#laureltalks

[rustedlaurels]

introduction #2, I suppose; focusing on the hurt/comfort / whump stuff.

(short summary of the “about me” introduction: Laurel/Guardy, they/them or he/him, 24, been here for a long time but never said anything because, while my love fort hurt/comfort is not exactly a secret, there’s a difference between whumpy writings and full-on whump community and I’m not sure my watchers would appreciate the latter)

What do I like about whump in general? Mostly the idea that, no matter how broken the whumpee thinks they are and how inferior they feel, they’re still worth saving and things may turn out alright-ish after all. Also, vulnerability.

Some favorite tropes:

Hidden injuries: especially when they’re hidden for the sake of somebody else. “No, you go on ahead and I’ll be right behind you” and all that. Also excellent: when the whumpee hides the injuries because they’re deeply uncomfortable with being cared for and/or think they’re not worthy of the attention. ESPECIALLY if the future caretaker accidentally said something that got them into that mindspace not too long before they’re injured.

whumped authority figures: Always doubly fun when it’s the mentor/leader/boss/”generally character others tend to put on a pedestal” who goes down, especially when they REALLY can’t afford it at that moment.

accidental emotional h/c: the whumpee overhears something that wrecks them emotionally, despite that thing not having been what it seems. Basically, the good old “friends fight and then one overhears a random ‘he could go die in a ditch for all I care’ and thinks that’s about him and pretty much goes ‘ah well’ and refuses to get help when he DOES almost die in a ditch by coincidence”.

comfort/recovery: more emotional than physical, really.

embarrassingly minor injuries that are life-threatening (and painful as hell) due to circumstance. Sprained ankle? shit happens. Sprained ankle you have to walk on for miles or freeze to death during the night? nyehehehe.

generally minor things turning serious because the whumpee doesn’t take care of themselves. Whump that starts subtly and develops from there is just... *chef kiss*

sel-destructiveness, especially when the whumpee isn’t aware that THAT’s what it is. Basically, love it when whump starts by pure bad luck and then the whumpee makes it that much worse and their avoidance of getting help initally is the thing that REALLY gets them into trouble later.

(and them eventually getting some sense talked into them)  

generally whumpees having to get emotionally patched up to help with the physical side of things.

Characters not knowing that the whumpee is whumped yet and being jerks in some way / getting ready to shout at them for being late or something

Getting creative with magic or nonhuman attributes: on the whumper’s and the whumpee’s AND the caretaker’s side.

eternal fave: magical healing that REALLY SUCKS for everyone involved.

Some tropes I don’t usually enjoy: (though most of those have plenty of exceptions)

Anything TOO graphic or grimdark. I’m not really here for guts and gore and extreme torture, I guess.

Heavily medical-themed whump. I don’t care terribly much about the technical details; I’m more focused the whumpee’s emotions. Also not a huge fan of hospital settings. Makes it Too Real, I guess?

Genuinely malicious/abusive caretakers. Caretakers who fail to grasp the seriousness of a situation and are jackasses about it at first can be super fun, but when it’s deliberately abusive and that’s the best the whumpees will ever get, it mostly just makes me sadder than I want to be.

The character being too broken, especially mentally - don’t ask me where the line there is, though, because I don’t know

fem!whump, usually - unless it’s one of a few choice characters I already loved as a kid (when I was apparently less squeamish), or, in a tiny handful of instances, from 2D animation. And even then, my tolerance level there is a LOT lower than usual.

Permanent severe disabilities (and brain damage) - something career-ending as opposed to a mere inconvenience. Once again, just too much realism for me.

TL;DR - the whump here’s Lighter and Fluffier than usual (and, frequently enough, pure cheese), frequently nobody’s fault, and I’m a pretty straightforward writer... although I have a fair bit of gleefull insidiousness up my sleeve for my poor darlings, believe me :)))

Also, for me whump’s in the details, so if you ever need somebody to go over an old favorite whump scene and point out every pained twitch in glorious detail, I’m your... human?

