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Princess (Wind Head) 王女様(風頭)

Mao Rescues Mia (猫救助ミーア)

#FanFiction #TheApothecaryDiaries x #TearmoonEmpire

*** Maomao ***

The girl landed with a thump. Maomao noted the unusual, fluffy riding outfit the woman wore. “An excellent choice for a novice rider,” she said to the small #arched stems of the “Yín Yáng Huò” she was examining, its anchor-shaped leaves faintly brushing her #shin. “The question is, did the bulky outfit work?” If the woman had been hurt, helping her would be a lot of trouble; however, didn’t Mao have a duty to help her?

It was a question to consider seriously. Her father had followed his conscience, and look where that got him—the tendons removed from his knee for doing his best to save a baby of imperial birth

She sighed. As much as it pained her, helping was the right thing and probably wouldn’t have such dire consequences. Parin would have to make do with the “Raunchy Goat Medicine”—as Parin called it—the apothecary had already gathered.

Rain pattered around her, its rhythm deepening as she neared the fallen woman. The wind sighed low in the grass. If Mao had been superstitious, she would have thought it said, “You’ll be sorry.

The day had begun badly and was getting worse. First, she’d been called out on mysterious business in the country. Next, the carriage in which she had been riding had thrown a wheel, and now this woman. The rain; however, didn’t bother her. She was hoping to spot Zhu Ling, Fang Feng, or Tu Fu Ling. She preferred to dig them when the soil was soft after a rain. The last of those was always popular at her shop, a sovereign cure for men’s sores of shame.

It might be a profitable day. She had already found some Mu Tong along the road. And yes, she was sure it wasn’t Guan Mu Tong; only a novice would make that mistake.

As the young apothecary approached as the woman sat up. “Are you hurt?” she asked.

The woman paid no mind, looking after her horse. “I can’t believe a horse betrayed me.”

Why the woman wasn’t thrown more often, Mao asked herself. Considering her supine riding posture, she did not seem an experienced rider. Instead of saying that, she asked again, “Are you hurt? If not, I have herbs to gather.”

“I’m fine. But thank you for asking,” the woman replied.

Mao studied her. Her smile was innocent. She was healthy with ample flesh, a surplus even, clearly not poor. One didn’t get that weight on a poverty diet unless you were ill. Her padded clothes were unusual. She resembled a chimera: part human and part sheep. They were well-tailored and had properly protected the woman.

Well, if she was alright, Mao could get on with her herb gathering. As soon as they repaired the carriage, she would need to leave.

Part 1 of 8: To be continued.

Sequel to: "The Norns" pixiv.net/novel/series/14017710

#TootFic #Serial #NMPrompts #NMV366 #NMMP
#薬屋のひとりごと #ApothecaryDiaries
#LightNovel #Manga #Anime #Fantasy #botany #SliceOfLife

pixiv「The Norns (ノルン)」/「NaraMoore ⛩️八尺様」のシリーズ [pixiv]Lost in the woods, Mai Lune Tearmoon has rabbit stew with the Norns.
Continued thread

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 23: Episode 2: 1937: The Hindenburg Part I

#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 7/25. Jewelry and fashion in your story.

“I didn’t see any rabbits when I was alive,” Emily began. “There was no warning of a problem, just suddenly there were flames. My last wish before I blacked out was to go back and warn myself. When I came to, I was no longer on the Hindenburg; instead, I was in Frankfurt on the day I’d left.”

The first thing I tried was speaking to her in her hotel room. I remember standing in front of the door, frustrated that I didn’t have the key. I gave the door an angry shove, and to my surprise, my hand went through it. That’s when it really hit me: “I’m a ghost.”

“It’s tricky going through things, but I managed to enter the room.

“There I was, putting on a long blue…” Emily began, and I waved my hands for her to get on with it. Clothing wasn’t what I was interested in. I wanted to know about Nazi rabbits and mind-reading studies.

“Anyway, I tried talking to her, but she couldn’t hear me. I was #nagging and yelling at her by the time we reached the lobby, and that’s when I saw them. There were two rabbits dressed—the way you saw—in those awful black SS uniforms, talking to the ‘kind’ officer who had ‘volunteered’ to drive me to the aerodrome.”

