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Jane's Pets Chapter 98: Aftermath

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Puppy can't stop crying, and she doesn't know why.

This is good. Great, even. If Master could've prevented herself from healing, it would've come up by now, she's 98% sure of that. This is exactly what Master wanted. This means they won't be hurt anymore. She should be overjoyed.

But there's that 2% of doubt. The fear that this is a test makes Puppy want to put her muzzle and collar right back on. Every second she doesn't is another infraction, another reason for Master to punish her. Still, that's not the reason she's crying. It's something deeper than fear.

Is she grieving? For Master? She wanted to die. This is the best thing for everyone. The world has already gotten better because she died. 

Still, it hurts to look at Master's body. She looks the same as any mudered child would. Puppy had always thought Master's corpse would be smiling if she somehow managed to die, but it's not. She just looks like a corpse, like someone sleeping with their eyes open.

Puppy closes Master's eyes. She really doesn't know why she's crying. Why is this so painful? This is the good ending. The outcome so good that she tried not to even think about it as a possibility because hope just hurts. If she can't be happy now, will she ever be happy?

She supposes that if Master's death didn't cause her suffering, she wouldn't have been able to kill Master at all. Maybe this is just how the magic works. She hopes it doesn't last long, she's not much use to Kitty and Bunny like this.

Strong arms wrap her in a hug. 

"It's okay, it's okay." Bunny says, gently rocking back and forth. "We're safe, it's okay, it's okay for the first time in years. We're okay. And it's okay to cry. Let it all out, no one's going to stop you."

She lays her head on his shoulder and cries until she has no tears left, which isn't long at all. She's going to have to drink water without permission, eventually. She shudders.

“It would’ve come up by now if she could… leave her wounds open like that, right? In your opinion?”

Puppy nods.

“That’s what I thought! Like, I don’t think she had the patience for such a long trick.”

Puppy doesn’t either, but she's been wrong before.

“Um… I know it’s probably going to take a while for you to feel comfortable talking. That’s okay. It took me a while to feel comfortable without the collar, when I was… gone. And it’ll probably take a while again. So just know… it’s okay. There’s no rush. But also, I’m really excited to talk to you again, whether that’s today or years from now or anything in between. I’m excited to get to know you outside of Jane’s control— and to get to know Kitty outside of Jane’s control, and for you two to know me.”

It was just days ago that Puppy broke his hands. He was able to heal them, with Kitty’s help, but she still did it. It scares her, that he thinks there’s a real her hidden beneath what Master made her into. What if he’s wrong? It’ll hurt him so badly when he realizes he’s wrong…

Because she didn’t have to break his hands. Jane didn’t make her do that, she did that to stop Bunny from casting because she thought it was impossible for Master to die, and she was wrong. She made the wrong choice, and that’s not some simple mistake. She broke the hands of one of the two people she loves most in the world for no reason. She only made things worse.

She wants to apologize. She tries, but just the thought of speaking makes her throat close up with fear.

She thinks maybe this is part of why she was crying. She did so many horrible things under the assumption that there was no alternative, and it turns out there was. Master’s death is the death of her ability to justify how much she’s hurt people. She can’t push away her guilt without that justification, and it swallows her whole.

She should just die. She’s just like Master, the world would be better without her. Death was the answer to Master's problems, so it can be hers, too. She should just stay by Master’s side until she dies of dehydration like Master would want her to do. That would help the others, too, because Master would never let her die so quickly if she was just tricking them, so they could be even more sure Master is truly dead.

“I think… we should go upstairs.” Kitty says from somewhere behind her. “I don’t want to be here if we don’t have to.”

Puppy shakes her head. She’s not going to leave Master’s side. It’s the best for everyone.

Bunny hugs her a little tighter. “Puppy shook her head. Um… I don’t want any of us to be left alone right now…”

Kitty sighs. “Alright. So… what do we do now?”

Puppy wishes she could go upstairs. Obviously Bunny and Kitty don’t want to be here, and they’re staying for her. Just more suffering she’s causing them.

Bunny is quiet for a moment. "…What if it's not real? I feel so sure that if she could do that while she was alive she would've done it by now… but I felt so sure that Barron's magic could protect me, too. And that she was a safe person to follow home in the first place. And even after all the times I tried… it feels too easy."

"Well, you had doubts… you just pushed them away, right?"

"Well, yeah… Yeah, I guess that's it. I don't want to push the doubts away this time, and I'm afraid she's not actually dead." He goes quiet again, then starts laughing. "Fuck, I'm so stupid. If she's dead, magic won't work anymore, right?"

Bunny lets go of Puppy and gets up. "Magic doesn't work if you're trying to prove something, so I'll try to heal one of you. Um… I'm more certain that it might work on the Puppy's pressure sores than on acid burns, so I'll try that first."

Puppy lies down on the ground facing Master while Bunny collects his materials. Master's blood is mostly dry now.

Bunny says some words and does his thing, and Puppy doesn't feel anything change.

"We would definitely know if she could just… get rid of magic, right?"

Puppy nods. Master hated mages. The chance of her having the ability to get rid of all mages and not using it until now is even lower than the chance of her having the ability to not instantly heal and not using it until now.

"So– I mean, I could've wanted to prove she was dead badly enough to skew the results, but still. I also really wanted to heal you. This is– we have much more evidence that we're free this time than we ever had before, right? So we're not pushing away doubts, we're disproving them! Like, I ignored the sketchy things going on here when I first got here. I ignored how certain you and Puppy were that escaping wouldn't work, and how magic doesn't affect Jane the same way as it does everything else, when my only evidence I was safe was Barron's magic. I ignored evidence, but I'm not this time. The only evidence we have that she's alive is that she's tricked us before. And if we encounter more evidence, we definitely shouldn't ignore that, but for now… I think we can assume we're free. That's– that's what the evidence points to."

"Right, right. And… the worst that could happen if we assume she's dead and we're wrong is torture. Which is bad, obviously, but if we assume she's still alive and we're wrong… we'd torture ourselves trying to stick to her rules. And Puppy would die, because those rules include her not eating or drinking without permission. I'd… honestly prefer the former."

"Yeah, yeah!"

Their voices have slowly filled with excitement throughout the conversation. Puppy's happy for them. Once she's dead, they most likely won't ever have to worry about being tortured again.

"So– okay, I think our first step is– well, I'm thinking obviously we want to move out of here as soon as possible, right?" Bunny asks.

"Right. We can pack up some clothes and food, and Puppy will probably want to take her plushies. Everything else we can leave behind."

Puppy stops staring at Master's corpse for a moment and looks at the others. They should sell a bunch of this stuff, but how can she tell them that? She can't force herself to speak no matter how hard she tries. She turns back to Master.

"Where do you think we should go once we're packed?" Bunny is pacing the room excitedly.

“Well, Puppy knows how to get to the nearest grocery store, so that’s at least a start. Once we’re… around some other people… it’ll probably be easier to figure out our other options.”

“Hmm… Puppy, do you feel good about that plan?”

Puppy shakes her head.

“...Okay, so the first step is all getting on the same page. Do you want to keep living in this house?” Bunny’s voice is full of determination, the same way it was whenever he’d talk about killing Jane.

Puppy shakes her head. She doesn’t want to live at all.

“So we’re on the same page there, at least.” Kitty says. “Sorry for not checking sooner. Do you feel good about us packing up some food, clothes, and sentimental items before leaving?”

Puppy sits up and makes a 'so-so' gesture.

"Um… is there something else you think we should bring?"

Puppy makes another 'so-so' gesture.

"Hm…" 

Both Kitty and Bunny seem fairly stumped. Puppy guesses that's fair, she probably wouldn't be able to figure out what she meant either if she was in their shoes. Even if she can nonverbally convey that she wants them to sell stuff, how could she instruct them on who to sell it to avoid unwanted questions?

She'll have to write it down. The idea scares her, but not as much as the idea of speaking does. She guesses she's never actually been punished for writing or signing without permission, because by the time those rules were established she was already very obedient. Thinking of speaking without permission brings to mind burning hot barbed wire digging into every part of her body, but thinking of writing without permission just brings up a general fear of disobedience.

She can't die yet. Bunny and Kitty need her. She'll probably have to be the one to actually sell the stuff, too. She sighs and scoops Master's body into her arms, then heads upstairs.

A/N: Let me know if I should tag anything else, or if you want to be added to or removed from the tag list!

Tag list: @eatyourdamnpears @whump-in-the-closet @scp-1296 @thecosmicmap @quins-whump-stuff @fuckcapitalismasshole

[quins-whump-stuff]

Jane's Pets Chapter 97: Miracle (Season Finale)

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Puppy regrets nodding about Bunny killing Master almost immediately after she does it. This is what anger does, makes her act irrationally in ways that will get others hurt. She shouldn't have encouraged him, it can only make things worse.

She shakes her head immediately after she nods, but Bunny doesn't seem nearly as impacted by that as he was by her nod.

Master lets her and Bunny bring Kitty upstairs and take care of them. They’re hardly injured at all. Just some acid burns on their toes. It’ll make it hard to walk, but Puppy won’t mind helping.

They’re really out of it, so she and Bunny get them set up all cozy on the couch with some snacks.

“I’m sorry.” Bunny whispers over and over to them. “I’m so sorry, I won’t let this happen ever again.”

After Kitty’s settled in, Bunny pulls Puppy aside.

“I think you’re really brave, you know. And strong. And I want you to know I love you no matter what happens.”

He's going to do something really stupid. That's the only reason he'd say that.

Her worry must be visible on her face, because Bunny looks sad.

"It's all going to be okay." He hugs her tightly, then runs off to his room. He can't use his hands, so hopefully he won't be able to do anything too stupid…

She really doesn't want to have to watch him get his hands and tongue cut off. She should supervise him, just to make sure he didn't find a way to cast without hands, but Kitty also needs supervision.

She thinks that if Kitty tries to get themself hurt, she'd be able to stop them, but she's not sure about Bunny. So she stays in the living room where she knows she can be useful, as much as leaving Bunny to his own devices pains her.

~~

You've just had the most wonderful idea.

Everything has magic in it, first of all. Barron (you'll just have to push through the discomfort and think about it) and its books tended to only use twigs, leaves, and rocks, but theoretically anything could be used to cast, especially if it's less refined and closer to nature. And Puppy communicated to you that Jane's blood is important… it only makes sense to use that to cast. You're a genius!

If you manage to kill her, you probably won't be able to cast anymore, but you're okay with that. Magic no longer existing is a small price to pay in order to be free of Jane.

Oh, does that have something to do with how she's not usually affected by magic? If she was made immortal by the same thing that made magic possible, it doesn't seem too crazy to think she wouldn't be impacted by magic in the same way everything else is…

Wait. Wait wait wait wait- her blood has to do with her immortality. Her immortality has to do with the creation of magic, which means that her immortality (and therefore blood) is connected to why magic doesn't work on her the same way. So maybe, if she had enough normal blood in her body… magic might work normally on her, and she might be able to die!

"Jane! Jane! I have an idea on how to kill you! Jane!"

Jane appears sitting on your bed. "My stupid Bunny has an idea? Don't hurt yourself."

"Shut up. Have you ever tried to replace your blood with a mortal's?"

"Yes. Do you really think no one's thought of that before you?"

That's a bit demoralizing, but you continue. "Have you ever had someone cast magic on you while there was mortal blood in you? Oh, oh! And had someone cast using your blood, at the same time? So like, there's a spell on the normal blood and a spell on the immortal blood?"

