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Reblog if you want "meta" asks about whump!

Asks about trends and tropes, hot takes, how you got into whump, how you experience whumperflies, etc.

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Seeing this in a forum so thought I'd play it here!

Reblog and say something nice about prev :)

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what are ur fav tropes for stoic whumpees? love da blog

stoic whumpee tropes that are a 100/10:

"I'm fine" and then immediately collapsing in front of their loved ones in a bleeding pile, revealing a hidden injury that has festered for far too long

silent, muffled crying with shaking shoulders and a bloody hand clamped over their mouth because they view crying as weak and beneath them and they're stronger than this, they're stronger, they can take it--

the moment they close their eyes in defeat and it's all over and they fucking know it, and when they open their eyes again all that remains is a glassy-dead stare

adamantly refusing medical treatment even when they need it. Shoving away everyone who comes close to them, a choked sound in their throat, fighting back with everything that's left in them.

when they kneel at Whumper's feet, eyes on the ground, white-lipped and tense. The only betrayal of emotion is their clenched fists and tight breathing. In every other way, they're compliant.

refusing to talk about what they endured at Whumper's hands after they're rescued, but the scars tell the story for them. They don't have to say a word, but their team's pitying gaze follows them wherever they go

normally unaffectionate and distant but exhausted and defeated they rest their head on Caretaker's shoulder or Whumper's lap, just finally admitting--nonverbally-- that they can't take it

reversely, more willing to be tortured than to ask for help-- If I'm breathing, I'm fine

stitching their own wounds back up with an unsteady hand, painful stitch after painful stitch. Deep breath and pull. Working in a dimly lit apartment with bleeding clothes on the floor around them and the bed unmade

sacrificing themself for their team. "Take me! Do what you want to me. Not them." And their team watching as the torture takes its slow toll and Whumpee-- the one they look up-- falls apart.

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A character not hiding an injury, or even intentionally downplaying it, but just being so matter-of-fact and blasé about the wound or injury that their companions are still shocked when they realise the severity of it and dismayed to suddenly recalibrate exactly what the injured character considers to be a routine, unremarkable sort of injury.

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whumpee who doesn't need to be chained up in a basement. whumpee who's hidden in plain sight. whumpee who hides their own bruises and smiles when strangers ask them how they're doing.

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Fevers

Whumpees with aching eyes, too tired to keep open yet too sore to close, even the lightest pressure of their eyelids too much

Whumpee who's too weak and dizzy to do anything at all but lie in bed completely still, sweating through their blankets only to immediately start shivering after clumsily throwing them off

Whumpees with dry mouths, dry lips

The corners of their room are more shadowy than they should be, and they're too exhausted to bother to get up and see what's in there. The Hat Man will have to just wait his turn.

Strong enough to get out of bed but being so, so out of it. Caretaker finding them standing swaying in a doorway, pale as death, clearly seeing something that isn't there

Everything seems to be flickering. The air buzzes. Their skin prickles.

Getting to sleep is hard, because their mind is restless and racing. Once they're asleep though, they're down for the count

Chattering teeth. Their bones must be rattling, for how much they ache

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Destroyer -- Living Weapon CYOA

Ask if there's anything you can do to calm its sympathetic nervous system.

Surely, there was a better way you could have phrased it.

It's clear in the way it withdraws from you that it does not like this question.

"No. Sorry. Not necessary. I'll behave."

It's mumbling again. You made it worse. You were trying to make it better.

You're not dumb all the time, though. It's not hard to answer to your own question, or to imagine the things that might make you skittish if you were in that position. You are standing over it with a sword and you are asking too much.

After some consideration, you take a few steps back. You shift the sheath so that it is mostly out of view, and then out of your own way as you crouch down to the thing's eye level.

Its expression does not change and it is no more willing to look at you.

tags:

@dragongodryss @whumpsday @elle297382 @inhurtandincomfort @catnykit @thewhumpcaretaker @moony-reblogg-stuffs @sorrowful-hyacinth @melpomenelamusa @floral-comet-whump @half-duck @doumidas-whumps @sir-fenris

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Befriending an artist who you deeply admire probably never ceases entirely to feel totally bewildering and surreal.

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@wolverina2002 your Bargain universe Jaime!

Characters that would die to protect anyone but no one would die to protect them have my whole heart. Especially if the character seems like a total asshole because they've been so mistreated that they don't know how to show how much they care.

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@wolverina2002 for you

characters apologizing for things they have no control over. mumbling sorry while losing consciousness. feeling ashamed of a bleeding wound. embarrassed when an infection sets in. deep seated feverish guilt when they need to be carried, when their legs won't keep them upright anymore and they lean heavy on a friend, slurring apologies..........

