Yanna and Kiryl

#Fandom #TearmoonEmpire
#Spooktober
#Wss366 #MastoPrompt

Yanna crept down the alley, the curled brown leaves crunching underfoot.

She froze.

Although the alley was an excellent spot for sneaking up on someone, it limited her ability to escape. “No,” she thought. “That isn’t the problem.” The alley was too small for anyone larger than a child, a small one at that. Merger food had stunted her growth, but it was still a tight squeeze. The real problem was that if the merchant detected her, she wouldn’t be able to grab anything.

Yanna looked back and saw Kiryl’s face peering after her. She should have just told him no, that it was too dangerous, but she didn’t want to disappoint him.

She could still hear the merchant hawking his wares and the general bustle of the festival. The smell of roasting meat, pickled fish, and sugary treats tickled her nose.

“Oh, to be rich and have coins in your pocket! Not that I’ll ever be,” she muttered. Thinking of the fairy tales she told her brother, she added, “No noble will take pity on us, worthless lot.”

She began moving again, stepping carefully over the refuse tossed into the alley, memorizing the location of each heap as she went. When she returned, she’d need to dodge them on the run.

She stopped just inside the alley and readied herself. Outside, she could glimpse the harvest festival. Orange pumpkins, carved to resemble demons, decorated the booths. They were supposed to scare away bad fortune, including thieves.

“Gullible,” she thought, “and wasteful.” In a few days, she’d be scavenging edible portions from the rotting carcasses they threw out.

She took a deep breath and prepared. She’d have to move like a sparrow once she stepped out.

Then she did it! She emerged, grabbed something from the pile, turned, and dashed back the way she had come.

She was halfway down the alley before a cry went up. “Thief, thief!”

“Let them cry,” she thought. Those fat merchants, with their greasy smiles and insults, could afford the loss.

She reached Kiryl, and the pair of them pelted away, only stopping when they ducked into a hidden alley.

“Sorry, Kiryl. This one doesn’t have any honey on it.”

“It’s okay, sis,” Kiryl said, tearing the golden-brown elephant-ear in half and handing his sister the larger piece.

#NMV366 #SliceOfLife #Halloween #NMPrompts #MicroFiction #TootFic

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 47: EP 4: 1937 Amelia Earhart.

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 10/7. Something odd/weird you've experienced

We didn’t have to walk far before Amelia came into view again. She stood where the inlet met the sea. Creamy currents ran past her as the lagoon emptied. A signal fire danced in front of her. Its ghostly blue flames #curled and flickered. The exposed white coral behind her blended into her ethereal form. She appeared to be the spirit of the island itself: white coral edging a deep indigo ocean. It wasn’t the weirdest thing I had ever seen, but it was close.

Emily grabbed my arm, and we stopped. Turning to face her, I waited for her to speak.

“How are we going to convince her she’s a ghost?”

“I don’t know yet.”

She nodded. “We might not be able to do things like stop the Great War, but we can do little things, like freeing her.”

“We can do that, but there might be more we can do. Next, let’s find out more about the rabbits. I think they’re up to no good.”

She nodded in agreement.

#TootFic #MicroFiction #Serial #TimeTravel #NMTTA #NMV366 #Spooktober

Paper Cranes Part 3 (Good Fortune Cranes)

#FanFiction #IsTheOrderARabbit (#GochiUsa)
#Wss366

The street was gorgeous, with each shop and stall adorned with strings of colorful cranes.

“Look!” Chiya showed off a unique crane-shaped taiyaki [Note 1] that she had bought. “I have to learn to make these. Customers would love them: cranes, capybaras, cats, tanuki, and…”

“Usagi, rabbits,” the other girls chimed in.

Chiya nodded enthusiastically. “An Anko taiyaki with bean paste; cranes with custard…” She continued until she had exhausted all the possible animals.

The other girls had stopped listening and ran to a temple booth.

“I got a ‘Good Fortune,’” Rize said, unfolding the yellow crane he had bought at the temple.

“Mine is a ‘Tremendous Fortune,’” Syaro said, showing her blue crane to the others.

