Low level/continuous pain tips for writing
Want to avoid the action movie effect and make your character's injuries have realistic lasting impacts? Have a sick character you're using as hurt/comfort fodder? Everyone has tips for how to write Dramatic Intense Agony, but the smaller human details of lasting or low-level discomfort are rarely written in. Here are a few pain mannerisms I like to use as reference:
General
Continuously gritted teeth (may cause headaches or additional jaw pain over time)
Irritability, increased sensitivity to lights, sounds, etc
Repetitive movements (fidgeting, unable to sit still, slight rocking or other habitual movement to self-soothe)
Soft groaning or whimpering, when pain increases or when others aren't around
Heavier breathing, panting, may be deeper or shallower than normal
Moving less quickly, resistant to unnecessary movement
Itching in the case of healing wounds
Subconsciously hunching around the pain (eg. slumped shoulders or bad posture for gut pain)
Using a hand to steady themself when walking past walls, counters, etc (also applies to illness)
Narration-wise: may not notice the pain was there until it's gone because they got so used to it, or may not realize how bad it was until it gets better
May stop mentioning it outright to other people unless they specifically ask or the pain increases
Limb pain
Subtly leaning on surfaces whenever possible to take weight off foot/leg pain
Rubbing sore spots while thinking or resting
Wincing and switching to using other limb frequently (new/forgettable pain) or developed habit of using non dominant limb for tasks (constant/long term pain)
Propping leg up when sitting to reduce inflammation
Holding arm closer to body/moving it less
Moving differently to avoid bending joints (eg. bending at the waist instead of the knees to pick something up)
Nausea/fever/non-pain discomfort
Many of the same things as above (groaning, leaning, differences in movement)
May avoid sudden movements or turning head for nausea
Urge to press up against cold surfaces for fever
Glazed eyes, fixed stare, may take longer to process words or get their attention
Shivering, shaking, loss of fine motor control
If you have any more details that you personally use to bring characters to life in these situations, I'd love to hear them! I'm always looking for ways to make my guys suffer more write people with more realism :)
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Please don't shake the cat
[DP x DC fic]
[Love at first... murder? - part 13]
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Part 1
Ao3
---
Private chat nicknames:
RedHood = Jason
Danny = Danny
---
Private chat
RedHood: *picture*
RedHood: this yours???
---
Seeing the picture of Ellie clamped onto Red Hood’s arm Danny lets out a sigh while rubbing his forehead. He takes a few seconds to look at the picture while deciding on how to reply.
---
Private chat
Danny: you don’t happen to be in Mexico right now by any chance, do you?
RedHood: No.
RedHood: I was out patrolling when I was suddenly bitten by her.
RedHood: Thought it might have been a criminal or stray cat or something like that at first.
RedHood: I was not expecting a feral teenager, but I can’t say this is the first time it’s happened.
Danny: damn, she was supposed to be in Mexico 😕😥
Danny: I guess this is what she was trying to tell me with that cryptic message she sent me huh
Danny: and the stray cat analogy isn’t too far off to be perfectly honest 🤔
RedHood: So you know her?
RedHood: Can you help me get her off? I’ve tried prying but she’s got some sick ass jaw strength.
RedHood: Which would have been pretty cool any other time, but it’s currently not really working in my favor.
Danny: I’m so sorry about her 😓 😓
Danny: we’ve been trying to teach her to ask for consent first
Danny: but it’s still a work in progress 😅
Danny: of course I'll help you get her off!! 😊🙃
RedHood: Great! You’re at your apartment, right?
RedHood: I’ll be there in two shakes.
Danny: please don’t shake the cat 😰
Danny: she’ll get grumpy and might latch on even tighter
Danny: I’ll come to you instead 🙃
Danny: you said you were patrolling, so crime alley, right? 🤔🤔
RedHood: Well, yes, but I doubt you’ll be able to get up where I am right now.
RedHood: Let me at least come down to the ground first and I’ll tell you how to get here.
RedHood: Danny?
---
Jason looks down at his unread messages with a slight frown. He puts his phone away and looks back at the teenager on his arm.
He gives his arm a small shake, causing her to growl at him which immediately makes him stop.
Right… No shaking the cat.
Jason lets out a weary sigh before looking down over the edge of the building to the ground below. He’s trying to think of the best way to get down with only one functional arm when a voice breaks him out of his reverie.
“Hey, Hood. I’m here!”
He turns around, slightly alarmed that there’s a second person who managed to sneak up on him tonight.
Damn, he’s getting rusty
Though from anyone whom he had been expecting to see, he had not been expecting to see the guy he messaged a minute ago standing behind him on the roof.
“How did you get here so quickly? And for that matter, how did you even get up here?” Jason asks confused.
“Oh, I flew” is Danny’s casual response, which gives Jason more questions than have been answered. But before he can decide whether he should bother asking for clarification Danny already moves on to the next topic.
“Anyway, let’s see what we can do about this,” he says, approaching Jason’s arm and the girl that’s hanging off of it.
