#ReturnToTheFateGear

17: The Divine Triangle

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear #EdgarRiceBurroughs
#wss366 #MastoPrompt #JMusicFriday

“We have entered the Divine #Triangle!” Captain Mina’s voice boomed over Fate Gear’s speakers.

(“And we know what that means,”) Fate Gear added. (“Nothing returns from the Triangle!”)

“But we shall return as the heroes that brought down the Heavenly Host. And if we don’t, we’ll be legends!”

(“Lucifer is a legend too.”)

“No, I’m real,” a voice issued from the bowels of the ship.

Everyone’s head jerked around, looking away from the foul sprawling spawn above.

(“Ha, ha, fooled you.”) Fate Gear chuckled, accompanied by a trickling whistle.

Sorawo wasn’t laughing, though. She was looking at the sky. The open maw aloft drew ever closer as she waited for Toriko’s return with Benimori. Meanwhile, the captain preached the gospel of resistance, accompanied by sarcastic asides from Fate Gear.

“Words are not enough; resistance is action.”

(“Yeah, asking your grocer why eggs aren’t cheaper. Not enough!”) Fate Gear cracked.

The ship picked up speed as the creeping horror began drawing them in until Yuri started using the anchor and sails for drag.

(“Don’t just insult the rich. Eat them with an egg on top!”) Fate Gear jeered.

“You heard the ship! EAT THE RICH!” Mina was in full swing, frothing at the mouth and shaking her fist at the looming abomination.

“Thank goodness,” Sorawo said as Toriko and Beni arrived.

“What the f-ing hell is that!?” Beni asked, staring at the amoebic rent filling the horizon.

“Later, Beni,” Sorawo said, guiding Toriko’s hand to where she saw the sorceress’ fading portal.

“I can’t get a hold of it. There’s not much left,” Toriko said—"wait—wait, got it!"

The three dove through the hole. The last thing they saw was Captain Mina’s silhouette at the prow against a backdrop of the black eldritch horror and the fading refrain of:

          The master of the underworld
          distort even logic and refuses to downfall his body.
          Moment of liberation has come.
          This holy force,
          The light that erases the shadows.

Force Of The Holy feat.橋村姫　Music Video (Filmed at E.E.F 2025) / FATE GEAR

Conclusion

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366
#UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #Metal #JMetal #Satire #PoliticalSatire

#ReturnToTheFateGear

17: Burning down the Heavens

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear #EdgarRiceBurroughs
#wss366 #MastoPrompt

After that, things moved swiftly. A balloon ferried Captain Napier to the Fate Gear.

“You capitalist swine! How long have you been leading these running-dog lackeys?” Mina hailed Napier, embracing him. “Never mind. Wait till you hear what I’ve planned! We’re going after the ultimate tyrant. We’ll be burning down the heavens. My cabin, MiLord; the wind has ears. More importantly, I have a 100-year-old brandy looted from Emperor Muskrat’s yacht. Tiss sweet, like poetry, and smooth as silk.”

"#Better than yer rotgut grog and I'll hear yer plan. If it doesn't sound good after that bottle, we'll know it's Tommy rot," Napier said.

The two departed, leaving a scowling Nana with the Otherside pair.

“And what might you two be thinking, lollygagging in the rigging? You may be gunner’s mates to the Captain, but yer nothing but lumps of tar. Get ta polishing the brass or you’ll be wishing you were #home with the fishes.”

Soon, the two were polishing brass and whispering together.

“I don’t like how things look,” Sorawo said. “Mina’s plans to attacking a god.”

“Not just any god,” Toriko said. “The one they worship in Canada—well, actually all the West. He’s one mean hombre sending plagues, turning people into salt, and telling them to sacrifice their sons. His own son had to sacrifice himself to make God back off.”

“So you’re worried too?”

“A little,” Toriko said, putting her arms around Sorawo’s neck, burying Sorawo's face in her bosom. “Protect me.”

“Stop it, you perv,” Sorawo said, pushing Toriko away. “This is serious.”

“You’d better take my tits seriously.” Toriko pretended to pout.

“Whatever! Come on. I need you to stop messing around and listen.”

“Alright.” This time her pout was real.

“When I was looking for the mergaunt’s mother, I spotted a remnant of the portal the sorceress used. If things get bad, you can pull it open.”

“Not without Benimori”

Sorawo, about to protest, stopped. Caring about people was new to her. “You’re right, with Benimori.”

As they spoke, Napier and Mina left the cabin. Whether from the brandy or bravado, they both swaggered across the deck. Napier slapped Mina on the back, causing her to stagger. “I haven't heard anything so audacious in years. Here’s to burning down the heavens.” He raised the nearly empty brandy bottle and drained it dry. “Who’s the eunuch now!” he bellowed out, laughing as he slapped Mina on the back again.

“There she is!” someone shouted as the Fate Gear, Venus Falcon, and the two biremes raced away from Mercury.

Sorawo and Toriko looked up. Undulating in the sky was a black amoebic hole. The monstrous maw sucked everything around it into itself.

”I’ll get Beni!” Toriko said, heading for the galley.

Grand Conclusion Next Week.

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP #NMRTTFG
#UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #Satire #PoliticalSatire

#ReturnToTheFateGear

16: Carson Napier

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear #EdgarRiceBurroughs
#wss366 #MastoPrompt

The trireme was now so close that the Otherside pair could read the name on the prow, Venus Falcon. The biremes had fanned out, threatening to flank the Fate Gear from the starboard and port. Meanwhile, the swift galleys marshaled to sweep in once the behemoth ex-prison ship was brought to heel.

