#oc chimalus belyn

[geode-crystal]

Magic Whump Week, Shocking Grasp

Magic Whump Week. Day 3: Human Battery/ "Give us more"

Dipping into my DnD wizard's backstory! Excited to share this one, since I absolutely adore @kabie-whump 's boi Ventis and am honored to join the ranks of DnD whump!

560 words.

Characters: Chimalus (the wizard), Merrick (their non-wizard father)

CW: parental abuse (mostly emotional at this stage, no physical blows exchanged), magic whump, trauma responses, kinda sort of vaguely in the Conditioned Whumpee territory?

And probably does not match the DnD rules as written but hey, we have fun here.

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Shocking Grasp was such a simple spell. It cost so little to cast. And it yielded devastating results.

So it was no real wonder to Chimalus that their father wanted to use it in one of his… experiments.

It was another invention, this time. Another attempt to combine magic with mechanical structure. Honestly, Chimalus almost found that a relief. They, personally, would not be the one tested today.

Their comfort was short lived. Setting foot in their father’s stark room assaulted them with memories. Made them stand rigid, trying to stop themself from shaking.

Their father hated it when they trembled. It only made him angry much, much faster. Faster even than failure.

But this time, their task was so wonderfully simple. Not even worth trembling about. All they had to do was use their magic to power the machine. That was it. They were used to much more difficult experiments. Ones that were far more draining. Far more painful. Shocking Grasp didn’t even carry the risk of any backlash. Unlike other spells. Unlike other things their father had asked of them.    

They wouldn’t fail. They couldn’t. Too many spells, too many experiments had already gone wrong. And it was all Chimalus’ fault. Merrick had made that very clear.

Another failure meant incurring Merrick’s wrath. Again. Chimalus couldn’t afford that.

They would not fail this time.  

Everything would be fine.

That was what Chimalus kept telling themself. If nothing else, it led to them being almost eager to use the spell again and again. It was easy. Something even Chimalus couldn’t possibly mess up.

It started off well. Chimalus grabbed hold of the machine part that Merrick ordered them to hold. And they cast their spell. Once. Twice. The little sparks of lightning danced in their vision. It was almost beautiful, in a haunting sort of way. And Chimalus didn’t feel tired at all.

Not at first.

They quickly lost track of how many times they cast. Their voice was ragged from speaking the words over and over. Their free hand burned with exhaustion from the repeated gesture, however subtle that gesture was. But their father was so much more encouraging than usual. When he wasn’t muttering under his breath, or tinkering with something in the machine, he was actually speaking to them. And he was speaking in that way that told Chimalus that he was actually focused on them. On their task.

“That’s it, Chimalus. Go on.”

So Chimalus kept at it, filled both with renewed purpose and an odd sense of relief.

Then Merrick’s tone shifted.

Chimalus’ blood ran cold.

“Come now, Chimalus. You can do better than that.”

And Chimalus tried. They tried to do better.

“You must be stronger, Chimalus. I need more.”

Chimalus understood. He needed more from them.

He always needed more from them.

And Chimalus just had to provide.

So they pushed themself. They gave everything their father wanted. More power. More focus. More energy. More of themself. Each repeat of the spell made them more exhausted. Exhausted enough to give into those treacherous shivers.

But it was fine. Everything was fine. They would push through, they would get past this, and Merrick would be happy. Happy enough, perhaps, to leave them alone for the rest of the day. Happy enough for Chimalus to avoid any type of punishment.

After all, Shocking Grasp was such a simple spell…