#whump character

[oximaroon]

A whumpee so broken that when they’re left alone and are on the verge of a breakdown they mimic whumper when they’re being nice. They’re rocking their body and tears wept up in their eyes. Whumpee shakily puts their hand in their hair and pets themselves. They mutter praises whumper tells them to get through punishments. “You’re so good”. “Shhh it’s okay, you’re okay.” They caress their own face with their hands. “So good… good… so good” as they stare off into space.

[whumpalicious]

write the essay one Edward Elric :D

Yaaayyy! Thank you for enabling me LOL. Like that post says, he is simply SUCH a whumpable character. Allow me to elaborate. I’m mostly going to talk about brotherhood here, but it’s partially transferable to 03 too of course. Same scrunkly; different circumstances.

This is going to have spoilers for both.

I don’t know about you guys, but one of my main criteria for Character I Need To Whump is that they deserve none of this shit. And Edward Elric very much deserves none of this shit. He already has so many issues before we full and well step into the story. Chronic pain, nightmares, trauma, you name it. Those are very real struggles, yet he always keeps pushing forward.

He has a good heart, wants the best for others, and would go to the bitter end for his brother. Nothing can stop him from this, to the point that he is so ready to sacrifice himself for Al, that Al actually has to yell at him to get him to acknowledge that maybe self-sacrifice ISN’T the best option. In 03 of course, he basically condemns himself to a terrible reality for Al, and though it’s been a while since I watched CoS, I don’t doubt that he would do it all over again if he had to.

He also has a very strong no-killing rule. Even if it bites him in the ass sometimes, as it realistically should. Prime example being the situation with Kimblee at Briggs where he actually gets impaled because he tries to incapacitate his enemy instead of killing. Or when he refuses to take the stone from Marcoh, which would fulfil his greatest quest but would also deprive a town of their only doctor. He acknowledges and accepts that that is the price he has to pay for kindness.

It won’t give him an easy path to where he wants to be, but it’s the only way of doing it in a way he can live with himself. And he knows Al feels the same. Ed respects his brother enough to not cross those boundaries even for him. Sure, he has a short temper (we will circle back to this later) but is inherently just a really good person, no doubt about it.

So, about that circling back: let's talk about (false or not) bravado. Ed uses anger as a defence all the time, and he acts as if he is so tough and confident etc. He gets sarcastic, angry and loud when insulted. He gets defensive, throws mean comments back, or similar. He can take a punch and hits back just as hard.

And let's be real; he’s also a badass. Simple. Badasses with tough outer shells and soft hearts are my very favourite to put through the torment nexus. He has worked his ass off to be where he is now. No 'chosen one' no special powers or genes (..technically). He worked hard to get here and he is good at what he does. He is more than capable of standing his ground. He can and will talk back and good luck getting him to shut up, or to do something he doesn’t want to. He is basically, at times, a little shit.

At the same time when something hurts him deeply he can’t keep up that angry face anymore. He shuts down instead. That duality, of this almost feral and hard outer shell of someone who bites back instantly the moment you come near him, and the inner part that is so scarred by everything that has happened and keeps happening, is what is so intriguing to me. And absolutely fun to play with in whump hihi sorry Ed <3

Because there is a lot brewing underneath that tough exterior. The guilt complex is huge in this guy. He messed up once, as a CHILD mind you, and is trying to atone for it during basically the entirety of the series. Especially towards Al. He doesn’t even dare ask Al if he really blames him for what happened or not. The fact that he doesn’t want to ask and (in brotherhood at least) never brings it up, tells me that he is so sure he knows what the answer will be. He just can’t bear hearing it out loud, and even feels himself selfish for not being able to just ask. Ed is wrong of course, we all know that Al doesn't blame him at all, but Ed stays quiet and bears this weight silently until he discovers what he does in episode 20 (which is a messed-up episode for him anyway but I digress).

