Whumper comes home late one day, tired after work, but the glint in their eyes is ever so lively, as if this was keeping them going, not rest or sleep.
They reach into their pocket for a folded up piece of paper, and hand it to Whumpee.
"Got you one of your missing person posters," they say easily, but there's tension in their body, eager excitement for their victim's reaction, "you've been here a while, I thought you could add your own touch to the place."
summary: what's all this about calyx. lets check in on the cluster :) clem's pov of the six weeks that calyx is in captivity.
cw: caretaker pov, guilt, unhealthy coping mechanisms, search for a missing whumpee, self-harming behaviours, team whump, multiple caretakers
---
What never failed to amaze Clem about the situation regarding Calyx was the way that people rallied around them. There was no room for hopelessness, just a grim determination on the face of everyone they saw.
Friends came over in waves. Tom embraced them solidly and silently, gripping onto them as if they were his only hope at being able to stay standing. Some were friends of his, others were Calyx's. All wore the same expression of stunned worry. All offered to help. However they could. A small village made itself known in this way.
(The police, as ever, were unhelpful. They were notified, more out of obligation than anything else, and Clem heard so little from them that it forgot they had even been involved. Calyx was young, fit and healthy. They'd left home by their own accord mere months ago. They had no evidence of a kidnapping. It was infuriating.)
A richly appointed elf made an appearance, a friend of Elene's, offering weapons and armour and - food? Clem appreciated it. In this state of mind, it was too easy to forget to eat till their body reminded them that death was imminent. So, food was appreciated.
Especially because Tom wasn't cooking like he used to. He had been the one to gently coax Calyx out of their room to push plates of food in front of them, hand them steaming mugs of tea, silently offer apple slices.
Now, he wasn't doing much other than seethe and search and pass out for a couple of hours in chairs, if they were lucky, or the floor if they weren't. Then he'd wake up in a panic and start again, a frenzy of restless energy and tense distress. He was almost constantly shaking, his hair distressed and limp with all the times he'd run his hands through it, but no one brought it up.
Clem started sparring with him - more for his benefit than theirs, but it was still an interesting exercise to fight. He fought well, though not with the practised ease that came with taught movements. It was, for lack of a better word, animalistic. Born from feral, animal rage, all quick movements and flurries of attacks. It was a good challenge, but they could tell he was rusty, and driven by emotion. Clem could almost see the visible cloud of it over his eyes when he entered a focus state. It was good they could heal themselves. They didn't have any training weapons.
They asked, once, in a rare moment of stillness as he lay panting on the floor. "Who taught you how to fight?"
He bared his teeth and pushed himself up in one motion, wiping away sweat with the back of his hand. "My brother." He offered nothing else, and Clem knew when the dark look in someone's eyes meant do not push this.
Tom's parents came with food too, and a lot of distressed questions. One of them - Constance - offered to help with laundry? They both looked sick with worry though, and it was easy to tell them that it was okay - they had that handled magically. For the extant worry, Clem did its best to reassure, to promise that it'd get their child back. That seemed like the right thing to say, given their clear attachment to Calyx, and their sad smiles seemed to prove it right.
—
The sisters were not faring much better. Both were still bound to obligations - Ada quit her job, but Elene said she would keep hers at the emergency service call centre if only for the chance that they could get any sort of lead. And, unfortunately, Clem's stipend wasn't enough to feed four, five including Amethyst. They had bills to pay. Life had to go on.
Ada floated the idea of pausing her studies, but looked completely miserable at the thought, and Tom was the one to reassure her about it. Calyx would want you to keep going. That was most of what he said, nowadays: Calyx would or Calyx wouldn't. It was like he still lived with them.
So, Ada searched in the evenings. She took work with her, and sent tracking pulses out daily from different locations in the city. She was out late into the night, and came home only to shower and collapse into bed, before starting over the next day. She was quiet, and less outwardly wired as Tom, but Clem knew enough about preparing for battle to know when someone was bottling their emotions for the sake of another. It wouldn't end well. With every passing day, Clem felt more and more like she was going to implode or explode with the stress, and couldn't decide which would be worse.
