Random Questions Thread

~Swordofknowledge

I ...see? I'm not clear on whether Man 1 divorces his wife or if they're still legally married. You using terms like "given" makes it seem like the latter.

As for what the mother would call him, probably "my first husband/partner" since Man 1 is dead before the child is born.

@Chico:

Do I understand correctly that the brutality is on the part of the police of Island B?

If so, then perhaps they keep the main characters around in order to answer questions and/or identify suspects, and simply go about their brutal techniques right there and then in whatever room they happen to be located in at the time?

Offhand, I'm aware of the myling/utburd. The "see also" section of the page linked there might provide a few leads, too.

@ Altris:

The way it is presented (that the marriage is "transferred" to another nobleman) means that Man 1 is effectively divorced, although amicably, from his former wife. For context, he had three wives at the same time. He needed a desperate favor from another noble so he gave him one of his wives who he'd had his eye on, ending their marriage and beginning her new one to this other noble.

So...yes, they are no longer legally married but divorced.

I guess first husband is as good a name as any. I guess it just seems...cold and clinical in a way, even if it is true. The wife/mother never got over her first husband, although she submitted obediently to being given to the child's father. It's actually that which made me wonder what she'd call him. But thanks for the help and I hope my explanation cleared things up.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Jun 21st 2021 at 1:41:12 PM

Some more questions from me! This time, mainly aimed at folks who worked or work with police.

It's a normal weekday at a police station in a mid-sized town - the kind that is not restricted access - when a boy comes in. He looks about 12, with a white headband, a neck chain with a key, T-shirt, school backpack, cargo shorts, running shoes and holding a tablet. Nothing obviously indicating a problem except that he's panting as if he had run there and he is obviously trying to catch someone's attention.

And the question is?

I assume it's something like "how would the police react to this?"

~Septimus Heap I have not worked with the police and do not do so, as you specified, so I'm not sure how much this will help.

- if this is during school hours, I'd imagine whoever was on-duty would tell him Not Now, Kiddo and tell him to go back to school.

- if it's not, I imagine questions such as "who are you?", "where are your parents?", and "why do you look so agitated?" would be forthcoming.

You can choose whatever you want as it´s as likely that he is ignored for a while because he is a child (specially if they are busy for some reason) as it is that some cop pays him inmediate attention because he is a child.

Edited by Oculto on Jun 21st 2021 at 11:28:30 AM

My dad was a state patrol officer, and the post he worked at has a little cinderblock and metal waiting room with a couple chairs and a bulletproof glass window with a built-in microphone that leads into the dispatchers' area, where they would basically act as receptionists. You might have had to press a button or something, or there might have been an alarm on the door to tell dispatch that someone had entered and needed assistance (I haven't been there in a few years; I've only been there with my dad). This was in a relatively low-population, not-terribly-unsafe area, too. Outside of very rural areas, the days of walking straight into an active police station in America within the last 5-10 years, into an area with officers milling about, might be a thing of the past and TV. I imagine if he'd walked into my dad's post, dispatch would've been alerted that someone had entered, and they'd look at the security feed and move to the window and ask him what he needs, possibly also concerned and with curiosity/caution piqued because it's a kid and it's during school hours.

EDIT: Oh, nevermind, OP said the station wasn't restricted access. Are those even still a thing? Still, any halfway decent LEO would notice immediately that if a kid's there during school hours, there's a problem.

Edited by CrystalGlacia on Jun 21st 2021 at 6:48:07 AM

Sorry, should have said that it takes place at the end of the school day. And yes, I was wondering what the reaction would be - under the assumption that this is not the sort of situation where an unauthorized entry would be considered a threat. The kid is not so much agitated as much as indicating they need help but can't quite articulate it on the spot.

Edited by SeptimusHeap on Jun 22nd 2021 at 9:58:33 PM

Okay, I'm feeling all kinds of awkward asking this (and may delete it later on) but here goes. Would supernatural regenerative powers lessen or completely reverse the bodily changes/"damage" caused by a recent pregnancy?

The reason I ask is related to this question. It's part of the jealousy that emerges when the wife in question sees her husband hanging around teenage girls who are obviously infatuated with him. They're obviously young, pretty and haven't just had a baby in the last five months. The self-consciousness of that just fans the flames in terms of how envious and threatened she feels about the situation.

There's also a whole existential crisis/mortality realization thing to this as well.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Jun 22nd 2021 at 11:53:21 AM

~Swordofknowledge

You know, if this character is jealous of teenage girls because of their physical attractiveness, that's ...disturbing. Anyway.

Honestly, if the powers are supernatural, you can probably A Wizard Did It anything you want to happen if you don't go into specifics about how the powers actually work. Without having a clear definition of how the powers work, I can't really help you there. I would lean on the side of the changes being minor at best (a quicker reactivation of the immune response, for example) because most of them aren't 'harmful'. In other words, the female body changes during pregnancy, but most of the changes are not things a Healing Factor would register as 'harmful' in the same way, say, a knife wound would be. (A Rare Sentence indeed.)

