Random Questions Thread

What could i use as Background Devil Horns in my drawings of The Lightbearer? Ideas?

Edited by Nukeli on Jan 23rd 2023 at 12:13:11 PM

Congrats on 1000 pages!

Anyways. Do you usually have a central recurring theme in your works?

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jan 23rd 2023 at 9:57:21 AM

Mine is trust.

Namely, by trusting each other instead of being judgmental based on looks or reputation.

So, I am wondering about the reaction to a certain choice/plot point in my WIP and if it could be seen as overly stupid. Granted it is a stupid choice on the part of the character involved, but I don't want it to be too foolish...if that makes sense.

Now then...

My main protagonist finds out that he not the ordinary small town high school student he's believed he was his entire life, but instead he is a supernatural being of unknown nature and origin. The person who reveals this to him (in one of the cruelest ways possible) outright tells him that she doesn't know anything else about him other than that he isn't a human. her demeanor aside, she is telling the truth.

Rather than go to his parents and ask for answers, he tracks the revealer of this information down and interrogates them about what they know about him and fishes for any other observations that they've made about his true nature in hopes of finding answers.

Now, this is obviously stupid. In fact, had he asked his parents and told them everything, the story would have gone in a whole other direction. But he chooses to do this instead and the plot marches on.

I guess I'm just wondering if this counts as so stupid that it ruins the perception of this character?

Teenagers can be stupid, and the way I'd interpret him going after this person instead of asking his parents is that he's directing his anger at that person. Plus, maybe he doesn't feel like he can go to his parents about this, even if this is irrational.

Anything you want? A common example of that trope is just having the character stand in front of a goat or antelope skull mounted on the wall. Another idea might be a uniquely-designed street lamp, the kind with two arms sticking off of it, giving you the symbolism of horns and light. You could also use one of the designs that has two arms and a third light in the center, and have the bulbs on the arms be broken or smashed with the third light rising above the character's head.

Edited by CrystalGlacia on Jan 23rd 2023 at 1:55:59 PM

Had a few ideas for my chess sports/idol/adventure series. I decide to write a multi part metaplot detailing on adapting both Moby Dick and the Perseus myths. As such I'm toying with the idea of a recurring charatcer being based off Captian Ahab and Perseus, and a baxkgorund plot of him traveling the relevant constellations in pursuit of a "white whale" (The andromeda analouge, who became the Moby Dick analoge as an Astratherion)

As such I wan tto ask which details are common in both Perseus' legends and the doomed voyage of the Pequad?

[edit] Offhand, both involve a fight with a giant sea-creature: the whale in Moby Dick and Cetus in the Perseus story. [/edit]

I would like an Unfortunate Implications check for a story that I'm working on, if I may:

Let me first mention that the setting in which this takes place is a fantasy one, not any place of our world.

In this story, the viewpoint character and his comrades are all black—and all thieves, with the plot primarily concerning a burglary that they conduct.

Furthermore, their group—which is long-standing and cohesive—is described as a "gang". (I could use "crew", but that, to my mind, suggests something more ad-hoc, more specific to a given job.)

That said, it should be noted that the city in which this takes place is majority-black: one of the gang is described as being visibly non-local by virtue of having lighter-brown skin and straight hair.

What's more, this group is not one of common-or-garden thieves: their leader has earned a reputation as a "master thief", and his gang is composed of those who he considers to be the best available.

Conversely, however, the one who hires them for the job—and who in the end betrays them, setting up the next stage of the overall story—is white, and rich.

I do believe at the moment that at least one of the group escapes said betrayal, but so early in the work I wouldn't like to swear to that.

Similarly, being early in the writing, I don't yet know who else they might encounter during the plot.

So, what do you think? Are there unfortunate implications as far as I've described things, or am I being over-anxious? ^^;

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Jan 24th 2023 at 6:28:13 PM

As a white person, It seems to be a moslty inoffensive premise with what you said so far (the thief bit does seem a little questionable), but as a white person I must say a second opinion is warranted on that.

Regarding the sea monster angle. I am aware of that, its part of why I decided on this background plot, but i wanted to ask if there are other similarities beyond that.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jan 24th 2023 at 8:36:29 AM

So, if someone is heavily sedated and the room they're in catches fire, is it possible for them to sleep through the fire even though it'll likely cost their life?

Got this character whose backstory is that the building they were in caught fire but as they were heavily sedated into a deep sleep, they basically slept as the fire raged throughout the building and eventually burned them alive. This was in the late 1940s and the wooden fire escape door the building had caught fire, so I imagine fire escape plans back then were rudimentary at best.

I would say it is possible, though I think chances are the level of sedation needed would prolly be just as deadly as the flames itself.

One of the effects of the carbon monoxide, which is produced during a fire, is to make people unconscious. It is sadly common that people die in their sleeps during a fire, because, as the concentration of monoxide rises, its effects kick off slowly and gradually. A sedated person has even more chances to die without waking up.

Edited by YourBloodyValentine on Jan 24th 2023 at 11:44:36 AM

@MorningStar1337: Thank you for the response. ^_^

That's encouraging at least—but as you say, I'll wait for further responses.

As to Moby Dick and Perseus, alas I don't know the former well at all, and my memory of the latter is hazy, so I fear that I don't right now have much more to add. :/

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Jan 24th 2023 at 9:45:42 PM

@CrystalGlacia

I'm just looking for ideas, since i didn't really have an idea what to draw besides the character himself.

I also have the idea of drawing Tom with a background halo to go with the theme, either a streetlight or the moon.

I wonder if the following relationship/marriage could be seen as toxic or "merely" flawed.