“Hold your fire,” Mina bellowed. The order was as sudden as it was unexpected.

“Navigator, I wish to hail them,” the captain said.

Yuri flipped on the amplifiers.

"Hail, Captain Napier! You imperialist dog! Was Venus too hot a berth?" Mina’s voice boomed out.

The man at the prow of the Venus Falcon signaled, and a white flag swept aside the black. The thunder of a single cannon #report drew all eyes to the trireme.

Captain Carson Napier [Note 1] sheathed his sword before making a gesture not found in any book of signals.

“Fly the countersign,” Mina said into the hush that had fallen.

[Note 1] Captain Carson Napier: #Origin: The Venus series (also known as the “Amtor series”) written by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Continued next week in Burning Down the Heavens.

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP #NMRTTFG
#UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #Metal #JMetal #Satire #PoliticalSatire

#ReturnToTheFateGear

15: Pirates of Mercury

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear #EdgarRiceBurroughs
#wss366 #MastoPrompt

It was true. The mergaunts had delayed the Fate Gear just long enough for the pirate fleet to catch up. The fleet was a ragtag bunch, comprised of everything from decrepit galleys resembling junks to gold-embossed, three-tiered triremes. Small, swift galleys were already in position to cut them off. Like gnats, they encircled the Fate Gear above, to starboard, and to port. Below, on the #surface, having finished the fallen mergaunts, magma worms waited hungrily.

The Fate Gear could have plowed through the galleys ahead of them, but the resulting hail of arrows, bullets, and cannon fire would have been difficult to withstand. Staying would be suicide.

“All hands to their stations,” Captain Mina bellowed. “Yuri, get this tub of ungreased gears moving. If she blows a boiler, so be it.”

“Aye aye, Captain,” Yuri replied, while Fate Gear whined.

(“All my gears are well oiled, and I don’t have any boilers.”)

“Get moving, you capitalist swine, or I’ll tear every one of your gears out and throw them overboard!”

(“Aye aye, Captain Tinbottom.”) The Fate Gear’s tone may have been sullen, and the insult ludicrous, but it surged forward. The beams creaked, and the generators throbbed as the ship threw every ounce of its power into outrunning the pirates.

“You two up there,” Mina yelled up at Sorawo and Toriko. “You are hereby #installed as gunner’s mates. If any of those mercurial scavengers come into range, pick them off. We’ll show them that the Fate Gear isn’t a lily-livered, limp-dick jellyfish. Our blood runs as true and red as any buccaneers.”

“I wish she wouldn’t describe our blood as running,” Sorawo said under her breath.

“It’s a saying,” Toriko responded, still smiling at becoming a gunner’s mate.

“Saying or not, I wish she wouldn’t do it.”

Behind the ship, the smaller galleys were losing ground. Ahead, many of the galleys turned away, fearful of the massive bulk of the repurposed prison ship hurtling toward them. The Fate Gear and its crew would have surely won free except for the trireme and two accompanying biremes. Their oars caught the ether, propelling them ever faster after the Fate Gear.

A simple skull and crossbones flew from the trireme's mast, and a muscular yet lean man stood at the bow. Unbound, his blond hair flew free in the wind. His bold face showed no signs of fear. His prey was almost within reach, and he would capture it as easily as a falcon snatches a dove from the air.

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP #NMRTTFG
#UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #Metal #JMetal #Satire #PoliticalSatire

#ReturnToTheFateGear

14: Otherside Champions (Part 2 of 2)

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear #EdgarRiceBurroughs
#wss366 #MastoPrompt

“You mean use my eye?” Sorawo said.

“Yes, hurry,” Toriko replied.

Crack!—“That’s five!”

Sorawo peered at the mergaunts. None of them looked like an Otherside abomination, just every day “ordinary” monsters. This was an all #round waste of time, especially since they were gathering for a massive suicidal wave. It would be too #late if she didn’t find the mother soon.

“Maybe I can drive them insane,” she thought, and concentrated on a big, incoming bull.

Crack!

“Come on, work,” Sorawo muttered.

Crack!

“Don’t go to sleep up there. We’ve got a battle going, you scum-sucking lubber,” Nana shouted at Sorawo as the officers segued into a death metal version of “Twisted Sister Xmas.”

Crack!

“I’m wasting time,” Sorawo said. She was about to resume searching when the bull turned, screaming, and sank its teeth into the wing of the nearest mergaunt.

“Better than this stupid gun,” she said, dropping her weapon. It fell with a crash, missing Nana by millimeters.

“Better luck next time,” Sorawo thought. She couldn’t think of a better person to suffer a concussion than Nana. She glanced toward Toriko. “Well, maybe I’m glad I missed.”

For the first time that day, Sorawo felt excited. Until then, she had felt useless. Toriko could have fun anywhere, but not her. Parties were tedious, even Benimori’s; She didn’t enjoy Toriko being a perv; Captain Mina was a pain. Even the FATE GEAR was a horror.

“Where’s that mother?” Sorawo started working out the problem in her head. “Not in the suicidal waves… further back, near the middle. Ah, like that knot of bat things over there.”

Tendrils of psychic energy leaked from an individual guarded by a group of mergaunts.

