Your DA love interest probably never brushed their teeth in their life.
Let that sink in.
Oh my god
I can’t believe it
All that obsessive research into medieval dental hygiene actually paid off
I was spending all this time thinking “Literally no one cares about Thedosian dental hygiene, Amy, why are you wasting your time on this” but HERE IT IS
So yeah, this isn’t actually true! While the toothbrush itself is a fairly modern invention, there’s a well recorded history of people in medieval Europe using a combination of various sweet-smelling mouth rinses and scrubbing their teeth clean with a cloth and a mild abrasive herb paste of some sort. Some common rinses included mint and wine or mint and vinegar, and pastes included things like marjoram and mint, rosemary and charcoal, and vinegar, pickling alum, white salt and honey.
So rest assured, your DA makeouts are probably reasonably minty fresh!
Also in N. Africa we use swak.(dried tree bark its actually proven to be more effective than toothpaste) I feel like some cultures in dragon age considered how they’re coded culturally
(Ripped from the wiki page other places tht use it ’ It is commonly used in the Arabian peninsula, the Horn of Africa, North Africa, parts of the Sahel, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. In Malaysia, miswak is known as Kayu Sugi (Malay for ‘chewing stick’).)
Excellent addition! I had never heard of this – thank you! I mostly focused on Europe because we spend most of our time in the Europe-coded areas but we definitely have LI’s from scattered areas of Thedas, and there’s definitely gotta be some swak usage in there. There definitely seems to be a good chunk of northern Tevinter that corresponds to the Indian subcontinent, if not also large areas of Southeast Asia, so I’d say Tevinter using swak is a pretty safe bet.
This is a tricky one. I’m assuming by ‘very much’, you mean they do speak sometimes just not all of the time.
Have a think about the following questions:
Why does this character not speak very much? What is the cause behind that?
You need to know this because that way, you can incorporate some of the character’s own thoughts and feelings about their lack of desire/ability to speak, which will help the reader understand the character better. That way, when there are dialogue scenes in which the character does not participate, they will know that they are reporting on the speech of somebody else and are, for whatever reason you’ve chosen, not going to join in, at least not verbally.
How do you format their inner thoughts alongside the dialogue of other characters?
It is recommended that you come up with a format for how this character reports on speech and how their thoughts are interjected as a conversation unfolds. Even without a non-speaking character, your main should always be at the forefront of any development, reporting in on their feelings and thoughts, or having them narrated on in the event of third-person.
It’s really all about balance, so although you’re worried that their thoughts are ‘drowned in physical and emotional descriptions’, you can fix that in the editing stage later by considering how to balance your paragraphs better.
As for format, you could do something like this:
‘Well, what are we going to do about it?’ she asked.
‘Dunno, not my problem,’ came the reply.
Typical; I knew he would be that type of guy.
‘You think it’s that easy? That you can just walk away?’
‘Look, it’s not my business what you get up to. Not my fault you’ve invested yourself into somebody else’s life like this.’
‘Invested? I’m just doing what’s right’.
Yeah, exactly, I nod.
We were all stood here when it happened. It just wouldn’t feel right to walk away from it. As I’m considering this, I notice, just by Jeff’s feet, something unusual.
‘Take your morality complex,’ I hear him say, ‘and leave me alone. I’m not getting involved in this.’
That’s what you think.
He looks at me as I approach, kneel down by his feet, and tug from under his shoe a bloodied cloth. Come to think of it, he’s not the only one incriminated. Sal, following my line of sight, looks at her own hands in shock. I try to wipe away the marks on mine, only it smears, like warm paint. She locks eyes on Jeff’s clenched fists, on the crowbar he picked up in an attempt to prevent what happened, from happening.
‘Looks like you’ve got two choices,’ she says, smug. ‘Come with us, or walk yourself into a whole storm of trouble back home. Won’t be long before someone notices he’s missing, and they’ll all be asking where you were tonight.’
For third person, it’s going to be similar only there’ll be no ‘I’. It’ll be like,
‘Well, what are we going to do about it?’
‘Dunno, not my problem,’ said Jeff.
Typical, Tam thought, I knew he would be that type of guy.
‘You think it’s that easy?’ Sal pressed, ‘That you can just walk away?’
‘Look, it’s not my business what you get up to. Not my fault you’ve invested yourself into somebody else’s life like this.’
‘Invested?’ said Sal, exasperated. ‘I’m just doing what’s right.’
Tam nodded fervently from the sidelines, the reasoning behind the agreement being that they had all been there as witnesses. What right did they have to walk away from it, pretending it had never happened? It was whilst Tam considered this to herself that she noticed, under Jeff’s foot, something ominous…
What prompts/cues provoke the character into speaking, if any?
