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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...)

alnaperera

I am writing a sort of fantasy adventure thing and it involves horses. I have no experience with them whatsoever, so I have a few questions.
1) would a horse be okay with a trip that's ~15km, roughly 100m drop but with minor ups and downs and a pretty low grade throughout (say a maximum of ten degrees for very short stretches, sustained is more like one degree)? How long will this take? What about the return trip?
2) how would they react to this being at 2 in the morning? One horse is the rider's best friend pretty much, the other horse has never met the rider before but assume it's a nice horse. The second rider is also very experienced, just not with this horse.
3) how will the react to a bicycle being a part of the party?

Editing to add a bit more context.
The party consists of the following:
1. Horse A and character A, both used to each other (in town, around town, exploring hills, committing crime together).
2. Horse B and character B. Horse B is my biggest variable because they will appear for just this trip, that's it. Generally used for riding around farms and getting to nearby cities and stuff, I don't imagine this horse being one of those big farm horses. Character B is from a culture that is very horse based and has been riding since she feasibly could, mostly training with war horses.
3. Character C and bicycle. Character C has no riding experience whatsoever and needs to arrive at the destination in reasonable shape, hence the bicycle.
The trip happens early in the morning what would be the rough equivalent of northern hemisphere early March, temperatures would be in low single digits C and warming up slowly to low double digits.
The roads are reasonably well lit for established cultural reasons.
Character A and Character B can both see in the dark much better than the average person.
They also need to start the return trip almost immediately afterwards, though they can reasonably get some rest about 2 kilometers in.

beatrice_otter

I have a British Naval officer commanding a sloop during the Napoleonic wars. Given skill, daring, and luck, what is the largest French-or-Spanish merchant ship he could reasonably take? What would be the most valuable cargo for it to be carrying? (Obviously, his ship is much too small to be going after, like, Spanish treasure galleons carrying silver.)

chaosmanor

Hi,

Thanks to the previous poster for reminding me that I can ask about sensitivity readers here!

I'm looking for sensitivity reader/s for a finished short contemporary romance story about adult characters, and without explicit content. One character has a progressively degenerative eye condition and has little-to-no remaining vision. Another is a lower limb amputee who uses a wheelchair.

For Reasons, I need readers, not resources, and I'd prefer not to give more detail here, but am happy to talk more by DM if anyone is interested. Message me or comment below and I'll contact you.

Thank you!

chaosmanor

ETA: fix spelling error

agdhani

Hello All.
I have written a supernatural angel/demon story, set in modern day Colorado. (The Mesa Verde area to be specific)

My main character has spent his life in a wheelchair; his best friend is Native American.

I have been looking for sensitivity readers in these two areas because I want to be certain I'm not falling into any trope/stereotype traps or being offensive with either character in any way. I don't 'think' I am, but as I am not either of those things, I'm not certain. I have researched such tropes and usual problems that crop up when writing them, and think I've avoided as many as I can.

I've been looking for readers to critique those two aspects of the book. While I've found sensitivity readers for gender related issues, and some racial issues (black, Asian, and Hispanic) and issues like autism, depression, and similar mental issues and neurodivergent areas, I haven't come up with anything for either of the two areas I am concerned with.

Does anyone have resources like these, or know readers who would be interested in critiquing these two aspects of the story?

Current Mood: sore
Current Location: Northern California

hagar_972

I'm looking for a mythology or a religion that has the concept of souls, and the possibility for a creature who doesn't have a soul to gain one, similar to the original end of The Little Mermaid.

( Details under the cut. )

howdyadoitsnatty

Hello again, been a little but I've had a few burning questions in regard to one of my characters who was deaf until about age 6 before getting her hearing restored, with her later becoming a musician. I was a bit curious in particular about this because I feel like I know very little about deaf culture / asl so I wanted to ask about a few things, mostly:

Would it be proper to give this person a sign name or some other sort of thing like that? Would they even still be proficient in ASL after about 18 years time?
What sort of other things might come from being deaf in early life? How difficult would adjusting to that be, and since the character is a young adult would any of that still be noticeable?
How are people who have implants and the like considered by other deaf people? Would she be sort of disconnected from deaf culture due to having it restored at a young-ish age, or would she likely still have some sort of connection to it?

lilian567321

Hello,

I'm writing a fantasy book set in medieval times, around the 14th century. One of the characters has a thick, winter coat from what would roughly be Russia. It's a coat with a woolen exterior, it's lined with cotton quilted fabric and has fur linings on the edges of the coat and on the hood of the coat.