“Found her,” Weird Eye Sorawo shouted. “To your right, the cluster in the back. She’s the one in the middle.” Sorawo’s voice was calm. The energy she was detecting was weak; it was nothing like the Kune Kune or Hasshaku-sama. There was no chance of her being driven insane or worse.

“Where…” Toriko responded immediately. “Oh, there they are, I think.”

Then she asked, “Which one is she? There’s more than one in the center.”

“The one on the right. It’s moving—just shoot them all.”

Crack!—“Did I get it?”

“To the left,” Sorawo replied.

Crack!—“Uwa, missed.” Crack!

“You got it!” Sorawo cheered.

All of FATE GEAR’s bells and whistles joined the officers playing “Super Sonic Samurai” as the mergaunts wandered off squabbling and biting at each other.

“And just in time,” Nana called up to them. “We have visitors—mercurial pirates.

Continued Next Week in The Pirates of Mercury

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP #NMRTTFG
#UraPi #Steampunk #Metal #JMetal #Satire #Pirates

#ReturnToTheFateGear

14: Otherside Champions (Part 1 of 2)

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear #EdgarRiceBurroughs
#wss366 #MastoPrompt

Desperate to hold the mergaunt away from the ship, a few of the FATE GEAR’s crew choked up on their halberds. The ship’s wood had begun steaming, and the faces of the brave souls holding the mergaunt back blistered in the heat. Only the drenching they had received saved them from worse burns.

Crack! “Dead-eye” Toriko fired.

Ichor oozed from the mergaunt’s eye. Then it vanished below them, joining the tangle of monstrous corpses floating on the sea’s surface.

“Got it, that’s four,” Toriko called out to Sorawo.

“Bravo,” Captain Mina called, her words accompanied by the FATE GEAR’s carousel whistles.

“Yeah. Good show,” Sorawo grumbled as she fought with her rifle.

“But I don’t have much ammo,” Toriko said.

“So? What do you want me to do about it? I don’t bring weapons to a costume party.”

“You should. We never know where we’ll end up—see if you can spot the mother.”

Continued in next post

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP #NMRTTFG
#UraPi #Steampunk #Metal #JMetal #Satire #Pirates

#ReturnToTheFateGear

13: #Pirates vs. Mergaunts (Part 2 of 2)

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear #EdgarRiceBurroughs
#wss366 #MastoPrompt

At the last instant, gravity claimed it, dragging the beast into the molten sea.”

The cheers, fist bumps, and cries of “#Excellent!” faded as a smaller mergaunt slipped through the hole the bull had created. Untouched by the polearms, the creature approached like a blinding comet.

As the crew tried to bring the mini-cannons to bear, the hoses tangled. Instead of hitting the enemy, they were drenched in freezing water. A cry of “Uwa... Nanda, kore...!” sounded as the poop-deck cannon’s traverse jammed. The officers’ amplified voices and guitars added to the chaos, ironically singing of the void:

          Have a hory, gory Christmas
          And in case you didn’t hear
          A blizzard made of cinders falls, the void is always here.

Continued Next Week in “Otherside Champions”

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP #NMRTTFG
#UraPi #Steampunk #Metal #JMetal #Satire #Priates @fanfiction

#ReturnToTheFateGear

13: #Pirates vs. Mergaunts (Part 1 of 2)

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear #EdgarRiceBurroughs

#wss366 #MastoPrompt

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” Captain Mina exhorted her crew. “Fear is a tool of our overlords. We will not succumb to it nor to their blandishments of rewards in the hereafter. We are not the meek; we are the righteous. We will not inherit the earth; instead, the heavens will be ours. The ultimate tyrant who permits their abominations shall fear us, not us them.”

The crew responded by banging their long, diamond-tipped polearms on the deck, crying:

“Totsugeki jaa! Totsugeki jaa! Totsugeki jaa!”

“Oi! Oi! Oi!”

Those without diamond halberds held unwieldy water cannons designed for mercurial battles. Awkward inventions whose hoses writhed while pumping frigid water through their steel nozzles.

Even the FATE GEAR joined in clanging a bell in time with each oi.

Decked out in their most grim death-metal t-shirts, never had a band of brave buccaneers looked more ready for battle. With their glittering halberds and frost-covered water cannons at the ready, they awaited the mergaunts’ vanguard. The pirates of FATE GEAR had never looked prouder or more gallant. Their #bond as freebooters had never been stronger.

When the first wave of monsters was in range, the sailors did their part, holding off the foe with polearms and jets of freezing water, supplied by the FATE GEAR’s refrigeration unit. It was the officers’ job to supply the ship with the raw energy of metal to power it and all other battle functions. Which they did with vigor, belting out Christmas metal.

Cheers went up as the first wave of creatures was sent plummeting into the boiling miasma below, accompanied by the cheery refrain of “Have a holly jolly Christmas.”

“‘Dead Eyed’ Toriko hummed along, cheerful as ever, while Sorawo cranked and fired her plasma gun, too busy to complain about either the music or Toriko’s accompaniment.

“The second wave is thicker,” Toriko called to Sorawo.

The prediction was confirmed when a knot of mergaunts smashed through the diamond barrier. Most monsters fell prey to the halberds or were frozen in midair. Yet, one bull impaled itself on a blade. Its momentum carried it forward, snapping the halberd’s shaft. Even dead, it could set the ship aflame with its touch.

