✧ Broken ribs suck. You don’t just “walk it off.” Breathing hurts. Laughing hurts. Existing hurts. Characters with rib injuries won’t be doing heroic sprints.

✧ Concussions aren’t instant naps. Dazed vision, nausea, dizziness, maybe even personality changes, but they’re not going to collapse neatly like in the movies.

✧ Blood loss is sneaky. It’s not just about dramatic pools of blood. It’s dizziness, confusion, and the body getting cold as circulation tanks.

✧ Adrenaline lies. Someone can take a serious injury and not feel it until the fight’s over. That “I didn’t realize I was bleeding until later” trope? Very real.

✧ Twisted ankles are brutal. One bad step and suddenly running is off the table. Even walking hurts like hell. Perfect way to ground a chase scene.

✧ Burns linger. Even small burns hurt more than most people expect. Blisters, infection risk, constant pain, it’s not just a cool scar later.

✧ Dislocated shoulders = useless arm. Characters can’t keep swinging a sword or firing a gun. They’re basically fighting one-armed until it’s fixed.

✧ Shock is a thing. Pale skin, trembling, rapid heartbeat, and eventually disorientation. A character might not even realize how bad their wound is.

✧ Stitches aren’t magic. Getting sewn up is painful and recovery takes time. They’re not instantly battle-ready after a needle and thread.

Coughing up blood into a hand and then looking at it with shocked/terrified eyes

The Tension™ of one character tenderly patching up another character's wounds and scolding them for being reckless

Apologizing right before passing out

A hand cupped to a forehead to check for fever

A hand going under a jacket or shirt and coming away bloody

Forced to kneel with a sword under their chin

Lying about the severity/hiding of an injury

Collapsing after a big magic spell/magical exhaustion draining them

The comic relief character joking about their trauma/injury to dissuade worry from them

Hero injured/collapsing on villians doorstep or vice versa, "I didn't know where else to go"

Being curled on the ground and then kicked in the ribs (literally being kicked while they're down)

Being injected with a needle of drugs/potion by villian that knocks them out

Having a terrible nightmare and waking up with a cry in a cold sweat

Fighting against unconsciousness (unsuccessfully)

And if someone does notice and come looking for them, they lash out at anyone who tries to help them.

"Get the fuck away from me." "Whumpee, you're bleeding." "I don't care. Fuck off."

And thinking about once the team knows about this habit of theirs: "Whumpee started limping this afternoon." "Shit, our last fight was days ago. How long have they been hiding this?" "I don't know. They won't let me near them. But if it's to the point where they can't hide it... I'm worried." "Don't let them out of your sight. I don't want a repeat of last time."

But until the team learns about it... lots of fun you can have.

I'm imagining a whumpee coming back from a mission or something and avoiding the others for a few days. It's not unusual. Whumpee's never social at the best of times, let alone after a stressful mission. But when the absences tick over into almost a week, the team starts to get worried. Usually whumpee at least says something.

So they go and check on them, and find whumpee dangerously ill. Like, "you should have been in the ER yesterday" ill.

Imagine the guilt the team feels for not checking in sooner. Imagine how surprised and confused whumpee would be to wake up alive in a hospital/infirmary bed.

New from our founder, Heather Corinna, a guide for those sexual times that wind up more “ow” than “oooh.”

It’s remarkably easy to hurt ourselves in the pursuit of feeling good. From genital abrasions to broken skin to pulled muscles to infections to allergic reactions, even fractures or breaks, exploring our bodies and their capacities sexually can sometimes mean finding out⁠ what’s past a bodies’ limits. We can think there was enough lube, but who among us (cough) hasn’t found out at least once that there wasn’t? We can forget that when it feels to us like we couldn’t possibly get enough of something, our body parts may have an entirely different and considerably threshold (um). Heck, you can hurt yourself just getting a date a glass of water (says my once-broken toe, bitterly).

For whatever reason (probably a combination of ableism⁠, totally inhumane sexual⁠ ideals and maybe some leftover stuff from our DNA way back when we lived a wilder existence), if and when people get hurt during sex⁠, they often feel ashamed or embarrassed, like they have ruined something. Getting hurt in our bodies is as acceptable an experience as feeling good in them. It’s not “weak” to get hurt, and it doesn’t mean anyone failed at anything, it just means we’re living in the body of a mere mortal, not a sexual superhero. So, if some kind of sex injury happens to you or a partner⁠, don’t get hung up in negative feelings about it. Instead, turn your attention to yourself or whoever got hurt. Not only might you or they need physical care, caring for ourselves and each other in attentive, tender ways is only likely to enhance our sexual experiences and the ways we connect to ourselves or one another through them. This kind of care, much like general sexual aftercare, can be something that is a highlight of a sexual experience, even when something painful or bummerful happened which that care is centered around.

(CW: blood, injuries, broken bones)

Blitzbee Week 1 - Forbidden