hell yeah,, Problems

Whumpee is given a word. A single word that dictates when they've got permission to speak. It's been weeks since they last heard it. Caretaker keeps asking them to say something. Practically begging them, but they won't say the word.

Of course they won't. They have no way of knowing what it is, but Whumpee can't find their voice without it. It's so deeply engrained in them that not even Whumper's death can fix it.

Regardless, they arrive at the court, because one does not ignore a king’s summons, and are shocked and horrified when they arrive and the court is just filled with instruments of torture. Racks and iron maidens, whips and flails, a full carriage with chains trailing behind it, clearly meant to drag a body in its wake.

The toymaker is not only terrified, but confused. Are these instruments for them? And what could they have done to warrant this treatment?

But then, it gets really strange.

“I want you to use your skills to remake these in miniature,” the king tells the toymaker. “At scale for…let’s say ‘a doll’ roughly six inches tall.”

The toymaker, still perplexed, is flooded with relief, and starts babbling about how they’ll be happy to accommodate the king and recreate versions that won’t bring any harm to this “doll.”

But the king cuts them off.

“No, no, I need them in perfect working miniature,” the king says. “I need them just as capable of hurting this doll as the originals.”

…

Anyway, food for thought for Myrie!

@goes-whump-in-the-night

omg this is why you are a god among whump writers, this is INCREDIBLE. Hoping I can incorporate something like this at some point, new little torture contraptions designed and commissioned by Ecker maybe.