#nmmp — Public Fediverse posts

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

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

#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

Paper Cranes Part 3 (A Googolplex of Cranes)

#FanFiction #IsTheOrderARabbit (#GochiUsa)
#Wss366

By the time the adults caught up with the girls, Maya was bursting with excitement. “There are thousands of them—thousands upon thousands of paper cranes! A googolplex worth.”

“What’s a googolplex?” Syaro asked Rize.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Cocoa overheard, “Ten times a googol, which is ten to the hundredth power.”

At the same time, Maya offered a simpler explanation. She swept her arms wide and said, “That’s a googolplex and a bazillion #gay-colored cranes.”

Midori’s explanation was even simpler: “It’s a lot.”

“So many definitions,” Takahiro said, looking at Midori. “I wonder what would happen if I asked for the definition of love.”

The kids hadn’t heard, having dashed ahead, and Midori missed his glance.

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

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 45: EP 4: 1937 Amelia Earhart 2 of 2

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 9/23 Anger in your story

“I suppose it’s time I told you a little about myself. I’m told I take after my grandmother, a strong-willed woman. She was Chinese and met a dashing American officer. They later married. As you’d imagine, that caused quite a scandal. Not that anyone in the family talks about it.”

“I avoided marriage by becoming a stringer for the Arkham Daily Star. I think Grandma would have approved. My family didn’t.”

“It sounds like you admire her. Did you ever meet her?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I wish I had.”

Emily picked up a shell and tossed it into the water. “Anyway, about me. In 1927, I was in Shanghai when Chiang Kai-shek purged the Communists. It was the right time and place for me, though not for the thousands who were slaughtered. The streets literally ran red. I survived and sent dispatches home. That’s when the service recruited me.”

Her voice grew quieter. “I also witnessed what happened to the Bonus Army when we fired on our own veterans. I’ve seen it all and have no love for it.” [Note 2] [Note 3]

She finished simply: “I love my country, but not war and violence.”

“Thank you,” I said, starting down the beach again. I wondered how we matched up. She was a tough lady. From what I could tell, I’d been a professor who enjoyed food, alcohol, and esoteric studies. The image I had of myself was a soft spinster type. She wanted to save the universe, and I just wanted to gadfly around.

I wasn’t one for self-flagellation, so I set those thoughts aside. “Let’s look for Amelia,” I said.

“I agree.” If I read Emily’s tone correctly, she was glad to leave the subject behind.

[Note 2] The Bonus Army
[Note 3] Shanghai Massacre (1927)

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

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 45: EP 4: 1937 Amelia Earhart 1 of 2

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 9/23 Anger in your story

Emily was facing me now. Her eyes shone under the newly risen tropical moon. For the first time, I noticed the slight Asian cast to them, which made sense given her last name, Pang. A #mist had drifted in from the sea, casting a romantic halo around her face. “She isn’t bad-looking,” I thought, “if only there were fewer sharp edges to her personality.”

“Those lyrics sound angry,” Emily said. “But I think I understand. Like when we opened fire on the veterans in the Hoovervilles.” [Note 1]

“Yeah, it was like that. The National Guard shot students protesting a war. I have a question for you. Don’t answer if it’s none of my business, but as someone in military intelligence who’s also anti-communist, I wouldn’t expect you to be anti-militaristic.”

“That wasn’t a question,” she #pronounced, “but I’ll answer the one you meant to ask. Have you seen innocent people get shot? Or what an artillery shell can do to someone? I have.”

“Oh,” I said.

[Note 1] Hoovervilles

Continued in next post

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

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 43: EP 4: 1937 Amelia Earhart. 3 of 3

#Wss366 #TimeTravelAuthors 9/21. How sincere are your characters?

I finished the song as we rounded a shallow point. Emily took my hand, and we stopped to look out over the water. The night was peaceful. The surf, the scuttling of crabs, and the wind in the nearby brush sang a mournful refrain to the lyrics: “When will they ever learn?”

“That’s a sad song. I’ve never heard it before,” Emily said and sang a snatch, “‘Covered with flowers every one.’” Then she added, “Flanders Fields goes, ‘Loved and were loved, and now we lie, in Flanders fields.’ I hate the rest of the poem.”