Jane blinks. "I… not at the same time…" She regains her composure swiftly. "But I have tried those separately. Why would doing them at the same time work?"

You've got her. There's no way she won't want to try. "Well it would probably be impossible to replace all your blood with mortal blood, so it makes sense why that one wouldn't work on its own. As for using your blood to cast… well, did it have any effect when you tried it on its own? Or did nothing happen at all, like when I tried to make you intangible?"

"Nothing happened." Jane is sounding more and more annoyed.

"What spells did you try? I guess that since your blood works different it wouldn't be able to cast the same things the same way…"

"...What makes you so sure that my blood works different?"

Shit, you don't want to get Puppy in trouble. "It doesn't matter. What spells did you try?"

She rolls her eyes, but luckily she doesn't seem to care enough to push it. Maybe she already knew, or figured it out (did you ask Puppy while Jane could've been listening? You can't remember). "Any spell that had even a tiny chance of killing me."

"Hmm… and you cast it? Or did someone else?"

"Someone else. I can't cast, at least not the way mages can. Which I know because I tried, many times."

Oh, it's a good thing you asked, since she talks about it saying 'I' instead of 'we.' You suppose it does make sense for her to think about mortals that helped her in the past as just extensions of herself.

Another idea is starting to form. You've been forcing yourself to think about Barron a lot lately, and its death (along with the others') is fresh in your mind after thinking Kitty was dead. You think 'what would Barron do?' You think about your first time meeting it. 

"Well… your blood, uh, makes more of itself only while it's inside your body, right? So maybe using it to cast would only work if it was still inside your body? I could… I could carve a rune into a rock, then like… cut you open and put it inside you and cast, so that it would have the normal magic of the rock and the weird magic of your blood." Man, this is a pretty gory conversation… Living here has really desensitized you.

Jane tilts her head to the side. "...worth a shot."

"Wha- you've never tried that before?" You were expecting to have to give more justifications as to why it would be different this time.

"I have reason to believe my blood maintains its properties while it's outside my body, but you're right that it only replicates while it's in my veins. So it's worth a shot, even if nothing comes of it. Come downstairs."

Jane vanishes.

This could go very, very bad, but you leave your room and go down the stairs to the basement anyway, purposefully avoiding looking at Puppy and Kitty's reactions.

Jane is setting up some kind of scary looking contraption. You instinctually step back when you see it.

"Relax, it's not for you. You've seen how instantaneous my healing is, this is to hold my arm open while you… hey, your hands are still broken! Go grab Kitty and Puppy, you can instruct them on how to carve your runes or whatever. That works out better anyway, I'd have to cut off your hands if you did it yourself, or no one would believe my threats again."

You run back upstairs. You can't stop the smile starting to form on your face. This might work. This might actually work! Even Jane thinks it might work!

"You guys need to come downstairs. Not for a punishment! Probably. I suggested a way to maybe kill Jane and she agreed! But I need your help cause I can't use my hands right now. Um, Puppy, could you help me get supplies from my room?"

She looks skeptical, but follows anyway. Kitty wordlessly goes down the stairs into the basement, walking on their heels.

You direct Puppy on what materials to grab, and then you and her go down into the basement too.

Jane is sitting in a chair that wasn't there before, with the scary contraption beside her. "Alright! Tell them what to do. You two, do what Bunny says for now."

You take a moment to gather your thoughts. Your plan is complicated, so you're afraid you'll miss a step. 

You direct Puppy on what rune to draw on a leaf (you've decided engraving a rock would take too long) and have tell Kitty how to cast a healing spell with the stuff you've already got prepared. Their magic makes you taste sour candy.

You feel the bones in your hands mend. "Perfect, thank you Kitty. First I want to try casting with your blood. I want to see if it can do things like healing and teleporting, since those are the magic things you can do."

Jane scoffs. "My magic doesn't heal me. It keeps me in the state I was right before- it keeps me in this specific state. To call any of my powers healing is ridiculous, the entire point is for me to suffer."

You gasp. She said that so casually, like it wasn't the last piece of the puzzle. Has she said that before? Maybe she has, and you didn't realize the importance.

She's tried so many different ways to kill herself. If the purpose of her magic isn't to make people miserable, what could it possibly be?

Magic responds strongly to intention. Her blood, her magic… what if it only works if the end result is more suffering? 

Okay, drop the replacing some of her blood with yours idea. You just need her blood. "Do you have, like, a bloodbag in your void?"

"I have everything in my void." Jane sets up a blood draw quickly herself. "Will that be enough?"

You nod. You shouldn't need much at all. You know why using her blood to cast didn't work when she tried it before…

Well, you don't know. Which is why this first step is important. You set the blood bag aside. "Puppy, hand me that leaf you drew on like I told you."

She hands you the leaf, her expression unreadable.

Jane laughs. "You know that if this doesn't kill me I'll have to cut off your hands and tongue, right? Since you're casting it yourself."

"Yep." You examine Jane's contraption. "So how does this work?"

"It'll cut and hold the flesh open while you stick the leaf in there. You'll have to do it as fast as possible. Are you ready?" She puts her arm in the contraption and holds down a lever.

You position the leaf right above where it looks like the contraption will cut. "Ready."

She releases the lever and the contraption slices and pulls, ripping skin and then muscle and holding the rip open. You can see the flesh trying to reunite, straining against the contraption. Ew. Jane doesn't flinch.

You thrust the leaf forward into the wound (ew ew ew ew) and chant the spell words, then yank your hand away and pull the contraption off. Her skin mends around the leaf.

Magic responds to intention. Usually that means that it doesn't work unless you have the right intentions, but it can benefit you too. You want the force-field to hold her in place while leaving a hole for magic to get through, and it does. Instead of being a sphere around her, it's shaped the same as her so that she can't move, with a hole over her chest.

"...why did you do that?" Jane looks more confused than anything.

She teleports, but once she reappears across the room the force-field is still around her. It worked! You can't cast spells on her, but you can cast spells on the area around her, and since the leaf's inside her it will move with her, so the spell is always on the area around her! And she can't teleport it out, and she can't cut it out because she can't move her arms. It really worked! So long as you keep the spell up, she won't be able to hurt anyone.

You watch as the realization dawns on her. "Ha ha. So clever. Except the spell will still only work until you lose focus, and with your brain damage I doubt I'll have to wait long… And if I told my Puppy to attack you, she would, and you'd lose focus even faster."

"I know. I just needed… insurance. I need you to not be able to hurt anyone while I try this. Sit back down, I think my idea will work."

She appears back in the chair and rolls her eyes. You pick the blood bag back up.

"Puppy… I need you to cast this spell for me. You… her magic, it only causes suffering right?"

She nods hesitantly.

"That's it's purpose?"

She nods again, and you feel giddy. You were right! Puppy confirmed it!

"So if we want to cast with her blood, it has to be to cause suffering. And I think… you're the only one who can try to kill Jane and see it as a cause of suffering. I think that you're the only one here who's even capable of processing Jane's death as a bad thing." You're not positive, but based on the way she acts around Jane, and some of the things that Kitty's told you… it's possible. Her hatred for Jane doesn't seem to be as strong as yours and Kitty's, at the very least.

Tears well up in her eyes, and she nods slowly.

You hand her the blood bag. "Okay, I need you to, like, fingerpaint with the blood." You describe the rune to her and she dutifully paints it on the floor.

"And then… you need to say the spell words." There are probably other ways to cast without the ability to speak, but you don't know them.

Jane has been watching silently, but when Puppy looks at her pleadingly she speaks up. "I'm not going to give you permission to speak. If you actually think this is going to work, you don't need my permission, because I won't be able to punish you. And if you don't think it'll work… you have no reason to do it."

Tears stream down Puppy's face. You don't know what to do– if it doesn't work, you don't want Puppy getting hurt because of you.

Kitty has been mostly quiet, but now they speak up. "...Puppy. You've got this. If it doesn't work… we'll keep trying, and she won't be able to hurt you– or anyone, because of the forcefield. And… if your worry is about us getting hurt… we're willing to risk that. Right, Bunny?"

"Right."

"Please, Puppy… I can't do this anymore. I can't– I wouldn't be able to go on knowing that we had a chance and we didn't take it. Please."

Puppy wipes her eye, unclips and removes her muzzle, and hesitantly takes off her collar. Jane doesn't say anything.

You quickly tell her the spell words, and she repeats them. Her tears mix with the blood on the ground.

When she's finished, Jane goes unnaturally still. Her eyes lose focus. Despite how hopeful you were, your first thought is oh, she's fucking with us.

If it worked… she shouldn't be able to heal (or whatever she wants to call it) anymore, right?

You take one of the many knives laid out in the basement and drive it through the hole in the forcefield, into her chest, then pull it out. The wound doesn't heal.

"Guys- guys!" You drop the forcefield and slit her throat. It bleeds and it keeps bleeding and there's not even the slightest pull bringing the flesh back together.

"She's dead. Jane is dead. She's- she's-"

It doesn't feel all that different to when you killed other people under her orders. You feel kind of… numb. Everything feels too quiet. You've daydreamed about this for so long, but you don't feel triumphant like you expected. Just… tired.

And you always pictured dying right after. Sacrificing your and Jane's life for Puppy and Kitty's. But you're alive. You're alive and Jane is dead.

A/N: Everything so far has built up to this... I hope it's at least a little good! Let me know if I should tag anything else, or if you want to be added to or removed from the tag list! Season 4 will begin April 22nd at 5:00PM EST.

Tag list: @eatyourdamnpears @whump-in-the-closet @scp-1296 @thecosmicmap @quins-whump-stuff @fuckcapitalismasshole

[quins-whump-stuff]

Jane's Pets Chapter 96: Resurrection

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You asked Barron about resurrection, once. You didn't really know if you'd want to use it if it did exist, but you were curious, and none of its books mentioned it. You also felt smart for figuring that if it did exist it would require the death of someone else to do, since magic cares so much about balance, and wanted to see if you were right.

"Once someone's dead, they're gone." It said. "At least, that's a foundational assumption we mages make in order to better understand magic, like the whole balance thing. It's possible we're wrong, but assumptions like that tend to lead us in the right direction when it comes to tinkering and stuff, which implies there's at least some truth to it. So, assuming our fundamental understanding of magic is correct, you could puppet around a corpse, but the person they used to be will never exist in that form again. Maybe you could describe vampirism as a form of resurrection, but I wouldn't. Vampires who are turned aren't the same person they were as a human. There are also some mages who claim that ghosts are real, but given how magic resists attempts to prove its existence and how ghosts aren't solid and observable in the way fae, vampires, and other species are, it's hard to tell."

You nodded. "Would puppeting a corpse require killing someone?"

It raised its eyebrows.

"I'm not planning on doing it! I just guessed that the cost of a spell like that would be death and wanted to check if I'm understanding the balance and cost stuff correctly."

"Oh, that makes sense. A spell that allowed you to continuely puppet a corpse would require that, yes, but more temporary ones have easier costs to bear. Not that I think it would really ever be worth it, what would you even get out of that?"

You nodded. All this talk about puppeting was starting to make you think about the brand on your arm, and you'd rather not think about that.

"Is there any way to communicate with the dead?"

"Maybe. Like I said, it's hard to tell. Even mages who argue you can claim that it's so different from talking to the living it's hard to get much out of it."

You couldn't help but be disappointed. It would be so wonderful to be able to talk to your dad again…

Now, of course, you wish you could talk to Diya, Barron, and Ray again as well. It's good you found out it wasn't possible before they died, or else you'd probably spend the rest of your life trying.

