writing and fandom

sometimes they slip up and zone out or get quite turbulent mood swings at work/around their team and such and caretaker + everyone around them is honestly pretty annoyed by this behaviour, maybe people are even talking shit behind their back and calling them a bitch or entitled, and saying they should figure out their problems instead of randomly snapping at people. maybe whumpee even overhears this talk

and then caretaker, for one reason or another, has to stay over at whumpee’s for a couple of days - maybe their housing situation is messed up, maybe they’re also going through some sort of bad situation and don’t want to be alone, and whumpee takes them in.

except whenever caretaker wakes up in the middle of the night for water, whumpee is sitting there at the kitchen table, either working or, weirder, staring off into space with a distant look in their eyes. when caretaker questions them about it, whumpee simply says: “oh, don’t mind me, i just don’t sleep a lot these days. i’ve been having bad nightmares and it’s easier just not to sleep.”

there’s barely any groceries at home. caretaker doesn’t know when whumpee even eats. they flinch when caretaker slams the door too hard on accident. they shiver, wrecked with tremors at simple tasks like brushing their teeth. their room is a mess, but the rooms caretaker inhabits are squeaky clean. sometimes they’re looking in the mirror and it looks like they don’t even recognise their own reflection. when they’re around other people, caretaker knows whumpee can hear people whispering about them under their breath, but they just swallow hard and keep smiling.

whumpee who has adjusted since their whump and they aren't doing too bad, considering everything. they have friends who maybe don't even know about anything they've had to go through.

but then an accident causes them to lose their memory, regressing into the time when they were with whumper. they dont remember any of the "new" life they had built up. their old habits terrify their friends/caretaker.

"are you sure i can do this? you know what whumper will do if they find out.."

"are you friends with whumper? please, let me see him, I don't want him to get angry again."

(bonus points if they end up going into detail of what whumper had done, and the friends had no idea about it and are now horrified, on top of having to help whumpee realise that all of this is over now)

Sure, they were hurt. Horrifically, even. There's no denying the scars. But the things they describe? There's just no way someone could do such horrific things to a person, and there's no way a person could walk away from that. There must be embellishments, hyperbole, some misremembering.

Their partner/spouse has started seeing someone else, believing whumpee to be dead. Bonus if the new partner is less "damaged" than whumpee, making them feel even worse about what happened to them.

Their apartment/house is occupied by new inhabitants, potentially leaving whumpee homeless.

Their place of employment simply replaced them with a new hire, and whumpee has to find a new job with a huge gap in their resume, depending on how long they were tortured for.

Their friends have all moved on, perhaps even finding a new friend to replace whumpee.

Their family has converted their bedroom into a storage room, and maybe even gave some of their things away, believing they weren't coming back.

Their favorite restaurant/coffee shop/bar/etc. has closed down, and whumpee can't even go there for their favorite food/drink after being tortured for so long.

Villains, of course, show up often, wounded and grateful for Caretaker’s asylum. They know they’ll be treated with respect and allowed to leave freely. Heroes, on the other hand, flow to Caretaker’s place more gradually. Heroes who are too ashamed to get help back at HQ, or that are severely injured and found on the street. Almost all civilians in the area know exactly where Caretaker is.

Most significantly, Caretaker enforces neutrality at their place. If a hero and villain happen to be there at the same time, they can’t fight each other. At the very least, civility is mandatory. But in more urgent situations, they’re frequently asked to help the other one that’s more seriously injured.

Based off of my SOA magic system that should probably post, because yesterday was my birthday, these are basically my truest fave tropes

When heartbreak/grief affects a character's magic

Magic backfiring often having the same effects as a gun backfiring

When the stress and trauma is genuinely killing the character

The variance of scars caused by magic. Necrotic scars from dark magic. Colorful scars from haphazard spellcasting. Lighting scars that refuse to fade. Leathery skin from overuse of fire magic. Discolored fingertips, foggy eyes, rapidly graying hair, gimme gimme gimme

Nose bleeds from overuse? A class. But what about... tinnitus, blurred vision, dizzying, loss of appetite, weight loss, tingling/numbness, loss of balance, paling skin, weakened immune systems, muscular pain, oh I could go on

Soldiers collapsing mid battle from using their magic too much

Squad mates holding up their comrade so that they can keep casting magic, despite their weakness and inability to stand for themselves

Watching magic trace through someone's veins before it conjures into reality

Magic whiplash, magic friendly fire, magic misfire? Yes yes and yes

Curses are such a common thing, that they're basically a disability, and yes people discriminate against the cursed of course

whumpee knows it.

