Random Questions Thread

x4

1. The only ones i can think of are deliberately expressing clearly unnatural intelligence for a wolf, and/or trying to point out her wedding ring.

2. There's propably something else besides walking, talking, and using fingers. The loneliness too propably^note  (i've read that wolves were just about extinct in Germany at the end of WWII, so if that's true it's likely he didn't encounter even real wolves in that time).

Edited by Nukeli on Feb 25th 2023 at 5:26:27 PM

How powerful would this scene sound with the themes of prejudice and trust in a heavily polarized society based on today's topics? The setting is an Alien invasion story and there are human collaborators with the Aliens, which I probably mentioned to you before.

The American leader of the human collaborators with the Aliens holds his gun against one of the protagonists, ranting of how he's actually trying to save humanity from the "destroyers" that have greatly "infected" the world (Everyone not white, hetero, Christian, CIS, etc.) and how working with the Zlocu is the solution, and how he justifies that the ones who may die from the attack even from those he swears to protect as necessary sacrifices or even secret "destroyers" who aim to destroy the "righteous" America, and if some refuse, then they'll be forced to submit to his rule no matter what it takes. After some moment of tension, the injured protagonist slowly walks towards him with his lightsaber esque weapon while still bleeding from the gunshot wounds, which makes the leader nervous over why the protagonist isn't afraid of him despite his injuries. Stepping closer, the man panics and tries to flee, only to be cornered by the kind of people he considered the destroyers in his eyes (Blacks, Latinos, LGBT, Muslims, etc.), all of them without even raising their weapons while he becomes a cowardly emotional wreck and lectures him about how wrong he is.

I think that it would depend largely on the execution of the scene. I could see it potentially working.

Here's a fun random question I've been pondering about. In my sixth short story, Anne-Marie and Lynessa's son Julian is going to fall in love with Dazielle, a beautiful angel girl who is a tsundere. I also thought up a nice friend for Dazielle named Lavina. She is nice, but I'm having a bit of trouble deciding on a hair color for her. >.< ^_^;; Which one do y'all think looks and sounds lovelier and exotic, given her angelic nature: teal or white with black zebra stripes?

I suppose that exotic hair colours like that would mostly depend on what sort of character the hair-bearer is. Teal would probably be associated with a calmer character, while black-and-white may fit a more morally grey character.

Thoughts on my proposed scene?

The scene will almost certainly come across as heavy-handed, but that might be what you're looking for in a story like that. Although, this is just the impression I'm getting from this excerpt. If the story puts those marginalised groups in the limelight frequently, or if the protag is one of them, then that may lighten the load.

The characters described are in fact ones that were introduced way before, some even very fleshed out.

And the protagonist is a Japanese-Native American man.

Edited by LoneCourier0 on Feb 26th 2023 at 2:43:56 PM

So, I recently learned that the name Zelda was originally a nickname for Griselda. Makes sense, considering that they end in the same syllable but where did the Z in Zelda come from as it's nowhere to be seen in Griselda?

When I pronounce "Griselda" in my American Midwestern accent, the "s" sounds a bit like a "z".

It's a very "z" s in pretty much all forms of modern American English. (Possibly some other Englishes too)

Anyway wait until you hear about Bob being abbreviated Robert. Abbreviated names don't always follow spellings.

Edited by Florien on Feb 26th 2023 at 8:43:28 AM

Thanks, Glacia, that sounds understandable!

Thoughts about my vampire?

@GoldenCityBird: Thanks, I'll try that.

1. Even if it doesn't make logical sense, you could give the character the same eyes in his wolf form as he does in his human form. Disney's Beauty and the Beast did this in their design of the Beast, giving him big blue eyes that also specifically turn out to be the same shape as his human form's eyes, to convey that he was a man trapped inside the body of a monster. In wolf form, he approaches her slowly with classic submissive canine body language, ears flat, tail between his legs, head lowered, until he steps further into the light and finally looks up at her, giving her a good look at his eyes, and whoa, is that him?
2. Some ideas, assuming he fully "went native" and didn't bother to try and keep himself human and also had no human contact:
   • He tends to walk hunched over and/or on the balls of his feet, like a canine. You know how dogs look like they have backwards knees? Their apparent "backwards knees" are actually their ankles because they walk on their tiptoes; their actual knees are further up almost near the abdomen.◊
   • He dislikes clothing, especially tight-fitting clothing, and might prefer to wear loose-fitting garments as much as possible. He also disdains shoes because he can't feel anything through them or grip the ground like he's used to, while also often forgetting that normal human feet don't grip the ground quite like a canine's paw pads do.
   • If he's been living in the wilderness with little to contact with human settlements or human detritus- not eating out of humans' trash -his digestive system will be attuned to a wolf's diet and he'll need to gradually shift it back to a human's. Expect at least a few weeks of gastrointestinal distress.
   • He might need to remind himself that he can speak and grasp things with his hands now.