“Good luck,” Jason says, holding out his arm a little better and watching bemused as Danny and the teen have a stare-down.
“Ellie, what did we say about biting others?”
The teen, Ellie, narrows her eyes and growls at him. Danny just crosses his arms and gives her an unimpressed stare.
“Nah-ah, you have to let him go. We ask before we bite someone. It’s called consent. Don’t make me get Jazz to give you another lecture”
It’s clear to Jason that Danny’s attempt at talking to her isn’t working when the teen proceeds to glance at Jason calculatingly before giving Danny a challenging look and biting down harder.
Apparently, it’s clear to Danny as well, as the next thing he does is let out a put-upon sigh before declaring “Well, I gave you a chance. Guess we’ll have to do this the hard way”
Danny then grabs a hold of her and tries pulling her off of him.
What is his life? Jason thinks as he’s standing there while Danny tries to physically pull the teenage girl, who decided his arm looked like a nice snack, off of him.
Though luckily for him, it seems to work as not a few seconds later Danny has pulled her off of his arm and is now holding the teenage girl with a bloody mouth up by her armpits.
Danny sets her down with a sigh but before he can speak up, the teen crosses her arms and levels Jason with a sharp look that makes him straighten up.
“Thou winneth this round, Red-Helmed Knight of the Night. Though thou should be prepareth, as the upcoming trials will be even more toilsome” Ellie declares while pointing at him, uncaring of the blood on her face.
“And I,” She points a finger back at herself for emphasis, ”Sir Ellie of the Infinite Realms, will—” she gets cut off when a fly enters her mouth.
Danny moves to help her but she holds up a hand to stop him, using her other hand to thump on her chest a few times.
She spits the dislodged fly out onto the floor and glares at it.
“Curse you! Foiling my monologuing once again!” she yells after the fly as it flies off.
Right…
Jason turns to Danny.
“So is she your sister?” he asks curiously. And totally not trying to fish for more information about Danny and his family.
Instead of Danny answering the question though, Ellie cuts him off.
“I’m his love child with the mayor of our town.”
Danny gives her a disgusted look.
“Ellie—”
She looks back at Danny with a shit-eating grin on her face.
Yeah, definitely siblings.
“I love my dads!” she says proudly, her eyes still on Danny.
Danny gives her a deadpan look in response before it changes to a more mischievous one.
“Oh, I’m sure Vlad would love to hear all about how you reclaimed him as a father figure—”
“Oh Ancients, no. Don’t even joke about that” She fake gags at him before turning back to Jason.
“Can I change my answer? I’m his bodyguard” She says, pointing her thumb at Danny.
That makes both Danny and Jason raise an eyebrow at her, though Jason’s can’t be seen through the helmet. They speak up at the same time.
“A bodyguard, huh?”
“No, you’re not, that’s Frighty”
Danny’s statement makes Jason pause and turn to look at him.
He’s got a bodyguard?
Ellie shakes her head happily.
“Nope! I took over the position. My knightly title isn’t just for show, y’know? I earned it fair and square!”
“When did this even happen? And why was I not told?” Danny asks, bewilderment covering his face.
Jason stays silent as he tries to make sense of the conversation.
“About…” Ellie takes a moment to think about it “3 months ago? I think it was when you were dealing with some time chores. And I thought it’d be a nice surprise, so… Surprise!” she exclaims, doing some jazz hands at the end of the sentence.
“What did you even do?”
“I snuck up on him and threw a Fenton Wii remote at his head which knocked him out cold. It counted as a win so I earned the position by right of conquest and gained my knighthood” She says with a shrug.
“Huh… think that would’ve worked for Pariah Dark as well? Would’ve made things so much easier…”
Ellie gives another careless shrug as Danny lets out a small reminiscent sigh. Meanwhile, Jason stands awkwardly to the side.
“Well, either way, I’m proud of you. Do you have a video?”
“Tucker filmed it for me, yeah”
“Nice”
They high-five with grins on their faces. At this point, Jason lets out a small cough which has the Fenton siblings turn around startled and proceed to then give him identical sheepish smiles.
They really look like they could be twins…
“Ah, sorry Red Hood. And again, I’m sorry for Ellie.” Danny says, rubbing the back of his neck with a small blush on his face.
“I’ll take her back home. And uhh… see you next time?”
Jason gives him a smile from under his helmet.
“Sure, if you’re still up for that next date?” Jason trails off with some hope.
His words make Danny’s blush darken.
“Ah uh, yeah! Yeah, of course! The next date! Uhmm, I’ll text you! Or you can text me. That’s fine too!”
Next to him, Ellie rolls her eyes and makes some fake gagging motions. She then grabs Danny by his arm and starts dragging him away.
“Come on, Loverboy. You can and your paramour can flirt later. When I’m not there… and after he’s passed my trials” she says, muttering the latter part low enough that Jason can’t hear. But, judging by the way Danny’s head snaps back to her and how his brows furrow, he did hear.
