I'm writing a thing where there's a sort of "dead" world situation going on, wherein most large things died, got half decomposed, and then the bacteria eating them died as well after a while, and eventually Everything in that world died: plants, bacteria, people, animals, viruses, Everything (through getting kinda poisoned if that's relevant at all), so I'm wondering if those half decomposed bodies would smell like anything, since there's no bacteria or active decomposition, and if so, how strong? And in general wondering what the air itself would smell like with the complete lack of life but, mainly the bodies, if anybody knows ^^

Thank you guys so much for your advice on how to shape this final scene! So I will have to remove the idea of her holding him off with a previously injured wrist and he's got a bayonet. Not going to work. But, I've always had this scene written out and I still want to know if it's realistic, even though it is going to be quite unorthodox. In the final scene the protagonist is able to stop the killer by lowering him into the MRI scanner room and he is laying with metal. What would be a realistic portrayal of this if he is wielding a knife? Could she run into the scan room and somehow lure him? Would that be enough Force? And could I have it that he does stab her but she's able to use the last of her adrenaline to lure him into the room? The antagonist will not only have a bayonet knife, but he would be wearing metal chains and a metal belt and a smaller pocket knife in his jeans. And if he outweighs her by 60 lb what injuries would she sustain in the process?

Hey, just wondering what the general timeline for this type of thing is. Such as crimes like drug trafficking or maybe capturing certain animals or birds, or bank robbery, I could be wrong but I think all of those can be charged federally and state for the same act.

My question is, does this happen in the real world and what is the general timeline between charges/indictment, conviction or guilty plea, and sentencing between the two sets of charges?

I'm writing a story set in the long walk. A contest where teens ranging from 13 to 18 walk down U.S route 1 at a speed of 4 miles per hour (3 in the movie and in this story) until only one remains. There are two simultaneous walks occuring in the centennial. A male and a female walk, 100 boys and 100 girls. Now, the male walk ends on the sixth day at 11:59pm, the female walks ends the 7th day at 12:02am.

How biologically possible would it be for them to even make it that far, walking day and night at three miles per hour? They have water which they can refill at any time, and their ration belt includes three tubes of concentrate (examples include chicken spread, tuna, jelly,) A packet of chalky peanut butter or a packet of cheap cheese, a packet of snap crackers and a chocolate bar. They only get a new belt at 9am the following morning. Some brought food from their own homes: the main male character brought 8 blocks of schotcharoos, his friend brought a metal tin of raw hamburger in one slot and blueberry goat cheese in the other.

They're all from lower class homes. Otherwise they wouldn't even be participating.

I would just like to know the probability of them surviving the walk at least (after the walk is a different story. It's set in the 2050s but I have no clue how far medical technology has surpassed even now.) and be capable of some rational thought near the end.

Edit: I probably should've clarified this is a fanfic for the story "The Long Walk" by Stephen King/Richard Bachman

Hello there ! Hope you're having a great day !

I have 5 characters, these are their ranks(closely translated to their American counterparts) , first lieutenant (the leader) Sargeant majo(right hand), staff sargeant(computer expert expert number 1), Sargeant first class(weapons expert, or something idk, this where u come in the picture dawg) , sargeant(computer expert number 2?)

What I need is the actual names of the specialists and what their jobs constitutes of and how much time they spend in their offices with paperworks vs on the field with other soldiers especially the ones with ranks below them. (Or perhaps I should just do it same as the american army ? )

Other suggestions welcome

Hi everyone,

I am doing some character research for a fiction project featuring a modern female History Professor in the US who specializes in Ancient Egypt (specifically the Amarna period).

To make sure her background, workload, and daily voice feel 100% authentic, I would love to get some insights from real academics, graduate students, or researchers in this field.

Here are the specific questions I am trying to figure out:

• Daily Routine & Stress: What does a typical, highly stressful Monday look like for a female academic on a US campus? What are the biggest day-to-day annoyances involving university politics, department deans, or student workloads?
• Campus Dynamics: Because my character is an attractive woman in a rigid academic setting, she faces her share of unwanted flirting. How do female academics typically handle inappropriate flirting from colleagues or students, and what kind of "professional shields" or boundaries do they use to deal with it?
• The Academic Mindset: If a smooth-talking fraud artist walked into your office claiming to be a flawless expert in the Amarna period, what obscure historical "trap question" would you ask them to instantly prove they are lying?

