While I Breathe, I Hope

When writing fantasy, geopolitics is an element that shows up often. How nations interact with one another, how they create alliances or how they handle tense situations with each other. How nations behave with each other and communiticate with one another can effect your overall plot and character situations.

Receipts

With any story, you have to go back to the beginning to understand any relationship. Kingdoms who have had past history of war or invasion or colonisation may act more wary around each other. Kingdoms who have aided each other in the past might tend to side with each other over matters. International Relations are not unlike interpersonal relations in the fact that if trust is a foundation, then much is possible in the ways of alliances and any betrayal is far more impactful. If trust was not there at the start, then an alliance will be difficult to form.

Quid Pro Ho

The thing about international politics especially in a fantasy setting is that there's no such thing as black and white. Countries deal with each other out of necessity even if they are ideologically removed from one another or have a history, one country will have something the other needs, be it military support, political support or resources.

Entering into a Political Alliance

A political alliance is when two or more nations agree to work together or support each other. An alliance is agreement like a contract, which lays out the demands of each nation when entering an agreement, what they expect of one another, rules of engagement between one another and instances where they would be compelled to act on the others behalf. However, on both sides, there are situations where it might compel them to be a bit more pragmatic. For example, if Kingdom A had an alliance with Kingdom B, they may demand military support on the threat of war from their neighbour Kingdom C but if Kingdom B has a fairly good relationship with C and doesn’t wish to cause a war but it will promise to stand up for them in a political sense, it isn’t exactly a great deal but it is better than nothing. Every political alliance is based on necessity rather than just need and or even on the basis that they even like each other. It is about survival or stability in the long run, protection from other nations. Political alliances shift over time and may be broken off for bigger or better things. It isn’t a friendship though it is framed like that in media. It is a contract, an agreed set of terms of how the nations behave with one other, how they behave with other nations and what both nations can get off one other.

Trade Alliances

In making a trade alliance, like I said above, it is all based on the idea of you scratch my back, I scratch yours. To make any set of trading agreements, one has to be prepared to get taken to the cleaners as well as strike gold. Trade is basically an exchange of goods and services, one person is getting something in return for giving another. If Country A has a wealth of forests such as oak to build ships, Country B might enter a trade deal to recieve the wood for a set price based on its market value however, if Country A suspects that the wood might be used to build ships or weapons that could be used against them or an ally, Country A might charge B a steeper price, akin to a tax. Trade alliances can occur between allies but also foes, though trade will be strictly limited in some situations, due to embargoes on certain items or higher tax on items and services. The need to generate wealth and trade often transcends little things like politics but the government would decide which nations its citizens will sell and buy from, who they will trade with and if they will enter into agreements. From a political standpoint point, trade agreements have to take into consideration of two things: need of the consumer and protection of national trade. If it is cheaper to purchase some goods such as silk abroad and Kingdom X has an industry in silk, Kingdom X would impose a higher tax and tarriff on foreign silk coming into the country.

Communication Between Nations

In another post, I spoke about the role of ambassadors as it corrolates to the communication between nations. Ambassadors are the main line of communication between nations, a physical being of go-betwee who is charged with the passing along of messages and dispatches. Ambassadors like I said can be seen as physical manifestations of the nation they serve and how they are treated and welcomed or if indeed they are at all, is a direct response to how one nation views its relationship with another. Ambassadors aren’t the only figures involved in diplomacy. Sometimes heads of state will communicate face to face on state visits or at summits or they will maintain communication through letters or telephone but this is sometimes dictated by the government though heads of state and even their families can maintain personal correspondence with one another (though in times of war or strife, it is not recommended). Gestures speak louder than words when communicating. Keeping a channel of communication between nations open is a gesture of “I’m willing to hear you “ whilst expelling ambassadors is the equivalent of slamming your flip phone closed during an argument. A smart nation would always keep communication open in order to remain informed even through times of tension. That isn’t to say all communication is official or even known to the parties. Letters, dispatches, reports, telephone calls, cables, telegrams and other ways of education might be opened or intercepted or tapped in order to gain information that usually would not be available or information that has been hidden for a sinister reason. Spies are not exactly seen as fair play but it would be a mistake to think that they don’t exist. Spies can be anybody from either trained individuals who are sent into nations to gather information or they can be people within the nation such as politicians or even staff paid or threatened or persuaded to pass along information.

