u/lunxryears

[This is future, not modern, but there's not a flair for that, and it's only in the close future so I imagine names will still be relatively similar]

There's a scene in my book where the main character wants to reach out to a "childhood friend" (not exactly) because she thinks she might be able to help her with something and have information that could benefit her investigation.

She doesn't know her childhood friend's name, but she does know that her dad is a celebrity so she looks for her friend's name online. The issue is that her dad uses a fake name for his kids, not their real name, so my character can't find her friend.

I just can't decide what the fake name for this friend should be. She's mentioned by 'name' a few times (when she and her cousin are discussing her) so she does need a fake one.

The options I've come up with are:

1. Jingyi

2. Jinghua

3. Jinghong

4. Ruixia

Which do you think is better? Thanks.

My character was born to mixed parents. One of her first languages was Arabic, her dad's language. However, when she was five, she lost contact with her dad and his family and never had anything to do with them again until she was in her late twenties. Therefore, she had absolutely no reason to continue speaking Arabic and completely stopped.

Would she have lost the ability to speak the language after twenty years of not speaking it? Or would she still be able to somewhat speak it, just not fluently at all?

If she decided to relearn the language, would it be the exact same as someone who never spoke it trying to learn, or would she find it a little easier as she once spoke it?

Thanks.

My character, Aether, is the daughter of a very powerful sorceress, but her magic itself is very weak and she's insecure about not being as good as her mother. She's very desperate for her mother's approval.

Would it be cliché and cringe to say the reason it's weak is because of that? Like, she's focusing too much on the magic and what could go wrong and making her mother proud, and not letting the magic come naturally, which is what's blocking her.

Does it make sense, or is it too cliché?

Hi, sorry. I'm a writer and one of my characters is Thai, but every possible resource I can find has a different answer about how surnames work and I'm getting stressed and don't know which is accurate.

One resource says every family has their own unique surname. Another will say it doesn't. It's a major headache, and I'm autistic so struggle to make sense of the over-explaining.

Could someone please explain as simple as possible how surnames actually work so I can finally give my character one?

And if every family DOES have their own unique surname, can you please explain how they're created?

Thanks! Sorry for the bother. I've been researching this for ages but nothing is consistent, so it's best to just directly ask.

In my last post I asked if who you're connected to would influence legal consequences at all, and pretty much all of you said yes, so I wanted to check if any of this would have an impact and how so?

The two characters most important are Xylina and Deja. They're both sisters. Their mother is a well-respected, high-profile attorney. Their father is a high-ranking police officer. Their aunt is a respected, well-known judge. All of them have worked on high-profile cases.

Xylina's crime is battery, attempted murder, and child neglect— this isn't found out til fifteen years later though. The battery and attempted murder was against Deja. It was pre-planned. Her parents want nothing to do with her and will not help her at all due to the fact she attempted to kill Deja.

Deja's a little more complex. Whilst she did physically harm Xylina with a knife, it was in self-defence during the attempted murder. A person I spoke to on a post asking for specific charges also said that at most, in regards to the actual crime, she'd be liable as an accomplice to false imprisonment as she didn’t commit the crime of imprisoning her, but she provided food to the victim (Xylina, after the murder attempt), etc.

As all Deja did was in fear of her own safety and self defence, and she was very likely groomed, her parents (& aunt) DO want to help her. Obviously, her own mother can't represent her, but a lawyer friend of hers agrees to represent Deja (she's never met Deja previously herself). The judge on the case is a friend of her aunts but hasn't met Deja herself, and Deja knows most police officers in the jurisdiction that handles it.

Would connections influence anything here, and if so, how?

Hi, sorry if there's a better sub for this. I usually ask on the "ask__ subs" but couldn't find an active one for Catalonia, so just chose this sub in general.

My main character spends Christmas with her father's cousin and his wife. His wife is Catalan, and although she moved out of Catalonia decades ago, she still loves her culture and tries to be as in touch with it as possible. One of the ways she does this is through food (especially as she's neurodivergent so is more comfortable eating familiar foods over trying something new, and her parents mostly made traditional food when she was growing up).

What foods do Catalan people tend to enjoy during the Christmas season? Whether it's a meal or a small dessert/snack?

Also, is there any other small habits or whatever that I could show in the character? I usually ask friends or focus on their habits, but don't have a Catalan friend to talk to about this.

Thanks!

r/AskRussian seems to be a primarily Russian-speaking sub and I don't speak Russian so can't ask there. Is there anywhere else?

I know Mexican people tend to have two surnames: their father's paternal surname and their mother's paternal surname (correct me on that if I'm wrong).

I'm a writer and I have a few Mexican characters who, for one reason or the other, don't use one of the surnames; whether because their parent chose not to give it to them, or it was later changed.