Even after, it doesn’t disappear completely, and let’s not talk about the immense guilt he and Al feel over the deaths of Nina and Hughes. Something that is carried throughout the entire story. He feels so incredibly responsible for everything that goes wrong. And since a lot does go wrong in his life, this guy’s self esteem is down in the gutter. Especially at the start of the series. But he does what he needs to do, and if that means joining the military to gain access to information that might help Al, he will. (Once again, see self sacrifical tendencies)

And then, the absolute cherry on top of the cake: found family. Family is obviously a huge theme in this anime. The intense dislike Ed has for his father, and the death of their mom which basically started this entire mess. The importance of the Rockbells and Izumi and, later, team Mustang. And they all stay important throughout the series. It's not; one support character comes and the other goes. No, they all stick around throughout the series, and they all support these brothers until the end. Ed and Al have such a big team of people around them who want nothing more than to protect them while they go about their journey.

It’s something that I love so much about this series, and it makes for such good whump too because here you have a couple of characters who have grown to love and appreciate these boys so much! They may sometimes be awkward about it, but that’s what makes it so good too. It’s great to explore what gets them through this tough outer shell and into their feelings and vulnerabilities. Because it is what they need sometimes, and it just happens that whump is a perfect medium for that.

It’s JUICY. ITS GOOD. ITS PRECIOUS. And more importantly, the canon KNOWS this and delivers. Catch me crying every time at that scene in which Izumi figures out what has happened.

So YEAH it has basically all the good ingredients: badass character who takes no shit, guilt complex, self-sacrificial issues, trauma, and found family :3 Gotta love it.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk, put on Netflix or 🏴‍☠️ to (re-)watch fullmetal alchemist brotherhood and scream with me and the thousands of fic writers on AO3 who KNOW whats up.

(shoutout to @edwardelricsrightarm for this pic, both the blogger and the actual arm i guess lol)

[rookthebird]

take a vain character. a character who's constantly smirking at himself in mirrors, obsessed with the tailoring of his waistcoats, proud of his accessories and the way his hair shines.

and then throw him in the dirt. he's given just enough water to keep from dying of dehydration, and the longing to wash his face becomes secondary to survival. he doesn't care if his wounds scar, as long as he can find something to stop the bleeding. he's freezing to death and forced to wear every ragged, torn piece of clothing he can scrounge up- or maybe even having clothing becomes a luxury.

when help finds him, he's no longer vain at all. he wears whatever he's given, cleans himself only when reminded to, doesn't even have the energy to brush his own hair.

and then one day a weak voice comes from where he's resting:

"Can I have... a mirror?"

Everyone looking after him breathes a sigh of relief.

[soapflavouredsoup]

ari callthorn doodles

[dimaq-whump]

You Will Die Doing This

For @whumpers-monthly issue no 40 - Zip Ties (pretend they existed in the 1840s pls) POV - Dimaq Care-whumper(?) - Ashanti

CW: Past amputation, trauma, slight panic attack, slight anti-white racism

“I’ve got to kill that white demon!” I yell. My body is tense. I don’t want to yell at Ashanti, she doesn’t deserve to feel threatened or intimidated, but I can’t help it. I show her my hand, making sure that the bloody, bandaged stump is in full view. “Look at what she did to me. Surely you must see sense?!”

Ashanti doesn’t look convinced. She stares at me sternly, her body towering over mine, but her eyes are wide slightly, flickering in movement.

“Dimaq, listen to me.” She says, quickly but clearly. “You cannot confront that woman. She is in a cult, a dedicated community who will demolish anyone who harms them.” She growls, her voice cracking slightly. “Stay here. It’s for the better.”

“Do you think, that me suffering from desperation is for the better?!” I try not to shout, even though my heart is bursting with rage. I can’t get that woman’s face out of my head. Her weird, slit pupils, and her hand on my locs as she grabbed them, pulling them back.

“You will die doing this. 2 children will grow up without a father.” I spend the next few seconds, quickly trying to come up with an argument.

“At least, i-if they ever have children, they won’t lose any of their fingers.” My voice is a lot softer, it begins to crack apart. I stand staring at her, before suddenly racing out. I can run a lot faster than her, can’t I?

Suddenly, 2 large hands pull me back. I yelp, my voice squeaky, as Ashanti grabs my hands, placing a thin, rough rope-like object around my hands. I’ve never seen this sort of rope before, and it doesn’t have the weird bumps on it. However, she pulls by it, and my hands are tied together painfully tight.

