gh0sthands

[gh0sthands]

Becoming obsessed with a whumpee being comtaminated by some sort of biological substance, and then being captured and quarantined in a government lab for study.

However, it turns out that the government was lying, and that is a way to treat whunpee’s “contamination” and they kept them ill for study, ruthlessly cutting them open and performing test after test. The group of people start a resistance to this, and eventually rescue whumpee.

After being broken out of the lab, whumpee is taken to a quickly thrown together isolation room. The walls are covered with thick plastic sheeting as is the floor. There’s an old hospital table at the center in it, and surrounded by all sorts of secondhand medical equipment. The caretakers, a group of renegade doctors and nurses and scientist, are all garbed up, in Tyvex suits and layers of gloves and respirators.

Even though they’re trying to help whumpee, they’re scared out of their mind. As far as they can tell, they’ve been kidnapped by a group of mad scientists who are going to perform more and more experiments, just like the last people in those outfits did.

Still, Whumpee can’t figure out why they are being so gentle. Why are their wounds being bandaged instead of cut open again? Why are the linens so soft? What are these “analgesics” they’re being given all the time? Why do the doctors seem unhappy with the pus leaking from their PICC line, or the heat around the tube from their stomach? Why are things being explained to them at all (even if they’re all lies)? And most of all…

Why are they feeling better?

[gh0sthands]

no when i say intimacy i mean one of us is bleeding out and the other is putting their entire body weight behind their hands to stop it

[gh0sthands]

a whumpee who’s bone-chillingly tired after their experiences.

after it’s all over, the moment they lie down in their bed they’re out like a light, and it usually takes caretaker several attempts to even get a reaction out of them when they fall asleep.

occasionally they’ll wake up and get out of bed, but that’s only when they need to eat, bathe, or use the bathroom. And even then caretaker usually has to help feed them, bathe them, or make sure they don’t pass out on their way to the whenever they’re walking around.

other than that, whumpee is asleep, and stays asleep for a good while, maybe even over a week or two.

[gh0sthands]

Thinking about manhandling again (a common pasttime)

Whumpee being forced to their knees in front of Whumper and/or their team

Pushing Whumpee's head down to make them stare at the floor and keeping them in the uncomfortable slumped posture

Whumpee being hauled to their feet by a grip on their upper arm, maybe causing bruising

A hand on the back of Whumpee's neck to force them down, either to the ground or over a surface like a table in order to wrestle them into cuffs

Dragging Whumpee back by the ankle when they try to crawl away from Whumper

Shoving a handcuffed Whumpee forward impatiently

Whumper surprising Whumpee and grabbing them from behind, an arm wrapping around their neck or a hand covering their mouth to keep them quiet

Just

Manhandling~

[gh0sthands]

Some comfort (whump??) dialogue prompts that are EXACTLY my cup of tea:

- "Shh... it's okay, just close your eyes. I'll be here when you wake up, I promise."

- "Hey, no- stop that...! You'll rip the stitches if you keep doing that!"

- "Focus on my voice... I'm here..."

- "No, let me do it. You're injured."

- "That's it, just feel me... Focus on the way my chest rises as I breathe... Try to follow my lead..."

- "It's safe to fall asleep. It's okay. You don't have to worry about anything, I'm here with you."

- "What you're feeling is a bottle of water that I'm holding to your mouth. Come on, drink some of it..."

- "My hands are here if you want to hold them, okay? You can tighten the grip as much as you want, don't worry about hurting me. You won't."

- "It's me... It's just me, it's okay...*

- "It's all over now, everything is okay..."

[gh0sthands]

A character whose beat, bedraggled, or woebegone state is further emphasized by their hair having fallen out of its usual styling, looking limp or lank or locks of it falling across their forehead- whether sodden with water, or blood-caked, or tousled by wind and weather, or gripped by adversaries, or hands run distractedly through it, or too preoccupied to deal with it

[gh0sthands]

hurt/comfort concept: when two characters are both sick/injured and their cots or beds are near each other and they're holding hands to comfort each other 😭

[gh0sthands]

Love it when caretaker is the one pleading.

“Look at me. Please, please, look at me. No, don’t close your eyes.”

“You need to sleep. Look, we can deal with it tomorrow, just take a nap. Please, I’m asking, for me, just go to sleep.”

“Alright, I’ll do it! I’ll do what you want, just— just don’t hurt them.”

