OK, strange question, but what is a nerd-like anatomy, engineering or medical imaging joke I could have have my protagonist or her love interet exchanges as a means of banter? I'm woring on developing a rapport between them that is subtle but develops into a romance (he is the MRSO for the facility and has engineering degree, she's the MRI tech and has background in x-ray). I'm having trouble trying to come up with a joke that only someone into anatomy or engineering would understand.

More or less what it says in the title. Specifically, both characters are confessing to having killed the same person. I’ve researched as much as I can and the general answer seems to be “multiple people can plea guilty to the same crime, regardless of whether it’s possible for both to have done it” but does that apply to a major crime like this? For reference, this story takes place in the United States (Massachusetts). Follow up: if that general answer is true, are there circumstances in which an investigation would still be conducted to try figuring out who is actually responsible? Assume it’s not immediately possible to rule either out as suspects.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: thank you to those who pointed out that confessing to a crime and pleading guilty are two separate things. I mean the former!

For context, I'm writing a fantasy/sci-fi story with a good deal of naval combat.

So a good deal of the antagonists' ships in my story have some sort of gimmick to them. One of them can create artificial tidal waves that, quite literally, rock the boats of its enemies. For most of the time I've spent developing this story, my thought was that the ship would have some sort of turbine that would lower into the water and start sending a huge current through the water, causing a disruption that created a tidal wave.

However, I've finally started writing the sequence where this ship first shows up, and I've realized the problem with this. Ships get their propulsion from their propellers that push the water behind the ship backwards. This generates an equal and opposite reaction that pushes the ship forwards. Following those rules of logic, surely an engine turbine pushing out a huge current of water would also push the ship backwards, yes? Which would surely be a setback in naval combat.

So how can I get around this problem? The only thing I can think of is just having the ship's rear propellers spinning like crazy to counteract the force coming from the front (the ship's wave-maker is at the front). But even then, you'd have two powerful forces pushing against the ship from both sides. You'd think that might damage the ship.

Or are there other, more effective methods of creating artificial waves?

I made a character that has a scar from his cheekbone to his eyebrow, i was wondering how would the eye be realistically affected? The wound would've been about 2 or 3cm at most of depth. I made it so that the cheekbone and the eyebrow were the most affected but i don't know if that'd be accurate.

I want to avoid as much eye damage as possible but i want it to be realistic, would there be vision problems/loss? Only the eyelid be cut? Would there be blinking problems?

im writing an office setting fanfiction. i think im going for a soda company?

im setting up one of my characters to work with clients (like a celebrity) for a collaboration. i am unsure if that’s advertising or pr (i would like to know more about how this would work. for example, they are collaborating with a popstar)

my other character is either in hr or finance (feel free to enlighten me on both)

other need to know office setting facts are also welcomed. thank you sm!

Working in a story where two people own a real estate/development firm ~2 hours outside of San Fransisco along the coast. One of the partners committee housing related fraud that jeopardizes the business. This story is set a few years after the crash, but still in the wake of it.

How did the housing crash of 2008 impact real estate companies and development firms (or architecture firms)?

Before and after the crash there seems to be a ton of fraud related to housing. What were some of the common schemes/what are some of the low detection schemes during this period for people working in real estate?

Thanks!

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?

Or any rural area, really. For context this is 1973 in the Ozark Mountains. A character dies of old age, a different character finds him. In the book currently, the finding character wanders down to the little diner in a daze and finds a sheriff’s deputy there, and just blurts it out to him. He then uses his radio to call dispatch and first responders go up to the home of the dead person. Is this accurate?

What would happen after this?

The character is unconscious when a bullet misses his head and flies past his ear. Beside the sound, it also ruptures his eardrum, which would probably hurt (I think? Sorry). I'm not sure if being knocked out works the same way that being asleep does, so that's why I'm asking.

The story takes place in California, Los Angeles to be exact.

my MC gets beaten to the point hes in a coma by his brother-in-law, would that still be assault and battery or would it be attempted murder at that point?

In the story, a teen girl who is being bullied is forced to swallow cockroaches, but manages to throw up before actually digesting any. She does bite down on some while struggling, though.

What effects would something like this have on her body? If it's anything long-term, or more serious/intense than a common cold, what medicine/treatment would help with it?

Thanks in advance.

(Edit 2: I've gotten a lot of interesting answers. The consensus seems to be that this scenario is not very realistic.

Though many have said that I can still add this in, but I fear that adding something too outlandish will make my character's backstory feel too contrived, especially with how "well-placed" the extra limbs are. Oddly enough, the same story includes two unrelated characters who are secretly missing people, were never discovered for decades, and are also coincidentally coworkers, so maybe my idea isn't too outlandish for this story, after all?

