#cauterizing

[void-drawz]

This may be a hot take but...

If Abolish got to Owen sooner and Legs focused on Pyro rather than Owen we could have had a happy ending for vampires

This is coming from a bloodletting main btw

[clickerflight]

The Struggle for Aldoria: Part 2

Where is the Wine

Masterpost

CW: Two deaths, graphic threats from a creepy Whumper, concussion symptoms, stabbed through the wrist (no death), branding, cauterizing the wound

Some heavy stuff in here.

.........................................

“KALLAH!”

The prince whirled around, swords in hand. He had never heard his mother scream like that, and he dashed back down the hall, his blood pounding in his ears as he ran. There were intruders in the palace. They’d had warnings that the Jotuun were invading, but he had no idea they were already this close. There was blood on the floors. Blood on his hands. 

“Maman!” he shouted, sliding around the corner, swords at the ready. It was a good thing too, as hands scrambled to grab hold of his already torn clothing, smearing the blood that already burned on his forearms. 

More blood joined what was already on his skin as he fought to reach his mother. 

“STOP, BOY!” the man screamed. 

Kallah, encircled by enemies, looked past the foreigners and found his mother staring at him, eyes bulging with fear. “Kallah, help,” she whimpered as the man, bearing the colors of a general in the Jotuun army, held a blade to her throat. 

“Stand down, princeling,” the general said, baring his teeth in a mockery of a smile. 

Kallah tightened his grip on his swords, staring at his mother who held his gaze like her life depended on it. She kept mouthing please, begging for her life silently as the general watched Kallah, delighted by the pain he had caused thus far. 

Kallah knew there were too many people. There were too many soldiers around him for him to reach his mother in time. It was an impossible decision and she could see what decision he was starting to come to. She shook her head as desperately as she could with a knife to her throat. 

“No, Kallah, don’t, they can be reasoned with, don’t do it-”

“They can’t, Maman,” he said heavily, feeling heat well in his throat and eyes as he spoke. “I’m so sorry. I promise to take care of the kingdom. I’m so sorry.”

The general laughed as, with tears rolling down his cheeks, Kallah hacked through man after man. He did not see his mother fall, but he heard her body hit the floor.

………………………..

Toruk was thrown to the floor in the throne room, slamming into servants that were already on their knees. Toruk struggled to sort himself out without any help as the people around him remained frozen with fear and confusion. He finally got himself sorted out and looked up at the throne where a strange man sat, looking very smug about his position as he did so. 

One of the Jutunites that stood by the throne called, “All hail your new king, Lord Isaac!”

The Jotuunites lined along the walls cheered fervently as the new king by way of conquer stood up, smiling and holding up his hand. 

“Not just yet, my warriors. We have some loose ends to deal with.”

Another loud cheer went up as a side door opened, usually used by servants, and in came warriors with two bound people. They shoved the two forward, and the younger of them caught himself on his knees while the older slammed into the ground without the strength to keep from hitting his head off the stone. 

Toruk’s nose throbbed in sympathy as whispers ran through the servants. 

“King?”

“Is that the king?” 

“What have they done to them?”

“Are they going to kill the prince?”

“Oh, I can’t look.”

Toruk, surprised, strained to see a bit better and, sure enough, the prince, bloodied and stripped of his rank, knelt on the stone, his father collapsed next to him. 

The prince looked up swiftly as the general stood up, axe in hand as he made his way over slowly, as though he was putting on a show. The Jotuunites seemed to appreciate it as they cheered for their general as he stopped in front of the two monarchs. 

“I’m guessing you’re wishing you’d accepted our proposal to give us aid now, hmm, old man?” Isaac asked, nudging the king’s face with his boot. 

The king didn’t move and suddenly the dull thud that rang out as he fell echoed over and over again in Toruk’s head. 

Isaac frowned, kicking the king, rolling the man over in one movement. He stared down at him and clicked his tongue. “Well, you’re no fun, are you? I had a whole speech prepared.”

He lifted his hand and let his axe fall. 

Toruk couldn’t look away, the horrible crunch already printed into his memory as blood seeped across the ground. 

The prince screamed, trying to throw himself forward, but Isaac kicked him back. 

