A Lesson in Cooperation

[An Immortal Among Stars Masterlist]

contents: lady whump, immortal whumpee, captivity, a lot of dying, torture, asphyxiation, cutting, implied surgery, briefly mentioned eye gore.

~~~

Every time someone called Karita the immortal, it was terrible news.

She tried to be secretive, and usually she succeeded, but every once in a while someone would find out. There were people strongly attuned to magic of all sorts who could sense something strange about her and piece it together; there were those who simply saw her come back to life; and there were the most mundane ways, finding her old photographs, mentions of her in documents, because no matter how hard she tried, she could never fully erase her existence from the records.

Which meant, of course, that those in power were the most likely to find out about her secret.

"So, you're the immortal I've read so much about," Princex Yari drawled with a sly smile, looking down at Karita, who answered with her best look of confusion.

"Excuse me?" She frowned. "I-I think you got the wrong person. Your Highness," she rushed to add, her eyes widening as she put her entire heart into playing the part of a confused, intimidated mortal.

It rarely worked, and judging by the princex's laughter, this time it did not.

As you wish! Of course I ended up with more than 100 words, so it's an almost-quadruple drabble.

Set in the Berkeley's Revenge AU.

contents: recapture, muzzle, restraints, trapped in a small space, referenced carved mark and amputation.

~~~

“I could use a break from having to see you, Rackham. Your face pisses me off.”

Wren glares up at Berkeley from inside the huge cardboard box he had been pushed into. As much as he hates to admit it, there’s nothing he can do, muzzled, forced into a curled up position with his wrists cuffed behind his back and his ankles restrained. Berkeley snorts and closes the box, and Wren grimaces as the sound of pulling duct tape fills his ears. He’s never been claustrophobic, but his stomach still sinks when Berkeley seals his new temporary prison with layers upon layers of tape. He’s trapped, and he has no idea how long he’s going to be left here, and he can barely move and the muzzle makes it harder to breathe and-

Calm down. He exhales and closes his eyes. Just stay calm until he opens the box.

He can’t give Berkeley the satisfaction of hearing him protest and struggle, and that thought helps him tune out all the other ones.

He hears Berkeley sit down on a chair with a satisfied sigh, and a moment later he flinches when the top of the box sinks with a creak, as if-

Ah. So he’s being a footstool again. At least this time it’s indirect, and he doesn’t have to feel Berkeley’s boots on his back. It’s the small things.

“At least you make a decent footstool,” Berkeley laughs, and Wren frowns. “Maybe I’ll just make the box into your new home? It’s cozy and I won’t have to look at you too often. Sounds like a plan.”

Wren’s heart skips a beat, but he forces himself to relax. It’s bearable. No matter what Berkeley does to him, he can survive it. He has survived so much already; being stuck in a stupid box is nothing.

It’s just that the box is yet another thing on top of the word carved into his chest, the loss of a finger, the forced haircut, the threats, the constant reminders that he’s going to be killed. He’s going to be okay, he’s going to be saved, he is - but as he’s lying there, in darkness, sick and tired of having to stay strong and only rely on himself, he bitterly wishes that his rescuers would hurry up and find him already.

~~~

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Thunderstorm

[An Immortal Among Stars Masterlist]

Alternate prompt for Day 4 (Captivity Whump) of @whumpawoman's Whump Girl Summer event.

contents: lady whump, immortal whumpee, past captivity, death, starvation, isolation.

~~~

Karita woke up to new sounds.

Well, maybe not entirely new. She knew this sound, but she hadn't heard it in ages. Maybe it was a sound from an era long passed, like many. It was always startling to realize that some sounds and smells and flavors had disappeared completely after being present in her life for years, but… this sound was different. She could swear she used to hear it constantly, no matter the decade.