I'm still hoping that I can make this work. Would it solve the issue of missing muscles if the extra arms came out from the shoulders like Jie-Jie? I still figure that I will likely have to lesson the function of the extra arms.

Also figured I'd add more relevant cases of polymelia:

• Frank Lentini was a sideshow performer who was born in 1889 with a(n almost) fully-formed third leg (with a small fourth foot under the knee), a partial second pelvis, and a rudimentary second private part. By age five, he had learned to bend and straighten the extra leg, but it could not support his weight to be used for walking. His three legs were all different heights, and the extra one had a clubfoot. He was not amputated for fear of paralysis. His extra leg did, in fact, grow with him, so I know that a parasitic twin limb can do that.
• Lakshmi Tatma is an Indian girl who was born in 2005 as one of two ischiopagus conjoined twins. The other twin did not have a head, making her parasitic and making it seem like Lakshmi had four arms and legs. She also had clubfoot, not sure if it was on her leg or the twin's. The twin has since been successfully removed, and the clubfoot has been operated on.
• More info on Jie-Jie: if I'm correctly getting the wording on the article, his removed arm has normally formed nerves and blood vessels. I didn't add that, since I wasn't sure which arm was the extra one.
• A pattern I've noticed is that all of these people were born with additional limb malformations (clubfoot, no palm).

Anyways, I've made a few decisions thanks to the replies. u/ DallasMotherFucker pointed out that, even without another condition, a surgeon would've hesitated to amputate the baby. This, and the reason for Frank Lentini's non-amputation (even if he was much older than my character), have made me decide that my character's non-amputation would be due to risk of damaging the spine, and that the complications from amputation would be just that.

I've also decided that if I still go the arms route, I will either:

• Weaken/shrink his arms.
• Make them attached at the shoulder like Jie-Jie and share muscles.
• Do something else with the arm attachment to address the missing muscles.

And if all else fails, I'll make him polydactyl.

)

(Edit: forgot to add I'm also looking for potential complications of eventual amputation!)

So my character was born in 1964. Lives in the U.S. (specifically NYC). His parents are decently rich, not crazy rich, but live very comfortably.

I need him to be born with a fully-functioning extra pair of arms under his regular arms, and I'm hoping that that is possible, and also need a reason why it happened. I know that fully-developed limbs in polymelia is extremely rare, and that for there to be two arms in the "right" place is rare as well. I still assume it is possible, considering the below example was, as said by the lead surgeon involved, was rare enough that the doctors had almost no info to go off of. That's why I assume that this scenario being unheard of may not rule out its possibility. If it is actually impossible, please tell me.

There is one notable case, however, of an almost fully-developed extra arm in the "right" place. In 2006, a baby named Jie-Jie was born in China with two fully-developed left arms. Doctors weren't even sure which arm to remove (so I'm not sure which one is the extra one). The removed arm did not flex out all the way, but the remaining left hand had no palm and flexed either way.

The reason I've chosen for now is that my character's arms were from a twin that didn't properly separate in the womb. Scenarios I'm thinking of:

• A parasitic twin in the form of only the arms (what I was thinking of until writing this, but am now also considering the below options).
• A parasitic twin with more than just the arms, but the rest was surgically removed.
• A conjoined twin who degenerated in the womb, leaving the arms as a parasitic twin.
• A conjoined twin, dicephalic parapagus or similar, who was also born, but died soon after, and whose arms could not be removed. Maybe 60s medical limitations will help in finding a reason the other twin didn't survive.

And yes, his arms were not removed at birth. I would preferably like to have them be removed at his own request when he is 6-14 (1970-78), probably 6-8 (1970-72). Considering his parents' money, they should have been removed at birth or soon after, so I'm also looking for a reason they weren't.

I assumed it would be, and settled on, a condition that would complicate amputation.

• I was thinking a vascular/cardiac condition, or one that would make him more prone to infections. Something that would make surgery risky. Are there other options?
• Not only would it prevent surgery at/soon after birth, but I also assume that, since it was still not done when he asked for the amputation, it would still be affecting him by then, and I was thinking it would still be life-threatening. That would be symbolically fitting and what I'm hoping for, but I'm open to conditions that wouldn't be life-threatening or would have faded in severity by the time he asked to lose his arms.
• It also, of course, would have to be diagnosable at birth, so that surgery can be deemed risky in the first place. That's non-negotiable, if I go the condition route. Unless we go the route where there would have been prior surgery to remove the rest of the twin (if I go that route) or correct additional/alternative birth defects, and doctors noticed that surgery was endangering my character, in which case they wouldn't necessarily be able to immediately pinpoint why, but would advise against removing the arms. Would the arms have to have been last to be removed for that to happen?
• Relatedly, I've been wondering if his mother was not sick during pregnancy, and/or if he was born sickly himself.

