FFXIVWrite Day 4: Off The Hook
It was a warm and sunny summer day in the Eastern Highlands. A young Elezen boy with silver hair pulled back into a ponytail sat on a boulder by a creek in a forest with a fishing rod in hand. He couldn't remember how long he sat there for, but he could at least tell the sun shifted in its position. Where it was sunny before, now there was shade, making it more difficult for him to spot fish. He considered moving position, but why should he? He finished his chores for the day, did he not? What's the rush?
"ESTINIEN?!"
The boy turned his head at the loud screech of his name, recognizing who screeched it immediately. Along scurried his little brother of just under seven summers, sporting the same silver hair and gray tunic as him- his hair was just shorter and his tunic was just smaller.
Estinien raised a finger to his lips and made a loud, "SHHHHHH!" before harshly whispering, "Shut up! You'll scare off the fish!"
"Oh." Hamignant shuffled his feet. "Sorry", he whispered back.
"What do you want?"
"Mama said I should find you."
"What for?"
"She told me that I need to do something with you."
"What? Why?"
"She said I need fresh air."
Estinien sighed agitatedly. "Well, don't scream any more."
"Fine." Hamignant used his tinier hands and feet to climb the boulder and sit next to his big brother. The younger brother stared into the water. "Isn't it harder to see fish here?"
"I mean...a little, but that's why I need to concentrate."
"What's that mean? Con-sa-tray?"
"No, it's con-cen-trate. It means I need to pay attention, and I can't do that if you keep talking."
"Oh." Hamignant stayed quiet and watched his big brother as he focused solely on his fishing exploits. It took all of fifteen seconds for the younger sibling to ask, "How many fish are there?"
"Wh-- how should I know that?"
"You're big brother. You know everything."
"Well, I don't know that, Hamignant." Hamignant went back to watching the water. "Can we do something else?"
"You're the one who came to me, and I'm fishing. If you want to do something else, go do it somewhere else."
"You're mean", Hamignant curled his knees to his chest and hugged them while pouting. Estinien went right back to the water, ignoring his brother's futile efforts at garnering sympathy. For a few minutes, he was quiet, much to Estinien's relief, but just as he started falling into complacency, Hamignant decided now was the time to become a songwriter. Softly, he sang, "Fish, Dish, Wish, Smish, Pish, Kish, Lish" much like a song for the Eorzean alphabet they learned at one point.
Estinien started growling to himself, ready to cast aside fishing to scare off Hamignant. Thankfully, a pull against his line made him stop his preparations. With one tug, Estinien gasped.
"What?" Hamignant stopped singing to ask.
"Shh", Estinien shushed as he kept his eye. There was one more pull at his line, but nothing sank yet. "What's going on, Estinien?" Just as he asked that question, his hook sank. Estinien excitedly reeled in his first catch of the day. "Finally!"
"Whoa! You caught one, Estinien! You caught one!" The boy pulled his triumph towards him and unhooked it. "Wow, it's small!" Hamignant pointed out.
"Yeah, it is", Estinien agreed nonchalantly. "It's just a guppy. I'm not looking to catch fish to eat" With that, Estinien threw it back into the waters. "Well, now what?"
"I'm not sure. Wanna skip rocks at the lake?" Estinien suggested.
"Sure!"
Estinien and Hamignant climbed off the rock together and made their way south, following the direction of the water flow in the creek. "What happens when we leave this spot, Estinien?"
"It stays there. It'll be there tomorrow."
"Can we come back and see it again?"
"Sure. After I finish chores tomorrow, I'm coming right back."
"What if you have to watch the sheep again tomorrow?"
"Even better. I'll come back the day after."
Hamignant looked around the forest. "Could you catch squid here?"
"Squid? I've never seen a squid here. I think they're in the ocean, aren't they?"
"Ooh, ooh, ooh! I heard that it's got a bunch of slimy legs and people eat them!"
"No they don't! Stop being gross!"
Hamignant laughed and argued, "Yes they do! I heard it from Rosimperic who heard it from a fisherman from Gridania!"
"Rosimperic's messing with you!"
After that, the youngest picked up his pace into a sprint. "Race you to the lake!" Estinien put on a smirk and accepted the challenge, entering into his own sprint and chasing after Hamignant, the two boys running to enjoy a summer afternoon.
------
It was a summer afternoon, not that anyone could tell by looks alone. Never mind what eternal winter did, and never mind what Nidhogg did. Eastern Coerthas formed into a land beyond recognition thanks to Dalamud landing. Even with the destruction that ravaged this land, perhaps even in spite of it, a boulder yet stood. It had cracks, it had plenty chipped off of it, but that boulder would not bow to anything, no matter how apocalyptic.