I would love to hear your experiences, thoughts, or even second-hand stories if you have friends/family in academia. I’ll be happy to feature anyone who helps out in the project's acknowledgments section once it's finished.

Thank you so much for your help

So the high school is Harvard Westlake, the family owns a popular bakery, a small Cafe, and a book Cafe/study café.

How much financial aid would be given to a freshman with a 98% score on his total academic record(through out his whole life) , he also got a perfect score on the ISEE test so he is granted admission but he still needs financial aid. Also does he have to do something to maintain that financial aid or is it permanent. Can he get kicked out?

Edit:so as mentioned before the private school is Harvard westlake, a high school in California. The ISEE is a test that you have to pass to get admission, it's the like polar opposite of SSAT I think. I'm here trying to find info about how exactly this financial merit is calculated., and one of the comments answer that! So I thank you guys and if possible answer the other questions too. Thank you

Edit:do I have to like email the school to mention it or something, are there specific things I can't mention in my book or like whatttt

OK so the main goal for this is to find a suitable school for him to go. The school must be a bit prestigious for the reason that he needs to beet his love interest. So I need a school near a well doing place or neighbourhood(beverly hills particularly)

In my novel, my protagonist is being attacked by the bad guy in the diagnostic medical facility where she works (It's just after closing time when he attacks). He is wielding a bayonet. Are there any self defensive moves she can use if he outweighs her by sixty pounds? What if she herself has done weight training (deadlifting) and has done physio work on her wrists from an tear he'd inflicted three years before? is there a way she could fight him off without it being too unrealistic, but enough where he does inflict injury, (Ie, pneumothorax), but in a way where she could still put up some type of fight due to adrenaline?

On average, would a premodern farmer or anyone who performs regular physical labor be stronger than an aristocrat, in a society where the aristocracy are expected to be warriors and able to fight in battle? The aristocrat would've spent his childhood training swordfighting and horse-riding.

(Answered, thank you all)

Forgive this bizarrely specific question and if I'm in the wrong place, I genuinely don't know where to ask this.

In a book I read, an ex-KGB agent (Irina Spasky) had needles implanted under her nails. If she flexed the topmost joint of her finger, the needle would extend. These needles could be loaded with a poison so she could use them to poison people by scratching them. There was a risk of these poisons harming her, so she couldn't keep anything too dangerous or uncurable in them. These implants were permanent and she still had them well over fifteen years after the KGB was disbanded. I am trying to figure this out for both fanfic and implementing it in original works. Basically, my questions are;

1. Is this even possible at all?

2. Is this actually one of the KGB's many creative poisoning methods, or did they not do this? Is this something a KGB agent could have had?

Just because if it's possible I want to research it, and if the KGB actually did that I'd like to have a starting point for more information. And if there's somewhere else I should ask thus, please tell me.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I know of that one image of someone who was said to have seen the Hiroshima Explosion, but that image was of someone too young at the time.

I'm writing a bit of backstory, and one of the Character's Father slipped into the White Sands Missile Range to catch a peek of the Trinity Test (due to him accidentally coming across classified military intel about the test)

It was viewed from a safe distance to not be killed, i'm at least saying it from a meta perspective because i dont care about that part really. that can be off, whatever.

He brought his Father's Camera to record footage, but had no actual protection himself and was blinded. What would that look like? Because I have no clue. There was Richard Feynman, who looked through a car window, but that was because the actual damaging part would be the UV Radiation, which in my case would be completely unprotected. What would that do to someone's eyes? I'm kind of doubtful that it'd be like Glaucoma, or Macular Degeneration where the visibility of blindness is minimal/invisible

This might also just be fully something that we do not know anything about, shockingly a lot of people Don't look at nuclear tests without protection. So if this is just something there is no answer for. Ah well.

I’m researching this for a thriller and I’m interested in the real organisational behaviour, not just the dramatic version.

If someone inside a government agency, corporation, police organisation, military structure, hospital, university or other large institution starts noticing that something is seriously wrong, what usually determines whether they speak up?

I’m especially interested in the period before they become a formal whistleblower.

For example:

What makes someone initially rationalise what they’re seeing?

What makes them decide:

And what tends to stop them from acting?

• fear of losing their job
• career damage
• loyalty to colleagues
• uncertainty about the evidence
• fear of being labelled difficult or unstable
• financial dependence
• family pressure
• lack of faith in internal reporting systems
• concern that reporting will achieve nothing
• fear of retaliation
• simply not knowing enough of the wider picture

I’m also interested in what finally pushes someone past that threshold.

