Writing What You Don't Know: The Assistants

I have a situation which is pretty much figured out, but there's some legal stuff I want to figure out that I don't know how it goes irl

basically: character and her mom tries to leave abusive home. dad finds out and tries to kill the mom. character panics, grabs a knife, stabs him to death. then tries to rouse her unconscious mom. at this point, friends turn up and alert authorities--hospital, which then alerts police

I already know how the situation ends up, which is with the mom admitted to a rest home because she's left disabled, and the character (who is a minor at this time) is ruled having killed in self-defense, then adopted by her friend's family. I'm just fuzzy on what happens between point A and B, or more specifically, how the character is handled during the period of authorities investigating + cleaning up after the incident

 

I think it depends on the character's exact age. You said minor, but 17 vs. 14 vs. 12 would probably make a big difference here.

 

I'm not 100% on that detail still but I've been thinking she's around 13 at the time

 

There's a lot of ways this could turn out, because it would depend on how police and prosecutors use their discretion. But it seems likely to me that the police take her to the station or speak to her in the hospital to get her statement about what happened, and then call a social worker so that she's taken care of. They don't arrest her and the prosecutor doesn't charge her. Especially if the girl is white in the US, this is the most likely outcome. If she's a PoC, or AMAB or both, she might get treated more harshly, or if the police aren't sure what happened they might act differently in accordance with their incorrect theory. But it would take some odd mental convolutions to make arrest and trial of this kid seem like a good idea.

As for what the social worker does, I know less about that, but I suspect that they'd try to place her with relatives, or with friends who step up and offer, and treat foster care as a last resort.

 

So in the road trip fic I'm writing, the main characters' car stalls on the side of the road. Whatever the malfunction is, they need to call a tow truck, and the car is at the mechanic for a brief period of time, stranding them in a tiny bumfuck nowhere town--ideally longer than overnight but under a week.

I'd also like for it to be something a knowledgeable layperson would be able to potentially diagnose, but not actually fix, at least not on a roadside without the necessary tools, but that part is somewhat flexible. Something she could make a reasonable educated guess about would also work.

Anyone know of any car problems that might work for this?

 

The first thing that jumps to mind is a broken timing belt -- it's not immediately visible, but if you know to check it it's pretty easy to diagnose, and might require extra checks along with a replacement part most people aren't likely to have at hand.

 

And if a part needs replacing it can sometimes be a day or two (or even longer) if it needs to be ordered

 

Yeah, if there's anything quirky about the car where they might not have the parts easily to hand (my sis drives a compact car, all its parts are smaller than average) delays due to part ordering are extremely common.

 

cat question: how might an only adult female cat react to their owner suddenly bringing in a scruffy stray kitten?

thinking the cat in question is fairly laid-back and friendly, at least with their owner

 

There are so many ways that could go. Could be anything from hissing hostility to sniffing curiosity.

How does the kitten behave? Has it been socialized with other cats before? For that matter, has the adult cat been socialized with other cats before?

 

I haven't really thought that far into the details yet. I only came up with this scenario last night...can I just have some, like, general pointers and/or likely scenarios?

 

Is it possible to use an electricity generator somehow to stun/kill fish, either by electric shock or by making it explode? I'm pretty sure it'll have to be the latter if the body of water is a full-sized lake or river because the electricity would be spread too thin, but I'm not much of a physicist.

 

@Misty Pond Try looking up vids of "introducing a new kitten" on YouTube, there are a bunch.

 

@ChelG Elektrofishing

 

Not quite what I was thinking of - that makes the fish swim towards one spot, rather than killing or stunning them - but potentially useful!

 

electrofishing DOES stun fish, and sometimes kills them. the xkcd guy's What If blog talked about the physics behind it (and if you could use it to fish for whales): https://what-if.xkcd.com/156/

 

Ah! The Wiki article said it just drew them to one point without killing them.

 

Okay, electrofishing is illegal in the area the story's set so the characters wouldn't have equipment on hand. Is there a way to kludge a setup for it together out of other stuff which wouldn't shock the people in the boat to death?

ETA: Wait, think I found a way, it's okay.

 

can I get an answer on this?

 

based on the adult cats i have: initially skittish, a little hissing, introducing them slowly over a period of time to make sure they don’t fight

if they get along well the adult cat might still occasionally be like “STOP IT, YOU” when the kitten is annoying her/wanting to play when she’s sleeping. i’ve seen adult cats handle rambunctious babbies by swatting them with a paw, no claws