maybe a bone didn't heal right, or maybe the things they went through left them with some slow-progressing illness or other injury that is becoming increasingly harder to manage

they can feel themselves getting worse, and they know eventually they'll need to seek medical help if they don't want the damage to get worse

but they don't want to bring it up to anyone - how humiliating it'd be, after everything, to once again ask for more help, especially if they had to go into any detail

its been weeks since the whump happened, it all should be over now

I really do love it when a character gets to safety after some grueling experience they survived and got out of by their own strength and skill and cunning, and... then gets drastically worse very rapidly afterwards. Just utterly collapsing, sick, out of strength, in so much pain, hardly able to get out of bed without help, probably emotionally an utter mess too

Because they've just been pushing their body on and on, to its limits and past, because they had to, because it was up to them to deal with it all, there was no help, no back-up, nothing to rely on but themself. So their mind and body have just burned up all the reserves and endured it all as best as possible, they've held together until they got out of that situation

But now that they're finally safe, their body recognizes it. Now that they're finally safe they no longer need to endure more, they no longer need to keep anything together, to push the pain and exhaustion aside and refuse to feel it in order to go on. They're finally safe to stop all of that. And so- they collapse. All of it catches up with them all at once, and they have no optipn to keep it at bay anymore, they just have to feel it. Have to suffer the consequences of all the injuries, exhaustion, whatever illness they might've picked up, whatever's going on

But hear me out:

Whumper making physiological changes to Whumpee's body.

Could be through programming for robot characters, dedicated brainwashing for humans, magic for fantasy settings, weird biology for aliens...

A few examples off the top of my head:

Alien species that instinctively responds to neck squeezing by going limp like a scruffed kitten, because this helped them survive encounters with predators. Delicious all on its own -- now throw in a quick surgery to permanently clamp the nerve responsible. Whumpee wakes up in a permanent state of relaxed submission and can't even show how terrified they are.

Obedience programming/training that's wired directly into a character's brain. When the system detects unwanted thoughts, it applies pain. Even after rescue, Whumpee can't think of themselves as an autonomous being because their mind is desperately protecting itself.

Characters with magic having their magic corrupted or bound so it either hurts them to use, or it can only be used to serve Whumper's purposes. Bonus points if Whumper has full control over their magic AND the use of it hurts them.

Characters given a brain implant or parasite that stimulates the reward center of the brain, which would be great, except they can't turn it off. They're kept in a constant state of bleary euphoria... with just enough sense of self left to know they want it to stop.

Characters being spelled or programmed so they physically cannot function independently. Characters who very literally NEED to be given permission to do things like relax or take a walk or even use the bathroom. Not being given this permission leaves them in a state of locked stasis -- fully aware of the time passing. Bonus: Caretaker can't reverse it, so they just HAVE to navigate All Of This.

Alien species that will a develop chronic physical illness if deprived of touch for too long. Said illness can only be treated through regular physical touch. Defiant Whumpees will often be locked in solitary confinement and fed through a slot in the bars until symptoms start to manifest. Sometimes they'll be left even longer, to make sure they end up a severe case. And now, oopsie, the only way to ease this horrible pain is by letting your captors put their hands on you!

So when Whumper starts causing real damage; starts crossing lines and escalating past verbal altercations, starts showing up at Whumpees house after fights so they can ‘finish things properly’. Until they start threatening Whumpees position on the team, saying that if they tell anyone about the little predicament Whumpee is in, they’ll tell everyone that Whumpee is the one threatening Whumper.

CW: Restraints, muzzled, collared

Whumper keeps Whumpee in an excessive amount of restraints (can’t move an inch for chains, collared, muzzled) to ensure that they won’t break out - even if Whumpee is completely cooperative

Whumpee who does fight back, who bites, claws, scratches, does everything they can to cause as much damage to Whumper as possible

Whumper who “has to” keep Whumpee constantly sedated

Whumpee is a danger to themself, intentionally or not, so Whumper has to protect them before they fatally injure themselves

Nonhuman Whumpee is percieved as dangerous and muzzled/shock collared before they can plead their case, if they even can

Caretaker who is scared of Whumpee!

Stranger Caretaker arriving to rescue Whumpee after defeating Whumper but hesitating when they realise who or what Whumpee is

Whumpee’s hope turning to dread as they see this, and silently begging for mercy

Whumpee who lashes out at Caretaker, who hurts then one day, and guilt hits them at full force

Whumpee who believes they’re a danger to Caretaker and takes it upon themself to remove themself from the equation

Caretsker who flinches when Whumpee moves suddenly

Whumpee wakes up after being rescued, filled with relief - only when they try to move they notice the chains, and the muzzle

Or Whumpee wakes up in a hospital but is restrained to the bed “for their own safety”

Whumpee is a living weapon or villain and everyone is scared of them - except Caretaker’s child

Dissociation

like most of the Whump I see has whumpees who remember everything clearly and are always crying and shi.

but what abt whumpees who dissociate heavily? Whenever they were tortured or whatever they mentally checked out of the situation, their mind somewhere far away from the pain.

and this carries over to when they’ve been rescued. Say Caretaker accidentally triggers them and instead of crying their eyes glaze over, mind already somewhere far away where they can’t be hurt