Just as Jason goes to reply, giving them a thank you and a goodbye of his own, perhaps even an offering to help them get down from the roof, he picks up on movement behind him.
Quickly turning around has him regretting not leaving the rooftop earlier, as he watches the Bats (and birds) land.
Fuck.
---
Taglist:
@i-always-say-yea @uraniumwizard @why-must-i-be-like-this @griffinthing @i23432i @imsotiredfanficlovertm
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Erm, hello there, may I perhaps have a trick, with some treat vibes?? Pretty please???
Hello my love! Here's some soft smut for you, rated E.
Most Favourite
“I’m not asking for much,” Draco said, reasonably, “only to be your favourite person in the whole entire world. That’s it.”
Harry, still laughing, wiping his face on his sleeve: “Oh, that’s it.”
“Yes! You don’t even have to love me or anything. You don’t need to make any romantic grand gestures or, or, keep finding new ways to please me, or—although this feels fairly nice.”
To the stubble-rough kisses Harry couldn’t help but pepper on his soft inner thigh. “Fairly nice?”
“Fine, it feels fucking fantastic, happy?”
The grin on his face was starting to ache in the corners. “Delirious,” Harry said, and settled himself between Draco’s legs, mouthing the gap under his briefs. “C’mon, baby, help me get these off.”
Draco was mumbling something about getting off, but he did lift his sweet arse so that Harry could pull the boxers down, kissing the soft, fuzzy skin he was baring. To the perfect arch of Draco’s foot, curling with ticklish pleasure; back up to nuzzle behind his knee, to lather his thigh with warm licks and to bite the supple, fleshy part of it till Draco squealed.
“Oi! Brute. You didn’t answer my question.”
“There was a question there?” grinning into blond pubic hair. “Sweetheart, you’re gorgeous.”
An indignant shriek. “You know that wasn’t it!”
“My love,” sprinkling adoring kisses on the base of Draco’s cock, “my sincerest apologies, but I’m a little bit busy, see,” and the sharp breathing and the stirring interest and the lovely pink on Draco’s cheeks when he looked up assured him Draco supported the endeavour. Still, and only savouring it a little: “Would you like me to stop?”
Draco had the cutest pout. “No?” he said. “No. Just—I know it’s terribly childish but I need, ah,” voice melting when Harry traced a wet finger down his crack and round and round his hole.
“You need?” a little cruelly, making up for it with a generous lave of his cock, which had conveniently, fantastically, started to drip.
“Harry,” more a moan than a demand now. “Don’t—ah—change the subject. I—hngh,” trembling under his hands, the dearest and most beautiful little menace Harry’d ever seen. “More!”
“More?” incredulously, enamoured, “oh, no. I think you might need more.”
Squirming and convoluting, entangling himself in the sheets, already so frantic and truly, Harry’s barely even done anything. Apart from teasing him and teasing him and maybe sucking with a little more vigour now, tongue slipping on the vein on the underside of Draco’s perfect cock, and the finger Harry didn’t realise had gone a full knuckle in kept going in circles and, huh, Harry still had his clothes on? Hot, but unnecessary.
With only one hand, and a smidge of his concentration, Harry managed to rid himself of the shirt, and halfway done with the jeans (“Ah, ah, Ha-rry, fuck, ah, gods”) and fuck, if his boxers just, down to the knees right that will do, and in desperation and with the scorching heat of Draco all around him he nearly missed the wail, which would have been a real shame. Every minute of this was a miracle, and—the look on Draco’s face. “What is it?” with a sudden pang of dread. “Darling?”
“I just,” Harry didn’t know if this was good-sobbing or bad-sobbing, but his heart clenched anyway, “I need to know it’s possible. I know you have so many, ah, fuck, there are much better people in your life and, and, Harry, I can’t think when you’re doing that!”
“Doing—” he realised his finger was still moving. Made it stop. “Draco, if what’s possible?”
“If I could ever be your…” desolately looking away, and Harry’s chest was a riot and nothing made sense besides—
“Favourite?” blinking at the contorted face, at this ridiculous, ridiculous man, “you want to know if you can be my favourite? Bloody—absolute ninny, of course you already are?”
“Am what?”
Harry shook his head, words failing him for a moment, then leaned down to pet Draco’s cheek. “A wanker,” he laughed, and kissed his cheek. “A git,” kissed the other one. “An absolute twat,” the tip of his nose. “And my absolute favourite person. You berk.”
Draco laugh-sobbed, eyes big and grey. “Really?”
“Really,” unable to look at him, trailing kisses down his neck, his shoulder, his sides.
“And you couldn’t bloody say so when I practically went and made a gigantic arse of my—argh!” when Draco’s cock was back where it belonged. “Merlin! Give a man a warning, will you?”
Harry shrugged and resumed his very important mission of sucking another confession out of Draco. Maybe if he made him see stars Draco would admit that Harry’s his favourite, too.
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