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

"What do you think of the change then, my dear?" The Doctor - if he (she? it? what?) was the Doctor as claimed, and who was Mel to argue with a Time Lord? - said.

Or rather, burbled/growled/roared wetly, in a voice like menacing and unimaginable evil thunder, because of course in this present form as a slimy, many teeth-and-clawed-and-tentacled-and-other....thinged, unutterable if undersized Elder Monstrosity, everything was done in a menacing and unimaginably evil way.

"Not quite what I was expecting, of course."

"No?" Mel said faintly. She would have started screaming, long and loud as she always did, but with the way that myriad of gelatinously over-bright eyes fixed on her in vile, unfathomable questioning... not a good idea.

"Well obviously not." Two tentacles gingerly untangled and held up the tattered remains of that garish, many-coloured coat, now with added shades of slime. The massive maw opened, and a hideous mottled tongue slid out and licked the thin, moistly ragged lips in thought. "I'm going to need a new wardrobe, I think. I've never been quite so... well, not human before."

"But... how -?"

"Well, obviously something went wrong didn't it? Time Lords aren't perfect, you know, not even me." The eyes all rolled, though not at once, then looked to the main controls of the TARDIS. "Some even prefer non-human forms, but this is probably beyond... oh well. Must make the best of it, mustn't we? Now I wonder where we've landed." The eyes slid back to stare at her consideringly (menacingly? hungrily? definitely balefully, even though the balefulness was possibly, probably, hopefully totally unintended).

Luckily though, the door to the TARDIS then opened. "Ahhh.... what do you know, a quaint and harmless old-fashioned English village by the sea. Not perfect, but it will do."

"You can't go out like... that!" Mel wasn't at all sure if the Doctor could, or should, or even would... but she was sure that she didn't want to go with him or her or it. Or stay here with him or her or it. Or...

The eyes blinked, at different but all sluggish rates, at her. "Why not?"

"People might - they might -"

"Notice? Yes, probably. But you never know, " slithering towards the door on fat, warty protuberances that might be legs... nor not, "people, human people, are rather strange. They might be hiding something less human than me. They might even be ruled by something less human than me, it happens all the time. And we can't have that continuing, now can we?

"Come along, my dear, you may be... useful," and oh, how comforting that did not sound. She was definitely going to scream soon, and never stop. Or faint, and never wake up.

Or maybe just go with the thing, whether she wanted to or not.

"There's unspeakable evil to be done, after all."

"You - but Doctor, don't you mean unspeakable evil to be defeated? You're the Doctor. That's what you do."

"Oh yes," the Doctor smiled, if that vast, slaveringly mucoid stretch of the mouth could be called a smile at all. "I do, when I'm the human Doctor, don't I?"

Edited 2022-07-07 00:30 (UTC)

Oh no, Mel's right, that is not at all comforting! Fun but very unnerving, great job!

Thanks! It was fun to write, I like horror tropes :)

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022 Part 2

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