#nmmp — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #nmmp, aggregated by home.social.
-
17: Burning down the Heavens
#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear #EdgarRiceBurroughs
#wss366 #MastoPromptAfter 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 -
16: Carson Napier
#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear #EdgarRiceBurroughs
#wss366 #MastoPromptThe 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 -
15: Pirates of Mercury
#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear #EdgarRiceBurroughs
#wss366 #MastoPromptIt 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 -
14: Otherside Champions (Part 2 of 2)
#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear
#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 -
14: Otherside Champions (Part 1 of 2)
#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear
#wss366 #MastoPromptDesperate 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 -
13: #Pirates vs. Mergaunts (Part 2 of 2)
#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear
#wss366 #MastoPromptAt 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 -
13: #Pirates vs. Mergaunts (Part 1 of 2)
#FanFiction #OthersidePicnic #FateGear
“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 -
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 -
Princess (Wind Head) 王女様（風頭）
Lion’s Mane (山伏茸) 4 of 8
#FanFiction #TheApothecaryDiaries x #TearmoonEmpire
#Wss366 8/8*** Maomao ***
“That explains the wind in Her Highness’s head,” Mao thought, after hearing she was hunting Spirit-head mushrooms. “Too much spirit-travel has permanently disturbed her qi. I must try them, though. Risky, of course… but at least once.”
Once they were under the trees, the odd princess shook herself like a wet dog, confirming Mao's suspicion that the girl was not a noble. She was probably the spoiled child or wife of a wealthy merchant. Either way, her dowry must be huge; otherwise, no one would marry her.
“This way, I think?” The woman said, #starting down a path.
Was the woman a brilliant woodsman or an idiot? Mao wasn’t sure. Caution and observation led her to the latter conclusion, and she marked the trees as they went. “At worst, I wasted some effort. At best, they’ll get me back out of the woods,” she said to herself.
After five minutes, Mao stopped. A smile slowly spread across her lips as she gazed at an object beside the path. “Aren’t you a beauty,” she said, the tip of her tongue darting along her lips. She slowly stooped and stroked the object of her attention with a finger. “Hou Tui Mo, just like described. A fungus, like a white lion’s mane: noble and rare.” Her smile moved up to her eyes.
“What’s that?” The princess’s voice was right at her shoulder. “Eww, you can’t eat that! It will make you sick.”
Mao started then snapped back, “The uglier the fungus, the more useful it usually is, and this is very useful.”
“You can have all of it.”
Mao didn’t bother answering but thought, “Good. I wasn’t planning on giving you any.”
Part 4 of 8: To be continued.
#TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#薬屋のひとりごと #ApothecaryDiaries
#LightNovel #Manga #Anime #Fantasy #Mushroom
@fanfiction -
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. 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 -
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 -
#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 -
Tanabata Bird Case – Part 2
七夕バード事件
#OthersidePicnic X #MissKobayashisDragonMaid #FanFiction
#WSS366 #MastoPrompt 7/7
“It’s moving,” Riko said as the origami bird began fluttering.
“It’s the fan,” Kanna said.
Kanna and Riko’s eyes grew wide as the bird took flight, soaring over the classroom.
“Look, a bird got in,” a boy pointed.
“Listen,” a girl in rumpled clothes said. “It’s singing.”
“How lovely,” a third voice said.
“It’s like a dream. I can see the song,” a girl in the back said. She held a manga tightly in her hands, eyes wide, listening.
“It’s Kozakura-san and Kasumi,” Kanna whispered. “It’s a vision.”
Each of them saw Kasumi with her hair done up with dozens of blue bows. She was eyeing a strawberry-covered cake. Kozakura had a big smile and was cutting an enormous slice of cake.
“Your mom looks happy,” Kanna gently touched Kasumi hair, “and those are lovely ribbons.”
“There are Toriko-san and Sorawo-san,” Kanna said as the two adventurers appeared. The tall blonde Toriko was smiling broadly and held a large stuffed bear. The blue ribbon around its neck matched the one in Kasumi’s hair. A serious Sorawo stood next to Toriko, holding a small wrapped present.
Kanna giggled. It was so like the two women: enthusiastic Toriko and her serious girlfriend.
As quickly as the birthday scene had appeared, it dissolved, replaced by a new one.
This time Riko spoke, “That’s me! Oh… And I’m hugging Kasumi. And there we go—running. I’m pushing her on the swings. We’re having so much fun!”
Riko looked at the real Kasumi. “Is that what you want—to be real friends?” Kasumi nodded harder, smiling.