“Get away from them. Leave them alone, they can’t take anymore, please—”

[gh0sthands]

Possessed/mind controlled/magically puppeteered Whumpee fighting from the inside.

That's it, that's the post.

[gh0sthands]

I love when characters scream each other's names in panic, helplessly watching as someone they care about gets hurt or dragged away or threatened.

[gh0sthands]

when the character makes the most pathetic, heartbreaking sound after being disturbed - they got moved and it made their injury hurt, or maybe they're just so exhausted and they're trying to communicate "please let me rest" - yeah. yeah. more of that.

[gh0sthands]

❤︎ Caretaker Pushing Through for Whumpee ❤︎

TW: mention of being near death

“I have to get up. I have to get up. I have to get up.”

Walking on broken legs.

Dragging themself forward by their arms, or crawling.

Carrying whumpee in a fit of adrenaline.

Doing something they’ve repeatedly failed to do for themself throughout the story, like face a fear.

Enduring torture without giving up anything about whumpee. Then smiling up at Whumper. “I’ll never break.”

Slapping at their own face to keep themself moving while exhausted.

Working while they’re sick because whumpee is even sicker and needs someone to take their place.

Sacrificing something they’ve been holding onto the whole story to save whumpee instead.

Or sacrificing someONE. Maybe themself.

Patching up an unconscious whumpee while they are openly sobbing or having a panic attack. They just keep going through the tears because whumpee needs them right now.

Telling whumpee that everything is going to be okay when they don’t believe it at all, because that’s what whumpee needs to hear.

Clawing through a barrier to get to whumpee - breaking through a door, digging them out of the grave, etc. Their hands are raw and bloody.

Dropping everything when they realize something is wrong, that whumpee is missing or hurt.

Running to whumpee, perhaps for miles, if they don’t have access to a car.

Caretaker starts to die from what they’re doing for whumpee’s sake. Maybe they’re overusing their magic, or they’re having a heart attack, or they’ve been carrying whumpee while injured and their body just can’t take any more. It doesn’t matter. They don’t stop. They’ll never stop.

[gh0sthands]

Open wound care, a writing guide

To start—

This is based on my own experience getting treatment post-surgery and will therefore be very subjective, as well as case-specific. This is not medical advice, though I will touch on medical topics and explain everything as well as I am capable of.

The Wound

Depth and width

The depth and width of the wound will, separately, affect the given treatment and therefore the related sensations your characters experiences. The basic types of wounds, no matter the cause, are:

Wide and deep

Narrow and deep

Wide and shallow

Narrow and shallow

These are sorted by longest to shortest healing time. The more tissue that needs to be regenerated, the longer the healing process will take. This guide primarily deals with the treatment of deep wounds.

The edges

Similarly, the edges of your character's wound will affect the healing strategy and speed. There are, ignoring specifics, two primary types of wound edges:

Frayed

Straight

Frayed, or uneven, edges usually imply larger damage to the tissue and may be caused by any kind of ripping, including bullets, but also scraping or blades with non-smooth cutting edges. Straight edges usually, but not always, imply lesser damage and may be caused by any kind of cutting (and some rather rare cases of shooting). Straight edges are usually easier to heal because they are easier to "piece together" and tend to be easier to clean.

The sensation

The exact sensations your character experiences will depend heavily on the wound itself, as well as the care, or lack thereof, they may experience. The following is a list of some sensations they may experience:

Pressure, especially applicable to deep wounds that are being "stuffed" to avoid/catch bleeding (wound tamponade); feels dull and heavy, sensation shifts according to the movement of the body, but is overall relatively consistent; comparable to the pressure in one's sinuses during a cold, but very localized.

Phantom bruising (and real bruising), especially around the edges of the wound; can be a very large area of phantom bruising, where there is nothing visibly "wrong" with the skin, but the tissue is still sensitive and may feel somewhat warm; feels exactly like a fresh bruise.

Pinching or "biting" sensations, again especially around the edges; feels sharp and precise and often only lasts for a few seconds, usually "moves around" rather than being just one specific spot; comparable pricking one's finger with a needle or getting pinched by fingernails.

"Pins and needles", especially after a period of inactivity of the affected body part; feels very similar to a limb that has fallen asleep, but sharper where the actual wound is; more likely if pressure is being put on the wound, by a tight bandage or the character lying down on it.