[SV-240 AU Masterlist]

Part two of Berkeley's Revenge AU.

contents: recapture, defiant whumpee, tied to a chair, death threats, past fingore/amputation, traumatic haircut, shock collar.

~~~

Berkeley winces, picking up Wren’s severed finger through a tissue, which instantly turns crimson, soaked with blood.

“It could still be attached back,” he sing-songs, smiling at Wren before tossing the tissue into a bin. “Whoops, nevermind.”

Wren barely hears him, his wide unseeing eyes fixed on the ceiling, his breathing ragged, his forehead lined with cold sweat. His finger is gone, it’s been cut off, and its absence, once it finally registers, feels so weird and so wrong. He flinches and gasps when Berkeley grabs his left hand and starts playing with his fingers, smiling to himself.

“I guess when I feel like hearing you scream again, I can just take my pick.” He lets go, circles the table, and gets to cleaning and dressing the wound on Wren’s right hand, chuckling a bit at his instinctual attempt to wrench his hand free. “Try not to get an infection and die, but it should be fine. You'll live. You’re so tough, after all.” He glances at Wren’s face, listening to his frantic breathing. “Why so quiet, Rackham? No more jokes? Figures,” he scoffs, shaking his head. “We both know how pathetic you really are.”

Oh, You Shouldn’t Have

[Caged Canary masterlist]

I dusted off a very old WIP and finished it, so here is, at long last, a continuation of AU Bradley’s kidnapping.

contents: heroes and villains, hero whumpee, lady whumper, captivity, mind control, blindfolded, restrained, gagged, humiliation, manhandling.

~~~

The corridors he was being led through seemed endless - or maybe that was just his mind trying to put off the destination as far as possible? They walked for ages, sometimes joined by additional footsteps, brief greetings directed at Mara and the other villain, one “that’s him?” He hated the mocking disbelief in their voice, but he couldn't really blame them, not in his current state.

Finally they stopped for a moment, a door was opened, and he was walked inside. He heard hushed conversations quieting down, and he was thankful for the blindfold preventing him from seeing the people who were no doubt staring at him. He was led forward a bit more, then he felt a push on his shoulders and flinched when he was kicked in the back of his knee, but managed to keep his balance.

"It's okay. He can stand."

He couldn't stop himself from shivering. There was something in that voice that made it very clear that it was the boss speaking, and Bradley tried to calm his breathing, lifting his chin as if he could face them.

Pedal to the Metal

...to get away after kidnapping a guy. Specifically, Bradley in the AU where he’s decent and kidnapped - featured here.

contents: heroes and villains, hero whumpee, kidnapping, betrayal, blindfolded, restrained, gagged, humiliation, manhandling.

~~~

Bradley should have been alert at all times, he should have been prepared for this, but he wasn’t, and everything happened so fast. He had let his guard down. His rivalry with Fractal had long become routine that should have been resolved ages ago, and yet… it continued. They would fight, they would banter, and then, somehow, Fractal would escape, and Bradley would be forced to give up on the pursuit. They would inevitably meet again, after all.

He had started to treat it almost like a game, and he’d go so far as to consider it exciting, pulling him out of his everyday gloom.

This, however, was anything but a game. He chased Fractal until he caught up to him behind an old warehouse, and as soon as he stopped, smiling, as soon as he opened his mouth to say something, they appeared.

Six people, six villains, and before he could even process what was happening, he found himself surrounded. He tried to fight, his eyes darted around until he spotted a loose metal pole, and he raised his hand and pulled it closer; but he was distracted, clumsy, and his stomach tied itself into a tight knot when someone grabbed him from behind and wrenched his arms behind his back.

“Let go!” he growled, thrashing, trying to free himself, while the other villains closed in on him to block his field of view. He desperately searched for something, anything that would help him, and he saw Fractal, who was looking at him with an unreadable expression - and Bradley knew that all that showed in his eyes were fear and betrayal.

Betrayal. It sounded so stupid, he was so stupid, Fractal was a villain, how could he have been so naive?

And then he couldn’t see anything anymore; his breath hitched when a strip of black fabric was pressed to his eyes and tied into a knot on the back of his head. He heard a sound over the frantic beating of his heart, a click, metallic click, and something closed around his wrists, securing them together. Handcuffs. Metal handcuffs.

All Settled In

[Masterlist]

Finally breaking the curse of never writing more than three chapters of new projects. Not the most whump-packed of drabbles, but it mostly serves to conclude the setup of Caged Canary.

Continued from Birdcage.

contents: hero/villain whump, captivity whump, hero whumper, defiant winged villain whumpee, dehumanizing nickname, cage, collar, food, swearing.

