If you guys have been smelling smoke, it's because I've been thinking about this idea- whumpee is badly injured and Caretaker A tries their best to take care of them. Keyword there is: tries. They are absolutely awful at it. Trying to seal wounds with super glue, giving too little or too much pain medication, misidentifying the beginning of an infection and it gets worse going unnoticed... But eventually, one day Caretaker B comes to check and see how whumpee is doing. When they see how bad their condition is, they can barely mask their anger at "Caretaker" A for being so ignorant and neglectful.
B pulls A to the side, out of earshot. "A, what the hell did you do to them? They look even worse than when we found them!" Caretaker A cocks their head to the side, confused. "What do you mean? They're fast asleep! They can't be in pain if they're asleep!"
B furrows their brow, glaring daggers at A. After an uncomfortable pause, B pushes past caretaker A towards whumpee's room, causing them to stumble aside. A throws their hands up in frustration. "Seriously? They're fine! I can handle it!"
Caretaker B pauses as they're about to turn the handle of the door and looks back over their shoulder at A. "You obviously can't handle it. I will be taking care of whumpee now." they snap back at them. Caretaker A begins to protest, but is quickly cut off by B. "It wasn't a question or a suggestion, A." They turn away from the door momentarily to face A again.
"Stay away from whumpee.. Or you'll be the one needing a hospital room." they hiss. Caretaker A goes pale, frozen in place as Caretaker B turns away and enters the room.
"you know... I've never seen such a beautiful yet sad eyes, dear." A jar in hand Whumper spoke, the numerous eyeballs while already clouded over in the murky water still tantalizingly beautiful. Every one of them a different shade of green.
"I've never had someone have such a grip on my soul with such a beautiful pair of eyes before."
The strapped down and drugged up whumpee could only watch as whumper put aside the jar of eyes within the shelf that had numerous big jars of eyes. All different colors, yet separated and organized.
prompts used: “let me go”, taken hostage, chained, behind bars
characters: whumpee, whumper, henchman
warnings: cursing
628 words
part 2
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Whumpee slammed their fists against the bars of the cage and shouted. They shouted again and rattled the door, hoping that, somehow, this time they’d break it and be able to leave before Whumper came back. When the door stayed unbroken, Whumpee growled in frustration and paced around the cell.
A door opened in the distance and Whumpee stood right in front of the bars, face nearly touching the grimy metal as they glared at the heavy door Whumper would walk through any second.
Henchman opened the door for Whumper and they walked in, “Hope you don’t mind the dirty cell. I didn’t expect company until later this week.”
Whumpee ignored them. “Let me go.”
“Sorry, can’t do that until Caretaker comes to get you. This is sorta a hostage type thing here.” Whumper said, mocking sympathy as they stood nearly face to face with Whumpee. “I just sent them the note, so they should be here in…two, maybe three hours? How could we pass the time?”
They sighed and tiled their head to the side, eyes closed in thought. Whumpee thought of punching Whumper through the bars, but before they raised their arm, Whumper had opened their eyes and was smiling evilly.
“I have just the thing.”
They walked out of the room and the door closed with a deafening “thud” and Whumpee was left alone once again. They kicked the dirt at their feet and huffed until the door opened once again. This time, Whumper entered pushing a small rolling tray in front of them.
“I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to try, so I brought them all. There’s probably enough time.” They adjusted the brakes on the cart and stood in front of the cage’s door. “Now, are you going to be good when I unlock this or am I going to need to use this?” they asked, pointing to what looked like a shock collar.
“Take a fucking guess.”
Whumper sighed and nodded. “That’s what I figured you’d say.”
They grabbed the collar and something else from the cart that Whumpee didn’t get a good look at. Whumper grunted and shoved something through the bars of the cage and Whumpee crumpled to their knees.
The door was quickly unlocked and Whumpee was collared before they could comprehend what had happened. Whumpee recovered fast, standing up before Whumper had a chance to throw the shock stick out of Whumpee’s reach.