I try desperately to pull them apart, but they won’t move. Panic begins to take hold, my chest rising sharply as my hands try desperately to pull apart. Ashanti pulls me towards the bed, a small, creaky mattress in the living area, before somehow connecting this ‘rope’ to the wall.

I try to let go and run away, but I can’t.

“Breathe, Dimaq.” She reminds me. Her voice is a lot smoother, but it does little to comfort me. I can’t stop thinking about what that white devil did to me. I begin to gasp, my voice almost painful.

“Ashanti, p-please c-cuddle me-“ I gasp pitifully. Ashanti hushes me, gently placing her broad arm around my back, her mouth not far from my neck and ear.

“You’re perfectly safe. No-one will hurt you.” She whispers, as I try to control my breathing. The zip-ties are still sore around my hands.

[whomeilikewhump]

I went to do some bow shooting (have only got one bruise so far! The day isn't over tho and the more tired I am the more likely I am to hurt myself. I love this so much.) and it made me think

Bow shooting fits Ayzan So Much. Like yes fencing they probably know some stuff about how to handle a sword from childhood and then even more later. But bow -- I think they would really enjoy it. I think they would spend a lot of time as a child playing around with bows. I think they'd be proud of their skills and be a bit of a show off about it.

Cute. Fun.

And then I remembered that they would not be able to shoot a bow after the rescue. Fencing, they could do, even if they had to relearn almost everything and they probably would never be quite as good. They were maybe average before anyway, not much of a loss.

But you can't shoot a bow with just one hand. There's no trick, no using your other arm, nothing that would work with the health problems they're gonna struggle with for many years afterwards. It just isn't possible.

I can't wait until the moment in their recovery when they think: huh, I used to shoot a bow before. I loved it, didn't I? Maybe I should try it again...

And then realize that they can't. That it's been taken from them. Likely forever!

It's gonna be heartbreaking.

[magpie-angel-boy]

Have you ever wanted to hurt an angel?

Well… please don’t. I’m trying to get away from all that. I’ve had enough of demons wanting a taste of me, fey doing experiments, and humans wanting a power source.

No… I can’t take it anymore.

[this blog is run by me, Ainsley. Serenadiel is a whumpee character for scenarios.]

Former warrior, Serenadiel has been held captive by whumper after whumper. Play your cards right and you may get to be his next owner!

A defiant vicious captive who will curse and spit at every turn, or a pathetic sobbing little bird- you can have whatever you’d like. Just specify, if not, I’ll probably default to somewhere in the middle

Demonic influence beautiful wings

My singular nsft post on this blog

Favourites- restraints, cold whump, non con drugging, gore, electrocution, wing whump, non con touching and kissing, creepy/intimate whumpers.

Ask first: head trauma, whipping

Please don’t: broken noses, fingore, forced eye contact, extreme degradation

Will get you blocked: detrans, aphobia, aroace erasure

[angstingantlers]

Please meet Finsterl Tyto, the very tired, very misfortunate owl-man who is the reluctant target of most of my bloodthirsty tendencies. He began life as my TTRPG player character for a friend's homebrew campaign in early 2023 and has had a chokehold on my thoughts ever since. Since I would like to post some writing involving him, I thought it prudent to provide a little introduction. Apologies that it's long, I simply adore my boy and talking about him...

Big old infodump is under the cut, along with some sketches and art of him, varying in age from recent to just over a year ago. (Also for clarity, most of these are watermarked under my main's username, but are indeed my art.)

[Mentions of psychological abuse, gaslighting, paranoia, hallucinations, isolation, and self-destructive behavior. Some artwork featuring blood, injury, and possible scopophobia triggers.]

A 37 year old Scholar of Mathematics and researcher, Finsterl (he/him) works for a branch of the government focused on dealing with misuse of magic and magic-based catastrophes throughout the country. He takes advantage of the office's findings and resources to funnel all his spare time into his personal research -- namely investigating miscasts and trying to uncover a way to eradicate them entirely. His long-standing goal is to be able find the inverse of any given spell in order to undo its effects and thereby reverse miscast spells. He is very nervous around magic, and almost afraid of his own Math-based magic, and tends to prefer relying on either his intelligence or his gun to solve any problems he comes across, treating anything other than the most trivial magic as a last resort.