Continued on next post

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP #NMRTTFG
#UraPi #Steampunk #Metal #JMetal #Satire @fanfiction

#wss366

#ReturnToTheFateGear

Chapter 12: Bat’s of Mercury

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear

Toriko and Sorawo were soon high in the rigging. Sorawo, bilge-green already, grew greener still watching Toriko swing fearlessly from the ropes.

“Don’t ye get enough danger with youkai?” Sorawo asked, a trace of pirate creeping into her speech.

The question slipped away as they turned their eyes outward. FATE GEAR was sailing low past Mercury at an incredible speed. The ship’s generators labored and throbbed, and steam leaked in thin whistles from escape valves.

Below were molten lakes of boiling metal. Volcanic spires smoked, belching ash that fell sizzling into the lakes or blew across the volcanic plains in mile-high drifts. Above the plains drifted ships and tangled cities suspended from gargantuan balloons.

As they watched, the ships turned toward the pirate vessel. Unless fate intervened, their pursuers would fall behind the shrieking comet FATE GEAR. But ahead, fate took shape in swarms of rubbery, bat-winged creatures rising from the valleys laying between smoking volcanoes. Their screeches shook the sails and set the bells chiming on their own.

“We must win through quickly,” Mina thundered. “The time has arrived when patience becomes a crime and mayhem appears garbed in the mantle of virtue.”

(“Heaven help us, she’s quoting Edgar Rice Burroughs now,”) the ship complained.

“You up thar,” Nana called. “Focus. If a Mergaunt so much as grazes us, we’ll go up like a Roman candle. If ye find thar mother, bring her down. Mergaunt’s be no worse than fruit flies after that.”

In the background, Mina, whipped into a fiery #lather, ranted—“‘We called ourselves Soldiers of Liberty…I was chosen captain,’ and I say, ‘Death, only—renders hope futile.’”—but the Otherside pair, like most of the crew, focused on their stations rather than her words. That changed when the whistles blew all at once in a deafening cacophony and Mina’s voice thundered through the amplifiers, “Twenty thousand savage throats arose with the awful cries of battle…eighty thousand fearsome pirates set the heavens atremble…”

The first Mergaunts came into range as the pirates issued their battle cry with one resounding voice:

     Be invincible!
     Don’t say “impossible!”
     Trample the enemies of this world!
            (Be invincible!, Fate Gear, 2022)

Oi, oi, oi!

Note: Mergaunts: Bat-like creatures resembling night gaunts, from which they get their name. These hellish creatures inhabit the valleys of Mercury’s volcanic ranges. They are fire-resistant, and their mere touch will set earthly materials on fire. The Mergaunts possess little intelligence, instead relying on hive-mind and directions from a Mergaunt Mother. If their Mother is slain, they wander until they come into range of a new Mother. (“Bats of Mercury,” pg. 66, by Nara Moore.)

#TootFic #MicroFiction #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366
#UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #Satire #NMRTTFG #EdgarRiceBurroughs

#wss366 #MastoPrompt

Return to the FATE GEAR

Chapter 11: It’s life, Jim—but not as we know it

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear #StarTrek

Things grew quieter after Beni announced what was for dinner. There were a few grumbles in the mess about the half-ration of grog, but the stew was warm and filling. It was much better than the maggoty biscuits, #spoiled potatoes, or the greasy #quagmire of pea soup they were used to. All-in-all the FATE GEAR’s crew was content.

In unison, the crew let their cutlery fall and sighed in pure pleasure. Benimori had become a favorite—(not as a dish, but as a cook).

Toriko had earned their respect by decking the purser for pinching her butt. (The purser may have mistaken her for a dish—the succulent kind, not the radish; perhaps a peach, a port belle, or a topgallant lass.)

Sorawo, on the other hand, was close to being keelhauled for the number of times she spilled stew on someone.

It wasn’t her fault; the FATE GEAR rolled suddenly every time her ladle was in midair.

(“That be fer yer cracks about me last time ye were here,”) the ship muttered. (“Think ye be a pirate? Ye’re nothing but a mess hall horny toad.”)

No one dared correct the ship, reminding it that this was a steampunk vessel, not a B-Western prairie schooner. Any of the crew who crossed the FATE GEAR were spoiling for trouble.

Meal done, the crew filed out onto the deck as a carousel whistle piped, “All hands on deck.”

Above them glowered a planet smoking in the sun’s heat. And beyond that was a black-hole, its amoebic edges undulating, as though lifted from a steerage-quality scifi film.

(“It’s life, Jim—but not as we know it,”) the FATE GEAR announced in a thick Glaswegian burr.

“That’s enough out of you, Scotty,” Yuri typed. “This be pulp steampunk, not Star Trek. Now hoist the gens—we’re gonna need a hunnert knots an’ more to clear Mercury’s stern, or she’ll drag us into her maw!”

(“I’m givin’ her all she’s got, Cap’n!” the ship retorted. “But the etheric coils are about ready to burst their corsets!”)

Sorawo overheard Nana grumble, “We don’t have etheric coils, and the corsets are just for show.”

She sympathized until Nana turned her evil eye on the Otherside duo and vented her ire on them. “Get to yer positions, you scurvy bilge-rats,” pointing to the rigging high above.

“Aye, Aye, Ma’ma. Beam us up, Scotty,” Toriko quipped.

Sorawo kicked her in the shins. “Pirates is bad enough; don’t go mixing in Trek-ese.”

#TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #Metal #JMetal #Satire #ReturnToTheFateGear #NMRTTFG
@fanfiction

#ScribesAndMakers Aug 1/Alt: Word #Mergaunt

Mergaunts: Bat-like creatures resembling night gaunts from which they get their name. Found in the valleys of the volcanic ranges of Mercury. Dwelling on Mercury, they are fire-resistant, and their mere touch will set earthly materials on fire. They have a hive mind, and if their "mother" is slain, they wander until they come into range of a new mother.

Source: The Bats of Mercury, Nara Moore.
https://www.pixiv.net/novel/series/13770396

#NMSAM #NMPrompts #FATEGEAR #PulpFiction #SciFi #Steampunk

#wss366

Return to the FATE GEAR

Chapter 10: You say Mulligatawny; I say MullagaGEARy.

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear

Further talk was forestalled by noise from the mess. Bang! “We want grub!” Bang! “We want grub!”Bang! “We want grub.” Bang!

The three hurried into the mess. Seeing them Mina held up her hands. “Mates, we be going into a fine scuffle. The very heavens be our goal. We are on the #edge of a great revolution. Down with capital, down with landlords, power to the people. The Golden throne … and as someone said, ‘My name is Inigo Montoya. You Killed my Father. Prepare to die.’”

(“Get on with it; the vittles be getting cold.”) They all hear Fate Gear’s voice, edged with irritation, in their heads.

Bang! Bang! Went the crew.

“You’re not a eunuch,” Mina muttered. Then in a brighter voice, “Half ration of grog today. I want you bright and sharp as an edged cutlass.”

Bang! “Hiss!”

“But double rations for all survivors.”

Bang! “Yer the eunuch, cap!”

“What’s that delightful smell?” Mina asked as the cook and her mates began serving.

“Mulligan stew,” Beni said.

(“This be a pirate ship, not a B Western roundup!”)

“It’s special for steampunk pirates; it's MullagaGEARy,” Beni said with a straight face. [Note 1]

Bang! “Hiss!” Bang! “Boo.”

Note 1: Sorawo groaned, “Mulligatawny.” [Note 1]
Echoed by Toriko, “MullagaGEARy.” [Note 2]

Note 1 of Note 1: Mulligatawny: A spicy soup of Tamil ‘South Indian’ origin commonly including chicken, mutton, and lentils—nothing like Mulligan stew. [Note 1]
Note 2 of Note 1: MulligaGEARy: Ingredients unknown but savory and sure to delight the steampunker in your life. Not to be confused with MulliGEARy, a clear soup. But your steampunker won’t mind. They’ll just be happy that you finally cooked something rather than ordering takeout.

Note 1 of Note 1 of Note 1: Mulligan stew: A thick hobo stew with whatever ingredients are at hand. B Westerns often featured Mulligan stew as a special dish served from the chuck wagon. Not to be confused with Stone Soup, a European variation of the same theme.

#TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #Metal #JMetal #Satire #PoliticalSatire #ReturnToTheFateGear #NMRTTFG
@fanfiction

#wss366 #MastoPrompt

Return to the FATE GEAR

Chapter 9: Hoist yer spoons

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear

Captian Mina paced the Fate Gear’s deck, which always #sloped so Mina was going uphill. Sorawo could imagine the ship silently chuckling to itself. Periodically the captain checked a large brass compass #finished to the umpteenth degree of shine, huge altimeter (shiny), and massive steam-powered sextant (blazing brilliantly).

Finally finished pacing, satisfied they were on course, she turned to her navigator. “Tell the lasses that grubs up.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Yuri said while her fingers flew over the keyboard.

(“Hoist yer spoons, lassie. Benimori got vittles for you in the mess,”) Fate Gear announced. A shrill train whistle screamed, signaling the same. “Get yer vittles on!”

Nana took over command as the captain walked toward the mess.

Nana’s first act was to turn on the Otherside pair lounging at the railing, mops motionless. “And you two bilge rats, wash yer hands and help Benimori serve. Look smart or you’ll feel a kiss of the Bosun’s cat.”

Toriko and Sorawo hurriedly complied and dashed off to help Benimori.

“Take these,” Beni said, handing enormous pots of warm, rich-smelling stew. “If you spill any of it, the ship will have your carcass for dinner.” Beni grinned as she waved a huge spoon.

“That’s not very pirate,” Toriko observed.

Beni lost her smile. “Let’s see you do better.”

“Slop any of this swell, I’ll be keelhauling a pair of deck rats before you can say ‘drunken sailor,’” Toriko supplied.

Beni whistled in appreciation while Sorawo rolled her eyes.

“These two deck rats better be getting this swell to the mates or the cap be slitting our sails,” Sorawo joined in.

The other two’s mouths dropped, and they stared at Sorawo. For a moment, it looked like Toriko would drop the pot she held, and Beni’s spoon wavered in the air.

Toriko was the first to recover. “Now ye be talking like a pirate, matey.”

#TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #UraPiFanFic #Metal #JMetal #Satire #PoliticalSatire #ReturnToTheFateGear #NMRTTFG
@fanfiction

#ScribesAndMakers Jul 14: Self-promotion day. Show us what you're proud of. Let's boost away.

Anyone likely to see this has seen my boost for “For Love of a Konbini Idol” so I thought I would list my currently active series.