“It’s a ‘Bad Fortune,’” Chino said, holding out the red crane she had bought.

The girl selling them leaned over the edge of the stall, showing Chino a paper boat. “You’re so lucky. What you have is better than good luck. You can rid yourself of ill fortune by setting your crane sailing across the lake. All your bad luck will float away with it. Then come back and get a new fortune. Isn’t that wonderful—to exchange bad luck for good?”

“Yes, please,” Chino said, taking the boat from the woman.

Armed with the boat, they ran to the lake.

“Wow,” Megu said. The others just stared, mouths agape.

Before them, the lake spread out in an indigo-blue sheet. Light clouds floated above in an azure sky. A few paper boats floated lazily on the water’s #surface, amid dozens of cranes that had gathered there.

“Quadrillion,” Maya said in awe.

Chino placed her boat in the water, while Cocoa held her so she wouldn’t fall in. Then, carefully, she pushed the boat out into the lake.

“Oh, look,” Rize said as the boat sailed out among the cranes and then stopped where a gray crane examined it curiously.

Midori patted Chino’s head. “Looks like good fortune found you.”

Conclusion

[Note 1]Taiyaki

#ごちうさ #ご注文はうさぎですか?
#Wholesome #SliceOfLife #Yuri #FanFic
#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP

#百物語 #HyakuMonogatari: 14 Smile 微笑

#Fandom #AlfredHitchcock #Psycho
#DrabbleTober #Spooktober
#SundayLit (#Happy & #Sad) #Wss366 #WordWeavers 10.5 — Antagonist sadness?

A smile touched his lips, like a frost bloom on iron-hard ground: brittle, cold, and easily erased.

His eyes focused on the decaying Victorian on the hill. Mother would be so proud of his cleverness.

She had been so upset when the sheriff came by to ask questions about the abandoned car on Ashcreek Lane. Her shrill voice—a searing, shrieking wind, orphaned sparrows #piping under eaves, and the whistle of a willow cane—blew the crystal away.

But he was cleverer now. His eyes followed the bubbles emerging from the muddy bog, and with them, a full smile welled.

[Note 1] Feel free to join in #Drabbletober (A spooky 100-word story a day.)
[Note 2] Or join in on #HayakuMongogatari. Number your submissions one higher than the last. If we reach 100, a spook is supposed to appear. An internet #youkai. Maybe the muskrat.
[Note 3] Image from Psycho, Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

#NMV366 #Drabble #Horror #Halloween #Hitchcock #NMWW #NMPrompts #NMSL #MicroFiction #TootFic

#百物語: #HyakuMonogatari: 13 Kaeru-chan 蛙ちゃん

#Fandom #Lovecraft
#Wss366 #DrabbleTober #Spooktober

“If you hide in the library until after it closes, you’ll hear a #piping: 'Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!'” Kaeru-chan said. It was her contribution to the spooky stories they were exchanging.

No one knew who’d invited her to their party. She smelled of day-old fish, and her face was wrong: pale with round, bulging eyes. Rumors said she had webbed toes.

“They say they're played by worshipers of ancient Nyarlathotep. If you follow the sound to the fourth aisle, you can see them, but you'll never return.”

“How would you know?” a girl asked.

Kaeru just smiled with her round, puckered mouth.

#NMV366 #Drabble #Horror #Halloween #HPLovecraft #MicroFiction #TootFic

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 47: EP 4: 1937 Amelia Earhart.

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 10/5. Why are you important to the story?

As we stood there, trying to figure out what to say, the moon topped the surrounding trees. The apparition became even fainter.

“I need to tend the signal fire,” she said, gliding by us. It felt like a chill wind, and in the warm tropical night, it raised goosebumps on my skin. Inland, a bird #piped, eerie and forlorn.

“I suppose we should follow her,” I said, starting back down the track. “You’re lucky you weren’t caught in an obsessive loop like her.”

“Explain?”

“Classical ghost stories feature spirits caught in a loop created by unfulfilled desires, grudges, or death trauma. They’re doomed to repeat the same actions over and over.”