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Showers + whump

Stoic whumpee spending hours in the shower after being reunited with the team because it's the only place they can break down with guaranteed privacy.

Whumpee being too tired to wash themselves standing up so they sit on the floor (then accidentally falling asleep, leading Caretaker to break down the door in panic in case Whumpee was hurt).

Caretaker sitting outside the door to provide support for a whumpee with water related trauma.

Caretaker getting in the shower with Whumpee to help them wash because they're not strong enough to do it alone yet.

Whumpee turning the shower to extreme temperatures (hot or cold) to stop feeling numb or to distract from their feelings being out of control.

Whumpee not showering for ages after being rescued because they're not used to being allowed to.

Caretaker's water bills running astronomically high because Whumpee keeps dissociating and spending hours in the shower every day.

Whumpee finding comfort in the warm water after years of being frozen and left in the cold.

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A character who tries, and fails, to get up but genuinely does not seem to realize they're incapable of it or is confused as to why they're back on the ground or still on the bed and just keeps trying and getting nowhere, whether in the midst of delirium or so deep in shock or stupifyingly exhausted that they simply cannot grasp their current inability and so keep on trying, heedless of any further mischief they may be doing themself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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@wolverina2002 Dragonknightcore?

Whumpee's who are bad at communicating problems my beloved:

"I'm okay," They say, curled up on the floor.

"It doesn't hurt," They say, hands pressed to a bleeding wound.

"I'm not crying," They insist, wiping their cheeks with shaking hands.

"I don't want to scare you," They say, trembling.

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K -Drama, a treasure trove for whumpers!

Like any whumplover out there, I am always on the lookout for new shows. Preferably filled with characters that I can fall in love with because of their tortured, heroic souls.

Some of you probably agree that in most of North American TV, the hurt and most importantly comfort usually take a back seat. We might get a glimpse of some whump but then there is some miraculously fast recovery in the next scene.

That is why I wanted to share a completely different kind of  beast of whump with you guys. The whump in Korean Drama.

Now the K-Drama has gained quite the popularity in the West. I could write a whole separate post on how different it is form Western television, which Drama would be the best to introduce you to the world etc. etc. But for this post, I will solely focus on some of my favorite whump shows. Who knows, it might be your gateway drug to the word of K-Drama.

The format is a bit different from Western TV. The concept of seasons does not really exist. A drama mostly consists of a completed story arch of 20 one hour long episodes.

That leaves plenty of time for beautiful plots and character development. And boy, do they like to whump their characters.

Of course, with the huge turnover rate that K-Dramas get produced in, there is such a wide varieties of genres and not all of them are whumpy. But the few I have come across, always had an element of whump in it.

K-Drama gives me feels like you wouldn’t even believe it. I think mostly it is because it’s sometimes so over the top, I feel like I am watching some of my favorite fanfiction stories turned into movies.

But I digress. First, let me introduce you to actor Lee Min Ho, aka the most whumpabale and whumped character in Korean TV. In my opinion at least :)

Two of his shows are absolutey hurt/comfort heaven.

Faith (신의) and City Hunter  (시티헌터)

My personal favorite is Faith.  It is a historical drama with a scifi twist set in 1300s Korea. (back then Goryeo)

Lee Min Ho plays Choi Young, last warrior of the Jeo Gol Dea, a secret group whose sole purpose it was to protect king and country. It only allowed warriors to join who have special powers .

But all of his comrades died and he is now the Captain of the royal bodyguard, The Wu Dal Chi.

The show starts out with the Wu Dal Chi escorting the newly crowned King  and his Queen from Yuan to the royal palace in Goryeo.

(I insert a bit of wiki history here for a bit of a better understanding .Goryeo had been a semi-autonomous vassal state under the overlordship of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.  The king basically has been kidnapped as a child and was raised in Yuan. So once he eventually is king, he had been drinking the Yuan Kool-Aid and therefore would  be a weak King for Goryeo. )

They take shelter in an Inn for the night, but  are being ambushed and the Queen is severely injured. The King sends his Captain to “heaven’s door“ to get “God’s doctor” who according to legend walked the earth 1000 years ago and can heal any injury .

What they believe to be heaven’s door it is actually a wormhole into the future.

Choi Young’s  search for a doctor with godlike abilities leads him to a popular plastic surgeon, Yoo Eun Soo. When she refuses to believe his  story, he kidnaps her, dragging her back into the past to save the Queen.

It is a beautiful piece, a story of love, time travel, magic, politics, conspiracies,   sometimes funny, but most of the times heartbreaking….and full of hurt-comfort heaven.