They stopped her as she was leaving one day, putting out a hand to stop her. She had a hand pressed to the side of her head, and swayed a little on her feet when she stopped.
"Ada."
She looked up, her expression confused and eyes a little unfocused. "Mm?" she hummed in reply.
Clem stared at her for a moment, and withdrew their hand slowly, keeping their posture rigid. Are you okay? felt like an inadequate question, so they thought for a while before saying, "you need to rest, Ada."
She blinked at them, straightening up and frowning slightly. She still winced, though. Clem caught it. "I'm fine."
Clem just raised their eyebrows.
"It's just a migraine. Get 'em all the time." Ada grit her teeth, and Clem wasn't sure whether to tell her that it was audible.
"I mean in general, Ada. You don't need to push through pain like this. Take an hour. Half an hour. Sleep it off, and you'll be better for it."
Ada's face fell. "I - no. No, no, how can you say that?" Her speech was just a little slurred. Clem knew without knowing that this was no ordinary migraine. She pressed her fist to her eye, groaning quietly. She looked very young, suddenly. "I - I was there, Clem," she whispered. "I was there. I saw her."
Guilt crashed down on them, thick as a fog cloud - just as impossible to navigate. "We all were," they reassured quietly.
"No, no, but - fuck, this was going on for months. Months, and I didn't - fucking notice. Or - I did, but - I didn't think it was this."
Clem took a deep breath, nodding minutely. "I know. No one did. No one could've guessed. How were you supposed to know?"
"I should've just known. If I'd figured it out, if I'd asked -"
"Ada. You saw what happened when we asked."
Ada's eyes widened, and her fists clenched. "I - still. I should've - but, fine, fine, I didn't know, but now I can't just sit around studying or sleeping off a migraine while they're out somewhere terrified."
"You aren't studying just anything. And you can hardly stand."
"It isn't all helpful, though. What is helpful is going out to find them." She moved past Clem, half-turning to push her key into the lock. Her hands shook, and she missed it a couple of times, swearing before finally slamming it in as if it'd hurt her.
Clem pressed their hands together in a gesture of supplication, breathing deeply through their nose. They spoke calmly, trying to be a good voice of reason. "All I ask is that you don't run yourself into the ground. That's all. For your sake and theirs."
Ada hit her head lightly against the door, letting out a quiet, pained sound. "I'll be fine when we get them back." Pain was evident in her voice.
"We all will. You need to be there when that happens."
She paused. That seemed to register, just for a moment, but she didn't give any other outward acknowledgement before leaving, slamming the door shut. She tried to lock it from outside but gave up, and Clem heard her swear again before heading down the drive.
Quiet alarm spiked at the sound of the door opening and shutting, but Clem knew that it was impossible to keep everyone inside. They'd have long ago gone insane. To combat the fear though, everyone was walking around with talismans, items of magical protection. Lots of iron in the mix. Ali had brought some with her, and Elene had proferred some of her own too.
Tom wore the least, and no iron at all. Clem did not have it in them to push him to keep more around, even though, out of all of them, he was likely in the most danger.
That night, Ada came home earlier than usual, but guilt was written all over her face even as she stumbled in clutching her head. She threw up almost immediately, and it did not take much effort for Clem to wordlessly stop her leaving again. She cried, though. She just - broke. The dam broke, shattered, collapsed. Ada sobbed in their arms for long minutes, and when it was over, she wiped her eyes and Clem caught something wild in them.
There was much that it wanted to say. It wanted to say you clearly care for them a lot, and we're working on it, and you did all you could, and we're doing all we can, but Ada knew all of this. The tears were angry, not hopeless.
—
Elene, too, was exhausting herself with her efforts. There was not a moment where she wasn't holding some book. She was researching constantly, trying to find out more about K. They were combining their knowledge to get a better understanding of her, but still - no matter how much they looked - could not find a name. She was old enough, powerful enough to be mentioned in books, but never by name.
Or - the name they had was from a dead language, unpronounceable even if they tried. It seemed like people either spoke in uncertain terms about her, talking about things that she did or people that she killed or orders that she gave, than they talked about her specifically. If they did, with increasing certainty, it seemed that the name they used had been scrubbed from every source they found. The only way they could verify that it was even the same person was through drawings.
