(technically already did one but I'm making this one to pin on my blog)
Hi! I'm Howl. I'm in my late 20s living in the hellscape that is the USofA. I tend to bury my own stuff in reblogs because everyone has such good posts, but I've got a tag to keep track of it.
Quick note: I do reblog a lot of content involving non-con. Often, these are quick-reblogged on mobile, so they don't end up tagged often. I do try to take a minute if it's especially explicit, but I also rely on a post's title or provided CWs in the body text. Enter at your own risk.
My Tags:
#howl hurts someone (whumpy prompts, additions, and ideas)
#brambles from howl (casual chatter; not always whump related)
Um expanding on the breath rhythm training mask from the anime
Looks like a gas mask. Ish. But simpler. Its black and cool looking etc
If your breathing pattern is not even, it doesn't allow in air from outside. Too quick, nope. No air coming in sorry suffocate. Fuck you. Panicking? Haha. Well. U should breathe slower
And they do that in the training arc bc the power system is based around controlling your breathing and stuff its shonen anime. But like. Yeah breath train your living weapon whumpees. For me.
I need help. Do you know how to control a living weapon without magic? Say, if their world has no magic.
(Tw under the cut for discussions of abuse, cult tactics, manipulation, indocrination and conditioning under the cut)
I think you could go with the simple method of threats and a reward/punishment system (ie. do something the handler approves, gets a treat or "privilege", like nice food or being allowed outside; does something against the imposed rules, gets one of those "privileges" revoked or is otherwise hurt), for starters. It won’t be 100% effective because people generally don't like having someone else's orders be imposed over their own will but if your whumpee has some self preservation it will probably make them comply some, and, if you're lucky, create an habit. Give them more reason to obey than to defy and soon enough it might become second nature ☝️ It is easier to do something like complying if you've been at it for a while then it is at the beggining. They'll get used to playing this game, playing to your expectations. Or so I assume.
Some examples of threats/punishments I can think about are huhh. Shock collars (ie. whenever they say something they're not allowed to, they get shocked), being deprived of good food, of comfortable bedding, of the right to groom themselves and choose their own clothing (even if it may seem small, being stripped of even small amounts of autonomy can be greatly traumatizing), being deprived of hobbies or of things that are not strictly essential to survival, being beaten or yelled at when they don't obey orders. Tho as i mentioned above, coupling those with rewards is probably best; the lw won't obey you just *because*, they need a reason to. Avoiding making things worse for themself is okay, sure, but knowing that if they comply they will get a reward, that their quality of life will be improved (re: "privileges"), that they actually have something to gain out of going along with the orders, it will probably make them much more willing to comply.
I also think it would be even more effective if we are talking about indocrination from early life, like taking a young character and raising them like this. It is very hard to go against something you've been taught about for your entire life and this is also one of the ways that, for example, cults aquire new members: by having them be born into it. Take, say, the church. Not all churches are abusive cults, but have you noticed that children born from christian parents often get pushed to follow those same beliefs and attend the same churches? It is way easier to catch them from early on than to convince someone with a preexisting view of the world, even though the latter is also possible (and painfully common). If it's all you've ever known, even if you don't like it, it's not easy to envision either (a) a way out (b) what being "out" might even look like. They're trapped and will very likely not get themselves out by themselves.
Oh oh and on the topic of cults, manipulating your living weapon so they distrust "outsiders" is probably also going to make them more likely to trust their handler(s) instead of others. Even if they don't like said handler, if other people are painted as dangerous, untrustworthy and an even worse option, they'll probably pick the handler's side. Depends on how well you can seed that distrust. You could also look into some more tactics predatory cults use to get people and see what you can apply to your story
I'm no expert, though, and this is just stuff I've heard and read about, but hopefully it is believable enough for a story. As an aside note, even if you employ allll of these when training/keeping a living weapon, it is no guarantee they won't harbor any defiance or dislike for their situation. They may comply on the outside but turn on you at the slightest loosening of the leash, they may have full loyalty for their handler due to the conditioning tactics, they may try to be obedient but not be able to bring themself to do the more extreme stuff even when faced with the consequence of punishment, they may bounce between states of angry defiance and reluctant self-preservation-fueled compliance, etc. People ain't machines, after all; you can't know how each individual person is gonna react. That's the good part about it, though: if you are the one writing it, you can just shape them to react in the way that's more convenient to you :)
If you want to go even more fantastical while not touching on the realm of actual magic, also, you could go with the good ol' hypnosis. (Sleeper agents, trigger words, etc.) It might not work in real life but even so it is perfectly feasible within the realm of a fictional work if you just suspend your disbelief a little. Plenty settings that don't technically have magic can and do get away with slightly unrealistic features and that's something you could use in your favor.
If anyone has anything to add up please do! I hope this is of some use :) ramble over lmao
Weapon's body was on the verge of giving out. Four hours. It was pathetic, honestly. He withstood eight hours last week. Pathetic, indeed.
But maybe it was because Handler had brought out the whip this time. That would make sense.
Weapon tried to get up. He put his hands on the ground and pushed, and he lifted himself to his hands and knees before Handler's foot connected with his ribs.
Weapon's face his the floor once more, and when he opened his eyes, he saw blood next to his face, and he tasted the metallic flavor of the blood in his mouth.
"I told you to get up, you fucking mutt."
And Weapon tried again, and, again, he was kicked.
