Fifedrum wrote:And finally, how thorough is the research in this, medicinal or otherwise?
I hope I'm wrong here, but it doesn't seem well researched, at least in terms of what I'm about to bring up.
Since it's a "Somnova Pls" thread, I'd like to say "Somnova, please research thoroughly."
Ok, here goes.
I just discovered that the twins are planned to be named Natalya and Natasha. Somnova please don't. It doesn't make sense. It's the same name. As someone who actually knows the language and has some distant relatives in Russia, I can tell you this. Natasha is an affectionate form of Natalya (Natalya is an official form).
If you have 2 children you just don't give them the same name. It's just like having twins and colling them Jeffrey and Jeff. Or Ebina-chan and Ebina-san. It doesn't work like this.
If you want 2 similar sounding names for Russian twins, call them Masha and Sasha for example. It's "Маша" and "Саша" in Russian alphabet. And btw while Маша is exclusively female, Саша can be used by a guy just as well. It's an affectionate form of Alexandra (and Alexander too, that's why it can be a name of a guy too). And btw Masha is an affectionate form of Maria.
Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasha_%28name%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masha
Or call the twins however you want, just make sure you give them different names and not just a variant of the same one >_<
Anyway, on a more general note - please do some research before doing ANYTHING. You can ruin a great project with a few well placed stupid mistakes.
You want some Russian characters? Find some Russians who can explain their mentality to you. Want a character with schizophrenia? Find someone who has a condition like this or at least knows a schizophreniac personally. Want to write how human meat tastes like? Find someone who... nevermind, just don't
(but seriously, there are countries where they eat monkeys, that might be the closest one could *legally* get to actual human meat).My point is - research everything. Thoroughly. Actually, when it comes to mental conditions, it would be best to consult some psychiatrists, psychologists and neurologists. They know them best.
P.S. And if you were/are planning to have a psychopath character, make sure it's not a romance'able character. Psychopaths do feel emotions, but in a manner so different from normal humans, there is no way to form any kind of REAL relationship. Best case scenario the psychopath can pretend to be normal, fake all the natural responses of a lover and play a role, like an actor. But he/she would need a good reason to do that. It's really tiring to fake all those human interactions for even a few hours, and to fake a relationship - we're talking about weeks here, maybe months even.
But a psychopath would make for a great comical relief, similar to Kenji in Katawa Shoujo. He/she would be very serious, would do his/her best to pretend to be normal, but every now and again it would show how different and incomprehensible to normalfags his/her personality really is. (I'm not offending anyone here, I'm speaking from experience. The contrast between the mask of normality and psychopathy underneath can make for some really fun scenes. At least in normal life it happens quite often in my experience.)
Feel free to PM me with questions, I know this and that.