They grabbed it from Whumper’s hand and jabbed it towards Whumper’s rib cage, but before they made contact, they crumpled to the ground.
Whumper snatched the rod from their hands and held up the remote to the collar, shaking it slowly in their hand.
“And that was the lowest setting.” they taunted.
They waved Henchman inside the room to help them with whatever they were going to do. Whumpee looked around Whumper’s legs and inspected the cart.
Whumper snorted and shook their head before waving their hand at Henchman. They nodded and grabbed Whumpee harshly by the hair, pulling their head up and shoving them against a wall. They pulled a handkerchief out of their pocket and tied it tightly over Whumpee’s eyes.
Whumpee sat there on the dirty ground, waiting for Whumper to do something. Chains rattled somewhere in the room and Whumpee held their head up high. They wouldn’t let Whumper see how scared they were. Henchman laughed and grabbed Whumpee’s ankles.
Whumpee kicked out, trying to land a hit, but Henchman was stronger than they’d anticipated. They held Whumpee’s feet down and clasped manacles around their ankles, then they did the same to their wrists. Whumpee fought against them, but all they succeeded in doing was tiring themself out.
The door slammed again and Whumper hummed, “And then there were two.”
"...and when you're broken down to nothing, when you're but a shell of a once living thing, that's when I'll rebuild you, recreate you, rebirth you into what I desire you to be."
I really like the trope of whumpee initially being fearful of caretaker. Maybe before they officially meet, whumpee sees glimpses of caretaker in passing and is quite intimidated.
CW: blood, hidden injury, fainting
Maybe whumpee and caretaker share a mutual friend, and friend invites both of them to hang out together. Whumpee stands talking to friend, and glances up when they hear someone walk in. "Wait a second, is that..?" They tense and their eyes widen as they go quiet. Maybe they slowly inch closer to friend, away from caretaker. Of course caretaker glances over for a second and notices this, but continues chatting with friend.
Eventually whumpee decides they're too anxious around them to appear normal in this setting, so they excuse themselves as nonchalantly as they can.
After they're out of sight, caretaker furrows their brow and frowns. "Your friend seemed really upset, are they alright?" Friend looks up at caretaker and chuckles. "Eh, probably not. Have you not realized they're terrified of you yet?"
"What? Terrified? Why?? " Caretaker sputters, dumbfounded. Friend shrugs, "Well, with how often I catch them staring at you, I figured I should get you two in a room together so whumpee could try and figure out their little crush they have on you.." friend winks mischievously at a now flustered caretaker.
But I think the best part would have to be when it comes time for caretaker to fill their role and help whumpee. Whumpee shows up for another meet up with friend and caretaker, but almost immediately caretaker notices they're acting much stranger than usual. Their gait is uneven, almost like an awkward shuffle, face pale and hair looking disheveled. As always, they attempt to keep their distance and stand as far away as they can without seeming rude.
Friend is taking their time showing up, and caretaker makes a little small talk about wondering where they could be. Whumpee makes short but friendly replies in response, not saying much. Eventually caretaker looks over at whumpee as they're making small talk, and they notice a pained expression flash across whumpee's face. Caretaker stops mid sentence- "Hey- what's going on with you, are you okay whumpee?" they've turned to face whumpee fully, obvious concern in their eyes.
Whumpee quickly looks down, avoiding their gaze in embarrassment. "W-what are you talking about? I'm fine!" They say quickly. Caretaker moves closer to whumpee, worry evident in their voice. "You just winced, I saw it. Are you in pain?" Whumpee involuntary flinches a little as they gently place a hand on their shoulder. "It's just really hot out here today.. I'm probably just a little lightheaded from the heat" they mutter.
Caretaker pauses for a moment, still looking them over. "Okay.. well, let's at least head down the road a little ways. It's not far, and I know of a shady area you can have a seat in." Whumpee gives a slight nod, and starts walking with caretaker. As they're walking, caretaker looks away for a moment and mentions something about getting a message from friend. Whumpee takes this time to immediately stop walking and double over in pain, clutching their side and chest heaving for air.