Now why there is so much whump:

Choi Young had a horrible past (which we learn about in deliciously emotional whumpy flashbacks) and is such a tortured character who has absolutely lost the will to live. The only thing that barely keeps him going, is his sense of duty and loyalty for the kings he has been protecting for most of his adult life. 

And the other main character, who is this amazing compassionate 21st century modern woman, is a surgeon. So we get a lot of medwhumpy moments. 

Which leads us  to the main whump event in Episode 2  which will have after effects throughout a lot of the episodes:

Choi Young gave Eun Soo a warrior’s promise to bring her back to her world. A promise, if broken would mean death by his own sword.

Choi Young is about to bring her back, but an evil scheming royal advisor convinced the King, he would need the God’s doctor by his side to gain political power. So he tells Choi Young to stop her.

Choi Young  has been protecting kings for so long that he knows little else in his life other than duty. So he prevents Eun Soo from leaving.

Eun Soo, who now thinks she will never be able to return, gets really upset and threatens him.

And Young, who hates living and just broke his promise, thinks he deserves to die and this happens:

Now in the meantime, there are bandits on their way, hired by the king’s enemy who also want to gain the legendary god’s doctor for them.

Evil scheming advisor guy, urges them to leave the Captain behind.

But Eun Soon refuses, since of course she never meant to kill him despite being her kidnapper. She wants to perform surgery and save him but evil advisor guy takes care of that too.

But still, the other members of the Wu Dal Chi, who love their Captain so dearly, defy the order and bring him back the Inn, where the ambush had happened.

So they transport him back and Young tries to convince them to just leave him behind. We’ll find out later why he is just so keen to give up on this life.

Back at the Inn, we get some interesting medwhump, given the fact that a plastic surgeon from the 21st century is performing a surgery in medieval Korea.

And this is where Episode 2 ends.

The whole of Episode 3 is full of delicious hurt/comfort but I try to keep it short

To summarize. The King is still staying at the Inn, since he did not want to leave without Choi Young (ah the bromance those two have). As soon as Choi Young is awake, he gets all worried about the danger the King is in and makes the troupe leave. With him still being super weak.

Once at the palace, there is lots of political scheming and trouble happening that the Captain has to take care of. He is literally the only thing that keeps the situation from getting out of control .So his condition gradually gets worse and worse.

And everyone is relying on him, so he can’t show any weakness at all.

But once he is on his own, his body finally gives in.

Which culminates in this scene:

And his youngest teammember, Dae Man, who absolutely idolizes his Captain, silently watches because he knows Choi Young  would never want him to see him like this.

And that concludes Episode 3 :)

I am almost done :)… But there are just so many juicy bits in ep 4. See! The whump has been going on for four episodes now.

There is still so much evil scheming going on and Young is pushing himself to his limits to protect the King and yet he still has to keep himself together.

If the enemy would find out that the legendary invincible Captain of the Wu Dal Chi is at its weakest, they would be at the King like wolfs on a lamb.

So we get lots of moments like these.

Before the infection is too much for his body to handle.

He collapses and Eun Soo performs another surgery.

After he wakes up, he again has lots of kingly business to attend to, so he never really gets a chance to recover.

I feel like I just have to add a couple of gifs that show him fighting because he is really quite the badass when he is not being whumped. :)

But I digress again. Back to the whump.

We finally get the flashback to what happened to the other Jeol Gol Dea, as the King asks Young for his story.

It is heartbreaking and I won`t spoil it for you…

Retelling the painful memory took a lot out of Young.

He holds on until the King has left, but then collapses again. This time, he is down for good.

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He doesn’t wake up until the mid of episode 5.

While he is unconscious, we get glimpses into his head with those beautiful stylized shots. He is  icefishing with his father and gradually freezing over because he is slowly giving up and doesn’t want to come back. And we also get to see the flashback to the event that explains WHY he doesn’t want to come back to life.

He goes into cardiac arrest after reliving that memory.

He comes back when he hears Eun Soo’s plea and she reminds him about his promise to protect her.

Him waking up, is one of my favourite scenes. Dae Man is there (I love the relationship between those two) and blocks the too bright light for his Captain. It`s small things like that , why I love this show so much.

This is where I will leave it. The whump is definetly not over. (And I skipped a lot of moments) There is so much more going to come, but maybe I convinced you to check it out yourself. :)

Most of these episodes are on youtube but the beauty of K-Drama is, that it is available on free legal streaming apps like Dramafever.

I will not go into Cityhunter. This post is already way too long, but I will leave this little appetizer. :)

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The first minuscule shift and hint of a frown and faintest groan of a character regaining consciousness- all immediately noticed by their companion(s) keeping a watchful bedside vigil.