#TimeTravelAuthors 06/01 Dreams in your stories – Now I have.
#TimeTravelingGhost Part 9

The boy looked at Ghost. “I had a dream, sir. If it ain’t too silly to say so.”

“There was a man in black, like one of those mimes in Piccadilly, only black, not white. I even know his name, bless me. It was on his chest, proud as a toff with his misses. ‘Quasi Temporal,’ it said. I remember quite distinctly.”

“He handed me a box, square, warm… Oh, but the smell, like all the food vendors had piled their food in your lap, so fine it made my mouth hurt. When I opened it, there was a great round of bread inside, all covered with cheese. Cheese all melty and shining, like the sun on a morning like this.”

The boy stopped and pointed at the sun, which had just peeked through the buildings across the street.

“Sir, the taste. It was the best thing I’ve ever eaten. I was quite the pig. I ate the whole thing, every crumb, sir. A mouse couldn’t have found a bit to eat. I know I shouldn’t have, not all at once, but I couldn’t help myself.”

“And then, I said, very soft-like, not wanting to be rude, ‘Please, sir, may I have more?’”

The boy’s eyes got wide with wonder and excitement. “And he gave me more. A stack of them, like plates at a feast.”

“And just when I thought I ought to say a proper thank you, he vanished like chimney smoke.”

This time, the boy pointed to the coal smoke rising from the houses.

“And he says, ‘Anytime Time Traveling Pizza,’ just like that. I don’t know what it meant, but I wish he were real.”

“Then I wake up, so hungry and not anything to eat except my shoes and dust under the bed. You mentioned food, sir. Could we go? I’ll be like at church and make no more noise than a mouse. Please, sir.”

“Boo, hoo, creeek, hoo” Jeckle cried.

Ghost floated up and held out her hand. “Sure, let’s go, little sir.”

#MicroFiction #NMPrompts #NMTTA #CharlesDickens #pastiche #DavidCopperfield #HeckleAndJeckle #Pizza
@QuasiTemporal

#TimeTravelAuthors 06/01 Tell us about your story
#TimeTravelingGhost Part 8

Ghost drifted out of Scrooge’s house, where she hadn’t felt welcome, and sat on the steps in the grim pre-dawn light. As the light grew stronger, a ragged, dirty boy sat down beside her. Silence stretched between them until the boy tentatively began talking.

“Sir—if you please, sir—are you quite deceased?” the boy inquired, tugging his threadbare cap.

“Yeah, it sucks.”

“If it wouldn’t trouble you greatly, sir, I should like to hear your story. I expect I shall be dead soon myself, what with the hunger and all.”

“Sure. Then I’ll take you someplace where there’s food—Bob Cratchit’s house.”

There’s an author who writes silly things, and she wanted to write a story for a prompt (#WSS366). #HEAVEN knows why! So, she made a “Lass” who... (Let me cut that short.) Anyway, she killed the Lass most cruelly. Then she found another prompt for time travel stories (#TimeTravelAuthors) and had the Lass summon me. I think I’m a kind of ghost, but not really. (Frankly, it makes little sense.) The ghost can time travel and is named “Time Traveling Ghost.” (That’s me.) “Ghost,” for short. Only Author (that’s her name in the story) hasn’t told Ghost how to time travel. All Ghost wants is to get revenge on the people who killed Lass (Poe and Time Manager—TM for short). The—

The boy raised a hand. “You believe the strangest things, sir,” said the boy, wide-eyed. “But I dare say the world is full of such strangeness, if only one’s stomach weren’t growling too loud to hear it.”

Jeckle, who perched below them on Scrooge’s steps, added, “She sure does, don’t she, Boy? Let’s EAT!”

Heckle, sitting next to Jeckle, screeched, “Chow down. Chow down. Get yer feed bag!”

#MicroFiction #NMPrompts #NMTTA #AChristmasCarol #CharlesDickens #pastiche #DavidCopperfield #HeckleAndJeckle #Crow #Corvid #Plushies @ShadowPlay @plush_bot

#TimeTravelAuthors May 31 Author choice
#TimeTravelingGhost Part 7 (Long)

The word “Goodbye” resounded like a pen’s ultimate declaration, and Ghost found herself in a dark room smelling of mildew. In front of her was a moth-eaten four-poster bed with a figure struggling to arise.

“Have you come to call upon me as well?” inquired the figure, an old gentleman whose nightgown hung on him like a shroud, his cap askew, and blankets heaped around him. “I assure you, good spirit, I am a reformed soul. Pray, tell me, who are you?”

“Time Traveling Ghost, and who might you be?” Ghost took the chance to look around. She found herself in a bedroom furnished only by the bed and a writing desk with a lone bowl, a spoon handle protruding from it. Underfoot was a threadbare carpet with an incongruous holly leaf and three red berries scattered on it.

