World Event: For Want of a Bloom!
— London is abuzz in the coming weeks: The Drifting Kingdom of Anther has been sighted yet again! Great clusters of Lanternfruit, each the size of an airship, drift ever closer to the southern edge of the Zee. Anther will remain for a short time before it drifts further south, to bask under the light of Stone one again. Petals of all types paint the Zee as Anther completes its lap of the Elder Continent. Fantastical stories of Anther have spread like pollen through a spring breeze - the flying kingdom’s flora is the stuff of legend, flowers immune to decay in hues that would put any Surface gardener to shame. Even salvaged petals, dried and pressed, will fetch their weight in gold in London… but more daring Londoners have taken up the duty of scaling Anther’s root covered walls to collect fresh blossoms and cuttings. It’s dangerous work, fending off killer flora, extreme altitudes, and the roaming groups of Antheri citizens who consider it a beloved national pastime to bat thieving guests off the edge of their city. Surely, this cannot be worth it, all for a few flowers…?
@violant-apologia ‘s post inspired me to write up some more details on my fan Presbyterate kingdom: Anther, the city of flowers! The floating city frequently drifts out to open waters to hydrate the massive, correspondence infused Lanternfruit that keep it aloft. During this time, Londoners love to steal some of those beautiful flowers off the city, where they’re used for dyes, poisons, academic study, and just having the best look of 99’. Anther… really doesn’t mind this as much as it should. After all, they’re just flowers. This is the equivalent of someone robbing your grandma’s garden… and chasing Londoners around for a bit of blood sport is pretty fun!
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One of my biggest nitpicks in fiction concerns the feeding of babies. Mothers dying during/shortly after childbirth or the baby being separated form the mother shortly after birth is pretty common in fiction. It is/was also common enough in real life, which is why I think a lot of writers/readers don't think too hard about this. however. Historically, the only reason the vast majority of babies survived being separated from their mother was because there was at least one other woman around to breastfeed them. Before modern formula, yes, people did use other substitutes, but they were rarely, if ever, nutritionally sufficient.
Newborns can't eat adult food. They can't really survive on animal milk. If your story takes place in a world before/without formula, a baby separated from its mother is going to either be nursed by someone else, or starve.
It doesn't have to be a huge plot point, but idk at least don't explicitly describe the situation as excluding the possibility of a wetnurse. "The father or the great grandmother or the neighbor man or the older sibling took and raised the baby completely alone in a cave for a year." Nope. That baby is dead I'm sorry. "The baby was kidnapped shortly after birth by a wizard and hidden away in a secret tower" um quick question was the wizard lactating? "The mother refused to see or touch her child after birth so the baby was left to the care of the ailing grandfather" the grandfather who made the necessary arrangements with women in the neighborhood, right? right? OR THAT GREAT OFFENDER "A newborn baby was left on the doorstep and they brought it in and took care of it no issues" What Are You Going to Feed That Baby. Hello?
Like. It's not impossible, but arrangements are going to have to be made. There are some logistics.
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On Saturday I hung out with my 84-year-old ecologist great uncle and he stopped in mid-conversation (abt the return of the whooping crane) and very seriously told me that "you can go one of two ways, as a naturalist"; either you keep sight of the hopeful possibilities, or you don't. I'm one of nature's wretched little pessimists but when an old ecologist literally holds your hands in his and tells you, "don't despair," you have to try, I feel.
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me a few years ago: its so weird how right wingers always wanna blame the "elite" given that alot of them are in the global 1% of wealth and therefore almost by definition the same "elite" they claim to hate. weird right? lol right wing logic makes no sense
me now: oh my god they mean Jewish people. its always been Jewish people. and the insistence of online leftists to use words like "elite" and "cabal" (to refer to a handful of ultra rich people who dictate a lot of how our lives are run) kinda makes them sound like antisemites too. maybe this whole idea that the world is run by a select few is a gross oversimplification which only serves to reinforce antisemitic stereotypes... oh no. maybe i have a lot of shit to unlearn. maybe i need to start vocally defending Jewish ppl. also local community building is the only way out of this
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