Perception

If you look at today’s media and back to historical pamphlets and newspapers, you can glean clear as crystal who is a country’s ally, who is a foe and who is sort of on the fence. The media of nations who are at odds with each other will often lean into stereotypes of each other or they will outright slander each other or take stances against them because that is the status quo. The media may depict the citizens of that nation in unflattering light, exaggerating features or characteristics or propaganda highlighting past agressions or mistakes. Nations who are political allies might shape headlines of depictions of their allies in flattering lights in order to mould the hearts and minds of people so they will look favourably on that nation’s actions, say for example if an Invader/Occupier were slaughtering civilians in hospitals or in safe zones or systematically committing what can only be coined as an outright genocide than their allies would depict Invader/Occupier’s actions as justified or as mistakes while placing the blame on those civilians. It’s plain propaganda and bullshit but it feeds from the machine of alliances. This doesn’t even have to leak into media, it can manifest through a standpoint of civilians, they may view their allied nation in a better light then those that are their enemy and may even treat their enemy with hostility on the back of the political standpoint of their nations - this of course depends on individuals but it is safe to say that sometimes one can get swept up into the narratives peddled by the media and one’s government. Perception is a delicate balance between sculpted truth and the facts that are black and white. And even after things are made fine and dandy between nations, sometimes lingering resentments do remain.

Cycle of Life

Not gonna lie, I totally had to look it up! lol

So what I found was basically a scenario where whumpee would be punished regularly, usually on a schedule, instead of when they've done something wrong that would warrant punishment? Is this what you mean??

My brain initially went to maintenance for a robot/android whumpee that was behaving outside of their given parameters but I don't think that's right 😆 even though I think that's a pretty good one!

But if it's more the other definition then, also, hell yes! I'm all for it! Particularly for something like a living weapon whumpee!! Or an enforcer whumpee of some sort. I like the idea of this trope specifically for whumpee's that have already been trained extremely well and truly do not need further reinforcement at all. Whumper maybe doing it this way because it's the only chance they have to discipline their perfect weapon who always behaves so well for them. (They almost resent the excessive training they paid for. Whumpee could mess up at least once so they'd have the opportunity to punish them properly. This will simply have to do.)

But maintenance is on the schedule for Thursday and whumpee swallows down all their feelings of resentment towards whumper for hurting them unnecessarily (they know exactly how well they've been trained after all) and they swallow their anticipation of being hurt, again, and they dutifully submit themselves to the maintenance room, on time, as scheduled.

This I like very much!!

It's lovely for pet or servant whumpee too! Much more fear involved with them, and so many more tears! Maybe even some begging to skip it, just this once, because they've been so good!

He doesn't think it's a rude thing to say in front of a monster. There are no rude things to say to monsters, only rude things monsters say.

"Don't worry," she says between bites, "You're one of the good ones."

"But I am still a monster," I do not say. I do not say that I love my claws and teeth, my prehensile shadow and my glowing eyes. That I cannot imagine giving them up even for survival, that to hide my shadow and trim my claws for them makes me feel diminished. In public I cannot say that I do not wish to be human.

They're progressives, this bunch, even if he carries a hero's banner with its proud history and none of them ask him to put it away. They know there are good monsters, monsters who can speak eloquently and hold the fork right, monsters you can be seen with in public. Some of their best friends are monsters.

They do not know the monster who is invited to brunch knows solidarity with the monster who is not. Believes and understands the monster who is not invited more than the human who does the inviting.

"Isn't that a little harsh?" says a third human, and I have not forgotten I am outnumbered. "We have ways of killing monsters without blood now, painlessly. And, of course, a monster should be allowed to live if it never growls."

He has never seen me growl. Yet how loudly and endlessly I will, when I'm out of earshot. He's talking about killing monsters who cannot stoop to civility, about mother and brother and lover who were never able to mute themselves like me, and does he not know how small a child who can only growl is?

