little_details | Recent Entries

Little Details is a community that helps writers with their research and fact-checking. We're here to answer questions such as:

If I drop a brick on someone's head from twenty stories high, what will happen?
How big does an asteroid need to be to destroy the Earth?
How do I say "it's not you, it's me" in French?
Can people have freckles on their penises?

All types of fiction writers (professional, amateur, fanfiction, original, dungeon masters) are welcome to post questions. Our focus is factual accuracy rather than general writing advice.

This is the new home of the (now defunct) Little Details community on LiveJournal. Welcome back, everybody!

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neveryourgirl

Hi everyone,

MCU fanfic writer here! I need some advice on bruises and non-serious gym injuries/injuries from sparring or the like. Especially people with medical and/or martial arts backgrounds, please weigh in!

Character context: two non-superpowered hero characters (think Hawkeye or Black Widow), both are women, the injured character is in her early to mid-20s and has trained in different martial arts since she was a preteen

Scene context: It's basically a sex scene. Character A and B are long-distance and haven't seen each other in a while. Character A pulls up the other’s shirt and finds a fading bruise on her stomach. Character A asks about it. Character B replies that it’s a gym injury, because she got distracted during a kickboxing class. (The distraction was that she kept remembering a sex dream from the night before.) The moment is supposed to function as a brief interruption. It's basically 'not a big deal,' because they are both used to worse injuries, but it still makes character A pause, because like, Babe, why do you have a bruise I don't know about?

Injury details I've included: I described the bruise as “fading” and a “yellow-green mark.” It “hurt like a bitch” the first few days, but she can barely feel it now.

Timeframe-wise, I’m thinking the injury happened maybe two weeks ago, but I could change that. It’s not actually mentioned on page.

I have a feeling some of my details might be off? I did look up the different visual stages of bruises healing, but I have zero medical background, and all I know about kickboxing I learned from my google research.

So, my questions now are:

1. Does this injury make sense within the martial arts/kickboxing context? Is the bruising and pain level realistic? Or am I over- or underestimating it?

2. Does the timeframe make sense?

3. Would what I imagine as a kick to the stomach leave a bruise like that without causing more serious damage? Like, would the force necessary to leave a bruise also cause other injuries?

If this combo of injury and cause of injury doesn’t work, I’d also love to hear alternative suggestions if you have any!

Of course, this is Marvel, so there’s some major leeway since we repeatedly see characters without superpowers be kicked or fall from questionable heights and get back up again. But I really like to have my medical facts be as accurate as possible. (And if I feel the need to deviate, I at least want to know the factual realities I’m intentionally deviating from.)

isostone

Hello! I'm currently working on a project for a character who is a amateur (but enthusiastic) cartographer. They exist in the world of Outer Wilds, a game with multiple simulated planets(none more than a few kilometers in diameter). The simulated planets each have their own gimmicks (i.e Brittle Hollow, a hollow planet with a black hole in the center. Its crust falls into the black hole during gameplay, and most of what you can explore is under the crust).
How might I go about mapping these places in a way that'd be accurate and believable in the sense that my character could have drawn them up while exploring? What sort of notes should I be taking?

bluerosekatie

Hello!

I have been looking into chocolate toxicity as it occurs in birds, since I want to write a scene where a human character with significant amounts of bird DNA tries chocolate and regrets it. I'm not planning on killing her, but I do want to figure out an accurate amount of chocolate to give her for it to make sense. Looking at the treatment methods, I would probably want a milder case of theobromine poisoning but enough to be a close call, if that makes sense. How much chocolate do you think she'd need to have, and what would be the proper course of treatment?

perdita02

Hello everyone, I'm writing a bit of a Dracula fanfiction and I'm having trouble researching what chloral hydrate feels like to use, most sources I look up just say "it's a sedative, and here are all the negative side effects."