No, it won't heal it.

And being jealous of teenage girls is just sick.

@ Altris:

The way the werewolf healing power works is that anything that "registers" as damage to the body is repaired/rebuilt. Basically cuts, broken bones, burns, etc. Amputated limbs and missing organs are restored too. I wasn't sure my version of Healing Factor would erase that or not, so I was on the fence. So in a way you actually walked me through why the regeneration wouldn't affect these changes, so thank you for that.

Also, just as a sidenote for you (and I suppose Titan Jump since I almost got 'd while writing this all up)...

To be fair, there is some context for the jealousy . It's not overall envy as much as it is insecurity that her husband who is in the presence of flirtatious teenage girls might be swayed into unfaithfulness, and part of it might be because they're younger and prettier than her. Plus there's the existential issue of having permanent bodily changes to herself after decades of being ageless and unchanging. All of that explodes into a big ball of jealous rage she lets out all over the poor students.

...I wonder if that makes it less disturbing/sick or more .

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Jun 22nd 2021 at 12:53:09 PM

This relates to my work-in-progress story here.

Chapter 2 is about my second character, Kara; Maddie is the protagonist.

I'm writing a flashback about Kara when she was slightly younger than she is now (she's 38) and it's set in the 2000s in Florida.

Kara Brynne (KB) is American, she's a businesswoman and freelancer/fixer-type (not illegal type fixer though!).

However, I'm taking some Artistic License – Geography and although I may have to take some Artistic License – History with things, where do the lines between Artistic License – History and Alternate History become a gray area?

The flashbacks are set in a fictional town near Winter Park, Orange County, Florida but how can I explain away an industrial town that looks more like a Rust Belt town (and it's like one culturally) despite it being set in Florida?

They're important to her backstory, but I don't want to make glaring errors.

The flashbacks are to give her some backstory.

I've got some possible Alternate History thrown in (trying to work it out), but how realistic could these be in the scenario:

• In 2006 when she's on vacation in the U.S. returning home (by then she lives in London), Kara drives a crossover based on the Honda Accord, which, which looks more like the then-contemporary Mercedes-Benz M-Class◊, only a bit smaller and with a body length of 4,708mm (15.45ft) - making it larger than the CR-V which was 4,518mm (14.82ft) but just within the size of a Mercedes-Benz M-Class which was 4,813mm.

It's a Honda that's got no Acura counterpart in the U.S., although it is an Acura in some parts of the world in this timeline.

This car is a plot point as she's seeking one based on nostalgia and has difficulty trying to find a good one.

I don't know how much Artistic License – Cars to take with this, but realistically, how could I have such a vehicle fitting in Honda's range without it cannibalizing the CR-V or Pilot SUVs.

My two biggest problems:

• How to explain away a Rust Belt-type town in Florida. What could be possible cultural/historical factors for this?
• How realistic a Honda Accord-based SUV would be for the time period in the 2000s, specifically 2006-2008.

Edited by Merseyuser1 on Jun 22nd 2021 at 7:06:20 PM

I was thinking about an outline set in a Lady Land.

You know how there are different words for a young/unmarried woman and an old/married woman (miss/mrs), while men only have one (mr). I figured that in a matriarchy-that-has-been-matriarchy-since-beginning would have it the other way around.

Which one do you think mr should be (or if i should disregard mr), and what do you think would be good for the other word?

Edited by Nukeli on Jun 22nd 2021 at 10:02:24 PM

I saw a fictional matriarchal society on this forum that inverted the titles of "King" and "Queen"- the monarch was King regardless of gender, which in this society would generally be overwhelmingly female, and the Queen is the monarch's marriage partner, again regardless of gender, but most queens would be male. It might be fun if you did that with "Missus/Miss" and "Mister". Have a Mister Jane Smith marrying Miss Bob Jones, later Mrs. Bob Smith. Your readers see a Mrs. Bob Smith and think, oh, it's that sexist custom from like the 1970s and back where people referred to married women as "Mrs. Husband name", only for it to become evident that "Mrs. Bob Smith" is not Bob's wife, but Bob himself. Depending on the setting, you could also make up your own titles in the local Conlang.

Edited by CrystalGlacia on Jun 22nd 2021 at 3:24:37 PM

Hey, remember wayyyy back when I asked a question about smuggling an artifact through an airport? I managed to come up with a scenario that works in-universe (though maybe is a bit unrealistic in real-life, but eh). The issue is, this scenario causes direct harm to another character as a distraction, and after it happens he's kinda pissed. I just want to make sure that his level of frustration is justified or at least understandable, because while he ends up being kind of a jerk about it I don't want him to seem like the bad guy here.

So here's what goes down:

This particular character gets magically-induced headaches when he touches certain items. (Most of) The other characters know this and today one of them exploited this fact to sneak another artifact past security. The person making this plan told the girl smuggling the artifact to hand her friend a bracelet that he knew would trigger the headache. She protested but ended up relenting, and did indeed hand him the bracelet, without him knowing what was happening. He ended up in enough pain to create some chaos in the security line and to scare the rest of their friends, but he'd also realized what'd happened and wasn't too thrilled with being used like this.