For Love of a Konbini Idol: Original Yuri weird-tales.
          PIXIV
          AO3
Sweet Tea (甘茶): Apothecary Diary Fanfiction (3 Part)
          PIXIV
Return to the FATE GEAR: Steampunk/pirate/political satire. Otherside Picnic Fanfiction.
          PIXIV
          AO3
Luminelle Bijou: The #TimeTravelingGhost: Time Travel/Historical Fiction.
          Fedi Only
#TimeManager: Chaotic and silly. Start it anywhere from the hashtag. Fedi only. This one won’t be moving anywhere else.

#NMSAM #NMPrompts #NMTTG #NMTTA #NMV366 #FATEGEAR #KonbiniIdol

#wss366 #MastoPrompt 7/12

Return to the FATE GEAR

Chapter 8 Crystal Showers

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear

“Make yourselves useful,” Captain Mina barked, looking at the Otherside pair. “Swab the deck.”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Toriko roared, throwing up a sharp salute.

Shards of the crystal spheres lay all around and would have lacerated the busy crew’s feet, if not for their heavy, thick-soled boots. Sorawo would’ve called them clunky punk shoes or just clunkers, and Toriko thought of them as “cool and emo.” Either way, they spared the crew damage from the glass on the deck.

(“As well as being cool and emo,”) the Fate Gear commented, à propos of nothing.

Now that the Fate Gear was #flying through the ether, the ship was quieter. The creak of timbers, snap of canvas, and sharp orders of the bosun’s mate masked the anti-grav generators’ gentle hum.

Toriko’s energetic swabbing, combined with Sorawo’s lackadaisical help, sent cascades of crystal sloshing overboard. The resulting sheets of shooting stars lit up the sky and were long remembered as the legendary Tik-Tok Shower, named for the Tik-Tok of Oz constellation it came from.

As they finished, Mina approached. “You be real swabbies now. Can either of you swing a cutlass? Play a guitar? Drum?”

“Guitar? Drum?” Sorawo thought. Then “Why those?” slipped out.

(“Metal-powered steampunk.”) the ship answered. (“You best start believing in steampunk settings, Miss Sorawo—you’re in one.”)

Toriko started speaking, “Back in Canada, I…”

But Sorawo didn’t give her a chance to finish. Who knows what she’d say or what predicament she’d put them in? “No, none of those.”

“Any fantastic abilities: raging, berserk, kung fu, or spidey sense? Anything like that?”

“I can touch unreal things,” Toriko said.

Sorawo winced.

“And I have this.” Toriko pulled out a SIG Sauer P220.

“You’re not a eunuch, are you?” Mina raised an eyebrow, smirking like it was a private joke. Then, without missing a beat: “And you, swabby?” She turned to Sorawo. “Do #tell.”

Yuri glanced up from her console. “Got a tambourine, if that helps.”

Sorawo looked between the three of them, lifted her hands in surrender, and said, “Sorry. We were going to a party.”

“Ship, have Benimori bring this swabby the ‘Thunderbolt’ she used last time.”

(“Aye. It’s not quite rum, but it’ll do.”)

Mina ignored Fate Gear’s latest snark and addressed the adventures. “When we attack, climb the rigging and give my crew fire support. If there are aerial opponents, they’re your priority.”

Sorawo gulped, looked up at the rigging, her face green. “Aye, aye, Captain.” Her voice was a squeak next to Toriko’s prior roar

“You’re not a eunuch, are you?” Toriko smirked, eyes glinting. Her face all but said, “This is a day I’ll always remember—the day we almost got Sorawo to act like a real pirate.”

#TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #UraPiFanFic #Metal #JMetal #Satire #ReturnToTheFateGear #NMRTTFG

#wss366 & #MastoPrompt 06/27

Return to the FATE GEAR

Chapter Seven: Band on the Run

#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear

The Fate Gear surged forward as the crew #hit their riffs and licks, producing thundering music that assailed the sky. The anti-grav generators surged in time to Haruka’s drums. With every drum hit, it soared higher and higher.

Sorawo and Toriko began hearing heavenly music above them. A chiming of the celestial spheres and crystal stars surrounded them, bathing them in soft, melodic music.

“Is that Muzak?” Sorawo asked.

(“What would you expect of the heavenly host?”) they heard Fate Gear say. (“Bland, inoffensive, conservative; don’t make waves; don’t talk on the elevator—buy so the wheels of the economy never stop grinding—music.”)

Yuri’s fingers flew over her keyboard, and an announcement boomed from the bass amplifiers. “Alert. Alert. Incoming…”

The rest of the words were drowned as ‘the rain exploded with a mighty crash.’

The masts creaked, and the ship bucked under the onslaught of wind. Fate Gear’s engines whined at an inhuman pitch.

With Yuri’s fingers flying across the keyboard, new announcements boomed out. Even over the roar of the wind, the bass orders rang out, “Reef the sail. All hands to their stations.” The rigging screamed in the wind, and the sails groaned under the strain, their seams ready to rip. As the sailors took in the reefs, the groaning receded, leaving only the singing of the rigging.

Mina stopped playing and said, ‘But the band played on.’

“They just hit us with their best shot,” Mina said, smiling just before the ship surged forward, finally catching the solar wind as they breached the stratosphere, sending crystal shards flying as the spheres of the heavens cracked and buckled.

“‘And the first one,’” Toriko said, pointed to herself. “‘Said to the second one there,’” and pointed to Sorawo. “‘I hope you’re having fun.’”

Sorawo groaned. How could Toriko be having so much fun at a time like this? This was serious.

