Random Questions Thread

When you mention a phrase in Latin, like "modus operandi," does said phrase have to be indented?

... Do you mean italicized? If the medium's default language is not Latin, then yes, it is improper to not italicize it.

......I did NOT know that, actually.

Thanks

Partial disagreement; it's very much a stylistic thing, and I've seen it italicized as well as non-italicized.

@Night: Sorry but after some digging, I have to disagree with you. Based on what stats I could find, while the national average if firearms (i.e. non shotguns, ergo rifles being the most likely since handguns are even more tightly regulated) is only about 800 per 100,000 pop, there significant variation based on geography with numbers of 1,500+ per 100,000 pop in more rural parts of the UK.

Also, the Deer Act 1991 pretty much requires high-caliber, centre-fire rifles to hunt deer (especially red deer), which I know is part of the Scottish economy.

edited 20th Nov '15 5:45:21 PM by peasant

I was assuming that we were talking about formal English writing. What you say is pretty much what is done in informal English, IINM.

... Then again, even in formal writing there is quite a lack of consensus on capitalization rules for titles and the like.

edited 20th Nov '15 6:15:48 PM by MarqFJA

What would motivate a man, who got critically injured and lost the will to live because he realized how utterly ashamed of all the horrible things he did, to get his injury treated and keep on living?

He doesn't have any precious person in his life left, btw.

Discovering he had a Misaimed Fandom trying to carry on what he was doing?

edited 24th Nov '15 8:48:49 AM by Bisected8

Atonement?

Realizing that even if he lost the will to live for his own sake, at least some of the no-longer-living people who were precious to him would want him to live on, and he would shame them even further than he thinks he already did if he does not muster the will to live for their sake.

Compare Morality Chain Beyond the Grave.

edited 24th Nov '15 9:04:47 AM by MarqFJA

An old man, in the next bed, spends the night sharing the story of his life, how he overcame despair and went on to find self-fulfillment. And in the morning he had passed.

-Wrong thread.-

edited 24th Nov '15 12:03:49 PM by SciFiSlasher

... A better question is why you're asking this question here of all places, considering the site's zero tolerance policy on any discussion whatsoever of pedophilia and related topics.

Sorry about that. Completely forgot about both the rules and where non-writing questions are to be asked.

Requesting ban right now.

Thanks for the input guys, those are great.

What would be a reasonable way to torture an adult human male?

Setting is a standard medieval fantasy-type world, magic is available to his captors but I'd prefer for them not to just use Agony Beam over and over. Time frame is several days to a week. The captors have pretty much anything they could want in the way of facilities or materials, but they don't have access to any of his friends or loved ones, nor do they have much personal info about the guy himself.

The idea is this starts out as an interrogation by The Empire but lapses into Cold-Blooded Torture. Major caveat is that this has to work out such that after one of their own lets the guy go, he can get back to his own people without too much medical attention, magical or mundane. So chopping off limbs, breaking legs, etc. are all out of the picture.

Also (and I'm kind of blushing writing this...), since this is a Love Across Battle Lines story, he needs to be able to have sex not too long afterwords, again, with minimal medical attention.

In short, you need torture methods that don't impact victim's physical ability? Sleep deprivation, drowning, fire in moderate amounts, maybe insect bites.

Wreck his sense of passing time and make it impossible for him to expect stuff. Cut off his contact with outside world - no windows, guards who could just as well be mute, this type of stuff - and alternate wildly the times when you bring him food and new torture session. That will have him nervous each time he hears footsteps, as he will never know if he's about to be fed or interrogated. Keep a bright light on at all times - it'll both make it impossible to sleep and hurt him much more than total darkness. Maybe have him feel watched at all times? Add a one-way mirror or something.

As for interrogations, how about feeding him some sort of perception-warping drugs? Something that ramps up anxiety, induces hallucinations and/or warps sounds and images. The interrogators could wear masks that make them all look and sound the same, too.

First and foremost, if you don't want him to break by force, have him break (or rather, have his captors try to break him) by sheer exhaustion.

Are there any flowers that are associated with the concepts of yin and yang? I want to incorporate them into the design/description of a pair of magic swords.

If I have to settle for an imperfect fit, the associations that I'm looking for the most are: 1. Defense (or protection)/Offense (or destruction) 2. Negative/Positive 3. Dark/Light 4. Earth/Sky 5. Passive/Active

The flowers used are going to be black/white no matter what colors they appear in real life. Just mentioning that in case it matters to what the flower symbolizes.

Adding to isolation from the world, emotional torture would work too.

Lie to the victim that the captors ARE in position to do harm to his precious ones. How's he gonna tell anyhow? XD

From what I can tell there are no specific flowers associated with yin and yang. Fortunately, there's already an established flower language for you to use. Just going through the list there's quite a few flowers that mean either courage or submissiveness, so I'd look through it to see which flowers you think would look the best together.

The problem is that torture itself is not an effective method of interrogation. It pretty much doesnt matter what they do, they wont get reliable intel out of it.

Thank you for the link.

I think I'll go with azalea for yin due to the country the yin yang symbol came from associating the flower with womanhood (yin is feminine) and also for the general "take care of yourself" meaning. I'll be going with wolfsbane AKA women's bane for the masculine yang with its association with knights and fighting dark creatures like werewolves.

Thanks for the ideas, everybody! Not everything will work, but I've got enough to formulate something.