The types of things I'm looking to know: does it flat-out put people to sleep or could someone remain awake if they tried? Would a person using it stay unconscious through something painful happening to their body (ex., a vampire bite), and if they woke up, would they still be groggy and have difficulty moving? Does it cause the pupils to contract or dilate or anything? Are there other externally visible effects? Does it have any mood-altering or euphoric effects? How risky is it when mixed with alcohol, and what kind of synergy do they have? Answers to any of these would be much appreciated!

malymin

Hello!

Writing a fanfiction taking place inside of a fairy-tale kingdom. In-universe, the fairy-tale is a literary fairy tale (aka has a singular author, not a true folk tale), written by a German author, some time in the 18th century at earliest and the 19th century at latest. The author character lived and died in a fictional town heavily based on the real world town of Nördlingen. I'm writing a scene where a character from the fairy-tale setting is feeling guilt about having been "weak" against a supernatural, corrupting force, and is scared that force is still possessing or influencing him.

Most of the information I can find on the topic of exorcism, prayers against demonic/bewitching/etc influence, repentance for having practiced witchcraft, renouncing demonic temptation, etc I can find on my own are specifically resources aimed at modern-day Catholics living in English-speaking countries. (That is, when they're even remotely in the ballpark of what I'm looking for... new-age and non-Christian solutions, while interesting, are not helpful for what I'm writing.) However, I know that a large percentage of Christians in Germany are some flavor of Protestant. Even when it comes to Catholic-majority regions like Bavaria, there might be things that have been done there in the past that would not be recorded on an English-language website for English-speaking Catholics - especially folk beliefs and traditions not officially condoned by religious authorities.

Region:

Least specifically looking for stuff from German speaking countries in Europe
Most specifically: looking for things from the Swabia region of Germany, within the state of Bavaria

Religion:

Christianity mainly, maybe some Germanic pagan stuff if I branch out.
Protestant or Catholic
Not just solutions ideally condoned by local religious authorities, but folk beliefs and practices

Historical Placement:

Ideally, not newer than the 19th century. If people didn't believe it prior to, idk, 1925 or something, it's not as useful to me.
Must have been practiced at some point after the Christianization of the region, at absolute earliest.
However! Customs and beliefs that are not strongly attested to in reality, but that appear in fictional and folkloric depictions of the past or present written (or transcribed from oral tradition) within the "target range" (such as "pre-christian times" as they'd be seen in Wagnerian operas, or "feudal society" as depicted in both the feudal period's own courtly literature and later literature), are also helpful, as the fic I'm writing is set within an author-created world that would be influenced by such pre-existing and contemporaneous fiction's distortions of reality.

I hope this isn't too specific. If you know something in this ballpark but don't think it's "good enough" for my nitpicky criteria, please share anyways so I can learn something new! ^_^;

Current Mood: curious

4monadonis2

Doctors and Nurses, I need some help trying to figure out some specifics about a character waking up from a cardiac arrest incident.

What time frame can a teenage patient be reasonably expected to stay unconscious after successful defibrillation from an in-hospital cardiac arrest incident (compressions beginning within minutes of it starting)? How much would this differ from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest incident?

Would something like this prompt you to put such a patient on IV nutrition and/or urinary and rectal catheters? If it would take some amount of time to determine these as necessary treatments, how long would that be?

Would a patient being unconscious change whether or not ice packs are used to reduce swelling around broken/bruised ribs (from CPR)? If they are still used on an unconscious patient, how often would they be changed?

countryhorror

Hello little details,
Two of the characters in the story I'm drafting get abandoned in the woods by their parents. They're about 10 years old when that happens and at the start of the actual story they're 13/14, with ideally only a couple of months passing after leaving the woods. I have not worked out the exact details, though since I'm working in a fantasy setting I have considered having fairies kidnap one or both of them to explain the timeframe.
So far my research has only yielded cases where the isolation started way too young for my time frame, or the child in question was gone for only a few days.
I assume social skills *will* be negatively affected by isolation, but to what extent? Are there any other major psychological effects I should keep in mind? Any behaviors you'd expect to form after the period?
Thank you all in advance !

isabrella

Hi all!