Toriko continued singing, accompanied by the Heavenly Host:

‘Band on the run’
‘Band on the run’

“Must you?” Sorawo said. “And anyway, how do you know the words?”

“It was a hit song,” Toriko said.

“And garbage,” Mina said. “#Vending machine bubblegum pop.”

“Please stop,” Sorawo added.

“‘And the jailer man.’” Toriko pointed at Sorawo. “‘And Sailor Sam,’” she pointed at Mina.

“Stop!” Sorawo and Captain Mina said together.

Barely heard, Mina added, “‘Before we fall into the sun.’”

Band on the Run by #PaulMcCartney and the #Wings (All opinions are the characters and may not reflect the views of the author.)

#MicroFiction #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #UraPiFanFic #Metal #JMetal #Satire #PoliticalSatire #ReturnToTheFateGear #NMRTTFG

@yon @Kingu

#wss366 06/13 #train
*****Return to the FATE GEAR *****
**** Chapter Six ****
**** Throw Away Your Bicycles ****

“NINO,” Mina—captain of the airship FATE GEAR, a vessel of mixed sails and steam power—yelled, “train these lubbers!”

“To the capstan, me hearties.” A bassist in pirate boots grabbed the Otherside pair by the collar.

Toriko whispered, ‘This is fun. I’ve always wanted to be a pirate!’ That stilled Sorawo’s protest.

“Why on earth would you want that?” Sorawo thought, baffled. “They’re just thugs and robbers on ships.”

“Pull hearty, lubbers,” NINO said. “Don’t just stand there like great jellyfish. Grab a bar and push.” Then, speaking to the other crew at the capstan, “Body-surf them off the ship if they slack.”

“Up anchor,” Mina yelled from the bridge. “We are off to storm the heavens! Pull down the Ultimate Patriarch! Fish, throw away your bicycles!”

Each step forward by the sailors—Toriko and Sorawo included—came with a heavy clank.

“Why do we even need to do this?” Sorawo grumbled to herself. “Bloody ship should do it. It’s got metal-infused steam power. So use it!”

An angry steam whistle sounded overhead, and Sorawo heard, (“Because if I did everything, I wouldn’t need a crew. What’s a sailing vessel without a crew? You may be worthless lubbers, but even you must admit, I have my dignity. I’m no garbage scow. No seagoing tanker of earth-destroying ooze and tar.”)

“I’M FATE GEAR, A PIRATE SHIP, AND PROUD OF IT. Oi! Oi!”

“Okay, we get it. Every headbanger aboard recognizes your worth. Now stop flapping yur’ tin whistle and get us going,” the captain ordered.

“Hoist the sail!” she shouted. “Down with the Boss Man. Up with the proletariat.”

The Otherside pair followed the rest of the crew and began hauling on a rope.

“Wow,” Toriko said, looking up as the massive sheet of canvas arose, white as a seagull’s wing and majestic as a cormorant in flight.”

Then, behind the sail, a train appeared and raced across the sky, a comet of tinsel and stars.

The surrounding crew muttered, “A hype train.”

“I wonder where Captain Twitch is headed in such a hurry.” Yuri said, then typed, “Eighteen-whistle salute! Put yur’ steam into it.”

A deafening cacophony of steam whistles sounded. Deep train whistles, sonorous factory whistles, and two-penny tin whistles split the air and Sorawo’s eardrums.

(To be Continued)

#microfiction #NMPrompts #NMV366 #OthersidePicnic #UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #FATEGEAR #Metal #Jmetal #PoliticalSatire #ReturnToTheFateGear #NMRTTFG #Twitch
@yon @Kingu

#wss366 06/05 #league
*****Return to the FATE GEAR *****
**** Chapter Five ****
**** Toriko Tigers ****
*** Part 2 ***

While she tried to work up the nerve to ask another question, Captain Mina climbed to the poop deck, hit a bass note on her guitar, and announced, “‘The League of Free Buccaneers’ has set sail to topple the Ultimate Tyrant—God. Prepare your instruments. We have many leagues to go. The wide open sky awaits our glorious ascent on the most noble mission of our career. Proletariat, intelligentsia, adventures, scum of the earth, freebooters, pirates—every one of you! Are you with me!?”

The crew roared. “Oi, oi, oi.”

(“I hate it when she gets like this,”) the ship muttered.

“Me too,” NANA said.

“I can’t hear you,” Mina shouted.

“Oi, oi, oi,” the crew yelled louder.

(“Why can’t she just say we’re sailing?”)

“Throw off your chains! Take back the excess value. Eat the rich!” Mina was warming to her speech.

(“Benimori, the captain forgot her meds this morning. Bring them to the Poop right away.”)

“Oi, oi, oi.”

“You have nothing to lose but performance reviews!”

“Oi, oi, oi.”

“Arise, the 99%, and strike down your oppressors!”

“Tiger! Fire! Cyber! Fiber! Diver! Viber! Jya Jya!” The crew started tigering like crazy.

Toriko beamed. “Come on, Sorawo, the idol mix is fun!”

“Tiger! Fire! Cyber! Fiber! Diver! Viber! Jya Jya!” The crew, plus Toriko, screamed.

“Wow, that was something,” Toriko said.

“What was that?” Sorawo asked. It was almost as bad as those Minecraft-inspired stories. Worse, even. Toriko was in on it.

“It’s something you do at idol shows. I’ll teach you.”