My question is how realistic would this coat be in around 14th century Russia and why or why not, provided we say real-world Russia is the exact same as the one in my fantasy world, i.e. same climate, landscape, surrounding countries and political relations etc.

Thank you in advance,

Lillian K.

iterantunicorn93

I'm working on a story that takes place in a sci fi world that was disinterested in space travel. So while in some ways it has things we could only dream of its also missing many things that we take for granted.

I'm just as happy to get obvious answers as I am obscure ones, since I might not have thought of them yet.

subversivegrrl

I'm working on a post-apocalypse novel and need to hamstring the bad guy by having someone surreptitiously puncture the gas tank on his transport, so the gas drains out fairly slowly and leaves him unexpectedly stranded out in the middle of nowhere. (I guess it's all "nowhere" at that point.)

So my question is, how difficult would it actually be to put a hole through the metal of a gas tank? Could it be done with something like a wide-bladed knife? It would have to be some kind of human-powered action, no power tools.

There's surprisingly little information out there - the majority of it has to do with replacing a tank that *has* a hole in it, often from vandalism, so it must be not too difficult... I just don't know how much effort would be required.

ratha

I'm trying to do research for a story involving the round-up and capture of equines, and I'm trying to find out what the process is after a mustang is captured. I know they're branded and/or microchipped, stallions are gelded, and the horses are sent to different holding facilities until (hopefully) the horse is adopted. But what is the actual process from capture to adoption?

I don't need information about the associated controversies and problems- that information's easily found everywhere.

ffutures

Radio Garden is a web site that theoretically allows users to listen to radio from anywhere in the world, by selecting e.g. a city on a globe of the Earth and looking at the available stations. It can be quite useful for research or getting a feel for the local scene. Unfortunately users in Britain can't currently access radio from the outside world on this site due to a licensing dispute, but I still occasionally find it useful as a way to find out the names of radio stations in an area, which lets me google them to find out what they're like.

https://radio.garden

stories_of_andruste

What crystal/s would typically be used for concealment magic?

My antagonist has created a poison and wants to make sure that the ingredients/source of the poison cannot be detected at a later point in time. So this crystal would be used in a spell that hides the poison magic.

Obviously it's fantasy but I want it to match the associations/energetic properties in our world. Would appreciate advise from a modern-day witch or crystal hobbyist.

nanzyn

Hi y'all!

So I'm writing a story set in the fast-paced world of motorsports. The main character is a young driver who grew up in and around not only a mechanic's shop but also competition driving, so he knows a lot more about cars than I do! I realize after getting attached to the plot.... Oops 😅

So I come to you fine folks here to see if any of y'all have any answers to a few of my questions. If not, that's okay, I've been doing a pretty bang-up job so far of winging it if I do say so myself lol but some clarity and/or resources to spruce up my bs-ing would definitely be appreciated!

The setting is in a modern fictional stock car racing series a la NASCAR (think the movie Cars if you've never been exposed to NASCAR) but from my experience watching both, I feel the behind-the-scenes in my fictional series is more akin to F1 when it comes to culture, money, and pressure on the drivers. Again, it's fictional so I have room to play however any insight how into either of those series function on the inside would definitely help! Mostly from the legal side is where my questions arise, since I, someone with zero experience in anything legal or automotive, decided to have a small arc where the character undergoes a rough contract negotiation with his new team. But also I'm curious what teams of any racing series (stock, formula, rally, etc) get up to in the down times between races and between seasons. Do pit teams practice? Do the drivers practice? How so? What sorts of paperwork have to get done?

