I'm currently planning a script for an audio drama about a teenage boy brought to the ER by his step-mom with mysterious symptoms (he's in the process of turning into a vampire), and I'm trying to figure out how real-world doctors with no knowledge of the supernatural might try to figure out what he's experiencing.

The main symptoms I'm planning on him having are intense abdominal and chest pain that comes in waves, erratic heartbeat and intense sweating, vomiting, no appetite, bloodshot eyes, and increased agitation (though that mainly comes from the pain and general teen angst).

The idea is for the doctors to hit a wall figuring out what could possibly be wrong, so they need to call in one of their senior doctors (who happens to secretly be a vampire herself and knows what's going on). But if these symptoms actually would culminate in something diagnosable, then is there something else I could throw in that might make things more confusing for the medical staff?

I hope this is the correct place to ask this

I have a character who kills because he believes he has to. He experiences extreme anxiety and guilt when he is faced with the situation. Since this is first person, he attempts to insist to the reader that it doesn’t affect him at all, and thus explains his emotions away using physical symptoms. Would it make sense that a possible coping mechanism could be that he dissociates? If so, what would that look like?

I hope this doesn’t come across as me trying to use these real symptoms as purely literary devices, and I hope I’m not being insensitive at all. I’m just really unsure as to what my character would be dealing with physically through the stress, how to implement it properly, and how to portray it in a realistic and non-harmful manner. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance <3

The character I'm writing went through a period of addiction and was using for several months, nearly had a fatal overdose, and then became sober. If they were using frequently while in active addiction, would it be possible for there to be visible scars after a decade, even if their period of addiction only lasted for a few months?

Thank you!

Im writing a short horror story and am wondering how to write this. The context is that someone stabs someone from a sideways angle next to the caruncle with a scalpel. The one getting stabbed is on blood thinners. How bloody would it be? Would other parts inside the eye show?

Any scary details would be great

There's a pivotal moment in my story where the main character gets grabbed, and dragged into a room. She's held back by the arms by a big dude, and his girlfriend hacks at her hair.

Originally she used a straight razor, but then I looked into it and apparently that's kind of hard to do safely? I changed it to scissors, but it just doesn't hit the same.

In this instance, it's not about making a nice, choppy haircut it's about humiliation on an unwilling victim. The victim in question doesn't fight back because she's terrified. She might squirm or wiggle at most, but probably not even that.

Is it possible to hack off someone's hair without their consent and not cut yourself? Ideally almost down to the skin.

Hi all! I’m working on some books and I had a question for those who are doctors/posses a lot of medical knowledge.

In my story, some characters possess powers, and those who do are part of a discriminated class. At this point in the story, most of the MCs have already figured out something isn’t right about the “safe haven” they’ve been living in and left out of necessity for discovering the truth, but some of those who were left behind have also realized something is wrong, and were captured while forming their own underground resistance. After one character, Leo, is badly wounded from torture, one of my side characters, Nemeh, is allowed to use her powers to prevent Leo from growing infected and dying. Her power is antibody generation, making her a good healer since she can help counteract infections and boost immunity in her patients.

Since she is the only one allowed to continue using her powers while they’re being held prisoner, she has the idea of weaponizing her powers by generating antibodies in the guards at the same time she’s boosting Leo’s immunity. I know overproduction/reactivity of immune cells can be just as harmful as having a lack of immunity (I myself have overactive immune cells and it’s horrible), but its hard to find good research of what that would look like in the body on a rapid, massive scale like she’s doing to the guards.

Say there are three shift rotations and each set of guards is being flooded with the same immune response for a common cold or flu (done rapidly within minutes rather than over the course of several days) 2-3 times a day for a month. Hypothetically, what would the effect of that be? How long would it take for the effects to be noticeable and what consequences would that have on the body?

Calling all those who studied art history or took a tour/class in it… do you have any niche art history facts you’d like to share? I’m writing a character who works at an art museum and is passionate about the subject. I’ve got some from google, but I’d like some others that maybe aren’t as well known. It could be about an artist, a piece, etc.

Bonus if you know any heist-related fun facts!

I don’t know where else I could ask this question, sorry if I’m on the completely wrong sub.

I started the 3rd Part of JoJos Bizarre Adventure again to keep track of every injury the MC gets, as most injuries get completely brushed aside after each fight. The MC fires a double action revolver inches away from his face, and I was wondering if that would leave any long-term consequences (eg. hearing loss).
https://imgur.com/a/iUOx43T (The manga panel for reference)

Thank you for your help!

I need help from people who ride or know a lot about riding horses, because what I'm finding on Google isn't really answering my questions.

Maybe I should write a word of introduction. There is a scene in my wip where two characters (FMC and MMC) meet on the road (they travel separately up to this point, FMC travels on foot, MMC by horse). Some things happen (an ambush) and they decide to travel together. Both are not so good condition. FMC has sprained her ankle and MMC was fighting in the battle (got his ankle twisted, is bruised up and almost died).

As they decide to travel together they can't really go by foot, so they use the horse (which was rented from the town's inn). So my questions are:

1. Would the horse be able to carry them both or should they rather take turns riding it?

2. If they'd be able to ride it both, what of the saddle (it's made for one person only)?

In my story two young women are fighting off a vampire. While one is being attacked on the ground, I plan for the other to take a broken chair leg and stab the vampire in the heart, through his back. The vampire is not super muscular or wearing thick clothing/armor.

How difficult would it be for the average young adult woman? With enough adrenaline and force, could it be done? Or would it be a moment where the reader would have to suspend their disbelief (or I change it)?

Hey, so writing my book, one of my characters is with the army and is a dog handler. German Shepherd, trained to sniff out explosives. Know the basics of what a Google search has told me, but I want to know more about the nitty-gritty. How are the dogs connected with their handlers in the beginning? How do they live together? How do the dogs react to other military dogs, or just dogs in general? How are they with other military people?

First off, to those otherwise whining about it, yes, I tries to Google this, but I couldn't really find an answer.

I'm writing something, and it includes a character telling (terrible) parents that their kid is dead. Said parents never try to factcheck this, effectively abandoning the actually still alive kid.

[Motivation to get the kid away from bio parents is because they're absolute terrible parents, and frankly don't deserve or should have a kid. (They're extremely neglectful and emotional abuse.)]

If the character lying about the kid being dead, takes the kid home and eventually adopts the kid, would it be considered kidnapping?

(Or if it's not considered kidnapping, did he commit a crime/what crime was it otherwise?)

The story is technically fantasy, but it's set in a classic medieval inspired world. I have a scene where the characters are talking about bruises to someone's chest/ribs. Well, first of all, could you get this kind of injury while wearing chest armor? And secondly, what kind of armor piece should I refer to in this situation? Like, "oh yeah, my [insert piece of armor] really dug into my ribcage when I took that hit," or whatever. Any info for me?

Fashion journalist, but it can also be an editor. Would they be doing field work mostly, like interviews or attending shows/events, or is it mostly writing in an office? How segmented are teams (is there one person to gather intel, another to write, edit, take pictures, or do they work on these things together)?

I googled this and I'm not really getting anything?

Or at least nothing that isn't AI.

I’m a writer, I swear. I’ve done a lot of searches on Google but it didn’t answer my questions in the way I wanted it to be answered and my search history is becoming concerning.

If you were to bash someone’s head with a rock—how sharp and big would the rock need to be? Also, how much force and how many times would you need to hit the person’s head until they’re dead, not just a very severe head injury, and their head is broken flesh and there’s just a lot of blood?

If you ever stumbled upon a video on the internet which contains gore, a video of someone with their head exploded (literally) or severely injured and damaged is kind of the visual I have in mind.

Or is bashing someone’s head with the use of a rock just unrealistic and I should change the character’s choice of weapon?

That’s it for my post. Thanks! C:

( Also, I don’t really know if I should tag this post as NSFW but since it contains mentions of gore/death—I decided to tag it as such. Once again, thanks! ^^ )

In my story, the main character had several years in which they were severely starved and malnourished. (Severely as in close to death). They recovered and ten years later have a heart attack that leads to cardiac arrest. Is there a way the heart attack could be related to the malnutrition? What condition would cause that?

Fantasy gives writers a lot of room to expand and bend what the mind is capable of, and popular fascination with Dissociative Identity Disorder could introduce characters with DID-like traits. Even in fantasy, it seems important to depict characters with DID-like traits in a way that isn't stigmatizing or damaging. My question is for people with dissociative disorders, professionals with experience treating them, family members with insight, or writers with experience portraying metal health issues. If you were reading a story that portrays a character with DID-like traits, what would you want to see? What would make you feel frustrated or hurt? What would make you feel understood?

I'm writing a fantasy story where the climax is about people waiting on a shoreline for an evacuation, while a force of enemies is on its way to kill everyone. So I want a ticking clock situation, ideally with the sail visible in the distance as a few characters decide to play rearguard and delay the enemy for as long as they can.

I'm thinking of this ship as somewhat like a medieval cog. And no, there is no wind-magic in play or anything like that. Just regular wind, in fairly calm weather.

i’m writing a scene where my cougar shapeshifter character is trapped in a room and the only way out is a small vent. realistically, how small could i make that vent for him to still be able to get through it in his cougar form, but not his human one? he is a teen, so his human form is smaller than adults and can fit through tighter spaces. i need it to be small enough that his pursuers would overlook the vent as they think he would never be able to fit (they do not know he can shapeshift) while still being big enough for him to get away. i have a lot of trouble picturing scale in my head so i’m struggling a lot with this

Super specific question I know, but I really need answers. One of my characters for a story I'm writing was born in Palermo, and I want to write his backstory but I'm scared that Palermo would be shown in a stereotypical way or that I'll get things wrong. I already asked this question in the r/palermo_city subreddit but I don't think I got enough answers.

Log story short, I’m writing a romance fanfiction, set in the modern world in the US. My character is in a situation where he rented a motorcycle, then got injured and can no longer ride it. None of his friends know how to ride, so they can’t return it for him.

What are his options for how to get the bike back to the rental company? I’ve never rented a car or motorcycle before so I don’t know how the process works. Could he call the company and tell them where it is and have them pick it up somehow?

I'm writing historical fiction surrounding the death of Edward VII in 1910, and was wondering what kinds of poisons someone could put into his cigars that might not flag at the time (understanding most would absolutely be caught today), but would trigger the kinds of things he suffered from during the last 6 months of his life (bronchitis, pneumonia, heart failure).

I'm thinking about cadmium oxide, but I'm not sure if that would actually be practical for the time, lacing cadmium into the "lighting" end of the cigar? Obviously, a modern autopsy would catch it, but would an autopsy of the time?