Have you read my proposed scene?

@ Lone Courier 0:

So...I don't like making these kinds of comments because I feel obligated to provide a "solution" to the issue, but I do want to give feedback.

The scene, as it is written, is...very heavy-handed to the point of being almost Anvilicious in nature. Now, I understand that Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped and all that, but if you are going for subtlety and trying to provide references to current events, I don't quite think that is the way to go about doing things. It's just my personal opinion, but it just seems...a little over-the-top.

Now, I fully admit that I am biased since I am not a fan of work that goes in hard and heavy on sensitive topics, especially when they feel more like thinly veiled attempts to lecture the audience about a point that is close to the author's heart. It could be that this would very well appeal to a large group of people, and I am just not one of them, despite ostensibly being in the groups being championed by it.

Again, I mean no disrespect, it's just how I view these kinds of things. The story itself (what I've gleaned of it anyway) seems okay and all; I just don't think this particular part works very well. It's powerful yes, but not in a good way.

Well, some said the scene works if the POC characters described in the scene were fleshed out before and had distinguishable personality traits before.

What alternative do you propose tho?

@ Lone Courier 0:

I had to think hard about this, so I apologize if it seems lacking. I also had to make a whole other example from my own writing since the one I was banking on didn't quite fit .

Anyway...

From a writing standpoint I was thinking less about the characterization of the POC/LGBT characters and more about the way the villain is portrayed prior to this moment. Speaking personally, something that I try to do when writing is to keep in mind that "everyone is the hero of their own story".

This does not mean that there is no such thing as evil in my works, that there are no unforgiveable acts. Quite the opposite, really. But what it does mean is that even the most depraved and twisted of characters are driven by an internal logic that is fleshed out so that the audience can feel empathy for them and understand where they are coming from, even if they are filled with revulsion. In fact, I think feeling empathy for someone can actually enhance the negative reaction to their actions, at least in my personal experience it can.

Let me give a brief example:

One of my works features villains who, as part of their overarching plan, traffic children and subject them to horrible torture. They are monsters and they are portrayed as such. However, they are not mustache-twirling caricatures; they are doing these deeds for a purpose and have an internal logic that drives them. Even their more sadistic actions have an easily identified reasoning as to why they did these things. When the heroes finally humiliate and destroy them, it is not because "well of course we can't let the child-killers get away with their crimes". It is because they found ways to outwit and overpower the villains.

What I am saying is that as long as your villain is a fully fleshed-out character with reasons for why they are like this, it makes the scene you described better. In its current form, it will always be somewhat "preachy" (which is something I have an issue with, regardless of the topic) but making the villain have understandable motives for his actions would make it seem like a person being defeated and talked to, not the Anthropomorphic Personification of supremacist hate-speech and ideology.

So to conclude, the scene can be made better via the villain's characterization prior to this moment. If they are someone who is a person, vile as they are, then it goes better.

The goal is to make the events in the story seem organic, to "hide" the influence of the creator and their own ideals and beliefs as much as possible when making a fictional world.

...I hope that helped a little. Like I said, I had to really think hard on what I was going to say and try to give advice without "making" you change your vision of how you want this story to go.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Mar 1st 2023 at 11:09:13 AM

Would doctors dismiss someone healing from a surgery without even a trace of a scar or sign that they were operated on as just luck or good genes, or would they begin to suspect something is amiss?

One of the characters in my WIP is hesitant to get a surgery due to fear that her overly complete healing will "out" her as a supernatural being. I'm just wondering whether this fear is rational or not.

I mean, it's theoretically possible that a doctor would want to look into it further, but it's extremely unlikely. Almost no doctor will continue looking into something if the patient doesn't want to. Most doctors tend to focus on their patients who aren't doing well (for obvious reasons). Patients who do better than expected tend to get, "Hey, good news! Now get out of my office so I can focus on the patients who still need my help."

Depends on how quick the healing is. If the stitches disappear completely within minutes from closing them up, someone might become suspicious, and would probably tell their colleagues and the patient. If it takes months, then not. If it happens during the surgery, we'd be talking about a medical emergency. Is the existence of superpowers known in the setting?

Some more child-related questions: How would young teens (13 years old or so) initiate conversations with people of about the same age?

x8 @CrystalGlacia

1. Is recognizing eyes like that actually plausible? Though practically all human eye colors are unnatural for a wolf. Not knowing how to act like a real wolf also contributes to why he clocks as "weird".

2. Yeah, he was really afraid of being caught by the nazis (and what they could do to him, in general or if they noticed he's a vampire), so he stayed as a wolf for majority of the time (except for some moments and a mist cloud and a moth^note (he avoided turning into a moth because of predators and inability to defend himself in that form, and being a mist cloud for hours is propably psychologically worse than being a wolf) when he needed to dissappear more or actively escape).

What's the name of that stereotypically "german" text font?

Fraktur. The Nazis stopped using it as their official typeface in 1941, though.