r/Writeresearch

How bad would a burn be if you're not directly in the fire

I have a character who, when she was a newborn, had a forest fire start, and a large flame burned the left half of her body before she was taken to the hospital by her grandfather. The initial explosion was more exposed on her face, while the rest of her left side was less directly exposed. I'm thinking her face should have a 3rd degree burn, while the rest of the burns are 2nd degree but I'm worried I'm wrong.

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u/Busy-Butterscotch743 — 6 hours ago

Overdose and what drugs are laced with

Hi everyone so I'm in a online roleplay server and my character is going through a grief process who also used to be a drug user in the past and had relapsed after 10 years due to a forming friendship/crush dying at the hands of his best friends daughter. I was gonna do an overdose scenario/rp where he overdosed on accident from cocaine. If anyone here who has knowledge that could lmk that would be helpful and thanks in advance

(I just wanna also say that I am also taking this rp situation with understanding, caution, and sensitivity.)

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u/AmbassadorQuirky2471 — 10 hours ago

What could cause a temporary worldwide heatwave?

One element in the history of a WIP setting is the "years without winter", a period of several years of abnormally high temperatures that happened several centuries before the current date of the setting. They caused droughts, desertification, crop failures, migration wars, and generally had a lot of ripple effects on the world before things came back to normal. I thought of it as a mirror of the historical "little ice age".

Any ideas for what could cause that temporary rise? It's a pre-industrial society with no overt magic that could do anything like that, so what natural causes could make global temperatures spike briefly and then return to normal?

Thanks.

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u/elemental204 — 13 hours ago

Is it possible to put something on a head in that way that will cause long-lasting (for multiple days at least) or even never ending migraines? [Also, TW, I think?]

I'm writing a sci-fi type of setting with a villain that tortures people. One of the ways to do it is by tying the victim up and putting a metal thingy on their head, then simply leaving them in a lonely room for a couple of days, so it will cause never-ending migraine as a part of a torture. At least that's my concept, and preferably something simply squeezing or piercing, but if that's not possible, then I guess I'll simply come up with some chemical or drug.

I know there's a difference between tension headaches and migraines, but from what my research says, migraines are usually the worsened headache that causes alongside pain nausea, and sensitivity to light and smell. This is what I'm primary aiming for, the worst.

I tried to research what can cause something like this, even asked AI (which didn't give me an answer by the way, since it was too disturbing apparently, hahah), but didn't find much anything and I'm not really sure where to look up these kinds of things, because the first dozen of websites seem useless.

Also, sorry if the tag is wrong, I don't even know what that counts as, haha 😅

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u/PieNo3294 — 17 hours ago

What would it be like to recover from oxygen deprivation

I've done some research on oxygen deprivation, but I haven't been able to find much on what it would be like to wake up from it. If somebody were to be deprived of oxygen for a long enough time to pass out, but just before they received any serious or life-altering brain damage, what would they experience when they wake up? i.e what kinds of pain, confusion, or other symptoms would they have? Additionally, would they wake up as soon as they were exposed to oxygen, or is it feasible it would take several minutes or longer for them to become conscious? Thanks!

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u/Important-Duty2679 — 11 hours ago

bipolar psychosis and visits in a mental hospital

Can a psychotic patients family/friends visit them?

I've tried googling this but I'm not getting very good results.

Ironically I've been a psychosis patient but I couldn't get seen due to COVID.

EDIT: relevant, I should have included she went on a 90+ mph car chase, slapped her mother and her delusions were essentially apocalyptic and how she should usher it in

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u/lyzzyrddwyzzyrdd — 15 hours ago

Amputation in Apocalypse

I'd like this to be as realistic as possible, and I've been researching amputation on the arm for a while now, but I just can't absorb what I read and I feel like I'm still missing a lot. Apocalyptic setting. MC gets her arm (upper arm) chopped of by an axe, relatively clean cut. First question: if it's a clean cut, would the arteries kinda retract into the limb? Would it narrow the blood flow and slow bleeding? Something like vasospasm maybe?

Also, imediately, her buddy is there to tourniquet the wound, and they're in close distance to the main camp where they have recourses and people. Second question: how would you treat it? I'm so confused, I've read about all this surgery talk, but that's not exactly doable in their situation. I thought about cauterization, but I've also heard that it can actually worsen things and is a bad thing in fiction (???) Would MC's arteries need to be clamped? Would they just like, remove whatever's dead or something from the stub and then use excess skin tissue as a flap and put it over the bone, then stitch it up?

Third question: I know adrenaline would play a big part when it's first cut, but what about after she wakes up? I'm sure they'd have some sort of anesthesia drug, but would that wear off?

Know I asked a lot, sorry! <3

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u/LilliPete — 22 hours ago

What kind of privileges do celebrities/influencers receive from luxury brands?

For example when a celebrity becomes a brand ambassador of Dior, besides a paycheck, what do they get?

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u/Leather-Ad-6294 — 12 hours ago

Would it make sense for a detective to have a public persona?

Ig as the title says,like,a detective in the 1920s(in london) or so,would it make sense if he had a public name,like a name that the public calls him by, but is not his actual name but said public doesn't know that?and just thinks his last name is off limits or so?

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u/AAA_1388 — 1 day ago

Pictures of every day people

When I make ocs of different eras I just can’t find the pictures of celebrities and think they are reliable, there is no way in hell the average woman in the 90s looked like Jennifer Aniston. Are there ways I could look for realistic pictures of hair or outfits in different eras?

