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An escaped Whumpee finally getting things back. Finally being able to wear comfortable clothes again (or finally wearing clothes at all again). Finally getting to drink and eat again. Finally getting to sleep and rest again. Finally getting to do all those small things they were forbidden to do with Whumper.

That delicious uncertainty of conditioning kicking in and knowing that they aren’t forbidden anymore. The uncertainty of “Can I really wear this?” “Are you sure I can sleep here?” “But- I didn’t do my chores, why are you giving me food?”

And maybe Whumpee can’t grasp receiving those things yet. Maybe they wear their old rags and sleep on the floor and don’t eat much yet because they just can’t grasp being free again.

But slowly, they learn to take all these things back. To make something theirs again.

mxrr0rball

former living weapon whumpee who doesnt know any of their "favourite things". theyve been stripped of autonomy and identity for so long that piecing together fragments of what they might want or like feels foreign and wrong to them. they basically have to rebuild a personality from scratch.

whumporama

Caretaker who is determined to work on this. They start small, asking LW what their favorite color is, maybe just placing some colored paper in front of them and asking them to pick one.

It seems so simple, but it nearly makes LW break down.

sleepy-lump-of-moss

Exhaustion Prompts

*＊✿❀○❀✿＊*

-Whumpee stumbles through the door and just barely makes it to the couch before they pass out

-Caretaker finding Whumpee asleep at the dinner table, their head laying next to their plate with a fork in hand

-Whumpee finding everything hilarious due to sleep deprivation

-Whumpee’s sentence trailing off as they doze off

-Whumpee’s head bowing as they fall asleep. The movement startles them and they quickly shake their head to try and wake themselves up

-Whumpee struggling to read because their eyes are dry and strained from lack of sleep

whumpernickelsandwich

caretaker who thinks whumpee kind of deserved what happened to them because whumpee was a terrible, rotten person. every wince induced by caretaker's rough treatment of their wounds, every moment of peaceful sleep interrupted by nightmares brings caretaker a sick sense of satisfaction. caretaker hates whumpee. but, for some reason, they feel like they have to take care of them, which causes a lot of internal conflict. (yum)

or, an alternate version of this: maybe whumpee has had rumours and stories spread about them being a terrible person, which caretaker believes. as a result, caretaker is always rough with whumpee, carelessly treating them and ignoring every protest of pain.

whumpee deserves it, after all, don't they? so caretaker ignores their pleas and promises that they aren't who everyone says they are. and when caretaker eventually discovers the truth, the guilt consumes them.

writing-prompt-s

When we made first contact, we unsuccessfully tried to hide our shameful past from the aliens. But when they uncovered it they were relieved, saying "Thank goodness it's just war. We feared you were hiding a history of Xylok."

pangur-and-grim

here are my stages of book editing:

draft 0 - the complete text, without any changes. I don’t edit as I work, so this is just pages of slop. names change, people appear and disappear, subplots fizzle out, etc. the characterization is also wonky because sometimes I only figure out what someone’s issue is halfway through.

draft 1 - the hardest stage. I have to wade through all my yucky nasty words and somehow make them readable. usually there’s a huge decrease in wordcount around here, because I’m slicing out subplots that didn’t go anywhere, and deleting entire chapters. by the end of this, everyone will have consistent names, and it will be roughly readable and coherent.

draft 2 - the fun stage! now it’s purely line edits. I read through everything to make sure it has a nice flow, and add in any extra descriptions that are necessary to avoid people talking in a void.

draft 3 - line edits again, but nitpickier. I read each page out loud, to see if I stumble on any sentences or transitions. usually I lose my voice a little because I’m just sitting on my exercise bike monologueing for multiple days straight.

and then, if I have enough time, I repeat the second and third stages endlessly until the book stops looking like language. but with the last couple books, I’ve set some sort of arbitrary deadline to stop this from happening.

greater-than-the-sword

What if we kissed 😳😳😳 before being violently pulled apart by the hands of strangers

greater-than-the-sword

What if we kissed 😳😳😳while both captured by the villain by stretching as far as our chains would allow us

greater-than-the-sword

What if we kissed 😳😳😳 in the precious seconds we had left before you were dragged away to unknown suffering and peril so that you would be imbued with a sudden and unexpected infusion of dopamine moral courage and fortitude

ghostwriterofthemachine

Goddddddd thinking about that narrative moment when something horrible is happening and the character who has been frantically trying to come up with a way to fix it and getting more and more frantic and panicky just—stops. Because. Oh. There’s the solution. They’re not getting out of this alive but like. It’s a solution for everyone else. Okay. Okay.

antimony-medusa

Why would you do this to me.

ghostwriterofthemachine

and!!!! like!!!! obviously this is delicious when you hit your Self Sacrifice Archetype with it, but honestly I think it's even chewier when you give it to, like. someone with a selfish streak. The one with some arrogance who's maybe not quite a team player. leans more towards loner. Give this moment to the one party member who has been shown to prioritize their own survival over everything else.