If your character does speak at certain times/moments, what is it that prompts them to talk? An overwhelming amount of emotion? The sound of someone saying their name, or directing a question/request right at them?
In that case, you can welcome your character into the discussion if necessary by getting another character to perform that ‘command’.
What does the character do as an alternative to speaking?
Say there’s a huge dialogue piece going on, and you find the character is just standing there, reporting what he, she and they say, without any active role in it. Although what I wrote up there isn’t exactly award-winning, I tried to put the ‘quieter’ character in the scene by allowing them to guide the story along. They found the bloodied cloth, because whilst the other two characters were arguing, they weren’t doing anything else.
Instead of other members of your cast jumping onto the next plot point, try to give more of the action to the main character. Reveal what needs to be revealed in the dialogue between the others, but ultimately, you need to give the power of movement and action to the main, so that the reader can ‘see’ how they are participating in a scene whilst still ‘hearing’ talk between the others.
Additionally, if this character uses some form of sign language or other motions to participate in speech, you can still bring them into a dialogue segment without having them say anything. Just make sure your other characters acknowledge your quieter character and ‘listen’/’watch’ them in some way, so their attention is as much on the main as your reader’s should be.
That’s about all I can think of right now. Assuming your character isn’t mute (or even better in terms of the following if they are), you might find some of the resources below useful:
I went on a hunt for word processing programs as a way to procrastinate actually writing, and figured I’d make a post for my own reference, and in case anyone else needs a new sleek editor.
A note: I have a Mac, so all of these work on Mac. Some work on other platforms too – I’ll make a note of that.
Another note: I was looking for some pretty specific things, so I haven’t included some pretty sweet ones I found, because they didn’t have some features I wanted. Check out this page for more, plus programs for other operating systems.
A final note: These are all free.
FocusWriter – I actually downloaded FocusWriter several months ago, and it’s served me well. I probably won’t stop using it. Try these on for size: 1. It’s got a sweet customizable interface. You can change the font to any font stored on your computer, change the text and background color, import an image as the background, and more. Check it out:
This is the theme I’m using currently. It’s very encouraging. Plus, you can share themes with your friends! 2. All the toolbars hide themselves while you’re typing, but they’re also pretty customizable. You can set daily word goals, show a word count and a page count, and set timers or alarms for yourself. Plus, it automatically opens all the documents you had open last time you used it and keeps them in tabs, so it’s easy to access all your stuff. 3. You can download it for Mac, Linux, or Windows!
OmPad – OmPad isn’t really a program, per se. Rather, it’s a nice typing environment with several great themes. It’s good to know a little HTML, since that’s how you do formatting, but if you’re just looking for a place to do words, it’s great. (Plus, if you need HTML help, check out W3Schools!) 1. It saves your text as you type, so you don’t have to worry about it. Browser crashed? Got you covered. 2. It’s entirely web-based, so it works on any platform – including your phone (or my phone, at any rate)!
JDarkRoom – JDarkRoom is a pretty exciting find, for me. It’s really simple, but has a variety of nice options. 1. Color options for background, text, highlighting, etcetera. 2. Word goals! The word goals here simply count how many words are in the program at the moment. 3. Will not allow you to bring another program to the front while it’s open. “Excuse me? I thought you came here to write. Why are you trying to do something that’s not writing? Hello? Not cool, dude.” (I don’t know if it does this for everyone – it feels like a glitch, so that may just be me, or it may just be Macs.) 4. Available for Linux, Mac, and Windows!
Quabel – This is for people who love Google Drive, but don’t like the way Google Drive looks. It’s basically Google Drive with only the documents, but it looks way better and is much more user-friendly. It uses markup language for formatting. 1. Has a pleasant white and green theme that can be inverted to a black and green theme. 2. You can set goals by words, characters, pages, speaking time, or reading time (excellent if you’re writing a speech or something). The speaking time and reading time also have options. 3. You can organize your documents with labels! 4. Entirely web-based, so it works on all operating systems (not recommended for phone use, though).
TextRoom – TextRoom is probably my most exciting find during the search. It’s a bit glitchy, but I still like it. 1. You can change the text color and background color, or set an image as the background. (This only seems to work in fullscreen mode.) 2. Word counts, goals, deadlines, and timers. Do I need to say anything else? 3. The website said to press F1 for options, but the actual key for that (for Mac) is F2. Sometimes when you set an option you have to quit the program and then restart it before it applies. Sometimes when you open the program your interface settings don’t show up, but going into options, sticking your cursor in the image box, and then pressing Enter usually fixes that issue. 4. Linux, Windows, or Mac!
