Writing with the Writing Claw

A yinrih's writing claw is shaped like the nib of a fountain pen, and acts more or less like one as well. However, while a fountain pen uses capillary action and gravity to cause a “controlled leak” to produce ink flow, a yinrih has voluntary control over the muscles in the ink sac. By contracting these muscles, and by gently pressing the tip of the claw against a writing surface, ink can flow out. This mechanism allows the writing claw to work in microgravity as well as planetside.

The Commonthroat word <FnA> (long low strong growl, chuff, long low weak whine) literally means “no ink” or “inkless” and is used like the English word “nerd”. The idea is that nerds write a lot, and are thus constantly running out of their own ink. Since a yinrih's ink is a bodily fluid, it takes time to replenish itself.

The script is written from right to left. Yinrih are predominantly left-handed, especially when it comes to writing, although they have ink sacs in both forepaws.

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Someone is inevitably going to ask how I did this blind. I have a magnifier attached to a monitor. I don't normally write by hand anymore, but this project has made me research fountain pens. I got some cheap calligraphy pens and a bottle of “blue-black” ink off of Amazon to do this. I was going to go the extra mile and add some scent to make it smell like petrichor, but the bottle of oil that advertised itself as smelling like rain ended up smelling like a generic air freshener. Maybe I should just buy pure geosmin instead. It'll just smell like dirt but that's closer to petrichor than the other stuff.