And then the eye-of-the-storm realization of "Oh. Huh. I am not making it to the end of the story. but everyone else is going to. Isn't it strange, that I'm not more upset?"

mxrr0rball

a whumpee who refuses to admit what happened to them.

they keep a smile plastered on their face. go to work like normal, chat with friends and coworkers, etc. when they flinch at someone raising their hand, they brush it off with a "huh? oh, no, im fine! just a little tired today!".

when caretaker tries to approach the topic, asking "please, whumpee, we should talk about what you went through...", whumpee's brittle smile gets even more strained. "nothing happened. im fine, i dont need to talk."

whumpee has nightmares that make them wake up screaming. caretaker rushes in, soothing them, but whumpee snaps at them to leave and won't admit to the fact the nightmare happened at all.

slowly, this wears on caretaker, too. they get frustrated. desperate. doing everything they can think of to get whumpee to at least acknowledge it, but it doesnt work. they can see whumpee isn't okay -- what will it take for them to admit it? eventually, caretaker breaks, and it all culminates in a screaming match.

"i KNOW you're not fine! everyone can see it! we can all tell!"

whumpee freezes. its the calm before the storm. "you want to talk about it? FINE. lets fucking talk!"

caretaker feels the dread pool in their belly. but whumpee isn't done yet.

"let's talk about how whumper chained me up so now i cant wear anything around my ankles or wrists without feeling like I’m back there! let's talk about how whumper would show me his new blades before using them on me! let's talk about how i can't fucking sleep because every time i do i see his hands on me! oh, oh, this is a good one -- let's talk about the time he tied me down and fucking waterboarded me! is this what you wanted? do you feel better about yourself now?"

and all caretaker can do is stare in horror.

sooo i wrote a thing based off this post .... :) if u like this concept go check it out!

writing-prompt-s

Your friend keeps giving you very random gifts at completely random times. It seemed like an odd but nice gesture, until you realise each gift has saved your life from any sort of incident some time after accepting it.

boxfullaturtles

Angst Prompts Because Why Not

send me a character + a prompt (or two) and I'll do a little drabble, just a short thing, i wanna stretch my writing muscles

Dizziness

Lost

Coughing Fit

Gagged

Caught

Left to Bleed

Trapped

Drugged

Cursed

Animal Attack

Infection

Humiliation

Collapse

Gasping for Air

Poison

Open Wounds

Accident

Isolation

Beastly

Starved

Medical

Forced to Watch

Ambush

Bound

Failed Rescue

Self-Inflicted

Needle

Punishment

Control

Dangerous Temperatures

Gun Violence

Begging

Defiant

Blinded

Growth

Mechanical Error

Hooked

Hole

Speechless

Change

writing-prompt-s

The royal family employs no bodyguards. A would-be assassin discovers why.

galwednesday

“Please?” the crown prince said hopefully.

The assassin hesitated. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this.”

“Come on, you’re doing great. Just one stab, it’ll be easy-peasy.” The prince spread his arms wide, leaving his throat and chest vulnerable.

“Look, I’m going to level with you,” the assassin said. “I took this contract on the assumption that you were a bad dude. Usually when a country goes bankrupt this fast, it’s because whoever’s in charge is raiding the treasury. But once I infiltrated the guard, I actually had to spend time around you, and you’re just.” The assassin threw her hands up in disgust. “You’re a really nice person! There’s no getting around it! So I’m not super on board with murdering you now. Nothing personal.”

“But if you don’t, my sisters won’t get the life insurance payout, and the country will be in debt for the next century!”

“I’m pretty sure arranging for your own assassination is insurance fraud.”

“Your whole job is to commit murder,” the prince said, “and now you’re worried about a little insurance fraud?”

The assassin pinched the bridge of her nose. “Okay, let’s back up and think about this rationally. Have you considered faking your own death?”

leaper182

This was not what I was expecting, and it is glorious.

malus-syl-vestris-deactivated20

“I’m pretty sure arranging for your own assassination is insurance fraud” is the best sentence I have ever read in my life

anneapocalypse

People think "gray morality" in fiction is about Both Sides Are Partly Right Actually but so much more often it's about choices having inescapable negative outcomes that have to be weighed against the benefits, or it's about having to choose between a series of bad options, or it's about making hard decisions about what you are willing to sacrifice to achieve the outcome you believe is good.

So often, I seem to see people angry that a story in a video game didn't present a Good Option with no collateral damage and no negative outcomes whatsoever, and if there are any downsides it's seen as the writers punishing you for the decision, because they see the primary purpose of stories to be moralizing rather than exploring the complexities of human experience. Or they argue that the collateral damage didn't really happen, or that the negative outcomes weren't really that bad actually, and thus miss the point altogether.

And I feel like it's important to remember that a narrative telling you a decision is difficult is not the same thing as the narrative telling you it is wrong.