#cw:torture

[whumpadventureprompts]

Truth Serum

Whumper has dosed Whumpee with truth serum and it hasn't worn off yet when they're rescued. 

When Caretaker instinctively asks, "What happened?" They don't expect Whumpee to mechanically recite every detail of the torture they endured.

[alicewritingstories]

Febuwhump Day 25: Waterboarding

CW: kidnapping, torture, restraints, drugs

AO3

---

Link wasn't entirely sure how long it had been since he was kidnapped. It didn't help that he'd spent part of the time unconscious; he could still feel the lingering traces of the drug that had been jabbed into his arm by someone in the crowd at the marketplace.

One thing that was certain was that he was now standing against a post, bound too tightly to even shift position. Even his breathing was restricted. A cloth was tied between his teeth tightly enough that his cheeks ached and another was over his eyes.

Dully, he wondered who was holding him and what they wanted. It wasn't as if he was short of enemies, but most of them would have cut his throat already and been done with it. The fact that apparently he had been wanted alive was worrying. It meant that either they wanted to take their time killing him or they wanted something other than his life.

Neither was a comforting thought.

Then he heard something: the rattle of keys in a padlock, followed by the scrapes of a chain being unwrapped and a door rubbing a floor as it opened. He raised his head, trying to give a show of strength and defiance.

Nobody spoke, but he heard footsteps, something heavy being put down, some rustling and scraping, and then footsteps walking away again, followed by the door closing and being locked again.

He frowned, confused, straining his ears to try to hear any talk from outside or any hint of where he was. Everything was silent except that he caught a faint sound that he could believe was half-stifled breathing. He couldn't even be sure enough to seriously wonder if another prisoner had been brought in.

He squirmed as best he could in his bonds, trying to find an angle to rub the blindfold away from his eyes, but it was no good. He just had to continue to wait to find out what was happening: something he had never enjoyed or been good at.

After a while, he heard a faint noise. This time he was sure: it was a soft, gag-strangled voice moaning as the other prisoner recovered consciousness. He tried to make some sound through his own gag in response, but had no way of knowing if the other prisoner had heard him; he just faintly made out some small rustles and shuffles that he guessed was the sound of an unsuccessful struggle against ropes.

Before he could come up with any kind of plan to communicate with the other prisoner or find out more about who they were and their state, he heard the door unlocked again. Again, he raised his head and squared his shoulders as best he could. Footsteps approached and this time someone grabbed the blindfold and pulled it violently away from his eyes.

They were holding a torch near his face and he had to turn away, closing his eyes against the sudden bright light.

"Captain Link," said a voice.

He looked up slowly, blinking away the watering at the corners of his eyes. It was still hard to see, but he did his best to focus and to keep his head up.

A hand grabbed his chin and held his head still as someone untied the knotted cloth tied around his mouth and pulled it free. He took a quick, grateful breath, licking his dry lips to try to moisten them.

"I'm sure you're wondering what's going on. You'll be relieved to know you're not the one we want."

He tilted his head with a scowl, not making the effort to speak aloud. His eyes had grown sufficiently accustomed to the light that he could see the man speaking to him, not that it helped; he was wearing a mask and only his eyes were visible. Link noted that they were green, a few freckles were visible on the bridge of the man's nose, and he had a Castletown accent. Useful information if he got out of here alive.

"We're interested in the princess. Answer our questions and you'll be untied and released once we've finished our work and kept safe and comfortable in the meantime. Refuse and you won't."

Link met his eye squarely, his jaw set.

"I thought you might not be interested in cooperating. Whatever else anyone says about you, you're a brave man and you've always been happy to risk your skin for her. Well, how about the skin of your little cousin here?" The man stepped aside and pointed. Now Link saw the other prisoner: a young boy in a brightly-coloured quartered tunic, gagged and tied spread-eagled on a table. Another masked man had just removed his blindfold and he was blinking in Link's direction.

Link had never seen him before in his life. He didn't even have any cousins.

"Strangers' lives mean nothing to you, we all know that, but he and the rest of the family have been asking around town for you. I guess you don't do a good job of writing home."

