* splits personalities a split second before I fall down dead * Oh...apparently – that poison was fatal. * blinks at dead self * I wasn't expecting that, sorry.

But anyway... * discreetly pushes corpse a little further away with foot * The Point I was trying to make was – some poisons aren't fatal. I just happened to have been unlucky just now. But the normal thing for a character in a novel to do upon being poisoned is, in my experience, to fall over dead. * cocks head * But...poisons can do other things too, and novelists ought to be known for their creative ways of torturing their characters. * evil giggle * (Only slightly less disturbing than an evil laugh, if done correctly.)

Sooo... * grins * What dastardly things can we do other than just being boring and actually killing them?

(* has 'They Die' stuck in her head *)

I have a useful and interesting book called Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons.

There are some things that are (sometimes) necessary in small quantities, but poisonous in larger quantities, or necessary to some people and poisonous to others. Deadly Doses inlues an anecdote (probably fictional, but I don't remember) about an elderly woman whose son was tryng to kill her by subtle, gradual arsenic poisoning, adding a little to her porridge every morning, until he grew frustrated with how heathy she continued to be and just shot her. It turned out that she was one of the few people who need to take a little arsenic (or whatever it was) to remain properly healthy, but she had stopped taking her medication to try to commit suicide.

There are poisons that kill instantly, and poisons that kill gradually. And there are some where the antidote is poisonous: the hero of most of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga (Miles Vorkosigan, the "military genius with bones of glass") has tremendously fragile bones because of the effects on him in the womb of the antidote to a poison used on his mother.

And poisons can have lots of "side effects" in otherwise-nearly-innocuous doses; for example, strictly speaking, alcohol is a poison that causes liver damage, as are other mind-altering drugs.

Wow! An antidote that's poisonous... That holds worlds of possibility.

In the Vorkosigan series, in the incident I mentioned: It was the mother that was poisoned; the antidote didn't do any harm to her, just to her unborn son. There are any number of medications here and now that pregnant women are advised not to take.

Another interesting twist (that I've used once in a story, and will probably use again) is to have one poison appear to be another poison (or even an innocuous substance) in some of the scans or analyses that are part of an autopsy.

Interesting. I've always thought that an evil giggle would be slightly more disturbing when done properly....

I like this thought.

We could debilitate them or cause them severe pain. Hmm... *has thought* What if there was a poison that didn't do any actual damage, but increased the damage other harmful things did (and even caused some normally nonharmful things to become harmful)?

That is an interesting post, kingjon. Thankyou....



Fragile bones...that is especially interesting. I never thought of that. * taps nose * I like that idea.

Definitely.



* grins * I guess it depends on who you're trying to disturb.



That's an interesting idea. * thinks *

Oh! Oh! Mind-altering poisons! Neurotoxins anyone?

Perhaps a poison that causes them to lose fine motor control/forget skills would be interesting? Or a poison that causes a main character to go blind or lose hearing? Those are both ideas I have had...

Ooooh... temporary schiezophrenia anyone?

Yes, I like that idea!



What do you mean by schizophrenia, exactly?


0.0 What if you had a poison that would permanently change someones entire personality?

It would be nearly impossible at best. You might be able to pull of personality change similar to what can happen with things like Alzheimer's or whatever, but other than that, the precision required would be, I think, impossible to achieve, because I'm pretty sure there's no functional difference in the neurons. Now, if you could pinpoint the specific places where personality is, assuming such a thing exists, you might be able to make a virus or something that targets it. I'd be skeptical, though, unless you're using magic in some fashion. Even then, I'd probably think it's a little lame. An interesting thought, though.

Probably something that isn't what the word means.

Actually, nothing particular. Just something that would cause temporary personality changes and/or multiple personalitites.

* taps lip * Now, I'm not sure about the impossibility of it. I have heard of people with whom an illness changed their personality, or an injury. Personality, I think, is partly based on experience and outside influences, and partly on something quite definite in an actual physiological way.



* nods * That's what I thought you meant, cause that's what I thought the word was, but when I looked it up on google just to be sure, it didn't say anything like that...

Anyway, that's a good idea!

Multiple personalities is disassociative identity disorder. Schizophrenia is a detachment from reality, like hallucinations and delusions. Both of those wouldn't be to hard to pull of as poisons, since there are plants that cause those. Actually, that'd be cool to do in a fantasy. Maybe something with high officials contracting something that's like that because they've been poisoned?

*is glad the expert showed up*

I like this idea.

I"m not an expert. I just enjoy studying psychology.

Yes, I'm getting a fantasy conspiracy vibe from it.

As I have read stories I have come upon the plant nightshade, which when a little dose is put in the victims food, the victim then falls asleep, but to much would then kill the victim.
Oh, my sister has just told me something, let me repeat for you all.
Arsenic (embalming powder) It is a colorless and tasteless white powder (that seemingly disappears when put on food, becomes absorbed) that used to embalm dead bodies, but when consumed in small amounts (when somebody puts it in the food in small amounts, stretching on for weeks or months) it gradually kills them. The way it effects the person makes it look natural cause, causing the stomach to become swollen and yellow, and the rest of the body sort of shrinks.