So most stories take place when Events are Happening, and this means that no matter what kind of job the characters have, they’re probably not too focused on them. Fanfics, on the other hand, often show the down time. Which means that the writer has to figure out what the hell these characters do in their jobs. Unless the characters have a job the author understands or knows well, the author is often at a loss for what to have the character doing.

So they sit them at a desk and give them paperwork. What is the paperwork for? Rarely specified. It is Paper Work for the characters Important Adult Job they have and they need to read or sign it or something. And there’s always a line about how Character Hates Paperwork. Doesn’t matter if Character is a Mafia Boss or a General or a Diplomat, here they are in an office trying to get out of Doing Paperwork.

There’s also a sense of, like, humor and mundanity that comes with it. Like the examples above, it always particularly stands out to me when a dangerous individual is griping about some paper they need to sign or something. The less you can picture Character doing paperwork, all the better to force it upon them. If Character is saddled with Paperwork, they’re usually now concerned about the physical damages their motley crew causes, because damage = More Paperwork.

Timesheets

Expense reports

Requisition requests

Budget justifications

Payroll

Performance evaluations

Incident reports

After action reviews / post-mortem analyses

Incident Action Plans

Contracts

Contract proposals / grant applications

even when the royalty look like they're just fucking off to have fun, they're doing Socially Mandated Fuck-Off and Have Fun Time

Invoices.

Intake sheets (information about new clients. The one for my firm is 13 pages and requires an hour long meeting. Then you have to do something with the info gathered)

Data entry for invoices and intake sheets.

Billing. (More involved than timesheets because you’re justifying to clients why you’re getting paid so much).

Form letters.

Taxes. Including 1099s for any contracted work.

Bank statements/accounting spreadsheets. Gotta track how expenses are trending.

Insurance documents.

General messages. Lots of office still use a paper system for missed calls and “important” stuff because it just works better than emails and chats for some people.

Cause there’s the invoice, and the follow up invoice and the we are about to have a problem follow-up invoice.

There’s the incident report and then the I swear I yelled at that worker about this don’t be mad at me if they do it again second warning documentation

The requisition form and the it has been six months now get me the fucking thing or you’re gonna hear from Cindy escalations form.

Weapons. Trained, tested, forged in steel and fire. Failure is an inevitability that ends in death. Pain should not be felt--it should be recognized, familiar, and inconsequential

Martyrs. In the form of servants and princes, of leaders and underdogs. If blood is necessary, the martyr will lift their hands and offer it all

Shields. Like tempering a sword, but only to bear and not to lash out. Wounds are medals--not symbols of pride, but symbols of worth. A pretty shield is useless; scars mean a job well done

Experiments. Raised on the cold comfort of a lab table. Restraints are only necessary when they're not in their right mind. Is it honorable, to be twisted beyond recognition? Or is it just a necessary evil?

Monsters. Cruelty, caution, and regarding one as a creature beyond reasonable thought is tempering in its own right. But if you keep a leash at the right length, perhaps the massecre won't reach you. One can hope.

Idols. Pretty face, pretty name, pretty hands around their shoulders and throat. There to seduce, manipulate, force any feeling to come to the surface and twist it to their favor. Any genuinity stays locked behind the guilded cage that surrounds their pretty little heart

Trophies. Status and wealth and the traditions that keep someone at their heels, on their knees, to display and serve and decorate one's ballroom.

Whumpee shaking and crying when whumper enters the room. Whumpee is already making themselves as small as possible before Whumper even has a chance to do anything.

Whumper is just existing in the same room as Whumpee, and Whumpee is on the verge of tears in fear.

Whumpee so terrified of whumper that after they get rescued when they hear someone who just vaguely sounds like Whumper they break down into a panic attack. Tears streaming down their face like they're back in captivity again.

Whumpee's who flinch at fast movements and who are quick to apologize because they're so used to someone being constantly mad at them that it's reflex at this point to say they're sorry.

Whumpee who acts like a feral cat that's been brought inside for the first time when they get rescued. They stay in their room all the time, unless it's late at night, and they're sure caregiver is asleep or if caregiver leaves the house. Even then, they only leave to grab some food. Maybe Caretaker leaves food marked for Whumpee in Tupperware in the fridge, or maybe Whumpee just grabs whatever shelf stable food they can before sprinting back to their room, back to safety.

