#whimsyqueen

What’s your current absolute favorite thing about your primary WIP? It can be a teeny little detail, a massive part of the plot, a character, anything. What is it, and why??

Hey, thanks for the ask!! God, even though I've only just introduced him in the first chapter, I've gathered that Dev is going to be a fun character to write mostly because of his kid-like tendencies lol

Here's what he looks like (art credit to @sizzlin-system, because it's his character!!)

What’s your current absolute favorite thing about your primary WIP? It can be a teeny little detail, a massive part of the plot, a character, anything. What is it, and why??

Thank you! :D

My main WIP is currently Like Snow on Hungry Graves, so my favourite part (of what I've written so far) is Hariye's conversation with Rusudan! It's the first time in the entire story that an unrelated adult has been genuinely concerned about Hariye and it provides the catalyst to make him escape Ketevan. Here's the main part of the conversation (warning for references to Ketevan):

In spite of his worries Hariye found himself pouring out an edited version of his story. He carefully avoided mentioning merfolk or scales. As she listened Rusudan took out the small knife again and peeled the orange, holding it against her chest with her bad hand to stop it rolling away. Her expression changed a few times from surprise to disbelief and finally to something like horror. When he finished she sat in silence for a while, watching her horse graze and chewing one of the orange segments.

"How do you know you can trust Ketevan?" she asked. "You said she keeps you safe from the pirates, but who keeps you safe from her?"

Hariye blinked. He'd never looked at the situation from that angle before. "Well… I saved her life. She's repaying me by protecting me."

Rusudan continued to look grim. "You said she told you the pirates would kidnap you or slave merchants would steal you to sell as a slave. Why? Why you specifically? What puts you in so much more danger than any other boy your age?"

He could hardly explain he was a mer, so instead he came up with, "It's because I'm a foreigner and no one knows me here."

"She brought you from your home, stops you talking to anyone else, then says you're in danger because of things she could have avoided by leaving you alone?"

…Huh. Put like that, Hariye suddenly found himself wondering about Ketevan. He forced those thoughts away. She'd never been anything but kind to him. He told Rusudan so.

She remained unconvinced. "Has she ever told you that your family are untrustworthy? That you should be afraid of other people?"

"Yes, but there's a good reason," Hariye said.

Rusudan made a gesture that suggested she was struggling not to throw her arms up in exasperation. "What reason?"

How could he say 'People would want to skin me alive if they found out what I am' without sounding insane? Or worse, revealing he was a mer to someone who might want his scales too? He couldn't. The best he managed was, "It's a good reason but I can't explain it."

The sun was sinking below the horizon. Overhead the first stars were starting to appear. The house and the meadow were in rapidly-deepening shadow. Rusudan looked around. Hariye finally realised what was odd about her eyes: one of them moved more slowly than the other and seemed to have a faint film over it.

"I have to leave now if I want to reach the river before midnight. I won't ask you to come with me -- I'm a stranger too and you have no more reason to trust me than Ketevan -- but young man, I advise you to run. Run as far away from Ketevan as you can. Go home to your parents."