I wanted to add some flavor to the next character I make that uses electricity by having them build up static before being able to use whatever powers they have. I know that a little bit of extra charge wouldn’t logically make a difference, but I think it’s neat and could lead to some fun moments in a story.

My problem is coming up with a way for that to happen. Most resources I see wouldn’t be very useful for general application; for example, not everywhere has carpet to rub your socks against, and frankly the logistics of how to get their socks directly on the floor in the first place would always be clumsy.

The current thought is a pair of fingerless gloves made of wool, since I know wool-against-wool can build up electricity. However, besides one unsourced WikiHow answer, I’ve found no evidence that it would actually work in practice. I tried to recreate it myself using my own pair of gloves, but found that my area isn’t humid enough to generate static in even the normal ways. I rubbed my socks on the carpet for five minutes, for example, and got nothing.

So, does anyone know if these gloves would work in practice? And, are there any other elegant solutions I’m not thinking of? Thank you!

Title - need a place a subway operator could apply emergency brakes to strand the passengers underground with no feasible exit for a little while

In my story, a sixteen year old boy with anger issues and terrible school record finds his mum dead and calls the hospital. Mum's pronounced dead and social workers get involved.

Does anyone know what the process is for this? Who would be involved and what would happen to him after that in the short term (months)?

Setting: Modern day UK

I have a character in Southern California around 2015 (so before most commercial operations, gummies, etc.) who accidentally finds old shrooms (a couple months old) in a jacket pocket. He takes it/them, then immediately regrets it (kind of). What would be a form that would be fast to take, keep in a pocket, and still be enough for maybe a 170# guy to trip a bit. are tabs a thing? can you just swallow a dried shroom or two? do they lose potency after awhile if not kept properly?

In my fictional story, my protagonist learns that his father passed away a few hours ago. He makes a two-hour drive from where he is to the hospital where his father had passed away. Realistically, would a hospital permit a body to remain on a bed for a few hours (to give family time to say their goodbyes) before it is transferred to a morgue, or would it be transferred immediately upon pronouncement of death?

Also, would it be unrealistic for a funeral or wake to take place anywhere from three days to a week after someone's death?

Not sure if this detail is relevant, but this all takes place in 1995.

EDIT: Thank you to everyone for all your input and insights! I think I have enough information to continue confidently with my writing.

What color would a hematoma have?

(dont use this in real life and dont sue me)

i have a special interest in poisons and doubt ill ever get to use it so i really, really hope this helps someone. take everything with a grain of salt, though, as some are from my memory, some are probably plain wrong, some might be misconceptions, but generally speaking these should be accurate.

i have listed some i think could be nice in writing:

CYANIDE is a fast acting, commonly used poison, killing within seconds or minutes depending on dose. cyanide works by blocking cells from using oxygen. you will expirience symptoms including dizziness, headache, cardiac arrest, low bp, seizures, shortnessof breath. id assume youd also have typical symptoms of low oxygen so pale and blueish extremeties and lips.

you can give supportive care to cyanide poisonings - includining charcoal, antidotes, and supplimentary oxygen. remember you can test for cyanide pretty easily.

TTX or pufferfish poison kills you via respitory failure as it paralysises your breathing muscles. it needs an extremely low dose to kill, and only has supportive care. ttx does not have an antidote, its just waited out when possible and has assisted support - mostly mechanical ventilation.

THALLIUM is naturally occuring in the earth, has no taste, smell or colour but is slow. it requires a fairly large dose, is hard to find, but is very slow, planned and hard to find in a corpse unless thallium is specifically a suspect. it acts similiar to food poisoning and diseases similiar to it. it takes up to a few days to kill and will ramp up the 'illness' during it. It can also develop neurological symptoms, but near all of its symptoms mimic other disorders. There IS an antidote - Prussian blue.