Whumpee who's so used to captivity that making their own choices, what to eat, what to do, when and how to clean, when to go to bed is so incredibly overwhelming. That they just end up lying in bed practically comatose, until Caretaker tells then what to do and how.

Whumpee that slinks around corners and exists in the shadows because even if they know caretaker is nice, and won't hurt them. They can't help their reflex to keep themselves out of view, out of the way. Quite and hidden is safe.

Cheek: a round dull pain that clocks your entire head in a different direction. It’s painful and throbs but the main effect of a punch to the cheek is how jarring it is. You feel it in your mouth, your teeth. And no matter how you position that punch the knuckles will always hit the jaw and cheek bones adding a frame of sharp pain in which the redness will be painted.

Temple: getting hit on the temple pushes your head to the side rather than turning it. It’s disorienting because it leaves you very off balance. It essentially feels like a bad pressure headache, like when you have a sinus infection on a plane, but in one spot and on the outside. It’s sharp in the middle and radiates outward and even after the initial impact it pulses like an earthquake epicenter. It easily causes long lasting headaches and is the most likely of these examples to cause a concussion.

Eye: this is a weird one. The fist doesn’t fit within the eye socket so either the knuckles on the brow and cheeks bones protect the actual eye or they don’t. The former option gives a full spreading pain below the eye which results in the classic black eye look and a sharp pain on your brow similar to hitting your shin on the couch. The latter option, well bad things can happen when a hard fast object makes direct contact with your eye but for the sake of this it feels like a vacuum bc the concave shape is being covered and pressurized. The eye feels pushed back and pulled forward all at once. It doesn’t necessarily hurt that bad for that long unless the punch was meant to do damage. I’m fortunate to say I don’t know what it would feel like then.

Nose: remember that prank kids used to pull where they’d line up their hands with their nose, push them in one direction and crack a knuckle at the same time to pretend to break their nose? Yeah that’s what it looks like when someone punches you from the side in the nose, except it’s someone else’s hand and your nose makes the sound instead of their knuckle. It’s just like breaking any bone where you hear it and feel the action if it being done but that moment of shock blankets you for a split second until all the pain comes rushing back. It’s sharp and needlelike and can give you black eyes just to add insult to injury. If you get hit in the nose from the front it’s like the uncomfortableness of when you have to sneeze but can’t. Except that feeling took all the steroids and is now using your face as a punching bag to express its roid rage. It crackles outward like static electricity under your skin, your eyesight gets fuzzy and you can’t tell if it’s because you’re tearing up, it’s hard to open your eyes, or you’re momentarily stunned and blinded. Just know it’s all three. I find that this one knocks the wind out of you the most. Gotta remind yourself to breathe just don’t try to do it through your nose.

If you really want to know what this feels like I’d suggest joining a mixed martial arts because they’ll teach you correct form and power distribution and you can spar with pads and actually hit each other.

The Swedish torch is good for an efficient and contained fire, it’s controlled and good for cooking over and produces less light and heat than other fires. It can be difficult to keep going once you burn through the original log

The teepee is your traditional campfire. Good for heat and light not great for cooking, burns through fuel fairly quickly

The star fire is one of the slowest burning and not well protected but provides an even heat good for slow cooking and is excellent if you have limited fuel and need the protection a fire can provide

The lean to is a compact and efficient fire that evolves into a dense and hot bed of coals. The structure creates a good source of air flow which can help damp wood burn. A slightly better cooking fire that isn’t as bright. It also provides protection from wind on one side

The platform fire is incredibly hot and will create a very thick bed of coals but it doesn’t have a lot of air flow and is a little harder to get started.

The log cabin is big and bright and has lots of air flow which again is good for damp logs. You can also use this structure to start a smaller fire in the middle while drying out bigger logs. This fire will crumble into a messier bed of coals that don’t produce particularly even heat for cooking.

I've been working HARD ON THIS to make it give whumperflies, thanks to those who have helped!

(defiant whumpee and war vibes)

Content: dehumanization, magical whump, painful regeneration, beatings, suicide attempt

Being kept in a cage because they're "dangerous". Whumpee banging on the bars and shouting to be released only makes them get treated more like an animal

Being able to beat them to death because they'll just come back. Whumper is just prone to raging and uses whumpee to take it out on. They don't have to hold back at all.