Both accusations stung. Neither was worth engaging with right now.

The boy's eyes had focussed on Link's face. His expression showed none of the fear Link had expected. There was some resemblance, he supposed, though in the circumstances it was hard to tell. But the question of whether whoever had left him at an orphanage when he was a baby had had family that might have tracked him down could wait. First, he had to get himself and the boy out of here.

Link's gaze went back to the man speaking to him. He wished he had Proxi, but wishes were wasted. He was going to have to speak for himself and he licked his lips again, unsure what to do. The boy knew too much now; they wouldn't let him leave alive even if Link managed to persuade them he didn't know him and therefore by their own logic he didn't care what they might do to him.

He did, he always did, but what he cared about didn't matter much to anyone.

"Let's start with something easy, shall we?" said the man pleasantly. "The royal kitchens. Are there any special precautions around the princess' meals and those of her closest retainers such as General Impa?"

Link glared at him.

"Ah, I see." The man turned and nodded to his companions. Before Link could react, one of them pinched the boy's nose closed while another dipped a bucket of water out of a barrel beside the table and tipped it over the boy's head. The boy let out a cry, strangled to a squeal by the now-soaked gag, and bucked against the hand on his face and the ropes holding him to the table.

Link swallowed hard, imagining trying to breathe through a mouth filled with wet cloth. The man holding the boy's nose held it a moment longer, then released it, letting the boy gasp in a breath.

There wasn't much choice for Link; he couldn't betray Zelda, not to save himself, not to save a stranger, not to save someone who might be long-lost family.

"Nothing?" asked the kidnapper.

When Link still stayed silent, the man nodded at his companions again. Another bucket of water was thrown over the boy's face. This time the man standing over him didn't plug his nose and his gasps were punctuated by sneezes, muffled coughs, and the occasional involuntary whimper.

Link gritted his teeth and stayed silent.

The man asked more questions, visibly more and more frustrated. Link kept quiet, though the boy's muffled cries as he struggled to breathe properly tore at his heart. He had to do this. It wasn't even as if it was the first time he'd let an innocent suffer for the greater good.

Then, out of nowhere, the door was smashed open. Link's head snapped round and he gasped as a tattooed man in shining plate armor ran in. The kidnappers were just as shocked as he was, which gave the newcomer - newcomers, he realized; three other men ran in after the first - a chance to make it almost to where he stood before the kidnappers could even react.

"Legend, Hyrule!" the armored man shouted. "With me!"

The man who had been waterboarding the boy drew a knife, but a slight teenager in a red tunic closed the distance before he could even get out the threat to kill his prisoner. The man who had been questioning Link didn't even make a threat; he drew his knife and brought it to Link's throat.

Link took a quick final breath and mentally said farewell to Zelda and his other friends.

Then a sword flashed past his face. The kidnapper reeled back with a cry, clutching at his hand. A young man in a white cloak stepped in front of Link, sword still raised protectively.

"Are you all right?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder.

Link let out the breath he'd taken and nodded. He couldn't see past the man in the cloak, but he heard the clash of swords, shouts, and then coughing and someone saying, "OK, Four. Just keep breathing."

The man in the cloak relaxed and sheathed his sword, then stepped over beside Link to start cutting his bonds.

"You're Link?" he asked quietly with a small, comforting smile.

Link nodded. "The traitors?" he managed.

"Dead."

"Are you hurt?" asked the armored man, looking over from where the two teenagers were supporting the boy - Four. Now there was more time to look at them all, Link noticed that one of his eyes was closed, the lid marred with a long scar. He instinctively ranked him as a captain, though he wasn't wearing any uniform Link recognised.

He could once again see some resemblance between them and him. They had come for Four, so this must be the group his kidnappers had talked about.

He could see why they had thought this was his family.

Then he was distracted as the blood finally started to return to his cramped, numb limbs. As soon as he was no longer supported by the ropes, Link collapsed forward. The captain lunged forward to catch him and held him up as the one with the cloak kept working on the ropes.