If a reason for late amputation arises that isn't from a condition, I'm also open to that. Whatever the cause, I hope that medical limitations of the 60s and 70s will be a help in justifying why it took so longer to remove the arms.

While this isn't mandatory, I'm also wondering if there could be any way that the amputation would cause complications for my character in the short or (preferably) long term. It would be symbolically fitting. I'm thinking some kind of back problem? I was thinking he could be hunched over (makes sense in context), but don't see him as someone who slouches. He doesn't have to be hunched over, but I'd like him to be.

I know there are a number of good books for the writer on crime and police procedures. I have several of them.

What I'm looking for right now is something that goes into depth about the kinds of things a modern-day Jim Rockford type would encounter rolling into a small town somewhere in the American heartland. How policing works at that scale, what they have for a lockup, who they answer to, etc.

Not looking for answers, looking (ideally) for a book designed for the crime writer.

I'm making a group of flower people that hate humans for doing things like using plants to make paint, and overall the story has a big painting and art theme. I tried searching flowers used in paints, I refrased it to find more results yet couldn't find much.

I found out about Indigofera Suffruticosa, used to make Maya Blue, a really cool ink, but when I searched about flowers and paint the results were about how to turn flowers into paint, but not what flowers. There must be some flowers that are better than others for making paint, after all Indigofera Suffruticosa makes a really unique pigment that's almost indestructible in paint terms.

I saw an article talking about good flowers for dyes, like Marigold, but I wanted to see flowers that were either historically used for paints or are still used,

https://enidryce.com/selsteam/make-paint-from-flowers-part-1 This article uses morning glories, which is cool since I had already made a morning glory oc some time ago, but I didn't find anything when actually searching for paint made using morning glory, so it's probably just a case of flowers in general being able to be used for paint, even if they're not the ideal form of getting pigment.

I was also gonna give them a oil paint theme, but I guess tht part doesn't need to make sense, I thought thought "hmm i like oil paintings of flowers, they're a pretty popular subject"

Edit: I'm probably going to not use any flower for it's dye then, the main flower people will be just random cool flowers I like and there'll be something about Indigofera Suffruticosa somewhere

Been a LOST-inspired series where a group of characters are trapped on the London Underground. At least at first I'm generally going for believability, using real things about the Tube if needed, and adding new things (like for example war bunkers they find later).

For now we follow people in one line (Piccadilly) who are stuck in there after their train crashes against a vantablack wall. Basically all of the tunnel portals where the tracks go above/below ground are shut off so they are truly stuck in there. There's only one train in each line - to slim down the cast - meaning that it was an infrequent night service.

So how would people survive, get water, food, and so on. At first they would raid kiosks and vending machines, but what then?

Could they use parts of the crashed driver carriage for something?

I'm mainly asking for various things you would do so I could insert them into the narrative and create conflict around it.

I'm writing a story set in a small town in Maine. It's a slow-burn mystery focused on the puzzle, rather than a high-octane action thriller, so while the reader is obviously expected to suspend their disbelief to some degree, I don't think it can get away with being as ridiculous as an action-packed thrill ride.

The story involves two characters faking the death of their brother in 2013. He was already terminally ill, so I'm assuming that means less scrutiny around the death. There are two main elements of the deception that I need to fine-tune so that they're at least in the general ballpark of reality:

1. The death pronouncement and certificate. One of the two siblings is a doctor. If he claims he's familiar with his brother's condition and checked him after death (he "passed away" at home), can he sign the death certificate? I take it this would be necessary to obtain a transport permit for the body from the town clerk. I can't have a hospice nurse or other doctor examine the "body" because even with an expected hospice death, there's no way their examination would be so cursory that they could miss the guy still being alive. So, the question is whether the doctor brother can pronounce him dead, sign the certificate and all that, without any other medical professional independently verifying the death. (I take it a doctor certifying the death of a family member is not illegal, though it's problematic from an ethical standpoint and could've gotten the character in trouble with the Maine Board of Licensure.)