She nodded. “I might have been, except you came along. We wouldn’t be traveling through time except for you.”

She paused, thinking, then spoke. “Neither of us is a typical ghost, especially you. Are you sure you’re even a ghost?”

“It’s the only term I can come up with.”

The mist was thicker when we emerged from the jungle. White tendrils passed over the moon, causing an unsettling flicker. The clicking of crabs communicating had ceased in the direction the ghostly form had gone. Behind us, the sound resumed.

#TootFic #MicroFiction #Serial #TimeTravel #NMTTA #NMV366 #Spooktober

#百物語: #HyakuMonogatari 12: Foreign Devil

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt

The devil calmly examined the four students standing outside the pentagram. The #triangular lenses of his glasses reflected their astonished faces.

"I told you this was better than 'Hide and Go Seek by Yourself,'" the leader said.

The boy next to him shyly looked at the girl to his left. "I still would have preferred going to that ghost spot."

The fourth boy finally spoke up. "Who would have believed this would work in Japan? It's so much cooler than Kokkuri-san and easier than Hyaku Monogatari.”

"So, how can I help you?" the devil said in perfect Japanese. He didn’t seem very interested and was looking at his solid gold pocket watch, not the students. “It’s been a while since I could visit your fair land. There are some people I would like to visit while I’m here, so do hurry.”

"Oh, nothing," the leader said. "We're just doing a test of courage. We don't really want to sell our souls."

The devil smiled #amiably. "So funny. I don’t buy souls. Summoning me is enough. Did you really think the foreign Kami would forgive this act of blasphemy?"

He laughed as the shadows crept in.

#NMV366 #Horror #Halloween #Halloween2025

#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

#百物語: #HyakuMonogatari: 11 #Square Peg

#Wss366 #Drabbletober #Spooktober

“Honey, that looks like a grave except it’s square.”

“Yep, exactly three by three feet and ten feet deep.”

“Wow. Why our backyard?”

“No one can see me digging. I’ll plant hydrangeas in it when I’m done.”

“Ten feet is awful deep.”

“I wouldn’t want anything sticking out the top. Except for the hydrangeas. Ha, ha. And before you ask why hydrangeas, they were on sale at Sky Nursery.”

“I don’t get it. Why here? Why so deep, and why square?”

Thump.

“Respect. You always loved blue and complained that you were a square peg forced into a round hole.”

[Note 1] Feel free to join in Drabbletober (A spooky 100-word story a day.)
[Note 2] Or join in on #HayakuMongogatari. Number your submissions one higher than the last. If we reach 100, a spook is supposed to appear. An internet #youkai. Maybe Nichol will return to us.

#NMV366 #Drabble #Horror #Halloween #MicroFiction #TootFic

#TheMoonsHindMostWound.

5. Pigeon Moon 鳩の月

#FanFiction #TheApothecaryDiaries
#wss366 #MastoPrompt #ScribesAndMakers

Satisfied that she had learned all she could about the assassin, Mao waved Basen away. "Send Tinkle in," she said. "And don't come back until you are called. If you hear something, pretend you didn't. You don't want to be here."

Crag-like furrows reappeared on Basen’s forehead. Mao held her breath. It really was better for him not to be there. He might try to stop her, and the emperor would hold him accountable if something went wrong.

Basen pulled a face as if he had swallowed vinegar and said, “Guess that makes me the fourth monkey. Blind, deaf, dumb… and Basen, none the wiser.”

Mao just blinked. Was he trying to be funny at a time like this?

Basen glanced over at Jinshi, shook his head, and muttered, “Tiss #folly.”

As he left, candlelight #shone on Basen’s face, highlighting #pigeon-gray strands among his black hair. "Serving a master like Jinshi must be hard," she thought. "And today will earn him a few more."

Continued next week in Bleeding Moon 出血月

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMV366 #NMSAM
#ApothecaryDiaries

Divine Word

#Mastoprompt #Mss633 #ScribesAndMakers

The High Lord Rath nar Airith fasted for three days, drinking only thrice-blessed holy water from the sacred Dryad's Spring. He finished his prayers and lit incense as the eastern hills #shone rose and pink with Airith's holy light.