Ice and sleet cracked under the footsteps of the former Azure Dragoon as he stepped towards this boulder. Upon reaching it, he laid down his lance against the rock and sat down on it. Fury, he remembered this boulder being much bigger.
Even if Bahamut hadn't come, Nidhogg razed this land and left the creek that once flowed through here untenable for any life. He could never fish here again. Still, he stared down at what was once a frequently visited fishing spot, thinking about the guppies he would catch and release, thinking about teaching Hamignant how to fish here when he grew too old for this stream, thinking about how Hamignant ran towards him to join him, thinking about how he and Hamignant would hold their childish contests and play their games.
Thinking about Hamignant.
Thinking about how Hamignant deserved to be here with him.
Thinking of how he could have taken Hamignant with him on his new journey.
Thinking of how Alphinaud wept at his bedside, and how for a singular moment, he could have sworn they were the sobs of Hamignant.
The specters of childhood yet remained even in this blighted land, but who was he to judge? It was as ravaged by Nidhogg's rancor as he was.
He gripped against the rock, moving his fingers about to find it. The mark that made this his rock. Soon, he felt it. Engraved along the side of it, he felt their initials along his fingertips. The calamity couldn't strip this boulder of his effect. Nidhogg couldn't strip it. This was their rock.
"You like that, Hamignant? We did that", Estinien spoke aloud.
Perhaps there was something in the wind, but he felt just the slightest bit chillier. "Don't worry. I've no intention of sticking around here. I simply wish to see it one more time." And so he did. As he looked, his index finger circled around Hamignant's initials.
There was a tightness in Estinien's chest. "You were made an object of my vengeance. You, mother, father...you deserved better. Your memories should not have been sullied so. Please, forgive me."
He stared into the endless winter, unforgiving and unrelenting. "This is a rock. I'm talking to a rock." He sniffled slightly. "...I think I needed to talk to a rock."
Against the white blanket of snow, there was yet a piece of green that stood in defiance. As he focused on it, he recognized it as a baby pine. Even in the fecund soils of Eastern Coerthas, perhaps even in spite of them, it dared to grow anew. "Heh." Estinien stood up and knelt before the sprout. "Well...if you're intent on growing, then so am I." He grabbed hold of his lance and replaced it on his back, then he turned away from the boulder, and began his journey anew.
"This will still be here tomorrow, after all."
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Whump Reference Post for Fingernail Removal Torture
Hi whump writers of Tumblr! I recently made a little introduction post in which I said I’d be making reference posts. This is one I already had typed up, because for some reason this was the first thing I thought of.
There are no images attached, but I’m putting the rest of the post under a readmore since the majority of the content is semi-graphic written description of the how-to’s and wherefore’s and such of fingernail removal torture.
To be clear: I will be going into as much depth as I possibly can without using images. The content of this post will be purely academic. There will be no artistic liberties taken. This post is meant to be as accurate to (and descriptive of) a real-life situation as possible.
I hope some part of this post eventually winds up being a helpful resource for someone!
1) Not as painful as it’s made out to be
-It's painful, but definitely not to the extent it’s shown in movies or whatnot. A lot of the "pain" comes from the shock factor of seeing your body without something it’s always had, as well as the inherent "wrongness" that comes with experiencing a part of your body being removed.
2) There is very very thin film of skin between the fingernail and the finger.
-If one is careful in removing the fingernail by peeling it back slowly, one can preserve this thin piece of skin.
-If one pulls the fingernail back quickly and without taking care, this thin film will rip, and the nail will pull away with bits of flesh attached.
3) The flesh under the nail will be vertically striated.
-If one uses the peel-back method, and is careful to not let the thin film of skin between the nail and the flesh rip, the skin/flesh underneath the nail will be as visibly striated as the fingernail itself.
If you look closely at your fingernail right now, you’ll see that there are many tiny grooves from the tip of your nail to the base. This is true for all human fingernails. If the nail is peeled back with sufficient care, those striations will be echoed on the skin underneath the nail.
4) The “peel entirely off” method versus the "peel back and then stop" method versus the "pull out entirely" method.
-The “peel entirely off” method is how I will refer to the method of grasping firmly the tip of the fingernail in some sort of vice (usually pliers) and then peeling it backwards, moving the pliers from the nail at the tip of the finger towards the hand itself. Using this method, the nail will remain firmly grasped in the pliers the entire time. The movement of the pliers only stops when the base of the nail is ripped entirely out of the finger.