Bonus, whumper encourages whumpee's defiance because it makes them feel more satisfied when they finally give them the beating--"they deserved it anyway"

Whumpee slowly acting less defiant and more stoic because they're being treated like a dumb animal anyway

Using their magical weaknesses against them. A vampire that burns in sunlight would scream under a UV flashlight.

Binding them with silver-plated wire--far longer than necessary. Long enough for it to burn through their skin, leaving them begging, bleeding, promising never to run ever again

Until "are you going to kneel, or am I going to have to tie you down there" has them thumping hard to their knees instantly, eyes glued to the wire on the shelf behind whumper.

Blinding or maiming them so that they're still powerful but whumper has a way to control them.

"testing" their powers by seeing how many stabs they can take, can they regenerate a whole limb, etc.

Hurting their best friend instead of punishing whumpee (whumpee is too difficult to hurt)

Or, punishing whumpee excessively, because their wounds heal so quickly it looks like no damage was done, maybe they think whumpee didn't really feel it for long enough

Whumpee coming back horribly injured but they forgot a "sir" and now they're not allowed the blood they need to regenerate, for a set amount of time. So they're just writhing in pain and begging for blood.

Whumpee trying, and failing, to kill themselves. When they get caught cleaning up the blood to hide the evidence, they're dragged away to be punished for trying to destroy their master's property.

"I'm not about to let you die on me" taking a whole new controlling, frightening meaning

Whumpee never wanted to hurt anyone... One day it's too much and they let their enemies beat the shit out of them rather than hurt anyone else.

And then whumper comes back to the base with their head down and arms clamped to their sides, trying to prepare themselves for the rage of their masters when they find out the low casualty count.

Any advice about caretakers deconditioning?

[ Referring to this post. ]

The first and most important thing is that the caretaker cannot decondition the whumpee. It's not possible. That progress is self-driven, and requires a massive amount of internal conflict, discipline, and practice. If the process is driven by external pressure rather than internal desire, it will fail, and likely cause more damage in the process.

But what the caretaker can do is be there for them while the whumpee fights toward their own recovery. They can be the stability that whumpee needs in order to work through these massive problems on their own.

Deconditioning is awful. It involves repeated failure, over and over and over, working toward lessening the response. And it is incredibly frustrating, painful, heartbreaking, and at times it feels completely hopeless.

Progress is so non-linear that they can spend months improving and then backslide nearly back to the beginning if they get caught off guard. At times it'll feel like they're stuck at the same point and can't get any further. Like a future where they will be free of it may simply not exist.

At many points, your whumpee is going to feel heartbroken. They're going to spiral into, "Why can't I do this? Why can't I make it stop?" and, "I thought I was past this." and, "Will I ever be able to undo what whumper made me?"

A good caretaker can be there to comfort them when things go wrong. They can hold them while they cry. They can listen to them when they go into a sobbing, breathless rant about how much this hurts. They can make sure that whumpee knows they have someone who doesn't think of them as broken or lesser because of what they've gone through.

Depending on what whumpee wants, they might help them brainstorm a reward system. If there's a situation where they're around other people and the caretaker spots the trigger coming, they can try to redirect conversation away from it before it hits. Preferably without anyone realizing they're doing it for whumpee's sake. When whumpee has just been triggered and wants nothing more than to be alone, the caretaker can make sure their boundaries are respected. To make sure they have somewhere safe to go.

Even more importantly, they can also help by highlighting the moments of whumpee's progress. Pointing out their successes, no matter how small. Pointing out how far they've come. Reminding them that the ups and downs are supposed to happen. That trauma recovery is a rollercoaster, not a straight line.

As a whumpee in that state, it's very easy to feel like they're making no progress. That even when they succeed, the tiny bits of success are hollow, because 'they shouldn't be like this in the first place'. Have your caretaker help them see their own victories. Help them actually see the healing as it grows.

A realistically conditioned whumpee does not need someone to fix them. They need someone to be there for them while they save themselves.

---

Y'know, I think one of the things that people get wrong with conditioned whumpees is their rules. Specifically, when a whumpee was in long term captivity/training and they later get released or escape.

