Writing What You Don't Know: The Assistants

Grab and pinch his ear. Cartilage, not lobe.

 

Hit B between the legs

 

Some kind of a submission grab would work -- if A has better reach than B, the moment B raises a hand A can grab it and put him in a wrist or elbow lock, which has the added benefit that it can be done both non-painfully and extremely painfully if need be.

A strike to the face or the crotch to disorient B, then a wrist lock while he's still on his knees.

 

ooh, some good thoughts. Though I tried pinching my own ear with all the pressure I could exert in my fingers in various non-lobe spots and I hardly noticed it, am I doing it wrong? o.o

Groin attack's always a good standby :B might not work in this case, since A's probably kicking in the door (he knows B is inside and might have a spell readied), but I know that B has his back to the door (though he'll start turning ofc) so groin attack might not work positionally unless A takes the time to get around him.

Wrist or elbow lock might work... are there any neck attacks that might serve that purpose or are those universally at high risk of doing lethal/permanent damage?

 

There's really no such thing as a safe neck grab, not even to someone who knows how to react to minimise damage. Honestly, if you really need B to hurt, then some damage is already happening, it just doesn't have to be permanent. Also, neck grabs and headlocks are much slower to execute on than a wrist lock.

 

Solar plexus. Hurts a lot, but probably no permanent damage. Plus it'll knock the air out of his lungs which if you have ever been winded you will know is extremely distracting.

 

any hot tips or do's/ don'ts for someone writing babby's first fictional torture/interrogation scene? I'm not going to go into graphic detail for the scene I'm envisioning, mind you, but graphic happenings will certainly be Implied To Have Occurred/ Be Occurring Camera Right. The POV character is the interrogator, ftr. It's mostly going to be a vehicle to get the instigating incident across (the prisoner describes having met a character the POV character/interrogator knows, the POV character prods him for more details and all that). No idea if there's common errors or things to keep in mind for this sort of nonsense owo

 

scripttorture.tumblr.com

 

ovo;;; interesting stuff but not quite what I was looking for, I've decided! While torture may have happened off-camera (it may not have- and the prisoner is just a rando, not someone whom I'm going into the aftereffects of the experience with), it's more the interragatory aspect I think the scene's going to focus on, so I'm more like to have trouble with like, how a (theoretically) experienced guy in this sort of thing would ask/ phrase questions to get more information/ the dialogue aspect, if he'd need an aide or someone taking notes, that sort of thing- closer to detective work (with a threatening undercurrent, maybe)

(and dw, I shall be staying away from apologia for ill-treatment of prisoners, the POV character may be the ''''protagonist'''' of the drabble but he's by no means a good person/ correct for doing what he does)

 

one point scripttorture brings up is that torturers are near-universally terrible interrogators

 

hey this is almost definitely the wrong thread bc this is more of an art q then a writing one (tho it could also be for describing instead of drawing) and also mostly a v general q but...how do u find out what fashion trends are current? esp like, counter culture fashion trends. How do u make a character seem trendy.

 

Find out what social media platform that particular fashion movement prefers and spend a couple of weeks browsing the latest photos in that movement's tag. People who are into a fashion movement want people to see their outfits so they're very likely to tag them and a good selection will help your character look on trend.

 

Are there any magazines or websites devoted to that particular style? Can you see what's popular in stores selling items you know fit the style in question?

 

Okay so I have a situation where a character suffered a nasty injury to his wrist/hand many of those little bones broken and shattered and also shot with a crossbow in the shoulder of the same arm.

There was some magical healing involved in the aftermath but none of it healed nicely, there is nerve damage, he learns to use his left hand instead of his right.

What I wanted to know is what kind of supports he would use in the years after on bad pain days or just in general. He is a very physical person, he fights for fun and profit. I imagine he would need to do something to stop his wrist in particular from giving out on him at inopportune moments.

 

Its more that like...I don't even know what the fashion movement is called. I know...vsco girls?? I think is what its called? But I'm not really sure what that is just that my neighbors daughter...is one? Like I know punk and goth and scene and to a certain extent japanese fashions like kei subgroups or mori but I really don't know what the current, up to date fashion movements and styles in America are called, and its hard to google (or at least I'm too dumb to think of anything to google other than "Fashion trends 2019" n shit like that)

 

so for vsco girls in particular instagram is deffo your platform of choice for finding outfit photos. just the hashtag #vscogirl brings up a lot of outfits, selfies, makeup looks, etc to give you ideas. if you're just looking for what's trendy among teenage/young adult girls, looking at storefronts and recent selections from stores that cater to that group are also a good start. (I recognize that rn this is hard to do with quarantine, but francesca's, forever 21, h&m, and rue21 are all good starting points and all have websites where you can look at their clothes)

 

In that case my best suggestion is to trawl the #ootd (outfit of the day) tags on tumblr and Instagram until you find some photos of the style you're looking for and hope that they also have the style name in the other tags. Or just in general. The fashion section of magazines like Elle and GQ are pretty decent for mainstream trends, anything counter-culture if you don't have a specific one in mind just browsing people's outfit photos is a good place to start.

 

I think it depends a lot on time period and setting details. If there's magical healing there could be some ointments and salves that do more than those in our world, and I know many folk use those now.

For fighting, wrist wraps (the cloth kind you see on bare-knuckle boxers or anime toughs, say, that cover some of the knuckles as well as the wrist) would be pretty essential.

 

Thank you

I was after any information for any period really so, I can pick and choose or add in bits that work for me. The setting is pretty easy to get handwavy with for what can and can't be done, it's just nice to have some reality to refer back to.

 

Just occurred to me that there are stiffer braces for wrists as well, but those aren't good for fighting times. Still, could be something he needs afterward, though, to keep it immobilized. Without pretty heavy damage, wrist braces aren't usually full-time things, in my experience, though. Might be a thing needed outside of fights/physical therapy for intensive use (carrying stuff or the like).