I'm writing a piece about a precocious young teen who is playing a game about a plane crashing with her friends. It takes place in our world, in the 2010s. In the game, her friend pretends to be the pilot but the MC is going to correct her language from generic kid speech ("code red, we're going down!" etc.) to very specific pilot jargon because she knows all about plane crashed. I'm wondering if anyone could share what kind of jargon pilots might use during a plane crash? Any kind of crash is fine, but it would be good to know if the jargon was specific to e.g., engine failure.

Thank you!

biofreak659

Hello all! I am looking for any good overviews of medieval tutors of either royalty or nobility. England and France (and other Normanish places) are preferable, but any information is useful at this point. I'm particularly interested in the qualifications of tutors, and some politics involved in their appointment. Teaching schedules would also be useful. Thanks!

voidbeetles

Hi!

One of my current writing projects is set in a civilization that has, for thousands of years, lived in a sort of large scifi underground bunker. They have easy access to water, very little access to soil (they're able to compost biomass, add minerals, etc, but that will only get you so far), and no access to sunlight (grow lights will have to suffice) - for these reasons, I imagine that their agriculture system is mostly hydroponics-based. Though I've done a little research on hydroponics, I'm having difficulty extrapolating this information to my worldbuilding, mostly because a lot of the info I've found relates to singular plants without giving a good sense of what fares better/worse compared to others. And also just because I have a hard time wrapping my head around plant cultivation in general, I think. I was wondering if anyone here had any insights! (Or suggestions of topics/resources to look into more!)

The big questions I'm thinking most about are:

Compared to, say, the modern Western world, would certain foods/food groups be underrepresented or over-represented in this fictional world's cuisine? (for example, I imagine that rice might be the main staple, as flooding rice fields is pretty important to cultivating it... and that potatoes might not be such a good choice, as their "main thing" is growing beneath the soil?)
What effect would this have on the plant fibers that are most commonly used for making clothes (and other fiber technology like rope)? That is: how would cotton, linen, hemp, etc fare? Would a certain one of these plants be more common? More expensive? Quicker/easier to grow/harvest on large scales? (This question is especially relevant because my protagonist has an interest in textiles.)

illuminist

Hi folks! I'm brainstorming a paraplegic character (gunshot wound in the past) in an urban fantasy setting. The tech level is modern (smartphones, wifi, etc) and the character has terrakinesis abilities: mentally lifting rocks, shaping and warping metal, transmuting one substance to another.

Do you have any ideas on what features would be cool to have in a fantasy wheelchair? Currently I'm thinking of a floating office chair that responds to mental commands, but I'd love to hear suggestions. Thanks!

elisheva_m

The big melodramatic action climax of the lakorn I'm writing involves a gun fight (tropey genres x 2, realism is a bonus). Key characters escape, but it's too much to ask that it's unscathed or that they all only have grazes.

What's a good location for a gun shot wound which, let's say, requires stitches but can plausibly be expected to heal without complications? Arm or leg as they had the magical protection of body armour and being main characters. They've made it to a safe location with supplies prepared in advance and with the expectation of bullet wounds. One in particular has been around violence for over a decade and has experience.

I have a good enough idea on graze wounds for my needs - these really are "little details" in the lakorn and I'm just trying to calm the melodrama a bit with something heading in the vague direction of realism :D :D It's been harder to figure out a wound which conveys "serious" (ie stitches as an emotional stand-in for surgery) but won't be difficult to treat for someone with good supplies and experience.

So rather than asking if this or that might work for you all to tell me it won't, I figured i'd just ask for suggestions on the location(s) from the start :D :D

TIA and thanks for replies to my earlier question.

snailslime

I'm writing a story and a key moment in my protagonist's backstory is when she was thirteen and accidentally shot her twin brother in the head during a hunting trip with their father. I was thinking about having her get sent to some sort of juvenile correction/mental health facility until she turns eighteen, but I wasn't sure if this was accurate to how United States law works regarding these types of situations. Also, would any sort of serious legal repercussions be unrealistic given this would be something that happens within the family, and if so, would it work better if the brother was instead the child of a family friend? Any info would be helpful!

elisheva_m

About how much time would it take for someone to partially recover from three gun shot wounds, including one to the abdomen and a fair bit of blood loss? The character is around 30 years, in very good shape physically and was treated quickly, although not in a hospital. Partially, in that he's able to get around on his own alright but not fully fit again, with some concern for aggravating the injuries.

