sickfictropes

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i saw the ask about mentor caretaker and student whumpee and my brain goes "hey, why dont we flip that?" so... mentor whumpee and student caretaker would be quite an interesting dynamic

i used to write a lot of this! here are some thoughts:

mentor is late. mentor is never late. maybe student even shows up to the lab/shop/restaurant/training/whatever they do and mentor is like "oh shit i forgot to tell you i'm not coming today" but doesn't reveal why. either way, student is going to find out.

mentor is snappish with student. maybe mentor can be bitchy with colleagues, but they're never like that with their protege.

mentor trying to ream student out for shit work that wasted resources, but mentor is sick, and the effort of getting worked up is too much for them (take that how you will).

mentor makes a mistake because they're feverish and then blows it way out of proportion, leaving student to wonder why they're suddenly so affected by something they'd normally shake off.

mentor gets hurt during training because they're slow and weak from fever or injury. student is excited for approximately 1 second about besting them before realizing they're hurt and panicking.

speaking of, we love a panicky student!!

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when the first sign that whumpee isn't feeling well is distancing themselves from their friends/team/family/partner :)

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omgggg i love this addition!

carewhumpee with their hand to whumpee's forehead, exhausted, relieved: "I think your fever broke."

whumpee who is still very much running a fever, worried, upset that carewhumpee has been running themselves into the ground while they're sick just to care for them: "I think you're just burning up."

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carewhumpee with their hand to whumpee's forehead, exhausted, relieved: "I think your fever broke."

whumpee who is still very much running a fever, worried, upset that carewhumpee has been running themselves into the ground while they're sick just to care for them: "I think you're just burning up."

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Doing a craft day with bestie so I dressed up. face reveal I guess 😂

Ren faire plans cancelled so I’m going to make crafts with my girlie!! Here’s a selfie I took bc I thought we were going to the faire lol

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purely tangential to whump but i like definitive statements. caretaker who is blunt and confident, immediately showing that they dont know everything. maybe they're even harsh or disbelieving. here are some dialogue prompts so you can see my vision.

"Come on, wake up. I know you can hear me."

"Woah, easy. I didn't sneak up."

"You don't even have allergies. you're sick and you know it."

"I don't need a thermometer to know you're running a fever"

"A doctor already cleared you. You're not getting out of this mission that easy."

"You're lucky you survived that fall. You have a concussion. We're going to the hospital."

"You're never sacrificing yourself for me again. I mean that. If I catch you throwing yourself between me and a weapon, I'll scruff you like a cat and drag you out of here myself."

"This tincture is the cure. You'll be fine, as long as you take the whole thing." (they're wrong)

"Yeah, yeah. I did those stitches myself. I know they're secure." (they're not)

"You're hiding something, and you're going to tell me what it is."

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when the team android is used to power something and it so obviously hurts them but it's not safe to stop so everyone just has to hope for the best. this happened to Zane Ninjago once and it was the best whump of my life

I like this but the second sentence made me laugh out loud in my break room at work

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okay but!! the premise for my next fic is that a cold is going around and the MC finally gets sick, but the team doesn't put it together that he was around someone with the flu and that's what he caught. so they're expecting him to push through the discomfort like they all did, but he can't, not with a high fever and severe body aches. he can't sleep because it bothers his lungs. has no appetite and skips all 3 meals. he is struggling to keep himself awake.

eventually he collapses, but everyone blames the heat and exhaustion from being up all night coughing. they keep finding him asleep sitting down and start to get irritated that he's being lazy.

upon finding him sleeping in an odd place again, his friend gives him a little teasing about it, but he replies earnestly that he can't stand because he's too dizzy and he can't sit because he falls asleep. that's when the group realizes that he's NOT being dramatic about a cold, but is underplaying being seriously ill. then comfort >:)

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wait wait wait everyone wait i have an idea

you know the trope of a character who always calls people by their full name or their surname or an honorific using just their first name or a nickname in a moment of crisis? the reverse of that

two characters who ALWAYS call each other by nicknames --- or at least, one of them always calls the other by a nickname. and then in a stressful situation where they're worried about their friend, all that affection and familiarity falls away in favor of cold hard determination and they use their entire name

like just a random example, i don't actually have any ocs by this name, but like "Maddy" with Madeline or something and usually it's like "hi Maddy" "follow me Maddy" "hey Maddy I bet you can't climb that tree" etc etc but then the whump happens and it's

"it's fine. i can handle-"

"Madeline don't you dare tell me it's fine"

what are we thinking

i love this trope! playing with how characters address one another is so fun for me. it can affect tone so much to use a tender nickname or to refer to someone with their name rather than their title or honorific, but the reverse is true as well--elongating a name or using a title instead can be so interesting. let them know you mean business.