You can't think about them right now. Once someone's dead, they're gone. You need to focus on the living.

Resurrection not existing can be a bit of a comfort, too. Once Jane and you are dead, you'll be gone completely, never able to hurt anyone again.

–

"Come here Kitty, it's time for your medicine."

Kitty shows no sign that they heard Jane. They seem captivated by the puzzle they're trying to solve.

Jane appears right next to them before you can do anything. "Kitty." Her tone is warning.

Kitty carefully places another piece with a shaking hand and doesn't look up. Oh. They're not captivated. They're doing this on purpose.

You open your mouth to say something, to try and convince Kitty that if they can just hold on until your hands heal they'll be able to be themself again, but Jane speaks first.

She grabs their face bruisingly. "Bad ki-"

"No! No no no no, stop it! Stop it, don't touch me!"

Jane slaps them hard across the face. She's not angry, though. She's smiling wide. "Uh oh… you know saying no to me is against the rules. You know being noncompliant is against the rules. I've put in all this work, and it seems like… you're just untrainable." Her voice drips with disappointment, but she's still smiling.

Kitty tries to punch her, and she easily teleports out of the way. "Puppy? Help me get Kitty downstairs and restrained."

Jane grabs them by the hair and touches their collar, making it instantly disappear into her void. Puppy comes from the kitchen grabs Kitty's legs. They thrash and scream, but Jane and Puppy get them down the stairs easily. After a moment of hesitation, you follow. Maybe you can convince Jane to lighten the punishment, or take their place.

"Master-"

"Nope!" Jane finishes hanging Kitty from the ceiling with Puppy's help. "Both of you are going to go upstairs and out into the backyard. I have a job for you, I'll be out to tell you what it is in a minute."

Puppy immediately goes back upstairs and pulls you along by the elbow. You'd shake her off, but it doesn't look like negotiating will help this situation. Best to just obey so you don't risk them being punished for your misbehavior.

It's a nice day. Puppy's been tending to your garden after breaking your hands, so you haven't been going outside as much as you used to, but you really should be spending time outside anyway. It makes everything feel more manageable when you get fresh air and sunlight.

Jane appears with two shovels in her hands. "I need you guys to dig a hole. As deep as you can go, and about as wide as a twin mattress. Can you do that?"

"Yes, master." You say on autopilot. You're… not going to be able to do that with your broken hands, but she knows that. Luckily, she doesn't seem upset at the obvious lie.

Puppy nods.

"Excellent!" She throws a shovel at you and the other at Puppy with much more force than necessary. Obviously, you're unable to catch yours. Ow. Puppy catches hers gracefully.

Jane is gone by the time you look back up, so you turn to Puppy.

"I won't be able to dig. Maybe I can kick some dirt around, but besides that I think I'll just be moral support. Is that okay?"

Puppy nods. She looks pretty shaky… and now that you're paying attention, you notice her face is pale and her eyes are full of tears.

"Hey, what's wrong? I mean-" How can you figure out what's wrong with just yes or no questions? "Are you upset about helping Jane restrain Kitty? You know that's not your fault. Neither is my hands being broken. It's okay."

That doesn't seem to comfort her. She wipes her eyes and stabs at the ground with her shovel.

"Is it that you feel bad about hurting me or Kitty?"

She shakes her head.

"Huh. Does it have to do with digging this hole?"

She gives one short nod, tears streaming down her face.

"Are you… upset that I can't help?"

She shakes her head.

You decide you should be able to figure it out from there. You wonder why Jane's just giving you busywork. Is it just busywork? That's not the kind of thing she normally does, and wouldn't she want you to have to hear Kitty screaming and not be able to do anything about it? She loves doing that stuff. And why does she want the hole a specific width, why would that matter if this is just-

Oh fuck, oh fuck. She's having you dig a grave.

Puppy throws you to the ground and pins you before you can even think about running in to stop Jane.

"OW- Wha- Puppy, we can't just let her kill them!" You could fight her off if you needed to, and you will if it comes to that. But first you want to try talking to her. "Please, I know you don't want them to die. We can't do nothing!"

She seems to consider that for a moment, then shakes her head.

"Puppy…" You can't wait any longer. You shove her off of you and run inside.

You leap over the couch and get to the basement door in seconds. You try to twist the doorknob using your elbow, but it stays in place. The door is locked.

That's fine, the door is still breakable. You run at it and ram your shoulder into it over and over again with all the force you can muster, but it doesn't seem to help. You kick it as hard as you can everywhere you can reach that you think might have weakpoints. Wood starts to crack, so you keep kicking until there's a hole in the door.

There's metal beneath the wood.

"No!" You scream and pound on the door with your fists. "Stop it, don't kill them, take me instead!"

There's no response. You run to the kitchen and grab the heaviest pot you can find, then run back and start banging it against the doorknob- the door doesn't need to break, just the doorknob- but that doesn't work either. You can't grip it tightly enough to bang with any real force with just your elbows.

"Puppy! Please, I can't do this without you!"

You turn to look out into the backyard and see Puppy curled up on the ground, sobbing and twitching, why is she-

The collar, her sobbing set off the collar, damn it! You scream in frustration. With the twitching and the shaking, she probably wouldn't be able to get a good grip on the pot either, even if she wants to.

You- you need a spell, there's got to be a spell that can break down the door! But- your hands-

Thinking about your hands again, you realize they're in agony. You might've re-broken them pounding on the door, shit shit shit!

"No no no no no no-" You can't lose them too. This is all your fault, again, and you can't do anything to help. If Jane's decided she's going to kill Kitty, she's going to kill Kitty, and there's nothing you can do about it.

You waited too long. You should've been trying a new spell every day, should've been attacking Jane at every opportunity, should've comforted Kitty well enough that they didn't feel the need to to be noncompliant to regain their autonomy- this is all your fault!

Now that you're not screaming, you can hear Kit crying out every once in a while from the basement. They're still alive, and you still can't do anything. You pound on the door weakly again.

They're going to die. They're going to die and it's going to be all your fault.

You lean against the door and sob and sob as the light coming through the windows slowly fades. At some point, Puppy manages to stop crying and starts working on digging their grave again. It's all she can do. And you can't even do that. You can't do anything. Cold wind comes through the open back door. You can't hear Kitty downstairs anymore.

"Aren't dogs supposed to be good at digging? This isn't nearly deep enough."

You whirl around at the sound of Jane's voice. She's looking down at the (admittedly fairly small) hole with her arms crossed, but a satisfied smile is on her face. Puppy looks near passing out.

A horrible thought occurs to you. She was never going to bury them anyway. She's going to force you and Kitty to eat their bodies. This really was just busywork.

Jane looks over to you and tsks. "And what have you done to that poor door? That's not what I told you to do."

"Where's Kitty?" Your voice is hoarse.

"...In the basement? Where else would they be?" The smug smile never leaves her face for a second.

"Y-you… Can I see them?"

She giggles. "If you want to. You won't be able to talk to them, though. They're dead."

You knew that on some level, but hearing it still sends the world crashing down around you. You can barely breathe. Not again, not again-

You can hear Puppy wailing, distantly, and Jane laughing.

You failed. The only thing keeping you going was the determination to save them and you failed. Even if you manage to kill Jane now, you and Puppy will never be okay, never be able to get past this. You'll live the rest of your lives with gaping holes in your hearts, and neither of you have enough left to compensate for it. You'll be empty forever.

From the other side of the basement door, you hear the click of Jane unlocking it.

"Well, do you want to see them or not?"

You stumble down the stairs in a haze, and Puppy follows close behind.

Kitty is still hanging from the ceiling. Their feet are in some sort of tub-

Their chest rises and falls. They're breathing.

"Kitty!" Your voice comes out as more of a scream. You run to them and wrap your arms around their body. "Kitty, Kitty, I thought you were dead, I thought-" You can't speak through the sobs wracking your body.

Kitty's eyes slowly open. "Wha-?"

Jane is laughing so hard you can hear her struggling to breathe. Puppy is at your side, gently tugging on your shoulder. Right, Kitty doesn't like to be touched, and they can't push you away right now.

"Sh-She- I thought you were dead- she had us dig your grave!"

"I'm… sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for, nothing, it's all her, I'm just so glad you're alive-" You want to hug them so badly but you know that they probably wouldn't like that. 

"You really thought- you really thought I wouldn't make you watch the whole time if I was actually killing them!" Jane wheezes.

You don't care. You don't care what she does or what she says, as long as Kitty's alive.

"I'm going to kill her. Soon." You say softly. Kitty doesn't react, but Puppy…

Puppy looks at you with steely determination in her eyes and nods.

A/N: Man, this one was fun to write. Originally it was going to be titled 'Death' just to be mean but I figured I'd give some hints that Kitty wasn't actually going to die. I didn't plan on this landing on April 1st but what a fun coincidence! Let me know if I should tag anything else, or if you want to be added to or removed from the tag list! Next chapter is the season finale!!

Tag list: @eatyourdamnpears @whump-in-the-closet @scp-1296 @thecosmicmap @quins-whump-stuff @fuckcapitalismasshole

[quins-whump-stuff]

Jane's Pets Chapter 90: Hope

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"Is there something specific you want to talk about?" You ask. Fuck, it's been so long since she could choose what to talk about, at least that you've seen. 

She just shrugs. "I don't know. I love you both. That's what I wish I could say the most. Besides that… I don't know."

You squeeze her hand. "I love you too."

Kitty nods in agreement. "Yeah, love you both…"

Puppy is silent for a bit. "You… you said I might hate you for not being politically active… why? I know you were homeless for most of your adult life, anyway… Hard to be involved in stuff like that when you're struggling to stay alive. And it's not like I was any kind of activist."

"...I don't know. It just feels like the bare minimum, y'know? I guess… I wish I'd been more involved in trying to help people back then. I was just only focused on myself. And not being politically active is an example of that… Sorry, it was a weird thing to say. I don't even really know what I meant, and I'm definitely not judging you for not being an activist, or anyone else. Just a thing I… I don't know. Sorry."

She hums thoughtfully. "Well, just know I would never hate you. Were you…? …nevermind."

You kinda want to know what she was going to say, but also this conversation is reallyyyyy awkward and you want it to be over. It's… nice, to have a problem as simple as this. An awkward conversation.

"I could never hate you either."

She nods. "I think… you're too hard on yourself. If you expect people to hate you over things like that."

You laugh in surprise. "Guess so. Add that to the list of things to talk about in therapy when this is all over."

She frowns. You hate that she doesn't believe this'll ever be over, but there's no point in trying to convince her. That'll have to wait until after Jane is dead.

"I'm… glad we can talk about anything." She finally says. "Even if we don't agree. When I'm allowed to talk, at least." 

"Me too. Uh… I feel like there's so many things I've been wanting to ask you, but now that you actually can talk I can't think of anything." Besides questions about Jane you know she won't answer.

She nods. "Yeah, there's so many times that I want to say something and hold my tongue… but nothing is coming to mind now."

"We should just play a game or something, then. Kitty? What games do you think you're up for?"

They groan. "I don't know… I wanna play The Game of Life if you can talk, but… that requires a lot of focus…"

You're not really feeling up for The Game of Life either. "What about Crazy Eights?" That should be simple enough for you and Kitty and leave plenty of room for talking.

Puppy gives a thumbs up out of habit before remembering she can talk. "That sounds great."

