So basically this is an intro post... Well i'm Lera (she\her), aroace, Orthodox Christian (Yep, i don't deny that inside my religion same-gender sex is the same as masturbation and sex outside of marriage. No, i won't attack or exclude anyone because of that, since outside of my religion none of the above is morally wrong) and i can't do basically anything properly but i have an overwhelming amount of whump ideas, a lifelong obsession with doctor characters and a bunch of OC's that i don't know where to put, so i'll dump all the fruits of them here, in hope to someday find a person solidar with me in all of this.. .
People who are turned on by whump, DNI and repent. Non- or semi- sexual whumpers are welcome.
A narrative parallel I love: Whumpee seeing themselves in other objects/animals/etc that Caretaker interacts with.
-Caretaker gently carrying a spider or other creepy crawly out into the garden instead of squashing it gives the Whumpee who was always considered expendable a lump in their throat.
-Caretaker having a “scary” dog breed like a Pitt bull or Rottweiler but treating it like a pet and lapdog, loving on it instead of training it to attack. Living Weapon Whumpee watches hopefully from their spot standing guard as the dog lays its head in Caretakers lap.
-Caretaker fixing their old beater of a car instead of getting a new one, even though they could afford it, and the Whumpee who was replaced after get hurt/making a mistake/getting too old/etc feels a sense of overwhelming relief.
-Caretaker feeding and watching over a feral stray cat from a distance, never trying to trap it or get too close, just making sure it’s okay. Stoic/defiant Whumpee not letting themselves think about how that makes them feel. Also, if/when Caretaker has to catch and treat the stray because it’s gotten injured or sick, realizing that that’s what Caretaker had been doing for them. They just were too scared to understand.
-Caretaker oiling and polishing their tools, putting them away carefully, taking pains that they were well taken care of and would last forever. Mentioning offhandedly that if you take care of your tools, they’ll take care of you. Slave Whumpee nodding emphatically, hoping that mindset extends to them as well.
-Caretaker tending their garden, trimming buds from flowering plants to keep the plant healthy instead just pretty, and Whumpee who’s only ever been valued for their appearance feels less shame and guilt for “letting themselves go” in recovery.
If you're writing anything involving cons, scams, heists, or morally questionable characters who are very good at lying, here are some free resources I've been using for research. Saving you the "why is this in my search history" anxiety.
1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.
2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.
3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.
4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.
5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.
Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.
Reblog to save for later. Your WIP will thank you.
A non-human whumpee, who whumps the shit out of themselves in a desperate attempt to be more of a human. They cut off blood in their supernatural body parts by pressing them down with clothes. They deliberately poison themselves with human food just so no one notices them being unable to eat it. They copy human-like mannerism to the point it physically hurts them..
And then at some point it tutns out to still be not enough and they have to pull up some surgal tools abd turn to more... radical measures.
Claire's backmouth is supposed to change teeth multiple times troughout her life, but she only underwent half a change by 1941.
Horace's eyes twitch pretty often, except instead of conventional lower eyelid twitching it's his upper eyelid
Emma's fingers and her body in general are actually really cold when she isn't actively using her peculiarity.
Bronwyn had polio as a kid. Avoided getting paralyzed, luckily, but it backfired in post-polio syndrome later in her after-loop life
Hugh is immune to feeling pukey. He just doesn't feel nauseous ever. At all. It's a side effect of constantly having bees move around inside him.
Both Fiona and Enoch are slightly chubby (enoch's chubbier, but mainly because he's also short) mainly due to both experiencing food insecurity in the past, then getting moderation problems when they got out of the insecurity situation and never really caring to loose the weight.
I think it would be really fun to do a dream riddle cosplay and pair it with my accordion. My accordion is so dream riddle coded. I don’t have the money or courage to do that though.
It looks a lot better in proper lighting but look at it. It’s Riddle red. The whole colour pallet is dream Riddle. The red the black the white the yellow accents and silver bits.
It's so windy right now my computer got almost blown off the table, but i haven't got any sunlight in, like, months and i need that vitamin D too much to go inside.
tbh a lot of my advice boils down to “hey you know that terrible horrible looming thing you’re doing your best to avoid and distract and escape as much as possible but no matter what you do it just keeps looming and looming and ruining your life”
I only just realized how actually peak chronic pain whump is. Like. Your character is miserable AND THERE IS NO REASON FOR IT. There is no root cause to be eliminated to imidaetly stop the pain. There is no danger behind it. There is no timing to when exactly it will end. Just your character. Just consistently suffering. Completely safe. Completely at the mercy of time and your whim.