"Are you hurt?" he asked again.

Link shook his head. "The boy - Four - is he all right?" he asked quietly.

The captain looked Link up and down and, to his surprise, he smiled. "Legend? Hyrule?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder.

"I'm fine," said Four in a surprisingly low-pitched, steady voice, accompanied by relieved-sounding chuckles from the two teens. Then he coughed again.

Link had expected anger at what he had allowed to happen to Four. He'd expected to find that he'd burned the bridge with his maybe-family before it had even been built.

"You must be Captain Link," the captain said as he gently lowered Link to sit against the post, a hand still on his shoulder to steady him.

Link nodded.

"My name is also Link, but you can call me Time. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. These are Sky" - He pointed to the man in the cloak - "Legend" - the teen in the red tunic - "Hyrule" - the other teen, this one dressed in humble green and brown - "you've, well… you've seen Four" - Four waved with one rope-burned hand, covering more coughs with the other - "and Wind is keeping watch."

Link looked up at them all, still confused. "Who are you?" He asked. It was a start on the questions he really wanted to ask.

Time sighed. "That's a long story," he said. "And it's best told somewhere other than here."

Link forced an approximation of his usual bright, confident smile and at last the words came easily. "Well, then, when I can walk again you should come with me. Four should see a medic and I'm sure her highness would like to meet you."

Time nodded briskly, his own smile relaxing, and squeezed Link's shoulder. "In the meantime, you concentrate on recovering. You're safe with us."

And as the blood flowed painfully back into Link's swollen hands and feet, he believed him.

[petterwass]

Incredibly cruel

[verkja]

Seen a few very nice posts lately about ‘known whumpees,’ so I figured I’d write a little about the possibilities of a completely unknown whumpee!

Nobody knows who they are - not because they’re mysterious or disguised, just because they’re no one special. They aren’t part of a team, aren’t a public figure or celebrity, don’t have a family or friends or allies who will show up to help them out.

There’s no practical reason for anyone to help the terrified, forgotten prisoner in the last cell in the dungeon, covered with scars obviously caused by torture. Or the injured soldier in beat-up armour, not an officer or otherwise hard to replace, who surrenders because they’re too hurt to retreat with their comrades. Or the broken, discarded android or robot or pet, just one of a million others, who’s been thrown out because they’re no longer useful.

The character is fully aware of their own insignificance; they know they aren’t worth anything to anyone. So when their fate is left in someone else’s hands, all they can do is hope that person happens to be feeling generous.

[stuckylibrary]

Never Like This

Never Like This by Faith Wood (faithwood)

I’d like to rec this AMAZING fic that just got posted today; it is long and I can tell it’s going to be angsty but it’s honestly something I’m super excited for. The premise is that the mask never came off of Bucky in the winter soldier and it goes from there. I can’t do it justice in a synopsis! 

[mylifeisactuallyamess]

Too Far Gone

Art by the talented @clumsycopy

Sith!Kylo x Female Reader

Warnings: Heavy chapter! 2 character deaths, feelings of hopelessness, interrogation from Hux and Kylo. Mention/description of torture, drugging. Mention of children/pregnancy. Memories and flashbacks galore! Usual Trooper violence. NSFW 18+

Word count: 8k

You fought when they pulled you out of the compartment, you heard the surprised grunts of the troopers as you came out fighting but they overpowered you quickly pinning you to the floor as they removed Poe first. You didn’t give up, fighting them all the way until they managed to slam you into the interrogation chair. The restraints clicked into place as you looked over at Poe slumped in his chair, he was just over to the right hand side of you and you could tell by the angle he would be able to see everything they did to you and you would see everything they would do to him. The door snapped open and you glared at the General you had tried to kill on Lothal. His orange hair was slicked back, not a strand out of place, he clasped his hands behind his back his coat flared at the side as he strode towards you, his immaculate boots ringing out on the grated floor.

Read Chapter 6 here on AO3.