FountainPen – This one took forever to download, fair warning. All the others downloaded pretty quickly. However, the product is very rewarding. Only for Mac, though. 1. Loads of customizable! Font, background color, everything. Uses an optional backdrop, which is an image in the background. You can pull other programs up over it, however, such as an outlining program or iTunes:
2. It organizes your files in the program so you can locate and open them easily. 3. It is completely customizable with images and everything, but it comes with several sweet default settings in case you’re a bit overwhelmed by all that.
Writed – Writed is good if you want to just keep both hands on the keyboard and type. It uses markdown formatting and the free version exports to PDF fully formatted. 1. Several great themes. 2. Really easy markdown user guide. 3. You can export to PDF or HTML with the free version. Paid versions add a few other export options.
Koi Writer – Last but not least, another online one! It’s a bit confusing at first, but nice once you figure it out. 1. Several nice themes and such. 2. You can save your work. 3. Online works on everything basically except the phone. My phone is very confused by all this.
Anyway, I hope y’all enjoyed this rambly guid to several writing programs. Now it looks like I’m out of excuses to write… Oh look! It’s sleeping time! JK I’m’a write. Have a nice night/day/morning, whatever.
The photo above is the closest humanity has ever come to creating Medusa.
If you were to look at this, you would die instantly. End of story.
The image is of a reactor core lava formation in the basement of the Chernobyl nuclear plant. It’s called the Elephant’s Foot and weighs hundreds of tons, but is only a couple meters across.
Oh, and regarding the Medusa thing? This picture was taken through a mirror around the corner of the hallway. Because the wheeled camera they sent up to take pictures of it was destroyed by the radiation.
I wonder if they could get pictures in colour now or maybe get an accurate heat reading off of that thing, if it’s still all there.
It’s crazy to think that something can be that strong that it would kill you by just looking at it. Though it’s understandable. I’d like a heat reading off of it.
Oh my god
I have such a science boner right now
Do you know how fucking dense that must be to weigh hundreds of tons?
Pretty fucking dense.
Wow.
I found this video for anyone who wants to see a video of the thing (although it’s not the best quality). This thing is a serious monster. I have a little trouble deciphering this Wikipedia article, but from what I gather, this thing weighs 1,200 tons (2,400,000 pounds – a number I cannot even begin to fathom) and is only losing about 22 pounds of uranium per year. It resists its environment and if the shelter is improved, that loss is expected to drop.
Holy shit.
I am simply astounded by the sheer power and properties of radiation and nuclear power plants. This is seriously scary stuff. Not to mention its effects on humans. i find deformed humans very, very unnerving. The mutations that radiation cause are the worst, in my opinion, than say, genetic mutations. This video shows some of the mutations from the Chernobyl meltdown (warning: these are very disturbing images, so view at your own risk).
Here’s another website with a collection of Chernobyl pictures, mostly of the building itself (no mutation pictures, so unless you’re upset by major destruction, this is a really cool look-through). This is my favorite picture because it really shows the dripping of the radioactive fuel/debris lava out of the valve. I just find it so absolutely terrifying that something like this could ever happen. Radiation is seriously scary stuff. What I want to know is how they took that picture.
Oh holy shit this is terrifying. The color just makes it worse. It’s like a volcano erupted indoors. Which is probably a pretty accurate analogy, plus tons of radiation to go with it. “”Corium” is only formed during a reactor meltdown as a product of the solid fuel fissioning uncontrollably. This super-hot fuel turns into a liquid and melts its way through steel, concrete, and whatever else that might be in contact with it. So it’s a mixture of fuel and various building materials,” the admin says in the comments.
This article says that Chernobyl will stay radioactive for 100,000 years.
Radiation is just unfathomably scary stuff.
Daaaaamn.
All of this is just so incredibly terrifying and amazing at the same time. Just to think of the things humans are capable of now, and all the various horrible ways everything could go very very wrong if we’re too careless for just a second…
okay yeah fine I didn’t need to sleep tonight anyway ;_;
The Chernobyl disaster is one of the saddest and scariest things we humans have ever done to ourselves and the planet.
100,000 years is a very, very long time.
Also, fun tidbit: there are approximately104 nuclear reactors in the United States alone. True, we have higher standards now, but all it takes is one natural disaster like the Japan 2011 earthquake and tsunami or one Three Mile Island accident to set one of those things off.
Where… where do I even begin with this? Oh Dr. Turner, what would you say to this? Besides…
Okay. First off. Elephant’s Foot. Cool stuff there. The student of radiation physics and protection inside me is beside herself with science-related glee. That is some effing amazing science shit. Science-induced coma here, people.