As Airith's head peaked above Mount Umidor, the gateway to the underworld on this most sacred day, God's #pigeon appeared out of the glow and lit upon the sill. The king took a missive from its beak and read, "#Folly."

#MicroFiction #TootFic #NMV366 #NMMM #NMSAM

Imber Befogged (Part 2 of 2)

#Wss366

Better forward than back, she thought, and passed through the arch, where she stopped. The fog had disappeared, replaced by an unrelenting whiteness that was neither close nor far away but at an undefined distance.

The road continued, but a line of waist-high pillars ran down the center. She couldn’t tell how far they stretched. Their alabaster shade blended into the surroundings.

On each pillar was a globe resembling a soap bubble. Rainbow colors danced on their surfaces, contrasting with the stark whiteness of everything else. Common sense urged her to leave them alone. Everything here was strange and potentially dangerous. But her curiosity prompted her to take a closer look. Which would it be?

The latter won out as she #ditched caution. “Why in the name of the twin gods was I brought here if not to look?” she said, excusing her recklessness.

The colors swirled hypnotically, drawing her closer and closer until she could make out dim shapes in the bubbles. Her light touch caused the colors to riot, then coalesce into a blue sheen. The surface was smooth and hard under her fingertips, but tingled like a healer’s touch.

When she drew her hand away, the globe cleared. An Inacar woman stood in the center of the sphere. She was holding a bundle wrapped in cloth. Her faded shawl of Shaw design and simple, unadorned gold jewelry marked her as a commoner. A wave of sadness, longing, and grief swept over “The Imber.” The feeling dwarfed any she had felt before. The only thing that came close was when she lost her kitten, but that had been a mere shadow compared to this. It ran deeper, much deeper.

The woman held out the bundle to another woman wearing cornflower-colored robes indicating a lowly priestess.

“My child, its name is…” The woman began.

The priestess cut her off. “Names are unimportant. She is just a runner, no more.”

The vision ended, and “The Imber” touched her damp face. She was crying. The woman’s heartbreak lingered. It was like the rain seeping through the roof of one of the Runner’s towers, pooling at the bottom, soaking into the ground.

Though humble, the scene touched her deeply.

When she looked up, she saw stairs where the road had been. The pillars and spheres were gone. Tales whispered in the dark about the stairs’ safety were divided. Some said they led to the burning lands of the ancients, from which no one returned. Others said they would take you back to wherever you’d gotten lost. She favored the latter stories. After all, if no one returned, there would be no one to say where the stairs led.

She’d chosen correctly and didn’t have far to climb before she was on the proper road. She hurried along it. If she were too late, people might suspect she’d explored too deeply into the Wandering-Worlds.

By the time she reached Vas, she had already begun burying the memory of what had happened. It was a dangerous memory to have.

#TootFic #MicroFiction #Serial #Fantasy #NMV366 #NMMP

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 47: EP 4: 1937 Amelia Earhart.

#Wss366 #TimeTravelAuthors 9/29. Author's choice/promo

“At last! I thought no one would find us,” Amelia said. “Fred went to find water; we have none. He’s been gone a long time.” She waved toward a row of coconut shells on the clearing's edge. Her rambling speech gave no hint of what our eyes could plainly see: a rotting skeleton and the jungle visible through the aviator’s translucent body.

I whispered to Emily so that the apparition couldn’t hear. “In 1937, Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared while crossing the Pacific. I don’t think she knows she’s dead. We need to break it to her slowly.”

“I didn’t hear a plane,” Amelia resumed. “Did you come from Howland Island? We missed it. Thank goodness we spotted Gardner.” [Note 5]

Note 5 Gardner/Nikumaroro
[Note 6] It is a #cardinal sin to omit the prompt word, so I cheated.
#TootFic #MicroFiction #Serial #TimeTravel #NMPrompts #NMTTA #NMV366 #NMMP

Market Open

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #SundayLit

The #market had just #opened, and Tina #trembled. This was her first show, a small affair in a neighboring village. There were a few farmers, a bored crafts person, a phone service vendor, one juggler, and a local musician.