[thestuckylibrary]

Except it Abide in the Vine by spitandvinegar (restricted)

[tiend]

my faves are problematic

Jesse, Fives, and Echo’s ARC training - Cody and Rex, too - probably included teaching them how to get information from people who didn’t want to give it. Roughing up a suspect. Encouraging someone to talk. Enhanced interrogation. Torture.

ARC troopers are supposed to go solo for long periods of time, often behind enemy lines. They’re trained to be creative and independent, perfect for jobs with an open-ended brief. Clone commandos are for fast infil/exfil with a clearly defined mission and measures of success. If you need to train the locals in CIS counter-insurgency, send in an ARC. If you need to have someone assassinated, send in a squad of commandos.

After Echo’s death, an angry, grieving Fives could’ve been sent into a high pressure volatile situation for weeks or months. Same thing could have happened to Jesse after Tup’s and Fives’ deaths and Kix’s disappearance. 

There were torturers in the Cuy’val Dar who could have passed on their techniques; the Nulls, the Alpha ARCs, and the commandos were all taught how to resist pain. The clone commandos at least weren’t taught interrogation techniques, but they have internalised its use enough to be okay with leaving the torture to other people:

“We’re not trained to interrogate prisoners,” said Niner.

He put it out of his mind with a conscious effort, and not only because Ordo had insisted on undamaged prisoners. He knew how to kill, and he knew how to resist pain, but he wasn’t sure how to inflict it deliberately.

But he was pretty sure that Vau did. He’d leave the job to him.

Vau is Walon Vau, who tortures someone to death for information in RepComm. He’s one of the Cuy’val Dar, responsible for training some of the commandos. He explicitly tortured them as part of his training program to the extent that one of them wants to kill him for the things Vau inflicted on him, mentally and physically.

Niner was trained by Kal Skirata, no Vau. Skirata trained the Nulls in interrogation, so he could have used those skills to teach his commandos how to resist pain. Or there could be another torturer in the Cuy’val Dar, which seems likely given the hit rate so far.

Nulls have been trained to think of interrogation as “having a chat” with people, when those people are heavily wounded, are being denied medical treatment, and have a gun to their heads:

...Ordo said. “You can cooperate or not, but I might as well execute you now if you’re not going to be useful. We can’t handle any more prisoners.” It was always hard to tell if Ordo was playing the interrogation game...

The original Alpha ARCs were considered to be uncontrollable, and were ‘pretty much raw Jango’ after the Kaminoans overtweaked the Fett genome and produce the Nulls. They were trained personally by Jango Fett.

 Alpha-17 tells Ventress he’s been trained to resist torture when she captures him and Obi-Wan Kenobi; Jango Fett could have done it himself, or gotten Vau or Skirata to do it. In that environment, it’s hard to believe that they didn’t teach ARCs any ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques. It was normalised enough that the commandos don’t question handing over their prisoners to be tortured, even if they didn’t know how to do it themselves. It’s entirely probable that Jango Fett thought it would be a useful skill for his Alpha ARCs to know - the way they’re deployed means they might run into anything out there.

After Geonosis, some of the remaining ARCs and some of the Nulls start to train more clones as ARCs; this is probably when Cody and Rex went through. They’re line officers, though; they would never operate independently in the same way an ARC is supposed to be able to, although they could. The training regime might also have gotten more brutal as the Republic tilted harder towards the Empire in the later stages of the war, and people like Tarkin came to power. 

Clone troopers of any kind don’t get mental health treatment. They get reconditioned. But if you did that to an ARC, they’d lose the initiative and creativity that makes them so effective, and waste all their training. Maybe an ARC that’s too close to the edge gets redeployed back to their original unit for a while, so they’re surrounded and supported by the troopers they know and love. Like Fives, after the Citadel, on Umbara. Or Jesse, after Kix and Fives and Tup, on Anaxes. So they don’t snap completely, and they’re still being useful to the war effort.

So: Fives and Echo and Jesse and Rex and Cody were probably taught how to torture people, and it’s probable that some of them did.  It wouldn’t have left them unscathed, and they might have needed to take breaks so they didn’t vomit inside their helmets, but if they thought it was necessary to save their brothers lives? I think they would.