Kitty nods in agreement, so the three of you play crazy eights for the next few hours, and then hang out with Puppy as she does her chores. It's so similar to how it normally is, and yet so different with Puppy joining in on the teasing each other and chatting.

This is how it should always be. They can't hope for that right now, but you can, and you will hope for them with everything you have.

-~-~

"Do you wanna know something funny?"

The girl stays perfectly still as Jane does her makeup. She's only recently been let upstairs for the first time and she doesn't want to do anything that would risk sending her back to the basement.

"My powers define death differently. Like, my immortality won't let me sleep forever, because that's considered too close to death. But I can only teleport non-living things, and wouldn't you know it, a person in a coma is considered alive! I don't get to be in a coma because I'm immortal. But someone in a coma is still too alive to be teleported. Isn’t that bullshit?”

The girl doesn’t dare move or speak. Jane hasn’t banned her from speaking yet, she just doesn’t want to know what’ll happen if she ruins the makeup. She wonders if Jane can teleport viruses, there's debate about whether or not those are alive, right? And her teleporting would remove all living bacteria, could it be used to sanatize things?

But she's not going to ask. She'll sit still and look pretty like Jane wants until she has a chance to get out.

“Drives me crazy." She mutters. "Look up, if you blink I'm gonna stab you in the eye."

The girl looks up as Jane applies eyeliner.

"You're really pretty… my little dress-up doll." She giggles.

The girl keeps looking up. Keeps being good, because eventually Jane will trust her to roam the house freely without cuts on her feet or broken ankles. Eventually, she'll be able to run. Just a bit longer. Just a bit more of this, and she'll be free.

-~-~

You think the healing spells you cast on the food in the fridge are working. You're the only one that would be able to tell, the others haven't been hurt recently, so you pay close attention to the speed of your healing. You think it's going faster.

It's been a few days since Puppy was allowed to talk, and your heart aches now that you have such a recent reminder of what Jane has taken away from her, and from you and Kitty. She should be that happy every day. She should be that free every day.

You spend a lot of time thinking about different spells and how you could make or find new ones. You feel fairly confident that if there was an already existing/known spell that could kill Jane, she would be dead, by her hand or someone else's. You have to discover the way to kill her, in your own way. You have to think of something no one's tried before. Something you have that everyone she's hurt before, including herself, didn't have.

There has to be something. There has to be. You have to have something special no one else has had before because otherwise this is going to be the rest of your life.

So that's what you spend your time thinking about, while you garden, while you play games with the others, while you go on walks and gather materials. What do you have that's special? What new spell can you make or discover that no one else before could've done?

"Kitty? Do you think I'm special?"

Kitty looks up from their coloring book (the three of you try to save the coloring books for special occasions- they can only really be used once, after all- and the special occasion today is that Kitty had a worse breakdown than normal and needed a pick-me-up). "Um… I don't know. Why?"

"Just… thinking. I've been trying to think of things that are special about me."

"...why?"

"I don't know. Sorry for bothering you."

"Hmm…" they go back to coloring. "Trying to… figure out why you're here? Even if there is something special… it doesn't help to worry about it."

"I know. I'm not worried about what made Jane pick me." You know why- you're trusting, and you were alone, and she thought it would be fun to hurt you. None of that is special.

"Okay…" Kitty frowns as they go back to coloring. Probably frustrated that they can't figure out why you're asking…

Well, Jane already knows you're trying to kill her. You can say this out loud.

"I just- lots of people have tried to kill Jane, y'know? If I want to be the one to do it, I have to have something none of those people had. I have to be special. Does that make sense?"

They nod slowly. "A little. But… it doesn't just have to be something about you. Or a specific person. Right? Cause… time keeps moving on. She's more or less given up on being able to die, or at least it seems that way from how she talks… but new things are invented every day."

Oh, you were totally right to talk to Kitty about this, even if Jane can hear your scheming. "Right! It could be something only someone in this specific time could do, not something only I can do. Hmm… If only we knew what kinds of things Jane had already tried! Or how she became immortal in the first place!"

Kitty sighs. "There's so much we don't know…" They look so, so tired.

"Don't give up hope. We're close, I just know it."

"Mmmm…"

They don't have to believe you. You'll get them out of here.

–

You wake up the next morning from a dream of forcing Jane to drink molten metal, a surprising but welcome break from your nightmares. You scheme even in your sleep. You doubt it would work, she's certain to have already tried that, but you do wonder… can she teleport things out of her body?

You add that to the list of things you want to test, right after if a body part got cut off, would she be able to reattach it or would she grow a new one? and can she heal if her entire body is destroyed at once?

You're scared to do things just to test them. If there's no chance of it killing her, you're just signing yourself (and the others) up to be tortured. But you'll never figure out how to kill her without more information…

So that makes the 'destroying her whole body' thing the most appealing. It's a test, but it also has a chance, however small, of actually killing her. So that's your plan for today.

You prepare a spell to do just that, not even bothering to wait for Jane to take someone else to the basement. You don't care if she's watching, so long as you can catch her off guard eventually. Your head is already starting to hurt.

Once the spell is prepared, you leave your room for breakfast, and-

Your hopes are immediately crushed. Jane is dragging Kitty by the hair to the basement.

You'd cast right now, but… you don't know if you're skilled enough to avoid hitting Kitty. So you just watch as Jane drags them and laughs while they cry.

"Good morning, Bunny! My Kitty needs a bit more training."

She throws them down the stairs and follows after, slamming the door behind her. Fuck

They're going to get tortured. You don't even know if they did anything, or if Jane was just bored. You need to kill Jane.

Puppy sits at the table, still muzzled, staring at the omelets she made. You need to kill Jane.

You sit down next to her. This… it's not ideal, but you can still get something out of this. Out of her being in the basement with Kitty. "Puppy. Do you trust me?"

Screaming starts up downstairs. Puppy nods slowly.

"Would you do anything for me?" You know you're being manipulative, but this can't go on any longer.

She looks at you suspiciously, but nods.

"Then I need you to tell me- If Jane's entire body was destroyed at once, would she die?"

Puppy shakes her head.

"If some kind of weapon was inside her body, would she be able to teleport it out?"

Puppy thinks for a moment, then shakes her head reluctantly. She's less willing to give you this information- probably because she's worried you'll do something stupid- but she did give it. She's not just telling you what she thinks will make you the least likely to get hurt, she's telling telling you the truth. 

"If one of her limbs were chopped off, would another one grow in its place?"

She shakes her head.

"Would the limb reattach?"

She nods.

"So, her healing… it just reverses damage, right? It's not making new cells or anything."

Puppy nods. But… that doesn't feel right. When you slit her throat, the blood didn’t go back into her. And she told Barron (thinking about it at all sends a stab of pain through your chest, but you push it away) she once held open wounds until she should’ve bled out…

“But her blood is different. From her skin and stuff. More gets made, and more skin doesn’t get made.”

Puppy winces and nods hesitantly.

“I guess that could be true about any bodily fluids… but you’re reacting like blood is special. Is that important? For killing her? Knowing that her blood is different somehow?”

Puppy shrugs. She’s starting to look pretty upset… just a few more questions, then you can comfort her. Kitty screams and screams downstairs.

“So her blood is important to her immortality.”

Puppy nods.

“Do you know why she’s immortal?”

Puppy nods again, looking more distressed. You’re… not sure where to go from here with yes or no questions.

“Okay. I’m done. Sorry for upsetting you.” You pull her into a hug, and she practically melts. “I’m sorry. Thank you for trusting me, and helping me. I know you can’t believe me, but… I’m going to end this. We’re getting out of here.”

She doesn’t respond, of course. That’s okay- well, it’s not, but it’s going to be. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”

A/N: Let me know if I should tag anything else, or if you want to be added to or removed from the tag list!

Tag list: @eatyourdamnpears @whump-in-the-closet @scp-1296 @thecosmicmap @quins-whump-stuff @fuckcapitalismasshole

[quins-whump-stuff]

I used to love YA dystopias and certain types of horror. I was fascinated by all the horrible things that could, almost certainly would, happen to the protagonist.

Living in a horrible world where their entire life would be controlled by the authoritarian regime. Controlling their body, their mind, etc.

So it's no wonder I'm a fan of whump. Replace the authoritarian regime with a single person, or maybe a group of people, or maybe you don't replace the authoritarian regime at all, and it's whump. With one major difference (at least usually, off the top of my head The Hunger Games is an exception): the Awful Thing doesn't happen to the protagonist. They get SO close but escape it happening, and then the authoritarian regime is defeated.

I like whump so much more because the Awful Thing happens and then we get to see the aftermath of it. We see the reactions in the moment, and often the healing afterwards. We see so many more details of the Awful Thing. It's just so much more interesting.

And sometimes we have sad endings. Sometimes the whumpee can't escape, and that's the end. The YA dystopias always seem to end happy and it's just not as impactful if there's not a genuine risk of things going poorly.

I think that these two aspects are what differentiates mediocre dystopias (which btw I do often still enjoy, just not as much) from the good ones. Bad things can happen, and it's almost refreshing to see that in fiction without depicting it in a nihilistic way.

I don't really have a good conclusion to this, but it's interesting to think about

[quins-whump-stuff]

Definitely gonna add these to my list, however, I think the entry for An Ember in the Ashes requires further warnings: it HEAVILY involves slavery and sexual violence.

Someone attempts to assault one of the main characters, and MANY references are made to it. It’s entry undersells the prevalence of that theme, so I wanted to bring attention to that for anyone who may want to avoid it for those reasons.

For members of the Whump community looking for book recommendations packed with whumpy content, I have provided:

This list focuses on books within various genres, tagged with their most prominent Whump tropes. It also focuses on queer inclusion.

Please note: if you have any questions or concerns regarding any book’s content, please message me! If you wish to add a book to the list, send me an ask with the book’s title and author. This list is ongoing.

Last updated: 29 December, 2023

[quins-whump-stuff]

Jane's Pets Chapter 87: Curse

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This is wonderful. Sucks for the intruder, but you don’t have to think about that. For you, this is wonderful. Jane is downstairs torturing someone and it’s not even Kitty or Puppy! You get to prepare spells and know Jane isn’t around while also knowing Puppy and Kitty are relatively safe. Well, you hope Puppy is safe. She’s probably fine.

You get out the materials you’ve gathered and prepare the spells you can remember. Kitty watches.

“What are you doing?”

“Preparing spells.” …did you ever even end up telling Kitty about learning magic? If you did, neither of you seem to remember it. “Barron taught me. Apparently that’s just, like, a thing that any human can do. I can teach you, if you want.”

“I’m not sure how well I can learn complex stuff like that right now...”

You smile at the way they phrased that. That they’re not sure instead of insistent that they’ll never be able to think again. That they said ‘right now.’ They have some hope for the future! You did that. “Fair enough. Let me know if you ever feel up for it. And want to.”

Kitty nods. “Um… why are you preparing spells?”

“I’m going to make it so the food we’ve got in the fridge can heal us. And try some spells against Jane.”

Kitty pales. “Don’t. Please, don’t make me watch her hurt you-” “She’ll hurt me either way. At least this way I’m learning something.”

They’re tearing up already. “Please…”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have told you. Just forget it. Go take a nap or something.” There are screams of pain coming from downstairs, but they aren’t Puppy’s, and that’s all that matters.

Kitty doesn’t go take a nap, but they don’t say anything either. They just watch as you carve runes you barely remember.

When you finish, you go to the fridge and start casting healing spells on the food. 

Kitty gasps. “Your eyes… they turned yellow.”