They had been aware that she was dangerous, but this? All of this? It was quite possibly the most infuriating thing Clem had ever come across. It was strange, too, that someone with all this power would bother with kidnapping a person. What was the point?
Neither of them were sleeping with any regularity. Elene would fall asleep in the study, and Clem would know about it based on the slow ceasing of her mutterings. The garage had been converted to a makeshift armoury, and they'd cross the hall to make sure Elene hadn't fallen asleep standing.
They caught her more than a few times, silently moving her to the armchair. The intent was always to make sure that she was somewhere safe and comfortable before going to train again, but they kept finding themselves struggling to tear themselves away from watching over her.
She cast spells in her sleep - harmless ones, usually just small lights. Mini, silent fireworks, twinkling from her fingertips. Clem was mesmerised by them. She never spoke, but her breathing would quicken and she would tense with her whole body sometimes, forehead creasing up in dismay as she brought her legs up to curl into a fetal position. Clem wanted to help her with whatever it was that she was afraid of, but they didn't have the courage to ask when she was awake. If Elene remembered her nightmares, she didn't mention them.
Clem certainly remembered their own. Elene saw them after one once, after the memory of sharp steel in the small of their back jerked them awake with a yell.
She blinked at them, crouched down. They flushed instantly, embarrassed.
"I got you water," she said quietly, and Clem registered the glass of water on the floor and plate of fruit beside it. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," they said bluntly, and then they flushed at that too. "God, sorry. No, I'm okay. Thank you for the water. Have you had some?"
She nodded, a small smile on her face. She sat down properly, knees up with her arms over the top of them. She started to speak but Clem straightened up, speaking as soon as they saw the cut straight down her finger.
"You're hurt."
She closed her mouth, eyes widening as she turned her hand over to look at it. "Oh. I didn't realise. Or - oh, dear. I didn't think it'd bleed. I was cutting fruit," she explained as she absent-mindedly healed the cut.
"Thought I'd make everyone a plate. Someone brought over, um, clementines. It made me - " she flushed, looking away. "Think of you," she whispered. "That's silly."
Clem stared at her for a moment, eyes wide with quiet awe. "No, no. That's really kind of you. You are an incredibly kind person, Elene." The compliment was nothing but genuine.
She reddened immediately, laughing quietly and looking away. "Oh, um - thank you. It's nothing. It's just fruit."
For some reason, Clem felt like they desperately wanted to press this point, and shifted to sit on their knees. "It's more than that. You don't need to be this hospitable. You never did. You let me into your home when you could've thrown me out without a second glance."
"You were hurt."
"I would have lived. I trespassed on your land, and - you let me in. And gave me your shirt."
There was a brief pause, a tense moment as both remembered the fact.
Elene spoke quietly, without looking at them. "I - well, actually. I was going to say that you could sleep in my room." At Clem's stunned expression, she continued quickly. "Not for any sort of reason - just, you don't need to keep yourself on the couch. Or the floor, because don't think I haven't noticed you sleeping in here."
The sudden stern tone made their eyes widen, and she laughed before saying, "what I'm saying is you can use my room. I'm hardly ever in there, and the bed's big enough for two anyway. There's no point in letting it go to waste."
Clem felt, quite frankly, conflicted. "I - I couldn't intrude."
"You aren't. I promise, Clemency. I appreciate what you're doing for us. I'm not offering anything more than a bed."
"I'm used to the floor, my lady." It slipped out before they could help it, but it still felt right. Something about the kind offer, their full name - they felt the need to be respectful. They'd bowed their head without realising too, and held their breath as gentle fingers tilted their chin up. They retracted almost immediately, but Clem mourned the loss.
"If you ever change your mind, the offer stands."
They nodded, and stayed kneeling when she got up.
"Eat something. For me? Promise me you'll eat something."
Clem felt choked up, suddenly. "I - okay. Okay." Their voice came out hoarse, and the small smile Elene gave them left them feeling winded.
It took them long moments to recollect themselves, but when they did, it was with a resounding sense of shame. What were they doing? Their friend was missing. Guilt tore up their insides, but their promise felt equally binding. They ate the smallest slice of an apple, before training with the intent to do it till they passed out.
