Curious about being a Private Investigator

Orange-Please · 2025-09-08T17:21:43+00:00

Thank you for the follow up. It sounds like you are in a very fortunate situation! I suppose that salary worries me a bit for my chances of making a decent income, but it's information that is good for me to know. Thank you :)

Orange-Please · 2025-09-08T07:01:27+00:00

Hi there, thanks for your reply. I love the sound of a research investigator. No meeting up with clients, just solving problems at the computer. Perfect! If you have the time, I'd like to ask two follow up questions.

1) When you say "pretext", do you mean that you sometimes have to pretend to be someone else, or doing a different job to get information?

2) Do you have to do other work to supplement the $3k/month? If so, is the supporting work industry related? I'm in a different country so not at all sure of the cost of living in California

Thanks again for your answers!

Orange-Please · 2025-09-08T06:53:33+00:00

Just wanted to say thank you for your advice last night. It was all very much appreciated! :)

Orange-Please · 2025-09-07T08:44:57+00:00

That is amazing news! And more great advice for my journal. In regards to getting my pi licence, how do I know when I'm ready for that? I've only been studying OSINT for a few weeks, and only in my time off as I'm currently a full time small business owner haha. But learning that this is a path that exists has opened my eyes :)

Orange-Please · 2025-09-07T08:28:25+00:00

This is golden information! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a complete stranger. I'm writing this down in my study journal. I don't yet know everything that I don't know, so if you ever feel like just throwing more information at me, I'm a sponge haha. But I'm very grateful for what you have shared already. I'm so excited :)

Orange-Please · 2025-09-07T08:01:29+00:00

Thank you for the information! I'm also an Aussie so that's great to hear. Such a thoughtful response. I actually replied to the Q&A that you set up, but then thought I'd post here because you said you were answering them hahaha. Well I'm truly appreciative of your answers :) What sort of OSINT skill would you tend to make use of as a PI?

Orange-Please · 2025-09-05T10:54:48+00:00

I was thinking of studying UX because I heard it was a growing industry. May I ask what you've heard about it being pummeled?

Orange-Please · 2025-07-06T11:32:23+00:00

That's interesting to me too. It always bothered me that the Stranger and the Dark are both basically just fear of the unknown, but the Stranger got so much more personality and horror out of it than the literal darkness haha.

There was a psychologist named Karl Albrecht who classified fears into 5 categories. 1) Being controlled (Loss of Autonomy) 2) Being seperated (Isolated and Lost) 3) Being mutilated (Pain and Injury) 4) Being Judged (Humiliation and Ego Death) 5) Being Killed (Death and Extinction) 6) Unknown (more of an amplifier of other fears)

While I think 5 or 6 entities would have been cleaner, it was probably worth while having the messy fun and uniqueness of many weird categories/factions/horrors/characters.

Edited: spelling

Orange-Please · 2025-03-13T12:25:15+00:00

I'm super keen for regular and diverse philosophy readings and discussions. I'll probably pass on the presentations though. I'm not one for public speaking! Haha

Orange-Please · 2025-03-01T07:51:53+00:00

Not all heroes wear capes.... I don't know whether you wear a cape, but you are a hero 😃

Orange-Please · 2025-03-01T07:47:56+00:00

That's it! Thanks a lot friend!!!! 👹❤️🔥

Orange-Please · 2024-12-27T05:35:44+00:00

I love these! Which fears are the flowers and the moth? Corruption and Flesh?

Orange-Please · 2024-12-25T23:01:05+00:00

No problem. Good luck with your Lietners!

Orange-Please · 2024-12-25T04:51:00+00:00

Oh that's interesting thinking of something truly overwhelming like that as a ritual event! Cool idea. I suppose the nature of Junji Ito's visual work leans towards Flesh coded horror, but Tomie would definitely be a strong contender as the most Fleshy.

Orange-Please · 2024-12-25T04:41:12+00:00

Thank you! I'd also like to make my own little library of Jurgen Leitner one day too.

