Missing Poster

[aldersprig]

This was a prompt on #4thewords - Write the missing person poster for your character so strangers could find them among the millions of others out there. Sefton is obviously not actually missing, but here's his missing poster.

Missing:

Feltian of Stonwall

(born Sefton of Marshborder)

Fourth husband of Lady Taisiya of Stonewall.

Last seen in the unwilling company of the bandit team calling themselves “Ladykillers.”

Feltian is 2 meters tall, slight in build, with sand-colored hair and blue-green eyes and scales. His skin is pale with a speckled pattern below the scales and his scales run in the “short diamond” pattern, not reaching mid-back and stopping between his brows.

Reward of 200 tala and seven golden shells. Feltian has an egg at home and must be returned quickly.

Reward of 500 tala and 20 golden shells for any of the “Ladykillers” known to have laid hands on Feltian.

Comments

[lemon_badgeress]

That says really interesting things about what men are worth vs women's reputations/'face'

[aldersprig]

good! I was hoping that would come across! :-D :-D

[lilfluff]

Yeah, just a teensy difference in the offered rewards.

Hmm, I wonder which of my characters would be best for a missing or wanted poster.

[aldersprig]

Oooh, doo it Dooooo ittttt

[sauergeek]

I wasn't sure if that was what you meant, or if there was a rather pointed reason to shut down the Ladykillers.

[aldersprig]

Might be that, too!

[clare_dragonfly]

...did not expect the scales. :D Sounds like they have scales, at least men do, in place of head hair.

Are shells a regular currency, or are they literal shells, and if so, are they from their own eggs, and if so, why are golden ones special?

[aldersprig]

Nope, they have scales AND head hair. <.<

Shells are… literal shells, I believe sea shells, of a specific type.

[clare_dragonfly]

Oh, I missed the hair.

[thnidu]

I hadn't realized that 2 meters is short for men of this people!

[aldersprig]

I wondered about that phrasing and I think I got it wrong. Slight of frame, maybe?

[kelkyag]

Perhaps "slight in build" rather than "slight in stature" would convey what you want? Slim, wirey, light-boned, thin, slender, delicate, beanpole ... depends on what exactly you're trying to convey about his looks & build.

ETA: fragile, lean, lanky ...

[aldersprig]

Slight in built is awesome, thank you!

[thnidu]

Slender?

If they run to >6' tall... mm. I can't think of a way to describe that in-universe, bc they have no contact w our species, as far as you've written, and I know you wouldn't want to jam one in.

. http://X-Clacks-Overhead.dw/GNU-Terry_Pratchett . http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/

[thnidu]

I meant to add this earlier, but stuff...

If you want to use measures, there are a few that are, or originally were, defined in terms of the human body, that are transferrable to other humanoids:

• foot, of course

• cubit, the length of the forearm from elbow to middle fingertip, about 18 inches

• fathom, "originally the span of a man's outstretched arms", now standardized at 6 feet

This would be useful mostly for measurements of things, not the people. Of course it wouldn't tell the reader the equivalent in our terms, but as I said before, as long as they and we have no contact, you couldn't do that without breaking the fourth wall.

[sauergeek]

More:

• hand, the width of the palm without the thumb, now standardized at four inches, but still written with number of fingers after the decimal point as a fraction.
  
  
• finger, the width of a finger, and still occasionally used in measuring the depth of liquor in a glass.
  
  
• pace, the heel to heel distance of two steps. Not quite the same as the others, and yet...
  

I recall reading a contemporary description of Charlemagne as being seven of his own feet high. Maybe measure Feltian in cubits?

[thnidu]

Quite right: good additions to the list for our hostess to use if she so wishes.

Quite logical, but they'd have to be his cubits, or at least cubits of his people, not ours. -- Actually, I think cubits are too large for a person's height. Almost every man's height would be three-and-a-large-fraction or four-and-a--small-fraction cubits, if their proportions are anything like ours, as they seem to be. Likelier,
imho, are cubits + hands.+ fingers