BOTULINUM or botox - which causes muscle paralysis. it kills because it paralyses your muscles, and only including murder attempts/accidents/ect and not medical uses or cosmetic uses, it tends to specifically kill via respitory failure as it causes respitory paralysis and seizes someone. youll present low oxygen symptoms and die within minutes. it does not always kill, though. botulinum poisoning is called botulism.

ARSENIC can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, severe dehydration, ect. it can cause in low, consistent doses hyper- or hypopigmentation which is why historically it was used to lighten someones skin. it increases risk for several cancers, and supposedly with chronic exposure can actually cause diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cognitive impairment, .... It can be ingested but most toxic is inhaling it. apparently, heated arsenic smells like garlic. the cure is chelation therapy, removing the source of arsenic, and most likely also activatef charcoal like most poisons.

RICIN is incredibly deadly. the amount of a grain of salt can be fatal. it has three ways to enter your body - inhallation, ingestion, and injection. inhalation causes respitory failure - fluid in the lungs, fever, hypersweating, coughing, shortness of breath, ect. Ingestion causes organ failure usually after several days - having liver, spleen and kidney failure. symptoms including hallucinations, dehydration, cramps, abdominal bleeding, vomiting, bloody urine. Injection causes internal bleeding and multiple organ failure swelling and pain of the muscles and lymph nodes.

these are common poisons for a good reason. theyre known, generally accessible in most universes, and are fun to write. they are, however, misused a lot. please. there are SO. FEW. POISONS. that kill during one meal.

more obscure poisonings;

THC which is found in cannabis can actually be fatal. not in the amount you smoke or eat in edibles, but thc as a compound can actually kill within 30 minutes depending on dose. its rare and doesnt really have many sources in writing because of that, but as its mind altering it would likely kill via psychosis or in children, ataxia. its symptoms are extreme versions of being high - high heartbeat, weird breathing, hallucinations, ect. THC poisoning causes psychosis and there ARE recorded deaths. id very much assume youd die from self injury or respitory failure.

TREE OF DEATH (in spanish), or MANCHINEEL. its a tree where every single part is poisonous - from the bark and tar to the leaves and fruit. they tend to be marked with red X's in some countrues so you avoid it. its sap causes bulbous dermatitis, its tree causes blisters, burning the tree causes the smoke to give you ocular injuries, and its fruit can be fatal via severe gastrientiritis and bleeding, shock, bacterial superinfection or lack of oxygen.

BTX or BATRACHOTOXIN is an extreme cardiotoxin and neurotoxin where it causes affects on the heart muscles,prevents sodium channels from closing, paralysis, convulsions, cardiac arrest, twitching, numbness. it kills within minutes with sufficient dose. one way ive heard it kills you is it makes you convulse so much you block your own airway. no treatment, just supportive care and hope.

enjoy and write responsibly :D

edit; added thc clarification

My MC becomes a Swiss citizen then helps the Swiss Ambassador line up a business deal for a Swiss company with a US company. He has to visit the Swiss embassy for a meeting, and has an interesting interaction with one of their security people assigned to protect the embassy and Ambassador. If it was a US embassy I'd guess it was protected by Marines or maybe the Secret Service, but all my searches for this info results in many private security companies that swear they protect Swiss embassies. Do they not have an official branch to cover security?

I have a character who rips her eye out but keeps it around for very major reasons, I'm not sure what else to say.

Ok, so this is an urban fantasy. My MC’s mother was in a cult worshipping a demon. One of their rituals is to sacrifice a young girl everyone twenty years to become the demon’s “vessels”. My question is, in the ritual, the MC gets stabbed in the heart by the head cultist. How long would it take for her to lose consciousness? The wound is healed by the demon as she becomes his vessel, but could she lose consciousness before actually dying?

Which, if any, "modern" (20th century*) handgun could be described as having particularly smelly residue in its barrel after having been fired
1. recently
2. at least once?

Or rather, are there any handguns which would not smell much / at all compared to the average?