This will necessarily result in ripping out a fair bit of skin past the cuticles, as the technical base of the nail (aka “nail matrix”) is generally around half a centimeter hand-wards past the cuticles (and follows the curve of the nail, so is deeper than the cuticles as well). Due to the nature of skin, I would expect a tear reminiscent of an extremely deep hangnail that goes from the base of the cuticles to at least halfway between the first and second knuckle (and at most goes to the second knuckle).
In this case, it is not guaranteed that the nail will grow back. There is a chance it’ll come back, but there is also a chance that the nail matrix is permanently damaged and will not be able to grow a new nail.
Since every human is different, there’s not an exact science to determining where a person’s nail matrix is before it’s ripped out. A (very) general rule of thumb is to follow the curve of the existing fingernail, and draw a point on that curve before it hits bone. Obviously, this is extremely subjective.
-The “peel back and then stop” method is how I will refer to what is essentially the previous method, but one stops before the nail-ripping goes past the cuticle and snips off the peeled part, leaving a milimeter or so of fingernail existing on the nailbed.
In this case, it is assured that the nail matrix is undisturbed, and the fingernail will grow back.
This is the method I will assume is taken for the future steps
-The “pull out entirely” method is how I will refer to the situation where one grasps the protruding part of the nail firmly, and applies force away from the hand and in the direction the finger points.
In this case, there’s a large chance that the nail will rip. This depends largely on the care taken with the pulling object (pliers, usually) to grab the nail exactly parallel with the sides of the pliers.
If any part of the pliers digs into the nail at a singular location, this will create a point at which pressure will build up, and the nail will likely rip at this location. The strength of the individual’s nails also affects the ripping. The individual’s nail strength can vary based on nourishment as well as on a general person-to-person basis.
Personally, I do not recommend this method.
-If one wants to make the removal definitely permanent, there’s the possibility of peeling it back all the way down and out, and then chemically burning where one assumes the nail matrix is. (Some serious irl hikers do this to their toenails on purpose, to reduce the chances of getting ingrown toenails from being laced into hiking boots for days on end.)
Removing the nail permanently will obviously reduce the opportunity to peel it off again, but will give a permanent Horrific Aspect to the victim.
5) For the first three days, the exposed flesh will be painful.
-The entire tip of the finger will be a constant deep and throbbing pain. Any deviation from this norm will be an increase in pain, never a decrease (save medication or an ice-bath-for-full-minutes immersion to the point of numbness).
-Any contact with the exposed nailbed will increase the pain. Knocking the exposed flesh against anything, even extremely gently, will result in a visible bright red welt under the thin layer of skin (bright red on light skin only! on darker skin, the welt will still be visible, but will show as a dark red-brown). It is a visual similar to an extremely tiny, non-protruding blood blister. Knocking the nailbed against something less gently will result in fully scraping off that delicate outer layer of skin.
-Using the finger for anything will be painful (though not unbearably so), and it may even be painful to bend the finger at all.
-Any moisture on the exposed flesh (including anything from regular water to antibiotic ointment) will hurt a lot. This will intensify the throbbing at least twofold across the entire nailbed, and will also result in an amount of stinging as if one had just realized one had been stung by a bee.
6) For treatment and healing thereof (if quick healing is desired)
For those first three days, any bandaid application is inadvisable
-The exposed flesh will be so tender and vulnerable that any bandaid (even the non-stick kind) will stick to the exposed flesh and rip it upon removal. I can only assume this is in part due to the curvature of the finger, which means that any wrapping-around type bandaid will inherently put pressure on the nailbed, resulting in sticking.
-To promote healing, the first three days should be without any sort of covering on the wound.
After the first three days, a scab will form.
-At this point, the pain will be much less. it might be uncomfortable to bump the nailbed into objects, but it will not be the same pain as in the first three days.
-The wound will also be much less sensitive to moisture.
-When the scab starts to crack (usually a vertical crack), one should apply antibiotic ointment and a bandaid. At this point in the proess, it is desired for the scab to remain as consistently moist as possibly. This will help the scab fall off when it is ready to do so.
-At this point, the finger can be used normally (within reason) without much (if any) pain.
After two or three days with the bandaid covering, the scab will start to fall off.
-One may expedite this process if one is careful.
-At this point, the skin on the nailbed is sensitive to the touch, but not to the point of pain.
-There will be some dry, loose skin around the edges of the nailbed.
-The previously visible striation will no longer be there.
