#TimeTravelingGhost EP 9: Post 91: 1912 Titanic 2 of 2

#Wss366 Lean #TimeTravelAuthors 04/11. Point

[Continued from previous post]

I put down the first letter, picked up the second, and began reading it.

Today, I visited Dr. Faust to clarify some #points about time-travel.

I’m glad I don’t live in the Middle Ages. It was smelly and uncomfortable-looking. I wouldn’t eat anything there.

The doctor appeared only mildly surprised by my visit and proposed a question exchange, which I agreed to.

• Who or what are the ICE-Nine rabbits? He responded, “I don’t know what ICE-Nine is, but the rabbits are God’s guardians of time.” He seemed serious, though I doubted his answer. It’s more likely that they’re demonic agents. For heaven’s sake, according to that newspaper, they tortured and assassinated me.

• Have you ever tried to change history? He answered, “Unsuccessfully. I’ve tried saving my lover, Marguerite, several times, but to no avail. It takes something big to alter history.”

• Legend has it you sold your soul to Satan. What really happened? He laughed. “The devil, God—are they not the same? I have torn my soul loose from the world, but I have not sold it. I have sworn allegiance to the Illuminated Ones, and they have promised me knowledge beyond my wildest dreams. No matter what history says, I am not wrong. You should do the same before God’s wrath falls upon you.”

I stopped again. “I’m Glad we didn’t visit Faust. It sounds like he’s one of the bad guys.”

Emily waved her hand for me to continue.

There was a knock at the door just then, and my host said, “There they are now. You should leave or be prepared to swear an oath to them. God’s emissaries will show you mercy.”

I did the former. No good could come of dealing with the Illuminated Ones.

“That’s it,” I said, putting the letters down. “I guess we’ll never know how or why they murdered me.”

“Not the details, but I think you got into the soup visiting Faust. Let’s not make the same mistake.”

That was one major option out, so I suggested an alternative. “Given what has worked, I bet it’s possible to visit an opponent of the rabbits.”

“And end up meeting one of those prehistoric monsters we saw in the mural. Bad idea.”

“I wonder if saying ‘meet an ally’ would work better?”

“Might. I #lean in favor of that. But before we decide our next move, let’s get dressed and explore the ship.”

#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic #TimeTravel #HistoricalFantasy #UrbanFantasy #Mythpunk #Serial #Slowburn #Yuri

#TimeTravelingGhost EP 9: Post 91: 1912 #Titanic 1 of 2

#Wss366 Lean #TimeTravelAuthors 04/11. Point

Emily nodded in response to my question, so I began reading the first letter.

This was my first trip, so I started conservatively and jumped ahead a week to find the newspaper I needed for Professor Skully. However, time-pressure swept me all the way to April 2026. Things haven’t improved there. According to a student paper, there’s a war in the Middle East. ICE-Nine was running unchecked and was pepper-spraying protesters and killing opposition figures. The newspaper claimed that i9 was behind my murder.

MY MURDER!!!

Why didn’t you guys warn me about that? If I knew more, maybe I could avoid being killed!

I stopped reading to say, “Burned.”

“It wouldn’t have made a difference,” Emily said, shrugging. She then rolled onto her back and said, “Continue.”

I went to visit Professor Skully to learn more about my death. However, I found i9 agents in our building, accompanied by the creepiest rabbits I’d ever seen. At least you warned me about them. Rather than risk being caught, I traveled home right away.

“What do you make of that?” I asked Emily.

“You can travel into the future, but it’s unreliable. You can return to your starting #point. And that you’ve stirred up the Illuminati/Knights Templar/Lapin Cabal. Whatever we’re going to do, they want to stop it.”

“Lapin Cabal, I like that.”

“Did you notice anything else?” she asked.

“Nope, that sums it up. Oh, there was the abbreviation for ICE-Nine.”