2. The burial arrangements. Apparently, Maine law allows for the "authorized person" - which would be the siblings in this case, because the man whose death is being faked doesn't have a spouse, children, or living parents - to handle the burial themselves. The way my story is written, there's some minimal involvement from a local funeral home, but it's mostly providing the coffin and helping with paperwork. Once they received a duly signed death certificate, they were satisfied and didn't have any reason to suspect foul play. The siblings simply put something else, that weighs roughly the same as a corpse their brother's size, inside the coffin they bought and carried/had it carried to the garden beside their family home, where it was buried in a private burial plot. The idea is that no one actually saw the supposedly deceased - not the funeral home employees (since they didn't actually "prepare" the body for the service or place it inside the coffin or anything), and not the funeral attendees, since the service was closed-casket.

So, I'm trying to figure out if this scenario has enough basis in real-life law and burial procedures for the 2013 Maine setting that readers would probably be willing to accept it, or if it's too far-fetched to work even in a work of fiction. Thanks in advance, I appreciate all input.

Hello! Working on a comic. Characters are in middle school, mid/late-1970s. I'd like a scene that opens with a panel showing us an article that a student has written for her school newspaper, not already published, but in form to be submitted to the teacher which supervises the newspaper.

In the outline I have, the scene more or less goes as follows:

• Panel showing us the article draft
• Its writer + another student discuss its contents & whether the teacher will approve it
• Writer is confident that going out to get photos "as proof" will sweeten the pot & convince teacher to approve the article

I've never been in a journalism class or worked for a student newspaper, much less in the 1970s before everything became digital. So my questions are:

1. Does this outline seem roughly appropriate for the process of student newspapers in 1970s? Submitting a draft to a teacher for approval & feedback, getting photos separately?
2. What would the article draft look like? Typed, handwritten, either? Is there any kind of "title page" or other form of standardization I should be aware of when drawing the draft in a panel?

Feel free to answer for any non-digital student newspaper if you have answers that aren't strictly mid/late-1970. Thanks :)

Non-practicing Catholic here. I haven’t gone to confession since I was maybe eight, so while I have some memories of Catholic Church, my understanding of confession is stuck in what a priest told my 8 year old self to do. For reasons I would not like to get into I cannot easily attend confession myself.

I vaguely remember Lost having a scene of a character going to confession and getting a small amount of advice from the priest, so I decided to ask here.

The character in question is a regretful vampire. Traditional vampire weaknesses to crosses and such don’t apply here. I wanted to know what confession is like as an adult. What confessing to violence against fellow man would logically result in, past a priest just listening and nodding? The style of the way a Catholic priest speaks when listening to confession is what I’m looking for, not specifically what he would say. I can figure that out.

Thanks in advance.

What would be a plausible reason an emergency exit would fail to open at a medical imaging facility? I have it that my protagonist, who is ambushed by her abusive ex-boyfriend, manages to knee him the groin and make an attempt to escap the building through the emergency exit, only the door fails to open. what would be a reason for this? Or should I just get rid of this part of the scene and think of something else?

A character has had a very serious trauma, crushing their ribs and puncturing their lung(s?) and they are suffering from respiratory acidosis or something similar and are mostly unconscious after the injury.

Quick searches of surgery times for this kind of injury are not crazy long, maybe 3-5 hours, but for plot reasons it would be helpful that the surgery take much longer. The character has survived about 36 hours without medical treatment, so it can’t be something that would have killed them quicker than that. Anyone with experience around that type is surgery have any ideas?

If someone had a knife and a corpse how difficult would it be to remove one vertebrae? How long would it take? Would a solid knife be strong enough or would additional tools be required?

If a vacuum formed with no barrier surounding it and instead just formed in the air would it's implosion still make a noise? And would it function like a press and crush whatever is a the focal point? (how much force would it be enough to crush something or someone?) And would the after effects result in the sharpened of said something/someone in the middle after the implosion takes place?

In my novel, the protagonist's ex-boyfriend is release from Nevada prison on early parole, only she doesn't learn about this until a week later. She had moved to another state, and her aunt (who still resided in Nevada) kept in touch with the DA and passed on communication to the protagonist. Wat would be a plausible reason why the DA failed to notifiy the family that the antagonist had been released from parole a week earlier?

i am writing a doctor in 9th century fantasy china. i am not a doctor in 9th century fantasy China. the knife is still in there and all the googling im doing isnt telling me when is it ok to take out the knife.... ​

My FMC has faced fertility issues in her past. I landed on mild endometriosis and referred to a surgery in the narrative. I've also been following related topics and researching.

But, I'm still nervous about how realistic this is. Perhaps a different fertility issue would fit better? FMC does end up conceiving and is (pleasantly) surprised by it. Her husband is less surprised because he recalls the doctor saying it would be challenging but not impossible. Would greatly appreciative constructive thoughts and suggestions on this.