He's not one of the people actually boarding the plane; he's just tagging along to say goodbye, specifically to say goodbye to the girl who gave him the bracelet. Before this point, he knew of the artifact smuggling and was trying to talk her out of going through with it. He's also been dealing with a lot of crap in general, such as PTSD, and this girl is his best friend who he's terrified of losing. Unfortunately, these issues can often manifest as anger, and he and the girl already had a few arguments up to this point about this whole mess.

So when he pulls her aside to talk before she needs to board the plane, he ends up yelling at her for hurting him like she did, and accuses this of being the reason she needed him at the airport (since if he didn't tag along, she'd be SOL, but she didn't know the plan beforehand and it really was a coincidence). She tries to defend herself and settle things down, insisting that she wants to say goodbye and not fight with him, but his response is a cold "Fine, Goodbye", and then he storms off.

Is this reaction a bit much? Will he come off as the Jerkass in this scenario? I don't want the girl to come off as bad either- it's made pretty clear that she was just doing what she thought she had to do and she's genuinely distraught about how he ends things- but since he's the aggressor here he's at more risk of coming off as a jerk who's yelling at his best friend over a headache.

...And yes, I know the scenario leading up to the argument probably isn't the most realistic, but it works well enough in-universe and I'm not looking for other explanations. It already happened; he already got hurt and yelled at her. I'm just wondering if this reaction is an understandable one, or if he's coming off as a bit too upset over it.

Put it this way.

"If I had an allergy that came with potentially-lethal allergic reactions when triggered, and had that triggered intentionally by a jackass who just wanted to smuggle some booze past airport security while everyone was staring at me almost dying on the floor, what would I feel?"

I would feel pretty pissed off about that and no, not come off as any sort of jerkass if I was still pissed off about it, not even bothering to bid anyone of them farewell while dealing with this experience in fresh memory.

Fair enough. These headaches aren't lethal but they hurt like hell and are pretty incapacitating for him. Plus, ya know, screaming in the middle of an airport security line probably isn't a good idea... so she really did put him in danger to get herself out of danger. So when you put it like that, yeah, it's a pretty dickish thing to do.

CW disfigurement: What are some apparels or hairstyles that people with disfigured/missing earlobe(s) might wear to ward off unfriendly stares?

Long hair in general, hairstyles that cover the ears completely. Headbands/babushkas/burqa/other kinds of headwear that cover the ears. Some types of kokoshniks also fit, though they attract attention to them.

Needless to say all of the above are considered feminine, so they would look weird on a man, depending on the fashion and gender stereotypes of your setting.

A bit late, but yes I don't find the reaction of War Jay's character an overreaction. That was a jerk move on the girl's part.

WRT a Rust Belt-type town in Florida, I guess a town that was hit by a hurricane and had its industry move away to a different place might count?

WRT a Honda Accord SUV, the existence of this car makes it pretty plausible.

Anyhow, regarding my question I guess the answer is that a LEO would come and ask the kid if there is a problem?

If you're not also trying to do a Police Are Useless thing, they should. Kids don't generally go to police stations unprompted, and a kid his age being there unaccompanied outside school hours should be raising red flags. A kid could also potentially be meeting their parent/guardian there who works at the station, a scenario that would also be covered with "What are you here for, son?", but again, he's a little young and his demeanor suggests otherwise.

Edited by CrystalGlacia on Jun 23rd 2021 at 7:17:09 AM

Content Warning—-Discussion of blood and violent injury.

How quickly could a large amount of blood be cleaned up from a house's front porch and inner hallway (as in, the room right after one opens the front door)? Is it possible to have removed all traces of the mess by the time the other occupants of the house awaken?

More Detailed Explanation: In Part 1 of my story, the closest thing this tale has to a Big Good has lost a violent fight with another werewolf. He survives and makes his way to his friend's house to inform him of the rather nasty coup d'état that has taken place within the town's werewolf pack. Since he is still horrifically injured and really not in a state of mind to think of the fallout, he leaves a massive blood trail from his truck, across the front steps and porch and then a huge puddle within the front hall. It only stops there because his friend points this out and so he tries to stay still to avoid worsening things.

Now then...the friend of this injured character is my protagonist's father. He has to clean this all up before his wife, son, and daughter wake up and see what has happened. Is it possible to clean up all of that blood, dispose of the evidence and render the entire area spotless before the family awakens?

To give a time frame, this gruesome visit happens at around 11:00 at night and ends around 12:38 in the morning.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Jun 23rd 2021 at 8:20:57 AM

Yeah, probably, although the sound of the cleaning could easily awaken the family. The kicker though are the surfaces that he has to clean. Untreated wood basically can't be cleaned at all, the wood will probably become permanently stained with the blood. Ceramic tile should be easily cleanable with a mop and some disinfectant. Most surfaces are in-between those two extremes so adjust accordingly.