You smile. “Yeah, Barron’s magic made a popping noise. Mine is quiet but turns my eyes yellow. Isn’t that cool?”

Kitty seems less anxious as they watch. “Will the food really heal us now?”

None of you are particularly injured right now, thankfully. There are some fingernails still growing back and some bones still healing, but no open wounds.

Holy shit. Did you really just think that you’re doing well because you only have broken bones and missing fingernails? Holy shit. You freeze for a moment before continuing with casting. “Yeah. It… kind of feels like a waste, since there are times I could barely move through the injuries and I would’ve rather had healing then… but I don’t know when I’ll next get the chance to do this. And I probably wouldn’t be able to cast if I was in that much pain anyway. And it’s not like there’s a limited amount of magic, it’s just- if I get caught, this’ll be the only chance to use these healing spells, and if I’m only going to get to use them once I’d want the pain to be unbearable… sorry, that’s not important. Yes, the food will heal us. It’ll speed up our healing, at least.”

Kitty nods. “You’re less likely to get caught if you don’t attack her.”

“I know. But I’m not going to let this be the rest of our lives. I’m going to find a way to stop her. You haven’t lost that hope you had, have you? You said you thought it was possible, if we just figured out how. You said everyone has weaknesses. We just have to figure out how to get rid of her powers.” “...you think these spells can get rid of her powers?”

“I think they have a higher chance of doing it than just waiting in case a solution falls in our lap.”

Kitty nods slowly. “What spells were you wanting to try?”

You close the fridge, having finished casting all the healing spells you prepared. “I don’t remember a whole lot of them. There are some spells that are supposed to reduce pain, but they have such horrible side effects… I wonder what would happen if we used them on her? Especially when she’s so different from everything else Barron told me about. Maybe a healing spell would hurt her, since she can already heal herself? It’s all worth a shot, at least. I also remember a curse I saw that I thought might work on her, it's supposed to lock away magic for a period of time. I only have so many memorized, and most wouldn't be super useful in attacking Jane, but I could try to figure out more spells. I know vaguely what symbols mean what, if I can figure out which ones to combine…”

“Is there any way I can help?”

“Hmm… think you can distract her while I cast? She needs to be caught by surprise, otherwise she’ll just teleport away.” Kitty nods. “I can distract her. Just signal me when you’re ready. Uh… wink at me or something.”

“I will. When do you think she’ll be back up here?”

Kitty shrugs. “It’s hard to guess, even when my brain works. Is there anything you need to do before she comes up?”

“I’ve prepared all the spells I want to try on her that I can remember. I can try to make new ones while we wait.”

Kitty nods. “I think I’ll take a nap. Put everything away real fast and wake me up if you hear the screaming stop.”

“Right.” You’d been trying to tune the screaming out, but you’ll need to know when it stops if you don’t want to get caught.

Kitty lies down on the couch and immediately passes out. That’s good. It’s always better when they can sleep through the drug effects, and Jane might forget to give them more if she’s busy torturing someone else! You sit in a beanbag chair and start preparing spells that may not even exist. You’ll have to work on complete guesswork for the words and motions for these ones, too. But hey, maybe you’ll discover a new spell which has the sole purpose of killing whatever kind of creature Jane is. That would be great. And wasn’t Barron’s job discovering/creating new spells? You should’ve asked it more about what it did day to day…

Your chest aches at the thought of Barron. It’s dead because of you. It would still be alive if you’d just been good. 

You wipe your eyes and refocus on your work. 

You're having a bit of trouble focusing, but you summon all your willpower to, even as you feel a headache starting. Jane's wounds heal. You know that, you saw that. But there are ways of killing someone without wounds. You remember, vaguely, a story of hercules slaying a lion with an unbreakable hide by suffocating him. And there are other things you can think of too- would she heal if her entire body was destroyed at once? Would limbs reattach if they got cut off? Would they regrow? And what's likely to be something she's never encountered before? 

Instead of feeling like there's no possible way out like you often did before, you see dozens of pathways in front of you. Most are probably dead ends, but that doesn't matter as much as the fact that you're not stuck anymore. There are ways forward. You won't let Barron, Diya, and Ray's deaths mean nothing.

–

Puppy stumbles away from Jared to throw up bile, then comes back and whips them again. 

“I was curious!” They shriek. “I’d been here before and there wasn’t a house, so I wanted to figure out how it got built so fast! That’s all! I swear!”

She’s already emptied their pockets. In them, there was more powder, some leaves with symbols drawn on them, and a booklet full of notes on the house. On the screams that came from it. On when Puppy leaves to go shopping and when she returns. “I’m sure you can think of a better lie than that.” Her voice is shaky, but she tries to sound like Master when she does interrogations. “What are these notes for?”

“I can help you! Let me help you!”

Puppy sets down the whip and gets a hammer. “This is your last chance to give me something convincing before I break every bone in your hand.” She feels nauseous again, but just grits her teeth. Later.

“I just wanted to help! I detected some weird magic here- and then I heard all the screaming and- and- please, I just want to help!”

“Can others detect this magic? Are we going to get more visitors?” Master might have to move them again.

“I don’t know!”

Puppy sighs. She was really looking forward to being done with this. “I think you’re lying to me, Jared.” She can hear how Master would say a line like that, how it would send shivers down her spine, but when she says it sounds teary and afraid and disappointed (but not in the way Master sounds when she’s disappointed, when there’s a threat behind it- just kind of sad).

“No! I swear, I swear, I just wanted to help-” “I believe that part. But I think that if it was so easy to detect Master’s magic, I’d have had to deal with a lot more of people like you. We don’t get a lot of people poking around.”

“It wasn’t easy, I just…” They trail off. Unable to think of a reason why they’re here and other mages aren’t if it was just a matter of detecting magic.

Puppy takes Jared’s hand. “Here’s what I think. Bunny’s mage friend told you about us, and now that you haven’t heard from it for a while, you decided to come find the house it told you about.”

“I- I don’t know what you’re talking about-”

Puppy brings the hammer down onto their hand. They shriek and pull away, but the damage is done. Puppy gags, her body trying to somehow vomit up the guilt and disgust as if it's a physical thing. This shouldn’t be this hard. She’s hurt Bunny and Kitty, her closest friends, with less issues than this.

“I just want to help you! Let me help you!” Jared is sobbing.

“Who else did Bunny’s friend tell about us?”

“No one, I told you I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

She reaches for their hand again. “W-wait! I- I’m the only one it told!”

Puppy stops. Really, that’s just the smart thing to say, even if she’s wrong and Jared really hasn’t met Bunny’s mage friend. “There we go. What did it tell you?”

Jared sobs. “I don’t- it told me what it was researching about the monster, what her powers are- well, what her known powers are. And it gave-” Jared takes deep, gasping breaths “it gave directions to this place, in case- in case something happened. Did- is-?”

“It’s dead. You will be soon, too, if you’re lucky.”

Jared sobs some more. Puppy tries to think of more questions to ask. Master won’t be happy if Puppy ends the interrogation before she gets back.

“What are your pronouns, by the way?” This is all so fucked up. Puppy tries not to laugh. Jared isn’t Master, they won’t find her laughing in inappropriate situations cute.

Jared doesn’t answer, just cries, so she Puppy abandons that line of questioning. She feels no need to torture that out of them. 

“What was your plan here? Did the mage tell you Master had weaknesses? It was wrong if it did.”

“I just- I was still forming the plan, I didn’t realize the invisibility spell had worn off-”

That… that is interesting. Master wouldn’t have let them get away with the repeated spying if she knew, right? Puppy isn’t sure… but maybe, maybe if someone were use a spell like that and always stay invisible, Master wouldn’t be able to find them… Now that she thinks about it, a distant memory comes up. She was in a lot of pain and so tired and probably drugged, but she thinks Master might have told her once that she can sense shadows even outside her void, and someone who’s invisible wouldn’t cast a shadow…

She shakes herself out of it. That’s a dangerous train of thought to go down. And it's not like Master has ever had any trouble finding people in dark rooms without shadows.

“Do you regret snooping?”

Jared nods. Puppy struggles to think of more questions. 

“Did you tell anyone what Barron told you?” Jared’s going to answer no regardless of the true answer, of course. They shake their head.

“Did you tell anyone where you were going? Does anyone know you’re here?”

Predictably, they shake their head.

“If someone comes looking for you, I’m going to assume you lied to me, and, as punishment, skin them alive. Understand?”

Jared nods shakily.

“Good.” She wracks her brain for another question. “For you to be here, after learning about her powers… Are you stupid?”

Puppy hears Master giggling behind her. That’s… good. Yeah, she doesn’t have to think of any more questions. She probably won’t get to talk again for months. But that's fine. That's fine.

"What did he say, Puppy?”

“Bunny’s mage friend told them about this place. According to them, it didn’t tell anyone else.”

Master nods. "That matches up with what I found fairly well. Lucky you, Jared! If it hadn't, this would be a lot worse." 

She takes a cattle prod from her void. Puppy instinctively drops to her knees, but Master is entirely focused on Jared. 

"You can go back upstairs, Puppy. I'll put the muzzle back on later. You do not have permission to speak."

Puppy's… surprised. Normally, Master would want her to help with torturing someone. But she knows better than to question her Master. She goes upstairs, ignoring Jared's pleas for help.

–

You'd shaken Kitty awake and were mentally preparing to face Jane when the screaming started up again. Huh…

Puppy comes through the door to the basement. Her muzzle isn't on, and there are pressure sores across her face where it used to lie. "...Puppy?"

Kitty also seems surprised. "Is Jane coming?"

Puppy shrugs. Fair enough.

"Uh…" You hesitate for a second, wondering if helping her with her wounds will interfere with your plan, but it shouldn't, right? "I'll go get the first aid kit."

You quickly grab the first aid kit and come back. "Can you sit down?"

Puppy sits down on the couch, next to Kitty. You start cleaning the wounds on her face.

"Is it just these? Or do you have other injuries?"

She just looks at you.

"Oh, right." Just one question at a time while she can't talk. "Do you have other injuries?"

She shakes her head. You finish cleaning her face and start bandaging it. You feel like you should apply some ointment or something, but you don't have any, and you're no doctor. Maybe that would just make it worse, anyway.

"The intruder's still screaming." You whisper to her. "She can't be multiple places at once. You could eat something."

Her eyes widen in horror and she shakes her head rapidly. You didn't really expect any different, but you figured there was no harm in trying.

You're worried about how casting a spell on Jane is going to go with Puppy here. She definitely won't help you with distracting Jane like Kitty will, but hopefully she won't catch on quickly enough to stop you either.

"Okay. Do you wanna play a game or something?"

She nods. Kitty already seems to be having trouble staying awake, so you look for a simple game that won't require too much brain power.

"How does Sorry sound?" Not too skill-based, but with enough decision making that it's interesting.

Puppy nods and Kitty hums affirmatively, or at least you think so. You set the game up, and the three of you play three rounds before the screaming downstairs stops.

You had been lying on Puppy's shoulder, but you immediately push away and sit up at the disconcerting silence. Kitty also grows more alert, watching you for the signal that it's time for a distraction. Puppy stares straight ahead, no visible emotion on her face.

The screaming might start up again, like it did before. This isn't a guarantee that she's watching. Just as someone screaming isn't a guarantee that she's with them in the basement…

You shake that thought off. Someone might cry from pain in the aftermath of torture, but usually not scream. At least not the wordless, agonized screams that the intruder's been producing up until now.

"What're you playing?" Jane appears sitting next to you, covered in blood and looking very happy with herself. You recoil. Just her presence makes your heart beat faster, makes you dizzy with fear.