A fish splashed out in the water.

Emily continued. “I used to believe that at least they were at peace. The guns were silent, and treaties were inked. I thought, ‘We’re done with war, and they can rest.’ But here we are, ghosts. You’re from the future, singing another sad song about the needless dying. The guns don’t stay silent long, do they?”

“No, they don’t,” I said. “Nor the sound of jackboots. ‘Gotta get down to it. Soldiers are gunning us down.’ That’s from another song—the rabbits scare me.” [Note 3]

Note 3: Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

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

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 43: EP 4: 1937 Amelia Earhart. 2 of 3

#Wss366 #TimeTravelAuthors 9/21. Characters’ sincerity?

In front of us rose a dense wall of low, tangled scrub, and beyond that, the jagged silhouette of tall trees loomed against the night sky. I could identify palm trees among them. A cool breeze blew off the ocean, along with the steady drum of the surf. Out of the wind, the night was warm and humid. The air smelled of salt, leaf mold, and something faintly acrid.

“Heinr… Henrietta—Bijou?” She faltered and then asked, “What should I call you? That professor called you Henrietta something-or-other, but that’s not the name you gave me.”

“Mademoiselle Henrietta Dubois is dead, and I don’t even remember what her life was like. But Henrietta is easier than Luminelle. So, Henrietta Bijou will do.”

“Should I call you Hetty or Retta? What would you like?”

“Bijou. It’s easy, and what you’ve been calling me.”

“Okay, Bijou… Do you think there are timeparticles where there was no Great War and another war with Germany fizzles out?”

“It’s possible. If there are other time-travelers, it’s something they might want to do. Then again, maybe not. I’m guessing there’re forces working against that. Someone or something ransacked my office and murdered me.”

“Rabbits?”

“That seems like a good guess.”

“It never stops, does it, Bijou? We just keep doing it over and over.”

I changed the subject. Not to be a #jerk, but the conversation stirred up the shadows of uncomfortable memories and feelings. “I think I know where we are. Not the name, but the historical event. Let’s go find Amelia.”

I turned and walked down the beach. I found myself singing.

          Where have all the flowers gone?
          Long time passing.
          …
          Gone for soldiers, every one.
          …
          When will they ever learn?
          When will they ever learn? [Note 2]

Note 2: Where have all the flowers gone -The Kingston Trio

Part 3 continues in the next post.

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

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 43: EP 4: 1937 Amelia Earhart. 1 of 3

#Wss366 #TimeTravelAuthors 9/21. Characters’ sincerity? (Judge for yourself)

First came the shock of water lapping around my knees, followed by the roar of the surf filling my ears. Only later did I notice the briny odor and the bright, clear stars overhead.

“Where are we?” Emily asked as we waded up onto a beach of coral sand.

“Meeting Amelia Earhart. I’m not sure where or when. I didn’t have time to consider our destination. Sorry for not consulting you.”

“It’s all right. I have to reflect on your conversation back there. There doesn’t seem much point in changing history if it only affects…” Her voice trailed off as she searched for a word.

“A timeparticle,” I supplied.

“Right. What’s the point if it only affects a single timeparticle?”

“Guess it’s like being a doctor. You can only save one life at a time.” I wondered why I was arguing. I hadn’t been keen on changing time to begin with.

“Like a combat surgeon. As the poem says, ‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow.’” [Note 1]

“I suppose,” I said, looking around.

Note 1: Flanders Fields

Part 2 continues in the next post.

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

#TheMoonsHindMostWound.

3. The Hind Most Wound

#FanFiction #TheApothecaryDiaries
#wss366 #MastoPrompt

The Moon Prince lay under thick blankets, head #cushioned on a rolled-up cloak. Even from afar, Mao could make out his sickly green pallor, his labored breathing, and his slack skin. A lone woman was watching him silently from the corner.