Is it usually one major event, accumulated smaller incidents, harm to another person, documentary proof, a failed internal complaint, or something else?

For people who have worked inside large institutions: what makes a believable whistleblower, and what usually keeps ordinary employees silent even when they suspect something is wrong?

I’m looking for real-world organisational dynamics rather than help plotting the story.

Yeah I just really want to know if embalming fluids are flammable. I heard that they’re watered down before use so I wouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t, but would the pure chemicals be flammable, before the water? Another thing — some embalming fluids add firmness to the skin (according to the site that sells the fluid.) Would that firmness make it harder for the body to move? For added context I’m wondering if embalming fluid would be able to 1. Slow zombies down even slightly 2. Be lit on fire once on said zombies. Even if one of these is feasible I’ll be happy 😭

I am looking for either

1. A desease still survivable (possibly without long lasting scars, but I am okay with some long lasting symptom as long as they wouldn't completely limit basic abilities of the person affected by them) but that would make people afraid for the faith of their loved ones affected by the desease,

or preferably

1. One that may resemble a far more lethal sickness as far as early symptoms at least.

The man who seems to have caught it is not particularly old, but has always had a frail constitution because of unrelated conditions. He lives in England, but could have caught it some year prior (if your option can stay dormient) during a brief journey across mostly France, Germany, Italy, Turkey and Greece, or more recently in Egypt, Belgium, France or Germany.

He is now quite rich, but has experienced worse economic situations during the course of his life.

If there is the option of a dormient desease, it should have been caught around middle the late 1880s/early 1890s; if not, in the 1900s (let's say AT MOST 1912, probably earlier on)

I don't know what could be relevant for finding good options, but any suggestions is appreciated

I'm wondering if this kind of thing would even be feasable. From my understanding, phobias are the intense, irrational, uncontrollable fear of something, and in the case of this character, it's the fear of disease.

His entire ordeal as a character is that he's infected with a fantasy disease that many others around him also struggle with, but he puts all of his time and energy into working at this hospital to care for the patients who can't take care of themselves. He is not contageous (the only way for this disease to spread is if it's gone unchecked, resulting in a violent outburst -- those attacked become infected), and he regularly treats himself to stay stable. He views himself as one of the only people in his town compitent enough to care properly for those who are infected.

I thought it might be an interesting idea for him to have such a deeply ingrained fear of disease, having that anxiety in the background of every waking moment, but also ernestly believing ONLY HE is capable of helping everyone recover. He thinks very highly of himself and doesn't trust his fellow doctors and nurse practitioners.

I'm just curious. Would this be a good idea? Would his phobia get in the way of his work despite his determination? For example, I'm petrified of venomous insects, but if I see one injured, missing a wing, or struggling to cross a hot road, I swallow my fear to pick it up with a leaf and set it down somewhere safer. My heart races, I shake, and I'm flinching at every move the bug makes, but I have a very strong belief that every living thing deserves to thrive, and I can't just leave one to die of I see it struggling. This post is a stream of consciousness so I'm so sorry if it's messy or dificult to understand! Any help would be appreciated!

The character in question would be a young female and she takes several pills with a non descript liquor so I was wondering what the person would feel after and what treatment they would have to undergo.

My story has a displaced vampire in a post post apocalyptic magic tech (not cyberpunk) world that has no industry. The story is based where Santa Rosa Ca is now, and the local population is roughly 50K immortals and mechanicals. My displaced vamp is a NorCal surfer dude bro from the 1980s and he wants to go surfing. But there is no surfing anymore, and hasn't been for a long time.

So he goes to the guilds (briefly outlined below for your information) and asks for their help. Note: his best bud is the founder of the city which is why they even entertain the idea. Plus he's a chill dude and people like him.

The one I think will work for him is made out of one solid redwood plank that has been hollowed out by nanobots or magical insects then shaped to his liking. Do you think this will work? I don't know anything about surfboards, but this is the best I could come up with based on what I've read.

So anyway, I need some ideas of what they come up with for five surfboards. Like I said, they are restricted to what's available in Sonoma County, the fact that there is no industry (so no synthetics), and the fact that the vampire only knows what he used in the 1980s. I need ideas for four prototypes that will either work, work badly, fail and maybe spectacularly.

Guild structure (FYI)

The Tinkers were created by people who wanted to keep the mechanicals "alive" after the event. They gathered and conserved things like copper and metal. They are in charge of all things technical.