Still, she was terrified. What if people thought her work was junk or that her display was sucky? Hopefully, no one from home would visit. That would be awful. She could hear the kids at school whispering about how cringe she was already.

Two old ladies stopped by, saying, “How cute! They’re darling.” Then they left without buying anything. Being treated like a cute kid was embarrassing. She’d worked hard on binding her stories and creating the cover art.

A man wearing a worn suit with leather patches on the elbows, like professors wore, stopped at her table.

He opened a few books, leafed through one, read a few lines to himself, and then looked at her and asked, "Did you make these?”

She nodded, then found her voice. “Yes, sir. I wrote them and bound them in-in-in the best leather-leather. I even made the cover art with old Tandy tools I found in the attic.”

“They’re good, and their prices are too low.”

He looked over her stock and selected five. “I’ll buy these if you give me a 20% discount. I’d like your email address. If they’re well-received, I’ll purchase more. At 20% off your new price. Maybe double at first, you can raise them later.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, wrapping them up.

“Here’s my card,” the man said. She looked at it and saw that it read, “Findle’s Rare and Exotic Books.”

#NMSL #NMV366 #NMPrompts #MicroFiction #TootFic #SliceOfLife

#TheMoonsHindMostWound

4. Detective MoaMoon 探偵猫月

#FanFiction #TheApothecaryDiaries
#wss366

When Basen reentered the chamber, he had the requested cloth under one arm and held a steaming kettle. “You wanted me?” he asked.

“I want to see the would-be assassin and the arrow that caused this wound, as well as anything else associated with the incident. Put the cloth over there and the kettle on the brazier.

“The assassin escaped. A watch is out for a wounded person, but if the person has allies…” He shrugged helplessly and lifted a blanket covering a table near the door, revealing a broken arrow, a plain hair stick with a few strands of hair, and some blood-soaked leaves.

Mao almost brushed aside the leaves wondering why they had been brought. Basen divined her thoughts explained. “We brought everything. I knew you’d be asking. I didn’t know what would be useful.”

Mao nodded. That was best if they’d only brought what appeared useful, some seemingly unimportant clue-bearing items would now be absent. She stirred the leaves looking but found nothing.

“Any footprints?”

“Small, clad in light traveling shoes.”

She turned from that to identifying the poison. If she could heal Jinshi, she would leave the rest to others.

First, she examined the arrow. Its tip was narrow, grooved along the sides, and slightly blunted.

While not an archer, she surmised it was designed to carry poison rather than strike lethally. Whoever made this knew what they were doing. Not a local, though the taper and polish weren’t typical of Li soldiers.

Blood had washed the tip clean of poison, so there was nothing more she could learn from it. With a heavy sigh, she returned to her inquiry into the culprit. Perhaps the poison’s origin would hold a clue.

She returned what she held to the table and picked up the fletched end. The feathers were tan with some yellow along the edge, nothing she recognized. She looked up at Basen. “Do you recognize this feather?”

“No, it’s not something we use around here. I can ask around.”

“In a moment, I may have other questions.”

She picked up the hair stick and hair, rolling the hair between her fingers.

"It's dyed with something permanent, but look—red roots." She showed it to Basen, who nodded.

Finally, she examined the hair stick itself, running a finger along the grain. Interesting. Jichimu. The wood was a specialty item not found in the #market. No average soldier or paid assassin could afford this.

New, the stripes haven’t mellowed. She sniffed the wood, noting the scent of sesame oil and freshly worked wood: sweet, light, and fleeting. “Very new. Only a few days old. While you're finding out about the feather, also check for a local craftsman. Someone who works with fine wood, maybe a foreigner. But do nothing yet and be sure not to arouse any suspicions.”

Continued next week in Bleeding Moon 出血月

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMV366
#ApothecaryDiaries

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 46: EP 4: 1937 Amelia Earhart.