Also, about how long before there's little reason to worry about aggravating the injuries? I need to put a scene in that window and some details of their conversation will depend on how far along the bigger timeline they meet up. It doesn't really matter but I'd be happier if I had a reasonable time frame to ground this in.

Given the state of AI generated slop, I'm appreciating the need for a community like this all the more. This is something I know nothing about so AI could certainly take me for a ride. Another subject I do know more about has gotten so polluted. Thanks for being here and for any help.

Edit: You've all convinced me that he won't survive the organised crime trope of having their own doctor/surgeon and avoiding hospitals, so he must have gone. That information is black-boxed from us though for narrative reasons, so hypothetical readers can add in whatever makes them happiest for tropes or medical accuracy. I only mentioned it because it's narratively important his recovery not go too quickly and I thought blood loss + less supply for transfusion might affect it. My working assumption was that he received whatever surgery and antibiotics were needed but not top tier care.

This period of the story is crucial for the main characters' emotional arc so the timeline there is what's important rather than where he was treated. Six weeks works well.

Thanks for all the replies. Much appreciated.

blueinkedfrost

Any medical conditions from 1700s continental Europe where a wealthy person would have a better prognosis compared to a poor person?

I'm looking for a condition to kill off a poor middle aged woman, one where a wealthy woman of the same age would have been more likely to survive with period appropriate treatment. Until her illness and death, the woman was a labourer and quite physically active.

jomarch

My characters are traveling from London to Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1590. I figured they could ride on horseback to King's Lynn and take a ship to Berwick (or?), bur I don't know: how long would a sea journey like that last and what type of ship would be used? All I could find was that a ship called Anne made that journey quite regularly a few decades before that - I'm guessing it could still be doing it at that point? How long would a ship like that operate for?

lancealittle

I'm writing a story set in the 1980s, in the US, and one of the characters is very involved in street racing and has a heavily modded car he uses for this. I've been struggling to find sources about specifically street racing, not legal/sanctioned racing, and sources about car mods that would have been common specifically in the 80s.

What are some modifications that might be made to a car specifically to make it perform better in a street race? If it matters, the car is a third generation Chevy Camaro, and the character doesn't have a HUGE budget for super expensive stuff.

Is there anything I should know about the "culture" of street racing, like if there are any specific safety precautions that are common, or if there are any measures taken to prevent police from finding out about the races?

Thanks :)

Current Mood: curious

cavitycollector

Hello. I am writing a comic, and in the comic there is a man who is meant to be intersex. I have done as much research as I could find into different Intersex experiences and though I’ve seen none that are identical to his, based on what I’ve read think it is possible? I think I probably have an okay enough grasp of the actual science behind it, but in terms of his personal experiences I’m not sure.

He is a man in his late 20s. He currently has notable breasts, a deep voice, a lot of body hair, and is very heavyweight. For his backstory so far I have written: He was born in the 1990’s with male appearing genitalia, and was assigned male at birth due to this. He was raised as a boy, but during childhood he began to experience negative symptoms such as fatigue, weightloss, muscle weakness, and early development of body hair and odor (precocious adrenarche). He was seen by a doctor who determined he was actually female, and his parents not knowing what direction to go with hormone therapy let him choose. He chooses estrogen for a female puberty because he has always behaved femininely and been bullied for this, so he believes this might be the answer. (He also starts other treatments for the other symptoms of congenital adrenal hyperplasia) Once he begins this therapy and transition develops breasts, he realizes he doesn’t want to continue with female hormones and asks to be socialized as male again and to start male hormone treatments instead.

Throughout this, his parents would be trying to do what is right while completely out of their element, and there would be some conflict about the difficulty of resocializing as female and then male again. they would not really understand and slightly resent losing their son, and then again not understand and be both frustrated by the switch and also relieved to have their son back. In adulthood his parents do not acknowledge his technical female sex, they just desire normalcy.