Read the article though. The Elephant’s Foot weighs 2 metric tons (or 2000 kilograms or ~4400 pounds) and it composed of “black lava”, or a mixture of concrete, debris, and radioactive material. (The 1200 tons is in reference to all of the slag created in the accident, not the Elephant’s Foot specifically.)
It is true that electronics are sensitive to radiation – cameras and other sophisticated electronics have to be replaced fairly regularly in areas of high radiation – but then again electronics are sensitive to both ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. They are affected for the same reason you don’t leave your camera in direct sunlight, or the oven, or run it through a microwave (which are all forms of non-ionizing radiation, btw), it’s an environmental factor the device is not designed to handle.
The camera in this case was “destroyed” by radiation, yes… heat is a form of radiation and the slag from the reactor core was 1660 °C for 4 days, at least. That kind of heat would destroy anything. So while a form of radiation was responsible for the danger posed by the slag, it wasn’t actually the ionizing radiation that was the main factor to using mirrors and remote cameras to get photos. It was the heat first, radiation second, because that kind of heat would melt most things – in fact 1600 °C is the high end melting point of glass (Iron’s is 1535 °C; titanium, 1660 °C, so pushing it. Platinum wouldn’t melt. It’s melting point is 1772 °C). Why anyone would think that the radiation level (though high) would be the first issue here is beyond me.
But guys. There is something that you ALL need to understand and for some of you, it may be incredibly surprising…
Ionizing radiation – alpha, beta, gamma, neutron – is ALL around you. Sat/stood/slept next to another person? Been outside recently? Stood in the sun? Eaten a banana? Lived in the universe? Guess what? You’ve been exposed to ionizing radiation. It comes from the environment, from man-made sources like x-ray machines, and from space. All of you, simply from living on planet Earth will be exposed to approximately 400 millirem, or 4 mSv, of radiation over the course of a year. Sounds like a lot, sure. 400 millirem/year. Unless you compare to the industry standard annual limit for radiation workers – 5000 millirem/year (50 mSv/yr).
Chernobyl was a horrible and terrifying accident. I will never deny that. It was poorly handled. It was poorly contained. Most importantly, the reactors at the Chernobyl site were not built correctly. It was not being operated within proper safety protocols.
The accident occurred for a number of reasons: a process called reactor poisoning began when a neutron absorber caused the reactor to drop from 700 MW to 500 MW and then the control rods were inserted too far placing the reactor in a near shut down state (~30MW). Despite the fact that the reactor was producing less than 5% of the power needed for the test that was being ran, the operators continued with the test which caused a positive feedback loop for steam production reducing the amount of liquid water persent in the system to absorb radiation…
Are you starting to see why the Chernobyl incident happened?
…When the first explosion, inevitably, occurred, the core was overheating, power output went from near shutdown to 530 MW in three seconds, and all of the coolant for the system flashed to steam…
causing more over heating because steam is what is used to generate electricity in a reactor not to cool anything. This fed into the positive feedback loop causing the reactor core to heat even more and go into meltdown… mainly because there was nothing to cool it.
Because graphite (of all the bloody choices in the world) was used in the system as a neutron moderator, the system caught fire inside of the core housing.
This, in turn, caused the core to burn so hot that the building itself caught on fire because bitumen, a highly combustible material, was used in the construction of the roof contrary to safety regulations.
The graphite fire within the system was left to burn for weeks without any attempt to put it out.
People in adjacent buildings were given respirators and told to keep working until they finally ignored orders and left.
Firefighters sent in to put out the bitumen covered buildings weren’t even told why they could only work for a few minutes before they had to leave.
Workers were exposed to a lifetimedose of radiation within minutes.
64 people died as a direct result of the accident. 4000 cancer related deaths have been linked back to exposure caused by the accident.
Chernobyl occurred because there were idiots in charge who didn’t want to acknowledge just how much they fucked up. It was a mess and all safety protocols, or even logical reason, was ignored by most of the people in charge endangering the lives of thousands as a result.
So that’s why the Chernobyl incident occurred. Here’s a few reasons why it won’t again:
First off, the RBMK reactor models built at Chernobyl were never built outside of the USSR.
Graphite is not used as an moderating agent outside of those models.
Bitumen would never be used in the building of reactor housing. (what the HELL they were thinking is beyond me.)
The IAEA, NRC, DoE, and the dozens of other regulatory and policy making organizations closely monitor and maintain standards that are far superior to those at Chernobyl
Unlike most industries (coal, oil, etc), the nuclear industry learns from its mistakes and does everything within their power to prevent it from happening again. TMI was absolutely nothing compared to Chernobyl. Fukushima as well, even considering that they both rate as “Major Accidents”.