Clemency did not often dislike itself. This, though.
"It can't mean anything, Elene."
She blinked at them with wide eyes. "It?"
"If I - take you up on your offer."
Elene's mouth fell open in a small, silent, oh. "No, of course." She sounded like she meant it, and it relaxed them.
"Not now. At least. It can't mean anything."
It seemed like she was studying them, and they so easily came undone under her gaze. They ran a nervous hand through their hair, regretting approaching her about this.
"No," she said quietly, intently. Agreeing with them. "Now is not the time for that."
It was inexpressible, the relief that flooded their system.
They slipped into a routine quickly. It was entirely without expectation or meaning, and Clem found themselves warming to Elene as a friend more than anything. She cast those lights on purpose, before bed. It was nice to see her sleeping properly. It was nice talking to her - mostly about the search, about what they'd learnt, about the newest locations that had been ruled out by an Amethyst who insisted on visiting places alone.
They too could heal themselves, and had demonstrated the fact with a grim smile as they sliced their own arm open. Her help with locations was appreciated, but her insistence on working alone frustrated them. It was nice to be able to admit that to Elene.
Guilt still ate at them. They found themselves looking for approval, sometimes. Atonement.
It stunned them when they found it from Tom.
He caught them, because that was what it felt like - getting caught - stepping out of Elene's room in the morning.
"Hi," he said quietly. "You're - upstairs? Now?"
Clem grit their teeth against the wave of self-revulsion. "Ah. Yes," they managed. "It's - Elene offered. So I - I think it's so she can make sure I'm sleeping. Sorry."
"Why are you apologising?" He looked genuinely confused, and rubbed sleep from his eyes. Then he sighed, deep and weary. "Does that mean the couch is free?" He looked back at the closed door to his room - it had been one of those rare nights where he'd actually collapsed into his actual bed.
They didn't understand his meaning for a moment, then they did. Their eyes widened slightly and a gentleness they didn't know they were capable of entered their voice. "Oh, Tom."
It seemed to catch him off guard, and his eyes welled up with tears that he wiped away furiously. He explained with a tight, cracking voice, but he didn't need to. "I just - I can't - they're supposed to - fuck." He broke off, turning to face the wall and take deep breaths against it. "So if the couch is free, I'm okay with that."
"Yeah," they said quietly, eyebrows furrowed in concern. "It's free. I promise I'm doing all I can."
"I know," he choked out. "I know. We all are."
It had been almost a month, by then. Not long at all, but also an age. They hadn't received the video.
When they did, Tom stopped going in his room altogether. He went missing for two days himself, coming back with bruises, grazes and a wild, dazed look in his eyes. Amethyst was the one who brought him home. After the video, something snapped. He got angrier, shakier. He spoke less. He was out more. He came home injured, It was like he glowed with anger. White-hot and furious, like his core had been heated in a furnace.
Everyone felt the same dizzy anguish, though. Clem could not look at anyone without knowing that they were thinking of it. There were not enough words in the world to explain the atmosphere in the house. It was like the very air burned with indignation and anguish at the unfairness, at the injustice. If anger was flammable, the whole house would have gone up in flames long ago. It would have been nothing but ash after that video.
— — —
In the end, it was Ada who clocked onto a location. It was the middle of the night, pouring rain, but Tom wasn't home when she rushed inside, barrelling straight to the living room with a wordless yell that called the rest of them there in a blind panic. None of them had been upstairs, or asleep. Rest was far, far away from their thoughts.
She barely registered them, but her eyebrows furrowed when she only saw three, but she started speaking anyway. "Tom's still out?"
Clem nodded wordlessly, a sick sense of anticipation settling over her.
"Okay," she said, pressing a shaky hand to her forehead. She winced as she did. Clem had a feeling that her migraines were semi-constant, now. She was using too much magic. "Okay, it's fine - I'll explain it again, but we need to move, now."
"You found them?" Amy. Everyone was standing, and they stood stiff as a board. It was unnerving, given their usual casual demeanour, but understandable, given the situation.