“I didn’t know if they could detect me, so I made myself inconspicuous. I wasn’t getting through to her anyway.”

“All I could do was drift along above the car, following them to the Hindenburg. It felt like floating through a movie scene, #severed from reality.”

Wow, Emily is one adaptive person.” I hadn’t tried any of those things: passing through walls, floating, flying, and God knows what else.

Emily continued her story. “When we got to the aerodrome, there were two more rabbits. I don’t know if they were the same ones. They had the same black uniforms and death-head insignia. They watched me—her—board the Hindenburg. My driver nodded to a rabbit, a major, and they also boarded. I don’t know how many are on the ship, but at least three.”

“That’s the story. You saw me trying to talk to… myself. Oh, and I tried possessing myself with no luck.”

I thought I understood, despite the tangle of “I”s and “me”s. But for the future, I said, “It will be easier for both of us if you refer to your living self as ‘her’ or ‘Ms. Pang.’ And you”—I pointed at her—“as ‘I’ or ‘Emily.’ Is it all right if I call you Emily?”

She nodded.

Continued thread

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 22: Episode 2: 1937: The Hindenburg Part H

Prompts: #Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 7/23

“Let’s go look out the observation window,” I said. I needed to think about the rabbit hole I’d fallen down, a hole complete with ghosts, time travel, vampires, mind-reading, and now Nazi rabbits. Each a #symbol of how far I had fallen. And, as if that god-awful hodge-podge of impossibilities weren’t enough, I had a dozen other questions. Who or what controlled this time-travel business? Should I get involved with Ms. Pang? Would she really be a good travel companion—wait, I hadn’t stipulated “good,” only that she could be a travel partner. Folklore said wishes were tricky, more likely to bite you than befriend you.

I sighed and put the questions out of my mind. It was pointless to speculate about this time-travel business or even who I was. I had no information. The same was true for this woman. She “could” be a travel companion, and only time would reveal if I wanted her to be.

I found a spot at the window that wasn’t near anyone. Outside, #water spread as far as the eye could see. A few boats dotted the surface, but they were shrinking. “We must be rising,” I thought. Using a soft voice, I said, “Okay, tell me about the rabbits and the papers. Then I will tell you if I’ll help.”

“You’re not on their side or a communist, are you?”

“I don’t know who ‘their side’ is, but I’m not a Nazi or fascist. I don’t think I was a communist. It bothered me when you casually called Mademoiselle Baker a communist. She was a symbol of freedom, not tyranny. So I might have been a liberal. If you’re worried I’ll betray you, forget it. The worst that happens is I jet to another time and let you worry about the ship crashing.”

She nodded. I’d learn that was a habit. “I was a colonel in military intelligence, and no cracks about there being no intelligence in the military.”

That stung until I took into #account my “late for dinner” joke.

“I worked very hard to be promoted and am the highest-ranking woman in the intelligence service. My employer, the Arkham Daily Star, plays along. I was in Germany investigating some top-flight American psychologists who’d taken jobs in Heidelberg. I discovered they’d been hired for top-secret work researching mind-reading. Awful stuff, using human test subjects. It’s too gruesome to talk about—trepanning and electrodes, that sort of thing.”

I didn’t point out she was already talking about it. I was just glad she moved on.

“They must have caught on because they revoked my press card and hinted unpleasant things might happen to a nosy woman if she didn’t leave the country. I had all my notes with me, and I think that’s why they sabotaged the ship. Those papers must get to US intelligence.”

“And the rabbits?” I asked, afraid of the answer.

Sometimes, I think... I just wish there was some sort of hardware that does X Y or Z, that would make things so much simpler...

Most recently, I was wishing for a #Serial adapter with a tiny screen, and sure enough...

crowdsupply.com/excamera/termd

... someone was listening... or thinking the same thing, but with more follow-through...

Very excited!

This would be very useful for the various #LinuxPhones or my #MNTReform ... which are just quirky enough to occasionally need portable serial access.

Crowd SupplyTermDriver 2A better USB-to-serial adapter with a built-in screen
Continued thread

Now some folks may say: "Why don't you just get a regular-ass #AUI like a #NormalPerson?"