The prince writhed on the ground, trying to get his breath back, coated in blood, a new layer of his father’s fresh on his skin. 

The prince was terrified. He stared up at Isaac with absolute fear and horror. It made the prince human in all of the servants' eyes. 

Toruk desperately wished the Prince wasn’t human. 

Someone, in a shaky and warbling voice, sang the death prayer and others whispered along. Toruk didn’t have the courage to even look somewhere else for the fear of drawing attention to himself as the general dragged his gaze over the group of servants. He smiled and looked back down at the prince. 

“You are certainly more entertaining than your parents…. Perhaps I shall wait to kill you. We could make a festival out of it, hmm? Distribute flayed strips of flesh to your people as a gift?”

The prince shuddered on the ground, bruises starting to show on his ribs from where he was kicked. “Please,” he whispered.

“Oh? Please what?”

The prince looked away from Isaac, shivering again as he stared at a wall rather than look towards his servants, none of whom did anything to stand up and help him. 

Toruk blinked. Should he? Should he stand up? He ought to stand up. He should get up and rally the other servants and protect the prince. There were a fair amount of servants. Could they?

But they were not warriors and the Jotuunites had blades of all shapes and sizes. They were watching and leering over them all daring them to. 

But wouldn’t it be better to die while trying? Would it be better to reach the other side and say that at least he tried? 

His father had a broken leg. His mother couldn’t take care of the whole family by herself. His siblings would have to help and they couldn’t keep getting education. They needed him. 

His family or his kingdom? What sort of choice was that?

Toruk couldn’t decide, his legs beginning to cramp as he tightened them to get up and then released them as the fear rose up in the depths of his stomach and then tightened them as he tried to rally just himself to get up and-

They were taking the prince, dragging him out alive. 

Toruk, now dizzy, stayed on the floor. 

“I do think we deserve to celebrate, hmm?” Isaac asked, delighted. “This has been a very successful take over if I do say so myself. Where can we find the wine in this place?”

His eyes swept over the servants, waiting for someone to speak up.

“Well? Who’s in charge of that?” he asked, a growl in his tone as his warriors grumbled, lifting their weapons. 

In a flurry of motion, Toruk was pushed out of the group and fell to his hands and knees at the front of the group. He froze there, his hair in disarray and in his bloodied face as he felt Isaac’s gaze on him. 

“Oi, are you in charge of the wine!?”

Toruk swallowed and slowly sat back on his knees, keeping his eyes on the floor as he said, “I am the storeroom manager. The, uh, the wine is in the 8th lower storeroom. The stairs are, um, by the kitchens, sir.”

“Perfect! Kata, go ahead and take some warriors to break some of that out.”

Toruk nearly cricked his neck looking up to find Kata moving among the warriors like she was one of them. She avoided his eyes as she left the room.

“Good. You will all be serving me and my men as we celebrate tonight. And do not disobey us. Wouldn’t want more blood staining our floors now, would we?”

The servants murmured assent and Toruk, now the head of the group, nodded along with them. Coward. 

……………………..

Toruk stood behind Isaac, almost numb at this point. His nose still throbbed, and it bled on and off. He was feeling light headed and shaky and there was a pain in his shoulder that said it must have been wrenched at some point during the day, though he had no idea when as he had been manhandled so many times. It could have been from his first fall, or being thrown into the crowd of servants, or being shoved to the front so quickly and having to catch himself, or from the many times that one of the rambunctious warriors had thrown him, just because they could. 

He held a bottle of wine in shaky hands, now in the relatively safe job of pouring wine for Isaac every time he ran low, staring into the middle distance and just waiting for it all to be over. How much did the city know? Would their own warriors be coming to save them? Was the prince still alive? 

He couldn’t think about the prince. He was an idiotic coward and it would be his fault if the man were dead. The guilt was a small creature living in his chest, though he knew for a surety that it would grow when the numbness faded. He had no idea if he would be able to live with himself. 

“Alright, alright, tha’s ‘nough,” Isaac called, tugging at his beard. “You all leave now. Leave ta wine.”

“Sire,” one of his more sober guards called, “Do we wanna keep them all in the palace.”

