#poe whump

[letthewhumpbegin]

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

[reborrowing]

So the monster has decided to use you as a teddy bear.

[hufflepuffwritingstuff2]

This or That Gothic Edition Snippet 22- Secret Cellar

Inspired by my answers for this post by @blackrosesandwhump!  

Whumpee crept down through the cellar of the ancient house. It was at least a hundred years old, and the lichen grew on the stone walls in thick patches. It was in the middle of Carnival, and Whumpee’s friend had dared them to explore the cellar and bring back a bottle of wine as proof. Whumpee gulped and shuddered as a chill rushed through them. After what seemed like forever, they reached the bottom of the cellar. There was a small bit of wall that jutted out oddly. Whumpee paid it no mind, until they heard the muffled sound of chains rattling and a strange jingling.

Whumpee froze. They grabbed an old, dusty bottle from the wine rack. Amontillado. Sure, whatever. It didn’t matter what kind of wine it was, as long as it was, in fact, wine. Whumpee was ready to race back up when they heard it.

“LET ME OUT! FOR THE LOVE OF-”

Whumpee turned. Was someone… in there? Whumpee cautiously approached the patch of wall.

“Hello?” Whumpee asked.

“HELLO?”

Dear gosh. Someone was in there.

“S-stay there,” Whumpee said, then realized how stupid that sounded, “I-I’m going to get you out!”

“OH, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!”

Whumpee looked around for something they could use. Old mason’s tools lay at the foot of the wall, long since abandoned. Whumpee saw it then. A sledgehammer, very old but still in good condition. Whumpee lifted it, slamming it into the wall.

It took quite a few tries but the masonry eventually crumbled.

“Okay, let’s get you out of-”

Whumpee felt a scream die in their throat.

Skeletal remains lay in the crypt, bound in chains and wearing a jester’s hat with little bells on the ends. Whumpee stumbled back, breathing coming in quick and ragged. They turned, running up and out of the cellar.

“WAIT! WAIT! DON’T LEAVE ME! YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME! IT’S BEEN SO LONG! PLEASE!”

It had been fifty years since the crypt had been disturbed. The mason responsible would never be found. In pace requiescat!

...

As you've probably guessed, this was a fanmade sequel to Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado. Great piece of gothic horror, still scares me from time to time! I hope you enjoyed it!

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Tags:

@mythixmagic @infinityshadows @fishtale88 @thelazywitchphotographer @the-beasts-have-arrived @princessofonwardsworld @surplus-of-sarcasm @memepsychowhowantsuperpower-blog

@electrons2006

[kyan4everxd]

goretober day 4: ocean

are you buried in ice caps?

goretober day 5: betrayal

when you can't stand your new roomie🤪

prompts by @l0vely-w0undss @shocked-collar

[irritablepoe]

.... idk how that happened.

this is whump so mind the tags pls and ty

1/1 chapters; 2765 words

[re-whump]

Glass Eden - Entertainment

your pet lady-snake can have a little borrower, as a treat contains: giant/tiny (size difference), non-human whumpee (borrower and lamia/naga, both tiny), captivity, pet trope, dehumanization, forced to fight, communication barrier note: this is the same the piece posted on my other blog as "Snake Tank", but I'm moving the story over to this blog so I don't have to worry about """crossing a line"""" or whatever taglist @whumpsday

Poe

I threw myself against the glass one last, futile time as I heard the door on the far side of the study creak open. My fingers nearly brushed the lip of the prison I’d been placed in, nearly caught onto that ledge that might let me pry open the lid and make an escape. I was still in the air when I felt his eyes land on me. My fur stiffened as his heavy footsteps approached. His towering form blocked out what sunlight had filtered through the closed window as he sat at his desk.

“You quit that, now. You know you aren’t getting out. Unless you’d like to try speaking with me again?”

I turned to face him rather than wait for him to spin the jar I was sitting in. I slunk to the floor, drawing up my knees as if they could shield me from his . He looked annoyed this time, rather than intrigued. I shook my head and stared at my hands. It wasn’t as if I would want him to dump me into his cold hands even if he wasn’t upset. I was bruised enough.

“I don’t have anything else to say. Sir,” I said.

He rolled his eyes.

“There's no one else!" I insisted. “It’s just me, the others ran away months ago, I’m the only one left.”

It wasn’t the truth, though by now it was close. The Copper family had moved out after Mellie reported that the master of the house was now collecting dangerous, exotic pets in his showroom. It was just the most stubborn of us left, or the most foolish.

“What to do with you, then?” the master of the house hummed.

He tapped a finger on the glass thoughtfully, right behind my head, in case I needed the reminder that my skull was no larger than the tip of his finger. I grimaced and looked back up at his face, where his wide lips twisted into a grotesque smirk. I closed my eyes as they curled back and revealed his teeth. My stomach twisted as he kept talking.