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u/Lumpy_Concept9911 — 23 hours ago

ways my character can hide dead bodies so no one can find it/trace it to her

she’s a serial killer, 20 years old, and is sort of a vigilante in some way? but it turns out bad.

to give some more info, she’s lesbian and has a girlfriend, she hates homophobes and decides to begin killing them to better the world into people who support and are kind, but it goes too far and she begins to enjoy the killing.

yeah 😭, i felt like if i asked google how to hide bodies i would have the fbi at my door 💀

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u/pockysticks13 — 1 day ago

Cancer timeline and symptoms question

Hello all! Right to it. I've got a character who is diagnosed with late stage prostate cancer that has spread to his liver, lungs, and brain. He has no intention to go to treatment. I've tried to research what his timeline is but it's difficult to get a straight answer. I'm looking for him to survive 2/3 months after he received his diagnosis but I can adjust the timeline and/or how far the cancer has spread to make it more realistic.

I'm also curious what kind of symptoms he would experience from this, especially since he is not seeking treatment. I have some notes about this but am looking for help from someone a little more versed in this subject to point me in a more accurate direction. Thanks in advance!

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u/ratbehavior — 1 day ago

Explosion scarring

TW: Dysmorphia discussion

I have a character who grew up in nobility. She has since joined the revolution against the nobility, but still values her looks due to how she was raised. I know I want to give her major scarring and I was wondering if she were to have an explosion go off near her, specifically on one side, how would the scarring look and would it impact any of her senses, specifically sight and hearing.

Also if anyone has recommendations for what could give her major scarring that could cause dysmorphia

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u/QueerAveryx — 1 day ago

Give me your health insurance horror stories/testimonies

Hope this is allowed! I'm writing a short story about a superhero having to deal with getting care from the American healthcare system, specifically a greedy insurance company. I'd like to keep this realistic, so I'd love to hear a variety of personal experiences dealing with this stuff, especially if it deals with experimental medicine or prosthetics (but all stories are welcome and appreciated!)

Edit to add: I want you all to know that even though I'm upvoting you all, I'm also crying alongside you, yikes

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u/JediNikina — 1 day ago

Could someone survive on human meat alone?

they can eat all parts of a human by the way just that it needs to come from a human body thats it

also no water but an infinite supply of fresh humans also all the humans have no diseases

I want to know about vitamins too like would they get a deficiency in anything

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How long does it take for someone to bleed out from a shot in the spine?

I have a character who gets shot in her lower spine, causing her legs to no longer work. So think the lumbar part of the spine. She lays herself on her back in order to try and lessen the bleeding, but I still want her to die from blood loss. How long would it take her to bleed out? And would laying on her back be the correct way to slow the bleeding? She's a doctor so I think she'd know what to do at least to help a little.

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u/Das_CheeseBread — 2 days ago
▲ 1 r/Writeresearch+1 crossposts

Would it be ok to write a fictional superhero story taking place during 9/11?

I saw a post on IG about how 90% of Marvel characters live in New York yet 9/11 happened and they didn't do anything about it, which could be a joke or something but made me think what if i had heroes be in the right place at the right time when it happened to save people from it? or alternatively, what if i wrote a world where it didn't happen? or also alternatively, what if there was a hero that was on a mission to prevent this, got on the plane, but end up failing? ultimately, i just don't know if its ok to write something like related or taken place in that tragic event & not disrespect people who experienced it or had loved ones that passed away during that event.

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u/zeroed-out-again — 2 days ago

Bronze as a holder of an always burning fire

(not sure about the flair)

In my fantasy novel, that is not on real earth but on an unnamed Earth like world, I have temples that have fires that are never put out but once a year. I say in the book they are small but never imply actual size. I am editing that book as I rewrite it (again) and see I said it was bronze.

Could bronze work for being hot all year around? The year in this novel is 484 days so for all but a few minutes once a year, it is always burning. The fuel is some sort of oil. I thought of making it a holy fire but that seems to be a big much.

The society is advanced enough to make steel armor. No combustion engines but they do use things such as water wheels, weights, and pulleys, horse or oxen pulled agricultural machinery. That's their technology level.

Would bronze work or should it be another metal? Cast iron came to be in the 1500s which would line up technology wise. But bronze is prettier for the temple.

The things I get stuck on.

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u/Offutticus — 2 days ago

What happens if you drink a vial of acid?

I know there's a lot of variables here. What kind of acid? How much exactly? What's the pH? I've not thought about the specifics, feel free to explore them. We can probably assume something strong, like hydrochloric acid.

What I know is this:

- it's a vial

- it will be drunk all at once

- the drinker doesn't know it's acid and believes it's something beneficial

- the drinker expects pain and will do their best to keep drinking

Would the drinker outright die? If not, how long would it take? What would happen, precisely, inside their body? What clues would be left for an investigator or a medic to follow? Does it reach the stomach, or the path to it is destroyed beforehand? What would happen inside the stomach, which should have some measure of acid resistance? Is the damage enough to make the acid already present in the stomach "spill" out of it?

I guess my interest is twofold: understanding the process and damage (what happens to oral cavity, esophagus, trachea?), but also the numbers behind it (how much acid should be drunk in this manner to outright kill? How much to die slowly? How much for the injuries to be treatable?).

Many thanks to all who will shed some light on the matter.

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u/Bous237 — 3 days ago