Ada nodded furiously, grinning and laughing breathlessly just for a moment before it fell and grave seriousness settled over her features again. She spoke almost too quickly to understand.
"It's - it's not a legal spell, it's sort of messed up, actually, and - I - I'm fucking scared about the - about what it means for Calyx," she was breathing quickly, pale, gesturing wildly at her papers scattered on the coffee table. "Because - because I've been using it and coming up with nothing, or - really vague, distant things," she broke off, clenching her fists, holding the tension, then relaxing them in time with her breathing. "Fuck, okay, calm down. Breathe." She was shaking, suddenly, full-body trembling.
Clem watched in mild astonishment. It was the most animated they'd ever seen her.
"Anyway, those signals, they - fizzled out too quickly to lock onto anything, but I have something now, and it's so, so strong, it's - " Anguished grief became evident in her expression. "I d- don't know if they're even- "
She broke off, white-knuckle gripping her hair. "Alive, I don't know - if - and I know I can bring them back, but Calyx - " Ada clutched her chest as if it hurt her, and her face crumpled as her eyes filled with tears.
Clem knew the feeling, but felt completely paralysed to offer any sort of comfort. Death was not something they wished for any of their family, even temporary. Not painful death, not in a strange, unfriendly place, away from home.
Elene, though, moved forward wordlessly to hold her sister. Ada searched her face for a moment before collapsing into her arms, and her sobs were suddenly muffled as she cried into Elene's shoulder.
Clem looked round - Amy had vanished, and then they registered low tones from the kitchen. Sure enough, she came back with her phone in her hand.
"Tom's coming. Said he'd be twenty minutes, or he could meet us somewhere?"
Ada pulled away, eyes still red with crying, tear tracks still on her face. "Here is good - I - I think. We can leave in twenty minutes?" It was addressed to Clem, who nodded.
"Absolutely."
Amy spoke again, low and serious. "You're certain about this, Ada?"
Ada's eyes flashed with anger. "Yes," she hissed.
"What spell did you use?" Elene asked quietly, still holding Ada's elbows.
Ada coughed, pulling away to bury her face in her hands. "It's - it's a fucking - it doesn't really have a name, El. I modified it to - to work with less, and over longer distances - but - it - it looks for their blood. Tracks their blood."
Oh.
"I think - based on how strong it is, they're outside. Now. Somewhere -" Ada gestured around them, to the windows and doors, "somewhere out there, my best friend is bleeding out, and we're just - fucking - sitting here."
It was a commonly known fact that innate magic flared with emotion. Now, Ada's frustration simultaneously exploded every lightbulb in the room, and set all the papers on the table on fire.
"Fuck," she whispered, before Elene put the fire out and the world was plunged into darkness. Thunder rumbled outside, and a few moments later, a crack of lightning made them all jump.
Clem felt cold, suddenly. If Calyx was outside, bleeding in this weather… their mind ran frantic with all the possibilities, but they forced themselves to shake the doom away. That wouldn't help anyone.
Still - they hoped they'd make it to them in time. They were already six weeks late. Hold on, Cee, they thought. Just hold on.
go make missing posters of your whumpee OCs!! there are lots of free templates on canva and for the picture you can use either drawings/picrew or just random face claims on pinterest!! it’s so fun y’all should go do it rn!!!
whumpee just disappeared one day, leaving no clues as to where they went or what happened to them.
caretaker asks everyone they can think of for help, but no one's seen whumpee. nobody knows how to find them. caretaker exhausts everything: depending on the setting, maybe its magic, maybe its the police, but nobody finds any leads. it's like whumpee just vanished into thin air.
but caretaker doesnt want to leave home to search for them, because what if whumpee turns up and caretaker isnt there? so they stay. eagerly reading every newspaper or checking social media or something for any signs whumpee is out there somewhere. half hoping to recieve some sort of ransom note, because that would mean whumpee is still out there.
maybe training, if that fits your setting. making sure that if they find out someone has whumpee, they'll be able to rescue them. improving their combat skills, or infilatration skills, whatever. but they need to be ready.
desperately hoping, maybe even praying, that whumpee is out there somewhere, and that somehow whumpee will come home.
