ah, the classic “character has been impaled and pinned to a wall or the floor”

Tied Up Magic Whump Trope

So we love tied up whump, right?

Imagine this: you have a mage, or a character who can use magic. Tie them up. But not with regular old fashioned rope.

Tie them up with rope that prevents their magic!

So the magical character couldn't use their magic to get themselves free. If they try, they would have to deal with some sort of pain. Does their head throb terribly? Do the ropes have some sort of prevention mechanism (ie, shocking them) to hurt the whumpee when they try to use their magic?

Bonus: when the Whumpee is freed from the ropes, the surge of magic that was held down for so long from their bonds was so overwhelming, they either pass out or they hold their head and scream and cry in extreme pain. Bonus BONUS if their Caretaker holds them close as the magical pain hits the Whumpee, comforting them!

BONUS - if Whumper feeds on their magic in their already weakened state. If you like the bloodbath kinda thing but with mana.

Whump idea of the day:

Magical restraints - that is, shackles locked not with a key, but with magic. Forged from the strongest of materials, charmed to be unbreakable by brute force. A spell is the only way to remove them.

A captive being rescued by someone unable to use magic. They can be carried to safety, but their shackles remain locked. They must remain in chains even after rescue, until someone with magic can free them. Still limited in motion, still dependent, still not quite free.

Or worse, the rescue failing, because the chains are connected to something - the wall, the floor, a weight. The rescuers swearing they'll come back, that they'll find someone with magic who can help. Trying to comfort the captive as best they can, but ultimately forced to leave them alone - or else risk their own capture.

Or maybe, the captor is the only one who can use the spell to unlock the restraints. The captive - or their rescuers - having no choice but to bargain for their freedom.

"Disembowel" is actually a hilarious term. Guts undone, bowels cancelled. Got your entrail privileges revoked. You can either act a clown or you can have your guts intact, but you can't have both and I can't unclown you.

even better! There are 2 prefixes in that word “dis-“ and “em-“

Dis- being to negate, reverse, or otherwise Opposite the Thing

And

Em- being to put into, to cause to become

(Like embitter is to put bitterness into a thing)

So Disembowel is to negate putting the bowels inward

Which may ABSOLUTELY happen by both natural and unnatural causes

The english language has a specific word for turning someone's innards into outnards.

Whumpee, staring down at a knife: Oh, look at that. I’ve been impaled.

Thinking about the phrase 'slipped a blade between his ribs.' Innocuous little phrase for a knife to the lung... usually gets associated with assassins and stuff, but it just conjures up an image of closeness. Intimacy? Whatever it is, I've been thinking about it all day 👀

Slipped. Slid. Either way, there's something about it that's always gotten to me, too. Despite being very different from my usual tastes for aftermath/caretaking focused stuff. (Older me has realized that this sort of thing is beyond what your typical cottage-in-the-woods herbalist is equipped to handle. Younger me did not care enough about medical accuracy to be bothered.)

I'd rather ramble in the tags, but I think this is too long, so here's a cut for folks who'd rather scroll on by

Deep raspy breathing where the lungs aren't fully expanding. Breathing that's interrupted by sickening, hacking coughs that Whumpee can't fight off. Passing out because they can't breathe properly.

Whumpees who've been strangled and choked, Whumpees with breathing conditions shoved in dusty, dirty spaces. Whumpees who're so desperate to breathe they rip and claw at their own throat...

I think hand trauma is so good in whump tho. Like, burning the palms of the hands, cutting them, going deep enough to hit bone or crush them under a boot. Caning hands, causing permanent nerve damage, removing nails, cutting a tendon or maybe just tying them behind whumpee’s back, forcing them to try to complete tasks without their dexterity, leaving them tied so long that they feel like they’ll never be able to use them again. Being forced to work with bandaged, bruised fingers, dislocating a thumb whenever whumpee isn’t fast or smart enough.

Hand trauma ♥️ you feel?

One character chafing feeling back into another character's newly unbound hands- cupping bruised and abraded wrists in a gentle hold, working life into stiff, numb fingers, pressing cold fingertips between their own warm palms, soothing the pins-and-needles flood of sensation, returning a clumsy grasp of reassurance.

Love it when characters have been through some torment or captivity or illness or Big Bad Event and come away from it just...gaunt. Thin and hollowed out, circles under their eyes that refuse to fade no matter how much they rest. So pale and skinny they look like a breeze could blow them over. Thin hair, shaky limbs. Eyes squinting outside, unused to bright light. You know, all that.

[ID: A screenshot of author's notes from AO3 reading "Slight disembowelment. Sorry!" End ID]

ID: A white long sleeved shirt that says in black text and with a red heart: I ❤️ medieval torture. End ID.

whump prompt 074

The old wounds that still sometimes ache years after Whumpee received them.

Powerful Whumpees who are absolutely capable of killing Whumper, but are kept from doing so through magic, threats, or similar means.

a whumpee with a duty forced upon them. a whumpee with a duty they feel they have to do, even if it hurts. even if their body is torn up and scarred. they think that this is their only purpose, the only thing left, the only reason for their existence. they’re self-loathing and they’re guilty and they’re suffering, but they need to keep doing this so they can’t die yet