1. Simply because noone but the most tech-masochistic folks want to deal with like #coax cables, #VampireTaps, huge #MAUI boxes and rare vintage stuff + overhead to get a slow & underwhelming network experience. Pretty shure neither @ncommander nor @TechTangents would either.

2. The few late-era #10BaseT-based AUIs do exist but they are long out of production and thus quite expensive. And if you are on #10Base2 or even #10Base5 good luck finding a still working #switch that isn't sold by a #scalper like #ersazza way above #MSRP+#inflation!

3 An AUI is just an Interface port / media converter similar to #SFP & GBIC and necessitates a NIC already inside the machine.

4. AUIs are not just long outdated but also way more inflexible, whereas basically anything from an #Apple2 up to the latest #Android-#Tablet can be adapted cheaply to do #RS232 #serial and send AT commands to a #Modem.

5. Twisted-Pair Ethernet is cheap, commonplace and still supported and pretty much forwards- and backwards compatible. 10BaseT will run on Cat.3 but also on Cat.5 and even Cat.8 cables (In case one wants to hookup a vintage computer on a 40GBase-T port for no reason but to see if the switch does negotiate proper 10Base-T.

6. Because it's useful...

7. as said before: AUI port would be nice to have but not necessary...

8. it would allow Network access similar to #dialup abeit without the need for existing #PSTN infrastructure like @c3isdn has...

Continued thread

It would also be a more flexible option not just for "dumb #terminals" like a VT320 or VT525, thus desireable for a lot of #legacy / #embedded setup and allow for integrating like a #serial #console into a "Managment LAN" (which should be #airgapped!)…

  • Also an #EthernetModem would really be a cost-effective option compared to proprietary solutions, espechally when one can make a #DINrail-mounted version.

So yeah, a #LAN232 / #Ethernet232 would be kinda cool, even if it's just a #PiZero 1.3 with a USB Serial & Ethernet Chip in a case.

Continued thread

#TimeTravelingGhost Part 21: Episode 2: 1937: The Hindenburg Part G

#TimeTravelAuthors 19 Saturday excerpt (optional word: line)

Emily’s mistake was forgetting that if you say to someone “don’t look,” they, of course, will.

I slowly turned my head, as if finding a waiter to order another drink. In the lounge doorway stood a rabbit. I think of rabbits as cute, but this one was anything but cute. It was roughly the size of a twelve-year-old and wore a Nazi SS uniform. The unfastened holster revealed the grip of a Luger. After discovering I could time travel and meet a probable vampire, a Nazi rabbit shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did.

I turned back to Emily and mouthed, “Oh.”

She said, “I’ll tell you later. Watch me… The other me.”

Ms. Pang, the living one, was cheerfully talking to her friend. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the rabbit make a bee-line for her. It stopped next to her and appeared to be listening. After a minute, it turned around and left the lounge.

Once it was gone, Emily spoke again. “I don’t know what they are, but they’ve been following her ever since she got on the Hindenburg. That’s another reason we need to warn her. I was carrying some important papers that burned in the crash.”

The pronoun switch threw me briefly. It must be strange talking about yourself that way. But was easier to understand if she spoke about her live self as like another person.

“Do you want to tell me more, or is it a secret?”

“It’s a secret, but I guess I can tell you. It’s notes on the German’s research into mind-reading.”

I sighed, mind-reading. What next, alien abductions?

Tonight at 7pm US EST! CFTP continues our Wet, Hot Atlantean Summer with Chapter 6 of The Undersea Kingdom: The Juggernaut Strikes! Somehow, this serial just keeps getting dumber! Link in first comment! #MST3K #Rifftrax #riff #reaction #Atlantis #commentary #comedy #funny #scifi #adventure #robots #serial #TheUnderseaKingdom #weird #atompunk #dieselpunk youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Jan5E1Ico

I’m finally revisiting the characters from The River City Chronicles nine years after their original timeline. I’ll be running the series weekly here on my blog, and then will release it in book form at the end of the run. Hope you enjoy catching up with all your faves and all their new secrets!

Today, Diego has his own encounter with Brad… and a couple other ghosts from his past…

jscottcoatsworth.com/serial-do

#RiverVity #CircleofFriends BlogSerial #Magicalrealism #Serial