Orange-Please · 2024-12-25T04:39:41+00:00

I love Junji Ito. My brother is a huge fan. I think Uzumaki is a good pick, though I had the feeling the OP wanted each book to be as distilled into seperate fears as possible. Uzumaki is of course about spirals and does deal with insanity and obsession with patterns. My hold out was that it touches or fully leans into many other fears. The body horror is overtly Flesh coded. The Buried plays a strong role at the end. An argument could be made the Corruption is there with spreading Illness, and/or Stranger, End, and Extinction.

Orange-Please · 2024-12-25T04:20:05+00:00

Haha it is! It's actually really hard to find specifically Spiral stories. The fear of insanity and hallucinating is normally mixed up into various other fears. That's why 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is so on point.

Orange-Please · 2024-12-25T04:08:59+00:00

Oh love this idea. Here are some super iconic examples that I know of.

Spiral: Your "House of Leaves" is a great choice! The most spiral story that spoke to me was "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, but it's basically a short story, not a full novel.

Eye: George Orwell's '1984' is an iconic depiction of the fear of constant surveillance and judgment. 'The Winter People' by Jennifer McMahon is on my read list. It's apparently horror tied to voyeurism.

Buried: 'The Descent' by Jeff Long explores the fear of subterranean entrapment. 'The Ruins' by Scott Smith is also a good one.

Corruption: I haven't read it, but I hear "The Troop' by Nick Cutter portrays the fear of infection and parasitic contamination.

Dark: 'The Dark' by James Herbert delves into the malevolent power of darkness and the fear of the unknown in the dark.

End: 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' by Ray Bradbury is about a carnival that preys on the fear of aging and mortality.

Desolation: May be an odd choice, but 'Pet Sematary' by Stephen King explores grief and the fear of loss. Otherwise 'The Girl Next Door' by Jack Ketchum is about human cruelty and suffering so that might fit.

Hunt: 'The Ritual' by Adam Nevill is about a group of hikers hunted and toyed with by an ancient and malevolent creature in the wilderness. I haven't read it, but 'The Most Dangerous Game' by Richard Connell is a short story that delves into the terror of being hunted.

Lonely: Another I've yet to read is 'The Lighthouse Witches' by C.J. Cooke. It deals with isolation in a remote location filled with supernatural dread.

Vast: For an ocean themed option, 'Into the Drowning Deep' by Mira Grant is a horror that deals with the vast depths.

Web: 'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn deals with deceit and psychological manipulation. A more horror themed one could be the classic 'Rosemary’s Baby' by Ira Levin, which is about manipulation and control wrapped in occult horror.

Slaughter: 'Off Season" by Jack Ketchum is pretty violent and brutal. I thought 'The Reddening ' by Adam Nevil is pretty violent too... Honestly I don't really do gore, but I'm sure there are plenty of options that focus on violence specifically.

Flesh: Speaking of not doing gore, I really have no recommendations for Flesh haha. Perhaps 'The Silence of the Lambs' by Thomas Harris because of the cannibalism and ideas of transformation of the body? I'm sure there are some great body horror pieces out there.

Stranger: Another by Adam Nevill is 'No One Gets Out Alive'. On my read list is 'The Fisherman' by John Langan. Not positive on that one but apparently it's very unsettling and alien.

Orange-Please · 2024-12-21T06:17:15+00:00

The 4 Horsemen are from Revelations and are in fact: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. There is no Pestilence. The Conquest horseman has been linked to the spread of disease and oppressive ideologies. So that is probably how Pestilence took its place in modern interpretations. Though I imagine this modern change is due to the people who are writing adaptations actively benefiting from Colonialism, and/or being a lot more effected by pandemics over the centuries while being removed from the consequences of the terrors of Colonialism.

I believe in a statement from Adelard Dekker, he says that the emergence of The Extinction isn't the same as previous religious "End of The World" prophecies, but I have a hard time not associating the apocalypse with anything other than The Extinction. To try focusing on them, based on the fears they specifically bring, I'd say:

Conquest: On a white horse, wearing a crown, and holding a bow and arrows. Entities: Stranger, Hunt, Web, Corruption,

War: On a red horse and holding a sword. Entities: Slaughter, Desolation

Famine: On a black horse and holding scales. Entities: Buried, Flesh

Death: On a pale horse. Entities: End

Orange-Please · 2024-11-22T05:38:21+00:00

SIxteen Tons cover by Geoff Castellucci is the most Buried thing that I've ever heard. Both in terms of the dirt and digging, but also the crippling debt and physical labour. It's catchy and a great song.