Two characters in my WIP are intended to be Happily Married Good Parents, and they are. But their marriage has huge secrets and lies surrounding it.

One of them lives a complete double-life as an honorary member of the local werewolf pack and does all sorts of errands and jobs for them. The other isn't even a human and is hiding massive chunks of their backstory. This has affected their children due to this hidden supernatural nature.

Both of them indeed love each other but they guard their secrets and have engaged in a dance of lies, manipulation and outright gaslighting (yes, actual gaslighting) to keep those secrets under wraps.

They aren't intended to have a bad relatioship but I'm worried the marriage will be seen by the readers as more than just flawed.

...You're asking if a relationship built on lies, manipulation, and gaslighting is toxic or not?

Yes. It is incredibly toxic. There is no way for it not to be.

No, they don't - they just love who they think the other person is.

They would be completely right in their assessment of the situation.

@ Altris:

I guess I may have a different sense of what a toxic relationship is . Perhaps the better way to phrase it is "is the relationship so irreparably damaged that it cannot be salvaged?".

I intend for them to talk it out when it becomes absolutely impossible for their hidden sides to remain hidden any longer, and I want them to accept each other's true natures so that they can essentially continue to be married and raise my main protagonist's younger sister (these are his parents I'm talking about for context).

Obviously they have to make some changes (well, one of them can't really change not being human, but...). But I didn't want readers to think there is no point in the relationship even continuing, changes and honesty or not.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Jan 27th 2023 at 10:59:16 AM

I would assume that such a relation is already damaged beyond repaired. Like you can't fix that was poorly constructed in the first place

Yes. They've already shown that they can't trust each other and would rather lie and gaslight the person you are supposed to trust in that relationship. Putting trust in these people is a waste of time.

Serious question. Why do you think this is an issue that can be resolved by that? You (general) don't get to "whoopsie, my bad" out of lying and manipulating the person whose trust you are taking advantage of.

@ Morning Star 1337:

Hmm, that's disheartening but I appreciate the honest answer. I guess I figure I'm going for a slightly idealistic "love overcomes" in the sense that the love they built for each other as a young couple and nurtured through marriage and children will be strong enough to accommodate this disaster.

@ Altris:

I suppose my answer to Morning Star sort of conveys my thinking on why I wanted this to work, but to answer this question:

So this is slightly long and somewhat personal, but I suppose the question was asked. I have personally witnessed up close-and-personal what I consider to be "toxic relationships", outright abusive ones in fact. Relationships that take an ugly toll on one or more people engaged in them even if they have their "good moments". I will never portray those kinds of relationships as anything other than terrible situations that need to be escaped from.

I don't really consider the relationship I'm talking about here to be one of those. It contains a fair share of lies and some measure of manipulation to ensure the continuation of those lies, but the love in it is real. There are also in-universe reasons for why they both lied to each other, which may or may not be good excuses, but they are there.

So...that's just a bit of a window into my line of thinking. Plus, from an admittedly less philosophical perspective, I like these characters. Their relationship could be a story on its own and they're a good window into Parents as People.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Jan 27th 2023 at 11:34:23 AM

So, I have this question in regard to the next chapter of my story.

It involves one of the protagonists, an Alien princess, feeling one of the Human protagonists waking up, and she soon follows her. She sees that he strains himself by using his sword until his hands start to bleed. This worries her and she tries to question him, but he gets secretive and defensive. They try to be open about what they feel these days, including the princess' feelings that she may be unsure if Earth can still be her new home. The man tries to reassure her that she'll find it home sooner or later, but in his internal thoughts, he also thinks of cutting himself from her life, thinking he's a burden to her, especially if she becomes aware of his past and how it led to his protective behavior of her.

The question is, what's a good way to show that while the man is genuinely worried, it's also to show he overthinks too much about what she feels about him?

Well, the simplest solution might be to simply... show his thoughts; show the "what-ifs" that I imagine are driving his uncertainty.

Otherwise, I might expect him to be quite insecure; if he thinks that she sees himself as a burden, then he might over-apologise, saying "sorry" for things that she doesn't see as actual problems. (Presumably being primarily things that she might see as problems if he were actually a burden to her.)

You could say he's suffering a form of the Hedgehog's Dilemma.

Based on an admittedly-quick look at the Wikipedia page for that, I would say: "Sort of."

In a sense, he's worried about spines that he doesn't actually have; or put another way, he's a cat who thinks that he's a hedgehog.

I wouldn't say that it cannot be salvaged (it really depends on a lot of factors, and ultimately on how you write those characters), but surely it cannot be easily repaired. It would require a lot of work, if it is meant to be realistic.

And even so, there would be readers that won't share your opinion on that. People can (legitimately) have different thresholds on what they consider 'unbearable', and if the situation you describe falls outside of the threshold of certain readers, they will not side with your couple no matter what. I'm not saying that you don't have to write what you want, just be prepared that some will not appreciate it.

Anyway, there could be another solution. If I understand correctly, you need that they will be ultimately able to raise their daughter, don't you? Now, this doesn't require for them to stay married, or to be still in love. It can be possible that the revelation of past lies shatters their love beyond repair, but (working hard on it!) they could still find a way to work together as caretakers for their child. I don't know if this fits your story.

Yep.

The thing is, he think he's selfish because he saw her as a way to make amends for his past mistakes, but in doing, he believes he's not seeing as a proper living being and more like a crutch to his mistakes. He's proven wrong because... Well, the fact he still cared for her and wasn't that obsessive in stalking her or proclaim how great he is, he just suffers a huge guilt complex.