Now if he sounds like a decently put together man so far, I assure you, he is not. He is at his absolute best erratic and neurotic, and he is very, very rarely at his best. More often than not he is short-tempered, blunt, anxious, and has a tendency to keep himself isolated to protect himself from the danger he perceives to be all around him, pretty much constantly walking the precipice of a breakdown. He experiences frequent paranoia and hallucinations, and struggles with memory and dissociation and keeping track of reality. At his worst, Finsterl will refuse to sleep or drop his guard at all -- and he refuses to let anyone get close enough to help with any of this, out of fear either he'll get them hurt or they will take advantage of his vulnerability to hurt him. As far as he's concerned, anything can be a threat, and the moment he suspects danger he'll unquestioningly bite first.

There are a lot of things that contributed to Finsterl's mental state, but primary amongst them is his treatment at the hands of a powerful Eldritch, an otherworldly shadow-monster, that approached him at quite possibly the darkest moment in his life to offer a sympathetic hand. It introduced itself as Hemlock (it/she), and said she would help him, protect him, be a much needed friend when he had no one else to turn to... and in return, he could lend her his body to possess whenever it needed to take care of some business. And since Eldritch don't have the best reputation, it even gave its word not to harm a single feather on his head. An easy enough deal, right?

Except the sweet and helpful Hemlock swiftly became a demanding, sadistic mistress. It used its influence over his soul to torment him and slowly break down his mental stability, forcing him to be reliant on her for basic functioning. It encouraged him to be fearful of the world and paranoid of others, it ran him in circles whenever he tried to question her, it would flip between gentle and vicious on a dime, it criticised him and terrified him before easing back just enough to avoid breaking him completely. It convinced him he was deeply unwell and needed her. And throughout it all Hemlock continued to present a front of kindness and comfort. Finsterl swiftly lost faith in his own judgement and perception, spending most of his time infested with her influence and wracked with anxiety and terror, desperate for her company and help and yet dreading her visits, and especially dreading when she would demand to use his body.

It came to a head when Finsterl realised that she was possessing him without his knowledge, often while he was asleep, and that made him question all the times she had convinced him he'd been in a fugue or daze and done things he doesn't remember. Hemlock never physically hurt him, certainly... but he slowly realised the full extent of the situation he was in and how much control it had over him, how deeply it tormented him, and how helpless he was to stop it. With nothing else to lose and his mind barely hanging on by a thread, he mangled his soul to stop it from possessing him, then pulled together what little of him remained and told Hemlock he wanted it to leave. She realised she had lost her grip on him and, uncertain of what he'd actually done to block her or what else he might be capable of doing, chose to abandon him with a few choice words about how he had no chance by himself, and he would learn that one way or another; and that some day she would be back, and she would be expecting his apology.

That was seven years ago now, and he's been trying to keep out of her possible sight since. Finsterl struggled greatly to get himself back to a semi-functional state, his desperate efforts to prevent possession leaving deep, feral, living magic scarring his soul and maiming his memories. He struggles to this day to identify what was true and what was false about what Hemlock told him, and doesn't know how much of the psychosis and paranoia is her continuing to haunt him or all in his own head. Truthfully, he just doesn't know what it means to exist without fear anymore. It's an omnipresent part of his life, a racing anxiety and dread buried deep under his skin that never goes away even in his calmest moments. And he almost finds it comforting; if he's afraid, that means he has something he can drive towards action, it means he can react and prepare for danger. He doesn't resent the fear in the least... he believes it keeps him safe. He believes it keeps him alive.

Finsterl clings to his research as his singular lifeline, the one thing that means he can't shuffle off this mortal coil just yet. It's more important to him than anyone could possibly understand and he's in no rush to explain why either. Outside of that, he's closed himself off from everyone and everything around him, second-guessing every friendly hand extended his way. He's learned that the deepest scars come from the most delicate knives and he refuses to let himself get betrayed again -- even if it means drowning in his own isolation and self-destruction.

... So, you know. It's really annoying that there are folks in the office that are so insistent on being his friend. And on helping him be better, whatever that means anymore. Especially when half of them can't even take care of themselves.

[The red owl, Eric (he/him), belongs to @victoryillustrations.]