Stiffness followed by phantom (or real) tearing, again after periods of inactivity, often accompanied by an aching numbness; feels like the sensation of stiff bones after a long car ride, but applied to skin, can be accompanied by a sense of dryness, followed by a sharp sensation that shoots out towards the spine; phantom tearing may feel similar to the sensation of breaking an old, dried leaf between one's fingers and can be very startling if the wound is out of sight and therefore cannot be checked.

Warmth; can be a sign of infection past a certain point, but a lot of wounds feel faintly warm because of the energy the body is spending trying to repair the tissue.

Nothing at all, at least while the wound is being left alone; if the wound is in a place where there is nothing messing with it, nothing touching it from the outside or inside (see: "stuffing" to avoid bleeding), then it's completely possible that even a deep and wide wound may be mostly painless for some time; though any kind of touch will certainly remind your character that it exists.

The Wound Care

The methods of wound care primarily depend on the depth and width of your character's wound and not every wound can be sewn up. Especially deep wounds may not get sewn, since there is a chance of creating a "wound chamber" by closing the surface, where the the surface heals shut while a hole in the tissue remains within the body. Such a wound chamber can then easily develop infections or abscesses. Therefore, deep wounds may be kept open to slowly heal from the "bottom up".

Healing a deep wound properly is a very long process and can take many months. Under normal circumstances, an average adult can be expected to heal between 1-4cm of each depth and width per month, depending on the exact care given.

Cleaning the wound

In a medical setting, this should be done with sterile saline solution or a special wound cleaning solution that may also include antibiotics or antiseptics, but can also be done with "regular" water, though this ups the risk of infection and may draw out the healing process; the liquid is usually pushed into the wound with a needleless syringe or a similar applicator rather than "just" pouring liquid in and around the wound, with the liquid then being dabbed away with cotton balls; the liquid used to clean the wound will be room-temperatured, and with wounds being a bit warmer as well, the liquid will usually feel uncomfortably cold; additionally, the character may experience burning sensations and pressure sensations, especially when the liquid is initially applied.

When using cotton balls (or anything similar) to remove both the cleaning solution and blood from the wound (and there will always be bleeding during a bandage change), your character may experience a repeated, very painful ripping sensation from the material touching the edges of the wound. Additionally, your character may notice one or two points of pressure, which feel painful and hard, but without a temperature sensation, if tweezers are being used to hold the cotton ball. These tweezers will usually be very dull and made of plastic, but are still noticeable to the person getting treated, even if the wound is wide enough for the tweezers not to touch it; pressing the cotton balls down to soak up any liquid is enough to make them noticeable.

"Stuffing" the wound (wound tamponade)

Stuffing the wound, which means filling it with sterile material, like gauze, that is intended to soak up blood while keeping the wound open and is usually done before applying a bigger bandage or bandaid to the surface, is very, very painful.

Removing the previous material causes a painful ripping and tearing sensation comparable to singular body hairs being ripped out one by one, which can also be accompanied by sharp pressure if tools like tweezers are used to remove the material. The material will often have slightly fused with the edges of the wound, be it through healing or through the drying of the blood, which makes the process as painful as it is. In addition, this means that removing the material will (almost) always cause the wound to bleed again, even if there was no active bleeding before the bandage change. Changing the bandages more often (once a day or more) will lessen this effect to some degree, but it will still be painful; waiting longer between bandage changes will increase both the pain and the bleeding, as well as the risk of infection.

Reapplying the material is similarly painful, if not moreso. The exact sensation depends on the "stuffing material" (light vs dense material), but the process is generally overwhelmingly painful, as the wound is being pushed further open than it may be in its relaxed state to ensure that it will heal correctly. This causes an extreme burning and pressure sensation that can take an hour or longer to get better without painkillers.

Bandaging the wound

No matter if you are using a large bandaid or a bandage, the surface level treatment is usually the least painful; this does not mean that it's not painful, though.

The application of a bandage itself will rarely be painful, at least, and will oftentimes feel faintly warm with each layer that is applied. Still, while being gentler on the wound, bandages have a high chance of sticking to the wound and especially the edges of the wound through blood, and if the bandage itself isn't sticking to the wound, the gauze used certainly is. Even if the bandage/gauze is wetted before removing it from the wound to make the removal easier, it will still be painful and cause a tearing sensation that can leave a feeling of cold burning.