~~~

How much further was Bradley going to go? This was just the beginning, the first day, and he had already stripped Oscar of his name and locked him in a cage. He wouldn’t stop at that, that much was obvious, but Oscar hadn’t figured him out yet, had no idea what he would come up with, and that terrified him.

Once he couldn’t sit still anymore and had to come back to reality, no matter how messed up it was, he jumped to his feet and started to pace around the cage. It was large enough that he could do that - it encompassed the entire length of the wall of the large trophy room, and he had a feeling there was no such thing as a tiny room in Bradley’s house. The ceiling was ridiculously high as well, and that brought him the most relief, since it allowed the cage to be fairly tall. He could spread his wings, extend them as far as possible, without being confined by the cage, and he could fly. He leaped up for the first time in days, propelled himself with his wings, and gripped the highest point of the cage where the bars connected. He examined the junction with narrowed eyes, slowly brushed his fingers over it in search of a weak spot, finally he pulled and pushed and tried to rattle the bars - no budge.

Whoever Bradley had commissioned had done their job well.

20: leave my muse out in the cold

contents: well, that, captivity whump, chains, mention of alcohol.

Oscar was freezing, but it could be worse, as he kept reminding himself. It could be night, it could be a sunless day - not that the sun even reached his spot. He had been given fairly warm clothes, just short of being sufficient, and he wasn't entirely immobilized; his ankle was chained to a pillar and the chain was long enough that he could pace back and forth to keep himself warm- warmer, at least. 

He'd always hated the cold, freezing air on his skin when he flew too high up, snow, and he couldn't help but smile bitterly when he remembered all the lighthearted jokes and teasing about his love for wearing multiple layers and fighting the winter by staying at home with a hot beverage and a blanket. How ironic that that was how Bradley decided to mess with him, punish him for one insult too many.

How convenient for you, asshole, Oscar thought, looking up and glaring when he saw Bradley watching him from the obscenely large windows, and his boiling anger warmed him up a bit when Bradley flashed his teeth in a grin and tipped his glass of mulled wine at his shivering captive.

Darkness Day

For @brutal-nemesis Whump of the Month.

Remember Bradley McKenna from Caged Canary? Well, recently I’ve been toying with a very loose AU in which he’s a good guy who gets kidnapped by a group of villains led by a woman going by the name of The Puppetmaster. You don’t need to be familiar with the original (barely started) story to understand this drabble, as they don’t have much in common save for the character of Bradley.

Context for this particular piece (which is just one of the possible timelines of the AU, not necessarily canon): Bradley has the power of metalkinesis, but to use it he needs to see the object he wants to manipulate.

contents: captivity whump, heroes and villains, lady whumper, eye whump (not gore), blinding, medical setting, referenced failed escape attempt, creepy villain whumper, hero whumpee, manhandling, self-loathing, feelings of loss.

~~~

Somehow he immediately knew what was going to happen when the door to his cell opened. The villains who came for him didn't say a word, but their silence was tense, had been ever since he tried to escape. As they led him through the winding hallways he feared that his heart would crush his ribcage, and he could already feel sobs forming in his throat. He gritted his teeth, trying not to break down, when they reached their destination and soft beeping filled his ears.

He couldn't stop a fearful whimper from escaping him when they lifted him up and forced him to lie down on a table; his breath caught in his throat when they closed restraints around his wrists and ankles, immobilizing him. The blindfold was removed and he squeezed his eyes shut when light flooded him, and so did despair when he realized that soon there would be no need for that, that he wouldn't be blinded by light ever again.

He blinked and looked around. The room he found himself looked like a fairly regular clinic, which meant… The villains who had brought him here had left, there were metal tools and objects everywhere, if he could just- if he could-

"Hey!" he heard a stern voice when he managed to gather his powers enough to pull a metal stool closer, making it scratch against the tiles. "Stop that."

Birdcage

[Masterlist]

Continued from Proper Introductions.

cw: hero/villain whump, pet whump, defiant winged whumpee, captivity, dehumanization, caged, restraints, threats, forced name change, humiliation, manhandling, mention of strangulation, hand gagging.

