Tina Writes

This might be covered in a future post, but given it’s so illegal, what pushes people to go ahead and harvest it anyway? Is it mostly chemists making it for the sake of them all, or just people out to make a buck?

As far as I can remember, I don’t think I have. I tend to decide who is going in after I at least have the basic plot down, so at that point, pretty much everyone that gets added is necessary. Sometimes they change drastically, but rarely get removed.

I know you can get it from seabirds - I wonder if other birds are similar, or if it’s just that seabirds tend to congregate enough to produce plenty of it?
Is there no *legitimate* reason to try and hide the supply chain under? (eg. How it was used as fertiliser here? Or is that still too sciency?)

March 4th – media

#AnthropomorphicNovel, today!

Ray sees a familiar story on the news during her involuntary time off.

The fact that she is already bored is probably nothing to worry about...

cw: car accident, death

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

She's a cigar-chewing ratling veteran reporter. He is a wet-behind-the-ears drow intern. Together they are going to blow this story wide open! I don't know how much I'll use these 2 reporters from the Unified Felcrown Register broadsheet but they are a fun pair at least for this vignette.
#WIPSnips

I do sort of wonder if they turned aggressive because people keep *stealing their honey*. 😅 They don’t particularly sound like the sort of domesticated bees that would just allow you to take it, even if they were just scavengers…

Hi, they do use it for all sorts, but not so much decorative things like jewellery. They can, but they tend to use more expensive/rare metals for that. Think of maraan and zoraan like the fae equivalent to steel, since iron is both rare and toxic to them.

Yes, I remember. Cloak appreciation club 😁

I…don’t really know enough about geology to say how rocks are formed. I’m going to hand-wave and say slow cooling of magma leads to separation/crystallisation of the metal-rich minerals from the surrounding host rock. If anyone knows more about geology, let me know if I’m way off.

Light and Dark fae both have quarries for it throughout their territories, though the rock from some areas contains a far higher proportions and purity of metal than others. The ore from certain quarries are highly prized, while the stone from others are just quarried for building material.

Bothiir is fairly common across much of Fae, with substantial chunks of Fae geography being situated on top of the stuff. There’s even entire mountain ranges composed mostly of it.

Bothiir is a black rock with flecks and veins that sparkle in the light. The sparkles are the metal ore in the rock.
Think like how some granite sparkles in the sun, then make it black and turn up the sparkliness to 100. Or perhaps like how galena (lead ore) shines if the sun catches it.

It can be found in another far rarer type of ore, known as aethiir, but there it tends to be an impure/dirty side product of silver extraction.

Does this metal have its own name in common fae yet? No 😅 I’m working on it.
But that doesn’t matter today as we’re talking about the ore, bothiir.

#Marchistics

Maraan and zoraan might be quite different, but they both have the same metal make up a substantial majority of the alloy, with the other added metals contributing to the difference in properties.
Across most of fae, this metal is extracted from a sparky black ore known as bothiir.

Haha. Yes, Taengi likes her food. However, the concept of stopping at a supermarket on the way is completely foreign to her.

The majority of fae don’t have magic, but I can totally see some blacksmith with mage powers making pretty, colourful swords out in the back end of nowhere just for the joy of it, and fae coming from all around just to buy their work.

#WIPSnips - I don’t have “media”, but I do have a snip of Andrew and his newspaper from book 3 of the Changelings trilogy.

#WIPSnips | media

Unsurprisingly don't have that word specifically, but here's Archer buying a newspaper (and helping out a newsie while he's about it)

( saranadosfiction.com/2018/09/04/a... )

Alvath wears simple clothing - often a well-worn shirt, and trousers/pantaloons. He does like a good sturdy cloak though and is wearing a black hooded one at various points in the story.

Mòrag is usually dressed in long, green, silk velvet dresses and gold accessories. Is this practical? No, but she does it for the look.

Will - he’s often using forms incompatible with human clothing, so when George sees him, he’s often wearing nothing. If he does, it’s scavenged and usually basic.

In terms of the people causing issues for George:
Glaucus primarily wears a kilt because he’s a merman and trousers/breeches do not work with a tail when he’s in the water. Usually a linen shirt with embroidery around the neck, and silver jewellery (notably a fancy brooch makes for a plot point).

What do they do with the smaller shards? Do they have to be a certain size to be usable, or are the tiny pieces still useful?

It is kind of fun. Challenging, especially figuring out how some base words relate to other more complex ones, but fun. 😊

If they can get hold of it. The main production plants for the best ingots for weapons are owned by a couple of big merchant families, who keep their exact proportions a secret, and only sell to their own territory. But it is a lucrative trade option for travellers to buy/sell on their way.

*whispers quietly about the main metal in the alloy being based on titanium* 🤐

Ahem. So yes, possibly 😁 Though this is more likely to be developed in the neutral territories, who get creative by necessity.
Do I know how that would work in place without electricity? No. Willing to handwave magic…

I want to finished the first draft of my current WIP. Then ideally, catch up on some of the TBR pile

Thanks. I hope I do the concept justice for you. 😊
I have a couple WIPs (a standalone, and a trilogy) based out of the same world/concepts.

I don’t think I’ve read Moorchild - I’ll need to add it to the TBR list!

Joining in the brainstorming here, but I’m imagining you could do something a bit like how dorodango are made nice and round using the rim of a jar - some similarly round but much more grindy thing that gets moved around it to grind down all the high spots?

Do most “regular” corpses get sold to the droveway (because it might be a waste otherwise?) or do they have to have been fit and healthy too? I could see the argument for not wanting something dead via certain means.

I’m fascinated by this process. So am I understanding right that the sand-like bloom is melted down, and then cast, or is it heated up in the mould?