My other main question is maybe a little easier to answer. Like I said before, my MC grew up surrounded by cars. He can probably build one from scratch if he has to, and loves working on cars as a stress relief. However most of my knowledge of how cars work has been lost over the years since I was a teenager. Since this is a pretty big topic, I'll ask just two things: what are small things most people wouldn't think of that someone with a vast knowledge of cars would know but not the average person? And then what are some good resources for myself to learn about how cars work? I'm talking nitty-gritty, not just "this how the car go forward" type stuff. Maybe stuff related to auto repair instead? Either way.

Thanks you guys! <3

Current Mood: curious 🐝

lilliterra

What are some tasks that a 3-man crew might do on board a space station? Particularly, I need to fill my crew's average day with some routine maintenance.

This setting is slightly futuristic so I feel like I can modify them as needed but I want to maintain a realistic space travel feel. The space station does not have gravity. It is in orbit around a sun and does have shielding against the strong radiation and heat; but this is sci-fi technology and the workings of the shielding don't need to be super heavily described.

More specifically, I also need tasks that a blind crew member might be able to do without eyesight, and some task which would need to be completed on the outside of the ship, possibly due to incurring damage from the star/sun.

Thank you guys!

Current Mood: curious

voidbeetles

Hi! First post here, hope I'm doing it right :)

I have two characters who are sheltering in an abandoned building in below-freezing temperatures (exact temperature is kept vague). They have various supplies, such as blankets and tools to make a fire, but neither came prepared to deal with weather this cold. One of them, we can call them character A, is already dealing with the effects of accidentally falling into a frozen lake before they both finally found the building to take shelter in. For plot reasons, they're going to have to stay in this building for about three days before they can finally move to somewhere properly warm.

Character A is definitely going to be suffering from hypothermia, but a lot of what I've found describing the effects of hypothermia seems to fall into one of two categories: either, it describes what happens when you get it and then immediately get treatment, or it describes how you can die horribly (and quickly!) from it. Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm having trouble extrapolating what hypothermia looks like when you're able to treat it a little bit, but not well. Character A will receive some warming from the blankets and the fire, and while this will keep them from dying, I don't think they're going to be having a great time (ultimately they're still stuck in a cold environment!). I can guess at what symptoms they'll be experiencing (lots of shivering! sluggishness/tiredness/confusion! etc!) but if anyone has any more medically-informed guesses or suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

A few more details that are probably worth mentioning:
- The POV of this chapter is Character B, who'll be caring for Character A as best they can (and without much medical knowledge), so I'm more curious about what symptoms they'd notice rather than how A would experience them.
- Ideally, Character A is pretty incapacitated throughout this whole thing. I think they would be conscious, but I want them to be in bad enough shape that they won't be doing a lot of moving around or talking.
- Even after they've moved into a warmer climate, The Plot will necessitate both characters doing a lot of walking/running around. What lingering effects might Character A experience from their hypothermia bout?

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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?
alnaperera - Question about horses
beatrice_otter - British Navy Age-of-Sail
chaosmanor - Sensitivity readers: characters with visual impairment and lower limb amputation
agdhani - Sensitivity Readers available or resources?
hagar_972 - Looking for a mythology/religion with a specific feature.
howdyadoitsnatty - Writing a (Formerly) Deaf Character
lilian567321 - Medieval Russian fashion
iterantunicorn93 - What technology is dependent on Satellites/space program lessons?
subversivegrrl - Puncturing a gas tank
ratha - What happens after a mustang is captured?
ffutures - Information Source: Radio Garden
stories_of_andruste - Crystals for concealment
nanzyn - help related to motor sports/automotives
lilliterra - Spacecraft Daily Routine
voidbeetles - Effects of prolonged mild hypothermia

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Little Details

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Recent Entries

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?

Question about horses

British Navy Age-of-Sail

Sensitivity readers: characters with visual impairment and lower limb amputation

Sensitivity Readers available or resources?

Looking for a mythology/religion with a specific feature.

Writing a (Formerly) Deaf Character

Medieval Russian fashion

What technology is dependent on Satellites/space program lessons?

Puncturing a gas tank

What happens after a mustang is captured?

Information Source: Radio Garden

Crystals for concealment

help related to motor sports/automotives

Spacecraft Daily Routine

Effects of prolonged mild hypothermia