Writing What You Don't Know: The Assistants

I remember that from a Chuck Palahniuk story!

On the topic of a different story; I'm aware it's horribly illegal for a civilian to pull a Liam Neeson and try to hunt down a criminal organisation themselves, but if someone did, what exactly would they be charged with? Reckless endangerment?

 

Assault, battery, attempted murder, possibly regular murder, breaking and entering... I can think of a lot of things, actually, it'd depend on how far they went.

 

Probably obstruction of justice as well if there's a current investigation happening as well as trespassing and invasion or privacy for surveillance

 

I'm trying to figure out how to describe a scene in a fic where one person carries another. The carried is under the influence of drugs but not injured. I didn't have a specific real drug in mind, but I wanted them to be loopy, with impaired formation and recall of short term memory, and physically impaired -- they can sorta talk but that's about it, their muscles mostly just won't respond.

They're both adults, roughly the same size and weight. The carrier is very strong, but not supernaturally so.

So my question is: how plausible is it that the carrier could support the carried's neck while carrying them in front? (How would that look? How would it feel?) (How inadvisable would it be?)

 

With two adults, one of whom can't support themselves, you're looking at either the bridal carry or the fireman's carry. (there's also the backpack/piggyback carry but that one is tricky if the carried person doesn't have control over themselves, because unless they're balanced just right they slide everywhere.) The bridal carry is also called a cradle carry in a first aid context, and it's the one that involves a front carry. Generally, because of weight distribution, it's not recommended in a rescue type situation unless it's a short distance or the person being carried is significantly lighter. Fireman's carry or backpack carry distributes the weight more evenly over the body and allows the core muscles to be used more than the arms.

If the person being carried has some but not all control over their muscles, it's possible they could put their arms around the other person's neck and be carried like a child on their hip/front - legs around the waist, head resting on the shoulder, arms around the neck or under the carrier's arms. In any front carry, the weight should rest just below the hips (upper thigh, how upper depends on position) and between the shoulders. So... generally one would not support the neck and if the neck needed to be supported and only one person was available, you're looking at a makeshift backboard and a drag. It would difficult and inadvisable to support most of the weight of someone by the neck. I suppose if you wanted you could have the person provide most of the support with their forearm and use the hand to cradle the neck, in either the bridal or hip carry options, but... that's much more difficult on the muscles.

 

Depends on if you mean support like holding the neck specifically with one hand, or support as in provide support for. It's hard to do a front carry that directly supports the neck without the person being carried getting an arm around the carrier. Maybe resting their head on the carrier's shoulder, or having the carrier hold them in such a way as to promote that? But even that seems tricky. Still probably better than holding them by the head/neck directly, though, that seems like it'd put a lot of pressure up there and really cause some stress.

 

it is indeed a short distance, just from one room to another room across the hall, and "difficult on the muscles" isn't necessarily a concern.

Spoiler: torture discussed (fictional)

this is part of a torture situation where the victim has been drugged, and the person carrying them is the "good cop" torturer. so the aesthetic is actually more important, in universe, than the practical side.

also potentially of note, the torturer doesn't care if it's dangerous to the victim.

on the back seems like a more practical choice; that'd put the carried's neck over/against the carrier's shoulder? the carried is being lifted out of... essentially the bottom bunk of a low bunk bed, so I guess I was wondering how they'd get at them

I was picturing the carried wouldn't be able to hold up their own neck, so yeah, some degree of neck support seems advisable.

 

support as in provide support for, definitely.

"the person being carried getting an arm around the carrier" how so?

"resting their head on the carrier's shoulder" OH I LIKE THIS (not sure how it would work tho)

I thought of holding them up by the neck but that just seemed like a horrible idea.

Spoiler: nsfw

Spoiler: ageplay ish

"resemblance to how one holds an infant" is a bonus

 

Okay, in that case you're looking at a backpack carry - the logistics of that are the carrier sits down, pulls the arms of the person over their shoulders, and then grabs under their thighs while leaning forward as they stand. That pulls the person's weight against their back. It's basically like a piggyback ride but with loose arms, and the weight and the carrier leaning forward keeps them on.

You can do a front carry like one would carry a child in those circumstances as well - person's weight on carrier's hip, one arm under the butt to help distribute, one arm keeping the torso/head leaning against the shoulder

 

YEAH that's the image I'm going for. weight on the hip, head on the shoulder. it's sorta unwieldy with two adults and would get tiring fast, but it's a distance of, what, twelve meters?

I recognize it'd be a bad idea to do, because agh no don't drop them, but: plausibility of butt hand opening door?

 

Only if you squash the other person against the wall to brace them. The butt hand is the main support of this pose, the neck and shoulder hand is mostly to stabilize as you move. (I've hauled several of my younger sisters around beyond when I should have in this pose, and also it's the way I carry heavy items.) You can absolutely pin the person between your side/torso and the wall to do things like open doors, it's just... really inadvisable. Given the circumstances, it's possible, though.

 

well, that's a very vivid image. appreciated. I go forth to write

 

Oh, point: I don't know if it's learned or just a natural human behavior but everyone I know who does this puts the load on their non-dominant side. Physically, I could do it on the other side, but it feels very off-putting.

 

-- oh, so the right hand to be working with is the neck/shoulder hand if you gotta do something like that!

 

which one is the butt hand?

 

If your dominant side is the right, your left hand is the butt hand and your left hip takes most of the burden of the weight. I haven't actually asked any left-handed people but I'd assume they also prefer to have their dominant hand more free.

 

so your left hand goes over their hip and around to the butt (/upper leg ish, under their weight) and the right hand is higher holding their upper body to your chest?

 

Lefty here. I can honestly do either side as I can generally manipulate doors with both hands. We're a bit weird in terms of tasks like this? Because so much of the world is designed for righthanded people we often learn to manage certain tasks like this with both hands. I would prefer my lefthand be free, but honestly a lot of shit is designed with the assumption that you are righthanded. So like I would honestly probably carry a kid with my supporting arm being the left even though it is my dominant. Because it is a righthanded person's world.

 

Yep, pretty much. Most kids older than infant age can support their own upper bodies in this pose so I could not track down an image for the life of me, but if you've ever seen a parent carry a child who's four or five who knocked out after a long day at the amusement park or fair, that's the pose. Hand on the butt/upper thigh held in front of the carrier's belly usually, forearm pressed close to help carry the weight, right hand usually between the shoulders to keep the weight in place and balanced but can move away to do brief tasks. The head of the carried person naturally rests on the chest, shoulders, or neck, depending on relative torso height. Legs are usually dangling one on either side of the carrier's leg of the left side.

 

Spoiler: physical violence

The upshot is I need a way for character A (extremely large, muscular and good at hand to hand combat) to very quickly cause a great deal of pain but not irreparable damage (bruises fine, broken bones or dangerous internal damage not so much) to character B (lean and not nearly as physically sound). B's a magic-user and A can't chance him getting a spell off, so he's going to aim to quickly just about fry B's mind with pain for at least a few seconds so that B's focus gets immediately destroyed and he loses anything he might be trying to cast and A can follow up by nonlethally incapacitating him for Reasons, so what are some options for what A should be targeting and how?