#wid0wsbite

OK so I can only reallyhelp with part of this.

 I’m not a psychologistor a psychiatrist and I’ve never worked with survivors. I know very littleabout childhood development and a significant portion of the ask seems gearedtowards that.

 I can talk about thelasting physical effects of falaka and the psychological effects torturegenerally has. But for more specific questions about childhood abuse and how itaffects a person later in life I think you should refer to ScriptShrink. She’sanswered a lot of questions on the topic and done specialist courses on thesubject which make her much better placed to tackle that part of the questionthan I am.

 ScriptTraumaSurvivorwill also be able to help you on that front. I strongly suggest consulting bothof them about the effects of childhood abuse in particular.

 Falaka, which is reallycommon in one of the places I’m from, is a really interesting torture to pick.Depending on how it’s done and the implements used it can be lethal, crippling,scarring or clean (ie non-scarring).Falaka with metal poles can kill. Falaka with similarly stiff materials can beused to systematically break every bone in the feet, which can have lastingeffects on the victim’s ability to walk. Falaka with flexible wooden stickstends to scar.

 Nowadays ‘clean’ falakatends to be done with rubber hose pipes. It’s excruciatingly painful and causesa lot of swelling, but it doesn’t leave lasting external marks. However it canstill be detected several months afterwardsthanks to the pioneering work of Turkish doctors. There is now a consistent MRImethodology that can detect the tiny bone fractures (or free fragments) in thefeet caused by falaka.

 This can be used toconclusively prove abuse but the method isn’t well known outside Turkey and ahandful of specialist centres focusing on torture survivors.

 What the foster motheruses to beat this character with is going to make a huge difference to thecharacter’s physical health later in life. Chronic pain and swelling arepossible whatever she uses but anything otherthan a soft, rounded object like a hose is going to cause visible scarring andsome mobility problems.

 At the worse end thecharacter will have needed multiple surgeries on her feet by the time she’s 28,might have pins in her bones, and would probably need some kind of mobility aidto walk. She would probably still find walking painful.

 At the less severe end she’ll able to walk andrun reasonably well but she might struggle with a lot of sports and walkinglong distances. This is because scar tissue on the soles of the feet restrictsmovement in the feet, which affects balance, agility and someone’s ability towalk comfortably.

 I don’t think it wouldbe out of place for your character to regularly use a cane at 28.

 When it comes to hermental health the effects are much harder to predict.

 With a couple of exceptions(sexual abuse, solitary confinement and sensory deprivation) torture producesthe same symptoms regardless of the exact method used.

 Most victims will notdisplay all possible symptoms. What happens instead is that some peoplemanifest particular symptoms and others don’t. We can predict pretty accuratelywhat symptoms are possible but notwho will get them.

 We don’t currentlyunderstand why some people get particular symptoms and others don’t.

 What I tend torecommend is that authors chose symptoms based on the character’s personalityand what they feel fits their story best. The important thing is to show thosesymptoms consistently and respectfully.

 Someone who has gonethrough multiple traumatic events over a long period of time, like yourcharacter, is more likely to have post traumatic stress disorder and morelikely to show more symptoms and more severe symptoms.

 In the sort of scenarioyou describe I think memory problems are extremely likely. These tend to bevivid intrusive memories of traumatic events, forgetting a lot of things thathappened around traumatic events, remembering traumatic events incorrectly anda sort of general forgetfulness that persists throughout ordinary life.

 Experiencing abuse atsuch a young age and it being particularly aimed at preventing her interactingwith other people means that she’s much more likely to find it difficult torelate to other people and would probably experience social isolation as aresult. Having normal everyday conversations might be very difficult for her,things like interacting with cashiers in shops. If she’s afraid of socialinteraction (which also seems likely) she may well isolate herself which wouldin turn make her other symptoms worse.

 Take a look at my Masterposton the common effects of torture here. Pick about 5-7 symptoms that youfeel fit her, the story and the situation generally.

 This doesn’t reallyanswer the whole question but it addresses as far as possible the bits I’mqualified to answer. I strongly advise asking ScriptShrink how this wouldaffect your character’s speech and how comfortable she would be speaking toothers because I suspect that would be affected but I don’t know.

 Good luck with yourstory. :)

Honestly this isn’t in my wheel house. It might be in -shrinks? But that is a huge might.

Yep. There’s a class of medication called Benzodiazepines that are incredibly effective at treating it - to the point that catatonia is barely an issue in clinical practice nowadays. See my post here.

Doing pretty good actually, making all the -kinesis prompts is pretty fun. 

Well, you actually picked the easier of the two to make not know. So I’ll just go ahead and do the other side as well.

Like maybe, if bad can’t see good:

Getting cable to see the ‘heroes’ in action would compromise their position.

Being in the same city, or even staying in the same city, after the break would cause them to butt heads too often and know too much about each other.

Every time the ‘good’ half of the team gets on the news it’s overshadowed by the reporters saying that the missing members would have done so much better/prevented more casualties/got rid of the problem for good and they can’t take the guilt.

Conversely, If good can’t see bad:

The fugitives have gone so far into underground crime that they have a network working for them.

They don’t want to know about their old teammates so they ignore all of their crimes out of a strange mix of mutual understanding and fear of the awkward confrontation.

The ‘bad’ have moved out of their jurisdiction and going out of their way to stop them may cause an international incident.

I can answer this a little. 

The request could be denied due to inadequate housing, an unstable living environment, unstable personal life, etc. There are so many reasons as to why the request could be denied.

Yep. Check out my demystifying post on Delusional disorder here. See also my tag here.