Little Details

Where: North America
When: Present
Places previously searched: I can't think of anyplace I can go to get an answer on this that wouldn't just be smut. If anyone has a search string for Google or anyplace it would also be it would be appreciated.

Question: Okay, there's an add out there for a KY brand personal lubricant which advertises itself as the longest lasting personal lubricant. The question I have is, is this just for straight sex, which the ad shows or will it also stand up to anal sex. I know the tissue down there has a greater rate of absorbing liquids and I think a woman, after six hours of sex (which the ad kind of hints at with time stamps) would eventually add some of her own into the mix, but if it works well for the boys with boys I'd like to know, I can add it to something I'm writing. Could anyone help me please?

Secondary question would be what is the brand most gay men use in North America? Close to the Canadian and US Border someplace on the US side. Is it KY or something else?

Setting: Modern day Gotham City, Wayne Manor (lol) does not really matter overliy. Modern Day

Searched for this by reading archives for little_details, google, yahoo, merck manual on the three different conditions as well as other types of poisoning

Victim is an athletic, 23 (appr) year old male, 5'10", 175lbs of mostly muscle. Recooperating from mortorcycle injuries, Restricted mobility, walking on crutches, doing physical therapy. On some form of safe, non addictive pain reliever which would not knock him out.

Necessary criteria. = ,must be something easily accessed within home or a lab setting. Ideally it is something colorless and odorless. Something that at first presents symptoms mimicing a virus or flu and then gets worse. Does need to have an antidote. Would like some window, size optional between ingestion and the signs of symptoms. Bonus if there is a chance victim could be screaming in agony. possible convulsions or seizures.

For those of you curious, yes it is Batman. The victim is Nightwing, The poisoner is Damian. Initially only ones there are Damian, Nightwing and Robin. (Ok, I am a coward here. Trying to sneak anything by Alf would be very difficult. For angst purposes I also do not want Batman to suspect Damian right away, hence the inital symptoms matching a virus or flu, something he might initially disregard as not overly serious)

 

I can't make this into a poll, because I don't have a paid account (and don't want one). If you have a strong opinion either way, please comment.

Lately, there has been an increase in submitted questions that don't have anything to do with fiction, but are for other creative endeavors -- illustration, sewing period costume, and so on. I think that I need to make a decision regarding these types of posts, but I'm not sure what, and so I'm asking you. Here are the options:

1. We can keep this a writing-only community, as it currently is, and I could just enforce the writing-only part more strictly by rejecting posts that say that they're for some other kind of project.

2. We can expand the community' to include questions related to all sorts of creativity, with the caveat that only questions about accuracy are allowed -- not questions about technique. In other words, asking what kind of fabric a medieval nun's habit would be made of would be allowed, but asking for patterns or advice on how to make one on a sewing machine would not.

3. We can change nothing, and I can continue to capriciously approve or reject queued posts based on whether or not I think they're interesting and fit with the community.

(Originally posted in military_beta, but that community's been really quiet the last few months and I got no response)

Where: USAF (Stargate universe)
When: present day
Already googled: USAF, contracts, enlistment, "end of term", "separation from service" "inactive reserves," reserves, separation, terms, procedure, 'chain of command', letters, and multiple combinations thereof.

Question: I have an original character who is Air Force enlisted (she'll be E5 by the time this becomes relevant) and is coming up on the end of her four year enlistment. She does not intend to re-up, but she is not going to be permitted to separate - the Air Force decides to keep her in for the full length of the eight year contract instead of approving her transfer to the inactive reserves.

How does she find out about this change of plans? Would she receive a letter (and if so, any pointers towards examples of the text?), or would her CO be informed first and have to deliver the news himself?

Where: Chicago
When: 2006/7-ish
Previously searched: Google, some random stabs in the dark on Wikipedia, and a few friends of mine who've lived in the Chicago area

Question: I'm writing a fanfic in which two of the main characters live in the Chicago area, and are rather wealthy. One of them is heiress to a diamond/jewelry empire, if that's any indication of their status. (The other is a mob boss-type.) My question is: where would they live? In going back and forth with some friends of mine who live around Chicago, we figured they'd live in one of the suburbs, but couldn't really come to a consensus about which would be the "richest" one/the most appropriate place for my characters to live.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Setting: "scientific" fantasy--a fantasy universe that, aside from elemental magic and elemental creatures, otherwise conforms to real world science. The technology level varies from medieval to about 1900s, depending on wealth, the scientific community, and the politics of the area. Three relevant locations are a semitropical area with low technology but a rich ruling noble who imports things, a very high-tech capital with a University in the temperate zone, and a desert area with high to moderate technological advancement in the same latitude lead by a very progressive noble.

Search Process: Rather than look up specific symptoms, given the vagarities of the symptoms I need and the flexibility I need to use different poisons, I just looked up the symptom profiles of a number of poisons on Wikipedia and google, reading them all and looking for one that hit. I did some reading, on and off wiki, of all the poisons I mention below. I also googled "Untraceable poison" for suggestions.

( Collapse )

I apologize for asking such broad queries, but I've read so much that I literally can't keep it all straight, and I need to make sure to use three (or four) separate poisons so my villain doesn't look like a chump.

I actually have several different questions for my story

Timeline doesn't matter too much, but it's about 400 years in the future.

1) If someone sliced open a person's shoulder with a knife (combat knife, not serrated) and managed to slice through the major vein there, how quickly would they go into shock from blood loss, and then lose consciousness/die from it?

2) If the planet has a blue sun, what color would the plants be? A bluish tint, or more red, since there'd be more blue light to absorb? Also, it has a high "greenhouse" effect, so the UV gets through a lot versus actual light, so would that make a difference.

3) If someone lived in a space station all their life (around 22 years), how bad would his agoraphobia be, and how long would it last after he lived on a planet?