“My …friends tell me your kind is more trouble than you’re worth, more often than not. But perhaps I could get some entertainment out of you?”

“Let me go, please. I’ll leave. I won’t bother you again,” I begged.

“Oh, but I do believe you owe me, little thief. How long have you been squatting here, hm?”

I slumped and curled in on myself. I had thought maybe, just maybe, if this guy cared for a zoo of strange animals, he might have a thread of compassion hiding in his oversized heartstrings. I’d—god, I had bet my life on it, hadn’t I? And now I was going to pay up.

Entertainment.

~~~

Hecate

A hand lifted away the log that I’d been curled up under.

I flinched awkwardly at the sudden light, then rolled to face the front of my enclosure. The man liked it when I “looked” at him. I couldn’t tell if he knew I was blind or not. All my eyes told me was that there was a large, blurry shadow standing over the tank. It could’ve been a tree, for all my eyes could understand.

I knew it was him though. I could sense his blazing warmth through other means. More importantly, I could smell him.

Then, the hands. The nice hands. The man. Hugh Morton.

I smelled something else, too, something new. Another person, maybe? I listened intently for another heartbeat, another guest. I didn’t want to be shown off right now. I wanted to go back to sleep.

His hand reached back down to ruffle my hair, then run a rough finger across my scales. He rumbled something about feeding and I slumped back down to crawl back to bed. I wasn't hungry enough to want to fight and for all the good these hands did, they never killed my meals for me like the last ones did.

"Don't be so fussy, Hecate, I’m giving you a treat,” he chided. The ground shook as he flicked a finger against the glass wall. “You must get bored lying around in there all night.”

I huffed and and backed into a better position, against the side of one of my ceramic caves. I was still nursing a bite on my flank from my last meal. 

I licked the air and frowned as Hugh slid open one half of the wall. This prey was not a creature I knew. Hugh’s hands dangled a warm shadow by a long tail, then flicked it into the soil and the prey squeaked as it landed. It didn’t smell like a rat or any other rodent I’d encountered before.

It did smell afraid.

It already understood it was being hunted. I didn’t like that. Scared meals fought back. I had scars to prove it.

Hugh scoffed in annoyance as the creature scrambled towards the opening in the glass. He knocked it back into the enclosure several times while I waited for a chance to strike.

“Don't make me break your legs," Hugh sighed.

The creature stopped moving. Strange. Its little heart was hot and hammering. Was it trained? Why would anyone take the time to train food? Maybe it was simply afraid of Hugh’s voice. 

I took advantage of its stillness and lunged. It turned to run in the split-second before we collided. It slammed into one of my open arms. I fumbled as it flailed, then got myself curled around it anyway.

It felt strange against my scales. Not furry. Not naked. Synthetic. Was it wrapped? Humans wrapped their food, but not mine. They used those crinkling papers. This was wrapped in something soft.

Was it clothed?

I hesitated in my confusion and the prey bit back. Something long and sharp stabbed in between two ventral scales. I flinched, hissing, and the prey slipped away. It left the sharp thing behind, but it didn’t bleed. I put a hand on the sharp thing and realized it wasn’t a tooth. It had some kind of handle. Plastic. The point was metal. Some kind of tiny knife? I swayed uncertainly and let the little creature run.

What was he feeding me?

~

Poe

It had never occurred to me that there might be peoples other than humans and my own kind living in this world. I wished I had the time to find out more about her.

The caged creature I had been placed with was, as most things were, comparatively massive. Its front was that of a vaguely humanoid woman, small, but still more than twice the size of my own top half. Her eyes were vacant and unfocussed. She was pale, fat, and lined with scars that told me she had much more experience than myself in fighting. 

The bulk of her body was what truly scared me. She was a python that trailed lazily across the near half of the terrarium. She was coiled, so I could only guess at her true length, but her girth was easy to make out. I regularly crawled through tunnels narrower than this snake, making it all too easy to understand what would happen to me. That the master of the house had returned my thumbtack seemed like a joke. I had no prayer here. This would be a cruel combination of all the worst deaths I'd been taught to fear—caught, crushed, and consumed.

As entertainment!

I wanted to refuse him the satisfaction. I let myself lie down and cry as the master of the house threw me back into the dirt with an unambiguous threat. I might as well. No one else would know to mourn me for weeks, even months.

It would turn out that my inborn will to survive was stronger than my desire to spite the host I'd lived under for so many years. I rolled out of the way, only a split second two late, as the snake woman pounced. She caught me in the crook of her elbow then shoved me into a wall of scaled muscle. The python whipped around me before I could take a breath. I barely had the space to think, never mind resist. It was sheer luck that wedged my thumbtack between two plates of her underbelly.