“I’ll need hot water,” she said. The room was now her territory. Short of a high noble, no one would question her here. “Be sure it’s boiled, and have someone with clean hands do it. Not ‘Filthy Hands’ out there. Also, bring the finest clean cloth you can, and plenty of it. I can use coarse cloth or cotton batting for some of it. I have alcohol, but I may need more. Get the strongest you can find. No one’s private stash is exempt.”

“I’ll get right to it,” Basen said, but instead of leaving, he #snapped his fingers at the young woman in the corner. Mao frowned. The girl had been watching, sharp-eyed despite her silence. Snapping was wasteful noise, like shouting orders at a wall. Still, the woman neither flinched nor looked away. That steadiness was more interesting to Mao than Basen’s brusqueness.

“Meiling (美玲),” Basen continued. “You’ll help Maomao. Do whatever she asks! Anything!” He turned to Mao. “You can trust her. She’s reliable and knows about the Moon’s lotus mark. There’s just one thing: she can’t talk. It was deemed most suitable for someone who would serve the Moon Prince so closely.”

Meiling, “Beautiful Tinkling Jade,” Mao thought, an ironic name for a mute. Then, she turned to Jinshi.

The first thing she noticed when she removed the blankets was the bandage on the prince’s flank. Seepage stained the freshly applied cloth greenish-yellow.

As she removed the bandage, she asked, “Did you apply this?”

She glanced back and saw the girl nod.

Mao pointed to the stains. “Any change?”

The girl motioned, indicating less.

“Is he more or less active? Moaning? Rolling? Anything?”

Again, Meiling slowly brought her hands together.

“Less? That’s serious,” Mao said.

Mao returned her attention to the patient. The flesh around the wound was white. When she pressed on the tissue, she found it hard. Thin, yellowish-green fluid oozed from the wound. Mao sniffed it and wrinkled her nose. She pressed again harder noting the lack of reaction by the Prince. As she had suspected, the poisoning was quite advanced.

“Dispose of this bandage where no one will find it,” Mao ordered the woman. “Then get Basen. I have more questions. You can take his place in gathering my items. I’ll send for you as soon as I can.”

Continued next week in Detective MoaMoon 探偵猫月

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#ApothecaryDiaries

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 42f: EP 3: 2025 Miskatonic University

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 9/19. Any references to other time travel works in your story? — No

Still puzzled, Skully opened the drawer and pulled out a local newspaper. The front cover announced, “The Pendulum Murder,” and underneath, “Another Spooky U Mystery.”

He rapidly closed the drawer. “From the day after you were discovered. Nothing futuristic about it.”

“About time-travel?” I nudged.

“Right, let’s see. You said, ‘Most people picture time as a single immutable line. My theory—and by that I mean your theory—is that time is closer to a high-pressure stream of water. All of time exists at once, and time-pressure keeps each contemporary timeparticle identical.’”

He took a breath, and I thought, “He has an excellent memory.”

He continued quoting me verbatim. “A small deviation in a timeline is easily corrected. For example, the rat I brought you. When I put it back into its cage, our timeline will be virtually identical to one where the rat wasn’t sent back in time. Even major changes may be smoothed over. If a large change remains uncorrected, that timeparticle flies out of the timestream, like a water droplet or minor spray.”

“Frankly,” he finished. “I thought all your drinking had #fried your brains.”

Emily called from the door, “Someone is coming.”

“Thank you, Professor Skully,” I said. “I suggest you forget this conversation, or you may wind up dead. There appear to be other time-travelers, and they don’t want to share their secret. Oh, and also, I was just a confused student and have left.”

“Wait,” he began, but I had already taken Emily’s hand.

“Best if I’m not seen here.” I didn’t add, “Especially if they’re #enamored with our rabbits.”

Judging by the loud voices down the hall, we would soon have visitors. We had to go now, and Amelia Earhart was who I thought of first.

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

Confession of a Yandere (ヤンデレ彼女の 白状)

Love’s Paper Crane 愛の折り鶴

#RegardingSaekiSayaka #FanFiction (#BloomIntoYou)

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt

The four women sat in silence, pondering what had happened. Arisu and Touko seemed to have finally found a place of mutual acceptance, while Yuu and Saeki were trying to follow their logic. Even if the encounter between Arisu and Touko had been #unplanned, it had been an unforeseen boon.