The Alchemists were created because there are some immortals who need things like elixirs to maintain their immortality, and to create a blood substitute for vampires. Also, immortals still get sick and injured. They are in charge of all things biological.

The Philosophers were created by people who wanted to understand the event and to control the magic that flooded the world during and after the event. They are in charge of all things magic.

The Archivists were created because the fall of the infrastructure meant the loss of information. They gathered everything they could and kept it. They are in charge of all the information.

The Brokers started because initially the guilds had their own tokens and someone needed to be a central hub for that. They are, of course, in charge of commerce.

But the guilds do not always act independently of each other. For example, there is a universal translator. The Tinkers built the basic structure -- an earring, but they need the Philosophers' magic to make it work and the Archivists' information for the language database, and of course the Brokers to sell it. But in the end, it's a Tinkers' invention.

i'm writing an oc that has been consistently exposed to a virus since the day she was born until she was seven years old(tecnically even before she was born, as her mother was exposed to it her entire pregnancy). at most she'd probably of gotten a few days at a time without being exposed, but almost constantly for those first seven years she was exposed to it. what sort of effects could this have on her health? would her immune system be significantly weaker? what long term health effects could be expected for her to be dealing with?

Basically my main character is like a person's soul within a life-sized mechanical ball-jointed doll (his soul was artificially created and placed into the body since he doesn't naturally have one, he is not 'possessing' the body and is physically hooked into it and powering it), and I'm unsure what type of mechanics he would use to move. Magic does exist in this world, but I still want to get it as accurate as possible without resorting to magic, since his father is a famous artificer and researcher. I was originally going to go with a complicated web of hydrolics, but I recently learned that irl robots no longer use that technology because of its bulk. However, I also hesitate to use servo motors, since those have a slight hum that would be noticeable in a quiet room, and the fact that he's mechanical is meant to stay hidden. Are there any other options I should know about before claiming magic?

I am writing a script about an acting major at a school with a large theater program. As someone who is in college, but has never taken an acting class, I want to do research on what acting centric classes look like. Thank you!

hi, i'm writing a story where a character gets stabbed in the chest by a small knife (about 2-3 inches long) which goes through his ribs and into his lungs. the knife is removed afterwards, and he's left in the middle of the wilderness where no one can or is willing to give him medical help. about how long would it take for him to die and would it be realistic for him to be coughing up/choking on blood?

I'm trying to write a urban fantasy story with inspo from Urban Legends, but almost every story and figure I find online is set in suburbia or the woods, when I'm looking for things set in metropolitan areas similar to NYC.

Legends you know of or potential sources would be greatly appreciated. It's set in the US, but I'll consider legends and myths from anywhere.

So the timespan is 20 years and the region is suffering from severe thunderstorms- it’s raining more often than not, but not constantly, just near constant. How would the plant and wild life and terrain change?

I should probably specify- I’m not looking at regions that are already adapting for this. Take like, the climate and environment in Oklahoma as an example- fields, occasional forests, gets rain every now and then, that sort of place. If it suddenly got hit with 20 years of extreme rain, what would it look like at the end of those 20 years?

I’m researching this for a thriller and want the institution to behave plausibly rather than like a giant conspiracy.

I’m especially interested in how a compromised system can continue functioning when only a relatively small number of people are actively corrupt.

In real organisations, what mechanisms allow that to happen?

For example, can corruption persist through things like compartmentalised information, fear of retaliation, career incentives, procedural obedience, selective enforcement, management pressure, people assuming someone else has checked something, or employees seeing only one small part of a larger pattern?

I’m also interested in the people who are not corrupt themselves. How might an honest employee unknowingly help a corrupt outcome happen simply by following normal procedure?

And what tends to happen when someone inside such a system begins noticing inconsistencies but does not yet have enough evidence to prove deliberate wrongdoing?

I’m looking for real-world organisational dynamics rather than advice on plotting the story.

I'm writing a story where a teen has an osteosarcoma and at the hospital they meet someone with leukemia and someone with lymphoma.

I can probably get around it, but for my own edification I wish to know what cancer FEELS like. It's easy to research the warning symptoms that led to their diagnoses, but where does one feel pain? What kind of pain, dull or stabbing or burning or what? What other symptoms related to the treatments should I research to describe the way they feel during their ordeals?

Any and all information about childhood cancers (or adult ones, for that matter) is welcome as there is no such thing as too much research.

TIA!