And it was enough. She spasmed and let go of me.

I fell forward into the dirt, coughing to refill my aching lungs. I don’t think she had left any part of me unbruised, though didn’t waste time taking inventory of my injuries.

“Hey, don’t let it get away now, girl, get up!"

I scowled up at the master of the house as I pushed onto my feet. There was nowhere for me to get away to, not while he was leering over the open door.

I didn't understand him.

I didn't understand how a thinking creature such as himself, with all his power and all his resources, would resort to blood sport for entertainment. The study I'd spent my life beneath had a beautiful library. Page after page told of the world's endless mysteries, of beauty and majesty and life for him to go out and pursue. And he would choose to spend his time watching some monster eat me alive.

I saw the snake-woman moving out of the corner of my eye. My stomach twisted at the utter silence of her movement over the dirt even before she started sliding towards me, and then it was like a switch went off in my head. Gone was higher thought, blown away by the sheer force of the ancient instinct to run.

The terrarium was full and well-decorated, with plenty of greenery both faux and alive as well as several dark spaces to hide. I doubted any would shelter me, this place had been built for her. 

I had nowhere to go and I ran and I ran and I hit the glass and I ran and there was a branch so I climbed it and I reached the ceiling and there was more glass and I turned around and there she was crawling after me and I jumped and her hand brushed my leg and I kicked and she fell  around me like an avalanche and it was over.

Her long body surrounded me and as soon as I moved, she struck. Walls of scales encased me again and this time, no tack would save me. Everything went dark.

Several seconds passed. She loosed her grip. I heard the master’s muffled voice droning through her flank. I took a breath and shuddered. Long minutes of silence passed and the knot she’d wrapped me in fell away. 

I admit I didn’t know much about snakes, but she didn’t seem to be very good at this.

I sprung to my feet, desperate to get at least a few inches between us again, but her hand wrapped around my face. She grabbed the back of my shirt’s neckline with her other hand and I thrashed as she pulled me off the ground.

Slowly, her palm pulled away from my face. She rubbed two fingers over my eyes, traced the curve of my nose, and drew a thumb across my lips. I bit down as hard as I could. She barely flinched, just wiped a little blood off on the side of my face.

“Beb?” she croaked.

Her blank eyes narrowed in concentration as her tongue flicked out of her mouth and brushed against my nose. Tasting me. Her lips twitched. I felt cold.

“No, please! Please, please, please, kill me first, please,” I cried.

She tilted her head to the side. Her tongue flickered twice more and both times I flinched. She babbled something in a tortured voice. 

“Please,” I begged. “If you can even understand me, please, just kill me before you eat me. I don’t want to suffer.” 

She frowned and hissed several times. My blood trembled through my veins. She slowly shaped her tongue around some word I did not know. She patted my head and sighed, then set me gently on the dirt beside her and slithered away.

~

Hecate

The prey had the face of a person.

The little thing was clever enough to talk, but not smart enough to understand me. They were small like a hatchling. They ran on legs like a bird. 

They screamed and cried so once Hugh gave up on watching me eat, I let the little one have some space, whatever they were.

I hoped they would come back to me. They were very warm. Like the sun, but in a person. Like food. Like Hugh.

Like this lovely little cave in the back of the tank. I curled up and burrowed into myself for a cozy rest.

I hoped they wouldn’t try to kill me while I slept.

[sickficideas]

A trope that I've always liked and I think isn't used enough is coming round from anesthetic.

I thought it would be good for Lucy. She has braces in her first appearance in the show so I am assuming she has crooked teeth. I headcanon she had to have her wisdom teeth removed and Poe went with her. He has to deal with her all loopy and drive her home

anon I love you for this I think this is the first Lucy related headcanon I've received here and I love it so muchhhh I love her 😭 I do really love the idea of Poe looking after her in general even though we never see them interact I think it'd be very entertaining bc of the strong vs weak personalities between the two of them, and him taking care of her, he'd be so frazzled lol 😭 maybe at first her recovery is all fine but a few hours into it after the drugs wear off she's miserable and crying and Poe is like AHHH please don't cry what do I doooo😭😭😭

[cepheusgalaxy]

I finished Bungo Stray Dogs

And I remembered why I don't finish things

GOSH THE EMOTIONAL HIT AT THE END GOT ME SCREAMING HERE

BECAUSE IT CAME OUT OF F U C K I N G N O W H E R E

LIKE WTF??????

Fukuzawa was there, sad because his childhood friend died and everything, and I was already not expecting that his final goal was to fucking start world peace or whatever (i honestly find his methods questionable) and then he tried destroying the One Order, couldn't and Ranpo comes closer and says something in the lines of "You can't... That's the 'curse' you inflicted upon yourself." And then he cries, I cry, you cry, the ending theme ends with me singing along and thinking "well that was an enjoyable ride, I'd go again, pretty gay if you want my opinion," and BUM, the narrator goes:

