#PennedPossibilities 907 MC phobias or irrational fears
Given what she has gone through I am not sure any fear is irrational. Maybe something like chemtrails or nanobots.
While not phobia level, shadows and dark scare her. A nightlight isn't enough. All the lights need to be on. But again what she has witnessed makes this quite rational.
Frogs 🐸 also creep her out. They remind her of the Empress's familiar.
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)
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.
#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.
#TootFic #MicroFiction #Serial #TimeTravel #NMPrompts #NMTTA #NMV366 #NMMP #historicalfiction
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
NaraMoore ⛩️👻八尺様👻⛩️ at Fedi