Sarasa-san arrived with their order. “I hope it’s not cold,” she said, setting the tray down. “You were all having such an intense conversation, I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“You see those two girls over there?” Arisu nodded toward Haru and her date. “Take this,” she said, handing Sarasa-san some money. “Bring them a pastry and cover their bill. If they ask who it’s from, say, ‘Someone who wishes to make amends quietly.’” She thought for a moment and then #called after Sarasa. “Oh, and give the athletic one this.” Arisu handed her a paper crane. “Tell her it's for luck in love.”

“I can do that. Enjoy your tea. And if you’re planning on watching the fireworks, there’s a little shrine at the end of the mall. Not many people know about it, but the view’s amazing.”

Conclusion

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP #Yuri #Yandere #Manga #Anime #LightNovel #Romance #Romancelandia #FanFic

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 41e: EP 3: 2025 Miskatonic University

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 9/17. Wednesday snippet (optional word: strange)

Skully gave me a dubious look. I supposed the situation was #uncanny, but I had nailed it when I said this was the Metaphysical Research Building. One should expect the #bizarre.

Clearing his throat, he began. “You were studying parallel universes and time-travel. All semester, you’ve been saying you were on the verge of a breakthrough.”

“Three weeks ago, you showed up with a rat dyed pink, claiming it was from the future. I was skeptical, so you promised to deliver next week’s newspaper. I joked, ‘Next week’s laundry #list would do.’”

“The following day, you took a vacation. Events #crowded in after that. The day after you left, someone ransacked your lab and burned your notes. That evening, police found your body cut in half in two different cemeteries. It was quite the scandal.”

“Did you find the newspaper?” I asked.

He reached for a desk drawer. “It was rather gruesome…” He stopped, his eyebrows knit in puzzlement. “No, I don’t remember any newspaper.”

“Time-pressure,” I thought. The paper or the memory of it would destabilize this timeline. That I knew about time-pressure, AKA time-stability, showed that I understood more about time-travel than I realized. From what the professor had said, that made sense. Time-travel had been my area of research. It was just a matter of stimulating that knowledge to resurface.

“There must be time-wardens or something that disposed of me,” I said, swallowing the word “rabbits.” I sounded #crazy enough already.

“Go on, tell me about time-travel itself,” I said.

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

#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

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 40d: EP 3: 2025 Miskatonic University

#Wss366 #TimeTravelAuthors 9/15. Any miracles?

I’d known it would come to this. Words wouldn’t be enough to convince Skully.

“Watch,” I said, pressing my fingers against the top of his desk. At first, the desk was solid and resisted me. Then my hand sank as though through #bog mud and every bit as unpleasant. When I pulled my hand out, I was holding a handful of pencils and pens from inside the drawer.

“That wasn’t a miracle,” I said. I had no idea whether it was occult or scientific, but I knew no divine intervention was involved. I was neither a saint, demon, nor bodhisattva.

“It’s a trick. Do it again!”

“No, it’s hard work. You said I died, and here I am. I just dematerialized my hand and pulled stuff out of your drawer. For heaven’s sake, this is the Metaphysical Research Building. You can’t get any more metaphysical than a spirit.”

Skully stared at me for a full minute before finally saying, “Okay, you’re a ghost. Why are you visiting me?”

I resisted the urge to say that I was the Ghost of Christmas Past. This wasn’t the time for one of my corny jokes. Remaining serious, I said, “I need you to tell me about time-travel.”

“What? You’re the expert on that. I only know what you told me.”

“Then repeat that.”

“Wait a second,” I said, holding up my hand. “I want my partner to hear this. Don’t worry, she won’t bother you. It’s as hard for her to materialize as it is for me to do the reverse.”

I politely ignored Skully’s open-mouthed stare and cracked the door so Emily could listen.

That done, I said, “Okay, I’m ready now.”

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

Jack

#Wss366 #MicroPrompt 9/13

          Jack, Jack, come out and play!
          The sun may shine another day.