Most people write them as latching onto a caretaker or new whumper, and begging for new rules so they know they're doing something right. A new set of laws to live by, a new framework to behave to.

And that's... not really how conditioning works.

Conditioning means automatic reactions. Your body doing something that was trained into you without consulting your brain first.

There is no decision making. There is no choice. The trigger hits, and you are immediately performing the correct action regardless of anything else.

You're told to kneel? Your knees have already hit the ground. You're supposed to be standing in one part of the house when a certain noise is made? You've launched into movement before you even realize what you heard.

These rules are woven into the fabric of your body. And they are insurmountable. The conditioning overrides emotion, internal conflict, hesitation, beliefs, wants... everything.

Your whumpee may very well hate what is being done to them, and after the moment has passed they're cursing themself and their whumper. They're still a person on the inside. And that person is still very much alive. Most of the time, they will have some level of awareness that what's being done to them is wrong. They'll be angry. They'll be hurt. And they will hate that there is nothing they can do about it.

But the next time that trigger occurs, the response still hits them exactly the same.

So now take your whumpee out of that situation. They ran away, were rescued, were sold. They got out. Now they're with new people, a new caretaker, a new whumper. Or they're on their own and trying to make their own way in the world.

But those conditioned responses are still there.

There's no turning them off. You don't just replace them with new rules. They are in your every fibre. They have been built into the very framework of who you are.

The next time someone says the word "kneel", your knees are on the ground again. No matter where you are, or who you're with. The response happens before you can stop it. If they don't know why, everyone looks at you like you're insane. And you feel like you are.

Deconditioning is an agonizing process that takes more effort than I can even begin to describe to someone who's never experienced it.

Every time they hit that trigger, that response will still be there. Over, and over, and over, and over.

Breaking those rules down takes YEARS. And it is a constant effort that the whumpee has to choose to undergo every single time. Progress is measured milimeter by milimeter. You're told to kneel, and you kneel. You're told to kneel, and your mind catches up with the fact that you already did it— but a little sooner than it did before. Then a split second sooner. Then as you're doing it. Then you feel the impulse just before your knees hit the ground. Then you have a split-second of resistance before you go down. On and on and on and on, inching toward progress despite the fact that you're fighting with all your might. And that progress is anything but linear.

You don't just start obeying new rules. You don't latch on to your caretaker's new way of doing things and drop everything that you were conditioned to do before. These rules don't just get replaced.

Conditioning is not a belief system. It's a flinch response. Programmed deeper than the instincts you were born with.

You can be ordered not to obey the old command, and moments later when the trigger comes, you will anyway. Because in conditioning, the action comes before the choice.

These rules, these laws of your existence, come above everything else. And if your new whumper wants to replace them, they are going to have to beat the new rules into you so often and so severely that the pain becomes stronger than the old conditioning. At which point, the newly desired response will very, very slowly start to take over.

You're not swapping out new rules. You're layering new, worse conditioning on top of the old. And your brain will spend time stuck in that split-second between both responses before one finally grows stronger than the other. And even then, the change will not happen quickly.

Thinking about the rigidity, the tensing. They hold themselves so tightly as if the slightest relaxation will break the flood gates and they can do that.

What breaks them? What makes them cry out? Not in physical pain. They're well accustomed to physical pain, welcome it because it's liveable. They can cry out when they hurt. It's understandable. They're in survival mode, this is life or death. It's easy to push their emotions aside when they're busy keeping themselves alive.

But when they're rescued? When they're safe? When meals and showers come regularly, when their door locks from the inside, and the sheets are warm and clean? Everything they have is so much better but it's all so wrong. No matter how much they shower they still feel dirty. The food all tastes like what they were given by whumper. The door being locked means nothing. Something has to be in front of it and even that's not enough. The bed is too soft, they can't sleep unless they're on the floor.

The slow realization that they might have left physically but what happened is permanent. You don't get to ignore it anymore. You don't get to be robotic anymore. You have emotions, as much as you try to pretend otherwise. Keep pushing it down. Keep slipping away to the bathroom hoping your caretaker dosnt notice your puffy eyes afterward.