The vision changed once more.
“Look, that’s me,” Kanna said. “All grown up, still wearing my hair ties.”
“You kissed her on the cheek,” Riko said. “I want that too. If you kiss Kasumi, you have to kiss me.”
With one more burst of vision, the three girls appeared in a swan boat. Then, with a final flutter, the bird slipped out the open window.
“The visions—are they what you wished for?” Kanna asked, and Kasumi nodded, head bobbing wildly.
Kasumi finally spoke in a voice a little like Toriko’s. “I think if you wish hard enough, anything can come true.”
#MicroFiction #TootFic #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#LightNovel #Manga #Fantasy #SliceOfLife #Yuri
#KobayashisDragonMaid #DragonMaid #小林さんちのメイドラゴン
#UraPi #裏世界ピクニック #Tanabata #七夕 #たなばた -
Tanabata Bird Case – Part 1
七夕バード事件
#OthersidePicnic X #MissKobayashisDragonMaid #FanFiction
#WSS366 #MastoPrompt 7/7
“Ohhh…” Riko stared at the little stand of bamboo the teacher had put at the classroom’s #entrance. Each student had hung a Tanabata wish on it the day before.
“So many colors! Look at them dance!” Kanna said, looking at the slips of paper spinning in the breeze made by a fan the teacher had put nearby.
The other two girls were entranced, especially Kasumi, who studied each fluttering wish like it meant something.
“What did you wish for?” Riko asked, turning to Kanna.
“Silly, you’re not supposed to tell your wish,” Kanna replied.
“At least point it out,” Riko said.
Kanna pointed to a neatly #clipped slip of lilac paper.
Riko peered at it. “Ah, I can’t read it.” Then she turned to Kasumi, saying, “Which one is yours?”
Kasumi indicated to a white bird, the only origami on the bamboo.
Only the three girls noticed what happened next. Everyone else’s eyes had been drawn to Kasumi. The fan’s breeze had caught her long hair, and, for a moment, she looked like a witch child flying with her hair streaming behind her.
(1/2 Continued)
#MicroFiction #TootFic #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#LightNovel #Manga #Fantasy #SliceOfLife #Yuri
#KobayashisDragonMaid #DragonMaid #小林さんちのメイドラゴン
#UraPi #裏世界ピクニック #Tanabata #七夕 #たなばた -
The #Case of Beach Terrors
#OthersidePicnic X #MissKobayashisDragonMaid #FanFiction
#WSS366 #MastoPrompt 7/4
“Wow, look at the sand.” Riko was pointing at the beach in front of the three friends: Kanna, Riko, and Kasumi. “And look.” She ran forward and picked up a broken sand dollar.
Kanna smiled. Beaches were nothing new to her, but seeing her friend excited pleased her. On the other hand, she was worried about Kasumi, who had stuck a tentative toe in the sand. “Are you okay, Kasumi-san?” she asked.
“It’s fine. Nothing bad is going to happen,” Kanna said. She didn’t know what Kasumi was, but she figured her friend was also from another universe, one where a beach was a danger zone.
Riko had run ahead, so Kasumi didn’t have to be careful of what she said. It was tough cutting and splicing phrases to communicate. So she just pulled a quote from memory: “On a scale of ‘weird dog’ to ‘entity that erases time,’ how dangerous are we talking?”
“Fluffy cute puppy—come on.” She grabbed Kasumi’s hand and led the still hesitant but reassured Kasumi out onto the beach.
Riko, meanwhile, had found a pile of seaweed and was poking through it. Kasumi pointed at her and stitched together a new quote. “It won’t turn into a weird dog and eat her?” It was clumsy, and she could have done better, but Kanna understood.
“No, it’s normal seaweed. Things don’t turn into other things here.”
“Okay, shoot it if it does.”
Kanna bent down and picked up a sand crab from #under a piece of driftwood where it was hiding.
“Kasumi shrieked, trying to hide behind Kanna. ‘No, no, no, it’s turning weird!’”
Kanna glanced over her shoulder, then, making sure Riko wasn’t watching, bit into the crab. “See, if it turns, I’ll eat it.”
“You ate that. Do you have a third stomach?”
Kanna glanced at Riko and said in a low voice so only Kasumi heard, “I’m not from this world either. Let it be our little secret.”
Kasumi nodded. “Accomplices.”
#MicroFiction #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#LightNovel #Manga #Fantasy #SliceOfLife #Yuri
#KobayashisDragonMaid #DragonMaid #小林さんちのメイドラゴン
#UraPi #裏世界ピクニック -
#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