The children's song rang hollow in Jack's ears, wilted cabbage leaves that had started to slide down the side of his face.

Whirling faster and faster, the children danced around him, till someone's hand slipped, sending them all flying helter-skelter across the muddy schoolyard.

Jack's smile wobbled and then slumped as he watched yesterday's friends laughing, the oldest helping the little one up, dabbing their tears with handkerchiefs made from gingham flour #bags.

Miss Dupont watched, imagining the lectures on staying clean that the mud-spattered girls would receive that evening. Recess was over, so she rang her bell.

"Jack's gone all #melty," said Becky Layette, the eldest. Soon she would be Becky Poindexter and have young ones of her own. She was the girl who had presented Jack with two bright, shiny brass-button eyes. Now, only one eye remained, staring at the spring thaw sun.

She gave him a push, and he was no more.

#SliceOfLife #MicroFiction #TootFic #NMPrompts #NMMP #NMV366

Confession of a Yandere (ヤンデレ彼女の 白状)

Touko and Arisu

#RegardingSaekiSayaka #FanFiction (#BloomIntoYou)

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt

Touko thought the question over, giving it the consideration it and Arisu deserved. “What would I do if Yuu seemed interested in someone else?” she muttered.

“I’d talk to Yuu, and if she said she preferred the other person, I’d be content as long as she’s happy… But I’d feel awful.”

Arisu stared. “You would? You’d give her up without a fight?”

“…Yes. I wouldn’t fight it. I’ve spent too long taking advantage of Yuu’s feelings. Saeki’s too. But I don’t want to be that kind of person anymore. If Yuu… if she changed how she felt, then that would be her choice. I wouldn’t stand in the way.”

Yuu silently shook her head. No way was she leaving her girlfriend.

Touko’s voice quavered. “But I never said it would be fine; it would hurt—down to my core. I’d still love her. That wouldn’t change. But I’d carry my pain quietly, for her. Better to bury myself in my career than risk hurting her.”

Arisu looked down, bit one of her knuckles, ignored the hand Saeki offered her, and then responded. “I wish I had that kind of strength. But I don’t. I’d cry, #curse, beg, and follow Saeki around like a stalker—like before. I’d shoot dirty looks at the other girl too. If someone could intimidate her that easily, they wouldn’t deserve my Sayaka. And then... I’d go. If that’s what Saeki needed, I’d have to respect it. I’m not cold like you. I couldn’t pretend it didn’t tear me up.”

“No, you’re not,” Touko laughed with genuine amusement at how different they were. “You’re passionate in a way I never was. Saeki likes that. I don’t think Yuu would, so we’re both well matched.” She paused, then continued. “Maybe that’s why I turned Sayaka-san down. She needed that kind of fierce loyalty. Yuu doesn’t. If I’m tied up in rehearsals, she quietly does her own thing or comes to the rehearsal and reads a book she keeps in her #bag. I could never have given Sayaka what she needed.”

“Arisu?” Saeki asked, seeing her girlfriend’s look of deep concentration.

She responded slowly, thinking about each word as she said it. “So it wasn’t Saeki you rejected; it’s that you were unsuitable.”

If the conversation hadn’t been so serious, either Yuu or Saeki might have laughed at that turn of logic. But Touko answered with dead seriousness, “Something like that, yes.”

“Then you’re forgiven.” Arisu’s answer was just as serious.

“Friends now?” Touko asked.

“Friends.” Arisu nodded. “And I take back that crack about your being cold.”

“Thank you, that hurt.”

Yuu and Saeki exchanged looks, then shrugged. Touko and Arisu were in a world neither of them could fathom.

5 of 6 Continued

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP #Yuri #Yandere #Manga #Anime #LightNovel #Romance #Romancelandia #FanFic

Paper Cranes Part 2 (In Praise of Hott Cocoa)

#FanFiction #IsTheOrderARabbit (#GochiUsa)
#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #MicroPrompt 9/13

Takahiro and Midori watched the girls with their eyes, smiling as they saw Maya and Megu stare at the paper cranes decorating the shop. Chino, more reserved, peeked over their shoulders.