What would happen with the surname then? Would they just have one, or would they take both surnames of the parent who they do take the surname of?

I'm using a random character as an example here.

Lidia's father's paternal surname is Montes. Her mother's is Romero. Lidia's father was abusive towards her and her mother, so after the divorce, she and her brother have their names changed.

Would it just change to Romero, or could it be Romero Almató? Almató is the surname of their mother's mom.

Which would be more likely?

I don't really remember tbh.

I remember getting a gift from a Santa on a boat as a school trip around Christmas when I was way back in primary school, and it was a pop-up book. I think the pop-ups were a house or a building of some sort? It was really cool and I remember it every so often. Anyone know what it might be?

Apologies for it being so long. I tried to include all the important information. I'm writing this late so sorry if it's a mess. I'll make a new post with better phrasing tomorrow if this is too difficult.

The important characters here are Deja, Xylina, Vito, Don, Noelia, Miguel, & Mireya. I'm mentioning their names so it's clear who is who in my explanation of what happens.

When Deja was 19, Xylina (her sister) attacked her and attempted to kill her. Deja defended herself with a knife, and later panicked due to the amount of blood and thought she'd killed Xylina (well, at the time she wasn't dead, but she thought she would die). Because she freaked, she left the house and called Don (an associate of hers), who said he would deal with it.

She also called Vito (their brother) and asked him to go to Xylina's house to watch Mireya (Xylina's daughter) who was 4 at the time, as she suspected Xylina had left Mireya home alone (which she had). She ended up then staying with Vito for a few days.

Before Xylina had left, she'd told Mireya she was going to visit Deja. I will reiterate Mireya was four at the time which is very important. When asked if her mom had said anything about where she was going or she knew anything that could help, Mireya said no. Even years later, when old enough to understand how important that information was and as an adult, Mireya does not tell anyone.

Don later reached out and told her Xylina wasn't dead but was being held captive. Deja was terrified Xylina would attack her again so let that happen, and for the next fifteen years, she would check in often to provide food, etc, but wouldn't let her free for her own safety.

Noelia, Vito & Miguel knew Xylina and Deja's relationship was rocky, and knew Xylina had threatened Deja shortly before her disappearance, but all of them failed to report this. Vito and Miguel were raised by people who work in law (an attorney and a police officer) so they knew it was relevant. Noelia could argue she didn't know it was relevant, but I doubt it'd work as it's clearly relevant.

Ultimately, Xylina is found (after 15 years, if time determines anything). Deja admits everything that happened and is fully truthful and cooperative during everything. She also provides evidence to having been manipulated by Don, and note she has history of mental illness and is diagnosed with some mental health disorders, which I think both of these matter to what would happen to her?

The thing is, Deja was never a suspect. If the others who withheld information had given it, though, she'd have likely been considered one, so I'm pretty sure that's obstruction of justice; and led to the wrong person doing 15 years in prison.

Other details that idk if they're relevant:

Xylina, Vito, Miguel and Deja are all the children of a high-ranking police officer and a high-profile attorney, not sure if that's important (we all know status can help).

There are plenty of witnesses who can confirm Xylina was always cold and aggressive towards Deja, so attacking her was realistic.

Don has previous charges on his record that include violence.

They're in Spain.

Thanks, and sorry for it being so long 🫠 It's complicated and I didn't want to miss anything that could be important.

So, with all this information— who here would face criminal charges, and what charges? And what would the likely consequences be for each person?

I've seen a lot of people who were adopted (especially interracial adoption) criticise adoption and call it traumatising. I don't want to dismiss that, but my character, Indira, is Sri Lankan and adopted by a Spanish couple. She has a really good relationship with her adoptive family.

Is there any way to write her in a way that lets her have a good relationship with them, but doesn't dismiss other people's feelings about interracial adoption? They already make an effort to respect her culture and keep her connected to it, rather than forcing her to adhere to theirs.

Thanks.

A repost to include important information I forgot and to rephrase to make it more clear.

In my novel, my character, Seunghyun, is a nurse. Another character, Akriti, attempts suicide and is hospitalised. After she’s stabilised, he's the nurse assigned to her to provide care for her whilst she's in the hospital.

The issue is that Seunghyun's girlfriend, Liyao, is Akriti’s cousin. Seunghyun hasn't met Akriti before, and Liyao hasn't mentioned her by name at all. He doesn't know Akriti is related to his girlfriend.

Liyao ends up visiting Akriti, which is when Seunghyun finds out Akriti and Liyao are cousins.

Would he have to remove himself and have another nurse assigned to Akriti after that, now knowing she's his girlfriend's cousin, or would it be okay to continue as he's not personally connected to Akriti?

The novel is based in Los Angeles.