~~~

“A bird joke. Isn’t that too original?”

“Couldn’t help myself”, Bradley laughed, draping a large towel around Oscar’s shoulders in an attempt to dry his wings at least a little bit. “Black birds are so serious, but canaries? They’re fun! They’re adorable! They’re… pets.”

Oscar’s stomach sank at that, and he swallowed. Deep down he’d known that was basically what Bradley had made him into when he decided to keep him - a phrase that made him nauseous the first time he heard it - but hearing it said out loud still felt like a punch, a series of punches, each more painful than the last.

“I’m not your pet, and my name is-” His words turned into a sharp mmph! when Bradley covered his mouth with his hand.

“Ah-ah, I know it, but I don’t want to hear it. You’re Canary now. Get used to it.” There was genuine sadistic glee in Bradley’s voice, and yet Oscar felt as if it was the glee of a first-timer, reveling in this unique opportunity to humiliate and threaten.

He had just been given a new toy, after all.

Caged Canary Masterlist

Read on AO3

When Oscar Welles, a lesser villain, is hunted down by celebrity hero Bradley McKenna, he naturally expects to serve a sentence in prison - only to find out that Bradley decided to keep him as a trophy instead.

General warnings for the series: captivity whump, heroes and villains, winged whumpee, dehumanization.

He read a ton of books while in captivity - it was one of the few upsides to Berkeley visiting, he'd bring some new ones each time. He played board games with Daniel, watched movies, but also worked in the garden, did chores in general, and, while I've only written about it once, they had quite a few ventures outside into the forest. The most important thing though that I have a WIP about and I really need to finish it is that pretty early on Daniel agreed to Wren working out regularly, so that was his main way of dealing with boredom and feeling a bit more like his pre-captivity self.

Proper Introductions

[Masterlist]

Dusted off another old WIP, so here’s a continuation of Wrong Place, Wrong Time.

cw: hero/villain whump, winged villain whumpee, hero whumper, defiant whumpee, manhandling, captivity, restraints, police, forced name change, dehumanizing name, referenced drugging, trophified.

~~~

He was handled like cargo, sedated while Bradley dealt with formalities, and when he was finally allowed to sober up he wasn’t even given any time to process the revelation of what was going to happen to him; instead he was unceremoniously thrown in the back of a van, wrists and wings restrained. The officers handling him weren’t wearing uniforms, and the van was unmarked, a clear sign that whatever was happening to him was no longer official and constrained by protocols.

It didn’t instill him with optimism, to say the least.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

[Masterlist]

This is a concept I’ve been toying with since January, but it never turned into anything more fleshed out. Inspiration suddenly struck, so here it is now. I’m not promising anything, the story’s more or less just a loose idea, but I’d love to do more with it.

cw: hero/villain whump, hero whumper, winged villain whumpee, defiant whumpee, capture, falling from a height, pinned down, struggling to breathe, restraints, drugging, needles, police, implied future captivity, alcohol mention, swearing.

~~~

When Oscar was caught, air left his lungs.

For a split second he felt relieved in a strange, detached way - the panic that was pushing him forward as he zigzagged between buildings was suddenly cut short when his pursuer caught up to him, when cold metal wound around his wings, pulling him down. His eyes went wide and his stomach sank as he was stopped mid-motion, and the fear accompanying the realization that he’d been caught finally rang in his mind.

No.

He flailed wildly, trying to free his wings, the last desperate attempt to free himself before he had to put his hands forward to break his fall, but once again his breath was knocked out of him when he hit the concrete. When he tried to get up despite the metal rope keeping his wings stretched out on the ground, there was a strange whooshing sound and something, two somethings, landed on him, pinned his neck and legs down, stopping him when he flinched violently.

No!