-Pressure on the exposed nailbed will not be necessarily painful, but it will feel decidedly Odd. Though not painful, It will be an extremely sensitive area.
-The nailbed will be a delicate pinkish color.
Around a week after the initial scab falls off, there will appear to be another scab. It will be a relatively thin layer of dry, dead skin.
-If the nail is allowed to grow normally, it is likely that it will cover this second scab before it has the chance to fall off.
-If the stub of the fingernail is trimmed routinely, it is possible for the scab to fall off, leaving only relatively smooth unblemished skin where the nailbed is. This skin will be roughly the same color and texture as the skin on the tip of the finger.
7) The rate at which fingernails grow back is extremely slow
-The average growth rate is about 3.5 milimeters per month. There are several factors that can cause this to vary:
-Fingernails on the dominant hand grow back faster than the nails on the non-dominant hand.
-Fingernails grow back faster than toenails.
-Nails grow back faster in warm weather than in cold weather.
-Depending on the nail and the aforementioned conditions, one can expect a total regrowth time of anywhere from three to six months (or more).
8) Life Without Fingernails
-Fingernails affect a large part of our everyday lives. We mostly use them when we’re manipulating objects with our hands, and we use them to scratch. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s a lot. It’s hard to explain just how weird it is to not have fingernails to someone who’s never experienced it, but here goes:
-Fingernails are the Hard Backs used to brace our fingers against a hard shell when we manipulate something with our hands. If you pinch your fingers together right now, you’ll see a white band along the top of your fingernail. This is where the pressure from the pinching goes; it’s braced against your nail.
-Picking something up without fingernails feels extremely odd the first few hundred times you do it. It takes a long time to get used to it.
-Writing is even worse. Without the hard shell backing your fingers, the pencil tends to slip out of your grip more often. If you usually have long enough fingernails that you balance your pen/pencil on them, you’re extremely likely to have the pencil completely slip out of your grip multiple times a sentence.
-You don’t realize how much you unconsciously scratch itchy parts of your body until you no longer have the ability to do so. If you’re only missing a few nails, you have to consciously adjust your hand so that you can scratch with the existing ones. If you’re missing all of them, you have to actively find an external object to alleviate the itch.
Some places on the body one can scratch with their teeth, but for most places, one needs to either find an “itch stick,” or rub that part of their body on something scratchy. A lot of clothing is scratchy enough to work for this. One needs to learn how to vary the pressure so that one can alleviate the itch without tearing through the skin or scratching themselves.
Pros:
-Body horror
Fingernail removal is a more mentally significant mutilation than cuts or burns, if only because it draws on the "that was there and now it's not" aspect of body horror.
-Can be inflicted more than once
Since fingernails grow back, they can be removed again and again and again. Though it may take some time for the nails to regrow, it isn't even close to the type of permanent that’s chopping off a finger or a toe.
-Helplessness
Since it takes a few days for the nailbeds to heal enough to be able to use one's fingers, a complete removal of all fingernails will take away one's ability to use their hands. Even after this initial period of extreme sensitivity, the lack of fingernails is something most people aren’t prepared for. The previous section explaining how fingernails affect daily life is significant here.
Cons:
-Can’t repeat often.
Once a fingernail is off, it's not coming back for at least three months (likely longer). It doesn't have the relatively quick reset time that burns or cuts do.
-Relatively short amount of time in pain
All of the pain is in the first few days. It is inconvenient afterwards, but there is little to no pain at this time.
-Amount of care needed
One needs to be relatively careful inflicting this. Fingernails are not as resilient as you'd think, and the likelihood of them ripping before you can finish ripping them off is fairly large if you're not being careful.
If you have a short-tempered or impatient whumper, this might not be their particular wheelhouse.
Conclusion
Overall, I’d say that the effectiveness depends entirely on the desired result. The time it takes for the fingernails to regrow versus the amount of time in which the subject is in pain is not a very productive ratio, so if you’d want your whumper doing a particular torture regularly, I wouldn’t recommend this.
However, if the whumper’s goal is to appeal to the body horror aspect without permanent damage, this is a great option. The fact that it takes nails so long to regrow gives the victim a sense of horrified freakishness. It also has the added benefit of reducing the victim’s maneuverability far after the fact.
The semi-visible nature of this method of torture can be effective if one wishes to horrify characters outside the whumper/whumpee relationship. You don’t immediately look at other people’s hands when you meet them, and as such it might take a while for outside characters to notice the lack of fingernails (especially if they’re past the three day mark). But once they notice, it will be hard to look away.
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