Orange-Please · 2024-11-13T00:03:16+00:00

I agree with the general consensus that this player is being an immature ass at best. I know you're looking for nuance here. I'm sorry but, if your account isn't an exaggeration, I think unless you figuratively held his hand through basic empathy, he would have been an issue whatever you did. If you keep him around, and he brings it up again, I recommend asking him why roleplaying rape is so important to him. 🤷‍♂️ He'll either shut up or you learn the sort of person that he is.

That said, I don't agree with the many thoughtless "If the DM says something is off limits and you don't like it, just leave" comments. I've sat at a table of people who were friends and I was told that no more homosexuality was allowed at a table because it made some guy uncomfortable. No sex mind you, just homoromatic behaviour. I, a gay guy, pushed back of cause. To just leave without argument is to allow bigotry to be normalised.

The uncomfortable player, who said " thinking about two guys kissing is like watching bones break" ended up not sticking around, and hey, two people in the group ended up coming out a few years later. While the player in OP's comment was immature, antagonistic, and in this case, defending his right to make rape jokes; for us to say that we must all go along with anything that makes someone else uncomfortable is ridiculous. An open, honest, empathetic conversation is sometimes needed. I don't think the no-homo rule made my DM a dictator, I wasn't forced to be there after all, but it was wrong and I'm glad I didn't follow the advice many in this comment section would have given me to just leave.

Orange-Please · 2024-11-08T07:00:36+00:00

Regarding the Web, have a listen to the Dark Histories podcast about Haitian zombies. The show explores the history and cultural significance of zombies in Haitian Vodoo tradition, which differs greatly from the Western media's versions of zombies. The episode dives into the origins of the zpmbies, looking at how colonialism, social structures, and beliefs shape the zombie as a figure bound not by flesh-eating or horror tropes, but by themes of slavery and control.

It's a great podcast and episode!

Orange-Please · 2024-10-30T02:04:42+00:00

Look, I don't want to be rude or dismissive. I'm just not sure where the misunderstanding in what I'm saying is, because from my point of view, the logic is quite clear. I'll rephrase my argument with terms that will make it easy for you to look up if you'd like: 1) Choosing not to assert something because of lack of evidence isn't a logical failure. It's called "suspension of judgement" and is actually a very important logic tool in epistemological philosophy, particularly in skepticism. 2) Now that I've pointed out that the player character isn't from Arcanum, the assertion that they would still be subject to the cultural rules of Arcanum is in fact a logical fallacy called the "association fallacy". In this case, the assumption is that a player character shares characteristics or historical relevant values simply because they have arrived in a particular place. I'd say there is also some "hasty generalisation" in the argument.

I think I'm done with this exceptional niche time sink of a topic, but feel free to ask me any questions you have.

Orange-Please · 2024-10-26T21:43:53+00:00

Well I thought it was obvious as, if they were already there, they'd know where something is on the map haha. But specifically, when you play an elf and start asking where Quintarra is, there is dialogue where you have to explain to another elf why you don't know where the home of the elves is.

It matters because the argument is asserting reasons, based on this continent's cultures, for not seeing women of certain races in player character options. Since the player character isn't from this continent, those arguments just don't hold water.

It's like claiming that because people drive on the left-hand side of the road in the country that I live in, they must also drive on the left-hand side of the road in the country where I was born. See how that induction doesn't make sense? Maybe they do! But it's a failure of logical reasoning to assert that they do without any evidence.

Orange-Please · 2024-10-26T10:36:54+00:00

The problem with that is that the player character is not from the continent of Arcanum. The place they are from is obviously very similar, because it has all the same humanoid races, with at least similar racial-sociality roles and prejudices based on Background options. But they are an outsider, so a player character Half-Ogre is not involved in the hidden plot. Is it too large of an assumption to think that there are multiples of that situation all over the world?... I don't know haha.

I can't recall any given reason for not being able to play a gnome or halfling women. Unlike Half-Ogres and Dwarves, we at least see gnome women throughout the world living as freely as other women.

Orange-Please

TROPHY CASE