“Yeahhhhhh. Have them branded so we cn tell them apart from ours, kay? On the wrist or sommut.”

Toruk stirred from his numbness, horror shooting into his gut. “Sir, please. You can identify us by our belts.”

Isaac turned and growled, grabbing Toruk by the sleeve and jerking him towards him. “Is tha’s so? If you’re so scare of tha, how’s this for ya?”

Isaac pulled out a knife and slammed it it through Toruk’s wrist, driving the blade into the arm of the chair. Isaac laughed as Toruk sobbed, hand around the hilt of the knife but too shocked and dizzy to get it out. 

Isaac jerked it out and Toruk fell to the floor, cradling his wrist, pressing cloth to it to stop the bleeding. 

“Serves ya right,” Isaac laughed before taking another swig of wine. 

It wasn’t until every one of the palace servants were branded that Toruk was able to scrape himself from the floor. No one argued with the branding after that. 

They did not get to go home. They were left to sleep in an empty guest room, the bed reserved for the old and the floor having to do for everyone else. They barely fit in the room, having to sit up as the night dragged on, leaning on one another to sleep. 

And after his complaint about the branding, Toruk still had to have his wrist cauterized by the cook to stop the bleeding. Stupid cowardly complaint. Not brave enough to stand up and cowardly enough to try and wriggle out of pain. Toruk didn’t have much more time to berate himself after that before his exhaustion and numbness dragged him under. 

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[promptsforyourwhumpfic]

Whump Prompt #722

Submitted by @roachyboi - thanks!

It might be just me but I love the campfire scenes. The warmth of the fire, the woods environment surrounding the characters and the relaxed vibe. Really good opportunity for characters to open up to each other. For example, the whumpee opening up to other caretakers about nightmares they’ve been having. I just love it.

This also opens up opportunities for wound cauterisation and poor medical treatment due to the bad lighting - and lets not forget the smoke that irritates already weakened lungs...

[bltzgore]

Whumpee needs a wound cauterized, but they're in too much pain to focus and understand caretaker trying to calm them. It's just them, caretaker, and their blood loss. So caretaker has to multi task. They place one knee across whumpee's chest, and one across their waist in order to pin them and cauterize something on whumpee's abdomen. And we still have the added benefit of whumpee trying to thrash, screaming in pain, crying, pleading, begging for it to stop. Caretaker has to soldier through, they have to save whumpee before they can hope to calm them.

[cutesy-whumper]

alright, does everyone remember that 100° knife craze a few years back? well i wasn't into whump at the time so i've made the decision to ignore the linear passage of time entirely. i'm doing it now basically.

whumpee passes out frop the pain when the knife hits their side, only vaguely processing the smell of burnt meat as they recieve wound after wound that doesn't bleed

maybe a week later, when they've been brought back up to the actual house, they can't understand why smelling whumper's cooking makes them panic

whumpee tied down, losing chunk after chunk out of their arm: the fingers, then the hand, and big bits of the forearm up to the elbow. even through the sickening burn at their latest wound, they can still feel phantom pains of every other time they'd been cut tonight.

whumper with thick, unpractical gloves to handle the heat, not as precise as they'd usually be, maybe even giving their whumpees more wounds than intended

the feeling of blood loss from whumpee's blood getting reduced by the heat, along with not a drop of blood on the floor: maybe whumper implying they'll have to do this more because it's just so much cleaner than the usual punishments (because the wounds it leaves on whumpee are downright nasty, too)

a whumper who ""'cares""" about the whumpee (or just about keeping them alive) using a hot knife so the wounds get cauterized immediately, whumpee gets to feel so much pain withou even the possibility of death

a whumpee having to use a hot knife on themself to cauterize a nasty wound they were left with, hoping it won't get infected, whumper refusing to give them any basic medical supplies

[secrettheorist]

So there is this thing I'm obsessed with and I need all of you to know about it.

Fire.

Fire is literally the best thing.

It not only is used for survival, but also pain and intimidation.

Food, heat, light, warmth.

Or

Branding, cauterizing, scorching, delirium

The perfect line between hurt and comfort.