Meanwhile, Cocoa bought the tickets and tried corralling the girls, only to be sucked into their excitement.

“They’re so happy,” Midori said, “Practically #luminous.”

“Even Chino,” Rize said, bashful at joining the adult conversation. “The shop is so much fun to work at now.”

She hurriedly added, “Not that it wasn’t before.”

“Even if you have to clean up Cocoa's messes?” Midori asked.

“It #bugs me sometimes, but even then. How could I not? She makes you smile. Even Chino is brighter now. She used to hardly ever smile.”

Takahiro nodded. “We can thank Cocoa for that. I was worried at first about letting her stay with us, but it’s been a #blessing.”

“And we’ve made lots of new friends because of her.” Rize smiled at Chiya and Syaro.

The girls smiled back.

“There’s something about her,” Chiya said. “She’s so scatterbrained, but she brings people together. It’s hard not to have fun around her.”

“Go on, you three join them,” Takahiro said. “You don’t really want to be with the stodgy adults. There’s time enough for that.”

The three girls looked at each other, then Rize nodded. She turned to the adults and said, “It’s been nice speaking with you, Takahiro-san. You too, Midori-san. But you’re right; we belong with them.”

The girls set off after their friends at a trot.

As he watched them leave, Takahiro said to Midori, “They grow up so fast.”

“Too fast, I think,” Midori added.

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

Paper Cranes Part 1

#FanFiction #IsTheOrderARabbit (#GochiUsa)
#Wss366 #MastoPrompt (8/26 Cranes, somehow this one never got posted.)

“Where are we going?” Maya asked. She was leading the other girls, bouncing more than walking.

“That’s a surprise,” Midori said, with a laugh tugging at her lips.

“Dad, where are we going?” Chino asked more quietly than the others. She held Takahiro’s hand on one side by choice, and Cocoa’s on the other at Cocoa’s insistence.

“You’ll know when we arrive,” he answered. “It was Midori’s idea, and it’s her surprise.” His smile radiated joy equal to Midori’s.

“I know,” Cocoa said. “We’re going to the park, the one with the carousel.”

“The park is the other way,” Chiya said, pointing. Her kimono sleeves caught the cool morning breeze. The green of her dress matched the summer vegetation. Next to her friends in casual dress, she looked regal.

“It’s toward the lake,” Rize said. “Perhaps we're going swimming?” Her glance strayed to Syaro. Catching her eye, she nodded thanks for teaching her to swim.

“It can’t be swimming; we didn’t bring swimsuits,” Megu said.

The two adults nodded in agreement. Instead of answering, they listened to the girls' chatter.

Syaro finally spoke. “I know where we’re going, and you should too, Chiya. We were just talking about it last night.”

“Oh, the…”

“Shush,” the adults said, almost drowned out by the chorus of “Where, where, where are we going?”

“Look! It says ‘#Crane Viewing.’” Cocoa pointed to a pastel blue banner.

“Go on, and run ahead if you want, but don’t bother anyone.” No sooner had Takahiro spoken than the younger girls began running. Chiya and Syaro continued strolling, while Rize and Cocoa decided which group to join. The former joined the “Ladylike” group, while Cocoa continued looking after Chino and the rest of ChiMaME. "I have to look after my little sister.”

Midori chuckled and said, “That's the duty of a big sister.”

Takahiro winked at Midori knowingly and said to Cocoa, “Go on, here is the money to buy tickets. We'll join you.”

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

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 39c: EP 3: 2025 Miskatonic University

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 9/13. Saturday excerpt (optional word: fire)

“As melodramatic as this sounds, listen: Your life may depend on it,” I said to Professor Skully. His face was dubious before I even started. “I need you to pretend that I’m a confused student with an assignment question. It sounds crazy... but I have no idea what you wanted us to do the other day.”

My sudden, nonsensical change of words was because I could see the rabbit standing and listening at the office window. Finished, I mouthed, “Please.”

Skully’s eyes bulged, and his hands were positively twitching. “I don’t know who you think you are, coming into my office with this poppycock, but I’ve had enough.”

I would obviously have to do some fancy dancing.