"Two hours later:"

And guess what, crazy moon god is there attacking Atsushi our boy, Akutagawa comes in and saves him--his design got an U P D A T E and nobody warned me--and they're like "heh, seems like we've gotta finish that tale Fukichi bitch started right" and Atsushi's like "But just the two of us?" and I'm like "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE TWO OF YOU" and Akutagawa is like "Heh,

do we need anything else?"

And then they fucking GO and it explodes and I'm like WHAT THE FUCK and then the fucking thing just pops

"This is not the end."

I need a minute

[flowercrowngods]

being my friend is fun i swear (except you’re @bethespark and have to deal with this)

*this is why mom doesn’t fucking love you vine in the distance*

[ronanziriano]

The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allen Poe, 1962 ed. published by Brown, Watson Ltd.

[firealder2005]

A Month of Whump: Winter Whumperland Day 8. Holiday Haunting~Revenge Whump~Head Injury

Featuring: The Sequel gang + Grogu going on a ghost hunt for family bonding time! Unfortunately, they meet some bad guys :-(

also background dinluke! my fellow dinlukes there is dinluke! yay!

THIS WILL BE A MULTICHAP!!! double Yay!!!

@amonthofwhump

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43481979/chapters/109311969

Enjoy!

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Rey turned to her brother, Finn, who’s eyes were wide and she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder at his fearful expression.

“Don’t worry Finn!” Rey’s girlfriend, Rose Tico, excitedly exclaimed. “I managed to smuggle this bag out of my father’s shop!” she held out her satin pouch. “It’s full of crystal necklaces and protection stones! Plus,” she held up her pointer finger and fished out a spray bottle from her backpack. “I brought holy water!”

Rey grinned at her girlfriend’s excitability, and gently touched the amethyst necklace Rose had given her on their one month anniversary.

“It’ll protect your aura and draw in divine energy!” Rose had told her, with that cheeky grin on her face. Rey had immediately put the necklace on and hadn’t taken it off since, giving the amethyst necklace the same careful treatment as the citrine one her father gave her when he and buir adopted her from the run-down town of Jakku.

While Rey wasn’t quite sure what to believe when it came to psychics, crystals, and mediums, she was very certain that the supernatural existed.

When you lived with two dads and two brothers, one of each being highly receptive to supernatural energies, you became a believer.

“Can I have that holy water in a nerfgun then?” the annoying voice of Poe asked. “You know. So I can shoot the ghosts instead of having to wave a crystal around?”

Rose shot a glare at Poe’s grinning face, and Finn gave a small shake of his head at his boyfriend’s antics, before accepting a bracelet of what Rey recognized as ApacheTear, also known as clear Black Obsidian. Good for protecting the aura from negative energies, Rey remembered from her father’s infodumps.

Honestly, it was no surprise that Luke and Rose got along like a house on fire with how diehard they both are about the mystical world.

“Don’t even try to force one of those useless trinkets on me!” Rey huffed as Armitage Hux, her cousin Ben’s friend (possibly boyfriend? She wasn’t sure what they were.), shoved his way past Poe, who glared at the ginger teen.

As much as Poe purposely antagonized Rose, it was done in jest and never with any malicious intent.

Hux, however, was another matter.

Poe, Ben, and Hux were all nineteen, graduated from Chandrila High School the year before, but Poe had preferred to hang out with the year younger Finn - and therefore her and Rose who were two years younger than Rey’s younger brother.

Honestly, Rey thought the only reason why Ben and Hux had joined them was because Rey’s oldest brother, 21 year old Grogu, had forced them along for some family bonding time.

Others definition of “Family Bonding Time” might be board games, a movie, or a night out for dinner.

But in the Skywalker-Djarin-Organa-Solo household, it meant ghost hunting.

“Don’t worry Hux,” Rose said with a sickly-sweet smile. “I wasn’t going to - a ghost can rile you up for all I care.” Hux sneered before turning away.

Hux was very vocal of his skepticism in the paranormal, and oftentimes got into hot debates with Rose over the existence of spirits, ghosts, and demons.

Rose, as one might think, was Hux’s diametrical opposite. Where Hux wore neat and trim black clothing and slicked back his ginger hair, Rose preferred marked-up blue jeans, ratty shirts (like the “I Am Not Normal, I Am Paranormal” one she was wearing tonight), paint-splattered tennis shoes, and (for some reason Rey has yet to find out) fingerless black gloves. Her black hair was kept in a messy ponytail, and Rey could still see some spots of paint her girlfriend had forgotten to wash out.

Rey herself liked to wear leggings, though hers were full of holes and appeared to only be held together by a few pathetic-looking strands of thread. She wore a shirt Rose had given her for this occasion, white with the words “Real Girls Go Ghost Hunting” in spooky writing and a black jacket she had nabbed from her father’s closet.