For this specific instance, one would be putting their nostril right over the end of the barrel with the intent of smelling the inside.

Edit: I realize my post is really vague, my bad, the character delivers a short monologue about a handgun's appearance and then goes to smell the end of the barrel.

The gun should be capable of having a potent, distinct smell to it up close like this, as opposed to it being "just" neutral, metallic. I am not sure if there's levels to how much you can smell gunpowder. The gun is only used in one scene and then referenced later on, so I'm looking for something that would not be too obscure for an average European/North American person to have had in their possession.

They are not a detective or military and would not be able to take a gun apart and so on. The gun only appears in one scene, but is then referenced in the future.

*The gun should be reasonably easy for a civilian without criminal contacts to get their hands on in the past 20 years (2000-2026), but could be old as long as it still could have been used before coming into their possession

Hello! I'm an artist working on an original character romance, and one of my main characters is an equine vet. I'm trying to create a soft, grounded romance, and i'm not aiming for absolute, textbook-level realism, but I want to understand the practical side of his profession well enough that I don't accidentally portray his work in a completely unrealistic way.

I've already done some baseline research on standard mobile vet equipment and basic procedures, but online articles don't really capture the day-to-day realities, burnout, or workflow. I'd really appreciate insight from people who actually work in equine veterinary medicine!

A little about my character:

Aydemir is a 35-year-old equine vet who recently moved to a town with several large stables, a nearby racetrack, and a farm that keeps horses. He has experience with sport horses and farm horses, and his work involves routine care as well as emergency calls.

I'm considering having him operate independently with 1-2 assistans, travelling to clients rather than working out of a veterinary hospital. I'm still figuring out how realistic that arrangement would be, especially regarding staffing, equipment, and the kinds of treatments he could perform on-site.

1. Independent practice and staffing

• Is it realistic for an equine vet to operate independently, travelling between farms, stables and racetracks without owning or working out of a veterinary hospital?

• Would he realistically be able to manage his own practice, or would he normally be part of a larger clinic or veterinary group?

• If he has one or two assistants, would that be enough for a practice of this kind? What would those assistants typically do, and would they usually be veterinary nurses/technicians, veterinary assistants, or other vets?

• How do independent equine vets handle emergencies, overnight calls, days off and situations where they cannot attend a case themselves? Would he need a network of other vets to cover for him?

1. What can he realistically treat without a hospital?

• What kinds of examinations, treatments and procedures can an ambulatory equine vet routinely perform at a client's stable or farm?

• What equipment and medications would he normally carry in his vehicle?

• Which cases could he manage on-site, and what kinds of cases would require referral to a hospital or specialist facility?

• Are there any common procedures or treatments that people unfamiliar with equine veterinary work might not realise can be done in the field?

1. His day-to-day work

• What might a typical working day look like for an equine vet who has a mix of routine stable visits, sport-horse work, farm calls and emergencies?

• How much of the job involves scheduled appointments versus unpredictable calls?

• Would having several major clients, such as a racetrack and a few large stables, make this type of practice financially and logistically viable? How do arrangements with these clients usually work?

I'm happy to hear perspectives from equine vets, ambulatory vets, veterinary technicians/nurses, or anyone familiar with equine practice. I also understand that the answers may differ depending on the country, so please feel free to mention where you practise.

Thank youuuu! I know this is quite a list of questions, and I appreciate any insight you're willing to share. Even a little information about what your work actually looks like would help me build a more believable character.

My plot hinges on two characters rebelling against an authoritarian ruler, who came to power after the rightful child heir mysteriously vanished - a bit of a 'princes in the tower' situation where nobody actually knows whether they are alive or were murdered.

Their entire plan basically boils down to making it horrible for the wealthy aristocratic families, that are backing up the ruler, to conduct their businesses since they can't kill the current ruler without making them a martyr so they need to make people want to be rid of them.