My main concern is the parents, doctors, and character himself choosing a female puberty at first. I have no idea if that is realistic, especially for the 90s. Most of the experiences I’ve read even when the child is ”biologically the opposite sex”, they continue being raised as their AGAB with or without their consent. I know this experience would be unusual in that way, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible. I feel some parents may justify it because it is technically their “true sex” and therefore bioessentialism states they must be raised as their “true sex”. These parents would have been willing to go either way and believe whatever their son seemed to lean towards due to their complete ignorance on the subject.

If you believe this is unrealistic, what other ways could I come about having an intersex character with these adult physical traits, who identifies as male, and is fully accepted as such by his family, who have been shown to NOT be accepting of transgender people, just him due to it being a “real medical problem”.

alive_miracles

Hiya, I'm trying to discover more about the language of computers (coding, etc) as well as the terminology around what makes a computer. I plan to write a story from the perspective of a computer. This device will be a metaphor for being neurodivergent (autism, adhd, ocd, etc) and a state of anarchism.

[1.]

Do any of you know any historical figures, events, or devices that would be relevant to this subject?

[2.]

Any specific words related to computers/coding language that would be a good idea to think of/implement?

[3.]

Know of any websites or people I could get in contact with to help understand and possibly apply accurate knowledge to my story?

Current Mood: contemplative

himejoshiheart

background details: regressor and biokid know each other, biokid knows regressor regresses (not that exact phrasing but they know that He's Like That Sometimes.)

how would them playing together look like? would people catch on that something is different (aka that theyre regressed) about the regressor, assuming they play in public?

if you're a regressor or know a regressor that plays games with biokids (think: niblings, younger cousins, godchildren, kids you babysit etc etc etc), what's it like?

(sorry if this seems weird haha...)

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Page Summary

kutsuwamushi - About Little Details
neveryourgirl - Bruises sustained while kickboxing: pain level, realistic causes, healing time
isostone - Mapping of multiple in-game planets
bluerosekatie - Theobromine/chocolate poisoning in a human-bird hybrid character
perdita02 - Effects of chloral hydrate
malymin - Protection from, and exorcism of, supernatural evil in Germany (medieval to 19th century)
4monadonis2 - Cardiac arrest and follow up treatment
countryhorror - Effects of living in the Woods on Older Kids
isabrella - Plane crash actions/speech
biofreak659 - Medieval Royal Tutors
voidbeetles - A Hydroponics-based Agriculture System
illuminist - Urban fantasy wheelchair features?
elisheva_m - Gun shot advice
snailslime - What happens legally when a 13 year accidentally shoots and kills her brother
elisheva_m - Recovery time for gun shot wounds
blueinkedfrost - Medical treatment in 1700s Europe
jomarch - Travelling by ship in tudor England
lancealittle - Street racing and car mods in the 80s
cavitycollector - Is this Intersex condition realistic & sensitive?
alive_miracles - Computer Language & Terms
himejoshiheart - crayonfic / agereg: regressor playing with a biokid - how would it go?

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Little Details

Institute of Fictional Research

Recent Entries

Sticky: About Little Details

Bruises sustained while kickboxing: pain level, realistic causes, healing time

Mapping of multiple in-game planets

Theobromine/chocolate poisoning in a human-bird hybrid character

Effects of chloral hydrate

Protection from, and exorcism of, supernatural evil in Germany (medieval to 19th century)

Cardiac arrest and follow up treatment

Effects of living in the Woods on Older Kids

Plane crash actions/speech

Medieval Royal Tutors

A Hydroponics-based Agriculture System

Urban fantasy wheelchair features?

Gun shot advice

What happens legally when a 13 year accidentally shoots and kills her brother

Recovery time for gun shot wounds

Medical treatment in 1700s Europe

Travelling by ship in tudor England

Street racing and car mods in the 80s

Is this Intersex condition realistic & sensitive?

Computer Language & Terms

crayonfic / agereg: regressor playing with a biokid - how would it go?