Bandaids, especially at a large scale, are painful to remove and painful to apply. They may be more secure than a bandage, but during the application, the caretaker will usually need to apply some tension to the wound, especially to align the edges correctly to avoid the wound healing crooked or uneven. This will leave the wound with a burning feeling for some time after the application, even if the edges are being kept apart. The removal is no easier, especially due to mammals' unfortunate habit of having body hair in combination with the skin around an open wound being generally sensitive. The entire area that the bandage has covered will at least temporarily feel extra sensitive and may even feel faintly scraped open, though actual damage from bandaids is very rare.

Affects on the Body

Beyond what has already been mentioned, here are some further side effects of the wound and especially the care thereof that your character may experience:

Extreme tension due to pain; the muscles of the body automatically tense up when we experience pain, sometimes to the point of cramping and lingering stiffness; if your character is being treated while lying down, it is completely possible that their limbs may stiffen to the point of moving off the surface they are lying on.

Shaking, again due to pain; tends to accompany previous tension, but can also be caused by fear/anxiety or pain on its own.

Weakness in one or more limbs; this one somewhat depends on the location of the wound, but especially torso wounds will often take a toll on the nearest limb, which may be weak and/or shaky, especially after a bandage change; for legs, your character may need the help of another person or mobility aid to be able to walk securely, for arms, they may not be able to hold or lift things for a period of time. If this weakness isn't permanent and, for example, triggered by the bandage changes, it will usually last over an hour.

Soreness in the general location of the wound; can result in the already mentioned phantom bruises, but can also affect muscles and even bones, leaving rather large areas of the body to feel painful and difficult to use.

[gh0sthands]

A character who has to keep holding on with their bare hands to something causing them pain- a scalding hot or steadily heating up object; the blade of a sword or knife deflected from its blow; a thorny or rough-barked branch over a steep drop; the lip of a ledge or windowsill whilst their fingers are trodden upon; an animal that keeps biting or scratching their hands; a terribly heavy weight that threatens to wrench from their fingers- pain growing the longer they hold on, but with no alternative apart from letting go.

[gh0sthands]

The careful awe of a companion at the utter trust placed in them by an ill or injured character giving themselves completely over into their companion's care- falling asleep on them; permitting them to manhandle them without an once of resistance; willingly taking vile-tasting medicines at their request; being soothed by their reassurances even when grievously hurt; turning to them for assistance- and the companion silently vowing to never prove that trust ill-founded.

[gh0sthands]

There's something I really like about characters being taken care of for pretty normal, mundane accidents (well, much more mundane than most whump on tumblr).

A character drops a glass in the kitchen and they thought they swept up all the broken pieces, but hours later they step on a big shard. Their partner rushes to their aid, helping them to the sofa to carefully remove the glass and bandage up the deep cut left behind. They dote on them for the rest of the day, bringing them things and making sure they're resting, insisting that they don't walk on the injury for a day or two.

A character hits their head hard on something, and their partner immediately makes sure that the injury isn't serious and they check for a concussion. Once they know for sure that the character will be fine, they still let them take it super easy, promising to kiss it all better.

A character trips and falls in the hallway, twisting their ankle, and their partner insists on carrying them the rest of the way to wherever they need to go.

A skater takes a really nasty fall at the park and one of their friends calls the character's partner. They immediately rush over, gently carrying the protesting character to the car. Once they're both home, they give them a harsh talking-to about wearing protective gear and being less reckless, all while tenderly bandaging everything up. After all that tough love, they bring the character to bed and take care of them until everything is fully healed.

[gh0sthands]

whumpy hints

some tiny details that tickle the whump senses

• dark circles, bloodshot eyes

• falling asleep fully clothed, possibly with jacket and shoes still on, legs/feet hanging off the foot of the bed or sprawled half-on half-off a couch

• the “oh shit, i’m gonna faint/nevermind i’m good” face (and aborted grab for nearest solid object or person)

• a character losing their footing for a moment on rough terrain. someone reaching out to grab them so they don’t fall and they both hold on for a hot second

• closing their eyes and leaning into a gentle touch

• shaky hands, shaky voice

• falling asleep at their desk at work/tucked away in an odd place

• doing things that are out of character & having others start to notice: losing their cool, being extra chipper or extra quiet, jumpy

• zoning out

• someone getting between them and whoever they’re having a heated exchange with, gently pushing them back with a hand against their chest or shoulder

• slipping out of sight from the others to lean against a wall, tip their head back and close their eyes