Radiation is something that is powerful, yes. It needs to be used and treated with respect and care, yes.
It is not something to blindly feared.
Not every reactor is Chernobyl, or even TMI or Fukushima, waiting to happen. They are not ticking time bombs despite whatever Hollywood or the media claims. A nuclear reactor core does not equal atom bomb (I’m looking at and judging you, TDKR). You need weapons-grade material to make weapons. Nuclear fuel cells do not use weapons-grade material. Ergo, nuclear fuel is not a nuclear weapon. Furthermore, those three instances were caused by one of two things, unique extenuating circumstances (9pt earthquake plus tsunami) or complete human idiocy (running a reactor outside of safe operation limits).
Nuclear power is under such a constant scrutiny that they can’t be screw-ups. The nuclear industry is held to a higher standard and expectation than any other power-producing industry. And the workers – the operators, engineers, technicians, scientists – that are employed at those plants and research labs know the power radiation possesses and they respect it. In comparison, hundreds of miners still die yearly in coal mining related accidents. Oil spills still occur for the same reasons fairly regularly. Nuclear power is actually the safest and cleanest mass energy source we have, but we don’t use it because people have an unreasonable (yes, unreasonable) fear of it because they don’t understand it.
Further Reading (for those who wish to further educate themselves):
tl;dr: Nuclear energy is one of the safest industries in the world. Reactors are not ticking time bombs. Sometimes bad shit happens, but it happens a hell of a lot more in other energy producing industries. Educate yourself with the above links under “Further Readings”. The Elephant’s Foot, though really effing cool only weighs 2 metric tons, not 1200 tons.
Writing any fight or combat scene can be tricky. There is a lot to think about while a battle is going on between your characters. Here are some tips about what to focus on while you write your fight scenes.
Make it Matter
Fighting just for the sake of fighting is not going to be good. A fight cannot just be thrown in to increase the word count. It has to mean something, and it has to matter. Looking at Harry Potter, the fight scenes always advance the plot. In the Deathly Hallows, fights happen frequently. The group leaves the Dursley house to be immediately attacked once they’re in the air. This tells the group that someone had been giving Voldemort information, and that’s why the Dark Lord knew Harry would be moved that night. The Death Eaters showing up in the cafe after the Trio escapes the Burrow. This forces the Trio to go to Grimmauld Place because they need somewhere safe to hide. The fight at the Ministry of Magic leads to Yaxley findng Grimmauld Place, forcing the Trio to move their hide out. All of these fights matter and advance the plot in the story.
Secondly, it has to actually matter to the reader. Any fight is far less interesting with nothing at stake to the characters. Every combat scene has to have the character risk something. What happens if they lose? Will they die? Will their family or friends die? Will the treasure they were ordered to guard be stolen? With their prisoners escape? This also ties in with having flawed characters. It’s not fun to watch Superman fight because it’s very unlikely Superman will even get hurt, and even more unlikely that he’ll actually lose.
Be Different
Having a character preform the same heroic action over and over again throughout the book is going to get boring for the reader. Look to Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series. Percy fights with water and his sword. Annabeth has her knife. Sometimes they’re joined by Grover or Tyson or Clarisse. Every fight scene isn’t just Percy Jackson swinging his sword around chopping his opponents to bits. Regardless of the weapon being used, characters also get creative. Fighting Medusa had to be done through a reflection, for example. Things have to change.
If you have a character who only fights in one way, that’s okay too. It’s then very important that you learn to vary your descriptions. Keep that style of fighting interesting so your reader stays with you.
Structure and Wording
This is probably the trickiest part of writing a fight scene: actually writing it. Over writing will be a problem. Any wordiness that slows the reader down is going to also slow down the fight itself. Most fights aren’t slow, and you will want to match the pace of your scene.
Keep your sentences short to make the fight move fast.
Pick and choose your verbs carefully and make them good ones. Cut out adverbs, they’ll only hurt you. When using descriptions, make sure they are sensory descriptions. You can set up the scene before the fight starts. Use that time to set the stage and describe the cliffs they’re on or the lake behind them. Once the fight starts, limit your description to what the character feels or hears, or even tastes. Can he feel the wound in his arm? Maybe she hears the sleeve of her jacket rip? The taste of blood in their mouth after a particularly hard hit. These are things that will add to the fight.
Getting Started
If you’re having some trouble getting the fight going, just try to get everything down. Picture the fight in your head, and start writing it. Forget about sentence sizes, verbs, and details. Write it all. You can always edit the scene later to improve the structure and word choices. Obsessing over every line as you write will only leave you with a blank paper.
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