He knew what would happen if he didn't obey. But he couldn't push past it. Not today. Because he was pathetic.
hi so i actually had a. living weapon scenario that I was screaming about last year on my groupchat. and. i thought i might share,,, (im being vague but the whumpee i inflicted this on uses he/him, ill use neutral prns for this tho)
its like. living weapon being trained, having joined a revolutionary movement of some kind. still in their early stages of training. being ruthlessly beaten into the ground. told to get up again and again, no matter how much it hurts. and then,,, they fall. handler tells them to get up. whumpee shakes their head. handler asks them, almost detachedly, if it hurts. whumpee nods their head, tears in their eyes.
handler cocks their head at the motion. then, narrows their eyes, and speaks. "people feel pain. weapons dont. you forfeited your personhood the moment you donned our uniform."
they pause for a moment. then ask, once again, "now, does it hurt?"
and whumpee slowly shakes their head.
goddd........ dehumanization via emotions is so drugs to me. and Signing Up to become a living weapon???? Are You Fucking With Me Holy Shit
you're making me think back to a slightly older post I made about putting sleeper agents back to sleep like. what if they decided to be there. what if they chose this to save their family or to keep themselves alive a little longer. what if they thought they had no other choice.
Whumpee who is in a position where they need to learn. Living weapon, maybe royal, maybe something else.
They get hurt a lot. That's just part of it. Punishment, training, they need to learn how to deal with pain. How to be strong.
So they're after a punishment/training session, and everything just hurts. It's worse than usual. Maybe they already had a bad week, things were going wrong, they're tired and now this, they know they need to push through and be strong but everything just hurts and-
They look up, panting, sweating, eyes desperate. Looking at the door, the window, the roof, anything, anything- They just want out, they want to stop, please, just find a way out, let me run away from this place-
But they can't. They know there isn't a way. If they run out the door, they'll get punished. If they escape through the window, they have to come back or will be found. (Maybe Whumpee does have freedom, but they know there is no end. Maybe it's a royal Whumpee, and they always have to come back. It's their duty. They can't run.)
So they push that desperation down. The only way out is through.
very important for elf characters to freak the fuck out about the aging difference thing and pre-grieve like crazy and scream themself hoarse with denial when they can’t stop death itself and they still look the same as when they met the frail aged body that’s going cold beneath their touch and eventually settle into a numbness that they’ll call acceptance but they never really let anyone get as close as they did in the first century of their life unless they know they’re going to stick around as long as they will
“why are elves so snobby and exclusive and cut-off from everyone else” befriending you means they’ll end up burying you and your children and your grandchildren and they’ll still be young. exactly how many times do you think you could choose to do that. if you live through enough centuries, eventually you run out of days in the year to visit each grave.
@ashleybenlove Fantasy nerd me has been activated! It actually depends on what source material the elves are coming from. I think it’s more common for them to not be immortal but still be able to live hundreds of years (like in DnD or The Elder Scrolls), but the elves Tolkien created are indeed immortal! The OG elves are immortal.
But imagine this with a positive twist. An elf who carefully helps the children of long-passed friend to carry legacy of their parents or to discover their own; who keeps all the traditions and little things from different cultures and essentially helps scholars to uncover such things; who learns about new stuff and keeps alive the memory of the past. They keep visiting old graves, overtaken by nature and time. They remember everything. They pass their knowledge on and on not only amongst the young elves but also amongst people. Even if they are immortal, they are willing to be not isolated, but a link that keeps everything together.
Thinking of potential medical consequences Whumpee has from captivity.
Whumpee having to carry around an inhaler because their cell had mold in it and it damaged their lungs.
Having to go through a detoxification treatment because the water they got came from lead pipes.
Whumpee walking around with a cane/on crutches in agony until they can have surgery for the leg that Whumper had severely injured. And even after the surgery there may still be lingering pain
Having to adjust to hearing/vision damage. Even worse if they were an artist or musician before.
A thick blanket of snow covers them, lips blue, fingers and toes black from frostbite, they feel so warm, and so tired, maybe a nap is for the best? To save energy.. their limbs feel so heavy.. a nap couldn't hurt.. whumpee slowly closes their eyes, barely hearing the crunch of snow underneath winter boots, barely able to hear a voice calling to them...
Does whumpee live? Is it caretaker or whumper who finds them? Who knows, whumpee is to tired to think.
Whumpee asks to at least know their captor's name...
And Whumper responds with: "You will not know my name, you will call me (master/mistress), (sir/ma'am), (father/mother), or (husband/wife). And~ what you call me will dictate how I treat you."
whumpee’s life is normal otherwise. or, as normal as it’s ever been. they go about their daily life. they do their job, see their friends, run errands and keep afloat. and then, like clockwork, it’s time to go to whumper - to whumper’s house, or office, or wherever else they’ve arranged to meet.
whumper made them pick the times. whumper made them schedule the appointments like appointments, like this was about taxes or staying up to date on vaccinations. like this wasn’t whumper forcing whumpee to choose when they would next be raped.
they don’t talk about it outside of the pre-arranged times. whumpee thinks, honestly, that this might be the only thing keeping them above water. if it’s all confined to those times, to those dates and hours, then it can’t infect the rest of their life. it can’t poison their work or their friends or anything else. they suffer and cry and hurt and then they choose when they’ll be violated next, and doesn’t that sort of mean it isn’t a violation at all? they stopped begging whumper not to do this a while ago.
it’s not sustainable, though. soon, whumpee starts to crack under the weight of it - what’s happening to them. the nightmares are getting worse. they’re flinching constantly. they had a panic attack in a supply closet at work the other day. a friend greeted them with a hug and they nearly threw up, and then nearly cried and clung to them. something is going to break. whumpee is going to break.
they sob harder than ever through the next appointment. they beg whumper to please just let this stop, and it’s the first time in weeks they’ve allowed the word stop to be something real and within their reach. whumper grabs their hair, drags their head down, and shoves the calendar at them.
“that’s not how this works. you pick or i’ll pick for you, and you won’t have time to prepare.”