It was amusing she and Luke were the same height, and they often stole clothes from each other’s rooms.

Finn and Poe wore normal clothes, though Poe (for some reason) had brought a pair of shades with him.

Rey didn’t understand the Guatemalan-American man sometimes. She probably never will.

Her cousin Ben had been sulking in the shadows, as per usual, while Grogu was preparing his camera for any documentation they came across.

All in all, Rey thought wryly, they were quite the bunch.

“Soooo…” Poe drew out the ‘o’. “What’s the spookiness behind this place?”

“In 1985 police were called to answer a disturbance reported by the neighbors,” Rose explained. “And boy was it a disturbance.”

“Was somebody murdered?” Poe asked with a joking grin.

“Yep.” Grogu answered, still engrossed in his camera.

A silence fell between them all, before it was broken by Hux’s disdainful sniff.

“The only reason I’m here,” the ginger drawled. “Is to prove that all this ghost nonsense is all make-believe and Tico’s trinkets are nothing more than a scam.”

Rose scowled, but everyone kept their mouths shut when Grogu slid into the conversation.

“Okay,” the Hispanic man said. “Here’s the deal,” he gave them all the look Rey and Finn had fondly labeled the “Stink-And-Die Eye”. “I am aware we all have differing…opinions on the supernatural,” he shot Hux and Poe a look. “But we are here to have fun. If I hear any arguments, it’s a one-way ticket back to the van where there is no heater running.” he stared at all of them now. “So, unless you want to sit in the cold van all alone for the rest of the night, I suggest everyone keep their opinions to themselves and try to have fun. Capeesh?” Grogu raised an eyebrow.

Rey was quick to nod her consent, followed by the vigorous nod from Rose. Finn smiled while Poe flipped a peace-sign. Ben gave a small nod while Hux glared, but an elbow from the man beside him made him mutter in acknowledgement.

“Good,” Grogu said, turning to the large, sprawling abandoned building before them. “Then welcome to Exegol Manufacturing. Famous for it’s one-time boom of business, and infamous for the triple murder that took place inside it.” Rey grinned as Grogu did jazz-hands. “Legend has it that every night, the ghost of the murderer wanders the building, looking for the souls of the victims he killed so he can end their very existence once and for all.”

Finn let out a squeak of terror while Poe whistled.

“That’s some tale there, Grogu.” he said. “You gave me goosebumps.”

Grogu gave him an unimpressed look.

“No, really, you did! Look!” Poe unrolled his jacket sleeve and sure enough, goosebumps ran all along his arm.

Then Grogu’s whitebox went off, and everyone jumped as a soft, quiet voice said; 

Run.

[letthewhumpbegin]

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

[reborrowing]

snake tank (part one maybe?)

little snake lady can have a borrower. as a treat. ~2100 words cw: captivity, dehumanization, neglect, cruelty, violence, fear, pet…treatment? - I don’t want to call it pet trope because that implies sentient pets are normalized and this is weird and awful in-universe as well. not actually vore! idc if you interact from that side of tumblr, but you'll be disappointed if that's what you're hoping for

Poe

I threw myself against the glass one last, futile time as I heard the door on the far side of the study creak open. My fingers nearly brushed the lip of the prison I’d been placed in, nearly caught onto that ledge that might let me pry open the lid and make an escape. I was still in the air when I felt his eyes land on me. My fur stiffened as his heavy footsteps approached. His towering form blocked out what sunlight had filtered through the closed window as he sat at his desk.

“You quit that, now. You know you aren’t getting out. Unless you’d like to try speaking with me again?”

I turned to face him rather than wait for him to spin the jar I was sitting in. I slunk to the floor, drawing up my knees as if they could shield me from his . He looked annoyed this time, rather than intrigued. I shook my head and stared at my hands. It wasn’t as if I would want him to dump me into his cold hands even if he wasn’t upset. I was bruised enough.

“I don’t have anything else to say. Sir,” I said.

He rolled his eyes.

“There's no one else!" I insisted. “It’s just me, the others ran away months ago, I’m the only one left.”

It wasn’t the truth, though by now it was close. The Copper family had moved out after Mellie reported that the master of the house was now collecting dangerous, exotic pets in his showroom. It was just the most stubborn of us left, or the most foolish.

“What to do with you, then?” the master of the house hummed.

He tapped a finger on the glass thoughtfully, right behind my head, in case I needed the reminder that my skull was no larger than the tip of his finger. I grimaced and looked back up at his face, where his wide lips twisted into a grotesque smirk. I closed my eyes as they curled back and revealed his teeth. My stomach twisted as he kept talking.

“My …friends tell me your kind is more trouble than you’re worth. But perhaps I could get some entertainment out of you?”

“Let me go, please. I’ll leave. I won’t bother you again,” I begged.

“Oh, but I do believe you owe me, little thief. How long have you been squatting here, hm?”