#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic #TimeTravel #HistoricalFantasy #UrbanFantasy #Mythpunk #Serial #Slowburn #Yuri

#TimeTravelingGhost EP 9: Post 90: 1912 #Titanic

#Wss366 Fare #MastoPrompt Hesitate #TimeTravelAuthors 04/9. Will your characters admit they're wrong?

“We want to go to an unoccupied first-class cabin on the Titanic on the afternoon of April 14, 1912, unless there’ll be a disaster on board before it reaches New York. If so, take us to the Golden Spike ceremony for the linking of the two sides of the transcontinental railway.”

This wish included several experiments: 1) a very specific location; 2) a conditional; and 3) complex instructions. Theoretically, we should arrive in the American West.

That wasn’t what happened; instead, there was a ripping sensation as red lights flashed before our eyes. I gasped in pain, staggered, and braced myself against a metal wall that had appeared. We found ourselves in a white room with two single beds, a carpet, a sink, a couch, and a writing desk. The steam pipes and painted walls were far less luxurious than I had expected. Still, after the Hindenburg, it seemed spacious. The #fare for this cabin probably cost a lot, though not as much as the wood-paneled suites I had imagined.

I sank onto the couch. “So only part of that worked. That’s too bad,” I said.

Emily shrugged and flopped down on a bed. As expected, she left no impression on the white sheets.

“I need to apologize,” I said. “I wasn’t supposed to risk the rabbits spotting us.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll both feel better knowing you tried.”

I spread the letters from the cache on the couch. That was part of why I’d scared Ms. Dubois, but I was glad Emily gave me credit for having nobler intentions. In hindsight, I could have grabbed the letters and ditched the professor. I #hesitated to give myself nobler intentions.

“There are only two notes here. We’ll never know what was in the one she was carrying,” I said.

Emily shrugged.

“Shall I?” I asked, holding up the first note.

#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic #TimeTravel #HistoricalFantasy #UrbanFantasy #Mythpunk #Serial #Slowburn #Yuri

Stormy Weather (#TimeTravelingGhost Side Story)

#Wss366 #Blues / #BillieHolidaysBirthday #MastoPrompt Citadel #TimeTravelAuthors How seriously do the characters take time travel

I watched my time-traveling friends leave. It was the second time spirits had visited me. First, a visitation by my mother, and now I’d met myself accompanied by a strange, abrasive woman. They were a serious pair. If only they had shared the results of my experiments. There was information they were withholding, as ominous as Erebus’s silent #citadel.

“So, what do you think, Rindy?” I asked the papillon plushie sitting in the guest chair. My visitors had dislodged its green St. Patrick’s Day hat. I straightened it and then gave Patroclus some more rat food. While I was at it, I poured myself a second drink.

“Alexa, play some Billie Holiday. Something soft but not too sad.”

“Carelessly,” came on.

I turned the picture on the desk toward me. Ms. Sarah Lockwell smiled back. I wondered what would happen if I traveled back in time and tried to make things work with her. She was already cheating on me by the time we traveled to Ireland, so probably not much. I would just relive those desperate times again, wallowing in self-loathing while desperately refusing to give up on someone who had tossed me aside. I would have been okay with sharing her, but she didn’t want that. Nor was she brave enough to tell me to get lost, just as I hadn’t had the self-respect to give up.

“All of Me” came on and I sang along. “You took the best, why not take the rest?”

The last of my drink burned as I swallowed it in one gulp, and I poured a third.

“Sigh, guess this is it,” I said. My visitors hadn’t been very informative, but I could read between the lines. “Stormy Weather,” I announced to Rindy and Patroclus.

Alexa switched the music to that track.

I picked up the silly red sunglasses I, the future me, had left behind, opened the middle drawer, and dropped them on top of my copy of the Mad Arab’s book.

1937 HITS ARCHIVE: Carelessly - Teddy Wilson (Billie Holiday, vocal)

#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic #BillyHoliday #Jazz