[void-drawz]

Okay I can't stop thinking about this canon divergence of Abolish and Owen and Legs and Pyro like AGH

Some ideas I've come up with:

Legs and Pyro:

Legs finds a starving Pyro in the woods. They're trying to find animals, but failing. At this point, Pyro is trying to be a good vampire, but feeling very out of place, even as he tells himself he doesn't. They want to have a little power over the humans so was thinking about getting the wither roses, but got disheartened after not being able to catch any animals.

Legs makes his presence known and Pyro starts, not expecting to be found, especially not in such a state.

Legs asks how Pyro is doing and they are startled by that almost as much as Legs sneaking up on them. They're not used to someone asking if they're okay, especially not since coming to Oakhurst. Pyro tries to lie, that he's fine, but it falls flat and Legs tells him that if he needs help he can offer some.

They talk and Pyro realizes that the humans might still care for him, or at least Doc does and that's enough for him. Legs mentions the cure and Pyro physically reacts to that, showing that they want to be free of this curse.

Legs asks if he wants the cure and Pyro says he does, mentioning how the hunger was unbearable, especially now, in fact he should go continue his hunt before he does something to Legs. Doc is quiet for a moment, but grabs Pyro's arm before they can leave and says "I trust you". So Pyro feeds on Legs, getting to level 3.

They continue to meet up, discussing the cure.

Avid still finds a time to throw holy water at Pyro, but it's a whole lot unprompted and Legs gets super mad.

Abolish and Owen:

Instead of Legs getting dragged to the Castle by Martyn and Cleo, it's Abolish and he's the one to follow Owen when he runs out the back to escape.

They have a chat and instead of Legs' whole "I can help you", Abolish has an "Let me understand you" moment. Abolish hints at knowing about vampires beforehand, the history of Oakhurst. If anyone can listen, it will be him.

Owen pauses because no one beside Louis has wanted to listen to him and he begins to tell Abolish his woes if hesitantly, and he stops entirely when he notices Pyro lurking. Owen tells Abolish to leave, but doesn't threaten him. Abolish leaves without a fight, saying "you know where to find me"

Cue Owen stalking Abolish everytime he leaves the town. Abolish always notices it, but waits for Owen to approuch him first and finally Owen does. They end up having a lovely conversation, much like their second to final one in the original. Owen calls out Abolish knowing way too much and Abolish just agrees, but eventually explains his place in all this. Owen is off put by Abolish wanting the cure books, but Abolish never offers the cure to him which makes him trust Abolish. Owen finishes his side of the story and Abolish sympathizes with him.

Owen feels seen for the first time since Louis and expresses how he wants to turn Abolish. Abolish simply states that he's happy being human, stating "You wanted this and that's totally acceptable. I don't want it and I want you to accept that". And Owen does.

They keep having secret meetings, usually brief and Abolish telling Owen about the organization and how he'd be accepted there. And Owen finds himself surprisingly unopposed.

Owen finds himself happier, less out for blood, now that he has someone who sees him again. The rest of the Castle notices and are baffled, but leave it alone cuz Owen still lashes out whenever it's pointed out.

They eventually start plotting ways to get out behind everyone's back at these little meetings and soon come to a similar conclusion as the canon solution.

But of course, a sire has to die for the humans who want a cure after.

Who is it?

Scott. Definitely Scott.

Don't ask me how they force him to do it, but they do and everyone else ends up getting out A-OK

Cured Abolish and Owen go to the organization.

Cured Pyro and becomes cured Legs' assistant.

This isn't about the rest but here:

Avid, Shelby, and Drift go exploring the world like they planned (they never want to see the others of Oakhurst again cuz they're mad about Scott). Oh, and Avid finds out Elle is alive.

Pearl and Cleo stay together in Oakhurst making it into a haven for the supernatural.

Cured Apo goes on to go back to Cherri.

Martyn (who lives, being turned by Apo) and cured Ren go off to find another cure for Martyn, with Sausage occasional visiting and joining them for an adventure or two.

Yay happy endings!

[void-drawz]

So I made a take about how if Abolish got to Owen sooner and Legs paid attention to Pyro things could have been fine

And well...

Throws this at you and runs away