"Sorry. We're playing Sorry." 

"How fun." Jane says. She grabs Puppy's hair and inspects her, noting the new bandages. She has a muzzle in her hands where there wasn't one before, and starts strapping it to Puppy's face.

She's distracted- now's the time. You won't even need Kitty to do a distraction. You pull a rock out of your pocket, the one you set aside for this specifically, and quickly say the incantation and do the motions required for the spell.

If this goes right, it should steal the air from Jane's lungs, and continue suffocating her until you lose concentration.

She stops putting the muzzle on Puppy's face and turns to look at you, raising an eyebrow. She's not breathing, and not trying to either.

You're worried she's going to start hurting Puppy to break your concentration, but instead she just finishes muzzling Puppy and goes back to staring at you. No one moves.

It's… been a long time without her breathing. She doesn't seem remotely phased. She seems… amused, if anything. 

"I don't think she needs to breathe, Bunny." Kitty says softly. You can't see their expression, or Puppy's- you don't want to look away from Jane in case it breaks the spell.

"Well, she clearly needs to breathe in order to talk. At least this can shut her up for a while."

Jane laughs without air. She doesn't need to talk to get this message across. Stupid Bunny.

She could easily break your concentration. Come over and stab you, or worse, hurt Puppy or Kitty. But she doesn't. She just stares at you, smiling.

She's waiting for you to break off the spell yourself. This is a lesson. She's letting you do this for the same reason she let you be free with Barron, Diya, and Ray for a year.

You want to be petty and hold out until you fall unconscious, but… that won't really help anyone. And your head is really starting to hurt. So you drop the spell.

Jane laughs audibly, now. "You must've been waiting all day for that! Again, do you really think I'd still be alive if it was that easy to kill me?"

You thought it was possible. Anyone trying to suffocate her normally would've had to contend with her teleporting, but with magic… it was worth a shot.

"I'm surprised that worked at all, to be honest. Most spells don't work on me. Though I guess that was more a spell on the air around me than me? Anyway. Give me your collar."

You expected this, if you failed. You take the collar off your neck and hand it to her.

"Go downstairs."

You head down to the basement. Jane is already there when you reach the bottom.

"You can't curse me, Bunny. Me being alive at all is a curse, one that no magic has been able to remove. Do you have any idea what that's like, to live and live and live no matter how painful it is? I think I've given you some idea… but we can do better, can't we?"

A/N: Let me know if I should tag anything else, or if you want to be added to or removed from the tag list!

Tag list: @eatyourdamnpears @whump-in-the-closet @scp-1296 @thecosmicmap @quins-whump-stuff @fuckcapitalismasshole

[quins-whump-stuff]

Rambles - Whump

Cw: Whump. Human doll/mannequin. Seamstress whumper. Pet whump.

I was doing goretober this year (still finishing some prompts bc why not) and I made this one boy who is just the pet of a seamstress.

His main job was to be a pin cushion and look pretty, but the seamstress doesn't have a masculine mannequin and she does get masculine-bodied clients. Good thing her pet knows how to stay still for a long time while having pins stabbed into his skin everywhere.

In one drawing he has to stand still while his mistress is making a mock-up for some tight pants, (he'd get blood on the proper clothes, but he is required to wear them once healed for the final fit.) and he just stands there, softly crying as to not mess up the pins already in place.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to use this idea if you wanna

[quins-whump-stuff]

me as a writer: Oh no I can’t write that, somebody else already has

me as a reader: hell yes give me all the fics about this one scenario. The more the merrier

[quins-whump-stuff]

Embroidery

CW: Noncon body mods, restraints, mouth whump, creepy whumper

"You'll be better," Whumper said softly as they strapped Whumpee down. Whumpee could barely struggle, limbs heavy with exhaustion, but they still tried. "You'll look prettier and be so much quieter."

Whumpee's ankles and wrists were strapped firmly to the table with soft but tight leather. They knew that their fighting and pleas were worse than useless now, but they couldn't help it. "Nonononono! Please! Don't do this! I can be quiet! I'll be quiet. Don't, please, I promise I-"

"If that were true, you'd be quiet right now," Whumper said quietly, as though they were disappointed. It didn't matter. Whumpee couldn't help but beg for mercy, even as their cries cemented their fate all the more.

Whumper was still securing Whumpee in place. Metal clamped around their ears and pulled painfully. More straps tightened against their throat and forehead. By the time Whumper stepped away, Whumpee couldn't so much as turn their head.

A few moments later, a sharp, bright light flicked on, and Whumper began holding different spools of thread to Whumpee's face. No, not thread, wire. Wire almost as fine as a human hair, made of gold and silver and coppery materials. Eventually, Whumper chose a soft rose gold colored wire.

Then the terrible work began. Whumper started at the outer corner of Whumpee's eyebrow, painstakingly embroidering a single stitch at a time. Despite the small size of the needle, the pain was immense. Every few stitches, Whumper would pause to wipe away the blood with a cold, damp cloth that stung almost as much as the needle.

"Don't furrow your brow like that," Whumper said, mildly displeased, "you'll rip the stitches back out and I'll have to start all over." They didn't say it like a threat.

Whumpee was still begging for it to stop, but Whumper ignored their pleas entirely. Eventually Whumpee gave up on words, but couldn't be quiet through the pain. When Whumper reached the end of the opposite eyebrow, Whumpee could barely think. "That was the easiest part," Whumper tutted.

Whumpee felt a slight but excruciating tug at their brow as Whumper tied the wire off. Whumpee's respite was brief. If they had thought their suffering thus far was bad, they had no words for what came next.

Unlike their eyebrows, Whumper went all the way through for the lips. The needle poked through their lip, and Whumpee couldn't help but scream in agony, which tore at the hole that had just been made. The needle would tear against their lip and scrape against their teeth. Then the wire was dragged all the way through, and Whumpee pushed the needle through the other lip. Then came the stinging cloth to wipe away the blood, and it started all over again. Over and over and over, until Whumpee could no longer open their mouth at all, their screams muffled by their own flesh.

[quins-whump-stuff]

The Rare Bookseller Pt. 1: Alexander's Warning

Masterlist

TW: Mind control

Oliver looked up from his book as the streetlights outside his shop window flickered on one by one, the uncharacteristically warm fall day turning into a balmy evening. The day had seemed to disappear in an instant, and he had little to show for it. Few customers wanted to spend time in a dusty, cramped bookshop on such a beautiful day, and he'd completely neglected to fix the shelving in the history section as he'd intended. He'd been far too engrossed in his book, a collection of ghost tales translated from the original Finnish that he'd had specially imported. 

It was nice enough out that he could keep the shop open a few hours longer in the hope of catching some late night customers. His bookshop, stocking rare, antique, and arcane books, was a business he ran out of passion and not for the money, but he did still need to put food on the table. 

He was just about to put down his book and get to tidying up when the tiny brass bell above the door jingled. The man who entered was deathly pale and thin, with an unruly mop of brown hair and piercing blue eyes. His clothing was rumpled and his shirt only partway tucked in, and between that and the deep bags under his eyes, he gave the impression of someone who hadn't slept in a week.

"Ah, Mr. Alexander! Good evening!" said Oliver, his mood improving. Alexander was eccentric, but loaded with cash, and one of his most reliable buyers of rare and expensive books -- especially those with purported supernatural origins. In his more fanciful moments, Oliver liked to imagine that Alexander was perhaps involved in the supernatural himself. He certainly looked the part. 

"Good evening." Alexander approached the counter, leaning on it as though he were about to fall over. "You mentioned last week that you might be getting in a copy of The Will of the Constellations. Has it...?"

"Oh, yes." Oliver reached for the book on a shelf behind him. He'd forgotten he'd set this one aside specifically for Alexander. "Here it is, sir. As you can see, it's in excellent condition."

"I wouldn't expect anything less."

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" Oliver asked, keen to make an additional sale. "I've also received in a book dating from the 16th century about sorcery practices in France, and --"

"Is it really safe to be open this late tonight?" said Alexander sharply, his entire demeanor changing in a snap. "And let people... like me... into your shop?"

Oliver's heart thumped. "Like you...?"

"You are aware that the Auction is in this city this year, correct?" said Alexander, leaning in closer and speaking in low tones. "Surely you don't need me to tell you how much of a target you are?"

"Auction? Target?" Oliver swallowed hard, taking an instinctive step backwards. "I don't know what you mean, sir."

"Are you a civilian?" Alexander asked with a tone of disbelief. "Running a shop like this, I assumed... but then again, you don't have any wards on it...?"

Oliver was rapidly getting the impression that he was in far over his head. "A civilian, sir?"

"Never mind," he said, waving his hand as if to dismiss everything he just said. "Just close up early tonight. Trust me."

"With all due respect, Mr. Alexander, I'm perfectly capable of running my shop as I see fit."

Alexander rubbed at his eyes. "That's not the point I'm trying to make." He looked up, his gaze intimidatingly piercing. "Listen," he said, his deep voice echoing somewhere in Oliver's soul. "You're tired."

"I'm... tired..." Oliver repeated in a daze, feeling a sudden wave of drowsiness washing over him.

"You need to close your shop early this week, as soon as dark falls."

"...close my shop early..." he muttered. He felt so strange, yet so calm, unable to comprehend what was happening to him. 

"Close your shop as soon as I leave."

Oliver blinked his heavy eyes. It was so nice to listen to Alexander's voice. How had he not noticed that before? "Yes... yes sir..." 

"Good." Alexander snapped his fingers, and the oppressive atmosphere in the shop shifted back to normal. "Here's the money I owe you for the book. Stay safe this week. You're a smart man, and you've done well by me, and I'd hate to see something happen to you."

Oliver still felt out of it from whatever had just happened. "...Is that a threat, sir?"

"It's a warning. Remember it well. Good-bye."

And with that, Alexander was out the door, a brisk wind ruffling the books as he left.

With a shaking hand, Oliver reached for his water glass, taking a large swig to try and clear his head. Something had happened just now with Alexander, and he was certain it wasn't a flight of fancy this time. He could still feel the hold Alexander's words had on his mind, was fighting the urge to yawn, so tired. Had he really...?

And if so, exactly who was Alexander? More importantly, what was Alexander?

He was so pale, so youthful, and his hands were so cold when he handed money to Oliver. And his teeth...

It couldn't be. Vampires weren't real.

And yet...

When Oliver thought that perhaps he really should close up shop, he wasn't sure if the thought was his or the one Alexander planted there. Either way, he knew it would make him feel better.

He had just stood up from his chair, jingling his keys in his pocket, when the brass bell above the door rang once again.

The woman who entered was petite, with severe-looking pulled-back hair, impeccably dressed in a men's suit that had been perfectly tailored to her figure. She walked with the air of someone who expected her every whim to be obeyed.

"Good evening, shopkeep," she said with a wicked grin.

Masterlist >> Part Two

[quins-whump-stuff]

The Unwind series is kinda like that first one!

The basic idea is that in the near future, the solution to the argument over abortion was that abortion wasn't permitted, but when a kid is between the ages of 13 and 18, their parent can have them sent off to be "unwound." The kid is surgically taken apart and all of their pieces used as donated organs.

In the series there are several whumpy scenes of someone in dreadful anticipation of or even experiencing being unwound. Amazing book series overall, and VERY whumpy.

Despite describing in detail the feeling of a character's entire body being dismantled (with anesthetic), it is surprisingly not-gory which, in my opinion, is great. Gore is very hit-or-miss for me.