I really like this little section of Hollow City. Something about the distance of the third person POV describing the kids is really interesting to me.
how good hollow city is compared to the rest of the series is a phenomenon that should be studied like how did riggs absolutely peak with the second book out of a total of six
like it has some flaws of course but i think almost everyone in the fandom can agree that hollow city is the best of the two trilogies
I only just realized how actually peak chronic pain whump is. Like. Your character is miserable AND THERE IS NO REASON FOR IT. There is no root cause to be eliminated to imidaetly stop the pain. There is no danger behind it. There is no timing to when exactly it will end. Just your character. Just consistently suffering. Completely safe. Completely at the mercy of time and your whim.
our first unique design of the many to come! she was so fun to think of, though a bit tough to actually coherently design. i have a feeling she will end up being one of my overall favorites though, which is hilarious given my track record with the real emma lol. im thinking to do either miss peregrine or bronwyn next! one of those two soon to come...
see jacob here
more facts down below!
- so obviously, this design is nothing like any of the designs we are shown in tadc, nor is it similar to that of emma. emma is not made up of match sticks. though i want to incorperate what their peculiarity is within mphfpc into each of their designs, and i figured what could be better than this? at first, i though to make her design something that is the opposite of something fire related, given that in my opinion the tadc character designs are based off of something that they do not like or are insecure about. but i changed that, and instead plan on giving them all fatal flaws relating to what they can do/what they are. emma here can ignite, though it does cause her harm, so she keeps her feelings bottled up as to not trigger herself/her flame. besides that, i wanted her hair to be really flowy and large just as smoke can be, but i wanted elements of emma to remain, therefore i kept the dress that i typically give her and i made her eyes and facial features sharp (the face is supposed to look like it was engraved into the match top). the blue and red contrast each other in terms of how emma is both fiery/reckless at times and calm/caring other times.
- her name was fun to come up with lol. if the name didn't ring a bell, it is based off of the song "bernadette", specifically the one by iamx. this is fun for two reasons though; 1. the original bernadette song made by four tops was from the 1900's. though it was made in 1967 and i wanted all of the elements of these characters to be before the 1940's, i figured the naming could be an exception. 2. the iamx song titled the same name is about escapism and devotion, being that "bernadette" acts as a savior figure or safe haven in a world that is distant and undesirable. this can go both ways with emma as a character. i will not eleborate any more than that; take this as you will. the only think i changed was the e in "bern" to make it "burn". cause. cause she is a match. haha.
- emma here would be the first to enter the circus.
- also i figure i should note, i am not including abe in this au. in the typical sense that is. if he were how he was in the mphfpc series, being jacob's grandfather, that would be really confusing to the lore. instead, he is not related to jacob in this au, but is someone that had a similar design to jacob before he abstracted; this is a jax with ribbit/kaufmo vs pomni type of situation. emma had feelings for abe before he abstracted, and jacob took on a similar design when he entered the cirucs.
- speaking of other characters, i would not say that each of my au characters has a certain tadc character they are supposed to be. so for example here, emma is not supposed to be jax. instead, i would descibe all of them to be mixes of the tadc characters and their personality types/character archetypes. emma is a mix of a jax and ragatha, given that they both experience trauma and guilt two sides of the same coin, with some kinger thrown in given her knowledge and exsistance in the circus. some more upcoming examples so i am clear here: miss peregrine, though she is in the place of caine, is not solely caine but is a mix of caine, kinger, and ragatha. bronwyn, though she is in the place of ragatha, is not solely ragatha but is a mix of ragatha, gangle, and pomni. this is just based off of the tadc character's actions and feelings.
- on my jacob post, i talked about making all the characters appear black and white; i decided against that lol. the fun and colorful atmosphere of the circus is what makes the existential dread of being trapped all the more powerful. plus, there was color back in the day believe it or not.
if anyone has any other questions regarding this au or emma/jacob (since they are the only two ive done so far), ask away! i have most of the information jotted down for this au, but there could be some things i have not thought about, so anything is appreciated lol!
i kinda didn’t make them ‘monstery’ enough but i will handwave that away because monster high characters are still the humanoid type of monster most of the time
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