I'm still considering what those businesses are but there's going to be a Medici style banking family, newspapers, maybe some construction/industrial companies since this is set in a steampunky mid-late 19th century time period so I can't use digital methods like ransomware and things like that.

Does anyone have any resources or information regarding how aristocratic families or businesses have propped up tyrannical rulers or how those rulers had their consolidation of power fractured through similar methods at some point in history?

Basically my character is hunting down a team of bandits that have kidnapped his love interest. Timeline: he has caught Up with them over three/four days of hard travel so limited rest and recovery. He then gets into a fight with a kidnapper ends up with bruised ribs on top of the exhaustion of pushing himself. then he gets stabbed somewhere non fatal! But he needs to get away from bandits so he is aggravating the wound and only applies pressure for about 10-15 minutes then gets it bound. Then they are still on the run via horseback. How long until he passes out?

I don’t want him to die because he does end up getting medical help so it needs to be survivable but a few days of recovery is necessary.

What do you think? A glance off the ribs? A fleshy part of abdomen ?

Character: a knight, is physically very fit and has basic know about medical treatments.

Time period: medieval but also it’s fantasy so it doesn’t have to be factual

If a person were to be slashed through the bicep, about 2-3 cm deep, how long would it take to heal, what would the healing steps be, and what would medical advice be from doctors? What medicines would they be given? And what would the healing process feel like recovering, and could they ever reach their pre-injury strength again?

Say somebody used their sick days to take a vacation and got found out. Or have just too many absences from work in general, or just kinda stop showing up. Would they get fired via a phone call, an email, a text? What's the format like? And we're talking a shitty job like Wal-Mart or something retail like that, not a "clean out your desk" situation where you're storing anything at work to pick up or anything.

(I've only ever been laid off for reasons unrelated to my job performance, or had very nontraditional jobs, lol)

TO BE CLEAR MY QUESTION IS ABOUT THE FORMAT AND FORMALITY OF THIS COMMUNICATION (not how/if/why people can get fired for any reason)

- confrontation on the phone?
- proper email? (Dear So-and-So...
We regret to inform you blah blah blah
Regards, [store])
- or like, the manager just texts you says "Don't bother coming back in"
- fourth thing I don't know?

I just need my character to get sentenced to death somehow. I want to make him some kind of outlaw, but I'm just not sure what kind of crime he should commit. Is a train robbery or two enough to get someone into that kind of predicament?

I'm researching for a fanfic I'm writing, so while I don't necessarily need to be 100% historically accurate, I would like to be as accurate as possible.

For context, the character in my fandom is a young white man who is very conventionally attractive and charismatic and was well liked in this town before he was arrested, so I imagine all these factors would work in his favor.

Idc, I need him sentenced to death.

I wasn't sure whether to tag this under crime or history, sorry.

I know this may be insanely personal to ask for others as postpartum is a really vulnerable topic, so if I need to take this down I understand.

First time writer in here!

I (20F) and a friend of mine (20F) frequently roleplay as two of our characters and I plan to maybe start writing ficlets. The most experience I have with being a 'mother' is being the aunt to a bunch of nieces and nephews.

My character (~mid-late 20s) had twins about a month ago and I feel like I'm not portraying it accurately enough and feel too awkward to ask my sisters or mom about it. There is also another kid who's 9 months old as of rn.

Some questions:

I frequently see ppl say that they felt like a shell of themselves afterward. What does this mean?

What's the mental state like?

I know it's very physically and mentally exhausting. Are there any little things that ppl may not think about that first time moms experience that isn't talked about?

How long until you start feeling like yourself again?

If you have anything else to add, it would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: I know the math doesn't make sense. It's a lesbian couple + supernatural time dilation made the math possible (my friend and I just didn't want to wait the full 9 months; we rp on a social media app so there is some form of irl time passing). Both characters have given birth once and ended up with 3 under 1

Got some great ideas from my last post so I'm I figured I'd try again. I truly appreciate people taking time out to help.

