel by Chris Powers and Terri Beckett, contains a very early, if not the earliest, Starsky and Hutch threesome.
* I Saw Three Ships, a multifandom Secret Santa fic exchange (challenge) just for threesomes, run each winter from 2003 to 2012.
* Shades of Grey, a Star Trek: TOS zine series for Kirk/Spock/other threesomes, ran for five issues starting in 1986.
* Convergence-verse (click through to fiction, scroll down), dombillijah (Dominic Monaghan/Billy Boyd/Elijah Wood) threesome in Lord of the Rings RPF. Very explicit BDSM.
* Pretty Good Year by Mary Borsellino, a long and popular series of Frodo/Sam/Rosie stories in The Lord of the Rings fandom that inspired shared universe fanworks by other authors and artists.
* In the Wrong Story and sequels by Katie have been cited as some of the earliest examples of Jack/Sam/Daniel in Stargate SG-1 fandom written as a functional long-term relationship.
* Veritaserum by Calliope, an early and influential Harry/Ron/Hermione story in Harry Potter fandom.
* Trio, a Forever Knight story by Imajiru that is set post "Last Knight", involving Nick/Natalie/LaCroix with Natalie brought across as a vampire.
* Truth Is a Whisper (Hanson story) by Bethany and Amber Hopper. In the third part of this story, Taylor proposes a polyamorous solution to Zac's lingering feelings for his ex.
* Better Late Than Never by Esselle is the first part of a series concerning the love life of the poly relationship between Sugawara, Kageyama and Hinata of the volleyball manga/anime Haikyuu.
* Tangled by thingswithwings, a Abed Nadir/Troy Barnes/Annie Edison fic in the Community fandom. While the fic is tagged as Abed Nadir/Troy Barnes and Abed Nadir/Annie Edison (the only explicitly sexual pairings in the story), the story refers to their relationship as a threesome and the fic is also tagged with polyamory.
=== Fanart ===
*Naruuga Smexiness by Deviantart user Wyv-Kate posted 2005.
*Naruuga Trio by Deviantart user Wyv-Kate posted 2007.
=== Recs ===
*Threesome at Fancake
*M/M/F Threesomes at Fancake
=== Meta ===
* Of Sexiness by yourlibrarian
==Resources==
* Three's Company, a Stargate SG-1 threesome/moresome recs page
* threesome tag at Archive of Our Own
* threesome_fics a LJ group
==References==
Category:Relationships Glossary
Category:Poly Fandom
Category:Romance Tropes
Category:Sexual Tropes & Kinks