"Damn, friend said they're going to be pretty late after all.. maybe we should-" Caretaker looks up from their phone and turns around just in time to see whumpee swaying, doubled over in pain before finally collapsing into a pile on the ground.
Caretaker's face is filled with fear as they rush to whumpee's side. "Whumpee! Shit- whumpee, can you hear me?" Caretaker kneels on the ground beside them and shakes them a bit by their shoulders to wake them. After a moment, their eyes snap back open. Whumpee inhales sharply as their eyes focus on caretaker's concerned face which is hovering above them. Immediately, they begin to try and explain things away.
"I'm fine! It's just hot today and I- oh.." whumpee goes to sit up but cuts themselves off with a low groan. Caretaker gently presses a hand to their shoulder and guides them to lay back down. "Woah, woah, easy whumpee. You need to stay still and-" caretaker trails off as their eyes widen in horror.
"I knew it, I knew you were in pain! Why didn't you just tell me you were hurt??" Whumpee grimaces at this, "I said before that I'm fine, I'm not hurt!" Caretaker looks them directly in the eyes, now serious. "Then who's blood is this?" Whumpee follows the direction of caretaker's eyes down to the still blooming crimson stain coming through their shirt. They screw their eyes shut tightly, no longer able to hide the agony or the injury. "Ah, fuck." They hiss through clenched teeth.
Just a Mianu blurb inspired by this post by @nondelphic
CW for general vague descriptions of chaos and a battle.
Also vaguely references these two stories.
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Mianu’s shadows often took the form of beasts.
At first, he didn’t put any thought into that. His magic often had a mind of its own. Keeping the reins tight enough to ensure his shadows didn’t destroy everything around him was enough of a challenge. He didn’t care what form they took as they did their work.
If he ever considered the mystery at all, he simply thought it was a case of familiarity. The shadows needed some kind of form, after all, and the wavering intangibility of darkness itself often wasn’t enough to actually do the things he needed his magic to do. Defend, attack, escape… all of those were tasks that required a bit more shape.
Shapes required concentration. And he’d been trained to deal with true shadow beasts, creatures that had fallen into dark magic but retained at least a little bit of their natural form. They had become his army, the Queen’s army, back when Queen Elore had her iron claws gripped around his heart.
So it was only natural, really, that his own magic took the same shape, even as he tried to turn his back on everything Elore had done to him. Even as he tried to reclaim his own magic, to redeem himself.
Mianu never questioned it further.
Not until the day Darius was taken away from him.
Darius, the one person in the entire world who had always believed in him. Who had never once lost that faith, not even when Mianu fell fully into the darkness, not even when Mianu had become Elore’s pawn.
Darius was a knight. Loyal to his kingdom. But even when Mianu had been tricked and coerced—far too easily, in Mianu’s own mind—into turning against his own people, Darius had remained loyal to him. Not to the land itself. But to the prince, the human, the one he cared for more than anything.
Mianu would never, ever take that for granted.
Darius meant everything to him. So when he found that Darius had been kidnapped, used against him as a sick pawn in a twisted game, Mianu cared about nothing more than getting his beloved home.
That day, he unleashed everything. He let his magic rip through the awful cell that Darius had been kept in. And he allowed the beasts to do as they would.
His magic tore free from its reins. And it roared across the room. Nothing could stand in its path. The beasts struck anyone that might possibly cause him and his love harm. They were relentless. Unforgiving. And craving, always craving more. More destruction. More chaos. More power.
Power that they drew directly from him.
Mianu’s shadows weren’t just beasts because of their fangs or their claws or their burning red eyes. They weren't just a familiar form that was easy for Mianu to create.
They were beasts because they were starved.
And it took everything Mianu had to avoid utter carnage.
That day, part of him wasn’t sure if he wanted to avoid it at all.