I'm writing a sci-fi horror screenplay set in Antarctica, and I'm trying to figure out a plausible way for a character to escape a glacier crevasse after a small private plane crashes into it.

The plane ends up wedged partway down the crevasse, leaving the character trapped below the surface. The pilot is dead, and there's another dead person already down there from an earlier incident. My character is alive but has limited supplies and no guarantee that anyone knows exactly where he is.

He's a musician, so he'll have his guitar and guitar strap with him. He might also have a carabiner on his keychain, along with whatever he's wearing and whatever he can salvage from the plane, the pilot, and the other body. Things like belts, shoelaces, clothing, seat belts, cables, luggage, and tools might be available, depending on what survives the crash.

I'm trying to work out what he could realistically use to climb out or find another way to safety. Could he improvise anything useful from these materials, or would the depth and smooth, icy walls of a crevasse make escape nearly impossible without proper climbing gear?

I'm especially interested in what someone with no mountaineering experience might realistically attempt in a desperate situation, and whether any of the items I've mentioned could genuinely help him get out.

I'm happy to take some creative license, but I'd like the situation and his escape attempt to feel grounded in reality. Thanks!

Hello, I am writing a story (a what if hunger games fic) where the protagonist (Peeta, male, 18) gets a knife thrown at him. The knife is stuck into his back. I want the protagonist to be able to fake to die for the attacker to get near, so the wound must look somewhat possibly deadly but not being truly deadly, because afterwards the protagonist needs to be able to fight the attacker (Clove, female, 15) - it won't be a long fight though. So, where should be the wound be better positioned? And if you have any tips around this topic, it would be great :) Thank you in advance! --- the knife doesn't need to be in the back, it is just the initial idea so if you have a better idea that also could help a lot :)

more info: the knife must hit him bc otherwise the attacker would never come closer if she doesn't think he is dead/fatally wounded as she is much smaller than the protagonist (who is a close combat fighter and if near, could easily overpower her) and that is why he fakes his death (to trick her in getting nearer)

I've tried Googling, but most answers want more clarification on the question and/or don't provide much backing and certainty.

If a deciduous trees (that loses their leaves-- I've read a bit about deciduous trees in the tropics) live in a controlled environment will they die?

I've read that they will, because they "give out" with constant summer-like conditions because they don't go dormant, and I've read they are perfectly happy (like those species in the tropics!)

The specific conditions I'm asking about include:

-successful transplant

- Light/dark timing is the same (roughly 14 hours of light, 10 hours of dark)

-temperature is the exact same every day (keyed to late summer with hot days, warm nights, never below about 60 degrees Fahrenheit)

If you have any research direction or dendrological keywords a layman might have missed, that would be helpful, too! Thanks in advance.

Is this guy like, checking inventory? Running paperwork? Sitting in the bridge jerkin off? What's he up to

i have a character that is going to develop encephalitis, specifically from aids+toxoplasmosis if that matters. i’ve been doing a good deal of research myself, but what i want to know is if anyone has stories of the weird things people say with encephalitis. i know it can cause hallucinations and “word salad”, but i think actual examples of real quotes would be very helpful if it’s not too sensitive. thank you!

Okay so I’m starting this Scp fan fic and my oc/mc was in a cult as their “god” anyways she was pregnant with her father’s child, but she didn’t know that because of like the isolation and abuse her father put her through.

So the foundation takes her in and while she’s unconsciously preform a 6-7 month abortion on her.

So I just need to know what an abortion would feel like?

I'm writing a book that's set in America, specifically in the Pacific northwest. I'm not from America and I don't know much about it. Is there any language I should avoid using, either because it's stereotypical (ie nobody actually speaks like that) or will be a dead giveaway that I'm English? Is there anything I should know about the culture in that area that might differ from where I'm from? I've tried Google but my question is too generic to yield the results I'm looking for.

I'm also curious, what's the deal with guns in America? Would my character be able to carry one around without drawing attention, or would people freak out?