I slumped and curled in on myself. I had thought maybe, just maybe, if this guy cared for a zoo of strange animals, he might have a thread of compassion hiding in his oversized heartstrings. I’d—god, I had bet my life on it, hadn’t I? And now I was going to pay up.

Entertainment.

~

Hecate

A hand lifted away the log that I’d been curled up under.

I flinched awkwardly at the sudden light, then rolled to face the front of my enclosure. The man liked it when I “looked” at him. I couldn’t tell if he knew I was blind or not. All my eyes told me was that there was a large, blurry shadow standing over the tank. It could’ve been a tree, for all my eyes could understand.

I knew it was him though. I could sense his blazing warmth through other means. More importantly, I could smell him.

The hands. The nice hands. The man. Hugh Morton.

I smelled something else, too, something new. Another person, maybe? I listened intently for another heartbeat, another guest. I didn’t want to be shown off right now. I wanted to go back to sleep.

His hand reached back down to ruffle my hair, then run a rough finger across my scales. He rumbled something about feeding and I slumped back down to crawl back to bed. I wasn't hungry enough to want to fight and for all the good these hands did, they never killed my meals for me like the last ones did.

"Don't be so fussy, Hecate, I’m giving you a treat,” he chided. The ground shook as he flicked a finger against the glass wall. “You must get bored lying around in there all night.”

I huffed and and backed into a better position, against the side of one of my ceramic caves. I was still nursing a bite on my flank from my last dinner. 

I licked the air as Hugh slid open one half of the wall. I frowned. The prey was not a creature I knew. Hugh’s hands dangled a warm shadow by a long tail, then flicked it into the soil and the prey squeaked as it landed. It didn’t smell like a rat or any other rodent I’d encountered before. It did smell afraid.

It already understood it was being hunted. I didn’t like that. Scared meals fought back. I had scars to prove it.

Hugh scoffed in annoyance as the creature scrambled towards the opening in the glass. He knocked it back into the enclosure several times while I waited for a chance to strike.

“Don't make me break your legs," Hugh sighed.

The creature stopped moving. Strange. Its little heart was hot and hammering. Was it trained? Why would anyone take the time to train food?

Maybe it was afraid of Hugh’s voice. 

I took advantage of its stillness and lunged. It turned to run in the split-second before we collided. It slammed into one of my open arms. I fumbled as it flailed, then got myself curled around it anyway.

It felt strange against my scales. Not furry. Not naked. Synthetic. Was it wrapped? Humans wrapped their food, but not mine. They used those crinkling papers. This was wrapped in something soft.

Was it clothed?

I hesitated in my confusion and the prey bit back. Something long and sharp stabbed in between two ventral scales. I flinched, hissing, and the prey slipped away. It left the sharp thing behind, but it didn’t bleed. I put a hand on the sharp thing and realized it wasn’t a tooth. It had some kind of handle. Plastic. The point was metal. Some kind of tiny knife? I swayed uncertainly and let the little creature run.

What was he feeding me?

~

Poe

It had never occurred to me that there might be peoples other than humans and my own kind living in this world. I wish I had the time to found out.

The caged creature I had been placed with was, as most things were, comparatively massive. Its front was that of a vaguely humanoid woman, small, but still at least twice the size of my own top half. Her eyes were vacant and unfocussed. She was pale, fat, and lined with scars that told me she had much more experience than myself in fighting. 

The bulk of her body was what truly scared me. She was a python that trailed lazily across the near half of the terrarium. She was coiled, so I could only guess at her true length, but her girth was easy to make out. I regularly crawled through tunnels narrower than this snake, making it all too easy to understand what would happen to me. That the master of the house had returned my thumbtack seemed like a joke. I had no prayer here. This would be a cruel combination of all the worst deaths I'd been taught to fear—caught, crushed, and consumed.

Entertainment!

I wanted to refuse him the satisfaction. I let myself lie down and cry as the master of the house threw me back into the dirt with an unambiguous threat. I might as well. No one else would know to mourn me for weeks, even months.

It would turn out that my inborn will to survive was stronger than my desire to spite the host I'd lived under for so many years. I rolled out of the way, only a split second two late, as the snake woman pounced. She caught me in the crook of her elbow then shoved me into a wall of scaled muscle. The python whipped around me before I could take a breath. I barely had the space to think, never mind resist. It was sheer luck that wedged my thumbtack between two plates of her underbelly.

And it was enough. She spasmed and let go of me.

I fell forward into the dirt, coughing to refill my aching lungs. I don’t think she had left any part of me unbruised, though didn’t waste time taking inventory of my injuries.

“Hey, don’t let it get away now, girl, get up!"