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Very specific dynamic if you're still doing that game: immortal whumpee and the apprentice necromancer caretaker who accidentally made them immortal

- @pigeonwhumps

"Breathe through it. You're going to have to learn to breathe through it."

"Remember, you're stronger than this. You're going to be okay."

"You have to be strong. I'm sorry."

sorry these aren't great, but the prompt was fantastic! :)

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not sure if you’re still doing the whump dynamic thing, but one that has been living in my head rent free is with a slightly stoic mentor caretaker (who does really care about the whumpee student, just doesn’t really know them well) and student whumpee who’s kind of intimidated by the mentor

mentor’s gotta take care of student in a potentially life or death situation and student is pretty out of it

sorry if this is too specific!

the more specific the better, babe, i like a challenge!

"Kid, come here." She places her hand on her forehead. "You're running a pretty high fever. No wonder you've been acting so weird today."

“I was like you, once, you know.”

“Oh?” 

“I thought I could get ahead by breaking myself.” 

‘But it worked.”

"Yes, for a while. Then it didn't. Don't be like me."

"You're everything I want to be."

"I promise that's not true."

(that one was stolen from this OC fic i wrote lol)

3. "i'm strict, but I'm not heartless. If you're sick, you need to rest, not force yourself to push your body to its limit."

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for the relationships ask game if you're still doing that, how about siblings?

i absolutely am, ad i love sibling relationships! Let's go!

"When were you going to tell me about this [illness or injury]?" "I didn't want you to worry." "Well, you didn't do a good job."

"You've always done this shit, this hiding from your feelings thing. It's not going to work this time."

"I know. No one ever took care of us, so of course you don't know what to do. Just let me help."

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(For the dynamic game thing) one of my personal faves is overworked whumpee who struggles to ask for help x caretaker who is absolutely NOT having it lol (sorry if that's too specific lol)

oh you can never be too specific for me! i love specificity!

"When were you going to tell me you were this exhausted? Was the plan just to go until you collapsed? Because it worked."

2. "I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on, and you need help."

3. "I feel terrible. I had no idea I was putting so much pressure on you." "I just wanted to make you proud." "I am proud. But I'm also terrified, and fear is louder. What if we can't win?"

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When a character has very worrying symptoms that are so strange that even the doctor doesn’t know what’s going on. They can only stumble around with the knowledge they do have and make an educated guess at how they might treat it, while hoping it doesn’t get worse.

this screams star trek to me!!

"That fever just keeps climbing. It's going to start popping neurons like popcorn if I can't figure this out."

"I can't just keep throwing this against the wall to see what sticks. I'm worried I'll make it worse."

"I can't sleep until I've figured this out. If we lost you because I was taking a nap... I could never forgive myself."

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6,7,20

What character or characters are your favorite to turn into caretakers in your writing?

ooh I think one of my favorites ever is Tim from the magnus archives. the thing i love about him most is that there's time before and time after their relationship degrades, which gives you a lot of wiggle room in their dynamic. i love to set fics where tim hates jon but has to care for him anyway. i also love fics where he's sweet and kind and funny and always looking out for jon. he's such a good boy

Have you ever written whump inspired by personal experiences?

i have! not often, though.

i answered 20 already, so thank you for asking me things!! <3

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Oh! For the dynamic thing!

Family scenarios are great. Adult child sickie and parent (especially moms) caretaker. Or an aunt/uncle or grandparent caretaker.

"I've known you since you were born and I've never seen you like this before."

"Come on, I know you better than that. You're not fine."

"I can tell when you're faking a smile, you know."

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for the dynamic game (very specific scenario, sorry):

a whumpee who gets appendicitis on their period. They usually get HORRIBLE cramps, so for days on end, they genuinely thought that the appendix pain was just cramps (until ofc it gets so bad that I can’t be cramps, as which point caretaker drags them to the hospital)

oooohoho i've never heard this idea before and i love it!! may have to steal it for my OCs some day!

ope i was so excited about the prompt i forgot to put the dialogue lol

"I'm sorry I said you were being a baby earlier. You need to tell me what's wrong."

"You're going to the hospital. This isn't something Midol can fix."

"Cramps don't usually come with a high fever like this. You need to go get checked out."