Does factory whump even exist? Like big machinery and stuff? That'd be so cool tho, just strap your whumpee into a machine that extracts their blood. It'd be useful for vampire whump.

[quins-whump-stuff]

What stands out as the Whump Of All Time? Only you can decide!

While you're welcome to vote for your favorite, your mutual's favorite, or on vibes alone, we encourage you to check out the propaganda and links below the cut - it's a great way to discover new content.

Teen Titans:

(video)

"Made me feel things at age nine. Dear god."

"Throughout the whole show, Robin has been shown to be so confident and competent, but in this episode he's terrified and gets the shit beaten out of him until he is begging for it to stop. Additionally, he's hallucinating it all. He's just so scared it's shocking compared to how his character normally is." ~ @quins-whump-stuff

Karppi / Deadwind:

(gif set, other gif set)

"The whole episode starts with Karppi and Nurmi right after a helicopter crash into the sea from the previous episode, Nurmi gets stuck underwater and then they have to wait for someone to find them while they're wet and very cold, so there's some very nice comfort between them and huddling for warmth. Then, later in the episode, Nurmi gets shot with a tranquilizer dart, collapses and is held captive, being chained upside down and lowered into the water, followed by a nice rescue. It's such a good episode!"

[quins-whump-stuff]

I love Dollie/Puppy so much

Jane’s Pets Chapter 85: Plans

TWs in the tags

Previous

Masterlist

The three of them have all been sleeping in Puppy’s room, lately. Being alone is hard, and they usually end up in the same room anyway once someone has a nightmare. Bunny and Puppy share the bed, and Kitty sleeps in a nest made of pillows and blankets on the floor.

Bunny is clinging to Puppy and sobbing. Puppy can’t tell if he’s awake or not, but it doesn’t matter much. She combs her fingers through his hair gently, physical comfort being the only comfort she can provide.

His nose is still broken from Truth or Dare the other day, and yet he clings to her like she can protect him.

If, somehow, Master were to die (that’s impossible. It’s a waste of time to think about this) Puppy knows what she would do. She shouldn’t. But she does. Her mind drifts back to it during long nights of not being allowed to sleep, while she paces and paces around her room to keep herself awake, and when daydreams about a world where none of this ever happened become stale. When she’s doing the same monotonous chores over and over again. When she’s cleaning up her closest friends’ blood off the floor and the walls and various weapons and needs to think about something, anything else. Or, like tonight, when her friends look so broken and vulnerable that imagining them happy isn’t enough, and she feels the need to make plans she knows will never come to fruition.

First of all, they would need money. For food, for shelter, for therapy. (Honestly, Kitty and Bunny would probably know more about how to survive with little to no money, having been homeless. But there’s no way she’s going to ask for their opinions on this.)

There’s some stuff in the house she could sell, some of the fancy dresses and jewelry Master likes to dress her up in, and some of Master’s weapons seem like they could be pretty expensive. And there’s the house itself, and the furniture.

The problem there, of course, is that selling those things would raise some questions. Because for the most part, Jane doesn’t buy things. She just teleports them into her void. And the house itself doesn’t legally exist, Puppy is positive Jane isn’t paying property taxes on it or anything like that.

Even if that doesn’t cause any problems, they don’t have any access to the internet, and she’s not sure how to get the word out that they’re selling something without it. Or how and where buyers would pay and pick stuff up, especially bigger stuff like furniture.

Luckily (not really), Master has gotten Puppy involved in some of her illegal activities. Things that she can’t do entirely online, and therefore required someone who looks like an adult. So Puppy knows some people who she could sell stuff to who wouldn’t ask questions, and who would be okay with the process being unconventional.

Some of them even like her. Jane was never secretive about Puppy’s situation, making it clear that her pet would act in her place for in-person interactions. Most people she interacted with seemed uncomfortable with it (Master could’ve chosen to do business with people who see no problem with human pets, but she didn’t. She likes making people uncomfortable), and some even offered to help her. She didn’t accept any offers, of course. But it was nice.

Once they had money, they’d have to find somewhere to live (they would not stay at the house). Puppy doesn’t think that’d be too big of an issue, if she was able to get as much money as she thinks she’d be able to get from selling stuff. Maybe they wouldn’t have a super nice place, but they’d have a roof over their heads. They could handle a shitty apartment, after everything they’ve been through.

Puppy would get back into freelance writing. Maybe she could get paid for some kind of translating work online, too? She’d figure it out. If she had to, she’d get into contact with her criminal friends again and make money through less than legal methods. Anything to keep the three of them alive and safe and housed.

Finding a good therapist would be rough. They’d need someone who knows how to treat trauma from torture and kidnapping, someone who wouldn’t try to convince them Jane was something she wasn’t, someone who wouldn’t call the police if they talked about some of the things they were forced to do. Maybe they wouldn’t find one. Maybe they’d just have to figure it out on their own.

They’d probably need some sort of believable story for why they’d been missing, where they’d been, and what happened to them. “None of your business” wouldn’t work for everything.

They wouldn’t need to lie about having been abducted and tortured. The scars would be hard to explain otherwise. The real problem would be explaining how they got away without leaving room for questions about where Jane’s body was. If her body was found, no one would believe that she was the one who hurt them. Giving a false description of her would risk accidentally describing a real person, alive or dead, which could have very serious consequences for all involved. They could say that she died in a way that left her body unrecoverable, but it’s a lot harder to claim self defense if you’re also claiming the body was completely destroyed. And if they said someone else did it, they could run into the whole ‘accidentally describing a real person’ problem again.

Maybe they could say she did it to herself? Not on purpose, there aren’t any methods of suicide Puppy can think of that would leave no recoverable body and be witnessed by others (that part’s important, if the three of them didn’t witness it than there would be concern that she’s still alive somewhere, and searches, which would cause the same problems as a search for her corpse), but maybe there’s a way she could’ve accidentally… exploded herself, or something? But that would leave the question of how they witnessed it without being exploded themselves…

Oh, oh! They could say she fell into a vat of acid! Jane does keep that stuff in the basement, it’s not too unbelievable. They’d have to be sure to leave enough stuff at the house unsold, so that if anyone decides to go and confirm their story they have something to find, but that’s all.

Puppy shouldn’t be thinking about this. The only way to be somewhat okay here is to let go of the hope of getting out. Thinking about this is bad and dangerous. She needs to let it go.

She doesn’t. It’s not hope, it’s just daydreaming. Daydreaming is also essential to being okay here. As long as it’s just hypothetical, it’s fine. Master can’t read minds. It’s fine.

Bunny has calmed down. If he wasn’t asleep before, he is now. The commotion didn’t wake Kitty up. Whatever Jane gave them has them knocked out cold. She’d worry they were dead if she couldn’t watch the slow rise and fall of their chest as they breathe.

Puppy continues to pet Bunny’s hair and starts daydreaming about the hypothetical life of crime she might lead if her writing didn’t earn them enough money.

~~

You’ve gotten back into your exercise routine.

It hurts deeply to be doing it without Diya. Eir absence is obvious every step of the way. Ey should��ve been here, counting push-ups with you, going for runs with you, and talking aimlessly the whole time. You feel eir absence as if it’s a missing limb. Ey should be here. Ey’s always been here. You need em here. But they’re not here.

On your runs, you pick out rocks and twigs and leaves that you could use for spells. Mostly you look out for materials for healing spells and spells that might hurt Jane.

You haven’t built up the courage to try and hurt Jane again after your last trip to the basement, but you’re sure you’re going to eventually. You’ll try every single offensive spell if you have to, and if that doesn’t work, you’ll figure out how to make new spells. That’s what Barron said its job was, right? So it’s possible.

If Jane’s noticed your little collection of materials, she hasn’t said anything. You should probably cast one of the healing spells on some of the food soon, in case Jane decides to take the materials away.

She hasn’t stopped you from going on runs. You both know that you’re not going to try and escape again, as long as Jane is alive.

She won’t be for long. You’ll make sure of that if it’s the last thing you do.

A/N: Let me know if I should tag anything else!

Tag list: @eatyourdamnpears @whump-in-the-closet @scp-1296 @fuzzybucketz @quins-whump-stuff

[quins-whump-stuff]

Idea: whumpees used for more "realistic" storytelling.*at least partially created as a result of a weird dream I recently had*

CW: death, forced to kill, guilt, loss of autonomy, drugging, generally creepy whumper stuff

Instead of having animatronics on an amusement park ride, weak, half-starved people are strapped to motorized metal skeletons, forced to act through the same actions over and over and over again, all day, every day.

Maybe they have been chemically paralyzed/drugged, maybe they are just too weak, or maybe the metal is just too strong for them to resist.

Instead of being around a ride, maybe they are forcibly cast in a play, where any staged deaths are real, a new victim brought in for every performance. They couldn't run from the death facing them, and their killer, despite logically being blameless (after all, Whumper is the real killer here) starts to be eaten by the guilt of having to kill person after person with no choice, no ability to even close their eyes.

Whumper believes that they do this to make their stories more realistic, but whether that's the truth...

Maybe I've been reading too much "people turned into dolls" whump recently, but I had to share this idea.

[quins-whump-stuff]

Jane’s Pets Chapter 83: Games

TWs in the tags

Previous

Masterlist

Kitty does not like this game.

Jane’s always playing games, and she’s always playing games Kitty doesn’t like. But this one… this one is the worst she’s come up with so far.

She brought someone new home. She calls him Bunny when he’s not around and Liam when he is.

Liam is completely clueless. It’s not his fault, of course, but Kitty wants nothing to do with him. They can’t afford to care about him; if they do, Jane will have one more way to hurt them.

But they can’t just stand by either. So they play the stupid game.

Kitty pulls Liam aside the second day. “You have to leave.” They say. “Get out of here and run and maybe, maybe she won’t follow you. I can’t get away, but you can. You have to go. Anything is better than being here.”

Liam’s eyebrows raise. “Why?”

“She’s not who you think she is. She tortures us. You have to leave.” Kit rolls up their sleeves, showing their scars. “She did this to me. She’ll do this to you if you don’t leave right now.”

Liam’s eyes widen at the scars. “I don’t- Jane said you were paranoid? I guess saying ‘you’re paranoid’ probably doesn’t help you much. But she said you got hurt a lot before you came here. I’m sorry, that sucks.”

“She lies!” Kit grabs him by the shirt and leans in close. “You have to leave. You can’t stay here.”

There is a hand on their shoulder, pushing them away, and it is not Liam’s.

“What’s going on?”

Kitty recoils from her touch and backs away. They’ll be punished for that, but they don’t care.

“I don’t- Kit seems scared, and I don’t know what to do.”

Jane approaches them slowly, as if they’re a spooked animal. Her face is a perfect picture of concern. “Did you take your medicine this morning?”

Kitty ignores her and looks at Liam. “You have to believe me. I can’t- I can’t do this again, you have to leave, maybe you’ll be safe. It’s a better chance than if you stay.”

“You’re safe.” Jane says softly, carefully. “Everything’s okay. You’re not there anymore. You’re safe. Have I ever hurt you?”

“Yes!”

“You’re thinking of someone else. Take a deep breath. It’s all okay.”

Kitty is not more persuasive than Jane, despite being right. But it’s not really a matter of being persuasive. Bunny doesn’t want to believe that this is all a lie, so he won’t. Not without very strong evidence, stronger than the scars all over Kitty and Puppy.

Kitty scowls and turns around, off to their room. If Jane punishes them, they’ll have recent wounds. Maybe that’ll convince him.