(also I like to talk a lot, apparently. hahaha... ha...)

[rustedlaurels]

Just getting that first post out of the way by rambling a little, lol.

So, proper second blog for the self-indulgent shit that doesn’t mesh TOO well with my usual steadfast-fandom-archivist persona. Not that anybody would be surprised, mind you, but I figure there’s a difference between enjoying my mildly whump-focused analyses and original writing and like,,, full-blown h/c shit on main.

So. Who am I? You can call me Laurel (or whatever other abbreviation you can find I guess) or Guardy (they/them or he/him). I’m 24 years old as of now, I’m neither American nor British, I am queer as heck, and I’m into way too many old and obscure fandoms, fml. I also enjoy breaking fictional characters and then putting them back together for extra sappy happy endings.

I’m here for character analyses and headcanons, especially of the hurt/comfort-y persuasion, along with potential fanart, almost certainly writing (with some of it being original work instead of fic), hopefully gif sets, and many interesting fandoms you may never have heard of.

This is very much a multifandom blog, but if you like ONE thing I’m into, you may want to stick around for the others - there’s a pattern there. I like my fandoms a hint old-fashioned and reasonably light-hearted, with characters that are just a little... cracked.

Some stuff you may find here includes:

Hornblower:  1940′s/50′s books and an excellent late 90′s/early 00′s miniseries (... mainly the miniseries) featuring Ioan Gruffudd. (favorite whumpee: all of them minus poor Archie, but really more interested in emotional H/C; canon supplies enough physical whump to last a lifetime, lol) (ships: hornblower and/or bush and/or archie and/or côtard in any and all configurations)

Due South: 1990′s series about a Mountie in Chicago. (favorite whumpee: Fraser) (ships: ... I don’t really care as long as it’s not het)

Forever: A series about an immortal pathologist who ends up naked in rivers a lot, yes really. Featuring more Ioan Gruffudd. (favorite whumpee: Henry) (ships: none, really.)

White Collar: 2009-2014; series about a con artist working for the FBI. (favorite whumpee: Neal) (ships: low-key Neal/Peter/(Elizabeth, either as OT3 or with her being okay with it), but not necessarily romantically and/or sexually? Love of Some Kind, basically)

Star Trek (VOY/DS9/DSC mainly): ... you know what Trek is, I hope. (favorite whumpee: right now? Probably Bashir. Also Captain Janeway, though I normally feel decidedly iffy about femwhump). (Ships: Garak/Bashir) (EDIT: OHSHIT also ENT. Archer and Reed, both for the whumps and the ships)

Emergency!: 1970′s medical drama about two firemen/paramedics. Very, very interesting despite my usual dislike for medical dramas. (favorite whumpee: Johnny) (ships: ... idk? ideally none, except for queerplatonic Johnny/Roy if you wanna count that)

Assassin’s Creed 2: video game, but you knew that; also there’s a short film for that one called “Lineage”, which is one of my favorite pieces of media. (Favorite whumpee: Giovanni Auditore; yes, really.) (ships: Gio/Lorenzo is my problematic fave. Also Ezio/Leo because obviously.)

Rivers of London: book series; wizards in modern-day london. Imagine the Dresden Files but less grimdark. (favorite whumpee: Nightingale) (ship: Peter/Nightingale)

... aaand many many more, including my own, original projects.

[rustedlaurels]

I am no-good-very-bad at getting new blogs rolling, oops

Guess I might just toss some writing on here in the near future? I could dig up all the disjointed snippets about people almost dying in space and on alien planets...

I’m waiting on a bad-things-happen-bingo card, so that’ll get stuff rolling if I can’t manage on my own, I guess.

[rustedlaurels]

Also, just in case anyone is wondering: I’m currently queueing up old favorite whump- and whump-adjacent prompts I had hanging out in my bookmarks until now. Queue will prolly be running at one or two posts a day.