“No, thanks,” Sorawo said flatly, not hesitating. She thought, “That was weird. Toriko and idol shows—I can’t picture it. What if she ran into the Akihabara idol mirror?” Another story rose unbidden, the one with the cursed encore loop. “No exit. No audience. Just encores.”

Mina started ranting, reeling off slogans: “Black Lives Matter, Trans Rights are Human Rights, No Justice! No Peace!”

Benimori arrived just in time, carrying a glass of grog and a handful of pills. The captain swilled both without breaking stride.

“She gets like that off her meds,” NANA said.

NANA turned and barked, “To your stations! You heard the Cap. We’re sailing!”

Yuri struck a note on her keyboard. The turbines roared to life, and the crew launched into “Super Sonic Samurai.”

The ship explained the music to the mystified pair, Sorawo and Toriko. (“We have harnessed the power of metal.”)

Youtube: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=SlsOe67JPp0
Sound link: https://song.link/us/i/1573875214

#microfiction #NMPrompts #NMV366 #OthersidePicnic #UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #UraPiFanFic #FATEGEAR #Metal #Jmetal #PoliticalSatire #ReturnToTheFateGear #NMRTTFG
@yon @Kingu

#wss366 06/05 #league
*****Return to the FATE GEAR *****
**** Chapter Five ****
**** Toriko Tigers ****
*** Part 1 ***

Mina paced the deck of the FATE GEAR, a music-powered, sentient sailing vessel. Far below, a tropical island lay in a blue sea. They weren't high enough to be above the clouds, but the fluffy shapes seemed close enough to touch.

As the newest members of the pirate crew, Sorawo and Toriko swabbed. “Doesn’t this remind you of high school cleaning duty?” Sorawo said.

Toriko needed a moment to think. “We had janitors in Canada to do this stuff,” she finally replied.

Sorawo remembered how little she knew about girlfriend. She’d made herself a promise, so she asked, “Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask about your past. What was school like in Canada?”

“Dull.”

“That was a flop,” Sorawo thought, eyes drifting back to the mop. Bubbles slid down the deck, taking her confidence with them. Then she remembered Kozakura saying, “Toriko’s dense. You need to be clear with her. Don’t give up. And you’re an idiot.” Sorawo winced, but began steeling herself up to try again.

<Continued>

#microfiction #NMPrompts #NMV366 #OthersidePicnic #UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #UraPiFanFic #FATEGEAR #Metal #Jmetal #PoliticalSatire #ReturnToTheFateGear #NMRTTFG
@yon @Kingu

#wss366 06/01 #Heaven
*** Return to the FATE GEAR ***
Chapter 4
Storm the Heaven’s – The Plan

Sorawo paused, carefully considering Captain Mina’s offer: (Escaping the brig had been easy. Did the ship help? FATE GEAR probably holding a grudge. Won’t be so easy this time, Sorawo thought. Brig, or orders from Captain Mina. Or... stay and keep looking at Toriko’s outfit. Brig or Mina.)

Unlike Sorawo’s careful calculation, Toriko went straight for the most important question. “Is Benimori the cook?”

Benimori saluted her with the spoon, leaving a batter stain on her forehead. (As well as flinging batter in the air that splattered the deck, resulting in the anti-grav turbine revving in protest again.)

“That sounds like HEAVEN!” Toriko said. “What are you making tonight?”

“Fufu cakes with maple syrup, stewed fruit, and American-style bacon,” Benimori answered. “We have lots. We’re fresh from looting Emperor Muskrat’s third-favorite air yacht, the Doge III.”

“Loaded with corporate welfare (‘and worthless crypto’),” Nana said as she joined Mina and handed her an anti-grav ball. “You left this in the mess, Cap.”

(“Capitalism never dies,” Sorawo thought, “it just floats higher and gets a better view.”)

“Fufu cakes! Bacon! HEAVENLY! You bet I’m joining! We eat good tonight!” Toriko had made her choice.

All the timbers of the FATE GEAR groaned, but the ship kept quiet after Yuri typed in, “Be quiet! This be the cap’s call.” It did sound “Tinkle Tinkle Little Star” on the galley steam whistle, signaling the rice was cooked and calling Benimori back to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Sorawo frowned but had come to the same conclusion as Toriko—though for different reasons. (“Shouldn’t have insulted the ship,” Sorawo admitted to herself. “It probably logged it. Probably reads minds, too. Why didn’t I study up on sentient ships? I meant to read about the Yamato. Brig’s going to be reinforced with extra spite this time.”)

But to be safe, she asked, “What are you currently doing, Captain?”

“We shall unseat the pan-ultimate tyrant. The crew of the FATE GEAR sails for the HEAVENS! Let trickle-down begin!”

“Down with tyrants! Oye. Oye. Storm the HEAVENS! Oye. Oye.” The crew shouted and then broke into song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjiGGFW7jBE&list=PLghYzmkF89GlIUtG0vYqyludt0ZQYUTxj
https://song.link/us/i/1573875212

“We’ll join,” Sorawo muttered, hands clamped over her ears as the singing reached its second verse—one she suspected violated at least three Geneva Conventions.

“Welcome aboard, mateys,” Mina said. “Now scrub the decks, ya lubbers. Solidarity doesn’t exempt you from chores.”

#microfiction #NMPrompts #NMV366 #OthersidePicnic #UraPi #Steampunk #Pirates #UraPiFanFic #FATEGEAR #Metal #Jmetal #PoliticalSatire #ReturnToTheFateGear #NMRTTFG
@yon @Kingu