“Ebenezer Scrooge!” came the astonished reply. “But I was given to understand — most solemnly — that there would be three spirits, and three alone. What business have you here?”

“I think it’s a joke by Author.” Ghost said, as perplexed as Scrooge at the turn of events. She cast her eyes about and spotted Heckle and Jeckle in the corner. “Damn, just my luck they would come along,” she muttered so low Scrooge couldn’t make out the words.

The elder blinked at him, befuddled. “I know not this Arthur of whom you speak, nor have I an appetite for riddles at this hour. The cock has not crowed, and come dawn I am beset by more tasks than I can bear. Go your way, sir, and take your visions with you.”

“I don’t suppose you’d spare me a farthing for a morning cup of coffee?” Ghost asked. “As you say, it’s rather early.”

“Not a farthing, nay, not a penny, ill-begotten beggar!” Scrooge cried, waving his arms as if to banish a vapour. “Begone, figment conjured by the tyrannies of undigested mustard!”

“Changed man,” Jeckle croaked, “Not.”

“Coffee? You’re a ghost,” Heckle screeched. “Hey buddy, can you spare me a dime?”

Scrooge pivoted to where the voices came from. “And what ill-begotten jesters are these? Vile emanations of prunes left too long to stew. Begone, thou late-born fragment of muddled sleep! Coffee indeed! Brazen haunt, seek you an almshouse, not my abode.” And with that, he dove under the covers.

#MicroFiction #NMPrompts #NMTTA
#AChristmasCarol #CharlesDickens #pastiche
#HeckleAndJeckle

Love this! My favorite part was:

“Crarrk, Cawwk, boo, hiss.” #HeckleAndJeckle screamed as they threw food at the girls and random bystanders.

Thank you for sharing, @NaraMoore !

#TimeTravelAuthors May 29 How much violence in your story?
#TimeTravelingGhost Part 6

“I pity the GochiUsa girls,” Ghost said. “It’s like having bratty little brothers.”

“Who you pitying?” Jeckle said.

“Yeah, it’s like having snotty big sisters!” Heckle said.

“I love being a big sister. You can count on your onee-san,” Hoto Cocoa said.

“Crarrk, Cawwk, boo, hiss.” #HeckleAndJeckle screamed as they threw food at the girls and random bystanders.

“This is as violent as this story gets,” Author said.

“No, no, no. You need to hurt Poe and TM,” Ghost pleaded.

“We’ll see,” Author said.

“For a time-traveling ghost, you’ve been here a long time. – Charles Dickens, 1843.”

“What?”

“Goodbye.”

Puff

#MicroFiction #NMPrompts #NMTTA #Drabble
#IsTheOrderARabbit #ご注文はうさぎですか? #GochiUsa #ごちうさ
#Plushies #SpyXFamily
@ShadowPlay @plush_bot

#TimeTravelAuthors May 27 Siblings in your story?
#TimeTravelingGhost Part 5

The crow twins peeked at the day’s TimeTravelAuthors prompt and asked, “Is a qubling, someone who quibbles?”

Jeckle said. “We never quibble!”

“No, we’re the image of polite crows. Nothing like ravens or rooks,” Heckle amended.

“Are they always like this?” Ghost asked.

“Pretty much, unless they’re throwing food at the GochiUsa girls.” Author answered.

“It means you’re brothers or sisters,” Author corrected them #plushies.

“We knew that! Just testing you,” Jeckle said.

“We thought we were first cousins, but Mom said we we're twins,” Heckle said.

“Not to quibble...” Heckle started.

                        “...we’re siblings,” Jeckle finished.

“Tada,” they said together.

#MicroFiction #NMPrompts #Drabble #NMTTA #SliceOfLife
#HeckleAndJeckle #Crows #corvids
@ShadowPlay @plush_bot

#TimeTravelAuthors 25: Historical research?
#TimeTravelingGhost Part 4

“Okay, when will you hurt them?” Ghost asked.

“I did what you ASKED.” Author pulled up her post to #wss366 5/22. “See.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“You asked me to visit them with ‘Gnarly Bad Things,’ and I did.”

“She’s a firecracker, that one,” Jeckle yelled.

“Word twister,” Heckle added.

“I didn’t mean someone named ‘Gnarly Bad Things,’ I meant hurt them,” Ghost said.

“This is a slice-of-life, sorry.”

“And where did you learn history? That’s not what the 12th century was like.”

“I don’t research. I make it up. ALL of it. My motto:”

“Garbage in, Nonsense Out!”
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Story referenced: https://sakurajima.moe/@NaraMoore/114553264860578663

Note: I research for my main-story, part of which takes place in a pseudo Heian era imperial court. But that’s no time-travel, that supernatural.

#MicroFiction #NMPrompts #Drabble #NMTTA #NMV366
#HeckleAndJeckle