—

Kitty and Bunny are putting together a puzzle.

It’s slow work. Both of them are having low energy days, Kitty because Jane’s been more consistent with drugging them and Bunny because his brain has never worked quite right after what Jane did to him. Some days are better than others, but today is a bad energy day for him.

Everything is slow and foggy. Kitty will have to take a nap soon. But for now, they’re enjoying the puzzle, and knowing that Bunny is also having a hard time makes them less frustrated with being slow.

Knowing Bunny is struggling shouldn’t make them feel better, but it does. It’s hard to put into words, but if Bunny is tired and slow and foggy and still himself, Kitty is still themself too. It’s less scary, to think of it that way. They don’t feel like they’re dying, like Jane is killing them. Not now. Maybe later, they always seem to panic as the drug wears off. But for now, everything’s okay.

Kitty is sorting the pieces (by color now, they’ve got the whole outside put together) and Liam is carefully placing them in the puzzle.

There’s no better use of their time. Nothing more worthwhile they could be doing. It’s just this, until Jane decides to hurt them again.

Don’t think about that. They told Bunny not to give up on life, so they can’t give into hopelessness either. Just… do the puzzle. Play the games.

Puppy sits next to them and helps once she’s finished her chores. She’s also having a low energy day, she wasn’t given permission to sleep for the past two nights. She puts together pieces that don’t fit in the bigger picture quite yet.

No one says anything. Kitty likes that they can work together so well without even talking about it. A teamwork learned through trauma and torture, but teamwork nonetheless. They know how to support each other, how to help without getting in the way, how to lighten the burdens the others carry. It’s nice. Kitty didn’t have that kind of closeness with anyone before they met Puppy and Bunny.

It’s not worth the cost. But it’s nice.

—

Jane appears in their room that night, holding a knife.

“Give me your arm.”

Kitty obeys. Jane begins making deep, even slices in their skin. Their eyes water.

“You can cry. I put sleeping pills in Bunny’s dinner. He’s not going to wake up.”

Kitty grits their teeth and says nothing. They’re not going to give her the satisfaction. Maybe if she doesn’t get what she wants, she’ll hurt them worse, and Bun- Liam will have the proof he needs to get out of here.

“You can show him, if you want. Then I’ll say ‘Kit, did you do that to yourself?’ and the next day you’ll be in the basement, and I’ll tell Bunny I took you to the hospital because you tried to hurt yourself again. Understand?”

Kitty nods. Jane digs her fingers into a cut, and Kitty finally cries out.

“Good Kitty. Do you want salt in these cuts, or lemon juice?”

—

Kitty and Bunny are playing Ticket to Ride. Bunny is winning, as always.

“…Kitty? Remember the other day, when you said you wouldn’t mind if your parents died?”

“…yeah?”

“Um, do you want to talk about that? You don’t have to. Just if you want to.”

Kitty draws two cards and sorts them into their hand. “Not much to say.”

But even thinking about their parents makes hot anger bubble in their chest, so that’s not entirely true, is it? “Not that I want to get into now, anyway. I’m… too tired, honestly.”

“That’s fair. You know you can talk to me about anything though, right? At any time.”

“Yeah… and you too. You can talk to me at any time.”

Bunny plays six pink cards, gently places six trains, and adds 15 points to his score. “I just feel like I don’t know that much about you, even though we’re so close. I would trust you with my life, but I don’t even know, like, how many siblings you have.”

“Seven.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yep. Three older, four younger.”

“Geez. I can’t imagine. I was an only child, if you couldn’t tell.”

Kitty laughs. “I could tell.” Honestly, they wouldn’t have been surprised if Bunny had siblings either, but the idea of him as an only child makes sense.

“…Do you miss them?”

Kitty doesn’t really want to get into this right now. “It had already been a while since I’d seen them when Jane took me. None of us were super close. I was kind of… what’s the word? Like, the scapegoat. Jane taught me that, I think, so it might be the wrong word.

“I think a lot of them thought that if I was just good everything would be fine, but… that’s not what my parents are like. There was no pleasing them. At least when I was doing stuff like- like dying my hair orange, they weren’t freaking out about smaller stuff.”

“Yikes.”

“…Yeah. I do wonder what my siblings are like, now. It’s been so long. I’m… never going to see them again…” Kitty’s cards fall from their hands. They’re never going to know what happened to them. If they got out of there. Kitty’ll never know.

“Don’t say that. You don’t know for sure.”

They do. But… they don’t want to have that conversation with Bunny yet. He can keep hoping, so long as he doesn’t do something stupid.

“I…I’m going to go take a nap.”

Kitty drags themself to their room and passes out on their bed.

—

“If you’re so scared of me, why are you still here? You can leave. I won’t stop you.”

Kitty got caught trying to get Liam to leave again. Even knowing who Jane really is, Kitty can’t detect any malice in her words. She’s a good little actor. She’s had lots and lots of practice, Kitty’s sure.

“Do you want to leave?”

Kitty wishes they could say that they thought their answer through, and decided strategically. But the truth is that they’ve played the escape game too many times to still see escape as a possibility. They’ve lost too many people to still see escape as a possibility.

“I don’t want to leave.” They say, before they can even think.

Jane doesn’t give a smug smile or gloat. She looks genuinely relieved.

“Then I want to do everything I can to help. What can I do, to make you feel safe?”

“Stay away from me. Leave me alone. That’ll help me feel safe.”

She can’t really say no to that and maintain her facade. She smiles sadly. “If that’s what you want.”

Jane vanishes. Kitty scowls at Liam. “She’s not going to keep that up for long. You need to fucking leave.”

—

Kitty drops a handful of dice. They’re supposed to pick which dice to re-roll, pick which combination to aim for, but…

Tears are sliding down their face. When did that start happening? They stare at their hands. Something- something’s crawling on them-

“Kitty? What’s wrong?”

“I- I can’t- I can’t think!” Can’t think and there are things too small to see crawling on their hands and they’re never going to be allowed to think again because they’re bad bad bad bad-

“I know that’s hard. Maybe you’ll feel better if you take a nap?”

“I’m never going to feel better, I’m never- I’m never going to be good enough-“

Bunny reaches out to them, then changes his mind at the last minute. “What brought this up?”

“I don’t- I don’t know!” Kitty squeezes their arms and sobs. “I don’t! I don’t know why I’m like this! It’s so easy for everyone else but I just /can’t/ and it’s never going to change, and you’ll get hurt over and over and over because I can’t follow simple rules- I’m not built for this! What’s she going to do to me when she realizes I’m still bad while she has me drugged!? Bunny, what’s happening, when’s it going to stop, Liam, please-“

Bunny goes rigid. Fuck. Kitty messed it all up again, Bunny is going to get punished and Kitty is going to get punished and they’ll never be able to think clearly again-

“What’s happening to me!?” They scream. Crawling, crawling all over them, what’s crawling on them, why won’t it stop?? She’s going to kill me! She’s going to kill me when she realizes I’m too broken to be good, I can’t, I can’t! I’m worthless! She’s going to kill me!”

“Just- just breathe. Follow my breathing.”

Bunny tries to demonstrate taking slow, deep breaths, but he’s obviously struggling. Kitty’s fault. Kitty’s fault because they’re bad bad bad worthless worthless worthless can’t do anything right-

“Would it help if I touched you, or would that make it worse?”

“I don’t know!”

“Okay, okay. So, take some deep breaths. I think Jane gave you something different this time. So you feel scared instead of tired. Or scared and tired. Does that make sense?”

Kitty nods. It does help, to think of the fear as something in their body, something drug-induced. They’re not sure why. They’re able to even out their breathing a bit.

“You’re not worthless or bad or any of that stuff, okay?”

Kitty groans and rocks back and forth. “Bunny, there are things crawling on me, get them off, please? Please, Bunny, I’ve been good, right?”

“…Yes. Yes, you’re good, you’re doing great. There’s nothing crawling on you. You’re hallucinating.”

Kitty shrieks and starts scratching at their arms, their neck, their face. “You think I’m crazy again! You’re not listening, you never listen! I’m not crazy!”

“You’re not, you’re not. Deep breaths. I… don’t see anything crawling on you. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re hallucinating, but that combined with you being drugged made me think it seemed the most likely. Does that make sense?”

“They’re too small to see! You never listen to me, never never never, you hate me! You wish Jane would fix me but she can’t! I’m unfixable, I’m defective-“

Blood is under their nails. That’s bad, that’s very bad, Jane doesn’t like other people to damage her property! But Kitty can’t stop clawing at themself.

“I don’t hate you. Wait, Puppy-“

Kitty didn’t see that Puppy had joined them. She grabs their arms from behind them and holds their arms apart so they can’t keep scratching themself.

“I don’t think that’s necessary, you’re just going to make them more scared. Puppy?”

Puppy does not let go. Kitty writhes in her arms. “Get off me! Get off me, you hate me, you want me dead, don’t touch me!”

“Puppy, let go of them! You’re making this worse!”

Puppy does not let go. Bunny does not try to pry her off them.

“Okay, okay, we’ll figure this out- shit, Kitty, can you tell me- no, that won’t work if you’re hallucinating- can you try to empty your lungs completely before taking another breath?”

Kitty tries. Their panting slows down a bit.

“There- there we go. You’re okay. In… and out. In… and out.”

Kitty has more luck following his breathing, this time. When they’ve calmed down enough to stop struggling, Puppy lets them go.

“Okay. How are you feeling? I want to get you bandaged up and see if you can nap through until the drug wears off, what do you think?”

Kitty mumbles something. Even they aren’t sure what.

Bunny bandages up their scratches and cleans the blood out from under their nails. He has them drink some water and eat a granola bar, then he takes them to their room and lies down with them on their bed.

“I promised- I promised myself I wouldn’t let anyone else get in my head-“ Kitty’s been rambling for a while, and Bunny has stopped responding. Kitty thinks he’s listening, though.

“They made me feel guilty for everything- everything I said and didn’t say, everything I did and didn’t do, everything I thought and didn’t think, felt and didn’t feel, even what I dreamed and didn’t dream about. I promised myself I would never let anyone do that to me again, but now Jane’s in my head and I can’t get her out, I want her out!

“I escaped one cult just to get kidnapped into another, worse cult, Bunny… what’s happening to me?”

“She drugged you. Do you think you can get to sleep?”

“My heart’s beating too fast- she’s in my head, I can’t sleep-“

“Would it help if I read to you?”

“…yes.”

Bunny finds a book on the floor of their room and opens it to the first page. He only gets a few sentences in before Kitty can’t stop rambling again.

“Do you hate me?”

“I don’t hate you.”

“Do you wish I was just good, so you didn’t have to get hurt?”

“I like you just the way you are. I don’t think you’re worthless.”

Tears stream down Kitty’s face. “Why is my heart beating so fast? It hurts, Bunny, there’s something crawling on me-“

“Just listen to me read, okay? The drugs will wear off.”

Kitty sobs. “And then she’ll give me more!”

Bunny doesn’t answer. Just reads from the book.

Kitty hates Jane and her fucking games.

A/N: Let me know if I should tag anything else!

Tag list: @eatyourdamnpears @whump-in-the-closet @scp-1296 @fuzzybucketz @quins-whump-stuff

[quins-whump-stuff]

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I'm Cainy, a 19-year-old girl from the Netherlands. Recently, I have been getting interested in the Whump community, so I decided to make an account where I can share my thoughts, ideas and writing. I hope to meet new people who I can share my ideas with!