I scowled up at the master of the house as I pushed onto my feet. There was nowhere for me to get away to, not while he was leering over the open door.

I didn't understand him.

I didn't understand how a thinking creature such as himself, with all his power and all his resources, would resort to blood sport for entertainment. The study I'd spent my life beneath had a beautiful library. Page after page told of the world's endless mysteries, of beauty and majesty and life for him to go out and pursue. And he would choose to spend his time watching some monster eat me alive.

I saw the snake-woman moving out of the corner of my eye. My stomach twisted at the utter silence of her movement over the dirt even before she started sliding towards me, and then it was like a switch went off in my head. Gone was higher thought, blown away by the sheer force of the ancient instinct to run.

The terrarium was full and well-decorated, with plenty of greenery both faux and alive as well as several dark spaces to hide. I doubted any would shelter me, this place had been built for her. 

I had nowhere to go and I ran and I ran and I hit the glass and I ran and there was a branch so I climbed it and I reached the ceiling and there was more glass and I turned around and there she was crawling after me and I jumped and her hand brushed my leg and I kicked and she fell  around me like an avalanche and it was over.

Her long body surrounded me and as soon as I moved, she struck. Walls of scales encased me again and this time, no tack would save me. Everything went dark.

Several seconds passed. She loosed her grip. I heard the master’s muffled voice droning through her flank. I took a breath and shuddered. Long minutes of silence passed and the knot she’d wrapped me in fell away. 

I admit I didn’t know much about snakes, but she didn’t seem to be very good at this.

I sprung to my feet, desperate to get at least a few inches between us again, but her hand wrapped around my face. She grabbed the back of my shirt’s neckline with her other hand and I thrashed as she pulled me off the ground.

Slowly, her palm pulled away from my face. She rubbed two fingers over my eyes, traced the curve of my nose, and drew a thumb across my lips. I bit down as hard as I could. She barely flinched, just wiped a little blood off on the side of my face.

“Beb?” she croaked.

Her blank eyes narrowed in concentration as her tongue flicked out of her mouth and brushed against my nose. Tasting me. Her lips twitched. I felt cold.

“No, please! Please, please, please, kill me first, please,” I cried.

She tilted her head to the side. Her tongue flickered twice more and both times I flinched. She babbled something in a tortured voice. 

“Please,” I begged. “If you can even understand me, please, just kill me before you eat me. I don’t want to suffer.” 

She frowned and hissed several times. My blood trembled through my veins. She slowly shaped her tongue around some word I did not know. She patted my head and sighed, then set me gently on the dirt beside her and slithered away.

~

Hecate

The prey had the face of a person.

The little thing was clever enough to talk, but not smart enough to understand me. They were small like a hatchling. They ran on legs like a bird. 

They screamed and cried so I let the little one have some space, whatever they were.

I hoped they would come back to me. They were very warm. Like the sun, but in a person. Like food. Like Hugh.

Like this lovely little cave in the back of the tank. I curled up and burrowed into myself for a cozy rest.

I hoped they wouldn’t try to kill me.

[much-obliged-timothy]

Winter Whumperland #3

Star Wars - #3 - Public Whump

*

“Do we know how they got him?” Rey asked.

Leia’s expression was grave. “They shot him down. A stray shot damaged his systems and his control faltered at the wrong moment.”

“Finn?” Rey asked anxiously.

“They’re organizing a rescue,” Leia said. She held herself upright as always, but her eyes were pained. “I ordered him to distract them to buy the others more time.”

“You can’t possibly blame yourself for this,” Rey said, shaking her head. “We all know the risks, Leia.”

Leia didn’t respond. Instead, she kept her eyes fixed on the broadcast being aired across the galaxy.

A broadcast that Finn watched as well, pacing back and forth on the ship as they slowly moved into position. Their rescue would not be in time to stop this; they knew that. But they couldn’t be risky with so many Stormtroopers in the area. A slow approach was their best bet to rescue Poe without getting him killed.

Because right now, he was chained at the wrists to a pole in a public square heavily guarded by Stormtroopers. Onlookers gathered, some solemn, others curious. 

Blood was drying in Poe’s hair from a head wound he’d suffered when his ship was shot down. Despite the hunched over position they’d forced him into with the way they’d chained him up, he kept his head held up defiantly, eyes hard.

“Here we have a traitor. A rebel, trying to undo the order and peace that the First Order has brought to the galaxy,” an officer declared. Finn didn’t recognize the woman, but she clearly held power in the area, because the gathered citizens had grown anxious as she spoke. “This man, as will all others who so violently oppose us, will suffer the consequences of his decision. How many innocent lives have his foolish acts of rebellion cost? How many men and women have died at his hand just trying to best serve the galaxy? He will feel all their pain.”