“If you give me some time, I can explain. I assure you, I thought that’s what you wanted. The equations may be garbled, but I wouldn’t submit an assignment as a joke. I need you to work with me.” I emphasized some words, trying to convey my message.

“Very well, I’ll hear you out, but no more of your poppycock about…”

I cut him off. The cat would be out of the bag if he said “rabbits.” “Of course not, Professor. I thought you would laugh at some nonsense. I didn’t know it would #bug you. You know how I like a little joke now and then.”

“Indeed, you were always a bit of a card.” His tone indicated he was being polite, and he considered me far more than a “card.”

Emily waved at the window, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“#Bless you for playing along. Things are complicated, so you’ll have to take some of this on faith. I am a ghost.” Skully opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off with a hand gesture.

“I am probably the spirit of Professor Henrietta Dubois, but I’m a little hazy on those details.”

“Okay, I’ve had enough. Whether you’re insane or a joker, the board of regents will be #firing you, tenure or no. I will see to that.”

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

#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

Minashi-by-the-Sea (The Piping that Spoke of Nyarlathotep)

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #MicroPrompt 9/7 -11

As the moon touched the hazy rim of the ocean, the Cat Who Stole Dreams indulged in one last #meal of the inn’s famed curried prawns, a #mash of almonds and sweet cream, and #distilled lime blossom liqueur. It was just a sip, enough to fend off the night's chill, no more.

Then, as the full dark of night blanketed Minashi-by-the-Sea, she donned her black, dew-spangled cape and her quietest #slippers and went out into the #late night. All was still except for the laughter of the fountains. The chorus of cicadas and revelers had long fallen silent. Not even the few unfortunates stirred by dreams of dark things said to slither from Hypnos Nor Slid’s House heard the soft footsteps of Kurotsuki.

With catlike grace, she climbed the outer walls of the High Citadel of Perpetual Petals. So lithe was her ascent that not a single petal of the trees that ringed that lofty place was disturbed, and thus the #wards that are triggered by their fall remained silent. The silent monitors, without the walls, perhaps saw a shadow flicker, but nothing more.

Thus, Kurotsuki Kaibyō reached a vantage from which she could observe the Toads of Leng cavorting and hear the fateful shrilling of the piping within the tower. The #luminous toads as they danced #round the tower #instilled no fear in her heart, yet a #current of dread set her fur to bristle, hearing the piping that spoke of Nyarlathotep, for it came from far beyond the ken of man.

Woe betide the mortal who, in a dream or drugged state, passes through the portals to that eldritch creature’s dimension. Better to face the nightgaunts or to be torn asunder by the ghouls of Pickman’s ilk than to glimpse the dwellers of that realm.

Shaken but undeterred, the queen of thieves came away that night ready to plunder the heart of Minashi-by-the-Sea.

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP #Lovecraft #LordDunsany #Pastiche #Cats #Otherkin #Catgirl #Neko

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 38b: EP 3: 2025 Miskatonic University”

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 9/11. How do you keep up urgency in your story?

I hustled Professor Skully into his office. Emily stood outside the door, keeping watch. The prevalence of fascistic rabbits, supernatural creatures, and disasters was enough to #instill a sense of urgency in my life.

“What’s going on, Professor Dubois?” Skully sputtered. It was a wonder I’d gotten him away from the rabbit without his going off. “If this is a game, the university will be most displeased. Body parts scattered in various cemeteries, your lab vandalized, and now you waltz in at the middle of the night. If I weren’t #monitoring the courtyard, who knows what you might have gotten up to.”

“I assure you, this is no game. Before I explain, I need you to answer one question: Are you in league with the rabbits?”

“Rabbits?” Skully’s eyes bulged. “What are on about? I warned you not to experiment on yourself!”

Either he was an excellent actor, or he knew nothing about our invisible rabbits.

“Well, never mind them. I just had to check.”

I held up my hands to stop him from speaking. “What I am going to tell you will sound fantastic. But I assure you it is the truth. Please, I need you to accept it and then answer some questions.”

“I’ll take your comments under advisement, but make no promises.”