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 9/27 Saturday excerpt (optional word: pleasant)

The ocean mist that was drifting in was #pleasant after the night's muggy warmth. The beach had been fairly straight until this point, but with the limited visibility, we almost fell into what I guessed was an inlet to a lagoon. Soggy, burnt wood was mixed with the sand, and its faint odor perfumed the air. We still hadn’t seen Amelia, and I was more convinced than ever that I knew where we were. It was the #worst option, the one place I’d prayed we wouldn’t find ourselves.

“I think I hear something,” Emily said, pointing inland.

When I listened, I thought I heard crying, but it could have been the wind. “That way is as good as any,” I said.

The sound faded as we walked along the beach. No matter how hard I listened, all I could hear was the wind, the surf, and the scuttling of crabs, some of which were as big as a cat or small dog.

The memory of a pretty papillon named "Rindy" floated up into my consciousness, and I wondered if he had been mine.

“There it is again,” Emily said.

This time, I could plainly hear a woman weeping. The sound came from in front of us, off to the right.

“Amelia, Amelia Earhart!” I yelled, and the weeping stopped.

“There’s a path,” Emily said, pointing to a rough trail leading inland through the trees.

“I’m here! Thank God at last,” came a shout from the direction the path led.

We followed the voice and soon found a clearing. In the center were the ashes of a fire, scattered coconut, and crab shells. The scent of the jungle and sea mingled with the sour-sweet stench of death. On the far side of the fire lay a rotting corpse. Crabs that had nearly picked the skeleton clean scurried away from our light. The word “#gross” almost escaped my lips.

Just beyond stood a woman dressed in aviator clothes. We had found Amelia Earhart.

Note 4: Amelia Earhart

#TootFic #MicroFiction #Serial #TimeTravel #NMPrompts #NMTTA #NMV366 #NMMP #historicalfiction

#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

Imber Befogged (Part 1)

#Wss366 9/25 #MastoPrompt 7-9/25

#Fog obscured the Wandering-Worlds. [Note 1] Though rare, it was not an unknown occurrence. Imbers [Note 2] who had found themselves befogged, reported finding their way back only by luck. Sometimes, Blades [Note 3] came for them later. It was best to keep quiet about what one saw in that #mist-shrouded landscape.

[Note 1] Wandering-Worlds: A liminal space affected by the imagination of wanderers. It serves as a shortcut between the floating continents.

[Note 2] Imbers: Individuals born with the power to walk the “Wandering-Worlds.”

[Note 3] Blades: Individuals tasked with hunting down and executing Imbers who break the law. They can suppress an Imber’s ability to walk the Wandering-Worlds.

“The Imber” only knew these things through rumors and stories told late at night. That was also forbidden, but when it was dark and no one could see the teller, stories would pass from speaker to listener. It was difficult to tell how distorted the stories had become as they passed from one Imber to another. “The Imber” doubted the stories of silver cities and feral undead monsters. But the fog was a thread that wound through all of them.

Now, “The Imber” knew that the fog was real because she was lost in it. The road she followed dipped downward rather than ascending. No matter how hard she tried to envision the road differently, it soon slipped back into its descent.

The road took a sharp turn, and she stood before a stone arch. Engraved words adorned its smooth white surface. The writing used an archaic form of the Shaw alphabet. “The Imber” studied the arabesque runes. Most of them were indecipherable. But scattered among the #sprays of flowers, she made out the words “History,” “Clay,” and a few common words.

Rather than enter the arch, she turned, looking to see if she could return the way she had come. However, the fog #snaked in heavy coils through the tumbled blocks that had once paved the road. Stories of undead monstrosities returned to her.

To be Continued

[Note 4] #FanFiction for a yet-to-be-published book, “Soul Fire” by Jesse Sprague.

#TootFic #MicroFiction #Serial #Fantasy #NMPrompts #NMTTA #NMV366 #NMMP

#TimeTravelAuthors 25. How do you picture your story world 50 years in the future?

I will leave this one for when people decide to explore the future, which is one of the options below.

Where will we go next?

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TootFic #MicroFiction #Serial #TimeTravel #NMPrompts #NMTTA #NMV366 #NMMP