there's nothing like making your character(s) give literally everything they have and make huge sacrifices in a last ditch effort to solve a big problem and then it doesn't work so now your character has just lost everything they had left to live for and all of the resources they had to solve the problem and the problem is also still there and probably aggravated from their attempts.

There’s not enough regret in the “defiant whumpee finally breaks” tropes.

That moment when Whumpee finally obeys, in the moments where their mind is so clouded with pain and fear that they give in to the command for the sake of self preservation. Let Whumper work off that. Slowly breaking down their tolerance until they barely have to hurt them in order to draw obedience, and then the point where they don’t have to do anything at all. The mere threat of violence is enough to keep them subdued. And then not even that. They submit without command, every order is followed directly even when Whumper poses no intent of violence.

When it gets to that point, where Whumpee has stopped fighting completely, make them look back. Trace their scars and invade their dreams, every thought paired with a lurking presence of something cold and heavy.

All of the suffering. All of the pain, the terror, the anger, the defiance, it had been for nothing. Just as Whumper had promised them, that very first day, “It doesn’t matter if you fight, I’m going to break you.”

It didn’t matter. They spent weeks, months, starving and bleeding while comfort and sanctum hovered only behind a low kindle of humiliation. They had been too stubborn to accept it, the backhanded relief, and now their body was marred with wounds that would never heal. All because they were too prideful to obey.

It had been two roads to the same destination, and they had chosen the longer one. Winding around a mountain and through a storm, the vast rocky terrain abusing them with each footstep, when they could have cut across a flourishing meadow and reached the same stop.

It had all been for nothing.

generally not super into shapeshifter characters being revealed to have like a singular True Form. isnt it much more interesting to imagine a creature so fluid and ever-changing that even they cant identify any one body as the "true" self, or simply dont see the need to?

is this you? yes. this one too? yes. but then which one is the real you? define "real" define "you" theyre all me. even the ones that are someone else? especially those.

whump tropes 11/100

when whumpee is surrendering to enemy soldiers or opponents, and instead of just politely cuffing whumpee's hands behind his back and hauling him off, they shove him facedown in the dirt, mud, gravel, or wet sand first.

and then someone's boot ends up on his face, neck, or back, leaning down hard.

cw: electricity, dislocation, degradation, sleep deprivation

tying a whumpee’s hands behind their back

kicking the back of their legs so they fall to their knees

grinding their face into the dirt while they don’t have the leverage to lift themselves up against whumper

attaching their wrists to a rope above their head and pulling them up until their shoulders pop

leaving them hanging there

they have to stand on their tiptoes to get any relief, but eventually they can’t hold themselves up anymore

shocking them so they can’t fall asleep, and the out-of-place muscles contract even more painfully

tugging on the rope just to hear them whimper and beg

only letting them down when someone else volunteers to take their place

This is top tier.

Characters who have dignity are honestly the best. Like not even *stoic characters*, I just mean ones who don't tend to get emotional often, who don't scare easily, who are very hard to break into tears, who are usually either pleasantly cheerful or just calm, and you know if they were to have an emotional outburst they would Not let it happen in front of people. Those characters are ...how do I say it...really really fun to imagine screaming in pain

Yes, you chose the right words, if I have to say something more really fun to imagine sobbing in fear.

Edwyn and Ariadne (who belongs to @just-horrible-things ) moodboard.

A puppet on strings, but no strings are needed. Just blindly following his desires and trusting his word. He could make her a monster, or he could make her afraid. Nurture her sadism, or watch her fall to her knees and beg for mercy. Will she be more useful blind and loyal, or terrified and desperate?

Something that always makes me weak: when the whumpee is laying down or tied down and the whumper straddles them. The false intimacy. The way it makes the whumpee question the intent. The humiliation potential. Plus they can be pinned so easily.

ya know, i’ve been thinking about it a lot.. and.. wounds being touched is just probably one of my most favorite things in all of whump. like, the initial pain of the wound is bad enough, right? but then touching it? making it worse? agony. how the whumpee’s face contorts in pain, the sounds it pulls from deep in their chest, how it makes them stop breathing for a moment because it’s just too intense? beauty. whether it’s moving around a break, pressing on stab wounds/burns/bruises, sticking fingers in bullet holes— i love it all. i have whumperflies just thinking about it.