“I’m a…”

My statement remained unfinished because of Emily’s warning from outside the door. “It’s coming.”

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

#TheMoonsHindMostWound

2. The Moon in a Sty 豚小屋に宿る月

#FanFiction #TheApothecaryDiaries
#wss366 #MastoPrompt

Basen and Mao passed the guards and entered the inn. The air inside was as noxious as the courtyard had been filthy. This was not a place for Jinshi. Who knew what foul toxins #distilled in this fetid environment?

Mao surveyed the room. Soldiers slept under tables while a worried innkeeper served thin millet stew to the soldiers who were still awake. Seeing the innkeeper’s filthy apron and grimy hands dashed Mao’s waning hopes of being fed. She would skip eating, hungry or not.

The smell of huangjiu and millet wine hung in the air: a sour, stale odor. The fresh smell of recently served beverages was absent. Willingly or not, the troops were sober. The captain of the guard was on top of things, keeping the troops ready for anything.

Basen led her across the floor to the cloth-covered doorway that probably led to the owner’s quarters. A shaman’s #ward against disease was crudely painted on the blanket. Mao had never noticed they did any good, but they did no harm.

Her guild stopped, waving away the two guards standing there. “The Moon Prince sustained a wound in a sensitive place,” he began in a low voice. His mouth tightened. “And for reasons you know, the royal doctors cannot treat this wound.”

Maomao didn’t need the reminder. There were things about Jinshi’s body that were best left unspoken.

“That is one reason we summoned you. You are also the best person to treat a poisoned arrow wound. I needn’t tell you that this is all secret. We are circulating the story that the prince has detoured to a small lake and is recreating there. You have called to keep him company.”

Mao wasn’t happy about being summoned to “keep Jinshi company.” The implications would make her life difficult, but she could deal with that later. She would ask them to change the story. They had wanted her either because of a rare medicinal plant or because a minor official had been poisoned. Either excuse would be better.

Entering the room, she noticed it had been hastily cleaned and a brazier lit to warm it. Jinshi lay pale and still on his travel bed.

She stopped, and the words, “This is bad,” escaped her.

#MicroFiction #TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#ApothecaryDiaries

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 37a: EP 3: 2025 Miskatonic University

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 9/9

The building at the aerodrome and the throbbing #drum of emergency vehicles faded, replaced by the trilling of crickets, the splash of a fountain, and a courtyard containing a central statue and a fountain. Night enveloped the scene in eerie shadows. Grass carpeted the courtyard, silver-gray paths threading through it in the moonlight.

“I know this place,” I said. “But I can’t put a name to it.”

“Miskatonic University, the Metaphysical Research Building.” Emily supplied a name I instantly recognized.

“It’s very familiar to me, but I don’t know why,” I said. “I can even tell whose statue that is, Dr. Armitage. That’s the building’s official name: the Henry Armitage Building.”

“I don’t think the building was called that when I wrote about it. The students’ preferred name was Hex Hall.”

Is that you, Henrietta?” A man called to us from one side. I turned and saw a gentleman with a neat goatee, long, shaggy brown hair, and suit past its prime.

Near him was a rabbit. Instead of wearing a Nazi uniform, this one had on a t-shirt with a coiled rattlesnake and the words “Don’t Tread On Me,” cargo pants, and a red cap emblazoned with the MEGA logo. The final touch was an AR-15 slung across its back.

“Why, I thought you were dead. It was quite the scandal…”

“Professor Skully,” I cut him off.

The rabbit was paying far too much attention to our conversation. I sensed it would be dangerous for the rabbit to know who I was.

“You’re mistaken.” I continued. “Let’s go somewhere private and talk. I’m struggling with the #current assignment you set us.”

I hadn’t fooled the rabbit, though. It formed a gun with its fingers and pointed it at me, taking careful aim. Then pretended to shoot me. A smile creased its lips, and then it mouthed “bang.”

It was like an electrical #current passed through me. The rabbits had a personal interest in me!

Note: TimeTravelAuthors 9/9 Tone of your story. I think this bit sums up my tone nicely: creepy, weird, with many homages, and a tongue-in-cheek flavor.

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