In Quiggin's Market. [Solarpunk]

[madd0ct0r]

Let's play a writing game. Solarpunk setting in a night market. Describe something on the stall, someone you see or move to the next stall.
---
The night market at Quiggins was busy as ever. I swiped in with the fire warden and was acknowledged with a grunt and a nod. Three main avenues of stalls stretched in front of me, with smaller alleys between and tray peddlers wandering the crowd too. Fairylights danced along the top of most stalls and children between legs, collecting dropped rubbish for the pocketcoin exchange.
I wandered to the first stall. They were selling old phones, drill bits and something that caught my eye. Unlocked Whistler tool boxes were unusual, and I'd been fond of them since they out a few decades ago. I tapped the lid and it woke up with a little chirp, shuffling around on small treaded to face me. Once locked in, it would follow you around a worksite carrying a few kilos of tols. A scratched clear panel on its face could hold a universal slot phone to film or play messages. They could be sent into drains or unsafe structures, pull cabls through ducts or help out as slow messenger mules on sites where the gridsphere didn't reach. I tapped it again and it chipped query at me.

"Oi. You look is OK. Lock, and you buy. Savvy?"

The stall holder scowled at me but didn't say anything more. I moved on down the line of stalls, already planning to see if the Whistler was still there later. The next stall was a potter. Clay water jars, some gas fired, others merely baked in a solar furnace to give them a water proof 'fire skin glaze'. She also had drip jars, with large patches left without glaze inside and out. Bury them by the vegetables, fill with water and let osmosis slowly keep your lettuce cool and watered. Not for me though. She also had slipskin filters, clay patties mixed with tiny seeds before firing. The seeds burn away giving you a fine ceramic mesh. I'd seen great coffee made in them but I didn't have the greens to indulge in energy intensive toys just now. Pity, especially as her last line of goods were mystery jewellery moulds. Just heat in an oven, pour molten silver in the top and slam the lid with a damp towel on to press the silver through the mould. You wouldn't know what you had till you soaked the clay off to reveal your prize. Sigh. Maybe next month.

In the meantime the crowd was getting thicker. Little old ladies with glowwires in their dreadlocks elbowed past, chuntering like old lawnmowers to each other. The smell of paella was on the air from the huge turning pans at the front and the sticky smell of energy drinks rose from the mud between stalls. Behind the little old ladies walked Knighthood, a street poet and occasional councillor and lawyer. Her meaty hands slapped her sides as she walked, unable to stride because of the crowd. She pointed at me and thumbed me a nod. Her dollar coin was weak but she earnt and spent cred like any pillar of the community. An image followed the nod. Someone she was looking for. I sighed and sent a promise, spinning the image match up on the background programs of my specs. Nonone I knew but with close to 200 people within eye line i might get lucky. Still, moving somewhere quieter, away from the grannies' dirty laughter sounded like a plan. I moved past the next stall and ducked into an alley

[LadyTevar]

Pity, especially as her last line of goods were mystery jewellery moulds. Just heat in an oven, pour molten silver in the top and slam the lid with a damp towel on to press the silver through the mould. You wouldn't know what you had till you soaked the clay off to reveal your prize. Sigh. Maybe next month.

Sorry, got a beef with this, because that's not how it works. You don't press molten silver anywhere -- that gets you splattered and a "damp towel" is shit protection. You pour it slowly to let air escape out the hole, and the silver fills the cavity simply by being molten. Also, when it's cool, you don't "soak" the mold off it, you either pry the two sides of the mold open so you can reuse the mold, or you shatter the clay.

Yes, it's a little thing, but it broke me out of the scene. Also, spellcheck is your friend.

[madd0ct0r]

It was a poorly described version of this technique http://www.myheap.com/casting-molding/m ... imitstart=

As for the spell check, hopefully future versions won't be written on a phone or in such a hurry would you care to describe a stall?