"Well, perhaps since the fall of their empire they've gotten smaller? I don't know. At any rate - giants, how bizarre. Ordinarily I'd be invoking the Square-Cube Law, but I suppose I don't know how much magic they have in their skeletons or even strictly speaking if you have the Square-Cube Law in effect - basically it says that as you get bigger you need stronger and stronger materials making up your body so you don't collapse, which is why you couldn't build a skyscraper out of clay."

"Skyscraper." He shakes his head. "Well, I don't know what their bones are made of, anyway."

"Skyscrapers! Perhaps in a few decades we'll have the technological base to build one. - actually I probably have a holo on my omni-tool, give me one moment - Milou, bring up a picture of a skyscraper."

Above Tintin's wrist appears a nighttime skyline view of Illium.

"It's a lovely place. Pity it's... Illium."

"Hmm?"

"It's one of the most dangerous places in the galaxy. Ruled by criminals and pirates, though they act like they're politicians. You can hire an assassin or buy a slave as casually as you would hire an accountant. The only thing they hold sacred is hard cash."

Taharqi wrinkles his nose. "Distasteful."

"Very much so. But beautiful, in its way. It was originally colonized by the asari, they have a way with architecture and design..."

He can talk about asari art for a while. He took a class in college on Siarist design principles, for the not-actually-called-humanities-anymore credit.

And once they are back both Horan and Raziya are asleep. Which is a terrible idea given that they didn't have anyone to watch camp, but so it goes.

Tintin forges a carbon-lattice skinning knife, then beholds the boars.

"I can probably skin these, but I think you're likely to be better at it."

"I have some experience with that, yes." He looks at the disfigured boars forlornly. "We are not likely to need their actual skin and tusks and all that, are we?"

"Not unless you have some use for them that I, being an inveterate city boy, wouldn't know."

"First use is weapons, second is grinding it to powder to make compost. Third is some rare alchemical compounds."

Horan opens one bleary eye, awoken by their noise, and yawns but stands at attention when he notices the food. Then he blinks a couple of times and says, "Joreksson."

"Weapons I can do, compost is potentially worthwhile but probably not worth lugging around fifty pounds of bonemeal for a week, alchemical compounds tell me more? -hello, Horan. Horan Joreksson? Is that your name?"

Horan nods, slowly, then tries to repeat it: "Horan Y... Eeeeee oo..." He grumbles to himself a bit then says it all at once, "Horanjoreksson."

Taharqi watches this with bemusement and shakes his head before looking at Tintin again. "I do not know of any specific alchemical compounds that use it, but I do know that there are some. I think it does not matter very much, though, we can kill other creatures for their bonemeal if we ever find ourselves in need of some for any potions."

"Yes, that's my thought as well. So, not keeping the bones, just the meat."

He nods, then starts the skinning process. It does indeed show that he has substantial experience with this, his cuts are quick and clean and precise and he seems to know by rote what to do, where, when, and how.

And Tintin will set up a firepit, which is something he does know how to do (Taharqi's universal competence has been making him feel like a bit of a tourist). He lights it with his omni-tool, and soon they have a good cookfire going.

And the noise of the cookfire and smell of the cooking boar meat wakes Raziya up.

"I don't suppose you have some salt in your omni-tool? Wait, I bet you have some other strange way of keeping meat from rotting instead," says Taharqi.

"Well, I've got a bit of salt in my bag, but not enough to preserve the meat, just enough to make it taste good. With the proper resources I could construct a rudimentary freezer, but other than that I'm fresh out of not-magic for this particular purpose. If we pass any salt flats we should take a break to collect some, it'd be very handy."

"What would the proper resources be? Lacking salt, we should set up a drying rack for the meat we don't eat tonight."

Tintin consults his omni-tool. "Most of it I could make out of omni-gel, apparently - I should also have a stockpile of glass and metal, so I can use up as little gel as possible and only use it for what I absolutely need to. But I'd also need an electrical generator. Which we're probably going to want anyway, since I doubt the freezer is the only thing we'll want to make. ...now I'm wondering if I could make a generator that runs on magic. Can magic cause a constant pushing force? And, relatedly, do you know any magic? Any of you," he says to Raziya and Horan.