The Wandering Shop Stories #prompt for today, Sat-3-Jan, is #draw. Feel like writing something short and sweet that has the word "draw" in it? Check out the definitions of the word at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/draw Join in and tag it with #wss366! #writing #WritingLife #microfiction h/t @tobadzistsini
#wss366
A #wss366 3-parter... Don't try to catch an editor's attention this way!
Peppina & May were walking up the beach eating McDonalds--May's suggestion. Peppina held May in high #regard, hanging on her every word, but sometimes there was nothing deep behind what she said. For example, suggesting these burgers. "I just felt like fast food," May said.
But other times...
May was watching the surf race up the sand & then retreat. "Just think: If our life spans were geological, we'd see glaciers doing this--expanding, retreating, as fast as this."
Sidney Marks leaned on his knees as he panted. Defeat was upon him as the bulkhead gap closed.
There was a whiff of something burning and foul, followed by the bulkheads reversing their course. In a final burst, Marks broke through followed swiftly by Rupert.
"And that's how Rupert earned the Medal of Gaia."
A little girl waved her hand, "Yes, Misty?"
"Is it true Rupert was a girl?"
The storyteller blushed, "Yes."
Misty shook a fist of triumph as she hissed "Yessssss." 2/2
#wss366
Klaxons echoed throughout the corridors of the battlesnake. Crewmen of both species ran to their stations as bulkheads sealed behind them.
Lieutenant Marks was too slow.
The bulkhead to engineering was closing.
High above, the ship's cat Rupert watched with a rat in his mouth. Blood dripped on the deck below.
This wasn't Rupert's first rodeo.
Paws padded to the left whereupon he dropped the rat without #regard for the pest's safety. 1/x
#wss366
"It was the darkest of dark nights, filled with the black sounds of night creatures. Darkly they squeaked, roared, and howled according to their individual dark natures. Did I mention it was dark?"
"Well, at least I don't need to worry about toilet paper," the editor thought darkly. (3/3) #wss366
The managing editor went into the bathroom, lowered his trousers, and took a seat. He reached into the shelves next to the toilet, feeling around for a magazine or catalog. Nothing. But his hand encountered something unexpected. He pulled it out. It was a nicely formatted manuscript. (1/3) #wss366
"Lesson one is complete! Now for lesson two, you're going tell me one of your words for rain and why it's special enough to need its own words. Then I'll share the human secret about our many words for seeing." She held out her hand, "Deal?" 5/5
#wss366
Karen clicked several times, consulted her widget, then read out, "One hundred thirty six or only ninety of your fours."
"Ninety four?" Rose's voice dripped with sarcasm, taking advantage of her charge's naïveté. "Rain is rain." Rose held out her hand and looked up, "What's the difference?"
Karen hesitated. "You are joking?"
Rose rose then walked up to Karen to stand on her tippy-toes. "Yes!" A red star stuck to the krink's rubbery skin. 4/x
#wss366
"And a curious idiom" The black frog with iridescent green tiger stripes looked down, "Seeing is believing." She stared at Rose hoping for eye contact, "But belief isn't sight. Belief is a subjective feeling." The tip of her tongue poked out as pride washed through her. It was the most complex sentence she's said so far.
Rose crossed her legs on the grass, "Tell me, how many words do the krink have for rain?" 3/x
#wss366
"Your krink were tree-dwellers, yes?" Rose barely glanced up.
"Yes."
"Good." A cap slid over the objective. "Sight is important for the krink, yes?"
"Yes. But you also have '#regard', 'watch', 'witness', 'examine', 'scry', 'glare', 'study', and others." Karen enunciated each with care. "Do your eyes have different abilities? Like your French Navy Weapons?" Froggy eyes blinked then sunk into Karen's head to convey her agreeable nature.
The first gesture decoded by humanity. 2/x
#wss366
Despite Karen's lack of accent, her understanding of Earth languages was basic. The Consulate assigned her to an astronomer called Rose for ESL.
Karen consulted her widget, a steampunky hybrid of krink and human ingenuity, for help as she spoke.
Rose knelt over her telescope and fiddled with settings.
"Why so many are there words for to see?" Karen hadn't time to adopt an accent or persona. When she spoke, the krink had a standard midwestern accent. 1/x
#wss366
Three Kings and a Princess
Gold I Bring to Crown You Anew: Part IIB
#FanFiction #TheApothecaryDiaries #TearmoonEmpire
2/12 #wss366 #ScribesAndMakers #MastoPrompt
[Continued from previous post “Gold I Bring to Crown You Anew: Part IIA”]
The two walked to the parlor in the main house, with Mao being careful not to trip on her new, awkward gown. Managing it was a #continuous nightmare. If people had to wear these things every day, they would be useless for anything but decoration. Just something for men to look at. The thought displeased her.
The first thing she noticed upon entering the building was the scent of sandalwood and agarwood with a touch of frankincense. “An expensive waste of precious resins,” she thought. But that was to be expected, given how important this guest seemed to be.
Upon entering the parlor, her eyes were drawn to a man dressed in a lavishly embroidered gown. His clothes were rich with gold and silver thread; no expense had been spared. A gold crown adorned his head.
He rose and called to her, “Niang Niang, at last I can reveal my true identity.”
Mao stopped. “No, no, it couldn’t be!” The thought whirled in her head.
“Tianyu,” she said in complete disbelief. The dissection-mad surgeon stood before her in regal robes, arms outstretched with a besotted look on his face. A less august person was hard to imagine.
[Continued tomorrow in “Frankincense to Offer Have I: Part I”]
Three Kings and a Princess
Gold I Bring to Crown You Anew: Part IIA
#FanFiction #TheApothecaryDiaries #TearmoonEmpire
2/12 #wss366 #regard #ScribesAndMakers #Vivid? #MastoPrompt #Continuous
[Continued from “Gold I Bring to Crown You Anew: Part I”]
"Your visitor brought you not only gold but a dress too. It's outlandish, but it's made of the finest material," Pairin said, as she laid out a blue dress.
Mao’s eyes widened. The dress was made of soft blue silk layered over cream-toned linen and cotton; every ruffle was cut and stitched with almost obsessive care. Red satin ribbons and a #vivid blue sapphire finished off the opulent dress. It was an absurdly costly foreign gown—clearly the work of someone with far more money than sense.
It tugged at her memory, although she couldn’t say why. No one from Li would ever dream of wearing something so impractical.
Had an eastern prince, with no #regard for common sense, decided to court her?
With Pairin's help, Mao was slowly encased in a monument of silk, linen, and layers of petticoats. Finished, Pairin stepped back and admired her achievement. “Just think what we could sell this for.”
The lack of a compliment would have insulted any other woman. Instead, Mao thought the same thing, picturing the mounds of herbs and medicine she could buy. She hoped she would have the chance to do so instead of being packed off to someone’s harem or taken to a barbarous land to the east.
“Hmm,” Mao wondered. “Or did she mean me?” It didn’t really matter; they were both practical women. Marriage for the inhabitants of Verdigris House was about money first, with love being an afterthought.
“Would you like something to help with your first time? New girls often do.” Pairin produced a small packet. “Just the first time. Any more is bad for you.”
“Poppy paste,” Mao thought. She took it and secreted it away. “But not for this. I’ll save it for when nothing else works,” picturing a maimed soldier. “Or for someone too important to feel pain.”
A smile touched Pairin’s lips as she watched Mao both accept her gift and refuse to use it. “Come, we mustn’t keep the client waiting any longer.”
[Continued in the next post “Gold I Bring to Crown You Anew: Part IIB”]
regarding masks
the ones he wears
are invisible
Client Info
Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.07
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst