Ari, they/she. Mostly SWF, mostly "old school". I like scifi, field medicine, action/adventure, manhandling. Heist connoisseur. WEMT-B, ER tech, nursing student. Been mucking around these parts of Tumblr since 2014. edits @wincemag (mostly retired).
I like: sci-fi, manhandling, field medicine, Star Trek, magical weapons, space, historical medicine, ASMR and when the medic gets hurt. I’m a Wilderness EMT-B currently working in upstate NY. I also have worked on tall ships, STEM education (my specific area of expertise is Earth and space science), outdoor ed, and I’m happy to answer relevant questions you might have!
I edited a magazine of long form whump content called Wince for several years. You can find the back issues here.
I do regular round-ups of whump content. Newer posts, older posts.
Star Wars archive: @starwarswhump
If we’re mutuals, please tag for: eye gore/eye trauma and emeto.
If you think you know my personal, no you don’t.
Writing links under the cut:
Din Djarin whump:
Thorn in the Side || He was used to taking a beating. He wasn't used to getting stabbed. || ~5k, complete. || Tumblr. || Archive of Our Own.
That’s What Teammates Do || 500 words, complete. || Din Djarin doesn’t think the gash is worth worrying about. Cara Dune thinks otherwise. || Tumblr || Archive of Our Own
Bad Things Happen Bingo One-Shots || collected as ‘i’d like to see you bleed’ || ~3k, currently 5 ficlets || Tumblr, Archive of Our Own
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OC whump:
Tag for Alex || futuristic lab rat. ~3k. || in order: capture, lab part 1, lab part 2, rescue
Tag for Jack || modern/urban fantasy bounty hunter who has made some mistakes, capture + improvised medicine by the enemy. || 4 ficlets.
Fancywork || spicy f/f hurt comfort, ~13k. Offsite, rebloggable promo post is here.
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Link to my Bad Things Happen Bingo card (unfinished)
I love it when a character is undercover and gets arrested by their friends or coworkers to maintain their cover. The drama, the theater. *chef's kiss*
the novelty of having pets really does never wear off i’ve had my cat for ten years and i still look at him strolling around like can you believe this. a cat. is everyone seeing this. he’s alive he has bones and all. unbelievable
I'm thinking about using this space for a bingo-style whump reading challenge. I'd make a bingo card, create a challenge on Storygraph, and maybe reblog reviews people posted of their fills if they tagged the blog. Does that sound like something anyone would be interested in?
Possible categories include:
written before 1980
med whump
survival
POC author
nominated for "whump book of all time" (so, anything included in the bracket we just ran)
indie publisher/self published
cyberpunk
fantasy
relevant nonfiction
work in translation
2+ torture scenes
Open to general feedback and suggestions for other possible categories!
I haven't written any new whump in a while -- I just haven't felt inspired. But I was recently possessed by the desire to re-write an older OC story I wrote five years ago (!). These characters are on a corporate sci-fi scouting mission where everything goes wrong, all the time. No major warnings, 1.5k, full story below!
“Matty? Hey, you alright?”
Matteo stumbled against the wall of the structure, leaning awkwardly on it for support. Even at this distance, Tesni could tell he was in pain.
She could just hear him murmur “we shouldn’t be here” before he gave a gutteral grunt and collapsed into spasms.
They were standing on the edge of an ancient alien archaeological site and, against all odds, Matteo was frowning.
“I thought the Intel Board said the last active signatures on this place were from a millenia ago in standard years," he said. He squinted at his wrist reader, flicking through notes, searching for anything he'd missed.
The air was heavy with a musty-yet-bright smell Tesni attributed to the mossy layer blanketing the sunken ruins at her feet. She'd been soaking in the grandure, breathing in the energy of this wild place before the domesticating slog work of surveying started. Now, she pivoted to Matteo. “Yeah, that's what I thought, too. Do you see another crew or something?”
“Oh, no. But just look.” He pointed into the crater before them. Tesni, and Lukas beside her, looked. It was at least a quarter mile wide and four stories deep, with sloped, opposing ramps running down to the center. Massive spikes, at least three stories tall, jutted skyward at jumpled angles. “There's no rubble or anything. It's pristine. Even the vegetation looks manicured from here. Like someone's been maintaining it. Look at the points on those structures, and the edges of the ramp. They look like they were cut yesterday!”
Lukas, never one for punching at shadows, hitched his pack up on his shoulders. “Yeah, well. Maybe that's just what happens when you don't have people running over your ruins for hundreds of years. Now come on, the mysteries of the ancients aren’t going to solve themselves.” He gestured grandly down the ramp closest to the team. “Matteo, can I offer you the honor of being the first sapient being in at least a millenia to set foot in this unexplained place of ancient power?”
Matteo grinned. “I think you’re probably overselling it,” he said, “but there’s nothing I’d love more.”
They trooped down the ramp in single file, Matteo first, then Tesni, with Lukas bringing up the rear.
As the ramp flattened out, Matteo threw up a hand. “Wait on the ramp for a few minutes,” he said. “If there’s anything delicate at the base, I want to catch it before you two stomp all over it." He unclipped his waist band and slipped his pack down. "No offense.”
“None taken.” Tesni and Lukas shed their own packs, cracking spines and rolling shoulders free of knots as Matteo stepped gingerly from the ramp and onto the grassy lower level.
He began walking the perimeter, scanning the ground before every step lest he squish something priceless.
"He looks more like a diviner than an archaeologist," Tesni murmured, and Lukas shook his head with a smile.
Matteo had walked ten meters or so when he frowned, a hand to his temple. His gaze was fixed on the ground in front of him, although Tesni could see nothing of interest there.
"Find something?" Lukas called.
Matteo didn't respond.
Unease lurched into Tesni's gut and she started toward him, calling “Matty? Hey, you alright?”
Matteo stumbled against the wall of the structure, leaning awkwardly on it for support. Even at this distance, Tesni could tell he was in pain.
She could just hear him murmur “we shouldn’t be here” before he gave a gutteral grunt and collapsed into spasms.
Tesni was running before Matteo even hit the ground, with Lukas right behind her. Matteo’s body arched and pulsed, gloved hands clenched in jerking fists, neck thrown back and jaw grinding.
Lukas sprinted past Tesni and grabbed Matteo under the arms, dragging him away from the hard rock wall where he had fallen. He eased Matteo to the ground, as best as he could given his friend's flailing then, clear of the stone, he stumbled back and sank down to a squat, hand over his face and breathing hard.
Tesni, torn between the knowledge that there was nothing she could do and the screaming feeling that she should be doing something, anything at all, put a hand on Lukas' shoulder and tried to focus.
“Don’t touch him,” Lukas murmured.
“Wasn't gonna,” Tesni whispered back. She winced in sympathy as she watched Matteo writhe. She knew he couldn’t feel this, wouldn’t remember it. Still, it looked horrible. “I didn’t think he had any major medical problems. I thought they didn't allow it.”
Lukas shook his head. “He doesn’t. I have both your medical files. He's never had a seizure.”
Nausea swept over Tesni and she knelt too, hands braced on her knees. Something that Matteo had said earlier flickered though her mind. The pristine floors. The lack of rubble.
“Tesni?” Lukas was turning his “concerned team leader” gaze on her now. “You don’t look so good yourself.”
Tesni looked up at Lukas. Funny, his face was blurry, as if she was looking through plastic wrap. “Do you smell that?" she whispered.
Lukas was reaching towards her, he was drifting away from her, he was dissolving into a different reality as she watched.
"I smell bananas?” Her head hurt. From the stress, probably she thought. But why did she smell —
Lukas was dragging her to her feet, pulling her along as she fell into him. “It’s this place,” she heard, as if from a deep well. He was stumbling himself, his words running together. “Something here triggers seizures.”
Lukas dumped her on the base of the ramp and fell forward to hands and knees, panting.
Tesni lay where he'd thrown her, sweat drenching her underlayer. She felt as if he'd just pulled her from drowning.
Lukas, still breathing heavily, righted himself and put a hand on her shoulder. “You feel better now?”
Tesni closed her eyes. “Yeah. A lot better.”
“Me too.” He struggled to his feet. "I have to go get him." He started back into the ring, heading for Matteo’s still-seizing body.
Tesni sat up too quickly and almost blacked out for her trouble. “What the fuck, Lukas!” she shouted as her vision cleared. She tasted bile in the back of her throat.
Lukas grabbed Matteo under the shoulders and began dragged him back towards the ramp. Of course — they couldn’t leave him in the ring, if that was somehow triggering this. The seizure might go on forever. It could kill him outright.
Tesni scooted out of the way as Lukas pulled Matteo past her and a good ten feet up the ramp. He took up his protective kneeling again, this time placing himself between Matteo and the sharp drop off the edge of the ramp.
It took just seconds for Matteo’s body to. His head lolled as his chest fell into a rhythm, and his hands uncurled from their fists.
As Lukas moved in to do a field assessment, Tesni crawled — legs not to be trusted — to Matteo’s other side. She pulled the glove from his hand, tugged off her own, and wrapped her fingers around his.
“We’ve got you, Matty,” she said, trying to be reassuring without interrupting Lukas. “You’re OK now.”
She squeezed his hand. Weakly, Matteo squeezed back. His eyes opened and he moved to sit up before it registered that if Lukas was checking him out, he should probably stay down. He closed his eyes and set his eyes against the moss, breathing heavily.
"Does anything hurt, Matty? Did you hit anything when you fell?" Lukas worked from the head down, moving quickly and efficiently, searching for broken bones or pools of blood.
"I feel terrible," Matteo said, "but I think I can walk out. I just need a minute."
"I'll give you more than that," Lukas said, shining his work flashlight in Matteo's eyes. "Well, there's nothing pressingly wrong with you." He sat back on his haunches. “I did say this was a place of unexplained ancient power. What’s your doctorate say to that?”
Matteo laughed weakly. “It says this might be the discovery of the century and we should definitely send this back via public ansible, instead of holding it for the final report.”
“You took one for the team,” Lukas said. “And a hundred xenoarch grad students are probably going to brawl to the death get their hands on your ansible notes. I hope you’re proud of yourself.” He stood. Tesni, head throbing, did the same. “Can you walk?”
Matteo pushed himself up on his elbows, paused a moment.
“You want a hand?” Tesni asked, offering an arm.
“Wouldn’t say ‘no’.” Matteo clung to her arm and she helped haul him to his feet. He swayed, then steadied himself on her shoulder.
“Don’t push yourself,” Lukas said. “But we need to get back to the hab as quick as we can. If one of us seizes again, I want to be near the full med cabinet. Movie night's cancelled. Med scans for everybody tonight.”
“Sounds positively restful at this point.” Matteo pulled back from Tesni’s shoulder and clapped a hand on Lukas’s arm. “Hey,” he said. “Thank you.”
“Just doing my job,” Lukas said. “Just like you were.”
Some job, Tesni thought. Well, we knew better now. We'll be more careful going forward. This would be the worst of it.
We spend our days and nights deciding
where to go and how to ride there
and in the end again
we all vote yes,
we all turn left.
We lean to turn in the velodrome
Imagine the heightened psychological games your bad guys can play with your captive medic characters, using what they know about medicine against them. Thinking specifically of the dread to be instilled by setting out a vial of rocuronium with no etomidate in sight, but like. I'm all ears for other options.
Imagine the heightened psychological games your bad guys can play with your captive medic characters, using what they know about medicine against them. Thinking specifically of the dread to be instilled by setting out a vial of rocuronium with no etomidate in sight, but like. I'm all ears for other options.
he's beautiful i literally need to put him under extreme psychological stress. i need to put him in extreme physical pain. i need him curling up in someone's arms for the feelings of safety and comfort he hasn't received in ages
constantly thinking about how rescue breathing studies in the 60s were done with boy scouts giving breaths to pharmalogically paralyzed volunteer medical staff
Oh but I do love it when the injured whumpee is held captive in an enemy hospital...
I probably yap about this a lot. But. There are so so many yummy whumpy options here!
Want your whumpee to suffer a lot? Great choice! The enemy medical staff keep whumpee in restraints at all times, probably drug them, and are downright hostile to whumpee. They're keeping them alive for some reason (maybe for interrogation later?) but they're doing the bare minimum. Or maybe they do a little war crime as a treat and subject whumpee to some medical experimentation. Or maybe the enemy doctors are known for hurting or killing patients on purpose.
Or! Maybe the enemy medical staff are just kind of... there. They're not cruel, but there's no tenderness in their work, either. They're brisk, efficient, and cold, and most of the time they act like whumpee isn't even there. They're impartial, and maybe they barely acknowledge whumpee at all, leaving whumpee to wonder what's going to happen next. Or, alternatively, they explain everything in a detached way, like one talks about the weather.
Or, consider this. The enemy medical staff are... surprisingly caring? Maybe they're apologetic carewhumpers, or maybe they're kinder than whumpee's own team. They try to keep whumpee comfortable, bring them pain meds and make sure they get enough to eat, and treat whumpee gently. Whumpee was expecting to be hurt, but instead gets comfort and kindness-- which might shake up their worldview a bit.
whump potential of aliens this, whump potential of aliens that. have we considered the comfort potential of aliens? make them lick their human buddy's wounds for no reason.