“Whips and chains have never really been my thing,” Poe said as the woman was handed a whip by a Stormtrooper. “Exposing the lies of a corrupt government? Now, that’s my thing.”

“Silence!” She cracked the whip over his back, nearly toppling him over as the sound reverberated through the suddenly silent area.

Finn pressed his knuckles to his mouth, unable to look away from the pain on Poe’s face. But Poe schooled his expression back into defiance with a barely noticeable effort.

“This is your idea of peace, huh?” Poe said. “Take notes, ladies and gentlemen.”

Another crack of the whip, this one even harsher. Poe opened his mouth to spit out another comeback, but the whip was faster.

Over and over they struck him, until Finn saw the defiance overtaken by the pain. He didn’t even realize they’d landed until someone put a hand on his shoulder.

He moved without hesitation, following the others off the ship. They hurried to the gathered crowd, casually pushing their way through to the front.

Up close, it was even worse. Finn watched Poe being struck, his face twisted with agony, his wrists bloodied from how hard he pulled on the chains with each strike. His shirt had torn from the vicious, relentless strikes and blood ran down Poe’s back. Sweat coated his face as he struggled to choke back his own cries of pain, failing as a particularly hard strike collided with the ruined flesh of his back.

A glint of light on one of the roofs was all Finn needed to spring into action as the blaster fire started. A shot took down the woman with the whip as she brought it up for another strike, and the Stormtroopers fell beneath the force of it, caught off guard.

Finn fired at them as relentlessly as that woman had attacked Poe. “Cover me!”

He ran to Poe’s side and fired at the chains until they snapped. Poe slumped to the ground and Finn hastily got under him, pulling him up and dragging him along.

“Poe, Poe stay with me,” Finn said. “We’re here. You’re okay.”

He was not okay. His back was a horrific mess and his wrists were bleeding badly. The cut on his head was bleeding again. He was stumbling along, barely conscious and groaning in pain as he tried to keep up.

“C’mon, buddy, stay with me,” Finn encouraged, his heart torn at the sight of someone like Poe so broken down and beaten.

He should be a hero to the galaxy. Instead, he was beaten for the galaxy to watch.

“Finn,” Poe managed, his voice ragged. “T-Thank…you.”

“No, Poe,” Finn whispered, because if it wasn’t for Poe, Finn might’ve been one of the Stormtroopers standing around watching that happen and thinking it was just another part of the job. “Thank you.”

They limped on, horrifically beaten, but never broken so long as they were still around to carry each other to safety.

[kyan4everxd]

goretober day 3: cannibalism

which flavour muffin would you like? frank or len? lol

prompt by @l0vely-w0undss @shocked-collar

[classywhump]

"For Annie"

By Edgar Allen Poe

Thank Heaven! the crisis,

The danger, is past,

And the lingering illness

Is over at last—

And the fever called "Living"

Is conquered at last.

Sadly, I know

I am shorn of my strength,

And no muscle I move

As I lie at full length—

But no matter!—I feel

I am better at length.

And I rest so composedly,

Now, in my bed,

That any beholder

Might fancy me dead—

Might start at beholding me,

Thinking me dead.

The moaning and groaning,

The sighing and sobbing,

Are quieted now,

With that horrible throbbing

At heart:—ah, that horrible,

Horrible throbbing!

The sickness—the nausea—

The pitiless pain—

Have ceased, with the fever

That maddened my brain—

With the fever called "Living"

That burned in my brain.

And oh! of all tortures

That torture the worst

Has abated—the terrible

Torture of thirst

For the naphthaline river

Of Passion accurst:—

I have drank of a water

That quenches all thirst:—

Of a water that flows,

With a lullaby sound,

From a spring but a very few

Feet under ground—

From a cavern not very far

Down under ground.

And ah! let it never

Be foolishly said

That my room it is gloomy

And narrow my bed;

For man never slept

In a different bed—

And, to sleep, you must slumber

In just such a bed.

My tantalized spirit

Here blandly reposes,

Forgetting, or never

Regretting, its roses—

Its old agitations

Of myrtles and roses:

For now, while so quietly

Lying, it fancies

A holier odor

About it, of pansies—

A rosemary odor,

Commingled with pansies—

With rue and the beautiful

Puritan pansies.

And so it lies happily,

Bathing in many

A dream of the truth

And the beauty of Annie—

Drowned in a bath

Of the tresses of Annie.

She tenderly kissed me,

She fondly caressed,

And then I fell gently

To sleep on her breast—

Deeply to sleep

From the heaven of her breast.

When the light was extinguished,

She covered me warm,

And she prayed to the angels

To keep me from harm—

To the queen of the angels

To shield me from harm.

And I lie so composedly,

Now, in my bed,

(Knowing her love)

That you fancy me dead—

And I rest so contentedly,

Now in my bed

(With her love at my breast).

That you fancy me dead—

That you shudder to look at me,

Thinking me dead:—

But my heart it is brighter

Than all of the many

Stars in the sky,

For it sparkles with Annie—

It glows with the light

Of the love of my Annie—

With the thought of the light

Of the eyes of my Annie.