What about some sort of toxin that affects all of the brain's nerve impulses at once, so that literally every nerve feels pain simultaneously? Probable? Effects?...

I've read/heard about poisons that make someone hallucinate...Which actually could be pretty dangerous, since you might see a tree which looks like a giant frog, and get scared, causing you to run off a cliff.

I've toyed with the idea of story about someone who is poisoned at the beginning of the story but its a slow working poison and the main plot is about the MC racing against time to find the antidote.

My younger brother had the cool idea of a poison that gave someone instant jet-lag.

Like a really strong sedative?

Not the strongest - that'd just put you to sleep.

*chuckles*

In a sci-fi story I wrote once, the villain used a poison that increased his victim's sensitivity to pain. Thus, he could reduce a fully grown man to tears by just lightly pricking him with a needle.

ZERO actual damage. All the pain necessary.

*Shudders*

That's awful.

That's awesome.

Thank you.

My distinct pleasuring of displeasure. I've gotten to see your evil side I never knew of over the past couple days.

I'm going to want to buy that book.

One of the most intense poisoning scenes ever has to be the one with Dumbledore drinking out of the crystal pedestal thing in The Half-Blood Prince.

I toyed with a similar idea for Nomad's story.

Oh? Did you ever execute it? (No pun intended. )

*laughs* No, and I think that it would serve my purposes better to use something that increases a person's resilence to damage instead -- so I probably won't be using it.

I've used poison in my trilogy, but it was an injectible dart given intramuscularly. Tierin didn't die, but rather, was tortured by different extremes within his body (short and possibly confusing version).

I've never actually poisoned someone in the sense of a regular poison...

A cool poison would be one that could causes hallucinations. Oh, like the hallucinations caused by those bugs in the first Hunger Games book. That was cool. It makes all your greatest fears come to life.

Come – to life? You mean it seems like they're real? That would be an interesting poison. Very nasty poison. I've heard of poisons that amplify your fear, and I have heard of places that make your fears come true, but never a poison that makes your fears come true.

That type of poison was used in the first movie of the recent Batman trilogy as well.

That proves it's a cool poison if it was in Batman. Batman is amazing. Yeah, it makes it seem as if your fears are happening or are coming true. It was so cool in Hunger Games. Too bad I never saw the first movie of the Batman trilogy, but I much prefer the cartoons, especially Justice League.

-Time traveling poison: a white, crumbly powder dissolved in a drink, the one who drinks it begins to stare and clutch at anything within reach, then vanishes back in time.

Sort of the opposite of the grog (or was it rum?) that the (dwarves?) gave Rip Van Winkle?

I specialize in those. Well in knowledge about them. They are quite scary thought. But very interesting when they shut down your nerve's.

What do you mean by shut down your nerves? ô¸ô

That's what they can do, they can stop your nerves from communicating to your brain, when this happens after about half-an-hour your lungs or heart shut down.

What effects would it have before it killed you? * is curious *

The things you eat can change your personality quite dramatically, actually, or at least how you act, regardless. You may still be the same person, but your actions are totally different. It can certainly affect how agitated you are, and how you respond to things, even if those wouldn't 'normally' bother you.

This whole concept fascinates me... *thinks*

I've seen a TV show where a poison was used as an interrogation method. If the person would talk they would (apparently) be given the antidote.

What if you had a poison that made it so you couldn't stop running, no matter how hard you tried?

You would eventually collapse from exhaustion.

Indeed.

Unless the poison had a very powerful effect.

Oh! Oh! Oh! Choose me! *raises hand high in the air*

So, I know this is from a more sci-fi/drama show, but I'll say it anyways. There was an Incredible Hulk episode where Banner had to work on disposing a container that had some sort of poisonous gas or something. I don't remember the details. Anyways, you couldn't smell it or anything, but the container was leaking. At first it seemingly had no effects. And then it caused blindness. And then would eventually lead to death. So it was a sort of slow-working poison that didn't cause the characters to immediately fall dead.

And this time also allowed the characters time to work on formulating an antidote, too. They had to try and figure it out before the poison ran its course.

I hope that helps!

I'm still not sure, once you don't have enough energy to move you won't. But it could trick your mind to think that you are still running!

That's actually part of the premise of my current work in progress.

Ooh, that's a cool idea...

Some foods can be very poisonous to a particular person's system. I can expoundify (or try to!) if anyone wants..

*nods* And if you knew the person, you could poison them at a dinner or something, and not other people. At least in theory; not all plans go according to plan, y'know.


Oooooooooh. *ponders*

Rhododendron bark kills you very slowly... I'm trying to think of more... (I make poisons and potions as a hobby...)